Author: Josh Wolford

If you operate a Facebook Page, you may have noticed a couple of subtle changes Facebook has made to the look of the pages for admins. These changes are a clear attempt to coax page owners into promoting their content, or at least help remind them that it’s an option.

First up, you may have seen the new post analytics box at the top of your admin panel. It shows all of your promotable posts (links, photos, etc.), their total reach, and their paid reach. There’s also a button to quickly promote each individual post:

The other is simply a terminology shift. Instead of offering admins the ability to “promote” post, Facebook is now saying they can “boost” posts. I guess “boost” sounds better that “promote.” Clicking on “boost post” brings up the same Promoted Post menu that you’re used to.

Earlier this year, Facebook came under fire over their Promoted Posts feature. Some page owners accused Facebook of pulling the old “bait-and-switch” by burying pages’ content in order to force them to pay for promotion. Facebook vehemently denied this.

Back in December, Facebook announced that about 300,000 pages had paid to promote at least one post. Doing the math, that meant that just of 2% of local businesses pages had utilized the feature. Facebook also said that 2.5 million individual posts had been promoted, meaning that the average page owner who utilizes Promoted Posts promotes a little over 8 posts. These figures are now a few months old, but it gives us a little insight into how much attention page owners were giving the Promoted Post option about 7 months in. Now, we’re coming up on one year of Facebook opening up Promoted Posts to page owners.

If you thought Twitter had forgotten about the ol’ Twitter for Mac app, think again! Sure, it hadn’t had an update for over a year – but that’s all in the past. Today, Twitter launches a significant update to the app and it’s likely just the beginning.

First off, Twitter for Mac now has Retina display support.

“Now Twitter is even more vibrant and detailed on the highest resolution Mac notebooks. With this update, Tweets will be clearer and sharper, creating a more vivid experience,” says Twitter.

There’s also a new share photo button in the compose box of tweets. Plus, Twitter for Mac is now available in 14 new languages: Dutch, French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Malay, Portuguese, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Spanish, Traditional Chinese, Turkish.

Twitter for Mac Tech Lead Ben Sandofsky wrote today’s Twitter blog post on the update, and in it he says that we should “keep an eye out for more improvements to come.” Apparently, he’s serious about devoting more time to Twitter for Mac:

P.S. I’m taking a break from iOS to work on Twitter for Mac full time.

— Ben Sandofsky (@sandofsky) April 25, 2013

You can grab the update in the Mac App Store today.

YouTube is peppered with covers of the classic Radiohead song “Karma Police” off their masterpiece album OK Computer. And it should be – it’s an incredible song. But I guarantee you’ve never heard that song like this before.

The amazing cover comes from Tel-Aviv-based Rotem Shefy (vocals) and Leat Sabbah (cello). They first recorded the song last year, and then launched a Kickstarter project, which is why you see the nicely produced video below.

For a minute there, I lost myself.

[ShefitaANDSabbaba via UPROXX]

Last month, Vimeo launched a full video on demand service that lets Vimeo PRO creators sell their work on the site. It’s pay-to-view, with much freedom (and profits) given to the creators. Creators get to set the price for their work, and they take 90% of the profit.

Today, just over a month later, Vimeo is announcing that creators have uploaded hundreds of paid videos, and viewers have made “thousands” of purchases. Not too specific, but it looks like there’s at least some significant buzz over Vimeo’s newest project. With their VOD service off and running, Vimeo is now looking to make all the content easier to discover.

To that end, Vimeo has launched a redesigned On Demand homepage.

“Introducing: the new Vimeo On Demand home page, which puts the focus on the creative films and series distributed using the new platform. Looking for something to watch tonight? Boom. Check out “Vimeo Selects” for titles we find interesting, or browse the entire On Demand catalog by genre. You can even keep track of all your On Demand purchases in “My On Demand,” right on this page. Because it’s hard to remember them all when you’ve bought hundreds of them, right? RIGHT!?” says Vimeo’s Blake Whitman.

The dive in paid videos began back in September of last year, when Vimeo introduced their Creator Services platform. The first service unveiled was the “tip jar,” which allowed viewers to leave tips for video creators. Vimeo promises that there are more improvements left to be made to their new VOD platform.

Have you paid to stream anything using Vimeo yet?

Google has just updated document files in Google Drive to add some Google+ integration and also make conversations much easier to begin.

First off, you’ll now see the Google+ profile pictures of everyone currently working on the document right at the top. Before, it was just the names that appeared. If you hover over the photo, you’ll see a small snapshot of their Google+ profile pic, complete with details. From there, you’ll be able to add them to your circles without ever leaving the document. It’s a small, but useful update for those who use Google Drive to collaborate on projects.

Starting a group chat also got easier with today’s update:

“In addition, you can now start a group chat with just one click. Simply select the new chat button at the top right and a chat box will appear, making it easy for you to quickly message everyone in the file,” says Google software engineer Eric Zhang.

Google says that you should start seeing the new features in your Drive documents today or tomorrow. Also, in the future, Google plans to add these new features to other types of files, like Google Sheets.

Google has released the data from July to December of last year inside their Transparency Report, and they’ve been busier than ever. Google says that they have received more governmental requests for content removal than ever before.

“From July to December 2012, we received 2,285 government requests to remove 24,179 pieces of content—an increase from the 1,811 requests to remove 18,070 pieces of content that we received during the first half of 2012,” says Google Legal Director Susan Infantino.

In the United States specifically, Google saw the highest level of content removal requests ever with 262 court orders and 59 from the government/police. Most of these requests had to do with defamation, mirroring global trends.

User data requests in the U.S. were also on the rise in the time of July to December of last year, with a total of 8,438 individual requests covering 14,791 users. This is up nearly 500 from the last reporting period. Google says that they complied with 88% of these requests, which is actually lower than it has been in the past.

Here’s Google’s breakdown of the last reporting period:

• We received inquiries from 20 countries regarding YouTube videos that contain clips of the movie, “Innocence of Muslims”: Australia, Bangladesh, Brazil, Brunei, Djibouti, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Iran, Jordan, Lebanon, Maldives, Malaysia, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, and the United States. Australia, Egypt, and the United States requested that we review the videos to determine if they violated our Community Guidelines, which they did not. The other 17 countries requested that we remove the videos. We restricted videos from view in Indonesia, India, Jordan, Malaysia, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore and Turkey. Due to difficult circumstances, we temporarily restricted videos from view in Egypt and Libya.
• We received a request from a local government agency to remove a YouTube video that allegedly defamed a school administrator. We did not remove the video.
• We received three separate requests from local law enforcement agencies to remove three YouTube videos that allegedly defamed police officers, public prosecutors or contained information about police investigations. We did not remove the videos.
• In response to three court orders, we removed 771 items from Google Groups relating to a case of continuous defamation against a man and his family.
• We received three different court orders from different individuals that were addressed to third parties, along with a request to remove 690 items from Google Groups, that allegedly contained defamatory statements. We asked for clarification but never received a reply.
• We received three court orders from different individuals that were addressed to third parties, along with requests to remove 452 search results that linked to websites that allegedly contain defamatory content. We removed 70 search results that we determined to fall within the scope of the orders.
• In response to a court order, we removed 119 search results that linked to websites allegedly hosting trademark infringing material.

In March, Google began including National Security Letter requests in the Transparency Report. Today, Google says that they will start breaking down YouTube removal requests to specify whether Google removed the video due to violation of YouTube guidelines or violation of local laws.

You can view the full Transparency Report here.

While Twitter co-founder Biz Stone’s new startup Jelly has been light on the specifics (what the hell is it, really?), it has been heavy on snatching talent as of late.

According to All Things D, we can now say hello to Jelly’s new Chief Operating Officer – and it’s Twitter’s Kevin Thau.

Thau’s most recent project at Twitter was the newly-launched Twitter Music, the company’s new standalone music discovery app that was built out of the acquisition of We Are Hunted. But Thau has been at Twitter much longer than the beginning of that project, once managing Twitter’s mobile engineering and design teams. After that, Thau became VP of Business Development.

Earlier this week, Biz Stone came out and announced the identity of his Jelly co-founder and CTO. It’s Ben FInkel, who once served as the New Users Experience manager on Twitter’s Growth Team. Another former Twitter employee, Vítor Lourenço, left Twitter and is now consulting the folks over at Jelly. With today’s news that Thau is leaving Twitter to work on Jelly, that makes three high-profile poaches by Biz Stone and his new startup.

But once again, what is Jelly? Details are scarce, but we know 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.

A man accused of housing child pornography on multiple hard drives will not be forced to give authorities access, after a Wisconsin judge rules that doing so would violate his 5th Amendment rights against self-incrimination.

The case involves Jeffrey Feldman, a software engineer with a degree in computer science from University of Wisconsin-Madison. Suspected of possessing child pornography, FBI agents raided his home and seized 16 storage devices, 9 of which were encrypted.

The FBI filed an order to compel Feldman to decrypt his devices, and order which has been shot down by Judge William Callahan.

“This is a close call, but I conclude that Feldman’s act of production, which would necessarily require his using a password of some type to decrypt the storage device, would be tantamount to telling the government something it does not already know with “reasonably particularity” – namely, that Feldman has personal access to and control over the encrypted storage devices. Accordingly, in my opinion, Fifth Amendment protection is available to Feldman. Stated another way, ordering Feldman to decrypt the storage devices would be in violation of his Fifth Amendment right against compelled self-incrimination,” said Judge William E. Callahan Jr.

The Judge concedes that the state knows the encrypted devices contain data, and that they already know the names of the files and that they probably exist on said devices. He also concedes that the state has shown that Feldman is surely capable of decrypting the devices.

But the following question remains: Is it reasonably clear, in the absence of compelled decryption, that Feldman actually has access to and control over the encrypted storage devices and, therefore, the files contained therein? To be sure, the storage devices were all found in Feldman’s residence, where he has admittedly lived alone for the past 15 years. In addition, the unencrypted Dell computer, which showed connections to the encrypted storage devices, has a login screen with only one username, “Jeff.” Nevertheless, unlike in Boucher and Fricosu, here, Feldman has not admitted access and control.

It’s clear that the Judge thinks that this is a very tricky case, and his decision toes the line.

In the end, however, the conclusion is that the state simply doesn’t know enough already about the contents of the drives and the defendant’s ties to them to compel him to access them.

An attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation told Wired that “this isn’t just about child porn. It’s about anything on your computer that prosecutors or government officials may want.”

Don’t think that encrypting your data shields you from the long reach of the law, however. Not only is encryption less than 100% effective, but this is simply one ruling. In the past, we’ve seen courts compel decryption – for instance in the aforementioned Boucher case, where a man was forced to unlock like laptop after authorities suspected it contained child pornography.

42nd President of the United States Bill Clinton appears to be using Twitter at his own behest.

As you may remember, earlier this month Stephen Colbert kind of sort of forced the former president to join Twitter. At a Clinton Global Initiative forum, Colbert created a profile for Clinton and tweeted out his first tweet for him. The account was @PrezBillyJeff, and it was that because Colbert couldn’t find any other username that was open. There sure are a lot of parody Bill Clinton Twitter accounts out there.

Now, it looks like Clinton has wrangled one of those handles away from its previous owner – the most obvious one too. Clinton’s Twitter account now resides at @BillClinton. He’s verified too, with approaching 300,000 followers.

In the past few hours, Clinton has sent out a couple of tweets. Before today, he hadn’t tweeted since April 6th, and that wasn’t really him in the first place.

Both of his new tweets reference Colbert, and one says that he’s excited to join his daughter, Chelsea, on Twitter.

Excited to join @chelseaclinton and my good friend @stephenathome on Twitter!

— Bill Clinton (@billclinton) April 25, 2013

Sorry I couldn’t make it @stephenathome. I’ve been busy with @clintonfdn work on global heath. Thrs is #WorldMalariaDay you know #Raincheck?

— Bill Clinton (@billclinton) April 25, 2013

Does this mean that he’s planning on doing some real tweeting? We can only hope. And let’s also hope that he gets some replies and retweets. As he said when Colbert first signed him up, “there’s nothing worse than a friendless Tweeter.”

I don’t think he’ll have any problems making an impact on the site.

If only people knew when to stop while they’re ahead.

This latest installment of the moronic Facebook chronicles takes us to North Olmstead, Ohio, where a man has been sentenced to 17 months in prison plus he’s been forced to undergo anger management counseling thanks to a few Facebook posts.

27-year-old William Bement was furious with the justice system. He had just been given probation for a drunk driving incident, and he wasn’t happy about it.

So where do people go these days when they want to vent to hundreds of people? Facebook, of course.

Shortly after his probation sentence, Bement decided that it was a good idea to post vague threats on Facebook. “Stop shooting up schools and start shooting cops in courthouses!” said one post. “Kill you local judges,” said another.

After one of Bement’s friends notified a court employee of the alarming posts, Bement was hauled back into court – this time receiving a much lengthier sentence for one count of “attempted retaliation.”

He claimed that he was simply talking out of his ass – or doing it for “shock factor” as he put it. But it just goes to show you – it’s hard to communicate jest via social media. Joking or not, you can’t just instruct people to murder officers and judges online. You. Just. Can’t. Do. It.

[The Plain Dealer via The Daily Dot]

Are you pissed off about something that Apple’s doing? Want to get your iPhone 5 signed? Want to congratulate the head of a major tech company on a job well done?

Well, here’s your chance. Charity auction site Charitybuzz is currently hosting an auction to buy a coffee date with Apple CEO Tim Cook. It is an auction, so there’s no telling how high the price will go, but it is tagged with an estimated value of $50,000. And if you think that there’s no way that goal will be reached – think again. With 20 days left to bid, the bid currently stands at $36,999.

The coffee date will take place at Apple HQ in Cupertino, and the prize is valid for up to 2 people. The coffee date will last between 30 minute and an hour. Travel and accommodations are not included.

It’s all for a good cause, of course. Proceeds will benefit the RFK Center for Justice and Human Rights.

“We expect all winning bidders and their guests to conduct themselves appropriately when attending an experience won at Charitybuzz. Polite manners and respect for the generous donor and adherence to any rules or parameters are a must,” says Charitybuzz.

Well, there goes some possibilities. For $50,000, that coffee better be something.

[CharityBuzz via AppleInsider]

Facebook is taking a page from the books of so many social networks before it and prompting users to complete their profiles upon logging in.

Here’s what you may see at the top of your homepage when you log in to Facebook (screenshot courtesy The Next Web). May see, because this is just a small test that Facebook is currently running:

As you can see, the prompt not only tells you how close you are to “completing your profile,” but it also allows you to answer the questions that Facebook asks right in the prompt, instead of taking you all the way to the information edit page on your Timeline.

Of course, Facebook isn’t the only social network that has asked users to make sure their profiles are as complete as possible. Google+ is still doing it on the right-hand side of the homepage:

LinkedIn has been doing it for years. They’ve just recently given you a cool little “Profile strength” meter inside your actual profile, though:

And ever since Twitter unveiled their new header photos, they’ve been pushing pretty hard for users to complete their profile by adding one of those.

The point is, this is a common thing among social networks. They want complete profiles. Complete profiles give them more information about their users, which can be used for a variety of tasks. Of course, that includes ad targeting.

But in the end, you want a complete profile, right? Otherwise, what’s the point of being on the network? Ok, so you don’t want to give Facebook your hometown. Fine. Just click the “x” on the prompt and forget about it.

Is Amazon about to jump into the set-top box game?

That’s the word from Bloomberg Businessweek, who quotes three sources familiar with the matter. According to the sources, the ‘Kindle TV’ (name uncertain) will be available this Fall.

Amazon’s new set-top box would work just like any internet-connected streaming device for your television – it would plug into your TV and let users stream internet content. Nothing revolutionary, of course, but Amazon has never offered a product like this before.

Naturally, sources say that the set-top box would let users stream Amazon Video on Demand, as well as Prime Instant Video offerings for Prime subscribers. The benefit for Amazon in manufacturing and operating its own set-top box is that the company would be able to point users in the right direction when it comes to content (watch it on Prime Instant, not Netflix!). Plus, it would give Amazon another way to showcase original content from Amazon Studios, which we saw get a huge kickstart earlier this week from a series of new pilots.

According to the report, the new set-top box is being developed by Amazon’s Lab126 division in Cupertino, and is being helmed by former VP of video products at Cisco Systems Malachy Moynihan.

Right out of the gate, Amazon would be competing with Apple TV, Roku, and consoles like the Xbox 360, which all offer the same deal – streaming internet content on your TV.

The first and most obvious question regarding an Amazon set-top box (other than price, of course), is which apps it would support. For instance, would it launch with a Netflix app, considering that they are a huge competitor in terms of battling for streaming eyes. You would have to imagine that it would, considering Amazon has been able to play nice with other video apps like Netflix on their other devices, like the Kindle Fire tablet.

Either NASA’s Opportunity Mars rover left a deliberate, and truly amazing mark on the red planet – or we’re all just programmed by the internet to see the wiener in everything.

As you may have expected, the clever minds on reddit first spotted this image. It was subsequently noticed by the likes of Gizmodo and The Huffington Post. Fierce debate ensued. Is it real? If so, did they mean to do it?

We probably know the answer to the first question. You can find the image on NASA’s website, so it’s not likely photoshopped or anything.

But just because it’s real, that doesn’t make it intentional.

I’d like to hope that whoever was controlling the rover had a few too many beers and decided to substitute the forehead of their passed-out buddy for Mars’ vast, blank canvas.

Though Tuesday’s hack of the AP’s Twitter account that sent U.S. markets into a freefall is no laughing matter, our favorite Taiwanese animators over at NMA do their best to make it entertaining. According to NMA’s take on the event, the fake attack on the White House signaled by the bogus tweet has something to do with flatulence. The video also takes some shots at The NY Post and Fox News.

If that’s not enough of a reason to watch, I don’t know what is:

The AP Twitter hack has prompted an FBI investigation, and has likely sped up Twitter’s plans to add an extra layer of account security with two-step verification.

Tumblr has just updated their iOS app to make it easier for users to share across networks, as well as also bringing a new email template and other improvements to the party.

Tumblr has finally given iOS users the ability to share posts via Facebook and Twitter – something that other Tumblr users have been able to do for a while now.

For those who wish to browse Tumblr outside the official app, they’ve also added Pocket and Instapaper support to the iOS app. The new app also features a new email template which lets users easily view messages in either the Tumblr app or their mail client.

Smaller updates include scrolling animated GIFs and a new photo-disposal gesture. Here’s te full list of updates:

• Share posts via Twitter, Facebook, and more
• Save stuff for later using Instapaper and Pocket
• Email an entire post with our beautiful new template
• Fling a photo up or down to close it!
• GIFs animate while you scroll*
• Following list is now alphabetized and searchable

This update comes just a couple of days after Tumblr launched their first-ever in-feed mobile ads for both iOS and Android. Users will now see as many as four ads a day from the likes of Pepsi, GE, and Warner Bros.

And they also just launched their first-ever Window Phone app.

You can grab the updated app from the App Store today..

Following Tuesday’s hack of the AP’s Twitter account that temporarily tanked the stock market and showed just how powerful a false tweet can be, Twitter is looking to slowly roll out two-step verification to some users.

According to Wired, Twitter has such a system currently undergoing internal testing, and they will soon begin to roll it out “incrementally.”

Two-step verification, as you probably know, is really any approach to account authentication that involves two layers. Usually, this involves the typical password layer, beefed up by a mobile alert (usually an additional code sent to an account holder’s device). Plenty of companies with online log-ins like Google and Apple have already implemented some version of this security measure.

Back in February, a job posting on Twitter’s employment site suggested that Twitter was getting more serious about two-step verification. The posting, for a software engineer specializing in product security, listed duties to ““design and develop user-facing security features, such as multifactor authentication and fraudulent login detection.”

Two-step verification isn’t a panacea for every product security issue, and it’s not going to prevent every hack. But it is a necessary blockade between your account and the bad guys who wish to use it for nefarious purposes. It’s about time that Twitter launched something like this, and there’s no better time than now – especially after the recent high-profile hacks.

Apple has just announced that it’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference will begin this year on June 10th and run through June 14th. It’ll take place at San francisco’s Moscone West.

Tickets go on sale tomorrow, April 25th, at 10 am PT. You can find information about that here. It’s important to note that to buy a ticket, you have to be a member of iOS Developer Program, iOS Developer Enterprise Program, or the Mac Developer Program as of the time of today’s announcement. The tickets start at $1,599.

“We look forward to gathering at WWDC 2013 with the incredible community of iOS and OS X developers,” said Apple’s SVP of Worldwide Marketing Philip Schiller. “Our developers have had the most prolific and profitable year ever, and we’re excited to show them the latest advances in software technologies and developer tools to help them create innovative new apps. We can’t wait to get new versions of iOS and OS X into their hands at WWDC.”

WWDC will feature over 100 technical sessions from over 1,000 Apple engineers.

Here’s what’s on the schedule for the event so far:

• More than 100 technical sessions presented by Apple engineers on a wide range of topics for developing, deploying and integrating the latest iOS and OS X technologies;
• more than 1,000 Apple engineers supporting over 100 hands-on labs and events to provide developers with code-level assistance, insight into optimal development techniques and guidance on how they can make the most of iOS and OS X technologies in their apps;
• the latest innovations, features and capabilities of iOS and OS X, and how to enhance an app’s functionality, performance, quality and design;
• the opportunity to connect with thousands of fellow iOS and OS X developers from around the world—last year more than 60 countries were represented;
• engaging and inspirational lunchtime sessions with leading minds and influencers from the worlds of technology, science and entertainment; and
• Apple Design Awards which recognize iPhone®, iPad® and Mac apps that demonstrate technical excellence, innovation and outstanding design.

At last year’s WWDC, Apple pulled the lid off OS X Mountain Lion and iOS 6.

Facebook is testing a new way to let users know which of their friends are online and available for chat.

We’ve seen some version of this indicator all over the place for years, but the newest home for Facebook’s green dot indicator seems to be directly in the news feed. Appearing right next to the users’ name inside a news feed story, Facebook’s green dot lets users know that the person is online and ready for messaging. Here’s what it looks like:

We spotted this test on an account that has the new news feed, and were unable to find a similar icon inside the mobile news feed. I’ve reached out to Facebook for comment and will update when I hear back.

You may recognize that little green dot from Facebook’s chat sidebar on both desktop and mobile. There, the green dot for availability is accompanied by a mobile device icon that signifies that the user has Facebook for iOS or Android downloaded, so they have the ability to see messages on their phones.

Way back in 2011, Facebook added the chat indicator next to users’ names on their profiles (the old profiles, way before Timeline).

Foursquare knows that more and more people are visiting their location pages on the web. Back in October of last year, Foursquare launched a huge redesign of foursquare.com, and a big change to the way the site works: Non-members were allowed to use Foursquare’s “explore” feature.

By opening up Foursquare’s data trove to everyone, they made a pretty big statement: We’re a big name in the location search game, and we want to challenge the likes of Yelp, Google Places, and Urbanspoon.

Now, Foursquare is continuing to revamp itself with a new redesign of location pages on the site. They’re more photo-rich, informative, and indicative of a company who is seeing increased traffic to said pages.

Here’s the current (old) pages design:

And here’s the new design for location pages on Foursquare.com:

What you’ll notice immediately is that photos have been given a much more prominent placement on the page. Also, the map has been moved from directly under the location name to the right-hand corner. In the new design, all of the pertinent information is front and center – the address, hours, rating, phone number, price, etc.

Plus, all of the “similar” suggestions on the right-hand side have been given photos and ratings.

Foursquare Web Engineering head Mike Singleton told The Next Web that Explore usage has double in the past two months. He also said that there are now some 50 million unique visitors to the site every month. Plenty of those are coming from non-members, who just happen to find Foursquare as a service to look up location information.

And that’s exactly what Foursquare wants.

The new design has yet to hit the web for all users, and we’re expecting an announcement from Foursquare in the near future. Foursquare knows that its future is in recommendations and detailed, competitive listings for all web users – not just check-ins and badges for members. This is what the company has been moving toward for the past year (remember that massive app update earlier this month?) and this is simply another step in that evolution.