Twitter acquires Spindle, a ‘news feed for your neighborhood’

Twitter acquires Spindle, a social network with an emphasis on local updates

Good news for the folks at Spindle came today, as the provider of hyperlocal offers from businesses was acquired by Twitter. Described by the company as, “a tool for tuning into your surroundings,” the service pulls updates from Twitter and Facebook and categorizes offers around themes such as restaurants and shopping. Spindle also includes a social element, with the ability to share check-ins through Facebook and Twitter. The service is currently limited to 11 cities, which includes New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Chicago, but according to the company, “By joining forces with Twitter, we can do so much more to help you find interesting, timely, and useful information about what’s happening around you.” As sad news to current users of Spindle, however, the service will shut down effective today, as the team prepares for its transition to the Twitter team in San Francisco. At any rate, it looks like the folks at Lucky Sort won’t be the rookies of Twitter HQ anymore. For a peek at what Spindle entails, just hop the break.

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Via: All Things D

Source: Spindle

Microsoft demos real-time co-authoring for Office Web Apps

Microsoft demos real-time co-authoring for Office Web Apps

With Microsoft’s Build developer conference kicking off in just a week, we’re frankly surprised the company is choosing to release any news ahead of time. Today, though, the firm posted a video showing some changes to Office Web apps. In particular, the preview indicates that these various apps will now support real-time co-authoring, with multiple users making changes at once (yep, just like Google Docs). That’s a nice, long-awaited improvement over the current setup, in which multiple users can make changes, but not alongside one another. According to Microsoft, this set of features will roll out over “the next several months.” For now, we’ve got the video preview embedded after the break. And don’t be put off by the 14-minute length; the demo doesn’t actually begin until five and a half minutes in.

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Source: Microsoft

Facebook comments get image embeds, give online flame warriors graphical ammo

Facebook comment threads are apparently a bit too calm, so the social network company’s decided to mix things up with the addition of in-line image embeds starting today. But wait — put down the link to your hottest GIF — apparently the service only supports static images for now. And not everyone has it thus far, with the service only rolling out to folks who have a camera icon appear in the comment response field.

The functionality is rolling out on both web and mobile versions of Facebook; product engineer Bob Baldwin debuted the addition on his Facebook profile, where he said he built the image embedding “at a hackathon” with a gaggle of other FBers. Let us know in the comments below if you’ve already got it, and leave some pictures on the Engadget Facebook page!

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Via: The Next Web

Source: Bob Baldwin

Onion Pi Portable Proxy: Tastes Like Redacted

As the recent NSA leaks have proven, a lot – if not all – of what you do, say and store online can be examined and archived by other people and organizations without your knowledge or approval. That’s why Adafruit Industries put together a DIY kit for those looking to add an extra layer of anonymity and security to their online activities. It’s called the Onion Pi, a plug and play device that creates an anonymous access point.

onion pi raspberry pi tor proxy by adafruit

As you may have guessed, the device is based on the popular Raspberry Pi computer. When you connect it to the Internet via an Ethernet cable, it creates a Wi-Fi access point that is connected to the Tor network. In simple terms, the Tor network encrypts your connection and routes it through a random series of relays. This makes it harder – but not necessarily impossible – to identify your location as well as the data that you’re sending or receiving. You can listen to the folks at Adafruit talk about the Onion Pi at around 11:50 in the video below:

Stage a PRISM break and order the Onion Pi kit from Adafruit Industries. The kit with a small antenna is available for $90 (USD); there’s a kit that comes with a large antenna but it’s out of stock at the moment. Adafruit donates part of the proceeds from the sale of the Onion Pi to the Tor Foundation. Sadly the Onion Pi logo is not included in the kit.

[via OhGizmo!]

 

Vevo music video app comes to Windows 8

Vevo comes to Windows 8 as part of a preBuild warmup

Although Vevo has a presence on seemingly every platform, it hasn’t done much of anything special on the desktop: so far, it’s been either the web or nothing. That’s changing — the company has just launched a native app for Windows 8 and RT devices. The software puts all of Vevo’s core music video features into a touch-friendly format, including Vevo TV, live concerts and playlists. While we suspect that many will still be content with the web interface, those who just have to watch Selena Gomez on a Surface can grab the Vevo app for free at the source link.

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Via: Blogging Windows, The Next Web

Source: Windows Store

Rdio opens Vdio mvie srvice to evryone

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Rdio, that lover of social streaming and sworn enemy of the vowel, is finally opening up its new TV and movie service to all users in the US and UK. Previously only the realm of Rdio Unlimited subscribers, Vdio lets users rent, buy and do various social activities with television and film. At present, the service is offering a solid set of new releases, like Django Unchained and Silver Linings Playbook, which can be rented for $2.99 and $5.99, respectively. Each movie description also lets you know which of your friends have watched the feature, with help from the Facebook sign-in up front.

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Via: The Verge, The Next Web

Source: Rdio Blog

BioShock creator confirmed as scriptwriter for Logan’s Run remake

BioShock creator confirmed as Logan's Run scriptwriter

The mind behind BioShock‘s Big Daddies and BioShock Infinite‘s Songbird is apparently also getting behind the script for a Logan’s Run film remake. Irrational Games creative director and head Ken Levine is working on a Logan’s Run remake script, Irrational confirmed to Engadget today, which he was tapped to pen by Warner Bros. “I can confirm that the information is indeed correct, but unfortunately there is no other information we can share or comment to be given at this point,” the rep told us.

According to a Deadline report that surfaced earlier this week, Levine is continuing his work at Irrational in the meantime — the studio’s working on a few content packs for its latest BioShock release, and assuredly other things — while Jon Berg oversees the Logan’s Run project. Also in the report: this remake has been in the works for some time, though Levine’s addition is new to the project.

In case it wasn’t already clear, there’s a pretty sweet Logan’s Run movie (based on the original 1967 book) starring Michael York as “Logan 5.” The very, very mid-’70s poster for that film is cropped just above.

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Rockmelt comes to Android with thumb-friendly navigation

Rockmelt comes to Android with onehanded navigation

Rockmelt brought its social news browsing to iOS back in 2012, with promises that the Android version was on the way. The company took its sweet time with the port, but it’s here at last — and with a few Android-only perks in return for the wait. While the core news aggregation remains intact, there’s a new set of thumb navigation controls that makes sure tablet owners (or just those with giant smartphones) can read in comfort. Phone owners also get a landscape view similar to what their tablet brethren see and a set of elevator-like buttons help users of all kinds get back to articles after a refresh. The interface extras may not seal the deal by themselves, but they could tip the balance for those still undecided on a Google Reader alternative.

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Source: Rockmelt

Feedly launches cloud platform and new web interface ahead of Google Reader shutdown

Feedly launches cloud platform and new web interface ahead of Google Reader shutdown

The eventual demise of Google Reader gave existing services like Feedly an opportunity to land hundreds of thousands of new users, but the sudden gain of popularity demands an infrastructure that can handle the load. By opening its APIs to the masses today, Feedly says it’s officially making the transition “from a product to a platform,” supplying developers and RSS users alike with a painless migration path from Google’s soon-to-be deceased reader. To go along with that, the company also announced a novel version of Feedly on the web, one which doesn’t require any extensions or plugins and is accessible via browsers such as Internet Explorer and Opera.

As the image above shows, the freshly minted cloud platform already offers support for a slew of third-party applications, and Feedly says numerous other devs are currently working on their own for the near future. Now, if you didn’t think Mountain View’s recent spring cleaning could have a huge influence in such a short span of time, hear this: Feedly’s touting that its user base has more than tripled since the announcement, making the jump from 4 to 12 million through the end of last month. Only time will tell if Feedly ends up being a worthy Reader replacement, so perhaps now would be the perfect instance to start deciding whether or not this will be the proper solution to all your RSS needs.

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Source: Feedly

BT CEO Ian Livingston to leave in September, accept government role

BT CEO Ian Livingston leaves for government, Gavin Patterson takes his place

The CEO position is usually the last rung on the career ladder — after that, it’s either retirement or a less-than-graceful ouster. It’s not the end for BT CEO Ian Livingston, however, as he’s moving to the even bigger leagues of government. The executive will step down in September to accept a role as the UK’s Minister of State for Trade and Investment. The company’s current head of retail, Gavin Patterson, will take the reins from that point on. Livingston leaves BT mostly better off than when he took the lead in 2008: questionable patent lawsuits notwithstanding, the telecom giant has been forward-thinking with its plans for ultra-fast fiber and LTE service. Let’s just hope that Patterson can deal with fiercer competition.

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Via: Rory Cellan-Jones (Twitter)

Source: BT