Twitter has quietly tweaked the way usernames, hashtags, photos and more are cross-posted to Facebook.

More About: Facebook, hashtags, Social Media, Twitter

Could Mitt Romney have avoided the headache of having his old Hotmail and Dropbox accounts hacked?

The alleged hacker got into Romney's Hotmail account by correctly guessing an answer to a security question. That same password gave the hacker access to the governor's Dropbox account as well. He or she then gave the password to Gawker.

No compromising emails have yet been leaked, and a full investigation is underway. (Another person was given a year-long jail sentence for hacking the emails of Sarah Palin's email during the 2008 presidential election).

But Jesse Lipson, vice president of data sharing at cloud computing firm Citrix, says Romney could've averted his fate completely. A… Continue reading...

More About: 2012 presidential campaign, cybersecurity, Dropbox, hacking, hotmail, Mitt Romney, Politics, US

Welcome to this morning's edition of "First To Know," a series in which we keep you in the know on what's happening in the digital world. Today, we're looking at three particularly interesting stories.

Facebook Launches App Center for Android and iOS

Facebook has launched its own app center for Android and iOS devices. The app center will also be available on the mobile version of Facebook itself.

"The App Center is launching tonight with more than 600 social apps, including Nike+ GPS, Ubisoft Ghost Recon Commander, Stitcher Radio, Draw Something, and Pinterest," the company announced.

Bing Partners Up With Britannica

Microsoft's search engine Bing has partnere… Continue reading...

More About: apple, Baidu, bing, Facebook, features, first to know series, mashable

A thunderstorm rolled over Manhattan into Brooklyn on Wednesday. The clouds looked ominous against the backlit sky, and many New Yorkers tucked in for the night, listening to the rumble of the weather as it passed overhead.

The next day, New York City awoke to sunny skies and a light breeze. But while it's sunny in New York, Mashable readers in London might be expecting rain.

Although the forecast across the world is different, we can all relate to the ups and downs that a change in weather can bring.

SEE ALSO: Mashable Photo Challenge: Homegrown

For this week's Mashable Photo Challenge, we want to see what it looks like out your window — rain or shine. Send us your bes… Continue reading...

More About: community, Mashable Photo Challenge, photography

In the past 60 years, we've seen the development of vaccines for Polio, Rubella, measles, mumps and Influenza. One thing that hasn't changed much is the yellow card or piece of paper doctors use to record which immunizations patients have received.

Startup BeImmunized wants to make those yellow cards go digital. Making such valuable information accessible on the web 24/7 would provide easy access for healthcare providers, doctors, schools and patients who want to stay current with their vaccinations. Even if a person switches healthcare providers, digital immunization records can always be accessed through BeImmunized.

Co-Founder and CEO Marc Bandt told Mashable, "we spent a lot of t… Continue reading...

More About: BeImmunized, health, vaccines

German health company Medisana has released a high tech scale that measures weight, body fat and muscle mass for up to three users.

The website for the TargetScale Body Analysis Scale (yes, the name is a mouthful) claims the device helps users reach their target weight faster.

How is this done? Perhaps it's due to the scale's precise measuring of one's body. The Medisana tracks a user's weight, Body Mass Index (BMI) and body fat (this is not particularly innovative), but still useful nonetheless.

What is innovative about the TargetScale is that it also measures a person's water, bone and muscle mass to give them the full picture of their bo… Continue reading...

More About: health, Medisana, weight loss

LinkedIn is disabling the passwords of any users that could potentially be affected by a recent security breach, wherein 6.5 million hashed LinkedIn passwords were posted online, the company has announced.

"Our first priority was to lock down and protect the accounts associated with the decoded passwords that we believed were at the greatest risk. We've invalidated those passwords and contacted those members with a message that lets them know how to reset their passwords," said LinkedIn director Vicente Silveira in a blog post.

"Going forward, as a precautionary measure, we are disabling the passwords of any other members that we believe could potentially be affected. Those members… Continue reading...

More About: hacked passwords, linkedin

If you spend a lot of time on YouTube, you likely know this sinking feeling -- when you click on an amateur video with an interesting title, only to find the videographer has held his smartphone vertically instead of horizontally.

The resulting video is horribly letterboxed when viewed on the site -- even, ironically, when viewed on YouTube via your smartphone. It's like watching the action through blinkers. Your horizontal eyes should be a clue; they were built for widescreen. (Or rather, vice-versa.)

With the rise of the scourge known as vertical videos, it was only a matter of time before someone tried to stamp it out. Here we present a pitch-perfect PSA, featuring the Muppet-li… Continue reading...

More About: smartphones, vertical video, viral

Crow T. Robot & Tom Servo

Photo by Chris Doyle

Click here to view this gallery.

If you were at all pop-culture aware in the '90s, you'd seen at least one episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000, the goofy mash-up series that saw a loser and his robot sidekicks watch horrible movies at the behest of a pair of mad scientists. Joel Hodgson may have been the heart and soul of the show, but his pals Crow T. Robot and Tom Servo often got the best lines.

It's only fitting then that Joel's mechanical friends get the full Lego treatment a decade later, which we spotted on Boing Boing.

Lego and MST3K enthusiast Chris Doyle built them a while back, and he even has all the instructions on his site, if you're so inclined to build your own.

If not, enjoy the pics!

More About: Lego, robots

The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here.

Name: scoreAscore

Quick Pitch: A crowdsourcing site for original music compositions.

Genius Idea: scoreAscore connects composers with companies seeking music for commercials or other videos.

You don't hear a lot about jobs for composers these days. But Jordan Passman, founder of startup scoreAscore, is trying to change that.

Website scoreAscore connects music composers with producers to create original tunes for commercials and other marketing videos. "For me, music is re… Continue reading...

More About: bizspark, Music, YouTube

Unable to make it to Tennessee this weekend? Or perhaps the idea of camping out in sticky 80-degree heat isn't your thing? YouTube has got you covered by bringing Bonnaroo to you.

The video platform has partnered with the music festival as part of the YouTube Presents series, which brings exclusive and original content to the platform.

This year's Bonnaroo headliners include Radiohead (Friday), Red Hot Chili Peppers (Saturday), and Phish (Sunday). Webcasts from he massive festival will begin streaming Friday, June 8 at 1:30 P.M. EDT and will run through Sunday's final performance, by Kurt Vile & the Violators.

In all, 45 artists will participate in the webcast, with a wide ra… Continue reading...

More About: bonnaroo, Music, YouTube

Two Australian swimmers are in hot water with their country's Olympic committee -- for posing with guns for a photo they posted to Facebook and Twitter.

Nick D'Arcy and Kenrick Monk shared the photo above on their social media profiles, according to multiple reports. The photo has since been deleted from their accounts, but is still floating about the web.

D'Arcy and Monk were visiting an American gun store when they snapped the shot.

The Australian Olympic Committee was quick to condemn the photo, calling it "foolish and clearly inappropriate for members of the 2012 Australian Olympic Team."

"We say again to our athletes, do not put anything up on social media that you wo… Continue reading...

More About: Facebook, olympics, Social Media, Twitter

Apple has sued Samsung to block sales of the company's highly anticipated Galaxy S III smartphone in the United States.

The Cupertino tech giant is looking to receive an injunction on the grounds that the Galaxy S III (pictured above) infringes on at least two Apple patents.

According the complaint, which was filed in a California court earlier this week and posted online by patent law blogger Florian Muller, the Galaxy S III clearly infringes on data-tapping and unified search technologies owned by Apple.

Apple's complaint claims "it is clear that infringement can be shown with respect to these patents based on the current record."

Samsung, unsurprisingly, is having none… Continue reading...

More About: apple, samsung, Samsung Galaxy S III, trending

Long story short: After this week's switchover to a new protocol called IPv6, there are a whole lot of IP addresses on the Internet.

How many more?

Just one day after the world wide web made a permanent and forever change on Wednesday, CNN reported the Internet now has 340 trillion trillion trillion unique addresses. That's 340 undecillion.

We knew the switch from IPv4 to IPv6 would make a bunch of new addresses available. But this is a growth of 79 octillion (billion billion billion), according to the report.

But we have no frames of reference for a number that large, so let's put it into context for a moment.

340 trillion trillion trillion is:

More than the number o… Continue reading...

More About: internet, IP addresses, IPv4, IPv6

Fans of David Simon's HBO masterpiece The Wire have seen Michael Kenneth Williams's Omar Little do everything from evading drug dealers, smacking down lawyers and surviving a drop from a four-story building.

Up next for Kenneth and the cast? High-stepping through a song-and-dance version of every hipster's most beloved tale of crime and urban warfare.

This 4-minute Funny or Die trailer for "The Wire: The Musical" features additional cast members Sonja Sohn (Kima), Andre Royo (Bubbles), Larry Gillard Jr. (D'Angelo Barksdale) and Felicia Pearson (Snoop) recreating scenes from the show while doing their best Bernadette Peters impression.

For example: In one scene, Williams sings… Continue reading...

More About: funny or die, Omar Little, The Wire

The Facebook app on your Android device, iPhone or iPad is about to get a lot more interesting.

Facebook has announced it is in the process of launching an App Center in the Android and Apple Stores Thursday night. It's rolling out on three platforms: Android, iOS and Facebook.com (on the mobile web) itself.

SEE ALSO: Facebook Launches App Center, Lets You Sell Apps

We've known Facebook was working on an app center for some time; it was announced back in May. But this is its first public-facing manifestation, appearing as updates in app stores.

What this means: You'll soon be able to customize your mobile Facebook app. Will Facebook be charging for the apps? Here's a clue… Continue reading...

More About: android, app center, Apple Store, Facebook, trending

Twitter's first official partnership with a sports league begins this weekend -- with the Pocono 400 NASCAR race in Pennsylvania.

Just how deep is the social media integration? The race was officially renamed earlier this week to the Pocono 400 Presented by #NASCAR, making it probably the first major sporting event to incorporate a hashtag into its actual title.

Mashable spoke to Pocono Raceway's president and CEO Brandon Igdalsky to learn more about what fans at the track and online can expect this weekend, as well as how it feels to be to a guinea pig in this new kind of partnership.

Igdalsky's grandfather co-founded the racing venue back in 1957. So it's a fitting twist that t… Continue reading...

More About: NASCAR, sports, Twitter

When Daniel Wein told his mother the story of how he had just landed an internship using a social video chat service, her only response was "You got an internship where?"

He quickly told his mother that this was not ChatRoulette. Wein was using Airtime.

A political science student at George Washington University in Washington D.C., Wein hadn't been able to find an internship for the summer. Potential employers were interested, but when they found out Wein was leaving to study abroad in Australia in 6 short weeks, they were suddenly "going in a different direction," he says.

On the day Airtime came out, he decided to jump on and give it a try. Before long, Wein told Mashable, he was… Continue reading...

More About: Airtime, Facebook, jobs, video conferencing

While much of the focus at E3 this year was on the games being shown off inside the Los Angeles Convention Center, a group of gamers outside was focused on playing games to set a new world record.

32 gamers set out on a mission Tuesday to set the new world record for playing video games on tablets -- and 26 actually made it through the contest to win the honor, lasting 26 hours and 2 seconds.

Each contestant was given a Galaxy Tab 8.9 to compete with in the competition, and was assigned one game that they were required to play for the duration of the contest. Games were selected by the judges via random draw, so contestants had no control over what they played.

Options included GT R… Continue reading...

More About: E3 2012, Galaxy Tab 8.9, qualcomm

What happens if you turn Twitter's newly redesigned bird on its side? A growing number of users think it looks like Batman.

Hollywood-based user Josh Helfferich shared the superhero likeness in a tweet Thursday. It immediately went viral, with nearly 1,000 retweets in the hour-and-a-half since it was posted at 3:05 p.m. ET.

Actress Alyssa Milano even tweeted it at 6:22 p.m.:

So... if you turn the new Twitter logo upside-down, it's Batman. t.co/hJZ0MBYi /via@JoshHelfferich@heykim— Alyssa Milano (@Alyssa_Milano) June 7, 2012

But Helfferich wasn't alone. A similar image appeared on Reddit earlier Thursday and has been viewed more than 1,600 times. Twitter user @CarlosRH… Continue reading...

More About: batman, humor, Social Media, trending, Twitter, viral

Was World IPv6 Day successful? The effort to prod Internet companies to adopt the newer, beefier IP-address system garnered a lot of attention, but it's still up to companies whether or not to update their systems to the new standard.

Still, preliminary data suggest the switch is already well underway -- thanks mainly to Netflix and Facebook.

It's no secret that Netflix's streaming service accounts for a huge chunk of Internet traffic as a whole. Streaming video is by far the most bandwidth-intensive activity online, and the company's entire business model is based around it.

Facebook consistently competes with Google as the most-visited site on the Internet, and users engage with… Continue reading...

More About: Facebook, IPv6, netflix, trending, world ipv6 day, YouTube

Tech nerds and business hopefuls, say hello to your new tweetmate: billionaire CEO and sailing enthusiast Larry Ellison, co-founder of database software giant Oracle.

Ellison joined Twitter Wednesday afternoon and immediately gained 24,000 followers. Here's his first (and so far only) tweet:

Oracle's got 100+ enterprise applications live in the #cloud today, SAP's got nothin' but SuccessFactors until 2020— Larry Ellison (@larryellison) June 6, 2012

The tweet refers to the company's Oracle Public Cloud unveiling. The Oracle platform, six years in the making, will incorporate all the company's applications and software in the cloud.

Characteristically, Ellison wasted… Continue reading...

More About: Larry Ellison, Social Media, Twitter

Bit.ly says it has heard its disgruntled users loud and clear and is ready to change its ways -- again.

After a backlash last week following a redesign of the site, Bit.ly announced Wednesday it has made some tweaks to make its beloved URL-shortening feature more prominent.

Now the box to shorten your link reads "Paste a link here" instead of "Add a bitmark." Once the link is pasted, it's automatically saved. Just click "copy" and you're good to go.

That's one step less than the original re-designed version, and more in line with the simplicity that made the site and service a hit.

Last week's redesign, the company hoped, would make the site more social. But response from use… Continue reading...

More About: bit.ly, links, trending, URLs

Of the three media types you'll find in social marketing -- paid, earned and owned -- earned media is the holy grail because it fulfills the unique promise of creating authentic social proof for your brand. Facebook users want to do, see, and buy what they see other users doing, seeing, and buying. In fact, 68% of Facebook users are more likely to buy based on an earned media recommendation from a Facebook friend.

There's a catch though: You can't buy or create earned media directly. Your brand's Facebook page will have to organically develop earned media -- likes, shares and comments -- which means you must run marketing campaigns that are optimized for engagement and sharing… Continue reading...

More About: contributors, earned media, features, Media, Social Media

When the Wii U launches later this year, so will a new game by Nintendo called NintendoLand. The theme park-style game will feature 12 mini games starring Nintendo characters you already know and love such as Donkey Kong, Zelda, and Luigi.

While the company doesn't quite have all the games for the title ready to show off, it did have a few playable mini games from NintendoLand on the show floor at E3 for attendees to check out.

Overall, you're going to get the same feel from NintendoLand as you probably did from Wii Sports with the original Wii. The games are fun, but not highly complex. While you might pull the title out to play with friends right after you get the console to show it… Continue reading...

More About: E3 2012, Nintendo, Wii U

A therapist who specializes in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) has created an unusual ally for treating patients: an app.

The therapist, Dr. Kristen Mulcahy, often uses a method called Exposure Response Therapy, in which patients practice resisting their compulsions for increasing intervals of time. Someone who is obsessed with contamination, for instance, might be assigned to practice touching a doorknob and then waiting five minutes before washing their hands.

"I know the treatment works," Mulcahy says. "The challenging part is getting people to engage with it on a regular basis."

To help encourage patients to practice at home, she spent the last three years developing an app… Continue reading...

More About: apps, health, OCD, trending

Facebook is testing technology to bring pre-teens to the social network. We asked Mashable readers what they thought -- 5,145+ readers responded through an open poll and with comments. The majority are against a kid-friendly Facebook.

About 83% of survey respondents told us they actively keep their underage kids away from Facebook. Around 78% said they would not "support an under-13 category on Facebook."

Facebook currently bans underage users. The policy states, "Facebook requires individuals to be at least 13 years old before they can create an account." A new option would allow parents to create linked profiles for their children. Parents could change Facebook Timeline options… Continue reading...

More About: education, Facebook, parents

In the frenetic, crazy, digital world we live in, sometimes it's necessary to take a step back and smell the roses.

Calm.com, a relaxation therapy website, gives the stressed-out masses a place to relax on the Internet.

The website provides two- and 10-minute guided relaxation sessions, accompanied by pleasing backgrounds and gentle music.

Try it. Your sanity level will be glad you did.

More About: viral

1. Blake Griffin on Kendrick Perkins

This dunk set the Internet aflame in January. The official NBA YouTube video already has more than 5 million views. The dunk prompted Perkins to call out LeBron James in the press for tweeting the epic slam.

Click here to view this gallery.

Few moves in sports are as awe-inspiring as a well-executed slam dunk. And on the spectrum of slam, nothing compares to the posterizing variety.

Unfamiliar with the term? To "posterize" a defender is to dunk over him so viciously and in such close proximity that the maneuver appears like timeless immortalization on a child's bedroom poster.

This past NBA season has produced a couple of all-time poster dunks. As the playoffs reach a crescendo, we decided it was high time to compile a 12-man -- er, 12-dunk -- roster of YouTube's most viral, sharable and re-watchable NBA slams.

SEE ALSO: Shotgun…Hike! Is This the Coolest Basketball Dunk Ever? [VIDEO]

The rules were pretty simple… Continue reading...

More About: Entertainment, features, NBA, sports, Video, YouTube

The National Republican Congressional Committee, or NRCC, wants Obamacare declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, and it's come up with a unique digital campaign to gather support.

First, people can scan a QR code that's being advertised in videos with such GOP all-stars, such as Speaker of the House John Boehner and Rep. Michele Bachmann with their smartphone or tablet device.

The QR code then takes users to a Tumblr-based petition site, iwantrepeal.tumblr.com, which hosts a 90-second rundown of "how Obamacare has made spending, debt, taxes, and actual health care worse," according to Gerrit Lansing, digital director at the NRCC.

Finally, once a person puts their digi… Continue reading...

More About: activism, barack obama, obamacare, Politics, US