Facebook was renamed as Meta this week, as part of a broad push to focus on the cross-device multiverse vision for social networking that Mark Zuckerberg has talked about for months. The name change, announced at the company’s developer-focused Connect virtual conference, happened in the same week that a cache of internal documents pointed to Facebook’s …
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9 great reads from CNET this week: Satellite science, China crackdown, Facebook as Meta and more
What goes up must send data back down. That, in a nutshell, is why we send satellites into orbit. A case in point: the GOES satellites that NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration use to collect data about weather on Earth. CNET’s Claire Reilly went behind the scenes to find out how Lockheed Martin is building the latest of …
Read More »Facebook to Meta: A new name but the same old problems
This story is part of Making the Metaverse, CNET’s exploration of the next stage in the internet’s evolution. Facebook’s iconic thumbs-up sign at its Menlo Park, California, headquarters now bears a blue infinity-shaped symbol along with a new name: Meta. The corporate rebranding, unveiled Thursday at Facebook’s Connect conference, is part of Facebook’s headlong sprint into the metaverse, a virtual …
Read More »5G has no link to COVID
For the most up-to-date news and information about the coronavirus pandemic, visit the WHO and CDC websites. As the coronavirus swept across the globe, so did rumors about what caused it and how it’s spread. One that’s persisted online is that 5G networks caused the disease. A new one involves vaccines somehow being linked to 5G tracking. Both are completely wrong. …
Read More »Oculus CTO skeptical about Facebook’s metaverse undertaking
Mark Zuckerberg’s decision to rebrand Facebook to Meta dominated headlines Thursday, and Zuckerberg spoke at length about his vision for the metaverse, a virtual world where people might someday work and socialize. Less noticed were skeptical remarks by John Carmack, consulting CTO at Facebook’s Oculus unit, which focuses on virtual reality. The occasion was the Facebook Connect conference on VR and …
Read More »Meta acquires VR fitness subscription service Supernatural
The newly renamed Meta (previously Facebook) has big plans for fitness and the metaverse. Meta just acquired one of the Oculus Quest’s more notable subscription-based fitness companies, Within, which makes an Oculus app called Supernatural. The app connects with Apple Watches to track real-time heart rate, working similarly to Apple Fitness Plus and Amazon’s upcoming Halo fitness video service. Supernatural was …
Read More »Facebook goes Meta: What is the metaverse and why is Big Tech obsessed?
This story is part of Making the Metaverse, CNET’s exploration of the next stage in the internet’s evolution. Neal Stephenson’s 1992 novel Snow Crash is about a pizza delivery man by day, VR superhero by night, who lives in an online universe called the Metaverse. “So Hiro’s not actually here at all. He’s in a computer-generated universe that his computer …
Read More »Facebook renames itself Meta amid controversy
Facebook said Thursday it’s rebranding itself as Meta to reflect the company’s focus on building the metaverse, a virtual world where people work, play, learn and connect with their friends and family. Meta will be a new corporate brand that will preside over Facebook and its services including photo app Instagram, messaging app WhatsApp and its virtual and augmented reality …
Read More »Meta: Facebook’s new name focuses on metaverse
Facebook wants to look toward the future, and it’s taking on a new name to emphasize that. Facebook is renaming itself Meta. After weeks of intense scrutiny brought on after a whistleblower leaked thousands of internal research documents and memos to regulators, lawmakers and the press, Facebook tried to turn a page by focusing on its futuristic technology. To Mark …
Read More »Facebook’s global head of safety hasn’t fully read UK’s Online Safety Bill
Tech executives and lawmakers around the world all seem to agree — social media regulation is necessary and it is coming. One of the first pieces of legislation to come into play will likely be the UK’s Online Safety Bill, the draft text of which is being examined by a parliamentary committee. That bill will help set the tone for …
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