There’s nothing wrong with posting a picture online of a fun night out with friends. But since geo-tagging and automatic facial tagging have become commonplace, it’s easier than ever for just about anyone to figure out where you are and what you’re doing. If you aren’t at least a little freaked out by that, you should be. We aren’t the only ones: buffer Renaiss Inc. has released an iPhone app to block the faces in your pictures to prevent auto-tagging.

The app, simply called Anti Tagging, works by putting glitched-out images over the faces of people in your pictures. You can use it at the time you take the picture or afterward by pulling pictures from your phone’s photo library. If you don’t like the random glitch images the app comes up with the first time, you can always shake to re-scramble the image.

Although the app is cool and we appreciate the fact that it’s trying to preserve privacy in some small way, it doesn’t address the bigger problem. That is the over-sharing of personal information, including pictures. It’s pretty simple: if you don’t want your face noticed by Facebook, don’t post your picture on the site. Maybe the app is meant as a statement on the increasingly absurd measures we have to take to maintain privacy, which we can dig. But it would be much more useful if you could choose whose faces to scramble and whose to leave untouched, just in case that guy you accidentally snapped a pic of doesn’t want his face popping up on your social media accounts.

The post Don’t Book My Face: AntiTagging App Foils Face Recognition first appeared on Gajitz.

It may not seem like it when you’re scrolling through thousands of pithy comments on Reddit, but a full two-thirds of Earth’s population does not have access to the Internet. That might change dramatically in a few years thanks to an ambitious collaboration between Facebook, Qualcomm, and Nokia. They formed Internet.org, an organization dedicated to bringing affordable internet access to the entire world.

In March 2014, Facebook acquired Ascenta, a company that builds solar-powered drones. The plan, according to Internet.org, is to create and launch unmanned high altitude, long-running solar powered aircraft that can stay aloft for months and deliver reliable internet connectivity anywhere in the world. The UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) will fly at 20 kilometers above the planet’s surface – high enough that they are above high winds and bad weather, but low enough that they can beam down a reliable internet connection. It’s basically exactly the same as Google’s plan to beam internet access down from balloons, but with planes.

The aircraft will be pretty big: around the size of a 747, according to Facebook’s Connectivity Lab. They are calling them “planes” due to their size and, understandably, to avoid the negative connotations associated with flying “drones.” If all goes according to plan, the planes will have their first American trials in 2015 and could be providing wi-fi to currently unconnected places within three to five years. It seems a bit self-serving for several telecommunications giants, and particularly Facebook, to be involved in a plan to connect more people to the internet. But the folks behind the plan claim that the overall goal is to empower the world through the strength of global communication.

The group is also working on larger-scale connectivity solutions for areas of low population density. Their lofty goal is to create a series of connected satellites that will beam down continuous wi-fi signals from space. This is understandably quite a bit more difficult than putting a few planes in the air, so don’t expect to see those satellites launching in the next few years.

The post Sky-High Ambition: Facebook’s Solar Planes + Global Wi-Fi first appeared on Gajitz.

Going out with friends is one of the most fun and memorable parts of college life, but unfortunately it can also be quite dangerous. When alcohol or other substances are involved – or when you’re in an unfamiliar place – the danger increases many times over. An intoxicated person can easily get separated from their group and wind up alone or at the hands of someone who means to take advantage of their altered state.

Vive was created by a group of students at the University of Washington in collaboration with SARVA (Sexual Assault and Relationship Violence Activists). The sensor-rich wristband was designed to keep young people safe in alcohol-fueled environments without hindering their ability to have fun.

The Vive concept contains a transdermal alcohol sensor and a dehydration monitor to keep track of the wearer’s intoxication level and detect when he or she is getting dangerously dehydrated. An accelerometer and gyrometer can sense danger-indicating motions such as falling down or passing out.  But the wearer doesn’t have to be aware of their own situation in order to summon help. The Vive connects to the wearer’s smartphone via Bluetooth, and from there connects to the user’s personal social network.

The connection is made by tapping the wristband to the user’s phone, which brings up that person’s Facebook profile. Then the user and everyone else in his or her group sync their wristbands by tapping them together. This sets these people as a safety group – people who will be notified of one another’s well-being throughout the evening.

Every once in a while, each person’s Vive gives a little wiggle, reminding them to check in with the group and ensure their companions of their safety. If someone fails to answer the check-in request, the rest of the group is notified and can then go looking for the missing member of the party. Likewise, if anyone gets too drunk, too dehydrated or too horizontal, the rest of the group gets notifications.

Throughout the evening, every wearer can tap wristbands with interesting new people to add them as Facebook friends later. This adds to the social aspect of the wristband, making it appear less about safety and more about having fun. The designers have yet to present a prototype, but they have brilliant plans for how the Vive can be used to increase safety while not hindering the fun, as they detail in the video above.

The post Wristband Helps Friends Keep Each Other Safe on Nights Out first appeared on Gajitz.

Are you one of those people who posts something on Facebook and then watches closely to see how many “likes” it gets? Fliike is a physical counter that lets you keep track of exactly how many people clicked that little upturned thumb. Designed by French design studio Smiirl, the Fliike features a flipboard face that looks a bit like a retro clock.

The device gets its information from your Facebook page over wi-fi and shows the “likes” on its face. While certain heavy Facebook users might want to count their online popularity with this gadget, it’s meant mostly for businesses to show how popular they are on the social networking site. We can imagine this leading to a strange retail situation in which people will choose which stores to go into based on the numbers on the stores’ Fliike counters in the window.

The post Show Your Facebook Popularity on a Physical Like Counter first appeared on Gajitz.

For heavy Facebook users, getting “likes” on posts, photos and check-ins can feel almost as good as getting real-world affection from the people you care about. The Like-A-Hug vest strives to strengthen the connection between the digital and physical lives by translating Facebook “likes” into real-world hugs. The hugs come from an inflatable vest which squeezes the wearer whenever a new “like” is registered on his or her Facebook page.

The project was a collaboration between artist Melissa Kit Chow, Andy Payne and Phil Seaton. The idea came about after a conversation about the limitations of modern communication methods in long-distance relationships. Although we can easily communicate with people we cannot physically be with, the comforting physical interaction is missing. The Like-A-Hug vest makes that physical interaction possible again by passing along virtual appreciation in the form of a hug, and then allowing the hug recipient to return the interaction instantly.

The post Facebook-Connected Vest Passes Along Your Warm Fuzzies first appeared on Gajitz.