Mid-Week Recap – iPad 2, Facebook Privacy, Charlie Sheen and More

I. Apple iPad 2
http://mashable.com/2011/03/02/apples-ipad-2-launch-what-you-need-to-know/
Unless you have been intentionally ignoring all tech news for the last few weeks, you know the iPad 2 announcement has been coming. It finally arrived today. Here is what you need to know about the new iPad 2:

The main CPU is a Samsung A5 dual core processor, making it up to 9x faster than the original iPad
A new graphic processor that is 2x faster than the first iPad
The iPad 2 will be 33% thinner – even thinner than the iPhone 4! (8.8 mm vs 13.4 mm. And it’s slightly lighter at 1.3 lbs)
Will come in white
Will be available on AT&T and Verizon
Stays the same price at $499

II. Facebook Part 1
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/igeneration/facebook-to-resume-phone-and-address-sharing-how-to-prevent-it/8552
Facebook made two big announcements this week. The first of which being that they are reinstating their policy of sharing users phone numbers and addresses with third party sites. After originally rolling this out, the backlash caused them to pause it, but are now resuming after saying they made it more obvious to users what they are doing. Below is how to fix you Facebook to make sure this does NOT happen

Login to your Facebook profile.
In the upper right hand-corner, click Profile.
On this page, in the upper right-hand corner, click Edit Profile.
On the left-hand side, click Contact Information.
Under Phones, make sure that the middle box containing any phone numbers is left entirely blank.
Under Address, make sure that this box containing your address is left entirely blank.
Click Save Changes at the bottom of the screen.

III. Facebook Part 2
http://techcrunch.com/2011/03/01/pros-cons-facebook-comments/
The second being a new feature they are rolling out called Facebook comments for blogs and other third party sites. Below are TechCrunch’s pros and cons after using the new feature on their site.
Pros

Real names and identities greatly reduces the number of trolls and anonymous cowards in comments.
Social virality boosts traffic by creating a feedback loop between Facebook and participating sites. Friends pull in their friends, creating a social entry point to your site.
Automatic sign-in if you already signed into Facebook elsewhere, lowers the barriers to commenting.
Most “liked” comments get voted to the top. It also knows who your friends are, so you will see those comments first.

Cons

No support for Twitter or Google IDs, which leaves out the other half of the social Web.
No backups and other lock-ins will make it hard for sites to leave.
If you work somewhere that blocks Facebook, you are out of luck.
Your friends might be surprised to find their replies in your Facebook News stream reproduced on another site’s comments. Expect a backlash.
Moderation bugs, no view counts at the top of posts or ways to highlight site owners/writers in comments.

IV. New Google Algorithm
http://searchengineland.com/google-forecloses-on-content-farms-with-farmer-algorithm-update-66071
Google is constantly changing their search algorithm to keep companies from figuring out how to consistently top their rankings, but usually these changes are very small. But, in the wake of JC Penny and other major companies getting caught gaming the system, Google has responded by changing their algorithm drastically. The change will affect 12% of all search rankings. Here is who this will impact the most:
Scraper Sites: These are sites that aggregate content from other sites, creating no original content, but link to sites
Content Farms: Places that create ‘shallow or low quality’ content in mass quality to help drive SEO results
Takeaway: Google has put a big emphasis on making sites create relevant content on a consistent basis instead of using third party sites like scrapers or content farms to drive SEO results. Clearly this was a large issue if the new rules impact 1/5 of ALL search results in the U.S.
V. Charlie Sheen is #Winning on Twitter
http://bostinnovation.com/2011/03/02/charlie-sheen-winning-at-social-media-or-alternatively-magically-and-effortlessly-converting-tin-cans-into-pure-gold/?isalt=0
Everyone has been witness to the REAL reality TV that has been going on with Charlie Sheen (and how he has made Lindsey Lohan look Hollywoods perfect citizen). The Twitter world was already abuzz with his antics, so when he joined Twitter everyone seemed to rejoice. With almost 1 million followers in about 24 hours, and a number of crazy tweets, he has become everyones favorite new follow