In 2012 Facebook acquired Instagram in a deal which was its biggest acquisition yet at $1bn! Now the social network giant has acquired the popular messaging app, WhatsApp for a whopping $19 billion in cash and stock.

WhatsApp currently has over 450 million monthly users and growing and is poplar mostly with teenagers and/or anyone looking to avoid text message charges.  It allows users to send messages over internet connections hence avoiding text messaging fees. The company claims it is currently registering one million new users a day.

The acquisition by Facebook includes $4bn in cash and approximately $12 billion worth of Facebook shares, plus an additional $3 billion in stock to WhatsApp’s founders and employees at a later date. WhatsApp co-founder and CEO Jan Koum will also join the board of directors at Facebook.

What do you think about this acquisition? was it worth it? How do you think Facebook would integrate WhatsApp into its social network services? Leave your comments below.

Source: BBC

Paper allows you to navigate through your news feed item-by-item with the swipe of a finger. Images appear full-screen with accompanying captions  and you can pan from left to right simply by tilting your device. To put things in a better context, the app poses as a radical change in  how users view status updates, photographs and videos posted by friends.

Videos in your news feed also appear in full-screen and play with captions overlaid in a similar way to images. At the bottom of each page are “like”, “comment” and “share” icons.

In all, the app takes away all the clutter that comes with Facebook (That clutter which also includes the ability to view events) and just gives you those features you use most of the time and can possibly drive some users to never open the Facebook app ever again.

Source: The Verge

Just in time for December rockies! Popular photo-sharing service, Instagram will let users send private messages to each other before 2014. This comes according to Mashable via GigaOM.

Allowing users to send private messages will add Instagram to the realm of major social networks, including its parent company, Facebook. This could possibly put them in in competition with each other as it will let users interact beyond just likes and comments.

What I’d really like to know is if users would be able to share links with this. Are you excited for this? I know I am. Let us know!

This image on DamnXD takes us through a News Feed of comments by countries and parties involved in the second World War.

Facebook says it aims to make video creation and sharing as easy as possible. With this new feature, the general User Experience of the app remains mostly the same in the update with the main difference being the addition of a video camera button which allows users capture up to 15 seconds of video which the user could them apply some editing to and post to their Instagram feed.

This new feature is very similar to the Twitter Vine app. This fact, in conjunction with the recent introduction of hashtags to the Facebook site will inevitably lead to questions about whether Facebook is starting to copy  features from Twitter. Kevin Systrom, Instagram’s founder would have us believe otherwise, claiming that the video feature was in the original plans for Instagram and has been in the works since the app’s inception.

Some of the highlights of this new video-sharing feature include:

• Record and share videos 3 – 15 seconds in length
• Ability to add filters to recorded video (in true Instagram fashion)
• Ability to delete segments of the recorded video
• Ability to select video thumbnail

What do you think of this new feature? Are you going to use it? Does instagram really need video? Is Facebook becoming too much like twitter? Please drop a comment anf let us know.

Facebook announced a redesign of its famous news feed, giving users more control over what shows up and options to view updates from different categories of friends. The company says its aim is to reduce clutter.

Photos have become even more prominent in this design. They take more space than they ever have. Other stories from your friends and pages you like now have a fresh, new look with larger previews that hold more information.

Make no mistake, Facebook’s new newsfeed design is based on its mobile design. If you’re a regular Facebook mobile user, it’s the first thing that comes to mind when you see it. Switching between the news feed and your profile will now be done in a bar on your right.

Facebook has also said it’ll be porting the new newsfeed options to its mobile apps. So if you use Facebook for Android or iOS, you’ll get the new options soon.

For web users, Facebook has begun rolling it out to a few users and requesting feedback. You can join the waiting list at the bottom of this page. We’ll post a walkthrough of the new design as soon as we get it.

Here are Greg and other Facebook staffers explaining the newsfeed.

Facebook has continued to change certain elements in its design over the years and has stuck to its guts at doing so. What do you think about the new design of newsfeed? Do you like it?

Instagram now extends its arms longer to the web as it announced its “feeds” are now available on the web for its users. In a blog post, Kevin Systrom, the company’s co-founder said that they have been wanting to build this for quite sometime now.

Instagram was built mobile only for specific reason, to share experiences on the go and has steadily grown with that belief. Instagram’s vast growth resulted in the company’s first move at web last year when it launched its web profiles which allowed users and non users to view people’s instagram pages on the web but did not have the ability for  to scroll down your timeline to see what your friends have posted. You can now do this, like a picture and comment when you go to Instagram.com and log in. However, you still need an iOS or Android device to upload pictures.

Lets know what you think about the step Instagram has taken.

“Whose was this Fanpage?” asks the hacker, seemingly as confused as the rest of us. Our new page admin then goes on with a series of more posts with questions like “un would like to bring back fanpagen old manager again Plase e-mail,” “please help me would like to fanpagen un mar true manager,” and “please help me would like to fanpagen un mar true manager.”  (We told you the hacker needs English lessons.)

Despite this, dear Samsung fans are still liking and actively participating in this slew of questions, helping to solve the mystery of whose was this fanpage. Chances are it’s this guy, because our hacker linked to him. We’ll let you know how it goes, perhaps some unfortunate page admin just didn’t logout from somewhere

E-commerce service Jumia has launched a screaming competition for its customers and non-customers alike. All you have to do is well, scream “Jumiaaaa”. The grand prize is

To enter the competition, you have to signup on Jumia’s Facebook screaming app, upload a video of you screaming to YouTube and paste the link within the app.

There are a couple of videos of people screaming but the problem here is that there’s a bunch of unrelated videos – like Chris Brown trying and failing to dance the Azonto. The app doesn’t state how exactly the winning video will be chosen but it seems like it’ll be based on votes.

For Jumia, this is a brilliant way to propagate its ‘gospel’. People have to share their scream videos with their friends and family to get more votes. Voters are also required to share a link to the app.

So scream away and don’t forget to vote.

No guys, I will not be screaming. There’s already a video of me dancing Gangnam Style on the internet.

Over the weekend, BlackBerry launched “Hashtag” – an invite only party in Lagos. The party was hosted by Nigerian VJ Andre Blaze and featured lots of exciting giveaways and competitions by BlackBerry.

BlackBerry gave out branded gifts as well ass the newly launched BlackBerry Curve 9320 and BlackBerry Curve 9220 devices. Also announced were the official BlackBerry student ambassadors, the BlackBerry Generation website and the BlackBerry Nigeria Facebook fan page.

SEE ALSO: BlackBerry Curve 9320 Review

RIM has also begun a campaign via its BlackBerry Nigeria Facebook page asking users for permission to be added to a mosaic on its Facebook cover. All you have to do is visit the BlackBerry app here and give the app permission to pull your Facebook profile picture. BlackBerry is giving competition participants a chance to win five BlackBerry® Curve™ 9320 and five BlackBerry® Curve™ 9220 smartphones with a special crystal-encrusted back cover.

Seems like RIM is pushing the new BlackBerry Curve 9320 and BlackBerry Curve 9220 in our faces with these promotions. The Student ambassador idea is brilliant as we know a lot of people buy smartphones based on what their friends use.