Hasta La Gadget!

A couple of weeks ago, Facebook began testing Promoted Posts for regular users, not just businesses and brands. This would allow you or I to “promote” one of our status updates to show up at the top of everyone else’s news feed. The features has slowly been rolling out across the US and other countries like New Zealand, but the company is now introducing the new feature to European users.

Users who pay $7 per post will be able to have their status updates show up towards the top of their friends’ news feeds in order to gain more exposure, and thus receiving more comments and/or likes. Users can pick and choose which status updates they want to promote, rather than having to pay for all of their status updates to be promoted.

The roll-out of Promoted Posts to Europe could mean that Facebook will be making this a permanent feature in the near future. The company is notorious for testing potential new features on a select group of users before they officially roll it out to the public. Since the social network is continuing its roll out for Promoted Posts, we could see this being a permanent thing fairly soon.

There’s no word on what the pricing is for users in other countries, but we assume it’s close to the same $7 that US users have to pay in order to promote one of their posts. Of course, a lot of users don’t like handing over their money if they don’t have to, but we could see this being useful for updates like important announcements or wishing someone a happy birthday.

In a move that may surprise those of you reading reviews of Verizon-housed smartphones of late, the app known as Color has been tipped to be “winding down” starting immediately, with a complete shutdown preparing to take place rather rapidly. This news comes from Venture Beat where they’ve gotten hold of an email sent to employees of the company that notes how the board in charge of the app ecosystem have voted to close it all down. With shareholders and the board agreeing to this move, it’s certainly not what the $40 million in investment funds from last year appeared to be aimed at.

If you’ve picked up a Verizon phone inside the last few weeks, you’ve noticed that Color is an app that sits on your phone right out of the box. It would appear now that this sign of greatness might be all for nothing as the note today has the whole company closing its doors sooner than later. The email sent to employees – so it’s tipped – goes as follows.

“I hope is all well with you. As you may or may not have heard, Color is going through a number of changes. Last week, the Board and major shareholders voted to wind down the company.

We ask that you politely cancel any existing commitments stating we are closing our [redacted] program.”

This company started business with a bang back a year ago with a $40 million investment, switched over to a Facebook-connected app more recently, and included video as well. None of this seemed to have helped if the email above proves to be entirely legitimate. Co-founder and CEO Bill Nguyen recently stepped down from the company as well, and there’s been no further comment from Color at this time.

Verizon has also not had anything to say about this situation as of yet. With Color’s recent connection with Facebook and more recent deal with Verizon taking place, it seems as though things must have gone downhill quickly for action such as this to have gone through. Stay tuned to see how “confirmed” all of this becomes.

Color app tipped to shut doors imminently is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

GoPro’s brand spankin’ new line of its popular action-cams offers a lot of great upgrades: The cams are smaller, lighter, and have higher frame rates. Sweet! The Black version also offers 4K video recording—a feature sure to make headlines and widen the eyes of video gear-heads. It is ultimately nothing but a vacuous gimmick. More »

Looking to save some coin on your tech purchases? Of course you are! In this round-up, we’ll run down a list of the freshest frugal buys, hand-picked with the help of the folks at Slickdeals. You’ll want to act fast, though, as many of these offerings won’t stick around long.

With the GoPro Hero3 announcement yesterday, the outfit’s HD Hero2 is already seeing a nice discount. The action cam visits today’s round of links alongside a 14-inch Lenovo IdeaPad and two Windows 8 options. Head on past the break to see what else is being offered with handsome savings, and as always, be mindful of those coupon codes and rebate forms should you need ’em. Don’t drag your feet, though, as these deals are likely to disappear quickly.

Continue reading Slickdeals’ best in tech for October 17th: Windows 8 Pro, GoPro HD Hero2 and Lenovo IdeaPad U410

Filed under: Cameras, Misc, Laptops, Storage, Software

Slickdeals’ best in tech for October 17th: Windows 8 Pro, GoPro HD Hero2 and Lenovo IdeaPad U410 originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 17 Oct 2012 12:10:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  Slickdeals  | Email this | Comments

At first glance, London-based duo Tim Noble and Sue Webster’s new exhibition called Nihilistic Optimistic looks like a collection of discarded junk and random wood fixtures. But shine a light on them and take a look at the shadows they’ll cast on the wall, and you will be amazed.

The exhibition features six large-scale sculptures that cast larger-than-life shadows on the wall they’re being projected on.

The art of projection is emblematic of transformative art. The process of transformation, from discarded waste, scrap metal or even taxidermy creatures to a recognizable image, echoes the idea of ‘perceptual psychology’ a form of evaluation used for psychological patients.

If you happen to be in London, drop by Blain|Southern and check out Tim and Sue’s exhibit, which will run until November 24th.

[via Colossal]