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Facebook set to upgrade all apps to Graph API by April 30 Summary: ​Facebook is giving developers until April 30 to update their apps to use the new login and Graph API the company introduced in April last year, before apps are updated automatically. Facebook app developers have until April 30 to switch their apps to the social network's second version of its Graph API before being automatically switched. Facebook product manager Simon Cross said in a blog post on Tuesday that the company would begin upgrading all apps to Graph API version 2.0 on April 30. The company first announced the new version of the Graph API, along with its new login with lightweight review process, at its F8 summit in April 2014. Facebook claimed that the new version of the Graph API would help developers build, grow, and monetise their apps, while the new Facebook login would give people more control over the information they share with apps. While the new API a...

Emoji are about to take over Instagram Instagram just made emoji posted within the app a lot more powerful. The company updated its iOS and Android apps Monday with the ability to add emoji hashtags to posts along with three brand-new filters. Previously, Instagram's hashtag feature did not support emoji, so comments or captions with the hashtag symbol and emoji were not searchable. Now, users can add emoji (or a string of emoji) to hashtags and posts that have been previously tagged with the characters will also show up in searches. "Over the past few years, emoji have become part of a universal visual language," the company wrote in a blog post. "With emoji hashtags, you can discover even more by adding them to your own photos and videos, searching them on the Explore page and tapping on them when you see them in captions." Monday's update also added three new filters to Instagram's toolkit: Reyes, Juno and Lark. Reyes is a ...

Japanese employers learn to practice what Islam preaches ATSUSHI TOMIYAMA, Nikkei staff writer A little past 3 p.m., the sparks stop flying at Sasakura Engineering's factory outside of central Jakarta. Workers shuffle off the shop floor into an adjacent prayer room.      All but one of the plant's 90 local employees are Muslim. The company allows them 15 minutes of paid time for evening prayers, which fall during work hours.   Islam guides the daily lives of more than a fifth of the world's people. As Japanese companies venture deeper into Asia, home to nearly a billion Muslims, they are learning to respect the religion's rules and customs as employers. Your correspondent saw how two Japanese manufacturers have adapted to the country with the largest Muslim population.      Most companies in Indonesia have prayer rooms. At Kawai Indonesia, a subsidiary...

 13 YouTube Tricks for True PowerYOUsers  1 of 13 Set Default Video Playback to a Higher Quality Do you find yourself constantly changing video quality to a higher setting? All you want to do is watch some cat videos on your trusted home broadband connection, so why does it always default to some wimpy 360p resolution? What is this, 2009? Thankfully, YouTube has a way out of this important problem. Just click on over to youtube.com/account_playback when signed into to either Google or YouTube. Here, you can change the default to always view the best quality for your connection (even to always play HD). Conversely, you can set YouTube to never play higher-quality video if you are using a known sluggish connection.  2 of 13 Download YouTube Videos There are numerous methods for downloading videos from YouTube for offline viewing. Be aware that some methods are fairly dubious and malware-y (or, at least, I've run across ones that caused my...

Google reportedly seals deal to gobble up Twitch for $1 billion   It's been nearly two months since Variety and The Wall Street Journal reported Google was "in talks" to purchase popular games streaming site Twitch.tv for a billion dollars. According to VentureBeat, we can now upgrade the status from "in talks" to "sealed deal." The report is unconfirmed currently, with VentureBeat only citing "sources familiar with the matter," but it'd hardly be a surprise if true. Details are scarce though—neither company has spoken on the matter, and there's no news of whether just Twitch or all of the empire formerly know as Justin.tv is also part of the deal. We also don't know whether YouTube's own streaming service would continue to function separately from Google. Here's hoping that if the acquisition rumors are true, Google+ won't become mandatory for Twitch accounts. I stand by what I said back in M...

How to get photos from your digital camera to Instagram in 3 easy steps   Instagram may be designed for smartphones, but you've probably noticed that the best photos have a distinctly non-camera-phone vibe to them. Savvy Instagrammers post high-quality DSLR or point-and-shoot photos instead. You can create a high-quality Instagram feed, too, with a little help from Dropbox and your iOS or Android device. Step One: Transfer and pre-process your images The goal is to get the photo off your camera and onto a phone or mobile device with the Instagram app installed. The first step starts with your camera.  Importing your photos Transferring your photos to your computer only adds an extra minute or two, and has the added benefit of letting you use your computer to back up and organize your photos.  You can transfer your photographs from your camera to your PC with a card reader, or by connecting your camera directly to your computer. Copy...

Twitter Update Makes It Easier to Follow Conversations Twitter released an update Wednesday that makes it easier to keep up with conversations on the social network. Now, Twitter.com and Twitter’s mobile apps show conversations in chronological order. Tweets in a conversation are connected using a vertical line. Up to three tweets in a sequence are shown connected on your home timeline, so you can catch up on a whole conversation at a glance. If three tweets aren't enough, you can tap on any single tweet to see all of the replies, including any responses from people you don’t currently follow. Whole conversations can be shared with friends via email from Twitter.com, or as individual tweets from the iPhone and Android apps. Wednesday’s update also expands on Twitter’s abuse button. Already available for iPhone, now you can report individual tweets for abuse or spam from the Android app and Twitter.com. Check out the video below for a quick look at how the new...

How to Get Started With New Twitter Lists ? 1. Getting Started With Lists Find your Lists on Twitter by heading to your main profile page and clicking on the "Lists" option on the left-hand side. 2. Finding Your Lists Alternatively, click on the cog-shaped gear icon at the top-right of your Twitter screen and select "Lists." 3. Lists You Subscribe To From here you can view lists you're subscribed to, either ones you created previously or other people's lists you follow. 4. Lists You're a Member Of You can also view other people's lists that you are a member of. 5. Creating a New List Simply hit the "Create List" button to start a new Twitter list. 6. New List Details You now need to name your new list, give it a description (this is optional) and decide whether you want the list to be private, so only you can see it, or public, so other people can view and subscribe. 7. Populat...

How to Block Someone on Facebook 1. First Blocking Method There are three ways to block someone on Facebook. The quickest is to click on the privacy shortcut padlock at the top left of your homepage, select "How do I stop someone from bothering me?" and then type their name or email address into the box that appears. 2. Second Blocking Method The second method involves clicking the down arrow on the top right side to bring up a menu. Select "Settings," then "Blocking" from the sub-menu that comes up. You can then enter the person's name into the "Block users" box. 3. Third Blocking Method The third way to block someone is to head to their Facebook profile, hover over the cog icon on the bottom right of their cover photo and select "Report/block." 4. Third Blocking Method You then get a set of options, one of which is to block the user. 5. Facebook Search Once you've blocked someone, you will...

Download additional 'Stickers' for Facebook Messenger Bored of the standard Facebook Messenger Stickers? Here's how you can download and manage additional packs. f your account has been granted access to Facebook Messenger Stickers , you've likely realized they can add a bit of fun to normally mundane conversations. Instead of relying on the standard smiley-face stickers, download additional sticker packs from the Facebook Sticker Store. (Credit: Screenshot by Jason Cipriani/CNET)    You'll know if your account has access to Stickers if you open a conversation in the Facebook app on iOS, or the Messenger app on Android and you see a smiley icon in the text field. Tapping on it will reveal stickers you can then send in your conversations. (Credit: Screenshot by Jason Cipriani/CNET)    The smiley stickers are nice, but it would be better if there were cat stickers you could send. Who doesn't love cats? Especially cats on computers....