Facebook Messenger introduces game component with ‘Doodle Draw’

If you’ve played Draw Something before, you’ll be able to play Doodle Draw, an iOS and Android app that works with Messenger. Facebook recently introduced third-party apps into its messaging app and Doodle Draw is one of the over 40 apps available. Basically, you pick one out of three words to draw a picture off on your phone, you then send this to your Facebook friend for them to guess what you drew. If your friend has the app, it’ll take them to the app. If they don’t have the game, they can still see the artwork within Messenger and reply from there.

Source: Wall Street Journal | Download: Google Play Store (Free) + Apple App Store (Free) 

Facebook boosts security of its emails to you with encryption

Facebook might be the hub of oversharing but that doesn’t mean they don’t want to keep communications with you secure. The company announced that it’s allowing users to add PGP keys to profiles so the emails Facebook sends you can be encrypted. If you aren’t convinced about the legitimacy of the project, one of the testers for this program is security expert and former Tor lead Runa Sandvik.

Source: Facebook | Via: Engadget

Facebook Canada introduces AMBER Alert System

In line with International Missing Children’s Day, Facebook Canada, together with police authorities across the provinces in Canada, has introduced an AMBER Alert system. This tool will alert Facebook users in the area during the critical first hours when a child has been abducted. The AMBER Alerts will show available details about the child and the abductor on mobile News Feed. It will only show up for those within the designated search areas because they’ll be the ones who’ll be able to provide leads and even help. Of course, you can share the alerts to your friends and family as well.

Oculus Rift announces it is shipping Q1 of 2016 with pre orders later this year

The much anticipated and widely copied AR/VR headset Oculus Rift is slated to finally ship in Q1 of 2016 with pre-orders beginning at the end of the year. This means that competition has a window to get a jump on the Oculus Rift before it makes it out to consumers.

The Rift delivers on the dream of consumer VR with compelling content, a full ecosystem, and a fully-integrated hardware/software tech stack designed specifically for virtual reality. It’s a system designed by a team of extremely passionate gamers, developers, and engineers to reimagine what gaming can be. Intrested developers can find out more here.