Facebook has pledged to either sell shares to the public by April 2012 or publicly file its financial data, according to an offering memorandum from Goldman Sachs sent to prospective investors in the social networking company. The company, based in Palo Alto, Calif., posted $355 million in profit on $1.2 billion in revenue during the first nine months of 2010.

The news of Facebook’s potential I.P.O. answers a question that received much attention since  news emerged that the Securities and Exchange Commission had started an inquiry into the rapidly growing market into trading in the private shares of Facebook.

Since DealBook broke the news of the S.E.C.’s inquiry, there has been much speculation over whether Facebook is running afoul of a rule that requires companies with more than 499 shareholders to publicly report its financial results.

Apple today launched its new App Store to deliver apps to Mac desktop and laptop computers. According to Apple, the Mac App Store opened up with over 1,000 apps — of both the free and paid variety — ready for downloading.

Customers of the Apple’s iTunes, which supplies apps to iPhones, iPod Touches, and iPads, will find familiar app categories that range from games to productivity. Apps currently available include third-party apps as well as a few of Apple’s own creations. Customers will be able to purchase the ’11 versions of the iPhoto, iMovie, and Garageband apps for $14.99 apiece. There’s also apps for Apple programs Pages, Keynote and Numbers that are marked at $17.99. Aperture 3, Apple’s high-end photo-editing program, is going for $79.99.

The Mac App Store will reportedly keep in place the same developer compensation model used for the iOS app store: developers will keep 70 percent of revenues with Apple taking a 30 percent cut.

The Mac App Store is being made available as part of an update to the Snow Leopard 10.6 OS X. Users who don’t run the Snow Leopard OS X 10.6 on their computers won’t be able to update to 10.6.6, and will be shut out from the Mac App Store.

Tango video calls is an app that allows for users to enjoy the benefits of the front facing camera on the iPhone 4 to make a video call over their cellular 3G network. Tango Features:

• Free video calling to your friends and family around the world, wherever you are
• Call between iPhone and other smartphones on 3G and Wi-Fi
• Populates Tango Contacts automatically from existing phone contact list
• Invite friends and others by e-mail or text
• Switch cameras and swap screens to show what is around you
• Move between video to audio and back to video
• Simple and easy to use
• Create an account in less than five seconds – New profile not required

So we’ve got Apple’s own FaceTime, and now Fring, Yahoo!,  Tango and  Skype .

Soucre tauw.com

Wi-Fi Sync, a jailbreak app available in the Cydia Store for $9.99 which allows you to sync content to and from iTunes over a Wi-Fi network, will be getting an update in December allowing for wireless syncing functionality over your iPhone’s data connection. That’s right, soon you won’t even need to be connected to your home or office WiFi network in order to get your iTunes sync on, let alone being tethered to your Mac or PC via a sync cable! From MacStories:

“Today Hughes confirmed the announced feature set and gave us a release date: Wi-Fi Sync 2.0 is coming this December, and the iPod Touch 4th gen will also be supported. As you can see on the official website, over-the-air sync for iTunes is still there, which means no feature has been scraped during development.”

Apple and Verizon Wireless announced this morning a partnership that would bring the iPad to Verizon Wireless Stores across the U.S. on October 28. While the collaboration won’t see Verizon compatible technology embedded in the iPad, it will bundle the iPad Wi-Fi with a Verizon MiFi 2200 Mobile Hotspot.

The iPad will be available in three bundles:

• Apple iPad 16GB + MiFi: $629.99
• Apple iPad 32GB + MiFi: $729.99
• Apple iPad 64GB + MiFi: $829.99

As far as data plans for the iPad, Verizon will offer one: Up to 1GB of data for $20 per month.

Industry sources are saying since facing intense competition from phone makers wedded to Google’s Android software, Steven P. Jobs, Apple’s chief executive, finally plans to make the iPhone available on VerizonWireless, the largest wireless carrier in the United States.

Today the US Patent and Trademark Office approved a patent Apple filed in 2008, which, get this, prevents users from sending or receiving “objectionable” text messages.  The patent’s official title? “Text-based communication control for personal communication device” which actually doesn’t use the pretty ridiculous noun/verb“Sexting,” but come on, we all know what they mean.

The “Sexting” patent background info states that the problem it solves is that there is currently “No way to monitor and control text communications to make them user appropriate. For example, users such as children may send or receive messages (intentionally or not) with parentally objectionable language.”

Here’s the text of the patent, via TechCrunch:

Systems, devices, and methods are provided for enabling a user to control the content of text-based messages sent to or received from an administered device. In some embodiments, a message will be blocked (incoming or outgoing) if the message includes forbidden content. In other embodiments, the objectionable content is removed from the message prior to transmission or as part of the receiving process. The content of such a message is controlled by filtering the message based on defined criteria. The criteria may be defined according to a parental control application. These techniques also may be used, in accordance with instructional embodiments, to require the administered devices to include certain text in messages. These embodiments might, for example, require that a certain number of Spanish words per day be included in e-mails for a child learning Spanish.

It’s not yet understood how it will be implemented in Apple’s iPhone products So far it seems that  it will work with the phone’s built-in text-messaging application. Other texting apps aim to prevent texting while driving and let iPhone users send text messages without incurring charges from AT&T, the mobile carrier that has exclusive rights to the iPhone in the U.S.

source:CNN

First the Antenna now the glass…  Apple‘s iPhone 4 glass is 82% more likely to shatter than the glass on the iPhone 3GS.

The report comes from independent warranty provider SquareTrade, which claims:

• “iPhone 4 owners reported 82% more damaged screens in the first 4 months compared to iPhone 3GS owners.”
• “Overall, the reported accident rate for iPhone [the] 4 was 68% higher than for the iPhone 3GS.”
• “An estimated 15.5% of iPhone 4 owners will have an accident within a year of buying their phone.”

SquareTrade concludes:

“With just 4 months of data, it’s clear that the iPhone 4 is significantly more prone to physical damage than its predecessor. The aluminosilicate glass seem[s] to crack at least as often as the old glass, and there is now twice as much surface area to break.

Despite this troubling increase, it’s important to take the accident rate into perspective. Overall, the iPhone is still a very well constructed device, with a non-accident malfunction rate much lower than most other consumer electronics.”

This is definitely a big problem for Apple.  SquareTrade states that the iPhone 4 is breaking 82% more than the iPhone 3GS. A sample group of about 20,000 iPhone owners, SquareTrade actually found that 3.9% of iPhone 4s suffered broken glass in the first four months, in contrast to 2.1% with the iPhone 3GS. Well  s771 broken iPhone 4s (out of 20,000), compared to 427 broken iPhone 3GS screens, so,  avoid dropping your iPhone 4.

The Social good movement has revolutionized and re-energized fundraising, with mobile apps  The ability to help others is now a tap away.

Here are five iPhone apps to help in the fight against poverty.

1. Make Poverty History

The white bandwith the words “Make Poverty History” can be purchased as a background for your phone for $0.99, with 100% of the profits going to charity.

With more than 50 million iPhones sold world wide, and more than 3 billion apps downloaded, if every iPhone owner was to download this one app, it would definitely be a start towards making poverty history.

2. Give Work

Give Work is a free app designed to benefit the refugees in the developing world. This app is a little strange: It asks you to complete a task on your phone and a person in a developing region will do the same thing. Your partner will get paid for both tasks.

The organization behind the app, Samasource, works with refugees by giving them “life-changing opportunities via the Internet.” Samasource says that in doing so they “enable socially responsible companies, small businesses, nonprofits, and entrepreneurs in the U.S. to contribute to economic development by buying services from our workforce at fair prices.”

3. Compassion

Here is an app to tug on your heartstrings and open your check book. Compassion gives you access to information on child poverty from its blog, and connects you to the organization’s Facebook Page andTwitter feed. Compassion International is a Christian child advocacy group that began providing Korean War orphans with aid and Christian values.

With this app, you can search through profiles of children in need of aid in Africa, Asia, Central and South America, and the Caribbean and make your selection of who you’d like to sponsor. If sponsorship is not for you, there is also the option to donate directly from your phone to the Disaster Relief Fund.

4. CauseWorld

CauseWorld is a geolocation app that allows you to check in, earning you karma points instead of badges, which you can cash-in as donations to charities.

The app has you performing “good deeds” just for walking into a stores like Trader Joe’s and Borders. Sponsors like Proctor and Gamble, Citibank and Kraft donate money for your checkins. You can choose where the money is going: Poverty in Africa, Chilean relief efforts, clean water initiatives, chimpanzee habitats, tree planting efforts, education, and cancer research are just some of the deserving causes. You can earn more karma points by scanning the barcodes of specific products, and you can download certain associated iPhone apps, both free and paid, to earn more karma.

To date, CauseWorld and its karma have been able to offset 1.4 million pounds of carbon, raise more than $100,00 for Haiti and Chile, donate more than 228,000 meals to hungry Americans, plant more than 58,000 trees in rain forests, donate more than 24,000 books to children, and provide more than 18 million liters of clean drinking water.

If you are going to check in somewhere it might as well count for something good, right?

5. Donation Connect

If you’re a busy person, it’s sometimes difficult to talk to the college-aged kid canvassing on the street for charity even if you really want to. Here is an easy solution: Donation Connect brings all your valued charities right to your phone.

Download the app and hit “Find a charity.” You’ll be directed to a list of categories where you can pick which charity you’d like to support. The amount that you choose to give will then be charged to your wireless bill or deducted from your prepaid balance. You’ll never not have time to give again.

source

Microsoft revealed that it will offer a Mac version of the Zune software by the end of the year. In a Twitter tweet that was subsequently removed, a Microsoft source stated, “I’m glad to confirm that Mac users would be able to use Zune on their Macs to sync with [Windows Phone 7].”

Apple’s iTunes software has been available for the Windows operating system for years, Microsoft’s Zune has not.

However, both the Apple iPhone, and the recently unveiledWindows Phone 7 smartphones rely on the respective music and digital content platforms to sync the smartphones with music, photos, and other data. Allowing Mac OS X users to join in the Windows Phone 7 fun by providing Zune for the Apple OS makes strategic sense.

Stay tune for more info.

Kaplan and game maker Aspyr Media have adapted their SAT test prep video game, FutureU, for iPhone and iPad devices.

The free FutureU SAT study game — which includes four $1.99 in-app premium upgrades for additional levels.

The application includes games designed around three key study areas: reading, writing and math.

“Students are always on the go and busier than ever. So for us to work with Kaplan to develop a mobile version of futureU for the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch devices that allows students to study — even when they might only have a few extra minutes here and there — just made sense,” Aspyr Media CEO Michael Rogers says.

Apple’s mobile devices are trending towards becoming educational and learning tools now that respected educational publishers mold their textbooks and learning tools for iPhone or iPad.