Latest Technology Information

iPhone's Siri Threatens Google

2011-11-07T07:46:00.001-08:00

Answering questions posed by the U.S. Senate antitrust subcommittee, Google chairman Eric Schmidt called the personal voice assistant in the iPhone 4S, named Siri, a "significant development" in the search market. Schmidt went so far as to say that Siri represents a threat to Google's search business, which is the company's bread and butter.

He could be right. Here's why.

I've been using Google's voice-assisted search tool for years on iPhones and Android smartphones. It's a great tool when you don't want to (or can't) take the time to peck out search queries on a touchscreen. It's not 100% accurate, but it works well enough most of the time that I prefer it to any other search method.

That is, until Siri came along.

With the iPhone 4S, I pose all questions to Siri (when it's working). Is Siri a better search tool? Does it provide better results? Is it faster? Not necessarily, but it's a hell of a lot more entertaining. And if Siri doesn't succeed on the first try, you have the pleasure of awaiting its sassy response. This is clearly a case where personality actually counts for something.

[Looking for some new apps that take advantage of Apple's updated mobile operating system? Check out 10 Innovative iOS 5 Apps.]

"Even in the few weeks since the [previous] hearing, Apple has launched an entirely new approach to search technology with Siri, its voice-activated search and task-completion service built into the iPhone 4S," he wrote, reports AppleInsider.

Of course, Schmidt's motivation for calling Siri a competitive threat isn't because he's actually scared of Siri's impact on Google's search business. No, he's trying to allay the Senate's concerns that Google is a monopolistic entity that needs to be regulated. Schmidt is going to call up every competitor he can think of to shore up Google's defense.

"Google has many strong competitors and we sometimes fail to anticipate the competitive threat posed by new methods of accessing information," Schmidt noted. "Apple's Siri is a significant development--a voice-activated means of accessing answers through iPhones that demonstrates the innovations in search."

Innovative? Yes. Competitive? Yes. A real, immediate threat to Google's core business? Well...

Siri will not impact Google's position in the search market anytime soon. Despite the entertainment value in Siri's search powers, it's not going to dislodge Google's dominant position in the search market, at least, not for a while. While iPhone 4S users may skip Google search on their iPhones, that's one very small segment of users and doesn't account for Google's desktop search business, which is huge.

Google owns 65% of the U.S. search market, 94% of the European search market, and 97% of the smartphone search market (thanks in no small part to the raging success of its Android smartphone platform).

Siri might have an impact eventually, if Apple brings it out of beta and expands it to more than a single device. For the time being, however, Schmidt's statements ring a bit false.

The Enterprise Connect "Phone, Tablets, Smartphones--Who Gets What In Your Enterprise?" virtual event will help you sort through the choices that are out there today. It happens Nov. 16. Sign up now. (Free with registration.)

HTC Details First Round of Android 4.0 Upgrades

2011-11-07T07:42:00.000-08:00

Early next year, seven smartphones from HTC will be upgraded to Android 4.0, also known as Ice Cream Sandwich, the company said on Monday.

Since Google officially announced the arrival of the new version of Android, users have been worrying about if and when their smartphones will get the new version of the mobile OS. HTC said it knows how excited its fans are to get their hands on Google's latest version of Android.

The Sensation, Sensation XL, Sensation XE and EVO 3D, as well as U.S. models Rezound, EVO Design 4G and Amaze 4G, will be the first batch of smartphones to be upgraded, according to HTC.

That will leave some HTC smartphone owners happy, but several models are missing from that list. Users whose phones aren't on the list shouldn't worry too much, at least not yet, and instead "stay tuned for more updates on device upgrades, timing and other details about Ice Cream Sandwich," HTC said.

Android 4.0, which has been developed to work equally well on phones and tablets, includes a mixture of improvements and new features.

Google has created a new font optimized for HD displays and eliminated all hardware buttons in favor of adaptable software buttons, as shown on the Galaxy Nexus. Google has also improved the keyboard, made notifications more interactive and created resizable widgets, it said.

Android Beam is one of the new features in Ice Cream Sandwich. It uses NFC (Near-Field Communications) technology to share Web pages, YouTube videos, maps, directions and apps by tapping two phones together.

The last few weeks have been good for HTC. The company reported its highest-ever quarterly revenue and it has become the largest smartphone vendor in the U.S. during the third quarter, and the fourth largest in the world, according to data from market research company Canalys.

Windows Phone 7's 'Mango' Update Looms: 10 Important Features

2011-07-28T06:12:00.001-07:00

Microsoft is inching closer to launching its Windows Phone 7 “Mango” update. The upcoming operating system improvement will be coming to devices this fall and is now in the hands of vendors so they can preinstall it on their devices so they will be ready for the official launch.

Mango is releasing at an extremely important time for Microsoft. The software giant has been trying desperately over the last several months to cement its position in the mobile market, but so far, it has fallen short as its top competitors, iOS and Android, continue to appeal to both consumers and enterprise users.

Of course, much of that has been due to Microsoft's own issues. The company waited too long to release Windows Phone 7, and when it finally did, the operating system lacked a host of important features, such as full multitasking. But Microsoft is addressing that problem and others with Mango.

Read on to find out about some of the most important improvements Microsoft is bringing to Mango.

1. Apps and search play well together

One of the most important additions in Mango is the ability to search the Web via Bing and, based on what the user is looking for, call up apps related to a query. As Microsoft points out, if users are searching for movie times, for example, the new feature will provide users with a direct download point to add the Fandango app to their phones. If it's implemented well, the feature could have a profound impact on Microsoft's mobile application support.

2. Full multitasking

One of the biggest complaints of Windows Phone 7 users has been the platform's lack of full multitasking. With Mango, users will be able to switch between applications easily, as well as have multiple applications running at the same time. Considering competing operating systems already have that functionality, it's about time Microsoft follows suit.

3. Better Live Tiles

Microsoft has promised far more appealing functionality in its platform's Live Tiles. According to the company, its Live Tiles will provide more real-time data, as well as allow users to track individuals or groups of people from their devices. Live Tiles is far more useful in Mango, and most Windows Phone 7 users will be happy to see that.

4. People Hub is a nice addition

Microsoft is making it easier for people to keep in contact in Mango. A new addition called People Hub will help users find all the online places where they can contact a friend. One of the biggest issues on mobile devices now is finding where people are. People Hub is designed to cut down on those issues, and by the look of things, consumers will be happy to have it.

WP7 Mango dev tools get updated

2011-07-28T06:10:00.001-07:00

Microsoft has just released a new version of the software development kit for the updated version of its Windows Phone software, Mango.

The move would seemingly come as an assurance that Microsoft is well underway to deliver its promise of having Mango open for business by the end of the fall season.

Earlier this week it was revealed that Mango would go live in Japan before any other country, and the first Mango-powered devices would be available there in September.

The new version of development tools it called Windows Phone SDK 7.1 Beta 2 Refresh. "The phone OS and the tools are two equal parts of the developer toolkit that correspond to one another. When we took this snapshot for the refresh, we took the latest RC drops of the tools and the corresponding OS version," wrote Microsoft in a company blog.

Mango, also known as Windows Phone 7.5, will be a cataclysmic update to Microsoft's still-nascent mobile platform that launched late last year. In its brief time on the market, WP7 has managed to make significant splashes but has also suffered from bungled management and updates that were delayed an almost comical amount of time.

Here are a few more features that will be coming to WP7.5:

- Streaming video or music content from the phone's Web browser will continue even if users open up another app or put the phone in sleep mode.

- Expanded Xbox Live connectivity - voice chatting with other Xbox Live users, attending or hosting Xbox Live parties, and possibly even playing online Xbox 360 games in real-time with console players.

- Extremely deep Facebook integration, tying the user's login credentials directly to the phone, eliminating the need to log in over and over.

In other words, Mango looks to be one heck of an update. The only thing to worry about is whether or not the update will happen as scheduled. Microsoft hasn't exactly boasted a stellar record with Windows Phone software updates up to this point.

Future of computing looks thinner

2011-07-28T06:09:00.001-07:00

(WIRED) -- Our notebooks, ultrabooks and desktop PCs are all getting thinner -- thin enough that Kate Moss in her heroin-chic heyday could have sported something like the 13-inch MacBook Air down the runway and it wouldn't have overwhelmed her almost nonexistent frame.

It's no surprise. We've been seeing computers slim down ever since those giant room-sized computers that spawned the digital age, and the introduction of the first PCs in the decades that followed.

But for a while, we were continually adding features such as hard drive space, optical drives, SD card slots to our notebooks and PCs.

Now, as storage migrates toward online servers, and media is more likely to be streamed rather than viewed from a DVD or Blu-ray disc, many of those onboard features are shrinking down, or getting nixed altogether.

Consumers are favoring size and portability over a heftier 'do-it-all' type machine.

"Size will most certainly be an important driver when consumers look for their next PC or notebook," especially with tablets at the forefront of consumers' minds todays, says Desiree Davis, Senior Manager with Resolve Market Research.

The skinny: In recent years, we've been seeing ultra-portable notebooks like Apple's MacBook Airs ditch the optical drive so they can achieve a slim silhouette.

The Mac Mini desktop also lost the optical drive in its latest iteration. And now, both MacRumors and TUAW are reporting that Apple is working on ultra-thin 15- and 17-inch notebooks as well, likely to fall under the MacBook Pro umbrella and hit the market around the holiday season.

If this is true (and it definitely seems in line with Apple's current product trends and general philosophy) and they're as thin as the Airs, they likely won't have an optical drive either.

We're also seeing PCs begin to favor flash storage, typically in the form of SSDs that incorporate NAND-based flash memory, rather than thicker, weightier HDDs.

"There are simply fewer devices on the market that consumers want to carry that have room for hard disk drives. Their value to the on-the-go consumer is simply nonexistent," says Davis.

Although SSDs are currently more expensive than comparable capacity HDDs, they offer more benefits than just their smaller form factor: they are quieter, less vulnerable to physical shock, have less latency, and quicker access time. We're probably going to see them become more and more prevalent in notebooks and PCs.

The materials used to create modern computers and laptops also lends itself towards thinner design, especially in Apple's case.

"The aluminum unibody structures of the new MacBooks (whether Air or non-Air) are significantly stronger than what manufacturers could make out of plastic. So Apple is able to create a super-thin product while still preserving the strength of a plastic counterpart," Miroslav Djuric of iFixit.

Cloud storage is another factor that will allow computers to shed some pounds. There are a variety of cloud storage solutions that customers can use instead of loading up on files on their actual gadget.

With our music, photos, and documents fed into the cloud, the need for onboard storage becomes increasingly irrelevant and unnecessary.

Google's Chromebook, which takes that to the extreme, eliminates almost everything but your ability to connect to the Internet. Although a device like that isn't quite ready for the mainstream yet, it's clear that's the direction we're headed.

But is a thin computer always a good thing?

"The best way to have thin devices is to integrate as many components as possible on one single board," says Djuric. "That really keeps the thickness as minimal as possible, but also affects the upgradeability, repairability, and features of the device."

"These thinner devices also make for excellent throw-way devices," Djuric added. That means consumers are more likely to toss it out when it gets old, rather than trying to fix or upgrade it. This could lead to environmental problems in the future, as these products build up in landfills, he said.

Sprint's Posts Wider Loss, Reaches Network Deal With LightSquared

2011-07-28T06:07:00.000-07:00

NEW YORK—Sprint Nextel Corp. reported a wider loss in the second quarter but saw its lowest turnover rate ever in contract customers as the wireless carrier also confirmed a 15-year agreement with privately held LightSquared Inc. to build and operate a high-speed wireless network.

Sprint is racing to get its business back in shape as it faces a widening gap between it and its larger rivals in Verizon and AT&T Inc. The carrier still isn't profitable but added 1.1 million net new customers, largely driven by its prepaid and wholesale businesses.

The Overland Park, Kan., company is poised to be a distant last-place nationwide wireless provider if AT&T's plan to acquire T-Mobile USA from Deutsche Telekom AG is approved. Sprint has expressed its objections to the deal.

Sprint's turnaround attempt also comes as it battles new entrants in the speedier 4G arena. Once the sole carrier with a next-generation wireless service, Sprint faces stiff competition from Verizon, which recently launched its own super-fast network, as well as AT&T and T-Mobile, which have both embraced a 4G marketing message.

The company on Thursday said it reached a spectrum hosting and networking services agreement with LightSquared, a start-up attempting to build an alternative high-speed wireless network.

Shares, up 22% in the year-to-date through Wednesday's close, fell 8% to $4.75 in premarket trading.

LightSquared, which is owned by Philip Falcone's Harbinger Capital Partners LLC hedge fund, is attempting to build a wireless network using a 4G technology called Long-Term Evolution, similar to Verizon Wireless' newly built 4G network. Unlike traditional carriers, the start-up plans to run it as a wholesale model, allowing other companies to buy and resell wireless service to consumers.

LightSquared will pay Sprint roughly $9 billion in cash over an 11-year period to host L-Band spectrum and provide network services, among other agreements. The agreement is expected to lower network capital and operating expenses for LightSquared by more than $13 billion over the next eight years in comparison with the cost of a stand-alone network build.

It also provides Sprint the opportunity to buy up to 50% of LightSquared's expected L-Band 4G capacity, giving Sprint the option to obtain "cost-competitive" access to 4G capacity by offsetting Sprint's purchases of 4G capacity from LightSquared.

"This spectrum hosting agreement with LightSquared allows Sprint to more efficiently use its Network Vision platform," said Steve Elfman, president of Network Operations and Wholesale for Sprint. "In addition to improving our cash flow, it provides additional options and flexibility in how we meet our customers' future capacity needs."

Sprint reported a first-quarter loss of $847 million, or 28 cents a share, compared with a year-earlier loss of $760 million, or 25 cents a share. Revenue rose 3.6% to $8.31 billion.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters forecast a loss of 12 cents a share and revenue of $8.3 billion.

Sprint lost 101,000 contract subscribers, largely through its Nextel service. It added 573,000 retail customers and 519,000 customers from its wholesale partners.

Sprint's average revenue per user rose to $57 from $55 a year ago, the largest year-over year growth in over seven years. The contract customer turnover rate was 1.75%, Sprint's best-ever result.

Sprint also backed its forecast for growth in both total and contract customers for the year.

China shutters two bogus Apple Stores. But not that one

2011-07-25T06:05:00.000-07:00

The fake retail outlet that launched a thousand news stories is still open for business

Photo: BirdAbroad

There were developments Monday in everybody's favorite story about China's disregard for western intellectual property rights.

China's official investigation of fake Apple stores in Kunming city -- triggered by the discovery by BirdAbroad of a knock-off so convincing that even some of its employees thought they were working for Steve Jobs -- turned up four similar stores in the capital of Yunnan province, a city of 6.8 million.

Two of them, according to a local newspaper report that Reuters and the BBC picked up, have been closed. But not for passing themselves off as Apple Stores, complete with wooden tables, T-shirted staffers and Apple signage. Their offense, according to these reports, was that their owners did not have business licenses.

The original store, however, is still thriving, selling real Apple products at full retail prices.

Also thriving is the anonymous author of BirdAbroad, who has taken advantage of the flood of new readers to solicit photos of other unauthorized Apple resellers from around the world. She's posted several samples, from Burma to Flushing, here.

RIM Cuts Jobs, Facebook’s Alleged iPad App Leaked: Today’s Top Stories

2011-07-25T06:02:00.000-07:00

Welcome to this morning’s edition of “First To Know,” a series in which we keep you in the know on what’s happening in the digital world. We’re keeping our eyes on five particular stories of interest today.

RIM To Cut 2,000 Jobs

BlackBerry maker Research in Motion plans to cut 11% of its 17,000-strong workforce following disappointing quarterly results.

Facebook Alleged iPad App Leaked

Screenshots of Facebook’s alleged iPad app have been uncovered.

Netflix Reportedly in Talks With DreamWorks

Netflix is reportedly in talks with DreamWorks animation to bring the latter’s films to Netflix’s streaming service.

Fake Apple Stores in China Ordered to Close

The authorities in the Chinese city of Kunming have ordered two fake Apple stores to close after a blog exposed their existence to the rest of the media.

Oslo Bombing Video Scam Spreads on Facebook

A Facebook post claiming to link to a video showing the detonation of a car bomb near a Norwegian government building is in fact a scam, infecting one user per second according to Help Net Security.

Further News

Flipboard has begun displaying ads as part of a partnership with publisher Conde Nast.
Samsung’s latest Android smartphone, the Google Nexus S, is now available at Best Buy with an AT&T contract.
Airbnb, the popular marketplace for places, has raised $112 million in funding to boost international growth.

Microsoft spells out Office for Mac bugs in Lion

2011-07-25T05:56:00.000-07:00

No word when, or if, Microsoft will support new Lion features, like Auto Save and Versions

Computerworld - Microsoft last week confirmed that customers running Office for Mac will experience problems with the suite on Apple's new Lion operating system.

The most serious of the bugs crashes Communicator when Office for Mac 2011 users try to send an instant message or start an audio or video call.

Communicator is the corporate version of Microsoft's consumer-grade Messenger chat client -- it's available only to volume licensing customers -- and is also the software Mac users run to connect to Microsoft's enterprise communications server software, Lync 2010.

"We will fix this issue in an upcoming update to Communicator for Mac," said Pat Fox, senior director of product development with Microsoft's Mac group, in a company blog Friday.

Fox did not specify a timetable for the Communicator fix, but said later in the blog that users can expect updates "in the near future."

A second major bug may not affect most users either.

"On Lion, Outlook can't import mail from Apple Mail," Fox acknowledged. "We're reviewing this and don't yet have a plan to fix it."

According to a Microsoft support document, neither Outlook, which is included with Office for Mac 2011, or Entourage, the email client bundled with Office for Mac 2008, will reliably import messages from Mail.

This bug impacts users who install Office only after upgrading to Lion: Those who had earlier imported messages from Mail to Outlook or Entourage on, say, a Mac powered by Snow Leopard, won't be affected.

Outlook is not included with the lowest-priced Office for Mac edition, Home & Student.

Other Lion issues range from crashes in certain situations while running Excel or PowerPoint to a date format glitch in Word, said Microsoft in its support document.

Also, MSQuery, the tool that business users run to pull data into Excel from their corporate database, works only in English on Office for Mac 2011, and not at all in Office for Mac 2008.

And Office for Mac 2004 won't run on Lion at all.

That suite, released over a year-and-a-half before Apple switched to Intel, was written solely for PowerPC Macs. But with Lion, Apple has dropped support for Rosetta, the emulator that allowed programs compiled for the PowerPC to run on Intel processor-equipped Macs.

Although Office for Mac 2004 doesn't work on Lion, Microsoft will not retire the aged application suite until early next year: It has promised to support Office 2004 with security updates until January 10, 2012.

Like many third-party programs, Office for Mac 2011 and Office for Mac 2008 also lack support for many of the Lion-specific features that Apple introduced with Mac OS X 10.7, such as Auto Save and Versions.

Fox said nothing about when, or even if, Microsoft would add support for those features and others to Office for Mac.

Microsoft did, however, try to head off critics who may wonder why the company wasn't able to address Office's issues by the time Apple shipped Lion. In the support document, the company said it had been working with Apple "from the early days of Mac OS 10.7," and claimed "many issues were addressed leading up to the Lion release."

Office for Mac 2011 comes in two retail editions -- Home & Student and Home & Business -- priced at $149.99 and $279.99, respectively, and is available from Microsoft directly or through sellers like Amazon.com.

Microsoft does not sell Office through Apple's Mac App Store.

Google Says It Rejected Sun’s $100 Million Java-Android Deal

2011-07-23T05:07:00.001-07:00

Google Inc. rejected an offer by Sun Microsystems Inc to pay $100 million in royalties to use Java in its development of the Android operating system before Sun was acquired by Oracle Corp. (ORCL), a Google lawyer said.

Robert Van Nest, Google’s attorney, said yesterday at a hearing in federal court in San Francisco that the proposed $100 million three-year “all-in” deal in 2006 was for a technology partnership to jointly build Android, rather than for just a patent license.

Separately, Oracle won permission yesterday to question Google Chief Executive Officer Larry Page in a deposition about his knowledge of the search-engine company’s alleged infringement of patents that Oracle got when it acquired Sun.

Oracle, based in Redwood City, California, is seeking as much as $6.1 billion in damages from Google in a lawsuit that claims Android software uses technology that infringes Oracle’s patents. Google denies infringing and asked U.S. District Judge William Alsup at yesterday’s hearing to throw out Oracle’s damage estimate.

Alsup said it appeared that Google “has a product out there that is in direct violation of these patents,” and pressed Van Nest to explain why the Mountain View, California- based company discussed a license with Sun.

“There wasn’t any specific discussion of patents,” Van Nest said. While a few lines of code in Android are “identical” to Java, that code probably came from a third party, he said. “We are investigating that,” Van Nest said.

Programming Language

Android uses a Java programming language that is open to anyone for free, said Van Nest.

Alsup cited a document to a Google executive from Google’s Android project leader that said, “‘We conclude that we need to negotiate a license for Java.”

“Don’t you think a good lawyer will convince a jury that it’s a license for patents?” Alsup said.

While Oracle’s damages may be in the millions or billions of dollars, Alsup said it was “crazy” for Oracle to equate its damages to the entire market value of Android.

Michael Jacobs, Oracle’s attorney, told the judge that Google adopted “the entire architecture” of Java into Android.

“Our position is that there is no infringement, there is no willful infringement,” Van Nest said.

Oracle sought to depose Page about negotiations from 2005 to 2010 between Sun and Google over a Java license for Android and Page’s decision to acquire Android due to its strategic value, according to today’s court filing.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Donna M. Ryu ruled that Oracle may depose Page for two hours “soley on topics relevant to the willfulness of defendant’s alleged patent infringement, and the value of Android” to Google, according to the order.

The case is Oracle America Inc. v. Google Inc. (GOOG), 10-03561, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California (San Francisco)

Sony insurer sues to deny data breach coverage

2011-07-23T05:05:00.000-07:00

(Reuters) - One of Sony Corp's insurers has asked a court to declare that it does not have to pay to defend the media and electronics conglomerate from mounting legal claims related to a massive data breach earlier this year.

The dispute comes as demand soars for "cyberinsurance," with companies seeking to protect themselves against customer claims and associated costs for data and identity theft.

How to write such policies has become a huge subject of debate in the insurance industry.

Zurich American Insurance Co asked a New York state court in documents filed late on Wednesday to rule it does not have to defend or indemnify Sony against any claims "asserted in the class-action lawsuits, miscellaneous claims, or potential future actions instituted by any state attorney general."

A Sony spokesman in Tokyo said his company does not comment on pending litigation.

Zurich American, a unit of Zurich Financial Services, also sued units of Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance, AIG and ACE Ltd, asking the court to clarify their responsibilities under various insurance policies they had written for Sony.

"Zurich doesn't think there's coverage, but to the extent there may be a duty to defend it wants to make sure all of the insurers with a potential duty to defend are contributing," said Richard Bortnick, an attorney at Cozen O'Connor and publisher of the digital law blog CyberInquirer.

Bortnick, who is not involved in the case, said that while Sony may be able to claim there was property damage as a result of the data breach, Zurich is likely to argue that the sort of general liability insurance it wrote for Sony was never intended to cover digital attacks.

AIG declined to comment, and Mitsui Sumitomo could not immediately be reached.

In April, hackers accessed personal data for more than 100 million users of Sony's online video games. Sony has said it could not rule out that some 12.3 million credit card numbers had been obtained during the hacking.

In May, Sony said it was looking to its insurers to help pay for its massive data breach.

Sony has said it expects the hacking to drag down operating profit by 14 billion yen ($178 million) in the current financial year, including costs for boosting security measures. The company said the figure does not include potential compensation.

Source:http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/07/22/us-insurance-sony-idUSTRE76K3PY20110722

Google+ Pulls In 20 Million in 3 Weeks

2011-07-23T05:03:00.000-07:00

When Google Inc. launched its Google+ social-networking site three weeks ago, executives handed out sailor hats to the hundreds of employees working on the project, symbolizing their year-long journey to that point.

So far, the sailing has been mostly smooth. On Wednesday, Web-traffic watcher comScore Inc. estimated Google+ has had 20 million unique visitors since its launch, including five million visitors from the U.S. A Google spokeswoman declined comment.

Google's rapid growth spurt on Google+ suggests that people are hungry for more social network options, WSJ's Jen Valentino-DeVries reports.

ComScore, whose estimates are based on a "global measurement panel" of two million Internet users, similar to the approach Nielsen uses to measure television ratings,doesn't have data on the number of minutes people spent on Google+.

Still, the growth of Google+ has impressed observers because access to it is by invitation only, meaning people can join only if a current member invites them. And the company hasn't yet marketed the service to the more than one billion monthly visitors who use its search engine, Gmail and other services.

Journal Community

Google+ lets people share comments, articles, photos and videos with various "circles" of friends or contacts, or they can share content publicly with any userwho wants to view their posts. Eventually, Google plans to incorporate features of Google+ in its other services, such as its YouTube video site.

"I've never seen anything grow this quickly," said Andrew Lipsman, vice president of industry analysis at comScore. The only other site that has accumulated as many new visitors in a short period of time is Twitter in 2009, he said, "but that happened over several months."

The new data follow comments by Google CEO Larry Page last week that Google+ had more than 10 million users.Mr. Page said Google+'s traction was evidence that there are "more opportunities for Google today than ever before."

Of course, Google has a long way to go to reach the scale of Facebook Inc., which has more than 750 million users, and Twitter Inc., which has more than 200 million registered accounts.

With Google+, Google is aiming to match rivals like Facebook, which used personal information posted by its members to create a multibillion-dollar advertising business that lets marketers target specific demographic groups or people with certain interests. Google also hopes the service can become a home for brands and celebrities.

The data Google obtains about people's interests could also help it change the way its Web-search engine works. Sites in its search results could potentially be ranked based on what users and their friends like or find useful, Google engineers have said.

View Full Image

In addition to adding numerous features over time, Google will eventually allow software developers to create "social" games and other applications that would run on top of Google+, similar to Facebook's successful "platform" for applications, people familiar with the matter have said.

Google+ also has unique technology, such as a "hangouts" feature, that lets people do "video chats" using their computer webcams, speaking to numerous friends simultaneously. The company plans to include Google+ in its suite of online software for businesses.

In an email to investors Tuesday, Barclays Capital equity researchers said that "given positive initial traction from users we believe Google is now better positioned to compete and integrate social cues across its products than before, which could drive increased relevancy in search going forward."

Even some privacy advocates who lambasted Buzz, Google's prior social-networking effort, have lauded Google+. "The product has been designed to make it easier to share with one group of your friends while retaining some measure of privacy with respect to your family, coworkers or other groups of friends," said Peter Eckersley, a senior technologist at privacy-advocacy group Electronic Frontier Foundation, in an email.

But Mr. Eckersley added: "Google+ won't be as good for protecting your privacy against Google or against governments or lawyers with the power to compel Google to turn over your information."

Ben Hopper, a 29-year-old photographer in London who joined Google+ just after it launched, said "it feels a little empty right now" compared with Facebook, where he has more than 4,000 "friends." But he said that he "needs to be everywhere to show my photography," and if Google+ becomes integrated with Gmail, Google's email service, "for me it will have the upper hand."

Verizon Trails AT&T On New iPhone Activations

2011-07-22T09:54:00.000-07:00

(click image for larger view)

Slideshow: Verizon iPhone 4 Teardown

Verizon Communications delivered its second quarter earnings report Friday, and the numbers from its wireless unit look pretty good. The company added a total of 2.2 million subscribers, including 1.3 million postpaid subscribers, making for a grand total of 106.3 million connections. This equates year-over-year growth of 6.6%.

That beats AT&T's numbers. AT&T's subscriber base grew by 1.1 million (only 331,000 net postpaid additions) to reach 98.6 million customers. Verizon said its total churn--or customer turnover--was its lowest in three years, at 0.89%.

For musicians, podcasters, voice over artists, the iRig Microphone is an excellent mobile recording companion for the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad.

Notably, the percentage of smartphone users on Verizon's network is far smaller than AT&T's. AT&T reported that 49.9% of its postpaid subscribers are now using smartphones. Verizon's smartphone usership is much lower at 36%, up from 32% last quarter. The actual numbers, however, show that Verizon isn't that far behind. Verizon has 32.29 million smartphone users compared to AT&T's 34.2 million.

When it comes to iPhones, Verizon Wireless also trailed rival AT&T. Verizon Wireless activated 2.3 million iPhones during the second quarter, compared to 3.6 million activated by AT&T. Together, Verizon Wireless and AT&T accounted for 5.9 million--or about 30%--of Apple's total quarterly iPhone sales.

AMEX launched a free dashboard to help customers manage social media.
Find out how this tool will help you suceed (even if you aren't an AMEX customer).

The more important story being told by Verizon Wireless is the status of its Long Term Evolution 4G network deployment. By July 21, Verizon's LTE network blanketed 102 markets with 4G service, covering some 160 million points of presence (POPs). Verizon says it is on track to expand to 175 markets covering 185 million POPs by the end of the year. This far outpaces AT&T's LTE deployment, which will cover a maximum of 75 million POPs by the end of the year.

During the quarter, Verizon introduced a number of LTE-compatible devices, including smartphones such as the Samsung Droid Charge and the LG Revolution, and mobile hotspot products such as the Novatel Wireless MiFi 4510L. The company activated a respectable 1.2 million LTE devices during the quarter, and more are on the way. Verizon expects the LTE-enabled Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 will reach the market by the end of July.

Verizon Wireless' service revenue amounted to $14.7 billion, up 6.6% year over year. Data revenue accounted for $5.8 billion, which is up $1.1 billion, or 22.2% year-over-year. Postpaid average revenue per user climbed 1.9% to $54.12 per month. Data accounted for $21.26 of that total, up 15.2% from a year ago.

Verizon said that guidance for the rest of the year is on target.

"In terms of earnings growth and the acceleration of revenue growth, this has been one of Verizon's best quarters since the 2008 economic downturn," said chairman and CEO Ivan Seidenberg in a statement. "We expanded sequential margins in both our wireline and wireless businesses, and in the second half of the year we expect Verizon to build on this strong, positive momentum to continue to drive profitable, sustainable growth."

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Oracle can question Google's Larry Page in patent dispute

2011-07-22T09:53:00.001-07:00

Oracle will get its shot at questioning Google CEO Larry Page in the high-stakes -- and already very testy -- patent litigation that has pitted the two tech giants against each other.

Oracle sued Google last year in federal court, claiming its Android mobile device software infringes on Oracle's Java patents, which it picked up in 2010 when it bought Sun Microsystems. Oracle is seeking billions of dollars in damages.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Donna M. Ryu issued an order late Thursday giving Oracle permission to depose Page for two hours about his knowledge of any alleged infringement of the patents. Google denies it infringed on the patents.

"Oracle may depose Mr. Page for a maximum of two hours, excluding breaks, solely on topics relevant to the willfulness of Defendant's alleged patent infringement, and the value of Android to the Defendant," the judge ruled.

Google had fought the request to have Oracle depose the Google co-founder, who took over as chief executive in April. But intellectual property analyst Florian Mueller predicted Oracle had a good chance of getting the request granted.

Google + Nicole's 10 favorite Android apps (CNET 100)

2011-07-21T06:42:00.000-07:00

Google+

Call me an early adopter if you must, but count me in with the millions of people who have fully embraced Google+, Google's latest attempt at a social network. I am really digging the Circles paradigm, where you're invited to group up your friends and colleagues into separate circles, so you can fine tune who you choose to keep in touch with. I also find the interface clean and intuitive, and I have to give props to Google+ for being much more privacy-aware than a certain other competitor.

One of the best things about Google+ is its Android app. Just download it from the Android Market, and within a couple of taps, you're ready to go. The mobile app is well designed, and you can switch Circle views by just swiping left to right. It's also easy to check notifications, and posting photos couldn't be simpler. Even better is the Huddle feature, which is only accessible on mobile handsets. This brings group messaging to a whole other level--you can send one text to a designated Circle, for example, and all members of that Circle will get that message. This is a great tool for organizing parties. Even though Google has just released the iOS version of Google+, the Android app still wins out with a key feature: the ability to customize the main stream with your own chosen circles.

Source :http://reviews.cnet.com/2300-19736_7-10008683.html

'Anonymous' Hackers Claim to Breach NATO Security

2011-07-21T06:40:00.000-07:00

LONDON – A group of computer hackers claims to have breached NATO security and accessed hordes of restricted material.

The group called Anonymous says it would be "irresponsible" to publish most of the material it stole from NATO but that it is sitting on about 1 gigabyte of data.

Anonymous posted a PDF file Thursday, and broadcast a link to it from its Twitter page, showing what appeared to be a document headed "NATO Restricted."

A second link tweeted out later by the group -- which returns an error message -- claims to be to another restricted NATO document on "outsourcing CIS in Kosovo (2008)."

Anonymous is a loosely organized group of hackers sympathetic to WikiLeaks. It has claimed responsibility for attacks against corporate and government websites worldwide.

The group also claims credit for disrupting the websites of Visa and MasterCard in December, when the credit card companies stopped processing donations to WikiLeaks and its founder, Julian Assange.

Lenovo's Android Tablet Story: Netflix, Storage and a Pen

2011-07-21T06:39:00.000-07:00

The Android tablet market is getting saturated to the point where we've seen almost everything, from thin-and-light beauties to port-packed workhorses, but Lenovo's still trying to squeeze a few more ideas out of this generation of tech specs.

To begin with, Lenovo has decided that consumers and business users have different needs, and so the company has split its Android offerings into two tablets. In one corner, we have the IdeaPad K1 (pictured above), with its rounded edges and light frame suggesting that it's here for leisure, mostly. In the other, we have the ThinkPad Tablet (pictured below), which is all business in its sharp black frame with a somewhat puzzling set of hardware navigation buttons. (Android Honeycomb builds navigation into the software.)

Lenovo's K1 and ThinkPad will be the first Netflix-certified Android Honeycomb tablets, allowing for playback on TVs and other big screens through mini-HDMI output. But don't expect this exclusivity to last; Netflix just updated its app to support more smartphones, and crafty users have already side-loaded the app onto several tablets.

(LIST: Tablets: 'Why Should Somebody Buy This Instead of an iPad?')

The K1's other standout feature is storage. While most tablets in the $500 price range come with 16 GB of storage, the $499 K1 has 32 GB on board. Otherwise, there's not a lot to rave about on paper. Weight and thickness are roughly on par with an original iPad, and after witnessing the generous connectivity options of Toshiba's Thrive, the K1's combination of microSD and full-size USB doesn't seem like a breakthrough. At least Lenovo's bundling $50 worth of apps -- not trialware, I presume -- including Angry Birds and Documents to Go.

The ThinkPad, priced at $479 for a 16 GB model, is loaded with features that'll put most consumers to sleep, like corporate-level software pre-loading, corporate-controlled app stores and Citrix app virtualization. But an optional $30 active digitizer pen that converts notes into text, along with a full SD card slot, might make the ThinkPad worth considering outside of work. Like its consumer-focused sibling, the ThinkPad has a weight and thickness that's closer to a first-generation iPad at 1.65 pounds and 0.52 inches thick. Both tablets also have dual-core Nvidia Tegra 2 processors.

(MORE: Lenovo May Unveil a 23-inch Tablet This Year)

Frankly, I don't find myself writhing with anticipation over either tablet, but maybe that's not the point. As with the PC market, a saturation of Android tablets with slightly different configurations simply means that prospective buyers are more like to find the one that fits their needs. If you demand lots of storage and Netflix support or digital pen for accurate note-taking, Lenovo will have you covered starting this August.

Product Page: Lenovo Tablets

T-Mobile Unveils New Unlimited Text, Data Plans

2011-07-21T06:37:00.000-07:00

T-Mobile has introduced new plans intended to be more flexible to its customers' needs, a move that can be considered a sign of the company trying to maintain its value proposition in the midst of its proposed merger with AT&T.

All the plans, which debut July 24, require a two-year contract agreement for both new and existing customers. Users will be given a set of voice plan options that include unlimited texting and unlimited data. They will then be able to select a certain amount of high-speed data available in 2GB, 5GB, and 10GB increments.

They're just doing it differently

While AT&T and Verizon have done away with their unlimited plans, T-Mobile has not. Instead, it has chosen to throttle data throughput significantly after a set amount of bandwidth. With these new plans users will be able to control where this throttling begins.

This places the price of a plan with two lines with unlimited data and texting, and 2GB of data at $99.98 monthly ($49.99 per line). T-Mobile says that similar plans on AT&T would cost $199.99 with only 2GB of data, Sprint $209.98 with unlimited data, and Verizon $209.99 with a 2GB data cap.

Even adding in a option that allows for consumers to pay off smartphone purchases in installments of $15 per month per line -- and frankly, it's confusing how that works -- the plans still come in cheaper per month, savings that add up on an annual basis.

Concerns and confusion

T-Mobile appears eager to get rid of overages, and show it is serious about keeping wireless prices down, even as it comes ever closer to being swallowed up by AT&T. The issue of higher prices is something that has worried lawmakers, with some going as far as asking for the rejection of the deal over such concerns.

One thing is clear: T-Mobile really needs to explain how these plans work better, especially the installment plans for buying phones. Why would somebody want to pay full retail price for a device (with a contract to boot), when paying up front would save them hundreds right off the bat?

Is T-Mobile trying to do away with subsidized phones or something? It doesn't make sense to me why somebody would want to do this, regardless of whether the customer is paying no interest with this option.

Source http://www.pcworld.com/article/236209/tmobile_unveils_new_unlimited_text_data_plans.html

This week in Docs and Sites: A spreadsheets shortcuts menu, PPTX support and more

2011-07-21T06:35:00.000-07:00

This week, we’re introducing a number of enhancements to Google Docs and Sites: a spreadsheets shortcuts menu, support for PPTX conversion, a new RSS gadget, and improved mobile rendering for Sites.

Spreadsheets shortcuts
Although shortcuts have long been available in your Google spreadsheets, we've added a shortcuts menu to spreadsheets to make them easier to find -- saving you even more time. Hit Ctrl+/ (or Cmd+/ on a Mac) to pull up the list of shortcuts and learn new ways to sharpen your spreadsheet skills. Remember that shortcuts can vary depend on the operating system and browser you're using -- the example below is the menu you’d see if you were using a Chrome browser on a Mac.

Support for conversion of PPTX files to Google presentations
Starting today, you can convert PPTX files to Google presentations by either uploading the file from your desktop or converting the file from your documents list. Just follow the same simple steps as you normally would when converting files to Google Docs formats.

Better customization for your RSS Gadget in Sites
We’ve also added a new RSS gadget for Google Sites to our “Featured” gallery.

The new RSS gadget gives you complete control over the appearance of the gadget: You can customize any aspect of the feed, including font, color, size, number of items to display, and post length.

To set your gadget, go to Insert > More Gadgets > Featured, and look for RSS Feed.

Improved mobile rendering
After we released our initial version of Google Sites automatic mobile rendering, you enabled the option for over 50,000 sites, making it clear that you’re looking for a better way to easily publish content for mobile devices.

Based on what you’ve told us, we’re adding the additional behaviors to make automatic mobile rendering on Google Sites even better, including:

Images and header logos automatically scale in mobile mode
Gadgets and text boxes have widths that fit mobile devices
Pages with multi-column layouts stack columns vertically on mobile


Before	After

Thanks for continuing to let us know what you think about our products -- these changes wouldn’t be possible without you.

Source : http://googledocs.blogspot.com/2011/07/this-week-in-docs-and-sites.html

Apple Profit Seen Rising on Record IPad Sales

2011-07-19T05:48:00.001-07:00

Apple Inc. (AAPL) is set to post a 69 percent jump in quarterly profit when it reports results today, after record buying of the iPad and Mac computer made up for weaker demand for its aging iPhone 4.

Profit rose to $5.5 billion in the fiscal third quarter, which ended June 25, according to the average prediction of analysts in a Bloomberg survey. Sales gained an estimated 59 percent to $25 billion.

While Apple won’t release a new iPhone -- its best-selling product -- until September, the company benefited from the March debut of the iPad 2. According to analysts surveyed by Bloomberg, Apple sold 7.7 million units of the tablet last quarter, topping the previous three-month sales record of 7.3 million, set during the holiday shopping season.

“All I had to do is walk past the Apple store on my way to work each morning and there were lines down the street for at least a month after the iPad 2 launch,” said Charlie Wolf, an analyst at Needham & Co. “This quarter may end up being fairly mild for the iPhone.”

As customers await the next iPhone, sales of the handset may drop 8.3 percent to 17.1 million from the prior quarter, according to the average estimate of 16 analysts compiled by Bloomberg.

Faster Chip

Apple is set to introduce a new iPhone with a stronger chip for processing data and an 8-megapixel camera in September, two people familiar with the product said last month. The iPhone 4, with a 5-megapixel camera, sold 1.7 million units in its first three days on sale at the end of the June quarter a year ago. Unit sales have risen four straight quarters and in all but three of the past 10 quarters.

Steve Dowling, a spokesman for Cupertino, California-based, Apple, declined to comment.

Demand for iPads hasn’t been hurt by the release of rival tablet computers from electronics companies, including Samsung Electronics Co., Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc. and Research In Motion Ltd. (RIMM), Wolf said. In fact, global personal-computer shipments came in less than forecast during the second quarter, in part because of consumer demand for Apple’s iPad, according to market research firms Gartner Inc. and IDC.

Apple’s Mac computers were an exception, as sales of the iPhone and iPad brought in new customers. Apple leapfrogged Acer Inc. and Toshiba Corp. to become the third-largest U.S. maker of PCs in the second-quarter, according to Gartner. Tony Sacconaghi, an analyst at Stanford C. Bernstein & Co., predicts 4.26 million Macs sold, more than the 4.13 million record set in the fiscal first quarter.

IPhone Boost

A new iPhone will provide a boost to Apple, especially among users switching to a smartphone for the first time, Wolf said. In the three months ending in May, 76.8 million people in the U.S. owned smartphones, up 11 percent from the previous three months, according to ComScore Inc. Overall, some 234 million Americans use mobile phones, ComScore said.

“The iPhone is likely to capture a significant percentage of feature phone users who migrate to smartphones,” Wolf said. “That is where the iPhone share should rise.”

Investors also will focus on gross margins, or the percent of sales remaining after deducting the cost of production, said Andy Hargreaves, an analyst at Pacific Crest Securities in Portland, Oregon.

That figure is an indication of how much Apple spent on components and manufacturing for the iPad, as well as the impact of a patent settlement with Nokia Oyj on iPhone profit, he said.

Apple said in April that third-quarter gross margins would be 38 percent, down from 41.4 in the second quarter. Analysts surveyed by Bloomberg project 39.2 percent.

IPad 2

The third quarter will be the first full accounting period to include sales of iPad 2, released on March 11. The company has largely overcome initial supply shortages that hindered sales, Hargreaves said.

Apple rose 2.4 percent to a record $373.80 yesterday in Nasdaq Stock Market trading. The shares have rebounded since weathering the worst first half since 2008, amid investor concern about the condition of Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs, who is on medical leave as he battles a rare form of cancer, and heightened competition from devices running Google Inc. (GOOG)’s Android software.

Even without a new model, some analysts are predicting record iPhone sales. Mark Moskowitz of JPMorgan Chase & Co. said Apple may sell 19.6 million handsets, up from the 8.4 million the company sold during the third quarter last year and the previous record of 18.7 million in the second quarter.

The release of the new iPhone, along with a new model MacBook Air laptop computer, will push Apple’s stock higher in the second-half of the year, Moskowitz said. The releases will boost investor interest in Apple, he said in a research note.

“The return of the wow factor and new product cycles should jettison the fear that had been dogging valuation the last couple of months,” Moskowitz said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Adam Satariano in San Francisco at asatariano1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Tom Giles at tgiles5@bloomberg.net.

Source:http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-07-19/apple-profit-seen-rising-as-ipad-buying-makes-up-for-iphone-lull.html

Facebook challenge, Google+ opportunity: Unhappy users

2011-07-19T05:43:00.000-07:00

Facebook garnered the lowest satisfaction score of any Web site measured in an annual e-business survey, according to data released today.

In fact, Facebook ranks in the bottom 6% of the entire American Customer Satisfaction Index -- categories that also include airlines, cable companies and newspapers.

"Only 14 other sites of the 226 private-sector companies measured by the ACSI have scores that tie or fall below Facebook's," the ACSI report concludes.

If there's any good news for Facebook, it's that it boosted its satisfaction score from last year's 64 to 66. However, that's still below the 70 aggregate for all social media sites (chart below) and far less than leaders Wikipedia (78) and Google's YouTube (74).

No, this doesn't assure that challenger Google+ will supplant Facebook. But those who assume Facebook is immune to competition due to its massive user base may want to re-examine that idea.

Large market share is an asset, but it's not a synonym for invulnerable. Minicomputers once had large market share. Palm was once one of several companies that dominated the smartphone market. And MySpace used to be a major social media network, but doesn't even appear in this year's survey because there weren't enough responses.

Twitter.com data isn't broken out in the ACSI survey, because so many people tweet via third-party clients and not the Web site, so I can't see how it stacks up with would-be competitors. And, the survey took place several weeks before Google+ was launched, so it's too early to know how it measures in user satisfaction in the social media space. Google+ will likely be included next year, said Larry Freed, president and CEO of ForeSee Results, a sponsor of the e-commerce ACSI surveys.

Google did score extremely well in the search engine/portal category. Google's search engine satisfaction score rose from 80 last year to 83 this year, making it the category leader. Potential bad news for Google? Bing increased from 77 to 82, the report notes:

Last year, Google's customer satisfaction score was three points higher than Bing's. This year, that gap has narrowed to an insignificant 1-point difference (chart below).

This has been a year of hyper growth for Bing, which had the largest year-over-year gains in search activity among the measured search engines, according to ComScore. In February 2011, Bing surpassed Yahoo in market share for the first time ever, and in March 2011, Bing-powered searches totaled 30% of all U.S. searches. Google-powered searches fell by 3% in 2010, yet Google remains the major player with approximately 70% of search engine market.

When Microsoft launched Bing.com two years ago, did you expect it would be serving up 30% of all U.S. search-engine requests by now? And that's against a competitor with much higher satisfaction levels than Facebook has.

Of course, it's a lot easier to switch search engines than social networks. And I'm not quite as enamored with Google+ in this early iteration as some other enthusiasts. For instance, posts appearing in my stream can be too lengthy for scanning -- and that simply won't scale if I want to follow hundreds of people as I do on Facebook or Twitter.

But it shows promise, and I'm open to the possibility of another social network -- especially if Google keeps working to improve the Plus interface -- in large part because I'm not especially happy with my Facebook experience. My enjoyment comes from family and friends who share content with me, not from the platform itself, which for me generally ranges from competent to annoying. Three major issues were cited by less-than-satisfied Facebook users, Freed said:

Security and privacy concerns
Overcommercialization
Unexpected changes to the user experience

He predicts Google+ will be a competitor to Facebook, but also believes that competition will "cause Facebook to step up. ... Competition is always great for consumers."

The challenge for Google is to break what is in effect a "near monopoly situation," as Freed described it: If you want to connect with a wide range of people -- young and old, tech-savvy to tech-averse -- Facebook has become the default place online. Ten million is a lot of users for Google+ to have amassed in just a few weeks; but that still means most of the people I connect with elsewhere aren't there yet. Can Google+ build its user base beyond early tech adopters fast enough -- leveraging its own base of other Google users -- in order to reach a critical mass?

The issue for Facebook as I see it is whether it will start seriously improving the user experience for consumers of its service, not only its advertisers (where Facebook has a great deal of competition). Near monopolies can breed corporate cultures that stop focusing on innovations, until unexpected competition rises up -- something many local newspapers discovered in the Internet era. Newspapers had the lowest satisfaction score of all ACSI categories in its May information survey, and perhaps it's no coincidence that sector is no longer much of a growth industry. We'll see in the coming year if Facebook can respond more nimbly.

Sharon Machlis is online managing editor at Computerworld. Her e-mail address is smachlis@computerworld.com. You can follow her on Twitter @sharon000, on Facebook, on Google+ or by subscribing to her RSS feeds:
articles | blogs .

Social media consumer satisfaction scores

Site	2010	2011	% change
Wikipedia	77	78	1.3%
YouTube (Google)	73	74	1.4%
All Others	72	67	-6.9%
Facebook	64	66	3.1%
All Social Media	70	70	0.0%

Source: ACSI survey

Search engine consumer satisfaction scores

Site	2010	2011	% change
Google.com	80	83	3.8%
Bing.com	77	82	6.5%
All Others	82	81	-1.2%
Ask.com	73	80	9.6%
Yahoo.com	76	79	3.9%
MSN.com	75	78	4.0%
AOL.com	74	75	1.4%
All Portals & Search Engines	77	80	3.9%

Source: ACSI survey

LinkedIn CEO says Google+ vs Facebook is a deathmatch

2011-07-19T05:42:00.000-07:00

LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner sees no way Facebook and Google+ can both exist, and says it's likely Google+ will come out on the losing end of the battle.

Weiner obviously has a slanted view on the social networking market because in his mind, no matter what the other players are, LinkedIn will always be relevant, which certainly can be disputed.

But, on a meta level, he had a pretty salient observation of social network functions in a recent Business Insider article.

There are three main, distinct purposes for a social network: "microcasting" all the latest goings-on in your life (Twitter), managing your professional life (LinkedIn), and connecting with friends and family.

The latter category is currently being taken care of quite well by Facebook. So where's the need for a new social network? There isn't one, says Weiner.

"You introduce Google+, where am I going to spend that next minute or hour of my discretionary time? I have no more time," he said.

"Unlike social platforms and TV, which can coexist, you don’t see people using Twitter while they’re using Facebook, or using Facebook while they’re using LinkedIn."

However, Weiner is neglecting the face that monopolies, even ones like Facebook, can be broken. In a recent customer satisfaction survey from ForeSee Results, Facebook ranked last among all website in the Social Media category, which included other sites like Youtube, Wikipedia, Twitter, and Myspace.

Facebook scored a 66 out of a possible 100, which isn't terrible but it certainly leaves room for someone to swoop in and bring some healthy competition to the table.

And, Foresee CEO Larry Freed surmised, "Facebook is clearly king right now, but if anyone can knock it off its throne, it would be Google."

Source :http://www.tgdaily.com/software-brief/57320-linkedin-ceo-says-google-vs-facebook-is-a-deathmatch

Big bonuses coming for Google Apps users

2011-07-19T05:37:00.001-07:00

Still debating whether to sign on with Office 365 or jump ship for the slimmer, cheaper, and less feature-laden (or encumbered) Google Apps?

Google's trying to sweeten the pot and make your decision easier.

No doubt you've noticed the facelift going on across Google's pages. As Google's blog describes, the official rollout started three weeks ago. I'm convinced we're looking at more than a facelift for the aging Google dowager design. Behind those nips and tucks there's a makeover in the way the pieces of Google hang together -- the way you engage with Google itself -- and a uniformity in appearance that's starting to tie things together.

The Google marketing machine lumps the changes into three general categories. Focus improvements make it easier for you to find and use common actions and de-emphasize things you don't want to do as frequently. Improved elasticity aims to make the user interface more uniform whether you're on a full size PC, a tablet, or a smartphone. Effortlessness changes the plumbing behind the scenes to do more, while requiring you to do less.

At least, that's what Google would have you believe.

Next up? Gmail's in for a redesign. The new appearance, which bears more than a little homage to the Outlook Web App, is strictly opt-in at the moment. You can take it for a test drive; inside Gmail, click on the gear icon/Options button in the upper right corner, choose Mail Settings, move over to the Themes tab, and choose either the Preview or Preview Dense theme. ("Dense" refers to the graphic quality; it's not a value judgment.)

As of yesterday, Google started making small tweaks to the standard Gmail interface -- the Spam button looks a little different, for example. The company promises to roll out more changes this year. Slowly.

Ultimately, as you can see in the Preview Dense theme, Gmail's going to start looking more like a corporate email app and less like a really cool pastiche cooked up by a bunch of geniuses with too much time on their hands. By changing the appearance and functionality in slow increments, the designers hope to accomplish the change with a minimal bump on the learning curve.

The biggest impact on corporate users: Google+.

You may think that Google+ won't have any effect on your company, but you're only fooling yourself. Dan Tynan pointed out in his article 10 hard truths IT must learn to accept that Facebook and Twitter are already being used at 96 percent of organizations. Google+ seems destined to take on both. Google+ can handle Facebook-style open blog posts, Twitter-style directed tweets (only longer), individually addressed emails, and targeted group interactions similar to Google Groups.

With 10 million acknowledged users as of last Thursday -- I'd be willing to bet it's closer to 20 million by now -- Google+ is going to change the corporate landscape.

Currently Google+ membership is limited to @gmail.com addresses. Soon, we're promised, Google will open up Google+ to any domain hosted by Google Apps. That's going to give your users a lot of capability, including a big slice of Lync functionality, although it isn't at all clear if Google+ working with Google Apps accounts will have any of Lync's central control.

We're also promised integration between Gmail and Google+ in the near term. That's going to be interesting as well.

If you're actively defending your organization against Facebook and Twitter, you have a new G+ bogeyman to shut out. But if you're toying with the idea of embracing social networking, Google+ offers a lot of advantages to your users and to your company. For example, an employee can set up a circle called Co-workers (or Management Committe or The Cafeteria or HR) and direct posts to that limited group. It isn't iron-clad security on a par with Lync, but it's a big step forward from post-it-to-the-world Facebook.

If you're thinking about moving to Google Apps, in the past few weeks the folks at Google have given you a whole lot more to think about.

ZIP and RAR support now available in the Google Docs Viewer

2011-07-18T08:03:00.001-07:00

Downloading files that you only need to preview can create unnecessary clutter on your computer. While you can already use the Google Docs Viewer to view over 15 different file types without downloading them, today we’ve added support for archive file types ZIP and RAR. Now, if someone sends you a ZIP or RAR file in Gmail, you’ll be able to view its contents from within your browser by clicking on View.

This will bring up a view that includes all of the files in the archive, the file types, and the size of those files.

When you hover over the list you can activate a menu by clicking Actions. You’ll be able to View items supported by Google Docs Viewer and Print (PDF) those that we offer PDF support. Save to Google Docs and Download appear for all files.

ZIP and RAR archives that are embedded inside other archives also work. For example, if you have a RAR file inside a ZIP file (like in our example above) you can just click on that file to access the embedded archive.

Go ahead and try the feature by viewing a ZIP file.

This feature extends to Google Docs for mobile, too. For each viewable file (including embedded ZIP or RAR archives) there is a link to view.

We hope this removes the need to download full archives when you only need to work on select items. We’re always adding more file types to the Google Docs Viewer -- let us know what file types you’d like to see support for next in the forums.

Source :http://googledocs.blogspot.com/2011/07/zip-and-rar-support-now-available-in.html

Readers vs. Gamers, 'Google News Badges' Could Revolutionize Both

2011-07-18T07:13:00.000-07:00

Google's latest concoction 'Google News Badges' could be making strides toward a revolutionary way of reading, gaming, and social networking. By connecting Google News with Google+ through the user profile, the tech giant has turned reading news into a gaming experience.

The 'gamification' of transforming everyday practices into a competitive activity could be Google's innovative way of stepping into the games market. It was clear that with the launch of Google+, Google will need to find a way to compete with Facebook's lineup of Zynga games. Though this new idea may not be a video game, it is an interesting approach for encouraging gaming within readers.

Educators have long been trying to embrace games and integrating them with reading. With more games being developed for mobile devices, reading has became secondary for many tablet users compared to gaming usage.

According to a survey of 1,400 tablet users conducted by Admob, 84% of them use the tablet to play games. That surpassed the 61% of owners who use their tablet to read news and 46% who read eBooks. It also found that 59% of tablet owners spend more time on their tablet than reading a book or newspaper.

Some would consider gamers and readers as two separate groups. Google may have launched something that could tie both together and potentially boost higher percentages for online reading. Google awards its 500 badges to avid readers and allows them to proudly display their digital icons to other users online. The badge level starts from bronze and readers can level up to silver, gold, and ultimate based on how many articles are read on a certain topic of interest.

"The more you read, the higher level badge you'll receive, starting with Bronze, then moving up the ladder to Silver, Gold, Platinum and finally, Ultimate...Tell them about your news interests, display your expertise, start a conversation, or just plain brag about how well-read you are...You can also add custom sections by hovering on a badge and clicking 'add section' to read more about your favorite topics," wrote Google on its official blog post.

Google set the badges feature on private by default so that users can choose to share or not to share what they've read publicly. Those who choose to share can proudly showcase the volume of articles that were read online. Fun could also be had by building up rankings in competing with friends or just keeping track of personal reading achievements. No confirmations yet on what else readers can earn other than badges for upgrading their reading levels.

The impact of Google's new badges on reading and gaming could offer positive results in all areas. Higher encouragement of reading based on a reward system and innovation of integrating games with daily activities could counter recent news regarding Google's negative effects on human memory. Scientists performed studies that showed the human brain increasing reliance on search engines such as Google. The result has decreased our ability to know where information could be found since more attention is now on knowing the information itself. Could Google's reading and gaming concept be sustained in their latest badges feature?

Source:http://sanfrancisco.ibtimes.com/articles/182147/20110718/readers-vs-gamers-google-news-badges-google-plus.htm