Vodacom’s the Grid, South Africa’s first location-based mobile social network available to everyone who has a WAP-enabled cellphone, has mapped out close to 11,000 HIV-related support services covering prevention, treatment and support across South Africa.
By utilising the Grid’s location-aware technology, South Africans are not only able to see on their cellphones which HIV support service is closest to them, but they can also obtain the centre’s contact details and get directions to it.
This initiative sees the Grid partnering with the HIV-911 programme – a comprehensive guide of HIV and AIDS related support services in South Africa. The main objective of the programme is to ensure that information about HIV support services are accessible to all South Africans. HIV-911 is funded by United States Agency for International Development / President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief through the Foundation for Professional Development.
Says Shameel Joosub, Managing Director, Vodacom South Africa: “By utilising the broad reach of cellphones in South Africa and tapping into the large user base on the Grid, we are able to make crucial HIV and AIDS support information readily available to all South Africans. This is a great initiative to communicate the value of getting tested to a younger target audience in a social networking environment. It’s just another example of how mobile technology can help create a better life for ordinary South Africans.”
All the HIV-911 information is available in the Grid’s latest application release to coincide with this year’s World Aids Day. To access the Grid SMS ‘GRID’ to 33313 (50c/SMS) or visit http://onthegrid.mobi/
There is a Facebook 3.0 app for the iPhone thas arrived and is awaiting the App store approval. The latest version looks like the full Facebook but with a cleaner, snappier and bug-free interface.
Some great features have been added to the application and that includes the all new News Feed that imitates the web based version, very well. There’s also the Like feature in full swing, but for it, Facebook is expected to fix the notification system so that a user doesn’t get bombarded with notifications after ‘liking’ something. Other than these there’s access to events, too. They include the ability to RSVP but there is still no access to the event’s wall.
The iPhone users can edit notes but cannot tag people in notes. They can now create new albums and upload photos to them, zoom in photos and can even have an album of profile pictures. You can quickly text friends directly from the friends page and all the messages you type will be restored in case there is an interruption to your connection.
To top it all there is a new homescreen that ensures easy access to all your stuff, search and notifications.
We think we’ll give it a try in here and let you know!
For more info check out AppAdvice
Facebook, the fast-growing free-access social networking website, has obtained a $6.5-billion valuation for its common shares.
There’s a catch though! This development, which stresses the website’s high ranking among the giants in the technology and media sector, follows Digital Sky Technologies, of Russia, agreeing to pay $14.77 a share for Facebook common stock. Now, the Russian company’s stake in Facebook will be 3.5%.
The deal shows that Facebook has a higher market value than many other established media and technology companies that make considerably more money. While CBS Corporation, which earned $13.95 billion in revenues in 2008, has a market capitalization of $4.06 billion, Salesforce.com has a market cap of $4.72 billion.
According to Mark Andreessen, board member, Facebook is expected to exceed $500 million in sales in 2009.
As of today Facebook has reached 250 million active users on its social network – up from 100 million nearly a year ago – thus ranking higher than the rival social networking website MySpace.
So how about, would you like to own stock in Facebook?
Image courtesy of LaughingSquid
Say what you want about Mark Zuckerberg, the boy wonder is still a very successful entrepreneur who has started a bit of a revolution in online social networking. However irrespective of how people often try to downplay his assets, everything is going strong with Facebook is all set to invite on board its 200 millionth active user. An achievement to be proud of.
Making a statement in this regard, Zuckerberg stated how he dreamed of creating an opportunity for people to share information, news and views in a richer and faster way when he founded Facebook back in 2004. And the fact that it has been embraced so quickly only shows how millions across the world (3%) are still searching for a medium to voice their concerns.
Zuckerberg also remarks that Facebook has played an instrumental role in campaigns of both U.S. President Barack Obama and French President Nicholas Sarkozy, and believes that more such social revolutions will be born from this platform.
What is interesting to note though is how he tries to plug-in the “Gift Shop” on Facebook and makes sure to state that the money is going all for charity and that they won’t keep absolutely nothing from it. Let’s just hope Mark has a solid plan when it comes to taking Facebook on the next financial level and make it as much of a success on that front as well. [via Facebook]
It was not very long ago that Microsoft paid a staggering $240 million for 1.6-percent of shares in Facebook. That forced everyone to believe that the company was well worth over $15 billion in the market.
Image courtesy of pshabBut that little investment by Microsoft seems to be more a gesture of commitment and goodwill towards a hopeful future partnership rather than an accurate estimation of the Facebook stock.
In a recent goof up, the social networking giants themselves revealed that they value their stock at $8.88 per share, putting the company at a market value of just around $3.7 billion!
The startling new revelation came up when the Associated Press was able to retrieve some details from the transcript of a June court hearing held over a legal settlement between Facebook and ConnectU, which had blacked-out segments in them. While it is hard to imagine how Facebook would make such a naive mistake, it does substantiate the growing opinion that the company is not worth as much as the $15 billion.
The fact that Facebook rates itself almost 3 times less, is an indicator that sometimes hype can easily conceal facts!
The drawn saga of the legal battle between Facebook and ConnectU is well known by now. But what has been kept under the wraps till today is how much Facebook actually paid ConnectU to get their out of court settlement done.
However, we’re lucky. An over-enthusiastic ad given out by Quinn Emanuel Urquhart Oliver & Hedges, the law firm that represented ConnectU founders Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss in legal battle has spilled the beans on that out. Claiming pompously that it is their opponents who need a bailout, the ad talks about how Facebook had to pay ConnectU a whooping $65 million for an amicable settlement.
The legal hassle started when ConnectU claimed that Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg stole their intellectual property and code to build his social networking site and while Facebook says that dishing out the money was not an admission of guilt, there are many who feel otherwise.
While the jury is still out on Zuckerberg’s guilt or lack of any, the astonishing fact is that both parties had tried very hard to keep the deal secret. While the details of the deal in regards to whether the sum was paid in cash or a mixture of cash and Facebook stock is still not known, the zealous ad could mean trouble for the law firm.
Seems like the fire has been rekindled! Isn’t it?
[via TechCrunch]
Image by LaughingSquid
Facebook has still not entirely forgotten the horror of the experiment gone wrong in case of Beacon last year and the world’s largest social networking site is working twice as harder and is a lot more careful as it introduces Facebook Connect to both users and the internet community.
The new feature enables you to browse through different sites using Facebook identity allowing you to move across the net with complete freedom. This most importantly means that you will not have to re-enter all your identification details on sites that have integrated themselves with the Connect feature.
And sites like Discovery Channel, The San Francisco Chronicle, Digg, Geni and Hulu are ready for it.
This not only makes browsing more convenient and will actually increase traffic to those websites that implemented it, as Facebook users will feel at home progressively in these sites which they might otherwise have not taken time to visit. The feature not just offers a way to generate revenue for both parties in the future, but could create a larger community in the virtual world.
For now though Facebook is threading early waters with plenty of care.
Like there wouldn’t be enough birthday reminder websites on the Internet, Facebook is trying to get their piece, too. For those using the service, it does sound like a good idea to have everything together rather than trying to find birthday alert services to do the same job.
But, if you ask me if they’ll get a good portion of the slice, I think they won’t.
Go into your account, check out the Facebook section and then click on Show More. Here you’ll find the “Has a birthday coming up” box that you can select. They’ll send you an email each time your friends have birthdays coming up. You’ll forget a birthday ever again, they say.
However, what I don’t get is why build their own, when there were many applications that did exactly the same.
Lots of people were expecting the new Facebook user profile layout but the “company” was very slow in delivering. The new layout was supposed to be ready early April, but all we got were more details on their Developers page. Apparently the new layout will contain 5 main tabs : Feed, Wall, Info, Photos, and “Boxes”.
The feed tab seems to be unchanged containing news feeds, but still users may find it hard to “understand” why there is a Wall anymore because it will be text-only from now on. Using a Publisher Tool users will be able to post to their friends’ feed tabs and their own. The tool could be similar to FriendFeed-like conversations but it’s nothing certain until we get more info from the guys.
Existing wide and narrow profile boxes will now appear on a new Boxes tab that every user can enable/disable on their profile.
Though I said there are 5 tabs contained within the layout, users will be able to add their own, too. Facebook will allow up to 5 application boxes to be shown across all tabs but there will be some sort of height restriction.
I’m waiting for the release to give you more info because right now there isn’t much I can dig, except for a not very informative screenshot. Stay tuned.
The GRID is a a South African location-based social networking service for cellphones. Cow Times guys have developed a free Facebook application that you can access via WAP (wap.thegrid.co.za) on our mobile phone, that allows you to see where your friends are on the map, allows you to organize events and get directions if you’re lost. It was built in partnership with Vodacom.
The application was built in partnership with Vodacom and stands on three big pillars: blips/virtual notes, the navigator and GRID events. Here are a few details about each one.
First of all, the blips and the virtual notes. If you find something interesting in your area you can add some text, images or a video for others to see and be directed there. It also comes packed with a navigator to give you the shortest route from one place to another, and GRID events where Facebook users can setup events and send invites to other.
“The functionality that we’ve introduced to Facebook with this application is not only very handy but a lot of fun too. With its location-based technology, The GRID application highlights what is happening in your area on a social level, by displaying information being shared between friends and other users specific to that location.”
