Hasta La Gadget!

Google’s strategy for bringing internet access to underserved areas involves giant balloons, but Facebook’s leans more on collaboration. The social network has founded Internet.org along with Ericsson, MediaTek, Nokia, Opera, Samsung and Qualcomm, and is setting the partnership’s sights on making sure the two-thirds of the world that doesn’t have internet access gets the proper hookup. Zuckerberg and friends aren’t ready for a complete show-and-tell of their plans just yet, but they’ve outlined some of their goals: making access affordable, using data more efficiently and lending businesses a hand so they can increase access.

When it comes to cost cutting, the group aims to develop and use tech that allows for cheaper connectivity, such as affordable high-quality smartphones. As for data efficiency, the team may investigate compression tools and caching systems to help ease the load on fledgling networks. In fact, Facebook is already working on reducing its Android app’s daily data usage from 12MB a day to just 1MB. Lastly, the organization intends to look into sustainable business models that sweeten the pot for everyone from developers to mobile operators to pitch in for the cause. Connecting roughly 5 billion people to the web is a tall order by any standard, but Facebook and Co. are drawing inspiration from their successful Open Compute Project to give themselves a fighting chance. Zuck’s scheduled to talk up the alliance on CNN tomorrow morning, but you can head past the break for a video from Internet.org that tugs at the heart strings.

Filed under: Internet, Facebook

Comments

Via: The New York Times

Source: Facebook (1), (2), (3), Internet.org

There have been murmurs of Facebook building a mobile reading app; tonight, that talk is getting a little louder. The Wall Street Journal claims that the social network has spent the past year working on a dedicated story browser, codenamed Reader, that would curate articles in a Flipboard-like interface. While most other details of the rumored project aren’t available, it’s reportedly important enough that Mark Zuckerberg is closely involved. The company isn’t commenting on its plans, but there’s reason to believe that Reader is more than just idle speculation: Facebook recently added hashtag support as a “first step” toward helping users track topics. Accordingly, the company’s Graph API includes some unused RSS code that could prove relevant for browsing story feeds. There’s no guarantee that we’ll see the app soon, if at all. When mobile is becoming the cornerstone of Facebook’s business, however, we wouldn’t completely rule out Reader’s existence.

Filed under: Cellphones, Tablets, Internet, Mobile, Facebook

Comments

Source: Wall Street Journal

If you thought that Mark Zuckerberg’s aspirations ended at commanding your smartphone, then think again. The Facebook chief has teamed up with a raft of other tech heavyweights including Eric Schmidt, Marissa Mayer and Elon Musk to form FWD.us, a political lobby group designed to promote tech-friendly causes. The first issue it wants to tackle is immigration reform to make it easier to woo foreign engineering talent, but it also has designs on scientific research, education reform and job creation. Evidently, these people still have spare time even after their stressful day jobs.

Filed under: Misc, Internet

Comments

Via: TechCrunch

Source: FWD.us

Facebook this morning announced “Graph Search,” a way to search all of Facebook’s content for queries tailored to your profile. CEO Mark Zuckerberg explained the search by saying, “Graph Search is meant to answer very specific questions like ‘Who are my friends in San Francisco?” In a video released by Facebook just after the announcement, project lead Lars Rasmussen (formerly of Google Maps / Waves fame) related a story about needing a dentist in a town he’d just moved to, and being able to search through which dentists his friends used for a tailored result. Worry not, privacy protectors: we’re told Graph Search is “privacy aware;” Facebook’s even dedicated 10 percent of its computing power just to the goal of ensuring privacy. And no, none of your privacy settings will automatically change as a result of signing up or using Graph Search.

It’s being touted as a return to Facebook’s roots, when the company’s main goal was forging connections between people (rather than, say, a gaming portal, or a means for companies to advertise). Graph Search is essentially a relaunch of Facebook’s internal search engine, allowing its already existing users to forge new relationships with folks they may not otherwise meet, and to find content that’s hyper-specific. The beta — albeit in a limited, English-only capacity — kicks off today. During that period only a “subset of content” is available through search, with four primary areas of focus: people, photos, places, and interests. Facebooks says Graph Search will expand, “over the coming months,” with additions like searchable wall posts and song listens (only if your privacy settings allow those things to be searchable, that is).

You can head right here to get whitelisted for the beta, which is apparently rolling out “very slowly.” Or you could head past the break right now for the full PR from Facebook and a walkthrough video, as well as a slew of updates from our liveblog.

Continue reading Facebook launching ‘Graph Search’ personalized social search engine, beta starts today (video)

Filed under: Internet, Software, Facebook

Comments

Remember when Mark Zuckerberg said that Facebook’s HTML5 Android app was a mistake? Well, one of our tipsters, embedded deep inside the Social Network, has let us know that the native version for Google’s mobile OS has entered final testing. As such, it won’t be long before the software is ready for consumption by the public at large, give or take an angry Winklevii or two.

[Thanks, Anonymous]

Filed under: Cellphones, Internet, Facebook

Native Facebook app for Android is in the final phases of internal testing originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 08 Oct 2012 08:38:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments