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AFP
Facebook took direct aim at video-loving adolescents, and Snapchat, with the release of a new iPhone app that allows teens to watch clips about the lives of their classmates. The app, called Lifestage, was released with no fanfare, and is available for anyone to download on iPhone, although seeing profiles of other users is reserved for those 21 years of age or younger.
The social network allows users to make video clips to describe likes, peeves, dance styles, and other aspects of their character. Those clips are woven together to serve as public profiles that can be viewed by other Lifestage members, provided they are young enough.
A tool in the app lets users block and report older folks. “Lifestage makes it easy and fun to share a visual profile of who you are with your school network,†the app’s iTunes store description says. Once enough students at any given school are on the app, it becomes “unlocked.â€
“Once your school is unlocked, you can access the profiles of others in your school community (and all over!) so you can get to know people better in your school and nearby schools,†the description said. Lifestage users are invited to share video snippets whenever they wish.
The app comes as a challenge to Snapchat, the vanishing message service that became a hit with teenagers and which lets members share pictures and video clips. Lifestage was seen by some as an
effort by the Facebook to stay
connected to young internet users disinclined to take part in the leading social network. Facebook did not comment. Earlier this month, Instagram put its own spin on a key Snapchat feature by letting users post “Stories†that eventually vanish from the Facebook-owned photo-and video-sharing app.
Instagram Stories encourages people to share ephemeral collages of everyday moments on the app which has built a reputation for allowing people to post highlights from their lives or artistic works.
Facebook opens
hardware lab
Facebook built its fortune on the internet, that non-physical space where people share updates and digital videos with friends. But deep
inside its Silicon Valley headquarters, engineers have stocked a new lab with computerized lathes, industrial mills and tools for making
physical goods.
It’s not a factory for mass-producing smartphones or other consumer products. Rather, it’s where engineers will be working on some of the high-tech gadgetry needed for the company’s long-term plans to
connect people through smart devices, virtual-reality headsets and high-flying drones that deliver internet signals via laser to remote parts of the world.
And like Google’s celebrated X lab, where the internet search giant pursues “moonshot†projects such as self-driving cars, Facebook’s new research facility demonstrates that in Silicon Valley, leading tech companies are rarely content to keep doing the same thing. “When you think about connecting the world, you have to build different types of hardware to help people connect,†said Jay Parikh, Facebook’s head of engineering and infrastructure.
To get virtual reality right, he added, Facebook needs to refine hardware such as lenses and
processors. The lab will be a space for engineers to design energy-efficient servers for Facebook data centers, test new laser mounts and drone propellers and perfect a prototype 360-degree video camera
that Facebook unveiled at a conference in April.
Facebook announced the lab’s opening and invited journalists for a tour. It’s been dubbed Area 404, an inside joke that plays off the “error 404†message internet users see when they try to visit a web page that can’t be found. Facebook says its engineers had long talked about wanting such a workspace, but it couldn’t be found because it didn’t exist until now.
The company won’t say how much it spent on the lab, but it took months to build the facility, which is about a third the size of a football field, inside a refitted office building on its main campus.
