Facebook is all set to go for a redesign

The social networking site, Facebook, announced a redesign this week aimed at cleaning up users' profile pages and improving organization now that the site has more than 20,000 applications. The new applications will be organized in one of four tabbed categories for easier navigation and access.

The other tabs will carry personal information, photos, and feed. Users can put their applications under other tabs if they want.

The "Applications" link at the top of the page contains a dropdown menu with a "Bookmarks" section. There, Facebook users can add their favorite applications. The menu also contains a "Recent Applications" section.

All of the tabs will be located at the top of user profile pages and the new layout is expected to cut down on the need to scroll down to view the pages.

A new "Publisher Box" will allow users to add content directly to their profiles, saving them the trouble of navigating to different pages.

Facebook will unveil its new look in June, but the site already provided a sneak peek this week.

The new design is also expected to give users more control over which details about themselves they want to highlight.

The site has more than 70 million members worldwide. Members of Facebook and other social networking sites tend to be outspoken about changes to their online communities. Users have become increasingly engaged with the site since it opened itself to outside applications.

Facebook announced that it may touch up elements of the redesign in response to user feedback.

"As you can see from the screenshots we just posted, the changes we are making to the top navigation are fairly straightforward, but we definitely wanted to let you know we were planning on doing this," the company explained. "Keep in mind the design isn't finalized, so the screenshots may change before this launches."

Read more about it at:

• http://blog.facebook.com/blog.php?post=17573547130
• PC World
  
• http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-9949577-36.html
  

Microsoft is giving a Free 90-day trial of its Windows Live OneCare

Windows Live OneCare, Microsoft's new PC maintenance service, wraps a polished interface around a set of security tools that have few configuration options and some performance weaknesses.

We tested only the antivirus, firewall, and antispyware portions of a beta version of Windows Live OneCare. The service, which will launch commercially in June, also comes with PC backup and tune-up tools for a well-priced $50 annual subscription fee for up to three PCs. OneCare does not include antispam features or parental controls.

OneCare offers few configuration options, as it is for people who want Microsoft to manage their security software for them. You can turn antivirus and antispyware protection on and off, and you can set a basic security level (Off, Auto, or Prompt) for the inbound and outbound firewall. While you can initiate a manual malware scan whenever you like, the scheduled scan is tied in with OneCare's other PC utilities; if you want to arrange, say, a weekly malware scan, you'll be setting up a weekly disk tune-up as well.

As of press time, Windows Defender, which provides Windows Live OneCare's antispyware protection, is not yet fully integrated into OneCare. It is a separate software install, and it delivers automatic software updates only twice a week. (OneCare's virus signatures are updated daily.) Microsoft says that Windows Defender will be more fully integrated when OneCare comes out of beta.

In performance tests conducted by AV-Test.org, OneCare displayed some weaknesses. First, it failed to detect 14 out of 1690 file viruses on the WildList, a published list of common malware; since these viruses are publicly known, you should expect your security software to score 100 percent here. Also, among the ten security suites we looked at, OneCare received the worst score in our heuristics tests, which suggests that the program has a hard time detecting malware that it can't recognize through signature files. That said, Windows Defender is meant to be able to block an unknown piece of malware solely based on the way the file interacts with the PC. We did not test this capability, and AV-Test has no data on it.

Windows OneCare scores points for its ease of use. It's a no-hassle way to combine hard-disk maintenance, file backups, and security, but it doesn't offer the best malware protection available right now.

Review by PCWorld

Check out Live OneCare

Adobe releases Adobe Flash Player 10 beta for Linux

Adobe Systems is reaching out for Linux desktop users with its announcement today that the first beta of Adobe Flash Player 10, a.k.a. Astro, is now available for Linux, as well as Windows and Mac OS X.

In a statement, David Wadhwani, general manager and vice president of the Platform Business Unit at Adobe, said that "Adobe had been working closely with the community; we are delivering groundbreaking creative features that will be transformative for interactive designers and developers, and revolutionary for end users."

Unfortunately, not all those new features are available in the Linux version. The new release gives Windows and Mac OS designers the ability to create custom filters and effects that can be used with Flash's native effects. To create these custom filters and effects, users need Adobe Pixel Bender toolkit, and this program, which is now a release candidate, is not available for Linux developers.

Adobe promises that some of the toolkit's functionality will be incorporated into Adobe AIR, which does run on Linux in alpha release.

Read more

Welcome to Technology Information Centre

Welcome to the Technology Information Centre.

Catch up with the blog to stay updated about the happenings of the Tech World, from Linux to Windows, from PCs to Laptops, from PDAs to iPhones, from iPods to iTouchs, from SQL to Oracle, from C++ to Java, from Microsoft to Google, you'll find it all here!!