Facebook buys facial-recognition startup

Image via CrunchBase

Image via CrunchBase

Facebook Inc (FB.O) is paying $55 million to $60 million to buy Face.com, according to people familiar with the matter, acquiring the company that provides the facial-recognition technology used by the world’s largest social network to help users identify and tag photos.

The deal bolsters one of Facebook’s most popular features — the sharing and handling of photos — but the use of the startup’s

has spurred concerns about user privacy.

The No. 1 social network will pay cash and stock for Face.com, potentially paying as much as $60 million, two sources with knowledge of the deal said. Media reports in past weeks have pegged the transaction at $80 million to $100 million.

Neither Facebook nor Face.com disclosed terms of the deal, which is expected to close in coming weeks.

Facebook, which will acquire the technology and the employees of the 11-person Israeli company, said in a statement that the deal allows the company to bring a “long-time technology vendor in house.”

Face.com, which has raised nearly $5 million from investors including Russian Web search site Yandex (YNDX.O), launched its first product in 2009. The company makes standalone applications that consumers can use to help them identify photos of themselves and of their friends on Facebook, as well as providing the technology that Facebook has integrated into its service.

Facebook uses the technology to scan a user’s newly uploaded photos, compares faces in the snapshots with previous pictures, then tries to match faces and suggest name tags. When a match is found, Facebook alerts the person uploading the photos and invites them to “tag,” or identify, the person in the photo.

Responding to inquiries from U.S. and European privacy advocates, Facebook last year made it easier for users to opt out of its controversial facial-recognition technology for photographs posted on the website, an effort to address concerns that it had violated consumers’ privacy.

The deal is the latest in a string of acquisitions by Facebook in recent months, including the $1 billion acquisition of mobile photo-sharing service Instagram. U.S. antitrust regulators are undertaking an extended review of the Instagram deal, which Facebook expects to close by the end of the year.

Shares of Facebook, which continue to trade below the price at which they were offered during the initial public offering in May, closed Monday’s regular session up 4.7 percent at $31.41.

Related articles

• Facebook buys Face.com facial recognition company (huffingtonpost.com)
• Facebook to buy facial-recognition startup (business.financialpost.com)
• Even bigger Big Brother: Facebook purchases Israeli facial recognition company Face.com (EndtheLie.com)
• Facebook buys facial recognition startup Face.com (venturebeat.com)
• Facebook buys facial-recognition startup (stuff.co.nz)

Tweet via SMS in India

Twitter provides their SMS tweet service only to Airtel customers in India but now its easy for others to Tweet via SMS. Thanks to SMS Tweet.

A simple service that allows you to tweet using sms in India.

No longer depend on your web browser or a twitter client. No need to install any software on your phone or use Internet on your phone. No need to pay premium rates to your network provider.

Just send an sms at normal rates to tweet your thoughts.

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REGISTER
Send an sms ‘REGISTER ‘ to any of the following nos:

• 09220092200 (Mumbai)
• 09243000111 (Bangalore)

Or register online on http://www.smstweet.in/

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After registering start tweeting by sending a message, ‘TWT ‘ to any of the following nos:

• 09220092200 (Mumbai)
• 09243000111 (Bangalore)

*STD charges will apply for smstweet’ers who don’t live in the above cities.

If you don’t live in above cities then you can simply recharge your mobile with free National SMS Bonus Cards that are easily available on every Network.

Enjoy Tweeting via SMS.

BILL CLINTON’S NETWORK Special Contacts Aided Release

Former president Bill Clinton’s central role in the return of two journalists detained by North Korea has once again cast a spotlight on his vast web of financial and political contacts, a network that troubled senators who weighed whether to confirm his wife as secretary of state.

In the case of the detainees, Clinton tapped wealthy business people to execute a mission that, without a special federal waiver for the aircraft to travel to North Korea, would have been illegal. A few weeks ago, one of his business contacts had the ear of Hillary Rodham Clinton in her role as secretary of state, an uncomfortable reminder of the former president’s far-flung interests and associates.

The intersection of power and connections blurred the exact nature of Bill Clinton’s trip to North Korea. He agreed to meet with leader Kim Jong Il two days after North Korea called his wife a “primary schoolgirl” because she had likened the country to an unruly child. The Obama administration took pains to distance itself from the mission, though officials conceded they had repeated contact with North Korean officials in the days leading up to the trip to confirm the journalists would be released if the former president traveled to Pyongyang.

Hillary Clinton, who was touring Africa while images of her husband meeting with Kim flashed on television sets around the world, felt compelled to address the conflicting messages when she spoke with NBC from Nairobi on Wednesday. “I want to be sure people don’t confuse what Bill did, which was a private humanitarian mission to bring these young women home, with our policy, which continues to be one that gives choices to North Korea,” she said. “Our policy remains the same.”

But, in a sign that diplomatic benefits may flow from her husband’s missions, she averred, saying: “Perhaps they will now be willing to start talking to us.”

No taxpayer money was used to fund the trip, with the exception of the salaries of the Secret Service agents traveling with Clinton. But the former president procured aircraft and crews by tapping companies and contacts that have previously underwritten his endeavors. With some assistance from the Obama administration, he handpicked the team that would accompany him, according to sources involved in the planning.

Dow Chemical, which has contributed as much as $50,000 to the William J. Clinton Foundation, provided the plane that ferried the former president from his home in Westchester County, N.Y., to Burbank, Calif. There, he boarded an all-business-class Boeing 737 jet provided by wealthy Hollywood producer Steve Bing. Clinton was accompanied by a team that included John D. Podesta, who was his White House chief of staff, and a former State Department expert on North Korea.

Hands On With the New Nokia 5800

The touchscreen 3G Nokia 5800, set to launch in North America later this month, will give the mobile world a pleasant surprise. This iPhone rival brings plenty of hardware goodies, but can it compete with Apple’s crown jewel?

The 5800 will launch on February 26th, and will be available in an unlocked version, which can be used on either AT&T’s or T-Mobile’s network, for $399. I’ve been using the Nokia 5800 as my primary phone for the past few days to see how well it performed–and how well it compares with my iPhone. 

The Good

+ 3.2-megapixel camera with autofocus, dual-flash, and geotagging

+ VGA video recording at 30 frames per second, and TV out

+ Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, FM Radio with RDS, GPS, and USB 2.0

+ Accelerometer, proximity sensor

+ Nokia OVI integration

+ Rich retail package and relatively affordable price (for an unlocked phone)

The Bad

– Immature and cumbersome user interface

– Not the best touchscreen sensitivity

– Unpolished web browser

– Llimited 3rd party apps availability

– Separate charger/syncing ports

– Additional paid license needed for voice-guided GPS navigation

The Hardware

What struck me immediately about the Nokia 5800 is that it lacks external music controls–and it’s supposed to be a music-centric handset. On its right side, you’ll find SIM and memory card slots, with stereo speaker grills underneath. On the left side are volume controls, a sliding screen lock, and a camera shutter. At the top of the phone, there’s a power/profile switching button, plus a microUSB slot and a standard 3.5mm audio jack. A pleasant surprise was the included stylus, housed at the bottom right corner of the handset’s back.

One of Nokia’s 5800 most important assets is located at the back of the phone. The 3.2-megapixel autofocus camera sports Carl Zeiss lens with dual LED flash (take that, iPhone). Nokia just upgraded 5800’s firmware last night, adding geotagging for photos (using the built-in GPS antenna), among other features.

The 5800 features a 3.2-inch 16:9 aspect ratio touchscreen (360 x 640 pixels), which has three control keys underneath it: call, menu and hang up. The front of the phone also has a secondary VGA camera for video calling. Above the touchscreen, there’s a tiny touch sensitive area can be found that brings up five onscreen shortcuts for music, pictures, media sharing, movies, and Web.

Music is the central point of the Nokia 5800, and the phone delivers. The sound quality is excellent, and the 5800 has a dedicated music chip built in, offering a listening experience on a par with a dedicated music device like the iPod and the iPhone. The music player offers plenty of functionality, including the ability to create playlists, view cover art, and an adjustable equalizer. The new firmware also allows users to modify song information in MP3 ID tags. As usual, iTunes DRM protected songs are not supported.

It’s worth noting that the Nokia 5800 is almost 50 percent thicker than the iPhone but around half-inch narrower and quarter-inch shorter. In contrast with the iPhone’s poor retail package, Nokia’s 5800 package is quite rich, coming with PC and video cables, headset and remote control, extra stylus, a stand and wrist-strap with an alternative stylus. A 8GB microSD card and a carrying case come bundled as well.

The Software

The Nokia 5800 is based on the Symbian S60 platform, and its touch-optimized user interface is where the 5800 scored the least points with me. Unlike the iPhone’s excellent interface, the one found on the 5800 is not very user-friendly. I also found that the touchscreen was not very responsive; I had to press very hard with my finger, though I did have better luck with the stylus.

Nokia didn’t really optimize the Symbian S60 mobile operating system for touchscreen input, though you do get haptic feedback (via gentle vibrations). Scrolling down is still achieved using a regular bar, making it virtually impossible to be done with your finger. This is quite inconvenient, especially when you have to scroll down through a long list of songs or artists in the music player.

In addition, I found the 5800 slow when accessing menus and switching applications. Even after installing the new Nokia firmware update, the phone still felt slow in comparison to the iPhone or even the T-Mobile G1. And while I’m making comparisons, there are not enough applications out there for the Nokia 5800 right now (but Nokia is expected to launch an AppStore soon).It’s worth noting, though, that the 5800 supports features long-craved by iPhone users, such as copy and paste and multitasking with applications allowed to run in the background.

Messaging on the Nokia 5800 can be difficult, as well. The touchscreen makes finger typing on the full-screen QWERTY keyboard cumbersome. Nokia offers a mini-QWERTY keyboard, an alphanumeric one, and also handwriting recognition, all done best with the stylus. Unfortunately, the e-mail client doesn’t take advantage of the large screen and doesn’t display HTML e-mail either–just text (text size can be adjusted in large, medium and small formats).

Though Nokia’s 5800 own web browser uses the same WebKit rendering engine as Safari on the iPhone, the browsing experience is not comparable. Browsing the Web on the 5800 is fast, but zooming in and out of columns and pages is by far not as smooth and functional as on the iPhone.

The Bottom Line (So Far)

The Nokia 5800 is by no means an iPhone replacement, as I discovered from a few day of using it as my primary phone. But if you’re not into the iPhone and you want a good music handset with a decent camera, this might be the one for you, especially if you get the handset bundled with Nokia’s Comes With Music offer, which gives you unlimited music downloads for a year. Also, given the recent firmware upgrade, it seems that Nokia is actively working to improve the phone’s features and responsiveness. We may also see another firmware update after the phone is available in the US.

Regardless, if you’re looking for a more powerful, full-featured touchscreen phone from Nokia, maybe it’s worth waiting a few more months for the N97 to get released.

Back in Europe, Nokia announced that it already sold over one million units of the 5800. Do you think the phone will be successful in the US? Will you be queuing up to get a Nokia 5800 for the full price (unlocked)? Please let me know in the comments.