Sponsored Stories: Intrusive Facebook move

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A new Facebook initiative, called Sponsored Stories, allows the site's advertisers to repurpose users' mentions of their brands into ads on the site, according to CNET. Users who check in at a company's store, recommend a news feed, click "like" on a brand page or take action in a Facebook application are vulnerable to showing up in an ad. Although the site says it will respect privacy settings, won't allow personal information in a Sponsored Story and content will be available only to users' Facebook friends, it also does not allow users to opt out of the service.

The time and the place

No fooling, on April 1 Nike introduces its Nike+ SportWatch GPS powered by TomTom. It captures a runner's location information, time, distance, pace, heart rate and calories burned through its shoe-based sensor and displays the information on its customizable screen. The watch connects to NikePlus.com (PC and MAC compatible) to review completed runs, set new goals and interact with runners around the world. The watch's price is to be determined.