Facebook has suspended around 200 third-party apps, after its data misuse investigation found signs that they may have been acting improperly. The app audit was part of Facebook's grand mea-culpa earlier this year, after the part the social network played in the Cambridge Analytica scandal was revealed.
New code was discovered this week in the deep depths of Instagram - and it's interesting. The code mentions Music - but not music like we see rolling in Spotify and Tidal and such. Instead, this music in Instagram is closer to what we've seen with YouTube's Open Source Music feature brings. That means the Instagram Stories you're already making could be tricked out, and soon.
What's in a name? If you ask the folks over at Facebook and Oculus, probably nothing much. It is, after all, just a formal name change and it's business as usual for the R&D group. But you don't make a big fuss about name changes like that unless it's really something big. In this case, it isn't just a simple realignment of branding but also a reminder that Facebook owns one of the two biggest VR platforms in the market and it isn't afraid to use it.
Change is in the air over at Oculus today. Facebook and Oculus have announced that Oculus Research will be operate under the banner of Facebook Reality Labs moving forward. This name change doesn't really mean anything for the company's research and development operations, but it does show us that Facebook is beginning to take AR and VR more and more seriously.
Some Instagram users have started seeing a payments feature that enables transactions directly on the platform. The addition hasn't been officially announced at this time, however a decision to add a payment feature wouldn't be surprising. Parent company Facebook previously launched a tool for sending users money on Messenger, and recent changes to Instagram hint the company may be bringing some of its features to Instagram.
This afternoon Oculus revealed a new VR headset - a prototype called Half Dome. This new headset isn't necessarily a replacement for any previous headset - it's a testing ground for what's to come. This new headset project was revealed at F8, Facebook's developer conference, where other VR and social networking projects of all sorts were also revealed as they are each year.
Cambridge Analytica, the political consulting firm at the heart of recent Facebook data scandals, is shutting down, blaming accusations that it misused personal data for frightening off the company's customers. In addition to beginning insolvency proceedings in the UK, Cambridge Analytica says it will be beginning bankruptcy proceedings for its US businesses, too.
Mark Zuckerberg may have spent much of the Facebook F8 2018 opening keynote on handling the social network's privacy fallout, but day two sees the tech - and AI and machine learning - come right to the fore. The second day keynote at the social site's annual developer event is, arguably, always more interesting from a geeky perspective.
Facebook announced they'd be collaborating with RED Digital Cinema to create a 6DoF camera. That's 6 degrees of freedom, a term which encapsulates the essence of the current must-have features for believable, usable virtual reality experiences. "Over the past year, we’ve worked to realize the next phase of our x6 and x24 6DoF capture prototypes and set out to find a camera hardware partner with uncompromising image quality and cinematographic acumen," said a Facebook/Oculus representative. "Today, we’re pleased to announce our partnership with RED Digital Cinema."
Instagram has activated a new bully filter that will automatically prevent toxic comments from appearing on posts. The filter is active by default now, though users can disable it if they want full access to all of the comments. Instagram first unveiled the comment filter last year, but now it is live for all users around the globe.
Facebook may launch a pair of smart speakers featuring its M assistant internationally first, only later offering them in the US. The contemplation, according to sources, is due to the Facebook's current privacy debacle in the US and worries that it may harm the speakers' performance in the market. The sources also tipped some of the features these smart speakers will allegedly offer.
Facebook Messenger will soon automatically suggest translations between Spanish and English, though the feature will initially be limited to Marketplace, the company has announced. The feature is a convenient and rapid way to translate between the two popular languages, enabling users who would otherwise face a language barrier to engage on Facebook's platform.