by Lee Mathews on March 21, 2011 at 08:45 AM

Facebook has plunked down between $60 and 70 million on mobile app developer Snaptu, which creates Java-based applications for feature phones. Snaptu had been hand-picked by Facebook to develop its non-smartphone app, and the acquisition means Snaptu will now be part of the internal team. Snaptu's reach goes beyond Facebook, of course: the company's mobile app also integrates with Twitter, Picasa, ...
by Sebastian Anthony on March 18, 2011 at 10:00 AM

When Twitter.com unveiled its recent overhaul at the end of 2010, one of the least-discussed features was the addition of some excellent keyboard shortcuts.
Some keyboard shortcuts only work from some pages, but we'll mark those where appropriate.
n -- post a new status update (works from any page)
r -- reply to your selected tweet
t -- retweet (only works on Twitter profiles ...
by Sebastian Anthony on March 17, 2011 at 01:30 PM

Facebook recently rolled out an update to its commenting system. Now, instead of pressing Comment, you simply press the Enter key to save a comment. More excitingly, however, Facebook silently rolled out another new feature at the same time: you can now edit comments!
If you comment on a friend's status update, link or photo, you can now press the 'X' in the top right corner to edit it. Your ...
by Vlad Bobleanta on March 15, 2011 at 12:40 PM

Adobe's Photoshop.com, the free online brother of the most-used photo editing suite, has received a couple of updates this week, focused on making the service more appealing to both its users and those who view their photos.
First up, Photoshop.com galleries now each have a space in which your favorite album gets featured. This happens in a so-called 'hero carousel' that now shows up at the top ...
by Vlad Bobleanta on March 15, 2011 at 11:40 AM

You probably weren't expecting the next social network to pop up inside your Dropbox storage, but that's exactly what Frenzy is. From the developers of Dropzone, the "Swiss Army knife of drag and drop for the Mac," Frenzy is a private social network that lives entirely in hidden folders within your Dropbox cloud storage.
With Frenzy, you can share links, files and messages as well as see ...
by Sebastian Anthony on March 14, 2011 at 05:00 PM

Facebook changed its privacy controls a few times in 2010, and while it's now quite easy to block entire groups from seeing your location or contact details, there's no obvious way to hide your recent activities.
Recent activities are everything you do on Facebook, from commenting on a friend's wall to posting photos or changing your relationship status. If a friend visits your profile they ...
by Sebastian Anthony on March 11, 2011 at 02:00 PM

If you're a social networking butterfly, or if you have the malevolent aspirations of one day becoming a 'social media expert,' you almost certainly spend a vast amount of time surfing the Web. You probably use a modern browser like Firefox or Chrome, and you almost certainly have a ton of tabs open at the same time.
It can be hard work, keeping track of multiple websites. Hitting F5 is a ...
by Lee Mathews on March 11, 2011 at 09:00 AM

Mozilla's F1 sharing add-on for Firefox has finally gained support for multiple accounts. The latest update to F1 allows users to set up additional profiles for as many Twitter, Gmail, and other supported services as needed.
The update also addresses some performance issues, and you should find that F1 now appears much more quickly when you click the button on your toolbar. Mozilla also ...
by Sebastian Anthony on March 11, 2011 at 07:30 AM

No, despite what you may have heard on Facebook and Twitter, Charlie Sheen is not yet dead.
With the eye-catching title of "RIP! Charlie Sheen found Dead at his House," a massive clickjacking hoax is doing the rounds on Facebook and Twitter. Clicking the link will take you to a fake YouTube page -- and if you click anywhere on the page, the hoax will infect your Facebook profile and begin ...
by Sebastian Anthony on March 10, 2011 at 02:00 PM

By default, Facebook uses a magical algorithm called EdgeRank to decide what makes it to your News Feed, and what falls by the wayside. Lots of factors affect what ultimately appears in your News Feed, but mostly it's determined by a) things you've explicitly signed up for ('liking' pages), and b) updates from friends that you regularly interact with.
But what if you're bored of reading dull ...
by Lee Mathews on March 10, 2011 at 11:30 AM

Meebo has pumped up its iOS app with a handful of new features which take it beyond multi-network instant messaging. Initial Twitter support has been added, as has the ability for users to check-in to websites they're browsing. You can enter a site manually, or simply scan a QR code.
There's also a new real-time feed tab which displays updates from your Facebook, Twitter, and Meebo streams. The ...
by Sebastian Anthony on March 9, 2011 at 04:15 PM

This week's set of tech tips are all about the most popular website in the world: Facebook. For more tips, check our tips index!
Facebook, despite the blogosphere's perpetual bickering, actually has good, granular privacy controls. You can control exactly who can see each section of your profile, and easily block specific people from even finding your profile.
One lesser-known feature, ...
by Lee Mathews on March 9, 2011 at 11:00 AM

Those of you who spend a lot of time online discovering and listening to music may want to check out Like.fm, a new app which is designed to automatically track and share what you play. It's a sort of 'discovery aggregator,' pulling in tunes from services like YouTube, Pandora, Rdio, and Grooveshark -- which already offer their own discovery tools.
Like.fm aims to provide one-stop shopping, ...
by Vlad Bobleanta on March 9, 2011 at 10:30 AM

Twitter has reacted to the backlash about the Quickbar, the new addition to its iOS apps that shows you trending topics (including promoted trends). The Quickbar was introduced in an update to Twitter for iOS that became available on March 3, and, in just a few days, it's been made very clear that people really hate it. So Twitter decided to step up and submitted an updated version of its app to ...
by Sebastian Anthony on March 8, 2011 at 08:15 AM

Warner Bros., finding yet another corner piece of the Social Networking Jigsaw, has begun renting movies on Facebook for 30 Facebook Credits, or $3.
The films are packaged as apps -- like FarmVille and CityVille -- but it really is as simple as heading to a page, using 30 Credits, and watching the movie. You can watch the movie as many times as you like for 48 hours, after which the rental ...