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Facebook is removing messaging from its iOS and Android apps, pushing users to its Messenger app

Apr10
by on April 10, 2014 at 4:10 am
Posted In: Around the Web, messaging, Product Updates

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Facebook is removing the messaging feature from its mobile app, forcing users to download its standalone Messenger app if they want to chat with their Facebook friends, as first reported by TechCrunch. Starting today, people in certain European countries are seeing notifications that, over the next few weeks, they will need to install Messenger to continue sending and receiving Facebook messages on their smartphones. A Facebook spokesperson tells TNW the company has found that people get replies 20 percent faster on Messenger than on Facebook, and that new features are being continuously added to the Messenger app. For example, just last month,…

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Google’s modular phone project begins to take flight as first resources for Ara are released

Apr10
by on April 10, 2014 at 3:33 am
Posted In: Around the Web, Gadgets

Project Ara, the modular smartphone initiative announced by Google last year, is taking shape after the first Module Developers Kit (MDK) was released today. Among the information is an 81-page document that details the of customization open to developers, and thus the kind of things that we end users can hope to expect from our devices, although the project is still at a very early stage. Interesting nuggets include three different sized ‘endos’ (phone chasis); the potential for multiple batteries, which can be swapped out without turning a handset off; plug-in peripheral devices like a Pulse Oximeter Module, which measures blood oxygen saturation,…

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The next Asian messaging app exit may be worth more than $19b

Apr09
by on April 9, 2014 at 9:59 pm
Posted In: Analysis and Opinion, Apps, Around the Web, Asia

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Thomas Clayton is the CEO of Bubbly, a social media startup backed by Sequoia Capital, SingTel Innov8, and JAFCO.  It’s clear that the Messaging Age is among us. As Facebook becomes more of a place for parents, potential employers and schools, coaches, etc. to check up on people, young users no longer want to use it as a place to have uninhibited social interactions with their friends, and they’re increasingly choosing to log out. Furthermore, users are getting sick of the lengthy text updates and exhaustive photo albums clogging up Facebook newsfeeds. It’s becoming obvious that we’re entering an era of brief, impactful, fun sharing…

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Tag for iPhone lets you selectively share your location so your friends can find you

Apr09
by on April 9, 2014 at 9:24 pm
Posted In: Apps, Around the Web

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We hear about new location-sharing apps just about every week, but even with all these entrants, no one company has truly helped users easily link up with their friends while they’re out. On one side of the spectrum you have Foursquare for general location broadcasts and on the other side you have apps like Apple’s Find My Friends and SocialRadar for ubiquitous updates. Tag, a new app for iOS, wants to find the sweet spot in the middle where you can actively share your location with your friends without it feeling either too public or too invasive. An Android version…

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Automattic acquires long-form content aggregator Longreads

Apr09
by on April 9, 2014 at 9:08 pm
Posted In: Around the Web, Insider

Automattic today announced it has acquired long-form content aggregator Longreads. Financial details of the deal were not disclosed. Longreads was founded five years ago in April 2009 as a service dedicated to helping readers “find and share the best storytelling in the world, including both nonfiction and fiction.” The only requirement is that the content shared in question is over 1,500 words. Longreads Founder Mark Armstrong says Longreads’ goals and Automattic’s goals are complementary: “For us it is to serve readers the best storytelling in the world, and for Automattic it’s to power a world where publishers and writers have…

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