A new application called AddressBookSync lets you match Facebook user photos and birthdays with your Mac OS X address book and your iPhone, simplifying your offline life just a little bit. AddressBookSync does his by matching names from your Facebook friends list to those in your address book. There is an option for “Last Name Only” matching, as well as the ability to select which friends you would and would not like to be synchronized for this application. From then on, future updates for user photos and birthdays will be automated.

AddressBookSync seems pretty basic in its offerings, especially as other applications such as Plaxo have been synchronizing aspects of your social network with offline applications and address books for some time now. But if you’re a Mac user and you’d like to have your address book updated with the ever-changing user photos of your friends, be sure to check this app out. Download it here.

The Government officials tell us that they don’t want to call a recession a recession unless its really one. But what would you say if they call a recession half year down the road ? Well I would call it betrayal and out right lies. Just think of it, they are telling us about it when every Tom and Harry on the street knows about it. According to a report published in MarketWatch today, the US economy actually entered a recession in December 2007:

Democrats on Capitol Hill said the news was hardly surprising and reiterated calls for an economic stimulus package. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, said he and other Democrats will send a package to the White House as soon as possible after President-elect Barack Obama takes office in January.

“The announcement simply makes official what we have long known - with rising costs of living, rising unemployment, record foreclosures and depleted savings, we must do more to help families make ends meet,” Reid said in a statement. He said a recovery package must create good-paying jobs in the U.S., cut middle class taxes and instill confidence to stabilize the market.

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Good OS, the people who brought you the Linux-based gOS found on the $199 Wal-Mart gPC last year, announced a browser-based OS called Cloud at the Netbook World Summit in Paris on Monday. (You know you've made it as a form factor when you have your very own world summit. Kudos, Netbook!)

The Cloud OS features a browser with an integrated, OS X-like dock and a Linux kernel that boots "in seconds," according to the company. The browser looks oddly similar to Google's Chrome, though no official connection between Google and gOS exists. Within the browser window resides a dock that provides quick access to a number of apps--Skype, YouTube, Google's Docs, etc.--that you can fire up without running Windows. From the dock, you can also boot to Windows.

Unlike the gOS, the Cloud OS isn't meant to replace Windows but live alongside it, similar to what Asus offers on some of its laptops and Lenovo on its IdeaPad S10 Netbook with the SplashTop app. Good OS states that Cloud "does not require additional hardware and is compatible with any operating system."

Good OS demonstrated its Cloud OS on a gigabyte touch-screen Netbook at the World Summit in Paris. The company says that such touch-screen Netbooks running the Cloud OS and Windows will be released at CES next month.

Another one bites the dust? Pownce, a would-be Twitter rival that was heavily hyped due to the involvement of Digg co-founder Kevin Rose, is closing its doors in two weeks.

It's not quite going away, according to a post from Pownce founder Leah Culver on the start-up's official blog. The technology has been sold to blog platform Six Apart, which runs TypePad and Movable Type. And its two full-time employees, Culver and Mike Malone, will be joining Six Apart's team.

"We'll be closing down the main Pownce Web site two weeks from today, December 15," Culver wrote. "Since we'd like for you to have access to all your Pownce messages, we've added an export function...(you can) import your posts to other blogging services such as Vox, TypePad, or WordPress."

Pownce, which is like Twitter with additional features like file-sharing, was so buzzworthy at its debut that people were auctioning alpha test invites off on eBay. It also had a business model, with paid accounts available for sale. But the Pownce hype died off, and Twitter gained more and more market share.

Additionally, we heard that the self-funded Pownce was trying to secure a round of venture capital. It looks like that didn't work out. This is, after all, not a great time to be raising money.

Six Apart is encouraging Pownce members to join its blog platform Vox. "We hope the Pownce and Vox communities can come together, just as the teams have, towards a better future," Six Apart's Chris Alden wrote on the company blog.

Pownce's two other co-founders, Rose and Daniel Burka, will become Six Apart "advisers."

What are some of your favorite Windows Mobile applications? Let us know in the comments!

Games

Death Drive - Who doesn’t love a little vehicular combat?  Death Drive brings Carmageddon like combat to your Windows Mobile powered device.

Kevtris - What is mobile gaming without at least one version of Tetris?

Pocket Heroes - Pocket Heroes is a Heroes of Might and Magic game clone for Pocket PC.  It may be a bit simple for some, but still a lot of fun.

Realms - A space based shooting game that might remind you a bit of the old Asteroids arcade game, but only in concept.  Multiple ships to choose from and numerous levels to explore.

Internet Tools

Fring - Fring brings their instant messaging services to more than just the iPhone and iPod Touch with a Windows Mobile version.  Allows you to instant message with AIM, Google Talk, ICQ, MSN, SIP, Skype, Twitter and Yahoo.

Opera Mobile - The popular Opera browser comes to the mobile format with a full set of features.

Slick - Allows you to instant message with AIM, Google Talk, ICQ, Jabber, MSN and Yahoo. Also has text messaging, emoticons, message history and more.

TwitToday - A plugin for your Today screen that allows you to post to your Twitter account.

Web Viewer - Web Viewer is an expansion to the web browsing ability with a tabbed browser that allows you to save open tabs and more.

Media Players

MPlayer for Windows Mobile - Part of the MPlayer suite for Linux, MPlayer for Windows Mobile will let you play Flash videos as well as videos in the RV40, RV30, R20, sipro, cook and atrac codecs.

RealPlayer - An official mobile release for the famous Real One Player.

The Core Pocket Media Player - TCPMP, as it is known, supports a dizzying array of video and audio formats from DivX to Ogg Vorbis.

YouTubePlayer - Just as the name implies, YouTubePlayer lets you to search YouTube for videos and then plays them in their native FLV format.

Phone Applications

Call Firewall - Call Firewall does exactly what you would think it might in that it helps you create blacklists and whitelists for your Windows Mobile powered cell phone.  One of the coolest features is that it will send an SMS to a blocked call telling them why they were blocked.

iDialer - iDialer, pictured above, gives you a new dialing interface that feels similar to another popular phone’s dialing system.  It does offer compatibility with popular Internet phone services such as Grand Central and JaJah.

Skype - The well known Skype service is available for Windows Mobile, enabling you to make Skype calls from your mobile, saving you a lot of money on calls.

Utilities

CapSure - You can capture your screen in BMP, GIF, JPG or PNG and then add captions, obscure sensitive information and more.

Dashwire - Allows you to sync your phone at all times including pictures, files, contacts, messages and more.  Cool feature that lets you see texts on your computer as they arrive at your phone.

GSync - As you can probably guess by the name, GSync allows you to synchronize your Google Calendar with your Windows Mobile powered phone.  The app is available in Dutch, English and Italian.

iContact - iContact changes your contact interface to more of an iPhone style system that allows you to browse through your contacts with just a flick of your finger.

Pocket RAR - An official version of the RAR archive manager that you can use on your mobile device.

SoftKey Manager - This app allows you to edit the soft keys on your Today screen.

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Google Search Now on Windows Mobiles, Too
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Plaxo Now Syncs With Windows Mobile
Adobe Photoshop Comes to Your (Windows) Mobile
7 Freeware Resources For Your Windows Mobile Device
Last.FM Available on Windows Mobile
Free iPhone Apps!

Microsoft spending $20 billion to buy Yahoo’s search business! Sounds more of a fantasy given that Yahoo’s current position caps it worth $15 billion. I wont put aside a fact that both are eager to figure out some sort of deal; Microsoft needs to make a jump in search business and Yahoo is sinking every moment, but $20 billion sounds more amusing than anything close to reality. Plus the Times of London brought forward was the inclusion of former AOL CEO and ex-chairman Jonathan Miller and Ross Levinsohn, former president of Fox Interactive Media in the Yahoo management.

That may very well be credible and who knows that one of them may very well be in the list of probable CEO’s of Yahoo. There has been no official word about this from any of the concerned parties but there are chances that some sort of negotiations will take place between the two and reach a positive conclusion. But $20 billion..err I am not sure about that.

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During most of the winter, Murdoch's people (his "henchmen", they tended to call themselves) had continued to analyse the Dow Jones business. The company was trading no higher than the mid-30s; Murdoch had heard about Rich Zannino's estimate of getting the share price to, tops, $45. Nobody at News Corp thought Dow Jones could be worth, most optimistically, more than $50.

But Murdoch insists they should offer $60 - and because he's Murdoch no one is going to tell him he's a fool. Dow Jones management and the Bancroft family may act sanctimonious and high and mighty, but $60 [which values the company at $5bn], Murdoch knows, will call their bluff.

In early April he makes the call.

He's apologetic when Zannino, on vacation at the Ocean Club in the Bahamas, calls him back, sorry to disturb, but it's important, he says, that he see Zannino as soon as he gets back. Suspecting something large, Zannino might here, too, have consulted with others at the company. But he doesn't tell anyone - he persists in allowing himself to believe that seeing Murdoch, even urgently, could be about many things.

After 45 minutes in which they talk again about American Idol, Murdoch says: "Well, I'm thinking about making an offer to buy Dow Jones."

Zannino demurs a bit: "You know Rupert, you know as well as anybody, this isn't my call, it's the family's call. And the family has consistently - and Rupert, even as recently at our last board meeting - said that they're committed to the independence of Dow Jones and they have no interest in selling the company."

Murdoch: "I know that. I was thinking I'd take the offer directly to the board. I know the family feels that way. I've called [Michael] Elefante in the past. He won't even take a number. The number I'm thinking of is ... 60."

Zannino: (internally) Holy Shit! (externally) Silence.

Murdoch: "So I'm thinking I'll just take that directly to the board to try and get that through the board ... So that's what I'm going to do - I'm going to make an offer to the board. Did I just make an offer to you?"

Zannino: "No you didn't. You mused about wanting to buy Dow Jones. I told you the family has the call and it's not for sale, and you told me you were going to contact the board."

Zannino is trying to find his balance - he's walked out to the furthest point and now, teetering on the precipice, he's trying to come back. Zannino tells Murdoch he isn't going to tell his board about the offer, because it's really not an official offer, suggesting to Murdoch that if anybody asks him about it, he should say he was just joking about the $60.

But, in the car, Zannino understands that the breach has just occurred - that he's let Murdoch in. He breathlessly calls Joe Stern, the Dow Jones general counsel, and tells him: "He gave me a number." Back at the Dow Jones office, each successive person let in on the news understands that the breach is real - and that they can't close it.

Murdoch has correctly analysed that Zannino, who might have blocked his access to the board, has not.

[Continue reading at the Guardian.]

See Also:
New York Times (NYT) Now Losing Business To Wall Street Journal

“Welcome to Macintosh” (subtitle: the documentary for the rest of us) features a mix of history and cult with interviews from ex-Apple employees, engineers and community members, shedding light on the company’s innovations, failures, cultural impact and what the future holds post co-founder Steve Jobs.

As we noted, it was announced out on DVD this fall, but the delay makes this a good bet for the Mac fanatic on your Christmas list. (Word to the wise: pre-order, since it won’t ship until mid-December).

On sale from the official site, the DVD, which costs about $20, offers three hours of extra content including extended interviews, a “making of” feature, trailers and photo journal.

The doc features a number of Macsperts including CoM’s Leander Kahney. In the trailer he speaks on design: “That’s what makes these products so beautiful, that level of comittment and dedication to the thing. To make it the best thing possible.”

Pretty things, we like.