Facebook Users Uproar Over News Feed Changes

If you are not already aware, Facebook has recently made a couple changes to their layout by adding a new functionality to their news feed which spits out your “Top Stories” by crunching factors such as which friends you interact with most and which of your friends’ posts get the most comments or “likes”.  Besides this, Facebook also added in a new ”
ticker” display which shows real-time updates on anything that your friends do (comment on a post/picture, post a status, change information…etc).

Like always, any minor change in Facebook’s layout will cause a huge uproar within the users and if the “trend” continues, then people will most likely learn to love the new features.

However, Facebook is receiving tons of complaints from users who are disappointed with the new features saying that the “top stories” feature doesn’t work and that the new “ticker” display is crowded and should be deleted (Find out how to get rid of the ticker display).

Wrote Amanda Stein: “To put it simply, I hate the new format. And I’ve been sending in feedback saying so since I first became an unwilling beta tester for it. It’s awful. I do not want Facebook telling me what stories are important. Nearly every story so far that has been marked as a Top Story hasn’t been important at all. One of my friends liking another friend’s FarmVille post is not important. Another friend changing her profile picture is not important. You are acting like you’ve improved the functionality of Facebook but you’ve done the opposite.”

Facebook may want to take these complaints more seriously this time as Google+ opened up their site so that everyone can join as of yesterday and unhappy Facebook users might make their way over to Google+.

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BlackBerry Bold 9930 Announced

Earlier today, Verizon announced the launch of their newest BlackBerry smartphone, the BlackBerry Bold 9930.  The phone will cost you around $249.99 with a new two-year contract as well as a $30 monthly data plan.

The BlackBerry Bold is the thinnest BlackBerry smartphone yet measuring in at 10.5mm.  The Bold is also the first BlackBerry to integrate touch screen with a BlackBerry keyboard.  It will have a 2.8 inch touch screen display and will be running on BlackBerry 7.

Some other key features of the device include full QWERTY keyboard with trackpad navigation,  a 1.2GHz processor,  5 megapixel camera able to take 720p HD video,  and memory can be expanded up to 32GB through a microSD slot.

Besides this, the phone is also “global ready” meaning that customers can enjoy the high speeds in over 200 different countries.

Firefox 6.0 Debuts Ahead of Schedule

Just like Mozilla Firefox 5.0, Firefox 6.0 is being “unofficially” released earlier than expected.  That’s right, Firefox 6.0 is now available for you to download if you so choose although the official release of the update has not been announced.

N0w Firefox 6.0 will not be bringing many changes to desktop versions of the browser (besides some changes in the address bar), changes will mostly be occuring in Android devices.  It is said that the latest version will bring a “fresh visual style in Chrome Gingerbread”.  Other features included in the update are enhanced image scaling and more importantly, the app is now faster and doesn’t use nearly as much memory.

Jump on the release now and download Firefox 6.0

Android Ice Cream Sandwich Images Leaked

Android users pay attention because the new Android version, Ice Cream Sandwich, looks to be near its launch date.

Earlier this morning, images from multiple websites appeared showing off what looked to be the new Android Ice Cream sandwich.

One of those sites, Rootzwiki.com, showed Ice Cream Sandwich running on Google’s Nexus S phone (image on right).  The images shown show a new updated notification bar with some updated icons along with a blue theme.  A new customization control panel is also shown.  Many people have said that it looks like the panel that you would see on Android Honeycomb powered tablets.

The other site, AndroidPolice.com, have also uploaded a couple images (image to left).  These images show that the phone is in fact running on Ice Cream Sandwich.  The other image shows what looks to be the notification bar pulled down and has a new black theme to it.

So it looks like Ice Cream Sandwich might come out sooner than expected.  It will most likely be available for Nexus S phones first and then for other phones as the year goes on.

Samsung Galaxy R Announced Today

Early this morning, Samsung announced that they were extending their technology partnership with Nvidia from tablets to smartphones with the creation of their newest smartphone, the Samsung Galaxy R.  The monbile business manager from Nvidia says that the Galaxy R will show off Tegra’s multimedia power.  The phone is now available but only in Sweden.  No word has been said when it will be available in North America or Europe.

The Galaxy R will have a 4.19 inch touch screen display (800×400 resolution), run on Android 2.3 Gingerbread, and will include the same processor that is in the Galaxy Tab 10.1, a dual-core Nvidia Tegra processor.  It will also come with 8GB of storage (expandable to 32GB), 1080p HD video playback, and 720p HD video capture.  The Galaxy R is only 131 grams and less than 1cm thick!

 

Have We Found the Samsung Galaxy S II?

New images from South Korea listing specs of a new LTE phone named “Celox”, have just surfaced.  No word has been said when the handset will hit the market but it is expected soon.

The “Celox” has a 1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, 16GB of internal memory (expandable to 32GB), and runs on Android’s Gingerbread operating system.  The phone also has a 4.5 inch touch screen display, a 8 megapixel rear facing camera and a 2 megapixel front facing camera.

This is all that we know of so far but hopefully more information will be leaked soon.

HTC Tablet leaked!

Earlier today, some specs from HTC’s upcoming tablet known to be the “Flyer” were leaked to the public including the screen size, resolution and, processor.

To start off, the HTC Flyer looks oddly similar to the Samsung Galaxy Tab with it having a 7 inch touch screen and 1024×600 screen resolution that will all be controlled by using a stylus.  The Flyer will also be running on a Qualcomm Snapdragon processor and will have 1GB of RAM.  It will also be running on Android 2.3 rather than Honeycomb (Android 2.3).

Physical features look decent on the device. It will have HDMI capabilities and also both a front and rear facing camera.  The front is 1.3mp while the rear is 3mp but has a flash.

That’s the end to the leaked specs.  Doesn’t look like this device will be much of a “threat” to other company’s upcoming tablets but still always nice to have options to choose from.

Samsung Continuum hands on

Not too long ago, I made a blog about Verizon’s newest Galaxy S phone, the Samsung Continuum and they were nice enough to send me out a demo unit.  Below are the unboxing and review videos from my YouTube channel.

 

New Windows 7 phone leaked!

Earlier today some information on the specs of the new HTC HD7 Windows smartphone was leaked to the public. The phone will be released to the public in mid October and by looking at what the phone has in store for us, it seems that it has a lot to offer.

To start off, the HD7 will have a 4.3 inch LCD touch screen display with an 800 x 480 pixel resolution.  The display also supports multi-touch.  The phone itself has a 1GHz Qualcomm processor with 512MB of ROM making the phone extremely fast and smooth.  Besides this, it will also come with 8GB of internal storage for storing media files and everything else.

The HD7 will come with a 5 megapixel camera with a dual LED flash and autofocus making your pictures come out in great quality.  Further more, you will be able to capture video but we’re not sure if it will be HD or not yet.  And as a popular feature on newer phones, the HD7 will also have a 3.5 mm headphone jack so you can plug in your mp3 headphones and save the money of buying certain cell phone headphones just to listen to music.  Finally, the phone will have a HDMI output port to playback videos on your tv in the best quality possible.

Besides all of this, the phone will work on 3G networks in the U.S. and in Europe.  Also, the HD7 will include Wi-Fi, GPS, FM radio, and bluetooth.

Overall, I think this phone will be a great add-on to the public’s list of choices for smartphones.  I will update this post when I find out more information on the phone.

Samsung Epic 4G, how epic is it?

Sprint has announced a new Galaxy S phone to enter their lineup called the Samsung Epic 4G. The phone differs from other Galaxy S phones by giving users the options of a full slide out QWERTY keyboard. The keyboard’s layout is somewhat larger than other QWERTY keyboards on the market. The buttons are larger and the and are spaced further apart making texting or typing much easier and giving the user less chance of accidentally hitting the wrong letter.

The Epic has a 4 inch Super AMOLED capacitive touch screen with a resolution of 800 x 480. The phone has a 50,000:1 contrast ratio which in return, supports movies and games to the max. The Epic also has a bulit in 3.5 mm headphone jack and also a 5 megapixel camera with a LED light for both camera and video. To add to that, there is also a 0.3 megapixel front facing camera incuded on the Epic compared to the 1.3 megapixel camera on the HTC Evo.

The phone runs on Android 2.1 along with a 1GHz processor making the phone very quick and responsive. The Epic also has 512MB of RAM, giving the Iphone 4 and the HTC Evo competition. Having 4G connection, the browser is able to run on top speeds out there. However, 4G is a relitivily new service so not everyone will be able to experience it. But when it becomes more popular, people will be astounded on how incredibly fast it is (this is a big addiction to the “epicness” of the phone).

I believe that this will be a great addition to the Android “family”. It provides the customer with a bunch of the latest qualities on a smartphone including the 4G network and a front facing camera. And giving the Iphone a challenge, I think it will be interesting to see how many people pick this phone over it.

What are your thoughts on the phone?