How to hack your Facebook profile picture: a step-by-step guide to 'refacing' your profile

A French artist has kicked off a new trend by ‘refacing’ his Facebookprofile. Alexandre Oudin tweaked the photos on his Facebook page to make them look like pieces of one large photo. Since then, other Facebook users have been repeating the trick to create their own versions: see our gallery here.

If you want to ‘reface’ your Facebook page, here’s how you do it.

• You’ll need to have activated the new Facebook profile page - if you have, you’ll see your basic biographical information at the top of the page and, below that, a photo strip of five recent photos that have been tagged with your name.

• You’ll also need a photo that’s at least 692 pixels wide - that’s the width of the page from the left-hand edge of your profile picture to the right-hand edge of the photo strip.

• The final thing you’ll need is a photo-editing program that allows you to crop images. If you don’t have a program on your computer, try an online editing service, such as Photoshop Express.

• Now you’re ready to get started. Crop your photo to 692 pixels wide, based on how you want it to appear on the page. The left-hand side of this image will be your profile pic and the right-hand edge will appear at the end of the photo strip. Let’s call this image your Base Photo.

• Next, create your new profile pic by taking a crop of the left-hand side of your Base Photo. Start in the top left corner of your base image and, moving down and right, make a crop that’s 180 pixels wide and 540 pixels high.

• Now we need to create the images for your photo strip. The profile pic you’ve created will extend 20 pixels higher on the page than your photo strip so to create the photo strip you’ll need to start the crop 20 pixels below the top of the image. So, from the right-hand edge of the Base Photo, 20 pixels from the top, take a crop that’s 492 pixels wide and 68 pixels high. This crop will almost meet the right-hand edge of your profile picture but not quite - there is a 20 pixel gap between your profile pic and the photo strip. It’s important to leave this gap if you want the final profile page to look right.

• Still with us? Good. Now you need to chop the photo strip image you’ve created into five pieces. The images in the photo strip are separated by a line two pixels wide so you need to make sure you leave those gaps. Essentially, what you need to do is this: starting from one side of the 492x68 image you created in step 6, crop an image that’s 96.8 pixels wide and 68 pixels high, then leave a two-pixel gap, crop another 96.8x68 image, leave a gap and so on. When you’re finished you should have five small pictures.

• That’s the difficult bit over. Now you need to upload the images to Facebook. Set the image you created in step 5 to be your profile picture but don’t tag it with your name. Then tag the five images you created in step seven. The order in which you tag them is critical: you have to tag them from right-to-left based on the order in which you want them to appear on the page. So the image that you want to appear on the far right should be tagged first and the far left image should be tagged last.

• Now all you need to do is tell your friends to come and admire the handywork on your profile page.

It might take a couple of goes to get this right but once you’ve worked through the instructions once, it should be easier for you to adapt them to suit the image you want to create.

in simple ways:

You Can Also Do This By Using This Application

FACEBOOK APPLICATION

A French artist has kicked off a new trend by ‘refacing’ his Facebookprofile. Alexandre Oudin tweaked the photos on his Facebook page to make them look like pieces of one large photo. Since then, other Facebook users have been repeating the trick to create their own versions: see our gallery here.

If you want to ‘reface’ your Facebook page, here’s how you do it.

• You’ll need to have activated the new Facebook profile page - if you have, you’ll see your basic biographical information at the top of the page and, below that, a photo strip of five recent photos that have been tagged with your name.

• You’ll also need a photo that’s at least 692 pixels wide - that’s the width of the page from the left-hand edge of your profile picture to the right-hand edge of the photo strip.

• The final thing you’ll need is a photo-editing program that allows you to crop images. If you don’t have a program on your computer, try an online editing service, such as Photoshop Express.

• Now you’re ready to get started. Crop your photo to 692 pixels wide, based on how you want it to appear on the page. The left-hand side of this image will be your profile pic and the right-hand edge will appear at the end of the photo strip. Let’s call this image your Base Photo.

• Next, create your new profile pic by taking a crop of the left-hand side of your Base Photo. Start in the top left corner of your base image and, moving down and right, make a crop that’s 180 pixels wide and 540 pixels high.

• Now we need to create the images for your photo strip. The profile pic you’ve created will extend 20 pixels higher on the page than your photo strip so to create the photo strip you’ll need to start the crop 20 pixels below the top of the image. So, from the right-hand edge of the Base Photo, 20 pixels from the top, take a crop that’s 492 pixels wide and 68 pixels high. This crop will almost meet the right-hand edge of your profile picture but not quite - there is a 20 pixel gap between your profile pic and the photo strip. It’s important to leave this gap if you want the final profile page to look right.

• Still with us? Good. Now you need to chop the photo strip image you’ve created into five pieces. The images in the photo strip are separated by a line two pixels wide so you need to make sure you leave those gaps. Essentially, what you need to do is this: starting from one side of the 492x68 image you created in step 6, crop an image that’s 96.8 pixels wide and 68 pixels high, then leave a two-pixel gap, crop another 96.8x68 image, leave a gap and so on. When you’re finished you should have five small pictures.

• That’s the difficult bit over. Now you need to upload the images to Facebook. Set the image you created in step 5 to be your profile picture but don’t tag it with your name. Then tag the five images you created in step seven. The order in which you tag them is critical: you have to tag them from right-to-left based on the order in which you want them to appear on the page. So the image that you want to appear on the far right should be tagged first and the far left image should be tagged last.

• Now all you need to do is tell your friends to come and admire the handywork on your profile page.

It might take a couple of goes to get this right but once you’ve worked through the instructions once, it should be easier for you to adapt them to suit the image you want to create.

in simple ways:

You Can Also Do This By Using This Application

FACEBOOK APPLICATION

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Apple's iPhone and iPad to push app sales beyond $15bn in 2011

Sales of applications for iPhones, iPads and other mobile devices are forecast to exceed $15bn (£9.4bn) this year.

Downloads of popular games, such as Angry Birds and Doodle Jump, are expected to lead to a near-tripling of global app sales, according to research firm Gartner.

Stephanie Baghdassarian, research director at Gartner, said the big rise in expected sales from $5.2bn in 2010 was due to the popularity of the iPad and other tablet computers.

"Something massive has happened," she said. "It's called the iPad, and all of its little brothers and sisters and cousins that are copying Apple."

Ms Baghdassarian said apps are "by far" the fastest-growing sector of the telecoms and technology industry.

Apple, which launched the first app store in the summer of 2008, still dominates the industry, controlling an estimated nine out of 10 of all app sales

Sales of applications for iPhones, iPads and other mobile devices are forecast to exceed $15bn (£9.4bn) this year.

Downloads of popular games, such as Angry Birds and Doodle Jump, are expected to lead to a near-tripling of global app sales, according to research firm Gartner.

Stephanie Baghdassarian, research director at Gartner, said the big rise in expected sales from $5.2bn in 2010 was due to the popularity of the iPad and other tablet computers.

"Something massive has happened," she said. "It's called the iPad, and all of its little brothers and sisters and cousins that are copying Apple."

Ms Baghdassarian said apps are "by far" the fastest-growing sector of the telecoms and technology industry.

Apple, which launched the first app store in the summer of 2008, still dominates the industry, controlling an estimated nine out of 10 of all app sales

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Money goes mobile with Orange

As near-field communications payments hit the headlines thanks to Apple, Orange and Barclaycard announce that they will be first to the UK market 2011 is the year that the mobile phone is set to finally start replacing the credit and debit card: Apple’s forthcoming iPhone is widely expected to contain ‘near-field communications’ (NFC) technology to make payments possible by simply swiping the handset over a reader on a shop counter. Google’s new Nexus S already has NFC built-in. And today Orange is announcing that by the summer they will have, in association with Barclaycard, a payment-equipped mobile phone already on sale to consumers.

The trend brings a whole new meaning to payphone, and it’s one that Gerry McQuade, announcing the Orange deal, says is “the beginning of a revolution in how we pay for for things on the high street. It’s a cultural shift that is as important as the launch of the personal credit card or ATMs.”

In Japan and across other Asian countries, however, scores of handset models are used tens of thousands of times each day to pay for millions of pounds worth of transactions.

Yet in the UK and America the market is rather different. As far back as 2007, this newspaper reported on Nokia’s trial with O2 of a mobile wallet that would work with London’s Oyster card system as well as for payments of up to £15. Now Orange are going to offer a similar service, although details on hardware so far are limited. The company says that there are over 40,000 stores ready to accept contactless payments, and that its approach is based on customers’ SIM cards rather than their handsets.

Ben Wood, head of research at Analysts CCS Insight, says that “Near field communication will become as pervasive as Wi-Fi in mobile devices by 2013 and by the end of 2011 most leading device manufacturers will have implemented NFC capability across much of their device portfolios.” The 2012 Olympics, he adds, will be a crucial first UK test-bed for widespread usage of the technology.

Orange and Barclaycard, meanwhile, claim that their customers will be “the first to be able to use their mobiles to make payments on the high street wherever contactless payments are accepted”. Orange says that it’s part of their “wider strategy to re-define what people use their mobiles for, with mobile payments being the start.”

Indeed, according to Ben Wood, “The key here is that it won’t only be about payment. Deploying NFC tags is as easy as putting a “We take Mastercard” sticker in your shop window. This gives the “owner” and Apple some amazing opportunities. They can push promotions to those people, they can track their movements and see if they are regular customers or they can see which are the most popular venues”.

The privacy problems of such an approach will unsettle many potential users, but done well there are clearly potential benefits for both users and advertisers. It could, for instance, mean the end of the blanket advert that hopes all consumers in a particular clothes shop would like the same fashions, for instance.

David Chan, chief executive of Barclaycard Consumer Europe, is however surely right to suggest that “future generations will find it surprising that early this century we were still carrying separate items to buy goods and to communicate with each other”.

What remains to be seen, however, is whether Apple will corner this market, just as they currently sell 90 per cent of all tablet computers. If the company really can get a small piece of countless transactions, it will make it much more than a technology firm. One thing’s for certain however – it could do with coming up with a better name than ‘near field communications’. iPay, anyone?

As near-field communications payments hit the headlines thanks to Apple, Orange and Barclaycard announce that they will be first to the UK market 2011 is the year that the mobile phone is set to finally start replacing the credit and debit card: Apple’s forthcoming iPhone is widely expected to contain ‘near-field communications’ (NFC) technology to make payments possible by simply swiping the handset over a reader on a shop counter. Google’s new Nexus S already has NFC built-in. And today Orange is announcing that by the summer they will have, in association with Barclaycard, a payment-equipped mobile phone already on sale to consumers.

The trend brings a whole new meaning to payphone, and it’s one that Gerry McQuade, announcing the Orange deal, says is “the beginning of a revolution in how we pay for for things on the high street. It’s a cultural shift that is as important as the launch of the personal credit card or ATMs.”

In Japan and across other Asian countries, however, scores of handset models are used tens of thousands of times each day to pay for millions of pounds worth of transactions.

Yet in the UK and America the market is rather different. As far back as 2007, this newspaper reported on Nokia’s trial with O2 of a mobile wallet that would work with London’s Oyster card system as well as for payments of up to £15. Now Orange are going to offer a similar service, although details on hardware so far are limited. The company says that there are over 40,000 stores ready to accept contactless payments, and that its approach is based on customers’ SIM cards rather than their handsets.

Ben Wood, head of research at Analysts CCS Insight, says that “Near field communication will become as pervasive as Wi-Fi in mobile devices by 2013 and by the end of 2011 most leading device manufacturers will have implemented NFC capability across much of their device portfolios.” The 2012 Olympics, he adds, will be a crucial first UK test-bed for widespread usage of the technology.

Orange and Barclaycard, meanwhile, claim that their customers will be “the first to be able to use their mobiles to make payments on the high street wherever contactless payments are accepted”. Orange says that it’s part of their “wider strategy to re-define what people use their mobiles for, with mobile payments being the start.”

Indeed, according to Ben Wood, “The key here is that it won’t only be about payment. Deploying NFC tags is as easy as putting a “We take Mastercard” sticker in your shop window. This gives the “owner” and Apple some amazing opportunities. They can push promotions to those people, they can track their movements and see if they are regular customers or they can see which are the most popular venues”.

The privacy problems of such an approach will unsettle many potential users, but done well there are clearly potential benefits for both users and advertisers. It could, for instance, mean the end of the blanket advert that hopes all consumers in a particular clothes shop would like the same fashions, for instance.

David Chan, chief executive of Barclaycard Consumer Europe, is however surely right to suggest that “future generations will find it surprising that early this century we were still carrying separate items to buy goods and to communicate with each other”.

What remains to be seen, however, is whether Apple will corner this market, just as they currently sell 90 per cent of all tablet computers. If the company really can get a small piece of countless transactions, it will make it much more than a technology firm. One thing’s for certain however – it could do with coming up with a better name than ‘near field communications’. iPay, anyone?

Click Here To Read The Full Story »

Amazon Kindle ebooks outsell paperbacks

Analysis: Why Amazon may be selling lots of ebooks but not so many Kindles.

Amazon may not disclose how many Kindles the company has sold (using just the vague term "millions" in its latest earnings report), but the company has no problem playing up sales of ebooks to users of the Kindle platform. The company noted that it has sold three ebooks for every hardcover title and that ebooks are even outselling paperbacks (Amazon notes that it sells 115 ebooks to every 100 paperbacks).

The news isn't a complete surprise. Barnes and Noble noted last monththat sales of ebooks on its Nook platform had similarly outpaced sales of physical books from its online store.

There are obvious advantages to ebooks, one of which is convenience. Another, perhaps more telling advantage is that electronic editions tend to cost noticeably less than their physical counterparts, particularly when it comes to recent hardcover releases. Amazon even noted this in its financial results release saying that more the 670,000 of the store's 810,000 plus books cost less than $9.99.

One reason that Amazon may be enjoying this level of success and yet be unwilling to disclose how many actual devices it has sold is that many of those ebook sales may not be tied to actual Kindle devices. As with Barnes and Noble's Nook, Amazon produces a range of Kindle apps that can be installed on smartphones (a Windows Phone 7 app recently joined apps for the iPhone, Android, and BlackBerry), tablets (including the iPad and Android tablets), PCs, and Macs. Amazon has also announced plan to follow Google's ebook-in-a-browser concept that would allow reading on any Internet-connected device.

By making the Kindle a platform that can be run on just about anything (and that syncs ebooks, last read locations, notes, and highlights across multiple devices), Amazon has positioned itself to rake in ebook sales even if it can't move Kindle hardware in vast quantities. Having the biggest ebook selection in the U.S. doesn't hurt either. Many tablet and smartphone users, myself included, may prefer to buy ebooks from other sellers (particularly if they're less expensive - something that Leatherbound.me can help you find out), but are willing to purchase from Amazon if that's the only source for a given title or if there's a notable price difference.

I prefer Apple's iBooks app on my iPad, for example. It has better highlight and notation features, has more options for organizing collections of books, doesn't require using an external browser to search for and purchase books, syncs titles automatically to iTunes rather than relying on access to Amazon's servers, and it just has a more book-like feel to it. That said, there are several books that I've been reading using the Kindle app simply because Amazon was the only source for electronic versions.

Whether Amazon can maintain that advantage in the long term is a big question. Apple's iBookstore and Barnes and Noble's Nook store have gained some ground (Barnes and Noble also offers apps for multiple platforms) and Google has recently tossed its hat into the ring. While their catalogs may not be as big as Amazon's, they are growing. They may also have an eventual advantage in their use of open standards in the form of EPUB as opposed to Amazon's proprietary standard for ebooks. For now, at least, Amazon definitely seems to be holding on to some of its advantages.

By Emma Barnett, Digital Media Editor

A similar pattern has continued during January 2011 with 115 ebooks being sold for every 100 paperbacks.

The figure only relates to the US market and the number of ebooks sold on Amazon’s own e-reader device, the Kindle, which now accounts for 41.5 per cent of the e-reader market. Amazon is expected to sell more than eight million Kindles this year, up from 2.4 million last year, according to Bloomberg.

The figures exclude any free ebook download offers but include those made via the free Kindle iPhone app and tablet and desktop apps.

Amazon chief executive Jeff Bezos said, "Last July we announced that Kindle books had passed hardcovers and predicted that Kindle would surpass paperbacks in the second quarter of this year.

"So this milestone has come even sooner than we expected - and it's on top of continued growth in paperback sales."

Analysis: Why Amazon may be selling lots of ebooks but not so many Kindles.

Amazon may not disclose how many Kindles the company has sold (using just the vague term "millions" in its latest earnings report), but the company has no problem playing up sales of ebooks to users of the Kindle platform. The company noted that it has sold three ebooks for every hardcover title and that ebooks are even outselling paperbacks (Amazon notes that it sells 115 ebooks to every 100 paperbacks).

The news isn't a complete surprise. Barnes and Noble noted last monththat sales of ebooks on its Nook platform had similarly outpaced sales of physical books from its online store.

There are obvious advantages to ebooks, one of which is convenience. Another, perhaps more telling advantage is that electronic editions tend to cost noticeably less than their physical counterparts, particularly when it comes to recent hardcover releases. Amazon even noted this in its financial results release saying that more the 670,000 of the store's 810,000 plus books cost less than $9.99.

One reason that Amazon may be enjoying this level of success and yet be unwilling to disclose how many actual devices it has sold is that many of those ebook sales may not be tied to actual Kindle devices. As with Barnes and Noble's Nook, Amazon produces a range of Kindle apps that can be installed on smartphones (a Windows Phone 7 app recently joined apps for the iPhone, Android, and BlackBerry), tablets (including the iPad and Android tablets), PCs, and Macs. Amazon has also announced plan to follow Google's ebook-in-a-browser concept that would allow reading on any Internet-connected device.

By making the Kindle a platform that can be run on just about anything (and that syncs ebooks, last read locations, notes, and highlights across multiple devices), Amazon has positioned itself to rake in ebook sales even if it can't move Kindle hardware in vast quantities. Having the biggest ebook selection in the U.S. doesn't hurt either. Many tablet and smartphone users, myself included, may prefer to buy ebooks from other sellers (particularly if they're less expensive - something that Leatherbound.me can help you find out), but are willing to purchase from Amazon if that's the only source for a given title or if there's a notable price difference.

I prefer Apple's iBooks app on my iPad, for example. It has better highlight and notation features, has more options for organizing collections of books, doesn't require using an external browser to search for and purchase books, syncs titles automatically to iTunes rather than relying on access to Amazon's servers, and it just has a more book-like feel to it. That said, there are several books that I've been reading using the Kindle app simply because Amazon was the only source for electronic versions.

Whether Amazon can maintain that advantage in the long term is a big question. Apple's iBookstore and Barnes and Noble's Nook store have gained some ground (Barnes and Noble also offers apps for multiple platforms) and Google has recently tossed its hat into the ring. While their catalogs may not be as big as Amazon's, they are growing. They may also have an eventual advantage in their use of open standards in the form of EPUB as opposed to Amazon's proprietary standard for ebooks. For now, at least, Amazon definitely seems to be holding on to some of its advantages.

By Emma Barnett, Digital Media Editor

A similar pattern has continued during January 2011 with 115 ebooks being sold for every 100 paperbacks.

The figure only relates to the US market and the number of ebooks sold on Amazon’s own e-reader device, the Kindle, which now accounts for 41.5 per cent of the e-reader market. Amazon is expected to sell more than eight million Kindles this year, up from 2.4 million last year, according to Bloomberg.

The figures exclude any free ebook download offers but include those made via the free Kindle iPhone app and tablet and desktop apps.

Amazon chief executive Jeff Bezos said, "Last July we announced that Kindle books had passed hardcovers and predicted that Kindle would surpass paperbacks in the second quarter of this year.

"So this milestone has come even sooner than we expected - and it's on top of continued growth in paperback sales."

Click Here To Read The Full Story »

Microsoft Claims 2 Million Windows Phone 7 Shipments

A Microsoft executive said this week the company shipped more than 2 million copies of its revamped operating system, Windows Phone 7, in the most recent quarter. The careful admission at once triggered another spasm of misconstrued, misinterpreted, mistaken, and misanthropic speculation on the success or failure of Microsoft's smartphone platform.

The same executive, Greg Sullivan, a senior product manager at Microsoft, in a story reported by Bloomberg, cited results of Microsoft's internal surveys of customer satisfaction and brand awareness. "Customer satisfaction for the product is at 93% and brand awareness has jumped 22 points to 66% since it was released," the story reported.

The 2 million figure represents Microsoft's firmware shipments for the most recent quarter, not unit sales of handsets running that firmware. In the U.S., handsets went on sale Nov. 8. That distinction was reflected in the original Bloomberg headline: "Microsoft Shipped 2 Million Units of Windows Phone 7 Software Last Quarter."

Yet it was a distinction quickly lost in both mainstream publications running the Bloomberg story, and in a wave of Internet postings that often seemed to deliberately misunderstand it.

Businessweek's editors shortened the headline to "Microsoft Shipped 2 Million Windows Phone 7 Units" creating the impression that Microsoft itself had sold the handsets.

Redmond Pie's headline was misleading on two counts, conflating OS shipments with phone retail sales, and the time frame: "Microsoft Sold Over 2 Million Windows Phone 7 Handsets Since Launch." WinRumors: "Microsoft has now shipped 2 million Windows Phone 7 devices."

The new round of confusion mirrors that in December, when Microsoft carefully said that handset manufacturers had sold 1.5 million Windows Phone 7 handsets ... to mobile carriers. At the time, Business Insider's Dan Frommer opined that "Windows Phone 7 is toast."

Microsoft won't sell many Windows Phone handsets, he wrote "Why not? Because there simply aren't many reasons for anyone to buy a Windows Phone instead of an iPhone or an Android device."

Microsoft clearly is trying to avoid direct comparison, at least for now, with the stated retail sales figures for Google's Android and Apple's iOS devices. Bloomberg reported that Apple sold 16.2 million iPhones alone in its most recent quarter. (And the iOS platform has become the main driver of Apple's profitability, according to an analysis by Asymco's Horace Dediu. Since being introduced in the first iPhone in 2007, today "iOS powers about 70% of Apple's current gross profits," Dediu writes.)

In an e-mail, Bloomberg reporter Dina Bass confirmed that Sullivan declined to comment on how many of those OS shipments were in handsets actually being used by mobile subscribers. The story also notes he declined to forecast specific future sales.

"Sales are an important measure, but for a new platform we think customer satisfaction and active developer support are more important indicators of how sales will be over the long term," Sullivan was quoted as saying. He said the online Windows Phone marketplace has 6,500 applications, and 24,000 programmers have registered themselves as Windows Phone developers.

Microsoft will ship an OS update in the next few months, and phones will be available by June 2011 at the latest to run on the Verizon Wireless and Sprint CDMA networks.

John Cox covers wireless networking and mobile computing for Network World.

Twitter: http://twitter.com/johnwcoxnww

A Microsoft executive said this week the company shipped more than 2 million copies of its revamped operating system, Windows Phone 7, in the most recent quarter. The careful admission at once triggered another spasm of misconstrued, misinterpreted, mistaken, and misanthropic speculation on the success or failure of Microsoft's smartphone platform.

The same executive, Greg Sullivan, a senior product manager at Microsoft, in a story reported by Bloomberg, cited results of Microsoft's internal surveys of customer satisfaction and brand awareness. "Customer satisfaction for the product is at 93% and brand awareness has jumped 22 points to 66% since it was released," the story reported.

The 2 million figure represents Microsoft's firmware shipments for the most recent quarter, not unit sales of handsets running that firmware. In the U.S., handsets went on sale Nov. 8. That distinction was reflected in the original Bloomberg headline: "Microsoft Shipped 2 Million Units of Windows Phone 7 Software Last Quarter."

Yet it was a distinction quickly lost in both mainstream publications running the Bloomberg story, and in a wave of Internet postings that often seemed to deliberately misunderstand it.

Businessweek's editors shortened the headline to "Microsoft Shipped 2 Million Windows Phone 7 Units" creating the impression that Microsoft itself had sold the handsets.

Redmond Pie's headline was misleading on two counts, conflating OS shipments with phone retail sales, and the time frame: "Microsoft Sold Over 2 Million Windows Phone 7 Handsets Since Launch." WinRumors: "Microsoft has now shipped 2 million Windows Phone 7 devices."

The new round of confusion mirrors that in December, when Microsoft carefully said that handset manufacturers had sold 1.5 million Windows Phone 7 handsets ... to mobile carriers. At the time, Business Insider's Dan Frommer opined that "Windows Phone 7 is toast."

Microsoft won't sell many Windows Phone handsets, he wrote "Why not? Because there simply aren't many reasons for anyone to buy a Windows Phone instead of an iPhone or an Android device."

Microsoft clearly is trying to avoid direct comparison, at least for now, with the stated retail sales figures for Google's Android and Apple's iOS devices. Bloomberg reported that Apple sold 16.2 million iPhones alone in its most recent quarter. (And the iOS platform has become the main driver of Apple's profitability, according to an analysis by Asymco's Horace Dediu. Since being introduced in the first iPhone in 2007, today "iOS powers about 70% of Apple's current gross profits," Dediu writes.)

In an e-mail, Bloomberg reporter Dina Bass confirmed that Sullivan declined to comment on how many of those OS shipments were in handsets actually being used by mobile subscribers. The story also notes he declined to forecast specific future sales.

"Sales are an important measure, but for a new platform we think customer satisfaction and active developer support are more important indicators of how sales will be over the long term," Sullivan was quoted as saying. He said the online Windows Phone marketplace has 6,500 applications, and 24,000 programmers have registered themselves as Windows Phone developers.

Microsoft will ship an OS update in the next few months, and phones will be available by June 2011 at the latest to run on the Verizon Wireless and Sprint CDMA networks.

John Cox covers wireless networking and mobile computing for Network World.

Twitter: http://twitter.com/johnwcoxnww

Click Here To Read The Full Story »

Facebook has ‘no plans to introduce additional app security measures’, despite internet experts’ warnings.

Dan Rose, Facebook’s head of platform marketing said the company was happy with the security tools it had place to prevent ‘rogue apps’ from spamming users across Facebook.

Responding to a question at UK press conference at Facebook’s European headquarters, about whether the social network would consider introducing vetting measures similar to Apple’s App Store, which forces third party developers to jump through several security loops before admitting their app to the shop, Rose replied: “The tools we have in place which stop apps from spamming users have become more sophisticated…the actions we have taken have reduced the level of spam across Facebook.”

However according to Sophos, an internet security firm, Facebook is plagued by rogue applications which solely exist to post spam links to users' walls, point users to survey scams that earn them commission - and sometimes even trick users into handing over their mobile numbers to sign them up for a premium rate service.

The issue of security and users’ privacy came back into the spotlight last week. After Facebook was forced to disable a new feature which allowed third party app companies access to people’s personal contact details, after negative feedback from security experts and users.

Rose, when questioned why the company had temporarily disabled the new feature, which allowed third party app developers access to people’s mobile phone number and home address (if already part of a person’s profile), once a user had agreed to downloading an app, admitted that the firm had made a “mistake”.

“We did make a mistake. Companies make mistakes and this was a mistake. But we quickly looked at user feedback and responded to it within 24 hours,” he said.

Rose said that the company had failed to make the notification of what additional data users would be giving away to third party app developers prominent enough, and was working on displaying the actual data in a box at the point when users agree to an app’s terms and conditions, before turning the feature back on.

When asked why Facebook wanted to allow third party companies access to this data in the first place Rose said: “The data belongs to our users and they should be allowed to easily take their data with them.” He gave examples of how certain app companies would benefit from having a user’s personal contact details, such as an airline app

Dan Rose, Facebook’s head of platform marketing said the company was happy with the security tools it had place to prevent ‘rogue apps’ from spamming users across Facebook.

Responding to a question at UK press conference at Facebook’s European headquarters, about whether the social network would consider introducing vetting measures similar to Apple’s App Store, which forces third party developers to jump through several security loops before admitting their app to the shop, Rose replied: “The tools we have in place which stop apps from spamming users have become more sophisticated…the actions we have taken have reduced the level of spam across Facebook.”

However according to Sophos, an internet security firm, Facebook is plagued by rogue applications which solely exist to post spam links to users' walls, point users to survey scams that earn them commission - and sometimes even trick users into handing over their mobile numbers to sign them up for a premium rate service.

The issue of security and users’ privacy came back into the spotlight last week. After Facebook was forced to disable a new feature which allowed third party app companies access to people’s personal contact details, after negative feedback from security experts and users.

Rose, when questioned why the company had temporarily disabled the new feature, which allowed third party app developers access to people’s mobile phone number and home address (if already part of a person’s profile), once a user had agreed to downloading an app, admitted that the firm had made a “mistake”.

“We did make a mistake. Companies make mistakes and this was a mistake. But we quickly looked at user feedback and responded to it within 24 hours,” he said.

Rose said that the company had failed to make the notification of what additional data users would be giving away to third party app developers prominent enough, and was working on displaying the actual data in a box at the point when users agree to an app’s terms and conditions, before turning the feature back on.

When asked why Facebook wanted to allow third party companies access to this data in the first place Rose said: “The data belongs to our users and they should be allowed to easily take their data with them.” He gave examples of how certain app companies would benefit from having a user’s personal contact details, such as an airline app

Click Here To Read The Full Story »

7 Tidbits About Sony's NGP

In typical Sony fashion, the newly-announced "next-generation portable,"or NGP, brings the kitchen sink to the console wars. It's got every type of gaming input possible, hardware that beats any smartphone or portable game console and a 5-inch OLED screen.

I'm not in Tokyo, where Sony held a press conference for the new portable game console, but I've been digesting the press releases and news reports. Here's what I think are the big takeaways from Sony's NGP reveal:

Beastly Hardware

The NGP's quad-core processor is a reminder of how little video game hardware has processed since Sony launched the original PSP in 2004. This handheld is supposedly capable of running Playstation 3 games. I value good game design over raw performance, but that's impressive.

Another Input Revolution, or Gimmick?

While the NGP's combination of joysticks, gryoscopes, buttons and touch screen will allow for all the types of portable gaming you can imagine today, the thing to watch for is its rear-facing touch panel. I see great potential in being able to interact directly with a screen without actually it, but I don't want to see rear-touch controls tacked on in the same way that Wii games occasionally make you shake the controller for no good reason.

Done With Disks, Dut Down on Downloads

Sony's ditching the PSP's UMD (Universal Media Disc) format in favor of specialized flash memory cards that store the game, additional downloadable content and saved game files. Think of it as a high-tech version of old-school game cartridges. Publishers will be able to sell their games as downloads as well, but with the NGP, Sony is conceding that the download-only PSP Go experiment was a failure.

Not for Pockets

The NGP measures 7.2 inches long, 3.3 inches wide and 0.73 inches thick, making it a bit bigger than the current-generation PSP-3000 (6.6-by-2.8-by-0.63 inches). In creating a hardware monster, Sony seems content to sacrifice portability, and I think that's fine. The NGP needn't pretend to be a smartphone.

Bringing the A-Games

Sony's built a strong stable of exclusive games over the last few years, including Uncharted, Killzone, Resistance, LittleBigPlanet and WipeOut. And while some of these games have gone portable before, they were always held back by the PSP's lack of dual-analog sticks and inferior graphics. This time, they'll have a better shot at feeling like real console games, especially with the NGP's bulked-up processors.

3G, in Theory

As rumored, the NGP will have 3G capabilities on board, but what Sony intends to do with it is unclear. Will Sony work with wireless carriers to get a small allotment of free data, or will the user pay a monthly bill? With the current state of wireless data in the United States, I'm still skeptical that 3G coverage makes sense for a dedicated gaming devices. In Europe, at least, Wi-Fi-only models will be available.

Cross-platform insurance

Sony's other big announcement besides the NGP was Playstation Suite, a software framework for both the handheld console and Android phones. Looks like Sony's taking an "if you can't beat ‘em, join ‘em" approach to smartphone gaming. Smart.

The Unknowns

Here's a quick rundown of what Sony hasn't announced: Price, launch date (aside from "end of year 2011"), 3G coverage options, cost of games, battery life, on-board storage capacity, resolution of front- and rear-facing cameras.

In typical Sony fashion, the newly-announced "next-generation portable,"or NGP, brings the kitchen sink to the console wars. It's got every type of gaming input possible, hardware that beats any smartphone or portable game console and a 5-inch OLED screen.

I'm not in Tokyo, where Sony held a press conference for the new portable game console, but I've been digesting the press releases and news reports. Here's what I think are the big takeaways from Sony's NGP reveal:

Beastly Hardware

The NGP's quad-core processor is a reminder of how little video game hardware has processed since Sony launched the original PSP in 2004. This handheld is supposedly capable of running Playstation 3 games. I value good game design over raw performance, but that's impressive.

Another Input Revolution, or Gimmick?

While the NGP's combination of joysticks, gryoscopes, buttons and touch screen will allow for all the types of portable gaming you can imagine today, the thing to watch for is its rear-facing touch panel. I see great potential in being able to interact directly with a screen without actually it, but I don't want to see rear-touch controls tacked on in the same way that Wii games occasionally make you shake the controller for no good reason.

Done With Disks, Dut Down on Downloads

Sony's ditching the PSP's UMD (Universal Media Disc) format in favor of specialized flash memory cards that store the game, additional downloadable content and saved game files. Think of it as a high-tech version of old-school game cartridges. Publishers will be able to sell their games as downloads as well, but with the NGP, Sony is conceding that the download-only PSP Go experiment was a failure.

Not for Pockets

The NGP measures 7.2 inches long, 3.3 inches wide and 0.73 inches thick, making it a bit bigger than the current-generation PSP-3000 (6.6-by-2.8-by-0.63 inches). In creating a hardware monster, Sony seems content to sacrifice portability, and I think that's fine. The NGP needn't pretend to be a smartphone.

Bringing the A-Games

Sony's built a strong stable of exclusive games over the last few years, including Uncharted, Killzone, Resistance, LittleBigPlanet and WipeOut. And while some of these games have gone portable before, they were always held back by the PSP's lack of dual-analog sticks and inferior graphics. This time, they'll have a better shot at feeling like real console games, especially with the NGP's bulked-up processors.

3G, in Theory

As rumored, the NGP will have 3G capabilities on board, but what Sony intends to do with it is unclear. Will Sony work with wireless carriers to get a small allotment of free data, or will the user pay a monthly bill? With the current state of wireless data in the United States, I'm still skeptical that 3G coverage makes sense for a dedicated gaming devices. In Europe, at least, Wi-Fi-only models will be available.

Cross-platform insurance

Sony's other big announcement besides the NGP was Playstation Suite, a software framework for both the handheld console and Android phones. Looks like Sony's taking an "if you can't beat ‘em, join ‘em" approach to smartphone gaming. Smart.

The Unknowns

Here's a quick rundown of what Sony hasn't announced: Price, launch date (aside from "end of year 2011"), 3G coverage options, cost of games, battery life, on-board storage capacity, resolution of front- and rear-facing cameras.

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Star Wars Darth Vader headphones

You know the Force is strong with this one – the£34.99 Star Wars Darth Vader headphones, where the Dark Lord of the Sith will most probably tell his subordinates, “I find your lack of bass disturbing.” This item is still in pre-order status though, so it will ship to you the moment it arrives in stock when February 2011 rolls around.

These officially licensed headphones will come with an adjustable strap that is touted to fit most (human) head sizes, and also accompanied by a 1.2 meter coiled cord that ought to get you out of any potential Imperial entanglements. Among the technical specifications include :-

• Driver Unit: 40mm Power Drivers
• Frequency Range: 20 Hz ~ 20 kHz
• Impedance: 32 ohm
• 1KHz Sensitivity: 115dB
• Max Input Power: 100mW
• Plug: 3.5 mm
• Coil Cord: 1.2m
• Premium replacement warranty: 1 year

You know the Force is strong with this one – the£34.99 Star Wars Darth Vader headphones, where the Dark Lord of the Sith will most probably tell his subordinates, “I find your lack of bass disturbing.” This item is still in pre-order status though, so it will ship to you the moment it arrives in stock when February 2011 rolls around.

These officially licensed headphones will come with an adjustable strap that is touted to fit most (human) head sizes, and also accompanied by a 1.2 meter coiled cord that ought to get you out of any potential Imperial entanglements. Among the technical specifications include :-

• Driver Unit: 40mm Power Drivers
• Frequency Range: 20 Hz ~ 20 kHz
• Impedance: 32 ohm
• 1KHz Sensitivity: 115dB
• Max Input Power: 100mW
• Plug: 3.5 mm
• Coil Cord: 1.2m
• Premium replacement warranty: 1 year

Click Here To Read The Full Story »

CyberPower releases new gaming rigs for the masses

CyberPower knows that gamers tend to take their gaming rigs (super) seriously, and this is why the new bunch of releases intend to appeal to a wide range of gamers since it comes in a variety of prices. The manufacturer of custom gaming machines has come together with Newegg to construct a trio of pre-built desktop gaming rigs, and as mentioned earlier, will be able to cater for all price-conscious gamers or overclocking enthusiasts.

The systems that we will be looking at are the Gamer Ultra 2073 and Gamer Xtreme 1302/1304, where it will range from a value-based AMD Dual-Core system to a couple of high-performance gaming PCs which run on Intel’s recently introduced 2nd Generation Sandy Bridge architecture. The CyberPower systems will be priced from $439 to $1,249 will be available for a limited time only.

The CyberPower Gamer Ultra 2073 is a mainstream gaming PC first and foremost, where it will be powered by AMD’s Athlon II X2 255 3.1 GHz Dual-Core CPU with Hyper Transport 3.0 Technology, sporting 4GB of DDR3 RAM, a 1TB SATA 3.0Gb/s 7200RPM hard drive and 24x DVD ±R/±RW dual layer drive.

Graphics-wise, you will get a discrete ATI Radeon HD 5450 graphics card that is accompanied by an integrated 7.1 channel sound, 10/100/1000 Mbps Ethernet, Xtreme Gear USB keyboard and mouse. Available for $439.99 a pop, the Gamer Ultra 2073 is clearly something you might want to look into if you’re interested in a gaming rig that is budget-oriented.

As for the uber Intel Sandy Bridge processors, they will see action in CyberPower’s Gamer Xtreme 1302 or Gamer Xtreme 1304 – being full well capable of handling any task with additional processing muscle to spare when it comes to HD video, 3D games, multitasking, multimedia, or sharing photos. Expect nothing less than stunning graphics, where you will be able to take advantage of Intel’s Turbo Boost Technology 2.0.

At just $869.99, the CyberPower Gamer Xtreme 1302 clearly remains in the mid-level range, running on Intel’s Core i5-2400 3.1 GHz Sandy Bridge 64-bit ready quad-core processor with 8GB DDR3 RAM, a NVIDIA GeForce GTS 450 graphics card, integrated sound and 10/100/1000 Ethernet. As for its storage, mouse and keyboard, they are all identical to the Gamer Ultra 2073.

Last but not least, the CyberPower Gamer Xtreme 1304 is a gaming and multimedia enthusiast rig which will see the Intel Core i7 2600K 3.4 GHz Sandy Bridge processor running at the core (pun not intended) of things. Graphics-wise, it will have the assistance of the AMD Radeon HD 6850 graphics with AMD Eyefinity Technology.

All systems will come pre-loaded with Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit operating system, where all CyberPower systems will be accompanied by a 1-year warranty and lifetime toll-free tech support from CyberPower.

Company Page

CyberPower knows that gamers tend to take their gaming rigs (super) seriously, and this is why the new bunch of releases intend to appeal to a wide range of gamers since it comes in a variety of prices. The manufacturer of custom gaming machines has come together with Newegg to construct a trio of pre-built desktop gaming rigs, and as mentioned earlier, will be able to cater for all price-conscious gamers or overclocking enthusiasts.

The systems that we will be looking at are the Gamer Ultra 2073 and Gamer Xtreme 1302/1304, where it will range from a value-based AMD Dual-Core system to a couple of high-performance gaming PCs which run on Intel’s recently introduced 2nd Generation Sandy Bridge architecture. The CyberPower systems will be priced from $439 to $1,249 will be available for a limited time only.

The CyberPower Gamer Ultra 2073 is a mainstream gaming PC first and foremost, where it will be powered by AMD’s Athlon II X2 255 3.1 GHz Dual-Core CPU with Hyper Transport 3.0 Technology, sporting 4GB of DDR3 RAM, a 1TB SATA 3.0Gb/s 7200RPM hard drive and 24x DVD ±R/±RW dual layer drive.

Graphics-wise, you will get a discrete ATI Radeon HD 5450 graphics card that is accompanied by an integrated 7.1 channel sound, 10/100/1000 Mbps Ethernet, Xtreme Gear USB keyboard and mouse. Available for $439.99 a pop, the Gamer Ultra 2073 is clearly something you might want to look into if you’re interested in a gaming rig that is budget-oriented.

As for the uber Intel Sandy Bridge processors, they will see action in CyberPower’s Gamer Xtreme 1302 or Gamer Xtreme 1304 – being full well capable of handling any task with additional processing muscle to spare when it comes to HD video, 3D games, multitasking, multimedia, or sharing photos. Expect nothing less than stunning graphics, where you will be able to take advantage of Intel’s Turbo Boost Technology 2.0.

At just $869.99, the CyberPower Gamer Xtreme 1302 clearly remains in the mid-level range, running on Intel’s Core i5-2400 3.1 GHz Sandy Bridge 64-bit ready quad-core processor with 8GB DDR3 RAM, a NVIDIA GeForce GTS 450 graphics card, integrated sound and 10/100/1000 Ethernet. As for its storage, mouse and keyboard, they are all identical to the Gamer Ultra 2073.

Last but not least, the CyberPower Gamer Xtreme 1304 is a gaming and multimedia enthusiast rig which will see the Intel Core i7 2600K 3.4 GHz Sandy Bridge processor running at the core (pun not intended) of things. Graphics-wise, it will have the assistance of the AMD Radeon HD 6850 graphics with AMD Eyefinity Technology.

All systems will come pre-loaded with Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit operating system, where all CyberPower systems will be accompanied by a 1-year warranty and lifetime toll-free tech support from CyberPower.

Company Page

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Tardis Mug is the perfect drinking accessory for you.

Love time traveling? Then the Tardis Mug is the perfect drinking accessory for you, although you won’t be using this to guzzle down beers, but rather, sip your favorite hot beverage. This Tardis-style mug will definitely have the Dr. Who mood, since whenever you pour some hot tea or coffee in it and then take it somewhere cold, you will be able to enjoy watching steam pouring out of it. Heck, it looks so real, it even comes complete with the St. John Ambulance badge as well as white notice on the door.

Basically, this is the mug to purchase if you’re an aspiring Time Lord, used whenever you are not satisfying your hunger for fish fingers and custard. It actually looks larger on the inside than the outside, capable of holding up to 16 oz of your favorite hot beverage. At $15.99 a pop, you won’t be traveling through time anytime soon, but you can stop time as people look at your cool mug.

Love time traveling? Then the Tardis Mug is the perfect drinking accessory for you, although you won’t be using this to guzzle down beers, but rather, sip your favorite hot beverage. This Tardis-style mug will definitely have the Dr. Who mood, since whenever you pour some hot tea or coffee in it and then take it somewhere cold, you will be able to enjoy watching steam pouring out of it. Heck, it looks so real, it even comes complete with the St. John Ambulance badge as well as white notice on the door.

Basically, this is the mug to purchase if you’re an aspiring Time Lord, used whenever you are not satisfying your hunger for fish fingers and custard. It actually looks larger on the inside than the outside, capable of holding up to 16 oz of your favorite hot beverage. At $15.99 a pop, you won’t be traveling through time anytime soon, but you can stop time as people look at your cool mug.

Click Here To Read The Full Story »