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Samsung Tops Apple to Become The World’s Top Smartphone Vendor

Friday, October 28, 2011 at 10:35 PM Article by Unknown 1 Comment


A few weeks back we reported that Apple has overtook Nokia in a race to become the world’s top smartphone manufacturer. Well, Apple’s reign at the top didn’t last long as according to a report published today, Samsung is now the world’s largest smartphone vendor(in terms of shipments — not the sales).


apple vs samsung Samsung Tops Apple to Become The Worlds Top Smartphone Vendor


In Q3 2011, Apple Inc. managed to ship only 17.1 million smartphones, comprising 14.6% of the market, whereas Samsung shipped a staggering 27.8 million smartphones which is around 23.8% of the market — pushing the California based company to the second spot. Nokia in the meantime remained in third place behind Samsung and Apple.


Samsung Electronics Co. shipped more than 20 million smartphones in the quarter ended Sept. 30, a person familiar with the situation said Thursday, beating market leader Apple Inc. as well as Nokia Corp., the world’s biggest cellphone maker by volume.
The South Korean company benefited from a push into the high end; demand is robust for phones that consumers can use to watch videos, download movies and send email. The company is also taking advantage of the popularity of Google Inc.’s Android operating system, while also stepping up production in Europe of phones using its own software and software from Microsoft Corp.

The next target for Samsung is to surpass Apple in terms of sales, would they be able to achieve this? It seems very realistic to us.

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Google Buys Motorola Mobility for US$12.5 Billion

Monday, August 15, 2011 at 11:29 PM Article by Unknown 1 Comment


Google has entered into an agreement to acquire the mobile phone maker Motorola Mobility for about US$12.5 billion, the company said on Monday.
Google has offered about $40 per share in cash, a premium of 63 percent over the closing price of Motorola Mobility shares on Friday.

google motorola mobility acqusition


Motorola Mobility exclusively ships phones and its Xoom tablet with Google's Android operating system. The deal will mean that Google now has a hardware manufacturer to work with closely to develop Android, said Carolina Milanesi, research vice president at Gartner.
Google will also have control of Motorola's impressive patent portfolio, Milanesi said. Motorola Mobility said earlier this year that it owns about 24,500 patents.

Conflict with Partners?

But the deal may also create tension with other mobile phone manufacturers such as HTC and Samsung, which also ship Android devices, she said. Since creating Android, Google has rotated manufacturers with which to release new Android code, releasing the code to others about six months later.

Google may risk alienating those other manufacturers, but Milanesi said "all these vendors have invested so much in the platform, they won't quickly walk away from it."

Google may also want to speed up the development of its Android operating system on tablet computers, where it has been slower to catch on than on mobile phones, Milanesi said. The next release for Android, code-named "Ice Cream Sandwich," will be an operating system designed for tablets and mobile devices.

The acquisition of Motorola Mobility will enable Google to "supercharge the Android ecosystem and enhance competition in mobile computing," according to a news release. Google said the deal will not affect how Android is developed, and the operating system will remain open, Google said.

The company will run Motorola Mobility, which has about 20,000 employees, as a separate business, Google said. The transaction is expected to close at the end of this year or early next year.

Motorola Mobility, which was spun off from its parent company in early January, is composed of two groups: Mobile Devices, which makes phones, and Home, which makes set-top boxes and other IPTV equipment.


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Google Just Started A Price War With Facebook With Google+ Games

Saturday, August 13, 2011 at 12:08 AM Article by Unknown 0 Comments



Google added games to its Google+ social network yesterday, and then Facebook updated its gaming platform with a new Game Ticker, full screen support, and the ability to favorite games later the same day. Google+ has only 16 games right now, made by 10 game developers, while Facebook has developers from more than 190 countries building apps and games on its platform. That’s not where the ultimate comparison should be though. You see, Google has just started a social games price war with Facebook.

Wait, what do you mean? Social games on Facebook and Google+ are free! Well, that’s true, at least for most games. There is one huge aspect of online games that many often forget about: in-game transactions. Virtual items are not going to necessarily cost less for you on Google+, but they will for the developer. Google knows it needs to win over developers to get games on its new social network, and it’s starting by significantly undercutting Facebook on the commission price.

Facebook charges a 30 percent commission on any transactions that use its Facebook Credits virtual currency, which is now required in all games on the company’s platform. Google has decided to start off with a 5 percent commission for Google+ Games.

Sure, Google+’s 5 percent commission is just promotional, or at least, that’s what Google+ games product manager Punit Soni told VentureBeat. Soni claims Google doesn’t yet know when the promotion will end or what the company will charge developers on a regular basis, but I’m willing to bet that Google will keep its price significantly under the 30 percent mark.

The 30 percent number may seem high, but it’s actually a standard in the industry. Both Apple and Google take 30 percent of the revenue app developers make on the companies’ respective mobile app stores.
This social games price war is nothing new for Google: when the company launches a new platform, it often makes a point to undercut its competitor. After all, Mountain View gives Android away for free. The search giant makes enough money from Google AdSense (97 percent of its revenue comes from ads) that it doesn’t necessarily need to make sure that many of its products, be it Android or Google+, are profitable by themselves.

Palo Alto will definitely try to hold on to the 30 percent commission number for as long as possible. If Facebook ever feels threatened by Google+ in the social games market – meaning if social game developers ever start leaving Facebook for Google+ en masse – that number will probably be slashed. In the meantime, the social networking giant will simply boast about how much game developers actually make, despite the higher commission to Facebook, mainly because the platform has 750 million users and counting.

Summary: Google has started a price war with Facebook: the search giant is charging developers a 5 percent commission for in-game transactions, compared to social networking giant’s 30 percent.

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Merge Google+, Facebook & Twitter Using G++ (Chrome & Firefox)

Friday, August 12, 2011 at 12:17 AM Article by Unknown 0 Comments


Google+. It’s still very young, but the user growth is amazing. The latest data says that there are already more than 18 million Google+ users out there.
While most people are busy comparing Google+ with Facebook, and trying to figure out which one they should choose and use, there are those who have built tools to combine all of these social networks together and have the best of all worlds. One of these tools is G++, a browser extension for Chrome and Firefox which will help you put your Facebook and Twitter stream into your Google+ interface.

Plus Plus Plus

People have put time and effort into building their Facebook universe, so most Facebook users might reject the thought of switching to another social network and rebuilding their universe from scratch. Keeping and updating two social networks simultaneously might also be a tedious effort for some. With G++, you don’t have to make the choice.
To put your Facebook and Twitter streams in your Google+, visit the G++ site using either Chrome or Firefox (or both), and click the “Add” button to download and install the extension.
merge facebook and google plus

Your browser will ask for your permission to do the installation, click “Install” to confirm it. Then sign in to your Google+ account to see the extension in action.


merge google facebook

After your Google+ stream page is loaded, you will see three checkboxes at the top of the page: Google+, Facebook and Twitter. All you have to do to enable or disable the stream is to check or uncheck the boxes according to your preferences. You can even disable Google+ and view only the Facebook or Twitter stream via the Google+ interface if you want to.
merge google facebook

The first time you enable Facebook and Twitter, you will be asked to authorize G++ to access your accounts. First time users have to go through one activation process before they can continue with the second account.
merge google facebook

To activate Facebook, you have to disable the pop-up window blocker. To allow the pop-up window only for this one time activation process, click the “Log In | Facebook” link in the warning window.
google plus twitter integration

After the authorization process, you will be brought back to the stream page. Make sure the boxes are checked, then click the “Refresh Stream” button to fetch your streams from Facebook and Twitter.
google plus twitter integration

You can quickly distinguish the entries by the color and the small logo at the top right corner of every entry. Aside from viewing the streams, G++ also allows users to retweet Twitter entries, as well as Like and comment on entries from Facebook.
google plus twitter integration

The advantage of combining Google+ with Facebook and Twitter is the ability to post to all these accounts at once. All you have to do is type what you want to share (along with images, videos, links, and location tags), check the Facebook and Twitter boxes next to the “Click to Post to FB/Twitter” button, then click the button.
03a post2all2

To check whether the extension is functional or not, I immediately went to my Facebook wall and I saw that the post was already sitting there.
03c fb update

The post also appeared in my Google+ stream page – both the Twitter and Facebook version. I saw a comment to my post from one of my friends. I clicked the “Comment” link, typed my reply, then clicked the “Submit” button. A moment later, my reply appeared under the comment, as if I was using Facebook in its native environment.
03h comment

You can easily disable G++ if you want to by checking one of the on/off boxes at the top right corner of the web interface.
merge facebook and google plus

After playing with G++ for a while, I think that this is a very useful tool. But, if I could request one thing to the developer, it would be the ability to connect to other popular social networks.
Are you a social network freak? Do you think you need G++ to help you keep up with your Google+, Facebook, and Twitter account? Do you know of other similar alternatives? If so, please share your thoughts using the comments below.

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Facebook Reorganizes Chat List Again!

Thursday, August 11, 2011 at 10:08 PM Article by Unknown 0 Comments







Facebook‘s chat bar has gone through multiple iterations recently, and today you may have noticed a new format. Friends whose profiles you interact with most often are listed in one section at the top of your list, followed by a section of “more online friends” below.
The changes were implemented Thursday morning in response to user feedback from a redesign of chat in July, says a Facebook spokesperson. About 28,000 people had “liked” a Facebook Page entitled “I hate the new Facebook sidebar chat.”
The redesigned chat now stretches from the top of the browser to the bottom instead of being contained to its previous pop-up box, and until today it showed only a selection of friends instead of everyone who was online.
Prior to July, all online friends appeared in the same bar in alphabetical order. One of the major criticisms of the most recent iteration of the chat bar was that it didn’t show all friends who were online. Today’s update rectifies that by adding the “more online friends” category beneath the friends you interact with the most.
The Facebook spokesperson said this most recent change is not a test.


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Hacker Group Anonymous Vows To Take Down Facebook On November 5th

Wednesday, August 10, 2011 at 11:16 PM Article by Unknown 0 Comments

According to a statement issued by Hacktivist group Anonymous, which previously had been responsible for hacking Sony’s Playstation Network, Pentagon etc., it has planned to “destroy” the social media giant Facebook on November 5th.

anonymous Hacker Group Anonymous Vows To Take Down Facebook On November 5

In the statement, Anonymous claims that Facebook has been selling ‘sensitive’ user information to government agencies and giving secret access to security firms so that they can spy on Facebook users — as all data is stored on Facebook’s servers and can be accessed at anytime.
Facebook keeps saying that it gives users choices, but that is completely false. It gives users the illusion of and hides the details away from them “for their own good” while they then make millions off of you. When a service is “free,” it really means they’re making money off of you and your information.
Earlier, there were some doubts whether this statement is real or fake, but Anonymous has now confirmed via their Twitter account that some of its members are planning an operation against Facebook, but not all of Anonymous agrees with it.
#OpFacebook is being organised by some Anons. This does not necessarily mean that all of #Anonymous agrees with it.
Let’s wait and see what lies ahead for Facebook…. The countdown has already begun.
The full text of the announcement, made by Anonymous on YouTube:
Attention citizens of the world,
We wish to get your attention, hoping you heed the warnings as follows:
Your medium of communication you all so dearly adore will be destroyed. If you are a willing hacktivist or a guy who just wants to protect the freedom of information then join the cause and kill facebook for the sake of your own privacy.
Facebook has been selling information to government agencies and giving clandestine access to information security firms so that they can spy on people from all around the world. Some of these so-called whitehat infosec firms are working for authoritarian governments, such as those of Egypt and Syria.
Everything you do on Facebook stays on Facebook regardless of your “privacy” settings, and deleting your account is impossible, even if you “delete” your account, all your personal info stays on Facebook and can be recovered at any time. Changing the privacy settings to make your Facebook account more “private” is also a delusion. Facebook knows more about you than your family.
You cannot hide from the reality in which you, the people of the internet, live in. Facebook is the opposite of the Antisec cause. You are not safe from them nor from any government. One day you will look back on this and realise what we have done here is right, you will thank the rulers of the internet, we are not harming you but saving you.
The riots are underway. It is not a battle over the future of privacy and publicity. It is a battle for choice and informed consent. It’s unfolding because people are being raped, tickled, molested, and confused into doing things where they don’t understand the consequences. Facebook keeps saying that it gives users choices, but that is completely false. It gives users the illusion of and hides the details away from them “for their own good” while they then make millions off of you. When a service is “free,” it really means they’re making money off of you and your information.
Think for a while and prepare for a day that will go down in history. November 5 2011, #opfacebook . Engaged.
This is our world now. We exist without nationality, without religious bias. We have the right to not be surveilled, not be stalked, and not be used for profit. We have the right to not live as slaves.
We are anonymous
We are legion
We do not forgive
We do not forget
Expect us

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Economic Meltdown Impacts IT Industry

Tuesday, August 09, 2011 at 10:39 PM Article by Unknown 0 Comments

The economy has seen better days. Many IT departments started 2011 with cautious optimism and grand plans to modernize and expand, but amid the turmoil of the past month or so those plans have been whittled away.

Uncertainty. Even before the current economic crises caused by the political extortion over the debt ceiling, and the subsequent historic downgrading of the credit rating of the United States, the economy was on a shaky recovery at best. In a survey of 563 IT professionals conducted by nCircle in March, 48 percent of respondents claimed the economic downturn had impacted security initiatives in their organization--up 11 percent from 2010.

Money changing hands 

As the economy slides, getting money for IT projects is harder and harder.Businesses don't like a climate of financial uncertainty. Capitalism is all about taking risks--but good business is about taking calculated risks with some measure of predictability. When there is economic chaos, companies tend to hunker down and hoard what they've got. When the dust starts to settle, and they can see who is left standing, and get some idea of which way is up, the flow of money is restored.

Raising the Bar. No, not in a good way. As the economy slides, the bar is raised for acceptable return on investment (ROI). In a good economy, when revenue and profit are flowing more freely, IT projects are approved based on less tangible returns, but when the economy tanks businesses are quick to cut those projects and focus only on IT investments with a concrete impact on the bottom line.
What does that mean? That means that projects like virtualizing servers in a data center, or migrating servers and data to the cloud--projects with a clear cost benefit--will most likely proceed, but that other projects like PC hardware refreshes get delayed or canceled. New PC hardware may perform faster and improve productivity, but not enough to justify upgrading or replacing equipment the company already has that appears to be working fine.

Resources. When budgets are cut and money is tight, IT workers are asked to do more with less. Not only do businesses not hire additional IT workers to lighten the load and help IT operate more efficiently--many businesses may even cut the IT staff to save a buck and expect the remaining IT department to pick up the slack.
When the economy is going well, and organizations aren't operating from a mode of simple financial self-preservation, IT departments can get the tools and services they need to make their jobs easier. With a smaller IT budget, managing and maintaining the IT infrastructure can be a much more tedious prospect.
Has your IT budget been impacted by the economic meltdown? How has the current economic crisis affected your IT plans for the remainder of 2011?

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Get Richer by avoiding this Money Mistake

Monday, August 01, 2011 at 8:43 PM Article by Unknown 0 Comments

Mental Accounting is one such money mistake even smart people are committing.  Understanding this mistake and avoiding this could make us richer.
Behavioral Finance experts say that mental accounting works this way: Let us say you have bought a Rs.200 ticket to a movie. When you show up at the entrance of the theatre and realize you have lost your ticket, do you buy another ticket?
If you are like most people, you would probably think twice. You may still drop down the money, but you will now feel that you paid Rs.400 for a Rs.200 movie.
But let's construct the scenario differently. Let’s say you hadn’t bought the ticket yet, and you show up at the entrance to buy your ticket. Unfortunately, you realized you’ve lost Rs200 in cash since you walked from the parking place. But fortunately, you still have enough in your wallet to cover the cost of the ticket. Do you buy the ticket? Again, if you are like most people, you may feel upset about the lost money, but it probably won't affect your decision to buy the ticket. Why?

Behavioural Finance experts conducted similar experiments. They found that 46% of those who lost the ticket were willing to buy a replacement ticket. On the other side 88% of those who lost an equivalent amount of cash were willing to buy a ticket.

Both scenarios are a loss of Rs.200. However, in the second scenario you separate the loss of the Rs. 200 from the purchasing of the ticket. In the first you consider the cost of the movie as a total of Rs.400 and suffer at the high cost.

It is because of the psychological phenomenon known as mental accounting. One of the fundamental concepts in Economics says that wealth in general and money in particular, should be fungible. Fungibility, in a nutshell, means that Rs.100 in lottery winning, Rs.100 in salary and Rs.100 tax refund should have the same significance and value to you since each Rs.100 has the same purchasing power at the market. But do you treat them in a similar way?

Mental accounting has enormous consequences in your daily life. It affects how you spend money and how you save. It influences how you deal with losses and windfall gains.

How Does Mental Accounting Affect You?

1)  The source of the money affects how it is spent.
v  You tend to dine lavishly with the “gift meal vouchers” given by your company. But you will be dining consciously if you are paying out of your salary.
v  You are most likely to spend more with credit cards than with cash.
v  You may consider Tax refund as“free money”. In actual terms it is your own money. You will not spend tax refunds, birthday gift money or lottery winnings on essential things like utility bills, school fees, paying off your credit card debt. But you will be more than happy to spend the same money on discretionary items such as vacations or a trendy mobile phone.
2)  Don’t be a victim of ‘Relative cost’.
Assume you are going to a super market to buy a laptop. The price is Rs.40000. But you get to know that there is another branch of the supermarket, a ten minutes walk away, in which the same laptop is sold for Rs.39950. Will you walk down to the other branch?
Let us say instead of buying a laptop you have planned to buy a memory card. The price at the supermarket is Rs.100 and at the other branch is Rs.50. Where will you buy the card?
Most of us will make a trip to the other branch for the memory card but not for the laptop. Because we think that the Rs.50 saved on a Rs.100 item is better than the same amount saved on a Rs.40000 item.
But both the situation is same. You save Rs.50 by making 10 minutes walk to the other branch.
Remember that money is money. Rs.50 saved on Rs.40000 laptop is not less money than Rs. 50 saved on Rs.100 memory card.

How to face Mental Accounting and spend consciously?

  • You can use mental accounting to your advantage by spending money out of your salary. Immediately invest the “free money” like Tax refunds, gifted money or any other windfall gains.
  • Imagine that all income is earned income.
  • Use the free meal vouchers and other gift vouchers to buy essential items.
  • Pretend you don’t have a credit card. I am not telling you not to use credit cards. I am saying you should stop and think: would I buy this if I was using cash?
A Successful Practical Strategy:
You can have two bank accounts. One for the purpose of savings and the other one for spending.
Every month you need to set aside some amount for expenses as per your budget or previous experience. That amount you need to transfer to your spending account. Balance amount you need to keep it in savings account. 
You need to meet all your expenses including your credit card payment from the spending account. You should not spend from your savings account.
In between, if you receive any cash gifts or windfall gains, deposit them in your savings account. If you receive gift vouchers, then transfer the money equivalent of that voucher from your spending account to your saving account. That is your spending limit will not go up by just receiving the gift voucher. So that you will not use it lavishly and use it only on pre-planned things.
When it comes to money your mind unconsciously plays this trick of mental accounting. You have understood that today. So hereafter, you can avoid this mistake and you become richer day by day.

The author is Ramalingam K, an MBA (Finance) and Certified Financial Planner. He is the Founder and Director of Holistic Investment Planners (www.holisticinvestment.in) a firm that offers Financial Planning and Wealth Management. He can be reached at ramalingam@holisticinvestment.in.

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How To Improve Facebook Experience In Firefox Using GreaseMonkey

Sunday, July 31, 2011 at 8:42 PM Article by Unknown 1 Comment


Facebook is the social network of choice for millions of people, but like any site out there, we all have our own list of improvements we’d like to see. Luckily the Greasemonkey script community feels the same way and has come up with hundreds of scripts to improve your user experience. 
The scripts allow you to change colors, remove ads, automate repetitive tasks in applications and a whole slew of other improvements. Try out these more than 10 great scripts to use Facebook the way you want to.
What are some of your favorite Greasemonkey based Facebook enhancements?

auto-colorizer

Auto-Colorizer – An interesting script that analyzes the default image for any profile you visit and adjusts the color scheme of the page to match it. Also works on photos, events & group pages.

Facebook App Faviconizer – If you open your apps in separate tabs, this will replace the Facebook favicon with the one used by each application so you can more quickly identify what is in each window.

facebook colour changer

Facebook Colour Changer – Not only can you set the Facebook colors to anything you desire, but you may also change the logo image in the top left corner to whatever you want.

Facebook Fixer – Instead of loading several scripts, you can load Facebook Fixer and get larger profile images, video download links, Google Calendar integration and several other features.

Facebook Highlight Birthdays – With all of the info on your homepage, it can be easy to overlook the birthday notices.  This script will highlight them for easier spotting.

Facebook Image Download Helper – This script will allow you to use a Firefox extension like DownThemAll! to download all of the images on a page in Facebook.

Facebook Video – This script will not only give you the ability to download videos hosted on Facebook and convert them, but it will also provide you with the option of embedding the videos on other sites.  It is also available as a stand-alone Firefox extension.

facebook photo

Facebook View Photo in Album – A powerful script that allows you to view the photo albums of people you aren’t friends with, and it also gives you the ability to see a person’s pictures no matter who took them.

Friend Quick Remove – Streamlines the usual three steps to remove a friend down to just one easy step.

inYOf4ceBook – Tired of squinting at thumbnail images of people in search, thinking they kinda look like the person you meant to find?  inYOf4ceBook will let you place your mouse over the image and see a large view of it so you can actually tell who you are looking at.

New Facebook Layout Adjuster – Allows you to remove ads, sidebar and more to make a smoother looking version of the new Facebook.

Remove Facebook Ads – As the name implies, this script removes all of the various ads that show up around Facebook such as banner ads, sponsored news items and so on.

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Mozilla Building Android Based Mobile OS to Rival Chrome/Android

Wednesday, July 27, 2011 at 9:25 PM Article by Unknown 0 Comments


Mozilla (the Firefox guys) revealed their plans to build an operating system very much like Google’s own Chrome OS where apps run off of a browser but for mobile devices like smartphones and tablets. The project is being codenamed “Boot to Gecko” because it takes the Gecko engine from Firefox and transforms it into an open-source operating system. Sound familiar? Well, it should.

It’s not too much unlike the idea behind our beloved Android operating system and is bringing back memories of that Mozilla concept phone running off of Android. In fact, Boot to Gecko will actually be based off of Android even thought Mozilla’s VP of Technical Strategy insists they will try to, “use as little of Android as possible.” Basically, they need Android’s kernels and drivers simply to get the device booting.

Taking to heart the idea of open source, developers working with the project intend for it to become a “complete, standalone operating system for the open web.” Instead of building apps using the Android SDK, the platform will instead focus on HTML5 based applications. The company wrote on their blog:
“We will do this work in the open, we will release the source in real-time, we will take all successful additions to an appropriate standards group, and we will track changes that come out of that process. We aren’t trying to have these native-grade apps just run on Firefox, we’re trying to have them run on the web.”
Which devices can we possibly expect to run this new Mozilla OS? Shaver mentioned that the company is looking towards Nvidia Tegra 2 devices because they offer hardware acceleration of open audio and video formats.

As far as their intentions go, Mozilla’s Andreas Gal says their ultimate goal is to break “the stranglehold of proprietary technologies over the mobile device world.” Reminds me a lot of Android when it first started. Android has done pretty well for itself when faced against closed OS’s like Apple’s iOS and although Boot to Gecko is still in its infancy, it’s interesting to see another open source rival step into the ring. Maybe we’re closer to the Mozilla Seabird than we thought…


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How to change Facebook Themes

Monday, July 25, 2011 at 5:35 PM Article by Unknown 0 Comments


Like Orkut Themes or MySpace Layouts, Facebook doesn’t have any option natively to change colors or Themes of Facebook. So, to make your Facebook Profile stylish one, change the appearance of Facebook with Stylish addon. It will be really interesting to redesign Facebook or apply themes.
Stylish Addon allows you change the appearance by applying Facebook Themes. Basically, the styles for facebook is changed by applying User Scripts from  Userstyles.org.
  1. Install Stylish Addon
  2. Login to Facebook
  3. Go to Facebook Themes Gallery
  4. Click on “Install with Stylish” Button
  5. Your Facebook is successfully changed.
facebook stylish themes

Not just Facebook, many other sites like Orkut, Youtube, etc can be changed with this addon.
Another method is using Naevis Facebook Layout which changes appearance for Internet explorer. It is a small program but not so impressive results, it just changes background images and nothing else.


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How To Get Back Old Facebook Chat And Get Rid Of New Sidebar Chat (All Browsers)

at 5:12 PM Article by Unknown 4 Comments


Change isn’t always improvement and New Features aren’t always welcomed by users. Same is the story with New Facebook Sidebar Chat. Users haven’t liked it much for a simple reason that it’s messy. It’s a free service and you don’t have an option to switch to good old Facebook Chat officially. So, here’s how can you get rid of new Facebook Sidebar chat and get back to old Facebook Chat.

Disliking of people is obvious owing to following reasons: Doesn’t have Scroll bar to see all friends who are online at the moment. I agree there is a Search box to find friend to chat with but it isn’t always the case. Sometimes, you decide whom to chat with according to choice of availability of persons.Unnecessarily, Offline Users are shown on top instead of Online.

However, it is possible to get back old facebook chat using userscript which we have used in most browser hacks to customize the webpage and present in different way than original.

Get Back Old Facebook Chat

Facebook Sidebar Chat Reversion is name of userscript compatible with all modern web browsers which when installed reverts back to the old facebook Chat.

Developer has just tried to imitate old Facebook chat appearance which also features scroll bar and lies in right bottom of page. Work is appreciable and at the moment, we don’t have an alternative.
I tried it personally and didn’t found any bug as such but you can report to author if any.

How to install Old Facebook Chat UserScript?

Go to http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/107159 and click on Green button saying “Install”.
For Firefox users, you must have GreaseMonkey addon installed to install this. 

For Internet Explorer users, you must have Trixie addon installed to install this.  

For Safari users, you must have Greasekit addon installed to install this. 
 If still it does not work then enable your extension from tools menu. (optional)

For Opera users, download script from this page. At the end of the file name use ‘.user.js’ and open with opera browser.


For Google Chrome however, it is installed directly and activates automatically on opening Facebook.com

Note: This Hack doesn’t activate Old Facebook Chat for your Account but only when you access Facebook from the browser where script is installed.


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Facebook Group Video Chat : Multiple Video Chat on Facebook Hangout

at 4:45 PM Article by Unknown 2 Comments

Facebook Video Chat already created a buzz which was said to be an answer to Google Plus Hangout. The Skype powered Facebook Video chat allowed us to have 1 on 1 chat while Google+ Hangout allowed involvement of multiple profiles. In similar way, Social Hangout allows us to have Group Video chat on Facebook.

Social Hangouts is a 3rd party Facebook Application offering group video chat facility with your Facebook Friends upto 20 at a time.



To begin with, go to Social Hangout Application > Invite your friends with whom you want to chat and start. Camera screen will soon fetch your video and other video windows will be activated as soon as your friends start joining the video chat room.

Facebook isn’t offering this feature officially (at the moment though proposed) but thanks to Apps like this are in favor of Facebook giving a silent answer to Google+ Hangout.

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5 Steps That Help Selecting The Best Financial Advisor

Saturday, July 23, 2011 at 9:30 PM Article by Unknown 0 Comments

Preparing to start the choice:

Satish grew concerned about how to manage his personal finance investments and asked his uncle, who is a very successful investor, if he knew a good financial advisor. His uncle knows a few each specializing in a particular type of financial consultation, and asked him about the type of consultation he required.

Then his uncle went to tell him that his first task lay in identifying his financial objective, whether he needed financial advice for goals like long-term financial portfolio, or tax planning, or providing for the higher education and marriage of his children. Uncle went on to tell him there were more than 50 type of specialists specializing in aspects like stocks, insurance, mutual funds, postal savings, financial planning, taxation and real estate and told him the five steps to select the best financial advisor.


1) Meeting and reviewing different financial advisors:
Once your financial objective and goals are set, your choice of a specialist would depend on whether you want one for your savings plans, tax advice and preparation, stock and equity portfolios, investment strategies, personal budgeting and debt management, retirement planning, estate planning, or insurance advice.
A search on the internet and referrals from friends, colleagues and relatives could help you find some appropriate financial advisors to look into your concern. Make sure that when the financial advisor suggests suitable financial plans, he also assures you to look into its maintenance, updating and implementation with periodic reviews of reports and correspondence.


2) Details about the financial advisor’s educational qualifications, certifications, and experience:

As all other dealings financial dealings too require the qualifications, certification and experience. So it is best to know and verify the advisor’s educational qualifications, certifications and experience. It pays to verify required certifications, like being licensed by IRDA to do insurance business and by by AMFI to deal in mutual funds in India. The extra qualifications like CFP add more value.

 In addition, the professional’s experience in the nature of business, and with sizable experience dealing with recession times plays a vital role in the choice of a financial advisor. The investment advisor’s past professional positions and his reasons for change will be able to tell how efficient he is, with a positive switch of revealing his good expertise.

3) Information of clients he has dealt with along with references:
I would say it is in your interest to not rely just on the positive talk of a financial advisor, and beware of his trying to belittle your ideas. Asking for a reference helps verifying his authenticity, honesty, integrity, and empathy and whether he specializes in the similar nature of business you expect of him. I would say if you are young, you would not benefit from a financial advisor dealing mainly in retirement and senior citizen plans.

Interviewing a number of clients would give you the best idea if the financial advisor can be relied upon confidently to meet your financial goals and objectives. In addition to this you may verify the testimonials given to him by his clients.

4. Verify his past records to judge his present and future behavior:
I would rather rely on written words like past documents than what he professes, and would say that a financial advisor’s past performance indicated well his present and future actions. I would also make sure that any disciplinary action for professional and ethic violation has been taken. I would also avoid financial advisors claiming very high performance, as they would highly risk my money.

5) The rate and method of compensation for services:
Now comes, the final stage of discussing and knowing your financial advisor’s compensation. Financial advisors have varied compensation methods for their services, charges could be hourly, a flat monthly fee, a percentage on the assets managed, and a commission on the financial products managed or could be based on the number of transactions.  Others could be a combination of 2 or more methods.
A word of caution in dealing with financial advisors charging on number of trades, or getting commission from the investment company, these fees or commissions can be profit motivated with no empathy to client needs.
You could always suggest changes in the fee structure, if not accepted you could always find a reasonable financial advisor to sign a compensation agreement with him.


The final note:
My best wishes for good financial dealings with financial advisors, but a word of caution, are ‘be selective, diligent and patient to understand well the philosophy of your investment and never be shy to ask questions and clarify doubts’.

(Ramalingam K, an MBA (Finance) and Certified Financial Planner, is founder & director of Holistic Investment Planners (P) Ltd (www.holisticinvestment.in))

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