Hasta La Gadget!

Facebook made a sharp break from tradition when it unveiled the simplified News Feed, but how did it get there? As the social network’s Jane Justice Leibrock has just explained, it was as simple as shuffling cards. Well, almost. Leibrock gave focus group subjects a stack of cards reflecting their recent social updates and asked them to pick the cream of the crop as well as sort the rest into groups. The results led to the filtered approach that’s rolling out now: users tend to gravitate toward specific categories such as close friends, photos and direct interests, rather than piling everything together. As often as people accuse Facebook of launching surprise changes, it’s clear that the News Feed revamp involved at least some deliberation.

Filed under: Internet, Facebook

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Source: Facebook

The 2013 edition of Facebook‘s efforts to bring the developer universe into the social networking fold has been revealed, complete with several different events taking place around the world. The Facebook Mobile Developer Conference 2013 will be taking place on April the 18th in New York, on the 2nd of May in London, and all the way over in Seoul on the 7th of May. This series of events also goes by the name Facebook Mobile DevCon 2013, if you’d like to be short about it.

This series of events will be host to many different developer-themed keynote speeches and interactive engagements for mobile developers of many kinds. Companies such as GetGlue, EyeEm, Zeebox, and Fab.com will all be in attendance with opportunities to chat and talks of their own with you, the up-and-coming Facebook app developer, about their experiences on the way up the mountain. Also included will be a list of fabulous hot-points as promised by Facebook:

You’ll hear about:

• how to implement our iOS, Android and JS SDKs to drive installs and engagement
• how to best implement Facebook Login to bring trusted, cross-platform identity to your apps
• best practices for using Open Graph to share rich and engaging stories back to Facebook
• how to use Facebook to power engaging social, mobile games
• design tips and product best practices to increase user satisfaction
• the tools, libraries and techniques we at Facebook use to build our own iOS, Android and Mobile Web apps

Each of the three events is a one-day-only engagement in each of the major cities on the map. Each of these events will be “capped-off” with a fabulous and friendly dinner as well as time to speak with Facebook engineers, product managers, and more to speak on your app – or possible future app for Facebook. These engineers and product managers are being promised to, as Facebook says, “review your app and debug any integration issues” you may have – fun stuff!

Facebook also notes the following:

This is a highly technical event – we’ll be deep in product and code – but if you’re at the sharp end of mobile development, we’d love to meet you there.

Sound like your cup of tea? Have a peek at the Mobile DevCon sign-up page and pick your favorite location. Let us know if you’re going, and if you’re feeling cheeky, feel free to let us know what app you’re bringing along to work on!

Facebook Mobile DevCon 2013 revealed: Android and iOS on tap is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

If you’ve ever met someone at a party or meeting and wanted to exchange social networking information, you know it can be kind of a pain. Sure, you can hand them a business card – even one with a QR code on it – but that exchange of info still isn’t instantaneous, and requires the other party to follow up later. Now, there’s a new app which makes it easy for you to trade information – assuming you both have the app installed, of course.

SociaLink provides users with a fast way to share their Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram info, instantly adding both you and your new connection to each others networks. Simply start up the app, let it search for nearby phones or tablets, and then choose the networks you want to request access connect to. The other party then accepts, and you’re connected. You can also send social network info via email, but what fun would that be? Check out how SociaLink works in the video below:

You can download SociaLink over on the iTunes App Store for free. There’s not an Android version yet, but there should be one coming in the not-too-distant future.

Every little piece of information you give away online can reveal something about you—but it seems your Facebook likes could reveal rather more than you bargained for. More »

It turns out that Colin Powell’s Facebook hack wasn’t just an isolated incident performed by a 13-year old with good password-guessing skills. The hacker, who is known as Guccifer, is also the same hacker who breached e-mail accounts belonging to over a dozen of George W. Bush’s friends and family members. He obtained “interesting e-mails”, photos, list of home addresses, cell phone numbers, and more. The hacker even obtained the gate code to Bush’s home.

Guccifer took over Colin Powell’s Facebook and made posts that were vulgar, juvenile, and in all caps. Guccifer had also uploaded various private photos to Colin Powell’s Facebook as well. One of the photos showed George H. W. Bush lying in a hospital bed, another showed George W. Bush “wearing” a Ku Klux Klan hat, and there were a few self-portraits of Bush in a bath, taking a shower, and attending church.

There were many references made on Powell’s Facebook page that claimed George W. Bush was affiliated with the Ku Klux Klan, and that the entire Bush family were “puppets of the Illuminati.” Guccifer posted on Powell’s wall, “Kill the Illuminati! Tomorrow’s world will be a world free of Illuminati or will be no more.” The hacker has stated that he has no intentions of stopping his attacks on the Bush administration.

There has been a federal criminal investigation on Guccifer ever since he breached Bush’s e-mail accounts back in early February. Along with those e-mail accounts, Guccifer had also accessed the accounts of U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski, a senior UN official, security contractors in Iraq, and several former FBI agents. Colin Powell’s hack is the latest attack in this case, and judging from the timing of the attacks, there may be another hit within the next 2-3 weeks.

[via The Smoking Gun]

Colin Powell’s Facebook hacker also breached Bush Family e-mail accounts is written by Brian Sin & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.