Facebook admits hiring PR firm to smear Google

SOURCE : The Daily Beast

It seems like the ongoing rivalry between Facebook and Google has taken a turn for the subversive. Last night, a spokesman for the social network confirmed to the Daily Beast that Facebook paid a top PR firm to spread anti-Google stories across the media and to encourage various outlets to examine allegations that the Mountain View company was violating user privacy. The PR firm, Burson-Marsteller, even offered to help blogger Chris Soghoian write a critical op-ed piece about Social Circle -- a service that allows Gmail users to access information on so-called "secondary connections," or friends of their friends. Social Circle, in fact, seems to have been at the epicenter of Facebook's smear campaign. In a pitch to journalists, Burson described the tool in borderline apocalyptic terms:

"The American people must be made aware of the now immediate intrusions into their deeply personal lives Google is cataloging and broadcasting every minute of every day-without their permission."

Soghoian thought that Burson's representatives were "making a mountain out of a molehill," so he decided to prod them about which company they might be working for. When Burson refused to spill the beans, Soghoian went public and published all of the e-mails sent between him and the firm. USA Today picked up on the story, before concluding that any claims of a smear campaign were unfounded. The Daily Beast's Dan Lyons, however, apparently forced Facebook's hand after confronting the company with "evidence" of its involvement. A Facebook spokesman said the social network hired Burson to do its Nixonian dirty work for two primary reasons: it genuinely believes that Google is violating consumer privacy and it also suspects that its rival "may be improperly using data they have scraped about Facebook users." In other words, their actions were motivated by both "altruistic" and self-serving agendas, though we'd be willing to bet that the latter slightly outweighed the former. Google, meanwhile, has yet to comment on the story, saying that it still needs more time to wrap its head around everything -- which might just be the most appropriate "no comment" we've ever heard.

LG OPTIMUS 2X

THE LG optimus 2x is the world's first dual-core phone necessitating an online petition....

Handsets
LG Optimus 2X is world's first dual-core phone necessitating an online petition
By Zachary Lutz posted May 11th 2011 6:27AM
Early adopters of the Optimus 2X are rightfully proud to carry the distinction of owning the world's first dual-core smartphone, however, that badge of honor comes with a steep price. In LG's rush to be first, it delivered a unpolished operating system that hinders the speed and stability of the phone -- and we're now seeing user reports suggesting the troubles may go beyond software. Notably, the forum at xda-developers now exceeds 100 pages of comments describing blank, unresponsive screens, random reboots and exceedingly hot temperatures when recharging. While many owners are performing various forms of voodoo hoping to stave off the symptoms, the problems are intermittent, making fixes difficult to verify. Regardless, putting the phone in a paper bag and lighting candles isn't going to banish the ghost in this machine. In response to LG's silence, frustrated users have started an online petition to bring their plight to the public's eye.

How to speed up your iphone with this cydia tweak

Speed Intensifier is a 2-part tweak, one for your Setting.app and the other part is a Winterboard. Speed Intensifier is available via insanelyi.com repo, you have to add this repo to your Cydia, just open Cydia > Manage > Sources > Edit > Add this rep “http://repo.insanelyi.com” , after installing repo, go and search for Speed Intensifier. You will see the app as well as the Speed Intensifier Addon, it's recommended to add both of them.

You can easily adjust Speed Intensifier from Setting app, so you can change speed of the tweak or disable it. By the way you have to know that the app developer claims that the app doesn't drain your battery. Give it a try now, it is 100% free

Microsoft buys skype for $8.5 billion !!

Most of us know that there was a competition between the biggest two giants on the internet Google and Facebook for acquiring Skype, but Microsoft finally won the competition with this highly aggressive bid.


ON THE 9TH OF MAY..

So what now, it's expected to to see an integrating between Windows Live service and Skype. Congratulations Microsoft. . Microsoft has bought Skype for $8.5 billion, in an all-cash deal. The deal closed a few hours ago. is close to finalizing a deal to buy Skype for between $7 billion to $8 billion. The Wall Street Journal confirmed the news after we had first reported it yesterday. The announcement is likely to come out later today or tomorrow morning, according to several reports. Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft, is said to be a big champion of the deal, the largest in the history of the company. Ballmer and Skype CEO Tony Bates will host a press conference in a few hours.

Skype has been up for sale for some time, thanks to some very antsy investors. My sources indicated both eBay and Silver Lake Partners have been getting nervous about the delayed initial public offering and have been pushing for a sale of Skype. Facebook and Google were said to be earlier dance partners for Skype, and Microsoft was a late entrant and is now close to walking away with the prize.