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Foursquare on Tuesday released an update to both its Android and iOS apps, giving users the ability to check their friends into a venue, without their friends having to do a thing. According to Foursquare, the ability to check in friends is the most requested feature to date. Well, those who sent in the requests can now be happy, but for those who would rather have control over their digital whereabouts -- you'll need to disable the feature.

The first time a friend attempts to check you into a venue, you'll receive an alert asking you to approve … Read more

Apple has begun notifying the parents how they will be compensated for large bills racked up by their children through unauthorized use of in-app purchases in games and apps sold through the App Store.

An e-mail sent by the "Apple In-App Purchase Litigation Administrator" describes how the approximately 23 million people, as part of a class-action lawsuit, can apply for compensation. Parents have until January 13, 2014, to claim a $5 iTunes gift cards for charges less than $30, according to the e-mail. The maximum compensation parents can expect is the total amount charged during a single 45-day … Read more

Cardas Audio has been making audiophile cables since 1987, so I was taken aback when I heard George Cardas was working on a headphone model. That was four years ago, when Cardas was approached by a major in-ear headphone manufacturer to make cables for them, but when George started listening to their headphones he was less than thrilled with the sound. One thing led to another, he thought he could do better, and decided to make his own headphones.

Prototypes were built, he listened, he measured, tweaked the design, made more prototypes, listened and measured. Most dynamic in-ear headphones use … Read more

After Best Buy hosted an iPhone trade-in day earlier this month, the retailer has decided to do it again -- but this time, the deal will last for nine days.

The way the program works is that customers can bring in an iPhone 4S or 4 and trade it for a brand new iPhone 5, according to USA Today. Between June 21 and June 29, Best Buy will give customers a $150 trade-in credit for their old phone, which makes the iPhone 5 free (the 16GB iPhone 5 currently costs $149.99 at Best Buy with a $50 instant rebate).… Read more

LinkedIn is battling a DNS issue that took the business social networking site offline for an hour Wednesday night.

The outage, which appears to be over for most of LinkedIn's members, began when the site's homepage was replaced by a domain sales page. (See The Next Web for screenshot.) An hours-long service disruption began affecting the site around 6 p.m. PT, according to DownRightNow.com.

The site's operators explained via Twitter that the outage was caused by a "DNS issue" but did not elaborate.

Our site is now recovering for some members. We determined … Read more

Even though Twitter has been Apple's pick of social networks to be integrated into iOS 7, it's looking like LinkedIn could also make it to the chosen circle.

Developers have found code-based references to deep LinkedIn integration in the beta version of iOS 7, which was supplied by Apple, according to 9to5Mac. This code shows that a single sign-on system is in the works for the professional social network -- much like how iOS currently works with Facebook and Twitter.

The developer that supplied 9to5Mac with the code sheets said that certain bits of code are missing for … Read more

Adobe Systems' competitors smell blood in the water.

Having seen the torrent of criticism that greeted the company's move last month exclusively to subscription sales for most of its software, many are launching promotions and otherwise scrambling to win over the disaffected.

"We've put in place our outreach program to users, saying, 'Hey, come and try us,'" said Nick Davies, general manager of Corel's digital media and productivity software group. Corel launched a promotion that lets Adobe CS4, CS5, and CS6 users buy Corel software for the upgrade price rather than the full price.

"… Read more

Surprise, surprise -- after a year's dry spell, new hardware from Apple is causing an unusually high amount of interest in people selling off their old Macs.

That's according to gadget trade-in service Gazelle, which says the number of people wanting to sell their old MacBooks is up 8 percent from the same time last year. Perhaps not too coincidentally, this is all happening following Monday's unveiling of new MacBook Airs, which hadn't been given any hardware updates in a year.

The majority of trade-ins are older models, Gazelle's "Chief Gadget Officer" Anthony … Read more

Apple is reportedly partnering with an outside company to offer a new trade-in service for iPhones at its retail stores, a program that remains unannounced.

Citing sources, Bloomberg says Apple is working with Brightstar, a Miami-based company that manages trade-ins and logistical efforts for other companies.

The rumored program would let consumers bring in their used iPhones for a discount on newer models, and potentially for credit on other items in Apple's stores.

Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Such a program would not be a first for the company. Apple already offers a recycling … Read more