A few days ago I noticed that some people don’t always get what Social Networking is all about. Especially on websites like Twitter and Facebook.

To me, the whole point of social networking is to enhance and expand your circle of friends, or at least that’s what I thought, but it seems that some people feel that these networks should be closed groups and only the closest friends should be on their lists.

Tagging photos of on Facebook is another thing, OK, I understand if you want privacy, but if you’ve tagged hundreds of pictures of yourself should you remove a rag that someone else has added?

What about adding people who you don’t really know, like secondary or tertiary friends or friends of friends. I’ve just cleared over 100 “friends” who I didn’t really know. So how do people expand their group of friends if people get annoyed if you add people?

It seems that more and more people are signing up to these networks because they’re the “in thing” with a lot of celebrities at the moment but don’t really understand the concept. That is a shame really because the potential for them to meet new friends is immense.

Apple unveiled their newest version of the Safari browser yesterday albeit a beta. There has been a huge buzz about it on Twitter so obviously I had to go and download it for myself. Safari 4 beta is available for both Mac and Windows computers, which is good news for me.

First impressions of this new browser are that it is shiny and polished with a host of new features, for instance Top Sites.  Top Sites displays a thumbnail of your most visited sites in a nicely 3D styled window for you to choose from with a single click. Apple have included Cover Flow in this new browser too, which for me is a welcome addition. It allows you to scroll through your bookmarks and history as you would on you iPhone or iPod touch.

There are other little improvements in this new beta version of Safari which I am yet to discover fully for myself, but I’m liking the browser already. There are obviously some flaws in the browser, it is after all a beta version but these are few and far between in my experience of using it. I have had the browser crash on me a couple of times but nothing more really.

Safari is becoming a serious contender to both Internet Explorer and FireFox and version 4 is closing the gap dramatically. I for one will keep it installed on my machine for the foreseeable future. You can download it from the Apple website now!

Not a gadget today, but a piece of software that I thought some of you would find both interesting and useful. Jing is a screen capture tool that sits on your computer screen unobtrusively until you need to capture the whole screen or an area.

Not only does Jing capture still images (which it saves in .png format), but it also captures videos too. These video clips and images can be saved to your computer or uploaded directly to the screencast.com website.

There are two versions of Jing available also; a free version and a pro version. The pro version costs just under $15 which is about £7 in UK currency. The benefits of going pro are:

• Record full-motion video from your screen
• Share faster with smaller video files
• Upload straight to YouTube
• Strip Jing logos & links from your videos

Jing is also easy to use because of the simple controls. You’ll be up and capturing in minutes once the software is installed. So there you have it, if you need a piece of software that allows you to effortlessly capture still and moving images of your desktop then I’d recommend Jing to do the job for you. There’s nothing else like it for the PC.

Facebook is celebrating its fifth birthday this week, so happy birthday Facebook! I’m not quite sure that the young man who started the site, Mark Zuckerberg, from his bedroom knew back then that he was creating one of the most popular websites in the world today.

But that is exactly what he has done. I am a daily user of Facebook and sometimes feel that I’m losing out if I don’t visit the site at least once a day. It has got to the point where I’ve installed software on my Nokia N95 called Fring so that I can access it whilst on the move. I also have the ability to view Facebook on my iPod touch.

The growth of Facebook over the years has been quite shockingly huge to be honest. It is estimated that 110 million people now use Facebook all over the world! I doubt that any other website gets as many visitors and it’s unlikely to happen any time soon either.
So what exactly is the appeal of Facebook to so many people then? Is it the ability to get in touch with friends and family that has made it so successful, or something else? I seriously hope it’s not the poke feature that pulls in so many users.

To be honest, I’m finding it difficult to see how Facebook can expand much beyond what it’s already doing. Maybe it has reached its peak and is heading downwards? Who knows what will happen. So here’s looking forward to the future of Facebook and to another five years of growth.

You might have read about a few companies bringing out 7″ and 8″ USB displays recently. I don’t know if there is a desperate need for these displays to be honest. I mean, why would you want to pay the same amount for a 7″ display if you could get a 19″ display? It seems a bit silly to me.

I’m sure that a lot of you will find uses for these displays, but personally I can’t see a use for them. They can be rotated to be viewed in either landscape or portrait, which is a bonus, but for me the size is just too small to be of any use. Obviously I may be biased because I’ve just had a 22″ TV/Monitor delivered. I mean, would you want to do 3D work on 7″ / 8″ worth of screen real estate? Or even editing a word document would be bothersome. The screens do boast resolutions of 800 x 600 pixels, which is pretty good.

I keep thinking of the screens you get in the back of cars to watch DVDs whilst travelling and I find it difficult to watch a movie on them to be honest. I can’t be totally negative about them though because they do provide a simple way of expanding your screens by using USB. I’m hoping that this is the beginning of a new age in screens being connected via USB because I’d love to have a couple of 22″ displays that were as easy to connect. I’d definitely purchase them if they were available.

Its early days for this technology and I do hope that it grows in to a must have gadget of the future. Watch this space.

When I first read about this over at Engadget, I did more than get a little excited. I mean, a light bulb and speaker in one unit… it’s just too good to be true. And that’s where my bubble was burst because it is, in fact, too good to be true. The Soundbulb is just an idea at the moment, but it seems quite feasible that it could be a gadget of the future.

I would certainly buy these if they were available; I mean, think of the possibilities. It’s like killing two birds with one stone isn’t it, a speaker and light in one unit.

So how do they work? Well, they would have a small wireless receiver module in them that would allow them to receive music that was streamed from a transmitter or even a computer.

I do like that fact that they are “normal” looking bulbs though because this means you wouldn’t have to change your current light fittings. A concern that I have is with them being energy efficient, but I’ve read that they’ll be using LEDs.

As I said, these are only theoretical at the moment so for now, you’ll have to kit out your home with energy efficient light bulbs, which in itself is a good thing not only for you, but the environment too. As always PriceGrabber has some great prices available for energy efficient light bulbs.

Late last night, Steve Jobs, the CEO of Apple Inc. announced that he was to step down from his position due to health reasons. The full email he sent reads:

Team,

I am sure all of you saw my letter last week sharing something very personal with the Apple community. Unfortunately, the curiosity over my personal health continues to be a distraction not only for me and my family, but everyone else at Apple as well. In addition, during the past week I have learned that my health-related issues are more complex than I originally thought.

In order to take myself out of the limelight and focus on my health, and to allow everyone at Apple to focus on delivering extraordinary products, I have decided to take a medical leave of absence until the end of June.

I have asked Tim Cook to be responsible for Apple’s day to day operations, and I know he and the rest of the executive management team will do a great job. As CEO, I plan to remain involved in major strategic decisions while I am out. Our board of directors fully supports this plan.

I look forward to seeing all of you this summer.

Jobs recently revealead in a statement on the Apple website that he was suffering from a hormone imbalance which was of some concern to him and his doctors.

It’s good news that he isn’t stepping down permenently though and I’m sure we all wish him the best of wishes in his bid to get better.

I’m not going to write about any gadget in particular today. Unless you’ve been living in a cave, you’ve heard about the credit crunch that’s sweeping the country, infact it’s sweeping the globe. The cost of everything is going up; fuel, food and energy. Everyday essential items are becoming more and more costly.

That’s why the PriceGrabber website is becoming an essential first stop for consumers. PriceGrabber does all the hard work of finding the cheapest prices for you, giving you control over your money once again.
You no longer have to scour the internet looking at all the different websites that stock the item you want to buy, PriceGrabber has done it for you. Just put the name of the gadget you want to buy in the search box and within seconds you’ll get a list of all the stockists and their prices at a glance.

Not only do they list the stockists and prices, they also display the postage and packaging costs, if there are any, giving you an instant, easy to read and informed choice. Consumers like you and me need PriceGrabber. There’s no two ways about it, everybody has to tighten their belts, but with PriceGrabber you don’t have to miss out on the items that you really want.

PriceGrabber has changed the way I shop online for the better and I hope that they have helped you do the same. You should set it as your homepage now!

Yesterday was yet another day of sweaty Steve Jobs announcements and of course the release of the iPhone Software Development Kit (SDK). The biggest news of the day from Steve Jobs was the announcement of push email and a new App Store to be included in the latest updates. The App Store will be available from June 08 and will be used to browse and download all these new applications that are going to be available thanks to the SDK. Whether your desired application is for business or for pleasure thanks to the new on-board App Store you will be able download it on the move via Wi-Fi.

In an unlikely course of events Apple have gone and thrown Microsoft’s Exchange right into the heart of the iPhone so that you can take advantage of push email, push contacts, global address lists, push calendar and “remote wipe” which gives you the ability to remotely delete data.

Developers will have to send their applications to Apple for approval before getting them onto the iPhone, to prevent the likes porn and what not i presume but they will be able to set their own prices and will receive 70% of the profits with Apple taking a 30% chunk. Any applications developers want to send out for free, Apple won’t demand a fee for. Apple have also set up a $100M “iFund” to help developers start-up their apps and encourage them to put them on the App Store.

The new iPhone 2.0 software will be touching down in June of this year.

Yahoo has rejected the recent takeover bid from Bill Gates’ Microsoft stating that the offer was too low. Microsoft recently offered Yahoo over $40bn (£20.5bn) to takeover the company and all its assets but Yahoo say that Microsoft’s evaluation of the company is undervalued and the deal is not in the best interests of the shareholders.

The offer which Microsoft made was worth $31 a share while Yahoo shares were worth $19.18 at the time of the original offer but sources have said that Yahoo are not willing to consider a takeover bid until a deal worth at least $40 a share is put on the table. Microsoft are expected to make an improved offer for the yellow, smiley faced company but by no means does this mean a deal worth $40 a share will be agreed. If a deal worth $40 a share is put forward, Microsoft will have to cough up an extra $12bn on top of the offer previously made.

Yahoo are also said to be re-opening talks with AOL over a possible merger deal, that might just push Microsoft into magically finding that extra $12bn in those deep pockets of its. For a greater view on Microsofts takeover ambitions why not check out our own Nigel Cookes thoughts on the Microsoft/Yahoo deal.