Facebook is making it possible to hang out with your friends in virtual reality using Spaces, a new app the company launched Tuesday for the Oculus Rift. The app will allow people to join a shared, immersive video call, represented by a personalized avatar. Using Spaces, people can hang out around a virtual reality table,…
We’re used to hearing about new banks that have signed on to support Android Pay as Google ever-expands its mobile purchasing system. But an announcement this morning is looking to add even more value. Now you’ll be able to use Android Pay even if you don’t have a bank or credit card to add to…
Facebook’s efforts to embed camera functionality in all the apps it runs isn’t just a push to crush Snapchat. The company will be using those cameras as a way to create a developer platform for augmented reality, CEO Mark Zuckerberg revealed Tuesday. Developers and artists can work on building augmented reality camera lenses with AR…
Facebook today announced that more than 14,000 organizations are using Workplace, the company’s social network for business. Workplace launched six months ago with an initial group of 1,000 companies that tested the platform during a 20-month pilot period. The company also announced a series of new integrations with third-party vendors, a new API for video…
CoffeeScript, which attempts to make it easier to program in JavaScript, has a just-released beta version that features ECMAScript 2015+ support. The currently downloadable 2.0 beta offers ES2015+ syntax, where ES2015+ is recognized as ECMAScript 2015 and later features. ECMAScript is the official specification underlying JavaScript. The upgrade breaks compatibility with certain CoffeeScript 1 features to conform…
Facebook’s popular app login tools are getting an update to better serve international users, the company announced Tuesday. Account Kit, which lets users log into an application using a phone number, received a number of enhancements. The system will now let users verify their identities via a voice call or text messag in 19 languages,…
Retailers who want to know what brought people to shop in their physical retail stores have a new tool to try. Facebook has revised its analytics tools for businesses to show how user behavior online translates into brick-and-mortar purchases. The new capability entered open beta Tuesday as part of updates Facebook made to its Analytics…
Serial space tourist Charles Simonyi is going back again — to his former employer, Microsoft. When Simonyi quit as Microsoft’s Chief Software Architect in 2002, it was to create a start-up devoted to making programming simpler. Now Microsoft has agreed to acquire that company, Intentional Software. During his absence from Microsoft, Simonyi also found time…
Cloud computing is all well and good for enterprises with big-data applications and consumers with virtual assistants, but it runs into some limits in an isolated cornfield. On farms and other places far from powerful computers and network connections, there’s a trend away from centralized computing even while most of the IT world is embracing…
Microsoft has crazy quantum computing plans. It is building hardware based on a particle that hasn’t been discovered, and the company now wants to make super-cool memory for quantum computers. The company is working with Rambus to develop and build prototype computers with memory subsystems that can be cooled at cryogenic temperatures. Cryogenic temperatures typically are below…