Facebook Deals: 10 Interesting Facts You Need To Know

By Elisa 11

The Facebook Deals that were reportedly launched on Tuesday, April 26, 2011 in five targeted cities including Atlanta, Austin, Dallas, San Diego and San Francisco is believed to possibly defeat competitors like Groupon, LivingSocial and Gilt.

The Facebook Deals will concentrate on offering discounts for group activities such as 75 percent off bowling for six people or 50 percent off movie tickets for four. Besides, you can buy local deals, using your credit cards or Facebook credits.

Because Facebook now has around 500 million users so its new Deals will help businesses offer bargains and discounts to drive traffic and build customer loyalty. Moreover, the average number of Facebook friends per user is 130, which means when a firm offers a Facebook user a Facebook deal, it can be noticed by 130 others.

Facebook Deals are simple and sharable digital coupons while a Groupon deal demands a certain number of purchases before being unlocked and other sites add similarly arbitrary limits like location

It is a big loss for Facebook when Facebook Deals don’t have a mobile app at launch in comparison with its competitors like Groupon, Gilt and LivingSocial

When you try to buy a Deal, the “Post to profile” is selected by default. Therefore, make sure that you deselect if you don’t want all your friends to know you have just bought tickets to a seafood buffet

Facebook Deals uses its enormous user base to make group purchases much easier. For example, you can invite friends to a Deal without being “that guy” that gets everyone to sign up for another new service

Facebook Deal pages is a mix of Groupon’s basics like location, redemption instructions and overview and the commenting features of fans or event pages

Users can buy something with their Facebook credits but Facebook credits are reportedly unavailable for purchasing physical goods at lunch

News Feed is the biggest advantage Facebook gets to compete over competitors. It opens up the deals to the site's 600 million users

 

Heating to "Accounts > Notifications > and View Settings for: Deals" to keep the social dealing out of your finely tuned Notifications

Facebook will expand Deals to more cities besides Atlanta, Austin, Dallas, San Diego and San Francisco

The early Facebook Deals concentrate on activities that can be done with friends such as private parties, group meals and adventures

About the Author:
Jason Ford works as a web developer and an editor of a weekly technology magazine. With the passion in technology, he has published numerous articles to provide readers reliable information about technology products and hot technology events around the world.

Articles Source: Facebook Deals: 10 Interesting Facts You Need To Know

Smartphones To Beat Apple’s iPhone 4

By Elisa 11

Since its debut in 2010, iPhone 4 has been named as the best smartphone on the market. However, many other smartphones released recently can also be compared to it. They are Samsung Galaxy S II, HTC Desire, HTC Evo Shift 4G, Google Nexus S, Motorola Atrix 4G and HTC Incredible S.

The Samsung Galaxy S II or Galaxy S2 is an Android smartphone announced by Samsung on February 13, 2011 at the Mobile World Congress. The device is currently known as the thinnest smartphone in the world. The Galaxy S II is powered with a 1GHz dual-core processor, 4.3-inch (4.27-inch) Super AMOLED WVGA display. It is also equipped with support for Flash and will launch with Android 2.3 Gingerbread. The smartphone also has 1080p HD playback at 30fps and also has an 8MP camera.

Samsung Galaxy S II

The HTC Evo Shift 4G developed by HTC Corporation has a solid design with an easy-to-use physical keyboard. Running Android 2.2, the smartphone has 4G support and solid performancea. It can also be used as a mobile hot spot.

HTC Evo Shift 4

The HTC Incredible S smartphone has an innovative appearance and various features. It is a new Android 2.2 phone which features a 4" Super LCD display and 768MB of RAM, buttons that rotate along with the phone, and similar specs to the high-end Desire HD.

HTC Incredible S

HTC Desire is a smartphone made to make your life easier. Featuring the 3.7-inch touchscreen which is larger than Apple’s iPhone 4 and a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, the device is ideal for your multimedia needs such as watching movies and gaming. Using the HTC Desire, customers can access emails, calendar, and upload photos straight onto Facebook, Twitter and so on.

HTC Desire

The Google Nexus S is the second Google Nexus handset. It is regarded as the best Android phone on the market in terms of performance and features with a 1GHz Cortex A8 processor, a 4-inch touchscreen AMOLED display.

Google Nexus S

The high-end Android-based smartphone Motorola Atrix 4G by Motorola is super fast, and the Dual Core Nvidia Tegra 1GHz processor is the one to credit. Using Motorola Atrix 4G is more like a PC than a smartphone. The device’s smooth and sleek design is so fashionable as well. The phone’s display is 960 x 540, one of the highest revealed on any Android phone.

Motorola Atrix 4G

About the Author:
I am a web developer. I love technology and have a passion of writing articles about technology news, especially new products.

Articles Source: Smartphones To Beat Apple’s iPhone 4

Top Five Easiest Tricks That Help Speed Up Your Computers

By Zidane Randall

How do you feel if your computer lad, even when you perform the simplest tasks? There are many reasons resulting in this trouble but you can improve the case by carrying out five easiest tricks.

1. Check for spyware and malware

Your computer may pick up spyware and malware from various sites you visit when you access webs or chat online and email. Therefore, removing spyware and malware is an easy way to speed up your computer significantly.

Microsoft suggests that your computer can be protected from spyware if you use a free service called PC Safety Scan from Windows Live OneCare to check for viruses and remove them.

PC Safety Scan from Windows Live OneCare

You can also download Microsoft Security Essentials for free to protect your computer from viruses, spyware, adware and other things that make slow down your computer’s performance.

Microsoft Security Essentials software

If you are using Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP and Windows 2000, the Microsoft Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool will help you clear your computer of spyware and malware

2. Empty your recycle bin

People commonly use their computers for months without emptying recycle bin but don’t know that doing, which leads in slowing their computer

3. Defragment (Defrag) your computer

Fragmentation of files on your computer may result in slowing your computer down because it takes more time for your computer to find all the files. Therefore, you can annually defrag your computer to prevent this matter.

You can use Windows’s Disk Defragmenter tool or some software products like &O Defrag or Defraggler

4. Delete any files you aren’t using

You should take shape a habit in your mind that looking at everything on your computer and asking yourself whether you really need all. You should clean up and delete programs and files you never use starting from your desktop, which creates some extra disk space and helps your computer run faster.

Disk Cleanup tool on your PC can help you identify temporary Internet files and other items that can be deleted to clear up disk space

5. Fix registry errors

You can download a free program called Registry Easy to run a scan and fix any registry errors that might be slowing up your computer

About the Author:
I am a web developer. I love technology and have a passion of writing articles about technology news, especially new products.

Articles Source: Top Five Easiest Tricks That Help Speed Up Your Computers

By Taylor Meyer

Technology has become the fatest growing industry in modern time. Nowadays, people depend so much on computers and the Internet for their work, study and even entertainment. Recently, the PCMag magazine has compiled the list of most influential technology productions through technology industry thanks to the vote of readers and tech users.

Gaming: Atari 2600 (1977)

Although Pong was the first game system on Earth, Atari 2600 is still named the most influential game of all time which has kicked off the era of video gaming industry. Atari 2600 provides a huge game library, endless inspiration and functional replica. Atari 2600 received 40% of the vote to reach the precious position.

Atari 2600

Mobile Devices: Apple iPhone (2007)

Apple won again the show by mobile device category for Apple iPhone. Although the Motorola StarTAC is famous for most people, iPhone, otherwise, garnered as much as 58% of the vote.

Apple iPhone

Desktops and Laptops: Apple Macintosh (1984)

Beating the Commodore 64 and the IBM ThinkPad 700C color screen laptop, the Apple Macintosh computer was voted the most influential desktops and laptops with 35% vote. The Macintosh computer was launched in January 1984 with 128K RAM of memory (then 512K RAM), operation on Mac OS 1.0 and CPU of MC68000.

Apple Macintosh

Consumer Electronics: Apple iPod (2001)

Consumer electronics is always big fear for any technology companies. However, Apple has proved its advance in this field by the iPod - Apple's first digital music player. The result comes as no surprise at all.

Apple iPod

Software: Windows 3.1 (1993)

Windows 3.1 is the third generation of the dos-based Windows-versions which was announced in 1992. This product was impressively sold 10 million copies in the first 2 years. Then, the most popularly used Windows operating system has been named the most influential software in technology history.

Windows 3.1

About the Author:
I am a web developer. I love technology and have a passion of writing articles about technology news, especially new products.

Articles Source: Most Influential Technology Products in History

Ten Best Mobile Applications To Watch 2011

By Thanh Jupiter

It can not be denied that technology has been the fastest growing industry of modern life. Each day, tech engineers try effortlessly to design clever and most modern gadgets to meet the demand of tech addicts. Here are the most mobile apps to watch in 2011.

Meal Snap

Meal Snap application magically tells you how many calories you ate every day. The new iPhone app takes the pictures of your food and gets back with calorie and caption information. This app is best for those who don't know how healthy or unhealthy some foods are. With this Meal Snap, users can keep track of meals and progress over time.

Meal Snap costs $2.99 to download

Color

Color, which runs in platform iOS and Android, assists users to create public photo albums.

Amazon Cloud Player

Amazon Cloud Player provides 5GB of online storage for music.

Infinity Blade

Infinity Blade is the coolest game made for iOS platform. Otherwise, better processors and chips in smart phone make gamers more interested in the devices.

iSwifter

iSwifter helps users to watch videos on iPad, play game and assess to Website containing Flash video.

Fring

The new version of Fring is coming for iPhone and Android which allows users to make group video call involving as many as four people thanks to a front-facing camera.

Nursery Rhymes

Nursery Rhymes allows users to read a story to their beloved ones. The recipient can both listen to the story and see the graphics.

Gesture Search

Gesture Search from Google helps users to search by handwriting and numbers instead of using keyboards.

Adobe Photoshop Express

Adobe Photoshop Express allows users to edit photos on their own iPhone or iPad by simple gestures.

Bing for iPad

Microsoft's Bing for iPad offers a unique and rich way to search the websites.

About the Author:
I am a web developer. I love technology and have a passion of writing articles about technology news, especially new products.

Articles Source: Ten Best Mobile Applications To Watch 2011

Top Ten Crazy Stories About Bill Gates

By Groshan Fabiola

In Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen’s memoir called “Idea Man”, he reveals some crazy stories about his friend, Bill Gates.

Story 1: Bill Gates got source code in a dumpster in high school

In high school, Gates and Allen had a chance to practice their programming skills on a DEC computer owned by a local company, C-Cubed. However, not being allowed to access as much information as the company’s officials made them frustrated. One night, the smaller Gates was boosted up to the top of the company's dumpsters by Allen to find out some interesting stuffs. Fortunately, he got a printout of the TOPS-10 source code that helped two boys unlock a lot of secrets.

This story proves that the best can be found in the worst

Story 2: Bill Gates and Paul Allen hacked a company's accounting file to get free computing time

Gates and Allen started finding out a way to access one of the free accounts at C-Cubed when the charges for their borrowed computer time in high school increased. Unfortunately, they got caught and were booted by the company after the pair got access to an administrator password, and used it to steal the company's internal accounting file

Story 3: Gates wrote his high school's scheduling program to book him into an all-girl-English class

One summer, Gates accepted to write a class scheduling program for his high school to make sure that he could be sent into an English class with a dozen girls and no other boys

Story 4: Gates went water skiing with a broken leg

While Gates and Allen were working on a temporary programming contract in southern Washington State and sharing an apartment, Gate broke his leg but still went water skiing

Story 5: He ate a roast chicken with a spoon

One time, after Allen's girlfriend Rita cooked Gates a roast chicken, he ate the entire thing with a spoon

Story 6: He lost thousands of dollars when playing poker at Harvard

Gates used to be a regular gamer in his residence hall at Harvard and often lost thousands of dollars. However, this game taught him how to trick, which became beneficial later on

Story 7: He would work for huge missions without sleep

Gates liked staying up all night to work. One time, a new secretary found him laid on the floor and though he was unconscious when she came in on Monday morning. Actually, the man just wanted a quick catnap after working all weekend

Story 8: He did chest slides down a bannister at a Halloween party

In a crazy Halloween party at Allen’s house when Microsoft began to get some achievements, Gates got a kick out of sliding on the banister and glided toward the kitchen

Story 9: He drove like a maniac

Gates received so many speeding tickets that he had to hire the best traffic attorney in Washington State to get him out of trouble. One day, he borrowed a friend's Porsche 928 and caused an accident. Consequently, the repairs of this car took a year to complete

Story 10: He hijacked the control panel at an airport gate and got the plane to come back

In the early 1980s, Gates and Allen missed a flight at San Francisco International Airport. However, when the plane pulled away, he ran up to the control panel next to the jetway and began pushing buttons, hoping to move the jetway back out to the plane. Fortunately, the plane was called back by someone from the airline

About the Author:
I am a web developer. I love technology and have a passion of writing articles about technology news, especially new products.

Articles Source: Top Ten Crazy Stories About Bill Gates

How The Operating Systems Got Their Name?

By Chris Elliott

MS-DOS, Windows and Mac OS may be the most common names users think about when they mention the well-known operating systems. However, only few people know what “Window XP” and “Windows 1.0 – NT 4.0” stand for or where “Linux” comes from. Now, let's find out how some operating systems got their names.

MS-DOS

MS-DOS, which stands for Micro Soft Disk Operating System, was originally licensed from Seattle Consumer Products’ Quick and Dirty Operating System (QDOS). Because MS-DOS had no graphical user interface (GUI), users had to input everything via a command prompt.

DOS also means “Disk Operating System”, so MS-DOS was just one of many including Apple DOS, AmigaDOS, freeDOS, and many others

Windows 1.0 – NT 4.0

The Windows got its name from the fact that the new operating system and the number or name following “Windows” mentions what version of Windows users have. The Windows 1.0 allows users to interact in the GUI.

Microsoft started to work on its New Technology (NT) branch of the operating system with the numbering scheme for 1.0-3.1. Windows NT 4.0 was the first to implement the new NT kernel and used the Windows 95 user interface.

Windows NT 4.0 was released in 1996

Windows XP, Vista, and Windows 7

Windows XP made its debut in 2001 and the XP means eXPerience

Windows Vista was released in 2007 by Microsoft. According to Microsoft, Vista got its name because it symbolized what you were trying to get to at the end of the day. However, the operating system is not as successful as its meaning

Windows 7 is the seventh version of Windows since 1995

Mac OS 8 – 10

Mac OS 8 was introduced in 1997, short time after Steve Jobs returned to work for Apple. It was initially called version 7.7 but was changed to 8 because of a legal loophole that allowed Apple to shut down the 3rd party Macintosh market. Apple then released Mac OS 9, the last of the “Classic” Mac OSs.

OS X (OS Ten) is the tenth version of the Mac operating system and the first Mac OS based on Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD)

Linux

Linux got its name from Ari Lemmke. He ran the FTP server, where the original Linux Kernel was uploaded to. Though the creator of the Linux kernel, Linus Torvalds, expected to call the kernel Freax, Ari still gave him a folder named “linux” to upload his kernel to.

“Linux” came from the Linux kernel creator, Linus Torvalds

Ubuntu

Ubuntu (oo-BOON-too) literally means “humanity towards others” in Zulu and Xhosa languages. Like many Linux distributions, Ubuntu versions have two names for every release, a development code name and a version name. The numerical name for the release is based on the year and month of the release. For example, version 10.04 was released in April of 2010.

The current long term support version is Ubuntu 10.04.2 LTS (LTS stands for long term support)

About the Author:
I am a web developer. I love technology and have a passion of writing articles about technology news, especially new products.

Articles Source: How The Operating Systems Got Their Name?