Guys Scream Like Girls in New Justin Bieber Commercial (VIDEO)
Bieber is no stranger to making media go viral online. His official YouTube channel has north of 2 billion views. Previously, his bedtime tweets have attracted thousands upon thousands of replies and retweets. This Macy’s commercial already has 92,000 views since its Nov. 15 release.
Just push play — and I dare you not to laugh.
Categories: Twitter Updates, Updates Tags: Black Friday, Justin Bieber, Someday Gift Set
25 Worst Passwords of 2011
Pro tip: choosing “password” as your online password is not a good idea. In fact, unless you’re hoping to be an easy target for hackers, it’s the worst password you can possibly choose.
“Password” ranks first on password management application provider SplashData’s annual list of worst internet passwords, which are ordered by how common they are. (“Passw0rd,” with a numeral zero, isn’t much smarter, ranking 18th on the list.)
The list is somewhat predictable: Sequences of adjacent numbers or letters on the keyboard, such as “qwerty” and “123456,” and popular names, such as “ashley” and “michael,” all are common choices. Other common choices, such as “monkey” and “shadow,” are harder to explain.
As some websites have begun to require passwords to include both numbers and letters, it makes sense varied choices, such as “abc123″ and “trustno1,” are popular choices.
SplashData created the rankings based on millions of stolen passwords posted online by hackers. Here is the complete list:
- 1. password
- 2. 123456
- 3.12345678
- 4. qwerty
- 5. abc123
- 6. monkey
- 7. 1234567
- 8. letmein
- 9. trustno1
- 10. dragon
- 11. baseball
- 12. 111111
- 13. iloveyou
- 14. master
- 15. sunshine
- 16. ashley
- 17. bailey
- 18. passw0rd
- 19. shadow
- 20. 123123
- 21. 654321
- 22. superman
- 23. qazwsx
- 24. michael
- 25. football
SplashData CEO Morgan Slain urges businesses and consumers using any password on the list to change them immediately.
“Hackers can easily break into many accounts just by repeatedly trying common passwords,” Slain says. “Even though people are encouraged to select secure, strong passwords, many people continue to choose weak, easy-to-guess ones, placing themselves at risk from fraud and identity theft.”
The company provided some tips for choosing secure passwords in a statement:
- 1. Vary different types of characters in your passwords; include numbers, letters and special characters when possible.
- 2. Choose passwords of eight characters or more. Separate short words with spaces or underscores.
- 3. Don’t use the same password and username combination for multiple websites. Use an online password manager to keep track of your different accounts.
Are these lists helpful? Do you need to rethink any of your password choices? Let us know in the comments.
Categories: Facebook Updates, Google Updates, Social Media, Twitter Updates Tags: CEO, change, football, internet, Morgan Slain, people
Chime.in combines Twitter, Blogging and Reddit
Can you imagine what will happen if you combine Twitter-like sharing, the depth of blogging and the voting mechanics of Reddit? You might get Chime.in, UberMedia’s take on social networking.
Chime.in, which makes its public debut Tuesday, shares some similarities to Twitter’s interface, but UberMedia CEO Bill Gross argues that his social network tackles completely different problems than Twitter or Facebook. Unlike Twitter, which describes itself as an “information network,” Gross describes Chime.in as an “interest network.”
Like other social networks, Chime.in lets users share content with others. It has a newsfeed, profile pages and a system for following other users. The social network doesn’t have status updates, though. Instead it has “chimes,” which are a cross between a Facebook status update and a blog post.
Users are allowed to write short articles on Chime.in — up to 4,000 characters. A chime displays a headline, the first few sentences of a chime, a piece of multimedia (an image, a video, etc.), a profile picture, interest tags and options for liking, commenting and sharing. Chimes included threaded comments that include a Reddit-style up or downvote system for surfacing the best comments to the top of a chime.
Gross says that having “yet another social network” isn’t a winning strategy, so Chime.in has a few differentiating factors that he believes will tip the scales in its favor. The biggest selling point is that users have control over their profiles, including the advertising and sponsors that run on the page. Users can include their own ads on the page and keep 100% of the revenue, or they can let UberMedia sell ads for their page and split the revenue 50-50.
Gross believes that control over revenue makes Chime.in more appealing to publishers that want to monetize themselves in social media. UberMedia has already struck deals with E! Online, Disney, Bravo and other publishers who will promote Chime.in while keeping control of the revenue they generate from it.
Chime.in is also built with the mobile world in mind. The mobile apps (iPhone, BlackBerry and Android) allow for all of the actions the website contains. Because of its complexity, the network isn’t available to feature phones, but in return the mobile versions of Chime.in work very much like the website.
One of the problems the social network’s app solves, Gross argues, is quick access to content. Gross says that getting content from Twitter’s mobile apps is a painful process: one has to go to the tweet, open the link and wait for the page to load. In contrast, Chime.in content loads almost instantly, thanks to caching and Chime.in actually hosting content rather than just linking to it.
UberMedia has a long road ahead to making Chime.in a success. The world is already flush with social networks and user fatigue. The company will have to convince millions of people that Chime.in is different enough and useful enough to use in addition to Facebook and Twitter. Gross believes that Chime.in’s focus on interests and its offer to let publishers keep the revenue they generate will make it an attractive choice for users, publishers and companies.
Categories: Google Updates, Social Media, Twitter Updates, Updates, Utilities Tags: a blog post, Bill Gross, blog, CEO, interests, iPhone, people, Unlike Twitter, video
Is Facebook Trying to Kill Privacy?
Facebook has finally done it. It’s just a few updates away now from euthanizing the concept of privacy, already ailing on its network.
Timelines and Open Graph, introduced at this week’s f8 conference, sit on either edge of the sword that’s just been run through privacy’s heart. It is finished. It is done. This turn of events probably makes CEO Mark Zuckerberg happy. Let’s look back:
“When I got started in my dorm room at Harvard, the question a lot of people asked was ‘Why would I want to put any information on the Internet at all? Why would I want to have a website?’
“And then in the last five or six years, blogging has taken off in a huge way and all these different services that have people sharing all this information. People have really gotten comfortable not only sharing more information and different kinds, but more openly and with more people. That social norm is just something that has evolved over time.”
That was Zuckerberg’s January 2010 argument that sharing is the new social norm. But that’s only half of the sharing equation. Zuckerberg didn’t talk about the other half: privacy.
Timeline: Showing the World Who You Are
Facebook Timeline: In-Depth
The first big change Zuckerberg revealed on stage was Timeline, the completely overhauled version of profile pages. No longer is your Facebook profile about what you did recently–now it’s about everything you’ve done on Facebook and beyond.
The Timeline interface lays out everything you’ve shared on Facebook. One of the new features, Map, lays out your checkins on a world map. My map is sparse because I primarily use Foursquare to share my location. But now that I see how sparse that map looks, I feel compelled to start sharing my location via Facebook.
In addition to laying out everything you already shared for the world to see, the Timeline encourages you to share more than ever about your life so far. Millions of people are likely to post their baby pictures so that the beginning of their Timelines — birth — isn’t just an empty box.
The New Open Graph: Every Action Is Connected to Facebook
Timeline is just the appetizer. The second announcement, the launch of the new Facebook Open Graph, is what will forever transform the world’s largest social network.
There are a couple of key changes that deserve mentioning. The first is the addition of customizable actions and gestures. No longer do apps prompt you just to “like” something on Facebook. Instead, you’ll share that you “hiked a trail” or “rode your bike” or “kissed a girl” (and liked it). Any action can be shared via Facebook, and the only limit is the imagination of developers.
The second addition is the new permissions screen for giving apps access to your Facebook account. It’s more robust and explains exactly what an app will be sharing with it. The result is that the prompt will only appear once. Once you accept, the app can share exactly what you’re doing to your Facebook wall as you’re doing it.
There is no longer a “Would you like to post this to Facebook?” prompt. It just posts. When you run with Nike+, it gets posted. When you use your favorite cooking site to make a new dish, it gets posted. When you go to bed with a device tracking your sleep patterns, it gets posted.
Everything can, and eventually will, get posted. Facebook has done something nobody has ever been able to do at scale: It has enabled passive sharing.
Twisting the Knife
In 2009, Techcirclez’s CEO and founder Elvis Shrestha argued on CNN that privacy was dead, and social media was holding the smoking gun:
“We’re living at a time when attention is the new currency: With hundreds of TV channels, billions of Web sites, podcasts, radio shows, music downloads and social networking, our attention is more fragmented than ever before.
“Those who insert themselves into as many channels as possible look set to capture the most value. They’ll be the richest, the most successful, the most connected, capable and influential among us. We’re all publishers now, and the more we publish, the more valuable connections we’ll make.”
While I agree with his assertion that in an age where attention is king, privacy is simply an illusion, I disagree about the murderer. Sure, Twitter, Flickr, Google and others played a part in privacy’s death, but Facebook made the killing blow.
But thanks to what Facebook launched at f8, we’re at the point of no return. Facebook’s passive sharing will change how we live our lives. More and more, the things we do in real life will end up as Facebook posts. And while we may be consoled by the fact that most of this stuff is being posted just to our friends, it only takes one friend to share that information with his or her friends to start a viral chain.
Sharing with just your friends doesn’t protect your privacy. I know the people at Facebook will disagree and argue that users can control what is shared with whom. But this is simply an illusion that makes us feel better about all the sharing we have done and are about to do.
We may not notice the impact on our lives immediately. But it won’t be long until your life is on display for all of your friends to see, and then we’ll all know what Facebook has wrought.
Categories: Facebook Updates, Google Updates, Other Categories, Twitter Updates, Updates Tags: Action, CEO, change, CNN, Elvis Shrestha, Facebook Open Graph, Facebook Timeline, Facebook’s, illusion, life, Mark Zuckerberg, Open Graph, people, site, TV, via, what is
Zuckerberg Converts His 5 Million Plus Facebook Fans into Subscribers
On Wednesday, Facebook rolled out a Subscribe button. The button allows a user to follow anybody’s public updates, regardless of whether or not they are Facebook friends. This one-way subscription model is like following somebody on Twitter or adding somebody to a Google+ Circle.
While some users are worried about the privacy implications of the the opt-in feature, many others are using it to subscribe to other users, particularly Mark Zuckerberg. In fact, the Facebook CEO is amassing subscribers at a breakneck pace.
Since Wednesday morning, Zuckerberg has acquired more than 5+ million subscribers, and that number is rising by the minute. The count is rising so quickly that the site can’t even properly display his total subscriber count (check out the screenshot to see what we mean).
There’s a caveat to this, though. Five million people didn’t suddenly decide to start subscribing to the Facebook CEO’s feed. Instead, Zuckerberg converted fans of his old Facebook Page (http://facebook.com/markzuckerberg) into subscribers of his personal page (http://facebook.com/zuck). Acached version of Zuckerberg’s fan page shows that he had 5,203,153 fans just before he made the switch. That’s around the same amount of people now subscribed to his account.
We believe that number will continue to rise as Facebook migrates the rest of Zuckerberg’s fans to his personal account and new people start subscribing to him. The social network has been converting many fan pages into subscribers in the last day and plans to launch a do-it-yourself conversion tool in the next few weeks.
Now we have to ask: Is Zuckerberg the most-followed person on Facebook? Let us know if you find anybody else who comes close to Zuck’s numbers in the comments.
Categories: Facebook Updates, Google Updates, Twitter Updates, Updates Tags: CEO, Facebook Page, Google Circle, Mark Zuckerberg, people, site
Top 15 Best Free Android Apps you Must Have
1. Google Voice – Must Have Android Apps
Google Voice – Best Free Android Apps
Google voice is one of the Major Feature in Android mobiles as it takes control of your device. Google voice is one of the Top Free Android Apps that provides the user with a personal phone number which allows you to use this number to make calls or to send SMS messages via internet. By using this app, you can perform same things in your Android Mobile, which reflects that you can make calls and send text messages from your Android Device by using Google Voice Feature. This is one of the Best Free Android Apps that you must have. ( Top Free Android Apps used by over 4 million android users )
2. Amazon Kindle – Best Free Android Apps
Amazon Kindle – Top Free Android App
Amazon Kindle is one of the best e-book reader and I always dream to have Kindle with me. But no more, since Amazon Kindle is turned into Free Android App which is considered as one of the Top Free Android Apps that you must have as it allows you to enjoy e-reader in your Smart Phones. Amazon Kindle is one among the best free android apps available enabling you to read e-books in your Android Device. It is must have android apps for you, if you are a regular traveler. ( Best Free Android apps for e-book readers )
3. iSkoot – Best Free Android Apps
iSkoot – Best Free Android Apps
iSkoot in one of the Top Free Android Apps that enables Skype in your Android Device. Install iSkoot in your Android Device and just click on it to chat or call to your contacts. You are also allowed to make cheaper international calls. This is one of the Best Free Android Apps for your Android Device.
4. EverNote – Must have Android Apps
EverNote – Top Free Android Apps
Evernote switch your Android Device as extension to your brain. This is one of the Top Free Android Apps that, allows you to create the list of notes, ideas on your phone quickly as well as easily. You can type notes, take pictures, Recording, and also sync with your PC or other Mobile Devices. According to me, Evernote is the Best Free Android Apps that you can have in your Android Device. ( Best free android apps to note your ideas and plans )
5. WordPress for Android Devices
WordPress – Best Free Android Apps
WordPress is one of the Best Blogging platforms and now we are having this ultimate Blogging platform in our Android Devices which allows us to blog from our Devices by performing almost all tasks like Write Posts, Edit Posts, Managing Comments. This is one of the Top Free Android Apps that Every Blogger Must have in their Device. ( Best free android apps for bloggers )
6. DropBox – Top Free Android Apps for File Sharing
DropBox – Top Free Android Apps
Dropbox is one of the excitingly Best Free Android Apps which automatically synchronizes folder of files between Multiple Systems using Cloud Service and this Dropbox app for Android Devices allows you to interact with other apps to access files. This is must have Free Android App for your Smart Phone. (Top free android apps for file sharing )
7. Phonebook – Must have Android Apps for Organizing Contacts
PhoneBook – Best Free Android Apps
Phonebook is probably the one of the Best Free Android Apps for managing your contacts. It is loaded with such an exciting features like displaying pictures of contacts, viewing as well as managing contacts, Birthday reminder, Missed calls, unread messages. This is one of the Top Free Android Apps for managing our Contacts in Android Device. ( Best free Android apps for organizing )
8. QuickPic – Top Free Android Apps for Photographers
QuickPic – Top Free Android Apps
QuickPic is one of the Best Free Android Apps for Image Viewing. It is quick and gives us the thumbnails with high-resolution which exactly matches your screen, Speed browsing allowing us to view large number of images, exclude or include folders options and privacy settings as well including these few exciting features like setting wallpapers, cropping, sharing, single/double tap to zoom and many more. According to me QuickPic is the must have android apps for photographers.
9. PicSay Lite – Best Free Android Apps for Photo Editing
PicSay – Best Free Android Apps
PicSay is one of the Top Free Android Apps for Photo Editing. Its available in both free(PicSay Lite) and premium(PicSay Pro) versions and is a award winning photo editing Android App allowing you to perform tasks like color your pictures, adding balloons, graphical effects like distortion and also it’s great fun to use these kind of tools. This is must have android apps for photo editing.
10. Arcus Dictionary -Top Free Android Apps for Learners
Arcus Dictionary – Top Free Android Apps
Arcus Dictionary is one of the Best Free Android Apps that is quick and ad-free dictionary which is loaded with over 1,65,000 words, synonyms, examples, supports text to speech as well and many more. Its the best Free dictionary app encrypted in Android Device and must have android apps for learners.
11. Locale- Best Free Android Apps for GPS Tracking
Locale – Best Free Android Apps
Locale is one of the Top free Android App related to Location Awareness app and few other managing elements. Its really easy to use App, which is loaded with Location-awareness settings manager, and also fueatures like battery level, date & time, calls management, GPS co-ordination and many more and is the must have android apps for finding paths in the new place. ( Best Free Android apps for Travelers )
12. QQPlayer – Top free Android apps for Music
QQPlayer – Top Free Android Apps
QQPlayer is one of the Best Free Android Apps in Media Player category. QQPlayer is one of the best video player that supports all popular formats like AVI, MP3, MP4, MOV, and many more exciting features like volume adjuster on your screen and also zoom button for clear view. ( Best Free Android Apps in Media Player Apps )
13. Facebook for Android – Best Free Android Apps for Facebook Freaks
Facebook – Best Free Android Apps
Facebook for android app is one of the Top Free Android Apps which allows us to post on walls, send PM, Sharing, Commenting, Checking news feed, Chatting with friends and many more tasks can be done. Almost 80% of tasks that can be experienced on your Android Device with this Facebook for Android App. If you are a Facebook freak, then its must have android apps.
14. TwiDroid (Twitter App for Androids) – Must Have Android Apps for Twitter Freaks
TwiDroid – Top Free Android Apps
Twidroid is the Twitter app for your Android Device which is available in both free and Pro versions. You can perform all sorts of thing that you do on twitter like Tweeting, Sending PMs, Following and Unfollowing users, URL shortening, and many more. This is one of the Best Free Android Apps to experience Twitter in your Android Device.
15. TeamViewer – Best Free Android Apps for Remote Access
TeamViewer – Best Free Android Apps
TeamViewer is one of the Top Free Android Apps that can access remote computers from your Android Device. It allows you to give immediate support, access client’s PC from your Device, and its completely free to use software. It is the must have android apps for remote accessing.
This is our first post in the series of Top Android Apps You Must Have in your Android Devices. We have been testing all sorts of Best Free Android apps on Android Devices.
We will get back with more exciting Android apps in our next series of Top Free Android Apps you must have shortly.
Hope you enjoyed Reading Top Free Android Apps or Best Free Android apps you Must have.
Categories: All About Smartphones, Facebook Updates, Twitter Updates, Updates, Utilities Tags: Amazon Kindle, Android App, Android apps, Android Device, Android Devices, Arcus Dictionary, Best Blogging, Best Free Android, Best Free Android Apps, e-book reader, Facebook for Android, Free Android App, Free Android apps, Google Voice, GPS, Multiple Systems, PC, PM, Smart Phone, Top Free Android Apps
What Twitter Can Learn From Facebook
Tom Anderson is the founder and former president of MySpace. MySpace sold in 2005, and Anderson left the company in early 2009. You can find him on Google+, Twitter or Facebook.
Sometimes when you follow a trend, you fall flat on your face.
Early adopters of Google+ have declared that Twitter is now “obsolete” and that they are “bored” using Twitter. Most suggestions for improvement are a list of Google+ features that Twitter doesn’t have.
Yet, even while Twitter’s own CEO, Dick Costolo, has maintained that Twitter will remain simple, the company’s founder and executive chairman Jack Dorsey recently let go four key product people from Twitter, indicating some kind of change is in the works. So what’s @Jack to do? What does the future of Twitter look like?
Taking Measured Risks
Facebook is actually instructive on this front. One of the things that founder Mark Zuckerberg and crew have done exceptionally well is to know what and what not to incorporate from competitors. They’ve evolved their vision, but instead of jumping on every trend, they’ve found ways to expand by incorporating the best innovations of their competitors into a holistic vision that’s kept Facebook growing.
When Facebook had 12 million uniques thanks to nearly every college user in America using the service andMySpace had 80 million uniques (what seemed like “everyone else” at the time), it was a bold move to open up the site to the outside world. In hindsight, it may have seemed risk-free, but it could have killed the entire feel of Facebook. They moved slowly, adding companies, high school students and eventually went fully public. It wasn’t a given that this wouldn’t destroy the closed, private and wonderful service Zuckerberg had created for college students.
When Twitter became a significant force, Facebook tried to acquire the youngish company. A deal was never reached and Facebook ended up up incorporating the status update into the newsfeed — which really made the newsfeed more interesting than it ever would have been otherwise. Again, a great move that fit in with the evolving vision of Facebook as a “sharing platform” (before that, Zuckerberg used to talk more about “efficient communication“).
But it’s also instructive to look at the things Facebook did not do. To compete with MySpace, lots of people thought Facebook should offer some level of profile customization (definitely controversial), but even more thought they should launch a music service. Facebook toyed with the idea by briefly allowing users to put some apps on their profile pages, and they gave priority status to iLike, a music service that let you create playlists. I’d heard rumors at the time that Facebook had actually built a full customization platform for profiles that they never launched. Just this month, Facebook decided to allow users to put images and videos into comments (something that probably would have been too MySpace-y back in the day). Facebook knew when to add feature at the right time. And that music service? Well, it may still be coming.
What This Means for Twitter
So what does this teach us? It’s difficult to extract a lesson or set of rules from these examples. It’s hard to know how to evolve your service, and it’s hard to say what Twitter should do to continue its growth trajectory. I think the answer lies in trying to step back and understand what’s the real value you provide to your users. How can your service evolve to realize that mission without following every trend that rules the day?
In Twitter’s case, is the 140 character constraint really a benefit or is it a leftover relic of the text-message infrastructure that smart phones have replaced? As pundits and users, we can all make our demands about what we want from Twitter, but that probably only tells us about our own personal biases. Twitter will undoubtedly do better to analyze its own data to understand its own user behavior.
Then they can look at those numbers in the context of competitors’ numbers that are public. Who’s driving more engagement, where and how?
You might say, you and I don’t know jack about Twitter. Only @Jack knows jack about Twitter.
Depending on what he learns, he’ll make the tough decision of what to change and what to keep the same. Maybe he’ll test, iterate, analyze and revise. He’s already decided he needs a new product staff, so change seems to be coming.
No answers here, but hopefully they’re the right questions.
Categories: Facebook Updates, Twitter Updates, Updates Tags: CEO, change, Dick Costolo, Jack Dorsey, Mark Zuckerberg, people, site, Taking Measured Risks, Tom Anderson
