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Apr 18

Facebook Home hitting Jailbroken iPhones: Chat Heads first

Today it’s been announced that those working with a Jailbroken iPhone out there in the wild may soon be able to work with the still limited-to-Android Facebook Home feature Chat Heads. While the newest version of Facebook for iOS does include an in-app iteration of the Chat Heads feature for messaging, the build announced today (by unofficial sources, of course), will allow Chat Heads to appear universally, just as it is with Android.

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If you’ll take a peek at our review of Facebook Home as it exists inside Android, you’ll find that the “appear anywhere” feature included in what Facebook calls “Chat Heads” might just be the most universally user-friendly feature of the bunch. While Facebook Home exists as a full home screen replacement app, Facebook Messenger allows you to see messages while you’re inside (or outside) any given app, even if it’s not Facebook.

Have a peek at Facebook’s Chat Heads push to iOS for your iPhone and you’ll find slightly less all-inclusive engagement. Unfortunately this iOS version will still not have the SMS integration available in the Android iteration. Speaking with The Verge, the creator of this particular hack, Adam Bell, confirmed that the process itself isn’t very power-hungry. Bell noted that only when you’re actually literally interacting with the head does it drain power in any notable way – good news!

You’ll be able to access the build that’s making this Chat Heads freedom possible through Adam Bell’s connection to GitHub over the next few days – can’t wait! Meanwhile have a peek in SlashGear’s jailbreak tag hub for more goodies for your hacked-up iPhone. Let us know what you’re into!

Facebook Home hitting Jailbroken iPhones: Chat Heads first is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Apr 18

Twitter Music iPhone app hands-on

Posted in: Today's Chili

Today the Twitter #music app has been launched for iPhone and the web. While you’ll be able to use this app on your iPad and iPod touch, right here at the start it’s really an iPhone-specific interface – and yes, you’ll not be seeing an Android app for some time. Right out of the box you’ll find that this app shines forth with four distinct ways for you to discover and share new music.

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Twitter Charts

What you’re seeing here is Twitter-generated charts that allow you to see what’s trending – it’s not just the best of the best, but the most popular as well. You’ll be seeing charts based on what’s most popular, what’s “hottest”, what’s best for you, and more. One of the most interesting connections you’re going to see here is your suggested tracks.

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We’ll be investigating further to see how Twitter selects this list for you. Stay tuned to this post as well as SlashGear’s main news feed for more information on Twitter’s music discovery engine throughout the day!

Follow Artists

If you’re like me, you’ve already been following a collection of musical artists on Twitter well before the #music app launched. Artists like Ice Cube, Santigold, and the RZA already have tracks set up right at the start. From here you’ll be able to see new tracks they promote sent straight from their Twitter handles – tweets for listening in!

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We must assume that artists will quickly begin to send out tracks that are shown on Twitter first – just so long as they’re also posted to iTunes, RDIO, and/or Spotify as well. The way artists will generate revenue for themselves here is through those services. It’s unclear at the moment how exactly Twitter is cashing in on this project.

Tweet Tracks

Once you find a track you like in RDIO, Spotify, iTunes, or straight through the Twitter #music app, you can tweet or re-tweet it. From there your Twitter followers will be able to play a preview of the track instantly. If they’re a RDIO or Spotify subscriber, they’ll be able to play the full track you’ve tweeted straight from your tweet!

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In the future there will more than likely be a rather similar interface to what we’re seeing here on the web as well. Android, Windows Phone, and BlackBerry may very well be getting the same app interface soon too – just wait!

Listen Now

You can listen in using your own Twitter #music app (available for download now for free) or you can see all you need to see in your web browser. If you’re using RDIO or Spotify, you’ll be able to listen right out the gate – if you’re listening in with iTunes, you’ll need to give your web browser permission to use Quicktime to play a track.

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Head over to this tweet to see what it’s like to play a music track with iTunes inside Twitter. You’ll also be able to – from there – hit the #NowPlaying hashtag link to see what everyone on Twitter is playing right now!

Feedback

Let us know what you think of this app and/or the web interface you’re using if you don’t want to go mobile just yet. Also please feel free to let us know how you’re feeling about Twitter’s music app if you’re NOT an iOS user – feeling left out, or is the web browser interface enough for you?

Twitter Music iPhone app hands-on is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Apr 17

Twitter gets creepier with keyword-targeted ads

Posted in: Today's Chili

This week the folks at Twitter have announced the first wave of keyword targeting in timelines – available to advertisers for every place that Twitter Ads are supported. You’ll be working in all languages and in every single Twitter market across the advertising universe with targeted ads. In this case it means that if someone tweets about something they enjoy, an advertisement can now see that and target itself based on the subject matter.

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If you’re tweeting about an ice cold glass of Surge soda, you’ll quite likely be seeing an advertisement for Surge soon after. With this update by Twitter, Twitter will be allowing context to play a much bigger part in your everyday advertising adventures. The good news for regular users is that they’ll not see any discernible difference in the amount of advertisements that are popping up.

“Users won’t see any difference in their use of Twitter — we’re not showing ads more frequently in timelines, and users can still dismiss Promoted Tweets they don’t find relevant. In fact, we believe users’ experiences with ads will improve as a result of this feature as they see more relevant Promoted Tweets.” – Twitter

According to Twitter, it appears that advertisers that’ve been using the service thus far in test runs have seen much better engagement when their ads are targeted specifically. Users were “significantly more likely to engage” with these new Promoted Tweets when using keyword targeting then with any other form of Twitter targeting in timelines.

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The image above is the screen advertisers will be seeing from this point out when they want to target advertisements based on keywords in your timeline. Make sure you tweet a bunch about your favorite kinds of foods and services!

Twitter gets creepier with keyword-targeted ads is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Apr 16

Chat Heads hits Facebook for iOS: we go hands-on

Posted in: Today's Chili

Today the Facebook Home universe has begun to jump in to iOS for the iPhone, starting with Chat Heads and likely stopping there as well. While the Android version of Facebook Home commands your entire smartphone experience from the first lock screen to the place where you launch apps, this update to the iOS version of Facebook simply adds the Chat Heads feature to the app itself. This means you’ll be chatting with your friends from anywhere – just so long as you’re still inside the Facebook app.

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What you’ve got here is Facebook’s Chat Heads messaging environment stuck inside the Facebook app itself – as long as you never leave the Facebook app, you’ve got the same thing as you’d have been working with in Android (essentially). See our full Facebook Home review for Android right this minute! While the Android version of Facebook’s messenger experience in Chat Heads allows that little head to appear on top of basically any app or screen, here you’re only getting it inside Facebook.

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This update comes from within the basic Facebook app for iOS for iPhone first. We’re expecting the iPad version to follow soon after, while the Facebook Messenger app appears to have been completely unaffected. Though it would make sense for there to be one cohesive messaging experience here, it’s understandable that the Messenger app wouldn’t need a modification – you’re only chatting, that’s it!

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Other than this Chat Heads addition, we’re seeing some stickers added to messages – cute! We’re also seeing the addition of Music Feeds, Photo Feeds, and Game Feeds – new ways to interact with each of these is included with the iPhone version while the iPad version gets essentially a total revamp. Based on the newest version of the web browser-based Facebook experience, the iPad app has now been brought into the massive future.

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Also important: Facebook has made it clear in the app update notes we’re seeing here that Chat Heads will be made available to all users (on iOS, we must assume) in the coming week. Just wait your turn, iPad users!

Chat Heads hits Facebook for iOS: we go hands-on is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Apr 16

WhatsApp boasts 200M monthly active users, now bigger than Twitter

Posted in: Today's Chili

WhatsApp’s popularity has skyrocketed since its launch back in 2009. At All Things D’s conference, D: Dive Into Mobile, Jan Koum, CEO of WhatsApp, stated that the smartphone app is even more popular than Twitter now. It currently has over 200 million monthly active users, who send out and receive over 20 billion messages each day. WhatsApp processes a estimated total of 12 billion outbound messages and 8 billion inbound messages on a daily basis.

WhatsApp generates its revenue off of its annual 99 cents subscription fee. By charging such a meager fee, it is able to forgo ads and provide its users with the best messaging experience available. It is being used all around the world by millions and millions of users. Koum sees much more success in WhatsApp’s future. He says that he’s looking forward to the day when the world is filled with billions of phones. He says,

“And once that happens its going to be extremely easy to monetize. But a lot more people need to join the smartphone revolution and a lot more people need to buy more goods on their phones.”

Koum also says that there’s no chance of advertising ever making it to WhatsApp. He states that WhatsApp is completely anti-advertising, because no one likes ads. He feels that we already come across a lot of ads throughout our daily routines that there’s no need to bring any more into the picture. He believes that bringing ads to WhatsApp, or any app, is a bad idea. He states,

“Our phones are so intimately connected to us, to our lives. Putting advertising on a device like that is a bad idea. You don’t want to be interrupted by ads when you’re chatting with your loved ones.”

WhatsApp is widely renown as one of the most popular, if not the most popular, messaging apps for smartphones. It even plays the good guy by bringing its app to Blackberry 10, an OS with a small user base, while other social apps, like Instagram, won’t even bother to bring their apps to the platform because there’s “no real benefit” to it. With its huge success, its no wonder why rumors are floating around about companies wanting to buy it out.

[via All Things D]

WhatsApp boasts 200M monthly active users, now bigger than Twitter is written by Brian Sin & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Apr 16

Chat Heads bringing Facebook Home to iPhone and iPad today [UPDATE]

Posted in: Today's Chili

This week it’s been announced – but not updated quite yet – that the iOS version of Facebook will be getting a bit of Facebook Home for the iPad and iPhone. Though the full version of Facebook Home really isn’t a possibility for Apple’s mobile products the way their software is set up, the Chat Heads piece of the puzzle is being teased by Facebook CTO Mike Schroepfer and mobile head Cory Ondrejka today at the AllThingsD Dive Into Mobile conference taking place this week.

It’s not clear at the moment whether the Chat Heads feature will be appearing in the Facebook Messenger app exclusively or if the Facebook app itself – the main app – will have some aesthetic changes that reflect the inclusion of Chat Heads. From what we’ve seen thus far of Chat Heads in the Android Facebook app family, the best bits are in the inclusion of chats in your everyday non-Facebook app experience. With the iOS version we’re expecting a much more in-app set of features.

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Noted today, the updated Facebook apps for iOS will also include “stickers” for the messaging end on both iPad and iPhone. You’ll also be seeing an updated iPad app which includes aesthetics brought to Facebook in the newest newsfeed update to desktop. The mobile version will once again be reflecting the desktop version in-browser and vice-versa.

UPDATE: Facebook has added information on the update that’ll be rolling out today. Have a peek at these notes from the social network and keep refreshing your iTunes store updates tab!

Chat Heads
• Now you can keep chatting, even when you’re doing other stuff on Facebook, like checking your News Feed.
• Tap chat heads to reply, drag them around, or flick them down to close.
Stickers
• Messaging within Facebook for iOS now includes Stickers.
• Tap the smiley to add stickers to your messages and get more stickers in the Sticker Store
News Feed
• We’re also rolling out the improvements to News Feed that were announced in March.
• The biggest change is on iPad, where you’ll see brighter, more beautiful stories.

Have a peek at the timeline below for more information on Facebook Home, Chat Heads, and all things Facebook mobile from the past few weeks. You’ll want specifically to see our Facebook Home review for a vision of how this ecosystem works on Android and at our hands-on with Chat Heads for Android to see what the iOS version might bring. Again, we’re expecting a much more miniature set of features.

Stay tuned as we keep an eye on the apps with you and we’ll let you know when they’re updated – soon and very soon!

Chat Heads bringing Facebook Home to iPhone and iPad today [UPDATE] is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Apr 15

Facebook partnering with attorneys general for privacy awareness

Posted in: Today's Chili

Let’s face it: Facebook privacy is something of a misnomer — it’s hard to use “Facebook” and “privacy” in the same sentence without it being considered negative. However, the social networking giant knows it, and it has announced that it will be partnering up with 19 state attorneys general in order to raise awareness for teen privacy on Facebook.

Facebook will be working with the National Association of Attorneys General in order to promote privacy awareness and provide general tips to teenagers on how to use Facebook’s privacy settings. Of course, many of us could use a lesson on how to keep our profiles private, but it seems teenagers are the main culprits.

More state attorneys general might hop on board in the future, but so far 19 of them will contribute to the initiative. Each of the 19 states will create their own informational videos on how to better manage your Facebook profile, as well as provide a general tip sheet with various. There will also be videos created by Facebook that will answer questions on privacy.

Frankly, we’re glad to see that Facebook is taking some initiative when it comes to privacy on the internet, and teaching people how to effectively use their services. Facebook is seen the brunt of criticism over its privacy practices over the past few years, and it looks like they’re finally coming around to their senses.

[via All Things D]

Apr 15

Electronic Arts shutting down three Facebook games

Posted in: Today's Chili

In what is most likely one of the steps in Electronic Arts‘ pan to do some re-organization, the game publisher has announced that they will be shutting down three more of their Facebook games, which include The Sims Social, SimCity Social, and Pet Society. These three titles will see their doors close on June 14 this year.

EA blames the shutdown on a lacking number of users that have been reported playing the game, and the publisher notes that “the number of players and amount of activity has fallen off.” They also mention that based on the past history of social game shutdowns, EA’s own shutdown of some of its Facebook games “is not surprising.”

However, EA says that they will continue to deliver other popular Facebook games to its users, mostly games from PopCap that include Bejeweled Blitz, Solitaire Blitz, and Plants vs. Zombies Adventures. So while EA may have shut down a few of its Facebook games, they won’t be exiting that market anytime soon.

Of course, EA isn’t the only one having a difficult time keeping players on its social games. Zynga also shut down quite a few of their own Facebook titles, and the company announced that they would be distancing themselves from Facebook. This comes after Zynga shut down a few of their studios and laid off a handful of employees.

Apr 14

Facebook Home is Facebook’s second chance at wowing the mobile industry

Posted in: Today's Chili

Back in 2010, when the mobile industry was rapidly rising in innovation and technology, Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg decided to create a mobile app for its social networking service that could work universally on all mobile operating systems. At the time, it seemed like a great idea, however, it was “probably one of the biggest mistakes we’ve ever made,” Zuckerberg tells CNN. Initially, Zuckerberg believed that standalone mobile apps was just a fad that would disappear, and that people would primarily just surf the web via their smartphones.

Unfortunately for Zuckerberg and Facebook, the complete opposite happened. People preferred using standalone apps, and because Facebook put the least amount of effort into its mobile app, it garnered terrible ratings in the Apple App store, as well as the Android Market. This was a wake-up call for Zuckerberg, who restructured his company to be more of a mobile-centric company. He placed mobile developers in each product team, and in order for Facebook teams to make their product appeal to Facebook managers, they had to make their products mobile-friendly.

Facebook ended up throwing out its iOS app completely, much to the reluctance of Zuckerberg. Cory Ondrejka, a mobile engineer for Facebook, told Zuckerberg that the company needed to spend a whole year to build the iOS app from the ground up. The app would retain the same design as the old app, however, unlike the old app, the new one would actually be usable. While Zuckerberg was initially hesitant of the idea, he was pleasantly surprised when the app released in 2012 and gained many 4-5 star ratings.

It was then when Zuckerberg and other Facebook executives knew that they had to primarily focus on the mobile aspect of the tech industry. Zuckerberg thought about creating a Facebook phone, however, he believed that the product would only reach 3% of Facebook users. That’s when he decided to create Facebook Home. He wanted to integrate Facebook more deeply with both Android and Apple. However, because Apple’s platform isn’t very open, he decided to focus on Android.

He had designers and engineers find out all possible things on Android that Facebook could be integrated with. It started off with SMS text notifications, and then it expanded further and further. Zuckerberg said,

“We wanted to start off trying to rethink some of those core things and say, ‘How could these be better if, instead of the current system you have, they were people-centric in all the themes that Facebook stands for?’”

Facebook Home integrates itself almost entirely over the Android OS. It takes over the lockscreen, launcher, and even the messaging features. According to CNN, Home is not just “another product release”, but is “Facebook’s opening salvo in the battle for dominance on the mobile web”. Facebook plans on bringing Facebook-Home enabled phones to developing worlds where people are just now getting access to the internet. It plans on allowing people who purchase Facebook Home-enabled phones to have free data access for a set-period of time.

Zuckerberg wants to bring Facebook Home to the iPhone as well, however, he says, “We just can’t today…” Zuckerberg also says that in the future, mobile ads will be coming to Facebook Home to help the company generate more revenue. Facebook Home is a giant step forward for the social network, however, so far it’s still standing at a 2.5 star rating in the Google Play store, not what the company was hoping for. We’ll see soon how Facebook will respond to the negative feedback its receiving for its new product, and if it will introduce updates to make it more appealing. Until then, be sure to check out our review of Facebook Home here.

[via CNN]

Apr 13

New Facebook Home ad features Mark Zuckerberg and a screaming goat

Posted in: Today's Chili

Facebook has revealed its next TV ad for Facebook Home, and this time, CEO Mark Zuckerberg is featured in it. In the video, Zuckerberg is making an announcement about the launch of Facebook Home, and how the app centers around the people, not the apps, and yadda yadda yadda. While he drones on and on, to the boredom of the employees, one employee takes to his HTC First, and scrolls around his Facebook Home interface.

This Facebook ad borrows the same concept as Facebook Home’s first television ad. As Joey, the other guy featured in the ad, flips through the contents of his Facebook, the news stories come to life. First, we have a goat that screams in Zuckerberg’s face while he’s giving his speech, followed by Joey’s friend asking him to play a game of racketball with him. The scene ends with the entire office transformed into a swimming pool, and Joey being submerged in water in real life.

Facebook Home launched yesterday, both through the AT&T exclusive HTC First, as well as through an Android app available only for select devices. Unfortunately, the app saw some pretty mediocre reviews on the Google Play store, but things are starting to look up for it. Right now, it’s at a 2.5 star rating in Google Play, with a total of 2,681 votes. However, the more recent reviews are much more accepting of the app. Along with Facebook Home, Facebook also updated its other Android app, as well as its Messenger app.

Facebook Home is a launcher that is supposed to center around people, rather than just apps. It has features like Cover Feed, which brings status updates from your favorite Facebook friends to your lockscreen, and Chat Heads, which shows a pop-up bubble on you screen when a friend messages you, that brings your friends at the forefront of your Android device. Be sure to check out our review of Facebook Home here.

Hasta La Gadget!

Facebook Home hitting Jailbroken iPhones: Chat Heads first