Tech News Stop - Sharing by Wasim Akhtar

::::Facebook claims to have 901m users::::

<img src="http://www.techgig.com/files/photo_1335407618_temp.png" border="0" alt="Image" align="left" />Facebook has said it has 901 million users and is likely that it'll pass the one billion user mark well before the end of this year. The company, which displayed the statistics in its amended S-1 filing , also said that its network receives 3.2 billion comments per day and 300 million new photos daily.  The site also claims 125 billion friendships are forged daily. Of the 901 million users, 526 million were described as daily active users in March. Some 488 million people also usedFacebook mobile products that month, according to the filing.  Facebook, meanwhile, said its first-quarter profit fell 12% as operating costs almost doubled. Net income fell to $205 million in the three months through March this year, the Menlo Park, California-based Facebook said in a regulatory filing. Sales climbed 45%to $1.06 billion, a slowdown from 55% in the December period.  Expenses surged to $677 million, reflecting higher costs of helping marketers reach Facebook's growing user base. The company may struggle to reach EMarketer's projection for 2012 sales of $6.1 billion as it awaits the full impact of new tools aimed at wringing more money from advertisers, said Debra Aho Williamson, who helped construct the researcher's estimate.  "Facebook has a pretty steep hill to climb to meet the expectations that we set out," Williamson said.

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::::Apple announces dates of developer conference::::

<div class="custm_img_blk"><img src="http://www.techgig.com/files/photo_1335408143_temp.png" border="0" align="left" /></div>Apple on Wednesday announced that it will hold its annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) between June 11 - June 15 in San Francisco. This will be the first year when WWDC will not have Apple's iconic founder Steve Jobs' presence. Jobs had made an unexpected appearance at last year's WWDC when he announced the launch of Lion operating system. He passed away on October 5 last year, a day after the current CEO Tim Cook launched iPhone 4S.  The delay in announcing WWDC dates this year had led to some unease among the developer and analyst circles.  At this year's five-day conference, the focus for developers will be on the future of iOS and OS X, allowing them to build new apps. WWDC will also feature more than 100 technical sessions presented by Apple engineers as well as the popular Apple Design Awards, a showcase of the bestapps from the past year.  "We have a great WWDC planned this year and can't wait to share the latest news about iOS and OS X Mountain Lion with developers," said Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. "The iOS platform has created an entirely new industry with fantastic opportunities for developers across the country and around the world."  Developers will be able to explore the latest innovations, features and capabilities of iOS and OS X Mountain Lion and learn how to greatly enhance the functionality, performance, quality and design of their apps. Developers can even bring their code to the labs and work with Apple engineers, applying development techniques and best-practices to enhance their apps.

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::::5,000 Dangerous Android Apps Says Trend Micro Report::::

<img src="http://www.techgig.com/files/photo_1335320608_temp.jpg" border="0" alt="Image" align="left" />Did you know there are 5,000 new Android apps that can harm your device or steal your data - including extreme cases, such as a Russian fake version of Google Play that would add charges to your mobile bill? Those nuggets are included in the latest quarterly security roundup from Trend Micro's Labs. The report, released last week, breaks little new ground but makes information on the latest threats accessible in a very concise and attractive format. Another scheme in Japan resulted in the police there arresting six individuals involving a one-click billing scheme. Typically, as shown in the diagram to the right, a user would visit a compromised site, click on a link to play a video, and end up with an infected device. The Japanese scheme netted some $150,000. Another nasty piece of business is what is called 'Ransomware,' which is a set of malware that infects a user's machine and holds his or her files hostage. Sometimes, the software will encrypt part of your hard drive, demanding money before allowing you to decrypt the files. In one case, users saw a splash screen that demanded they pay a 100 euro fine for viewing porn or other questionable material on the computer. Ransomware is now branching out to other countries in Europe, and has a big footprint in the U.S., as you can see here: <img src="http://www.readwriteweb.com/files/files/enterprise/assets_c/2012/04/ransomware-thumb-600x245-40597.jpg" border="0" /> Part of the problem is that installing a mobile app is so easy, many users do it almost unconsciously, so it often doesn't get the same kind of due diligence that desktop applications get. Combined with the willingness of many Gen Yers to share personal information, and it's easier than ever for the bad guys to spread malware and steal your data, your money, or both. As part of its security scanning efforts, TrendLabs processes more than four terabytes of data each day and analyzes some 8 billion URLs and 200,000 IP addresses. The report also includes the company's top 10 blocked URLs or malicious domains.

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::::48 percent of CIOs identify business continuity as one of their top five priorities::::

<div class="custm_img_blk"><img src="http://www.techgig.com/files/photo_1335321011_temp.jpg" border="0" width="300" height="200" align="left" /></div>IT functions are responding to the current volatile markets and uncertain economic outlook by focusing on establishing lean and agile IT that can quickly respond to business demands. A two-pronged approach of cautious spending coupled with focus on innovation to support revenue enhancing abilities of IT has emerged as per the Ernst & Young and CIO KLUB 4th Annual Survey The Enterprise IT Investment Trends Survey 2012. The survey, based on interactions with over 184 CIOs of companies with annual revenues ranging from less than INR 1 billion to greater than INR 10 billion, indicates the increasing importance being placed by businesses on IT. A wider community of CXOs is better appreciating the role of IT to achieve business transformation. This change is reflected in the budget outlook numbers provided by the CIO community. Approximately 60 percent of the respondents have reported a planned increase in capital spending on IT with 20 percent of respondents reporting more than 20 percent increase in IT spending. On similar lines, 60 percent of the respondents plan to increase operational expenditure. Devendra Parulekar, Partner-Advisory Services, Ernst & Young says, “While IT budgets experience a steady increase over previous years, the CIOs will be Read More

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::::Google+ Launches Share Button, Ignores That Few Users = No Referral Traffic = No Installs::::

<div class="custm_img_blk"><img src="http://www.techgig.com/files/photo_1335320691_temp.png" border="0" align="left" /></div>Blogs and content sites are only willing to give up valuable real estate and clutter themselves with social sharing buttons if they get ample referral traffic in return. That’s the big problem with theGoogle+ Share button that launched todaywith no launch partners or live examples of it in use. The embeddable button for posting webpages to the Google+ news feed with an optional comment is going to struggle for installs unless Google can prove it drives page views.After flops like the Google Buzz and +1 buttons, and plenty of competition, it’s going to be a tough sell. In the end, it could backfire, sidestepping thebullshit registered user counts Google cites as awesome growth and exposing the social network as a place few people spend time. And it’s all kind of sad because the G+ Share button could be the answer to the Google+ content drought.The G+ Share button and +1 button are almost identical so lets clear up how they work. One-click the +1 button and a public recommendation for the page shows up in search results for it, and it appears in the +1s section of your G+ profile. Add a comment or click Share and select an audience when you +1 something and a full story will appear in the G+ news feeds of those you shared to who’ve circled you as well.Meanwhile, the Share button isn’t public by default. It requires an initial click to bring up the share prompt and comment box, and a second click to share that Page to the G+ feed. So really, the +1 button is more versatile and powerful, but also public and I bet lots of people one-clicked it thinking they were sharing to their feed as if they clicked a Like button. 

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::::MapMyIndia launches iPhone App providing house number search and navigation::::

<img src="http://www.techgig.com/files/photo_1335320914_temp.png" border="0" alt="Image" align="left" />Digital navigation company MapMyIndia has partnered Telenav to launch a mobile app MapMyIndia Navigator that offers house number search and navigation on iPhones. MapMyIndia Navigator by Telenav provides voice-guided turn-by-turn GPS navigation, moving maps and access to millions of places for easy search and discovery. Users can search and navigate to house numbers in 18 cities, reach any of the 579,000 towns and villages and navigate at street-level across 1,200 cities in India.MapmyIndia is offering a promotional price for the application – users can try MapmyIndia Navigator for $3.99 for one month. An ongoing subscription can be purchased for $29.99 for one year. The application has millions of places and points of interest to choose from – either by category or name - including restaurants, ATMs, hotels, hospitals and more. Users can then select and navigate to the destination chosen and save frequent destinations as favorites.The application turns your iPhone into a full-fledged GPS navigator, including voice instructions for each turn, speaking street names as well in an Indian accent. The application also generates a new route if the driver misses a turn. Users can shake their phone to instantly start navigation to their home address from wherever they are.Besides these, on major highways, the application notifies drivers when they exceed the posted speed limit. The application switches to night-time mode automatically, allowing for safer viewing conditions while driving at night. 

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::::Credit Card Agreements Easier to Understand Than Facebook, Google Policies::::

<img src="http://www.techgig.com/files/photo_1335320412_temp.png" border="0" alt="Image" width="250" height="150" align="left" />Just how complex are those user agreements that most people skip reading when they sign up for Facebook or Google? More complex than a credit card agreement or a government notice, according to a study released Tuesday by branding firm Siegel+Gale. On average, 400 survey participants who had carefully reviewed the agreements were only able to answer four out of 10 comprehension questions about the policies after their review. What's worse, of users who did understand the policies or had them explained to them, 75% said they would change their Facebook privacy settings and 63% said they would be more careful about how they used Google in the future. 'It's time for these online giants to recognize that their policies bring an unacceptable web of complexity and risk to the lives of their users. The lack of understanding of online privacy is pervasive,' said Thomas Mueller, global director of customer experience of Siegel+Gale. 'Bringing greater simplicity to what Web users read online will engender trust among users and only benefit Facebook's and Google's reputation.' Among the study's other key findings:<ul> <li>The comprehension rates for credit card agreements (70%) and government notices (67%) were far higher than those for Google (36%) and Facebook (39%).</li> <li>Just one in five Facebook users were able to figure out how to block a third-party application or website from accessing information they shared on Facebook after reading the social network's privacy policy.</li> <li>Less than one in four Google+ users could figure out whether their profile was publicly viewable to anyone after reading Google's privacy terms.</li></ul> All of these issues are compounded by the fact that privacy policies, particularly those used by social networks, are ever-evolving and ever-changing. Even if a user can understand a privacy policy, it can - especially in the case of Facebook - change without their knowledge.  'This complexity erodes trust and jeopardizes online privacy,' said Irene Etzkorn, executive director of simplification of Siegel+Gale. 'Clearly, Facebook, Google and other online service providers operate based on consumer trust, and failure to address privacy concerns in a meaningful way will lead to consumer disenchantment and additional regulatory restrictions.'<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/readwriteweb/~4/KhK6GfIWqdc" border="0" width="1" height="1" />

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