Hasta La Gadget!

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Last night was a big night for government and the entire US. President Obama gave the annual State of the Union address, where he lays out what condition the country is in, and suggest plans and goals for the future. The House chamber was buzzing last night, but so was Twitter, with over 1.36 million tweets that referenced the speech.

Twitter notes some of the most talked-about key points of the speech, saying that the number of tweets per minute topped out at 24,000 when President Obama discussed middle class opportunities and raising the minimum wage. During Obama’s discussion of gun violence and the need for legislation, Twitter roared in at 23,700 tweets per minute, and 19,000 tweets per minute when he talked about early childhood education.

However, the night’s moment that was perhaps the most interesting on Twitter — but only getting 9,200 tweets per minute — was during Florida Sen. Marco Rubio’s Republican response speech, where he awkwardly reached over for his water and took a quick sip in the middle of his speech. The hashtag “#watergate” quickly bumped up to trending status and Rubio himself even poked fun at the moment.

During President Obama’s State of the Union address, he also gave a quick shout out to Apple CEO Tim Cook, who announced late last year that Apple would be manufacturing some Mac computers in the US again. Cook ended up sitting in the First Lady’s box during the address, which is usually reserved for guests that get mentioned the President’s speech.

State of the Union address sees over 1.36m tweets is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Foursquare has long been the go-to app for checking-in at places and sharing tips on restaurants and other attractions, so it’s no surprise that one location in particular has reached a whopping 1 million check-ins on Foursquare. That location is Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, which is known as one of the busiest airports in the world.

The heat map that Foursquare provided shows where all of the 1 million check-ins have occurred, and as you can see, many of them were sent from the runway, proving that no one actually pays attention to flight attendants who tell you to keep your phone off until the plane has reached the gate — no one.

On top of the 1 million check-ins, the Atlanta Airport also has over 2,000 tips under its name, providing travelers with essential information for when they’re stuck at the airport during a layover. Foursquare also discovered that, on average, Monday is the airport’s busiest day for travel, and Terminal B sees the most traffic, according to check-in data.

Foursquare also notes that the One Flew South restaurant in the Atlanta Airport has more check-ins more than any other in-airport restaurant, and it also has the highest rating as well. Plus, the permanent collection of sculptures from Zimbabwe inside the airport also seem to be a big hit with travelers looking to kill time.

Foursquare check-ins reach 1 million at Atlanta Int’l Airport is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Facebook has a lot of data about us, but that’s not necessarily their fault. It’s more our faults since we willingly post all sorts of information to our profiles. However, in Facebook’s most recent data collection case study, they showed off various regions in the US and what football team had the most fans in a particular region of the country. The results are quite impressive.

Facebook based their findings on the “likes” of football teams, and approximately 35 million Facebook users have “liked” at least one of the 32 NFL teams. With that, they put together a heat map of sorts to show off all of the loyal football fans in the country. Obviously, it looks fairly typical, with most Facebook users liking the team associated with the state they live in.

However, some portions of the map are rather interesting to look at. Deadspin went in-depth to analyze some of the more interesting fan pockets throughout the US. For instance, you’ll notice that there are quite a few Dallas Cowboy fans in the south and along the lower East coast, mostly since many of the southern NFL teams didn’t arrive until later on in the league, and the Washington Redskins weren’t very liked at the time.

Another interesting statistic is that Hawaii is a big Pittsburgh Steelers state, mostly since Troy Polamalu, one of the league’s top defenders, is of Pacific Islander descent. The Pittsburgh Steelers also take up most of Ohio, which is quite interesting considering that Ohio has the Cleveland Browns. While Ohio borders Pennsylvania and is only a short drive from Pittsburgh, we’re frankly not surprised that the Browns aren’t getting much love.

Facebook data shows football fan statistics across the US is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

When Twitter released its Vine app a couple of weeks ago, needless to say we were intrigued by the concept. However, the app quickly became plagued with a porn problem that got a majority of people all up in a tizz. However, Twitter has released an update for the app today that implements a 17+ age rating, as well as a reporting system for reporting inappropriate content.

The update arrives after a wave of controversy slammed Vine over adult content, and the app was even featured in the “Editor’s Choice” section of the iTunes App Store before it eventually was removed from that section. The same thing happened with 500px, although its app was pulled from the App Store altogether until it came back with a mature age rating.

Other than the addition of the 17+ age rating and the new reporting system, the Vine update comes with some usual bugfixes, as well as the ability to share Vines (is that what we’re calling them?) to Facebook or Twitter after it has already been recorded and posted. The app also allows you to block users in case you find out that their Vines aren’t particular up to your standards.

If you’ve been MIA for the past couple weeks and aren’t sure what Vine is, we have a thorough primer on the subject that shows you what the app is and what it does. Essentially, Vine records short, six-second videos that you can post to Twitter, similar to GIFs but they’re a bit more creative and a lot quicker and easier to make. You can grab the app on iOS for free right now.

Vine implements 17+ age rating and reporting system is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.