It seems just like yesterday when those 12 bells chimed and 2012 was welcomed with hopes of a prosperous and exciting 12 months ahead, but in just under 3 weeks time that feeling of deja vu will be setting in once again as the curtain closes on another year and we get ready to see what 2013 will bring us. Considering the importance of social media in our lives and the continuing rise in popularity throughout 2012, it's likely that a large portion of us have interacted rather extensively with Facebook during the course of this year, which is something that they are keen to celebrate by offering us the chance to see our 2012 in review directly from our Facebook profile page.
Although Facebook is used every day of the week to upload photos and send millions of chat messages through the website and the company's various mobile apps for different platforms, there are still things that users simply don't like about the service which Facebook offers. Although it isn't brand new, one feature that seems to irk a lot of people is the read receipt status indicator that appears in Facebook Messages that shows when a message has been read, or otherwise commonly known as “seen”. If that bothers you, then it's now possible to install a simple browser extension to disable the feature when using Facebook chat through the website.
Angry Birds started off as nothing more than a catchy, quirky title for iOS, but in a few short years, has quickly evolved into a billion-dollar franchise. With five titles having now been released on a number of platforms, and products ranging from speakers and phone covers to plush toys, it was only a matter of time before the story of how the birds avenged the pigs would hit the box office. Announced today, an official Angry Birds movie will arrive at some point in 2016, and John Cohen, producer behind hit flicks such as Despicable Me, will oversee the production of the Rovio-funded movie.
Everybody uses USB flash drives. No matter how kitted-out your setup is, no matter how advanced your assault on the wires is; if you're saying you don't have a USB flash / pen drive at least tucked away somewhere for emergency data transfer, then, well, you're a liar. They may be convenient, useful, and in the case of mine, washing machine-proof, but that doesn't mean to say we wouldn't like to see more functionality. Wireless-ness would seem the natural progression, and King Jim has come through with such a product, naming it the Paketta.
Nobody likes to think of themselves becoming old, but eventually, most of us - the luckier ones perhaps - are going to get there. While we may not envisage what we'll eventually look like as mature beings, many of us are planning for it, and incase you needed a visual reminder to help keep you motivated, Merrill Edge - the brokerage wing of the Bank of America - has you covered with its web app - Face Retirement.
Majority of smartphone users will more than likely be familiar with the WhatsApp messaging app that allows individuals to send simple and personal real-time messages to one another. The app has been consistently sitting on the top of the paid charts on the iOS App Store for the last three years, but also has versions available for Android, BlackBerry, Symbian and Windows Phone, making it a powerful and truly cross-platform messaging service. Although extremely popular, the future direction of the service could be about to change, with reports suggesting that Facebook could be planning to add to their recent acquisition of Instagram by consuming WhatsApp.
Although Facebook currently holds the title as the world's largest social network with over one billion active monthly members, it doesn't mean that success is guaranteed. The face of companies such as Facebook and Twitter are constantly evolving to meet the demands of their user base, so it stands to reason that Facebook will be continuously trying to innovate and add new technologies and services to their social experience, one of which is the Photo Syncing feature we reported on last week. Although Photo Syncing was initially in a private beta stage with a select few iOS users, Facebook have now rolled the service out on a large scale to all compatible iOS and Android devices using the official Facebook app.
If there's one certainty in life, especially in the world of technology, it's that someone somewhere probably thinks they can do whatever you do, but better. People think they would make a better job of running Facebook or Twitter. That they know how Google should move forward with Android and, sometimes, they even know how to write awesome tech articles. Who knew?!
General Motors seems particularly keen, dare I say, Sirious about implementing voice-recognition technology into automobiles, and to outline this intention, will be implementing Apple's Siri personal assistant to a couple of its Chevrolet car models early next year.
Facebook is the world's foremost social hunt, and as such, is a great place for people to discover new music, movies and other such content. Sensing this, Mark Zuckerberg's company has teamed up with Apple to add iTunes digital gift certificates to its roster, and as well as allowing users to buy iTunes Store credit for friends, said user can also make recommendations as to what the recipient should spend that credit on.
