Facebook has reached to 901 million users

Facebook disclosed on Monday that it has 901 million users, making it likely that it will pass the 1 billion mark well before the end of the year. 


Just two months ago, Facebook had over 845 million active users logging into the site each month along with 500 million members using the social network on a daily basis.  Now though, the service is proud to announce the figure of 901 million monthly active members as well as 526 million daily users - according to the company's fourth amendment to its IPO filing.  

When Facebook filed its IPO paperwork with the SEC in February, the network tallied 845 million users. Back in January, Gregory Lyons, a senior analyst at iCrossing, estimated that Facebook would hit 1 billion users by August, a rate of growth that appears plausible based on the latest numbers. 

Even before Monday’s latest numbers dropped, Facebook was by far the largest social network in the world. Twitter, which passed 500 million users in February, is number two on the list — although Twitter says that only 140 million of those accounts are active. 

Skype makes its way in Windows Phone

Skype has officially made its way to Windows Phone. The app landed in the Windows Phone Marketplace Monday morning.

Skype indicated this is the “first of many releases to come for Windows Phone,” adding that the company “believes in the great potential of the Windows Phone platform and will continue to invest over time to enable experiences unmatched by any other app in the market,” in a blog post announcing the app.

A beta version of Skype on Windows Phone was announced at Mobile World Congress in February. The app lets you make both voice and video calls over 3G, 4G and Wi-Fi networks.

As with other versions of the software, those calls can be made to your Sykpe contacts for free, or to landlines and mobile phones using Skype credits.

You can use the app to create and hold one-to-one or group chats, or to update your profile and account information on the service. The Skype for Windows Phone app is available in 18 languages.

Since the launch of the beta version earlier this year, Skype has also added the ability to make video calls in portrait mode, as well as the ability to invite others, accept invitations and block or unblock contacts.

Skype on Windows Phone will work on all Windows Phones running 7.5 Mango and above. Skype has tested and certified the app on the following handsets: Nokia Lumia 710, Nokia Lumia 800, Nokia Lumia 900, HTC Titan, HTC Radar, Samsung Focus S and Samsung Focus Flash.

        

[Courtesy: Mashable]

Adobe's new Creative Suite 6

Adobe has announced a significant switch to a cloud-based version of Creative Suite alongside the launch of the latest version of its popular line of design software.

Unveiled at an event in San Francisco on Monday, Creative Cloud represents a shift for Adobe after years of simply selling packaged software. Now users have a subscription option to download Photoshop and other programs, save work online and share projects more easily.

“It is a really big day in Adobe’s history,” CEO Shantanu Narayen said Monday, later calling CS6 and Creative Cloud “our most ambitious offering ever.” Narayen framed the launch as a necessary move for Adobe. As more and more people explore digital creativity, casual users and professional designers alike increasingly expect multi-device access to their work.

Creative Cloud subscriptions will start at $50 per month with a one-year commitment, or run $75 for a month-to-month contract. Owners of previous Creative Suite versions can access the new cloud-based service for $30 per month for their first year.

Adobe executives said the monthly pricing plans will save users from having to pay four figures up front — and will make Creative Suite programs accessible and appealing to a wider audience.

CS6 includes updated versions of Photoshop, Illustrator, Dreamweaver, Flash Pro, Premiere Pro, InDesign and other programs, along with a pair of new post-production apps.

Versions of the suite range from $1,299, or $299 as an upgrade, to $2,599, or $549 as an upgrade. CS6 is purchasable by download as well as in traditional shrink-wrapped form.

Creative Cloud includes all the CS6 programs, plus the Edge and Muse web-development tools. The service also comes with 20 gigabytes of free cloud storage.

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What’s New in CS6?

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Beyond improved cloud accessibility, what’s new in CS6? A souped-up Photoshop generated the most excitement among press and powers users at Monday’s event. Included in that is a content-aware move tool that makes moving foreground images and filling in backgrounds easier than ever.

The theme of making Creative Suite programs more media-centric and less tech and tools-based extends to other programs as well. In Dreamweaver, assets are automatically scaled for web browsers as well as mobile delivery in templates — which should save countless hours laying out content for multiple devices and print.

In Illustrator, gradients can now be applied to strokes as well as shapes. Premiere Pro shows a simpler design too, as it looks to become the standard in video-editing software.

But Creative Cloud was the star of Monday’s show. Adobe executives said it would grow in value as more features and updates are added. And the ability to store, access and share work via the web is a decided shift.

“It’s clear to us we’re living in perhaps the most disruptive time in the history of technology,” Narayen said.

With Creative Cloud, the Adobe thinking goes, creative professionals will be able to leverage — rather than simply react to — the current pace of change.

[Courtesy: Mashable]

Google drive accidentally shown on Hangout

We keep hearing about the pending launch of Google Drive, the company’s cloud storage service that will support Android and iOS devices. Most recently, the word on the street is Google could make things official as soon as next week.

It’s seeming increasingly likely that the company will have to acknowledge Drive sooner or later, as yet another Drive leak has come out, and this one in a very public fashion.

We’ve already seen screenshots from users who claimed to have early access to Drive, showing-off the service’s PC interface. Around the same time, we also got a look at what was supposedly the Drive icon, a three-color folded triangle design.

During Friday’s Android Developers Hangout video, while showing some features on his phone, a Google employee pulled-up a list of sharing options, including none other than Google Drive, complete with that icon. Google quickly reacted by taking the video down, but not before it could be archived.

At this point, it seems like the Drive cat is soundly out of the bag, so hopefully Google really will be publicly announcing the service in the near future.

New iPad in 12 more countries from April 27

Apple’s new iPad is coming to 12 additional countries on Friday, the company has announced.

Countries in which new iPad will be available on this date include: South Korea, Brunei, Croatia, Cyprus, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Malaysia, Panama, St Maarten, Uruguay and Venezuela.

Additionally, the device will be available in 9 more countries on Friday, April 27: Colombia, Estonia, India, Israel, Latvia, Lithuania, Montenegro, South Africa and Thailand.

Apple’s new iPad brings an upgraded Retina display, quad-core graphics and a faster CPU. It’s available in black or white, with prices ranging from $499 to $829, depending on the model.

Samsung will unveil new Galaxy on May 3

Samsung has started sending out invites for the launch of the next Galaxy smartphone, which is slated for May 3 in London.The invite doesn't give any details about the upcoming device(s) — it merely says “come and meet the next Galaxy.”

However, we know that the company plans to reveal Samsung Galaxy S III, which was rumored to be launched at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, but Samsung decided to move the launch to a later date.

In any case, Samsung will have to show something truly spectacular if it wants to top the Tegra 3 powerhouses from HTC.

[Source: Mashable]

Facebook bought Instagram for 1 billion

Facebook just announced that it is buying Instagram. Mark Zuckerberg posted the announcement on Facebook.

Facebook's chief executive Mark Zuckerberg has pledged to continue to develop Instagram as a separate brand, allowing it to post to rival networks.

A press release says the transaction is, "approximately $1 billion in a combination of cash and shares of Facebook." The transaction is expected to close later this quarter, the release says.

Instagram was only launched in October 2010 - initially just for the iPhone before being offered as an Android app last week. The app is free and allows users to apply 17 filters to the pictures they take - changing the colour balance to give the images a different feel - before they are uploaded. It has proven hugely popular. The firm says that it has more than 30 million users uploading more than 5 million new pictures every day.

"We think the fact that Instagram is connected to other services beyond Facebook is an important part of the experience," Mr Zuckerberg wrote on his Facebook page.

"We plan on keeping features like the ability to post to other social networks, the ability to not share your Instagrams on Facebook if you want, and the ability to have followers and follow people separately from your friends on Facebook."

Zuckerberg went on to say that the company will be building on Instagram’s strengths and features and growing the app independently rather than “just trying to integrate everything into Facebook.”

Facebook plans on keeping features within the app that allow photos to be published on other social networks, and the ability to have followers and follow people who are not necessarily your Facebook friends.

“We will try to learn from Instagram’s experience to build similar features into our other products,” Zuckerberg said. “At the same time, we will try to help Instagram continue to grow by using Facebook’s strong engineering team and infrastructure.”

This is the first time Facebook has acquired a company or product with so many users. “We don’t plan on doing many more of these, if any at all.” Zuckerberg said. 

Angry Birds Space Downloaded 10M Times in 3 Days

Rovio’s Angry Birds Space has had a solid takeoff with 10 million downloads since its release on Thursday, according to the company.

The company, which disclosed the figure in its Twitter feed Monday morning, didn’t say how the release compares with previous title launches. However, according to reports, Rovio’s last major Angry Birds release, Angry Birds Rio, hit 10 million downloads in 10 days, more than three times as long.

The latest game was released for various formats, including for the iPhone, iPad, iPod touch and Android devices, as well as the Mac and PC. The company didn’t release a Windows Phone version, though it plans to,according to Rovio CEO Mikael Hed.

The new version brings several important changes, most importantly gravity, which will allow players to use nearby planets to perform trick shots on unsuspecting pigs.

The game has 60 levels, with more content available through in-app purchases (only in the iOS version for now). The game includes hidden goodies and secret levels, and Rovio promises regular free updates for the future.

You can get the iPhone version here. The iPad version is available here, and the Android version is available over at Google Play. Finally, the Mac version is available in the Mac App Store, while the PC version is available directly from Rovio.

[Courtesy: Mashable]

Finally Android gets Instagram

Instagram for Android is finally here — which is welcome news for Android smartphone owners who waited patiently as Instagram’s iOS user base rose into the millions.

Will they be satisfied when they install Instagram for Android? We did a walkthrough of the new app in order to find out.“The Android app offers an extremely familiar Instagram experience when compared to the iOS app,” Instagram said in its announcement Tuesday. “You’ll find all the same exact filters and community as our iOS version.”

It’s true that Instagram for Android has most of the same features as the iPhone version. The user interface on the Android version has the same layout. The five tabs on the bottom of the home screen are dedicated to five key functions in the app. Another feature that has not changed is sharing photos out to the same four platforms: Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare, and Tumblr.

There are, however, some notable differences.

Instagram for Android uses a new camera icon in the camera view. The app also lacks some of the iPhone version’s image editing features — most importantly tilt shift, which allows you to focus on one area of the photo while distorting the rest of the image.

The Android version does have one feature its iPhone counterpart lacks: “Advanced Camera.” When you turn this on, it will automatically resize your photo, so you don’t have to recrop the image in Instagram’s interface.

In the iPhone version, you can only resize or crop if you select a photo from your photo library. Instagram for Android was tested on a Samsung Galaxy Nexus running Android 4.0. Currently, the Android version of Instagram is compatible with Android 2.2 or higher.

You can download the Instagram for Android app for free over at Google Play. (Download)

[Courtesy: Mashable]

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