Mark E. Zuckerberg

Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook

Updated: Sept. 23, 2010
Mark Zuckerberg is the co-founder and chief executive of Facebook, the world's largest social network with nearly 500 million users around the world.
The start-up, born in a Harvard dorm room in 2004, has become an essential personal and business networking tool in much of the wired world.
As Facebook has matured, so has Mr. Zuckerberg, who was born May 14, 1984. He has traded his disheveled, unassuming image for an ever-present tie while visiting media outfits like "The Oprah Winfrey Show." And he says Facebook's most important metrics are not its membership but the percentage of the wired world that uses the site and the amount of information -- photographs, news articles and status updates -- zipping across its servers.
A new movie about the tumultuous origins of Facebook, "The Social Network," opens in October. Facebook has strenuously, and Mr. Zuckerberg more quietly, asserted that the portrayal of the company's founding is fiction. And Mr. Zuckerberg disputed the characterization of him in the film, though in a New Yorker magazine profile, he acknowledged having indulged in a bit of sophomoric arrogance.
Shortly before the film's opening, the real-life Mr. Zuckerberg made headlines with reports that he is donating $100 million to improve the long-troubled public schools of Newark, N.J. It would be by far the largest publicly known gift by Mr. Zuckerberg, whose fortune Forbes magazine estimated in 2009 was $2 billion. Mr. Zuckerberg, who grew up in Westchester County, N.Y. and now lives in California, has no particular connection to Newark. He and Newark's mayor, Cory A. Booker had met at a conference in July 2010 and began a conversation about the mayor's plans for the city.

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FACEBOOK'S ASCENT
Facebook's rise has been marked by several controversies. Three other Harvard students maintain that they came up with the original idea and that Mr. Zuckerberg, whom they had hired to write code for the site, stole the idea to create Facebook. Facebook has denied the allegations. A long-running lawsuit is pending
Another Harvard classmate, Aaron Greenspan, claims that he created the underlying architecture for both companies, but has declined to enter the legal battle.
In 2005, MTV Networks considered buying Facebook for seventy-five million dollars. Yahoo! and Microsoft soon offered much more. Mr. Zuckerberg turned them all down. Terry Semel, the former C.E.O. of Yahoo!, who sought to buy Facebook for a billion dollars in 2006, said, “I’d never met anyone—forget his age, twenty-two then or twenty-six now—I’d never met anyone who would walk away from a billion dollars. But he said, ‘It’s not about the price. This is my baby, and I want to keep running it, I want to keep growing it.’ I couldn’t believe it.”
PRIVACY ISSUES
Mr. Zuckerberg has pushed Facebook users to share more information about themselves. But Facebook users have pushed back, increasingly lobbing vociferous complaints that some new features or settings are privacy violations. The back and forth between Facebook and its users over privacy is gaining importance as the company's growth continues unabated. Facebook's policies, more than those of any other company, are helping to define standards for privacy in the Internet age.
Bowing to pressure over privacy concerns, Mr. Zuckerberg in May 2010 unveiled a set of controls that he said would help people understand what they were sharing online, and with whom.
Facebook's biggest mistake, Mr. Zuckerman said, was failing to notice that as Facebook added new features and its privacy controls grew increasingly complicated, those controls became efectively unusable for many people.
He said the crisis was challenging, but not as stressful as fending off billion-dollar acquisition offers from the likes of Yahoo and Viacom when he was 22.
In February 2009, when Facebook updated its terms, it deleted a provision that said users could remove their content at any time, at which time the license would expire. Further, it added new language that said Facebook would retain users' content and licenses after an account was terminated. After a wave of protests from its users, Facebook said that it would withdraw changes to its terms of service.
In one of the latest episodes in a string of frustrations about Facebook, users discovered in May 2010 that a glitch gave them access to supposedly private information in the accounts of their Facebook friends, like chat conversations. Although Facebook moved quickly to close the security hole, the breach heightened a feeling among many users that it was becoming hard to trust the service to protect their personal information.

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iOS 4.2 Review of Problems After Installation | Guide for Newbies

At this point, you should already know that the official iOS 4.2 is now available for all the iDevices of Apple except of course to those first generation grandpas and grandmas of iPhone / iPod Touch. Previously, we managed to tell you all the changes that’s stuffed in this update and somehow, this update managed to make the iPad shine even more. I mean, AirPrint has been one of the most coveted features for the iPad since a Tablet should have a capability to print. During the past, there has been a ton of critics who are somewhat ‘disappointed’ with the iPad just because it doesn’t cater this feature – I guess their perception will become different now, at least.

Apart from the AirPrint feature comes the AirPlay and Multitasking which performs just like what Steve Jobs has previewed during the last music event – which means it’s that good! Just make sure you have an Apple TV to maximize the capability of AirPlay to sync it in your iDevices.
Last time, we have reported some uncanny issues that’s bothering the users like the problem of WiFi on the iPad plus the removal of AirPrint feature. Today, obviously, all of those worries are now put into rest as Apple manages to solve all the bugs first before releasing this iOS 4.2 update. So far, we’ve manage to install iOS 4.2 on the iPad, iPhone 4 and iPod Touch 2G without any problems. Although, you should try to reconsider using an iOS 4 type of platform on your iDevices without the A4 chip because you will certainly feel some lag / stalling issues. So far, the only problem you may receive is if you tried to update using an outdated iTunes because the progress bar wouldn’t proceed. So make sure you download the latest 10.1 version, okay?
So do you think iOS 4.2 is a must have update for your iDevices? What are the problems you have faced while installing this new platform? Show us in the comment box below!

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iOS 4.2 review (for iPad)

If you're an iPad owner, you've probably been on pins and needles lately. That's because back in September, Apple announced that a full-scale update to the tablet's OS would be coming in the form of iOS 4.2, bringing a slew of new features to the device. Included in that laundry list is proper iOS 4-style multitasking, folders, major mail improvements, Game Center integration, and Safari enhancements (like find-in-page text searches). Besides those features, the company has been touting two other big changes that could cause a major shift in the way you use your iPad -- namely, AirPrint and AirPlay. Both additions leverage your WiFi network, certain connected printers, and the new Apple TV in an attempt to make the company's slate less like a distraction and more like the center of your digital life.

When the update was originally announced, we took you on a walkthrough of the early developer beta. Though 4.2 will roll out to the iPhone and iPod touch, we wanted to focus on the iPad version, as it represents a major change for the platform. We've had a chance to spend time with the final version of the OS (which is actually 4.2.1 now), and put it through its paces. We've updated our original guide and given the finished product a critical once over, so read on for our full review!

iOS 4.2 for iPad

Overall look and feel

As we said before, the OS is functionally identical to iOS 4 for the iPhone. If you've got a handset running the latest software, nothing will look different here. On the performance side, surprisingly (and perhaps due to the A4 purring along at 1GHz), it doesn't feel like the iPad is hurting due to RAM deficiencies or CPU strain. Even though the tablet has half the memory of the iPhone 4 (256MB compared to 512MB), we didn't see the slate struggle. Flipping in and out of apps, opening folders, and managinging large documents was completely smooth, and we didn't see a single hiccup even when playing back HD video over our network and multitasking on the device. Adding the functionality of fast app switching and backgrounding (not to mention some of the interface tweaks and tightening that seems to have been done) to the iPad finally makes the tablet feel more like a real alternative to a laptop.

Multitasking

As we said above, the iPad does an excellent job of handling multiple apps despite the fact that it's dealing with less RAM than its phone counterpart. We had no trouble running our favorite apps and switching between tasks with no break in the action. In particular, app freezing (as seen in titles like Real Racing HD), and backgrounding (which we use extensively in our favorite IRC app, Colloquy) worked without a hitch. We'll give Apple extra points for allowing us to run video or music to our Apple TV (even 720p HD content) and leave enough horsepower for gaming at the same time. We're not sure when that's really going to come in handy, but the fact that it can be done is pretty excellent.

AirPlay / AirPrint

AirPlay has been a feature of particular interest to the team here at Engadget. The premise is simple -- AirPlay compatible devices can have content "pushed" from your iPad or iPhone to that device. That means you can start watching a video or listening to music on one of Apple's mobile gadgets, and then just throw it to your Apple TV or AirPlay compatible speakers. We only had the Apple TV to test with, but in general, this feature works as advertised and should make for a handful of experiences that you probably didn't know you needed in your life, but now won't be able to live without. We did have some issues with video starting up once we'd pushed out to the ATV -- maybe we're impatient, but we found ourselves zipping the scrubber back to the start in order to get the video playing. This didn't happen every time we played video, but enough that it's worth noting. Besides just pushing local video, AirPlay allows you to send YouTube to the TV with ease, which could make sharing hilarious blooper reels considerably more social. We were under the impression that the functionality would allow you to push any video that's viewable on the device (such as our HTML5 Viddler content), but sadly this isn't the case. To be clear, that means no Hulu and no ABC video out to your TV -- a major downer in our opinion. You can get the audio out (you can push audio from anything that plays music, pretty much), and you're also able to toss photos to the TV, but the video stays locked to the iPad.

Aside from that complaint, we had a really solid experience with the feature. Though there is some lag between controlling your video and seeing the reaction onscreen, AirPlay handled most of our content perfectly. One nice feature that Apple added is the ability to sleep or dock your iPad (or iPhone) and let the content keep streaming. You can also run applications (including games, as we said) while watching your content. One weird behavior we noticed is that if you begin watching video and then single tap your home button to go back to your homescreen, your content will stop playing, but if you use multitasking to switch out to another application and then go back home, you'll be fine. It's not clear if this is intentional or not, but it was a little jarring off the bat.

AirPrint also worked out of the box as expected (we tested here with an HP Photosmart Premium C310, an AirPrint compatible device). We were able to print directly from a number of apps on the iPad with little to no trouble -- a joy considering what a roadblock this has previously been. There aren't many options when it comes to getting your content to a printer -- it's very no-frills -- though the results were excellent time after time. We're hoping that there's a big push for printer manufacturers to bring their devices up to speed with this feature. It would be a shame to have to shell out for a new printer in order to use AirPrint. You are able to utilize printers connected to other machines on your network (in OS X 10.6.5 only), but it's a slightly clunkier way to get things done.

Update: Shared printing was working when we initially set up, but now we're having issues using our networked printer. We're looking into it -- there has been some hemming and hawing in the new OS over shared printing.

Other additions

Mail - Not surprisingly, Apple has included all of its Mail improvements previously found in iOS 4. That means a unified inbox, threaded messaging, and all the rest of those tweaks have made their way to the iPad. We've been having a love affair with the iOS 4 Mail changes since we first played with the iPhone 4, but the utility of some of this stuff is really pronounced on the iPad. Just as with many of the updates in the new OS, you can really start to see the device take shape into something much more than just a large surface to play Angry Birds on.

Folders - You can now add more than 12 items to a folder. Up to 20 -- a big relief for those of us with a lot of apps hanging around our iPad Springboard. Obviously this is a no-brainer of an inclusion, but it's nice to finally have.

On This Page - "Find in page" as you know everywhere else is now active in the browser. The option is all but hidden in the Google search menu within Safari, but it operates just about like you'd expect it to. We'd like to see a less buried place for this function, but it works well and the ability to move through the searched words or terms is relatively clean and useful.

Music widget / brightness / orientation - As you probably know by now, Apple has changed the function of the physical toggle switch on the iPad -- it's now used to mute the device, while orientation lock is found in the multitasking pop-up after a swipe to the left. Originally we liked this change, as it grouped a lot of your basic tweaks together (the music widget is present on the same screen, along with a brightness control). Unfortunately, in further practice this actually proved to be a clunky way to keep your screen in one position. The method would be fine if it were something like a triple tap on the home button, but you've now got a rather complex series of actions to find the toggle (double click the home button, swipe left, tap the orientation lock). We wish the company would give users the option to decide what that switch on the side does -- you can default to this current incarnation, but we think a lot of users will not be happy with the change.

In general, we like the idea of this quick access to settings -- it's almost like Apple is taking a page from the jailbreak favorite SBSettings, which lets you access a whole mess of controls from one simple place. Of course, Apple isn't giving us nearly the kind of toggles we'd like. Bluetooth, WiFi, and 3G anyone?

Game Center - The app is present here, and looks pretty good on the big screen. There aren't a whole mess of differences between Game Center for the iPhone and the iPad version, but we went head-to-head on a handful of games and it worked as expected.

Everything else - As we said up above, there have been lots of little tweaks to the OS that make it just a little bit nicer to use. One of the standout changes is the option to select a font other than Marker Felt in the Notes application -- we know it's minor, but boy do we hate Marker Felt. Apple has also altered the animations used to switch applications to something that's a little better suited to the iPad's screen real estate. You can see that lots of care went into this update, and from the general stability we saw, it's clear that it isn't simply cosmetic.

Wrap-up

Obviously the iPad has been seriously in need of a shot in the arm when it comes to software. If you'll recall, in our original review of the device one of our biggest gripes was centered around the tablet's thin feature set on the software side. We walked away feeling like Apple had only half finished this OS -- but with 4.2, we can no longer say that's the case. Giving developers the tools present in iOS 4 with this update is clearly a big win for the device, and we expect to see a lot of creative uses for all those new APIs that have previously been reserved just for the small screens in Apple's mobile life. Of course, the iPad (and iOS in general) are still lacking some of the killer changes that we so badly would like to see (non-obtrusive notifications and a Dashboard-like widget system come to mind), but what Apple has added here puts the iPad much, much closer to the netbook-chomping beast we always felt it could be. For those of you who've already invested in the device, upgrading to 4.2.1 will feel like a brand new day, and for those still on the fence about the iPad -- it's time to take another look.

Add to Cart iOS 4.2 review (for iPad)

10+ New Features in Apple iOS 4.2

Worth Reading?
+12 [24 votes]

Apple’s new iOS is in Beta mode and you can bet there’s a bunch of little tics and tacs in the workings that’re noteworthy. This is a unification sort of release, bringing the iPad up to snuff, including such treasures found up until now only on the iPhone. Features such as multitasking, unified email inbox, Game Center, and folders. If you’ve got an iPod Touch like me, you’ve noticed the Game Center peeking at you above behind and around your games for a little while now.



First, new parental controls. There’s blockage of a bunch of functions and apps like YouTube, Camera, FaceTime, iTunes, installing and deleting apps, and changes to accounts and location. Obviously some of these aren’t on the iPad, like the camera control for example. Another iPhone-only change is the ability to adjust your ringtone independently from the main system volume. A potentially big-or-cute feature for developers in the future is the addition of a MIDI framework. Perhaps some Mario action? There’s a button in the SMS App that connects you directly to a FaceTime call, a YouTube like/dislike button, and links to More Video linking you from the Video app directly to iTunes.


In Safari on the iPad, you can now search for words in-page (very helpful if you’re looking at a long document.) Some of you know of the loss of the orientation lock switch in all future models of iPads – don’t fret, it’s now a software function as it probably always should have been, while that same bit of hardware becomes now a mute button for sound.
Then there’s AirPrint, which is just a pretty way of titling the ability of iOS devices and their apps to print wirelessly to an AirPrint-enabled printer. There’s the similarly-titled AirPlay which allows you to stream content from your iPad to AirPlay enabled devices – this means you can play your videos through an Apple TV or a playlist of songs through a computer with iTunes. – This function I find to be sort of fixing something that isn’t broken, but just wait and see, a few years down the line and people will believe they wont be able to live without it.


So most of this stuff is basically tying the devices together. Soon there will be a structure, a “web” if you will, of devices with Apple branding that you cannot get out of, cannot function without, and laugh with joy when its family expands. Or that might be now already. Yep. Apple.
[Via AppAdvice]

Add to Cart 10+ New Features in Apple iOS 4.2