After buying WhatsApp and Instagram several years ago, Facebook has decided it’s time to let everyone know who’s in charge. A report from The Information details Facebook plans to change the names of the apps to ‘Instagram from Facebook’ and ‘WhatsApp from Facebook.’ The social network later confirmed the report. I’m sure people with love that. This isn’t just something you’ll see on marketing materials, as Facebook intends to change the name you see in the Google Play and the App Store as well....

Speaking at a Senate hearing, Instagram head Adam Mosseri said Instagram is “currently working on a version of a chronological feed that we hope to launch next year,” within the first quarter of 2022, and that he supports “giving the people the option” to sort posts chronologically. Instagram later confirmed the news a little more explicitly on Twitter: — Instagram Comms (@InstagramComms) December 8, 2021 This comes in stark contrast to a blog post written by Mosseri just this June, in which he staunchly algorithmic ranking: He then goes into further detail about how Instagram goes about ranking posts, as well as some tips on how you can influence what content shows up on your feed....

Still, slowly but surely the web app is becoming more useful. Case in point: Instagram appears to be working on adding DM’s to the web UI. The potential new feature was spotted by developer Jane Manchun Wong who is known for diving deep into code to find hidden upcoming features. — Jane Manchun Wong (@wongmjane) October 9, 2019 Wong notes that conversations are listed on a sidebar in an interface akin to Facebook Messenger’s....

Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was assassinated while traveling in a convoy outside of Tehran. According to reports, a Nissan pickup truck equipped with a mounted machine gun caught the convoy and opened fire. Moments later, the truck exploded. According to IRGC Deputy Commander Ali Fadavi, per a report from Iranian state-controlled media outlet Tasnim News Agency, “No hit man was present at the scene of the strike” when the scientist was attacked....

Dorsey answers several questions from Twitter users in the video, and inevitably someone asks whether we’ll get an edit button in 2020. “The answer is no,” says Dorsey in a matter-of-factly manner. Dorsey then goes on to explain some of the reasoning behind the decision. He notes that Twitter started out as an SMS service and “when you send a text, you can’t really take it back.” He then presents the common argument that someone could edit a tweet after it’s gained popularity, changing the context of replies and retweets....

A document signed by District Judge P. Kevin Castel at the New York Southern District Court earlier this week, says Durov will be deposed “on January 7 or 8, 2020, as necessary,” at a location mutually agreed by both parties. Shyam Parekh, a Telegram employee, will be deposed on December 10. According to CoinDesk, Parekh’s name was featured on the company’s letters to investors that were leaked after it was sued by the SEC....

Background: Serialized fiction has been on the comeback trail in recent years. The format helped built the careers of the likes of Charles Dickens and Arthur Conan Doyle, before declining after magazines shifted their focus away from fiction in the mid-20th century. The rise of digital publishing mediums has set the stage for a revival. The service could also give self-published authors a means to make money from their stories while maintaining a second income....

Google processes 3.5 billion searches every day. That’s obviously an astronomical number, but did you know that 15 percent of those searches, literally hundreds of millions of queries every day, are for terms that have never been Googled before? Even with so much search activity every day, there are always exciting new places for savvy web entrepreneurs to plant their digital flags. You just need to figure out where to make your stand — and the tools in Seobility All-in-One SEO software and tools kit ($29 for a lifetime subscription, over 90 percent off from TNW Deals) can help you find those places and reap the benefits....

It’s hard to believe, but YouTube has been a part of our lives for over 15 years now. Ever since that day in April 2005 when YouTube co-founder Jawed Karim posted the first clip, his simple 18-second “Me at the zoo” video, the world has been hooked. Today, 2 billion users are logged in to YouTube every month. They upload 500 hours of video every minute — and because everyone is watching, YouTube will generate $5....

People can describe themselves and their ideal relationship in a wide variety of ways, sometimes less than honestly, including exaggerating characteristics that they think are desirable. Most people do not dramatically lie, however. Instead, they use minor deceptions or small exaggerations. Altering photos by using filters is a common way to improve one’s portrayed physical appearance. However, online dating companies have been taking a hard stance and not permitting photos that have been filtered or altered on profiles because the wide majority of daters find the use of filters deceptive....

While this approach has worked wonders in the pet community, helping returning lost furry friends to their owners, the use of microchips in a business environment is not only dehumanizing, it’s also pointless. It’s true, passwords are not sufficient to defend your network, that has been well established over the years. You need additional factors to provide high identity assurance. But it’s absurd to think that the “human-embedded option,” which is basically a code (private key) embedded in an RFID chip, the same one you use to access your gym, is the wave of the future....

Ukrainian citizen and Washington resident Volodymyr Kvashuk (25) allegedly used testing accounts of Microsoft’s online store to purchase gift cards loaded with digital currency, and later resold them via the internet for real money. A Department of Justice (DoJ) statement alleges Kvashuk tried to cover his tracks by using Bitcoin “mixing services” before depositing money from the sales into his bank account. These services “shuffle” amounts of Bitcoin in such a way that makes it difficult to trace its transactional history....

Case in point: ZDNet reports Microsoft plans on hosting all its 2020 events as “digital-first” experiences, as confirmed by a spokesperson: Furthermore, ZDNet claims Microsoft is considering making events in the first half of 2021 digital-only as well – including Build 2021 – citing sources familiar with the matter. When asked, Microsoft said it will “continue to evaluate the event landscape.” That the company is considering canceling in-person events over a year in advance speaks to the massive disruption coronavirus has caused in the tech industry....

Some have argued that the U.S. is in the midst of a Second Gilded Age defined – like the first – by vast wealth inequality, hyper-partisanship, xenophobia and a new crop of oligarchs using their vast wealth to purchase media and political influence. Which brings us to the announcement on April 25, 2022, that Tesla billionaire Elon Musk is, barring any last-minute hitches, purchasing the social media platform Twitter. It will put the wealthiest man on the planet in control of one of the most influential means of communications in world today....

In the last few months, they’ve warned that space rocks as big as the Eiffel Tower, the Empire State Building, and the Great Pyramid of Giza could all miss Earth by just millions of miles. In response, NASA is resorting to increasingly desperate measures. After simulating catastrophe impacts and slapping asteroids with spaceships, the agency on Monday unveiled its most outlandish weapon yet: an algorithm. Named Sentry-II, the system will evaluate the threats posed by near-Earth asteroids (NEAs)....

The patent outlines a system whereby blockchain can be used to attach cryptographically secured digital assets to a physical product, in this case a sports shoe. It seems Nike’s platform will also track the ownership and verify the authenticity of sneakers using the blockchain-based system. When you buy a pair of the “CryptoKicks,” you’ll also receive a digital asset attached to a unique identifier of that shoe. As a result, there is digital scarcity of the digital assets, as their production is effectively tied to the production of real sneakers....

According to research published yesterday, the hacking group, Lazarus, is now using fake cryptocurrency trading software, created by a similarly fake front company, Forbes reports. It appears that hackers set up a front company called JMT Trading, and wrote an accompanying open-source cryptocurrency trading app. The code to which was hosted on GitHub. However, here’s where the originality ends. In the code for the JMT Trading software is a piece of malicious code which, according to Mac security expert Patrick Wardle, gives hackers the “ability to remotely execute commands” on a victim’s device....

PDFs pulled away as the primary web document format of the digital age in the early 90s because they offered high quality versions of those documents in a comparatively small file size. But while they looked great and didn’t take up much space, the downside of PDFs have always been just as forward-facing. Even with many editors and across all operating systems, PDFs can still be a bear to hassle with....

Thiel — the billionaire co-founder of PayPal and Palantir Technologies — has sat on Meta’s board since 2005, and was one of The Big Mark Dawg’s most influential mentors. While Thiel is rumored to be stepping down in order to focus on, uhhh, “influencing November’s midterm elections,” his departure leaves a major hole in Meta. Who now can guide Big Zuck on his path into darkness? What individual can whisper sweet nothings into his ear?...

As a researcher and psychoanalyst who works with patients with eating disorders, I’ve spent considerable time on pro-anorexia forums carefully analyzing their content. Visiting a pro-ana website for the first time is a visceral experience. You’re confronted with diatribes against medical and mental-health treatments, accompanied by photos of emaciated adolescents that convey a strange combination of starvation and sexuality. Participants share their particular obsessions: the space between the thighs, protruding ribcages, hipbones like boomerangs....