Francis Bea
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Author/Co-Author of 414 articles
Francis got his first taste of the tech industry in a failed attempt at a startup during his time as a student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Never leaving his love for tech behind, he briefly dabbled in tech PR but switched over to contributing for Digital Trends. He covers all things social media and the next generation of emerging tech startups, as well as mobile apps that can’t be missed .
How to delete that regrettable Twitter Direct Message before someone sees it
Deleting an embarrassing DM on Twitter is luckily as simple as clicking "delete."
Emperor 200: The ultimate, $44,750 gaming chair
If you've been saving up for a BMW 5-series, you may want to rethink putting that money into the Emperor 200 gaming chair, which includes three screens, air filtration and light therapy. You'll never have to leave your house again.
Why you saw a Google Doodle of Cesar Chavez this weekend
Google has come under fire for celebrating Cesar Chavez's birthday, and here's why Google might have opted not to Doodle something for Easter.
New Jersey Assemblyman is a lesson in selective Facebook Liking
New Jersey Assemblyman, Charles Mainor, had another social media fall out, this time for his interest in a couple of questionable Facebook pages.
American Express and Twitter partner to sell you deals via hashtags
American Express has partnered with Twitter to sell products at a deal using the social network.
Facebook news you might have missed this week
Facebook opened up a Swedish data center, there's evidence of a Facebook RSS reader, and say goodbye to Sponsored Results in this week's Facebook news.
Blab wants to know what the Internet will love before the Internet does
Blab is a powerful social media analytic tool that predicts viral events before they happen.
Win a dream vacation or thousands in cash in this week’s social ways to win
This week you can win a vacation, thousands in cash, or even a full year's supply of Dunkin' Donuts Iced Coffee in this week's social ways to win.
Thanks Twitter, but here’s everything that’s wrong with your two-factor authentication set-up
After a string of attacks on Twitter, the social network launched two-factor authentication, but is it enough?
Twitter quietly rolls out its free, native analytics feature
Twitter quietly launched its own analytics tool, a free, built-in option that will likely crowd some of the third party competitors out.
Hear that? That’s the sound of ads coming to Instagram
Facebook has moved Emily White over to Instagram with the task of finally making money on Facebook's investment.
What you should know about how job recruiters use social media to hunt you down
On the job hunt? Ever will be again? Then you might want to take a look into how HR professionals and job recruiters are using social networks to find and analyze you.
Facebook Graph Search saves all your creepy searches – and here’s how to delete them
Facebook keeps a record of your searches, to help better tailor search results, but if you're feeling wary this is how to delete your history of searches.
Happy birthday, Tesla! Elon Musk celebrates by donating $1 million to new museum
The Oatmeal raised over $1 million on IndieGoGo to secure the Wardenclyffe, site of Tesla's final lab, to build a Tesla museum.
All the Facebook news you may have missed this week
Get free Pepsi for likes, Facebook will be strict on hate speech, and Facebook may be responsible for the iOS battery drain in this week's Facebook roundup.
Are Vine celebs the next-generation of YouTube stars?
YouTube vloggers used the platform to gain Internet fame (and money). Are Vine's more famous creators next?
Why we’re cautiously optimistic about Twitter’s new authentication system
Twitter formerly had an unreliable system for keeping your account safe - thankfully, it's upgraded solution. Here's why you should get on board.
We asked, you answered: Would you actually pay for Facebook?
As suggestions about a pay-for subscription Facebook model arise, we had to ask a wide variety of users if they would actually pay wallets to use the site.
The big, booming business behind the humble GIF
Internet scion that it is, the GIF is much more than just an animated way for the Internet to make you smile - it's also creating a valuable industry.
The White House is giving Data.gov a face lift – and it all looks awfully familiar
Teasing the White House's redesigned public database, Next.Data.gov catches up with the latest design trends and comes off as developer-friendly.
Reddit Insight analyzes the Web’s Wild West, turning it into beautiful, revealing infographics
A glimpse into Reddit and its Subreddits thanks to Reddit Insights, a hack put together by Hack Reactor students, spotlights how posts become popular.
Twitter finally fixed Direct Message syncing – does it have other plans for the feature?
Even Twitter seems to have neglected its Direct Messages feature, but recently with new updates we suspect that the DM is undergoing a transformation.
Pearltrees launches Android app, makes leap into file management
Pearltrees launched its Android version today, while rolling out new file management features.
Like Snapchat, Instagram, and Vine videos? Well you might want to check your cache clutter
Everytime you watch a video on Instagram, the more space you're unwittingly filling up with caches on your mobile device. Here's how to clean your phone.
Want to know what the tech elite Fancy?
With the help of The Fancy, we've rounded up items that Jack Dorsey, Daniel Ek, Dave Morin, Biz Stone, and Mark Zuckerberg like or are inspired by.
U.S. State Department spends $630,000 to boost Facebook ‘likes’
How do you get 2.5 million Facebook followers? Spend $630,000 of course.
Turns out ‘delete’ doesn’t quite mean the same thing to Facebook as it does to you
Deleting something on Facebook doesn't exactly mean that the content has been "deleted" as some users have discovered.
Facebook’s Graph Search flaw exposes names with phone numbers
Facebook claims that phone numbers on Facebook are public, but scraping these numbers ironically merits getting chased by Facebook's lawyers.
On the day of Google Reader’s death, Bloglovin adds new social features to fill out its RSS service
With Google Reader gone, plenty of RSS readers are filling in the void. Bloglovin' is one of them with brand new social and content discovery features.
This week in Snapchat privacy issues, turns out iOS 7 kills the app’s screenshot notification
Once iOS 7 rolls out to iOS users, Snapchat is in for a PR nightmare since iOS 7 doesn't support screen shot notifications.
