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Facebook reportedly in talks to buy Waze for $1 billion

Facebook may be aiming to spend anywhere from $800 million to $1 billion to acquire Waze, an Israel-based company that offers a socially informed GPS app for drivers.

Talks reportedly kicked off six months ago, according to Israeli business-news site Calcalist, which says that due diligence is currently under way. This would mean that the two companies are checking each other out before signing on the dotted line. The two also have signed a term sheet, or an agreement in principle on the sale, according to Calcalist.

An agreement sounds like it could be close. However, sources close to Waze … Read more

Facebook to Firefox: Please add WebP image support

Facebook's engineers like Google's WebP and want Mozilla to build support for the image format into the Firefox browser.

Google hopes to speed Web performance with the image format, which can do the job of both of today's major graphics formats, JPEG and PNG. Facebook began testing WebP support in April.

And now it looks like the powerful company has become Google's biggest ally in the effort to promote WebP. Mozilla is deciding whether to reverse its earlier opposition to WebP, and Facebook programmer Bryan Alger on Wednesday encouraged Firefox developers to do so in a … Read more

Bang With Friends on iPhone, Android

Finding a Facebook friend for a benefits-only rendezvous is now more convenient than ever with the hump day release of the Bang With Friends mobile apps for iPhone and Android.

Bang With Friends (Official) for Android and BWF (Official) for iPhone arrived Wednesday to help Facebook members discreetly facilitate hook-ups from their smartphones.

The Facebook-connected application first arrived on the Web in January and has around 1 million one-night-stand seekers. And though its founders remain anonymous, Bang With Friends is reportedly close to securing $1 million in funding.

The new mobile apps work like the Web service and allow people … Read more

Facebook's engineering director departs company

Facebook Engineering Director Josh Wiseman has departed the social network with the intention of tackling social problems, according to AllThingsD. Facebook confirmed Wiseman's exit to CNET.

The six-year Facebook veteran is joining the philanthropic-focused venture capital firm Social+Capital as an entrepreneur-in-residence.

Wiseman started at Facebook as an engineer in 2007 after intern stints at Apple and Pixar. Over the years, he climbed the ranks to manage some of the social network's most significant product releases, including Facebook Timeline. According to his LinkedIn profile, Wiseman also managed releases for Facebook flagship products such as photos, video, and chat.… Read more

Here's why the Facebook phone flopped

The HTC First, also known as the Facebook phone, was unofficially declared a disaster after AT&T dropped its price from $99 to 99 cents on Wednesday.

Is anybody surprised?

Even in an industry known for liberal smartphone discounts, the price drop of the First -- which comes less than a month after its debut -- came relatively quickly. That suggests what many of us have suspected: that the First was dead on arrival.

Despite an army of naysayers, the First actually had a lot going for it. It had the backing of a well-known name in Facebook, which … Read more

Dud alert: 'Facebook phone' on sale for 99 cents

Less than a month after its release, the HTC First, also known as the first "Facebook phone," is selling for the clearance price of 99 cents with a two-year contract with AT&T.

The mid-range smartphone, which arrived on April 12 and was previously selling for $99, comes preloaded with Facebook Home, the social-networking software package that turns the device's home screen and lock screen into Facebook-only zones.

The dramatically reduced price point seems to confirm our earlier suspicions that Facebook wasn't proving to be much of a sales pitch.

HTC avoided sharing sales figures … Read more

How to set your Trusted Contacts on Facebook

Last week Facebook rolled out a new Trusted Contacts feature to help make your account more secure. Should you lose access to your account, either by forgetting your password or having your account "hacked," you can enlist the help of three to five friends to regain access.

Once you're locked out of your account, you'll need to reach out to those people you have added as Trusted Contacts and ask them to help you out. Here's what you'll need to do on your end to get it set up.

Nine tips to help you manage the BlackBerry Hub

The BlackBerry Hub holds a lot of information and provides a unique way of managing all of your communication needs from a central place. But, with so much information being presented to you at all times, you're bound to want to tailor it to meet your needs. Below you'll find some great tips aimed to help you make the Hub work for you, instead of you working for the Hub.

View messages as a conversation

One way to help eliminate clutter from your Hub is to organize e-mail messages into a conversation view. Doing so will group related … Read more

Facebook's Parse helps mobile developers build for the Web

Less than two weeks after announcing its sale to Facebook, mobile app development platform Parse has expanded its product suite to include hosting for app makers who want a Web presence, no servers required.

Parse plays host to 80,000 iOS, Android, Windows, and HTML5 apps, whose makers have entrusted their infrastructure and people management needs to the company. Facebook reportedly picked up the 2-year-old company for $85 million in cash and stock.

Today, Parse introduced a Web-hosting option geared for developers who want a painless way to port apps to the desktop. The company created AnyYolk, a sample Web-based … Read more

Woman allegedly stalks self on Facebook to frame ex's new flame

Sometimes you just have to let go.

It may well be that your ex didn't appreciate the glory that is you. It may well be that your former lover is, at heart, a sinking vessel of self-loathing and delusion.

But it really isn't worth setting up a fake Facebook account, then posting nasty messages on your real Facebook account from your fake Facebook account, then accusing your ex's lover of being the poster.

I mention this merely because that is the strategy of which Cheryl Nelson of Grand Rapids, Mich., stands accused.… Read more