Who would bet against Facebook today, as it readies for the largest initial public offering (IPO) in the United States in the coming months?

Yet, amid the excitement, one thing that investors will read about is this troubling reminder of the threat coming from rival social networking efforts from the likes of Google, which can take away key advertising dollars.

Even while Mark Zuckerberg and company are expected to raise an initial US$5 billion from a red hot IPO, there is worry that Google will expand its offerings to target the activities that make loads of money for Facebook now.

Facebook’s 845 million active users upload 250 million photos a day, make 2.7 billion comments or “likes” a day and are part of 100 billion friendships online, according to details released for the IPO. Together, they made the eight-year-old company a neat US$1 billion  profit last year – an achievement, since users don’t always equal dollars.

Facebook’s cash cow? Advertising, which contributes 88 per cent of the company’s revenues. Yes, those little tiles on the side of the page that your friends “like” or recommend. The rest of the revenue comes from Zynga, which creates those addictive – and sometimes annoying – social games for Facebook users.

The issues? The mobile version of Facebook does not display ads, so the company could conceivably lose a stream of revenue as more users go online with their smartphones. The question then becomes one of making mobile users view the ads without irritating them enough to force them to quit using Facebook altogether.

The other issue has to do with the company’s focus on advertising, say analysts. This means it is susceptible to the fortunes of the advertising market as well as moves from rivals like Google, which has been gaining traction with its Google+ efforts of late, said Ovum’s Jan Dawson.

He pointed out: “As Google seeks to ramp up Google+, it will eat into Facebook’s share of the social networking market and with it Facebook’s share of related advertising. In addition, since much of Facebook’s revenue comes from gaming apps, as Google expands the gaming platform it is building with Google+, it threatens to dilute Facebook’s relationships with Zynga, which accounts for 12% of its revenue, and other major partners.”

Indeed, Facebook admits the threat from rivals as much in its IPO documents to the US authorities. Besides Google, it includes Microsoft and Twitter on a long list of rivals going forward.

Most industry watchers say Google+, the closest competitor, still has some way to go to shake Facebook from its deeply-entrenched position, but the search and advertising king’s alternative is ramping up fast.

Google+ already has 100 million users today after just seven months, according to one analyst, and the figure is expected to go up to 400 million by the end of 2012.

If you mistook the TX200V for a fat iPhone 4/4S at first glance, be assured that you’re not the only one. But its delicate gracefulness has none of the iPhone’s fragility. The TX is Sony’s line of more rugged point-and shoots, and this 18-megapixel shooter will likely outlast your lifetime’s vacations.

The TX200V is dust-proof, water resistant to up to 16 feet (roughly 4.87 metres) and freeze-proof to -10 degrees Celsius. However, that glass faceplate probably means that it’s not drop proof, which seems like a strange compromise given that people are more likely to drop their cameras than bring it on an underwater expedition.

The iPhone-esque design is also found on the back, which is all OLED touch screen and nothing else.

Underneath the camera’s sleek exteriors are backside-illuminated CMOS sensors for better low-light shooting, a new autofocus system that can lock in on subjects in less than 0.13 seconds in good lighting and 0.25 seconds in poor lighting, and a 5x optical zoom Carl Zeiss lens (25mm to 125mm). ISO can be boosted to 12,800 if you want to risk the noise, and image stabilisation promises clearer images.

The zoom can be digitally enhanced up to 250mm using Sony’s “Clear Image Zoom” technology. It uses a “by-pixel super resolution” technology which is claimed to be better than regular digital zoom, but there’s no knowing for sure until we can see some sample images.

Given the TX200V’s hardiness, it can be a great travel companion. This use-case is made more appealing through the camera’s built-in compass and GPS functions, which allows shooters to display shooting location and direction, and even track their journey on a map.

Of course, there is the trendy feature of applying effects to your photos in-camera, including HDR, miniature, toy camera, and more.

Need video? This camera packs pretty powerful video features, such as full HD video recording at 60fps and a Dual Record feature for capturing still images while shooting video.

The TX200V will land in Singapore in March, and currently retails stateside for US$500, which is expensive enough to give pause. But the camera strikes a balance between aesthetics, functions and durability and will likely find buyers based on its looks alone.

Cellphone users in Singapore can expect extended coverage in buildings, on roads and when travelling in an MRT train underground, when stricter rules on 3G coverage unveiled today by the government regulator kick in as soon as April 2012.

Following a number of high-profile network outages last year, the Infocomm Development Authority (IDA) today spelt out the new rules, which will include 85 per cent coverage for each building here. Currently, telcos only have to cover 85 per cent of “public access areas”.

For commuters, the coverage will now include all road and MRT tunnels as well as the CTE by 2015, extending from the previous requirement of 95 per cent across road and MRT tunnels tested. In all, about 99 per cent of the outdoor space on the island is to be blanketed by 3G signals. Previously, the requirement was only 95 per cent across all roads.

And each time any of the three telecom operators here – SingTel, StarHub, M1 – fails to meet one requirement, they can be fined up to S$50,000, instead of the previous “slap on the wrist” S$5,000 per indicator per month.

Immediately, telcos are expected to react by setting up more equipment in the additional areas they have to cover. They might also check their existing 3G coverage by going to popular locations, like shopping malls, to test out the experience.

But it remains to be seen if the tougher rules will solve a bigger problem – the quality of service expected by users, even as more of them start logging on with smartphones and clog up networks with minute-by-minute Facebook updates.

Already, SingTel has proactively listed “typical” broadband speeds on its 3G mobile data plans and promised a “priority” lane for customers who pay more for high-tier plans. But there is still no “guarantee” of what a user can get, because the experience on the go is ultimately still determined by the number of users in an area – think of Suntec City and the hordes of people there during a computer bazaar, for example.

Still, the new rules will mean that telcos would have to prevent a repeat of the outages that M1 and SingTel users suffered last year.  They should also push telcos to fix another problem – this dumping of users back on 2G at places which are expected to offer 3G speeds.

Know a place that consistently doesn’t offer 3G data? Share in the comments!

Singapore is so small that if you don’t know how to get around town, you really shouldn’t be driving around much. That was my response to in-car GPS kits in the past, being the smart driver that I thought I was.

Then I started using Google Maps on my Android phone to start getting around town. I realised the suggested route sometimes helped me rethink how I always went around town – it often got me there without me testing out routes and missing a turn to a building’s car park, for example.

Thus when I placed the TomTom Go 2050 in my car a few weeks ago, I was more than happy to hear a friendly female voice tell me how best to get from, say, Takashimaya shopping centre to Alexandra Road.

The first thing that impresses you about TomTom’s in-car GPS is the easy click mount. Instead of just “pasting” a big piece of rubber on your wind screen, TomTom’s mounting system lets you screw it tightly down as well. It’s as solid a mount I have seen.

Then there’s the screen. The 5-inch display on the TomTom Go 2050 is bright, sharp and simply a joy to use even in sunny Singapore. During my tests, there was no question of a washed out screen even on bright afternoons.

The capacitive touch screen is also generally responsive when you tap on the large touch-friendly menus or pinch and zoom in and out of maps. Just don’t expect the same level of smoothness as your smartphone, of course. Thankfully, that’s not that much of an issue as most times, you’d just be tapping in your destination name or postal code.

How useful are the Southeast Asia maps? I only managed to drive around in Singapore and I’d say the unit tracks pretty accurately and speedily – once it is logged on to a navigation satellite, there is little lag in telling where you are and giving the right instructions. It works even though Singapore’s roads often include multiple turn-offs close by and are hardly the simpler, grid-like system, say, in New York City.

For folks driving through city traffic, it helps too that the TomTom unit comes with the company’s IQ technology that smartly takes the inputs of fellow drivers – taken when they sync their units – to estimate where the usual bottlenecks are.

The only issue I have using it in Singapore – and this probably stumps other GPS units too – is the constant changes on Singapore roads. It’s just so hard to keep track of the changes because roads are often dug up, filled up and soon dug up again for laying cables, road diversions and other works.

I was at the busy Upper Serangoon junction near Macpherson a few weeks ago and the GPS did not offer the right directions. The reason: the lanes seemed to have changed, which is not surprising, given the amount of works that have been going on for months now.

If there’s something I think the TomTom Go 2050 can improve on, it’d be the time taken to locate my position via a satellite link. Driving out from my apartment building’s basement car park, I had waited up to a few minutes for the GPS unit to get a signal and start finding the location.

If you are turning out from a shopping centre onto busy Orchard Road, you’d better have instructions ready before you commit to a wrong turn and end up paying unnecessary road toll.

Still, I’m generally satisfied with the TomTom Go 2050. Though it’s not quite cheap at S$399, it’s literally plug and play and does the job admirably. It’ll be a useful companion to have on a drive to Malaysia. Even when you’re driving overseas, you can download the latest travel maps so you can drive, say, in Margaret River in Australia with more confidence than the old, outdated GPS units provided by the rental companies.

Thanks to Bluetree Electronics, we are giving away four Kube2 MP3 players in our Chinese New Year lucky draw. The Kube2 is touted as the world’s smallest touch MP3 player and sports a unique one-inch cube aluminum body. The S$45.90 doodad also comes with a 4GB microSD card.

To enter the contest:

1. Follow us on Twitter.
2. Post a tweet on any Techgoondu article that you like.
3. The URL of that article (use a link shortener service) must be included in your tweet, along with this hashtag: #TGCNY12.

This contest runs from January 30 to February 7, and we’ll pick the winners at random from all Twitter posts entered for this contest.

Rules and details:

1. Only residents staying in Singapore are eligible to participate.
2. Each tweet is eligible for one entry, so feel free to post as many tweets as you want.
3. Anyone found using multiple Twitter accounts to enter will be disqualified.
4. After the contest closes, we’ll Twitter DM the lucky winners to coordinate with you how you can collect your prize.

Happy new year and good luck!

Symantec has discovered over a dozen apps with malicious code that could cede control of your smartphone to perpetrators.

In a recent blog post, the security company said the apps, which are hosted on the Android Market, can be used to propagate a “bot-like threat that can receive commands to carry out certain actions, as well as steal information from the device”.

These threats are also known as botnets, where a collection of compromised computers can be controlled by a central server to launch denial-of-service attacks. Private information such as bank account numbers on compromised devices could also be stolen by cybercriminals.

According to Symantec, the malicious code is grafted onto the apps in a package called “apperhand”. Once launched, a service with the same name may be seen running on a compromised device. A search icon will also appear on the home screen

The malicious apps appear to be from three publishers: iApps7 Inc, Ogre Games and redmicapps. About half of the apps in question have been removed from the Android Market as of today.

Malware targeting mobile devices are expected to increase this year. The hardest hit are likely to be Android-based devices, given the operating system’s large market share and open innovation platform, said ICSA Labs, a division of Verizon Business that tests and certifies security products.

Of all the things that can happen during Chinese New Year this week, I accidentally made the data on my network attached storage (NAS) device unreadable – and could easily have wiped out all the years of reports, financial statements and holiday pictures I’ve stored on those two 1TB drives.

After days of pulling hair out, I eventually salvaged everything. But the entire episode prompted me to ask if I was really as prepared as I thought if I had accidentally deleted my data or, in this case, plugged my drives into a new NAS without backing things up.

The answer lies in a series of software tools you can use at home, before really going to the pros in data recovery for help. Here are a few that I tried out while panicking through my attempt at rescuing my data.

Before we start, let’s remember to always back up important data, like your wedding day photos or your personal financial records.

A note to all small business owners like me – RAID – or mirroring your data on multiple hard drives on your NAS is not backup. You have to have more than one copy of your data on another DEVICE, not just another drive. That means even if your NAS dies, you have a portable drive somewhere with an up-to-date copy of the data.

Looking back, I don’t know what possessed me to plug two 1TB drives from an old QNap TS-209 II NAS into a new QNap TS-419P+ NAS. Perhaps it had to do with the retailer at the store confidently telling me that sure, I can just plug in the drives and they’d be recognised by another QNap NAS. Or perhaps I was overly confident about QNap.

Either way, I ended up with two 1TB drives that could not be recognised by the new NAS or the old one, when I tried plugging them back in. Not even with QNap’s Live CD, which boots up your PC with the company’s version of Linux, or when I plugged a drive into a Windows PC supporting the Linux EXT2/EXT3 file system, could I try to extract the data on the disks, which had not been formatted.

The reason: the disks had been re-partitioned by the new NAS during setup and the partition information for the portion of the disk containing the data could not be read by almost any other device.

1. iCare Recovery
The first tool I used, fearing the worst that the data on my drive cannot be read again, was iCare Recovery and the plan was to go “nuclear”. Heck, just read me the sectors on the drive and see what you can recover. That’s what this tool, iCare Recovery, does quite well in.

Like with other such demo versions, I could see some of my files with a test and I was super elated to be able to save a couple of them at least. I bought the software digitally for US$62.95 in my haste. Hey, having some data back is better than none. At this time, I had given up hope of folks from QNap replying (it was during Chinese New Year earlier this week, but they still haven’t replied today at the time of writing) or from help from its online forum.

So I went ahead and scanned one of the drives with iCare Recovery. It found loads of stuff, really too much in the end. These included long-ago deleted files when one of the drives was used in another computer. Now, that should tell you how scary things are – “delete” and “format” don’t really wipe data, not all of it anyway.

The main problem, though, was that iCare worked more or less in the assumption that this was a last gasp solution. It sorted things out according to the type of files it thinks the bits and bytes are. So, you get thousands of files, all renamed to something unrecognisable and ordered as, say, JPEG files or PDF documents.

At least with pictures, I could still run them in thumbnails, but I had to recognise ALL the hundreds of thousands of files individually. Worse, I had to open some of the files, like PDFs, to see what they were first. I gave up after an evening doing this. Getting a whole load of data in a mess was just slightly better than no data at all.

2. R-Studio
I looked to R-Studio, another application which took an even more detailed look at the hard disk and could return everything in the right directories with the right filenames.

I was suffering from tonsillitis during this time, and you can imagine, even with that, my mood lifted knowing I could get at least most of my data back. I clicked on the “buy” button immediately when I found that I could recover several files – like my yearly statements to the tax man – with R-Studio.

The bad news about R-Studio was that it took a lot of system memory to do the job. It would take my quad-core i7 CPU three hours to scan one disk, but worse, it would crash for lack of memory when trying to enumerate and list the many thousands of files in the drive. I stuck a spare 4GB RAM module into my existing 6GB machine to make 10GB but I still had problems showing all the files I wanted to recover.

It was frustrating being so close yet so far. The software would stop and do nothing for half an hour if I tried to list more than, say, 40 per cent of the files. It had detected an astonishing “17TB” of data – most of it including repetitive entries – from a 1TB drive and was trying to load that data in the PC’s memory because it doesn’t want to write to any of the disks to prevent more damage.

The downside: my machine was too slow to run R-Studio. Stopping the file listing halfway, I could get back perhaps 70- 80 per cent of the data but I was not sure they were the latest versions (several versions could have been detected when I stopped the process).

TestDisk
Finally, more in hope than expectation, I downloaded TestDisk, an excellent open-source recovery tool (free!) after reading the experiences of fellow QNap users in the forum. I hadn’t expected much from a small 3.3MB application after supposedly more sophisticated tools had not been the answer.

To my surprise, TestDisk even has a “GUI” that lets you avoid typing in commands by moving through the options available on a menu with your keyboard. It’s easy to use and guess what, it managed to find the lost partition on the disk “troubled” by the QNAp installation procedure.

This meant I could mount the drive and read the partition containing my data files and select them to be copied elsewhere. All I had to do was simply select the folders which I wanted to back up to an external drive and that’s all, 100 per cent of my data could be returned to what it was.

The only advice I’d have here is to hide the deleted files – otherwise you’d also copy over deleted files that include the annoying temporarily files that Microsoft Office generates when you have an open Word document, for example.

I’m just so glad that I managed to get the data out of the corrupted disks. Indeed, I learnt that there are many ways to get your data back. Unfortunately, instead of trying the least desperate measure, I panicked and went straight for the nuclear option and ended up spending unnecessary dollars.

Still, this somewhat illuminating episode also shows that you can sometimes save the data on your own drives, before deciding to send them to third-party companies. Okay, not everyone has Edison Chen-type photos but hey, it’s always better if you can solve things yourself, say, when you need the data over a long holiday, for example.

Share your own data recovery stories here and give others tips!

With the Evernote and Skitch add-ons, features that were once available through separate apps can now be accessed directly through the Dolphin browser.

That means you can quickly save text on a webpage to Evernote, or use Skitch’s drawing tools to annotate content without firing up the respective apps.

But here’s the catch: you’ll need to first install the apps, and the add-ons are only for the Android version of Dolphin HD.

While desktop browsers have been embracing add-ons for years, makers of mobile browsers are only starting to warm up to the idea.

Hopefully, this will be a sign of things to come as more app developers start to think about integrating their apps with others for a more seamless — rather than walled garden — user experience.

Launched in March 2010, Dolphin HD was one of the first browsers for Android devices to introduce gesture-based navigation.

The browser hit its 10 million-user milestone in November 2011, three months after it made its debut on the Apple iOS platform.

As I get older, I have less time to play games, and my attention span has gotten shorter as well.

I still play a ton of games, but I probably play as much casual and indie games — like niche titles like Sequence and Runespell Overture — than triple-A PC titles.

However, I still keep an eye out for triple-A titles that I am interested in. 2012 is a bumper year for some highly anticipated titles for me, and below is a list of the top five PC games I’ll definitely try out this year.

5. Bioshock Infinite

The Bioshock series is made by Irrational Games, a games studio that I had my eye on after my sublime experience with System Shock 2. If you have not heard of this decade-old 1999 classic, check it out.

Bioshock, like System Shock 2, is a mix of great gameplay with atmospheric storytelling. The environment design, varied mobs, RPG-like leveling character development, varied paths to victory,
and an intriguing backstory made the game a huge hit.

And with Bioshock Infinite being designed as the true sequel to Bioshock (not Bioshock 2, which fans derided as a money-spinner), I’m cautiously optimistic about this game. The cinematic trailer and gameplay videos look gorgeous.

4. Diablo 3

Diablo needs no introduction.

This classic game by Blizzard is the spiritual grandfather of almost every game in the action roleplaying genre.

That alone, would make Diablo 3 worth recommending. Check out the beta review Techgoondu did of Diablo 3 last year.

I’m certain Blizzard will deliver on peerless quality before they release the damn game, which has been in the making for four years since they announced it in 2008. In the meantime, fans of the genre can check out Torchlight or Bastion to get their fix.

And I’ll bet that Torchlight 2 will be released before Diablo 3, given Blizzard’s well-known tardiness in the industry. No matter, as fans of the game will patiently wait for it anyway.

3. Mass Effect 3

Mass Effect, when it debuted in 2007, was a great shooter and RPG-lite mashup.

It had all the elements of a classic, grand space opera of intergalactic war.

A brilliant score, evocative voice acting, and tight storytelling papered over the slight gameplay flaws, like the horrible Mako driving sequences and essentially extremely linear gameplay.

The second installment Mass Effect 2 in 2010 made the game even better. The gameplay was refined, and the story of Shepard’s quest to find out the threat posed by the Reapers was even better than the first.

I remember the storyline fondly, and thus Effect 3 is definitely on my “must try” list.

A caveat and rabid note from a fanboy, though, to Bioware: If you screw up Mass Effect 3, like what you did with Dragon Age 2, you will lose a customer forever. (I tried playing Hawke in Dragon Age 2 for half hour before I gave up in disgust). Please do not screw ME3 up.

2. Starcraft 2: Heart of the Swarm

There is probably no other game I played in 2011 more than Starcraft 2: Wings of Liberty.

Blizzard has produced yet another “must try” game for my personal list. Beyond the single-player campaign that tells an epic story of love, war and betrayal, the main reason why I come back to this game again and again is because the multiplayer gameplay is sublime.

My aging reflexes are not as good as they once used to be, but I really enjoy the seamless multiplayer RTS that is Starcraft 2.

30 minute quick match-ups meld into hours as you get lost in the rhythmic flow of zealots and zerglings waging war on each in the network ether.

And with Kerrigan, the queen of blades, taking the spotlight in the second installment of Starcraft 2, this is a game that is a must buy for me.

1. Guildwars 2

I’ve practically stopped playing MMORPGs.

Yeah, I’ve fond nostalgic memories of being the main healer in my World of Warcraft Alliance group, participated in mass brawls in Warhammer Online, and even wandered around for a bit as a travelling cleric in war-torn Rift.

Somehow, coordinating yet another loot run through some dungeon isn’t as fun when you’ve seen the dungeon countless times.

The skills are different, the environments and settings are different, but don’t let that fool you: Most MMORPGs are grindy timesinks, as you grind to get better loot to defeat harder bosses.

After a while, this type of gameplay simply becomes stale. Nevermind the stunning graphics or pleasant musical scores, quest structures of the “kill A to get B” variety simply lose their luster.

Guildwars is the only MMORPG that has really kept me coming back because it is so different from traditional MMORPGs. I spent a ton of time playing arenas for the heck of it — because it was fun and not for some reward.

Throw in the requisite gorgeous graphics, haunting score, distinctive painterly-style artwork, and make it free to play forever, and you have a monster hit on your hands.

In fact, over the Christmas holiday period I logged in to my old account and had a blast playing my main Mesmer character in some quick matches in the random arenas. How many can say that of a game that is almost seven years old now?

ArenaNet has promised that Guildwars 2 will be similar and yet break new ground. No tank, heal, or DPS classes. Players can move in out of frontline and backline roles, depending on positioning and skillsets brought to the fight.

An ambitious objective, to be sure. But with ArenaNet’s pedigree, and given how much I loved the original Guildwars and expansions, this is the one MMORPG game that I’m dying to play.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) has launched DynamoDB, a cloud database service designed to meet the growing needs of demanding Web-based applications.

DynamoDB will allow developers to launch new database tables and moderate their database capacity without downtime and performance overheads. All data is housed on solid state drives and replicated across multiple AWS availability zones to ensure high availability and durability of data.

The service is built on SimpleDB, Amazon’s other cloud database service that launched in December 2007.

According to Amazon, traditional databases are not designed to meet the performance needs of modern applications, especially popular ones that can cause a single database to reach its maximum capacity quickly.

While the problem can be fixed by distributing database workloads across multiple servers, the process is complex and requires significant time and engineering effort.

With DynamoDB, developers can focus on improving their apps, while AWS will take care of hardware provisioning, software patching and partitioning, among other administrative tasks.

Additionally, Amazon’s pay-as-you-go pricing means you only pay for the resources you need.

“Dynamo was born out of our need for a highly reliable, ultra-scalable key/value database,” said Werner Vogels, AWS’ chief technology officer, in a blog post.

“This non-relational, or NoSQL, database was targeted at use cases that were core to the Amazon e-commerce operation, such as the shopping cart and session service,” he added.

Besides Amazon, early adopters of DynamoDB include IMDB and science information provider Elsevier, which publishes thousands of books, nearly 2,000 journals and over 250,000 articles housed on rapidly changing datasets.

Darren Person, Elsevier’s chief architect, said: “Operating a distributed data store on our own is orders of magnitude more complicated and expensive to manage than traditional databases. DynamoDB delivers a high-performance service that can be easily scaled up or down to meet our needs, helping us eliminate complexity and lower costs.”

You can get started with Amazon DynamoDB using a free tier that provides 100MB of storage, and five writes and 10 reads per second (up to 40 million requests per month) at no cost.

Additional capacity is priced at hourly rates as low as US$0.01 per hour for 10 units of write capacity or 50 strongly consistent units of read capacity, while replicated SSD storage is priced at US$1 per GB per month.