Networking

Twitter's long-standing "favorite" option might be going away.

The company has reportedly been testing two replacements for the favorite option, called "star" and "like." So far, it appears that the changes are limited to only a few users, so it's not clear if the function works any differently.

Favorites have been on Twitter for several years. According to The Next Web, which first reported on the testing, a source told the publication that the feature has been used "billions of times."

In its current implementation, clicking the "favorite" … Read more

Yelp is taking aim at business owners that try to artificially inflate their reviews on the site.

The user-reviews site today announced today that it has launched a new initiative to root out companies that have made "significant attempts to pay for reviews." In the event it finds such attempts, Yelp will post a "consumer alert" on a company posting alerting users to the violation.

"We caught someone red-handed trying to buy reviews for this business," the alert reads. "We weren't fooled, but wanted you to know because buying reviews not only … Read more

I admit it, I have a problem. I am a fan of fast networking products and often feel uneasy if what I have isn't the latest and greatest. That hasn't changed at all, despite the fact that over the years, I have realized that the latest and greatest is generally way more than I need.

The truth of the matter is, for most homes (and even certain types of small offices), all you need is a stable Wireless-N Wi-Fi router. This is because the main purpose of the router is often just to share the Internet connection and some network resources, such as printers and documents. Since the Internet speed generally caps at much lower amount than Wireless-N's speed, it won't get faster if you upgrade the router to the latest and greatest. On top of that, the majority of wireless hardware clients, such as tablets, smartphones, laptops, support Wireless-N (802.11n) or the slower Wireless-G (802.11g) standards. Since the speed of a network connection is determined by the slowest speed of any party involved, a lot of time having a superfast router doesn't help with the speed of the local LAN, either.

That said, if you just want a simple home network to share the Internet and data files, the following routers will more than get the job done. The best part is that none of them costs you more than $80.… Read more

Facebook is slowly but surely getting closer to launching a native Android application, a new report claims.

The company has finally hit the final stages of testing its Android application, Engadget reports today. Once that testing is complete, Facebook will waste little time in launching the application, according to the report.

Facebook currently offers a free application to Android users. However, that program is built with HTML5. In a recent discussion on Facebook's mobile efforts, the company's chief executive Mark Zuckerberg admitted that the HTML5 app was a mistake and promised a native app for Android users.

Many … Read more

Linksys today announced the availability of its latest Smart Wi-Fi router, the Linksys Smart Wi-Fi Router AC 1750 HD Video Pro router (model EA6500). This is the company's first router to support the latest 802.11ac Wi-Fi standard.

The new router is to compete with similar routers from other networking vendors, such as the Netgear R6300, the D-Link DIR-865L, and the Buffalo AirStation WZR-D1800H.… Read more

Twitter might be stuck with 140 characters per tweet, but that isn't stopping the social network from adding some additional functionality to its platform.

The company announced today that it has partnered with Nielsen on a new survey tool for advertisers. The feature is simple enough: users will find messages in-line with their tweet timeline asking them if they'd like to complete a survey from advertiser. If they agree to it by clicking on the appropriate button, they'll be able to complete the survey from within Twitter, rather than be redirected to another site. The feature works … Read more

Facebook is in some legal hot water.

Facebook and its underwriters have been hit with approximately 50 lawsuits over its troubled initial public offering, the Wall Street journal is reporting, citing lawyers working on the cases. To make matters worse, the Journal's sources say that the brokers and financial firms that pushed investors to buy Facebook shares could face arbitration claims from those same buyers.

According to the Journal, it had a chance to look through some of the lawsuits, and many of them take aim at Facebook and its chief underwriter, Morgan Stanley, for failing to adequately warn … Read more

Facebook now supports mobile payments through carriers, thanks to a partnership with Bango.

The mobile payments company today announced its Facebook partnership, saying that folks who use the social network's mobile app can now purchase digital goods through carrier billing. Users will be asked to confirm a purchase, and then the charge will show up on their carrier bills, according to Bango.

Bango's payment service is available only in the U.S., U.K., and Germany at the moment. The company promises to make it available elsewhere in the coming months.

By going with Bango, Facebook might increase … Read more

Facebook's Photo Syncing is being tested on Android-based devices, according to a new report.

The feature, which automatically uploads images that Android users snap with their devices to their Facebook profiles, is being tested on a small number of users, The Verge is reporting, citing comments from Facebook.

Upon snapping a photo with an Android-based handset, Facbeook's Photo Syncing automatically sends it to a private folder in the user's account. Those images can then be removed from Facebook or shared publicly, depending on the user's preference.

Photo Syncing isn't quite a secret. Facebook currently has … Read more