Techipedia

Samsung Pays $1B to Apple with 30 Truck Loads of 5 Cent Coins

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 1 Sep 2012 20:54:00 +0530

A funny story is sweeping the internet. Samsung paid $1.05 billion to Apple by sending 30 trucks containing five-cent coins.
According to PaperBlog, the trucks were sent to Apple's main office in California. Initially, the security of the company prevented the intrusion. However, Apple CEO Tim Cook received a call from the chief executive of Samsung that they have sent the payment for the fine ruled by the jury in the recently concluded patent battle of the two tech giants.

This may present an idea to Samsung since the jury did not specify a single payment method, so Samsung is entitled to send him to the creators of the iPhone its billion dollars as they deem best.
Apple was awarded over $1 billion in damages after a US jury decided that Samsung had copied critical features of the iPhone and iPad. This verdict could lead to an outright ban on sales of key Samsung products.

Following their win on the controversial patent trial, tech giant Apple is seeking bans on eight smartphones from Samsung. Apple wasted no time in their attempt to hinder the sales of the eight older model phones of its rival including the Galaxy S II and Droid Charge.
While Apple's lawsuit cited 28 devices, many of those accused products are no longer widely available in the world's largest mobile market.
Although Samsung's flagship Galaxy S III phone was not included in the trial, the jury validated Apple's patents on features and design elements that the United States company could then try to wield against that device.
Winning the court battle only strengthens its position in the market before the much anticipated release of iPhone 5 on September 12. Moreover, this could yield to its dominance in the tech market.

All About Higgs Boson

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 29 Jul 2012 21:18:00 +0530

Scientists working at the world's biggest atom smasher near Geneva have announced the discovery of a new subatomic particle that looks remarkably like the long-sought Higgs boson. Sometimes called the "God particle" because its existence is fundamental to the creation of the universe, the hunt for the Higgs involved thousands of scientists from all over the world.

Here are five things to note about today's discovery:

WHAT IS THE GOD PARTICLE ANYWAY?
School physics teaches that everything is made up of atoms, and inside atoms are electrons, protons and neutrons. They, in turn, are made of quarks and other subatomic particles. Scientists have long puzzled over how these minute building blocks of the universe acquire mass. Without mass, particles wouldn't hold together and there would be no matter. One theory proposed by British physicist Peter Higgs and teams in Belgium and the United States in the 1960s is that a new particle must be creating a "sticky" field that acts as a drag on other particles. The atom-smashing experiments at CERN, the European Center for Nuclear Research, have now captured a glimpse of what appears to be just such a Higgs-like particle.

WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT?
The Higgs is part of many theoretical equations underpinning scientists' understanding of how the world came into being. If it doesn't exist, then those theories would need to be fundamentally overhauled. The fact that it apparently does exist means scientists have been on the right track with their theories. But there's a twist: the measurements seem to diverge slightly from what would be expected under the so-called Standard Model of particle physics. This is exciting for scientists because it opens the possibility to potential new discoveries including a theory known as "super-symmetry" where particles don't just come in pairs - think matter and anti-matter - but quadruplets, all with slightly different characteristics.
HOW MUCH DID IT COST?
CERN's atom smasher, the Large Hadron Collider, alone cost some $10 billion to build and run. This includes the salaries of thousands of scientists and support staff around the world who collaborated on the two experiments that independently pursued the Higgs.

WERE THERE ANY PRACTICAL RESULTS FROM THE SEARCH?
Not directly. But the massive scientific effort that led up to the discovery has paid off in other ways, one of which was the creation of the World Wide Web. CERN scientists developed it to make it easier to exchange information among each other. The vast computing power needed to crunch all of the data produced by the atom smasher has also boosted the development of distributed - or cloud - computing, which is now making its way into mainstream services. Advances in solar energy capture, medical imaging and proton therapy - used in the fight against cancer - have also resulted from the work of particle physicists at CERN and elsewhere.
WHAT'S NEXT?
"This is just the beginning," says James Gillies, a spokesman for CERN. Scientists will keep probing the new particle until they fully understand how it works. In doing so they hope to understand the 96 percent of the universe that remains hidden from view. This may result in the discovery of new particles and even hitherto unknown forces of nature.

Samsung Tops Apple to Become The World’s Top Smartphone Vendor

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 22:35:00 +0530

A few weeks back we reported that Apple has overtook Nokia in a race to become the world’s top smartphone manufacturer. Well, Apple’s reign at the top didn’t last long as according to a report published today, Samsung is now the world’s largest smartphone vendor(in terms of shipments — not the sales).

In Q3 2011, Apple Inc. managed to ship only 17.1 million smartphones, comprising 14.6% of the market, whereas Samsung shipped a staggering 27.8 million smartphones which is around 23.8% of the market — pushing the California based company to the second spot. Nokia in the meantime remained in third place behind Samsung and Apple.

According to The Wall Street Journal:

Samsung Electronics Co. shipped more than 20 million smartphones in the quarter ended Sept. 30, a person familiar with the situation said Thursday, beating market leader Apple Inc. as well as Nokia Corp., the world’s biggest cellphone maker by volume.
The South Korean company benefited from a push into the high end; demand is robust for phones that consumers can use to watch videos, download movies and send email. The company is also taking advantage of the popularity of Google Inc.’s Android operating system, while also stepping up production in Europe of phones using its own software and software from Microsoft Corp.

The next target for Samsung is to surpass Apple in terms of sales, would they be able to achieve this? It seems very realistic to us.

Google Buys Motorola Mobility for US$12.5 Billion

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 23:29:00 +0530

Google has entered into an agreement to acquire the mobile phone maker Motorola Mobility for about US$12.5 billion, the company said on Monday.

Google has offered about $40 per share in cash, a premium of 63 percent over the closing price of Motorola Mobility shares on Friday.

Motorola Mobility exclusively ships phones and its Xoom tablet with Google's Android operating system. The deal will mean that Google now has a hardware manufacturer to work with closely to develop Android, said Carolina Milanesi, research vice president at Gartner.

Google will also have control of Motorola's impressive patent portfolio, Milanesi said. Motorola Mobility said earlier this year that it owns about 24,500 patents.

Conflict with Partners?

But the deal may also create tension with other mobile phone manufacturers such as HTC and Samsung, which also ship Android devices, she said. Since creating Android, Google has rotated manufacturers with which to release new Android code, releasing the code to others about six months later.

Google may risk alienating those other manufacturers, but Milanesi said "all these vendors have invested so much in the platform, they won't quickly walk away from it."

Google may also want to speed up the development of its Android operating system on tablet computers, where it has been slower to catch on than on mobile phones, Milanesi said. The next release for Android, code-named "Ice Cream Sandwich," will be an operating system designed for tablets and mobile devices.

The acquisition of Motorola Mobility will enable Google to "supercharge the Android ecosystem and enhance competition in mobile computing," according to a news release. Google said the deal will not affect how Android is developed, and the operating system will remain open, Google said.

The company will run Motorola Mobility, which has about 20,000 employees, as a separate business, Google said. The transaction is expected to close at the end of this year or early next year.

Motorola Mobility, which was spun off from its parent company in early January, is composed of two groups: Mobile Devices, which makes phones, and Home, which makes set-top boxes and other IPTV equipment.

Google Just Started A Price War With Facebook With Google+ Games

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 13 Aug 2011 00:08:00 +0530

Google added games to its Google+ social network yesterday, and then Facebook updated its gaming platform with a new Game Ticker, full screen support, and the ability to favorite games later the same day. Google+ has only 16 games right now, made by 10 game developers, while Facebook has developers from more than 190 countries building apps and games on its platform. That’s not where the ultimate comparison should be though. You see, Google has just started a social games price war with Facebook.

Wait, what do you mean? Social games on Facebook and Google+ are free! Well, that’s true, at least for most games. There is one huge aspect of online games that many often forget about: in-game transactions. Virtual items are not going to necessarily cost less for you on Google+, but they will for the developer. Google knows it needs to win over developers to get games on its new social network, and it’s starting by significantly undercutting Facebook on the commission price.

Facebook charges a 30 percent commission on any transactions that use its Facebook Credits virtual currency, which is now required in all games on the company’s platform. Google has decided to start off with a 5 percent commission for Google+ Games.

Sure, Google+’s 5 percent commission is just promotional, or at least, that’s what Google+ games product manager Punit Soni told VentureBeat. Soni claims Google doesn’t yet know when the promotion will end or what the company will charge developers on a regular basis, but I’m willing to bet that Google will keep its price significantly under the 30 percent mark.

The 30 percent number may seem high, but it’s actually a standard in the industry. Both Apple and Google take 30 percent of the revenue app developers make on the companies’ respective mobile app stores.

This social games price war is nothing new for Google: when the company launches a new platform, it often makes a point to undercut its competitor. After all, Mountain View gives Android away for free. The search giant makes enough money from Google AdSense (97 percent of its revenue comes from ads) that it doesn’t necessarily need to make sure that many of its products, be it Android or Google+, are profitable by themselves.

Palo Alto will definitely try to hold on to the 30 percent commission number for as long as possible. If Facebook ever feels threatened by Google+ in the social games market – meaning if social game developers ever start leaving Facebook for Google+ en masse – that number will probably be slashed. In the meantime, the social networking giant will simply boast about how much game developers actually make, despite the higher commission to Facebook, mainly because the platform has 750 million users and counting.

Summary: Google has started a price war with Facebook: the search giant is charging developers a 5 percent commission for in-game transactions, compared to social networking giant’s 30 percent.

Merge Google+, Facebook & Twitter Using G++ (Chrome & Firefox)

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 00:17:00 +0530

Google+. It’s still very young, but the user growth is amazing. The latest data says that there are already more than 18 million Google+ users out there.

While most people are busy comparing Google+ with Facebook, and trying to figure out which one they should choose and use, there are those who have built tools to combine all of these social networks together and have the best of all worlds. One of these tools is G++, a browser extension for Chrome and Firefox which will help you put your Facebook and Twitter stream into your Google+ interface.

Plus Plus Plus

People have put time and effort into building their Facebook universe, so most Facebook users might reject the thought of switching to another social network and rebuilding their universe from scratch. Keeping and updating two social networks simultaneously might also be a tedious effort for some. With G++, you don’t have to make the choice.

To put your Facebook and Twitter streams in your Google+, visit the G++ site using either Chrome or Firefox (or both), and click the “Add” button to download and install the extension.

Your browser will ask for your permission to do the installation, click “Install” to confirm it. Then sign in to your Google+ account to see the extension in action.

After your Google+ stream page is loaded, you will see three checkboxes at the top of the page: Google+, Facebook and Twitter. All you have to do to enable or disable the stream is to check or uncheck the boxes according to your preferences. You can even disable Google+ and view only the Facebook or Twitter stream via the Google+ interface if you want to.

The first time you enable Facebook and Twitter, you will be asked to authorize G++ to access your accounts. First time users have to go through one activation process before they can continue with the second account.

To activate Facebook, you have to disable the pop-up window blocker. To allow the pop-up window only for this one time activation process, click the “Log In | Facebook” link in the warning window.

After the authorization process, you will be brought back to the stream page. Make sure the boxes are checked, then click the “Refresh Stream” button to fetch your streams from Facebook and Twitter.

You can quickly distinguish the entries by the color and the small logo at the top right corner of every entry. Aside from viewing the streams, G++ also allows users to retweet Twitter entries, as well as Like and comment on entries from Facebook.

The advantage of combining Google+ with Facebook and Twitter is the ability to post to all these accounts at once. All you have to do is type what you want to share (along with images, videos, links, and location tags), check the Facebook and Twitter boxes next to the “Click to Post to FB/Twitter” button, then click the button.

To check whether the extension is functional or not, I immediately went to my Facebook wall and I saw that the post was already sitting there.

The post also appeared in my Google+ stream page – both the Twitter and Facebook version. I saw a comment to my post from one of my friends. I clicked the “Comment” link, typed my reply, then clicked the “Submit” button. A moment later, my reply appeared under the comment, as if I was using Facebook in its native environment.

You can easily disable G++ if you want to by checking one of the on/off boxes at the top right corner of the web interface.

After playing with G++ for a while, I think that this is a very useful tool. But, if I could request one thing to the developer, it would be the ability to connect to other popular social networks.

Are you a social network freak? Do you think you need G++ to help you keep up with your Google+, Facebook, and Twitter account? Do you know of other similar alternatives? If so, please share your thoughts using the comments below.

Facebook Reorganizes Chat List Again!

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 22:08:00 +0530

Facebook‘s chat bar has gone through multiple iterations recently, and today you may have noticed a new format. Friends whose profiles you interact with most often are listed in one section at the top of your list, followed by a section of “more online friends” below.

The changes were implemented Thursday morning in response to user feedback from a redesign of chat in July, says a Facebook spokesperson. About 28,000 people had “liked” a Facebook Page entitled “I hate the new Facebook sidebar chat.”

The redesigned chat now stretches from the top of the browser to the bottom instead of being contained to its previous pop-up box, and until today it showed only a selection of friends instead of everyone who was online.

Prior to July, all online friends appeared in the same bar in alphabetical order. One of the major criticisms of the most recent iteration of the chat bar was that it didn’t show all friends who were online. Today’s update rectifies that by adding the “more online friends” category beneath the friends you interact with the most.

The Facebook spokesperson said this most recent change is not a test.

Hacker Group Anonymous Vows To Take Down Facebook On November 5th

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 23:16:00 +0530

According to a statement issued by Hacktivist group Anonymous, which previously had been responsible for hacking Sony’s Playstation Network, Pentagon etc., it has planned to “destroy” the social media giant Facebook on November 5th.

In the statement, Anonymous claims that Facebook has been selling ‘sensitive’ user information to government agencies and giving secret access to security firms so that they can spy on Facebook users — as all data is stored on Facebook’s servers and can be accessed at anytime.

Facebook keeps saying that it gives users choices, but that is completely false. It gives users the illusion of and hides the details away from them “for their own good” while they then make millions off of you. When a service is “free,” it really means they’re making money off of you and your information.

Earlier, there were some doubts whether this statement is real or fake, but Anonymous has now confirmed via their Twitter account that some of its members are planning an operation against Facebook, but not all of Anonymous agrees with it.

#OpFacebook is being organised by some Anons. This does not necessarily mean that all of #Anonymous agrees with it.

Let’s wait and see what lies ahead for Facebook…. The countdown has already begun.
The full text of the announcement, made by Anonymous on YouTube:

Attention citizens of the world,
We wish to get your attention, hoping you heed the warnings as follows:
Your medium of communication you all so dearly adore will be destroyed. If you are a willing hacktivist or a guy who just wants to protect the freedom of information then join the cause and kill facebook for the sake of your own privacy.
Facebook has been selling information to government agencies and giving clandestine access to information security firms so that they can spy on people from all around the world. Some of these so-called whitehat infosec firms are working for authoritarian governments, such as those of Egypt and Syria.
Everything you do on Facebook stays on Facebook regardless of your “privacy” settings, and deleting your account is impossible, even if you “delete” your account, all your personal info stays on Facebook and can be recovered at any time. Changing the privacy settings to make your Facebook account more “private” is also a delusion. Facebook knows more about you than your family.
You cannot hide from the reality in which you, the people of the internet, live in. Facebook is the opposite of the Antisec cause. You are not safe from them nor from any government. One day you will look back on this and realise what we have done here is right, you will thank the rulers of the internet, we are not harming you but saving you.
The riots are underway. It is not a battle over the future of privacy and publicity. It is a battle for choice and informed consent. It’s unfolding because people are being raped, tickled, molested, and confused into doing things where they don’t understand the consequences. Facebook keeps saying that it gives users choices, but that is completely false. It gives users the illusion of and hides the details away from them “for their own good” while they then make millions off of you. When a service is “free,” it really means they’re making money off of you and your information.
Think for a while and prepare for a day that will go down in history. November 5 2011, #opfacebook . Engaged.
This is our world now. We exist without nationality, without religious bias. We have the right to not be surveilled, not be stalked, and not be used for profit. We have the right to not live as slaves.
We are anonymous
We are legion
We do not forgive
We do not forget
Expect us

Economic Meltdown Impacts IT Industry

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 9 Aug 2011 22:39:00 +0530

The economy has seen better days. Many IT departments started 2011 with cautious optimism and grand plans to modernize and expand, but amid the turmoil of the past month or so those plans have been whittled away.

Uncertainty. Even before the current economic crises caused by the political extortion over the debt ceiling, and the subsequent historic downgrading of the credit rating of the United States, the economy was on a shaky recovery at best. In a survey of 563 IT professionals conducted by nCircle in March, 48 percent of respondents claimed the economic downturn had impacted security initiatives in their organization--up 11 percent from 2010.

As the economy slides, getting money for IT projects is harder and harder.Businesses don't like a climate of financial uncertainty. Capitalism is all about taking risks--but good business is about taking calculated risks with some measure of predictability. When there is economic chaos, companies tend to hunker down and hoard what they've got. When the dust starts to settle, and they can see who is left standing, and get some idea of which way is up, the flow of money is restored.

Raising the Bar. No, not in a good way. As the economy slides, the bar is raised for acceptable return on investment (ROI). In a good economy, when revenue and profit are flowing more freely, IT projects are approved based on less tangible returns, but when the economy tanks businesses are quick to cut those projects and focus only on IT investments with a concrete impact on the bottom line.

What does that mean? That means that projects like virtualizing servers in a data center, or migrating servers and data to the cloud--projects with a clear cost benefit--will most likely proceed, but that other projects like PC hardware refreshes get delayed or canceled. New PC hardware may perform faster and improve productivity, but not enough to justify upgrading or replacing equipment the company already has that appears to be working fine.

Resources. When budgets are cut and money is tight, IT workers are asked to do more with less. Not only do businesses not hire additional IT workers to lighten the load and help IT operate more efficiently--many businesses may even cut the IT staff to save a buck and expect the remaining IT department to pick up the slack.

When the economy is going well, and organizations aren't operating from a mode of simple financial self-preservation, IT departments can get the tools and services they need to make their jobs easier. With a smaller IT budget, managing and maintaining the IT infrastructure can be a much more tedious prospect.

Has your IT budget been impacted by the economic meltdown? How has the current economic crisis affected your IT plans for the remainder of 2011?

Get Richer by avoiding this Money Mistake

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 1 Aug 2011 20:43:00 +0530

Mental Accounting is one such money mistake even smart people are committing. Understanding this mistake and avoiding this could make us richer.

Behavioral Finance experts say that mental accounting works this way: Let us say you have bought a Rs.200 ticket to a movie. When you show up at the entrance of the theatre and realize you have lost your ticket, do you buy another ticket?

If you are like most people, you would probably think twice. You may still drop down the money, but you will now feel that you paid Rs.400 for a Rs.200 movie.

But let's construct the scenario differently. Let’s say you hadn’t bought the ticket yet, and you show up at the entrance to buy your ticket. Unfortunately, you realized you’ve lost Rs200 in cash since you walked from the parking place. But fortunately, you still have enough in your wallet to cover the cost of the ticket. Do you buy the ticket? Again, if you are like most people, you may feel upset about the lost money, but it probably won't affect your decision to buy the ticket. Why?

Behavioural Finance experts conducted similar experiments. They found that 46% of those who lost the ticket were willing to buy a replacement ticket. On the other side 88% of those who lost an equivalent amount of cash were willing to buy a ticket.

Both scenarios are a loss of Rs.200. However, in the second scenario you separate the loss of the Rs. 200 from the purchasing of the ticket. In the first you consider the cost of the movie as a total of Rs.400 and suffer at the high cost.

It is because of the psychological phenomenon known as mental accounting. One of the fundamental concepts in Economics says that wealth in general and money in particular, should be fungible. Fungibility, in a nutshell, means that Rs.100 in lottery winning, Rs.100 in salary and Rs.100 tax refund should have the same significance and value to you since each Rs.100 has the same purchasing power at the market. But do you treat them in a similar way?

Mental accounting has enormous consequences in your daily life. It affects how you spend money and how you save. It influences how you deal with losses and windfall gains.

How Does Mental Accounting Affect You?

1) The source of the money affects how it is spent.

v You tend to dine lavishly with the “gift meal vouchers” given by your company. But you will be dining consciously if you are paying out of your salary.

v You are most likely to spend more with credit cards than with cash.

v You may consider Tax refund as“free money”. In actual terms it is your own money. You will not spend tax refunds, birthday gift money or lottery winnings on essential things like utility bills, school fees, paying off your credit card debt. But you will be more than happy to spend the same money on discretionary items such as vacations or a trendy mobile phone.

2) Don’t be a victim of ‘Relative cost’.

Assume you are going to a super market to buy a laptop. The price is Rs.40000. But you get to know that there is another branch of the supermarket, a ten minutes walk away, in which the same laptop is sold for Rs.39950. Will you walk down to the other branch?

Let us say instead of buying a laptop you have planned to buy a memory card. The price at the supermarket is Rs.100 and at the other branch is Rs.50. Where will you buy the card?

Most of us will make a trip to the other branch for the memory card but not for the laptop. Because we think that the Rs.50 saved on a Rs.100 item is better than the same amount saved on a Rs.40000 item.

But both the situation is same. You save Rs.50 by making 10 minutes walk to the other branch.

Remember that money is money. Rs.50 saved on Rs.40000 laptop is not less money than Rs. 50 saved on Rs.100 memory card.

How to face Mental Accounting and spend consciously?

You can use mental accounting to your advantage by spending money out of your salary. Immediately invest the “free money” like Tax refunds, gifted money or any other windfall gains.
Imagine that all income is earned income.
Use the free meal vouchers and other gift vouchers to buy essential items.
Pretend you don’t have a credit card. I am not telling you not to use credit cards. I am saying you should stop and think: would I buy this if I was using cash?

A Successful Practical Strategy:

You can have two bank accounts. One for the purpose of savings and the other one for spending.

Every month you need to set aside some amount for expenses as per your budget or previous experience. That amount you need to transfer to your spending account. Balance amount you need to keep it in savings account.

You need to meet all your expenses including your credit card payment from the spending account. You should not spend from your savings account.

In between, if you receive any cash gifts or windfall gains, deposit them in your savings account. If you receive gift vouchers, then transfer the money equivalent of that voucher from your spending account to your saving account. That is your spending limit will not go up by just receiving the gift voucher. So that you will not use it lavishly and use it only on pre-planned things.

When it comes to money your mind unconsciously plays this trick of mental accounting. You have understood that today. So hereafter, you can avoid this mistake and you become richer day by day.

The author is Ramalingam K, an MBA (Finance) and Certified Financial Planner. He is the Founder and Director of Holistic Investment Planners (www.holisticinvestment.in) a firm that offers Financial Planning and Wealth Management. He can be reached at ramalingam@holisticinvestment.in.

How To Improve Facebook Experience In Firefox Using GreaseMonkey

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 31 Jul 2011 20:42:00 +0530

Facebook is the social network of choice for millions of people, but like any site out there, we all have our own list of improvements we’d like to see. Luckily the Greasemonkey script community feels the same way and has come up with hundreds of scripts to improve your user experience.

The scripts allow you to change colors, remove ads, automate repetitive tasks in applications and a whole slew of other improvements. Try out these more than 10 great scripts to use Facebook the way you want to.

What are some of your favorite Greasemonkey based Facebook enhancements?

Auto-Colorizer – An interesting script that analyzes the default image for any profile you visit and adjusts the color scheme of the page to match it. Also works on photos, events & group pages.

Facebook App Faviconizer – If you open your apps in separate tabs, this will replace the Facebook favicon with the one used by each application so you can more quickly identify what is in each window.

Facebook Colour Changer – Not only can you set the Facebook colors to anything you desire, but you may also change the logo image in the top left corner to whatever you want.

Facebook Fixer – Instead of loading several scripts, you can load Facebook Fixer and get larger profile images, video download links, Google Calendar integration and several other features.

Facebook Highlight Birthdays – With all of the info on your homepage, it can be easy to overlook the birthday notices. This script will highlight them for easier spotting.

Facebook Image Download Helper – This script will allow you to use a Firefox extension like DownThemAll! to download all of the images on a page in Facebook.

Facebook Video – This script will not only give you the ability to download videos hosted on Facebook and convert them, but it will also provide you with the option of embedding the videos on other sites. It is also available as a stand-alone Firefox extension.

Facebook View Photo in Album – A powerful script that allows you to view the photo albums of people you aren’t friends with, and it also gives you the ability to see a person’s pictures no matter who took them.

Friend Quick Remove – Streamlines the usual three steps to remove a friend down to just one easy step.

inYOf4ceBook – Tired of squinting at thumbnail images of people in search, thinking they kinda look like the person you meant to find? inYOf4ceBook will let you place your mouse over the image and see a large view of it so you can actually tell who you are looking at.

New Facebook Layout Adjuster – Allows you to remove ads, sidebar and more to make a smoother looking version of the new Facebook.

Remove Facebook Ads – As the name implies, this script removes all of the various ads that show up around Facebook such as banner ads, sponsored news items and so on.

Mozilla Building Android Based Mobile OS to Rival Chrome/Android

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 21:25:00 +0530

Mozilla (the Firefox guys) revealed their plans to build an operating system very much like Google’s own Chrome OS where apps run off of a browser but for mobile devices like smartphones and tablets. The project is being codenamed “Boot to Gecko” because it takes the Gecko engine from Firefox and transforms it into an open-source operating system. Sound familiar? Well, it should.

It’s not too much unlike the idea behind our beloved Android operating system and is bringing back memories of that Mozilla concept phone running off of Android. In fact, Boot to Gecko will actually be based off of Android even thought Mozilla’s VP of Technical Strategy insists they will try to, “use as little of Android as possible.” Basically, they need Android’s kernels and drivers simply to get the device booting.

Taking to heart the idea of open source, developers working with the project intend for it to become a “complete, standalone operating system for the open web.” Instead of building apps using the Android SDK, the platform will instead focus on HTML5 based applications. The company wrote on their blog:

“We will do this work in the open, we will release the source in real-time, we will take all successful additions to an appropriate standards group, and we will track changes that come out of that process. We aren’t trying to have these native-grade apps just run on Firefox, we’re trying to have them run on the web.”

Which devices can we possibly expect to run this new Mozilla OS? Shaver mentioned that the company is looking towards Nvidia Tegra 2 devices because they offer hardware acceleration of open audio and video formats.

As far as their intentions go, Mozilla’s Andreas Gal says their ultimate goal is to break “the stranglehold of proprietary technologies over the mobile device world.” Reminds me a lot of Android when it first started. Android has done pretty well for itself when faced against closed OS’s like Apple’s iOS and although Boot to Gecko is still in its infancy, it’s interesting to see another open source rival step into the ring. Maybe we’re closer to the Mozilla Seabird than we thought…

How to change Facebook Themes

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 17:35:00 +0530

Like Orkut Themes or MySpace Layouts, Facebook doesn’t have any option natively to change colors or Themes of Facebook. So, to make your Facebook Profile stylish one, change the appearance of Facebook with Stylish addon. It will be really interesting to redesign Facebook or apply themes.

Stylish Addon allows you change the appearance by applying Facebook Themes. Basically, the styles for facebook is changed by applying User Scripts from Userstyles.org.

Install Stylish Addon
Login to Facebook
Go to Facebook Themes Gallery
Click on “Install with Stylish” Button
Your Facebook is successfully changed.

Not just Facebook, many other sites like Orkut, Youtube, etc can be changed with this addon.

Another method is using Naevis Facebook Layout which changes appearance for Internet explorer. It is a small program but not so impressive results, it just changes background images and nothing else.

How To Get Back Old Facebook Chat And Get Rid Of New Sidebar Chat (All Browsers)

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 17:12:00 +0530

Change isn’t always improvement and New Features aren’t always welcomed by users. Same is the story with New Facebook Sidebar Chat. Users haven’t liked it much for a simple reason that it’s messy. It’s a free service and you don’t have an option to switch to good old Facebook Chat officially. So, here’s how can you get rid of new Facebook Sidebar chat and get back to old Facebook Chat.

Disliking of people is obvious owing to following reasons: Doesn’t have Scroll bar to see all friends who are online at the moment. I agree there is a Search box to find friend to chat with but it isn’t always the case. Sometimes, you decide whom to chat with according to choice of availability of persons.Unnecessarily, Offline Users are shown on top instead of Online.

However, it is possible to get back old facebook chat using userscript which we have used in most browser hacks to customize the webpage and present in different way than original.

Facebook Sidebar Chat Reversion is name of userscript compatible with all modern web browsers which when installed reverts back to the old facebook Chat.

Developer has just tried to imitate old Facebook chat appearance which also features scroll bar and lies in right bottom of page. Work is appreciable and at the moment, we don’t have an alternative.

I tried it personally and didn’t found any bug as such but you can report to author if any.

How to install Old Facebook Chat UserScript?

Go to http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/107159 and click on Green button saying “Install”.

For Firefox users, you must have GreaseMonkey addon installed to install this.

For Internet Explorer users, you must have Trixie addon installed to install this.

For Safari users, you must have Greasekit addon installed to install this.
If still it does not work then enable your extension from tools menu. (optional)

For Opera users, download script from this page. At the end of the file name use ‘.user.js’ and open with opera browser.

For Google Chrome however, it is installed directly and activates automatically on opening Facebook.com

Note: This Hack doesn’t activate Old Facebook Chat for your Account but only when you access Facebook from the browser where script is installed.

Facebook Group Video Chat : Multiple Video Chat on Facebook Hangout

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 16:45:00 +0530

Facebook Video Chat already created a buzz which was said to be an answer to Google Plus Hangout. The Skype powered Facebook Video chat allowed us to have 1 on 1 chat while Google+ Hangout allowed involvement of multiple profiles. In similar way, Social Hangout allows us to have Group Video chat on Facebook.

Social Hangouts is a 3rd party Facebook Application offering group video chat facility with your Facebook Friends upto 20 at a time.

To begin with, go to Social Hangout Application > Invite your friends with whom you want to chat and start. Camera screen will soon fetch your video and other video windows will be activated as soon as your friends start joining the video chat room.

Facebook isn’t offering this feature officially (at the moment though proposed) but thanks to Apps like this are in favor of Facebook giving a silent answer to Google+ Hangout.

5 Steps That Help Selecting The Best Financial Advisor

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 23 Jul 2011 21:30:00 +0530

Preparing to start the choice:

Satish grew concerned about how to manage his personal finance investments and asked his uncle, who is a very successful investor, if he knew a good financial advisor. His uncle knows a few each specializing in a particular type of financial consultation, and asked him about the type of consultation he required.

Then his uncle went to tell him that his first task lay in identifying his financial objective, whether he needed financial advice for goals like long-term financial portfolio, or tax planning, or providing for the higher education and marriage of his children. Uncle went on to tell him there were more than 50 type of specialists specializing in aspects like stocks, insurance, mutual funds, postal savings, financial planning, taxation and real estate and told him the five steps to select the best financial advisor.

1) Meeting and reviewing different financial advisors:

Once your financial objective and goals are set, your choice of a specialist would depend on whether you want one for your savings plans, tax advice and preparation, stock and equity portfolios, investment strategies, personal budgeting and debt management, retirement planning, estate planning, or insurance advice.

A search on the internet and referrals from friends, colleagues and relatives could help you find some appropriate financial advisors to look into your concern. Make sure that when the financial advisor suggests suitable financial plans, he also assures you to look into its maintenance, updating and implementation with periodic reviews of reports and correspondence.

2) Details about the financial advisor’s educational qualifications, certifications, and experience:

As all other dealings financial dealings too require the qualifications, certification and experience. So it is best to know and verify the advisor’s educational qualifications, certifications and experience. It pays to verify required certifications, like being licensed by IRDA to do insurance business and by by AMFI to deal in mutual funds in India. The extra qualifications like CFP add more value.

In addition, the professional’s experience in the nature of business, and with sizable experience dealing with recession times plays a vital role in the choice of a financial advisor. The investment advisor’s past professional positions and his reasons for change will be able to tell how efficient he is, with a positive switch of revealing his good expertise.

3) Information of clients he has dealt with along with references:

I would say it is in your interest to not rely just on the positive talk of a financial advisor, and beware of his trying to belittle your ideas. Asking for a reference helps verifying his authenticity, honesty, integrity, and empathy and whether he specializes in the similar nature of business you expect of him. I would say if you are young, you would not benefit from a financial advisor dealing mainly in retirement and senior citizen plans.

Interviewing a number of clients would give you the best idea if the financial advisor can be relied upon confidently to meet your financial goals and objectives. In addition to this you may verify the testimonials given to him by his clients.

4. Verify his past records to judge his present and future behavior:

I would rather rely on written words like past documents than what he professes, and would say that a financial advisor’s past performance indicated well his present and future actions. I would also make sure that any disciplinary action for professional and ethic violation has been taken. I would also avoid financial advisors claiming very high performance, as they would highly risk my money.

5) The rate and method of compensation for services:

Now comes, the final stage of discussing and knowing your financial advisor’s compensation. Financial advisors have varied compensation methods for their services, charges could be hourly, a flat monthly fee, a percentage on the assets managed, and a commission on the financial products managed or could be based on the number of transactions. Others could be a combination of 2 or more methods.

A word of caution in dealing with financial advisors charging on number of trades, or getting commission from the investment company, these fees or commissions can be profit motivated with no empathy to client needs.

You could always suggest changes in the fee structure, if not accepted you could always find a reasonable financial advisor to sign a compensation agreement with him.

The final note:

My best wishes for good financial dealings with financial advisors, but a word of caution, are ‘be selective, diligent and patient to understand well the philosophy of your investment and never be shy to ask questions and clarify doubts’.

(Ramalingam K, an MBA (Finance) and Certified Financial Planner, is founder & director of Holistic Investment Planners (P) Ltd (www.holisticinvestment.in))

Apple Releases iOS 4.3.4, Prevents Hacking & Jailbreaking

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 23:10:00 +0530

Apple has released a software update iOS version 4.3.4 for iPhone 4, 3GS, iPad 2, 1, and Pod touch.

The main objective of this version is to prevent the hacking in Apple iOS devices which occurs through malicious pdf file. Another objective is to prevent the jailbreaking which occurs as a consequence of the previous effect.

In previous versions, the iOS devices are easily vulnerable to attacks which happens because of mishandling of fonts embedded in pdf file. It is quite common to download a pdf file through e-mail or web pages. Sometimes the downloaded file may be malicious and there is possibility that the file could inject malware into the iOS device — that gives a chance for the hackers to access the hardware.

Again the previous problem leads to jailbreaking of iOS. (Jailbreaking is the process of hacking the iOS and as a consequence it allows the user to install non-Apple approved software in the Apple device — which makes it less secure.)

Both the problems have been solved by this updated version.

The download will take roughly around 25 minutes. This is due to the fact Apple wants its user to download the entire OS file rather than just the updated one. Once the upgrade has been done, your device will free from any malicious file.

Apple has made many updates in its iOS but this version of iOS will leave a huge impact in the minds of the user. Be risk-free and secure by updating the your iPhone, iPad or iPod to iOS 4.3.4.

Official Direct Download Links for iOS 4.3.4

Update: We can confirm that only untethered jailbreak (Using JailbreakMe 3.0) doesn’t work with this update. However, 4.3.4 has already been jail-breaked using RedsnOw and PwnageTool.

Eight Simple Ways to Plan your Taxes

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 16 Jul 2011 13:24:00 +0530

Eight Simple Ways to Plan your Taxes.

You have got only a few more months to complete this financial year. Very soon you will get a call from your company to submit the proofs for tax saving investments. So why don’t you spend some time on organising your tax plan?

1) Proper Allocation of Annual compensation

Restructuring your salary with some additional components can reduce your tax liability. This restructuring doesn’t require any additional cash outflow. The following components can be efficiently used to reduce your income tax liability.

v Transport allowance to the extend of Rs.800 is exempt

v Medical expenses which are reimbursed by the employer are exempt to the tune of Rs.15000

v Food coupons like sodexo or ticket restaurant are exempt from tax up to Rs.60000

v Individuals who are all living in a rented accommodation can include House Rent Allowance ( HRA ) as a part of their salary

v Leave Travel Allowance (LTA) can be part of your salary as this can be claimed twice in a block of 4 years.

2) Effective Utilization of Tax Exemption

As far as possible utilize the maximum exemptions available under section 80 C, 80 CCF and 80 D. The maximum exemption available under section 80 C is Rs. 100000.

Under this section Rs.100000 investment or contribution can be made in PPF, NSC, Life insurance premium, 5 year FD with banks and Post offices, Mutual Fund ELSS, Principal Repayment of housing loan, and the tuition fees paid for children’s education.

Under Section 80 CCF, you can invest up to Rs.20000 in infrastructure bonds.

Under Sec 80 D, the premium paid towards the mediclaim policies are exempt. The maximum limit of exemption is Rs.15000 and for senior citizens the limit is Rs.20000 and for covering senior citizen parents there is an additional exemption to the extend of Rs.15000.

3) Properly Structure your Housing Loan

The Principal repayment of a housing loan is eligible for a deduction up to Rs.100000. The interest paid on a housing loan is eligible for a deduction up to Rs.150000. If the housing loan is for a sizeable amount, then it is possible that the principal repayment and interest may exceed the specified tax exemption limit. To utilise the maximum tax benefit, an individual can consider going for a joint home loan with his/her spouse or parent or sibling. This will make sure that both the co-owners can claim tax deductions in the proportion of their holding in the loan.

4) Tax Plan in Sync with Overall Financial Plan

You should not do your tax plan in isolation. You need to do it in sync with your overall financial plan. So a tax plan is not only to just save taxes and also it should assist you in achieving your other financial goals like children’s higher education, buying a home or retirement.

5) Avoid Last Minute Rush

In fact the right time to do the tax plan is the beginning of the financial year. If you postpone your tax planning even now and do it in the last minute, then you will not be able to choose the right investment. In the last minute rush, you will be forced to choose a scheme which gives the proof immediately. Is the investment sound and profitable? Is there any other better options? You will not be able to choose the best scheme and you may settle with a mediocre one.

6) Invest Some Quality Time

Before investing your money, you need to invest your time. You need to take some quality time to understand the various tax saving options and compare their benefits and limitations.

7) Check for Future Commitments

Some tax saving options like NSC or ELSS need only onetime investment. Some other tax saving options like PPF, Ulips need periodical investments year after year. You need to be careful in choosing a tax saving scheme where you need to commit for periodical future payments. You need to check on a few things like; do you need such a future commitment? Will you be able to meet the future commitments at ease? The law may change and you may not get any tax exemption for your future payments. Would you consider the scheme irrespective of tax benefit for the future payments?

8) Changed Your Job; Redo your Tax Plan

Did you switch your job in the middle of the financial year? Then you need to redo your tax plan with consolidating the income from both the companies. It is advisable to inform the new company about the income during the particular financial year from the old company. So that your new company will deduct the right amount of TDS. Otherwise you may need to pay extra tax at the end of the financial year.

Whenever you change your job, you need to have a sitting with your financial planner or tax advisor. So that the required changes in your tax plan can be done proactively.

With proper tax planning you can reduce your tax liability; save more; invest better and become wealthier.

A Personal Finance Checklist for Newlyweds

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 19:00:00 +0530

Getting married is one of the most important events in your life. There is so much to consider—the flowers, the jewel, the dress, the venue, the photography—the list goes on. Once you are back from the honeymoon, the daily life of marriage begins and also begins the challenges of managing the finances of a new household with your spouse.

In recent studies, many couples ranked financial matters as one of the most essential factors when it comes to happiness in a marriage. It is one of the key factors causing marital stress.

Money Compatibility

First thing to do is to check how compatible you and your spouse in money management. You may be conservative and your spouse may be aggressive. You may think that the best place to invest is stock market and your spouse may think bank FDs.

You should communicate your money management style to your spouse as well as you need to understand the money management style of your spouse. Both of you need to analyse the merits and demerits of money management style of each other and their own. Then you need to create a mutually agreed combined money management style.

This will be vital to you both throughout your married life to help minimise stress from disagreements about money.

Update Your Records

Change of Address: You could have shifted to your in law’s place or both of you could have shifted to a new place. So you need to make necessary change of address requests to your bank accounts, demat accounts, mutual fund accounts and so on.
Change of Name: Generally the women change their initial or the last name after their marriage. This need to be updated in all the accounts.
Change of Nominee/Beneficiary: You may like to change the nominee to your spouse for the investments, accounts, insurance policies which you have taken before marriage.
Changes in Will: You also need to create a will if you have not created one so far. If you have already a will, then you need to revisit your will now.

Assign Financial Responsibilities

You need to decide, who is going to take care of day to day money management i.e. paying bills, monitoring investments and the like.

Develop a Family Budget

You need to create a workable budget for your family that gives extra money and life. This budget should take into account both of your income, the individual expenses and family expenses.

Create an Emergency Fund

You need to accrue savings for some surprise situations like loss of job, break in job or sudden expenses like a major repair to your car or house. Generally the emergency fund need to be in the range of 3 to 6 month of family expenses.

Insurance Coverage

So far, you may not be having any dependents or less number of dependents. You could not have considered life insurance or take for a less coverage. This is the time to look at life insurance seriously. When I say life insurance, I am talking about only term insurance and not the ULIPs. Ulips have been rejected by the market for its heavy front loaded charges.

Debt Payoff Plan

Suppose, if you are already on debt, you need to create a debt payoff plan. This plan will help you in getting out of debt and staying out of debt.

Spend Smarter and Save More

Spending habits will be different from individual to individual. Both of you need to align your spending pattern and learn how to spend smarter and save more.

When both are working and not having kids yet is the stage you have more income, especially more disposable income. Couples need to be careful and avoid overspending and save as much as possible during this stage. This will ease you out when you have more expenses at the later stage of your life.

Set Combined Financial Goals

Both of you need to spend some quality time discussing about the financial goals like buying a home, international vacation and the like. This is the right time to plan your retirement.

Chalk out a Financial Plan

Once you have set the combined financial goals, then you need to chalk out a financial plan to achieve these goals. You need to take into account growth rate of your income, inflation on your expenses, time set to achieve various goals, rate of return expected from various investment options.

This is slightly a complicated procedure and this plan need to be review periodically. That is why it is better to outsource it. You may seek assistance from a professional financial planner.

To financially succeed, it needs teamwork from both the partners. As a newly married couple, you have enough time and plenty of opportunity. I am sure that with this checklist and the guidance from financial planner, you will reach your life goals together.

Facebook Gets Video Calling and Group Chat

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 6 Jul 2011 23:53:00 +0530

As a kind of reaction to Google+, Facebook just rolled out two features today: group text chat and integrated video chat courtesy of Skype.

The video chat is interesting, because you don't need to download a Skype client—all you do is log in to your Facebook account and start a video chat with anyone on your friends list. It's unclear whether or not you can call an actual Skype user, even though the underlying technology is Skype.

Although they say that there's no client you have to install, like Skype, there actually is a plugin setup process that's, well, essentially like downloading and installing a client, albeit a browser plugin client. The videos pop up in a separate window you can move around your desktop, and you can select the active microphone in the video window without having to restart the call.

To try it now, do this:

Go to the video calling page and enable video chat
Pick a friend to video chat with and open the chat window
Click the video call icon on the top right of the chat window
Wait while the plugin installs
Chat!

Facebook also said that while mobile video chat isn't working now, it will come in the future.

Group chat is basically just how group chats work on any other platform. You start a chat, then start adding additional people to the chat. It takes place in the same Facebook IM window that you've been using for a while.

Video Chat | via Facebook

A step by step guide to first financial plan

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 2 Jul 2011 23:10:00 +0530

Prabu was a college student till yesterday. Today he has got a job. He has changed his costume from T-shirt and jeans to a formal wear with a tie. When he got his first pay cheque, his father advised him to save, his girl friend asked him to take her out on a date, and his friends wanted a party. Prabu was totally confused what to do with his first salary. What are all his actual priorities? Let us help him by laying out a step by step initial financial plan for him.

Get a PAN Card:

PAN Card is an ID card issued by income tax department. This card is useful in filing your Income Tax returns. Apart from this, the PAN card is very much useful in opening a bank a\c, demat a\c, investing in mutual funds and the like. The required documents for getting a PAN card is a passport size photo, address proof and an identification proof. You need to apply with either UTI or NSDL. They are the two approved agencies by income tax department for issuing PAN card.

Personal Accident and Disability Insurance:

Almost every day you can find a news column about road accident. It may be your colleague, your distant relative, your neighbor, your friend, your classmate. The stories of such incidents give us a reminder that the accidents can happen to anyone. The impact of these accidents on ones working life could be huge. Some accidents could reduce our employability temporarily or permanently. Personal accident and disability insurance policies will cover the financial losses arising out of accident and disability.

You need to decide the coverage amount of this policy based on the estimated loss you may suffer because of accident. That is how much loss you may incur from employment temporarily or permanently because of the accident. This will cost you approximately Rs.1500 p.a for a coverage of Rs.10 lakhs.

Health Insurance:

Most people don’t think about health insurance very often. But it comes to mind first when a loved one is sick. Under health insurance, the insurance company pays the medical bills if the insured person becomes sick and hospitalized. Health insurance can protect a family from financial damage in case of severe and serious illness.

If you have a health insurance from your employer, that may not be sufficient. Employer may cover the employee and not his family members. And moreover these policies are not portable and cannot be individualized if you leave the job. Employer provided policies cannot be transferred to another employer in case you switch your job. Also employer provided policies will give you coverage as long as you are employed. Once you retire you may not be having coverage. It is really unfortunate that only after your retirement you need health insurance at the most. If you plan to take a fresh policy after retirement, insurance company will not cover the pre-existing diseases at that point in time. Though your employer provides a health insurance policy it is better for you to take a separate health insurance policy at least with a small amount of coverage.

The coverage amount of the health insurance policy need to be decided based on your health consciousness, your family health history, and the class of hospital you choose for treatments.

Term Insurance:

Generally as a beginner, there will not be any requirement for any life insurance. But if your parents are financially depending on you, then you need to cover yourself with life insurance. As a breadwinner, today you are there for your family to provide a lifestyle. In case of any mishappening to you, your family members should not compromise on their lifestyle. That is why it is advisable to cover yourself with life insurance if you have dependents.

But don’t fall prey for ulips. Go for a pure term insurance policy. These policies give you a high coverage with low premium. The premium for a sum assured of Rs.10 lakhs will cost a 25 year old only Rs.2500 p.a. approximately.

Emergency Reserve:

Once you have completed the above obligations, you need to build an emergency reserve or contingency fund. One aspect of financial planning involves planning for situations where there could be a temporary break in one’s professional income. This could happen, amongst other reasons, due to ill health or could even be self opted. Such planning requires creation of contingency fund. The size of a contingency fund is linked to one’s estimate of what could be the maximum duration of such a break. For instance some people plan for the possibility of a 3 months break, others for 6 months.

This emergency fund gives a psychological security to you. In case you need to quit you r present job and need to search a new one, you can do that comfortably and confidently as you have an emergency fund for the intermediate period. You need not panic. If you have created a contingency fund, in the event of any emergency you need not pre-close your other investments and hence you avoid paying penalty or booking losses.

Tax Planning:

You can save under section 80 C up to Rs.120000. Out of this Rs.20000 need to be invested in the infrastructure bonds and the balance Rs.100000 can be invested in NSC, PPF, insurance premium, and ELSS mutual funds., You can give maximum allocation to ELSS mutual funds, as you are so young and in the beginning of your career.

Other goals:

You may have other goals like buying a laptop, higher studies, and vacation. You need to plan for all these goals. You need to keep in mind two things before deciding an investment. They are your risk tolerance and time horizon. How much risk you are afford to take and psychologically comfortable in taking? When do you need this money back? Based on the answers to these questions you need to choose the right kind of investment plan.

Plan out your work and work out your plan. Normally we don’t plan to fail, but we fail to plan.If you work on your financial plan, when your friends are partying and taking their girlfriends out, you will be definitely going to be retired richer than your friends.

How To Use Google Plus?

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 1 Jul 2011 19:46:00 +0530

Waiting for a Google Plus invite? Google is rolling out the service in waves and you can expect it to become a ubiquitous social option in the coming months. We have been playing with the service since getting invites yesterday and there are a lot of things to like about Google's new social initiative.

Unlike Google's last big invite-only rollout of a social initiative - Google Wave - users will not be confounded on just what the heck you are supposed to with the service when signing up for the first time. From Friendster, Friendfeed, MySpace and Facebook, users are familiar with how a social platform is theoretically supposed to look. At its core level, Plus is not that much different. Yet, there is so much more. How do you get started with Google Plus? Let's break down the nuts and bolts.

Create Your Circles

Imagine the ability to break down Facebook into its various constituent parts and keep them separate from each other as opposed to one giant feed. That is what Google has done with Plus. There is one main stream where all your friends updates show up then the option to see updates from only certain groups like "Work," "Friends" or "Family." This is the essence of Circles.

From the initial interface, you will see four buttons - Home, Photos, Profile and Circles.

The first thing you are going to want to do is set up your circles. Click on the tab and it will bring you to a interface where all of your contacts in Gmail (not just Gmail addresses, but all of your contacts) are listed in a panel on top of the screen. Below is a panel that has your various circles. To add a contact to a circle, drag from the top of the list to the appropriate group. Contacts can be added to multiple circles.

One of the initial problems I had from the circles interface was that I added a couple of "Friends" into my "Work" circle and could not figure out how to get them out. You can do this from the user streams by hovering over the person's name and hovering over "Add to circles" and clicking the appropriate boxes. Yet, from the circles interface, that was not readily apparent. To take people out of a circle, hover above the circle, grab their icon and drag it back into the people plane.

One of the great differentiators between Twitter and Facebook is the "unbalanced" or "balanced" follow. Facebook was initially a two-way follow paradigm - I friend you, you friend me and we see each other's updates. This has been changed with the ability to "like" groups, brands and pages without them following you back. Twitter has always been a one-way follow - I follow you and you do not necessarily have to follow me back.

This line has been blurred in circles. If a person is in your contacts, they can be added to a circle and will get a notification that has happend (but not what circle they have actually been added to). There is also a "follow" circle. Just like Twitter, you can follow people and see their updates without them having to follow you back. As your circles evolve this could allow to track different interests, like Twitter lists.

The Stream and "Bumping"

Once you have set up your circles, go back to the Home screen to see the results. Below the profile picture you will see the choices of stream. You can view your entire stream at once (à la Facebook) or by particular circle.

There are two other options below your circles - Incoming and Notifications. Clicking incoming will bring you to messages that have been sent by people outside of your circles. Notifications will show you when people in your circles have commented on something you have posted, or something you have commented on.

Below the circles and notifications there is a tab dubbed "Sparks." More on that below.

One of the killer features of Gmail, or any Google product, is Chat. It has made its way into Plus and sits in the familiar left-hand, bottom-right portion of the screen that it is found in Gmail. Users with a lot of Circle and Chat contacts will like the ability to enable chat for particular groups. Want to surface friends and family but not acquaintances? Plus will let you do that.

If you are using Plus in a Chrome browser, desktop notifications do not pop up when someone sends you a message like it would in Gmail.

Posting a status update in Plus is not like sending a Tweet or updating Facebook. The core functions of an update are present - photos, links, video and location - but when you hit "share" it doesn't automatically post your message to everybody in your circles. You have the option to decide which circles your update is posted to, from individual groups to all circles, to extended circles, or just a single person.

An interesting feature in the user stream is that conversations will surface back to the top of the feed when subsequent comments are made on a thread. This, according to Google developer Jean-Baptiste Queru, is called "bumping." Google Buzz has this same capability and it was also a feature of FriendFeed.

Photos

Photos in Plus are relatively self-explanatory. Users can update photos from their computers or from their phones, see photos that people in their circles have uploaded. With the Android app, there is a way to upload any photo that you take with your phone straight to Plus, an interesting if slightly disconcerting feature.

When you add a photo, it will prompt you to create an album. Once that album is created it will ask which of your circles you would like to share it with. This is a prime differentiator from Facebook where all of your photos are visible to all of your friends by default (you can change who can view certain photos in Facebook preferences). You can also pick an individual to share photos with instead of an entire circle.

Photo uploading is easy within Plus. Just like adding a picture or an attachment to a Gmail document, you can drag-and-drop from your desktop or click the on the upload button and browse your computer for pictures.

Users can also add photos by posting them in status updates or by uploading them through the Profile tab.

Profile

If you use any Google products and have a Google account, you have a Google Profile. Profiles are unknown to most of the Internet because, until now, it was relatively useless to anyone but Google.

Your Google Profile is now the hub of you Plus experience, the backbone that everything else is built upon. There are six tabs in your profile page - posts, about, photos, videos, +1s and Buzz.

A significant change to your profile page is that there is now a location where your +1s live. Until now, when you clicked +1 on content on the Web, nothing happened. The information was sent to Google and integrated into some type of esoteric search algorithm. Users can now see what people have +1ed through their Google Profile. Unlike the Facebook share/like/recommend buttons, it does not go straight into your stream but rather to the profile page.

Sparks and Hangouts

Hangouts is a new feature rolled out with Plus. Essentially it is an area where your circles or a select group of friends can video chat all on one screen. To start a Hangout, go to the "Welcome" button in the home tab. It will prompt you to start a hangout and invite individuals or entire circles. Up to 10 people can be in a hangout at once and it will be seen in that circle or users' stream.

Sparks is the part of Plus where you can find content on the Web that you are interested in. In the "Field Trial" version of Plus, it looks like Sparks is a randomized version of content and news generated through Google News. Sparks can be a dashboard for things you are interested in on the Web. When you do a search in Sparks, it will predict what you are searching for with a drop down menu (like old Google search, not quite like Google Instant). You can pin particular topics you search for to the Sparks dashboard for quick access.

You can share articles found in Sparks with a share button on the bottom of every article that surfaces in a search. Like everything else in Plus, it can be shared with a specific person, circle, group of circles or the general public.

Google Launches Their New Social Service Google+

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 22:11:00 +0530

If you spend time on Google or any of its services, then you may have seen the new black menu bar. Many wondered if this was just some new design from Google. As it turns out, that black bar is a sign from Google that something big is coming. That something is Google+.

Google+ is the newest of Google’s projects to go into invitation beta. While its not Google’s first run at building a social network, Google+ is probably the most extensive. That doesn’t mean that Google is making a big deal of it yet, however. They are trying to keep it quiet, lest it get the build up to a fail that Wave had. You can take a look at the introductory video here.

From the official blog post, Google+ is really designed around Google itself. Their hope is to redesign the way we share online. They will group people into “Circles”, which you get to organize as you see fit. As of now, it pulls contacts from Gmail or Google Contacts.

Once you have circles set up, you get the ability to interact with those people. You can share images, links, or articles. You can even take advantage of “Sparks”, which will allow you to strike up conversations with people in your Circles. Google + also has a video chat service built in that is called “Hangouts” and a mobile application available for Android devices.

This mobile aspect of Google+ seems vital to the service. Google promises the easiest media uploading of any social media service. They are also advertising the “Huddle” feature, which is similar to texting. unlike traditional text messaging, you use data, similar to BlackBerry Messenger or Beluga.

From what I can tell, the potential for Google+ to be big is there. What remains to be seen is whether or not Google+ will actually be successful. As of now, it is in an invitation only beta. In order to check out any of these features, you need to be invited to that beta. I know i have signed up for it and hope to get in soon. If you want to check it out, you can sign up here.

Why You Shouldn’t Switch Your Email to Facebook

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 19:15:00 +0530

The new Facebook Messages incorporates email, SMS, and Facebook Chat and Messages into one convenient bucket. It's a smart idea, but you should think twice before you consider ditching your current email address for Facebook email. Here's why.

For a counterpoint, check out why you should embrace the new Facebook Messages. Also note: Facebook Messages' email integration is rolling out on an invite-only basis.

Facebook Messages Is Not Email, and Can't Be

The new Facebook Messages may integrate with email, but that doesn't mean it is email. Zuckerberg and company won't argue this point: Although the new Facebook Messages can send emails from your @facebook.com address to any email address, and receive email from any email address sent to your @facebook.com address, it's still not email. In fact, it doesn't want to be. The new Facebook Messages isn't about killing Gmail. It's about extending the reach of Facebook Messages.

Every email someone sends to adampash@facebook.com will go into Facebook Messages as part of a single conversation. If you were to send me several emails at adampash@facebook.com from your email address, I'll see all of those separate emails as one conversation: a conversation between you and me. Separate emails with different subjects are meaningless in Facebook Messages (though subjects sent from email clients outside Facebook are bolded in the conversation).

Point is, you can't use Facebook Messages like email because, while it interfaces with email, it's not email. This isn't necessarily a shortcoming of Facebook Messages; it's exactly how Facebook intends for it to work. But if you use your email for more in-depth conversations (as opposed to quick back-and-forth, chat-style conversations), or you like to communicate with the same person using different threads, it just won't work.

Facebook believes that most conversations with friends are on-the-fly, short, real-time conversations, which is why they're not terribly concerned with making Facebook Messages work like email. All they're doing is making sure it works with email.

You're Putting All Your Communication Eggs in One Historically Walled Basket

If Google had announced a product that similarly integrated SMS, email, and chat in a more convenient one-stop communication shop, a lot of geeks who are completely against the new Facebook Messages would be extremely excited. (It's worth noting that you can currently send email and SMS, chat via GChat or AIM, and make phone calls all from within Gmail's existing interface; the fuller convergence just isn't there.) Photo by Mrs. Logic.

It all boils down to trust. A common problem arises with services that intend to converge separate buckets—in this case, all of your text-based communication. The convenience of one point-of-origin for sending and receiving messages across communication protocols is unquestionably nice, but the tradeoff is that you're putting a lot of eggs in one basket. In this case, the basket is Facebook, and the eggs include email, SMS, and Facebook Chat and Messages. Historically, Facebook hasn't been all that open about letting you get information out of the service.

In a digital world, communication boils down to data, and as such, data portability is an important concept. Facebook has recently opened up a little more, allowing you to download some of your information from the site, but the fact is—if you decide to leave Facebook—the service has never been good at letting you take your ball and play elsewhere.

Facebook has said that they plan to introduce IMAP support for Facebook Messages, which means that you'll likely be able to both send and receive as well as back up your Facebook Messages using a third-party application or service. Sounds promising, but we'll believe it when we see it.

Your Workplace Will Block It

According to a report from last year by DNS service OpenDNS, Facebook was the second most commonly blocked web site on the internet, second to MySpace. You won't find an email provider among that top 10 list.

That doesn't mean that every workplace blocks Facebook or that no workplaces block Gmail, but the prerequisite to communication is access, and a lot of people who can't access Facebook from work can still access their email accounts. In theory, Facebook Messages could get around this problem by sending you messages via SMS, but unless you want to do all your "emailing" from your phone, that's not much of a solution.

The new Facebook Messages is a smart move by Facebook, filled with good ideas and an interesting model for evolving how we communicate with friends. If you rely on email to do anything more complicated than what you can already do over IM, it's also the last thing you should use to communicate.

What do you think of Facebook Messages? Good or bad, share what you think in the comments.

Facebook's New Messaging System Handles E-mail, Chat, SMS, Office Web Apps All In One

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 19:09:00 +0530

Mark Zuckerberg says it's not email. But it might just replace it. Get ready for your @facebook.com address.

Every Ping In One Place

What are the difference between Facebook messages and regular email? It incorporates emails, Facebook messages, SMS, other chat clients. Eventually VoIP may also be in play. Instead of having some chats here and some texts there, every time you talk to someone it'll be come part of a stream of information.

And while you can collect it all at an @facebook.com email address, it's not mandatory. You can redirect your Gmail messages there, for instance. And yes, an iPhone app update is coming shortly that incorporates Facebook Messages.

Notable differences from regular email? There are no subject lines, no CC or BCC. You can send a message just by hitting the Enter key. It's going to feel like chat. A lot of times, it's going to be chat.

Hanging On a Thread

There will also be a threading solution, which records every type of contact you've had with a person in one place. It's a one-stop conversation shop, a way to tell the full story of a conversation.

A Friends-Only Inbox

Facebook will also introduce the Social Inbox, which sorts your personal messages, prioritizing notes from friends and setting aside people you aren't as close with. This is the killer function: as a default, you'll only see messages from your friends (and friends of friends). Junk—from people who are outside of your Facebook circle—will go into a separate folder. And you can move people from one folder to the other (which is nice for those of us whose family doesn't have Facebook). You can also choose to actively bounce any email that's not from a friend.

As much as I enjoy Gmail's Priority Inbox, it can't filter nearly as effectively as Facebook can. That's the advantage of the "social graph" that Facebook can access, and why you're going to want to give this a serious look.

Why It Matters

Zuckerberg insists that this isn't going to be a Gmail killer, and for the time being, at least, he's right. But Facebook's looking towards the future, towards a generation that's steadily and increasingly been abandoning email for instant communication. And the more we abandon email for text and chat, the more Facebook's going to be the communication hub.

The new system puts a user's identity above the communication protocol. Facebook Engineer Joel Seligstein today said, "You decide how you want to talk to your friends...They will receive your message through whatever medium or device is convenient for them, and you can both have a conversation in real time. You shouldn't have to remember who prefers IM over email or worry about which technology to use. Simply choose their name and type a message."

Messages are received in an inbox, but it eschews the conventions of email and Facebook messaging (subject lines, recipient/cc/bcc fields, and such,) and instead turns all conversation into a chat, where the conversation and the person you're conversing with are merged.

So if you and a friend are conversing over Facebook chat, then he switches over to a mobile device, the conversation stays in the same place, except it's being sent through SMS.

It currently handles the four different methods of communication, but as it rolls out, it will also become a sharing and collaboration platform. Microsoft announced today that it is integrating the Office Web Apps experience into Facebook's new messaging system. Users will be able to share Word, Excel, and Powerpoint documents in Facebook messages, and download them to your desktop.

Facebook's new messaging system will be rolled out to different groups of users over the next few months, and will include a new mobile app, and @Facebook.com email addresses for interested users.