WebProNews

Tag: Features

  • Facebook May Not Let You Edit Article Headlines Anymore So That ‘Publishers’ Content Is Not Misrepresented’

    Though it’s not an entirely new phenomenon, headline skimming has most certainly increased in the social media era. Who the hell has time to read every article someone posts on Facebook? Most of the time, it’s sufficient to read the headline, check out the brief article preview description, look at the attached image and move on. Even if you aren’t trying to be a headline skimmer, your brain is going to pick up bits and pieces of what you see.

    And since many of us get the majority of our news from Facebook, this can be a problem. Especially considering Facebook lets you edit articles’ headlines and preview descriptions.

    Here’s what I’m talking about.

    Take this article from Business Insider with the headline “How Mark Zuckerberg helps his friend, the CEO of $10 billion Dropbox.” Other than the creepy photo of Zuck, not a real showstopper of a headline.

    Screen Shot 2015-07-14 at 2.51.22 PM

    Now, here’s what I can do with that article.

    Screen Shot 2015-07-14 at 2.52.38 PM

    Basically, Facebook lets people edit the headlines surrounding article links they post because Facebook is not always 100% accurate when it comes to auto-generating them. But if someone wants to pull something and misrepresent articles’ content, it’s that easy.

    That could all be changing, however. Facebook says it’s looking into changing this feature because its “automatic rendering tech” has improved over the years. Here’s what a spokesperson told The Huffington Post:

    We’ve improved our automatic rendering technology so that most of the time, the link sharing preview does generate a title and description that accurately reflect what people want to share. As a result, we’re considering changing this feature to better align with how people share links today and to help ensure that publishers’ content is not misrepresented.

    HuffPo points to a real-life example of this, when actor/comedian D.L. Hughley shared an article that had its headline altered. The original article, a HuffPo story titled “Bristol Palin Announces She’s Pregnant”, had been altered to read “Bristol Palin Announces She’s Pregnant By A Black Man”. This led to some really quality Facebook posts, as you can imagine.

    The feature allowing for headline editing is useful. Especially when you really want to share something but Facebook won’t display everything properly. But it does have the ability to be abused. Easily. Hopefully Facebook can find a way to solve the latter while keeping some of the editing functionality intact.

  • Go Enable Gmail’s ‘Undo Send’ Feature Right Now

    In what could be a lifesaver for many, Google has finally graduated a particularly helpful Gmail feature from Labs to primetime.

    Gmail on the web now has a formal “undo send” feature.

    So, you accidentally sent a racy email meant for your wife to your boss? Awkward. So, you just hit reply all and are about to let the whole office know how you feel about Jim? Yeah, Jim sucks. But you don’t want that email going to everyone.

    Or maybe you just made a typo. Either way, Being able to cancel an email’s departure is a very, very good thing.

    If you want to have the feature available to you, you’ll need to go turn it on in your settings:

    “‘Undo Send’ allows people using Gmail to cancel a sent mail if they have second thoughts immediately after sending. The feature is turned off by default for those not currently using the Labs version, and can be enabled from the General tab in Gmail settings,” says Google.

    You can choose a “cancelation period” of 5, 10, 20, or 30 seconds.

    undo-send

    If you’ve already been using the ‘Undo Send’ Gmail Labs version, it should keep working as such. Sometimes, it’s the small things.

    Image via Matt McGee, Flickr Creative Commons

  • Twitter Grabs More Control Over Your Timeline

    Recently, you may have seen some tweets in your Twitter timeline that confused you. Why? Because the tweets are coming from people that you don’t actively follow. This may have pissed you off, and if so, you wouldn’t be alone.

    If you fall into that camp, I have some bad news – it looks like this Twitter ‘test’ is here to stay.

    Over the past week or so, Twitter users began to see two types of largely unwanted tweets in their timelines. First, there’s the tweet from someone followed by someone you follow. A second-hand tweet, if you will. Second, there’s the tweet that’s been favorited by someone you follow, which is showing up just like a retweet in timelines.

    Here’s what the two new types of timeline filler look like:

    Thought to be a test, these new types of tweets in the timeline are likely permanent features. First spotted by Quartz, Twitter has added new language to its help page section What’s a Twitter timeline? that specifically allows for this new content in your feed.

    Here’s what Twitter has always said about timelines:

    When you sign in to Twitter, you’ll land on your home timeline.

    – Your home timeline displays a stream of Tweets from accounts you have chosen to follow on Twitter.
    – You may also see content such as promoted Tweets or Retweets in your timeline.
    – The newest updates are at the top. You can reply, Retweet, or favorite a Tweet from within the timeline.
    – Clicking anywhere on a Tweet in your timeline expands the Tweet, so you can see photos, videos, and other information related to that Tweet.

    And here’s what Twitter just added:

    Additionally, when we identify a Tweet, an account to follow, or other content that’s popular or relevant, we may add it to your timeline. This means you will sometimes see Tweets from accounts you don’t follow. We select each Tweet using a variety of signals, including how popular it is and how people in your network are interacting with it. Our goal is to make your home timeline even more relevant and interesting.

    The good news – it appears Twitter is only interested in unearthing “popular” content from accounts you don’t follow. Still, this doesn’t completely assuage fears that Twitter is going to expose your embarrassing favoriting spree.

    Say hello to the new Twitter timeline. It’s official.

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • Facebook Says It’s ‘Not Always Listening’ as Petition Against New Feature Nears 600,000 Signatures

    A lot of people, both Facebook users and otherwise, don’t really trust Facebook. So, when Facebook announced a new feature that can passively listen to users’ background activity in order to easily identify songs, TV shows, and movies for status-sharing purposes, it wasn’t surprising when it struck people as a bit creepy.

    Or as one petition put it, a “massive threat to our privacy.”

    Yes, May’s announcement (the actual feature goes live soon) ushered in a swift and ferocious response from those concerned about privacy. According to Facebook, users will always be in control of when the app is listening, and if/when they share what it hears with everyone else. Of course, the constant distrust of the company’s motivations led some users to focus on the nefarious ways Facebook could use that kind of technology.

    Would they listen to our conversations? Would they store all of that data? Would they sell it to the highest bidder?

    A petition was started, asking Facebook to respect user privacy and put the kibosh on plans to release the passive listening app feature. When we reported on the petition about a week ago, it had garnered a little over 200,000 signatures.

    As of today, it’s coming up on 600,000.

    “Facebook says the feature will be used for harmless things, like identifying the song or TV show playing in the background, but it actually has the ability to listen to everything — including your private conservations — and store it indefinitely,” says the petition. “Not only is this move just downright creepy, it’s also a massive threat to our privacy. This isn’t the first time Facebook has been criticized for breaching our right to privacy, and it’s hoping this feature will fly under the radar. No such luck for Facebook. If we act now, we can stop Facebook in its tracks before it has a chance to release the feature.”

    Facebook has now spoken out about users’ concerns, looking to quash the so-called “myths” that have taken root online.

    “The microphone doesn’t turn itself on, it will ask for permission. It’s not always listening…so it’s very limited in what it is sampling,” Facebook Security Infrastructure head Gregg Stefancik told CNET. “I wouldn’t want this in my pocket either if it was recording everything going on around me.”

    He went on to explain exactly what’s happening when Facebook “matches” an audio clip it hears with one in its database.

    “If there’s a match, we return what the match is to the user [and] give them the option of posting the match. The user is in complete control and the audio fingerprint that we’ve received is disposed of immediately. The raw audio never leaves the phone and the data about the match is only stored if you choose to post it,” he said.

    He did clarify that if Facebook matches a sound with a song or TV show and you chooses not to share it, Facebook will keep a tally of that match in order to “keep a chart of the most watched and listened to song and shows” – but it won’t be tied to your personal profile.

    Satisfied? If you signed that petition, I’m guessing the answer is no.

    Image via YouTube

  • Ultrabooks: The Next Generation Of Laptops

    The ultrabook, a new revolutionary laptop, has been released and they have all kinds of features for people to get excited over. There are plenty of brands and designs to choose from, and while a lot of it may be personal preference, each one is designed slightly different from the others. Some weigh more or less than others and the screens also vary in size for the different models.

    The ultrabook will soon be the latest technology trend and much like the new I-phone, everyone will want to get their hands on one. The one downside to the ultrabook is certainly the high price and everyone will not be able to afford these high-tech toys at first. For those people that have been following the release of the new laptop, many people have probably alreaday been steered away because of the high prices. Although, it is possible that they may go down in price soon.

    One company, Lenovo, has already released a model called the IdeaPad U430 Touch, that attempts to compete with other brands in price range. According to a feature in PC World, “if you think an Ultrabook is out of your price range, you haven’t seen Lenovo’s IdeaPad U430 Touch.” Lenovo is a well-respected brand and will look to continue its success with this new model. The article continues to go on and talk about how the new U430 model also carries over many of the features that make their laptops so appealing, including a rigid but elegant all-aluminum enclosure and an exceptionally good, island-style, backlit keyboard. The Lenovo model runs for a low price of $700.00 and with a very long battery life of 6 hours and 38 minutes, it is also made to last. A couple of its downsides are having only one USB port and being a bit heavier than other models and for its size.

    With several models available, it is important for viewers to make an informed decision when buying a new and expensive product. The HP Spectre 13 also seems to be a very attractive model and its features are thoroughly explained in an article from CNET. The HP Spectre comes in both the ultrabook design as well as the detachable hybrid version. The high tech laptop features Beats Audio speakers, and they each feature a 1,920×1,080-pixel-resolution IPS screen. Each device features dual USB 2.0 ports and a full-size HDMI port. The ultrabook additionally includes a full-size SD card slot, and a mini DisplayPort. However, physically, the Ultrabook differs in one major way, featuring an extra wide touch pad that allows users to use certain Windows 8.1 gestures without touching the screen. This feature can come in very handy and save users the extra effort, when they are doing multiple things at once. The ultrabook version will run for $999.99, but a release date is not yet known for the product.

    There will be a number of new models available shortly and to check all of them against each other, visit PC Magazine’s web page for more info.

    Image via Youtube

  • Facebook Launches Shared Photo Albums for Your Weddings, Holidays, Vacations, and More

    With over 300 million photos uploaded every single day, Facebook calls itself the “most popular photo uploading service on the web.” Facebook isn’t the only service that can boast impressive photo data, however (services like Google+ and Flickr are still powerful players in the photo-hosting game). So today, they’re making a move to cater to their users who wish to do more with photos on Facebook.

    Starting today, Facebook is finally rolling out shared photo albums. As first noted by Mashable, Facebook’s new shared albums allow up to 50 different users who can each upload up to 200 photos to each shared album. Once someone creates a shared album, all they have to do is invite their friends to contribute.

    Privacy settings are similar to other content on Facebook – you can choose for the shared albums to be visible to the public, friends of the album’s contributors, or simply the contributors.

    Facebook had this to say in a statement:

    Hundreds of millions of photos are uploaded to Facebook each day and today, we’re making it even easier for friends to share photos with the rollout of Shared Photo Albums. Whether you’re at a wedding, birthday party, or fresh off of a trip, all your friends will be able to add photos, tag photos and edit just one album.

    “I think one thing that’s really fun about creating products at Facebook is that you’re never quite sure how people will use the product in the end,” product engineer Bob Baldwin told Mashable. “We’re really excited for launch because we think people will use [shared albums] in ways that we’re not even thinking of.”

    The implications here are pretty significant. Think big events where all of your friends can contribute to one giant photo album. Think weddings, vacations, holidays, and more.

    In the future, Facebook may even choose to increase photos-per-person limit. Some users will see the shared album feature starting today, and from there Facebook will roll it out to more English-speaking users. When that rollout is complete, it’ll go international.

    Image via Thinkstock

  • Famke Janssen’s Apartment Burgled

    Have we seen this feature film before? Famed movie starlet, Famke Janssen, alone in her home, fearful after something bizarre has happened to her? Well, unfortunately, it’s a creepy reality, yet again, for the 47-year-old, Dutch actress.

    Most recently, Janssen reportedly told police that just this past weekend, she came home to her New York City penthouse to find a children’s book entitled “The Lonely Doll” near her bed. The thing is there were no children there to read it to. No one had access to the home either.

    “Police say there were no signs of forced entry, and that nothing in the home had been disturbed or stolen. Authorities are still investigating the alleged break-in, as the ‘X-Men’ actress says the children’s book doesn’t belong there.”

    The children’s book Janssen found by her bed features a story about a little doll named “Edith.” She lives alone until “Mr. Bear” and “Little Bear” comes to stay. When Mr. Bear decides to leave for awhile, Edith and Little Bear are bit naughty when they decide go through Mr. Bear’s things, of course, while he is out. What’s really scary about book’s content, at least in Janssen’s perspective most likely is that when Mr. Bear gets home he taunts Edith and punishes her for being bad.

    In 2005, Janssen had to contend with this kind of thing before. A disturbed fan reportedly sent her strange items in the mail. She had to file a report with the police.
    “Janssen had to file a harassment report with police over a persistent super-fan who sent her menacing letters and photos,” according to a report.

    Facebook is seemingly abuzz with commentary about the actress’ plight. Martin Arrowsmith said he is concerned.

    “So creepy. Reminds me of the late night break-in’s the Manson Farm used to pull off,” he said.

    “Yikes.”

    http://youtu.be/Zbz3XqwUo4Q

  • Adobe Flash And AIR Updated With New Features

    Adobe Flash And AIR Updated With New Features

    Adobe Flash and AIR are nigh inseparable these days. Developers wanting to create high quality Flash games for mobile devices use AIR to take advantage of the same technologies, and each update brings a number of enhancements to the platform.

    Adobe announced in July that Flash and AIR had both been updated with a number of new features and enhancements that should help out developers wanting to get the most out of their Flash/AIR-developed games.

    The big addition to Flash and AIR this time around is support for the GameInput API. With this latest addition, Flash and AIR-based desktop apps can now support a variety of game controllers. Here’s what Adobe says about it:

    The GameInput API provides an interface for applications to communicate with the input devices attached to your platform. The API design makes it easy to add support for new controller types whenever you desire to do so.

    The GameInput API includes classes and methods to interface both at the device level as well as the control level. The API includes properties and methods for operations like retrieving values, enabling devices, sampling control values, among others. The API, however, does not provide mapping between the physical controls (for example, buttons) and their logical counterparts (for example, the DPAD right button or left trigger).

    Adobe notes that the GameInput API on Android only supports devices with Android 4.1 and above. There doesn’t appear to be similar restrictions on desktop applications. If you want to know more, check out Adobe’s exhaustive guide.

    Here are all the other new features added to Flash Player 11.8 and Air 3.8:

  • Stage3D baselineExtended profile
  • recursive stop on MovieClip
  • Support for large textures (extendedBaseline, 4096)
  • Rectangle texture
  • DatagramSocket
  • ServerSocket
  • Substitute a redirected URL from a source URLRequest for part of the URL in a new URLRequest
  • Twitter Asks You to ‘Welcome Back’ Previously Inactive Users in Order to Promote Engagement

    Twitter Asks You to ‘Welcome Back’ Previously Inactive Users in Order to Promote Engagement

    It looks like Twitter is making a small, non-intrusive push to promote more interaction between members of the service.

    Some users are seeing a new message appear atop their streams on Twitter.com. It notifies them that someone (a particular @person) is “back on Twitter.”

    “Welcome @person back to Twitter,” it reads. “You friend @person is back on Twitter. Mention them in a tweet to welcome them back.”

    Inside the prompt is a quick link to compose a tweet that mentions said @person.

    This appears to be a fairly new feature and was just spotted by Fred Wilson over on his AVC blog (via AllTwitter). It’s clear that Twitter is looking to help spur engagement between users, especially ones that they fear may be flirting toward the dark side (or have just come back from it). You know, that “inactive user” label. Any social network is going to be constantly waging a war against inactive users, but Twitter, specifically, has seen its share of troubles in that department.

    In December 2012, Twitter hit 200M monthly active users. But some reports have put the number of actual Twitter accounts at well over 500 million. Of course, some of this discrepancy can be attributed to duplicate, fake, and otherwise spam accounts. But some of it has to do with users who created an account, quit, and then never came back.

    It makes sense that Twitter would try to rope users back to becoming regular daily or monthly users, and tapping their pals to welcome them back and get them engaged seems like a good plan.

    It’s unclear exactly what prompts Twitter to feature an account in the “Welcome Back” message. It could be that the user tweeted again for the first time in a long time – or it could be that they reactivated a stagnant or deactivated account. We’ve reached out to Twitter for clarification and will update this article accordingly.

  • Facebook Makes Weekly Movie Nights Easier with New Repeat Event Option

    Facebook has just pushed an update to the site that makes creating repeat events easier by populating new events with all of the previously saved information and inviting all of the same guests for you.

    The new feature was announced by Facebook engineer Bob Baldwin.

    “I built a new feature for Events. You can now go to any past event you hosted or attended, and create a repeat event. It’ll copy the details into a new event (which you can preview and edit before posting) and invite your friends from the past event,” he says.

    The feature is now live, and available from the drop-down menu at the top-right corner of an event’s page. You had to have declared participation in the event in order to see the “create repeat event” option. Once you click it, a new event box pops up that’s already pre-filled out with all of the information from before. You can make small edits, of course – but it saves you from having to waste your precious time describing an event for a second, third, or Xth time.

    If you were the original creator of the event you’re trying to repeat, all of the people you previously invited will automatically be re-invited to the new event. You can create a repeat event for a friends’ event as well, but you’ll have to invite your own friends.

    This is a relatively small but helpful new feature that will help both pages and individuals alike. If you have a weekly, monthly, or yearly event, I bet you’ll use this feature every time from now on.

    [via AllFacebook]

  • Amazon Bolsters Parental Controls with FreeTime for Kindle Fire HD

    Attention parents: Amazon is hoping that a new update to the Kindle fire HD makes you feel more comfortable about leaving your children alone with the tablet.

    In the latest over-the-air update to hit the device, Amazon is introducing Kindle FreeTime, which “provides a dedicated space for kids to interact with books, movies, TV shows, apps, and games.”

    FreeTime allows parents to tailor their kids’ experience by hand-selecting what kinds of content they can access. Once a child is inside FreeTime, they can’t exit without a password. FreeTime also supports time limits, which allow parents to regulate the amount of content the kids can take in on any given day.

    Also in FreeTime: Multiple profile functionality. This way, parents can set up separate account for each of their children – because you obviously don’t want the same restrictions for a 5-year-old and a 12-year-old.

    Amazon tells developers that they don’t need to do anything special to be included in the kid-friendly apps:

    “As a developer, you don’t need to do anything to participate in Kindle FreeTime other than build great products. Simply by including them in the Amazon Mobile App Distribution Program, your apps will be available for parents to include in their children’s personalized experience,” says Amazon.

    Back in May, Amazon updated the Kindle Fire to give it some rudimentary parental controls. Parents could disable certain types of content, or block the Silk browser altogether. It also allowed for them to password-protect their purchases. FreeTime looks like it gives parents more specific control over the content by taking an opt-in approach.

  • Shazam App to Expand TV Identification

    Shazam App to Expand TV Identification

    Shazam, the makers of the popular smartphone app of the same name that allows users to identify a song from a short sample, today announced that it now has 250 million users worldwide.

    Shazam also announced an expansion of its “Shazam for TV” feature, which allows users to identify TV shows the same way the app allows music identification. The expanded feature now supports any U.S. TV channel, 24 hours a day. Identifying a show will allow users to see cast details, photos, music from the show, trivia, tweets, and additional links. Users can also, of course, share the show to Facebook or Twitter.

    “With more than a quarter of a billion people who have used Shazam worldwide, no other app has our scale when it comes to offering the opportunity to engage with the media that interests them the most, whether it’s music or television,” said Andrew Fisher, Shazam CEO. “And now, that experience is even better than before, enabling people in the US to engage with any show at any time,”

    Different TV shows may have different results from Shazam. For example, a sporting event will include stats, scores and schedules.

    “Over the last year, Shazam has been testing and learning what works by building dozens of custom interactive second-screen experiences for select television shows and events like the Olympics on NBC, American Idol, the Grammys, and the Super Bowl, as well as other live and scripted programming across sports, reality, dramas, comedy and awards shows,” said Doug Garland, chief revenue officer at Shazam. “We’ve applied what we’ve learned to our newly expanded service, and will continue to work closely with our network partners and show producers to build special, unique second-screen experiences for their tent-pole television events and many of the most popular shows on TV.”

    Greater social media integration is now a part of Shazam as well. Users who use the “Shazam Friends” feature will be able to see their Facebook friends’ tags and tag their own content to their own Facebook Timeline. Sharing via Twitter and Google+ is also available.

  • Facebook To Spread Organ Donor Initiative to Asia

    It looks like South Korea will be the first Asian country that Facebook will tap in their ongoing organ donation awareness initiative. South Korean news site Yonhap is reporting that Facebook is planning to allow users in the country to display their organ donor status by Wednesday. Apparently, Facebook worked with the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to facilitate this launch.

    Facebook first launched the organ donor awareness initiative back in May. Participating is simple, really. All you have to do is go to your Timeline, add a new life event, select the health and wellness category, and then choose “Organ Donor.” There, you can add the state, date, and back story surrounding your decision to become a donor. There’s also a link to officially register to be an organ donor right on the event box, if you’ve yet to do it.

    To Facebook, it’s all about spreading the word. What better way to show that becoming an organ donor is a smart and popular decision than to make it commonplace across a network of nearly 1 billion users?

    “More than 114,000 people in the United States, and millions more around the globe, are waiting for the heart, kidney or liver transplant that will save their lives. Many of those people – an average of 18 people per day – will die waiting, because there simply aren’t enough organ donors to meet the need. Medical experts believe that broader awareness about organ donation could go a long way toward solving this crisis,” says Facebook.

    The ability to broadcast your organ donor status on your Timeline first launched in the U.S. It’s now available in Australia, Brazil, Colombia, Denmark, Ireland, the Netherlands, New Zealand, South Africa, Sweden, and the UK.

    [Yonhap via The Next Web]

  • Netflix Solves an Ultimate First World Problem with New “Post-Play” Feature

    Netflix Solves an Ultimate First World Problem with New “Post-Play” Feature

    I (and you as well) should probably blame our sloth, impatience, and general inability to say no to anything on Netflix Instant. I’m so used to watching TV series in marathon blocks of 5, 6, 7, and even 10+ episodes in a row that watching a new series week-to-week nowadays is brutal, brutal torture. Sometimes, I’m even tempted to let episodes of Breaking Bad pile up on the DVR just so that I can watch them in one, glorious block. I don’t do that, of course, because I’m not superhuman. But sometimes I want to.

    People who love nothing more than a good dozen-episode marathon of a great TV show: Netflix is thinking of you. Today, they’ve announced a new “Post Play” feature that makes it even easier to watch the next episode of whatever you’re watching.

    With Post Play, Netflix will minimize the credits as soon as the episode it over. They’ll be sent to the top left-hand corner of the screen in a small PIP box. They’ll also cue up the next episode for you. You can click on it immediately or wait 15 seconds, at which time it will begin on its own. It’s a time saver, and a solution to an ultimate first world problem.

    Post Play also work with movies, as Netflix will now cue up three recommendations of movies you may want to watch next.

    Netflix says that Post Play should be available online and on the PS3 today. Support on other devices, like the Xbox 360, is coming soon.

  • Facebook Will Soon Let You Save Posts on Your News Feed for Later

    Although it’s unclear whether or not any of your friends actually post anything on Facebook that you would feel compelled to revisit later (my friends simply aren’t that witty or informative), you’re about to get the ability to do so.

    Facebook is unveiling a “save for later” feature that will allow users to easily save their friends’ posts for later viewing. The saved posts will populate a “Saved Stories” tab, which will basically show up as one big news feed of all your chosen posts.

    If this function sounds familiar, it’s because it sounds a lot like starred tweets on Twitter.

    “Saved Stories” are currently begin spotted on both mobile and desktop.

    iMore first spotted the feature on Facebook for iOS. As you can see, an info box pops up to tell users about the new feature. “Press and hold anywhere on a story to save it for later. Click saved in you Favorites when you’re ready to view it. (Saved Stories are private”

    The Verge has also grabbed a screencap of the feature in action on desktop. As you can see, the “save” button appears at the bottom of a post next to like, comment, and share.

    We don’t see the save feature on either mobile of desktop yet, but we have reached out to Facebook regarding Saved Stories. We’ll keep you apprised.

    UPDATE: Facebook has confirmed to us that they are “currently testing the ability to save news feed stories with a small percentage of users.” They say they have nothing more to share at this time.

  • Facebook Pushes The Still-Optional Timeline In Chat

    Is everybody enjoying Facebook Timeline? No regrets? Have you even switched your old profile page over to Timeline?

    Despite saying months ago that the Timeline would soon become mandatory for all users, Facebook has yet to pull the trigger and force users to adopt the still-controversial feature. Although my informal poll of friends suggests that a majority of people have switched voluntarily, there are still a few holdouts who, through laziness or stubbornness, still rock the old school profile.

    Nevertheless, Facebook has begun to direct users to their friends’ Timelines in a new way. Now, you’ll see a new icon next to a friend’s name in your chat list on the right-hand side. It’ll appear when you hover over the name. It simply says “Go to ______’s Timeline.”

    Simple enough. And it’s just another way to get people to make a habit out of frequenting Timelines. It looks like Facebook is making a point that not everything happens within the confines of the News Feed.

    This isn’t the only recent feature that Facebook has added to promote TImeline. Last week, they unveiled business card-like Timeline hovercards that appear when you hover over a friend’s name on the News Feed.

    So, with all of this recent emphasis on directing users toward Timelines, is Facebook ever going to be ready to make it mandatory?

    Way back in January, Facebook said that everyone would be getting Timeline within “the next few weeks.” At that time, users could optionally make the switch, then take seven days to make sure they got their information straight before making it live. The decision was (and still is) optional, but final. Once you go Timeline, you can never go back.

    Then, in March, Facebook forced brand pages to switch over to Timeline (after giving them a month to prepare). But this mandate just covered pages, not user profiles.

    Now, as we near July, holdouts can still enjoy their old Facebook profiles. In terms of this new icon in chat and these holdouts, it will still say “Go to _____’s Timeline,” but it will take you to their old profile.

    There’s still a significant backlash against the Timeline from some users. Some are concerned about privacy, some don’t like the design. Other, naturally, are just pissed about any Facebook change so they have to be pissed about Timeline too.

    Let’s just say that enough people dislike the Timeline for “remove Timeline” and “go back to old profile” scams to continue to thrive.

    In the end, though, most users already have Timeline and many have no problem with it. Some (gasp) actually love it. And with every new feature Facebook unveils that showcases the Timeline, you have to think that Facebook is inching closer to forcing everyone to make the switch.

  • Careless? Poor Speller? Drunk? Facebook Is Rolling Out Comment Editing [UPDATE]

    Facebook is in the process of giving a gift to the clumsy, hurried, and drunk. Over the next few days, the company will roll out full comment editing to all users.

    For a little while, Facebook has allowed users to edit comments within a few seconds of posting. So, if you spotted that typo quickly you could save yourself some embarrassment. Now, users will have unlimited time to make changes to comments, which means that Facebook will open up your entire comment history for editing.

    Apparently, this new feature is slowly rolling out to users, so most people probably only see a “delete” option next to comments. I’m lucky enough to be one of the early recipients:

    Facebook comment editing

    And you can press Esc to cancel at any time:

    It should be noted that users are still unable to edit original posts – only add a location, redate, and delete them.

    Comment editors shouldn’t think they can abuse this system, you know, if they happened to get a little tipsy and mouth off to someone. Sure, you will be able to edit your comments, but there will now exist an “Edit History” that allows users to look back at the journey a specific comment has made – correction by correction.

    As of now, users cannot edit comments made in Facebook’s comment widget on sites and there’s no editing function showing up for me on mobile. I’ve contacted Facebook about comment editing coming to these two formats and will let you know when I hear back.

    UPDATE: About that, Facebook told me that “comment editing is not available for the plugin but we’ll consider it for the future.”

    But for now, enjoy the fact that your commenting missteps, however terrible, will no longer be permanent. Always on record, sure, but forever correctible.

  • Twitter Cuts Out Replies From Verified Accounts’ Timelines

    One of the most endearing qualities a celebrity, brand, or otherwise verified Twitter account can have is user engagement. Sure, it’s interesting to follow them for the humor, the information, or the insight into their day-to-day lives. But if Twitter account is enough of a BFD to be verified, and they still take the time to respond to the little man – well, they’re special.

    This is naturally very exciting for whoever gets the replies. But for everyone else, a celeb’s Twitter feed may become flooded by @ replies, making it unable for you to browse through their actual tweets.

    That problem is now a thing of the past, as Twitter has just announced that verified accounts are now available with or without replies.

    The verified account will be set to “No replies” by default, which means you won’t see any @ replies tweeted by the account. You can easily click over to “All” if you want to see their conversations along with their original tweets.

    From the Twitter blog:

    This simplified profile, which we’re rolling out to verified accounts over the coming weeks, makes it easier to understand what kind of content the user shares on Twitter, and what Tweets you’ll see if you follow them. (Remember that replies on Twitter begin with an @username and are only seen by people who follow both the Tweet author and the @username at the beginning of the Tweet.)

    Of course, this new feature won’t really change anything for the pages of celebs and brands that don’t make a habit of dishing out replies. But for some high-profile Twitter users, copious replies are the norm. For those users, this will most likely prove to be a great new feature.

  • Facebook Tests Paid “Highlighting” Of Users’ Posts

    We already know that world of Facebook in some way mirrors the offline world – especially for kids. On Facebook, you can still get that daily dose of embarrassment, rejection, isolation, and inane bickering that has been a part of offline life for hundreds of years. Now, Facebook is testing a new feature that would make it conform to another standard truism of high school clique-dom: The one that says the rich kids are usually more popular.

    The feature is called “Highlight,” and it allows users to highlight “important posts” in order to make sure more friends see it.

    Although similar in functionality to Facebook’s Sponsored Stories program for brands (where companies can pay to promote already-existing stories for increased visibility), the new Highlight feature isn’t for brand pages – it’s for you, the average user. Not seeing enough likes on one of your witty statuses? Highlight it. Have an important announcement to make and want the right people to comment on it? Highlight it. Fishing for compliments through copious amounts of vaguebooking? Highlight that sucker.

    Stuff first spotted the test, (which is currently going out to a small percentage of users in New Zealand). They said that users were being prompted with the box you see above to highlight statuses and photo uploads with a yellow background. Josh Constine at TechCrunch later said that the highlighted posts are not actually yellow-backed.

    Facebook’s statement?

    We’re constantly testing new features across the site. This particular test is simply to gauge people’s interest in this method of sharing with their friends.

    As you can see from the fun little credit card icons in the above image, “highlighting” your witty status probably won’t be free. Test users are seeing credit cards and PayPal as options for payment, but not Facebook credits. Apparently, there is a free version of Highlight floating around out there – which is allowing Facebook to gauge interest in the possible feature.

    From a business standpoint, Highlight is just another way to monetize Facebook. Does it play on people’s inherent narcissism? Sure. Is it rewarding the rich while taking from the poor? Absolutely! Could it be successful? Possibly.

    Let’s be honest, there could be a backlash. Although most users know that not all of their friends are seeing all of their posts (about 12%, in fact), people feel that when they update their status, they have just as much of a chance of getting seen as anyone else. Facebook’s algorithm shows you posts in your news feed based on who your best friends are and how much action those posts are getting (likes, comments, etc.). But when you post a cool status, in theory, it’s on the same level (at least at the beginning) as everyone else’s. Highlight throws fairness out the window in a way. Want to piss people off? Make them feel like they’re not getting a fair shake.

    But then again, enough of the Facebook population is self-absorbed enough to love this feature (I mean they’re on Facebook, right?). If you think a newly-engaged girl wouldn’t pay two bucks to make sure all of her girlfriends see that obligatory bling-ring photo, you’re crazy.

    So, what do you guys think? Let us know in the comments.

  • This iPhone 5 Will Self-Destruct In 3…2…1

    This iPhone 5 Will Self-Destruct In 3…2…1

    Speculation surrounding the upcoming iPhone (iPhone 5…6? New new iPhone?) is unsurprisingly furious. Rumors have been flying around about a liquidmetal body, a thinner touchscreen, and larger display, and even a redesigned home button. The newest feature that might grace the new iPhone blows all of those out of the water.

    Don’t worry about losing your next-gen device, because chances are, the thief won’t be able to enjoy it. In fact, they probably won’t even be able to unlock it.

    That’s because once they type the wrong passcode in three times, your new iPhone will self-destruct.

    Okay, no, not really. But this video courtesy Aatma Studio should give Apple some ideas about proper security. Forget “find my phone,” you’ll enjoy the piece of mind that somewhere, at any given moment, your trusty iCompanion is about to go all bank bag on someone. Wait – that’s the only way to make this better. Exploding dye.

    The iPhone cracks itself if siri perceives it as stolen. Before you go why siri why, self destruction is activated only if you have enabled the iphone unlock error security feature on the concept iPhone 5.

    After 3 strikes, Siri radio quickly does an iPhone data transfer to your iTunes; and goes onto decimate all your information on the phone. You are notified on iTunes, where the iPhone data recovery is now available only to you, as it should be.

    If you cant have the iphone, NO one can!

    Check it out below:

    As one YouTuber says, “Wow, imagine a drunk night at a bar? F*ck…I’d be pounding through iPhones.” That would be a concern – a forgetful rightful owner initiating self-destruct mode on their own iPhone. Then again, it might prevent an untold number of regrettable ex-girlfriend drunk texts.

    [Via All Things D]

  • Auxiliary Search? New Google Search Feature Spotted In The Wild

    Is Google about to make it easier for users to find relevant information without ever leaving the search page?

    Reddit user philosyche just spotted what looks like an experimental Google search feature in the wild. Considering it’s legit, the feature would continue Google’s push to provide more direct answers in search results, something that has far-reaching implications for websites around the world.

    The new feature throws relevant information about a query into the white space on the right side of the page. In this screenshot, you can see that a search for “The Beatles” shows a quick summary, along with information about some of their top songs and albums, as well as related searches.

    As you can see, there are plenty of links in this “auxiliary” (my word, not Google’s, obviously) search. The basic biographical info on the band comes from Wikipedia. There are links to specific songs and albums – possibly to Google Play? The related search links would obviously open up new Google searches.

    The reddit user who posted this screencap to the Google subreddit now says that this is gone from their search results. Could it be a rolling update? A search experiment?

    If so, will it only show up for a certain type of query like bands or films?

    As we told you last week, Google runs upwards of 20,000 different search experiments every year – only a fraction of which ever make it to real Google users. Matt Cutts recently said that in 2009, only 585 of these changes ever made it to prime time.

    A feature like this doesn’t seem strange at all, considering Google’s rumored strategy of providing users with more direct answers within search results. You know what I’m talking about – when you search something like “Easter 2012” or “The Dark Knight Rises release date,” here’s what you’l see at the top:

    Of course, this is all considering that the screencap is real. Personally, I don’t see anything like this when I search for The Beatles. Does anybody else see this new feature? Let us know in the comments.