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Facebook Shuts Down Creative Labs (cnet.com)

Posted by samzenpus on from the end-of-the-line dept.

An anonymous reader writes: Facebook has shut down Creative Labs and has pulled several apps developed there, namely Slingshot, Riff, and Rooms, from the app store. Creative labs was launched two years ago but few of the apps produced caught on with consumers. CNET reports: "Facebook is famous for its mantra 'Move fast and break things.' The company decided some of these initiatives had, in fact, failed to gain traction and is shutting them down. The move marks a turning point for Facebook's app ambitions as it focuses on other areas of innovation. It's still building artificial-intelligence technology, drones to beam Internet signals to far-flung parts of the world and virtual-reality goggles. The company has also been steadily adding features to its primary social-networking service, such as live streaming and 360-degree videos."

12 of 62 comments (clear)

  1. I read the headline and thought Sound Blaster by tepples · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Yet the other Creative Labs is still up.

    For a moment, I thought "I knew they bought Oculus, but I didn't know about Sound Blaster." Then I read the article.

    1. Re:I read the headline and thought Sound Blaster by mi · · Score: 3, Insightful

      You are old. So am I... Because I thought the same thing... That Samzenpus is such a youngster, that it did not even occur to him to mention the other Creative Labs, was a surprise...

      --
      In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
    2. Re:I read the headline and thought Sound Blaster by sconeu · · Score: 3, Funny

      <AOL> Me too! </AOL>

      --
      General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
    3. Re:I read the headline and thought Sound Blaster by TWX · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Yet the other Creative Labs is still up.

      For a moment, I thought "I knew they bought Oculus, but I didn't know about Sound Blaster." Then I read the article.

      Makes you wonder if they closed it in part as a response to a legal challenge over trademark...

      --
      Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
    4. Re: I read the headline and thought Sound Blaster by MMC+Monster · · Score: 2

      It's been a while since I had to buy a dedicated SB audio card, but I'm happy that they still exist, even if only for high end systems.

      How far has /. fallen that the 'editor' didn't think to at least clarify what is being discussed.

      --
      Help! I'm a slashdot refugee.
    5. Re:I read the headline and thought Sound Blaster by dottrap · · Score: 2

      They didn't buy Roland. They did buy E-mu.

    6. Re: I read the headline and thought Sound Blaster by Jon+Abbott · · Score: 2

      Lol. Same way things have always been, unless a 5 or 4 digit UID wants to show me how much of a whippersnapper I'm being?

      Get off my lawn!

      --
      Slashdot's first reaction to VMware
  2. Or perhaps... by Mogster · · Score: 2

    ... they got fed up with people asking when the next Sound Blaster was coming out http://creative.com/

    When I read the head line my first thought was - when did Facebook get into computer audio components?

    --
    ACK NAK RST
    1. Re:Or perhaps... by mrchaotica · · Score: 2

      My first thought was "it's about time they were put out of their misery; I haven't needed a separate sound card in 15 years!" My second thought was "wait, WTF does Facebook have to do with it?"

      --

      "[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz

  3. You will pry my Sound Blaster by iamacat · · Score: 2

    From my cold, dead hands!

    1. Re:You will pry my Sound Blaster by U2xhc2hkb3QgU3Vja3M · · Score: 2

      PC Speaker
      Covox Speech Thing
      Disney Sound Source
      IBM PC Jr. / Tandy 1000
      Creative Music System / Game Blaster
      Ad Lib
      Ad Lib Gold
      Sound Blaster
      Sound Blaster Pro
      Sound Blaster 16
      Sound Blaster AWE64
      Roland LAPC-1 / MT-32 / CM-32L / CM-64
      Gravis Ultrasound

      Everything else was pretty much Sound Blaster copies.

    2. Re:You will pry my Sound Blaster by Stele · · Score: 2

      Back in the era of the original IBM PC and its clones (I had a Sanyo MBC-550, which had upgraded graphics from the IBM and could do *8* colors at once, at 640x200, instead of just the usual 4), the PC speaker had to be pulsed directly by the CPU to make any noise. Pulse it at 440hz and you have middle A, etc. While it was making noise, the CPU couldn't do anything else. To make music or sound effects you kind of had to split up whatever sound you wanted so the CPU had a chance to "do stuff". There was a magazine for the Sanyo at the time where someone had written some assembler code (that you could call from BASIC) to make the CPU make any pitch for a specific duration. I wrote a sequencer based on that code that would call the function with .128s "pulses", leaving time to monitor for key-presses so you could change the pitch. Then I got an Amiga and everything changed!