Twitter is turning 10 on Monday. The social network has become immensely popular on a very simple theory: Say what you want in 140 characters or fewer. (That sentence is 123 characters, including spaces.) Though that may not sound like a lot of room to maneuver, Twitter’s users have figured out how to craft pithy, …
Read More »Terry Collins
Trouble making your NCAA bracket picks? There’s help online
You only have a few hours left to fill out your NCAA Tournament brackets. Microsoft thinks it can help. Whether you depend on your own knowledge, the endless television analysis or the wisdom of fellow fans, picking the perfect bracket is nerve racking. So many things — as when No. 14 seed University of Alabama-Birmingham upset No. 3 seed Iowa …
Read More »Maddening! More ways to catch the NCAA tourney could put a crimp on productivity
The Madness will be inescapable for some college hoops fans. About a third of American adults polled in a survey will have their eyes glued to NCAA action playing out on their phones and tablets this Thursday and Friday. Those distracted workers could cost employers $3.9 billion in lost productivity. That’s more than double last year’s $1.9 billion in estimated …
Read More »Goose Gossage loses his (bleeping) mind over ‘nerds’ running baseball
Math has taken over baseball. Hall of Fame pitcher Rich “Goose” Gossage despises it. Goose, as the retired reliever is commonly known, let loose on the state of the game during an interview with ESPN on Thursday. The former New York Yankees great was working with the team’s current players at a spring training facility in Florida. The 64-year-old Gossage …
Read More »Facebook faces off against Snapchat, nabs filters app Masquerade
Facebook has gained a new tool in its escalating rivalry with Snapchat. The world’s largest social network said on Wednesday it’s acquiring Masquerade, a startup founded last year that overlays silly and cartoonish images, like an Iron Man helmet or a gorilla face, on people’s faces as they shoot video. It’s quickly become a top mobile app, according to App …
Read More »Facebook adds birthday cam. No need to bother with cards
Facebook is making it easier to say “Happy Birthday” to the special people in your life. The world’s biggest social network has introduced a “birthday video cam” function that lets you record a video message — maybe you’ll sing that famous song? — and post it to the timeline of a friend or family member. Facebook says you can complete …
Read More »Kanye fan hears Yeezy’s $53 million plea
Don’t worry Yeezy, help is on the way. A Kanye West fan in Minnesota has created a GoFundMe page for the rapper, fashion designer and Kim Kardashian’s crazier half, a day after the Grammy winner tweeted he was $53 million in debt. West’s financial woes are so bad, he publicly begged two tech billionaires for cash. “Kanye West, prolific entertainer/fashion …
Read More »Hoopla! The inventor of basketball returns
The inventor of basketball made a guest appearance at an NBA event on Friday, scoring a swish 125 years after he created the sport. Dr. James Naismith, a Canadian educator who developed hoops as a wintertime sport while teaching in New England, popped up as a hologram in Toronto during the NBA’s All-Star Technology Summit. A 3D-esque image of Naismith …
Read More »Your refusal to join Twitter is taking a toll
Twitter needs more people to tweet. In its desperation to make that happen, it’s taking a page from old cookbooks on how to make pasta: Throw everything against the wall and see what sticks. So far not much is sticking, and that’s bad news for Twitter because it needs to win over people who have little interest in tweeting. In …
Read More »Forget the Broncos. Beyonce, Budweiser and Marshawn Lynch really won the Super Bowl
The biggest moments of Super Bowl 50 had nothing to do with the play on the field. The big game drew 111 million TV viewers to see the Denver Broncos trounce the Carolina Panthers on Sunday. But if you kept an eye on #SB50, you’d have noticed social media going ape for the halftime show featuring Coldplay, Beyonce and Bruno …
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