Facebook Announces Newly Designed News Feeds

Facebook announced new design elements to engage users more effectively on Facebook on Thursday.  The new design rolls out today, facebook.com/newsfeed, for some users, but the roll-out will be gradual. The most notable changes include: larger images, videos, more prominent check-ins, more detailed information from publications (like TechnoBuffalo), a greater display of possible friends without having to click on the profile. You could even view highly trending content.

Facebook claims, this allows for “a richer, simpler, more beautiful feel” as well as more choices on what shows up on the news feed. You can determine what feed you want to view from choices such as photos, news content/likes, music and games.

Facebook’s new navigation menu is very mobile-inspired and allows a continuous look and feel across devices (desktop, tablet, phones).  The company claims you get the most out of “smaller screens” to gain a greater experience.  New notifications, that Facebook calls “new stories bubble,” show updates across your feeds, that float on the top of your screen.

While Facebook is excited about this new format, they are planning on rolling it out on a gradual basis to certain users and spreading the new format to a wider audience.  So far we’re excited to see what we can do with the new format of Facebook, from a visual design, it looks cleaner and thus far seems easier to navigate. Take a look for yourself at the video demo below.

[Source: TechnoBuffalo]

Google Play Birthday Celebration Includes Game, Movie Sales

Today is Google Play’s first birthday. That might sound a bit confusing, because prior to calling it that the store was simply named the “Android Market.”

Google’s celebrating by highlighting a number of free games (some of which were always free, such as Zenonia 5), and offering discounts on movies, music and books. The pilot of Breaking Bad is free for example, and Kung Fu Panda is available for just $2.99.

There’s nothing too juicy to be had, but we wish Google Play a happy first birthday anyway.

[Source: TechnoBuffalo]

Google+ (on the web) rolls out huge cover pics, new local reviews tab

Google+ today rolled out some interesting improvements to its web version. The biggest, obviously, is the gianormous new cover photos. What was once long and skinny is now long and not-so-skinny. (We know how it feels.) When fully expanded, the new cover photos have a 16x9 aspect ration and can be as large as 2,120px by 1,192px. That's big. So make sure your image doesn't suck.

Next is a new tab for your local reviews. If you've reviewed something in your hamlet, it'll show up here. You can use it to showcase specific reviews, or you can hide it altogether. Your call.

Editing your info also is easier now, with better separation of content in the About tab, with cards acting as category separators.

[Source: AndroidCentral]

KFC gets free UK WiFi through The Cloud: get some data with your drumsticks

Hey, it worked for McDonald's, didn't it? KFC would certainly prefer that its British customers hang around for long enough to justify a bucket of chicken rather than a Snack Box, so it's teaming up with The Cloud to offer free WiFi in all of its UK restaurants. The gradual rollout will just ask that visitors face a KFC landing page before they wander over to cat videos and ex-partners' status updates. We're glad to have one more avenue for internet access when we're feeling peckish, although we may question our path in life when we're Instagramming a Boneless Banquet For One.

[Source: Engadget]

Microsoft ViralSearch project visualizes content as it spreads across Twitter

It's not a new component of Bing (not yet, anyway), but Microsoft has taken the wraps off a new small-scale search project at its TechFest event this week -- one with a particular focus on so-called viral content. Appropriately dubbed ViralSearch, the effort from Microsoft Research currently uses Twitter as a source for all its data, and offers a variety of ways to track and visualize how a story, photo or video spreads from one outlet or individual to hundreds or thousands of others. That includes a profile view of sorts, which lets you see how influential a particular person was in spreading an item, and how prolific they are in general. Unfortunately, it is still just a research project so you can't try it out yourself just yet, and there's no word on any plans for it to become a commercial product.

[Source: Engadget]

Evernote plans two-factor authentication following last week's hack

In a move that's often more reactive than proactive these days, Evernote has shared plans to add two-factor authentication to its login process. This latest announcement follows last week's hacking attack and subsequent site-wide password reset, and will be available to all of the site's 50 million users beginning later this year, according to an InformationWeek report. It's too early to say exactly how the Evernote team plans to implement the new security feature, whether through a dedicated app or text message password, but given the service's scale, we can likely count out a hardware fob option, at least. For now, your best course of action is to create a secure password, or, if you're especially paranoid, you may consider delaying your return until the security boost is in place.

[Source: Engadget]

Fun things to do on a sick day

Being optimistic is one of the essential things involved in recovering from illness, which is why it is imperative to try and have fun if you’re having a sick day off work. Being sick doesn’t mean you have to keep yourself confined to bed, unless of course your condition is particularly bad. 

If you’re worried about wasting time because you’re sick, look no further. This article seeks to help you think about ways you can spend your sick day that involve you making most of the time off work, as well as having fun!

Gamble!

Of course, if you’re taking the day off work because you’re sick, you definitely shouldn’t be seen near a casino. But thanks to the wide availability of gambling apps available now, you don’t have to even leave the house.

Playing online slots is a pretty fun way to do away with the time; who knows, you may even make some money by doing it! Log onto Grosvenor Casinos to check out some fun slot games you can get involved in.

Finish the unfinished

Having a day off work is a good way of completing all the bits and bobs that you haven’t been able to. It’s hard to finish reading that novel if you’ve been reading tax transcripts all day at work; now that you have the whole day off, you can curl up by the fire and finish it, finally.

Other things you can finish off while you’re at home also include the backlog of unfinished video games that’s been building up. This is especially appropriate if you’re one of those people who never really finish a game because it’s too hard, leave it for ages and then buying a new one.

Getting over that final enemy hurdle will give you a feeling of satisfaction, guaranteed to lift your spirits.

Do some chores

Not exactly everyone’s idea of fun, but it definitely paves the way for guilt-free fun over the weekend! If your house is messy and the reason is that you’re too busy to clean, use the day off work to do some casual, laid-back cleaning up.

Start with your room – get all that dirty laundry out of there, and clean everything else up thoroughly. There’s no rush if you start early, so you don’t have to stress yourself out.

If you’re feeling up to it, do a little vacuum cleaning as well. Maybe now you can actually bleach the dirty tiled floor in your kitchen.

The upside to all of this is that you won’t have to waste time over the weekend cleaning up. It feels good to get on top of things once in a while.

Twitter Killing TweetDeck for iPhone and Android

Twitter will shut down multiple TweetDeck apps to focus on the product's web-based version, the microblogging service announced Monday.

In yet another sign of the battle between social media's two biggest players, Facebook integration will be removed, too.

The announcement was met largely with a chorus of "nooooooooo," "whyyyyyyy" and "gaaaaaaaah" on social media, reflecting TweetDeck's widespread popularity with hardcore Twitter users.

TweetDeck AIR, TweetDeck for iPhone and TweetDeck for Android will be removed from their respective app stores in May, and stop working soon after, according to a TweetDeck blog post.

"To continue to offer a great product that addresses your unique needs, we’re going to focus our development efforts on our modern, web-based versions of TweetDeck," the post says.

TweetDeck is a well-regarded Twitter client that the microblogging network bought in 2011.

Moving forward, TweetDeck's web and Chrome apps will be the first that Twitter enhances with updates and new features, while the Mac and PC apps will continue to evolve as well.

Your final couple months using TweetDeck's AIR, Android and iPhoneversions may not be smooth sailing, either. Those apps will continue to rely on version one of Twitter's API, which will be retired this month. Blackout testing on version one begins March 5, so mobile TweetDeck users will likely begin experiencing outages with their apps on Tuesday.

"In many ways, doubling down on the TweetDeck web experience and discontinuing our app support is a reflection of where our TweetDeck power-users are going," the post reads before later adding: "And for those of you who are inconvenienced by this shift, our sincere apologies."

Is this a pain, or not such a big deal? Give us your take in the comments.

Photo courtesy Flickr, Andy Miah

[Source: Mashable]

Facebook Will Show Off a Redesigned News Feed on March 7

Facebook’s constantly evolving face will get yet another overhaul at an event scheduled for March 7. One of the biggest complaints users have with Facebook is the cluttered and painful to look at News Feed—it’s an absolute mess, and has been that way for awhile now. Zuck and friends obviously feel the same way.

First Timeline, then Graph Search, now this. What kind of redesign are we expecting? We’ll find out next week.

[Source: TechnoBuffalo]

Amazon UK pulls misogynist t-shirts following outrage

Amazon UK has stopped selling a range of t-shirts that promote rape and violence towards women, after receiving a barrage of complaints.

The t-shirts, from Massachusetts-based company Solid Gold Bomb, feature slogans based on the "Keep Calm and Carry On" poster from World War II. Examples include "Keep Calm and Hit Her" and "Keep Calm and Rape a Lot". Unsurprisingly, Amazon was inundated with complaints, and has removed the offending items, though it continues to sell other garments from Solid Gold Bomb, the Guardian reports.

An Amazon UK spokesperson told Sky News: "I can confirm that those items are not available for sale." 

Solid Gold Bomb was flooded with complaints and death threats, leading it to delete its Twitter account and Facebook page. It issued an apology, blaming the offensive slogans on "a computer error".

Apparently to make its t-shirts, the company relies on "computer-based dictionaries and online educational resources i.e. verb lists". These generate word lists "using simple scripting methods". In other words, it used software to randomly jumble words together, then printed the resulting slogans. Because it sells a big range of t-shirts, some offensive terms slipped through the net, Solid Gold Bomb claims.

Sound like a lot of nonsense? Well amazingly it could actually be how the company operates, with some of the slogans on its t-shirts ("Keep Calm and Skim Me", "Keep Calm and Bomb Not") making no sense whatsoever. Either that or the people producing them are illiterate, which could also be true.

Even if we give Solid Gold Bomb the benefit of the doubt, and assume it just didn't check which slogans the computer had thrown out -- which I'm doubtful about -- it's still phenomenally irresponsible.

[Source: CNET]

Evernote forcing users to change password after hacking attempt

Evernote, the popular cross-platform note taking and sharing app, has issued a statement about some recent "suspicious activity on the Evernote network". All users will have to change their password, and it seems that user names, and other data that includes the encrypted version of passwords has been accessed. In a letter sent out to users, Evernote says the following:

The investigation has shown, however, that the individual(s) responsible were able to gain access to Evernote user information, which includes usernames, email addresses associated with Evernote accounts, and encrypted passwords. Even though this information was accessed, the passwords stored by Evernote are protected by one-way encryption. (In technical terms, they are hashed and salted.)

While our password encryption measures are robust, we are taking steps to ensure your personal data remains secure. This means that in an abundance of caution, we are requiring all users to reset their Evernote account passwords. Please create a new password by signing into your account on evernote.com.

After signing in, you will be prompted to enter your new password. Once you have reset your password on evernote.com, you will need to enter this new password in other Evernote apps that you use. We are also releasing updates to several of our apps to make the password change process easier, so please check for updates over the next several hours.

As we've seen recently, there's a rash of coordinated attempts to hack the big players in online services. Hopefully Evernote's encryption methods are solid, but having users change their password at log in is a great way to keep everyone safe. Visit Evernote's blog for more information.

[Source: AndroidCentral]

Google Gift Cards get UK pricing

Google's yet-to-launch gift cards have a UK price. According to Google's support page, you'll soon be able to buy vouchers for Google Play in denominations of £10, £25, or £50, Android Central reports.

The amounts aren't exactly the same as those in the US, where they have a $15 one as well. Now, all we need is for the vouchers to actually go on sale, and we'll be golden.

The last thing we heard regarding the gift cards hitting the UK was back in December, when the redemption page went live on the Google Wallet site for Brits. The page is of no use without a gift card, but still, it hinted Google could launch the cards in time for Christmas. But it didn't. Maybe it had its hands full worrying about Nexus 4 shortages. Still though, it could start selling them in time for Easter.

The Android-maker hasn't hung about launching other Google Play services recently. Play Music (née Google Music) launched in the UK back in November, and Play Magazines hit these shores about a month later.

Apple offers iTunes Gift Cards ranging from £15 to £100. It also famously rewards landmark shoppers with $10,000 vouchers, as it did last March, when one lucky person snaffled the 25 billionth download.

Google is increasingly moving into hardware, so it'd make sense to offer gift cards outside the US. Its Android OS accounts for three out of four smart phones, so there'd be no shortage of demand. The Nexus 4 has been almost permanently out of stock since it went on sale from Google Play, as the big G offers it far cheaper than anywhere else. If it can do the same with other devices, I'm sure those gift cards would fly off the virtual shelves.

[Source: CNET]