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Friends Reunited…reunited: Britain’s ‘Facebook precursor’ is back with the original founders

May16
by on May 16, 2014 at 1:26 pm
Posted In: Around the Web, Insider, Profiles and Interviews, PSF

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The Web is a different beast in 2014 to what it was 10 years ago. Facebook was a glorified Harvard intranet, twitter was a noise birds made, and YouTube was two non-capitalized words completely unrelated to cats falling off things. Long before Bebo overtook Myspace to become the country’s number one social network, Friends Reunited had been steadily snowballing its way to the upper regions of Britain’s Web charts, letting you meet former school/work buddies. The site was similar to the USA’s Classmates.com, but aimed primarily at the UK and Ireland. Friends Reunited was conceived by husband and wife team…

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BBC iPlayer for Sky+HD gets a revamped home screen, navigation, Collections area, and more

May16
by on May 16, 2014 at 1:17 pm
Posted In: Around the Web, Product Updates, UK

If you watch most of your television through a Sky+HD box, your experience with BBC iPlayer is about to get a whole lot better. The British broadcaster is rolling out “significant improvements” to the software, including a revamped homepage, menus and navigation. The new and improved iPlayer for Sky+HD will also include a dedicated area for collections, which groups programmes by series, season, event or theme. The discovery-centric feature was introduced with the broader redesigned iPlayer back in March, which caters for the Web, consoles and connected TVs – its mobile apps were expected to follow shortly afterward. iPlayer exclusives and premieres will…

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SweetLabs’ new App Install Platform helps Android and Windows OEMs take the crap out of crapware

May16
by on May 16, 2014 at 1:00 pm
Posted In: Apps, Around the Web, Google, Insider

Apps

SweetLabs, the startup best known for its alternative app store and start-button replacement Pokki, today launched a new foray into the world of app discovery and monetization generically named App Install Platform. In short, the company is releasing a suite of cloud-based services and client-side software that let OEMs replace their current app preload model on Android and Windows devices with a targeted and recurring one. For more than a decade now, OEMs have deployed a single image file containing the desired operating system and preloaded apps onto all their devices. As a result, they overload their customers with tons…

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10 Mondo movie posters that rival the original artwork

May16
by on May 16, 2014 at 11:15 am
Posted In: Analysis and Opinion, Around the Web, Images

man o steel
Jordan Roland is a staff designer/illustrator for the Shutterstock blog. This post was originally published on the Shutterstock blog and has been adapted with permission.  In the last five years, there’s been a bubbling resurgence of high-art versions of movie posters. It can be attributed to a few different companies and art galleries, but there’s one that has been at the forefront: Austin, Texas-based Mondo. One thing that’s unique about Mondo prints is that they’re all silkscreened, meaning that the artists have to use a limited color palette in constructing their designs. This results in a high degree of attention to color as well as…

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Love Titanfall? EA has launched a companion app for iOS, Android and Windows Phone 8

May16
by on May 16, 2014 at 10:58 am
Posted In: Apps, Around the Web, Product Launches

“Stand by for Titanfall.” If you’re used to hearing that immensely satisfying phrase multiple times each day, we suspect you’ve fallen for Respawn Entertainment’s latest sci-fi shooter. Publisher EA is hoping to broaden the experience with a companion app for iOS, Android and Windows Phone 8. Both are now available and keep you notified about the latest updates to the game, as well as stats on total kills, weapon loadouts and your time spent in its mech-on-mech combat world. The app also comes with a second-screen map feature, which lets you quickly review your teammates’ location and where the battle is unfolding….

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