Facebook

The number amounts to one-seventh of the Earth's population.

Monday's milestone was mostly symbolic for Facebook, which boasts nearly 1.5 billion users who log in at least once a month. But CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who founded the network in his Harvard dorm room 11 years ago, reflected on the occasion with a post.

"`I'm so proud of our community for the progress we've made," he wrote. "Our community stands for giving every person a voice, for promoting understanding and for including everyone in the opportunities of our modern world."

Direct Messenger for iOS is a Twitter-flavoured version of Facebook Messenger, allowing users to DM in peace without distractions from their timeline.

As this is not an official app from Twitter, there are a few compatibility issues since the microblogging giant imposes API restrictions on third-party developers.

Text pings back and forth just fine, but web users who receive animated emoji sent from the app will see only a static symbol, while images are converted into web links.

The Star Wars Facebook shared some really amazing fan art of everyone's future queen of the galaxy, Captain Phasma, played by the one and only Game of Thrones' Gwendoline Christie.

Let's face it, she is going to be a certified badass. Just look how she struts in her Elite Storm Trooper (Dark Trooper?) costume.

She's not your run of the mill hits-head-on-doors-and-misses-every-target-ever kind of Storm Trooper. No, no. She's Captain Phasma, damn it!

Shares of the San Francisco-based short messaging service fell 5.8 percent to close at $26, after trading as low as $25.92 during the day. Twitter went public in November 2013 at an initial public offering price of $26 per share.

The stock is down more than 30 percent since Twitter's July 28 earnings report, when it warned that boosting its user growth rate will take a long time.

Overlay colorful text on the photos you post? How about mark the end of a relationship without your 500 closest friends getting notified?

Many of these tips and tricks aren't well known, even to veterans of the 1.5 billion-strong people-connector and time-waster. Facebook is constantly updating its service, adding new features or tweaking old ones. A lot can slip through the cracks even if you are scrolling through your friends' updates several times a day.

Here are a few ways to enhance your Facebook experience:

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HOW DO YOU SAY THAT?

In May, Khanna released Marauder’s Map, a Chrome extension that used location data to show you exactly where your friends were. It was downloaded 85,000 times in three days, before Facebook asked him to disable it.

Facebook also disabled location sharing from desktops and subsequently updated Messenger for mobile, giving users the option to control their GPS data. Prior to that, the app had been sharing users’ locations by default since it launched in 2011.

The Dow Jones industrial average lost 5.41 points, less than 0.1 percent, to end at 17,745.98. The index had been down 110 points at the beginning of the day.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index closed effectively unchanged, up 0.06 of a point at 2,108.63. The Nasdaq composite rose 17.05 points, or 0.3 percent, to 5,128.78.

Several companies made big moves after reporting their quarterly results. This is the busiest week for corporate earnings, with 174 members of the S&P 500 reporting.

KEEPING SCORE: The Dow Jones industrial average lost 97 points, or 0.6 percent, to 17,654 as of 9:55 a.m. Eastern. The Standard & Poor's 500 index lost 12 points, or 0.6 percent, to 2,097 and the Nasdaq composite lost 34 points, or 0.7 percent, to 5,079.

In private meetings on Capitol Hill, industry officials have told lawmakers and congressional staff that they already ban grisly content like beheadings and alert law enforcement if they suspect someone might get hurt, as soon as they are aware of a threat.