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Death is a subject that comes with a lot of open questions: How and when will I go? How will my loved ones cope? What will happen to my Facebook page? Okay, that last one might not be high on your "To Do" list, but it is the easiest one to take care of with the "If I Die" Facebook app, which lets you record a video or text message that is posted to your wall once you've passed on. Read More

Facial recognition software, social networking and cloud computing ... they're all technological advances that alone have thrown up questions regarding privacy. According to a recent Carnegie Mellon University study, however, the three technologies can be combined to learn peoples' identities and other personal information about them, starting with just a photograph of their face. Read More

As expected, Facebook has announced Skype-powered video calling for its users, who now number more than 750 million according to the company. The new feature was unveiled by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Skype CEO Tony Bates at a news conference at Facebook HQ on Wednesday where Facebook engineer Philip Su provided a walkthrough of the application. The social networking giant also launched a new chat sidebar and what Su says is one of the site's most requested features in multi-person chat. Read More

We brought news of Eric Butler's Firefox extension for HTTP session hijacking called Firesheep back in October last year, but if you haven't already taken steps to ensure your privacy and security online, we hope this does the trick - FaceNiff is a new Android app that can be used to hijack sessions on public or private Wi-Fi networks without needing to lug around a laptop. Read More

Warner Bros. is hoping to leverage the popularity of social networking juggernaut Facebook by becoming the first Hollywood studio to offer movies directly through the site. Facebook users will be able to purchase and rent titles from the Warner Bros. catalog using Facebook Credits and play, pause and resume the movies through their Facebook account for up to 48 hours from the time of purchase. An initial test offering of The Dark Night to fans who “Liked” said movie on Facebook can now rent the title through the movie’s official Facebook page, with additional titles to be made available in the coming months. Read More

As you might expect, Taiwan's HTC didn't just bring a new tablet to the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. A brood of five new phones also managed to break away from the nest, including a couple with one-touch Facebook access. The company's popular Desire, Wildfire and Incredible models also get a new lease on life. Read More

Given the wild success of Facebook and Twitter, it was no surprise to see various fledgling social media platforms being promoted at CES in Las Vegas. One that caught our attention was SMYLE, the creation of New Jersey-based Drakontas, a company with a background in providing geospatial tools for “warfighters and tactical professionals.” SMYLE is Drakontas’ foray into the world of civilian technology, but it remains big on something that is important to soldiers and cops: collaboration. Read More

The lads behind Diaspora, the open source decentralized alternative to Facebook, have announced the public release of its source code to developers. The group of four students from NYU’s Courant Institute wanted to give users complete control of their details and content in response to privacy concerns regarding Facebook. Upon releasing the source code the developers say, “this is now a community project and development is open to anyone with the technical expertise who shares the vision of a social network that puts users in control.” Read More

When we first looked at Diaspora back in May, funds were being raised to build the new social network. Now, after a month of development at San Francisco’s Pivotal Labs, they have released the first still and video images showing how it will work. Read More