App of the Day: FaceBook Messenger (Chat Head)

Facebook has added a new feature to its mobile app called Chat Head. Available when the Messenger add-on is installed, it allows the chat icon of the person you're having a conversation with to be visible at all times. Quite handy if you use Facebook chat a lot as it eliminates a few steps to get to a chat window via the Notification Bar.

The little circle with your contact's profile photo can be left on your home screen at all times for easy access or if you long press, an "x" will appear at the bottom of your screen and you can close the chat window. This does not delete the conversation, it only closes the open window.

You may also reposition the chat circles around the edge of your screen to a more convenient location.

Not a big deal but it's a neat feature if you use Facebook chat often.

Check it out on Google Play now!

Scam Warning - Timeline Plus

Just a warning... 

THIS IS A SCAM! DO NOT CLICK OR ADD THIS APP!!!!

Online Parenting v1.0

For parents that can't seem to connect to their kids and all this "Facebook/Twitter cr*p"... here's how one parent dealt with his kid. Sit back and enjoy...

Visit Tommy Jordan's Facebook page here. 

Cover Your Face...Book Timeline (A Privacy Entry)

Facebook has once again changed their interface. Much more drastic than any previous update in the past. Causing the usual uproar about how users preferred the "old interface"... the same one they HATED when Facebook first introduced it.

Anyway, with Facebook's new timeline, user's profile now look more like those Science Museum charts that show important points in history.

For those that want to control their privacy, it's much easier to do so now.

1. First click on the drop-down arrow on the upper right hand side of your profile page.
2. Next click on Privacy Settings.
3. A new page will appear where you can select from 3 options: Public, Friends, and Custom.

• Public makes everything you post viewable by everyone. Even those not logged into Facebook. For corporate pages, or fansites, this is usually preferred for maximum exposure and search engine indexing.
• Friends is for just your immediate contacts.
• Custom is where you can select Friends of Friends, or only a certain group of contacts, or even ban certain Facebook users from viewing your page all together.

Android Tip Of The Day: Facebook

Facebook has recently updated their iOS app. It works a lot better and has a much sleeker interface. Android users however, are still stuck with the old version. And no word on when the Android version will be updated. Perhaps they're waiting for Android 4.0 to be released before issuing a major update.

Either way, there's a quicker way to enjoy the new layout of Facebook on your Android device.

Simply point your Android browser to

m.facebook.com

And log in!

It's not quite as polished as the new iOS app since it's browser based...but it does retain the new look and features. Up until the Android app is updated, I now use this version all the time.

Resistance Is Futile+++

Ok... we've all seen this pattern before... Friendster... MySpace... now it seems to be happening again.  With a "5th time's a charm" attitude, Google has seemed to have gotten things right with Google+.  (Google's past attempts that have failed were: Orkut, Dodgeball, Jaiku, Wave and Buzz) And although it is in it's early stages, it currently has 20 million members.  How does this affect everyone on Facebook?  Well, the easiest thing about Google+ is it's non-intrusive nature in your everyday life.  I may be a minority whose homepage is still Google, but I like the fact that Google+ alerts reside in my search page.

I do NOT like the fact that my accounts still cannot be merged however...but I'm still hoping that Google will fix this and I can delete my other GMail accounts and just consolidate everything under my Google Apps account.

Now, there have been some concerns about Google+ privacy policy, much like any other social network and free online service... but take note... Facebook has had far less regard for security and less respect for privacy since it's TheFacebook.com days.  I trust Google more than I do Facebook.  I have more info on Google's services (Blogger, Picasa, GMail, YouTube, Voice, Talk, Android) than I do on Facebook.

This short video by Epipheo Studios pretty much sums up why Google+ is gaining ground.

A Little Friday Tech Humor : Are Social Networks Too Powerful?

Something I found funny... Was combing through my Facebook feed to clean it up a little... and I noticed the drop down menu...

I guess I can also report messages from God as SPAM...

Scam Warning!

Scam warning for the day!  Do not click on FB links that look like this!

Scam Warning!

Facebook scam link to start your day

Scam Warning!

If you see this posted on your wall, do not click on it!

Scam Warning!

Another one for today...

Scam Warning!

I may be posting more than one warning a day!  Sheesh!

Scam Warning!

Be careful with this link.  Highly suspicious since it links to an app, and not a video.  I saw the real vid of this and it's funny.  Manually search for it on YouTube instead.

Warning of the Day

I will try an post as many regular warnings as I possibly can when I notice viral links going around FB or email.  If you see a similar link in your newsfeed, avoid clicking on them without verifying their authenticity.

Secure Your Facebook

On the topic of online security, Facebook is one site that has an enormous amount of personal information. A lot of Facebook accounts have been hacked lately, including Mark Zuckerberg's personal page.  Most of the time, these can be avoided by using Facebook's new security feature:

Simply go to your Account, then click on Account Settings

Expand the Account Security section, check the box that says Secure Browsing (HTTPS).

Save your settings.  And you're all done.  Unfortunately, some apps, like Networked Blogs, do not support HTTPS yet so you'll have to repeat this procedure every time you use an app that disabled this security setting.

What am I syncing about? I'm syncing about your Facebook...

App of the day: SyncMyPix

I'm not good with names.  When the first batch of camera phones were out (Ericsson T68 w/ Communicam) I was so happy cuz I could now take a photo of someone I was just introduced to and match it with their number.

I pretty much continued this practice over the last 8 years and almost everyone on my contact list has a photo (funny or otherwise) attached to it.

Since getting my Android phone, I've found a much better way to keep everything neat and tidy.

SyncMyPix (aka Facebook Sync in it's earlier days) is an app that pulls the photos from your Facebook account and matches them to your phonebook contacts automatically.

Although it's not perfect (unless your contact list spelling is identical to your Facebook friends) it is quite easy to link a Facebook account to a contact account.

Updates can be done automatically... ie; when a contact updates their photo on FB, your phone updates the phonebook photo as well.  Or manually.

Although in its current form, it only syncs photos... I'm quite happy with the results... I've found that people don't really keep their contact info on FB up to date and I wouldn't want FB changing my phonebook automatically.  In theory it's fine but in practice...I still prefer having control over my contact list info.

So to all my facebook friends... a request... keep your profile pics cropped in a square if you wanna look good on my phone when you call! Hehehehe!