19 new stories on The Next Web today |  |
- Tesco enters cash-for-gold market, offers submissions online and in-store
- Firefox overtakes Internet Explorer as Europe’s dominant browser
- The iPad 2.0 Preview
- HTC Scribe to be Android 3.0 powered, launching in February according to suppliers
- Angry Birds becomes unofficial real life carnival game
- Opera previews its tablet-enabled browser ahead of CES announcement
- Facebook users by the numbers: measuring sex, drugs and gays in the military
- QuietWrite: Kill the noise of buttons, write in visual peace.
- How to easily view a Twitter conversation on a single page
- Voice is dead. Your smartphone is now a notification device.
- Canadian Tech Conferences to Attend in 2011
- Chatroulette gets a makeover and is surprisingly less sexy
- iPhone app Turns Your Daily Activities Into Stats
- How to Crop YouTube Videos in Seconds
- Facebook will stop growing eventually
- The great Hotmail outage? Only 17,355 accounts were impacted
- Will 2011 be the year of the musical robot?
- Mobile App Developers Can Now Win a Webby Award
- Windows 7 now powers one in five computers
- Dear Facebook, We Need Fun Photo Filters Now
| Tesco enters cash-for-gold market, offers submissions online and in-store Posted: 04 Jan 2011 02:51 AM PST
The service, named Gold Exchange, is aimed at helping the company benefit from the rising prices of gold, competing directly with other gold exchange companies like CashMyGold and Cash4Gold. Tesco has vowed to pay £7.81 for each gram of nine-carat gold it receives, sending potential customers a prepaid and insured delivery bag that will be sent via Royal Mail. The company will accept earrings, gold rings, necklaces, lockets, broken jewellery, bracelets and bangles, even allowing the submission of £2 and £5 gold coins. Payments are made into the customers bank account within three working days once an agreeement is made, there is even the ability to earn clubcard points. Tesco has partnered with Ramsdens, who have over 20 years experience in gold trading, offering higher prices for gold than many of its competitors. Who would have thought? It looks like Tesco knows where the money is. |
| Firefox overtakes Internet Explorer as Europe’s dominant browser Posted: 04 Jan 2011 02:40 AM PST
The figures show that the gap between the two browsers started narrowing in March 2010. However, it appears that the real winner over the past year has been Chrome. Google’s browser ended 2010 with almost 10% extra marketshare than it started the year with. The main casualty of Chrome’s rise was Internet Explorer, which lost 7.32% during the year, according to StatCounter’s figures. Internet Explorer remains dominant in the US according to StatCounter’s figures, with 48.92% of the market. It’s likely that Internet Explorer’s decline in Europe is a direct result of the “Browser Ballot” Microsoft is now forced to include in European copies of Windows. Under the rule, designed to stimulate competition in the browser market, Microsoft is required to give users a choice of browser rather than simply offer IE as default. However, that might not be the only factor at play here. The figures echo a similar pattern we recently observed in stats from rival web statistics firm Clicky. Those worldwide numbers showed Chrome gaining rapidly, although in that case it appeared to be eating Firefox’s marketshare. Google has heavily promoted Chrome offline as well as on and its advertising push may well be helping push its share upwards in Europe. Of course, these figures can only ever be taken as a snapshot of the browser market. Both StatCounter and Clicky’s figures only include traffic data from their own customers’ websites. Still, with StatCounter’s sample exceeding 15 billion page views per month collected from across more than 3 million websites, it’s big enough to pay attention to. StatCounter yesterday released figures showing that StumbleUpon had overtaken Facebook as the biggest referred of social media traffic to websites. |
| Posted: 04 Jan 2011 02:03 AM PST
CameraWe all balked at the idea of a portable slate PC thing without a camera. It was one of the most uttered criticisms about the iPad when it launched: ‘What? No Camera???”. Apple’s ways are inscrutable and we will never know why they decided to go for a blind iPad. But almost everybody agrees that they will add a camera to the next iPad. They need to so they can popularize FaceTime. Front and back facing? We don’t know. Resolutions? Anyones best guess. ThinnerRight now it is hard to imagine the iPad getting thinner. Isn’t it anorexic already? But leave it to Apple to shave off a few millimeters. That is just the way they roll.
LighterAnother complaint has been that the iPad is too heavy. Not for regular use, as it is pretty light, but as an eReader it can get heavy when holding it up for an hour or so. Expect Apple to release a much lighter iPad, maybe even by using plastics instead of alloy? Less reflective screenThe ipad screen is so reflective that Amazon based their ads on it. And it is true, the screen does reflecht. Good enough to serve as a mirror in some cases. No More Fingerprints!The iPad is such a beautiful piece of gadgetery but use it for a for minutes and its got your fingerprints all over it. Apple is rumored to sell the iPad 2 with a coating that prevents your smudges from sticking to the glass. Pfew.
Retina Screen?Nah, don’t think so. For the iPad to offer a retina screen the resolution would be insane if it did. Skip that one. USB PortsYou can buy a flimsy little piece of plastic that will connect your digital camera to the iPad dock connector, but come on, why not just add one tiny little cute USB port so we can read from USB sticks and plug into printers while on the road? Yep, I’m expecting the USB to appear on the iPad 2. Larger speakerBOOM Boom boom! The iPad is great for games and movies. The current speakers? Not so much. Expect a bigger and better speaker. Different colorsI know, so far Apple isn’t doing too well with that white iPhone. But why not a black and/or white iPad? If you plan on selling millions and millions of these babies why not offer a tiny little bit more choice there? Different sizesSteve Jobs made it very clear he doesn’t believe in smaller form factors. Okay, point taken. But how about bigger? Can i get a 14 inch tablet please? Imagine watching a movie on THAT! Angry Birds HD? Oh yeah…
Bigger screen, smaller packageDon’t you agree that the black frame is a tad big around the screen? About half that would do too. I wouldn’t be surprised to see the new iPad taking a cue from the iPhone 4 with stainless steel on the sides and more glass. What did I forget and what are you hoping for? Can’t wait to hear from you. Here is a video mock-up done by fast company. Realistic enough? The only questions left to ask is; will you buy the new iPad? |
| HTC Scribe to be Android 3.0 powered, launching in February according to suppliers Posted: 04 Jan 2011 01:19 AM PST
HTC doesn’t have a stand at CES, taking the same stance as Apple, choosing instead to allow Verizon and to market its new Android LTE smartphone, the Droid Incredible HD, allowing Sprint to demonstrate the new Evo Shift 4G. That is if industry sources based in Taiwan are to be believed. The same component suppliers have also noted that HTC will be using the 2011 Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona to unveil the HTC Scribe, HTC’s 7-inch tablet that is to run Android 3.0. It’s an interesting tactic by HTC, perhaps the company is biding its time to see what its rivals create before officially announcing the capabilities of its own device. With Apple touted to unveil the iPad 2 around the same time, HTC might be purposefully distancing itself in an attempt to generate buzz but also demonstrate the company is not willing to rush a product to market like many other manufacturers that are utilising non tablet-specific versions of Android. HTC is yet to confirm the existence of the HTC Scribe, we expect more information to become available very soon.Image Credit |
| Angry Birds becomes unofficial real life carnival game Posted: 04 Jan 2011 12:27 AM PST
M.I.C Gadget got the scoop, taking some photos of the carnvial game in action. As you can see from the photos, the game is faithful to its smartphone counterpart, requiring users to exert a little bit of energy to physically propel Angry Birds plush toys at six plush pigs.
There is no word on whether the stall actually requires the user to pay, it might just be there to provide passers-by with a bit of light entertainment. There is also the option to buy the Angry Bird plush toys direct, they look to be a copies of official merchandise, so Rovio will probably not be very happy that such a stand exists. Whether it’s only a matter of time until it gets a cease and desist but I would love to have a go at this.
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| Opera previews its tablet-enabled browser ahead of CES announcement Posted: 03 Jan 2011 11:34 PM PST
Opera is no exception – the browser company has dropped a 25 second video demonstrating its new browser for tablets – surprisingly named Opera for Tablets. The video is actually really dull, it shows a Samsung Galaxy Tab where we are then treated to the launching of the app and taken through a demonstration of the pinch-to-zoom functionality within the browser. That’s about it. If you have used Opera Mini/Mobile or any other Opera browser on your smartphone, you will know the drill. The video is intended to tease us before the doors at CES open, an event we are sure Opera will be waiting to demo its tablet-optimised browser whenever it can. The video is embedded below, don’t get too excited: |
| Facebook users by the numbers: measuring sex, drugs and gays in the military Posted: 03 Jan 2011 10:45 PM PST
The following data, visualized by Washington D.C.’s iStrategyLabs show the growth rates of various user bases within Facebook over the one year period between 1/4/2010 and 1/4/2011. The chart features a significant growth in Facebook’s college sector; users between the ages of 18-24 demonstrated a growth rate of 74%, corresponding to a 233% user increase over the past year for those users that list themselves as college students. I have yet to see too much information on Facebook demographics by city until now. The figures show that out of every major city in the U.S., New York, unsurprisingly, has the most Facebook users at just over 4.3 million, whereas Chicago incidentally caught our attention for the largest user growth over the past year, increasing by 67%. Lastly, there was a 79% growth in user’s (admitting their) interest in sex and a whopping 1,133% increase in users “Liking” drugs this year. Rock and Roll held steady. All data comes directly from Facebook's Social Ads platform.
Out of 206.2 million U.S. Internet users as reported by e-Marketer, 71.2% of them are on Facebook. Our friends at iStrategy Labs thought it would be interesting to get an exact count of Facebook users based on their specific employment. Since iStrategyLabs is based in Washington, D.C. (they recently made our list of 10 great D.C. start-ups you should know about) it was logical to check out how their Federal friends were during on The Facebook. The data below are categorized nationally and separated by location if in D.C.. Also, due to the repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell – iStrategy Labs was curious to see how many of our U.S. armed forces personnel were openly looking for same sex hookups. Keep in mind, the general US Facebook population is 2.01% gay (full report on Gays on Facebook is here). The below data doesn’t reveal anything too shocking; less than 1% of the US Army, Navy, Airforce and Marines on Facebook have listed themselves as gay, ranking quite a bit less than the national average.
Does this data surprise you? Why or why not? |
| QuietWrite: Kill the noise of buttons, write in visual peace. Posted: 03 Jan 2011 10:41 PM PST
So take it all away, make the interface disappear and focus on nothing but the text — You’d have QuietWrite. What remains? Nothing but the text. As soon as you start typing, every other element of the page fades away and you don’t have any distractions left in your field of view. You simply start typing, then QuietWrite will automatically save your work for you as you go. You can manually save, as well, but we had no problems with the auto-save feature. Have a longer-form piece that you’re working on? QuietWrite will save your revisions for you, and you can even publish the work publicly while continuing to work on it. Of course, there’s nothing saying that you have to take your work out into the open, but the option is there if you choose to use it. Does it work? The theory is strong and I can tell you that I find myself writing quicker and being more focused without the distractions on the rest of the page. While formatting after the fact does seem to take a bit more time, it’s likely that I’m saving time on the process of writing then formatting as a whole. There are some interesting exploration aspects to QuietWrite, as well. Taking a stop over at the “Explore” button, you’re taken to a selection of the publicly-published work where you can read at will. It appears that, while some are simply using QuietWrite to compose, still others are looking at the service as a replacement for Posterous and the like. The only down side that I’ve seen (and I’ve written this entire post within QuietWrite, as a test) is that you’ll need to go in and manually add any links or media after the fact. Will it take a bit of time? Sure. But you’ve likely saved more than you’ll spend and so QuietWrite is worth being on your radar. |
| How to easily view a Twitter conversation on a single page Posted: 03 Jan 2011 10:22 PM PST One of the fun parts of Twitter is watching conversations happen and picking up pieces of them as they go by. Sometimes, though, you need more context than what is readily available on Twitter.com or via any third-party application. Here’s a super-simple tool that will show you an entire Twitter conversation with just a couple of clicks: First, you’ll need the ID of a Tweet in the conversation. To find that, just click on the time that a Tweet was sent, then copy the string of numbers at the end:
Once you have that, you’ll want to head over to Aaron’s Twitter Viewer, then paste that number into the box:
What you’ll find, after pasting the number then pressing Go is a page of conversation, neatly displayed before you:
Our thanks to @ChuckReynods and @nacin for being our examples. Give it a shot and let us know what you think. Want to track all of the conversations between two users? There’s another great tool called Bettween that will allow you to do just that: |
| Voice is dead. Your smartphone is now a notification device. Posted: 03 Jan 2011 09:03 PM PST I’ve thought about this subject so many times, and yet it has never really occurred to me that I’m in the same shoes as many other people. It wasn’t until tonight, when I read a Tweet from Esteban of Dashboard, that I realized exactly how true his thoughts were:
You see, I’m not the argumentative type, but I love to watch Twitter and look for things that I can discuss with people. Esteban has a habit of tweeting things that make me think and so I typically pay attention to what he says. Tonight, though, I couldn’t help but agree with his sentiment and it made me realize that the mobile market as a whole has shifted. At least for some of us.
And it’s not just the iPhone. I’ve had a long-term battle with Android applications for Twitter because of widgets. Yes, widgets. While I love TweetDeck for Android, I don’t find the TweetDeck widget to be of any use at all. I prefer Seesmic’s widget, hands down, and so I run two applications for Twitter simply because I want notifications and ease of access to information. Of course it doesn’t stop at Twitter, either. Email, SMS, Google Alerts and so much more are all pushed directly to my phone, providing that comforting notification tone. In fact, I can tell the order in which things are happening just by listening to the various tones and the order in which they occur. A story just hit Techmeme? I have a notification for that. I’m getting PR spam emails for CES events that I won’t attend? I have a tone for that as well. I’m getting a phone call? In the rare event that a phone call actually happens, I’ll of course hear it, but it’s become much more common for me to check beeps than to pay attention to a ringtone. And so the question must then be asked — Why are the carriers still touting minutes? Are those of us with a passion for tech so far removed from the rest of the mobile carrying world? While I’d say that there are certain instances where that answer is positively yes, I’m willing to bet that there’s a big part of the “rest of the world” that operates just as we do. Need proof? Go sit in a doctor’s office sometime and watch the phones come out. No calls, just messages. Is the development market, in this case, going to need to shift? Will those application developers who make amazing notification apps be the superstars of this emerging trend in mobile? Only time can tell, but I’d be willing to bet that we’ll continue to see a bigger push toward widgets and notifiers, instead of your simple phone call that you’ve always made. Give it some thought, then let us know your conclusions in the comments. Does voice even matter, or has it simply become a feature of the device instead of the focus? Remember, though, that only half of the people on Twitter ever listen to a word you say…or type. |
| Canadian Tech Conferences to Attend in 2011 Posted: 03 Jan 2011 08:37 PM PST We've rounded-up some Canadian tech-related conferences happening in 2011 that we thought you might like to attend. "My first observation was the opportunity in Canada is far bigger than I expected — and I expected it to be huge. I think there’s just an enormous amount of upside in terms of businesses catching up with consumers, and unleashing a little more creativity on the web" – Google Canada, Country Director Chris O’Neill Mesh ConferenceWhen: May 25th – 26th 2011
Mesh was founded by 5 esteemed individuals including ME Consulting's Mark Evens and Mathew Ingram from GigaOm. This web conference is a venue for people to "connect, share and inspire" and its focus is on anything related to the web. Mesh looks at the way the web is "affecting the media, marketing, business and society as a whole". As of today, Mesh has not announced its keynote speakers for this year but you can be sure it will be filled with workshops, panels and thought provoking conversations and presentations. We've heard nothing but good things about Mesh and it'll likely be a worthwhile experience. FITC Toronto 2011 – The Design & Technology FestivalWhen: May 2 – 4th 2011
The FITC conference began as a Flash Festival, but over the last few years, it has evolved and branched out gradually adding more creative and technical presentations. FITC aims to "educate, challenge and inspire"and they've previously held 20 events over the last nine years in five countries. At the event, Flash, motion design, Flex and Air are the types of subjects you'll learn about in the presentations. FITC prides itself on the quality of its handpicked speakers and additionally claims its "parties are legendary". Sounds very intriguing. CeC (Canada -e- connect)When: February 2-4
The CeC conference was created by the Canadian tourism industry and mainly focuses on e-marketing within that industry. Any tourism business or organization can use this conference as a tool to learn more about using technology to market and gain sales. It also takes a look at opportunities, web trends and online successful campaigns. I'd go just for the speakers. They've grabbed three internet celebs to present this year; Amber Mac, Tara Hunt and Scott Stratten. If you're in the tourism industry, I'd say this one is a must-go. ConfooWhen: March 9th-11th
The Confoo conference held in Montreal, Quebec will be kicking off another coding conference in 2011. This conference won't interest you unless you're a coder interested on learning more about Java, .Net, PHP, Python and Ruby. But, if you are a code-monkey you'll likely have a lot to take away. Presenters will be walking the developers through programming solutions, security, content management systems, frameworks and databases. Confoo also promises a management portion that includes project management, referencing (SEO), web marketing analysis and social networking. Overall, this sounds like a great conference to attend if you rawk the code. StartupCamp Montreal 7When: January 20th, 2011
Later this month, StartupCamp Montreal will be holding the seventh edition of its event for startup companies. If you're involved in a startup, this conference will put you in contact with investors, fellow companies and can assist you in working out things like your business pitch. It will also feature speakers such as successful native-Canadian entrepeneur Perry Evans. Mobile Camp MontrealWhen: May 14th, 2011
This year will be the first ever Mobile Camp Montreal and will focus on all things mobile. It's still in its infancy although we spoke with the organizers this evening and they tell us they're confident the event will be a success. "The idea is essentially to act as a central point for mobile enthusiasts, whether they’re into devices, apps, OS or marketing. We’ll have people come talk to us about which devices are the best, what to expect from 2011, where is mobile going, how to properly target the mobile market, how to advertise, how to track, etc etc" the event founder said via email. They're looking for sponsorship and presenters if you're inclined to help them pull it off. This is not a complete list of Canadian conferences, just a few you should think about attending in this coming year. And if you know of a great tech conference in Canada, please give us a shout in the comments. Google Quote, Image: Conference |
| Chatroulette gets a makeover and is surprisingly less sexy Posted: 03 Jan 2011 07:56 PM PST Chatroulette has been off our radar for a few months now after experiencing extended downtime and grossing us out just a bit. But now it seems to be back with an early 90s makeover and, surprisingly, far less men playing with their private parts. As first reported by TechCrunch, @Chatroulette tweeted about its new user interface tonight.
The new design features several new colorful backgrounds of neon rainbow shades in geometric patterns. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get my MacBook Air’s camera to work on Chrome, nor could I get the camera to work on Firefox even after updating my Adobe flash.
The “Meet Someone” or “Go Green Date Your Neighbor” interchanging button at the bottom of the page links to Singles-Roulette and apparently knows exactly where I live since the banner across the top says, “We found 1,284 singles ONLINE right now in Brooklyn. Meet someone today!” Pressing “Chat Now” takes you to True.com, a dating site committed to “providing a safer, smarter way you to find your soul mate.” You know, in case you didn’t find him or her on Chatroulette to begin with.
So has the grown up baby progressed into something more mature? By the looks of it, it’s matured into something more like a pre-teen with coordinating neon scrunchies and leggings. |
| iPhone app Turns Your Daily Activities Into Stats Posted: 03 Jan 2011 05:48 PM PST
Like Daytum's first iteration (web app), the newest iOS version helps you document things in your world and will generate a comprehensive summary of anything you input. As an example of how it works, if you used the app to record all of your daily activities, you'd later be able to reflect back to see what percentage of time you spent drinking coffee, checking email or Googling you name. Each item input, maybe something such as "playing World of Warcraft" can be added to categories like "Entertainment" so users can easily see what type of activities are eating up their time. There are no limits as to what a user can add as a category, you could even add people. If you've ever heard the words "You never call me" uttered by family members you'll now have the stats to back you up, assuming you've been inputting the calls. The app is divided into four categories; item entries, item search, categories and favourites. The search feature could be used as a tool for finding things you've done, perhaps a good way to help you to recall the last time you hit the gym or put a call into Grandma. Corny examples, but valid reasons why future-you may utilize the search feature. We can't help but think something great can be gleaned here. The type of people (myself included) that are willing to take the time to populate their daily activities are also the types to learn from the data. Some may say it's going a bit overboard but it’s bound to increase productivity should you use the info to refine your daily grind. Prior to the release of Daytum's handheld app, the service itself didn't really work for me. It makes a lot more sense in the form of a mobile app.Image: Woman |
| How to Crop YouTube Videos in Seconds Posted: 03 Jan 2011 03:30 PM PST
Using both SnipSnip.it and Splicd, I was able to alter and crop (or deep link) my favourite news blooper in seconds to display the best part "Boom goes the dynamite". Obviously none of this is groundbreaking stuff but considering the amount of videos I've personally received with time stamp notes appended, it stands to reason that these services might not be common knowledge among social media enthusiasts. If you've been guilty of sharing lengthy videos that only contain a second or two of relevant information, these services may be perfect for you and they're both free. It might also be of some value to bloggers, by using SnipSnip.it / Spicd, only vital information is shared, a bit cleaner than adding time stamp instructions into the video's caption. Sure, using code, there's a way to embed YouTube videos at a certain segment in the video however, not everyone wants to mess around with embed codes. And even if you are a coder, these services are capable of generating the embed code quicker than you.
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| Facebook will stop growing eventually Posted: 03 Jan 2011 03:19 PM PST |
| The great Hotmail outage? Only 17,355 accounts were impacted Posted: 03 Jan 2011 03:07 PM PST
By now you should have heard about an outage that was causing pain in the Hotmail community. Emails were missing from accounts and folders, making some users afraid that their data was lost. Microsoft was coy on both the extent of the outage, and its cause until today when they released a statement. It explains that a relatively few number of accounts were involved, and the root of the problems:
Given how hard Hotmail is trying to keep from losing more market share to Gmail, this is hardly a great start to the year for the Hotmail team. Was your account involved? |
| Will 2011 be the year of the musical robot? Posted: 03 Jan 2011 02:30 PM PST
EAR Duo, a gifted musical group featuring bassoonist Dana Jessen and Amsterdam based saxophonist Michael Straus commissioned EMMI to create an ensemble of next generation robotic string and wind instruments for a series of upcoming performances across the US and Europe. As of 6pm EST tonight, the three Virginia boys who make up EMMI will have successfully raised over $8,000 on Kickstarter to build the needed robotic instruments.
Check out this amazing video that shows composer and belly dancer Aurie Hsu wearing several wireless sensors to allow her to control EMMI’s robotic instruments with her movements as she dances. The performance took place this year and was a collaborative effort between Hsu and EMMI's Steven Kemper. Also read about our the top 10 robots that rocked in 2010! To read more about robots on TNW, click here. Thanks to @PhanArt for the tip! |
| Mobile App Developers Can Now Win a Webby Award Posted: 03 Jan 2011 02:24 PM PST
As the landscape of the web changes, the folks behind The Webby's are adding new award categories to reflect the impact of emerging spaces on the web, and the buzz surrounding mobile apps have been exploding to say the least. In the last few years, mobile apps have been ingrained in our culture and mobile developers are driving an unbelievable amount of innovation on the web. There's an assortment of categories within the mobile category including; lifestyle, best use of the device's camera, best use of GPS or location based technology and best use of the mobile video. All in all, there's currently 25 mobile-related categories for mobile developers to enter. Have you created an amazing app? Or know of one that you think deserves a Webby? The new app category will be judged by mobile experts such as Biz Stone (co-founder Twitter), Dennis Crowley (co-founder FourSquare), Jeremy Stoppelman (CEO Yelp.com) and Thrillist's co-founder Ben Lerer. A group of people who've all been integral in the mobile app realm.
It's hard to believe this will be the 15th year we've been watching the Webby's and with the inclusion of handheld and tablet apps it has continued to remain relevant. I'm personally excited to see who or what makes the cut — maybe it'll even be someone we know. Image: Colbert, The Webby Awards |
| Windows 7 now powers one in five computers Posted: 03 Jan 2011 02:20 PM PST
It was just a matter of time, but Microsoft’s newest OS is now the brains for one in every five computers in use around the world. It still lags greatly behind its older sibling Windows XP which commands some 56.72 percent of the market. Windows 7 finished December with 20.87 percent of the total computing market, according to Hitslink. Vista, long smaller in terms of userbase compared to Windows 7 still controls a sizable 12.11 percent chunk of the market. OS X’s top two versions (10.5 and 10.6) combined own around 4.5 percent of the market, a number that continues to grow. Our friends over at SeattlePi noticed another interesting milestone: iOS devices finally control a whole percent of the market. |
| Dear Facebook, We Need Fun Photo Filters Now Posted: 03 Jan 2011 01:19 PM PST
Photos Look Better With Filters
The beauty of sites that allow you to add filters is they can make anybody with a camera on their phone take what looks like a classy photo. They really enhance your photos and I nearly always add a filter these days to jazz mine up. There are tons of different filters on different sites but as you can see from these ones above from Picplz they really can make a huge difference to the way your photos look. Facebook Already Has The Biggest Photo ProductThe size and scale of Facebook's photo product is mind blowing and they are already by far the biggest home for all our online photos. They store tens of billions of photos and showed recently that they want to improve that service by adding higher res photos and additional features. For a company that always wants to push the boundaries (sometimes by copying others) and improve their products, adding filters would be easy with their existing photo product and would dramatically improve things for their 500 million users. Replicating is Cheaper Than AcquiringI've written recently that somebody like Google should start thinking about acquiring Instagram soon and Facebook has shown that with acquisitions like Friendfeed in the past that it is a route they are happy to go down by acquiring talent. However in this instance I don't think the technology is massively hard to replicate and Facebook has shown with other products like their video app that with only a couple of engineers they can build things that can be rolled out pretty quickly. If they put their mind to this they could build it in no time.
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UK supermarket chain Tesco has entered the cash-for-gold market, offering a service that will allow customers to submit their gold for assessment in 15 stores across the country as well as an 
It is 2011 and that means you can start saving for your new iPad. You know it is coming and you know it will be better than you expected. Here is a list of things to expect, what not to expect and what won’t happen but which would be nice either way.
Forget using your smartphone to play Rovio’s insanely popular Angry Bird’s game – if you live in Guangzhou, China and fancy yourself as a bit of a catapult champion, why not try your hand at the unofficial Angry Birds carnival game!
With CES about to get underway, companies are looking to generate buzz around their products and services before attendees descend on their stands to find out whats new in their worlds.
In October 2007, Facebook had a mere 20 million U.S. users. Today, it has over 500 million, 146 million of which are in the U.S.
One of the comments that we’ve heard about using the iPad as a reading device is that it can often times be distracting. The same can be said for trying to write things in a web interface. Though 
Daytum
Both
Will 2011 be the year of the musical robot? It certainly seems that way. 
The 
Instragram Could Be Competitor?
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