racoma.com.phJ. Angelo Racoma on technology, economics, writing, problogging, and getting things done

The mobile industry is in exciting times lately, with news from major players. First is Microsoft’s silent roll-out of its latest Windows Phone 7.5 “Mango” update. The update, which will include WiFi tethering, multitasking and improved social networking features, will start rolling out to Window Phone 7 devices starting this week. Availability will depend on carrier and region, though.

Samsung and Intel Launch Tizen OS

The LiMo and Linux foundations have announced a new mobile operating system. “Tizen” will be co-developed by Intel and Samsung, merging their MeeGo and LiMo platforms. Tizen promises an open-source, open-standards approach to mobile operating systems, and will have the support of various networks and handset makers.

iPod Classic and Shuffle on Their Way Out?

Apple is focusing on touchscreen iOS devices, and might discontinue the iPod Classic (with clickwheel) and Shuffle (without screen) soon. The iPod Nano will be their entry-level device. Should I say goodbye to my 5.5th gen iPod?

Barnes & Noble, Amazon to Launch New Tablets

Amazon has just announced their new Kindle Fire tablets. Priced at $199, and with free access to Amazon content, they might just have a winner here. Meanwhile, Barnes & Noble is reportedly updating their Nook Color line in time for the holidays, with both a premium and an inexpensive Android tablet.

Microsoft Extorting from Android Manufacturers?

Samsung and Microsoft have recently entered a cross-licensing deal, in which Samsung pays royalties to MS for each Android phone sold. Google says Microsoft is extorting money from Android makers. Microsoft basically says “Shut up and pay up.”

Companies Now Subsidizing Employees for Gadget Purchases

IT departments are losing control over devices, as companies move toward “bring your own device” policies. 41% of surveyed firms actually provide subsidies or co-payment schemes for smartphones, tablets and notebook computers.

In other news: Delicious has been relaunched. Facebook will update profiles with Timeline. Chrome 14 is out, with NaCl support and security updates. Do you have a website? Turn then into iPad HTML5 apps with Pressly. Will Facebook ever release an iPad app?

Sources say Facebook is planning to do an IPO of its shares by early 2012. Valued at $100 billion, the social network will be among the top-valued tech firms, like Google, Microsoft and Apple.

Business is business. If you can take out a competitor by being the best at your line of business or services all the better. But what if the one who wanted you erased was already the best at what they do? This is the case of Facebook vs. Google.

Facebook admitted to hiring a PR Firm, Burson-Marsteller, to spread news about how Google’s “Social Circles” is violating privacy rights.

As several reports have detailed this week, two former journalists now employed by Burson — John Mercurio, late of Roll Call, CNN, and National Journal; and CNBC’s erstwhile Silicon Valley correspondent Jim Goldman — were making the rounds pitching this hooey to various outlets in an attempt to capitalize on Google’s increasing tangles with the feds, and intense public interest in online privacy.

Wow, talk about kicking a guy when he’s down. Facebook has already passed Google as being the most visited site of 2010 and they still want to depreciate its obscure GMail feature.

Both companies will survive this brouhaha, but for the meantime Facebook looks just like a bully.

Article via: Wired | Image By Facebook (facebook.com website) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

To many of the Gen X crowd, Friendster was THE social network of its time (around late 90s or so). It was pretty common to hear, “I’ll upload this to my Friendster”, “I’ll put a testimony on your Friendster”, etc.

However, since Facebook came into the picture and blasted all its competition, the old social network has struggled a lot. This time, they seem to have raised the white flag with their change of direction.

On May 31, Friendster will move to wipe out all photos, blogs, comments and groups uploaded or created by its users. The company will, however, keep all accounts alive, along with user friends lists, games details and basic profile information.

It looks they’ve decided to become a game portal of sort. Goodbye old Friendster…

[Article via: Techcrunch | Image via: Flickr (Gian Cayetano) (CC BY 2.0)]

If you’ve been reading single post pages lately (and not just the front page), you might notice the small Facebook comment box right above the regular WordPress comment area. I’ve recently enabled Facebook commenting, so if you’re currently logged in, you can easily post a comment even without having to await moderation.

This adds a social aspect to this blog, as each Facebook commenter has the option of automatically posting the same comment on his profile, along with a link to the article. This way, you can monitor responses to your comments.

WordPress comments will still work, although if you haven’t had an approved comment before, you will need to wait for approval, as each comment from a new user will have to go through the moderation queue.

And so let’s get the discussion going.