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News

Historic Tweet "Four More Years" was not by Barack Obama

A few hours ago, I wrote about Barack Obama’s iconic “Four More Years” update which broke many records on Twitter and Facebook. The update itself was completely missing from Google+. But chances are that the historic tweet on Obama’s Twitter account were not really Obama’s words.

Now it is reasonable to expect that social media accounts by Presidents of countries are not managed by the actualy person and possible managed by staff members. On Obama’s Twitter account, it clearly states that the account is managed by

On Twitter, all the tweets by the U.S. President are tagged “–bo”. For instance check the tweet at this link.

The iconic Tweet which seems to also be “Promoted” on Twitter does not carry the “-bo” tag. A previous tweet as pointed out carries the “-bo” tag. 😉

So chances are, the person behind the tweet that broke Twitter and Facebook records was a staff member working for Obama.

Though it is well known that very famous politicians usually do not manage their own social media accounts and are usually run by social media experts. But the tagging on Obama’s accounts does mean that atleast his followers know which one is sent by the man himself and which one is not.

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News

Obama Victory Underlines Why Google+ is a Dead Place

A social network is a bit like a virtual party. People interact and discuss things mainly around current events. That is why Live sporting events like the Olympics are followed very actively on social media websites.

Today, when the US President Barack Obama got re-elected, he (probably his campaign team) showed exactly why Facebook and Twitter are social media champions and why Google+ is more or less a dead place.

On winning the elections Obama’s official account on Twitter shared the photo below. It quickly became the most retweeted Tweet in the history of micro-blogging platform.

Check Original Tweet

On Facebook too, Obama’s official account shared the same photo and it too broke the record for being the most “Liked” photo on the website’s history.

Check Original FB Share

In other words, the photo got an incredible 2.8 million Likes and over 600,000 retweets. Moving over to Obama’s official Google+ profile, it shows the latest update is over a day old. The iconic photo is missing and no one has even bothered to update it with today’s election news.

This clearly shows that when its about reaching out to people, Google+ simply resembles a empty room instead of a happening party. As someone who really likes Google+ for its privacy options, Hangouts feature and its beautiful design, I find it very disappointing to see so little activity on it even after more than a year after its launch. Even though Hangouts is popular, I float the idea of a hangout with friends first on Facebook. If I did so on Google+, I am sure no one would really notice it at all to respond.

What are your thoughts on Google+? Do let us know through your comments.

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News

Facebook Introduces Instagram-Like Photo Filter on iOS App

Facebook rolled out an updated yesterday to its iOS app. The updated app has a lot of features like sharing multiple photos, gifts and chat buddy list. The new update comes on the heels of Twitter planning to roll out a feature that allows sharing photos with filters.

Though apps allowing users to add filters on photos have been around for a long time, Instagram took it to a new level but becoming a social network.

It was finally purchased by Facebook at a very high price of almost a US $ 1 Billion. The high price tag was possibly because Twitter and Google might have been interested in getting something like Instagram.

What happens to Instagram?

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Facebook itself is not really winning on the mobile platform unlike Instagram. So it seems doubtful that Facebook will abandon Instagram but it does seem to be undermining it by copying the same filter features at the moment.

These changes are only for iOS users in the US, but these changes are expected outside the US and on other platforms soon. Facebook has previously released a native app for iOS users and is expected to soon release one for Android phones.

(via TechCrunch)

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News

Microsoft to Kill Live Messenger in Favour of Skype

Last year Microsoft ended up buying Skype at an approximate price tag of US $ 8.5 Billion. Many were left wondering what will be the fate of Windows Live Messenger which was also similar to Skype. The Verge, has reported that Windows Live Messenger will soon be killed off by Microsoft.

A couple of days ago, I already saw the first signs of Microsoft’s plan which allowed me to integrate my Skype account with my Live ID (Microsoft Account). I came across this feature, when I upgraded to Windows 8 and used the new Skype app on it. From now on, I have to simply use my Microsoft account details to sign in and use Skype.

Alternately current users can also integrate their Skype accounts with their Facebook accounts. The idea behind this all will be for Microsoft to leverage and support one single service instead of two. Also Live Messenger is most used for text based chatting while Skype is probably a more popular voice client.

Skype does have its premium options for making phone/ video calls and group video calling. It might also face competition from Google Voice and Google+ Hangouts which offer some great features.

I doubt Microsoft will kill off Live Messenger suddenly and will probably do this over a few months in a organised manner. But it won’t be a bad idea to move over to Skype as soon as possible.

Do you use Skype or Live Messenger? Which one do you use more? Do drop in your comments.

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Reviews

Get Popular Screenshot App Skitch Free on All Windows Platforms

I do not use own a Mac but some of our authors do (namely Vibin and Rahul). I am very happy with Windows but if there was one Mac software I really wanted on my Windows, it was the image editor Skitch. Skitch is great to take screenshots, add arrow pointers, text in different colors. Overall I found it was a great app for taking screenshots and as a blogger, I end up taking an incredible amount of scree shots.

A couple of days ago, I upgraded to Windows 8 and started looking around for some image editors which were free. To my surprise I found Skitch app for Windows 8.

Staying consistent with offering a free app on other platforms, Skitch also can be downloaded as a desktop version for older Windows version. It is supported on Windows XP/Vista and Windows 7.

Skitch Features

  • Skitch offers the option of taking screenshots and editing image files.
  • It is a Evernote product and hence we can directly store screenshots on Evernote accounts.
  • The functions are simplistic like using pointers, adding text to images, blurring out some part of the image and other basic functions like cropping, resizing and highlighting.

I would recommend Skitch highly for taking and sharing screenshots mainly as it is available free on many platforms. It is supported on Mac, iPhone, Android and now Windows.

Do try out Skitch and drop in your comments.

Link: Download Skitch

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Reviews

Get Official Google Search and Chrome App for Windows 8

Yesterday I upgraded my laptop to Windows 8 Pro. It was a painless installation. Windows 8 offers users to option to retain their previous settings from Windows 7 or do a clean install.

I like using Chrome and use Google and related services a lot. Windows 8 is a Microsoft product and so its not surprising that I see Bing and IE icons / tiles at the start screen.

Thankfully Google has introduced a quick simple way for users to download and install Google Search and Chrome on their start screen.

How it works:

  • Once you are on the start screen visit the Get Your Google Back page with Internet Explorer.
  • The first install is Google. It installs a cool Google app on the platform. It can be used for voice search and also if you choose to sign-in with your Google account, can help you access all your important Google services like Google+, Reader, Gmail, Map and more.
  • The best feature of it was looking up my search history which can be explored.
  • The next link at the site is to download Chrome from the Windows 8 Store.
  • The first thing I did after downloading Chrome was to make it my default.

Finally now I have my Google shortcuts on my Windows 8 Start Screen. Try it out if you are a heavy Google and Chrome user and have recently upgraded to Windows 8.

These apps works only on Windows 8 platform and not on the Windows RT versions.

Link: Get your Google Back (Windows 8)

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News

Share Your Google Drive Files Directly on Google+

Since Google Drive was launched earlier this year, I use it a lot of creating and sharing documents. I even use it to store photos, slideshow presentations and home videos. Since today, users can share their files from Google Drive directly to their Google+ accounts and others can view these files directly from their Google+ feeds.

How it works:

  • Choose a file from your Google Drive account. Now click on share option for the file.
  • It will allow users options to share the file using various platforms like Gmail, Facebook, Google+ and Twitter. If you select Google+, others can directly look at the content of your file from Google+ itself. That means, users do not have to leave Google+ or download the file separately.
  • So basically if I was sharing my birthday video with some Google+ friends, I can simply share the link into my Google+ profile and friends can steam the video from their feed directly.

This was needed mainly as Google+ can also double up as an internal social network for app accounts. So sharing files with many collaborators can be very useful.

It is a great time for cloud storage and sync users as Dropbox has also pushed through a lot of new features like video streaming on Android phones and with Windows 8 leveraging SkyDrive expect a lot more from Microsoft too.

Which one of the cloud sync and storage services do you use? Do drop in your comments.

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Reviews

Switch Idea – Find Jobs Using Your Social Media Accounts

I am sure most people reading this post have a profile on some sort of social media websites. LinkedIn is very popular with professionals but how about leveraging other social profiles like Facebook, Twitter and Google+ in your job hunt.

I recently came across a interesting website called Switch Idea. The website mainly acts as a platform for professionals and freelancers to get jobs. Job seekers are notified via their social networks.

How Switch Idea works

  • For job seekers just fill in some details about yourself and associate your social media profiles like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+ with Switch Idea.
  • Users can also add their Resume onto the sites. All this information is available on a publicly shared VCard (Virtual business card).

  • You can register as a employer too and create new job posts. Users are notified via their social media accounts.
  • Employers can then award the job to the ones who have responded.

As the website is pretty new I am not sure how good this is for professional placements but I think it might be good idea to get a profile on it anyways. Also this seems like a great platform for freelancers and employers who are looking for freelancers.

Try out Switch Idea and let me know what you think about it in your comments.

Link: Switch Idea

Categories
Tips

How to Create and Share Interest Lists on Facebook

Facebook started rolling out public interest lists a few months ago but it is not exactly a very well known even to regular Facebook users. I follow some bloggers and their blog’s Facebook pages but adding them to a public list on Facebook. Sometimes I share such a list with on my timeline so others can follow the list with just a single click.

Guide to Interest Lists on Facebook

Here is a step by step guide to creating Interest Lists on Facebook and also sharing it publicly on your Facebook profile.

Go to a Facebook page or even a profile page and click on the gear or settings icon as show in the image below.

This will open up a window to add pages and profiles you want into the Interest List. You can use search to add all similar user profiles and pages into the list.

In the image below I have added our parent company rtCamp’s product pages which includes our blog’s official page.

Now name the list as per your convenience. It is a good idea to name it something descriptive as it should make sense when shared publicly on your Facebook timeline.

Interest lists can also be kept private, available to friends or even public.

Now you can follow all public updates on this interest list. Interest Lists are different from Friend Lists as they can be shared publicly on your Facebook profiles timeline. Look up the list and you will see a “Share” button on the right hand top corner.

In case you are interested in looking up and subscribing to the List I created for this making this guide, you can do it at this link on our Facebook Page.

Usually I am not very particular about gaining a lot of subscribers on Facebook but if you add your own profile in such interest list then anyone following the list also automatically gets counted in your subscriber count. 😉

Do drop in your comments.

Categories
News

LG Nexus 4 to be available in India by November

Yesterday Google made the Nexus 4 phone official in a blog post. LG is manufacturing the Nexus 4 phone. It will be initially available on 13th November in U.S, U.K, Australia, France, Germany, Canada and Spain.

Asus has already confirmed the Nexus 7 being available in India possibly in the month of November. LG India officials have reportedly confirmed that the new phone Nexus 4 will also be made available in India by November end.

The phone is priced very competitively at $299 for its 8GB unlocked version. Even with duties and taxes, LG could price it in India for around Rs. 20,000 and it will be a very competitive price for such a powerful phone with the latest stock Android version on it.

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Why LG Nexus 4 in India is very likely?

Samsung last year had let down a lot of Android users who expected it to roll out Galaxy Nexus in India. Unfortunately Samsung shelved any plans for a Nexus phone in India (if there were any in the first place) possibly to not have it clash with its Galaxy S3 launch.

LG itself does not have a phone that sells as well as Galaxy S3 in India. So it makes sense for LG to roll out a very competitive and in-demand phone in India.