Facebook will destroy your children's brains

Facebook users face a future of rolling around on the floor, dribbling incoherently as they demand approval from passers-by.

Social media sites like Facebook and Twitter have left a generation of young adults vulnerable to degeneration of the brain, we can exclusively reveal for about the fifth time. Symptoms include self-obsession, short attention spans and a childlike desire for constant feedback, according to a 'top scientist' with no record of published research on the issue.

Repeated exposure to the internet leaves people with an 'identity crisis', wanting attention in the manner of a toddler saying, 'Look at me, Mummy,' or a scientist touting their latest brain-fart in the national press.

The scientist believes that use of the internet – and computer games – could 'rewire' the brain, causing neurons to establish new connections and pathways. "Rewiring itself is something that the brain does naturally all the time," the professor said, "but the phrase 'rewiring the brain' sounds really dramatic and chilling, so I like to use it to make it seem like I'm talking about a profound and unnatural change, even though it isn't."

This rewiring can result in reduced concentration, a need for instant gratification, poor non-verbal skills, and the habit of talking really loudly like Alistair Stewart, according to research that hasn't yet been performed.

"I think it's really important that people aren't frightened by scare stories about new technology, and I've been a big supporter of brain-training software in the past," the scientist said, "but people's brains are literally melting inside their heads from all the MyFace waves being absorbed."

In a controversial move, popular science journal The Daily Mail published the academic's findings before they had actually been found. "In academia I've faced a great deal of prejudice from peers," she explained, "They say 'oh you haven't done the research, you've not got any evidence,' but really they're just jealous of my fashion sense. Publishing in the Mail lets me rise above all the petty politics and fact-checking in science, and just say 'this is the truth, bitches'."

Responding to criticism from the Guardian's Ben Goldacre, she said "he thinks his hair's better than mine. It isn't. I don't even think it's real. Who is he anyway? Is he a 'top scientist'? No."

The scientist, who doesn't actually use Twitter, said: "What concerns me is the banality of so much that goes out there. Why should someone be interested in what someone else has had for breakfast? My friend told me what they were having for dinner the other day, and I told them to 'fuck off' before slamming the phone down."

The high-profile academic, who frequently uses the media as a platform to push her theories to the public, suggested that some Facebook users feel the need to become 'mini celebrities' who are watched and admired by others on a daily basis. "They do things that are 'media worthy' because the only way they can define themselves is by 'people knowing about them'", she told a tabloid journalist.

Following her successful move from peer-reviewed journals to the Mail, the Professor will take the next logical step of publishing her future research through the medium of romantic fiction.

(The following is actually, seriously, true.)

She is currently working on her first novel, based on her interest in technology's impact on man and the idea that young adults are turning into zombie like 'cyber people' before our very eyes.

"Cyber people aren't robots," she explained to the Evening Standard, "It's just that they spend all their time interfacing with technology so they're uncomfortable with relationships. So there's bound to be a backlash. We should be the masters of technology, not the servants."

The protagonist is a 22nd-century neuroscientist with three women in his life, loosely based on Winston Smith in George Orwell's 1984. Really. Source: Click here

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HP ready to launch Pre 3, seeks apps from developers

HP spills beans regarding the launch of Pre 3, asks developers to submit apps for the new smartphone

It all started with a official email in which HP asked its developers to submit exciting webOS apps for its smartphone. The smartphone in question is HP's latest offering - Pre 3. 

The official email indicated that the developers with webOS apps should check the compatibility with the Pre 3 using the emulator which will be released this week. 

The developers targeted here belong to HP’s Early Access Program. However the forum is open to newbie's as well. To join the program all developers have to do is send an email to  PDC@palm.com to register. 

Pre 3 is touted as one of the powerful smartphone coming out of the HP stable. A smartphone that caters to both personal professional usage, comes equipped with a 1.4 GHz processor and sports a 3.58’’ touch screen. A QWERTY keypad with a slide out feature, makes texting easy. 

The streamlined design and sturdy structure, make the phone quite ideal for business users. If you are particular about the safety of your data, with HP Pre 3, your privacy and security will be maintained. 

Integrated with a GPS navigation system, Office Suite for Word, Excel and Powerpoint presentations coupled with Google Docs and Box.net, this smartphone is your office on wheels. 

The smartphone comes with a 5 mega-pixel autofocus camera with LED flash snapper and with a additional fixed focus camera, your door to two way calling will be smooth and seamless. 

Offering a video recording up to 720p, Pre 3 packs in plenty of space for all your pictures, videos, documents and more. With push mail and other such facilities, Pre 3 stands to score high among the top players in the business phone market.

Pre 3's launch in India is not yet known, but it is rumoured to be launched soon at price point of approximately  Rs. 25000. Source: Click here

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Acer ICONIA A100 Coming to US this Month

Now that the new Android 3.2 Gingerbread is out, Acer is all set to launch its ICONIA A100 Honeycomb tablet which supposed to launch back in July. Engadget, reports that Acer has sent out mails to their retail partners, saying that the device will start shipping in the early weeks of August.

The ICONIA A100 is a 7-inch Android tablet which is powered by the same processor as the 10-inch ICONIA A500. While this launch seems specific to the US market, the device may soon arrive in UK and India, probably by the end of the next month.

Sporting the 1GHz dual-core NVIDIA Tegra 2 processor along with 512MB of RAM this would run Android Honeycomb version 3.2.  The same update with make it to the ICONIA A500 sometime in the month of September. Source: Click here

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Microsoft's IE9 OS Gamble Paying Off?

Microsoft's Internet Explorer retained its browser dominance in July, followed by Mozilla's Firefox, but both saw a slight decline in the last month while Google's Chrome enjoyed a slight, incremental boost, according to data from Net Applications.

Nonetheless, Microsoft touted the gains the latest version of its browser, IE9, has made in the business sector and on its latest OS, Windows 7.

Overall, Internet Explorer had 52.81 percent of the global browser market last month (down 0.87 percent), followed by Firefox with 21.48 percent (down 0.19 percent), and Chrome at 13.45 percent, up from 13.11 percent last month. Safari also dropped slightly to 7.48 percent, while Opera bit off about 1.73 percent of the browser share.

Broken down by browser version, IE8 was the most popular at 29.3 percent, though that was a drop from June's 30.07 percent. Chrome 12, meanwhile, captured 11.16 percent, up from 7.32 percent in June. Microsoft's push to abolish IE6 appears to be working; IE6 global share was down to 9.24 percent from 10.18 percent the month before.

IE9's worldwide share crept up to 6.77 percent, from 5.63 percent. But Net Applications said that Microsoft's strategy of releasing IE9 only for Vista and Windows 7 appears to have paid off.

"In July on Windows 7, Internet Explorer 9 hit 18.5 percent share worldwide and 24.8 percent in the United States. There are indications that this strategy is working. Although Internet Explorer lost usage share on XP, on Windows 7, Microsoft increased global usage share, going from 54.6 percent in June to 54.8 percent in July. And in the U.S., Internet Explorer share on Windows 7 grew 0.6 percent to 68.1 percent," Net Applications said.

In a blog post, Microsoft's Roger Capriotti said the numbers are "a good leading indicator of the value companies are seeing in moving to Internet Explorer 9 with Windows 7."

On all operating systems, IE9 had 11 percent share in the United States, Net Apps found.

In other browser news, a report emerged this weekend that suggested Internet Explorer users are not as smart as their Firefox- and Chrome-using counterparts. Across the board, the average IQ scores presented for users of Internet Explorer versions 6 through 9 were all lower than the IQ scores recorded for Firefox, Chrome, Safari, Camino, and Opera users, according to online psychometric testing company AptiQuant.

Source: Click here

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Indian Origin Scientist Designs Nanosized Batteries

Pulickel M. Ajayan, an Indian origin scientist  who had been researching from years in the field of nanowire devices has finally emerged successful as he has packaged lithium ion batteries, which power mobiles and smartphones, into a single nanowire. To say possibly, the world at large runs on lithium ion batteries and such a great advancement in this field is a matter of deep appreciation.

The schematic shows nanoscale battery/supercapacitor devices in an array, as constructed at Rice University. The devices show promise for powering nanoscale electronics and as a research tool for understanding electrochemical phenomenon at the nanoscale. (Credit: Ajayan Lab)

Giving technical details of the device the researchers said that the two versions of their battery had the first one as a sandwich with nickel/tin anode, polyethylene oxide (PEO) electrolyte and polyaniline cathode layersin which lithium ions would move efficiently through the anode to the electrolyte and then to the supercapacitor-like cathode, which would store the ions in bulk and give the device the ability to charge and discharge quickly.

“The idea here is to fabricate nanowire energy storage devices with ultrathin separation between the electrodes,” said Arava Leela Mohana Reddy, study co-author and research scientist, according to a university statement.

The Rice University had invented one such device last December but it had the drawback that the cathode had to be attached from outside but the new device tucks the cathode inside the nanowires. That’s great, isn’t it? After having a hand at almost all the materials for devicing a suitable cathode, finally the scientists settled on the synthesized polymer known as polyaniline (PANI). Drop-coating the widened alumina pores with PEO coats the insides, encases the anodes and leaves tubes at the top into which PANI cathodes could also be drop-coated. An aluminum current collector placed on top of the array completes the circuit.

These new devices are about 50 micron tall and have a diameter of about the size of human hair, almost invisible when viewed on the edge! Truly speaking there is nothing impossible with these devices – they can even be scaled to greater distances as per the requirements of the application.

“There’s a lot to be done to optimize the devices in terms of performance,” said the paper’s lead author, Sanketh Gowda, a chemical engineering graduate student at Rice. “Optimization of the polymer separator and its thickness and an exploration of different electrode systems could lead to improvements.” source: click here

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Google Chrome becomes UK's second most popular web browser

Internet browser passes Firefox, with speed and a nationwide advertising campaign credited for the rise in popularity

Google Chrome has overtaken Firefox to become the UK's second most popular web browser. Photograph: Walter Bieri/AP
Google's Chrome is Britain's second most popular browser, a sign of the internet giant's increasing grip on the UK search market.


Three years after launch, Chrome last month captured 22% of UK users and marginally overtook Mozilla's Firefox browser, according to the web metrics firm Statcounter. Microsoft's Internet Explorer is losing market share to Chrome but remains the most popular browser for UK users with 45% – although it has a head start by being pre-installed on almost all computers sold in Britain. Apple's Safari is UK number four, with a 9% share.


Google's rise in the browser market is in part down to nationwide advertising – Chrome is the first Google product advertised on British TV – but is largely attributed to its speed.


Lars Bak, the Google engineer responsible for Chrome, said the goal had never been to attract a huge user base, but to energise a dormant browser market: "Speed is a fundamental part of it, but it's also about the minimal design and the way it handles security. If you as a user try [to load] a webpage and it feels snappy, it's really hard to go back [to another browser]. It has shown that people spend more time interacting with the web."


Unlike most of Google's talent based at its Mountain View headquarters in California, Bak works from a converted farmhouse in the Danish countryside two hours from Copenhagen. He has become obsessed with speed, and despite numerous tests that show Chrome outstrips all rivals, he thinks it could be much faster. "You should never be happy with [existing] speed," he said. "Of course it gets harder to make substantial gains, but it's all healthy competition. From the beginning we wanted everybody to be fast, and now all browsers are fast. I'm absolutely flabbergasted [by the improvements made by rival browsers]."


Chrome is the number three worldwide, with a 20.65% market share according to Statcounter. But analysts expect it to edge ahead of Firefox, which has dipped steadily since January. Microsoft's Internet Explorer has also fallen heavily, to 43%, with warnings about security vulnerabilities.


Google last month announced its Chromebook laptop, based on its browser and seen as another ambitious attack on Microsoft; it will be made by Samsung and Acer, companies that previously made computers running Microsoft's software.


Unlike most computers, the Chromebook has almost no capacity to store and hosts most data online in a "cloud". Bak said: "The Chromebook is really important because it tries to simplify the machine – it is basically no maintenance, which means you can cut the price. If all you are doing is using a browser it's a fantastic tool." source: click here

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Apple Halts Samsung Galaxy Tab Launch in Australia

As part of the ongoing lawsuit between Samsung and Apple, the launch of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 has been delayed in Australia. A court injunction has been won by Apple which will prevent Samsung from selling the tablet “until [Samsung] wins court approval or the lawsuit is resolved,” according to a report by Bloomberg.

The lawsuit started in the US in April, and has Apple accusing Samsung of ripping of the iPhone and the iPad in look and feel. The evidence is hard to contradict. Show one of Samsung’s recent touch-screen handsets to a layperson and they’ll probably mistake it for an iPhone.

Not only has Apple successfully halted the launch of the Tab 10.1, but Samsung has agreed to supply Apple with three examples of the tablet at least a week before any future launch date. This is necessary as the Australian Tab 10.1 will differ from the U.S model. Unless it looks like an Etch-a-Sketch, though, it’s pretty hard to imagine that Apple will give it the go-ahead.

By the time this spat finally works its way through the courts, it’s likely we will have forgotten about it. But what seems clear right now is that Apple is currently winning, likely thanks to the obviousness of Samsung’s rip-offs. If the Korean tech giant is to move forward with its Android phones and tablets, it’s going to have to invent some of its own.source : click here

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The Profits of Stock Market Trading Courses

The trading industry is a difficult field that involves numbers, charts and requires analysis in order to make good and wise trading judgments. High quality and reliable stock market trading courses is the key of being successful in trading. There are a number of benefits that can be resulting from engaging in stock market trading classes. Here are some of the benefits of the program:

•     It allows you to know what kind of trader you wanted to be. You will be involved in a initial trader assessment to determine your potential, strengths and weaknesses in order to fully understand what type of trader you will be good at such as a day trader or a swing trader. It is important to determine what type of trader you are to help you focus on the effective trading techniques, especially if you are just new to online trading.
•         Your personal coach will be able to review your trading log and focus sheet in order to point out your possible mistakes in trading and to offer suggestions on what should be done to straighten out these mistakes. Stock market trading beginners need to know what they're doing wrong while taking stock market trading classes so that they won't repeat these when they are actually trading.
•          There is also weekly coaching call that aims to assess the progress of the aspiring day trader as well as to discuss possible corrections to make you succeed in the trading business.
•          Part of the program is the live trading sessions with the coach. This live trading sessions allows you to consult the coach on some of your queries. Moreover, you will have the chance to ask questions to the coach about your trading strategies and how to further improve them in order to succeed. Online trading does not have to be as complicated as how new traders assume it to be.

Winning yourself with a personal coaching program is beneficial to an in-the-process trader such as yourself because it allows you to further hone your skills and potential to become a successful person in the trading business in the future. These benefits are for you as an addition to your online trading education. A personal coaching program under stock market trading courses enables you to have guidance and reasonable advices from the experts and professional traders that can impart great knowledge to you. Conquer and be an expert in stock market trading by signing up for stock market trading classes.

For more information about advanced technical analysis courses and Stock market courses online in Delhi then visit www.winthemarkets.com

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Technical Analysis Course in Delhi

I want to say this article is about the things that you want to see out for when you are looking at a technical analysis course online in Delhi NCR. Trading from a technical view is becoming more popular in trading and therefore so has the indeed for courses.

First of all we will look at the website and then we will go on to looking at the detail of technical analysis course online. There are a lot of essentials that I think you should learn as part of the website. It is important that you will find out the courses detail online before you joining.

You first need to understand the basics of technical analysis so you need to learn about the why this type of analysis works. You also want to learn how the famous Jaswant Aditya teaching used it to his advantage. Then to complete the basics you need to understand the different types of charts.

A beneficial method that people use is trending. You will see how using moving averages WintheMarkets help you 

For more information about advanced technical analysis courses and Stock market courses online in Delhi then visit www.winthemarkets.com

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Stock Market Courses Online in Delhi At WinTheMarkets

Stock market is considered a very difficult thing to understand. It is really tough for people to know what is happening in this market and it´s also difficult to learn it. But with the online stock market courses things has become more easy for people who wants to learn it. Everyone can register with no troubles to a stock exchange course and learn everything in order to know all the concepts of stock exchange. These kind of courses are taught in a way which would be the most useful for people who are beginners. With these online courses you will become an expert easily. The stock market trading education informs people about the easiest methods that are used to improve your skills and knowledge by providing them with total training classes. They also provide you with tools which help you to get the maximum benefits in order to learn these new concepts.

The online stock trading courses for beginners has become very common for people because they use a simple language to teach and the terms they use are really simple to understand. Persons do not have to obtain support from any kind of additional supply because these types of lessons and classes will be sufficient in order to explain to you everything in relation to the stock trade market and its trends. The online stock market courses for beginners it is very easy and you would certainly like knowing about this specific topic because you actually will have no problems in being able to access this training and classes. Everyone can easily enroll to them and obtain your own sign in name as well as the password of your online courses. Then you will easily find all the information of the online stock market courses in your sign in and will be able to use it from any place of the world where you have accessibility to Internet.

Knowing about finance it´s no so easy and oftently you will get bored and tired of it. But with the online Stock Market Courses things will be easier to you and you´ll become an expert really quickly. With these courses people can easily understand about finance and also can become a skilled in this area.

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Best Link Building Techniques For Beginners

This article is about of link building techniques for beginners, more than half the conflict for ranking high for certain terms is getting relevant links back to your site. Building links from places abroad the internet is probably the major problem you will come across when improving SEO, so having a short list of places to start off with can give you a great head start. The most common link building techniques are article syndication, directory submission, press release submission, social bookmarking, forums posting, creating a blog, and internal linking.

Directory Submission

Basically there are lots of directories all over the internet just begging for you to submit your website to them for absolutely no cost. There are loads of free directories that you can submit to in just a few minutes and this is the great way to start off your link building campaign. The biggest and most effective free directory is Dmoz.org, but you will have trouble getting in, as they have allowed very few submissions in recent years, but nonetheless this is probably the best link you will get from a free directory (see my next post on Dmoz). There are numerous free directories submit to, over thousands, so if you are ever bored and have little to do, sit down and submit to a few of these low key directories (in late May, early June I should upload a comprehensible list with every free directory found on the web). Just be sure to have a quick list ready of your URL, Title, Description, & Tags of your website, as this can make the process much quicker by simply copying & pasting.

Article Submission

As you are now finding out, content creation is key, and you can never have enough articles, press releases, blog posts, and even forum posts. If you have content you don't mind sharing with other sites, there are numerous article directories to submit to where you can put in a few of your links back to your site in either the article itself or the resource box (about the author). Like directories, there are numerous article directories to be found on the web. Here's a few to get you started: EzineArticles.com, ArticlesBase.com, and ideamarketers.com. By writing 20 - 30 articles for syndication purposes, you can get more than 1,000 links back to your site if you play your cards right and submit to around 25 - 30 quality article directories. Note that article submission & article syndication are the same thing, but I will sometimes use one instead of the other.

Press Release syndication

While you might want to keep your best content exclusive to your own site, press releases aren't one of them. By going to sites such as PRweb.com, you can syndicate your press releases all over the web and get your word out. I suggest spending a few bucks to get a few press releases syndicated on quality PR websites, but if you have a tight budget, you can get away with just submitting to the free ones.

Social Bookmarking

One way to build some half-decent links and get traffic at the same time is through social bookmarking & social news sites (they go hand & hand, and are basically the same thing). By submitting links of all the different pages on your site, and by having others vote for them (ex. On digg.com you can "digg" different links submitted by others), you can get search engines as well as real people to notice you and your site.

Creating a blog

Creating a blog is something that will take a little bit of time every day, but it's worth it. By creating original content on a daily or every-other-day basis, search engines will take notice, because as said before - search engines love loads of quality unique content! The way link building ties into this is simple - link different keywords that come up in your blogs to your desired pages. Linking 2-3 links every day from your blog builds some high-quality links, more so than article syndication links, and they can add up over time.

Internal linking

Most people, including experts, forget about this part of link building. They're so concerned with getting other sites to link to theirs, that they forget the gold mine waiting to be dug right at home. Make good use of the link juice you've built up in your own site - link different keywords in the content on your own site, and you will see some great results. Warning: do not overdo this to an extent, because when you are linking every third word on your page, both people and search engines don't like this. For example, I was searching the web when I found an SEO site that linked the word "SEO" over 20 times on its home page alone! My suggestion: for a 500 word piece of content, have about 4-6 keyword-rich links.

Forums Posting

Posting on niche market forums can be an effective means of getting targeted traffic to your capture pages PLUS networking with people who are into the same things that you are. As long as you use discussion boards wisely and don't break any of the board rules, you can get access to huge marketing benefits. Not just in terms of people getting to know and respect your expertise, but in terms of the traffic you'll receive from the links that are attached to your posts and signature files.

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Powerful SEO Blog Help to Improve Your Search Engine Ranking

First and primary, if you want to improve your Search Engine ranking, you must make sure you are providing valuable content that will give people something worth visiting your blog for. Then, make sure you don't have duplicate content out there on some other site. Search Engine looks at duplicate content and doesn't like it in regards to SEO blog rankings.

If you are looking for blog SEO help that will improve your rankings on the Internet, then I am going to share with you some tips and two simple tools that has improved my rankings tremendously.

The other thing you want to make sure that you are not doing for your SEO blog Search Engine ranking is creating a page on your blog or an article post on your blog that you then delete later. If it is indexed by Search Engine and you delete it, then you have created a page break and Search Engine doesn't like that. This will hurt your rankings too.

Another good tip to improve your SEO blog Search Engine ranking for your page is to always have a graphic on your post, and an alt tag with the keyword you are ranking for. Pictures make things more interesting to the readers and will break up mundane looking text.

Speaking of keywords, you want to use the Search Engine AdWords keyword tool to search for words that have low competition. That way you can rank better for the keyword, and you'll start to build credibility for your site. I found these keywords which rank low when I begin this article: SEO blog and SEO help. You'll want your keywords in your title to also improve Search Engine ranking. 

SEO Blog help with tools that Search Engine loves!

If you need some serious SEO blog help, use social media. Search Engine loves social media. So if your site is visited and shared among any of the social bookmarking sites like Digg, Bebo, Blogger, Facebook, Twitter, FriendFeed, and so on, then your Search Engine ranking improves. A simple tool that I use to help me with my social media sharings is TribePro. Blog SEO helpIn Tribepro, initial membership is free and you will share other members' content in the tribe so that they will share yours. With TribePro's free membership, you are limited to the amount of shares per month, but it is better than nothing. If you want to make a really nice impact on your rankings, you'll definitely want to upgrade.

To experience an SEO help expert by your side every time you write an article, I highly recommend the SEO Pressor plugin to improve your Search Engine ranking. Before I used this tool, I was seriously losing ground on my Search Engine ranking and I couldn't figure out why. So I needed some powerful SEO bloghelp fast. SEO Pressor Plugin was recommended to me and I am glad I got this plugin tool. It literally saved me money, time, and frustration. Then, boom, my rankings came back within a week!

I did not start out with TribePro and the SEOPressor Plugin when I first started blogging. I wish I had found this SEO help back then! I had to go through some needless trial and error, like we all do. But I do know that had I had these two powerful tools earlier, I would have saved time because of the effectiveness of this SEO help. So if you want some serious blog SEO help that works, sign up with TribePro and get the SEOPressor Plugin to improve your SEO blog rankings.

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Review of Google Plus The New Social Network Platform

Google + is Google's social network and was launched in June 2011. It is made up of several components which are Stream, Sparks, Hangouts, Huddle, Circles and Photos. As we understand it, there will be other features launched at a future date including Google + for business. Google + is currently only for "personal" users.

It's clear that Google have put a lot of thought (and money) into this project and want to establish themselves as the premier social network of the future alongside Facebook.
At the time of writing you have to be invited by another user to join. Once you have accepted your invitation you have to set up your public Google Profile.

Set up Your Google Profile
You will be asked to complete all the usual information such as adding a photo, contact details, date of birth, employment etc but the most important is your background since it tells visitors to your profile exactly what you want them to know. You can also set up links to all of your other social media here as well as your website(s) so that visitors can connect with you in as many ways as you would like them to.
Privacy
You should also take time to customise your privacy settings when setting up your profile. Just click on the 'gear' icon to change and view your settings

Circles
Circles are the places that you organise your friends and you can drag and drop people into as many circles as you wish. There are a number of default circles created for you but you can create as many as you wish. Circles can easily be renamed or deleted. The benefit of circles is that you can share different content with different groups of people.

Stream
Your stream is a newsfeed of the latest content shared by your circles and can be anything from a status update to a photo or video or a link to a piece of content such as a blog post for example. You can '+1' a piece of content (akin to Facebook 'like'). When you want to share some content you choose who you share it with - it might be public (all your circles) or selected circles or individuals. You can filter your stream using the left hand navigation. 

Sparks
Sparks is where you can search for content you are interested in. You can then create a Spark Category and always see the latest information on that subject. This content can then easily be shared with your circles. For example if you had an internet marketing business then one of your 'Sparks' might be "Internet Marketing". It it were skiing then you might have one called "skiing". Whenever you click on one of your own 'Sparks' you will get the latest content displayed to you.

Hangouts
In hangouts you can hold a group video chat. When you start a hangout your friends will see the hangout prompt in their stream and can join the hangout. The maximum number of participants at one time is ten. There is also a group text chat feature that can be used here.
Photos
In photos you can see recently uploaded photos of your friends, check out photos you have been tagged in and create albums.

Mobile
Google + is currently only available on the android operating system. There are currently two features - 'huddle' for group text chat and 'instant upload' where you can sync your pictures with your desktop.
Google + is definitely a work in progress and it is clear this is going to evolve into a very powerful platform to compete with Facebook. Once their business platform launches it will be interesting to see what advantages there are over Facebook and how they are going to monetise it.

There are obviously going to be pros and cons of Google + but our first impression has been very positive and looking forward to seeing the platform develop.

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Mozilla’s New Mobile OS Gecko, Can It Survive?

Mozilla announced plans to release it’s own open sourced, web-based, mobile operating system, currently known as “Boot to Gecko” (B2G). This is very similar to the approach Google has taken with Chrome OS targeting netbooks with one slight caveat, Google isn’t using Chrome OS on smartphones or tablets. Mozilla’s new project, Boot to Gecko, will be using Gecko (Mozilla’s browser layout engine which is also used in Android) as well as some components from Android for its underlying foundation. Google has taken some scrutiny over its labeling of their mobile OS (Android) being “truly” open source. Mozilla plans to appease the open source community by releasing B2G source code in real-time and bringing all approved additions to a standards group.

To elaborate on the decision to focus on B2G and create their own open source operating system, Mozilla engineer Andreas Gal stated in response to being asked why doesn’t Mozilla just support the current open source platform, Android:

“Android is not open source in the sense of ‘open technology.’ Android APIs are proprietary Google sauce, not broadly accepted and adopted open web standards. At some point Android used to be at least ‘available source’ where Google would publish secretly/internally developed source code/technology after the fact as products ship, but even those times seem to be over now. I would love to boot my custom Android build on my Galaxy Tab 10, but no luck, Google refuses to release the source. We want to do Boot to Gecko the way we think open source should be done. In the open, from day 1, for everyone to see and participate.”

It’s very clear that Mozilla will have an identity battle it must win or risk not being an appealing alternative to consumers. Going totally open, as Mozilla intends might be a bit more challenging than it currently thinks. This past May at Google I/O, SVP of Mobile at Google had this to say about those who challenge its open source labeling:

“Open source is different than a community-driven project. Android is light on the community-driven side and heavy on the open source. Everything we do ends up in the open source repository. We’re building a platform, not an app. Developers evolve APIs and deprecate APIs, they are always adding new functionality. When we add new APIs, typically in my opinion community processes don’t work. It’s really hard to tell when you’re done, it’s really hard to tell what’s a release and what’s a beta. Developers have to have an expectation that all the APIs are done and complete at certain date. If it was a community process, an OEM could start building devices, then those devices would be incompatible from a third-party developer’s perspective. We have to make sure those APIs are on all those devices that adopt those platforms. Going forward, that becomes part of our job, our responsibility. A community process harder to manage. We take submissions form community, but it’s a much more controlled way in how it comes out.”

But in the current mobile space is there a place for B2G to thrive? Apple (iOS) and Windows (WP7) have greater control over what experience their users encounter with their platform mainly because they outline or in Apple’s case control what hardware their OS is released on. Apple has seen overwhelming success and Microsoft is stepping into the market with generous strides, both supporting a non-open source approach. Android has it’s baselines but hasn’t exactly placated to the open source crowd–the way others like Mozilla would have liked–in an effort to control the evil that is fragmentation.

Device fragmentation isn’t the issue with Google, but fragmentation of the ecosystem. This will be a key disadvantage for Mozilla if it happens to fall into the same issues associated with being “open.” Having multiple shops, marketplaces and models as seen with Android, only makes it a more complicated experience not only for developers but just as importantly, for consumers. Then of course we have carriers wanting to insert their own experience or two cents into the matter. While Google seems to have inserted more control and specificity on the platform, it would be wise for Mozilla to learn from Google’s early mistakes.

While some are no doubt scratching their heads at the notion of yet another mobile OS to consider, Mozilla is actually playing in a game of catch up. Google’s Chrome browser and to a greater extent Chrome OS, does exactly what Mozilla is setting out to do; use web apps to bridge the technological and proprietary gap between mobile and desktop computers. Microsoft has already shown interest in the concept with evidence in the unveiling of Windows 8 and it’s new corresponding Internet Explorer 10 browser. The browser shipping with Windows 8 will serve as a core element within Windows 8 tablets, notebooks and desktops. IE 10 will build on the HTML5 and accelerated hardware graphics capabilities that Microsoft built into IE 9 as well as incorporate sandboxing and iframe isolation. With IE 10, a safe assumption from what was shown is that Microsoft is moving away from plug-ins and is embracing the move toward using Web applications to accomplish more in the browser.

Microsoft’s Internet Explorer still owns a majority of the market but with Google’s Chrome browser gaining significant market share it’s clear that Firefox feels the heat. To continue to stay relevant B2G may be the only viable scenario left for Mozilla. To keep their browser in serious contention, B2G is most certainly a premeditated act of survival. Mozilla obviously cannot afford to stand stagnant and allow IE 10 and Chrome to continue to move forward with web applications and not embrace the change as well.

Mozilla undoubtedly will face unprecedented challenges with this initiative and as stated earlier, creating an identity in the mobile market will have to be a priority. An identity wouldn’t be the first nor the last challenge for Mozilla, consideration must be taken that currently Mozilla doesn’t have the strongest track record with regards to operating in the mobile space. While they have attempted to clean up the browsers performance and overall footprint on desktops, their overall support on the previous Windows Mobile platforms and current Android platform has been lackluster. It’s more of the same–performance, RAM usage and crashes–if Mozilla can’t get it’s browser operating swiftly and efficiently in the mobile space it may already be doomed.

Mozilla hinted that B2G could show up in some form or another on the desktop but that it wasn’t likely, considering that they’re aiming for the tablet and smartphone market, users would have to rely heavily on wifi and cellular connections. While Chrome OS similarly offers the same, the biggest difference is that Chrome OS operates on a netbook not a tablet or smartphone. Deliberate how B2G is attempting to compete, by utilizing the browser to run web applications identical in functionality to their desktop counterparts. Current usage would seem to indicate that smartphones or even tablets aren’t being used to get “serious” work done and it’ll be hard to imagine the same using web apps. You can contribute to projects using web apps but it would be highly unlikely, borderline unfathomable asking consumers to operate equally on such devices when directly compared to that of the rival Chrome OS and it’s partnering Chromebook netbook. While the odds are against Mozilla, the jury is still out. Mozilla has a lot to prove with Boot to Gecko and while they seem to have a clear plan and a dedicated organization they may yet be successful. Source: click here

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Nokia still top mobile maker in Q2, but Apple grows 142 percent y-o-y

The worldwide mobile phone market grew 11.3 percent year over year in the second quarter of 2011 (2Q11), despite a weaker feature phone market, which declined for the first time since 3Q09.



According to the IDC’s worldwide mobile phone tracker, vendors shipped 365.4 million units in 2Q11 compared to 328.4 million units in the second quarter of 2010. The 11.3-percent growth was lower than IDC’s forecast of 13.3 percent for the quarter and was also below the 16.8 percent growth in 1Q11.

The feature phone market shrank 4 percent in 2Q11 when compared to 2Q10. The decline in shipments was most prominent in economically mature regions, such as the United States, Japan, and Western Europe, as users rapidly transition to smartphones. This was the first decline since Q3 2009 and reflected a combination of conservative spending and continued shift to smartphones.

“The shrinking feature phone market is having the greatest impact on some of the world’s largest suppliers of mobile phones," said Kevin Restivo, senior research analyst with IDC’s Worldwide Mobile Phone Tracker.

“Stalwarts such as Nokia are losing share in the feature phone category to low-cost suppliers such as Micromax, TCL-Alcatel, and Huawei."

“For the overall market to grow by double digits year over year, despite the decline in feature phones, is testament to the strength of the global smartphone market," noted Ramon Llamas, senior research analyst with IDC’s mobile phone technology and trends team.

“While this is not a new trend – smartphones have been the primary engine of growth for the last several quarters – it does mark something of a transition point, as demonstrated by the growing number and variety of smartphones featured in the vendors’ portfolios."

The feature phone forecast isn’t expected to be any rosier in the quarters and years to come. Shipment growth of the device type won’t exceed 1.1 percent in any year forecasted by IDC.

The traditionally slow second quarter in Asia Pacific was exacerbated by Nokia’s channel inventory corrections in China. Apple thrived in China thanks to strong iPhone 4 demand. As well, a number of domestic brands in Southeast Asia like CSL, Nexian, Q-Mobile, and Wellcom grew sales of Android-powered smartphones.

China-based vendors gained share in India and Southeast Asia at the low end. In Japan, the impact of the earthquake continued into April and May as component shortages forced manufacturers to release new models in June while customer demand was harder to fulfill.

Top five mobile phone vendors

Nokia’s hold on the top global mobile phone spot weakened last quarter as inventory buildups in traditional strongholds, namely China and Europe, led to sharp year-over-year shipment declines.

Nokia’s global feature phone and smartphone businesses suffered a similar fate. One positive sign for Nokia last quarter were dual-SIM devices; the company shipped over 2.6 million of these in the second quarter.

Over the long term, Nokia’s smartphone fortunes will be dictated by its ability to sell Windows Phone 7 smartphone devices, which are expected to hit the market this year. It is Nokia’s primary smartphone platform of the future. In the meantime, Nokia is trying to sustain shipment volume with low-cost mobile phones and devices powered by the aging Symbian smartphone platform.

Samsung posted double-digit growth from the same quarter a year ago, and just slightly slower growth than the overall pace of the market. Like other vendors it realized a decrease in demand for its feature phones, but made up the difference with continued success for its Android-based Galaxy smartphones.

The difference between Samsung and market leader Nokia continued to shrink, with less than 20 million units separating the two vendors, mostly resulting from Nokia’s struggles in the market. Still, Samsung expects continued growth into the second half, which could put it in closer contention with Nokia.

LG Electronics held on to its number three position during the quarter, thanks in part to its Optimus smartphone sales worldwide. However, a combination of factors – including soft demand for its feature phones, slow pace of smartphone releases, and competitive pressures, led the company to downgrade its outlook for the year by 24 percent.

Originally, LG had anticipated flat growth in 2011 from 2010 levels, even as it expected the overall market to increase by 8 percent. Should LG’s volumes decrease as much as it anticipates, other vendors may jockey for position ahead of LG.

Apple maintained its number four position overall but closed the gap on Top 5 competitors thanks to another record unit shipment quarter. The company easily posted the highest growth rate of the worldwide leaders despite the fact that its flagship iPhone 4 is now more than a year old.

The triple-digit shipment volume growth allowed Apple to more than double its share when compared to the same quarter last year. Apple’s ability to bring its smartphone momentum to developing economies, where it’s less successful, will help dictate the company’s smartphone fortunes in future.

ZTE likewise improved volumes and picked up market share during the quarter, enough to maintain the number five position. Long known as a purveyor of simple, voice-centric mobile phones, ZTE has stepped up its smartphone game with the continued success of its Android-powered Blade and Racer smartphones while announcing Libra, Skate, and Amigo smartphones for release in the second half of this year.

Feature phones continued to be popular for ZTE, with the release of its 547i, a social networking-centric device in Europe. — TJD, GMA News Source: Click here

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AT&T Cites T-Mobile Deal As Cause for New ‘Throttling’

AT&T will be throttling users who download too much, apparently to make the proposed acquisition of T-Mobile seem more necessary.

On Friday, AT&T stated that the top 5% of smartphone users who subscribe to ‘unlimited data’ plans will face a download cap as of October 1st. A number of observers have already called the plan “blackmail” in AT&T’s campaign to get approval of a proposed acquisition of T-Mobile. The press release closes with what can certainly be construed as an ultimatum: “Nothing short of completing the T-Mobile merger will provide additional spectrum capacity to address these near term challenges.”

AT&T’s unlimited plans were discontinued last year, but users who had already subscribed to the much-coveted tiers were ‘grandfathered’ in. New customers are subject to a cap, and any data usage over the cap is billed at a higher rate -- similar to a the typical arrangement of ‘minutes’ on a wireless telephone plan.
AT&T has denied reports that they throttled speeds in the past, despite numerous rumors and some seeming proof from disgruntled customers. Proposed acquisition T-Mobile readily admits to throttling wireless data customers speeds, and indeed lists the details among the features of its ‘unlimited’ data plan. Verizon has recently discontinued its unlimited plans, leaving Sprint as the only major wireless provider to offer an unlimited plan.

The proposed acquisition of T-Mobile is being hotly debated on antitrust grounds by theDepartment of Justice and theFCC. Opponents such as Sprint point out that this would leave the wireless landscape in a duopoly with 80% of the market split between AT&T and Verizon, and dismiss AT&T’s claims that the deal is necessary because of increasing needs for bandwidth.
AT&T has stated that it will notify users who approach the throttling threshold, and the billing change will occur on the following bill period. Obviously, there is no way to access the AT&T database to determine what the actual data cap is, or where your usage might rank until you get that notification. If throttled users are consistent enough about posting their usage level, a few months of this new policy should provide a rough estimate of the ‘safe’ level of data use -- but, being a monthly percentage, there will never be any real certainty.
Interestingly, this seems to imply that the more data that is downloaded by everyone on AT&T’s network, the more any single user will have to download to reach that 5% mark -- especially considering the ever-growing ‘size’ of web pages and apps in an increasingly cloud-based online environment. . The difference between the top 5% and the top 10% may be vast, or it may be a very fine line.
James Lee Phillips is a Senior Writer & Research Analyst for IBG.com. With offices in Dallas, Las Vegas, and New York, & London, IBG is quickly becoming the leading expert in Internet Marketing, Local Search, SEO, Website Development and Reputation Management. More information can be found at www.ibg.com. The Barrett Group offers executives unique and effective executive career search and career management services. Their fee-based boutique consultancy executive firm works for you, leading the way in executive career search and delivering proven results time after time. source: clicke here

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