Tech | Cheryl Waller

Facebook Now Lets You Comment With a Photo

June 19, 2013 by Emily Price Leave a Comment

Facebook has started to roll out photo comments, a new feature that allows you to comment on posts with images rather than words.

Originally built during a Facebook employee hackathon, photo comments are starting to roll out globally on the web as well as the Facebook mobile site. Users can't yet leave photo comments within Facebook's mobile apps, but they are viewable. The feature is expected to come to those apps in a future update.

SEE ALSO: How to Change Your Facebook Relationship Status Without Alerting Friends

Adding a photo comment involves clicking a camera icon beside the text box where you would typically write a message and then uploading an image from your computer. Read more...

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Facebook Will Introduce ‘New Product’ on June 20

June 14, 2013 by Emily Price Leave a Comment

Facebook sent out invitations to press Friday for an event at its Menlo Park, Calif., campus on June 20.

Sent via traditional snail mail, rather than email, the postcards invite reporters to come see the “big idea” that a “small team” has been working on. There’s also promise of coffee — which explains why there is a coffee stain on the invite — while we learn about whatever the mystery product might be.

SEE ALSO: 20 Things Your Most Annoying Friends Do on Facebook

Facebook has started to make an almost monthly tradition of holding press announcements at its headquarters. At its last event, the company announced Facebook Home, an Android launcher, a product that hasn't been particularly well received and works on select Android handsets. Read more...

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Is Facebook Working on Its Own RSS Reader?

June 13, 2013 by Samantha Murphy Leave a Comment

With Google Reader closing up shop on July 1, devoted users are still scrounging around for an RSS feed replacement. Could Facebook create the next big place to stay updated on news across the Internet?

According to Tom Waddington, a web developer for the site Cut Out + Keep, a new code on Facebook hints that Facebook may launch RSS feeds for users in the future

A RSS feed would allow users to subscribe to and pull in online content from news organizations, blogs and videos to keep up with news

SEE ALSO: How to Export Your RSS Feeds From Google Reader

Waddington noted in a blog post that he spotted Facebook code for RSS feeds, with each showing multiple entries and a list of subscribers. Facebook typically lists the types of content and connections among that content in its code, such as user photos and tagged geolocations. Read more...

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‘Song for Pic’ Adds Music to Instagram Photos

June 7, 2013 by Samantha Murphy Leave a Comment

Ready to add a little music to Instagram photos? A new platform called Song for Pic randomly matches songs to your pictures and lets you and your friends vote on which works best.

The free service, which syncs with your existing Instagram account, can be played and shared with friends, letting everyone vote on a soundtrack for certain pictures.

Here's how it works: After Song for Pic connects to your Instagram account (just sign in), it will randomly choose a picture from your library. Then, it offers four song choices, which can be played by selecting one of the colored boxes highlighted below the image. A voting feature lets others weigh in on their favorite song pick. Read more...

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Facebook Starts Rolling Out Home Improvements

June 6, 2013 by Emily Price Leave a Comment

Facebook updated its Android app Tuesday, and enhanced Facebook Home, its all-encompassing skin for Android smartphones.

Facebook Home now has a dock, making it easier to access favorite apps

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The addition of the dock is the first of many improvements Facebook has planned for Home, improvements being made in part based on the reactions of early adopters to the launcher.

“We’ve spent a lot of time digging through the one star ratings,” Facebook's Director of Mobile Engineering Cory Ondrejka told a small group of reporters earlier this month

Facebook already has plans to add folders for grouping your apps to Home as well. Read more...

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Waze Upgrade Includes Integration With Facebook Events

May 30, 2013 by Todd Wasserman Leave a Comment

Waze, the social navigation app that is reportedly an acquisition target for Google, among others, on Thursday unveiled an upgrade that includes integration with Facebook Events.

The upgrade, timed for the start of summer driving holidays, boasts one-tap navigation via the oft-overlooked Facebook Events. In theory, the app will remind you of planned events this summer and, when apt, will organize large groups driving to weddings, concerts or road trips in multiple cars. RSVPing to a Facebook Event will trigger directions at the appropriate time. In addition Wazers heading to an event can see which of their Facebook friends have already arrived. Of course, Waze will also use crowdsourcing to check the roads for the quickest, least-trafficked routes as well Read more...

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No, Instagram Isn’t Randomly Deleting Accounts

May 24, 2013 by Todd Wasserman Leave a Comment

A glitch Thursday night prompted rumors that Instagram was randomly deleting accounts. However, the company says although some people lost access to their accounts for a short time, there was no mass purge.

Nevertheless, during the height of the rumors Thursday night, the hashtag #Dontdeletemyaccount made the rounds on Instagram (where more than 500,000 photos used the tag) and on Twitter. As many noted, using such a hashtag would be unlikely to change anyone's mind

OMG youth of the world relax @instagram isn't suddenly going to delete your account for not posting #dontdeletemyaccount

— Danny Sullivan (@dannysullivan) May 24, 2013 Read more...

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Exclusive: Pandora Deepens Its Integration With Facebook

May 22, 2013 by Emily Price Leave a Comment

It’s easier than ever to share what you’re listening to on Pandora with your Facebook friends, thanks to an extended partnership between the two companies

Starting Wednesday, the songs and stations you listen to, as well as the tracks you give a "thumbs up," can be shared directly to Facebook. Details about your activity on Pandora, when shared via the social network, is then aggregated and displayed as part of the music section on your Facebook profile.

Pandora already supported sharing individual pieces of content to Facebook and Twitter. The new integration is the product of a year-and-a-half-long conversation between Facebook and Pandora. Read more...

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Facebook Home Finally Hits 1 Million Downloads

May 12, 2013 by Seth Fiegerman Leave a Comment

Facebook Home has finally hit 1 million downloads exactly one month after being released for Android, according to install numbers in the Google Play store

At a press event on Thursday, Facebook's director of mobile engineering told reporters that Home had been downloaded "just about" 1 million times. On Sunday, Facebook Home was classified as having been installed 1 million - 5 million times in the Google Play Store. Facebook did not immediately respond to our request for comment about when exactly it passed the million mark.

While it's certainly a good milestone to reach, demand for Facebook Home appears to be dropping off. It took Facebook 10 days to hit 500,000 downloads and about twice that long to hit 1 million. Data from App Annie, which tracks app store rankings, shows that Facebook Home is currently below the top 100 Android apps in every country where it's available. In the US, it barely cracked the top 50 at its peak and has since dropped out of the top 300. Read more...

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Facebook Home Gets Unofficial Support on More Phones

May 10, 2013 by Christina Warren Leave a Comment

Good news, Android fans: You can now install Facebook Home on your device — provided it's running Android 4.0 or higher — whether it's officially supported or not.

Facebook Home was released last month to lots of fanfare but with limited device support. A month and nearly a million downloads later, Facebook Home is available on more phones. At least, on an unofficial basis.

Users who don't have an HTC One X, HTC One, HTC First, Galaxy S III or Galaxy Note II still can't download the app from Google Play, but if you manage to sideload the app, it will work.

While I was setting up an AT&T variant of the Samsung Galaxy S4 today, I noticed that Facebook Home finally worked on the device, albeit with a warning that I might not get "the best experience." The Galaxy S4 is supposed to get official Facebook Home support, so at first I thought this might just be a fluke. Read more...

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