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Snapchat has quietly acquired an Israeli startup for a reported $30 million to $40 million
Snapchat sewed up its first acquisition in Israel this week, according to the outlet Calcalist News. It acquired four-year-old Cimagine, whose augmented reality platform lets consumers instantly visualize products they want to buy in their intended location, paying what Calcalist says was between $30 million and $40 million. According to its LinkedIn page, Cimagine currently works with brands… Read More
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Now Snapchat has “Filter Games”
Snapchat wants you to play with your face, not just take pictures of it. New Selfie Lens filter games are starting to appear to users, creating an addicting new Snapchat feature that also inspires competition between friends and could become a powerful ad revenue driver. Snapchat confirms this is the launch of a new, native games feature. Back in March, Snapchat tested a limited run of a… Read More
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Twitter overcharged video advertisers, issues refunds
Now it’s Twitter copying Facebook… but in the worst way. Following several embarrassing disclosures of inaccurate metrics by Facebook, today Business Insider’s Alex Heath broke news that Twitter overcharged some advertisers. Between November 7th and December 12th, a source tells BI that video ad buyers were overcharged up to 35 percent. Twitter apparently informed these… Read More
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Facebook kills off exact location sharing in Nearby Friends, adds “Wave”
Nearby Friends didn’t turn into the Foursquare-killer it could have been, but Facebook is still trying to help people meet up in person… with a few changes. Facebook has removed the precise location-sharing feature from Nearby Friends, which now only lets you opt-in to broadcasting your approximate distance from friends and current neighborhood. Unmapped Previously, you could select… Read More
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Twitter didn’t fix itself in 2016 and Wall Street isn’t happy
Layoffs, a borked acquisition and continued tepid user growth defined Twitter in 2016. And these are all things that make Twitter’s future uncertain, which we know Wall Street does not like. Jack Dorsey’s one-year tenure as CEO was more or less defined by a continue decline in its stock price and, amid all its attempts to try and re-make the service and make it more palatable… Read More
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Zuckerberg implies Facebook is a media company, just “not a traditional media company”
Mark Zuckerberg gave new insights about how he sees Facebook’s role in informing the world today during a Live video one-on-one year-end chat with COO Sheryl Sandberg. Facebook’s CEO also lent support to employees trying to fight fake news today, though reports indicated some employees were dissatisfied by his initially tepid response to the issue. “Facebook is a new kind… Read More
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Government requests for Facebook user data up 27 percent in first half of 2016
Facebook released its latest transparency report today, detailing government requests for user data for the first half of 2016. According to the report, government requests for account data increased by 27 percent globally as compared with the last half of 2015. The number of requests grew from 46,710 to 59,229, Facebook said. The majority of the requests (56 percent) received from U.S. Read More
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Facebook’s VIP app Mentions adds Live video drafts, comment blacklists, replay trimming
Facebook is turning its public figures-only Mentions app into a handheld video studio with a slew of new Live broadcasting features rolling out the next few weeks. Mentions on iOS and Android will let broadcasters control brightness and mirroring through an adjustments tray, add category tags, set up comment blocklists, trim their video replays and see their audio, battery and… Read More
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Facebook’s secretive hardware team signs rapid collaboration deal with 17 universities
Facebook’s shadowy Building 8 research team needs help from academia to invent futuristic hardware. But today’s pace of innovation doesn’t allow for the standard 9-12 month turnaround time it takes universities to strike one-off research partnerships with private companies. Enter SARA, aka Facebook’s “Sponsored Academic Research Agreement.” It’s a… Read More
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Snap Inc. has a new China tech R&D office focused on Spectacles
Spectacles seem to be a hit for Snapchat parent Snap Inc., thought their unconventional rollout via pop-up shops (including a new one at a Dave & Busters in Illinois this morning) makes it hard to judge the scale of their success. Here’s a decent indicator: Snap is opening a new research and development technology office in Shenzhen, near where Spectacles are assembled, CNN… Read More
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You can now Uber to people directly, and use custom Snapchat filters as you ride
Uber has some late 2016 feature additions it’s unveiling Wednesday, including a way to hail a ride directly to people in your contacts list, and a new Snapchat team-up that opens access to custom filters during your Uber ride. The new location feature lets you request a one-time static location share from your contacts, which the app will then automatically set as your destination and use… Read More
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Enterprise social comes roaring back
You’ll be forgiven if you missed it, but lost in the avalanche of this year’s tech news, enterprise social software made an impressive comeback. Led by products like Slack, Workplace by Facebook and Microsoft Teams, a software category that had been languishing for the last several years, suddenly came alive. A decade ago, as social software emerged, it was coined Enterprise 2.0… Read More
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Crunch Network
How Google’s Search business and humanity’s information is disappearing
Search, Google’s crown jewel, and humanity’s way of finding the world’s information, has big problems. These problems threaten the internet as we know it; if they’re allowed to continue developing, unchecked, the consequences will be far-reaching and severe. Collectively, these threats are called Dark Matter. Read More
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Twitter’s CTO Adam Messinger is leaving the company along with VP of product Josh McFarland
Twitter CTO Adam Messinger, who has been the company’s CTO for almost four years and with the company for five years, said today he was leaving the company. Twitter VP of product Josh McFarland is also leaving to join Greylock Partners. Messinger made the announcement in — no surprise — a tweet: After 5 years I’ve decided to leave Twitter and take some time off. Read More
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Facebook Live Audio makes talk radio social, starting with the BBC
Book readings, interviews, and news radio are coming to Facebook thanks to its new Live Audio feature launching today with a few publishers and authors before opening up next year. A complement to its Facebook Live video streaming, it could bring audio-first content like podcasts to the News Feed, and provide a low-bandwidth real-time broadcasting options to publishers in low-connectivity… Read More
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Prisma launches a social feed to see if style can transfer into a platform
Prisma, the app that popularized style transfer to apply art-esque filters to photos and videos after launching this summer, is finally attempting to turn itself into more than just a cool tool. In a big update being released today for its iOS and Android apps it’s adding it’s own social stream with a focus on location-based sharing. Read More
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Instagram Stories launches overlaid Stickers for locations, emoji, and seasons
Instagram is launching its answer to Snapchat geofilters, offering a way to spice up your photos and videos with Stickers that display basic location names, time, weather, and emoji. There’s also limited-time seasonal graphics like Christmas trees and Hanukkah menorahs, and a holiday candy cane paint brush. Instagram is also launching Story saving for downloading your last 24-hours… Read More
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Facebook debuts shareable “moments” at the top of the News Feed, starting with holiday cards
Facebook today is rolling out a new program that will place messages at the top of your News Feed which prompt users to discuss and share moments that are happening in the world, including the holidays, as well as other historical and cultural moments. You may have already seen these large, colorful cards at the top of your News Feed wishing you a Happy Thanksgiving or reminding you not to… Read More
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Facebook Messenger launches 6-screen group video chat with selfie masks
Teen app sensation Houseparty will get some competition as Facebook Messenger is launching its own split-screen group video chat feature. Six users can appear in split-screen at the time and don Snapchat-style selfie masks, while 50 total can listen and talk over voice while sending text, stickers, emojis, and GIFs. The feature could make a Messenger a place to “livechill”… Read More
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Facebook Messenger strikes at Skype with desktop group voice calling
We might finally get to stop asking, “Wait, what’s your Skype name?” thanks to a test of new Facebook group audio calling on desktop. Facebook launched group voice calls on its mobile Messenger app in April, and now it’s working out the kinks to bring the feature to your home and office. It could become a useful alternative to traditional conference calls by… Read More
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