Facebook’s New Alpha Android App UI

Facebook has been experimenting with new UI's for Android. Members of the Beta testing group, as well as the Alpha testing group have seen many many changes recently, while others in the group have never been able to use it, thanks to the UI being completely controlled by Facebook’s servers.

It looks like anyone running Version 9.0 and up of the application should be seeing the new UI. In order to get Version 9.0, you will need to become an Alpha tester for Facebook. Luckily for Android users it is simple.

Follow the steps below to run the new Facebook Android app user interface. 

• Make sure you are not a Beta Facebook tester. If you are, by leaving the Google Group under Settings.
• Become an alpha tester by joining this Google Group.
• Follow the link in the Google Group to download the alpha version of the app from Google Play. (If you are asked to “Become a tester” before you hit the Facebook landing page on Google Play, click “Become a Tester.”)
• Push the application to whichever Android device you would like from Google Play.
• Log into the Facebook application on your phone after it is installed.
• You should now have the new flat Facebook UI.

There is also an alternative method You can sideload the apk onto your device, but you will not receive Alpha updates for it through Google Play, since you are not marked as an Alpha tester.

If you sideload the apk, and do not see the updated UI, simply wipe the app’s data from the settings menu on your Android device, then sign back into Facebook, you should be good to go with the new interface.

Source: Facebook 9.0.0.0.18 apk

Twitter To Launch New Music App In the Coming Week

Your social network isn’t worth any salt these days unless you can share what music you are listening to with all your friends. Rumor has it that Twitter is looking to right this wrong by releasing a new music application that will work side-by-side with your timeline. There have been plenty of rumors surrounding this app, but don’t worry, Ryan Seacrest can verify its existence for us. 

All Things D is reporting that we should be seeing this new application as soon as this weekend. According to their sources, the service “suggests artists and tracks to users based on a number of personalized signals.” Users will even be able to listen to music inside the app through third party services and watch videos from Vevo.

Coachella, the huge music festival in California, kicks is this weekend, so it would make sense for them to be on the edge of the music news with their new app. Earlier this week, Twitter announced that they have acquired the music recommendation service We Are Hunted which seems to add to this weekend’s timing.

We don’t know much about this new application, but Ryan Seacrest sure does. Seacrest’s twitter says that the app is all about finding trending artists and being able to play their music from within the app. Expect to find music videos and other features when it launches sometime soon.

Update:  Twitter Music is live at music.twitter.com, but it’s showing as “invitation only.”

Source: AllThingsD

LinkedIn Buys Pulse Newsreader For More Then $50M

According to a source familiar with the situation, business networking app LinkedIn will purchase newsreader app Pulse for a price somewhere between $50 million and $100 million. Pulse launched in 2010 and is owned by Alphonso Labs, based in San Francisco. The app has 20 million viewers that read more than 10 million stories daily. Earlier reports had Microsoft and Yahoo both trying to steal Pulse away.

LinkedIn has been trying to increase the mobile advertising it displays. Last quarter, the "marketing solutions group," which includes traditional advertising, accounted for 27% of LinkedIn's revenue. Pulse's app competes with Flipboard, Google Currents and some other lesser known names in the battle for eyeballs. One competitor, Zite, was purchased by CNN in 2011 for $20 million.

Pulse has added some new features that allow its users to share with Facebook, Twitter, Google+ Flickr, YouTube, Instagram and Tumblr right from Pulse. LinkedIn has also been adding features to its service including customized news feeds for users, which would seem to fit perfectly with Pulse.


Source: AllThingsD

Google Pulls The Plug On Nexus Q

The Nexus Q, which has been on ice since Google halted sales of the made-in-the-USA media orb shortly after its Google I/O unveiling, has run its course. Today, the Q’s status in the Google Play store changed from “not for sale at this time” to “no longer available for sale,” spelling an all-but-certain end for the device.

The cancellation shouldn't come as a surprise. Most assumed Google at the very least would overhaul the design, find ways to make it cheaper and then relaunch the Q at a later date. Either that or develop some sort of Nexus TV to replace it. While both of those scenarios could still play out, neither will do so as the Nexus Q we came to know only for a short period of time.

The Nexus Q was announced in June of 2012 and soon went up for pre-order before Google pulled the device, leaving its legacy in the hands of those developers attending the conference. All present were given the Q, and will likely remain the only members of the public to receive the device.

+Nexus 
+Android 

Source: Google Play

Zynga With Friends Announced

During today’s “Zynga Unleashed” press conference, the massive social games maker announced a new platform for their products: Zynga With Friends.

Zynga has published several games on platforms like Facebook, Google+, Android and iOS. Users playing those games were relegated to socially connecting with users on the same platform. That fragmentation has been a constant problem for the publishing and developing company.

Zynga With Friends will eliminate device barriers and create one single, cross-platform network so that any user can play with any other user, regardless of their preferred method.

The newly announced service will also allow for immediate multiplayer (rather than the current turn-based formula), social streams and cross-platform chatting.

The service has not been launched yet, but it will be available on Zynga.com, Facebook and mobile devices later this year.

Microsoft Yammer Acquisition Gets Official

The rumors were true: Microsoft is indeed buying business-centric social networking site Yammer for $1.2 billion, or $200 million more than early rumors indicated. A presumably pleased Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said in a prepared statement that “the acquisition of Yammer underscores our commitment to deliver technology that businesses need and people love” and that “Yammer adds a best-in-class enterprise social networking service to Microsoft’s growing portfolio of complementary cloud services.” Buying Yammer gives Microsoft a strong social networking component to its ubiquitous Office suite since Microsoft now inherits more than 5 million Yammer users across more than 200,000 different companies. In fact, Microsoft is strongly touting Yammer’s ability to mesh with its other services, noting that it “plans to accelerate Yammer’s adoption alongside complementary offerings from Microsoft SharePoint, Office 365, Microsoft Dynamics and Skype.” 

Facebook Acquires Karma

The Social Network is purchasing companies left and right, with the most recent including Instagram and Lightbox. But now they have decided to acquire Karma, a social gifting app.

Simply put, Karma allows users to connect to Facebook via their app and send people gifts. Why would Facebook want this service? Surely, Facebook could further integrate this service to create more revenue from gift sales. Karma states that the app will continue to run as usual, but now with a stronger backbone.

It seems like the Social Network is trying to get its hands anywhere they can, so we would not be surprised to see Facebook purchasing more services soon.

Official Karma website