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Friday, May 3, 2013

Share your story about student loan debt

Two-thirds of the national college class of 2011 finished school with loan debt, and those who borrowed walked off the graduation stage owing on average $26,600. (Jacquelyn Martin/AP)

If you are a college graduate, your degree significantly increases your chances at landing a job?and one that pays much better than those that require only a high school diploma.

But the flip side of that sheepskin for many is student debt, cumulatively now at $1 trillion in the United States. Forty-three percent of American 25-year-olds carry student loan debt, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

To find personal stories behind those stats, Yahoo News and Yahoo Finance are inviting Americans with student loan debt to share their experiences?whether you?ve just finished school or are still paying down those vexing loan balances years after graduating.

But we?re not only interested in bothersome stories of mounting debt. If your student loans played a vital and positive role in finding a career, securing your diploma, increasing your salary or otherwise improving your life and financial well-being, we want to highlight your story. Or if you are paying off someone else's student loans (your kid's, for instance), we'd like to hear from you, too.

To write your story, learn more at Yahoo Contributor Network. There, you?ll find details about what we?re looking for. Stories that we accept will be published under your byline on Yahoo News. The deadline for submissions is May 13.

We appreciate your participation and look forward to receiving your first-person account.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/share-story-student-loan-debt-185704546.html

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Facebook's mobile business expands in first quarter

By Alexei Oreskovic

(Reuters) - Facebook Inc's mobile advertising revenue growth gained momentum in the first three months of the year as the social network sold more ads to users on smartphones and tablets, partially offsetting higher spending which weighed on profits.

New types of ads designed for smartphones, particularly ads aimed at enticing Facebook users to install mobile apps on their phones, helped lift revenue while traffic to the social network remained strong.

The results reassured Wall Street that the world's largest social network was keeping up with consumers' shift from PCs to smartphones, even if the company provided few big surprises during the first quarter.

Mobile ad revenue accounted for 30 percent of Facebook's ad revenue in the first quarter, compared to roughly 23 percent in the fourth quarter. Sales of ads on mobile devices have been a key element in the recovery of Facebook's overall ad revenue from a sharp slowdown early last year.

The first-quarter mobile ad revenue was at the higher end of expectations, said Macquarie Research analyst Ben Schachter. But he said it "needed to be higher for people to get really excited about trend lines".

Shares of Facebook, which are down roughly 12 percent since the end of January, were up 7 cents at $27.50 in after-hours trading on Wednesday.

"Everyone was focused on two things, one was mobile and how big it could be, and the other thing was engagement," said Ronald Josey, an analyst with JMP Securities.

Facebook delivered solid results on both fronts, Josey said, noting that consumers' use of Facebook does not appear to have declined despite a growing array of popular social networking and mobile messaging alternative services, such as Pinterest and WhatsApp.

Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook's 28-year-old co-founder and chief executive, told investors on a conference call on Wednesday that there was room for Facebook and rival services to thrive. He said mobile photo-sharing service Instagram, which Facebook acquired last year, was now growing faster than Facebook did at a similar stage in its history.

Facebook said it now counted 1.11 billion monthly active users and about 665 million daily active users.

The company said the number of monthly users who logged on solely through mobile devices more than doubled to 189 million users from a year ago.

Graphic: http://link.reuters.com/ryp77t

NEW AD PRODUCTS

Created in a Harvard dorm room in 2004, Facebook, along with other established Internet companies such as Google Inc and Yahoo Inc, are moving to reposition their businesses for a world in which consumers' primary Internet access occurs on small-screened smartphones rather than PCs.

Facebook has rolled out a string of big product launches and revamps in recent months, including an overhaul of its newsfeed and search feature, as well an app for Android smartphones that puts Facebook features front and center on phone homescreens.

The various initiatives have contributed to rising spending, with Facebook's 60 percent year-on-year increase in costs and expenses outpacing the 38 percent revenue increase.

Facebook said it earned $219 million, or 9 cents a share, in the first three months of the year, compared to $205 million, or 9 cents a share, in the year-ago period.

Excluding certain items, Facebook said it earned 12 cents a share. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S were looking for adjusted EPS of 13 cents.

Facebook executives reiterated previous guidance that spending would be up in 2013 as the company invests in new products and in improving the efficacy of its ads.

One nascent type of mobile advertising pioneered by Facebook ? ads that encourage users to install third-party apps ? could grow meaningfully, Zuckerberg said.

"We're starting to see real revenue from mobile app installs," Zuckerberg said, without giving details. "It's one of our most important new ad products."

Facebook's revenue in the first quarter totaled $1.46 billion, versus $1.06 billion in the year-ago period, and roughly in line with analyst expectations. Advertising revenue was up 43 percent in the first quarter, the fastest growth rate since the end of 2011.

"You are seeing pretty strong revenue growth right now," said Raymond James analyst Aaron Kessler. But he warned that the revenue growth could slow in coming quarters as Facebook faces tougher year-on-year comparisons.

(With additional reporting by Gerry Shih; Editing by Stephen Coates)

(This story was refiled to correct analyst Ronald Josey's firm to JMP Securities from Jefferies & Co in the seventh paragraph)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/facebooks-mobile-business-expands-first-quarter-011501788.html

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Thursday, May 2, 2013

Taking A Different Tack, Nimbuzz Chat Startup Partners With Pakistan Operator Mobilink

Recently we've seen a lot of news articles about the potential for chat apps to take over the role of SMS. Analysts Informa recently came out with the research that suggested that 2012 was the tipping point, with nearly 19 billion messages sent over chat apps daily globally, versus 17.6 billion SMS messages. In 2014 some 21 billion SMS messages are predicated as against 50 billion app-based messages. Now, while the the user numbers of chat apps are significantly lower right now when set against chat apps (3.5 billion SMS users in 2012, against 586.3 million users of WhatsApp, BlackBerry Messenger, Viber, Nimbuzz, Apple?s iMessage and KakaoTalk), those ratios are changing. Given that SMS is 20 years old and chat apps have been going for only 5 years, the trend is concentrating the minds of mobile operators.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/_kmmc-RXau8/

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Obama Administration Denies Benghazi Whistleblowers Being Kept Quiet (ABC News)

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| Politics - Top Stories News, News Feeds and News via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/302776655?client_source=feed&format=rss

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Unwind: A New Life

I read the book Unwind, it was rather good. Question, are you basing the whole roleplay off of the book or going to add some things of your own like a character skeleton, etc? I ask because I am interested in joining.

? The bond that links your true family is not one of blood, but of respect and joy in each other's life.?
Winter is coming.

~ crybloodredtears..

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RolePlayGateway/~3/pLj71mJMCw0/viewtopic.php

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Vine update brings support for front-facing camera, mentions

Couple of key updates for the 1.1 version of Twitter's pithy video app, Vine. First up is support for front-facing cameras, for those who can't get enough short web videos of themselves. Tap the icon in the lower-left corner of the app and it will toggle between your phone's cameras. Also new is mention support, so those tagged with an @ will get a notification when you drop their names into a post. The latest version is available now from iTunes -- perhaps a short video of you downloading the update is in order.

Filed under: Software, Mobile