Engadget

iOS and Android users should be seeing an update to the official Twitter app on their devices today, and there are a few enhancements to the app's login verification process as well as a few feature changes. First, the security-based improvements: you're able to enroll in login verification and approve login requests directly from the app, with no SMS messages required. It all revolves around push notifications, so your phone number isn't even necessary; you'll also enjoy international support, details about location and browser, backup codes and more. Additionally, social context is now included with the search menu, which allows you to see how you're connected to various users, and there's also a new photo gallery in search that can be accessed by pressing "view more photos" in your search results. Lastly, the iOS app has a few tweaks of its own: you'll be able to see the same photo gallery UI on user profiles so you can see all of a specific account's images, and you can also manage lists within the app itself. Check out the official blog for more details.

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Have a love/hate relationship with your Facebook news feed? Sure, that feed serves up plenty of photos and posts from friends and family that you want to see, but there are also plenty of posts you could do with out, or posts you wish had been assigned greater importance. Facebook knows this, and is constantly tinkering and iterating its news feed post ranking processes to provide the most relevant stories possible to each individual user. To that end, Facebook's rolling out a new feature, called story bumping, to better percolate the stuff you care about to the top of your feed. Story bumping has already been launched on the web, and will be rolling out to mobile in the coming weeks.

Previously, Facebook evaluated the most recent posts on the social network by assigning each post a score based upon a series of factors including: number of likes and comments, the relationship between you and the poster, the type of content, etc. Using those signals, Facebook runs them through a proprietary algorithm to determine a post's score. News feed then displays the posts with the highest score at the top of the feed. However, this method often resulted in relevant posts being relegated below the fold, and those posts would forever be lost in the feed. Story bumping provides a way for such posts to be seen by tweaking the recency logic previously used. Instead of picking from the most recent posts, the system now looks for the most recent posts that have not been viewed by the user, so that those older, yet relevant posts get a second crack at showing up in the top of your feed.

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Earlier today, Philips announced two new add-ons for its app-controlled Hue system: LivingColors Bloom, a standalone portable fixture, and LightStrips, a 6.6-foot LED tape that you can affix to any surface using the included adhesive back. Both products are fully compatible with the existing Hue system, including the base station and three-bulb kit that launched at Apple Stores last year. Knowing that part of the solution's appeal is its quick and easy setup, we decided to build out a five-light rig at home using three standard bulbs, one Bloom and one LightStrips set. It took less than an hour to get up and running, including swapping out bulbs, running power to LightStrips and setting up the base station and app.

In order to take full advantage of available "scenes" (lighting color macros based on uploaded images), you'll want to install all of your bulbs in one room or open space. You can very easily control the color and brightness of each unit using the Android or iOS app, however, so if you prefer to go that route, there's no reason you can't install Hue all over your house, as long as you don't go beyond the 50 maximum units each base station can support. For now, most of the available scenes support one through three fixtures, not the five you'll end up with if you have one complete kit, a Bloom and LightStrips in your home, so we avoided using scenes for the time being. If you're using app version 1.1 on iOS, you can take advantage of IFTTT integration, too, letting you set up a virtually endless number of macros.

Even with five Hue fixtures in a small space, the room was a bit too dark -- this solution works best for accent lighting, so unless you're prepared to use 20 bulbs in a room, you'll probably want to mix in traditional fixtures, too. Still, Hue serves its purpose well, and we definitely see the appeal despite the $200 you'll spend on the base kit, $80 for the bloom and $90 for the LightStrips. See our installation in action in the hands-on video after the break.

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It seems like Apple just rolled out its iOS 7 beta 4 -- and its bevy of bug fixes -- to developers, but Cupertino is already seeding the next build. The iOS 7 beta 5 is available as an OTA download via Software Update, and we imagine it will bring even more performance tweaks this time around. Registered devs can hit up the source link to learn more, while the rest of us will have to be content with knowing the mobile OS must be getting pretty close to a public release.

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If you thought CBS got a little catty yesterday after Time Warner Cable CEO, Glenn Britt, released an open letter to his counterpart at the network, you ain't seen nothin' yet. Les Moonves, released his own open letter today, in which he lambasted Britt and Time Warner Cable, accusing them of being "dishonest." Specifically, he called the proposal laid out by Britt a "a well-wrought distraction" and said he was not negotiating, but "grandstanding." He even called Britt's supposedly groudbreaking offer to go a la carte an "empty gesture." Basically, if you were hoping this drama between the two media giants would be coming to an amicable end sooner, rather than later, you're out of luck. If you'd like to read Moonves' tirade in its entirety, head on past the break.

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The HTC One has seen a few different colors in its days -- silver, black and "glamour red" come to mind -- but we haven't actually seen one of the company's flagships in blue until now. It appears that this rumored blue variant is about to get official, though: that press render up there comes courtesy of leakster @evleaks, who claims the phone should be showing up sometime this year. We're not seeing any carrier branding, which indicates that it would likely be released in other parts of the world besides the US, such as Europe, but we certainly don't want to rule out a possible appearance on this side of the Atlantic either.

Update: PhoneArena is reporting that the blue-colored One has been seen in Verizon's internal systems, so it's possible we will indeed see this particular color option here in the states. [Thanks all!]

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While DAB radio is common in the UK, its broadcasting equipment is usually too expensive for community broadcasters. However, Ofcom's Rashid Mustapha has shown that the technology is now within reach of amateurs. Taking advantage of DAB's newly patent-free status, Mustapha tested a low-power digital transmitter based on an open source software radio and a Linux PC; he only had to stream that radio to an aerial through long-range WiFi. His solution would cost just £1,400 ($2,153) per year to run, letting many community radio operators make the leap to digital. The study doesn't represent an automatic green light for low-power DAB -- more work is needed, Mustapha says -- but it's clear that small-scale stations won't be stuck in the analog world forever.

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After weeks of testing, Firefox 23 has arrived in completed form -- and it's bringing more than just a new logo. On the desktop, the new release includes a mixed content blocker that prevents insecure content from being compromised on otherwise secure websites. There's also a new network monitor for developers, more options to switch search providers and numerous minor tweaks. Mozilla hasn't yet said what's new in a corresponding upgrade to the Android build, but the new releases are available now at the source links.

Update: Mozilla has detailed what Firefox 23 brings to Android. The finished version includes an improved Awesome Screen with address autocomplete and fast tab switching. There's also an auto-hiding title bar, easier RSS subscription, simple search engine selection and support for both Hungarian and Turkish.

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In recent years, social media has altered the way we interact with each other, and according to a Nielsen study released today, it's also changing the way we consume media. While it may sound like a common sense conclusion to anyone who witnessed the storm of tweets surrounding the SyFy phenomenon Sharknado, Nielsen has uncovered a statistical link between what people tweet and what people watch. Basically, the more people tweet about a particular show, the more people will watch it. Likewise, the higher a program's viewership, the more likely people are to discuss it on Twitter in real time. Certain types of programming -- reality TV, comedies and sports -- showed a higher percentage of ratings changes influenced by social media, while things like scripted dramas showed a smaller but still noticeable uptick. The times are a-changin', and studies like this one are bound to inspire broadcasters and advertisers to change with them.

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