Hasta La Gadget!

Ready the spandex and decide on a name for your alter ego, because come October 16th, you’ll have the chance to fight crime from the comfort of your computer. On that date, the “Connected To The Case” website goes live with the aim of crowd-sourcing tips from its users to help the cops solve active investigations. You’ll use your Facebook login for access, as the service pulls data from your profile to prioritize cases with which you might have a connection. Morgan Wright, CEO and Chief Crime Fighter of Crowd Sourced Investigations, told us its system looks at five key areas when digging for pertinent triggers: “date, location, time, relation and demographics.” It then uses that data to tailor notifications of unsolved crimes based on — for example — proximity to your school, or where you used to work. Rest assured that you control the privacy settings, and if you’ve got useful info to share, you can do so anonymously.

Law enforcement agencies can register to include their cases from today, with the initial roll-out targeting the US. The plan is to expand first to other English-speaking countries, with foreign language support in the future to build a global network of internet do-gooders. Including data from other social networks is also in the pipeline, starting with Twitter and later, Foursquare and Pinterest. A smartphone app is also on the agenda, so get your detective devices ready — we can be heroes, if just for one click.

Continue reading Connected To The Case to use Facebook for crowd-sourced crime solving

Filed under: Internet

Connected To The Case to use Facebook for crowd-sourced crime solving originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 01 Oct 2012 20:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Facebook CEO & founder Mark Zuckerberg visited Moscow, Russia today to talk with Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev about building a possible Facebook research center in Russia. Medvedev pitched to Zuckerberg that not only is Russia abundant with natural resources, but the country’s IT sector is also something that’s quickly gaining ground.

Zuckerberg traded in his zip-up hoodie and jeans for a formal suit as he spent the day with Medvedev. Zuckerberg was in Moscow to increase Facebook’s presence in Russia, where it competes with local social networking sites. He was also in Russia to attend a programming symposium where he would look to attract Russians to work for his social networking site.

However, it turns out that not all Russians were happy with Zuckerberg’s visit. Oleg Kozyrev, a popular opposition blogger in Russia, launched a Facebook group called “Zuckerberg, don’t be friends with a dictator!”, where he urged Zuckerberg to meet with officials who don’t “jail Russian bloggers and create laws on internet censorship.”

Then again, Zuckerberg wasn’t planning on meeting any other officials or big names, like Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, or even Russia’s richest man, Alisher Usmanov. Usmanov invested in Facebook in 2009 and made $1 billion selling his shares this year. It seems that Facebook’s plans to grow in Russia are still being discussed, so don’t expect anything substantial to happen to the social network anytime in the near future.

[via Reuters]

Zuckerberg visits Russia for Facebook talks is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Remember the Facebook Gift Shop, that place where you could pick up virtual Troll dolls and send them to your friends? Well, it died. But, a phoenix has arisen from its ashes — Facebook Gifts — which will allow you to send real Troll dolls to your friends. You’ll be able to order gifts for people directly through the social network and suggestions to pick up a little something will be tied into birthday reminders and life events like weddings. The new initiative is the result of its decision to purchase Karma, a social “gifting” app, in May. Over a 100 retailers have signed up for the launch, including Starbucks, and Facebook obviously will be taking a small cut of each sale, which could be a huge source of monetization for the company, especially on the mobile front. Interestingly, friends can be notified before a gift is delivered and will be given a chance to tweak orders — just in case you don’t know your mom as well as you think you do. Gifts is rolling out slowly in select cities now and will expand in the coming weeks. Though, it also has a viral element since once you’ve been sent a gift you are also blessed with the ability to send gifts yourself. Check out the source links for more details.

Filed under: Internet

Facebook Gifts swaps virtual trinkets for real life goods originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 27 Sep 2012 16:47:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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You never really know what to expect when two of the bigger names in tech join forces and announce something fresh. In some cases you may see an end result of things like that RAZR i, but when Dropbox and Facebook are involved, you can surely bet it has to do with sharing something with your pals — and such is the case today. Dropbox announced earlier that it’s now allowing folks to share files with their friends inside Facebook Groups, giving users the ability to instantly post anything from notes to videos with a couple of simple clicks. Of course, those on the other side will be able to like what you share, leave comments, as well as be updated automatically as soon as an edit has been made. At the moment, not everyone’s seeing the changes just yet, though Dropbox has said it shouldn’t be too long before most people can spot the new feature.

Filed under: Internet, Software

Dropbox teams up with Facebook to let folks share stuff within Groups originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 26 Sep 2012 15:20:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We don’t hear much from Myspace these days, what with Facebook and Twitter being the go-to social platforms for most of the world. The folks behind Myspace are looking to change that with an upcoming redesign. Of course, Myspace has gone through multiple redesigns in the past, but this new one is particularly eye-catching, and you can get your first look at it in a preview video posted after the jump.

Right off the bat, it’s obvious that the new Myspace is going to be quite the departure from the Myspace we’re used to. The focus on music and entertainment remains in tact, but user profiles are getting completely overhauled. What surprises us the most is how beautiful everything looks, especially when Myspace is coming from a layout that can’t exactly be described as “gorgeous.”

Looking at the video below, it seems that Myspace designers have drawn inspiration from the likes of Pinterest and Microsoft‘s Metro UI. Everything comes together to form a really sleek look, and call us crazy, but this redesign may just do something to bring users back to the service, which has been suffering at the hands of Facebook for years now. Speaking of Facebook, it seems that the new Myspace will sport Facebook and Twitter integration to some degree. It also adds things like a dedicated music player and a persistent navigation bar, so yeah, this is going to be a pretty massive redesign.

No word yet on when this new redesign will land, but those who are interested in this redesign can leave their email address to “request an invite.” It’s unclear whether that invite will be for a beta or the full blown launch of the new Myspace, but we’re tempted to think it’s the latter. What do you think of this new Myspace design? Is it enough to get you to return to the social network?

[via The Next Web]

Myspace shows off incoming redesign in new video is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.