Facebook to give favor to “high-quality” updates

By: Salma Tantawi

Facebook is working towards making your homepage more informative, pushing more quality articles and news and cutting back on memes, over-shared photos.

This comes after the giant network found out that news and informative articles are more likely to get clicked on. It will also recommend similar links below articles in your news feed.

“Our surveys show that on average people prefer links to high quality articles about current events,” Facebook announced, “their favorite sports team or shared interests, to the latest meme. Starting soon, we’ll be doing a better job of distinguishing between a high quality article on a website versus a meme photo hosted somewhere other than Facebook when people click on those stories on mobile. This means that high quality articles you or others read may show up a bit more prominently in your News Feed, and meme photos may show up a bit less prominently.”

This mobile algorithm update is to see the light soon, yet Facebook has still not revealed much on the content it will be trying to get out of the spotlight.

What type of shared content do you usually visit on Facebook?

Gold Plated Leica Luxus II turns out to be the Most Expensive Camera

Camera collectors have a reason to be happy.  A gold plated camera which has been encased in lizard skin has surfaced. The camera, a Leica Luxus was auctioned on November 22 at Hong Kong. This is one of the special edition cameras made in 1932 and is the only surviving from the lot of four.

The camera is expected to fetch around $2,785,960. It has been sold with its original crocodile camera case, has a bell push release along with a 50 mm Elmar lens and was gifted to a British camera collector after World War II. The Leica Luxus was in stores all these years and it was only in 2001 that the current owner took the camera to Antiques Road Show to get its worth assessed.

Mark Allum, the presenter of the show realized the worth of the camera and its pre sale estimates have now being pegged at over $2,785, 960.

Leica had been a leader in camera manufacturing since 1913. The cameras were not only ahead of time but also had the latest technology of that era. The camera played a vital role in the development of photo industry during 1930’s. However, the identity of the photography enthusiast who finally bought the camera has not been disclosed.

Ray Ban solar-panel sunglasses as iPhone charger

A pair of sunglasses that can convert the sun’s rays into power for your iPhone and any other smartphones. Awesome!

Designed by wunderkind Sayalee Kaluskar from Mumbai, India, this pair of sunglasses was turned into an iPhone charger by just adding solar panels on each arm and is useful when the sun goes down.  This new Ray Ban solar-panel sunglasses can recharge your iPhone while you are out in the evening.

It also comes with a power cell wired to a battery hidden within the plastic that can restore the converted energy. The cells charge the battery while you’re wearing your glasses in the sun. At the end is an iPhone Lightning connector that is plugged into your phone and gives its battery a shot of juice when you’re indoor.

The Ray-Ban Shama Shades are part of a student project at Miami Ad School in San Francisco.

A recent Apple application features a patent on a system to outfit mobile devices with their own solar power converters. Solar panels were also seen on Ralph Lauren backpacks.

So it is like you can wear the sunglasses the whole day, even when you’re asleep.

Pakistan shows better face in new corruption index

ISLAMABAD: Corruption in Pakistan has declined considerably as the country has improved its position by several points in the global Corruption Perception Index (CPI) report of Transparency International, to be announced worldwide here on Tuesday.

According to diplomatic sources, the Transparency International CPI report for 2013 brings good news for Pakistan, which earlier this year had witnessed the voting out of the PPP government considered the most corrupt in the history of Pakistan.

The sources said that the Transparency International CPI report would be announced globally by its country representatives showing the list of the most corrupt and least corrupt countries in the 2013.

Pakistan, whose ranking on the Corruption Perception Index (CPI) had gone from 42nd most corrupt country in 2011 to 33rd in 2012 during the PPP government, has improved by around 10 points in 2013.

Last year Pakistan had also been declared the seventh most corrupt country out of 97 in the Rule of Law Index of 2012.

The 2013 CPI report would, however, be a matter of great satisfaction for the PML-N government at the Centre and PTI government in the KP — the two political parties which after coming into power have not yet shown any sign of corruption that was rampant during the last PPP government at the Centre and ANP government in the KP.

Although, the present rulers have yet to do a lot to weed out the corrupt and punish those who had plundered the nation’s wealth, it goes to their credit that no major corruption case during their rule has surfaced as yet.

In terms of corruption, there is also no denying the fact that the Nawaz Sharif government is much better than the last PPP government; there is no comparison between the PTI government in the KP and its ANP predecessor. The same is the case of Dr Malik’s government in Balochistan whereas this is also a fact that the Qaim Ali Shah’s present government in Sindh is better than his previous rule.

Early this year, the Transparency International in its Global Corruption Barometer 2013 report had said that Pakistan’s religious bodies, military and media respectively had been found as the three least corrupt institutions in the list of 12 organisations.

The same report had said that the most corrupt in Pakistan were from the government and politics.According to the last government’s own chairman NAB, sacked by the apex court for having been illegally appointed, corruption of more than Rs8 billion takes place daily in Pakistan. It is said that a considerable share of this massive corruption is contributed by the oil mafia, federal tax authorities and others

HTC One to go gold

HTC One in a gold finish will soon hit stores in the UK and Europe. The Middle East can’t be far behind…

Silver, blue, red and black. It’s now time for the awesome HTC One to go gold. Rose Gold too. HTC is to begin offering its award-winning HTC One smartphone in a gold finish in the UK and Europe. The gold version of the smartphone follows on from the very limited run created for the winners of this year’s MOBO Awards. Unlike the limited edition HTC One, the gold model announced by HTC won’t be of the 18ct variety.

“Building on the all metal design of the HTC One, and the recent success of the HTC 18 carat gold MOBO phone, we are excited to have developed our own gold device, offering yet more choice to consumers,” said Philip Blair, president of HTC EMEA.

The phone itself won several prestigious awards at this year’s T3 Gadget Awards in the UK. The HTC One walked away with Best Design, Best Phone and Best Gadget of the Year at the event in October.

However, it may not be long before it is also joined by its successor. According to rumors, HTC is preparing to launch the HTC M8 – the follow up to the HTC One.

The phone is rumored to be headed for a spring unveiling.

While there has been no official pricing from HTC, at online retailer goldgenie, the HTC One Gold 32GB version is listed at 1579.17 pounds. Yep, the .17 flummoxed us too.

Illustration inspiration

gentle

Rob Ford

bearded man

bride

Christmas Cards and Posters

Komatsu / Musculoso

Breaking Bad

The Creator

Praga Gada

Deutsche Post advent calender

Erin Forest

Messi & Ronaldo share spoils in La Liga awards

The Argentine took home two awards from the annual LFP gala, while Diego Simeone was named as the best coach for his side's Copa del Rey victory

Lionel Messi was named ahead of Cristiano Ronaldo as the best player in La Liga's 2012-13 season at the annual LFP awards, but the Real Madrid forward was voted the most valuable player of the campaign.

The Barcelona attacker won the award for the fifth successive year and also took home the prize for top forward, while team-mate Andres Iniesta was voted as the greatest attacking midfielder in the division for the fourth time in five seasons.

Confusingly, though Ballon d'Or favourite Ronaldo missed out on the best player tag, he was given the MVP trophy at the fifth edition of the awards, which are held by the Primera Division's governing body.

"It is an honour and a privilege to receive this award," the 28-year-old said upon receiving the award. "I have to thank my team-mates and Madrid and all the people behind this award such as my family. I will try to keep fit to win more prizes at a collective and individual level."

Fellow Madrid player Asier Illarramendi won two titles on Monday: best midfielder and the breakthrough player of last season, which came ahead of his switch to the Santiago Bernabeu from Real Sociedad in the summer.

Best defender also went to a Madrid player, as Sergio Ramos took home the accolade for the second campaign in a row.

Diego Simeone trumped Tito Vilanova and Jose Mourinho - neither of which are still in their positions at Barca and the Blancos respectively - to the best coach award for guiding Atletico Madrid to Copa del Rey glory and a third-placed finish.

Rojiblancos goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois, spending his third season on loan at the Vicente Calderon, won the prize for the top player between the sticks, while benched Real Madrid shot-stopper Iker Casillas took home the fair play prize.