Facebook hops aboard T-Mobile's Bobsled service

Good Afternoon! well i was checking my forms as well as google news and besides the white iPhone coming out and the blackberry playbook theres really not many other releases, but i was able to find something i thought was pretty interesting, i don't know how interesting it might be to you but I'm sure i probably wont use it but still its a cool little feature.

Facebook's 500 million-plus customers are now able to make live voice calls via Facebook Chat across the world.

T-Mobile's new Bobsled service lets PC and Macintosh users make calls between Facebook pages, add voice to any Facebook Chat and leave voice messages and wall posts on Facebook.

"We're bringing a voice to social networking," says Brad Duea, senior vice president of T-Mobile USA.

The service is fairly simple. No download or log-in is required. All of the calls are free. (Eventually, the service will be available to iPhone and iPad users.) T-Mobile may bring Bobsled to other social networks, Duea says.

"It's a good service for PC, but will be more valuable when it's available on mobile phones," says Yankee Group analyst Tole Hart, who has been briefed on Bobsled. "It should be pretty useful for Facebook's (more than 250 million) mobile users. And it fits T-Mobile's user demographic of young, heavy-duty data users."

Users interested in Bobsled need to go to www.letsbobsled.com. It's also available for free download from Facebook's application page.

Original Article.

Report: Finally, Nintendo to Announce Wii 2 This June

I love my WII!, i love just dance super Mario bros and all the wii resorts and fit games, i mean its simple i use it probably once a week or so and its the perfect console for me, so i think it all depends on the buyer. anyways im sure i wont buy the wii 2 but it will ne neat to see what they have come up with.

So it comes as no surprise that on Friday, the blogosphere was rife with reports, led by IGN and Game Informer, that Nintendo is announcing its next-generation console at the E3 Expo on June 7-9.

French tech publication 01.net reports that the console is codenamed "Project Café" and will feature an in-built sensor bar, dual analog sticks, a standard d-pad, and trigger buttons. Game Informer said the new Wii will have HD support, while Kotaku reports that the console's specs will be "more powerful" than an Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3.

Nintendo "declines to comment on speculation or rumors," but IGN and Game Informer both cited anonymous sources claiming that Nintendo will announce the next-generation console in at E3 this year and launch it in 2012.

Targeting casual gamers with its novel motion sensor technology, the Wii was once the hottest console in the U.S. but has seen its popularity dip considerably as newer motion sensor technology, like the Kinect for Xbox 360, launched. In February Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter said Wii sales dropped 31.5 percent in January (usually a big month for console purchases), more than rivals Sony and Microsoft. It's a far cry from the time PCMag editor called the Nintendo Wii the Best Product Ever.

For more, see PCMag's review of the Wii, which was launched in 2006.

Original Article.

Android: Over 3 billion apps installed; 350,000 device activations per day

Hello! Happy Friday! Ive never been happier for Friday to come, even tho i have a busy weekend ahead i just want to sit back relax, turn on the office and just enjoy the weekend,anyways recently got an android phone.. probably about 3 months ago, and I'm loving it, love all the apps i had a blackberry and the app market wasn't too great. hope you enjoy the article!

Android falls short in the apps category when compared to Apple’s trademarked App Store, but current figures show the Android Market is doing pretty well. According to Google there have now been over 3 billion apps installed from the Market. Most impressively the last billion apps were installed in the last three months, a huge jump in activity (11 million/ day). The app numbers are accompanied by an update from Google that there are now 350,000 activations of new Android devices every day. That puts the platform on a pace to hit over 127 million activations in a year.

Google didn’t share any information in the financial conference call about how many of those apps are free apps. Most likely most a few of them but if even a low percentage of the apps installed from the Market are paid, there is some money to be made by app developers. These figures from Google don’t include any app installation numbers from the young Amazon Appstore. The Amazon storefront doesn’t have many apps on the shelves and likely isn’t selling enough to include in Android numbers.

Android tablets don’t factor into these numbers in any numbers as companies are only just getting them to market. This year will see a lot of Android tablets go on sale, and it will be interesting to see how it affects these two key metrics for the platform.
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Original Article.

Guys more likely to cheat on high-earning women

Baffled by how Jesse James could have cheated on his superstar wife, Sandra Bullock ? Or why Eric Benet stepped out on Halle Berry (Halle Berry!)?

A new study may help explain it. Men who earn significantly less than their female partners, or who earn nothing, are far more likely to cheat than those in relationships where incomes are more or less equal, the study found.

In fact, men who were completely dependent on their partner's income were five times more likely to cheat than men who contributed an equal amount of money to the relationship, according to research presented at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association.

You’d think such men wouldn’t want to risk their meal ticket. But lower-earning men may be self-medicating their inner macho guy, says Cornell University sociology graduate student Christin Munsch, who conducted the study.

“Having multiple sexual partners may be an attempt to restore gender identity in response to these threats,” she writes. “In other words, for men, sex [outside their relationship] may be an attempt to compensate for feelings of inadequacy with respect to gender identity.”

In fact, says Munsch, we finally have scientific support to the enduring cliché about why any man would drive a Hummer: he’s overcompensating.

But if you’re a woman, here’s the lousy part: “At the other end of the spectrum, those making a lot more are also more likely to cheat,” said Munsch. Men can be bad whether we’re broke or filthy rich.

Original article.

Google, Verizon make Net neutrality proposal

IDG News Service - Google and Verizon Communications have released a proposal that suggests the U.S. Federal Communications Commission should enforce network neutrality rules and fine broadband providers up to $2 million for violations.

Officials from the two companies, in an announcement today, said they hope to move the often-contentious Net neutrality debate ahead with the recommendations. Under the proposal, broadband providers could not block or degrade Web traffic, although they could provide "differentiated online" services apart from the public Internet.

The announcement comes after days of rumors and news reports that the two companies had reached an agreement on how Verizon would handle Google's traffic. But the proposal is a set of recommendations to U.S. policymakers and broadband providers, and the proposal would not allow for any prioritization of Google's traffic on the public Internet, said Ivan Seidenberg, Verizon's chairman and CEO.

"There is no business arrangement, and reports that there was a business relationship are false, misleading and incorrect," said Eric Schmidt, Google's chairman and CEO.

Under net neutrality, or open Internet, rules, broadband providers would be prohibited from selectively blocking or slowing Web traffic.

"The original architects of the Internet got the big things right," said Alan Davidson, Google's director of public policy, and Tom Tauke, Verizon's executive vice president of public affairs, policy, and communications, in a blog post. "By making the network open, they enabled the greatest exchange of ideas in history. By making the Internet scalable, they enabled explosive innovation in the infrastructure."

The proposal is an effort to "find ways to protect the future openness of the Internet and encourage the rapid deployment of broadband," Davidson and Tauke wrote.

original article.

Brother intros iPhone app, allows users to scan to and print

Printer specialists Brother UK has launched what the company says is the world's first iPhone application that allows users to scan to and print from their smartphones.

Brother iPrint&Scan allows customers to wirelessly print from and scan to their iPhone, iPod touch or iPad - with a compatible printer from Brother's latest inkjet multifunction printer range."Smart phones are becoming an essential modern day business tool and we are pleased to be able to offer even more convenient features for our customers," said Phil Jones, sales and marketing director at Brother UK announcing the application.All of Brother's latest inkjet multifunction printers introduced from 2009 onwards that have a wireless interface will be fully compatible with the application. Models with network interface are also compatible when connecting to a wireless network."iPhone users have been waiting for an app like this for quite some time. We're really pleased to be at the forefront of innovative printing technology, providing businesses with the means to succeed," Jones adds.Available from the Apple iTunes App Store, Brother iPrint&Scan is free and requires the iPhone 3.0 Software Update or later and a compatible Brother printer.

The application is initially launched in English, with plans to introduce French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and Dutch versions by the end of 2010. Brother also has plans to develop similar applications for other smartphones including Google-based Android 1.6 handsets.

Original Article.

Postal Service Seeks 2-Cent Rise in First-Class Mail

July 6 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. Postal Service proposed raising the price of first-class stamps by 2 cents, to 46 cents, while rates for periodicals increase 8 percent and parcels 23 percent to narrow a deficit projected at $7 billion this year.

The increases would generate $2.3 billion in the first nine months of 2011, the service said today in a statement. Increases, which must be reviewed by Postal Regulatory Commission, would take effect Jan. 2.

“We’re doing this because the Postal Service really faces a serious risk of financial insolvency,” said Stephen Kearney, a senior vice president with the Postal Service.

The commission has 90 days to rule on the proposal, one of several steps the Postal Service is considering to cope with a decline in mail volume as Internet use increases. The service also is seeking approval from Congress to end Saturday delivery, provided since the Post Office was founded in 1863.

“The Postal Service is wrong on the law, wrong on the economics, and wrong as a matter of public policy,” James Cregan, executive vice president of government affairs for the Magazine Publishers of America, said in an interview before the announcement. The increase will drive away profitable mail, heading the service toward a “death spiral,” he said.

Mailers of catalogs, magazines and newspapers are prepared to fight the rate increase, Cregan said. The group’s members include Time Warner Inc. and Meredith Corp.

‘Exceptional, Extraordinary’

The Postal Service is using a legal provision that lets it propose increases greater than the rate of inflation under “exceptional or extraordinary” circumstances, Kearney said. The average increase would be 5.6 percent, compared with inflation of 0.6 percent, he said.

Express mail and priority mail, such as the flat-rate boxes advertised by the Postal Service, are excluded from the current proposal, and higher prices for those offerings will be announced in October, the agency said.

A 23 percent increase would apply to parcels under one pound, said Maura Robinson, a spokeswoman. Heavier packages typically used to ship books, videos and merchandise face an average increase of about 7 percent, she said.

The Postal Service’s parcel charges “will remain competitive, which shows how underpriced they are now,” Kearney said.

The Postal Service lost $1.6 billion in its recent quarter as customers continued to use the Internet to pay monthly bills and read publications that previously were delivered by mail. The service projects a deficit of $238 billion through 2020.

Mail volume dropped 6.3 percent from Oct. 1 through March 31, the service said May 6. Profitable types of mail are falling faster than less-profitable categories, which include bulk advertising mail, Chief Financial Officer Joseph Corbett said.

The agency also has asked Congress for permission to delay a required retiree health benefits payment and for more flexibility to close facilities.

--With assistance from Angela Greiling Keane in Washington. Editors: Steve Geimann, Larry Liebert

To contact the reporter on this story: Todd Shields in Washington at Tshields3@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Larry Liebert at lliebert@bloomberg.net.

original article.