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Archive for April, 2011

Weekly Wrap-Up – Facebook Friday

Friday, April 29th, 2011

On any given day, it’s a difficult task trying to find tech related news that doesn’t pertain to Facebook. You just can’t escape the media monster that it is Facebook. So, considering the amount of press that the social media site gets on a daily bases, we at eZanga have decided to start a weekly wrap up of all the latest news pertaining to the popular website. We figured, might as well join ‘em and this seems to be the most efficient way to get the news out there without neglecting other stories throughout the week.

So, now that the introductions for our new project are out of the way, let’s get down to business.

The Royal Wedding and Its Presence on Facebook

The big story around the world this week was the Royal Wedding of Prince William, Duke of Cambridge and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, of course.

First we learned that a Buckingham Palace guard, scheduled to serve as security at the wedding, was dismissed from his duties as a result of a nasty comment made about Kate Middleton that he posted on Facebook. Scots Guardsman Cameron Reilly called Prince William’s bride a “stupid stuck up cow” and a “posh b****”. Not only was the post, which was a grammatical nightmare, snide and unprofessional, but downright cruel and spiteful. You should be ashamed of yourself, Mr. Reilly. No wonder he missed the most anticipated event Britain has seen in years.

And boy, was it an event! Facebook (and Twitter) were all abuzz today over the Royal nuptials. Trending topics on social media sites were all about Westminster Abby, William and Kate, and their first kiss. Viewers put their two cents on Facebook, with somewhere between 75 and 100 status updates about the wedding every second!

Tornado Victims Utilize Facebook

In the wake of the devastating storms that ripped through much of the US, Patty Bullion, an Alabama resident, began a Facebook page titled “Pictures and Documents found after the April 27, 2011 Tornadoes.” Bullion intended to use the site as a tool for people affected by the tornadoes to post pictures and identifying information of found items. “”As I was picking the pictures up it was just breaking my heart” Bullion said of simply wanting to help people find their items.

Facebook Competes with Groupon

The social media site announced on Tuesday that it will offer coupons for purchase online. Facebook Deals will be available on the website and will be geared towards social events, such as concerts and wine tastings. The new concept will be run and tested in five major cities to start with, and may expand further, depending on the level of success.

Lady Gaga Teams up with Robin Hood Foundation for Facebook Contests

Listen up, little monsters! Gaga is working with the New York based Robin Hood Foundation, which aids the poor and homeless. Ms. Gaga’s mission with one of the two contests is to increase the number of Facebook “likes” for the charity. The second contest asks for the help of Facebook fans to decide how Lady Gaga will disperse a $1 million donation to the Robin Hood Foundation. Way to put your money where your mouth is Gaga!

Facebook Send Button

Also this week, Facebook launched a new button: “Send”. This nifty little click-able object is very similar to the “Like” button, boasting functionality as a plug-in for websites to use to encourage sharing among friends. However, the key difference of the “Send” button is its ability to preserve privacy. Upon being clicked, rather than instantaneously displaying your appreciation of the site to your entire friend list, a pop-up appears. You can then designate any number of specific friends or even email addresses with which you want to share. For a full write-up, check out the Facebook Developers Blog post here: http://developers.facebook.com/blog/post/494/

Tags: charity, Facebook, facebook friday, facebook send, facebook wrap-up, groupon, lady gaga, prince william and catherine middleton, royal wedding, storm victims, tornado, weekly wrap-up
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Another Trip to the Café

Friday, April 29th, 2011

In the few short days since our first article revolving around Nintendo’s newest creation, codenamed Project Café (though widely dubbed the Wii 2), updated information has already been released. This time, by the Big N itself.

First and foremost, Nintendo disseminated an official letter to the press which confirmed that the console will appear and be playable at E3, and that we can look forward to its release next year no earlier than the second quarter.

Secondly, Nintendo President Satoru Iwata commented on speculation of the system’s controller. Some rumors had purported that the controller would actually take the form of a tablet, much like an iPad. Iwata put that to rest, however, according to TechWatch. He told an analyst, “Whenever we make a new game console, we’ve done it without throwing away buttons and the directional pad. The reason for that [is] it’s better to have them, because buttons and directional pads benefit gameplay response. Taking this into account, Nintendo isn’t planning on completely ditching buttons, nor is Nintendo thinking of taking tablets as they are today and implementing them in a game console.”

Again, be sure to stay tuned to E3 coverage, which begins June 7, to catch Nintendo’s conference wherein the controller and everything else Project Café will be unveiled.

Tags: E3, Nintendo, Nintendo news, Nintendo rumors, Project Cafe, Wii 2
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Prince William and Kate’s Wedding to Hit iTunes

Friday, April 29th, 2011

The kingdom is all a buzz today, and the whole world is watching the Royal Wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. The linens are set, the flowers are cut, and the recording studio is ready for the production and sale of the blessed event. Wait…what was that?

You heard it right; the British Royal wedding will be available to download on iTunes on the same day as the ceremony. The wedding of Prince William and long time girlfriend Catherine Middleton will be sold as a downloadable video today.

The Associated Press reported that the wedding, which was held at Westminster Abbey (where else?), will hit iTunes just hours after the ceremony ends. The entire service, along with William and Kate’s vows, will be released through Decca Records to iTunes and other online retailers. The wedding of Prince Charles and Princess Diana was also recorded by Decca Records.

“Thanks to digital technology we will be able to deliver it worldwide almost instantly,” said Chairman and CEO of Universal Music UK, David Joseph, “It will be the fastest we have ever released an album of this stature.”

Royal officials also reported Wednesday that an audio recording of the wedding, in CD, vinyl or cassette form, will then be available in stores on May 5. The album is scheduled to be produced by Grammy-nominated Anna Barry.

And to top the technological cake, an official website for the wedding is being hosted by Google’s App Engine platform, as well as an interactive timeline of Wills and Kate on MSN’s official Royal wedding portal.

I bet the palace guard who was dismissed from serving at the wedding after making a nasty Facebook post about Kate regrets not being part of such a beautiful and historic day.

Tags: Facebook, itunes, online video, prince william and catherine middleton, royal wedding, will and kate
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Baidu’s Q1 Numbers Trounce Expectations

Thursday, April 28th, 2011

Baidu, the leading search engine in China, just released its report for the first quarter of 2011. It appears the company did quite well for itself, according to ABC News.

First off, they recorded net income of over 1 billion yuan, more than double the 480.5 million of the previous year. This was largely because of the 88 percent increase in revenue, jumping from 1.29 billion yuan to 2.44 billion. Chief Executive Robin Li attributed the success to improvements in monetization as well as continuation of solid traffic growth.

Baidu now expects revenues to rise up to well over 3 billion yuan for the second quarter. That exceeds what analysts are forecasting, but after seeing first quarter results, it doesn’t seem like much of a stretch.

Investors seemed to like the report a lot. So much, in fact, that Baidu shares were up 1% in premarket trading, says Barron’s Tech Trader Daily.

Mark Zuckerberg must be grinning right now, thinking about the deal struck between Facebook and the Chinese search engine not too long ago.

Tags: Baidu, Baidu financials, Baidu Q1, Facebook, Q1 financial report
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Intruder Alert! Sony’s Playstation Network Falls Prey to Attack

Thursday, April 28th, 2011

Sometime from April 17-19, the Playstation Network, Sony’s online content store for the PS3 and PSP, was the victim of an external intrusion.

MetroWNY reports that this led Sony to disable the service shortly afterward on the 21st. The company used the term “emergency maintenance” to explain the shutdown initially, but on the 22nd, that was amended to “external intrusion”. Details, however, were not divulged.

With the Network down, PS3 functionality took a serious hit. Anything that utilized an online connection, including multiplayer, was crippled. This created a considerable amount of malcontent, to say the least, and rumors started circulating. On Tuesday, April 25, Sony made another statement which only said that they had nothing to present.

The next day, Sony finally came out with it. Some excerpts from the email they sent to users follow:

Although we are still investigating the details of this incident, we believe that an unauthorized person has obtained the following information that you provided: name, address (city, state, zip), country, email address, birth date, PlayStation Network/Qriocity password and login, and handle/PSN online ID…

For your security, we encourage you to be especially aware of email, telephone and postal mail scams that ask for personal or sensitive information. Sony will not contact you in any way, including by email, asking for your credit card number, social security number or other personally identifiable information.

Pretty heavy stuff. The good news in all this is Sony has assured that all credit card information was encrypted, and that “there is no evidence at this time” that the data has been taken, according to Gamasutra. They have also stated, “we are initiating several measures that will significantly enhance all aspects of PlayStation Network’s security and your personal data, including moving our network infrastructure and data center to a new, more secure location, which is already underway.”

As for when the Playstation Network will be up and running once again, it’s been said the full restoration will only occur when Sony is confident it is secure.

Tags: hack, Playstation Network, PS3, PSP, security breach, Sony
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@NASA Getting Ready For #Endeavour Launch

Wednesday, April 27th, 2011

This morning the space shuttle Endeavour was cleared by NASA for flight. Its Friday takeoff is particularly special, however, in that it will be the shuttle’s final launch.

Yes, the Endeavour was officially given the thumbs-up for its 25th liftoff, and with relative ease, according to Space.com. Mike Moses, chair of the shuttle mission management team, stated “The orbiter itself, Endeavour, is in great shape. We had an easy poll to say we’re ready to go. We’re looking forward to Friday’s launch.”

NASA is expecting a huge turnout for the grand finale, including a cameo by President Obama. Also among the crowd will be 150 Twitter followers who lucked out last month during a 24 hour Tweetup NASA held, the LA Times reports. In that time, over 4,100 people from all over the world registered online. NASA then randomly selected 150 of them for the VIP treatment. Not only will they get a spectacular view of Friday’s takeoff, but they also will be getting a tour of Kennedy Space Center and a space-suit demonstration. Pretty sweet.

This launch actually marks just the fourth time NASA has employed the use of Twitter to promote an event, and it seems they plan on continuing the Tweetups, with one just ending for a day in NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Who would have thought Twitter could help astronauts.

Tags: Endeavour, Endeavour launch, NASA, Tweetup, Twitter
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Walmart Acquires Kosmix

Wednesday, April 27th, 2011

Walmart recently acquired Kosmix, a California-based company that developed a social media technology platform. The site sorts and categorizes content in social networks to connect people with real-time information that is pertinent to them. Venky Harinarayan and Anand Rajaraman, co-founders of Kosmix, signed a contract with Walmart on April 20, 2011 and hope to finalize closing conditions before July.

“The world of social media is exploding and for millions of consumers their social connections matter hugely in their daily lives,” said Anand Rajaraman, co-founder of Kosmix, for a Walmart press release. “Our work has focused on developing a social genome platform that captures the connections between people, places, topics, products and events as expressed through social media — be it a feed, a tweet or a post. We are thrilled to join one of the world’s largest companies and combine our work with Walmart’s vast online and offline retail businesses.”

Walmart believes acquiring Kosmix will emphasize its commitment to social and mobile trade. Kosmix’s pioneering technology brings users personalized social content neatly arranged by topic.

“We are expanding our capabilities in today’s rapidly growing social commerce environment,” said Eduardo Castro-Wright, Walmart’s vice chairman. “Social networking and mobile applications are increasingly becoming a part of our customers’ day-to-day lives globally, influencing how they think about shopping, both online and in retail stores. We are excited to have the Kosmix team join us to accelerate the development of our social and mobile commerce offerings.”

Kosmix’s team will operate with the new @WalmartLabs to create technologies and new businesses around social and mobile trade that supports Walmart’s vision of a global multi-channel strategy to integrate in-store shopping and online buying.

Tags: @WalmartLabs, e-commerce, Kosmix, social media, Wal-Mart
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Barnes & Noble Serves Up Some Refreshing Froyo for their NOOK Color

Wednesday, April 27th, 2011

The NOOK Color, once solely an e-book reader from Barnes & Noble, is now the proud owner of Android 2.2 (Froyo). Now the device is leaving its former life of solidarity behind, looking to join the ranks of general-purpose Android tablets, says HotHardware.

Not so surprisingly, the NOOK Color was already being exploited to function as an Android tablet by the hacking community. But for everyone else, (those who aren’t comfortable rooting their electronics), Barnes & Noble just sent out the update which grants legitimate Android power to your reader.

Now NOOK Color owners can get apps on their device, although the selection is a little thin at this time. Barnes & Noble is only offering a measly 125 apps in the new NOOK Apps store, but it’s a start. And Angry Birds is available, so that should keep you busy until the store fills out.

The update also beefs up the web browser, enabling Adobe Flash 10.1, and adds a number of other cool features, according to Mobile Magazine.

Though a step closer to tablet functionality, the NOOK Color is definitely more limited than other products out there, but not significantly, and, at its price tag of $250, it is considerably more affordable. Froyo never tasted so good.

Tags: Android tablet, Barnes & Noble Nook, Barnes & Noble tablet, e-book reader, Froyo, Nook Color, Tablet PC
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Officer Facebook on Duty – Law Enforcement Using Technology to Their Advantage

Tuesday, April 26th, 2011

Police agencies are using technology and social media tools to make up for crippling budget cuts. The new techniques, which include working with private business groups online in real time, are very different from the old policies of law enforcement that dictate that the public be kept in the dark about ongoing investigations.

The purpose of the new technique is to utilize the assets at hand as a means of making up for the loss of criminal justice officials as a result of budget cuts. Although controversial, technology is helping law enforcement locate violent crime suspects, track fugitives, and trace the paths of thieves by immediately posting surveillance pictures of suspects on sites like Facebook. This not only utilizes the aid of the public and participating businesses, but it has the ability to warn possible future targets of the suspects, ideally preventing repeat offenders.

Cities in New Mexico, California, Georgia, Minnesota, and Washington are among the police agencies supplementing technology for jobs. “Technology can never fully replace an officer,” said Camden, N.J. Police Chief Scott Thomson, “We’re just trying to leverage technology to appear bigger than we are.”

Camden had the highest crime rate in the U.S. in 2008 with a total of 2,333 violent crimes per 100,000 people (which is well above the national average of 455 per 100,000). As the most dangerous city in the U.S. in 2004, 2005, and 2009, the Camden police department, among others, needs to make use of whatever resources available, especially considering the fact that the 250-officer department has nearly been cut in half since 2006.

Fortunately, Camden police officers have been able to use online global positioning systems, gunshot detectors, and closed-circuit cameras to detect and monitor crime ridden areas of the city in order to dispatch the remaining officers more efficiently.

A survey by the Police Executive Research Forum in Washington found that 86% of police agencies currently use social media (Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, or YouTube) to monitor crime, despite finding that some employees have been caught using the sites to send and post “inappropriate messages and pictures”. It seems that police agencies have weighed the costs and benefits of using such social media tools and technology and found that the benefits of preventing and acting on crimes outweigh the misuse of Facebook.

Tags: Facebook, facebook privacy issues, facebook security features, law enforcement, MySpace, police, police agencies, police officers, social media, social network, social networking, Twitter, YouTube
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