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The IFA 2010, which is considered to be one of the most extensive platform for emerging technologies and products in regards to consumer electronics, witnessed the CEO of Google Inc. Dr. Eric Schmidt, taking the stage, where the Big Man gave the closing speech of the event. In his closing address, Mr. Schmidt took the opportunity to talk some more about the highly anticipated Google TV project and also highlighted an all new feature for the Android mobile OS platform called, ‘Conversation Mode’.

At the event, Google showcased some of the vital and eye catching features of Google TV, a service that is aimed at bringing the world of the Internet closer to televisions. This service, which scheduled to be released in the U.S in some time will be running on the famous Android platform with the integration of Android applications, with the addition of Google Android powered smartphones and Apple iPhone given the capability of being able to be used as remote controls for the Google TV box. The launch of Google TV will be on three platform, first being Sony HDTV, second the Blu-ray player and the third being a set top box developed by Logitech. The videos will have high definition output and will also enable the users to upload photos to social networking services such as Facebook and Flickr.

However, the star of the Google show was the ‘Conversation Mode’, an application devised specifically for Android powered handsets. This all new feature takes the translation concept to a whole new level, as the users will now be able to speak in English or their native languages and the listener on the other end will be able to understand the conversation again in English on in his own language. The aim of this incredible new application is to break the language barriers and create a seamless conversational flow. The Conversation Mode is expected to be releases to the Android platform in the next few months.

Via Gizmag

One of the most biggest and perhaps the most privacy conscious social networking service on the Internet, Facebook, as per reports, developed a snag that enabled a spammer to post thousands of spam wall posts all across the Facebook walls. This anomaly occurred in the service’s photo upload system, that was later confirmed by Facebook and the company duly notified the users as well.

One of the Facebook users, Andrew Jones spotted the spam attack, when he was alerted to spam post on his wall, which he misinterpreted as a hacking attempt on his account. The victim immediately changed his password for Facebook. He later attributed the snag as a malware concern, as the user had logged on to Facebook via a public computer and was later informed of the glitch in Facebook’s own systems. The spam message tried to entice thousands of Facebook users with a free iPhone link, that would have taken the users to a third party website. There, the users were tricked into filling out survey forms as well sign up for product subscriptions, leading to a flood of unwanted calls on their cell phones. As per Facebook, the snag led to numerous spam postings on wall, against which the company too measures and removed the spam photos as well as informed the affected users.

According to Facebook,

“Earlier this week, we discovered a bug in the code that processes photos as they’re uploaded. This bug caused us not to make the correct checks when determining whether a photo should be posted to a person’s profile. We quickly worked to resolve the issue and fixed it shortly after discovering it. For a short period of time before it was fixed, a single spammer was able to post photos to people’s profiles that they hadn’t approved.”

Via Computer World

Well, it seems that the social networking attempt from Google in the form of Google Buzz, not only ended in botched service being closed down for good, but has also made the Internet search giant lose $8.5 million in a settlement in regards to a class action lawsuit filed against Google Buzz. The settlement took place in a federal court in San Jose, California and covers attorney fees as well as funding privacy advocacy groups.

The lawsuit was brought upon Google by a group of privacy right groups, who had been more than concerned in regards to the fact that, Google Buzz made the name of the users’ Gmail contacts a public knowledge, without the consent of the users. Even though Google took appropriate steps to address the issue, yet it turned out that, the search behemoth was a little late and was hit with class action lawsuits. This latest development is expected to finally close the Google Buzz saga, a service that Google Inc. had introduced, being envisioned as an alternative to the social networking giant, Facebook.

According to Google Inc.,

“We have always been committed to offering users transparency and choice in Buzz and all our products, and will continue to work together with users to provide the best user experience possible.”

Via Computer World

A major factor that brought the social networking phenomenon bursting on the Internet with lightning speed was the concept of keeping in touch with your family and friends on a singular platform and also get a chance to explore and find new people to connect with. With advent of social networking big hitters such as the likes of Facebook and Twitter, millions of users found what the Internet was lacking for all these years. However, this vast level of online communication has is slowly bringing actual social life to a redundancy level.

This could very be the factor because of which nowadays, more and more application developers are adopting the “mobile first, web second” policy, wherein these developers are giving more priority to the contacts in your mobile phones, rather than your Facebook contacts as far as their applications are concerned. Two of the most successful mobile operating systems, Google Android and Apple iOS have already given the developers the leverage to let their applications gain access to the users’ phone books, after explicit approval, of course! One such application is, addappt. Designed and developed specifically for the Apple iPhone , the application makes use of the users’ contact book from the device and then cross references these names and find out which of your contacts have currently signed up for various types of conferences. So far, most of the companies including Google Inc. and Apple Inc. have taken the wrong approach in creating a social graph of their users, as these companies have always looked upon computers as their target, when clearly mobile devices are the solution to building a sustainable and reliable social graph.

Via TechCrunch & AVC

The beleaguered social network MySpace is attempting to bolster its services with a new feature announced 30 August, ‘Sync with Facebook’.

As you might have guessed, MySpace users can now sync content such as music, videos, links and photos with their friends on Facebook. and Facebook users won’t have to leave the site to view these posts—it’ll all turn up on their newsfeeds.

Director of Product Jennifer Ruffner said in a statement, “This is particularly exciting for artists who can now use this tool as a complement to their MySpace Music presence and share their vast library of content, including full album catalogs, to people who’ve liked their Facebook Page.”

MySpace had already allowed its users to sync posts with Twitter, but Facebook seems to be the place to be. The social network popular with bands and musicians had recently undergone a design revamp, in which shades of the familiar Facebook layout can easily be distinguished.

But it seems to be a one-way relationship, though. while the MySpace-to-Facebook sync is up and running, the opposite is a little wonky. Apparently MySpace had wanted to get the product out the door as soon as possible, reports Mashable.

So the question remains: Will this new function do anything for MySpace or will the “place for friends” move out to a cooler joint? If anything, the constant looking toward Facebook for inspiration is a sign that time’s almost up for MySpace.

If you have other interesting design and art finds, cool websites, or anything that might catch our eye, share it with us at news -at- hillscreativearts -dot- com!

This news message is sponsored by Shutterstock.

The social networking behemoth, Facebook Inc. will now become a platform for MySpace users to share their posts on. MySpace, one of the few social networking companies that are actively giving competition to Facebook, will now enable its vast user base to synchronize their posts with that of Facebook. This move comes at a time when, MySpace has been seen upgrading its user interface to the extent that, it has now begun to resemble that of Facebook.

With the advent of this new feature, Facebook users will now be able to view the posts and updates put up by the MySpace contacts right inside Facebook, thereby hinting at MySpace’s efforts to alter its business model from that of a competitor, to an ally. Furthermore, this all new service will allow MySpace users to share multimedia content as well including, music, videos, game applications, links and photos on both the websites. Though some time ago, MySpace was indeed one of the fastest growing social networks, but the explosion of Facebook’s popularity with its 500 million plus users, MySpace started feeling the crunch of being left behind, with a consistent fall in advertising revenues and a severe drop in new user accounts. The micro blogging sensation, Twitter, has already been paired with MySpace, so that the users can update both their MySpace and Twitter accounts from either of the websites.

Via Associated Press

OnBase: Homers & Haiku

Fog at Mission Creek, 6:30 p.m.

Mission Loc@l

Innings one through three: the Natural

The Giants are hot. Last night, leadoff hitter Andres Torres seemed to be swinging icycles. Tonight, he’s got a bat and his hands move as he cracks a line drive to left. Does he stop there? no. he steals second before Freddy Sanchez walks, and scores the Giants’ first run thanks to Aubrey Huff and Buster Posey. which brings up Pat Burrell who continues his excellent series with a two-run single. the Cubs look shell-shocked. And just to make sure, in the top of the second, when Wellington Castillo doubles to left with second baseman Blake DeWitt heading home, Burrell finds the ball and fires to Uribe, who turns and zips the ball home to Posey, who waits to get runover by DeWitt, but holds onto the ball.

Barry Zito pitches like a Zen archer: cool, smooth, almost unconscious. the old Zito curve makes a rare appearance, but can still wow a crowd, as the ball dives gracefully under a swinging bat. He’s fluid, letting nature take its course as his ally, not his enemy. It’s not as cold as last night. Is it something Zito is doing, or has the wind died down? I’m sitting on the club level with a rabbi who knows the Mission. he ate at Foreign Cinema recently. I tell him what I do and he asks what I’m going to write about tonight’s game. “Haiku.” READ MORE HERE.

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Posted By: Mission Loc@l (Email, Twitter, Facebook) | August 12 2010 at 08:08 AM

Listed under: News

One of the most successful and foremost seed-stage startup funding firm, Y Combinator has now joined hands with the King of social networking, Facebook Inc. to provide the start ups under its umbrella, with much needed assistance and guidance in regards to products, designs and technical fields. Furthermore, Facebook will also open its doors for the start ups to take advantage of the company’s technologies and programs such as Facebook Credits, Instant Personalization and upcoming beta features.

Facebook is nothing new to the start up world, as the company was quite active in the funding business with its very own investment funding program, fbFund, that the company ran in collaboration with one of the biggest names in investment funding, Accel and Founders Fund. The uniting of Facebook and Y Combinator could be one of many ways through which Facebook might be trying to encourage the start ups to integrate social networking features of Facebook and Y Combinator on the other hand could use this partnership as a promoting tool to attract more and more start up entities.

According to Facebook,

“We’ll provide product, technical and design resources to support new Y Combinator companies interested in working with us to build deeply social products, whether a website or an application on Facebook.com. These companies will have priority access to our technologies and programs such as Facebook Credits, Instant Personalization and upcoming beta features. Y Combinator will be publishing a “Request for Startup” focused on social startups and is now looking for interested entrepreneurs for their winter 2011 funding cycle.”

Via Venture Beat

One of the foremost names in the field of digital imaging and photography, Kodak, has now announced the introduction of an all new digital camera, that has been specifically developed with a focus towards social networking. The all new Kodak EASYSHARE M590 Digital Camera enables the users to take stunning, crystal clear photographs as well as videos and then share with their family and friends via various social networking services.

The all new M590 Digital Camera comes with Kodak’s exclusive Share Button, with which the consumers can straight away share their images and videos on social networking big hitters such as Facebook, YouTube, KODAK Gallery, Flickr and Orkut. Furthermore, the users can even add tags to their media content and then send them to their KODAK PULSE Digital Frames in an e-mail format. The all new Kodak EASYSHARE M590 comes with a 5x optical zoom and images are shown on a brightly lit 2.7-inch bright LCD with KODAK Color Science technology. The M590 will be launched in the Fall season year in the U.S with a price tag of $199.95.

Furthermore, apart from the newly introduced Kodak EASYSHARE M590 digital camera, Kodak has also announced the launch of the all new improved Kodak PULSE Digital Frame. This digital frame has been one Kodak’s hottest selling products and hence the company took time and efforts to increase the display screen of the device to 10 inches from the current 7 inch specification. The all new Kodak PULSE Digital Frame comes with wifi connectivity, as well as customizable e-mail address and the device will be available in the U.S market in the Fall season with a price tag of $199.95.

Via PR Newswire

Kodak has launched a very compact camera, but with great quality, with focus on users of social networks. Very thin profile also makes sharing images on social networks and media sites like Facebook, Flickr and YouTube.

The EasyShare M590 has a 5X optical zoom, image stabilization and face recognition, in addition to resolution of 14 megapixels and the LCD display of 2.7”, but the great advantage of the camera, according to CNET, is the facility to sharing images. After taking the photo, you can easily share them on social networks like Facebook, Flickr or even on YouTube, with short videos. For Brazilians and Indians, the M590 camera is also supported by Orkut, but unfortunately do not have Twitter on the list of its social networks compatible.

The vice president of marketing at Kodak, Phil Scott, said the EasyShare became part of the company’s strategy, which wants to offer innovative products, intuitive and related to social networks, the web site White Hat News. “We are thrilled with the popularity of the button ‘Share’ – some consumers come to share nearly 8 million photographs in a few months,” he explains cheerfully.

The EASYSHARE M590 is available for purchase from the Kodak Web site and cost around $ 200.

Via: CNET.