Hasta La Gadget!

Are you one of the few out there who thought Latitude was, like, totally awesome, but your heart lies with the boys at Redmond? Well, rejoice Bing fans, because We’re In is the location-based social network you’ve been waiting for. At its most basic, the app lets you share your location with friends, find contacts on a map, and update your status — great for seeing who is around and organizing outings. But, We’re In has one unique feature that’s actually quite ingenious, location sharing is time limited. You choose who to share GPS data with and for how long. Once the invite expires — poof! No more tracking. A few more details and the download link can be found at the source.

We’re In ushers Bing into the location-based social networking game originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 20 Aug 2011 04:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Every so often, Chuzzlewitt, Figglesworth and the rest of the Concise Oxford English Dictionary’s Council of Elders gather around a stone in Puddingshire, where they come up with ways to modernize the English language. New words are added, archaic ones are cut, goats are sacrificed. It’s all very messy — especially when internet lingo gets involved, as is so often the case. It’s no different this year, with the latest class of inductees including words like “retweet,” “sexting,” and “cyberbullying.” Also making the cut is “woot” (which is apparently spelled without zeroes) and “surveil,” which was added primarily as a reflection of today’s privacy-conscious society. In fact, the dictionary’s purveyors say they make their decisions based not on intuition or cage match results, but on cultural ubiquity, which they gauge using a database of more than two billion words culled from contemporary sites. So if you’re wondering why words like “jeggings” and “mankini” are now part of the English tome, you have only the internet to blame.

‘Retweet,’ ‘sexting’ added to Oxford English Dictionary, alongside words that are actually words originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 19 Aug 2011 11:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It may not be hard to trace, say, Rhea Perlman back to Kevin Bacon, but what about you? If the age-old theory holds water, we should all be no more than six degrees away from cuttin’ Footloose with Hollywood’s bygone golden boy — or anyone else for that matter. Well, Yahoo’s determined to put any six-degree doubts to rest with its Small World Experiment, and what better way to do so than on Facebook? Participating users are given a “target person,” and asked to “get a message to this person in as few steps as possible.” They are then prompted to select a single friend to pass the message on to, who will then be prompted to do the same, and so on. The idea is that if each subsequent recipient of the message continues to send it along, it will eventually reach its desired destination. No word yet on whether or not Mr. Bacon has given his blessing, but you can still sign up at the source link to get in on the action.

Yahoo experiment tests six degrees of separation on Facebook, cries out for Kevin Bacon endorsement originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 17 Aug 2011 20:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Wondering how you’ll be able to most efficiently brag to far away friends about your new PlayStation Vita? Sony’s got the answer in the form of newly announced apps for its next generation portable. Vita Facebook, Foursquare, Twitter and Skype apps will be landing in the PlayStation Store in Japan before the end of the year. The US and Europe will get their shot at the free apps in early 2012.

Update: It is unclear whether the apps will be available when Vita launches. The above dates are actually for the device itself.

Continue reading PlayStation Vita getting social networking apps, ‘winning’ hashtag making a comeback next year

PlayStation Vita getting social networking apps, ‘winning’ hashtag making a comeback next year originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Aug 2011 18:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If there’s anything I’ve found to be painfully clear about social media, it’s that having friends is exhausting. Privately, I don’t care if it’s your birthday. I secretly hate you. But society now forces me to acknowledge your virtual existence. More »