Author: Josh Wolford

Eli Roth’s new horror series Hemlock Grove will premiere on Netflix in exactly one month from today, and Netflix has just released a brand new trailer.

The series, based on the novel of the same name by Brian McGreevy, stars Famke Janssen, Bill Skarsgård, Landon Liboiron, Penelope Mitchell, and Dougray Scott.

“When the mangled corpse of a local teenager is discovered, rumor and suspicion spread like a plague through Hemlock Grove. As dark secrets bubble to the surface, everyone becomes a suspect in the hunt for a monster that may be hiding in plain sight,” reads Netflix’s summary.

Hemlock Grove will follow the new Netflix model (House of Cards), releasing all 13 episodes at once on April 19th.

Spotify is removing one of the barriers for users in the U.K. who choose to use the streaming service’s free option.

Starting today, users in the U.K. are no longer limited to 5 plays – the cap has been removed. Until now, Spotify Free users in the U.K. could only stream a specific track 5 times before it was removed from their available options – forever. This 5-play cap kicked in 6 months after users signed up for the free service.

Spotify first installed the 5-play cap back in 2011, when they also cut the total listening time (after 6 months) in half, from 20 hours per month to 10 hours per month.

Here’s what Spotify had to say:

We’ve got some mighty fine news for all Spotify Free users. From today, there’s no more 5 play-per-song limit. You can listen to your favourite songs as many times as you like.

That’s right, no more greyed-out songs. The tracks that you couldn’t listen to before will once again be available for your listening pleasure.

Give it a try.

This move means that free users in the U.K. can now experience Spotify in a way similar to most everyone else in the world – unlimited track streaming with a monthly total hours cap that is supported by ads. U.S. users have never had to deal with a specific track cap.

France is currently the only country that still has the 5-play-per-track cap.

Earlier this month, Spotify expanded its web player beta in the U.K., giving users another way to use the service. Spotify’s web player, first announced last year, is set to hit the U.S. later this year.

[Spotify UK via TechCrunch]

Reddit, known for its uncanny ability to drudge up content from the depths of the internet and make it trend, is trying its hand at a little bit of original programming in the way of a new series based on a popular subreddit.

The series, Explain Like I’m Five, is based upon the subreddit of the same name which sees users posts questions on complex topics in the hopes that an expert will be able to explain it to them in the simplest terms.

The series, which is funded by YouTube, may not signal Reddit’s head-first plunge into the world of original programming, but it does show that Reddit’s top brass knows that there is marketability in user-generated content, with a little bit of branding.

“For us, it’s more about encouraging the Reddit community and bigger community of producers, filmmakers and animators out there to create content, video, web series, shows…based on Reddit content,” Reddit’s Erik Martin told The Hollywood Reporter.

The ELIF series stars Michael Kayne and Langan Kingsley and is produced by former College Humor content director Jared Neumark.

Reddit has posted three videos to their YouTube channel, and they are all funny and charming. The three videos explore the topics of “The Volatility of the Stock Market,” “The Crisis in Syria,” and “Existentialism and Friedrich Nietzsche.”

Twitter has just announced some big improvements to its invitation-only self-service ad platform that make it easier for businesses to target the right kinds of users with their paid ads.

Now, when deciding who to promote their accounts and tweets to, businesses who use Twitter’s self-service ads have a few new options to narrow it down. First, advertisers can select to target users who follow specific accounts that are similar to the field in which the advertiser is advertising.

For example, if a craft brewery wanted to target their promoted tweets toward people with an interest in beer, they could target users with the same interests as those who follow accounts like @DrinkCraftBeer, @BeerAdvocate, or specific craft breweries like Dogfish Head or Southern Tier.

Advertisers can also choose to target users inside 350 different “interest categories” – beer, golf, birdwatching, and so on.

Additionally, new targeting options include users’ devices and operating systems. This is a particularly useful options, as an Android game developers could target their tweets to Android users, or the makers of an iOS app could target just iOS users.

Twitter has also added gender targeting for self-service advertisers.

According to Twitter, these were some of the the most demanded features from those advertisers inside the self-service ad network.

Twitter has also opened up its advanced interface to all U.S. advertisers.

“Self-service advertisers who are more experienced with online advertising can now choose to use our advanced interface’s deeper campaign controls, detailed reporting and analytics, and multi-campaign optimization, which help them run more complex campaigns and optimize in real time. The pricing remains the same, and you can start and stop campaigns at any time in both interfaces,” says Twitter.

If you’re an advertiser that wants to switch over to the advanced interface, just log in and select the “switch to advanced” link at the top of your dashboard.

As of now, the self-service ad platform is still invitation only for U.S. businesses. Twitter says that they will start expanding internationally later this year.

Today, Facebook has released version 5.6 of its iOS app. The update brings the ability to change cover photos, as well as some improvements to messaging.

First up, the new Facebook for iOS finally allows users to change their cover photos inside the app. This functionality has been available on Android for a few weeks, and now iOS users can quickly take a new photo or upload one from their camera roll. Note that this is an iPhone only (sorry, iPad users) feature.

Next, Facebook has announced two new updates to messaging. There are now “fewer taps to start a group message” and it should be “easier to name and find group conversations.”

Back in September of 2012, Facebook announced that they would be updating their mobile apps every 4-8 weeks. According to the company, this was based on a shift from “feature-driven” release process to a “date-driven” one. This basically means that instead of working on a bundle of new features and waiting until they were all perfect before releasing the update, Facebook i now pushing updates in a timely manner on a set schedule.

Facebook last pushed and update to their iOS app just under a month ago. It added free calling within the app, a feature that first appeared on the Facebook Messenger app. The update also made the like, comment, and share buttons bigger and better-looking.

You can grab today’s Facebook for iOS update over on iTunes.

Today, The Washington Post announced that they will be the latest publication to put some content behind a paywall.

The move will take place some time this summer, and the Post is still in the process of determining exactly how much to charge readers. The paywall will pop up after readers access more than 20 articles a month.

According to a post in (yes) The Washington Post, there are a few groups who will be exempt from having to pay to view articles. This includes home-delivery subscribers as well as student, teachers, government employees, and military personnel who access the Post’s website while at school/work.

The Post’s homepage, as well as all section front pages and all classified ads will not be hidden behind the paywall.

“News consumers are savvy; they understand the high cost of a top-quality news gathering operation and the importance of maintaining the kind of in-depth reporting for which The Post is known,” Katharine Weymouth, publisher of The Post, said in a statement. “Our digital package is a valuable one, and we are going to ask our readers to pay for it and help support our news gathering as they have done for many years with the print edition.”

According to The Washington Post, the company will also release and new iPad app alongside the paywall, which they hope will attract more subscribers.

The Washington Post joins a handful of major media outlets to go the paywall route, including the The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and Financial Times. Although WaPo doesn’t have the national distribution of the NYT or the WSJ, 90% of their online audience comes from outside the Washington area.

That one starring Ashton Kutcher and that one written by Aaron Sorkin aren’t the only Steve Jobs biopics in the pipeline.

If you want your Steve Jobs movie a little on the comedic and less-researched side, you’re in luck. Online comedy powerhouse Funny or Die has announced that they have made their own Steve Jobs biopic, and it will be ready to view on April 15th.

The film, titled iSteve stars Justin Long as Jobs. You may know Long for his roles in Dodgeball, Accepted, Waiting, and as the “Mac” in those old PC vs Mac Apple ads. Lost‘s Jorge Garcia stars as Steve Wozniak.

We made a movie! “iSteve” stars @justinlong & will be the FIRST Steve Jobs biopic on April 15th. Read all about it: ow.ly/jaI6Z

— Funny Or Die (@funnyordie) March 18, 2013

The film was written and directed by frequent Funny or Die contributor Ryan Perez. Unlike most Funny or Die productions, this will be a feature-length film, clocking in at somewhere between 60 and 75 minutes.

“In true Internet fashion, it’s not based on very thorough research – essentially a cursory look at the Steve Jobs Wikipedia page,” Perez told the NYT. “It’s very silly. But it looks at his whole life.”

After iSteve, the next Steve Jobs biopic on the calendar is Jobs, starring Ashton Kutcher. That film was originally slated for an April 19th release, but we just learned that it has been pushed back so that it can benefit from additional marketing.

The other, bigger-budget film is still in its early stages. That film, written by Aaron Sorkin, is based on last year’s bestselling biography Steve Jobs, written by Walter Isaacson.

Google has taken its Google Maps team to some awesome places to capture some amazing street view imagery. Recent expeditions that come to mind include treks to the Arctic, the Grand Canyon, and under the sea. But this just might be the coolest Street View imagery yet.

Starting today, you can check out some incredible Street View images from the tops of some of the tallest mountains in the world.

“Now you can explore some of the most famous mountains on Earth, including Aconcagua (South America), Kilimanjaro (Africa), Mount Elbrus (Europe) and Everest Base Camp (Asia) on Google Maps. These mountains belong to the group of peaks known as the Seven Summits—the highest mountain on each of the seven continents. While there’s nothing quite like standing on the mountain, with Google Maps you can instantly transport yourself to the top of these peaks and enjoy the sights without all of the avalanches, rock slides, crevasses, and dangers from altitude and weather that mountaineers face,” says Google.

Check out Uhuru, which at 19,341 ft. is the highest point on Mount Kilimanjaro. Or Russia’s Mount Elbrus and its small encampment of huts made from Soviet-era fuel barrels.

Seen below is the Aconcagua summit, the highest mountain in South America and the highest point viewable in Street View (22,800 ft):

This awesome imagery is the work of years of climbing, starting in 2011 with a trip to Everest base camp.

“This imagery was collected with a simple lightweight tripod and digital camera with a fisheye lens—equipment typically used for our Business Photos program,” says Google’s “lead adventurer” Dan Fredinburg.

“In every one of these trips you are going up against the elements,” he told The L.A. Times. “In the Everest expedition, a plane crashed similar to the one that we were on to get in, and after that, there was three days of mudslides, snowstorms and then there was the earthquake, which was a 6.9 magnitude earthquake which was absolutely terrifying for everyone who was on the expedition as well as the locals.”

You can start exploring the World’s Highest Peaks gallery here.

You’re going to have to wait just a little bit longer to see Ashton Kutcher’s Steve Jobs biopic.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Open Road Films has decided to push back the release of Jobs. The film, which was originally slated for an April 19th release, is being postponed so that it can benefit from additional marketing, according to the sources.

There’s no new date to report, only that it’s been pushed back from April 19th.

Jobs (previously titled jOBS), premiered at the Sundance Film Festival back in January. The reviews were mixed, with many praising Kutcher’s portrayal of Steve Jobs while at the same time dismissing the films as disappointing, “saccharine,” and “too respectful.”

“Jobs details the major moments and defining characters that influenced Steve Jobs on a daily basis from 1971 through 2000. Jobs plunges into the depths of his character, creating an intense dialogue-driven story that is as much a sweeping epic as it is an immensely personal portrait of Steve Jobs’ life. The filmmakers were granted unprecedented access during shooting to the historic garage in Palo Alto, that served as the birthplace to Apple Inc,” according to the film’s producers Five Star Feature Films.

jOBS stars Ashton Kutcher as Steve Jobs and Josh Gad as Steve Wozniak. It also features Dermot Mulroney, Lukas Haas, J.K. Simmons and Matthew Modine. It’s directed by Joshua Michael Stern, who brought you the 2008 political comedy Swing Vote.

Last Wednesday, a plume of white smoke emerged in Vatican City, signaling that the papal conclave had chosen a new leader for the Catholic Church.

Shortly after, Argentinian cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio addressed the crowd as Pope Francis, the 266th pontiff of the church. At that time, the previously hibernating @Pontifex Twitter account sent out a simple tweet: HABEMUS PAPAM FRANCISCUM – roughly translating to “we have Pope Francis.”

A few days later, Pope Francis has sent out his first tweet.

The new Pope’s first official tweet was simple, asking his followers to continue to pray for him and thanking them for their support:

Dear friends, I thank you from my heart and I ask you to continue to pray for me.Pope Francis.

— Pope Francis (@Pontifex) March 17, 2013

The @Pontifex Twitter account was created late last year as the official Twitter account of the papacy, then held by Pope Benedict. Upon his resignation, the account went “sede vacante,” and all of Bendict’s 39 tweets were archived on Vatican website.

At the time, the Vatican made it clear that the Twitter account was not being shut down, only deactivated temporarily as the new pope was chosen. They said that the decision to continue to tweet or not would rest solely with the new pope.

“Obviously we leave all decisions to the new man. But we would hope that he might continue to use @pontifex, which would maintain continuity,” said Secretary of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications Paul Tighe.

And it looks like Pope Francis has decided to continue the social media outreach.

As of the writing of this article, the @Pontifex account has just topped 2 million followers.

Twitter co-founder and Square CEO Jack Dorsey was profiled on 60 Minutes last night, in a segment titled “The Innovator.”

You can watch the full interview below, in which Dorsey talks Twitter, Square, and his desire to be the mayor of New York City someday.

Ever wondered what nearly 2,500 people standing on a frozen lake in the shape of a Facebook “like” looks like? Of course you have.

Well, wonder no more. In an attempt to set a world record, 2.493 residents of Luleå, Sweden gathered atop a frozen lake in the shape of a giant Facebook thumbs up.

The Luleå residents were actually attempting to set the Guinness World Record for “biggest human hand on ice” – the Guinness record itself makes no mention of that hand needing to mimic a Facebook like.

That was simply the idea of the town, whose residents have a strong tie with Facebook. The company recently opened a huge data center in Luleå, the largest of its kind to be built in Europe.

According to The Local, the record attempt took place on March 16th, the 75th day of year, to symbolize the town of Luleå topping 75,000 residents.

“Today, we gave a thumbs up for Luleå. I’m proud of how we together, through hard teamwork, year after year manage to grow and evolve,” said the town’s mayor, Karl Petersen.

Luleå’s Facebook shoutout has received some attention – from Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg:

Back in January, Pinterest began to test a brand new design that featured bigger, more informative pins and better navigation. Today, they are rolling out the new design to all users. If you don’t see the new design when you log on to Pinterest, just wait – you’ll get an invitation soon.

The new look is all about discovery, as Pinterest wants users to spend more time browsing and pinning. To this end, Pinterest’s new look strongly affects individual pin pages. These “close-up views” now feature other information for people to use as a springboard for other, similar content.

Each individual pin page now features pins from the same board, pins from the same source, and a widget for “people who pinned this also pinned,” which Pinterest notes is exactly what it sounds like. Each of these new content boxes allow users to discover new content from similar users.

Pinterest says that they hope to bring these additions to their iOS and Android apps soon.

Pinterest has also made some updates to how you navigate around the site:

“We wanted to make things simpler and cleaner, without requiring you to learn anything new. What you’ll find are some subtle but useful changes, like bigger pins, so you see more of what you love. We also responded to some feedback from pinners who told us they hated losing their place while browsing. Now, when you scroll through pins and click on something that interests you, the back button lands you right back where you were no matter how far you’ve gone.”

Improving discovery is important for users, but it’s also important for the site, who is looking to show potential marketers that Pinterest is worth their time. Earlier this month, Pinterest debuted an analytics tool for site owners. Currently free, Pinterest Web Analytics shows site owners how many people have pinned from their site, the reach of those pins across Pinterest, and the traffic referred to their sites from Pinterest.

The new version of Flickr for iOS bringss the photo-sharing app a little more in line with similar social apps Instagram and Twitter. Now, when you take a no filter, beach picture in the middle of summer, you can post it on Flickr’s iOS app as a #nofilter picture of the #beach in #summer.

Yep, Flickr for iOS now has hashtag support. You can addd hashtags to any photo’s title of description, and like hashtag functionality in any other app, clicking on the tag will open up a search of other photos on the service with the same hashtag.

Version 2.11.820 also allows iOS users to participate in Flickr’s weekly photo challenge, #FlickrFriday.

You still won’t find any “hashtags” on Flickr on the web – it’s still just “tags.” And any current web tags don’t translate to clickable hashtags on the iOS app. It look like for now, this shift toward hashtags is a mobile-only venture for Flickr.

In other hashtag news, anyone popular social service may be adding them in the near future. Recent reports said that Facebook is working on incorporating the hashtag.

You can grab the new Flickr for iOS today.

Facebook has finally filled its vacant Chief Technology Officer position today, and the job is going to Mike Schroepfer.

Schroepfer has served as VP of engineering at Facebook since August of 2008. Before that, he worked at Mozilla for three years where he also served as VP of engineering.

“Mike Schroepfer’s new designation as Facebook’s CTO reflects the unique and important role he plays across the company,” Facebook said in a statement.

The CTO position had been vacant since last summer, when former tech officer Bret Taylor left Facebook to start his own company. Taylor had joined Facebook in 2009 as the head of platform, having previously helmed FriendFeed.

[AllThingsD]

As you probably know, Google is shutting down Google Reader on July 1st.

And today, the senior engineer on the Google+ team is asking Google+ users to tell him exactly what they love about Google Reader, because he would “like to integrate those ideas into future versions of many Google products, and try to capture that value.”

Earlier today, Yonatan Zunger asked this question of his followers:

“I have a question for avid Google Reader users: what are the aspects of the way Reader works that made it so useful for you? I’ve heard a number of things floated in the past day — e.g., the particular sources available, the way of managing read/unread state, various aspects of the UI — but I’d like to understand better what the concrete things about Reader were which people found the most useful, because I’d like to integrate those ideas into future versions of many Google products, and try to capture that value.”

The responses have come fast and furious. Furious being the key word here. Zunger had to make an edit to his post, stating that:

“Warning: This is not a thread to simply complain about the shutdown, or to ask Google to keep Reader. That’s not something that I can help you with, nor is it a decision that I had anything to do with, and this is not a good place to get anyone’s attention about that. This thread is a place to talk about specific things which are useful about it so that we can think about good ways to capture that usefulness in the modern world.”

Some of the comments suggest that the most popular aspect of Google Reader is its simplicity.

“Simple logical layout. I always read in the minimal format- if a headline caught my interest I would expand. If further description really caught my attention, I would share out. Each of these functions were nested within each other, matching my increasing interest,” said one user.

“A big part of why I never hesitated to stop using it even being an early adopter of G+ was it’s clean interface. Even using sparks (I think that’s the name) wasn’t clean. It didn’t have the efficient notifications of new articles/post/content.,” said another.

Yesterday, a former Google product manager said that he thinks Google Reader’s demise is all tied up in Google+. His argument was that the Google Reader shutdown likely has nothing to do with operating costs. In fact, it more likely has to do with Google wanting to move resources into Google+.

Ars Technica, among others, suggested that Google Reader (or at least some sort of Google RSS feed product) could wind up, in some incarnation, as a part of Google+.

But for now, this is simply the chief architect for Google+ asking people to tell him what they like about Reader.

All it takes is a little bit of editing and the cast of Mad Men come alive to discuss…

March Madness of course! Check on Don, Betty, Pete, Peggy, Roger, and Bert discuss their pool, brackets, and all the upsets. Both March Madness and Mad Men are going to be gracing your TV screens soon, so why not celebrate the two together?

[via OfficialComedy]

Facebook is not, nor will they ever be in the business of donating money to causes based on sharing content on the site. This is a fact, not a theory. But some people still fail to understand this. Even people who know that it’s probably a scam will sometimes share the status or photo anyway, simply using the “what could it hurt” excuse.

And this is how viral scams are spread. If people simply stopped sharing content from like and share-whores, the problem would work itself out.

Sadly, this is probably not going to happen any time soon. That’s why we have to bring to your attention the latest hoax spreading across Facebook.

This one purports that Facebook is donating $1 to sick, starving children if you share a photo of them. This is simply not true.

“I’m not asking you to like this, but please do share because Facebook donates $1 for these sick children for every single share,” says the image (via Hoax Slayer).

Sharing hoaxes are some of the oldest types of hoaxes on Facebook. One recent hoax status suggested that a teenage boy needed life-saving surgery after being shot by his stepfather. Of course, the story was complete BS and all that sharing it accomplished was polluting people’s news feed. But it was shared – a lot.

Of course, sharing a status isn’t as tempting as sharing a photo. Last month, a scam spread around Facebook that featured a doctored photo of Bill Gates holding a sign that said he would give $5,000 to everyone who shared the photo. The photo was shared hundreds of thousands of times before Facebook yanked it.

Stop, think, and remember that Facebook doesn’t give out money based on shares. Nobody does. Just don’t click that share button.

Within hours of Google announcing that they would be shutting down Google Reader on July 1st, a handful of petitions popped up that urged the company to reconsider.

Those petitions included a few on Change.org, a single-serving site called keepgooglereader.com, and even a White House petition on the We The People site. That latter was quickly removed by the administrators before it could garner more than a few hundred signatures. Clearly, telling Google to maintain Google Reader is outside the purview of the Obama administration.

Out of all the petitions, one has risen above the rest. That particular petition, hosted on Change.org, simply asks Google to Keep Google Reader Running. And in less than two days, that petition has already crossed the 100,000 signature mark. Its next goal is to hit 150,000, which is most definitely achievable considering it’s gaining a hundred or so signatures every few minutes.

Here’s the full petition:

Dear Google:

A few years ago — years, wow — Google Reader was one of my go-to social networks. It was an accidental one. I was using it for its intended purpose — aggregating and reading a lot of web content in one place — but it turns out, a lot of other people were doing the same thing. A lot. Many of which shared interests and when you added the amazing (amazing!) share and comment features, Google Reader blossomed into a wonderful experience for many of us, core to our day-to-day consumption of content online.

Unfortunately, you decided to kill those “extra” functions. I’m not here to ask you to reverse that (you should, though). In doing so, Google Reader’s day-to-day value declined, and I, like many, ended up using it less often. Instead of hitting the bookmarklet I have on my Chrome install three, four times a day, it’s now a once a day (okay, once every other day more often, recently) experience.

But it’s still a core part of my Internet use. And of the many, many others who are signed below.

Our confidence in Google’s other products — Gmail, YouTube, and yes, even Plus — requires that we trust you in respecting how and why we use your other products. This isn’t just about our data in Reader. This is about us using your product because we love it, because it makes our lives better, and because we trust you not to nuke it.

Oh.

So, please don’t destroy that trust. You’re a huge corporation, with a market cap which rivals the GDP of nations. You’re able to dedicate 20% of your time to products which may never seen the light of day. You experiment in self-driving cars and really cool eyewear which we trust (trust!) you’ll use in a manner respectful to our needs, interests, etc.

Show us you care.

Don’t kill Google Reader.

So it’s obvious that plenty of people are upset about Google’s decision. Although Google cited a decline in usage as the motivation behind canning Reader, the product clearly has a loyal and substantial following.

But will this incredible show of support for Google Reader make any difference? I wouldn’t hold my breath. Google has killed 70 products or features since instituting “spring cleaning” back in 2011, and Google Reader is simply one of those layers of fat that needs to be trimmed, in Google’s eyes. Google admitted that the decision was a tough one, but in the end they need to do this in order to focus on other, newer and more innovative products as not the “spread themselves too thin.”

And that very well mean sending resources to work on Google+.

If Google decides to go through with the kill, which it probably will, where does that leave RSS readers? Alternatives already exists, such as Feedly or Newsblur. You can bet that there will be a race to fill the massive void left by Google Reader’s departure. Take for instance Digg, who announced yesterday that they were prioritizing plans to build their own reader that will serve as a replacement for Google’s – API and all.

So, a hundred thousand signatures in less-than 48 hours is a big deal. Hell, it’s a landslide of support for Google Reader. Unfortunately for the signers, Change.org is not the We The People site and Google isn’t the White House. 100,000 signatures does not force Google to respond. But I wouldn’t use that as a reason to stop spreading the word.

Stranger things have happened.

As you probably know, Twitter just started allowing line breaks inside tweets on the web this week. Before, users could only experience fragmented tweets on mobile.

This new functionality is particularly useful in three scenarios. Only three, ok? First, it allows users to tweet poetry in the line-by-line format in which in was meant to be seen. Haikus, anyone?

Next, it allows advertisers to make their promoted tweets stand out in the crowd. If you’re going to pay to promote a tweet, you might as well make it take up as much space as possible, right?

And lastly, it allows everyone to be super annoying. We wondered what the most useless, rage-inducing tweet looks like, now that users can insert line breaks. Turns out, the most terrible thing anyone can do now is create a tweet that takes up 70 lines (70 characters + 70 breaks = 140 total characters)

May I present the worst thing you can do on Twitter:

Ugh.