We humans are not going to get less mobile (though our waistlines might state otherwise) and new mobile devices, apps, and ways to connect us all will only continue to become better and more prolific. As such, knowing trends in mobile, how to (and what’s involved in) develop mobile apps, and what you should do next are just a few of the things you need to know if you have any interest in the mobile space.

This is the primary reason that you need to make certain you attend MobileMarchTC (and maybe bring along that young person you’ve given advice to!). The agenda just came out and the press release is after the jump which you can read after clicking “(more…)” below.

MobileMarchTC not only looks like a fabulous event, in my estimation you would need to travel to San Francisco or New York to find a mobile event to rival it. Event registration can be found at http://mobilemarchtc.eventbrite.com/.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 9th, 2012

Annual Mobile March Grows to Two Days

Twin Cities’ premiere mobile event announces agenda including
more business-focused sessions and developer workshops.

Minneapolis, MN – The Organizers of Mobile March, today announced the agenda for it’s third annual mobile event to be held on March 16-17, 2012 at the Embassy Suites-Minneapolis Airport. This year’s event new two day agenda grows to include more business and marketing focused session as well long-form developer workshops. In addition, a third track of learning includes sessions and information in Mobile Development and Mobile Business as well as a new General Knowledge track.

In its third year Mobile March focuses on a very active mobile environment in the Twin Cities and throughout the Midwest.  Mobile March’s Justin Grammens noted, “Each year there is more and more things happening in mobile here. We want to offer information and insight to anyone interested in mobile but also provide a deeper involvement for developers. That’s why we’ve added Friday’s workshops covering iOS, Android and Windows Phone” Linda Cummings, event co-organizer also noted, “Business is moving more and more toward mobile, including integrating it into a marketing strategy or a communication platform for their employees. We’ve really focused on offering more business insight during the additional day.”

The agenda, available online at www.mobilemarchtc.com, includes Mobile Business track sessions like: Loyalty through Mobile, Games in iOS and Android, and Actionable Mobile Stats and Trends for 2012. The Mobile Technical Track includes: 3D Programming for iOS- What is OpenGL ES and how does it fit into the Apple-verse, Windows Phone 7: From Zero to App and the popular platform showdown, this year featuring iOS and Windows Phone. New General Sessions include session entitled: Mobile in Learning, What Can The Beatles Teach Us About Mobile Web Design and iPhone, QR Codes, and HTML5 (Oh, My!)

Registration is now open for Mobile March, Friday March 16^th and Saturday March 17th at the Embassy Suites-Minneapolis Airport via the Mobile March website at www.mobilemarchtc.com or directly through the event registration at http://mobilemarchtc.eventbrite.com/.

About Mobile March

Founded by Justin Grammens, Phil Wilson and Linda Cummings in 2010. Mobile March is an event dedicated to exploring the latest in mobile technology and trends. The name Mobile March not only denotes the month in which it takes place, it also emphasizes the ongoing advancement and growth of mobile technology and the related lifestyle.

By offering content that appeals to mobile developers, business people, and users we hope to facilitate a greater understanding between the constituencies that make mobile happen.  Whether you make money with mobile or just use it to stay connected, we invite you to join us for Mobile March.

Event sponsors include: Code 42 Software, Livefront, PDS, Verizon, MixMobi, Microsoft, The Nerdery, W3i, Sundog, Recursive Awesome, RemainComm and Focus Business Development.

CONTACT:  Phil Wilson

612-743-7860

phil@mobilemarchtc.com

Mobile March Grows to Two Days is a post from: Minnov8 and published under a Creative Commons license.

The Gang talks with a data scientist (and accomplished applications developer) living here in the Twin Cities, Jamie Ostheimer. He is working with a string of startups and is deeply embedded within the world of data. Osterheimer has a PhD in Astronomy, a discipline all about the data (and no, not Commander Data from Star Trek Next Generation). Rather his focus is about the core data sets that power all of our analysis, driving insights and enabling us to gain new meanings from it.

Hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott, Graeme Thickins and Phil Wilson
Music: bluessmyth & the song “Down on My Luck” from the podsafe Music Alley.

Discussed during the show:

• Minneapolis startup TST Media acquires Wisconsin Sports Network site (Pioneer Press)
• Facebook’s $5 Billion IPO: The Next Google? Or The Next Groupon? 
• Zuckerberg Controlling 57% of Facebook Seen as Risk to Investors
• Facebook’s Ad Business Is a $3 Billion Mystery
• In China, Human Costs Are Built Into an iPad; Foxconn; Major Customers
• Was Google’s Disastrous January A Passing Storm Or Sign Of Things To Come?
• Employers added 243,000 jobs in January, pushing unemployment rate down to 8.3 percent 
• Jamie Ostheimer links: What Is a Data Scientist? (the diagram we discuss); Forbes article 

Upcoming Events:

• February 10-11: Startup Weekend Twin Cities III, U of M Carlson
• February 23rd: WordPressMSP at The Nerdery
• February 23rd: How to Leverage Digital Media to Raise Capital (a DealPen event at CoCo. Promo code for free ticket: dealpenfriend)
• February 24-25: MinneWIC (Women in Computing)
• March 16-17: Mobile March (Mobile 3D) (Call for speakers)
• April 7th: MinneBar, Best Buy headquarters
• June 5-8: eyeo Festival, Walker Art Center

Minnov8 Gang 155 – It’s the Data is a post from: Minnov8 and published under a Creative Commons license.

The AG’s letter below had four key responses:

1. Yes, I was a “victim” of cramming and it is an old scam, with players in the game like the Gambino crime family in the late 1990s
2. Our MN AG, Lori Swanson, is very concerned about these practices. What I did not know is that Attorney General Swanson, alongside Senator Amy Klobuchar, is already going after this category, albeit it appears to be only landline cramming and not mobile cramming, the latter an arguably bigger problem (WCCO story from January 7th here)
3. Minnesota law provides some protection ONLY FOR LANDLINE CRAMMING and NOTHING FOR MOBILE
4. In addition to the MN AG’s office, the Federal Trade Commission and Federal Communications Commission take complaints, and I was encouraged to file mine with them.

Visibility is what matters and Congress will only take action if enough consumers scream about this theft to them. That’s why I was so pleased to see a story on WCCO about mobile cramming (aired on February 1st) so they are paying attention.

Hats off to the journalists at WCCO for covering this story. As more and more of us get online with mobile phones — and our kids get them and respond to who-knows-what online — we need to scrutinize our cell phone bills and most people aren’t savvy enough to even know what’s going on with scams like these.

The wireless companies and scammers economic interests are aligned so there is little incentive for AT&T, Verizon, TMobile, Sprint and others to stop this practice of stealing from all of us. Congress needs to take action…now.

MN Attorney General on Cramming Scamming is a post from: Minnov8 and published under a Creative Commons license.

Dr. Lisa Snyder

So does this mean we give tablets to kids and education is magically transformed? Hardly. Fortunately we have one of the thought leaders in this space in our backyard. Her name is Dr. Lisa Snyder, she is the new Lakeville MN School Superintendent, and we were pleased to have her on the show to talk about their new iLearn initiative, whether or not it’s magic, how tablets and tech fit in to it, and her perspectives on the challenges adopting new ways of teaching and learning.

Hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott, Graeme Thickins and Phil Wilson
Music: Dave Hole & the song “Keep Your Motor Running” from the podsafe Music Alley.

Discussed during the show:

• Tablet and E-book reader Ownership Nearly Double Over the Holiday Gift-Giving Period
• It’s the iPad announcement anniversary: January 27, 2010
• 350,000 Textbooks Downloaded From Apple’s iBooks in Three Days
• How Apple is sabotaging an open standard for digital books (Borsch doesn’t think so: “Too Many Don’t ‘Get’ iBooks Author”)
• Lakeville Schools Using State Funding to Help Technology Push
• Finding Good Apps for Children With Autism
• A Perspective on iPad’s Impact on Your Mind
• Are Tablets Ready for K12?
• Little Falls Gets Real About iPad technology
• Silicon Valley Wows Educators, and Woos Them
• One Laptop Per Child Launches XO 3.0 Tablet 
• Pinterest draws interest online
• JAMF Software 
• The Problem With The iOS Home Screen

Upcoming Events:

• February 10-11: Startup Weekend Twin Cities III, U of M Carlson
• February 23rd: WordPressMSP at The Nerdery
• February 23rd: How to Leverage Digital Media to Raise Capital (a DealPen event at CoCo. Promo code for free ticket: dealpenfriend)
• February 24-25: MinneWIC (Women in Computing)
• March 16-17: Mobile March (Mobile 3D) (Call for speakers)
• April 7th: MinneBar, Best Buy headquarters

Minnov8 Gang 154 – iPad, iLearn is a post from: Minnov8 and published under a Creative Commons license.

Besides all of the catching up we did our guest, Patrick E. Donohue from DealPen, is on to talk about their initiatives to work with startups on funding, knowledge and a host of other value propositions.

Hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott, Graeme Thickins and Phil Wilson
Music: Clear Blue 22 & the song “Through With You” from the podsafe Music Alley.

Discussed during the show:

• Minneapolis software firm gets $52.5M in venture capital
• Apple announces free iBooks Author OS X app for publishing books to the App Store
• Too Many Don’t “Get” iBooks Author
• Apple’s New Math. Or: Why a $15 E-Book Equals a $75 Paper Book
• Not a Kodak Moment: Legendary Camera Maker Files for Bankruptcy Protection and How Kodak Failed
• DreamHost Hacked, Password Changes Made Mandatory
• DealPen’s INVESTyR
• The Ihnatko Almanac #16: Some Assembly Required 
• Best Buy Announces Leadership Changes
• CarrierIQ Lawsuit by Twin Cities Man
• Successful ebook author Amanda Hocking 

Upcoming Events:

• Thursday, January 26th: WordPressMSP, at The Nerdery in Bloomington.
• Thursday, January 26th: MnSearch Presents: Tools of the Trade for SEO with Raven Tools
• Thursday, January 26th/February 23rd: How to Leverage Digital Media to Raise Capital (a DealPen event at CoCo. Promo code for free ticket: dealpenfriend)
• Friday, January 27th: Social Media Breakfast, Mpls/St. Paul (SMBMSP)–Public Media 
• Friday/Saturday, March 16th & 17th: Mobile March TC. Call for speakers.

Minnov8 Gang 153 – SOPA is NOPA is a post from: Minnov8 and published under a Creative Commons license.

I was stunned to learn it is a scam. Not only that, based upon the sheer volume of complaints I found shows that this is rampant, apparently is seeing little-to-no preemptive action on the part of the wireless carriers, and many, many mobile users are being charged monthly fees. This fraud is commonly known as cramming.

I am writing this post for the express purpose of bringing this issue to your attention and that of Lori Swanson, our State Attorney General, in order to get some action and protect consumers. If *I* can get scammed (and I am VERY cautious, careful and savvy about online scams and still don’t know how my number was discovered). I can only guess how pervasive this is in Minnesota and that it appears the carriers are likely complicit in perpetuating these cramming scams due to conflicts of interest and their subsequent inaction.

THE SCAM
This is a mobile SMS (text message) scam which automatically subscribes the user to a monthly plan, in my case a $9.99 one as you can see from the screenshot to your right. What’s curious is that many people on several complaint forums I discovered recommended replying “STOP” to cancel since that would be an explicit opt-out. In my case I didn’t respond (never do to spam) and instead called AT&T Customer Service.

The charges were applied anyway which, I now know, is a common cramming practice. AT&T removed the charge and I explicitly requested they place a “subscription block” under my parental controls for all phones on my family plan. This part of the adventure burned up 45 minutes of my time.

During my short investigation last night for another 30 minutes, I came across these links to other people who have been victims of cramming from this same provider and have had similar charges:

• 800 Notes, a website for 800# scamming, had these reports
• SMS Watchdog, a website for text scamming, had these reports
• Text Complaints had these reports
• Plus all of these other ones…

…and so on and so on. But wait until you see how this cramming is potentially worth tens of millions of dollars per year for the scammers!

AN EXAMPLE OF AN ALLEGEDLY SIMILAR SCAM
While I have NO idea if the company identified below is responsible in any way for the cramming scam which I encountered last evening, I also was not aware of how huge this fraud could be. This example below illustrates the scope of the problem so well I had to include it (and, especially, the video which explains the tactics used by these cramming scammers and how it works).

During my investigation last night I came across another geek site, AZ Disruptors, a tech incubator whose website is similar to Minnov8‘s and Tech.MN‘s but for Arizona. The site’s founder, who is also CEO of Axosoft, Hamid Shojaee, discovered early last year what appeared to be an alleged Scottsdale-based mobile scammer named JAWA, a dba of Eye Level Holdings, LLC, and one of several dba’s of this LLC.

Last March Shojaee wrote a post about how he discovered he’d been a victim of cramming. Two days later he wrote another post explaining how this sort of text messaging cramming scam worked and the video he created to explain it is below. Shojaee’s explanation will give you a good sense of what’s going on with this cramming scam:

After writing subsequent posts JAWA’s lawyers sent Shojaee a cease-and-desist, shut down his blog temporarily, but the AZ Central paper wrote this article pointing out that Verizon alone froze $19 million in charges…so I can only imagine the millions JAWA and the aggregators have already raked in:

Lawsuits filed by Verizon Wireless and the Texas attorney general allege that cellphone-applications developer Jawa used shell corporations, false business addresses, websites that did not comply with industry standards and diversionary software to deceive customers to buy its services.

Beyond the lawsuit, Verizon Wireless has taken other business actions. It instructed four companies, known as aggregators, to freeze $19 million in charges for messaging services already provided by Jawa and for which customers already have been billed.

Aggregators, known as mobile-transaction hubs, enable wireless messages to be delivered to a customer and compile and transmit charges to the customer’s carrier.

As it turns out, Verizon kept 30% of the fees collected and passed the other 70% to the aggregators (see this article). Other articles I’ve read say the same thing about all carriers: they keep 30% of the fees. If those fees number in the tens of millions of dollars, one can see why the carriers have zero incentive to be on their customer’s side and proactively terminate these sleazy relationships.

In my cursory search I was unable to learn if there has yet been a resolution to the Eye Level Holdings, LLC. suit by the State of Texas and Verizon. AT&T and Sprint are also investigating them so there might be a resolution that, if JAWA/Eye Level Holdings, LLC is guilty of cramming, puts these guys behind bars and confiscates their assets.

WHAT YOU SHOULD DO
But as we all know for every scumbag caught there are usually others. Check your mobile phone bill for charges you didn’t authorize. Consider putting a block on your account so, even if a crammer gets your mobile number, they cannot include you in their scam.

If you have already been a victim of this cramming scam, immediately file a complaint with the Minnesota Attorney General’s office.

Mobile Text Message “Cramming” Scam is a post from: Minnov8 and published under a Creative Commons license.

Joining the Gang on this podcast are two guests: First up is Justin Kaufenberg, CEO & Cofounder of TSTMedia, who provides us with a solid overview of his company and all of their properties (SportNGIN; EventNGIN; USPondHockey; and NGIN itself). Then we get a CES report from Mitchell Hislop (Site; LinkedIn; Twitter) who was on-the-ground for several days looking at CES developments from a hard core geek’s perspective.

Hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott, Graeme Thickins and Phil Wilson
Music: Ron Arnold & the song “Kiss Me” from the podsafe Music Alley.

Discussed during the show:

• Truffles: The Most Expensive Food in the World
• MakerBot
• From CES: A Few Hints About the Future of TV; ‘Smart’ TVs and other products proliferate at CES; Roku Streaming Stick hands-on: a set-top box without the box; Simple.tv DVR; The best of CES 2012; Polaroid plans Spectrum 7-, 8- and 9-inch ICS tablets for 2012 launch; Ainovo $79 Ice Cream Sandwich tablet; PhoneGap; Lumina 900;  Ultrabooks at CES; 4K TV
• Ford Fusion

Upcoming Events:

• Friday, January 13th: Club Entrepreneur, 11:30am-1:00pm, Minneapolis Club. (Speaker: Mary Meehan, Cofounder, Panoramix Global)
• Wednesday, January 18th: MinneDemo at 6:00 pm, Schulze Hall, University of St. Thomas (registration…but it’s sold out).
• Wednesday, January 18th: MIMA Event: “Secrets Revealed: Social Media Grows Up” (sold out, waiting list)
• Saturday, January 21st: Thomson Reuters Tech Event  
• Thursday, January 26th: WordPressMSP, at The Nerdery in Bloomington.
• Thursday, January 26th: MnSearch Presents: Tools of the Trade for SEO with Raven Tools
• Friday, January 27th: Social Media Breakfast, Mpls/St. Paul (SMBMSP)–Public Media 
• Friday/Saturday, March 16th & 17th: Mobile March TC. Call for speakers.

Minnov8 Gang #152 – Mr. Happy *Loves* 2012 is a post from: Minnov8 and published under a Creative Commons license.

A guy from the Inver Grove Heights Community Schools Office of Communications, Johnny Germscheid, reached out to us here at Minnov8 to tell us about the event. Its focus is about technology, education and breaking down the communication barrier between children and adults. I’m guessing there will be a lot of learning occurring on both sides (student-as-teacher and adult-as-student).

Students in grades K-12 will be teaching adults how to use iPads, iPods, and other devices and software programs. Conference highlights include:

• Produce and publish an eBook using rich multimedia content.
• Create a digital scrapbook to capture family memories.
• Design a webpage or blog to share your story on the web.
• Find out how to set up and manage your own social networking profile.
• Collaborate electronically to edit documents in a more efficient manner.
• Compose original songs to add flavor to your movies.
• Learn how to get the most out of that new iPad.

This is the second year Inver Grove Heights Community Schools has offered this Student Led Technology Conference. Turns out the Inver Grove Heights school district (ISD 199) was nationally recognized in Washington DC by the Consortium of School Networking (CoSN) this winter for this innovative concept.

The conference is free and open to anyone in the metro, or our entire State for that matter. To check out details about the conference, which takes place on Saturday, February 25th from 8:30am until Noon, visit the event mini-site here.

Student Led Technology Conference is a post from: Minnov8 and published under a Creative Commons license.

Nick Martin, vice president of innovation and R&D at UnitedHealth Group, gave a quick tour of the booth and some of the innovations within (listed here, by the way):

One thing has surprised both our tech peers in Minnesota as well as we here at Minnov8: Who knew UHG was so active delivering tech innovations? Some of these include: UHC.tv; OptumizeMe (an iPhone/Android app); and Optum’s NowClinic, a virtual Doctor visit/prescribing platform with a corresponding smartphone app.

Might be that these “innovations” are targeted directly at corporate customers and to their respective employees who are under a UHG health plan. It’s interesting that each of their branding, user interfaces and integrations seem to be in separate silos, with no overall direction discernable from their presentation online. Still, it’s good to see a Minnesota employer innovating in the internet and web space.

UnitedHealth Group’s Booth at CES is a post from: Minnov8 and published under a Creative Commons license.

Hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott, Graeme Thickins and Phil Wilson
Music: Jake Lear & their song “Kiss Me” from the podsafe Music Alley.

Discussed during the show:

• Best Buy gets slammed in Forbes
• Best Buy CEO Defends Himself Against Reports That His Company Is Slowly Dying
• Brian’s Whiteboard (Best Buy CEO’s blog) direct link
• Bloomberg story says Best Buy is a buyout candidate
• Best Buy reacts to price-checking smartphone app
• For Best Buy, holidays were good enough (Star Tribune)
• Apple to open new store-within-a-store outlets inside Target this year
• Why The Movie Industry Can’t Innovate and the Result is SOPA (by Steve Blank via Forbes)
• Consumer Electronics Show (CES) Preview of Minnesota companies
• Wired’s CES Preview 
• U.S. House’s Stop Online Privacy Act (SOPA) and the Senate’s Protect IP Act (PIPA) 

Upcoming Events:

• Friday, January 13th: Club Entrepreneur, 11:30am-1:00pm, Minneapolis Club. (Speaker: Mary Meehan, Cofounder, Panoramix Global)
• Thursday, January 16th: MinneDemo at 6:00 pm, Schulze Hall, University of St. Thomas (registration…but it’s sold out).
• Saturday, January 21st: Thomson Reuters Tech Event  
• Thursday, January 26th: WordPressMSP, at The Nerdery in Bloomington.
• Friday/Saturday, March 16th & 17th: Mobile March TC. Location TBD.

Minnov8 Gang 151 – Opinions Are Like Donkeys is a post from: Minnov8 and published under a Creative Commons license.

Hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott, Graeme Thickins and Phil Wilson

Discussed during the show:

• Inveni (semantic technology startup based in MN)
• Apple iTV: It’s about the experience, not content
• Healthcare and devices: Big Healthcare Data; HealthPartners Launches Virtuwell; Zipnosis
• Brad Feld’s sci-fi talk at Defrag 2011, “Resistance is Futile:  The Rise of the Machines” (unfortunately, no link to a video because none was shot! … but here are some photos and tweets from Graeme’s live-blog at the time that will give you the flavor)
• And here’s a related-to-3D-printing Brad Feld link: “Foundry Group Invests In MakerBot”
• 3D printing (Wikipedia); Eden Prairie-based Stratasys
• More 3D printing in MN: Custom parts maker Proto Labs plans to raise $100 million in IPO (in Maple Plain, MN)

Upcoming Events:

• Friday, January 13th: Club Entrepreneur, 11:30am-1:00pm, Minneapolis Club. (Speaker: Mary Meehan, Cofounder, Panoramix Global – “Global Trends Shifting Your Business”)
• Thursday, January 16th: MinneDemo at 6:00 pm, location TBD.
• Thursday, January 26th: WordPressMSP, at The Nerdery in Bloomington.

Minnov8 Gang 150 – All Seeing, All Knowing? is a post from: Minnov8 and published under a Creative Commons license.

3M’s support for SOPA came to light in this post at Digital Trends. Viewing the list was enlightening, especially considering the somewhat confusing array of those in favor of legislation that has virtually the entire tech industry — and specifically cybersecurity, internet inventors and internet engineers — lined up against it and the Senate’s version, Protect IP Act.

While it would have been somewhat less stunning to see a list comprised mostly of media companies, those around them like their law firms, and other clueless organizations supporting this act, it seems to make no sense that a company like 3M would even get in to the discussion.

We have reached out to 3M for a response and will publish it if and when we receive it.

3M Company supports SOPA is a post from: Minnov8 and published under a Creative Commons license.

We will be back next week with another Minnov8 Gang podcast with our end of year recap and 2012 predictions.

Happy Holidays from the Minnov8 Gang! is a post from: Minnov8 and published under a Creative Commons license.

A smaller Gang discusses the past week’s news including the W3i Tech Holiday Party, Google Zeitgeist, Facebook Timeline and more.

Hosts: Tim Elliott, Graeme Thickins and Phil Wilson (Steve Borsch is on holiday)
Music: Uncle Seth sing “Little Pieces” from the podsafe Music Alley.

Discussed during the show:

• Amazon Paid You $5 to Leave a Store; Now eBay is Giving You $10 to Return
• Best Buy Sinks Most Since 2002 After Discounts Hurt Profit
• Best Buy’s Dunn Should Be Next CEO Fired
• Google Zeitgeist 2011 – Rebecca Black’s Year
• Facebook Timeline finally rolls out
• Stop Online Piracy Act
• An Open Letter From Internet Engineers to the U.S. Congress
• Infographic: What Is SOPA And Why Is It A Huge Attack Against America?
• Louis C.K. Says Internet Experiment Yielded $200,000

Upcoming Events:

• December 21st: How to Leverage Digital Media to Build your Business and Raise Capital

Note: We will be off next week but return the following week to discuss our 2011 predictions and gaze into the crystal ball again for 2012.

Minnov8 Gang 149 – Holiday Zeitgeist is a post from: Minnov8 and published under a Creative Commons license.

Hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott, Graeme Thickins, Phil Wilson and Julio Ojeda-Zapata.
Music: The Dead Rocks & their song “Boogie Splash Crash” from the podsafe Music Alley.

Discussed during the show:

• SAP Target SuccessFactors To Buy Jobs2web For $110M
• Amazon Will Pay Shoppers $5 to Walk Out of Stores Empty-Handed and Rumor: Amazon Retail Stores Coming & Predatory Pricing Channel Destruction
• New version of Twitter launched; does anyone care? answer is Yes, 7 billion people; Twitter relaunches with Facebook-style makeover; Twitter Joins Facebook, Google, Launches ‘Brand Pages’ for Marketers
• Google Currents is hot off the press
• Julio’s top gadgets for this holiday: Macbook Air 13”; iHome iW1; Logitech mini boom box; Apparel like Scottevest Puffer; Dell 14Z; Julio’s post Slick Dell XPS 14z and 15z laptops worth a look for holidays
• Jawbone suspends production of Up wristband, offers refund even if you keep it
• 8th Bridge 
• Graeme returns his Kindle Fire 
• Shoppers say Target hits the mark with its social marketing
• Graphene at Wikipedia and Is graphene a miracle material?
• The Onion: Interim Apple Chief Under Fire After Unveiling Grotesque New MacBook
• Graeme’s surfing’ buddy: January Surfing on Lake Superior with the new GoPro video cam

Gang Geek Gadgets: Graeme: “Not a Kindle Fire”; Steve: Gulfstream 650 jet but really the Blue Yeti microphone; Phil: Independent Wealth…or a MacBook Air; Tim: an iPad

Upcoming Events:

• Gadgets and Gifts for Geeks & Grandmas – today at CoCo Minneapolis 11:30 to 1pm
• December 10-13: TIES 2011 EduTech Conference
• December 21st: How to Leverage Digital Media to Build your Business and Raise Capital

Minnov8 Gang 148 – Gadgets 4 Geeks is a post from: Minnov8 and published under a Creative Commons license.

As a fanboy of Workface (disclaimer: was at one-time a services vendor to them too), I pay attention to pings from the CEO, Lief Larson. He just alerted me to their announcement of the first version of the Workface “Chat Live” status button which is rolling out now.

Huh? You’re doing a post about a “status button” Borsch? Yes, but only because I’m personally connected to organizations who are using the Workface toolbar within their sites and would find this instantly useful. These companies are connecting their folks directly to prospects and customers with a toolbar that makes anyone in customer-facing roles like inside sales, support, community management and other functions immediately available to a site visitor in the Workface toolbar.

Brainerd Savings Sam Horn has her Workface status set for "Online! Chat Now". (click for larger view)

Even though that Workface toolbar can be resident at the bottom of a website at all times, some organizations load it only on specific website pages (e.g., a sales or support page). The problem has been that people are usually listed on one or more company pages, like this first-to-deploy Workface customer did on their team page at Brainerd Savings & Loan. This Status button means that wherever a person is listed on their website anywhere their status can be available to a visitor at the click of a mouse.

This Workface Status button alerts visitors to your website whether or not you’re online. If you’re connected to the internet, it says, “Online! Chat now”. When a visitor clicks on it, they can go directly into live text, audio, or video chat communications with you. It can easily be deployed for one person, or the whole company. When you’re no longer connected to the Internet, the button automatically changes to say, “Send a Message” and then your website visitor can drop you a message.

The entire Workface team is eating-their-own-dog-food and using the new Workface Status button. Check it out at Workface and consider signing up for their service.

Workface Adds Status is a post from: Minnov8 and published under a Creative Commons license.

Walker Art Center new website (click for larger view)

Earlier this week I had a friend send me a Twitter DM saying, “Man…you MUST check out the new Walker Art Center website.” So I headed over there that evening and spent over an hour reading, poking around and seeing what they’d delivered.

To say I was impressed is an understatement: the design is fresh, exciting to view and the content compelling. The breadth and depth of coverage of art and design quickly shifted my mind toward a completely different place, one of consideration, thought and ideas instead of my typical focus on the tech “flipper-flappers” and “eye candy” of this new website they’d delivered.

Others agree. In his post at ArtInfo “Why the Walker’s new website is a big deal“, Tyler Green calls it a “game changer” since the Walker site is atypical for a museum, usually an informational site intended to lead visitors to the art institution’s building and its exhibits. Instead, argues Green, the site redefines how the Walker sees its role: as both a physical and as a virtual hub.

Walker Art executive director, Olga Viso, wrote this article about their new site, saying in part:

“As the Walker’s name signals, we’re a center: a hub that brings together various pursuits related to contemporary art, from presenting the visual, performing, and media arts of our time to publishing the latest scholarly research; collecting art objects and commissioning new works to hosting artist residencies and convening public discussions about art and ideas. Given these activities—and more importantly, our mission to investigate the questions that shape us and inspire us as individuals, cultures, and communities—I’m excited to introduce our new website, an online hub for ideas about contemporary art and culture, both inside the Walker and beyond.”

Talking about the why of launching such an ambitious site redesign, Viso said, “The intent of the new site is to make visible our role as a generative producer and purveyor of content and broadcast our voice in the landscape of contemporary culture.”

Any downsides or critique? Two, but the first is a biggie and the second not so much.

Neither of these gripes is a deal-killer for the new Walker website, but this first one needs to be fixed immediately.

My preferred device for consuming content is, like many of us, an iPad. The only issues I had on the new Walker site was while attempting to watch videos on the Walker Channel as you can see below. If I did click on the “…direct link to the video on YouTube” link it would, of course, make Safari on iPad go away and then it would launch the YouTube app! NOT a good user experience and one UX hiccup in an otherwise awesome, designed experience that the team should fix ASAP.

Walker Channel won't display YouTube videos on iPad (click for larger view)

The other, more minor issue was the homepage load speed — it loaded quickly on a computer (under 4 seconds) but took over 13 seconds to load on my iPad (that on a non-cached-Safari & wireless connection speed averaging 19mbps download speed. Testing occurred one evening at 8pm, 11pm and 9am the next morning). Thinking it might be a Safari issue, I tried loading it on the iPad using alternative browsers Opera Mini, Terra, Atomic Web and iCab Mobile. All delivered the Walker site between 12 and 14 seconds on average.

Speed matters not just for a great user experience, but Google has been very explicit about pagerank and speed starting in 2012. Part of their algorithm will be set to rank based on current standings and links in, of course, but speed is a close second. It’s because Google’s use of computing resources and bandwidth are so enormous that they are trying to drive us all toward making our sites as efficient as possible so as to reduce their consumption of resources and bandwidth. The unknown is how Google will rank “mobile friendly site speed” in their algorithms and I’ve not tested the site on an Android tablet in my same wireless conditions, so cannot attest to the user experience on Android tablets.

Walker website grades at "C" with performance at 73 (click for larger view)

Running YSlow on the Walker homepage gave it a grade of “C” and a performance metric of 73. As a comparison, Minnov8 gets a “C” and a metric of 72, but we’re a bunch of hacks compared to the top-notch team at the Walker, and we’re long overdue for a site redesign.

I was impressed to see, however, that the Walker team has deployed nginx (pro. “engine x”), a web server known for its speed. When you take in to consideration the richness of their magazine-like homepage, it’s tough to fault them for not having a score in the 90s quite yet. I suspect they will continue to optimize the site over time.

AN ACHIEVEMENT THAT IS AN ASSET TO MINNESOTA
To the team at the Walker, we salute you for an ambitious and amazing new site. There is no doubt it will prove to the world that the Walker is a first rate, thought leading institution that comes from a State with a creative class that is also second-to-none in the world. Your new site will also raise the consciousness of the imperative of great design in everything we touch, the products and services we deliver, and the need to recognize artistic beauty in new ways.

Walker Art Center’s Awesome New Website is a post from: Minnov8 and published under a Creative Commons license.

So that you are able to stay informed about developments that may positively or negatively impact your application development or personal use of technology, you should know about an emerging global industry focused on mass-scale spying on mobile devices, social media, or other internet-based use and so you are encouraged to view the video below and then visit Wikileaks – The Spy Files.

In case you are ready to immediately dismiss this as a “foreign country” problem and that it wouldn’t or couldn’t affect you or your organization, remember the “inadvertent” collection of U.S. citizen’s communications when domestic warrantless wiretapping ensued. In addition, it has been revealed that in January 2011, the National Security Agency broke ground on a $1.5 billion facility in the Utah desert that is designed to store terabytes of domestic and foreign intelligence data forever and process it for years to come.

While it is an imperative that our government intelligence agencies can stay on top of the exponential explosion in online communications and technologies, we’ve quickly learned this week with the CarrierIQ “rootkit scandal” how much we don’t know about what software is on our devices, how the carriers are using their ability to track our location within a few feet of our mobile phones is being used, and whether or not they are automatically storing ALL of our data with open, non-warrant-based analysis by intelligence agencies.

The flip side of this is another issue, one that certainly justifies U.S. expenditures and an acceleration in intelligence agency capability. It is how the stakes are rising QUICKLY on everything happening in cyberspace. As more and more of us shop online, map our businesses and processes to the web, interact socially online and can instantly (and for free) talk with anyone, anywhere on the planet, ensuring that the bad guys in other countries aren’t able to mass vacuum up our data and use it against us is critical to our national defense.

Heard About The Mass Spying Industry Yet? is a post from: Minnov8 and published under a Creative Commons license.

Hosts: Steve Borsch, Tim Elliott, Graeme Thickins and Phil Wilson.
Music: Ruddin & their song “Cover the Distance” from the podsafe Music Alley.

Discussed during the show:

Carrier IQ scandal:

• Researcher’s Video Shows Secret Software on Millions of Phones Logging Everything
• Phone ‘Rootkit’ Maker Carrier IQ May Have Violated Wiretap Law In Millions Of Cases
• Carrier IQ references discovered in Apple’s iOS
• Apple: We Stopped Supporting Carrier IQ With iOS 5
• Senator Al Franken Demands Carrier IQ Explain Mobile Tracking

Black Friday/Cyber Monday sales strong:

• The Kindle Fire Is Beating The iPad At Best Buy
• Amazon, Best Buy, Walmart Lead Online Sales
• Target November sales miss analysts’ expectations
• Friday’s Deals May Not Be the Best

Guest: Don Ball:

• Google Chairman Praises Mpls Entrepreneurship at CoCo 
• Where Don Ball is speaking on Dec 8th
• Important New Research to be Unveiled at GigaOM Net:Work 
• Net:Work agenda (Don Ball’s panel at 2:50 pm)

Other: Julian Assange: iPhone, Blackberry and Gmail users are ‘screwed’ – video

Upcoming Events

• Friday, December 9th: Gadgets and Gifts from Geeks to Grandmas
• Wednesday, December 7th: MOJO Mixer 2 – Speed Mentoring for Startups
• Thursday, December 15th: 1st Annual Minnesota Tech Holiday Bash
• December 10th – 13th: TIES 2011 EduTech Conference

Direct link to the show

Minnov8 Gang 147 – Wanna Buy Some Wheat? is a post from: Minnov8 and published under a Creative Commons license.

L-R: Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak; CoCo co-founders Kyle Coolbroth & Don Ball; Google Chairman Eric Schmidt (screengrab from StarTribune video on their website article referenced below)

Google’s chairman, Eric Schmidt, paid a visit to CoCoMSP’s Minneapolis Grain Exchange facility on Wednesday, November 30th after his speaking engagement to a small audience at the University of Minnesota’s Humphrey School of Public Affairs.

The StarTribune this morning had a print newspaper Business section front page article by Steve Alexander called, “Face of Google Faces Minneapolis” and the online version in that link has a short video that will give you a good sense of what transpired during his visit to CoCo. It’s well worth a read and the video is short and well done AND it’s a lot easier to see who’s who at the facility (vs. the “Where’s Kyle and Don?” photo in the printed newspaper looking at Schmidt, captured with a sadly goofy look on his face).

The article states, in part:

Later Wednesday, Schmidt appeared with Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak at the small business incubator CoCo Minneapolis, based in the former Minneapolis Grain Exchange, and visited with several local technology entrepreneurs.

Schmidt praised the incubator concept, in which entrepreneurs meet to share office space and ideas, and the city’s role in helping promote it.

Schmidt said it is a better alternative to people working alone out of their homes.

“Distance-working is a disaster,” Schmidt said. “People want to work in a group. People are social.”

Don Ball will be on the Minnov8 Gang podcast which will be recorded Friday morning at 8am CST at the CoCoMSP facility and posted by early afternoon. We’ll talk with Don about what’s new in co-working and, especially, about what transpired during this momentous visit.

Google’s Schmidt visits CoCoMSP’s Grain Exchange Site is a post from: Minnov8 and published under a Creative Commons license.