By Paul Thomson :: 7:03 PM
Update: 11:07 PM: The 60 Minutes account has been hacked for a second time today.
Three Twitter accounts affiliated with CBS Broadcasting Corp. were compromised earlier this afternoon.
The Twitter account for the news shows 60 Minutes, 48 Hours, and the account for a Denver, Colorado affiliate all sent malicious Tweets with links to false news stories about President Obama, the War on Terror, and U.S. military operations abroad.
Matthew Polevoy, the social media producer for CBS news confirmed that the accounts had been breached. “60 Minutes Twitter has been compromised. We are working with Twitter to resolve,” he Tweeted around 3:30 this afternoon.
CBS worked with Twitter to regain access to the accounts, and all affected accounts are back under CBS management.
By Paul Thomson :: 11:29 PM
A shooting has been reported on the campus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) tonight.
The institution’s website carries the following message:
“There are gunshots reported in the vicinity of Building 32 (Stata Center). Area is cordoned off. Stay away from area.”
In addition, MIT’s Twitter account describes the event as an “active shooter incident.”
Responding agencies continue to investigate active shooter incident atbuilding 32 (Stata). Please stay indoors and away from the area.
— MIT (@MITnews) April 19, 2013
MIT’s website says the shooting occurred at 10:48 PM, and the incident is still under investigation. While the Institute does not report any injuries, some news sources are claiming that a police officer has been wounded.
Update: 11:34 PM -Ă‚Â MIT’s student-run newspaper claims that the wounded person was an MIT police officer, and the officer has been taken to Massachusetts General Hospital. The paper also released a photo, below, of the crime scene. Warning, the photo is graphic.
Photo from the #MIT shooting #CambMA (warning: potentially graphic) twitter.com/thetech/status…
— The Tech (@thetech) April 19, 2013
Another photo of the scene, taken by an MIT Ph.D. student:
another photo of #MIT #STATA #SHOOTING by YULEI (taken from Koch) twitter.com/Yang_Chu/statu…
— Yang (@Yang_Chu) April 19, 2013
By Cynthia Herbert :: 6:01 PM
The FBI released the first confirmed photographs of the two individuals suspected in the Boston Marathon bombings just a few minutes ago.
Immediately following a press conference, the agency directed people to view the photos on their website, and the website was unavailable.
It is not uncommon for a large influx of Internet traffic to temporarily disable a website, says corporate IT consultant Henry Donaldson.
“I would imagine that with a robust infrastructure like I would expect the FBI to have, this is probably a very temporary issue, and I would think the site would be working again in a short amount of time.”
Two pictures of the two suspected individuals are posted below.
Edit: 6:57 PM – The FBI Website appears to be functioning again:
http://www.fbi.gov/news/updates-on-investigation-into-multiple-explosions-in-boston/photos
By Paul Thomson :: 5:41 PM
Yahoo today announced that it has introduced new mobile apps for its Yahoo Mail and Yahoo Weather products.
The company’s new e-mail app debuts for tablets, both the iPad and Android flavor, and the new weather app is currently only available on iOS.
With the tablet Yahoo Mail app, Yahoo has completely redesigned how a mail app functions, and gives the user an interface that more closely resembles a magazine with a Flipboard-type experience to perusing your messages.
The company is pitching its new look for Mail as “Unbox Your Mail.”
“You will have a hard time going back to a normal mail experience,” claims Adam Cahan, Yahoo’s senior vice president of mobile products.
Enhancements in the weather app include a link to Flickr photos of the cities that users are checking on with the application. If you’re looking for the weather conditions in Bear Mountain, NY, for example, you’ll see a Flickr-sourced image of Bear Mountain along with the weather data (see above for example). Yahoo’s weather app operates separately from the weather app that comes pre-loaded on the iPhone, although both are powered by Yahoo data.
These new applications are Yahoo’s latest attempt to freshen up the look of its dated offerings. The emphasis on improved mobile experience is one of new CEO Marissa Mayer’s strategies to bring Yahoo back to life.
By Gilbert Falso :: 7:41 AM
Business networking site LinkedIn has announced two new updated mobile apps, for iOS and Android.
LinkedIn believes that the enhancements will create a richer, more engaging experience for users as it brings several streams of LinkedIn content together in a news stream that features updates, conversations, and news.
“We want to make it easier for our members to quickly discover and engage with the rich professional insights being shared across LinkedIn to help them make smarter decisions from wherever they may be working,” explained Tomer Cohen, LinkedIn’s mobile product lead. “We’ve designed the new LinkedIn mobile phone app for every professional, with a richer and more engaging stream and more personalization features.”
The new apps allow users to better personalize the experience by giving them the option to customize their navigation features. In addition, LinkedIn’s mobile development team has expanded the number of languages the app is available in to 15.
A highlight video is below.