Gadgets & Gizmos

Facebook is accused of accessing, reading and having the ability to write text messages on your Android smartphone with Facebook app installed on it.
Scoop was first reported by The Sunday Times (link needs subscription) saying Facebook has admitted to paper that it accessed users’ text messages for a test feature that company is planning to introduce in future.
Check below list of permissions you approve before downloading Facebook App for Android phones:
In response to Business Insider’s query, Facebook denied the report. It said:

There is no reading of user text messages.
On the Android App store, the Facebook app permissions include SMS read/write.
The reason it is on there is because we have done some testing (not with the general public) of products that require the SMS part of the phone to talk to the Facebook App.  That’s what the read&write refers to – the line of communication needed to integrate the two things.
Anyway – we have yet to make any such features available to the public. (so the Sunday Times is completely wrong when it says Facebook is reading people’s SMS. Wrong on the terminology, and wrong on the suggestion that it has been implemented).
But Facebook is right to insert this into the Android app permissions  – because yes, the app technically has the capability to integrate with the phone’s SMS system – even if that is just for our own testing.

Clearly Facebook looks dumb here. It didn’t clarify that why its Android App asks for text message read/write permission when the feature (that they are talking about) isn’t available to general public at all.
Privacy on smartphones is becoming the next biggest issue for the world. Handheld devices store most private and confidential data, which is accurate at the same time, can get exposed to exploiters with just a single click without any option of undoing it.

Google Nexus Prime is the new gadget from Google, the next flagship Android handset. There is no exact information about the specs, but the rumor said that this phone will powered by newest Google Android OS 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich source code. I’m sure that a lot of people out there surmise this Nexus’s appearance with its capability, and really waiting for this gadget, and then guess the Google Nexus Prime release date. The GT-19250 will be the number of the Nexus Prime. We can’t expect the Google Nexus Prime release date exactly, but it seems like on October. This release is likely will be the Big G’s best phone to date. Just wait and see guys!! ^^

Leading micro-blogging service Twitter is constantly developing and speaking of Twitter and upcoming improvements we’re pleased to inform you that Twitter has recently added several new additions so you can keep a closer eye on the people that you follow.

Twitter has added two new tabs to its interface the @username tab and Activity tab. Both of these tabs are here to deliver you all sorts of notifications, for example, @username tab is there to replace Mentions tab, and it will notify you when somebody tags you in a tweet. In addition, this tab will also highlight favorite and retweeted tweets, and it will notify you about new followers. On the other side, we have Activity tab that works on a similar way as News Feed on Facebook and it contains notifications about the people you follow and their recent activity similar to the @username tab.

Facebook Messages for iPhone and Android - Facebook? Yep. I’m absolutely sure that no one doesn’t know this very popular social network. Facebook help us to connect with another people every when and everywhere since it’s easy use application. The most frequently used is it’s chat application. We can make conversation with other people in an instant message. This popularity inspired facebook to make a facebook messenger for iPhone and Android.
Facebook messenger for iPhone and Android works as simple as using a personal computer. We’ll just simply type and send by “enter” our words to our opponent chat. We’ll receive notification when someone sends a message and we’re not using the application. With this application, users no longer have to log into Facebook applications to read and send messages. As in the Facebook web interface, users can now view the SMS messages, chat, email and all the Facebook messages in one place.
Facebook Messenger For iPhone and Android allows users to send short messages to other Facebook contacts, groups or contacts in the phone as SMS. Uniquely, this application also allows users to share their location. This step also showed determination in the developing realm of mobile Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg’s site does look increasingly focus on this.
Facebook messenger for iPhone and Android launch is very timely because it coincided with the release of Apple’s iOS5, the operating system used by iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. Apple’s iOS5 will release a feature service called iMessage that allowing their users to message each other for free, just like BBM on BlackBerry devices.Facebook messenger joins with several other famous messaging services such as Live Profile and WhatsApp messenger. WhatsApp messenger is one of the most popular free apps on iTunes Store. To start using the app, it takes only a phone number or name and we can get chatting with them directly.
Well, just enjoy the  facebook messenger for iPhone and Android.

witter today has rolled out its own photo uploading feature which allows users to directly upload a picture while tweeting. Twitter had announced this feature in June 2011, but now it is available to all members of Twitter.
There is a 3MB size limit on images though.
Pictures can be made available to twitter’s search by adding hashtags with them. Also other users can comment on the pictures by simply replying to tweets. By the way you can flag pictures if you deem they illegal or sensitive in nature.
Note that this service is currently available for web users only and we still have to wait till Twitter incorporates this feature in its mobile version, which I believe is more crucial – especially in cases when you are live reporting from event.
Moreover it is said that Twitter will rollout support for photo galleries that will syndicate all photos uploaded by a user on Twitter and third-party photo sharing websites such as Twitpic, but no ETA on this so far.
Also note that all EXIF data is stripped from the photos after uploading on Twitter.

Many would not agree with what is stated above, but this is how I look at it: With each passing day Google Plus is losing users’ interest, at least in Pakistan.
Google Plus seemed pretty decent yet dashing when it was launched. Invite-only trick did well for Google as it attracted millions of users in matter of days.
This was when everybody was rushing for invites to explore the wonders that Google Plus had to offer (some junkies even sold Google Plus invites online, BTW if you need one here’s is a way).
But everyone know by now, the product was half baked and was probably launched before time to stand early in line. This half featured product didn’t incentivize the users much. I agree that people can wait for the features to come-in, but their bread-limit is quickly nearing and soon they may stop preferring Google Plus over Facebook.
People could have easily left Google Plus long, that too long earlier, if the product wasn’t from Google. Yes being from the house of Google is itself an advantage, this comes in addition to added value that dozens of Google services bring in for Google Plus. But even the Google or it’s worthy products can’t do much if Plus hasn’t got any anything substantial in it.
The invite-only registrations has clearly lost the hopes of many, who may never return to Google Plus again. And those who were lucky enough to get in are complaining that their friends aren’t there on Google Plus.
Absence of Brands and Businesses is one major factor that’s not mobilizing the masses to get into Google Plus. We know that Google has plans of offering business solutions – but again, delay gonna get costly for Google.
Games, applications, public groups, or they may call it public circles and there is a lot that Google still needs to unveil to equally compete with Facebook.
I believe Google Plus wasn’t meant for weird GIFs and some random videos only. Google should release the rest of features at earliest, they need to be quick, if they got to survive which they likely will.

If you are much of a Facebook fan and recently shifted to Google+, you must be one of those who are still wondering for a detailed comparison of Facebook and Google+ services.
Earlier one such comparison of the features, offered by both social networking platforms was done here, but still following infographic will be helpful to you to have a sneak peak of what they offer.
Rating based comparison along with details will further help you in choosing, if you are looking for an option between two.

Both Google Plus and Facebook have vast browser support. They support all the latest browsers whether it is Chrome, Firefox, IE, Opera or Safari.
However a fully HTML 5 complaint browser will give the best experience of Google Plus. A thing to note is that the notification section of Google Plus doesn’t appear when using Opera Browser. Hopefully it will be corrected once it is out of Beta phase.
Google plus has attained 20 million+ users with 1 billion shares a day but it cannot be fully anticipated whether Google+ will achieve the zenith of success and outrun its rival Facebook as Google Plus till now has not revealed its entire feature set such as g+ business, g+ games and g+ questions and polls which are the basis for generation of rapid traffic on Facebook.
Or will Google+ just follow timely success such as Orkut or just be another Google wave and Google Buzz. It wholly depends on the audience, whether they catch on the latest train or just stay with the “old is gold” mantra.

Since the launch of a whole brand new social networking platform Google plus, the battle is on between Facebook and Google.
The search engine giant is threatening strong social network giant Facebook which created a splash in the market, looking at its best and presenting latest and different apps, looks and strategies.
Let’s take a quick view on both social networks features wise.



Google+ circles vs. Facebook lists:
 



Google plus is giving its users an innovative look and feel with classy animations powered by HTML 5, ease of making and managing friends and family circles by just a “Drag and drop”.
Facebook provides creation of groups by the feature called “lists” but unlike Google Plus it seems not as user friendly.
Google plus is more concerned with easy management of privacy solutions and until now circles has achieved higher +1’s by users.

Google+ hangouts vs. Facebook video calling:


  Although recently launched feature of video calling by Facebook in collaboration with Skype has been warmly welcomed even though it lacks group chatting feature but Google plus is towering a brilliant difference with its feature called “hangout”. It allows face to face public or private meet ups with video chatting and ability to enjoy YouTube videos with up to 10 friends.
  
Google+ stream vs. Facebook news feed:

Modified version of the news feed, Google stream facilitates user to update status, live experiences, share pics, videos, links or location with circles. Having fastest sharing feature at g+, the instant upload, gives it a plus over Facebook as it can’t upload videos and photos from mobile device right away. Alternatively an “upload email” is used to update status, videos or posts from mobiles.
On the other hand Facebook News Feed gives you the ability to select the most discussed feed or the new ones, something missing from Stream. Coming to the basic purpose of providing a steady stream on news, I would say it’s a tie between the two.

Facebook Like or Google+1:

As a Facebook Like button, G+ has its +1 button, giving eye catching look to g+ social stream. Both the Like and +1 have very natural feeling to them. You +1 what you ‘like’ and what you ‘like’ you want it to be incremented, improved, increased or +1’ed.



Google+ huddle vs. Facebook chat for mobiles:




  G+ presents impressive text chat for android powered mobile phones even on the move other than the fact that it has Gtalk client for one-one voice and group chat and one-one video chat. Facebook only provides apps like AIM and support of XMPP or Jabber protocol for creation of custom applications.

Google+ location over Facebook places:


So far sharing your location with friends’ circle on g+ stream is user friendly, just one click away. Facebook on the other hand does not allow its user to share location right away from their wall and is also limited to some countries.



Google+ sparks and Facebook front search bar:

Google + presents users an ‘interest tab’ by giving a front-end to Google search for a specific topic, where user enters keywords about his interests and then could easily follow it just like twitter. The user will be updated regarding his favorites and this latest stuff can also be shared amongst the users’ circles. That Facebook search bar will find you relevant information from within the Facebook network and you have to search for your items of interest every time while Google Plus maintains the lists.

Google+ instantaneous uploads and FB uploads:

 As Facebook has grabbed the user picture and video upload ground so far, the Google Plus’ offering ‘instant upload’ allows users’ pictures or videos taken from mobile to be shared with their friends and family instantly from the web. These shares go to the user’s stream.


Eye catching Notification systems:


 Both networks have notification system that grabs the eye easily. Google Plus’ notification system in unified, in one drop down menu you get friend updates, posts to instant upload notifications. Facebook on the other hand has separate notifications for Messages, activities and Friend requests.




Google+ & Facebook browser support:

Both Google Plus and Facebook have vast browser support. They support all the latest browsers whether it is Chrome, Firefox, IE, Opera or Safari.
However a fully HTML 5 complaint browser will give the best experience of Google Plus. A thing to note is that the notification section of Google Plus doesn’t appear when using Opera Browser. Hopefully it will be corrected once it is out of Beta phase.
Google plus has attained 20 million+ users with 1 billion shares a day but it cannot be fully anticipated whether Google+ will achieve the zenith of success and outrun its rival Facebook as Google Plus till now has not revealed its entire feature set such as g+ business, g+ games and g+ questions and polls which are the basis for generation of rapid traffic on Facebook.
Or will Google+ just follow timely success such as Orkut or just be another Google wave and Google Buzz. It wholly depends on the audience, whether they catch on the latest train or just stay with the “old is gold” mantra.

Facebook is constantly improving and adding new features and after facial recognition and video calls, another new improvement is coming to Facebook, this time it relates to commenting.

Recently, Facebook has announced that it will be rolling out a new commenting feature worldwide. As you know, comments on Facebook support only plain text, but with this update, Facebook comments will support rich content. As you know, rich content is now supported only when you’re sharing posts on walls, so it’s no wonder to see that users want rich content support in their comments as well. Now users can see the thumbnails of websites that they are going to visit, and they are able to play videos in the comment box as well. Although this isn’t a major improvement but it’s still a welcome addition to Facebook.
If you’re a fan of rich content in your comments, go and try this feature on Facebook, it should be available worldwide by now.

MSN has launched localized version of its online portal, which was functional for quite some time, but they have rolled out the enhanced format just recently. Though in it’s initial stages, but yes, it’s live and all visitors from Pakistan are being redirected to this localized page.
MSN – Microsoft’s portal, is considered as World’s earliest online content provider of news, entertainment, and common interest topics and now they want to give you (slightly) localized experience – here’s the url: http://pk.msn.com
You won’t find too much local content for now, but there are a few news about Pakistan  - oh and have you noticed, Hina Rabani Khar featured there as well?
While on the other hand, photo gallery, entertainment news, politics, business and technology are all about US and India. Have a look at following  news featuring on the top. I wonder what it is doing here when MSN has another dedicated portal for India, and pretty developed one indeed.

So for now, it’s more about local weather and few news about Pakistan only (in most visited section) – may be we need to wait till things get to going and we start seeing the real deal!
By the way, Twitter, Facebook and other social buttons are linked to MSN Arabia – they might want to localize them too.
It merits mentioning here that MSN Pakistan is being managed by OT Ventures – the Omani company which manages Mobilink and LinkDotNet services in Pakistan.

Facebook, Google+ and now Microsoft’s Socl? It seems Microsoft doesn’t want to stay behind.
Reported by Fusible, Microsoft accidentally published something on its officially owned domain socl.com and yes it was all about “social and share”.
As the image shows, the service called “Tulalip” is thought to be an initiative form of Social Networking, and this time by Microsoft.
Teaser page stated that “With Tulalip you can Find what you need and Share what you know easier than ever”
It is said that Socl is guessed to work in pair with Bing making it Social Search, if it comes online again.
Later Microsoft said that this page was accidently uploaded and they had no intention to do so. Microsoft said that Socl.com is an internal design project from Microsoft’s research team – unintentionally published on the web.
Website now states:

Thanks for stopping by.  Socl.com is an internal design project from a team in Microsoft Research which was mistakenly published to the web.
We didn’t mean to, honest.

By the way, social.com is said to be Microsoft’s domain as well.

Just to update our readers with an interesting find here, Google.com is going to get expired pretty soon – yes, on September 14th this year.
Sure there is plenty of time left for Google to renew the domain name – but you might agree with me here that domain names of major brands are renewed for decades and not for year(s).
Moreover, snatching a domain from Google can be a wild dream for any web surfer, especially when they have plenty of trademarks and patents associated with the brand. But again, what Google is waiting for to renew it’s domain name?
check below:

• Google.com – 14-09-2011
• Yahoo.com – 19-01-2012
• Myspace.com – 23-02-2013
• Orkut.com – 08-12-2013
• Gmail.com – 12-08-2014
• Wikipedia.org – 13-01-2015
• Microsoft.com – 03-05-2015
• MSN.com – 04-06-2015
• Facebook.com – 03-03-2020

Power of social media is something everyone is aware of, and seems like Taliban have learned the fact too.
Taliban will be tweeting now about their activities, news infact, on Alemarah Web’s official twitter account.
Alemarah web which is the official website of Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan is available in different languages and publishes the news about Taliban activities and recent doings.
The twitter account, @AlemarahWeb went online back in the past and had been tweeting in Pashto only. But now, may be to broader the reach, Taliban have started tweeting in English as well.
@AlemarahWeb was supposed to be having around 230 followers two days ago. Seems like the stats have shown a steep curve resulting in 4583 fans now and increasing. While following only 4 twitter accounts now, which previously were 12 in number.
Account’s bio says:

alemarah-iea.net Is The official website of islamic emirat of Afghanistan

It merits mentioning here that when Taliban ruled Afghanistan between 1996 and 2001, almost all electronic products were proscribed as un-Islamic. Photographs of living things were prohibited, and ownership of a video player could lead to a public lashing.
Things have changed now and they are using almost every form of electronic media to fight their war. Be it an email or SMS at one end to publishing videos at the other, Taliban own their websites now.
Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid told AFP:

The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan joined Twitter about six months ago. We did it because we know Twitter is a popular social network in the West, and we want to make our voice heard. They used to hear only one-sided news about us from the invaders, but now they can know the reality. We regard modern technology including the Internet as a blessing of God.

Groups like these were already using social media, and facebook was the only place of its kind. Communities and groups of same thoughts were operating there under the same shade but this Twitter thing is somehow different. As Taliban spokesman said, they will be using internet now to attract more people, personally and what can be better place than twitter!

With a view to thank its customers for their patience and loyalty, Mobilink has announced a phased plan for customers who experienced disruption in service, due to fire in its MSC in Islamabad.
This is the first time a reward of this scale has been announced and awarded by any telecom operator in the country for disruption caused by a force majeure event.
Sharing his views, Mobilink President & CEO Rashid Khan said that while it was difficult to make up for the missed experience, the company cherishes customers who continue to prefer Mobilink and this is a humble gesture of goodwill by the company for their patience and loyalty.
A fire incident at one of the company’s technical hubs in Islamabad on March 6, 2011 caused suspension of cellular services in Islamabad, Rawalpindi and some pockets outside the twin cities.
Mobilink was able to bring back the network partially within a few hours and complete connectivity was restored within 24 hours. Customers were updated of the incident and restoration via press announcements by the company at the time.
To facilitate customers who were directly affected by the incident, the company has announced free minutes and SMS for prepaid customers whereas postpaid customers will receive an adjustment against their monthly bill.
Affected subscribers will be intimated by the company through SMS in a phase wise activity scheduled from May 14, 2011 to June 13, 2011. Customers may dial 111 at any time from their Mobilink connections for any queries.

Once again Facebook is up for blasphemy, another Draw Muhammad Day has been announced at Facebook, titled as 2^nd Annual Draw Muhammad Day on May 20.
Another petition has be been filed against Facebook to ban it permanently in the country.
Two persons, Muhammad and Ahmed have filed petition against this 2^nd Annual Draw Muhammad Day Contest.
Earlier the issue went to heights when Facebook announced Draw Muhammad Day where protestants from all walks of the life demanded a permanent ban on Facebook. Though a ban was implemented but facebook went back online after some time.
Though there are different school of thoughts having their own opinion regarding the ban on Facebook, but majority seems to be in favor of permanent ban on Facebook.
The two petitioners through their lawyer Muhammad Azhar Siddique asked permanent ban on facebook and requested the court to direct the Civil Lines SHO to register a criminal case under Section 295-C against the perpetrators for organizing the competition again.
The petitioner also went of the view that all blasphemous content over the internet ought to be banned in Pakistan and authorities should take necessary steps in banning all related websites like Facebook involved in blasphemy.
The petitioner has named the federal government, the ministry of communication, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority, and the Punjab government as respondents in this regard.
After hearing the petition, the court said that no blasphemy act against Prophet Muhammad (S.A.W.) will be tolerated and has called for all the records regarding the blasphemy act by Facebook and petitions filed.
This issue was earlier raised to its apex when Facebook didn’t bother to remove the page rather it showed disappointment over the ban imposed in Pakistan. Rumors were, that Facebook has taken down the page but it never happened infact.

Google’s Marissa Mayer has outlined some of Google’s recent advances with its local products at the Social Loco today. Two of the new features unveiled are a tablet version of Google Earth for Android, and Business Photos which is essentially ‘Street View’ for business interiors.
Google Business Photos is a new product which allows users to explore the interiors of select businesses in some countries such as the US, Japan, Australia and New Zealand. The interface loos identical to Google Street View, it allows you to ‘look around’ the interior by dragging your mouse. For more information, you can find an FAQ on the process of Google Business Photos on their help page.
Mayer announced that Google Earth is coming to Android Tablets. Google launched an Android version of Google Earth last year, and now they’ve launched a tablet-optimized version of the application. It’s available in Android Market right now.