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Trolls threaten laid off reporters in coordinated online campaign
Unfortunately, sustained online harassment campaigns are still a reality. NBC News has learned that trolls have launched a coordinated threat campaign against BuzzFeed and Huffington Post (owned by Engadget parent Verizon) journalists recently let go as part of layoffs. They appear to have originated from 4chan and used the same far-right memes before launching into racist and sexist slurs as well as death threats. The attackers have largely targeted writers on social networks like Twitter and Instagram, although they've also used email and even PayPal.
Facebook tests split News Feed that keeps friends front and center
Facebook is currently testing a new dual-feed setup that separates Page-generated posts from ads and posts from friends, The Guardian reports. The trial is currently underway in six countries -- Bolivia, Guatemala, Cambodia, Slovakia, Serbia and Sri Lanka.
New York Times picks an AI moderator over a Public Editor
In a surprising move, the New York Times announced to its staff on Wednesday that it will immediately eliminate the position of Public Editor at its publication. The role will instead be filled by an expanded comments section -- one that is moderated by artificial intelligence.
Huffington Post makes VR a staple of its newsrooms
At the rate things are going, you might have a hard time avoiding online virtual reality. The Huffington Post (owned by AOL and Verizon, just like us) is launching players for 360-degree and VR content on just about every platform it uses. You'll logically see them in articles on the web (both desktop and mobile), but the outlet is also promising immersive experiences in its Android and iOS apps. You'll first see the technology in action during Ryot's coverage of the Republican National Convention when it starts on July 18th, and it should reach all of HuffPo's international editions. VR won't just be reserved for the occasional experiment, we'd add -- the aim is to use it whenever it makes sense.
AOL bought its own VR studio for HuffPo videos
News outlets have already jumped on the VR bandwagon, and today another publication joins the fray. Today, AOL announced its acquisition of the LA-based virtual reality and 360-degree video production studio RYOT. By bringing the company under its wing, AOL will leverage the resources to boost The Huffington Post's quest to "re-imagine journalism as we move into the next generation of dynamic storytelling." In fact, Arianna Huffington & Co. have already teamed up with RYOT, producing "The Crossing:" an immersive series about the refugee crisis in Greece.
Live from the Engadget CES Stage: an interview with Arianna Huffington (update: video embedded)
Huffington Post president, editor-in-chief and namesake Arianna Huffington will be joining us to discuss the site's new GPS for the Soul app, along with Verizon's Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Peter Tippett. January 5, 2013 2:00 PM EST Check out our full CES 2013 stage schedule here! Update: video embedded
AOL strikes deal with YouTube to start streaming content from various brands
AOL's continuing push to boost its video presence on as many internet places as possible has just secured many of the company's brands a spotlight inside one of the world's biggest sites. According to AllThingsD, AOL and YouTube have inked a deal that will bring "branded channels" with content from sites such as Huffington Post, TechCrunch, Moviefone and even clips from the recently launched HuffPost Live over to the video streaming platform. And while AOL did previously offer some tidbits on YouTube, this move is expected to better solidify and highlight the vid work from properties like the ones mentioned above -- which, of course, could only be accomplished by reaching a new "everyone wins" type of revenue sharing agreement. [Disclosure: Engadget is part of the AOL family]
Spotify launches Play Button in bid to become the web's default music player
The music streaming wars have been heating up a good deal, as of late, thanks in no small part Spotify's long-awaited US launch. Since then, Rhapsody bought its one-time chief competitor Napster, both Pandora and Rdio underwent major redesigns and Mog finally launched a Windows client. Naturally, all of this has proven good news for the consumer, as services have a features arms race of sorts, gunning for the top spot. None of the contenders are quite perfect, of course -- when Spotify launched, for example, we couldn't help but note the absence of a browser-based option of the sort employed by Rdio and Pandora. Today's announcement still leaves open that possibility, but it does mark a new web-focused strategy for the company -- on that could arguably have a much larger impact on Spotify's fortunes than a simple browser-based UI.Today marks the launch of the Spotify Play Button -- a name we assume the Swedish company settled on before Google announced the whole Android Market rebranding thing. The button is, essentially, a widget that allows site owners to embed songs and playlists directly from Spotify's massive catalog of songs. It's a simple idea, sure, but well executed, it could prove a major win in the service's attempt to stand out in the ever-more competitive world of music streaming. After all, embedding music on sites has long been a fairly haphazard deal -- unless you happen to have a deal with a proprietary player, it means snapping up something like a YouTube video, which often live in, at best, a legal gray area.
Huffington Post adds 'Classic Edition' to iPad app
I'm happy to report that The Huffington Post has updated their iPad app to version 3.0 today and has added a "Classic Edition" layout option to the app. Back in December, The Huffington Post released version 2.0 of their iPad app. While in some ways it was an improvement over version 1.0. The developers went a little interactive-menu crazy and unveiled this new thing called newsglide. The intention of newsglide was to enhance navigation, but one also got the feeling that the company wanted to add eye-candy to their app just because it looked cool while using it. I wrote: "The old app had a very newspaper-like feel to it as far as navigation goes. The new app seems to be the love child that would result if the BBC for iPad and Twitter apps hooked up. Personally, I like my newspaper apps to have the layout of newspapers." With today's version 3.0 release, newsglide is still there, but users can select between reading the app in newsglide view or classic view. Classic view is just that -- it retains the look and layout of a classic newspaper. In my opinion, that's all an iPad newspaper app has to do to be a good app. After all, a newspaper (even an Internet-only one) is meant to be read. It's not important for me to feel like I'm Tom Cruise in Minority Report while reading about the latest economic troubles. I want the text, the information, and all new apps should focus on providing that over any eye-candy interactivity. Pamela Maffei McCarthy, The New Yorker's deputy editor, said it best when she told The New York Times shortly after it was announce that The New Yorker's iPad edition was outselling other iPad magazines that had more eye-candy interactivity. "That was really important to us: to create an app all about reading," she said. "There are some bells and whistles, but we're very careful about that. We think about whether or not they add any value. And if they don't, out the window they go." I'm glad The Huffington Post seems to now agree and hopefully other newspapers will too. The Huffington Post for iPad is a free download.
Huffington Post overhauls iPad app with 2.0 release
The Huffington Post has just released version 2.0 of its popular iPad app. The release is a complete overhaul and revamp of the previous app. Gone is the huge drop-down menu that you used to navigate through the Post's various sections. It has now been replaced by an always-there Huff Post NewsGlide menu that allows you to quickly switch between sections with the tap of your finger. Each NewsGlide section is divided into ordered news, blogs, slideshows and popular sub-sections. The slideshow sub-sections are particularly well laid out to take advantage of the iPad's "flick through your photos" navigation. Tap on an article and a window slides onto the screen containing the exact page you would view if you were browsing the Huffington Post through Safari or Chrome. That means the articles window contains all the comments -- and the ability to comment -- directly in the app. Overall, the new app is an improvement upon the old one. However, I think the new menu navigation takes some getting used to. The old app had a very newspaper-like feel to it as far as navigation goes. The new app seems to be the love child that would result if the BBC for iPad and Twitter apps hooked up. Personally, I like my newspaper apps to have the layout of newspapers. If you feel the same way, you'll be consoled to know that the Huffington Post team has placed a "feedback" button on the top of the new menu. The Huffington Post for iPad is a free download.
Chrome Web Store, HTML5 and the iPad: symbiosis at its best
It's all coming together, folks. It doesn't take much of a gander at the Chrome Web Store to notice a trend: some of the flashiest, most mature "apps" are actually just in-browser versions of iPad apps. And you know what else? Most of these "apps" actually run fine in Safari on the iPad. We're not sure how long Google gave developers to port their experiences over, but it seems like most of the best work had already been done in the form of HTML5 apps that were merely wrapped in app form for App Store delivery. Google's just taking things to the next logical step. Continue after the break as we expand this thesis paragraph into a number of supporting blocks of text, a few jazzy pictorial examples, and a stunning closer.
News apps for the iPhone span the political spectrum
Building a native app that aggregates and spruces up the content of a single news organ's website is all the rage, although it seems like overkill in some cases -- personally, I enjoy curating my own reading list with good old Instapaper, which also offers the advantage of clearing out most of the graphical cruft and leaving nothing but yummy text. Still, if you like having all the news that's fit to print in the palm of your hand (yes, the 2.0 version of the NY Times app is quite nice), there are two new choices of single-site apps (SSA) for your reading pleasure. In the right corner, weighing in at four sections, it's the Wall Street Journal! Yes, the official newspaper of American business (whatever's left of it) has an iPhone app, and according to Silicon Alley Insider it's pretty good; the app lets you cache content for offline reading (similar to the NYT app), and offers audio and video content from the paper, along with stories and rich media from sister sites like Uncle Walt's hangout AllThingsD. Most notably, using the iPhone version of the WSJ -- which is free -- you can read most or all the content from the daily paper... which, via the WSJ.com website, is not free (most full stories require a subscription). There's no way to know how long this workaround will be in place, but for now it's a great way to get access to the paper's stories. And, in the opposite corner, weighing in at one home page and sporting a killer left hook, it's the Huffington Post! The HuffPo iPhone app has been in soft-launch mode for the past month and was just updated to version 1.1, quashing bugs and improving performance. It's not as polished as some of the other SSAs yet, but it gets the job done. The app is free. If you have a preferred single-site app for news, let us know below.
