Recently, T-Mobile has released a new FaceBook application, called Bobsled, powered by Vivox, which enables users to have a one-on-one voice chat with any of their FaceBook friends, right within FaceBook, provided both users have downloaded and installed the browser plug-in.

Once you download and install the Bobsled plug-in, you should be able to see a little green phone icon, located next to the names of your contacts in the FaceBook chat window. When you want to initiate a Bobsled call to one of your FaceBook friends, all you need to do is click on their name, which should bring up a chat window.

Within that chat window, there should be an area at the top of the window, where you can see small profile pictures of both the person you would like to chat with, as well as yourself. Between the two profile pictures, is a “Call” button, which, when clicked, initiates a Bobsled call to the other user, who will be prompted to answer or reject the call.

When a user answers, you can chat with them, right from within FaceBook, and can even navigate to other pages within FaceBook without causing the call the “drop” or end. However, if you do navigate to a website other than FaceBook, the call will be ended, similar to how you would be signed out of a regular chat.

However, if a user rejects your call or if you call and then click on the “Cancel” button, you will be given the option to leave the person you are trying to call a voicemail, as well as the option to write a message. Alternatively, the voicemail  prompt window allows you record a voicemail and then send it, as well as any text that you wrote, as a private message.

Also within the Bobsled chat window interface, there are four links, which are “Share”, “Audio Setup”, “Feedback”, and “Help”. The “Share” link allows you to let another FaceBook user know about Bobsled, as well as allows you to include your own, personal message.

The “Audio Settings” link enables users to configure and test their microphone and speaker settings, while the “Feedback” link brings up a window that enables users to provide feedback about Bobsled, as well as provides access to some helpdesk and feedback questions.

The “Help” link will bring up a new window, with a variety of frequently asked questions and help topics regarding T-Mobile’s Bobsled service.

I actually tried using T-Mobile’s Bobsled service a few days ago and think it is a neat service. I thought the call quality was pretty good and was able to hear the person I was chatting with pretty well.

However, it appeared as though our call dropped a few times, but with every VoIP service, it happens from time to time. Overall, though, I enjoyed using T-Mobile’s Bobsled service and would recommend it to anyone who would like to be able to chat with their FaceBook friends, right from within the FaceBook chat interface.

If you would like to learn more about T-Mobile’s Bobsled service, powered by Vivox, you can do so by going to the official Bobsled website, as well as by checking out this article from MobileCrunch and this article from Engadget.

Have you tried using T-Mobile’s Bobsled service? If so, please feel free to leave a comment below with your thoughts or opinions!

Last Thursday, April 14, Google posted a new blog post to their Official GMail Blog, announcing that users are now able to create their own, custom, GMail themes.

While GMail had previously provided users the ability to customize their theme’s colors, users could not use any custom images with their theme. However, GMail users can now create a completely custom theme, complete with colors and images of their choosing.

If you would like to create your own, custom, theme, you can do so by logging into your GMail account and going to the “Themes” section of the “Settings” menu.

From there, users can click on the “Create your own theme” button, which will load a pop-up window, where users can edit their theme. The pop-up windows shows a rather simple version of some attributes that are found in the GMail interface, all of which can be edited, including text, links, subject text, snippet text, as well as the background.

In order to edit one of these attributes, users can click on the attribute they would like to edit, causing a drop down box to appear, which provides a variety of different colors to choose from. For frames, users can choose a background color, text color, as well as a link color.

However, the main two backgrounds, the main area of the interface, and the footer, can can be customized with an image, which can be chosen from a user’s Picasa account or uploaded from their computer. Then, users can choose the alignment and tiling options for their images.

When a user is done creating a custom theme, all they need to do is click on the “Save” button, at the bottom of the theme editor pop-up window. Should someone make a mistake or wish to start over, they can click on the “Reset” button, located next to the “Save” button.

For more information about about creating themes with custom backgrounds in GMail, you should check out this post from the Official GMail Blog.

Have you tried using the new theme creator? If so, please feel free to leave a comment below and let us know what you think!

While there are many people who use FaceBook to keep in touch with family, friends, co-workers, as well as other people, many of those people may not know about the various security settings that FaceBook has to offer or how to use them.

Configuring your security settings on FaceBook is quick and simple and can help to keep your information safe from people whom you do know want to have access to it.

If you would like to view or configure your FaceBook account’s security settings, you can do so by logging into your account and then clicking on the “Account” button, which is located in the top right of the FaceBook interface. From there, you should click on the “Privacy Settings” link, which will take you to the security settings page.

On the FaceBook Privacy Settings page, there are six different privacy and security options that you can view and configure, including “Connecting on FaceBook”, “Sharing on FaceBook”, “Apps and Websites”, “Block Lists”, and “Controlling How You Share”. Each of these options has different effects on your FaceBook account’s privacy and security and can be used to decide who gets to view what on your profile and who does not.

The first security and privacy option on this page is the “Connecting on FaceBook” link, which when clicked, takes you to a page where there are seven different settings that have to do with how other people can find your FaceBook account, how they can contact you, as well as what information on your profile they can see.

The second option on the “Choose Your Privacy Settings” page is the “Sharing on FaceBook” option, which you can use to control which information you share with other users. There are four different preset privacy settings that you can choose for this, which are “Everyone”, “Friends of Friends”, and “Friends Only”. There are also “Recommended” settings, as well as the ability to set “Custom” settings, so you can manually decide who is able to view what information on your FaceBook profile.

The next security and privacy option would be the “Apps and Websites” section, which provides you with information as to how many FaceBook applications you use, as well as the most recent applications that you have used along with the date that you last used a particular application.

Also on this page, users can view and configure which information is available to third-party applications, who is able to see which apps you use, which information you are able to see about a friend on an application’s website, as well as whether or not you would like a preview of your FaceBook profile to be shown when someone does a search for you using a search engine, such as Google.

Another section that allows users to configure their FaceBook security is the “Block Lists” section. This section enables users to block users from sending application invites, event invites, or to block someone altogether.

In order to block someone from sending application or e-mail invites, you should type their name into the text field, which should start auto-suggesting names for you. Once you have entered or selected the name of the person you would like to block from sending you application or event invites, you can press the “Enter” or “Return” key to block them.

If you would like to block someone altogether, which means that neither you, nor the person being blocked, will be able to see each other’s profiles anymore, you can enter the person’s name or e-mail address into the respective text field, and click on the “Block” button. You can, however, unblock a user by clicking on the “Blocked Users” link, and choosing to unblock them.

Also on the FaceBook “Privacy Settings” page, is a link to a “Controlling How You Share” guide, which provides users with information about a variety of different privacy tools and options.

Hopefully this post has been able to help FaceBook users understand the different security settings that are available to them and how to better use them.

Do you have any tips or tricks on how to have a safe and secure account on FaceBook? If so, please feel free to post them in the comments section below!

As you may have already heard, Amazon recently launched a service called Cloud Drive, their own online file storage solution, which allows users to upload up to 5GB worth of documents, files, and music to their servers, for free. In addition, Amazon also launched a new service, Cloud Player, which allows users to play media files, such as music, that is stored on their Cloud Drive accounts.

Amazon’s Cloud Drive is similar to Microsoft’s Windows Live SkyDrive, in that it allows users to create an account and upload music and many other types of files to Amazon’s servers, in order to store it online. However, unlike Windows Live SkyDrive, any music album that is purchased from AmazonMP3 automatically gets added to a user’s Amazon Cloud Drive.

In addition, if a user purchases an album from AmazonMP3, they will automatically receive a free storage upgrade to 20GB for a year, which would normally cost $20. However, any albums or songs that you have previously purchased will not be automatically added to your Cloud Drive.

Also, there are more storage upgrades available, including $50 for 50GB of space, $100 for 100GB of space, and so on. These upgrades go all the way up to 1TB of storage space, which would cost users $1,000.

If you would like to upload music to your Cloud Drive from your computer, you are allowed to do so, but any of the files that you upload must be free of DRM, or digital rights management.

Amazon Cloud Player is the web-based music player that users can use to listen to any of the songs that are on their Cloud Drive accounts, including purchases from the AmazonMP3 store. Amazon Cloud Player also works on Android devices, as it is built into the AmazonMP3 application, which can be downloaded from the Android Marketplace, as well as Android’s AppStore. However, there is not currently a Cloud Player application for iPhones or other iOS devices.

For more information about Amazon Cloud Drive or Amazon’s Cloud Player,  you should check out this article from TechCrunch, as well as the official “Getting Started” guide from the Amazon website.

As probably know, every year on April Fool’s Day, a bunch of websites and technology companies, such as Google, Hulu, Groupon, Spotify, as well as others,  come up with jokes and pranks to pull on their users. Below are three of these such pranks, which you may find interesting.

GMail – GMail Motion

If you went to the GMail website today, with the intent of checking your e-mail, you may have noticed that there was a box announcing “GMail Motion”, which enables users to access and navigate around their GMail accounts by making certain gestures and body movements, which would be picked up by their webcam.

Google even created a help page for the “GMail Motion” product, explaining what it is, how it works, which motions will do what within GMail, as well as some other information. Also on this page was a YouTube video, explaining this new feature, which I have posted below.

However, when users go to click on the “Try GMail Motion” button, located near the top right of the help page, a black box appears with a loading bar beneath it. Once the box has reached 100%, it will display a message reading “April Fools! Gmail Motion doesn’t actually exist. At least not yet…” and also offers users to either sign into their GMail accounts or to close the pop-up box.

Groupon – April Fool’s Day Patent

Another interesting April Fool’s Day prank was one that the daily deals website Groupon did, which was claiming that they actually filed for the patent for “April Fool’s Day” and changing the holiday’s name to “Groupon Presents April Fools’ Day™”.

Also, on this page of the Groupon website, it is explained that people will never have to be confused again with another corporation’s April Fool’s Day joke”You’ll never again be confused by other corporations’ April 1 pranks, since Groupon will be taking friendly, but swift, but hostile, legal actions against any nonlicensed April Fools’ Day™ joke.”

Groupon even went as far as to file a “patent” for April Fool’s Day, which you can also find a link to on their April Fool’s Day page.

YouTube – YouTube 1911

YouTube is another website that came up with something for April Fool’s Day, creating a blog post saying that today is the website’s 100th anniversary and that in order to reflect on the site’s inaugural year, they would post a re-print of their first blog post from 1911.

Also, on some YouTube videos, there is an option to actually make a video look as though it was created in the early 1900’s, by making a video appear as though it is a silent film, with the exception of a piano soundtrack playing along with the video, by making the video appear as though it’s being projected and is in a sepia-like color.

I hope you have enjoyed reading about these three April Fool’s Day pranks that have been pulled on the visitors of GMail, Groupon, and YouTube! For a more complete list of websites and tech companies that have created April Fool’s Day pranks, I’d suggest that you check out this article from TechCrunch, as well as this article from PCMag.com.

What is your opinion of these April Fool’s Day jokes? How do you think they compare to the jokes that were created in the past years? Please feel free to post your thoughts and opinions in the comments below!

Earlier today, Mozilla FireFox 4, the latest version of the popular web browser, which has been in beta since July 6, 2010, was released as the latest stable update to the FireFox browser.

Mozilla’s FireFox 4 browser launched with some new features, as well as some updates, as well. One of the most noticeable features of FireFox 4 is its new interface, which has moved its tabs above the address bar, similar to how tabs are organized in Google’s Chrome browser.

The new interface also includes new features, such as the ability to pin “application tabs”, another feature which is available in Google Chrome. An application, or “app”, tab allows users to essentially “pin” the tabs of websites that they frequently use, to the front of any other tabs which may be open, making it so users are able to quickly find their tabs, as they’ll always be on the left of any others.The “app” tabs also enable users to close FireFox 4 and open it again, without having to reload any pinned tabs, as they will be “pinned” open.

Also, the updated interface in FireFox 4 features the ability to find and open any tab that’s in the “Awesome Bar”, FireFox’s name for the Smart Location Bar or address bar, without having to open duplicate tabs.

Another new feature is that users can now create “Panoramas”, which are separate groupings of tabs, enabling users to better organize their tabs, especially when they have many open tabs. Users can create new “Panoramas” by clicking on the arrow, located above the “Home” button, in the top right of the browser, and then clicking on “Tab Groups”.

Mozilla FireFox 4 also allows users to use a feature called FireFox Sync, which has been around for a while now and could be used with the previous versions of FireFox. FireFox Sync allows users to access a variety of different things, such as their Awesome Bar history, bookmarks, open tabs, and even password and form data from multiple computers, as well as mobile devices.

In addition, there is a new version of the Add-on Manager, which enables users to view and configure any add-ons that they may have installed within FireFox. The new add-on manager, however, allows users to easily discover different add-ons, with over 200,000 to choose from, which they can then install within their browser.

The newest version of Mozilla FireFox is also more secure and private than previous versions of the browser. FireFox 4 includes some features, such as “Do Not Track”, which allows users to opt out of any tracking that may be used for “behavioral advertising”.

Another safety feature is HTTP Secure Transfer Security, which tries to establish secure connections between web servers and a computer, in order to prevent “man in the middle” attacks. Mozilla FireFox 4 also supports Content Security Policy, or CSP, which allows websites to tell a browser which content is legitimate. There are also some other security updates in FireFox 4, including bug fixes and such.

FireFox 4 also features support for HTML 5, an addition to their JavaScript engine, as well as support for other technologies. Also, if a user is on a website that causes plug-ins, such as Adobe Flash, Apple’s Quicktime, or Microsoft’s Silverlight, their browsing will not be interrupted by a browser crash. Instead, users can simply refresh the page or the plugin, all without having to completely close their browser.

For more for information about Mozilla FireFox 4, the lastest version of the popular browser by Mozilla, you should check out this post on the official Mozilla Blog. If you would like to download or upgrade to the latest version of Mozilla FireFox, you can do so from the official Mozilla website.

Have you used Mozilla FireFox 4? If so, what are your opinions? Please feel free to post your comments below!

As you may have already heard, AT&T, Inc. has entered a definitive agreement to acquire Deutsche Telekom AG’s T-Mobile USA for $39 billion.

This deal is expected to take about 12 months to complete, as there are regulatory approvals and such that have to first be addressed. In this deal, Deutsche Telekom AG will be receiving $25 billion in cash and the difference of $14 billion in shares of AT&T stock.

However, according to the AT&T press release, AT&T has the right to increase the cash portion of their payment up to $4.2 billion, while reducing the amount of stock shares that will be given to Deutche Telekom AG, as long as Deutche Telekom AG receives a five percent equity ownership interest in AT&T, Inc.

With the purchase of T-Mobile, AT&T customers should see improvements in their service, such as the quality of calls, as AT&T will have a broader spectrum and will also gain a number of cell sites, which were previously owned by T-Mobile.

According to AT&T, the company will be gaining the equivalent of what would take five or more years to build, had they not been purchased from T-Mobile. These cell towers should increase the density of AT&T’s network by about 30 percent in some of its most populated areas, without the need to build additional cell towers.

It will be interesting to see how the acquisition of T-Mobile by AT&T, Inc. will affect the other cell phone service providers in the United States, such as Verizon and Sprint.

For more information about AT&T’s acquisition of Deutsche Telekom AG’s T-Mobile USA, you should check out both AT&T’s official press release and and T-Mobile’s press release on the subject. Also, this article from Yahoo! News provides some information on this, so you may want to check it out, as well.

What do you think of this acquisition and what do you think will happen with the other cell phone service providers? Please feel free to leave a comment below with your opinions!

Recently, the Finnish company, Rovio, the company behind the popular iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad game, Angry Birds, has recently raised $42 million in series A funding.

This round of funding was lead by Accel Partners, as well as Atomico Ventures, which is a venture capital firm that was created by one of Skype’s co-founders, Niklas Zennstrom, who will also be joining the board at Rovio. Another participant in this round of funding was Felicis Ventures, which is a “super-angel fund”.

Rovio said that they will be using the money raised from this round of funding in order to expand its reach to an international level, as well as to expand their product base to other markets, including mobile gaming, social networking, as well as other markets.

Rovio, which is based in Espoo, Finland, currently has 50 employees and created the popular Angry Birds game, which has around 40 million active monthly users.

Angry Birds is available from the Apple App Store for $0.99, but there is also a free, lite, version that users can download as well.

For more information about the recent $40 million round of Series A Funding that Rovio has raised, you should check out this article from TechCrunch, as well as this article from Yahoo! News or this article from Boston.com.

As you probably already know, yesterday, off the coast of Japan, there was a large, 8.9-9.1 M_w earthquake, which then triggered tsunami warnings for many different areas, including Japan, Hawaii, and the whole West Coast of the United States.

However, due to the earthquake and following tsunami waves, which slammed into the east coast of the country, Japan suffered some major damage, killing hundreds of people, causing many others to go missing, as well as damaging many buildings and other areas.

When other countries have been struck with natural disasters or other devastating events, such as Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Japan often helps them out, so we should do our part to help the people of Japan during this time.

Yahoo! News has put together an article that includes links to donate to various services that are assisting and proving disaster relief services to the people of Japan, including The American Red Cross, GlobalGiving, Save The Children, The Salvation Army, Americares, Convoy of Hope, The International Medical Corps, as well as Shelter Box.

If you would like to donate to any of these organizations, you can either click on the link to the organization within this post or you can go to the Yahoo! News article, where you can find links to donate, as well as some information about each of the above organizations.

Another way that you can donate to the American Red Cross would be through the official Red Cross website, where you can choose from a variety of different causes to donate to, including the recent earthquake and the resulting tsunami off the coast of Japan.

Also, you can donate to the Red Cross by texting “REDCROSS” to the number 90999, which will donate $10 and will be added to your cell phone bill.

If you would like more up-to-date information about the recent earthquake off the coast of Japan, as well as the tsunami that was caused by this earthquake, you should visit a major news website, such as Yahoo! News or CNN.

As you probably already know, on March 2, 2011, Apple CEO Steve Jobs, who is still on medical leave from the company, took to the stage at Apple’s Special Event to announce Apple’s newest version of the iPad, the iPad 2.

Perhaps one of the most anticipated features of the iPad 2 would be its two cameras – one on the front of the iPad and one on the back.

These two cameras can both be used for FaceTime, with the front camera letting users send live video of themselves to other FaceTime users and the back camera allowing users to show their contacts what’s going on around them. The back facing camera can record video in 720p HD and the front-facing camera can record video in VGA quality, at 30 frames per second. Both of these cameras are capable of being used to take snapshots using the PhotoBooth application.

The iPad 2 is also 33 percent thinner than the pervious model and is also lighter. The Wi-Fi version of the device has a height of 9.50 inches, a width of 7.31 inches, a depth of 0.34 inches, and a weight of 1.33 pounds. The version with combined Wi-Fi and 3G is a bit heavier, weighing 1.35 pounds and 1.34 pounds for the Verizon model.

The new version of the iPad also features a 1 GHz Apple A5 duel-core processor chip, which improves speed, but doesn’t use any additional power than Apple’s previous A4 chip.

Like the previous model of the iPad, the iPad 2 features an accelerometer, a 3-axis gyroscope, as well as a compass. However, now, all three of these features are capable of working together, which can be used to sense which direction the iPad is moving in, as well as how it’s moving. Due to this, gaming and using other applications, such as maps, will be easier, as well as more fun to use.

Another neat feature including with the iPad 2 is AirPlay, which allows users to wirelessly stream music, photos, and video to a HDTV, as well as speakers, which can be done using AirPlay enabled speakers or by using an Apple TV on a Wi-Fi network.

Similar to AirPlay is another neat feature called AirPrint, which, like you can probably guess, allows users to print webpages, e-mails, photos, and documents right from their iPad 2, provided they’re connected to a Wi-Fi network.

Also, users can now connect their iPad 2’s to a television or projector with a new feature called Video Mirroring. In order to share what’s happening on their iPad, users can simply plug a new 30-pin to HDMI adapter into their iPad and then they can plug an HDMI cable into the other end, which can then be connected to an HDMI capable device, such as a television. There is also a USB port on the 30-pin to HDMI connector so that users can charge their iPad at the same time.

Video Mirroring will also display exactly what’s on your iPad’s screen, even if you were to rotate the device from portrait mode to landscape mode or zoom in and out of pictures. This new feature is actually built into the iOS, which allows for slick, smooth, transitions.

With the new iPad 2 also comes a new cover for the device, called the iPad Smart Cover. However, unlike previous iPad covers, the Smart Cover actually secures to your iPad using two magnets, which also align the cover so that you don’t have to worry about how it looks.

The Smart Cover can also wake your iPad 2 up when you open it, and put it to sleep when you close it. In addition, the iPad Smart Cover can also be folded into a typing or movie stand. The Smart Cover comes in both polyurethane and leather, and each version comes in ten different colors.

As for the colors of the device itself, the iPad 2 will come in both black and white and both colors will be available when the device launches on March 11, 2011.

Also, the iPad 2 will be running iOS 4, which allows users to multitask, as well as other features.

The iPad 2 can be ordered from the online Apple Store, starting on March 11, 2011 or purchased from a brick-and-mortar Apple Store starting at 5:00 PM, starting on March 11, 2011. (Users who purchase the iPad 2 in-store will also receive free Personal Setup.)

For more information about the iPad 2, you should check out the iPad section of Apple’s website.