Social

Tim Cook creates account on China’s popular microblogging service Weibo

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated March 5, 2017

During his current visit to Beijing to announce new environmental initiatives, Apple's chief executive Tim Cook has opened an account on Weibo, China's popular micro-blogging platform resembling Twitter.

The company's newly-announced environmental initiatives in China are the topic of Cook's first post. “Hello China! Happy to be back in Beijing, announcing innovative new environmental programs,” his Weibo post reads.

The message is accompanied by a Chinese translation. Cook's Weibo presence is verified and the account had nearly 400,000 followers at post time.

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Apple researching a new kind of social network for lifestyle-based groups

Christian Zibreg ∙ May 7, 2015

You know what would be really cool? Another social network, one built by Apple. No, I'm not referring to yet another Facebook clone nor am I ironically nodding at iTunes Ping.

An Apple patent application published Thursday by The United States Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO) envisions a new kind of social network for lifestyle-based social groups. It would be iOS-exclusive, in that it would tap into the wealth of app, device and sensor data in order to determine your interests and help connect you with like-minded people in the vicinity.

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Ditty: a third-party Facebook Messenger app that sings your chats

Lory Gil ∙ Updated April 30, 2018

It has only been a couple of days since Facebook announced that third-party app integration would be added to the social chat app. There are already dozens of GIF makers, custom avatar creators, and special sticker add-ons to bombard your friends and family with hilarity.

Ditty is a third-party Facebook Messenger app that turns what you write into music. Pick a song, type out your message, and watch it transform into a musical. The next time you want to cheer someone up, do it with a song set to your own, personalized lyrics.

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Meerkat lets you stream live video to Twitter

Lory Gil ∙ Updated April 30, 2018

During Apple’s Spring Forward event, you may have noticed a few tweets that started off with “|LIVE NOW|” followed by a hashtag for “meerkat” and a link. If you haven’t had a chance to experience it yet, the Twitter verse now has a way to live stream video content.

Meerkat is a video client that allows users to live stream video directly to their followers on Twitter. It is live. If you click on the link after the video has ended, you will miss out.

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Facebook Groups adds member search and three new admin features

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 30, 2018

Facebook's dedicated Groups app received a major refresh Thursday, bumping the groups-management mobile software to version 5.0 while enabling several new features for members and administrators.

Both group members and administrators can now search for other members in groups. Additionally, members can now manage notifications more easily.

Admins can now take advantage of a trio of new features for better management of their own groups, including the ability to block users requesting to join.

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Twitter’s ‘while you were away’ feature rolls out to all mobile users, due soon on the web

Christian Zibreg ∙ January 22, 2015

First revealed as part of Twitter's November 2014 platform update and formally announced on January 1, a new 'while you were away' feature is now officially available to all users of Twitter's mobile app for iOS and Android, appearing at the top of users’ timelines.

The micro-blogging startup explained in a blog post Wednesday that the feature surfaces a few of the best tweets “you probably wouldn’t have seen otherwise,” as determined by engagement and “other factors.”

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Facebook starts removing deliberate hoaxes from your News Feed

Christian Zibreg ∙ January 20, 2015

Facebook today announced it is (again) stepping up fight against spammers by making certain changes to cut down on the number of posts in the News Feed which file as deliberate hoaxes or misleading news stories.

These include click-bait headlines such as “Man sees dinosaur on hike in Utah” and scams offering users, say, a chance to “win a lifetime supply of coffee,” if only you'd be so kind as to follow the link, please.

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Facebook testing voice transcription feature in Messenger ahead of official rollout

Christian Zibreg ∙ January 18, 2015

Facebook has begun testing a new feature in its mobile Messenger software that can read transcripts of received voice messages in case you don't want to listen to them.

The company is currently testing the feature with a tiny subset of Messenger's more than 500 million users ahead of a forthcoming launch in the near future.

In addition to Messenger's voice transcription capability, the firm announced buying a successful boutique design firm which has created popular mobile applications and online services, including the read-later app Readability and the rising blogging platform Medium.

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Facebook adds AMBER Alerts to people’s News Feeds on mobile and the web

Christian Zibreg ∙ January 13, 2015

Facebook on Tuesday announced adding AMBER Alerts to both its mobile applications and the web interface in order to help find missing children in a more systematic way than before.

Realized through a partnership with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, the initiative will deliver AMBER Alerts, which include photographs and other details about the missing child, to people’s News Feeds in targeted search areas after a child has been abducted and the National Center has issued an alert, said the social networking behemoth.

Facebook is betting that the power of its network will help find the missing children and is encouraging users to share these alert with friends and link directly to the National Center’s missing child poster.

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The best Social Networking apps of 2014

Lory Gil ∙ Updated April 18, 2018

The whole social networking phenomenon has really gotten out of hand. There are so many ways to connect with others that it is nearly impossible to keep track. Luckily for you, we’ve done the tracking so you don’t have to.

Today’s list is for the best social networking apps to come out in 2014. The iDB team scoured the App Store to come up with the cream of the crop and nominated their favorites. Below is the winner of the vote, as well as the runner-ups and, of course, our all time favorite social networking app.

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DeviantArt app puts the world’s largest art gallery in your pocket

Lory Gil ∙ December 16, 2014

Even if you don’t visit the website or have your own account, you’ve probably heard of DeviantArt. Practically any pop culture image search will result in at least a few links to the website, which gets about 65 million unique hits per month. Imagine if 65 million people visited the Museum of Modern Art every month?

The DeviantArt app is the website’s official mobile app. Now, you can browse through the hundreds of millions of original works of art right on your iPhone screen using a specially designed interface to enhance your viewing experience.

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Facebook confirms Trending coming to iPhone soon, now available on the web and Android

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated October 14, 2018

Wednesday, the social networking giant Facebook announced that Trending is coming to iOS soon, with the Android app getting the feature today. Announced in January, the feature lets you discover timely and relevant conversations happening in the world in the form of stories from different sources.

The feature groups together only public posts and those that you are in the audience for such as updates from friends or groups that you belong to.

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