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Social networking

Hipstamatic treads into social networking terrain with Oggl

Even though Hipstamatic and Instagram are photo-sharing partners, it seems like Hipstamatic is looking to add a little more social networking to its world.

The company announced Wednesday that it's launching a Hipstamatic spin-off app called Oggl for iOS. The idea is for people to take Hipstamatic-like photos and then share them with friends and family.

According to a Hipstamatic blog post by co-founders Lucas Buick and Ryan Dorshorst, Oggl is "a community for creative people to capture and curate their lives through photography." The company is clear that it doesn't want Oggl to be full … Read more

TweetPee: Huggies sends a tweet when baby's wet

Hashtag #pee! If you're looking to keep up with Junior's bladder goings-on when you're not in immediate range of his diaper, Huggies is making it easy to do that via social media.

TweetPee consists of a sensor and a Twitter alert. The cute little bird-shaped sensor attaches to the front of the diaper. When it senses a change in moisture, it sends you a tweet letting you know it's time to get off of Twitter and attend to business. You decide whether to retweet that message to your followers. … Read more

San Francisco hotels pricey? Van on Airbnb is only $92 a night

You can rent a castle on Airbnb and a treehouse. Boats are popular, and there are plenty of farmhouses. So why not a van?

As reported on the SF.StreetsBlog, an enterprising Airbnb user in San Francisco has started advertising a 1990 Chevy Conversion van, offering the vehicle (with just 45,000 miles!) for only $92 a night.

One might think the nightly rate (which is more if you consider the service charge) is a bit much to pay to sleep in a cramped space probably better suited for a Scooby Doo video. But, as everyone knows, real estate is … Read more

Sole female, minor coder wins hackathon with anti-spoiler app

As the father of a 5-year-old girl who adores all things princess but also digs stars and comets and mastered the user interface for both Android and iOS in about half a day, I'm always on the look out for Geek Grrl role models. So the new hero in my household is Jennie Lamere.

This 17-year-old grrl loves both reality television and hackathons and tapped into those two passions to win the grand prize at the TVnext hack event in Boston last month. Her brilliantly simple hack, first detailed on evolver.fm, is designed to prevent spoilers on Twitter while watching live TV.

Surely we've all shaken our fists in the air when a fellow "Walking Dead" or "Game of Thrones" fan in a different time zone tweets about the latest character to get eliminated while you're still popping popcorn and getting the couch ready for the evening's gore-fest.

Lamere's Google Chrome app, Twivo, allows users to block any tweets related to a certain keyword or words for a specified period of time, allowing you to keep up with the rest of the Twitterverse during commercial breaks without ruining the show you're watching.

Read more

Teen suspended for tweet critical of high school sports

I am writing this with a cold compress on my head and a milk chocolate digestive biscuit in my mouth.

Both are to soothe my furrowed thoughts.

For this is another tale of peculiarity from the antiseptic-smelling hallways of America's high schools.

It has been well-established that strange things happen in the nation's places of youth education.

You can get expelled and arrested for putting toilet cleaner and foil in a water bottle on school premises.

You can also get suspended for tweeting that you don't think your high school has very good sports teams.

Wesley Teague, … Read more

Facebook support removed from TweetDeck

If you've been relying on TweetDeck as a front-end for your Facebook account, it's time to look elsewhere.

Starting today, Twitter-owned TweetDeck no longer supports Facebook. That move, which Twitter announced in March, was part of the social-networking giant's effort to "focus our development efforts on our modern, Web-based versions of TweetDeck."

As expected, as part of the move Twitter also has removed support for TweetDeck for Air and versions of the client for iPhone and Android.

For now, TweetDeck for Mac is still available, but one has to wonder how long that will be … Read more

Social media self-promotion: The urge, the ick, the outcome

"My agent just sent my book to publishers! Fingers crossed!" That's the status message I just stopped myself from writing on Facebook.

It took all the willpower I've ever had.

In fact, I'm now eating a block of cheese because focusing so hard on not updating Facebook with that status has depleted my willpower reserves. My diet is left defenseless.

I'm 29, and I'm working hard to make a living, to produce something I am proud of, to pay the rent, to scrape some savings together, to make time for love, to eat … Read more

Path loads up with Sprint for Galaxy S4, HTC One, Torque

Private social network Path, fresh off hitting 10 million registered users, has struck a deal with Sprint that should help the 2-year-old company attract an even larger audience.

Path announced Wednesday that it has partnered with Sprint and that its application for private social networking will come preloaded on Samsung Galaxy S4, HTC One, and Torque devices.

The application will be featured inside Sprint's "Discover It" widget, as pictured right.

Path's allure is also its greatest obstacle. The company's mobile application specializes in a more intimate experience and limits its users to just 150 friends. … Read more

With Channels, LinkedIn Today funnels news into your network

LinkedIn has made over its e-zine, LinkedIn Today, with a new look and a new content discovery feature called Channels.

LinkedIn Today, first launched more than two years ago, is meant to be a digital newspaper that sums up the day's top business news. Today aggregates articles shared by the company's more than 225 million users, with each edition personalized to the reader based on his or her connections.

The new LinkedIn Today is dressed up with a more modern design, comes with more than 20 broad topic sections called Channels that members can follow, and features more … Read more

Marissa Mayer's moonshot: Yahoo on every device

NEW YORK--Marissa Mayer has clear vision of what a moonshot -- an epic accomplishment -- would be for Yahoo. She wants Yahoo persistent on every smartphone, tablet and PC for every Internet user.

"The nice thing is that we are not that far off," the Yahoo CEO said in conversation with Wired senior writer Steven Levy at the Wired Business Conference.

Mayer could add wearable computers as well. She said that Yahoo is experimenting with developer versions of Google Glass to see how users can operate Yahoo's apps using the digital eyewear.

With more than 700 million … Read more