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Facebook addresses user privacy issue

2010-07-03T21:43:00.000-07:00

Facebook, finally responded to the privacy issues that had plagued the social networking giant for a long time. To address this issue, Facebook now requires outside applications and websites to specify the private information they want from the people's online profile. The applications or websites then will have to get permissions from the users for specific data.

Previously, applications such as games and online greeting cards which have been very popular on Facebook were required to get permission to access profile information but without specifying any particular data.

Bret Taylor of Facebook said in his blog,"Today, we're taking the next step by providing more transparency and control over the information you share with third-party applications and websites."

"With this new authorization process, when you log into an application with your Facebook account, the application will only be able to access the public parts of your profile by default."

"The majority of people on Facebook actively interact with applications and Facebook-integrated websites every month," Taylor said.
"In order for these applications and websites to provide social and customized experiences, they need to know a little bit about you."

The move to revamp Facebook's privacy setting is to appease critics and privacy activists who complained that the company was not properly safeguarding the users' personal information and also to give users more control over the use of their personal data.

SudoSocial: the Stream Publishing Platform

2010-06-21T03:04:00.000-07:00

Mozilla labs has launched it's new project sudoSocial, a stream publishing platform. In a nut shell, sudoSocial is a distributed life stream service similar to FriendFeed, Google reader and other similar services that aggregates any content that can send information via RSS feeds.

Developed by Austin King, sudosocial.me is an open-sourced, self-hosted web app that enables you to personalize content and presentation of streams. sudoSocial enables users to get full access to their profile stream such as they can import, export, and delete streams anytime they want.

Users only need an OpenID account to use sudoSocial. After logging in, users can select their preferred streams and also customize the CSS and Javascript. Needless to say, some knowledge and skills in CSS and Javascript is required in order customize the pages.

At its infancy,sudoSocial is not much to look at. Below is a screen shot of the basic page.

sudoSocial is focused on one among the biggest issue of present day social networking - Privacy and control of information.

Edit your videos online using YouTube video editor

2010-06-16T23:06:00.000-07:00

Youtube, has launched a new feature that enables you to edit your videos online and directly publish them to YouTube. The YouTube video editor can help you edit your videos easily, without having to install third party video editing applications. You can try out this new feature on TestTube, a place where YouTube engineers and developers test new features.

YouTube video editor is very easy-to-use and can be used by almost anyone with basic computer knowledge. Some of the highlights of the video editor are :
i. Combine multiple videos to make a longer video.
ii. Trim the beginning or ending of your videos.
iii. Add soundtracks from the AudioSwap library which has thousands of songs to choose from.
iv. Create new videos and publish them to YouTube with just one click.

Check out the videos uploaded by a few YouTube users to get a sense of how it works.

The YouTube video editor is a really great tool for editing your YouTube videos. It enables you to "Broadcast Yourself" better!

Let us know your opinion about Youtube's new video editor.

Google Maps preview of addresses in Gmail and Google Buzz

2010-06-07T21:37:00.000-07:00

Today, Gmail has announced a new feature that makes it easier to see maps of all the addresses you receive in Gmail and Google Buzz. This feature comes in handy to find out the exact location of the addresses that appear in some of the e-mails you receive.

"Google Maps preview in mail" can be enabled from the Gmail Labs tab under Settings. Any time you receive an e-mail containing an address or a Google maps link, this feature will automatically create a preview of that location containing an interactive Google Map.

Currently the feature extracts only US addresses. However, Google is working on making addresses around the world work.

Also, whenever you paste a Google Maps link into the post box in Google Buzz, it will automatically fetch an image preview of that location.

What do you think? Is this feature extremely helpful to you? Let us know.

Customize Your Google Background

2010-06-05T02:22:00.000-07:00

Image via Wikipedia

Google is introducing a new feature that brings the personalization of Google a notch higher. Now, Google lets you add your favorite photo or image as the background of the Google homepage, replacing the plain white default of Google. Photos can be chosen from your computer, your own Picasa Web Album or a public gallery hosted by Picasa which includes a selection of beautiful photos.

According to Information Week, based on an e-mail from Google, customizing Google.com with a background image will not slow the search engine's load time.

For those who want to enjoy the clean, simple look of Google as well as the personalized view, Google made it easy to switch between the customized search page and classic Google.

Customization is done by clicking the a link in the lower left-hand corner of Google.com that says "Add background image".

Google is rolling out the new feature to users in the U.S. over the next few days. Non US users too will be able to enjoy this feature very soon. If the link is not yet visible on your Google search page, check it out again in the coming days.

Firefox 3.6.4 Now Available for Download and Testing.

2010-06-04T20:59:00.000-07:00

Mozilla has announced that the release candidate build for the next version of Firefox (3.6.4) is now available for download and public testing. This release includes features that may protect users from a significant number of browser crashes due to some plug-ins.

With Firefox 3.6.4's Crash Protection feature, Windows and Linux users can enjoy uninterrupted browsing even when there is a crash in the Adobe Flash, Apple Quicktime, or Microsoft Silverlight plugins. If a crash in one of these plugins happens, Firefox will continue to run and users will be able to submit a crash report before reloading the page to try again.

Firefox encourages users to test the Firefox 3.6.4 beta on their favorite sites and report any crashes encountered by submitting their crash report. If no further issues are found or reported, the final release of the Firefox 3.6.4 will be released in a few weeks.

Top 5 must have iPhone apps

2010-05-29T08:07:00.000-07:00

Image via Suberapps

The App Store is one place where you can find lots of apps for your iPhone. Some of them are free whereas some come with a price tag (you can try "jailbreaking" if you don't wanna pay). But with so many apps available, it becomes difficult to choose.

To help you out, we cut through the clutter to bring you the some of the must have apps for your iPhone.

1. Facebook - With this app iPhone users will be able to stay connected and share information with friends, start a conversation with Facebook Chat, check your friends' latest photos and status updates, look up a phone number, or upload your mobile photos from anywhere, anytime. This app has been specially optimized for iPhone.

2. Gorillacam - This app was once selected by New York Times for their Gadget App of the Week (Dec. 22, 2009). From the maker of the Gorrilapod (a small tripod with articulated legs), this application comes with several features that improves the capabilities of your iPhone's camera considerably.

Some of the features of the app are :

Self-timer - Enables you to take timed photos. You can set the timer from 3 seconds to 90 seconds.
Three-shot burst mode - Lets you take three frames in quick succession;
Time-lapse - The time lapse feature lets you take up to 200 sequential photos on a timer.
It also offers a bubble level and a grid view, perhaps to entice you to use the Joby tripod, and also the “press anywhere” feature that means you only have to touch the screen to take a photo, rather than seeking out the small shutter button.

3. Pushr - This app is particularly useful for Flickr users. Pushr allows users to take the images from the cam app and upload them directly from your iPhone to your Flickr account.

Pushr allows users to edit the name, description, tags and privacy options before they upload the photo to Flickr. It also enables you to upload multiple photos at a time.

4. Dropbox - Dropbox is the easiest way, not only to back-up your files but also, to share your files online and across computers. Dropbox iPhone app enables you to share your files directly from your iPhone.

With this app, iPhone users can enjoy the following features:

Access their Dropbox on the go
Download files for offline viewing
Sync photos and videos to their Dropbox
Share links to files in their Dropbox

5. Fring - Fring's free VoIP caller, enables you to talk to your friends on Skype, SIP, Windows Live Messenger, Google Talk, ICQ and more. The 3G version has just improved the capabilities of the app.

Got any app that deserves a place in this list? Let us know.

Google Buzz for mobile now supports more devices

2010-05-27T21:34:00.000-07:00

Today, Google have released an XHTML version of the Buzz website which can be accessed from many mobile devices, including those running Android pre-2.0, Blackberry, Nokia S60, and Windows Mobile. When Google Buzz for mobile was first launched, it was only available for devices running Android 2.0+ and iPhone.

Visiting buzz.google.com from your mobile browser takes you to the Google Buzz login page. Once logged in you will be able to view the stream of buzz posts, post publicly or privately, comment, like and much more. BlackBerry users can also enable location through the browser settings. This allows you to get to the nearby view, where you will find geo-tagged posts near you.

Android pre 2.0 devices can now run the same web app as the newer versions of Android or simply switch to the XHTML version if necessary.

Google Buzz is now available in 37 languages through buzz.google.com and can also be accessed through mobile devices that do not support HTML5 capabilities. So, keep buzzing people! :)

WordPress Turns 7

2010-05-27T21:01:00.000-07:00

Image via Wikipedia

The world's most popular blogging platform, WordPress, turns 7 today. WorPress was launched seven years ago by Matt Mullenweg. At that time, Xanga and LiveJournal were the most popular ones in the blogospehere.

WordPress was launched with nothing more than a vision and the phrase "Code is Poetry". After seven successful years, WordPress has grown to be the most popular and one of the best blogging platforms that is now trusted by millions of users.

Over the years, WordPress had done several improvements that led to huge expansion in it's user base. WordPress is also expected to release WordPress 3.0 in the near future.

Thank you WordPress for bringing us one of the best publishing platforms.And once again, Happy Birthday! :)

Pixlr lets you edit your images online

2010-05-27T11:54:00.000-07:00

Online photo editing sites are gaining lot of popularity these days. Online photo editing tools gives you certain advantages that desktop tools don't provide such as easy access from any computer, no need to install bulky softwares etc. They really come in handy for quick editing of images.

Pixlr.com is one among the most popular online image editors. It has a very friendly user interface (UI) that looks very much like Photoshop. In fact, the first time you see Pixlr.com’s photo editor you will see a lot of similarities between the two, particularly if you look at the Toolbox, Adjustment menus, the layer features and the filters.

Pixlr lets you create images as well as edit photos from your computer or from the web. It provides you a lot of image editing options such as filters, layers, image adjustments, auto levels, brightness & contrast and more. Even though it is not as powerful as a good desktop photo editing tool like Photoshop, it surely does have some features that is quite useful for editing images quickly and adding nice effects in just a click of a button.

Features
•    Speed – The image editor loads in less then 5 seconds.
•    User friendly – It has a very simple to use interface.
•    Multiple Image Editing – Pixlr enables you to work on multiple pictures by opening them in separate windows.
•    Maximize/Restore button – Just like a regular Windows application, you can maximize/restore the window you are working on.

Image editing tools
•    Red Eye Reduction – Enables you to remove the red eye that appears in certain digital images.
•    Color Replace – This tool enables you to replace the color of the image with the selected palette. It uses the center of the brush as a reference for the replace color
•    Bloat and Pinch tools - The name itself indicates what this tool can do. It is really fun to use them on faces.

Image filters
Pixlr image editor provides you with lots of filters to choose from. A few of them are:
•    Scanlines
•    Halftone
•    Pixelate
•    Pointinize
•    Kaleidoscope
•    Vignette
•    Old Photo
•    Art Poster
•    Heat Map
•    Color Lookup

Pixlr provides you with a lot more features to help edit your images easily. Check it out for yourself @ pixlr.com

Top 10 Firefox add-ons for Bloggers

2010-05-26T03:49:00.000-07:00

Image via ExpeditusMedia.com

Firefox is one among the most preferred browser for many. Apart from its speed, and robust security features, one of the main reasons that Firefox rules over its competitors is the rich number of add-ons that provides solutions to the different types of Internet users.

For bloggers, Firefox offers a variety of add-ons that could make blogging much easier and more convenient. We bring you some of the top firefox add-ons that can really change the way you blog.

1. ScribeFire - is a full-featured blog editor that integrates with your browser. ScribeFire enables you to drag & drop preformatted text directly from the page your are browsing, upload images, and also post to multiple blogs. It also allows you to edit your existing blog posts and work on multiple posts with its tabbed editing feature.

2. Deepest Sender - This add-on enables you to post to blogs directly from your Firefox browser. It is primarily a LiveJournal client, but supports Blogger and WordPress too. With Deepest Sender, you can post tags, userpics, moods, location, and even music. Some of it's additional features include support for editing old posts, spell check, switching between multiple accounts, and also a WYSIWYG editor.

3. Zemanta - Zemanta expands your blogging or email dashboard and provides relevant suggestions to the current text. It recommends images, links, related articles and tags related to the current text in a simple interface. It enables you to add these to your content with just a click. Zemanta supports Wodpress, Blogger, TypePad, Movable Type, Ning, Drupal, LiveJournal, Tumblr and email platforms Google Mail and Yahoo!Mail.

4. Apture - This is another must have add-on for bloggers. It enables you to add pictures and videos to your blog with just one click. While editing your blog post, you can easily use Apture to search for and embed relevant digital media related to your subject from over 50 sources on the Internet.

5. eLert Blog - With eLert Blog, you can post to your favorite social networks and blog platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, WordPress, Blogger,.. all from one easy to use interface. It can monitor selected sites for updates and alerts the user if it finds any.

6. Easycomment - Easycomment fills out blog comment forms automatically. It works on almost all commenting platforms. It automatically fills in the appropriate fields and focuses on message box. You need not worry about filling in your personal details, all you have to do is compose the comment.

7. Copy As HTML Link - This is a simple but effective add-on. It creates an HTML link to the current page using the selected text and copies it into the clipboard for pasting into other applications. >

8. Amplify - This add-on lets you clip parts of articles and blog posts you read on the web, add your own take to it and autopost it directly to Twitter, Facebook, Ping.fm and more. All you need is a twitter or Facebook account to login. It also supports Google Reader.

9. Snap shots for Firefox - This add-on enables you to see the a preview image of whatever site a link points to. It also provides you a host of other features like inline previews of audio, video, map, products, profiles, RSS, Wikipedia summaries and much more.

10. ShareThis - ShareThis allows you to share anything on the web with with your friends on 45+ social sites in just a snap. In addition to this, you can also keep track of the top trending shares by sites and automatically save content to ShareBox.

Know any other add-ons that deserves a place in the list? Let us know.

Enjoy your favorite Pacman whenever you want

2010-05-24T07:15:00.000-07:00

A few days ago to celebrate the 30th birthday of Pacman, Google featured a new doodle on their search page. The most fascinating thing about this doodle was that you could actually play the game right on the search page.

Lots of people who enjoyed the game were disappointed to see that the game was no longer available on the search page. Due to popular demand, Google has now made Pacman permanently available at http://www.google.com/pacman. You can now enjoy your favorite Pacman anytime you want.

You can now play a two player game by clicking on the "Insert Coin" button. People who find the sound annoying, can mute it by clicking on the sound icon.

This doodle is one among the best Google doodle ever made. Don't you think so?

Seesmic for iPhone launched

2010-05-22T06:19:00.000-07:00

Seesmic has finally launched an iPhone version of it's popular social networking app. Seesmic for iPhone enables you to manage multiple social networks including Facebook, Twitter, Ping.fm, MySpace and many more. One of the best feature of this app is it's ability to post to multiple social networks at once.

Seesmic for iPhone enables you to customize your Dashboard according to your needs. It allows you to configure multiple pages of spaces and also add spaces for accounts, trending topics, searches, lists and many more.

Seesmic's integration with evernote enables you to save important messages and updates. Seesmic also allows you to to share updates by email and upload photos to the most popular photo upload service of your choice. Location based updates too are available.

Seesmic for iPhone is available for free and can be downloaded through the iTunes App Store. It is also compatible with iPod Touch and iPad running iPhone OS 3.0 or later.

Search more securely with Google

2010-05-21T19:55:00.000-07:00

Google announced today that it is rolling out a new secure search at https://www.google.com. Basically, Google is extending it's SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) support to Google search. The SSL encryption feature was added to Gmail and Google Docs products years ago.

SSL connections encrypt the information traveling between your computer and the website. They are usually recognized by a web address that starts with a "https" or a browser lock icon. This technology is used by many websites including online banking sites and e-commerce websites.

What does secure search mean?
Searching on https://www.google.com creates a secure connection between you and Google. This helps protect your search terms and your search results page from being intercepted by a third party on your network.

The service includes a modified logo that helps you identify that you are searching using SSL. But as always, never forget to check the address bar for a "https" and the browser lock.

Google SSL Beta
The secure search service has been currently launched in the beta mode. This is because it covers only the core Google web project. Hence, while searching using SSL, you won't find links to offerings like Image search and Maps, for the most part does not support SSL at this time. However, Google will continue to add SSL encryption features to other search offerings too.

Since, SSL connections requires additional time to set up the encryption between your browser and the remote web server, your search over SSL will be slightly slower than regular Google search.

Drag your images directly into Gmail

2010-05-11T21:28:00.000-07:00

Image via CrunchBase

Gmail, had previously launched a feature that enabled you to drag attachments from your computer directly onto Gmail.

As an addition to this, Gmail is now launching a new feature, that allows you to drag images from your computer directly into a message. You don't have to enable the insert image lab for it work. It also allows you to resize the inserted image. This feature really comes handy as all you got to do is, drag the image into the message, resize (if needed) and send.

Currently, this feature works only in Google Chrome. Other users need not be disappointed as it will soon be launched on other browsers too!

Read more on this here.

Lockerz is NOT a SCAM!

2010-05-07T10:41:00.000-07:00

Last week, TechWiz, conducted a poll to find out if Lockerz is a scam or not. (Read the old post here). The response to the poll was really amazing.

At first, majority of people voted in for Lockerz being a scam. As the poll was open for a week, many people started voting in and it was very difficult to decide whether Lockerz is a scam or not, as there were equal no of votes for both. Until the last day, the votes were almost equal. The result was a real suspense.

We would like to thank all the people who had voted in the poll. You have really helped the people who are new to Lockerz and helped them decide if it is worth joining the site. Here are the final results of the poll.

Final Verdict
Lockerz is NOT A SCAM! It does give you all those amazing gifts you see in the Redeem section. All the PTZ you collect by watching videos, logging in, answering the dailies, etc. does not go waste. All you got to do is collect as many as PTZ you want & wait for the redemption date. Once, the redemption is open, go to ptzplace.lockerz.com as fast as you can & redeem your prize. That's it! :)

If you have anything to say, please feel free to use the comments section.

Watch Lockerz Play videos unavailable for your geographic region

2010-05-01T05:28:00.000-07:00

Lockerz International users have problem viewing certain videos like Robotech Macross Saga, Bunnies etc. Trying to view these videos gives you an error stating "This video is not available for your geographic region".

This is not fair, as International users will not get the opportunity to increase their PTZ. In this tutorial, I will show you how you can watch the videos that are not available for your geographic region.

Basically, you need to find a US proxy IP that changes your IP address and makes Lockerz believe that you are from the US. Here's how to do it :

Find a Proxy IP
Go to www.hidemyass.com then click on IP:Port Proxies tab. In the Sort By click on United States(US). For better connection, choose an IP which gives you good speed. Note down the IP Address and the Port. (See images below)

Set your browser to use the proxy IP
To use the proxy IP you need to adjust some settings in your browser. Setting the proxy IP is almost similar in all browsers. In this post, I will provide you the detailed instructions for Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome.

Mozilla Firefox
Windows - Go to Tools -> Preferences -> Advanced -> Network.
Linux/Ubuntu - Go to Edit -> Preferences -> Advanced -> Network

In the Network tab, click on Settings. (It appears under the Connection sub-heading). Then click on Manual Proxy Configuration. In the HTTP Proxy and Port field enter the corresponding proxy IP address and Port no.

Click on OK. That's it. You're done! Go back to Lockerz and enjoy the videos!

Google Chrome
Click on the spanner icon that appears at the right end of the address bar. Then click on Options. Go to Under the Hood tab. Click on Change Proxy Settings under the Network sub heading. Then Click on Manual Proxy Configuration.

In HTTP Proxy and Port enter the corresponding proxy IP address and port number that we found in step 1. Click on Close. That's it. You're all set to watch Lockerz Play videos unavailable for your region.

Remember, this trick may not work forever. Lockerz may find out a way to protect against using proxy IP addresses. Until they find out a method, watch as many as videos you can. ;). If they upgrade their protection, we sure will find out some other hacks for you. :)

Do you think Lockerz is a SCAM? [Poll]

2010-04-30T01:05:00.000-07:00

Lockerz is an invite only site where you earn PTZ for watching videos, logging into the site daily, answering a few questions etc. You can exchange these PTZ for cool rewards. Some of the most tempting prizes are iPad, iPod Touch, PSP, PS3, Nintendo Wii etc.

To make the redemption process a bit difficult, Lockerz allows you redeem prizes only once or twice a month. The redemption date will not be pre-announced. Redemption will take place only for a few hours during which users can redeem the gift they want. As there are limited no of prizes the redemption will be on a first come first serve basis.

Many people believe that Lockerz is a scam. It may be due to their failure in redeeming the prizes or suspension of their account. Whatever the reason maybe there are a lots of people who believe it is a scam.

Let's have a poll to decide whether Lockerz is a SCAM or NOT. People who support or do not support Lockerz can cast their vote in the poll below. Based on the majority of votes the final results will be announced. The Poll will be open for one week. So, share this page with your friends and let them voice their opinion too. The Final result of the Poll will be announced in one week i.e on May 7th.

The Poll has now been closed. Check out the results here.

Have anything to say? Use the comment form to voice your opinion.

Lockerz videos now work on Ubuntu/Linux

2010-04-24T08:05:00.000-07:00

Good news for Lockerz users, as Lockerz videos now work on Ubuntu/Linux. Previously, Lockerz users had a hard time getting the "Play" videos to work on Ubuntu/Linux. While trying to play the videos, the screen used to stay black, without playing the videos. This prevented them from getting PTZ.

Many people also found alternatives to it i.e. using Firefox with Wine. This solved the problem as Wine would create a Windows environment, allowing the videos to play. But people who didn't know about Wine, either thought of switching their OS or quit using Lockerz.

Foursquare for BlackBerry version 1.8.2 now available for download

2010-04-21T09:19:00.000-07:00

It's good news for BlackBerry users, as Foursquare for BlackBerry version 1.8.2 is now officially available for download. Foursquare for Blackberry was launched a few months ago. It lacked a few features, which have been covered up in this version.

Some of the features of version of 1.8.2 are :

Updates user interface, giving you a unified look and feel.
Places screen now includes a prominent search at the top.
Have a look at your check-in history from the "Me" section.
Connection support have been improved for a variety of carriers.
Quickly see your friends from the "Friends" page and discover new ones from your user profile page.
Based on user feedback from users, other small tweaks and fixes have also been made.

Download your copy of Foursquare for BlackBerry version 1.8.2 at http://foursquare.com/blackberry

People who do not know what foursquare is, here's a brief info.

Foursquare is a location based social networking game. Foursquare introduces a new concept of "checking-in". Checking in is updating your location status. You can check-in from a bar, restaurant, museum,park etc. By checking-in Foursquare tells you which of your friends are in the nearby locations.

Most Foursquare check-ins earns you points. If you check-in to a venue frequently, you become the mayor of that place. You also get badges for checking-into interesting place. For example, staying out late on a school night or frequenting too many karaoke bars. Some of the badges are Superstar, Local, Super Mayor and Crunked.

You also receive special rewards by being the mayor, checking in a certain number of times, or simply showing up. Rewards include half-off drinks, free admission, etc.

Foursquare is available on iPhone, BlackBerry, Android, Palm and other devices.
Learn more about foursquare at http://foursquare.com/

Facebook shuts down Facebook lite

2010-04-20T09:07:00.000-07:00

Image via CrunchBase

Facebook just announced that, Facebook Lite, an ultralight version of Facebook, has now been closed down. Facebook lite was criticized by many, to be an imitation of the famous social networking site, Twitter.

Facebook's status update regarding the closure of the site read :

Thanks to everyone who tried out Facebook Lite. We're no longer supporting it, but learned a lot from the test of a slimmed-down site. If you used Lite, you'll now be taken to the main Facebook.com site.

Facebook Lite was launched last September, to serve dial-up users and those in countries with slower connections. As the site has now been closed, it redirects users to main Facebook home page.Another Lite version of Facebook, Facebook Zero, had been announced last February at the Mobile World Congress. Reports say that, many people are not able to access the site and are having lots of problems.

The shut down of Facebook Lite, will be a problem for slower connections as, there is no news regarding alternatives for slower connections and dial-up users so far.

Microsoft's Political Platform : Microsoft Town Hall

2010-04-19T23:25:00.000-07:00

Image via CrunchBase

Microsoft unveiled a new platform for technological development i.e, the politics. Microsoft came up with a new crowdsourcing system hosted on Microsoft Azure called the "Microsoft Town Hall", a software that enables you to easily create a destination for people to voice their opinions, identify problems and also offer solutions.

Town Hall aims at candidates and politicians as well as political interest groups. It creates a social media-rich site which provides a platform for gathering information, expressing opinions, creating a place where visitors can make queries, vote on political issues, post and also respond creating healthy community conversations.Town Hall is a part of Microsoft's Initiative called Campaign Ready.

Town Hall is currently available for the PC and Microsoft. It will also be available on iPhone, iPad, Google Android and Windows Phone 7 in the coming months.The Town Hall software can be downloaded free of charge.

Quinghai Earthquake Imagery by GeoEye!

2010-04-19T20:17:00.000-07:00

A powerful earthquake hit the province of Quinghai on Tuesday, April 13th causing the loss of 1700 lives. Using GeoEye, Google has captured high-resolution images to explain about the magnitude of the earthquake.

An International team, including Chinese Googlers are working over creating crisis-response pages which include the following resources :

1) The China person finder tool, helps find people who may have been affected due to the calamity. It is available in Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese and English and is also available on mobile.
2)Google News and Real time search, which includes features to post to social networking sites like twitter.
3)My Map, which enables the users to provide information about Quinghai and to provide data of the rescue efforts.

More about this on Official Google Blog.

Top Social Networking Add-ons for Firefox..!

2010-04-16T01:05:00.000-07:00

Image via LatPro.com Network

Social Networking is one of the best ways to stay connected with your friends, family, business associates etc.. But when you have multiple social networking accounts, it becomes difficult to manage them..

There are lots of add-ons for firefox that helps you manage your social networking accounts.. We, at TechWiz, have selected some of the top add-ons for firefox, that simplifies your online social life..! :)

1. Twitter Bar - Twitter is one of the most famous social networking sites, with millions of users tweeting everyday.. TwitterBar is an add-on that helps you tweet directly from your Firefox address bar.. This add-on is simple and easy-to-use.. Type anything you want in the address bar, and click on the small twitter icon on the right of your address bar to post your tweet.. You can also post to multiple twitter accounts using this add-on..

2. Yoono - When it comes to managing accounts on multiple social networking sites, Yoono is just the best add-on for you.. Yoono is an all-in-one add-on for managing your social networking, mails, and also IM's.. Yoono appears as a sidebar in your firefox window.. It supports Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, LinkedIn, Flickr, Friendfeed, AIM, Yahoo! IM, Gmail, Google Talk, Yahoo! Mail etc.. You get a pop-up when your friends tweet anything.. It also helps you update your status or share links,images,videos across all your social networks simultaneously (You can also select which one to update and which not to).. It enables you to chat with all your IM contacts, directly from your browser and also simultaneously browse the web..

3. Facebook Toolbar - This add-on integrates facebook into your browser.. You get a pop-up when your friends update their status, write a note or interact with you on facebook.. The icons on the toolbar indicates the new pokes, messages and friend requests.. The toolbar also enables you to share the page you are currently browsing.. It also allows you to upload photos, search facebook, and also connect with your friends..

4. Echofon for Twitter - Echofon adds a tiny status bar icon, that notifies you instantly when your friends post tweets.. It also enables you to post your tweets and view updates in a timeline.. It handles all standard twitter tasks such as tweeting, direct messages,retweets and mentions..This plugin also supports multiple accounts and syncing with your iPhone.. Compared to Twitter bar, this plugin not only allows you to post updates but also enables you to get updates from your friends, manage direct messages,etc..

5. Boost for FaceBook -This add-on helps you customize your facebook experience, by enabling you to create a custom facebook page,selecting your own theme, and much more.. It is loaded with features like autopoke, EZPoke, skins, rollover images for full size view, one click poke, auto refresh, download FB videos, shorten FB window titles, move birthdays, pokes and events to top of the homepage and much more..

6. Power Twitter - Power Twitter adds features to the Twitter web interface.. Some of the features include inline media, link expansion, link translation to page titles, link shrinking, FaceBook status updates, custom settings, photo uploading and much more..

7. Shareaholic - This add-on enables you to share interesting web pages using Facebook, Twitter, Email, Gmail, and 100+ supported services.. This is one among the top bookmarking and sharing tool..

If there are any other social networking add-on you like, please let us know.. :)..

TechWiz Review - Lockerz.com..!

2010-04-14T04:42:00.000-07:00

Wanna get cool rewards for what you usually do online..?? Join Lockerz.com.. Lockerz is a web site where you get points for watching videos, logging in and also answering a few questions.. You can exchange these points for exciting rewards.. Here's a brief review on Lockerz.com..

Lockerz is an invitation only website where members earn points for watching videos posted on the site, logging onto the site daily and also answering questions..

A screenshot from Lockerz..!

Earn PTZ

Everyday, one question will be posted in the Dailies.. Currently, you earn 2 PTZ for answering the Dailies.. For earning more PTZ you can watch the videos posted and also invite your friends..

You earn 2 PTZ for :

Logging in
Answering the dailies
Inviting your friends
Watching videos (2 PTZ for each video)

On special days, you can earn double PTZ i.e 4 PTZ for watching videos.. Lockerz will soon be adding more ways to earn PTZ..

Lockerz Play Screenshot

Redeem

Once, you have accumulated a certain no of PTZ you can redeem it for the reward you want.. There are lots of items you can redeem.. Some of the hottest redeemed items are : Apple iPad, iMac, MacBook Pro, iPod Touch and many more.. Of course, you require a lot of PTZ to redeem these..There are many other items you can redeem..

How to Redeem..?

Many People seem to have a confusion regarding the Redemption.. So let me explain the redemption process.. Once, you have accumulated the PTZ, you can redeem the gift you want.. You cannot redeem the prize if the PTZ you have accumulated is less than the PTZ required for the item.. The day of redemption will not be pre-announced.. (Lockerz had a problem during one of the redemptions due to high traffic.. So, they have decided not to pre-announce the redemption date..)

As soon as the redemption starts, you will get an update in the hallway.. Once the redemption starts log on to http://ptzplace.lockerz.com.. Enter your log in details and redeem your prize.. As there are only a limited number of items, you should make sure you redeem the prize as soon as the redemption starts..

So, finally here are a few tips for you :

Log on to site the daily to get login PTZ
Answer the Dailies
Watch Videos
Invite your friends
Always check the hallway for updates on redemption and other things.
DO NOT CHEAT!! Please do not cheat as this will result in account suspension.

For those who need invites to Lockerz.com, enter your email in the comment section and we will send you the invites as soon as possible..

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