Facebook announced today that its beginning to test auto-playing videos in News Feed for its mobile apps. Videos in the News Feed will automatically begin playing as users scroll, but they’ll be silent until users tap to switch to a full-screen view with sound: It didn’t mention specific platforms, but did post the image of its iOS app above. Facebook’s Instagram app, which implemented new Vine-like video features back in June, already auto-plays videos by default as users scroll....

Tell me a story that doesn’t jibe with my belief in a friend, and I’ll question your story before I’ll question my friend. Much as I try to rise above confirmation bias and motivated reasoning — two variations of the tendency to cherry pick facts to fit our beliefs — these are very human imperfections. Rather than scrutinize our own thoughts, we’ll scrutinize the source, content and context of any statement that challenges them....

Now that iOS 14.5 has been released to the public, we’re starting to get a closer look at how various companies are implementing the new App Tracking Transparency privacy requirement. Perhaps most notably, the Verge has details on the popup message Facebook and Instagram are using to encourage users to choose the “Allow” option when prompted about tracking… Facebook had been a vocal opponent to App Tracking Transparency, which is a new feature in iOS 14....

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that the social network now sees 2 billion people using the platform each month. Facebook is marking the milestone with a new Good Adds Up campaign launching one day after the Messenger team announced new enhancements coming to the app. Zuckerberg announced Facebook’s milestone in a post today: Facebook added that the 2 billion people number refers to “people connecting and building communities on Facebook every month....

It’s time for Warner Bros. to admit that the Fantastic Beasts franchise has been a failure, and instead launch a full Harry Potter reboot. While Fantastic Beasts 3 is happening (with two more movies supposed to follow), the spin-off series hasn’t been as beloved as Warner Bros. hoped it would be. After eight films and a total worldwide gross of over $7.7 billion, the Harry Potter franchise became one of the highest-grossing film series ever made....

Fantastical for Mac received a small performance update today but also added one really useful feature: Reminder due times. As we mentioned in our full review here, Fantastical 2 for iPhone recently picked up full Reminders support and today’s update brings further parity between the two apps. Fantastical for Mac, which I find to be the easiest way to input dates and reminders, is available on the Mac App Store for $19....

There’s no shortage of guitar tutor apps out there, but if there’s one company that ought to know a bit about what it takes to play guitar, it’s Fender … Unlike generic apps that take everyone through the same sequence of lessons, Fender Play aims to tailor itself to your musical tastes, as Engadget notes. Fender claims that it can teach you quickly by using a micro-learning approach. Split-screen videos allow you to see the techniques from multiple camera angles....

We have an exclusive clip from the home release of Split, focusing on the acting methods of star James McAvoy. M. Night Shyamalan stunned moviegoers earlier this year with the release of Split. Earning him some of the best reviews of his career thus far, and coming after a succession of flops, Split has grossed $221.9 million worldwide. Split tells the story of what happens when Kevin (McAvoy), a man with dissociative identity disorder, kidnaps three young girls....

Apple Watch Activity Sharing is a great way to share your fitness progress with friends and stay motivated. The feature lets you easily share completed workouts, achievements, and more with your Apple Watch friends. Activity Sharing has its limitations, however, and I’m hoping watchOS 5 and iOS 12 can address them with a few changes. That’s increased from 25 accounts originally, but both limits are not very useful for larger groups....

Before Apple even announced the oft-rumored iPad Pro, it unveiled a new version of iPad software, iOS 9, that included several new features that seemed perfect for a device with a larger screen. Sure enough, those features foreshadowed the launch of the larger, 12.9-inch iPad Pro. Zac did an excellent job last week of highlighting some of these enhancement that are great on the larger-screened device. As Zac noted, iOS 9 includes a handful of really nice optimizations for iPad Pro....

Early this year, we posted the first screenshots and details of an early version of the Apple Watch Companion application for the iPhone. Now that the application is bundled into iOS 8.2, developer Hamza Sood has activated the Apple Watch Settings portion and has shared a view of screenshots. As can be seen in the full gallery below, the interface is dark black, like the Activity app for fitness revealed yesterday, and includes all of the functionality we detailed earlier....

Not a mockup, some information redacted to protect our sources Dark Mode can be enabled in the Settings app or with an option in Control Center, for quick access to the feature. On the Home screen, the only noticeable change is the Dock, which adopts a vibrant dark background instead of the light one. It’s possible that Apple will be including new wallpapers that work better in Dark Mode with the new OS....

Facebook for iOS received an update today bringing the ability to edit posts and comments directly from your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch. Previously, this feature was only available from the desktop version of the website. The update also brings another desktop feature: the ability to add photos to comments. All in all, version 6.6 appears to bring the app closer to feature parity with the desktop, but a few of these features like status and comment editing appear to be absent from the iPad app for now....

Fear the Walking Dead’s decision to kill off Logan (Matt Frewer) in season 5 represents a major missed opportunity for the AMC series. Introduced in the season 5 premiere, Logan was a recurring character who served as an antagonist to Morgan’s group. The character’s death in season 5 episode 13 ended his arc on the series, preventing him from further developing as a character in the upcoming season 6. In Fear the Walking Dead season 5, episode 13, Logan and his men reach Polar Bear’s oilfields and have a standoff with the main characters, who refuse to cooperate....

Siri percolated throughout all of Apple’s platforms in 2015. It started with iPhone in 2011, iPad in 2012, debuted on Apple Watch in early 2015 and Apple TV with the new model a few months ago. It’s quickly becoming a premier feature on these platforms, with live-as-you-speak transcription and radically new features like ‘Remind me about this’ contextual tasks when inside apps. Except for one platform of course. Mac OS X has been ignored and left abandoned with regards to true voice searching and Siri....

Back in July, Instagram expanded its testing of hiding like counts to a total of seven countries. Now, Facebook has confirmed that it may start testing the same on its platform. The change could come to News Feed posts and show users a few mutual friends who have like a Facebook post without a total like count. Reported by TechCrunch, a prototype of the upcoming test was discovered by Jane Manchun Wong in the Android app and Facebook confirmed that removing like counts was being considered for testing....

Bethesda is overhauling Fallout 76 as the online action multiplayer adds a brand new Survival Mode while shifting focus to a more competitive style of gameplay. Coming to Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC, Fallout 76’s Survival Mode is now in beta and hoping to offer a new set of challenges. It’s been a rocky road for Fallout 76 as Bethesda’s expansive title failed to cash in on the success of the main Fallout series....

The sitcom genre lends itself perfectly to telling stories of families, whether they’re happy, unhappy, sarcastic, or overly positive. Every week, fans get the opportunity to get to know a group of relatives and see them in hilarious situations. Whether a sitcom is on a streaming service like Netflix or regular old cable, there’s never a bad time to watch an episode of our favorite show. But not every family sitcom is a home run, just like there are varying levels of quality in any type of TV show....

Fan posters have been appearing online for Christopher Nolan’s next film Tenet, and one in particular is convincing in its simplicity. Set for release on July 17, 2020, details about the film are currently being kept under lock and key, quite literally in the case of Robert Pattinson’s script read, leading to wide and wild speculation as to what can be expected from it. The few fragments of information that have been released about the film describe it as “an action epic evolving from the world international espionage,” which is as deliberately vague as it is open to interpretation....

For Harry Potter fans, 2016 will be remembered as the year the Wizarding World came back into the mainstream. J.K. Rowling had already been providing Potterheads with new stories and mythology background on Pottermore, but last year also saw the debut of a vastly-successful stageplay, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, the record-breaking release of its script and, biggest of all, the start of prequel series Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them....