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Teen boasts of drunken driving on Facebook, arrested

It has now been firmly established -- by Randi Zuckerberg, no less -- that Facebook is the home of human decency.

How is it possible, then, that 18-year-old Jacob Cox-Brown of Astoria, Ore., did not receive the message?

For, according to KGW.com, Cox-Brown had the indecent temerity to post this to his Facebook page: "Drivin drunk... classsic ;) but to whoever's vehicle i hit i am sorry. :P."

This was, indeed, a classsic (sic) example of misbegotten sharing.

For police -- who had concluded that not one but two vehicles had been struck by an unknown driver … Read more

Teen poses with gun for Facebook photo, accidentally kills brother

It's guns again. People and guns.

Police believe that 22-year-old Manuel Ortiz and his 19-year-old sister, Savannah Ramirez, had been drinking.

They came back to an apartment in Phoenix, Ariz. As the local ABC15 TV reports it, this was an after-party party.

They were allegedly playing with a gun. They were posing for pictures to be uploaded onto Facebook.

Then gun went off. Manuel Ortiz is dead. He was shot in the head.

ABC's reporter said that Ortiz's sister was sitting at the curb after the shooting, sobbing and admitting that she had accidentally shot him.

The Daily Mail quotes … Read more

Facebook tests VoIP, adds voice mail-like service

iPhone users in Canada can now use Facebook to make voice calls, the social network revealed today.

The company is testing the ability to make VoIP calls -- the same service Skype provides -- using its Messenger app. Those in Canada can start a call with a contact by tapping the "i" button in the top right corner and hit "Free Call." Users will have to update the app to the version available today to use the feature and the voice call uses existing data plans.

While Canadians can experience actual voice calls, Facebook is giving … Read more

Six states outlaw employer snooping on Facebook

Six states have officially made it illegal for employers to ask their workers for passwords to their social media accounts. As of 2013, California and Illinois have joined the ranks of Michigan, New Jersey, Maryland, and Delaware in passing state laws against the practice, according to Wired.

With Congress not being able to come to agreement on the Password Protection Act of 2012, individual states have taken the law into their own hands. Both California and Illinois agreed on password protection laws in 2012, but the laws didn't go into effect until yesterday.

The laws are designed to prohibit … Read more

Instagram one month later: No hint of lingering troubles

New information from Web analytics firm Experian Hitwise suggests Instagram has recovered nicely from a seemingly disastrous privacy policy uproar last month.

For the 15 days since December 18, Instagram.com received more than 41.7 million total U.S. visits, an increase of 18 percent compared with the 15 days prior to the controversial proposed policy changes. The data was provided to CNET by Experian Marketing Services on request.

"The holidays see a spike in traffic as people are sharing more pictures than perhaps normal," Experian Marketing Services spokesman Matt Tatham told CNET, adding that the data … Read more

TV in Ultra HD, new designs at CES 2013

Wednesday's CNET Update bends it like Samsung:

Today's roundup looks ahead to the International Consumer Electronics Show, which kicks off next week in Las Vegas. Many companies are already teasing to what will be unveiled:

- Samsung is touting a new TV design, which could be vertical.

- Ultra HD 4K TVs will be big, literally. Westinghouse will be showing its 110-inch 4K LED TV.

- Future LG televisions will no longer have florescent backlights, making LED the standard across all of the company's LCD TVs. LG will also showcase new smart TV features, including voice commands. … Read more

Facebook conquers Armenia, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, and Vietnam

Facebook continues to make progress in its colonization of planet Earth. With more than 1 billion active users, Facebook is the leading social network in 127 countries, according to Alexa data compiled by Italian social media strategist Vincenzo Cosenza.

Much of the recent growth has come from higher penetration in Asia. In recent months, Facebook has become the leading social network in Armenia, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, and Vietnam, according to Cosenza's research. China and Iran remain impenetrable to Facebook, and V Kontakte and Odnoklassniki continue to dominate Russian countries.

Read: Zuckerberg mobilizes Facebook for 5 billion users and the Internet of things… Read more

Facebook revives NYE message service after security fix

Facebook says it has patched a security hole on its New Year's Eve messaging service after an IT student in the U.K. discovered he could easily see other people's private messages.

Student and blogger Jack Jenkins, found that he could view the messages simply by changing the ID number displayed in the message's confirmation URL. The messages would show up as if he were sending the note. He could read the text, see any attached photos, and even delete the message.

According to Jenkins' blog, Facebook took down the service a few hours after he blogged … Read more

Distorted Facebook message saves woman's life

Fleur Costello of Leatherhead, England, is the Facebook Queen. At least that's what her friends call her. The 40-year-old is always on the site.

She was online recently when she felt dizzy and was falling unconscious. Soon she was on the floor, partially paralyzed.

There was no phone within reach, so she grabbed at the sheets of her bed and clawed her laptop back toward her. Her Facebook page was still open.

Desperately, she wrote this message to her husband: "help faintef cannoi get up uhrlp gurt h4ead."

It so happens that her husband, Karl Equi, "can't stand" Facebook. But he'd been trying to call her. So, as he told the Sun, he decided to look at Facebook for once. His wife is the Facebook Queen after all.

He saw the message, which was supposed to read: "Help, fainted, cannot get up, help, hurt head."… Read more

Zynga puts PetVille and more out to pasture

Say goodbye to PetVille, FishFille, Mafia Wars 2, and a slew of other games from the folks at Zynga.

The video game studio has reluctantly pulled the plug on 11 of its gaming titles, as detailed by blog site TechCrunch.

The list of casualities encompass some of the company's most popular games, most of which were playable online through Facebook and a few that were available as iOS or Android apps.

PetVille - Shut down as of yesterday. Mafia Wars 2 - Shut down to new players as of yesterday. FishVille - Shut down December 5th. Vampire Wars - … Read more