Category: Social Networks
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Socialites – A look at social networks that have come and gone over the past 50 years

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We may think of the term ‘social network’ as a relatively new creation, but it turns out the legacy of sites like Facebook, Google+ and Pinterest have a history dating as far back as the 1960s.

the start of social

The team at Citizen Brando have traveled through time (sort of) to find which sites and services have tried to become the people’s social network over the years; turns out, there have been quite a few, see how many you remember. Read more »

Official Foursquare app hits Bada

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If Foursquare is your social network of choice and you happen to have a Bada handset we have some great news for you. The official app has just landed at the Samsung Apps repository and is available as a free download to anyone interested.

Previously, Bada users had to resort to the Foursquare mobile version, but now they got their own apps to deliver the functionality of the popular network. The app is compatible with all versions of the Samsung proprietary OS, so you should be invited to the party no matter what Bada smartphone you have. Read more »

Twitter updates Android and iOS apps, adds support for Kindle Fire and Nook tablets

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The native Twitter apps for Android and iOS have been criticized a lot since they were updated a couple of months ago. The iOS version removed basic things like the ability to swipe on tweets and mark all direct messages as read and the Android version was downright unusable due to its sluggish UI. Thankfully, the latest update fixes all that.

The new update brings a host of changes on both the platforms. On Android the performance has greatly been improved, making the application infinitely more usable now. You can also swipe on tweets now to access commonly used functions such as reply, retweet, etc. The latest update also adds optimization for devices running on Ice Cream Sandwich. Read more »

Google updates Google+ app for iOS, adds Instant Upload and What’s Hot stream

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The Google+ app for iOS has always been (understandably) behind the curve compared to its Android counterpart, with some of the features appearing a bit later. The latest feature to trickle down from the Android app is Instant Upload.

As some of you may know, Instant Upload uploads the pictures you take with the camera on your phone and uploads it to a private folder in your Google+ account. It’s actually a neat way to back up your images on an Android phone but with Photo Stream in iCloud, iOS users might not be in any real need of this feature. Read more »

Angry Birds conquers Facebook as its latest platform

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Yep, the game which is literally available on almost any device on the planet, be it mobile or not, is now available on Facebook, too. The only surprise here is what took Rovio so long?

As it turns out, the Facebook version of the game is much more sophisticated and feature-rich than its Google+ cousin, which was launched back in the summer of last year. Angry Birds on Facebook runs on Adobe Flash 11 and supports 3D graphics, which put your computer through its paces rendering the cool lighting, smoke and explosion effects the game boasts. Read more »

Instagram update brings new photo-enhancing effect, new filter and updated UI

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The highly popular Instagram app was recently updated and brought a handful of new features and changes. First of all is the new Lux effect, which brings out more detail in your images. It works a bit similar to the HDR function built-into the iPhone’s camera and brings out the details in the dark as well as light areas of the picture. This effect can then also be accompanied by a filter.

Other changes include the addition of a new filter called ‘Sierra’ and a redesigned interface that uses an updated header and menu buttons for a simpler and more refined look. Instagram has also added tappable notifications, where tapping on a notification will take you to the relevant image, comment or profile page in the app. Read more »

Facebook now has 845 million active users, won $1 billion last year

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As you probably know, Facebook filled for IPO yesterday. We are not going to bore you with the technical information about it, as those are mostly of interest to banks and their corporate clients at this point, but the documents submitted mention a few quite interesting facts about the social network.

Obviously, the network still hasn’t reached saturation point as its user base keeps growing. By the end of last year Facebook had 845 million users, who formed 100 billion friendships, uploaded 250 million photos per day and generated 2.7 billion daily likes. Read more »

Google Plus to top 100 million users

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Google+ is expected to have amassed around 100,000,000 users by Wednesday of this week.

Googling GSMArena

Self-proclaimed “unofficial statistician” for Google+ and founder of Ancestry.com, Paul B. Allen (who we’ve met before) predicted that come Wednesday evening, the readouts at Google HQ should be counting 100.8 million active users on their social network. Read more »

Android Developers comes to Google+

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Google’s Android Developers program has just landed on Google+. It’s a bit strange that it took so long because they have had a Twitter profile for a while now.

The new Google+ profile is meant for “Android developers everywhere to meet, share, and connect with the people behind the Android developer experience”. Read more »

Angry Birds hitting Facebook on February 14

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This Valentine’s day may be quite lonely for a lot of people, whose significant others are into Angry Birds. Rovio just confirmed that their immensely popular title is hitting the world’s largest social network on February 14.

Rovio plans to hold a huge launch event in Jakarta, which according to the company is the “global capital of Facebook”. The Facebook version will brings some nice new twists to the gameplay, so it’s definitely one worth checking out. Read more »

Facebook contribute £2.2bn, along with over 35,000 jobs to the UK economy

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It’s no secret that the Euro zone’s economy isn’t on the whole, riding high right now. Not only that, the UK managed to hit the £1 trillion debt mark, just the other day.

The UK have Facebook to thank for a sizeable contribution to their economy right now

So with the shadow of a double-dip recession looming back into view, who are the UK turning to in order to stimulate their economy? Facebook, apparently. Read more »

Google+ adds meme-style photo captioning

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Google+ is going to add a simple edit tool for your future picture uploads, giving you the option to make captions to them.

Those of you familiar with meme captioning of pics should know what we’re talking about. Read more »

A breakdown of Facebook’s expected $100 billion worth once it goes public [INFOGRAPHIC]

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Facebook is pretty popular, ‘pretty’ possibly being the understatement of the century, but did you know that in fact 1 in 10 people use Facebook and that combined, that makes 800 million users worldwide?

Facebook IPO Infogrpahic

With that much activity, Facebook Inc. have made themselves a pretty sizable audience for advertisers to address, but with talks of the company going public, just how much did you expect it was actually worth? Read more »

Facebook Messenger is now available for Windows

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Facebook has just released the Messenger app for Windows 7. It’s been available for iOS and Android for some time too.

The app does exactly what it’s supposed to do – bring the Facebook chat outside Facebook. But there are a few more features too. Read more »

Google Plus can reach 400 million users in 2012, already has 62 million says unofficial statistician

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Google may have finally found a solution to the social networking problem that has eluded them for years – Google Plus is populated by 62 million users and will hit 400 million by the end of 2012, according to self-proclaimed “unofficial statistician” Paul Allen (no, not that Paul Allen).

The last official figure we got was 40 million users, but that was way back in October. Allen’s estimates put the growth rate of Google Plus at 625,000 new users per day. At this rate, Google Plus will hit the 100 million users mark before the end of February and 200 million in August. Read more »