Facebook to show ads based on your browsing history, but let you change them

Facebook has long shown users advertisements targeted to them based on the interests they've listed and the "Like" buttons they click around the web. In the coming weeks, Facebook will begin showing ads based on the other websites a user visits, even if a user doesn't click a "Like" button.

The change means that a user browsing websites for a new TV may lead to TV ads being displayed within Facebook. It’s an interest-based form of advertising that’s used widely on the web, but Facebook has previously only ever used the tracking data for security reasons. The changes, which roll out to US Facebook users in a few weeks and to other users in a few months, mean consumers will need to opt-out with the Digital Advertising Alliance to prevent their browsing habits outside of the site from being used to help deliver custom Facebook ads.

While the move may raise privacy concerns, Facebook is also giving users more control over the targeted ads that it shows them by adding a new drop-down menu to each ad. If you’re not interested in a particular subject, then you can remove that from your ad interests to make sure you never see a similar ad again. Clearly, Facebook is trying to walk a fine line that satisfies both its bottom line and users concerned about privacy, but whether it succeeds at either remains to be seen.

Correction: This article originally stated that Facebook would be sharing users' browser histories with advertisers. In fact, Facebook will act as intermediary and deliver the targeted ads from advertiser to user. It won't share an individual user's web-browsing information with advertisers.

Alleged iPhone 6 images leaked by former Taiwanese pop star

A couple of photos spilled online by Jimmy Lin claim to show the new iPhone 6 side by side with a 5S.

Is this the iPhone 6 to the right of an iPhone 5S?

Jimmy Lin/Weibo/Screenshot by Lance Whitney/CNET

Photos purportedly of the iPhone 6 have popped up on Chinese site Weibo courtesy of a former Taiwanese pop star who has shown an uncanny knack for leaking early shots of Apple products.

Jimmy Lin, a Taiwanese singer and actor, took to his Weibo page to reveal two photos allegedly of the iPhone 6showing the new phone as longer than the 5S. One photo peeks at the back of the two phones, while the other offers a glimpse of their front screens.

Lin spills a few alleged details, namely that the iPhone 6 sports a 4.7-inch screen, that the power button has shifted to the right, and that the coating for the built-in antenna is no longer on the outside. Lin adds that the phone offers a good grip.

Most of Lin's observations fall in line with other rumored features for Apple's next flagship smartphone, most notably the increase in screen size. With other smartphones sporting larger and larger displays, Apple is under pressure to come up with a bigger screen for the next iteration of the iPhone. With Apple losing market share to Samsung and other Android vendors offering up jumbo-sized phones, literally going big is key to staying competitive and wooing consumers who may be eyeing rival smartphones.

Lin has a history of leaking Apple images. He accurately leaked the iPhone 5 and the iPad Mini ahead of those two releases, according to tech site Pocket-Lint. He also had an early shot of the iPhone 5C.

Still, the photos should be taken with the usual grain of salt. Despite Lin's past track record, the "iPhone 6" seen in the images could be faked easily enough. As such, we'll have to keep this latest tidbit in the rumor department, at least until the fall when Apple is expected to unleash its next iPhone.

Google buys satellite maker Skybox Imaging for $500 million

SAN FRANCISCO Google is buying Skybox Imaging in a deal that could serve as a launching pad for the Internet company to send its own fleet of satellites to take aerial pictures and provide online access to remote areas of the world.

The $500 million acquisition announced Tuesday initially will provide Google with the means to improve the quality and immediacy of the satellite imagery used in its digital maps.

Google Inc. plans to use Skybox's satellite already in orbit to supplement the material that it licenses from more than 1,000 sources, including other satellite companies.

Eventually, though, Google hopes to build more satellites that could be used to beam Internet access to points around the world.

Skybox is a 5-year-old startup located a mile-and-half from Google's Mountain View, California, headquarters.

VLC for iOS to Get Chromecast Support Soon, Android App to Follow After

It seems the popular open source media player, VLC, will soon bring Chromecast support to its iOS app, followed by support on its apps for Android, Linux, Mac and Windows later.

While replying to a query posted on the VLC for iOS forum, Felix Paul Kuhne, Lead Developer on VLC for OS X and iOS, confirmed that the team is working on a plugin to let VLC send videos to Chromcast.

"Any idea were chromecast compatibility is in the dev pipeline?" asked a user. "We are working on it!" answered Kuhne from VLC.

Although the developer did not suggest any possible release date on the forum, but according to Gigaom, Kuhne added in an email that Chromecast support will be included in the next update of the iOS app. He also said that he couldn't give a firm date, but it could possibly be released within the next four to six weeks.

Kuhne added that the Chromecast feature would be added to the VLC app for Androidonce the iOS version ships.

Not just this, the VLC team is also working on platforms like Linux, Mac and Windows. While answering another query on the forum about VLC on desktops, Kuhne wrote, "In addition to the iOS variant, we are also working on a Windows / Linux / Mac implementation, which will take a bit longer because it's harder."

Notably Google hasn't yet released a Chromecast SDK for native apps on Windows, Mac or Linux. Therefore in order to implement the functionality on these platforms VLC team will probably have to implement their solution using the Google Chrome browser.

No more cracked smartphone screens, claims maker of transparent electrode

Polymer scientists at the University of Akron have developed a layer of transparent electrodes that is flexible, durable and, although unconfirmed, more efficient than modern touchscreen technology. If all you want are the CliffsNotes: this technology could eliminate the shattering of screens on your average smartphone.

In their recently published scientific paper on the process and material, Dr. Yu Zhu and his team, mostly students, explain the details of their transparent electrodes. The resulting layer of electrodes offers the same transparency as the indium tin oxide (ITO) layer that is used on most current smartphones. In addition, the new material is flexible and offers greater electrical conductivity.

Traditional ITO screen technology is fairly brittle and expensive, both of which are things you learned the hard way if you have ever dropped or sat on your phone. The novel film created of the new transparent electrodes manages to retain its shape and functionality in tests of up to 1000 bends. Not only that, but they say it can be economically fabricated in mass-quantity rolls.

“The annoying problem of cracked smartphone screens may be solved once and for all with this flexible touchscreen,” says Zhu.

We like the sound of all this, but we are reminded of another device that offers flexibility, plus a curved design, the LG G Flex. Do you remember the G Flex drop testfrom last fall? I don’t want to spoil it, but it didn’t do as well as hoped, requiring a replacement to its cracked display.

With the information at hand, we cannot say how well the new novel film of transparent electrodes will compare to the G Flex, or other flexible displays out there, but it sounds like Zhu and team are eager to get it to market. One thing is for sure, quality competition to any materials manufacturer can only be good for us consumers. If this material can actually make for less expensive and shatterproof screens, count me in.

Latest rumors have Apple's wearable launching in October

If you've been waiting for Apple's long-fabled wearable to make an appearance, you now have a time frame to (tentatively) mark on your calendar. Both Nikkei andRecode hear that the device is currently slated to arrive in October. Technical details are still unclear, but both sites expect a strong health focus; that's not surprising given both iOS 8's newHealthKit platform and longstanding 9to5 Mac rumors of fitness-oriented wristwear.Nikkei also understands that Apple and Nike hope to integrate each other's services in the future, although it's not certain that this will apply to the wearable.

Recode is quick to caution that the scheduling could change, so don't be surprised if October comes and goes without a shiny new gadget. However, a launch that month makes sense. In recent years, Apple has reserved many of its bigger non-iPhone unveilings for October -- think iPads and higher-profile Macs. That's a long time to wait, if true, but what's another few months for hardware that has achieved an almost mythological status?

This Giant 3D Printer Built 10 Houses In Just 1 Day – Seeing It In Action Is Mesmerizing

Using a mixture of construction waste (a mixture of sand, concrete and glass fiber) and concrete for printing material, a single-story, one-room house can be printed for less than $5,000.

Using a 6.6-meter-tall, 32-meter-long industrial printer a Chinese company is using 3D-printing technology to build cheap housing for modernizing housing conditions in Chinese villages.

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We’ve covered contour crafting 3D printers before and as mentioned back then “even just a handful of these units in a given geographical region could have an enormous impact on housing in the near future”.

Now, I’m a big believer in natural and traditional building methods such as log homes or cob because of the low energy input, low environmental impact, low cost, and the fact that anyone can build such a house for themselves without needing a degree in engineering.

But what this company has done shows the potential for this kind of construction method to disrupt the housing and mortgage market in a big way in the not so distant future, and we’ll keep close watch on how this technology develops.