Facebook tests prompt asking you to snitch on your friends who aren’t using their real name.

Facebook’s ongoing war on pseudonyms is well-documented. The company wants everyone to use their real name on the social network, and ideally this would be their only identity on the Internet. Menlo Park often bans users that use fake names (most are spammers, but many are just using pseudonyms), but it recently went further than that: the company is now asking you to snitch on your friends if they are not using their real name.

As you can see in the screenshot above, courtesy of Twitter user chapeaudefee (viaTPM), Facebook recently started prompting friends of users with names they suspect to be fake. Facebook confirmed the prompt with The Next Web today:

We are always looking to gauge how people use Facebook and represent themselves to better design our product and systems. We are showing people information that their friends have made available to them and we indicate to the person taking the survey that their response will be anonymous to ensure them that we are not sharing their data with anyone and only looking to understand the results in an aggregate sense. Additionally, it is important to understand that we will not be using this data for enforcement actions.

source here  >>

Better check your facebook timeline!

Updated. Some Facebook users are seeing private messages written in 2009 and earlier showing up on viewable Timelines as messages “Posted by friends.”

We first heard reports of this through emails from readers. Anecdotally, this appears to be true, at least for me — I am currently seeing what appear to have been private messages on friends’ Timelines. My own Timeline also now is showing pre-2009 direct messages. Not all users, however, are seeing the bug.

The issue appears to be showing up both here in the United States as well as internationally. Reports of this have been been published in French newspapers such as Le Monde, Le Matin andMetro France.

This is just breaking, so this post will be updated as more information becomes available. We’ve reached out to Facebook for comment, and will update this with any feedback we receive.

Update: A Facebook spokesperson responded via email with the following message:

“A small number of users raised concerns after what they mistakenly believed to be private messages appeared on their Timeline. Our engineers investigated these reports and found that the messages were older wall posts that had always been visible on the users’ profile pages. Facebook is satisfied that there has been no breach of user privacy.”

original report here >> 

US Tech Stocks all down except google!

Facebook, Apple highlight tech retreat Google edges higher after Citigroup ups its price target to $850

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Declining shares of Facebook Inc. and Apple Inc. highlight an early tech sector retreat on Monday, even as a Google Inc. got a lift from an upbeat Citigroup review.

Facebook FB -9.10%  fell 7% to $21.27 on a Barron’s analysis arguing that the stock is worth just $15.

Click to Play

In tech, content is king

In the war over technology platforms, content is a potent weapon. Companies like Netflix, Pandora and Yelp risk getting squeezed in the middle.

Apple AAPL -1.77%  was down about 1.3% after the company announced that it has sold 5 million iPhone 5s since the smartphone went on sale three days ago. The number was below what some analysts had projected. See story on iPhone 5 sales.

Meanwhile, Google GOOG +1.83%  bucked the downward trend, rising 1% to $740.85 after Citigroup analyst Mark Mahaney raised his price target to $850.

“We’re now back at the peak. And we believe Google shares can rise materially higher over the next 12 months,” Mahaney wrote. He argued that key hurdles for the stock are “abating,” including worries about the impact of its acquisition of Motorola Mobility and stiffer competition from Facebook.

source here  >>>

Facebook Starts Letting You View And Delete Your Facebook Search History

Even though search history on search engines like Google is totally private, some people still enjoy the ability to delete it. Now Facebook is following suit, allowing you to view and delete all or part of your search history through the profile Activity Log. The new feature will give you more transparency into what you do on Facebook, what it tracks, and make you feel like you’re more in control. The feature begins rolling out today and will reach everyone over the next several weeks.

The change could signal that Facebook wants to get deeper into web search, and is prepping for a release by adding new controls.

To see your search history, go to your profile, click the Activity Log on the right side, click the “All” drop down and you’ll be able to select to view your “Search” history in reverse chronological order. From there you can click through to re-search things you’ve looked for in the past, delete specific searches, or clear your entire history.

source here |  21 Sept 2012  >>>

How to Know If Your Facebook Page Was Hacked.

By Kay Ireland, eHow Contributor

A hacked account may have unauthorized postings.

Currently, Facebook is the second most popular website on the Internet. As such, it is a prime target for hackers. The Facebook accounts of unsuspecting victims are routinely hacked, usually to be used for phishing scams and advertisements. If you think that your Facebook account is impervious to hacking, think again. Clicking on certain links or having a weak password could mean you see some of the trademark signs of a hacked Facebook account.

Instructions

1. • 1
     Log into your Facebook account and choose "Account" from the upper right-hand corner. Select "Account Settings" from the drop-down menu and locate "Account Security." Expand the section and choose to receive notifications. This increases the security level for your Facebook account by setting your account so that when it is accessed from a computer or device it has never been accessed from before, Facebook notifies you immediately by email.
   • 2
     Test your password frequently. If your account has been hacked, the hacker usually changes the account to delay your access. If the password you use suddenly stops working, use the Facebook "forgot your password" link on the login page to reset your password. When you set your password, ensure that you use both letters and numbers to make it harder to guess.

     3   Look through your past Facebook activity, which is documented on your wall. If you see unfamiliar pictures, websites and videos posted, your Facebook account may be being used for phishing schemes to lure your friends and family members into clicking links because it appears that you've recommended them.
   • 4
     Ask your friends and family members to watch your profile for suspicious activity. They can notify you if a hacker has been posting items and links from your profile.
   • 5
     Watch your email for the security message that Facebook sends when suspicious activity is detected. If suspicious links and spam appear in your profile, Facebook sends a security message to the email address affiliated with your account. Your account is temporarily suspended until you can go through the process of resetting your password to reinstate access.

source here  >>

Islamic hackers threaten Bank of America and NY Stock Exchange

The Bank of America’s online banking site suffered occasional problems Tuesday after threats on the internet that a cyber-attack would be launched on the bank and other US targets in protest at a film mocking Islam.

A message on pastebin.com claiming to be from ‘cyber fighters of Izz ad-din Al qassam’- a reference to the military wing of Hamas- declared that it would attack the Bank of America and the New York Stock Exchange as a first step in a campaign against “American Zionist Capitalists”.

The posting promised to continue aggressive actions until the “erasing of the nasty movie”, which although YouTube has blocked in volatile regions, remains available in other parts of the world.

The film in question, a privately funded short-movie, mocking the Prophet Mohammad, has ignited days of demonstrations.The uproar has left many dead across the Arab world, including Africa, Asia and some Western countries.

A Bank of America spokesman told Reuters that the website had suffered some problems but was available to customers.

But customers contacted by Reuters in Michigan, Ohio, Georgia and New York said they couldn’t access the site.

The threat to the New York Stock Exchange has seemingly not materialized as trading continued as normal.

Bill Pennington, chief strategy officer at WhiteHat Security, told the weekly magazine InformationWeek that the problems on the Bank of America website do not necessarily mean they’ve been hacked.

“It’s reasonable to suppose it could be a coincidence,” he said, citing the recent GoDaddy outage, which was an internal technical error for which hackers claimed responsibility.

But he did concede that the website’s problems could also be the result of hackers, saying that hacking was “pretty easy”.

He said that only the perpetrators and possibly the victims [the Bank of America] will ever really know what happened.

Pennington warned that businesses should expect more attacks, “It’s probably going to get worse before it gets better,” he said.

source here  | 20 Sept 2012  >>

Ubuntu 10.10 Beta Adds New Photo Manager, Improves Multimedia Experience

An early look at the next release of Ubuntu's Linux desktop hit the web late yesterday. What's in 10.10, or "Maverick Meerkat," for desktop users? Besides app updates, there's a new photo manager, improved multimedia controls, better Ubuntu One syncing, and more.

The full list of changes and new things is listed at the beta page, but what strikes us in a quick look at a live-booting beta (for which we recommend Unetbootin and a USB thumb drive) are the changes to Ubuntu One,

Read full report : 

Cyber Warfare Is Warfare Against All of Us

Jason Ditz, September 17, 2012

The Obama Administration is creating yet more new computer viruses, according to growing evidence collected by major anti-virus makers. Those viruses start out attacking sites in the Middle East but remember, they don’t stay that way.

The Stuxnet Worm started out targeting industrial computers in Iran. In the end it was attacking industrial computers in dozens of countries, including the United States. We get blowback from all kinds of wars, but this new “cyber warfare” nonsense inevitably ends with direct attacks on American targets by the US government.

source  >>

Apple’s iOS 6

Arrives Tomorrow, Here’s What You Need To Know

Apple’s latest mobile operating system gets released tomorrow, a few days ahead of the iPhone 5′s launch on Friday. iOS 6 brings a lot of new stuff, and we’ve covered that in detail in previous posts. Here’s the skinny on what’s important to remember ahead of the iOS 6 launch tomorrow beyond the added features, which we’ll let you know about as soon as it’s live and ready for download.

1. iOS 6 will be available over-the-air. According to Apple’s site, you won’t have to plug your iDevice in to download and install iOS 6, so long as you’re on iOS 5. That’s possible thanks to the decision to move to delta updates in iOS 5, meaning that only recently changed system elements are delivered, instead of having to start from scratch. That means its easier to upgrade, which is why iOS 5′s updates generally enjoy wide adoption among the iOS device user base (Chitika found that more than 57 percent of iOS users were on 5.1.1 just a month after its release).
2. You’ll need iTunes 10.7. Apple put out the 10.7 update for iTunes a full week ahead of the iOS 6 launch date to try and lessen the blow to its servers at launch and to make sure users have plenty of time to get prepared. If you’ve waited this long, don’t worry; I just updated myself. But it is a good idea to get it done now so you don’t need to worry about it tomorrow, unless you never connect your iTunes anyway, in which case you should be fine.
3. Backing up prior to updating is always a good idea. Make sure you backup, either via sync cable to your computer, or wirelessly to iCloud, before you run this update. Invariably, a small group of users runs into issues, and if you’re part of that group you’ll want a recovery strategy.
4. You may run into server errors or delays. Be prepared to wait for your update to come through. Apple generally runs into some traffic issues when pushing these updates out, which is understandable given the rush to download new versions of iOS. If you’re encountering errors, waiting things out is usually the best possible course of action — better than, say, trusting your hardware to questionable mirrors of reported direct download links for iOS 6 update files that you can install manually. All those new features? They’re not going anywhere. One thing to note: Apple’s iPhone pre-orders went relatively smoothly this year, so it’s possible things like the company’s massive new server farm in North Carolina are helping to make sure that launches like this one go more smoothly.
5. Some apps might be buggy. Apple is apparently pushing hard to get apps updated in time for iOS 6 and the iPhone 5, but that doesn’t mean all your favorites will be ready to work on the lastest OS. With each major change, the possibility of incompatibility issues and quirks arises, so get ready to be patient with some you really love, or else prepare to look around for better-maintained replacements.
6. Have a power source handy. You should have your iPhone ready to connect to power if you’re looking to update. Running out of juice in the middle of an update could potentially be a big problem, and there’s no real reason not to exercise caution here.
7. 10 AM PST/1 PM EST is the most likely arrival time. This is the time that Apple released the update last year with iOS 5, and the year before that with iOS 4. Short of Apple telling us in advance when it’ll arrive, this is your best possible bet.

source here  >>>

CNnet first look:

more here  >>>

Skype and a New Audio Codec!

Skype has quietly revolutionized the sound quality of our daily communications. We introduced SILK, our own audio codec, to make our calls sound more like being there in person in January 2009. Since then, we've used it to serve more than 750 billion Skype-to-Skype minutes.

Skype initiated the idea of developing and standardizing a codec 'built for the internet' and usable by everybody else within the IETF back in March 2009. Senior Skype Architect and Distinguished Engineer Koen Vos and our audio team began work on it in June 2009. After objections were overcome, Opus was submitted to the IETF in September 2010.

We believe that Opus will be the new, free, go-to codec for real time communication, streaming and storage, and we are excited to see its birth as a fully-fledged IETF standard.

If you'll pardon the pun, Opus will make a quiet but crystal clear entry into the world - most people will take for granted the high sound fidelity when it arrives in the Skype client, through browsers and gateways, and we hope on mobile phones, game consoles and conference rooms, too.

In the past, you needed a myriad of different codecs to handle all audio tasks, all with different licensing or pricing agreements. Now you just need one: Opus.

We think it's worth making some noise for Opus, celebrating that it is built on Skype's highly-successful SILK codec and thanking both the Skype and our friends in the IETF community who have worked with us - the people who made it happen.

We hope to see wide adoption of Opus, and we care passionately about audio and video quality. We really believe that bringing consistent audio quality to all our users on every device will make everyone's communications a little more wonderful every day.

more from source >>

Facebook Has No Plans Yet To Add China

Justin Lafferty on September 7, 2012 2:05 PM

China, the world’s most populous country at 1.3 billion people, has blocked its citizens from accessing Facebook. It doesn’t appear that this will change anytime soon. At a recent social media conference in Hong Kong, Facebook’s North Asia director, Jayne Leung, said the social network currently has no plans to make a move into China.

Meld Magazine Editor Karen Poh posted the news on Twitter, which was picked up by CNET. Leung also said during the conference that of the 955 million users on Facebook, 255 million are from the Asia-Pacific region.

Some social networks do survive China’s firewall — such asQzone (the largest online connector in the country), 51.com, and L99.com. However the major social media sites, like Facebook and Twitter, have been blocked. Still, China has been actually called one of the world’s most social countries, with roughly one-half of the population registered for at least one social media site.

Cnet notes that Facebook Co-Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg basically said the same thing as Leung when he visited the country earlier this year. Facebook noted then that there are too many legal issues for the site to be open in China.

The country has also been a hotbed of Facebook application developers, oddly enough.

Readers: Will China allow Facebook at some point?

Image courtesy of Shutterstock.

source here | 9 Aug 2012 

Report: Twitter U.S. Mobile Ad Revenue Nearly Double That Of Facebook In 2012

David Cohen on September 6, 2012 11:46 AM

Despite Facebook’s increased emphasis on building up its mobile revenue, a new forecast from eMarketer predicts thatTwitter will bring in nearly double the mobile revenue of Facebook in the U.S. for the full year of 2012.

According to eMarketer, Twitter will tally $129.7 million in U.S. mobile advertising revenue in 2012, compared with $72.7 million for Facebook. The research firm added that it sees the overall U.S. mobile advertising market totaling $2.61 billion in 2012 and rising to almost $12 billion in 2016.

However, eMarketer expects the recent moves by Facebook to begin showing results as early as 2013, when it predicts that Facebook will bring in $387 million in U.S. mobile revenue, adding that in 2014, it sees Facebook’s total at $629.4 million, topping its Twitter forecast of $444.1 million.

So what is Twitter doing better than Facebook in 2012? According to eMarketer, Twitter simplifies the mobile advertising process with the tight integration between its ad products, especially promoted tweets, and its user experience.

On the other hand, Facebook just rolled out premium ads in its mobile news feed early in 2012, with eMarketer adding that 60 percent of the social network’s ad revenue comes from its marketplace platform, and those units are not available for mobile.

Readers: Do you think Facebook’s efforts on the mobile front will pay off, as eMarketer predicts?

source here | 8 Aug 2012