friends

Facebook Desktop watches your Facebook page so you don't have to

The average Facebook user spends 6 hours a day checking his page and messages: true or false? False, but not by much, at least in our experience. There are all kinds of ways to make the most of the time you spend on Facebook, and one of the most useful kinds is free widget-like apps that keep you signed in on Facebook and check your messages and updates. Like Desktop Facebook, for instance. This simple freeware app stays signed in to Facebook and keeps track of your Messages, Pokes, Friend Requests, and Wall Count. Clicking on any notification opens the … Read more

The 404 1,141: Where we feed the dogs (podcast)

Leaked from today's 404 episode:

- Zynga and Hasbro announce board game versions of the most annoying Facebook ones.

- Will.i.am and Simon Cowell considering X-Factor style show, for tech.

- New Ninja Turtles cartoon replaces Cowabunga with....

Bathroom break video: Longboarder attacked by a deer.… Read more

Shining light on new Kindle Paperwhite

Monday's CNET Update has a glow about it:

The Amazon Kindle Paperwhite e-reader is now shipping, and CNET has given it the Editors Choice award. You can read the full review here. The Nook GlowLight dropped its price to $119 to match the Paperwhite.

Apple has released a Wi-Fi bug fix for the iPhone 5 on Verizon. The bug caused the iPhone 5 to use data even when the device was connected to a Wi-Fi network. Verizon won't charge iPhone 5 customers for any excess data as a result of the bug, but customers should download the fix … Read more

How to set up Find My Friends notifications

Find My Friends, an iOS app aimed at helping friends and family members keep tabs on one another, was updated with the release of iOS 6. Other than some simple user interface changes, there wasn't a whole lot added to the app, with one exception -- notifications.

You can now set notifications to get alerted when a contact in your Find My Friends app arrives at or leaves a location you set.

To set up a notification for a friend, view their current location. In the upper-left corner of your screen, you'll see a button titled "Notify … Read more

Speak Scrabblish and 'thwack your amis' at Scrabble (Q&A)

If you're one of the millions of people who play Scrabble regularly, you surely know that you can't use proper nouns in the hit game. So how is it that words like "Alaska," "Berlin," "Bolivia," and even "Jane" are legal moves?

Anyone who has spent any time reading the Official Scrabble Players Dictionary (OSPD) knows that each of those words has an alternate meaning that satisfies the game's rules. And it was just that kind of information that author David Bukszpan was after when he began working on "… Read more

The Oree keyboard is a wireless wooden wonder

The aesthetics of the modern keyboard reminds me of the U.S. car industry several years ago: uninspired.

Enter the Orée wooden keyboard, nearly made in full out of Mother Nature's greatest asset. French entrepreneur Julien Salanave came up with Orée and works in collaboration with a small design team in southern France to produce the wooden Bluetooth 3.0 wireless keyboard. … Read more

Top games to play with friends on smartphones

There are several games on both of my iOS devices at any given time from just about every genre. But there are only a few games I go back to on an almost daily basis and that's because they are fun, addictive, and a great way to keep in touch with friends and family.

These "casual" games are turn-based and require you to connect with a friend to start playing -- there is no single-player option with this collection. They have also been around for a while, but that's kind of the point: these are the games I continue to play because it only requires a couple of minutes to take my turn and send it to a friend. While it is sometimes a pain to go in and complete my turns (especially when life gets busy), the overall experience of competing with your friends and family is a good one and acts as a way to stay connected, even in our busy everyday lives.… Read more

Five Foursquare Connected Apps you should start using today

A while back Foursquare launched its Connected Apps platform, which expanded on how you can interact with a check-in after the fact. At first, the release was small with a few developers getting access to the API, but more developers have started making Connected Apps. There are some real gems available now.

Here is a list of five Connected Apps you should connect to your Foursquare account today.

#Mom We originally told you about Hash tag Mom earlier this year, well before Connected Apps were announced. Just this week, it was updated to make it a Connected App as well. … Read more

Zynga's new Gems With Friends puts spotlight on mobile

Zynga's latest game, Gems With Friends, launches today and it may give some hope for the game-creator's mobile future.

As the series' first arcade-style and first non-word game, Gems -- available in Canada with a worldwide rollout to follow in the coming weeks -- features gemstones of different colors and numbers that can be combined to score points.

"They combine and they create these epic combos," said Paul Bettner, vice president and general manager at Zynga. "It's a thrilling game and very, very addictive."

Zynga is introducing this mobile-only game amid criticism of … Read more