Friday 21 September 2012

Facebook Plugin Offers Another Way to Control Privacy


Facebook has offered another way to control which activities you’ll share when using apps that interact with Facebook on the web. A new plugin called Shared Activity lets users modify their privacy settings while in a particular web app, giving them control of who sees their activities created on that app in Facebook.
Facebook’s Developer Blog offered an example (pictured at right) of how this new plugin works:
“From the plugin on sites such as Airbnb, people can set the default Facebook audience for activity shared from your app, or manage the settings for stories previously published to Facebook, including selecting an audience or removing it altogether.”
These capabilities are already available in Facebook itself, but now users won’t need to leave an app to adjust its sharing settings. The plugin is complimentary to the current ability to adjust sharing details in three different places within Facebook: in the Timeline itself, in Facebook’s app settings, or its activity log.
This new plugin gives users more convenient control of who gets to see their input. For instance, if a user doesn’t want the general public to see what stories he likes in a certain app, or his comments within it, he can adjust that without leaving the application and going back to Facebook.
Adding another way to ensure privacy on Facebook sounds like a great idea, but do you think this plugin will add yet another layer of complexity for users to navigate? Is it too much?

Wednesday 19 September 2012

Everything You Need to Know About the New Twitter

Twitter rolled out on Tuesday a series of design updates aimed to add more personality to member pages. Photos have been brought to the forefront and room has been made for Facebook Timeline-like cover images.

Twitter CEO Dick Costolo first unveiled the updates during morning news program The Today Show — an unlikely stage for a tech company that is continually introducing new features and designs. Since the announcement was coupled with a short segment about Twitter’s growth and success, it was likely part of an effort to introduce the platform to a greater audience not yet using the site.

“Today’s changes are all about bringing that personality forward. More media forward, more photos forward,” Costolo said on the show. “So it’s much easier to see these media experiences and flip through them.”

The company also announced new apps for the iPhone, iPad and Android mobile devices.

Here’s a rundown of what you need to know about the news:

Behind the Header Photo

Member profile photos have been moved from the top left to a spot in the center of the page. Users can upload a long horizontal “header” image that resembles the cover photo concept currently used on Facebook and Google+. Existing profile pictures are embedded in the center of the header.


“The page itself has been reoriented to play up other visuals as well: Your avatar is no longer tucked in the corner, but will display front and center,” Twitter said in a statement. “The photo stream, too, has been moved up, and will now be accessible on the apps.”

How to Add a Header

First, visit your profile — the page that’s labeled “Me,” not your homepage — either on Twitter.com or via your mobile app. To add a header photo, visit Twitter.com/Settings/Design and select a photo from your existing library or port in a new one. To upload a header photo from a mobile app, visit to the “Me” tab, click the settings button (gear), tap “Edit profile” and then “Header.”

Note: After selecting a picture, you’ll need to scale it to size. The original image size can’t surpass 1252×626 pixels (with a max file size of five megabytes) and anything less than 640 pixels won’t look great.

App Upgrades

The iPhone app looks similar to what we’ve seen in the past, particularly in regards to the news feed and navigation. The “Me” section has been optimized for a header photo, however.

Meanwhile, the iPad app received a whole new user interface. In addition to highlighting a header photo and giving uploaded photos a bigger display area, you no longer have to swipe to reveal the sidebar. It also gives greater prominence to media — images now appear full-screen and links show up within the tweets when expanded. The company called the iPad app more than just an upgrade.

“We’ve rebuilt the app from the ground up to make it fast, beautiful and easy to use,” Twitter said in a statement.

Twitter also noted that the news represents “our mobile-first strategy.”

User Reaction

Mashable conducted a poll after the news was announced to gauge user feedback, and 47% said they loved the emphasis on photos and the new header. About 27% said cover pictures are “so 2011,” while 25% said they were indifferent.

Monday 17 September 2012

Google Refuses to Remove Anti-Muslim YouTube Video

White House officials on Friday asked YouTube to review an anti-Muslim video cited as fueling violent protests worldwide, but according to The New York Times, the Google-owned site doesn’t have any intention of taking it down.

Google told the publication that the “Innocence of Muslims” video does not violate terms of service for YouTube regarding hate speech because it is focused on the Muslim religion and not the people who practice it. Although Google put up a temporary block on the clip in Egypt and Libya due to local violations in those countries, it still remains accessible to most worldwide.

The 14-minute video, which was a trailer for an upcoming “Innocence of Muslims” film thought to be created by an American man — upset the Muslim community for insulting the religion’s Prophet Muhammad. (Note: Early reports pegged the filmmaker as “Sam Bacile,” a supposedly Israeli-American real estate developer living in California. However, certain details didn’t add up: There’s no licensed real estate developer in California with that name and Israeli officials denied his existence.)

The video has also been credited as contributing to global protests, including the attack on the U.S. consulate in Libya, which resulted in the deaths of four U.S. citizens including a U.S. ambassador, and igniting other protests across the globe.

Google’s decision to not comply with the White House’s request is in line with a company policy from 2007 that said it would consider laws, local policies and culture when deciding whether to remove or restrict a video.

“One type of content, while legal everywhere, may be almost universally unacceptable in one region, yet viewed as perfectly fine in another,” Rachel Whetstone, senior VP for communications and public policy at Google, said in the policy. “We are passionate about our users, so we try to take into account local cultures and needs.”

YouTube’s Community Guidelines “encourage free speech” and “defend everyone’s right to express unpopular points of view.” However, it does not allow “hate speech,” which the company defines as “speech which attacks or demeans a group based on race or ethnic origin, religion, disability, gender, age, veteran status, and sexual orientation/gender identity.”

The Obama administration initially “reached out to YouTube to call the video to their attention and ask them to review whether it violates their terms of use,” Tommy Vietor, spokesman for the National Security Council, told the Washington Post.

UPDATE: The original version of this story said it was believed that the filmmaker was an American-Israeli man, but it has since been updated to reflect that authorities now think a false identity was used.