Social Network At The Pool Releases TechCrunch “Pool” In Advance of Monday’s Launch

Screen shot 2012-07-12 at 2.42.30 PMHappy weekend, readers! Unless your boss is making you work this weekend, you’ve got two days of freedom ahead of you. If you want to spend that time making new friends or meeting people with similar interests, a new startup called At The Pool can help.

The social network sends users a different match, based on their location, history, interests and intent (their pols) every day in an email. Users are encouraged to connect on- and offline. The site officially launches Monday—it’s had beta launches already—with a “Silicon Beach Pool” aimed at the LA Tech scene. However, the At The Pool team has launched a “TechCrunch Pool” for readers that is live now.

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Facebook Releases “Weddings and Celebrations” Feature, Maturing With Executives

Weddings_CelebrationsFacebook released a new “Weddings and Celebrations” feature that will display special events, starting with engagements and weddings, along with friends’ birthdays on the social network.

The feature, which begins rolling out today, is automated based off the changing of a relationship status to “engaged” or “married.” Appearing above birthdays on the homepage, users can click on the update and congratulate either member of the couple, as well as add one of the members as a friend, without leaving the page.

Yesterday, Facebook redesigned its events page, adding list and calendar views. However, a Facebook spokesperson tells us that “Weddings and Celebrations” will not be added to the list or calendar views. It will only appear on the homepage.

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New Twitter Apps Are Here: Push Notifications From Your Favorite Tweeters, Better Expanded Tweets, More

Blog-headerTwitter is adding more features for iOS and Android today, allowing users to receive push notifications from tweeters they select, giving users the ability to expand tweets on their phone, improving search results and supposedly providing a better user experience for events.

The major upgrade is push notifications. While users could previously receive updates by SMS, they can now adjust their settings to receive push notifications whenever their favorite users tweet or re-tweet. The expanded Tweets, previously only available in web browsers, allows users to see more media right beneath the Tweet

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Pokki Releases Instagrille 2.0, An Updated Instagram Desktop App For Windows

promo copySweetlabs, a four year-old, Google Ventures-backed startup, is releasing Instagrille 2.0, a “completely revamped” version of its current application, on its Pokki app platform. The new app gives users features not seen on Instagram’s iOS or Android apps, such as the ability to browse photos “Nearby” and download their favorite pictures.

While he wouldn’t disclose exact numbers, Chester Ng, co-founder of Sweetlabs, tells us Instagrille is in the top 10 in the “millions of downloads of Pokki apps.”

“People love this app,” he tells us. “And that’s the original version. We think people are really going to love this new one”

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No, Snapchat Isn’t About Sexting, Says Co-Founder Evan Spiegel

snapchat-2“The minute you tell someone that images on your server disappear, everyone jumps to sexting.”

Evan Spiegel laughed and leaned back into his chair during his first sitdown interview since his iPhone app Snapchat blew up over the last month. Snapchat is #12 on the free iOS photo app charts in the U.S. and just scored some mainstream media attention in The New York Times

Why? Snapchat is a photo-sharing app that changes privacy norms in a very novel way. The free app allows users to send others photos and control how long receivers can see them. These photos last for up to 10 seconds, before they disappear forever.

“It seems odd that at the beginning of the Internet everyone decided everything should stick around forever,” Spiegel said. “I think our application makes communication a lot more human and natural.”

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