keyword: Facebook

facebook-is-testing-a-way-for-creators-to-make-money-through-stories:-sticker-ads

Facebook is testing a way for creators to make money through Stories: sticker ads

Facebook introduced Stories to its platform four years ago, mostly as a way to encourage people to post content that wasn’t highly produced or necessarily photogenic. Now, it’s giving some users a chance to make money through that content. The company announced a test today that’ll allow some creators to place ads that look like stickers into their stories and receive a cut of the resulting revenue. The initial test is “very small,” Facebook says, but it hopes to expand it “soon” and then apply the technology to all short-form videos on Facebook.

In a chat with The Verge, Yoav Arnstein, director of product management, says he can’t share creator or advertiser partners because the test is still in the early conceptual phase. He said the broader idea, though, is to give advertisers a natural place to fit their content, so, for example, if someone posts a video from Yosemite National Park, a sticker could advertise a local business. The contextual relevance will likely be key to making these advertisements successful, Arnstein says.

The story stickers are only one of the company’s various updates to its creator platform today. It’s also making its usual in-stream ads available for shorter videos. Previously, only three-minute or longer videos could monetize with these ads, but now, one-minute-long videos can receive ads, which will be placed 30 seconds into the content. Videos longer than three minutes can place ads as soon as 45 seconds into the programming.

To qualify for these in-stream ads, pages that publish them must have 600,000 total minutes viewed from any combination of video uploads — on-demand, live, and previously live — in the last 60 days, as well as five or more active video uploads or previously live videos. Meanwhile, live video creators now must have 60,000 live minutes viewed in the last 60 days to monetize through in-stream ads, in addition to meeting the video-on-demand program requirements.

Facebook is also spending $7 million to promote its Stars feature, which lets viewers of live content tip with virtual stars, which each pay a creator a cent. The company will make free Stars available during certain live streams, and viewers can them send to the videos’ hosts. The team will also introduce virtual gifts that viewers can send.

“We want to enable more people to actually go and experience this delight of actually going and supporting a creator, and we think this is a relatively new behavior that we want to make more ubiquitous across the app, and we think this is a great way to do that,” Arnstein says about why Facebook is investing in the Stars. “We think that can help also incentivize creators to experiment more with the type of content and the type of engagement directly with fans that will actually enable and incentivize this type of direct support from fans.”

Finally, Facebook is expanding its paid live events to 24 additional countries and its fan subscriptions to 10 more countries. The company won’t collect revenue from either of those features through at least August 2021.

All of these various announcements clearly add up to the idea that Facebook wants to monetize as much creator content as possible through ads. The Stories sticker has potentially the biggest implications, particularly for Instagram, and could usher in a world that’s slightly less focused on full-screen ads and more on those integrated into the content itself.

facebook-moves-to-dismiss-the-us-government’s-antitrust-case

Facebook moves to dismiss the US government’s antitrust case

In two motions filed Wednesday, Facebook called on the courts to dismiss a pair of sweeping competition cases brought on by the federal government and a coalition of states.

The Federal Trade Commission and a group of state attorneys general filed separate lawsuits against Facebook last December accusing the tech giant of engaging in anti-competitive behavior. The two lawsuits make similar claims, alleging that Facebook bought Instagram and WhatsApp in order to squash the threat the two apps posed to the company’s business. Additionally, the attorneys general accused Facebook of using its market dominance to stifle the growth of competing services.

The FTC’s case also calls for the courts to unwind Facebook’s acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp into separate companies once again.

In Facebook’s motion to dismiss the cases, it claims the lawsuits allege that the two nascent apps were “potential” competitors, rather than a pressing and actual threat to Facebook’s business. The FTC declined to comment. The New York Attorney General’s office, one of the states leading the second case, did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Verge.

“Antitrust laws are intended to promote competition and protect consumers,” Facebook said in a blog post Wednesday. “These complaints do not credibly claim that our conduct harmed either.”

Because the FTC cleared the Instagram and WhatsApp acquisitions at the time, Facebook also argues that the commission doesn’t have sufficient grounds to reverse that decision. “Facebook is aware of no comparable, much less successful, challenge by the FTC to a long-completed acquisition that the FTC itself cleared,” Facebook’s filing reads.

Facebook is at the center of a series of antitrust investigations brought on by the federal government, states, and Congress. Last month, the House Judiciary Committee’s subcommittee on antitrust held its first hearing on tech dominance after a 16-month probe into companies like Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google. That investigation prompted a report from Democrats calling for structural remedies to Facebook’s business, potentially leading to a breakup. The hearing marked the last leg of the committee’s work, holding a second series of hearings on how to reform US antitrust law as it’s applied to tech companies.

Committees in both the House and Senate plan to hold hearings this week, and new legislation is expected to land before the end of spring.

htc-announces-vive-pro-lip-tracking-module-and-new-vr-body-trackers

HTC announces Vive Pro lip tracking module and new VR body trackers

HTC has announced a new set of trackers for its Vive virtual reality headsets, including one that captures facial expressions and mouth movements. The $129.99 Vive Facial Tracker attaches to the Vive Pro headset. It uses two cameras and an infrared illuminator to record lip, cheek, and jaw movements and then translates that into virtual facial expressions. HTC says the product is “coming soon.”

HTC unveiled an experimental VR facial tracker in 2019, and it teased the product earlier this week on Twitter. A few developers, like the creators of social space Neos VR, have worked with the tool. Until today, though, HTC hadn’t confirmed a wide commercial release. The Facial Tracker supports 38 distinct facial movements, and users can also pair it with the Vive Pro Eye, a Vive Pro variant with built-in eye tracking. That could effectively translate most of a user’s face onto an avatar or into a motion capture system.

There’s also a new, third-generation version of HTC’s general purpose VR tracker. The palm-sized tracking pucks are 33 percent smaller and 15 percent lighter than the last generation, and HTC promises a 75 percent increase in battery life. They will also be released “soon” for $129.99. Depending on the exact date, they could end up competing with the upcoming Tundra Tracker — a smaller, SteamVR-based alternative that is expected to ship this summer.

These HTC modules offer precise, accurate tracking for body parts that standard VR headset sensors don’t capture. Several VR social experiences, for instance, already estimate people’s lip motion based on the sound of their voice. But the new facial tracker can directly capture how their faces move, reflecting expressions like smiles and frowns. Similarly, the VR trackers can be fixed to custom controllers or attached with straps to people’s legs or feet — which are often given rudimentary animation or not displayed at all in VR.

Unfortunately, the facial tracker apparently has limited compatibility. It’s listed as working with the professional-level Vive Pro line, but not the newer, consumer-focused Vive Cosmos. As VR developer Olivier JT notes on Twitter, it also doesn’t appear to support Valve’s Index, a high-end headset whose hardware setup overlaps with the Vive Pro’s.

Despite this, face tracking could become an increasingly important part of current-generation VR. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said earlier this week that Facebook’s VR division, Oculus, will prioritize capturing eye movement and facial expressions in future hardware as well as releasing more realistic virtual avatars.

TikTok will warn users before posting ‘inappropriate or unkind’ comments

TikTok is rolling out a pop-up today that’s designed to warn users before they post a comment that might be “inappropriate or unkind.” The new feature is one of two being announced that are designed to “promote kindness” on the service. The other is Filter All Comments, so that they only appear once individually approved.

The new unkind warning appears if TikTok believes a comment might violate its community guidelines. “Would you like to reconsider posting this?” the pop-up box reads, before encouraging users to “Edit” it, or “Post anyway.”

Prompts like these have been explored by other social networks to cut down on bullying and harassment. Instagram rolled out similar prompts back in 2019, Twitter announced it was testing them last year, and they’ve also been spotted on Facebook. Instagram later reported that results from introducing the prompt had been “promising” and that it found “these types of nudges can encourage people to reconsider their words when given a chance.”

The new Filter All Comments feature can be enabled in the Comments filters menu, which already allows users to filter spam and offensive comments, or filter based on specific keywords. Once enabled, creators have to manually approve individual comments before they appear under their videos.

As part of today’s announcement, TikTok has also announced it’s partnering with the Cyberbullying Research Center as it works on more anti-bullying initiatives.

instagram-will-relaunch-its-lite-app-in-170-countries-with-support-for-reels

Instagram will relaunch its Lite app in 170 countries with support for Reels

Instagram launched its smaller Lite app in 2018 only to pull it from the Play Store in spring of last year. Now, the app’s getting a relaunch with new features and a slightly larger file size. Instagram announced today that the app will start rolling out on Android to 170 countries, including the US, through the Play Store, and that the new app requires only two megabytes, compared to the regular Instagram app’s 30MB. (The original Lite app only required 573 kilobytes, however, so it’s definitely larger than that.) No iOS version is planned for now.

This bigger size allows for new features, though, including the ability to send direct messages and record and post videos. It also prominently features the Reels tab on the homepage while forgoing the shopping tab.

In a briefing, Instagram Lite product manager Nick Brown said the team has “no plans” to bring shopping to Instagram Lite, but that Reels had “a lot of engagement” in India, which is why the team decided to keep that tab in this iteration of the Lite app. (TikTok is banned in India currently and has reduced its team there, so Reels has had a chance to blossom without the competition.) Users won’t be able to make their own Reels from the app, however. They also can’t use augmented reality face filters, although the team is “absolutely” exploring it. Other, less data-intensive creation tools, like stickers, GIFs, and text can still be applied.

For now, the app doesn’t have ads, although Brown tells The Verge that the team is “committed to offering the full suite of monetization tools.” He and the team want to “take the space and time — that everything we launched in Lite we can fully support and that it is just as good of an experience as it is in the regular Instagram.”

Many companies have launched smaller, pared-down versions of their apps for users around the world who might share phones or use older devices with less storage. Facebook launched its Lite app in 2015 while TikTok launched its version in 2019. For companies that need to be global in order to grow, a smaller app is one way to bring new users on board.

htc-may-be-teasing-the-release-of-a-vr-lip-tracker-for-vive-headsets

HTC may be teasing the release of a VR lip tracker for Vive headsets

HTC may be teasing new modules and attachments for its Vive virtual reality headsets, including a lip tracker, UploadVR reports.

HTC’s been building up to some kind of announcement on its Vive Twitter account over the last week. Yesterday, it posted an image of a hinge, which savvy Twitter users matched to an experimental lip tracking module HTC announced at the Game Developers Conference in 2019. You can see a picture of the hinged product HTC is teasing and a matching photo of its lip tracking device below.

At the time, the company said it was using the module for research and experimentation, according to Road to VR. Combined with the eye tracking HTC’s already integrated into the Vive Pro Eye, it offers an early picture of what full face tracking looks like in VR. Some developers have gotten their hands on that earlier version of the lip tracker and integrated into social VR apps like NeosVR.

Hand, face, and eye tracking features play a large part in making avatars move and appear “natural” in VR. The HTC Vive and Oculus Rift and Quest headsets already offer hand tracking as a control method, but face tracking (enabled by an attachment or eventually new headset designs) could prove to be a boon in social VR settings.

Facebook was already experimenting with face tracking for Oculus headsets in 2019, UploadVR reports. In a recent interview, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg also reiterated how important realistic avatars — animated with face and eye tracking — are to his vision of the future of VR.

HTC hasn’t actually confirmed that it’s releasing a version of its lip tracking module to the public. But either way, getting comfortable with headsets sensing you as much as they do your surroundings seems like it’s in the cards for VR enthusiasts.

mark-zuckerberg-says-realistic-avatars-are-facebook’s-next-big-vr-bet

Mark Zuckerberg says realistic avatars are Facebook’s next big VR bet

Facebook’s future virtual reality headsets should capture users’ facial expressions for more realistic digital avatars, says CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

In a podcast interview for The Information, Zuckerberg expounded on the next decade in virtual and augmented reality, including future Oculus VR devices. “One of the things that I’m really excited about for future versions is getting eye tracking and face tracking in, because if you’re really excited about social presence, you want to make sure that the device has all the sensors to really kind of animate realistic avatars so you can communicate well like that,” Zuckerberg says.

Zuckerberg says hardware changes are a major focus for avatar-building. In VR, “the biggest things that we’re very focused on now are, how do you pack basically more sensors to create a better social experience into the device,” he says. “When I think about where you’re at with VR today, you go into the experience — there are some pretty good games and different experiences. But I’d love to get to the point where you have realistic avatars of yourself, where you can make real authentic eye contact with someone and have real expressions that get reflected on your avatar.”

Facebook has released multiple iterations of VR avatars, and Zuckerberg says a new generation of avatars is on its way later this year, with more realistic versions beyond that. He compared his desired quality with Epic’s MetaHuman tool, which lets animators produce highly detailed virtual faces — but he wants Facebook to generate these kinds of avatars through machine learning at a large scale.

Otherwise, The Information’s interview confirms several known areas of interest for Facebook. Zuckerberg indicates that Oculus is already envisioning “Quest 3 and 4” hardware — an indication that Facebook remains committed to the Quest standalone VR design for the near future. Facebook also has an active interest in augmented reality, with a pair of smart glasses launching later this year, but Zuckerberg reiterates that they won’t have standard visual AR elements.

He also discussed the Facebook acquisition of CTRL-Labs, which makes armbands that detect and interpret neural signals — a partial alternative to invasive brain-computer interfaces like Elon Musk’s Neuralink. “We don’t think that people are going to want to get their head drilled open in order to use virtual or augmented reality,” Zuckerberg says. He notes that Neuralink has very real applications, particularly for medical technologies like prosthetic limbs. “But ultimately, I don’t think [that] is going to be part of a consumer product that gets offered anytime soon.”

WhatsApp reportedly working on password protected encrypted chat backups

WhatsApp is reportedly working to increase the security of its cloud backups with a new password protection feature that’ll encrypt chat backups, making them accessible only to the user. WABetaInfo reported on the work-in-progress feature last year, and today it shared screenshots of how it could be presented in the service’s iOS and Android apps.

“To prevent unauthorized access to your iCloud Drive backup, you can set a password that will be used to encrypt future backups,” one of the screenshots reads. “This password will be required when you restore from the backup.” The app then asks the user to confirm their phone number, and select a password that’s at least eight characters long. Another screenshot warns that “WhatsApp will not be able to help recover forgotten passwords.”

• The chat database is already encrypted now (excluding media), but the algorithm is reversible and it’s not end-to-end encrypted.

• Local Android backups will be compatible with this feature.

The chat DB and media will be encrypted using a password that only you know. https://t.co/WAliLUnF18

— WABetaInfo (@WABetaInfo) March 8, 2021

Although WhatsApp chats are end-to-end encrypted, meaning they’re only visible to the sender and recipient, the service warns that this protection doesn’t extend to online backups stored on Google Drive and iCloud. Once on these servers, the security of the backups is the responsibility of the cloud service providers, who in the past have made them accessible to law enforcement authorities with valid search warrants. Encrypting the backups with a password only you know would theoretically prevent anyone from accessing your chat history without your authorization.

These latest reports about the feature come as WhatsApp’s reputation has taken a hit from a new privacy policy, which has stoked fears that it may store more information with parent company Facebook. Although WhatsApp insists the new policy doesn’t affect the security of users’ personal messages, rival messaging services like Signal and Telegram have seen a surge in interest as users explore other options.

WhatsApp declined to comment on the unannounced feature when contacted by The Verge, but WABetaInfo has a good track record of unearthing features before they become official. It’s spotted features like adding contacts via QR codes or disappearing messages long before their official announcements.

YouTube has terminated five Myanmar military-run channels as political unrest continues

YouTube terminated five Myanmar military channels from its platform on Friday, Reuters reports. The removals include YouTube channels for the government-run Myanma Radio and Television (MRTV) network and the military-owned Myawaddy Media used to spread military propaganda in Myanmar.

YouTube’s action is the platform’s first major intervention following the military coup that was staged in February and the subsequent military crackdowns against protesters that have left at least 38 dead. “We have terminated a number of channels and removed several videos from YouTube in accordance with our community guidelines and applicable laws,” a YouTube spokesperson tells The Verge. Prior to the coup, the company also terminated 34 channels used as “influence operations” during Myanmar’s election in 2020, according to Reuters.

Facebook has also attempted to limit the military’s influence, banning all military pages on its platforms in February and cutting off the organization’s access to ads on the platform, The New York Times reports. In response, the military banned Facebook and has drastically limited access to all social networks by enacting regular internet curfews across the country since the coup began, according to NetBlocks. Facebook’s more active response to the military’s actions could be seen as a direct result of the criticism the social network received for its role in the genocidal violence that occurred in Myanmar in 2018.

YouTube’s bans surely haven’t addressed all pro-military propaganda on the platform, but they show a willingness to intervene as protests against the military junta continue.

next-gen-thunderbolt-could-double-speed-of-tb4,-intel-says

Next-Gen Thunderbolt Could Double Speed of TB4, Intel Says

(Image credit: Shutterstock)

Thunderbolt 4 is just starting to make noise in the consumer space, but, of course, the folks behind the technology are already looking toward the next generation. This week, executives from Intel stopped by The Tom’s Hardware Show to discuss Thunderbolt and what its next form could look like. 

While celebrating Thunderbolt’s 10th birthday, Ben Hacker, Intel’s director of I/O strategy in the Client Connectivity Division, explained that the development of Thunderbolt 4’s successor is already in place with sights set on higher speed.

“What I think we’re pretty confident of is for at least another speed bump somewhere, and who knows exactly what that is, but call it roughly a doubling,” Hacker said on The Tom’s Hardware Show. 

Thunderbolt 4’s max bandwidth is 40 Gbps, allowing it to support up to two 4K resolution displays at 60 Hz refresh rates or even an 8K one at 60 Hz. Increasing the bandwidth would bring support for even higher resolutions and refresh rates. 

Hacker also pointed toward the need for more bandwidth for concurrent workflows, like editing data on a high-resolution screen, and SSDs as drivers for more bandwidth. 

“Today our data path bandwidth within Thunderbolt 4 is kind of aligned to like a PCIe Gen 3×4 performance, and for some of our storage applications, you’re seeing storage in that kind of form factor already doubling in speed,” Hacker said. 

“There’s already a need for kind of high-performance storage for, maybe, NVMe SSDs or desktop raid arrays that are going to be able to consume more than the 40 gigabits of bandwidth or just under 40 that we can provide today.” 

Backward compatibility is also important for the next generation of Thunderbolt. Intel notably shared the Thunderbolt protocol for what is now known as USB4. 

“We started first with that connector and cable convergence, and then we have the architectural convergence [with USB4],” Jason Ziller, Intel’s general manager of the Client Connectivity Division, said. “As we move forward, as USB4 evolves, we’ll continue to be converged on those elements of it. But we’ll continue to provide features and capabilities above that or just the optional features in the USB spec that we make required because we know computer users want them.”

The next version of Thunderbolt will presumably be called Thunderbolt 5, but Ziller said they don’t know what the branding moving forward will be yet. Whatever it’s called, Intel expects next-gen Thunderbolt to continue working over USB-C. 

“I think we can definitely stay within the electrical kind of communication path and on the same connector so it’s truly a familiar, backward compatible … solution,” Hacker said.  “ … At least kind of for the next step, whenever that comes, I think we’re pretty confident that we can keep that on a kind of same mechanical interface, same connector, roughly the same topology.”

Of course, we’re still years away from Thunderbolt 5 (or whatever it ends up being called) striking. In the more immediate future, development is in the works for more Thunderbolt 4 accessories, including docks in different sizes and shapes and docks that don’t require their own power adapter and instead uses a laptop’s USB-C charger. 

And for those with the need, Thunderbolt 4 cables up to 50m (164 feet) long should be available around next year.

“We had in [the] previous generation optical cables up to 50m, and so we’re working on delivering that as well now,” Ziller said. 

The Tom’s Hardware Show is live every Thursday at 3 p.m. ET. You can enjoy this week’s episode via the video above, on YouTube, Facebook, Twitch or wherever you get your podcasts.