Google+ Sign-In To Challenge Facebook Connect

Today Google+ introduced Sign-In, their version of the widely adopted Facebook Connect in an effort to expand and widen its reach on the web. Google has already partnered with several companies including: Fancy, Fitbit, OpenTable, and Flixster. The concept is pretty much the same as Facebook Connect with you signing in to your Gmail, Youtube, or other Google Service account and having that information save as your login. An interesting feature that Sign-In has is that if the company has an Android app (like Fancy), you can remotely install it when you sign in on their website. Another feature that Sign-In has is the ability to share links with specific Circles on your Google+ account in addition to allowing them to view the post in a special “interactive” layout. Google has been on a roll as of late, introducing Glass to the public, a new Chromebook, and now an easier way to sign in to your favorite websites and apps. For more details and full list of companies participating in Sign-In, please visit their announcement page.

Update on 2013-02-27 06:53 by Jed Wu

Update: Fancy posted this photo on their Twitter account of the cake Google sent them for the launch of Google+ Sign-In.

OS X Mountain Lion Is Packed With New Features

WWDC 2012 had both its excitements and its disappointments. To the dismay of a lot of us, Apple’s glorious Retina Displays will not be included throughout their entire laptop lineup, but on the bright side, we have an entirely new addition: the new MacBook Pro with Retina Display. With all of its upgraded hardware, Apple just had to make it even better with improved software as well. OS X Mountain Lion will be the next big thing for Apple as it plans to improve the current OS X and include new features as well.

The basic structure and ideas for Mountain Lion seems to mirror a lot of what iOS already has to offer, creating an overall mobile experience, loaded with simple gestures and finger movements. Notifications will now alert you of incoming messages, emails, reminders and much more. An easy swipe to the right on your trackpad will bring it right up. As Apple has always strived for simplicity and ease of use, Mountain Lion is no exception. By incorporating Facebook integration, we can now post updates and statuses on Facebook directly from our Mac, without having to go back to your Facebook page.

iMessage was released to the public months back as a beta, and rightfully so. The numerous bugs and issues it had made it practically useless. With Mountain Lion, iMessage will do what it was created to do: send messages. Exactly like iMessages on your iPhone, this app will send messages to any other Apple product, as long as there is WiFi. This makes communicating with your friends so much easier as you will no longer have to stop what you’re doing on your Mac and reply with your iPhone. To make things even easier, with the help of the Cloud, all of your messages will stay updated throughout all your devices.

An interesting feature that Mountain Lion will have is called Power Nap, which allows your Mac to quietly update itself without leaving sleep mode. This seems rather convenient as it prevents you from missing an important software update or Time Machine back-up. Lastly, Dictation might be a solution to a keyboard-free experience. Similar to Siri, it translates what you say into text.

OS X Mountain Lion will be available to all users through the Mac App Store in July for only $19.99. All of these features and more can be found on Apple’s website. 

iOS 6 Will Have Facebook Integration

Facebook has been rather busy in past few weeks, with their announcement of going public, how the FTC suspects them of antitrust violations, and now, Apple has decided to join the party as well. This insanely popular social media network has made itself into something that a lot of us cannot go a day without, constantly checking our news feed and notifications for the latest updates on our friends' lives. Fortnately for us iPhone users, Techcrunch reports that with Apple's latest release of iOS 6, that will most likely make an appearance at this year's WWDC, there will be a system-wide Facebook integration, similar to that of Twitter in iOS 5. 

While facts are still in the preliminary stages, this is great news for both Apple and Facebook to have combined both of their great products to bring us a better user experience in iOS 6. As Tim Cook hinted at during the D10 Conference, "stay tuned...". 

Facebook And Instagram Suspected Of Violating Antitrust Laws

Earlier this month, Facebook offered a $1 billion paycheck to the widely popular photo-sharing app creator, Instagram. Quickly skyrocketing to the #1 spot in the App Store, Instagram has been an overall success. This acquisition caused a lot of disapproval from Instagram users, calling the company of their once favorite app a sell-out.

Now, it seems fans are not the only people against this buyout. The U.S Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has approached Facebook with an investigation, putting a hold on the $1 billion acquisition to determine if any U.S antitrust laws were violated. Regardless, Facebook plans to pay out $200 million to Instagram’s two co-founders.

A Twist On The Facebook Like Button

The Facebook 'Like' buttons is practically everywhere on the web, but have you ever just disliked a page a page or blog post? Leonard Savage thinks he's got it all figured out with his awesome Facebook inspired icons that put a rather large twist on the iconic 'Like" button we see everyday. I hope this post rocks. Head on over to the source link for more great icons.

A Mark Zuckerberg Action Figure

From the same folks who created an action figure out of Steve Jobs comes to us their latest creation, the Poking Inventor. This very well detailed, 7" tall action figure comes complete with replaceable speech bubbles, like and poke buttons and runs for $69.90 while supplies last.