App developers know that Facebook’s restrictions on application emails have made the use of email as an effective communication channel much more challenging. Tonight, there is good news: Facebook is announcing several new features for developers to employ in their application emails. Here’s a quick summary: Many new formatting tags are available for the first time. For a complete list of which HTML tags developers can use in their emails, see the Developer Wiki page. Demographic restrictions are now available in email through FBML Personalization is now available in subject lines through FBML (”Justin, your latest updates…”) Internationalization tags are...
Google was once invincible and unable to make a mistake. Well, although its share price is not what it used to be, one can argue they’re still invincible in most areas they’ve dabbled in, but the mistakes and flops are now piling up. Google Lively, a virtual world in which users can create their own environment and avatar and communicate with each other, is about to be shut down. True, this was one of Google’s 20% projects, meaning that it was created by one of Google’s engineers in their “spare” time, but still, time and money were invested in it...
Filed under: Software Update, Apple TVApple has just released software update 2.3 for the Apple TV. Right now, we don't have the change log, but we'll update the post as soon as we get more information. It is important to know that as with all other Apple TV firmware updates, running the update WILL remove any non-Apple TV software. So if you have installed the USB boxee hack you might want to wait on running the update. Apple TV will eventually prompt you to run the automatic update, so boxee or XBMC users might want to check out the XBMC.org...
Filed under: E-mail, Google It appears that Google is starting to roll out a new feature that allows some users to choose themes for Gmail. Google has provided a set of themes that change the look of the iGoogle personalized homepage for a while now, but this is the first time we've seen official themes for Gmail. The new option shows up in the Gmail settings menu, to the right of the Labs option. If you don't see a Themes tab in your settings, you're not crazy. Google has a tendency to roll out new features in phases, with some...
Following the footsteps of Google's personalized homepage, Gmail added themes. Once the new option is enabled in your account (as usually, Gmail's new features are slowly rolled out), you'll find a tab named "Themes" in the settings page and you'll be able to choose from 30 themes. "We wanted to go beyond simple color customization, so out of the 30 odd themes we're launching today, there's a shiny theme with chrome styling, another one that turns your inbox into a retro notepad, nature themes that change scenery over time, weather driven themes that can rain on your mailbox, and fun...
Personal finance service Mint has added a new feature for those who simply have to know what their entire net worth is in every imaginable situation. Users can send a text message containing the words “Balance” or “Bal” to shortcode “MyMint” (696468) and they’ll receive info for savings, credit, and loans they’re tracking on Mint. The folks at Mint have been busy, adding several new features after leaving beta in October. Finance, economy, money; these words are on everyone’s lips these days, and though it may not be in a positive context, Mint is definitely riding the wave of heightened...
The next version of Apple’s OS X operating system, dubbed “Snow Leopard” is slated to come out next year. When an early build was shown at this year’s WWDC event in June, Apple indicated that it would be available to the public in about a year. However, a new slide from a presentation given by an Apple director, indicates it could be sooner, MacRumors reports. Specifically, Apple’s director of engineering of Unix technologies, Jordan Hubbard, put up a slide at the LISA ‘08 conference that showed a Q1 2009 release date for OS X 10.6 — aka Snow Leopard. Assuming...
Snow Leopard, that eagerly awaited rebuild of the Mac OS X, could be coming in the first quarter of 2009, if you are to believe Apple engineering director Jordan Hubbard's "presentation slides" from the LISA '08 conference. The next version of OS X won't come with too many crazy new features, but it does offer dramatically smaller application files and a complete overhaul to deliver serious performance gains. A Q1 release would mean that 10.6 is arriving a lot sooner than most people had expected, and that a demo may possibly be shown off during Macworld San Francisco 2009....
Snow Leopard, that eagerly awaited rebuild of the Mac OS X, should be coming in the first quarter of 2009, according to Apple engineering director Jordan Hubbard. The next version of OS X won't come with too many crazy new features, but it does offer dramatically smaller application files and a complete overhaul to deliver serious performance gains. A Q1 release would mean that 10.6 is arriving a lot sooner than most people had expected, and that a demo may possibly be shown off during Macworld San Francisco 2009. [Macrumors]...
Citysearch, the popular local events and review site owned by IAC, is getting a big makeover tonight. The site is expanding to become “hyperlocal” – creating listings for more than 75,000 different cities, adding social features through Facebook Connect, and launching an enhanced mobile experience. Initially, the new features will be available on a separate beta site, where they’ll be refined before going live early next year. In integrating Facebook Connect, Citysearch is perhaps the most interesting example so far of what’s possible with data portability. The beta site allows you to login using your Facebook credentials to write reviews,...
The new Facebook for BlackBerry, version 1.5, is scheduled for release in January 2009, according to crackberry.com. The latest version of the BlackBerry-specific mobile site hosts a few new features that you may find helpful. New account creation lets you make a new account directly from your BlackBerry, and you can also access and manage your Facebook phone book. This includes the ability to view your friends’ phone numbers, publish your phone number, and request phone numbers. This is an important feature as it allows users to tie in phone numbers from Facebook straight into their BlackBerry contact lists. As...
