So it seems like a good time to review Facebook Profile settings, just to make sure your Account, Privacy and Applications are set up the way you want.

Click here for explanations of Facebook’s Privacy Controls.

The Facebook Blog is another good source of information about controlling what you share, and other general info on this social media giant. This blog post talks about the launch of Facebook’s new Privacy Page.

Also the official Facebook Page is posting videos in their “Learn More” series about privacy settings.

The free version is pretty basic and your video creation is limited to one minute, but it does have some cool features, like professionally designed themes and transitions, plus a sharing feature to export your video to YouTube or Facebook. You do have to allow permission for the application to connect, just like Facebook does for sharing. That calls for a certain amount of trust, doesn’t it?

Plus you’ve got to have Google Apps installed on your server, which is not an average daily user thing. But it’s a huge deal for small business, and a great group collaboration tool, if you can afford it.

The Stupeflix Studio App allows you to mix and mash up photos and videos, add text to any image or video, add in a soundtrack anywhere in the timeline, create discrete groups to separate videos and images, and manipulate special effects in each group.

There’s five different slide transitions, or what Stupeflix calls a “group effect,” applying that effect to anything inside that particular group. Auto is set by default, which cycles through all five transitions.

There’s no way to tweak audio levels in the basic free version, and video editing is limited to the time you allow for each element inside a group. Video runtime starts at zero, there’s no way to edit different segments of a video, start at 0 and set the time per element, just like a slide show.

Unlike YouTube who’s announced their online video editor, where you can trim the beginning and/or ending of your videos. Plus YouTube gives you the ability to add soundtracks from their 10K file AudioSwap library, and you don’t have to fret about file formats. Plus they say it’s one click publishing now without the upload.

Nice!

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By the same token, we’re familiar with browser plug-ins that extend the capability of our web browsers.

Google Extensions do the same for Google Chrome, they add more features and functionality to the browser.

Extensions let you customize Google Chrome with features you like, while keeping your browser free of clutter that you don’t use. Source: google.com/support/chrome/

Try Google Extensions at: chrome.google.com/extensions

I Love Old Magazines has ads, covers and graphics from old magazines, just like the title implies.

It’s from the same guys who came up with I Love Charts. They have a very creative way of looking at all types of charts.

They’re both on Tumblr a great Web 2.0 tool that allows you to share anything on the web. You can customize your own page too, just like Blogger and WordPress.

Tumblr also has a iPhone app and a Facebook app.

The video tells all, but the website is updated sxsw.com

There’s 2 iPhone apps available to help keep track of all the events happening March 12th through March 21st.

SXSW Play: Discover New Media
my.SXSW: Social Networking & Scheduling

Official SXSW YouTube Channel

Follow SXSW on Twitter

SXSW on Facebook

“We’ve left the digital decade behind, and now we’re moving into the era of the connected community.”

So what does that mean? Well, often I have to look back at where I’ve been, in order to figure out where I’m going. In a previous post I wrote about the past ten years, the World Wide Web from Y2K to Today.

In 2005 I started blogging and discovered that I love to write. The blogging format gave me a world wide voice which allowed me to connect with others I never otherwise would have met. I started working with my brother David and we naturally wrote about our common interest, music. We used Google’s Blogger and eventually migrated into WordPress, and even looked into other platforms like Joomla!

In the ensuing five years we have evolved into working with other tools like Twitter and Facebook, FriendFeed, bit.ly and HootSuite. We have become more connected to a community of like-minded net citizens, engaging in many different conversations across the world wide web.

The term Web 2.0 first took off in 2004, during the first O’Reilly Media Web 2.0 conference. Six years later, Web 2.0 has exploded, expanded and morphed into a host of different web applications connecting us all with each other.

What does it mean to you?

Anyone using Facebook knows the navigation is not very user-friendly, but newsome.org has some great tips on how to manage Filters and Lists to get the most out of your social networking on FB.

Learn How To:

Filter out unwanted content, like Farmville or other applications you don’t care about.

List your friends together under different groups, so you can customize posts and direct specific messages.

Protect your personal information so you only share what you want others to see.

Apple has announced their new iPad, and I’m just now getting an iPhone. But isn’t that the way it is? How many of us can afford to buy every new device that hits the market? Just wait until the latest device comes out, then the prices drop on the older models and suddenly it’s affordable.

I got a 3G iPhone, which seems to be all I need at the moment. The capacity of this phone is almost overwhelming with all the thousands of apps available, plus the many ways the phone can be used.

I’m just getting into the apps, but so far I like the Hootsuite Twitter app, and the free Facebook app.

What impresses me the most is the multi-tasking capability of the iPhone; simply amazing the way you can make a phone call and surf the web at the same time; or do any number of other tasks.

I thought the iPod was great, but the iPhone is the most elegant and addictive electronic device I’ve ever used.

3D TV, 3D video, digital imaging, cyber security, high performance audio, home health care monitors, home environment energy monitors, smart digital picture fames and photobooks, smarter touchscreens, eBook readers, netbooks, tablets, and wireless everything including cameras, printers, TVs, and digital picture frames.

Wireless inside cars or (auto)mobile hotspots is happening with Ford Sync. www.fordvehicles.com/

Products to watch for: Canon 3D camera and smart printers, Panasonic 3D camcorder, Casio projector, Yogen USB hand charger, Abbee by Myine an FM radio system that strips commercials out and stores songs to your digital music player, and Toshiba Cell TV. tacp.toshiba.com/

Acousticom Sound Egg gives you 5.1 surround sound in a chair, delivering incredible sound to the listener, but keeping sound confined to the chair’s environment. Great for apartments, dorms and hospitals.
store.acousticom.com/

PowerMat charges up to 3 devices, like the iPhone, iPod, or Blackberry, without the messy wires in three different styles. www.powermat.com/

Lenovo SmartBook Skylight laptop has a full size keyboard and built-in 3G wireless, it’s optimized for Web2.0 applications, plus ten hours of battery life offers all day computing. shop.lenovo.com/

The 3M MPro120 Pocket Projector displays images and videos from computers, netbooks, MP3 players, iPods, smartphones and digital cameras with built-in speakers. www.3m.com/

Names to watch: Canon, LG, Panasonic, PowerMat, Polk Audio, Samsung, Toshiba, Yogen.

Keep tabs on what’s happening in consumer electronics with the Consumer Technology Group’s websites:
www.npd.com/
www.napco.com

CES Official Site: www.cesweb.org

CES on Facebook: www.cesweb.org/facebook

CES on Twitter: twitter.com/intlCES

Consumer Electronics Association YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/cesonthetube

Jason Felch and Geoff Boucher have put together a touching obituary and tribute to Art Clokey in latimesblogs.latimes.com/

I love pop culture so I just have to mention this as a tribute to such a lovable character I remember from childhood. In fact, Gumby and I were both born in the fifties, but he’s got more Facebook friends than I do.

Gumby The Movie

Sources:

www.usatoday.com/

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_Clokey

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gumby

Official Website: www.gumbyworld.com