Hasta La Gadget!

Congratulations Tennessee! Governor Bill Haslam has put your state in the national spotlight and, for once, it has nothing to do with Bonnaroo or how bad the Titans are. The republican executive of the state signed a ban on “distressing images” into law last week that we’re sure constitutional lawyers are going to have a field day with. Anyone who sends or posts an image online (and yes, that includes TwitPics) that they “reasonably should know” would “cause emotional distress” could face several months in jail and thousands of dollars in fines. The best part? Anyone who stumbles across the image is a viable “victim” under the law and the government doesn’t even have to prove any harmful intent. So, Tennessee residents who aren’t cautious enough using Google image search could get a few people in trouble. Another, and perhaps more perturbing, part of the same bill also seeks to circumvent restrictions on obtaining private messages and information from social networking sites without a search warrant. We give it about a month before this gets struck down on obvious grounds that it’s unconstitutional.

Tennessee law bans ‘distressing images,’ opens your Facebook inbox originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 10 Jun 2011 16:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Intel’s Museum of Me finally gives your Facebook ego the attention it deserves originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 02 Jun 2011 07:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Man, social networks have taken on a loose definition as of late, haven’t they? Toyota just announced plans to launch one for its customers, and while our initial reaction was an eye-roll and sighs of “what the world needs now,” the truth is that it’s really just a system that uses Twitter and Facebook to let you know when something’s amiss. Dubbed Toyota Friend (and built on Salesforce.com’s private Chatter network), the service will dish up battery power warnings to electric vehicle owners, along with maintenance tips — advice that can pop up on phones, tablets, and “other advanced mobile devices.” In addition to their friendly neighborhood car dealerships, folks can befriend other cars and the friends and family who own them, though it’s unclear from the press release below why you’d care. (Okay, we suppose if we had a teenage driver we might want to know if they were about to break curfew.) If that all sounds like bunk, you probably won’t get a test drive soon, anyway — the service is slated to launch in 2012, in Japan, and, initially, for electric and hybrid vehicle owners only.

Continue reading Toyota to launch social network for people who like to befriend car dealerships

Toyota to launch social network for people who like to befriend car dealerships originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 23 May 2011 14:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It seems like the ongoing rivalry between Facebook and Google has taken a turn for the subversive. Last night, a spokesman for the social network confirmed to the Daily Beast that Facebook paid a top PR firm to spread anti-Google stories across the media and to encourage various outlets to examine allegations that the Mountain View company was violating user privacy. The PR firm, Burson-Marsteller, even offered to help blogger Chris Soghoian write a critical op-ed piece about Social Circle — a service that allows Gmail users to access information on so-called “secondary connections,” or friends of their friends. Social Circle, in fact, seems to have been at the epicenter of Facebook’s smear campaign. In a pitch to journalists, Burson described the tool in borderline apocalyptic terms:

“The American people must be made aware of the now immediate intrusions into their deeply personal lives Google is cataloging and broadcasting every minute of every day-without their permission.”

Soghoian thought that Burson’s representatives were “making a mountain out of a molehill,” so he decided to prod them about which company they might be working for. When Burson refused to spill the beans, Soghoian went public and published all of the e-mails sent between him and the firm. USA Today picked up on the story, before concluding that any claims of a smear campaign were unfounded. The Daily Beast‘s Dan Lyons, however, apparently forced Facebook’s hand after confronting the company with “evidence” of its involvement. A Facebook spokesman said the social network hired Burson to do its Nixonian dirty work for two primary reasons: it genuinely believes that Google is violating consumer privacy and it also suspects that its rival “may be improperly using data they have scraped about Facebook users.” In other words, their actions were motivated by both “altruistic” and self-serving agendas, though we’d be willing to bet that the latter slightly outweighed the former. Google, meanwhile, has yet to comment on the story, saying that it still needs more time to wrap its head around everything — which might just be the most appropriate “no comment” we’ve ever heard.

Facebook admits hiring PR firm to smear Google originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 12 May 2011 07:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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No frogs transformed into princes and no wicked stepmothers were vanquished — not on camera, at least — but today’s royal wedding managed to capture the world’s imagination. Thanks to partnerships with CBS, the Associated Press, UK Press Association, and Entertainment Tonight, the marriage between Prince William and Kate Middleton broke viewing records on Livestream.com, maxing out at 300,000 simultaneous viewers and a total of “at least 2 million” unique users, according to Max Haot, the site’s CEO. We reached out to YouTube and Facebook to see how they did on the streaming front, but neither site has a final tally — though a Facebook spokesperson did tell us that 6,819,072 people have commented on the wedding in the past 24 hours. We don’t want to rain on anyone’s parade, but we hear News Corp. has secured the rights to the Royal Divorce — just in case.

Royal wedding livestream breaks hearts, records originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 30 Apr 2011 06:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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