May 2018 - Page 310 of 316

Tech News

Ashley Judd sues Harvey Weinstein in lawsuit tied to 'Lord of the Rings'

May 1, 2018

Ashley Judd is taking Harvey Weinstein to court, and she intends for any judgments in her favor to benefit the Time’s Up movement.

Judd filed her suit in the Los Angeles Superior Court on Monday, as she confirmed on Twitter. She’s seeking damages for defamation, sexual harassment, and violations of California business laws governing unfair competition and intentionally interfering with a person’s livelihood.

The lawsuit stems from an incident that occurred in the late ’90s, after Judd met with The Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson and his production partner Fran Walsh about a role in the then-in-development adaptation. Perhaps you remember this story; Jackson himself shared it late last year. Read more…

More about Entertainment, Celebrities, Lawsuit, Ashley Judd, and Harvey Weinstein

Source: Mashable | Ashley Judd sues Harvey Weinstein in lawsuit tied to 'Lord of the Rings'

Tech News

Facebook and Instagram Stories open to sharing from other apps

May 1, 2018

Facebook is recruiting help to make its Stories more interesting than Snapchat’s. Starting with Spotify, SoundCloud and GoPro, third-party apps can now let their users share to Facebook Stories and Instagram Stories. Rather than screenshotting, users will be able to hit a button to share a photo or video of a playlist, song or mini-movie from another app into Facebook or Instagram’s Stories camera, where they can embellish it with effects and post it to their friends. GoPro’s integration actually lets you edit your movies inside Facebook’s apps, while you can immediately start listening to songs shared from Spotify and SoundCloud.

Facebook’s CPO Chris Cox announced the feature at Facebook’s F8 conference, saying that he’s excited to see what developers build. Other launch partners include selfie editor Meitu, lipsyncing app Musically, Indian streaming music service Saavn and more.

While this new wing of the Facebook platform is opening to all developers, only approved partners that go through a review process like the three mentioned will have attribution watermarks added to the shares.

This platform move mirrors what Facebook did with its Open Graph launch 7 years ago at F8 2011. That let developers push stories about in-app activity to Facebook’s Ticker and News Feed. Eventually Facebook dropped the Ticker and phased out these Open Graph auto-shares in favor of explicit sharing, where the user is in full control. Facebook is taking this more cautious approach with Stories too, rather than make users worry their guilty pleasure listening or private imagery could be unknowingly shared to their Story.

The plan deviates significantly from Snapchat’s strategy, which has shunned third-party developers like music video-maker Mindie in the past. Now Snapchat lets developers create augmented reality lenses and geofilters that users can unlock, but the content creation happens in Snapchat’s app. Facebook hopes that by recruiting developers and getting them to build special content users can share to their Stories, it will avoid the feature growing stale from the same old selfies and sunsets.

Source: Tech Crunch Mobiles | Facebook and Instagram Stories open to sharing from other apps

Tech News

Whoops! F8 website crashes as Facebook’s biggest event of the year starts

May 1, 2018

Facebook’s massive developer conference kicked off Tuesday, but the event’s website lagged behind.

F8’s site was down at least 15 minutes before Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg was set to kick off his keynote address in San Jose, California. The social network had hyped the event on social media prior to the kickoff, making the stumble a bit awkward.

Even as Zuck addressed data privacy issues head on, the site remained down — including the livestream hosted on the event site.

Various news outlets steamed Zuckerberg’s speech, so people could still watch the CEO crack wise about his congressional hearing and various product updates. And the F8 site was brought back online shortly after the presentation began. Read more…

More about Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, F8, F8 Conference, and Tech
Source: Mashable | Whoops! F8 website crashes as Facebook’s biggest event of the year starts

World News

Oculus Go review: mobile VR, minus the phone

May 1, 2018

Oculus Go review: mobile VR, minus the phone The Verge

Oculus Go, the virtual reality headset Facebook hopes will bring VR to the mainstream, is finally here Recode

Full coverage

Source: Google News | Oculus Go review: mobile VR, minus the phone

Reviews and Gadgets

Instagram allows you to post to Stories from other apps

May 1, 2018

Today, Instagram announced a new way to share your favorite moments to Stories. You can now post to your Instagram Story directly from a third-party app, so you can easily share what you're doing, what you're enjoying or what you're listening to with…
Source: Engadget | Instagram allows you to post to Stories from other apps

Reviews and Gadgets

Facebook Messenger will begin translating English to Spanish soon

May 1, 2018

Messenger's built-in AI is getting a new trick. The M digital assistant will suggest translating a message to your native language if you get a message via Marketplace in a different tongue. It'll start with English to Spanish and roll out to users i…
Source: Engadget | Facebook Messenger will begin translating English to Spanish soon

Reviews and Gadgets

Facebook continues AR push with tracking, audio and location tools

May 1, 2018

Last year, Facebook revealed Camera Effects Platform and the associated AR Studio — tools to make it easier to create interactive experiences using the Facebook camera. The latter enabled developers to add animated frames, masks and effects for…
Source: Engadget | Facebook continues AR push with tracking, audio and location tools

Reviews and Gadgets

Oculus TV launches this month with a ton of streaming partners

May 1, 2018

Given that the main function of an Oculus headset is to let you escape reality for a while, using one to watch TV seems almost pedestrian. Yet it's a feature that's often overlooked, until now. Oculus TV is launching later this month and it's got a r…
Source: Engadget | Oculus TV launches this month with a ton of streaming partners

Reviews and Gadgets

Oculus Rooms gets Hasbro games and a major redesign

May 1, 2018

Alongside the Go's launch today, Oculus also announced an updated version of Rooms, its app for hanging out with friends in VR. The new app sports a swankier design, and it also features Hasbro board games, which will really make it feel like you're…
Source: Engadget | Oculus Rooms gets Hasbro games and a major redesign

Tech News

Brands on Messenger are going to start using augmented reality to sell you stuff

May 1, 2018

Facebook is giving its Messenger bots a new power: augmented reality.

Beginning now, a handful of brands will be able to integrate AR effects into their automated messaging bots — those automatic replies you get when you, say, ask CNN on Messenger what the news is.

The new AR abilities are similar to Snapchat’s recently-launched “shoppable” lenses: brands and businesses can create AR experiences meant to get you to buy stuff. But in Messenger’s case, the feature isn’t tied to animated face filters.

So while Sephora’s bot could direct a potential customer to virtually try on different types of makeup, Nike could show off how a new shoe looks from any angle, and Kia could make a virtual car appear in your driveway. Read more…

More about Tech, Facebook, Augmented Reality, Apps And Software, and Messenger

Source: Mashable | Brands on Messenger are going to start using augmented reality to sell you stuff