Social networking

As the father of a 5-year-old girl who adores all things princess but also digs stars and comets and mastered the user interface for both Android and iOS in about half a day, I'm always on the look out for Geek Grrl role models. So the new hero in my household is Jennie Lamere.

This 17-year-old grrl loves both reality television and hackathons and tapped into those two passions to win the grand prize at the TVnext hack event in Boston last month. Her brilliantly simple hack, first detailed on evolver.fm, is designed to prevent spoilers on Twitter while watching live TV.

Surely we've all shaken our fists in the air when a fellow "Walking Dead" or "Game of Thrones" fan in a different time zone tweets about the latest character to get eliminated while you're still popping popcorn and getting the couch ready for the evening's gore-fest.

Lamere's Google Chrome app, Twivo, allows users to block any tweets related to a certain keyword or words for a specified period of time, allowing you to keep up with the rest of the Twitterverse during commercial breaks without ruining the show you're watching.

… Read more

I am writing this with a cold compress on my head and a milk chocolate digestive biscuit in my mouth.

Both are to soothe my furrowed thoughts.

For this is another tale of peculiarity from the antiseptic-smelling hallways of America's high schools.

It has been well-established that strange things happen in the nation's places of youth education.

You can get expelled and arrested for putting toilet cleaner and foil in a water bottle on school premises.

You can also get suspended for tweeting that you don't think your high school has very good sports teams.

Wesley Teague, … Read more

If you've been relying on TweetDeck as a front-end for your Facebook account, it's time to look elsewhere.

Starting today, Twitter-owned TweetDeck no longer supports Facebook. That move, which Twitter announced in March, was part of the social-networking giant's effort to "focus our development efforts on our modern, Web-based versions of TweetDeck."

As expected, as part of the move Twitter also has removed support for TweetDeck for Air and versions of the client for iPhone and Android.

For now, TweetDeck for Mac is still available, but one has to wonder how long that will be … Read more

"My agent just sent my book to publishers! Fingers crossed!" That's the status message I just stopped myself from writing on Facebook.

It took all the willpower I've ever had.

In fact, I'm now eating a block of cheese because focusing so hard on not updating Facebook with that status has depleted my willpower reserves. My diet is left defenseless.

I'm 29, and I'm working hard to make a living, to produce something I am proud of, to pay the rent, to scrape some savings together, to make time for love, to eat … Read more

Private social network Path, fresh off hitting 10 million registered users, has struck a deal with Sprint that should help the 2-year-old company attract an even larger audience.

Path announced Wednesday that it has partnered with Sprint and that its application for private social networking will come preloaded on Samsung Galaxy S4, HTC One, and Torque devices.

The application will be featured inside Sprint's "Discover It" widget, as pictured right.

Path's allure is also its greatest obstacle. The company's mobile application specializes in a more intimate experience and limits its users to just 150 friends. … Read more

LinkedIn has made over its e-zine, LinkedIn Today, with a new look and a new content discovery feature called Channels.

LinkedIn Today, first launched more than two years ago, is meant to be a digital newspaper that sums up the day's top business news. Today aggregates articles shared by the company's more than 225 million users, with each edition personalized to the reader based on his or her connections.

The new LinkedIn Today is dressed up with a more modern design, comes with more than 20 broad topic sections called Channels that members can follow, and features more … Read more

NEW YORK--Marissa Mayer has clear vision of what a moonshot -- an epic accomplishment -- would be for Yahoo. She wants Yahoo persistent on every smartphone, tablet and PC for every Internet user.

"The nice thing is that we are not that far off," the Yahoo CEO said in conversation with Wired senior writer Steven Levy at the Wired Business Conference.

Mayer could add wearable computers as well. She said that Yahoo is experimenting with developer versions of Google Glass to see how users can operate Yahoo's apps using the digital eyewear.

With more than 700 million … Read more

Google has added a few "highly-requested" features to Hangouts On Air. Live-stream users can now rewind during live broadcasts and playback recordings will be available immediately on YouTube, the company announced Tuesday.

In addition to the rewind and instant replay features, Google promises "higher quality" video and the ability to start live broadcasts without refreshing the page. After you open up a Hangouts On Air page, the video will start playing at the scheduled time.

These new features may mean a longer set up though, Google warned: "For example: the 'Start broadcasting' button may be … Read more

It's hard being an old Vulcan.

Younger beings come along and just want to vulcanize you.

Old Vulcans have it so bad they drive Mercedes. Young ones, quite naturally, drive an Audi.

These aren't the musings of an addled mind; it's the premise of a new Audi ad. Here we have old Spock, Leonard Nimoy, and young Spock, Zachary Quinto, challenging each other. Yes, they will race each other to the golf club -- loser buys lunch. (Do not attempt.)

Quinto has a very fancy Audi S7. Spock is slumming it in an old guy's Mercedes. … Read more