feeds

Google+ for Android

Google+ for Android is a clean and intuitive mobile app that has all of the powers of its desktop counterpart save for the games and a few other minor features.

The Google+ app opens up to a dashboard of icons leading to the different sections of the service: Stream, Messenger, Photos, Profile, and Circles. As a whole, the interface looks and feels very much like the full desktop version of Google+, and navigating the app is incredibly intuitive.

Stream Stream is really the lifeblood of Google+. By default, this section of the app displays feeds for All Circles, Nearby Google+ … Read more

How to adjust app and Web site permissions on Facebook

A lot of changes are rolling out on Facebook, and the Apps area didn't escape this remodel. Currently, an app only needs you to authorize permission once. After permission is given, it can post and share activity on Facebook on your behalf without approval. If you want to check up on what an app has access to, or are tired of sharing what game you're playing, here's how to adjust those settings:

Step 1: In Facebook, click the small arrow near your name in the upper-right-hand corner and choose Privacy Settings.

Step 2: Scroll down to Apps … Read more

How to restore Facebook's Most Recent news feed

Do you count yourself among the multitudes who dislike Facebook's latest revision, mainly because it took away the ability to toggle between Top Stories and Most Recent in your news feed? Regarding the new news feed, Facebook explains, "If you haven't visited Facebook for a while, the first things you'll see are top photos and statuses posted while you've been away...If you check Facebook more frequently, you'll see the most recent stories first."

If you don't trust Facebook to sort your news for you, you can manually create a Most Recent news feed. Ironically, you must turn to one of Facebook's new features--Lists--to resurrect the old Most Recent feed. Just create a custom list and add all of your friends and pages to it; the resulting list appears to be sorted by chronological order. Disclaimer: If you have hundreds upon hundreds of Facebook friends, the process will be laborious because there isn't a way to select all, at least that I have found. Instead, you must click one by one to add each friend or page to the list.… Read more

Cut the Rope enters the lab

Cut the Rope: Experiments is a fun follow-up to the arcade puzzler Cut the Rope, with a few new elements but the same core concept centered on inventive physics challenges, well-designed and replayable levels, and a cute little candy-loving monster named Om Nom.

The interface is the same: you swipe your finger to cut a rope (occasionally more than one, with multitouch) to drop an attached piece of candy into Om Nom's mouth, a task that becomes increasingly complex with the addition of floating bubbles, dangerous spikes, movable anchors, elastic ropes, and so on. As before, you're also … Read more

How to hide the Facebook ticker

If you have checked Facebook today, you have probably noticed a sidebar ticker has been added to the right-hand column of the newly redesigned News Feed, along with complaints and snarky comments about the new News Feed and this ticker. About the ticker, Facebook says:

Ticker, on the right-hand side of your account, lets you see all your friends' activity in real-time. When you hover over an item on ticker, you can see the full story and join the conversation as it happens. Ticker updates itself as stories happen. This gives you a more complete picture of what your friends … Read more

Facebook news feed revamp faces backlash

Facebook users were searching for a "dislike" button to express their annoyance with the social network's revamped news feed.

Facebook today rolled out a new version of its news feed, which breaks up top stores and recent posts into separate columns and adds a new ticker-like column with live updates from friends. It's an effort by the social network to further emulate Twitter's real-time messages and updates.

But the changes have drawn a wave of complaints as people took to social networks--including Facebook--to express their annoyance, with many complaining about the clutter and confusion of … Read more

Feedly: An enhanced Google Reader experience

If you use Google Reader for Android (download), chances are you're not too excited about the service's interface, especially when it's miniaturized on a mobile touch screen. If that's the case, we'd like to direct your attention to Feedly for Android (download). Essentially, Feedly wraps your Google Reader feeds in a neat, feature-rich, simple-to-use package. It syncs with your Reader account seamlessly, is much easier on the eyes than the bare-bones Google Reader app, and plays nicely with a whole lot more third-party services.

When you first launch the Feedly app, it opens up directly … Read more

Feedly enhances your Google Reader experience

Essentially, Feedly wraps your Google Reader (download) in a neat, feature-rich package. It's much easier on the eyes than the bare-bones Google Reader app, and it plays nicely with a whole lot more third-party services.

When you first launch the Feedly app, it opens up directly to featured content. That's because it comes preloaded with RSS feeds from many of the Web's most popular sites. These preloaded "Essentials" cover a number of verticals such as technology, design, and business. This means that even without syncing with your Google Reader account, you can enjoy RSS feeds … Read more

Google, Facebook spar over Google+ invite issue

A purported mishandling of Google+ invitation links that keeps them from surfacing on Facebook user news feeds has resulted in a "he said, she said" match between the two companies.

A video that was posted earlier today on YouTube by a Google employee depicts an unusual behavior, with Google+ invite links that have been shared with Facebook friends not showing up in the news feeds of other users, despite appearing to do so once posted.

That video was linked to by Vic Gundotra, the senior vice president of social business for Google, in a Google+ posting earlier today, … Read more