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Twitter finally allows you to mute your friends

Posted by Ariel Levin-Waldman Categories: Corporate News, Social Media, Social Networks,

It's pretty hard to get a message across in 140 characters or less. I know, I'm a journalist and I've had to do it professionally. But maybe you feel you are still getting too much information that you might not want. Maybe you just have a friend who has tweeted you to save the whales twenty times too many.

Well, now you can mute them.

Twitter has just unveiled its newest feature, the mute option. With the press of a button the you can select users in your feed that you just don't want to hear any more. You will no longer see their tweets, retweets, SMS or push notifications

It's not a full block feature. The biggest difference is that they can still follow you. They can still see your feed, share and retweet your posts and reply to you. You just won't see it in your timeline. They can also send you a direct tweet. The muted user does not receive any notification that you have shut them up.

You won't have to listen to them and they won't be upset with you. Now I can get back to seeing what trending without having to save any of those darned whales.

Twitter launches new design

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Design, Internet,

This morning, Twitter deployed its new site redesign, bringing the look and feel of the site up to date with modern design language tendencies. As you browse the site, you'll notice that the font is changed, your profile image and cover photo now appear at the top-left of the screen when perusing your timeline, and flat design elements are now in play. It looks good, and is a big improvement in my mind when compared to the previous design, as subtle as the changes are. It's also good to see the continuance of the flat design look that has been adopted by iOS 7, Facebook, and Windows Phone making its way through more tech companies.

All that said, it isn't enough to pull us away from our beloved Tweetbot, our preferred way of using Twitter. What about you? What do you think of the changes?

Also today, Facebook released it's new Paper app.

Facebook Paper brings elegance to your timeline

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Smartphones, Internet, Software,

Facebook has released its new Facebook Paper app, a free version of Facebook that introduces new ways of interacting with the social network. Similar to the popular Flipbook app, Facebook Paper is centered around eye-catching, full-screen images, and gesture-based navigation, bringing the topics and people you care about most to the forefront.

A product of Facebook Creative Labs, Paper looks great, and could likely replace the default Facebook app for most users, what with its magazine-style layout. To get users acquainted, Facebook Paper launches with a gesture tutorial, helping you become familiar with the new way of interacting with Facebook. It's a bold move, but it works. Facebook needs to constantly monitor the pain points that its users experience when using the service, especially on mobile. Paper solves a lot of those issues that the common Facebook user encounters in the more bloated full app, bringing a simple elegance and sense of ease with it.

Give it a shot, and let us know what you think in the comments. You can grab Paper now, for free.

Vine now available for Android

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Smartphones, Google, Software,

Vine for Android

If you own an Android phone, you can now get in on the Vine action that iPhone users have had access to for over four months now. The app is Twitter's answer to video sharing, allowing users to share six-second video snippets with each other. Interestingly, the iOS version and Android versions each have features that the other doesn't. For example, the iOS version includes support for the front-facing camera, mentions, hashtags, and search. The Android version doesn't--but it does have a zoom feature, something that's not found in iOS.

Vine for Android works with any device running Android 4.0 or higher, and you can download it now from the Google Play Store.

Instagram 3.5 adds “Photos of you” tagging feature

Posted by Jason Diaz Categories: Social Networking, App Updates, Free Apps,

Instagram 3.5

The ever so popular photo filtering social app Instagram has gone version 3.5 and introduces the "Photo of You" feature. Basically, it's a photo tagging feature borrowed from their parent company, Facebook. So, narcissists of the world rejoice as a new section will be dedicated in your profile to photos of a very important person, you guessed it, you!

What's New in Version 3.5

Introducing Photos of You! Add people to your photos & share who's with you
Send us feedback about bugs & errors using the new "Report a Problem" feature
Privacy settings can now be found on your Profile screen under Edit Your Profile.

Click to continue reading Instagram 3.5 adds “Photos of you” tagging feature

Twitter #Music service launches on web and iPhone

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Apple, Internet, Music, Software,

The rumored Twitter Music service has become a reality, launching this morning. Twitter #music seems to be a natural step for the service, which sees hundreds of millions of users regularly discussing music on the service, as well as a bunch of popular musicians as well. Twitter #music aims to help you find music you'll like, based on your Twitter activity. You can access #music through a web browser, and there's also a new dedicated #music iOS app that lets you easily view and listen to music that's popular and trending on Twitter, undiscovered artists, music that it knows you like, and a #NowPlaying area that shows what others are listening to.

One important note here is that Twitter #music isn't a streaming music service. Instead, it's a layer that allows you to access your Rdio, Spotify, and iTunes tracks, using Twitter #music as your navigation mechanism. You simply connect your accounts to #music, and you are all set. The iOS app is slick, and we hear the Android version will be on its way soon. You can download Twitter #music for iPhone now.

Facebook Home now available for download on Google Play store

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Smartphones, Google, Software,

Facebook Home is now available for download on Google Play, as promised last week at the Facebook Home announcement event. If you're the owner of an HTC One X, HTC One X+, Samsung Galaxy S III, or Samsung Galaxy Note II, you are good to go and can download and apply Facebook's launcher right away. You can also pick up the HTC First, which ships with Facebook Home built right in. The HTC One and Samsung Galaxy S 4 will also be capable of running Facebook Home.

As a reminder, Facebook Home is a replacement lock screen, home screen, and chat experience for compatible Android smartphones, bringing pictures feeds to the forefront, and the new Chat Heads feature that will allow you to stay manage Facebook messages in a much more efficient way.

You can now automatically share your Netflix viewing activity on Facebook

Posted by Jason Diaz Categories: Corporate News, Home Entertainment, Internet, Movies,

Netflix Facebook Sharing

Netflix is more social in the US now that you or, better said, Netflix can share your favorite movies and television shows with your friends on Facebook.

The Internet video on demand streaming giant has been given the green light to share your Netflix activity among your Facebook friends. The added functionality is off by default, but users can turn it on and pretty much allow others to spy on what they're watching and liking. Thankfully, Netflix added another feature that will hide specific videos that you deem unworthy of sharing. The caveat is that you don't forget to click the "don't share this" button on a specific video.

Click to continue reading You can now automatically share your Netflix viewing activity on Facebook

Facebook’s new News Feed focuses on multimedia [Video]

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Corporate News, Design, Social Media, Social Networks,

Facebook has announced a greatly revamped News Feed that hopes to beautify all the content that you consume on the social network. The new News Feed separates the different categories of content, making it easier to get to, say, just photo updates, or music updates, or groups, for example. Mark Zuckerberg says the new design is akin to a "personalized newspaper." The thought behind the changes are that people are sharing more and more multimedia--images, videos, links with previews…so why not take advantage of the screen space and optimize it?

Click to continue reading Facebook’s new News Feed focuses on multimedia [Video]

Twitter for Windows Phone gets a substantial update

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Smartphones, Microsoft, Software,

Twitter has finally (finally!) released a substantial update to Twitter for Windows Phone. The new version brings the design of the app in line with what you'd find in the iOS and Android variants, with the Home, Connect, Discover, and Me tabs included in the app. Additionally, Twitter for Windows Phone includes Live Tile support, so you can pin specific Twitter accounts, lists, and searches right to your Start Screen. You can grab the update right now.

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