By Paul Thomson :: 6:39 PM
Facebook has sent out an announcement to the tech press, inviting them to an event to be held on June 20. Although purely speculation by many, it is thought that the social network will announce a news reader at this event.
Ever since the demise of Google Reader was announced earlier this year, many online have been looking for an alternative to Google’s popular RSS reader. Their Google Reader time was well integrated into their daily life, and while some outfits, like Digg, have jumped to try and fill the void, Facebook could be the only well in a position to help readers find articles based on their social connections.
Although privacy settings may prevent Facebook from automatically sharing what you’re reading in another tab on your browser, Facebook can use its treasure trove of data to analyze the articles that are being publicly shared, and with what frequency. This, in turn could be meshed with user interest data – likes and demographic information, to serve up a selected list of articles that a user is likely to be interested in reading.
Earlier this week, some eagle-eyed coders spotted new lines of code in Facebook’s graph search API. The code found specifically deals with RSS functions and news feeds. More fuel on the rumor file, but we won’t know anything for certain until the 20th.
By Gilbert Falso :: 6:08 PM
VICE, the HBO TV series spawned from the magazine and web series of the same name, made history earlier this year when they sent a production crew along with members of the Harlem Globetrotters basketball troupe to North Korea with NBA star Dennis Rodman.
They were shooting an episode called “Basketball Diplomacy,” and today, some of the VICE staffers appeared on Reddit and hosted an “Ask Me Anything” (AMA) discussion about their trip to North Korea. The episode airs tonight on HBO.
In the AMA, Jason Mojica, VICE Producer, and Jake Burghart, Director of Photography for VICE, answered questions from the Reddit community abut the trip.
The top question was posted by a Redditor with the handle rapgamebettywhite, and asked, “What was the sketchiest moment on this trip?”
To that, Burghart replied, “Leaving the country literally felt like the end of Argo. We were up all night quietly hiding footage, trying to encrypt things. We didn’t really feel relieved until the planes wheels left the ground.” Adding to that, Mojica said, “Crazier that we all kissed the ground and cried “freedom” when we landed… in China.”
Peppered between jokes about North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and references to “North Korea is best Korea,” Mojica and Burghart fielded a variety of questions about their surrounds and interactions with the North Korean people, as well as how they were able to orchestrate such a trip to a country that generally shies away from America and American culture.
Mojica realls a moment when he witnessed the bodies of the previous two North Korean leaders lying in state. “I spent every moment trying to memorize the rooms which held their embalmed bodies,” he said. Although given a good amount of access across the country, VICE staffers were frequently not allowed to videotape or take pictures of things, the bodies included.
The 30-minute episode airs tonight at 11:00 EST on HBO. Mojica hopes to also release a longer version with extended footage from the trip on the web in the near future. Below is a preview clip of tonight’s episode.
By Gilbert Falso :: 3:56 PM
Although Apple just debuted a new set of icons and color schemes for its upcoming release of the next version of its mobile operating system, iOS 7, some recent appearances on its website show that the company may be backpedaling on its icon design.
The graphic above shows three versions of Apple iOS icons. The image on the right, in the black iPhone, shows the icons as they appear in the current version of the OS, iOS 6. The white iPhone in the middle shows those same icons, rendered in the new iOS 7 style that was debuted at the World Wide Developer Conference (WWDC) in San Francisco earlier this week. The 9 icons on the left appeared today on Apple’s mobile website, and it is clear that at least three of them have changed since the iOS 7 announcement.
It looks as if Apple is responding to feedback, that has been swift and fierce, about the new icons. Many online felt that they were too colorful, and bordered on cartoonish. Icons for the Calendar app, Weather app, and Passbook app have all appear to have been modified since iOS 7 was announced. (See detail of before/after below)
At this time, it is not clear which icons are the ones likely to appear in the final version of the operating system, due out this fall. Apple seems to be continuing to tweak its designs, and may be doing so in reaction to customer feedback.
Cristian Onvio :: 2:58 PM
Expensive mobile phone roaming will soon be a thing of the past for wireless customers across Europe as European Union commissioners introduced legislation to do away with roaming charges.
Roaming charges for all facets of mobile communications – voice calls, texts and internet connectivity – will be eliminated as the EU attempts to declutter the telecommunications market in Europe. Carriers will expect to see a 2% drop in revenue due to the changes, but officials believe that companies will emerge better off, as customers will be more likely to use their phones while traveling outside of their home country.
European Commissioners are working on a broader plan to simplify telecommunications across the 27 member states in the union, as they feel the current system includes too many carriers and too much fragmentation. Compared to the 4 major wireless carriers in the United States, the EU has about 100.
Commissioners are working to push these reforms through in time for next May’s European elections. If all goes as planned, the roaming restrictions and charges could be removed as soon as June of 2014.
By Paul Thomson:: 1:51 PM
Earlier this week, Facebook announced that it would be rolling out support for the use of hashtags in posts on the social media site.
Long the domain of Twitter, many who are active in social media circles decried Facebook’s adoption of the tags, despite the fact that both Instagram and Vine have used hashtags without such staunch criticism up to this point.
However, many online are making light of the situation, with some harkening back to a popular 1980s Reeses Peanut Butter Cup commercial phrase, and adapting the joke to, “You’ve got hashtags in my Facebook,” or “You’ve got Twitter in my Facebook.”
To complete this trip down memory lane, here’s one of the original Reeses “peanut butter in my chocolate spots” from the 1980s.