Social

Facebook releases Mentions, new iPhone app you probably can’t use

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated November 28, 2017

The social networking behemoth, Facebook, today launched a brand new iPhone application: Mentions.

Although you can download it - the app is currently rolling out to the U.S. App Store as we speak - chances are you probably won't be able to use it.

That is, unless you're a verified public figure such as an actor, athlete, musician or other influencer, in which case Mentions is right for you.

In a nutshell, Mentions allows celebrities to see what fans are saying, engage in conversations with people and influencers who are talking about them, tell their own story by sharing updates, photos and videos - and even host live Q&As directly from their iPhone...

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Apple acquires location recommendation service Spotsetter

Cody Lee ∙ Updated July 22, 2014

Apple has quietly acquired location-based recommendation service 'Spotsetter,' according to TechCrunch. The site doesn't offer any specifics on the deal, but does note that it's hearing that investors in the company are "happy, so to speak."

The buyout is said to be mainly about acquiring Spotsetter's technology, and the talent of the two founders—one of which is an ex-Google Maps engineer. LinkedIn profiles show that the pair, and much of their team, are now working at Apple...

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Twitter to try the music thing again, this time by buying SoundCloud?

Christian Zibreg ∙ May 19, 2014

Twitter last month discontinued its poorly received Twitter #music app, but that doesn't mean the micro-blogging giant has given up on music.

According to a report Monday by Re/code, Twitter is considering a deal to buy Berlin-based SoundCloud, the increasingly popular service enthusiasts use to upload, record, promote and share their originally-created sounds.

With a rather cool iOS app available in the App Store and installed user base of over 250 million people (as of October 2013) who turn to SoundCloud to listen to music and audio for free, the service/app has a lot to offer but can it possibly make Twitter relevant in the music space?

Read on for the full reveal...

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Vine’s gorgeous web UI redesign includes search, curated sections, your feed and more

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated October 13, 2018

It must have been quite a while since you last gave Vine's web interface a visit, I take it? If so, I'm in the same boat as you. And rightfully so, as the spartan web interface only lets us see short Vine videos and get our embed codes.

Starting today, vine.co has become a lot more useful as the team rolls out what files as likely the most substantial facelift to Vine's web interface since the service's inception.

Not only does the new web UI allows users to browse popular and trending clips grouped in curated sections, they can also search Vine's database of content by person, tag or even location to find what they're looking for...

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Twitter testing mute feature in iOS app

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated February 28, 2018

We've all been there: someone - maybe your ex or your biggest fan - is stalking you on Twitter and populating your timeline with stuff you don't want to see.

Or worse, if you've made a few enemies along the way you can bet they'll take to Twitter to post crazy stuff about you on an everyday basis. If you only use Twitter's official app, right now you have two options at your disposal to deal with the situation.

You can either A) unfollow your ex and risk turning him or her into an enemy, or B) block an account that's been harassing you online. According to a new report, there will soon be a new way to stop receiving updates from accounts: the mute feature.

I know muting is currently available in third-party apps like Tweetbot so the newsworthy part here is that Twitter is finally testing this long overdue feature in its own iPhone and iPad app...

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Facebook unveils: Anonymous Login, ad network, mobile Like and much more

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated September 28, 2017

Facebook is holding its f8 developer conference in San Francisco today, with the CEO and co-founder Mark Zuckerberg having taken the stage to share a whole bunch of interesting feature and platform announcements meant to empower programmers to build more engaging apps and help take the platform to the next level.

The social networking behemoth has recently entered fitness-tracking space by acquiring the popular Moves app and now claims 1.3 billion monthly active users.

Although the figure eclipses Instagram, WhatsApp and Twitter monthly actives combined - Instagram crossed 200 million monthly users and WhatsApp has half a billion monthly actives - Facebook remains laser-focused on reducing friction when it comes to sharing data between apps, liking stuff on mobile, jumping between mobile apps and the web, serving more relevant advertising in way more places than before and more...

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Real-time web notifications go live on Twitter.com

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 10, 2014

Twitter is on a roll lately. After enabling photo tagging in mobile apps recently and introducing prettier user profile pages on the web yesterday (the design is reminiscent of Facebook profiles), the company Thursday started rolling out another new feature: real-time web notifications on Twitter.com.

That's right, those notifications you get from Twitter on your phone are now popping up in the web interface as well.

These in-browser alerts are optional and can be disabled for retweets, favorites, follows, replies, mentions and more. The notifications are actionable so you're able to reply, favorite, retweet and follow right from the alert. It's a staggered roll-out over the coming weeks so be patient if you don't yet see web notifications on Twitter.com...

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Facebook removing messaging feature from iOS app in favor of Messenger

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 26, 2018

Feeling chatty? Love Facebook? Good, get ready to embrace Facebook's polished Messenger app if you haven't already.

That's because the social networking giant is reportedly gearing up to kill chatting in its main iPhone and iPad application (available free in the App Store) and force users to download the nicely done Messenger software, also a free download.

The writing has been on the wall ever since Facebook revamped the Messenger app and rechristened the full-featured messaging tab in its mobile client as 'Messenger'. Instead of showing your messages, tapping that tab yanks you out of the Facebook app to launch Messenger...

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Twitterrific 5 for iOS enhanced with several usability improvements, bug fixes

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 10, 2014

If you've been reluctant to purchase Iconfactory's excellent Twitter client for iOS, Twitterrific, there's no longer any reason not to give it a whirl as the team last month took the freemium route by making the app free with ads.

Of course, in-app purchases are available to unlock specific advanced features such as push notifications, ad removal and tweet translation. Now available free in the App Store, the freshly updated Twitterrific version 5.7.1 brings out several improvements and bug fixes, detailed after the jump...

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Twitter rolls out revamped web profiles, coming to mobile in a few months

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 8, 2014

Micro-blogging service Twitter today started gradually rolling out redesigned profile pages on the web to its 241 million strong user base. The redesign looks much better than the old profile pages that weren't very functional.

You can now express yourself better by uploading a larger profile photo, customizing your header image, showing off your best tweets, pinning one of your tweets to the top of your page and more.

In addition to bigger photos and tweet positioning, other enhancements include filtered tweets and other goodies allowing your visitors and followers to learn everything you deem important about yourself...

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Persistent search bar and swiping improvements added to Vimeo’s iOS app

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 7, 2014

Back in February, the video sharing service Vimeo added support for the handy swiping gesture to its free iOS app.

You can swipe right to reveal options to share a video, like it or add it to your Watch Later list. Swiping left marks a video for download so it can be accessible on your device without an Internet connection.

Today's update, now available in the App Store, removes the Watch Later option when you swipe from left to right, leaving only sharing and liking options in the menu. But don't worry, Watch Later is now available when you swipe from right to left. As a bonus, the app now adds a clip to your Watch Later list and marks it for download at the same time.

Vimeo version 4.0.10 also includes a new persistent search bar at the top, but more on this after the break...

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Facebook rolling out free VoiP calling in Messenger to everyone

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 3, 2014

Ever since launching its totally redesigned Messenger app last November, the social networking giant Facebook's been dragging its feet in terms of enabling VoIP calling for everyone.

For users in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom, this useful feature has been part of the old Messenger app for quite some time now.

Today, Facebook issued a minor update to Messenger for iOS that seemingly enables free voice calling over Wi-Fi and low-cost calls over cellular for everyone.

The update is available in the App Store so grab it now and check out free calling in Facebook Messenger...

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