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Hours before Facebook finally kickstart this entire IPO process in New York, many of you are wondering what the hell is the big fuss? Unless you happen to be into technology, or just happen to work in either the financials or technology industry, you would have simply just heard it was going to go and offer its shares to the market.

Well, here’s a bit of a summary on why, and how will it change Facebook.

Money, Money, Money

Facebook’s main motivation is simply to get more money – and looking at the recent news on it, it could raise a lot of money with a price of $38 per share. While it currently relies on advertising for money, selling shares also gives some sort of additional revenue stream to spend on new acquisitions – which is pretty handy if it does want to improve its mobile strategy – and to work on new products to offer.

However, it is also give some sort of return to companies who had invested before the IPO. In fact, it is reported that 60 percent of all shares in the IPO will be existing shareholders selling it to the market – and there are some, like Goldman Sachs, selling at least half of its current holding of stock. But venture capital firms and banks are not the only people who own shares, employees within the company own some shares too. And once 11am hits, when Facebook starts selling, many will be instantly rich.

But they too will be able to sell their own shares in the stock market – and that poses a problem. How many employees are going to divest some or all of their shares? If they do it really quickly, then the shares will soon lose their value and that could be damaging to both Facebook and its new shareholders.

Facebook in the past has been really generous with its employees. In a Reuters’ report, Engineers with 15 years experience could buy 65,000 shares for $6 per share in 2009. A stock split in 2010 saw that increase up to 325,000 shares. But that has changed, with the company being “stringer in handing out equity to noncore employees”.

So, if we see the stock fall – don’t be surprised, it’s those who are selling their shares to get money. And with Europe’s crisis worsening, many could be pulling out within weeks.

Mixed Fortunes for Others

Facebook hasn’t been the only startup that has entered the stock exchange – though it is the biggest. Companies such as Yelp, Groupon, Pandora, LinkedIn and Zynga (which contributed to 15 percent of its revenue) are also in the game, but their fortunes are mixed.

LinkedIn, which launched at $45 per share, is currently trading at $100+ mark, though it has steadily lost its hype. Pandora, Groupon and Zynga, however, went up and fizzled back down. Groupon, which launched at $20 per share, is nearly half of that. Zynga ($10 at launch) is trading in single digits and Pandora ($14) is just above the $10 mark.

Facebook basically needs to maintain its hype – which it can do with such ease. It has over 900 million people on the site and has pretty much taken the throne as the king of social networking. But, it now can’t rely on the hype on the people, it has have hype within Wall Street.

By the Numbers

We could do it all in text format, but we’ve decided to source an infographic from KISSmetrics.

A Bit More Transparent

Going public means that Facebook needs to be more transparent in its earnings, meaning that they have to – like many other companies – report quarterly on how much they make, how much they spend and other stuff about the company. It basically has to do what Google, Microsoft, Apple and other companies have to do now.

But why haven’t they done this before? Financial laws in the United States allows a company to not disclose its earnings to the public if it has less than 500 shareholders. This has pretty much allowed Twitter and many other startups to basically not show how they are making money – though, the tech media is pretty good in getting a bit of information about their cash raising with venture capital firms.

However, there are loopholes within that – and were used by Facebook to make sure it didn’t have to go public (until now). This was evident in Goldman Sachs’ investment into Facebook back in 2011, where the bank created a “special purpose vehicle” to allow its clients to buy shares of Facebook without breaking the 500 shareholders rule.

Will it affect me?

For most, it will most likely mean that you could see more advertising, especially on mobile platforms. Currently, Facebook’s advertising model is on display advertising on the web – that sidebar on the Facebook News Feed. Mobile Advertising is different – mainly because of the screen size of mobile devices.

Theoretically, if Facebook has some sort of decision that a vast majority of users do not like – let’s say that they decided to start forcing all users to pay a monthly subscription fee, laced with advertising, and that you couldn’t do even the most basic features without being a subscriber. Well, Mark Zuckerberg could basically suggest the idea and it will get through since he holds more than 50% of voting power within the company.

But as well, he could also veto that idea if it was suggested by anyone else.

Timeline is expanding! Facebook has announced that the new profile design will now be integrated to pages, meaning that companies will – like profiles – go all the way back to the past and add content easily to their very own “timeline”.

The company also announced that all pages will automatically convert to the new template on March 30, but page owners have the option to preview the new pages so they can ‘clean things up’ before launch. However, while you get the Composer and Cover photo; there will be some differences, including the “Pinned post” anchor – where page owners can post the most important story for up to 7 days.

Basically, this will radically change how we do our brand pages on Facebook now.

Is it Yahoo’s last stand? A report by the New York Times has revealed that the company is threatening Facebook with a patent lawsuit if it does not pay licensing fees for 10 to 20 patents it owns, which include advertising, web page personalisation, messaging and social networking. Yes, the signs of a dying company are definitely present.

“Yahoo has a responsibility to its shareholders, employees and other stakeholders to protect its intellectual property,” a spokesperson from Yahoo said. “We must insist that Facebook either enter into a licensing agreement or we will be compelled to move forward unilaterally to protect our rights.”

But how serious is the threat?

Well, very. A Forbes report back in November showed that Yahoo has over 1,100 patents granted, with an additional 2,661 patents pending. And that number is three or four times larger when you include international patents. And Yahoo does certainly have those patents, but the thing is to note that they use them defensively rather than as an offensive – meaning that if one company like Microsoft retaliates, then they can hit Microsoft back with its patents on search and advertising.

So this approach with Facebook is out of place. And there could be one thing for it.

Money.

Facebook’s IPO is official, and Yahoo simply wants a stake in the company. It also isn’t new from Yahoo, since it also did the same thing with Google. Yahoo, buying advertising company Overture, managed to strike a deal to end a patent spat that saw Google giving Yahoo 2.7 million shares in the company before its IPO in 2004. And it appears Yahoo is looking to Facebook to be some sort of magical cash cow that could save its problems.

And boy, Yahoo is in deep trouble – and by looking for its patent portfolio to make some money, that is a big sign for a company that is meant to be inventing and reinventing. There are speculations that both Google and Microsoft will buy them – not together, of course. Two questions emerge if its true – is it reducing competition, and why buy such a white elephant?

It might be time to break it up and allow each part to focus on what they do well at.

Image: Tom Solari/TECHGEEK.com.au

While there is now a debate if Facebook and other social media websites could lead to addictions, a psychiatrist is calling for the use of such sites for treating young people suffering from mental health issues.

Talking to the ABC’s AM programme, Associate Professor Jane Burns – who is also the CEO of the Young and Well Cooperative Research Centre based in Melbourne – says that Facebook could be used to connect, build networks, and share information.

“What we’ve traditionally said is well, you know, there’s an online world and there’s an offline world. And the offline world is the real world and the online world is the fake world or the make-believe world,” she said.

“Are there ways in which you can talk about their lives and the ways they use technologies that might improve treatment? And it doesn’t matter whether it’s a drug therapy or whether it’s a psychological therapy; it makes sense to have a conversation about what’s going on in the context of a young person’s life.”

She also sees an “online triage”, where young people could seek the information they want and be directed to the appropriate service, based on the level of distress. So if a person needs immediate support, the person gets immediate support online.

“It frees up services to provide the right type of support for those who are in crisis,” Burns said. “Because there’s not a service, there’s a thing called Google; it’s pot luck at the moment in terms of how do young people get into the right service at the right time.”

She is to present a talk about the issue in front of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists this weekend.

Whether you like it or hate it, Facebook sees its future on Timeline. The new profile design is being rolled out to all users, and a new report has stated that Facebook plans to push the design onto brand pages.

Ad Age says that the company will roll it to brand pages, but it will not be a carbon copy to profiles. It will still have the same design; but tabs and apps will become boxes on the timeline, appearing sort of like how apps currently do on profiles under Timeline (e.g. Spotify). Other changes also include possibly expanding its presence beyond when they signed up on Facebook. Ad Age hints:

ne top consideration is that a brand’s Facebook presence no longer must date to when it joined the site but can be represented with content populating its Timeline from throughout its history. (Coca-Cola, for example, could hypothetically add an event for 1892, the year it was founded.)

It will initially be in beta with only a select number of partners, and will open it slowly to other brands as it expands.

The company is expected to announce the changes in a conference in New York at the end of the month.

Spying on players in order to get personal data, no wonder Facebook and Zynga need each other. A former ex-Zynga staff member has opened up an IAmA Reddit post, revealing both the good and the not-so-good bits of the company.

“No, this isn’t payback, or about a grudge. This is just word from someone who’s seen what this industry is capable of doing,” he writes explaining his motivation to do so.

So, what did the former employee reveal?

• Zynga hires contractors and “treats them like second citizen employees, they almost have no feedback or say on their work schedule… they are [also] NOT welcome to company events, they are openly excluded from them. Yet they want them to work twice as hard as regular full timers.”
• They spy on their players, “getting intimate gaming data, their habits, their networks and how to effectively monetize given X”. Also revealed was to skew gameplay in order to profit.
• Worst things on the office? “Color Wars”, which was a company ‘cheerleading’ event apparently; and their walls covered with old memes. If you need an image – “Just imagine a bunch of noobs in /b/ mass bukkakeing your workspace with old memes.” Good luck getting that image out of your head.
• “If you can’t buy em, clone em.” He even reveals that the core technology for FarmVille was bought. Though, he does point out that MafiaWars2 was “homegrown”. Also, to any developer, “Lawyer up” and “resist the urge to get bought out”.
• What are some of the good things? “An awesome chowhall for food. 2 meals a day. Arcade machines all over the campus. Living in the carcass of the old SEGA building. Brogrammers committing bad XML and pretending to be programmers. (entertainment value) Designers and Artists committing bad XML. (moar entertainment value)”
• All the best coders are flagged for Farmville, and all the crap games are “shipped to India, to die. Zynga India is ‘maintenance’”.

So, if you do find anything else interesting, do post in in the comments.

Can search be social? That is what Microsoft is trying to look at with its new experiment from in-house FUSE Labs. Dubbed So.cl, the new site tries to combine social mechanics with a Bing Search so people can find and share web pages.

Now, you may be asking, how did I get in? I didn’t get in the ‘traditional’ way of being a student in one of the selected schools. In fact, I was invited in by my friend over at TechAU, Jason Cartwright (who was invited by Microsoft), by signing up to his new startup Constructiv (I highly suggest you check it out).

When you first open, you notice that it looks a bit like Facebook. I personally believe that making it similar to Facebook was not because of simply copying, but because it is a layout that people know how to use instantly. That means that users can simply pick it up and use straight away, rather than exploring the site aimlessly.

In fact, you need to use your Facebook login to access this site – once you have been given an invite to use this service. This means that you just need to use one ID rather than remembering several other usernames and passwords.

Again taking cues from Facebook, you are introduced with a “Feed” – except you start off reading everyone’s searches and status messages. However, you can filter this out by choosing via the sidebar to see only who you follow, or yours only.

The main idea of the site is to share your searches in a social environment. The top bar has a search box, where you automatically send out what you are searching for. A simple click to that speech bubble will switch that to a status message, a la Facebook. Taking cues from Google+, it has made your privacy settings for each individual post a bit more prominent. You can switch the privacy settings by clicking the globe (where it will turn to a padlock – representing private), or use the drop down menu below the status/search box.

Adding to the social component, you can also use what you find on Bing to create a personalised status message. You can add a link to a website, or even make a rubric set of images – like what I did below with the query “Australian Open”.

This feature I like very much, mainly because I can see students of all ages using this for research projects to share to their friends. And plus, it’s a much better alternative of saving it on this sort of thing, rather than trying to scroll through images or links over and over again. The tagging features is an added bonus, so you can group several things together, making research a bit less painful.

Then we have something called Video Parties (which you can see a screenshot below). It is a combination of a live video playlist and a chatroom, where you and your friends (or whoever is watching in the party) can simply add a video from YouTube. And like a video chatroom, you won’t be able to pause, rewind or fast forward. However, you do have the option reorder the playlist by skipping the current video and playing one video next.

It does assume that you have a fast internet connection as the video will cut off after the allocated time if it stutters, and does play the video in HD if available. So, this further highlights that this was designed for classroom and student use, rather than as an alternative to Facebook. What is also neat is that the Video Party can continue on the sidebar, so you can search for something while still watching the video.

Okay, since I’ve mainly been gushing over this network, lets list some negatives. A big one is the privacy. It follows the Facebook method of public first, private second. You have no option to change the default. You do, however, get to clear your history, tags, likes and comments from the network. And there should at least be a third option where you can share with Friends on Facebook only (since you can’t have friends, but followers), or with selected people so not everything you search for is plastered on the wall.

So if you search for some crazy things – maybe not do it on this social network.

Minor negatives are the aforementioned HD quality video streams, and the limits on providers on video parties. I would like it linked to many more providers rather than just YouTube since not all videos are uploaded on the site (granted, a majority of educational ones are). I also would like to see some more communication features, like live video chat – and they could use Skype for that.

But the major problem with So.cl is that it does not feel, well, social. It is a simple search, add and wait till friends comment on it. I would love the site to have more collaborative features rather than just video parties. Maybe have some document editing for your research project, or deeper integration with Facebook. And like every social networking site, there has to be a mobile strategy for this experiment as education is slowly shifting from desktop to portable devices. A web app that lets you do the same things – add, tag, comment – would suffice.

I should point out that this is an experiment to see if search and social media can be meshed into one site. Maybe we could see these features integrated across Microsoft products once this winds down. However, and this could be unintentional, it could rival Delicious simply because you can list, tag and collect pages from all over the web.

Facebook’s new profile design, dubbed Timeline, will now be rolled out worldwide from today which was previously available to developers. Users can now either opt-in to the new design right now, or wait until you are prompted to by Facebook.

Also announced by the social network was that Timeline will also be implemented on its mobile site – m.facebook.com – and on its Android app.

The new main focus is the “timeline”, which has been designed to track even the more intimate details of one’s life. When you graduate, when you had your first kiss or your first child – Facebook wants to know when you did it on this timeline. Yes, it’s a bit freaky and a bit scary to think that the company wants to have details about such personal information – but hey, it’s for their ads.

We got access to the site in September, and I pointed out that people will not like this change because of a couple of reasons – mainly because Facebook users are really hesitant about change (I mean, for god sakes, they’ve been pretty vocal about even the most miniscule of changes). In addition, I also noted that the design:

I feel that the design purposely wants you to fill in the blanks, and there is nothing wrong with that – unless you are a privacy-conscious person. The fact that it asks you to add photos from your education history, employment and birth highlights Facebook’s new approach – to be a digital storage of your life. It kind of make sense logically as many users aren’t techheads and just want simplicity, and I think this will provide it.

You can get Timeline via its website.

Image: Tom Solari/TECHGEEK.com.au

Social networking giant Facebook could launch its initial public offering of its stock somewhere between April and June of next year. This is according to a new report by the Wall Street Journal, who cites “people familiar with the matter” as their source.

The paper notes that the company is seeking to raise US$10 billion in the IPO. In doing that, it could raise its market value to more than US$100 billion. However, as noted by the article, the value very much depends on “the market and the European economy”.

It is currently in internal discussions on when it will launch the IPO, but CEO Mark Zuckerberg has not made any decisions on an exact date. However, it has written up a prospectus and that is ready to be made public at any time. In addition, it has not made any decisions on which banks it will involve in its IPO.

Facebook would join a long list of tech companies that have started selling their stock recent years like rival business-orientated social networking site LinkedIn, and deals site Groupon. However, based on recent performances, they are facing some difficulties in maintaining shareholder confidence. Facebook, however, might overcome that since they have a somewhat clearer business model as compared to Groupon and LinkedIn.

Though, I should point out that I am not a financial expert.

Google Buzz, the company’s other social network that was launched last year, and its Twitter clone Jaiku are being axed in its recent project cleanup in order to allow developers to focus on the company’s newest project Google+.

“We learned a lot from products like Buzz, and are putting that learning to work every day in our vision for products like Google+,” Bradley Horowitz, Vice President for Product, said in a blog post. “Our users expect great things from us; today’s announcements let us focus even more on giving them something truly awesome.”

Buzz, and its API, will be shut down in a “few weeks”. Jaiku, however, will shut down in January 15, 2012. That announcement follows 2009′s announcement that it would no longer be actively developing the service and open-sourcing the project to run on Google’s App Engine. It acquired Jaiku in 2007.

Google Buzz, however, had a chequered history. It launched to much fanfare from blogs. However, the product had several privacy problems and no ability to opt-out unless you close your Google account meant that users abandoned the project altogether. The privacy concerns went so far in getting the US Federal Trade Commission to investigate and as a result of a settlement from the case, Google is now subject to privacy audits for the next 20 years.

That could explain why Google+ has much better security measures at launch than Facebook.

Also announced to be shutting down by Google is Code Search and its API (allows users to find open source code across the web), iGoogle’s social features and its University Research Program for Google Search (provides API access to its search results for a small number of academic researchers).

Image: Tom Solari/TECHGEEK.com.au

Have you heard that Facebook is going to start charging you to access their site? It was even on the news, and the only way to prevent it is by copying and pasting this message to people and you’ll get some blue icon to save your profile from being deleted. Guess what, it is not true. It’s just a simple hoax.

So, if your friend has managed to copy and paste this little status message on their walls just to alert you on the supposed changes on Facebook:

FACEBOOK HAS JUST RELEASED THEIR PRICE GRID FOR MEMBERSHIP. $9.99 PER MONTH FOR GOLD MEMBER SERVICES, $6.99 PER MONTH FOR SILVER MEMBER SERVICES, $3.99 PER MONTH FOR BRONZE MEMBER SERVICES, FREE IF YOU COPY AND PASTE THIS MESSAGE BEFORE MIDNIGHT TONIGHT. WHEN YOU SIGN ON TOMORROW MORNING YOU WILL BE PROMPTED FOR PAYMENT INFO…IT IS OFFICIAL IT WAS EVEN ON THE NEWS. FACEBOOK WILL START CHARGING DUE TO THE NEW PROFILE CHANGES. IF YOU COPY THIS ON YOUR WALL YOUR ICON WILL TURN BLUE AND FACEBOOK WILL BE FREE FOR YOU. PLEASE PASS THIS MESSAGE ON IF NOT YOUR ACCOUNT WILL BE DELETED IF YOU DO NOT PAY

… or something similar, then pass them on this blog post. Facebook is not going to charge for access to use their site. It is an outright fabrication. Also, seriously, the only way to stop being charge by copying a simple message that will turn your icon will be blue? If you see anything with “Copy and Paste”, then you’ll know it is a scam.

And if you need more assurances, Facebook has even said that it is a hoax.

“A rumor on the internet caught our attention. We have no plans to charge for Facebook. It’s free and always will be,” Facebook said in a post on its page.

So, be more alert this time, and don’t be one of those crappy Facebook friends that repeats this kind of crap on their wall. It does get annoying really quick.

Facebook has announced its brand new profile redesign, and it isn’t that bad. Dubbed “Timeline“, the new profile design aims to merge applications, photos, life events, status updates and your activities in a much better visual display.

As a “Facebook Developer” (I use that term loosely because I got access to it because of the Facebook integration on the posts beforehand), I have early access to the design. Facebook, however, will be rolling this out to users in the coming weeks, and you can express interest in getting it early at their site. And get ready for some backlash.

One of the big differences is that your posts are aligned differently and match to a point in a single line. This is why it is called Timeline, it essentially just makes it easier to read your old posts. And, since I’ve been on Facebook since 2007, it has been weird seeing all my old content because, lets face it, it is kind of scary that Facebook has collected all this data on you for those years.

And for those who don’t want to, um, go through five years of stuff, Facebook has provided you with a quick year summary of all the things you want to know. Again, kind of scary about all the data Facebook has of you.

Another change is the “Cover Photo”. It essentially just a big photo that supposed to represent you. It can be a holiday snapshot, family photo or a image of scenery. Those who also want to know, you’re not going to get the five photos on the top any more, so those who spent hours playing around with services to do that and have a message splashed across the five slots will be disappointed. But then again, it was a pretty much useless and crappy feature.

In addition, you’ll also notice the message box has changed and several new things. Because it’s a timeline, it now has one-click options for life events, such as marriage, health and wellbeing, education or even just travelling to different locations.

I feel that the design purposely wants you to fill in the blanks, and there is nothing wrong with that – unless you are a privacy-conscious person. The fact that it asks you to add photos from your education history, employment and birth highlights Facebook’s new approach – to be a digital storage of your life. It kind of make sense logically as many users aren’t techheads and just want simplicity, and I think this will provide it.

Practically, people don’t like change. Well, Facebook users don’t like change. But you don’t need to fear anything.

Also announced at f8, Facebook’s developers conference, is a new API for applications to take advantage of the new Timeline design. If you are developer, you can gain early access to the new design to test it out before publishing it.

Facebook has turned on the switch for its brand new homepage design, and get ready for the exorbitant amount of rage from Facebook users who just don’t really get why Facebook needs to change. I’ll give you a hint – it has a + and comes with Google. Here’s a rundown of the new changes you can expect to see.

The new design is still a tad annoying, but it has somewhat improved. You now have a smaller feed now slotted up on the right hand side above the chat, meaning that you can now know what your friends are doing even when you are playing Tetris – and you can view it on the spot. You seem to only be able to comment on your own posts and not on others, which is annoying but at least you can continue the conversation without flipping forwards and back to different sections of Facebook to do such thing.

Another thing you will have noticed on the feed is this new thing on posts. They are the new way Facebook determines as “top stories”. Previously, they were tabs which you had to switch back and forwards. Now, Facebook has opted for a more Google “Priority Inbox” sort of way, where it will prioritise messages and status to the top before letting the rest follow on. Plus, you can also tell Facebook what to prioritise, so it can get better at choosing posts.

Interesting, but in some cases, I much prefer to only have it as a linear stream of stuff.

In addition, Facebook is making the thumbnail sizes of photo uploads a bit bigger. This means you can actually see what you are looking at rather than a severely resized image that doesn’t really mean anything unless you opened it.

It appears to be a small refresh, with profiles and many other pages not changed by the new UI. However, with rumours of a change in profile coming soon at the upcoming f8 developer conference, we could see part two of this design roll out.

Facebook users, however, don’t like change. But many seem to not recognise that Facebook needs to continue to reinvent, despite the annoyed users, and is probably motivated by MySpace and how long did it take to reinvent itself to a much sleeker design from a free-for-all chaotic mess that eventually brought its demise as many people were more focused on friends rather than sparkly lettering notoriously featured on teenage girls MySpace profiles.

The timing couldn’t get any more coincidential as Google recently announced that it will be opening Google+ to all the public. So if you don’t like Facebook, then you should move. In fact, can you do that with Twitter as well? I don’t want teenage fangirls for Justin Bieber to start pushing up related trending topics about him or attacking people out of nowhere.

Image: Tom Solari/TECHGEEK.com.au

A new presentation to the American Psychological Association has said that social media’s effect on children, especially in human interaction, may lead to them developing a narcissistic personality, antisocial behaviour and aggressive tendencies.

The presentation, Poke Me: How Social Networks Can Both Help and Harm Our Kids by Larry D. Rosen from the California State University, was based on a number of surveys distributed to 1000 adolescents in urban centres and 15-minute observations of 300 teens in studying.

His report highlights that the daily overuse of media and technology can result in more anxiety, depression and being more susceptible to future health problems. Also, he has linked the use of Facebook can impact a child’s education, with college students checking Facebook at least once during a 15-minute study period would achieve lower grades.

However, it’s not all bad news: his research also also showed that introverted adolescents can learn how to socialise and those who spend more time on Facebook tend to show more “virtual empathy” to their online friends – which is a stark contrast to narcissistic personalities. Rosen points that this can also teach kids how to empathise in reality.

And if you are a worried parent – there’s essentially no point of you trying to monitor your child, according to Rosen.

“If you feel that you have to use some sort of computer program to surreptitiously monitor your child’s social networking, you are wasting your time. Your child will find a workaround in a matter of minutes,” he said.

He points to discussion on social networking issues such as what to post and removing inappropriate content as a solution to parents’ fears.

“You have to start talking about appropriate technology use early and often and build trust, so that when there is a problem, whether it is being bullied or seeing a disturbing image, your child will talk to you about it,” according to Rosen.

Video calling is only limited to Facebook-to-Facebook users and you will not be able to contact Skype users. Facebook has also made it simple to use, just click the “Call” button or will pop up when someone is trying to call you.

It is available now – if you want to help test it out – and in a couple of weeks will be turned on by default for all users.

Facebook’s other chat improvements include multi-chat, similar to every other IM service, and a new chat design that will put your most-messaged friends at the top, so you don’t have to keep scrolling down your long list of friends in order to contact someone.

While video calling is a big thing and was in the works for months – this is sort of playing catch up with Google+, who has this feature at its beta launch just a week ago. However, Google+ isn’t open to everyone and still is in invite-only stage until the end of July. This now puts Facebook more of an advantage to keep users from defecting to Google’s service, as Google+ still lacks several features that would entice me and others to continually use it.

Well, except for Chris.

BlackBerry users rejoice! The guys over at RIM, the creators of the smartphone, are at work at bringing a new version of the Facebook application, and while it hasn’t been officially released, a beta of the application has been released – giving us a glimpse of what’s new like, I don’t know, Facebook Chat support.

The new version will now allow BlackBerry users to now communicate to their friends on Facebook via Facebook Chat, and you can converse via the Chat conversation section of the application, or even within the unified mailbox on the smartphone. All you need ot do is to make sure your status is set to online on the application. And the great thing is that your chat can move from phone to web, and vice versa.

Another feature is a new UI, based on user feedback. There is now a more button at the end of every status, allowing you to like, comment and see “Wall-to-Wall” – rather than printed on small text. The update box is still at the top, but also includes adding a photo and your location via Facebook Places. New navigational controls have been included, and will look something similar to the iOS.

BlackBerry OS 6 users will be able to see the beta for now, but the official software will support BlackBerry OS 4.6 and above. You can download it from the BlackBerry Beta Zone.

Nokia has announced the Australian availability for its all-in-one business smartphone designed for the BlackBerry’s target market – the corporate worker. Featuring a 4-inch display and a full QWERTY keyboard, it allows the use of both a touchscreen interface or using the keyboard.

The phone will also have an 8-megapixel camera with dual LED flash and geotagging, Ovi integration with its maps and app store, 16GB of internal memory, HDMI connectivity and support for multi-party conference calling, so you can have more than two people on the same call.

Also included are the social networking features, document editing on the go and corporate security features, such as VPN support. It will also include support for instant messaging services Yahoo, AIM, Windows Live, Gtalk and MySpace (depending on carrier and region) and its own Ovi Chat.

It will not run on Windows Phone 7. Nokia is pushing out its standard phones as usual before the end of the year as it still continues the process of switching to the new OS from Symbian.

The phone is slated to be on Optus and Vodafone’s network from April. Gallery is below, after the jump.

Image by: Tom Solari/TECHGEEK.com.au

OPINION: The Internet is a marvellous place where we can all communicate instantly without waiting several weeks to communicate internationally, or when we need something instant. But the true power of the internet is always in a major breaking story – such as a natural disaster.

This year, we have seen three: the Floods in Queensland, the Earthquake in New Zealand and the powerful tsunami-and-earthquake combo in Japan. And the Internet has made it easy to communicate necessary information.

While Twitter was used for the floods in order to disprove myths and even send out necessary information (we did our part as well on our Twitter feed); in Japan, the Internet was used to not only disseminate information via Twitter, but due to the geographical landscape of Japan, also broadcast NHK and two other television stations via the Ustream and other platforms in order to keep them up to date. Google also helped by making it easier to help find people – such as they did with the earthquake in Christchurch.

In addition with information, everyone on Twitter send their prayers with the hashtag #prayforjapan.

But, like everything, there is a downside with every disaster.

Of course, we will keep seeing those who exploit the disaster for their own interests: such as those conspiracy nuts spewing that the end of the world is nigh, or that this is the start of the Second Coming of Jesus Christ as spelt out in the Bible. I’m sorry, but if I’m going to believe you, you’ll need credible and scientific evidence for me to believe that – not some religious text which could be fictional.

However, I was stunned to read this:

Watching the news about the #tsunami in Japan and smiling, thinking of it as pay back for Pearl Harbor. Karma always finds a way.

March 12, 2011 9:46 AM via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@TroyHoban

Troy Hoban

… or read these, provided to you via the marvellous OpenBook (which brings to another unrelated point, FIX YOUR SECURITY SETTINGS ON FACEBOOK!!):

Of course, while I don’t usually publically shame people (on TECHGEEK.com.au), I do find it horrendous that people would think that this is simply karma for bombing Pearl Harbour. A natural disaster compared to something in World War II, something obviously man-made. Really? What about the fact that you bombed them twice with nuclear weaponry? Or even better, what about the fact that you helped their economy and then crashed the entire world’s economy? But no, a natural disaster that costs over 1,000 lives and that could rise exponentially is simply karma?

The fact these comments were made were obviously signs that they forgot that these are in the public arena. But still, these are horrendous comments. If every natural disaster occurred because we have done something bad to the United States, then was the New Zealand earthquake was karma for New Zealand for implementing a nuclear-free zone, affecting the United States’ nuclear program in the 1980s? Well, no. Unless you are really an idiot to believe that.

I have two words to say to you, and I am very sorry to other readers who find this out of character: f**k you!

These people (though it is very questionable), however, detract us from the main story. That Japan faces several problems – first with the nuclear reactors in its country, and the fact that it has a large budget deficit and braces for the worst, both in the disaster and economically. And with heartbreaking footage that has been screened on news bulletin after news bulletin – all sourced from NHK, the Japanese public broadcaster – the devastation is simply to hard to watch.

So while we understand the economic climate and donations to both Christchurch and Brisbane, we urge everyone to simply find some cash they have, such as some spare change, to help Japan in their hour of need.

PHD, a marketing company, has copped some flack over its new video campaign titled “We are the Future”. Why? Because it reveals the extent of how PHD or other advertising companies will help its clients interact with “the next generation”.

The video, however, has gotten some flack across the internet.

What a bunch of wankers! The comments are priceless though RT @realsoczywko Posh kids want your job: http://bit.ly/gTntDn @phdworldwide

February 25, 2011 9:43 AM via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@aliceroberts

Alice Aylett Roberts

How frightening & terrible & just plain WRONG. Makes one want to unjack from the matrix & become a technophobe hermit http://t.co/YxjVdWp

February 26, 2011 3:36 PM via Twitter for MacReplyRetweetFavorite

@stephenfry

Stephen Fry

Why is it bad? Despite the fact it is a very bad ad, it reveals some certain aspects of what advertising companies could use in 2021 – as the video says. Advertising companies could use data from people to interact with brands, even sell the data to data-mining companies more often to “interact” with brands. As well, the video shows that users could even get money from selling their own data.

You can see the horrific or prophetic ad at the bottom.

Image: Al Jazeera English/Creative Commons

The internet may be blocked in Egypt, and what we can tell on Twitter, many of the other communication services are also down; but that hasn’t stopped many people trying to bypass the blocks, with many finding alternative services to disseminate information to the entire world.

While some are using virtual private networks or happen to be using Noor Data Networks, which provides data to the Egyptian Stock Exchange, as their ISP; some are even using the good old dial-up service.

A French company, French Data Networks, is offering free dial-up access to Egyptians, posting onto Twitter: “Free dialup internet access for egypt : http://www.fdn.fr on +33172890150 login toto password toto #jan25 #egypt MASS RT PLZ”.

As well, there has been a massive increase of the use of Tor in order to bypass the blocks. You can see the graph of the Tor increase below, taken from the Tor Metrics Portal:

Oh, and if you want some more reading this weekend – here’s an excellent article by our friends over at Ars Technica about how Egypt can shut down the entire Internet, and possibly even another government – such as ours.

The internet blackout was in response to an Associated Press video, posted just ten minutes before the Internet was cut off across Egypt, showed an Egyptian protester shot by the police.

According to the Arabist, it isn’t isolated to one ISP – but to all ISPs in the country, citing an anonymous person he knows in the country.

I just received a call from a friend in Cairo (I won’t say who it is now because he’s a prominent activist) telling me neither his DSL nor his USB internet service is working. I’ve just checked with two other friends in different parts of Cairo and their internet is not working either.

Reuters is also reporting that the some parts of Cairo are not having access to the Internet, while some are having disruptions in access to Facebook and Twitter. Spokesperson for the Egypt’s embassy in Washington DC, Karim Haggag, told Reuters that its country has not shut down access to those sites.

The blackout has also since been confirmed by CNN’s Ben Wederman.

According to the Herdict Report, there have been a rise to sites that have been listed as inaccessible, with Facebook and Twitter topping the list of sites inaccessible in the country. As well, it appears that the Government has shut down the SMS network in order to prevent protesters to communicate – as it was the SMS network that started the protests.

The block of Twitter and Facebook is to eliminate any possible way for protesters to communicate, but many are using proxies in order to bypass filters. A Facebook page announcing a new protest was able to attract 55,000 supporters in less than 24 hours after creation.

“Egypt’s Muslims and Christians will go out to fight against corruption, unemployment and oppression and absence of freedom,” one person said, being quoted on Reuters.

We are also hearing reports that the company has blocked access to the BlackBerry Internet Service, leaving BlackBerry users unable to connect to the Internet. However, some could still access the internet via applications. Again, this cannot be confirmed as most of the information is hearsay.

UPDATE [11:45AM]: Reports that have since been confirmed that Egypt has now issued an Internet blackout. You can read more here.

While Twitter has confirmed that its site has been blocked, other sites have been periodically blocked as Australia slept. The Next Web is claiming that YouTube, Facebook and Google are now accessible, but their connections slowed down – possibly in an effort to stop or slow-down protesters from uploading content to the West.

The Guardian is also reporting that mobile towers have been disabled and the telephone service cut, after protests were organised via text messages.

The pro-democracy movements in the Arab World have been using social media websites as a way to reach out during the protests – the most famous ones in Tunisia earlier in the year and in Iran over the disputed elections in 2009.

Anonymous, famous for their support of Wikileaks and also attacking the Australian Government over its proposed filter, has also threatened to send is currently sending denial-of-service attacks on websites on the Egyptian government over its censorship of the internet

“To the Egyptian Government: Anonymous challenges all those who are involved in censorship. Anonymous wants you to offer free access to uncensored media in your entire country. When you ignore this message, not only will we attack your government websites, Anonymous will make sure that the international media sees the horrid reality you impose on your people,” It wrote on a press release.

The web vigilante group has started “recruiting” people to conduct these attacks. Sites targeted, according to the International Business Times, include the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Communications and Technology. It appears that the sites mentioned have been taken down.

Also in the news, a Guardian journalist was arrested and beaten up. The full audio clip has been posted by The Guardian, and we do warn it contains some harsh language.

Image by: flyvancity/Flickr (CC)

Sharing links to your friends, such as a funny auto-correct fail or a news article that happens to claim that Apple is merging iTunes and Safari together, can be a bit tedious as you have to copy the link, open up your email client or a new tab for the social networking profile, and then post it out to your friends. Now, Mozilla has made it a bit simple.

Called F1, Mozilla (via Mozilla Messaging) has made this nifty little plugin to allow you to easily send those links to social networking sites Facebook and Twitter – along with several web email clients, such as Google’s Gmail. The list is a bit short but soon more services will be added – we hope.

The project is part of Mozilla’s Labs initiative in order to create better features for the Firefox brand, with many projects hoping to be graduates such as Personas (its new skinning feature) and Firefox Sync (bookmarks syncing). That being said, it is a Firefox-only feature and it is in beta, so you pretty much should be wary that it may cause instability.

If you are still confused with my explanation, you can see a video below.

You can download the plugin on their website.