tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-53881737865680779392024-03-13T21:23:52.378-07:00Blogholic TemplatesJust Another Responsive Blogger TemplatesHerdiansyah Hamzahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04371605105991256890noreply@blogger.comBlogger13125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5388173786568077939.post-82697503179892011452013-03-21T23:33:00.000-07:002013-03-21T23:33:26.061-07:00BlackBerry Store Tops 100.000 Apps, Up 30.000 in 7 Weeks<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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BlackBerry's app store now has more than 100,000 apps, just in time for the launch of its BlackBerry Z10 smartphone. The Canadian smartphone maker said developers <a href="http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/blackberry-10-now-offers-more-than-100000-applications-to-customers-nasdaq-bbry-1770580.htm" target="_blank">have created more than 30,000 new apps</a> over the past seven weeks since it unveiled its new operating system and devices. <br />
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Today, BlackBerry 10 customers can download Amazon Kindle, OpenTable, and The Wall Street Journal. CNN, The Daily Show, eBay, eMusic, Maxim, MLB at Bat, MTV News, Pageonce, PGA, Rdio, Skype, Soundhound, and Viber will be available in the coming weeks.<br />
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"The response to the BlackBerry 10 platform and applications has been outstanding," Martyn Mallick, BlackBerry vice president of global alliances, said in a statement. "We constantly hear from developers...that we provide opportunities for app differentiation that they do not see on other platforms."<br />
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One of the biggest criticisms of BlackBerry's new products is that there aren't as many apps available as there are for Android and iOS. BlackBerry has been working frantically with developers to make sure they keep building more apps for the BlackBerry World store. <br />
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There's a lot riding on BlackBerry 10, which was unveiled in January following a series of delays. The BlackBerry operating system has been in free fall, with Android and iOS easily dwarfing its footprint. Having had no significant new product in more than a year, BlackBerry badly needs a hit. <br />
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Its first new phone, the touch-screen BlackBerry Z10, will launch tomorrow in the U.S (<a href="http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-57575532-94/blackberry-store-tops-100000-apps-up-30000-in-7-weeks/" target="_blank">CNet</a>)Herdiansyah Hamzahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04371605105991256890noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5388173786568077939.post-69139061489403785092013-03-21T23:09:00.001-07:002013-03-21T23:09:47.887-07:00Bring Instagram Thumbnails Back to Twitter in Chrome<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Remember when Twitter stopped showing Instagram photo previews to users, both online and in apps? Now you can add those photo previews for Instagram and other third-party photo services back to your Twitter feed, at least on the Web. <br /><br />This is done through the use of a Chrome extension called Previeweet. The extension actually works for more than just Instagram. While testing it out, I was able to see previews from Instagram, Photobucket, Facebook, Yfrog, Twitpic, Twitvid, Flickr, and Imgur -- which is great, since those are in the list of services that Previeweet says it supports.<a name='more'></a> <br /><br />To get started, just <a href="https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/previeweet/ioknjbncflfoefodkjodmddcpahnhkgh" target="_blank">install a copy of Previeweet</a> for your Chrome Web browser. Head to the entry page for the extension on the Chrome Web Store and click Add to Chrome. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like this extension has made it to other Web browsers like Firefox or Opera, but maybe someday?<br /><br />fter installing, open a new tab in Chrome and head over to your Twitter feed. As long as you're following people who actually post pictures, you should see previews for each one. If there's no recent photos, try typing "photography" in the search box at the top of the Twitter Web site. You should see the image previews in your results.<br /><br />Do you still use other services to share photos on Twitter? Or are you just using the official Twitter app? Share your thoughts in the comments (<a href="http://howto.cnet.com/8301-11310_39-57575667-285/bring-instagram-thumbnails-back-to-twitter-in-chrome/" target="_blank">CNet</a>)<br /> Herdiansyah Hamzahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04371605105991256890noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5388173786568077939.post-72558786052041979632013-03-20T19:04:00.001-07:002013-03-20T19:04:53.762-07:00How Apple and Google's Fortunes are linked<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Apple, which until a few months ago was the star of Wall Street on the back of the massive sales success of its iPhones and iPads, has seen a significant dip in its stock-market fortunes. Google, meanwhile, seems to be taking on the mantle of a company that can do little wrong in the eyes of investors. <br /><br />Apple's shares fell to their lowest level in more than a year on 5 March, and have barely recovered since, reflecting a trend that has seen a whopping 40% of the company's market value wiped out in the past six months.<br />
<a name='more'></a> <br />Google's shares have been moving the other way, climbing to an all-time high early in March and trading not far below that in recent days. <br /><br />"Google's rise is a mirror to Apple's decline," says Colin Gillis, senior technology analyst at BGC Financial.<br />
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<b>Device magic </b><br /><br />Investors, Mr Gillis believes, are focused on future sources of revenue growth and, while the Google camp appears to be brimming with ideas for products that could turn into money-spinners in years to come, Apple has given little away about where its future profits will come from. It never has. <br /><br />"Historically, it's been a positive for Apple to be so secretive. Now it's a negative," he says. <br /><br />Uncertainty has clearly undermined shareholder confidence, but its problems may go deeper than that. <br /><br />"Apple's suffering reflects a broader issue", says James McQuivey, of Forrester Research, a consultancy. <br /><br />"Devices are no longer the thing. What matters now is the overall service relationship with customers". <br /><br />In his view, what gadget buyers increasingly care about is not so much the gadgets themselves - it is taken for granted that rival brands are all pretty good - as the quality of the software and services they deliver. <br /><br />"Apple does that well too," says Mr McQuivey, citing the success of the iTunes music library and app sales for mobile devices. <br /><br />The problem is software and services, however successful, are unlikely to generate the kind of outsize profit growth from rising sales of iPhones and iPads that drove Apple's shares to unprecedented highs last year. <br /><br />"Investors pushed the shares high because they believed in Apple's magic with devices", he says. <br /><br />That magic, it seems, is beginning to fade.<br /><br /> "Apple's market share is stable and it continues to make two-thirds of all the profits made from mobile handset sales," says Benedict Evans, a tech watcher at Enders Analysis. <br /><br />But he too recognises the logic behind the share price decline. <br /><br />"The fundamental issue is how many more people will buy a $650 (£435) phone in the next couple of years," he says, referring to Apple's position at the most expensive end of the market. <br /><br />Apple's revenues more or less doubled in 2010, then doubled again in 2011, but in 2012 it rose by a mere 40% or so to $156bn. <br /><br />Analysts say the slowing rate of increase in revenues and profits last year was taken as a sign by investors that Apple was reaching the limit of its ability to grow sales of high-priced smartphones and tablets, even if its hold on this market remains mostly intact. Profit potential <br /><br /><b>So where does all this leave Google? </b><br /><br />It is doing well in smartphones, where Google's Android software platform has become overwhelmingly the dominant force at the lower end of the market. <br /><br />Android handsets, made by several different manufacturers, outsell Apple's iPhone by a margin of roughly three to one, although Apple still takes most of the profits. <br /><br />Google does not directly make money from Android, which is free of charge, but owners of Android phones are effectively locked in to using Google services. <br /><br />From its original base in search, Google has built up a comprehensive array of web-based services that cater for most aspects of people's digital lives, with products such as Gmail, Google+ social networking, and Google Play, its answer to iTunes. <br /><br />But for Mr Gillis of BGC Financial, that is probably not the main reason why Google's shares have soared. <br /><br />More important is the buzz coming from the company over potential new areas of business, he says (<a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-21759259" target="_blank">BBC</a>). Herdiansyah Hamzahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04371605105991256890noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5388173786568077939.post-51780901480498367892013-03-20T16:15:00.000-07:002013-03-20T16:15:58.964-07:00Google Launches Animated GIF Search<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Google is making it easier to search the web for animated GIFs, the latest proof that the rudimentary image format is making a comeback. The search engine giant has added <a href="https://plus.google.com/u/1/+google/posts/F1YjHaT7ZUk" target="_blank">new filters to its Image Search page</a>, including clip art, line drawings, photos and faces. But the option to search for animated GIFs caused the most buzz among advertisers and Internet users alike. <br /><br />Once thought to be a relic of the early Web 1.0 era, the crude animated images have returned to the spotlight thanks to sites like Reddit and Tumblr, where GIF memes like Grumpy Cat and<a href="http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/infomercial-fails"> Infomercial Fails</a>first went viral. <b>“<i>GIFs have been around since 1987 and have become the de facto standard for short animations on the web, from pony glitter text to grumpy cat memes</i>”</b> the company wrote on its Google+ page.<a name='more'></a> <br /><br />But the hipster appeal of GIFs has also begun to entice marketers hoping to reach the twenty-something market. Coca-Cola, Amazon, Victoria’s Secret Calvin Klein, Adidas and MTV have all reportedly used GIFs in digital advertising. “Animated GIFs tend to catch your eye and attract attention,” said Mike Volpe, chief marketing officer of Hubspot, a marketing software company. <br /><br />“They allow you to have animation that auto-plays, so on things like Google+ and Facebook, as you’re scrolling through your feed, that content stands out a lot more.” For the inexperienced, GIF stands for Graphics Interchange Format, a compressed image format that allows creators to loop static images to make short, repetitive animations. <br /><br />Users can access the new filters on Google Image Search by clicking “Search Options” under the search bar, and then clicking the “Any Type” drop-down menu. Select “Animated” to search for animated GIFs. GIFs have been experiencing a renaissance in Internet culture since mid-2010, said Brad Kim, editor of <a href="http://knowyourmeme.com/" target="_blank">KnowYourMeme.com</a>, a website that chronicles internet memes. <br /><br />“Advertisers are definitely catching onto this, as with most trends,” he said. “I think people are noticing an affiliation between online fandom communities and using GIFs as a way of internet scrapbooking.” In January, Cinemax marketed its new television show Banshee by posting the entire pilot in GIF form on Tumblr. <br /><br />Although the trend is often seen as retrogressive, Kim said GIFs have become more sophisticated in some ways. Now, many GIFs are made from video stills, rather than static images. Artists and photographers have also embraced the trend, using software like Cinemagraph to produce visually appealing GIF images. <br /><br />Ryan Enn Hughes, a <a href="http://www.ryanennhughes.com/">Toronto photographer and multimedia artist</a>, has used GIFs in both artistic and commercial work. He said the technology has not reached its pinnacle yet. “Right now it’s constrained by file size, due to the limitation of Internet speeds, but that will expand in coming years,” he said. “The idea of a looped motion sequence – like a moving painting, or a moving billboard – is where I see the GIF going, or at least where I would like to take it.”<i><b> </b></i>(<a href="http://www.thestar.com/business/tech_news/2013/03/20/google_launches_animated_gif_search.html" target="_blank">The Star</a>)Herdiansyah Hamzahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04371605105991256890noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5388173786568077939.post-61504705873475865592013-03-20T15:48:00.000-07:002013-03-20T15:48:31.836-07:00How to Customize Your Facebook Page for Free<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Facebook is in the process of rolling out yet another interface revamp. As Sharon Vaknin described in a post earlier this month, the new look for the Facebook News Feed provides many new options for viewing your friends' posts. You can add your name to the waiting list for the new-look News Feed, but you don't have to wait to enliven your Facebook page's appearance. <br /><br />While the company provides only a handful of options for tweaking the look of your Facebook profile, Matt Kruse's free Social Fixer browser add-on (formerly named Better Facebook) takes Facebook customization to a new level. Social Fixer lets you update the social network's interface with a tabbed news feed, feed filters, image previews, and many other options.<br />
<a name='more'></a> <br /><b>Facebook's built-in customization features</b><br />
<br /> There's a boring sameness about Facebook profiles. Pretty much all you can do is add profile and cover photos, change what appears on your timeline, and tweak the contents of your news feed. The Facebook Help Center provides instructions for <a href="http://www.facebook.com/help/388305657884730/" target="_blank">adding a profile picture and cover photo</a>; <a href="http://www.facebook.com/help/289895441138172/" target="_blank">adding, hiding, and deleting items on your About page</a>; and <a href="http://www.facebook.com/help/335291769884272/" target="_blank">customizing the content of your news feed</a>. <br /><br />There's also information in the Help Center that describes <a href="https://www.facebook.com/help/492441920771107/" target="_blank">customizing the appearance of a Facebook Page</a>. According to Facebook's <a href="http://www.facebook.com/help/364458366957655/" target="_blank">Managing a Page</a> section, Pages can be created only by people who are "the official representative of an organization, business, celebrity or band." <br /><br />Not being an official representative of anything or anyone in particular, I'll have to leave the Facebook Page crafting to someone else, alas. <br /><br /><b>Give Facebook some personality with Social Fixer</b><br />
<br /> Just because Facebook hasn't placed much emphasis on customization to date doesn't mean we're stuck with the layout and options the company offers. The Social Fixer browser add-on spiffs up your Facebook account with such features as news-feed tabs, feed filters that let you direct specific items to one of your tabs, image previews, and themes. <br /><br />Social Fixer works with Firefox, Google Chrome, Safari, Opera, and other browsers, but not with Internet Explorer. I tested the Chrome version of the add-on. The first screen of the program's seven-step setup wizard lets you choose the recommended settings or a "minimalist" approach that turns off most of the add-on's features by default. <br /><br />The option to place application and game posts in separate tabs on your news feed is selected automatically on the setup wizard's second screen. The third lets you customize the chat list by removing the chat sidebar and replacing it with the old pop-up chat list. You can also show all online friends on the chat list (this option is selected by default), or use a compact chat list that does away with thumbnail images.<br /><br />The fourth setup screen allows you to disable the "light box" or "theater" pop-up view for photos. I actually like Facebook's pop-up view for photos. Considering that the default option in Social Fixer is to retain the feature, many other people appear to like it, too. <br /><br />The next setup option lets you view the full-size version of images when you hover over their thumbnails in any post or profile. The photo-preview setting is selected by default. One pet peeve of many Facebook users is addressed by the next Social Fixer option, which puts you on a new line when you press Enter while writing a comment rather than the Enter key posting the comment. Note that this option is deselected by default. <br /><br />The setup wizard's last option lets you add a link to the Social Fixer news feed to Facebook's left pane. <br /><br /><b>Filter your feed, see which friends are online</b><br />
<br /> After Social Fixer is installed, you'll notice tabs on your profile and news feed labeled Mark All Read, Show Hidden Posts, Mute All, Reload, and Undo. Social Fixer also reverts to showing the most recent posts on top, although a drop-down menu option allows you to switch back to having top stories appear first. <br /><br />Click More under the main tabs to display the number of posts processed, hidden, filtered, moved to a tab, or reordered. Also displayed are the number of duplicate posts and the number of times the Older Posts option has been clicked.<br /><br /> Social Fixer reorganizes the chat list on the right side of the Facebook screen to put your friends who are currently available at the top of the list rather than the default alphabetical listing. The big change is in the left pane, where navigation panels are added for the pages you've liked and upcoming events. The pane can be customized by adding links to your favorite destinations, among other options. <br /><br />Click the wrench icon that Social Fixer adds to the top of the Facebook window and choose Edit Social Fixer Options to view dozens of check boxes, text boxes, and lists for altering the Facebook interface. In the Popular category are options for hiding Trending Articles and Trending Videos, automatically moving posts from Applications (games) to a separate tab (selected by default), and changing the default font size for posts and comments.<br /><br />Other Social Fixer options selected by default hide "Sponsored" stories from your news feed, change time stamps to their actual time rather than just "one hour ago," and disable auto-loading of posts as you scroll down. Perhaps the most powerful feature in the program is the ability to filter posts on your feed by user, type of post, and the presence of particular keywords. For example, you can create a filter that lets you read your sister-in-law's family news but blocks her posts discussing politics.<br /><br /> Social Fixer lets you view only new comments to old posts, see who has unfriended you, and apply one of a handful of themes or paste in a link to a third-party theme, although some third-party themes may not display properly. When I tested the program, not all the themes that ship with the app worked when I applied them in Chrome. You can also select a custom color scheme from a color palette. <br /><br />It took no time at all to get used to Facebook with Social Fixer's many useful customizations. The hard part was switching back to the standard Facebook appearance in browsers that don't have the add-on installed. Hard as I try, I can't think of a down side to using the program. <br /><br />Of course, a big question is whether Social Fixer will work with the new Facebook interface now being rolled out gradually. I'm hoping Mr. Kruse will figure out a way to let Facebook users revert to the old Facebook look if doing so is required for Social Fixer to work correctly (<a href="http://howto.cnet.com/8301-11310_39-57575026-285/how-to-customize-your-facebook-page-for-free/" target="_blank">cNet</a>) Herdiansyah Hamzahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04371605105991256890noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5388173786568077939.post-92190614828468676412013-03-19T16:58:00.000-07:002013-03-19T16:58:10.140-07:00New BlackBerry PlayBook is in the Works According to BlackBerry Exec<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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It seems there may be some confusion up at the BlackBerry headquarters about whether or not there is a new PlayBook tablet in the future. <br />
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BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins recently told Australia’s Herald Sun that tablets are “a very difficult business.” He went on to suggest that the company won’t be releasing any new tablets unless it can find a niche that needs to be filled. It seems, however, that someone forgot to send out that memo to the rest of the company. <br />
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Mike Al Mefleh, director of product management at BlackBerry, confirmed to Emirates 24|7 over the weekend at the BlackBerry User’s Forum in Dubai that six new BlackBerry 10 devices will be introduced this year in addition to a new version of the PlayBook. “We have a very clear road map,” he told the site. He went on to add, “We are developing an all new NoteSmartly app for the Playbook, that will be released in time for the launch of the new BlackBerry PlayBook.” <br />
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We’re not quite sure why there seems to be such a disconnect between the two BlackBerry executives. The interview from Dubai was published on March 16, and by the 18th Heins was sounding rather down on the concept of releasing a new tablet. Did one of them speak out of turn? Has a new decision been made? We just don’t know which is the more accurate comment at this time, but I suppose we’ll learn that fact when we see if a new PlayBook does indeed appear this year (<a href="http://www.technobuffalo.com/2013/03/19/new-blackberry-playbook-is-in-the-works-according-to-blackberry-exec/" target="_blank">Techno Buffalo</a>).Herdiansyah Hamzahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04371605105991256890noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5388173786568077939.post-20399211158886130092013-03-19T16:46:00.000-07:002013-03-19T16:46:01.281-07:00Apple is really mad at Samsung and BlackBerry now<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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If you own an Apple (<a href="http://investing.money.msn.com/investments/stock-price?symbol=AAPL" target="_blank">AAPL -0.27%</a>) iPhone, you should have received an email from the company over the weekend, alerting you to <a href="http://www.apple.com/iphone/why-iphone/" target="_blank">a new page</a> on the Apple site that explains why the iPhone 5 is the best.<br />
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The tag line: "There's iPhone. And then there's everything else." This might be the first time since 2001, when it blew everybody away with the first iPod, that Apple has stooped to defend its position as the best possible thing since sliced bread.<br />
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The fact is, two of its rivals -- Samsung (SSNLF 0.00%) and BlackBerry (BBRY +0.07%) -- are getting a whole lot of attention from the media. Not fawning attention or universal acclaim. Just respectful attention, as worthy alternatives with unique qualities of their own.<br />
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It is probably not a coincidence that the new Apple page popped up two days after Samsung unveiled its Galaxy S4.<br />
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Not averse to a bit of hyperbole of its own, Samsung's website declares that its Galaxy S4 is nothing less than a "real life companion" that will "make your life richer, simpler, and more fun."<br />
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Apparently, Samsung's latest smartphone, which hits the stores next month, really does all kinds of wonderfully wacky things. It's got an "air gesture" feature that lets you click on a Web link just by pointing a finger at it. You can make two video calls at once, and use two apps at the same time. It can tell you what you might want to watch on TV, and control it remotely. It automatically adjusts volume and display to suit your surroundings. It can even monitor your heart rate while you're working out.<br />
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Plus, it's got wireless charging. Don't bother checking out the Galaxy S4 website. You won't be able to escape the marketing push for Samsung's latest device. The South Korean electronics giant spent $401 million on marketing the previous version of the device in 2012, compared to Apple's $333 million budget, according to figures reported by Phandroid.<br />
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In the end, Samsung might do better with a smaller but smarter marketing plan. Last week's unveiling of the new device, at an over-the-top Broadway show-style extravaganza at Radio City Music Hall, turned off many tech journalists. They want specs, not showbiz.<br />
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But as the battle for market share at the top heats up, Apple may be making marketing missteps, too. That at least is the view of Jean-Louis Gassée, a business media executive, <a href="http://www.mondaynote.com/2013/03/17/apple-is-losing-the-war-of-words/http://" target="_blank">blogger</a>, and, not incidentally, the guy who launched Apple France in 1981.<br />
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In part, he is disdainful of Apple's overuse of what he terms "pathetic superlatives" in constantly describing itself and its products as "incredible" and "great." But he's really appalled at an Apple marketing executive's widely-reported, and erroneous, suggestion that the Samsung Galaxy S4 would ship with a year-old version of Android. The diss backfired, as the correction got all the attention.<br />
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The way for Apple to end all this bad chatter, of course, is to release something new that is absolutely more fabulous than anything else.<br />
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No pressure. How's that iWatch project going? For now, it can only endure the nibbling from rivals, which by no means stops with Samsung. The real guerrilla warfare is being staged from below, by the rivals for third place behind Apple and the Samsung Galaxy, which is the best-selling phone that uses Google's (GOOG +0.44%) Android operating system.<br />
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In the latest salvo, BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins had the nerve to imply that the Apple iPhone is yesterday's news.<br />
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In an interview with an Australian business publication that was widely picked up in the U.S., Heins pointed out that the Apple device first came out in 2007. As he knows only too well, Heins said, "the rate of innovation is so high in our business that if you don't innovate at that speed you can be replaced pretty quickly." He cited the new BlackBerry B10's multi-tasking feature as a point of differentiation from the iPhone.<br />
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Heins also hinted that he is "pleasantly surprised" by the number of people who are abandoning other phone brands for the new BlackBerry. (We may find out how pleasantly surprised he is on March 28, when his company reports its results.)<br />
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At least for now, yet another contender, Nokia (NOK +1.49%), seems to have been lost in the shuffle of technology coverage in the U.S. But keep in mind that the one-time leader is alive and kicking in the wider world of developing countries.<br />
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An interesting perspective is offered in a recent review of two new Nokia Lumia models in an Indian publication called Think Digit. It concludes that the Nokia 520 might be a good choice for a consumer buying a first smartphone, or for someone who's tired of the sluggish response of a budget-priced Android phone.<br />
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It's not a ringing endorsement of Nokia. It just clarifies the fact that most of the world has other priorities (<a href="http://money.msn.com/top-stocks/post.aspx?post=27c6c65b-1545-4203-bc70-91aeb6a79372" target="_blank">Money MSN</a>). Herdiansyah Hamzahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04371605105991256890noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5388173786568077939.post-28406508601946465112013-03-18T22:47:00.000-07:002013-03-18T23:02:13.414-07:00Ad Agency Answers 140 Character Twitter Briefs in 24 Hours<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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A networked team of creatives in New York launched a new service that meets the demand for rapid turnaround advertising. <br />
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Using Twitter as a medium, the <a href="http://worldsfastestagency.com/" target="_blank">World's Fastest Agency</a> will respond from briefing to idea within 24 hours. Outputs will include tag lines, product and service naming, communications platforms and (of course) stunts. According to its press release.<br />
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WFA helps time-pressured clients keep pace with the lightening fast 24/7 global media and social culture. <br />
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Clients can say goodbye to 100-page PowerPoint decks, meetings, weeks of fee negotiation, countless emails, more meetings, lunch, meetings, scope of work to-ing and fro-ing, meetings, more emails, Q&A sessions, tissue meetings, inaudible conference call, pitch, feedback, feedback on the feedback, re-briefing, re-pitching, another meeting, more feedback, focus groups, another meeting, more emails…. <br />
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A three-step process involves the deposit of a one-time fee of $999 via PayPal, the sending of a brief to <a href="https://twitter.com/fastestagency" target="_blank">@fastestagency</a>, and then the turnaround of an idea via Twitter direct message within 24 hours. <br />
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Founder Floyd Hayes told PSFK he will leverage a network of freelance advertising creatives to deliver quality work at speed (<a href="http://mashable.com/2013/03/18/worlds-fastest-agency/" target="_blank">Mashable</a>)Herdiansyah Hamzahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04371605105991256890noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5388173786568077939.post-5125369894530730572013-03-18T14:42:00.001-07:002013-03-18T23:01:26.247-07:00Google removes AdBlock Plus app from Play Store<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ShG9j_aGHhc/UUf--actRII/AAAAAAAAAx8/VnmeC9cheBc/s1600/adblockplus.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ShG9j_aGHhc/UUf--actRII/AAAAAAAAAx8/VnmeC9cheBc/s1600/adblockplus.jpg" /></a></div>
Google has removed AdBlock Plus, an app that lets users block advertisements while browsing the web, in addition to other similar apps such as AdAway, from the Play Store. <br />
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In an e-mail to the developers of AdBlock Plus, Google has said that it found the app to be violating section 4.4 of the Developer Distribution Agreement as the app interferes with or accesses another service or product in an unauthorized manner. It has instructed the developers to revise and upload a new instance of the application that is compliant with the developer terms.<br />
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We were not able to locate the app in the<a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.adblockplus.android" target="_blank"> Play Store</a>, at the time of writing this post.<br />
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"We realize that advertising revenue is important to Google, but understand that Adblock Plus does not automatically block all ads; we simply allow users the choice whether to block ads or whitelist them," said AdBlock Plus co-founder Till Faida, in a statement. Close to 1 million users have downloaded AdBlock Plus since November 2012, according to the company. <br />
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This doesn't really come as a surprise as Google had started blocking AdBlock Plus on Android 4.1.2 and 4.2.2 devices instead showing a warning box telling users to manually configure a proxy server. The AdBlock Plus team had even <a href="https://adblockplus.org/en/android-config#genericexample" target="_blank">offered</a> a work around through which users could manually set-up a proxy. The AdBlock Plus app routes web traffic through a server that runs on the smartphone filtering out advertisements before the browser renders them. <br />
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For Google and other ad networks, advertising is a major source of revenue, so it's more likely to restrict apps that offer ad-blocking functionality (<a href="http://gadgets.ndtv.com/apps/news/google-removes-adblock-plus-app-from-play-store-342500" target="_blank">NDTV</a>).Herdiansyah Hamzahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04371605105991256890noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5388173786568077939.post-65268576368469643642013-03-17T22:09:00.000-07:002013-03-17T22:09:10.576-07:007 Things You Didn't Know About TwitterTwitter which now has more than 200 million users, turns 7 years old on Thursday. To celebrate, we thought we'd share seven facts about the micro-blogging site that most people don't know. <br /><br />1. Twitter almost never came to be. In 2006, there was a company called Odeo, which helped individuals publish audio. With a lack of growth and investors souring, the company pivoted and decided to conduct a hackathon one day. This brain-storming competition led to the birth of Twitter. <br /><br />2. Twitter was created on a playground. Founding team member Dom Sagolla says the group went on the <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/fredwilson/3330356947/" target="_blank">top of a slide</a> at a playground in South Park, a small neighborhood in San Francisco, and Jack Dorsey discussed an "idea so simple that you don't even think about it—you just write." This moment of inspiration has turned into a multibillion dollar company. <br /><br />3. When Twitter began, "everyone's first tweet was automated," <a href="http://youtu.be/EIibuNaJuRg" target="_blank">Sagolla said</a>. It published, "Just setting up my twttr." Co-founder Dorsey sent the <a href="https://twitter.com/jack/status/20" target="_blank">first tweet</a>, on March 21, 2006. It now has more than 8,900 retweets. <br /><br />4. The user with the most followers is Justin Bieber; the pop musician has 36 million followers. Hootsuite, a social media management company, follows more than 1.1 million accounts, the most of any user. Who has tweeted the most? That honor belongs to @Yougakduan_00, a girl from Japan, who posted a mind-boggling 36,402,262 tweets before Twitter suspended her account. The most followed brand is YouTube with nearly 25 million followers. <br /><br />5. The number of accounts that have been verified as authentic—those with a blue badge—is <a href="https://twitter.com/verified" target="_blank">47,815</a>, but Twitter CEO Dick Costolo's (@dickc) is not among them. <br /><br />6. The official name of Twitter's bird is Larry. Yes, his name is <a href="https://twitter.com/twitter/status/42750940343828481" target="_blank">Larry Bird</a>.The iconic little fellow—seen in Twitter's logo shown in TV commercials, print ads and practically every web site—was named after Boston Celtics legend Larry Bird. Why choose to name it after a basketball player from Boston? It may have to do with Twitter co-founder <a href="https://twitter.com/biz/status/101684360062832640" target="_blank">Biz Stone</a> growing up in Massachusetts. <br /><br />7. Twitter didn't create retweets, replies, hashtags, a mobile app or social ads—it was created by users and developers in its ecosystem. Those features were later supported by Twitter, according to marketing site <a href="http://blog.140proof.com/post/30593225507/twitter-features-invented-by-the-ecosystem" target="_blank">140 Proof</a>. Unfortunately for the inventors, they won't be receiving a slice of the company that some are valuing at $10 billion. Like most of you, they will have to wait for <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/id/49794724" target="_blank">Twitter's IPO</a>.Herdiansyah Hamzahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04371605105991256890noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5388173786568077939.post-2467374716574111472013-03-11T18:41:00.000-07:002013-03-18T02:29:20.106-07:00How Facebook Briefly Killed the Internet<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-5n03bF97DF0/URcHjfkk26I/AAAAAAAAAgM/QLjsPXbd_vw/s1600/Facebook+Thumbs+Down.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="209" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-5n03bF97DF0/URcHjfkk26I/AAAAAAAAAgM/QLjsPXbd_vw/s320/Facebook+Thumbs+Down.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
For a few minutes this evening, Facebook was redirecting users visiting
dozens of websites — including Mashable — to cryptic error pages. <br />
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The reaction online was pretty much what you'd expect, with — as the <b><a href="http://thenextweb.com/facebook/2013/02/08/apparent-issue-with-facebook-connect-is-dragging-people-from-around-the-web-to-a-moot-error-page/" target="_blank">The Next Web</a></b> noted — hashtags like "Facebookmageddon" and "Facebocalypse" common amongst Twitter users.<br />
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So what happened, exactly? There was an issue with the Facebook Connect
API that caused users on sites that use that API to redirect users to
Facebook error page. <br />
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For example, if you were visiting Mashable and logged into our site
using your Facebook account (and you were also signed into Facebook),
you were automatically redirected to a page that looked like this: <br />
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Exiting the page or attempting to re-access the original site would lead to another redirect. Back to this :<br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-0fzA7C1dD2k/URcHrqp85TI/AAAAAAAAAgU/65zDoqs3UY0/s1600/Facebook+Error.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-0fzA7C1dD2k/URcHrqp85TI/AAAAAAAAAgU/65zDoqs3UY0/s1600/Facebook+Error.jpg" /></a></div>
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Sites such as The Huffington Post, Kayak, Hulu, The Daily Dot, Pinterest
and hundreds of others were all impacted. The bug lasted less than 10
minutes. <br />
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In a statement, Facebook told Mashable: "For a short period of time,
there was a bug that redirected people logging in with Facebook from
third party sites. The issue was quickly resolved and Login with
Facebook is now working as usual." <br />
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The bug may have been brief, but it has highlighted just how many
important websites use Facebook Connect for user authentication. Over
the span of just a few years, Facebook logins have become so pervasive
that they are nearly second nature. It also shows that if Facebook has
an issue, it can affect more than just its site — it can also impact the
hundreds of thousands (millions?) of sites that integrate with
Facebook's APIs. <br />
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What's interesting is that a user didn't even need to be performing the
action for the error — and hijacking — to occur. Instead, simply being
logged into both places (and having the accounts linked) was enough to
force users off of a third-party website and onto Facebook's error page.<br />
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Article and Image source from : <a href="http://mashable.com/2013/02/07/facebook-kills-internet/" target="_blank"><b>Mashable </b></a>Herdiansyah Hamzahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04371605105991256890noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5388173786568077939.post-3556153093460812442013-01-30T09:37:00.000-08:002013-03-18T02:29:28.202-07:00The Difference In Censorship On Facebook And Twitter<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-SLWnSvmnC8E/URaKT9hDVpI/AAAAAAAAAf8/yPu01kywQeU/s1600/Twitter.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="204" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-SLWnSvmnC8E/URaKT9hDVpI/AAAAAAAAAf8/yPu01kywQeU/s320/Twitter.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
Perhaps this isn’t censorship: in strict terms that refers to what a government insists is allowable or not. But there are indeed considerable differences in the way that Facebook at Twitter police the content on their sites. The difference is most obvious when considering the way in which the sex industry is using both sites:<br />
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Sex trade workers have taken to using Facebook and Twitter as a 21st Century phone box by posting calling cards on the networks that show them clearly touting for business.<br />
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A Times report found hundreds of public pages being used by prostitutes and escort agencies. In some instances their names, contact details and prices were displayed alongside the type of sex acts they were punting. </blockquote>
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In reaction to this Facebook has been pulling down the pages as it finds them. Twitter not so much :<br />
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As noted by the Times, violations of Twitter’s terms and conditions only apply where the content is found to have been illegal. <br />
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It should be noted that this is all about what is going on in England: where the laws on prostitution and the like are slightly confused. It’s entirely legal to offer sex in return for money: the basic act of prostitution. So stating that one does so is not illegal: presumably this can still be done on Twitter if not on Facebook. However, a brothel is illegal, as is pimping and so is soliciting: that last making it all rather more complicated. For approaching a potential customer with a view to making them a customer is indeed illegal. And the difference between this and advertising can get somewhat blurred. <br />
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I have to admit that I prefer the Twitter approach. Not because I actually use it to boost my sex life in between the urgent searches for cat pictures, but because it seems to me to be the adult way of dealing with such things. Some consenting adults like to do things that I don’t like to do. Well, they’ve as much right to use communications systems to get on with their pleasures as I do to use them to get on with mine. That’s rather what a liberal polity means really. The nannying of content that Facebook does seems more suitable for people dealing with children rather than adults.<br />
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Source from : <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2013/01/31/the-difference-in-censorship-on-facebook-and-twitter/">Forbes.com </a>Herdiansyah Hamzahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04371605105991256890noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5388173786568077939.post-81116450734553982582013-01-11T06:40:00.000-08:002013-03-18T02:29:35.566-07:00Google Exec Posts Photos Taken With 'Nexus 10' <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-M3hlV2Qbm90/URZf1knvDNI/AAAAAAAAAfs/dcPgMyqEclo/s1600/Nexus+10.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="214" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-M3hlV2Qbm90/URZf1knvDNI/AAAAAAAAAfs/dcPgMyqEclo/s320/Nexus+10.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span id="goog_267723700"></span><span id="goog_267723701"></span>Google's Vic Gundotra is having a nice time trying out some new hardware during his beach vacation. At least that's the view from his profile on Google+, where he posted two pictures taken with something called the "Nexus 10." <br />
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There currently is no product with that name, but it's been rumored that Google will introduce a new Nexus tablet at the company's event on Monday morning. Also, Korean site Seeko on Thursday posted images of what appears to be a manual for the tablet.<br />
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The photos Gundotra <b><a href="https://plus.google.com/photos/+VicGundotra/albums/5803585853084959937">posted</a></b> have a resolution of 2,048 x 1,536 (3.1 megapixels), but that's simply the maximum resolution for photos uploaded to Google+ via the service's instant upload, and not necessarily the resolution of the camera on board the device. <br />
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This isn't the first time Gundotra — Google's senior vice president of engineering who and the key executive behind Google+ — has tipped a new product or service on his Google+ feed. Earlier this month he posted a photo taken with Snapseed, an app made by Nik software, which Google acquired last month. But the Snapseed app for iOS didn't have the ability to export to Google+. Sure enough, an Android preview appeared last week (and has been taken down). <br />
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At Google's Monday event, the company is expected to reveal the Nexus 10 tablet — a larger version of its Nexus 7 tablet — along with Android 4.2 "Key Lime Pie" software. There may also be a new Nexus smartphone made by LG. <br />
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What would you like to see in a 10-inch Google Nexus tablet? Let us know in the comments. <br />
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Image courtesy of Google / Article source from : <b><a href="http://mashable.com/2012/10/26/google-nexus-10/">Mashable</a></b>Herdiansyah Hamzahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04371605105991256890noreply@blogger.com4