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Facebook Powerball hoaxer: Girlfriend wanted me to nix it

You've probably not yet got over your disappointment that Nolan Daniels won't be giving you $1 million.

This is understandable. It's near Xmas and you've become rather excited about finally owning a four-bedroom McMansion with a Bilirubin-colored Lexus sitting outside.

Daniels -- for those who've been secreted in their panic rooms in preparation for Doomsday -- is the Arizona-based software engineer who faked (badly) a winning Powerball ticket and offered $1 million to one random person among those who would share his triumphant picture on Facebook.

Naturally, people's rapaciousness overtook their eyesight and more … Read more

The 404 1,181: Where time is of the essence (podcast)

Leaked from today's 404 episode:

- Instagram photos disappear from Twitter feeds.

- You can use IFTTT to post Instagram photos to Twitter cards.

- Twitter vs. Instagram in a knock-down, drag-out filters fight.

- Head-to-head: Twitter vs. Instagram filters.

- Sony putting an end to production of handheld cassette recorders.

- "Modern Seinfeld" Twitter account imagines Jerry and Co. in the Digital Age.

- Check out the CNET 100 of 2012.… Read more

Facebook: No more voting, but we're still listening

It's official. The independent auditor Facebook hired to double-check its latest vote has confirmed the vote count, and Facebook's new user polices go into effect today.

In addition to adding language that lets Facebook share your data with affiliates, like Instagram, and providing clarification on how it uses your data for advertising, the new policy also does away with the voting practice entirely.

While it's all over for voting, Facebook said it still wants to hear from users.

"We hope you'll stay vocal and involved," Elliot Schrage, Facebook's VP of communications, said in … Read more

Newly flush with wine, Facebook Gifts rolls out to all U.S. users

With two weeks of Christmas shopping left, Facebook is making Facebook Gifts available to all users starting today.

"Now you can instantly send real gifts, digital gift cards, charitable donations and wine to your friends right from Facebook," the company said in a short blog post.

Catch that last item? Wine. For the first time, Facebook users will be able to send alcoholic beverages to one another using the service, so long as both sender and recipient are older than 21.

Wine partners include Amuse Bouche, Blackbird, Bonterra, Capture Wines, Clark-Claudon, David Family, Domaine Chandon, Goose Cross, Mondavi, … Read more

The Facebook vote and a nation-state in cyberspace

The people have spoken -- just not enough of them to have an impact on Facebook's business or future.

First, there are the yeas versus the nays. In the voting on the giant social network's proposed policy changes, 589,141 users (87.5 percent) opposed the changes, and 79,731 were in support. But then there's the threshold: according to Facebook's voting laws, an enforceable verdict required participation by 30 percent (300 million) of Facebook's billion users. The total vote count of 668,872 was just 0.0668 percent of potential voters.

Now Facebook can … Read more

Facebook's IPO

Of all the recent tech IPOs, none garnered the attention that Facebook got -- and for good reason. It was the biggest Internet IPO in history. Everyone knew the company. Heck, there'd been a Hollywood version made of the company's early story.

People had hoped the Facebook IPO would mark a 1999-like return to IPO mania. Instead, the blockbuster IPO led to lawsuits, losses, and accusations of wrongdoing. Sure, the shares have been doing well of late as the company has won over some skeptics and begun making money from mobile. But Facebook -- coupled with IPO duds … Read more

New Twitter (with filters) not available yet for iPhone

Twitter said today that it was releasing a new version of its iPhone and Android apps that would allow users to filter their photos directly from their devices, a move that directly challenges Instagram's stranglehold on artistic photo sharing. But while the new Android version is already available, the iPhone version is not.

In its blog post announcing the new versions, Twitter said that, "Starting today, you'll be able to edit and refine your photos, right from Twitter. The latest versions of Twitter for iPhone and Twitter for Android introduce a few new ways to enhance the … Read more

Montana's delightful 'F-This Job' Facebook post

There are days when most of us think: "F*** this job."

There are days when most of us even say or write: "F*** this job."

Fewer, though, are the days when we post "F*** this job" on our proud state's tourism Facebook page.

However, a social media manager working on behalf of the mountainous state of Montana managed to express her personal frustrations to all the state's fans.

Adweek swears that she wrote:

F this job. I just want to live in Whitefish with my future husband. Leaving Bozeman for good tomorrow. … Read more

Facebook suffers major outage, knocked offline

Facebook experienced a short but significant outage during the early evening, which knocked many users -- if not the entire network -- off the social network for about 20 to 25 minutes.

It is unclear at this stage what caused the outage, but Facebook's main site and mobile site failed to load. The Facebook API, which allows developers to install features such as the "Like" button on external Web sites, also failed to work, suggesting a meltdown of the entire network.

It appears that Facebook suffered DNS-related issues, resulting in the Web site not loading for many. … Read more

The polls close at Facebook for the last time

Facebook closed its polls shortly after noon PT today, marking the end of its voting system with little fanfare.

"The Facebook Site Governance vote is now closed," reads a status update on Facebook's site governance page. "Thank you for your participation. We will be announcing the results and the next steps regarding the governance process shortly, so check back soon."

While Facebook hasn't officially called it yet, a look at the Facebook app tallying votes shows that only 589,141 votes were cast. Facebook said it needed 300 million votes to make the users' … Read more