Trends
Facebook Places Comes to BlackBerry
by Ranju Chaudhary on Nov.11, 2010, under Gadgets, Trends
Facebook Places is now available to BlackBerry users, a week after the social network’s location service made its debut on Android.
Specifically, Places is available as part of Facebook for BlackBerry 1.9, which is now available in the BlackBerry App World and will be issued as an update to existing users over the next 24 hours.
Here’s a rundown of the Facebook Places features that are now available to BlackBerry users:
- Check in to Facebook Places within a 1.25 mile radius of your location
- Select a Place from the available Nearby Places or add a Place if your location isn’t already in the database
- Tag friends upon checkin
- View the Places your friends have checked in
- “Like” or add comments to a checkin
- Checkins show up in the news feed
- Integrates with GPS and BB Maps
Just a few weeks ago, BlackBerry rolled out a fresh coat of paint on its Facebook (
) app, adding some new features like integrated search, better friends list views and an updated UI. Now that Facebook Places support is also built-in, the app more closely rivals those available for other mobile platforms.
Sony Retires the Cassette Walkman After 30 Years
by Ranju Chaudhary on Oct.25, 2010, under Trends
After retiring the floppy disk in March, Sony has halted the manufacture and distribution of another now-obsolete technology: the cassette Walkman, the first low-cost, portable music player.
The final batch was shipped to Japanese retailers in April, according to IT Media. Once these units are sold, new cassette Walkmans will no longer be available through the manufacturer.
The first generation Walkman (which was called the Soundabout in the U.S., and the Stowaway in the UK) was released on July 1, 1979 in Japan. Although it later became a huge success, it only sold 3,000 units in its first month. Sony managed to sell some 200 million iterations of the cassette Walkman over the product line’s 30-year career.
Somewhat ironically, the announcement was delivered just one day ahead of the iPod’s ninth anniversary on October 23, although the decline of the cassette Walkman is attributed primarily to the explosive popularity of CD players in the ’90s, not the iPod.
