The word “metaverse” is on a lot of lips lately, but so far only the world’s big brands, and the agencies that are charged with keeping them ahead of the digital media curve, are putting the money where their mouths are. The metaverse is a slippery form of media: a spatial, immersive set of virtual …
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Apple’s iPhone has always lagged behind Android phones in terms of customizing its home screen, but last year’s release of iOS 14 changed quite a bit. iPhone users now have the ability to create home-screen themes filled with their own unique app icons and widgets. When paired with custom wallpaper, personalized themes can create quite an aesthetic effect. And with …
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Your phone doesn’t need to be working to access texts on WhatsApps. Thanks to the web and desktop app’s new Linked Devices feature, previously in beta and rolling out to the public over the next several months, you can get faster access to chats from nearly any computer or tablet you choose, while preserving much of the encryption and security …
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This story is part of War in Ukraine, CNET’s coverage of events there and of the wider effects on the world. Facebook parent company Meta says attacks on internet freedom and access to information have been “intensifying sharply” since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. In the first three months of the year, the social media giant also saw a rise in domestic …
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If you’re reading this, it’s likely your personal information is available to the public. And by “public” I mean everyone everywhere. It’s never a bad time to get your internet privacy ducks in a row and effectively “delete” yourself from the internet. But if you’re wondering how deleting yourself from the internet can stop companies from getting hold of your …
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Snap, the parent company of disappearing-message platform Snapchat, said Thursday that users will now be able to share YouTube video links through the app. The links will be made into stickers that users can apply to videos or pictures of themselves. “With this new integration, we’re making it easier than ever for these viewers to send their favorite clips and …
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Google users will soon see search results giving them two new ways to identify trustworthy news sources. First, a “highly cited” label will alert users to articles that have been cited in other news stories. These highly cited stories are often early, authoritative and local stories that provide necessary context, Google said in a blog post Thursday. The label will appear in the …
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Landmark European Union legislation could mean WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger and Apple’s iMessage will have to let their users communicate with one another. Approved by EU members on Friday and awaiting official adoption, the Digital Markets Act is aimed at regulating massive “gatekeeper” providers, requiring them to exchange more information between services and provide space for smaller platforms to thrive in …
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Apple and Facebook parent company Meta may have handed over private customer information including addresses, phone numbers and IP addresses last year in response to hackers who presented forged legal documents, a report says. The data was given to hackers pretending to be law enforcement, who used faked emergency data requests in mid-2021, Bloomberg reported Wednesday citing three unnamed sources. …
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WhatsApp is updating voice messages for all those times when sending short audio recordings is more convenient — or expressive — than typing out your texts. The voice message feature is apparently quite popular, with WhatsApp announcing that 7 billion of these are sent on average per day. The new voice features should make it more flexible to listen to …
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