Mark Zuckerberg Is The Voice Behind The “Poke” Notification Sound And Wrote Code For The App

Mark Zuckerberg invented Poking, one of Facebook’s earliest features, so it’s fitting he was part of the small team that built the new Poke app over the last 12 days. Sources say Zuckerberg actually wrote code for Poke despite saying he rarely programs for Facebook anymore. And that voice that blurts out “Poke” when you get a push notification? That’s Zuck, too.

My sources say that Facebook’s CEO recorded the sound snippet on his phone as a joke. But he was convinced to run the sample through some audio filters and let it become the soundtrack to the modern Poke. You can hear the goofy little noise here:

The app’s whole development process is an example of Facebook’s “Hacker Culture.” But it’s also a signal to both would-be competitors of the social network, as well as those who might want to work for it.

Facebook saw ephemeral messaging app Snapchat exploding with popularity. Users loved sharing silly photos and videos that deleted themselves a few seconds after being received.

We heard Facebook made attempts to buy the small startup, but the team wanted to stay independent. That’s when Facebook and Zuckerberg went into hacker mode. With just a few weeks until Apple stopped accepting submissions of new apps before Christmas, it would take a sprint to get Poke built in time.

So a small squad including Facebook Director Of Product Blake Ross kicked development into high gear, Zuckerberg lent a hand with the programming, designers Mike Matas and Sharon Hwang created the icon, and Facebook just made the deadline and launched the Poke app this morning.

But why would Ross publicly post to Facebook that the team built the app in just 12 days? Maybe to show that it could. The message to Facebook’s competitors, as MG Siegler writes, is that if you don’t join Facebook, it can clone your app and compete with you at a moment’s notice.

And to top engineers, designers, and product visionaries, the moral of the Poke is that Facebook isn’t a traditional company restricted by red tape. Things get done fast at 1 Hacker Way, Menlo Park. You could work for a tech company where it might take years for your product to ship. Or you could work at Facebook where two weeks later up to a billion people could be using what you built.

Download Poke for iOS here

[Image Credit: Paul Sakuma/AP]

iPhone app that checks Facebook for 'sexy pics' of friends sparks furore

A new iPhone app, which allows Facebook users to find and share pictures of their friends in skimpy outfits, has sparked concern among civil liberties groups and internet users.

LONDON: A new iPhone app, which allows Facebook users to find and share pictures of their friends in skimpy outfits, has sparked concern among civil liberties groups and internet users, who have criticised it as 'intrusive and unnecessary'.

The 'Badabing!' app uses an 'object detection' technology to identify pictures of one's friends in revealing outfits, then lists them as thumbnails, allowing Facebook users to bookmark and share them, the Telegraph reports.

According to the paper, billing itself as "The only social image recognition app", Badabing's homepage states that it helps you find your friends' "sexy pics" in seconds.

However, civil liberties campaign group Big Brother Watch said that the app was "intrusive" and highlighted the risks of uploading photos and information to the internet.

"This mobile phone application provides a stark warning about the loss of control that you have once you have uploaded photos and information about yourself to the internet. Such practices are quite simply intrusive and unnecessary and, as such, consumers need protection from contracts that are either too intrusive or too unclear to understand," a Big Brother Watch official said.

The service is currently only available for iPhone, at a cost of 1.49 pounds, but a statement on the website says that the company is "still working" on a web app, the paper said.

FACEBOOK BUYS OPERA AND LAUNCHES ITS OWN WEB BROWSER

If recent rumors are true, Facebook is about to acquire Opera Software, while the desktop and mobile versions of Opera Web Browser are becoming the foundation for the first Facebook web browser designed specifically for social networking followers.

The Facebook Browser would include components, plugins and Facebook menus that enrich web browsing sessions with specific elements of Facebook social network, such as recommendation of interesting pages, posting pictures and comments.

Given the popularity of Opera Mobile browser, this new venture could lead for a new Facebook success, resulting in a web browser even more attractive for those 900 million followers of the social network.

With the launch of its own web browser, Facebook will enter a competition on two fronts with Google, the owner of Google+ social network and Google Chrome web browser - recently advanced to the status of the most widely used web browser in the world.

Reclaim your hijacked email account in Facebook

COMMENTARY You might have heard that Facebook has done it again. The world's largest social networking service routinely changes user settings without warning and without assessing how their customers feel about the change. This time Facebook has hidden your standard email address in your "About" profile and replaced it with an @facebook.com email address.

Email sent to your username@facebook.com address does not go to your standard email service -- such as Outlook or Gmail -- and in fact, it can't be configured to do so. Instead, it is delivered to you within Facebook's messaging system, so now the only way to get communication within Facebook is using the clumsy message window.
That might be acceptable for ordinary users (though based on the complaints I'm hearing, not many people are especially thrilled with this unexpected change), but it's catastrophic for businesses trying to manage their Facebook mail. As you can imagine, Facebook's Message window is no way to access communication from customers.
Thankfully, no matter who you are, it's easy to fix. Just open your Timeline view and click About. Then scroll down to your contact info and click Edit.
Finally, find your Facebook email -- at the top of the window -- and set it to Hidden from Timeline. And since Facebook arbitrarily hid your usual email address, you might want to unhide that and set it back to the privacy level you used to use.

Anonymous says Facebook attack was never real

(Credit: illustration by James Martin/CNET)

Don't worry Facebook users, the sky is not falling--you'll be able to update your status and post those Occupy Wall Street photos tomorrow.
Members of Anonymous fed up with reports that the online activist group is going to take down the social network said today that the threat is not real and was the work of one lone member without any support from others in the group. They said it doesn't make sense to shut down a site they use to get their message out.
"Anonymous is a movement we don't take kindly to when people try to (expletive) it up. Our movement relies on communicating with people around the world so we can help one another," a statement posted to Pastebin today said.
"One skiddy queer chap named Anthony [last name redacted] from the US in Ohio decided to take it upon himself to have some lulz with creating an imaginary opfacebook and pawning it off as a legit anon op," the statement said. "Despite us telling this mate several times we did not support his op, he continued to push his agenda for lulz. This op is phony but he continues to say it's an anon op."
The statement then provides an address, phone number, and other information ostensibly belonging to the individual named. (We've chosen not to include his last name in this post.)
"If you are against how we communicate on facebook, twitter, and anonops for example then you are against anonymous and become our enemy since you are trying to disrupt our movement," the statement says. "Because of this we decided to social the Opfacebook skiddy and hack him. Give this wanker a call and tell him what a piece of rubbish he is."
A woman who answered the phone number listed in the statement for the alleged provocateur confirmed that someone with his name lives there but said he was not home and wasn't involved with Anonymous. No doubt she'll be getting a lot of prank calls this weekend.
Anonymous sources and people familiar with the group have previously told CNET that the campaign against Facebook was the work of a rogue member and not a legitimate threat.
This case brings up the difficulty of dealing with a movement that lacks leaders and whose members are all nameless and faceless. If Anonymous can be anyone and no one is identified then no one is accountable for anything and anyone can take an action in the name of Anonymous. Some kid in his parents house in Ohio can make a threat that causes a media frenzy and public panic for naught.
Meanwhile, some threats made by Anonymous members can pose all-too-real risks to human life. Members of Anonymous in Mexico canceled a threat against the Zetas drug cartel after the return of an Anonymous member who was kidnapped. The message that innocent people would die if Anonymous exposed any information on cartel associates also played a part in that decision.
Learning to pick your battles is wise.

No more anonymous 'defriending': New Facebook feature will allow users to know who doesn't like them

With a slew of cosmetic changes and tweaks, Facebook users could be forgiven for getting a little frustrated over the last few days.

But the social network's new Timeline feature looks set to really enrage users after it emerged the ability to anonymously 'defriend' people will become a thing of the past.

Using the new feature, which is set to be rolled out in the near future, users will be able to see all their entire Facebook history - including their shifting friends lists.

Busted: Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg delivers a keynote during the Facebook f8 Developer Conference at the San Francisco Design Center

Along with every picture, message and app used, Timeline will allow people to see which of your previous 'friends' at somepoint decided to end the relationship.

WHAT IS TIMELINE

The new timeline feature is reminiscent of an online scrapbook, with the most important photos, text, music and video that users have shared or will share on Facebook over the years.


The timeline can go back to include years before Facebook even existed, so users can add photos and events from, say 1995 when they got married or 1970 when they were born.

It is intended to replace the current layout, but critics have said it may alienate some of the 'older' Facebook generation.

The redesigned pages have a more magazine-like photo-heavy feel, with a large 'cover photo' at the top of the page .

On the right of the page there will be a timeline that breaks down all posts from a person's time on Facebook and allows viewers to jump back to people's earliest posts with a break down month-by-month.

For the first time, the site will allow you to add photos and content from before Facebook existed in a new 'Way Back' section.

Zuckerberg said the new profile page had been designed so that, 'you can tell the whole story of your life on a single page'.

Speaking to BuzzFeed, community manager at Mashable Meghan Peters said: 'There is a way where you can go in to a certain point in time and basically, if you look at your friends tab, maybe from three years ago, and you see the ‘Add Friend’ button from someone in that list, that will basically tell you that they have defriended you since you became their friend.

'I think that people will definitely be upset by it.

More...

• More than 4 MILLION people have access to the U.S governments classified information
• Biggest-ever Facebook overhaul wins over users with 'free' films, music and books

'I mean, it always hurts to know that someone isn’t your friend anymore.'

The Facebook is trying to evolve from an Internet hangout where people swing by to share tidbits, links and photos to a homestead decorated with the memories, dreams and diversions of its 800 million users.

In what may be the boldest step yet in the company's seven-year history, Facebook is redesigning its users' profile pages to create what CEO Mark Zuckerberg says is a 'new way to express who you are.'

It is betting that despite early grumblings, its vast audience will become even more attached to a website that keeps pushing the envelope. 

To that effect, it is introducing new ways for people to connect with friends, brands and games while also sharing details about their lives from the mundane to the intimate.

'If you look at Facebook's history, obviously they are not afraid of making change,' said Sean Corcoran, an analyst with Forrester Research.

History: Along with every picture, message and app used, Timeline will allow people to see which of your previous 'friends' at some point decided to end the relationship

'They have done a lot of big changes in the past and people have gotten upset. But most of the time Facebook has been right.'

Zuckerberg introduced the Facebook 'timeline' along with new entertainment and media company partnerships on Thursday in San Francisco, at the annual 'f8' conference attended by about 2,000 entrepreneurs, developers and journalists.

The event was also being broadcast to, at one point, more than 100,000 online viewers.

The changes seek to transform how and how much people share things online, just as Facebook has been doing since its scrappy start as a college-only network.

The overhaul also presents a new challenge for Google Inc., which has been scrambling to catch up with the launch of its own a social network, Google Plus, three months ago.

The timeline, which will eventually replace users' current profile pages, is reminiscent of an online scrapbook filled with the most important photos and text that they have shared on Facebook over the years.

It's where people express their real selves and merge their online and offline lives even more than they are doing now.