Why Facebook's Zuckerberg wears same shirt each day

 Brett Molina

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg might be known just as much for his simple wardrobe as he is as head of one of the world's most popular social networks.

So why does Zuckerberg opt for hoodies and t-shirts? The Facebook CEO addressed it during a Q&A hosted by the company Thursday.

Zuckerberg says he seeks to "spend less energy on things that are frivolous," like choosing what he'll wear each day. "I really want to clear my life so I have to make as few decisions as possible other than how to best serve this community," he says.

Although the Q&A was light on big news, it did offer some insight into Zuckerberg and Facebook, which caps a busy year with the acquisitions of VR company Oculus and messaging app WhatsApp. Among the other highlights:

On pushing for a diverse workforce at Facebook. Zuckerberg says the priority for making Facebook a diverse space is everyone's responsibility. "It is literally every person in the company's job to make their teams diverse."

On why they pushed a standalone Messenger app. Zuckerberg says the reason Facebook moved Messenger away from the main app to a standalone experience is to boost engagement. "We saw that all of the messaging apps that people were using and they relied on the most were these dedicated and focused experiences."

His review of the 2010 film The Social Network. Hint: he's not a fan. "They just kind of made up a bunch of stuff that I found kind of hurtful."

On whether Facebook is losing its charm. Zuckerberg says keeping Facebook "useful" to its audience is more important than its cool factor. "I am not a cool person," he jokes. "I've never tried to be cool."

Google Maps now lets you book restaurant reservations, call Uber

By Dan Taylor



The app now has a sleeker design and more detailed maps.

Google Maps is no longer just an app that can help you find your way: now, users in the United States will be able to make restaurant reservations as well as compare pickup times with Uber to other methods of transportation.

The look of the Google Maps app has changed itself, and it will now included 3D layouts to reveal large buildings and other structures, according toYahoo. It will also have brighter colors and a sleeker design.

While using the app, users will now be able to make a last-minute reservation directly from the app using OpenTable.

The app will include buttons indicating what time a reservation is available, and if you click one, you will be taken straight to a confirmation page to fill out your full name and email. Once you add your phone number and tap confirm, your reservation will be set.


Uber riders who have the map will now be able to weigh whether it would be more beneficial to simply call an Uber car or use public transportation or walk based on information from the Google Maps app. If they opt for Uber, they can simply book a ride through Google Maps.

Specifically, Google Maps will tell you how long it will take to get somewhere via the various transit options, as well as how much it will cost for each option.

Key features, you can expect from Microsoft Lumia RM 1090

by David Pence

Microsoft Lumia RM 1090 which is set to be released on November 11th has already become a rage in the technology market.


The smartphone is a part of the revolution which Microsoft has recently unveiled. The Lumia series will now feature the brand name Microsoft and Lumia RM 1090 is the first of the series to be unveiled.

Microsoft Lumia RM 1090 will have Microsoft branding on its front and backside. You can expect the phone to have a 5 inch display along with 960×540 pixels. This dual SIM phone will have a 1905mAh battery and will have a 9.3 mm chassis.

Nothing much has been revealed about the camera ofLumia RM 1090 but it is likely to have LED flash. The phone will run on Windows Phone 8.1 operating system and the smartphone is likely to have 1.2 GHz snapdragon 200 CPU.

You can expect the Microsoft Lumia RM 1090 to have 1 GB RAM along with 8GB of storage. It can extend up to 64 GB with microSD support.

An innovation which Microsoft has worked in the new Lumia is the placing of its rear camera. According to the leaked inputs, the rear camera will be located in the center which is a unique feature for any of the Lumia series phones. The smartphone might however disappoint the users on the connectivity front. The phone might only have GSM and 3G with HPSA.

Microsoft Lumia might be a competitive phone in its segment and can offer challenge to other budget Android phones in the market.

Google Inbox App Arrives as Invite-Only App – This is Not the Gmail You Know!

BY LORENZO TANOS

Without a doubt, Gmail is ubiquitous in the world of email. Many people have a Gmail account, and it’s clear that Google’s email service is now one of the most popular clients out there. With that status in mind, Google has tentatively released a new app called Inbox that’s free to iOS and Android users and an interesting look at how Google may possibly launch an email service had it been done today, and not several years ago.

The key word to keep in mind above is “tentatively” – Google’s Inbox is invite-only, just like Gmail was in its early days. But for what it’s worth, it is not to be confused with Gmail as we know it. Instead, Google has taken its Material Design paradigm and applied it to the Inbox app, giving users a flat, minimalist look and feel. All of your email messages show up as tasks that have to be completed, and these tasks are marked “Done” once you’ve archived them; this can be done with a simple swiping gesture. Once a task is open, you can pin an email on top if you feel it is important, and you can set reminders for those emails, making you aware of the importance of such email messages. Conversely, the Google Inbox app allows users to put messages on snooze if they feel it can be left alone for the meantime.

It’s also quite easy to categorize your emails, as Inbox would let you arrange emails by the time they were sent, and would also give you “highlights” from the categories you create, allowing you to get a quick snapshot of what’s in there without having to open a category.

Still, Inbox isn’t a perfect app, especially for those who have been Gmail users for quite a while. Sure, it’s an extremely simple take on your conventional email client, but this may be best appreciated by casual users, rather than power users whose working days depend on email. And Inbox is also incompatible with Google’s Apps for Work business-oriented accounts. But the long and short of it is this – Google Inbox has some serious potential despite having a few shortcomings ahead of its widespread release.

Don’t be fooled by Facebook’s latest newsfeed update: It’s still the one in control

by Carmel DeAmicis

credit: Shutterstock / Arka38

SUMMARY:

Facebook’s latest newsfeed features give you the illusion of agency. But the company is just placating you.

In the never-ending quest to build a newsfeed beloved by both users and advertisers, Facebook introduced more product control features on Friday. Namely, it added nuances to its muting button. Now when you tell Facebook you don’t want to see a post, you’re prompted to unfollow the writer or see less posts from them. Facebook’s product management director Adam Mosseri told Re/Code “We’re trying to encourage people to use the [unfollow] option more.”

Here’s the problem: It makes fine-tuning your newsfeed even more of a hassle. It takes effort to go weeding through the dredges of your news feed, making decisions about which individual posts were subpar. The cognitive burden of it all is a deterrence. How many people used that “I don’t want to see a post” button in the first place? I asked Facebook, but the company didn’t respond.

In the second update, Facebook will give you lists of noisy pages and people, recommendations on who you might want to unfollow. It also has grouped everyone you’ve unfollowed into one list, so you can choose to refollow people easily.

The “I don’t want to see this post” and the “unfollow” button are some of the only newsfeed control options Facebook gives users. Today’s update doesn’t change that at all.

Screenshots from Facebook’s new newsfeed control features

But the most frustrating part of a newsfeed isn’t “noisy” friends or pages. The original unfollow button – which has existed for a year now — made those easy enough to tone down.

Instead, the truly frustrating newsfeed problem is the type of content you’re presented with. Some people may love seeing status updates from their whole scope of friends – I certainly do – whereas others may prefer seeing news articles. The real power would come from determining what type of content you see more.

But if Facebook gave users the ability to manipulate that, it would relinquish power over their engagement. Just because you like seeing posts from friends doesn’t mean they’ll keep you on the site as long as news articles would.

User engagement is key to Facebook’s business priorities, because that’s what advertisers care the most about, so Facebook won’t give that up any time soon. Instead, it will give the illusion of control with minor newsfeed tailoring features like those announced today.

When I reached out for more information on why Facebook chose to build out these features as opposed to other newsfeed control functions, a spokesperson said, “We have offered the option for people to unfollow or hide posts for a while and have got positive feedback about these features.” In an interview with The New York Times, Mosseri was a little more forthcoming, explaining that Facebook grapples with giving the user too much control and overwhelming them, versus making the feed work well without much user input. Mosseri admitted the company may need more personalized models.

Here’s a 2009 Facebook newsfeed control system, via TechCrunch, complete with explicit levers instead of mysterious algorithms. It’s ideal — it empowers the user to make their own choices, but quickly and without complication.

Alas, Facebook abolished it – for reasons the company declined to tell me. After this story published, however, the company responded with a longish statement. Here’s the gist of it, “[We] will continue to work on new features to give people more control over what they see in their News Feed.” Here’s to hoping.

This story has been updated with comment from Facebook.

Facebook’s 2009 newsfeed controls, via TechCrunch

How to Send & Receive SMS Text Messages in OS X Yosemite

By Craig Lloyd

OS X Yosemite comes with a really cool new feature that lets you send and receive SMS text message on your Mac. Here’s how to set it up.

Previously, you were only able to send and receive iMessages on your Mac, while SMS text messages had to be handled on your iPhone. However, you can now handle all text messages right on your Mac, thanks to OS X Yosemite and iOS 8.1.

Apple calls this Text Message Forwarding, and it allows text messages that are received by your iPhone to be mirrored on your Mac running OS X Yosemite. You can also send SMS text messages from your Mac as well using this method.

However, the feature won’t work automatically, as there are a few conditions that you need to be aware of. We’ll show you how to set up Text Message Forwarding so that you can begin receiving and sending SMS text messages on your Mac.


Setting Up Text Message Forwarding

It’s actually really quick and easy to set this feature up, and it takes less than a minute to do so.

The first thing you’ll want to do is make sure that your iPhone and your Mac are connected to the same WiFi network and are logged into the same iCloud account. If you’re at home and only have one iCloud account anyway, then you’re most likely all set to go, but it wouldn’t hurt to double check.
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You’ll also want your iPhone to be updated to the latest version of iOS in order for this feature to work. The latest version of iOS is iOS 8.1.

Once you’ve met all of this criteria, go ahead and open up the Settings app on your iPhone and navigate toMessages > Text Message Forwarding.



Selecting the option opens a window with a list of your iOS and OS X devices. Your Mac should be listed, so go ahead and flip the toggle switch to On. Doing this will send a verification code to your Mac in the form of a six-digit number. You’ll be asked to enter in this number on your iPhone.



Once that’s done, you’ll be good to go and you’ll start receiving SMS text messages on your Mac, as well as on your iPhone like usual. SMS text conversations will appear just like iMessage conversations, but the text bubbles will appear in green rather than blue, just like on iOS.
Other New Stuff in OS X Yosemite

OS X Yosemite was first announced back in June during Apple’s annual WWDC developers conference and it has spent the summer in beta form for developers to test out and report any bugs. The OS has seen multiple beta releases over the past few months and was finally released to the public late last week.

This new version of OS X comes with some pretty sweet features, including an all-new look and feel that finally puts OS X on par with iOS 7, thanks to the translucent windows and menus, as well as a flatter design overall, with redesigned icons that mimic iOS 7 icons, but still include some depth so that there’s still a bit of that classic OS X feel.

Furthermore, OS X 10.10 Yosemite also comes improvements made to Messages, including the ability to send and receive SMS text messages (rather than just iMessages), as well as make and receive phone calls as long as your iPhone is nearby and can connect to your Mac.



OS X Yosemite also includes Handoff, which allows users to start a task on one device and complete on another. There’s also cross-platform support for AirDrop between iOS and OS X.

One of the first things that Apple touted on stage with the new OS X 10.10 Yosemite was the look of the new icons. They’ve obviously been iOS-ified and include a flatter design that we’ve seen on the iPhone and iPad, but they still have a bit of depth in order to keep the design from going completely iOS.



Windows are also a lot flatter and less bubbly than we’ve seen with past versions of OS X, and navigation menus (as well as title bars of applications) are also a been transparent, similar to different elements in iOS 7, like bringing up Control Center.

Text-Messaging: Google Inc (GOOGL)’s ‘Messenger’ App Vs. Facebook Inc (FB)’s ‘Messenger’ App

By LARRY VALLI

Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) has come up with their new text-messaging app. The new text-messaging app ‘Messenger’ is expected to be introduced along with Google’s brand new mobile OS, Android 5.0 Lollipop. Does the name ‘Messenger’ ring a bell? Yes, it does, because it is the name of Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB)’s text-messaging app. Why should Google use this name for its new text messaging app? Detail of Google’s new text-messaging app was published in a ‘Business Insider’ article.

Before getting into details of why Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) use ‘Messenger’ name for its new text-messaging app, we need to understand why does Google need another text-messaging app? Google already has a messaging app ‘Hangout’, which is pretty good. ‘Hangout’ app can seamlessly transfer chats from gmail account on to the mobile and vice versa. Here is what Google said about it.

“Messenger and Hangouts offer users choice, each have their own benefits. Hangouts work great for cross platform (web, iOS, Android) and cross medium communications (video, voice, messaging, SMS). Messenger will be specially designed to be a quick and easy way to send and receive SMS and MMS messages on Android,” Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) was quoted as talking to 9to5 Google blog

According to App Annie, Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB)’s ‘Messenger’ app is currently ranked as no.1 app based on downloads and Facebook’s acquisition ‘Whatsapp’ is positioned at third place. Google’s ‘Hangout’ did not make the top 10 in the list though. Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB)’s ‘Messenger’ is expected to gain more popularity, since the company’s new policy demands the user to install ‘Messenger’ for messaging, which many people were doing using the Facebook platform itself.

Is Google trying to gain more popularity by launching another text-messaging app, exclusively for SMS/MMS functions? Is Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) trying to confuse the users with the same name as Facebook’s messaging app and let more users install its app? Whatever may be the reason Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) might not be happy with the name that Google has used for its text-messaging app.