Social networking

Nextdoor, your neighborhood social network, now on iPhone

Eighteen months after a national launch, San Francisco-based startup Nextdoor is making its neighborhood-only social networks accessible from iPhone and giving people a quick-response way to spread urgent alerts or exchange messages with neighbors.

Nextdoor plays host to nearly 13,000 neighborhood networks spread across all 50 states in the U.S., with each one private to members in the area who must verify their address before they join.

The service, which has raised around $50 million in funding, is partnered with more than 100 police departments to provide people with information on pressing city matters. It has particularly high … Read more

Yahoo: We're listening to user feedback about Flickr revamp

Yahoo is clearly aware that many Flickr users are unhappy about the photo-sharing site's new look and layout.

On Monday, Yahoo revamped Flickr with a host of changes, including a larger photo layout, new home page and photo stream page, and 1TB of free storage space per person. But Flickr users quickly expressed their unhappiness over the changes. A slew of people chimed in on the site's help forum to give the new look a thumb's down and pleading for a return to the old style.

Users are always thrown by major changes to their favorite Web … Read more

Siri slams iPad in new Windows 8 ad

Microsoft isn't bothering to merely flex its muscles these days.

It's opening fire in all directions, because what is there to lose? Oh, perhaps money. But apart from that.

It's gone after Google in a quite chilling manner. It's gone after the Apple-Samsung phone feud.

So, in a further escalation of hostilities, a new Windows 8 ad sees Microsoft take Siri hostage, tie her up in a chair, and make her tell the truth. … Read more

Stalk your love object with your gadget, says new Galaxy S4 ad

Technology and love have a long relationship.

In recent times, the former has played the dominant role.

We now find partners online and one-night stands on our phones.

However, Samsung would like you to know that the best way to meet the woman of your dreams is to pull out your gadget and stalk her a little.

Perhaps this is already your preferred form of seduction. This new Galaxy S4 ad will be, therefore, a touch redundant for you.

For the rest of us, though, it is an education. Here is a boy who cannot help taking pictures of the … Read more

LinkedIn retools Web navigation to match mobile

Starting Wednesday, LinkedIn will be sporting a much sexier and simplified navigation bar inspired by the design of its just-improved mobile applications.

"Over the last year and half we've had the chance to learn quite a bit from you about the types of changes that add the most value to your daily professional life, and we've brought some of these learnings to the new navigation," LinkedIn Principal Designer Amy Parnell wrote in blog post.

The idea is to make LinkedIn's navigation menu on the Web not only nicer looking, but easier to use. The search … Read more

Most tasteless question Apple's CEO was asked in Washington

It's not easy being the boss at 1 Infinite Loophole.

Instead of traveling around the world to expand your business and inspire your troops, you go to Washington in order to expand narrow minds and perspire at the absurdity.

You even have to find a polite way to answer Sen. John McCain when he demands to know why he's always having to update his iPhone apps. … Read more

Gab online about Bieber's house parties, pay $5M

After several high-profile incriminating pictures hitting the Intertubes this year, TMZ reports that Justin Bieber wants all visitors to his Calabasas, Calif., mega mansion to sign a liability waiver restricting any social-media divulge about the goings-on behind closed doors.

The supposed waiver (PDF) isn't the friendliest welcome mat, as anyone with loose lips automatically gets pegged with a $5 million lawsuit -- plus they forfeit a few rights, including the ability to sue Bieber.

"Without in any way limiting the foregoing, under no circumstances will you divulge the details of you entering and being on the Property or engaging in the Activities by any means or through any media whatsoever, including without limitation, through photographs, video, blogging, texting, "tweeting" or posting any such information on any social-media site," says the alleged waiver. … Read more

Foursquare gets better at local search with new filters on mobile

Foursquare released new versions of its iPhone and Android applications to help people narrow their searches and find just the right bar, restaurant, or coffee spot.

Application users can now fine-tune their place queries and use the filter button to tick off a number of attributes to find venues that are open now or places where friends have been in the past. People also can search by price range and sort results by best match or distance.

"When you're looking for somewhere to eat, sometimes you know exactly what kind of place you want -- cheap or fancy, … Read more

Woman outed after Twitter brag that she hit cyclist

Road rage can mist the eyes. There is no reason, however, for that mist to travel to the brain.

Yet this may have happened in the case of Emma Way and her indomitable belief in the right of Way.

Way was allegedly driving her car through Norfolk, England last Sunday. Maneuvering wasn't, perhaps, so easy as she encountered a 100-mile cycle ride called the Boudicca Sportive.

It seems, though, that she channeled her inner combative Boudicca and asserted herself excessively.

Please don't take my word for it. Take hers on Twitter: "Definitely knocked a cyclist off his … Read more

Pandora tunes up music sharing via Facebook

Pandora listeners can now easily share their favorite tunes with their Facebook friends.

The Pandora Web site and the iPhone and Android apps now let you automatically publish your music listening activity to your Facebook Timeline. On the Web site, simply click on the Publish button under the current tune and choose the Publish to Facebook command. Tapping on the Menu item on your iPhone or your Android device gives you the same choice.

You can set various options to determine what get's shared. Your Facebook friends can then discover which tunes you listen to and which ones get … Read more