Facebook’s new iPad app: six spectacular features

Facebook's new iPad app has been more than a year in the making, and thus far, anxious iPad users have only received ambiguous "it's coming… eventually" updates from Mark Zuckerberg and Co. TechCrunch blogger discovered a hidden version of Facebook's new iPad app while playing around in the code for the site's iPhone app. Several other tech bloggers subsequently accessed the app - before Facebook caught on and blocked it - posting their early reactions online. It's unclear when exactly the app will be officially released, but in the meantime, what improvements do we have to look forward to in this "spectacular" new offering?

Here the features go:
1. Easy sidebar navigation
The "most important difference" between this newly discovered iPad app and current iterations of Facebook on iPhones and other platforms, is the retooled navigation system. There's now an expandable navigation sidebar that pops out from the left side of the screen, accessed with the mere flick of a finger. From the menu, users can navigate between the News Feed, Messages, Events, and other features, allowing for "speedier movement." The sidebar is a smart use of iPad's "screen real estate," says TIME, because it can always be tucked away, "your screen is never overcrowded."

2. Time-saving overlay menus
The new app makes "great use" of "pop-overs," or overlay menus, that have become popular on other iPad apps. That means that instead of being taken to a whole new window to view notifications or compose messages, these features just pop up in a small window in the corner of the existing screen. "This allows users to quickly check for these types of activity without losing what they’re currently viewing," says Constine at TIME.

3. Improved chat
Just as navigation appears in a sidebar on the left of the screen, the chat feature can now be accessed via a sidebar on the right side. This is designed to "permit persistent use" of chat while doing other things on Facebook.

4. A big emphasis on Places
"Facebook's location push is apparent" in the way the new app ramps up the Places tab. Places, which allows users to check in to locations like restaurants and bars, connects directly to the iPad's GPS, displaying a large map on the right side of the screen, and friends' location updates on the left. You can comment on friends' locations using this feature, too.

5. Eye-popping photos
"Browsing photos on the Facebook iPad app is a fantastic experience". Not only does the iPad's 9.7-inch screen blow up the photos beautifully, but it's "twitch-fast" to toggle among them. The app also allows you to crop photos using two fingers to define the boundaries of the crop. "It has a nice Minority Report feelin' to it."

6. A better-looking Friends page
The iPad app offers an improved showcase for the Friends page, which now uses "large, square-shaped thumbnails" to display high-quality photos of friends in an alphabetized, easy-to-navigate list. "It seems like Facebook's answer to Google+ Circles."

Sprint and T-Mobile to get the iPhone 5

There is no shortage of iPhone 5 speculation. The latest rumor says that the handset will launch on all four major networks, adding Sprint and T-Mobile to the mix. Whether that it is the actual iPhone 5 or is instead the iPhone 4S is still unclear.

Analyst Chris Larsen notes that the iPhone 5 will be available “on more networks, specifically Sprint and T-Mobile in the US.” He also says this would increase Apple’s market by 30-percent. Android has more and more become a force to be reckoned with. Given its growing industry presence and market share forecast, Apple is wise to consider easily boosting its own user base by expanding to all four major US carriers.

It would also make sense considering the unit shipments Apple has allegedly requested for the iPhone 5 or possibly iPhone 4S. It was recently revealed that Apple had placed hardware orders for the handset, requesting 25 million units be built in 2011, a number that was called “quite aggressive.”

Last month we also heard that Sprint’s research and development team was internally testing the iPhone, but it was uncertain whether the iPhone 4 or iPhone 5 would be the first iOS device to make it to the carrier. There was the possibility that Sprint would introduce the iPhone 4 around the same time as the iPhone 5 makes its debut, a la Verizon’s iPhone unveiling. But now it sounds as if the real deal, next-gen model will be the carrier’s first iPhone.

And of course, T-Mobile customers have always been likely to get the device, considering its pending acquisition by the original iPhone peddler, AT&T.

China Telecom planning iPhone launch later this year

China Telecom Corp Ltd plans to offer its 106 million subscribers the Apple Inc iPhone by the end of 2011, which would make it the second operator to do so in the world's largest mobile phone market.

The move would help China Telecom, the smallest of the country's three telecommunications operators, cement more high-end 3G users in a competitive market in which handset subsidies offered by carriers are squeezing margins. China Telecom operates the country's largest fixed-line network and is a relative newcomer to the mobile market.

"The reason telecom operators are fighting for the iPhone business is because everybody is trying to grab as many 3G users as possible," said Jane Wang, an analyst at UK-based research firm Ovum. "The only way to keep costs down is to build up such a user base."

China Telecom's shares, which have risen by about a fifth this year, extended earlier gains after Reuters exclusively reported the plan, rising as much as 5.5 percent to an intraday high of HK$4.95 and outperforming the Hang Seng Index's 1 percent gain.

Separately, China Telecom said in a statement that its president and chief operating officer, Shang Bing, had resigned to become deputy minister of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

China has 896 million mobile phone users - bigger than the entire population of Europe. Its three telecommunications operators are China Mobile Ltd, China Unicom and China Telecom.

So far, China Unicom is the only operator to offer the iPhone after signing a three-year agreement with Apple in 2009. Its deal with Apple is not based on a revenue-sharing scheme, unlike some operators in other countries. For example, in the United States, Apple has a revenue-sharing agreement with AT&T Inc on iPhone sales.

"Unicom is selling iPhones, but there was no particular boost to their earnings from that," said Patrick Yiu, director at CASH Asset Management. "Even if China Telecom gets the iPhone deal, it will still depend on whether their system can support it and on the details of the contract."

In May, China Telecom's chairman, Wang Xiaochu, told a news conference that the carrier had contacted Apple to launch the iPhone based on CDMA (code division multiple access) technology.
"It's expected to happen this year. China Telecom already has the required technology and it all hinges on the content of the agreement. As we all know, it's not easy to negotiate with Apple," said a source close.

China Telecom is expected to introduce the iPhone in November, said another source.
In June, a media report said bigger rival China Mobile could offer iPhones from September, although analysts said it was unlikely that Apple would support the carrier's TD-SCDMA (time division synchronous code division multiple access) technology.

A more likely scenario was for Apple to support China Mobile's 4G LTE (long-term evolution) technology, which would only be available either in late 2012 or 2013, they said. If that is the case, China Telecom would be next in line to offer iPhones.

Google to open research institute

Berlin's oldest university says it is partnering with Google and three German institutions to start a research institute.

Humboldt University announced that the institute would open in the fall and examine the evolution of the Internet and its impact on society, science, politics and the economy.

The institute will focus on innovation, Internet and media policy, philosophy and constitutional rights.

Google will fund the institute to the tune of euro 4.5 million ($6.41 million) for the first three years.

The Berlin University of Arts, the Social Science Research Center Berlin and the Hamburg Hans-Bredow-Institute are also involved in the project.

App Store downloads cross 15 billion mark

iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch users have downloaded more than 15 billion apps for their gadgets, said Apple Inc.

The milestone was announced on Thursday. Apple said it was working to fix a security issue for the three popular tech products that a Germany agency warned could be used by criminals to gain access to confidential data.

The company crossed the 10 billion downloads mark in January. There are more than 425,000 paid and free apps available on Apple's App Store, and more than 100,000 were made specifically for the iPad tablet. They range from the useful to the quirky, from games to productivity tools to magazines, social networks and children's storybooks.

Apple said more than 200 million of its iOS devices - that is, the iPhone, IPad and iPod Touch - have been sold around the world to people in 90 countries.

Motorola Droid 3 available on Verizon for $199

The Motorola Droid 3 has arrived. The new phone is now available for purchase on Verizon’s Website for $199.99 with a two-year contract or $459.99 alone. Those hoping for a 4G LTE handset will be disappointed, however. The Droid 3 is still a 3G phone, though it does pack some punch with a 4.3-inch qHD (960×540) display, Android 2.3 Gingerbread, a full QWERTY keyboard with a dedicated row for numbers, 1080p video recording, and 16GB of onboard memory. The unit will be available in stores on July 14.

The original Droid helped kick off the massive success Android had in 2009 and 2010, though Motorola itself has since been somewhat eclipsed by emergent competitors like Samsung and HTC. Motorola has not shown the Droid 3 at any trade shows or events this year.

Internet domain registrar, Go Daddy, is sold

The parent company of GoDaddy.com, a top registrar of Internet domain names, has been sold to a group of private investment firms for $2.25 billion, said a source familiar with the transaction.

Go Daddy Group Inc.'s sale to KKR, Silver Lake and Technology Crossover Ventures comes as the company expects to top $1.1 billion in revenue this year because expanding Internet use has fueled the creation of more websites and the "domains" needed to help find them. Go Daddy announced the sale late Friday.

A fact sheet accompanying the release indicated that Go Daddy's revenue has grown by more than 20 percent in each of the past several years.

The Go Daddy Group Inc. was founded in 1997 by Bob Parsons, who continues to serve as its CEO. The company, based in Scottsdale, Ariz., manages more than 48 million domain names, and sells other Internet-related technologies.