When you're running a service for over a billion active users, the emphasis on privacy and security are perhaps even greater, and Facebook has always been diligent in its quest to maintain the privacy of its extensive user base. Today, the world's foremost social network announced a bunch of new privacy features, as well as other general alterations in a press statement entitled "Better Controls for Managing Your Content". Here, we summarize what these changes mean for you.
It seems just like yesterday when those 12 bells chimed and 2012 was welcomed with hopes of a prosperous and exciting 12 months ahead, but in just under 3 weeks time that feeling of deja vu will be setting in once again as the curtain closes on another year and we get ready to see what 2013 will bring us. Considering the importance of social media in our lives and the continuing rise in popularity throughout 2012, it's likely that a large portion of us have interacted rather extensively with Facebook during the course of this year, which is something that they are keen to celebrate by offering us the chance to see our 2012 in review directly from our Facebook profile page.
The Mozilla team has been busily updating and improving its revered Firefox browser, with more frequent release cycles in place to ensure it maintains competitive with the likes of Google's Chrome. As planned, the foundation has released version 1.0 of the Firefox OS Simulator, and by means of a blog post, Mozilla has also introduced per-window private browsing via the Firefox Nightly channel.
Angry Birds started off as nothing more than a catchy, quirky title for iOS, but in a few short years, has quickly evolved into a billion-dollar franchise. With five titles having now been released on a number of platforms, and products ranging from speakers and phone covers to plush toys, it was only a matter of time before the story of how the birds avenged the pigs would hit the box office. Announced today, an official Angry Birds movie will arrive at some point in 2016, and John Cohen, producer behind hit flicks such as Despicable Me, will oversee the production of the Rovio-funded movie.
Those who prefer to sit behind a Windows or OS X powered computer sometimes forget that there is a whole community of users across the world who prefer to step away from the mainstream operating systems and instead choose to use a version of Linux, with one of the most popular one being Ubuntu. Ubuntu offers a fantastic user experience to those who choose to use it, but unfortunately, it doesn't always offer compatibility with applications and programs, with the extremely popular Netflix app being a prime example of this problem.
Nobody likes to think of themselves becoming old, but eventually, most of us - the luckier ones perhaps - are going to get there. While we may not envisage what we'll eventually look like as mature beings, many of us are planning for it, and incase you needed a visual reminder to help keep you motivated, Merrill Edge - the brokerage wing of the Bank of America - has you covered with its web app - Face Retirement.
It is a well-known fact that many of us have developed something of an attachment to our mobile devices. In fact, some smartphone owners could have their devices stuck to their hands permanently, and nobody would think anything amiss. But some folk – or at least, those with an affinity to Apple - have taken their love for their prized gadget a little further, using familiar Cupertino products as inspiration for child-naming.
Although Facebook currently holds the title as the world's largest social network with over one billion active monthly members, it doesn't mean that success is guaranteed. The face of companies such as Facebook and Twitter are constantly evolving to meet the demands of their user base, so it stands to reason that Facebook will be continuously trying to innovate and add new technologies and services to their social experience, one of which is the Photo Syncing feature we reported on last week. Although Photo Syncing was initially in a private beta stage with a select few iOS users, Facebook have now rolled the service out on a large scale to all compatible iOS and Android devices using the official Facebook app.
Firefox may not be your browser of choice, but considering it has been placed onto a fairly frequent update schedule and is benefitting from a number of impressive changes and feature additions, then it could be worth checking out for those who are growing tired of using the likes of Google Chrome, Safari or dare I say it… Internet Explorer. Being able to stay in touch socially with through the likes of Twitter and Facebook is always important to a lot of people, so it may come as a surprise to some to learn that Firefox 17 brought with it a hidden feature that extends into Facebook.
General Motors seems particularly keen, dare I say, Sirious about implementing voice-recognition technology into automobiles, and to outline this intention, will be implementing Apple's Siri personal assistant to a couple of its Chevrolet car models early next year.
