Could social sharing through Google+ and the rise of the Android give Google Play an advantage over iTunes and Amazon? This infographic breaks down the online music market with a side-by-side comparison of the leading app stores.
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Privacy Groups Ask Facebook to Abort Proposed Changes to Privacy Policy (SocialTimes)
Online privacy groups Electronic Privacy Information Center and Center for Digital Democracy have written a letter to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg asking him to abandon proposed changes to the social network’s privacy policies. Users would no longer have the opportunity to vote on proposed changes and privacy practices for Facebook and Instagram would be combined.
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Joe Biden: ‘With All Due Respect, That’s a Bunch of Malarkey’ (The Huffington Post)
As Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan finished answering a question Thursday at the vice presidential debate about the Romney campaign’s critique of the Obama administration’s response to the attacks in Benghazi, Libya, vice president Joe Biden interjected, telling Ryan, “With all due respect, that’s a bunch of malarkey.” Twitter immediately went wild, with “malarkey,” — and variations of the word’s spelling — being mentioned nearly 30,000 times in one minute, and the Obama campaign leveraged the hashtag, buying advertisements for the Twitter search term “#malarkey.” Twitter Blog In total, 4 million tweets were sent about the debate, 3.5 million of which occurred during the 92 minutes of live action. Top tweets per minute were, Biden saying, “Now you’re Jack Kennedy?” (58,275 TPM); Ryan saying, “They got caught with their hand in the cookie jar turning Medicare into a piggy bank for Obamacare” (55,540 TPM); and Biden discussing the timeline for leaving Afghanistan (54,944 TPM). CNN.com When he wasn’t laughing, Biden sounded a like a belligerent old man; Ryan sipped from a cup and looked like a beleaguered altar boy. Fair or not, those were just two characterizations of Thursday’s vice presidential debate on Twitter, where a Greek chorus of jokesters kept up a witty commentary throughout the 90-minute event. VentureBeat The debate was aired before Xbox Live users, who were polled as they listened to the debate on the service on the Xbox 360 video game console. Biden was overwhelmingly viewed by swing voters as being more truthful, garnering 72.2 percent of the favor of undecided respondents. About 70.1 percent of undecided voters said they did not consider a candidate’s religion when deciding whom to vote for. Approximately 54 percent of undecided voters felt that Biden is better prepared to step in as president if needed, compared to 21 percent for Ryan. Lost Remote CNN is using social TV technology platform SnappyTV to allow viewers to clip and share their favorite moments via Facebook and Twitter from the debates in real time. Here’s an infographic from SnappyTV breaking down trending moments from the vice presidential debate.
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Apple’s Big Day: Everything You Need to Know (Mashable)
Wednesday was a big day for Apple. The company announced a new version of its iPhone, new iPods and a number of updates to iTunes and the next version of its mobile operating system, iOS 6. USA Today The latest and the sixth version of the phone — to be called iPhone 5 — is taller, thinner, faster and brighter, with new features installed seemingly as a response to stepped-up competitive pressures from Samsung, HTC and Nokia. With consumers increasingly turning to smartphones for photography and viewing videos, Apple’s most significant upgrade is the new four-inch screen that will make the device about half an inch taller than previous models. PC Magazine Apple spent a significant portion of its iPhone 5 keynote talking up its revised iPods. A lot has changed — even right down to the bundled earphones. Macworld The tech giant also announced the newest version of the company’s mobile operating system, iOS 6, will be available for users to download on Sept. 19. The update will be free and available for the iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, and iPhone 4S; the fourth-generation iPod touch; and the the second- and third-generation iPads. The Huffington Post Apple also revealed that iTunes is getting a major revamp. It will feature a grid user interface, users can change the order of upcoming tracks within a queue, and search has been upgraded with inline results: one click for information, double-click to play. SocialTimes While there aren’t a huge number of new social features, the iPhone 5 and the new iOS 6 operating system do incorporate a few updates that will make social media lovers happy. For starters, FaceTime now works over cellular networks. Additionally, iOS 6 features a shared photo stream, and you’ll be able to post to Facebook by voice using Siri. AllFacebook The newest smartphone and iTunes will feature Facebook integration as part of the company’s plan to deepen its ties with the social network via the iOS 6 software update. Apple executives fostered discussion of the highly anticipated iPhone 5 Wednesday, showing off how Facebook is deeply integrated into the system. Wired In the United States, the phone ships on AT&T, Verizon and Sprint on Sept. 21. The iPhone 5 will come in three storage sizes: 16GB, 32GB and 64GB, and will cost $200, $300, and $400, respectively, with a two-year contract. Read more
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The Best of Google I/O: Project Glass, Nexus 7 Tablet, Nexus Q Home Entertainment System, and More (Fast Company)
Google announced a slew of new products at its annual developer conference, including the long-awaited Nexus 7 tablet and Nexus Q (pictured left), a home media streamer for Android devices. Betabeat A black orb with a glowing blue stripe, the Nexus Q is not just pretty, it’s Apple-quality pretty. The Verge The Nexus Q is not intended to be a standalone device and requires one or more Android smartphones or tablets to provide access to Google Play content. Engadget Google announced it’s adding support for the purchase of movies on Google Play, as well as TV shows by episode or by season, and even magazines all available now. The New York Times On the underside of the Nexus Q is its most intriguing feature, a simple inscription: “Designed and Manufactured in the U.S.A.” The Verge The 7-inch Nexus 7 tablet will come pre-loaded with Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, Google’s latest operating system. Available in black or white, an 8GB version will be priced at $199, with 16GB for $249 this July. All Things D Building the Nexus 7 tablet was no easy task, says Asus chairman Jonney Shih. First off, Google gave the company only four months to build the product. Then there was the task of building a high-end tablet that could sell for just $200. Plus, he said, Google can be kind of demanding. Wired In Jelly Bean, Google has a proper Siri fighter, but she has no fancy name a la Siri or Samsung’s S Voice. In Jelly Bean, the voice assistant simply emerges with a tap of the microphone icon in the ever-present search box on Android’s home screens. Ars Technica There’s a big question that always looms large over the announcement of any new Android version: These features look nice and all, but will my device ever be upgraded? VentureBeat Stop the dadgum presses! Googler Louis Gray just told us about a new Google+ feature that you won’t read about anywhere else. The Next Web If there’s one thing this year’s Google I/O opening keynote will be remembered for, it’s the skydiving, biking and abseiling demo of Google Glass. If you missed the epic moment, here it is. GigaOm However, when you stand back from all the announcements made by Google and increase the periphery, you start to notice that this is a company that is fighting a lot of battles on many fronts. In some places it is winning, but most places it is trench warfare. Read more
Funny that the company once dubbed an ” iTunes killer” should announce a new social discovery app just as Apple pulls the plug on its own social network, Ping. Songbird first launched in 2006 as a Web browser and media player. Released on Tuesday, Songbird’s app combines personalized music suggestions with artist information pulled from around the Web.
Apple will be discontinuing the social music network Ping when the company releases the next iteration of iTunes, according to a report by AllThingsD. Launched in 2010, Ping was Apple’s answer to other digital music services like Spotify and Last.fm.
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Facebook Deepens WordPress Integration With New Plugin (AllFacebook)
Users of blogging platform WordPress can now take advantage of greater integration with Facebook following the social network’s release of a plugin that enables features such as social publishing and mentions. The plugin allows users of both platforms to cross-post their WordPress content to their timeline profiles and pages they manage, as well as to add the names of pages or friends to the posts. Tecca/Today in Tech If you updated Facebook’s newly released camera application for your iPhone or iPad recently, you may have noticed the app has changed names from “Camera” to “Camera•” and thought it was an error or the result of a glitch. If so, you’ll be happy to know that this is indeed the official Facebook photo application and its mysterious name change was entirely intentional. Wired Having barely started to hire his local team, Serkan Piantino, Facebook’s New York engineering boss is already talking smack about why no one would ever want to leave Gotham, and why Silicon Valley, where Facebook is headquartered, is a bit of a Snoozeville. “The reason people don’t want to be in Silicon Valley is because while it’s awesome for the tech community, [and] is so deep in terms of people thinking about technology, that’s all there is, right?” asked Piantino. “You don’t have the fashion industry, or the media industry or even finance. Those things make it so you get this variety of experience in New York that’s kind of lacking in Silicon Valley.” The Los Angeles Times Facebook is rebuffing claims that its advertisements are ineffective. The social networking company said research from comScore shows that 70 percent of ad campaigns will get advertisers a return three times what they put in, and in nearly half of all campaigns, Facebook ads get companies $5 for every $1. USA Today The study suggests that marketing on the world’s most populous online social network can help increase sales. The report released Tuesday found that people who were fans of Starbucks and Target, or friends of those fans, were more likely to buy something than those who were not fans. Read more
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Apple Brings Facebook Integration to Mobile and Desktop OS (Inside Facebook)
Apple announced Monday at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) that iOS 6 will be released in “the fall” and it will include Facebook integration and OSX Mountain Lion, which allows users to sign in once and easily post back to the social network. Similar to Apple’s Twitter integration, iOS 6 offers the “tap to post” option directly from iOS 6, and sharing from Photos, Safari, Maps and other applications. VentureBeat The Facebook integration, interestingly enough, even extends to iTunes and the App Store. In iOS 6, the App Store will feature Facebook “like” buttons, and users will be able to see which applications their friends like. PC Magazine Apple introduced a revamped Maps app for iOS 6 that ditches Google Maps in favor of an in-house offering developed in Cupertino, Calif. It will replace the Google Maps app that currently comes pre-installed on all iOS devices. ZDNET The long keynote by Apple execs was long on new products, the most impressive being the new MacBook Pro. The 15.4-inch retina display pushes the portable line into the high-performance realm, with powerful components packed in a MacBook Air thin frame. The Huffington Post Siri in iOS 6 will come with several new knowledge bases: Users will soon be able to ask their iPhones for sports scores, games’ scheduled start times, historical information about athletes, restaurant information and reservation availability, movie times and reviews and actor and actress and director filmographies. Apple’s strongest, most dazzling weapon in the war to differentiate its iPhone from all those other smartphones just received a fresh stockpile of ammunition. VentureBeat As a group, iOS developers scraped together a grand total of $2.5 billion between last year’s WWDC and Monday. The company announced that third-party developers for its platform had earned $5 billion to date — that’s double the $2.5 billion figure touted at last year’s event. Read more
Spotify has been hinting at big changes to its digital music service for months. Today, the company launched new features that are reminiscent of Pandora and iTunes, including a Playlist Radio and a Play Button that you can embed on your website or blog.
