So why is this a big deal? Facebook highlighted the information that users will not have to create new Skype accounts to make calls, and this will enable users to call their friends and family with a very nominal amount of setup (the flow for installing the applet only took a few seconds).

According to reports, this does not work yet on Opera browser and on Linux-based operating systems. It works perfectly fine with Google Chrome.

If you are someone who is not confident on how to make use of this feature, given below are some simple steps that you need to follow to enable video calling in your Facebook account.

Step 1: Head over to http://www.facebook.com/videocalling.

Step 2: Click on the “Get Started” button on this page.

Step 3: Now click on the name of the contact you want to chat with and then click on the Video calling icon in the chat window.

Step 4: You will be prompted to download a plug-in for your browser. This is only a one-time process, so you will be able to video chat in the future without having to install this plug-in again.

That’s it; you will now be able to video call and group chat with your friends using Facebook. Video calling however is only restricted to one person at this time. However, the quality of the call is terrific.

This news comes just a week after when Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg announced at the Boston headquarters last week that his company is planning to “launch something awesome” for its users.

Facebook’s video chat doesn’t support group chats yet, but when asked if Facebook will be rolling out group video calling, Zuckerberg said not to rule anything out. He added that one-to-one calling makes up the enormous majority of video calling.

Additionally, the company has also revamped its chat tool – making a bigger sidebar for people to see who is online with more ease.

The post Now Video Chat With Your Facebook Friends With Skype-Powered Video Chat appeared first on Techieapps.

Many businesses focus way too much on quick growth and forget about preserving what they already have. Don’t make the same mistake. Here are 7 out-of-the-box ways to cut down your business expenses.

1. Reduce production costs
Reducing material costs and making the best out of your resources are common sense solutions for every businessman. There are some great ways that you can do this. You should track and asses how successful your business operations are so that you can decide how to best make use of the resources that you have. Define your goals when it comes to performance, and provide your employees with incentives when they meet them. One great thing that you could do is sell remaining paper, metal, fabric and cardboard, or find a way to use it for creating a new product.

2.Be an example to your employees
It goes without saying that the way you behave as a business leader reflects on everyone else in your company. Your task is to teach your employees the proper values, by doing the best you can in order to save money. The fact that you might be a successful businessman doesn’t mean that you need to spend what you’ve got on luxury hotels and expensive dinners. When your workers see that you are spending money without a care, they will follow that example. So, make sure that you convey the right message to them when it comes to business expenses. There are plenty of apps available (like BillGuard, DollarBird, Level Money) that can help you in this process by tracking your spending.

3.Adopting An Automated Expense Management System: A powerful automated Expense management software is a systematic set of processes that companies use to record expenses, make payments, and track their spending. It includes monitoring purchases such as equipment and inventory, as well as expenses incurred by traveling employees. It also includes defining a spending policy, enforcing it, and finding ways to reduce spending.

4.Implement virtual technology
Operating via virtual technology can significantly reduce your business expenses. When you hold virtual meetings, you cut down on travel expenses. Personal contact is, of course, still very important, but you can make use of it only in the situations when you can benefit the most from it. Furthermore, you can make use of modern technologies such as Basecamp and Google Drive in order to centralize business documents, and eliminate the need for their paper versions.

5.Make use of the space that you have
You need to make an assessment of how the space in your offices is used. It’s a great idea to use space for more than one purpose. A meeting room can also work as a break room, and a storage room can also hold your fax and copy machines. You can combine or centralize various functions of departments within your company. Furthermore, according to the experts, you should maintain your space as best as you can, in order to improve efficiency.

6.Partner up
Collaboration with a partner company is always a great way to save money. Find a business that targets the same audience and offers the same services, so that you can make use of opportunities that you would otherwise have to pay for. You might be able to gain access to VIP events at conferences, and many other assets that you can benefit from. Make sure that your partners care about your company as much as you care about theirs.

7.Focus on a particular niche
It’s especially important for a small business to narrow its focus on a niche of particular services and projects. This way you can make sure that you do more quality work instead of focusing on quantity. Your productivity will certainly improve, as well as your bottom line. Subcontracts are another way of narrowing your focus. This way you can actually take up more projects instead of turning them away, but spend much less due to subcontracting.

8.Make use of time strategies
It is essential that you optimize how productive your employees are, and waste as little time as possible. You should schedule activities on a daily or weekly basis, and promote compliance to the schedule. Set reasonable expectations for when certain tasks need to be completed. Provide incentives to employees that meet the deadlines. Schedule meetings, and let your employees know how important it is to be on time, follow the schedule of business, and adhere to deadlines. Use an app such as FocusBooster as an aid for them to concentrate on the tasks at hand. An app such as Paymo can help you track how much time your employees are spending on certain activities.

Cutting down business expenses can be essential for your business to keep its head above the water. Businesses that focus too much on growth tend to forget this. Consider these 7 tips to make sure that you aren’t spending more than necessary, and make your business thrive.

The post 8 Out-Of-The-Box Ways To Cut Down Business Expenses appeared first on Techieapps.

Keeping with its ‘two phones a year’ trend, it’s likely that Apple will first release the iPhone 5S in June, followed by the iPhone 6 later in the year. Here’s the prediction of the new features that the iPhone 5S or iPhone 6 might have:

• Price – One of the disadvantages that Apple faces in the booming markets of Asia and South America is the high cost. This can be sorted out by offering cheaper iPhone for these markets. However, if it has to keep up with the competition, Apple cannot offer a lower-priced phone without same features as that of iPhone 5.

• Camera – As several android phones, including the Samsung Galaxy S4, HTC One and Sony Experia Z, offering Super HD pictures with a 13 Megapixel camera, either the next iPhone will offer the same or it may come up with a better resolution. Nokia Lumia and HTC are currently the market leaders.

• NFC – The iPhone 5 disappointed fans as it didn’t offer contact-less payments that other NFC enabled phones support. The next iPhone will take away this disadvantage by supporting NFC.

• iOS 7 – It’s likely that the iPhone 5S will run on the existing operating system, while the iPhone 6 will run on iOS 7. Recently Apple demonstrated the new iOS 7 interface which had quick access to preferences menu, a popover home screen menu, editing settings like brightness, and contrast right from the home screen. Here is a video from iOS 7.

• Processor – The iPhone 5 has the A6 processor, so in all probability, the iPhone 6 will have A7, which will offer more power and better efficiency, thereby increasing battery life. The rumors have it that the iPhone 6 will be powered by an A7 processor and will be launched somewhere in 2014. According to the Korea Times, TSMC, will take over manufacture of the Apple A series processors in early 2014 with a new 20-nanometer processor.

• Eye tracking technology – This is one area where Apple has fallen behind, with several competitors offering phones with eye tracking technology. The next iPhone will incorporate either eye tracking or a similar motion sensor technology to keep up with this trend.

• Phone Case – Some rumors indicate that the next iPhone may have plastic casing. However, this is debatable and might be the casing that will be used for the low cost iPhone’s.  According to new concept designs and rumors, the iPhone 6 will have a waterproof body, as shown by the Sony Xperia Z. Apart from this, apple is also thinking of making the new iPhone more resistant to free falls. According to a new patent. “Protective Mechanism for an Electronic Device” Apple is working on an invention which will make fall on more resistive area of the phone preventing damage to the body while in mid-air.

• Storage – Already there is an iPad with 128GB storage. So, there is a possibility that a 128GB option will be offered in the high-end model.

As the customers eagerly wait for the next iPhone to be launched, its competitors have already gained an upper hand with products like Samsung Galaxy S4, HTC One and Blackberry Z10, it is going to be a rough path for Apple.

The post What to Expect from the Next iPhone appeared first on Techieapps.

Meebo, which was procured by Google in June 2012, is a messaging service that rolled out numerous products and services for social networking and advertising — Meebo bar is one of those products. Meebo bar is presently something that web publishers’ loves to add to their websites to assist the visitors to browse, explore and share any media or content on their website.

Meebo bas was integrated with more Google + functionalities after it was bought up by the search engine giant. As some people might anticipate, with this procurement, the two companies will observe some incorporation of their teams. Till now, it seems that it has been carried out with Google+, so it is logical to think that Google has something under its sleeves to help Google+ grow further.

Spokesman of Meebo said that its publishing tool had been in the market for around 5 years and all the installation codes will stop working after June 6. Publishers who desire to remove the code before, can surely do that and Google advises to carry out the code removal tasks using CMSs (WordPress, Joomla, Blogger etc) . Moreover, cistoms widgets that had been created using Meebo Bar can be easily saved within the Dashboard of Meebo Bar

Here’s Google’s declaration of retiring Meebo Bar:

Five years ago, we launched the Meebo Bar to bring community, engagement, and revenue to publisher sites.

As part of the Google team, this continues to be our focus, but we want to best serve mobile and desktop publishers moving forward. Therefore, we have decided to focus our resources on initiatives like the recently launched Google+ Sign-In (which includes interactive posts and over-the-air app installs) and the Google+ plug-ins.

This means we will retire the Meebo Bar, effective June 6, 2013.

Thank you for being a Meebo Bar publisher. We have truly appreciated the opportunity to serve you.

Sincerely,
Sandy, Seth, and the Meebo Team

By concentrating more on Google+, it appears that the company is trying to pass information to other services, instead of trying to retain more content and users on its social network. The company has introduced Google+ Sign-in 2 months back to confront Facebook connect and to substitute Google Accounts login protocol.

The post Google Retiring Its Publishing Tool ‘Meebo Bar’ To Divert More Resources Towards Google+ appeared first on Techieapps.

Don’t put your Business at Risk!

Even if you do not update your operating system, you still have numerous ways to prevent putting your business at risk. Stay current with the updates till the last and final call and run anti-virus and malware scans on regular basis. Stay away from suspicious websites and spam emails/ attachments.

According to a market research, Windows XP is being used by more than one-third of the desktop operating systems, despite of availability of more popular OS upgrades (vista, 7 and 8 ) than the old OS. Windows XP has been there in the market for around 13 years, which is far longer time than the other operating systems.

Considering the cutoff time of the operating system and situations that might arise in the near future, businesses need to migrate their operating systems according to their specific needs. Windows 8 would be the best choice for the tech-savvy users and others can switch over to Windows 7 first. For those who want to play safe, can deploy configuring Windows 8 along with Windows 7 to learn more about the key specifications and usability.

If a business plans to purchase new devices for the Windows XP migration process, it is suggested to go for touch devices like tablets and laptops with touch capabilities. It’s high time folks, fortify your business for the future OS migrations.

The post Windows XP Death Defined – Microsoft to Pull off its Support appeared first on Techieapps.

For those who are not aware of Unique Device Identifiers, all mobile devices have a UDID, which is being utilized as an identifier by those advertisers & app developers seeking highly detailed data to be used for ad-targeting and to keep a track of unique users. But UDID became a security risk as identifiers sometimes stick to the delicate private information. Apple had been warning from past one year that it would end support for UDIDs and the company set a hard deadline last month finally.

Apart from UDID changes, Google has also fixed the number of bugs and included some enhancements in the version 6.40 of the Google AdMob SDK as well. You can find the release notes below:

Today we’re releasing version 6.4.0 of the Google AdMob SDK for iOS developers. In addition to the maintenance and bug fixes listed below, this version of the SDK completes the transition away from UDID, which began with version 6.2, in compliance with relevant Apple policies.

• There are a number of maintenance updates and bug fixes including:
• No longer accesses the UDID
• Fix for GADInterstitial crash that occurs when app is running in the background
• Fix for GADMRAID Interceptor threading crash
• Renaming symbols to prevent duplicate symbol errors
• Support for receiving test ads when using AdMob through mediation
• Test ads are only available on devices running iOS 6 and above

Admob started moving away from UDIDs last year with the roll out of SDK version 6.2, but it didn’t set a final deadline to switch until the latest version 6.4 is released.

It has been reported earlier that Apple Inc. tried to overtake AdMob(a leader in mobile advertising) before Google succeed in snatching it up three years ago for $750 million. The iPad and iPhone manufacturer ended up in buying Quattro wireless(the biggest competitor of Admob) to develop its iAds platform..

The post Google Retires UDID Access, Updates AdMob iOS SDK Before Apple’s May 1 Deadline appeared first on Techieapps.

This device’s predecessor, the Samsung Galaxy S III, has been hugely successful and over 50 million units have been shipped to date. So, what has the Galaxy S4 got that can top it?

Key features

• 7.9mm thickness
• 5-inch Full HD super AMOLED display
• Textured polycarbonate shell
• 1.6GHz Exynos Octa-Core Processor (specific territories only)
• 13 megapixel camera

There’s loads of innovative functionality offered by the Galaxy S4 that makes it one of the most advanced mobile phones ever released. Here’s a glimpse of some of the new features sported by the Samsung flagship…

Dual Camera

The Dual Camera feature allows users to use both rear and front cameras simultaneously when taking photos and recording videos. Both photos and videos can be blended together to create one seamless image or clip using effects to alter the size of the pictures and make the two frames naturally integrate. The use of both cameras at the same time means Dual Video Call is also possible, so if there’s a huddled gang of people in front of the rear-facing camera, users can also be involved in the call via the front-facing snapper.

Story Album

Story Album is a cool function that gathers together photos, videos, memos, location and weather information and turns that into a photo album. This means users can keep a record of exactly what was happening on special occasions and events via their smartphone. Users can then have these digital albums printed and delivered as a tangible real life album to flick back through anytime they like, so reminiscing isn’t always restricted to staring at their mobile phones.

Smart Scroll & Smart Pause

For the extremely lazy (you know who you are), the Galaxy S4 features Smart Scroll, a feature that lets users scroll up and down in browsers and emails by using facial recognition and tilt. The feature is pretty clever, as it recognizes the user’s face when they look at the screen, and then senses the movements made by their wrists and scrolls the pages up and down accordingly. Smart Pause uses the same technology to pause videos when you look away from the screen, so users don’t have to stop them manually.

This is just a sample of some of the new functionality the Galaxy S4 has to offer, and judging by them, the device seems to be the most exciting handset release of the year so far. Recent insight from Phones 4u shows 40% more people registered an interest in the Galaxy S4 in the first 48 hours after its release than after the Galaxy S III launch. Does this mean it’s going to be the best selling smartphone of 2013? With Apple waiting in the wings with its next iPhone release there could be some competition before the year is out, and although Samsung shouldn’t get too comfortable just yet, it’s definitely pulled something special out the bag with the Galaxy S4.

This guest post was written by Abbi Cox of Phones 4u, where you can register your interest in the Samsung Galaxy S4 to be notified when the handset goes on sale. 

The post The Samsung Galaxy S4 Has Landed appeared first on Techieapps.

Firefox beta for Android includes custom open-source fonts, Open Sans and Charis. These two new fonts will substitute the default Android fonts for which the company claims “a visually appealing and clear reading experience.”

As far as the HTML5 compatibility optimizations are concerned, the beta rollout comes out with advancements to HTML5 compatibility which was tested on HTML5test.com. Mozilla now claims that Firefox for Android platform scores 411 along with 14 bonus points out of 500.

Check Out the Full Firefox 21 Beta for Android Changelog

• NEW: Shipping Open Sans and Charis fonts for Web Content.
• NEW: Ability to save media files on a long tap.
• CHANGED: Polished UI based on Holo theme.
• CHANGED: CSS -moz-user-select:none selection changed to improve compatibility with -webkit-user-select:none (bugs 816298).
• CHANGED: Graphics-related performance improvements (bug 809821).
• CHANGED: Removed E4X support from SpiderMonkey.
• DEVELOPER: Implemented Remote Profiling.
• DEVELOPER: Integrated, Add-on SDK loader and API libraries into Firefox.
• DEVELOPER: DOM/content implementation for <input type=’time’> Associated bugs.
• HTML5: Added support for <main> element.
• HTML5: Implemented scoped stylesheets.
• FIXED: The download Manager page is not updated after clearing private data (777639).
• FIXED: In content, UI cut off on small screens (840593).

The New Firefox beta for Android can be downloaded now from Google Play Store. The stable version of Firefox for android is expected to be rolled out next month.

The post Firefox 21 Beta For Android is Out, Gets HTML5 Compatibility Optimizations and New Fonts appeared first on Techieapps.

In this article, we pit the top of the cellular heavyweights in each category against each other to help you decide which will reign supreme, and possibly take up that coveted place in your pocket or purse.

Apple iPhone 5

Apple’s mantra in the smart phone is design, design, design. Leaving the glass and plastic of its predecessor in the dust, the iPhone 5 is a sleek, rounded, lightweight and beautiful piece of technology.

Sporting a 4 inch display screen and an 8MP rear-facing camera, Apple is still behind in the game when it comes to screen resolution. Although the iPhone 5’s screen is longer than previous models, many smart phones this year will be released with a high-definition 1080p screen resolution while iPhone 5 is still using the trusty retina display system it has used in the past.

Apple’s user interface is easy to use and has always been a failsafe part of their formula, however it hasn’t been tweaked and revamped in years and might do with a face-lift at some point. Not to mention the new iOS 6 was released with several bugs, like the disastrous maps gaffe, which caused trouble in the ranks of Apple enthusiasts.

The Apple iPhone retails for $650 off-contract, and $199 with a two-year contract plan with an approved carrier.

Samsung Galaxy S4

Over the past three years, Samsung’s Galaxy S series has slowly by surely been upping the stakes against its main rival Apple iPhone, selling 74.3 million units versus Apple’s 133.7 million in 2012. This is a significant increase from its 9.6 million units in 2010.

Samsung has taken its extremely popular S3 and given it more powerful punch by decking out the features. Lighter and thinner, the phone has a bigger screen at 5 inches and greater resolution at 1080p. The camera is loaded with an astounding 13MP rear-facing camera for sharper and clearer images, and the processor is an astounding 8 core processor compared to the average 4 core in most smart phones. This makes the S4 currently one of, if not THE fastest phone on the market.

The Galaxy S4’s suggested retail price was unveiled to be very similar to the iPhone 5, coming in at around $650 off-contract. But, of course, signing with a carrier and committing to a two-year contract can lighten the load by a few hundred bucks.

HTC One

Coming off the high of their super popular Desire series, HTC is back in a daring attempt to knock out their competitors with an all metal, lightening fast gunslinger – HTC One.

Sporting a 4.7inch HD screen and a 1.7GHz quad-core chip processor, HTC One has taken the battle on a software level. Redesigning their user interface, the phone now boasts Blinkfeed to greet its users upon unlocking the phone. Blinkfeed is a constantly updated stream of information from over 1,400 news partners including Twitter and Facebook. Clicking buttons or swiping away Blinkfeed gives way to the familiar row of icons that most Android and Apple phones use.

At first glance, users may see the 4MP on the spec list and think HTC have gone mad by offering a camera so weak. In fact, engineers behind the scenes have redesigned the software to allow fewer pixels to take higher quality images – even in low light settings. The phone also offers first of its kind technology by allowing the creation of short movies from high quality stills to upload on social networks like Vine.

This model clocks in at around $599 off-contract.

Kate Simmons is a freelance writer and Smartphone enthusiast – she’s always connected and knows all the phones, apps and the rest. She currently represents CLEAR-internet.com, one of the best 4G providers out there.

The post Smartphone Rivalry: Making The Ultimate Choice appeared first on Techieapps.

This update was long sought after and is a much needed one as the Twitter experience on Android required a fresh lease of life. The previous one had lagged behind the iOS version, both in terms of looks and functionality. The regular design that had been annoying many has been given a miss and there is no longer the presence of an artificial ‘margin” or border along the edges of the time-line.

Before the Update

After the Update

The new look and feel has been given considerable time and research as tweets now span from edge to edge and the time-line is overall taller than the previous one. The tweets are the luring part of the social networking giant and not the previously present useless borders. Though on the iOS version update they are omni-present.

The latest release also inculcates the fact that a flat Android-Holo-esque navigation bar has been added that gives the app a ‘native ‘ feel on the Android platform. The previous one whereas depicted a hotch-potch look of its iOS and Web versions. This update gives it a homely feeling and can be considered as a more ‘Android’ app.

Wait, there’s more to this update. More Android conventions are in the pipeline to mark a presence on this app in this edition. A tap-and-hold- quick action menu that allows the access to favorites, retweets, etc. will also make an impact. Using the Android’s ‘edge swipe’ gesture, there’s an additional feature as well and it is the ability to swipe between tabs. This gives a quick zip through sections, which is lacking in the iOS version.

Together with the above additions, inclusion of automatic suggestions of usernames and hashtags has also been added, which were lacking before. An update from the officials has confirmed that its Web apps have been updated to support the latest app install Cards.

Twitter on Android

The post Twitter on an Android App Updating Spree: Fresh Life Added appeared first on Techieapps.