You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours -- all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.

Filed under: Cellphones, Misc, Internet

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Facebook comment threads are apparently a bit too calm, so the social network company's decided to mix things up with the addition of in-line image embeds starting today. But wait -- put down the link to your hottest GIF -- apparently the service only supports static images for now. And not everyone has it thus far, with the service only rolling out to folks who have a camera icon appear in the comment response field.

The functionality is rolling out on both web and mobile versions of Facebook; product engineer Bob Baldwin debuted the addition on his Facebook profile, where he said he built the image embedding "at a hackathon" with a gaggle of other FBers. Let us know in the comments below if you've already got it, and leave some pictures on the Engadget Facebook page!

Filed under: Internet, Software, Mobile, Facebook

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Via: The Next Web

Source: Bob Baldwin

Look at the people with smiling faces in the above illustration. It's not too difficult to figure out what's going on: it's their birthday, and they're all happy because they're about to get presents. What if they knew that you had totally spaced on the fact that they were celebrating the anniversary of their birth? Fortunately, there are plenty of services that will remind you of friends' and family members' DOBs, and Amazon is now joining their ranks with a Facebook-integrated program called Birthday Gift. The idea is simple: you can order an Amazon gift card for a Facebook friend ahead of time, and the company will make sure it gets delivered on their momentous day. What's more, you can also send invites to mutual friends to see if they want to pitch in a few bucks. This way, nobody feels terribly cheap for plunking down a couple dollars, and you won't settle for the standard Wall post birthday wish. Check out the video below to see how it all works.

Filed under: Amazon, Facebook

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Via: AllThingsD

Source: Amazon

As much as the federal government would like it to, the public outrage at the scope of its PRISM program has yet to die down, despite any good the program may have served in the interests of national and local security. The revelations made by Edward Snowden have cast a bright light on the powers granted our government by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), and many companies are taking the opportunity to push the feds to let them tell the public just how many governmental data requests are being made. Of course, no company can release exactly how many requests were made under FISA -- companies can only publish the number of total data requests, whether they be from the NSA, local law enforcement or elsewhere. Since so many of Silicon Valley's giants have been dishing our data to Uncle Sam on the sly, we figured we'd bring you all the numbers in one place.

At the top of the request list is Yahoo, which received between 12-13,000 requests in the first six months of 2013. During that same time period, Apple received between 4-5,000 requests. Meanwhile, Google reported 8,438 requests between July and December of 2012, Facebook received between 9-10,000 and Microsoft was asked for its users data between 6-7,000 times. Prefer pictures to numbers? A colorful chart awaits after the break.

Filed under: Internet, Apple, Microsoft, Google, Facebook

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Source: Yahoo!, Apple, Facebook, Microsoft, Google, Twitter

TechCrunch is reporting that Facebook is adding video capability to Instagram, which will be announced at the former's press event on June 20th. According to The Desk, the videos would last between five and 10 seconds, but there's no word on if the photo-sharing app's litany of filters would feature in the new service. Presumably the move has come in response to Vine's popularity as Facebook and Twitter square off against each other -- a fight which would make Blu-Ray vs. HD-DVD look like playground squabbling by comparison.

Filed under: Cellphones, Cameras, Software, Mobile, Facebook

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Source: TechCrunch

Facebook lawyer Ted Ullyot revealed in a post tonight precisely how many user-data requests it receives from government entities, and that it's negotiated the ability to include national security-related (FISA and National Security Letters) inquiries in the report. Until now, the companies that receive such requests, whether through the recently uncovered PRISM program or not, have not been able to say anything about them, or report how many there are. Still, the stats it's able to release aren't specific, and include all requests from the last six months in a range, said to be between 9,000 and 10,000, covering between 18,000 and 19,000 accounts. We still have no official reports on what those inquiries cover, how wide reaching a single one can be or what information has been passed along. Facebook however, is quick to point out that these cover "only a tiny fraction of one percent" of its 1.1 billion active user accounts.

Along with Microsoft and Google, Facebook has publicly petitioned the government to let it be more transparent about the size and scope of the requests it receives, and Reuters reports tonight that "several" internet companies have struck an agreement to do so. Expect more reports to arrive soon in similar formats, however Ullyot states Facebook will continue to push the government to be "as transparent as possible."

For the six months ending December 31, 2012, the total number of user-data requests Facebook received from any and all government entities in the U.S. (including local, state, and federal, and including criminal and national security-related requests) - was between 9,000 and 10,000. These requests run the gamut - from things like a local sheriff trying to find a missing child, to a federal marshal tracking a fugitive, to a police department investigating an assault, to a national security official investigating a terrorist threat. The total number of Facebook user accounts for which data was requested pursuant to the entirety of those 9-10 thousand requests was between 18,000 and 19,000 accounts.

Filed under: Microsoft, Google, Facebook

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Source: Facebook

In case you're interested, June 20th is a Thursday. It's more than that to Facebook, though: apparently that is the day the social network will show off a new product, or as the company puts it, a "big idea" coming from a small team. As to what this particular event -- to be held in Menlo Park -- could bring to the table, you now know exactly as much as we do; with recent talk regarding Facebook's interest in building an RSS reader, that rumor would certainly be a good stab in the dark. What's even more odd, however, is the method by which the press is receiving the invitation: the good old-fashioned postal service. Let us know in the comments if you have any particular theories on what it could all mean.

Filed under: Facebook

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Source: ABC News

Facebook ads are about to become a tiny bit less obtrusive: the social network just announced that it will stop showing Sponsored Results this July. These ads have appeared alongside brands, groups and more in searches since August of last year, but Facebook made the decision to cut the program after noticing that marketers were using Sponsored Results and mobile app install ads quite similarly. Businesses will still be able to use the latter (and purportedly more effective) method, along with post links ads, when the program ends in July. In other words, don't expect a commercial-free experience.

Filed under: Internet, Facebook

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Facebook's first European data center in Luleå, Sweden (near the Arctic Circle) is now online, and thus far it's the only facility that's exclusively using servers the company itself designed. Similar to the social network's North Carolina complex that served as testing ground for its outdoor air-cooling configuration, the Swedish facility takes advantage of the region's frigid winds. Excess heat produced by the machines is then routed to offices to keep employees warm in the chilly region. The firm claims the 900,000-square-foot center is powered entirely by hydroelectric energy -- a source so reliable that Facebook saw it fit to scale down the number of backup generators by more than 70 percent. With an average power usage efficiency (PUE) of 1.07, the servers should consume 1.07 watts of energy for each watt they need to function pointing to minimal energy loss. Now that the Luleå installation is complete and operational, the company can focus on building its $1.5 billion megastructure (its biggest data center yet) in Altoona, Iowa.

[Image credit: Facebook]

Filed under: Misc, Internet

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Via: Ars Technica, The Register

Source: Facebook

Facebook wants to help you make your conversations just a little more discoverable (if you so desire), and it's decided to finally include a long-missing feature -- clickable hashtags -- to the News Feed. If you've ever enjoyed hashtag searches on Twitter, Instagram or other social networks (some of our friends enjoy them a little too much, if you ask us), you'll now have the same feeling of exhilaration on Zuckerberg's service as you are now able to click on each one. Up until today, any hashtags from imported tweets or Instagram posts just showed up as regular text, with no backlink to accompany them. When it comes to the visibility of your own hashtags, Facebook won't allow any unintended audiences to see your private updates, so you remain in control of your desired privacy. The company also plans to roll out trending hashtags and other related features in the coming months, but this is a good start for now. The company's official blog post can be found below.

Filed under: Facebook

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Source: Facebook

It's been a couple months since we first saw the fruits of team Paranoid Android's labor around in-app pop-up window multitasking, and it looks like Paul Henschel and co. are finally sharing the finished product. HALO, as it's called, loosely combines the ideas behind Samsung's Multi Window and FaceBook's Chat Heads into a slick multitasking interface. The feature is activated from the notification tray. It places an icon -- or halo -- on the display, which can be moved around very much like Chat Heads, or dismissed by double-tapping and dragging it towards the red X at the top. Swiping sideways from the halo shows a series of white lines and text bubbles that match and highlight the notifications in the status bar. Releasing your finger is like tapping on the selected notification, but instead of launching full-screen, the app opens in a pop-up window on top of whatever's already running, just like Multi Window. The background app continues to run while you interact with the foreground app -- to dismiss the pop-up window, simply tap outside of it. Other cool functionality includes swiping up to dismiss the last notification and the ability to pin apps permanently to the halo. But what's really most exciting is that team Paranoid Android's decided to make HALO open source so anyone can be involved. Check out the awesome demo video after the break.

Filed under: Cellphones, Software, Mobile, Samsung, Google, Facebook

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Via: xda-developers

Source: Paranoid Android (Google+)

BlackBerry 10 users haven't had much control over their Facebook photo uploads -- a big problem when they're trying to organize their pictures later on. Thankfully, they can be a little more restrained as of the Facebook 10.2 update. The revision lets socialites both create albums on-device and upload directly to particular albums. After the fact, they can tag existing shots and toggle just which images they see. If you're the sort whose Q10 or Z10 doubles as a primary camera, you'll want to grab the update at the source link.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Blackberry, Facebook

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Via: Inside BlackBerry

Source: BlackBerry World

Last month news leaked that Facebook might acquire crowdsourced navigation / traffic / mapping app Waze, but now two papers in Israel say Google is about to close the deal. Globes and Calcalist both peg the potential sale price at $1.3 billion US, with the company's development team remaining in Israel after the sale and not moving to the US. Where they will work from is cited by Globes as one reason why negotiations may not have worked out with Facebook, along with the price tag. For those unfamiliar with Waze, the app generates mapping data in real-time based on its nearly 50 million users and reports of accidents or traffic jams.

Update: Not to be left out, the Wall Street Journal also claims that Google is near buying Waze. The newspaper hears that the Waze app could soldier on while Google beefs up its own mapping app with data from its reported target. Likewise, Google Maps information could slip into Waze.

Filed under: Internet, Mobile, Google, Facebook

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Source: Globes, Calcalist

Yesterday a series of leaked PowerPoint slides in the Washington Post revealed a program codenamed PRISM that allowed government investigators access to data from a number of top internet companies. That leak has been followed up in the last 24 hours by a series of blanket denials as tech companies (and their CEOs, including Google's Larry Page and Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg) claimed they do not give "backdoor access," only generally acknowledging that they do respond to individual court orders. Meanwhile government officials including President Obama responded to the claims mostly by claiming whatever is going on -- including the bulk collection of call logs by the NSA -- is legal and has been "repeatedly authorized by Congress."

Tonight, a New York Times article may be able to explain the difference between the statements, citing information from people briefed on the program and lawyers that handle the requests. Their report is that the companies discussed ways to "efficiently and securely" share data about foreign users in response to requests made under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. In contrast to the initial reports of direct server access, this report claims when a government request is made under an individual FISA request, it's reviewed by company lawyers and then sent over, sometimes electronically using company servers. That can include an investigation into a specific person, logs of certain search terms, and in some cases "real-time transmission of data." One specific instance cited involved an NSA agent going on-site at a company's HQ, installing government software on its server and remaining there for several weeks to offload data to a laptop.

So why the quick denials about something the companies listed (including AOL, parent company of Engadget) may actually have ties to? Because FISA requests are by their nature secret, the report claims employees that deal with the requests can't discuss the details, even with their fellow employees. Notably, although companies must by law respond to the requests, they're not legally obligated to make it easy, and the article points out Twitter as a company that has declined to participate. Because of that, even if PRISM is more a streamlining of bureaucratic processes than a government backdoor into your Candy Crush Saga level, the semantic differences of company denials may not sit well with users, much less citizens voting for the officials who oversee the programs.

Update: Google Chief Legal Officer David Drummond has chimed in once again via a post on Google+, denying (again) that the government has any access to Google servers. That includes directly, through a back door, or any kind of "drop box" as the Times report mentions had been discussed. Meanwhile, CNET has an alternate source who corroborates the company's claims of no direct access, describing the system as a "formalized legal process."

Filed under: Internet, Apple, Microsoft, Google, Verizon, Facebook

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Source: New York Times, Google (Google+)

You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours -- all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.

Comments

Microsoft wants Bing Desktop to transcend the limits of web-based search, and that's especially clear with a newly posted app update -- it's all about doing what most browsers can't. The software brings inline searching that lets users run Bing queries on websites, PDFs and Word files just by selecting text. Newshounds also don't have to wade into every article now that there's both at-a-glance previews and a trending stories section. We suspect most users won't mind the real-time weather forecasts and live Facebook notifications, either. Existing Bing Destkop users should automatically receive the new features in the days ahead, but those who refuse to wait can grab the upgrade straight from the source.

Filed under: Internet, Software, Microsoft, Facebook

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Via: Bing Search Blog

Source: Bing

On the heels of yesterday's revelation that the NSA is bulk collecting call logs from Verizon Business customers, the Washington Post is reporting tonight on another initiative, code named PRISM. According to the report, it gives the FBI and NSA access to "audio, video, photographs, e-mails, documents and connection logs" from the central servers of Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, PalTalk, AOL (parent company of Engadget), Skype, YouTube and Apple. Another program called BLARNEY sniffs up metadata as it streams past "choke points" on the internet, continuing the theme of bulk scooping of data most would think is private. The Post's knowledge of these programs comes from PowerPoint slides (like the one shown above) provided by a "career intelligence officer" driven to expose how deep it goes.

So what can the project allegedly see? Analysts based at Fort Meade use search terms to determine at least 51 percent confidence in a subject's "foreignness" before pulling data, which can include that of people found in a suspect's inbox. On Facebook, they can utilize the service's built in search and surveillance capabilities, monitor audio, video, chat and file transfers or access activity on Google's mail, storage, photo and search services. So... are you still logged in?

Update 4: Now we've come full circle, as the original Washington Post article has been expanded to include the various company's responses and denials (listed after the break). Another element that has changed is the mention of another classified report that suggests these companies may not be knowingly participating, and the NSA's access may not be as direct as originally claimed. Claiming the difference may be the result of "imprecision" by the NSA author, the arrangement is now described as "collection managers [to send] content tasking instructions directly to equipment installed at company-controlled locations."

Update (June 7th): Google has now issued a longer statement, signed by CEO Larry Page and Chief Legal Officer David Drummond, which reiterates its earlier comments and also calls for a "more transparent approach" from both other companies and governments alike.

Update 2 (June 7th): Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has denied involvement on his personal page, stating "Facebook is not and has never been part of any program to give the US or any other government direct access to our servers...We hadn't even heard of PRISM before yesterday." Like the others, he claimed Facebook only provides information "if it is required by law" and mirrored Page's call for more transparency regarding government programs.

Filed under: Internet, Apple, Microsoft, Google, Facebook

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Source: Washington Post, Office of the Director of National Intelligence, Google Blog

Now that Facebook Home is a practical reality, Facebook has to support both a full launcher and its traditional app at the same time -- and an update to Facebook for Android reflects that newly expanded focus. The big addition comes to Home, which gets its promised (and frankly needed) favorites tray for heavily used apps. Those relying on the traditional Android experience will mostly notice improved sharing: they can send multiple photos in one message, and it's easier for them to filter the visibility of shared content. No matter how committed you are to Facebook's vision of our mobile future, there's just one upgrade to grab at the source link.

Filed under: Cellphones, Internet, Mobile, Facebook

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Source: Google Play

Cloud storage from the likes of Dropbox and Google is all well and good, but let's face it -- many of our friends won't venture far beyond Facebook. Thankfully, Pipe is about to publicly launch a file transfer service built with them in mind. The company's namesake Facebook tool lets socialites send files without dedicated apps, and automatically picks a method depending on whether or not both contacts are online. If they are, they can send files up to 1GB through a peer-to-peer link; a locker will also hold on to as much as 100MB if the recipient isn't ready and waiting. Pipe doesn't go live until mid-day on June 5th, but those who want to share more on Facebook than their memories can get a heads-up on availability at the source link.

Filed under: Storage, Internet, Facebook

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Via: GigaOM

Source: Pipe

Finding things to do and places to go has never been easier thanks to services that neatly pull all the options together. Weotta hopes to be another weapon in your discovery app arsenal after expanding its coverage to the whole of the US, having initially been limited to 40 cities. As the company's CEO told Forbes, the free iOS app uses "phrase extraction and natural language processing" to source its local suggestions from the nooks and crannies of the internet. That same wizardry is used to steer its rating system, which is based on what's said about a venue or event rather than aggregating numerical scores. It'll learn your likes and dislikes, tailoring recommendations as it gets to know you better, but you can discover what's happening in the area for yourself using the search feature. Via Facebook Connect, the app will also tell you what's popular among your peers. While Weotta is only available for iOS, it's attracted funding from Google Ventures, which is a recommendation in itself that suggests you give it a whirl.

Filed under: Cellphones, Tablets, Software, Mobile

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Source: Weotta, Forbes, App Store

It's not hard to navigate to a Facebook Event if there's an address: it's much harder if the organizer simply assumes that we'll know where to go. Thankfully, we can now lean on some collective help through Waze 3.7 for Android and iOS. The update not only populates the destination list with Facebook Events, but fills in the blanks for everyone involved -- enter an address and it will be sent to others on the guest list. It's also easier to be fashionably late with the new app, as Waze members can see when others are likely to show up. Anyone who's ever had to navigate to "that place near the guy with the thing" will likely want to grab the 3.7 upgrade at one of the source links.

Filed under: Cellphones, GPS, Mobile, Facebook

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Source: App Store, Google Play

Dish is a little late to the social television party, but it has finally arrived with the aptly (if not creatively) named Social app. The app, available on Hopper DVRs, shows personal Facebook, Twitter or Now Watching feeds -- which displays tweets relevant to the show and channel being viewed -- in a right rail alongside the video window. Social also enables full tweeting functionality and the ability to post Facebook status updates to up to four accounts for either social network. Lastly, the app delivers data about the amount of Twitter action related to the program being watched, such as the number of tweets in the past hour and where those tweets are coming from. Not bad, eh? All you Dish customers no longer need a second screen to spew forth your digital vitriol the next time David Benioff and D.B. Weiss kill off your favorite resident of Westeros.

Filed under: HD

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When Facebook became a public company in the summer of 2012, its initial public offering (IPO) didn't go quite as well as the company expected. It went poorly enough that the US Securities and Exchange Commission took action against the exchange which handled Facebook's IPO: Nasdaq. A civil suit filed against the exchange, alleging computer software errors that resulted in a lackluster IPO, was settled today -- the exchange will pay $10 million to settle the suit. The settlement, of course, doesn't mean that Nasdaq is confirming or denying the alleged issues its computer system incurred last year; said issues allegedly cost investors in the ballpark of $500 million. Probably best to un-friend Nasdaq now before things get awkward.

[Image credit: bfishadow]

Filed under: Internet, Facebook

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Source: Reuters

Taking a page out of the book of other social networks, Facebook is now making it possible to verify celebs and other high-profile people and companies. The feature, which consists of a small blue checkmark sitting next to their name, extends to Pages and Profiles of popular individuals and businesses, as a way to limit the confusion a reader may experience when trying to filter between real and fake accounts. It appears that Facebook is taking upon itself the duty of deciding who to verify, but it's still a good way to ensure that your favorite Engadget Facebook Page is manned by -- you know -- actual Engadget editors (nudge nudge, Mark!).

Filed under: Software, Mobile, Facebook

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Source: Facebook

Sheryl Sandberg has served as the chief operating officer of the world's most popular social network since 2008, and today she's taking the stage at D11 here in Rancho Palos Verdes, California. She's kicking off a day of high-profile interviews just hours after Apple CEO Tim Cook got things started last night, and we're expecting her to be grilled on all manners of things -- the company's stock price, the future of mobile advertising, the success (or failure) of Facebook Home, international growth and how many Likes this here liveblog will receive. Join us after the break for the blow-by-blow, won't you?

Filed under: Internet, Software, Facebook

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