Land grab! Net neutrality! Imperialism! There was a lot of justified outrage (and perhaps delight) when Mark Zuckerberg’s dream of bringing the Internet to rural Indians came crashing down recently, fueled by the 11 million people who contacted the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India in protest and 457 companies and more than 800 startups that signed letters vehemently opposing […]
Facebook has apologized for accidentally sending Safety Check notifications for the Lahore, Pakistan suicide bombing on Sunday to people in other areas, including the United States and United Kingdom. Users who got notified by SMS were especially alarmed and confused because the text asked “Have you been affected by the explosion?” but did not say […]
If you’re a WhatsApp user — and the chances are high since more than one billion people open the app each month — you might be interested to know that the chat app just added some neat new formatting options. Now you can use bold, italics and strikethrough in your messages with friends and family. […]
The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) and Equality NC just released a letter addressed to North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory, urging him to repeal the provisions of House Bill 2. H.B. 2 eliminates non-discrimination ordinances and effectively writes into the state law of North Carolina discrimination against LGBT people. More specifically, it forces transgender students in […]
Lobster, the marketplace for buying and selling user generated content, has just announced an integration with Facebook. This means that Facebook users can sign up with Lobster to sell their content to advertisers. Here’s how it works: Facebook users can sign up with Lobster to have their Facebook photos marketed on the platform. Advertisers (or […]
Most people are terrible at shooting video. Any longer than 15-seconds and it will probably be boring. That’s why Instagram capped videos at a quarter-minute when it launched the feature in 2013. Yet today it extended the length to 60 seconds for user-shot or uploaded videos. That’s why I have a hunch that Facebook and […]
“Where am I? And how did I get here?” Even after months of repeatedly leaping in and out of disparate worlds filled with jaw-dropping (see above) visuals, every time I’ve whipped off one of the various iterations of Oculus’s Rift virtual reality headset, for a brief moment I’ve always had to wonder where exactly the device has […]
A year after blatantly copying Timehop, Facebook’s nostalgia feature is proving how successful big platforms can be when they rip off smaller products. Each day 60 million people visit On This Day, and 155 million have subscribed to its notifications that show your photos, status, updates, and wall posts from this date in years past. […]
Lyft is now allowing third-party developers to build on its platform, starting with Facebook Messenger today. Uber opened its API to third-party developers more than 18 months ago, announcing a partner integration with Facebook Messenger in December, which allowed Messenger users to order or schedule an Uber and let their friends know they are on their way via […]
BlackBerry-loving device clutchers are facing a tricky choice if they wish to continue to interact with their friends: WhatsApp, Facebook and Facebook Messenger all hit the “unfriend” button on the struggling phone maker’s latest operating system, BlackBerry 10. Facebook-owned WhatsApp made a hesitant and half-hearted debut on the BlackBerry platform three years ago, and announced at […]