Hasta La Gadget!

Today LinkedIn has announced the released of its new Contacts app, which it touts as “a smarter way to stay in touch with your most important relationships.” LinkedIn Contacts is available as a new iPhone app as well as a web app on LinkedIn.com. The app brings in all contacts from the address book, email accounts and calendars, these are then kept up to date in one place. It automatically puts together all details of conversations that you have had with your contacts and adds them directly to every individual contact’s profile.

LinkedIn Contacts app will also alert users when their contacts change their jobs or there is a birthday in their network. Notes and reminders can be added inside the app, if there is anything specific that you would like to note for any particular contact. The company will be sending invitations to try LinkedIn Contacts to a limited number of members that are based in the U.S. The app certainly provides a fresh take on conventional address books, but does it offer enough functionality for you to consider using it?

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: The Pirate Bay Finds A New Home In Iceland, Google Drive Receives New Social Features,

When you’re sharing a file in Google Drive, your time should be spent collaborating, not arranging conversations. Right? Google agrees strongly enough to have just finished tweaking Drive’s web interface for better teamwork. Users actively working on the project now show as mouse-over icons, with their Google+ relationship front and center — if they’re not friends and you want them to be, you can change that almost immediately. It’s even faster to start group chats, as a new dedicated button will launch a chatroom for everyone who’s currently looking at the project. Google expects the speedier Drive socialization to reach us within a day or two, and it’s planning to bolster the update with wider file support sometime in the near future.

Filed under: Internet, Google

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Source: Google Drive Blog

It is being reported that Twitter is internally testing a two factor authentication security system which will be incrementally rolled out to users in the near future. Two factor or two step authentication safeguard accounts from hacking attempts in a far better way than just passwords alone. It is not clear when Twitter plans on rolling it out, but a sense of urgency is being reported, given the recent string of high profile Twitter accounts being hacked.

Yesterday the Associated Press @AP account was hacked and a bogus tweet about bombings at the White House was posted. In recent weeks several high profile accounts have been hacked, including that of 60 Minutes and the BBC. The two factor authentication solution is currently being beta tested for influential accounts such as The New York Times, the Associated Press and Justin Bieber. It is not known how Twitter will implement this solution, it can be assumed that users will be required to pre-register a device which will receive a randomly generated code either through SMS or through an application. Entering this code along with the password would be required when signing in from a new location, this will certainly be much more effective than a mere password.

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In an effort to update the FCC’s long-running Lifeline program that helps put telephone access in low-income homes, a new piece of legislation has been introduced to the House of Representatives that would aim to give low-income homes the opportunity for unsubsidized broadband internet access.

The bill is backed by Rep. Doris Matsui (D-CA), and it’s being called the Broadband Adoption Act of 2013, which would instruct the FCC to modify the Lifeline program in order to include broadband internet. Matsui says that the Lifeline program is fantastic, but it needs to be updated and modernized to fit within the 21st century.

Lifeline is funded by the “Universal Service” system, which helps low-income Americans pay for their landline phone, but this new bill would see Universal Services also helping pay for broadband internet access. In addition to subsidizing services, the Universal Service also helps pay for telephone service in rural areas around the country.

However, the discussion of whether or not to provide low-income households with cheaper broadband internet has been up and down in Washington for several years now, with a 2010 government report showing up that recommended the addition of broadband internet to the existing Lifeline program. Plus, Matsui introduced similar legislation in 2011, but it quickly faded away.

[via Ars Technica]

New legislation aims for subsidized broadband in low-income homes is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

If you follow the Associated Press Twitter account, you might have read a pretty shocking post: “Two Explosions in the White House and Barack Obama is injured.” @AP_CorpComm has now confirmed that the account was hacked and that the White House bombing tweet is bogus. Those who replied to the aforementioned tweet were definitely crying foul as no other major news networks were reporting the same news. Besides that the formatting was different from AP’s usual posts, note capitalization of letter E in ‘Explosions’ and the referring to the President by his name.

Soon after this tweet was posted the Dow index fell almost a 100 points, though it has recovered now. The Syrian Electronic Army has claimed responsibility for this hack and the spreading of false information. Only recently they were suspected of hacking several CBS twitter accounts, and last year they hacked Reuters account as well. The @AP and @AP_Mobile accounts have now been suspended, on the latter the following was posted: “Syrian Electronic Army Was Here.” Such hacking incidents are becoming increasingly common, if you do spot posts that are out of the ordinary for such influential accounts, do refrain from clicking on any links posted in such dubious tweets as they might be harmful.

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