Facebook Messenger is identifiable in that it offers a clean white and blue, and grey color scheme. It's very minimal and very uncomplicated. To spice things up, Facebook on Thursday began rolling out an update that allows users to control the color of the chat bubbles, and also change the emoji. You can even give your friends nicknames, adding another layer of personalization. The ...
Facebook on Wednesday announced that 360-degree videos are officially rolling out to news feeds around the world, with content provided by several big names in entertainment and sports. It is not the standalone application that has also been rumored. The videos will allow you to either pan around from your computer or, if you’re holding a smartphone, pan the phone around so that you...
Facebook on Thursday officially rolled out its latest iOS app that finally, finally, gives users control of what appears in their newsfeeds and what posts have priority over others. The new application allows you to go hands-on with your preferences, choosing which friends and Pages you absolutely don’t want to miss news from. Your favorites will always appear at the top of your news...
Facebook has been meeting with record labels in secret, but until now the company's alleged streaming plans were a total mystery. Thankfully a new report from Music Ally may shed a little light on what Mark Zuckerberg and his team are up to. Facebook will apparently kick things off with a music video service. This makes sense given the popularity of the site's current video platform,...
Today I'm going to clean out the notebook and provide a few quick takes on some of the more interesting tech developments over the past few weeks. APPLE TV SERVICE: Apple apparently is asking TV networks to manage their own streams on the new multichannel service being built down at Infinity Loop. It makes some sense – it gets Apple out of the expensive and frustrating business of...
Ready for another Facebook app? The company just announced Riff, a video-focused app that’s all about creating the next viral hit. Riff, which is available now for Android and iOS, lets you create 20-second-long videos and share them in the app and on Facebook. The real fun starts when you add descriptions to each post, which can range from “duckface,” “dancing” and “Mondays” to pretty...
Kickstarter is rolling out a new feature today that makes it easier for project creators to stay in touch with supporters once they’re already fully funded. Called Spotlight, the new set of tools includes the ability to customize each project page and share updates on the production process. Spotlight turns typically static Kickstarter projects into something more dynamic. That means...
Facebook already dominates messaging, photos and social media, but now the company could be working on a new app to take over your phone calls as well. A still-in-development Android app called Phone leaked out on Friday and it actually looks pretty cool. The app, which was spotted by Android Police, promises to automatically show extra information about the person who’s calling you....
If you thought your Facebook News Feed couldn’t possibly fit any more ads, you were wrong. The company has figured out a new way to push promoted content to your smartphone with a location-based feature called Place Tips. Basically, Facebook will provide restaurants, stores and other businesses with a small Bluetooth beacon. Then, when you walk by that location an alert will pop-up at...
Oculus Rift isn't the end game for VR, says Mark Zuckerberg, but rather just the beginning. We've been wondering since Facebook's $2 billion purchase of Oculus VR last year what the plan was, and it sounds like the Facebook founder wants to get in on the very ground floor of what he sees as the eventual replacement of phones as a primary computing and communication device. "I think it...