Chou praised Facebook for creating extremely unique service that has spread the globe. HTC started as an anonymous outsourcer making devices for others, but unlike Taiwanese electronics companies like for instance, Foxconn that have succeeded by out gadgets for big brands like Apple, HTC has spent the last five years building a consumer brand of its own.

In addition, for a while, the strategy worked: by 2010, HTC became Android smartphone leader and the third most prestigious Taiwanese company, with a market capital of $18 billion.

However, since Samsung is reaching record heights in all the spheres its engaged in, a little help from Facebook with turn out to be a great help to HTC. Some are doubtful about how much difference, it will make to HTC with this association. It will work when consumers take to Facebook Home, the Taiwanese company might get a boost.

But if this equation will be a success, no doubt on Zuckerberg would stick to one single supplier.

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Let us take a quick gape at what Google had it on stores but we failed to grab our attention.

#1 Google Mars- It was launched in 2009 with the collaborative efforts of Google and NASA researchers at Arizona State University. This app produced detailed scientific maps of Mars. It was released as part of Google Earth app which can be downloaded for free. It helps in viewing the images that are downloaded by NASA and also helps in taking an intriguing tour to Mars (Virtually though), view 3D rover models and follow their tracks to see high-resolution 360-degree panoramas.

#2 Google Scholar- Known for searching best scholarly literature for you on the internet. It helps users to hunt for the best sources like articles, thesis, books, abstracts and court opinions, from academic publishers, professional societies, online repositories, universities and other web sites as per your preference.

#3 Google’s Art Project- Started in February 2011, is an online collection of some of the best art works from around the globe. The art project provides users virtual tour of more than 150 art museums from across the world. Art lovers can have a peek at high-resolution close-ups of masterworks by Van Gogh, Rembrandt and Botticelli and many more.

#4 Google Input Tools- The tool allows users to type and exchange messages in the language and style of their choice.

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Heins was in Australia at the launch of Blackberry Z10 and while speaking to Australian Financial Review, he said, “”The user interface on the iPhone, with all due respect for what this invention was all about is now five years old.”

Heins further compared Blackberry and iPhone’s operating system and praised the former by saying that it’s multi-tasking and helps user to run several apps on phone just like the way he runs several windows on a laptop.

Heins stated that the response BB10 operating system is getting is very impressive and the company is in negotiations with Netflix and Instagram in order to create apps for the Blackberry. Blackberry intends to have 1,00,000 apps by the time Z10 gets launched in the US.

Heins did acknowledge Apple for revolutionizing and transforming mobile industry. While praising Apple he said, “Apple did a fantastic job in bringing touch devices to market… They did a fantastic job with the user interface, they are a design icon.”

Considering the smartphone business that Samsung started back in the year 2009, the rapid growth and development Samsung has achieved and aspires to achieve in the mobile phone business is commendable. Now, Samsung holds market share as good as 17.7 per cent. If we consider the fact that Samsung has just entered into mobile device market, the data and the height it has scaled is impressive.

Samsung Electronics now has scaled number one position leaving Chinese company Lenovo at second place. The market share of Lenovo was recorded as 13.2 per cent which has shown ascending growth of 4 per cent. Apple acquired third position with 11 per cent of market share. Huawei and Cool pad slated to fourth and fifth position respectively

Facebook mentioned at the Graph Search launch that there were special protections for minors, but in advance of a wider rollout of Graph Search, it posted some details today on how it keeps kids safe. The Graph Search restrictions are extensions of existing barriers Facebook has erected placed between adults and children, and its ban on public posts by minors.

“On Facebook, many things teens are likely to do – such as adding information to their timelines or sharing status updates – can only be shared with a maximum of Friends of Friends. In addition, for certain searches that could help to identify a young person by age or by their location, results will only show to that person’s Friends, or Friends of Friends who are also between the age of 13-17.”

Facebook also laid out some Graph Search safety tips. People should check their Activity Log and About sections to make sure they’re sharing the right info with the right people. And if they spot something sketchy on the social network, they should report it.

We haven’t heard much public outcry about Graph Search, but that’s because it’s only rolled out to a small percentage of users (you can sign up here for early access). Facebook’s smart enough to not freak out the whole world at once with an instant rollout, which also prevents backlash from snowballing. But once the rollout ramps up, expect to see some backlash, overblown privacy violation rumors, and people claiming they’re leaving Facebook for good.

Most people won’t, even if they say they will. Facebook is a central communication utility for a lot of people now. The question is whether Graph Search will have a more subtle chilling effect on sharing, or at least on sharing publicly.

Some people will be happy to share, and might even do so more frequently now that their posts could help friends find local businesses, vacations, or take a walk down memory lane. As I wrote, in some ways Graph Search makes privacy selfish and sharing generous. But others might get creeped out by strangers browsing their content, even stuff as innocuous as which dentist they prefer. They’d rather lock down their content or not post at all rather than worry about who might see it.

Graph Search has lots of practical uses, from photo browsing to business discovery to finding friends to hang out with on vacation. But if Facebook doesn’t convince the world it’s not creepy, it could shoot Graph Search in the foot before it’s even up and running.

(Courtesy- Techcrunch)

However, Qihoo rubbishes all the allegations and says it does know what exactly triggered Apple to remove Qihoo from app store. On the contrary, Qihoo’s Chief Financial Officer is trying hard to win back trusted relationship with Apple and let everything run the way it was running, smoothly. And to serve the purpose he’s said to flown out to US.

As per the warning issued by China’s State Administration for Industry and Commerce (SAIC), Qihoo used few questionable business practices that have maligned the reputation of the business. In addition, it entered into unfair business practices mentioning anti-virus software used in Internet browsers.

This is the second time Apple has taken down Qihoo’s mobile apps. Qihoo says in defense, that this situation is created as apps received numerous positive or negative feedback posted by some unknown sources. This has caused an automatic removal of apps from the most renowned the Apple App store.

There are far more better and innovative options apart from Facebook. Take a look.

Twitter
For teens, Twitter use doubled from 8 to 16 percent from 2010 to 2011. With its irreverent use of hashtags and 140-character limits, it can be a rush of information, but its 500 million users find it fun with friends and social-media savvy singers, comedians and actors. Users are more likely to be female (78 percent) but Twitter also has the highest rate of users streaming live video to the Internet (25 percent).

Instagram
This photo-sharing app is very popular with teens because of its wide selection of hip filters. According to a Piper Jaffray survey of 7,700 of teens across the country, Instagram was a solid second choice behind behemoth Facebook (although Instagram is now owned by the social network). There have been worrisome “sexting” stories about the app with 50 million users, but statistics show that both sending and receiving sexually explicit photos has been on the decline for teens.

LittleMonsters
If Tumblr is a specialty boutique in the mall, LittleMonsters is the little store across town with the quirky owner. It’s all about Lady Gaga, so if your teens don’t love her, they will be unlikely to use it. But if they do — it’s Lady Gaga 24/7, with its thousands of Little Monsters commenting on every new Gaga photo, news item or tweet. No membership numbers have been released since the network opened to the public in July. But with Gaga’s 26.8 million Twitter followers and 52.5 million Facebook friends, it’s a fair bet this site is poised to grow quickly.

Tumblr
This blogging site, half of whose traffic is composed of users under age 25, can be used to post Justin Bieber death fiction, notes on this week’s “Glee” episode or anything else. It doesn’t have to be long or emotional, because many Tumblr sites are images only. There are 78 million of these blogs, with new ones starting every day based on memes or viral sound bites. However, fan Tumblr pages seem to be the most passionate and frequently updated.

Video Chat Apps
Thirty-seven percent of teens use a video chat client, according to Pew. For teens ages 16 to 17, the number jumps to 39 percent. While Facebook, Google Hangouts and Skype are common places to use video chat, teens also go to other video chat sites such as OoVoo, a social video site with 54 million users, or Tango, which has 65 million users.

Here’s is the list of top 5 most anticipated gadgets in 2013.

1. PlayStation 4: Nintendo got out ahead with this year’s release of the Wii U, however it may face tough competition from Sony and Microsoft. Sony is known for standing behind its consoles – you can still buy a PlayStation 2 off the shelf today and that thing is over a decade old. If the PlayStation 2 is any indication, the PlayStation 3 will likely remain a hit for the company for years after their new console is released.

2. Xbox 720: The latest tech reports on Microsoft’s next console might be known as the Xbox 720 or Xbox Loop . State the chipset has already been in production and game developers are working hard on new titles. The machine should be on shelves in time for Christmas, 2013. Rumors that the new Xbox will simply be an update to the existing 360 are bunk, same to the theory Microsoft console for under $300. You can bet the new console will be smaller than its predecessor and that Microsoft will continue to push the Kinect peripheral. Despite the company’s interest in casual and motion-based games, expect the next Xbox to continue Microsoft’s appeal to hardcore gamers.

3. Blackberry 10: Blackberry’s maker Research in Motion (RIM), the maker plans to unveil the new BlackBerry 10 operating system in January. RIM has fallen from one of the largest smartphone makers in the world and is falling behind Apple and Android products. The Blackberry 10 is a make or break product for the company. So far, early reports are positive. The new browser is allegedly faster than anything on the market and a QWERTY keyboard version is said to be available.

4. Augmented Reality Glasses: The unique sci-fi specs are finally getting closer to reality; as close as mid-2013, according to some tech experts. Google and Vuzix are working on models that are similar to headsets, projecting an image in front of the wearer’s eye.

5. Smartphones that bend: This might be the case with bendy screen smartphones. Samsung has already shown its OLED display technology, this means we can wrap technology on our wrist. It’s likely to be called the Galaxy Skin and will feature everything you expect in a smartphone – camera, high-res screen and a decent processor.

Mixlr’s iOS app is a full-fledged app that supports many features like that you have on your high-end desktop. This can broadcast “high quality audio” over 3G, 4G or WiFi, see who’s listening and chat in real-time, and save live broadcasts as an archive.

On the pure content consumption end, users can browse and search live broadcasts, listen with their friends. Mixlr also ties into Facebook’s social graph and get a personalized view of Mixlr via the ‘My Mixlr’ tab. This is displayed on a dashboard of sorts showing what your friends are listening to.

Mixlr’s popularity is on rise. We can say this as till date, the start up claims over 14,000 monthly broadcasters attracting over 500,000 unique listeners each month.

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