IT security and data protection firm, Sophos, warns cyber criminals are once again targeting micro-blogging site Twitter in order to steal login details and hijack accounts.
According to Sophos, a storm of phishing attacks struck Twitter over the weekend, using hijacked accounts to spread money-making spam campaigns, steal identities and distribute malware.
"Twitter users have been battered with phishing attacks in the last few days, all taking advantage of people's curiosity," says Brett Myroff, CEO of regional Sophos distributor, Sophos South Africa.
Sophos explains that messages asking "This you????" followed by a link to a bogus Twitter login page, have caused such a scare on the Micro-Blogging Network that the phrase is currently a hot trending topic on the site.
Myroff adds: "If you click on the link and enter your details, you could be handing your online identity over to hackers. They can not only use your username, e-mail address and password to spread more attacks via Twitter, but can also try your credentials at many other Web sites – potentially opening your other online accounts to abuse. Anyone hit by this kind of attack must change their passwords immediately."
He points out that crime on social networks is on the increase. “We saw a 43% rise in the number of people reporting being phished via such sites in the last 12 months, and the way things are looking, that figure can only go up. As social networks grow in size and power, more and more hackers will be attracted to committing crimes via these sites."
Source:
http://www.itweb.co.za/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=30749:twitter-hacked-again&catid=234:security
Chicago Web Design
Friday, February 26, 2010
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
EC confirms Google Antitrust Probe
The European Commission is in the early stages of an antitrust investigation into search giant Google, it said Wednesday.
"The Commission can confirm that it has received three complaints against Google which it is examining," the European Union's top antitrust authority said in a statement.
It added that this doesn't amount to a formal investigation "for the time being."
The Commission informed Google earlier this month, it said, and asked the company to comment on the allegations. It will cooperate closely with the national competition authorities from the 27 E.U. member states, it said.
The complaints filed with the Commission came from U.K. price comparison site Foundem, a French legal search engine called ejustice.fr, and a German search site called Ciao that was recently acquired by Microsoft, Google said in a blog posting that appeared overnight European time. The Commission did not name the companies.
Google pointed out in its blog that Foundem is a member of a trade group called iComp, which is largely funded by Microsoft.
Microsoft believes "It's natural for competition officials to look at online advertising given how important it is to the development of the Internet and the dominance of one player," it said in a statement issued Wednesday.
Google's top antitrust lawyer Julia Holtz doesn't expect the Commission to pursue its probe beyond the preliminary stage it is at now, she said in a conference call with journalists Wednesday.
"We are hopeful we can convince the Commission not to pursue a case. I am confident they will conclude there is nothing to it," she said.
She blamed Microsoft for sparking the probe in the first place. "Microsoft is our competitor and that explains many actions," she said.
Google's algorithms lie at the heart of the enquiry. While they are written by the company's programmers, Holtz said they try to match what users are looking for as closely as possible. The same is the case for all search engines.
Foundem's complaint focuses on the fact that its Web site dropped sharply down the rankings of pages that appear in a Google search. It argues that this was because it competes with Google and that it was being blacklisted because of this. In December the price comparison site returned to the high position in the page rankings.
Holtz said Google neither blacklists nor whitelists pages, and explained why Foundem returned to greater prominence in Google's search results.
"They made changes to their Web site that caused them to rise again," she said, adding that the webmaster tools on the Google search Web sites give detailed instructions how to gain a higher position in search results.
However, she was less clear about why Foundem fell in the first place. She said Google makes around 400 changes to its search algorithms a year, and that this is necessary in order to stay one step ahead of spammers, who constantly try to get high page rankings for their Web sites even when their site doesn't offer what the users are actually searching for.
The main factor influencing how pages are ranked is whether they contain users' search terms, but there are around 200 signals that help determine how pages are ranked, she said.
Other Web sites can also influence Google's search results: "References from others is a good indicator of the importance of a Web site," she said.
Source:
http://www.thestandard.com/news/2010/02/24/ec-confirms-google-antitrust-probe
Professional Web Design Chicago
"The Commission can confirm that it has received three complaints against Google which it is examining," the European Union's top antitrust authority said in a statement.
It added that this doesn't amount to a formal investigation "for the time being."
The Commission informed Google earlier this month, it said, and asked the company to comment on the allegations. It will cooperate closely with the national competition authorities from the 27 E.U. member states, it said.
The complaints filed with the Commission came from U.K. price comparison site Foundem, a French legal search engine called ejustice.fr, and a German search site called Ciao that was recently acquired by Microsoft, Google said in a blog posting that appeared overnight European time. The Commission did not name the companies.
Google pointed out in its blog that Foundem is a member of a trade group called iComp, which is largely funded by Microsoft.
Microsoft believes "It's natural for competition officials to look at online advertising given how important it is to the development of the Internet and the dominance of one player," it said in a statement issued Wednesday.
Google's top antitrust lawyer Julia Holtz doesn't expect the Commission to pursue its probe beyond the preliminary stage it is at now, she said in a conference call with journalists Wednesday.
"We are hopeful we can convince the Commission not to pursue a case. I am confident they will conclude there is nothing to it," she said.
She blamed Microsoft for sparking the probe in the first place. "Microsoft is our competitor and that explains many actions," she said.
Google's algorithms lie at the heart of the enquiry. While they are written by the company's programmers, Holtz said they try to match what users are looking for as closely as possible. The same is the case for all search engines.
Foundem's complaint focuses on the fact that its Web site dropped sharply down the rankings of pages that appear in a Google search. It argues that this was because it competes with Google and that it was being blacklisted because of this. In December the price comparison site returned to the high position in the page rankings.
Holtz said Google neither blacklists nor whitelists pages, and explained why Foundem returned to greater prominence in Google's search results.
"They made changes to their Web site that caused them to rise again," she said, adding that the webmaster tools on the Google search Web sites give detailed instructions how to gain a higher position in search results.
However, she was less clear about why Foundem fell in the first place. She said Google makes around 400 changes to its search algorithms a year, and that this is necessary in order to stay one step ahead of spammers, who constantly try to get high page rankings for their Web sites even when their site doesn't offer what the users are actually searching for.
The main factor influencing how pages are ranked is whether they contain users' search terms, but there are around 200 signals that help determine how pages are ranked, she said.
Other Web sites can also influence Google's search results: "References from others is a good indicator of the importance of a Web site," she said.
Source:
http://www.thestandard.com/news/2010/02/24/ec-confirms-google-antitrust-probe
Professional Web Design Chicago
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Bloom Box Generates Buzz, Skepticism With 60 Minutes Spot
Could New Fuel Cell Technology Be a Game-Changer?
K.R. Sridhar, founder of the Silicon Valley clean tech start-up Bloom Energy, says he'd like to see his company's Bloom Box fuel cell technology lighting up most American households within the next 10 years.
That's a lofty promise from the Sunnyvale, Calif., company that doesn't officially launch until Wednesday. And many experts are quite skeptical about whether Mr. Sridhar, who has already raised about $400 million to produce his boxes, can bring expensive fuel cell technology to the masses.
"The buzz is sort of a mix of excitement and befuddlement," says Joel Makower, executive editor of Greener World Media. "It has to do with the fact that this is by no means the first fuel cell company to promote clean energy."
To succeed where others have failed, he says, Bloom Energy will have to show its fuel cell technology is cheap enough for consumers while being adaptable enough for big business.
As the Next Big Future blog pointed out, the Connecticut company Fuel Cell Energy has been installing fuel cell units since the 1990s, but lost $71 million last year.
"People have been trying to develop fuel cell technology for the last 100 years," says Ron Pernick, cofounder and managing director of Clean Edge, a research firm focused on clean technology. "The biggest obstacle is price, price, and price."
Google, eBay use Bloom Boxes in Limited Capacity
In an interview with 60 Minutes that aired Sunday night, Sridhar provided the first inside look at his Bloom Box, which contains stacks of fuel cells that generate electricity. He expects his boxes will cost about $3,000 for consumers. Currently, several large technology companies, such as Google and eBay, have been using Bloom Boxes in limited capacity.
If Bloom can achieve the $3,000 home unit, according to Fuel Cell Today, that's a "big improvement from the $800,000 box of today." What's more, according to the trade industry website, other bigger energy companies may be more capable of producing less-expensive fuel cell units and beat Bloom Energy to the market.
But Bloom Energy isn't aiming for the home market just yet. It would appear to be going after large companies, many who can take advantage of state and federal clean-energy incentives to offset the high price of the boxes, and then branching out to the residential market.
Experts: Questions Remain About the Bloom Box
Indeed, as experts point out, there are still many questions that remain about the Bloom Box, which until Sunday's 60 Minutes interview had been shrouded in secrecy. The mystique surrounding the company has certainly added to the excitement preceding its Wednesday launch.
"The hype to some extent is good because it's bringing new attention" to fuel cell technology, says Mr. Makower, much the same way the buzz around Tesla has brought new attention to the electric car market.
"If he can reach $3,000 for a 1 or 2 kilowatt system that provides both heat and power, that's a real game changer. But the real question is delivering," says Pernick.
Pernick says he's encouraged by the silicon technology that Bloom is using to make its fuel cells, but still has many questions. And, he says, "there's no one technology that's going to change everything in electricity. These transitions take decades, not years."
Source:
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/bloom-box-fuel-cell-generates-buzz-skepticism/story?id=9920285&page=1
Professional Web Design
K.R. Sridhar, founder of the Silicon Valley clean tech start-up Bloom Energy, says he'd like to see his company's Bloom Box fuel cell technology lighting up most American households within the next 10 years.
That's a lofty promise from the Sunnyvale, Calif., company that doesn't officially launch until Wednesday. And many experts are quite skeptical about whether Mr. Sridhar, who has already raised about $400 million to produce his boxes, can bring expensive fuel cell technology to the masses.
"The buzz is sort of a mix of excitement and befuddlement," says Joel Makower, executive editor of Greener World Media. "It has to do with the fact that this is by no means the first fuel cell company to promote clean energy."
To succeed where others have failed, he says, Bloom Energy will have to show its fuel cell technology is cheap enough for consumers while being adaptable enough for big business.
As the Next Big Future blog pointed out, the Connecticut company Fuel Cell Energy has been installing fuel cell units since the 1990s, but lost $71 million last year.
"People have been trying to develop fuel cell technology for the last 100 years," says Ron Pernick, cofounder and managing director of Clean Edge, a research firm focused on clean technology. "The biggest obstacle is price, price, and price."
Google, eBay use Bloom Boxes in Limited Capacity
In an interview with 60 Minutes that aired Sunday night, Sridhar provided the first inside look at his Bloom Box, which contains stacks of fuel cells that generate electricity. He expects his boxes will cost about $3,000 for consumers. Currently, several large technology companies, such as Google and eBay, have been using Bloom Boxes in limited capacity.
If Bloom can achieve the $3,000 home unit, according to Fuel Cell Today, that's a "big improvement from the $800,000 box of today." What's more, according to the trade industry website, other bigger energy companies may be more capable of producing less-expensive fuel cell units and beat Bloom Energy to the market.
But Bloom Energy isn't aiming for the home market just yet. It would appear to be going after large companies, many who can take advantage of state and federal clean-energy incentives to offset the high price of the boxes, and then branching out to the residential market.
Experts: Questions Remain About the Bloom Box
Indeed, as experts point out, there are still many questions that remain about the Bloom Box, which until Sunday's 60 Minutes interview had been shrouded in secrecy. The mystique surrounding the company has certainly added to the excitement preceding its Wednesday launch.
"The hype to some extent is good because it's bringing new attention" to fuel cell technology, says Mr. Makower, much the same way the buzz around Tesla has brought new attention to the electric car market.
"If he can reach $3,000 for a 1 or 2 kilowatt system that provides both heat and power, that's a real game changer. But the real question is delivering," says Pernick.
Pernick says he's encouraged by the silicon technology that Bloom is using to make its fuel cells, but still has many questions. And, he says, "there's no one technology that's going to change everything in electricity. These transitions take decades, not years."
Source:
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/bloom-box-fuel-cell-generates-buzz-skepticism/story?id=9920285&page=1
Professional Web Design
Monday, February 22, 2010
Is Google the Next Microsoft and Microsoft the Next Apple?
Google, Microsoft and Apple appear to be playing a game of musical chairs, with Google taking the "dark side" throne away from Microsoft and Microsoft stealing the innovation perch from Apple. Where does that leave Apple? Perhaps it's the one still looking for its place when the music stops.
This past week, two rather interesting events got me thinking about how Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL), Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) and Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) seem to be changing places. Microsoft announced Windows Phone Series 7, and Google announced Buzz (also known as "Buzz Kill") into the market.
Microsoft kind of pulled an Apple with this, in that it stepped away from the field and created something distinctly different, potentially more capable, and much more interesting than the products it has been competing with. (Oh, and it looks like it is a complete offering this time).
With Buzz, Google tossed out a turd of a product that was unfinished -- and privacy concerns forced it to stop forcing it on its customers. The label "arrogant" has now officially passed from Microsoft to Google.
These things are my main focus this week. I'll close with my product of the week: an electric bed warmer/cooler that is based on the same technology used to keep race car drivers cool.
Google's Buzz Kill
Through most of the last decade, Microsoft became known for products that were poorly thought out and failed. Among the duds: Mira, a tablet that required a business version of Windows on a networked PC to work in the home; Origami, an unfinished tablet operating system that was prematurely released; and Vista, which was a train wreck of biblical proportions.
Well, this is a new decade, and coming into it we had Google Wave a product that was both unfinished and so weird folks are still trying to figure out what it is for, and Buzz, also unfinished, which apparently has pissed off more people in less time than anything I've seen in recent memory.
It's safe to say that the Bozo (no offense to the deceased clown) award is moving from Microsoft to Google, as Google starts to recreate the same kinds of mistakes. There are a couple of reasons behind this. The first I've seen several times, starting with IBM (NYSE: IBM). What happens is folks who aren't working out at a big declining company find critical jobs in a new up-and-coming company and proceed to repeat the mistakes they made at the older firm in the new one.
I watched the IBM and Digital folks royally screw up Microsoft. Then Microsoft folks left to help royally screw up Netscape, and then they wandered over to Google, and now we have a trifecta.
Number two is Google's hiring practices, which favor men and engineers. They're so bad that Google (and others) are actively trying to conceal their employee mix. I think they know if folks were to realize a company that was trying to do social networking stuff had only engineers and no core of creative types, then confidence in those efforts would fall sharply. However, given how bad Buzz was at its launch, it is hard to imagine how it could have fallen farther any faster.
Number three is Google's apparent belief that anything that is free doesn't need to be very high quality. Looking at Google's offerings -- other than search -- don't they generally feel kind of unfinished and rough?
The new Nexus One, Google's branded phone, came out as a second-generation device, but it felt like a beta, given how rough it was around the edges. Granted, that phone isn't free, but Google gives away its Android OS to OEMs who then apparently have to finish it. Without the OEM, it's not much good.
The idea that if it's free, then it doesn't have to be good is both common and wrong. Whether it is Wave, Buzz, Google Apps, Gears, or Android, people expect finished products and adequate quality. Free or not, folks just don't want crap.
In effect, Google is repeating many of the mistakes that caused Microsoft to stall last decade and adding the "free one" as a special bonus. That makes it the new Microsoft -- and in this case, that isn't a good thing.
Windows Phone Series 2: Is Microsoft becoming Apple?
Not exactly -- but it seems that the only problem most folks are having with this new platform is the name, which in acronym form would be "WPS," or "Whoops." I'm not sure I'd want my product to be called "the Whoops phone," but then I'm also pretty sure I wouldn't want my product named after a feminine hygiene product like the "iPad." Every time I hear that name I think of the Mad TV iPad sketch.
What Apple did with the iPhone and iPod was to not emulate anyone else (well maybe the LG Prada a little with the iPhone) and step around them with something new, innovative and different. It also established a higher level of control over the entire user experience with both offerings, which now assure Apple's revenue, profit and market valuation.
With the WPS 2 platform, Microsoft isn't copying Apple or anyone else, but it is using a blend of good ideas from inside and outside the company. For instance, it is being very aggressive on the hardware specification to assure consistency of the experience and reliability of the result.
This should result in a better user experience than either Google or the old Microsoft Mobile platform enjoyed, as well as more phone variety than either RIM or Apple currently offers. There are clear tradeoffs, but this is clearly a differentiated approach.
In terms of UI, Microsoft rethought moving even farther away from the Windows interface than either Google or Apple has done so far (though I'll bet those two vendors now rethink their own approach) and combined animation with large icons to create clickable interfaces that are informative and not static.
Rather than turning multitasking off like Apple does (except for phone features) -- or all the way on, like Google -- Microsoft is allowing it only where it makes sense for the application. This allows for a potentially more useful device than the iPhone and a potentially higher-performing one than the Android phones, which can get bogged down by too many running applications.
In short, this is a product that feels more like something Apple would launch then Microsoft, and I hope it is a sign of things to come from that company.
Wrapping Up
You'll notice I didn't mention what Apple is becoming. I recently was reminded about some of Apple's greatest failures, and when I look at the iPad, I wonder if we are seeing the beginning of change for that company. First, there's the name. Then, there's the fact that Steve Jobs said it needed to be better than a laptop and an iPhone (something I agree with) -- but because it lacks Flash, multi-tasking, or phone features, it can't be.
Steve Jobs is looking to have an official biography written, and typically you do that at the end of your career, suggesting his departure in likely imminent. In any case, Microsoft does seem to be improving. Windows 7 and WPS 7 are now two clear data points, and Google is clearly drifting to the dark side. I guess the only thing certain remains change.
Product of the Week: ChiliBed ChiliPad
Like a lot of married folks, my nights are generally spent fighting room temperature. My wife wants it sauna hot, and I want it arctic cool. You can get a hot blanket, but on a warm night that doesn't fix the cool part, and there are a lot of health concerns (linked to miscarriages and leukemia) surrounding heating pads and electric blankets.
Air-conditioning the entire house at night -- or even just the bedroom -- seems to be a waste, given you are in a much more contained area. I've often wondered why someone didn't do what they did for race drivers and in some server rooms, and use chilled water to localize the cooling more effectively.
By accident, I ran across an article about the Chili Technology company, which was doing just that. It had just come out with a mattress product and had a mattress pad already on the market.
Since the mattress for a California King was US$3,049 and I had a new mattress, I went the pad route ($649 for dual zones) and have been using it for about a week. I set my side low, my wife sets hers high, and the damn thing actually works.
Now I would like it if it shut off automatically when I wasn't in the bed (it has a timer), and if I could more easily tell when it was on and off (it has wireless controllers that send but don't receive). Still, this is so much better than the heating pad I was using.
So, because I'm sleeping better, I'm getting along with my wife more, and I always thought this would be a great idea, the ChiliPad is my product of the week.
Source:
http://www.technewsworld.com/story/Is-Google-the-Next-Microsoft-and-Microsoft-the-Next-Apple-69374.html
Professional Web Design Chicago
This past week, two rather interesting events got me thinking about how Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL), Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) and Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) seem to be changing places. Microsoft announced Windows Phone Series 7, and Google announced Buzz (also known as "Buzz Kill") into the market.
Microsoft kind of pulled an Apple with this, in that it stepped away from the field and created something distinctly different, potentially more capable, and much more interesting than the products it has been competing with. (Oh, and it looks like it is a complete offering this time).
With Buzz, Google tossed out a turd of a product that was unfinished -- and privacy concerns forced it to stop forcing it on its customers. The label "arrogant" has now officially passed from Microsoft to Google.
These things are my main focus this week. I'll close with my product of the week: an electric bed warmer/cooler that is based on the same technology used to keep race car drivers cool.
Google's Buzz Kill
Through most of the last decade, Microsoft became known for products that were poorly thought out and failed. Among the duds: Mira, a tablet that required a business version of Windows on a networked PC to work in the home; Origami, an unfinished tablet operating system that was prematurely released; and Vista, which was a train wreck of biblical proportions.
Well, this is a new decade, and coming into it we had Google Wave a product that was both unfinished and so weird folks are still trying to figure out what it is for, and Buzz, also unfinished, which apparently has pissed off more people in less time than anything I've seen in recent memory.
It's safe to say that the Bozo (no offense to the deceased clown) award is moving from Microsoft to Google, as Google starts to recreate the same kinds of mistakes. There are a couple of reasons behind this. The first I've seen several times, starting with IBM (NYSE: IBM). What happens is folks who aren't working out at a big declining company find critical jobs in a new up-and-coming company and proceed to repeat the mistakes they made at the older firm in the new one.
I watched the IBM and Digital folks royally screw up Microsoft. Then Microsoft folks left to help royally screw up Netscape, and then they wandered over to Google, and now we have a trifecta.
Number two is Google's hiring practices, which favor men and engineers. They're so bad that Google (and others) are actively trying to conceal their employee mix. I think they know if folks were to realize a company that was trying to do social networking stuff had only engineers and no core of creative types, then confidence in those efforts would fall sharply. However, given how bad Buzz was at its launch, it is hard to imagine how it could have fallen farther any faster.
Number three is Google's apparent belief that anything that is free doesn't need to be very high quality. Looking at Google's offerings -- other than search -- don't they generally feel kind of unfinished and rough?
The new Nexus One, Google's branded phone, came out as a second-generation device, but it felt like a beta, given how rough it was around the edges. Granted, that phone isn't free, but Google gives away its Android OS to OEMs who then apparently have to finish it. Without the OEM, it's not much good.
The idea that if it's free, then it doesn't have to be good is both common and wrong. Whether it is Wave, Buzz, Google Apps, Gears, or Android, people expect finished products and adequate quality. Free or not, folks just don't want crap.
In effect, Google is repeating many of the mistakes that caused Microsoft to stall last decade and adding the "free one" as a special bonus. That makes it the new Microsoft -- and in this case, that isn't a good thing.
Windows Phone Series 2: Is Microsoft becoming Apple?
Not exactly -- but it seems that the only problem most folks are having with this new platform is the name, which in acronym form would be "WPS," or "Whoops." I'm not sure I'd want my product to be called "the Whoops phone," but then I'm also pretty sure I wouldn't want my product named after a feminine hygiene product like the "iPad." Every time I hear that name I think of the Mad TV iPad sketch.
What Apple did with the iPhone and iPod was to not emulate anyone else (well maybe the LG Prada a little with the iPhone) and step around them with something new, innovative and different. It also established a higher level of control over the entire user experience with both offerings, which now assure Apple's revenue, profit and market valuation.
With the WPS 2 platform, Microsoft isn't copying Apple or anyone else, but it is using a blend of good ideas from inside and outside the company. For instance, it is being very aggressive on the hardware specification to assure consistency of the experience and reliability of the result.
This should result in a better user experience than either Google or the old Microsoft Mobile platform enjoyed, as well as more phone variety than either RIM or Apple currently offers. There are clear tradeoffs, but this is clearly a differentiated approach.
In terms of UI, Microsoft rethought moving even farther away from the Windows interface than either Google or Apple has done so far (though I'll bet those two vendors now rethink their own approach) and combined animation with large icons to create clickable interfaces that are informative and not static.
Rather than turning multitasking off like Apple does (except for phone features) -- or all the way on, like Google -- Microsoft is allowing it only where it makes sense for the application. This allows for a potentially more useful device than the iPhone and a potentially higher-performing one than the Android phones, which can get bogged down by too many running applications.
In short, this is a product that feels more like something Apple would launch then Microsoft, and I hope it is a sign of things to come from that company.
Wrapping Up
You'll notice I didn't mention what Apple is becoming. I recently was reminded about some of Apple's greatest failures, and when I look at the iPad, I wonder if we are seeing the beginning of change for that company. First, there's the name. Then, there's the fact that Steve Jobs said it needed to be better than a laptop and an iPhone (something I agree with) -- but because it lacks Flash, multi-tasking, or phone features, it can't be.
Steve Jobs is looking to have an official biography written, and typically you do that at the end of your career, suggesting his departure in likely imminent. In any case, Microsoft does seem to be improving. Windows 7 and WPS 7 are now two clear data points, and Google is clearly drifting to the dark side. I guess the only thing certain remains change.
Product of the Week: ChiliBed ChiliPad
Like a lot of married folks, my nights are generally spent fighting room temperature. My wife wants it sauna hot, and I want it arctic cool. You can get a hot blanket, but on a warm night that doesn't fix the cool part, and there are a lot of health concerns (linked to miscarriages and leukemia) surrounding heating pads and electric blankets.
Air-conditioning the entire house at night -- or even just the bedroom -- seems to be a waste, given you are in a much more contained area. I've often wondered why someone didn't do what they did for race drivers and in some server rooms, and use chilled water to localize the cooling more effectively.
By accident, I ran across an article about the Chili Technology company, which was doing just that. It had just come out with a mattress product and had a mattress pad already on the market.
Since the mattress for a California King was US$3,049 and I had a new mattress, I went the pad route ($649 for dual zones) and have been using it for about a week. I set my side low, my wife sets hers high, and the damn thing actually works.
Now I would like it if it shut off automatically when I wasn't in the bed (it has a timer), and if I could more easily tell when it was on and off (it has wireless controllers that send but don't receive). Still, this is so much better than the heating pad I was using.
So, because I'm sleeping better, I'm getting along with my wife more, and I always thought this would be a great idea, the ChiliPad is my product of the week.
Source:
http://www.technewsworld.com/story/Is-Google-the-Next-Microsoft-and-Microsoft-the-Next-Apple-69374.html
Professional Web Design Chicago
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Opera 10 Browser is Here
(Credit: Opera Software)
The Opera 10 browser is now ready to download for Windows, and Mac, and Linux, three months after the beta first emerged (hands-on Opera 10 beta review).
If you've been keeping up with the beta updates, the final build of the cross-platform browser shouldn't surprise you. Opera Turbo, the browser's much-publicized compression engine for slow-poke connections, remains a feature highlight. Opera claims that Opera Turbo runs the browser up to eight times faster on suffering connections than do competing browsers.
The refreshed user interface is also noteworthy. Joining the new default skin (changed from version 9.6), are changes to tab bar behavior. The conventional tabs double as thumbnail images. Double-click the thin gray bar below the tabs (indicated by dots) or click and drag to expand open tabs into preview windows that you can navigate by clicking among them.
Other enhancements include an expanded Speed Dial (a feature that has later been adopted and adapted in Google's Chrome browser) that shows more commonly visited Web pages than in previous Opera browsers. You're also able to customize it with a background picture. You'll see that spell check will be applicable to any text field (for 51 languages), and that Opera's incorporated e-mail client takes a page from Google's books by threading e-mail conversations.
Developers get access to a newer version of Opera Dragonfly, the publisher's online development tools, but everyone can benefit from the speedier rendering engine that, according to Opera, makes version 10 up to 40 percent faster than version 9.6--before switching on Turbo's compression.
Despite all the additions that Opera hopes will keep Opera 10 competitive, there are still two notable omissions for this final release. The first is Opera Unite, which uses your browser as a Web server for sharing your content with others. The second is the Carakan JavaScript engine that promises to process JavaScript about 2.5 times as fast as the engine used in Opera 10 alpha.
Source:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-10784_3-10320478-7.html
Professional Web Design Chicago
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Google Book Settlement Draws Fire in Court
NEW YORK--The disparate and dissenting constituencies that showed up to federal court here on Thursday to comment on a plan by Google to create a digital library illustrated just how polarizing and far reaching the effort has become.
Crowded onto courtroom benches, foreign dignitaries sat side-by-side with cane-wielding advocates for the blind, college professors, literary agents, authors of children's books, and, of course, lots and lots of lawyers. The gallery at the federal court house here filled not one but two rooms (one room watched the proceedings via close-circuit TV).
The one thing that almost all in attendance shared was a passionate view of the settlement proposal that would authorize Google to create a vast digital library. After long negotiations, Google has reached an agreement with book publishers and authors that would allow Google to display digital snippets of out-of-print books still covered by copyright. Representatives from the companies appeared before U.S. District Judge Denny Chin to seek approval for the deal.
Perhaps best known for presiding over the Bernie Madoff securities-fraud case, Chin is now tasked with determining whether the settlement is fair to authors, publishers, Google's competitors, and the public. Chin told the court that he would rule sometime in the future, but before he did he would allow a long list of stakeholders, which included the U.S. Department of Justice, to comment on the proposal.
Supporters of the settlement told Chin that Google was preparing to usher in an era of free-flowing information like the world has never seen. Google could help span the digital divide and hand countless people better access to information if the company is allowed to create a digital archive, said Lateef Mtima, a law professor at Howard University and director of the school's Institute for Intellectual Property and Social Justice.
Mtima urged the judge to help Google provide the underprivileged with "equal access" to information. "Copyright was intended to be an engine of cultural development, not a brake," he said.
Several other educators spoke in support of the settlement, including Paul Courant, a professor at the University of Michigan who oversees the school's libraries. He said that digitizing books frees knowledge from the restrictions of geographical location. Courant noted that to read any of the university's books, a person must physically be in Ann Arbor, Mich., where the school is located.
"Broad social progress depends on being able to find, use, and re-use the scholarly record," Courant told the court. Google's plan to scan books is "one solution," he said.
Still, this was a day where the number of settlement opponents who addressed the court outnumbered supporters 3 to 1. Chin heard plenty about what some claimed were numerous weaknesses in the settlement.
Detractors claimed Google's plan poses an unprecedented threat to the privacy of book readers. Several authors argued that the agreement would desolate copyright law. Competitors, such as Microsoft and Amazon, said the settlement is an attempt by Google to snatch an unfair advantage, primarily by setting itself up as the all-powerful emperor of digital information.
Nothing drew more fire than the settlement's plans to force authors to "opt out" in order to prevent Google from scanning snippets of their books. Critics say that Google has everything backward here. They ask why is it that authors must go out of their way to opt out to prevent Google from exploiting their work?
Doesn't copyright law already require that they give their permission before someone can license their work?
William Cavanaugh, an assistant U.S. attorney general told Chin that the publishers and the Authors Guild do not have a right to enable a third party such as Google to use an author's work without their permission. "This (settlement) has the effect of rewriting contracts," said Cavanaugh, who also told the judge the government's continues to investigate whether the agreement violates antitrust laws.
One of the other major concerns for some in courtroom was privacy. As Irene Pakuscher, speaking on behalf of the German government, told Chin that the settlement would negatively impact German authors and publishers, one of her countrymen elsewhere in the courtroom whispered to a reporter that many Germans just didn't trust Google.
Mathias Schneider, who was covering the hearing for ARD German Radio, said in his experience many Germans were very skeptical of Google's data collection ambitions. "In my country, many people still remember the damage can be done from gathering too much information about individuals," Schneider said, cautioning that he didn't speak for ARD. "There was the Nazis and then it happened with the former German Democratic Republic, or East Germany."
The GDR government was known for widespread spying on citizens.
Representatives from the Electronic Frontier Foundation and The Center for Democracy & Technology described worrisome scenarios whereby people who used Google's proposed service to read a sexually explicit book or some other controversial title and Google would have a record of it. In addition, Google would have the ability to log even the pages the person read.
At the conclusion of the hearing, attorneys for Google and the book publishers and authors told Chin that the settlement isn't perfect but is fair. Google's attorney told the court that the company is indeed interested in getting its hands on rights to so-called "orphan works," the term used to describe titles where the author isn't known or can be found.
The question of properly compensating someone who is entitled to compensation under Google's plan but may not be aware of it has been a hot issue. Google said that the money earned from orphan works is what will make the digital library a feasible business. Google's attorney said that others, such as Microsoft, who attempted to digitize books couldn't monetize their efforts this way and that's why they failed.
Source:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-31001_3-10456382-261.html
Professional Web Design Chicago
Crowded onto courtroom benches, foreign dignitaries sat side-by-side with cane-wielding advocates for the blind, college professors, literary agents, authors of children's books, and, of course, lots and lots of lawyers. The gallery at the federal court house here filled not one but two rooms (one room watched the proceedings via close-circuit TV).
The one thing that almost all in attendance shared was a passionate view of the settlement proposal that would authorize Google to create a vast digital library. After long negotiations, Google has reached an agreement with book publishers and authors that would allow Google to display digital snippets of out-of-print books still covered by copyright. Representatives from the companies appeared before U.S. District Judge Denny Chin to seek approval for the deal.
Perhaps best known for presiding over the Bernie Madoff securities-fraud case, Chin is now tasked with determining whether the settlement is fair to authors, publishers, Google's competitors, and the public. Chin told the court that he would rule sometime in the future, but before he did he would allow a long list of stakeholders, which included the U.S. Department of Justice, to comment on the proposal.
Supporters of the settlement told Chin that Google was preparing to usher in an era of free-flowing information like the world has never seen. Google could help span the digital divide and hand countless people better access to information if the company is allowed to create a digital archive, said Lateef Mtima, a law professor at Howard University and director of the school's Institute for Intellectual Property and Social Justice.
Mtima urged the judge to help Google provide the underprivileged with "equal access" to information. "Copyright was intended to be an engine of cultural development, not a brake," he said.
Several other educators spoke in support of the settlement, including Paul Courant, a professor at the University of Michigan who oversees the school's libraries. He said that digitizing books frees knowledge from the restrictions of geographical location. Courant noted that to read any of the university's books, a person must physically be in Ann Arbor, Mich., where the school is located.
"Broad social progress depends on being able to find, use, and re-use the scholarly record," Courant told the court. Google's plan to scan books is "one solution," he said.
Still, this was a day where the number of settlement opponents who addressed the court outnumbered supporters 3 to 1. Chin heard plenty about what some claimed were numerous weaknesses in the settlement.
Detractors claimed Google's plan poses an unprecedented threat to the privacy of book readers. Several authors argued that the agreement would desolate copyright law. Competitors, such as Microsoft and Amazon, said the settlement is an attempt by Google to snatch an unfair advantage, primarily by setting itself up as the all-powerful emperor of digital information.
Nothing drew more fire than the settlement's plans to force authors to "opt out" in order to prevent Google from scanning snippets of their books. Critics say that Google has everything backward here. They ask why is it that authors must go out of their way to opt out to prevent Google from exploiting their work?
Doesn't copyright law already require that they give their permission before someone can license their work?
William Cavanaugh, an assistant U.S. attorney general told Chin that the publishers and the Authors Guild do not have a right to enable a third party such as Google to use an author's work without their permission. "This (settlement) has the effect of rewriting contracts," said Cavanaugh, who also told the judge the government's continues to investigate whether the agreement violates antitrust laws.
One of the other major concerns for some in courtroom was privacy. As Irene Pakuscher, speaking on behalf of the German government, told Chin that the settlement would negatively impact German authors and publishers, one of her countrymen elsewhere in the courtroom whispered to a reporter that many Germans just didn't trust Google.
Mathias Schneider, who was covering the hearing for ARD German Radio, said in his experience many Germans were very skeptical of Google's data collection ambitions. "In my country, many people still remember the damage can be done from gathering too much information about individuals," Schneider said, cautioning that he didn't speak for ARD. "There was the Nazis and then it happened with the former German Democratic Republic, or East Germany."
The GDR government was known for widespread spying on citizens.
Representatives from the Electronic Frontier Foundation and The Center for Democracy & Technology described worrisome scenarios whereby people who used Google's proposed service to read a sexually explicit book or some other controversial title and Google would have a record of it. In addition, Google would have the ability to log even the pages the person read.
At the conclusion of the hearing, attorneys for Google and the book publishers and authors told Chin that the settlement isn't perfect but is fair. Google's attorney told the court that the company is indeed interested in getting its hands on rights to so-called "orphan works," the term used to describe titles where the author isn't known or can be found.
The question of properly compensating someone who is entitled to compensation under Google's plan but may not be aware of it has been a hot issue. Google said that the money earned from orphan works is what will make the digital library a feasible business. Google's attorney said that others, such as Microsoft, who attempted to digitize books couldn't monetize their efforts this way and that's why they failed.
Source:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-31001_3-10456382-261.html
Professional Web Design Chicago
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
PayPal to Introduce Easy Way for Developers to Accept Payments in their iPhone Apps
Hi all – Osama Bedier here with some exciting news that we first told you about at PayPal X Innovate 2009. Today we’re announcing a limited beta version of our Mobile Payments library – an important element of the PayPal X global payments platform. Basically, the Mobile Payments Library is a quick and easy way to add checkout functionality for physical goods and services sold through the iPhone (other platforms are coming soon). And the best part is, developers don’t have to worry about collecting and storing debit or credit card information. PayPal takes care of that for you. We think this will open up a whole new way to monetize iPhone applications and build profitable mobile commerce businesses with PayPal.
We’re excited that mobile is really gaining traction. Last year on Black Friday we saw a 643% jump in mobile payments compared to the year before. Cyber Monday 2009 was similarly dramatic: 732% more mobile payments than the year before. This is why we want to share this new technology and can’t wait to see all the cool new ideas that our developer community comes up with.
Two of our developers are already building cool new apps on this technology. ShopSavvy will be integrating PayPal into its popular barcode-scanning app that’s already used by millions of comparison shoppers. When customers see something they want to buy, they simply scan the barcode and ShopSavvy will show them the best prices for the same item both in stores and online. Soon, those shoppers will be able to find the best price AND purchase the item immediately from their iPhones, from any merchant that accepts PayPal.
Many of you have heard about Shutterfly’s Wink, a really cool new service that creates personalized photostrips (like the ones from photo booths) from pictures on your computer, phone, in Flickr or Facebook. Using PayPal’s micropayments processing, the $2.50 photo order is paid for without ever leaving the app — and photo strips are shipped to your door. Read more about Wink in the iTunes store and at wink.shutterfly.com.
We are opening it up to US developers first. We plan to open it up to developers outside the US soon.
If you are interested in signing up for the limited iPhone beta program, you can get more details at our developer portal www.x.com. Additionally, if you’re at Macworld in San Francisco today and want to check out a demo of the iPhone Mobile Payments library, stop by our booth #577.
Source:
https://www.thepaypalblog.com/2010/02/paypal-to-introduce-easy-way-for-developers-to-accept-payments-in-their-iphone-apps/
Chicago Web Design
We’re excited that mobile is really gaining traction. Last year on Black Friday we saw a 643% jump in mobile payments compared to the year before. Cyber Monday 2009 was similarly dramatic: 732% more mobile payments than the year before. This is why we want to share this new technology and can’t wait to see all the cool new ideas that our developer community comes up with.
Two of our developers are already building cool new apps on this technology. ShopSavvy will be integrating PayPal into its popular barcode-scanning app that’s already used by millions of comparison shoppers. When customers see something they want to buy, they simply scan the barcode and ShopSavvy will show them the best prices for the same item both in stores and online. Soon, those shoppers will be able to find the best price AND purchase the item immediately from their iPhones, from any merchant that accepts PayPal.
Many of you have heard about Shutterfly’s Wink, a really cool new service that creates personalized photostrips (like the ones from photo booths) from pictures on your computer, phone, in Flickr or Facebook. Using PayPal’s micropayments processing, the $2.50 photo order is paid for without ever leaving the app — and photo strips are shipped to your door. Read more about Wink in the iTunes store and at wink.shutterfly.com.
We are opening it up to US developers first. We plan to open it up to developers outside the US soon.
If you are interested in signing up for the limited iPhone beta program, you can get more details at our developer portal www.x.com. Additionally, if you’re at Macworld in San Francisco today and want to check out a demo of the iPhone Mobile Payments library, stop by our booth #577.
Source:
https://www.thepaypalblog.com/2010/02/paypal-to-introduce-easy-way-for-developers-to-accept-payments-in-their-iphone-apps/
Chicago Web Design
Facebook Hit With Class Action Over Privacy Changes
A class action lawsuit has been filed against Facebook over changes that the social networking site made to its privacy settings last November and December.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, alleges that the modifications have in reality reduced privacy protections for Facebook users rather than increasing it, as the company had claimed it would.
"Changes to the privacy settings that Facebook implemented and represented to increase User privacy had the outright opposite effect of resulting in the public dissemination of personal information that was originally private," the lawsuit claimed.
Facebook's messaging around the changes were "misleading, confusing and disingenuous," said the lawsuit, which seeks unspecified monetary damages from the company.
Facebook did not respond immediately for a request for comment.
The changes referred to in the lawsuit were made by Facebook as part of what it said was an attempt to give users greater control over their personal data.
As part of the revamp, Facebook introduced a privacy configuration wizard to allow users to set their privacy preferences. The company said the revisions would make it far simpler for users to set their privacy preferences and enable them to make more informed choices concerning the use of their personal data.
However, the lawsuit, which was filed by five Facebook users on behalf of all Facebook users, alleged that the company's modifications have only resulted in more personal data being pushed out to the Internet while making privacy options even harder to exercise.
Prior to Facebook's modifications last year, the only personal information that was available by default via public search was the user's name and the networks that the user belonged to. Users had the option of deciding whether they wanted other pieces of information, such as their photos an friend listings, available publicly the lawsuit said.
However, after the revision, the information that Facebook makes publicly available by default includes user names, photos, friend's listing, the names of any organizations and products that a user might support, as well as geographic data and other information.
In total there are at least 29 privacy settings spread out over numerous Web pages that users need to contend with, the lawsuit alleges. "The privacy setting procedures are grossly ineffective and users are misled into allowing Facebook to having their personal information easily accessed for commercial use, exposing them to identity theft, harassment, embarrassment, intrusion and all types of cybercrime," it says.
The revisions also caused privacy settings to default to a setting allowing more personal information than before to now be available to third-party application developers and search engines such as Google , the complaint alleged.
The one-click option that users had available previously for controlling third-party access to their personal data has been replaced by a more complicated opt-out process, and even then there is no realistic option for restricting third-party access to personal information, the suit says.
Source:
http://www.itnews.com/legislation/14435/facebook-hit-class-action-over-privacy-changes
Chicago Web Site Design Company
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, alleges that the modifications have in reality reduced privacy protections for Facebook users rather than increasing it, as the company had claimed it would.
"Changes to the privacy settings that Facebook implemented and represented to increase User privacy had the outright opposite effect of resulting in the public dissemination of personal information that was originally private," the lawsuit claimed.
Facebook's messaging around the changes were "misleading, confusing and disingenuous," said the lawsuit, which seeks unspecified monetary damages from the company.
Facebook did not respond immediately for a request for comment.
The changes referred to in the lawsuit were made by Facebook as part of what it said was an attempt to give users greater control over their personal data.
As part of the revamp, Facebook introduced a privacy configuration wizard to allow users to set their privacy preferences. The company said the revisions would make it far simpler for users to set their privacy preferences and enable them to make more informed choices concerning the use of their personal data.
However, the lawsuit, which was filed by five Facebook users on behalf of all Facebook users, alleged that the company's modifications have only resulted in more personal data being pushed out to the Internet while making privacy options even harder to exercise.
Prior to Facebook's modifications last year, the only personal information that was available by default via public search was the user's name and the networks that the user belonged to. Users had the option of deciding whether they wanted other pieces of information, such as their photos an friend listings, available publicly the lawsuit said.
However, after the revision, the information that Facebook makes publicly available by default includes user names, photos, friend's listing, the names of any organizations and products that a user might support, as well as geographic data and other information.
In total there are at least 29 privacy settings spread out over numerous Web pages that users need to contend with, the lawsuit alleges. "The privacy setting procedures are grossly ineffective and users are misled into allowing Facebook to having their personal information easily accessed for commercial use, exposing them to identity theft, harassment, embarrassment, intrusion and all types of cybercrime," it says.
The revisions also caused privacy settings to default to a setting allowing more personal information than before to now be available to third-party application developers and search engines such as Google , the complaint alleged.
The one-click option that users had available previously for controlling third-party access to their personal data has been replaced by a more complicated opt-out process, and even then there is no realistic option for restricting third-party access to personal information, the suit says.
Source:
http://www.itnews.com/legislation/14435/facebook-hit-class-action-over-privacy-changes
Chicago Web Site Design Company
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Microsoft CEO Unveils Windows Phone 7 Series Software
Microsoft unveiled the next version of its operating system for mobile phones, Windows Phone 7 Series, featuring a move away from applications and towards functions.
"It's all about the phone and how consumers react to the device," said Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, opening a news conference held outside the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona on Monday.
Windows Phone 7 Series also marks a move by Microsoft to take greater control of the user interface of its phone software.
"We wanted to take greater accountability for the end user experience," Ballmer said. "We want more consistency in the hardware platform and in the user experience," he said, while nevertheless saying Microsoft wanted to leave room for hardware partners to innovate.
Microsoft also wanted the software to differentiate future phones from its past offerings, both phone and PC.
"Phones looked like PCs, but a phone is not a PC, it's smaller, more personal," said Joe Belfiore, vice president for Windows Phone.
To make the interface more personal, Microsoft is counting on a checkerboard of customizable "live tiles" that can update automatically with information from the phone or the Internet.
Some of the tiles will update automatically to show frequent contacts or local information, while others can be customized manually. The tiles will be grouped into themed "hubs," for example a page of contacts called "people" or a page of photos called "pictures".
Other hubs include "office," which features functions for note-taking and synchronizing documents with a PC; "games," which integrates with the company's Xbox live online community for its game consoles; and "music+video," which synchronizes songs and videos with its desktop Zune jukebox and music store software.
There won't be too much personalization though: some aspects of every Windows Phone will be the same.
"Every Windows Phone 7 Series device will have three buttons on the front: 'Start,' which gives you quick access to those tiles, 'Search,' because that's how you are going to find phone numbers and restaurants, and 'Back,'" said Belfiore.
Belfiore showed how the software will recognize addresses in incoming e-mails or calendar entries, converting them into hotlinks to Microsoft's Bing Maps property.
The interface has an on-screen QWERTY keyboard and will support four-point multitouch interfaces in the same way as Windows 7 for PCs. Another feature borrowed from PCs is the Web browser: it's based on the same code as the desktop version of Internet Explorer, Belfiore said.
The graphics Belfiore showed are spacious, using a thin typeface with big one-word titles for the themes of each screen -- day, local, music and so on. The text is displayed using a more precise version of Cleartype that Belfiore called sub-pixel positioning.
Some of the page transitions in the user interface slide like the cards in Palm's Web OS.
The first version of Windows Phone 7 Series will not include Adobe Flash -- although Ballmer said he had "no objection" to Flash support. That marks the software apart from Apple's iPhone, which does not -- and will not -- support Flash.
Source:
http://www.itnews.com/mobile-operating-systems/14362/microsoft-ceo-unveils-windows-phone-7-series-software
Chicago Web Design
"It's all about the phone and how consumers react to the device," said Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, opening a news conference held outside the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona on Monday.
Windows Phone 7 Series also marks a move by Microsoft to take greater control of the user interface of its phone software.
"We wanted to take greater accountability for the end user experience," Ballmer said. "We want more consistency in the hardware platform and in the user experience," he said, while nevertheless saying Microsoft wanted to leave room for hardware partners to innovate.
Microsoft also wanted the software to differentiate future phones from its past offerings, both phone and PC.
"Phones looked like PCs, but a phone is not a PC, it's smaller, more personal," said Joe Belfiore, vice president for Windows Phone.
To make the interface more personal, Microsoft is counting on a checkerboard of customizable "live tiles" that can update automatically with information from the phone or the Internet.
Some of the tiles will update automatically to show frequent contacts or local information, while others can be customized manually. The tiles will be grouped into themed "hubs," for example a page of contacts called "people" or a page of photos called "pictures".
Other hubs include "office," which features functions for note-taking and synchronizing documents with a PC; "games," which integrates with the company's Xbox live online community for its game consoles; and "music+video," which synchronizes songs and videos with its desktop Zune jukebox and music store software.
There won't be too much personalization though: some aspects of every Windows Phone will be the same.
"Every Windows Phone 7 Series device will have three buttons on the front: 'Start,' which gives you quick access to those tiles, 'Search,' because that's how you are going to find phone numbers and restaurants, and 'Back,'" said Belfiore.
Belfiore showed how the software will recognize addresses in incoming e-mails or calendar entries, converting them into hotlinks to Microsoft's Bing Maps property.
The interface has an on-screen QWERTY keyboard and will support four-point multitouch interfaces in the same way as Windows 7 for PCs. Another feature borrowed from PCs is the Web browser: it's based on the same code as the desktop version of Internet Explorer, Belfiore said.
The graphics Belfiore showed are spacious, using a thin typeface with big one-word titles for the themes of each screen -- day, local, music and so on. The text is displayed using a more precise version of Cleartype that Belfiore called sub-pixel positioning.
Some of the page transitions in the user interface slide like the cards in Palm's Web OS.
The first version of Windows Phone 7 Series will not include Adobe Flash -- although Ballmer said he had "no objection" to Flash support. That marks the software apart from Apple's iPhone, which does not -- and will not -- support Flash.
Source:
http://www.itnews.com/mobile-operating-systems/14362/microsoft-ceo-unveils-windows-phone-7-series-software
Chicago Web Design
Monday, February 15, 2010
Buzz: Google Needs Better 'People Skills'
Google's inability to deal with people issues--like Buzz privacy and Nexus One customer support--makes the company look technically sophisticated but socially inept.
Google's millionaire genius-nerds need to learn what real people expect from technology and how to deliver it.
Forget for a moment that Google Buzz meets no obvious need, and consider just the human factors.
There are both privacy and functionality issues with Buzz. The social network, as introduced this week, was a privacy nightmare and a hard one to use, at that.
Given the option, Google's choice for default settings were what benefited Google the most, not what best protected its consumers.
This is what happens when a company is too engineering driven and strives to make only fact-based decisions.
It is hard to complain about the Buzz technology itself, as creating followers automatically from mail contacts is a neat trick. So it follows that making those automatic connections public allows more connections to be made, right?
It does, but...
Goggle missed the fact that making automatically-generated contacts visible to the entire world--by default--might creep some people out and even endanger the safety of others.
That's not something they teach in engineering school.
To its credit, the Google was fairly quick to make changes, but these could go farther. Google needs to adopt a mindset of defaulting to the most restrictive privacy settings and then explaining to users the pluses and minuses of being less restrictive.
Google needs to be asking itself, "How did this happen?" Another episode could earn the company the same sort of reputation for privacy cluelessness that Facebook has captured.
As for the Nexus One, it likewise never seems to have occurred to Google that its customers might demand support, especially personal support, or that setting Early Termination Fees much above the industry norm might be considered abusive.
The good news here, too, is that Google has tried to make amends. The better news is that handsets are not a core business for Google--I don't expect them to sell smartphones for long--so these problems aren't likely to continue indefinitely.
Privacy, however, impacts everything Google does. That the company could get Buzz privacy so terribly wrong is reason for serious concern.
Google needs to learn when to put people first and technology second.
David Coursey has been writing about technology products and companies for more than 25 years. He tweets as @techinciter and may be contacted via his Web site.
Source:
http://www.itnews.com/internet/14324/buzz-google-needs-better-people-skills
Web Design Firms Chicago
Google's millionaire genius-nerds need to learn what real people expect from technology and how to deliver it.
Forget for a moment that Google Buzz meets no obvious need, and consider just the human factors.
There are both privacy and functionality issues with Buzz. The social network, as introduced this week, was a privacy nightmare and a hard one to use, at that.
Given the option, Google's choice for default settings were what benefited Google the most, not what best protected its consumers.
This is what happens when a company is too engineering driven and strives to make only fact-based decisions.
It is hard to complain about the Buzz technology itself, as creating followers automatically from mail contacts is a neat trick. So it follows that making those automatic connections public allows more connections to be made, right?
It does, but...
Goggle missed the fact that making automatically-generated contacts visible to the entire world--by default--might creep some people out and even endanger the safety of others.
That's not something they teach in engineering school.
To its credit, the Google was fairly quick to make changes, but these could go farther. Google needs to adopt a mindset of defaulting to the most restrictive privacy settings and then explaining to users the pluses and minuses of being less restrictive.
Google needs to be asking itself, "How did this happen?" Another episode could earn the company the same sort of reputation for privacy cluelessness that Facebook has captured.
As for the Nexus One, it likewise never seems to have occurred to Google that its customers might demand support, especially personal support, or that setting Early Termination Fees much above the industry norm might be considered abusive.
The good news here, too, is that Google has tried to make amends. The better news is that handsets are not a core business for Google--I don't expect them to sell smartphones for long--so these problems aren't likely to continue indefinitely.
Privacy, however, impacts everything Google does. That the company could get Buzz privacy so terribly wrong is reason for serious concern.
Google needs to learn when to put people first and technology second.
David Coursey has been writing about technology products and companies for more than 25 years. He tweets as @techinciter and may be contacted via his Web site.
Source:
http://www.itnews.com/internet/14324/buzz-google-needs-better-people-skills
Web Design Firms Chicago
Friday, February 12, 2010
Pixar Exec to Join Twitter As CFO
Can a new chief financial officer paint some real revenue for Twitter? The company announced on Wednesday that it has filled that role with an executive from the Disney-owned Pixar Animation Studios. Ali Rowghani, currently CFO and senior vice president of strategic planning at the animation powerhouse, will join Twitter next month.
"Ali will be an important member of a growing team focused on creating value for our users and capturing the financial opportunities that result from it," Twitter CEO Evan Williams said in a release. Rowghani had been at Pixar for nearly a decade. "His thoughtfulness on retaining a great culture to work and staying consistent with our principles will also be a significant contribution."
Twitter was first reported to be looking for a CFO last July.
Rowghani's background makes him an unusual choice for the tech industry--especially for Twitter, which has plucked many of its high-profile hires recently from dot-com brethren like Google and Digg. But it's probably a perfect fit for Twitter: not only is Pixar, which was backed by Apple CEO Steve Jobs and sold to Disney four years ago, a phenomenally successful and profitable venture, but it facilitates an executive pick well in line with Twitter's image as a somewhat off-the-wall establishment.
Late in 2008, Twitter reportedly turned down a buyout offer from Facebook. It has yet to produce a viable business model aside from search deals with Microsoft and Google; the long-term potential of those was thrown up in the air this week when Google launched Buzz, which is almost inarguably a competitor to Twitter.
Insert your own joke about 3D cartoon money here. Just make sure it's shorter than 140 characters.
Source:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-10451497-36.html?tag=newsEditorsPicksArea.0
Web Design Firms Chicago
"Ali will be an important member of a growing team focused on creating value for our users and capturing the financial opportunities that result from it," Twitter CEO Evan Williams said in a release. Rowghani had been at Pixar for nearly a decade. "His thoughtfulness on retaining a great culture to work and staying consistent with our principles will also be a significant contribution."
Twitter was first reported to be looking for a CFO last July.
Rowghani's background makes him an unusual choice for the tech industry--especially for Twitter, which has plucked many of its high-profile hires recently from dot-com brethren like Google and Digg. But it's probably a perfect fit for Twitter: not only is Pixar, which was backed by Apple CEO Steve Jobs and sold to Disney four years ago, a phenomenally successful and profitable venture, but it facilitates an executive pick well in line with Twitter's image as a somewhat off-the-wall establishment.
Late in 2008, Twitter reportedly turned down a buyout offer from Facebook. It has yet to produce a viable business model aside from search deals with Microsoft and Google; the long-term potential of those was thrown up in the air this week when Google launched Buzz, which is almost inarguably a competitor to Twitter.
Insert your own joke about 3D cartoon money here. Just make sure it's shorter than 140 characters.
Source:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-10451497-36.html?tag=newsEditorsPicksArea.0
Web Design Firms Chicago
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Gmail Goes Social With Google Buzz
Google introduced a social networking tool called Google Buzz Tuesday that allows sharing of status updates, images, and videos via a new Gmail tab called Google Buzz. The Google Buzz features will also be available on Android based phones as well as the iPhone (via a Web-based application) allowing for real-time updates to your Google Buzz feed that can show up on a new version of Google's mobile maps.
Google says the new Google Buzz tab will begin showing up on about one percent of Gmail user accounts starting today. Google says the rest of Gmail users will be able to see a new Google Buzz tab in their accounts within a week.
Five Core Features
Google hopes that instead of conversing on Facebook, Twitter or MySpace, you'll instead turn to Google Buzz for sharing status updates, photos and videos. How will the search giant convince you to make Google Buzz your social network of choice? Here are four key features revealed today.
1. Blends With Gmail
The main way of accessing Google Buzz will be through Gmail. Below your inbox, there will be a tab for Buzz, allowing you to read status updates, photos and video. The 40 people you converse with the most in Gmail and Gchat are automatically added as friends. Buzz updates also appear in your inbox if someone comments on your updates or comments, or someone directs a Buzz to your attention by using the familiar "@" symbol.
2. "Page Rank" for Status Updates
Google brought up that familiar criticism of social networks, that no one cares if you ate a bagel or stubbed your toe. To compensate for noise, Google Buzz lets you like and dislike status updates, and learn over time whether to show or collapse status updates from your friends. It also looks for conversations outside your direct group of followers and adds them to your feed as recommendations.
3. Media Gets Pulled In
Photos from Flickr and Picasa and video from YouTube appear as thumbnails in Google Buzz. Click a YouTube thumbnail, and the video will expand to play inline. Click on a photo, and it'll expand to fill most of the browser window, with the rest of the gallery in a narrow strip along the bottom of the screen. If you post a link in Buzz, you'll automatically be able to append images and the headline from that Web page. Finally, you can pull in tweets from Twitter (but no Facebook updates) into Buzz. Unfortunately, you can't send your Buzz updates out to Twitter or other social networks.
4. Mobile Features
Google Buzz will be available as a mobile Web app, letting you dictate status updates by voice and geotag your posts. When looking on Google Mobile Maps, Buzz updates appear directly on the map, so you can read location-based updates. You can also look for any recent Buzz updates posted near your current location.
5. Private and Public
With each update you send, you'll have a choice of making it private or public. Private updates can go to all of your Buzz followers, or just a select group. Public updates are posted on your Google Profile page and are immediately indexed for Google Search.
Source:
http://www.itnews.com/social-media/14101/gmail-goes-social-google-buzz
Professional Website Design Services
Google says the new Google Buzz tab will begin showing up on about one percent of Gmail user accounts starting today. Google says the rest of Gmail users will be able to see a new Google Buzz tab in their accounts within a week.
Five Core Features
Google hopes that instead of conversing on Facebook, Twitter or MySpace, you'll instead turn to Google Buzz for sharing status updates, photos and videos. How will the search giant convince you to make Google Buzz your social network of choice? Here are four key features revealed today.
1. Blends With Gmail
The main way of accessing Google Buzz will be through Gmail. Below your inbox, there will be a tab for Buzz, allowing you to read status updates, photos and video. The 40 people you converse with the most in Gmail and Gchat are automatically added as friends. Buzz updates also appear in your inbox if someone comments on your updates or comments, or someone directs a Buzz to your attention by using the familiar "@" symbol.
2. "Page Rank" for Status Updates
Google brought up that familiar criticism of social networks, that no one cares if you ate a bagel or stubbed your toe. To compensate for noise, Google Buzz lets you like and dislike status updates, and learn over time whether to show or collapse status updates from your friends. It also looks for conversations outside your direct group of followers and adds them to your feed as recommendations.
3. Media Gets Pulled In
Photos from Flickr and Picasa and video from YouTube appear as thumbnails in Google Buzz. Click a YouTube thumbnail, and the video will expand to play inline. Click on a photo, and it'll expand to fill most of the browser window, with the rest of the gallery in a narrow strip along the bottom of the screen. If you post a link in Buzz, you'll automatically be able to append images and the headline from that Web page. Finally, you can pull in tweets from Twitter (but no Facebook updates) into Buzz. Unfortunately, you can't send your Buzz updates out to Twitter or other social networks.
4. Mobile Features
Google Buzz will be available as a mobile Web app, letting you dictate status updates by voice and geotag your posts. When looking on Google Mobile Maps, Buzz updates appear directly on the map, so you can read location-based updates. You can also look for any recent Buzz updates posted near your current location.
5. Private and Public
With each update you send, you'll have a choice of making it private or public. Private updates can go to all of your Buzz followers, or just a select group. Public updates are posted on your Google Profile page and are immediately indexed for Google Search.
Source:
http://www.itnews.com/social-media/14101/gmail-goes-social-google-buzz
Professional Website Design Services
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
BlackBerry (Finally) Gets 'Official' Craigslist Mobile App
BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion (RIM) has finally decided to give its blessing to the "official" craigslist mobile app for BlackBerry smartphones.
I first told you about the $5 craigslist mobile for BlackBerry app, developed by Movela/Pyxis Mobile, last November. It seems that app has been stuck in the BlackBerry App World approval process for the past few months--sound familiar??--but RIM just yesterday gave it the thumbs-up.
craigslist mobile from Movela offers all the basic features found on the full craigslist.com website, and its intuitive user interface (UI) makes it simple to browse various site listings and respond to interesting posts immediately from within the app, via e-mail or phone.
BlackBerry users who are familiar with Movela Netflix Queue Manager will immediately recognize the craigslist mobile UI, as it works very much like the company's Netflix app. And craigslist mobile for BlackBerry offers quick, one-click access from the app's home screen to listings on craigslist sections including Community, Personals, Housing, Jobs, For Sale, Services, Gigs and more.
A Preferences tab atop the app home screen lets you quickly swap between cities, states and countries, and you can elect to employ your device's font style within the app to make it feel more your own.
And a basic navigation bar along the bottom lets you quickly return to the home screen; view saved searches and perform new queries; check on bookmarked listings; submit feedback to the app's makers; and send alerts BlackBerry-toting friends who might want to check out craigslist mobile for themselves.
But at $4.99, the app's not exactly cheap, especially since craigslist.com has a half-decent mobile website that offers much of the same features and functionality as the Movela BlackBerry app. The app is better organized and it's both easier and faster to navigate than the website, so if you're a frequent craigslist user, $5 may actually be a small price to pay for the convenience.
The new craigslist mobile app is also officially supported by craigslist, according to Movela.
You can download the app from BlackBerry App World or check out more detailed screen shots of craigslist mobile here first.
If it's free BlackBerry apps you seek, we've got you covered on that front, too. Check out my new slideshow, "Free BlackBerry Apps: Your Smartphone's 10 New Best Friends."
Now I'm just waiting for that LinkedIn for BlackBerry app to drop...
Source:
http://www.itnews.com/phone-applications/14034/blackberry-finally-gets-official-craigslist-mobile-app
Chicago Website Designers
I first told you about the $5 craigslist mobile for BlackBerry app, developed by Movela/Pyxis Mobile, last November. It seems that app has been stuck in the BlackBerry App World approval process for the past few months--sound familiar??--but RIM just yesterday gave it the thumbs-up.
craigslist mobile from Movela offers all the basic features found on the full craigslist.com website, and its intuitive user interface (UI) makes it simple to browse various site listings and respond to interesting posts immediately from within the app, via e-mail or phone.
BlackBerry users who are familiar with Movela Netflix Queue Manager will immediately recognize the craigslist mobile UI, as it works very much like the company's Netflix app. And craigslist mobile for BlackBerry offers quick, one-click access from the app's home screen to listings on craigslist sections including Community, Personals, Housing, Jobs, For Sale, Services, Gigs and more.
A Preferences tab atop the app home screen lets you quickly swap between cities, states and countries, and you can elect to employ your device's font style within the app to make it feel more your own.
And a basic navigation bar along the bottom lets you quickly return to the home screen; view saved searches and perform new queries; check on bookmarked listings; submit feedback to the app's makers; and send alerts BlackBerry-toting friends who might want to check out craigslist mobile for themselves.
But at $4.99, the app's not exactly cheap, especially since craigslist.com has a half-decent mobile website that offers much of the same features and functionality as the Movela BlackBerry app. The app is better organized and it's both easier and faster to navigate than the website, so if you're a frequent craigslist user, $5 may actually be a small price to pay for the convenience.
The new craigslist mobile app is also officially supported by craigslist, according to Movela.
You can download the app from BlackBerry App World or check out more detailed screen shots of craigslist mobile here first.
If it's free BlackBerry apps you seek, we've got you covered on that front, too. Check out my new slideshow, "Free BlackBerry Apps: Your Smartphone's 10 New Best Friends."
Now I'm just waiting for that LinkedIn for BlackBerry app to drop...
Source:
http://www.itnews.com/phone-applications/14034/blackberry-finally-gets-official-craigslist-mobile-app
Chicago Website Designers
Monday, February 8, 2010
LG, Samsung go social With Latest Handsets
South Korea's two biggest cell phone makers previewed on Tuesday handsets they plan to unveil at next week's Mobile World Congress exhibition in Barcelona.
Both phones feature full-screen touch panels on their face, Wi-Fi and close links with social networking services.
The Samsung Monte is an extension of the company's S-series of phones and includes applications for Facebook and MySpace, and widgets for access to Twitter, Bebo and several instant messaging networks.
The front of the phone is dominated by a 3-inch display with full-screen touchpanel through which all the main user interaction takes place.
A GPS receiver hooks into Google Latitude, which allows you to share your position with friends on a map, and provides location data that is embedded with photos taken with the phone's 3.2-megapixel camera. Two applications, Exchange ActiveSync and Google Sync, are included to synchronize e-mail, contacts and other data with a PC.
LG's new handset, the GD880 Mini, connects to Facebook and Twitter and a social network feed function combines updates from different services in a single stream.
In some areas the LG Mini outpaces the Samsung Monte: the screen is slightly bigger at 3.2 inches and the camera offers a higher resolution of 5 megapixels. Other features include high-speed HSDPA networking and A-GPS (assisted GPS).
LG said the Mini will be launched in Europe in March and later in other markets. Samsung didn't provide launch details for the Monte. Both companies are yet to announce prices for the new handsets.
Source:
http://www.itnews.com/mobile-handsets/14059/lg-samsung-go-social-latest-handsets
Chicago Website Design
Both phones feature full-screen touch panels on their face, Wi-Fi and close links with social networking services.
The Samsung Monte is an extension of the company's S-series of phones and includes applications for Facebook and MySpace, and widgets for access to Twitter, Bebo and several instant messaging networks.
The front of the phone is dominated by a 3-inch display with full-screen touchpanel through which all the main user interaction takes place.
A GPS receiver hooks into Google Latitude, which allows you to share your position with friends on a map, and provides location data that is embedded with photos taken with the phone's 3.2-megapixel camera. Two applications, Exchange ActiveSync and Google Sync, are included to synchronize e-mail, contacts and other data with a PC.
LG's new handset, the GD880 Mini, connects to Facebook and Twitter and a social network feed function combines updates from different services in a single stream.
In some areas the LG Mini outpaces the Samsung Monte: the screen is slightly bigger at 3.2 inches and the camera offers a higher resolution of 5 megapixels. Other features include high-speed HSDPA networking and A-GPS (assisted GPS).
LG said the Mini will be launched in Europe in March and later in other markets. Samsung didn't provide launch details for the Monte. Both companies are yet to announce prices for the new handsets.
Source:
http://www.itnews.com/mobile-handsets/14059/lg-samsung-go-social-latest-handsets
Chicago Website Design
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Google Aims For Cute With Super Bowl ad
It was Google's first-ever Super Bowl ad--and one of their few TV spots at all, to boot. On Sunday, during the third quarter of Super Bowl XLIV, the Mountain View, Calif., tech giant aired an ad called "Parisian Love," featuring a Valentine's-worthy romance spelled out in Google search queries.
The queries flow chronologically from "study abroad paris france" through "how to impress a french girl" and "what are truffles" to "long-distance relationship advice" and finally "how to assemble a crib." Awwwww.
Buzz about Google's Super Bowl ad started spreading when CEO Eric Schmidt implied in a Twitter post that there would be one during the third quarter. There had been rumors--which turned out to be untrue--that Google's ad would feature the Nexus One smartphone. As it turns out, the "Parisian Love" ad has been on YouTube since November 19 as part of Google's "Search Stories" ad campaign--which had been online-only until the Super Bowl. It had chalked up over a million views on YouTube.
Unoriginal? Maybe. It didn't showcase anything totally new from Google, as search is the company's longstanding lifeblood. Plus, it was online already--Federated Media CEO John Battelle, who has written a book about Google, correctly speculated it would run during the game--and the "Search Stories" ads have already been famously parodied by opinion site Slate, which used the structure to make fun of Tiger Woods' notoriety.
"Parisian Love" also might've been considered, in any other context, to be eye-rollingly sappy. But this time, it was a breath of fresh air in a Super Bowl where the ads were dominated by dude-oriented spots that ranged from fratty (three bachelor party survivors wind up with a live orca whale in their SUV, courtesy of Bridgestone tires) to hey-don't-worry-bro-you're-still-manly (the ad for Dove body products for men) to borderline offensive (the Dodge Charger ad that featured stoic-looking men going through a litany of girlfriend complaints).
Makes you wonder if Larry and Sergey's marketing team knew how good they'd look in comparison.
Source:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-10448803-36.html?tag=newsEditorsPicksArea.0
Chicago Website Designers
The queries flow chronologically from "study abroad paris france" through "how to impress a french girl" and "what are truffles" to "long-distance relationship advice" and finally "how to assemble a crib." Awwwww.
Buzz about Google's Super Bowl ad started spreading when CEO Eric Schmidt implied in a Twitter post that there would be one during the third quarter. There had been rumors--which turned out to be untrue--that Google's ad would feature the Nexus One smartphone. As it turns out, the "Parisian Love" ad has been on YouTube since November 19 as part of Google's "Search Stories" ad campaign--which had been online-only until the Super Bowl. It had chalked up over a million views on YouTube.
Unoriginal? Maybe. It didn't showcase anything totally new from Google, as search is the company's longstanding lifeblood. Plus, it was online already--Federated Media CEO John Battelle, who has written a book about Google, correctly speculated it would run during the game--and the "Search Stories" ads have already been famously parodied by opinion site Slate, which used the structure to make fun of Tiger Woods' notoriety.
"Parisian Love" also might've been considered, in any other context, to be eye-rollingly sappy. But this time, it was a breath of fresh air in a Super Bowl where the ads were dominated by dude-oriented spots that ranged from fratty (three bachelor party survivors wind up with a live orca whale in their SUV, courtesy of Bridgestone tires) to hey-don't-worry-bro-you're-still-manly (the ad for Dove body products for men) to borderline offensive (the Dodge Charger ad that featured stoic-looking men going through a litany of girlfriend complaints).
Makes you wonder if Larry and Sergey's marketing team knew how good they'd look in comparison.
Source:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-10448803-36.html?tag=newsEditorsPicksArea.0
Chicago Website Designers
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Twitter, TechCrunch, Digg Execs Make Forbes' Web Celebs List
It's not like we've had enough of celebrities with the likes of Brangelina and the OctoMom on every other cover of the magazines at the grocery check-out.
Now, we've got Web celebs to deal with.
Forbes magazine last night released its Web Celeb 25 list of top Internet celebrities. And while the Forbes list shines a spotlight on real-world celebrities like gossip monger Perez Hilton and reality-TV star Tila Tequila, it also points to the growing online popularity of some real techies.
"For the Forbes Web Celeb 25, we track the biggest and brightest stars on the Internet, the people who have turned their passions into new media empires," wrote David Ewalt in the Forbes story about the list. "From stay-at home-moms to geek entrepreneurs, these are the people capturing eyes, influencing opinion and creating the new digital world."
Forbes rated its top Web celebs based on how famous a person is for creating or appearing in Internet-based content - someone who is highly recognizable to a Web-based audience. Folks, like Ashton Kutcher , who were mega stars before hitting the Web, were excluded from the Forbes list.
From the techie side of the world, Michael Arrington , editor of the high-profile blog TechCrunch, came in at the lofty number two spot - right behind Hilton, who was voted top of the Web celeb heap. And at number three is Pete Cashmore, who founded the Web site Mashable and boasts almost 2 million Twitter followers.
Twitter Inc. co-founders and social networking giants Evan Williams and Biz Stone together made this year's number four spot. "In 2009, Twitter went from tech-industry obsession to national phenomenon; Oprah even dedicated an entire show to the service," wrote Ewalt. "In turn, Williams and Stone have become celebrities in their own right, frequently interviewed in print and broadcast media. And with more than 2.8 million Twitter followers between them, the two are closely watched by legions of geeky fans."
Kevin Rose, the founder of Digg.com, is at number five, and Cory Doctorow, an editor of popular tech blog Boing Boing is ranked at number 10.
Sharon Gaudin covers the Internet and Web 2.0, emerging technologies, and desktop and laptop chips for Computerworld . Follow Sharon on Twitter at @sgaudin , send e-mail to sgaudin@computerworld.com or subscribe to Sharon's RSS feed .
Read more about internet business in Computerworld's Internet Business Knowledge Center.
Source:
http://www.itnews.com/e-commerce/13841/twitter-techcrunch-digg-execs-make-forbes-web-celebs-list
Chicago Website Designers
Now, we've got Web celebs to deal with.
Forbes magazine last night released its Web Celeb 25 list of top Internet celebrities. And while the Forbes list shines a spotlight on real-world celebrities like gossip monger Perez Hilton and reality-TV star Tila Tequila, it also points to the growing online popularity of some real techies.
"For the Forbes Web Celeb 25, we track the biggest and brightest stars on the Internet, the people who have turned their passions into new media empires," wrote David Ewalt in the Forbes story about the list. "From stay-at home-moms to geek entrepreneurs, these are the people capturing eyes, influencing opinion and creating the new digital world."
Forbes rated its top Web celebs based on how famous a person is for creating or appearing in Internet-based content - someone who is highly recognizable to a Web-based audience. Folks, like Ashton Kutcher , who were mega stars before hitting the Web, were excluded from the Forbes list.
From the techie side of the world, Michael Arrington , editor of the high-profile blog TechCrunch, came in at the lofty number two spot - right behind Hilton, who was voted top of the Web celeb heap. And at number three is Pete Cashmore, who founded the Web site Mashable and boasts almost 2 million Twitter followers.
Twitter Inc. co-founders and social networking giants Evan Williams and Biz Stone together made this year's number four spot. "In 2009, Twitter went from tech-industry obsession to national phenomenon; Oprah even dedicated an entire show to the service," wrote Ewalt. "In turn, Williams and Stone have become celebrities in their own right, frequently interviewed in print and broadcast media. And with more than 2.8 million Twitter followers between them, the two are closely watched by legions of geeky fans."
Kevin Rose, the founder of Digg.com, is at number five, and Cory Doctorow, an editor of popular tech blog Boing Boing is ranked at number 10.
Sharon Gaudin covers the Internet and Web 2.0, emerging technologies, and desktop and laptop chips for Computerworld . Follow Sharon on Twitter at @sgaudin , send e-mail to sgaudin@computerworld.com or subscribe to Sharon's RSS feed .
Read more about internet business in Computerworld's Internet Business Knowledge Center.
Source:
http://www.itnews.com/e-commerce/13841/twitter-techcrunch-digg-execs-make-forbes-web-celebs-list
Chicago Website Designers
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Microsoft Could Make The iPad a Great Business Tool
Apple has made a bone-head play that damages the iPad's potential for business. But, Microsoft, believe it or not, could come to the rescue. Here's why:
Apple put iWork--not a great tool to begin with--on the iPad. It's better than nothing, but while iWork can read Microsoft Office formats, it can't be set to save DOC files by default. What a mistake. While Apple's home and student customers may be fine with this annoying limitation, business users can't be endlessly exporting documents to share with colleagues and customers. Unless Apple makes this important change to iWork on the iPad, the forthcoming tablet will be a good device to view written content, but will fall flat when it comes to creating it.
But suppose Microsoft (hold the boos, please) decided there was money to be made here, and created a version of Office for the tablet? Given the relative lack of storage and so on, iPad Office couldn't be full-featured, but since most of us only use a fraction of Office's capabilities, that wouldn't be a show stopper. In fact, we'd have a device that would be useful for small business, and would probably cut deeply into sales of netbooks.
Apple has some additional work to do as well. If the iPad is to become the super-light computing device of choice, it has to support a full-featured browser, and that means supporting Flash. Whether Apple likes it or not, Flash is ubiquitous, and going to a Web site and getting that annoying error message and chunk of blank screen is a bummer.
Google Docs and ZOHO: Online But Not Offline
Am I serious about Microsoft stepping in? Yes, it would be a great idea, and it would make money for Microsoft. But I'd be surprised if Ballmer & Co. had the imagination to make that move. So, I don't expect it to happen, at least not immediately.
But there are alternatives, albeit limited, you can likely use as soon as the iPad hits the stores.
Google Docs would probably run fairly well on the iPad, but there are two caveats. The first has to do with screen real estate, the second with Google Gears.
When the iPad is in the editing or writing mode, a virtual keyboard pops up, making it hard to see the tools you need to write and edit a document. You might be able to work around this issue, but it would certainly slow you down.
More serious, I think, is the lack of support for Google Gears, which is necessary to run Google docs offline. Without that capability, there's no way to work on documents on an airplane, for example, which is a mighty big downside. When Google and the somewhat similar ZOHO are used offline, they can later be synched with the cloud versions, ensuring that you have the current versions of your documents. (Thanks to Harry McCracken of Technologizer for mentioning these points to me.)
ZOHO also needs Google gears to work offline. However, since the Safari browser already supports parts of the developing HTML 5 standard, it shouldn't be too long until ZOHO, and likely Google, will work offline on the iPad, says Raju Vegesna, ZOHO's chief evangelist.
Source:
http://www.itnews.com/tablet-pcs/13767/microsoft-could-make-ipad-great-business-tool
Chicago Web Site Design Company
Apple put iWork--not a great tool to begin with--on the iPad. It's better than nothing, but while iWork can read Microsoft Office formats, it can't be set to save DOC files by default. What a mistake. While Apple's home and student customers may be fine with this annoying limitation, business users can't be endlessly exporting documents to share with colleagues and customers. Unless Apple makes this important change to iWork on the iPad, the forthcoming tablet will be a good device to view written content, but will fall flat when it comes to creating it.
But suppose Microsoft (hold the boos, please) decided there was money to be made here, and created a version of Office for the tablet? Given the relative lack of storage and so on, iPad Office couldn't be full-featured, but since most of us only use a fraction of Office's capabilities, that wouldn't be a show stopper. In fact, we'd have a device that would be useful for small business, and would probably cut deeply into sales of netbooks.
Apple has some additional work to do as well. If the iPad is to become the super-light computing device of choice, it has to support a full-featured browser, and that means supporting Flash. Whether Apple likes it or not, Flash is ubiquitous, and going to a Web site and getting that annoying error message and chunk of blank screen is a bummer.
Google Docs and ZOHO: Online But Not Offline
Am I serious about Microsoft stepping in? Yes, it would be a great idea, and it would make money for Microsoft. But I'd be surprised if Ballmer & Co. had the imagination to make that move. So, I don't expect it to happen, at least not immediately.
But there are alternatives, albeit limited, you can likely use as soon as the iPad hits the stores.
Google Docs would probably run fairly well on the iPad, but there are two caveats. The first has to do with screen real estate, the second with Google Gears.
When the iPad is in the editing or writing mode, a virtual keyboard pops up, making it hard to see the tools you need to write and edit a document. You might be able to work around this issue, but it would certainly slow you down.
More serious, I think, is the lack of support for Google Gears, which is necessary to run Google docs offline. Without that capability, there's no way to work on documents on an airplane, for example, which is a mighty big downside. When Google and the somewhat similar ZOHO are used offline, they can later be synched with the cloud versions, ensuring that you have the current versions of your documents. (Thanks to Harry McCracken of Technologizer for mentioning these points to me.)
ZOHO also needs Google gears to work offline. However, since the Safari browser already supports parts of the developing HTML 5 standard, it shouldn't be too long until ZOHO, and likely Google, will work offline on the iPad, says Raju Vegesna, ZOHO's chief evangelist.
Source:
http://www.itnews.com/tablet-pcs/13767/microsoft-could-make-ipad-great-business-tool
Chicago Web Site Design Company
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Nokia Rides Smartphone Gains in Fourth Quarter
Nokia, the biggest mobile phone maker in the world, could be making a comeback in the smartphone market. The company reported Thursday that it gained worldwide marketshare in this sector during the fourth quarter of 2009.
The company, based in Finland, said Thursday that during the quarter it saw a 60 percent increase in profits, mostly due to cost-cutting and layoffs. For the fourth quarter, Nokia said profits rose to 882 million euros, or $626 million, compared with 551 euros for the year-ago period.
Sales at the company dipped about 5 percent to 11.99 billion euros from 12.7 billion euros during the same quarter a year earlier.
Still, even though revenue was down, Nokia executives noted that the company gained market share in the smartphone category. Nokia now has 40 percent market share in smartphones, up from 35 percent as of September. And the company's overall mobile handset market share increased to 39 percent from 38 percent in September.
Even though Nokia has always maintained its worldwide dominance in the smartphone market, it has faced stiff competition from competitors such as Research in Motion with its BlackBerry devices, and Apple with the iPhone.
Over the past year, the company had lost market share to these companies. But now it looks like Nokia could be making a turnaround in smartphones, mostly due to strong performance in China, Asia, Africa and the Middle East. Strong growth in these regions helped offset sales declines in North America, South America, and Europe.
Nokia said it sold 52.4 million smartphones during the fourth quarter, up from 47 million a year earlier. In total, Nokia said it sold 126.9 million handsets in the fourth quarter, 12 percent more than a year earlier.
"Our performance in smartphones, combined with continuing success in the emerging markets, helped us increase sales in our devices and services unit, both quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year," Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, Nokia's CEO, said in a statement.
The company's profits came amid steep cuts. Nokia cut its R&D spending by about 9 percent to roughly 1.6 billion euros. Its sales and marketing was slashed by 18 percent to 1.05 billion euros. And the company cut its general administrative expenses by about 15 percent to about 294 million Euros compared to the year before.
Layoffs continued, with Nokia eliminating 2,276 jobs, or 1.8 percent of its workforce, during 2009.
Meanwhile, Nokia's services business grew 15 percent from the previous quarter to 169 million euros. The company also saw growth in its Navteq navigation and maps service as automakers bought the technology for in-car navigation devices.
Nokia also said Ovi, its online store that sells applications for its handsets, is now getting more than 1 million downloads per day.
Source:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-30686_3-10443386-266.html?tag=mncol
Web Design Firms Chicago
The company, based in Finland, said Thursday that during the quarter it saw a 60 percent increase in profits, mostly due to cost-cutting and layoffs. For the fourth quarter, Nokia said profits rose to 882 million euros, or $626 million, compared with 551 euros for the year-ago period.
Sales at the company dipped about 5 percent to 11.99 billion euros from 12.7 billion euros during the same quarter a year earlier.
Still, even though revenue was down, Nokia executives noted that the company gained market share in the smartphone category. Nokia now has 40 percent market share in smartphones, up from 35 percent as of September. And the company's overall mobile handset market share increased to 39 percent from 38 percent in September.
Even though Nokia has always maintained its worldwide dominance in the smartphone market, it has faced stiff competition from competitors such as Research in Motion with its BlackBerry devices, and Apple with the iPhone.
Over the past year, the company had lost market share to these companies. But now it looks like Nokia could be making a turnaround in smartphones, mostly due to strong performance in China, Asia, Africa and the Middle East. Strong growth in these regions helped offset sales declines in North America, South America, and Europe.
Nokia said it sold 52.4 million smartphones during the fourth quarter, up from 47 million a year earlier. In total, Nokia said it sold 126.9 million handsets in the fourth quarter, 12 percent more than a year earlier.
"Our performance in smartphones, combined with continuing success in the emerging markets, helped us increase sales in our devices and services unit, both quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year," Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, Nokia's CEO, said in a statement.
The company's profits came amid steep cuts. Nokia cut its R&D spending by about 9 percent to roughly 1.6 billion euros. Its sales and marketing was slashed by 18 percent to 1.05 billion euros. And the company cut its general administrative expenses by about 15 percent to about 294 million Euros compared to the year before.
Layoffs continued, with Nokia eliminating 2,276 jobs, or 1.8 percent of its workforce, during 2009.
Meanwhile, Nokia's services business grew 15 percent from the previous quarter to 169 million euros. The company also saw growth in its Navteq navigation and maps service as automakers bought the technology for in-car navigation devices.
Nokia also said Ovi, its online store that sells applications for its handsets, is now getting more than 1 million downloads per day.
Source:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-30686_3-10443386-266.html?tag=mncol
Web Design Firms Chicago
Monday, February 1, 2010
'Save MySQL' Campaign Gains Momentum
A petition launched in December by MySQL creator Michael 'Monty' Widenius to "save" the open-source database from Oracle has quickly gained momentum, collecting nearly 17,000 signatures.
Widenius on Monday submitted an initial batch of 14,174 signatures to the European Commission, which is conducting an antitrust review of Oracle's acquisition of Sun Microsystems, MySQL's current owner. European authorities had expressed concern over the future of MySQL under Oracle, which holds a major chunk of the database market with its own proprietary software.
The petition calls for authorities to block the merger unless Oracle agrees to one of three "solutions," including spinning off MySQL to a third party and releasing all past versions and subsequent editions for the next three years under the Apache 2.0 open-source license.
About 5,500 of the signatories on the initial submission list are identified as self-employed software developers. Another 3,155 work for companies that use MySQL. The remaining are listed as "private users" of the database or are "concerned about MySQL's future for some other reason."
Nearly 7,000 respondents are from European Union member states, followed by about 3,300 in the U.S. and 2,800 in the rest of the world.
As of Monday, almost 94 percent supported the notion of Oracle divesting MySQL.
"Countless blogs, websites, encyclopedias are based on MySQL. It is the engine of the internet community, and with it one of the pillars of modern society, the support for freedom of speech," one signatory from Austria wrote. "I do not believe in big companies' promises to have an eye on the community - there's just too much money involved!"
"MySQL powers the majority of innovative database deployments. It's open nature allows for high-level modification enabling sites like Facebook to harden it for high demand/minimal hardware configurations," a U.S. signatory said. "Oracle is the least likely candidate for a guardian of this technology, it would be like giving the keys to heaven to the devil for safekeeping."
While Oracle has released a statement containing 10 commitments to MySQL users, including a promise to invest more money in development, Widenius maintains those pledges don't go far enough.
But European authorities responded favorably to Oracle's overture, and the merger could be approved imminently.
Despite the apparent success of Widenius' signature drive, other observers have said concerns over MySQL's fate are overblown, since the databases don't directly compete and MySQL can survive through offshoot "forks" like Widenius' own MariaDB.
To that end, Widenius himself has drawn fire from some critics, who consider his motives self-serving.
He may be hoping to "pinch Oracle's improved code and basically have his MySQL money and access to the MySQL code as it improves so he can plug it into his branch," user "thetoadwarrior" posted on a Slashdot thread in December. "No one should take his opinion seriously because if he really cared then it wouldn't have sold it."
Source:
http://www.itnews.com/business-issues/12472/save-mysql-campaign-gains-momentum
Chicago Web Site Design Company
Widenius on Monday submitted an initial batch of 14,174 signatures to the European Commission, which is conducting an antitrust review of Oracle's acquisition of Sun Microsystems, MySQL's current owner. European authorities had expressed concern over the future of MySQL under Oracle, which holds a major chunk of the database market with its own proprietary software.
The petition calls for authorities to block the merger unless Oracle agrees to one of three "solutions," including spinning off MySQL to a third party and releasing all past versions and subsequent editions for the next three years under the Apache 2.0 open-source license.
About 5,500 of the signatories on the initial submission list are identified as self-employed software developers. Another 3,155 work for companies that use MySQL. The remaining are listed as "private users" of the database or are "concerned about MySQL's future for some other reason."
Nearly 7,000 respondents are from European Union member states, followed by about 3,300 in the U.S. and 2,800 in the rest of the world.
As of Monday, almost 94 percent supported the notion of Oracle divesting MySQL.
"Countless blogs, websites, encyclopedias are based on MySQL. It is the engine of the internet community, and with it one of the pillars of modern society, the support for freedom of speech," one signatory from Austria wrote. "I do not believe in big companies' promises to have an eye on the community - there's just too much money involved!"
"MySQL powers the majority of innovative database deployments. It's open nature allows for high-level modification enabling sites like Facebook to harden it for high demand/minimal hardware configurations," a U.S. signatory said. "Oracle is the least likely candidate for a guardian of this technology, it would be like giving the keys to heaven to the devil for safekeeping."
While Oracle has released a statement containing 10 commitments to MySQL users, including a promise to invest more money in development, Widenius maintains those pledges don't go far enough.
But European authorities responded favorably to Oracle's overture, and the merger could be approved imminently.
Despite the apparent success of Widenius' signature drive, other observers have said concerns over MySQL's fate are overblown, since the databases don't directly compete and MySQL can survive through offshoot "forks" like Widenius' own MariaDB.
To that end, Widenius himself has drawn fire from some critics, who consider his motives self-serving.
He may be hoping to "pinch Oracle's improved code and basically have his MySQL money and access to the MySQL code as it improves so he can plug it into his branch," user "thetoadwarrior" posted on a Slashdot thread in December. "No one should take his opinion seriously because if he really cared then it wouldn't have sold it."
Source:
http://www.itnews.com/business-issues/12472/save-mysql-campaign-gains-momentum
Chicago Web Site Design Company
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