Hasta La Gadget!

Back in December, you might remember when Facebook offered to settle a class-action lawsuit that saw the social network illegally use its users’ “Like” information on various Sponsored Stories. Instead of taking it to court, the company decided to settle to the tune of $20 million, and if you received an email about the settlement, it means that you’re entitled to up to $10 if you fill out a claims form.

Emails were planned to be sent out starting at the beginning of January, and they’re still being rolled out as we speak. The email titled, “LEGAL NOTICE OF SETTLEMENT OF CLASS ACTION” invites you to take about five minutes to fill out a claims form that may entitle you to up to $10. We say “may” because the settlement agreement states that if it becomes “infeasible” to dish out a couple dollars to every person involved, the $20 million will simply just go to charity.

However, if payments do decide to go out to users, you’ll see a check arrive in your mailbox sometime after June. Many users have been wondering if the email was a scam, because it does include some confusing legal talk along with a title in all caps, but we assure you that the settlement is real, and Facebook is willing to give you a slice for it.

Facebook has over 150 million users in the US, and the settlement is only $20 million, so if every US user sent in a claim, each person would only receive $0.13. However, we doubt every person will send in a claim, but even if only 20 million of US users sent in a claim, that’s only a $1 per person — a stamp alone takes away almost half that, so the money may very well end up going to charity.

Facebook sending out emails for “Sponsored Stories” lawsuit settlement is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

If you’re looking for more detailed insight about your Facebook network, such as your friends and your activity on the site, Wolfram Alpha announced a variety of updates to their Facebook analytics tool, which initially launched back in August. The tool allows users to see analytics on their daily posting activity, as well as friend statistics.

In the new update, Wolfram Alpha added a new categorization feature that arranges friends, family, and acquaintances into several different groups: Insider, Outsider, Gateway, Neighbor, and Connector. An Insider is a friend who has many mutual friends with you, an Outsider is a friend with very little common friends with you, a Gateway is a friend who has many friends outside of your network, a Neighbor is a friend with few friends outside your network, and a Connector is a friend who connects you with other groups.

All of this, combined with other information about your friends, such as location, age, gender, etc., will provide a bevy of different visualizations, and it lets you see certain patterns amongst your friends that might have gone unnoticed otherwise. Essentially, it’s pretty close to what Facebook’s new Graph Search can do, but this provides a visualized look into your network while you wait for Graph Search to launch.

To try out the new Facebook analytics features, you can type “Facebook report” into Wolfram Alpha’s search box, and after connecting their Facebook account with the search engine (as well as creating a Wolfram Alpha account), you’ll then see all sorts of information about your Facebook network.

Wolfram Alpha improves personal Facebook analytics tool is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Whatever happened to the Colton Harris-Moore, the rebel-without-a-cause
(aka the Barefoot Bandit)? Here was a teenager brought up in a turbulent
low-income household who went on to earn international notoriety and a
huge following in the social media space commencing back in 2010.

Earlier this month, Facebook rolled out a limited beta of sorts that introduced voice messaging and voIP calling in Canada. However, it looks like the testing of the feature went rather well, because just a couple weeks later, Facebook is now launching free voice calling to iPhone users in the US.

The new feature will show up in Facebook’s Messenger app if it hasn’t already. However, the best part is, you don’t need to update the app through the iTunes App Store. Facebook will simply place the new feature in the app without any hassle. It’s certainly a great feature for those who don’t want to use up their minutes, or who don’t have the phone number to one of their Facebook friends.

To perform a voice call to another Facebook user (that also has an iPhone), just open up a conversation with said person and tap the “i” button in the top-right corner. From there, you can tap “Free Call” to start the voice calling session. However, just like any voIP calling feature, you can only use it over WiFi or data.

Sadly, though, there’s no word on an Android version of Facebook’s voIP calling. We’re sure it will come at some point, but it seems like Facebook is favoring the iPhone for now. The new feature is rolling out now to all iPhone users who have the Messenger app installed, so if you don’t see it now, you’ll hopefully see it later tonight or early tomorrow.

[via The Verge]

Facebook rolling out free voice calling for iPhone users in the US is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

A rose by any other name would smell as sweet. Shakespeare was onto something back in 1600 AD, when he penned that famous Romeo and Juliet
line. Its import intimates that its not the name of things that matter,
it what those things really are. With the launch of Facebook’s "Graph Search"
on January 15, 2013, it’s important to discern that FB’s answer to a
‘search engine,’ is really it’s portal to mobile advertising.