20 Online Shopping Sites With Free International Shipping

The rise of online shopping has made international shipping the conveyor belt of the world. You can order a didgeridoo from Australia and it’ll turn up on your doorstep in Iceland within the week. But, because international shipping doesn’t come cheap it’ll probably cost you a fortune.

Thankfully, there are online shopping sites that offer free international shipping. All of the retailers we’re about to introduce you to offer some form of free international shipping. We’ve even organized them into categories to make it easier to browse…

Note: Depending on your location, you may still have to pay import tax.

Technology Shopping Sites

Are you looking to buy a new speaker or upgrade your laptop? These stores will help.

1. DHGate

DHGate is an international shopping site that specializes in selling no-name products from China. The site is mainly aimed at wholesale buyers rather than regular consumers. Free shipping is available around the world.

2. Newegg

American company Newegg is a well-established name in the world of online tech shopping. The site offers many top-of-the-line products at a lower price than you’ll find elsewhere. The company offers free shipping on many products. More than 50 countries are supported, including Canada, Mexico, and most of Europe.

3. YesAsia

YesAsia is an online store for video games. It offers multiple games, consoles, and accessories. The PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, Wii U, and Nintendo DS are the most widely supported platforms. There is also some content for PC gamers.

All items on the site are eligible for free international shipping (except posters). However, you’ll need to spend a minimum of $40.

Fashion Shopping Sites

Here are six online shops where you can get your fashion fix.

4. Dorothy Perkins

Dorothy Perkins is a UK-based retailer. It specializes in women’s clothing, but also has an extensive line of childrenswear for both girls and boys.

International shipping to select countries (mainly Europe and the US) is free if you spend more than £50. The company has launched a range of new international sites. If you live in France, the United States, Germany, Ireland, Singapore, Malaysia, or Thailand, you won’t be able to order from the UK site.

5. ASOS

ASOS stocks menswear and womenswear. The clothes are primarily aimed at people between 20 and 35 years old. It offers more than 80,000 individual items. International shipping is free if you spend more than $30.

6. Shopbop

Shopbop has been owned by Amazon since 2006. It offers luxury brands aimed at people of all ages. If you spend more than $100, the company will ship your order anywhere in the world for free.

7. Strawberrynet

If you’re looking for beauty products, Strawberrynet is the site for you. It specializes in perfumes, makeup, skincare creams, and haircare. If you spend more than $75, Strawberrynet will send your international shipment for free.

8. Feel Unique

Feel Unique sells makeup, skincare products, creams and lotions for traveling and beach vacations, perfumes, and some electrical beauty products. Free international delivery is available on orders above $50-$100, depending on where you live.

9. Fy

Fy offers unique products from new and emerging designers. You will struggle to find the items available here anywhere else on the web. Expect to see clothes, bags, accessories, handbags, jewelry, and even wall art. Free worldwide shipping is available on all orders.

Entertainment Shopping Sites

Books, CDs, DVDs… it’s possible to get free international shipping on all kinds of entertainment if you know where to look.

10. BetterWorldBooks

BetterWorldBooks sells both new and second-hand books. It also stocks textbooks for college students. The company is based in the UK but offers free shipping around the world. Orders fulfilled by BetterWorldBooks will take 10-21 days. Orders fulfilled by a third-party seller might take up to five weeks.

11. Book Depository

Book Depository is one of the largest online booksellers. It provides more than 17 million titles to choose from. It also offers a few board games. The company’s fulfillment centers are in the UK and Australia. Free shipping is available if you anywhere in Europe, North America, and South America. Some countries in Asia and Africa are also on the list.

12. Deep Discount

Most of Deep Discount’s products fall into the entertainment category. The site offers a vast collection of CDs, DVDs, books, video games, and vinyl records (why everyone should start collecting vinyl). You can also find some clothing and fitness gear. Global free shipping is available on orders above $25.

House and Home

Is it time to make your house look like a home? Have a look at these sites.

13. Animi Causa

Animi Causa is arguably the unique site on this list. It specializes in wall decals, tabletop furnishings, furniture, lighting, and kitchenware. The products are typically quite quirky. Free international shipping is available worldwide on orders of $25 or more. Deliveries can take six weeks to arrive.

14. Fishpond

Fishpond is a New Zealand-based company. Its website stocks more than 12 million items. You’ll be able to find everything from arts and crafts to stationery and sunglasses. It offers free worldwide shipping on all orders.

15. Art.com

As the name suggests, Art.com is a one-stop-shop for paintings, canvases, picture frames, and other home décor. The site offers free international shipping to some countries, include most of North America and Europe. Free shipping is only available on tapestries, laminated items, prints, frames, canvas items, mirrors, and rugs.

Department Stores

Department stores offer products in hundreds of different categories.

16. Marks and Spencer

If you live in the US, the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, China, or most of Western Europe, you can enjoy free shipping on Marks and Spencer’s products. Just navigate to your country’s localized Marks and Spencer website. The massive retailer specializes in food, furniture, clothing, and homewares.

17. The Hut

The Hut is a luxury online department store. Product categories include home accessories, cooking and dining, sports equipment, and toys. Depending on where you live, The Hut offers free shipping worldwide on orders above $20 to $50.

Online Retailers

Still haven’t found the product you’re looking for? These three online behemoths will definitely have you covered.

18. AliExpress

AliExpress is similar to eBay; it allows third-party sellers to pedal their wares. Unlike Amazon, it does not manufacture its own branded products.

Some items offer free international shipping, but it depends on the seller. Make sure you tick the appropriate box in the filters before starting your search.

If you follow our advice, shopping on AliExpress is perfectly safe.

19. eBay

EBay has been at the forefront of online retailing for almost 20 years; it is one of the best international online shopping sites. Thousands of items offer free international shipping, but it varies from seller-to-seller. Just make sure you check before you commit to a purchase.

20. Amazon Prime

No list of free shipping would be complete without mentioning Amazon Prime. If you pay for a membership, many products on the site will be eligible for free international shipping.

Amazon Prime is not available everywhere, and the price of the subscription varies between countries.

What Other Shopping Sites Offer Free Shipping?

In this article we’ve introduced you to online retailers that offer free international shipping, but there are others out there. Now we want you to add to this list. Which sites do you recommend? How is their customer support?

Before you shop online, make sure you know about the best cashback websites to save money. And for focused stores, check out the best online shopping sites for cheap electronics.

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How to Screenshot on a Windows PC Without Print Screen: 4 Methods

If you don’t have a Print Screen button on your keyboard, you have to come up with an alternate method for taking Windows screenshots. And as it turns out, the classic method of  hitting Print Screen, pasting the image into Paint, and saving it is pretty slow anyway.

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There are plenty of reasons you wouldn’t want to use Print Screen for screenshots. Thus, let’s quickly look at how to screenshot on Windows without hitting Print Screen at all.

1.  Use Snip & Sketch or the Snipping Tool

Ever modern version of Windows comes with a built-in screenshot utility called the Snipping Tool. With it, you can snap quick screenshots of the entire screen, individual windows, square regions, or freeform selections.

Just open the Start menu and search for “snipping” to start using it. It’s much more useful than pasting into Paint, and you can pin it to your Taskbar for easy access.

If you’re on Windows 10, you can instead use the newer Snip & Sketch utility. This is largely similar to the Snipping Tool, but has a few extra features. Most notably, you can press Win + Shift + S to open the screenshot utility from anywhere.

2. Install a Third-Party Screenshot App

While Windows has several screenshot methods built-in, third-party options offer far more control and customization. All you have to do is install one of the best screenshot tools and change its keyboard shortcut to whatever you want.

Most allow you to set different shortcuts for the various kinds of screenshots. For example, you might have Ctrl + Shift + 3 for a full-screen screenshot and Ctrl + Shift + 4 to take a screenshot of the current window.

Once you’ve captured your screenshot, most screenshot editors have great editors that allow you to add arrows, obfuscation, and a lot more. You won’t ever have to edit a screenshot in Paint again.

3. Remap Another Key to Print Screen

There are certain tools you can use, such as SharpKeys, to remap keys in Windows. Using them, you can change a button on your keyboard that you never use—like Power or Media Play—into a makeshift Print Screen key.

While this can work if you really want a dedicated key for capturing screenshots, it’s not a great idea in most cases. You should be absolutely certain that you’ll never use the remapped key. Even then, the other methods mentioned here are more convenient and flexible.

4. Open the On-Screen Keyboard

One of the accessibility tools included in Windows is an on-screen keyboard. It’s useful for people who have trouble using a keyboard, or when you need to enter text but your keyboard isn’t working. However, you can also take advantage of it to access the Print Screen key.

To start, open the on-screen keyboard by typing on screen into the Start menu and launching the utility. This will open a keyboard inside a normal app window. Click the PrtScn key on the right side, and your system will respond just as if you’d pressed the Print Screen button on a real keyboard.

Who Needs Print Screen for Screenshots?

With these methods, you don’t need a Print Screen button to easily take screenshots in Windows. Using an alternate method is faster and more flexible than pasting into Paint, so give one of these a try and revamp your workflow!

For more help, find out the best ways to take screenshots that you can search through quickly.

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The 12 Best Custom Apple Watch Faces

On an Apple Watch, the watch face is your main way to interact with the device. Along with the most important task—telling the time—it lets you view other data and even jump directly to apps using complications.

And just like on iOS devices, you have many ways to customize the Watch’s home screen. While some focus on providing as much data as possible, Apple includes several options with great visuals.

We’re highlighting some of the best Apple Watch faces that can help your device stand out.

How to Change Your Apple Watch Face

There are two different ways to add or change an Apple Watch face—on the watch itself or using the companion Watch app on your iPhone. On the iPhone’s Watch app, head to the Face Gallery section. Using an Apple Watch, Haptic Touch the screen and use the Digital Crown to scroll to the New section with a Plus.

Make sure to take a look at our complete look on how to customize your Apple Watch with watch faces for further instructions.

Cool Apple Watch Faces

For a slick look, these cool Apple Watch faces tell the time in style.

1. California

The California Dial—made up of half Roman and half Arabic numerals—has been a staple of high-end watches for decades. You can bring that elegance to an Apple Watch with the aptly named California face.

It lets you customize the numbers on the dial for the regular California style or other options, such as all Roman. There are a number of different colors to select from as well.

The full-screen face option on the Series 4 and Series 5 watch features two complication spots. There are four complications spots in the smaller circular face.

2. Timelapse

Another jaw-dropping face, Timelapse features a number of beautiful locations around the world. These include New York, Hong Kong, London, Paris, Shanghai, and Mack Lake in California.

Using the namesake photography technique, the landscape or cityscape will dynamically change depending on the time of day at your location. So even if you’ve never actually been to the locations, you can experience a bit of their beauty on your Apple Watch face.

The two complication slots are nicely situated and don’t distract from the face at all.

3. Astronomy

You can reach for the stars with the Astronomy face. There are three distinct faces to select from: a 3D model of the Earth, the Moon, or the solar system.

On the Earth face, you can see the real-time progression of the sun across the planet. And the face shows your exact location with a green dot on the map. On the Moon face, you’ll see its current phase. Finally, the solar system option shows the relative position of all the planets. There are two complication spots to customize.

Turn the Digital Crown on each face for a unique look back and forward on all three options. The Earth face will show the exact time of the sun over our planet and the Moon option will show the dates of the different phases. Finally, for the solar system, you can see the planets’ positioning in the far past or future.

4. Photos

Photos is the most customizable face available. You can select to view a photo album synced to your watch, recent memories, or 10 custom photos.

A new photo will appear each time you raise your wrist or tap on the screen. One of the best ways to customize this face is with a Live Photo from your iPhone or iPad. A Live Photo will automatically animate each time you view the Watch’s screen. So you’ll be able to see a second and a half of video from before and after the photo.

There are two complication spots available no matter what photo you select. You can also select to see the time on the top or bottom of the photo.

Cute Apple Watch Faces

Looking for something adorable? These cute Apple Watch faces fit the bill.

5. Mickey Mouse

Any fan of Disney is sure to love the Mickey Mouse watch face. You can select from the iconic Mickey Mouse or Minnie Mouse as the centerpiece of the face, and even have the option to customize the look of their clothes with many different color options.

There are three complication spots available. And trying touching the famous characters for a fun surprise—they’ll speak the time.

6. Numerals Duo

The Numerals Duo face is sure to turn heads. The face shows the large numbers of the time in a font specifically designed for the Apple Watch. This minimalist option doesn’t have any complication spots. But there’s a huge number of different color options to choose from and even three different styles of numbers.

7. Kaleidoscope

As you could probably guess by the name, Kaleidoscope takes its cues from the children’s toy. Along with the ability to select your own custom photo, there are 16 other images to select from.

The face uses a special algorithm to highlight different elements that change throughout the day. A full-screen version is available only on the Series 4 and Series 5 watch; there are also three alternative styles to select from. Plus, the circular faces have three complication slots to use. There are no complications on the full-screen version.

8. Color

Running the gamut of different hues, the Color face is made to match up perfectly with the official Apple Watch Sport bands. Series 4 owners can take advantage of a minimalist full-screen option without any complications. There’s also a circular and dial option that uses the selected color and has four complication slots.

As a unique customization option, you can also place a special monogram on all these options.

Beautiful Apple Watch Faces for the OLED Screen

Make the most of the stunning OLED display on your Apple Watch with these faces.

9. Solar

While the Solar face is definitely minimalistic, it’s also another beautiful choice. Taking into account your exact location and time, the face will show the position of the sun relative to the horizon. You can turn the Digital Crown to see the exact time of the sunrise, sunset, dawn, dusk, solar noon, and solar midnight.

The face will change color to represent the color of the sky throughout the day. Plus, there are two complication slots available.

If you find the complications useful, check out our list of the best Apple Watch complications.

10. Solar Dial

Another option taking inspiration from the sun, the Solar Dial features a 24-hour dial that moves opposite of the sun and shows the day and night. You can turn the Digital Crown to track the path of the sun throughout the day.

You can select from an analog or digital clock on the center of the face. There are four spots for complications.

11. Motion

If you’re looking for one of the best Apple Watch faces, it’s hard to go wrong with Motion. There are three different collections to select from: butterflies, flowers, or jellyfish. When you raise your wrist or tap the display to check the time, a different object from each collection will animate on the screen.

Apple has made sure to keep all three collections interesting and unique. There are 25 different species of butterflies and six jellyfish species that move in slow motion. But the flower option is the most impressive; it has nine different flowers that move from bud to bloom. The entire process was captured with thousands of time-lapse images.

Each of the collections has room for up to three complications.

12. Fire and Water

The Fire and Water face definitely shines on the larger screen of the Apple Watch Series 4 and Series 5. On those devices, the different elements will envelop the entire OLED screen.

Both the fire and water films were shot in a custom model to help them interact with the dial and act like they are truly contained in the watch face. The final result is stunning. You can select to see only one of the elements or a random selection of both.

A circular version of the face is also available for Series 4 and Series 5 wearers, as well as older versions of the watch. That doesn’t take up the entire screen, but has three complication slots. No complications are available on the full-screen edition.

Grab a Cool Band to Complement the Best Apple Watch Faces

Thanks to a wide variety of options, the Apple Watch faces offer a little something for every type of user. While there are many faces that focus on providing as much information as possible, other beautiful choices show off the crisp screen and processing power of the wearable device.

The perfect way to accompany a beautiful face is to add a fashionable band. Check out some great Apple Watch bands that won’t break the bank next.

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How to turn off work thoughts during your free time | Guy Winch

How to turn off work thoughts during your free time | Guy Winch

Feeling burned out? You may be spending too much time ruminating about your job, says psychologist Guy Winch. Learn how to stop worrying about tomorrow's tasks or stewing over office tensions with three simple techniques aimed at helping you truly relax and recharge after work.

Click the above link to download the TED talk.

Daily Crunch: Facebook acquires a cloud gaming startup

The Daily Crunch is TechCrunch’s roundup of our biggest and most important stories. If you’d like to get this delivered to your inbox every day at around 9am Pacific, you can subscribe here.

1. Facebook acquires Madrid-based cloud gaming startup PlayGiga

Facebook is building out its gaming business — earlier this year, the company added its Gaming hub to the main navigation menu. And last month, it agreed to buy Beat Games, developer of popular virtual reality title Beat Saber.

PlayGiga, meanwhile has been working with telcos to create streaming game technology for 5G. It also developed a gaming-as-a-service platform, using Intel’s Visual Cloud platform, that will enable telcos and communication service providers to offer streaming games to their customers.

2. TiVo merges with technology licensor Xperi in $3 billion deal

Earlier this year, TiVo said it was preparing to split itself into two — a product and IP business — in order to make itself more attractive to buyers. Today, the company announced those plans have been put on hold as it has instead merged with technology licensor Xperi Corporation, in a $3 billion deal.

3. Spotify prototypes Tastebuds to revive social music discovery

Tastebuds (discovered by reverse engineering master Jane Manchun Wong) is designed to let users explore the music taste profiles of their friends. It will live as a navigation option alongside your Library and Home/Browse sections.

4. Uber’s ride-hailing business hit with ban in Germany

In Germany, Uber’s ride-hailing business works exclusively with professional and licensed private-hire vehicle companies — so the court ban essentially outlaws Uber’s current model in the country.

5. Snackpass snags $21M to let you earn friends free takeout

Sending people Snackpass rewards became a new way to flirt or show gratitude at Yale. And through the Venmo-esque Snackpass social feed, users could keep up with a fresh form of gossip while discovering restaurants.

6. PayPal completes GoPay acquisition, allowing the payments platform to enter China

Though China’s payment market today is led by local players, including eWallet providers like AliPay and WeChat Pay, there’s room for PayPal to grow in a market where digital payments per year are counted in the trillions, not billions, of dollars.

7. Tesla’s record stock price shows its investment in energy storage is finally paying off

A little over a year after sparking a legal firestorm for musing that he would take Tesla private for $420, Elon Musk is probably glad he didn’t. (Extra Crunch membership required.)

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Anybody can now make HomeKit accessories

Apple has released an open-source version of the HomeKit Accessory Development Kit. You can now fork it on Github and play around with it to integrate smart home devices in the Home app and beyond.

Today’s news is related to the Connected Home over IP effort, an industry-wide effort to build an open-source standard for the internet of things. Essentially, Apple, Amazon, Google, the Zigbee Alliance and smart home manufacturers want to work together so that accessories work everywhere.

Amazon, Apple, Google and Zigbee join forces for an open smart home standard

HomeKit is lagging behind. While Apple arrived early in the connected home space. A ton of accessories now work with Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant, but you can control very few accessories with Siri as HomeKit adoption has been slow.

By open-sourcing HomeKit, Apple hopes that more smart home manufacturers will try to integrate HomeKit in their prototypes. Everything has been released under the Apache 2.0 license.

As Next INpact noticed, if you want to release a HomeKit-compatible accessory, you still have to work with Apple to get a certification. And of course, manufacturers that work with Apple directly could potentially access unreleased features before they’re unveiled at WWDC.

Developers have already reverse-engineered HomeKit to add HomeKit compatibility to more devices with the Homebridge project. Now let’s see if it leads to more cool projects to make it easier to control your connected objects from your iPhone, iPad and other Apple devices.

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Subscription-based social network MeWe launches premium features and a business product

MeWe, the subscription-based social network that emphasizes privacy and bills itself as the anti-Facebook, is launching a premium tier of its service and spinning up a business-focused product to take on enterprise networking and communication tools like Slack.

Founded by Mark Weinstein, a gregarious serial entrepreneur who credits himself with being an early developer of the social media concept, MeWe has amassed several million users in its drive to be the alternative to Facebook.

Launching after Ello, Weinstein says the challenges he witnessed that company going through provided some invaluable lessons for how he wanted to build out his own challenge to Facebook’s social media dominance.

“We were engineering when Ello had their shot at the moon and then crashed back to earth. They may have motivated 21 million people, but their servers couldn’t handle it, they were desktop only and the project was too soon,” Weinstein said. 

The company operates under a freemium model, where its newsfeed, custom camera, ephemeral content, 8 gigs of storage, life voice and video and custom stickers are all free. Businesses can pay for additional features for $1.99 per month.

“Social media wasn’t invented for surveillance capitalism,” says Weinstein. And while MeWe is relatively permissive when it comes to speech, Weinstein says it has rules around posting hate speech, inciting violence and bullying. That said, “we’re not going to censor you because you’re talking about a political view we do or don’t agree with.”

Alongside the premium MeWe product for social networking, the company is also launching a separate business line for enterprise collaboration.

Weinstein says there are already several thousand users on the enterprise toolkit, which is out of beta and includes end-to-end encrypted chat, integrations with Windows 360 and features for tagging, polls, a custom camera and voice and video conferencing embedded in its suite of services.

MeWe’s premium tier will cost $4.99 per month and the company’s professional service has a two-tiered approach, with a $3.99 and $7.99 price point.

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Google buys game developer Typhoon Studios

Google seems to be shopping for game studios as it courts consumer interest for its Stadia game-streaming platform, announcing Thursday that they had acquired Montreal-based Typhoon Studios.

The young studio with 26 employees hasn’t released its first title yet, after being founded nearly three years ago, but their upcoming game “Journey to the Savage Planet” will be released in late January. The title is being developed for “multiple platforms,” so for those looking forward to the title, it seems it will not be morphing into a Stadia exclusive at the last second.

A screenshot from the studio’s upcoming title

The studio will be joining a Stadia team in Canada led by former Ubisoft exec Sébastien Puel.

Google has been pretty vocal about its internal development efforts, including Stadia Studios led by former EA exec Jade Raymond. In an interview with Gamesindustry.biz, the exec detailed that Google was hoping to build out multiple first-party studios to release content on the platform.

“We have a plan that includes building out a few different first-party studios, and also building up the publishing org to ship exclusive content created by indie devs and other external partners,” Raymond told the publication.

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Facebook is building an operating system so it can ditch Android

Facebook doesn’t want its hardware like Oculus and Portal to be at the mercy of Google because they rely on its Android operating system. That’s why Facebook has tasked a co-author of Microsoft’s Windows NT named Mark Lucovsky with building the social network an operating system from scratch, according the The Information’s Alex Heath.

“We really want to make sure the next generation has space for us” says Facebook’s VP of hardware Andrew ‘Boz’ Bosworth. “We don’t think we can trust the marketplace or competitors to ensure that’s the case. And so we’re gonna do it ourselves.”

By moving to its own OS, Facebook could have more freedom to bake social interaction — and hopefully privacy — deeper into its devices. It could also prevent a disagreement between Google and Facebook from derailing the roadmaps of Oculus, Portal, or future gadgets. We’ve asked Facebook for more details on its homegrown operating system.

One added bonus of moving to a Facebook-owned operating system? It could make it tougher to force Facebook to spin out some of its acquisitions, especially if Facebook goes with Instagram branding for its future augmented reality glasses.

Facebook has always been sore about not owning an operating system and having to depend on the courtesy of some of its biggest rivals. Those include Apple, who’s CEO Tim Cook has repeatedly thrown jabs at Facebook and its chief Mark Zuckerberg over privacy and data collection. In a previous hedge against the power of the mobile operating systems, Facebook worked on a secret project codenamed Oxygen circa 2013 that would help it distribute Android apps from outside the Google Play store if necessary, Vox’s Kurt Wagner reported.

That said, its last attempt to wrestle more control of mobile away from the OS giants in 2013 went down in flames. The Facebook phone, built with HTC hardware, ran a forked version of Android and the Facebook Home user interface. But drowning the experience in friends’ photos and Messenger chat bubbles proved wildly unpopular and both the HTC First and Facebook Home were shelved.

Now Facebook is hoping to learn from past mistakes as it ramps up its hardware efforts with a new office for the team in Burlingame, 15 miles north of the company’s headquarters. The 70,000-square-foot space is designed to house roughly 4,000 employees.

Interested in potentially controlling more of the hardware stack, Facebook held acquisition talks with $4.5 billion market cap semiconductor company Cirrus Logic, which makes audio chips for Apple and more, The Information reports. That deal never happened, and it’s unclear how far the talks went given tech giants constantly keep their M&A teams open to discussions. But it shows how serious Facebook is taking hardware, even if Portal and Oculus sales have been slow to date.

That could start to change next year, though, as flagship virtual reality experiences hit the market. I got a press preview of the upcoming Medal Of Honor first-person shooter that will launch on the Oculus Quest in 2020. An hour of playing the World War 2 game flew by, and it was one of the first VR games that felt like you could enjoy it week after week rather than being just a tech demo. Medal Of Honor could prove to be the killer app that convinces gamers they have to get a Quest.

Facebook has also been working on hardware experiences for the enterprise. Facebook Workplace video calls can now run on Portal, with its smart camera auto-zooming to keep everyone in the board room in frame or focus on the action. The Information reports Facebook is also prototyping a VR videoconferencing system that Boz has been testing with his team.

The hardware initiatives meanwhile feed back into Facebook’s core ad business. It’s now using some data about what people do on their Oculus or Portal to target them with ads. From playing certain games to accessing kid-focused experiences to virtually teleporting to vacation destinations, there’s plenty of lucrative data for Facebook to potentially mine.

Facebook even wants to know what’s on our mind before we act on it. The Information reports that Facebook’s brain-computer interface hardware for controlling interfaces by employing sensors to recognize a word a user is thinking has been shrunk down. It’s gone from the size of a refridgerator to something hand-held but still far from ready for integration into a phone.

Selling Oculus headsets, Portal screens, and mind-readers might never generate the billions in profits Facebook earns from its efficient ads business. But they could ensure the social network isn’t locked out of the next waves of computing. Whether those are fully immersive like virtual reality, convenient complements to our phones like smart displays, or minimally-invasive sensors, Facebook wants them to be social. If it can bring your friends along to your new gadgets, Facebook will find some way to squeeze out revenue while keeing these devices from making us more isolated and less human.

Facebook is building brain-computer interfaces for typing and skin-hearing

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Facebook is building an operating system so it can ditch Android

Facebook doesn’t want its hardware like Oculus and Portal to be at the mercy of Google because they rely on its Android operating system. That’s why Facebook has tasked a co-author of Microsoft’s Windows NT named Mark Lucovsky with building the social network an operating system from scratch, according the The Information’s Alex Heath.

“We really want to make sure the next generation has space for us” says Facebook’s VP of hardware Andrew ‘Boz’ Bosworth. “We don’t think we can trust the marketplace or competitors to ensure that’s the case. And so we’re gonna do it ourselves.”

By moving to its own OS, Facebook could have more freedom to bake social interaction — and hopefully privacy — deeper into its devices. It could also prevent a disagreement between Google and Facebook from derailing the roadmaps of Oculus, Portal, or future gadgets. We’ve asked Facebook for more details on its homegrown operating system.

One added bonus of moving to a Facebook-owned operating system? It could make it tougher to force Facebook to spin out some of its acquisitions, especially if Facebook goes with Instagram branding for its future augmented reality glasses.

Facebook has always been sore about not owning an operating system and having to depend on the courtesy of some of its biggest rivals. Those include Apple, who’s CEO Tim Cook has repeatedly thrown jabs at Facebook and its chief Mark Zuckerberg over privacy and data collection. In a previous hedge against the power of the mobile operating systems, Facebook worked on a secret project codenamed Oxygen circa 2013 that would help it distribute Android apps from outside the Google Play store if necessary, Vox’s Kurt Wagner reported.

Now Facebook is ramping up its hardware efforts with a new office for the team in Burlingame, 15 miles north of the company’s headquarters. The 70,000-square-foot space is designed to house roughly 4,000 employees.

Interested in potentially controlling more of the hardware stack, Facebook held acquisition talks with $4.5 billion market cap semiconductor company Cirrus Logic, which makes audio chips for Apple and more, The Information reports. That deal never happened, and it’s unclear how far the talks went given tech giants constantly keep their M&A teams open to discussions. But it shows how serious Facebook is taking hardware, even if Portal and Oculus sales have been slow to date.

That could start to change next year, though, as flagship virtual reality experiences hit the market. I got a press preview of the upcoming Medal Of Honor first-person shooter that will launch on the Oculus Quest in 2020. An hour of playing the World War 2 game flew by, and it was one of the first VR games that felt like you could enjoy it week after week rather than being just a tech demo. Medal Of Honor could prove to be the killer app that convinces gamers they have to get a Quest.

Facebook has also been working on hardware experiences for the enterprise. Facebook Workplace video calls can now run on Portal, with its smart camera auto-zooming to keep everyone in the board room in frame or focus on the action. The Information reports Facebook is also prototyping a VR videoconferencing system that Boz has been testing with his team.

The hardware initiatives meanwhile feed back into Facebook’s core ad business. It’s now using some data about what people do on their Oculus or Portal to target them with ads. From playing certain games to accessing kid-focused experiences to virtually teleporting to vacation destinations, there’s plenty of lucrative data for Facebook to potentially mine.

Facebook even wants to know what’s on our mind before we act on it. The Information reports that Facebook’s brain-computer interface hardware for controlling interfaces by employing sensors to recognize a word a user is thinking has been shrunk down. It’s gone from the size of a refridgerator to something hand-held but still far from ready for integration into a phone.

Selling Oculus headsets, Portal screens, and mind-readers might never generate the billions in profits Facebook earns from its efficient ads business. But they could ensure the social network isn’t locked out of the next waves of computing. Whether those are fully immersive like virtual reality, convenient complements to our phones like smart displays, or minimally-invasive sensors, Facebook wants them to be social. If it can bring your friends along to your new gadgets, Facebook will find some way to squeeze out revenue while keeing these devices from making us more isolated and less human.

Facebook is building brain-computer interfaces for typing and skin-hearing

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Facebook is building an operating system so it can ditch Android

Facebook doesn’t want its hardware like Oculus and Portal to be at the mercy of Google because they rely on its Android operating system. That’s why Facebook has tasked a co-author of Microsoft’s Windows NT named Mark Lucovsky with building the social network an operating system from scratch, according the The Information’s Alex Heath.

“We really want to make sure the next generation has space for us” says Facebook’s VP of hardware Andrew ‘Boz’ Bosworth. “We don’t think we can trust the marketplace or competitors to ensure that’s the case. And so we’re gonna do it ourselves.”

By moving to its own OS, Facebook could have more freedom to bake social interaction — and hopefully privacy — deeper into its devices. It could also prevent a disagreement between Google and Facebook from derailing the roadmaps of Oculus, Portal, or future gadgets. We’ve asked Facebook for more details on its homegrown operating system.

One added bonus of moving to a Facebook-owned operating system? It could make it tougher to force Facebook to spin out some of its acquisitions, especially if Facebook goes with Instagram branding for its future augmented reality glasses.

Facebook has always been sore about not owning an operating system and having to depend on the courtesy of some of its biggest rivals. Those include Apple, who’s CEO Tim Cook has repeatedly thrown jabs at Facebook and its chief Mark Zuckerberg over privacy and data collection. In a previous hedge against the power of the mobile operating systems, Facebook worked on a secret project codenamed Oxygen circa 2013 that would help it distribute Android apps from outside the Google Play store if necessary, Vox’s Kurt Wagner reported.

Now Facebook is ramping up its hardware efforts with a new office for the team in Burlingame, 15 miles north of the company’s headquarters. The 70,000-square-foot space is designed to house roughly 4,000 employees.

Interested in potentially controlling more of the hardware stack, Facebook held acquisition talks with $4.5 billion market cap semiconductor company Cirrus Logic, which makes audio chips for Apple and more, The Information reports. That deal never happened, and it’s unclear how far the talks went given tech giants constantly keep their M&A teams open to discussions. But it shows how serious Facebook is taking hardware, even if Portal and Oculus sales have been slow to date.

That could start to change next year, though, as flagship virtual reality experiences hit the market. I got a press preview of the upcoming Medal Of Honor first-person shooter that will launch on the Oculus Quest in 2020. An hour of playing the World War 2 game flew by, and it was one of the first VR games that felt like you could enjoy it week after week rather than being just a tech demo. Medal Of Honor could prove to be the killer app that convinces gamers they have to get a Quest.

Facebook has also been working on hardware experiences for the enterprise. Facebook Workplace video calls can now run on Portal, with its smart camera auto-zooming to keep everyone in the board room in frame or focus on the action. The Information reports Facebook is also prototyping a VR videoconferencing system that Boz has been testing with his team.

The hardware initiatives meanwhile feed back into Facebook’s core ad business. It’s now using some data about what people do on their Oculus or Portal to target them with ads. From playing certain games to accessing kid-focused experiences to virtually teleporting to vacation destinations, there’s plenty of lucrative data for Facebook to potentially mine.

Facebook even wants to know what’s on our mind before we act on it. The Information reports that Facebook’s brain-computer interface hardware for controlling interfaces by employing sensors to recognize a word a user is thinking has been shrunk down. It’s gone from the size of a refridgerator to something hand-held but still far from ready for integration into a phone.

Selling Oculus headsets, Portal screens, and mind-readers might never generate the billions in profits Facebook earns from its efficient ads business. But they could ensure the social network isn’t locked out of the next waves of computing. Whether those are fully immersive like virtual reality, convenient complements to our phones like smart displays, or minimally-invasive sensors, Facebook wants them to be social. If it can bring your friends along to your new gadgets, Facebook will find some way to squeeze out revenue while keeing these devices from making us more isolated and less human.

Facebook is building brain-computer interfaces for typing and skin-hearing

Read Full Article