http://www.newswire.net/newsroom/index.php/permalink/69048.html

Google to start SEO company after years of denying it. Cost for an seo service: only $25k / month. Antitrust laws?

Why Palm Under HP Doesn't Work

It used to be that Palm was the go-to name for PDA and later smartphones. Likewise, HP has made a few very useful but mostly cheap PDAs and smartphones. The problem is that nobody wants a PDA anymore. Even business users want more out of their phone. They want a versatile phone which also does everything that PDAs did. Palm even tried to re-invent themselves with WebOS and a new line of app and (non-business) customer-oriented phones. But they fail to make the sales and grow to the same prestige they once had. I believe Palm made a smart move cashing out before they failed completely. HP might now have a slim chance to increase their smarphone market share.

Engaget: HP Buys Palm

HP Smartphones

Who likes hulu?

Well guess what, open your pocket book. Hulu will be starting a pilot program to begin charging people $10/mo for individuals who desire to watch videos beyond the five most recent episodes, meaning the five most current are free while older episodes will require the subscription fee.

US's First Cancer Vaccine

The local biotech company, Dendreon, has been approved by the FDA for treatment vaccine for men with prostate cancer. Instead of the traditional goal of preventing cancer, Provenge aims to use the immune system to attack the tumors. Any step towards cancer treatment is a milestone. Plus, go Seattle!

Platform for Politicians

Microsoft is producing a social media platform centered around the needs of politicians, called TownHall. It is intended to build engagement and participation by the fans. Like other social media, this will be used to collect feedback, the backend able to run reports and narrow the search on discussions. Will this even be used or waste of effort on Microsoft's part?

Prom goes viral

High schoolers are now using Youtube as a means for asking their dates to Prom. Creating videos of themselves singing, comedy or stop motion, the videos are attracting a lot of attention. One said kid from CT came across a girl's vblog that lives in TN and asked her to go to prom with him via a song he sang. She agreed. His particular video has more that 150,000 views which is pretty impressive considering the context.

Creating a Branded YouTube Channel

Corporations and businesses alike are all taking the next step into social media strategy and creating a YouTube channel that is further evolving their brand. Here are some tips to doing so:

1. Use the channel to learn, test, gather ideas and see whats works. Don't be focused on getting subscribers.
2. Consider outsourcing the job to another person who can give it attention. Web development may not be your expertise, but make sure goals are aligned.
3. Create conversation with the online community that is interacting with your brand.
4. Understand YouTube is search engine and tailor content that understands why someone would be searching your brand
5. Be PATIENT. Nurture your channel

http://mashable.com/2010/04/26/branded-youtube-channel/

Gaming Curfew

South Korea is proposing a curfew for the young gaming addicts. Where StarCraft players are commonly treated as celebrities, there has been an increasing concern worldwide of the affects games on not only children, but also adults. The government is suggesting to lock out underage kids from multiplayer games between 12am to 8am or also slowing down the connection after long periods of log-in time. I wonder how this will affects Korea's innovative technology business and be a strategy the government will stick to.

Removing Features - Sony sued for PS3 'Other OS' removal

A fellow PS3 owner, Anthony Ventura, is taking Sony to court over their decision to remove an option that allows other operating systems to be installed on the console. Many have used this feature to build a clustered supercomputer from PS3s. The cell processor architecture scales really well in such environments and can crunch serious numbers. Others have used the option to tinker with the system for fun or to turn it into a media-center device. And then, there are the select few who used this option for hacking. To stop them, Sony is making them choose between an update that removes the Other Os install or not having any of the online features. Mr. Ventura says that a simple fix like that is unfair, especially since Sony marketed the product feature so heavily. Can a company go back on its promises, like that? The courts will decide...

via Engadget

Siphon or Burn?

In the wake of the oil rig exploding last week, tens of thousands of barrels worth of oil is floating about in the Gulf of Mexico. With each day passing, an additional thousand plus barrels worth of oil is leaking into the gulf through the pipeline adding fuel to the fire so to speak. While the Coast Guard and other rigs are out trying to contain and siphon the oil so it doesn't reach land, they are beginning to speculate that at the current rate, that the mass will begin to show up on land as early as tomorrow (Friday). As of yesterday 4/28 officials are beginning to think of going ahead with the lesser of two evils, burn it, before it hits land. If land is reached, it can cause major ecological damage and severely hurt the shrimp business and coastal wildlife. Authorities have come to the conclusion that they are fighting a losing battle with trying to siphon the mass trying to be as eco-friendly as possible. Since there are a number of chemical plants in that region, those plants have been charged to monitor air quality during the burn since they already have the necessary tools to do so. This is all i know for now

Here is an interesting technology: StickyBits . You can scan any bar code with your iPhone or Android phone, add a text, comment, photo, or video and publish it for others to see.

Here is how it works: First, you have to download the application. Then, you scan the barcode, attache a comment, video, picture. The message is geo-tagged and attributed back to the user's social media profile (currently, using Twitter and Facebook links) and it becomes part of that object's content stream. The barcode is either purchased from StickyBits, printed out, or just off the product.

Some worry about the invasion of privacy by third-party applications to your Twitter and Facebook profile. Yet, once you are "out there", you can't turn back. People can see your tweets without special permission, and Google does give a short summary of your Facebook profile. How much is too much? That is a personal question; it simply depends on how much you want to learn about new technology. But, if you want to try any new application, you will have to disclose some information (i.e. connect to your Twitter and/or Facebook profiles).

FTC Keeping An Eye On Bloggers

If you decide to offer an incentive to bloggers to cover your product and don't want the FTC coming after you, think twice before you post the gift amount.

Ann Taylor, the clothing company, offered bloggers a reward between $50 and $500 dollars in gift cards for the best post about their Summer 2010 collection. The FTC argues that bloggers have to disclose they received payment from the company to cover its products - even if the amount is only $50. According to industry watchers, the FTC has intensified their efforts to crack down on bloggers who don't disclose that they are being compensated by the company whose products/services they write about.

Ann Taylor had to post signs at the event, create and publish a policy for bloggers covering its products. In turn, the FTC decided not to press charges against the company.

Lease a domain, what will google do?

New site rootorange.com allows you to lease premium domains. Google is very outspoken about buying links and other ways to get high ranking. What will they do about this...

http://mashable.com/2010/04/27/root-orange/

3D Not Just for TVs, but Gesture Control Too

What…Three dimension (3D) television with no glasses? Samsung and Panasonic might be the first to market their 3D TVs at local electronic retailers but viewers still have to use eyeglasses with specials lens to obtain the full 3D experience.

Last year German innovators from Fraunhofer Institute for Telecommunications, added software that controlled cameras, special lighting, and lasers, to a Philips 3D television system that increased the 3D effect without the use of 3D eyeglasses. To demonstrate how it work researchers placed additional equipment over two ping pong players that catches and projects their movements on the TV.

They call the system iPoint 3D. The technology is still in its research stages but the concept could certainly add value to future game technology.

Steve Jobs' Advice to Nike: Get Rid of Crappy Stuff

Giant Company CEO to Giant Company CEO: Get Rid of Crappy Stuff. At least, this was Steve Jobs' advice to Nike's CEO. Check it out.

Police Raid Gizmodo Editor's House

Are bloggers journalists or not? Do they have the same rights as professional journalists? The California's Rapid Enforcement Allied Computer Team did not think so when they raided the house of Gizmodo's editor in search for evidence for the leak of the Apple's iPhone 4 leak.


The police's action sure raises the question many have asked for quite some time: what rights, if any do bloggers have? How do you determine who is a professional blogger and should be afforded professional journalist rights and who is not?

While you might not be able to answer this question for now, one thing is sure: we will definitely hear more about this issue from now on.

What Colors Mean To Different Cultures?

Have you ever wondered what colors mean to different pictures? Check out David McCandless' chart.

Farewell Floppy Disks

You know that slot in your computer that you never use? That has been replaced with your handy flash drive. Apparently, the obsolete floppy disks are still commonly used in India and Japan. Sony is now the last manufacturer of floppy disks and amazingly sold 12 million units in 2009 alone. With Apple and Dell already producing computers without floppy disk drives, Sony has announced the last will be made in March 2011. They will eventually be remembered only as the icon to save files.

Senators urge Facebook to change privacy settings

Facebook's recent policy changes are mobilizing for senators. The reason being, the senators feel that the opening and sharing of information is violating a lot of users desires to keep information sacred and to maintain control over that information. As of now, settings are set to "opt-out" instead of "opt-in" as the senators feel that it should be. I agree. Its like those pesky advertisements when you buy or sign up for something online. They give you a list all select from the get go, or some only a couple which you have to click out of to not receive anything or even potentially be charged for something you weren't even aware of to begin with. The sharing of information has boundaries, people are crossing it left and right. Its redonkulous

Lucid Linux is Coming, 4.29

This April 29, Canonical will be releasing its new long-term support version of Ubuntu, codenamed Lucid Lynx. Ubuntu is a free linux distribution that is growing in popularity among everyday consumers, an unlikely group which tends to avoid the complexity of linux. Nonetheless, the open nature of the software and the company's efforts to increase usability have propeled Ubuntu into the retail consumer space in shops like Dell, Lenovo, and even Sharp. The operating system's rising popularity is attracting commercial software developers - Alfresco, Incres, IBM, VMware, Zimbra, and Yahoo! - who have committed to certify applications. Even Adobe, tired of fighting with the Apple's locked down systems, has redirected its focus towards bringing its software on Canonical's platform starting with Flash 10.1.

But what does this long-awaited release bring to the table? With Lucid Lynx, Canonical has embraced the cloud philosophy. Starting with Ubuntu One, a Windows Live Mesh wannabe, they are trying to create a platform for developing cloud apps that integrate with the operating system. In addition, this new cat will natively support social networks like Twitter and Facebook directly into its fabric. This is a radical paradigm shift in how operating systems should work. The standard definition was that they would provide a layer between the hardware and the software, so that application developers would not have to worry about resources and hardware issues. Now, Canonical has expanded on Apple's vision of the experience to redefine what the operating system should do. While some believe that these steps will make linux a valid replacement for Mac OSX and Windows, linux fanatics say that Canonical has shot themselves in the foot.

via COMPUTERWORLD
via ZDNET

Investing 103: Accounts, IRA?

We've come a long way from squandering our disposable income on gadgets, beer, and sub woofers to pimp our rides. We found the motivation to take the money and stuff it into a brokerage of our deciding, now what right? Well were almost ready to start making money off of money but first ask "what kind of investing do I want?" for the future right, well it isn't that simple, yeah what a drag, but this decision will echo into the rest of your life, either favorably or the foreboding alternative.
So what is the question at hand? Are we investing for college education, retirement, short term investing, or all of the above? Based upon the answer a multitude of different accounts await, likely it will be long-term though and that means IRA, no not your grandpa Ira. IRA is an acronym meaning Individual Retirement Account generally either a Roth IRA or Traditional IRA, both require the money to be locked into the account until age 59. The bonus to these accounts is that the aggressive income tax associated with capital gains is deferred or disregarded entirely.

If the prospect of not seeing your hard earned money for thirty to forty years scares you, think about the alternative of having no investments at 59 with a family to support, and children such as yourself in college. Forty years of 11% return on your investment (the average long term return on stocks) sounds pretty good compared to the meager Bank of America savings of .5% interest!

Brain training doesn't boost brain power

BBC News completed an investigation that confirmed brain training computer games that involved testing your reasoning skills, solving different types of problems like puzzles or doing arithmetic, did not enhance a person’s cognitive functions. The only improvement achieved by the participants in these tests was their playing ability in the game itself.

Experts from Alzheimer's Society, Medical Research Council, and Alzheimer's Research Trust, concluded that there isn’t any scientific evidence that learning games actually improves one’s ability to become smarter. Yet games like the "Brain Age" series has sold over 11 million copies in FY 2008. They may not increase cognitive skills but they certainly are a highly desired consumer product with the Nintendo DS handheld game.

McAfee goes berserk

A software update for McAfee Antivirus goes berserk; the culprit, a common windows file. The recent McAfee update identified a common windows file as a virus causing many corporate computers to freeze. One example where the issue had a big impact was in two Rhode Island hospitals, forcing the hospital to stop all non trauma treatments.

Its amazing how something so routine and relatively small can have such a major impact on thousands of people and businesses.

YouTube's Video Rental Store

YouTube is now offering 48-hour rentals ranging between 99 cents to $3.99. It initially experimented with this project by offering Sundance Films for $5, but has extended this to movies and TV shows. It will be interesting how their offerings will compare to what is currently available. iTunes and xbox have seen success in this area while there is also hulu and veoh available free of charge. Netflix will still hold as a dominate market with their simple, monthly fee for unlimited movies/shows.

With Universal 'Like' Button, Facebook Spreads Across Web

Facebook announced today at the F8 conference that it intends to connect the entire Internet through the social media. They are already competing with Google for THE place to have your online profile. Recently, they introduce the use of a Microsoft product Docs.com, which competes with the Google Docs. Like Google Docs, Docs.com allows users to share documents over the Internet.

Who will be the number one? That remains to be seen. One thing, though, is for sure: expect a battle worthy of two giants.

McDonald's I'm Lovin It Campaigns

McDonald's I'm Lovin It campaigns have been very popular with the viewers. A new series of commercials are making their way on the mainstream media. Here is a short collection of the most recent ads:

iPad Poised to Revolutionize the Retail Industry

To embrace or not embrace technology? That is the question retailers are asking themselves. According to Advertising Age , several retailers, including the Gap, are completely embracing the iPad. Gap is using it to enhance consumer experience and to appeal more to the Digital Natives. The video below tells the Gap story really well.

Investing 102: Where to invest??

Alright, so you've thought long and hard and decided that the money you were going to squander on the next 10 consecutive taco tuesdays in a row would be better spent as an investment for your future.
Next, you scrape together the coins from under the couch cushions, empty out the ol' piggy bank and grab the last of the "tuition fund" that you've been hanging onto just in case a new version of an iphone comes out.
Now an entire new question rears its head where do you put the money? You may know a great stock, or think you do, but you first need to put your money in a brokerage so you can buy and sell your stocks. Where becomes a huge question, will it be Fidelity, Ameritrade, Etrade, Scottrade, TradeKing, the list goes on and on, these brokerages all are bending over backwards to get your money. Do a little research before just flinging your hard earned money in, the brokerage sites vary quite a bit on price per trade, level of customer service, and research help.
Depending on how often you would like to trade, the degree to which you research, and if you care about a live person on the phone, if a problem should occur, will dictate which brokerage to settle with. In the end you will have piece of mind that you finally got the ball rolling on your future finances however bleak they currently look.

Washinton town sells on ebay

Town called Wauconda sold for $360k on eBay to Maddie and Neal Love. First town ever sold on Ebay.

http://mashable.com/2010/04/20/washington-town-sells-on-ebay/

Jabbawockeez: A Figment of your Imagination

If you haven’t heard of the Jabbawockeez, then it is fairly safe to say hip-hop dance is not one of your biggest interests. However for hip-hop dancers like myself, the Jabbawockeez play a very important role in the hip-hop community because they are the dance group phenomenon that is carrying hip-hop dance to the mainstream. Now I am not talking about just being background dancers in shows and in music videos, I’m talking multiple guest appearances on various television shows and headlining live shows equal to any high class ballet or river dance events (but obviously much cooler).

What separates the Jabbawockeez from other dance groups and choreographers is their overall dancing ability and style. The best way I can explain it is, the Jabbawockeez do not just throw any dance move to a sound but rather they use the sound to create a dance move. Essentially, they use almost every sound in a song and attach an intricate dance move to it which then brings the sound to life by giving it an image. This type of attention to detail is what many other dance groups and choreographers fail to do. Furthermore, all members of the Jabbawockeez have natural dancing abilities which they can incorporate into dance routines. By doing this, they do not look like they are dancing to counts but instead their choreography takes on the look of freestyle dance (which in my opinion is true dancing) and this is also something that other dance groups and choreographers have difficulty doing.

After winning America’s Best Dance Crew and through the use of social media like YouTube, the Jabbawockeez have grown rapidly in the hip-hop community. Their influence on hip-hop dancers will dramatically advance the future of hip-hop dance and slowly but surely attract the interests of other social groups. Just wait and see.

Here are some YouTube clips for your enjoyment (I've included the YouTube link because Blogger seems to cut the video image in half. So, copy/paste the links into your browser to view entire video):

Jabbawockeez guest appearance on So You Think You Can Dance 2009.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlAnz-YcyLo


Jabbawockeez at Monsters of Hip Hop show LA 2008.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UESGKnY2aYE


Jabbawockeez America’s Best Dance Crew Compilation.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbyf8hx4qG4

The Battle Over Your Interests

The story is all about what you like. While filling out your "interests" section on Facebook or retweeting about your activities on Twitter, advertisers are using this information to better sell you their stuff. This isn't news but the battle is growing.

Facebook is aiming to expand their "like" functionality to the entire internet, moving away form the seldom-updated"interests" section while Twitter believes that just by the frequently-updating nature of their medium, they better understand the interest of their users.

See more: http://techcrunch.com/2010/04/19/facebook-twitter-interests/

Universities Ban iPads

A follow-up from last week's blog in the wake of Israel banning the distribution and use of the Ipad, universities such as Princeton are banning the tablet. The wireless signals that the Ipad are producing are causing DHCP client malfunctions essentially booting all other wireless users off of the school's network. George Washington University has also expressed problems with the Ipad, but mostly the university just doesn't support the same authentication system as the Ipad which just won't allow the tablet to be used on the school's network.

Chips Here, There, Everywhere

As scientists push the limits of nanotechnology, electronic circuits will get smaller and smaller. That means that you will find chips in more places than ever before! This will bring about a sort of electronic ubiquity and and create a new level of connectedness. The digital world will infiltrate people's real lives and become an integral part of them. Here are two examples:

BodyTrace GSM-enabled eScale

This weight scale uses the GSM networks to upload your weight on the internet, so you can easily keep track of it.

Ping Clothing

These clothes use microchips to detect what you are doing based on your position and then automatically publish your actions on sites like Twitter and Facebook. There is more! They can also "tap" you on the shoulder when someone posts on one of your profiles.

Some will say it is part of our natural evolution and focus on the benefits. Others will be concerned with privacy and discuss how our current laws would not work with these products. What do you think?

iPhone Prototype Found

A bad joke of 'a guy walks into a bar'....

The iPhone software engineer definitely had a bad day after losing the new iPhone prototype in a bar. This is very rare for Apple, actually the first time. Apple is known to keep control of what they want information they want released or not. The technology news site, Gizmodo, reportedly bought the prototype for $5,000 and began taking it part and dissecting it. Gizmodo had such traffic, spiking at 1 million visitors within one hour.

Some people said it was planted by Apple, but I doubt Apple needs it.

Investing 101 for new investors

Alright, so you saved up all summer for college, then you paid your tuition, books, and associated beer fund. What's next? You still have a few thousand lingering dollars from the parents, financial aid etc. INVEST IT!
Don't be one of those people that starts investing at 60 years old and then has to retire with a bagging job at the local mom and pop grocery store. Start early, invest it in the stock market, yeah its a little confusing at first, but the market is coming out of a recession, most believe. There is so much to gain from investing at a young age, use that knowledge you learned in those seemingly useless finance and economics classes to your advantage.
First, find a company your passionate about, be it clothing, technology, etc. if you love it chances are its because it is a great company that stock brokers haven't a clue about. Also, invest in something relatively low priced, buying stock in Microsoft at 30 per share will be difficult to yield enviable returns. If your young take risks, buy a share of something unknown that could double tomorrow rather than something that will sit in a mire for the next ten years.
Just invest in whatever you can! It is the one of the few ways to truly invest in your future!

Congress to archive tweets

Article about how congress plans to archive billions of tweets for historical purposes.

http://www.technewsworld.com/story/Library-of-Congress-to-House-Billions-and-Billions-of-Tweets-69781.html

Ning to be a paid-only service

The $750 million platform that allows you to make your own Facebook around a particular topic/interest will no longer be free in 90 days. The difference between the paid and free services comes with the control of ad content displayed, bandwidth, and non-Ning URLs. The new Ning generation will also come with new special features, a mobile experience, and API. Users can choose to upgrade to the premium or just get off. Along with this move comes a 40% cut in staffing, from 167 people to 98.

What does this say about the hype of social networking - is it at its peak? I wonder how this move will affect the business, but I'm sure CEO Marc Andreeseen, founder of Netscape knows what's he's doing.

Refresh Your Interface

Yesterday, I had the absolute pleasure of going to the University of Washington Spring Career Fair. There were 120+ companies and several thousands of college students looking to impress them for a job or internship. But I am of the opinion that whatever industry you represent, you should do so in a professional, or at least positive manner. It saddens me to say that a few companies didn't achieve this. I know that I want to work for a company that is friendly to it's potential or present customers and employees.

It's a Kindle! No it's an iPad! No, wait, it's both?!

Introducing the Notion Ink slate-type device:

The ADAM, as the company calls it, has the ability to switch its display mode thanks to an innovative technology from Pixel Qi. This means you can read your textbook without eye strain and then netflix your favorite movie in full color, all on the same device! Not only that, the device can support a 3 megapixel camera for videoconferencing or just taking pictures. It is built on nVidia's Tegra platform giving it significant oomph over the current slate contenders in the gaming and 3D arena, and also enabling it to decode and outut video in 1080P to an HDTV! There is even more (see the link below)...

Who said no one cared about features?

Source: http://www.notionink.in/adamoverview.php

Israel bans imports of Ipad

Israel is banning the Ipad due to its higher power levels of broadcasting. Most countries in Europe and Israel dont allow very high broadcasting power levels. This comes in fear that the system may interfere with current broadcasts and connections. The ban will continue until officials can certify the Apple product. In the meantime, app. developers in Israel are suffering.

Where Can I Go?

Seriously? Did i hear this right... twitter is now going to have advertisements during search results? Why must there be advertisements where ever I go? I get that twitter must make money, but it is absolutely obnoxious to see ads any given second on the internet. I just wish there was a specific place advertisements can go on a site like twitter; you know, like a link at the top of the page next to the sign-out link. Or maybe down at the bottom next to the copyright. Companies are already using social media to get their products across and for companies such as Dell and Microsoft and many many more, its working well. Its just like a thorn in my foot to see people try to squeeze an advertisement where ever they can. That's my little rant as a user; as a business I would do the same thing as twitter and I'll leave it at that.

AI is one step closer. A project for the past three years of Georgia Institute of Technology's Socially Intelligent Machines lab, Simon the Robot is now able to learn new tasks. Through face recognition and sound localization, the achievement of Simon comes from not needing to be preprogrammed with tasks.

Interestingly, the main challenge was system integration. It uses Open Source Computer Vision and off the shelf technology for the recognition software.

Of course, there's the big, shiny, red button to turn Simon off in case something goes wrong....

Scuba in Washington. Do It!

Scuba has long been a passion of mine, from spear fishing to simply enjoying the sites of the Puget Sound underwater. SCUBA (Self Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus) is a little expensive to start off with, but pays off in memories and stories told nowhere else. In such a rich area of marine bio-diversity like the Puget Sound it is a real shame to miss out on a chance to experience it first hand.
To begin SCUBA diving there is a steep cost in terms of an eight week class and the price of gear, but renting equipment can reduce the abhorrent costs until you decide SCUBA is right for you. Once certified the ocean is yours and the only limits are those of the oxygen in your air-tanks. So follow the classes and enjoy there is a lot to see below the surface!

How To Create Your Own Bad Reviews

The fame conductor Leonard Slatkin was driven out of the Metropolitan Opera last week because of bad reviews he got for conducting Verdi's La Traviata. Interestingly, it was Mr. Slatkin himself who generated the bad reviews. In his personal blog he confessed that he wan't a "Verdian" and the score of La Traviata was completely new to him. Worse yet, he admitted to hide his lack of knowledge from the members of the orchestra. As Eric Felten said: "Posting sensitive information on the Internet is not generally the bestway to keep it a secret."

via WSJ

Apple Launching IAd To compete with google adwords

Apple announced they will be launching their new ad platform, IAd. It will place ads on apps that run on the iphone and ipad. While not directly in competition, this ad network will go head to head with Google's adwords. Only difference is adwords ads are placed on websites and search results.

Analyists say this could increase Apple's revenues by 4 billion /year.

http://www.techjackal.net/internet/2010/04/10/apple-set-to-take-on-google-for-advertising-dollars/

Nokia Offering Free Music in China

Nokia is the leading handset vendor in the world's largest mobile market, China. Competing with the high-end smartphones of Apple and Google, Nokia is offering free, unrestricted music downloading on the Comes with Music program to user's computers and Nokia phones.

"The company continues to use the Symbian software platform for smartphones, which make up the fastest-growing area of the mobile phone market, and is pushing Comes with Music and other applications such as navigation and its Ovi online portal to differentiate its products from rivals."

Getting Nexted in Chatroullete

Chatroulette is a new service sensation that lets you talk randomly with people from all over the world. The service connects you with random people who happen to be online at the same time. If you like the person, you chat; if not, you will get denied or "nexted".

Casey Neistat of FastCompany documented his experience in the video below: 

chat roulette from Casey Neistat on Vimeo.

Net neutrality. What is it? BS if you ask me. Its about companies trying to find a buck where ever they can. ISPs were/are trying to charge websites that use more bandwidth a premium so their sites load quicker, if at all. An example of this is charging youtube.com so their website functions accordingly for the end user while gmail skates without a charge. ISPs call it a cost of doing business, which is right however, its their cost. Prediction, either we see companies/websites get charged for this (more unlikely) or ISPs jack our rates (definitely possible).

Malcolm Gladwell: The quiet Canadian

In an interview with the Canadian publication 'The Globe and The Mail', Malcolm Gladwell explains why he is not on Twitter, Facebook or any other social networks. His blog posts are biannual. He carries a Blackberry ("as any good Canadian would"), but leaves it in his bag or at the office when he needs to focus on writing.

Asked to identify the tipping point for the social media, Gladwell answered:

"If you’re looking for milestones, that would sound to me like a tipping point-ish type of happening. But it’s hard to know. The problem is, we’re still in the experimental phase. The thing about Facebook is, it’s insanely new. This world of the Internet, if we know anything from its brief history, it likes nothing more than to build someone up only to topple them. Who has an AOL account these days? Not that long ago, AOL was the single most powerful player on the Internet. Who has a MySpace account these days? MySpace sold for billions of dollars not that long ago. I’m very reluctant to crown Facebook king of the future. They certainly are flavour of the month. This is not a world that respects loyalties and longevity".

Virtually Alone

"In our relentless pursuit of "connecting", we miss out on each other". This was the conclusion Throne Beason of the Seattle Times came up while examining our "connected" behavior. It seems like the more we try to connect (via e-mail, Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, and other tools), the more we miss the real people around us.

It turns out that the average Internet user spends 13 hours online each week. Yes - 13. And that doesn't even include e-mailing!! In total, the average American consumes 34 gigabytes of information, and hears or sees 100,000 words each day. Because of this information overload, our attention span is much lower than it used to be.

Technology is to blame not only for the bombardment of information and lack of person-to-person interaction. It is also responsible for addictive behavior. And yes, there are rehab centers for gaming and computer addicts. And even a service that puts you back in touch with your neighbors: Suicide Machine , a service that deletes all the social media accounts for you.

Joining the club

I finally was able to join this Blog. Where do I go from here?

The iPad Debacle

Like it or not, the iPad is changing things. It doesn't matter if you work in the tech industry, whether you're an Apple fanboy, or if you don't know RAM from ROM. Apple has mastered its marketing and hype machine and is fully able to create a market for its products and is changing computing and the technology paradigm.

First, the user no longer cares about function or features. Read any respected review of iPad and it flashes past lack of USB ports and the proprietary A4 processor and goes straight to the "experience" of using the "magical" and "revolutionary" slab of tech. Tell them what they want and ignore what they actually need.

Second, the user wants you to control the distribution and the content to experience a technology that "just works". Apps, flash, iTunes and iBooks are all controlled by Apple. They have the ability to ensure that quality will fit their brand. The downside is your freedom to view the content that they don’t like. Flash may be slow and “buggy” but, wouldn’t it be nice if you could play the thousands of videos and apps already online? Of course Flash is supposed to be phased out by the HTML 5.

Finally, make any other company is irrelevant. Differentiate in technology, delivery, and user experience. Price moderately high and ensure that your product can create value for you in the future (proprietary formats including AAC, QuickTime, display adapters, etc., pay for service packs).

Collateral Murder - Civilian Killings in Iraq

Check out the website http://www.wikileaks.com/ today and you will be presented with a rather disturbing but most definitely necessary video of US forces and some of their activities in Iraq. Who knew killing innocent civilians was going to be one of these activities? The media has historically played an important role in documenting and informing the public about conditions and progression of wars.

WikiLeaks is taking the use of social media and blasting out this kind of information to the public, most recently, with their leak of a video that highlights US forces killing two innocent Reuter journalists. What WikiLeaks has just done is use social media to present information to the public in a much quicker fashion than past news media (the reason why the Reuter journalists were there in the first place). Also, because of the video leak, WikiLeaks has more quickly sparked conversations about this incident over the web through social media. For example within 24 hours of the video leak, the clip netted more than 1.3 million views on YouTube. It looks like the US government and military will have to find better ways to cover-up their messes, because using the cover-up "a suicidal bombing" isn't going to get pass the growing power of social media and web journalism.

Recent coal mine incident

I just found out that over the course of history that the death toll of coal mine mishaps is next to a quarter of a million. Its a dangerous and DIRTY source of energy. The only reason its still in existence is because it is dirt cheap. Now, over the course of history the death toll related to nuclear accidents is a whopping 64. Its a clean source of energy and with today's technology and handling requirements, it is a viable source of energy that nobody is taking advantage of

Alternate Reality Games and Location Awareness

I was recently asked to play a multi/cross-platform game on the UWB campus as part of a study. In it, you play as Sammy (a salamander-oid) that goes to our University and manages the challenges of every day student life. Besides having the game universe span the computer platform and the Zune mobile device, what really caught my attention was the location-based triggers. When you walk around campus, special wireless access points will trigger the Zune to turn on and interact with the user (think restless/ajax vs restful/php on the internet). I think this type of technology can have a significant impact on the immersion of alternate reality gaming. However, could it mean that we begin having trouble to differentiate between what is real and not as such realistic technology invades our daily lives?

Mass Follow Twitter Software

Came across this - Mass Follow Twitter Software - Although it is super spammy, and I dontknow how effective it can be in promoting your business, it could be an interesting way to build up your brand. Twitter allows you to follow up to 2000 ppl per day. I'm gonna give this software a spin, build a large list of followers, and see how it works out.

Apple Sells 300,000 iPads in First Day

It looks like all the hype paid off: 300,000 iPad's flew off the Apple store shelves on Saturday. Apple most like would have sold more this weekend, but most stores were closed on Sunday for Easter. Apple announced that users downloaded over 1 million apps and over 250,000 e-books. No too shabby for a first day.

Apple vs HTC: A Patent Mess

The hilariousness of patents in the modern world of technology. Can Apple sue for multi-touch interfacing, even if they were not the first to invent it? Is that even patentable? Stay tuned for the Supreme Court's wacky decision. I mean, they did say companies can patent DNA...

More importantly, this article shows us the fear that Apple sees in competitors. They are willing to hurt consumers by limiting their choices in competing products with dirty tactics. Just take a peek at the comments for further insight!

via Engadget

Facebook vs. Google

Which one of the two giants are going to be the default social profile? Why is at stake? For starters, domination in the social media world. Secondly, the amount of money involved. Social commerce is a growing business, which topped $1 billion in US and $5 billion in China. (These figures combine the purchases on Second Life and the gifts on Facebook). And since these numbers are increasing rapidly, Facebook is planning a very simple, one click e-commerce platform.

Who is going to win? Well, we'll just have to wait and see.


via Machable