In a not totally surprising move, rumors are circulating today that Facebook may be working on adding e-mail to its repertoire of services that keep us on the site for hours on end.
TechCrunch is reporting today that it has spoken with “a source with knowledge of the product” that Facebook is working on adding old fashioned e-mail to it its messaging system. Codenamed “Project Titan”, the new e-mail service would take your vanity Facebook URL and turn it into an e-mail address such as “vanityurl@facebook.com”.
Unlike the e-mail implementation that MySpace put into place, the Facebook system is said to have full POP and IMAP functionality meaning you could use it with third-party e-mail clients such as Outlook, Thunderbird or over your cell phones.
Michael Arrington goes on to say that internally at Facebook they are referring to this as “a Gmail killer”, but I have to agree with Mr. Arrington that those are some pretty high hopes.
Personally, I use Facebook, but I don’t get the fervor with which people flock to it. It’s a nice distraction from time to time, but I don’t feel a need to check it multiple times a day like most people. And the idea of my e-mail address being “@facebook.com” holds very little appeal to me. I already have multiple e-mail addresses I check every day, I really don’t need another.
Satellite radio company Sirius XM has had an application out for the iPhone and iPod Touch for some time now that allows you to listen to its stations over those devices, but the BlackBerry phones have received no love. Until today, that is.
Sirius XM announced today that owners of BlackBerry models Storm 9530, Storm2 9550, Bold 9000, Bold 9700, Tour 9630, Curve 9800, Curve 8520 and Curve 8530 can now enjoy streaming music from their service thanks to a new app. If you do not currently have a Sirius XM account you can get a free 7-day trial, but if you already have an account, you’re good to go.
You will need to go to the Sirius XM On Your BlackBerry page, select your model, enter your email address and a link will be emailed to you so that you can download the app. No word as of yet if this will end up in the BlackBerry App World store for easier download, but we imagine it will at some point.
We’ve already downloaded this to a BlackBerry Tour (mine) and got it up and running. The app seems pretty responsive, and allows you to easily mark the various channels as “Favorites” for quicker access. So far I have only heard it through the built-in speaker, which of course sounded a bit tinny, but it was passable. In my car I tend to stream musical content from my BlackBerry through a cassette adapter, which always sounds fine, so I am sure this will also.
The channel list includes 120 channels, so it isn’t the complete line-up, but there is a good mix of stuff in there. Not sure why the Bollywood channel is missing, but oh well.
If you already have a Sirius XM account, especially one with online streaming, there is no reason not to get this. If you do not yet have streaming, it will be an additional $3 a month. A streaming only plan will run you $13 a month.
Twitter has been undergoing an attack on passwords, and while we think some of their logic is flawed to the cause of it, they still make a good point.
Over the past few days there has been an increase in password problems at Twitter. As the popular microblogging service tried to track down the problem, they feel they tracked it down to a problem with fake Torrent sites: sites that trade in pirated movies, music, TV shows and more. Their conclusion was you created an account on those sites, used the password you use on other services, and the site owners then went around attacking you on other sites with your passwords.
While there are some flaws in this theory, namely people who have never used a Torrent site were also attacked, their reasoning is sound on using different passwords. If you always register at sites with the same email address and password, then it is easy for someone to take your information from one site and apply it to another.
Using different email addresses for each site would be a pain, but you need to at least change your password for each site to keep your security levels up.
It’s 2010, folks, shouldn’t we be passed people still coming up with lame passwords?
It would seem that the little known experiment being conducted by Walmart and Best Buy to accept trade-in games has come to an end.
Industry Gamers is reporting that the e-Play kiosks that were placed at Walmart and Best Buy locations to accept used video game trade-ins has come to an abrupt end. Seen as a chance to steal away some of the glory from GameStops, it appears to have had about as much impact as a feather on an elephant.
All of the current kiosks have been shut down and will be removed over the coming weeks.
It seems the problem was more with the third-part e-Play than the actual stores, and the retailers could try it again under a different system, but it seems unlikely that they will waste the effort.
GameStop has been the undisputed king of game trade-ins for some time, and it is seeming less and less likely that any one will be able to unseat them. Personally, since we have no GameStop in my town, I’ve been using Amazon’s trade-in service to great success. Hopefully that won’t go anywhere any time soon, but as for any other physical chain giving them a challenge, it just seems unlikely at this point.
It seems that people just can’t get enough of Facebook and is logging into the site at the rate of 175 million per day.
In an interview with TechCrunch, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg said that the site is now seeing 175 million users log in per day, and this is only counting people that visit the main site, not those also using the Facebook Connect log in service. With 350 million registered accounts, the site is expected to have nearly half of all Internet users in the world logging into its site at least one a month some time this summer.
While the interview is full of interesting tidbits about the financial status of Facebook, it’s the numbers that matter, and its current growth rate is just astronomical as it has doubled in size from a year ago. Unless there is some radical shift in the social media scene, it seems that no one will be able to catch up to Facebook at this point, and if it does choose to begin entering into other markets such as has been rumored, those sites that stand in its way could be in for a serious fight. Twitter has withstood the status update attack, but could Foursquare stand up to a location check-in attack?
Only time will tell for sure, but it appears Facebook is going to be with us for quite some time to come.
After ages of discussions and rumors, Mozilla has at long last launched the first mobile version of the Firefox Web browser for mobile phones.
Mozilla has announced that the first version of Firfox for mobile phones is ready to launch. So far the browser is only available for Nokia phones running the Maemo platform, specifically the N900, but more phones are planned for this year. (don’t get your hopes up for iPhones folks, because there is no way it’s going to happen.)
One of the most interesting aspects of this version is that even on a browser screen of this size, Mozilla found a way to retain tabbed browsing. The tabs are kept on a slide-out screen on the side, so they are hidden when not in use, and you only bring them out when you ned to see them.
Firefox is well0known for its multitude of extensions that allow it to do a multitude of things it isn’t built to do originally. How many you can install depends on the amount of memory of your phone, and how well they will run on limited memory remains to be seen.
At long last, a true use for Mozilla Weave has been included. Save a browsing session on your computer, and thanks to Weave you can reopen it on your cell phone. Looked up information on a theater you want to go to? Now you can bring that information with you easily.
Here is a video explaining some of the features in more detail.
In what is turning into a seemingly never ending war between Web sites and the Internet Explorer 6 Web browser, Google has just struck a major blow that may help hasten its death.
Google has announced that as of March 1, 2010, portions of the Google empire such as Google Docs will no longer be supported for Internet Explorer 6 (IE6). As this comes from the Google Enterprise Blog, this is squarely directed at all of those IT departments that have simply refused to upgrade their companies browsing options out of laziness. Yes, they will tell you it’s all about security, but honestly, that’s total malarkey.
The minimum required versions of browsers that Google will now support include:
If you are unfamiliar with the problems with IE6, it was released in 2001 and uses old Web standards. The Internet has now been held hostage for nine years by this browser due its proliferation amongst corporations. Sites have to be designed in such a way that they remain compatible with this antiquated piece of software.
Last July, popular social media site Digg even asked its users why they continued to use the browser. While there were some who said they preferred the browser (while no proof was ever given, we do believe those people were visiting from an insane asylum), the majority said they can’t upgrade or were told they couldn’t. The IE6 No More movement has also formed around sites that are pledging to no longer support the browser.
Web browsers are free, there is absolutely no reason why you shouldn’t change from IE6 if you have the option. And if you are in a corporation where the IT department says it can’t be done, go above their heads and complain. This browser must die if the Internet is to thrive.
If you see anyone posting pictures of their “ex-girlfriend” on Facebook, don’t click the link … unless you want to be embarrass yourself.
All Facebook is reporting that a new worm is spreading around Facebook. An image is posted of a woman in her underwear along with a note saying it is a picture of the person’s ex-girlfriend. If you should happen to click on it you will end up posting it to your account as there is code embedded in the post that will activate your share feature.
It appears that the worm does no damage, nor steals any information, but it does end up embarrassing the heck out of you as your friends think you have suddenly lost your mind and decided to be low-class by posting pictures of your ex.
Just be careful of what you click on. Sample photo below from All Facebook.
Do you remember MySpace? Think back a year or so … yep, there it is in your memory.
MySpace was the king of the social networks for a while, but due to it being overrun by teenagers, fake accounts and horribly ugly profile pages, it lost a lot of its cache with people once Facebook launched to the general public. While the site still exists, and is popular with some folks still, admitting you still have a MySpace account is akin to committing social media suicide.
I fully admit I still have my account … but I have no clue when I last logged into it.
This is the idea behind the latest cartoon from SuperNews! … poor little MySpace guy …
The speculation can finally end, the Apple Tablet shall now be known as the iPad.
Steve Jobs took to the stage today at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater in San Francisco to announce Apple’s long-rumored tablet, the iPad. Measuring 9.7-inches, the device first strikes you as just a giant iPod Touch, but it appears to be a whole lot more than that.
With the benefit of a much larger screen, the iPad will be able to run nearly all of the current 140,000 iPhone/iPod Touch applications, but development is already underway for iPad specific apps that will take full advantage of its 1GHz Apple A4 chip and 1024 x 768 screen. Gaming seems to be the major focus from the comments made today at the event, and considering the success that category has already seen on the smaller devices, isn’t terribly surprising.
While the iPod Touch has been all about entertainment, the iPad will be able to run a specialized version of iWork. (presumably sold separately, but not stated at the event) This will allow you to work on spreadsheets, word processing and presentations from the device, with syncing presumably happening via the iTunes connection.
If you’re going to be working on documents, do you really want to do all of this on a virtual keyboard? Probably not, so luckily Apple will be releasing a physical keyboard dock that will place the iPad in a vertical orientation and essentially turn it into a laptop. Sure it isn’t going to have all the programs of a laptop, but with the number of apps available, it will be darn close. No price for this peripheral has been announced as of yet.
None of this is to say that the iPad is going to be all about work, it is going to play videos, music, movies and will also introduce the new iBook application. What iTunes has done for music, the iBook store could do for books as Apple has made deals with Penguin, Harper Collins, Simon & Schuster, Macmillan and Hachette Book Group.
The actual specs of the device are fairly nice, and show it to be much more than just an over-sized iPod Touch.
Memory capacities of 16GB, 32GB or 64GB
802.11n Wi-Fi
1GHz Apple A4 chip
.5-inches thick
1.5 lbs
9.7-inch screen
Bluetooth 2.1
Speaker & microphone
Accelerometer & compass
10 hour battery life, one month standby
3G connectivity for $30 a month via AT&T without contract.
The price was the factor holding people back, and while rumors had pegged this at around $1000, Mr. Jobs used that as a point to announce the pricing we would see in 60 days when this launches, and 90 days for the 3G versions.
In a not totally surprising move, rumors are circulating today that Facebook may be working on adding e-mail to its repertoire of services that keep us on the site for hours on end.
Satellite radio company Sirius XM has had an application out for the iPhone and iPod Touch for some time now that allows you to listen to its stations over those devices, but the BlackBerry phones have received no love. Until today, that is.
Twitter has been undergoing an attack on passwords, and while we think some of their logic is flawed to the cause of it, they still make a good point.
It would seem that the little known experiment being conducted by Walmart and Best Buy to accept trade-in games has come to an end.
After ages of discussions and rumors, Mozilla has at long last launched the first mobile version of the Firefox Web browser for mobile phones.
In what is turning into a seemingly never ending war between Web sites and the Internet Explorer 6 Web browser, Google has just struck a major blow that may help hasten its death.
Do you remember MySpace? Think back a year or so … yep, there it is in your memory.
The speculation can finally end, the Apple Tablet shall now be known as the iPad.
