Facebook is the most popular social media service in the world with 2.32 billion monthly active users as of December 31, 2018
Facebook is the most popular social media service in the world with 2.32 billion monthly active users as of December 31, 2018. It also averages 1.52 billion daily active users as of December 2018.
Facebook was launched in February of 2004 (as The Facebook) for college students and then rapidly grew as it opened the service to more than those with a .edu email address. It was the subject of the 2010 movie called “The Social Network“.
In 2012, the social media giant offered its IPO and Facebook earned the title of the fastest company to grow to $250 billion market capitalization in the S&P 500.
In recent years, the company has been at the center of attention related to its role in the Russian interference in the 2016 US election. Since then, it’s been a continual stream of negative news for the company. They recently had all of their enterprise certificates for iOS revoked after it was discovered they had repackaged Onavo VPN as a ‘Research’ app and were paying teens $20/month to sneakily sideload it.
In early 2019, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced a “privacy shift” for the company. He outlined a detailed vision for the future of the social media platform, specifically its messaging services. Notably, in contrast to how the company operates today, he says the future of the platform will be privacy-focused with features like end-to-end encryption, interoperability between its various apps like Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, reducing how long it holds data, secure storage of personal data, and more.
A large majority of the deals we cover each day come from a variety of ‘Daily Deal’ websites or are so popular that they don’t even last 24 hours. We know you can’t be at your computer every second, so we’re going to roundup the best deals each day to make sure you have a fair shot at the deals you want. Be sure to follow 9to5Toys.com so you never miss a deal...Twitter, RSS Feed, Facebook
Today’s Featured deals:
Kingston Wi-Drive adds 64GB of available storage to your iPhone/iPad/iPod $71 Shipped (Reg. $130)
Hotspot Shield – Simple VPN/proxy solution for OS X, iOS, and Android devices. 50% off a 1 year subscription, now only $15
Staples $10 off $50 in tech accessories: $50 WD Dual-Band N900 Gigabit Wireless router w/ two USB ports, $50 All-in-one WiFi printer, Apple deals: Magic Mouse, Magic Trackpad, Keyboard, more
eBook Freebie: Weber’s Time to Grill: Get In. Get Out. Get Grilling (Reg. $20)
Kubi is a cloud controlled robotic desktop stand for your tablet. It enables you (or whoever is on the other end of a video call) to look around and interact through the tablet. Kubi is capable of a 300° pan and a 90° tilt, and is compatible with any Bluetooth enabled tablet, from iPads to the Microsoft Surface. This product is a game-changing video conference device for anyone who works remotely. This deal expires at midnight, so get it now for $259 + Free Shipping (Marked down from $315).
Over the past week a number of 9to5 readers have noticed issues with their Facebook contacts within the Contacts app on iOS 6 and up that are automatically synced when logging into Facebook through Settings. Some users have taken to the Apple support forums to discuss the problem, noting that a large portion of their contacts from Facebook no longer appear in the iOS Contacts app. Rather than a bug, we reached out to Facebook about the problem who told us it’s actually Facebook’s new effort to remove “phone book entries that were not useful.”
In other words, Facebook is trying to remove some of the spam from your iOS Contacts app by no longer syncing friends that have no useful contact information. According to a Facebook spokesperson, friends that have no contact information on their profile other than a @facebook.com email address will not be synced to the Contacts address book going forward.
The result, of course, is you might notice more than a few of your Facebook friends disappearing from Contacts. You can always add them back manually, but Facebook is thinking the majority of users will be happy with its decision to declutter its iOS sync feature. Expand Expanding Close
When Mountain Lion launched last year, Apple introduced some basic Facebook sharing options to OS X. You can post a status update from Notification Center or upload a photo from Finder, Preview, iPhoto, or other Mac applications. While those functions are useful, Apple has yet to really embrace all of Facebook’s features. For example, you can’t tag a friend in a status update or create a new photo album, and the notification integration, while nice, is a bit unreliable.
Today, Tapmates released Moment, a new app that bridges the gap between OS X’s Facebook integration and the features you’re already used to on the Facebook website. Keep reading for our full review.
Snapchat 5.0 [Free, iTunes] just hit the App Store with some fresh new features and a totally redesigned interface. Version 5, codenamed Banquo, adds snap navigation, doubletap to reply, new ways to add friends, in-app profiles and the ability to send snaps directly from your address book. As with all updates, this one includes the requisite speed enhancements and design improvements…making it, dare we say, snappier™?
Many casual photographers have been reaching for their smartphones over their digital cameras recently for the convenience of social media integration and other sharing options. Eye-Fi has long offered photographers the option to transfer high-quality media from standalone cameras to personal computers and mobile devices but required intermediary WiFi hotspot access – a major obstacle for photographers shooting on location outdoors and in remote locales.
Today, Eye-Fi announced the “Eye-Fi Mobi,” which instantaneously beams new photos and content from digital cameras (without WiFi capabilities) to your favorite mobile device. “Simply replace any camera’s standard SD card with Mobi, and just two quick steps later, the camera’s photos instantly appear on the selected iOS or Android smartphone or tablet.”
The Eye-Fi Mobi puts beautiful, high-quality images on your mobile device ready to be uploaded to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or any other social network. The built-in WiFi means you’ll never have to seek out network access to transfer your pictures. Setup does not require a computer, account or cloud. Just download the Eye-Fi mobile app to get started.
Eye-Fi Mobi is available now in two flavors; 8GB ($50), 16GB ($80).
Kickfolio, a service that allows developers to offer demos of their iOS apps directly in the browser using an HTML5-based platform, today announced it is now allowing devs to embed their iOS apps directly in the Facebook news feed. The news comes as the company raises over $1 million in seed funding and changes its ‘Kickfolio’ branding to a more suitable “App.io”.
We’ve told you about the service before, which allows devs to embed playable HTML5 demos of their iOS apps directly on webpages and press releases for as little as $9 a month. Today the company is not only bringing that functionality directly to the Facebook news feed (as pictured above), it’s also announcing that support for Android is on the way.
App.io currently has about 3000 devs signed up, most of which are using the service as a marketing tool to drive users to the App Store. The company says the average user spends about 1 minute, 19 seconds playing the demo with 12 percent making their way to the App Store and those stats are expected to increase thanks to the new Facebook integration. App.io plans to integrate its service with other ad networks and platforms in the future and also launch tracking and analytics features.
At its event last month Facebook showed us a native Share Dialog as part of its Facebook SDK 3.5 for iOS update, and today Facebook announced on its blog that the feature is now available to developers.
Now officially out of beta, the native Share Dialog will allow developers to implement easier sharing features into their apps using a single line of code. Facebook said it provides “a lightweight and consistent way to enable sharing from your apps,” allowing users to share data from apps without first having to login into Facebook. The result is the elimination of 1 – 3 extra steps required for login when sharing via the feed dialog and an experience similar to using a Facebook Like button.
The Share Dialog further improves upon the iOS 6 share sheet by adding support for publishing Open Graph actions to make it easier for people to tell their stories on mobile. In addition, people can now tag friends and share where they are enabling them to share in a more meaningful and engaging way, while helping even more people connect with your app.
Analog Camera for iPhone by <a href="http://click.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/click?id=jZ6GP8Fu9UU&subid=&offerid=146261.1&type=10&tmpid=3909&RD_PARM1=https%3A%2F%2Fitunes.apple.com%2Fnl%2Fartist%2Frealmac-software%2Fid310591643%3Fl%3Den" target="_blank">Realmac Software</a>
From the wonderful folks who brought you Clear for iPhone and Mac, Realmac Software announced today it will bring a few of its stunning filters from Analog for Mac to the iPhone with Analog Camera.
Analog Camera for iPhone resembles the simplistic, gesture based UI of Clear for iPhone, featuring soft square or rectangle buttons that pop up upon contact and prompt fun, clever sounds.
Check out my observations of the app and a teaser video below: Expand Expanding Close
Fortune is out today with its annual FORTUNE 500 list ranking the largest corporations in the U.S. by revenue for fiscal 2012 (before expenditures). This year Apple, for the first time, has finally cracked the top 10 of Fortune’s list rising from its 17th place position last year to No. 6 on this year’s list. It’s still well behind Wal-Mart at No.1, as well as Exxon Mobil, which Apple happened to briefly surpass Apple’s market cap back in January to become the world’s most valuable company.
As for tech companies on the list, Facebook just barely made the Fortune 500 for the time this year coming it at number 482, while others include AT&T at No. 11, HP at No. 15, Verizon at No. 16, Microsoft at No. 35, and Amazon at No. 49.
Today a number of reports are flowing in claiming that social network app Path is sending spam messages to people listed in the user’s address book. The issue apparently isn’t new with some Android users on Reddit experiencing the spam a few months back, while a growing number of users on Twitter today have complained of their contacts receiving both spam text messages and calls. The messages, as pictured right, say the user has photos to share on Path and urges the recipient to downed the free Path app.
However, Path confirmed to The Verge that the issue is actually a feature of the app that sends messages to a user’s Facebook friends during sign-up: Expand Expanding Close
Jailbreak developer Adam Bell has just published a new tweak that allows Facebook users to access their Chat Heads from anywhere. The tweak is called Message Box and it works remarkably well. It’s not 100% perfect yet, but it functions well enough to use full time without much of an issue.
Keep reading for more info on the tweak, including where you can get it before it hits Cydia.
Facebook announced updates regarding mobile today at its Mobile Developer Conference in New York City continuing its effort to transition to a mobile-first platform.
Changes include an improved experience with Facebook Login, easier implementation of Open Graph on mobile, a new Object API and Object Browser, a native Share Dialog and Facebook SDK 3.5 for iOS.
The new Share Dialog allows users in non-Facebook apps to share directly to Facebook without leaving the app.
Facebook says its permissions dialog is 20% faster now.
The social network is encouraging mobile developers to integrate Facebook into their apps as it announced that 81% of the top grossing 100 iOS apps already integrate with Facebook.
According to Bloomberg‘s Adam Satariano, Richard Williamson has joined Facebook. We’ve independently heard the same. Williamson is a former iOS executive from Apple who was reportedly terminated over Apple Maps. Williamson ran Apple’s iOS 6 Maps team and also worked on Siri features.
Williamson joined Facebook in the past couple of weeks to be a manager within its expanding mobile-software group, said two of the people, who declined to be identified because the information isn’t public.
Following up on this morning’s news that Loren Brichter is working with Facebook some capacity, Bloomberg also notes that the company has actually hired the Letterpress developer and former Apple employee as a consultant.
When Facebook released their brand-new iOS application today, some were disappointed to find that the highlight features of Chat Heads (from Facebook Home) and Stickers were not present. Facebook says that the two features, like many other of Facebook’s recently released products, will be released via a staggered rollout.
For those who truly want to enable Chat Heads and Stickers before Facebook wants it on your iOS device, iMore‘s Nick Arnott has put together a thorough tutorial on how to enable the features. Follow the steps, grab an app called PhoneView (no jailbreak required), and a Plist editor (like the one included in Xcode), and you should be good to go. We’ve tested the Chat Heads trick, and it works well.
Bloomberg reports that Facebook is in discussions with Apple about the possibility of adding its Facebook Home interface to iPhones. Facebook Home describes itself as ‘putting your friends at the heart of your phone’, and is effectively a skin that sits on top of Android to display social feeds and messages front-and-centre, with apps taking second place. So far, however, it hasn’t wowed Android users. Expand Expanding Close
Cory Moll, an Apple retail employee who founded an unofficial union for Apple Store staff, is leaving the company tomorrow, having apparently resigned.
Moll founded the ‘Apple Workers Union’ as a Facebook page and now-defunct website, describing it as “a movement of empowerment to bring change and improvement of working conditions to Apple’s retail stores” in response to what some employees felt to be low pay and limited opportunity for advancement.
Moll tweeted earlier today that tomorrow would be his final day. In an email to 9to5Mac and others, he said: Expand Expanding Close
Facebook introduced the HTC First with Home for Android today, and now CEO Mark Zuckerberg is doing the press rounds and discussing everything from “Facebook phone,” building for Android, Google’s reaction to Home, and even why iOS was left in the dark.
During the unveiling event, Zuckerberg described building Home for Android as “smooth,” because the platform is open and does not require any Google intervention, where as Home for iOS would require a direct partnership with Apple.
In a wide-ranging interview at Wired.com this afternoon, Zuckerberg gave a more detailed explanation on why Facebook launched Home for Android phones instead of iOS, as well as why the company ditched the idea of building a phone directly:
Why not just build a phone? I’ve always been very clear that I don’t think that’s the right strategy. We’re a community of a billion-plus people, and the best-selling phones—apart from the iPhone—can sell 10, 20 million. If we did build a phone, we’d only reach 1 or 2 percent of our users. That doesn’t do anything awesome for us. We wanted to turn as many phones as possible into “Facebook phones.” That’s what Facebook Home is.
It’s only available on Android phones. Isn’t it ironic that your mobile strategy is now tied to Google’s operating system? “We have a pretty good partnership with Apple, but they want to own the whole experience themselves. There aren’t a lot of bridges between us and Google, but we are aligned with their open philosophy.”
So do you think in, say, two years you will have this on the iPhone? “That’s above my pay grade to be able to answer that.”
That’s a pretty high pay grade.
“Look, I would love for that answer to be yes. Facebook is in a very different place than Apple, Google, Amazon, Samsung, and Microsoft. We are trying to build a community. We have a billion folks using our services now, and we want to get to 3 or 5 billion one day. We’re going to do that by building the best experience across all devices. Android is growing quickly, and we’re excited that the platform is open and that it allows us to build these great experiences. I think that this is really good for Google too. Something like this could encourage a lot of people to get Android phones, because I think people really care about Facebook. In a lot of ways, this is one of the best Facebook experiences that you can get. Of course, a lot of people also love iPhones—I love mine, and I would like to be able to deliver Facebook Home there as well.”
Zuckerberg also talked with Fortune.com today about Google’s reaction to Home and what it’s like working with Apple:
On what Google will think of Facebook’s use of the open Android platform:
“I’m not sure how they’re going to react.”
On working with Apple:
“They really control the operating system… Android is different because it’s a much more open platform.”
On Google vs. Apple in mobile:
“I think that Google has this opportunity in the next year or two to start doing the things that are way better than what can be done on iPhone through the openness of their platform. We’d love to offer this on iPhone and we just can’t today. And we will work with Apple to do the best experience that we can within what they want, but I think that a lot of people who really like Facebook–and just judging from the numbers, people are spending a fifth of their time in phones on Facebook, that’s a lot of people. This could really tip things in that direction. We’ll have to see how it plays out.”
Facebook and HTC are again tied up building a phone together in which Facebook plays a major role. This isn’t like the ChaCha or Salsa phones which were mostly flops. This is a “Face-forked” version of Android with many Facebook modifications. More details including information on the ad campaigns over at 9to5Google.
BMW iOS app integration:Following some recent Siri Eyes Free news from Chevrolet, BMW announced today that it has partnered with handful of developers to bring similar eyes free experiences for a number of third-party iOS apps to its vehicles. BMW has partnered with Audible for audio books, Glympse for location sharing services, Rhapsody for subscription music and TuneIn for internet radio, all of which will be updating their apps in the weeks to come for compatibility with the BMW Apps system.
Plants vs Zombies 2:PopCap announced today that part two of its incredibly popular Plants vs Zombies title is finally going to land on iOS in additional to all the other usual platforms “early summer.” No clues on what might be included in the second installment, but in the meantime PopCap will launch a new version of the game on Facebook.
App Updates:
IM+ Instant Messenger version 7.7: A nice update to the very popular IM+ service today offers Beep mobile-to-mobile service as an in-app purchase, the ability to preview transferred images directly in chats, and the usual bug fixes and performance enhancements. iPad users will also now be able to capture photos and videos in the app.
StreamBoard version 5.0: The Twitter client that lets you track keywords and hashtags in real-time is updated to version 5.0 with many new features and enhancements:
For this incredible milestone, StreamBoard has been rewritten from the ground up bringing to you:
– A brand new streamlined interface powered by gestures
– A reimagined filter view featuring real-time graphs that you can interact with
– Much improved engine for faster speed!
– and many more!
Pocket-lint reportedthat United Kingdom users would be given access to Facebook’s Skype-like voice calling service today. Readers confirm that the service is indeed rolling out.
The Wall Street Journal published a piece last night that profiled influential app developer Loren Brichter of Atebits and Tweetie fame. The 28-year-old developer is the man behind several apps that were first to implement or help popularize well-known gestures and UI features that have since become design standards for many popular apps and developers. Perhaps the best example is “pull-to-refresh”—a feature that Brichter built into his Tweetie app before selling to Twitter:
Mr. Brichter got his start in the mobile industry while at Apple from 2006 to 2007 as part of a five-person group working out early kinks in technology that made the iPhone’s graphics hardware and software communicate… In 2008, Mr. Brichter built Tweetie to have a better way to use Twitter and eventually included the “pull-to-refresh” feature. After selling the app to Twitter for what he says was “single digit millions” in 2010, he stayed on at Twitter working remotely on the company’s apps for about a year and a half. He left to keep experimenting.
Other features Brichter helped to popularize include the slide-out panels that we see in apps such as Facebook and a feature described as “cell swipe” that’s popular in Twitter apps for revealing lists of hidden functions by swiping. WSJ was quick to point out that Brichter has filed for a patent on at least the “pull-to-refresh” gesture (now owned by Twitter), but Brichter explained that he allows most developers to implement the features freely: Expand Expanding Close
Just as Apple introduced iOS 7 equipped with 
