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| 25 Stunning Cityscapes on Instagram | | 10:31:17 AM | Matt Petronzio |
|  The Best of Instagram Series is presented by T-Mobile. Its 4G Tweet Race, a week-long campaign launching May 3, pits Twitter users against one another in a daily, frantic race for retweets. There are 7 races, and the winners of each heat win a new HTC OneT S phone with a year of T-Mobile's Unlimited Value service, and the final winner takes home $4,000. Do you ever dream of seeing the world but can't find the time or money to do so? Well, quite a few Instagram users can bring the world to you with their filtered photos of gorgeous cityscapes. Whether it's Paris, London, Buenos Aires or New York City with X-pro II, Toaster, Inkwell or Hefe, there's plenty to see on the 50-million strong photo-sharing platform. Owners of iPhones and Androids capture skylines, facades and brief moments of city life. Check out the gallery below for an Instagram guided tour through some of the best and most beautiful cities around the globe. Which photos do you find the most striking? Sound off in the comments. Series presented by T-Mobile
The Best of Instagram Series is presented by T-Mobile. The 4G Tweet Race is a week-long campaign starting May 3 that pits Twitter users against one another in a daily, frantic race for retweets. Players register on the official Tweet Race page on T-Mobile's Test Drive, and each racer's tweets must contain three elements: #4GTweets, http://t-mo.co/4GTweets and @TMobile, and must be submitted during the race to be eligible. There are 7 races over the course of the week, and the winners of all 7 heats will face off in a final race on May 15th to see whose social graph is quickest. The winner of each heat will win a new HTC OneT S phone with a year of T-Mobile's Unlimited Value service, and the final winner will take home a cool $4,000. Image courtesy of @natenurse. |
| Study Says Facebook Privacy Concerns Are on the Rise - Is It Accurate? | | 4:34:51 AM | Alex Fitzpatrick |
|  Consumer Report's annual State of the Net study found that people are increasingly concerned with their privacy on Facebook. The report breaks down social privacy into a handful of categories: over-sharing by users, underuse of privacy controls, over-collection of data, over-sharing of data by apps and cyberbullying or harassment. 2,002 online households were surveyed, including 1,340 Facebook users. Based on those numbers, Consumer Reports extrapolated its results upon the rest of Facebook's 188 million North American users. The study raises alarms about Facebook's privacy practices -- but does the author do enough to back up his or her claims? Over-Sharing 4.8 million Facebook users have posted their plans for the day on the site, according to the report's extrapolation. Consumer Reports suggests that's a potential tip-off for thieves who can use that information to plan a robbery. The report was unclear about how many of those 4.8 million users set their location sharing to "friends only," which would drastically reduce the threat of theft. Jeff Fox, technology editor at Consumer Reports, told Mashable that 10-15% of Facebook users set their sharing to "public," rather than friends-only. That's about 500,000 of those 4.8 million location-sharers. Fox also pointed to a recent story of thieves who robbed a house using information shared on Facebook, but he couldn't provide statistics indicating whether that's a common occurrence or an isolated event. Consumer Reports also said that Facebook users who publicly "like" a page about a disease, such as diabetes, may tip-off insurers who can then deny those users coverage. Fox was unable to cite statistics showing whether that actually happens, however. Underuse of Privacy Controls 13 million users, says Consumer Reports, either haven't set or don't know about Facebook's privacy tools. However, with 188 million users in the U.S. and Canada, that means more than 90% of users do change their privacy settings from the default. Facebook has been responding to privacy concerns, albiet not to everyone's satisfaction. It rolled out broad new privacy changes over the summer of last year. Information about privacy settings is available on Facebook's site. Users are expected to set their privacy protection to levels with which they feel comfortable and protected, but some privacy groups call for Facebook to deliver this information more directly and to make the default settings more secure. Over-Collection of Data Facebook "collects more data than you may imagine," warns Consumer Reports, and that's certainly true. The website keeps tabs on users' activity both on and off the site, sometimes even if they're not logged in. Facebook manages this via cookies that follow Internet users who visit sites that embed the ubiquitous "like" button on their pages -- an ever-increasing number of websites. Facebook has said that it uses this information to improve security, but privacy advocates warn that such information could potentially be sold to advertisers -- which Facebook denies doing. However, as Consumer Reports points out, Facebook is planning to release more of the data it stores about users, such as IP addresses and facial recognition patterns. Over-Collection of Data Consumer Reports' study argues that Facebook users often pay little attention to the permissions they give to third-party apps. All third-party apps on Facebook require users to "opt-in" by granting permission for an app to look at your news feed, update your status, and so on. It's up to each individual user to pay attention to these permissions and decide if they should continue installing an app. Some apps, warns the report, can look at users' information even if they haven't installed the app themselves. They do this, says Consumer Reports, by accessing information about users from their friends that have the app installed. Such a grab can be prevented through careful modification of privacy settings. "Even if you have restricted your information to be seen by friends only, a friend who is using a Facebook app could allow your data to be transferred to a third party without your knowledge," says the report. Fox was unable to cite any examples of an app which performs this roundabout information grab. Cyberbullying and Harassment Consumer Reports says that "problems are on the rise" -- 11% of households using Facebook had "trouble" last year, which ranges from a stranger using their login information to online harassment. The report highlights cyberbullying against children, claiming that 800,000 children under 13 had been "harassed or subjected to other forms of cyberbullying on Facebook." The report didn't give exact definitions of "trouble," "harassment" or "cyberbullying." Such cases could range from commonplace teasing to more extreme and dangerous forms of social rejection, and it's impossible to know these details from this study. Fox wasn't able to clarify the definitions used in Consumer Reports' survey. Facebook and Privacy Consumer Reports' study shows that privacy is an ever-increasing concern as Facebook and other social media become a more central part of everyday life. However, careful observation of the report raises more questions than it answers. Some observers, including journalist and Internet commentator Jeff Jarvis, label the report as "fear-mongering" that's harmful to the public's understanding of social networks. "My fear is that such fear-mongering will lead to more regulation and a less open and free net," wrote Jarvis on his blog. "Consumer Reports is not fulfilling its mission to protect us with this campaign. It will hurt us." |
| Mashable Photo Challenge: Nostalgia | | 12:08:21 AM | Jeremy Cabalona |
|  Here in the Mashable community room, we have a pair of Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots. Many of our visitors notice the toy and reminisce about their own Rock 'Em Sock 'Ems from childhood. In addition to being an iconic toy, these friendly robots seem to evoke a fond sense of nostalgia. Dictionary.com defines nostalgia as "a sentimental yearning for the happiness of a former place or time." Whether the memories are purely happy or bittersweet, nostalgia can often come from a single image. For this week's Mashable Photo Challenge, we want you to send us an image that represents nostalgia to you. Take a picture of a childhood toy, a classic video game or anything that strikes a nostalgic chord with you. (We have to admit, we'll be disappointed if no one submits a photo of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles toys.) As with every photo challenge, we encourage you to interpret the theme however you like. And of course, there are no wrong answers! Just make sure to tell us briefly why your image represents nostalgia. How To Enter the Challenge Take a picture that represents nostalgia to you. Tweet your photo to @mashablehq with the hashtag #MashPics. If you need more than one tweet to write your caption, just send us another tweet. OR Drop your photo into the picture widget below. We will choose images based on composition, originality and overall appeal. Submit your photo by Wednesday, May 9 at 12:00 p.m. EST. We'll feature some of our favorite photos on Mashable, as well as on our Facebook page. We can't wait to see your photos! |
| Facebook Launches Two-Filter 'Instagram' on 'Facebook for Every Phone' | | Thursday, May 03, 2012 9:59 PM | Sarah Kessler |
|  One month after its $1 billion acquisition of Instagram, Facebook has added filters to one of its apps. Users of Facebook's app for non-smartphones, "Facebook for Every Phone," can now tweak their photos with Sepia or Grayscale filters similar to those Instagram offers. Instagram had nothing to do with the new feature, a Facebook spokesperson told Inside Facebook. Rather, the apps were developed at an employee hackathon. The New York TImes reported in August 2011 that Facebook was developing a set of filters for its mobile app "with the hopes of drawing off fans of Instagram." Given its recent $1 billion acquisition of Instagram, that is no longer Facebook's motive. But it could help users of phones that can't run the Instagram app understand what the fuss is all about. The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether it would be expanding the feature to its other apps. |
| YouTube Google+ Button Gets a Wil Wheaton 'Rageface' | | Thursday, May 03, 2012 6:23 PM | Lance Ulanoff |
|  Likes and dislikes are the social capital of YouTube. Great videos garner hundreds of thousands of Likes. Unloved ones receive almost as many dislikes. This lucre, so easy to give out but so hard to earn, is what drives YouTube content creators and many of its visitors. It's shorthand that makes transparent the good, the bad and the ugly video. If that simple pair of thumbs up, thumbs down buttons were to disappear or -- worse yet -- be replaced, some people would be very, very unhappy. We know this for a fact now -- because actor, author and ubergeek Wil Wheaton made what he called his "rage face" and launched a full-on, profanity-laced rant on his blog and Tumblr when he discovered that the traditional YouTube "Like" buttons had been replaced with one large Google+ Like button. Wheaton, who says he likes Google+, wrote: "This is just as bad as companies forcing me to 'like' something on Facebook before I can view whatever it is they want me to "like," Wheaton continued, "Just let me thumbs up something, without forcing me to "upgrade" to G+, you d--kheads." Wheaton's point was that Google seemed to be steering people toward its nascent social networking platform whether they wanted to use it or not. I did some investigating, but couldn't recreate the button, whether or not I was logged into Google+ or any of my YouTube accounts. In the meantime, I posted a public question in Google+ to Google's Bradley Horowitz about Wheaton's rage-filled post and if this was just a test. I also asked him to elaborate on the importance of leveraging all the eyeballs on Google's other services to grow Google+. Some Google+ members chimed in. One noted that he hadn't seen the new button, while others argued about whether or not it made sense for Google to make changes anywhere that might help propel Google+ forward. Horowitz didn't respond, but a Google spokesman eventually did: "We're always experimenting to help users find, watch and share the videos that matter most to them, on YouTube and across all of Google's products including Google+. Depending on user feedback, some of these experiments may become options for users and some may not." It's a clear indication that what Wheaton saw was an experiment and possibly nothing more. Considering how few people saw the Google+ Like button on YouTube and Wheaton's very public reaction, it's unlikely we'll ever see that button again. Even so, the question remains: What can and should Google do to make Google+ as popular and pervasive as Facebook? The company has already publicly stated that with Google+ it's actually building Google 2.0, meaning that it's the hub for everything Google does, including Search, Gmail and YouTube. Integrating Google+ with Google's far more popular and well-established services is the most obvious path for success. So we may not see that button in that space again, but we'll certainly see a lot more of Google+. How comfortable are you with the Google+ification of Google's services? Will it make you any more or less likely to use the Google's social platform? Tell us in the comments. |
| Klout Unveils New API, Growth Statistics | | Thursday, May 03, 2012 5:20 PM | Brian Anthony Hernandez |
|  Fresh off debuting a mobile app, Klout has just released a new version of its application programming interface (API) in response to demand from developers. More than 6,000 third-party developers -- up from 2,000 last year -- have used the original API to infuse Klout features into their apps or platforms. Klout now serves 1 billion API calls every day, which is 80 times more data served a year ago. Klout says its iPhone app, which arrived in late April, was built on the updated API. "Partners have pulled data from our API since 2008 to offer a wide range of services to influencers, be it room upgrades at the Palms Hotel, targeted match-making through Tawkify or cash back rewards from Capital One based on people's Klout scores," Klout developer evangelist Tyler Singletary wrote in an announcement Thursday. Developers can register for version 2 of the API here. Klout stopped accepting registrations for version 1 on April 16. The old API will be shut off Dec. 31. Klout touts these features of Version 2: "Instead of being Twitter-focused, it's now 'Klout-focused;' we offer a service that translates identifiers from Twitter to Klout IDs to facilitate speed and to incorporate influence from other networks in the future." "The new API is faster, asynchronous and has a new caching system. "Because it's based on our internal architecture, we'll soon release new features to the API." One new feature is an "oAuth2-based authentication system" that will soon let users give +Ks to people from outside of Klout.com. For example, a person might give someone else a +K while browsing Tumblr. Users distribute +Ks to vouch for people's expertise or knowledge on a certain topic (see gallery below). Thursday's API announcement revealed API calls have increased almost by 20 billion per month since February, hitting 30 billion per month. BONUS: What Else Does Klout Have in Store for 2012? Looking ahead, Klout is still building scoring models for seven more services (YouTube, Instagram, Tumblr, Blogger, WordPress.com, Last.fm and Flickr) that have already been integrated onto Klout users' dashboards. Klout also plans to add Quora, Yelp, Posterous, Livefyre, Disqus, bit.ly and BranchOut. SEE ALSO: Klout Unveils Brand Pages With Red Bull as Its Sole Launch Partner Klout likely will continue improving its Topics feature (see screenshots below) and Klout Perks platform. The Topics feature, which rolled out in September and lets you gain insights on top influencers and +K recipients for specific content areas, got a visual update in December with a "sashes" and an "Add a Topic" button. |
| Floyd Mayweather Pulls No Punches With Social Media [Q&A] | | Thursday, May 03, 2012 5:05 PM | Sam Laird |
|  Floyd "Money" Mayweather will tell you he's the greatest boxer in the world, and with a professional record of 42-0 he may well be right. But what's not up for debate is whether any other fighter is within punching distance of him in the digital ring. Mayweather has more than 2.7 million followers on Twitter, where he frequently interacts with fans and posts updates on adventures with his crew of friends and supporters, the Money Team. But Twitter is just the beginning of Mayweather's online involvement. He has about 1.3 million subscribers on Facebook, and his YouTube channel has amassed nearly 5 million views. He's even using Instagram, where he's racked up nearly 300,000 followers to become one of that network's most popular athletes. Mayweather is more than popular, though -- he's also creative and original. He recently used his website FloydMayweather.com to live-broadcast a full day of training for his upcoming title fight against Miguel Cotto. In another recent example, he used Spotify to share the music he uses to get pumped up during his fight prep. SEE ALSO: How Mike Tyson Became a Social Media Heavyweight Mayweather takes on Cotto this Saturday night, but carved out some time from his training schedule to trade emails with Mashable. Read on to see why he keeps his social presence authentic, how he stays connected with fans, and what he's excited about next in the tech space. Q&A with Floyd Mayweather, Jr. People know you're big on Twitter, but many don't realize that's only the beginning of your tech involvement. Want to give everyone the fuller picture? I like all of the tech platforms, and try to use them all too. I have accounts on Twitter, YouTube, Facebook and a very active website. We post a lot of the things I do on all of them. For me, it's all about entertainment, and then to make sure whatever I am doing shows up on all my sites or posts is a great thing. I give the fans what they want to see. "It's important to me that fans, especially the younger ones, see the hard work it takes to be the best. My fans have been dedicated to my career and it's the least I can do to give back to them." You really seem to enjoy using the Internet to give fans a look at what your life is like. Why? As I have said before, what you see is what you get. I like to engage my fans in every way possible and show them what it is really like behind-the-scenes. With all of the technology now, I put the Money Team to task and told them whenever we can entertain the fans -- including my training for a fight and things that go on in the gym -- I want to do it. It's also important to me that fans, especially the younger ones, see the hard work it takes to be the best. My fans have been dedicated to my career, and it's the least I can do to give back to them. Social media can lead to controversy, though. During Linsanity, you got some criticism when you tweeted that Lin wouldn't be getting as much praise if he was black. Was that more an example of how social media can be a trap for athletes, or more an example of the unfiltered authenticity that makes Twitter great? Even though this is old news by now, everyone is entitled to their own opinion, and I stand by what I said. Remember that I started the tweet with saying he's a good player, but no one wanted to say anything about that part of the tweet. I am outspoken and feel it is okay to say how I feel, whether or not some people don't agree with me. Earlier this year, people were pretty amused by some photos @50cent tweeted of you two posing with huge stacks of cash. What's the backstory there? "I am outspoken and feel it is okay to say how I feel, whether or not some people don't agree with me." 50 is one of my best friends. We met almost 10 years ago, and have a strong bond and friendship. We have a lot in common, do our thing and have fun, too. After your fight this weekend, what's next for Floyd Mayweather in the tech and digital ring? Right now, my focus is Miguel Cotto on May 5. But once the fight is over, I will refocus on this area. I constantly come across new startup opportunities. I recently saw a demo for a casino game for the iPhone by RockLive that looks amazing. The CEO is my friend, and I keep telling him to get it out as soon as he can because I can't wait to play it. Thumbnail image courtesy of FloydMayweather.com |
| Facebook Sets IPO at $28 to $35 a Share | | Thursday, May 03, 2012 4:54 PM | Emily Price |
|  Facebook announced the price for its initial public offering at $28 to $35 per share Thursday afternoon. The company will offer 337,415,352 shares of Class A common stock at a yet-unspecified date. A statement from Facebook reads: "Facebook, Inc. is offering 180,000,000 shares of its Class A common stock and the selling stockholders are offering 157,415,352 shares of Class A common stock. We will not receive any proceeds from the sale of shares by the selling stockholders. This is our initial public offering and no public market currently exists for our shares of Class A common stock. We anticipate that the initial public offering price will be between $28.00 and $35.00 per share." Rumors that Facebook would be setting its IPO price after the market closed surfaced early Thursday afternoon. The Wall Street Journal reported that Facebook would price its shares in the high-$20s to mid-$30s range, putting the company at a valuation of $85 billion and $95 billion. SEE ALSO: Facebook: Here Are the 35 Things That Could Kill Our Company Facebook is set to become the most valuable U.S. Internet company at the time of its IPO, which could take place within weeks. The record is currently held by Google, which was valued at $23 billion when it went public in 2004. What do you think of the social network's stock price? Let us know in the comments -- and check out our video above, which explains the IPO process. Lauren Indvik contributed to the reporting of this story. Additional Facebook IPO Coverage Facebook IPO Reveals How It Made $3.71 Billion in 2011 10 Giant Things Less Valuable Than Facebook Zuckerberg to Potential Shareholders: Facebook Is on a Social Mission Facebook IPO Filing Flings Open the Social Network Kimono Facebook: Zynga Generates 12% of Our Revenue and We Need Them Sheryl Sandberg Was Facebook's Best-Paid Employee in 2011 |
| Pinterest: It's Time to Go 'Pinternational' | | Thursday, May 03, 2012 3:34 PM | Sonia Paul |
|  With its explosive growth rate, Pinterest has become this year's social media darling. Now that it's gained significant traction, it's looking to go international -- or shall we say, "pinternational." The photo-centric website announced in a blog post that it's looking for translators in French, German, Japanese, Portuguese and Spanish. Though Pinterest a visual-based site, the company said translators are now necessary to make the website truly global: "At Pinterest, we've always wanted to make it easy for people all over the world to organize and share all the beautiful things they find on the web. We want to take another step towards making this vision a reality by translating Pinterest into other languages." Though the company is starting out by looking for translators in the five languages listed above, in the future, it hopes to launch the site in several more -- Dutch, Greek, Italian, Korean, Malay, Polish, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Swedish and Turkish are the upcoming languages in mind, according to the blog post. Pinterest has been one of the fastest-growing social networks to ever hit the web and is now the number-three most popular social network in the U.S. It comes up right after Facebook and Twitter, both of which are already known globally and have millions of users overseas. However, although this is the first word from the company regarding translators, that's not to say Pinterest hasn't already gone abroad. Travel is one of the top 10 categories on Pinterest, and Pinterest-like websites have already popped up in China. SEE ALSO: Pinterest Users: What's the World's Most Beautiful Country?/a> You can find more information about translating for Pinterest here. Do you think Pinterest has what it takes to go pinternational? Will translating Pinterest into different languages change how people are already using it? Sound off in the comments. |
| 40% of Teens Video Chat With Their Friends | | Thursday, May 03, 2012 2:38 PM | Samantha Murphy |
|  More teens are using video chats to interact and communicate with friends, thanks in part to the adoption growth of apps such as Skype, Googletalk and iChat, according to a new study. A report by the Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project finds that about 37% of Internet users ages 12 to 17 participate in video chats. Not surprisingly, 42% of girls -- who tend to be more active on social networking sites -- are more likely to web chat with others compared to boys (33%). Teens of various ages are equally likely to use web chat services. About 34% of online 12 to 13 year olds use video chat, while 39% of 14 to 17 year olds do the same. Teens who are more active online, text frequently and use social media often are, not surprisingly, more likely to video chat. The study also looked at how teens create videos for the web. About 27% of teens who use the Internet say they actively record and upload video online. However, girls are just as likely as boys to upload clips. "We found it interesting that boys and girls are now recording and uploading video in equal measure, a change from 2006 when boys were more than twice as likely as girls to shoot and share videos," Amanda Lenhart, senior research specialist at Pew, told Mashable. "But overall, I'm not surprised that teens, and particularly girls, enjoy video chat," Lenhart adds. "It provides a rich additional layer on top of the sorts of social interactions with others than many teen girls crave." About 77% of all teens between the ages of 12 and 17 use Facebook, while just 16% use Twitter. Teens who use Facebook and Twitter are more likely to use video chat, with 41% of Facebook users web chatting (compared with 25% of non-users) and 60% of Twitter users using video chat, compared with 33% of non-Twitter users. The study also found that 77% of all teens have cell phones, 75% of which can send and receive texts. |
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