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Facebook Could File For IPO Next Week. Could Be The Next $100 Billion Company!

Imran — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 11:14:06 +0000

Facebook Could File For IPO Next Week. Could Be The Next $100 Billion Company!

If WSJ’s sources are correct, we could all be witnesses for one of the biggest IPO fillings for a US technology company in history. With more than 800 million users, Facebook’s value is estimated at anywhere between $80 to $100 billion and it’s highly expected that the company could raise up to $10 billion in it’s initial public offering.

Since a lot of years, analysts have been waiting for Facebook to file for IPO. Meanwhile, Facebook didn’t do so as Mark Zuckerburg didn’t want employees to care about stocks but about great products. It’s valuation as well as users kept on sky rocketing, leaving behind the competition in dust and becoming one of the most valued and sought after companies on the Internet. Microsoft had bought 1.6% shares on Facebook back in 2007, at a price of $240 million, which boosted the overall estimated value of Facebook to $15 billion. Some rough calculations show that if Facebook is valued at $75 billion after IPO, Microsoft’s shares would be worth around $1.2 billion. Not a bad investment.

Facebook was started in 2004 by Mark Zuckerburg and has turned out to be such a dream success that entrepreneurs can’t even imagine it. Aged 27 now, Zuckerburg’s worth over $17.5 billion and is considered the youngest billionaire in the world. As a CEO of Facebook, his shares in the company are %24 as of 2010 so his own worth is bound to increase tremendously if the IPO is to go through.

Keep in mind that this isn’t the first time that rumors are being strongly heard about Facebook going public. But Facebook has also halted trading in secondary markets for a few days which is giving more power to these rumors. Stakes are so high that valuation below $75 billion could be termed as disappointing.

Could Facebook manage to pull off a $10 billion IPO? Sounds difficult but highly likely considering, well, it’s Facebook.

iThinkDifferent - All things different about Microsoft, Apple, Google and the Internet.

Facebook Messenger for Windows Available for Download

Imran — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 16:03:32 +0000

Facebook Messenger for Windows Available for Download

Titled Facebook Messenger, Facebook has officially released an app for Windows which lets you chat with your friends, watch their recent posts in the news ticker as well as stay up to date with notifications. According to Facebook, the app is being rolled out to a limited number of users, which answers the question as to why there isn’t an official page on this but just a help topic entry only. Strangely, despite being in trial period, Facebook hasn’t called the Messenger app beta.

Facebook has previously released Messenger apps for mobile platforms namely iOS (Read more about Facebook Messenger for iPhone here and here), Android and Blackberry. Lucky for us, Facebook decided not to go with any third party framework such as Adobe ‘hog’ Air to build the app but has used native Windows APIs. The app even supports Aero Snap in Windows 7 – you can drag it to the side of the screen to make it stick there – similar to how Windows 8 metro apps work.

The app shows friend requests, messages previews and notifications. Underneath, it shows the news ticker, friends for chat and then the search bar. An annoyance we’ve faced during testing was that the look and feel of messages is horrible when compared to the Facebook Messenger apps for mobile platforms. You can’t see previews of images and videos in messages like you can on Facebook and on the mobile Messenger apps. Clicking on any of the messages in the dropdown in the header takes you to Facebook in your browser instead of opening a messenger window which really beats the purpose of this app. You can’t even change your online/offline status from the app itself either so in many ways, the app is very restricted.

For version 1, the app is pretty decent but we would like to see this app improved as these tiny bugs make it annoying sometimes. The notifications on the desktop make it worthy enough for any Facebook addict’s desktop though.

Download Facebook Messenger for Windows (Supported only on Windows 7)

iThinkDifferent - All things different about Microsoft, Apple, Google and the Internet.

Facebook Messenger Updated to Version 1.5 – Shows Online Friends, Typing Indicator and More

Imran — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 17:37:01 +0000

Facebook Messenger Updated to Version 1.5 – Shows Online Friends, Typing Indicator and More

Facebook has updated their Messenger app for iPhone and iPod Touch with support for iOS 5 and turned it into more of a chat/messaging app hybrid. It was initially just a simple messaging app but has now gained status indicators to show which contacts are online and which are on mobile. During a conversation, typing indicator is also shown making it essentially a stand alone Facebook chat app as well as a quick way to access your inbox.

While composing new messages, friends you contact frequently are shown at the top before rest of the online contacts list making it easier to stay in touch with whom it really matters.

Here’s the complete change log of Facebook Messenger app version 1.5:

• Support for iOS 5
• Ability to see who’s online and who’s mobile
• Ability to see when the other person is typing
• A faster way to compose new messages to the people you message most
• Various performance improvements
• Support for 12 additional languages

Weirdly, Facebook Messenger’s website still shows it as coming soon even though it’s available since some time now for both iOS and Android. Let’s see when they’ll add on video chat to this app.

Facebook Messenger app can be download from iTunes/App Store from here.

iThinkDifferent - All things different about Microsoft, Apple, Google and the Internet.

Facebook Messenger App Contains Code for Video Chat

David — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 15:56:54 +0000

Facebook Messenger App Contains Code for Video Chat

The folks over at 9to5mac have found a little nugget hiding inside of Facebook’s new Messenger app that was released yesterday. It appears that the Facebook application contains code for a video call component. See the screenshots below:

The Video call component appears to work on both Android and the iPhone version. This should not come as much of a surprise as Facebook recently released their Skype video call integration on the Desktop. The code for the Video Calling looks very elementary now, so it probably won’t be a small tweak to get it working. Let’s hope the Facebook brings a iPad specific version of the app, which could be why they are waiting to release the video portion.

Facebook’s Messenger app was released yesterday, and is part of Facebook’s plan to keep everyone connected at all times. The new app allows you to message a single person or group instantly right from your device. You can read more about it here, which also has a download link to get the app for your device.

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iThinkDifferent - All things different about Microsoft, Apple, Google and the Internet.

Facebook Releases Messenger App for iPhone, iPod and iPad

David — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 21:54:07 +0000

Facebook Releases Messenger App for iPhone, iPod and iPad

As smartphones begin to advance more and more, we rely on them in our daily lives more than ever. Instant communication is a necessity in human interaction, with most of it being digital now a days. So what else could you ask for then a new Facebook messenger application? The application allows you to easily send a quick message to a friend or colleague and let’s them reply using the same app, just as quick.

The new app is completely separate from the Facebook app that you are already used to. Messages are then delivered with notifications or texts, so your friends can reply immediately. You can use Messenger for not only your Facebook friends, but you can also reach the contacts on your phone. The app keeps track of all your Facebook messages in one place, including your texts, chats, emails, and messages.

The app also allows you to coordinate with groups. So if you want to coordinate a meetup with a bunch of friends, you can message them all with a quick group conversation and send a message to them all at once. You can also add your location, so your friends can see where you are on a map. You can even attach photos to the chat so friends can see and comment on what you are looking at.

The new messenger app is available in the App Store as a free download. You can also download it here.

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[via facebook]

iThinkDifferent - All things different about Microsoft, Apple, Google and the Internet.

Send and Reply to Tweets using TwitkaFly right from your Springboard [jailbreak tweak]

David — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 03:12:39 +0000

Send and Reply to Tweets using TwitkaFly right from your Springboard [jailbreak tweak]

TwitkaFly is a jailbreak app that allows a user to send and reply to tweets right from the springboard, without having to open the twitter or tweetbot app on their iOS device. The app works on any jailbroken device with iOS 4 or higher, including iPod, iPhone and the iPad.

It has an impressive amount of features as well:

Quick Tweet from SpringBoard using Activator
Quick Reply to Twitter or Tweetbot push notifications’ mentions
Landscape Mode for iPad
Unique Notification UI
Tweet from Lockscreen
Open link from tweets
#NowPlayingTrack tweet
Only One twitter account support
Blacklist and whitelist users and more

The app can be downloaded from Cydia and will cost you $1.99. If you truly are a twitter addict, then this would be a no brainer purchase. Because it is only available through Cydia, you will need to be jailbroken, you can follow our guides here:

iOS 4.3.3 (and prior) – JailbreakMe
iOS 4.3.4 – Redsn0w
iOS 4.3.5 – Redsn0w

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iThinkDifferent - All things different about Microsoft, Apple, Google and the Internet.

Run Facebook on iPad with newest hack, FaceForward

David — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 23:17:19 +0000

Run Facebook on iPad with newest hack, FaceForward

We told you how to enable Facebook for iPad yesterday, but Facebook was quick to block the hack. A new hack has arrived today in the form of FaceForward. FaceForward is a part of the tweakweek program going on now.

The new app allows access again to Facebook’s official iPad app. This tweak is just as easy as the last one. Go download Facebook for iPhone on your iPad, install FaceForward from Cydia and then run the app.

We do not know if Facebook will block this one as well, or if this will get Facebook to possibly release their official app already. All we know is, that it is working now with no guarantee of how long it will stay up.

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[via modmyi]

iThinkDifferent - All things different about Microsoft, Apple, Google and the Internet.

Run Chromium OS On Your Macbook Air Now [Guide]

Haras — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 17:45:30 +0000

Run Chromium OS On Your Macbook Air Now [Guide]

You can now run Google Chrome OS on your Macbook Air. This is a step-by-step guide on how to do it.

Google Chrome OS laptops were released in June of this year. Manufactured by Acer and Samsung, even though they only ran a browser you had to pay (roughly) the same amount of money to purchase a Chromebook or an ordinary Windows notebook. But, Google still claims their laptops are better, as they boot faster, they are more secure and eliminate any hassle.

Before anyone wants to go out and purchase a Chromebook, they’ll probably want to try it out and find out if it’s reasonable paying that hard earned money for a laptop that only comes with a browser.

DISCLAIMER: We at iTD have not tried this out, and therefore cannot ensure that this process will go smoothly in your case.

We recommend novice users NOT to try this, unless they are aware of what they’re doing. As this can really screw up your computer.

This tutorial will DESTROY ALL OF YOUR DATA, so make sure you have backed up all of your files. We at iTD are not responsible for any data loss, or any other damaged occurred during this process.

Before you get started, you will need:

A 2GB USB Memory stick
Mac OS X install USB stick (comes in the box with Macbook Air)

Follow the steps below to get Google Chrome OS running on your Macbook Air:

Download the installation image here
Now, extract the contents of this image by your decompression tool of choice.
Burn the extracted image to a USB stick using dd.
Switch your Macbook Air off, and then stick in the two USB drives.
Hold the “C” key down, while you also press the power button. Once, the Apple logo has come up, you can let go of the “C” key.
Then follow the on screen instructions, such as selecting the language of choice.
Once you reach the installation wizard, click on “Utilities” on the bar at the top and then “Terminal”.
Then type the following commands (without the quotes of course)
1. “umount /dev/disk*”
2. “dd if=/dev/rdisk1 of=/dev/rdisk0 bs=4m count=512”
3. “bless –device /dev/disk0s2 –setBoot –legacy”
When a screen comes up with something like “x bytes copied in y seconds”, hold down the power key until your Macbook turns off.
At this time, you should remove both thumb drives.

You can now turn on the machine, by pressing the power button and in around 22 seconds your machine will be fully* working.

*At this point, everything works apart from Bluetooth, due to no support for it in Google Chrome OS. Other than that your Macbook Air should be fully functional. (via Hexxeh)

iThinkDifferent - All things different about Microsoft, Apple, Google and the Internet.

You Can Now Get Spotify In The US Officially! [VIDEO]

ICEMAN — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 12:39:36 +0000

You Can Now Get Spotify In The US Officially! [VIDEO]

Spotify, the online music service, has finally landed in the US. The unlimited music service let’s you stream your favorite music via the internet using either a free (desktop only) or an ad-free paid account which gives you additional access to high quality music via your mobile devices.

With Spotify Premium, you can easily build your custom playlists and even share them with your friends. For now, only the free ad-supported service has been activated. In near future, Spotify Premium $9.99 per month subscription will let users stream ad-free music to mobile devices, share playlists and cache music for offline playback. A $4.99 intermediate plan will remove ads from the stream, but it doesn’t support streaming to the company’s mobile apps, which are already available for iOS devices in the App Store and for Android devices in the Android Market.

Here is a little promo video of Spotify:

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[via FSM]

iThinkDifferent - All things different about Microsoft, Apple, Google and the Internet.

[How To] Enable Facebook Video Chat in Mac OSX Lion

David — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 07:55:18 +0000

[How To] Enable Facebook Video Chat in Mac OSX Lion

Facebook’s big announcement this week was the unveiling of their new integrated video chat feature using Skype as the back end. This new feature allows users to directly call their Facebook friends, right inside of the web. Unfortunately, this new feature is not available to Lion users and the latest beta of Safari. Clicking on the icon will give you an error that your browser or OS is not supported.

Never fear beta testers! There is a fix for this issue. And it’s pretty simple too! All you need to do is change Safari’s user agent. When you are in Safari, click the drop down called ‘Develop’ and select User Agent, then Safari 5.1 – Mac. Reload your Facebook page and you are ready to roll (See Image above). This will make Facebook think you are using the old version of Safari, and will allow you to use the new Video Chat feature.

One would think that with Lion being released next week, that Facebook would have included it in it’s list of supported OS’s and Safari as a supported browser. Hopefully we should see this functionality come in the next week. Enjoy your Facebook Video Chat Lion users!

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[via 9to5mac]

iThinkDifferent - All things different about Microsoft, Apple, Google and the Internet.