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Google says hello to Allo, goodbye to Hangouts

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"'Allo, guvna!" Google's new messaging app is obviously British.
Photo: Google

Watch out Facebook Messenger, Google is taking another stab at messaging with its newly revealed app called Allo.

Does the world really need another messaging app? Probably not. But Google is hoping that it has finally created the perfect mix of features that will make you ditch Snapchat and Facebook.

Instagram’s upcoming business profiles look like Facebook pages

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Instagram is getting more business friendly.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Instagram is about to start looking a lot more like Facebook, thanks to new business profiles pages that are in the testing phase.

Images of the new profiles have leaked onto the internet and they appear to be similar to Facebook’s brand pages, giving visitors more information on how to locate a business. It seems the days of publicly displaying your email and phone number on Instagram are coming to an end.

Facebook coughs up $10,000 for 10-year-old Instagram hacker

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facebook-coughs-up-10000-for-10-year-old-instagram-hacker-image-cultofandroidcomwp-contentuploads2015122015-12-08-140126-1-jpg
It pays to uncover Facebook flaws.
Photo: Killian Bell/Cult of Mac
Instagram Android
It pays to uncover Facebook flaws. Photo: Killian Bell/Cult of Android

A 10-year-old with insane hacking skills just scored a $10,000 payout from Facebook for uncovering a serious flaw in Instagram.

The Helsinki-based boy, who can’t even open a Facebook account for another three years, found he was able to alter code on Instagram’s servers to delete comments posted by any account.

Facebook whipping out its crystal balls to ‘improve’ your feed

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Facebook
Facebook and Apple have beef.
Photo: Thomas Ulrich/Pixabay

Facebook is bringing more algorithms to bear to predict exactly what you’ll want to see in your News Feed, according to a post on its Newsroom site today.

The social-media platform has been tinkering for years with the processes that determine what actually makes it to your screen. But these latest “improvements” might prove even more restrictive and detrimental to publishers than the loss of the chronological feed, and they could inspire other services to make similar changes.

Here’s what Facebook is doing to your News Feed now.

Facebook videos are about to get extremely intelligent

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Facebook
Automatic tagging is coming to video.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Facebook is upping its game with video. Soon, Facebook will be able to automatically identify friends in videos and tag them. Better yet, it’ll store this information so when you want to find that moment again, you could find the video by searching for your friend’s name and then jump straight to when they appear in frame.

How Facebook is about to spice up your internet life

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Facebook messaging apps
Mark Zuckerberg was to integrate Facebook-owned, Instagram, WhatsApp and messenger.
Photo: Facebook

Facebook’s annual F8 Conference is happening in San Francisco this week. The developer convention has wrapped up its first of two days, and CEO Mark Zuckerberg and other presenters had a bunch to share about how the social platform is about to transform itself. Some of this news has us more excited than the others but if you’re one of the 1.44 billion users worldwide (thanks, Siri), you’re about to see some changes.

Here’s what’s coming to your feed in the future, where you and I are going to spend the rest of our lives.

Instagram comes to life with this inexpensive printer

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A printer that doesn't suck.
Photo: Epson

Epson’s new all-in-one printer, the Epson XP-430, positions itself as an affordable wireless printer that also integrates with the photos on your social networks. You can use the included Epson Creative Print software to link your Instagram account and print out your photos, plus scan and share photos directly to your Facebook. It’s pretty nifty, considering printers are typically some of the most tedious gadgets on the planet.

How to dig up all your hidden Facebook messages

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Facebook

Photo: Rob LeFebvre/Cult of Mac

Facebook Messenger is more and more becoming my default chat tool as it’s the one app most of my buddies have, either on their laptop or mobile device, regardless of platform.

Thing is, Messenger filters a bunch of messages you’ve received, and I’m willing to bet you didn’t even know they were there.

If you want to find all those hidden Facebook messages, here’s how.

6 ways to stop Facebook app from draining your iPhone battery

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If you're tired of the Facebook app draining your iPhone's battery, try these 6 easy tips!
If you're tired of the Facebook app draining your iPhone's battery, try these easy tips.
Photo: Ally Kazmucha/The App Factor

app-factor-logo-thumbnail Every day I hear at least one complaint about the Facebook app wreaking havoc on iPhone battery life. Unfortunately, this isn’t breaking news — it seems to re-surface, with a new level of severity, every couple of months. Not only does Facebook use tons of battery when left unchecked, it can also take up insane amounts of storage space on your iPhone.

This is exactly why I never let Facebook have permission to access … well, almost anything on my iPhone. Here are some tips that will help you stop the notorious Facebook iPhone battery drain.

Facebook plans to let you skip Live Video notifications

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You'll be able to disable all notifications for Live Video on Facebook soon.
You'll be able to disable all notifications for Live Video on Facebook soon.
Photo: Thomas Ulrich/Pixabay

Live Videos might be a boon to content creators who want to capture the attention of more of Facebook’s teeming throngs of users, but getting a ton of notifications from all the sources you’ve previously liked can be a serious pain in the pants.

Luckily, Facebook plans to release a new update that will let you turn off Notifications for Live Videos altogether, which should please most of the people complaining about it on Twitter.

Facebook algorithm will learn new slang before you do

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Wonder how Facebook users will react to this new software.
Wonder how Facebook users will react to this new software.
Photo: Leander Kahney/Cult of Mac

Spend some time around any teenager and you’ll probably hear some new slang that you don’t understand. If you do get it, and you’re not a teenager or young adult yourself, chances are it’s already gone the way of the dodo in the minds and twisted hearts of said youngsters.

Facebook is hoping to combat this with a new software patent that would detect and gather new lingo as it appears on the social network, making it available to everyone.

As if we needed one more reason to feel old.

Apple passes on bid for NFL streaming rights

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Apple TV won't be streaming football this year.
Apple TV won't be streaming football this year.
Photo: NFL

As it turns out, Apple is not ready for some football.

The iPhone-maker was expected to be among a number of tech giants bidding for the streaming rights to 18 regular season football games this year, but it appears the company has decided to pass on the option to bid, figuring it wouldn’t be a big enough draw for the Apple TV platform. 

LifePrint makes your boring iPhone photos come to life

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Robert Macauley shows off LifePrint, his app for bringing all your pictures to life.
Robert Macauley shows off LifePrint, his printer and app for bringing your pictures to life.
Photo: Traci Dauphin/Cult of Mac

SAN FRANCISCO — The idea for Robert Macauley’s “photographs for the new millennium” sprang from a camera that is totally 20th century.

“What if you could create a Polaroid experience for your phone?” Macauley said as he showed off a prototype of LifePrint, his pint-size printer that works with an augmented-reality app. LifePrint lets you print out Polaroid-size images that, when viewed through the app, can come to life on your smartphone screen.

Facebook’s Moments app quietly adds video, new upload settings

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Now Moments lets you add video to your private albums.
Now Moments lets you add video to your private albums.
Photo: Moments App

Getting photos from your friends can be a hassle, but Facebook’s Moments app lets you do just that with a private area where everyone can send their photos from events. Think of it as a private photo album that all of your friends are invited to.

Videos are next, as Facebook’s Moments just got updated in the App store, adding a way to add your videos to existing moments, or creating new ones just for video.

Apple’s biggest rivals come to its legal defense

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Tim Cook's tech friends are coming to Apple's defense.
Tim Cook's tech friends are coming to Apple's defense.
Photo: ABC News

The FBI’s demand that Apple build a backdoor into a terrorist’s iPhone has done the seemingly impossible by getting Microsoft, Google and Apple all on the same team.

Many of the country’s top tech firms have revealed that they will file friend-of-the court briefs in defense of Apple’s position that no company should be compelled by the government to break its own security and thus put the public safety of millions of users at risk.

iOS vs. ISIS: Apple working with U.S. government to fight terror

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Apple takes second spot in list of UK's best employers
Apple is doing its bit to combat terrorism.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Apple may not be willing to help hack its iPhones for the FBI, but (contrary to certain spin) it’s in no way supportive of terrorism, either.

To demonstrate this, Apple is one of several tech and media companies which met with the Justice Department yesterday to discuss ways to counter the spread of ISIS messaging on social media platforms.

How to use Facebook’s new Reactions emojis the right way

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Wonder how Facebook users will react to this new software.
Wonder how Facebook users will react to this new software.
Photo: Leander Kahney/Cult of Mac

Trying to express your empathy for a friend’s grief, or your outrage at a recent political post, has been a Facebook conundrum since day one. No one wants to Like things they don’t actually, well, like. It’s just too limiting.

That’s why Mark Zuckerberg and Co. just rolled out Facebook’s new Reactions, five new emotional icons that we all get to use in place of the familiar thumbs-up Like button (which is still there, thank goodness).

The new Facebook Reactions system has rolled out to the web and your iOS devices today (via the Facebook app). Here’s how to respond to Facebook posts with a bit more color.

Zuckerberg backs Apple in fight against FBI

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quotes on Apple
He doesn't agree with Tim Cook.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Wired.com

Apple has added Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to its growing list of elite tech allies that support that company’s fight against the FBI’s demands to create a back door on iOS to unlock the San Bernardino shooter’s iPhone.

During an appearance today at the the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Zuckerberg said that adding backdoor access to devices is neither effective nor the right thing to do.

Facebook loses appeal as court rules in favor of nudity

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We'd make this our cover photo, but that might just be asking for trouble.
Photo: "L'Origine du monde" by Daniele Dalledonne, licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 / Cropped and Facebook logo with drop shadow added.

An earlier ruling in the Facebook nudity case has prevailed as a court has ruled that the social-media giant can be sued anywhere in the world.

Facebook had appealed last year’s decision, which said that the company was incorrect to suspend a French art teacher’s account that included a picture of a nude painting. The California-based company argued, unsuccessfully, that users could only sue it under the laws of that state.

Deleting Facebook app will give your iPhone 15% more battery

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It won’t happen until 2020 at the earliest.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

The most popular social network in the world is ruining your iPhone’s battery life.

Facebook’s iOS app is in the hot seat again this week thanks to a new report that reveals iPhone users can get up to 15% more battery life if they simply delete Facebook’s resource hogging app and just use the Safari app instead.

App Store hits record $3.3 billion in quarterly revenue

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You'll be able to disable all notifications for Live Video on Facebook soon.
Facebook had a pretty good few months in the App Store.
Photo: Thomas Ulrich/Pixabay

Whatever else we hear from Apple’s earnings call later today, we know that its App Store game is strong.

The virtual store that provides all of your favorite fart apps raked in a Scrooge McDuck-esque pile of coin with a record-setting $3.3 billion in revenue and 5.5 billion downloads during the last three months of 2015.

Apple wasn’t the only company that finished the year strong, though; Facebook also pulled in some impressive numbers.