Last week I was out with boys at the pub when one of the friend asked – “Hey have you seen Pinterest?

My girlfriend is absolutely hooked to it” to my astonishment few others too had the same story. Finally few others were had a quizzical look on face stating “What is pinterest”.

Pinterest is a photo sharing social network – nothing new since facebook photo sharing and google image search has been there for ages. So how is it any different – Pinterest makes the process painless by offering a Pin It button that lets you grab pictures of your favorite things as you browse the web. The site then collects the images on “boards” that other users can follow and comment on. Which means you can hop on to the website and pursue other people’s boards and browse through images of your interest.

Considering the fact that Pinterest is actually deriving more traffic than what Facebook did in its early stages. Infact Pintrest beats YouTube, Reddit, Google+, LinkedIn and MySpace for percentage of total referral traffic in January. Hence we can say – What Tumblr was to 2011, Twitter was to 2007, and Facebook was to 2006, Pinterest is to 2012.

So I decided to have a good look at the social network and find out for myself. Words of warning Pinterest started as a female oriented Social Network, though now it has almost equal of both the sexes. So coming back to my test – I am planning to take a vacation soon to an undecided location, so I tested how PIntrest can help me. I will let you see the results for yourself – Click here to see my Pinterest Profile – Now you can see a board by the name of “Favorite Places Spaces” which basically has images gathered from other pintrest users. I spoke to few about the places which they have visited, and it was fun to get suggestions from random places about amazingly beautiful places which I had no clue about.

All in all it is a brilliant social place and I every reason for it to blossom, with option to reshare and like other peoples pins and also option to follow other pinners, Pinterest has taken good things from Facebook and Twitter. Considering a picture is worth thousand words expect Pinterest to become part of your daily life soon. I almost forgot – Social network is by invite only hence no trolling by bots, one can request invite to existing user or to the site itself. (Technology, MensXP.com)

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So, 2012 has already begun and the thrill of games like, Batman – Arkham City, Assassin’s Creed – Revelations, Need for Speed – The Run has started to fade away.

Gamers across the globe have already started to discuss about the titles which will released soon or are under development. So here is my list of Top 5 Titles which you should look forward to -

5) Tomb Raider

No.5 on my list is Tomb Raider, after last two not so successful outing this title give the story a reboot. The Franchise is being rebooted to show the origins of Lara Croft, about how she became the independent woman, what transformed her? You will 21-year-old Lara Croft fighting for survival as she gets washed ashore on an island off the coast of Japan. With a heavy emphasis on combat, a sprawling universe and lot of quick time events make you wonder will the bad-ass girl of gaming be back for good.

4) Mass Effect 3

Biowareâ ™s sci-fi action RPG comes to number 4 on my list. Since 2007 this game has created a cult following and with Mass Effect3 said to be pulling in 1000 variables from chapter 2 and chapter 1 in order to give players personalized experience of chapter 3, I am sure Commander Shepard and his motley crew will keep your mind blown during the play. I am personally looking forward to visiting Earth for the first time and seeing how Bioware has refined and improved the combat system over previous games. All in all this games is a pure value for money with lengthy campaigns and brilliant multiplayer.

3) Diablo III

Yes the stuff of you boyish fantasy, the game we all debated. Blizzard pro ised us that a new version will be released and the fact that we are so close to the release of this title is a kind of an event in itself. I am very happy that Blizzard is sticking to the hack and slash, dungeon-crawling style that fans loved in the past two games, we should see it now hurtle into this new era with a host of game-enhancing features. Expect the loyalists to be stuck to their PC’s for months.

2) Max Payne 3

Max Payne 3 continues the story of Max Payne, a former New York City Detective who is still being haunted by the memories of his past. He starts a new life by working for a wealthy industrialist in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The family is attacked and now Max is all ready to face the gangs and save his boss’ family.

The game is now using a cutting edge technology i.e. it has been modernized and the weaponry features realistic gameplay. And all this brings Max Payne 3 to number 2 in the most anticipated games of 2012.

1) Grand Theft Auto V

Yes it’s that game again. There is no official release date out for this game infact all we know about the game is that Grand Theft Auto V heads to the city of Los Santos and surrounding hills, countryside and beaches in the largest and most ambitious game Rockstar has yet created.

A bold new direction in open-world freedom, storytelling, mission-based gameplay and online multiplayer, Grand Theft Auto V focuses on the pursuit of the almighty dollar in a re-imagined, present day Southern California. What more do you want. (Technology, MensXP.com)

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Social media networking continues to be an essential part of our daily lives.

For some, it is the mainstay of their existence, helping them vent-out their emotions, express their opinions and feel connected with their friends. In this niche, Facebook remains the undisputed king despite challenges from many other recent entrants. However, it seems that the popularity of Facebook is fast evading and there are many reasons why experts believe that it isn’t a bad idea to consider deleting your facebook account, such as:

Facebook No Longer Promises Safety

For starters, Facebook isn’t as safe it might seem. When it was at its peak of popularity, many people said that it was almost impossible to breach the Facebook’s security measures. Now reports are emerging in leading tabloids like the Daily Mirror that Facebook itself has admitted that its system of maintaining privacy of data isn’t the best. For instance, even if you delete photographs from your Facebook account, the pics can be traced back to the user. The link remains active for some time as Facebook doesn’t delete the pics immediately from its database. This means your pics aren’t guaranteed safety even when you think you have deleted them from your account. Secondly, the Facebook IPOs is almost here and with more investors and shareholders joining in, there is an increased pressure to use the privacy data of account holders for displaying ads in the manner that Google does. This is why Facebook ads are becoming more and more invasive. This suggests content on the Facebook wall is being analyzed to display content-related advertisements.

Too Many Irritating Elements

Once your Facebook account is circulated among office colleagues or friends, you can almost bet upon receiving many Friend requests. Many of these are people you don’t wish to share your daily updates with. However, owing to professional obligations or out of mere courtesy, you have to do so. Many of these unwanted folks on your Facebook account can prove to be rather frustrating, continuously writing something on your wall and trying to initiate a conversation every time you are active on Facebook.

Don’t Want to Pay?

It is being speculated that Zuckerburg is on the verge of releasing a premium version of Facebook. This would be launched soon to offer many clubbed services that won’t be available to those with the present-day, free version. It is most likely, that people would like to immediately hop on to something that is being touted as hot on the social media front. This suggests that you would be peer-pressurized into doing so. Thus, if you don’t want to pay for Facebooking anymore, it is time you thought about deleting your Facebook account.

It’s Fashionable But Old

Yes, Facebook is still the buzzword when it comes to showcasing your social media prowess. However, it is getting increasingly ordinary with nearly every online medium somehow linking to it. Now, people are moving to new entrants like Google+ that has already registered a greater, initial response than any other social media platform that challenged Facebook in the recent past. Being on Google+ seems like the right thing to do for presenting yourself as being socially progressive.

Don’t Want to Smile on Lame Efforts at Humor?

This happens all the time. You are continuously coerced into liking or commenting on the Facebook updates of others because not doing so would seem rude. The most common instances are that of bad jokes that you have to gratify every day. Isn’t it better to delete your Facebook account and get rid of this unwanted clutter?

Don’t Want to be Judged by my Social Media Status

For many people, the benchmark for being professionally-evolved or socially-active is an individual’s Facebook account. People tend to judge you based upon your degree of activeness on Facebook. It seems that your online persona is more important than the real you. Further, there are so many fakers out there who are posting a whole lot of pretentious stuff just to make themselves popular on Facebook. Unless you believe is allowing your Facebook alter-ego to impact the common perception about you, it is time you seriously started considering deleting Facebook. (Technology, MensXP.com)

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Twitter’s new Activity and @USERNAME streams have replaced the @Mentions and Retweets streams.

Your new followers, along with your tweets that tweeple have marked as their Favorites are also mentioned as stories, aong with follows, favorites, and retweets by people you are following.

The interface change means that this information, which you received in emails or by clicking on a tweet to view more information about it, is all on the home page.

Thus, you can see how interconnected the people you’re following are.

However, the feature has been fluctuating for users like Napster founder Sean Parker (@sparker), leading to rumors that it could simply be a feature in testing. While the change makes your Twitter homepage a virtual comprehensive dashboard, the feature is inconvenient for users popular on Twitter; their tweets are RT’d often, and a regular flow of new followers may clutter up the @replies they want to sort through for meaningful responses.

The most exciting feature is the real-time access to new connections from people Following you, changing the way posts are viewed – even people you aren’t on your stream could be commenting on a topic.

Recently, Twitter enabled photo sharing and a more personalized interface, and also launched Twitter Stories, a hashtag to give prominence to any time a single Tweet brought about great change, or someone used Twitter in an interesting way. Twitter is curating these profiles and stories. (Technology, MensXP.com)

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Adobe will soon end developing Flash for mobile devices.

The ubiquitous Flash Player plug-in found on most smartphones (apart from the iPhone) and tablets will soon be phased out by Adobe. The company will instead work with developers to encourage the Adobe Air platform, and what was once a key rival— HTML5.

HTML5′s universality made Adobe decide upon it as a HTML5 as “the best solution for creating and deploying content in the browser across mobile platforms…”, according to Adobe VP Danny Winokur.

Apple founder and CEO, the late Steve Jobs, had expressed his dislike for Flash by emphasizing his refusal to host it on the iPhones, iPods and iPads, stating that it was Flash harkened back to the time of “the PC era — for PCs and mice,” , an that going mobile meant “low-power devices, touch interfaces and open web standards — all areas where Flash falls short.”

Previously, Adobe’s mobile dev tools aimed to create a single platform for three of the most important mobile platforms: Android, iOS and the BlackBerry OS. Flash already dominates the desktops for coding interactive games, animated advertisements and deliver videos to web browsers.

However, improvements in Javascript, CSS, and HTML5 (with native support for video) reduced the focus on Flash, which takes up both battery and speed.

Other issues with Flash include security risks, the complaints about Flash’s proprietary nature (as opposed to open source web technology) (Technology, MensXP.com)

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The Galaxy Note is a new kind of mobile device – the kind that marries tablet sensibilities with the convenience of a mobile phone.

It’s the first of many things – the Note has the world’s first (and largest) 5.3” HD Super AMOLED display that offers that best viewing experience at it’s size. And true to it’s name, you can take notes on the Note, via Smart Pen, a new, state-of-the-art pen-input technology for writing on the Note’s full touchscreen. Draw, sketch, doodle – the Note lets you express your creative freedom effortlessly, while recognizing handwriting and instantly converting it to digital characters. 

Onboard is also Samsung’s S Planner, a powerful tool for planning your day that spans the device’s large screen, advanced user interface, powerful processor and an intuitive user experience.  

A handy 5.3 inch screen lets you view web pages, video and ebooks without the need to scroll or zoom a lot, and there’s enough space to split the screen between two different applications. side by side. Other new applications are featured under the ‘S Choice’, Samsung’s new category menu designed specifically for designed for Galaxy Note’s Smart Pen.A fast 1.4GHz dual-core processor zips through menus, and lets you stream real-time video, game online through Samsung’s Game Hub. 

Samsung ChatON, cuts across every smartphone and feature phone platforms to let you chat with anyone, and share text, images, hand-written notes and video instantly.

All this fits perfectly in your pocket. 

Priced at Rs 34,990/, the Samsung Note is available at major retail outlets. 
 

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Google + is no stranger to photography – over 3.4 billion photos were uploaded in just it’s first 100 days.

The Google Photography Prize was launched to inspire and identify photographers from universities the world over.

As posted on the company blog:
“We challenge you to come up with photographs that will make us laugh, cry, listen, hop on a plane, start a conversation, or start a revolution,” says Google on the official competition site.

The contest is open to participants 18 and above, studying in a higher education institution. “We’re really excited about this, and think great art deserves great exposure. The contest is open to university students around the world … From far-away places to up-close faces, there are 10 different categories to spark your imagination,” said Obi Felten, director of Consumer Marketing, Google EMEA.

Also Read: Google to Empower Indian Businesses and Kashmir IT Sector

Categories include: Me, Food, Travel, Fashion, Action, Street, Sport, Night, Sound/Silence and Point of View.

Google’s jury of renowned photographers will choose 10 finalists at the Saatchi Gallery, London for two months next year, alongside Out of Focus, a major photography exhibition, along with a free trip to London to attend the exhibition opening event, and the eventual winner gets a ” once-in-a-lifetime trip to an amazing destination with a professional photography coach.” (Technology, MensXP.com)

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Apple has recalled the iPod Nano.

This includes all models of the firm’s iconic music player, due to battery issues in some models. These include complaints of overheating – sometimes even resulting in exploded iPods.

According to Apple, : “While the possibility of an incident is rare, the likelihood increases as the battery ages.” The company has asked users to order a replacement online, and register with your iPod nano serial number, following which Apple will send a replacement in about six weeks after you send over the current model.

“If you have a personalised iPod nanos, you will receive a non-personalised replacement,” the firm said.

What’s interesting is that first generation iPods, or any other device are five years old; the iPod Nano is in it’s 7th generation. The first generation iPod Nanos have a black or white plastic front, with a silver metal back.

According to the report, Apple will send a replacement about six weeks after it receives the first generation model. Before jumping to get a new model, remember to back up your playlists on iTunes. (Technology, MensXP.com)

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As we sit down to write this piece, the people in the cyber city Bangalore are panicking.

Over two lakh people in the city woke up to a rude shock yesterday morning. Their Facebook accounts had been hacked with links to their morphed pornographic pictures being shown in the news feed of their friends.

According to a news report in the Mid Day newspaper, over two lakh Facebook users in Bangalore had their accounts hacked. The city’s cybercrime department went abuzz with calls reporting this mass hack. Reports have also poured in that many users are planning to quit Facebook forever after being embarrassed before their friends and family.

People reported that friends are seeing links posted by them and clicking on them leads to porn websites on which the victims’ faces can be seen morphed and pasted into the body of a porn star. As expected, people are finding this simply outrageous and many of them have vowed to quit Facebook forever.

(image credit: technomag.com)

These are the three links which caused much of the spam menace in Banagalore: a) ‘Bangalore police: Party till the wee hours, 11.30 PM ban lifted’ b) ‘Date a stripper in Bangalore’ and c) a link about a popular sandalwood actress being raped and murdered. People clicking on these links were directed to porn sites and links and torrents from such sites are sent to the news feed of their friends.

According to news reports in the world media, over 60 lakh Facebook accounts have been hacked since Sunday night. According to a report by the international business wire Bloomberg, Facebook claimed that it had identified the perpetrators of this nuisance and its legal team is contemplating strict action against them. For the last few days, news feed of many users is being bombarded with porn, pictures of extreme violence and fake images of celebrities like Justin Beiber in sexual situations. “Protecting the people who use Facebook from spam and malicious content is a top priority for us,” the guys at Facebook said in a statement. The company also claims that it has been successful in limiting the damage caused by this spam attack that took advantage of a browser vulnerability.

(image credit: dydara.wordpress.com)

The recent hack attack on Facebook has again raised questions over the safety of the users, and more so on the security of people’s identities in the virtual world. Cyber experts believe that Facebook still needs to do a lot more to consolidate its security and privacy features. They are debating if this will mark the downfall of the social networking giant. Remember how Orkut fell in the same fashion when it was subject to mass hacking even before Facebook became popular?

MensXP urges all the users to stay really, really alert while clicking on links on Facebook and while sharing their private information. (Technology, MensXP.com)

(image credit: Wikipedia)

Entrance to Facebook’s current headquarters in the Stanford Research Park, Palo Alto, California.

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Karthik Naralasetty has set up a Facebook app to enable quick access to Indian blood donors.

The Socialblood app connects to eight Facebook groups – corresponding to the eight blood types. The 23 year old got the idea when he saw how a call for B+ blood on a Facebook post for a man undergoing heart surgery was responded with offers for blood donation.

The site, which was launched in June, has over 1,500 members, and Naralasetty mentions that his site has helped provide at least ten completed blood donations. Most notably, a man’s post asking for blood for his daughter received 74 responses in 24 hours.

“For my generation, Facebook is the most powerful thing on the planet. India is a country where 50 percent of the Internet population is on Facebook every other day, so I saw potential to reach them directly and make it fun and easy to act,” he said.

Naralasetty initiative to use social media for healthcare has many challenges, but he soon might launch a social media campaign to address social issues relating to blood donation, and solve the problem of blood supply shortages.

In the west, the healthcare industry is stepping up its role on social media in a big way. From disaster preparedness and emergency management to coordinating response efforts and communicating urgent messages, like a call for help after a natural disaster or an accident, organizations like the American Red Cross are tapping into Facebook and Twitter to reach out to the public.

Statistics reveal that

· 36% of healthcare companies use it to assess their consumers views on medication or treatment

· 60 million consumers interact and discuss healthcare online

· 1,200 Facebook pages are dedicated to curing an illness

· 80% of internet users look online for health information (Technology, MensXP.com)

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