Marvel Studios’ Disney+ TV show The Falcon and the Winter Soldier better not make Sharon Carter (Emily VanCamp) a love interest, especially after being underused in Captain America: Civil War. The MCU’s Phase 4 slate was announced at San Diego Comic-Con 2019, confirming new movies and upcoming Disney+ series. The first of these TV shows is The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, which follows Steve Rogers’ (Chris Evans) closest allies: Sam Wilson aka....

Before World Emoji Day on July 17, Facebook is launching Soundmoji for its Messenger app, which will add sound to some of your favorite emoji. Here’s how it works. To start using Soundmoji, here’s what you need to do: So, what is a Soundmoji? It’s a next-level emoji that lets you send short sound clips in a Messenger chat, ranging from clapping 👏, crickets 🦗,drumroll 🥁, and evil laughter 👻, to audio clips from your favorite artists like Rebecca Black and your favorite TV shows and movies like Universal Pictures’ F9, NBC and Universal Television’s Brooklyn Nine-Nine, and Netflix and Shondaland’s Bridgerton....

Facebook is planning its own voice assistant as it looks to increase competition with Siri and Alexa. According to a report from CNBC, Facebook has been working on this AI assistant since early 2018. It comes after the company tried and failed to launch a Siri competitor in 2015. Facebook’s virtual assistant development team is being led by Ira Snyder, who also serves as the company’s director of augmented and reality....

Facebook has partnered with The New York Times, BuzzFeed, National Geographic, and six other outlets whose article will show up as part of Instant Articles globally on the iPhone App (android version is incoming). In addition to making the articles load super fast, Instant Articles will provide a suite of interactive features that allow publishers to bring their stories to life in new ways. This includes zoom in and exploring of high resolution photos, watching auto-playing videos, interactive maps, audio captions and many more....

With an amazing 17 seasons on the air and more to come, Family Guy has become one of the most popular animated shows in television history. Its success is even more remarkable considering it was canceled for four years following its third season. Though it has clearly had success after being revived, some think the show’s best years are behind long gone. Family Guy still has plenty of fans, but it’s hard to deny that some aspects of the show have not aged well....

New set photos from The Falcon and the Winter Solder tease the return of Sharon Carter (Emily VanCamp) alongside the leading duo. As the Marvel Cinematic Universe enters Phase 4, Marvel Studios is expanding the story to the small screen like never before. Thanks to Disney+, Kevin Feige and his Marvel Studios team are producing multiple mini-series that will focus on characters who haven’t been put in the spotlight before or introduce those that will be important in the years to come....

The Federal Trade Commission is reportedly looking into filing a preliminary injunction against Facebook over antitrust concerns based on the interoperability of its apps. A potential injunction could focus on how Facebook interacts with Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp. Reported by The Wall Street Journal, anonymous sources close to the matter have said FTC officials are looking into filing a preliminary injunction as soon as next month. Facebook has been talking about creating stronger interoperability between its apps publicly for a year and plans have been progressing since....

Fallout 76 might surprise a lot of fans by going online. According to a preliminary report, the long-awaited next Fallout installment could be saying goodbye to the traditional single-player campaigns for which the series is known. Instead, Fallout 76 will apparently be an online game of some fashion, although details on exactly what that means are still hazy. Bethesda shocked the world yesterday when it released a teaser for a new Fallout game....

Facebook has announced a major ecommerce move today that sees the launch of Facebook Shops. The company is pitching it as a way for businesses to create one online store that will work across Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp. Facebook shared all the details about the new ecommerce platform in a blog post today, highlighting the pandemic as a key factor in small businesses trying to figure out online sales....

A court filing says that Facebook warned staff of the risk that led to a huge security breach that last year allowed hackers to access almost 29 million accounts — but failed to warn its users… The risk was in the use of single sign-on, a way to let you sign into third-party apps and websites using your Facebook credentials. While this doesn’t give the third party service access to your login details, it does generate an access token that hackers were able to misuse to view private content in accounts....

We noted a couple of days ago that you didn’t have to look far at CES to find the Apple Watch knock-offs, but for those desperate enough to pretend they have one some two months before it’s even launched, they don’t have to dig very deep into their pockets. Mashable’s Karissa Bell was able to buy one for the grand sum of $27. It even works, kind of. Bell reports that it did, after a few attempts, pair to her iPhone 6 and allow her to make phone calls and play music through the watch....

A few weeks ago, many Facebook users received odd, spam-like emails with the title, “Your account requires advanced security from Facebook Protect.” Additionally, the email tells users to turn on the Facebook Protect feature by a certain date, or they’d be locked out. Users could turn on the feature by simply clicking a link in the email. According to Meta, Facebook Protect is primarily for people who are likely to be targets of malicious hackers – like human rights defenders, journalists, and government officials....

More than 267 million Facebook user names and phone numbers have been exposed in a database sitting on the web without any password protection… If that sounds familiar, that’s because the same thing happened back in September, when more than 400 million records were exposed. This time, it does at least appear that Facebook wasn’t the guilty party in this privacy breach, at least not directly, as Comparitech reports. The Facebook user names database was online from at least December 4th to 18th....

Facebook is about to face some challenges in Australia as local government considers approving new regulations that will force digital platforms to pay news publishers. In response to that, Facebook threatened to completely remove the option to share news for Australian users if the government approves these regulations. As reported by NBC News, the new Australian rules would force Facebook and Google platforms to pay news outlets a commission, which is considered the most aggressive attempt to change the power of big tech companies over the news business....

In iOS 12.1.1, currently in beta, Apple has restored the FaceTime Live Photo capture feature that was removed in iOS 12.0. They have also dramatically improved the FaceTime UI, bringing mute and flip camera actions to the main view — no longer hidden in the submenu. The Live Photos feature returns, but both devices must be updated to use it. The expanded card view in FaceTime has also been improved. More screenshots below …...

Facebook announced on its Developers blog today that it is releasing version 3.2 of its SDK for iOS. The updated SDK makes it even easier for iOS app developers implementing Facebook features, with improvements to APIs and better tools for tracking usage and optimizing ads. Version 3.2 includes improved analytics and new metrics such as the ability to track “iOS 6 native share sheet and built-in native UI controls usage.” Facebook also noted that it is including a beta for select partners showing off upcoming support for “logging in-app purchase events....

Here’s how to get into Harpers Ferry armory in Fallout 76. The Fallout series throws players into the role of a survivor of a nuclear war emerging from the safety of an underground vault and learning the hard way how to live in the new world. Players must explore a huge open-world map, battling raiders, mutant creatures and upgrading their skills and weaponry. The original Fallout was released back in 1997 but the franchise as it exists today looks quite different....

Update: As noted by commenters below, you might want avoid this 5.1 update. It appears to have made the app unusable for some. Update 2: Facebook gave us this statement: [tweet https://twitter.com/9to5mac/status/265767333723791362] Facebook updated its iOS app today to version 5.1 with a number of new features including the ability to send real “Facebook Gifts” (for U.S. users)—a feature previously only available through the desktop app. There are also a few new messaging and sharing features included:...

It is no secret that Facebook has been attempting to get into the TV game. Now, according to a report from Business Insider, Facebook is planning to unveil its plans to enter that market next month with two different formats of video… According to several unnamed sources, Facebook is planning two different tiers of videos. The higher tier would focus on shows that resemble traditional primetime TV content, have longer run times, and would have a much bigger budget....

Amid its myriad of privacy scandals, Facebook is allegedly planning to launch its own cryptocurrency. According to a report from Bloomberg, Facebook is developing a cryptocurrency that would enable WhatsApp users to transfer money. The report explains that the WhatsApp feature will first focus “on the remittances market in India.” The currency is said to be a “stablecoin,” according to Bloomberg: It’s unclear when the feature might go live, but today’s report says it won’t happen soon as Facebook is “far” from being ready to launch the coin....