Opinion: Hooray! We can afford 4G after all!
A few months ago I wrote a piece asking: 'Can EE make 4G a success in Britain?' – the idea being that by being first to market, the brand created by fusing Orange and T-Mobile would gain the key association with next-generation speeds.
It's certainly made a strong fist of that through a huge marketing campaign; from lighting up Battersea Power Station to myriad adverts throughout Britain's cities the message was certainly prevalent, although some consumers still are only vaguely aware of new thing that offers faster mobile speeds, then baulk when they hear how much it will cost.
When EE announced its 4G prices, hearts collectively sank. Paying £56 a month for 8GB of data? Sure, you can pay the carrier less and have fewer bytes to play with, but if you're not going to do data-sapping activities like streaming movies and playing games on the go, what's the point in having 4G at all?
Consumers still aren't bothered about waiting 4 seconds rather than 2 to load a webpage. They're not going around playing online games yet, and the likes of NetFlix are still services mostly viewed in the home - so paying a huge amount extra at this early stage can be a hard sell. Make it cheap enough to use and people will find use cases.
Cheap at half the price
In the same piece, I also noted that "While we can't expect to pay rock-bottom rates for the faster speeds (it's not free to deploy 4G, obviously);" thankfully, that appears to have been incorrect according to the announcement from Three today. While it hasn't elaborated on its plans exactly, the news that it won't be charging a premium to use 4G is a massive boost to consumers that wanted to be on next-generation speeds but had that pesky issue of wanting to eat each month as well.
We're not proclaiming that Three's deal is going to be wonderful just yet – there's no mention of what data caps it might impose on 4G connections, where it's currently unlimited on a number of schemes – but it's certainly given prospective 4G users something huge to think about.
Will anyone wander into an EE shop to pick up a 4G phone when it can get the same at Three at a much lower cost, safe in the knowledge they will get the same speeds in a few months without a price hike?
Apples and Oranges/T-Mobiles
It's only fair to point out that we're not comparing like for like here: EE is offering something different to Three with its package. Yes, it is much more expensive as it stands, but users do get things like 'Clone Phone' to save their key data and free movies to stream on the go, as well as cinema tickets and the like from EE. The brand will likely push harder at these 'value add services' in the coming months too to help separate itself further. But ask most consumers which they'd rather have: a cheaper tariff or loads of freebies, and they'll probably opt for the former each time. They might ask about coverage as Three still struggles with the impression among a section of the public that it only serves a shed in the centre of London, but the network is promising to have 80% of the country covered by the time it spits out the new speeds, which should placate most. From a consumer perspective, it's almost unbelievable that a move like this has been made – most of us were conditioned to believe that we were just going to have to suck up the high prices for the improved connections, as that was the way it happened a decade ago with 3G, after all. But given some networks are already offering speeds of up to 85% that of 4G in some cases for '3G prices' it makes sense that it needn't cost more to go up to LTE speeds – so we're glad that someone came out and did it.
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Three shocks by announcing super-cheap 4G prices
The numerical network will be launching a 4G network later this year but, unlike EE, it won't cost any more to use.
Three bought the necessary spectrum to provide 4G (LTE) in 2012 from EE and will provide superfast connection speeds on the 1800MHz spectrum band 'in the second half of 2013'.
While EE has already launched its 4G network onto the UK public, it's faced criticism from consumers about the high price to get the speedy connectivity, costing over £60 per month in some cases.
In contrast, Three has pledged to add the 4G speeds, which will bring a speed boost to consumers – although it won't be a massive increase thanks to already bringing (theoretical) speeds of up to 40Mbps through its DC-HSPA network.
That technology is actually the key: Three has been touting its 'Ultrafast' network as bringing nearly 85% of the speeds offered by EE's 4G to stop consumers leaving in droves to get the next-generation connectivity.
Upping the stakes
And it will simply be adding 4G speeds to that network, which already covers 55% of the UK through over 50 towns and cities. By the time Three brings 4G to consumers later this year it has pledged to be able to give LTE speeds to at least 80% of the population. There's no word on whether the network will bring data caps, or whether it will continue with its offer of unlimited data on certain plans at 4G speeds with for no extra cash. ""As we add the next wave of technology to our Ultrafast network, we've listened to our customers and thought long and hard about the right way to do it," said Three's UK CEO, Dave Dyson. "We don't want to limit Ultrafast services to a select few based on a premium price and we've decided our customers will get this service as standard." Three has already got a number of handsets that will be able to use the new speeds when switched on, including the iPhone 5 and forthcoming Sony Xperia Z. It will also be bringing LTE-ready versions of the Samsung Galaxy S3 and Galaxy Note 2, as well as the BlackBerry Z10.
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Ofcom likely to free more 2G/3G airwaves for 4G use
Ofcom is expected to approve proposals from Vodafone and Three in the UK, which would allow them to use existing spectrum to offer 4G LTE services.
The networks want to follow EE's lead and convert some of the airwaves it is licensed to use for 2G and 3G services into super-fast 4G mobile internet.
The government's communications regulator is now holding a public consultation on the proposals until March 29, with a decision expected shortly thereafter.
A positive outcome would be a massive boost for the networks, who're desperately attempting to minimise the damage done by EE's lengthy headstart on the competition.
Mobile liberation
"This will meet a long-standing objective to liberalize all mobile licenses so that there are no regulatory barriers to the deployment of the latest available mobile technology," Ofcom said in a stamtent on Friday, indicating that a positive outcome is on the cards. If Ofcom does indeed approve the plans, it would enable Vodafone and Three to launch 4G contracts, perhaps before spectrum becomes available before the long-running auction saga comes to a close. Seven companies are currently vying for the radio airwaves required to run 4G services in the UK. The bidding process is expected to continue for the next couple of weeks. A quick resolution is vital for EE's rivals, given that the network was able to roll-out 4G connectivity to nine more UK cities, last week, bringing the total to 27.
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Video: Samsung finally backs-off Apple with new Super Bowl ad
Samsung's latest The Next Big Thing commercial will air during the Super Bowl, but the Apple fanboy-bashing we've seen in the past appears to have run its course.
Instead, the two-minute spot, which will go out to US audiences during the most expensive advertising slot of the year, features Hollywood jokesters Paul Rudd and Seth Rogen and an Apple-free experience.
The pair are hired by a marketeer, played by Bob Odenkirk (Breaking Bad's brilliant "Better Call Saul" Goodman), to brainstorm ideas for commercials promoting Samsung Galaxy products.
Rogen and Judd are eventually gazumped by Miami Heat basketball star LeBron James, who has recently featured in ads for the Samsung Galaxy Note phablets Stateside.
Is the war won?
The advertisement, which was released on Saturday ahead of its TV spot, is a marked departure from Samsung's previous attempts to shame those buying Apple devices. Previous 'Next Big Thing' commercials have made fun of Apple loyalists lining up outside of the company's stores waiting for new iOS devices, excited by the headphone jack moving from the top to the bottom of the iPhone 5 and spouting nonsense like "I could never get a Samsung, I'm creative." It was a phenomenally successful campaign in which Samsung somehow succeeded in making Apple seem uncool. However, perhaps the company's US marketeers believe that war is now won, with Samsung sitting pretty on top of the sales charts around the world? However, while the A-List-infused spot that'll air during the big game made no mention of Apple, the teaser released on Friday did appear to make a few subtle references to the company's legal struggles with Cupertino over the last couple of years. It's about time someone had a sense of humour over this...
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Apple iPhone 5 only seventh in January's UK best-seller list
Apple's iPhone 5 was only the seventh best-selling handset in the UK last month, according to new data from price comparison website uSwitch.
The Mobile Tracker Polls for January show that the Samsung Galaxy S3, the mid-range Samsung Galaxy Ace and the Samsung Galaxy S2 took the top spots, all outselling Apple's flagship handset.
In another surprising turn, Nokia's Symbian-based Nokia 100 and C2-01 were in fourth and fifth place, ahead of the Windows Phone-running Lumia 800 and 610 - which were eighth and ninth respectively.
LG's Google Nexus 4 phone also topped the iPhone by taking finishing sixth in overall sales, according to uSwitch.
Apple on the slide?
Although it's no surprise that the iPhone 5, third in the list when it launched in October, was apparently outsold by the all-conquering Galaxy S3 in January. However, seeing the iOS device so far down the list and being outsold by the 2-year-old Galaxy S2 and budget Nokia Symbian devices does come as a little bit of a shock. According to the data, the iPhone 4S has also experienced a big drop off in the last couple of months. Back in October, the handset was the second best seller in the UK and even in December it finished fifth. In January, it had fallen to tenth spot. "The UK's loyalty to brand Samsung is unwavering, but beyond that we've seen customers shaking-up the rankings, leaving Apple's 4S for dust in favour of offerings from LG and Nokia," said Ernest Doku, telecoms expert at uSwitch.
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Eric Schmidt labels China world's most 'prolific and sophisticated hacker'
Google's executive chairman Eric Schmidt has hit out at state-funded cyber-crime in in China, calling the country the world's most 'prolific and sophisticated hacker' of foreign companies.
In a new book, out this spring, Schmidt labelled the nation a 'menace' and accused it of taking an immoral path of "digital corporate espionage" en route to greater prosperity.
China is "the world's most active and enthusiastic filterer of information" wrote Schmidt and co-author Jared Cohen, a former US State Department employee, who know runs the Google Ideas thinktank.
Just this week, both The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal claimed they had fallen victim to hacks from China, believed to be seeking information on the papers' coverage of the country.
Beware of Huawei
In a review copy of The New Digital Age obtained by The Wall Street Journal, Schmidt and Cohen also warned of the dangers of state-backed Chinese tech companies spreading their influence in the West "Where Huawei gains market share, the influence and reach of China grow as well," the book said. The authors said this puts other nations at a disadvantage, because the likes of Apple, Microsoft and Google are not as ingrained with their government as their equivalents in China. He also called on Washington to align itself more closely with America's major tech companies. Schmidt and Cohen wrote: "The disparity between American and Chinese firms and their tactics will put both the government and the companies of the United States as a distinct disadvantage. "The United States will not take the same path of digital corporate espionage, as its laws are much stricter (and better enforced) and because illicit competition violates the American sense of fair play."Red revolution?
In a somewhat bolder prediction, the book also claims that the increasing presence of connected devices in the hands of citizens could result in serious civil unrest in China someday. "This mix of active citizens armed with technological devices and tight government control is exceptionally volatile." It may lead to "some kind of revolution in the coming decades," the authors wrote. The New Digital Age is out in April.
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Roundup: If you loved Monkey Island, you'll love these iOS adventure games
Despite dating back to the 1980s, adventure games were practically invented for the iPad (and iPhone, though the larger screen is better). Even with a mouse, games such as Monkey Island and Sam and Max were about poking and prodding your way through jokes, puzzles and brilliant dialogue. Now, you can do it with your finger.
As a very quick primer, adventure games are primarily about puzzles, exploration and solving problems with a mix of random junk in your pocket and the power of twisted, but hopefully logical, lateral thinking. To get past a guard, for instance, a true adventurer wouldn't pull a gun, but find a way to make the phone behind him ring as a distraction, or possibly put a cuckoo clock in front of the nearest fire alarm trigger to create an impromptu timer.
This is probably why you never see news reports about adventure gamers going crazy, though there are probably a few carefully protected behind padded walls even now.
The Secret of Monkey Island (£1.99, iPhone; £2.99, iPad) and its sequel, Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge (£1.99, iPhone; £2.99, iPad) are the most famous of all time, and not a bad place to jump in. They're the story of Guybrush Threepwood, a would-be pirate seeking his fortune in an oddly modern version of the Caribbean, with the second especially a classic of the genre. It's a world where swordfights are based on duelling insults, a good salesman can sell second-hand coffins, and a squirt of root beer can get rid of even the toughest ghost pirate.
These iOS versions feature beautiful updated art - though if you want the original pixels back, just swipe two fingers from right to left. Both games also now have full voice acting, and a built in hint system… which you will likely need. The first game isn't too tough, but the sequel has some tricky bits.
From there, it's worth checking out Monkey Island Tales (£1.99 per episode, iPhone; £2.99 per episode, iPad), made a couple of years ago by a different developer. Guybrush is now married to his love Elaine, and the world is three-dimensional. The comedy is just as good as before, though, with much more attention to characterisation, and a wonderful new addition in the shape of Morgan LeFlay - a pirate hunter with a not-so-secret crush on Guybrush. Until she actually meets him…
Broken Sword: Director's Cut (£1.99, iPhone; £1.99, iPad) is a more epic kind of adventure, but still with a sense of humour, that's also seen new life on iPad. You're George Stobbart, an American tourist who almost gets killed when a clown blows up the café you're sitting outside - yes, really - and you find yourself getting sucked into one of those classic historical mysteries involving the Knights Templar and European mythology. The funnier, but scrappier sequel, Broken Sword: The Smoking Mirror (£1.99, Universal) is also available on iOS.
From a slightly more obscure corner of the genre, King of Dragon Pass (£6.99, Universal) makes for an interesting change of pace. It's a mix of simulation and 'Choose Your Own Adventure', with your goal as King being to keep your people safe, well-fed and, if possible, happy. It's not for adventure purists, perhaps, but the heavy focus on storytelling over raw statistics makes it as close as any strategy game has ever gotten.
Finally, as far as the nostalgia side goes, you mustn't miss The Last Express (£2.99, Universal). Set on the Orient Express on the eve of World War I, you're a fugitive doctor who boards the train and immediately gets caught in a murderous mix of mistaken identities. It's a great - if slow-paced - game, notable primarily for running in real time. Much of the game is spent simply overhearing conversations in a variety of languages (not all of them subtitled) and figuring out their secrets before anyone manages to stop the train reaching Constantinople.
The genre didn't end in the mid-'90s, though - despite a few claims otherwise - and some of the best iOS adventures are much more recent. HECTOR: Badge of Carnage (£2.99 per episode, iPhone; £4.99 per episode, iPad) isn't for the squeamish, the prudish, the under 18s (translation: under 18s whose parents see the iPad) or the easily offended, but it's still superb. It's like Bottom as an adventure game, or if a British Peter Griffin ever became a cop. Staggeringly cruel but blisteringly funny, it's just a shame each episode is pricey compared to other episodic games.
HECTOR still relies on old-school design though, and there's more to the genre than that. Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective (Free, Universal) is a superb mix of adventure and puzzle game, in which you are a disembodied spirit with a single night to figure out the reason for your death. Quirky, and very, very Japanese in style, it'd be worth taking a gamble on… but you don't have to. The first two chapters are free, and offer a great introduction. The rest of the game is unlockable for £6.99.
For a more arty kind of adventure, Machinarium (£2.99, iPad) is tough to beat. It's another point-and-click conversion, but entirely focussed on in-world logic puzzles and experimentation. There's no dialogue at all, just gorgeous 2D animation that breathes incredible life into the all-robot cast, and tasks you with learning the rules of their mechanical city as you go along.
Finally, it's absolutely worth trying an episodic series that was still underway at the time of writing, but has already established itself as one of the best adventures in recent memory - Walking Dead: The Game (£2.99 per episode, Universal). Based on the hit zombie comic books and TV show of the same name, but with its own story, it's a tough game to describe. There are puzzles, and action sections that demand quick events (though little actual dexterity), but it's primarily a series about character and making decisions.
Who among your band of starving survivors most deserves your last scraps of food? Should you keep it a secret that your character is a convicted murderer? Do you avoid swearing in front of the little girl you've become a father figure to? It's a game that forces you to make hard choices, with those decisions being carried between episodes to savour the delicious regret over the whole tale.
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Tutorial: Do more with graphics: power up with GPGPU
The GPGPU revolution is more like a slow spin.
If you're an average home user, what has GPGPU ever done for you other than provide another bullet point on a graphics card manufacturer's box?
The truth is that professional high-performance computing offered via GPGPU is big business. Around a quarter of Nvidia's $1 billion turnover comes from 'professional' services, if you know what we mean. And we mean super computing. For specific applications – often 3D rendering and scientific modelling – GPGPU networked render farms provide a cost effective way of delivering massive computational power.
In days gone by, if you wanted teraflops of processing power you'd trundle over to the likes of IBM or Cray with your cheque book open, and let it get on with designing bespoke supercomputer systems with cryogenic cooling. Today, off-the-shelf components can do the same work thanks to bespoke software solutions.
All this hard development work eventually trickles down to the lowly individual users like you and me.
The bad news, depending on your outlook, is that even after being trickled, GPGPU tools all tend to be heavily maths biased. Great if you love maths, but who does?
Do the maths
Maths isn't a bad thing; ultimately 3D games are maths in the form of matrix transformations. It's just that any GPGPU functions need to work on a similar level. This limits applications until conditional branching becomes mainstream, which is happening, but slowly. From the other direction, most GPGPU programs support all cards. With the exception of dedicated Nvidia CUDA builds, the main difference is the amount of work the card is capable of, and so its ultimate top speed. In some cases it's quite possible that an older graphics card could be out- performed by a more modern processor, even though our tests with encoding still saw a relatively poor Nvidia 6600 GT doing relatively well.
So what programs can you hunt down that will take advantage of your lazy, good-for-nothing GPU shaders? Well, to start, WinZip offers OpenCL acceleration for compressing and decompressing files with a 20-30 per cent increase in speed.
One of the original uses, and one that remains strong, is cracking encryption and passwords. Have a look at CRARk. A clever play on Crack RAR, this unfriendly- looking command line program is in fact a hardcore RAR password cracker, which uses GPGPU to increase attack speeds 20-fold. Using its benchmark mode, password checks jumped from 283 per second to 4,281 per second. We doubt it'll be particularly useful, but it's a real example of what can be achieved. If you want something slightly easier to use, try Parallel Recovery.
Another oldie but goodie is Folding@Home. This was – and still is – one of the best known applications of GPGPU, which was made extra famous by taking advantage of the PlayStation 3 Cell processor. Equally clever is the distributed modelling system that hands out work tasks to individual systems. However, despite its cleverness and the fact that it could be helping humanity advance, Folding@Home doesn't actually do anything practical.
Practical uses
The first truly useful program is Musemage, an image processor written from the ground up around GPGPU acceleration. This makes it lightning-fast, and enables it to apply filters, effects and image manipulations in real time. It's an impressively swift package, and it's interesting how a little load on the GPU makes for a huge gain in program performance. For example, adjusting blur levels adds just a 5 per cent GPGPU load. The same thing is coming to GIMP via a technology called GEGL, but this isn't due to be fully implemented until version 2.10. There was talk of it being partially implemented on certain filters for 2.8 RC1, but that seems to be unavailable for now. The big guns are also turning their attention to GPGPU acceleration. Adobe has already rolled out Photoshop and Premier, while Sony offers its Vegas Movie Studio 11. A host of encoding tools also take full advantage of GPGPU. Freemake boasts video encoding that leverages CUDA and DXVA, but CyberLink Media Espresso is excellent too. Finally, you can give 3D rendering a speed boost, using the powerful (but free) Blender and LuxRender combo. Even with GPGPU acceleration, ray-tracing remains an arduous task, but the results can be worth it. One issue with rendering is that not all operations can be supported by pure GPGPU calculations. Memory access for the GPU remains an issue, and sometimes means that the CPU ends up holding the GPU through many operations.GPGPU encoding
If you have an old or slow CPU, your GPU can cut encode times:
Freemake
Available (as the name suggests) for free, Freemake Video Converter uses CUDA and general hardware acceleration via DXVA. When you install it, remember to deselect all the adware bundled with it. There's quite the lot in there. Hardware acceleration is enabled by default, so all you need to do is load up a suitable video file ready for converting.
Set and go
Now you just need to drag your video to the interface and select one of the preset options that run along the bottom of the window. We're going to encode our own custom video for an Android tablet, so we chose the 'MP4 > Add your preset' option to give us custom options across the board. Start by setting the resolution to that of the device, such as 1,280 x 720 or 800 x 480.
Damn you Intel
The issue for GPGPU encoding in the modern world is that Intel came along with its Quick Sync technology. That's dedicated hardware for encoding media right on the processor. Offloading to the GPU when there's something on the processor makes no sense and isn't as fast, so if you're running an Intel Sandy Bridge Core processor or later, this will be the best option.
Blend it like Blender
GPGPU acceleration for the über-powerful but free renderer:
Downloads away
For our project we're using the 64-bit version of Blender. The GPGPU-accelerated 64-bit LuxRender is available too. You should also install the 64-bit version of Microsoft Visual C++ 2008, or the 32-bit version.
Fine blending
We're not going to look at Blender in any detail – you could write a whole book about just configuring its interface. We need to add LuxBlend as an external rendering plug-in. Click the 'File > User preferences' menu. Select the 'Addons' tab, then click the bottom 'Install addon' button and find the LuxBlendXX_64bit.zip file in the Program Files/LuxBlend Install directory. Select this and click "Install".
The Luxor
This installs the plug-in that enables Blender to send render jobs to LuxRend, but we need to enable it before it will work. First, in the 'User preferences > Add ons' tab, select the render categories on the left and check the 'Render: LuxRender' tick box. It can take a few seconds to register. Select the 'System' tab, and over in the bottom left select 'OpenCL'. Save as 'Defaults'.
Set Blender
From the top Info bar, open the central pull-down menu that lists the available render engines and select 'LuxRender'. Over on the right, a number of interface menus will change. Open the 'Render' tab and set the Path to point to where LuxRender has been install within Program Files. Scroll down and find 'LuxRender render settings'. Under 'Rendering mode' select 'Hybrid path'.
Engage with GPGPU
Make sure 'Use GPUs' is selected. The bar below will enable you to select the OpenCL device to use if you have more than one graphics card or an OpenCL capable processor installed. At this point you can scroll back up and click the 'Render' button. All being well, LuxRender will open and render the slowest cube you've ever seen.
Away you go
You're now ready for a bit of GPGPU-accelerated rendering. Blender is a complex beast, but LuxRender offers a beginner's tutorial that's well worth trying. Your first job will be simply getting used to its complex interface. Our top survival trick is holding [Ctrl] and clicking the corner anchors to drag panels around.
Get more from GPU
Tasty tools for testing and teasing your GPGPU:
Caps Viewer
Caps Viewer is very handy when you're playing with GPGPU. It's not essential, but if you're trying to tune or compare systems and software running GPGPU accelerated software, it has a host of information and tests you'll want to use. The opening tab provides a current GPU load and temperatures, with benchmarks available at the bottom.
Smallpt GPU
Smallpt GPU is more of historic interest, but still stands as a valid GPGPU performance test. Smallpt GPU was the original test software to validate GPGPU as a way to accelerate ray tracing work. It sits alongside the CPU-only version Smallpt CPU. It's based on the Cornell scene – a single room containing balls, to which you can add various lighting and environmental effects.
LuxMark
The final validation of LuxRender appeared as LuxMark, a usable GPGPU benchmark test that was designed to see how well the rendering system worked over different OpenCL and CUDA systems. It enabled the team to collate a lot of real-world testing andprovide a useful benchmark for people to test their GPGPU speeds.
Fragmentarium
Finally, let's have a but of fractal fun. Fragmentarium is an interesting 3D fractal explorer that makes full use of your GPGPU to render some impressive 3D fractals. Fire it up and select 'Octobulb' from the right-hand drop-down menu, then click the 'Apply' button to see it in action. It's a wee bit complex, but it's worth the time playing around with for some stunning images.
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Tutorial: Master Facebook on iOS: the complete guide
One billion users can't be wrong.
A seventh of the world's population is connected by a single website – one that's existed for less than a decade - and that number is expected to double in the next five years. Facebook, like it or not, is ubiquitous.
If you're not connected - if you're not part of it - then you'll miss out on crucial social interactions. Parties will pass you by. Birthdays will come and go. You'll have no idea that one friend in particular had some spectacular meatballs for tea last night, and you won't be able to tag a snap of your cheese on toast for your chums to see in return. What would life be without connectivity like that?
Facebook does everything it can to make sure everyone gets access to its service. In developing countries in Africa, for example, owners of basic mobile phones can connect to the service using Facebook Zero, a no-frills, no-graphics WAP version that doesn't incur data charges.
As company co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg pours his efforts into expansion in Asia and South America, Facebook looks set to cement its position as a true worldwide phenomenon.
On your iOS device, Facebook really comes alive. You can take a picture and post it online in seconds, keep up with conversations using Push messages, and manage pages and groups; everyone's experience is different, but you should be able to do everything crucial through the iOS apps without straying towards the web interface any more than is strictly necessary.
Let's explore Facebook on iOS, see what we can and can't do, and find out how you can be more connected than ever before thanks to your Apple device.
Interface guide
You can't abandon the core web interface altogether, though. Facebook's iOS incarnations miss a few features that very occasionally necessitate the odd trip into Safari, like sharing and managing friends lists.
All in all though, the app is a 95% complete Facebook experience, and one you'll come to enjoy more than the web based version because of its sheer speed and portability. Here's where everything is. We hope you enjoy your stay.
1. Status
Here you can give everyone a quick update, telling them something you've been up to, something you've seen, or even how you're feeling - but we'd lay off the emotional stuff if we were you. Part of using Facebook is not irritating your friends. At the bottom of the compose screen you'll see icons that let you tag people you're with, add your location, attach a photo, and say who can see your post.2. Friend Requests
If someone has sought you out and asked to be your friend, you'll see their request here and you can either confirm it or say 'Not now' to politely and invisibly decline it. Scroll down a little and you'll see Facebook's suggestions of people you might know. Tap their picture to see a bit more about them, as some people use pseudonyms on Facebook (although, technically, you're not supposed to).3. Messages
It's possible to exchange private messages with people on Facebook. If someone has sent you a new missive, you'll find it here, and you can send a reply by typing in the box at the bottom. You can also start a new conversation with someone by tapping the pencil icon and typing the recipient's name; a list of possible matches will pop up, so you can pick exactly the right one.4. Notifications
Has someone said something public about you, mentioned you in a status update, or maybe tagged you in a photograph? You'll find out about it here. This is also where event invitations and replies to posts you've commented on will appear. The notifications icon will most likely be your most active one, and tapping an entry will take you to the picture or update it's referring to.5. Check In
Part of Facebook's appeal is the ability to keep your friends abreast of your actions. If you find yourself somewhere particularly interesting or brag-worthy, the Check In feature will use Location Services to determine your position. You can then post what amounts to a quick status update - with an interactive location - and tag the people who are with you. If you have Location Services switched off, you won't be able to use Check In.6. Photo
Although you can add a photo to any status update by tapping the appropriate icon at the appropriate time, this is the quickest way to get a photo - or even a video - online. Just type a caption, then either choose a shot from your photo library or take a new picture with your device's built-in camera.7. News Feed
This is the core of Facebook - it's the bit where you can find out what everyone else is doing. As people add status updates, they'll show up in your News Feed, although Facebook uses some strange algorithm to determine exactly what you'll see, so tapping a person's name to see their profile is the best way to ensure you get all the latest news. The top line below your friend's name says how long ago they posted their update, and the small symbol to the right of this indicates how many people could potentially have seen it - from a globe, representing the fact that the update was broadcast to the world, to a lock, which means the post was so private only its writer could see it. You'll only see this on your own private posts, obviously. You can Like posts from here - basically registering your interest, if nothing else - and add your own thoughts by choosing the 'Comment' link. Tap a photo to see it full screen, and tap 'Play' on video icons to activate them. The News Feed also includes updates from pages you've liked, so you can keep up with products and services as well as people.
1. Search
Need to find something? It won't come as a desperate shock to learn that the search bar is where you do it. But this isn't restricted just to poking around your friends list; you can type all sorts of things into the search bar to find related groups and pages. Like a particular TV show? Type its name, and you should find an appropriate connection. You could even try typing the name of your hobbies to find other people who share your interests. Perhaps you'll make an international connection?2. Favorites
When you're navigating through the Facebook interface, you'll find yourself coming back to the News Feed with great regularity. It's at the top of the Favorites list. Below it is Messages, which takes you to the same message list you'd find by tapping the speech bubble at the top of the main page. The Nearby page really isn't a lot of use unless your friends check in (or post with their location) often, because it's a list of the most recent global tags. Ostensibly it lets you seek out friends that are in the local area, but that does seem a little creepy. The Events list covers, yes, events. If you've been invited to something, you'll find it here. There's a not-so useful 'past' tab that enables you to see events that have already happened, and a birthdays tab that ensures you'll be the best friend ever.3. Pages
You might not see this section, since it only appears if you've set up a page about a topic or product, or are an administrator of one. Basically, it offers a quick jump to your page so you can see exactly what's going on. Page administration isn't particularly hot on iOS, at least within the official app.4. Friends
This is particularly useful if you've been a little promiscuous with your Facebook friendships. By categorising your chums into groups, you can avoid pointless status updates about cats from people you don't really know, and get right to the meat: pointless status updates about cats from people you know well.5. Groups
Groups are sort of like pages, with a different focus. The main difference between them for our purposes is that you'll see groups on your sidebar if you've joined (or been forcibly added to) one. If you've joined a lot of groups, the list will be compressed - tap the 'Groups' header to see all of them at once.6. Apps
You can manage your installed apps from this section, but you won't be able to do an awful lot with most of them; this feels like a concession to the browser-based Facebook more than anything. The App Center, linked at the top, gives you a big list of apps that you might be interested in, but most of these are iOS apps that include a Facebook login as part of their functionality, rather than native Facebook apps - although many have desktop equivalents, so you'll be able to play Facebook users from your iOS device.7. Settings
The most important thing you'll find in Settings is the Notifications page, in which you can customise exactly which Push and email notifications you get about happenings on your Facebook timeline. Just toggle the check boxes to switch an event on or off.
1. Profile picture
Your profile picture is the face you show the world. It's attached to everything you post on Facebook, and it's what your friends will see in their timeline. It's up to you what you set as your profile picture - many people use pictures of cats or babies instead of their own visage, but we implore you to enter into the spirit of Facebook and use your mug. It's about faces, after all.2. Cover photo
It doesn't appear on the iPad version, but Facebook's Timeline view incorporates a cover photo. This is a wide, impressive image you place at the top of your page to dress it up. Choose something that sums you up, or just a nice picture that interacts well with your profile pic - it's up to you. Friends will only see this if they tap on your profile.3. Timeline
Every action you make on Facebook is recorded, and displayed in the Timeline view on your page. This can include life milestones (which you'll need to use the desktop app to create), event confirmations, and pictures and posts you've been tagged in. You'll also see an alert here if someone has tried to add a relationship with you - spouse, colleague and the like - so you can confirm or deny the association.What you need to know if you've never used Facebook before
It's quite possible that you've managed to avoid Facebook so far. We certainly spent quite a long time trying to steer clear of its distractions, but eventually everyone feels the pull - whether it's to keep an eye on relatives, promote your personal achievements, or just feel like part of a friendship group that might not be able to meet up regularly.
Getting up and running is quick and easy, and you'll be connected and communicating with people you know in minutes.
Get the app
Make sure your device is connected to a network that will allow downloads; we'd recommend a Wi-Fi connection. Open the App Store, tap 'Search' and then write 'Facebook' in the search box. Older versions of iOS might not have a search button - just tap 'Categories' and search from there if that's the case. Tap 'Install' and you should be away.Sign up
Once the Facebook app has appeared on your home screen, open it up and you'll be invited to log in with an existing Facebook login. If you've never used Facebook before, look for the 'Sign up' button. This will take you to the web interface, where you can get registered. When you've finished creating your account, go back to the app, enter your new username and password, and tap 'Log in' to complete the process.
Find friends
Swipe in from the left on the iPad, or tap the top left button on iPhone, and scroll until you come across the 'Find friends' link. Type the name of someone you know in real life into the box at the top, then tap 'Search' to hunt Facebook's database for likely candidates.
This is where the profile picture comes in useful - hopefully you'll find the right person amongst Facebook's billion users. Tap the icon on the right of the person to send them a friend request; once they've replied, you'll be confirmed as friends, and can communicate freely.
Post a status update
Tell the world what you've been doing with a status update. This is a short message that (usually) comments on something that you've recently participated in, seen, or otherwise formed an opinion on. There are two ways to make a new one; tap either the 'Status' button on the main news feed, or the 'Status' button on your profile page. Write a bit about your actions, and then tap 'Post' to send the message out.
Like and comment
Your friends will make status updates of their own, which you can see in your News Feed. If you like something they've posted, tap 'Like' to send them notice of your approval. You're not actively required to Like anything, though, so don't feel obliged (although your group's social etiquette might overwrite this, and not Liking a picture of a friend's baby might be taken as an insult). You can also tap Comment to leave a note on a friend's status update.
Set a profile picture
If you want your friends to be able to find you, you'll need to set your profile picture. Start by making a photo post; you can use any image from your photo library (tap 'Choose from library'), or take a new photo at the time of posting (tap 'Take photo or video'). Once you've posted the photo to your timeline, tap it to open it full screen, then tap and hold to find the 'Make profile picture' option.
Got the basics? Now it's time to Take Facebook further
You can get away with using Facebook in a very minimal fashion. Once you've found a few friends, you can even get away with lurking - that is, reading other people's posts but never adding any interaction of your own. But there's a lot more to it, and it's not particularly difficult to get to grips with some of Facebook's more complicated features. Follow these tips and you'll be more connected, more informed, and able to offer your friends a lot more.Get direct notifications
Sitting there refreshing Facebook all day is symptomatic of something, we're sure. It's much more efficient to let Facebook come to you: when you're mentioned or messaged, you'll get a red notification at the top of your news feed. Open the Account Settings screen at the bottom of the side panel, select 'Notifications', and ensure that everything is ticked if you want to receive Push alerts any time something significant happens. You can also choose to get emails to your registered email address when minutely specific things occur on Facebook. Tap Email Notifications at the bottom of the page, and then burrow further to find exactly what you can choose to trigger an email.Post photos and videos
Facebook is a great way to organise your memories online. If your device allows it, you can use the 'Photo' button - or tap the camera at the bottom of a standard status update - to send a photo or even a video to Facebook, either recorded live or taken from your photo library.
Obviously this will all hinge on your current network connection. If you're not hooked up to Wi-Fi, we'd advise against trying to upload a video or full-resolution photo, as they tend to be quite large.
Check in
Gone to see the Queen? Tell your Facebook pals with a Check In. This feature requires Location Services, the suite of tricks your device uses to know where it is, to be switched on. You can find Location Services in the Privacy section of the main iPhone Settings app. Make sure it's activated for Facebook.
Sort your feed
The main News Feed, by default, tends to skip a few stories in favour of what Facebook's algorithms deem most important. This is usually fine, but sometimes it pays to see your feed from the other direction. Tap the 'Sort' button in the top right corner and you can pick between what's most relevant and what's most recent. You might be surprised at what you're missing.
Join a group or page
It couldn't be easier to connect to people with similar interests. Bring up the sidebar, tap in the search box, and hunt for something you like. Perhaps you'll type the name of your favourite iOS magazine. Yes, do that. Then look through the list to find the entry you want, tap it to bring up its profile and - in the case of a page - tap 'Like' to essentially subscribe to that topic. Future updates will appear in your timeline.
In the case of a group, you'll need to join or be made a member. If it's an open group, just tap 'Join group' to get in.
Add an app
Apps don't work the same way as they do on the desktop. There's no way of running an embedded game or gadget directly within Facebook on iOS, but almost every Facebook-supporting item in the App Store will interact with Facebook apps on the desktop, so you can keep up with your friends on the go.
Look for 'App Center' in the sidebar and tap it to see a list of games and apps that your friends use (under Social Picks) or a list of Facebook's most popular (under Top Apps). Tap one to see more information, then tap the 'Play' button to head over to the Apple App Store and download your new toy. When you run it, you'll need to log in with your standard Facebook credentials.
Get the most out of Facebook with our Tips and tricks for addicts!
If you take Facebook a step or two further, you'll find valuable features that many people don't know about, which you can use to stay more connected, find obscure friends, or even keep your profile hidden from strangers.
That last one's quite important, particularly if you post a lot of photos - do you really want your family to be seen by people you don't know?
Fill out your profile
Open your profile by tapping your name in the sidebar, then (on an iPad) tap 'Info' to see what details you've already registered. On an iPhone you'll need to log in to the Facebook site in Safari and switch to the desktop version, then tap 'Update info' on your profile page. You can edit or add information to a field by tapping on its name. This includes everything from registering your birthday to defining family members. If you want to clear some information, tap it, then select 'Delete'. You can add as much or as little about yourself as you like, then determine who can see what later on.Set your privacy
Bring up the sidebar and select 'Privacy and terms' to tweak the visibility of your profile. Start by setting your default privacy level; we'd recommend using 'Friends' so your posts are only visible to those with whom you've exchanged friend requests. You could choose 'Custom' and share your posts with friends of friends - it might be a good way for potential friends to identify you - but there's rarely any reason to choose 'Public'.
Now tap 'Edit settings' under 'How you connect' to determine how you can be found. Friends of friends is a good level, but leaving friend requests public is fine - you don't have to accept them all. The Sharing page lets you control what personal information goes where. The Timeline and Tagging section includes a useful setting that lets you review items you're tagged in before they appear on your timeline. We recommend switching this on to avoid potential embarrassment.
Set your security
Protecting your account is important. It's not just a case of controlling who can see what; it's also essential that you can get back in if you need to. Go to 'Account settings' from the sidebar, choose 'Security settings', and set a security question so you can log in again if you forget your password.
Be careful, though - easily discovered answers (first pet, mother's maiden name) could leave your account less secure than before. Secure browsing ensures that Facebook traffic is sent over https rather than straight http, adding an extra layer of security, and you can switch on email notifications to alert you if someone else logs in as you.
Get texts
Sometimes you'll stray out of the reach of mobile data, but if you still have a phone signal and have set your SMS-capable device to use text messaging, you'll be able to receive notifications of messages and mentions. You can also update your status by sending a text message to a specific number.
It's not the ideal way to use Facebook, but it's great in a pinch. It gets around restrictive mobile data allowances, too.
Manage friends lists
When you post a status update, you can choose who sees it. This includes selections for acquaintances, close friends and family. You can see the same lists within the Friends section of the sidebar, but you can't assign someone to one of these lists without signing in to the full web-based version of Facebook.
You can do this by logging in to Facebook using Safari; if you're directed to the mobile version by default, just search for the link on the left to bring up the desktop version. Find the list you want to tweak in the sidebar on the left - you might need to select 'More' to see it.
Tap it to open it, choose 'Manage list' at the top right, and then tap 'Edit list' to add people to each category. Then, when you're making status updates within the standard iOS app, just tap the bottom right icon and select the list you want to post to.
Get more Facebook features with Other apps
Facebook Messenger
The desktop version of Facebook rather enthusiastically pushes its chat feature, which is actually quite useful to exchange a quick message or two between you and your online buddies. On iOS, there's a dedicated Facebook Messenger app. It's inoffensive. It does what you'd think it would do. If you're a big fan of Facebook's desktop chat, it's the perfect way to stay connected to that network.
We'd probably go for a more exclusive chat client, though; some friends, particularly obscure vague ones, love to start Facebook conversations at the most inopportune times.
Facebook Pages Manager
Do you look after a page on Facebook for a product or company? If so, you need Pages Manager. It's the main thing that Facebook left out of the stock iOS app.
With Pages Manager on your side, you can track your page stats, add updates and posts, respond to comments in your page's voice, and even do more advanced things like creating Facebook Offers. Of course, if you don't have a page to look after, Pages Manager won't be something you need, but it's there and free if you need it.
Facebook Camera
We know you. We've seen you. Or, more accurately, we've seen what you see, because you're constantly posting photos to your wall. Wouldn't it be nice to drop a couple of the steps from the photo posting process?
Facebook Camera is just one of a host of camera apps which can upload directly to your Facebook account, but it has the advantage of being official and free. It also hosts a bunch of neat filters to break up the monotony, and has quick-fix features which should ensure all of your pics are tip top quality. And because it saves to your photo library, it's a true alternative to the standard iOS camera app. Give it a try; it's free after all.
Facebook Camera is best for raw, real images, even though it's full of filters of its own; Instagram, which is owned by Facebook, is great for adding a bit more grit to proceedings. You can make the things you capture look extra dirty with your choice of classic filters, ranging from retro camera film to, er, a different kind of retro camera film. It's perfect if you're constantly taking what would otherwise be quite bland pictures, and want to jazz them up.
Instagram isn't to everyone's tastes, and we wouldn't advocate overusing it, but it's a nice way to add some visual variety to your photo output.
Sync.ME for Facebook
We wouldn't necessarily go along with the developer's claim that this app is 'magic', but it is rather neat. Basically it wades in to your device's contact book, finds friends who are also among your Facebook contacts, and updates their local information to match that which they've shared online. You might need to do a little manual configuration, but it's very easy to use.
Once everything is hooked up, it'll also add your friends' birthdays to your calendar. It's a little invasive, tweaking your contact list to include its own VOIP service, but since that lets you get cheap calls over a data connection, we'll let it pass.
Do & don't: Keep up to speed on Facebook decorum
There's a certain amount of etiquette required when you're using social services like Facebook. Fall foul of the generally observed (but usually unspoken) rules and you'll be blocked by your peers pretty quickly. Here's how to stay in everyone's good books.Be nice
Use Facebook to keep in touch with family and friends, and keep them up to date with good news they might otherwise miss out on. Tell them about your kids, tell them about your pets, tell them about the delicious dinner you just had. Keep the tone bright, happy and sensible. Use Facebook as if it were an advert for how brilliant you truly are.Don't be miserable
Don't moan, whine or bitch. Don't start arguments, don't drone on and on about how pathetic your life is, and don't constantly go to Facebook looking for sympathy or help. While your friends might appear receptive, it's likely they're not. They're probably very annoyed. Let's all work together to make Facebook a nice place, eh?Be careful
Lock down your account and make it as secure as you possibly can. Facebook is the perfect place to post loads of personal information - just the kind of stuff that could get your financial details (or even your whole identity) stolen.Don't be careless
Never leave your phone on the table in the pub if you haven't locked it with a PIN code. Intoxicated people find nothing more hilarious than opening up Facebook and writing stupid or incriminating things about the sap whose phone has been left open. Make sure this isn't you.Share freely
Post links to interesting videos or sites you've found on the web. It's great to share these things with your friends. Don't worry if they've already seen them; as with most viral content, if you've seen it once, scrolling past it a second time is no big deal. Remember to Like posts that entertain you, too; this improves their likelihood of showing up in Facebook's 'most relevant' list.Don't steal wilfully
Sharing isn't available on the iOS version (you'll have to go through the web to do that), but copying and pasting other people's posts is very poor etiquette. Like them, and mutual friends will get a better chance to see them. It's the nice thing to do.Jargon Buster
It's the little things that matter. Learn about them Facebook is full of complex terminology, but it's mostly straightforward...Location Services
Your iPhone can tell where it is based on nearby Wi-Fi networks and mobile phone masts, and by using GPS, but you can turn it off for privacy, or to give your battery a little more juice.Sharing
The web version of Facebook includes a function that allows you to point your friends to posts made by other people who might not be on their friends list. At the time of going to press, it's not included in the iOS versions, but we assume it's coming soon.Profile
A profile is Facebook's collection of your personal information. It can be used by potential friends to seek you out, or by Facebook to target advertising directly at you. It doesn't share your specific details with advertisers, but they can use them to build up an idea of what you might like.Wall / Timeline
The wall was Facebook's first big innovation. Basically a message board, it gave you an place to scrawl your thoughts, and other people could come along and do the same. This has morphed into the Timeline; your page will still have a 'wall' type area on which friends can write messages for everyone to see, but it mostly consists of your status updates, events and milestones.Pages / Groups
Pages are like profiles, but for businesses or products. If you've got something to promote, a page is the best way to do it - you won't fill your own timeline with advertisements, and your page is open for anyone to see. Hopefully your personal profile won't be. Groups are essentially discussion groups - think of them like book clubs.Like
Got nothing to say? Want to give a post some props? The 'Like' button is for you. It's analogous to the Facebook 'poke', in a way: an action you can take to tell a person you've noticed them, without the explicit requirement for words. A like can have the side effect of telling people on your timeline that you've liked something, but it doesn't always.
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Path hit with FTC fine, finds itself in a geotag muck up
Path is billed as a social networking app that allows you to remember all of life's moments, but this is one day that the company may want to erase from its timeline.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Path announced today that the entities reached a settlement over the company's unauthorized collection of address book information on mobile devices.
The social networking start-up must establish a comprehensive privacy program and obtain independent privacy assessments every other year for the next 20 years.
Path also has to throw a little bit of money into the federal pot. It will pay $800,000 in civil penalties for not rejecting new members who were under the age of 13.
FTC, Path issue statements
Outgoing FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz made sure to highlight this settlement as a victory for privacy-threatened consumers in the United States. "This settlement with Path shows that no matter what new technologies emerge, the agency will continue to safeguard the privacy of Americans," said the resigning chairman in a press release. "The FTC has been vigilant in responding to a long list of threats to consumer privacy, whether it's mortgage applications thrown into open trash dumpsters, kids information culled by music fan websites, or unencrypted credit card information left vulnerable to hackers." Path, meanwhile, chalked this up to a learning experience. "From a developer's perspective, we understand the tendency to focus all attention on the process of building amazing new things," the company said in a blog post addressing its Children's Online Privacy Protections Act violations. "It wasn't until we gave our account verification system a second look that we realized there was a problem. We hope our experience can help others as a reminder to be cautious and diligent." Path's blog post, curiously, didn't comment on its harvesting of users' address book data.More Path privacy concerns
Path may need another "cautious and diligent" reminder, as the company's iOS app can still give away a user's location information without obtaining permission. "Path's iOS app (yes, that same Path that was caught stealing users' entire address books last February) will use the embedded EXIF tag location information from photos," discovered self-described hacker and security researcher Jeffrey Paul. This exploit happens when iOS Camera Roll photos are geotagged to Path posts, even when Location Services are disabled for the Path application. Paul told TechRadar that he doesn't know if the issue also affects Android users, as he doesn't use the app on devices running Google's mobile operating system. In a response to Paul's blog post, Path Product Manager Dylan Casey said that the company was unaware of the issue and has implemented new code to ignore the EXIF tag location. A new version of the app has been submitted to the App Store for approval, according to Casey, who noted that "this only affected photos taken with the Apple Camera and imported into Path."
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Even Apple has its firsts: now No. 1 phone maker in US
It's a bit of a given at this point that Apple's iPhones are a popular choice in the U.S., especially given the staggering number that have been sold over the past few months.
That said, Samsung has been largely unchallenged as the number one phone company since 2008, with an estimated 63 million sold during the final three months of 2012 alone.
It's impressive then to learn Apple actually supplanted Samsung as the number one phone maker in the U.S. during that time frame, marking it as the first such occurrence in the company's history.
Though Apple still can't quite grasp Samsung's overall total, securing an entire country over a chief rival is surely a nice way to start the new year.
Apple's piece of the pie
Apple is estimated to have shipped 17.7 million iPhones in the U.S. during the fourth quarter, which was a nearly 10 percent jump from 2011's 12.8 million. Conversely, Samsung was able to ship 16.8 million smartphones in that same period, which was almost 6 percent better than it performed in 2011. Those massive numbers gave Apple (34 percent) and Samsung (32.3 percent) the lion's share of the mobile market during the fourth quarter. For comparison, LG, the third place manufacturer, was able to ship 4.7 million phones in the U.S., and captured 12.3 percent of the market. All of the other mobile companies combined couldn't even manage to grasp a full quarter of the market during Q4.Heavy is the head
Apple will have its work cut out for it if the company hopes to keep the crown it earned in the U.S. in those waning moments of 2012. Samsung is expected to reveal a Galaxy S4, which for all intents and purposes, could outpace the insanely popular Galaxy S3 in overall sales. Rumors of Apple's iPhone 5S have been persistent as well, but with new competition from Sony in the Xperia Z and Motorola's possible X Phone, the race for the belt will be tougher than ever. For now though, Apple can lay claim to being the first to slay the Samsung dragon, even if it was just for a short while.
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