Monday, May 31, 2010

iPad: 2 million sold in less than 60 days

Apple announced on Monday that in less than two months 2 million iPads have been sold. On May 28th the iPad had it's international launch in  Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Large queues were reported in Australia, Japan and the UK with people waiting for up to 30 hours before they got their hands on their beloved iPads. 


Steve Jobs had this to say “Customers around the world are experiencing the magic of iPad, and seem to be loving it as much as we do,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “We appreciate their patience, and are working hard to build enough iPads for everyone.”


When the iPad first launched we had written an article which said that the iPad could be a boon for third world countries and could be used for education in distant and remote areas. Places that are hard to reach for medical aid could also benefit from the iPad it is easy to cart around and comes with great battery life. In addition it does not cost too much and can be easily transported. 


The Apps available are amazing and there is at least one App available for every user's needs.   Apple we bet would like to make one iPad for every individual in the world and the success of this would depend entirely on the Apps as this is what makes the iPad a success. Since high end computing is quiet limited on the iPad the Apps make up for whatever short comings critics throw at the iPad. It is selling and it is here to stay.



[Image Courtesy: Apple ]



How to end an ebay auction without selling the item

There are some basic guidelines laid down by ebay if you want to cancel an auction without selling the item. Sometimes there is a need an a seller would want to cancel the auction and not sell. Some of the reasons could be that the item is missing a part or has been stolen or the item is not working anymore. You need to be very careful as ending an auction early will leave your buyers disappointed and ebay being such a community based on feedback you don't really want to get bad feedback. 


Here are the basic requirements that would determine how to end your listing early.


1. If there are 12 hours or more remaining before you end your listing you can do so without any restrictions.
2. If there are less than 12 hours remaining before you end your listing. You would need to check if there are any bids on your item and if there is a reserve price on your item. If there are no bids including no cancelled bids then you can end you ebay item listing and cancel the auction. If there are any cancelled bids you cannot end it early. If there are one or more bids then you need to sell the item to the highest bidder and cancel the listing. If there are one or more bidders but the reserve price wasn't met then you cannot cancel the listing early. 


How to end a listing



  1. Type the item number into the End My Listing Early form. The item number is shown on your listing, confirmation email, and My eBay page.
  2. If there are bids on your item, choose how you want to end your listing.
    • If there are 12 hours or more before the end of the listing, choose “Cancel bids and end listing early” or “Sell item to high bidder.”
    • If there are 12 hours or less before the end of the listing, your only option is to “Sell item to high bidder.”
  3. Select the reason you're ending your listing early.
  4. Your listing will end and will no longer be active on eBay. If you're canceling an auction-style listing with bids, bidders who didn’t win will receive an email explaining that their bid was canceled and that the listing ended early.


    If you can’t end the listing

    If you don’t meet the requirements for ending your auction-style listing early, your best option is to communicate with the bidders.
    • If the listing ends and there is a winning bidder: Contact the bidder and explain the situation. If you and the bidder agree to not complete the sale, you can file an unpaid item and indicate that you and the buyer have agreed not to complete the transaction. The bidder will be notified and can confirm the agreement.

    The fine print

    • You'll still be charged listing fees (such as the insertion fee) if you end your listing early. If you want to change or improve your listing, consider revising your listing instead.
    • Sellers are not permitted to cancel bids and end listings early in order to avoid selling an item that did not meet the desired sale price. This is considered to be a reserve price violation. Although there are legitimate reasons for ending a listing early, abuse of this option will be investigated.
    • eBay Motors allows sellers to end their listing early and cancel all bids by sending a Transaction Confirmation Request to the buyer.

[Source: ebay ]

Treasure Isle Adopt an Elephant

So how do you get to find a adoptable elephant on Treasure Isle. As you are in game play there will suddenly be a pop  up saying that you have found a lost elephant and would you like to give it a name. You would need to click yes and publish this to your wall and your friends walls. You friends can then click on the published post and get the elephant. You however will not be able to get the elephant by clicking on your own wall post. You would need to wait for a friend to find the elephant and publisher this. You would then need to click on the story on your wall to get the lost elephant. Even then you need to be among the first people to click on the wall link to get an elephant. 


Once you save an elephant you can then sell it for 1.000 coins. This is an offer being run on Treasure Isle and ends on June 1.

Social City Move Buildings and Items from one District to Another

Did you know that on Social City you can move building and items from one district to another. So if there is a building or an item you would like to move from a certain district, simply place that building or item into storage. Then go to the district you want to move this building or item to. In the build menu go to building inventory and grab this building or item and place it in the new district destination.

How to delete Social City from Facebook

How to delete or remove Social City from Facebook.


There are two things people are worried about. If you simply want to delete notifications coming to your wall from these games you would need to hover over the upper right hand side of the notification when it arrives and the option "Hide" appears. Simply click hide and the notifications will then be stopped.


This was you can continue your game and not get the notifications.


If you want to delete the game from your application settings you would need to do the following

1. Account
2. Privacy Preferences
3. Click on 'edit your settings' under "Apps and Websites"
4. Beside Apps you use please click on 'edit Settings'
5. Click on 'edit' beside Apps you use
5. Click on Social City or the (X) mark beside the App
6. Click on Remove
7. Confirm Remove
8. You're done


By removing the game completely you will now no more be able to play it. So you need to decide if you want to remove the game application completely or simply hide notifications. 



Video: Indonesian baby on 40 cigarettes a day

 A toddler on Sumatra is hooked on nicotine after being introduced to cigarettes by his father. It costs the father 5 bucks a day to give him the 2 packs of cigarette's a day. The child starts creaming and banging his head to the ground if he is denied his fix and even gets sick


 



Rumor: Apple TV will cost $99 and run on iPhone OS4

There have been a lot of rumors circulating over the internet and latest one is that the new Apple TV will cost $99 and run on iPhone OS4 with an A4 processor. The set top box will display all YouTube videos, images from iPhoto and Flickr, will get it's video content from iTunes in SD and HD Quality.


The rumor further goes on to suggest that the device will have 16GB of Flash Storage and be capable of full 1080p HD.


This rumor first appeared on Engadget.


Some have described the device as an iPhone without a screen


Critics says that the difference between Apple TV and Google TV is Apply TV will not be able to play flash videos and everyone knows that up until now flash was what people used to make videos. Apple goes with HTML5 only. Most of the videos on the web run on Flash

Use the new Skype App to make and receive calls over 3G for iPhone

Skype has announced their all new App that allows users to make and receive calls over 3G in the US. In addition the calls made from Skype to Skype now come with new CD quality sound on your iPhone 3GS and 2nd generation iPod Touch and onwards. 


The service will remain free till the end of 2010 after which a small fee will be charged. Skype-to-Skpye over WIFI will remain free. And you can make calls to landlines and mobiles at Skype's incredibly free rates. 


The new version App features enhanced quality sound, which will help you choose the best moment to call. The App is speedier, giving you rapid access to the dial pad from the home screen. All of this making it easier for you to get from click to chatter. 


The updated app is available now in the App Store – download it now.





Sunday, May 30, 2010

May 31 is Quit Facebook Day

pcmag reported that "Quit Facebook Day" only effected 2% of US users. It seems people are not ready to give up on the social network over the recent privacy issues. Users have obviously spent a lot of time, energy and creativity in creating their own social network on Facebook and are not really ready to give it up.


Facebook has also announced it's new privacy policy that aims to make thing simpler for users to understand and adjust. There are many privacy rights groups who are very vocal against Facebook's privacy policies but that does not necessarily effect the masses. People are just not ready to quit, Facebook on the other hand has already put their new policy in place and if you login to Facebook and click on privacy policy you see a whole new page with simplified layouts in place.


Creating an account and maintaining it on Facebook is also no joke. You need to interact with your people, share photos, videos and then the games. People love their games and applications and it keeps them busy. End of the day people share only what they want to share and this whole thing of  "Quit Facebook Day" did not really  get the success it wanted.


So did you quit?

After Pakistan Facebook now blocked in Bangladesh

You would remember about a week ago Facebook was blocked in Pakistan because of a page called " Everybody Draw Mohammed Day". Muslims regard drawing of their prophet Mohammed blasphemous even the good ones. It is considered sacrilegious to draw images of the Prophet.


Chief telecommunication regulator Zia Ahmed said Sunday that access to the site has been temporarily blocked because it was publishing caricatures that may hurt the religious sentiments of people in the Muslim-majority nation.


Thousands of Muslims took to the streets in Dhaka to protest.


Facebook is back up in Pakistan though.


[Image Courtesy: Yahoo News]

What happens when you block a user in Gmail Chat

Even wondered what happens when you block a user from Chat in Gmail. Was wondering and we did a little research and this is what we found out. Most of us use Gmail and chat from right there. There are those annoying people who you know you just have to block.


Firstly, for those who do not know how to block someone in Google Chat. This is what you need to do really.


Once you login to Gmail hover over the name of the person you want to block and click the down arrow beside Videos & More. The last option is block click on that to block a person.


When you block a person this is what happens. You won't appear online in your blocked contacts friends list and your blocked contact will not appear on your friends list. 


This will however not affect any emailing capabilities. You can still communicate via email but cannot chat and you do not appear in their friends list.


So if you used to chat often this is one way for the other person to know they have been blocked.

Saturday, May 29, 2010

PetVille Tahiki Weekend Give away 10,000 Pet Cash

PetVille has announced a 10,000 Pet Cash Weekend Giveaway. You enter your pet in the contest all you have to do is simply click on this link to enter. http://zyn.ga/GE by clicking and entering you also get 1 pet cash. The contest is for three days and starts Saturday May 29 and ends Monday May 31. This is a must enter contest imagine what you can do with 10,000 pet cash.


To increase you chances please visit the PetVille Fan page everyday for the next three days.




Chances to win will be announced on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday on the fan page!






Video: The Lady RodriGaga trending topic on Twitter

Many people on Twitter are confused with today's trend. The No.1 topic is "Lady RodriGaga" and No. 2 is "Faro Dancando Lady Gaga". So here is what happed that made this a trending topic on Twitter.

Rodrigo faro is a Brazilian TV presenter who danced to Lady Gaga's bad Romance. The audience was thirlled and thought it really funny. Twitter is covered with tweets regarding the performance by Rodrigo faro.

We've got the video for you. Check it out.

Warning: New Facebook phishing attack tries to steel your Facebook credentials

There is a new phishing attack doing the rounds on Facebook. You will be able to recognize it because it is labeled as "The is without a doubt the most hilarious Facebook video ever LOL". There is also a picture of a woman in a short skirt. So be careful and do not click on it. If off course you are tempted and would like to click on it you are redirected to a phishing site. The page you are taken to is a page that looks like the original Facebook sign in page. This is no Facebook page as you will be able to notice from the address bar. If you do sign in you are then redirected to an application that wants to access all your information. In addition a malware program is installed on your PC.


The Facebook application is often called "Media Player HD". So if you fell for this attack change your Facebook password. Delete this application and run a virus / malware scan on your computer. 


This video from websense explains it further.

How to delete Happy Aquarium on Facebook

How to delete Happy Aquarium on Facebook.


There are two things people are worried about. If you simply want to delete notifications coming to your wall from these games you would need to hover over the upper right hand side of the notification when it arrives and the option "Hide" appears. Simply click hide and the notifications will then be stopped.


This was you can continue your game and not get the notifications.


If you want to delete the game from your application settings you would need to do the following


1. Account
2. Privacy Preferences
3. Click on 'edit your settings' under "Apps and Websites"
4. Beside Apps you use please click on 'edit Settings'
5. Click on 'edit' beside Apps you use
5. Click on Happy Aquarium or the (X) mark beside the App
6. Click on Remove
7. Confirm Remove
8. You're done



By removing the game completely you will now no more be able to play it. So you need to decide if you want to remove the game application completely or simply hide notifications. 




Mafia Wars London Challenge Mission kicks off

The London challenge mission has kicked off in Mafia Wars. The more mafia the better, make sure you have a large mafia as it works better to ensure you get passports. You need to earn your passports through fights, robbing and doing jobs. Invite as many people to join you on Mafia Wars and make sure your Mafia is strong. The passports will help you on your way as you work to steel the Crown Jewels. 


By adding more people to your Mafia you add additional ways to get passports. British Passports are needed to complete each of the three London chapters.


The London challenge mission consists of three chapters and one will unlock each week. Complete each chapter to score one of three limited edition items.

FarmVille Bushels and Farmer's Market

FarmVille now has a farmer's market. So if you are at level 15 or higher the farmer's market allows you to collect bushels from harvested crops that can be used to get bonuses for yourself or give them to neighbors. To collect bushels all you need to do is harvest your regular crops in the same way you can harvest bunches from flower crops. You will be able to collect bushel;s from all permanent crops available in the market. Once you find your first bushel you will get a market stall. If you do not wish to wait you also purchase a market stall in the building section of the market for either coins or farm cash. The limit to market stalls is five. You farm can have a maximum of five stalls. Each stall you have can sell one type of crop. Once you have your market stalls in place you can then start collecting bushels to use yourself or let your neighbors collect by harvesting your crops. 


To access the market stalls menu you would need to select farmers market from it's pull down menu. Inside you can see what bushels you've collected from your neighbors under the my bushels section. What bushels your neighbors have available in the get bushels section and what bushels your stall is currently offering in the my stalls section. Clicking the get bushels button will show you what bushels all your neighbors are currently offering. Clicking any available bushels will display a list of bushels that each neighbor has available and how long their stall is open for. Selecting a specific neighbor will take you to their stall. Bushels taken from your friends stall are added to your inventory and can be seen in the my bushels section of your stall. 


Once you collect bushels either from your farm or your neighbors they are all stored in your inventory. You can hold up to 50 bushels in your inventory. Each bushel can be shared or used. Clicking the "Share" button on any bushel will allow you to offer up a number of bushels of your choosing to your friends via a feed. Clicking the "Use" button consumes one of the bushels and gives you a bonus. The type of bonus will depend on whether you have access to the crop or not. If the bushel used came from a crop that you did plant you receive a bonus of +1 mastery whenever that crop is harvested on your farm for two hours. If you have already mastered this crop the bonus is +1 Experience Point per harvest. If you use the bushel of a crop that you are not high enough of a level to play in you'll receive a licence to plant that crop that lasts for 2 hours. 


Whenever neighbors use your stall you can choose to receive a reward of your choice. If you neighbors have used your market stall an arrow will point to the appropriate stall. Viewing the interior of your stall will show you the three rewards that you can choose from. Coins, Fuel and Experience Points (XP). 

Friday, May 28, 2010

Sign up for YouTube with your Facebook account!

YouTube now get Facebook integration. You can now sign up for YouTube with your Facebook integration. Will definitely make it easier for you to share videos from YouTube directly to Facebook. Once you click on Sign up for YouTube with your Facebook account this is what you get to see.


As you see from the image below by signing up for YouTube with your Facebook account you will be allowing the application to send you emails, access your Facebook public information, access posts in your news feeds. 

YouTube is requesting permission to do the following:
  • Access my public information
    Includes name, profile picture, list of friends, and all other public parts of my profile
  • Send me email
    YouTube may email me directly at abc@gmail.com · 
  • Access posts in my News Feed
  • Access my data any time
    YouTube may access my data when I'm not using the application
YouTube


Once you click on allow application this is the screen you get if you have already logged into YouTUbe with your Google account


You're currently signed in to Google
In order to sign you up for YouTube, we need to log you out of your Google Account before starting the sign-up process.
Sign me up!
It seems that this is being rolled out in a phased manner and the way to reach this signup page is if you click on a video in Facebook and get directed to YouTube. If you have any additional information do let us know.

FarmVille raise your baby foals and calves in the nursery barn

Have you built your Nursery Barn if so you can now raise your baby foals and baby calves in the nursery barn. With the chance that each time your harvest from your Nursery barn one of your baby animals will grow into an adult animal. So stock up your Nursery barn with nursery items. 


To know more about the Nursery barn we have attached a guide found on the official FarmVille forum by community manager Lexilicious.



“Nursery Barn:
Upon entering Farmville you’ll receive the following Message of the Day.After clicking the ‘OK’ button, you will be taken to your Gift Box where you will receive the Nursery Barn Foundation.You can also purchase the Nursery foundation from the decorations section of Market for 5,000 Coins.
Once you’ve placed the Foundation on your farm, you will be prompted with a message letting you know that you can post a feed to ask you friends for help building your Nursery.
Clicking the “Share” button will give you the option to post a feed to your wall. Up to 10 of your Neighbors can click on this feed to receive 100 Coins.
In order to use your Nursery Barn, you’ll need to finish building it. Selecting ‘Look Inside’ from your foundation’s menu will show you what you need to complete your Nursery Barn.
When you first place the foundation, you’ll have one Bottle already. In order to build a complete stable you’ll need 10 of each item. You can get these items one of three ways:
1. From neighbors via the Free Gifts menu.
Neighbors can send you the components you need to build your Nursery. Your Neighbors will be able to send you three of the five types of building components to help you complete your Nursery Barn.
Please note that the components displayed on the Free Gifts Page are randomized. As such, the components displayed on the Free Gifts Page may be different for each player. Each player should be able to send one of the two components specific to the Nursery Barn (Bottles and Blankets), and two of the components shared with the Horse Stable.
When neighbors send you a building component, it works exactly like any other free gift. After you accept the gift it will appear in your gift box.
After clicking the “use” button under the gift it will automatically be added to your Nursery Barn.
PLEASE NOTE: Since the Horse Stable and Nursery Barn share components, if you have both unfinished on your farm you’ll be able to select which building a component goes to when to click select.
2. Purchasing components from the Market,
You can purchase components required to build your Nursery Barn from the Market for 1 Farm Cash per item.
3. Ask For More
When viewing the interior of your unfinished Nursery Barn, each component that you have not yet received 10 of has an ‘Ask For More’ button, that when clicked will allow you to post a feed to let people know how many of each component you need. The link in this Feed will take them to the Gifting page where they can select a component to send to you.
When you reach 25 items, you’ll receive pop-up that will allow you to post a feed to your wall. The first ten neighbors to click this feed will receive a random building component for their own Nursery Barn construction.
When you complete your Nursery Barn, you will receive a popup asking you if you’d like to share the news with your friends. Clicking the Share button on this popup will give you the option to post a feed to your wall that will give up to five neighbors who click on it a free Grey Foal.
Once the Nursery Barn is complete, you’ll receive a Grey Foal of your own.’
You’re able to store up to 20 baby foals and calves in your stable and you may only have one Nursery Barn per farm.
Every 24 hours, you’ll be able to collect from the foals and calves stored in your Nursery. Eventually, you’ll be able to use the Nursery to grow your foals and calves up!” (Source: Official FarmVille Forum)


Facebook launches new privacy settings and privacy guide

Facebook has launched privacy settings with a whole new design. When you click on Privacy Settings you are taken to a whole new page where things seem simpler and easier to understand. The options however remain the same and  you need to play around a little to get it right. There is also a guide that has been launched to help explain all of these settings.

To understand each of these settings Facebook has got a page that explains all of this and is available here. We are also posting the guide in this post if you would like to read through it. The New Privacy page on Facebook now looks like this.

Choose Your Privacy Settings
  • Basic Directory Information
    To help real world friends find you, some basic information is open to everyone. We also suggest setting basics like hometown and interests to everyone so friends can use those to connect with you. View settings
  • Sharing on Facebook
    • Everyone
    • Friends of Friends
    • Friends Only
    • Recommended
    • Custom
    • EveryoneFriends of FriendsFriends OnlyOther
      My status, photos, and posts
         
      Bio and favorite quotations
         
      Family and relationships   
      Photos and videos I'm tagged in   
      Religious and political views   
      Birthday   
      Can comment on posts  
       
      Email addresses and IM  
       
      Phone numbers and address  
       
    Customize settings
    This is your current setting.
Applications and Websites
Edit your settings for using applications, games and websites.
Block Lists
Edit your lists of blocked people and applications.
Controlling How You Share
Learn more about your privacy on Facebook.