That is right, Facebook, after having 500 million friends when “The Social Network” was released, is now closing in on the 700 million user mark. Of course, it can be a bit hard to determine how many of these users are actually real people and are not driven by some programming or a bot, but it definitely will help many to get an idea of just how large the site has become. Where the ceiling is, it can be hard to tell but it definitely looks as though one billion is not out of the range of Facebook.

They have become by far the largest site in social media and have been able to expand their huge social network in a way that has never been seen before. They have added a growth of 11.4% in May of this year, which is the largest growth that they have seen so far. Brazil led the charge, but Indonesia also added 1.5 million users, while the Philippines added an additional 1.3 million users over that same period of time. A number of other countries have also seen their number of Facebook users skyrocket. The US still is the largest base of users for any country in the world with about 150 million users in all using the service.

The other top five countries include Indonesia, Turkey, the UK and then India. It will be interesting to see what other countries might potentially become major players in the Facebook user base. China has a huge potential for users, but their laws will not allow users to sign up on the site, which is something that facebook has said that they will not budge on and has made it clear that they are not interested in censoring any of the content on their site in order to get China into the mix. The 700 million mark is huge, and you can bet that it will closely be followed by the one billion mark if this recent growth is any indication.

Translating language from mobile phone to mobile phone is definitely something that has been around for awhile, but most companies have had a very hard time doing it in a consistent manner. However, the new translation system currently being worked on by NTT Docomo looks to be an exciting technology so far. They are currently the largest mobile carrier in Japan, and is utilizing some of the top technology out there for voice recognition, translating of language and also voice synthesis.

The company also released a video that shows the technology online, which showed a user reading a Japanese magazine and watching as the text was updated in real time in English. It was actually very accurate, which is not something that most have come to expect from a translation service. The text was then read back to the user in English. You can already see how this would help businesses to communicate with one another around the globe.

As with any automated translation service, accuracy will need to be fine tuned in order to get it to read flawlessly, but in all the accuracy was a lot better than most of the other translation services. This is a technology that the company envisions being a few years away from widespread use, but the fact that they are confident enough to debut it at this time shows how confident they are in it so far.

Speed is also something that they are taking very serious, and it will need a little work before it becomes more practical. Technology like this could allow for people around the world to do business with one another without having to have an interpreter or translator on board at all times. Although this is still a ways away from being released, it is an exciting technology none the less.

In a move that pretty much confirms that at some point in the future we are going to be seeing the next version of the iPhone hit the shelves, Apple has announced that they are going to be cutting down on the production of the device. So far the company has been able to sell more than 18.6 million of the devices, and it is estimated that there are a total of one and a half non-purchased devices that are still available out there. So with rumors of the iPhone 4S SimFree all over the web, you can bet that Apple is preparing to release that.

Now, they have said that the second quarter shipment volume for the device has gone from 20 million units down to just 17.5 million, which could potentially go as high as 18 million units. So far, it looks as though, according to most rumors, that the iPhone 4S will be receiving a September release date, which should make the demand for the iPhone 4 plummet when it is released.

Sources have stated that the production of the next version of the device is currently slated for August.  Qualcomm will be in charge of the 3G and CDMA chip development and supply, so that is good news for those that are waiting for the next version of the device.

Apple did this just before the release of the iPhone 3GS too, so if the past is any indication of what we can expect from the company then it looks like the company is preparing for the next version of the device to come out and for the demand for the Sim Free iPhone 4 to fall off a bit at some point in the future. Although no official word has come from Apple at this point, look for them to release specific details at some point this summer.

HTC is a company that has become known for delivering high quality mobile devices such as Sim free HTC Incredible S,  in recent years, and the HTC Arrive is certainly another addition to their already stellar lineup. The HTC Arrive was not heavily publicized or advertised. the HTC Arrive will be available to Sprint customers and will be the first smart phone that the company has offered to run on the Windows Phone 7 operating system – which has become quite popular in recent months.

The Windows Phone 7 operating system runs great on the Sim free HTC HD7 phone, and there is hardly any lag time noticably. In fact, the operating system seems to run faster on the arrive than it does on other, more high powered mobile devices.

The hardware included with the arrive features a 1 GHz processor, which has become standard for phones within this price range, sixteen gigabytes of internal storage, along with a 5 megapixel camera that is able to support 720p HD video recording and playback. The hardware is more than enough to support the installed software, which has been criticized for requiring a lot of hardware to run the OS smoothly. The average talk time fo rthe device before a charge is said to be about 6 hours in total. The audio quality of the arrive might be the biggest selling point. The audio quality on all calls i excellent, crystal clear and loud enough to easily hear. The Arrive has clarity that surpasses even previous HTC devices that were heralded for their excellent audio quality in the past.

As far as the design goes, the slide out QWERTY keyboard does not seem to add a bunch of extra weight to the device, and it is easily one of the better QWERTY keyboards the company has released. The phone looks very similar to the HTC HD7, before you slight out the keyboard at elast. The keyboard slides out horizontally, as opposed to the vertical style that was used with the HD7.

All in all, the HTC Arrive is a solid phone like Sim free HTC Desire HD that is quite powerful and seems to run the Windows Phone 7 software without issue, seamlessly. It is one of the better offerings that HTC has released over the course of the last year and despite the fact that it has not received a lot of advertising promotion, it should have no problem finding a user base that loves it.

The Sim Free Sony XPERIA Arc has not received as much attention as the Sim Free Sony Ericsson XPERIA Play, a semi-Playstation branded phone with a focus on gaming -but that does not mean that the Arc will be any less solid of an offering than we have come to expect.

The first thing you will notice about the XPERIA Arc is the innovative design. As was first debuted last year, the Arc has a curvature in the design that makes the device fit comfortably in the human hand. The four inch display is completely touchscreen and does not have any sort of slide out QWERTY keyboard. Thankfully, the touchscreen is fairly responsive and it is very easy to type on because the keyboard on the screen is very large.

The device will be running on Google Android 2.3 , which features video conferencing features, but will not be present on the XPERIA Arc. It is a bit surprising that Sony would not include a front facing camera, but then again they have been aggressively expanding into the mid level market, which traditionally has not had video chat features.

The Google Android 2.3 software runs seamlessly on the phone and the hardware has more than enough to power it without issue. Overall, the XPERIA Arc is another solid offering from Sony,a  company that has publicly stated that they would like to become the largest mobile device manufacturer in the world. That goal starts with devices like the ARC, which targets individuals on a budget in the mid-level market that has not had as many quality devices produced for it.

The Arc may not be the best phone that they have ever offered, but it is easily one of the better for the price range that it will be included in.

One of the biggest problems with the Sim Free Apple iPhone 4 and other iOS tools is that they do not allow users to access flash. Of course, there are many political reasons behind this move. In fact, each time a device is released without the inclusion of Flash, it further proves that there is an all out war between Apple and Adobe. It appears that Adobe might be fed up with all of the down talking that Apple has done about Flash as a secure application, and have decided that they are going to releasing a utility that converts Flash to HTML 5. This utility hen could be used with various mobile applications to allow users to view flash movies. Apple has always been good at picking and choosing several different flash platforms that users will have access to without problems – including YouTube, a website that does utilize flash but is allowed to run on iOS devices.

The experimental technology, which is currently being dubbed “Wallaby,” does provide hope at the end of the tunnel for iOS users. What is Apple going to say when Mobile devices are able to convert flash to HTML 5, a technology which Apple has dubbed safe for use on their phones like Sim Free iPhone 4? There really is no come back that they can use to make people believe that they are not just blacklisting flash from their products for their own reasons.

Once the file shave been converted to HTML, then you can use a number of different tools to edit the video. It will be a bit more complicated, but look for apps that will make the easy conversion for you, or websites that have it auto installed on their servers so that all of their videos are posted both as flash, and as the “safer” alternative, HTML 5. Apple may be all about reducing the risks to their devices, but that does not mean that people are not aware that they are simply competing with Adobe with these types of rules.

The first thing that you need to know about the Simfree Google Nexus S is that it runs on the Android 2.3 Gingerbread version, which is easily the best version of the software that is out there today. With other devices in the S line soaking up most of the attention, the Samsung Google Nexus S is a device that has mostly slipped under the radar for many users but is a great device with even better specs.

It utilizes a 1 GHz Hummingbird CPU, which is more than powerful enough to run the version of Android that the device runs. It also features 512 MB of Ram along with a 4 inch screen that has a 800 x 480 Super AMOLED display. The display will probably be the first thing you noticed about the phone when you hold it in your hand. It looks great, and the phones design fits comfortably in the hand and is very light weight, making it fit comfortably in a pocket as well.

The phone also features a five megapixel rear facing camera, along with a VGA front facing camera for easy video conferencing. It can be hard to separate one device in the S line from others, but the Samsung google Nexus S is definitely a stand out for both the S and Nexus line of phones that we have previously seen.

The sound quality is also excellent. Those that you are speaking with are easy to understand, and the volume is at an appropriate level for the phone. Google and Samsung have teamed up to make an excellent device that surpasses all devices previously released in their respective lines with the Samsung Google Nexus S simfree.

The only complaint that some have had regarding the device is that it may not be able to take a beating in the way that other S phones previously have. It is light weight, which works to its advantage but that does not mean that it will survive falls from your lap as you hop out of your seat if you do it enough.

Although some analytics companies have boldly predicted that at some point text messages will become a way of the past, but that does not seem to be going anywhere anytime soon. During the very recent Spring Festival in China, which is what the Chinese New Year is called, over 26 billion text messages were sent from simfree mobile phones. That is more than has ever been recorded during the Chinese New Year, and even represents a 13 percent increase over last year, suggesting that text message use in the country is still expanding at this point and time.

So far there are 859 million mobile phone subscriptions in the country. That is nearly three quarters of the population of the country. In a survey that was released last year, the number of US mobile phone subscribers is currently at 285 million, or 91 percent of the population of the country.

Text messaging looks as if it is continuing to grow in popularity across the globe, even while some predict that a new technology will soon replace text messaging int he eyes of many. With social networks like Twitter and Facebook continuing to grow and expand, some had predicted that social networks would instantly become the new preferred communication method of the masses. That does not appear to be the case at this time, although things could still head that way in the future.

26 billion text messages are a huge number and a huge gain over the number that was sent during the same period of time last year. Watch next year to see if that number continues to grow. Events like this are a good representation of the popularity of the text messaging platform as a tool to deliver a message.

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Phones with bigger screens seem to be all the rage over the course of the last few months, and the Sim Free HTC Desire HD is no exception to this rule. Its 4.3 inch screen, WVGA display, and 800 x 480 resolution have made the phone a very hot commodity in recent months, but that doesn’t mean that all of the features seen in the phone are overwhelming good.

To start, it does come with an 8 megapixel camera and dual LED flashes to help you secure the highest quality picture possible. The 1 GHz processor is in line with other high powered smart phones that will be coming out at around the same time, but the phone suffers from poor battery life as a result of its large screen and high powered features.

The camera lens on the phone is also left unprotected as a result of the case design.The Sim Free HTC Desire HD is the first phone to feature an aluminum unibody design, which basically means that the phone case was carved out of a single piece of light weight metal. All this means for the end user is that the phone will be pretty light.

Some have argued that the nearly $500 price tag is too much, and that other high powered phones will be available for less. So far, there is no information about what carriers might be utilizing the device, but it is confirmed that it will be running on the Android 2.2 software, and will feature a few minor upgrades from HTC themselves.

The software is great, the hardware is superb, the only real complaints about the Desire are the high price tag and battery life – which is something that anyone should be willing to sacrifice if a bigger screen is an important part of their purchase.

If you currently have a T-Mobile UK account, you will not be subjected to their new strict data cap. They had originally put the data cap of 500 MB per month on existing accounts, but after it was met with a ton of backlash, the company has decided that they will only be implementing the data cap on new and upgrading customers. Also, the new rules will not go into effect until February first.

Although this is not a big win for the users, because all of them will be forced to upgrade at some point (new users will be subjected to the new data cap and fair use policy right away – which by no stretch of the imagination is a good thing for them) the policy is still bothersome to those that are using the company for their mobile services.

Their explanation of the fair use policy is extremely vague as well. With everyone reducing their prices and increasing the data usage plans across the world, it is interesting that T-Mobile UK would take such a hard-nosed approach that will likely land them in hot water with a large portion of their consumer base.

The reprieve is one that will be appreciated by current customers, many of whom will probably opt out of upgrading if the new cap is going to be put into place. It will be interesting to see how the user base reacts to their updated decision and whether or not they will choose to jump ship when their current contract is up. The outcry that was heard when the original announcement was made obviously got to T-Mobile UK, hopefully the complaints regarding the newest announcement will be just as loud from the user base.

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