Tech News Stop - Sharing by Wasim Akhtar

::::How to Share Your Business Photos Online - Discreetly::::

<img src="http://www.techgig.com/files/xphoto_1337134586_temp.jpg.pagespeed.ic.vDCyMWliop.jpg" border="0" alt="Image" width="300" height="200" align="left" />You have just returned from a corporate retreat or some other business event that was well-documented with several amateur photographers. Now you want to share all of these pictures amongst your co-workers. The challenge is that you want to keep them private to the participants and not plaster them all over the Internets. What to do?<div class="asset-body" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; clear: both; text-align: left"> </div><div id="more" class="asset-more" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; clear: both; text-align: left">Assume that your requirements are to satisfy the ultra-paranoid in the group and also find something that is dirt simple to use. You don't want to make everyone join a new social network just to see the photos; most of us have too many logins already. That leaves out most of the microblogging sites. And you don't want to have to worry that someone will click on the wrong button and inadvertently share the entire photo collection with the universe, including the press, competitors and so on.Facebook, Instagram, Google+ and many other social-networking sites aren't very good at setting up discrete group-privacy controls, so they are out of the running for our purposes. And while there are dozens of file-sharing sites such as Box.net and Evernote, the idea is to find something that is designed around uploading and sharing images.With that in mind, we looked at the following five services:<ol style="margin: 0px 0px 0.75em 30px; padding: 0px; list-style-position: outside; list-style-image: initial"><li style="margin: 0px 0px 7px 7px; padding: 0px">Shutterfly.com</li><li style="margin: 0px 0px 7px 7px; padding: 0px">Photobucket.com</li><li style="margin: 0px 0px 7px 7px; padding: 0px">Flickr.com (now part of Yahoo)</li><li style="margin: 0px 0px 7px 7px; padding: 0px">Zangzing.com</li><li style="margin: 0px 0px 7px 7px; padding: 0px">Posterous Spaces (now part of Twitter)</li></ol>None of these services is perfect, but they fall into two broad categories: those that have better privacy controls and those that are easier to use.Let's look at our requirements in more detail:First, we want a service that can create a private space that doesn't appear on search engines and can't be discovered by unauthorized users. Photobucket and Shutterfly both do this, by setting up a special URL (Photobucket.com/groupname or Groupname.shutterfly.com) for your group. In Photobucket, for example, you have three choices for each album's privacy controls: everyone can see them, no one else can see them, or you can password protect them by invitation only. The latter is perfect for this application, and you can set up an album password so that only those folks who know the password can see and download the photos. (See screenshot below.) Shutterfly has similar options with its Share Sites feature.<img src="http://www.readwriteweb.com/files/photobucket.jpg" border="0" />The problem with both Photobucket and Shutterfly is that you need to become a member to upload photos: That is fine if you have just a few shutterbugs in your group, but if everyone wants to be able to contribute images, it can become cumbersome.Flickr offers URLs for groups, such as http://www.flickr.com/groups/groupname. But Yahoo really wants you to sign up to its service, and you will need to do so if you want to post any photos. Flickr has a guest pass option, but it is designed to work with individual photos. And Flickr users have to make sure to set up its autoposting/notification features to keep your photos from showing up in your Facebook Timeline or other places.<img src="http://www.readwriteweb.com/files/flickrguestpass.jpg" border="0" />Zangzing (which we have written about previously) is easier to use but that comes at a privacy cost. You can set up individual albums that have their own URLs, such as http://www.zangzing.com/username/albumname. But because there is no password required, anyone who knows the URL can access the entire album. And you must join the service in order to upload pictures, you will need to join. On the plus side, you can also email pictures to albumname@zangzing.com, and they will be automatically posted to the album.Finally, Posterous is more of a blogging site than a photo collection, but it can be used for sharing photos, as well. Indeed, if you want to mix your photos with other business content, Posterous could be a good choice and could serve as the base for a simple low-end Web presence. Groups of photos can have their own URLs, but you do need to become a member to post content. You can also email your photos and have them posted to your site, like what Zangzing does.<h2 style="margin: 0px 0px 0.2em; padding: 0px">Recommendations: Start with Zangzing</h2>We recommend you start with Zangzing, especially if you require the simplicity of a shareable URL and don't want to mess with having each person sign up for the service. If you need the additional security that a membership site offers, then look at Photobucket. It has more granularity for the security options than Shutterfly. Steer clear of Flickr: Its interface is somewhat long in the tooth, and it is too easy to click on the wrong button and end up sharing your entire photo collection to Facebook or Twitter. If you have more confidence in your users' abilities, you can set up private groups in Facebook or Google+.</div> 

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::::[Infographic] Taking HTML5 to the Next Level for Mobile::::

<img src="http://www.techgig.com/files/xphoto_1337134495_temp.jpg.pagespeed.ic.Vc6sx6pPCw.jpg" border="0" alt="Image" align="left" />By 2013, there will be more than 1 billion HTML5-capable browsers in use throughout the world. Applications for those HTML5 browsers will be created by 2 million HTML Web developers, according to research from IDC. There is no question that HTML5 is going to be a major factor in mobile development during the next five to 10 years. The rise of HTML5 does not mean the death of native applications, but as the standard progresses, many developers will begin to incorporate more HTML5 into their apps than native code. <div id="more" class="asset-more" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; clear: both; text-align: left">By 2015, IDC predicts that 80% of all mobile apps will be based wholly or in part on HTML5. It makes sense: As HTML5 evolves, it gains access to many features that were once the sole domain of native code. Audio and video playback have been problems that are now beginning to improve, and several companies including Sencha, appMobi and Mozilla are working on ways to give HTML5 better device access to objects such as a device’s camera and accelerometer. It takes a village to raise a child - or, in this case, HTML5. During February's Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, a group of companies banded together to create the Core Mobile Web Platform Community (Coremob), a forum for “the global mobile developer and IT community to focus and accelerate the evolution of the mobile Web as a compelling platform for mobile applications.” Coremob includes several giants in the development and mobile worlds, including Microsoft, Facebook, Google, Mozilla, AT&T, Red Hat and Qualcomm’s Innovation Center (among many more; see infographic below). Like the browser wars and the Web before it, the mobile Web is not going to be completely developed by one company. For HTML5 to truly become a viable set of standards, the technology community at large will need to work together to share resources to make that possible. But the mobile universe is not quite ready for a full-fledged HTML5 ecosystem yet. This comes down to the status of mobile browsers. Applications that run in browsers do not have the capabilities that native apps have. You thought Android was fragmented? Ever since Microsoft trounced Netscape with Internet Explorer, browsers have been, almost by definition, the most fragmented aspect of Web technology during the past 15 years. That is no different for mobile browsers such as Apple’s Safari, Google’s stock Android browser or its mobile Chrome Beta, Firefox Fennec, Opera Mini, Dolphin, Skyfire, Internet Explorer for Windows Phone or BlackBerry. HTML5 is supposed to be able to cut through the differences of all these browsers, but they are not all created equal. This is where Ringmark comes in. Designed as an open source tool by Facebook for the Coremob community, Ringmark is a browser-testing suite that determines how well different browsers implement app functionalities. Ringmark determines what “ring” a browser is in and what type of capabilities an app can perform in that browser. For example, browsers that pass “Ring 0” can run “Level 0” apps, Ring 1 can run Level 1 apps, and so on. The infographic from IDC below shows an example of the capabilities in each ring, and which apps can run on which levels.We did a couple of Ringmark tests by visiting Rng.io on mobile browsers to see how well they stack up. Ring 0 has 97 different capabilities, which most of the browsers we tested passed. There are between 137-160 capabilities in Ring 1, which none of the browsers we tested passed. If a browser does not pass all the capabilities of a Ring, then it does not test the next Ring. (As browser versions advance and begin to pass Ring 1, Ringmark's developers will build out more rings to allow for further advances in expected browser capabilities.)Here are the results:Opera Mini/Mobile<ul style="margin: 0px 0px 7px 7px; padding: 0px; list-style-position: outside; list-style-image: initial; background-repeat: no-repeat repeat"><li style="margin: 0px 0px 7px 7px; padding: 0px">Android (Opera Mobile) -- R.0: 7 failed, 90 passed</li><li style="margin: 0px 0px 7px 7px; padding: 0px">iOS (Opera Mini) -- R.0: 32 failed, 52 passed</li></ul>Dolphin HD<ul style="margin: 0px 0px 7px 7px; padding: 0px; list-style-position: outside; list-style-image: initial; background-repeat: no-repeat repeat"><li style="margin: 0px 0px 7px 7px; padding: 0px">Android -- R.0: 97 passed -- R.1: 44 failed, 93 passes</li><li style="margin: 0px 0px 7px 7px; padding: 0px">iOS R.0: 97 passed -- R.1: 33 failed, 106 passed</li></ul>iOS Safari<ul style="margin: 0px 0px 7px 7px; padding: 0px; list-style-position: outside; list-style-image: initial; background-repeat: no-repeat repeat"><li style="margin: 0px 0px 7px 7px; padding: 0px">R.0: 97 passed -- R.1: 34 failed, 106 passed</li></ul>Stock Android Browser<ul style="margin: 0px 0px 7px 7px; padding: 0px; list-style-position: outside; list-style-image: initial; background-repeat: no-repeat repeat"><li style="margin: 0px 0px 7px 7px; padding: 0px">R.0: 97 passed -- R.1: 44 failed, 93 passed</li></ul>Android Chrome Beta<ul style="margin: 0px 0px 7px 7px; padding: 0px; list-style-position: outside; list-style-image: initial; background-repeat: no-repeat repeat"><li style="margin: 0px 0px 7px 7px; padding: 0px">R.0: 97 passed -- R.1: 17 failed, 143 passed</li></ul>Windows Phone Internet Explorer<ul style="margin: 0px 0px 7px 7px; padding: 0px; list-style-position: outside; list-style-image: initial; background-repeat: no-repeat repeat"><li style="margin: 0px 0px 7px 7px; padding: 0px">R.0: 11 failed, 86 passed</li></ul>Amazon Kindle Fire Silk<ul style="margin: 0px 0px 7px 7px; padding: 0px; list-style-position: outside; list-style-image: initial; background-repeat: no-repeat repeat"><li style="margin: 0px 0px 7px 7px; padding: 0px">R.0: 4 failed, 93 passed</li></ul>BlackBerry 6<ul style="margin: 0px 0px 7px 7px; padding: 0px; list-style-position: outside; list-style-image: initial; background-repeat: no-repeat repeat"><li style="margin: 0px 0px 7px 7px; padding: 0px">R.0: 97 passed -- R.1: 58 failed, 80 passed</li></ul>It appears that the browser with the most HTML5 capabilities at this point is Chrome Beta on Android. We noted when Chrome Beta was announced that it would be a good browser for HTML5 development. Yet, Chrome Beta’s performance does not help the bulk of the Android ecosystem. First, it is only available on Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich devices, which make up only 4.9% of all Android devices as of May 1. Second, when a mobile Web app runs an application through Android, it will choose the default browser of the device, which will be the stock Android browser, not Chrome Beta.  </div>  

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::::Googleâ€˜s Android gains share in smartphones - survey::::

<div class="custm_img_blk"><img src="http://www.techgig.com/files/photo_1337133887_temp.jpg" border="0" width="300" height="200" align="left" /></div>Google's (GOOG.O) Android smartphone software stretched its market lead in early 2012, helped by new models from handset makers like Samsung and HTC and piling the pressure on rivals like Research In Motion (RIM.TO) and Nokia (NOK1V.HE).Research from Kantar WorldPanel on Tuesday showed Android gaining share strongly in most of seven major markets - Australia, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United States - in the 12 weeks to mid April.In Spain and Italy, its market share more than doubled year-on-year to 72 percent and 49 percent respectively, while it almost doubled to 62 percent in Germany.Strong demand for the iPhone 4S helped market No.2 Apple (AAPL.O) narrow the gap with Android in the United States and Britain, but its share slipped in continental Europe.Microsoft's (MSFT.O) Windows Phone began to show some signs of growth thanks to Nokia's decision to swap its legacy Symbian platform for Windows.Windows' share in Germany more than doubled to 6 percent over the past year, and climbed to 3-4 percent in Britain, France, Italy and the United States.These gains came at the expense of Nokia's Symbian platform and Canadian BlackBerry maker Research In Motion, the biggest market share losers. RIM's share in the U.S. market dropped to just 3 percent from 9 percent a year earlier.Kantar said HTC's One X model made a strong start in Britain, making the Top 10 list for the 12 week period even though it was on sale for less than a week.

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::::Facebook increases IPO range to raise $12.1 bln::::

<div class="custm_img_blk"><img src="http://www.techgig.com/files/photo_1337133778_temp.jpg" border="0" width="300" height="200" align="left" /></div>Facebook Inc (FB.O) increased the price range on its initial public offering an average of 14 percent to raise more than $12 billion, giving the world's No. 1 social network a valuation potentially exceeding $100 billion.The company, founded eight years ago by Mark Zuckerberg in a Harvard dorm room, raised the target range to between $34 and $38 per share in response to strong demand, from $28 to $35, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday.That would value Facebook at roughly $93 billion to $104 billion, rivaling the market capitalization of Internet powerhouses such as Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O), and exceeding that of Hewlett-Packard Co (HPQ.N) and Dell Inc (DELL.O) combined.Facebook also extended the time frame for its $1 billion acquisition of mobile app maker Instagram, projecting that the deal would close in 2012 instead of closing in the second quarter as it had previously indicated.Facebook provided no reason for the change, though a source familiar with the matter told Reuters last week that the U.S. Federal Trade Commission has reached out to Google Inc (GOOG.O) and Twitter as part of the agency's standard review for deals of that size.The price increase indicates intense market demand, which means Facebook's shares are likely to see a big pop on their first day of trading on the Nasdaq on Friday, analysts said."It's confounding but the evidence is that if companies raise the range, they will pop more," said Josef Schuster, founder of Chicago-based financial services firm IPOX Schuster LLC. "It signals that there is such a strong demand that it will create a momentum for other investors who want to jump on."For BREAKINGVIEWS - Facebook winning Keynesian beauty contest: click link.reuters.com/cyz28sFacebook said in its latest filing that it arrived at the higher IPO price range after one week of marketing the offering - part of a cross-country "road show" in which CEO Zuckerberg has occasionally taken the stage to lay out his vision for the company's money-making potential and its top priorities.The Facebook range hike, coupled with strong results from Internet and social media players Groupon Inc (GRPN.O) and China's RenRen Inc (RENN.N) overnight, contributed to a dotcom rally on Wall Street on Tuesday.Shares of Pandora Media Inc (P.N) were up 6.9 percent at $10.50 in afternoon trading, while Zynga Inc (ZNGA.O) was up 8.3 percent at $8.61. Groupon was up 13.7 percent at $13.33, while Renren gained 9.5 percent to $6.01. Yelp Inc (YELP.N) stock was up 7.5 pct at $21.55.In the biggest-ever IPO to emerge from Silicon Valley, Facebook will raise $12.1 billion based on the midpoint price of $36 and the 337.4 million shares on offer, or 12.3 percent of the company.At this midpoint, Facebook would be valued at roughly 27 times its 2011 annual revenue, or 99 times earnings. When Google went public in 2004 at a valuation of $23 billion, it was valued at 16 times trailing revenue and 218 times earnings. Apple Inc (AAPL.O), meanwhile, went public in 1980 at a valuation of 25 times revenue and 102 times earnings.Wall Street had expected Facebook to increase its price range, with investors eager to get a slice of a strong consumer brand. The IPO road show began last week and has drawn crowds of investors from coast to coast.Facebook plans to close the books on its IPO later on Tuesday, two days ahead of schedule, a source familiar with the deal told Reuters on Monday. It is scheduled to price its shares on Thursday and begin trading on the Nasdaq on Friday.The IPO is already "well-oversubscribed," which is why the company will close its books earlier than expected, the source said.Facebook's capital-raising target far outstrips other big Internet IPOs. Google raised just shy of $2 billion in 2004, while last year Groupon tapped investors for $700 million and Zynga raked in $1 billion.The IPO comes amid concerns from some investors that Facebook has not yet figured out a way to make money from an increasing number of users who access the social network on mobile devices such as smartphones. Revenue growth from Facebook's online advertising business has also slowed in recent months.Company executives met with prospective investors in Chicago on Monday and were slated to travel to Kansas City, Missouri, and Denver, before returning to Facebook's Menlo Park, California, headquarters.A host of Wall Street banks are underwriting Facebook's offering, with Morgan Stanley (MS.N), JPMorgan (JPM.N) and Goldman Sachs (GS.N) serving as leads. Facebook will trade on the Nasdaq under the symbol "FB."

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::::Kaspersky, Apple Hunting for Mac OS X Bugs? Not Exactly::::

<div class="custm_img_blk"><img src="http://www.techgig.com/files/photo_1337046925_temp.jpg" border="0" align="left" /></div><p style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 9px; padding-left: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; border-width: 0px; margin: 0px">Kaspersky Lab today denied that the security firm had been commissioned by Apple to help improve the security of Mac OS X.<p style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 9px; padding-left: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; border-width: 0px; margin: 0px">An article from Computing that quoted Kaspersky CTO Nikolai Grebennikov as saying that Apple "recently invited us to improve its security" is inaccurate and was taken out of context, Kaspersky said.<p style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 9px; padding-left: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; border-width: 0px; margin: 0px">In a Monday statement, Grebennikov said Kaspersky has indeed studied vulnerabilities in Mac OS X, but that work "was conducted independently of Apple." Instead, Apple is "collaborating with us regarding new Mac OS X vulnerabilities and malware that we identify during our analysis."<p style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 9px; padding-left: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; border-width: 0px; margin: 0px">Security firms frequently alert companies to bugs or security threats they uncover.<p style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 9px; padding-left: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; border-width: 0px; margin: 0px">"As Mac OS X market share continues to increase, we expect cyber-criminals to continue to develop new types of malware and attack methods," Grebennikov continued. "In order to meet these new threats, Kaspersky Lab has been conducting an in-depth analysis of Mac OS X vulnerabilities and new forms of malware."<p style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 9px; padding-left: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; border-width: 0px; margin: 0px">The author of the Computing piece, Stuart Sumner, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<p style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 9px; padding-left: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; border-width: 0px; margin: 0px">A major Mac virus to make the rounds recently was the Flashback Trojan, which reportedlyhit upwards of half a million Macs, many of them in the U.S. and Canada. A report from Symantec estimated that the Flashback authors were reaping an estimated $10,000 a dayvia Google-related click fraud.<p style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 9px; padding-left: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; border-width: 0px; margin: 0px">In an April report, Kaspersky said the recent spate of Mac-related malware does not indicate that Apple's OS is any less secure than it was in the past, but is mainly the result of its growing popularity.

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::::Report: Microsoft Offering $14.99 Upgrade to Windows 8::::

<div class="custm_img_blk"><img src="http://www.techgig.com/files/photo_1337046854_temp.jpg" border="0" align="left" /></div><p style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 9px; padding-left: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; border-width: 0px; margin: 0px">Microsoft reportedly will charge $14.99 for an upgrade to Windows 8 for those who buy a PC with Windows 7 on it after June 2, according to a report.<p style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 9px; padding-left: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; border-width: 0px; margin: 0px">According to Windows Supersite, the $14.99 upgrade offer will be timed at about the release date of the Release Preview of Windows 8, due at about the same time in early June. However, Microsoft will also reportedly offer just a single upgrade for all Windows 7 versions, up to Windows 8 Pro, Windows Supersite reported.<p style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 9px; padding-left: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; border-width: 0px; margin: 0px">In April, Microsoft revealed that it would ship four versions of Windows 8: Windows 8 and Windows 8 Pro, a version for bulk purchasers, and Windows 8 on ARM, the flavor of Windows 8 that will appear on tablets and may face Congressional investigation.<p style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 9px; padding-left: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; border-width: 0px; margin: 0px">Not surprisingly, Microsoft will also retain its practice of offering upgrades from Windows 8 Basic to Windows 8 Pro, Windows SuperSite added. In Windows 7, for example, the Upgrade Anywhere option allows users to unlock Windows 7 Premium content and functionality that coded onto the disc itself.<p style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 9px; padding-left: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; border-width: 0px; margin: 0px">Microsoft officials hasn't yet responded to requests for comment by press time.<p style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 9px; padding-left: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; border-width: 0px; margin: 0px">Microsoft also hasn't said, unofficially or officially, whether or not, the handful of Windows Vista users still using that operating system would be able to upgrade directly to Windows 8 or not. Microsoft prevented Windows XP customers from upgrading directly to Windows 7, prompting an outpouring of angst from some. When Vista shipped in January 2007, XP had multiple upgrade paths, but customers using Windows 2000 and its older brethren were left without a direct upgrade path.<p style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 9px; padding-left: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; border-width: 0px; margin: 0px">Separately, Best Buy said Monday, that from May 13 to June 2, customers could buy a new notebook PC from its Premium Collection and receive a free version of Microsoft Office Home & Student 2010.

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::::Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin renounces American citizenship::::

<div class="custm_img_blk"><img src="http://www.techgig.com/files/photo_1337046758_temp.jpg" border="0" align="left" /></div><div id="storydiv" class="storydiv" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px"><div class="Normal" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px"> The Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin officially defriended the United States in September, giving up his American citizenship for the more tax-friendly residency status of Singapore.  Saverin, who was born in Brazil and has lived in Singapore since 2010, plans to remain indefinitely in the Asian island nation, where the maximum personal income tax rate is 20 percent and capital gains are not taxed.  A spokesman for Saverin insists his client did not renounce the citizenship he has held since 1998 for financial reasons. "I have worked with him for over a year, and that never came up," said Thomas Goodman. "Obviously it was a big decision, but he's making all these investments in Europe, Asia and the U.S. It just seemed a lot simpler."  Goodman declined to say exactly what simplifications the impending billionaire would enjoy, other than the financial.  The renunciation, published by the State Department at the end of April and reported first by Bloomberg on Friday, became public just days before Facebook shares are expected to be sold to the public. The company is expected to be valued at more than $85 billion.  Saverin owns less than 5 percent of Facebook, but is expected to be worth more than $3.5 billion after the public offering. The decision was made several months ago, Goodman said. "Everyone is trying to tie this to the IPO and taxes," he said. "It was never about that."  Loss of his citizenship in September makes it likely that the process was initiated sometime around last May, according to a person with knowledge of the situation. People leaving U.S. citizenship under such circumstances typically pay an "exit tax," which is a final bill based on all assets.  Saverin, 30, helped found Facebook while at Harvard with Mark Zuckerberg, Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes, all of whom remain U.S. citizens.</div></div>

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