Despite being one of the biggest websites today, Reddit didn’t have an official app and used to rely on the many, many third-party options for its mobile users. We say “didn’t” and “used to, ” because that’s not the case anymore: the startup has just snapped up Alien Blue, its most popular app for iPhones and iPads. The company has been working closely with its sole developer, Jase Morrissey, for years, but they only just made things official after this latest funding round. Reddit’s head of partnership and strategic development Ellan Pao said in an interview: We want to be able to have new features from Reddit.com show up on mobile faster and better. With Alien Blue and Jase, it was getting to a point where it was too much work for one person. He was helping us, we were helping him and the fit was really strong. Want to see how the official version looks? You’ll need to redownload the app even if you’ve been using Alien Blue for a long time — it’s already out on iTunes alongside the official AMA app , but it might take a while before it shows up for you (we’ve had to open the direct link to get it). You can import your old settings by following Reddit’s instructions, though, and you can upgrade to Pro status for free for one week. Also, the iPhone and the iPad apps are two separate versions at the moment, but Reddit plans to eventually merge them to create one universal software. While Alien Blue’s exclusive to iOS users, that doesn’t mean Reddit’s ignoring folks on Android: the company’s currently hiring an Android engineer in San Francisco to develop an app for the platform. Filed under: Cellphones , Mobile Comments Source: Reddit Blog , The New York Times , iTunes
View original post here:
Reddit snaps up Alien Blue, makes it the official iOS app
mr_mischief writes “Multiple sources report that the US found remnants of WMD programs, namely chemical weapons, in Iraq after all. Many US soldiers were injured by them, in fact. The Times reports: “From 2004 to 2011, American and American-trained Iraqi troops repeatedly encountered, and on at least six occasions were wounded by, chemical weapons remaining from years earlier in Saddam Hussein’s rule. In all, American troops secretly reported finding roughly 5, 000 chemical warheads, shells or aviation bombs, according to interviews with dozens of participants, Iraqi and American officials, and heavily redacted intelligence documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act.” Read more of this story at Slashdot. 
The long-awaited ( and long-rumored ) Nexus 6, the 6-inch (technically 5.96) monster phablet, is finally, officially here . The Nexus 6, like its predecessors before it, will be the first device in the world to ship with Android’s new operating system, Lollipop. It’s the purest vision of what an Android phone should be. Apparently Android phones should be huge. Read more… 
In the middle of the 19th century, Chicago embarked on a quest to literally lift itself out of the mud. Water couldn’t drain from the low-lying city, so its streets became impassable swamps. The most reasonable solution, Chicago decided, was just to raise the whole goddamn city by 4 to 14 feet. Read more… 
The current drought in the U.S. certainly feels like it’s one for the history books. But it’s likely not the worst North America has seen in the last millennium. A new study from NASA shows that a drought in 1934 was by far the worst to strike the continent in 1000 years. Read more…