Mereja

Author: Josh Wolford

  • Pinterest for iOS Gets Pin Editing, Comment Managing

    Pinterest has just launched a small update to their iOS app that gives users more control over their pins and comments throughout the network.

    First up, Pinterest has greatly expanded what you can do inside the app regarding your pins. With version 2.2, you can now edit a pin’s description, transfer it to a different pinboard, and even delete the pin entirely.

    You also have more control over your comments. Royally screw up a comment? Now you can delete it inside the app. Someone spamming one of your pins? Now you can easily delete any comments made to your own pins as well.

    The full list of additions made in v2.2 includes pin editing, comment managing, big fixes, and smoother scrolling.

    Last week, Pinterest began testing a brand new web interface that improves navigation and displays more information inside every pin. That test is currently being rolled out to select users.

    You can grab the update to the iPhone and iPad app right now.

  • Facebook Building Passive Location-Tracking App for Friend Discovery [REPORT]

    If reports are correct, Facebook is currently hard at work building its own standalone location tracking app that will be able to tell your friends when you’re nearby and vice versa.

    Bloomberg quotes multiple people “familiar with the matter,” who say that Facebook’s new application could launch some time in mid-March. They say that the app would be “designed to help users find nearby friends and would run even when the program isn’t open on a handset.”

    Of course, this sounds like Facebook is building a competitor to services like Apple’s Find My Friends, Banjo, and even Foursquare a some degree. The big thing is that it would run passively, not requiring any sort of checking-in.

    Facebook already collects your location, both actively and passively. Once you allow the Facebook app to use your current location, Facebook knows exactly where you are. That’s how you’re able to tag a location to any status update you post, or easily find a location to check-in to. It’s how Facebook turned their Nearby feature into an actual location recommendation tool.

    And a standalone location tracking app would seemingly combine Facebook’s Nearby feature with Facebook Places.

    Of course, the inherent advantage that Facebook has when launching any sort of app is that giant trove of information. Whereas some location-based apps force you to build your contact base from the ground up, Facebook could launch a location tracking app that’s already stocked with your friends.

    Bloomberg reports that the team currently working on the location tracking app includes engineers from acquisitions like Glancee and Gowalla. It’s apparently being helmed by former Googler Peter Deng.

    Facebook clearly wants to be the service you use for connecting with friends on the go and finding stuff to do. With the launch of Nearby and the possible launch of an app that passively monitors friends’ locations, Facebook may be able to use its superior info graph to make a splash in the location arena.

  • If You Unfriend Someone on Facebook, They May Just Avoid You in Real Life

    For a good percentage of people, being unfriended on Facebook is a huge slap in the face. So much, in fact, that they would actively avoid running into the unfriender in real life.

    Then again, who decided that Facebook interactions don’t count as “real life?”

    The study comes from The University of Colorado Dever and Computer Science and Information Systems doctoral student Christopher Sibona. He conducted a survey via Twitter and found that 40% of people would avoid contact in real life (out in the world, not behind the computer) with anyone who happened to unfriend them on Facebook.

    50% said that they wouldn’t go out of their way to avoid outside contact, and 10% said that they might.

    According to the study, women were more likely to want to avoid IRL contact with people who unfriended them.

    The study also looked at motivating factors behind the act of avoidance.

    “The number one predictor was whether the person who said the relationship was over talked about it to someone else,” Sibona said. “Talking to someone is a public declaration that the friendship is over.”

    This isn’t the first study on “unfriending” authored by Sibona. In 2010, he found that the most common reasons that people get unfriended involve problematic posts. This includes boring life updates (just made a sandwich!), polarizing political posts, and remarks that could be viewed as sexist or racist.

    “Since it’s done online there is an air of unreality to it but in fact there are real life consequences,” said Sibona. “We are still trying to come to grips as a society on how to handle elements of social media. The etiquette is different and often quite stark.”

    News flash: Facebook is a part of the “real world” and your actions have consequences. Unfriending a person on Facebook gives the impression that you no longer care about what goes on in their life, or at least you don’t care to hear about it. Why should a person who’s received such a blast want to hang out with you in person?

    [University of Colorado Denver via CNET]

  • The Super Bowl Stole Eyes Away from the Internet

    Although it may have felt like your Facebook news feed, Twitter streams, and other social media networks were flooded with updates about Beyonce, the big blackout, ads, and Joe Flacco – Super Bowl XLVII didn’t drive people online. In fact, it pulled them offline in a big way.

    Broadband traffic analysts Sandvine is reporting that this year saw a return of the Super Dip, a phrase they coined last year to describe the plunge in internet traffic during the Super Bowl.

    Sandvine looked at a sample of internet traffic across the eastern U.S. and saw that overall network usage was down roughly 15% during the Super Bowl. The biggest dip in Internet use occurred right at the game was getting underway.

    But that doesn’t mean that web traffic was dead. Cordcutters made a significant impact on total traffic as CBS internet stream of the big game accounted for over 3% of total network traffic on Sunday evening.

    Still,

    “At Sandvine’s we’ve long maintained that the biggest screen is always the best screen to consume content, and for the Super Bowl it makes sense that most people would prefer to watch the game on their large HDTV. Since the only option to stream the game was via a web browser, getting the game streaming to their TV would have been a challenge for most people, so unsurprisingly viewers opted to tune in via their cable or satellite provider (in record numbers).”

    Are you a fan of the “second screen,” in that you follow big television events like The Super Bowl or The Oscars on social media? Or do you find yourself forgetting about the internet when you have something big to hold your attention on the big screen?

  • Facebook Goes to Trial with Timelines.com this April, Thinks Defeat Is Improbable

    Facebook will go to trial to defend their “Timeline” in April.

    Facebook’s Annual Report filing with the SEC revealed that the case, Timelines, Inc. v. Facebook, Inc., will go to trial on April 22nd of this year. In 2011, Timelines Inc., owners of Timelines.com, sued Facebook over the “Timeline” name. At that point, Facebook was just coming off of the f8 conference and beginning to roll out the new profile to more and more users.

    A couple of months after Timelines, Inc filed suit, Facebook countersued. Facebook’s argument all along is that the term “timeline” is generic. In their filing, Facebook listed dozens of instances of “timeline” being used in a generic capacity in the past, and made the point that a Google search of “timeline” yields over 196 million results.

    Timelines.com allows users to record and share historical events.

    “Given the generic or at least merely descriptive nature of the term ‘timeline’ when used to identify chronologies of events and related information (or tools for their creation), as well as the prior and widespread use of the term by third parties, Counterdefendant does not own exclusive rights in the term ‘timelines’ as used in connection with timeline creation and collection services,” claims Facebook.

    In their Annual Report, Facebook tells investors that they don’t see defeat as very probable in this case:

    In the Timelines case, the plaintiffs allege that Facebook infringes a trademark held by the plaintiffs…We believe the claims made by the Timelines plaintiffs are without merit, and we intend to continue to defend ourselves vigorously. Although the outcome of litigation is inherently uncertain, we do not believe the possibility of loss…is probable. We are unable to estimate a range of loss, if any, that could result were there to be an adverse final decision, and we have not accrued a liability for either matter.

    “If an unfavorable outcome were to occur in the…Timelines case, it is possible that the impact could be material to our results of operations in the period(s) in which any such outcome becomes probable and estimable,” says the company.

    [via Chicago Tribune]

  • John McCain Jokes About Ahmadinejad, Monkeys, and Iran’s Space Program on Twitter, Tells Everyone to Lighten Up

    Arizona Senator and former Republican candidate for President John McCain thinks Twitter needs to lighten up and take a joke.

    After reports emerged that Iran President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is prepared to be the first human sent into space by Iranian scientists, Senator McCain took to Twitter and made the following jab:

    “So Ahmadinejad wants to be first Iranian in space – wasn’t he just there last week?”

    He linked to an article on Iran’s recent monkey-led adventure into space:

    Last week we learned that Iran had sent a monkey into space, and that it had returned safely to Earth – at least it may have made it home alive. Iran’s Space agency confirmed that they used images of two different monkeys before and after the flight, but claim that it’s not an attempt at a coverup and the space monkey is alive and well.

    Either way, John McCain has received some negative feedback for his Twitter joke.

    In response to that, McCain just tweeted this:

    Maybe the Senator’s Twitter account has been compromised. It’s just a joke, but it still feels strange coming from the official Twitter account of a sitting U.S. Senator, even one with a history of being hawkish on the subject of Iran.

  • State Dept. Fails to See the Problem with John Kerry Signing His Tweets “JK”

    You know how the official Twitter accounts of top government officials and the First Family make a point to let us know when it’s really them sending out the tweet, instead of their staff? For instance, a tweet sent from Barack Obama’s twitter account is only credited to the President himself when the tweet contains his initials at the end (-bo). It’s the same with Michelle Obama (-mo) and some other White House officials.

    Well, it appears that the State Department’s official Twitter account is going to use the same protocol with new Secretary of State John Kerry. All tweets from the Secretary will be signed as such:

    -JK

    Yep, JK. As in “Two Americans held hostage in North Korea – jk” or “Were getting ready to invade Iran – jk.”

    Twitter users have been quick to pick up on why this could lead to some confusion. How will we know when it’s Secretary Kerry making his own tweet or the State Department just kidding?

  • Twitter May Be Getting More Serious About Two-Factor Authentication

    Is Twitter ramping up their efforts to implement two-factor authentication to make your accounts more secure?

    Two-factor authentication (2FA), generically, is any approach to authentication that has multiple layers. Around the web (like with Google for instance), it is usually applied with a combination of a password and mobile alert. When a new device/location attempts to log on to a Google account, not only is a password required but so is a secondary authentication code sent to a user’s mobile device.

    This way, an unauthorized user would not only have to obtain your password, but also your phone in order to access your account. It’s simply another layer of security, and one that companies like Google say “drastically reduces” the chances of a bad guy getting their hands on your personal info.

    The Guardian points to a job posting on Twitter’s employment site. The post is for a full-time software engineer in the specialized area of product security. Among the duties of said position is to “design and develop user-facing security features, such as multifactor authentication and fraudulent login detection.”

    As you may remember, Twitter made a pretty bad screw-up last November when they accidentally reset a bunch of passwords for accounts that hadn’t actually been compromised, following a hack that did see some accounts compromised.

    Like any online service, Twitter accounts are vulnerable to being compromised and used for nefarious purposes – whether that be malicious spam messages or simply hijacking tweets in order to expose or embarrass.

    In the past, Twitter has stated that they’ve “certainly explored two-factor authentication,” but to date the company has made no public declarations of intent. While this job posting is far from conclusive evidence that Twitter plans to implement 2FA, it does suggest that they are looking for personnel that could possibly draw up such a system.

  • Yes, Facebook May Owe You $10; That Email Isn’t a Scam

    Million and millions of U.S. Facebook users received an email last weekend that read LEGAL NOTICE OF SETTLEMENT OF CLASS ACTION – just like that, in all caps. It says that “a federal court authorized this notice,” and that it’s “not a solicitation from a lawyer.”

    It also tells you that you may be entitled to up to $10, coming directly from the deep pockets of Facebook.

    Although it may sound like a scam (in fact it really, really sounds like a scam), you can rest assured that it is 100% legit. You can proceed with your claim without fear – but you may not want to.

    This past weekend, another large group of Facebook users received the Settlement email, which stems from an ongoing class action lawsuit that was first filed in early 2012. Facebook settled the lawsuit, which claimed that the company had infringed upon the privacy rights of users when they used their likenesses, photos, and activity in Sponsored Stories ads without consent, compensation, or the ability to opt-out.

    The initial settlement was rejected, however, and Facebook was forced to rework the terms. In December 2012, a judge issued a preliminary ruling approving the new terms: a $20 million settlement that will see the majority handed out to users or to various charities and advocacy groups. It all depends on how many claims are filed.

    What Facebook has done, in the simplest of terms, is create a giant fund that can be used to pay class members. If you received an email, it means that you are eligible to sign on as a class member because your activity or likeness was used in a Sponsored Story prior to December 3rd, 2012. The amount that each claimant will receive depends on how many people jump in the pool. If too many people file a claim, and it’s “economically infeasible” to pay out everyone, the fund will be distributed to around a dozen non-profits who all operate to “teach adults and children how to use social media technologies safely,” or to “protect the interest of children.

    They are:

    Center for Democracy and Technology, Electronic Frontier Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, Joan Ganz Cooney Center, Berkman Center for Internet and Society (Harvard Law School), Information Law Institute (NYU Law School), Berkeley Center for Law and Technology (Berkeley Law School), Center for Internet and Society (Stanford Law School), High Tech Law Institute (Santa Clara University School of Law), Campaign for Commercial-Free Childhood, Consumers Federation of America, Consumer Privacy Rights Fund, ConnectSafely.org, and WiredSafety.org.

    If you received the settlement notice, you have five options. You can either submit a claim, which makes you eligible for the $10, but prevents you from joining any other action against Facebook in this realm. Or you can exclude yourself, which lets you retain your ability to sue Facebook in matters pertaining to Sponsored Stories. If you do nothing, you give up your right to both the money and future litigation.

    There’s also options to object to the settlement or attend a hearing, neither of which will really be considered by most users.

    If you decide to file a claim, however, you should know that you’ll be attesting to a few things that might be difficult to attest to (for the more informed Facebook user). As pointed out by Forbes, you’ll agree that you were “not aware that Facebook could be paid a fee for displaying actions such as these, along with my name and/or profile picture, to my Facebook friends,” and that you were truly “injured” by the display of your info in a Sponsored Story.

    Anyway, all of the information you need to take any route is available on a dedicated site for the suit, fraleyfacebooksettlement.com

    What’s just as interesting as the cy pres settlement is the set of changes that Facebook has agreed to implement as a result of the ruling. Facebook has promised to add new language to its terms, making Sponsored Stories easier to understand for the average user. Facebook has also agreed to implement better mechanisms for viewing past activities that may have been featured in Sponsored Stories, as well as set up tighter controls on what appears in the future.

    Here are all of those stipulations, as provided by the agreement in Fraley v. Facebook:

    • Revise its terms of service (known as the “Statement of Rights and Responsibilities” or “SRR”) to more fully explain the instances in which users agree to the display of their names and profile pictures in connection with Sponsored Stories
    • Create an easily accessible mechanism that enables users to view, on a going-forward basis, the subset of their interactions and other content on Facebook that have been displayed in Sponsored Stories (if any)
    • Develop settings that will allow users to prevent particular items or categories of content or information related to them from being displayed in future Sponsored Stories
    • Revise its SRR to confirm that minors represent that their parent or legal guardian consents to the use of the minor’s name and profile picture in connection with commercial, sponsored, or related content
    • Provide parents and legal guardians with additional information about how advertising works on Facebook in its Family Safety Center and provide parents and legal guardians with additional tools to control whether their children’s names and profile pictures are displayed in connection with Sponsored Stories
    • Add a control in minor users’ profiles that enables each minor user to indicate that his or her parents are not Facebook users and, where a minor user indicates that his or her parents are not on Facebook, Facebook will make the minor ineligible to appear in Sponsored Stories until he or she reaches the age of 18, until the minor changes his or her setting to indicate that his or her parents are on Facebook, or until a confirmed parental relationship with the minor user is established.

    As far as the money goes, you have until May 2nd to submit your claim. Or you can do nothing, of course. Personally, I don’t think I can file a claim that stipulates my ignorance on the fact that Facebook was making money off of Sponsored Stories. Plus, I don’t find myself feeling particularly wronged by the concept of a Sponsored Story. And in the end, filing a claim is simply more of a hassle than it’s worth.

    But if you completely disagree with me (as I’m sure many do), and you received an email, you can proceed with the knowledge that this is all legit. Happy claims filing.

  • Here’s Adobe’s Super Bowl Ad About Online Advertising That You Won’t See on Sunday

    You won’t see this advertisement for Adobe’s Marketing Cloud during the Super Bowl on Sunday. It features a monkey talking to a horse about how ridiculous it is to spend millions over dollars on a TV ad.

    Once again, you won’t be seeing this ad on Super Bowl Sunday. But you can watch it now:

  • Foursquare Now Links to Businesses’ Twitter Accounts on Cross-Posted Check-ins

    Foursquare is making a small tweak that could make a big difference for businesses trying to connect with their patrons (and wishing to court new patrons).

    Starting today, businesses will be given the option to connect their Twitter accounts with check-ins shared on Twitter.

    This mean that your businesses’ Twitter account will be mentioned in check-ins when any user shares that check-in on Twitter.

    Up until now, Foursquare check-ins cross-posted to Twitter take on this format: “Blah blah I’m doing this blah blah (at Butter Lane w/ 19 others).”

    If a business decides to link their Twitter account, the tweet would mention their Twitter account instead of simply their name. “”Blah blah I’m doing this blah blah (Butterlane w/ 19 others).”

    “It’s a small change to help you better reach out to and connect with people who love your business,” says Twitter.

    And they’re right. It makes it easier for someone who sees the check-in tweet to find your business.

    Foursquare says that if you’ve claimed your business and already linked your Twitter account, this change will happen automatically. Otherwise, head here to turn on the new feature.

  • Use the Coachella Lineup to Check Your Hipster Level

    As you may know, Coachella released its lineup last week. If you were on the interwebs at all, you probably heard a lot of “Stone Roses? Stone Roses?” You wanna be adored? You may want to stay home from Coachella, as most of the 18 year-olds have no idea who you are. Of course, that’s not a rip on The Stone Roses, and more of a rip on the dumbasses who bitch about them on Twitter.

    But I digress. Any festival lineup is going to have its supporters and its detractors. Coachella 2013 has some great acts, and some less inspiring acts. That’s the way it’s gonna be.

    Luckily, we can use the Coachella lineup to determine a person’s hipster cred, although we can’t really figure out which end of the spectrum is more desirable. Sometimes it’s nice to be a “disgusting mainstream whore.” Unless you’re “pure filth hipster scum,” in which case it’s so mainstream to kind of like the mainstream.

    It’s simple – you’re assigned positive of negative points for every band in the festival that you like. Red Hot Chili Peppers are the most offensive to hipster, with a score of -10. If you find yourself liking bands like the Wombats, Cassy, and Sam XL Pure Filth Sound, you’re going to skyrocket up the hipster chart.

    [Endless Origami via The Daily What]
    [Photo courtesy JohnnyCashsAshes, Flickr]

  • These Phony Twitter Accounts Can’t Verify You (Hint: They’re Not Even Verified Themselves)

    I know that it would be really cool to be verified on Twitter. It would mean that you were important – important enough to need a verified account because of all the jokers out there that want to create fake accounts because they want to be you. You’re that cool. At least it would be cool to have the illusion of social media relevance, right?

    But if you run across a Twitter profile claiming to offer quick and easy verifications if you only retweet their posts, don’t fall for it.

    The Verge ran a story on a particular bogus Twitter account, @PrivateVerified, that had amassed over 22,000 followers in less than a day. How did it become so popular? Simple – by asking users to follow and retweet in order to receive verification.

    That account was quickly suspended, but it led to readers finding tons of other fraudulent accounts that promised verification. It’s kind of an epidemic, actually. Take for instance @VerifiedTwitter, @requestVerified and @NextVerified, all of which has thousands of followers but are now shut down.

    Of course, these types of accounts keep popping up in place of the ones Twitter catches onto. It’s like a giant game of whack-a-mole. Take @freeverifiying for instance, which has over 16,000 followers.

    Don’t do it. They can’t verify you. No. Don’t click it. What are you doing. Dont. Stahp.

    Here’s what Twitter has to say about the verification process:

    Twitter proactively verifies accounts on an ongoing basis to make it easier for users to find who they’re looking for. We concentrate on highly sought users in music, acting, fashion, government, politics, religion, journalism, media, advertising, business, and other key interest areas. We verify business partners from time to time and individuals at high risk of impersonation.

    We do not accept requests for verification from the general public. If you fall under one of the above categories and your Twitter account meets our qualifications for verification, we may reach out to you in the future.

    Twitter is not going to ask you for retweets in order to verify your account. Twitter is especially not going to ask you for retweets from a non-verified account in order to verify your account (all of these bogus accounts are un-verified themselves).

    There is one real Twitter account dealing with verified accounts, however. It’s @verified and yes, it’s verified by Twitter. Although it has over 730,000 followers, it hasn’t tweeted since August. And even though it’s an official Twitter account, it never offered quick verifications to anyone – it simply tweeted out helpful links.

  • Amazon Steals Downton Abbey From Netflix & Hulu – Past, Present, and Future

    As of right now, you can watch the hit Masterpiece Classic show Downton Abbey on Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime Instant Video. Some time this year, that will no longer be the case.

    Amazon has just announced a deal with PBS Distribution that will make Prime Instant Video the only place that Downton Fans will be able to stream the show.

    Eventually. Amazon will have exclusive rights to Downton Abbey Season 3 (currently airing) on June 18th, and will gain exclusive rights to the other two seasons “later this year.” No specifics on the actual date that you’ll see Downton disappear from Netflix and Hulu.

    Not only that, but Amazon is keeping Downton out of the hands of Netflix and Hulu for the foreseeable future. Prime Instant Video will continue to be the exclusive subscription home of season 4 and season 5, if that actually becomes a thing.

    “Our Prime customers have spoken—they can’t get enough of the MASTERPIECE CLASSIC series ‘Downton Abbey.’ The series is consistently in our top most watched TV shows each week, making it the most popular TV series with Prime Instant Video customers, ever,” said Brad Beale, Director of Digital Video Content Acquisition for Amazon. “Prime Instant Video will soon be the exclusive subscription video streaming home for ‘Downton Abbey.’”

    This is a big move by Amazon to secure the rights to an extremely popular show. Locking up exclusive rights to Downton Abbey’s past, present, and future is a pretty good wallop to other streaming services – a scheme that Thomas could surely approve of.

  • Reed Hastings Challenges SEC on Netflix-Related Facebook Posts

    Netflix CEO Reed Hastings absolutely thinks that social media is a “public” enough forum to house statements from companies to investors.

    He says that he’s “not going to back down” and that he would continue to post information about his company on Facebook.

    Hastings and Netflix ran afoul of the SEC back in December over a post made last summer to Hastings’ official Facebook page. The post contained some stats about Netflix, mainly that the company was nearly a billion hours of streaming a month. He later posted that netflix had finally topped the 1 billion hour mark.

    The SEC claimed that the post violated Regulation FD (Fair Disclosure), a rule that forces companies to make public disclosures of information material to investors. Usually, that means via a press release or a large news source. For the SEC, a Facebook post doesn’t count as “public” enough.

    Even if the man making the post has over 250,000 subscribers. That was one of Hastings’ points when he hit back at the SEC in (you guessed it) a Facebook post.

    “First, we think posting to over 200,000 people is very public, especially because many of my subscribers are reporters and bloggers.”

    Hastings also made the point that he has disclosed the information in a blog prior to his Facebook post, and that the information wasn’t even “material” in the first place:

    “Second, while we think my public Facebook post is public, we don’t currently use Facebook and other social media to get material information to investors; we usually get that information out in our extensive investor letters, press releases and SEC filings. We think the fact of 1 billion hours of viewing in June was not “material” to investors, and we had blogged a few weeks before that we were serving nearly 1 billion hours per month,” he said.

    “I wasn’t setting out to set an example. I was sharing something to these 200,000 people,” Hastings recently told Bloomberg. “I’m not going to back down and say it’s inappropriate. I think it’s perfectly fine. Sometimes you’re just the example that triggers the debate.”

    The SEC is currently considering the case.

    [via Bloomberg]

  • Watch ‘House of Cards’ for Free, But Only Episode One and Only for a Month

    Netflix is dangling a carrot in front of non-members’ faces by offering the pilot episode of their brand-new original series House of Cards to everyone – for one month. Non-members (and members, of course) can head here to stream the 56-minute long “Chapter 1.”

    “The creative team in front of and behind the camera have delivered a riveting 13-chapter narrative that we’re proud to present to Netflix members today,” said Ted Sarandos , Chief Content Officer, Netflix. “By offering the first episode for free, including to non-members, we are opening up this fascinating world for everyone to see and are confident they’ll want more.”

    House of Cards became available on Netflix (all 13 episodes at once) today. It’s helmed by David Fincher and stars Kevin Spacey as a scheming Congressman.

    Based on the British miniseries, ruthless and cunning, Congressman Francis Underwood (Oscar® winner Kevin Spacey) and his wife Claire (Robin Wright) stop at nothing to conquer everything. This wicked political drama penetrates the shadowy world of greed, sex, and corruption in modern D.C. Kate Mara (“American Horror Story”) and Corey Stoll (“Midnight in Paris”) costar in the first original series from David Fincher (“The Social Network”) and Beau Willimon (“The Ides of March”).

    Apparently, Netflix has made a strong enough pilot episode that they feel it could be useful in roping in subscribers. It’s a smart move, as nothing is more frustrating that loving a show, knowing that you could sit on your couch all day and watch it in its entirety, but not having access. But will users sign up on the strength of House of Cards? That, of course, remains to be seen.

    Netflix isn’t the first content provider to try the ol’ hook ‘em with the first episode trick. HBO is known for doing a little bit of that themselves.

  • HBO Go Coming to Apple TV [REPORT]

    Starting some time this year, you may have another incentive to go out and grab an Apple TV box.

    According to Bloomberg, two people familiar with the plans say that Apple is in negotiations to add HBO Go, HBO’s streaming service, to their Apple TV devices. If finalized, the deal could see and HBO Go app appear on Apple TV by mid-2013.

    That would bring over 600 hours of HBO content – TV series, movies, documentaries, and more to Apple TV customers.

    Apple TV already sports apps from other streaming video providers like Netflix and Hulu, but having HBO Go could boost the product’s attractiveness. Although HBO Go requires that users already pay for an HBO subscription through a cable TV provider, the allure of the HBO Go app is strong because of the popularity of the content offered.

    Although there are plenty of people out there who want HBO content, but refuse to also pay for a cable subscription in order to get it. HBO has given Nordic customers the chance to subscribe to HBO Go sans cable subscription, but they’ve pretty much rejected the idea in the U.S., where many are clamoring for it.

    Apple TV wouldn’t be the first Apple product to feature an HBO Go app. iOS users can stream HBO programming via their iPads, iPhones, and iPod touches.

    HBO Go is available on those iDevices, Roku, Microsoft’s Xbox, Amazon’s Kinde Fire, and various smart TVs.

  • ‘House of Cards’ Is Now Available for Your Streaming Pleasure (All 13 Episodes)

    The wait is finally over. Today, Netflix drops all 13 episodes of the David Fincher/Kevin Spacey political drama House of Cards. Although it’s not the first Netflix original series to premiere (think Lilyhammer), it’s definitely the biggest budget series to debut on the streaming platform.

    As is becoming tradition, Netflix has made all 13 episodes available at once. Anyone up for a marathon?

    House of Cards stars Kevin Spacey as a the House Majority Whip, a master politician who sets his sights on much higher office. Here’s the official synopsis:

    Based on the British miniseries, ruthless and cunning, Congressman Francis Underwood (Oscar® winner Kevin Spacey) and his wife Claire (Robin Wright) stop at nothing to conquer everything. This wicked political drama penetrates the shadowy world of greed, sex, and corruption in modern D.C. Kate Mara (“American Horror Story”) and Corey Stoll (“Midnight in Paris”) costar in the first original series from David Fincher (“The Social Network”) and Beau Willimon (“The Ides of March”).

    House of Cards is the true first punch to the traditional cable model for Netflix, but it’s definitely not the only one they have in store. In May, the long-awaited new season of Arrested Development will debut on Netflix – you guessed it, all at once. And just a few weeks before that, the original series Hemlock Grove from horror master Eli Roth will make its debut.

    Yesterday we learned that Microsoft will unlock the Netflix app to all Xbox LIVE users (not just GOLD members) this weekend with the expressed purpose of getting House of Cards into more living rooms.

  • Let’s Learn Some Stuff About Our Brains, Shall We? [VIDEO]

    Today, our favorite YouTube science illustrators want to teach you about fast thinking and slow thinking with some cool brain tricks. I can see no reason why we shouldn’t oblige them.

    Long story short, your fast thinking mechanisms in your brain are always trying to parse out information as quickly as possible. This is fairly useful in day-to-day life. But sometimes, our fast thinking betrays us in its desire for speed. Slow thinking is what we need to use to solve certain problems.

    But then again, slow thinking engagement can make you blind to a bunch of other stimuli out there in the world.

    Basically, your brain is awesome and terrible. Have fun.

    [AsapSCIENCE]

  • Facebook Suggests Starbucks Gifts Inside Birthday Reminders

    Facebook may be getting a little more specific with their suggestions for how to properly celebrate your friend’s birthday.

    Soon after launching their new ecommerce platform Facebook Gifts, the social network began suggesting that you send friends a gift when it’s their birthday. Suddenly, a cheesy Timeline post ceased to be enough. Facebook wanted to promote the new Gifts platform by attaching it to birthdays – which is understandable.

    Now, it looks like they’re taking it a step further by suggesting that you gift friends with a Starbucks e-gift, specifically.

    Facebook told Business Insider that this is an “experiment.”

    We’ve noticed that if the birthday boy or girl “likes” Starbucks, that information will show up alongside the Starbucks logo. That way, you’ll know that getting him/her a Starbucks gift card would be a good idea. You know, because they “like” it.

    It’s unclear what the arrangement is here, and whether Starbucks (and presumably any other Facebook Gifts partner) would pay for the birthday suggestions placement in the future. As with all Facebook “tests” or “experiments,” there’s always the chance that it will never reach a large audience. But something about this one makes me feel like we’ll be seeing more and more of it as Facebook looks to further promote and monetize Gifts.