Recently Facebook has been working on finishing their roll out of the new Timeline profile to all of its users (including us.) While Facebook and its 3rd party apps may be less secure than they used to be, the new profile view is, frankly, beautiful. The two-column display shows your photos in all their (relatively sizable) glory, and highlights what Facebook thinks is major events in your life, making them more prominent on your page. Profiles are much more attractive this way, but they also feature a new capability that may leave some uneasy, myself included.

Facebook’s Timeline features just that, a timeline, on the right hand side of your profile. Friends can now click through by date to view your history. While this makes sense for Facebook, and is pretty cool in theory, it might be slightly less so in practice. When I heard about Timeline, I was really, really excited. I love innovation on the web, and this seemed like some real change for Facebook. Additionally, it looked gorgeous, and I like that. What I didn’t realize at first though, was that this doesn’t just enable what I’ve deemed advanced, super easy Facebook stalking. It actually almost forces it. And that’s the part I’m not a fan of.

Today, I am a different person than I was yesterday. More to the point though, today I am an extremely different person than I was 1, 2, 3 or more years ago. While looking at my photos, this isn’t much of a problem. But when you start to look at individual wall posts, comments, etc. that are all being taken completely out of context (no, I don’t think you can get  feel for where I was in my life at the time by reading a few surrounding posts…) you could get a picture of me that is not at all who I am now, and possibly not who I wanted to be. We’ve talked before about how this can be a problem, particularly when applying to college or a new job.

That being said, Facebook doesn’t give you any particularly easy way to remedy this. You can go to your Activity View, and go post by post, deleting what you don’t want, but if you’re like me and have 5+ years on Facebook, this is just not an option. The good news is, there are ways to get this done satisfactorily, and I’m here to show you them. So read on for the beginner’s guide to cleaning up your Facebook Timeline.

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The argument has waged on for years…What is the better mobile OS and ecosystem for a certain person, Android or iOS? (Windows Phone may be starting to become part of the conversation, but its nowhere near as prominent as these two competitors.) And for as long as this arguments been around, the answer has been a similar one: it depends largely on you. How dependable do you want your phone to be, versus how much customization do you want it to be able to do? Do you absolutely love iTunes, or could you spend your money elsewhere? There are many more of these questions that techies like me have turned to in order to give good phone buying advice to friends, family, and colleagues over the years. However, with recent news, and some pretty basic realizations, I think the answer is more one-sided than many, myself included, previously thought…

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This article was originally posted on The Verge Forums. Click here to see it, and be sure to participate in the ensuing discussion.

Android has a problem. Actually, Android has several problems. (Don’t freak out, its okay. Every platform has several problems.) Many of them we already know about. The half-baked Google TV. The lack of cohesion across different Android devices. Apple. Windows 8 with Metro. These are but a few (and likely the biggest) challenges the platform is facing going forward. But this post isn’t a list of problems. This post is the start of a conversation about how to fix them.

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Yes, you’re right, it has taken way too long, but after well over a year of waiting, it looks like there may finally be word of a native Facebook app for iPad coming our way designed by the actual Facebook team.

While Facebook has always had apps for the iPhone, Android, and even the lowly Blackberry, iPad users have been left out in the cold. Using either Facebook.com, which works but isn’t at all optimized for touch, or one of several third party apps available (like Friendly for Facebook,) iPad users haven’t had a perfect way to use the site. Thankfully though, the New York Times’ Nick Bolton seems to have picked up on some info that says that should all be changing soon.

Check the read link for the rest of the scoop!

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To almost anyone who uses iTunes, purchasing music has always been the name of the game. For a smaller faction of users though, subscription music has always been the way to go. From Zune Pass to Rhapsody, Rdio to Spotify, its been pretty well proven that people enjoy having unlimited access to whatever music they want, without having to make the consideration of whether or not they want to buy another full CD, or even spend .99 cents on a single. Very recently, with the popularity Android has gained in the marketplace, Google introduced Google Music. Now, it appears that Apple is ready to show us what they’ve been working on. Rumored to be called iCloud, it appears Apple’s service may do more than initially thought. Read on past the break for all the dirty details!

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So here’s an interesting tidbit that didn’t get too much fan fare when it was announced recently: Facebook has decided against more protection for your privacy. Yes, you read it right. In line with many of Facebook’s past decisions, they’ve decided your personal privacy is less important than their being able to monetize apps. The gist is that from the start, devs had access to a token that allowed them access to your profile in order to let apps do things like post on your wall. The problem being that they could share that token with basically anyone they wanted. (No, they weren’t allowed to, but does everyone follow the rules when there is the potential for financial reward for not following them? Exactly.)

For a while, it seemed that Facebook was going to disallow this by using a more secure system, but they’ve now decided against the all-out change, and instead are going to “grandfather in” apps that were built on the less secure system, trusting developers to make the right decision. Read on for more details about how insecure this practice really is, as well as some easy ways to protect yourself.

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Good news today…We got our Google Music Beta invite! (Not sure what Google Music is? Here’s our summary from its announcement at Google I/O.) While not everyone has them yet, as just like most beta products Google is rolling this out slowly, but we received our email today and will be testing the heck out of Google Music this week. Why are we telling you this? Simple. We want to you know exactly what you want to know. We’re going to give you the full rundown, but if there are any specific things you want to know, definitely hit us up! You can email, tweet us, or as always, comment on this here post!

Again, we’ll be testing it out all week this week, and will hit you with a full review over the weekend, so make sure to check back Saturday or Sunday for the complete rundown!

Today Google is one of the most popular companies on the planet and is at the top of the food chain when it comes to search engines, as they have 65.4% share in America compared to the 14.1% share that Bing currently sports. In a desperate attempt to compete with Google; Microsoft created Bing, which is not just a search engine, but a “decision” engine. Now though, Bing is looking to go beyond just competing, incorporating a feature similar to that of Facebook’s Like button. Read on for more details!

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In addition to the aforementioned Music by Google and Google Tasks API, Google announced a boatload of apps and upgrades at Google I/O 2011 this past week. From movies and entertainment to operating system upgrades and laptops, this year’s I/O was like none seen previously. For the complete list of major announcements and a heads up on what they’ll mean for you, click through the link below!

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If you are in high school right now, specifically juniors, you are probably thinking about which colleges to visit, apply to, and attend. But have you heard that your Facebook profile could be a deciding factor when you are considered for admission at your top school? College acceptance is an extremely competitive and important part of life, as it helps determine what you will do as a career for the rest of your life. Keep reading and be sure to not lose your acceptance letter due to an inappropriate photo or grammatically incorrect status.

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