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Being stalked from one website to another by persistent advertising is a real issue, but some companies, like Apple, have made strides to try and reduce its impact . But targeted advertising isn’t going anywhere anytime soon, especially if Facebook has any say in the matter. The company has recently confirmed that it does indeed go to some pretty great lengths to provide information to advertisers, with this latest effort definitely one of the social networking giant’s worst. A couple of days ago, Gizmodo ran a piece that outlined how Facebook uses the phone number some users added to take advantage of two factor authentication as a way to target those same individuals with ads. This is an extension of how Facebook already handles phone numbers saved to the platform’s profiles. How it works normally is if you add your phone number to your Facebook profile, and then add your phone number to some online retailer’s online presence, those two sources can match and b...

Virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) are two technologies that Apple is taking seriously, one of which is a rumored behind-the-scenes effort while the other has already seen a big platform push with ARKit out in the wild. Meanwhile, other companies like the Facebook-owned Oculus have been hard at work in their own VR efforts for quite some time, and now the company has just unveiled its newest headset called the “Quest”. The biggest new feature here is that it’s a standalone unit that manages to match the company’s Rift headset in terms of experience. The Rift headset is a full rig that requires a connection to a PC, while the Quest headset is completely standalone, so no smartphone or PC connection required to work. The new Quest will arrive sometime this spring, and when it does it will cost $399. The headset supports six degrees of freedom, and will support the Oculus Touch controllers. The display resolution per eye is set at 1600×1440, and th...

After WhatsApp co-founder Jan Koum left Facebook earlier this year, Instagram co-founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger are also leaving the social networking giant. Facebook had acquired Instagram for $715 billion back in 2012. Both co-founders have already given their resignation and will be leaving the company in the coming weeks. Mark Zuckerberg has already issued a statement filed with kind words regarding Instagram co-founders leaving the company. “Kevin and Mike are extraordinary product leaders and Instagram reflects their combined creative talents,” Zuckerberg said in a statement. “I’ve learned a lot working with them for the past six years and have really enjoyed it.” However, as per TechCrunch  report , tensions between Instagram co-founders and Facebook leadership has only grown in recent times. Kevin Systrom has also had multiple clashes with Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg multiple times over the year, particularly related to sharing data back with Facebook. Systrom...

Instagram started out as an easy way to share photos, but since its inception the photo- and video-sharing platform has evolved quite a bit . Especially when it comes to shopping. According to Instagram, which is owned by Facebook, upwards of 90 million people every month tap on posts to reveal shopping-specific tags. The booming business is something that the platform wants to embrace, and, as such, is working in that direction. We heard earlier this month that the company is planning on launching a dedicated app for shopping, creatively called “IG Shopping” , but there isn’t a specific timeframe for when that will arrive. Instagram is building up to that day, though, by introducing a brand new tab in the Explore page. As first outlined by The Verge , the new shopping tab will allow users to see a myriad of content that’s purchasable from various sellers. And, for the first time, those sellers will be able to put dedicated tags in their Instagram Stories, which ...

Snap’s Lens Studio Lets Anyone Design Custom Snapchat Lenses Snapchat Lenses come in all shapes and sizes. Dancing hot dogs, rainbows, and rabbit ears are just a sampling of the augmented reality (AR) camera filters you’ll find in the application’s growing gallery, and starting Thursday, anyone will be able to contribute new ones. Snap, Snapchat’s parent company, took the wraps off Lens Studio, a design program for Windows and Mac that lets users fine-tune, render, and publish the Lenses of their dreams. Studio — which resembles the internal tool that Snap uses to build Snapchat Lenses, according to The Verge — is chock full of templates and guides for three-dimensional and two-dimensional lens designs, and has a application programming interface (API) that lets budding Lens designers add animations and touch interations. Right now, users are limited to creating World Lenses, or AR layered on Snapchat’s rear camera feed. But in the future, th...

Google Looking to Bolster G Suite and Take on Microsoft Google’s Google Cloud suite of productivity applications — Docs, Sheets, and Drive — are part of a package called G Suite , the search giant’s answer to Microsoft’s Office 365. G Suite’s evolved substantially over the years, and rumor has it that Google’s developing new features primarily targeted at businesses, according to  The Information . The first will allow employers to manage employee data, and it’s the Mountain View-based answer to Microsoft’s new Azure Active Directory . It’ll reportedly cost $8 per employee, which is a little pricier than Microsoft’s options — its plans start at $6 per user. Another new forthcoming G Suite feature, code-named “Wolverine”, will see Google roll out voice over IP (VoIP) to businesses. It’s said to be akin to Skype for Business : A cloud-based system that uses Google Hangouts technology to route calls...

CAD Renders Show off the Sony Xperia L2, Xperia XA2 and Xperia XA2 Ultra Sony’s product portfolio includes multiple smartphones across mid-range and flagship price brackets. Last year, the company launched several mid-range phones, including the Xperia L1, the Xperia XA1 and the Xperia XA1 Ultra . Rumors abound suggest the successors to these devices may launch soon, and on Tuesday, @OnLeaks published CAD renders of the Sony Xperia L2, the Xperia XA2 and the Xperia XA2 Ultra in collaboration with  Compare Raja  and  Tiger Mobiles. Source: Compare Raja and Tiger Mobiles The renders show that the Xperia L2 will have a 5.5-inch display with a 16:9 aspect ratio, and measure 149.9 x 78.4 x 9.9mm. (The screen resolution hasn’t been revealed yet, but it’s safe to say it’ll be at least HD, or 1280 x 720.) The handset may have an octa-core Snapdragon 630 system-on-chip paired with 4GB of RAM, and it’ll reportedly ship with Android Nougat on board. In terms of aest...