Facebook Launches Two-Filter ‘Instagram’ on ‘Facebook for Every Phone’
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.
[ source ]
James scores 32, Heat roll by Knicks 100-67
MIAMI (AP) LeBron James took the fourth quarter off. And Miami’s postseason got off to a flying start.
James scored 32 points after shooting 10 for 14 from the field, Dwyane Wade added 19 points in his first game back after dislocating his left index finger and the Heat rode the strength of a 32-2 run to easily beat the New York Knicks 100-67 in Game 1 of the teams’ Eastern Conference first-round series on Saturday.
It was physical, it was heated – and it was one-sided, too.
Mario Chalmers added 11 points and nine assists for Miami, which turned 27 New York turnovers into a franchise playoff-record 38 points. The Knicks were called for 21 fouls in the first half, Miami enjoying a 28-5 advantage in free throws attempted in the first 24 minutes alone, and center Tyson Chandler sent James flying with what was called a flagrant foul as the Heat were blowing the game open in the first half.
J.R. Smith scored 17 for the Knicks, who lost Iman Shumpert to a knee injury and have dropped 11 straight playoff games dating back to 2001. Carmelo Anthony missed 12 of 15 shots and finished with 11 points and 10 rebounds, and Baron Davis added 10 points for New York.
It was the worst playoff loss for the Knicks since a 126-85 defeat at Chicago on April 25, 1991.
A 3-pointer by Smith midway through the second quarter got the Knicks within 30-29. And then the tone changed in a hurry.
After all, this is a Heat-Knicks playoff series. It’s almost required to have emotions boil over.
With Jeff Van Gundy and Alonzo Mourning in the building – remember, the Knicks coach once tugged on the Heat center’s leg during one memorable Miami-New York playoff dustup – along with Knicks assistant general manager Allan Houston, he of the game-winner to eliminate the Heat from the last playoffs following a lockout-shortened season of 1999, things got heated once again.
There were early hints that tensions were high, like Amare Stoudemire and Udonis Haslem getting double-technicals after jawing back and forth with 4:10 left in the opening quarter. A few minutes later, after Shane Battier committed a hard foul on Anthony – who missed his first seven shots – Davis ran about 50 feet to give Battier a light shove.
That was all little stuff, compared to what was coming.
Mike Miller’s 3-pointer with 2:22 left in the half capped a run of 13 straight points by the Heat, and they were just getting started.
Chandler set a back pick near midcourt with 1:36 left in the half, one that James never saw coming. James went down holding his neck and gritting his teeth in pain, and the original call was a flagrant-2 against Chandler, which would have meant an automatic ejection.
Referees reviewed the play, downgraded it to a flagrant-1, and during the stoppage James apparently recovered quickly.
He made both free throws awarded for the Chandler shot, then banked in a 20-footer from the left wing while getting hit by Smith 10 seconds later for what became a five-point possession for Miami.
And James still wasn’t done, first hitting a fadeaway with 48 seconds left, then a layup while getting hit by Jared Jeffries with 3 seconds left in the half.
The run then was 24-2. The lead was 54-31. For good measure, the Heat scored the first eight points of the third quarter as well, making it 62-31, and with Knicks coach Mike Woodson along with Anthony getting assessed technicals in the opening 1:39 of the second half.
“Tyson got me pretty good,” James said in a televised halftime interview. “Got a little whiplash in my neck but I’m OK. I mean, it’s playoff basketball.”
A bad day got even worse for the Knicks midway through the third.
Shumpert – who started the final 17 games of the regular season after Jeremy Lin went down with a knee injury – was carried off the court by teammates after going down in almost the exact spot as where the Chandler-James collision took place.
Shumpert was bringing the ball up the right sideline and tried to dribble behind his back when he pulled up and immediately grabbed at his left knee. He was brought into the Knicks’ locker room for evaluation, and as he was lifted from the floor Anthony looked at the scoreboard, shaking his head in disbelief.
James provided the exclamation point with 1.4 seconds left in the third quarter.
He made a 3-pointer over Anthony for his 32nd – and final points – of the day. Through three quarters, the entire Knicks roster had only outscored James by 15, and Miami took an 81-47 lead into the final 12 minutes.
NOTES: Toney Douglas (virus) was inactive for the Knicks. … Lin had a lengthy shooting workout before the game, as he continues to try to recover from knee surgery. … All fans sitting courtside were to receive a version of the Nike sneakers James is wearing in this year’s playoffs. … Woodson was captured by television cameras before the game telling his team in a huddle, “It is a process to win an NBA title.” [ source ]
Rose was ready for Game 1.. but now?
CHICAGO — It got disappointing but never debilitating as the Chicago Bulls counted out their 2011-12 regular season in games with Derrick Rose (32-7) and games without him (18-9).
The concern at the moment, after Rose’s late-game injury in the opener of Chicago’s first-round Eastern Conference series against Philadelphia, is that the Bulls might find themselves going 0-4 without Rose in playoff games. All in one series.
Things were humming along nicely for Chicago: Rose was back, apparently healthy and flaking off rust swiftly. He had 23 points, nine rebounds and nine assists deep into the fourth quarter and had the Bulls comfortably ahead when he attacked the Sixers’ paint one more time late in the fourth quarter.
But as Rose planted and leapt to avoid Philadelphia big man Spencer Hawes, passing to Carlos Boozer in the right corner, he immediately grimaced and reacted to pain in what appeared to be his left knee. His hands came out to cushion his fall and, once he hit the court, he limped to the baseline. Sixers coach Doug Collins had a few words for Rose — he was closer at that end of the floor — and then the Bulls’ training staff rushed over as Chicago coach Tom Thibodeau and some 20,000 in United Center held their breath.
He was given a nice hand as he was assisted off, an arm on two trainers’ shoulders. Rose was named the Bulls’ player of the game afterward, and center Joakim Noah — in his brief Q&A over the arena P.A. system — asked fans for a “little prayer.”
If Rose isn’t ready for Game 2 Tuesday or the subsequent games in this — or any — series Chicago faces, those prayers had better get super-sized.
Rose goes down [Video]
Happy 6th Birthday, Twitter!
On March 21, 2006, Jack Dorsey tweeted the first ever tweet on Twitter.
The sheer fact that you can understand that sentence shows you how far Twitter has gone since then. It has become the de facto short message system of the internet and the favorite social networking service of celebrities all around the world.
And, with over 500 million users, it is the largest one-to-many open communication platform on the web.
However, the service’s beginnings were modest. The service started out as an off-hand project from the creators of podcasting company Odeo, and though it immediately showed potential, it was plagued by frequent downtime in its first couple of years.
Stability problems seem to be a thing of the past now, and Twitter handles and hashtags have become a part of popular culture – they are regularly seen on TV and movie trailers. Ask a celebrity how you can reach them, and the most likely answer will be their Twitter nickname.
When it comes to business plans, in the last 12 months Twitter has been somewhat eclipsed with Facebook’s IPO. The questions about Twitter still remain the same as on its last birthday: Will it go public, will it be acquired by a giant such as Google, Apple or Microsoft, or will it simply keep growing?
We’ll see. In the meantime, happy birthday, Twitter!
Say Goodbye to User Name and Password Logins, and Hello to OneID
Say Goodbye to User Name and Password Logins, and Hello to OneID.
Quick Pitch: Goodbye user names and passwords.
Genius Idea: OneID has created single-click login so users don’t have to enter a user name, password, credit card number or billing information. OneID also has no centralized data storage, making it extremely difficult for hackers to access confidential information.
Steve Kirsch wants to swap his 352 user names and passwords for a simple single click sign-in.
The Silicon Valley entrepreneur with 30 years’ experience hopes to take the web by storm with his new startup, OneID.
The user name and password model is not only inconvenient, but its security has been increasingly compromised over the years. That’s why Kirsch has created a multi-device verification system free of passwords.
OneID uses a combination of advanced asymmetric cryptography that works to identify a user through multiple electronic devices including computer, cell phone and tablet device. The devices work together to keep a user’s private information protected.
The problem with current digital protection methods, according to Kirsch, is that people are sharing their secrets and those secrets are being centrally stored. On a daily basis, Internet users share highly private information including their real identities, user names, passwords and credit card information.
“Until we eliminate the use of shared secrets for authentication, there will never be a satisfactory answer to the question, ‘How do I know I am really safe when l sign on to a website?’” Kirsch said.
Here’s the simple explanation of how OneID works: it verifies a user’s identity via the active device and a control device of the user’s choice. The active device is what the user is using to access the login — a computer, for example. To make a payment or to login to a site, users then click the OneID button.
The computer sends verification to your phone, assuming that is your second device of choice. The user then verifies the login on a second device. If the user doesn’t have another device, they enter a pin.
Paying for items is easy with OneID because users don’t have to repeatedly enter a credit card number.
Users can manage their devices and information through OneID. Websites that opt to use OneID’s system will store verification codes, which are useless to hackers because those codes don’t contain any secret information.
Kirsch, who has founded five other successful startups, has pitched his idea to the U.S. Treasury and top Fortune 500 companies. OneID is still in beta, but Kirsch thinks it will be the new digital identity standard. The software was recently released for developers’ use.
Other companies have tried to eliminate user names and passwords. Facebook’s Connect sign-in button has been adopted by many websites, but some users are weary to sign into websites using their Facebook login because it gives access to demographic information, profile picture, networks, user ID, friends lists and other information.
Another example of a payment sign-in system is PayPal — but Kirsch said OneID is more secure.
“OneID is like what PayPal should have been when it comes to security,” Kirsch said. “We are going to leapfrog PayPal. We are PayPal 4.0.”
Would you use OneID? Tells us in the comments.
Blag | Toto
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Mesi a Charles Agabus on FB !
8 Reasons People Aren’t Following You Back on Twitter…
Whenever you follow someone on Twitter, you hope that they’ll follow you back. It’s a strategy many of us use in the attempt to gain followers. But often, it doesn’t work out that way.
Here are eight reasons why people aren’t following you back on Twitter, plus one way to increase your chances that they will.
1. You Don’t Have a Profile Photo.
Nothing screams “newbie” more than not having a photo. And if you’re not a new to Twitter, you really have no excuse for not replacing the default egg image with a photo of your own. Using a headshot is best, but if you don’t want to reveal your identity — or if you’re tweeting as a brand — then a relevant graphic is acceptable.
2. You Don’t Have a Bio.
I need more than a photo or a graphic to decide whether or not I’m going to follow you back. Make sure to take advantage of the 160 characters available in the bio section to describe yourself and tell us which subjects you’ll be tweeting about.
3. There Is Some Polarizing Aspect to Your Bio.
If you want to include religion, politics or controversial views in your bio, you certainly have that right. But just know that it may turn off some people from following you. On the other hand, it may encourage those who are like-minded. When in doubt, cast the largest net possible by having a friendly yet informative bio.
4. Your Tweets Are Protected.
Twitter allows you to “protect your tweets,” which means that your Twitter feed is only available to those whose follow requests you have accepted. To me, that completely defeats the purpose of Twitter, which is to converse openly and exchange ideas with more than 200 million users. So, if I see that you have protected your tweets, I’m not going to bother requesting your permission to see them. If you have something private to say, send a Direct Message to one of your followers.
5. You Tweet Too Little.
Potential followers often glance through your Twitter feed to see what you’re tweeting about and how often. If it looks like you’re only tweeting once a week, I’m going to assume you’re not much of a Twitter enthusiast. No sense in increasing my follower count with someone who barely tweets.
6. You Tweet Too Much.
If you tweet all day long, I probably won’t follow you. We just met, and I’m not ready to have you clogging up my Twitter stream.
7. You Mostly Broadcast But Rarely Engage.
If you’re running a one-man (or one-woman) show on Twitter, I’m not your audience. I look for tweeters who are not only sharing their own links and opinions, but who are retweeting and responding. You want to have a conversation, not view a monologue.
8. It’s Not You, It’s Me.
Your profile pic is lovely and your bio is inviting. You tweet a few times a day every day – without protection. But our interests just don’t align, so alas, I’m not going to follow you back. But don’t worry, I’m sure lots of others will!
One Thing That Might Increase Your Follower Count?
Make them aware of you with an @mention. Whether you tweet at them (in a relevant, non-spammy way) or manually retweet their tweet, give the user you want to follow you some sort of @mention. It shows you’re the type of tweeter who’s willing to engage and help promote other people’s work.
What other strategies have improved your Twitter follow count? Share your tips in the comments below.
