With social media, what's old is new again.
I'm Bridget Carey, and this is your CNET update.
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The AIM away message is making a comeback.
Facebook is testing away status messages.
Just like the ones that were part of our online lives in the nineties and early 2000's on AOL's instant messenger.
But Facebook isn't calling it an away message.
It's called the side bar status.
In the mobile app you can swipe left to see a list of the suns you interact with most.
And that's where the status messages will live.
Now just last week, Facebook unveiled Messenger.com.
As a standalone website for the private shot.
So if messenger.com becomes a desktop application, it's just another step closer to becoming more like AIM.
The Verge reports this is only being tested now in Taiwan and Australia.
But you better brush up on your away message skills just in case it expands.
I mean, picking the right quote or song lyric that may or may not be about a certain someone.
Was an art form to perfect.
At least this time your away message won't disappear if your mom picks up the home phone and kicks you off.
Yeah, I wonder how many people watching this right now even know what I'm talking about.
I feel so old.
LOL.
JK.
In other news, Jawbones has new fitness bands to track your activity, but before we get into the features, just know that the names of these products are a bit hard to follow.
In 2013, Jawbones released the Up24 band.
It then created the Up Three, and that's arriving next week.
And the company just announced the Up Two, but this summer, we're gonna have the Up.
four.
Yeah, let's hope jawbone can count your steps better than he can count gadgets.
Now, all the new trackers have no display.
You'll need to read your status on your iPhone or Android phone app.
These are not totally waterproof.
You can wear them in the shower, just don't go swimming.
The up three is $180.
It adds heart rate tracking with metal sensors on the inside, but it doesn't measure your heart rate during exercise, it's just resting heart rate.
It also can sense the electrical conductance of the skin, which could be used to track stress levels, but who knows how accurate that will be on your wrist.
Temperature and humidity affect those measurements.
The Up2 looks the same but trims $80 off the price, since it has no heart rate tracker.
Both the Up2 and 3 are only in the US for now.
This summer, Jawbone is coming out with the Up4.
It's just like the 3 but it has an NFC sensor, so you can use it to wirelessly pay at terminals, similar to Apple Pay.
But it's only for American.
Express cards.
That model is 200 dollars.
Jawbone and Apple Pay are not the only companies working on ways to pay with a flick of your wrist, MasterCard is currently testing payment bands in Canada, and similar payment wrist bands are being used by a bank in Spain.
That's your tech news update, head to CNET.com for more.
From our studies in New York, I'm Bridget Carey.
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