Facebook, being one of the most popular social networking sites in the world, is probably also one of the most common medium of communication that we use to keep in contact with current friends, old aquaintances and family. If you have a constant urge to check your Facebook profile every five minutes for new status updates, links and posts, then you might want to consider getting the following desktop apps to make it easier for you to keep track of changes.

In this list we have 7 Facebook desktop applications, fitting for the avid facebooker who don’t want to keep their browser window open all the time. These applications – some simple, some pretty sophisticated – will enable you to run Facebook, right from your desktop. There will also be another four apps listed, that can help you monitor not only Facebook but your other social networking profiles as well. Catch the full list, in no particular order, after the jump.

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Adobe Photo Uploader For Facebook

Adobe Photo Uploader for Facebook is a dedicated desktop application for Facebook, which not only lets you upload pictures to your Facebook profile by simple drag-and-drop feature but also proves to be a robust desktop application with all essential Facebook features. Apart from uploading photos, you can update your status, see your news feed, share photos and chat with your friends. It is a free software that runs on any platform with Adobe AIR. It is a must-have for any diehard Facebook user.

Platform: Windows, Mac and Linux with Adobe AIR

InTouch

InTouch is one of the classiest looking Facebook Desktop application which is pretty much like having a tablet or a smartphone on your desktop. The coolest feature of InTouch is that it allows you to access your favourite and most used Facebook features by directional swiping instead of clicking. It is very simple to use and is very handy to post status updates, tag friends, share multiple images (drag in the folder to share all images inside at a go) and videos by simple drag-and-drop. It is available in OS X, Windows and Linux.

Platform: Windows, Mac and Linux

FBQuick

FBQuick is a simple yet useful desktop application that provides you with all Facebook notifications right on your desktop. You can receive all your profile notifications, stay connected with friends, pages and events, and monitor your entire Facebook activity right from your desktop without the use of a web browser.

Platform: Windows

Flip Toast

Once installed FlipToast will appear as a toolbar on your desktop giving you quick access to the icons that represent each Facebook feature you are interested in. The interface of this application is clean and efficiently implemented. Status updates, image uploading and facebook chats can now be managed from a simple toolbar. It also displays new feeds and updaets through small notification blurbs which disappear in seconds.

Platform: Windows and Mac

FMenu

FMenu is a Mac only application that brings notifications and status updates from the most popular social networking site Facebook right into your desktop. After installing this app, you can click on the small notifications button to peek into your recent Facebook activity. You can even update your Facebook status anytime through a simple keyboard shortcut (Cmd+Alt+Ctrl+Space). It gives you complete control on your messages, events, pokes, friend requests, wall posts and photo comments.

Platform: Mac

Telerik FDeck

Having Telerik FDeck on your desktop is like giving Facebook a new wardrobe change. Instead of white and blue, this interface features a slick white content over a black backdrop. The fonts used here are way bigger, you get all the regular perk that makes Facebook the place you want to hang out in, uploading photos is ultra easy and best of all, no pesky third-party app notifications or facebook ads!

Platform: Windows with Silverlight

Facebook Desktop

Facebook Desktop is a lightweight desktop application for Windows and Mac. This app is most suitable for those who constantly have an urge to check Facebook updates every few minutes. Install this app and forget opening your browser. It will sit quietly in your system tray and will alert you whenever there is a new activity in your Facebook stream. The alerts are presented in the form of unobtrusive popups, that fade after seconds.

Platform: Windows and Mac with Adobe AIR

Bonus

If you have several other social networking sites that you want to monitor i.e. Twitter, Google Reader, RSS, alongside Facebok, here are a few suggestions.

Seesmic Ping

Seesmic Ping Beta lets you post via the multiple Facebook Pages or Profiles, Twitter and LinkedIn accounts you own, all in the same time. It is available in the Windows and Mac platforms. It is also available as mobile and web applications and is a great app to help you stay connected with your professional and personal network anytime, anywhere.

Platform: Windows and Mac

TweetDeck

TweetDeck is a powerful app that provides you with loads of features to increase your productivity. After you have clicked on the Facebook icon and given authorization, it will provide you with a full column of status updates of your friends every minute. TweetDeck is also an IM client, where you can click on any online friend’s name and start chatting right within TweetDeck.

Platform: Windows and Mac

Yoonoo

Yoonoo is a simple and easy to use desktop application that lets you connect to all your social networking and instant messaging sites like Facebook, all in one place. You can get all your friends feed updates, update your own status and share cool stuffs with your friends. You can also chat with your friends who are online right now. It also serves as a standalone portable app that can be installed on any USB device.

Platform: Windows, Mac and Linux

Socialite

Socialite is a revolutionary social networking application for Mac users, which seamlessly integrates not only Facebook, but also other social networking sites like Twitter, RSS, Google Reader, etc. The interface of this application is clean, beautiful and easy to use. Post your status, view what your friends are saying, news feeds, conversations and photos.

Platform: Mac

Editor’s note: This list is, not by a long shot, an exhaustive one, so do share your suggestions for desktop applications you would recommend for use.

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Among several new tags that are available in HTML5, Specifications (such as: figure, figcaption, and aside), detail and summary tags, in my opinion, are the most useful. With these new tags you can hide some of the long content and display only the summary.

We actually often see this effect around, but most of them are still built upon JavaScript or its brother: jQuery, which most people don’t understand. Now, with these new elements – details and summary – things will get easier.

So, let’s see how tags work in a real case scenario.

Recommended Reading: Beginner’s Guide To: Building HTML5/CSS3 Webpages

In this demo we are going to summarize a product description. First let’s create a ‘details’ tag and then put all the content along with the ‘summary’ tag inside it, like in the example below:

    <details>      <summary>MacBook Pro Specification</summary>        <ul>          <li><strong>13.3-inch LED-backlit glossy widescreen display</strong> with edge-to-edge, uninterrupted glass (1280 x 800-pixel resolution).</li>          <li><strong>2.4 GHz Intel Core i5 dual-core processor</strong> with 3 MB shared L3 cache for excellent multitasking.</li>          <li><strong>Intel HD Graphics 3000</strong> with 384 MB of DDR3 SDRAM shared with main memory.</li>          <li><strong>500 GB Serial ATA hard drive</strong> (5400 RPM)</li>          <li><strong>4 GB installed RAM</strong> (1333 MHz DDR3; supports up to 8 GB)</li>        </ul>    </details>  

In that example, I’ve added MacBook Pro specification detail, and now let’s see how the browser renders those tags.

I also have added a title and more descriptions of the product above the details to make the above demo more sensible to you. So, what do you think? It’s quite easy, right?

Browser Supports

However, before you rush to apply this tag to your entire website, it should be noted that the details and summary tag is currently only supported on Chrome 12 and above.

Even the latest Firefox doesn’t support them yet.

So, if you want to apply this tag, you need to include a fallback function for unsupported browsers. The good news it, it’s simple; you can use this details polyfill, which will automatically replicate the tag functionality for old browsers.

Download this file and link it to the html document along with the jQuery (1.7+ at minimum) and make sure you place the polyfill before the close body tag.

And inside the head tag, insert the following conditional tag to include HTML5shiv for IE8 and earlier, otherwise the Internet Explorer will not recognize these new tags.

  <!--[if lt IE 9]><script src="http://html5shiv.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/html5.js"></script><![endif]-->

Now let’s see how it turns out in Internet Explorer:

And it now works on Internet Explorer as well.

• Demo
• Download Source

Conclusion

Creating such a hide-and-show effect with JavaScript or jQuery is actually relatively easy, but having it natively supported from the browser is definitely a much easier solution for many people. Whether you want to do it in JavaScript or in HTML5, it’s your decision. Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoyed it.

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Your smartphone is your personal device. It keeps many of your personal files and data, which includes private photos, videos and messages that you wouldn’t want to be seen by anyone. But keeping these files safe from family and friends may be troublesome especially when they are checking out your phone to view or try out your downloaded applications.

To keep your files safe and hidden in your phone, you may need a protected folder with a password, so no one will be able to access them without the right password. Some bad news first, this can be done on the computer, but not on smartphones. The good news? You can keep your files safe and private with an external application called KeepSafe.

Recommended Reading: Top 10 Security Tools for Your Smartphone

1. Install and Set Pin

First search for the KeepSafe app from the Android market on your smartphone and install. When installation is completed, you will be prompted to insert your protection pin. Insert your preferred 4-digit pin. Click ‘OK’ and insert the pin again for confirmation.

You will be redirected to a page where you can enable a pin reminder in case you forget it. Insert your email address to activate the email remainder, or tap on ‘No, Thanks’ to disable it.

2. Hide photos and videos with KeepSafe

Your KeepSafe application is now ready for use, and to set your photos and videos to be kept safe with KeepSafe, go to your smartphone’s gallery, select any photo or video, then click on the ‘Share’ button. From the selection, choose ‘Keep safe’.

And that’s it, whenever you add your photos or videos to your KeepSafe vault, no one will be able to view them without providing the pin you have set earlier.

To view these protected files, simply open up the KeepSafe application and enter your pin.

3. Unhide Photos and Videos

To unhide your photos or videos from KeepSafe, open your KeepSafe Gallery, select any photo or video you want to unhide, long-press the item until a pop-up window appears with options, then click on ‘unhide’.

Once on ‘unhide’ mode, your picture may not appear on your public gallery immediately. If this happens, reboot your Android so it can re-index your gallery.

Conclusion

This may not be the only solution for you to keep your files and data safe on your Android smartphones, but it definitely helps a lot. Now you don’t have to worry of any files being exposed to anyone by accident.

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