media

NEW YORK--So the world didn't exactly get what it wanted out of Sony's PlayStation 4 debut tonight. There was no sight of the actual console itself and details about its specific release date and price were also nowhere to be seen.

Sony's team-up with Gaikai is sure to net some interesting ideas and implementations with cloud streaming, the sharing of game screens, remote play, and other concoctions, but the games themselves were what made the biggest impact.

Those pondering the PS4's gaming prowess were served an interesting dish. Ten or so major developers were represented in … Read more

Death is never popular, even in social media: the poor guy behind @death on Twitter has zero followers.

You might think your online fans will lose interest when you kick the bucket, but an upcoming app says it will let you keep tweeting from beyond the grave.

LivesOn will host Twitter accounts that continue to post updates when users shed this mortal coil. … Read more

Twitter today unveiled its advertising API, a step it hopes will make it easier for companies to create ad campaigns on Twitter, and that's aimed at showing users the most relevant promoted tweets.

Since Twitter's earliest days, one of the criticisms about the company's business model was that it wasn't built to generate significant revenue -- especially not enough to reward investors who have poured hundreds of millions of dollars into Twitter. But in recent years, the microblogging service has been bolstering its advertising business, and Twitter is now considered a bona fide advertising platform for … Read more

Twitter said today that it has added new search filters to its TweetDeck Web and Chrome apps that let users choose precisely which words and phases they want to show or exclude in their columns.

The idea, Twitter wrote in a blog post today is that the new filters will allow users to easily "focus on a particular element of a column." That also means being able to see -- or not see -- tweets containing specific kinds of media like images and/or videos.

Users can select the drop-down menu at the top of a column to … Read more

There are lots of Twitter presentations on the web, but the one below is one of the best I've ever seen. It's by Steve Buttry (@stevebuttry), who has the cool title of digital transformation editor at Digital First Media (I last wrote about him in my blog when he shared very useful Facebook tips: "Figuring out what kind of content works on Facebook").

Here's how I shared his slides the first time, during my Social Media Weekend/#smwknd conference yesterday.

USEFUL: Twitter for journos (and others) - awesome, #mustread presentation by @stevebuttry - bit.ly/YpUzrw … Read more

Dear Rumor fans,

Don't cry for me, readers, just because I am moving away from you and my partner in rumor sleuthing, Karyne Levy, to voluntarily shovel snow in Massachusetts for the rest of my life.

OK, cry a little bit (aww shucks, guys, I'm going to miss you, too!) but then dry those tears and rejoice because Rumor Has It is continuing on without me. And it's going to grow and change and highlight all the amazing talent CNET has to offer and make me so proud.

The concept for Rumor Has It popped into my … Read more

SAN FRANCISCO--At an invite-only press event in San Francisco, popular streaming music service Slacker Radio last night unveiled a completely revamped brand. The company's name remains, but Slacker's look and feel have been significantly simplified.

Of course, with the rebrand, Slacker's Web site and product designs have been updated with cleaner, more modern looks as well. Gone are the dark tones, textures, and gradients that crowded Slacker's interfaces in the past. Now, Slacker's multiplatform face is made up of brighter colors, clean lines, and lots of white space, which bring it more in line with … Read more

President Obama's State of the Union speech didn't generate any memes, but Florida Sen. Marco Rubio gave the Twitterverse something to shout about: his awkward reach for a tiny bottle of Poland Spring water during his official Republican rebuttal address. Almost instantly, the moment was a trending topic.

Unfortunately for Poland Spring, its social media people -- if it even has any -- dropped the ball. What appear to be its official Twitter accounts, @PolandSpringWtr, and @PolandSpringInc, were both dormant after Rubio's instantly panned water break. In fact, the most recent tweet from either account came in … Read more

Comcast Corp. is going to buy all of General Electric's remaining stake in NBCUniversal for $16.7 billion, the cable giant announced today.

NBCUniversal will also buy its facilities at 30 Rockerfeller Plaza and CNBC's headquarters in New Jersey for $1.4 billion. The deal is expected to go through by the end of March.

Comcast already owns 51 percent of NBCUniversal since its purchase of the majority stake from GE went through in 2011. Comcast is the largest cable provider in the U.S.

Today's announcement comes well before the agreed deadline for Comcast to buy … Read more