OpenAI CEO Sam Altman says competitors, particularly Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta, have been trying to poach OpenAI engineers with sky-high compensation packages.

“They started making these, like, giant offers to people on our team. You know, like $100 million signing bonuses and more than that in compensation per year,” Altman said this week on the Uncapped podcast, hosted by his brother, Jack Altman.

Altman said he was glad to see that those enticing offers haven’t worked on OpenAI’s best people. He assumes this is because they looked at the two paths, Meta and OpenAI, and concluded that the latter has a better shot at delivering on superintelligence and will eventually become the more valuable company.

Amid the digs, Altman said Meta is missing the one thing that truly matters in AI: a culture of real innovation.

Altman doesn’t think Meta’s money-first mindset will work

“There are many things I respect about Meta as a company, but I don’t think they’re great at innovation,” said Altman, when discussing Meta’s attempts to lure OpenAI engineers.

He explained that by trying to recruit OpenAI staff with massive guaranteed compensation packages, Meta is essentially building a culture that prioritizes money over the work and mission. He believes that focusing on money rather than purpose and product is a recipe for the wrong kind of culture.

Altman contrasted this with OpenAI’s approach, which he said attracts and retains talent by aligning financial incentives with a shared sense of purpose and innovative work.

“The special thing about OpenAI is we’ve managed to build a culture that is good at innovation, and I think we understand a lot of things they don't know about what it takes to succeed at that,” he explained further.

Drawing a parallel to past tech rivalries, Altman recalled hearing Zuckerberg discuss how Google tried to enter the social media space in the early days of Facebook.

However, to those at Facebook, it was clear that it wasn’t going to work for Google. Altman said he now feels similarly about Meta’s approach to AI, suggesting that Meta is making an error by trying to replicate OpenAI’s success directly.

Meta sees ChatGPT as the a Facebook replacement, says Altman

He even discussed how he believes many people at Meta simply copy OpenAI. Altman explained this with an example of how many other companies' chat apps resemble ChatGPT, down to the UI mistakes.

He drew from his own experience to argue that the copy-and-paste strategy is fundamentally flawed, and that trying to go where your competitor already is, instead of building a culture around innovation, rarely works.

When asked why he thinks Meta sees OpenAI as such a competitor, Altman mentioned how an ex-Meta employee once told him that Meta views ChatGPT as a Facebook replacement. He explained that the user experience with ChatGPT felt different, like one of the few tech products that didn’t feel “somewhat adversarial.”

He contrasted this with Google, which he said has started showing worse search results, and with Meta’s products, which try to hack users' brains to keep them scrolling. Instead of doing either, ChatGPT simply tries to help users with whatever questions they may have, and even help them feel better.

Beyond discussing Meta, the Altman brothers talked about a wide range of topics related to the future of AI, OpenAI’s strategy, and even Sam’s personal reflections.

Altman made a “crazy claim” that AI will discover new science, and that humanoid robots are one of his dreams — something he thinks will be achievable within the next 5 to 10 years.

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In one of the clearest examples of how everyday users of technology sometimes don’t understand it – and the developers of that technology haven't fixed it – the Meta AI app is allowing deeply personal, private, and altogether embarrassing content to be shared to its “Discover” tab. And those personal questions can spread to Facebook and Instagram.

This is precisely the worst place for questions like “Tips for asking an Asian girl about dating older men” and “Can my wife see [the questions I ask]?"

Let’s briefly back up: The Meta AI app launched in April. It uses Meta’s own large language model, Llama, which acts as a chatbot for users. In that way, it’s like ChatGPT or the Google Gemini app. You ask it a question, and it provides answers.

But the truly cursed part of this app is that those questions can somehow become public to other users, and clearly, not enough users realize it.

Why the Meta AI app is confusing users so much that they put their private questions into a public feed

The Meta AI app looks a lot like the Instagram app. There’s a Home tab, a Notifications tab, a History tab, and a Discover tab. The Discover tab is a lot like the Explore tab on Instagram – it’s a stream of content produced by other users of the Meta AI app. A lot of it is "AI slop" -- low-quality, AI-generated images of like, Cookie Monster in handcuffs or Pennywise the evil clown as a baby. And between the slop are questions the users very likely didn't intend for anyone else to see.

Why does this happen? There’s a confusing button in the top right of your chats with the Meta AI app called “Share.” Do not press if you are asking a private question.

That “Share” button essentially turns your question into a piece of content -- a "public prompt" -- posted to the Discover feed. The instructions are vague, and you might think hitting “post” wouldn’t result in your content appearing in the Discover feed. There's a one-time warning, but that's it.

You might also have just made a mistake. After being notified that hitting the “post” button would put your content in the Discover feed one time, you are no longer met with the warning on subsequent shares.

Even worse, these public prompts could show up on Facebook and Instagram as "suggested" prompts for other users.

How to stop the Meta AI app from posting your questions to the Discover feed or on Instagram or Facebook

Thankfully, you can delete public prompts in the Meta AI app. You click on your user icon in the upper right corner, click “view profile,” and you’ll see those prompts. You can long-press on each and be met with the option to delete it.

You can also adjust the settings to avoid this sort of thing, which we can't stress enough, shouldn't have happened in the first place, given the history of digital design innovation and research in the last few decades.

We digress: Go to "Data and privacy," click "Manage your Information," and then select "Make all public prompts visible to only you." Click "Apply to all."

Next, go back to the "Data and privacy" menu, click on "Suggesting your prompts on other apps," and uncheck Facebook and Instagram.

Facebook has more than 3 billion users, and the Meta AI app is available in 22 countries. When designing content for oceans of people, especially when your app clearly states that any questions you ask are private, why add a “social” element?

The answer is obvious if you’re Meta, a publicly traded company that relies on engagement and growth numbers to continually move up.

The Meta AI app: Bad design or bad thinking?

A thriving Discover section of the app – and which pieces of content a user clicks on in that app – is another data source about user interests, which Facebook can bundle and sell to advertisers. It’s just like Instagram’s Explore tab.

Is Meta AI's obtuse UI to blame, or is the vagueness intentional to get more content in the Discover feed? It could be both. It feels like a situation where Hanlon's razor could be applied: "Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.”

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In February, Facebook parent company Meta made headlines by announcing plans to create a standalone Meta AI app to compete with ChatGPT.

Previously, Meta AI had only been available through the company's web portal and apps like WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook, and the suggestion of it becoming an app of its own fell in line with CEO Mark Zuckerberg's goal to put the AI assistant in the hands of over 1 billion people by the end of 2025.

While the news drew mild interest, Sam Altman, CEO of ChatGPT creators OpenAI, responded with sarcasm — and a smirk.

"Ok fine maybe we'll do a social app," he posted in reply to the news on X. A snarky, digital equivalent of a retina-snapping eye-roll. Following up on his comment, Altman continued, "lol if Facebook tries to come at us and we just Uno reverse them it would be so funny."

At the time, this was chalked up to nothing more than CEO reply-guy banter. However, recent news suggests it was anything but. Reportedly, OpenAI is working on its own social network, turning what was once an off-handed joke into potentially serious competition for both Elon Musk's xAI and Meta.

OpenAI's social media ambitions: From snark to prototype

According to The Verge, OpenAI has quietly been working on a social platform of its own, similar to Elon Musk's xAI-owned X.

While OpenAI has yet to officially announce any such plans, sources tell The Verge that an internal prototype pairing ChatGPT's image generation tools with a social feed currently exists — and that CEO Sam Altman has been "privately asking outsiders for feedback" about the project.

It's not yet known whether this tool will stand on its own or eventually be integrated into ChatGPT, or if it'll ever reach the light of day.

However, the mere suggestion that the company has a prototype in play could set alarm bells ringing for other platforms, especially now that ChatGPT has overtaken both Instagram and TikTok as the world's most downloaded non-gaming app.

The news is sure to put further strain on an already frayed relationship between CEOs Altman and Musk, with the two already engaged in a lawsuit and countersuit over OpenAI's claimed breach of contract for straying from its founding mission as a non-profit and Musk's supposed "bad-faith tactics" towards OpenAI, respectively.

Harkening back to another tongue-in-cheek post from Altman on X, OpenAI's interest in entering the social media game may have been further revealed in February.

Following Musk's apparent offer to buy OpenAI for $97.4 billion, Altman replied, "No thank you, but we will buy Twitter for $9.74 billion if you want."

Perhaps we should be taking Altman's social media posts more literally in the future.

What's next

Does OpenAI really want to become the next Facebook?

It sounds absurd. But then again, so does a talking robot assistant that takes over all forms of human thought, creativity, and planning while taking the form of a personal dietitian, psychologist, event planner, graphic designer, and guidance counselor.

Yet here we are.

Until now, OpenAI has largely played the role of infrastructure provider. It presents tools like ChatGPT and Sora for others to use. The most social element of each is the human-like responses made possible by its advanced LLMs (large language models).

A shift like the one reported changes that landscape considerably and potentially in a way that people may not respond positively to. Part of ChatGPT's appeal may be that it isn't tied into wider, more distracting social experiences like Grok and Meta AI.

Whether or not this prototype makes it to release has yet to be seen. Altman's prior tweets may have aged suspiciously well concerning today's news, but that doesn't guarantee them true prophetic status. Not yet, anyway.

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Facebook is a good place to keep up with your favorite bands — tour dates, photos, and the occasional video.

That's exactly how Australian teacher "Jake" used Facebook to follow Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, the long-running rock group. After seeing a video of Cave promoting a sure-fire investment on Facebook in 2023, Jake felt comfortable following Cave's advice. As Jake put it, "I respect him greatly as an artist, so I’m, of course, thinking sh*t that’s put the icing on the cake."

Sadly for Jake, Cave's video wasn't real.

Within months, Jake had been scammed out of AUD 130,000. It's yet another scam horror story, this time using AI to trick people into trusting popular celebrity figures.

On February 6, 2024, Meta announced a change to how it labels content made with AI. The change came too late for Jake but could prevent AI fraud in the future.

Meta continued to evolve its AI-labeling policy throughout the year

The AI labeling feature, originally announced in February, consists of a text label above photos and videos detected to contain some amount of AI content, whether the entire image was made with AI or manipulated in part.

Meta tweaked its policy for labeling AI-generated content in several ways throughout the year.

A lengthy blog post titled "Our Approach to Labeling AI-Generated Content and Manipulated Media" was published in April and updated again in May, July, and September of this year:

• In April, Meta announced it would stop removing AI-manipulated content that didn't violate its Community Standards. At the same time, Meta also widened its policy for the types of content that would receive an AI label, such as video, audio, and photos.

• It clarified in May that it would label only "organic content," which is another way to describe user-generated content made with AI.

• Then, in July, Meta adjusted its course again and changed its AI label from "Made with AI" to "AI info," making the label more inclusive of edited or modified content with AI tools. More inclusive, yes, but also quite a bit more vague as to how AI was used.

• And in September, Meta announced it would hide the AI label by moving it to the post's menu if Meta technology determined the image was only modified — not wholly created — with AI. Users also have to apply an AI label to images they upload. "There may be penalties if you do not label content as required," reads a note on help.instagram.com. For accounts that generate revenue via the social platform, a so-called "shadow ban" for violating the AI labeling policy could crush a business.

Meta did not respond to several requests for comment on its changing policy sent by Laptop Mag.

Does labeling AI-generated content work?

Most people will probably agree that labeling AI-generated content is generally a good idea, even if only to prevent confusion or identify which image generator someone used.

Studies have shown that some phrases are more effective than others when labeling AI, mainly because many people are still unfamiliar with AI terminology.

Considering the threat AI-generated deep fakes pose, labeling AI content is a net positive, even if it may spoil the fun for people trying to pass off their AI-generated cat photos as the real deal.

Whether these labels will eventually successfully prevent the spread of misleading content remains to be seen. However, Meta's struggle to tackle AI-generated content on its platform, mainly when used by scammers, continues to be an issue.

A September 2024 investigation by WANF, an Atlanta TV news station, uncovered a string of AI-generated images of overseas-serving soldiers being used in profiles and pages to trick and scam Facebook users. One romance scam involved retiree Jeanne Wasserman being robbed of a similar $130,000 sum.

Meta continually updates the tool, tweaking its visibility and ability to detect AI-generated content. In the meantime, the risks persist.

If you're anything from an AI enthusiast to the average AI tinkerer (or simply seeking out some of the additional features offered through Windows Copilot+ PCs or Apple Intelligence on Macs), then you'll need a powerful and performative laptop to keep up to speed with your needs.

At Laptop Mag, we review laptops year-round to ensure we're giving you expert-backed and up-to-date recommendations on which notebook is right for you. When it comes to the best AI PC category, our top picks are the excellent Asus Zenbook S 14 (UX5406) for Windows users and the impressive Apple Macbook Air M3 for those running macOS.

So, if you're shopping for a new laptop and looking to invest in an AI PC (or just a great laptop in general), check out our current top-tier picks below.

Meta ran into some major issues on Wednesday.

Instagram, Facebook, Messenger, and Threads all went down on Wednesday afternoon with tens of thousands of users reporting that they were unable to use the service or log in.

While service has since been mostly restored as of about 2:30 p.m. Eastern, some issues with direct messaging persist. People have naturally flooded platforms like X to vent their frustrations. Here's a recap of Meta's outage.

A widespread problem

It's a bad day to be addicted social media. Instagram and Meta's entire suite of social apps, including Facebook, Messenger, and Threads, are all down on Tuesday in a major outage affecting all of Meta's major services.

Instagram released an official statement on X following the outage, attributing the outage to a "technical issue."

Reports are flooding in

There's no official cause for the outage yet, but reports peaked at about 1:30 p.m. Eastern on DownDetector, reaching about 75,000 for Instagram and 100,000 for Facebook.

Meta's loss is X's gain

Naturally, people flooded to the nearest social platform to vent their frustrations.

It may be a bad day for Meta, but X is reaping all the benefits.

Here's what the uploading experience looked like during Instagram's outage at 2:10 p.m. Eastern.

Service returning to normal

Luckily for anyone in desperate need of a doomscroll, Instagram, Facebook, Messenger, and Threads are being restored quickly, though some issues with messages have persisted.

At 2:25 p.m. Eastern, DownDetector reports have gone down steadily and, anecdotally, Laptop Mag staff were able to refresh feeds like normal.

Refreshing direct messages, however, brings up an error message that reads "We're sorry, but something went wrong. Please try that again."

Having trouble getting into your Facebook account? No worries, we'll teach you how to recover a Facebook account with ease.

Keep in mind that as of March 5, 2024, your account may have been affected by the recent Facebook, Instagram outage. Things are back to normal at the time of writing, so if you haven't tried logging in normally, do that first. However, you may have accidentally locked your account during that time. Either way, we've got your back.

Here's how to recover your Facebook account.

How to recover Facebook account

Method 1: Use the Find Your Account page (simple)

Step 1. Go to the Find Your Account page with a device that was previously logged into your Facebook account. 

Step 2. Enter your email or phone number to search for your account.

Step 3. A prompt will appear that says We'll send you a code to your email (or phone). You can either, Try another way, or click Continue to reset your password.

Method 2: Use someone else's account to recover yours (long)

Step 1. Drag someone else into your situation by using their account to recover yours. From that account, find your profile.

Step 2. Click the More (...) symbol below the cover photo.

Step 3. Click Find support or report profile.

Step 4. Select Something Else > Next.

Step 5. Finally, you can select Recover this account and follow the steps, similar to above.

It should be as simple as that to recover your Facebook account. I wish you a very "this-reset-password-better-not-be-the-same-as-my-old-password."

Good luck!

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Update (March 5, 2024 @ 12:25 a.m.): Reports of service disruption on DownDetector are dipping as Meta addresses the issues on its platforms. Andy Stone of Meta Communications is now reporting that service should now resume as normal.

Update (March 5, 2024 @ 11:52 a.m.): Meta's service tracker is now showing "Recovering from disruptions" against a number of affected services, indicating that the issue is in the process of being resolved.

Update (March 5. 2024 @ 11:45 a.m.): Meta's service tracker is now reporting "Major Disruptions" across more services linked with Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. As a result, users will have trouble logging into services and sending messages on Meta platforms.

Is Facebook down? Yes it is! Along with several other Meta-owned social platforms such as Instagram and even WhatsApp. If you're unable to access Facebook or Instagram, the problem (thankfully) isn't on your end! Early reports are indicating that the Meta-owned social media platforms are both down globally amid a potential service outage.

Website outage tracker DownDetector is currently reporting issues with Facebook, Instagram, Facebook messenger, and riding reports of issues with WhatsApp as parent company Meta are seemingly being struck by some form of issue.

Facebook lacks its own outage tracker, but Meta for Business does not, and it's currently reporting "Major Disruptions" across the Meta Admin Center, Facebook Login, WhatsApp Business API, and Marketing API.

It's not all doom and gloom, however. Amid the outage Elon Musk has taken to Twitter/X to add a slight bit of levity to Meta's ongoing problems:

Meta website outage: Has my account been hacked?

There is no reason to believe that the current outages are any form of cyber attack or hacking incident. Outages like this are common for many websites online and there is likely no need to panic or assume the worst.

If you want to be doubly sure, once you can log into Facebook once more, be sure to follow our guide on how to log all of your devices out of your Facebook account, to be certain that only the devices you've authorized are able to access your profiles.

Meta website outage: How do I log back in to Facebook or Instagram?

If you've been logged out of your social media accounts due to the outage and are struggling to log back in, don't panic!

There's nothing wrong with your account, but the websites themselves are currently experiencing issues. This appears to stretch to Facebook and WhatsApp messenger also, so don't be alarmed if messages aren't currently sending.

The current issue appears to lie with Meta (the owner of Facebook and Instagram), which will no doubt be aware of the issue and working to resume normal service as soon as possible. Until then, there's not a great deal you can do but wait.

Thankfully, service disruptions for Facebook or Instagram are relatively short-lived and we expect normal service to resume shortly.

This story is currently breaking and we will update this article as the story develops.

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As if Facebook didn't have enough annoying features as it is, the latest version of the Meta-made app is currently suffering from a bug that sees a strange 'chirping' noise happen while scrolling through your feed.

It's been driving iPhone users wild over the last few days, with many unsure if Facebook's new noise was a bug or a feature. Users can however be assured that the sound is an error, and that Meta are hastily working on a fix.

Meta's Communications Director, Andy Stone, addressed the temporary technical troubles for Facebook's iPhone app by reassuring users "It's not you, it's us!" Thankfully, the Facebook owner's acknowledgement of the issue means a solution shouldn't be too far off.

Thankfully, while we wait for Meta to deploy an update to solve the issue, there's a temporary solution available to save users from the chirping hellscape of their Facebook feeds. Read on for our quick and easy, four-step guide on how to stop Facebook from chirping.

How to stop Facebook 'chirping'

Step 1: Within the Facebook app, tap the Menu button (three horizontal stripes) found in the bottom right corner.

Step 2: Scroll down and select "Settings & Privacy."

Step 3: From here, tap "Settings" before scrolling further down and choosing "Media."

Step 4: In the Media tab, set the "In-App sound" toggle option to off.

That's all it takes! Just keep in mind this will disable all of your in-app sounds, so if you're typically reliant on Facebook's pings to draw your attention to notifications then you'll need to be a little more vigilant for the next short while.

Hopefully, Meta can patch its app up sharpish. However, in the meantime, these steps will grant your ears a respite from this niggling bug. 

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It comes as no real surprise that Meta uses personal data from users for a variety of functions, including ad sales. But according to a report by Bloomberg, the company is also planning to leverage that personal data to train its Meta AI tool.

During an earnings call this week, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the decision to train AI on user data. Zuckerberg claimed, "On Facebook and Instagram, there are hundreds of billions of publicly shared images and tens of billions of public videos, which we estimate is greater than the Common Crawl dataset and people share large numbers of public text posts in comments across our services as well."

A large set of training data does make a smarter AI, and Meta does sit atop a massive mountain of user data. However, the plan to train Meta AI on that data set raises various ethical, regulatory, and copyright issues.

The potential conflicts are massive

However, there are some major privacy concerns with companies training AI on user data. Facebook has 3 billion users and Instagram has an additional (though potentially overlapping) 1.5 billion. That is a massive subset of the internet-dwelling public. Which, sure, may give Meta a large data pool. But that's also 4.5 billion people whose private data is being used to build an artificial intelligence.

That's not only an ethical concern, but also a major compliance issue with global data protection laws.

OpenAI, Microsoft, Google, Adobe and others have been rightfully criticized for using copyrighted data to train their AI models. Facebook is not just a place for individual users but also companies, theater troupes, artists, musicians, writers, and content creators.  

So in addition to violating the privacy of its users for the sake of greed once again, Meta stands to face legal action on the Copyright and data protection fronts as well. 

Nevermind the veritable hornets nest of toxicity and bias contained in the Meta dataset. Facebook is nearly synonymous with misinformation at this point, and Facebook's content moderation software is still nowhere near good enough at blocking hate speech or harmful conspiracy theories. And with Zuckerberg claiming such a massive data pool, that may also include Meta's historical archive which will include all of the information that has since been blocked or removed by recent changes to Facebook's content moderation systems.

Training AI on that unfiltered data will certainly lead to the AI spitting back hate speech, because the internet is a place full of absolute filth and AI doesn't have the capacity to ignore that information. It will only replicate it.

What this means for users

If you're on Facebook and Instagram, your data has already been sold. And as OpenAI proved, your data can be used even if the AI company doesn't also own that data.

Sure, you can delete your social media accounts, but web caches do exist, and simply deleting an account doesn't get rid of all the stored data on Meta's back end.

The best way to protest Meta's AI policies is to not use their AI tool and join any possible class action or copyright infringement suits as may be applicable. At this point, there are so many other AI alternatives, ignoring the Meta version should be simple enough.

Threads, an Instagram app developed by Meta is expected to make its launch this Thursday after countdown timers have sprung up as an easter egg on the Instagram app and on the services’ web portal.

Described as an “Instagram for your thoughts,” Threads, known internally as ‘Barcelona’ of Project 92, is a text-only platform and direct competitor to Twitter. The Instagram sister app employs a similar look and feel to that of Twitter, offering a familiar safe haven to those becoming disillusioned with the digital home of Larry the Bird over the last year. 

Twitter: Hanging by a Thread?

The news of Meta’s latest social media launch couldn’t come at a worse time for Twitter, as the platform currently scrabbles to solve outages relating to “extreme levels of data scraping.” The issues have pressed Twitter into limiting the number of tweets users can access while the problem is resolved, causing many Twitter power users to consider leaving the troubled site behind.

Well, those users will have the chance to do just that, as this Thursday (July 6, 2023)  Zuckerberg’s Threads steps into the App-tagon to battle it out against Musk’s Twitter. Meta is keen to take advantage of Twitter's current issues, with Zuckerberg throwing the first punch long before he and Musk come face-to-face in their potential MMA cage match.

You can currently pre-register for Threads on both the Apple App Store and Google Play Stores, where on the day of release you’ll be able to log in with your current Instagram account and get straight to… Threading? You’ll carry over the same followers from Instagram too, meaning you’ll hit the ground running with an audience already eagerly awaiting your first words on the platform.

Outlook

It seems like every time a Twitter alternative dies, two more spring up to take its place. In spite of what anybody thinks of Elon Musk, the Twitter platform has shown impressive resilience in the face of great changes — and it’s even projected to turn an operating loss of hundreds of millions of dollars into operating at a profit for the first time ever at some point in the near future.

However, where Mastodon may have failed, apps like SkyBlue and Threads could see considerable success and Meta’s text-based social platform could be the blade that finally pierces the weakened carapace of Twitter, leaving it more vulnerable than ever.

When the EU isn’t busy demanding Apple make 10-year old Android phones, it enjoys long walks on the beach, and shrouding the digital economy in more red tape than a dance around a Marxist maypole.

The European Union’s latest hosing of bureaucratic silly string comes by way of the Digital Markets Act (DMA), a series of regulations designed to let smaller entities compete on a fair playing field with the reigning mobile “duopoly” of Google and Apple. However, two of those ‘smaller entities’ just so happen to be social media giant Meta and tech titan Microsoft.

Meta and Microsoft to end Google and Apple's app neutrality "duopoly"

Meta and Microsoft have ambitions of launching their own app stores on Android and iOS/iPadOS devices after the European Union identified Google and Apple as “gatekeepers” of the digital mobile marketplace – all but ensuring they will be required to open up their platforms to competition under the Digital Markets Act.

According to The Verge, Meta is already planning to let people in the EU download apps from within Facebook before eventually competing with the Google Play Store and Apple App Store directly. Meta plans to pilot the feature later this year, whereby a new type of advertisement will offer direct downloads of apps – circumventing the stock app store on Android and iOS/iPadOS devices entirely.

Meta is currently selling the idea to developers as a way of improving conversion rates from paid ads, with the company further stating that Facebook won’t take a cut from any in-app purchases that follow. That’s a pretty impressive and hard to turn down pitch, especially as both Google and Apple both take a 15-30% cut from any sale or in-app purchase made from apps hosted on their stores.

While Meta is eager to throw its hat into the ring, Microsoft is being a little more cautious. A report by Ars Technica earlier in the year saw Phil Spencer, chief executive of Microsoft Gaming, mention that much of Microsoft’s immediate plans for launching a mobile app store of its own rely heavily on the outcome of its current tug of war with regulators in the US, EU, and UK over its pending acquisition of Activision Blizzard.

Spencer referred to Microsoft’s current lack of mobile games as an “obvious hole” in its capability to provide such a service, though, should the pending acquisition complete then massively popular Activision Blizzard titles like Call of Duty Mobile and Diablo Immortal would be ideal candidates.

However, Spencer was also keen to point out that adapting its current Xbox and Game Pass apps to be able to sell games or subscriptions on mobile would be “pretty trivial” as well as indicating that being able to circumvent the Apple App Store could give Microsoft the chance to deliver cloud gaming services to mobile devices in full force.

While unwilling to share when such steps would be made, Spencer did double down on Microsoft’s intentions, adding “We want to be in a position to offer Xbox and content from both us and our third-party partners across any screen where somebody would want to play.”

Outlook

Some would say that the EU’s DMA is a great win for all, I would say that this opens the floodgates to the same annoyances many of us have with modern day TV. Previously, all you really needed was the right cable package to access the programs you want. Now you need to sign up to a multitude of different services to make sure you’re keeping up to date with your favorite shows.

Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, Hulu, Apple TV+, HBO Max. The list is so unsettlingly long and ever-expanding that I dread to think how many app stores we’ll need to install at any given time to ensure we have access to the services we want. A labyrinth of apps to trawl through, spending hours of your precious living moments just to find which app will let you stream Robocop for the cheapest price.

Will the future of smartphones and apps now parallel that of desktops? With Ubisoft Connect, Epic Games, Microsoft, Meta, Amazon, EA, and Steam all vying for dominance of our phones and tablets – hoarding timed-exclusives on their individual app stores and keeping first party games encased in walled gardens?

If you ask me, and you didn’t, then I’d say that somebody needs to tell the big-wigs of Brussels that it’s about time to mind Eurown business.

Meta Quest 2 owners, rush to your emails! You might’ve just been granted a free accessory to take your VR gaming to the next level. News is breaking of select users being gifted codes to redeem a free, no-strings-attached Meta Quest 2 Elite Strap.

Is this Meta offloading excess Quest 2 inventory in the run-up to the Meta Quest 3’s launch, or is this a genuinely charitable effort from the company to put smiles on the faces of its audience? Who knows for sure, either way, hurry to your inbox because this offer expires on August 4. 2023.

A strapping freebie

Meta’s gift to gamers was unearthed on Reddit yesterday after user u/claimingmarrow7 shared a screenshot of the email he received inviting him to redeem an Elite Strap for his Meta Quest 2 for free. Meta Support has since confirmed the offer as legitimate, stating that the free Elite Strap offer is a random promo distributed to specific newly activated headsets.

The wording used by support points to existing Meta Quest 2 owners being excluded from the promotional offer, something that’s ruffled a few feathers in the subreddit as users bemoan Meta’s focus on new users over loyal customers.

The disgruntled few

Losing out on a lottery is one thing, but being excluded from that lottery altogether can leave a bit of a sour taste in the mouth. This was the case for some users more than others. “Absolute b******t,” one happy-go-lucky Redditor exclaimed. “I’ve been an owner for years. Never got a free game. How is that fair?” questioned another of Reddit’s cheerful choir.

However, sanity would eventually prevail in some corner of the Meta Quest subreddit as one user would rise from the rabble to rightfully point out: “You’ve not been disadvantaged, you’ve just not been advantaged.”

It was at that point that harmony spread across the thread in question and people of all kinds came together as one to sing Kumbaya in unison. The day was saved, and everyone was thankful that while they might not have gained, at least somebody got to enjoy something nice. (Note for editor: How do I properly indicate sarcasm in my writing again?)

Outlook

A few disgruntled voices aside, the news of Meta dishing out free stuff to Quest owners is great to hear — and could do a fine job of keeping interest in the medium buzzing after Apple’s Vision Pro announcement shot VR/AR headset excitement back into the stratosphere. So, get to work scanning your inbox, and here’s hoping you’re among the lucky few who get to enjoy a freebie on Meta today. 

Recently wed? Recently divorced? Recently on the run from a dangerous cartel? We've all been there before. Whatever your reasons you have for changing your name on Facebook, we're here to help you figure out how.

There are a number of ways you can change your name on Facebook, including via the app or desktop site. However, we're going to focus on the fastest way of changing your name on Facebook with the least amount of navigation possible.

Let's get to it with our guide on how to change your name on Facebook.

1. Open the Accounts Center

In your browser of choice, head to the Facebook Accounts Center by clicking HERE, or typing accountscenter.facebook.com into your address bar and hitting enter.

Once there, log in to your Facebook account, and on the panel to the right, select your Facebook profile.

2. Choose what to edit

In the pop-up window that appears, you'll have three options: "Name," "Username," and "Profile Picture."

Select "Name" 

3. Enter your new name

In the next window, you'll be presented with three text boxes to choose your new first, middle, and last name.

Enter the name you want others to see you by, double-check for typos (as you wont be allowed to change your name for 60 days,) and click the "Review Change" button at the bottom of the pop-up.

4. Preview your new name

The next screen will allow you to preview your name and decide if you'd like to be known by first name or surname first.

Once you've decided, click "Done" and you're all set!

Your name should now be updated (you may need to re-enter your password as confirmation), and the changes should be visible instantly! Remember, now you've changed your name, you'll be locked in to using this name for 60 days before you can change it again. So, make sure you're not doing something too hasty.

Hot off the heels of the announcement of its new VR headset, the Quest 3 (and an impressive display at the Meta Games Showcase), Meta are popping back into the news cycle once again after its Audiocraft research team has released a free-to-all, open source, Meta AI text-to-music language model, MusicGen.

MusicGen works similarly to how other multi-modal Large Language Models (LLMs) like ChatGPT, DALL-E, and Midjourney, using AI to translate natural language prompts into a desired result – in this case, music.

Meta MusicGen: the best text-to-audio LLM

MusicGen isn’t the first of its kind. In fact, Google recently unveiled a similar tool of its own by the name of MusicLM. However, while not the first, MusicGen is seemingly a little further along than the Alphabet group’s efforts with researchers finding MusicGen to best it across a number of categories.

Researchers compared Meta’s MusicGen with similar software including Google’s MusicLM, Riffusion, Mousai, and Noise2Music. The study found that both objective and subjective measurements saw Noise2Music able to deliver a more “plausible” result, but MusicGen scored highest for accurate musical concepts, audio-to-text alignment, and human-scored overall audio quality and accuracy.

Meta MusicGen: try the demo online! 

Meta have released MusicGen as an open source software, allowing anybody to get in on the action and try their hand at generating music with the power of AI.

That being said, Meta hasn’t provided the data it was train on (which is reportedly ~20,000 hours of licensed music, including an internal datasheet of 10,000 high-quality tracks and samples from both Shutterstock and Pond5), but has provided pre-trained models at differing parameters of: 300 million, 1.5 billion, and 3.3 billion.

You’re going to need some in-depth know-how and sizable hardware to get this running locally on your system, with Meta suggesting a GPU with at least 16GB of RAM, however, you can also give the software a demo online at Facebook’s HuggingFace space. 

Outlook

AI tools are blossoming at the minute, with a new one seemingly cropping up every other day. While Meta’s MusicGen is a fun little way to pass half an hour for some, it could grow to one day become a vital instrument of its own in music production.

For now though? Well, let’s just say that there’s no risk of professional musicians having to trade in their plectrums for text-prompts. 

During a recent companywide meeting, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg revealed that he isn't feeling the heat following Apple’s recent announcement of the Vision Pro headset. The meeting was reported on by The Verge’s Alex Heath, who was lucky enough to capture Zuckerberg’s thoughts on Apple’s headset as he spoke with Meta employees.

Zuckerberg took to Instagram just days before WWDC to unveil Meta’s own upcoming headset — and Meta’s great hope for the survival of the Metaverse — the Quest 3. Was this Zuckerberg’s way of asserting dominance in the face of Apple’s announcement? Who knows. But the headset was able to cash in on the AR/VR hype train that had been brewing around the Cupertino brand’s long-awaited announcement.

However, one thing it does tell us is that we can potentially put an end to all of those rumors that 'the Zuck' is part of the Illuminati secret society, as he decided to announce Meta’s upcoming headset hours before the scheduled Meta Quest Gaming Showcase, in turn stealing much of the spotlight away from the day’s following announcements — a stark display of his inability to keep things on the down low.

Works for thee, but not for me

While talking with employees, Zuckerberg was keen to point out how the two companies are doing things differently, and that Apple’s announcement won’t sway Meta’s heading.

“They [Apple] went with a higher resolution display, and between that and all the technology they put in there to power it, it costs seven times more and now requires so much energy that now you need a battery and a wire attached to it to use it.”

The Meta CEO continued, “I think that their announcement really showcases the difference in the values and the vision that our companies bring to this,” Zuckerberg highlighted, in reference to Apple’s Vision Pro reveal earlier this week.

While Zuckerberg did acknowledge Apple’s headset tech prowess he also pointed to the design trade-off that has dampened overall usability and massively inflated the Vision Pro’s cost. In contrast, Meta is happy to go in the other direction, with Zuckerberg stating: “We innovate to make sure that our products are as accessible and affordable to everyone as possible, and that is a core part of what we do.” 

The people's playground

A key part of Meta’s decision to stay the course with its plans for future Quest devices lies in its secret weapon — the Metaverse. Zuckerberg continued, “Our vision for the metaverse and presence is fundamentally social. It’s about people interacting in new ways and feeling closer in new ways. Our device is also about being active and doing things.”

While it might not have taken flight quite like Meta had hoped for, even the Wright brothers took a few nosedives in the run-up to soaring across the skies. And, to be fair to Meta, they’re not wrong.

The company’s Quest headsets are an inherently social experience, with a key focus on engaging with others — whether that be watching a 3D movie in a virtual cinema with others, or running amok with friends across a few rounds of Gorilla Tag. 

Them's fightin' words

“By contrast, every demo that they showed was a person sitting on a couch by themself. I mean, that could be the vision of the future of computing, but like, it’s not the one that I want. There’s a real philosophical difference in terms of how we’re approaching this.”

It looks like all that all of that Jiu-jitsu is paying off because Zuckerberg is coming out hands-a-swingin’ here. Or at least, as hands-a-swingin’ as he’s ever been before. What will no doubt sting the most from a comment like this is that Meta’s CEO has made a solid and hard-to-argue point. How social of an experience can Apple’s Vision Pro headset ever hope to be with a price tag of $3499? Even if you can afford it, can the rest of your friends or family?

The Vision Pro's high cost of entry is likely why the device seems so insular. So few people will actually be able to afford the damned thing, that even if there was an Appleverse to leap headset-first into, you’d be hard-pressed to stumble upon anything except a remote, virtual reality effigy burning by the now worship-from-home, rich and powerful invitees of Bohemian Grove.

Outlook

While not quite The Shot Heard Round the World or the spark that ignites the great war between Apple and Meta, Mark Zuckerberg's comments are still massively important. While not overly salacious or spicy, the Meta CEO's words are an indicator that he's feeling the wind in his sails once again for both the Quest 3 and the Metaverse.

Maybe that's because Apple have whipped the world into an AR/VR frenzy, before quickly pricing 99% of those aboard the hype train out of the experience. Leaving Meta's latest headset the Quest 3 to deliver that experience to a wider audience than ever before.

At this point, Zuckerberg has more to thank Apple for than fight them over.

"How to find Facebook username on iPhone" is a query that's blowing up on Google Search, so it's not just you scratching your head over this. Searching for your Facebook profile ID requires you to jump through a few hoops.

Luckily, if you follow the easy, step-by-step guide below, you'll have access to your Facebook username in no time.

How to find Facebook username on iPhone

1. Open the Facebook app and tap on the Menu icon on the bottom-right corner of the screen (three horizontal lines).

2. Tap on See your profile under your name.

3. Tap on the three-dot button next to Edit Profile.

4. Scroll down to the Your Profile Link section. The name you see after "https://www.facebook.com" is your username.

In the image above, for example, the Facebook username is KimberlyShana.

Who knows? The rumored Facebook Watch could have been a worthy competitor to the highly praised Apple Watch, but according to a new Bloomberg report, we'll never know.

Citing "a person with knowledge of the matter," Bloomberg claims that Meta, the parent company of Facebook, halted the development of the Facebook smartwatch to focus on other wrist-based devices.

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What features did the Facebook smartwatch have?

Facebook never publicly announced its plans to roll out a smartwatch, but rumors about the project flooded the tech sphere. Last year, The Verge claimed that Meta was working on a wrist-worn device with two cameras that can take photos and videos that can be shared across the social media giant's app family (e.g. Instagram, WhatsApp and Facebook).

A prototype of the smartwatch reportedly sported a five-megapixel camera near the display for video calls. It also had a 12-megapixel camera, situated on the back, that could be detached from the watch's stainless-steel frame. The Verge also discovered that Meta was in talks with other companies to produce accessories for the watch, allowing users to attach it to backpacks and other products.

It was purportedly designed for tracking activities, monitoring heart rate, enabling music playback, facilitating messaging, and more.

Why Facebook reportedly ditched its smartwatch plans

There was scuttlebutt that Meta aimed to release the Facebook smartwatch in spring 2023 with a price tag of $349, however, as mentioned, Bloomberg claims that the project is now dead.

Engineers allegedly had issues with the second camera located on the backside of the smartwatch. Citing an unnamed source, Bloomberg said, "the presence of the camera caused issues with another feature translating nerve signals from the wrist into digital commands." This nerve-signal feature is called electromyography, and it was a top priority for Meta because it wanted to differentiate its smartwatch from competitors. 

Although the dual-camera smartwatch (codenamed Milan) is reportedly no longer in the works, Meta still has its sights set on releasing other wrist-worn devices that could accompany users into the metaverse.

Bloomberg suspects that cost-cutting is another reason that Meta scrapped its smartwatch plans. After all, as Bloomberg pointed out, Meta admitted that it would decrease the company's yearly expenses by $3 billion on an April earnings call. 

That's too bad! The Apple Watch could use some competition; Facebook might have been able to surprise the masses and release a cutthroat rival. Fortunately, we still have the Pixel Watch on the way. We can't wait to see how it stacks up against the Apple Watch.

Update 3/5/24 11:50 AM ET: If you've arrived here because Facebook is down, please check our coverage of the Facebook and Instagram outage, we've got the latest details on the ongoing issue.

If you forget to logout of Facebook on a public device or suspect an unauthorized third-party login, the first thing to secure your account is to logout of the social network on all your devices. You don’t need to do this manually. Facebook can identify all devices that are currently logged in and allow you to logout from your account on all of them all at once.

1. Navigate to the Security and login settings page

2. Click "See more" under the "Where you're logged in" section.

3. At the bottom of the list of sessions, click Log Out Of All Sessions.

4. In the dialogue box, click Log Out to confirm the log out action.

That's it, Facebook will simultaneously log you out of all your devices and you can start fresh.

Not to sound antisocial about it, but going online to connect with friends or family feels like being the unwitting invitee to a birthday party at a nudist camp. To be “social” requires virtually dropping trou at the door, so before you know it, you’re dishing out your name, address, and birth date, along with GPS coordinates, honeymoon photos, political views, shopping habits, favorite movies, and anything else you care to Like, Share or even just click on. And that’s not just to friends and followers, but also marketers, data scrapers, and every business you interact with, who quietly track and make connections between your every online move (remember, these services aren't actually free — you pay with your personal data).

It isn’t easy, but there is a middle path you can follow, one that allows you to feel connected with an online community while still keeping inconvenient or even critical personal data away from prying eyes and algorithms. Most important, you don’t lose out on the social part of the network. Here’s our quick but deep guide to locking down the settings of the most used services.

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• Part 1: 5 Tips To Keep your Privacy On Facebook
• Part 2: 3 Tips to Keep Your Privacy on Google+
• Part 3: 3 Tips to Keep Your Privacy on Twitter
• Part 4: 4 Tips to Keep Your Privacy on LinkedIn
• Part 5: 3 Tips to Keep Your Privacy on Foursquare
• Part 6: 3 Privacy Settings to Tweak Before Using Facebook Graph Search

I’m an avid fan of virtual reality and all its potential. But ever since VR started making its way into the mainstream, the question has been, when will it finally be a true consumer product? This is the year and Meta Quest 2 is the product. The latest version of the standalone VR headset refines or expands the things we loved about the original. It’s lighter, has a higher resolution display, a more powerful processor, more ergonomic controls and expanded social and sharing features, just to name a few.

But as great as all that is, the real kicker here is the price. The Quest 2 starts at $299, meaning Meta may have finally bridged VR’s biggest obstacle –– affordability. For the price, you get a system with few compromises that comes with over 200 games and a strong social presence. All that combined and this is definitely VR’s year. 

Meta Quest 2 pricing and availability

Meta Quest 2 comes in two flavors: the $299 iteration with 64GB of storage and the $399 version, which bumps the storage up to 256GB. Both versions of the headset are equipped with a Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2 SoC, 6GB of RAM and a 3664 x 1920-pixel fast-switch LCD display (1832 x 1920 per eye). 

The Quest 2 will have a 72Hz display refresh rate at launch, but that will jump to 90Hz in the near future.

Meta Quest 2 design

The Quest 2 is different from anything we’ve seen from the brand. For starters, it’s white. In fact, it’s the first white consumer headset we’ve seen from the company. And compared to the original Quest, everything has undergone some measure of refinement. For example, the indentations surrounding the quad of sensors on the Quest 2 are smaller and rounded compared to the elongated ovals found on the original. 

The Quest 2’s body is made of light gray matte plastic. The power button has moved onto the headset’s body, just underneath the right stabilizing strap, while the audio jack and USB Type-C charging port sit beneath the left. The only thing that relocated is the elongated volume button that resides just to the right of the faceguard. Speaking of the faceguard, the black matte plastic is the only non-gray piece on the headset. The detachable component is lined with thick foam making for a more comfortable fit. 

Instead of the slightly rigid system of soft-touch plastic bands and straps, the Quest 2 uses pliable light gray fabric strips. The side straps can be lengthened or shortened by repositioning a pair of gray plastic strap adjusters. The top band has velcro lining to help achieve a secure fit. 

Inside the headset are the lenses covered in a protective film out of the box that direct the gaze into the fast-switch LCD display.

At 17.4 ounces and 7.5 x 5.6 x 4 (strap folded in) inches, the Quest 2 is 10% lighter than its predecessor, which weighs 20.1 ounces and measures 8.7 x 7.6 x 4.1 inches.

In addition to the headset and the controllers, the Quest 2 also ships with a glasses spacer and a USB Type-C charger. And for the purposes of my review, Meta also sent along the $49 Elite Strap, which replaces the soft fabric straps to the more rigid configuration found on the original Quest (more on that later).

Meta Quest 2 comfort

Out of the box, the OG Quest was the more comfortable headset with my butt-length hair down. But after adjusting the Quest 2’s soft straps a bit, I got a fit that was both comfortable and secure. Although the Quest 2’s heft lies in the front, the wide straps helped to comfortably distribute the weight around my head. 

For years, I’ve been complaining about how VR headsets are not made for folks like me who like to wear big hair. It seems Meta took my people’s complaints to heart and that’s how we got the more flexible soft straps. I put the straps to the test as I placed my hair into a rather sizable bun. 

Hair matters aside, there’s the matter of actually seeing in VR. I’ve worn glasses since I was 8 years old and while I typically wear contacts, since the pandemic, I’ve gone back to wearing glasses full time. That’s where that handy glasses spacer comes in. After popping out the faceguard, I just popped the spacer into the headset and replaced the faceguard. And voila, I could wear my fancy Miu Miu frames in comfort. 

A major change the Quest 2 introduces is how Meta handles IPD (interpupillary distance). Instead of a clunky slider along the undercarriage of the headset, you simply shift the lenses left or right to get your ideal setting. The headset has three settings, the first of which positions the lenses at their shortest distance, 58mm. The second setting has a more central position (63mm) while the third has the farthest distance (68mm).

Meta Quest 2 setup

From unboxing to setting up the Quest 2 then jumping into VR was about 40 minutes –– only because you need to get the Quest fully charged before you dive in. My headset came with a 51% charge and from there, it took about 30 minutes to get a full charge. In the meantime, I made sure the free Oculus app (Android, iOS) was downloaded and updated and the controllers were ready to go. 

Once the headset was charged, I popped it on and hit the power button. From there, I went through the steps of adjusting the lenses, connecting to Wi-Fi and updating the controllers and headset. Then the headset either pairs automatically or the app will prompt you to enter a five-digit code generated from the Quest 2. Next, you draw out the Guardian boundary (the demarcation line that keeps you from walking into a wall or furniture) and you’re ready to go. Just like the original Quest, the Quest 2 recommends a 6.5 x 6.5 feet, but I managed with a 5 x 6.5-foot area. Still, I really want Meta and every other VR company to start thinking about how to make room-scale happen in even smaller spaces.

Once the setup was complete, I was transported to what I wish was my real home: a sublime luxury cave carved into a red rock cliff face. The furnishings were rustic yet elegant and I immediately felt at home. 

So let’s address the elephant in the room. Meta, by way of Facebook, would like Quest users to merge their Oculus account into their Facebook as Oculus accounts will be phased out on January 1, 2023. When I launched the app, one of the first prompts I saw encouraged me to make the switch. I chose to pull the Band-Aid off now rather than wait until later.  Having the Oculus login address merge with the Facebook account means one less independent platform to manage. It also means Meta will be taking on Facebook’s code of conduct, for better or worse, to which the latter will add a VR section.

If you choose not to merge accounts, you can still use your headset after 2023. However, some of your games and apps might not work. 

Meta Quest 2: What’s it like?

“You miss a day, you miss a lot, my high school math teacher Mrs. Daly used to say. It’s been a while since I’ve used an Meta headset and the interface has definitely gotten more refined. You still navigate using either the controllers or your hands (more on that later) with your selections floating on a blackboard similar to Facebook’s dark mode. 

As for the actual hardware, the Quest 2 offers 6DoF (degrees of freedom) which is a fancy way of saying you have a complete range of movement. In terms of display, the Quest 2 has a 3664 x 1920-pixel fast-switch LCD display, which equates to 1832 x 1920 per eye. It’s packing 50% more pixels than the Quest (2880 x 1600 OLED panel, 1440 x 1600 per eye). For refresh rate, both headsets have a 72Hz refresh rate, but the Quest 2 will be bumping it up to 90Hz in the future, which makes for smoother animation and a more immersive experience. For those who are a bit motion-sensitive, it could cut down on any nausea.

I think the screen door might finally be closed. At least, it seemed that way to me when I strapped on the Quest 2. Whether I was playing a newer title like Warhammer 40,000: Battle Sister or something older like Space Pirate Trainer, it was hard to see those telltale gaps between pixels that make it appear as if you’re looking through the titular screen door. I’m not saying it’s completely gone, but it’s pretty darn close.

I jumped into the deep end and launched Robo Recall Unplugged. And while it doesn’t have the graphic fidelity of the Rift version, the Quest version is every bit as frenetic as the original. And I didn’t see any stuttering or disorienting blur as I whipped around the city, dismantling rogue bots as I went. 

For those moments, I was only inches away from an unfortunate meeting with a wall; the Guardian system sprang into action, throwing up the signature grid. It’s an early warning system letting you know you’re about to have an accident. And if that’s not enough to save you from disaster, Passthrough+ is back to let you see what you’re about to crash into. The cameras mounted on the faceplate provide a black-and-white view of the world. It’s so sharp that I could read a text on my phone, provided I held the phone close enough to my face. 

Meta Quest 2 social

I made two new friends last night ..., well Meta virtual friends, but it was still cool nonetheless. I loaded up the beta version of Venues, Meta’s platform for live events. And after making myself an avatar, I strolled into the lobby. Since it was 11 p.m., I didn’t expect to see too many people, but to my surprise, there was a small group congregating. I walked over and before I knew it was in a deep conversation about the state of VR with a car salesman and a model. We remarked on how well the facial tracking worked and the different ways the light shimmered off one of my new friend’s bald head. 

Sure, none of the actual events were playing, but I spent 30 minutes getting to know these people. When it was time to get back to the business of reviewing, I asked if we could be friends. After they said yes, I raised my left wrist, hit the menu friends button, found their names, and sent them a friend request. From there, they accepted my request and I took my leave. If Facebook has its way, this might be our future. 

In practice, Venues, looks like PlayStation Home and Second Life had a high-def baby. While options for avatar creation are very limited (I’d love to see more body types, hairstyles and colors), I created an avi that I’m comfortable with. Interacting with other people i’s pretty simple:, just talk. But if you want to do a bit more, there are some very Facebook-esque emotes to work with. Giving a thumbs up will be rewarded with a slight pop and a couple of thumbs- up emojis while raising your hands above your head triggers a brief confetti rain. 

And as fun as making it rain confetti is, the big thing here is the facial tracking. Despite half of our faces being obstructed by a headset, I was impressed by how well my new friends’ virtual mouths moved in sync with their words. And seeing them furrow a brow or burst into laughter really made me feel like I was standing in the lobby of an entertainment center with friends. With the pandemic still going on and social distancing rules still in place, this could be a great way to meet up with friends and family in lieu of Zoom, Google Meet or whatever video chat you’ve been using. 

But with any community, there’s always going to be a few flies to spoil the ointment. If you’re a gamer or participate on a social media network, you’re bound to run into trolls. It’s an especially worrying situation because VR adds the potential of touch, albeit virtual to the mix of verbal harassment. Meta allows you to protect your virtual space by muting, blocking and reporting ne’-er-do-wells. I’m not sure how effective these tools will be in Venues and Horizons, Meta's upcoming virtual space where you can meet up with friends and play, watch movies and create worlds, but I’m hopeful it’ll work out. 

Meta Quest 2 sharing features

Just because your friends and family doesn’t own a VR headset, it doesn’t mean that they can’t get on the fun. Meta has expanded its sharing capabilities, allowing Quest 2 owners to cast your content to devices running the Oculus app, although I’m hoping the company finds a way to let us send our VR shenanigans to TVs sooner than later. You can also record, capture a screenshot or livestream your encounters to VR. With the first two options, the fruits of your labor areis saved on the headset, and from there, you can share it to your Facebook timeline, w. Which is also the case if you’re looking to livestream. 

Meta Quest 2 controllers

Just like the headset, the Touch controllers have gotten a bit of a makeover and are mostly made out of light gray matte plastic. The top of devices, where the face buttons and analog joystick reside, are colored dark gray. The rear and side-mounted trigger and shoulder buttons are made of glossy gray plastic. 

Each controller has that large halo with a shiny “O” gracing the center while the bottom of the controller has a light gray lanyard to keep you from accidentally chucking one. Like its predecessor, the Quest 2 controllers are powered by a single AA battery, H\however, the key difference is how you access them. The Quest 2 controllers’ battery compartments are secured with a few notches instead of magnetic tethers. It ensures the battery covers stay in place, instead of ending up in some obscure corner of your play space. 

The new controllers weigh 4.4 ounces (without battery) and measure 3.5 x 4.7 inches, which is a bit heavier than the Quest’s (3.7-ounce, 4.7 x 4.3 x 3.5 inches). Those larger dimensions make for a more comfortable tactile experience, particularly when interacting with the face buttons and analog sticks. 

Instead of gingerly resting my thumb on the face buttons because it has nowhere to go, my weirdly long digits can reside along the side until it’s time for some action. Meta even went so far as to add a small circular area made of a slightly different texture so my thumbs can find their way by muscle memory and feel.  

Despite the larger size, I prefer the Quest 2’s controllers. In addition to giving my thumbs a resting pad, the large frame feels more natural in my hands. The rear trigger just fits the natural curve of my index finger. My only real complaint about the new Touch controllers is that the side button doesn’t provide enough feedback; it’s a bit mushy for my taste.

Meta Quest 2 audio

Meta continues to impress with its integrated audio. Whether I was nodding my head to the beat in Rez Infinite or listening for the thing that goes clank in the night in Five Nights at Freddy’s VR: Help Wanted, the headset’s integrated audio was loud and rich. And as an added bonus, it’s positional, meaning that when an explosive barrel on my left went kaboom, most of the weight came from that direction.

What I really appreciate is how well the headset picks up voice chat. Standing in a circle of fellow VR enthusiasts, their voices came through loud and clear. And thanks to the integrated microphone, so did I. The spatial audio really enhanced the experience, and it really felt like I was standing in a group of people chatting. 

Meta Quest 2 games, apps

When I reviewed the Quest for my sister site, Tom’s Guide, Facebook (now Meta) had over 50 titles. A little over a year later and the Quest-ready titles has been expanded to include over 200 with even more apps on the way. And while I gravitated towards some games like Warhammer 40,000: Battle Sister, I was pleasantly surprised by how much fun I had racing around the track on a magic broom in Little Witch Academia: VR Broom Racing. But the Oculus library is more than games. The catalog has expanded with apps, including productivity and collaboration software such as Spatial. 

Pricing in the Oculus store continues to span a wide range starting at free and topping out at $39.99 in most cases. 

Meta Quest 2 battery life

Meta is claiming the Quest 2 headset will last between 2-3 hours. If you’re playing games, you’ll likely get 2 hours. But if you’re just watching movies, you could potentially squeak out 3 hours of battery life. That’s an accurate assessment as I squeezed 2 hours and 13 minutes out of the headset before I got the low battery indicator after playing several games. 

I finished playing level 3 in Rez Infinite and checked to see that the headset had 14% left. I made it through 2.5 episodes of Umbrella Academy before I got the message it was time to recharge. 

Meta Quest 2 accessories

Meta has a slew of accessories to augment the Quest 2. The most important is by far the $79 Link cable. Yes, this 16.4-foot cord does tether you to a PC, but the trade-off is a significant bump in graphics, which means you can also play games meant for the Rift or Rift S. 

Another potential must-have is the Elite Strap with battery and carrying case. For $129, you get the rigid stability of the Elite Strap with an integrated battery pack that will double the headset’s battery life and a bag to store it in. If you just want a more rigid fit, there’s the $49 Elite Strap. You can also purchase the carrying case separately for $49. Oh, and there’s the $39 Fit Pack, which comes with two light blockers and a couple of face cushions designed for wider or narrower faces.

There’s also a slew of third-party gear, including the $100 over-ear Logitech G PRO Gaming Headset, Logitech G333 VR In-Ear Headphones ($50) and the VR Cover Facial Interface & Foam Replacement Set ($29).

Bottom line

At last year’s Oculus Connect, Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, envisioned a world where every household has a VR headset. The Meta Quest 2 puts us leaps and bounds closer to that reality. This latest headset answers one of my major beefs with VR: affordability. It starts at only $299, which is what the PSVR started. But with the latter, you still have to purchase the console, which you’re then tethered to. Oh and then there’s the matter of the PS camera. 

The Quest 2 is a standalone headset with a powerful processor, generous RAM and a high-resolution display with plenty of games. And the headset offers a surprising amount of customization from the head straps to the actual configuration. Hell, you can use your hands instead of the controllers depending on the app. There are still some things Meta needs to work on like the battery life and room-scale requirements. But for the money, the Meta Quest 2 is the ambassador VR’s been waiting for.

People can redeem themselves (sometimes), so it’s important to know how to unblock someone on Facebook. Let’s face it, we have all had a person (or multiple people) on Facebook who we have blocked and needed a break from. The silence may have been nice in the interim, but then you got that nagging feeling. Thoughts such as, “Should I have blocked this person?” or “Maybe I was too quick to rush to judgment” may be running through your mind. If this is the case, this tutorial is here to help.

By using the following tutorial, you will learn how to unblock a previously blocked Facebook user in mere moments.

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1) First, you need to log into your Facebook account and navigate to your homepage.

2) Second, you will need to type in the name of the person who you initially blocked at the top left of the screen. 

3) Once you have navigated to the user's homepage, scroll over to the three dots on the right of the screen. Click on the three dots and you will be shown a drop down menu. Within the dropdown menu, you will notice a tab that says “Unblock Page.” Click on “Unblock page.”

4) After you click on “Unblock Page,” you will be asked if you are sure you want to unblock the account. Hit “Confirm.”

5) After you hit “Confirm” the Facebook page will be unblocked.

After Facebook rebranded the company to Meta, ready to expand all the services the company plans to offer, we may already know the first device the newly named company is working on thanks to a design leak.

Spotted by Bloomberg, images of a Meta smartwatch were found on Facebook's Ray-Ban Stories smart glasses, showing off a rounded design and a large display akin to the Apple Watch Series 7. The one feature that clearly sets itself apart from any other smartwatch is the small camera notch placed at the bottom. If Apple's recent MacBook Pro design flaw is anything to go by, this may be met with criticism. 

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According to the report, the Meta smartwatch will have detachable wrist straps and a button at the top of the case. Previous rumors indicate the wearable will have two built-in cameras, with pictures easily being shared to Meta social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. One camera will be placed at the front, while the other will be placed at the rear.

Meta's smartwatch is also rumored to support cellular, which means a smartphone isn't needed for it to function. As expected, it will also have health tracking features. Since Meta aims to take virtual reality to new heights, there's reason to believe the watch will add to many features on the Oculus Quest 2, including fitness apps such as FitXR. 

Facebook has yet to officially announce the device, so take this in with a pinch of salt. Meta will face big competition with Apple, especially if it's set to feature a camera notch. However, VR compatibility may give it an edge.

The Meta rebranding wasn't the only big announcement made at the recent Facebook Connect 2021 event, including a new, high-end VR headset codenamed Project Cambria, along with Grand Theft Auto coming to the Oculus Quest 2. 

Facebook is rebranding to "Meta." Why? According to CEO Mark Zuckerberg, "Facebook" only captures the essence of one product (i.e. its social media network) while "Meta" encompasses all the services the company plans to offer.

Meta is the prefix of "metaverse," a word that's growing in popularity in the tech realm. To keep it short and simple, metaverse refers to shared virtual worlds. To give you an example, thanks to Facebook's Oculus Quest 2 headset, I've been able to attend virtual open mic nights, play laser tag and sit through a meeting with Facebook — all while interacting with other Quest 2 users halfway across the world.

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Facebook is bringing the metaverse to all aspects of human lives, including fitness (check out our FitXR review), the workplace and social media. Of course, you can't have powerful software without robust hardware, and that's why Zuckerberg announced Facebook's plans to release a new, high-end VR headset.

Project Cambria: Facebook's new high-end VR headset

The Oculus Quest 2 is an excellent headset for users who want to ease their way into the VR world. For a standalone device that doesn't need to be tethered to a PC, it's impressive. But if you want to play hardcore, highly immersive games, this budget-friendly headset won't give you the graphical fidelity you're looking for.  

This is why Facebook is working on a new, high-end headset. It's codenamed Project Cambria.

It will, of course, cost more than the $299 Quest 2 and will be able to execute actions that other headsets on the market can't do. The headset's sensors can mimic your facial expressions and eye contact. As such, Cambria will be able to convey your true feelings, as expressed via your visage, to other fellow virtual avatars in the VR space.

Facebook also claims that Cambria will provide a mixed-reality experience, allowing users to interact with objects in the real world. On top of that, the headset can detect depth and measure perspective. Most importantly, Cambria will feature better graphical fidelity, which is important for virtual-reality gamers who want to forget that they're wearing a headset and fully immerse themselves into simulated worlds.

Facebook didn't announce a release date for Project Cambria, but while we're waiting for this high-end headset to arrive, perhaps the upcoming Grand Theft Auto VR experience will be of interest to you.

Grand Theft Auto is coming to Oculus Quest 2

Grand Theft Auto, Rockstar Games' cash cow, is in development for the Quest 2, namely San Andreas.

"This new version of what I think is one of the greatest games ever made will offer players an entirely new way to experience this iconic open-world in virtual reality," Zuckerberg said.

It's a smart move for Facebook. VR adoption has been slow to catch on in the mainstream, but GTA has such a massive, passionate fanbase, so perhaps this collaboration will help to bring more gamers to the Quest 2 world.

"This is a project many years in the making, and we can’t wait to show you more of it," Facebook said in a recent blog.

I'm not sure if I can get on board with this "Meta" rebranding, but I can't wait to see whether Facebook ends up taking over the AR/VR market.

Techtober continues with Facebook Connect, the annual VR event that promises to "explore the infinite possibilities of augmented and virtual reality." CEO Mark Zuckerburg will kick off the opening keynote, followed by John Carmack and other experts on more mysterious announcements.

Taking place at 10AM PT / 1PM EST / 6pm BST today (October 28), the main keynote is gearing up to drop some major announcements, if rumors and leaks are anything to go by. The Oculus Quest Pro could be in the cards thanks to a series of video leaks, but we may even see Facebook change its name completely in an attempt to rebrand the company. 

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Whatever is announced during the Facebook Reality Labs event, we're sure VR fans are keen to tune in. Earlier this year, we got Oculus' first-ever gaming showcase, so don't expect too many big gaming announcements. The good news is the virtual event is completely free to watch. 

How to watch the Facebook Connect 2021 Keynote

Last year's main keynote lasted just under two hours, so be sure to get the popcorn out if you're in it for the long haul.

Facebook Connect 2021 will be streamed live over on Facebook's event page, which offers details about what to expect. Be sure to check out Oculus' YouTube channel if a live stream becomes available, too.

The Oculus Quest 2 is still one of the best VR headsets on the market today all thanks to Oculus' continuous support, which includes wireless PC VR gaming support and native 120Hz. It's been over a year since the Quest 2 was released, which means we may be due for another headset from Oculus.

Is an Oculus Quest Pro in the works? Only time will tell if Facebook makes the official announcement. What else has Facebook been up to, you ask? Laptop Mag's Kimberly Gedeon was invited to check out Facebook's VR office, and it was like a sci-fi movie. 

Facebook is believed to be working on the Oculus Quest Pro, the company's next-generation VR headset that's expected to come with upgraded tracking capabilities and a design overhaul. Thanks to a recent leak, VR fans may already know what to expect.

The rumored Quest Pro will be a pair of wireless black goggles with a pad covering the forehead, along with controllers that don't feature any tracking rings. What's more, the next-gen standalone VR headset will be able to track full body and facial movements, if the leaked videos are anything to go by. 

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Spotted by Twitter user Bastion (via UploadVR), a series of tutorial videos showcasing what appears to be the Oculus Quest Pro were shared by user Samulia. The videos show off a similar VR headset teased by VP of Facebook Reality Labs Andrew Bosworth.

In the short videos, we see a 3D avatar with the VR headset on, moving their whole body around while a virtual avatar mimics their movements while customizing their appearance. We also see the new controllers being used in various apps, from being used as a pen to being used to play Beat Saber. Interestingly, the video shows off a pad the controllers are placed on, possibly hinting at a charging station. 

Bastion also tweets about a patent for the full-body tracking seen in the videos, stating that a mirror will be needed in order for the Quest Pro to pick up full-body movements.

The Oculus Quest 2 is still one of the best VR headsets on the market today all thanks to Oculus' continuous support, which includes wireless PC VR gaming support and native 120Hz. It's been over a year since the Quest 2 was released, which means we may be due for another headset from Oculus.

Is an Oculus Quest Pro in the works? Only time will tell if Facebook makes the official announcement. What else has Facebook been up to, you ask? Laptop Mag's Kimberly Gedeon was invited to check out Facebook's VR office, and it was like a sci-fi movie. 

Ahead of the announcement today, Facebook and Ray-Ban’s smart glasses have leaked — revealing a slick-looking pair of sunglasses named Ray-Ban Stories.

The name and form factor, revealed by renowned leaker Evan “EVLeaks” Bass, suggests what these smart glasses are built to do. With cameras next to the hinges and a button along the right temple, Facebook appears to have taken design inspirations from the Snap Spectacles and partnered with Ray-Ban to make some stylish shades.

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Ray-Ban Stories: what we know about Facebook and Ray-Ban’s smart glasses

As the leaks indicate, Ray-Ban Stories will be available in three shapes: classic Wayfarer, Round and Meteor. All of these are near-identical in visual style to classic Ray-Bans, with the key difference being the inclusion of two cameras next to the hinges on either side.

Currently, the second camera is the only upgrade we know of over Snap’s sunglasses. That, and the fact they look more subtle. Exhibit A: everyone said I looked like Dame Edna when I had my pair of Spectacles on. Ask your British mates what that means.

Facebook branding seems to be absent from the shades themselves, saved only for a logo on the box — in which you’ll find a case, charging cable and drawstring bag. 

As for technical capabilities, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg previously said they “let you do some pretty neat things” in an investor’s call, but also confirmed these will not feature screens for AR functionality. 

Zuckerberg said these are part of the company’s “journey towards full augmented reality glasses in the future,” so beyond taking photos and videos, we are just as much in the dark as you are about what extra features these bring to the table. Stay tuned for the announcement later today.

Facebook confirmed that the v32 update is rolling out for the Oculus Quest, bringing major improvements for the headsets fitness app Move and when sharing media. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg shared the news on the social media platform. 

That's the most excited he's been since dodging a Senate hearing. I kid. All jokes aside, this update is very exciting, especially when it comes to sharing your media, as many have been using SideQuest as a means to share videos and screenshots onto their computers. 

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The other improvements are focused on improvements to the Oculus Move fitness tracking application. You'll now be able to track your fitness goals in VR and then share your progress via messenger with your trainer or message your friend and make them feel bad about their life choices. 

With Facebook Connect almost here, we're sure to see more updates as we approach the October 28th FB developer conference. We recently covered the Facebook VR Office experience while using the Quest 2 and were blown away. I must admit that I am excitedly looking forward to seeing what Facebook and developers have in store for us. Will we see the Oculus Pro headset that's been rumored for a while?  Maybe we'll get a glimpse of the rumored AR glasses that the company has supposedly been working on. So much to look forward to.  

VIA Upload

Facebook revealed a new experimental reverse passthrough VR concept that displays the eyes of users wearing a VR headset to the outside world, and it aims to reshape the social connection between real and virtual worlds.

Facebook Reality Labs (FRL) will present the new concept for "social co-presence" while in virtual reality at the SIGGRAPH 2021 event taking place this August. The research team's blog post gives us a sneak peek at development so far, and it's giving off sci-fi vibes akin to The 6th Day. 

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The reverse passthrough VR prototype works in contrast with what the Oculus Quest can do with Passthrough+, which uses externally facing cameras to help users wearing a VR headset see their surroundings in the real world. Instead of external surroundings, the prototype shows off your eyes to the outside world.

Using microlens-array light field displays, a floating 3D image shows off the user's eyes "showing the correct perspective for multiple external viewers." This means the images shift seamlessly so no matter where someone from the outside is looking at the user, the light field display will offer a natural-looking image of the user's eyes. 

Facebook wants social co-presence in VR

FRL aims to make VR headsets that are "compact, light, and all-day wearable; that mix high-quality virtual images with high-quality real-world images." With the team's ultimate goal to make VR users be "socially present with anyone in the world," this gives us a good indication of what to expect its upcoming Ray-Ban smart glasses could feature.

According to the post, however, the VR prototype is not even close to a product roadmap; the eye and facial renders don't feel quite lifelike yet and the current headset is riddled with cables. Lead research scientist Nathan Matsuda stated he thought an early prototype of the technology was "kind of a goofy idea."

Now, the 3D technology has evolved to be able to capture and depict more realistic 3D faces, thanks to purpose-built optics and a variety of supporting technologies. Reverse passthrough VR being used in consumer products appears to be a while away, but we now have a glimpse of what Facebook aims to bring to VR. 

Other tech giants such as Apple are also looking into the future of VR technology, with the Cupertino company rumored to be developing a Apple VR and mixed reality headset. For now, Facebook is dominating with its popular Oculus Quest 2 VR headset, which is about to get a big upgrade in August. 

Facebook knows that engineering a pair of avant-garde smart glasses isn't sufficient enough to get the masses to jump on the eyewear-tech bandwagon — it needs to look good, too. That's why the social network giant is collaborating with Ray-Ban, a popular sunglasses manufacturer.

However, according to CNET, Facebook is shying away from calling its forthcoming stylish smart shades an augmented reality (AR) device. Andrew Bosworth (Facebook's head of AR/VR) said the company is more focused on launching a product that makes users more "present" as opposed to creating new ways for people to digitally interact with their environment.

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The Facebook x Ray-Ban smart glasses launch date may be closer than we think

In early January, we reported that Facebook planned to launch its smart glasses in 2021. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg substantiated these claims during an earnings call by announcing that its smart shades will be the next product it will push to market — and it's coming this year.

"Looking ahead here, the next product release will be the launch of our first smart glasses from Ray-Ban in partnership with Essilor Luxottica. The glasses have their iconic form factor, and they let you do some pretty neat things. I'm excited to get these into people's hands and to continue to make progress on the journey towards full augmented reality glasses in the future," Zuckerberg said.

Facebook unveiled its partnership with EssilorLuxottica (Ray-Ban's parent company) last fall. As mentioned, the social media company is coy about calling these upcoming smart shades AR tech. In August 2020, the social network giant admitted that it initially wanted to release a stellar pair of AR spectacles, but the current technology (or lack thereof) doesn't support its ambitious vision.

"Many of the technologies needed to deliver on the promise of AR glasses don’t exist yet — and our team is hard at work to make them a reality," Facebook said.

A month later, it seems like Facebook failed to successfully engineer ready-for-market glasses that qualify as AR tech, which is understandable given the requirements needed to pack AR-capable internals into a small form factor. Facebook needs to be mindful of users' comfort, too (the hardware could run too hot).

The Facebook x Ray-Ban collaboration will likely focus on audio tech

Bosworth said that people should temper their expectations for these smart glasses. They likely won't feature digital artifacts that overlay in one's environment, but they will "help people stay connected to each other, and never feel like they're out of touch with somebody else," he told CNET.

CNET speculates that the smart glasses will offer more audio features as opposed to visual tech. After all, Facebook is trying to knock Clubhouse (a popular audio-only app) off its throne with its new live audio rooms feature.

Apart from hinting that the smart glasses will allow users to be more "present," Facebook is being hush-hush about the actual features. We're eager to learn more about what these stylish, non-AR smart shades can do.

Oculus is introducing an all-new silicone face cover for its widely popular Quest 2, after receiving reports that some owners of the VR headset experienced skin irritation. While the company is currently pausing sales, the Quest 2 will return with a big upgrade.

The Facebook-owned VR company announced that Quest 2 owners, or those who own a Fit Pack, will get a free silicone cover that fits over the VR headset's current foam facial interface — all to prevent any further cases of skin irritation. What's more, Oculus will launch a new 128GB Quest 2 with the silicone cover once it resumes sales on August 24. 

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One of Laptop Mag's staff, Sean Riley, received a notice from Oculus detailing the voluntary recall of the Quest 2's removable foam facial interface. Oculus also sent a silicone cover order form for owners to get the new cover. 

Oculus currently put all Quest 2 headset sales on hold around the globe to work on including the new silicone covers in all packages. Investigations into the skin irritations began back in December 2020, with the company stating "a very small percentage of Quest 2 customers" experienced the issue.

Sales are expected to resume by August 24, and it's good news for those who have yet to purchase a Quest 2. Oculus will debut its 128GB VR headset that will permanently replace the current 64GB model, and it will be available at the same $299 price point.

"The team and I are committed to ensuring the quality of our products and the ongoing support and success of our developer community, with your safety and comfort as our top priority. The free silicone cover is part of that commitment," said head of Facebook Reality Labs, Andrew Bosworth.

For those thinking about getting an Oculus Quest 2, it's worth waiting until August for the upgraded storage and added silicone face cover without the extra cost. Facebook often updates its VR headset, recently bringing wireless PC VR gaming support and native 120Hz.

The Quest 2 is a hit for good reason, as it can fool you into working out and even offer the ultimate adrenaline rush. 

On Thursday, Facebook announced Soundmojis for Messenger, which (as you can probably guess from the name) adds sound to emojis… Is this a really late April Fool?

Just in time for World Emoji Day on July 17, the world’s biggest network has answered the question nobody asked: if your emojis could talk, “what sound would they make?”

The answer to that question is probably one of the most cringeworthy features since memojis. Yes, I said it!

Wait, what?

Yes, dear reader. You are reading this right. Sounding like the kind of throwaway idea that comes early in a brainstorming session, but gets taken way too far, Soundmojis are accessed by tapping the loudspeaker icon in the expressions menu.

This feature gives you access to a range of sound effects, from more generic options like a drum roll or applause, to big celebrity tie-ins. Facebook is going in hard on trying to make this work by partnering with the likes of Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Rebecca Black and Universal Pictures’ F9.

All of these are paired with a corresponding emoji for what Facebook calls the “best of both worlds.” However, I’m sure the “best” is not a louder chatroom. In fact, the less sound my apps make, the better. 

No, thank you

I mean seriously. I’m not going to speak for everyone on the Laptop Mag team, but I die of embarrassment any time my phone makes a sound. And I know many others who keep their devices strictly on silent at all times. 

And yes, “silent” means no noise but vibration, to actually know you have notifications — if you think it means no noise or vibration, you and my D&D character will get on well in the chaotic evil alignment. This is not even a debate.

With that user behavior in mind, I think it’s a fair prediction that this feature will be quickly panned by Facebook, regardless of how much Vin Diesel and Rebecca Black the company throws at it. But I will republish this piece and admit I’m wrong if we’re all using Soundmojis in six months!

"How do I deactivate my Facebook account?" is a common question among social media users who need a break from the bustling social media platform. Perhaps you need take a time out from your friends' silly posts. Or maybe you want to hide your profile for a period time. Whatever your reason may be, Facebook's deactivation option will allow you to lie low for a while.

Facebook's deactivation button, as you might expect, isn't placed in a location where you'd intuitively expect it to be. After all, the social media giant doesn't want to make it too easy for you to temporarily ditch Facebook. Still, we have the easy-to-follow steps on how to deactivate your Facebook account in a flash.

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How to deactivate your Facebook account

After you've logged into your Facebook account, here are the easy-to-follow steps on how to deactivate it. 

1. Navigate to "Account" on the top-right corner (downward-facing arrow icon). 

2. Click on "Settings & Privacy."

3. Click on "Settings."

4. Click "Your Facebook Information."

5. Click on "View" next to "Deactivation and Deletion."

6. Make sure "Deactivate Account" is selected and click on "Continue to Account Deactivation."

7. Enter your password.

8. Tick your reason for leaving.

9. If you'd like to opt out of receiving emails, tick the "Opt out of receiving future emails from Facebook" box. If you'd like to continue using Messenger despite the deactivation, tick the "Keep Using Messenger" box.

10. Finally, click "Deactivate."

Once your Facebook account is deactivated, all of your information and content will be hidden. No one will be able to contact you nor view the things you've shared, including your photos, Timeline and status updates.

Malware analysts discovered nine Android apps on the Google Play Store with more than 5.8 million downloads that were sneakily stealing users' Facebook login credentials.

Russian anti-malware software company Dr.Web found trojan apps that would steal Facebook passwords by tricking unsuspecting victims into entering their private information in order to bypass in-app ads. Fortunately, these Android apps are no longer available on the Play Store. 

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Spotted by Ars Technica, the apps ranged from photo-editing software to fitness programs and horoscope news. One of the malicious apps known as "PIP Photo" had 5 million downloads, while others ranged from 10 to 500,000.

To trick users, the trojan apps would provide full functionality of their services and take away in-app ads if the users logged into their Facebook account via the application.

The app would load up a legitimate Facebook login page, but the details typed in would go straight to the malicious actors' command-and-control server. With the number of downloads, millions of Facebook accounts could have potentially been hacked into.

While the Android apps are no longer listed on the Play Store, it's still a good idea to check if they are lingering on your smartphone and delete them straight away. According to the report, Google has permanently banned the developers of the apps to prohibit them from making new apps.

Below is a list of the trojan apps:

• PIP Photo
• Processing Photo
• Rubbish Cleaner
• Inwell Fitness
• Horoscope Daily
• App Lock Keep
• Lockit Master
• Horoscope Pi
• App Lock Manager

During the investigation, Dr.Web analysts found an additional trojan app that had previously made its way onto the Google Play Store. Image editing software app EditorPhotoPip had already been removed but could be downloaded through aggregator websites.

The security report goes into further detail on how the hackers stole the Facebook user login credentials. For those who have downloaded these apps, it's best to change your Facebook password, along with any other application that may use the same login information.

Unfortunately, Android apps can be a huge cybersecurity risk. Earlier this year,  cybersecurity researchers discovered 13 Android apps that potentially left over 100 million smartphone users and developers vulnerable to malicious attacks due to their private data being exposed.

If you're looking to be protected online and to hide your private information, you'll want to find out what a VPN is, and why you should be using one. 

Facebook has been transparent about its plans to launch a new augmented reality (AR) glasses, diving into its ambitions of creating a futuristic headset that can replace a portable laptop or a phone for on-the-go busy bees.

The social media giant stopped short at divulging the AR glasses' visual description, but according to a patent spotted by Founders Legal, Facebook may engineer an AR headset with a basketball cap-inspired design (via Gizmodo).

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Facebook's baseball cap-inspired AR headset design looks awkward

Developing the perfect design for AR glasses is challenging. Engineers want to make sure the device is lightweight and comfortable, but at the same time, they want to pack in powerful internals, which are typically heavy and run hot.

One way Facebook seeks to resolve this hurdle is to draw inspiration from an everyday, comfortable accessory many people wear: baseball caps.

The patent, which was filed in 2019 and finally published this week, says that Facebook is leaning toward the baseball cap form factor because it would provide more surface area for a complete, advanced AR system. On top of that, engineers can place heat-generating components in areas that would not singe the user.

Another reason why Facebook is eyeing the baseball cap form factor is because it has a brim, which can house subsystems that are not practical for eyewear designs, such as tracking cameras for the face, body and eyes.

The patent also suggests pairing the baseball-cap AR headset with vibrotactile , haptic-feedback devices such as wearable gloves and wristbands.

Unfortunately, Facebook's AR design vision doesn't stop at baseball caps.

The patent says that the Facebook AR engineers may also draw inspiration from the following headwear: trucker hats, fitted or snapback hats, boater hats, western and cowboy hats, fedoras, visors, boater hats, cloches, gambler hats, ascot ad duckbill hats, lifeguard hats, outback hats, panama hats, safari hats, top hats and more.

If Facebook ends up putting any of these funky AR hat designs into market, I can't wait to see all memes and jokes that social media users will come up with. Thankfully, many patents don't make it to the final production stage; let's hope this rings true for this one.

Oculus CTO John Carmack and Vice President of Facebook Reality Labs Andrew Bosworth talked on Twitter's audio chat platform, Spaces, about reducing every VR headset's biggest hurdle: motion sickness.

According to Carmack (via Upload VR), the solution to reduce motion sickness in VR games played on the Oculus Quest 2 would require a system-level approach that is aware of depth in a user's field of view. 

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Currently, VR games apply vignettes in the field of view in order to reduce motion sickness.

However, as Carmack states, one of the biggest problems is the nausea users feel when something is moving within their eyesight. This can throw off their spatial orientation (or vestibular system) if it's inconsistent with what they're doing.

"What we need to do is look at the depth of things relative to your view," Carmack says. "How much it’s moving incorrectly relative to the inertial stuff and only fade out things proportional to that relationship." He went on to say that Oculus could do something that would work across the VR platform.

Implementing a system-level approach to reduce motion sickness on all VR games coming to Oculus would be a major advantage for developers, as they wouldn't have to take extra steps to figure out how to reduce motion sickness.

Of course, it would be great for VR gamers too. With a uniform system implemented into every game, users could quickly get used to how it works for all titles instead of having to familiarise themselves with different systems in each game.

Having a solution to fix motion sickness in VR would be a major win for newcomers and experienced users alike, but Carmack claims the system would take around two years to complete. Developers would also have to agree to use and work with the system in their games. While it's more of a long-term plan for Oculus, Carmack believes it has "real potential."

Feeling woozy isn't all that uncommon, but sometimes it's due to horrific gore in VR games such as Wraith: The Oblivion - Afterlife, which one of us even puked from playing it.

While we may have to wait much longer for Oculus to work on the VR motion sickness problem, you won't have to wait any longer for a native 120Hz on the Quest 2.

Apple's ongoing feud with Facebook has been largely centered around privacy features in iOS, including an update in the forthcoming iOS 14.5 that will force Facebook's apps to request permission to track users for targeted ads. 

According to a new report from Bloomberg, another update from Apple is coming that is going to add fuel to this fire. The company is reportedly planning to extend the functionality of iMessage into something closer to a social network, putting it directly in competition with offerings from Facebook, including WhatsApp.

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Details regarding the exact nature of these upgrades were not available as part of the report and Bloomberg indicated that the "changes are still early in development," which suggests that the earliest you would possibly see new features is with iOS 15 this fall. 

While it doesn't dominate the market globally, iMessage is frequently cited in the U.S. as one of the most significant lock-in features of the Apple ecosystem. That has made it a point of contention for Facebook which feels it is being disadvantaged by the preferential treatment Apple gives its own app which is both pre-installed on all iPhones and uses private APIs and permissions unavailable to third-party developers. 

While Facebook is unlikely to elicit too much sympathy on its own, it is hardly the only company facing off with Apple regarding potential antitrust matters. With the long-awaited release of the AirTags, device tracking company Tile has also levied complaints regarding what it deems to be anti-competitive practices from Apple. Also, Epic Games has been embroiled in a lawsuit with Apple over App Store fees that kicked off last August. 

While Apple wasn't the sole focus, Congress bug into the matter with a hearing on Wednesday entitled, "Antitrust Applied: Examining Competition in App Stores." All this to say that we will be following any additional leaks regarding a potential update to iMessage with close interest as Apple may need to tread literally considering the intense scrutiny it is already under.

Facebook is threatening to take over the audio-social space, a territory Clubhouse has claimed with its buzzworthy, invite-only app that's making waves in the networking community.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has announced a new Clubhouse competitor, and on top of that, the social-media giant is releasing a new suite of audio-chat apps that will be accessible to users in the coming months.

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Facebook announces Live Audio Rooms: Clubhouse's new competitor

Clubhouse is facing a new competitor called Live Audio Rooms, which is rolling out to Facebook users in the summer. The social-media giant will add Live Audio Rooms to Facebook Groups. Facebook is crossing its fingers that Live Audio Rooms will promote more engagement within the social network's tens of millions active communities.

"Whether it’s Filipino Cooking Group, run by a former cooking reality TV show contestant; the World Wanderlust Bucket List group, filled with travelers looking for the road less traveled; or OctoNation® – The Largest Octopus Fan Club of 47,000 cephalopod enthusiasts, we hope that unlocking audio will be as inspiring and fun as Groups already are," Facebook said in a blog.

High-profile public figures will also get a chance to experiment with Live Audio Rooms. This will give them a chance to host virtual conversations and connect with their fans. As a cherry on top, Facebook says Live Audio Rooms will also be released on Messenger, allowing users to host rooms with their friends and family.

Fans will be able to support Live Audio Room hosts via Facebook's Stars model. Fans can buy Stars and send them to creators during streams; Facebook pays hosts $0.01 per Star.

Facebook is also releasing a new suite of audio-chat apps

In addition to Live Audio Rooms, Zuckerberg announced a whole new suite of audio-chat apps. After all, Facebook's CEO now believes that the audio-social space is the future of virtual networking. "We think that audio is [...] going to be a first-class medium and there are all these different products to be built across the whole spectrum," Zuckerberg in an audio interview with tech journalist Casey Newton on Discord.

Soundbites: another social-audio app

Sometimes, Facebook posts simply don't capture your tone, inflection and emphasis, and as such, many users can misinterpret your words or fail to detect your sarcasm. That's why Facebook created Soundbites: short-forum audio clips that capture anecdotes, jokes, inspirational quotes, poems and more.

Facebook drummed up excitement for Soundbites by illustrating how it can be used in the hands of celebrities: "Imagine, comedian Drew Lynch, sharing his short rants and food reviews in ASMR; Lolo Spencer, an accessibility advocate, reciting daily affirmations and her favorite inspirational quotes; Tobe Nwigwe, a visionary and entrepreneur, sharing his “convos with Tobe” about fatherhood and being a first-generation Nigerian American."

Facebook Podcasts

More than 170 million users are connected to hundreds of thousands of podcast pages on Facebook, so the social-media tech giant recognized that the podcast space is a worthy investment.

Facebook is implementing a new tool that allows users to listen to podcasts directly on the platform. Users can scroll through Facebook while listening to a podcast simultaneously. In other words, you can visit a podcast fan page and listen to its catalog of episodes via the Facebook app.

"And because it’s still hard to discover podcasts you like, we will help you easily find new podcasts and episodes based on your interests, comment on them and recommend them to your friends," Facebook said.

New audio-creation tools

Facebook is unleashing a new set of audio-creation tools. "Just like we did for photo and videos, we want everyone to have tools that are powerful enough for the pros, but intuitive and fun," Facebook said.

The social-media giant is releasing speech-to-text and voice morphing tools to users. Thanks to AI advancements, Facebook users will also be able to take advantage of a new noise-cancellation feature. Even if they're recording on a busy street corner, their audio will get a sound-quality boost. Last but not least, Facebook is introducing Sound Collection, a catalog of songs and sound effects that users can explore to elevate their content.

We look forward to seeing how well Soundbites, Live Audio Room and more catches on with the public.

We've been hearing rumors that Facebook is working on cloning hugely popular audio chat app Clubhouse, and now we're getting a taste of the social media giant's efforts in the form of a web-based Q&A platform.

Facebook’s New Product Experimentation (NPE) team has released Hotline, a new audio and video chat platform that finally gives Clubhouse some competition. Unlike Clubhouse, however, Hotline is available for Android smartphone users too — not just iOS. 

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What is Facebook's Hotline?

As reported by TechCrunch, Hotline is a web-based app that gives creators a platform to speak to their audience and answer any questions via text or audio. However, instead of being audio-only like Clubhouse, hosts have the ability to turn on their cameras during their Q&A.

Those taking part can vote on which questions they want to be answered, and can also use emojis to respond to whatever the host is saying.

Facebook recently tested Hotline, with the first to publicly try out the platform being real estate agent Nick Huber. According to TechCrunch, Facebook is looking for influencers and creators like Huber to offer professional advice in areas such as finance or real estate.

Led by Facebook's Eric Hazzard, the new web app has a lot in common with Clubhouse and other similar platforms like Twitter Spaces, including its user interface. 

Facebook confirmed to TechCrunch that mobile app versions of Hotline are in the works, but for now, people can sign up via the web page (which seems to only be available in the U.S. after getting a message saying "Coming Soon!" when trying it out in the U.K.).

You'll find there's only a waitlist to sign up for via Twitter login and an option to apply to host your own show. We're sure to see it evolve over the next few months, with more notable guests appearing on the platform (it will have to match Elon Musk guest status to catch some real attention, though).

Apparently, this isn't the only Clubhouse competitor Facebook is working on, as another internal team is working on a different project to keep the ever-trending Clubhouse on its toes. This is likely referring to the clone Facebook teased earlier in February.

Android users have yet another alternative to use that's not the iPhone exclusive Clubhouse, but a recent fake Clubhouse app shows that it's still hugely sought-after.. 

Facebook users are hardly strangers to security leaks. Today's news pertains to a leak that we covered back in January, but the scope of the leak has broadened considerably since then.

The personal data of roughly 533 million Facebook was leaked back in 2019 due to a vulnerability that Facebook subsequently patched. The resulting database has now been made available for free on a low-level hacking forum, exposing the data to any interested party (via The Next Web).

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The data includes a vast array of personal information about the victims, such as name, date of birth, mobile number, email addresses, gender, occupation, marital status, location and more. This data was already available but was previously behind a paywall that was at least limiting exposure to some degree; now it is open to anyone. 

While we will continue to stress the need to use password managers to protect yourself online, you can still find yourself part of a data breach even when you are doing everything right. This is one of those occasions. The best thing you can do in this situation is to determine if your information is part of the breach and take a few steps to protect yourself from there.

How to find out if your Facebook data was breached

• Navigate to https://haveibeenpwned.com/
• Enter the email address associated with your Facebook account
• Click or tap the pwned? button

The site will give you a breakdown of any public breaches that include the email address you input, so depending on how many that is, you may need to search specifically for Facebook by pressing CTRL and F and typing in "Facebook." 

The owner of the site is considering adding the leaked phone numbers to the database in order to help people identify if your phone number was also part of the breach, but they have not done so at this time.

Unfortunately, there is little to be done if you are included in the breach except to change your Facebook password and be warier of potential scams both online and over the phone or mail. You could also consider antivirus software to help protect you from online threats.

Apple is hell bent on winning its highly publicized legal battle against Epic Games, so it is tapping into Facebook's wealth of informational resources to help it emerge victorious against the Fortnite creator.

The MacBook maker asked Facebook to relinquish more than 17,000 documents, but the social-media giant (who publicly sided with Epic Games in this dispute) refuses to produce the documents that Apple is asking for despite receiving several subpoenas (via MacRumors).

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Facebook "stonewalled" Apple after it requested an overwhelming amount of documents

Last December, Facebook publicly announced its support for Epic Games after the Fortnite creator slammed Apple with a lawsuit that paints the Cupertino-based tech giant as a monopolistic, anti-competitive entity. 

"We think it's really important that the court understand far reaching impact of Apple's unfair policies," said Steve Satterfield, Facebook's Director of Privacy and Public Policy at Facebook.

Epic Games recently named Facebook VP of Gaming Vivek Sharma as a witness in its fight against Apple, and as a result, the MacBook maker is seeking a "limited set of documents" necessary for a fair cross examination of Sharma. In fact, Apple claims that it has served Facebook with subpoenas twice to no avail.

"Apple and Facebook met and conferred multiple times to narrow the scope of these subpoenas," Apple said in the court filing. "Nevertheless, Facebook refused to produce documents pursuant to multiple requests in the first subpoena, and refused to produce any documents responsive to the second subpoena."

Apple claimed that Facebook had been stonewalling the Cupertino-based tech giant until Facebook finally admitted on March 29 that it had no intentions on producing any more documents for Apple.

Of course, there's two sides to every story and Facebook claims that it has already provided Apple with 1,600 documents involving Sharma. "If Apple believed that production was insufficient in any way, it had every opportunity to move to compel within 7 days of the close of discovery as required by the Court’s Rules. Apple chose not to, making this motion untimely," Facebook said in the court filing.

On top of that, Facebooks says that Apple's request would require them to produce an overwhelming number of documents: more than 17,000. The social-media giant basically said, "Ain't nobody got time for that" in legalese. Facebook argued that it should not be forced to review tens of thousands of documents because Apple wants to go "fishing for some theoretical cross material." 

Rawr! The claws are out between Facebook and Apple, and I can't wait to see how this Apple vs. Epic Games fight turns out. Valve held a similar position as Facebook when Apple asked the developer of Steam to produce an insane number of documents, but a judge ruled in Apple's favor.

Facebook is working on a pair of smart glasses that could potentially replace your laptop and phone. The social media giant, already making waves in the VR industry with its Oculus headsets, is ready to dive into augmented reality (AR).

Facebook's AR smart glasses sounds like it was ripped from the pages of a science fiction novel, but the Mark Zuckerberg-run company plans to materialize its far-out vision into reality in the near future.

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Facebook's vision for its AR smart glasses

In a recent blog post, Facebook pulled the curtains back on its smart-glasses project, giving us a glimpse of the social network's vision for its AR head-mounted display — and it sounds too good to be true.

"Imagine a world where a lightweight, stylish pair of glasses could replace your need for a computer or smartphone. You’d have the ability to feel physically present with friends and family — no matter where in the world they happened to be — and contextually-aware AI to help you navigate the world around you, as well as rich 3D virtual information within arm’s reach," Facebook said. 

Facebook added that its ideal AR smart glasses would allow its users to participate in the digital and real world simultaneously. You wouldn't need to peel your eyes away from a screen to be present. Instead, the digital and real world will be interacting with each other without you needing to move a muscle.

How Facebook's smart glasses will replace your laptop and phone

Imagine you're in a cafe with Facebook's AR smart glasses on. Instead of whipping out your trusty laptop or phone, you can use your head-mounted display that pairs with haptic gloves. "A virtual screen and keyboard [will] show up in front of you and [you'll] begin to edit a document. Typing is just as intuitive as typing on a physical keyboard," Facebook said.

If the cafe is too loud, the smart glasses will use special in-ear monitors and active noise cancellation to soften the cacophony. 

Facebook also noted that its smart glasses will have an AI assistant that can ask you questions such as, "Do you want to listen to the latest episode of your favorite podcast?" or "Do you want me to put in an order for a 12-ounce Americano?” With just an easy flick of a finger, you can respond with a yes or no.

You can receive calls, too. If you're in the middle of a conversation, the smart glasses can be configured to not interrupt your interactions and send the call to voicemail. You can also add content to your calendar on the head-mounted display. As the event draws closer, you'll receive visual reminders.

Facebook experimented with a number of different ways that users can interact with the device, including hand gestures, voice commands, and selecting items from a menu by looking at them, which are possible via hand-tracking cameras, a microphone array, and eye-tracking technology, respectively. 

As it turns out, the social media giant is leaning toward using wrist-based EMG technology, which decodes finger signals that communicate your intentions to the AR device.

Facebook is tapping into the expertise of research scientists, engineers, neuroscientists, and more to make these out-of-this-world smart glasses a reality. Personally, I'll be one of the first ones to snag Facebook's smart glasses if it can, indeed, replace my laptop and phone.

Apple and Google are also reportedly working on their own AR devices. We're excited to see which brand will nab the greatest share of the smart-glasses market.

After Facebook acquired Oculus, it was just a matter of time before the heavy-handed social media giant started to push its related social media products onto the Oculus platform. The company recently announced that it’s bringing Facebook Messenger to Oculus users. And to be honest, it seems a bit unnecessary. 

Oculus has its own standalone messaging app called Oculus Chat. And since it was built for Oculus, the app offers seamless integration with the platform. Another boon of the Oculus app is that it keeps the VR world separate from the outside world by allowing users to set privacy rules that are different from both Facebook and Messenger. Chat also allows you to curate different lists between Oculus and Facebook. Which means you can still message your Oculus friends using Oculus Chats with your existing Oculus username.

But it begs the question, why even bring Messenger to Oculus? Simple, because while some people like keeping their virtual and digital friends separate, others might want a bit more synergy. And if Facebook allows you to stream content via Messenger, that could be a cool way to get VR non-believers in on the fun. 

And in case you want to let friends or family take a turn with the headset, you just sign out of Messenger. And when you’re ready to hop back in, select your Messenger profile and re-enter your password."

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As well as announcing the arrival of a Facebook Messenger to Oculus, the company also announced it has opened up the App Lab to developers to help them get wares onto the Oculus store, speeding up the process of getting new VR games and apps to users. 

Previously if a developer couldn’t get their apps passed through Oculus’s stringent process, developers would make them available via SideQuest where users could sideload them onto their Oculus VR headsets. Most users, however, do not have the gear or know-how to undertake such an endeavor so the creation of App Labs gives them a space on the Oculus platform for users to try them out.

Oculus had announced the creation of Add Labs last summer and reminded users in December 2020 that a Q1 rollout of App Labs was coming. Oculus stated  “App Lab titles are not housed in the Oculus Store, though they can be searched by exact name and found in the “App Lab” section of results.” Once purchased they’ll appear alongside all your normal content in Oculus Quest’s library."

Facebook is poised to launch smart glasses later this year, but it won't be the AR-immersed, tech marvel you may expect. Facebook's smart glasses, according to Bloomberg, will have device-connection capabilities, but it won't overlay digital elements in real-world settings.

The social media giant wants to ensure that it does not oversell and underdeliver. "We’re excited about it, but we don’t want to over-hype it," Facebook Hardware Chief Andrew Bosworth said. "We’re not even calling it augmented reality. We’re just calling it 'smart glasses.'"

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Facebook smart glasses are coming sooner than you think

Wireless earbuds and headphones are the new, fashionable tech craze that took over the morning commute, but by 2022, perhaps smart glasses might become the hot new trend to replace AirPods — and Facebook wants to be the à la mode eyeglass brand that everyone wears.

The social-media tech giant publicly announced its plans for AR glasses in 2017. However, according to Facebook, current AR technology isn't catching up to the grand vision the company has for AR eyewear. "Many of the technologies needed to deliver on the promise of AR glasses don’t exist yet — and our team is hard at work to make them a reality," Facebook admitted last August.

Last fall, Facebook announced its partnership with EssilorLuxottica, the makers of Ray-Ban glasses. The social-media tech giant plans to release Ray-Ban-branded smart glasses this year, but Bosworth reiterated to Bloomberg that it won't be AR-supported eyewear.

“These are certainly connected glasses, they are certainly providing a lot of functionality, [but] we’re being quite coy about which functionality precisely we are providing," Bosworth said. Bosworth didn't divulge how Facebook's smart glasses will function, but he promised that the device will align with Facebook's broader mission around AR, which is to create tech eyewear that enhances human interaction and augments "presence."

Facebook has been a dominating force in social VR space thanks to its Oculus Quest headset line (I've even experienced VR dating using the Quest 2), so I have high expectations for Facebook's upcoming smart glasses. Mark Zuckerberg better watch out, though — Apple is working on its own set of AR smart glasses this year, too.

Facebook disrupted the virtual-reality market with its popular Oculus headset line, but now the social-media giant is scheming to take over another adjacent market: augmented reality (AR). 

In a fascinating new blog, Oculus' parent company delved into its intriguing plans to develop an AR head-mounted display that will catapult the future of audio technology to new, innovative heights.

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Facebook's future vision for AR glasses

Facebook Reality Labs (FRL) Research — consisting of engineers, designers and research scientists — is the unit that is working on launching a pair of AR spectacles that will offer users superhuman auditory senses.

The FRL Research team has two ambitious objectives: inspire people to reassess the definition of "human hearing" and create digital sounds that are indistinguishable from reality.

The social-media giant hinted that it plans to launch AR glasses to benefit users who'd love to be in two places at once. A woman, for example, could virtually attend her daughter's dance recital via Facebook's AR glasses while tending to her sick son at home — and she would be able to see and hear everything around her as if she was truly at the event.

"The only reason we need for virtual sound to be made real is so that I can put a virtual person in front of me and have a social interaction with them as if they were really there," Research Lead Philip Robinson said.

FRL Research is also hoping that its AR glasses could be used in loud environments (e.g. concerts, coffee shops and restaurants) by amplifying the target sound while drowning out unwanted audio. Phone and video calls is another area Facebook intends to tackle. With Facebook AR, the speaker will sound so crystal-clear, you'd be convinced the person is sitting right next to you.

Facebook's current progress with super-sonic AR glasses

FRL's audio team already spearheaded technological sound feats such as spatialized audio, which mimics the "direction" of sounds, and high-quality acoustic simulation — an invention that makes virtual surroundings "believable."

You can find these technologies in the Oculus Quest and Rift VR platforms. But where is Facebook now on its journey to virtual-sound nirvana?

The social-media tech giant is currently working on ditching one-size-fits-all approaches to sound in favor of personalized audio experiences. The conglomerate isn't sure how they'll accomplish assessing users for personalized audio solutions, but the company hopes to make it as simple as taking a photo of one's ears.

The Facebook post hints that, as it stands now, its AR glasses has multiple microphones to capture the users' surrounding audio. It also has head-and-eye tracking technology so that the spectacles can have "intuition" to know which sounds are most important to the user.

Facebook isn't the only big-name company working on AR glasses. This tech giant will have some major competition. Apple is also working on releasing AR spectacles within the next few years. To keep abreast on Apple AR news, check out our oft-updated Apple Glass rumor hub. 

Facebook's AR glasses sound like an audiophile's dream! We can't wait for this product to hit store shelves so we can test it out ourselves.

 Sometimes, you can't beat 'em — you've got to join 'em. Google and Facebook, despite having their own video-conferencing services, have conceded to housing Zoom on their smart-display products. After all, the app is so ridiculously popular, its absence would be far too conspicuous. 

It's a major feather in Zoom's hat and cements the company as the a video-conferencing victor. How victorious you ask? Amazon is hopping on the bandwagon, too.

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Zoom is coming to Google, Amazon and Facebook smart displays

Google and Facebook typically only host their own apps on their smart-display products. Google Nest users can only make calls with Meet and Duo, and Facebook Portal customers only have access to Messenger and WhatsApp. But for the first time, Google and Facebook are introducing their first non-native video-call app — Zoom for Home.

Amazon is no stranger to non-native apps (Echo Show got Skype calls two years ago), but the retail giant is also tapping into the Zoom craze for its smart displays. It's a win-win for both sides: Zoom can grab a bigger bite of the video-call market with its expansion to other smart displays, and the big trio will attract Zoom fans who will splurge their products.

Each platform has its unique features that can optimize the Zoom for Home experience.

On Google Nest Hub Max, Zoom for Home will take advantage of the search-engine giant's scheduling expertise, allowing users to launch Zoom meetings directly from their Calendar. On Facebook Portal, the Zoom app will depend on Facebook’s “smart camera” technology, which auto adjusts to keep callers in frame at all times. And finally, on Amazon Echo Show, users can zap into their Zoom call with a simple "Alexa, join my Zoom meeting" command.

The Zoom for Home app will arrive on Facebook Portal in September. Zoom will be available on Amazon Echo Show and Google Nest Hub Max later this year.

Facebook is planning on hanging a "Thou Shalt Not Pass" sign on the entrance gate of its Oculus VR world for users who don't have a Facebook account.

In a recent blog, Facebook-owned Oculus stated that, in just a few months, new device users will not be able to sign into the Oculus VR ecosystem without a Facebook account.

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When will Facebook phase out Oculus IDs in favor of Facebook accounts?

Starting in October, all customers using an Oculus device for the first time will be required to log in with a Facebook account. Existing users who already have an Oculus account will have the option to sign in with Facebook, and merge their Oculus and Facebook accounts.

If you're an Oculus account holder who does not want to hop on the Facebook bandwagon just yet, you'll have two years to enjoy a Facebook-less experience before the social-media giant ends its support for Oculus IDs. In other words, existing users can continue to log in without a Facebook account until 2023.

While non-Facebook account holders will still have access to their purchased content in 2023, they will have to an endure a platform with limited functionality. On top of that, some games and apps will not work without a Facebook-based account.

"This could be because they include features that require a Facebook account or because a developer has chosen to no longer support the app or game you purchased," the Oculus blog post said.

Why is Facebook phasing out Oculus IDs in favor of Facebook accounts?

Oculus listed three reasons behind its new Facebook-or-bust approach: seamless multiplayer experiences, better channels for sharing and streaming content, and a safer VR community as it adopts Facebook's guidelines.

"Giving people a single way to log into Oculus—using their Facebook account and password— will make it easier to find, connect, and play with friends in VR." Oculus wrote. The VR conglomerate pointed to Horizon, a massive social-experience VR game, as a prime example of the bright future it envisions for multiplayer VR.

Interestingly, this new Facebook sign-in mandate is exactly what VR enthusiasts feared when Facebook acquired Oculus in March of 2014. Although I'm not invalidating Oculus' claims that its Facebook enforcement will enhance several aspects of the Oculus VR experience, we all know their real motive.

Facebook, of course, wants to populate its sprawling network with more members to maintain a solid footing in the fickle social media market. Not to mention all the free advertising the social-media giant will receive when streamers evoke envy among friends who'll want to get their hands on a headset, too.

For Oculus account holders who are concerned about their private gaming activity being blasted on their Facebook feed, don't worry — the social-media giant confirmed that it will not post any content without users' permission.

Microsoft is shutting down Mixer, the video game streaming platform and rival to Twitch. Existing partners will move to Facebook Gaming before Mixer is shuttered for good within the next month.

Mixer struggled to catch up to Twitch but made headlines when it poached Ninja, a massively popular streamer best known for his Fortnite play. But even with the biggest names signing big-money exclusive contracts, last-ditch efforts to attract viewers didn't garner the results needed to keep Mixer afloat. 

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Instead of throwing more money at the problem, Microsoft is cutting its losses and abandoning Mixer. Those who used it as their preferred streaming platform will be transitioned to Facebook Gaming in the coming weeks. 

If you've purchased Embers or Sparks, you can give them to your favorite streamers through the month of June. After June 30, you won't be able to buy them. Any remaining balance will become an Xbox Gift Card of "similar value" applied to your Microsoft account but it must be spent by Sept 30.

Microsoft launched Mixer in 2017 after acquiring the startup Beam a year prior. By that time, Twitch (now owned by Amazon) was the leading streaming service ahead of YouTube Gaming.

"We started pretty far behind, in terms of where Mixer’s monthly active viewers were compared to some of the big players out there,” Phil Spencer, Microsoft’s head of gaming, told The Verge. “I think the Mixer community is really going to benefit from the broad audience that Facebook has through their properties, and the abilities to reach gamers in a very seamless way through the social platform Facebook has."

What this means for Xbox Series X

Microsoft's move to ax Mixer comes just months before the Series X is set to launch. The company must now find a new streaming platform to integrate into the console so it's easy for users to share and upload gameplay. Without one, Xbox would give Sony and the PS5 a huge advantage.

Mixer is the default streaming app on the Xbox One and, up until we learned of its demise, was expected to return on the Series X. With Mixer funneling its streamers and viewers into Facebook Gaming, it's possible the social media giant plants its platform on the next-gen console.

Microsoft hasn't named a streaming service for its console, but this partnership with Facebook can be taken as a hint. It's still possible for Microsoft to partner with Twitch for the Series X, but there is some bad blood between the software giant and Twitch owner Amazon. Xbox could also turn to YouTube Gaming; Microsoft and Google are already working together on Chromium in efforts that led to the new Edge browser and improvements to Chrome. 

However, partnering with Facebook gives Microsoft the ability to expand its xCloud game streaming service. xCloud, Microsoft's version of Google Stadia, will come to Facebook Gaming so viewers can start playing a game by simply clicking on a stream. For example, you could get the urge to play Fortnite as you're watching Ninja rack up eliminations (Ninja hasn't decided on a new streaming platform yet), and all you'd need to do to join your own game is click on a button. 

Facebook has more than 2.5 billion daily active users, so the opportunity to expand the number of xCloud or Xbox games is enormous. But nothing is guaranteed. After all, even Ninja, who has 23 million YouTube followers, couldn't attract enough viewers from Twitch for Mixer to have the revenue and viewership Microsoft desired. 

Whatever else you can say about Mark Zuckerberg, the dude has had some significant ups and downs in both his personal and business lives. As such, he’s probably not someone you should use as a role model — unless you want to protect your computer’s security physically. A recent photograph on Zuckerberg's own Facebook page suggests that the Facebook CEO covers his computer’s webcam and microphone with masking tape. One of these practices is a great idea; the other may not do anything.

Security diehards have known for years that covering up their webcams with tape is just common sense, even though many of those individuals are probably not the intended targets. In general, webcam hackers pursue attractive young women. Think of it this way: Most webcams are part of a computer’s permanent setup, whether the machine is a laptop or an all-in-one desktop. The webcam is always ready, unless users specifically turn it off. And most people are not going to shut down their computers when they change their clothes or get ready for bed.

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The results are pretty much what you’d expect, according to independent security expert Graham Cluley, writing on Bitdefender's HOTforSecurity blog. Over the years, hackers have found multiple ways to tap into webcams and record the video footage for their own purposes. Most webcam footage is just someone sitting in front of a computer, but some could let you start your own very unethical porn site. While Mark Zuckerberg isn’t a comely young lass, he is a rather influential person, and it’s not hard to see why a hacker would love to have a clip of the emperor without his clothes.

Cluley pointed out, though, that anyone targeting Zuckerberg’s machine is probably in it for more than just a racy video. The U.S. National Security Agency reportedly has access to two plugins called GUMFISH and CAPTIVATEDAUDIENCE, which can hijack webcams and microphones, and doubtless other countries' intelligence agencies have similar software. It’s not hard to imagine what a government spy service might want from a businessman whose product both measures and affects the interests and habits of tens of millions of people across the world.

Depending on who you are and what your profession is, hackers and the government may not be interested in what you’re doing in front of your webcam. Still, the same principles still apply if you want to make yourself completely safe. Get a piece of masking tape, and peel it back only when you’re actively using your webcam. You can also get reusable covers from Amazon or pretty much any other electronics vendor.

The one area where Zuckerberg went wrong was in covering his Apple laptop's microphone with tape as well. While this will muffle sound recorded by the microphone, it likely won’t block sound out entirely. Instead, Zuckerberg will be better off plugging in a dummy headphone jack, which will make the computer think it's recording audio when, in fact, there’s no auditory input. (If you've got a dead pair of headphones, you can cut off the plug and use that.)

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Talk about a bother. You hop onto Facebook to  catch up on your newsfeed, and suddenly, there's a video playing, without you tapping a thing. Maybe your bandwidth is metered and you don't want Facebook videos to eat into your monthly allowance. Or maybe you were sneaking a look on Facebook during a meeting, and now all eyes are on you because you didn't have your sound muted. So much for being discreet.

Fortunately, even though Facebook doesn't make it obvious, there are ways to disable the auto-play feature, for both Web and mobile access. Ready to go back to video when you demand it? Take these steps to reclaim control over your Facebook feed.

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Desktop (via Web browser)

1. Go to your Facebook page and find the triangle at the upper right notifications bar. Tap the triangle, and select Settings.

2. Look along the left navigation pane for the Videos option. Note how the right of the pane has an option for Auto-Play Videos.

3. Tap on the down arrow to reveal the options menu. Choose whether you want Auto-Play on or off. Note there is no option here for the Web-based desktop view to only Auto-Play on Wi-Fi connections; this option does exist on many of the mobile versions of Facebook.

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Mobile

Specific steps vary among the many Facebook app variants across different mobile devices. Ultimately, regardless of the version you're using, we recommend you go into the settings menu and look there for a way to disable video Auto-Play. That's how you'll do it on Android and iPhone, though for iPhone, the Auto-Play setting you're looking for is buried within the phone's settings, and is not accessible via the app itself — as is typical for iOS apps.

1. Enter your Facebook app on Android and tap the three horizontal lines at far right to enter the settings menu. Scroll down until you see App Settings.  On Samsung phones that still have a dedicated menu button to the left of the home button (as on the Galaxy Note 3), you can tap on that menu button, and and it will call up a menu at the bottom of the page with its own Settings option. Both App Settings and Settings lead to....

...a Facebook General Settings page. Here, in the middle of the screen, sits the Video Auto-play option.

3. Tap on the option to reveal your choices: On Wi-Fi only (a choice that keeps Auto-play enabled, but only when you're connected via a Wi-Fi network, thereby saving precious megabytes from your mobile data plan), and Off. 

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Watch your back Snapchat; Facebook is gunning for you. Zuckerberg's social network is reportedly working on a Snapchat-like video messaging service called Slingshot that will live outside of Facebook's Messenger app.

The offering, which is still in development according to the Financial Times, may launch later this month. Others, however, say the app may never see the light of day. Slingshot is said to function by letting users long press a person's name in their contact list and selecting the video they want to send.

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Slingshot is Facebook's latest of several attempts to neutralize or take on Snapchat. Initially, Facebook attempted to buyout Snapchat for $1 billion, but was turned down by the company's creators Evan Spiegel and Bobby Murphy. Facebook came back with a secondary offer for $3 billion, but was again dismissed.

Since then, Zuckerberg's crew has been working on ways to duplicate the ephemeral messaging service with apps of its own. The company's first attempt, Poke, failed to garner as much attention as Snapchat and was ultimately killed earlier this month. 

Snapchat's latest update, which brought video messaging to the service, was wildly popular among younger users, a segment Facebook wants to hold on to. Will Slingshot be able to do that when and if it is released? We'll have to wait to see.

via: Financial Times

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