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While everyone at Facebook HQ should be celebrating the company launching its stock, the lawyers are busy facing down a new $15 billion dollar lawsuit. A total of 21 lawsuits from around the country have now been combined into one massive class action lawsuit with a value of $15 billion. According to Bloomberg, the paperwork has been filed in the Federal Court in San Jose, California by Stewarts Law US LLP.

The main issue at stake here are claims that Facebook continued to track users’ Web activity even after they had logged out of their accounts on the social network.  “This is not just a damages action, but a groundbreaking digital-privacy rights case that could have wide and significant legal and business implications,” said David Straite, a partner at Stewarts Law partner.  Currently the lawsuit only covers residents of the United States, but the law firm is currently looking into methods by which it could add additional litigants from other countries. A spokesperson from Facebook’s legal department said of the lawsuit that it is “without merit and we will fight it vigorously.” More

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Facebook hasn’t yet figured out how to make meaningful revenue from mobile, the fastest growing industry in the world, but it has done plenty to create both opportunities and headaches for the wireless carriers. While Facebook is undoubtedly encouraging people to send fewer text messages, it’s also allowing carriers to take part in new revenue streams. That’s just the beginning of what we’ll see from Facebook’s mobile efforts, as the company recently told investors that mobility is one of its major priorities this year.

Here are some ways that Facebook is good for the carriers:

• Facebook this month introduced App Center, an app store similar to Apple’s and Google’s. In the store, Facebook users will be able to buy Web apps for smartphones; each sale gives Facebook a 30 percent cut, leaving the developer with 70 percent. But unlike Apple’s and Google’s app stores, Facebook’s gives the carriers  the potential to make some money through a partnership with Facebook to streamline Web-based payments. With the new system, people programming Web apps for Facebook will be able to embed some code to make charges appear on a user’s phone bill, so they don’t have to enter a credit card number to buy an app. Web apps that use this system will give both carriers and Facebook a chunk of each sale. Facebook’s huge popularity has given many customers a reason to buy smartphones as opposed to traditional cellphones. And smartphones — in particular, the data plans that customers pay for to get on the Internet — have driven enormous revenue for carriers. AT&T and Verizon, for example, both had $6 billion in revenue last quarter from mobile data alone. Facebook in some cases is letting carriers use its popularity to attract users. Some South American carriers are shipping phones with data plans that use Facebook as the sole gateway to the Internet. More

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Ok, So I wa son 7.1.0.402 for a while which was a leak not a release to start with but, most of these are pretty good to start with. So I ran with that one a while and found some issues with slow response time from the keyboard to the app. for example I would click on a  message and it would take up to 5-10 seconds to respond? This did not happen right out of the box after the install, but over time it did. The Radio was good, and the Battery was fine for .402. Enter the Rogers 7.1.0.391 version I wiped the phone with BBSAK and installed the new OS, out of the box it was pretty zippy and no lag with response time, the radio is not bad too. I am going to have to check back on the radio in a week or so. 

I have been testing the new OS on Wifi and on 3G in Rural areas for maximum results, because in the city its not very challenging. I noticed one thing when I installed this OS one of the apps I clicked on to have installed was plans, not sure what that is but I threw it in for the hell of it.

After the fact when updating BlackBerry Protect, I found that there was a file within plans that would not work properly as per the message that popped up suggesting that I make the choice. Keep the BB protect and plans still work , or update and maybe it won't lol

seeing how I really didn't know what plans was I updated lol :-) even though I had no Idea where it was located to start with, and I searched through the phone top to bottom.

long and short of this review is that BB OS 7.1.0.391 is pretty decent and seems stable thus far 24 hrs in.

It is a release, so it can be found on the BlackBerry.com Website under software for Rogers as the Carrier.

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RIM just recently announced that CESG, the National Technical Authority for Information Assurance in the UK, has approved the use of the BlackBerry 7 operating system for the government. This approval enables public sector workers to utilise the enhanced performance and rich functionality of the latest BlackBerry smartphones.

The BlackBerry Enterprise Solution from RIM is the only mobile solution that has been approved by CESG to protect material classified up to and including ‘Restricted’.

Stephen Bates, UK MD for RIM, said: “We’re pleased to see CESG taking such positive steps to help ensure UK government workers have access to the latest suite of BlackBerry 7 smartphones. Thanks in part to our industry leading security credentials, BlackBerry smartphones are widely deployed in UK public sector organisations including the Ministry of Defence (MoD), most of Central Government and more than half of the UK’s police forces, NHS and local government organisations. BlackBerry smartphones are enabling greater efficiencies and improved citizen service by providing access to data such as patient records, the Police National Computer and other government systems at the point of need.”

The use of the BlackBerry Enterprise Solution has led to striking savings and improved citizen service across many public sector bodies, including UK police forces who are using BlackBerry smartphones to increase productivity amongst officers and to enable them to spend more time on the streets and less time in the station. More

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You’ll be waiting a long time until the next total solar eclipse across the United States, but several states in the west will be able to view an annular solar eclipse on Sunday May 20th. An annular solar eclipse occurs when the moon and sun are directly in line, but the size of the moon appears smaller, resulting in a “ring of fire” in the sky. Around 6.6 million Americans will be able to witness the annular eclipse on Sunday.

The moon will measure around 94.4% of the Sun’s diameter when viewed on Sunday, created a ring of fire effect that will appear off-center as the moon moves out of position. The effect will last for 4 minutes depending on where you’re watching from, and require protection in order to be viewed safely – you’ll need a special eclipse filter (sunglasses aren’t good enough, folks) and shouldn’t look directly at the effect. The annular eclipse will cover several states including California, Texas, and Utah, although the severity and length of the effect will greatly different depending on where you are. The best place to view the eclipse on Sunday evening will be along the center of the line demonstrated on the above picture, where the ring of fire effect will last the longest. more

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Device is symmetrical in thickness, this meaning they’re the same width at the top as at the base with no “teardrop-shape” in any of them. Each model is also longer and/or wider than the current iPhone 4S. None of the devices being tipped have the same form factor as the iPhone 4/4S, and none of the devices are absolutely final in their build.

So a bigger iPhone that’s still slender without a form-fitting back? That certainly sounds like something that could turn out to be true!

Guesstimate specs

A minimum of 8 megapixel but expecting more
Wider and Taller at least 4 inch - no teardrop shape
Supports LTE where its accessible
A Minimum of 1080 p Video
Old cases will not fit, may as well sell em off
Retina Display
IOS 6 may be introduced
Upgraded Siri with more languages and countries added

Probably, release in October at some point

(this is just my mockup graphic design)

like it ? :-) 

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OR YEHUDA, Israel, May 16, 2012 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- Magic Software Enterprises Ltd.MGIC +1.44% , a global provider of mobile and cloud-enabled application and business integration platforms, announced today the availability of native iOS and Android clients for its mobile enterprise application platform, in addition to its existing clients for BlackBerry and Windows Mobile.

Magic's productive mobile enterprise application platform enables the development of complex, highly interactive business solutions for all major mobile platforms, including iOS, Android, BlackBerry, and Windows Mobile, from a single development effort on both the client and server sides. Mobile applications can be deployed as native apps, hybrid (native and HTML5), or Web browser applications.

Commenting on the release, Guy Bernstein, Chief Executive Officer of Magic Software Enterprises, said: "The fast-growing enterprise mobility market is a major opportunity for Magic and the enterprise software industry as a whole. Magic's forward-looking approach and smart technology enable us to offer a comprehensive, rich user-experience solution, now also for the popular iOS and Android mobile platforms. Magic's platform facilitates rapid and cost-effective back-end integration-typically the most costly and time-consuming aspect of mobile enterprise application development-by providing optimized, certified connectors to leading enterprise systems, such as SAP, Oracle, Salesforce.com, Microsoft, IBM, Google, and many more." More

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GM abandoning Facebook’s paid advertising is likely only the start of high profile brands ditching the social network, analysts predict, with one global firm claiming the site was getting worse, not better, for marketing. ”Facebook often stands directly in the way of marketers’ efforts to measure the performance of their programs” Forrester analyst Nate Elliott claims, pointing to the social site’s inconsistent jumping between different advertising strategies as it desperately hunts for something that will actually make it money. Back in 2011, Elliott highlights, Facebook made under $4 in ad revenue per active user. Meanwhile, the site’s mobile userbase has grown hugely in the past year, and Facebook is yet to figure out a way to successfully monetize those people accessing it on phones and tablets.

The end result is a platform with millions of users but a growing disillusionment among significant advertisers that there’s any hope of delivering targeted marketing messages to them. “One global consumer goods company told us recently that Facebook was getting worse, rather than better, at helping marketers succeed” Elliott writes. “And companies in industries from consumer electronics to financial services tell us they’re no longer sure Facebook is the best place to dedicate their social marketing budget – a shocking fact given the site’s dominance among users.”  According to insider talk, General Motor’s decision to pull its $10m Facebook advertising spend was because that money “had little impact on consumers” and the car company decided it was getting better value from maintaining free profile pages so as to engage with users instead. Even with as much as $16bn in the pipeline, whether Zuckerberg & Co. can turn things around remains to be seen. More