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Meta Quest Gaming Showcase showed off VR versions of Bulletstorm, 7th Guest and more by John Callaham Just a few hours after Meta surprised many people by officially revealing its Meta Quest 3 VR headset, the company held its annual online Quest Gaming Showcase. Over 20 upcoming VR games were either revealed or got new updates as part of the event. The Meta Quest blog has a solid recap of all the VR games that were shown off during the Games Showcase. However, not all of them will be exclusive to Meta's headsets. Indeed, many of the games will also be coming to Sony's PS VR2 and even Valve's SteamVR platform. One of those games will be Bulletstorm VR, an adaptation of the great 2011 sci-i first-person shooter from developer People Can Fly. Here's what you can expect: Utilize everything from your Flailgun to Bulletstorm’s iconic energy leash to perform creative acts of carnage on your enemies. Effortlessly switch between melee and ranged combat to perform an array of unique Skillshots on your adversaries to earn additional experience and boost your abilities. These range from kicking an enemy into a cactus, to impaling them on rebar, to shooting them in the groin. In Bulletstorm VR everything is a weapon, and you’re encouraged to get as creative as possible when racking up your kill count! Another VR game adaptation that's coming this year is The 7th Guest, the classic 1990s adventure game. This new version is being developed by Vertigo Games. Here's what you can expect: The team is using volumetric video capture to recreate the FMV (full-motion video) storytelling of the original game, bringing the classic adventure to life like never before. And for the first time ever, the iconic mansion is being recreated in full 3D—though don’t be surprised if it starts shifting around you. After all, it’s haunted. Both games are due out later this year. Some of the other highlights of the Meta Quest Gaming Showcase include: Asgard’s Wrath 2 - This is a sequel to Meta's in-house developed VR title, The new game will continue its theme of players battling mythical creatures and even god in this fantasy RPG. Ghostbusters: Rise of the Ghost Lord - Announced at last year's Quest Gaming Showcase, we got to see a new story trailer for this multiplayer co-op game based on the movie franchise. PowerWash Simulator VR - Yes, this cult hit game where you wash down things is perfect for a VR game, and later this year we will get our wish. Assassin’s Creed Nexus VR - This was the only game that was announced during the showcase but that we didn't see any footage. Ubisoft's hit franchise is coming to VR with more info to be revealed at the Ubisoft Forward streaming event on June 12. As we reported earlier, Meta revealed the Quest 3 headset, which will have a lot of improvements over the current Quest 2. It's due later this fall with a starting price of $499.99.

Meta Quest 3 gets a surprise reveal to beat Apple to the VR punch, due this fall for $499.99 by John Callaham In a surprise announcement, Meta officially revealed the first details for its Meta Quest 3 VR headset. This move is clearly designed to take some of the attention away from Apple's expected announcement of its own mixed reality headset that could come on June 5 at WWDC 2023. In a blog post, we got some early info on what we can expect from the Meta Quest 3: Quest 3 combines our highest resolution display yet and pancake optics to make sure content looks better than ever. To power those extra pixels, this will be the first headset to feature a next-generation Snapdragon chipset developed in collaboration with Qualcomm Technologies. That next-gen Snapdragon chipset delivers more than twice the graphical performance as the previous generation Snapdragon GPU in Quest 2—meaning you’ll get smoother performance and incredibly crisp details in immersive games. Meta claims that the Quest 3 headset has a 40% slimmer optic profile compared to the Quest 2. The headset's hand controllers will also ditch the outer tracking rings which gives them a "more streamlined and ergonomic form factor". The headset itself will have two 4MP RGB color cameras and a depth sensor. All the games that support the Quest 2 will be supported with the Quest 3. The Meta Quest 3 will launch this fall at a price of $499.99 for the 128GB model. The current Quest 2 headset is getting a price cut to $299.99 for the 128GB version and $349.99 starting on June 4. In addition, both the Quest 2 and the more expensive Quest Pro is getting a big software upgrade soon: Quest 2 and Pro will see an up-to 26% CPU performance increase with an up-to 19% GPU speed increase for Quest 2 and 11% for Quest Pro. Meta will be holding its Quest Gaming Showcase later today starting at 10 am Pacific time (1 pm Eastern time). It will showcase a number of VR games, including one made especially for the Quest 3.

The Meta Quest 3 VR headset is reportedly "far lighter and thinner" than the Quest 2 by John Callaham The Meta Quest 2 VR headset is getting a bit long in the tooth. When it launched nearly three years ago in October 2020, it even had a different name, the Oculus Quest 2. It's one of the worst-kept secrets in tech that Meta is working on the Quest 3 device, and now a new report claims to have gotten some hands-on time with a prototype. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reports that he got access to an early version of the Meta Quest 3. He says that physically, the prototype "feels far lighter and thinner" than the Quest 2. The design of the headset has also changed, according to Gurman: Instead of a bland-looking gray face, it has three vertical pill-shaped sensor areas across the front. The left and right pills each include one color video pass-through camera (the part that lets you see the world around you) as well as a standard camera. That means it has two color cameras versus only non-color cameras on the Quest 2. The middle pill includes a depth sensor, a first for a Quest. The video pass-through hardware on the Quest 3 prototype also got a big improvement for the device's AR mode. Gurman reports that it "presented colors more accurately and offered an almost lifelike rendering of the real world." The overall performance for the headset's interface and apps is also better, most likely due to a new custom chip that was developed by Qualcomm and first announced in 2022. The current Meta Quest 2's starting price is $399, and today's report says Meta might sell the Quest 3 for a higher cost. However, if it's not too much higher, Gurman believes that it "could make some noise this holiday season." We will have to see, however, as VR headsets, even at low prices, have not gained much traction with normal consumers. Meta will reportedly launch the Quest 3 in October. It's possible we may get a teaser of the headset later this coming week at the company's annual Meta Quest Gaming Showcase. The streaming event, which will show a number of new and unannounced Quest VR games, will begin at 10 am Pacific time (1 pm Eastern time) on June 1.

Editorial: It's right that big tech leans up with layoffs, focusing on profitable activities by Paul Hill With more than a decade of cheap money coming to an end thanks to higher interest rates, we’ve seen many big tech companies lay off employees, with some continuing to make more cuts. It’s awful to be one of the affected employees who may have made big life decisions based on having the job and now having to give all those plans up. Nevertheless, I think that companies are right to lean up and focus on their profit-making operations. At the end of the day, profits are made when you offer services that society needs and is willing to pay for and by keeping the costs to provide those services low - one of the biggest costs to companies is employees. Perhaps one of the most notable instances of a company spending money on an experimental project is Meta with its metaverse ambitions, it even renamed itself. To develop this project, Meta would have had to take on people to help develop its VR headsets and the software to run on them, before even knowing that the technology would be successful. Not only does the company need to sink huge amounts of money into this project, it also takes up countless hours of labour (that could be spent doing something more beneficial) and it has to hope that it can sell the metaverse to the public and to businesses. Meta has not given up on its metaverse ambitions as a result of the cuts but it will have to think more carefully as it proceeds with fewer engineers. In a recent statement on the so-called ‘Year of Efficiency’, Zuckerberg said that Meta was cancelling projects that were “duplicative or lower priority”. While it may be good for the person being paid, you do have to ask yourself what is the point of a company hiring several people to do duplicate work. It suggests that companies have been a bit sloppy in recent years and have not really been paying much attention to what’s happening internally and to what products and services would actually provide a benefit to shareholders and society. Several weeks ago, after Google I/O, CNBC reported that Google employees had been mocking staff for constantly spouting buzzwords such as “AI” throughout the event. One of the memes that were shared internally showed Google’s stock price in the red with the text “Execs cutting cost and buying back stock” and the stock price in green with text reading “[Engineers] getting stuff done”. Employees at Google made a meme mocking execs, via CNBC While it’s true that Google does benefit from unveiling new products, it’s a bit fallacious to suggest cost cutting isn’t important either. If you look at both the Meta and Alphabet stock prices, you can see that they reached lows in November 2022 just as the cuts were beginning and the share prices have been climbing ever since. A common criticism of businesses is that they only do what the shareholders want them to do. This is true because shareholders are a very good barometer of a company’s future. A five year price chart for Meta stock. It shows a sharp reversal in November 2022 when job cuts were announced. An investor who puts money into a company expects the share price to increase in the future; investors are the epitome of the common saying “Put your money where your mouth is”. If your share price is falling, it’s because investors wouldn’t gamble their money on your company based on all the public information. It’s pretty clear that the economizing going on at the companies, and the continued unveiling of revolutionary products like generative AI, are giving investors confidence because the share prices of these companies are increasing; investors feel that these companies will be doing well in the future and will be able to sell the shares in the future for a higher price because they’re more sought after and the company’s operations justify the price. Just like Meta experienced, Alphabet's stock price reversed after job cuts revealed in January. I said at the start of the article that it's awful to be one of the people affected by these cuts, it can be a very stressful experience to lose your job and it means putting plans on hold until you can find another one. What’s interesting, though, is that at the end of 2022, tech workers who had recently been laid off were able to find new jobs relatively quickly. A survey by ZipRecruiter found that 79% of those laid off found new jobs within just three months of starting their job hunt - the main reason for this quick turnaround was that they already have experience in the field. Assuming these people are moving into jobs where the business has properly thought out the job opening, they will probably be moving into a job that will help the company attain profits. If this is the case, you have people moving from jobs where they were doing duplicate, low-priority, unprofitable work that’s not as much benefit to society, to roles that generate profit and provide a real service. This is my thinking on the whole matter of efficiency pursuits by big tech. It’s certainly detrimental for those who are in an affected role, but in terms of wider societal benefits and the long-term health of these companies, it’s certainly a positive move rather than a negative one. Let me know in the comments if you have any comprehensive thoughts about what big tech is doing. If you believe contrary to this editorial, let us know what you think companies should be doing instead. The views, opinions, positions or strategies expressed by the author and those providing comments are theirs alone, and do not necessarily reflect the views, opinions, positions, or strategies of Neowin

Meta layoffs affected the teams that were fighting fake news on Facebook by Paul Hill Three sources, according to CNBC, have disclosed that Meta’s layoffs have affected engineers that were working on a new feature to combat fake news. The tool would let third-party fact-checkers add comments to the top of questionable articles on Facebook to verify their trustworthiness. Meta, like many other companies, is now having to make cuts and focus on profitability with interest rates going up to tackle inflation. With higher interest rates, consumers have less disposable income and are less likely to spend as much on Meta’s services, meaning the company can’t justify the spending it has been used to. Nevertheless, Meta has been facing a lot of criticism for what’s getting on to be nearly a decade for allowing fake news to proliferate on its platforms. It has already taken many steps to warn users of problematic content so it probably thinks these measures are enough. The new fact-checking tool had been under development for six months before work was stopped earlier this year. It was said to be in the testing phase when it was shut down. Meta hasn’t commented on the feature specifically but said it will continue to invest in protecting users. While it’s interesting to get a bit of insight into the internal goings-on at Meta, the severity of this revelation should be treated with a bit of caution. The company’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg said earlier in the year that some projects were essentially duplicates of what other teams were already working on. It’s impossible to tell whether a similar fact-checking project is still under development at Meta, or whether it was deemed “lower priority” due to all the other misinformation measures Facebook already has in place. It’s unclear how long it will take before companies get access to cheaper money again. It’ll be interesting to see in the time between then and now whether Meta manages to continue suppressing fake news. Source: CNBC

Meta won't use rival's ad data for Facebook Marketplace, once it can stop doing so by Steve Bennett In a report published today by the UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), Meta made commitments to the regulator that it won't utilise ad data obtained from rivals to further improve its products, namely Facebook Marketplace. However, there is a caveat to these guarantees, in that Meta apparently can't stop using rival's data immediately. The original investigation by the CMA started back in June 2021, following the CMA's study into online platforms and digital advertising, saying that from at least January 2015 Meta engaged in conduct which abuses its dominant position in the market, and the corrective actions by Meta seek to appease those concerns. In the report, Meta states that it is happy to not use data from rivals, particularly from advertising, however it will need to implement new technical systems, and undergo staff training to fully implement this policy across the company. The commitment, referred to as the 'Marketplace Technical Solution' is to be implemented by Meta within 12 months of the acceptance of the commitments by the CMA, or by 30 June 2024, whichever is later. The Technical Solution proposed by Meta is a system that prevents the "use of certain competitor advertising data in the operation, development and/or improvement, and layout and/or functionality of the platforms, which will only apply for advertisers who have voluntarily opted out of data being used, or have been proactively opted out by Meta (and have not objected to this)." The other commitment addresses the unfair trading conditions in Meta's terms and conditions, with it offering to use "all reasonable endeavours" to ensure that employees refrain from using data they receive or otherwise have through Digital Display Advertising (DDA) and business tool services. This will also be included as a clear public statement as a part of its Code of Conduct, a complaince guidance document for Meta employees. This follows the CMA's concerns that Meta would use data from its Digital Display Advertising (DDA) of its business for "purposes beyond the provision of the DDA." These are also some of the concerns shared by the EU, with it accusing Meta of imposing unfair trading conditions on competitors for its own benefit. Source: The Register

Meta laid off 6,000 employees to save "billion dollars" by Omer Dursun Meta has started its third round of layoffs as part of a comprehensive plan to reduce costs and streamline operations. The latest round of job cuts targets employees within Meta's business groups, following a previous round of layoffs in April that affected technical roles. With 21,000 job cuts since November 2022, Meta aims to enhance its efficiency, adapt to economic challenges, and navigate a weakened digital advertising market. The initial round in November 2022 impacted 11,000 employees. And the second round in March 2023 affected approximately 4,000 workers. So, around 10,000 workers will lose their jobs due to the combined layoffs in April and May. The most recent cuts, which were confirmed on LinkedIn by affected employees, include individuals in user experience, marketing, recruiting, and engineering roles. Meta declined to comment specifically on the recent layoffs but referred to a previous announcement by CEO Mark Zuckerberg regarding cuts to the company's business groups commencing in late May. The ongoing restructuring efforts are part of Meta's overarching strategy to become a more agile company. Mark Zuckerberg emphasized the necessity of these measures, attributing them to the company's long-term vision and a drive for improved business performance. In April, Meta reported a 3% increase in first-quarter revenue compared to the previous year, amounting to $27.91 billion. This growth followed three consecutive periods of declining revenue. Despite the positive revenue trend, Meta's Reality Labs unit, responsible for developing virtual reality and augmented reality technologies, incurred an operating loss of $3.99 billion in the first quarter while generating $339 million in revenue. Meta remains committed to investing heavily in the metaverse. The company's dedication to developing virtual reality and augmented reality technologies underscores its long-term vision for the future. Investors have responded positively to Meta's major cost-cutting efforts, with the company's shares surging by 177% from under $89 in November to $264.74. Despite the layoffs, Meta's financial performance and strategic focus on the metaverse have resonated positively with investors. Source: CNBC

Shutterstock to buy GIPHY after CMA forced Meta to sell it by Paul Hill Shutterstock, the company which owns to rights of the many pictures you see online, has announced it will acquire GIPHY from Meta. The sale of GIPHY to Shutterstock comes seven months after the UK competition regulator told Meta to sell GIPHY off in its entirety. Shutterstock said that it’s buying GIPHY for $53 million and that it doesn’t expect to see much revenue generated this year by GIPHY. Monetization efforts are expected to come to fruition next year. "This is an exciting next step in Shutterstock's journey as an end-to-end creative platform," remarked Shutterstock CEO Paul Hennessy. "Shutterstock is in the business of helping people and brands tell their stories. Through the GIPHY acquisition, we are extending our audience touch points beyond primarily professional marketing and advertising use cases and expanding into casual conversations. “GIPHY enables everyday users to express themselves in memorable ways with GIF and sticker content while also enabling brands to be a part of these casual conversations. We plan to leverage Shutterstock's unique capabilities in content and metadata monetization, generative AI, studio production and creative automation to enable the commercialization of our GIF library as we roll this offering out to customers." According to Shutterstock, the acquisition of GIPHY will allow it to bolster its generative AI and metadata strategy. By leveraging generative AI, Shutterstock could massively increase the number of images that customers could access to enhance their content. For those who have not been following this unfolding saga, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), based in the UK, told Meta to sell off Giphy because it said Giphy was just getting started in ads and it thought Meta was trying to stifle the competition to its own ads business. Shutterstock has not set out its ads plans in relation to GIPHY very comprehensively but it did say in the announcement that the acquisition taps into “native advertising for brands … via mobile phones and communications tools.” The announcement didn’t provide a comment from Meta but it’s not likely to be pleased that it was forced to sell the company. Meta acquired GIPHY for ~$400 million in 2020 so it’s taking a huge hit by selling to Shutterstock for just $53 million.

WhatsApp is finally letting everyone edit sent messages with the latest update by Anushe Fawaz Today, WhatsApp announced that it is adding the capability of editing your text messages on the application. The new feature is a good tool to help users make changes and edit typos or unwanted information that they sent to other WhatsApp users. Around last week, there were reports that such a capability will be added to WhatsApp, and we saw a gradual rollout to WhatsApp beta users who got to test the feature beforehand. WhatsApp Web Beta users and WhatsApp Android Beta users both reported similar capabilities where users could edit their text messages following the same procedure regardless of the device they used. The news of this feature being under development for Android first came out in June 2022. Afterwards, there were reports from as early as November last year that WhatsApp is working on such a feature on iOS devices as well. 👀 pic.twitter.com/OmuKwMrR2o — WhatsApp (@WhatsApp) May 21, 2023 While the feature is useful, it has a time limit attached to it. Users can edit their sent messages within a time frame of 15 minutes after sending the text. To edit a message, one needs to long-press the text and select the ‘Edit’ option to make the desired changes. Messages that have been edited will have ‘edited’ written on the bottom corner of the sent text. WhatsApp also added that any edits the sender makes will be end-to-end encrypted, just like the media and calls users share and make. The blog post mentions: “For the moments when you make a mistake, or simply change your mind, you can now edit your sent messages. From correcting a simple misspelling to adding extra context to a message, we’re excited to bring you more control over your chats.” The feature is available starting today and will be accessible on more devices globally in the coming weeks.

Meta gets hit with a $1.3 billion fine by the EU for sending personal data to the US by John Callaham Meta, the parent company of Facebook, was hit by a huge €1.2 billion ($1.3 billion) fine by the European Union today. The EU's European Data Protection Board stated the fine was due to Meta transferring the personal data of European citizens to Facebook servers based in the US. In its press release, the data regulation board stated: The EDPB found that Meta IE’s infringement is very serious since it concerns transfers that are systematic, repetitive and continuous. Facebook has millions of users in Europe, so the volume of personal data transferred is massive. The unprecedented fine is a strong signal to organisations that serious infringements have far-reaching consequences. The decision to fine Meta came due to an investigation by Ireland's Data Protection Commission. It claims that Meta did not have privacy safeguards in place to transfer data from its European servers to the US, which it claims violates the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) agreement. The DPC also stated Meta has until October 12, 2023 to suspend its data transfers. This fine is the single largest put on a company by the EU for allegedly violating the GDPR agreement. CNBC reports that Meta is wasting no time in making a statement about the fine, saying it will file an appeal: “We are appealing these decisions and will immediately seek a stay with the courts who can pause the implementation deadlines, given the harm that these orders would cause, including to the millions of people who use Facebook every day,” Nick Clegg, Meta president of global affairs, and Jennifer Newstead, chief legal officer at the company, said in a blog post on Monday. This fine comes even as the US and the EU have been in talks for some time to form a new agreement for lawful data transfers. At one point in 2022, Meta stated in one of its financial reports that it would "likely be unable to offer a number of our most significant products and services, including Facebook and Instagram, in Europe” if the US and EU were unable to reach a new data transfer agreement. Meta later issued a statement denying that it was threatening to leave Europe.

Meta's Twitter rival Instagram app "P92" reportedly coming in June by Omer Dursun Meta has been working on a Twitter rival text-focused Instagram app for a while. The new platform aims to be "decentralized" and essentially a text-based version of Instagram. There have been recent rumors about how the app will look and when it will be released. According to social and influencer marketing expert Lia Haberman's report, Meta has made significant progress in its Twitter rival social media app. The new project is referred to as "Instagram's new text-based app for conversations." The app doesn't have a different name from Instagram yet, but it is allegedly called the "Project 92 or (P92)" or "Barcelona". Users can apparently integrate it with their existing Instagram accounts and won't need a separate account. The app features a feed where users can create text posts up to 500 characters long and attach links, photos, and videos to their posts. Two leaked marketing slide screenshots suggest that the app's interface resembles a combination of Instagram and Twitter. Meta will provide effective moderation controls from the beginning, allowing users to manage who can reply to their posts and mention their accounts. The app will carry over the list of blocked accounts from Instagram, providing continuity in user preferences and settings. On the other hand, Bloomberg says the app is expected to debut as early as June. Meta has secretly made the new app available to a limited group of creators for several months. Although separate from Instagram, it allows users to connect their accounts. However, Meta declined to comment on the specific details. Previously, the company provided a statement to Platformer mentioning their exploration of a standalone decentralized social network for sharing text updates. Sources: Lia Haberman (Twitter)

Meta users in the UK can now pay for verification on Facebook and Instagram by Omer Dursun Meta has expanded its paid verification program, Meta Verified, to the United Kingdom. The subscription plan targets creators and offers benefits such as proactive impersonation protection, customer support, and a blue badge for verification. It is priced at £9.99 per month for Instagram and Facebook, separately. The program was initially introduced in Australia and New Zealand in February and then available to users in the US in March. Meta's decision to launch its verified program followed Twitter's re-launch of its subscription plan, Twitter Blue, which also includes paid verification. Meta Verified was announced in the UK through the Meta Creators Community UK group. According to Matt Navarra, they took into account feedback from emerging creators. It is important to note that users must pay separately for Instagram and Facebook verification. To be eligible for the subscription plan, users must be at least 18 years old, enable two-factor verification, and undergo identity verification by submitting a government ID. However, privacy advocates have raised concerns regarding Meta's requirement for subscribers to use display names that match their government IDs. Unlike Twitter, Meta will retain legacy verification badges for prominent accounts instead of removing them. However, there needs to be a clear visual differentiation between the legacy verification badge and the new subscription verification badge for Meta Verified. Sources: Matt Navarra, TechCrunch

Instagram enables the ability to comment using GIFs by Steve Bennett In a conversation on Instagram Channels today, the head of the platform, Adam Mosseri, confirmed to Mark Zuckerberg that it would be launching the ability to reply to posts on Instagram using GIFs in the comments. Instagram Channels is a feature that was launched earlier this year which is very similar to that which already exists as a part of Telegram, and is restricted to the mobile Instagram apps, with channels only accessible to followers. The feature works exactly as it does on Facebook, where a user would select the option to choose a GIF from a selection or search for one on Giphy (which Meta has already been ordered to sell off by the UK's Competition and Markets Authority), so expect comment threads to turn into a long list of reaction GIFs and memes very quickly. This was not the only feature to be announced during this chat, as Mosseri also confirmed that Reels will be gaining lyrics as well, with it improving the existing auto-caption sticker that was introduced in 2021, which gives a timeline on the Reels interface that allows for captions and audio to be synced more accurately. Source: Engadget

Metaverse reported to contribute up to 2.4% of US GDP by 2035 by Steve Bennett In a study that has been commissioned by Meta, Deloitte found that the metaverse will play a significant factor in the US annual gross domestic product (GDP) by 2035 with a reported contribution of approximately 2.4%. Deloitte goes further to state that the augmented and virtual reality technologies demonstrated will primarily drive economic gains through defense, medical and manufacturing sectors as well as entertainment and communication. Meta also commissioned separate reports at the same time for the European Union and Canada, which have forecasted similar figures of approximately €489 billion and between C$45.3 billion and C$85.5 billion respectively. A global economic impact report from the consulting firm Analysis Group was also commissioned by Meta last year, which estimated that the use of metaverse technologies could contribute up to $3.01 trillion by 2031, alongside other reports stating that the metaverse will have a significant impact on the world and markets in the future. This follows Meta's significant push into its reported metaverse technologies, driving employee engagement and putting most of its new work into development of the project, ever since the social media company shifted its focus to the metaverse in 2021. Source: Reuters

WhatsApp says mic usage in background on Android devices is due to an Android bug by Mehrotra A Meta owned WhatsApp has been constantly under the microscope for playing fast and loose with privacy even though the company claims to provide a secure and privateway to communicate with people. Now, a Twitter engineer has discovered that WhatsApp accessed his Pixel 7 Pro's microphone during the night even though he was not the one using it. In a tweet Foad Dabiri mentioned that WhatsApp has been using his phone's microphone in background during the night and since the morning. Over the last 24 hours we’ve been in touch with a Twitter engineer who posted an issue with his Pixel phone and WhatsApp. We believe this is a bug on Android that mis-attributes information in their Privacy Dashboard and have asked Google to investigate and remediate. https://t.co/MnBi3qE6Gp — WhatsApp (@WhatsApp) May 9, 2023 WhatsApp refuted the claims saying that this is an Android bug "that mis-attributes information in their Privacy Dashboard" and that the company had asked Google to investigate the issue. Furthermore, WhatsApp reiterated that users have full control over their mic settings and that the app will "only accesses the mic when a user is making a call or recording a voice note or video". Users have full control over their mic settings Once granted permission, WhatsApp only accesses the mic when a user is making a call or recording a voice note or video - and even then, these communications are protected by end-to-end encryption so WhatsApp cannot hear them — WhatsApp (@WhatsApp) May 9, 2023 Meanwhile, Twitter CEO, Elon Musk took this opportunity to remind his followers that they should not trust WhatsApp. WhatsApp cannot be trusted https://t.co/3gdNxZOLLy — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 9, 2023 This is not the first time users have reported seeing WhatsApp access microphone even when they were not using the app. As documented by PiunikaWeb, some users have noticed this issue for more than a month with no confirmed fix in sight. In case you are worried about privacy, you can go to your phone's setting and disable microphone access to WhatsApp until the issue is resolved. Furthermore, the recent versions of Android come with a Privacy Dashboard that gives you a timeline of when an app accessed your microphone for better transparency.

Meta open sources ImageBind AI model that combines six different data types by Aditya Tiwari Meta announced today that it's open-sourcing a new AI model called ImageBind. It's a multimodal AI designed to work with six different types of data, including text, audio, video, 3D, thermal, and motion. ImageBind can receive input in one of the supported data modes which it can relate to others. For instance, it can find the sound of waves when given a picture of a beach. When it's fed with a photo of a tiger and the sound of the waterfall, the system can give a video that combines both, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg explained on his Instagram broadcast channel. "This is a step towards AIs that understand the world around them more like we do, which will make them a lot more useful and will open up totally new ways to create things," he said. Meta explains in a blog post that ImageBind takes an approach similar to how humans can gather information from multiple senses, and process all of it simultaneously and holistically. In the future, it plans to expand the supported data modes to other senses such as touch, speech, smell, and brain fMRI signals, which will enable richer human-centric AI models. For reference, existing AI models like Open AI's DALL E 2, MidJourney, and Stable Diffusion are trained to link text and images. These systems take inputs in the form of natural language text prompts and generate an image accordingly. ImageBind can have various applications, for instance, it can be used to improve search functionality for pictures, videos, audio files, or text messages using a combination of text, audio, and image. Meta's AI tool Make-A-Scene which currently uses text prompts to generate images can leverage ImageBind to generate images using audio. Meta has published a research paper [PDF] describing its open-source AI model but it's yet to release a tool or consumer product based on it.

WhatsApp improves polls, forwarding captions, and shared document captions by Paul Hill A new WhatsApp update is rolling out to users around the world that brings several improvements to polls and captions. The improvements could help you create more accurate polls where people can only cast one vote and prevent misunderstandings by giving you more control over captions. While the update has already started rolling out, it could take a few weeks for everyone to get it. The update brings three improvements to polls: single-vote polls, search for polls, and updates on poll results. Until now, restricting users to only voting on one answer in a poll hasn’t been possible; you can now turn off the ‘allow multiple answers’ option when making a poll. The update also enables searching for polls, you can do this from the Chats screen by tapping Search and then Polls. Here, you’ll find a complete list of all the polls available to you. If you’ve created a poll and want to get the results as soon as possible, WhatsApp will now send you a notification when the results are in. On to captions now. If you’ve ever forwarded a media item in WhatsApp and been too slow to add context before someone responded, this update will address that problem for you. The new update allows you to forward media that has a caption and you can choose to keep, delete, or rewrite it. You can also add your own caption if there isn’t one. Hopefully, this will help cut down on misunderstandings. Additionally, documents can now be shared with captions too. You should receive the WhatsApp update automatically in the coming days. If you want to force the update, just head to your app store and look to see whether there’s an update available.

Meta talks about new malware threats including ones posing as ChatGPT by Ishtiaqe Hanif Meta was pleased to announce their latest efforts in identifying and preventing malware campaigns that targeted business users. The company's security teams used a range of methods to combat malware, including malware analysis, continuous improvement of detection systems, product updates, community support, and education. It has also shared threat information with other companies, and has taken legal action against threat actors. These combined efforts limited the lifespan of any single malware strain and increased the cost for malicious groups, which forced them to invest more resources in constantly adapting their tactics. As it had observed many malware campaigns hosted outside of social media, Meta encouraged people to exercise caution when downloading software or files from the internet. The company also shared additional security tips in their newsroom. Before discussing NodeStealer, a new malware family they recently discovered, Meta shared the latest trends they had observed in the malware threat landscape. Its research showed that many malware campaigns used custom-built tooling to target business users on particular internet services. Malicious groups had become very adaptive to disruptions and were spreading across multiple internet services to ensure a complex, multi-pronged malware campaign could withstand takedowns by any one service. Meta illustrated this point with an example of a long-running malware family called Ducktail, which had been evolving for several years as a result of enforcements by Meta and industry peers. Ducktail targeted multiple platforms across the internet, including LinkedIn, various browsers, and file-hosting services. Ducktail had adapted to the company's continued detection and mitigation efforts by granting business admin permissions to requests for ad-related actions sent by attackers. Similarly, malware operators used popular trends and issues to attract people's attention and trick them into clicking on malicious links or downloading malware. The company investigated and took action against several malware strains that took advantage of people's interest in OpenAI's ChatGPT to trick them into installing malware pretending to provide AI functionality. It also discovered around ten malware families using ChatGPT and similar themes to compromise accounts across the internet. Malware operators used cloaking to circumvent automated ad review systems and leveraged popular platforms such as social media, file-sharing services, and even official web stores to distribute their malware. Meta blocked over 1,000 unique ChatGPT-themed malicious URLs from being shared on its platforms and shared them with industry peers. Public reporting and blocking of these malicious strains forced their operators to rapidly evolve tactics to stay afloat. You can learn more about cybercriminals distributing fake ChatGPT apps to push malware and security reasearchers and white-hat hackers fighting back. Source: Meta

The Meta Quest Gaming Showcase for 2023 has been announced for June 1 by Ishtiaqe Hanif In a post on Facebook, Meta announced it will hold the next Quest Gaming Showcase on June 1, 2023 at 10am PT and promises double the amount of apps, games, and updates offerings from that of the 2022 showcase. The previous edition showcased big titles like Ghostbusters VR, The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners Chapter 2, and Among Us VR for the Oculus Quest 2. The third installment of the Meta Quest Gaming Showcase will concentrate on the upcoming year for Meta Quest games. It'll have pre-show game trailers and post-show roundtables with VR developers. June is traditionally a big time for the gaming industry in terms of new game reveals and announcements. Meta plans to catch the first limelight before other big events like Summer Game Fest on June 8, Xbox Game Showcase and Ubisoft Showcase on June 11, and more by starting their event on the first day of June. It aims to make this year's event larger than ever before. If last year's showcase of 12 games was any indication, we expect 24 games to be announced this summer. Meta posted a short teaser on its Facebook page. It has so far kept tight-lipped on any namedrops for games but we do know from previous announcements, it's working on over 150 Quest games. While they are to announce double the titles, Meta's back-to-back layoffs of 11,000 and 10,000 employees have reportedly affected the development pace. The aging Quest 2 VR headset was announced almost three years ago. We can't expect the Quest 3 until the Meta Connect 2023 showcase that's due in October, 2023. This showcase can be expected to focus solely on the software side of things. Source: Android Central via TechRadar

Meta rolls out new ways to personalize your avatar to celebrate one year milestone by Ishtiaqe Hanif Meta announced it has reached the creation of one billion unique Meta avatars across its platforms, including Facebook, Messenger, and Instagram. In celebration of this milestone, it has announced the introduction of new personalization options for Meta Avatars. Avatars are the graphical representation of a person's looks or persona. Meta introduced its Meta Avatars back in 2019. Meta has put an effort over time to improve levels of personalization. It introduced the option to equip avatars with assistive devices and NFL shirts and in selected regions, it launched a digital clothing store. While brands like Balenciaga, Prada, and Thom Browne have already set up shops in the Meta Avatars Store, PUMA now joins the bandwagon with seven outfits and will be available for purchases starting May 1, 2023. The press release says it will freshen up your looks just in time for Spring. It also namedrops singer Shakira's song "Hips Don't Lie" if expressing oneself means dancing along to the song. Meta says it's continuing improvements in small and subtle details amidst the big changes, as details help personalities shine through. It is adding hair volume options and emulates sparkles in the eyes to make it more visually appealing. It's also adding details and textures to clothing to make it look more realistic. A big feature drop is the addition of new body shapes. It is adding more curve levels allowing users to customize their avatars closer to their imagination. Meta has also overhauled how the hair, eyes, and outfits of the avatars appear across its platforms. It has added realism through the tweaked lighting and reflections model. You can learn more here.

Meta reports revenues of $28.65 billion, up 3% year-over-year by Paul Hill Facebook is an ageing social media platform now and most people believe it to be dying due to competition from TikTok, Instagram, and Snapchat. Meta’s latest financial results prove this is not the case at all though. Facebook’s daily active users (DAUs) were 2.04 billion on average in March, a 4% increase from the year before. Monthly active users were at 2.99 billion as of March 31, 2023, an increase of 2% year-over-year. One of the things that shareholders like to see is growing revenue figures. Meta has not disappointed. In Q1 2023, it reported an increase in ad impressions by 26% but saw the average price per ad fall by 17%. It generated revenue of $28.65 billion, which represents an increase of 3% year-over-year. Following interest rate hikes by central banks around the world, investors will be happy to see that Facebook is continuing to keep its head above water, despite the difficult economic circumstances. According to the company, its total headcount now stands at 77,114 as of March 31, 2023. It said this is a 1% decrease year-over-year. This figure no longer includes all those employees that were laid off in the November 2022 round of cuts. The headcount figure does, however, still include those affected by the layoffs that occurred in 2023. In mid-March, Meta announced another 10,000 job losses so we can effectively say that the headcount will fall to around 67,114. At the market close, Meta’s stock was trading for $209.40 but since the company released its latest earnings, the stock has spiked to $233.79. Investors who took a gamble on Meta, when it fell below $90 per share in November, will have seen their investment rise by more than 160% - not too shabby for a maturing tech company like Meta.

EU names “Very Large” tech firms that will be targeted under the Digital Services Act by Paul Hill The European Commission has named 17 Very Large Online Platforms (VLOPs) and 2 Very Large Online Search Engines (VLOSEs) that will be targeted under the Digital Services Act. It said that these companies are being picked out because they have over 45 million monthly active users. The companies that will have to adhere to strict new rules, which you can read further down, include Alibaba AliExpress, Amazon Store, Apple AppStore, Booking.com, Facebook, Google Play, Google Maps, Google Shopping, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Snapchat, TikTok, Twitter, Wikipedia, YouTube, Zalando, Bing, and Google Search. The last two are the VLOSEs and the rest are the VLOPs. Now that they’ve been designated, they will have to comply with the following rules within the next four months: More user empowerment: Users will get clear information on why they are recommended certain information and will have the right to opt-out from recommendation systems based on profiling; Users will be able to report illegal content easily and platforms have to process such reports diligently; Advertisements cannot be displayed based on the sensitive data of the user (such as ethnic origin, political opinions or sexual orientation); Platforms need to label all ads and inform users on who is promoting them; Platforms need to provide an easily understandable, plain-language summary of their terms and conditions, in the languages of the Member States where they operate. Strong protection of minors: Platforms will have to redesign their systems to ensure a high level of privacy, security, and safety of minors; Targeted advertising based on profiling towards children is no longer permitted; Special risk assessments including for negative effects on mental health will have to be provided to the Commission 4 months after designation and made public at the latest a year later; Platforms will have to redesign their services, including their interfaces, recommender systems, terms and conditions, to mitigate these risks. More diligent content moderation, less disinformation: Platforms and search engines need to take measures to address risks linked to the dissemination of illegal content online and to negative effects on freedom of expression and information; Platforms need to have clear terms and conditions and enforce them diligently and non-arbitrarily; Platforms need to have a mechanism for users to flag illegal content and act upon notifications expeditiously; Platforms need to analyse their specific risks, and put in place mitigation measures – for instance, to address the spread of disinformation and inauthentic use of their service. More transparency and accountability: Platforms need to ensure that their risk assessments and their compliance with all the DSA obligations are externally and independently audited; They will have to give access to publicly available data to researchers; later on, a special mechanism for vetted researchers will be established; They will need to publish repositories of all the ads served on their interface; Platforms need to publish transparency reports on content moderation decisions and risk management. The Digital Services Act will be enforced by a “pan-European supervisory architecture”. This consists of the Commission supervising the designated platforms and search engines but also includes national Digital Services Coordinators. The DSCs will also be responsible for the supervision of the smaller platforms and search engines. The strict rules will mean that the platforms and search engines will have a lot of work to do to ensure they meet the necessary standards. No penalties were outlined in the announcement but last year Neowin reported that companies that break the rules could be fined up to 6% of their global turnover.

You can now sign up for your share of Facebook's $725 million privacy settlement by John Callaham Back in December 2022, Facebook's parent company Meta agreed to settle a class-action lawsuit concerning the non-consensual transfer of personal data from the social networking service to the UK political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica. The settlement amount was $725 million. Today, Facebook users who were members during a certain time period can submit their information to claim a share of that settlement money. If you live in the US and were a Facebook member between May 24, 2007, and December 22, 2022, you are eligible for this claim, If you want to opt out of getting paid, or if you wish to make an objection to this settlement, you have until July 26 to do so. If you want to file a claim to get your share of the money, you can go to the online form and fill it out before August 25. You can also mail in your claim by August 25 to the following address: Facebook Consumer Privacy User Profile Litigation c/o Settlement Administrator 1650 Arch Street Suite 2210 Philadelphia, PA 19103 If you do nothing at all, you won't get any money and you also give up your right to sue Meta, or take part in any possible future lawsuit related to this case. The specific amount of money that each person gets will depend in part on how many people opt-in to the settlement. It's also possible, but unlikely, that the courts may decide to ultimately reject the settlement amount. If it is approved by the courts, you have the option of getting your money via a pre-paid Mastercard, or sent via PayPal, Venmo, Zelle, or as a direct deposit to your bank account. The money will likely be sent out late in 2023.

Instagram's link in bio now supports up to 5 links by Aditya Tiwari Instagram announced that it will allow users to add up to five links in their bio description. The social media platform has long restricted users when it comes to adding external links to their accounts. The lack of flexibility gave rise to alternatives such as Linktree, which allows users to add a link landing page to their bio and put unlimited links as part of its free plan. To access the feature, go to Edit profile > Links > Add external Link. Here, you can add your desired links and titles. It is possible to rearrange the added links by dragging them across the order, however, only the first link will be visible to the user who visits your profile. The ability to add more links to Instagram bio is "probably one of the most requested features we've had," Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote on his Instagram broadcast channel as he announced the feature. Nonetheless, this adds to the recently announced Instagram features that include a revamped video editor for Reels, broadcast channels, collections, and quiet mode.

Instagram rolls out a redesigned editor for Reels, a trending section, and more by Aditya Tiwari Instagram has announced a bunch of new features and changes for its short video format Reels. The app has got a redesigned Reels editor UI that makes aligning and timing various elements easier. There is a unified editing screen where users can add additional clips, text, and stickers to their Reels draft. The new Reels editor also offers the ability to zoom in and zoom out on the timeline much like traditional video editors. Users can tap on the audio clip in the editor to time it according to the visuals. All these editing features are now available on Android and iOS devices globally. A freshly-baked feature for creator accounts is a new section where users can find the latest Reels trends such as popular audio and hashtags. Tapping on an audio name reveals how many Reels have been made featuring the particular audio. Furthermore, Instagram has added two new metrics under Reels Insights to give a better overview of content performance. These are total watch time and average watch time that Instagram says will help creators "better understand where people are being engaged or where you may need to create a stronger hook to have viewers stay longer." Another Reels-related addition is that the app will throw a tailored notification someone follows a user after watching one of their Reels. Instagram is also bringing its paid gifts feature to more creators by releasing it in Australia, Canada, France, Mexico, New Zealand, and the UK, in the coming weeks. Creators will also be able to see the names of users who have sent them gifts and show acknowledgement by tapping a heart icon next to their names. All of these contribute to the list of Instagram features released through 2023, including Collections, Broadcast Channels, Quiet Mode, and paid verification.