I had been an avid Facebook user for over an year, but I’ve been reconsidering after the launch of Facebook Apps. The days when all Facebook offered was Photos, Groups, Events, Notes, and Posted Items were simple times. Today we’ve got over 450+ photo, 400+ music , 450+ video, 1000+ gaming, and 1000+ sports applications. And that’s nothing, as of now, Facebook is less than 200 short of reaching 10,000 pointless applications! Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of useful apps, but for the most part the majority of these tools are useless. Having to deal with hundreds of application invitations every time I login has become quite painful. For example, why on earth would anyone need a Top Friends list or a Super Wall when Facebook already has a fully functioning friends list and wall? Facebook seriously needs to implement an option to allow users to opt-out or block some of these applications.

The next most horrendous part is how long it’s starting to take to load some people’s profiles and how lengthy they have become. Just to give everyone an glimpse of how bad Facebook can get, take a look at four images provided above. I created temporary Facebook Profile and added the first 20 pages of the most popular Apps. The page was in fact so long that I couldn’t even generate a single screen shot. Fortunately I haven’t run into anyone’s profile that was this bad, but it is definitely going in that direction. Facebook should maybe consider placing a limit on the amount of applications a user can have active at a time. Hopefully the folks over at Facebook will spend time fixing up the mess they made by launching Facebook Applications instead of wasting resources on other projects like Facebook Ads.

Links: Facebook.com | Skatter Tech Fan Page

Today, during the 79th annual Oscars, Apple aired their first iPhone “teaser” commercial. The AD features ~30 different movie clips of famous actors through many eras simply saying “hello” on phones. Also if you didn’t notice, which most people probably won’t, the “cingular” text on the phone from the original press release has now changed to At&t due to the change of the company name after the merger.

Apple originally announced the iPhone this year in January during MacWorld 2007, however the device will only be available to consumers in mid-June 07. The iPhone will only be available through one service provider, Cingular, after launch. Apple however has hinted that it may become available through other providers within a year after launch.

In other iPhone news, Apple recently settled their trademark lawsuit with Cisco last week. The two companies came to an agreement to share the name and both are free to use the name for any of their products. Cisco is currently using the name, iPhone, for their line of Linksys VoIP phones.

Links:.iPhone AD | Cisco & Apple Agreement
Related: Apple Announces the iPhone

On August 27, 2006, during the Emmys, Apple showed off three brand new “I’m a Mac and I’m a PC” advertisements. Steve Jobs had stated that he had over 20 more “in the can” during the WWDC, when he announced the new Mac Pro. These ads are a powerful marketing scheme for Apple and on a plus side many of these are quite true, but a few are just innacurate.

Apple Ads Summary:

• Accident – MagSafe power cords prevent Macs from being yanked
• Angel/Devil – Pre-Intalled iPhoto easily allows organizing photos
• Trust A Mac – Mac OSX can’t get a virus or any spyware or viruses

Taking a look at these three, to begin with the “Accident” ad is appropriate because the MacSafe power cord is a unique feature which is only offered on Macbooks and Macbook Pros, while no other equivalent feature is offered by other hardware manufactures. However the second Ad, about iPhoto, is a bit overdoing it since there are thousands of applications to manage photos for Windows. Although Macs may come ready with iPhoto software, plenty of free organization and editing tools are available for Windows. The third Ad claims that Macs don’t get viruses. Since Apple’s Mac OS only holds a few percent of the market share, most spyware apps and viruses are usually targeted at larger audiences. Although their claim may be true for the time-being, more Mac-targeted viruses will find their way as more users start using Macs.

Links: Apple ‘Get a Mac’ TV Ads
Related: Apple: ‘Most Powerful Mac Ever’ – Mac Pro

“Webshots understands the variable needs of photo uploaders and is providing AllYouCanUpload.com as an answer to those seeking a tool for fast, easy, free uploads,” – James Park, Webshots Director

After testing this service I feel that the UI is very clean and easy to use and has no obtrusive ads. The only issue I could think find is that if a user uploads a photo and forgets the URL, he or she will have to either remember it or re-upload the file since AYCU doesn’t require users to register in any method. Other than that All You Can Upload seems to be good since it supports the major image formats.

Links: All You Can Upload | Service FAQs
Similar Services: ImageShack | ImageTiger | PhotoBucket

Google released a new download manager program that will download and install a set of programs you choose from pack.google.com. Google’s goal is to make life easier to find and install clean programs when you purchase a new computer. The Google Pack will provide items from security to entertainment. On their website you can check the items you like and it will be added to a “shopping cart” and eventually all the items will be added to Google’s download manager (aka Google Updater) and will be installed. All the programs you download through the Google Pack will be the same exact prorgams one would find on the creator’s websites, there will be no Google Ads involved. Google also claimed that they are not paying or getting paid to create this set of programs.

Links: Google Pack | Google Blog Post

The Google Pack Includes:

• Google Earth – previously Keyhole
• Google Desktop – indexes all files
• Picasa – photo organizer
• Google Toolbar IE – search and more
• Google Pack Screensaver – photos
• Google Talk – VOIP and IM software
• Firefox w/ Google Toolbar – autofill and more
• Ad-Aware SE Personal – spyware protection
• Norton AntiVirus 2005 SE – virus protection
• Adobe Reader 7 – PDF reader
• RealPlayer – media player
• GalleryPlayer HD Images – HI-quality images
• Trillian – all in one IM client

Links: Google Pack | Google Blog Post

1) Google has created 4 new ad link formats. All are in the formation of a line and have either 4 or 5 related ads. Google RSS/Atom ads should be open to all users very soon, currently only available to chosen users.
Link: AdSense Samples | +digg | digg

2) Here are some great sites to find deals, coupon codes, and freebies: CurrentCodes, FatWallet, TechBargains, ResellerRatings, DealCatcher, XpBargains, SlickDeals, and SaleCircular.

3) Sony BGM has sold ~2 million CDs with their new copyright protection. First, to copy the CD onto your WINDOWS computer you will need to install a little app to listen to the music, otherwise the CD will eject itself. Second, if you do install it you will only be able to copy the music in Microsoft DRM formats. (Microsoft WMA & Sony ATRAC) They will also limit the max burns to CDs to 3 times per song and a max of 3 transfers out to DRM enabled portable players. Apple computers will not be able to copy or even listen to the music because Apple declined to use DRM in their computers. This also means Apple’s iPod line of products won’t be able to play the music even if it is transferred from a Windows computer. BGM’s goal was to place locks/limits to prevent people from sharing their copied music on P2P and BitTorrent networks. Their CDs are also enraging many unaware customers, who have not been able to copy their music or even play them in their standard CD players or home/car stereos.
Link: MercuryNews | Reuters

4) TiVo – DirecTV has disabled the serial port channel-changing feature on their D10 units so that standalone TiVo boxes will not be able to record shows automatically. No word yet whether it was done purposely or was a bug. – TiVo Demos downloadable movie service (Netflix?) via Broadband. Service most likely allows downloading of movies (payperview) and probably has a 30-day store limit and a 24-hour limit once the movie is played.
Link: Wired (DirecTV) | PVR Blog (Downloads)

5) Others:
DivX 6.0 is out – allows creation of menus and chapters, similar 2 DVDs.
vSkype – add video to your VoIP conversations.
PSP Homebrew 9 – from the creators of PSPVideo9
Google Maps + Census Data