In a blog post released yesterday Facebook announced sweeping changes to privacy and sharing settings that Mari Smith, Facebook goddess, refers to as the Google Plusification of Facebook.
Maybe?
The changes, upgrades really, are meant to make personal control over Facebook sharing settings more user friendly. They’ve integrated many of the settings right into status updates rather than placing them several clicks away on a settings page. They’ve improved photo tagging and given you more control over it. For example, you will have the option to approve or reject any photo or post you’re tagged in before the tag hits their status. With that, you can now tag anyone, friend or not, on Facebook. No more scratching your head wondering why you can’t tag a certain person or page in your post. Instead, tag away and let the tagged person decide, via their tagging control options, whether to approve or reject the tag. I’m wondering how annoying this setting will be to folks that are tagged often.
Along with these changes Facebook is adding location tags in status updates, and oh yeah by the way they’re phasing out the mobile Places feature along with the settings associated with it. Now you’ll be able to add a location to anything in the status update itself – another inline setting. There’s plenty of speculation as to whether this move is Facebook admitting defeat to Foursquare in the check in battle and I’ll leave that argument alone here. The important piece is that businesses using Facebook deals attached to Places will still have access to them and it appears as though the deals will be easier to claim
Read more at http://carminemedia.com/2011/08/24/facebook-revamps-privacy-settings-and-by-the-way-places-is-going-away/#ixzz1WPA9ONzF
American teens using social networking sites like Facebook are more likely to smoke, drink, and use drugs, suggests a survey conducted by The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University (CASA Columbia).
The results revealed that among the surveyed 12 to 17-year olds, about 70 percent spend some time on a social networking site on a typical day while 30 percent don't.
The research concludes that when compared to kids that don't use social networking sites on a typical day, kids that do spend their time on such sites are:
Facebook just might be suffering a case of usability envy — at least that’s what some technology pundits are saying.
Much more likely is a case of user-base envy. Instagram, Kevin Systrom’s iPhone-based photo-sharing application, already has seven million users and houses upwards of 750 million digital photos, having only launched on the App Store in October 2010.
Instagram’s popularity has to do with how easy it is to use — making it a snap to gussy up run-of-the-mill photos.
Regardless of what exactly prompted the social network to pay attention to how it handles photographs, Facebook now appears hungry for a piece of the action.
That assumes, of course, that Facebook is in fact going to add photo filters to its own mobile app, as Nick Bilton has suggested in The New York Times.
Facebook has not announced any new photo filter application. But the Times‘ Bilton cites two unnamed engineers at Facebook as allegedly claiming the social network plans to unveil a handful of photo filters. Apparently some of them resemble popular features on Instragram.
Uploading photos to Facebook from a mobile device still requires a patience-testing maze of clicks in a world where time is at a premium and competitors like Google Plus, Flickr and Twitter can do it faster.
But this may soon change.
Bloggers and tech journalists have been brimming with iPhone 5 concepts for quite some time now. From an edge-to-edge display to a slide-out keyboard, the ideas have been endless, if slightly offbeat in some cases. The fine folks at Aatma Studio have put together a small video highlighting some intriguing, but highly unlikely iPhone 5 concepts.
The ultra-thin design has been a long-rumored feature of the next iPhone. Based in part on supposed leaked images from China, the thinner form factor would set it apart from its thicker Android brethren. Of course, this design concept doesn’t seem that farfetched, but it’s just a bit too thin for what we deem possible with current electronics manufacturing considering all the components that need to fit inside. The edge-to-edge display, however, is likely.
Some worry that Facebook's users won't use filters with caution. Gizmodo's Sam Biddle can't bear to seehis beloved app massacred by Facebook's tasteless mainstream users. "Facebook, having stolen MySpace's chair, is the paragon of poor taste. Its users are a globby nebula of tackiness, low brows, and perhaps above all, horrible photos... And there's no more irritating place to superfluously alter photos than this kind of mundane shit pit." Not all Facebook photos are uploaded with the intention to impress your artsy friends, points out Techland's Chris Gayomali. "Instagram's audience tends to be photo savvy; there's an element of competition to take better photos than your friends, and you're not just uploading photos from the bar (although people do)."
But some don't have as much of a problem with the way in which Facebookers would wield their new toy. It's more that they sense filter overload. "As I see it, though, photo filters have moved from clever to cliche. The novelty has worn off, and novelty was the main reason to do it in the first place," argues CNET's Steven Shankland. Sometimes less is more, adds Biddle. "Hipstamatic popularized it, Instagram perfected it--and now Facebook's going to democratize it. Which, great? Isn't making something accessible to everyone a good thing? Yes, when it's malaria medication. Not when it's vuvuzelas."
A lot of you, myself included, have been waiting for Flipboard‘s arrival on the iPhone and it appears that the wait will end in just a couple of weeks as the company’s Chairman and Chief Executive Mike McCue has toldReuters that he expects the app to launch for the iPhone and iPod touch in a ‘few weeks.’
For those unfamiliar with Flipboard, it’s a neat, magazine style way of reading all of your various news feeds from Facebook to Twitter to all of the stuff on your Google Reader RSS feeds. You can then tailor your experience to your liking. It’s fantastic and has been downloaded 3 million times but access to it has been limited.
It has only been available on the iPad.
Read more at http://www.gottabemobile.com/2011/08/25/flipboard-app-for-iphone-launching-in-a-few-weeks/
Yes, there's an app for just about everything these days, but that's not necessarily a good thing if you can't take the time to sort through them all and figure out which ones can really simplify your life. Here are 21 iPhone apps that have made the lives of AOL/Huffington Post female staffers easier. We hope they'll do the same for you.
Technology executives around the world praised Jobs' skills as an innovator and a business leader, but as the dust settles, industry insiders and analysts expect his departure to ratchet up the competition as rivals look for fresh opportunities.
"What this will do is clearly embolden the competitors, because a lot of them think they just can't compete with Steve Jobs," said Rob Enderle, principal analyst with the Enderle Group, whose clients include Apple rivals such as Microsoft, Lenovo and Dell.
As tech companies step up efforts to chip away at Apple's strongholds in consumer electronics, PCs and entertainment, the company will also have to defend its internal ranks from outsiders looking to lure away its top talent.
"Companies lose a lot of their aggressiveness, their culture, their sense of purpose, when the founder steps down," said Michael Cusumano, a professor at MIT Sloan School of Management.
But he said competitors may not be able to truly benefit from the change at Apple for a couple of years. Cook has effectively been running the company since January -- a period during which Apple has thrived. And Jobs, known for his obsessive attention to detail, intends to remain active in his new chairman's role for as long as his health allows.
What's more, analysts say, Apple likely already has a full pipeline of Jobs-grade products that should see it through the next few years.
GREENER PASTURES
Apple's biggest vulnerability in the short term may be its employees. Companies such as Google, whose chief executive Larry Page co-founded the company and is an outspoken advocate of investment in research and innovation, could prove particularly appealing to Apple engineers.
Even Apple nemesis Microsoft may appeal to some Apple employees thanks to efforts such as its xBox video game business, which has many parallels to the media-centric devices made by Apple, noted Mike McGuire, an analyst at industry research firm Gartner.
"These executives inside Apple are some of the most sought after executives in the industry," said one Internet executive who wished to remain anonymous.
If Jobs' influence wanes, many employees may no longer feel as passionately about working for Apple. Others may simply find it tough to resist the promise of a hefty raise or a promotion at a rival company.
"It would shock me if people didn't leave within a year, or six months," said the Internet executive.
Overall though, Apple's culture and work environment are so unique that convincing its employees to leave will be tougher than it seems, said McGuire.
"I'm sure there are lot of those big head-hunting firms who have got their execs booking flights and trying to figure out how they can get involved but I think a lot of them are going to be disappointed," he said.
RISING CHALLENGERS
Jobs' decision to step down comes as Apple is on a roll, with the company delivering blockbuster financial results and Apple challenging ExxonMobil for the title of America's most valuable company.
Last week, Hewlett-Packard Co effectively conceded that it couldn't compete with Apple's iPad and iPhones and pulled the plug on its nascent business producing tablets and smartphones.
But other companies are ramping up efforts. Google's recent move to acquire Motorola Mobility signals the Web search giant's plans to challenge Apple's iPhone more directly by selling its own, home-built smartphones.
Samsung and HTC, which use Google's Android software, are also gaining share in the mobile market.
"Even before Steve Jobs' (resignation), Samsung was getting more and more optimistic that they can actually take on Apple in the smartphone arena," said Mark Newman, a former director of strategy at Samsung, where he worked for six years.
"The game is really now Samsung's to lose ... They are picking up market share because of the change in dynamics in the smartphone industry," added Newman, now a senior analyst for global memory and consumer electronics at Sanford C Bernstein.
