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Posts published in “Social Media”

Tiktok APK now Available for Download for Android Users

February 10, 2025

After US President Trump delayed the ban of TikTok for 75 days, the Chinese Social Media company now announced that the TikTok Android Package Kits (APK) is now available for download for Android users. Just head over to https://www.tiktok.com/download, to download the installer file.

The move is the prompted by the removal of the Tiktok app from the Android Play Store and Apple App Store, which is one of the things that US company needs to do when the TikTok ban law went into effect on Jan. 20, even though “President Trump has signed an executive order granting TikTok a 75-day extension to comply with a law that requires a sale or ban of the platform.”

To guide you on how to install an APK that is downloaded outside the Google Play Store, you can visit read Download apps to your Android device.

TikTok ban delayed in the U.S. for 75 days

January 23, 2025

After the surprise shutdown of Tiktok last weekend, the Chinese-owned social media received a much needed break when President Trump signed an executive order delaying the ban of TikTok for 75 days.

BBC news reports, “President Trump has signed an executive order granting TikTok a 75-day extension to comply with a law that requires a sale or ban of the platform.”

US President Donald Trump explained that in this 75-days extension, “the US will not enforce the law passed by Congress last year and signed by former President Joe Biden.” This will also allow its owner ByteDance until April 5, 2025 to find a solution to avoid an abrupt shutdown of their platform, TikTok. This deadline comes after the US Supreme Court upheld a law requiring ByteDance to divest its interest in TikTok by that date or face a nationwide ban.

ByteDance is currently exploring various options to comply with the law, including selling TikTok or spinning it off into a separate company. However, the company has also expressed concerns about the potential impact of a forced sale on TikTok’s users and employees.

If you can recall, it was during his first term in 2020, the US President Donald Trump issued an executive order to ban TikTok. He is currently attempting to evade a bipartisan law that went in effect this 19th of January.

This is how WhatsApp and Messenger will work with other messaging apps in the EU

September 9, 2024

Meta just release an update on how WhatsApp and Messenger will work with 3rd party messaging apps in Europe.

WhatsApp and Messenger are introducing new features to facilitate interoperability with 3rd party messaging apps in EU.

These features includes:

  • New notifications: Users will be informed about available third-party chats.
  • Simplified onboarding flow: Users can easily learn about and manage third-party chats.
  • Flexible inbox management: Users can choose to have third-party messages delivered to a separate folder or combined with their main inbox.
  • Rich messaging features: Users will have access to features like reactions, direct replies, typing indicators, and read receipts.

You can now leave comments on Instagram Stories

September 6, 2024

Instagram just announced that users can now leave a public comment on IG Stories. There is a caveat on who can and cannot leave a comment on IG Stories.

JM Chavaria, writing for Yugatech;

his addition enables a more public way to respond to Stories. Whereas the feature is either limited only to those who follow back each other, set to everyone, or disabled entirely.

While that is the case, as long as the Story is set to public and Story Comments is not disabled, everyone will be able to view the comments.

The social media company also published a short video on how the features works.

For users who wants to disable the features, you can do so by going to the Comments section of your STORIES then TURN OFF COMMENTING.

Instagram now allows you to add music to your profile

August 27, 2024

Instagram just added the “ADD MUSIC TO YOUR PROFILE” feature, an option that will give users the ability to add a 30-second portion of your favorite song.

To add music to your profile, you can go to EDIT PROFILE then go down to ADD MUSIC TO YOUR PROFILE section, from there you will be able to search for and select a track from the available licensed music on Instagram’s library which is also available for Reels or posts. Once you have selected your music, you can select which 30-second-long portion of the song you want to add. Once done, you will see the music that you added with the play button on your profile.

Instagram’s “ADD MUSIC TO YOUR PROFILE” feature is reminiscence of the early days of the social media networks where you can “hack” the CSS and even add music of your profile even if the feature is not available. This feature is not available to the web version of Instagram.

Why Eclipses Are Such a Big Deal?

April 8, 2024

Just hours earlier, the world had its first solar eclipse. This phenomenon is a natural occurrence where the moon occludes the sun’s light, casting a shadow that can be seen in parts of the world. In some areas, the sun completely blocks out the light, leaving only a halo of light called the corona. Other times, there’s a partial solar eclipse, leaving a crescent of light that evokes the mysterious.

Residents of Texas to Ohio and all the way up to Main will enjoy a full view of the total solar eclipse. The day completely turns dark as the moon and sun come together to become a celestial wonder.

Several videos on social media show the event. Luckily for those who see it in person, they will get to enjoy this and won’t see a total solar eclipse again for another 20 or more years.

But why are solar eclipses such a big deal? It’s mostly people’s appreciation of a cosmic event. It turns out some cultures in the world celebrate it for more than its rarity.

The Navajo tribe in North America view solar eclipses as a time of sacredness, rebirth, and renewal for the cosmic bodies. During this time, the Navajo people reflect quietly inside their homes. Some of them forego food, water, and all activities until the event is over.

For some religions, it’s either a bad omen or a good one. For the Hindu, the variety of beliefs surrounding eclipses result in different activities. Some Hindu either venerate the event, and some believe the eclipse brings negative energies.

It’s not only people and their traditions that change during a solar eclipse. Even animals have a change in behavior during an eclipse, especially if their environment is on the path of totality.

Studies that include anecdotal evidence have shown that the majority of the species of birds become quiet and stop feeding during the event. Other people have reported seeing increased activity from mosquitoes, and nocturnal animals come out of burrows to hunt. The same cannot be said for domesticated dogs and cats.

Whether you’re praying in a temple in India, or have flown to Dallas, or just staying at home with your pets, it’s always best to be safe. To truly appreciate the beauty of this cosmic union, make use of appropriate protective lenses.

New Instagram Feature to Urge Teens on Healthy App Usage

January 21, 2024

Instagram’s daily active users reach a whopping 2 billion people a month and it’s no surprise that Meta is rolling out an update to encourage people to use less of the app. While it may seem counterintuitive for the company to reduce app usage, this is part of their effort to make the popular social media platform less detrimental to its users.

In the new update, the Quiet Mode feature will give “nightime nudges” on Instagram Reels or on Direct messages when the app detects that it’s been active for ten minutes late at night. On their most recent blogpost under “Giving Teens and Parents More Ways to Manage Their Time on Our Apps” dated June 27, 2023, the post says:

Update on January 18, 2024 at 3:00AM PT:

Sleep is important, particularly for young people, so we’re launching new nighttime nudges that will show up when teens have spent more than 10 minutes on Instagram in places like Reels or Direct Messages late at night. They’ll remind teens that it’s late, and encourage them to close the app.

Most phones have built-in health and wellness features to reduce screen time and app usage. But this does not guarantee teens are putting their phones down. In a literature review done by Neza Stiglic and Russell M Viner, they found out that higher screen times are associated with obesity and depressive symptoms.

Not just for kids

The company also has made Quiet Mode available to adults. Meta’s approach to focusing on providing better experiences for its younger users also extends to adults. The feature turns on automatically for app users below an age threshold. For adults engaged in activities like driving or working, Quiet Mode shuts off all notifications. It also sends an automated reply in the Direct Messages.

If a person is in Quiet Mode, other users will be able to see it. The feature changes the activity status to let other users know that the person isn’t actively on Instagram. The feature may affect content creators’ ability to engage with their followers. However, users can turn off Quite Mode anytime in the app.

Instagram also packaged another feature with the recent update. Users can filter out certain topics or emojis to ensure a more streamlined app content experience.

In addition to the rollout, Instagram also updated Parental Controls, allowing parents to monitor the app usage of children. This update lets parents access account settings, including privacy settings. Parents will then be notified of any changes or updates that have been made by the user.

Tiktok updates app for Devices with Large Screens

December 19, 2023

Tiktok just announced that the company has updated the app, so users will have enhanced app experience for viewers using devices with large screens like tablets and foldable smartphones.

The company explained that viewers will now have a better experience watching Tiktok videos using large screen devices, since viewers will have clear video feed, streamlined navigation bars and support for both landscape or portrait view.

The update is a clear indication that not all viewers are using mobile phones to watch TikTok and there may be a growing number of users that uses tablets and foldable smartphones to watch and may be even created tiktok videos.

X is testing “Not A Bot” service in New Zealand and the Philippines

October 18, 2023

X, the service formerly known as Twitter, is testing a new subscription service for new and unverified accounts to sign up for a $1 annual subscription to be able to post & interact with other posts. The service will only not affect existing users.

The “Not A Bot” service was created to “successful efforts to reduce spam, manipulation of our platform and bot activity, while balancing platform accessibility with the small fee amount.” The company added that this service “is not a profit driver.”

In a support article, the company explained that “New users who opt out of subscribing will only be able to take “read only” actions, such as: Read posts, Watch videos, and Follow accounts.”

It’s unclear how this test will affect potential new users but for me, as a rule of thumb, if an online service have been free for a long time charging to use the said service will be a big no for me.

X users can now limit replies to verified accounts only

October 10, 2023

X, formerly known as twitter, just announced that it now has roll-out a feature that allows you to control you can reply to your posts. This feature will be available to your new and even old posts.

There are two ways to control who can reply/comment on your posts;
1. When composing your post, go to the EVERYONE CAN REPLY and the screen to set “WHO CAN REPLY?” will appear.

  1. For published posts, just click/tap on the (…) that’s on the right corner of the post and go to CHANGE WHO CAN REPLY.

The new feature is a good way to filter our users who does nothing but spam in the service and also limit those who can interact with you in X/twitter. For now, the features appears to be available to everyone using the service and won’t surprise me if in this will only be available to verified accounts.

It’s Official – Threads.net web version now available

August 27, 2023

As the the title goes, the web version of Threads.net is now available. The web/desktop version was already live last week, as reported by Yugatech but it was just today that it took effect here in Saudi Arabia.

This is the official announcement from Threads’ official account with addtional information on how to access or create your threads account and a features of the service in a post.

Post by @threads
View on Threads

Post by @threads
View on Threads

From my first hour in using the web app, it feels exactly like the app but since you have it on a separate tab on your browser, I find myself using the web version more than the app. It remains to be seen if it can surpass the daily and even the monthly active users of X/Twitter, now that the desktop web version is live.

Meta to launch a web version of Threads

August 22, 2023

Threads, the twitter-clone of Meta, will soon launch a web version of the service. As of this posting, when you go to Threads.net, you will just get a QR code that when scanned will direct you to your phone’s app store to download the Threads app.

The web version is planned to be launch “early this week” but this is not totally final and could still change. Threads’ web version, a much-requested feature that may be exactly what Meta needs for users engagement within the service. The web version of Threads is currently undergoing internal testing at Meta Platforms and the official rollout may happen as early as the end of the week (August 25, 2023).

A reply by Adam Mosseri to a comment, further confirmed that the company is indeed working on a web version of threads;

Post by @mosseri
View on Threads

Threads initially took the internet by storm and rapidly reached 100 million downloads, making it the fastest app to hit that milestone. However, user engagement has since declined, partly it’s believed due to the lack of a web version.

A web version of Threads is the next logical move by Meta to compete more effectively with platforms like X, formerly known as Twitter. It would be interesting to see whether these move will help Meta stop the ever-decreasing user engagement on Threads, which has gone done by approximately 85% since its peak shortly after launch.

Reactions to Potato Corner Job Posts

August 22, 2023

The reactions to Potato Corner job ads are gold!

Potato Corner may have been fast in deleting the job post and publishing a reply, this is the most appropriate way to handle this situation but as we all know the internet is much faster in reacting to the post and these are just a few of them.

In no particular order! 🙂












Meta launches Threads, a twitter clone powered by Instagram

July 6, 2023

It’s finally here, Meta has officially launched Threads, the company’s version of twitter and will compete not only with twitter but with Bluesky, another twitter rival backed by Jack Dorsey, who is the co-founder and former CEO of Twitter.

Threads will use your Instagram account for login and will support posting up to 500-character text, photos, and up to 5 minutes videos. Threads is available on iOS and Android in 100 countries, except in EU, since the company needs to iron out the local data privacy regulations.

To signup for Threads, users must have an Instagram account, where their username and verification status will carry over. Threads users can then customized their profile independently.

Under the hood, while it is currently using Instagram infrastructure, Threads will soon offer support for ActivityPub — the same decentralized social networking protocol used by Mastodon and other federated apps. Once ActivityPub takes effect, Threads will be able to widen its reach, as Mastodon’s ecosystem engages 1.7 million active users.

Meta timed the launched of Threads, specially now that Twitter have imposed a number of restrictions including rate-limit and limiting access of twitter account on TweetDeck to verified users only.

This is not the first time that Meta/Facebook tried to copy twitter, in the early days of Facebook, the company took inspiration from twitter the hashtag, verified accounts, Vine, followers and real-time conversation, among others. It’s still too early to know if Threads will be successful in taking the air out of twitter’s space but if the Elon-led twitter continue to implode, Thread may become the twitter replacement.

Twitter Blue now available in the Philippines

March 11, 2023

Twitter Blue, the company’s premium subscription service is now available in the Philippines. Twitter Blue is an opt-in, paid subscription that adds a blue checkmark to your account and offers early access to select and exclusive features, like Edit Tweet, 1080p video uploads, Reader, custom navigation, Bookmark Folders, Top Articles and more.

Twitter Blue offers two price plan; An annual plan of Php 383.33 per month, which will be billed annually, and a monthly plan of Php440 per month.

Since the first roll-out of Twitter Blue, impersonation have been a problem by Twitter, it’s unknown how will this affect the problem if fake news in the country, since anyone with enough money and motivation can have their account verified and spread fake news.

Source: Yugatech

Kris Aquino posted a heartfelt message for her mom’s 90th Birthday

January 26, 2023

Queen of All Media, Kris Quino, Kristina Bernadette Cojuangco Aquino in real life, took to social media in sending her message for the 90th birthday of Former President Cory Aquino.

In her 10-minute Instagram video, Kris shared how she copes with four autoimmune diseases, showing how challenging her medical situation has been and also explain the conditions she is dealing with, even though she believes her mother can see everything from heaven.

You can watch the full video below;

Warriors defeats Mavericks (126-117) in a come from behind win to to take Game 2 of the Western Conference Finals

May 21, 2022

Golden State Warriors secured their homecourt by taking game 2 of the Western Conference Finals. It was a classic third quarter game by the Warriors by erasing a 19-pt lead by the Mavs and reducing it to just 2-pts entering the 4th quarters.

The Golden State 3rd quarter run was fueled by Kevon Looney’s 20-points games, which also includes 12 rebounds and 2 assists. Otto Porter Jr. and Jordan Poole helped swing the momentum by contributing 11-points and 23-points, respectively.

Just like in game 1, all of Golden States’ starters scored double-digits points; Curry (32); Thompson (15); Wiggins (16); Looney (21); Porter Jr. (11) and Poole (23).

Compare to game 1; Mavs played a much better game getting a 42-points game from Luka Doncic and a 31-points contribution from Jalen Brunson. As a team, Mavs made 46.7% (21-45) of their shot from beyond the arc, but in the 3rd qtr, the team only made 2 of their 13-shot in the 3-point area.

Game 3 will in Dallas, where they’ve been playing great in the past two series.

Facebook is now back online and explains the reason for the outage

October 5, 2021

Facebook is now back, together with Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger. After more than 6 hours of being down, the social media giant explained that the cause of the outage is a “configuration changes on the backbone routers that coordinate network traffic between our data centers caused issues that interrupted this communication. This disruption to network traffic had a cascading effect on the way our data centers communicate, bringing our services to a halt.”

Facebook with Messenger, Instagram and Whatsapp went down last night leaving billions of users unable to communicate and unreachable, especially those who only exclusively use the services by the social media giant.

Mark Zuckerberg also posted an apology;

Facebook’s explanation did not provide much details on the outage, which to most of its users won’t even care about, as long as the service is back online.

Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp are down

October 5, 2021

If you’re Instagram, Facebook and Whatsapp are unresponsive on your smartphone, then it you are not the only one, since all three services are currently down and Facebook already release a statement on twitter that they are aware of the issue and working to restore all three services.

A quick visit on Facebook.com, rather than the usual newsfeed, you will be greeted by a “Sorry, something went wrong.” message. While Instagram and Whatsapp, will give you the same “5xx Server Error.”

Here are the screenshots when I visit the websites.

On downdetector.com, it indicates that Facebook.com have been down for more than 2 hours now and the website received more than 125,00 reports at one time.

It’s unclear how long will the service be down and what is the caused of the downtime. I guess, we just need to wait and see.

Sen. Manny Pacquiao retires from boxing, focuses on the coming 2022 National Election

September 29, 2021

In a two-word Facebook post, the 8-division world boxing champion, Sen. Manny Pacquiao announces his retirement from boxing and will focus on his Presidential bid for the coming 2022 National election.

The post also includes a 14-minutes video, showcasing high-lights of his boxing career. I embedded the facbeook post with the video below.

Manny Pacquiao previously accepted his nominations of the Pacquiao/Pimentel-led faction of PDP-Laban, for him to run for President in the coming 2022 Elections.

UP Diliman Executive Committee opposes the nomination of Atty. Harry Roque for a seat in the International Law Commission (ILC)

September 14, 2021

It looks like it’s not just regular people who do not want Spox. Harry Roque to be at the seat of International Law Commission (ILC) even his former employer, University of the Philippines, is against his nomination.

UP Diliman Executive Committee just released a statement opposing the nomination of Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque to be one of the 34 members of the International Law Commission (ILC), a UN body responsible for helping develop and codify international law.

In their statement, they state that “they oppose the nomination” of Atty. Harry Roque, a former UP Faculty member to the International Law Commission.

Committee added that “Atty. Harry Roque, has a very poor track record of promoting, defending and fulfilling human rights and the rule of law, especially during the administration of President Rodrigo R. Duterte.” They ended their statement saying “his inclusion in the Commission would not serve its purposes but instead diminish the reputation of the body.”

I embedded the official statement released by UP below;

The statement was release after Spoks. Harry Roque drew flak for berating a group of doctors during the online IATF meeting last Tuesday.

Instagram is testing a new feature called ‘Favorites,’ giving you more control over your IG Feed

September 14, 2021

Your Instagram feed will soon look like it got some advice from Marie Kondo, since it is currently testing an new feature called ‘Favorites,’ which give you more control and better organize your IG feed.

You will no longer have to scroll endlessly in order for you to checkout your friend’s foodgram or watch the latest ‘House of Highlights’ post, since you now designate an account as a “favorite’ which tells Instagram these are accounts that are more important to you.

Instagram tested a similar feature back in 2017, by limiting the people who can view each of your post.

According to Alessandro Paluzzi, a mobile developer, Favorites will allow you to let Instagram know which of the accounts that you follow is more important to you, so their posts will appear “higher” in your feed.



Accounts that you tag as your “Favorites” will by pass Instagram’s algorithm, so that you’ll be able to see them first rather than later.

Of course it’s still not clear if Instagram will make this feature official and rollout to all its users. I guess we just have to wait and see.

Source: The Verge

PDP-Laban Cusi-lead faction official announce its candidates for 2022 National Election

September 9, 2021

PDP-Laban faction lead by Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi has officially announced the party’s candidates for the upcoming 2022 National Election, headed by Sen. Bong Go for President and Pres. Rodrigo Duterte as his running mate for Vice President. PDP-Laban held their national convention in San Fernando, Pampanga, yesterday, September 8, 2021.

Even though Bong Go already decline the nomination, PDP-Laban officials said that the party will continue to convince him to run for the highest Government position in the country.

Contrary to Sen. Bong Go, President Rodrigo Duterte has accepted and approve his nomination to run for Vice President saying that he is running for “continuity” and his “love of country.”

Cusi’s PDP-Laban also named additional candidates for its senatorial lineup;

  • Silvestre Bello III – the current Labor Secretary
  • Salvador Panelo – Chief Presidential Legal Counsel
  • Lucy Torres-Gomez – currently the Representative for Leyte 4th District
  • Arthur Tugade – Transportation Secretary

Serving as “guest candidates” are;

  • Greco Belgica – is the Chairman for Presidential Anti-Corruption Commission (PACC)
  • Rodante Marcoleta – Representative for SAGIP Partylist
  • Harry Roque – the current Presidential Spokesperson
  • Mark Villar – is the Public Works Secretary

The other half of the PDP-Laban which is lead by Sen. Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III has yet to name their nominees, but we don’t need to wait long, since they are scheduled to have their own meeting later this month.

Source: Rappler

COVID-19 Update – Philippines recorded 22,415 new cases, a new daily high for confirmed COVID-19 cases

September 6, 2021
COVID-19 Update – Philippines recorded 22,415 new cases, a new daily high for confirmed COVID-19 cases

Department of Health (DOH) just log 22,415 new cases for covid-19 cases, a new daily high for the country; then added the 103 news deaths and there are 20,109 to recovered from the virus.

The report added that since the start of the pandemic, the Philippines have recorded a total of 2,103,331, with 159,633 active cases, a total 34,337 deaths and 1,909,361 recoveries.

The new daily high comes after IATF approves the new quarantine classifications and the lifting of travel ban for 10 countries, which will take effect on Sept. 8th and on Sept. 6th, respectively.

Twitter reacts to ABS-CBN Christmas ID 2020 – #IkawAngLiwanagAtLigaya

December 2, 2020
Twitter reacts to ABS-CBN Christmas ID 2020 – #IkawAngLiwanagAtLigaya


These are just a few of the twitter reactions, you can go here for more.

PBA to resume Philippine Cup games on Tuesday, November 3, 2020

October 31, 2020

After receiving the new protocols by the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID), PBA announce that games will resume Philippine Cup on Tuesday, November 3, 2020. Teams can resume practices tomorrow, Sunday, Nov. 1, and will release a revised schedule of games.

Here are the recommendations from the IATF:

  • Completion of 10-day isolation of Blackwater player from the date of swabbing before resuming the games.
  • Completion of 14-day quarantine and testing before entering the bubble for all those who will test positive moving forward; and
  • The appointment of an independent marshall, who shall oversee and ensure compliance with health and safety protocols, as recommended by the DILG.

The league will also have a separate temporary quarantine facility within the Clark Freeport Zone, as an additional safety measure and in coordination with the Clark Development Corporation (CDC).