Facebook, Oculus Rift and the Future of Virtual Reality

When Facebook bought out Oculus VR last month, many techies and gamers were understandably upset. It wasn't just the case of another corporation buying out a small company, Oculus VR was regarded by many as an important step in the direction of the whole next generation of consumer technology. The seven-years-ago equivalent would be like hearing that Apple had sold the iPhone to Google, but more than that, Oculus Rift had actually been crowdfunded, being one of the most significant and successful projects in the history of Kickstarter. Understandably, those that had funded the Rift felt betrayal not only as consumers, but on a personal level.

The Oculus guys made a cool two billion off the deal. You could give more than half of that to the IRS and still have more than enough money left over for the core Rift team to live very well for the rest of their lives, so it's hard to fault them as individuals for taking the money. The deal also allows the Oculus team to keep working on the OR projects that they had been developing, with financing from Facebook, who claim that they will continue to put VR gaming at the forefront. So while Facebook's ownership of Oculus Rift may trouble some, we may want to wait and see whether or not the OR mission statement actually changes.
Before we worry that this is the end of the dream, let's look at some of the basic facts of consumer-grade VR right now:

• No Set Price Range

The consumer version of the Oculus Rift has yet to ship, while the developer kit version runs $350. That's not a bad price for the most immersive VR experience available, it's in the range of a new video game console. However, it may well be that Facebook's financial might will allow the Rift to be produced and sold at a very low price. If we're looking at $100, $150 virtual reality, then Facebook's influence on the Rift, not to mention their power as a marketing force, may actually speed the proliferation of VR.

• Nobody Owns a Copyright on VR

The Oculus Rift itself is a copyrighted concept. The idea of strapping two lightweight TV's to your face is not. To worry that Facebook are going to single-handedly ruin virtual reality for everyone seems foolish when any garage start-up out there can develop their own competing VR technology to offer an alternative to the Facebook-owned OR.

• VR is Too Big to Ignore

Finally, the sheer headline factor to this story only helps to prove that the Oculus Rift has already made its mark. Whether or not it winds up being the VR unit that you find in every home, it has piqued the public's interest, and it would be crazy to assume that everyone from Sony to the smallest tech developers aren't taking notice. It's even said that Valve's new headset tech outshines the Rift.
"The tech world is largely about ideas that are too big to copyright," said Jason Hope, entrepreneur (http://sens.org/outreach/outreach-blog/release-internet-entrepreneur-jason-hope-pledges-half-million-dollars-sens) "and whether or not Facebook's Oculus Rift remains true to the original vision sold to its Kickstarter funders, it's not the end of the new era of VR."
The Oculus Rift has already birthed some fascinating projects, and it's doubtful that Facebook wants to change the open source nature of the project, as, love them or hate them, Facebook are pioneers of the user-generated era of web content.
The disappointment that many feel over Facebook's buyout of Oculus may have more to do with philosophical concerns than practical ones. The professional ethics of crowdfunding your project on Kickstarter before selling out to a major corporation for two billion dollars are up for debate, certainly, but it's hardly a nail in the coffin of the virtual reality dream. Even if Facebook decides to fill your eyeballs with advertising as soon as you strap the OR on, the Rift is far from the only option for virtual reality as we move into the next era of consumer tech.

Featured images:

•  License: Creative Commons image source 

About Author:  Melissa Williams is a philanthropy and business writer.  As a native Texan, she began her career as a fundraiser for a non-profit organization.  Lured by the mountains and trail running, she relocated to Scottsdale, Arizona and works as a consultant for non-profit organizations.  She enjoys writing about philanthropy and entrepreneurs. 

Twitter disappoints beta-testers with a Facebook inspired design

Twitter is always looking for ways to capture new users since the audience is in decline. To do so, they clearly intended to inspire from Facebook's design, which is, sadly, far from everyone's taste .

 The new design was made ​​for a tiny fraction of users and unfortunately for twitter, for Matt Petronzio, a Mashable journalist, who was more than happy to relay the news.  This new design looks very much like Facebook with profile picture, cover picture, central column and tabs. Obviously these items are important to Twitter items, but must admit it feels particularly "Facebooky".

Facebook to start selling our data to U.S TV channels

In order to compete with Twitter, Facebook announced that it would start sending shared data on its platform to some U.S. television channels. The aim is to highlight the interactions and popularity of programs on the social network.  

While a Nielsen highlighted the ability of Twitter to boost  TV viewership, Facebook has decided to exploit this niche too.  

The Wall Street Journal reports that the social network will start sharing its data with a handful of U.S. partners : ABC, NBC, Fox and CBS.
The reports will consist of information related to likes, publications and comments associated with a television program. The channels will be able to analyze the behavior of the community and draw conclusions that will eventually influence decisions.  

And of course it won't be Facebook if it only based its reports on public data users. Private content will be also integrated, to the data sent to American channels. The result should look like a list of statistics available at the discretion of TV channels with more data to be incorporated over time to refine the statistics, giving Facebook a new way to monetize data from its 1.27 billion members.

For the first time in 5 years, Yahoo is #1

For the first time in five years, Yahoo passes Google in web traffic in the United States. The Mountain View giant lost its number one spot in July. A surprising result, but is Yahoo able to sustain its position?
  

The figures from ComScore for July confirms it, Yahoo sites surpassed Google sites by 4 338 900 visits (196 564 000 to 192 225 100  visits for Google).  
To realize better what just happened, you must know that Google has been holding the number one spot since April 2008, while Yahoo always oscillated between the second and third place.
 
In the rest of the chart, we find Microsoft Sites in third with 179 595 visits and Facebook in fourth with 266.142 million visits. Note that these figures refer only to the United States. This is a real "tour de force" to Yahoo and its president, Marissa Mayer, who herself worked at Google in the past.  

The figures do not rely solely on search engines, but on all the sites operated by these companies. This includes for example the online messaging and blogs. ( Note that Google recently bought Tumblr from Yahoo, and is currently ranking 38th with 38 367 000 visits)

While this is great news for Yahoo, and whether it is able to hold its position or not, we cannot but wonder if Google professing the lack of privacy their users have to deal with and Microsoft's infamous campaign against them (Scroogled) - Keeping in mind,  Microsoft services mediocrity and lack of security - played a role in boosting the number of visits for the already popular site (Yahoo) in the US.  





Source: Phonandroid

Facebook... It's bad for you!

According to a study conducted by psychologists at the University of Michigan, the more you use Facebook, the more you're unhappy.
 
These conclusions were derived after the researchers have looked back on how 82 young adults use Facebook, for a period of two weeks. When participants in the experiment started, they were asked to record their moods and the satisfaction they felt about their lives. During the two weeks, the researchers asked participants to answer questions about their general mood and the time they spent on Facebook since the last check, at intervals of 2 hours.  
The conclusion was: the more people spend time on Facebook during the 2 hour period, the more they felt ill.

The result was the same when they raised the average time spent on Facebook, for one person, with "average mood." Those who spent more time on the social network had worst moods.

According to one of the authors of the study, Ethan Kross, this could put a multitude of factors involved Among the reasons cited by the researcher, there are social comparisons that can be made when you go on Facebook, reduction of the time spent conducting activities supposed beneficial as getting out of exercise or the reduction of direct interaction with people.

Another study, conducted by the Humboldt University in Berlin, also showed that Facebook could have harm on the psychological level. Among the grounds which were then discussed, there was also the fact that people begin to compare their lives to the other by going on Facebook, which can lead to dissatisfaction.

Source : Two faced Facebook: we like it but it doesn't make us happy

Google, Facebook and Twitter violate Kim Dotcom's patent

Kim DotCom announced that Twitter, Facebook, Google and other sites violate one of its patents by using a two-stage identification system. The announcement comes just days after Twitter has implemented this system on its website.

Recently, it had become possible to add another level of security to your Twitter account. In addition to the traditional couple( username / password), the site can use the mobile phone of the user, by sending an SMS to confirm that he is the right person. If this system is new on Twitter, other sites such as Google and Facebook, are already adopting it  for some time. But the inventor, Kim Dotcom, says that the two-stage identification is subject to a patent owned it since 1997.

He has published a link to the patent in question, registered under his name, which describes the use of a "transaction authorization number" that must transmit the user to another device from which it tries to connect. Therefor the patent seems to belong to him, and it is hard to ignore the irony with Kim DotCom being considered a hacker and an enemy of the United States while the people behind Twitter, Google and Facebook are considered the Superheros of this century.

I innovated two-factor-authentication (MonKey), connected cars (MegaCar), automated stock trading (Trendax) & cloud storage (Megaupload).
— Kim Dotcom (@KimDotcom) May 23, 2013

Google, Facebook, Twitter, Citibank, etc. offer Two-Step-Authentication.Massive IP infringement by U.S. companies. My innovation. My patent
— Kim Dotcom (@KimDotcom) May 22, 2013

I never sued them. I believe in sharing knowledge & ideas for the good of society. But I might sue them now cause of what the U.S. did to me
— Kim Dotcom (@KimDotcom) May 22, 2013

Google, Facebook, Twitter, I ask you for help. We are all in the same DMCA boat. Use my patent for free. But please help funding my defense.
— Kim Dotcom (@KimDotcom) May 22, 2013

BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) will be available on Android and iOS

Yesterday, at a conference held in Orlnado, BlackBerry has announced that its instant messaging, BlackBerry Messenger (BBM), would arrive soon on the Android and iOS smartphones.

Until now reserved for BlackBerry, BBM was one of the main strengths of the brand. It allowed to communicate between BlackBerry devices, receive acknowledgments and reading, sharing media files, start discussions or spend several videos. As complete as it is, the system has gradually been overtaken by other companies offering the same kind of service as iMessage on iPhone and most importantly, other services compatible with multiple operating systems like WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger.
 

From the Blackberry conference on Tuesday 15/05/2013 in Orlando

To revive its messaging service, the Canadian company has decided to make BBM available on Android to version 4.0 and higer and iOS to version 6 and higher. 
   
"Different applications should be available this summer on the Google Play Store and Apple App Store. We'll begin with messaging and groups, and later we will bring voice, screen sharing and other services" - Thorsten Heins, CEO of BlackBerry.
 

Making the service available to many other platforms might sound like a good idea but it also presents some disadvantages. First, you might agree with me that this move is a bit late, after Whatsapp and Facebook messenger dominated the market and it would be hard for someone to choose the BBM service over any of those mentioned, and secondly, according to a poll on the Blackberry blog :What Do You Do on Your BlackBerry Smartphone? 30% of 8000 voters chose the instant messaging service and 20% went for social networking, and as well know some people buy Blackberry just to profit of it's famous BBM.
So we cannot but wonder: is making the BBM service available on other platforms going to give Blackberry users the push to finally quit using Blackberry devices and switch to Samsung, HTC or Apple?

5 privacy issues you probably didn't know about

1. Apple's IPhone is secretly tracking your movements and storing your data, and there is nothing you can do to stop it. Learn more..
2. Facebook's app automatically tries to activate your GPS whenever it is launched. There's no setting or option to disable this.
3. Gmail reads your email. Google never said that it  reads our mail, however, it publicly acknowledges that it "processes personal information" via cookies and on its servers, so it can provide "our products and services to users," as well as to keep its service running well. Learn more..
4. Facebook Home: Facebook latest "innovation", is trying to be the gateway to your virtual world. It's a layer between the OS and the apps, it is the gateway to any data exchange. Which means, that Facebook will possess every bit of data passing through. The problem is that Facebook is going to use all this data not to improve our lives but to target better marketing and advertising messages at us.
5. Over than 24% of online time is spent on social networks. And a major social network site, according to Neilsen, will experience one major breach, which will expose a terrific amount of personal data.

Facebook Home, is it really an innovation?

Facebook presented Thursday night, its innovations related to Android. As planned, a new smartphone, HTC First, with the default application, Facebook Home, were announced.
Which was anticipated in a previous post on the platform : Facebook mobile, how real is it?

The surprise has not been a great one, since expectations were much higher, but it was an opportunity to finally lift the suspense.  
At the premises of Facebook in Menlo Park, Mark Zuckerberg introduced the newest social network in mobility: Facebook Home, an Android application with the same principle of Nova Launcher, Go Launcher or Smart. In other words, it is an application that can replace the Home screen and application menu of android smartphone.

As we see the Facebook Home integration is between the OS and the apps menu.

 

The new home screen, Coverflow, can only have access to Facebook friends publications.You can easily comment or like one of these publications using the buttons provided. Moreover, thanks to Facebook Home, Facebook Messenger application and received SMS messages will now appear superimposed on the screen with the profile picture of the contact that we wrote. Finally, notifications are displayed directly superimposed over Coverflow.

However, these innovations will not bypass the classic features of Android. Other applications remain accessible by sliding your finger from the screen bottom to the top. It will only be possible to add widgets or shortcuts on the home screen reserved for publications.  

Facebook Home will be available as an application on 12 April, downloadable directly from the Google Play Store. Not all smartphones are compatible yet, but as promised Facebook application will be updated each month, particularly to support more devices. For the tablet version of the application, it will need to wait "a few months".

HTC First, the first smartphone integrating Facebook Facebook Home by default works simpler by choosing to use the default Home rather than the typical desktop by pressing the home button, Facebook is also working with manufacturers to integrate Home by default in smartphones. If Samsung and Sony already have projects, the Taiwanese HTC which will launch on April 12 with the First HTC which will be marketed in the U.S. operator AT & T. It will be compatible with AT & T's 4G LTE and is available in cyan, red, black or white, will sport a 4.3-inch screen, run on Android 4.1 and is equipped with a Snapdragon processor double heart 400.

Finally, all I can say that the Facebook Home is nothing but another disappointment, for it's leak of creativity and innovation. And sadly, confirms the fact that big companies are so comfortable, they have no more interest into presenting more creative gadgets to the brainwashed mass. And after so many disappointments this year, I think we should all be less excited about the Motorola X phone.

Software that tracks people on social media created by defence firm

I just read an article published in The Guardian on Sunday 10 February 2013, by Ryan Gallagher about a new video revealing a new data mining software created by a defence firm that could be transformed into a Google for spies.

Here's some highlights:

A video obtained by the Guardian reveals how an "extreme-scale analytics" system created by Raytheon, the world's fifth largest defence contractor, can gather vast amounts of information about people from websites including Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare.

Raytheon says it has not sold the software – named Riot, or Rapid Information Overlay Technology – to any clients.

The power of Riot to harness popular websites for surveillance offers a rare insight into controversial techniques that have attracted interest from intelligence and national security agencies, at the same time prompting civil liberties and online privacy concerns.

The sophisticated technology demonstrates how the same social networks that helped propel the Arab Spring revolutions can be transformed into a "Google for spies" and tapped as a means of monitoring and control.

Read the full article here.

A new Facebook smartphone?

"Come and see our new home on Android". The news came yesterday, Facebook has invited the press to an event on April 4 to find out about the new home of Facebook on Android. A theme somewhat mysterious but simulates the famous rumors of a Facebook smartphone. 

Last year already, there has been talks of  Facebook developing its own smartphone, an idea that has always been rejected by the most popular social network in the world. Some HTC smartphones had a previous collaboration experience with Facebook, like ChaCha and Salsa, who tried take advantage of a better integration by dedicating a new button.



HTC and a revamped OS menu! 
The Taiwanese manufacturer has once again in the highlights (and I know this because it isn't very often that the latest five posts on your blog are labeled HTC) and should take care of the hardware part. UnwiredView evoked early this March a smartphone with a dual-core processor at 1.5 GHz, a 4.3-inch 720p screen, 1GB of RAM, 16GB of non-expandable, a 5 Megapixel camera on the back and 1 , 6 megapixels for the front. 
The software is Android Jelly Bean 4.1.2  but according to TechCrunch, the latter embark an "overlay" in the image of "Sense" on the HTC smartphones running under Android.
Finally, if one believes 9to5google a Facebook / HTC ad campaign is ready in California.  
A modified version which would put the social network in advance, propose its own App Center and has every interest to capitalize on any mobile at any time since the social network is longer available on smartphone than on PC.


The application also keeps Messenger to enrich new coming today compete SMS and calls with VoIP. Finally remember this tweet from Bloomberg from the summer of 2012, that mid-2013 will output a Facebook smartphone in partnership with HTC. 


Hard to believe today, it is a mere rumor!

The end of the web as we know it... Maybe.

Nowadays, the usage of web and internet for many users is limited to social media activities.
And sadly, it's not just me talking these are some statistics that prove it:

• Social apps are particularly popular, with consumers increasing their social app time by 76%, and spending more than seven times more minutes on apps than on mobile web.
• Social networks still dominate internet usage, with 20% of PC time and 30% of mobile time spent on them: over any other category of site. And Facebook dominates that, with 17% of PC time spent on the site.
• People aged 25-34 are most likely to use social media in the office, with over half saying they do so.
• 76% of people felt positive after participating in social networking, and key words used were "connected" and "informed".
•  Professional benefits were also a consideration, with access to business networks and a person’s number of connections both benefits listed
• 26% don’t mind being targeted to them based on their profile info.
  Read the Full report by Nielsen Blog.

So, it quite obvious that any change that would occurs on social medias will eventually affect the web, and change it.

For this article, we will be talking Facebook as example.
I know that comments are flooding the blog, but feel free to tell me why do you think people want to advertize on Facebook?
The huge traffic? The abnormal influence over people's lives?
Well yes. But how Facebook got to be so successful? The answer is very clear here; By using your personal data and private information to target you with ads.

I know what you're thinking now, I'd rather get ads that interests me than keep getting ads that I can't relate to in any way.(Don't deny it, statistics shows that 26% of you agree with this saying.)

Well, for these 26% and for others that always felt that Facebook is their home; I'm very sad to announce that someone called Eduardo Ustaran doesn't agree with you.(BTW he's the head of privacy and information at law company Field Fisher Waterhouse. )
The law in question is the draft European Data Protection Regulation that is to be put before the European Parliament.  The legislation would cause havoc for companies that use their users data to sell advertising, so would include Facebook, GMail and others. Read about this law.

So, if the EU voted for the law, there is no question that the web would never be the way it was. For many of you.

What does it mean? 

I'm sorry that you're hearing this from me, but simply, it means that maybe Facebook will lose it's monetizing plan. So, they will probably, consider a new way to monetizing their site that they have never considered before: Charging you to access Facebook. (Yes! You.)

So, after you heard my news, let's make it a first and see some commenting that isn't spamming. I would like to know if you would pay for Facebook.
Would you pay to like? Comment? Share? Reveal you most intimate information?

What's hot today?

Well, since most of my readers are from the US and there is a huge time span, the post title to you should be what was hot yesterday.

Anyhow, since today I'm too lazy to figure out what to write about and I don't want to just write anything, I decided to spare you some time and bring you the hottest topic in the technology blog sphere today.

And this is a reminder to myself so you can skip it : (today is January 4th)



So here's the top 5 topics/news online for today: 

If you're not paying for it, you're the product

This might be the shortest blog post ever but it's something that came to my mind when I was reading about the Instagram backlash and I had to share it.
And this is more like a message to every "facebooker" or "instagramer" out there who gets shocked every time a line get added to the terms of service and to every wise-a$$ who goes through these terms line by line trying to show us how they get to screw us. So here it is :

WTF did you expect? Where do you think you're Living?? Utopia??

This is the real world.. Nothing is free.

And here's an old comment that got famous from "Metafilter" that describe it best:

Facebook Poke Vs. Snapchat

Snapchat what the first and only app that let you exchange pictures with caption for a limited time. It was initially released on september 2011.

"The first real-time picture chatting app is now available on Android!
Snapchat is the fastest way to share a moment with friends.
You control how long your friends can view your message -
simply set the timer up to ten seconds and send.
They'll have that long to view your message and then it disappears forever.
We'll let you know if they take a screenshot!"        Snapchat as described on the playstore.



Yesterday, Facebook announced  Facebook poke a very similar app to snapchat. 

“With the Poke app, you can poke or send a message, photo, or video to Facebook friends to share what you’re up to in a lightweight way. You can poke an individual friend or several at once. Each message expires after a specific time you’ve set, either 1, 3, 5 or 10 seconds. When time runs out, the message disappears from the app. “         Facebook announcement


So, to make it easier on you here's a simple comparision between these two apps:

Snapchat	Facebook Poke
Text, Drawing over images, Photos, videos, 10 seconds video limits, screenshot alerts, countdown clock
Sharing time 1-10 seconds	Sharing time : 1,3,5,10 seconds
No location service	Location service
33 caracters/photo caption	120 Message caracter
Photos deleted from servers for ever after the countdown.	Facebook terms of service

I know what you're thinking, Facebook poke is so much better. Well based on this comparison I can't blame you but there is something to be careful about : Facebook terms of service which implies that even that you're Facebook friends won't be able to see your pictures after the countdown, Facebook still keeps these photos in their servers.

Additional remarks: 

• Facebook Poke claims that it deletes the encryption keys two days after they’re read so they’re unreadable. Key backups are destroyed within 90 days, making a poke completely inaccessible but still no practical evidence and the app is still running under Facebook's terms of service.
• After 1 day of its launch, Facebook Poke is the #1 App in the Apple app store, followed by Google maps.