instant messaging

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BlackBerry to Facebook: You Stole Our Messaging Tech

Company sues social media giant, including its Instagram and WhatsApp subsidiaries

(Newser) - BlackBerry Limited has long been proud of its messaging app—so much so that it's now suing Facebook and its Instagram and WhatsApp subdivisions for ripping off key features. The Verge notes a "sprawling" 117-page complaint filed Tuesday for patent infringement, alleging that hallmark innovations of BlackBerry Messenger,...

UK Teen Charged With Inciting Riots Via BlackBerry

Police say she texted friends to join the looting

(Newser) - Among the approximately 700 people facing charges in the aftermath of the London riots is an 18-year-old accused of using her BlackBerry to incite violence. The teen allegedly used the Blackberry Messenger IM service to encourage friends to join in on the looting on Aug. 8, reports the Telegraph . An...

Facebook Messages: Why You Shouldn't Ditch Your Email
Why You Shouldn't Ditch
Your Email for Facebook
OPINION
Nov 16, 2010 8:15 AM CST

Why You Shouldn't Ditch Your Email for Facebook

Zuckerberg's basket may not be best place for all your eggs

(Newser) - Facebook's new messaging system incorporates email—as well as SMS, IMs, and Facebook Chat—but it's not smart to ditch your old email for a Facebook.com address, argues Adam Pash at Lifehacker, explaining three main reasons:
  • It's not email, as even Mark Zuckerberg says . All emails with the same
...

Facebook Messages Is 'Not Email,' Says Zuckerberg

But congrats on your new @facebook.com address

(Newser) - Facebook today unveiled "Messages," which has been hyped as its " Gmail killer —but Mark Zuckerberg instantly threw his audience a curve ball. “It’s not email,” the CEO announced, according to the Guardian . “This is not an email-killer. This is a messaging system...

Attacks on Zuckerberg Spin Out of Control
 Attacks on Zuckerberg 
 Spin Out of Control 
opinion
May 14, 2010 10:30 AM CDT

Attacks on Zuckerberg Spin Out of Control

An 'online mob' is nearly advocating physical violence

(Newser) - The attacks on Mark Zuckerberg are "completely out of hand," writes Michael Arrington at TechCrunch . The latest round comes from old IM exchanges in which a 19-year-old Zuckerberg shows "callous disregard" for the privacy of early Facebook users. "But what Mark Zuckerberg said or didn’t...

Finally! A Sarcasm-Specific Punctuation Mark

Experts not sure you need to pay $1.99 to get it across

(Newser) - Sarcastic people around the world, rejoice—a father-son team has finally developed a punctuation mark purpose-built to make sarcasm clear in written and electronic communication. “Questions have the question mark, exclamations have the exclamation point,” reasons the elder creator. The SarcMark is “the 21st century’s punctuation....

Google Wave Too Bloated, Complicated
Google Wave Too Bloated, Complicated
Tech Review
Oct 14, 2009 11:13 AM CDT

Google Wave Too Bloated, Complicated

And its much-touted live-typing turns out to be a nightmare

(Newser) - Google Wave, the long-awaited chat/email/collaboration doohickey, is ambitious and sturdy, and packed with bells and whistles… and Twitter kicks its butt. See, Twitter’s main feature is simplicity, writes Farhad Manjoo on Slate, but Wave asks the world of users. It tries to replace email with “an entirely alien...

iPhone Users Report MMS 2 Weeks Early

Users add photos, video to instant messages

(Newser) - Some iPhone users are already adding photos, voice memos, and video to their instant messages, Mashable reports. Anecdotal reports of MMS messaging on iPhones cropped up on the Web today and soon turned into a Twitter stream. AT&T isn't talking, MobileCrunch reports, but it looks like the company beat...

Emoticons Invade Academia
 Emoticons Invade 
 Academia 
Sep 7, 2009 4:44 PM CDT

Emoticons Invade Academia

Teaching millennials causes new frustrations for college writing professors

(Newser) - College professors have lamented the state of student writing for centuries. But today’s Internet-obsessed culture brings new, infuriating errors to Writing 101 as students brazenly use colloquialisms like “:-)” and “LOL” in essays. “Occasionally, I've seen someone using the number 4 for the word 'for,'”...

Team Obama Told to Ditch Instant Messaging

Obama's staffers give up their favorite lifeline

(Newser) - Team Obama will be chatting in the hall and by phone, Politico reports, because instant messaging just got the boot. Lawyers told them this week that programs like AIM and GChat, still staples of their daily operations, can't be used in the White House. "They just told us flat...

How IM Sapped My Ability to Deal
 How IM Sapped
 My Ability to Deal
OPINION
Sep 7, 2008 5:05 AM CDT

How IM Sapped My Ability to Deal

End of an intense online relationship forces writer to examine IM dependency

(Newser) - After breaking up with his live-in boyfriend online, writer Will Doig realized IM had become an intimate part of their relationship, and the fallout was crushing. "At the first hint of crisis, my response had always been the same"—instant message his boyfriend "for an impromptu therapy...

6 Degrees of Separation? New Study Says 6.6

Microsoft researcher seems to confirm that the world is a pretty small place

(Newser) - A huge Microsoft study of its Messenger records bolsters the oft-quoted, but never proven, theory of “six degrees of separation"—almost. The study puts the figure at 6.6, but that's still a pretty small world. A Microsoft researcher analyzed 30 billion messages sent among 180 million users...

Tech Firms to Fix Monster They Created

Email, IMs keep employees available and distracted

(Newser) - Google, Microsoft, Intel, and IBM are partnering are on a new initiative to help workers distracted by emails and instant messages improve their productivity, the New York Times reports. The Information Overload Research Group, a nonprofit launching next month, will devise cultural and technological solutions to reduce the digital deluge...

After Beacon 'Screw Up' Facebook Ups Privacy

Online chat coming too

(Newser) - Facebook is launching a series of new privacy features today, allowing users to better pinpoint who can see which parts of their information, PC World reports. Privacy has been a watchword at Facebook ever since the PR disaster that was the Beacon advertising platform, which tracked users online. “With...

Hookers Today Depend on Tech for Success

Spitzer case shows how web, IMs, e-funds drive business

(Newser) - Eliot Spitzer's woes are shedding light on the new world of the oldest profession. Prostitutes and escort services use online social networking to find business, IMs to record the time spent with a client, and the web to make payment simpler and more private, reports the AP. New technology also...

Google to Microsoft: Not So Fast
Google to Microsoft:
Not So Fast
Feb 3, 2008 9:00 PM CST

Google to Microsoft: Not So Fast

Web giant steps in, offers to help Yahoo rebuff rival's advances

(Newser) - Google is offering to help Yahoo thwart Microsoft’s attempts at a hostile takeover, the Wall Street Journal reports. After Microsoft announced its $44.6-billion bid, Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt called Yahoo’s Jerry Yang on Friday to bolster talk of an ad search alliance, support Yahoo’s efforts...

Flash Attack Could Turn Routers Into Zombies

Experts say online criminals could exploit UPnP to hijack routers

(Newser) - Security experts have demonstrated how attackers could use Flash software and the Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) protocol to hijack their home routers, reports PC World. Users exposed to a malicious Flash file could have the servers they're trying to reach changed remotely and secretly, meaning a fraudster could redirect...

Campaign for Young Voters: Vote 4 Me! Pls?

Candidates employ new technology to reach youth

(Newser) - New technology has given presidential hopefuls a host of new ways to transmit the "Vote For Me" message, McClatchy reports. Campaigners are using social networking sites, YouTube videos, instant messaging, and even text messaging in a bid to gain an edge with young voters. But their target audience seems...

Sex Talk Sinks Microsoft Santa Software

User claims raunchy elf crossed the line with underage girls

(Newser) - Microsoft got an early peek at Santa’s naughty list and found that it contained Old Saint Nick himself. The company pulled the plug on its automated Santa instant messaging program after a user claimed the elf brought up oral sex in a chat with his underage nieces when they...

I Dumped U For Yr Sister, Oops GTG ...

Teens depend on IM to say what they wouldn't face to face, poll finds

(Newser) - Usurping the old note passed in study hall, about 40% of teens now depend on instant messaging to say things they wouldn't in person, according to a new poll. "If they freak out or something, you don't see it," one high schooler tells AP. The survey also found—...

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