April 06, 2010

Infographic: By the Numbers: Facebook vs The United States

Facebook’s official company statistics outline the breakdown of the sites over 400 million active users. While the site points out about 70% of Facebook users are outside the US, it doesn’t dive deeper into the U.S. numbers.
According to official company statistics the average Facebook User:
  • Has 130 friends on the site.
  • Sends 8 friend requests per month.
  • Spends more than 55 minutes per day on Facebook.
  • Clicks the Like button on 9 pieces of content each month.
  • Writes 25 comments on Facebook content each month.
  • Becomes a fan of 4 Pages each month.
  • Average user is invited to 3 events per month.
  • Average user is a member of 13 groups.
To find out more about the average American Facebook user and how he or she compares to the average American, Muhammad Saleem, a social media consultant and a writer at Mashable.com, created this infographic called “Facebook vs. The United States“. After crunching the numbers and comparing the data, this is what he’s found. [Muhammad Saleem and Facebook via Mashable]

Editor’s Note: The DC number is greater than 100% because of the disproportionate amount of people who technically reside elsewhere but live in DC, and it would include people in surrounding cities who claim to live in DC on their profiles.

Google Buzz Educates Teens About Privacy


Google has released a new video aimed at teens about making Google Buzz a safer experience.
The video was released in conjunction with the new Buzz privacy reset issued yesterday. This new focus on privacy and privacy options comes amidst class-action lawsuits and a request for FTC investigation regarding the service’s launch and explanation to consumers.

Although aimed at teens, the tips are good for anyone using Buzz to keep in mind.
Here’s the video:




> 
These are Google’s highlighted tips:
 


  • Keep your private information private – Don’t listen to Mark Zuckerberg kids — public is only the new private if you let it be.
  • Know who’s following you – This is perhaps easier said than done as it forces users to monitor their Gmail accounts for Buzz-related information.
  • Control your Google Profile – Google lets you control what people can see, but you don’t have to do anything more than offer up your first and last name.
  • Manage posts and comments – Google Buzz lets you edit or delete any comments that you make on your own posts, delete comments others leave on your posts and delete comments you leave on others’ posts.
  • Know how to turn it off – In Gmail settings, you have the option of either turning Buzz off in Gmail but keeping it active on your phone or disabling it entirely. Disabling Buzz entirely will remove your Google Profile account and delete all of the comments and posts associated with your account.
As nice as it is to see Google finally trying to take control of its product and emphasize consumer education and options, the video also underscores how flawed the initial Buzz roll-out was from a privacy perspective. I mostly wrote about the privacy issues in context of adults communicating with other adults — I didn’t even think about all of the teen mini-dramas that might have occured because of the previous default settings.
What do you think about Google’s launch of Buzz and the company’s subsequent actions? Let me know.

5 Fantastic Free iPhone E-book Reader Apps


While you may well be excited about the Apple iPad and its iBookstore, iPhone and iPod touch owners choosing not to upgrade to the newest 9.7-inch device can still get e-reading on their iProduct right away thanks to a shelf-full of great e-book reading apps available now in the App Store.
Though it’s unlikely you’ll want to consume War and Peace on your iPhone, having a few e-books on board for a quick read on the train or your lunch break is a great way to pass some time. And who knows, depending on the title, you might learn something new too.
Here we’ve pulled together a list of five free apps that offer you e-book reading abilities on your iPhone. So pick the one that suits you, get a title downloaded, and drift off into good-book bliss.

1. B&N eReader








This free app from book selling giant Barnes & Noble comes with five free “classic” e-books (which we’d probably save for those so-bored-you-could-poke-yourself-in-the-eye-for-amusement moments) and a free copy of Merriam-Webster’s Pocket Dictionary. Any titles you download are stored in the cloud, so you can access them from a Mac or PC as well as different handheld devices.
The ability to change the background and text color to a scheme that suits you is very welcome on a non-e-ink display, while the swishy wow factor comes in with Cover Flow-style book browsing as shown in the screen grab above. Incidentally, Barnes & Noble also owns Fictionwise, the company behind the eReader app, which is also available for free in the App Store.
Cost: Free

2. Kindle for iPhone



 
This app can be used by those who are Kindle-less, but really shines for those that have bought into the Kindle ecosystem, as it offers Amazon’s clever “Whispersync” feature. It allows for seamless switching between the Kindle device and Kindle for iPhone. Whispersync knows where you are in a book, so you can read half a chapter on the bus, and when you get home, your Kindle device will give you the option to pick up where you left off, which is pretty clever. Another nice touch is the ability to lock the screen in portrait or landscape mode, so if you want to read in bed, the accelerometer won’t drive you nuts.
Cost: Free



3. Stanza





Although other e-reader apps support such titles, Stanza makes access to the 50,000 free e-books of Project Gutenberg and Feedbooks easy, and offers a similar number of titles you can pay for though partner stores.
Highlights of the Amazon-owned app include the ability to slide your finger across the screen to turn the page — a real winner for those not quite prepared to turn their back on the paper book experience. The option to make the background black and text white, therefore allowing you to read in the dark, appears to have saved many a marriage if the reader reviews are to be believed.
Cost: Free

4. Wattpad 100,000+ Books






The iPhone version of the online e-book community, Wattpad is a popular app with over 4 million downloads to date. What differentiates Wattpad from similar apps is the user-generated content. The system offers a publishing platform, meaning the novels, short stories, poetry and essays available through the app are more likely to be written by “Joe Bloggs” than J.K. Rowling. If you’re not one for amateur or fan fiction, or you work for the U.S. Copyright Office, you might want to skip this one.
Cost: Free

5. eBooks by Kobo





One to watch, with its Borders team-up promising new e-reading hardware in the future, Kobo is a good looking e-library with a focus on new books and best-sellers. Its glossy, image-laden interface is backed up by discounts on current titles (“up to 65% off!” claims the blurb) while one new (and current) e-book is offered as a free download each week, making this app a great option for a casual, or light reader looking for a regular and inexpensive literary entree.
Cost: Free

Bonus: ICDL Books for Children





Offering just four books at present — two from the U.S., and one each from Palestine and Mongolia — the International Children’s Digital Library brings a small part of its worldwide collection of children’s books to the iPhone, with more promised in the future.
Cost: Free

Apple Splits iPad and iPhone Apps in iTunes


If you’ve updated iTunes to the latest version, 9.1, you may have noticed that iPad and iPhone apps are now separated by a tab at the top of the page. Switch tabs and you will pull up device-specific views of the App Store, which renders the entire experience a bit more elegant and better-organized than before.

This is a slight change from the old method, which previously divided apps into categories like “New and Noteworthy” and “Staff Favorites.” There is a downside to the new design, however: If you are browsing a category of iPhone apps and want to begin looking at similar apps for the iPad, you have to start your search over on the front page.
However, keep in mind that apps that are available for both the iPad and the iPhone/iPod Touch will show up under both pages.
It’s certainly a matter of preference, but I feel that the new design is better. How do you like the new App Store? Please let me know in the comments.

April 01, 2010

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