Sharing

I Just Turned Off Spotify’s Sharing Feature, and I Feel So Free

I’m listening to Lana Del Rey right now. Her first album dropped during an emotional phase of my life, and while I’m sometimes embarrassed to admit it, I really like Born to Die. But, until a week ago, I avoided listening to it because my listening activity flipped a switch with my friends who could…

A New Facebook Camera App Won’t Win Anyone Back

People aren’t sharing as much about their personal lives on Facebook as they used to, and so the company is reportedly hoping the launch of a new camera app will help solve that problem. According to a report from the Wall Street Journal, Facebook is developing a standalone camera app to encourage its users to…

Google Tone Sends URLs to Nearby Computers Using Sound

Google has published a Chrome extension that allows you to share URLs in an interesting new way. Click a button and a simple chirrup from your computer’s speakers sends the link to other devices in earshot. The little piece of software called Tone is inspired by the fact that “while digital communication methods like email…

Facebook Will Put 360-Degree Spherical Videos Right In Your News Feed

I think that 360-degree video is going to be a big deal. Apparently, Mark Zuckerberg agrees! He just announced that Facebook will be able to embed spherical videos right in your News Feed, much like YouTube 360. So what’s spherical video, anyhow? I could tell you, but why not just show you instead? Here’s a…

Slingshot’s Designers Say You’re Using It Wrong

Facebook’s new app, Slingshot, is confusing. The premise behind it is that you can send images to your friends—but they won’t be able to see your image until they send one back to you. As a messaging service, it’s flawed. But, according to the app’s designers, it’s not a messaging service. It’s something entirely different.…

20 Day Stranger Shares Your Life With A Random Human Being

Fancy sharing your day-to-day life with someone you don’t know, in return for a glimpse into their own world? Then 20 Day Stranger—an app which tracks your location and what you’re doing, then anonymously shares it with one other person—could be for you. Put together by the MIT Media Lab’s Playful Systems group, it’s an…

Every City Should Have This Ingenious “Library of Things”

It’s happened to us all. You’re planning for some big project and suddenly you’re in need of a power drill… Or kitchen stand mixer… Or hiking gear. Now, you could just shell out for it, but when are you going to use it again? Enter Leila, a genius little “borrowing shop” in Berlin that saves…

A Key You Can Photograph Is A Key That Can Be Copied

If you take a picture of a car or house key, could you use that picture to get a copy made? Yes—quite trivially, actually. I have a folder on my laptop that is filled with photos people have taken of their keys and put onto the internet. Every few weeks, I take some idle time…

Flickr Now Lets You Embed Image Slideshows Directly In Web Pages

Flickr has a brand new feature, rolling out today, that provides code for embedding images or image slideshows directly into other websites. It looks to be a simple way for sharing sets of images without resorting to cumbersome galleries or uploads. To access the embed code, just click the share button beneath any of your…

A New Study Says You Sell More Music If You Get Rid Of Content Locks

Digital Rights Management (DRM) systems are used on things like ebook and movie files to make them more difficult to share. During the Napster era the major record labels got on board with DRMs in a big way hoping that they could reduce piracy by locking their music files down. But a new study shows…

Take And Share 3D Images Like It’s No Big Deal

What we experience in real life isn’t enough, so our digital lives are becoming more and more 3D. iOS 7 has parallax, movies want you to feel like you’ve been hit in the face with a satellite, and lots of developers have been trying to make 3D photography easy. Seene for iOS seems like a…

Google Just Bought the Coolest Way To Transfer Data From Phone to Phone

Remember Bump, that nifty little app that let you transfer data from phone to phone—or phone to computer—with a handy little NFC-free bump? Well now it belongs to Google. https://gizmodo.com/bump-is-the-newest-easiest-way-to-send-your-digital-go-5984313 Bump/touch-to-share has always been a little bit of a novelty, mainly because most variations—like those built-in to Samsung’s Galaxy phones—rely on NFC to get the…

Facebook has just unveiled a new featurethat allows multiple users to share one photo album. Now, up to 50 different “contributors” can each upload up to 200 photos into one, collaborative album—contributors can only edit their own photos while moderators get absolute power. In other words, let the public shaming commence.

Your friends send you a whole bunch of Dropbox links? Good news, from here on out they’ll get saved in a tab for you.

Your Facebook Friends Can See What You’re Watching on Netflix Now

Brace yourselves and your news feeds: Netflix is finally giving you and your buddies the chance to announce what you’re watching on Facebook. That functionality has been available to non-US residents since 2011, but Netflix has been cautious when it comes to the States because of decrepit laws that could’ve landed it in hot water.…

Hey—there’s a page on Facebook that gets rid of all the crap and lets you see just shared links. Who knew?

Is Mega Working for You?

Right after the launch of Mega yesterday, a whole bunch of us here at Giz decided to check it out so we could share a whole wealth of PERFECTLY LEGAL files, just like everyone else does. That said, there’s been issues getting confirmation emails and blistering upload speeds of 0 b/s for hours on end.…

Zuckerberg Predicts We’ll All Be Sharing 1,000 Times as Much Crap 10 Years From Now

If you thought people were already sharing way too much on social networks, you’re in for a rough future. At least, that’s what your buddy Mark Zuckerberg thinks, and it’s probably safe to say he’s might know what he’s talking about. Zuck dropped the knowledge in a talk at Y Combinator’s startup school today. He…

Hands On Instagram 3: The Single Coolest Way to Browse Your Friends’ Photos

There’s a new Instagram out today—and because the Instagram team is smart, they’re keeping the app simple. But there’s one major change: you can see where all your friends have taken their pictures, all across the world. Awesome. https://gizmodo.com/instagram-3-0-brings-photo-maps-and-faster-browsing-5935374 The (entirely optional, opt-in) photo map feature is pretty much perfect—graphically subtle while still giving you…

Facebook Finally Fights Back Against Auto-Sharing Spam With New Rules

Apps that auto-share your activity on Facebook can be a pain in the ass, and Facebook is taking steps to block the worst offenders. New rules require that apps that auto-share information about articles you read or videos you watch can only do so if you engage with the content for at least 10 seconds.…