Facebook's commitment to mobile has undoubtedly been questionable in the past. The purchase of Instagram and subsequent acquisition of WhatsApp has proved that Mark Zuckerberg's social network definitely sees native mobile experiences as of paramount importance to the company's immediate future. However, it's the continuing development of the Messenger app that manages to convince us that the small screen is extremely important to Facebook. It's only been a matter of days since Messenger was updated with a powerful group management system, but version 4.1 for iPhone and Android is already here, bringing with it the introduction of unlimited free voice calls via a Wi-Fi connection.
Oculus had already caused a storm in the start-up community having generated a strong following on Kickstarter, but it was the acquisition earlier on this week by Facebook for $2 billion that really thrust the virtual reality gadgeteer into the spotlight. With a current emphasis on gaming, Mark Zuckerberg made it clear that he has big plans to integrate Oculus' VR technology across the wider digital spectrum, revolutionizing the way we communicate and interact with the world around us. Today, a neat concept by Chaotic Moon has thrown up an interesting idea, showing a user navigating through a virtual shopping mall using a VR headset, and giving an early insight into just how Zuck and co. might eventually utilize Oculus.
Since its IPO, Facebook has spent a fair amount of its expansive wad in acquiring companies. Having picked up WhatsApp for the sum of $19 billion just last month, the social network has just forked out a comparatively meager $2 billion to snap up Oculus VR. The deal to acquire the company, which specializes in researching and making virtual reality headsets, is a cash + stock deal akin to WhatsApp, with $400 million being paid in dollars, and the rest taking the form of 23.1 million shares in Facebook stock.
Many of us are too preoccupied by our digital worlds to realize that, in actual fact, many billions of people across the world don't even have access to the Internet. An initiative by Internet.org hopes to stem this rather outrageous tide, and social company Facebook is a well-known backer of the cause. In an attempt to further its efforts to spread the Internet beyond the developed world in which it is most prominent, the Menlo Park-based firm is said to be in talks to acquire Titan Aerospace, a company that creates solar-powered drones capable of flying for five years straight, and according to a report over at TechCrunch, the deal is said to be in the region of $60 million.
Facebook has just made waves in the tech world by announcing that it is to purchase the popular WhatsApp Messenger for an eye-watering $16 billion. The huge sum, which will comprise of $12 billion in stocks and $4 billion in cold, hard cash, just made the news by means of a press release, and although we've witnessed many high-profile tech acquisitions over the past few years, this is easily the most astonishing.
In its ten year existence, Facebook has already shown us that it is prepared to make changes and amendments that it feels will benefit its member base. Some of those changes have manifested themselves as part of a radical functionality or interface overhaul, while others have been a lot more subtle and have focused on individual settings that are accessible by registered members. In a move that is aimed at affording Facebook members the right to express their true identity, the social network is now offering a custom gender option as part of the process that involves selecting a sex.
Facebook's Flipboard-incarnate Paper was teased during the latter stages of last week, and now, the social company's iPhone app is now officially available for download.
There have been many suggestions over the past few months that Facebook would be coming through with its own newsy magazine-type application similar to the ever-popular Flipboard, and now, the details of the iOS app have been unveiled. It's called Paper, and will aggregate various stories and tidbits from around the Web based on the settings applied by the user. It will launch next week on February 3rd, although it will only be available to users within the United States initially. Further details can be seen after the break.
Android Gingerbread 2.3 seems a long time ago, and indeed, in terms of progress, it was. It was the last major smartphone only-release before it joined forces with Honeycomb to bring Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0, and while this unified release did offer a plethora of new features, it also took a fair few away. The ability to sync contacts with Facebook was one of them, and although this decision was probably a win for overall security and privacy, many did find it rather useful. Never the kind to leave Android users bereft, the folks of XDA-Developers have brought the feature back from the dead, and you can catch the details after the fold.
We’ve been hearing a lot of news recently that Facebook might just introduce a ‘dislike’ button, or a ‘sympathize’ button as some are calling it, so that users have a medium of conveying their negative feelings for a post.
