Twitter Music App is Launching Friday

Get ready to rock. Twitter is about to launch its long-rumored standalone music app Friday, according to a report.

The app's existence was rapidly becoming one of the worst-kept secrets in social media, especially after American Idol host Ryan Seacrest randomly tweeted about its existence earlier Thursday.
As soon as Seacrest did that, the social music startup We Are Hunted tweeted back at him — and then immediately announced it had been acquired by Twitter. (Another poorly kept secret, this acquisition likely occurred last year and was revealed by CNET last month.)

When we asked Twitter whether the app existed, they pointed us — rather meaningfully — to the We Are Hunted announcement. Now AllThingsD is reporting that the music app will launch Friday, citing sources familiar with the matter.

We Are Hunted focused on the top trending music on social media, and the Twitter Music app will likely do the same — plus suggest what other tunes you might like based on what you've listened to, and allow you to buy tracks via iTunes.

A streaming-only service, it will feature Soundcloud clips you can listen to from within the app and music videos from Vevo, according to AllThingsD. CNET previous reported that the app would be divided into four sections, including "#NowPlaying", and that a Twitter account would not be necessary to use it.
What we don't have a lot of details on is what platform the app is launching on. CNET's report said it would be iOS only; AllThingsD's sources don't specify.

Will this be one more app that Android users have to wait more months to experience? Would you download it? Let us know in the comments.

Mashable composite. Image courtesy iStockphoto, mstay

Facebook Expands Gifts Feature Beyond The United States

Facebook now allows users outside the United States of America to send gifts to their friends, as long as their friends live in America. Users in the UK, Canada and India have noticed new gift suggestions appearing on their Facebook pages.

Facebook Gifts was launched in the United States late last year. Since then, Facebook has launched its own gift card, entered into an agreement with Starbucks and begun suggesting users give gifts alongside celebratory notifications.

Now, users outside the United States are beginning to gain access to gifts. When I went on Facebook this morning, I was informed that I can now buy a gift for a friend on Facebook, after which I was prompted to buy a gift for my American friend’s twenty-seventh birthday.




Facebook has confirmed to Inside Facebook that the social media site has made "an update to Gifts that allows people using Facebook in English outside of the U.S. to send Gifts to friends living in the U.S." Facebook has not yet reported whether the Gifts feature will become fully available to international users, allowing gift giving outside the United States.

There have also been reports that Facebook is now alerting users who have the redesigned news feed of any news feed posts they miss. While users are off the home page, a number will tally up the number of unseen posts beside the “Home” tab.

Would you like to be able to send friends gifts on Facebook?

Facebook Home Released For Android

Facebook has released Facebook Home, a new patch for Android devices which makes viewing messages and photos from Facebook easier by changing the device’s homepage into a Facebook cover feed.

When Facebook home was announced yesterday, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg emphasised that the company’s intention was to build a mobile interface which put people first instead of apps. To that end, Facebook Home replaces an Android phone’s home page with information from the owner’s Facebook news feed, all of which can be clicked on and interacted with. At any point users can get to their apps by swiping up on their Facebook profile photo.

Facebook notifications will appear on the home screen beside a profile picture of the active party, Facebook promises on the announcement post that these notifications will be “bigger [and] bolder”. Notifications can be taken off screen with a simple drag.

Meanwhile, messages – both SMS and Facebook – will appear over apps as pop-ups in the corner of the screen. This feature, called Chat Heads, “will help improve engagement as it lets people jump in and out of conversations without ever having to leave your app”, according to the Facebook announcement post.

Home will be available in the US from the Google Play Store from April 12. Home works on the HTC One X, HTC One X+, Samsung GALAXY S III and Samsung GALAXY Note II. Home will work on the yet-to-be-released HTC One and Samsung GALAXY S4, and on more devices in the next few months.



What do you think of Facebook Home?