Technology

Facebook wants more people to know it owns Instagram, WhatsApp and Oculus while still maintaining a distinct identity for its main app. So today Facebook launched a new capitalization and typography format for its company name, using all capital letters and a shifting color scheme that highlights Instagrampurple gradient and WhatsAppgreen tint.

Facebooknew branding distinguishes app from acquisitions

&Over the coming weeks, we will start using the new brand within our products and marketing materials, including a new company website,& FacebookCMO Antonio Lucio writes. For example, the bolder &from FACEBOOK& branding will appear at the bottom of the Instagram login screen and settings menu. Facebook previously used a blue or white lowercase &f& as a logo.

Facebook had considered moving to a different name for the overarching company entirely. Lucio tells me &We had to consider all options but decided that it was important to keep the company name. We always have been and will continue to be Facebook. It was important to retain the companyname in order to own what we stand for, the decisions we make, our responsibility to people, and how our brands relate to each other.& Ittrue that ditching the top-level name could have been seen as an effort to ditch its problematic past.

Facebooknew branding distinguishes app from acquisitions

Facebook began its rebranding process in June, adding &from Facebook& taglines to its products. The Information reported Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg was unsatisfied with the credit Facebook was getting for owning Instagram and WhatsApp.

Zuckerberg double-down on that sentiment during this monthearnings call as a response to questions about anti-trust investigations against the company that could seek to force a spin-off of its acquisitions. Zuckerberg noted that it was Facebookresources in areas like anti-spam, internationalization and ads that helped turn Instagram from a sub-50 million user product to a billion-plus one today.

Some see Facebook as preemptively mounting a defense against antitrust action. Beyond rebranding, itworking on making Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp and Instagram Direct a unified interoperable and encrypted messaging system where users can chat across the apps. Building them all on a centralized infrastructure could make Facebook tougher to break up.

Yet from another perspective, the rebranding efforts feel ham-handed and egotistical. Facebook likely benefits from the fact that most people don&t actually know it owns Instagram and WhatsApp. A recent Pew study found only 29% of Americans correctly named the two as companies owned by Facebook.

Given Facebookrash of data security, developer platform, election interference and ongoing privacy scandals, itprobably better off if people think they can escape the toxicity by using Instagram. The acquisitions effectively acted as a brand lifeboat for Facebook.

Now it seems Facebook is happy to burn down some of the credibility of its younger apps if it builds up the central company. Autonomy at the acquired companies has seemed to wane since Facebook installed loyal lieutenants like Adam Mosseri and Will Cathcart to run Instagram and WhatsApp, respectively.

The big problem for Facebook, beyond government regulation? If current/potential talent view Facebook as choking the potential of its subsidiaries, top workers might be hesitant to join or stay at the family of social networks.

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TC Sessions: Mobility returns In 2020

TC Sessions: Mobility is returning for a second year on May 14 in San Jose — a day-long event brimming with the best and brightest engineers, policymakers, investors, entrepreneurs and innovators, all of whom are vying to be a part of this new age of transportation.

Companies are racing to deploy autonomous vehicles and flying cars, scale their scooter operations and adjust to headwinds in the vehicle subscription and car-sharing businesses. At the center of the mobility maelstrom is TechCrunch.

TechCrunch held its inaugural TC Sessions: Mobility event in summer 2019 with a mission to do more than highlight the next new thing. We aimed to dig into the how and why, the cost and impact to cities, people and companies, as well as the numerous challenges that lie along the way, from technological and regulatory to capital and consumer pressures.

We met our goal, and now we&re back to push further with TC Sessions: Mobility 2020.

Attendees of TC Sessions: Mobility can expect interviews with founders, investors and inventors, demos of the latest tech, breakout sessions, dozens of startup exhibits and opportunities to network and recruit.

If you&re wondering what to expect, take a look at some of the speakers we had onstage at the first event:

  • Amnon Shashua, Mobileye, co-founder, president and CEO
  • Dmitri Dolgov, Waymo, CTO
  • Summer Craze Fowler, Argo AI, chief security officer
  • Katie DeWitt, Scoot, VP of Product
  • Karl Iagnemma, Aptiv, president
  • Seleta Reynolds, head of the Los Angeles Department of Transportation
  • Caroline Samponaro, Lyft, head of Micromobility Policy
  • Ted Serbinski, Techstars, founder and managing director of The Mobility Program
  • Ken Washington, Ford, CTO
  • Sarah Smith, Bain Capital Ventures, partner
  • Dave Ferguson, Nuro, co-founder and president
  • Michael Granoff, Maniv Mobility, founder and managing partner
  • Jesse Levinson, Zoox, CTO and co-founder

TechCrunch will announce in the coming weeks and months the participants of TechCrunch Mobilityfireside chats, panels and workshops.

Tickets are on sale now

Early-bird tickets are available now for $250 — that$100 savings before prices go up. Students can book a ticket for just $50. Book your tickets today.

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Project Silica

In a technological advancement normally reserved for science fiction, Microsoft has teamed up with Warner Bros. to successfully store and retrieve an entire copy of the 1976 classic Superman: The Movie on a coaster-sized piece of glass using the Redmond company's Project Silica storage solution. 

Demonstrated as a proof of concept, Project Silica

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Attracting runners, trainers,owners and punters from all around the world each year, the Melbourne Cup, is regularly referred to as the race that stops the nation. To reinforce that point, Australia's most famous horse race is a sporting event so big that the entire state of Victoria gets a public holiday!

The great news for racing fans is that all

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The Pixel 4 camera and display are getting improvements with Google's latest patchesThe Pixel 4 camera and display are getting improvements with Google's latest patches

The new Pixel 4 has just received its first update from Google, and it should make two of the phone's standout features that much better. Among the list of patches, Google mentions "Smooth Display improvements" and "Camera Quality improvements." 

The update comes as part of the November security patch, which you can get for your Pixel 4 by updating

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We’ve reached week 9 of the 2019-20 NFL season and during Monday Night Football this week, you’ll get to see the Dallas Cowboys go up against the New York Giants at MetLife Stadium. This is a game you won’t want to miss as the Cowboys-Giants rivalry began in 1960 when the two teams played their first game against each other. Luckily we’re here to m

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