Social networking

BlackBerry is the phone people want least, survey says

Me, I'd never buy Birkenstocks.

"I am a prehistoric intellectual" is just not a message I want to send.

Everyone has their peculiar aversions to certain brands, people, and practices. So, in an interesting psychological twist, Raymond James' research arm decided to ask people which cell phones were, to them, the least attractive.

Yes, which cell phones would you rather shave your head bald, pierce both eyebrows and one bottom cheek, and walk through a freezing garden naked than buy?

I am grateful to AllThingsD for not having an aversion to this survey, one which offered severe … Read more

Does Mark know? Winklevii claim they own 1 percent of all Bitcoins

As I understand it, Bitcoin is the currency we will all use to buy gruel and grits when the current financial world's gills turn green.

It seems to be based on the idea of one person trusting another, which is an idea that has caused more wars, divorces, tears, and surgeries than any other.

Recently, Bitcoin endured something of a correction in value. This has not stopped those who have ideas ahead of their time, and even above their station, to invest.

The New York Times tells me today that the Winklevoss brothers -- yes, they who claimed Facebook was their idea … Read more

LinkedIn amps up content, acquires newsreader Pulse

LinkedIn has been adding all sorts of content as a way to get people to spend more time on the site.

Today, the company confirmed that it's acquiring Pulse, a newsreader app that aggregates news and social-media feeds. Pulse boasts more than 20 million users who are spread across more than 190 countries and read 10 million stories a day.

LinkedIn reportedly paid $90 million. News that an deal was in the works was reported last month.

LinkedIn has been amping up its efforts to produce a reliable stream of content for its users -- and keep them coming … Read more

Twitter links fail for short time as t.co experiences outage

Twitter's t.co link shortener feature experienced a brief outage today, preventing users from accessing other sites when clicking on hyperlinks in tweets.

Instead of directing users to the link they chose, it sent them to a page with an error message that "something is technically wrong," and an image of a robot that had lost one of its parts. It's unclear what caused the problem, but the outage appears to have started at about 6:45 a.m. PT. The links were working again by 7:10 a.m. PT.

Twitter acknowledged the issue through a blog post, … Read more

Flying iPad lodges in woman's bumper?

You are driving your car. You see something flying at you.

What do you do? What do you think? Do you assume the aliens have arrived? Do you you decide that this is mere debris from a passing truck, so as long as it doesn't hit the windshield you'll be fine?

Well, that depends on if you're in Georgia. For in that state, iPads allegedly fly.

You might sense that my senses have flown to foreign parts. Before you judge, I will just ask that you peruse this report from Atlanta's ABC57 News.

There, you will … Read more

9 percent would have sex with a robot

The good thing is that we're a dying species.

This allows us to have a more rounded perspective on life, the world, and every little thing that's coming to replace us.

We know that we are generally incapable of making the right decisions at the right time. So we invented humor to take the edge off it.

We also know that we're increasingly incapable of efficiency and, well, work in general. So we invented robots. Now, we have to decide what we're going to do with them before they do away with us.

In a survey conducted -- with, presumably, entirely straight faces -- by the Huffington Post and YouGov, real human beings offered their more profound thoughts on the robotic future.… Read more

Facebook adds icons and links to status updates

Facebook is adding a new twist to status updates as of today. Any TV show, movie, or book that users mention in their status update will also contain an icon and link to the Facebook page of whatever's mentioned.

"For example, if you share that you're watching a movie like 'Jurassic Park,' your post will contain the movie icon and a link to the movie's page," Facebook wrote in a blog post today. "'Jurassic Park' will be added to the Movies section on your timeline."

In other words, those TV shows, movies, or … Read more

Teens: Facebook's becoming more 'meh'

If you say something often enough, does it become true?

For a little while, rumors that teens see Facebook in the same way they see their dad's pale, baggy jeans have been wafting around the social biosphere.

Earlier this year, a couple of slightly anecdotal studies suggested that Facebook was showing its laughter lines and that teens were moving toward exciting places like Tumblr.

Now along comes a survey from Piper Jaffray that suggests teens are increasingly giving Facebook a "meh" rating.

It's a fascinating survey -- offering moving gems such as the fact that teens … Read more

Samsung Galaxy S4 launch ads: Not a whiff of an iPhone joke

Should you play nice when you're doing well? Or should you seek the jugular, machete in hand?

It seems now that Samsung is in a confident position, it no longer needs to mock Apple. BlackBerry might be another matter, of course. That brand has a business which Samsung covets.

But when it comes to launching the Galaxy S4, Samsung is steering a course very much down the middle of taste, the road and, who knows, America.

I am grateful to Business Insider for pointing the way toward three new ads to celebrate Samsung's next big device.

They are … Read more