Spotify and Apple Music are now the two major players in the battle for music streaming supremacy, but if Facebook has its way the world’s most popular social network may also become the best place to discover and listen to tunes.
Facebook is in early talks with record labels to develop a music streaming service of its own, according to a new report that claims the social network has some bold plans for the future of music.
Facebook is making a pretty big update to its iOS app today — for the first time ever giving users a major say in how their News Feed is organized.
As anyone who has ever agonized over whether to unfriend that one person who keeps on posting incomplete statuses like “had a bad day :(” will know, up until now Facebook’s News Feed have been pretty much left up to the company’s algorithms.
That’s about to change. And about time, too!
In a few years, “Sorry, I don’t have any cash on me” may no longer be a good enough excuse to give that chronically money-strapped friend when they come around asking to borrow a few bucks.
That’s because a newly released Apple patent suggests that the iPhone maker may be getting into the person-to-person payment game in future versions of its hardware.
The highest court in the land has spoken. Gay marriage is now legal and much of Facebook is celebrating Friday’s historic day with messages, memes and pictures.
Facebook will help you celebrate pride by letting you add a rainbow filter to your profile picture.
The steps are simple. I volunteered my profile picture above to demonstrate how easy it is to show your colors.
The latest update to Facebook’s Messenger app will let you use it even if you don’t have (or want) an account for the social-media platform.
It’s still Facebook, though, so you’re going to have to cough up some personal info.
This week: We’ll tell you why the 2015 Worldwide Developers Conference may be one of the most mundane on record. Plus, Apple pretty much confirms Apple TV will be your home’s digital hub; Facebook’s an impenetrable fortress with too much power; and the tale of a Bay Area woman who unknowingly junked her $200,000 Apple-1 computer … whoopsie!
Our thanks to lynda.com for sponsoring this episode. Learn virtually any application at your own pace from expert-taught video tutorials at lynda.com.
Show notes ahead, compadre.
Download the latest Cult of Mac Magazine to find out what we’re all expecting from next week’s WWDC 2015, why we’re waiting for HomeKit’s killer app, what Kahney’s Korner has to say about the big Jony Ive promotion, a bit on our epic journey from hacked Facebook page to recovery, and check out an ‘Apple Watch Song’ fanboy anthem for the ages.
All that, plus product reviews, helpful tips, and more in this week’s Cult of Mac Magazine.
Facebook and GIFs seem like they’ve both been fixtures of the Internet forever, but it has taken until 2015 for the two to finally hookup.
Starting today, Facebook users can annoy friends with the most amazing GIFs the web has to offer. Unfortunately, you can’t upload your favorite GIFs directly to Facebook but you can embed them from other websites.
Here’s how to do it:
Just when you thought you were safe from ceaseless notifications from Farmville players, Facebook has let it be known that it is planning to add gaming apps to its secondary Messenger app. You know, the one you had to install on your iPhone because they took messaging functions out of the main Facebook mobile app.
Facebook is actively talking with game developers about using the Messenger platform to deliver gaming experiences, which would then lead to more interactions with the Messenger app, and probably revenues, as most of Facebook’s non advertising revenue comes from third-party games.
Ellanora Baidoo, 26, can finally change her Facebook status to “single” after a landmark decision in a Manhattan courtroom Monday that allows her to serve her evasive husband via private message on Facebook.
This is the first time anyone has been able to use the ubiquitous social networking site to serve legally binding papers.
The Ghanaian nurse “is granted permission serve defendant with the divorce summons using a private message through Facebook,” wrote Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Matthew Cooper.
What’s next–small claims court via Twitter?
What if you combined the viral nature of Vine with the mini-story capability of Snapchat? That’s what Facebook is trying to do with Riff, a new app that’s available for download today.
Facebook is building its own kind of app store around Messenger, or so was the pitch at the social network’s F8 conference last week.
But now that the new platform, which manifests itself as a list of approved iOS apps that integrate with Messenger, is out in the wild, it’s not that impressive.
Today Facebook unveiled the future of Messenger, and it’s actually quite ambitious.
It’s clear that the social giant wants Messenger to be the one-stop for not just messaging, but all sorts of app interactions. Businesses will also be able to chat directly with customers through Messenger, which opens the door for communicating directly with brands like never before.
What happens when a multi-billion-dollar social network steals your app’s name?
Independent developer Mike Swanson asked that question Monday when he learned that Instagram had released Layout, the Facebook-owned company’s new iPhone app for creating photo collages.
Facebook is taking on Square, PayPal, and Venmo with its own digital payments service. Starting today, Facebook Messenger will allow users to instantaneously transfer real money at zero cost.
You may have noticed recently that the Facebook app makes sounds. Like a post? Chirp. Refresh the news feed? Swoosh. It’s like your iPhone got suddenly chatty and wants you to know that you’re tapping on the screen with every blip and bloop.
Surely you’d like to turn these things off. You could just mute your whole iPhone with the sound toggle button, but if you want to have other audio come through, like video, music, or (gasp) phone calls, you can dip into your Facebook app settings and soon experience the bliss of a blip-free Facebook browsing experience.
Here’s how.
When it comes to dying, who’s going to take over my Facebook account isn’t one of my biggest worries, but if you want to ensure that you’re killing it on social media from the grave, Facebook just rolled out a new feature that lets you give your account to someone when the Grim Reaper comes knocking.
Facebook has been trying to go after Foursquare’s slice of the geolocation pie for a while now, and a new update to Facebook’s iOS app doubles down on that policy, providing Foursquare-style recommendations for places to visit in your area, based upon the suggestion of friends.
The AMBER Alert network in your area is about to get more effective.
Social networking giant Facebook announced today that it would be teaming up with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children to provide AMBER Alerts through its official iOS app, as well as through its official website.
LAS VEGAS — Nobody wants to get hacked like Jennifer Lawrence’s iCloud account. Everyone, including Apple, is pushing two-factor authentication in the wake of the high-profile hack that exposed dozens of celebrities nude selfies, but verifying an account login with a code sent to your phone is a total pain.
In the not-so-distant future, we might all be storing two-factor authentication on our keychains.
Yubico is already providing eight out of 10 Silicon Valley companies with a tiny USB dongle called YubiKey that securely verifies an employee’s online identity. You just plug it into a computer and tap it when it’s time to log in. Now that Gmail has started supporting YubiKey on the front end, anyone can use it as the second verification step for getting into their inbox.
Facebook has just released yet another in its seeming interminable series of single serving apps of dubious utility. It’s called Stickers for Messenger, and surprise! It lets you slap virtual stickers on your photos before sending them to your friends through Messenger.
Read receipts. They’re the first thing I turn off when I get a new messaging app or iOS device. But Facebook is doubling down on read receipts in the new Facebook Messenger, which has new, blisteringly fast notifications showing you exactly what’s going on with your message after you send it.
The minister of the Cyberspace Administration of China got a sneak peek at the Apple Watch during a recent visit to Apple’s Cupertino headquarters. Photos published by a state-owned website show Apple CEO Tim Cook demonstrating the device to Lu Wei, who also stopped by Facebook’s campus to meet Mark Zuckerberg.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has lashed out at Tim Cook’s privacy policy, calling it “ridiculous,” and knocking Apple for pricing its products as highly as it does.
Zuckerberg’s rebuttal follows comments made by Cook in September, in which he noted that, “When an online service is free, you’re not the customer. You’re the product.” While the message was most likely meant for long-time rival Google, Facebook’s head honcho definitely took it personally.
Read Zuckerberg’s impassioned response after the jump:
Another day, another app from Facebook.
That seems to be the trend lately for the social networking giant, as seemingly every aspect of its service has been siloed into its own app. The latest is Facebook Groups for, you guessed it, managing and interacting with different groups.
