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Facebook saw roller-coaster action in its first trading day as the social network with some 900 million members made one of the most eagerly-awaited market debuts in history

In the largest-ever initial public offering (IPO) for a technology company, Facebook shares made a gain of 0.97 per cent to end at $US38.37, with a record volume of more than 550 million shares.

Investors were expected to be hungry to get a piece of Facebook, which has become a global phenomenon since its beginnings in 2004 as a project of then-Harvard student Mark Zuckerberg and his dorm buddies.

Zuckerberg, wearing his trademark hoody, rang the bell – remotely – to open the Nasdaq, marking the historic share offering that confirms the growing importance of the social network giant.

“Going public is an important milestone in our history,” Mr Zuckerberg told the crowd at the company’s campus in Menlo Park :: Read the full article »»»»

Ready, Steady

As Facebook gears up for it’s big day, the social media giant has increased the size of its initial public share sale by 25 per cent. The company said it would add about 84 million shares to its public share sale when it begins tomorrow.

The additional shares will come from early investors such as Peter Thiel one of the founders of internet payment company PayPal and online gaming behemoth Zynga’s Mark Pincus.

Facebook’s listing on the Nasdaq market on Friday is expected to be the third-biggest initial public share sale in United States history, after credit card company Visa and car maker General Motors.

In unfortunate timing, GM has cancelled its advertising on Facebook, claiming the ads had little impact on consumers.

The move to boost shares comes one day after the internet giant filed paperwork with the US Securities and Exchange Commission raising its initial public offering share price from a range of $28 to $35, to between $34 to $38 per share. Analysts say they will initially trade between $34 and $38 a share.

It is thought Facebook’s stock price will jump quickly as the social network finds ways to leverage its membership of 900 million. The California giant separately on Tuesday agreed to a tie-up with Lightbox, an Android photo app, by hiring its developer team. This follows a $1 billion deal to acquire another photo sharing app, Instagram. But Facebook is not buying Lightbox or its data.

Split Stick

Here’s a simple thought for our highpants wearing punters. A double sided USB stick. The Split Stick is designed to keep your work files separate from your personal files. With the Split Stick, you can enforce the digital divide between work and home, hers and his, G-rated and X-rated, perfect for those non-lucid, couch-dwelling moments :: Read the full article »»»»

ONLINE SECURITY! Where Are Your Children?

The internet is an integral part of our lives, it takes up a substantial amount of our time, we work through it, spend leisure time on it. It’s an ease to forget that this place is unreal, that all is not what it seems.

For those with children, it’s a huge concern

There is no way of telling who your children are conversing with, not for you nor for them, that your children are secretive is a given. Those who are intent on doing your children harm are also secretive, this is the daunting prospect all parents must cope with.

National Family Week “Families Make All the Difference” kicks off on May 15 this year , coinciding with the United Nations “International Day of the Families” also May 15. So what does this have to do with Online Security? Everything! Families are THE best security system for you to protect your children from online harm, from nefarious internet predators. Families enable us to create a safe, enjoyable and educational place for children to be  :: Read the full article »»»»

Ubuntu for Android: Turns Your Phone Into a Full Ubuntu Desktop Computer

Smartphones and the technology that powers them continue to evolve at an incredible rate. Year after year, phones have continued to close the power gap that separates them with their traditional PC counterparts. Taking advantage of the latest in mobile processors, Canonical is set to release Ubuntu for Android. The OS effectively turns your phone into a full Ubuntu desktop computer when docked and connected to a monitor, meaning the day your smartphone could act as your primary computer is drawing nearer.

Ubuntu sits alongside the standard Android operating system, as they share the same Linux kernel. Similar to the Motorola ATRIX 4G that becomes the engine for a desktop or laptop PC when slotted into an external dock, docking your Ubuntu for Android device with a USB HDMI dock will see it automatically boot into Ubuntu. Then it’s just a matter of connecting a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse and you’ve got fully functional desktop environment.

From what’s been shown so far, the experience looks to be seamless and responsive, Ubuntu is very lightweight after all, and it seems that today’s standard dual core phone can handle the OS with ease  :: Read the full article »»»»

Twitter Acquires Email Marketeer RestEngine

TechCrunch has reported that Twitter has just finalized a deal to acquire RestEngine, a developer of personalized email marketing services, which could help Twitter deliver email digests of great tweets you’ve missed. The acquisition fits well with Twitter’s recent talent acquisition of Summify, which creates these kinds of personal news digests. The boostrapped RestEngine had spent the last few years generating and distributing re-engagement emails for social game companies like Crowdstar. The emails often enticed users to start playing again by telling them what their friends had been accomplishing in the game.

Three of four founders will be joining the flock, and the company’s technology will come along with them. Co-founder Joe Waltman won’t be moving to Twitter, though, as he tells me his entrepreneurial spirit is too strong and he’ll be working on new projects after a vacation. Waltman tells me RestEngine will shut down, and has already begun helping clients migrate to other email providers  :: Read the full article »»»»

Facebook Share Price Proposal

Facebook plans to raise as much as $12 billion from its initial public share offering, dwarfing the coming-out parties of tech companies like Google.

The eight-year-old social network that began as Mark Zuckerberg’s college dorm room project has priced its initial public offering at between $28 and $35 a share.

This will see Facebook attain a valuation of as much as $95.9 billion at the high end and grant the world’s largest social network a market value close to Amazon.

If an over-allotment or “greenshoe” option is triggered, Facebook could end up raising close to $13.6 billion, according to a prospectus. Investors are expected to flock to the highly anticipated IPO, though some have voiced concerns about Facebook’s longer-term growth :: Read the full article »»»»

New Alienware MX14,17+18 Ivy Bridge

Hot on the heels of last week’s preview of Intel’s 3rd-generation Core i5 and i7 Ivy Bridge mobile processors, Dell’s Alienware has announced Ivy Bridge availability in its refreshed M14x, M17x, and M18x gaming laptops. The three units also get new GPU and storage options, dedicated Creative Sound Blaster chip, as well as THX TruStudio.

Locally, cnet reported, Dell has officially refreshed its Alienware gaming laptop lineup in parts of Asia Pacific with Ivy Bridge processors. Countries getting the update: Australia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand and Singapore. Unlike the US and UK, those in this region (with the exception of Australia and New Zealand) won’t be seeing the M18x. This means that consumers only get to choose between the M14x and the M17x.x

The 11-inch M11x didn’t make the transition to Ivy Bridge, the company is discontinuing it :: Read the full article »»»»

Picture of the Week :: Ms Echo

via Heels & Candy

CHECK :: Heels & Candy for the full gallery ::

http://heelsandcandy.wordpress.com/ms-echo-hello-new-girl/

SMS Etiquette

It’s hard to believe how recently texting was introduced into our lives. The formative years were 1989 to 1992, when people were flipping their pagers upside-down to receive vital messsages like “hello” (07734) and “boobies” (5318008). In 2009, a reported 152.7 billion text messages were being sent per month in America, averaging 534 per user. You could say it’s gotten popular. We wanted to know how long it takes the public to respond to one of those billions of texts.

Recombu has done a pretty neat little survey, with some surprising results.

The big pull was between a speedy response and an apathetic laze. Most respondents said they typically respond within minutes, but there was a large group who are either too busy to ensure a quick reply, or just don’t care enough to jump on it immediately. More often than not, it was the former, but there were some who expressed a sort of anti-texting sentiment. One commenter wrote, “I hate the phone with a passion therefore normally it takes me forever to get around to replying to any messages on it”  :: Read the full article »»»»

How To :: Use Bitdefender To Save Your Online Life

Facebook Profit Dip

Facebook has reported a fall in quarterly profit despite surging revenue. The social networking behemoth recently bumped up spending on research, acquisitions and promotion before its stock market debut, which is expected to come next month. The company also blamed the result on seasonal advertising trends.

Facebook’s net income dipped 12 per cent to $US205 million in the three months to March from $US233 million in the same period last year. Although revenue jumped to $US1.06 billion, which was a rise year-on-year, it was down about 6 per cent from the preceding quarter, the first quarter-on-quarter drop since at least 2010.

Facebook is preparing to raise at least $US5 billion in the largest initial public offering by an internet company on Wall Street that could see it valued at up to $US100 billion. The company will trade under the symbol “FB” on the Nasdaq, it said in paperwork filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission :: Read the full article »»»»

GOOGLE DRIVE :: CLOUD INTEGRATION GOOGLE STYLE

Google yesterday announced its DropBox killer, Google Drive, pledging every user 5GB of free storage. That’s a pretty good deal, combined with other Google products – Google Docs, soon to be Picassa and Gmail –  as well as some comprehensive search capabilities, Google Drive  appears to be a pretty close to taking over the galaxy that is cloud, for the personal user at least.

But there’s another story here. Products such as Google Drive and DropBox are becoming more frequently released, more importantly, cheap. It costs less than $10 to back up 100GB. Punters truly have no excuse, the concept of accidentally deleting a file should be a thing of the past. Expect to see a DropBox Teams competitor any day now. Google truly seems to have our online world stitched :: UPDATE :: OK, not happy Jan!! I feel slightly duped, it seems that Google has Given at the same Time as They’ve Taken Away!! On loading Google Drive I’ve lost my Google Docs account, well perhaps an exaggeration, my Google Docs space - some 1.7GB – has been integrated into my new Google Drive - 5 GB – a gain of 3.3Gb :: Read the full article »»»»