Socialnetworking Articles on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog

Google+ iPhone app hands-on

by Steven Sande (Jul 21st, 2011)

There's a lot to like about Google+, Google's new social network. For one, it's still on a limited-availability beta, so the spammers haven't caught up yet, and there are no Farmville/Mafia Wars applications for your "friends" to annoy you with. Just this last week, Google introduced the free ...

Trimit reads, simplifies, and condenses web content for social networks

by Erica Sadun (Jun 28th, 2011)

Trimit is a new app that promises to automatically summarize text. The idea is this: You enter a URL, trimit ingests the web page you pointed to, and then it spits back a condensed version at the length you specify. TUAW had a chance to take an early peek at this app, which is due to launch ...

Apple patent wants to take the "long and awkward" steps out of making new friends

by Michael Grothaus (Jun 16th, 2011)

Twitter and Facebook might be looked upon as "simple" forms of social networking if technology from an Apple patent ever sees the light of day. MacRumors has discovered an Apple patent called "Ad hoc Networking Based on Content and Location" which describes a way iPhone users can meet people ...

Piictu puts the fun into iOS picture sharing

by Richard Gaywood (Jun 7th, 2011)

What? Another iOS photo sharing app? No, wait, keep reading! The just-released Piictu app (official site, iTunes) has some new tricks to show you. Piictu's big idea is to treat the photos you post not as the traditional timeline view we associate with blogs and apps like Instagram, but rather ...

Roundup of Kickstarter Apple-related projects for 5/25

by Steven Sande (May 25th, 2011)

For many tech startups, Kickstarter is a great way to raise funding to get a new company off the ground. Each week, TUAW takes a close look at recent Apple-related Kickstarter projects for those of you interested in supporting one of the many entrepreneurs who are waiting to bring the next big ...

In-flight iPhone snaps Space Shuttle launch

by Chris Rawson (May 17th, 2011)

The picture at right isn't something you see every day, and it's something there'll only be one more chance to capture: a Space Shuttle launch photographed from an in-flight passenger jet. Stefanie Gordon shot this image of the Space Shuttle Endeavour's launch with her iPhone as her plane ...

GREE buys OpenFeint for $104 million

by Chris Rawson (Apr 21st, 2011)

Before Game Center, OpenFeint and similar third-party platforms carried the weight of the iOS platform when it came to social networking in gaming. Even after Game Center debuted with its leaderboards and achievements, OpenFeint still saw plenty of use, including 1.4 million additional users over ...

Social sharing on The Daily dropping fast

by Mike Schramm (Apr 6th, 2011)

The Nieman Journalism Lab reports that social sharing from iPad news app The Daily is falling precipitously, according to data from a firm called PostRank. Social sharing is when users share content on networks like Twitter or Facebook; the average number of pieces shared from The Daily on ...

Twitter update adds photo, video capture to iPad 2

by Mike Schramm (Mar 25th, 2011)

The official Twitter app for iPad has been updated to version 3.3.2, and it now allows you to take and share photos and videos directly from your iPad 2. This functionality was already in there for the iPhone, of course, but now that the iPad is outfitted with a camera, Twitter has made it easy ...

Erase the social network past with Last Night Never Happened

by Mike Schramm (Mar 25th, 2011)

Let's be honest: We all enjoy a good night out on the town occasionally, and when fun happens these days, chances are you might say or post something on various social networks that you probably shouldn't, be that something negative about your boss or your ex, or just a little too much ...

Rumor: Steam looking at iOS integration

by Mike Schramm (Mar 22nd, 2011)

This is interesting -- according to a Steam user who got to Valve headquarters in Washington, the popular game network may be looking at extending itself out onto the iOS platform. That doesn't necessarily mean that there would be a straight-up Steam client for the iPhone and the iPad (although ...

Apple patent filing outlines social networking for shopping

by Steven Sande (Dec 30th, 2010)

While a lot of shopping is making the move to online stores, for many people there's no substitute for the real thing -- going to a store, browsing merchandise and picking up and trying on things. A recent patent filing by Apple, discovered by AppleInsider, demonstrates a Ping-like social networking ...

Frenzapp lets you discover and share iOS apps with your friends

by David Quilty (Dec 8th, 2010)

Having trouble deciding which of the hundreds of thousands of apps in the App Store you should be trying out for yourself? Well have no fear, as Frenzapp is an app that (with the help of Facebook) helps you discover and share the apps that your friends find most useful. After installing Frenzapp on ...

Google Latitude app shows up, disappears from Japanese App Store

by Mike Schramm (Dec 8th, 2010)

An app for Google Latitude briefly appeared on the Japanese iOS App Store yesterday, only to disappear a few hours later. Latitude is, of course, Google's persistent location-based service, allowing you to see where your friends are at on a map and share your own location in real time. There are ...

Loopt app updated for persistent networking, includes texting service and rewards

by Mike Schramm (Dec 6th, 2010)

I remember Loopt being one of the first apps out on the App Store, back when the iPhone's platform was first released. A couple of years ago, location-based social networking was still pretty new (most cell phones didn't yet know exactly where they were, after all), and Loopt was one of the most ...