Meta

Meta has announced changes aiming to make its Quest 2 and Quest Pro VR headsets more enticing. The more affordable Quest 2 is dropping by $70 with the Quest Pro 2 price being slashed by $500. The news comes after Meta had a big loss for its “Reality Labs” division in 2022 and expectations for Apple to show off its first headset in June.

Facebook has been working on ways to prevent the posting of so-called “revenge porn” – aka non-consensual sharing of explicit photos by former partners and others – and sextortion attempts, especially those against teenagers.

Its first tool, back in 2017, was so scary that few were willing to use it: You had to upload nudes to Facebook in order to have them tagged for blocking! But a new tool, geared initially to teenagers, will allow them to create digital fingerprints, right on their own device …

After cutting 11,000 jobs last fall, Meta is reportedly set to execute what could be another major round of layoffs as it tries to trim expenses. The news comes after CEO Mark Zuckerberg hinted in January another round could happen this year after previously saying in November that he didn’t foresee more cuts.

A data scientist formerly working for Meta says that Facebook apps can deliberately drain the batteries of both iPhones and Android smartphones, in order to examine the effect of low battery power on app performance …

The long-running Cambridge Analytica lawsuit against Facebook parent company Meta has finally been settled. The social media company agreed to pay Facebook users a combined total of $725M for sharing their personal data with the now-bankrupt political consultancy.

The lawyers behind the case described the victory as a “historic” one, saying that it was the largest ever payout in a US privacy case …

Mark Zuckerberg’s company Meta, which is responsible for the popular platforms Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, may be next to lay off some of its employees. A new report from The Wall Street Journal reveals that Meta is planning a mass layoff as early as this Wednesday.

Meta on Wednesday announced new features coming soon to Facebook and Instagram that will enhance the experience for creators using both platforms. This includes updates on NFT, Instagram subscriptions, and Facebook Stars. The news comes as the company holds its Creator Week conference with in-person events around the world.

It’s been a challenging year on a number of levels and major tech hasn’t been immune. Over the last twelve months, more than $3 trillion in value has been shed by the top seven US tech companies. While all have lost billions, Google’s Alphabet and Microsoft have taken the most damage with 20x the losses that Apple has seen.

Facebook and Instagram boosts are a popular way for creators to give their posts extra reach by paying Meta to show them to more people. Apple has updated its App Store rules to say that any boosts purchased through the iOS apps must use in-app purchases (IAP), giving the iPhone maker a 30% cut.

Meta has called this an Apple tax on ads, and says that the Cupertino company is growing its own ad business while undercutting competitors …

CNN has pointed to upcoming tech earnings reports from Apple, Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, Microsoft, Twitter – and suggested that they aren’t going to be pretty.

The site argues that this may be the quarter in which tech giants reveal that their seeming immunity to the broader economic climate is at an end …

Meta is launching a new ad campaign targeting Apple’s iMessage platform head-on. The ad campaign unveiled by Mark Zuckerberg today criticizes Apple for only offering end-to-end encryption for iMessage, not standard SMS communication. WhatsApp, on the other hand, offers end-to-end encryption that “works across both iPhones and Android.”

Ask for the views of Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Apple, and it will come as no surprise that he’s critical. It seems this even applies to products the Cupertino company hasn’t even yet announced.

The Facebook founder effectively criticized Apple for its (unknown) pricing strategy on its (unannounced) Apple Headset …

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has never hidden his opinions against some of Apple’s decisions, especially after the company introduced App Tracking Transparency. This time, Zuckerberg criticized Apple and its rumored mixed reality headset as he argued that the metaverse should be “open.”

Update: The names of the apps are now known. Apple has removed them from the App Store, but the apps also need to be removed from devices – see the list added to the end of the piece.

Meta has issued a Facebook security warning to around one million users that their login credentials may have been stolen by scam apps. While most of the apps were Android ones, 47 of them were iOS apps found in Apple’s App Store …

Meta is facing a class action lawsuit after both Facebook and Instagram were found to be using an App Tracking Transparency workaround to track users on the web, even after they were denied permission to do so.

The company is accused not just of breaking Apple’s privacy rules, but also violating both state and federal laws …

Execs from Instagram and Pinterest have been ordered to appear before an inquest into the death of a 14-year-old girl, Molly Russell. Russell took her own life after using the apps to view extensive material on self-harm, depression, and suicide.

It’s the latest development in growing concerns about the impact of social media platforms on the mental health of teenagers, girls especially …

Execs from four tech giants were called before the Senate Homeland Security Committee yesterday. The Senate questioned Meta, TikTok, YouTube, and Twitter on safety, privacy, misinformation, and more.

Apple CEO Tim Cook was also seen in the building, but he did not appear before the committee …

The Meta Quest Pro headset is set to launch next month, and it’s believed to have many features in common with the upcoming Apple headset expected to be launched early next year. We already knew the name, and it now appears we know what both the device and its packaging look like, thanks to a careless employee.

A sample of the headset, its controllers, and retail packaging were left in a hotel room, bringing back memories of the time an Apple engineer left an iPhone 4 prototype in a bar …