Facebook 'using Instagram as weapon' in war against Twitter

Social networking-giant Facebook is apparently using it’s recently aquired free-photo sharing service Instagram as a new weapon in its war with rival Twitter. It comes after Instagram, disabled its integration with Twitter's cards feature, changing the way its pictures are displayed on Twitter.

Instagram images are now awkwardly cropped, rather than sitting nicely in the timeline, meaning that you have to visit Instagram itself to see the picture properly, The Telegraph reports. “We’ve launched several improvements to our Web site that allow users to directly engage with Instagram content through likes, comments, hashtags and now we believe the best experience is for us to link back to where the content lives,” Kevin Systrom, Instagram's chief executive said.

According to the paper, Facebook has made regular changes to its settings and policies in a bid to encourage users to share just a little bit more information, making themselves more valuable to advertisers in the process, the paper said. Its latest proposal would now allow more data to be shared with Facebok from advertising partners and affiliates, including Instagram, it added -ANI

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Apple to start manufacturing Macs in US

Apple’s chief executive Tim Cook has said that tech giant is to begin manufacturing one of its Mac lines exclusively in the US. In an interview with NBC, Cook said the company had been working on ‘doing more and more’ in the US. Apple's products are mostly assembled in China, where the company has faced criticisms over working conditions. During the interview, Cook noted that key components in Apple products such as the iPhone were already manufactured in the US, but were then shipped out to be assembled, the BBC reports.

“The engine in [the iPhone] is made in America... but engines are made in America and are exported. The glass on this phone is made in Kentucky. We've been working for years on doing more and more in the United States,” the report quoted him, as saying. According to the report, in a separate interview with Bloomberg Business Week, Cook said the company would be investing ‘over 100 million dollars’ in making more in the US.

Cook also discussed the furore around Apple Maps, created to replace Google Maps software on its devices. “We screwed up and we are putting the weight of the company behind correcting it,” the report quoted him, as saying. “On Maps, a few years ago, we decided that we wanted to provide customers features that we didn't have in the current edition of Maps. It didn't meet our customers' expectation, and our expectations of ourselves are even higher than our customers,” he added. -ANI

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Smartphones can work as medical labs too

Smartphones doubling up as diagnostic labs may soon become a reality, thanks to the initiative of a University of Sydney researcher. "This method makes heart rate research more inexpensive, portable and straightforward," said James Heathers, the doctoral student from University's School of Psychology behind the project.

"The sensor, placed on a finger instead of using electrodes on the chest, is so small we can mail it to study participants," added Heathers, according to a Sydney statement. Data on tiny fluctuations in our heart rate provides critical information on the state of our nervous system, and is essential for a range of psychological research including on anger, anxiety, stress and self-control.

At the moment, heart rate variability (HRV) research is done in a university lab with a group of study participants. Electrodes are attached to their chests to measure HRV and the data is recorded, one person at a time, using a lab computer. "The idea struck me because I'm by nature impatient and my area is psychophysiology -- which is all about the relationship between physiological and psychological states," said Heather.

"By providing people with a sensor and then using their smartphone to process the data, we are no longer tied down to booking appointments in a university laboratory, and can record dozens of separate data streams at the same time. "Heathers collaborated with Simon Wegerif, a biomedical engineer. Wegerif's company, HRV Fit Ltd, already had an HRV phone app - iThlete - widely used by professional sports teams and athletes, for whom heart rate variability is an important measurement of their performance and recovery.

The challenge was to adapt a similar app into a tool that can collect and provide HRV data in a way useful to researchers. "We have run tests of our sensor linked to a smartphone and the software is working very well. I expect it to be up and running - and available for free - in the next few months," said Heathers.

Heathers plans to use the HRV data to expand theories on the day-to-day fluctuations of the nervous system, and to collect data from groups that are traditionally hard to access. These results were presented at the Australasian Society for Psychophysiology conference 2012. -IANS

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Apple faces biggest share drop in four years, $35 billion wiped off tech firm

Apple has suffered its worst one-day share price fall in almost four years after the US-based tech giant lost 34.9 billion dollars in market cap, says a report. The iPhone maker saw its shares fall 6.4 percent to 538.79 dollars, the biggest one-day drop since December 17, 2008. According to the Telegraph, America’s biggest company lost almost 35 billion dollars off its market value, and is now worth just under 507 billion dollars. Traders were also spooked by a report from research firm IDC forecasting that Apple’s share of the tablet market will slip to 53.8 percent this year from 56.3 percent in 2011, while Google’s share will increase to 42.7 percent from 39.8 percent, the paper said.

It added that Apple’s tablet share would slip below 50pc by 2016, as total global tablet sales more than double to nearly 283million units in four years as consumers increasingly opt for them rather than personal computers, the paper added. According to the papper, analysts expressed concerns that Apple risked losing ground to Nokia smartphones in China, while failing to keep pace with Google in the tablets market. -ANI

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Apple faces biggest share drop in four years, $35 billion wiped off tech firm

Apple has suffered its worst one-day share price fall in almost four years after the US-based tech giant lost 34.9 billion dollars in market cap, says a report. The iPhone maker saw its shares fall 6.4 percent to 538.79 dollars, the biggest one-day drop since December 17, 2008. According to the Telegraph, America’s biggest company lost almost 35 billion dollars off its market value, and is now worth just under 507 billion dollars. Traders were also spooked by a report from research firm IDC forecasting that Apple’s share of the tablet market will slip to 53.8 percent this year from 56.3 percent in 2011, while Google’s share will increase to 42.7 percent from 39.8 percent, the paper said.

It added that Apple’s tablet share would slip below 50pc by 2016, as total global tablet sales more than double to nearly 283million units in four years as consumers increasingly opt for them rather than personal computers, the paper added. According to the papper, analysts expressed concerns that Apple risked losing ground to Nokia smartphones in China, while failing to keep pace with Google in the tablets market. -ANI

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Facebook Messenger app for Android gets updated; all it needs is your name and number

Facebook has announced a new update for its Messenger app for Android. This new update will enable users to use the messaging service without having a Facebook account or even an email address.

The new update for the Messenger app will be rolled out in countries like India, Indonesia, Venezuela and South Africa in its first phase, while it will later be rolled out to other countries. All the app will ask for is the users’ name and number to use this service.

Now this sounds very similar to the way WhatsApp functions and it will be the social networks first attempt to open its services to those who do not have a Facebook account. Facebook has also announced that it has partnered with all major carries and device manufacturers in India for the new Facebook Messenger.

Just recently did we hear that Facebook might be looking to buy WhatsApp, however it rather seems that the social network will now be competing with it. If so they have a long way to go as WhatsApp is already available on a bunch of platforms including S40 amongst other popular ones, while all Facebook has at the moment is Android.

WhatsApp today exists on almost all devices and a huge population is already using it as an affordable SMS and voice call replacement. It will be interesting to see how Facebook would compete with this globally popular instant messaging service.

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WishTel launch $50 Linux-based tablet

WishTel has released a 7-inch tablet for the education sector that will come preloaded with Linux, and a library of books and other media on several fields of study. The tablet is called PrithV, and it is built using an unspecified 800MHz processor and 512MB RAM as the standard configuration, with the option to get 1.2GHz processor with 1GB RAM. Additionally, it has 1GB of onboard storage, 2800mAh battery, USB 2.0, microSD card reader, and 0.3MP front-facing camera. For wireless communication, the PrithV has built-in Wi-Fi radio and 3G dongle support.

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Canalys: Top 25 US developers bank half of all app revenue

 Market analysts Canalys has have disclosed a gist of their finding during a 20-day App Interrogator survey of app purchasers in US. Based on data gathered, Canalys estimate that just 25 developers took half of all the revenue generated through iTunes store and Google Play store. These 25 developers earned $60 million from paid-for downloads and in-app purchases.

The distribution of these top 25 developers among various industries is even more lopsided. With the exception of music service provider Pandora, all other are game publishers. These include gaming industry giants such as Electronic Arts, Disney, Gameloft, and even Zynga. Canalys have inferred from the gathered data that these companies are able to dominate the charts and the share of total revenue by having multiple titles generating money. For instance, Zynga had 15 titles daily in the list of top 300 grossing iPhone apps on average, and nine titles on Google Play store. With the holiday season and the inevitable discounts and bundle offers, Canalys expect the divide to only widen.

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