Pope Gets Social With Facebook, Twitter

The Vatican has integrated social media tools like Facebook and Twitter into its official news website, allowing the faithful more ways to navigate its news archives.

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The newly integrated official news website, news.va, will serve as a one-stop shop for news and information republished from L'Osservatore Romano, Vatican Radio, Vatican Television, the Fides news agency and other Vatican media outlets.

Users will be able to livestream papal events, and post links to Twitter accounts and Facebook walls of homilies, statements, and speeches from the site.

In announcing news of the overhaul, Msgr. Claudio Maria Celli recognized the value of the Internet and power of the social media as significant tools to keep the Pontifical Council for Social Communications and its message in the forefront of people's minds.

"I think we must educate the Roman Curia of what is the real meaning of communication," said Msgr. Celli, who will manage the portal. "Little by little, they will perceive that this is the real meaning to be present, to have relevance."

The move aims to modernize and personalize the Vatican, which many view as an outdated bureaucratic institution with little relevance to their everyday life. The Holy See, following suit of other prominent officials, will reportedly Tweet messages to his flock.

The announcement comes on the heels of other media efforts by the institution, like the debut of a Facebook page dedicated to late Pope John Paul II's beatification, the launch of a YouTube channel and the creation of the "Pope2You" mobile app.

While the new website shows the Vatican embracing mobile technologies, the Pontiff has expressed concern over social media in the past. Earlier this year, Pope Benedict said that online media provided "unprecedented opportunities for establishing relationships and building fellowship," but warned Christians to favor real-life relationships over these temptations.

"It is important to remember that virtual contact cannot and must not take the place of direct human contact with people at every level of our lives," the pope cautioned.

Still, to be "relevant" as the monsignor suggests, the Vatican has little choice but integrate technology. As mobile means and social interactions become ingrained in everyday life, the Catholic Church will likely follow in order to remain part of the conversation and not be left behind.

The 83-year-old pope, who writes all his speeches in long hand and is described as technology-adverse, is set to launch the site from the Apostolic Palace with a click of a tablet device on June 29th, which is the 60th anniversary of his ordination into the priesthood.

The church-related news aggregator and social media hub will initially carry stories in English and Italian, and reportedly, there will Spanish, French, German and Portuguese-language versions launched over the next few months.

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Windows Phone 7 Mango may not require physical buttons

Last week, we finally saw a mockup of the Nokia Sea Ray WP7 handset, and were mildly intrigued to see that there were no physical buttons on the front of the phone. The prevailing theory at the time was that the photos didn't represent finalized hardware, and that the function buttons would be added later. Now, it seems that WP7 may be taking a cue from Android and moving to not require physical buttons at all. 

The news comes from Eldar Murtazin, a Russian blogger who has had a track record of breaking big news, namely that Nokia and Microsoft were making the deal for Nokia to exclusively use WP7. This time, Eldar is saying that with the WP7 Mango update, manufacturers will no longer be required to have physical function buttons on the front of a device. 

This seems like an odd move by Microsoft, because physical buttons cause far fewer accidental presses than virtual buttons. It's also strange because the move to virtual buttons was a necessity for Google, because manufacturers couldn't agree on what order the menu, home, back and search buttons should be placed (or even if there would be a search button), so virtual buttons make a more unified experience for users. Microsoft already had hardware requirements in place so all phones have the same back, Windows, and search buttons in the same places. 

'Apple is in big trouble,' tech expert holding an iPhone says

Apple might be the second-largest company in the world with a market cap of over $300 billion, but if you take the words of NBC's Today Show Gear and Technology editor, Paul Hochman, it's in serious trouble. 

Hochman, holding an iPhone, spoke at the Forward with Ford Futuring and Trends Conference:

"Apple’s in big trouble. They’re sitting on piles of cash, but they are sitting on a closed system. In biology, in history, a closed system never survives."

At the same time, he lavished praise on Ford for picking an open system, one which allows an external device like both an iOS or Android one for communication and even apps. Conversely, General Motors which opted for a closed system doesn't allow upgrade of the hardware locking you down into using the same device even when it fades out of relevance after a couple of years. This argument certainly holds ground as the lifespan of a car is usually much longer than the one of a phone, but do you agree with Hochman's comments on Apple? Feel free to voice your opinion in the comments below.

Steroidal 1.4GHz version of the Samsung Galaxy S II to be launched in time for the next iPhone

We've got another rumor now that Samsung is planning an improved version of the Samsung Galaxy S II around the time the next iPhone launches in late August or early September. 

After Eldar Murtazin's musings that the Apple-Samsung legal kerfuffle is actually over the next high-end phones of Samsung, which will supposedly feature an edge-to-edge display, faster chipset and so on, we have Asian sources telling that Samsung is prepping a 1.4GHz sequel, which might not even be included in the Galaxy line, but get an altogether unique name of its own.

While this could just be a version with the NFC capabilities unleashed, and overclocked chipset, we'd rather hope it's going to be more than that, since a few MHz more alone is unlikely to sway the next iPhone buyers enough, provided that it will also sport a dual-core chipset - Apple's A5 - capable of Full HD 1080p video recording. 

Still, Samsung is not new to the overclocking game, given the 1.2GHz Hummingbird in the Infuse 4G, or theSamsung Galaxy S 2011 Edition, which features a 1.4GHz Qualcomm processor. Or, alternatively, the sources might mean the Samsung Galaxy S II Mini, which is listed with 1.4GHz chipset as well, but then they say the rumored handset will be external to the Galaxy line. We'll see how this plays out, the possibility that this is something new and fresh is always exciting, but we shouldn't be raising our hopes too high until we know more.

Facebook Disables Apps, to Beef Up Security

Facebook shut down a large number of third-party applications, as the company looks to solidify its platform and increase its security measures following a plague of cyber-attacks worldwide.

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The Palo Alto, Calif.-based company's law enforcement system responded to an influx of spam complaints, and disabled several applications. The apps ranged from lower-level applications with small number of daily users to several larger apps like Goodreads, Photo Effect and Social Interview.

Facebook engineers said its new security system is designed to give spam reports more weight.

"We turned on a new enforcement system yesterday that took user feedback much more heavily into account," the company said in a blog post. "This resulted in a number of applications with high negative user feedback being disabled or having certain features disabled."

People complained the apps excessively posted on users' walls and news feeds, prompting Facebook to disable them.

"The numbers were high enough to cause a real loss of trust in applications, which can impact the entire platform," the company said. "Where we have failed is not providing enough feedback about negative engagement metrics to developers before needing to take this action."

These new security measures may be linked to Facebook's "Project Spartan" mobile venture. Project Spartan, an optimized website for Apple's Safari browsers, allows Facebook to create an app that runs through the Internet, rather than through the App Store.

By taking this route, Facebook bypasses Apple's strict control of its platform. The company, which hopes to attract customers to use the iOS-optimized website, is reportedly solidify its platform before it releases its own applications that run exclusively through Project Spartan, rather than Apple's App Store.

Facebook's increase in security measures may also be a response to the global hacking epidemic of the past two months. Hacker groups LulzSec and Anonymous have breached companies like Sony, Nintendo, Sega and Fox News, while also gaining access to government agencies like the Senate, NATO and the CIA.

Facebook, with over 750 million users, may be a prime target for these malicious groups.

The social networking giant has taken steps to beef up its security. In April, Facebook unveiled new tools designed to counter security issues and misbehaviorlike online bullying. It also instituted "social reporting," which allows users to notify the site of offensive photos and wall posts, including profiles, pages and groups.

The following month, the website signed a deal with "Web of Trust," a Finnish startup company that scores website safety. The service, which rates websites based on user reviews, calculates a link's score, advising users whether or not it is safe continue to the website.

Disabling apps may help Facebook pursue Project Spartan, or help prevent it from being the next target of a major cyber-attack.

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HTC Thunderbolt getting Android 2.3.4 update, Skype Video on June 30th

HTC Thunderbolt owners, here’s a piece of good news for you. Your LTE-enabled smartphone will get the Android 2.3.4 update on June 30th! And while that’s great news for itself, there’s more — aside from the latest flavor of Gingerbread, the software upgrade will also bring video calls, including GTalk and check this, Skype Video. Yep, we’ve been waiting this for quite some time now and had to rely on other apps like Tango to beam our ugly faces to the unlucky recipient on the other side of the line. No more, he or she will soon be able to “enjoy” the sight using the familiar Skype interface. That said, I do expect to lose a contact or two from my Skype list in the next few days, but hey – something’s gotta give.

Bear in mind, June 30th is not the official date and has been confirmed by neither Verizon nor HTC. However, we have a reason to believe there’s some merit in this story and we’ll definitely keep our ears on the street and get back to you as soon as something new pops up. Stay tuned…

89% of world's tablet based digital traffic comes from the Apple iPad

How many ways can you divide data into bite sized morsels for the public to digest? The gang at comScore have come up with what they call the Device Essentials analytics service. The study uses "census-level information from tagged web page content" to break down digital traffic by device, and it is a fascinating chart to study. According to the firm's first report, the Apple iPad dominates digital traffic globally with a whopping 89% of tablet produced traffic.

In some countries, the Apple iPad is close to having the highest percentage of non-computer digital traffic. For example, in Canada where the Apple iPhone accounts for 34.6% of such traffic, the iPad is the source of 33.5%. In Brazil, the iPad actually leads, accounting for 31.8% of digital traffic in that country while its stablemate, the iPhone, is responsible for 21%. The opposite is seen in Singapore. There, Apple's touchscreen device produces 51.9% of the non-computer digital traffic versus only 21.6% emanating from Apple's tablet.

While the iPhone produces the most non-computer digital traffic in most countries, the tables are turned in the U.S. where 35.6% are produced by Android phones and 23.5% by the Apple iPhone. When it comes to tablets, though, the iPad dominates, leading in all 13 countries included in the survey. In the U.S., Apple's tablet had a commanding lead over Android tablets with traffic shares of 21.8% and .6% respectively.

Another interesting stat brought up by comScore is the fact that 47.5% of iPhone internet traffic comes on aWi-Fi network while 21.7% of Android traffic is routed over Wi-Fi. 91.9% of traffic sourced from the Apple iPad was Wi-Fi based while that figure for Android tablets is 65.2%