With Facebook jumping on the hashtag bandwagon, Mark Zuckerberg and his team may be getting ready to launch new products that could shake up our social media regimen.

While previous reports have stated that the social media giant will launch an RSS service similar to Google Reader (while will sadly R.I.P. July 1), a source tells TechCrunch that a video-sharing app similar to Vine will be implemented into its Instagram property.

Both could equal bold moves on the Zuck's behalf as it continues its digital battle against the character-driven Twitter. The company recently announced its use of clickable hashtags to create a more community-based feel on the site.

FB's hashtag product manager Greg Lindley, wrote, "We'll continue to roll out more features in the coming weeks and months, including trending hashtags and deeper insights, that help people discover more of the world's conversations."

The news is set to officially drop at its mysterious press event June 20.

Source

In just over a week, Microsoft will be convening its Build 2013 developer conference.

Company execs have said to expect information of interest to developers across most every major product family: Windows, Windows Azure, Office 365, Windows Phone, Xbox and Visual Studio during the conference. But, with the launch of Windows 8.1 and Windows Server 2012 R2 public previews on day one, June 26, this year's Build will focus primarily around the next version of Windows, and to a somewhat lesser extent, Windows Azure, my sources have indicated.

Microsoft officials still aren't sharing information about who will keynote Build on Days 1 and 2, what kind of content will be featured in sessions, or how many attendees are expected for the three-day confab. (This year, Build will be in San Francisco, the first time Microsoft has held a major developer conference there since 1997.)

But company officials were willing to set the stage for Build via a phone conversation late last week.

Microsoft is reaching out to two main audiences this year at Build, said Steve Guggenheimer, Corporate Vice President of Microsoft's Developer and Platform Evangelism Group: The existing Win32, line-of-business/commercial developer community and the startup community. "We need a good conversation with that community," said Guggenheimer about the existing .Net developer base, many of whom have felt disenfranchised by Microsoft's recent developer push toward HTML/JavaScript.

"We haven't done a good job telling the .Net developers we haven't forgotten them," Guggenheimer acknowledged. "We need to tell them that."

Guggenheimer, unsurprisingly, wouldn't talk specifics about what new products and technologies Microsoft plans to announce at the show. When I asked whether Microsoft would be providing attendees with code or at least information about some kind of Xbox One and/or Windows Phone Blue software development kits (SDKs), Guggenheimer declined to comment. He did say Microsoft's message will be a furthering of what officials started detailing last year regarding the benefits of an increased amount of shared/common code across the guts of its key products.

"We will not be making a sharp turn. We will show how strong the bridges are" between Microsoft's various product families, Guggenheimer said. "We want to show people what's possible, going cross-platform."
Reading the Build tea leaves

That's all Microsoft officials are saying right now about Build 2013. But there are a few additional hints and tips worth passing on.

We do know that a first public preview of Visual Studio Blue, a.k.a. Visual Studio 2013, should be available in conjunction with Build. One would assume the next VS release would have more features to simplify and improve the development of Windows Store/Metro-Style apps, since that's what Microsoft wants and needs developers to build.

I'm curious whether the Bing AppEx team — the group that built some of the nicer apps for Windows 8, including Weather, Travel, Sports and new cooking/recipe and fitness apps — will field an SDK, too. According to a recent Microsoft job description, the AppEx team is building a framework for the development of Windows Phone apps.

On the Windows 8.1 front, there seems to be little left to announce about the OS update itself, given all the leaked builds over the past few months, coupled with Microsoft's own disclosures about many of the coming features. Over the weekend, the Windows team turned on the new Windows Store experience, so those with existing leaked builds can see the new look and feel of the Store plus some of the updated Microsoft apps that are part of 8.1.

The Windows Phone team, which is dependent on the Windows core, is still working on delivering smaller, incremental updates to the Windows Phone 8 operating system. A "GDR3" build is expected to arrive this fall around the time that Windows 8.1 is made available. Windows Phone Blue is expected about six months after Windows 8.1 is released to manufacturing, making disclosures (at least public ones) about the SDK for that release largely unlikely at the Build show.

Microsoft is known to be working to deliver even more common code across its phone, PC/tablet and entertainment console product lines. But that doesn't mean developers should expect a "write once, run on any version of Windows" experience to arrive in full in 2013. Unifying the app stores across these product lines also doesn't appear to be a 2013 thing, either, from what I'm hearing.

On the Xbox One front, Microsoft officials have said the company's new console operating system is actually three OSes in one. The "gaming" OS (residing in the "exclusive partition") is going to be where Microsoft-sanctioned third-party games will live. But Microsoft is expected to continue to gate which games will integrate with Xbox Live via a certification process, which means a "public" SDK for Xbox One doesn't seem like a 2013 deliverable. If Microsoft creates an app store for indepedent developers for Xbox One, that store won't be open for business in 2013, from what I've heard.

I'd think third-party SDKs, like MonoGame, Xamarin and PhoneGap, could get some play at Build, given Microsoft's planned cross-platform messaging. Windows Azure Web Sites, the hosting framework for Web applications and sites created using various languages and stacks (including a number of open-source, non-Microsoft-developed ones), may come out of preview soon as well and be a hot topic at the show.

Source

Apple is the latest technology company to reveal the scale of US government requests for data on its customers — and perhaps more importantly, also the information it says it's unable to share.

US government surveillance of mobile phone communications and social media has been in the spotlight since allegations about the National Security Agency's PRISM system were first published. It was originally claimed by The Washington Post that PRISM saw the NSA "tapping directly into the central servers of nine leading US internet companies", including Google, Apple, Facebook, and Microsoft.

Although those claims have been questioned, and the companies named have denied any involvement, there has been considerable fallout and some have been asking for permission to reveal the actual level of requests they receive that are related to national security for access to customer data.

Source

Saudi Arabia reportedly is planning to block access to WhatsApp within weeks, if the U.S.-based messaging provider fails to comply with requirements set by the country's telecom regulator.

According to a Reuters report Sunday, citing local newspaper Arab News, Abdullah Al-Darrab, governor of the Communications and Information Technology Commission (CITC), said the government had been communicating with companies providing WhatsApp and other similar communication services to urge them to cooperate and comply with Saudi telecom providers, enabling the local telcos to censor the services. However, "nothing has come of this communication yet", the governor said.

Al-Darrab said Viber was blocked last week as it was difficult for the state to monitor and deprive telecom companies of revenue generated from international calls and texts, adding that WhatsApp and Skype may be next on the list.

Asked when WhatsApp services will be blocked, the CITC chief said it was highly likely to commence before the holy month of Ramadan, expected to begin July 9, 2013.

The Saudi Arabia regulator in March said it was working with over-the-top (OTT) service providers to resolve the issue. Back in 2010, the Middle Eastern country also threatened to ban BlackBerry Messenger services unless the Canadian company allowed the regulator greater control to monitor messages.

Saudi Arabia may block WhatsApp from July 9 | ZDNet

		The Oppo Find 5 was surprisingly a very popular phone. It was also built like a tank. I havenÂ’t had a chance to check out the Oppo Find 5. But what IÂ’ve heard is that itÂ’s built like a tank and is a really nice phone overall. Even their custom user interface is nice looking, from what I hear. And giving Nokia a run for its money in the build quality department. Now we are beginning to see some rumors about the Oppo Find 7. Which, as expected, is supposed to sport a 7-inch display and be 1080p as the Oppo Find 5 was. But now some additional information about specs is popping up. The Oppo Find 7 is expected to have a massive 4000mAh battery, with 2GB of RAM, Snapdragon 800 processor, along with a 13MP shooter on the back and a huge 8MP camera on the front. Yes thatÂ’s a 8MP camera on the front. ItÂ’s also expected to have about 32GB of internal storage. Oppo had a very successful first Android device, and now it looks like they are ready to expand it. The Oppo Find 5 wasnÂ’t available on any US carriers, but it was made available pretty cheap. In fact, it sold out as quickly as the Nexus 4 did. When it was finally made available in the US. The Oppo Find 7 is going to be one powerful device and I canÂ’t wait to check it out. Hopefully Oppo continues and makes it available pretty cheap. Selling it for around $300 will really get a lot of customers, right? How many of you would take a chance on Oppo, and pick up the Find 7? IÂ’m definitely going to grab one and see what itÂ’s all about. Let us know your thoughts in the comments down below.

Source: Oppo Find 7 Rumored to Sport a 4000mAh Battery, Snapdragon 800 Processor, 2GB of RAM and More | Androidheadlines.com

this sh-t here.... is incredible.

KOREAN*PHONE*MAKER*Samsung is planning to release an updated version of its*Galaxy S4 smartphone*that will boast "advanced" 4G LTE speeds, Reuters reported on Monday.Samsung Mobile CEO JK Shin let word slip about the upcoming model, which will feature LTE speeds twice as fast as an average top-end smartphone. This apparently will be due to Samsung's integrated LTE-Advanced 4G technology that will offer data transmission at up to twice the normal 4G speed, as well as a nippy*Qualcomm*processor."We'll be the first with the commercial launch of the advanced 4G version of the smartphone," Shin was quoted as saying, adding that downloading a film that usually takes three minutes will take just one minute on this upgraded model.There's not much word on availability of the upgraded Galaxy S4 model yet, but Reuters reported that it could debut in Korea as early as this month. This suggests there's a chance we'll catch a glimpse of the handset atSamsung's event in London on 20 June.News of an upgraded Samsung Galaxy S4 model follows earlier speculation that*Samsung's latest flagship smartphone isn't selling all that well, rumours that knocked around six percent off the firm's share price. However, Shin has been quick to defend Galaxy S4 sales, saying that the handset has been selling well."[Galaxy] S4 sales remain strong. It's selling far stronger than the [Galaxy] S3... and the new LTE-Advanced (4G) phone will be another addition to our high-end segment offerings that ensure healthy profit margins," he said."As operators seek to provide more data-centric*mobile*services, I think this will become mainstream 4G technology globally in the coming years."Shin was also quick to defend sales of Samsung's tablet lineup too, adding that the firm's large-screen devices have seen a three percent sales jump over the past year

Samsung to unveil Galaxy S4 model with 'advanced' LTE speeds- The Inquirer mobile

Samsung Galaxy S4 sales estimate: 30% below expectations | BGR

Google begins launching Internet-beaming balloons - Houston Chronicle

		HTC insider and developer @LlabTooFeR has been on a roll tonight, just moments ago hinting that the HTC One Mini was headed to T-Mobile this summer, and now dropping another hint that the HTC Butterfly S will not be headed to Verizon like its predecessor, but will more likely see a launch on SprintÂ’s network. The Butterfly S is going to be announced on June 19th and will feature the same 5 inch, 1080p display as the Butterfly (or Droid DNA on Verizon) an updated Qualcomm Snapdragon chipset, an improved processor, HTCÂ’s excellent UltraPixel camera, and the new Sense 5. No word on price, but it will presumably cost around the same amount as the One.

Source: HTC Butterfly S rumored to head to Sprint, not Verizon | TalkAndroid.com