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Facebook launches Trending World Cup hub for soccer fans to keep in touch with the action in Brazil

Jun10
by on June 10, 2014 at 12:31 pm
Posted In: Around the Web, Insider, Product Updates

Football_World_Cup
Facebook has launched a hub for football fans to keep in touch with all the news and updates coming out of the World Cup in Brazil. Announced today, the hub shows the latest scores and highlights from matches, as well as an interactive feed showing posts from friends, players and teams. There’s also an interactive map showing which players have the most fans and where they’re located around the world. From Thursday, Facebook users will also be able to easily share which matches they are watching during any game, simply by tapping the smiley icon when composing an update. Rounding off the announcement,…

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BBC gives its child-friendly CBBC iPlayer a serious makeover ahead of CBeebies iPlayer redesign

Jun10
by on June 10, 2014 at 12:10 pm
Posted In: Around the Web, Product Updates, UK

The BBC has launched a redesigned version of its CBBC iPlayer for kids programming which keeps the overall design closely in line with the update to the regular desktop version of the BBC iPlayer back in March. Announced today in a blog post, new features include an image-heavy curated home page and new collections designed to show off certain content, events and themes. Viewers can now also restart live shows, providing access to the last two hours of live broadcasting. To keep everything in line with the main version, it was built using HTML5, which means it should play nicely on mobiles and tablets…

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Honeywell heats up its connected home efforts with Lyric, an intelligent round thermostat

Jun10
by on June 10, 2014 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Around the Web, Gadgets

Lyric Product Photography
Honeywell today announced the launch of a new smart thermostat, the first in a family of connected home products. The $279 Lyric features a round shape, a display and smart features for saving energy. If a round, smart thermostat reminds you of the Nest, I can guarantee you’re not alone, but Honeywell has been in business for 125 years and making round thermostats since 1953. In all likelihood, Nest’s success probably gave Honeywell more of an incentive to invest in smart home products, but it’s hardly fair to call Lyric a clone. “We invented round. We’re happy to reinvent round,”…

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Salesforce launches a platform to bring enterprise-focused apps to wearable devices

Jun10
by on June 10, 2014 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Around the Web, Insider

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If the growth of bring-your-own-device (BYOD) was a sign of the smartphone revolution, what is the equivalent for adoption of wearables in the workforce? How about an enterprise-focused developer platform for wearable tech apps — because that’s exactly what Salesforce has introduced today. The enterprise software giant has unveiled Salesforce Wear, which it claims is “the first initiative for wearable computing in the enterprise,” and the Salesforce Wear Developer Pack, which gives the 1.5 million developers enrolled on its Salesforce platform the tools to build the aforementioned enterprise apps and services. “Wearables are the next phase of the mobile revolution,” said Daniel Debow, SVP…

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As Asia becomes key for Facebook, it’s going all out to simplify marketing for brands there

Jun10
by on June 10, 2014 at 11:23 am
Posted In: Around the Web, Asia

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Facebook’s Preferred Marketing Developer (PMD) scheme started in the US as an attempt to build a community of developers who are experts at social marketing. The aim is to help connect brands and advertisers with developers who build tools on top or alongside Facebook’s native tools, which can help to make their marketing campaigns more engaging and comprehensive. Badges are awarded to firms that develop the “highest quality products” that build on top of the social network. What these developers provide to various firms depend on what is required. Now, Facebook is increasing its efforts to push the PMD scheme in Asia-Pacific. Kiran Raghavan,…

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