Social Items



Facebook had admitted haven sold approximately 3,000 ads to Russian Pages, albeit unknowingly, which helped to influence the last U.S. election, with most of the ads focusing on divisive social and political rhetoric.

While the over 150 political ads ran on Russian-operated Pages during the last year’s election, Facebook in response to U.S. Congress had confirmed that some of those ads appeared on its other social platform, Instagram.

The ads followed same ideological spectrum, touching on topics from LGBT matters to race issues to immigration to gun rights.

Below are few other facts about the Russian ads:

About 1% of the ads used a specific type of Custom Audiences targeting to reach people on Facebook who had visited that advertiser’s website or liked the advertiser’s Page — as well as to reach people who are similar to those audiences. None of the ads used another type of Custom Audiences targeting based on personal information such as email addresses. Of the more than 3,000 ads that we have shared with Congress, 5% appeared on Instagram. About $6,700 was spent on these ads.


According to Facebook, the ad targeting is designed to show people ads they might find useful, instead of showing everyone ads that they might find irrelevant or annoying.

Though, the actual number of people who saw the Instagram ads remain unknown, Facebook has confirmed that the collection of 3,000 ads might have been seen by as many as 10 million people.

Facebook accept that its service was abused, but promised that internal investigation continues, as they intensify efforts to stamp out abuse and bad actors on its platform. With its new ad transparency tool helping to mitigate improper ads from running in the future.

How Facebook ads sold to Russia was extended to Instagram



In the early days of instant messaging, the two messengers that have stood out are Yahoo Messenger and AOL Instand Messenger, which back in late 90s taught us to chat pulling the plug on texting.

As one of the pioneering chat app, AOL Instant Messenger had dominated online chat in North America.

But now, social apps like Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp has conquered, AOL is giving up the fight and shutting down its Instant Messenger after 20 years.

AOL wrote on the AIM help page:

We know there are so many loyal fans who have used AIM for decades; and we loved working and building the first chat app of its kind since 1997, Our focus will always be on providing the kind of innovative experiences consumers want. We’re more excited than ever to focus on building the next generation of iconic brands and life-changing products.


While AIM iconic Away Messages were the initiator of the modern tweet and status update, with competitors like ICQ, and messengers from Yahoo and Microsoft MSN.

But Google’s GChat, WhatsApp and Facebook took over, as AIM never fully made the shift to mobile, as the chat experience was built into AOL desktop. Farewell to AIM, those teenage memories will continue to linger!

AOL Instant Messenger is shutting down



Following the purported discontinuation of Microsoft's Groove Music Pass announced by the company, netizens are worried about the likelihood that the company can sustain other consumer products and services.

While such Microsoft products/services like Zune music player, Windows phones, and the Microsoft Band, may all seem to be facing the same death toll.

Now, the salient question making the rounds on Twitterverse this week; can Microsoft be trusted to sustain other consumer products and services? And that has resurfaced the same angry protest: Doesn’t Microsoft care about consumers?

Every business follows the money — which in most cases, comes from Microsoft’s enterprise offerings — which may be the real reason no Microsoft consumer service can be said to be completely safe.

Albeit, every businesses first love may be consumers, but attention will quickly turned to enterprises where the majority, even Microsoft sells more to businesses and enterprises than it does to consumers.

For instance, both Skype and OneDrive have evolved to serve both consumers and businesses, but the later is definitely what's making the money.

Microsoft's emphasis nowadays is on subscriptions and abstract services, rather than on ready-made software package products. And the list includes Microsoft Office 365, Azure, artificial intelligence and bots; even so-called “consumer” devices like the Surface are really aimed toward business customers.

The company's relationship with consumers may perhaps reached a new peak in 2015, as it co-developed Windows 10 with users serving a multi-device strategy that included Surface tablets, HoloLens, and a hopeful future for Windows phones.

But Windows phone is dead, and HoloLens nowhere to be found, the promised Windows features have been delayed or cancelled, and services like Groove is already slated for discontinuation.

Perhaps, it's Microsoft’s inevitable shift that leaves its consumer businesses vulnerable. Would anyone be surprised if Microsoft Stores were the next on the death toll?

Is Microsoft's consumer services at risk of discontinuity?



Microsoft has finally launched the mobile Edge browser on iOS and Android, adding to its cross-platform spread for almost all its offerings, along with a Microsoft Launcher for Android.

The arrival of Edge browser across the major mobile platforms is strategically meant to serve as a bridge between the PC and your phone, which eases files exchange between these devices.

As the mobile Edge browser syncs with Microsoft account, it makes your history, Reading List, and favorite pages available across other devices.

While it also includes a “Continue on PC” button that restores access to your work from mobile over to your computer, there's no confirmation if the mobile Edge browser syncs recent tabs like Chrome.

Albeit, Microsoft didn’t specify whether your collection of e-books from the Microsoft Store will sync as well, but its expected given that the drive will turn Edge into an e-reader.

The Microsoft Launcher for Android, on the other hand provides customizable home screen option in the usual Android launcher tradition. It allow users to add icons of their friends on the Android home screen for easy connectivity, akin to the My People app coming with the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update.

The Launcher also reinforces the company’s cross-platform initiatives as it makes available information from Microsoft Calendar to the mobile devices.

Finally, Microsoft brings Edge browser to iOS and Android

Fake news is one major headline nowadays, and Facebook is at the heart of the happenings; even as its founder, Mark Zuckerberg has vowed to protect its integrity after finding 3,000 Russia-linked ads on the social network.

While Facebook had employed several filters and enhancements in the news feed to fact-check on articles and warn readers on fake news. Now, the company has gone a step further with a new tool to help readers spot to fake news in context.

The tool provides context to any article posted on the Newsfeed, through a pop-up window showing details about the article and its publisher; with descriptions of the source of the article, details of the publisher, as well as other links.



Albeit, the authorship is from crowd-sourced encyclopedia, mainly Wikipedia which can be edited by anyone, including those trying to spread hoaxes.

But, nonetheless providing context will be a helpful tool to make sure users consider the source of any article been shared on the network.

As the contextual information can help evaluate if articles are from a trustworthy publisher, and if the story is credible, which if no context is available, may suggest that it's fake-news site.

And its coming on the heels of the fake-news storm surrounding the Las Vegas mass shooting, which Facebook escalated with the top sources of the stories pointing to websites like "TheAntiMedia.org" and "MyTodayTV.com, which if the context has been available, could have afforded readers means to know that those were not trusted sources.

Facebook battles fake news with a contextual tool



With mobile evolution, comes a lot of changes on technologies built around it. Then you may want to ask what is next for mobile?

Progressive Web App (PWA) is a term used to denote web applications that use the latest web technologies. Find below a compilation of the latest statistics from Google’s own case studies on Progressive Web Apps to see how they compare to native apps.

This Infographic is brought to you by Appinstitute - Progressive Web App builder.

Progressive Web app

INFOGRAPHIC: The Future of Mobile - Progressive Web Apps



The Instagram cross-posting feature has been on testing since last month, which is to offer the option to syndicate Instagram Stories to Facebook Stories. Now, the feature is rolling out to all users with the exception of business accounts, since not supported on Facebook Stories.

The feature will eliminate the annoyance of manual syndication, which takes extra time and leads to poor image quality as posts are re-uploaded.

Albeit, users won’t be able to do the reverse, that is posting Facebook Stories to Instagram Stories, though the company hasn’t ruled out the possibility in the future.

Other enhancements to Facebook Stories, includes it becoming focal point for both posts from Facebook app Camera and its augmented reality platform.

Though, the Stories feature was originally cloned from Snapchat, but it hasn't really taken off as the later, even as it has been criticized as redundant, despite Facebook huge global followership.

The new syndication feature could however bring a ton of content to Facebook Stories, and may perhaps turn the rather ghost town becoming status to a more vibrant ecosystem.

Instagram to Facebook Stories cross-posting now live

Pixelbook is perhaps the first Chromebook to be tied directly to Google’s ecosystem; announced on Wednesday at Google’s hardware event in San Francisco, as the third generation of Google’s premium Chromebook Pixel.

It is tied directly to Google’s ecosystem, including Google Assistant and Google Play Store, which instead of been isolated in Chrome OS, opens up new potential for the Chromebook.

If you've got Google's Pixel phone as well, the Pixelbook can automatically tether to the Pixel phone if no other internet access is available.



The integration with Google Assistant and the Google Play Store, means you can now talk to the Pixelbook to get information, launch apps, or stream movies or music.

While the wait for Google to bring Android apps to Chromebooks continues — which roll out has been relatively slow, most of the apps that run on Chromebooks are still trapped in smartphone-sized windows.

Albeit, the Chromebook Pixel’s second generation real changes were in software, as Google worked to bring Android apps to Chromebooks—a work still in progress. The Pixelbook is an exciting new step for Chromebooks, as until now it could do little more than browse the web.

The Pixelbook preorder has started in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom via the Google Store and will ship October 31, according to Google’s Matt Voukun.

Google's effort to bring Android apps to the desktop fulfilled in Pixelbook



Snapchat has launched an augmented reality (AR) platform which will allow art to be pinned to specific locations and made available to users when they hold up their phones at the spot; while pop artist Jeff Koons is named among the first artist on-board.

It is designed to place giant AR art sculptures in hotspots around the world that is only viewable via Snapchat.

It follows Snap's recent investments in AR, giving rise to the launch of augmented-reality world lenses, an interactive models that users can share in their snaps for advertisers.

The partnership with artist Jeff Koons will bring some of his iconic sculptures, like the balloon dog, to be digitally placed in Hyde Park in London and Central Park in New York, and other popular public spaces around the world.

And the sculpture will appear on the user’s phone as they approach the given locations, allowing them to explore it up close, almost as if they were actually standing next to the real sculpture.

Albeit, it remains unclear whether Snap is currently working with other artists aside Jeff Koons, known for his giant faux balloon sculptures.

Snap indeed appears to be betting big on augmented reality, and perhaps it will keep users coming back to Snapchat over its competitors like Instagram.

Snapchat partners with Artists to place Art Works on AR platform



Microsoft has hinted on plans to discontinue its Groove Music Pass service by the end of the year, with the 4-year-old service starting on December 31 will no longer be available for users to stream music.

Albeit, the company won’t discontinue the Groove Music app in Windows 10, and users will still be able to stream purchased and uploaded music stored on PC or OneDrive cloud service.

With the end of Groove Music Pass, which cost same as Spotify Premium, Microsoft will require any user who still want to stream music to connect its Groove Music service to a Spotify Premium account.

Microsoft will then move any music that the Groove user has purchased over to Spotify, which the company has acknowledged as preferred streaming service.

If you don’t want to move to Spotify, though, make sure you download your musics on PC, otherwise you’ll lose all contents.

There’s an exemption though, if you’ve purchased an annual subscription to Groove, Microsoft will refund your money at 120 percent.

And if your subscription (whether monthly, or a $99 annual one) ends after December 31, the company will refund you at a 120-percent rate by February 1, 2018, which Microsoft will issue a gift card for those that don’t have a card that accept refunds.

For Groove Music subscribers who want to close or transfer their accounts before the end of December 31, Microsoft has made available a detailed Groove Music Pass and Spotify FAQ.

Microsoft to discontinue Groove Music Pass; moves users contents to Spotify

Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)