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Tuesday, January 26, 2021
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Facebook Plans to Push Ads into Messenger

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"Facebook Plans to Push Ads into Messenger"

This move will only affect users who have talked to companies over Facebook Messenger.

BEACON TRANSCRIPT – Hold on tight guys, because Facebook is planning something big. Remember that time before man when there was no AdBlocker and all of us had to come to terms of dealing with pesky ads? Seemed like there were only a few pristine, ad-free places on the Internet, Facebook Messenger being one of them. Not anymore because Facebook plans to push ads into Messenger.

Quite recently, a tag team of tech bloggers got their hand on a leaflet of a memo sent out by Facebook to a couple of Messenger users. Written in bold letters, these words will probably haunt us for the rest of our lives if Facebook decides to go ahead with its plan.

According to the memo, not all users will receive these the pesky ads in their chat box. Facebook plans to push ads to users who already engaged in tete-a-tete conversations with a major company. So, if you by chance engaged in a friendly chit-chat with any company over the last month, you will receive ads from that company via Facebook Messenger.

For now, Facebook’s spokespersons assured us that this new move will not envelop personal space. This means that you won’t be bothered by pesky and irritating ads next time you chat with your significant other or with your best bud.

However, things can change quite fast, and, maybe, just maybe, Facebook will think of expanding ads into a personal conversation. It would be quite annoying to close pop-ups each time you’re having a conversation with someone, not to mention the fact that ads can ruin your mood. Imagine having a romantic conversation with your crush, lots of love kisses, hugs, promises and other stuff.

When the mood is just right, you would pop The Question: “Do you want to go out for dinner or something?” Imagine what will it be like if, for example, during this romantic intermezzo a wild pop-up would appear showing you the latest condom produced by Durex or a commercial about constipation.

Well, it does sound rather unpleasant, doesn’t it? Let’s hope that Facebook sticks to its plan of pushing ads in chats with companies. It would be nasty to click away ads during a conversation, and we don’t know if we can use the help of AdBlock this time.

Facebook plans to push ads into Messenger but at the same time, the company assured all its 800 million users that the ads will be received only by those users who engaged in a conversation with a big company.

Photo credits:www.youtube.com

Skype Launched Group Video Call Support for Android and iOS

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"Skype Launched Group Video Call Support for Android and iOS"

You will now be able to initiate group video calls from your smarphone or tablet.

BEACON TRANSCRIPT – Ever wondered what happened to Microsoft’s promises regarding those belated updates for Skype? Well, it would seem that one of them arrived just in time to appease the angry users armed with pitchforks and lit torches. Skype launched group video call support for Android and iOS, and, according to Microsoft, with the new update, the application can support up to 25 users at the same time.

Lo, and behold the marvel that stands before us. Microsoft has decided that it’s high time to implement some long-awaited changes in the area of mobile platforms. As of now, Android and iOS users will be able to initiate video group calls. And according to the tech company, the new update is so awesome that it can support up to 25 users in the same video conference.

So, how does this system work? Basically like the one available for Windows, but patched up a bit in order to accommodate devices running Android and iOS. Once you will initiate a video call with someone, you will also be able to add other members to the video conference.

Once one or more members are added, the application will start scaling away the tiles containing the person or persons you are talking to. So, when using the maximum number of participants, Skype’s UI will look like a desktop littered with tens of icons.

And that’s not the only perk of the update. According to Microsoft’s statement, the users will be able to swap tiles and rearrange them as they see fit. For example, if you are talking about your best friend’s new haircut with your other friends, you can invite him or her to a conference and drag his video tile in the center of the screen.

If you want to refocus the group’s attention towards another person, simply change the arrangement of the tiles. Also, the host of the video conference is capable of locking in the arrangement of the tiles.

Skype launched group video call support for Android and iOS and is not aiming to implement other changes. Furthermore, the tech giant also pointed out that all video conferences are in 1080p quality and that the sound is now crystal clear thanks to the SILK Super Wide Band audio codec, a technology developed with the help of Intel.

And last, but not least, thanks to the new update, users who initiate group video calls will also be able to invite people who do not have a Skype account. Usually, these requests are handled through iMessage, a platform that circumvents the login process.

Photo credits:www.youtube.com

Activision Blizzard Confirms Destiny 2 for 2017

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"Activision Blizzard Confirms Destiny 2 for 2017"

A leaked court document reveals that Activision Blizzard and Bungie have big plans for 2016 and 2017.

BEACON TRANSCRIPT – If you thought that the Destiny series will end with one stand-alone, a handful of DLCs and a soon-to-be-released expansion, then you’re in for quite a shock. Activision Blizzard confirms Destiny 2 for 2017, along with Skylanders and a new Call of Duty game.

Everybody is keeping close tabs on the two companies, especially when there are so many rumors concerning a sequel to the popular online multiplayer shooter. According to the latest ones, a court order document managed to grant the fans an insight regarding Activision and Bungie’s future plan.

The document clearly stated a couple of things about Bungie’s plans, and, to our surprise, the launch dates of Destiny’s sequels. Moreover, there the document contains another section which mainly outlines the company’s achievement in the fiscal year 2015.

Although the document is practically riddled with legal and financial terms, it reveals something quite unexpected. It would seem that the two companies are planning to release a full expansion pack for the game somewhere in 2016 and a sequel in 2017.

This can only construe as good news since the two companies recently stated that they will refrain from making any moves towards creating a sequel to the game. Moreover, Bungie also declared that in the future the company will mainly focus on live events and micro transactions. But the court documents says otherwise.

Activision Blizzard confirms Destiny 2 for 2017, and everyone is hyped to see how the plot will continue. In 2015, the two companies released an expansion pack for the game called “The Taken King”, which, according to an online report, it was well received by the fans of the online franchise.

As to the sequel itself, we can only speculate. But given the fact that the game has been in development for the past three years, we can say for a fact that it will be a breath-taking. These being said, we have yet another reason to join the fight against the off-worlders in order to become the ultimate Guardians of Earth.

Since it was first released, Destiny attracted over 25 million gamers, which amassed 3 billion hours of gameplay.

Now, we shouldn’t break out the beer in order to celebrate because Activision Blizzard is quite renowned for its awful manner of delaying games. However, the end product should be something worthy of the 2015 expansion.

According to multiple reviews, it would seem that Activision and Bungie really manage to patch up the game with its latest expansion, learning from their former mistakes, so to speak. We will try to update you on the matter as soon as possible.

Photo credits:www.flickr.com

Xbox One Gets a New Update from Microsoft

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"Xbox One console"

The new update focuses on the social factor of the gaming platform.

BEACON TRANSCRIPT – Gaming enthusiasts are feeling impatient as Xbox One gets a new update from Microsoft. For the moment, the update is only available for those that signed up for a preview account, but latest talk is that the update is exactly what users were expecting, apart from the background music oversight.

It seems that the focus is set this time on socializing as much of the improvements that come with the update deal with the social factor of the gaming platform. Maybe Microsoft is trying to disprove the myth that says children who play video games don’t socialize very much, or maybe they feel that the gaming experience will be better if the players can have easier to each other.

But not all of the updates deal with this social side of gaming, because as Xbox One gets a new update from Microsoft players will be able to access the trending items that are available in the Community tab, read the latest Xbox news updates and re-arrange your pins on the Home Menu and even access them when you are offline.

Here is a list of the features that will become available once you install the new update for your Xbox One console:

Gamerscore Leaderboard

This will allow you to see your scores and those of your friends over a period of 30 days. The function lets the user compare scores with all of the friends in the list. In order to do so, the Xbox One user must click on the “Gamerscore Leaderboard” tab.

Inspect a Party

It’s quite often that a player wants to enter a game and then discovers there that one gamer that he tries to avoid. We all know one. Microsoft knows this so, in order to offer a better gaming experience, the user will be able to check out the entire cast of a party before deciding to join it.

An Updated Activity Feed

The activity feed will be updated so that the user will be able to see the latest posts with only the click of a link.

Join Your Friend’s Twitch Broadcasts

Users will be able to launch Twitch broadcasts on their Xbox One, allowing them to easily connect with their friends and the games that they are broadcasting.

Suggested Friends

Microsoft really puts a focus on the importance of being close to your friends or making new ones. They have improved the suggested friends feature. When using the updated version, users will be able to see the suggested friend’s real name (if the user shared it) the gamertag, Xbox Avatar image (which is also improved with the latest update), gamer pic and the reason for which the person was suggested to you.

Other new features include the possibility to hide the “ready to install” games from the user’s list, a compact mode for the Xbox One application and the possibility to re-arrange the pins on the Home Menu.

Image source: www.flickr.com

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