stories

Walking in 007's shoes: London's spy trail

LONDON -- The title of the next James Bond movie might lead you to think otherwise, but 007 didn't just fall out of the sky. Ian Fleming's iconic espionage character -- and the entire genre of British espionage fiction Bond influenced -- grew out of a world populated by very real spies on the very real streets of London's spy trails.

As the Bond film series celebrates its 50th anniversary and his fans eagerly await the arrival of "Skyfall" (the 23rd 007 film), I found my boots on the ground in London exploring the haunts of the U.K. spy world as they hide in plain sight. … Read more

Facebook redoes privacy settlement, offers cash to users

Facebook is taking another shot at a "Sponsored Stories" settlement, agreeing to pay affected consumers and provide a simpler way to review all Sponsored Stories interactions.

The social-networking giant first tried to settle the case several months ago, but a judge rejected the settlement in August, saying he had "serious concerns" with the pact. In particular, the judge wondered how the parties determined the $20 million settlement amount to be paid out by the social network. The amount included $10 million in legal fees for the plaintiff attorneys.

Under the new agreement, filed Friday, Facebook has … Read more

How JibJab grew up by focusing on kids apps

Remember the JibJab guys?

To refresh your memory (I needed to look them up myself), they're the brothers who shot on to the public stage in 2004 when their video, "This Land is Your Land," starring George W. Bush and John Kerry, skyrocketed in popularity. While JibJab, founded by brothers Evan and Gregg Spiridellis, were never able to reproduce that success, they showed what media on the Internet could do.

The JibJab guys have now turned their attention to a new venture, "StoryBots." Instead of focusing on politics, the Spiridellises hope to make a name … Read more

Build your own city

City Story Metro is a free iOS application that gives players the important role of becoming the mayor of an imaginary town. You make the rules and get the whole business rolling; in other words, it's a good strategy game with a well-designed, uncluttered interface, providing onscreen help at all times. It has all the necessary spice for a fun game, with helpful tips all the way around.

We liked how the developers introduced the help file through a virtual assistant called Anne, who will join your journey right from the start and guide your steps to make your … Read more

Judge rejects Facebook's 'Sponsored Stories' settlement

A judge has rejected Facebook's settlement of a class-action suit regarding an ad feature that publicizes users' "Likes" of products and services to their Facebook friends but doesn't pay the users for the endorsements or allow them to opt out.

U.S. District Judge Richard Seeborg in San Francisco, who had expressed skepticism about the proposed "Sponsored Stories" settlement at the beginning of August, rejected it yesterday, saying he had "serious concerns," according to a report in Wired. And he specifically wondered how the amounts to be paid out by the social … Read more

Reuters hacked (again) with fake story of Saudi minister's death

Someone must have it out for Reuters. For the second time in two weeks, the blogging platform for the news source's Web site has been hacked into and false stories have been illicitly published.

Today's sham article reported that Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal had died, according to Reuters. The first bogus story, posted earlier this month, was about the rebel Free Syrian Army suffering setbacks in their battle against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime.

"Reuters did not report the false story and the post was immediately deleted," Reuters News' director of … Read more

Judge casts doubt on Facebook 'Sponsored Stories' privacy deal

A U.S. District Court judge has some concerns about the settlement Facebook struck over privacy concerns with its "Sponsored Stories" feature.

Judge Richard Seeborg yesterday heard the details of a settlement Facebook had inked with plaintiffs in a suit related to the way in which the social network was displayed Sponsored Stories. The five plaintiffs, which aimed at representing over 100 million members in a class-action suit, argued that by displaying their likeness and pages they had liked in a Sponsored Stories listing across the site, Facebook was violating their privacy. However, back in May, the parties agreed to a $20 million deal … Read more

Facebook touts relaunched 'Facebook Stories'

Facebook today launched Facebook Stories at facebookstories.com, a Web site that, according to the company, is dedicated to sharing "some of the most extraordinary, quirky, and thought-provoking stories and ideas from people around the world who make up the social graph." In other words, it's Facebook's way of boosting its own ego, and hopefully in the process, boosting the public's opinion of the social network.

No really, that's the purpose. "It's meant to celebrate the people who connect and share in innovative ways to accomplish things that would be otherwise impossible,&… Read more

New Digg is now live, with focus on 'top stories'

Betaworks delivered on its promise and launched the newly redesigned Digg Web site today. In fact, the site even comes a day earlier than expected. Just yesterday, Betaworks revealed that the news aggregation site would have a complete makeover that would do away with the headlines list, add photos, and integrate Facebook and Twitter into Digg scores.

"On July 20, we announced that we were turning Digg back into a startup and rebuilding it from scratch in six weeks," Betaworks wrote in a blog post. "After an intense month and a half, we managed to get the … Read more