Facebook Messenger for Mobile updated with Voice messages, Voice calls are in testing

 Are You a Facebook user having a smartphone running iOS or Android then you have an update to your fb messenger app.
Facebook begin this year with two major upgrades to its Messenger app for Android and iOS.

One is, now you can send voice messages to your friends.

Users can tap the “+” button then hold the “record” button to record a message. Releasing the button immediately sends the message. Sliding your finger off the button cancels the message.

The second feature is VoIP (Voice over IP) calls.
VoIP calls feature is not available to all users at the moment as the company is still testing its functionality, It is available only to Canadian users with iOS devices.

As promised by Mark Zuckerberg (Killer Stuff in Mobile on the way), the company is focusing on mobile communications.

Recently Facebook opened up its messenger app to non-users using their name and phone number. This is all to stand the competition from other messaging services like WhatsApp.

Facebook also recently launched Poke, a SnapChat competitor that lets users send photos, videos or text messages that disappear after several seconds.

With this new VoIP calls feature Fb is going to challenge the mobile networks because calling is default action done through phones.Even Though internet data plans are largely dependent on Mobile Networks, This is going to have an affect in some part.

For a company like Facebook where communication is something that has to be worked on seriously, strategies have to be made to make interaction better.

The 1st IPhone 6 Concept Design

It has not been long since Apple Released its iPhone 5 and now Concepts of the iPhone 6( if that is indeed what they are gonna call it) are making their rounds.

Federico Ciccarese, an Italian designer, has come up with a series of stunning renders for the iPhone 6, which seems to resemble that of a Nokia Lumia which indicates a significant change to the phone's external design and operating system. 
Fedrico say he was inspired by a re-imagined look and feel of the operating system with a concept he calls iOSX, which is a fusion between iOS and the Mac OS X.
Since it should be several months before the next iPhone is released, there haven't been many rumors yet about how the device will look but it should increase over time. One analyst recently predicted that the next iPhone would come in more screen sizes and more colors, the latter of which is something that is already available for the iPod and iPod Nano. 

Will Apple answer the design concept or will the blow our minds with something even more intresting... only time will tell. What Do You think of This Mock-up?

Andriod Gingerbread Dominates

Boasting a mere 47.6% near that of a 50% Androids Gingerbread Still Dominates Android Distribution based a data from a 14 day period ending on December 3, 2012. Ice Cream Sandwich holds  a 29.1 mark putting it second place.

Unfortunately for developers who have to keep all these versions in mind, even the ancient Android 2.2. or Froyo is still very alive and present on 9% of devices, while Android 2.1 Eclair powers 2.4% of all Android devices.

What make of these Stats?
Check Out More at Android Developers.

Canonical announces Ubuntu OS for Smartphones

Ending a long time rumor Canonical announced that it is going to release smartphone version of its OS Ubuntu.

This OS is currently the number three desktop operating system with 20M users, and about 30,000 downloads per day. 2012 was a great year for this popular Debian-based Linux distribution with Ubuntu 12.04 LTS as the most popular release in the history of Ubuntu.

"We expect Ubuntu to be popular in the enterprise market, enabling customers to provision a single secure device for all PC, thin client and phone functions. Ubuntu is already the most widely used Linux enterprise desktop, with customers in a wide range of sectors focused on security, cost and manageability," said Jane Silber, CEO of Canonical. "We also see an opportunity in basic smartphones that are used for the phone, SMS, web and email, where Ubuntu outperforms thanks to its native core apps and stylish presentation."

Smartphone interface is entirely based on Ubuntu's unity interface which was made default interface since 11.04 (Natty Narwhal) release.

Every edge of the phone has an interesting purpose...

Swiping up the left edge brings the app launcher similar to in desktop. Using top edge you can search your phone and the internet. A swipe from the right edge takes you back to the previous app you are in. Swiping up from the bottom edge of the phone reveals app controls. 

I personally think this option enables faster switching between apps than any other smartphone. And also the global search feature enables easy finding of content, apps and different products.

The OS will have both web-based HTML-5 apps as well as native apps.

Ubuntu OS has support for both ARM and x86 processors. This means it could be made to run on most, if not all, of today's Android-powered smartphones without too much effort.

The OS starts with a artistic welcome screen.

Shuttleworth confirmed that universal version of smartphone OS will be available in April 2014 with Ubuntu 14.04.

2012 Most viewed Articles on Wikipedia

Wikipedia The worlds largest community-written encyclopedia is no doubt a great source of information with more than 4M articles in English only and an overall 5.7+ B visits a year.

The most interesting thing is Wikipedia is a Non-profit organisation under WikiMedia which survives purely on donations.This online encyclopedia collected $20M in 2011 with Google as its biggest contributor of $2M. In 2012 it raised tp $25M.

Do you want to know what are the most viewed articles in 2012 ?
Here are the top 10 viewed articles

Page name                              View count

1. Facebook                             32,647,942

2. Wiki                                    29,613,759

3. Deaths in 2012                     25,418,587

4. One Direction                       22,351,637

5. The Avengers (2012film)      22,268,644

6. Fifty Shades of Grey             21,779,423

7. 2012 phenomenon                20,619,920

8. The Dark Knight Rises          18,882,885

9. Google                                 18,508,719

10. The Hunger Games             18,431,626

Here is a list of 100 articles Toolserver