Author: Josh Wolford

MLB.com’s YouTube channel is just got a lot better.

Today, MLB Advance Media announced that they’re expanding the licensed content offerings on the channel. You can expect more highlight clips from every MLB game – available two days after the games are completed. There is also thousands of hours of new archive content available, including videos from MLB.com’s Baseball’s Best Moments library.

The channel will also livestream two games a day – but only if you live outside of the MLB’s core distribution areas. That means to YouTube streaming for baseball fans in North America, Japan, Taiwan and South Korea. But the MLB says that this move will help expand the game in new corners of the globe.

“Expanding our partnership with YouTube provides another platform for extending the reach of the thousands of hours of archived baseball content in our library and for delivering live baseball games via the Internet to fans in new markets around the world,” said Kenny Gersh, Senior Vice President, Business Development, MLBAM.

You can catch the new content today on the MLB’s official YouTube channel.

Here’s some more Jelly news for you, and no, it’s not any additional info on what the hell it is. It’s more team news.

According to Jelly founder and CEO, Twitter co-founder Biz Stone, the company has just hired employee #1: UI designer and engineer Austin Sarner. Sarner, who got his start building Mac OS apps, worked on the Push Pop Press publishing platform that won a Apple Design Award in 2011.

Here’s Biz Stone’s welcome letter:

Jelly is thrilled to announce our official employee #1, Austin Sarner. Austin was instrumental in developing Push Pop Press, the Apple Design Award winning multi-touch user interface and publishing platform. Austin has been busy building rich software user interfaces for the past eight years.

Austin got his start creating popular shareware applications for Mac OS such as AppZapper and Disco, and spent some time working in Amsterdam with the Dutch Software company Sofa. Pushing the envelope in software design brought Austin some success in this field and helped him discover his true passion.

Clarity for Austin came in the form of understanding that software development is an effective path towards facilitating large scale positive change. Following its sale to Facebook, Austin parted ways with Push Pop Press in search of an opportunity to collaborate with like-minded individuals on something new.

We were lucky to have met Austin via a recommendation from Loren Brichter, a very highly regarded iOS developer. When someone like Loren highlights talent, we take it seriously. In Austin, Jelly has found not only a gifted engineer with an eye for interaction design, but an individual who shares our world positive philosophy.

Although this is technically employee #1, Jelly has also made some additions to the executive team. Biz Stone revealed ex-Twitter employee Ben Finkel as co-founder and Chief Technology Officer last week, and a few days later we heard that Jelly has poached Twitter Music head Kevin Thau to be the company’s COO. Although Biz Stone has yet to confirm that one.

All we really know about Jelly at this point is that it will be a mobile-focused free service of some kind.

“News of Jelly emerged unexpectedly early so I’ll wait a bit to share more about the team. In the meantime, I’ll say this. Jelly will be for everybody, it will be developed first and foremost for mobile devices, and it will be free. But, it won’t be ready for a while,” said Stone, when announcing the startup.

With this hire, it looks like they’re starting to consider what the user experience on the app will look and feel like.

Spoiler alert: If your friends acted like your pets, the one that acted like a dog would be loving, affectionate, well-meaning, but ultimately annoying. And the one that acted like a cat, well, he’d be a jerk. Because cats are jerks. Sorry, internet. It’s true. Cute little jerks.

Check out the follow up to 2012′s cat-friend vs dog-friend below:

[via fatawesomefilms]

Talk about perfect timing. And incredible luck.

Tampa Bay Rays reporter Kelly Nash almost got plunked in the back of the head with a baseball this past weekend. And the near miss was captured by a once-in-a-lifetime selfie and posted to Instagram.

As the story goes, Nash was in Boston working on a feature on the Tampa Bay Rays. According to Nash, she wanted to snap a photo atop the Green Monster in Fenway Park because her whole family is from Massachusetts.

“I knew they would be so excited to see me working at Fenway Park, and when I went to text them the picture I noticed the baseball by my head!” Nash told Fox Sports Florida.

Most dangerous selfie ever. That happened. @ Fenway Park instagram.com/p/YnywPVl8jP/

— Kelly Nash (@KNashSports) April 27, 2013

“I laughed pretty hard when I saw such a surreal picture that I had no idea I took. I thought, you have got to be kidding me, maybe there ARE really angels in the outfield. I actually brought the movie with me on the trip and had it in my bag at the game.”

Nash says that her producer found the ball and gave it to her, so at least she has some hard evidence of her near-serious injury experience.

Think the Angels in the Outfield saved me because I brought their DVD with me on the trip? #ThoughtSo instagram.com/p/YoGDoil8mc/

— Kelly Nash (@KNashSports) April 27, 2013

Just add this to the growing list of reasons that self-shots are rarely ever a good idea.

Two years ago, ABC canceled the long-running soap operas All My Children and On Life to Live, citing “extensive research into what today’s daytime viewers want and the changing viewing patterns of the audience.” Despite ABC’s “research,” plenty of viewers were upset by the announcement.

Just a few months ago, we got word that the two programs were being resurrected and would later launch on Hulu and iTunes. Today, Hulu has made it official.

“We’re thrilled and honored to carry on the tradition with the return of beloved soaps “All My Children” and “One Life to Live” with new episodes on Hulu and Hulu Plus starting today,” says Martin Moakler, Hulu’s Social Community Manager.

“I know it was a long wait,” says Cady McClain, who plays Dixie Cooney Martin on the show.. “I know there have been a lot of ups and downs. I just want to assure the fans that it feels like another era of golden years for this show. It’s truly the best that ‘All My Children’ is and can be again.”

“I’m very excited and feel super lucky to be here right now,” she says. “The story and sets are incredible. There are so many surprises coming. I can’t wait to watch it myself!”

Hulu knows that some of the soap opera crowd may not be totally familiar with Hulu, or online streaming in general. So they made this video full of soap stars to educate the uninitiated:

You can watch All my Children here and One Life to Live here. Are you excited to have these two classic soaps back?

Vine, Twitter’s 6-second video app, is seeing some impressive adoption as of late. From politics to advertising, and from comedy to game teasers. Vine played a pretty big role in feeding raw footage from the recent Boston Marathon bombings as well.

Vine was also the inspiration for a recent competition put on by the Tribeca Film Festival. #6SecFilms asked aspiring Vine-makers to submit their best work to be judged for a chance to win a little pocket change and, well, internet glory. Tribeca says that there were over 400 entries, and that their panel whittled it down to 4 winners.

“We’re ready to announce the winners of Tribeca’s #6SECFILMS Vine Competition! After TFF’s Programmer Genna Terranova created the shortlist, our illustrious jury members pored over it and came up with their choices. The winners will receive $600 each (a Benjamin for each second), and the honor of knowing their Vines were the best.”

Without further ado, here are your Tribeca Vine winners:

@KevyPizza, There Is No Sunny-Side to This Story (In the Auteur category):

@Matt Swinsky, LazerAndDonald Close Shave (In the Genre category):

@Jethro Ames, How to Clear Your Garage From a Scary Ghost (In the Animate category):

Chris Donlon, The Book Beetle trilogy (In the Series category):

According to Square, the amount of restaurants using Square Register as their main point of sale system has tripled in the past year. Not only that, but the amount of money that they have processed has quadrupled.

“There are already tens of thousands of merchants in the food industry are increasingly adopting Square for its simple interface, smart analytics, continuous updates, and low processing fees,” says Square.

And with that, the’ve just launched an update to Square Register that helps “quick-serve” restaurants better run their kitchens.

First off, food merchants can now utilize new order modifiers. “Orders are recorded more accurately and communication with the kitchen is faster, creating a seamless experience on both sides of the counter,” says Square.

Plus, custom tickets are now available, giving kitchens a better way to make sure special orders are being processed correctly.

“In an industry where speed, accuracy, and a great customer experience are essential to success, Square Register gives quick serve restaurants tools that are powerful, intuitive, and affordable,” said Square co-founder and CEO Jack Dorsey. “Square is focused on connecting businesses with customers and now, more than ever, merchants can concentrate on providing great food for their customers.”

Back in February, Square unveiled a new “business in a box” package deal point of sale system. For $299, you can get two Square Readers, an iPad stand, and a cash drawer. Of course, Square Register has the ability to wirelessly print receipts and tickets, but that hardware will cost you extra.

If you missed the annual White House Correspondents Dinner this weekend, here’s what you need to know: Conan O’Brien hosted, and he was pretty good. As was the President, who had some good jokes about Michele Bachmann, birthers, and Michelle Obama’s bangs. He even made a joke about BuzzFeed.

The whole thing was kicked off by a House of Cards spoof – a 5-minute skit from the set of the popular Netflix original series starring Kevin Spacey. Watch below as members of Congress and the press jockey for seating positions at the dinner:

Oh, and while you’re at it, here’s the President:

And here’s Conan:

Daily deals site LivingSocial is the latest major tech company to fall victim to hackers. According to the Washington D.C.-based company, the hack exposed over 50 million users’ email addresses, passwords, birthdates, and more – but no financial information.

All Things D obtained an internal memo that explains the nature of the attack:

We recently experienced a cyber-attack on our computer systems that resulted in unauthorized access to some customer data from our servers. We are actively working with law enforcement to investigate this issue.The information accessed includes names, email addresses, date of birth for some users, and encrypted passwords – technically ‘hashed’ and ‘salted’ passwords. We never store passwords in plain text.

and…

The database that stores customer credit card information was not affected or accessed. The database that stores merchants’ financial and banking information was not affected or accessed.

If your LivingSocial account was affected, you’ll likely be receiving an email soon notifying you of the hack. It’ll ask you to create a new password and “consider changing password(s) on any other sites on which you use the same or similar password(s)”

Here’s the full email that’s being sent out to customers:

Subject: An important update on your LivingSocial.com account

LivingSocial recently experienced a cyber-attack on our computer systems that resulted in unauthorized access to some customer data from our servers. We are actively working with law enforcement to investigate this issue.

The information accessed includes names, email addresses, date of birth for some users, and encrypted passwords – technically ‘hashed’ and ‘salted’ passwords. We never store passwords in plain text.

The database that stores customer credit card information was not affected or accessed.

Although your LivingSocial password would be difficult to decode, we want to take every precaution to ensure that your account is secure, so we are expiring your old password and requesting that you create a new one.

For your security, please create a new password for your < > account by following the instructions below.

1. Visit LivingSocial.com

2. Click on the “Create a New Password” button (top right corner of the homepage)

3. Follow the steps to finish

We also encourage you, for your own personal data security, to consider changing password(s) on any other sites on which you use the same or similar password(s).

The security of your information is our priority. We always strive to ensure the security of our customer information, and we are redoubling efforts to prevent any issues in the future.

Please note that LivingSocial will never ask you directly for personal or account information in an email. We will always direct you to the LivingSocial website — and require you to login — before making any changes to your account. Please disregard any emails claiming to be from LivingSocial that request such information or direct you to a different website that asks for such information.

If you have additional questions about this process, the “Create a New Password” button on LivingSocial.com will direct you to a page that has instructions on creating a new password and answers to frequently asked questions.

We are sorry this incident occurred, and we look forward to continuing to introduce you to new and exciting things to do in your community.

Tim O’Shaughnessy

CEO, LivingSocial

Unless the bidding cools down fast, someone is going to pay millions of dollars for a half-an-hour coffee date with Apple CEO Tim Cook.

We first told you about the charity auction earlier this week. Tim Cook is auctioning off a coffee date at Apple HQ in Cupertino for one lucky bidder and a friend. All of the money will benefit the RFK Center for Justice and Human Rights.

When we first told you about it on Wednesday, the current bid was $36,999. Charitybuzz, the site that’s hosting the auction, put an estimated price of $50,000 on the prize. At that point, with 20 days left to go on the bidding, we assumed that it would eventually hit that $50,000 mark.

But this is just bananas. As of the writing of this article, the top bid sits at $580,000. And there’s still 18 days left to go in the auction. The top bid was just over $300,000 this morning. Unless something happens and the bidding just dies, it looks like someone is seriously going to pay millions of dollars for a 30-minute to an hour meeting with Cook.

Just think about it this way: Back in 2011, the top bid for such a prize on Charitybuzz went for face time with former President Bill Clinton. In the end, the top bid was $255,000.

As the bidding goes higher, it’s likely that a companies will be the ones battling it out. Back when the bidding was lower, say a few thousand dollars, individuals were in the mix. Now, the last dozen or so bids have been dominated by companies. For instance, Drbluetooth.com is the current highest bid holder.

We’ll keep our eye on this, but we fully expect the total to be absolutely insane by the time May 14th rolls around.

If you’re a Tumblr user, you can now follow the White House. Today they announced their latest foray into the social web.

The White House currently has a presence on Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Pinterest, YouTube, Soundcloud, Google+. And the President and First Lady also have their own accounts on many of those same networks. Although you’ll probably see a lot of cross-over between the White House and First family accounts, considering they’re basically run by the same people.

Either way, this is pretty socially connected White House.

“We see some great things here at the White House every day, and sharing that stuff with you is one of the best parts of our jobs. That’s why we’re launching a Tumblr. We’ll post things like the best quotes from President Obama, or video of young scientists visiting the White House for the science fair, or photos of adorable moments with Bo. We’ve got some wonky charts, too. Because to us, those are actually kind of exciting. But this is also about you. President Obama is committed to making this the most open and accessible administration in history, and our Tumblr is no exception,” says the White House.

The White House says that we can expect to see behind-the-scenes photos of life from the White House, quotes from the President, and infographics about “important issues.” They also promise GIFs. So, you know:

Hey, if you need something to do Sunday night while you DVR Game of Thrones, Vampire Weekend is performing at Tribeca, Steve Buscemi is directing it, and YouTube is streaming it.

This concert marks the 12th in the American Express Unstaged series, and partnership with AMEX, YouTube, and VEVO.

“On Sunday at 9 p.m. ET, Vampire Weekend will perform a concert directed by none other than award-winning actor, director and producer Steve Buscemi to close out this year’s Tribeca Film Festival. And the best news of all is that you won’t need tickets to the Roseland Ballroom to take in the show. You can experience the entire event from the comfort of your couch via YouTube.”

If it seems odd that Steve Buscemi would be directing a Vampire Weekend concert, well, it’s not. First off, this kind of thing has happened before (famous Hollywood figures directing YouTube concerts) and second, this:

EXCITING NEWS – Chris Baio has been working on a family tree for months and just discovered he is a distant cousin of actor Steve Buscemi

— Vampire Weekend (@vampireweekend) March 29, 2013

Makes more sense now, huh?

Vampire Weekend’s new album, Modern Vampires in the City, will be released on May 6th (U.K) and May 7th (U.S.). You can check out Vampire Weekend’s YouTube channel here, which is also where you’ll find the concert at 9 pm Sunday.

Sometimes, your device needs protection. And sometimes, you also need to protect your iPhone (apologies). With Smartskin Condoms for Smartphones, you can keep your phone safe from rain, sand, or any other unsavory materials that it may come into contact with.

These “rubbers” are actually made of soft and stretchy protective thermoplastic – and they’re water resistant. According to the product description, your smartphone will retain full touchscreen capability and 98% camera clarity with the condom attached. That 2% is a small price to pay when it comes to keeping your device clean.

Just snap them on and apply the sealing tabs (which you should get at least three uses out of).

“You never know when you’ll get lucky…enough to take your phone to the beach, or on a boat, or cycling in the rain, or driving a rally car, or riding a camel in the desert. But thanks to the sleek and stretchy Condoms for Smartphone, you’ll never have to say no to an unexpected bit of excitement again. Keep them in your wallet for that special situation or emergency occasion, and know that your smartphone has protection at a moment’s notice.

You can grab a pack of 3 for $18.49. As of now, the Smartskin condoms are only available for the Galaxy S3, and iPhones 4/4S/5. Oh, and they’re also available for your iPad.

Always pack protection.

[Firebox via PSFK]

Apple has just released a new ad for the iPhone 5, and it’s good. Much better than their previous efforts, in fact. It’s a one-minute ad called “Photos Every Day,” and uses a simple fact to make a point about the device’s massive popularity.

“Every day, more photos are taken with the iPhone than any other camera.”

And with that, the only words in the ad, Apple builds a nice commercial around the act of snapping pictures with the iPhone. Gone is the barrage of words that they’ve been throwing at you with their previous ads, and it’s been replaced by a subtle piano. Apple is at its best when making ads like this. Let’s hope it continues.

Ah, the age old question that has divided men and women and turned plenty of friendly debates into screaming matches. Which hurts more: childbirth or getting kicked right in the balls?

To debate that here would be futile, so we’ll let AsapSCIENCE take over. They explain how both things can hurt like hell, citing nociceptors, nerve attachments, and more.

But in the end, pain is subjective. As a man, I’ll never experience the pain of childbirth. And as a woman, you’ll never know the agony of a swift kick in the balls. See what I did there? Because I have felt one of those pains, I’m biased. I said “agony” instead of simply saying “pain.”

I fear this question will never receive a proper answer. Both hurt. A lot. And even as a man, I can say that I’d rather get kicked in the balls 10 times, by a horse, than have to go through childbirth. Lord almighty.

Either way, it’s a fun watch.

[AsapSCIENCE]

Android users, do you feel left out by all of the fun your iPhone-wielding counterparts are having with their quirky 6-second videos? Well, you don’t have that much longer to wait until you can join in.

Vine, Twitter’s new 6-second video app, is on the way to Android “soon.”

Speaking to The Verge, Vine Co-founder Dom Hofmann confirmed the “soon” timeframe. Nothing more, nothing less. Just “soon.” We always knew that an Android version of the popular app must be in the works, but this is the first time that we’ve heard that it is indeed on the horizon. Back in February, Vine began looking for a lead Android engineer.

He also said that a new feature is coming to the iOS version – friend tagging. But it’s currently waiting for final Apple approval.

Vine has seen quite a bit of success after its rocky start. Vine launched back in January and immediately found itself in the middle of a porn controversy. Users were shocked to find that people were using the service to post 6-second porn clips. Vine doesn’t specifically ban nudity in their terms, but they did mess up handily when they accidentally promoted an explicit video as one of their editor’s picks.

With poor user feedback and the threat of a ban in Apple’s notoriously conservative App Store, Vine made some changes to bury NSFW content deep down in the app.

But soon, we saw Vine being used in a variety of ways: for promotion and for politics. For comedy and for game teasers. Vine even played a pretty big role in raw footage from the Boston Marathon bombings.

When Vine finally comes to Android, you can expect its presence to rise significantly. It’ll probably look a lot like the moment when Instagram finally launched on Android – but this time I don’t expect iOS users to get all pissy about their favorite app opening up to the masses.

A British man has been charged with making threats to kill and sending grossly offensive messages after he threatened to kill at least 200 students on Facebook.

The man, 24-year-old Reece Elliot, hails from Fossway, South Shields, South Tyneside – but the threats appeared on a tribute Facebook page for an American girl who was killed in a car crash back in October of 2012.

According to The Guardian, Elliot used an assumed name and posted the following messages on the RIP Caitlin Talley Facebook page:

I’m glad the fat bitch is dead. Let’s drink to drink driving. No one gives a shit that she’s dead, get over it. If I was there now I would rape you.

My father has three guns. I’m planning on killing him first and putting him in a dumpster. Then I’m taking the motor and I’m going in fast. I’m gonna kill hopefully at least 200 before I kill myself. So you want to tell the deputy, I’m on my way.

I’m killing 200 people minimum at school. I will be on CNN.

Of course, threats like this are always taken very seriously, but in light of the recent school shooting in Newtown, officials in the Warren County Tennessee district suspended school for nearly 3,000 students. The school district also beefed up security, putting the local schools in “lockdown” mode.

According to the report, Elliot turned himself in after officials coordinated with the FBI to uncover his true identity. He claimed to be a “troll” who was just trying to get a rise. Authorities say that Elliot used the words “dumpster” and “deputy,” clearly American words, to make the threats seem more credible.

Then again, he did say he was going to be “taking the motor.”

Speaking of people being idiots on Facebook, an Ohio man was sentenced this week to 17 months in prison after making threats about killing police and judges on Facebook. When will people learn?

Quora, the self-proclaimed “best source for knowledge” on the internet, has just snagged Facebook engineer John Hegeman, according to reports.

TechCrunch says that Hegeman confirmed the move on his Facebook Timeline (in a private post). In the post, Hegeman says that he’ll be joining the engineering team at Quora in “a few weeks.” Here’s the post in full:

Today is my last day at Facebook. I feel extremely fortunate to have spent five and a half years working with and learning from such an exceptional group of people. In particular, I want to thank Mark for building this incredible company and my managers Yishan, Kang-Xing, Greg, and Boz for all of the mentorship and opportunities that they have given me. The decision to leave wasn’t easy, but I’m very proud of all that the ads team has accomplished and I’m extremely confident that the team is in good hands. I look forward to seeing the great work I know they will continue to do. Looking forward, I’m excited to be joining the engineering team at Quora in a few weeks. I’m grateful to Adam for this opportunity to work with him and the rest of the team at Quora who are building an incredible product. I can’t wait to get started.

Hegeman has been an engineer on Facebook’s ads team since 2007. Before that, he attended Stanford.

Back in December, Quora CEO Adam D’Angelo announced that the company had a new mission. It was a growth mission, to shake up the usual Q&A format that Quora is known for and work to “share and grow the world’s knowledge.” Earlier this year, Quora launched blogs and a rich text editor.

Mark Zuckerberg’s immigration-focused political advocacy group is getting the help of a few more tech heavyweights.

Today, FWD.us announced a couple of new members: Microsoft founder BIll Gates, current Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, INtuit CEO Brad Smith and Sean Parker, of Napster and later, Facebook fame.

“We’re thrilled that Bill Gates, Brad Smith, Steve Ballmer, and Sean Parker – longtime advocates for vital policies like comprehensive immigration reform that will grow our economy – are joining FWD.us’ efforts to organize and engage the tech community,” said FWD.us President Joe Green. “We’ve been excited by the momentum we continue to see as more members of the tech community contribute to the national debate to improve our economic future, and support the bipartisan policies that will boost economic growth and continue to grow the knowledge economy.”

FWD.us officially launched on April 11th when group founder Mark Zuckerberg penned an op-ed in the Washington Post, giving a basic outline of what the group hopes to accomplish through immigration reform.

Officially, FWD.us is “a new organization founded by leaders of our nation’s technology community to focus on these issues and advocate a bipartisan policy agenda to build the knowledge economy the United States needs to ensure more jobs, innovation and investment.”

The group already had some major tech clout – Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, former Groupon CEO Andrew Mason, Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer, SpaceX’s Elon Musk, Google Chairman Eric Schmidt, and Instagram’s Kevin Systrom. But adding Gates, Ballmer, and Parker is a significant boost for the group.

Zuckerberg has called for comprehensive immigration reform that starts with effective border security and also allows a “path to citizenship.” He also calls for higher standards in schools and “investment in breakthrough discoveries in scientific research and assurance that the benefits of the inventions belong to the public and not just to the few.”

FWD.us currently has two U.S. offices, one in Silicon Valley and one in Washington D.C. The goal, obviously, is to affect legislation. Having the names that it has attached to it – well, it’s a good start.

[via All Things D]

Twitter is reportedly testing a new feature that would make it infinitely more useful for people who use the service to find out about things going on around them.

I mean right around them. Like, you know, near them. Geographically.

According to All Things D, who quotes multiple sources, Twitter is currently testing a feature that allows users to discover tweets from other users within a certain radius. For instance, you could see a tweet from someone who’s right down the road, who’s eating a great omelet at a local brunch spot.

On April 1st, Twitter kicked off its second annual hack week, and apparently that is where this idea was engendered. If so, this is a really great idea that could change the way people use Twitter.

As of right now, Twitter’s “discovery” tab surfaces tweet about “what’s happening now, tailored to you,” according to Twitter. Although it’s unclear exactly how Twitter’s algorithms decide what to show you, it definitely has to do with who you follow and who those people follow, and so on. It’s kind of a “people in your general network” sort of deal. And to be honest, it’s not really all that helpful. There’s definitely some consideration given to location, but it’s not much.

And really, Twitter has always felt more global than local. Sure, you can limit which Twitter trends you’re shown by city. But then again, this is only Twitter trends. And it’s only by city.

I say test away, Twitter. And then unveil this feature. I can already imagine how useful it would be to walk outside my door, and see a bunch of tweets about things happening in my area. Can you?