**AMBER ALERT** 3 YR OLD GIRL WAS TAKEN BY A MAN DRIVING A NEWER SILVER TRUCK IN WASHINGTON, DC LIC. PLATE #72B381. KEEP IT GOIN! 

I’m willing to bet you have received this via text, seen it on Twitter, or Facebook and MySpace status updates.  It’s a fake AMBER Alert made by some cruel person.  The details never even existed.  Sometimes the age changes, the year, make and model of the vehicle are different, and the city and state is almost always relevant to those people it’s targeting at the given time.   What I notice almost always stays the same, is the license plate number.  Another variation I’ve seen is 98B351.

I found it odd when I first received this as a text, because I have signed up at wirelessamberalerts.org so that I know when local children are missing.  I didn’t receive any such text from them so I googled the license plate number for more information.  My suspicion was correct.  This was a fake AMBER Alert.  It angered me that anyone would waste our time looking for someone who had never been missing.  People jumped at spreading the news wanting to help out.  This is where the scenario gets sticky.  I call these people out and let them know that the forwarded message is a fraud and they immediately become defensive stating they just wanted to help and that it was better to be safe than sorry.   These people seemed pretty offended that I notified them of their ignorance.  Oh well.

 I have a problem with this.  I have seen this fake alert go out in many different ways over a long period of time.  I have never seen a legit AMBER Alert be forwarded by anyone.  Not even once.  People are so willing to waste their time on a bogus AMBER Alert but won’t even take the time to register for Wireless AMBER Alerts.  If we only put a fraction of the time and effort into spreading real AMBER Alerts as we do phony alerts, I’m willing to bet we could find most any child missing, if still alive.  So please, stop crying wolf over nothing when the real wolves are out there preying on young children every minute of the day.

To learn more about what you can do to help, please visit the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.

It’s no surprise to me that Facebook has mimicked MySpace in creating a diet version of their website.  Facebook Lite is now live, offering Facebook users an experience without all of the bells and whistles their regular Facebook has.  Facebook maintains that this is an effort to allow access to their website from slow internet connections and the fact that they’ve been testing the website in India makes that claim sound pretty accurate.  However, the lite version does more than just load at a faster speed.  Facebook became famous partly because of the absence of clutter.  This appeals to many people who just want to stay in touch with friends and not play Mafia Wars and Farmville.  I’ve heard a lot of people reluctant to join Facebook, or even use it because it seemed too complicated and they had just gotten comfortable with MySpace.  For loyal Twitter users who refuse to use the likes of Facebook and MySpace again, it could draw them back. 

But back to the whole premise of Facebook Lite.  Yes, I have the Facebook app on my iPhone; however, if I am sent an email stating someone commented on my status, I often just click the link which takes me directly to that comment so that I don’t have to go on a wild goose chase searching for the damn thing.  I like this feature, but Facebook bogs down my iPhone and sometimes even kills the browser altogether.  Trying to navigate through settings can be a nightmare.  The same thing goes for MySpace.  However, I am able to access the non-mobile version of Twitter without killing myself in the process.  I do hope that both MySpace and Facebook start sending their notification emails with links to the Lite and mobile versions so that I may choose which one I want to go to.  MySpace makes it damn near impossible to log into the regular web version from my phone, constantly telling me I need to log in over and over again.  Facebook has refused to log me in at times as well, but at least Facebook will take me to the comment whereas MySpace sends me directly to the page where I need to choose between the regular version and the mobile version, thus negating the purpose of clicking the link in the first place. 

I’m a regular user of Facebook and I don’t have any plans to switch to Facebook Lite, but I like it as an option for those who aren’t social media savvy and for those who have slow connections.  I may even decide to use it on my iPhone but the new version of the Facebook App has proved to be a big upgrade.  If they include the link on their notification emails, I’m sure I’ll be back.

Also, I just created a new page, so add me on Facebook.

I had briefly mentioned Loopt in a previous blog about my iPhone addiction.  Loopt is an app for the iPhone that allows you to update status messages which can be linked to Facebook and Twitter, and let other uses know where you’re located at the given time of update.  However, for 2 weeks, you can test the new background Loopt where the application will run constantly, allowing other users to see when you’re on the move.  However, after the first 2 weeks, Loopt will start showing up on your AT&T bill as a $3.99 charge.  I’d recommend you be very aware of who you give this access too, because as I mentioned before, this is a stalker’s dream!  If you should perhaps decide to let your friends know every move you make, the application will alert you if you have a friend that is close by so you can meet up for a Venti Mocha Frapp at Starbucks – which by the way, Loopt can help you find!

Loopt is available on most major carriers, and on various phones.  There are some non-invasive ads on the app which Loopt is currently working to make location based.  I’m very indecisive yet highly suggestible when it comes to dining out so I feel that these advertisements would actually help me if I was hungry!  It looks like a pretty functional idea, but I don’t see it going very far with a $3.99 monthly price tag.  However, I’m sure Loopt won’t be $3.99 for very long if they acquire some solid advertising deals.  When they recognize the power of advertisement and stop charging the users monthly fees, I think this app could become very popular.  GPS social media at its finest.  Also, don’t worry about your battery life, as the entire app isn’t actually running in the background.  I see this technology going far with the iPhone.

Everything that I thought I hated about Twitter has been fixed with a web-based Twitter Client, HootSuite 2.0.  First of all, I must say that whoever invented “tabs” is my hero.  You don’t realize how much you love tabbed browsers until you go to work where they’re still making you use Internet Explorer 6.0.  HootSuite lays everything out in easy to find tabs.  My Twitter followers keep growing in numbers, and I obviously don’t have the time to read each and every tweet.  HootSuite allows me to column off my close friends so I don’t miss a beat with their tweets.  In another column on my first tab, I am able to see everyone who mentioned my name, while the other two columns on my first tab have direct messages and everyone else’s tweets.  My second tab shows tweets from HootSuite and other “featured” tweets.  I’ve only just begun to customize my HootSuite.

I have a website I intend to launch in the near future and can also add this account to my HootSuite where I can monitor both accounts at the same time.  Not only that, my partner in crime, Molly can share access to the account easily with HootSuite on her own dashboard.  You can schedule your tweets and track statistics on all of your Twitter accounts all while using their new Drag & Drop features.  I would also like to add that HootSuite is a bit too advanced for the likes of older browsers.  If you’re still using IE 6, it’s not going to work.  HootSuite will suggest other browsers for you but I can say that I’m still an avid Mozilla Firefox user.  I tried Google Chrome but did not like that you couldn’t get the Google Toolbar on Google Chrome.  However, HootSuite works on both, and Safari as well!  So try out this new Twitter toolbox.  It’s  a real hoot. *chuckle*

According to ComScore, Facebook had 87.7 million unique visitors in the month of July, increasing their visitor count by about 10.7 million from the month of June whereas MySpace’s unique visitor count went down by 168k totalling 68.3 million, and Twitter only went up by 1.1 million unique visitors, totalling 21.2 million in the month of July.  That’s a mouth full but it shows the progress of Facebook.  Twitter is growing like a weed, just not compared to Facebook’s monopoly on the Social Networking sites.

I see my friends making status comments saying they’re not even sure why people still use MySpace.  However, I see benefits of both.  MySpace offers customization, and after all, it was the first social networking site to really go big.  Back before that, we were stuck with sites like Friendster and FaceTheJury.  To find old school buddies, we had to sign up at Classmates.com and pay their outrageous fees on a monthly basis.  I guess that’s why I have a bit of a loyalty to MySpace.  I also use it to keep in touch with acquaintances that I might want to network with at a later time.  Facebook seems so much more personal, but I love the fact that I don’t have to show every person every side of me.  Now, my aunts can add me on Facebook without me being worried they’ll lose all respect for me when they realize some of the things that come out of my mouth, or in this case, fingertips would make a sailor blush.  All I have to do is block them from status comments!  This also works with the people who like to leave inappropriate comments in my status messages as well.  It’s a win/win for me.

As for Twitter, I’m still trying to get the hang of updating it.  I like to use it for when I’m out and I take a picture of something with my iPhone.  I am using it for blog updates too.  It’s a great little resource but it will never trump the likes of Facebook and MySpace no matter how hard it tries.  It does well for what it is, but if it changed its entire concept of micro-blogging, it just wouldn’t be Twitter.

So, it’s not surprising to me that Facebook is doing so much better than the rest.  Now, if I could just stop getting stupid app requests that I have to keep blocking, we’d all be good.

Kermit the Frog claimed it’s not easy being green but in today’s age, more and more companies are producing bio-friendly products.  One of those companies is Samsung.  The Samsung Reclaim is made from a corn derived bioplastic.  Even the box is made from recycled material and the phone has an alert to let you know when to unplug it from the power source so as to not waste electricity.  To top it off, Sprint will be donating $2 from every sale to Nature Conservancy.  It comes in blue and green and is a very economical purchase at just $50.  The phone has a full QWERTY slide out keyboard perfect for constant texters and a good idea for the tween market who are pushing out thousands upon thousands of texts per month.  It has the capability to connect to popular social networking sites like MySpace, Facebook, and Twitter; however, it only has a WAP browser.  It uses a 2 megapixel camera capable of recording video.  I imagine this would also be a good phone for the technologically deficient people out there, like my parents, who have trouble with multi-tap texting and have no desire or use for a smart phone.  It’s far less complicated than a lot of mobile phones out there.

This is the first edition of the Samsung Reclaim and rumor has it that it will only get better as time goes.  Future editions will be configured with full web browsing, touch screens at less than double the cost of this first generation Reclaim.  I look forward to more cellular phone makers following suit and producing eco-friendly cellular phones.  Samsung is a brand I definitely trust and I hope this phone does well on the market.  The Samsung Reclaim will be available at Sprint stores starting August 16th.