Do Want a fake Facebook girlfriend? Read this..!!!

There's nothing worse on Facebook than appearing to be unloved. So a Brazilian site offers to create a perfect, but entirely fake, girlfriend for you.

 

   Some people are just unlovable. Or they seem to attract lovers who are one leg short of a stable table and cause them such misery that they have to consign them to history.
This would have been fine in olden times. They would have gone to a bar with a book, and drunk themselves quite silly.
But now there's Facebook, the all-encompassing, always-on repository of everything that is happening to everyone.
So being a singleton doesn't look good. It makes you look like the spare part that no one desires.
Thankfully, a group of very caring Brazilians has decided to come to the rescue of all of those who currently appear denuded of love on Facebook. They will create a fake Facebook girlfriend for you.
NamoroFake.com says, in Portuguese, that it can create a lissom lover in the blink of an eye and the passing of $39.99. Yes, around the price of two lapdances.
Please don't think that they just slap up a picture and take your money. Oh, no. They create a whole fake Facebook profile, so authentic that it's adorned with cute comments and status updates like: "Oh, cutey, Ren and Stimpy miss you and so do I."
You might wonder where these fake girlfriends are coming from. Well, ABC News lovingly informs me that the site invites women to offer their profiles up for virtual grabbing, with the incentive of a 50 percent profit share.
This seems eminently equitable.
Moreover, the site understands the psychology of men. It explains:

Sometimes people need to rent a fake girlfriend to make jealous a jealous ex-girlfriend. In truth, we have a lot of clients for that reason. After a breakup, the ex-boyfriends want to show that they are already with another person to feel good. One immediate way to do this is to hire a fake girlfriend to maintain appearances.

Appearances are, often, more important in relationships than, say, reality. Surely you, too, have enjoyed lovers for whom the approval of family, friends, and pastor were more important than the heightened quality of your actual love.
I feel sure that the creation of this site has absolutely nothing to do with any events that may or may not have occurred in the life of one Manti T'eo, amateur football player (and, perhaps, amateur lover too).
Still, the creators have tried to think of several amorous eventualities. They even offer a $19.99 service that creates a very fine ex-girlfriend for you. This might well be useful if you're trying to persuade your next amorous target that you're not the entirely lonely, pitiful creature that you actually are.
Naturally, there will come a point where your Facebook friends will be desperate to see a picture of the two of you together.
Presumably that is the time when you explain that she wasn't quite right for you because she had the empathetic level of a mailbox and the intuitive breadth of a bicycle tire.
And that's the point at which you transfer her to the status of ex-girlfriend and pay another $39.99 for another new fake girlfriend.
This way, you'll never have to pay for dinner for two again.
It's sad, though, that the service seems to be only available for men.
I have several women friends who would dearly love to have a fake Facebook boyfriend in order to ease their burden as they climb the corporate ladder in search of untold riches and boundless unhappiness.

Nokia to cut over 1,100 IT jobs

The company announced today that it will layoff 300 employees, and will transfer 820 employees to HCL Technologies and TATA Consultancy Services.

Nokia today announced that it was cutting over 1,100 IT jobs from its workforce.
The company says that it will lay off 300 employees currently working in an IT function. Nokia will also transfer up to 820 employees to IT services firms, HCL Technologies and TATA Consultancy Services.
Nokia announced in June that it would make broad cuts -- about 10,000 layoffs -- across its business to save money and make its operation more agile. According to the company, the IT cuts will be the last part of that plan.
Nokia will offer employees affected by the layoffs "both financial support and a comprehensive bridge support program," the company said today. The vast majority of affected employees are based in Finland.

Facebook's New Graph Search

The search engine will allow people using Facebook to more quickly find answers to questions about friends in their Social Graph.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

(Credit: CNET)

Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg announced Graph Search at a press event today at the company's Menlo Park headquarters, billing it as a new way find people, photos, places and interests that are most relevant to Facebook users.
Graph Search is the social network's newest way for users to make sense of its massive base of 1 billion users, 240 billion photos, and 1 trillion connections. The tool is meant to provide people the answers to their to their questions about people, photos, places, and interests. Zuckerberg said Graph Search is launching to a small number of people today and is available only on the desktop and in English for the time being.
People can use the structured search tool to resurface old memories, find people in their network, and uncover potential connections. The service incorporates various filters such as "place type," "liked by," and "visited by friends" to make locating things faster. You can refine search queries with more advance filters to get better answers.
One example demonstrated was a very specific search for "Friends of my friends who are single male San Francisco, Calif." That refined query returned a select group of people who fit the criteria. Apart from personal use cases, Graph Search can be used for dating and recruiting purposes, which could make the product a potential challenger to LinkedIn and various dating sites that incorporate social network profiles.
But the personal use cases do abound. A query for "photos of my friends before 1990," for instance, popped up a number of cute kid photos, including a shot of Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg from 1972.

(Credit: CNET)

  Graph Search is going to appear as a bigger search bar at the top of each page, replacing the usual white search bar. Facebook said that when people search the service, that search both determines the set of results you get and serves as a title for the page. "You can edit the title -- and in doing so create your own custom view of the content you and your friends have shared on Facebook," according to Facebook.

Graph Search

(Credit: Facebook)

Zuckerberg noted that Graph Search and Web search are very different. The latter was engineered to take a set of keywords -- Facebook's example was "hip hop" -- to come up with possible results that best match the keywords. By contrast, Graph Search combines phrases. The other obvious difference is that each piece of Facebook content has its own audience, and for the most part that content is not public. Alluding to the obvious privacy concerns, Zuckerberg said that Facebook built Graph Search from the start with that in mind, and it would respect the privacy and audience of each piece of content on Facebook. Traditional Web search, though not the focus of Graph Search by any means, is still incorporated into the beta product. Facebook has partnered with Bing to automatically supply answers to queries that the new Facebook engine can't compute.

Facebook introduces Graph Search (pictures)

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On the business side of things, Facebook does not intend to immediately monetize this new asset. But that's certainly on the agenda.
"This potentially could be a business over time. For now, we are focused on building user experience," Zuckerberg said. "We have had sponsored search results for a while. ... That extends quite nicely to this, but we haven't done anything new for this release."
Graph Search is being rolled out today in limited preview.
Last week, the social network sent out a media invitation to "Come and see what we're building," fueling speculation that it would finally unveil a Facebook-branded phone. Wall Street's expectations have been equally high with the company's stock trading above $31 a share, a price point it hasn't seen since its May 2011 Nasdaq debut.
But the phone rumor proved to be bogus and Wall Street's immediate reaction was to sell. After reaching a high of $31.71, Facebook's shares reversed course and fell as low as $30.20 during the course of Zuckerberg's presentation.

Mark Zuckerberg watches fellow Facebookers demonstrate Graph Search.

(Credit: CNET)

   Perhaps even more important than direct monetization is Facebook's ability to keep members engaged on the site. Graph Search, according to Forrester analyst Nate Elliott, has the potential to do just that: "Facebook's worst nightmare is a static social graph; if users aren't adding very many new friends or connections, then their personal network becomes less and less active over time," he said. " Terrifyingly for Facebook, that threat is very real: We haven't seen significant growth in the average number of friends per user recently. Graph search seems designed to encourage users to add more friends more quickly. If it means users' personal networks change more frequently, and become more active, then that keeps them coming back to the site -- which is vital to Facebook's success."

Facebook search to be launched at 15 January event

     Facebook is to launch its own search engine,  With its rival now steadily gaining traction in the social networking space with Google+, Facebook is to retaliate in the other direction. And we understand that it is this the company will announce at its 15 January press event.
Although exact details of how the new search engine will work remain unclear for now, we have been told that the social network is planning to launch a big new "search feature" on the site "very soon", one that will shake everything up.
   Sources who don't wish to be named have confirmed to Pocket-lint that the big announcement at the company's event will focus on the new search feature with an expected roll-out shortly afterwards. Although the information is light on detail, the source is trusted and has given us legitimate information before.
Facebook already offers a basic search feature on its site, allowing users to look for "people, places and things". The 15 January announcement is expected to expand the offering considerably further.
    If Facebook were to allow users to quickly search the social network and beyond for example, it could cause major headaches for Google: the new feature would give Facebook users a reason to bypass Google altogether.
   Facebook could either expand on the ways of searching the content it currently has, or bring in more content from a wider catchment area. There have been rumours in the past that Mark Zuckerberg and his company have wanted users to make the social network their opening homepage. Adding full search functionality would do just that.
Incidentally and intriguingly, Google is currently blocked from cataloguing Facebook pages.

Samsung sold 100 million Galaxy S smartphones

Company says its flagship Galaxy smartphone S series has smashed through a gargantuan milestone.

(Credit: Samsung Tomorrow/ Flickr)

Samsung's Galaxy S series smartphones have crossed the threshold of 100 million sales.
According to Samsung's Tomorrow Flickr page, its flagship Galaxy S series has managed to surpass that mark in 2 years and 7 months since the launch of the first Galaxy smartphone in May 2010.
In addition, the firm says that the Galaxy S3 is selling "at [a] much faster rate," smashing through the 1 million barrier in 50 days. Sales of the flagship Galaxy S3 reached 30 million units in 5 months, and 40 million in 7 months, with average daily sales of about 190,000 units. The Galaxy S2 is described as a steady bet after recording sales of over 40 million in 20 months.
Samsung calls the Galaxy series "the driving force" behind the electronics maker's "rise to the top" in the global smartphone market. The firm has estimated that overall sales will reach 56 trillion won ($52.6 billion) in its fourth-quarter results, to be announced on January 25.
It is undeniable that the Galaxy series is popular. According to new research, a number of the younger generation -- Generation Y, if you will -- are branding Samsung phones "cool" in comparison to Apple's offerings. If Samsung products are the ones to own these days, then the recently announced Galaxy S2 Plus, complete with Android's Jelly Bean operating system, might be the next model in line to surpass the company's sales records. This news follows a number of announcements made by the South Korean company at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last week, including Youm flexible displays and a new eight-core processor for mobile devices.

Oracle's software update to fix Java vulnerability

Emergency software update repairs vulnerability that could allow remote attackers to execute arbitrary code.

Oracle released an emergency software update today to fix a security vulnerability in its Java software that could allow attackers to break into computers.
The update, which is available on Oracle's Web site, fixes a critical vulnerability in Oracle's Java 7 that could allow a remote, unauthenticated attacker to execute arbitrary code. The attack can be induced if someone visits a Web site that's been set up with malicious code to take advantage of the hole.
Oracle said the update modifies the way Java interacts with Web applications.
"The default security level for Java applets and web start applications has been increased from 'medium' to 'high," Oracle said in an advisory today. "This affects the conditions under which unsigned (sandboxed) Java web applications can run. Previously, as long as you had the latest secure Java release installed applets and web start applications would continue to run as always. With the 'high' setting the user is always warned before any unsigned application is run to prevent silent exploitation."
The vulnerability was being exploited by a zero-day Trojan horse called Mal/JavaJar-B, which was already identified as attacking Windows, Linux and Unix systems and being distributed in exploit kits "Blackhole" and "NuclearPack," making it far more convenient to attackers.

Microsoft to kill the Messenger on March 15

The tech titan plans to migrate users of the instant-messaging client to Skype, which it purchased in 2011.

(Credit: Skype)

Beware the Ides of March if you are a user of Microsoft's Windows Messenger Live.
Microsoft announced last November it would soon retire its instant messaging client in favor Skype, which Microsoft acquired in October 2011. Today it began informing Messenger users that the service would go dark for the majority of users on March 15.

Hello,
On 15th March 2013 we are retiring the existing Messenger service globally (except for mainland China where Messenger will continue to be available) and bringing the great features of Messenger and Skype together. Update to Skype and sign in using a Microsoft Account (same as your Messenger ID) and all your Messenger contacts will be at your fingertips. You'll be able to instant message and video chat with them just like before, and also discover new ways of staying in touch with Skype on your mobile and tablet.
Yours sincerely,
The Messenger Team

Skype officials said in late October that Skype would most likely replace Messenger someday but had declined to provide a public timetable. A blog post in November indicated the switchover would occur during the first quarter of 2013. Skype began testing new Windows and Mac beta releases in October that let users sign in to Skype using their Windows Live ID, allowing them to send and receive instant messages and see the presence information of those using Live Messenger, Xbox, Hotmail or Outlook.com.
After migrating from Messenger to Skype, users will be able to use Skype's instant messaging, as well as its video calling, landline calling, screen sharing, and video calling on mobile phones.

Android Jelly Bean gains, Gingerbread seeing a slow fade

Android 4.1 and 4.2 now run on 10 percent of the Android devices out there while Gingerbread fades -- a bit.

The popular Nexus 7 tablet runs Jelly Bean.

(Credit: Google)

The latest version of Android is now sitting on about 10 percent of all Android devices, while Gingerbread dropped below 50 percent, according to the latest numbers from Google.
Jelly Bean -- that is, Android 4.1 and 4.2 -- is up in the two weeks ending January 3, though it's Android 4.1 that's made most of the gains (see chart below).
That's a sizable jump from the first two weeks of December when Jelly Bean, released in July, was on 6.7 percent of all active devices.
Driving the uptick are devices including the Samsung Galaxy S3, HTC One X, and Google's Nexus brand such as the Nexus 7 and Nexus 10 tablets.
Gingerbread, released back in 2010, isn't going away anytime soon, though. Its numbers have finally dipped below 50 percent to 47.6, but that operating system continues to ship on less-expensive phones.

Data collected during a 14-day period ending on January 3.

(Credit: Google)

(Credit: Google)

Instagram kicks off worldwide photo stream

The photo-sharing social network creates a desktop-optimized stream that displays how users around the globe -- from Dakar to Dublin to Doha -- are ringing in the New Year.

Instagram's New Year's Eve photo stream.

(Credit: Screenshot by Dara Kerr/CNET)

   Millions of Instagram users are documenting their night as confetti is thrown, party horns are blown, and revelers count down to 2013. The photo-sharing social network has decided to put all of these photos in one place -- a desktop-optimized New Year's Eve photo stream.
"We love seeing photos shared from all different parts of the world," Instagram wrote in a blog post today. "At instagram.com/nye, you can see photos from every part of the world as the clock strikes midnight in a given time zone."

Time zones include every country that rings in the New Year at the same time. For example, as London celebrates 2013, so do Dakar, Casablanca, and Lisbon. Users can toggle the navigation button at the bottom of the page and hop from one time zone to another. Although Instagram's photo stream can be seen on both mobile devices and desktop browsers, it's far more comprehensive on the social network's desktop version. In this version, users can see several photos at once and pick and choose what time zone they'd like to see. In the mobile version, there is only one photo that changes every few seconds and no way to toggle to another time zone.
The built-out desktop version may be a sign of times to come for the New Year as Instagram aims to move from a mobile-only app to a more inclusive platform for a larger audience.