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Latest by Francis Bea

Hands-on with Piki, a music app powered by people, not algorithms

We got our hands on Piki, a social music player that like its Turntable predecessor that relies on its users to power its music recommendation engine.
livefyre justin bieber contest

Instagram your way to meeting Bieber, and other social ways to win this week

These contests all want your social media content, and they're willing to give you something for it.
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Want to know everything about your Twitter followers? Well you can – for a price

Demographics Pro shows you nearly every detail about your Twitter followers, competitors, or hashtags, down to salaries, ethnicity, and occupations.
the internet is rewiring our brains we just dont realize it internetbrain

The Internet is rewiring your brain and you don’t even know it

We're more connected than ever through the Internet, but this constant stimulation is negatively affecting the way our brains work.

Missing Coachella? Watch the festival live on YouTube

Coachella is just a couple of days away. For music lovers that can't make it this year, YouTube has you covered from the first to last set.
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Redditor takes ‘Confession Bear’ meme too far with murder confession

Reddit is a place where anonymity is embraced, but one redditor's anonymous confessions via the 'Confession Bear' meme have landed him or her in hot water.
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Go ahead, tell Facebook how you really feel

Facebook is rolling out a new way to share status updates that are personalized and detailed to highlight what users are doing or what their moods.
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Facebook is finally letting us interact with Open Graph updates

'Watch' and 'Read' Open Graph stories that are now a core feature of Facebook's new Timeline are surfacing in Facebook's mobile News Feed.
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Proposed amendment fails, employers still can’t ask for you Facebook passwords

A bill may block employers from asking for your social media passwords, but a now withdrawn amendment to the bill threatened the privacy of employees.
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Surprise! Facebook Home will have ads, eventually

Surprise, surprise, Facebook Home might not have ads now but Zuckerberg says ads will eventually show up on Facebook Cover Feed.
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Chinese social media outs new strain of bird flu as the government tries to censor reports

Reports confirming the return of Avian flu have stirred Weibo, the Chinese Twitter, while the government attempts to quiet the news.

Did Facebook Home just put the messaging app ecosystem on notice?

Facebook has unveiled a brand new way to message friends and family called Facebook Chat Heads, but are messaging apps concerned about their future?
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Facebook puts a new spin on mobile messaging with Chat Heads [Updated]

Facebook introduced a new and native way to chat with your friends through Facebook Home called Chat Heads.
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Psst, wanna buy a photo? Some apps are hawking prints of your Instagram shots

Facebook's Terms and Conditions are wrought with holes that third-party apps are able to grab friends' photos and create memorabilia.
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Everybody, calm down! Facebook brings back the ability to delete your Graph Searches

Facebook users might have noticed that the tab search your Graph Search history disappeared, but Facebook said that it was simply a bug that's been fixed.
twitter mobile deep linking

The new Twitter Cards are about to change the way you look at Twitter

Twitter wants to woo back developers on its own terms with the announcement of new Twitter Cards for displaying apps, galleries, and products.
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Trapit launches Publisher Suite so that all apps can become news reader apps

Trapit is offering publishers full access to the very Artificial Intelligence that powers Siri and Trapit to build their own newsreader apps.

Vine is starting to get DMCA complaints … so maybe don’t upload that concert footage

Twitter, just three months after Vine's launch, is facing its first DMCA copyright complaint by Prince's record label NPG Records.
yahoo mail dropbox partnership

Yahoo Mail now comes with Dropbox built in

Yahoo has gotten its cloud storage solution, while Dropbox will sign up more users in a new partnership that's a perfect match for these companies.
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With threaded comments, Facebook Q&As look a lot like Reddit AMAs

Since threaded comments rolled out to Facebook Pages, celebrities have been conducting Q&A's but it's awfully reminiscent of Reddit AMA's.
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What does the future of Facebook look like?

While the secret network keeps its roadmap cards close to the chest, recent actions and insiders help us get an idea where Facebook is heading.
Facebook users warned of scam

This week in Facebook

Here are some of the Facebook stories you may have missed this week.
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Vine’s silent update adds awaited video embedding function

Vine rolled out an updated version of its app that finally enables video embedding into outside sites.

Surprise! Your drunken online shopping sprees are a bad idea

Don't shop online while drunk, or your throbbing headache will be the least of your worries the next morning, says a OnePoll study.

Flipboard’s self-curation feature is a hit with 100,000 magazines created in 24 hours

Flipboard's feature that makes anyone a magazine editor, has been a hit with more 100,000 magazines created in 24 hours.

Facebook is – finally – unveiling the Facebook Phone April 4

Finally Facebook is reportedly unveiling the mysterious Android forked Facebook phone, built on a HTC smartphone, on April 4.
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Are messaging apps the biggest threat to Facebook?

Messaging apps that act like social networks could be the biggest danger to Facebook's social network dominance.
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FireMe! keeps you from tweeting your way to the unemployment line

FireMe! finds people on Twitter who hate their jobs or bosses and warns them of their indiscretions.

Allow us to introduce the world’s first Vine movie trailer

The first Vine movie trailer for The Wolverine takes over the video sharing app.
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Everything you need to know about Facebook’s new Timeline

We get an early in-depth look at Facebook's new Timeline. Here's what you need to know.

Get your brand online with easy site builder Tribeca Cloud

Tribeca Cloud is an all-in-one website hosting solution for the non-technical people and resource strapped businesses.

Report: Spotify to move beyond music into video streaming

Spotify is known for its music streaming service, but the company might be considering expanding into video on-demand.

Blind and deaf users take e-retailers and streaming sites to court

Associations representing the deaf and blind are legally pressing retailers and other sites to offer disabled-accessible features.
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Fake tweet site LetMeTweetThatForYou could have real implications for Web journalism

LetMeTweetThatForYou is a quick and dirty solution to fake tweets and play it off as the real thing.
facebook shores up events pages with weather forecasts url

Facebook enhances Events pages with weather forecasts

Facebook has started rolling out a small feature that displays the weather forecast in Events pages for both attendees and admins.
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888 Holdings becomes the first online gambling company to win an online poker license

Online poker players have a reason to celebrate. 888 Holdings has been granted the first online gambling license since 2006 and will set up shop in Vegas.

Check out Facebook’s March Madness bracket

Facebook's March Madness bracket, based on Facebook buzz, has Duke winning it all this year.
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All this week’s Facebook news that’s fit to print

Here's all the major news and updates surrounding the social network you may have missed this week.