Social networking

Facebook confirmed Thursday that Android users have downloaded its Facebook Home software suite just shy of a million times since the product's launch last month. While that's a whole lotta mobile users, it's a tiny number considering what's possible.

If you consider the number of Facebook users and the amount of Android devices sold, you get a massive network of potential Home users. The social network alone has more than 1 billion users on the site. That's a thousand times more than the number of Home downloads so far.

Then there's the sheer number … Read more

I am not sure how much intelligence it takes to pin a "Kick Me" sign on someone's back, but one imagines it doesn't befit Intel.

Perhaps that's why an employee of the company's New Mexico plant is suing in federal court, after someone allegedly pinned such a sign to his back and then more than one person actually kicked him.

The Associated Press reports that Harvey Palacio went to a senior member of staff named Randy Lehman to ask whether there was a sign on his back.

He claims in a lawsuit that Lehman … Read more

Zynga has added another "With Friends" game to its portfolio, and this time it involves running away from a stampede of bulls.

Running With Friends, a game set in Pamplona, Spain, at the annual running of the bulls, went live today for iOS. Capitalizing on the popularity of running games like Temple Run, Running With Friends -- true to Zynga form -- adds a social layer. In addition to competing with friends, players can explore a virtual Pamplona.

"We are committed to expanding Zynga's mobile portfolio to bring players the most fun, social, and accessible games … Read more

Flipboard, the popular news-reading app, is making it easier for people to add -- and track -- their original content to Flipboard with the latest magazine curation features for Android devices.

The magazine curation feature, which lets users collect articles around a specific theme or subject matter into a Flipboard magazine is now available for Android phones and tablets, and online as a Web-based editing tool that also provides metrics.

Flipboard introduced the magazine curation feature for iOS in late March, gaining 6 million users since the launch. It's network of 56 million users have created 1 million magazines … Read more

Facebook may be aiming to spend anywhere from $800 million to $1 billion to acquire Waze, an Israel-based company that offers a socially informed GPS app for drivers.

Talks reportedly kicked off six months ago, according to Israeli business-news site Calcalist, which says that due diligence is currently under way. This would mean that the two companies are checking each other out before signing on the dotted line. The two also have signed a term sheet, or an agreement in principle on the sale, according to Calcalist.

An agreement sounds like it could be close. However, sources close to Waze … Read more

I don't know where these have come from.

I don't even know if they're official Windows 8 videos. [Note: They are. See update at end of story.]

But I do know that these are works of utter, thorough, and complete genius.

Microsoft's Windows 8 has struggled to project an image that is anything that might be described as entirely relevant.

It doesn't mean Windows 8 has failed. But it does mean that it has inspired about as much excitement as the Kansas City Chiefs of late, the Kansas City Royals (until this season), or the authorities at the Heights High School … Read more

Facebook's engineers like Google's WebP and want Mozilla to build support for the image format into the Firefox browser.

Google hopes to speed Web performance with the image format, which can do the job of both of today's major graphics formats, JPEG and PNG. Facebook began testing WebP support in April.

And now it looks like the powerful company has become Google's biggest ally in the effort to promote WebP. Mozilla is deciding whether to reverse its earlier opposition to WebP, and Facebook programmer Bryan Alger on Wednesday encouraged Firefox developers to do so in a … Read more

Even though Hipstamatic and Instagram are photo-sharing partners, it seems like Hipstamatic is looking to add a little more social networking to its world.

The company announced Wednesday that it's launching a Hipstamatic spin-off app called Oggl for iOS. The idea is for people to take Hipstamatic-like photos and then share them with friends and family.

According to a Hipstamatic blog post by co-founders Lucas Buick and Ryan Dorshorst, Oggl is "a community for creative people to capture and curate their lives through photography." The company is clear that it doesn't want Oggl to be full … Read more

Hashtag #pee! If you're looking to keep up with Junior's bladder goings-on when you're not in immediate range of his diaper, Huggies is making it easy to do that via social media.

TweetPee consists of a sensor and a Twitter alert. The cute little bird-shaped sensor attaches to the front of the diaper. When it senses a change in moisture, it sends you a tweet letting you know it's time to get off of Twitter and attend to business. You decide whether to retweet that message to your followers. … Read more