Geek Choice Blog » social networking

Another Facebook Update

Gregg — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 05:28:38 +0000

I know, if you were just born then this is already old news about Facebook being used for everything except actually living your life. But quit running from the truth and acting like you are too good for such a thing as being social on a network. The truth is that Facebook is instantaneous information in your face internet intensity. The internet is supposed to be all of that allowing people across the globe to communicate with each other easily with fast speeds.

Email has been the first choice for communication, mainly in business, replacing the telephone. This AirTrans commercial is a funny one explaining this trend.

Email Replaces Talking

But there is a figure on the horizon, and it is in the shape of an ‘F’: yes, Facebook is coming out with another idea to make messaging better. Not that it isn’t better already, I mean we have come along way from lighting signal fires and dialing a rotary phone, but how much more can we communicate better, faster, easier?

Well, let’s email Facebook and see what they have to say.

I haven’t heard back from them, but I got an instant response on Facebook, and this reveals the appeal for Facebook to combine email with instant messaging: contact. Everywhere you go online or anywhere that is related to sharing business, videos, music, ideas, advertising, you see a link to put it on Facebook. It is a connection that goes where email cannot go.

So when CEO Mark Zuckerburg remarked about comments concerning the revamp of the social messaging system Facebook and how it will be the ‘Gmail killer’, he said “It’s not email.”

What is it? The new Facebook will allow you to get email on Facebook. Wow, after all the virus and hack breakdowns that Facebook has had, I am surprised they are tempting such a thing. We will probably be hearing about people being hacked and having to call Geek Choice to clean up all the viruses on your computer, but until then if you live life on Facebook then this new edition will fit the bill perfect.

Email and instant messaging are becoming the normal ways to communicate, talking is awkward, email is less personal and you can put your thoughts down easier to communicate better.

By combining the two, the new Facebook will grab multiple types of communication such as email and turn it into a more real-time messaging service. Say you use Gmail to get messages from clients and since you run your business on getting updates from customers instantly online; receiving fast updates beats out regular email since you will get all you need on Facebook.

To wrap this up, Facebook is just looking to pioneer out from the boundaries of their target market, almost like Google has been doing for the past couple years. They are looking at voice-chat and new ways to communicate.

Talking face-to-face is just boring, it is so much more fun writing it down and adding a smiley face!

Remember Netscape? It’s Back!

Sean Wilcoxson — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 18:07:16 +0000

A new internet browser has hit the scene of an already crowded stage. It goes by the name of Rockmelt, and it is a change from the regular browser scheme. What Rockmelt does is use your Facebook ID to log onto the browser, anywhere in the world, and allow you to surf the net faster and easier. Behind the stage of internet browsers is the maker of Netscape. Has everyone forgot about this guy? Well he is back, and it sounds like better than ever.

The future is here. Rockmelt is here to reinvent the web. The primary purpose of Rockmelt is making the browser able to keep up with your friends, consume information, and search faster. It works on Windows and Mac’s right now for desktops and laptops. A Beta version is being released today, you can download it at rockmelt.com. If you go to the site, you will see an icon asking if you would like to be ‘Invited’ to use Rockmelt. Wow, it looks like this new browser is V.I.P. status, and you get on the list until they are ready to let you in.

What is cool is that the CEO of Netscape, Marc Andreeson who helped start the Netscape Communications Corp., is fighting back against the same web browsers that put him out of business. He is doing that by funding these two men who founded Rockmelt, Eric Vishria and Tim Howes, and they are looking to change the way we use the internet.

In an interview with them on YouTube, they gave a sneak peak at the features of Rockmelt and what the catalyst is for the change. Instead of just an ordinary web browser like Chrome or Firefox where you click on a search link, wait for it to load, and then go back to the search page, Rockmelt turns the internet into a magazine enabling you to ‘turn the page’ so to speak. This sounds like a new era in the Internet age. Everything is on the internet, and it seems like everyone is on Facebook, so by integrating these two into one browser, Rockmelt can open the door to new ways to game, commerce, or just socialize.

The test of the browser was actually performed through Google’s web browser Chromium, but it can be used through Firefox or Internet Explorer. One requirement to be able to use the features of Rockmelt is having a Facebook account. If you have an account, and you get invited, then you are able to look at your friends to see who is doing what on a side-panel. On the other side-panel to the right is your favorite sites that you visit the most, and in between is the ‘magazine’ style search engine and a faster way to surf.

Netscape is back in action by sneaking in the back door with a whole new way to browse the web. Do not be surprised to see this type of browser become the main stream of using the internet. Be sure to check out YouTube’s video of Rockmelt, as well as sign up to get into this new and exciting way to use the internet.

ZScreen captures images and uploads them for you

Ken — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 19:34:04 +0000

In this era of social networking, where the internet has become our main channel of communication, sharing pictures has become a routine activity.

Finding hosts for those pictures is as easy as surfing to any number of free sites that offer storage and linking of as many pictures as you would like, where the simple generation of a fresh url allows you to link your image on whichever forum you’d like to broadcast the latest exploits you’ve captured.

Zscreen is an amazingly convenient tool that not only captures screens from your computer, but it also uploads those images to you the most popular image sharing services you on the net – TinyPic, ImageShack, Flickr, TwitPic, and others. Additionally, those urls can be minimized with url shortening services like TinyURL and bit.ly.

Supporting more than two dozen services, Zscreen captures content and shares it, sparing you the hassle of having to visit a website to upload those images. Once the image link has been generated, you can share it with as many people as you’d like.

This is an excellent tool for those of you with a penchant for sharing pictures. It’s free and easy to use, but available only for Windows users.

If you’d like to make use of Zscreen, you can get it here.

Photograbber helps you collect all those Facebook photos

Ken — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 00:00:51 +0000

Having so many friends on Facebook, it’s difficult to keep track of just how many photos of yourself that others have tagged. From that office retreat back in April to a family picture taken during the holidays, tagged photos can pop up out of nowhere, with you unknowingly present in some of them. Instead of asking them for a copy of that photo, you can use Photograbber, a neat utility that simply collects all of those photos in which your friends have tagged you and others.

Installation is simple. After its completion, Photograbber will scour the walls of your various friends for those pictures they’ve tagged. After selecting the Facebook friend from whom you want to grab, Photograbber will retrieve each and every one of the photos, storing them in a directory that you specify.

Photograbber doesn’t allow you to select which photos you want. When using it, Photograbber collects every tagged photo. Additionally, there is no way to preview the photos you’ve received, as Photograbber doesn’t provide any thumbnails of the images. You’ll have to open each photo to see what’s included.

We should also note that this will require that you’re actually friends with the individuals from whom you’re culling the photos. Depending on their privacy settings, you may find that Photograbber is unable to collect the photos.

If you’re someone who just needs to collect the photos of your Facebook friends, including those that feature you, this is an excellent and easy way to do so.

You can download Photograbber here.

An easy and seamless way to resize your pictures

Ken — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 19:50:23 +0000

In this age of social networking, where making the public privy to the happenings of our personal life has become something of an industry, picture sharing is as common as sending emails. Whether you’re uploading a picture to Facebook or any number of the other sites you frequent, it’s important to pay close attention to the size of the pic you’re uploading, many of these sites placing restrictions on the size of the picture you’re sharing.

In the past, resizing pictures was something you did manually, using one of the various photo editors that included a feature for that purpose. Now, there’s a tool that runs in the background, automatically resizing your photos whenever you upload them.

It’s a free utility called Shrink Pic, and it’s an extremely convenient tool for those who frequently upload or attach photos. It monitors your uploading, silently resizing the picture whenever you upload, attach or – if transmitting via an Instant Messing client – send it.

According to the definitions you set before using it, Shrink Pic automatically resizes the images, uploading the compressed image once it’s complete. Even if you’re uploading multiple pictures, which can be the case when using Facebook, Shrink Pic works to resize every last one. It moves fast, too, working almost instantly.

Shrink Pic doesn’t touch your original picture, moving the resized pictures to a temporary directory. If you want to disable the program, you need only deactivate it with an option available in the system tray.

Free and available for Windows only, Shrink Pic can be downloaded here.