Voice Updates For Facebook Offered By Aircel

If you are bored of updating status through text messages , then Aircel has something new to offer. All Aircel subscribers can now perform 'voice updates' for their Facebook status by simply calling 51555. The end result won't be a speech to text translation or anything, because let's face it, that would be a utter disaster given our varied accents. Instead, the message will appear as a audio recording on your wall, which your friends can listen by just clicking it. The reason for such a feature would probably be the low percentage of smartphone users in India. 

Compared to Europe and the US, smartphone adoption is still at a nascent stage here. Many people would like to update their status but may find smartphones a bit intimidating. That's where Aircel's initiative comes in. This is a far simpler way of updating your status by simply calling a number rather than subscribing for a GPRS plan and then buying a decent enough phone in order to access the Facebook app. 

Whether other countries get a similar update still remains to be seen, but it's certainly a novel idea to make Facebook accessible to the masses while on the move.

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Over 750 million photos uploaded on Facebook in this New Year

Facebook popularity is growing day by day . If you needed more proof of its popularity, here it is. Over the New Year s weekend, Facebook users uploaded over 750 million photos. This little tidbit of information comes from Facebook's marketing director (and founder Mark Zuckerberg s sister) Randi Zuckerberg through one of her tweets. To put things into perspective, over a 100 million images are uploaded on Facebook on an average day. This goes to show how important a part have social networking websites such as Facebook become of people's lives. These days, it seems as if photos are taken with the sole intention of sharing them over Facebook, instead of the way it was before, where people took pictures so they can look back at those memories at a later date and cherish them again. Ah, those were the days

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HTC Desire Z Coming Soon To India

Flipkart, the Online Bookstore website is getting pre-order for HTC Desire Z handset. HTC Desire Z has a 3.7-inch WVGA touchscreen at a picture resolution of 480×800 pixels. It is powered by 800 MHz Qualcomm MSM7230 processor and 512 MB RAM and runs on Android 2.2 Froyo OS.

This handset is designed for heavier textures and regular emailers and syncs with multiple email accounts including Gmail, Hotmail and Yahoo as well asMicrosoft Exchange ActiveSync. HTC desire Z has other features likeAdobe Flash 10.1, 5 Megapixel camera with AF features, DLNA sharing support that lets you stream media file. It also support face recognisation feature, and is a capable of recording High Definition Video at 720p resolution.

Desire Z offers connectivity option like 3G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and USB and supports 14.4 Mbps of download speed with HSPA+ network. Desire Z also supports HTC sense User Interface layered that can be used with the HTC sense.com site.

Features of HTC Desire Z:

• OS: Android 2.2( Froyo)
• Processor: 800 MHz Qualcomm  MSM7230
• Connectivity: Bluetooth /GPRS/EDGA/3G/Wi-Fi
• Camera: 5MP with Flash & AF
• Advanced Feature: A-GPS/DLNA/HTC Sense
• Keypad: QWERTY Keyboard
• Battery:  Li-on 1300 MAh
• Talk time: 400Mins on 3G/590Mins on 2G
• Standby Time: 430hrs on 3G/ 430hrs on 2G

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Mercury Launches Maestro, Tabla Handsets

Mercury has introduced 2 new mobile phones - Maestro and Tabla - in the entry-level segment. Music lovers who like to use their phone as a portable music player they will be happy to know that Maestro packs has a Yamaha Amplifier, while the Tabla promises that it has 3D Surround Sound quality. Both the phones will be available for less then 3000 rupees only ; the Maestro will cost Rs. 2990, while the Tabla will cost Rs. 2800. 

The new Maestro has a 2.2-inch Bright Light LCD with 1.3 megapixel camera with FM and Bluetooth. Use the expandable memory slot to add memory card for loading more music and stuffs and play it on the speakers powered with Yamaha Amplifier.

The Mercury Tabla comes with a 2.4-inch TFT Display along with 1.3MP Digital Camera. Music lovers can expect some surround sound experience with 3D Surround Sound with FM and MP3 player. The handset also offers GPRS and WAP connectivity for the chat using EBuddy, and social networks like Facebook,Orkut,Twitter.

No one looks at the sub-Rs. 3000 segment for a media feature-rich phone and that's where these two Mercury phones  positioned themselves. 

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Facebook Might Launch Project Titan to Jab Gmail

Facebook has reportedly sent out invitations for a special invite-only event to be held on November 15 at St. Regis Yerba Buena Terrace in San Franscisco, US. Michael Arrington, founder and co-editor of TechCrunch is betting that Facebook will unveil a new web-based email client codenamed Project Titan at this event. Internally, Project Titan is referred as "Gmail Killer" and is said to bring email address backed by @facebook.com domain name. Do you think Facebook can take over something as big as Gmail? Well, probably not but read on.

Earlier this month, Google had updated its API Terms of Service that allowed easy export as well as import of Contacts to a service or application only if the same is reciprocated. In a way, Google shut down Facebook's access to pull contacts from Gmail to protect the user data. To battle that, Facebook came up with a work around to download Gmail contacts as CSV files and then upload it to Facebook. Google wasn't happy with Facebook's move and criticized Facebook for not letting users get their Friend Lists and email addresses out of Facebook. 

This is not the first time both companies stood against each other for Friends/Contacts exchange matters. Back in 2008, Facebook suspended Google Friend Connect as the latter started re-distributing user information from Facebook to other third party developers without any user knowledge. Looks like that wound didn't heal even after more than two years have passed. But in a way, Google is correct for not letting a service simply take away Gmail contacts and not offering something in return to Google. All Google is asking Facebook to do is to let users pull out Contacts and Friends from Facebook to Gmail. Practice what you preach.

Now, to respond back to Google and kill the whole data protection issue, Facebook is rumored to launch its own email service with @facebook.com domain. It's pretty unlikely to kill Gmail but if Facebook launches its own email service, it would be interesting to see how other popular web-mail service providers react.

Facebook chat integration in several mobile apps has certainly made many Facebook users happy. But when Facebook Chat is used in the web interface, it's not that comfortable to use. Though the invitation obviously points that a new email/messaging service is on the anvil, I think Facebook might give a facelift to its Chat service. A much deserved facelift for users who have thousands of known and unknown friends. If Facebook chat is revamped with the ability to share photos, links and files, it will actually lead to loads of users remaining logged into Facebook for longer hours.

However, as of now, we have no confirmation on Facebook's deal. We've got to wait till November 15 for Facebook's official announcement.

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FarmVille out on Apple iPad

Habitual farmers now need not rue the absence of Zynga's wildly popular FarmVille on the iPad, because it's out now for free on Apple's app store. This port to iPad comes after the release for the iPhone platform in June this year, where it was very successful. Even that would work on the iPad but this version is HD and customized to be played on the iPad.

The gameplay is the same as it is on the Facebook as well as the iPhone version, albeit with a touch interface tailored for the iPad. According to Zynga, push notifications will be used to alert farmers to the health of their crops.

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Facebook Password Will Self-Destruct in 20 Minutes

Facebook has unveiled new measures to keep members secure when they log into its site.

One is a temporary password; another is letting people sign out of Facebook remotely. Finally, it will also now regularly prompt members to update their security information.

"Our new features are aimed at protecting people who log in from devices they don't own as well as helping people who lose access to an account get it back quickly," Facebook spokesperson Simon Axten told TechNewsWorld.

How the Temp Password Works

Facebook members must have first listed a mobile phone number in their account information if they want to use the temporary password feature, wrote Jake Brill, a Facebook product manager.

Then, if they're unsure about the security of the computer they're using -- at an airport, Internet cafe or hotel, for example -- they just have to text the string "otp" to the number 32665 from their mobile phones.

Facebook will ping back a password that can be used only once. This password expires in 20 minutes. It can be used instead of the member's regular password.

Facebook is rolling out this feature gradually, and it will be available to all its members in the next few weeks, Brill wrote.

Looking at Temp Password Protection

Students who use library computers or PCs in a computer room in school, and travelers who use PCs at cyber cafes and at hotels, are likely to need the temporary password protection, Rob Enderle, principal analyst at the Enderle Group, told TechNewsWorld.

The temporary password will protect users against key-logging malware that's common on PCs that are for public use, Enderle pointed out. "Key-logging malware captures IDs and passwords, and using temporary passwords means the password captured won't work for the thief," he explained.

"The biggest risk when logging into Facebook, or any site for that matter, with a computer that isn't yours, such as a hotel or Internet cafe computer, is that a key-logger or Trojan may have been pre-installed on that computer, and that will let someone steal your user name and password," Patrik Runald, senior manager for security research at Websense, told TechNewsWorld.

Problems With Temp Passwords

"Facebook is hoping that by providing a temporary password, it doesn't matter if the password gets stolen by spyware, but I have other problems with the approach," said Graham Cluley, a senior technology consultant at Sophos. He pointed TechNewsWorld to his blog, where he outlined these issues.

One problem is that users who lose their mobile phones are still at risk. If someone else can get access to that lost phone and the owner hasn't locked the device with a password to prevent SMS texts being sent, the finder might be able to access the phone owner's Facebook account, Cluley wrote.

Another problem is that hackers may be able to change mobile phone numbers on their victims' accounts to phone numbers they have access to, Cluley wrote. This will let them access to those accounts readily.

Further, temporary passwords only prevent cybercriminals using keylogging spyware from recording victims' real passwords, Cluley wrote. However, it doesn't prevent them from using malware to spy on their victims' online activities and seeing what's happening on their PC screens.

The temporary password won't protect Facebook members from exposure to malicious links, Websense's Runald pointed out.

Websense claims that about 40 percent of Facebook posts contain links, and about 10 percent of those posts are either spam or contain malware. The greatest danger comes from corporate and celebrity Facebook pages that are accessed by large numbers of users.

"The Websense data isn't consistent with what we've seen, and likely only accounts for public comments made on large group sites and pages," Facebook's Axten pointed out. "There's an important difference between these comments and the comments made through actual person-to-person communication channels such as the Facebook Inbox, Status Page and Wall. The latter have a higher signal and are where we focus many of our efforts," Axten said.

Public comments made on large groups' pages and sites are "more fleeting and have a lower signal since they often come from non-friends," Axten said. "We provide group and Page admins with tools to delete any posts they don't like."

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Facebook and Bing Do the Search Two-Step

Facebook and Bing have teamed up in a move that could bring a touch more sociability to online search.

Facebook users will see Web pages their friends like popping up when they launch a Bing search while logged into the social networking site. Further, when Facebook users search for their friends on Bing, people with whom they have Facebook friends in common will top the results.

The service is already available to two percent of Facebook subscribers in the United States, and it will roll out to the rest in the next few weeks, Facebook spokesperson Malorie Lucich told TechNewsWorld.

Both Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) and Facebook say they'll safeguard users' privacy, an issue over which Facebook has often taken a beating.

Why Bing Friends Facebook

Search is becoming more personalized and social at the user level, but the traditional method of using clues, or signals, to best match a search can be further improved, wrote Satya Nadella, senior vice president of Microsoft's Online Services Division.

These traditional signals depend on how information is connected, but in the real world, such connections aren't enough; you have to also look at the connections between people, Nadella wrote. Adding a social layer to a search makes the process of connecting to information and making decisions more social, personal and useful.

"Fifty percent of people say that when making a decision, they take into consideration thoughts shared by others in their circle of friends," Nadella wrote, although he didn't cite the source of this statistic.

No matter; by teaming up with Facebook, Bing gets to use a new signal that goes beyond mere pattern recognition or keyword matching, Nadella wrote. This will make for better search results because they will include results that people whom searchers trust find interesting.

Basically, Bing will include two new features now: "Liked Results" -- which shows what your friends like when you launch an online search while in Facebook -- and "Facebook Profile Search."

The "Facebook Profile Search" feature narrows down the search by listing people who share mutual Facebook friends with the searcher at the top of the results, wrote Bing executives Paul Yiu and Todd Schwartz.

Search Engines Who Need People

"I feel like there's a quote in here somewhere -- who're you going to believe? The Internet or your lying friends?" Carl Howe, director of anywhere consumer research at the Yankee Group, told TechNewsWorld.

"Some consumers want facts, while others want opinions and still others want both," Howe added. "The problem is that different sources of information are better for different goals. Friends are great for opinions, but they may not be such great sources for hard facts," he said.

However, the Bing-Facebook team-up may lead to problems for the two.

"This feels like Bing and Facebook are trying to tap into personal data in a way we haven't seen before, and I think there's some danger of a backlash," Howe warned. "After all, these results don't just return information about friends, but also friends' histories of what they like and dislike. Just because you may have been fond of Jell-O shots as a college student doesn't mean you want that information hanging around for your new friends at work to browse."

Every Step You Take

Perhaps in anticipation of a backlash from privacy advocates, both Facebook and Microsoft contend that they'll protect users' privacy.

Bing is one of several partners Facebook has teamed up with in its "Instant Personalization" project -- others are Rotten Tomatoes, Docs.com, Pandora, Yelp and Scribd.

All partners have to adhere to Facebook's guidelines and can only use subscribers' public information -- which they share with friends on the social networking site -- to serve up a personalized experience, Facebook said. This information cannot be transferred to advertisers or used for any other purposes.

Microsoft, too, will focus on user privacy. Bing's "Liked Results" will only include content designated as public and is the same information available to the searcher's Facebook friends, Microsoft's Yiu and Schwartz wrote.

Further, consumers will be notified in advance that their search will be enhanced with "Liked Results" and they can disable the feature if they launch a Bing search without being logged into Facebook. There are other restrictions on information what users can see, and their friends won't be able to see what they're searching for.

Finally, Facebook requires users to be at least 13 years old to access its services, and Bing's Facebook Profile Search will only serve up results for users who list themselves as 18 years or older in their Facebook profiles.

"Neither Microsoft nor Facebook is tracking data from this integration, and Microsoft does not log search history tied to a user's profile on Facebook," Facebook's Lucich said. "By technical design, Facebook does not receive any search queries from Bing except for people searches." Facebook deletes queries within 24 hours, she pointed out, adding that search queries are not shared with a user's Facebook friends.

The Love of Money

Data generated from tracking online searches and the people with whom the searcher communicates about the search results can help build up a powerful profile of a user.

"Microsoft and Facebook really want to know their users intimately so they can serve up better services, offer up more targeted advertisements and make themselves more valuable to advertisers," Rob Enderle, principal analyst at the Enderle Group, told TechNewsWorld. "In the end, they'll create a virtual you and, if that virtual you is highly modeled, it will have a very high value to advertisers."

How long can the two resist the monetization that could result from collating such data?

That's difficult to say. After all, Google's (Nasdaq: GOOG) monetizing its online search results quite profitably.

Shaking Up Online Search

The partnership between Facebook and Bing will likely impact online search heavily.

"This creates an uber-portal on Facebook that does change the game," Enderle said. "It will put a lot of pressure on Google to do something similar. Google will have to get into the social networking space."

Google "may try to address the market created by this alliance, but they'll probably do so in a more thoughtful and careful way," Howe said.

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