As previously reported by SiliconAngle, Apple has recently released Ping, a social networking enhancement along with iTunes 10. And it looks like it’s already run into its first apparent snag, according to an article at Engadget, …the company was making a last-second change to its new Ping social-network-for-music: the removal of Facebook Connect for finding friends. Seriously -- although an option to find friends via Facebook was conspicuously present during Steve's keynote demos, it's not there anymore. Oddly, the option was there at the very beginning -- several Engadget staffers definitely saw a Facebook button when they signed up for Ping last night, and there's a whole thread on Apple's support site of people who also saw it and

Broadcasting live video from your Android phone is now available with Justin.tv.  The live, video-streaming service has launched an Android app, bringing the service to Google's mobile platform.  Broadcasting live videos has never been so easy with this innovation for mobile phones.  Though Justin.tv might not be the first to market (Qik, etc.), it has some advantages in the form of hardware video encoding which enables it to drain less battery power and bitrate adjustment of videos uploaded to strengthen wireless connections. You can start broadcasting by downloading it on your Android and registering for a Justin.tv account. You will never have to go to a website. It’s easy to use with only three buttons:  record, share and chat.

TweetPhoto is expanding beyond Twitter, which is a smart move considering the current social networking environment. The massive changes to the service of course warrants a major name change, seeing as the company will no longer be pigeon-holed as a Twitter app. The new name is Plixi, which I found to be pretty darn cute. Turns out, that was the idea CEO and founder Sean Callahan had behind the name change, as nearly two-thirds of its user base is female (by the way, that's generally becoming the case for several social networking and media-sharing tools, particularly those that interact from a location-based, mobile vantage point). And what else do girls like to do? Socialize. While TweetPhoto already supported media-sharing

The Federal Trade Commission has relieved Limewire, a p2p file-sharing service from an investigation regarding security and privacy issues as it “determined not to recommend any further action by the Commission at this time.” This is pretty good news for the software company, as they've taken the necessary measures to appease some of the FTC's requests. Brief background: Users who install Limewire are said to have all their files, private and sensitive, available to the network, some of which are government documents that contain confidential military information. Also, users have their personal information at risk from identity theft.  This impending issue caused an upheaval with regulatory officials, and caught the attention of

Etsy has landed $20 million in its fifth round of funding, led by Index Ventures. The latest round values Etsy around $300 million, bringing its total amount of funding raised to $52 million. Joining the team is Adam Freed, former Google International executive, bringing some heavy-hitting management to the online craft retailer. Another new addition to Etsy is Index Ventures Partner Danny Rimer, now sitting on the board with founder Rob Kalin and Union Square Ventures Partner Fred Wilson, among others. Etsy isn’t a company I get to discuss very often, but I visit the site daily. User-generated and consumer-driven, Etsy is an online marketplace that epitomizes a self-regulated community. The funding comes no surprise, given the

An acquisition by Google hints at more development around the GoogleMe project. Angstro, a social news aggregation startup founded by Rohit Khare, is the latest in a stretch of socially-oriented Google acquisitions. Launched in 2008, Angstro scours blogs and news sites to find the information most relevant to individual users’ needs. It added Knx.to last year, layering in real-time search componnents for more contextual results. An accompanying API has introduced the social componnt for Angstro, bringing it full circle for many of today’s current search trends. While Khare will be joining Google, details surrounding the full acquisition of all Angstro’s technology and platforms have not been revealed. He posts on Angstro's

How much media content should I produce? As a professional journalist this has been a question that I've struggled with over the past five years since leaving the Financial Times. I can produce a lot of media content, and hopefully, it is all quality media content. But my concern is that if I produce too much, it will cause my readers and subscribers to switch off because there is too much from one source. I know that if some of my sources are too noisy on Twitter, Facebook, even on their blog or web site, I will switch them off because it is too much -- even if all their content is good. I don't want my readers doing the same to me. This question of how much media is too much media is not just my concern, it should be a concern for ot

Veteran blogger Louis Gray joins My6sense as VP Marketing. This news has really confirmed the shift towards social media in the marketing industry, and as an online publication that employs bloggers, we're happy to see Gray progressing professionally.  As member of the company's executive team Gray will head all marketing initiatives. Mr. Gray shares his aspirations about my6sense and working with them on his blog. A little detail on Louis Gray's credentials shows a great fit: Gray is most well-known for his early adopter-focused Silicon Valley-based technology blog, LouisGray.com,  which is well read in the High-Tech Web industry. Gray’s reviews on Startups and Apps are quoted often by TechCrunch and Robert Scoble. He is a co-founder

The value of Linden Lab, which operates the virtual world Second Life, has plunged by more than 21%, according to SharesPost, which tracks the private secondary market. In late June, Linden Lab brought back founder Philip Rosedale as interim CEO, after CEO Mark Kingdon stepped down. The current value of Linden Lab is estimated by SharesPost to be about $271 million or about $100 million less than a year ago. The plunge in value appears related to today's news that the company is closing the five year old "Teen Second Life" virtual world at the end of this year. The company said: "...supporting and developing for two separate grids has been a challenge for us, and has slowed progress on improvements that benefit all R

Yesterday, Facebook launched Facebook Places. Not only can you broadcast your location to your Facebook friends, but your friends can tag your location for others to see unless you uncheck this setting. It’s strange how we lump so many of our contacts in one place. Some of my contacts on Facebook are professional. They are people who I don’t mind knowing most of my business, but I would prefer them to stay out of certain segments of my life like my dating situation. Some of them are my family. They don’t care what goes on in my professional life. Some are old drinking buddies. What’s odd is that I have grouped all of these people in one place, which is Facebook. Why do we do this? Well, it’s kind of hard to turn down friend requ