followers

President Obama adds Pinterest to his social networks

How many people know the recipe for President Barack Obama's family chili? Before today, probably not many. But now anyone on the social-networking site Pinterest can find out how many onions, ground beef, and kidney beans the recipe takes, and then pin it to their own profile if they like.

Obama has added the popular virtual pinboard site Pinterest to his social-networking trove and today his filled-out profile page with eight boards and 44 pins was made public. According to tech news site Mashable, the Obama campaign set up the account a few weeks ago, but there wasn't … Read more

How to track Twitter follower stats in real time with Android

Cultivating Twitter accounts can be a serious business to some users. If you want to track your Twitter follower stats, there's an easy way to do it on Android.

Check Your Twitter Stats (TwiStats) is a simple widget app for Android that shows your total Twitter followers, total number of Tweets, and follower counts over time (daily, weekly, and monthly).

To use TwiStats, install the app, place the widget on your screen, then enter your Twitter username. No password is required. For the stats over time, you'll need to wait a few days for the data to be … Read more

Follow focus for the frugal videographer

If you've always wanted to achieve the precise focusing seen in the movies, perhaps it's time you invested in a follow focus. However, with professional systems costing anywhere from a few hundred to thousands of dollars, the 50-Dollar Follow Focus is a more affordable alternative for videographers on a budget.

The brainchild of Wiley Davis, the 50-Dollar Follow Focus is made in his homemade CNC (computer numerical control) mill and consists of the follow focus body, a pulley and a rubber-toothed belt. A user-adjustable spring built into the system of Teflon washers in the follow focus allows users to fine-tune the amount of friction needed when focusing a lens.

Crafted from durable, heat-treated aluminum, the 50-Dollar Follow Focus comes with a re-positional handle, which lets users set their lens at different positions at specific marker lines. Finally, a toothed-belt and pulleys of different sizes can be swapped to fit different lens sizes. … Read more

Update all the social sites

HootSuite for iOS lets you sign in to your Twitter, Facebook, and Foursquare accounts from a single application window. While the app may not be versatile enough for the most active social media personalities, it is a convenient option for frequent users of these three social networks.

The first thing you should know about HootSuite for iOS is that it's nowhere near as powerful as its browser-based sibling. While the desktop version lets you sign in to and post from no fewer than nine different networks, the iOS app is limited to the three mentioned above. That said, the … Read more

Best Twitter apps for iOS

Unless you've been living under a rock (or maybe just don't read tech news) you probably already know that next Tuesday, October 4, is when Apple makes its next major announcement. While the company is tight-lipped as usual, we know that it will probably announce at least one new iPhone and when it plans to launch iOS 5, the operating system that powers the iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad.

One of the big known features of the new iOS is Twitter integration. Apple generally does a great job of creating intuitive interfaces for just about everything and what we've learned of Twitter on the iPhone sounds great, as you'll be able to tweet directly from Safari, Photos, YouTube, and Camera. But if you're a serious Twitter user, you're still going to need a third-party app to get all that Twitter has to offer.… Read more

Three ways to see who's stopped following you on Twitter

With all the coverage last week regarding Facebook and the changes that will be rolling out, it was discovered that Facebook users can now see who unfriended them in the new Timeline view. But, for some users, Facebook isn't a preferred social network. What about people who care to know who has stopped following them on Twitter?

By default, Twitter sends you an e-mail when you gain a new follower, but not when you lose a follower. Luckily, there are some pretty good services out there to fill the void.… Read more

New Twitter features focus on you, those you follow

Twitter is rolling out a couple of new features that should help you find more revelant tweets, especially those that involve you.

As of yesterday, the microblogging site is replacing the familiar Mentions tab with a new tab that displays your username, according to the company's official blog. Clicking on your username tab will reveal more than just tweets in which you're mentioned. You'll be able to see which of your own tweets are considered Favorites or are retweeted by someone also. You'll also see tweets directed to you and which tweets are popular among the … Read more

The 404 876: Where 92 percent of our hosts are fake (podcast)

Which would you rather give up for a week, your toothbrush or your iPhone? We welcome CNETer Kenley Bradstreet back on the show today to help us answer this hypothetical question and more.

Of course, Joey Kaminski is here, too, and we have a minefield of a story rundown to test his self-control, such as a nail polish inspired by bruises and bodily fluids, a world-record-breaking attempt going down tomorrow on the corner of Seaman and Dyckman Streets, and a report that 92-percent of Newt Gengrich's 1.3 million Twitter followers are actually robots.

The 404 Digest for Episode 876

Nail polish names inspired by bruises and blood. Report: 92 percent of Newt Gingrich's Twitter Followers Aren't Real. iPhone users would trade shoes, sex for phone. N.Y. lingerie shop to break world record for simultaneous breastfeeding. No lasers were harmed in the scanning of these cats.

Episode 876 Subscribe in iTunes (audio) | Subscribe in iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video… Read more

Newt Gingrich accused of Twitter follower fraud

Husband, father, grandfather, citizen, small businessman, author, former Speaker, candidate for president, and Twitter fraudster? Newt Gingrich is being accused of having more than a million fictitious followers on Twitter.

The provocative blog Gawker has been on an absolute tear over the last few days, accusing Gingrich of using campaign money to hire spam agencies designed to boost Twitter follower counts. The accusations supposedly originate from an anonymous former campaign staffer.

Things got even spicier today, when Gawker cited a new report by New York-based search company PeekYou, which claims to have analyzed every Gingrich follower and to come up … Read more