Social Media Round-up of the Week – 02 September

Welcome back to our weekly instalment of what’s hot in the world of social media. In case you missed what happened over the past week, here’s a run-down of our top five:

1. The Financial Times has pulled its iPad and iPhone apps out of the Apple App Store, following losing a battle to keep control of customer data. Apple has recently begun to insist that subscriptions for apps it hosts goes through its own store, giving Apple ownership of customer data and a 30% cut of revenues; something which Pearson-owned FT and Apple have been negotiating about for months.

2. Those clever people of Google have now incorporated a weather feature into Google Maps (see video above). Weather comes in a layer, just like everything else and if you want to see it, you’ll need to hover over the right corner of Google Maps and select Weather from the dropdown menu. Once you do that, you’ll get weather overlayed at any location you choose. Selecting a specific point will give you an information window that gives a forecast, as well as current conditions.

3. Confectionery brand Maynards is transforming fans into their favourite sweets. The ‘Make Your Face a Maynards’ competition, open until 30 September, is being managed via Facebook. Users first have to ‘like’ the Maynards Canada Facebook page in order to then upload a photo. Using the trace tool they cut their face from the picture and can choose to transform it into one of Maynard’s most popular treats: Sour Patch Kids, Fuzzy Peach, Sour Cherry Blasters, or Swedish Berries.

4. Facebook is preparing changes designed to make the site a hub for listening to music, watching movies and playing videogames, according to people ‘familiar’ with the company, in much the same way people already use the social network to share personal media like photos and videos. Facebook has told media executives in recent days that it will begin letting online music services such as Spotify AB and Rdio Inc. publish user activity on Facebook pages, much like actions such as adding friends or “liking” websites. The move is part of a larger effort at Facebook to improve the discovery of all types of media content on the site.

5. Beyonce’s announcement on the red carpet of MTV’s Video Music Awards that she was pregnant has set a new Twitter record of 8,868 TPS, @twitterglobalpr announced. In a very public announcement, Beyonce told photographers at the event that she had a “surprise” for them, before pulling in her flowing orange dress to outline her baby belly. Just to be sure everyone got the message, she also opened her jacket onstage after performing Love on Top and rubbed her bump saying, “I want you to feel the love that’s growing inside me.”