Explaining Facebook and its record-breaking IPO in 150 seconds

On February 1, 2012, Facebook filed for a $5 billion initial public offering (IPO) with the United States SEC, giving the company the ability to sell Class A Common stock. The IPO, when launched, is largely expected to be the largest in the technology industry history. Yesterday, Facebook filed its fifth amendment to the initial filing, revealing that the stock will be around $28-$35 on launch, giving a valuation between $85 billion and $95 billion.

In order to better explain how the Facebook IPO will work, a two-and-half minute video has been created Kapitall:

Aston Kutcher to play Steve Jobs in upcoming film

According to a report from Variety, Ashton Kutcher will be playing Steve Jobs in an upcoming independent film entitled Jobs. "The film will chronicle Steve Jobs from wayward hippie to co-founder of Apple, where he became one of the most revered creative entrepreneurs of our time."

Filming is set to begin sometime in May when Kutcher's show Two and a Half Men is between seasons.

It's important to note that this movie is not the same film that Sony Pictures is currently planning about Jobs's life. That film will be based off of Walter Isaacson's Steve Jobs, the first authorized biography of the late Apple co-founder.

Google Drive cloud storage coming in April?

Google's rumored online storage service may finally see the public as soon as next week according to a report from Gigaom. The serviced is said he be called Google Drive, or GDrive.

I am told the big day is sometime during the first week of April 2012. Google, of course is not talking. A spokesperson sent me the boilerplate — we don’t comment on rumors or speculation.

The Gigaom author reiterates and uses the word "might" since multiple stories in the past, dating as far back as 2006, have failed to come through. However, the person seems to be very confident this time with "well placed sources."

The report says that Google will offer 1 GB of free storage with an option to buy more. Dropbox, the current online storage leader, offers 2 GB free storage with many options to acquire more. Google is also said to release a local client along with APIs for third party applications.

Microsoft launches “The Browser You Loved To Hate” campaign

This week, Microsoft launched a new advertising campaign dubbed "The Browser You Loved To Hate." It's focused on asking Windows users to give Internet Explorer another chance, especially after Microsoft completely overhauled the widely criticized web browser in IE9. The Redmond-based company also says that this ad is a good way to poke fun at itself, and encourage people to upgrade to the latest version of Internet Explorer.

We've included the ad below:

First impressions: Schemer, a social network from Google

“Yet another social network?” you ask, with an exasperated sigh. Yes, we’ve been quite inundated with social websites lately, but Schemer, rolled out by Google some three months ago, promises something different. After spending some time with the site, here are my first impressions.

Schemer, in a nutshell, helps you find things to do. Like the name implies, Schemer allows you to create “schemes”: things that you want to do, whether it be trying a new restaurant, finding cool places in your city, etc. When you first sign up for the site, Schemer asks for your location and interests, and finds schemes that you might be interested in.  For example, after setting my location to Los Angeles, and saying that I liked the outdoors, Schemer recommended I hike to the Hollywood sign. And once you’ve done something, you have the option of checking it off your schemes list.

The Schemer home page

Of course, there’s also the social part: Schemer pulls friends from your Google+ account that are also using Schemer (so hopefully you already have friends on that account). On the Schemer home page, you can see the Schemes that your friends (called “Accomplices” on Schemer) want to do. If you become “inspired” to do something from your friends Schemes, you can add it to your own Scheme list, and your friend will be notified that you are interested as well. Complementing this, if you find Scheme that you would like to do with your friends, you can “rally” them by sending them a message about it on Google+.

A Scheme page on Schemer

Overall, it's quite a neat idea, and not gimmicky as I initially thought. Schemer is not its own social network per se, and relies heavily on Google+, so only active users of Google+ can take full advantage of it. However, Schemer definitely extends the functionality of Google’s existing social network, and is a smart move by the company. If more users become active on Schemer, I could see myself using it on a regular basis to find new things to do.

Schemer is still in a closed beta, but you can grab an invite from a friend already on the site, or sign up to get an account when they can accommodate more users.

Blogger reveals major flaw with full body scanners at airports

Over the past couple of years, you've probably heard a lot about the United States Transportation Security Administration's decision to invest nearly $1 billion in full body scanners for the nation's airports. The agency claims that the body scanners, which have since come under heavy fire over privacy and radiation concerns, will make air travel faster, easier, and safer.

Blogger Jonathan Corbett seems to have proved otherwise, however. He explained in a video posted to his blog that anyone looking to hide something while going through these body scanners simply needs to hold the object on the side of their body. The scanners are designed to display anything detected to be metallic in black, while the human body is bright white. The background is also black, meaning any object being carried on either the left or right side of the body can pass through without being noticed.

To test his hypothesis, Corbett took a pocket-size metal case and placed it into a custom-made pocket on the side of his shirt. He passed through security and the body scanners at both Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport and Cleveland-Hopkins International Airport without the case being noticed either time.

What are you thoughts on this?

Microsoft directly attacks Google in new video

Microsoft has posted a new video to its YouTube account that directly attacks Google's "lack" of non-experimental products. The company focused on the number of high-profile changes Google has been making over the past eight months, and the fact that end-users are affected in a major way.

The video follows "Googlighting Stranger," who tries to convince a company to use Google products, despite the fact that they are ever-changing.

We've got to give credit to Microsoft to this one - they've got a sense of humor.

‘Damn You Auto Correct!’ founder picks top 25 fails

Jillian Madison, founder of the popular "Damn You Auto Correct" blog that features autocorrect fails when text messaging, has posted her all-time top twenty-five (25) autocorrect fails. "I have to say I’ve laughed more running this site and reading all the submissions in the past 16 months than I have in my entire life, " Madison says.

We've included some of our favorites of the twenty-five, and you can see the entire list on DYAC. 

Research in Motion launches “Be Bold” advertising campaign

Today, Canada-based Research in Motion unveiled the first set of its new "Be Bold" advertising campaign, which focuses on how BlackBerry devices can be used in the public. The new ads feature new actors, but have the same general idea of RIM's previous ad campaigns, which means many aren't very impressed. 

The new ads are below:

2011 In Review: Spotify reveals top 10 streamed songs

Earlier today, Spotify revealed the top ten songs streamed in 2011 on the music service. Topping the list was Foster the People's "Pumped Up Kicks," with "Stereo Hearts" by Gym Class Heroes, featuring Adam Levine coming in second. 

2011 was a big year for Spotify itself. The music streaming service launched in the United States this past summer, adding millions of both free and subscribed users to the service. Spotify Radio, a service similar to Pandora that allows people to create their own music stations, also launched to the public. 

To compare Spotify's list with Apple's iTunes Music Store numbers, "Pumped Up Kicks" finished as the ninth most downloaded song, with ADELE's "Rolling in the Deep" at number one. 

Here is Spotify's top ten songs streamed in 2011:

1. Foster The People - Pumped Up Kicks
2. Gym Class Heroes (feat. Adam Levine) - Stereo Hearts 
3. Adele - Rolling In The Deep
4. Rihanna - We Found Love
5. Foster The People - Helena Beat
6. Maroon 5 - Moves Like Jagger
7. Nicki Minaj - Super Bass
8. Skrillex - Scary Monsters And Nice Sprites
9. Pitbull (feat. Ne-Yo, Afrojack & Nayer) - Give Me Everything
10. LMFAO - Party Rock Anthem

YouTube’s new game is YouTube Slam

YouTube Slam is the new game launched by YouTube on Tuesday that pits two videos together and the viewer gets to vote on the better one. The videos with the most number of votes get to appear at the Slam leader board. 

There are currently five categories of Slam that are Comedy, Cute, Music, Bizarre and Dance. YouTube says the new game, which they call an experiment, will help people find the next viral video or "singing sensation."

The new service is available now for all users at http://www.youtube.com/slam.

New Google+ ad features The Muppets

Last week, Google began airing a new advertisement for social network, Google+. The ad focuses on the Hangouts feature on Google+, which allows users to make video calls with large groups of people, with a twist - it features The Muppets. Viewers get to listen to the Muppets lip sync David Bowie’s hit, "Under Pressure."

This ad is only the newest in a series of commercials Google has been airing to promote its social network, which launched to the public earlier this year. 

Thoughts? 

Steve Jobs to receive Trustees Grammy Award

The Recording Academy announced yesterday the winners of its Special Merit Grammy Awards, where Steve Jobs will be receiving a 2012 Trustees Award. The award was created to recognize people who have contributed to music in forms other than performing it. 

As former CEO and co-founder of Apple, Steve Jobs* helped create products and technology that transformed the way we consume music, TV, movies, and books. A creative visionary, Jobs' innovations such as the iPod and its counterpart, the online iTunes store, revolutionized the industry and how music was distributed and purchased. In 2002 Apple Computer Inc. was a recipient of a Technical GRAMMY Award for contributions of outstanding technical significance to the recording field. The company continues to lead the way with new technology and in-demand products such as the iPhone and iPad

An invite-only ceremony will be held on February 11, 2012 and an official announcement will be made the next day during the 54th annual Grammy Awards. 

Jobs passed away this past October following a battle with pancreatic cancer. 

Android users stay with Google applications, and Facebook

New research released by The Nielson Company on Monday shows the application usage of Android users with the most popular app across all groups being the Android Market, obviously. 

The study focused on data from thousands of Android smartphones in Nielson's Smartphone Analytics research group. The data in the graph shows the percentage of people who used each application in the last thirty-days, separated into three age groups. In each age group Facebook comes behind the Android Market followed by a range of Google's own apps. Google Search, Maps, Gmail and YouTube were all in the top six in each age group. 

Games such as Angry Birds and Words with Friends also made each grouping but in different rankings. Angry Birds usage tended to rise with age as Words with Friends lost users by aging. Google's own Google+, the new social network released by Google earlier this year, did not make any of the lists as Facebook still dominates the social networking world. Somewhat surprisingly is Amazon's Appstore which now appears to be gaining more and more ground as it appears in each age group. The Amazon Appstore also has more older users than younger. 

Android isn't just for those ages 18-44 as Nielson says that research is currently being done for those older users. They say that more data on older smartphone users will be released "early next year." 

Kinectimals turn to the dark side

In quite possible the best video game mashup ever the Kinectimals turn out to be not so fun to play with. The guys at Achievement Hunter, a part of Rooster Teeth Productions, created an amazing video sequencing different games together with an awesome narration.

I couldn't identify all the games they used since they may not be the most popular but I can see Kinectimals, of course, Call of Duty and what looks to be a Cabela's game. There are also other games in their but I can't identify them myself. If you can identify, or correct me, on what they use let us know in the comments.

Create your own Siri conversations with ifakesiri

A new website called "ifakesiri" has  come to life  which allows users to create their own Siri conversations simply by typing in what they want it to say. 

ifakesiri.com is made by the same people who made the fake iPhone text screenshot website "ifaketext," which works in the same way. All users have to do is navigate to the site, choose their carrier, type in the conversation and create their screenshot. After the Siri conversation is generated you can easily share on social networking sites or get direct links to the images. 

ifakesiri creates almost legitimate conversations to begin with but you can tell it isn't perfect. The font is a little bit off in the input text and minor glitches can occur, such as when trying to use question marks. Even with these small details being noticeable to us, a user who doesn't have as much experience with an iPhone 4S is sure not to notice. 

Facebook settles with FTC over privacy complaints

The United States Federal Trade Commission announced on Tuesday an agreement with Facebook to settle charges that the company deceived consumers over multiple privacy complaints. 

The eight-count complaint made by the FTC against Facebook said the company made promises it did not keep which were "unfair and deceptive, and violated federal law," the FTC stated in a press release. "Facebook is obligated to keep the promises about privacy that it makes to its hundreds of millions of users," said Jon Leibowitz, Chairman of the FTC in the release. 

Under the proposed agreement, which can be made final as early as December 30, Facebook must get consumers' approval before making changes to the way their data is used and shared and cannot make misrepresentations about the privacy or security of users personal information. Facebook also agrees to all periodic assessments of its privacy practices by auditors. All user material must also be made inaccessible thirty-days after deletion. If approved the agreement would be in place for the next 20-years.

Complaints against Facebook all had to do with users privacy including what information is displayed privately and public on users profiles, the access third-party applications have, information that is shared with advertisers and the deletion of accounts. In one complaint the FTC says Facebook made changes to its websites that automatically displayed information to the public that was designated to be private. The change was made without warning users before hand. 

Third-party applications were a major factor in the complaints as the FTC claims they have access to almost of users personal data, even if the apps don't need it. The commission says that Facebook's "Verified Apps" program did nothing to protect users as applications under that program were not all certified to be secure. In addition, if users selected "friends only" when sharing something, a third-party application being used by a friend could see all the data that the original user shared. 

A lot of confusion has come about when Facebook users want to leave the service, they can deactivate their account or delete it. The FTC says that even after users did this some of their content, including pictures and videos, were still available. The commission also boldly stated, "Facebook promised users that it would not share their personal information with advertisers. It did."

FTC attorney Laura Berger, who worked on the case, said on the commission's Twitter account that if Facebook is found violating the settlement while in duration fines will be $16,000 per violation per day.

As Facebook changes some may ask if the FTC is holding the company back from innovating but the Chairman opposes this theory. "Facebook's innovation does not have to come at the expense of consumer privacy," said Leibowitz in the release. "The FTC action will ensure it will not."

Microsoft declares this Friday “Update your Parents’ Browser” Day

Microsoft announced via the Exploring IE blog today that this Friday, better known as "Black Friday" in the United States, will be "Upgrade your Parents' Browser" Day. The company says that going home for the holiday not only means seeing your family, but also seeing Internet Explorer 6 or 7 installed on your parents' computer. 

Microsoft says that everyone should upgrade to either Internet Explorer 8 if on Windows XP or Internet Explorer 9 if on Windows Vista or 7. 

Top-10 Moments To Update Your Parents’ Browser

10. When they’re manning the fire extinguisher dealing with the yearly deep-fried turkey accident.

9. When they’re telling your cousins “when I was your age” stories.

8. When they’re face down in the eggnog punch.

7. When they’re fighting over the right way to carve a turkey.

6. When your mom kicks you out of the kitchen for peeling potatoes “the wrong way.”

5. When they’re sent to the grocery store at 2PM on Thanksgiving Day for extra cranberries.

4. When they’re sitting at the Adult’s table (rally the other kids to help).

3. When they’re standing in a Black Friday line. 

2. When they’re untangling Christmas lights.

And the number one time to update your parents’ browser is…

1. When they’re distracted by grilling you about when you’re going to get a real job, when you’re going to settle down, and when you’re going to give them grandchildren. 

Apple shows off iCloud, camera, Siri in new iPhone 4S ads

Apple aired three new iPhone 4S ads Sunday featuring the new camera, iCloud functionality and Siri. The new Siri ad shows off more responses the phone can give, rather than mostly inputs which were demoed in an ad earlier this month. 

Apple's new iPhone 4S camera ad shows off the 8-megapixel camera and editing features the phone will do.  With iOS 5 you can crop and edit your pictures with enhancements such as red-eye reduction. In addition, Twitter is built right into the OS so you can tweet pictures straight from the Photos application. 

The third ad Apple released Sunday showed off iCloud and the way it can keep everything, everywhere you want them. Automatic Downloads in iTunes if featured along with, iWork, iBooks and Photostream. 

“Steve Jobs: One Last Thing” to air on PBS on November 2

PBS announced today that it will air Steve Jobs: One Last Thing, a documentary that pays tribute to the Apple co-founder, on November 2, 2011. The program will air from 10:00 PM to 11:00 PM Eastern time and examine Jobs' influences, among other things.