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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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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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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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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The feature, which is now live for both Windows and Mac, allows users to make Facebook-to-Facebook call from inside your Skype client.

For this, you’ll need to sync your Skype and Facebook accounts (login toSkype, click on ‘Connect to Facebook’). Then, select a Facebook friend, and use the video call button. Your friend can receive the call on Facebook.

Until now, Skype offered users to see which Facebook friends were online, IM them, read their statuses and Like their posts – all from within Skype.

There’s also group screen sharing for Windows users(Skype 5.7 Beta for Windows ), for users with a Premium subscription. Mac users also have (via Skype 5.4 Beta for Mac) video rendering for a better video experience.

Users who are chatting one-on-one will also be able to screen share with live video streaming. You can also share live streamed video on your screen, while simultaneously video-chatting.

“Our approach to social is about personal connections with people. We are on a mission to connect over one billion people and our continued partnership with Facebook brings us one step closer to this goal.” said a Skype spokesperson.

What Facebook users are really waiting for video chats with multiple friends, instead of the limited one-to-one video chat sessions on Facebook Chat. This feature is also present on the Google + Hangouts.

After the Facebook-Skype integration, Skype reached 30 million online users in March this year. Facebook, the world’s biggest online social network, has over 800 million users. (Technology, MensXP.com)

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Gmail, one of the world’s best email providers, is pulling the plug on it’s app for the Blackberry platform.

While this may have come as a surprise to avid Blackberry users. Gmail can also be accessed natively on Blackberry, as OS 5.0 and above offer integrated native support for Gmail.

The enhanced Gmail™ Plug-in, you can even access multiple Gmail email accounts, use calendar and contact syncing, and even use Gmail-specific functions (Archive, Star, Label, Conversations View and Remote Search).

Lets get you started.

Integrating Gmail Account with BlackBerry Internet Service

You need to following to access Gmail’s set of awesome features

Data service plan from a wireless service provider

Gmail account

BlackBerry smartphone ( minimum 64 MB memory)

BlackBerry® Device Software 4.5 or above

BlackBerry Device Software 5.0 or (later) users have the Enhanced Gmail Plug-in preinstalled on.

For 4.5 to 4.7 users, you’ll need to follow the following steps.

You’ll also receive a PIN message telling you how to install Enhanced Gmail Plug-in.

Go to Home Screen

Click on ‘Setup’

Click on Email Accounts.

Click on ‘Internet Mail Account, and then select ‘Gmail’

Feed your Gmail username and password, and then ‘Continue’

You can change the preset settings by choosing ‘Change Settings’.

This lets you alter your email name, email signature, and even your Email Account Name – this is what’s written on your default Home screen email icon – you can even change it to something like – ‘My Gmail’

A word of caution – Gmail-specific features can only be used if you open your Gmail via this icon, instead of the Messages icon on your BlackBerry.

BlackBerry 7 OS users, however, can use Gmail-specific features from the Messages icon, after integrating their account with their Gmail account.

Gmail Management on the Blackberry

Before continuing reading this, ensure you’ve installed the Gmail Enhanced Plug-in ( BlackBerry Device Software 4.5 to 4.7 users), before you can access Gmail features like labels, archiving messages, and applying stars to emails

Apply Stars by highlighting a Gmail message, pressing the Menu key and selecting ‘Add Star’ or ‘Remove Star. Touchscreen users can tap and hold on a message – this will produce the Add Star/Remove Star option.

Apply labels the same way – highlight a Gmail email message, press Menu and select “Labels” (tap and hold for touchscreen users)

Just like Gmail, simply check in the box next to the label, and clear the box to remove the label. Hit ‘Save’ to finish

Make or remove a new label directly from the list of Labels by pressing the Menu button, and selecting ‘New’. If you’ve highlight a label, pressing the Menu button gives you an option to delete it.

View Labeled Messages

The menu button lets you ‘View Folder’ – you can select a label in this. For touchscreen devices, there’s the ‘Filter’ button, right at the bottom of the Messages icon.

Archiving your Gmail

Highlight an email message from the Gmail icon, press the Menu key select ‘Archive’, and then ‘Yes’. Tap and hold on a message, and select Archive from the menu that appears.

You can also mark Spam using this method. (Technology, MensXP.com)

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Rovio, best known for their ‘Angry Birds‘ app has other gaming apps on the Market, which are actually fake. In fact, Rovio has not created the following apps:

Alive 4 Ever

Call of Duty Zombies

Angry Birds 3D

Zombieville

Zombie Highway

Tiny Wings

Catch the Candy

Cut the Rope: Holiday Gift

Rat on a Skateboard

Zombie Gunship

Resident Evil 4

Siege Hero

Scammers have made it look convincing by copying app descriptions from geniune app pages on the Market, and even provided links to the Rovio Mobile official website.

An instant giveaway: the developer’s name on the app said “ROVIO”, not “ROVIO MOBILE LTD.”, the official developer name on the Android Marketplace.

The apps don’t work, and will not be refunded.

To avoid future Android app scams, read the review comments for what people are saying about the app. If it’s all positive, and sounds repetitive, it could possibly have been written by the same person.

Also check out the developer’s official website. If it’s an online storefront to promote and sell the app (there’s usually a Facebook and Twitter button for successful apps/developers)

The “permissions” i.e. what the app is authorized to do on your phone shouldn’t also clash with the app’s original function. A simple gaming app, for example, shouldn’t be able to “send SMS/MMS”, or even access the Internet.

Don’t buy apps from places other than the official Android Marketplace – Android is currently the MOST targeted online smartphone platform, with a 76 percent increase in Android-specific malware in 2011′s second quarter, according to McAfee. (Technology, MensXP.com)

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