CNET Buzz Report: How to get a $149 HP TouchPad

via Molly Woods of CNET.com

The HP TouchPad is back from the dead (again) with a hot new price ... and a catch. Plus, Facebook is crawling with children, and the Internet is changing the world (again).

Winfrey looks to the Web to energize her network - Yahoo! News

Winfrey looks to the Web to energize her network - Yahoo! News: "After 25 years on TV, Oprah Winfrey says she's having the time of her life on the Web.

The 57-year-old mogul is connecting with viewers through her weekly webcasts, and she says it's "the most fun I've had ever."

Winfrey's live webcast discussions about her new show, "Oprah's Lifeclass," have been so popular, they've been added to the lineup on the Oprah Winfrey Network.

"Lifeclass" premiered earlier this month and features Winfrey sharing her favorite interviews and insights from her long-running talk show. On Fridays, she discusses "Lifeclass" lessons during an hour-long webcast with a live audience, and invites viewers to comment or ask questions in person or through Facebook, Twitter and Skype."

Facebook launches video chat

via CNET's First Look

If you haven't tried Skype on Facebook yet, you may wanna take it for a spin soon. This looks pretty nice.

Creating Social Memories Book from Facebook Posts

In Episode #112 of NerdBoyTV, Ryan Yee interviews the developers of Social Memories, a service that converts Facebook wall postings, photos, and stats into a graphically-designed hardbound coffee table book.

http://facebook.com/socialmemories

First Look at Google's Facebook killer, Google+

Rafe Needleman looks into Google's latest social experiment, Google+, and how it's better—and worse—than Facebook.

Father's Day Gifts

In NerdBoyTV Episode #110, Ryan Yee shares terrific gift ideas for Father's Day, including RoyceWare, Google Chrome OS Netbook, AirCurve Play, and Electronic Rock Guitar T-Shirt from ThinkGeek. SEE video demos on NerdBoyTV's YouTube Channel.

SHOW #98 - NerdBoyTV: iPad 2, Twitter, Facebook

In this episode of NerdBoyTV, Ryan Yee discusses the new release of Apple's iPad 2, provides a word of warning about tweeting on Twitter, and gives a creative example of the new pictures feature running along the top of your Facebook wallposts.

Facebook Messenger, Billboard.com Charts, Oscar Backstage Pass

Phil Hornshaw | Appolicious ™ iPhone and iPad App Directory: "The head of today’s Fresh Apps list is Facebook Messenger, an app that gives you the ability to send voice calls over the Internet to Facebook friends, as well as text chat with them and share photos straight from the photo roll on your device. We’ve also got a new app from Billboard for checking out what’s hot in music, and an app that will help you get primed up for the Academy Awards when they happen next Sunday. Read about all three below.

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Google vs. Facebook For Control of Your Reputation

By Kashmir Hill - Forbes

"Much has been written about Google and Facebook’s war for control of the Internet (This 2009 Wired piece is one of my favorites). How hard have you thought about who you want to win that war? And how do you feel about it when you think of it as your Google search results page versus your Facebook profile in determining how you’re perceived on the Internet?

Right now, Google (and Bing and Yahoo) are our main gateways to get to the best the Internet has to offer (ideally), whereas Facebook is our gateway to what’s best on the Internet according to our friends. (Of course, given the escalating nature of the war, Google now plans to incorporate “social” into its search.)

The search giants’ algorithms’ dictation of discovery on the web has been much discussed and criticized recently — including here at Forbes. All the talk of search has me thinking about a topic near and dear to the Not-So Private Parts’ heart: our personal Google footprints.

Facebook gets criticized quite frequently for its exposure of our personal information. Yet, in many ways, we have so much control there. We can untag ourselves from photos. We can flag them for abuse and get them taken down. We can block people that we don’t want to have access to our information. We can set privacy settings high.

Google, by contrast, is the Wild West of reputation. I’m lucky. I get to control my Google search results for the most part, since I’m regularly churning out new material under my name and to search-optimized news sites. Most people are not so lucky, nor so prolific.

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Obama chats with Facebook's CEO, Mark Zuckerberg

I think this is soooooooooo kewl. Obama talking with Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook with Carol Bartz (in red) of Yahoo! standing behind them!

Being popular on Facebook is stressful

Technolog - Being popular on Facebook is stressful

By Athima Chansanchai

Oh, the pitfalls of popularity.

The more Facebook friends you have, the more likely you are to be stressed out, a new study finds. While it may boost the human ego to know their popularity has touched so many lives, it also induces a whole new array of anxiety specific to Facebook. For instance, you're more likely to worry about periodic purging of said friends, and more apt to succumb to the constant pressure of being so darn witty and charming in status updates.

'It's like being a mini news channel about yourself. The more people you have the more you feel there is an audience there,' Dr. Kathy Charles, who led the study at Scotland's Edinburgh Napier University, told BBC News. 'You are almost a mini celebrity and the bigger the audience the more pressure you feel to produce something about yourself.'

Ain't that the truth? Why, this morning, I'm already sweating, trying to figure out how to start the day with the right status update. Because, God forbid, what if I don't give my eager masses something to chew on for the rest of the morning? Their day will be shot, as will mine.

Charles — whose team solicited data from about 200 students through focus groups, an online survey of 175 people as well as interviews — found that one in 10 said that Facebook 'made them feel anxious' and more than three in 10 said 'they felt guilty about rejecting friend requests.'

Popularity means new people are constantly trying to be your friends. Twelve percent of the students questioned said they disliked receiving friend requests, while almost two-thirds (63 percent) said they put friend requests in limbo by delaying responses.

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Rumor: Facebook phones are coming!!!

Technolog - Rumor: Facebook phones are coming!!!
By Wilson Rothman

"UPDATED - HTC is slated to unveil not one but two Facebook phones in February at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, according to City AM, a UK news site. They will be 'high-end smart phones,' running Android with Facebook 'branding and colors,' says the site. Their purpose will be to make life easier for Facebook addicts by featuring Facebook messages on the home screen, and integrating calling and e-mailing using Facebook friend info.

Let's see, an Android phone that features Facebook messages on the home screen, and uses Facebook to get friends' contact info? Isn't that, like, every Android phone? Truth is, Facebook's mobile strategy is so good these days, pretty much any phone in your pocket is a Facebook phone, even dumb ones. So what gives?

My guess would be that it's got to do with apps and games. Facebook is making bank hosting the masterworks of Zynga ('FarmVille,' 'CityVille') and Playdom ('Social City'), and is getting cozy with traditional publishers like EA and Popcap. Why let Apple and Google reap the mobile gaming spoils?

City AM's rationalization is a little more vague: 'Facebook has aggressively pushed mobile versions of its social network,' says the site, 'and industry insiders see this as an attempt to consolidate its position as the world’s leading social network.'

OK, so how much stock do we put in this rumor? On one hand, the most realistic Facebook phone rumors surround devices that would be released in Europe and Asia (but possibly not in the United States), and this does follow in the same groove. And HTC would be a great candidate for a Facebook vanity phone, especially based on the Android operating system, which they've worked intimately with since the beginning.

City AM's reporter may have reported on the existence of the second Google Nexus phone, as Mashable points out. But in this piece, he misidentifies HTC as the manufacturer of it. (Correct answer: Samsung.) So really, when it comes to credibility, they're kind of a mixed bag.

We've reached out to HTC and Facebook for comment, and have yet to hear back.

UPDATED at 3:39 p.m. ET: A Facebook spokesperson replied to our inquiry, sharing a tantalizing non-denial that sounds awfully familiar:

'Facebook is not building a mobile phone. As we've long said our mobile strategy is to enable people to not only have access, but also a great Facebook experience from any mobile phone they choose. We're working across the entire mobile industry with operators, hardware manufactures and app developers to bring Facebook to mobile phones in a variety of unique and exciting ways. Some of these include deep integrations of Facebook within the device, but are not 'a Facebook phone' as they sometimes are referred to by commenters.'

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E-mail secondary as Facebook revamps messaging

CLICK to read article on Yahoo! News: "Facebook unveiled a new messaging platform Monday that takes aim at one of the Internet's first applications, e-mail.

Although blogs had been speculating that Facebook would announce an e-mail service to rival Google Inc.'s Gmail and others, Facebook said e-mail was just one component of its plans.

Declaring e-mail past its prime in the age of texts and instant messages, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the company doesn't believe e-mail is going to be a modern messaging system. The first Internet e-mail system arrived in the early 1970s.

'If we do a good job, some people will say this is the way that the future will work,' Zuckerberg said.

Zuckerberg dismissed notions that 'Project Titan,' as its service is called, is the 'Gmail killer' it's been dubbed as in the press. But he also said that just as high school students are forgoing e-mail in favor of shorter, more immediate chats, more people down the line will send IMs and chats because it's simpler, 'more fun' and more valuable to use.

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Microsoft deepens Facebook ties in Google battle

CLICK to read article on Yahoo! News

"Microsoft Corp deepened its ties with social networking company Facebook on Wednesday, bolstering its fledgling Bing search engine in an effort to catch up with Google Inc.

Microsoft said it would integrate content from Facebook -- the world's leading social network with over half a billion members -- to refine search results starting on Wednesday, including profiles of Facebook users and Web pages they have endorsed by clicking on 'like' buttons.

The world's largest software company has stepped up its efforts within its money-losing online services division, seeking to challenge the dominance of Google, the world's largest search engine.

'The thing that makes Microsoft a great partner for us is that they really are the underdog here,' Facebook Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg told reporters at Microsoft's Silicon Valley offices. 'Because of that they in a structural position where they're incentivized to go all out and innovate.'

The Facebook data provides important 'signals' to help refine search results, Microsoft Online Services Division President Qi Lu told reporters.

As part of their agreement, Microsoft's Bing will be able to access user's 'likes' on the social networking service and deliver search results tailored to individual preferences.

Microsoft invested $240 million in Facebook in 2007, giving it a 1.6 percent stake in the social networking company, and the two companies have forged various business collaborations over the years.

Microsoft introduced Bing, an overhauled version of its search engine, last year, and forged a 10-year partnership with Yahoo that merges the companies' back-end advertising systems, offering marketers a larger audience.

Bing is currently the exclusive provider of Web search on Facebook, and Microsoft sells text-based search ads for Facebook's site.

Microsoft's shares closed up more than 2 percent, or 51 cents, at $25.34.

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Facebook unveils new Groups tool

CLICK to read article on CNNMoney

"Facebook unveiled three new features on Wednesday to give users better tools for communicating with sheltered groups and increased control over the information that they share on the social network.

'Until today, we've made it pretty easy to share with everyone on the site publicly,' said Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook's CEO. 'But for a lot of people, just your friends isn't actually private.'

One new feature, called Groups, allows users to target their updates to specific sets of friends, without posting the information to everyone in their network.

Facebook created what it called 'a social solution' to the problem. Users can create groups on the fly, similarly to how they tag photos on Facebook, and other group members can add additional friends.

'Sometimes you don't want to post something to all of your friends, not because you don't want them to know, but because you don't want to annoy them,' Zuckerberg at a press gathering at Facebook's headquarters in Palo Alto, Calif. 'The naive solution is to do something like friend lists. Almost no one wants to make lists.'

Users can manually create friends' list subsets on Facebook today, but Zuckerberg said that fewer than 5% of the site's users have done that.

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Facebook movie is all about the hoodies ... and shower shoes

CLICK to read article on Technolog.

"Much is made of Facebook CEO and founder Mark Zuckerberg's ubiquitous grey hoodie. Not so much the Adidas shower shoes that — if 'The Social Network' isn't the complete work of fiction Facebook reps claim it to be — Zuck wore with and without socks throughout his time at Harvard and Facebook's meteoric rise.

Having just seen a screening of the movie (which hits theaters Oct. 1), I'm inclined to side with the Facebook reps on the colorful liberties taken with events, certainly dialog, and possibly wardrobe. In his portrayal of Zuckerberg, Jesse Eisenberg (aka the rich man's Michael Cera) wears at least six different colored hoodies.

Don't get me wrong. 'The Social Network' is worth seeing — fast paced and engaging — an achievement all the more impressive considering this is a movie pretty much about coding and legal documents. One wonders what director David Fincher ('Fight Club') and screenwriter Aaron Sorkin ('The West Wing') could've done with 2008 dud 'Valkyrie'— another movie about paperwork.

Where 'The Social Network' fails in historical accuracy — and all movies based on 'actual events' do — it succeeds in hitting key points in the Horatio Alger narrative, revealed through the color of hoodie fictional 'Zuckerberg' wears in any particular scene. As far as I'm concerned, anyway. Check it out!

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Rock group Kiss to rock live in Facebook game 'Nightclub City'

CLICK link to read entire article.

"If you're a fan of make-up-wearing rock stars who have been known to spit blood on stage but you just can't make it to Saturday's Kiss concert in Fontana, Calif. ... not to worry! Kiss will bring its show live to your home — via the Facebook game 'Nightclub City.'

That's right, say what you will about Facebook games, Kiss is a fan.

The iconic rockers will be broadcasting the final North American date of their 'Hottest Show on Earth' concert tour live in the 'Nightclub City' game created by the startup Booyah.

'We have always believed in pushing the boundaries...in giving the fans bang for the buck...in going where no band has gone before,' said Kiss singer/guitarist Gene Simmons (he's the one with the really long tongue) in a statement. 'This one's gonna rock big time!'

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6 Things You Should Never Reveal on Facebook

6 Things You Should Never Reveal on Facebook: Personal Finance News from Yahoo! Finance

"The whole social networking phenomenon has millions of Americans sharing their photos, favorite songs and details about their class reunions on Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and dozens of similar sites. But there are a handful of personal details that you should never say if you don't want criminals — cyber or otherwise — to rob you blind, according to Beth Givens, executive director of the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse.

The folks at Insure.com also say that ill-advised Facebook postings increasingly can get your insurance canceled or cause you to pay dramatically more for everything from auto to life insurance coverage. By now almost everybody knows that those drunken party photos could cost you a job, too.

You can certainly enjoy networking and sharing photos, but you should know that sharing some information puts you at risk. What should you never say on Facebook, Twitter or any other social networking site?

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Facebook stalker continues to harass 12-year-old girl

Technolog - Facebook stalker continues to harass 12-year-old girl

"Hot on the heels of a woman who's suing Facebook after the world's largest social network bounced her account (for reasons that remain unclear), comes a story from Australia about a mother who can't get Facebook to shut down a stalker using the site to harass her 12-year-old daughter and her friends.

'A Sydney mother-of-three, her daughter and daughter's friends have been subjected to a two-week ordeal at the hands of a Facebook stalker and they have been unable to get the social networking company to intervene,' the Sydney Morning Herald reported Thursday.

This dramatic tale of a Facebook stalker hacking and harassing young girls on Facebook speaks to a couple of issues regularly faced in this brave new world of social media — the dangers awaiting children online and Facebook's oft-complained-about lack of customer service.

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MySpace users can now sync posts to Facebook

MySpace users can now sync posts to Facebook - Yahoo! News

"MySpace, which recently revamped itself to look more like Facebook, is now allowing users to sync their posts to Facebook, too.

That means people on Facebook can see their friends' MySpace items without leaving Facebook.

MySpace users will also be able to share music, videos, game applications, links and photos across both social networking sites.

The changes announced Monday are part of an overhaul at MySpace, which has faced falling advertising revenue and stagnant user growth.

The News Corp. unit is also in the midst of renegotiating a search partnership as its deal with Google Inc. is nearing a close.

- Sent using Google Toolbar"