blogging
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Hitting the books: Why you shouldn't blog about asking a cop to go shopping for you
In "Swipe Up for More!" Stephanie McNeal takes an unflinching look at the the public personas and private lives of three of the internet's most influential lifestyle bloggers.
Tumblr bloggers can soon charge for access to their posts
The platform is testing paid subscriptions with the Post+ feature.
Verizon is trying to sell off Tumblr
Just two years after taking control of Tumblr as part of its acquisition of Yahoo, Verizon is looking to offload the blogging platform. According to the Wall Street Journal, the telecommunications giant has spent that last few weeks approaching other companies to gauge their interest in purchasing Tumblr. While the search is ongoing, the report notes that it may not result in any transaction.
Tumblr fixes security flaw that exposed account info
Tumblr just fixed a flaw that could have revealed much more than bloggers were comfortable with sharing. A security researcher talking to the social site (which is owned by Engadget's parent brand Oath, and thus Verizon) discovered a security hole in the "recommended blogs" module that let you obtain sensitive account information. If a blog showed up in the module, you could use a debugging tool to obtain someone's current and past email addresses, their obscured password, their name and the IP address from their last sign-in. You could also see their self-reported location, although that hasn't been an option for a while.
George R.R. Martin, the last great LiveJournal user, leaves the platform
In the mid-aughts, LiveJournal was one of the top blogging services, and many a teen poured out their emotions on the site's digital pages. But little did the world know that in 2005, a popular-in-his-genre fantasy writer would join the platform and continuously blog long after the world moved on. Game of Thrones' George R.R. Martin spent the next 13 years updating fans on his life and times, keeping a casual record even as his fame skyrocketed alongside the increasingly-popular HBO show based on his book series. But valar morghulis, and so too must blogs: Martin has killed his LiveJournal.
Tumblr adds three useful ways to post from your mobile device
Tumblr keeps improving its mobile apps, adding to already useful features like photo filters, instant messaging, stickers and GIF posts to keep your interactions fresh and interesting. The microblogging service just announced three new ways to post from the mobile apps, including images in reblog posts, fun new text styles for text posts, and the ability to drag and drop paragraphs and images within blog posts.
Medium’s existential makeover continues with a revamped homepage
Despite its high profile, Medium still hasn't quite figured out what it is in the five years since it launched as a minimalist blogging platform. In the meantime, Medium has pivoted from tech company to publishing service and various shades in between as it tries to draw an audience, fix "a broken system" and eventually turn a profit. In March, Medium announced an ad-free $5 premium tier with curated content and audio stories, but it seems that experiment has already run its course. After just two months, Medium has made the curated homepage available to everyone.
Medium is making audio versions of its best blog posts
Minimalist blogging platform Medium is expanding into audio. Readers who have a $5 per month subscription can now listen to stories published by fellow members, as well as those hand-picked by Medium staff. As TechCrunch notes, more than 50 stories have an audio version at launch, and more will be added over time. It's a small number, however each one has been recorded by a professional voice artist, rather than a robotic text-to-speech service. You'll find them at the top of articles, both on the web and in Medium's mobile apps, with some basic playback controls.
Strava wants runners and cyclists to be bloggers too
Strava wants to be more than a simple tool for tracking your runs and bike rides. Much of the experience is focused on the "Feed," a place where you can share your training sessions and accomplishments (and view those recorded by other people). Normally, these bite-sized posts are limited to a small map, some basic stats and a short caption. Now, Strava is introducing "athlete posts," which are essentially full-blown blog posts. For now, the feature is exclusive to 36 Strava-approved athletes, however the company says it will roll out to the rest of the community "later this summer."
Russian-owned Livejournal bans dissenting speech to please Putin
Russia's hardline stance against LGBTQ media is back in the news. This time it's because a change in the terms of service for LiveJournal strictly prohibits users from posting "political solicitation materials" and anything "contradictory to the laws of the Russian Federation." As AdVox notes, what constitutes as such is wide open for interpretation. But it's feared that given recent history, this will be a uniform crackdown on posts that don't fit the express purview of Russia, including political dissent and pro-LGBTQ stances.
Medium hopes subscription plans can save it
Popular blogging platform Medium is launching a consumer subscription service, just one month after firing a third of its staff. The first version will launch later this quarter as "an upgrade to your Medium experience." Although Medium CEO Ev Williams didn't offer any additional details yesterday at the Upfront Summit in Los Angeles, he simply encouraged people to, "Please subscribe."
Telegram launches a blogging platform for the impatient
If you've ever wanted to write something online really quickly but didn't want to go through the hassle of signing up for a Medium, Wordpress or Blogger account, maybe Telegram's new Telegraph platform is for you. The messaging app launched the service today, and as VentureBeat notes, it's really fast. Dropping links to Twitter posts and YouTube videos automatically embeds them, and you can upload photos, too. For example, this post took me under five minutes to go from a blank page to being published.
ThinkProgress joins Medium's growing list of publications
When Medium shifted its focus from independent writers to a more full-fledged blogging platform earlier this year, it nabbed an impressive lineup of small, but influential sites. Now Medium can boast its biggest addition yet when the liberal site ThinkProgress moves over to the platform next month.
Google moves every Blogspot domain to HTTPS
Google's quest to make the internet a more secure place is taking another step. The internet juggernaut's flipped the switch on HTTPS for all Blogspot domains, according to a post on the Google Security Blogspot account. Naturally. It's automatic and doesn't rely on you using the "HTTPS Availability" option, but if you were worried about not having a switch of your own to flip anymore, Google has you covered there with HTTPS Redirect.
Medium attracts The Awl and other influential publishers
Medium started as a no-fuss blogging site for passionate writers seeking good design and a larger audience. Over the last three years, however, the platform has slowly expanded and become a home for larger publications too -- both established brands and smaller ones conceived by Medium. Today, the company has announced that a whole slew of small but influential websites are migrating to its platform. These include The Awl, Pacific Standard, Femsplain, The Banana Boat, NewCo Shift and The Bold Italic. Time Inc's Money and Fortune magazines will soon follow.
WordPress blogs will soon support Facebook's Instant Articles
If you turn to Facebook for your daily news update, you may have come across Instant Articles. A small number of publishers are able to serve up news articles quickly for mobile devices right now, but from April 12th, the technology will be open to anyone --- including bloggers. In a bid to get communities on board, Facebook has teamed up with Automattic, the company behind the popular publishing software WordPress, to make it easy for writers all over the world to serve pages up to 10 times faster than they could before.
Share your iPhone 6s' Live Photos on Tumblr
Tumblr is a bit more animated now thanks to Live Photo sharing from the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus. The GIF-dominated social network's app on iOS bumped to version 5.0 and with that milestone brings support for the more prominent features on Cupertino's latest handsets. In addition to easy sharing for your animated selfies, Tumblr's making use of 3D Touch to view them. If you have a 6s or 6s Plus, 9to5Mac notes that when you're scrolling through the dashboard and see the Live Photo icon over an image, simply deep-press on your device and it'll play the motion and audio captured with the photo.
Slack Posts 2.0 explains big ideas without sending more emails
We live in an Orwellian future where every "k" and "LOL" brings us ever-closer to 1984-style Newspeak. To fight back, Slack's latest update acknowledges there are times when a line or two of IM-speak doesn't get the job done. Sometimes ideas need a little more explanation, and with that, it has released an update to its Posts tool dubbed -- creatively -- Posts 2.0.
Facebook's redesigned Notes is easier on the eyes
Remember Facebook Notes? Yeah, I barely do. Well, it looks like the social network is planning to dust off the tool and give it a better looking layout. Some users are seeing a new version of Notes that not only employs better typography and a more readable design, but has space for a nice big image up top. The changes make Notes look more like an actual blog and less like a regular Facebook post that just contains a load of text. These tweaks that give it an up-to-date appearance similar to Medium and others. Speaking of Medium, Facebook hired the designers who helped create that platform earlier this year, so perhaps this is what Zuckerberg & Co. had in mind for that team. A few of us here at Engadget HQ are still rocking the old look, and there hasn't been official word as to when the latest will roll out to everyone. Revamped Notes could still be in the test phase, but we expect Menlo Park will make an announcement when it's ready for prime time.
Global Chat: Can MMO stories rise above mediocrity?
Players have long debated the importance, relevance, and quality of stories in MMOs. Some have called for an abolishment of dev-driven narrative entirely, some enjoy what's there, and some have pressed for better writing and storytelling techniques. This week we'll hear from one blogger who is struggling with "mediocre" stories in MMOs and what might be done with them. But wait, that's not all! We'll also hear from writers about MMO inventory systems, aging games, and how pretty much nobody in the world was shocked when Elder Scrolls Online ditched its sub.
