Facebook revamping its Marketplace section to offer Craiglist-like classifieds
For several years now, Craigslist has been the go-to site for anyone looking for local classifieds with many people content with its overall use. A number of Craigslist-like websites have popped up recently such as Backpages, but none have been able to make any sort of dent in Craigslist's dominance in the classifieds world. Although, if today's report turns out to be true, Facebook could finally give Craigslist a run for its money.
According to a report by The Daily, Facebook is currently working on a tool that would allow for users of the social network to publish listings that would announce things like apartment rentals, furniture for sale and even job listings. The section, which is being called Marketplace for now, will also give the user the ability to share their listing that would show up in their friends' news feeds.
A good portion of the service will be completely free, but Facebook will be accepting payments to further promote your listing to your friends, similar to its "promoted posts" feature. Promoted listings will appear as ads in your friends' Facebook feeds instead of being shoved into regular Facebook updates. Promoted listings will cost less than $5 to promote.
Google makes Google Drive content shareable through Google+
Google Drive users, who also happen to use Google's social network service, Google+, will be pleased to hear the company has now made it much easier for users to share their documents with their friends by allowing your files to be viewable in Google+, to which you can choose who you'd like to share them with.
The process to share your Google Drive documents on Google+ isn't as simple as clicking on a "Google Drive" option in Google+ to then choose which document you'd like to share with your friends. Instead, as of now, it's a multi-step process:
Sharing a file or document from your Drive using Google+
Continue reading: Google makes Google Drive content shareable through Google+ (full post)
Kim Dotcom reveals MegaUpload successor 'Mega'
Back in early September, Kim Dotcom revealed he was working on an "ultimate" version of his widely popular MegaUpload website, which was brought offline earlier this year. Last week, it was reported Megaupload's successor would launch on January 20, 2013, and it looks like things are going according to plan as Kim Dotcom's successor to MegaUpload, simply called "Mega," has been soft launched today.
The new Mega is completely free of the U.S. as hosters, domains and backbone providers have all been taken overseas, which will make it nearly impossible for it to suffer the same fate as MegaUpload. What also helps is having the burden of hosting unlawful content focused squarely on the user as they're the ones who are in complete control of what content they store in the cloud.
One big improvement Mega will have over MegaUpload is it will be free of any software required to be used in order to upload or access a user's content. Instead, everything will be taken care of within the Mega website itself as it will encrypt and decrypt your data in real time. Cross-account folders will also be available which will make collaborating between multiple users a breeze.
Continue reading: Kim Dotcom reveals MegaUpload successor 'Mega' (full post)
Concrete is about to go next-gen with re-healable concrete to be start outdoor testing
Concrete is the world's most widely used building material, but there haven't been any fundamental changes in the material, and because of that it is prone to cracks - which means that most structures be substantially reinforced with steel.
This is all about to hopefully change with experimental concrete that self heals - yes, self, heals. The experimental concrete contains limestone-producing bacteria, which are activated by corrosive rainwater working its way into the structure. The new concrete is about to enter outdoor testing, and if successful, we could see new structures made with the concrete that could provide better service life with the concrete, and huge cost savings, too.
The work is being done at Delft Technical University in the Netherlands and is the brainchild of microbiologist Henk Jonkers and concrete technologist Eric Schlangen. If the testing is positive, Dr Jonkers says that they could start the process of commercializing it as soon as 2-3 years from now.
Linus Torvalds would like to see laptops with 2560x1600 displays, and so would I
It looks like Linus Torvalds and I have something in common, we both want to see higher resolution notebook displays. Torvalds has used his Google+ account to post about the subject, asking "can we please just make that [the 2560x1600-pixel] the new standard laptop resolution? Even at 11"? Please."
The problem is, as he says, is that we're seeing so many 1366x768 displays in this Full HD world of displays, and it really is just crap. He does state that "soon even the cellphones will start laughing at the ridiculously bad laptop displays".
I fully, 100% agree with Torvalds, and I think every sector needs a reality check. TVs should have jumped from 1080p ages ago, and so should PC screens. I had 1920x1200 displays when the first Dell FP2405W came out and that cost me $1500+, I upgraded to the HP LP3065 monitor as soon as it came out because I wanted the 2560x1600 res it offered. Now we're going backward with 90% or more of displays only offering 1920x1080.
Samsung's 28nm Exynos CPU for Galaxy S IV to soon enter mass production
We all know Samsung doesn't just twiddle their thumbs after their release a flagship smartphone, where earlier this year we saw the release of the phenomenally popular Galaxy S III, and now we're seeing the rollout of the 5.5-inch Galaxy Note II. These two smartphones represent just a sliver of what Samsung actually sell, and now we're hearing more talk on the Galaxy S III's successor, the Galaxy S IV.
Sources are claiming that Samsung recently produced a test version of their 28nm High-K Metal Gate (HKMG) processor which goes by the codename "Adonis", that will eventually be baked into their next-gen flagship smartphone. Adonis is a quad-core design, which will most likely end up with the name Exynos 5400, and uses ARM's Cortex A15 architecture. The new chip should ship with better GPU abilities, that reportedly use very little power. Samsung currently use the Cortex A15 architecture in their Exynos 5250, but that is built on the older, and less efficient 32nm process.
HKMG ushers in low power-consuming chips thanks to ultra-miniaturization being possible without current leakage. This is currently a big problem when shrinking processes on the traditional SiON silicon-based process. Exynos 5400 should begin mass production by the end of the year, and if it misses that date, then we're looking at mass production in early 2013. If Samsung can keep on track, they would be the first to have a mobile applications processor (AP) on the market sporting the 28nm HMKG manufacturing process.
Telstra won't be stocking Nexus 4 or Nexus 7 3G, want to focus on 4G LTE products
Some bad news for Australians regarding the Nexus 4 and Nexus 7 3G devices, big Australian telcos Telstra and Vodafone won't be stocking them. Telstra have weighed in, saying they won't be stocking either of the Nexus devices:
At this stage we don't plan to offer the Nexus 4 smartphone or the Nexus 7 3G tablet. Our customers are increasingly demanding a high speed mobile internet experience on their devices so we are focused on bringing 4G LTE compatible models to market.
Telstra are expanding their LTE network, but their 3G side of things has far more customers and is a way bigger piece of the network pie. Myself and 99% of everyone I know is on 3G, with the only people I know on 4G are one, with Telstra, and two, have an iPhone 5. It was only on the first day that I saw people bragging about 4G speeds, and now it has died off - the honeymoon period for 4G disappears quite quickly, it seems.
OCZ begins to sink, cutting workforce by 28%, will discontinue 150 product variations
Who thought this time last year that SSD maker OCZ would be in this much trouble? The company have announced their reducing a large number of its staff, with as much as 28% of their non-production staff being out of a job, while workers at the company's Taiwan production facility getting cut down by 32%. The company has said:
We are undergoing a transition phase in the Company's evolution in which we are refocusing our efforts on products and strategies that will benefit both OCZ and our stakeholders over the long term. We have already taken aggressive steps to address some short-term tactical challenges and have begun streamlining the organization to help ensure that OCZ will be in the best position moving forward to address the fast growing consumer and enterprise SSD markets.
They aren't just stopping there, either. OCZ plans to discontinue around 150 product variations, too. OCZ adds:
Google Play customers can now pay for purchases using carrier billing on Verizon
Users of Android on the Verizon network will now have the ability to bill their Verizon Wireless account, instead of using a credit card or other form of payment. This change should help users purchase more apps easily, and is especially important for those users who do not have another form of payment, such as a credit card.
Users will be able to charge up to $25 of apps and other Google Play "merchandise" to their wireless bill every month and then they only have to pay through one channel. This latest addition brings the feature to Verizon, a feature that Sprint, T-Mobile, and AT&T have had for a while now. Just be sure to keep track of how much you're spending.
If you'd like, it appears to be something you can disable by going to Verizon's site and enabling "Block Web Purchases."
Microsoft gets trolled, sued over Windows Live Tiles
Microsoft is on the receiving end of a patent troll's lawsuit over its just launched Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8. The patent troll in question is SurfCast and they appear to believe that Microsoft's Windows Live Tiles infringe upon a patent filed in 2000 and granted back in 2004.
The patent that SurfCast is using as the basis of their lawsuit is No. 6,724,403. SurfCast describes Tiles as follows:
Tiles can be thought of as dynamically updating icons. A Tile is different from an icon because it can be both selectable and live -- containing refreshed content that provides a real-time or near-real-time view of the underlying information.
Continue reading: Microsoft gets trolled, sued over Windows Live Tiles (full post)