Facebook's new app is going to bombard your phone with notifications

                            

Smartphone doesn't buzz enough during the day? Facebook's got you covered.

The social network has unveiled Notify, a new app that sends younotifications on everything from breaking news to Groupon deals, new film trailers and weather forecasts.

The service isn't part of Facebook, but an entirely new app designed entirely around lock screen notifications, which then feed through to other sources.

Users can fine-tune a list of 72 sources, such as the New York Times, The Weather Channel, and Fandango Movie Clips to deliver updates. Sports notifications, for example, can be narrowed down to certain teams, or Bloomberg alerts by company.

At the moment, Notify is only available for iOS in the US App Store, although if it is successful it is likely to reach more platforms and countries. Other Facebook apps, such as Paper, never made it further than that.

"We’re excited to explore this evolving medium with participating sources," Facebook said.

The app counts among the latest attempts from large technology companies to provide a form of news service, which also includes Apple News, Google's AMP and Facebook's own Instant Articles. Notify's reach is broader than simply news, with the social network highlighting sports scores, weather, image flashbacks and others, most of its partners are publishers.

                           

Users are able to curate a list of sources for notifications, which they can open from the lock screen via the web, or share, save or dismiss them. The app also has a feed of the last 24 hours of notifications for any that you miss.

"Notifications are becoming one of the primary ways people first learn about things wherever they are," Facebook said, introducing the app, which was rumoured last week.

Outside of the main Facebook app and Messenger, Facebook has had some trouble seeing its other apps, such as Paper, Slingshot and Rooms, get much traction. Notify, however, won't require a user to open it, simply set up an initial list of appropriate sources.

Is BlackBerry's new Priv the last phone it makes?

                               

BlackBerry (BBRY, Tech30) has struggled mightily in the past few years. It lost subscribers, sales and a boatload of money because it didn't fully commit itself to the touchscreen, app-centric world we're all accustomed to.

BlackBerry now lags Apple (AAPL, Tech30) and the army of companies that make phones which run on Google's (GOOGL,Tech30) Android mobile operating system in global smartphone market share. Microsoft (MSFT, Tech30) -- thanks to its Windows Phone OS -- is ahead of BlackBerry too.

The stock is down more than 25% so far in 2015 and nearly 90% in the past five years!

So the pressure is on BlackBerry to launch a phone that consumers might actually want.

CEO John Chen hinted in several interviews last month that BlackBerry may stop making phones if it can't sell 5 million of them a year. That's the level he thinks is necessary for the hardware business to be profitable.

Related: The Priv follows BlackBerry's quirky new Passport phone

So BlackBerry has done something that would have been unthinkable just a few years ago -- it's selling a phone that runs on another operating system.

The Priv is an Android phone.

Yes, it still has a slide-out keyboard with actual buttons for the CrackBerry addicts. But you can use a touchscreen too.

And because it runs on Android, Priv owners will have access to many more apps than they would on a typical BlackBerry phone.

The Priv is -- for now -- only available on AT&T's (T, Tech30) network in the United States. It's selling for $249.99 with a two-year contract and $699.99 without a contract.

It is also available in BlackBerry's home turf of Canada and will soon launch in Hong Kong, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Germany as well.

Google Maps for the iPhone gets a helpful new navigation feature

                             

No more being late to meetings, kids waiting at school or angry spouses back home -- not if Google Maps can help it.

In the latest update for iOS users, Google (GOOG) Maps has learned to show and tell: the app will now use spoken traffic directions when you are about to hit a slowdown ahead.

Before you begin your trip, it will give you a verbal summary of traffic conditions.

While you're moving, Google Maps will help you avoid tunnels that are overcrowded and highway routes with accidents. The app will speak to you mid-journey to notify you of any incidents that will lengthen your journey, and it will give you the option to reroute.

eminiscent of its secondary community-based navigation app, Waze, Google will heavily integrate real-time information with explanations for what is causing the delays in Maps so drivers will be able to avoid slowdowns more seamlessly than before.

This feature has been available to Android users since May.

This could be the next iPhone!!

                               

Is the new iPhone too big for you? Don't worry. Apple might have you covered next year.

Apple could offer a third new iPhone option next year, releasing an iPhone 7, an iPhone 7 Plus and a smaller iPhone 7 ... mini?

Some iPhone customers are complaining that the 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch iPhones that Apple introduced in 2014 are too difficult to use with one hand or fit into their pockets. Many prefer the four-inch iPhones that Apple made in 2012 and 2013.

KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who is more often right than wrong with his Apple predictions, has forecast that Apple will release a new, four-inch iPhone in 2016.

"As there is still demand for a four-inch iPhone, we believe Apple will upgrade this product line," he said in an analyst note this week. "We predict Apple will mass-produce this new four-inch iPhone in the first half of 2016."

Apple (AAPL, Tech30) still sells the four-inch iPhone 5S, which it debuted in 2013. But it is slated to be phased out next year -- when Apple launches new iPhones, it typically reduces the prices of the previous two iPhones and discontinues its three-year old smartphone. If Apple were to follow that course, it would continue to sell the iPhone 6 and the iPhone 6S next year, alongside the iPhone 7. There wouldn't be a four-inch version of the iPhone left on the market.

Kuo said Apple could ship between 20 million and 30 million of the new, smaller iPhones through the end of 2016. He predicts that the smaller iPhone likely won't have some features of the bigger phones, including 3D Touch. But it would include the latest A9 chip to make the new version of iOS run smoothly.

The small iPhone would also be encased in metal, according to Kuo. That means Apple will not repeat its experiment in 2013, when it introduced a plastic iPhone 5C, which never took off with customer

Record One Billion People Check Facebook Daily

Facebook is now valued at around $300bn after it smashed its own records and now has more than 1.5 billion registered users.

                       

For the first time, one billion people now check their Facebook news feed every day.
The social network now has more than 1.5 billion registered users for the first time ever - around half of the world's internet-connected population.

The figures were revealed in the company's third-quarter earnings report on Wednesday night, which beat Wall Street predictions.

The good news saw Facebook's share price soar, helping it break yet another company record - reaching a $300bn (£195m) valuation for the first time.

"We had a good quarter and got a lot done," said founder Mark Zuckerberg, "we're focused on innovating and investing for the long term to serve our community and connect the entire world."
The figures in its presentation were eye-watering - eight billion videos are viewed on the site each day, 900 million people use its WhatsApp service each month, while 45 million businesses use its Pages feature.

Earnings stood at $896m (£582m) - they could have been even higher but the firm is spending hundreds of millions on projects including artificial intelligence, virtual reality, and bringing the internet to emerging markets.

Most of Facebook's new users come from outside Europe and North America.
Facebook said ads on mobile devices accounted for 78% of advertising revenue, up from 66% a year ago.Chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg said: "We think we have the best mobile ad product in the market. We're able to target, we're able to measure. We have broad scale."

Facebook Quarterly Revenues Up 41% To £2.9bn

                                

The world's biggest social network said it saw growth across the board and it was looking to expand further in emerging markets.

Surging mobile advertising sales helped Facebook revenues rise by a better-than-expected 41% to $4.5bn (£2.9bn) in the third quarter.

Shares in the world's largest social network headed higher in after-hours trading as the figures beat analysts' expectations.

Adjusted earnings for the period climbed to $2.4bn (£1.6bn) - with Facebook's profits stronger despite increased spending on Messenger, WhatsApp and Oculus, its virtual reality business.

Advertising made up the lion's share of revenues - at $4.3bn (£2.8bn) this was up 45% on a year earlier.

Nearly four fifths of the ad revenue came from mobile advertising, up from two-thirds for the same period in 2014.

Figures released by Facebook also showed the number of monthly active users for the site had climbed 14% to 1.55 billion.

Of these, 1.39 billion used the service on mobile devices.
Founder Mark Zuckerberg said: "We had a good quarter and got a lot done.

"We're focused on innovating and investing for the long term to serve our community and connect the entire world."

Chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg said: "Growth is happening across the board and we’re of course looking for a lot of growth in future emerging markets.

"We're also pretty focused on helping bring the next set of people who are not online, online."

Apple Drops The Price Of The Apple Watch

                                         

Thinking about getting an Apple Watch? Now might be the right time since Apple has just announced some very limited discounting under some very limited conditions.

According to reports by CNET, for a very short time (the next two weeks) consumers purchasing phones in select Boston or San Francisco area stores will receive a $50 discount on an Apple Watch. The Apple Watch Edition and Hermès are not included in the promotion, according to MacRumors.

Apple offered no immediate comment on the promotion, but it has excited talk as Apple rather rarely discounts anything. Apple has not and will not disclose specific unit sales for the product as it claims it is unwilling to give its competitors in the wearable world insight into sales figures. Analysts polled by Fortune recently estimated Apple sold 3.95 million Apple Watches in the quarter, though some data out last week indicated that watch sales might be somewhat better than early forecasts.

Still, discounts are so rare from Apple that it seems worth at least wondering if the price cut is meant to bring a boost to a product that Apple is clearly very interested in igniting.

Tim Cook was bullish on the Apple Watch during the firm’s Q4 earnings report, noting that sales outstripped both those of the iPhone and iPad in their comparable launch periods.