Facebook F8: CEO Mark Zuckerberg stresses on private social platform, announces redesign across apps and services

Facebook seems to have learnt from its mistakes. After a stressful year, which was plagued with several controversies, the social media giant looks to work upon the privacy and safety of the people that it serves. At the annual F8 conference, company CEO Mark Zuckerberg reiterated his previous stance stressing on privacy-focussed social platform. The event saw the announcement of several features that will let users “interact privately.”

“I believe the future is private. I know that we don't exactly have the strongest reputation on privacy right now, to put it lightly. At the end of the day, this isn't just about building some new products. It's a major shift in how we run this company,” Zuckerberg said as he set the tone for new new announcements regarding Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and WhatsApp. The conference saw updates in areas that have already been talked about previously, like privacy, integration of three platforms into one, among others.

“For the last 15 years, we've built Facebook and Instagram into digital equivalents of the town square, where you can interact with lots of people at once. Now we're focused on building the digital equivalent of the living room, where you can interact in all the ways you'd want privately -- from messaging and stories to secure payments and more,” Zuckerberg said. To bring this “vision to life,” the company announced several design and feature changes, like making end-to-end encryption the default into its platforms.

Facebook and Messenger

Zuckerberg said that the company is committed to protect private conversations “for billions of people around the world,” but by introducing tools to to do, the platform may also provide a haven for criminals and those who want to spread hate. “A few years ago, we probably would have just rolled this out and then tried to adjust and address issues as they came up. Now we're going out and consulting with experts and trying to make sure that we get this balance right,” he said. Zuckerberg also announced that both the app and the desktop version would receive a major redesign called FB5, with Groups and Events at the centre of it all. The mobile redesign will have an interactive logo that ditches the old blue colour scheme.

WhatsApp and Instagram

The first major overhaul that WhatsApp may get is the default end-to-end encryption into the platform. Facebook also announced WhatsApp support on its video-calling device Portal, and said the calls on the platform would also be encrypted. Further, Facebook is also testing a payment product on WhatsApp in India, which could expand to other countries this year. Meanwhile, on Instagram, Facebook has launched a shopping channel that will give users a way to shop from the creators and influencers from the app itself. There is a new camera mode and a donation feature.

Most importantly, Facebook is going to make its messaging services interoperable, which means that Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp will be interconnected. According to Asha Sharma, Messenger's Head of Consumer Product, in the future, users will soon be able to send messages across the three different messaging platforms, and all the messages will be end-to-end encrypted. The company hasn’t given a specific timeline for the roll-out of this integration, but Zuckerberg said it could take quite some time.

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Facebooks Portal video-calling devices to be sold internationally, get WhatsApp support

Facebook made a whole bunch of announcements last evening at its F8 developer conference in San Jose, California, including the much-rumoured integration of Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp messaging services. One of them is that the company’s “Portal” video-calling devices will be sold in Canada and Europe starting sometime later this year. In addition, the devices are expected to support WhatsApp calls, which means the calls will be end-to-end encrypted.

The Mark Zuckerburg-led American social media company launched its Portal video-calling devices in the US in early October last year. At the time of launch, the Portal was priced at $199 (Rs 14,700 approx) and the Portal+ was priced at $349 (Rs 25,900 approx). The company also offered both devices as a bundled offer at $298 (Rs 22,000 approx). Facebook announced the Portal devices in a renewed effort to assure its customers of complete data privacy inside the Facebook world while calling and messaging.

A few months before launching the Portal devices, Facebook was in the soup for letting user data leak out of Facebook. More specifically, the company was involved in a major political scandal when everyone came to know of Cambridge Analytica’s secret harvesting of personal user data through Facebook. Since then, Facebook has been making an extra effort to reassure its customers of complete data privacy and security. “We know that privacy and security are important when you bring new technology into your home. That’s why we designed Portal with tools that give you control,” Facebook said at the time of the launch.

The camera and microphone on the two Portal devices can be disabled with the push of a hardware button on the body of the device. They also come with a camera cover for added privacy. While the Portal comes with a 10-inch 720p display, the Portal+ comes with a 15-inch Full HD display. According to Facebook, both devices feature Smart Camera, which focusses on the most appropriate subject in any video call scene. They also feature Amazon Alexa for voice command-based functions. There’s no information available yet on whether the two Portal devices will come to India.

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AMD Results Beat Estimates on Data Centre, Server Growth

The results underscored AMD's success in bolstering its data centre and server sales with new launches in the Ryzen and EPYC line of chips for desktops and servers.

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AMD Celebrates 50th Anniversary With Ryzen 7 2700X, Radeon VII Gold Edition, 2 Free Games

AMD is celebrating its 50th anniversary with special editions of its Radeon VII graphics card and Ryzen 7 2700X CPU, plus two free games for buyers of several other products.

from RSS Feeds | GAMES - RSS Feed - NDTV Gadgets360.com http://bit.ly/2DEPvNh

Instagram gets a camera revamp, new Shopping and Donation features at Facebook F8

Instagram announced some new features at Facebook’s ongoing F8 developer conference, where the main Facebook app also received a fresh coat of paint and a bunch of new features were announced for Messenger.

For Instagram, the first big change comes in the form of a redesigned camera with a new Create Mode. The new camera design and the Create Mode will appear on the Instagram app in the coming weeks. This new camera will make it easier to use popular creative tools like effects and interactive stickers. Create Mode will help users make stories more easily. All story creation tools will be available in a single tray at the bottom of the Instagram camera, making them accessible easier than before.

Secondly, Instagram users will also get the ability to shop from creators and influencers without leaving their posts.  “Today, creators tag the brands they are wearing, add details in the caption and respond to countless comments and DMs. With the ability to tag exactly what they're wearing, creators can get back to expressing themselves and sharing what's on their mind, which will make their followers happy too,” Instagram noted in a blog post. The new shopping feature on Instagram will initially be enabled for select brands. Users can find the complete brand list here.

Thirdly, Instagram introduced new Donation stickers, which we knew were in the works for a while. Users will find a Donation sticker in the Stories tab and can start raising money for a non-profit they care about. The Donations sticker will only be available in the US for now and will roll out to other countries later.

from Latest Technology News http://bit.ly/2GJmqRw

Facebook redesigns Facebook: Heres how Events and Groups will take centre stage

At Facebook’s annual developer conference, F8, the company has announced a slew of big changes that are aimed at making all of its platforms - Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger and Facebook itself - more social, yet private. Facebook will transition into a more “privacy-focused communications platform,” Mark Zuckerberg told audiences at F8.

To this effect, the main Facebook platform, both the app and the desktop, are receiving a major redesign, with Groups and Events at the centre of it all.

Facebook is rolling out FB5 (Facebook 5), a fresh design that’s aimed at being simpler and faster, with an emphasis on communities. Groups are now front and centre with the new Groups tab. The tab now shows a personalised feed of activity across all groups a user is a part of. A new discovery tool provides recommendations that help users find groups they could be interested in.

“Today, more than 400 million people on Facebook belong to a group that they find meaningful,” Facebook said in a press statement.

Facebook is also making it easier to get relevant group recommendations in different areas of the app like - Marketplace, Today In, the Gaming tab, and Facebook Watch. Users can expect to see more content from their groups in their News Feed. Content from the News Feed will also be shareable with groups easily.

Within Groups, Facebook is introducing specific features for communities. For instance, members on health support groups will be able to post questions and share information while keeping their identities anonymous. Job groups will get a new template for employers to post openings. Like Linkedin, people will be able to apply for jobs directly through Facebook. Gaming groups on the platform will get a new chat feature so members can create threads for different topics within the group.

Facebook Live will also enable buyers to ask questions and place orders from product-related lives without leaving the livestream.

Further, Facebook wants you to meet new people so the platform now has a place to do just that. “Meet New Friends” on Facebook will  help people start friendships with new people from their shared communities like a school, workplace or city. It’s an opt-in feature, so users will only see other people that are open to meeting new friends, and vice versa. Facebook is currently testing Meet New Friends and will roll it out wider soon. “We will also be integrating Facebook Groups, making it possible to meet new friends from your most meaningful communities on Facebook,” Facebook noted.

As far as events are concerned, there’s a new Events tab on Facebook. This will let users see what’s happening around them, get recommendations, discover local businesses, and coordinate with friends to make plans to get together. The new Events tab will be placed next to the new Groups tab in the app.

Facebook says that people will start seeing some of these redesign updates in the Facebook app immediately, while the new desktop site will come in the next few months.

from Latest Technology News http://bit.ly/2UO8SJn

Facebook will soon integrate Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp chats: Heres everything new headed to Messenger 5

Facebook has made a bunch of announcements at its ongoing F8 annual developer conference. While the keynote opened with CEO Mark Zuckerberg stressing on a privacy-focussed platform, there were a lot of new developments shared as far as all of Facebook’s products are concerned.

Starting with Messenger, Facebook finally shared plans about integrating the chat app with Instagram and WhatsApp. It was rumoured for a long time that Facebook will make all the three apps interoperable and that’s exactly what’s coming - the ability to chat and make calls across Messenger, WhatsApp and Instagram.

"We believe people should be able to talk to anyone anywhere," Messenger's Head of Consumer Product, Asha Sharma, said while announcing all the new features coming to Messenger 5.

Watching Videos together in real-time on Facebook Messenger

One of the biggest changes coming to Messenger is that it will now be a faster and lighter app. Facebook is re-building the architecture of the Messenger app from ground up to make it faster and lighter. Facebook has internally named the new, faster Messenger “Lightspeed” as it will launch in under 2 seconds and will be less than 30MB in size.

Conversations in Messenger will soon be end-to-end encrypted as are on WhatsApp. This comes in tow with Facebook’s new privacy mantra, given how the company’s platforms have been at the centre of multiple privacy breaches and controversies over the past year.

Another new feature headed to Messenger is to have a Watch Party through the chat platform. Users will be able to easily share videos from Facebook to Messenger and watch them together (see image above) with their friends and family in real time, during a chat or a video call. Facebook is currently testing this feature and will roll it out later this year.

Messenger Desktop App

Later this year, Messenger will be available as a desktop app as well. Users will be able to download the Messenger desktop app on both macOS and Windows to make “group video calls, collaborate on projects or multi-task while chatting in Messenger”. Facebook Messenger for desktop will be rolling out globally later this year. 

Further, Messenger is introducing a dedicated space where users can discover Stories, messages, images and videos with their closest friends and family. What looks like the Close Friends feature from Instagram and Facebook, users will be able to share snippets from their day and choose exactly who sees what you post. This feature will roll out later this year.

Close Friends on Messenger

Lastly, Facebook is adding lead generation templates to Ads Manager. Through this, businesses on Messenger can easily create an ad that drives people to a simple Q&A on the platform to learn more about their customers.

It will also be easier to book an appointment with businesses on Messenger as it will host an appointment experience so people can book appointments within a Messenger conversation.

from Latest Technology News http://bit.ly/2GSheMm