Social networking

Bill would force you to give police phone after accident

You may feel that everyone wants to peek inside your cell phone just at the moment.

Please, therefore, allow me to make you a little more insecure.

State legislators in New Jersey would very much like to make it easier for the police to go through your cell phone, should you be in any way involved in an accident.

The wording of their proposal -- Bill S 2783 (PDF) -- is quite precise in its breadth:

Whenever an operator of a motor vehicle has been involved in an accident resulting in death, bodily injury or property damage, a police officer … Read more

Twitter's flattery of ad creatives has bottom-line agenda

The Vine is pretty clever. It shows, in six rapid seconds, how to quickly and easily put up a simple bookshelf.

Done in the stop-motion technique that has been the hallmark of most of the best Vines to surface so far, the video is an ad for Lowe's home improvement stores, and is part of a series called, appropriately, #lowesfixinsix.

Published more than three weeks ago, the video got a fresh life today when Twitter featured it as the inaugural poster child for its new #CreativeFavorites program, an initiative that aims to celebrate the best work being done on … Read more

Facebook plans for Home switch in Android app

Facebook Home may have fallen flat among users initially, but CEO Mark Zuckerberg assured shareholders on Tuesday that he has big plans for the software suite.

He said the company will eventually distribute Home -- which blankets your mobile device with your News Feed -- through its Android app, once it's perfected.

"We haven't really made our big push yet ... biggest thing that we're going to do once we feel that we're ready is to encourage people who have the Facebook app to go turn this on from within the app," Zuckerberg said at … Read more

Why Sony did the opposite of Microsoft on used games (Q&A)

When Microsoft last week announced new, and more restrictive, rules regarding the resale of used Xbox One games, the policy triggered howls of outrage and calls for boycotts from consumers who rely on buying used games.

The new restrictions let Xbox gamers share games just a single time and only with people who have been on their friends list for at least 30 days. But on Monday night, Microsoft's arch-rival Sony announced a different tack: Jack Tretton, the CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment of America, said his company would not impose any restrictions on trading or selling used games. … Read more

Banker sleeps on keyboard, mistakenly transfers $293M

They work them hard in German banks.

They make the eat, breathe, and sleep their jobs. Especially that last one.

At least that's the impression that must be gleaned from the tale of a German bank employee who fell asleep on his computer keyboard.

Oh, we've all done it. We've all woken up hours later to read that we just wrote: "CHHCHCHCHCHCCHCHCHCHCCCO."

And yet this bank employee seems to have fallen asleep during a transfer of funds.

As Agence France-Presse tells it, a court in Hessen heard that he was supposed to send 62.40 … Read more

Apple's latest ad: Not enough crazy?

Here's to the warm and cuddly ones.

It doesn't quite make one's smaller hairs salute, does it?

In recent years, Apple has tried various advertising routes, yet its default is still the tender, the human and the ever so slightly safe.

On Monday, in conjunction with its WWDC 2013 stage extravaganza, the company released an ad that echoed a huge amount of warmth and yet somehow offered a chilling relief to what used to be.

I was watching a presentation given recently by Apple's most experienced advertising creative director, Lee Clow.

In it, Clow explained how, … Read more

Just like Foursquare, Yelp now recommending nearby places

Local search and reviews app Yelp is now serving up nearby venue suggestions to people based on a variety of factors, including previous check-ins, reviews, and friend activity.

The recommendations feature is included in the latest version of Yelp for iPhone and bears a striking resemblance to Foursquare's Explore neighborhood discovery assistant. Venue suggestions are now included in the Nearby tab on iPhone and are said to be coming soon to the company's Android application.

"Imagine it's noon and you're hungry for lunch, but don't want the same old ham n' cheese from the … Read more

Hillary Clinton shows she's down with tech and joins Twitter

Demonstrating that she's savvy with the world of social media, Hillary Clinton has finally joined Twitter with a dose of tongue-in-cheek humor. And, with only one tweet, she already has 220,000 followers and counting.

In her profile, Clinton describes herself as a "Wife, mom, lawyer, women & kids advocate, FLOAR, FLOTUS, US Senator, SecState, author, dog owner, hair icon, pantsuit aficionado, glass ceiling cracker, TBD..."

She also references and uses a photo from the popular Tumblr meme "Texts from Hillary," which pairs humorous fictitious captions with images of Clinton texting.

Here is her first … Read more

Twitter users go gaga over OS X Mavericks and iOS 7

Apple can still put on a show -- at least according to your tweets. The Twittersphere erupted in utter elation over the unveiling of OS X Mavericks and iOS 7 during Apple's keynote address at its annual Worldwide Developers Conference.

During the two-hour keynote, a majority of Twitter users tweeted in excitement around Apple's latest Mac operating system and its radically redesigned mobile OS, according to data provided to CNET by social-media management startup HootSuite. For both OS X and iOS 7, more than 90 percent of tweets registered on the positive side of the spectrum, the firm … Read more