Facebook Messenger now lets you unsend messages

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The long awaited ‘Delete for Everyone’ feature has finally reached Facebook Messenger, the feature is available for both mobile app and web version of Messenger, letting you delete messages sent within 10 minutes, which is considerably sufficient for most to realize if they had sent unintentional replies to friends.

Deleting a message is just as simple as you do on WhatsApp. On your phone, you tap and hold on the message then choose the ‘Delete’ button, two options will then show up asking if you want to remove for everyone or yourself, the desktop version for this is located at the option button next to the text when you hover your mouse cursor on it.

This is definitely a welcoming news for those who depend on Facebook Messenger to communicate with friends and co-workers, the update is already available for both iOS and Android users, so hit that update button now to save yourself from that awkward moment.

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Facebook Messenger puts “Dark mode” to test, but only available in some countries

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Facebook has recently introduced a “Dark mode” to its messenger to prevent screen glare, however it was reported that the new feature is not available for everyone yet.

According to several reports from users on social media, an incomplete version of the feature was rolled out in some countries.

“Facebook Messenger, seemingly due to prolonged external nagging, has started public testing Dark Mode in certain countries. They have put up a fair warning that Dark Mode isn’t everywhere yet so don’t complain when some UI burns your eyes off,” web app developer Jane Wong wrote on Twitter.

The Dark mode functions by changing the colour settings to reduce the brightness, which allows users to read messages easily without straining their eyes and saves more on the device’s battery.

Studies have discovered that blue light emitted from the screens of laptops and smartphones could lead to blindness.

Although it is said that the Dark mode could help in preventing eye strain, there is no evidence or studies that has been provided to proof of whether the feature helps.

Besides Facebook Messenger, there are several other apps that also introduces this mode which includes Youtube, Google Maps and Firefox.

WhatsApp is expected to introduce a similar feature later this year.

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Facebook rolls out Messenger Rooms to match Zoom’s 50 participants limit

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Many companies have started using Zoom because it supports a higher limit of participants as compared to others. To counter that, Facebook has decided to introduce Messenger Rooms which will allow you to have 50 people in a single video call with no time limit.

Users will be able to create and lock/unlock a room to limit who can join the room. You can also share the room on your Facebook News Feed, Groups and Events — whoever who has the link will be able to join the room when it’s unlocked. The only catch is that the host will need to be in the room for the video call to begin.

Facebook also mentioned that this feature will be replicated in other platforms like Instagram Direct, WhatsApp and their own device, Portal. To reassure Facebook users, the company also promises that they don’t “watch or listen to your audio or video calls.”

Zoom has recently been under a lot of pressure for violating user privacy. Perhaps Facebook made the right move in trying to seize the opportunity to get users to switch between the two apps.

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Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp closer to merging into one app as developer files leaked

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We’ve
known
 since last year that Facebook-owned Messenger and WhatsApp are in early stages of merging into one chatting app – with no new official updates on that front, it seemed the move seemed unlikely
. However, evidence of that proposed merger has been found on the Facebook Messenger app itself.

Image credit:WaBetaInfo

According to reports, reverse engineer @Alex193a found on Messenger, what look like WhatsApp assets and elements that are needed to create tables on Facebook Messenger. Other elements found also attribute to allowing push notifications, user blocking, and chat recipient information on WhatsApp.

Is it even possible?

But the end-to-end encryption feature and local storage of chats on WhatsApp makes it difficult to have a merger or cross-chat support with Messenger – so it’ll be interesting to see how Facebook intends to circumvent the issue.

With that said however, we don’t think anyone really wants a merger or even cross-chat to happen – people today have different purposes for the chatting apps they use; say Messenger for catching up with friends, and WhatsApp for work. So, it’ll be even more interesting to see the public’s reaction when the merge actually happens.

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Facebook will notify you when you’re sharing old news to curb spreading of misinformation

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Do you have that one oblivious Facebook friend who shares controversial but outdated news frequently? We know we do, and it can be a problem when no fact-checking is done on the part of the reader too, which could misrepresent the actual state of events at the current time.

So, to prevent this from happening, Facebook has now added a
notification
 pop up that’ll tell you a piece of content is old if you attempt to share it. Any piece of news or article that’s three months old for it to be considered untimely – however, we think for some articles, the
threshold
 to trigger the pop up should be set even sooner.

Upon being greeted with said pop-up, Facebook users can still opt to share the content if they think it’s still relevant – who knows, maybe it’s just a listicle on the best
roti
canai
 spots in KL.

With this, Facebook hopes users can make more informed decisions about the damage they could do resharing old news in the guise of current events.

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Facebook now allows you to take 360-degrees photos directly from the mobile app

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Facebook is adding a new feature to their social media app that will allow users to take a 360-degrees photo within the app without the need of any extra hardware or third-party apps. The feature will be rolling out to users very soon and the feature will be placed at the top of your News Feed next the Update Status bar.

Prior to this, Facebook does accept panoramic photo and it will convert that photo into a 360-degree image or directly upload a 360 photo directly to Facebook. In addition to that, when the new feature comes, you will also be able to use this 360 photos as cover photos, as well as posting them in albums, groups, timeline and you can even tag people in the photos. Lastly, after taking the picture with the app, you will be asked to select the starting view, which is the first direction the viewer will see when the image loads.

If you love taking panoramic photos and always wanted an easy way to share these photos then make sure you look out for this feature which will be coming soon.

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Facebook now lets you have control over your privacy – but exactly how much control?

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Facebook has made the their clear history tool available for everyone worldwide – this includes your Off-Facebook Activity data, that consist of your activities that businesses give to Facebook so the social media can send you targeted ads.

According to a blog by CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, a prompt will be sent out in stages to all users to review their privacy settings. From there, you get a somewhat holistic settings page that lets you control who sees your posts or profile information, and tweak the information your share with apps.

The main feature that most people will want to make use of is the Off-Facebook Activity tool that lets you clear any information Facebook has on you that was given to them by businesses such as online retailers and such.

Image credit: Gizmodo

But, here’s the catch – the folks at
Gizmodo
 has pointed out that the feature doesn’t necessarily devoid their systems of your shopping or browsing data – but rather it disconnects what they already have from your Facebook identity.

Gizmodo’s article points out that upon clicking that ‘clear history’ button, you’ll be prompted with the message “Your activity history will be disconnected from your account. We’ll continue to receive your activity from the businesses and organizations you visit in the future”.

So what this is saying is, the data Facebook collects won’t have a face to it – but they still have it, and along with it possibly your location and probably more. The only difference is that your Facebook life won’t be entangled in your shopping life – however, your data is still very much in Facebook’s hands, and you’ll still be served with targeted ads.

The new feature isn’t rolled out to everyone yet, but once you get it – we’d say you should still have a look at your privacy settings and make the necessary tweaks,

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Facebook opens Malaysia-based office

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Facebook has been getting rather aggressive in its expansion into Southeast Asia lately. Case in point, two weeks after launching its Philippines office, Facebook has just opened up its Malaysia office.

The opening of Facebook Malaysia marks the social media company’s 5th office in the region. Currently, Facebook has offices located in Indonesia, Thailand, the recently opened Philippines, as well as their Asia Pacific headquarters in Singapore.

According to Facebook’s Asia-Pacific vice president Dan Neary, Facebook Malaysia will be focused on reaching out to businesses in the country, as more start to connect with customers via their Facebook pages. In short, Facebook Malaysia will be focused more on the corporate side of things rather than actively working on the social media service.

“I’m thrilled to share that Facebook has just opened an office in Malaysia. Our mission is to give people the power to share and make the world more open and connected – and 18M Malaysians are using Facebook every month. That is over 81% of everyone on the internet – connecting with family, friends, and businesses for the moments important to them,” says Neary.

Source:
Mashable
,
Facebook

facebook
malaysia


Facebook opens suicide prevention tools to all

338

Suicide is no laughing matter and Facebook knows that. To that end, Facebook has officially made its suicide prevention tools available to everyone worldwide.

Previously only available for certain users in America and the UK, Facebook’s suicide prevention tools would allow users to flag posts from friends who appear to be at risk for self-harm or suicide through a drop-down menu. Once the post is flagged, Facebook will provide a list of options to proceed, ranging from providing a list of numbers to various suicide prevention organizations, to sending a message of support anonymously. In certain cases, Facebook’s global community operations team may also “reach out to this person with information that might be helpful to them,” according to its
Help Center
.

Whatever the case, if you feel that your friend’s Facebook post indicates that something may be terribly wrong, you will now have an option to assist them without confronting them directly.

Source:
Facebook
,
TechCrunch

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suicideprevention


Facebook partners up with French media outlets to launch fake news filter

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A presidential election will be commencing in France later this year. Like any other presidential election worldwide, the social media landscape will be filled with news surrounding the election, including undetected fake news as well. In order to combat the rampant spread of fake news, Facebook has announced a fake news filter for its users residing in France.

Facebook has established partnerships with a total of 8 French media companies to assist with the fake news filter on its social network. Among the known companies include Le Monde, Agence France-Presse (AFP), Franceinfo and BFM-TV. This move by Facebook and the French media is similar to what the social networking giant has been doing in Germany and the US for their respective elections, though Facebook has been criticized especially during the US presidential elections that the company’s efforts were insufficient in combating fake news.

As for how the filter will work, when users report an article of news as false, the article will then be linked to a platform that is accessible to the 8 media partners of Facebook. As long as two companies are able to confirm the article as false with relevant links to support their claim, the article will then be flagged on Facebook, and there will be a warning prompt to Facebook users before they attempt to share the false article.

The French election will be carried out in April and May later this year, so Facebook and its media partners will have some time to give this exclusive feature a test run before going full force when the election season draws near.

Source:
Reuters

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Facebook plans to bypass adblockers by embedding its ads

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There is quite a complicated love-hate relationship between content engineers, adblockers and everyone else for a long time now with no end in sight. However, this time Facebook has decided to actively pull its weight by making it difficult for adblockers to block ads on its platform. Facebook announced that they will allow you to customize the type of ads you want to see. For instance, if you don’t want to see whitening product ads or ads from organizations and businesses that have added you to their customer list, you will be able to remove the interest from your ad preference. Facebook will be adding tools to improve the way you view ads and give you control on how your data informs the ads you see.

All this sounds good but although Facebook plans to do this, the probability of this being successful is low. Generally, most people don’t want to be marketed at at all and even more so when Facebook is asking you to give them more data on your preferences in a roundabout way, just because you don’t want to be annoyed. Facebook said, “As we offer people more powerful controls, we’ll also begin showing ads on Facebook desktop for people who currently use ad blocking software. Rather than paying ad blocking companies to unblock the ads we show – as some of these companies have invited to do in the past – we are putting control in people’s hands with our updated ad preferences and our other advertising controls.”

Now, how would Facebook bypass adblockers other than these customizing options? Technically, Facebook is able to by creating its own custom coding that embeds ads into its platform by making it the same format as its content stories. By doing this, adblockers will have to block the entirety of Facebook itself to block the ads. Facebook is pretty smart in this sense. By making ads unblockable on its platform, Facebook is encouraging online media sites to publish on Facebook, generating more content, views and of course, more information for Facebook.

Source:
Facebook Newsroom

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Facebook plans to launch a curated content feature called "Collections"

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Accusations of Facebook influencing the U.S. Presidential Elections by way of hosting fake news has kicked the social media company into action in its war against fake news. One such move that will be arriving on Facebook shortly is a feature called Collections.

Functionally identical to Snapchat’s Discover section, Collections would showcase news stories, listicles, videos and other content submitted by handpicked media partners. According to
Business Insider
, Facebook has approached media and entertainment companies to create content for Collections.

Once Collections goes live, companies that are part of the Collection program will have their content inserted into the News Feed by Facebook. These companies would no longer need to rely on likes or Facebook’s sponsored post program, both of which are required if the companies want their content to be seen in the News Feed.

While Collections is part of Facebook’s plans to combat fake news, it would also be used to compete with Snapchat and its aforementioned Discover feature. No word was given as to when Collections will be launched or how its monetization system would function.

Source:
Business Insider

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Facebook adds three new Portal devices starting from $129

399

Facebook received a lot of backlash last year regarding its privacy scandals, but it was also the year where they launch their first tablet-like device called Portal.

Now, Facebook is launching the next generation Portal devices — three models to be exact. This time, they’ll start even cheaper at $129. They are the Portal Mini, Portal TV and a redesigned Portal. The new Portal now has a 10-inch HD display while the Portal mini is (obviously) smaller with an 8-inch display.

As for the Portal TV, there will be no display like the other two Portal devices. Instead, the Portal TV is a webcam-like device that will let you turn your TV into a huge video chat screen.

While previously Facebook only supported Messenger calling, the company now includes WhatsApp support. There will also be Amazon Prime Video so you can watch shows on the devices and similarly to the first generation, the Portal devices lets you disable the camera and microphone for those who are worried about their privacy being invaded.

Facebook also make sure that the Smart Camera and Smart Sound features are only running in the device itself and will not be processed or transferred to Facebook servers so you can rest assured that they won’t be keeping recordings of your conversations.

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Facebook to re-introduce voice and video calls on main app

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Facebook turned Messenger into a separate app 7 years ago; by doing so, chat functions like video and voice calls were also removed from the main app. However, Facebook wants to bring back these features.

Facebook makes a u-turn

In Bloomberg’s
report
, some U.S. users will be able to make voice and video calls on the app itself instead of relying on the standalone Messenger app. Facebook has also started testing Messenger’s inbox in the main app.

According to
Connor Hayes
, Director of Product Management at Messenger, Messenger is being perceived as a service rather than a stand-alone app and will soon be used on other Facebook-owned platforms. One example is the integration between Instagram’s chat and Messenger; Facebook also had plans to combine Messenger and WhatsApp chats. Some may find this convenient while others will find it confusing and messy.

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Facebook rebrands itself as Meta; focuses on building VR and AR social spaces

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Facebook has
changed

its company name to
Meta

– yes, based on the term metaverse.

To be clear, this name change applies to the corporate identity of the company that owns the social media platform Facebook, as well as Instagram, WhatsApp, and VR brand Oculus.

The latter will play a big role because Meta will put a big emphasis on VR and AR technology as their new service offerings.

That is to say Meta will work towards building a metaverse consisting of virtual worlds for social interactions, learning, and professional connections.

With that in mind, gone is the old thumbs-up logo, replaced by a pretzel-shaped decal that is apparently designed to be optimised for 3D experiences, and to be interacted with from different perspectives.

The thumbs up logo along with other reactions enable the amplification of hate and anger, which is the core talking point of the
Facebook Papers
 debacle.

Image credit: Doug Chayaka via NBC

The company is reeling from the damage it’s continuing to take due leaked documents shared by whistleblowers, that highlight the company’s lack of action against hate speech, incitements to violence, and false news on their platforms.

The move to rebrand paints a picture of an organisation that’s eager to avert the gaze of prying eyes; whether or not it will work is still left to be seen.

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Facebook reportedly developing censorship tools in an attempt to re-enter China

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China is notoriously known for its strict stance on websites that can be viewed in the country. The Great Firewall is known to block various foreign websites from being viewed, chief among them being social media sites like Facebook. This poses a problem to foreign companies as China is one of the biggest markets in the world right now. Facebook really wants to cut itself a slice of the Chinese pie, so much so that they have reportedly been creating a censorship tool that would appease the Chinese government.

According to a report by the New York Times, Facebook has been developing a software that is able to suppress posts from appearing in people’s news feeds in specific geographic areas. Anonymous current and former Facebook employees mention that the tool was developed to help Facebook access the Chinese market and the development of said censorship tool is both supported and defended by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg himself.

Restricting content isn’t new territory for Facebook as the company has complied with governments from countries like Pakistan, Russia and Turkey to block certain content after it is posted. This new censorship tool is a step beyond that as it would prevent content from appearing in feeds located in China in the first place.

For now, the tool is currently in its experimental stages. The anonymous Facebook employees have mentioned that the feature may not even be implemented in the first place, but if it does, this tool will be handled by a third party to monitor popular stories and topics that bubble up as users share them across the social network. Only time will tell if Facebook would decide to use the censorship tool to enter the market in China, but if they do, expect many other countries around the world to demand Facebook hand over access to said tool as well.

Source:
The New York Times

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Facebook rolls out Instant Games feature for Messenger

328

The latest update for Facebook’s Messenger app is one that bosses would not like as it brings with it a feature called Instant Games.

As the name implies, Instant Games will allow users to boot up games directly from their Messenger app without any additional downloads or set-ups. Just tap on the controller icon found at the typing area, select a game title, and start playing. As all the games in the feature are based on HTML 5, you don’t have to wait too long for it to load.

For now, Instant Games comes with 17 games to choose from, featuring a mix of arcade classics like Pac-Man and Galaga, to games that are much more modern like Words With Friends and Hex. All the games in the Instant Games feature comes with their own leaderboards and group conversations, allowing you to compete and interact with other gamers.

Instant Games is now live in 30 countries for iOS and Android users. If you’ve yet to see the feature, you can expect it to arrive within the next few days.

Source:
Facebook Newsroom

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Facebook rolls out Live Location for Messenger

369

Location sharing has reached new heights recently. Less than a week ago, Google introduced a new location sharing feature, allowing users to share their location to others live for a desired duration of theirs. Now Facebook has added a similar feature to its Messenger app, which will definitely come in handy some time.

Introducing Live Location on Messenger, a feature which is currently rolling out to both iOS and Android devices. The new feature works just as advertised by Facebook. Tapping on the Location icon in Messenger will bring out a map, showing your current location. There will be a blue bar which states “Share Live Location”. Tapping on that will share your live location to your friend or your group chat for 60 minutes. 60 minutes is the default duration which cannot be changed, however you can stop sharing your location at any time. The new feature will also give you an ETA to your friend’s location if you’re driving. Users can also choose to share a static location instead of a live one for other purposes.

Facebook claims that the nifty feature is currently on a global rollout, so do keep an eye on your Messenger app or update it to the latest version if you haven’t done so. What do you think of Live Location?

Source:
Facebook

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Facebook rolls out “Why Am I Seeing This Post” feature to help users understand their news feed

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Facebook is, without a doubt, a big part of many people’s digital lives – many of us have been on the social media for a decade now and since then, we’ve seen our news feed go from things our friends share, to click-bait articles on why cats are better than dogs (they’re not, by the way).

Many have been asking the folks over at Facebook why they see what they see on their news feeds and the American social media company has responded by giving us the “Why Am I Seeing This Post” feature – which its functions are quite self-explanatory.

Image credit: Facebook

The global launch of the feature sees the smartphone app version of Facebook be equipped with the option to list reasons why certain posts appear on users’ feeds – the reasons vary from friends liking the post, the content being from a page or group that the user follows, posts from pages that are frequented by users (shameless plug: please like and follow our Facebook page here), and more.

Facebook says that it’s all based on interaction, may it be from the public (read: viral posts) or how often users like, comment and share content of specific genres, like memes.

With the introduction of this feature, comes a set of customization tools that can be accessed from the settings menu, allowing users to hide, unfollow, hide and even set a page to “see first”, prioritizing content from a favourite page.

Image credit: Facebook

The feature will also be applicable for ads. Just clock the options drop down menu on the top right of the post and tap “Why am I seeing this ad” and you’ll be greeted with an itemized list of reasons why.

If you don’t see the feature yet, it could be that the update hasn’t rolled out to your device yet, just remember to update your app from the app store and you should get the features eventually.

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Facebook rumoured to be working on a Content ID system of its own to take down licensed music

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YouTube’s Content ID system has been widely loathed by many YouTubers and viewers alike as the system targets videos that uses some form of copyright music indiscriminately. So it comes as a surprise that Facebook may be creating such a system of its own.

According to a report by the
Financial Times
, Facebook is currently working on a copyright identification system that can be used to find and remove videos that contain copyrighted music. While it is still too early to say what exactly be removed under this copyright identification system, the report did mention that fan-made covers of music will be targeted for removal.

Facebook has since begun talking with major record labels in order to license music content on its social media platform. The talk itself is still in the early stages and a deal is not expected to be reached before Spring.

The creation of a Çontent ID-like system comes after David Israelite, CEO and president of the National Music Publishers’ Association,
wrote an op-ed piece on Billboard
 that was critical of Facebook’s approach to music copyright. Rest assured, once the system is in place, Facebook wouldn’t have to face the wrath of the music industry; it would have to face the wrath of its userbase instead.

Source:
Financial Times
,
Billboard
,
Factmag

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Facebook says Instagram is changing its user experience with new app design

328

While Facebook’s layout was redesigned, Instagram is also going to be getting a redesign, as announced at F8 by Facebook.

Instagram has always shown how many likes each post gets, but Facebook is about to change that. Soon, Instagram new layout will longer show the number of likes each post gets and will also show follower counts in a subtler way so that users are less competitive when it comes to using the app.

That aside, Instagram will have a better camera experience which involves adding a Create Mode in its Stories feature, allowing users to start a story with quizzes, stickers and so on without needing to upload pictures or videos. I guess this means we won’t have to spend time snapping plain surfaces or cover our cameras to get those blank canvases anymore.

Image credit: Shelby Brown/CNET

In addition, Instagram will add donation stickers in its app, meaning that users can start their own fundraising projects via the app and others can donate to these projects. The Check Out feature — previously announced by Instagram — will also be rolling out soon, so that users can shop for products and make payments in the app itself.

The biggest change is probably the absence of number of likes that will change how Instagram users and even businesses perceive the app, given that some businesses are always looking at the followers and like counts of an influencer before deciding to engage them to promote products and services.

Check Out
Donation stickers
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instagram


Facebook set to test new privacy tool “Clear History” by March 2019

278

Back in May, Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg has made an announcement that the company will build a privacy tool called “clear history” to allow users to see what apps and websites that they have interacted on the platform and clear that information from their account.

However, seven months after the announcement was made, there’s still no information or release of the new feature. According to David Baser, Facebook’s director of product management and leader of its privacy and data use team, has said “We want to build something that’s truly helpful for everyone on Facebook. We’d rather take the time to get it right than rushing something out.”

“Facebook intends to start testing the tool in Spring 2019, but with nearly 2.3 billion users on the social network, the tech firm has run into challenges while building the privacy feature. To do this instantaneously for people so they can control it, has meant we’ve needed to build a new way for our systems to process information”, he added.

The new feature is carried out due to the pressure given to Facebook to do more to protect user’s privacy after a data privacy scandal came to light in March. The new feature could help Facebook regain trust from their users should it be a success and keep to its promise to protect all users data.

facebook


Facebook rolls out Facebook Shops; Instagram Shop coming soon

322

Facebook Shops
 is the newest approach taken by the company to help
businesses
 who may be affected by the pandemic. Businesses can now set up their online stores on Facebook to sell their products.

Facebook Shops

Facebook Shops is much like an online store, but instead of creating your own website, you create your online store on Facebook and Instagram — you can also direct your customers to your own website if you have one. You just need to create one store for it to be accessible on both Facebook and Instagram.

Your Facebook Shop will be available on your own Facebook Page and Instagram profile in which others can discover through stories and ads. You can also customize your shops by adding cover image, accent colors and choose a collection of products you’d want to feature.

Similar to how things work in a physical store, you can also ask for assistance by messaging a business through WhatsApp, Messenger, or Instagram Direct. Even though now customers might have to visit your business’ website if you’re not in the U.S, Facebook says that there’ll be a feature in the future where customers can purchase directly when they’re in the three messaging platforms.

Image credit: Facebook

Facebook is rolling out Facebook Shops starting today and will slowly expand its availability in the future.

Instagram Shops

Since Facebook owns Instagram, it’s not surprising when Facebook announced that Instagram Shop will also be introduced in the U.S. The company plans to add a new shop tab right next to the profile tab for easier access, but users can also check out
@shop
 to browse for products.

Image credit: Facebook

Apart from that, Instagram will make it easier for business individuals to sell their products through Live videos. In the future, they will be able to tag their products before they start their Live videos and these products will appear at the bottom of the videos so viewers can find more information.

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Facebook shops
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Instagram shops


Facebook signs contracts with media companies and celebrities to push Facebook Live

277

Facebook really wants its live streaming service, Facebook Live, to take off. To that end, the Wall Street Journal is reporting that Facebook has signed on nearly 140 media companies and celebrities to create videos for Facebook Live.

According to the reports, Facebook has agreed to make payments to video creators totaling more than USD 50 million. Some of these companies and celebrities includes big name new outfits like CNN and the New York Times, digital outfits such as Mashable and the Huffington Post, and celebrities like Kevin Hart and Gordon Ramsay.

The Wall Street Journal’s documents shows that the value of the individual contracts varies widely, with 17 of those contracts being valued at more than USD 1 million. Currently, the highest-paid publisher is BuzzFeed, which is slated to receive USD 3.05 million for broadcasting live between March 2016 and March 2017.

“We wanted to invite a broad set of partners so we could get feedback from a variety of different organizations about what works and what doesn’t,” says Justin Osofsky, Facebook’s Vice President of Global Operations and Media partnerships. Needless to say, Facebook is aiming to cut itself a slice of the digital video pie, a space which is mainly dominated by YouTube thus far.

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Facebook still wants to put ads in WhatsApp and will use your Facebook information

338

Facebook, who owns popular chatting app WhatsApp, is still planning to implement ads into the latter, as reported by
The
 Information
.

The plan to do this initially
surfaced
 back in 2018, albeit in the status section of the app – there were then reports earlier this year of the plan being
binned
, after the team that was tasked to implement the feature disbanded.

It was just temporary however, and it looks like Facebook is revisiting interests in allow ads on WhatsApp once again, however it is unsure where the ads will appear. The Information also reports that Facebook will ‘match’ the users’ phone numbers on both their Facebook and WhatsApp accounts to determine the kind of ads the users will receive.

This also means that Facebook will also go ahead with the plan to merge their messaging apps together into one super chat app – streamlining the process of targeting ads to users. The good news is, this will take several years to develop, according to
Engadget
; so should there be enough backlash on the decision, there’s still plenty of time for Facebook to abandon their plans again.

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It won’t be long before you can cross-post your Facebook Stories on Instagram

1.1K

Ever since Facebook bought over Instagram, it’s hard not to notice the similarities between these social media platforms. They share many features including Stories, and you can even cross-post your Instagram story on Facebook. Now, Facebook is testing a new feature to allow Facebook Stories to be cross-posted on Instagram Stories.

When the new feature is introduced, posting on Facebook and Instagram will be more seamless than before. You can pick either platform to upload your Stories, and just cross-post them on the other platform. This saves many the time and effort to post twice on both platforms.

Image credit: Jane Manchun Wong

It’s obvious that Facebook has been trying very hard to integrate their identity into Instagram; you’ll see the text “Instagram — From Facebook” on its title screen, and you can even open Facebook through its settings menu.

Well, this may also be pointless to some of us who only prefer posting on one platform. Do you post on Facebook or Instagram, or both?

facebook
Facebook Stories
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instagram stories


Facebook Stories and Messenger Day merge to one “Stories”

363

We do not understand why would Facebook implement two separate Stories features on both Facebook and the Messenger app. Facebook Stories and Messenger Day work similarly to Instagram Stories, which was initially a Snapchat ripoff. Now Facebook has merged both of them, introducing a renamed “Stories”.

According to Tech Crunch, the number of active users for Messenger Day was 70 million, which pales in comparison to Instagram Stories’ 300 million and Snapchat’s 178 million. With the merger, Stories will now appear both on Facebook and Messenger. This means that whatever content you post up on Stories will be marked as seen on Messenger if you have seen it on Facebook.

In the announcement on the Messenger page, Facebook claimed that previously users would post up a photo or video to either Facebook Stories or Messenger Day, saving it and post it up on the other platform thereafter. Facebook has now made it easier to satisfy the needs of social media junkies.

The merger is part of Facebook’s efforts to boost its number of users for Stories, to match the likes of Snapchat and Instagram. If it works out well, Messenger will definitely see a significant amount from its 1.3 billion active users making use of Stories.

facebook
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Facebook suspends pre-installs of its apps on new Huawei phones in light of trade ban

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UPDATE: Huawei’s has responded to the matter with this statement: “
Facebook is a third-party
application, and can be
installed and used without any issue on HUAWEI devices
“; ensuring that current and new users are still able to use the app as mentioned in the article below.

Things seem to worsen for Chinese phone manufacturing giants Huawei following their blacklisting by President Trump in the trade ban; Reuters report that Facebook is now suspending pre-installs on upcoming Huawei phones as the social media company obey the newly-imposed law.

Moving forward, Huawei will no longer be able to pre-install not just Facebook, but WhatsApp and Instagram as well, since the latter two are owned by Facebook Inc. Current users will still be able to continue using the apps, and new users can still download them after they get the phone; but not from Google Play Store like usual, since Google have also cut ties with the Chinese company.

If anything, this is more of a statement as to where these big name American companies stand in the matter – folks such as Google, Qualcomm, Intel, ARM and now Facebook have chosen to follow the law set by their President; and it seems now that Huawei are on a downward spiral.

With Huawei increasingly likely to use their own HongMeng OS in their upcoming phones, it will be interesting to see the kind of names they can pull to their side, especially since Google and Facebook have opted out already – that means HongMeng won’t even get Gmail, Maps, Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram and more.

apps
facebook
google
huawei
instagram
trade ban
whatsaap


Facebook launches a third-party fact-checking program in Malaysia to reduce misinformation

285

Previously FaceBook launched “Why Am I Seeing This Post?” globally to help users understand why they’re seeing the certain posts on their News Feed, and today they’re further enhancing user experience by launching third-party fact-checking in Malaysia.

In collaboration with Agence France-Presse (AFP) — certified by International Fact Checking Network (IFCN), the third-party fact-checking program aims to reduce false news spreading online, especially on Facebook. Facebook doesn’t just simply choose a third-party fact-checker as they have to fulfil several requirements by IFCN including transparency and open and honest corrections policy.

Basically, Facebook or AFP will identify potential false news through various methods and signals such as utilising machine learning to scan through posts and also taking in community feedbacks such as reports and comments that may indicate the posts to be inauthentic. The fact-checkers will then review and rate the stories accuracy. If the stories and posts are found to be false-rated, actions will be taken by reducing the ranking of the news, causing it to appear lower in users’ News Feed.

In addition to that, Facebook also has a context button to better inform Facebook users. The button provides more information about the article, publisher and even shows users where the article has been shared. This will help users to analyse the credibility of the articles to ensure that they are not sharing false news.

Moreover, users will also be shown related articles if they receive notifications of others sharing a potential fake news. These related articles are shown to users to prevent misinformation and users will be notified before they choose to share said articles. On the other hand, publishers who have been publishing fake articles will also be informed if Facebook found their articles to be false-rated. They can choose to appeal or correct their articles within a week, but for those who have repeatedly shared false news, their ad and monetisation rights will be removed for three months.

According to Alice Budisatrijo — the Strategic Partner Manager of News Partnership Malaysia, publishers will only be removed if they have violated the community standards, but not if false news distribution is the only mistake they made. This is in efforts to balance Facebook between being an open platform and also keeping it authentic when it comes to news distribution.

Budisatrijo also mentioned that AFP Malaysia will not be the only one fact-checking Malaysia contents; it is a global company with fact-checkers in many other countries that could fact-check Malaysia’s Facebook posts. Launched today, this third-party fact-checking programme is currently only available for English and Malay content.

AFP
facebook
Third-party fact-check


Facebook is developing Threads — Instagram’s standalone companion messaging app

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Looks like Instagram is getting a standalone companion messaging app soon and it’ll be called Threads. Threads to Instagram will be like Messenger to Facebook but focuses on Instagram’s “close friends” list.

According to The Verge’s report, Threads will let its users “automatically share their location, speed and battery life with friends.” In addition, users will still be able to use Instagram’s creative tools to send texts, photos and videos. They can also view Instagram stories of those in their “close friends” list without needing to go back to Instagram.

Image credit: The Verge

This companion messaging app is in actual fact very similar to Snapchat. Honestly, I believe Snapchat is preferred by those who’d like to share their life with just a close group of friends instead of everyone on the platform and that’s what Facebook is trying to achieve with Threads. Threads will also offer status updates so your friends can keep up with what you’re up to.

Previously, Facebook tried to create a standalone app called Instagram Direct, but that did not work out well, leading to its demise.

facebook
instagram
threads


Facebook to expand its fake news spotting system to Germany

295

Ever since the conclusion of the U.S. Presidential Election, Facebook has been trying, testing and implementing various tools that would help it combat fake news. Today, it is reported that these tools will be made available for a country outside of the States for the first time: Germany.

With Germany expected to hold its federal election this year, Facebook has announced that it will be rolling out its “fake news tools” within the coming weeks. Under this system, Facebook users in Germany will be able to report news stories that they believe are fake. A nonprofit news organization called Correctiv will fact-check these reported news, and should they be found false, the story will be marked “disputed” as to warn users that the news article cannot be trusted.

Facebook’s decision to roll out its fake news tool to Germany probably stems from the fact that the company could potentially find itself in legal trouble if it didn’t do so. Justice Minister of Germany Heiko Maas has said last year that Facebook should be regulated as a media company in the country, which would leave Facebook open to legal problems stemming from any content it publishes.

Germany aside, Facebook has mentioned that it intends to roll out its fake news tools to other countries as well, although a timeframe was not given as to when to expect that to happen.

Source:
Financial Times
,
The Verge

facebook
fakenews
germany
politics
tools


Facebook to rival YouTube in video streaming soon with their own content creators

295

We’re technically living in the golden age of the internet, and part of the reason for it’s growth is the existence of social media and the money they bring to its creators, as well as some of its users – in the form of content creators and influencers. In this multi-billion-dollar industry, websites compete to get the largest slice of the (money) pie.

To move ahead in the social media race, Facebook will be attempting to bring in content creators to their streaming platform Facebook Watch. According to a report by The Star, this is Facebook’s attempt to one-up YouTube, arguably the largest video streaming site today.

Facebook aims to be a “huge presence” at the upcoming VidCon London by shining a spotlight on Facebook Watch. Just a day ago, Facebook hosted the Facebook Creator Day in London which hosted a group of new content creators, arming them with the tools to create videos for Facebook Watch. According to The Star, Facebook doesn’t intend to hijack creators from YouTube, but rather grow an entirely new Watch-dedicated community that could rival its competitors.

This isn’t the first time however, that Facebook has attempted this; in 2018’s Facebook Creator Day, a total of 120 creators were present, including the popular Nas Daily.

Image credit: Nas Daily

This comes only less than a year after the launch of IGTV – Instagram’s very own video streaming platform. There’s no word out yet whether Facebook Watch’s content creators will concurrently create for IGTV, but that idea isn’t far-fetched considering Facebook owns Instagram.

We can see big things coming from Facebook Watch in the near future and it’ll be interesting to see if they can really compete with YouTube in the content creating department.

facebook
streaming
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youtube


Facebook tries to merge its News Feed and Story Feed, Snapchat-style

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It seems like social media platforms are running out of creativity, because app researcher Jane Manchun Wong — who always reverse-engineers apps to discover new features — just found out that Facebook might transform their News Feed’s browsing method to be similar to Snapchat’s Stories format.

If you’re a Snapchat user, you should know that Snapchat has long changed the way users view Snapchat Stories — they now swipe from right to left to view different individual’s stories. Facebook is about to do the same, removing the current vertical scrolling method.

Facebook is testing to turn News Feed into Story Feed
pic.twitter.com/83H7VWcgmD

— Jane Manchun Wong (@wongmjane)
April 15, 2019

Unlike Instagram and Snapchat, Facebook’s Stories is still not as popular, especially when it was just introduced, and with the current Story Feed, we’re not sure how Facebook users will respond to it. Wong also mentioned that the change will mean that both Facebook posts and stories will be using the same UI, so it might be confusing to tell these two apart.

Facebook has admitted that this new feature is still in its early stage as a prototype and is not ready to be publicly experimented. Check out Wong’s Twitter for more information regarding this new carousel UI feature.

facebook
news feed
snapchat
Story Feed
ui


Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Microsoft team up to tackle terrorist content on the internet

364

Four major U.S-based tech companies are banding together in an attempt to combat terrorist content on the internet as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Microsoft have issued seperate statements announcing that they will be collaborating with each other to prevent the spread of such content on their networks.

To combat terrorist content, the four companies will be working together to create a shared database that would allow them to track the digital fingerprints of accounts that share such contents or videos on their networks. Once the content is identified, the company who spotted it would hash said content to the shared database, allowing every company in the partnership to spot the same content on their own sites and remove it.

While the shared database system means that Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Microsoft will be able to get a heads up on the alleged terrorist content, this does not mean that the content itself will be removed automatically. Each company will review the content against their policies before deciding to do anything to it.

The decision to collaborate against terrorist content is the result of all four companies being pressured to curb the spread of terrorist propaganda by the European Unions. While the database is limited to these four companies for now, they companies have stated that they are working to include more companies to the collaboration in the future.

Source:
The Wall Street Journal
,
Engadget

database
europeanunion
facebook
microsoft
terroristcontent
twitter
youtube


Facebook unveils M, a new virtual assistant

281

With Siri for iOS and Cortana for Windows and soon available on Android and iOS devices too, suddenly Facebook unveils M, a virtual personal assistant inside of Messenger. Looks like Facebook also wants a slice of that pie.

Anyway, according to David Marcus, VP of the messaging products department, he mentioned that they are testing this new service codename M (Bond’s superior reincarnated perhaps? A British accent would be great) that can complete tasks and find information on your behalf.

Apparently Marcus insists that M will be different from other virtual personal assistants in the market, as M will be able to complete tasks on your behalf. It can even purchase items, get gifts delivered to your loved ones, book restaurants, travel arrangements, appointments and more. That would be a really smart AI to do all that for you though.

So far, we have seen some screen shared by Marcus, and from what we see, it could be another great thing Facebook is doing although I do have to wonder how much more of our personal information will be shared with this data mining giant.


Facebook upgrades its Messenger app for Windows 10; now comes with voice and video call functionality

422

The Windows 10 verson of Facebook’s Messenger app has received a stealth update, and with it comes voice and video calling.

Voice and video calling functionality on Windows 10 is identical to the one that can be found on the iOS and Android version of Messenger. The phone icon located at the top right corner of the screen will glow green when the person is currently active. When pressed, the app will inform you that the call will use either your Wi-Fi connection or your data to connect to the other person.

While the entire call experience is identical to iOS and Android, the Windows 10 app does have some limitations. For example, the Messenger desktop app does not have the options to set a reminder or send a message to the other person when a call is coming in. That being said, the Windows 10 app comes with native desktop notification when you have an incoming call, and you’ll be able to leave a voice mail if the other person doesn’t answer your calls.

Do note that all the updates mentioned above is limited to Windows 10 only. The Windows Phone version of Messenger does not have any of these functionalities yet.

Source:
VentureBeat

facebook
messenger
videocall
voicecall
windows10


Facebook uploaded 1.5 million email contacts without permission for 3 years

344

Every now and then Facebook is found to be insufficient when it comes to its security, this time the company ended up accidentally uploading about 1.5 million email contacts on Facebook for the past three years.

It was first discovered when a security researcher realised Facebook users gets a pop-up message to inform that their contacts are being imported — without any requests for permission — once they enter their passwords to verify their identities during sign up.

“When we looked into the steps people were going through to verify their accounts we found that in some cases people’s email contacts were also unintentionally uploaded to Facebook when they created their account,” said a Facebook spokesperson.

However, Facebook says that the contacts that were uploaded were not shared with other parties and are in the process of deletion. The company also pointed out that they will notify those who whose contacts were imported.

If you’re still worried, Facebook has a
support page
 that will guide you through the process of deleting your contacts that were uploaded on Facebook.

facebook


Facebook Video now supports Apple TV and Google Chromecast

302

Want to broadcast a funny video you’ve found on Facebook Video to a bigger screen? Now you can, as Facebook Video can now be sent to an Apple TV or Google Chromecast from a web browser or an iOS device.

Starting from today, every Facebook Video will now come with a Cast button located on the screen. One you tap it, you can select the device you wish to stream the video to. For Facebook Live broadcast videos, broadcasting it to your Apple TV or Chromecast enabled devices will also display real time comments and reactions as well. The best part of the entire thing has to be the fact that once you’ve chosen to broadcast the video onto another source, you can then go back to using your device as per normal.

For now, this feature is not yet available for Android users. That said, Facebook has promised that it will be live soon for Android devices, allowing them to cast videos onto Chromecast or Google Cast-enabled devices.

Source:
Facebook

android
appletv
chromecast
facebook
facebookvideo
google


Malaysians are more into videos, Stories and messaging

405

The online community grew stronger over the decade as it becomes an essential tool of communication — both personal and business-wise. In 2019, Facebook revealed the top rising social trends across their platforms — videos, ephemeral sharing, and messaging; these trends continue to grow stronger this year.

Malaysia has a high rate of 88% of individuals owning smartphones in which 77.6% of them spend time on their phones streaming or downloading videos online. Not only has the rate of video consumption increased, but mobile video experiences are also no longer linear; on Facebook, there are two categories of video consumers — “on-the-go” and “captivated viewing”. The former category refers to shorter videos while the latter refers to longer videos that perhaps have more information and captures one’s attention.

Another trend that has started a while back and is still going strong is ephemeral sharing (read: Stories). Studies have shown that social media users have grown fond of sharing visuals instead of texts and feel safer in posting Stories as these posts will only last for 24 hours. It gives them the confidence in sharing more moments of their lives with others as these posts aren’t “permanent”.

Last but not least, online messaging has become the norm in society. People are now buying and selling items via conversations on social media platforms. This would’ve seemed impossible and raised a lot of concerns if it was 10 years back. Study shows that people in Asia-Pacific have a higher probability to message a business as compared to a global average. This is something business individuals should take note of as it can not only build brand loyalty, it can also expand the reach of the business to different markets.

Malaysians these days are all about immediacy and seamless connectivity, which is why business individuals need to step up and start exploring the online world and adapt to these trends to keep up with their customers.

facebook
Facebook Malaysia
Facebook Stories
instagram
messenger
social media
whatsapp


Facebook videos will soon have sound enabled when autoplayed

449

One of Facebook’s curiosities when it comes to the videos that are shown on a person’s News Feed is the fact that it autoplays with the sound muted by default. That will no longer be the case as Facebook has begun rolling out an update that would have the sound for videos on by default.

When the update goes live, hovering on a Facebook video will cause the video to autoplay with the sound enabled, meaning you’ll no longer need to unmute the volume to hear the video. For those who prefer the video to remain silent when it autoplays, you can do so by going into the settings menu and toggling the “Videos in News Feed Start with Sound” option off. Additionally, those who use Facebook on their mobile devices will be pleased to know that the video’s sound will also be disabled by default if the device is in silent mode.

Alongside the autoplay videos, Facebook will also be making some changes to its mobile video experience by introducing larger vertical video previews on News Feed for iOS and Android users. Facebook is also looking to roll out a picture-in-picture mode for Android users. Finally, Facebook will be launching a Facebook video app that will let you watch Facebook videos directly from your smart TV. This app will be made available for Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV and Samsung Smart TV platforms.

Source:
Facebook

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Facebook wants to help develop careers through Learn with Facebook

312

Facebook has been bringing many new features to users this year, and it seems like it’s trying to take on many competitors with its new features, like Facebook Dating that resembles Tinder, Facebook’s Lasso that resembles TikTok and the new Learn with Facebook that seem to be in competition with LinkedIn.

The new Learn with Facebook is a site for people to develop their careers by learning through courses and lessons provide by the site such as the free “Ace Your Interview” and “Manage Your Content Marketing” which provides case studies and tips from experts. The site aims to help users learn skills to advance in the modern workplace where digital marketing has an important aspect when it comes to businesses.

Image credit : Facebook

In addition, Facebook is also partnering with Goodwill Community Foundation to offer training to business owners all across United States to ensure that there the site will be able to provide different types of training resources depending on the business owners’ backgrounds. The site is also a result of an earlier pledge made by Facebook to train 1 million US business owners and to ensure that more people are familiar with digital skills to ensure that they can compete in the current work environments.

Image credit : Facebook

Aside from that, Facebook has also updated their Jobs on Facebook which helps users to look for jobs by allowing businesses to share jobs opening in Groups for easier job searches, in addition to updating their Mentorship tool that allows the users to share information on what they’re either offering or looking for so that the others in the Groups can narrow down their choices and pick their mentorship partner based on the similar goals and interests.

It is clear that Facebook is trying to be an all-rounder and that Facebook will continue to expand in other areas despite already being the top social media site.

facebook
Jobs on Facebook
Learn with Facebook
Mentorship


Facebook Watch is a new video streaming platform to rival YouTube

321

Facebook has decided that YouTube is becoming too big and they like to dethrone them by releasing Facebook Watch, a platform for content creators to post up videos, live or pre-recorded and some of the shows will even come in episodes that will follow a theme or storyline.

Shows will also be organised based on the community, you can find sections like “Most Talked About”, “What’s Making People Laugh” and even “What Friends Are Watching”. Commenting and liking on videos is also part of the experience, users will be given the chance to see comments and connect with friends and other viewers while watching, you can also participate in a dedicated Facebook Group for the show or video. Facebook has also partnered up with content creators like Nas Daily, Buzzfeed and more.

Currently, the service is being rolled out to a limited group of people in the US and they plan to bring it to more people over time. As for content, Facebook is approaching a limited group of creators for now but will allow more people to be part of the platform in the near future.

facebook
stream
video
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Facebook is scraping plan to put ads in WhatsApp…for now

356

It was just last year when Facebook is reportedly planning to integrate ads into WhatsApp, but now The Wall Street Journal has reported otherwise.

Based on the report, the team that had been on the project is now disbanded, in addition to their work being erased from WhatsApp’s code. But that’s not the end of ads in WhatsApp; Facebook is still planning to integrate ads into WhatsApp, but only in its Status tab.

Facebook’s sudden decision came as quite a shock, especially since it is said to have been one of the reasons why WhatsApp founders have left after Facebook bought over the company. But Facebook is reported to be focusing on “money-making features allowing businesses to communicate with customers”, though there weren’t any specifics.

One way or another, Facebook hasn’t given up on getting more profit out of WhatsApp. It’s only a matter of time before there are ads in WhatsApp Status.


Facebook will allow its community to trigger the Safety Checks feature

285

Facebook has a feature called Safety Check that allows users to if their friends are okay in the event of a natural disaster, or more recently, a terrorist attack. Unfortunately, this feature requires Facebook to personally activate it before it can be used. That may no longer be the case as Facebook plans to make Safety Check to be triggered by the community.

In a statement issued by Facebook, Safety Check will be updated to activate if a large number of people post about an incident happening in the affected area. Once triggered, Facebook will ask the person posting the status if they’re okay. If they are, Facebook would mark them safe, and the person can then invite their friends to do the same.

Alongside the new Safety Check feature, Facebook will also be bringing a Community Help feature only. This feature will allow users to “give and get help for things like food, shelter and supplies.”

No timeline was given as to when the modified Safety Check feature and the Community Help feature will go online, but when it does, keeping track of your friend’s safety would be much more convenient than it is right now.

Source:
The Next Web

communityhelp
disaster
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Facebook will enlist the help of third-party fact-checking organizations to combat fake news

358

Over the past few weeks, Facebook has announced that it will be launching a curated content feature as well as implementing a survey system in its attempts to combat fake news. Today, the company is highlighting yet another way that it will use to ward of fake news: third-party fact checkers.

These third-party fact checkers in questions are all signatories of the
Poynter’s International Fact Checking Code of Principles
, and they’ll work in tandem with the preexisting hoax reporting system that Facebook implemented earlier this year.

Facebook has stated that they will be compiling reports generated by the hoax reporting system and compiling them alongside other signals. The data would then be forwarded to these organizations. Once said organizations identify that a story is fake, the link will be flagged as “disputed” on the News Feed, alongside a corresponding article that explains why. Users will still be able to share said news, although a warning will be given before they’re allowed to share it. Furthermore, news flagged as “disputed” cannot be made into an ad nor promoted.

Source:
Facebook

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Facebook will introduce a feature that will let users block 'upsetting' ads

566

Every so often, the ads that get served on a website may upset someone due to various circumstances. To that end, Facebook is looking to introduce new ad controls that would allow its users to block certain ads from appearing on the social network service.

Currently in its testing stages, Facebook has given some people the ability to hide certain ad topics from appearing on the service. For now, the topics that can be hidden include alcohol-related ones and parenting-related ones. Once the feature goes live, Facebook will consider adding other topics if people report them as potentially distressing.

“Those are the two most common topics. For families who experience the loss of a child, to continue to see ads about parenting and new baby stuff, that can be really upsetting,” says Mark Rabkin, Vice President of Core Ads at Facebook.

As the feature is currently in its early stages of testing, you probably shouldn’t expect it to go live anytime soon.

Source:
Ad Age

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Facebook will let you unsend your messages on Messenger

312

Previously we’ve told you about the new features that’s coming the Facebook’s new Messenger 4, but now Facebook is going to allow you to unsend your messages, just like Instagram and WhatsApp.

The feature that claims to be coming soon will allow users to remove messages in a conversation within 10 minutes after it was sent, and this includes texts and pictures, though we cannot be sure if it’ll work on videos.

This feature was first announced in April because Facebook was caught deleting old messages sent by their CEO, but after 7 months of waiting, the update was finally announced on the Messenger’s update. However, the exact date of release is still unconfirmed though the feature was already undergoing internal tests according to TechCrunch.

Sure, the unsend feature is only available for like 10 minutes, which is so much shorter compared to the time limit provided by WhatsApp but if you’re regretting sending a message, you probably need only few seconds before wanting to unsend it and if you only realise your mistake after 10 minutes, it’s probably already read by the receiver anyways.

facebook
messenger
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Facebook will now ask you to upload a selfie as a new security measure

342

With the recent political issues going on in Facebook, the social media site will be rolling out a new security method when they detect suspicious activities on your account. The platform will now ask you to upload a photo of your self in order to verify your account and unlock it.

Facebook has also mentioned in the prompt that will appear asking for your photo, that they will delete your photo from their servers once they checked it. Wired reached out for a comment on this new feature and Facebook explained that it is meant to catch people that are attempting to infiltrate another user’s account at various points of interaction like creating accounts, sending a friend request and making ads. Apparently, users have been seeing this prompt as early as April 2017 which indicates that they have been actually using this system for quite a while now, although it has only gotten attention now.

This is not the only security feature that is related to photo security as the company is also testing out a new feature that will prevent users from being a victim of revenge porn attacks by allowing users to privately upload nude photos to Facebook.

facebook
feature
photo
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Facebook will prompt you if there are photos you are not tagged in

263

Facebook has added a new feature to their platform that will indicate to you pictures that you are not tagged in and ask if you want to be tagged in the photos. The other side of this feature is to prevent other users from using photos of your self as their profile pictures.

In your notifications tab, it will be a notification that will ask you to go to your Photo Review and tag your self in the photo. There are also other options like ignoring the tag or contact the person that posted the picture if you have issues with it. If you were mistakenly identified in the photo, there is also the Not Me option that will indicate on Facebook that they have incorrectly identified you.

This feature can be easily turned off as you can off the facial recognition or turn off tag suggestions which will automatically disable facial recognition so Facebook will not bother you with photos that you are not tagged in. The company mentioned that the feature is now available in most places, except in Canada and EU.

facebook
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Facebook will soon allow audio only broadcasting

358

Just last week, social media giant Facebook has introduced a new feature known as Live 360, which allows Facebook users to broadcast 360 degree footage live on the platform. Today, Facebook has unveiled a new way of broadcasting, and this time it appeals more towards podcasters and those who are camera shy.

Introducing Live Audio, a new different way to broadcast, and for the first time ever on Facebook, not in video format. Facebook has acknowledged that users and publishers have been looking for different ways to broadcast live to their audience in an audio only format, hence Live Audio is supposed to make life easier for everyone as a alternative way of broadcasting, an additional choice.

The Live Audio feature can also be considered when network connectivity signal is low. With that, Facebook has presented another option in an event where Live Video won’t work optimally. Apart from the lack of video, Live Audio works pretty much similar to Live Video, whereby viewers, or listeners in this case will be able to leave comments, reactions and ask questions live during the broadcast.

iOS users will be able to listen to Live Audio while browsing other parts of the Facebook app, whereas Android users will be able to listen to a broadcast even after leaving the Facebook app or when the lock their phones. Facebook will be testing this new feature first before rolling it out to the public next year. What do you think of Live Audio?

Source:
Facebook

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Facebook will soon allow users to post Stories using a desktop

255

Facebook is currently running a test on a feature that will allow users to upload a picture or video to their Stories directly from your desktop. Users will even be able to use the webcam to upload a video.

This is another move by the company to make the Stories feature more
relevant
on their Facebook platform as it would seem they cant get it as popular as it is on Instagram. They have even come to the point of allowing users to crosspost Instagram Stories to Facebook and showing up faded icons of friends that have not posted something for a while. The most recent update is merging Messenger’s Stories with the Facebook app and adding the ability for friends to collaborate Stories into a single event.

Facebook is making an effort to make its Stories feature on Facebook as
relevant
as Instagram, with this new feature, we might see a boost in the Stories section of Facebook. Do you guys use Facebook Stories? Lets us know what you think about this new upcoming feature.

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Facebook will soon begin implementing ads into its video service

341

Facebook’s continues its march towards making its Videos feature feel more like YouTube today. How so? Well, according to Recode, Facebook will soon begin putting ads in the middle of publisher’s videos.

Currently in its “test” period, this ad system will allow video publishers to implement “mid-roll” ads on their videos. Of course, said video must fulfill certain criterias before being allowed to do so. Right now, Facebook is dictating the ads can only be shown after the video is played for at least 20 seconds. Additionally, video publishers who are looking to insert multiple ads into a single video must space their ads to be at least two minutes apart. These ads can last up to a maximum of 20 seconds.

Live streamers will also be given access to ad tools and will also be subjected to certain criterias that are different than the regular videos. For one, ads can only be inserted into live a live broadcast only after a broadcast has gone on for at least four minutes. Streams will also need to have 300 concurrent viewers as well. Assuming the streamer manages to fulfill the criterias, they’ll be able to take an ad break that lasts for 20 seconds.

As for the revenue split, video publishers and livestreamers will get 55% of the split. Meanwhile, Facebook will pocket the remaining 45%.

Source:
Recode

ads
contentcreators
facebook
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Facebook to rival YouTube by launching licensed music videos in the U.S.

452

Facebook wants to compete against YouTube; the social media platform plans to introduce officially licensed music videos in the U.S. starting from August.

New Facebook setting allows MVs to be added to pages automatically

Image credit: TechCrunch

Facebook is adding a new setting that lets them add music videos to an artist’s Page so they won’t have to do it themselves. However, if the Page owner doesn’t turn on the setting, Facebook will automatically create a new Page that’ll feature all the artist’s music videos.

It’s not just their own music videos — Facebook will also include videos they’re featured in. Page owners still have the right to edit and remove any video from their Page if they choose to do so.

Auto-sharing setting allows posting on timelines

Image credit: TechCrunch

There’s also another setting for auto-sharing which allows Facebook to share new music videos on the page’s timeline — this can also be turned off. Allowing auto-sharing will also grant Facebook permission to share insights with the rightsholders.

YouTube isn’t paying record labels enough

Facebook to launch a official Music Videos feature for artists to rival YouTube?

h/t
@seaninsound

pic.twitter.com/U9Hs9gHcbr

— Matt Navarra (@MattNavarra)
July 14, 2020

Back in December 2019, it was
reported
 that Facebook was negotiating with music labels like Universal Media Group, Sony Music and Warner Music Group. These huge companies aren’t satisfied with the amount of money YouTube pays them, but they also can’t risk losing a valuable platform to promote their artists.

facebook
licensed music videos
youtube


Facebook’s blunder affects millions more Instagram users than first uncovered

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You may have heard of Facebook latest blunder of uploading over one million email contacts without users’ permissions – and of course we wouldn’t have known about it if it wasn’t for some diligent researchers who discovered the issue.

Prior to this, Facebook’s security protocols was found wanting too as login details such as usernames, emails and passwords were stored in an unsafe, unencrypted manner, which potentially led to millions of accounts being compromised.

This leads to today, it has recently been discovered that due to this slip-up, millions more Instagram accounts have been affected than what was first thought. Facebook disclosed the initial hiccup on their blog stating that millions of Instagram, Facebook and Facebook Lite users had their accounts compromised.

In a recent update by Facebook, it is stated that they’ve found
additional
logs of Instagram passwords being stored in a readable format; and it is estimated that millions more users are now at risk.

Facebook has apparently been storing passwords and other personal data haphazardly for years now, and one can only hope they get their act together and start taking user data more seriously.

facebook
instagram
leak
password
security


Facebook’s Dating app now available to Malaysians along with new Secret Crush feature

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Love is in the air! – or at least that’s what Facebook is telling us. You may remember late last year when the popular social media app introduced Facebook Dating which was launched in Thailand and Canada – well, it seems like the feature has been deemed successful as Facebook announces its roll-out to 14 more countries – yes, this includes Malaysia – soon.

That technically brings the total number of countries that have the dating feature up to 19 according to CNBC, and other countries that haven’t gotten the feature will be getting it by the end of this year. Dating matches you based on your pool of friends as well as members of Groups and Events that you’re a part of. You’ll get a text-based message when Dating finds a potential match for you, and if the other party reciprocates, then it’s game on.

Image credit: Tech Crunch

To make things more interesting, and potentially awkward, is the newly introduced Secret Crush feature that’s been added to Dating. It’s exactly what its name suggests – you pick nine of your friends and put them in your list of crushes, and if they opt in to Dating and have you as their crush as well, then it’s game on again!

Facebook claims that it’ll keep things discrete and private to keep you from embarrassment since you’re likely to be friends with your entire family on Facebook; so rest easy knowing that your cousins won’t be aware of your online quest for romance. The feature is now available now in Malaysia, so we bid you the best of luck on finding your soulmate!

dating
facebook
tinder


Facebook files a lawsuit against two app developers for click injection scam

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Two app developers, LionMobi and JediMobi, were sued by Facebook for click injection fraud. These developers are reported to develop apps in the Google Play Store will cause malware in users’ phone.

So how does this affect Facebook? Apparently, once the malware is in the phones, it creates “fake user clicks on Facebook ads” so it seems like users have been clicking on said ads even though it’s not true.

Image credit: The Verge

By doing so, LionMobi and JediMobi get to earn profit from Facebook by creating the illusion that a real user has been clicking these ads. LionMobi also violated Facebook’s Advertising Policies by advertising its malicious apps on Facebook, leading to the lawsuit.

As of now, both the developers have been banned and disabled from Facebook and the social media platform promises to refund affected advertisers.

facebook
google play store
JediMobi
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Facebook’s Group Stories is now available to global users

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Facebook has recently brought a new global update to the app, specifically regarding the Facebook stories that now allow users to perform Group Stories.

With Group Stories, all the members in a group can now share stories to the group to be viewed by other members. This is great for when Facebook users want to share certain photos or videos with specific groups such as their close friends, their work colleagues or their community groups. Admins of groups will also be able to mange the group stories to prevent any unwanted posts such as approving or deleting stories before the stories are shared to the group, muting members and also configuring the setting to only allow admins to post in Group Stories.

http://klgadgetguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/ezgif.com-resize.mp4

Besides that, group members are allowed to react to stories posted by other members quickly with emojis, which is somewhat similar to Instagram’s Story react emojis.

This Group Stories is rolling out globally despite that it debuted last year, and with the new feature, users can share their stories with smaller audience, just like the “close friends list” in Instagram. Apart from the fact that it is now available in group and can be contributed by multiple individuals, the feature works pretty similar with the normal Stories. Users can just upload any pictures or videos and add doodles, stickers, effects and texts they want and share it.

facebook
Group Stories


Facebook's Messenger app will begin testing advertisement systems in Australia and Thailand

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Do you like ads in your chat applications? If you’ve said no, we might have some bad news for you. Within the coming weeks, Facebook will begin testing its advertisement system for its Messenger application.

When the advertisement system for Facebook Messenger launches, the feature will only be visible to users in Australia in Thailand. What this means is that we Malaysians won’t have to deal with the ads just yet. That being said, should Facebook believe that the test was concluded successfully, we could see a more global rollout of this system in the near future.

On top of that, judging from the screenshot that Facebook provided, it appears that the ad system will take up a not-insignificant chunk of space in the application. Here’s to hoping that the Facebook is able to fine-tune the ads to be less intrusive as possible.

Source:
Facebook

advertisements
australia
facebook
messenger
testing
thailand


Facebook’s new AI can detect suicidal users and provide assistance

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Suicide is not a joke, and recently some people are taking it to social media platforms to post a message or do a live recording of their suicides. Facebook has decided to step in and ensure that their users get help before they do something that they cant undo.

The company has just released an AI software that can identify and assist suicidal users, the software can analyze post and even video streams for users which show the tendency. From there a prompt will appear asking the user if they need help and show the options that are available to assist the user. It even goes as far as analysing the comments that other users have written like “Are You Ok?” message to another user as an indicator that the user is troubled.

Facebook is rolling out this features to the international market today and they will eventually make it its way around the world, but this feature is not available across the EU. The company also has staff that work around the clock to monitor post that suggests a user is suicidal and have contact with first-responders and support groups to help users can quickly as possible.

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facebook
identify
prevention
suicide
users


Facebook’s new company logo is the same, just in upper case – app retains old logo

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We’re going to try and explain this the best we can – Facebook has sent over an e-mail letting us know that they’ll be changing the wordmark logo of their company. It’s important to note that both the Facebook company and app share the same name – but from now on, the app will bear the same logo as before, while the company itself will take on a new, edgier look.

Image credit: Facebook

The new logo will be in be in uppercase and will sport “custom typography” – the
colour
 itself, in its neutral state, will be grey. We say neutral state because it apparently can take on the
colours
 of the company’s other offerings such as WhatsApp and Instagram (so green and pink).

According to the company, the move to introduce a new look is to differentiates themselves from the aforementioned offerings – at face level, this seems trivial; but the optimist in us think Facebook is planning something bigger, perhaps an acquisition of more brands, thus making the wordmark differentiation more
important
.

facebook
facebook company
instagram
logo
whatsapp


FaceTime bug lets you hear someone’s audio before they even answer your call

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The world of iOS users just got disrupted with the latest bug that was found in FaceTime; whenever you call someone with FaceTime, you’ll be able to hear the audio from the other end even before they accept or reject your call.

This is a breach of privacy that Apple is well aware of, as the company announced that a software update will be issued to fix the bug and the update will come by the end of the week.

Apparently the bug is not only affecting iPhone users, but also iPad and Mac users that have the FaceTime function. At the moment, the only way to prevent any eavesdropping on iOS devices is to disable FaceTime until Apple releases the new software update with the promised fix.

Now you can answer for yourself on FaceTime even if they don’t answer🤒
#Apple
 explain this..
pic.twitter.com/gr8llRKZxJ

— Benji Mobb™ (@BmManski)
January 28, 2019

If you’re interested in testing this out, just start a FaceTime video call with any iPhone users, and add your own phone number in the Add Person screen while the call is still dialling. It leads to a Group FaceTime call that includes yourself and the other person who have yet to pick up his/her call, but you’ll already be able to listen to their audio.

In addition,
The Verge
 also discovered that you can also see the recipient’s video if he/she chooses to press on the power button or volume button to ignore your call.

Apple’s software updates have not been reaching iOS users’ expectations lately and this privacy breach issue only further affects the company’s reputation.

apple
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Group FaceTime
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mac


Fake Alexa setup app is in App Store, ranked #6 in Utility

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While App Store is definitely stricter in its apps guidelines compared to Google Play Store, a recent app has managed to infiltrate into the App Store, and it’s called “Setup for Amazon Alexa”.

The app is downloaded by many iOS users in hope of setting up their Amazon Alexa, and has managed to get over 9,400 ratings in just one week. The app is developed by One Word Software, and was ranked #6 in the Utilities category.

Fortunately this app is free of charge, hence it’s not an app that scams users’ money and does nothing. Nevertheless, the app is a scam as it doesn’t do what it’s supposed to, which is to provide essential commands and teach users how to correctly setup their Alexa. Instead, once users are in the app, it requires the user’s IP address, the device’s serial number and a name.

Image credit: 9to5Mac

This means that even though the app might not be scamming users’ money, the app can actually hack the users’ IP address and get data such as browser information and location data. Reviews also show that users are very dissatisfied with how unstable and complicated the app is, which caused many 1-star ratings.

The developer also have two other shady apps in App Store, one called “Marketplace – Buy/Sell” whereas the other is called “Any Font for Instagram” that costs $0.99. Either way, it’s best to steer clear of all the apps made by the developer for now. Also, if you’re looking to setting up your Alexa, make sure that you’re downloading the official app that is developed by AMZN Mobile LLC.

alexa
amazon
app store
apple


Fake Ryzen processors are being sold by Amazon vendors

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There are reports coming up that users that buy AMD Ryzen processors from Amazon are not getting quite what they asked for. Last few weeks, two users reported that they received Intel Celeron processors that were styled like Ryzen processors. At a closer glance, you can see that the integrated heat spreader does not match the ones on the real Ryzen processors, an even closer look shows the Ryzen marking on top of the IHS are part of a transparent sticker.

Image Source: Reddit user sh00ter999

At a closer glance, you can see that the integrated heat spreader does not match the ones on the real Ryzen processors, an even closer look shows the Ryzen marking on top of the IHS are part of a transparent sticker. Other have indicated the lack of pins on the underside, the wrong heatsink bundled, and packaging that had been tampered with. It is not sure where these fake processors are coming from or if they are sold by Amazon directly or by a third party seller.

Image Source: Reddit user Yae_Ko

It’s always a good to be very cautious about buying expensive parts from the Internet, as the pictures provided might not be the exact product you will get. If you are planning to get components online, make sure they are from a legit source, or just get them from a trusted computer shop you frequent too.

amazon
amd
fake
processors
ryzen


Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockdown may launch on iOS and Android devices

1.6K

Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockdown is currently trending on both PS4 and Steam, but rumour has it the developers might also bring it to
iOS and Android devices
.

Fall Guys trending on PS4 and Steam

As of now, Fall Guys are only available to PS4 and Steam users, but you’ll have to buy the game — it’s RM79 on
PS4
 and RM39 on
Steam
. There’s also another option for PS4 users — you can be a
PlayStation Plus
 member and play the game for free this month.

Fall Guys are planning to add it to IOS & Android, based on some placeholders they have.

— HYPEX – Fall Guys Leaks & News (@HypexFG)
August 11, 2020

There’s no telling if and when Fall Guys will be available on iOS and Android, but other Twitter users have also expressed their desires for the game to be on Switch and Xbox.

A multiplayer online game that went viral in two weeks

Fall Guys is an MMO game that brings together up to 60 contestants to compete against each other rounds after rounds in different mini-games. Players will also need to be quicker than others or they’ll automatically get eliminated. When there are a few players left, they’ll be competing in the final round and there’ll only be one winner, which is the last survivor.

android
Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout
ios
ps4
steam


Would you fancy a Rose Pink Galaxy S8?

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While most other companies are still busy pushing out new flagship smartphones to stay relevant in the market, Samsung seems to be two steps ahead of the rest. What better time than to have the company’s best selling flagships in more color options? The South Korean manufacturer will see a new Rose Pink Galaxy S8 in the European region.

Pink is the new black, perhaps? The new Rose Pink Galaxy S8 no doubt looks just as sleek as the other colors that were launched with the Galaxy S8. As displayed on the Samsung Netherlands official site, the Rose Pink color option is also extended to the larger Galaxy S8+ as well.

This of course, differs from the Pink edition Galaxy Note 8 that was announced exclusively in Taiwan last month. Although not a new device anymore, the Galaxy S8 series is definitely one of the best smartphones of 2017 and it is tough to deny that the Rose Pink Galaxy S8 looks pretty brand new on a slightly aged smartphone.

Samsung has been known to collectively unveil new color options for its flagships throughout the year. Do you think the Rose Pink Galaxy S8 will make its way to Malaysia?

color
galaxy note 8
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rose pink
samsung


Fans might meet Syafiq Kyle and Phei Yong by pre-ordering OPPO’s R17 Pro

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OPPO’s newly launched R17 Pro is already available for pre-order, but its officially sales will be on 1 December, which is in less than a week’s time.

In conjunction with the official sales, OPPO will be organising a “OPPO R17 Pro – Seize the night” bus tour that will allow fans to interact with two famous Malaysians, Syafiq Kyle and Phei Yong. Syafiq is a local uprising star that has appeared in several films and dramas, whereas Phei Yong is a well-known YouTuber and the DJ of one of Malaysia’s radio station, MyFM.

The bus tour is only available to those who pre-ordered the OPPO R17 Pro, and it is limited to 25 seatings only. Those who pre-ordered will need to show the proof of payment at OPPO Concept Store, Suria KLCC LG3 on 1 December, so the earlier you go, the higher the chance for you to be the one of the lucky participants.

The OPPO R17 Pro is known for its Smart Aperture that can vary in apertures depending on the brightness of each scenario to ensure that the pictures taken are well-lit and sharp. It also has an in-display fingerprint sensor, aside from the dual battery that supports SuperVOOC Flash Charge. In short, the smartphone has great camera capabilities and can be charged super quickly for extensive usage.

Pre-orders of the smartphone will last from 23 to 30 November where customers will also get a free Olike Sportband, and the smartphone that is priced at RM2,699 can be pre-ordered at OPPO Concept Stores, Lazada, 11Street, Shopee, Celcom Blue Cube outlets, Senheng outlets and senQ outlets.

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OPPO R17 Pro
seize the night


Far Cry 6 priced from RM189: Stars Breaking Bad actor Giancarlo Esposito

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Another year, another Far Cry from Ubisoft – it’s the sixth instalment in the franchise and the company has announced the game and launched its official marketing materials online.

What’s it about?

One of the biggest draws to the game is the acquisition of big-name star Giancarlo Esposito, who played as the iconic Gus
Fring
 in hit series TV shows ‘Breaking Bad’ and ‘Better Call Saul’. In
Far Cry 6
, Esposito will play and voice antagonist President Anton Castillo, a Fidel Castro-like dictator who reigns over the fictional island of Yara.

So,
 the setting here takes place in what looks like a take on modern day Cuba but with more guns and explosions because of an ongoing rebellion against President Castillo – so you, Dani Rojas, will “stoke the fires of revolution” and liberate the island from the clutches of tyranny.

New video game villain icon?

We’re excited to see what Esposito can do with his character – perhaps followin the footsteps of fellow Better Call Saul star Michael Mando, who played
Vaas
 in Far Cry 3 – a character which has gone down in the books of video game villain history as an icon.

The game is available to pre-order now on the
Ubisoft Store
 from RM189 – Far Cry 6 will be available to play February 18 2021.

better call saul
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giancarlo esposito
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open world game
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