Foursquare Is Facebook's Equal on Super-Social INQ Phones (Mashable)

The "Facebook Phone" cometh! So the media lauded in a not-so-distant past that has since been rewritten in the truth: INQ Mobile, a device maker with a social penchant, worked with Facebook to release INQ Cloud Touch, an Android smartphone with rich Facebook integration. Monday, INQ Mobile and Foursquare announced that they were collaborating on a similar home screen experience for INQ's lineup of Android devices. The mobile marriage will help users better discover and explore nearby places via Foursquare.

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The pending release will offer OS-level Foursquare integration -- just as is the case with Facebook integration on the INQ "Facebook Phone" -- for a deep Foursquare connection that gives users instant access to location-sharing and recommendation features.

"Because it’s built directly into the Android system, you can check in and explore without even firing up the application," Foursquare wrote on the company blog.

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According to INQ's press materials on the to-be-scheduled release, "Users will be able to swipe back and forth between Facebook and Foursquare home screens, depending on what they are doing, what they are looking for and who they want to connect with."

What we have, then, is a lineup of super-socialized INQ handsets that will level the Facebook/Foursquare playing field. Both will compete for user attention on INQ devices' dual home screens. One company may be looking towards one billion users and the other ten million; but in the eyes of the handset maker, the social networks, which battle in the location arena, are equals. Equal except that INQ has chosen Foursquare, not Facebook, to power its phones' location services.

Lest we read too much into INQ's decision, we should recall that the phone maker's devices have limited carrier support and are not yet available in the United States. As such, INQ will do little to bolster Foursquare's rung in the social networking hierarchy for the time being.

This story originally published on Mashable here.

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Does mid-April equal tragedy in the U.S.?

From left, the Waco siege, the Oklahoma City bombing, memorial for the Columbine victims and Virginia Tech's Norris Hall STORY HIGHLIGHTSSeveral U.S. tragedies happened in mid-April, including Waco and Oklahoma CityWhile some are related, Robert Blaskiewicz says others are just a coincidenceBlaskiewicz teaches course on conspiracy theories at Georgia Institute of TechnologyHe says conspiracy theories are "a contemporary mythology, not unlike the Greek gods"Nearly 20 years ago, 76 people lost their lives during an FBI raid near Waco, Texas. CNN's Drew Griffin looks at those events at 8 ET/PT and 11 ET/PT Saturday night in "Waco: Faith, Fear & Fire."

(CNN) -- Mid-April marks the anniversaries of several horrendous attacks in recent U.S. history:

-- April 19, 1993: the FBI's siege of the Waco compound leaves 76 dead.

-- April 19, 1995: the bombing of a federal building in Oklahoma City kills 168 people.

-- April 20, 1999: A mass shooting at Columbine High School leaves 15 dead.

-- April 16, 2007: The Virginia Tech massacre kills 33.

The Oklahoma City bombing was timed to coincide with the Waco anniversary. And it's unclear whether the Columbine shooters timed that attack to mark Adolf Hitler's birthday or possibly Waco.

Is there something about this time of the year that makes these types of attacks more prevalent?

For an answer, CNN spoke with Robert Blaskiewicz, a professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta. He teaches a course examining conspiracy theories and runs a blog, called Skeptical Humanities.

CNN: Is there any evidence or are there any theories that suggest attackers are more likely to strike around this time of the year?

Robert Blaskiewicz: I have seen nothing to suggest that anything about April itself makes people violent.

That said, the reason why we see certain types of political violence in mid- to late April is because of a few unhappy coincidences: that Waco happened to fall on the anniversary of the Battles of Lexington and Concord, the first battles in a war against a tyrannical oppressor.

For many people who labor under the idea that the federal government is a tyrannical foreign oppressor like the British monarchy, Waco symbolizes a war of a government against its people.

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