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Facebook will soon start supporting ‘spherical’ videos in the News Feed and Oculus

Mar25
by on March 25, 2015 at 5:23 pm
Posted In: Around the Web, Insider

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At its F8 conference today, Facebook announced it would begin to support 360 “spherical” videos in the News Feed. It showed off a demo video which it said used 24 cameras to achieve 360-degree coverage. Users can scroll through the videos by moving the mouse around the window, similar to navigating around Street View in Google Maps. Of course, these videos will be supported on the Oculus Rift as well. The addition is similar to what YouTube is doing with 360 videos – just another sign that virtual reality is here to stay. Developing…

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Facebook officially unveils Messenger as a platform with new API

Mar25
by on March 25, 2015 at 5:21 pm
Posted In: Around the Web, Insider

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Today at Facebook’s F8 Developer Conference, the company announced that it will make Messenger’s API available to third party developers. Facebook has been quietly working with select partners to offer an array of available Messenger-integrated apps at launch. Now, instead of manually selecting to share content, then choosing Messenger from the list of apps, a one-button approach should streamline the process. “We’ve been building Messenger as a way to express yourselves in more than just text,” Mark Zuckerberg said during the opening keynote. Most of the launch partners for Messenger Platform are focused on content creation, GIFs and emoji (naturally). Some of the apps…

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22 reasons why web publishers need eye-tracking

Mar25
by on March 25, 2015 at 5:07 pm
Posted In: Around the Web, Design & Dev, eye tracking, Lists

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Sujan Deswal is an inbound marketing and AdTech enthusiast. He is part of the marketing team at AdPushup – an online A/B testing platform that optimizes banner ads for efficiency. An edited version of this post first appeared on AdPushup.  Myth #1: “Faces always & instantly draw attention.” Myth #2: “Large text instantly draws a lot of attention.” Myth #3: “The magical word ‘FREE’ always pops out.” As EyeQuant’s 200 Website Eye-Tracking Study eloquently concluded (and busted the above myths): “Don’t rely on rules of thumb. Testing always beats guessing.” So with this post I’ll give you 22 reasons on why you should…

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Choosic is quite literally Tinder for tunes

Mar25
by on March 25, 2015 at 4:43 pm
Posted In: Apps, Around the Web, Choosic, Insider, Music, Product Launches, Tinder

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We’ve seen a lot of apps promising to bring Tinder’s swiping model to areas beyond dating/creepery. Choosic is the latest one to come our way and it’s applying the model to music discovery. After you’ve chosen the genres that interest you, the app serves up an endless stream of songs. Swipe right for ones you like, swipe left to dismiss dirges that make your ears hurt. You’ll find a mix of lesser known acts and big names popping up. The idea is that Choosic learns your tastes through all that swiping, getting better at offering up recommendations as it goes along. If…

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Hang w/ updates Facebook live streaming and adds in-line video player

Mar25
by on March 25, 2015 at 4:22 pm
Posted In: Apps, Around the Web, Insider, Product Updates

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Live streaming app Hang w/ has improved its integration with Facebook by adding new features and an in-line video player. This isn’t surprising with the hype around streaming apps like Meerkat in recent times. The new updates mean that you can stream videos live to viewers while they are being filmed and they will be available immediately for playback on Facebook when the stream has stopped. It’s not necessary for people to have the Hang w/ app to view the videos either. Videos can now be streamed simultaneously across five platforms as well – on the iOS and Android apps,…

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