Mocking Facebook Home: Is the joke on Facebook, or us?

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“I can’t tell you how convenient it is to have Facebook on your phone without a way to close it,” says the woman in the video. “It’s like having a best friend … who never shuts up.” The send-up by Seattle comedian Dartanion London is racking up views ahead of the April 12 launch of… Read More…

Startup Weekend Seattle winner TLDR helps you write and read shorter emails

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Just days before his resignation and candid goodbye letter, former Groupon CEO Andrew Mason sent out a Tweet a few months ago asking if it was possible to write a Gmail script to auto-reply and bounce emails longer than 50 words. It certainly is, and one team at the Startup Weekend event in Seattle proved it well enough… Read More…

Facebook reverses stance after blocking Microsoft and WhitePages from sponsoring Startup Weekend

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Teams of developers, designers and entrepreneurs are heads-down at Facebook’s Seattle engineering outpost on this rainy Sunday for Startup Weekend — a 54-hour marathon that brings people together from across the industry to turn ideas into prototypes and potentially even new companies. These events are organized around the world, spearheaded by the Seattle-based nonprofit Startup Weekend… Read More…

Microsoft pokes at Facebook, says new ‘Home’ is like Windows Phone in 2011

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Microsoft is a longtime Facebook partner and investor, but that isn’t stopping the Redmond company from making some jabs over Facebook’s choice of Android for its new “Home” user interface — a replacement home screen centered around the user’s social network and friends. In a post this morning, Microsoft communications chief Frank Shaw says he… Read More…

Facebook Home: A replacement for Android homescreens designed around people

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Facebook today announced a new Android software integration called Facebook Home that will put Facebook services at the forefront of smartphone homescreens. “With Home you see your world around people, not apps,” Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said today. Facebook Home essentially turns your phone into a Facebook smartphone. It’s a family of apps that includes… Read More…

An app for your apps: WideAngle puts your photos in one place

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Say you’ve just returned from a weekend trip in Vegas. You and all your raging friends took many, many pictures — some of them are already Facebook, others on Instagram and the rest that no one else should see are saved in separate phone galleries. Seattle startup WideAngle is bringing all those images in one… Read More…

Plants vs. Zombies coming to Facebook with Plants vs. Zombies Adventures

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No, the sequel to Plants vs. Zombies hasn’t arrived yet (it’s coming this summer). But in the meantime, PopCap is introducing an adaptation of the original game called Plants vs. Zombies Adventures and bringing it to Facebook. The Electronic Arts-owned studio today announced the new game, which the company is calling “a highly accessible, zombie-zapping… Read More…

Chirpify for Facebook: The first way to make purchases from your news feed

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Chirpify already lets you make purchases via your Twitter and Instagram feeds. It was only natural for them to expand to Facebook. And that’s exactly what they’ve done, as the Portland-based startup today expanded their platform to allow payments through the Facebook news feed. Chirpify now lets anyone sell, fundraise and pay directly within the Facebook… Read More…

Tech Moves: Opscode hires former Likewise CEO Barry Crist; Hulu changes; etc.

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Barry Crist, the former CEO of Likewise, has joined Opscode as vice president of enterprise. He will report to CEO Mitch Hill, and assist in the adoption of the company’s Chef, Hosted Chef and Private Chef products. He most recently served as an executive-in-residence at Ignition Partners, the Bellevue venture capital firm that is an… Read More…

Facebook establishing temporary engineering center in B.C.

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Facebook already has a growing engineering operation in Seattle. Now, the social networking powerhouse is heading north of the border — but not in the traditional sense. The Vancouver Sun reports that Facebook is looking to establish a temporary facility in BC with room for up to 150 staffers. The office is set to open… Read More…