Amazon and Facebook to offer shopping recommendations.

With 500 millions members, it is becoming increasingly difficile to find someone that he or she is not on Facebook. The fact that the social networking site has became such a central hub for so many people, makes it a natural place to turn to for more than just connecting. Now Facebook is trying to use all the wealth of information that it has about its users to be even more relevant.
The recent announcement of a shopping recommendation service in a partnership with between Facebook and Amazon, reinforce that approach.
The service is deigned so that a friend on Facebook looking for a gift for another Facebook friend, can get recommendation from Amazon based on that person profile in the social site. The service will be able to access users' accounts and look at their profiles to get a clue of their favorite movies, music, books and others interests.
It is in testing mode and users can only joint in by opting-in. To do so, they will have to go to Amazon's recommendations page and click on the Sign in and Connect button under "Tap into your Facebook Network." From there, they will connect to their Facebook page after their Amazon credentials are verified.

For more, see cnet.com

Family Tracker app for iPhone allows to keep track of iPhone users.

The new Apple iPhone 4 has been making the news lately because of problems with its antenna resulting in dropped calls and frustration from users. But that did not stop apps developers to go full speed ahead and produce apps suited to the new phone. One of those apps is the Family Tracker that when installed on the phone, and turned on, allows to the person in need to know all the times the whereabouts of the actual phone's user, to be able to do just that.
The app runs unseemly in the background and checks on the phone location via its GPS and uploads the findings to the Family Tracker's servers. From there, the person who signs up for the service-generally the with with the need to track the user-, can log in to the service's Web site or from their own iPhone to have an idea to where the phone is actually located. It goes without saying that the person being tracked has to give his or her consent and be willing to keep the service running in the background for it to wrk.
The app has even a "ping" function that allow for push notification which is a way for the person doing the tracking, to send a request to the phone user through the the service and receive his or her GPS location if they choose to acknowledge the request. That added feature is important since it can work on older iPhones.
Citing some users, AppScout, said that the app is dogged by bugs and is slow to display updates.It goes without saying that the person being tracked has to give his or her consent and be willing to keep the service running in the background for it to wrk.
It sells for $5.99 and is available for download at the iTunes store.

For more, see AppScout.com

Google launches Image Search Ads to appear on Google Images.

Last week, Google introduced a new feature called Image Search Ads that would display ads on Google Images alongside the images search results. According to PC World, the ads "allow advisers to include a thumbnail image beside the traditional lines of text."
The new feature can be a help for business advertising Online as users searching for images can now be targeted with ads relevant to their searches.
For now, Image Search Ads appear only on Google Images and they are competitively priced as standard AdWords ads according to Google.
To use the new feature, "advertisers can use Google's Display Ad Builder template to match their texts with a relevant image" pcworld said. More details are available at AdWords Help Center.

For more, see pcworld.com

India unveils a $35 prototype of a touchscreen tablet PC.

Since Apple introduced the iPad about three months ago and given the huge success that followed, computer and smartphone makers everywhere have been scrambling to catch up, trying to come up with a tablet of their own. But this week, a new entrant has created a big splash with the unveiling of a prototype of a touchscreen tablet PC with very unique features.
But above all, it's the entity behind the project that first draws attention. The entity in question is the Indian Government. People who have first account of the device, describe it as impressive with a very innovative approach. For a starter, the device runs on a variation of Linux, and use a memory card as storage unit. It also come with a built-in word processor, video conferencing capabilities and a Web browser. That's not all: It can run on solar power.
But as the commercial would say, wait, there is more; the tablet is set to sell for $35 a piece, PCWorld said. Right now, the Indian Government is looking for manufacturers who can bring the device to market at that price point or even lower because the device primary target market is low Indian low income families.

For more, see pcworld.com

Travel booking via smartphones.

With the summer travel season upon us, many people are busy scheduling trips and looking for the best deals. Nowadays, such tasks should not be the walk in the dark it used to be with a travel agent as the middle man.
With several Online tools available, chores like tracking airline schedules, making hotel and car-rental confirmations and restaurant reservation should be more easily manageable.These tools are tailored to be accessed on the go through smartphones.
They are offered by Services like Tripit.com, WorldMate.com and TripCase.com with various degrees of functionality.
One thing shared by all three services is the ability to send users confirmation e-mails to an specific address set-up at the time of registration.
They also "can alerts about flight status and gate changes, and let you book new flights or search for hotel rooms on the fly" according to the Wall Street Journal.
"Some of them do also link up with social networking sites like LinkedIn and Facebook allowing users to track each others comings and goings" the Wall Street Journal said.

For more, see WSJ.com

Gowalla.com is a tool for sharing travel tips and adventures.

A new mobile app called Gowalla at Gowalla.com, promises to be a combination of Foursquare and something where serious travelers can share travel adventures or tips. According to its founder, "Gowalla enables its users to share their everyday ventures as well extraordinary places and events of their lives; in other word, to inspire people when they're traveling."
Available for the iPhone, Android, Blackberry and Palm smartphones as well as the iPad, Gowalla encourage people to take pictures with their phones and save them in the service in organized categories such as trips or specific sites. As with Foursquare, users will have their passports stamped when they check-in or for the trips taken.
It integrates smoothly with Facebook and Twitter which will allow for automatic posting of users' whereabouts on those sites. Users who want to stand out, can create their own trips and share them with the rest of the users on the site.
In the feature, Gowalla is looking for to use an editorial team to choose some users' generated content and promote them as featured trips according to pcmag.

For more, see pcmag.com

Hulu to start Hulu Plus a $9.99 a month subscription service

Emboldened by its dominant position in the Web TV viewing, Hulu the video Web site formed three years ago by two of the majors TV networks and Fox Entertainment, has decided to take the experiment to a new level with the announcement last week of its ad-supported subscription service. For $9.99 a month, users will have full access to more episodes of current and classic shows including entire seasons in many cases and on a much broader range of platforms: PCs, iPhones 3 and 4, iPads, Bluray players, video games consoles and even old Internet connected TV sets. The service called Hulu Plus will be initially available only by invitation to be handed out at random to the site followers or friends on different social networks with the possibility for people interested in testing the new offering, to request one on the service Web site.
On top of the paid version, Hulu executives said that what was free on the site like the most recent episodes of shows from the three partners, would remain as such.

For more, see AppScout.com