ReadWriteWeb

S3 Storage for WordPress Blogs

Joe Brockmeier — Wed, 16 May 2012 04:00:00 -0700

Looking to tap Amazon S3 storage for your WordPress blog? The WP2Cloud plugin lets you store all your WordPress data - not just media files - in S3.

The WP2Cloud plugin was developed by OblakSoft as a solution for Yet Another Picture Sharing Site (Yapixx). Yapixx is provided as a preconfigured Amazon Machine Image (AMI) for EC2 that uses WordPress and several extensions to provide an S3-hosted picture-sharing site.

But you don't have to run Yapixx or use Amazon EC2 at all if you prefer to use hosting elsewhere. All you need is the WP2Cloud plugin and the Cloud Storage Engine for MySQL (ClouSE). Note that ClouSE is mandatory. The plugin will error out if you try to install it without ClouSE available. Naturally, you need an AWS account and an S3 bucket to put files in, too. The full instructions are on the OblakSoft site.

Once it's installed, you can decide whether to go full monty or store only a portion of your content on S3. The benefit of using WP2Cloud is that you take a load off your Web server and let S3 serve up some or all of your content. That includes full posts, if you decide to use ClouSE to put MySQL data in S3 as well. As far as I know, WP2Cloud is the only plugin that puts post data in S3 rather than media only.

While Amazon is the only service that's supported right now, the WP2Cloud documentation indicates that support for other services may be on the horizon. It would be excellent if you could tap other cloud providers or open-source cloud stacks as well.

Other Options

The WP2Cloud plugin might not work well for some users. For example, it requires MySQL 5.5.19 or higher, but plenty of sites have older releases of MySQL. And it might be overkill if you only want to store large media, like videos, in S3 and leave the rest on the WordPress host.

The Amazon S3 for WordPress with CloudFront plugin stores files in S3 transparently and offers the option of using CloudFront. CloudFront is a content distribution network (CDN) that can be used to distribute content more quickly and mitigate traffic spikes.

If you're looking to offload video only to S3, you can use the S3 Video Plugin. It does what it says on the tin, though you may need to tweak some PHP parameters to upload large files to S3.

For sites with minimal traffic (like my personal blog), WP2Cloud is not necessary. But if you're trying to scale WordPress for a lot of traffic, particularly bursty traffic, then you should take a look at some of the cloud storage options to see if they'll help you reduce site load times and server load.

Top 10 Windows 8 Features #6: Secure Boot

Scott M. Fulton — Wed, 16 May 2012 03:00:00 -0700

It's the single greatest dilemma of modern society: How much freedom would you trade to get more security - or vice versa? Since Windows XP became the most exploited operating system in history, Microsoft has taken bold moves - not all of them very popular, but usually very effective - to sever the routes of exploit. User Account Control, though controversial, eliminated perhaps 90% of account-elevation exploits. Now the company makes another bold security move - changing how Windows 8 boots to increase security, potentially at the cost of some freedom for certain users and non-commercial developers.

Microsoft Windows 8 will fully embrace a computer security architecture that has been a very long time in the making: the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI), created in the 1990s by Intel, and developed later by a consortium that also includes AMD and embedded processor developer ARM. Essentially, UEFI performs the functions that ordinary BIOS used to perform (getting the components of your computer up to speed), but rather than following a set agenda, UEFI works like more of an operating system in itself, making sure your Windows (or Linux, or whatever other) OS is accessible, intact and legitimate before booting it. As with most security changes, though, there are side effects - particularly when working with some dual- and multi-boot Windows 8 machines.

Microsoft has made several demonstrations of UEFI support since announcing Windows 8 last September. The most convincing demonstration involves a thumb drive. Many computers, especially in the office, are geared to look for the presence of operating systems on thumb drives before hard drives, especially for purposes of recovery. Malicious users can plug thumb drive-based OSes directly into victims' systems, and perhaps gain access to the entire office network. But that's only if the computer's BIOS clears the thumb drive's operating system. With UEFI installed on the motherboard, it won't.

Many newer PCs already have UEFI in their firmware, and there's a good chance you're using it now. But with Windows 8, you would begin using it for what it was built for in the first place: restricting the loading of OSes to those that can prove themselves legitimate and untampered with. Once you install Windows 8 (as our tests with the Windows 8 Consumer Preview confirm), the OS-clearing capability of UEFI kicks in. With some firmware, you can turn off this option. Yet with quite a few systems, once this feature has kicked in, OSes that can't sign themselves are locked out.

One example, ironically, is a copy of Windows XP that was installed on a hard drive attached to a non-UEFI system. With UEFI fully engaged, you cannot boot to that XP-based drive in a multiboot system. The photo above shows a UEFI screen (not Windows 8, but system firmware) from an Intel Core i5-based 3.3 GHz PC I built. Note the UEFI banner attached to the drive where I've installed Windows 8 Consumer Preview. On this particular PC, I cannot (successfully) disengage secure boot. So I cannot boot my Windows XP disk - a fact which gives me only minor trouble with respect to testing software.

What the Lockdown Means

Trusted computing is what the entire commercial computing industry wants... the keyword here being "commercial." Not all computing is accomplished by commercial entities; and many would argue that some of the most important advances in computing in the last 10 years have come from developers who shunned commercial interests. At any rate, there is a considerable plurality of free software and hardware developers (free as in "free"), many of whom are in the Linux community, all of whom are legitimate artisans. They build computers and systems because they can, and because it's fun.

Because their community is not centered around vendors or commercial interests, there is no nucleus of authority responsible for what they build. This is how the community wants it. But it becomes a problem when the hardware platforms they rely upon adopt a protocol that equates legitimacy with commercial responsibility. Put simply, if you're not a vendor, there's no way you can "sign" your operating system for UEFI. And that may mean you can't set up a dual-boot system that includes both Windows 8 and a free Linux distribution.

By "free Linux," I'm referring to any noncommercial distribution, and Red Hat and Canonical have warned their distros (Fedora and Ubuntu, respectively) may be among them (Intel disagrees with respect to Fedora). This is not exactly the swap-meet crowd we're talking about, but a sizable bunch of legitimate PC users.

In this 10-part series, 26-year veteran Windows tester Scott Fulton walks us through the best features, faculties and functions of Windows 8.

No. 10 : Refresh and Reset

No. 9: File History

No. 8: Storage Spaces

No. 7: Client-side Hyper-V

As Red Hat mobile Linux developer Matthew Garrett first explained last September, "There is no centralised signing authority for these UEFI keys. If a vendor key is installed on a machine, the only way to get code signed with that key is to get the vendor to perform the signing. A machine may have several keys installed, but if you are unable to get any of them to sign your binary then it won't be installable."

Over the years, companies such as Microsoft and Intel have maintained that enthusiasts are free to build their systems using platforms that are not UEFI-enabled, and to install free Linux on them. This is becoming harder and harder, as the motherboard industry (Asus, MSI and Gigabyte, among others) has already embraced UEFI firmware. Almost by definition, a motherboard without UEFI is a cheap motherboard. Enthusiasts may like "free," but they abhor cheap.

More than once, Microsoft has reminded me of the relatively small size of the enthusiast community. But despite their numbers, they are an extraordinarily influential group. Commercial vendors that disrespect them are committing a blunder akin to a politician uttering a racial slur in front of a fellow with a cell phone camera.

Trust, UEFI and How We Got Here

At some point, Microsoft - now one of the co-architects of UEFI - had to take the plunge and support what's essentially its own work. The reason why concerns one of the most dreaded threats that every installed copy of Windows still faces.

In fact, for any computing device - be it a PC, a smartphone or a garage-door locking system - a malicious program could overwrite the contents of its operating system kernel, substituting what's come to be known as a rootkit. In this scenario, when you reboot your device, it isn't exactly what you think it is anymore. Just how easy it is to accomplish this was demonstrated at the RSA security conference a few months ago, by a team led by McAfee's former CTO.

When security problems are caused by software claiming to be something it's not, the solutions usually involve authentication - the implementation of some type of trust system. (Just the word "trust" sends up red flags among veteran IT workers.) In any chain of trust in a computer network, there must be some unimpeachable root that is capable of vouching for the authenticity of everything else. Operating systems are typically vulnerable, and thus serve as poor roots of trust. Engineers prefer the root to be inside the computer hardware, at a more tamper-proof level. Installing trust in any deep level has rarely been without controversy, mainly on the part of users who have learned from experience that, given the choice, both hardware and software vendors tend to trust themselves above a competitor.

The concept of building a root of trust in the BIOS traces back to 1998, with Intel's Extensible Firmware Interface created for its Itanium processor-based servers. The idea there was to build a more programmable shell that could effectively manage the system's transition between powering on and readying the main bus and peripherals, to launching the OS. When regulatory agencies' scrutiny of Intel began to intensify, Intel turned over EFI to an industry consortium including AMD Microsoft, and embedded processor maker ARM.

From the very beginning, the UEFI group had stated its intention to load operating systems other than Windows. And the first successful field implementation of secure booting with UEFI in consumer-grade equipment was in the first Intel-based Macs. UEFI is already a reality in PCs sold today, and especially in motherboards sold to enthusiasts and system builders (like me). So the issue isn't that Windows 7 doesn't already "support UEFI," or that UEFI by definition locks out Linux. The tools for Linux makers to adopt UEFI protocols are available openly today. So it's wrong to say UEFI is technically incompatible with Linux. Instead, there's a kind of "social gap" that the commercial vendors are not willing to help fill.

The Decision

The real question, of course, is does the UEFI flexibility tradeoff affect you? Specifically, does the disablement of your ability to have a dual- or multi-boot system that includes Windows 8 and one or more operating systems that do not support UEFI, impact your ability to work or use your computer the way you want?

If you are a part-time Linux user and part-time Windows 7 user, the answer may be "yes." You may not want to upgrade to Windows 8 until you know for certain you can dual- or multi-boot to your preferred flavor of Linux as well as Windows 8.
If you use Linux occasionally, perhaps for testing, then you might consider running Linux from a virtual machine instead of creating a dual-boot system. If you're testing Linux hardware reliability, though, a virtual implementation probably isn't a good solution for you. If you're just interested in the software or in the development tools available with Linux that have no counterpart in Windows yet, you may be perfectly comfortable running Linux from Oracle VirtualBox in Windows 8.
If you use Windows XP, and you want to upgrade to a modern PC but keep your XP-based hard drive, the UEFI lockdown could affect your ability to work with XP. You'll be better off keeping your XP drive where it is, and running it from there.

For everyone else, though, UEFI brings an enormous benefit: the confidence that a rootkit will not be able to substantively change the kernel of the operating system, with the aim of enabling malicious software. In my opinion, for most users, the benefits far outweigh the tradeoffs.

Of course, I said that about UAC in Vista too, and I found my point of view caricatured in a legendary Apple ad campaign.

Giving iPad PowerPoint Presentations Just Got a Lot Better

David Strom — Tue, 15 May 2012 21:01:00 -0700

One of the iPad's more intriguing business uses is making presentations before a live audience. The device is portable and fun to use, and the swipe and pinch gestures can make for some dramatic presentations. Sadly, iPad presentations haven't lived up to their potential - especially for users of Microsoft PowerPoint. But the lastest version of Brainshark's free SlideShark app could help change that.

Normally, the latest version of a mobile app wouldn't merit coverate on ReadWriteWeb, but this is a game changer, especially for experienced speakers who are used to running their PowerPoint presentations with "presenter" mode. This is the ability to see your speaker notes and adjoining slides on the computer monitor at the podium, while the audience sees only a separate screen with the slide content. It is how I usually like to give my own speeches.

iPad Presentation Problems

There are several issues with giving a speech using an iPad. First is the actual connection to a digital projector. There are two methods you can use: either a wired connection with a special VGA or DVI dongle that fits to the bottom of the iPad, or with a wireless AirPlay connection to an Apple TV device. If you go wired, you better make sure your iPad is fully charged iPad, because you can't connect it to a power source while you have the dongle in place. Using an Apple TV means you have to cart around yet another device and get it set up properly. Neither is very satisfying.

A second issue is that Microsoft doesn't yet make an iPad version of PowerPoint, although Apple has an iOS version of Keynote. If you're a PowerPoint power user, there are a number of products that can display iPad presentations. VMware's Sliderocket is another free iPad presentation app. Or you could use the offline iPad app from Prezi.

Of course, you could junk the whole Powerpoint-style presentation ethos and move into a new era: this is what Alfresco is trying to do with its occupymeeting.com ebook manifesto here, along with a collection of tools for those that are interested. But many business people have years of deep experience with PowerPoint presentations and may not be quite ready to give up their slide decks. Many companies still prefer them, as well.

The Power of Presenter Mode

Most of these iPad presentation apps don't support presenter mode, and just show everyone whatever you have on your iPad screen. That can be limiting for speakers used to seeing their notes and their current position in the entire presentation. That's where SlideShark shines. iPad 2 and 3 users can plug into a projector or TV to simultaneously view slide notes, view separate timers for time spent on individual slides and the overall presentation on their mobile device - while the audience sees only the slides. There is also an animation counter. Of course, speakers can also choose a full-screen mode for both the presenter and the audience. In either mode, animations display on both screens. You can see a sample screenshot below.

Brainshark's newest SlideShark isn't going push the world of presentions in some brand new direction. Instead, it finally makes it possible to comfortably give an iPad PowerPoint presentation using the tools and views experienced presenters already count on. SlideShark version 1.6 is available today for a free download here from the iTunes App Store.

Facebook Will Roll On, Even as GM Pulls Ads

Dave Copeland — Tue, 15 May 2012 15:43:32 -0700

General Motors Co. said on Tuesday that it would stop advertising on Facebook because the platform didn't generate enough sales. It is certainly not a great day for the social media giant, as it looks to float its initial public stock offering on Friday. Before you heed the naysayers, though, consider what Facebook is really good at.

Need proof that Facebook will weather this and countless other storms? Look no further than the comments section of the very Wall Street Journal article that broke the news. The newspaper spurs logins by riding on Facebook's coattails.

Facebook, in other words, is seemingly everywhere online. CEO and founder Mark Zuckerberg admits that his company is lagging behind archrival Google in advertising revenue, but the loss of one big advertiser is not enough to upend a company that could be worth more than $100 billion by this time next week. More importantly, the automaker is depriving Facebook of only $10 million in direct advertising buys; it will continue to spend about $30 million annually on Facebook content, agencies that manage that content and daily maintenance of its Facebook pages, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Jeff Dachis of Dachis Group, which uses data to help clients get the best return on their social networking campaigns, said Facebook’s power lies in engagement with brands, not generating sales through display advertising, meaning the GM decision isn’t a death knell for Facebook. Dachis said Facebook advertisers need to look at the platform as helping to build long-term brand loyalty.

“Although many will latch onto this news in the next few days as a reason for the skepticism around Facebook’s advertising model to continue, we believe that this proves that Facebook’s power lies in engagement, not display advertising. According to the WSJ report, GM is still spending approximately $30 million on Facebook. They’re not abandoning ship,” Dachis said. “Engaged users on Facebook - whether they’re on mobile or the browser - will monetize better than throwing mobile or display ads at them.”

GM signaled that it would continue to develop a strategy for using its brand page on Facebook. GM marketing chief Joel Ewanick told The Wall Street Journal that the company "is definitely reassessing our advertising on Facebook, although the content is effective and important."

The newspaper reported that GM had begun reassessing its Facebook strategy earlier this year and made the decision to pull its advertising after several executives met with Facebook officials to address their concerns. We've asked Facebook for comment and will update when we hear back.

While the timing – just days before Facebook’s IPO - stings, people purchasing shares are theoretically looking to become owners of Facebook. Without discounting the people who will quickly try to flip their shares, other shareholders are looking at Facebook as a longer-term investment. They understand any business has good days and bad days.

There’s no denying that some advertisers are concerned about how effective Facebook advertising is. But, as we reported earlier this month (and, incidentally, in the wake of another Journal article questioning Facebook’s advertising strategy), a lot of advertisers are happy with the returns they’re seeing from Facebook.

In fact, GM's decision may have more to do with the fact that Facebook just isn’t the right medium for an automaker.

“Although some large brands and agencies may be grumbling, not everyone is unhappy," said Michael Nicholas, chief strategy officer at Roundarch Isobar, a digital marketing and advertising consultancy. "Brands whose business is more performance-oriented and predominantly e-commerce-based are seeing quality results and good service from third-party companies. Thinking about it from an ad spend point of view, it’s this ‘vocal majority’ that's fueling all the headlines about ‘large brands and agencies question Facebook’s ad model.’”

Engagio Gives the Web a 'Context' Button

Jon Mitchell — Tue, 15 May 2012 15:02:00 -0700

The killer app for the social Web is the one that will filter the signal from the noise. In the Facebook age, even casual Web users hold tons of conversations at once. Engagio, the conversation discovery company, pulls them all into one place. It also leads you into new ones. And with a new dashboard view released today, it lets you click one button to figure out what's actually going on in all these conversations.

Engagio's dashboard breaks out articles, sites and other links from all your social networks into separate panels, and lets you reply, share and like straight from there. But the best part of this section is the "context" button.

The button doesn't really have a halo, but it should. It puts an end to that feeling that you're seeing a snippet of something that's relevant to you, but you don't know what it is. If a message part of a larger conversation, click "context," and the whole message expands. This is a great way to discover things that are interesting to people in your networks.

Inbox

Engagio's original component is its inbox. As of today's update, you can now add unlimited, multiple accounts for all of your connected services. Those include the usual social networks, Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn and Foursquare. It also follows conversations centered around blogs, connecting with Tumblr and Disqus, as well as with Hacker News, a popular news aggregator for people in the tech industry. It also connects to your Google contacts, so you can track those email conversations.

There's also a new Chrome extension for Gmail users, which brings some of Engagio's powers into the inbox where millions of people already live. It gets people used to the idea of an inbox for all conversations.

Contacts

The final key component is the contacts section. You can use Engagio for what Mougayar calls a "deep follow," identifying friends from various networks and following their conversations, not just your conversations with each other. By inviting users to connect on Engagio, you're saying, "I like your stuff. Will you join Engagio, so I can see more of where you hang out online?"

This is a fairly intimate connection, as social media connections go, and Engagio is great about handling that. You can follow strangers or friends, but you don't have to reveal personal contact info until later. For example, revealing email addresses to one another is a sort of Engagio right of passage. For those Internet friends who seem to be constant sources of new and amazing things, Engagio provides a way to open up each other's worlds.

Correction: The last paragraph originally stated, "You have to deliberately connect to someone and reveal your email address to them in order to be able to watch each other," which was a slight misunderstanding of the feature.

Staying Off Facebook Won't Protect Your Privacy

Dave Copeland — Tue, 15 May 2012 12:30:00 -0700

Stay away from social networks and people won't know who you're hanging out with or what you're doing, right? Wrong. When it comes to social networking, a recent study suggests, you can run but you can't hide.

A paper published last month in the journal PLoS One shows how researchers were able to learn about nonmembers of social networks based on information their friends posted online. Using machine-learning models, German researchers Emöke-Ágnes Horvát, Michael Hanselmann, Fred A. Hamprecht and Katharina A. Zweig were able to predict whether two nonmembers of a social network knew each other based on information shared by a mutual contact on the network.

In other words, even if you’re one of those holdouts who refuses to join Facebook and other social networks due to privacy concerns, the data your friends share is enough to let anyone with access to that data draw conclusions about you. And while the initial research in the area focuses on the relatively innocuous facts surrounding who you do and don't know, it will become increasingly easier to draw profiles of people based on what their contacts share on Facebook.

“To our knowledge these are the first results on the potential of social network platforms to infer relationships between non-members,” the researchers wrote. They also noted that the relationships were predicted with an “astonishing” rate of accuracy simply by scanning readily available information on Facebook for students at five U.S. universities.

And the authors were working only with publicly available information. Social networks may have a vast trove of data about members that isn't generally available. “Social network platform operators typically have access to much more detailed information on nodes such as the age, sex and (approximate) location of their members; and if they provide messaging services they can infer the quality of an acquaintance from its communication pattern,” they wrote.

Researchers have long known that studying real-world social networks is a good way to predict individual behavior. We've previously reported on how online social networks can be used to predict a person’s risk of contracting a sexually transmitted disease. But the latest findings suggest a path toward an all-encompassing model that may one day be able to predict much more than who you know.

“Ultimately,” the study concludes, “it evokes the question of the ownership and exploitation of relational data in the information age.”

Photo courtesy of Shutterstock.

How to Keep Red Tape From Strangling Your Startup

Rieva Lesonsky — Tue, 15 May 2012 11:30:00 -0700

Hell, there are no rules here - we’re trying to accomplish something.
- Thomas Edison

Many people consider Edison America’s greatest inventor - ever. But he never had to deal with the reams of rules and regulations today’s startups need to heed just to stay out of trouble with federal and state governments.

Red tape is likely the last thing you want to think about when you’re in the throes of a startup, but there are some things you really need to consider:

Employees

Are you providing a safe working environment for your staff? Even if you’ve only got one employee, Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) regulations require you to make sure he or she operates in safe and healthful working conditions. If you have more than 10 employees, the requirements get a little tougher: For example, you now have to maintain specific records related to injuries and illnesses. The three most important parts of OSHA rules are:

All employees have access to your safety records.
Employers must provide personal protective equipment at no cost to their employees.
Manufacturers and importers of hazardous materials must be evaluated, and employees kept informed about the hazards.

Chances are these regs won’t affect startups like yours, but to be sure, you can ask OSHA to stop by your offices for a free evaluation and consultation. Check with your closest OSHA regional office.

Industry

Some industries have specific regulations you also need to follow. The federal government has more than 25 regulatory agencies with rules on what you can manufacture, how you should conduct your business, how you can advertise your products or services, and more. The Consumer Product Safety Commission and the Environmental Protection Agency are just two of the agencies that may have regulations affecting your business.

State and City Licenses and Permits

Depending on your industry, you may need specific business licenses and permits from your state or city. These vary depending on your location (and the cost varies, too). Lots of startups operate virtually these days, but does your city allow people to work from home? Zoning laws are created and regulated at the municipal level, so check with your city or town to make sure it’s legit to work out of your house or apartment.

Even if you operate a solo home-based business and use a post office box as your business address, you’ll need to register a street address where the majority of the business is operated and pay the fees to that city.

IRS Regulations

Finally, you can’t forget the Internal Revenue Service. Make sure you’re in compliance with the IRS and pay the proper business and employer taxes (if you have employees), or you may have an auditor knocking on your door.

Do you operate under a calendar or fiscal-year basis? What corporate structure (S corporation, LLC, etc.) did you choose? Did you get your Tax ID number or EIN number? If this all sounds like alphabet soup, check the IRS website for more information, then turn your books over to a trusted accountant to keep you in compliance. The IRS website also offers industry-specific tax information worth checking out.

Get Help

There are plenty of places where you can get help. Start at the top. Last year, the Obama administration created Business.USA.gov, a one-stop platform that helps small businesses get access to relevant government information. Search the site’s database by industry, then click on rules and you’ll find the agency guidelines that pertain to your business.

Once you’ve gathered the information online, make an appointment with a local agency such as your industry association, your local SCORE office or your nearest Small Business Development Center (SBDC). Their experts can help you comply with any pertinent business regulations, navigate any hurdles and fill out the required paperwork.

Just don’t expect any of this work to actually help your business succeed. That’s not how it works. All you can hope for is to keep the mountains of red tape and compliance issues from causing your company to fail.

[Infographic] Taking HTML5 to the Next Level for Mobile

Dan Rowinski — Tue, 15 May 2012 10:03:00 -0700

By 2013, there will be more than 1 billion HTML5-capable browsers in use throughout the world. Applications for those HTML5 browsers will be created by 2 million HTML Web developers, according to research from IDC. There is no question that HTML5 is going to be a major factor in mobile development during the next five to 10 years. The rise of HTML5 does not mean the death of native applications, but as the standard progresses, many developers will begin to incorporate more HTML5 into their apps than native code.

By 2015, IDC predicts that 80% of all mobile apps will be based wholly or in part on HTML5. It makes sense: As HTML5 evolves, it gains access to many features that were once the sole domain of native code. Audio and video playback have been problems that are now beginning to improve, and several companies including Sencha, appMobi and Mozilla are working on ways to give HTML5 better device access to objects such as a device’s camera and accelerometer.

It takes a village to raise a child - or, in this case, HTML5. During February's Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, a group of companies banded together to create the Core Mobile Web Platform Community (Coremob), a forum for “the global mobile developer and IT community to focus and accelerate the evolution of the mobile Web as a compelling platform for mobile applications.” Coremob includes several giants in the development and mobile worlds, including Microsoft, Facebook, Google, Mozilla, AT&T, Red Hat and Qualcomm’s Innovation Center (among many more; see infographic below). Like the browser wars and the Web before it, the mobile Web is not going to be completely developed by one company. For HTML5 to truly become a viable set of standards, the technology community at large will need to work together to share resources to make that possible.

But the mobile universe is not quite ready for a full-fledged HTML5 ecosystem yet. This comes down to the status of mobile browsers. Applications that run in browsers do not have the capabilities that native apps have. You thought Android was fragmented? Ever since Microsoft trounced Netscape with Internet Explorer, browsers have been, almost by definition, the most fragmented aspect of Web technology during the past 15 years. That is no different for mobile browsers such as Apple’s Safari, Google’s stock Android browser or its mobile Chrome Beta, Firefox Fennec, Opera Mini, Dolphin, Skyfire, Internet Explorer for Windows Phone or BlackBerry. HTML5 is supposed to be able to cut through the differences of all these browsers, but they are not all created equal.

This is where Ringmark comes in. Designed as an open source tool by Facebook for the Coremob community, Ringmark is a browser-testing suite that determines how well different browsers implement app functionalities. Ringmark determines what “ring” a browser is in and what type of capabilities an app can perform in that browser. For example, browsers that pass “Ring 0” can run “Level 0” apps, Ring 1 can run Level 1 apps, and so on. The infographic from IDC below shows an example of the capabilities in each ring, and which apps can run on which levels.

We did a couple of Ringmark tests by visiting Rng.io on mobile browsers to see how well they stack up. Ring 0 has 97 different capabilities, which most of the browsers we tested passed. There are between 137-160 capabilities in Ring 1, which none of the browsers we tested passed. If a browser does not pass all the capabilities of a Ring, then it does not test the next Ring. (As browser versions advance and begin to pass Ring 1, Ringmark's developers will build out more rings to allow for further advances in expected browser capabilities.)

Rng.io test of Chrome Beta for Android Here are the results:

Opera Mini/Mobile

Android (Opera Mobile) -- R.0: 7 failed, 90 passed
iOS (Opera Mini) -- R.0: 32 failed, 52 passed

Dolphin HD

Android -- R.0: 97 passed -- R.1: 44 failed, 93 passes
iOS R.0: 97 passed -- R.1: 33 failed, 106 passed

iOS Safari

R.0: 97 passed -- R.1: 34 failed, 106 passed

Stock Android Browser

R.0: 97 passed -- R.1: 44 failed, 93 passed

Android Chrome Beta

R.0: 97 passed -- R.1: 17 failed, 143 passed

Windows Phone Internet Explorer

R.0: 11 failed, 86 passed

Amazon Kindle Fire Silk

R.0: 4 failed, 93 passed

BlackBerry 6

R.0: 97 passed -- R.1: 58 failed, 80 passed

It appears that the browser with the most HTML5 capabilities at this point is Chrome Beta on Android. We noted when Chrome Beta was announced that it would be a good browser for HTML5 development. Yet, Chrome Beta’s performance does not help the bulk of the Android ecosystem. First, it is only available on Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich devices, which make up only 4.9% of all Android devices as of May 1. Second, when a mobile Web app runs an application through Android, it will choose the default browser of the device, which will be the stock Android browser, not Chrome Beta.

Take a look at the infographic below and let us know what you think about the future of browser development for HTML5 functionality in the comments.

Note: Thank you to Evan Davis of Isobar in Boston for testing Windows Phone and BlackBerry 6 for us.

Click here for a larger version of the infographic

Read/Write Daily: Watch Out for Zombie Drones

Jon Mitchell — Tue, 15 May 2012 08:56:00 -0700

Today's theme is do it yourself. You know that saying, "If you want something done right... " Well, sometimes the status quo won't bring the future fast enough, so fired-up people have to do it themselves.

Even if that means building space stations.

As U.S. government support for its space program wanes, NASA is making legal room for entrepreneurs who want to take over.

These new private space companies are teaming up to build whole space stations.

The European Space Agency is looking for asteroids and other "space hazards," and amateur astronomers have volunteered their help.

On the Web, companies want to serve us our future by monetizing our information. Maybe we'd have a better future if we became our own platforms.

What happens if we don't do it ourselves? We lose control. We get driven around by robots...

... and we have to watch out for zombie drones.

Image via Shutterstock.

Past entries from Read/Write Daily

How to Share Your Business Photos Online - Discreetly

David Strom — Tue, 15 May 2012 06:58:00 -0700

You have just returned from a corporate retreat or some other business event that was well-documented with several amateur photographers. Now you want to share all of these pictures amongst your co-workers. The challenge is that you want to keep them private to the participants and not plaster them all over the Internets. What to do?

Assume that your requirements are to satisfy the ultra-paranoid in the group and also find something that is dirt simple to use. You don't want to make everyone join a new social network just to see the photos; most of us have too many logins already. That leaves out most of the microblogging sites. And you don't want to have to worry that someone will click on the wrong button and inadvertently share the entire photo collection with the universe, including the press, competitors and so on.

Facebook, Instagram, Google+ and many other social-networking sites aren't very good at setting up discrete group-privacy controls, so they are out of the running for our purposes. And while there are dozens of file-sharing sites such as Box.net and Evernote, the idea is to find something that is designed around uploading and sharing images.

With that in mind, we looked at the following five services:

Shutterfly.com
Photobucket.com
Flickr.com (now part of Yahoo)
Zangzing.com
Posterous Spaces (now part of Twitter)

None of these services is perfect, but they fall into two broad categories: those that have better privacy controls and those that are easier to use.

Let's look at our requirements in more detail:

First, we want a service that can create a private space that doesn't appear on search engines and can't be discovered by unauthorized users. Photobucket and Shutterfly both do this, by setting up a special URL (Photobucket.com/groupname or Groupname.shutterfly.com) for your group. In Photobucket, for example, you have three choices for each album's privacy controls: everyone can see them, no one else can see them, or you can password protect them by invitation only. The latter is perfect for this application, and you can set up an album password so that only those folks who know the password can see and download the photos. (See screenshot below.) Shutterfly has similar options with its Share Sites feature.

The problem with both Photobucket and Shutterfly is that you need to become a member to upload photos: That is fine if you have just a few shutterbugs in your group, but if everyone wants to be able to contribute images, it can become cumbersome.

Flickr offers URLs for groups, such as http://www.flickr.com/groups/groupname. But Yahoo really wants you to sign up to its service, and you will need to do so if you want to post any photos. Flickr has a guest pass option, but it is designed to work with individual photos. And Flickr users have to make sure to set up its autoposting/notification features to keep your photos from showing up in your Facebook Timeline or other places.

Zangzing (which we have written about previously) is easier to use but that comes at a privacy cost. You can set up individual albums that have their own URLs, such as http://www.zangzing.com/username/albumname. But because there is no password required, anyone who knows the URL can access the entire album. And you must join the service in order to upload pictures, you will need to join. On the plus side, you can also email pictures to albumname@zangzing.com, and they will be automatically posted to the album.

Finally, Posterous is more of a blogging site than a photo collection, but it can be used for sharing photos, as well. Indeed, if you want to mix your photos with other business content, Posterous could be a good choice and could serve as the base for a simple low-end Web presence. Groups of photos can have their own URLs, but you do need to become a member to post content. You can also email your photos and have them posted to your site, like what Zangzing does.

Recommendations: Start with Zangzing

We recommend you start with Zangzing, especially if you require the simplicity of a shareable URL and don't want to mess with having each person sign up for the service. If you need the additional security that a membership site offers, then look at Photobucket. It has more granularity for the security options than Shutterfly. Steer clear of Flickr: Its interface is somewhat long in the tooth, and it is too easy to click on the wrong button and end up sharing your entire photo collection to Facebook or Twitter. If you have more confidence in your users' abilities, you can set up private groups in Facebook or Google+.

Everything You Need To Know About Facebook’s Latest S-1 Filing In Less Than A Minute

Dave Copeland — Tue, 15 May 2012 05:30:00 -0700

Facebook filed what will most likely be the last of seven amendments to its S-1 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday morning. The company is expected to stop taking orders for shares tonight and will likely begin trading when Nasdaq opens Friday morning.

Here's a succinct, just-the-facts list of changes in the latest filing.

The company now plans to offer an additional 50.6 million shares to cover over-allotments.
Despite what was called “lackluster demand” on its road show, Facebook raised the share price of its IPO to a range of $34 to $38 per share, from the prior $28 to $35 per share. That means the company could raise as much as $14.7 billion Friday.
The high end of that range would put Facebook’s valuation at $103 billion. The low-end is $92 billion.
Facebook, which had initially said it hoped to close its $1 billion acquisition of Instagram by the end of the second quarter, is now saying it hopes to close the deal by the end of the year.

The Hottest IPO You've Never Heard Of

Antone Gonsalves — Tue, 15 May 2012 05:00:00 -0700

With an expected valuation of close to $100 billion, it’s understandable that no one can stop talking about Facebook’s initial public offering this week. But while Facebook basks in the social media spotlight, companies tackling tough business problems are exciting investors, if not consumers. Workday, for example, is expected to be among the largest IPOs this year in the business software market.

Founded in 2005, the Pleasanton, California-based Workday makes payroll, accounting and human resources management software available over the Internet to 280 corporations, including big names like Time Warner, Kleenex-maker Kimberly-Clark and giant electronics manufacturer Flextronics. So far, Workday has raised $250 million from venture capital firms and other investors.

Dave Duffield Strikes Again

The company is the brainchild of David Duffield and Aneel Bhusri. Duffield, cofounder and chief executive of PeopleSoft, was forced to sell the company to Oracle in 2005 for $10 billion in a hostile takeover. Duffield and Bhusri, who was vice chairman of PeopleSoft, decided that same year to start rebuilding their company in the cloud.

As of the end of 2011, Workday had more than $300 million in revenue and an estimated value of $2 billion, AllThingsD reported last week. The company expects to launch its IPO in the fourth quarter with the help of bankers Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Allen & Company and JPMorgan Chase & Co.

Ironically, while the hype has focused on high-profile consumer and social-media IPOs, business-focused tech companies may be a better bet. On the consumer side, as of Friday, the stock of online game maker Zynga had fallen 25% from its IPO price in December last year. Stock of coupon site Groupon has dropped 50% since November 2011.

But Jive Software, which makes social business tools, has seen its stock climb 50% from its IPO price in December 2011. Stock in Guidewire Software, which serves the insurance industry, is up almost 60% since the company’s debut in January.

Workday is going after a market that is expected to soar. Worldwide revenue from delivering business software over the Internet is expected to reach $240 billion in 2020, a six-fold increase from 2010, according to Forrester Research.

Cloud Rules

Companies of all sizes are looking at cloud-based software because it’s often easier and less expensive than deploying and maintaining on-premise applications. In an interview with Bloomberg TV in April, Bhusri claimed Workday’s HR software is half the cost and is much easier to use. “There’s no reason enterprise software needs a training manual,” he said.

Early investors of Workday included Duffield and venture capital firms New Enterprise Associates and Greylock Partners, where Bhusri is a partner. In its last round of funding in December 2011, Workday raised $100 million from investors that included MSD Capital, owned by Dell founder Michael Dell, and Bezos Expeditions, the personal investment entity of Jeff Bezos, founder and chief executive of online retailer Amazon.

Workday is not without competition. German software maker SAP bought rival SuccessFactors last year for $3.4 billion, and Oracle is expected to either buy or develop its way into the HR cloud. In addition, analysts are wondering how long it will be before Workday partner Salesforce.com begins to add competing capabilities to its cloud-based software for sales reps and customer relationship management.

Despite the competition, Workday has built a solid business that investors and some analysts believe could make it a leading player in the HR software market – even though the general public has probably never heard of the company.

Everyone knows Facebook, of course, but analysts are debating whether a company with slowing revenue growth and a potential valuation of 99 times earnings can possibly live up to its hype.

Lead image courtesy of Shutterstock.

6 Navigation Apps That Go the Extra Mile

Dan Rowinski — Tue, 15 May 2012 04:00:00 -0700

With a smartphone and the right app, you can find any spot on Earth. But the best navigation apps do a lot more. Look out for that speed trap.

Here are six mobile navigation tools. To make the list, an app needs to be different than your standard, run-of-the-mill route finder. You won't see Nokia or Google Maps. Or apps from navigation leaders like Garmin, TomTom or Telenav. These are seven true alternatives. Each one offers something special to help you get wherever you need to go in record time.

Waze

(Free: iPhone/iPad, Android)

When we first wrote about Waze (for Android) in our Apps of the Month for December 2011, we wondered whether the app was useful, never mind safe. Interacting with your phone while driving is frowned upon these days. Waze's safety may be debatable, but its GPS features and ability to passively aggregate traffic data while you're driving may be useful. It's a social driving app that alerts you to traffic incidents, congestion and other roadblocks so you can "outsmart traffic and save on gas." Really, the last thing you need is to be scanning Twitter in traffic. It's especially worthwhile if you live in a city where the afternoon commute tends to be a nightmare (looking at you, Washington, D.C.). Just type in an address, and Waze passively sends traffic data to its servers and lets you know where the trouble spots are.

Where2Boss

(Free: iPhone)

I went to Fiji as a teenager. On the way home, I had a long layover at LAX before flying back to Logan Airport in Boston. A couple of people I had met in Fiji were also stuck at the airport, so we decided to take a cab to Manhattan Beach, where Baywatch was filmed. They ended up leaving earlier while I sat on the beach looking for Pamela Anderson in a red swimsuit. When it was time to go, I hopped in a cab back to LAX - and was taken for a ride. The taxi ride to the beach cost about $25. On the way back, the driver took a very long route, along with the last $50 in my pocket. This was the mid-1990s, and there was no smartphone I could use to track the route and stop the driver from fleecing me like the dumb teenager I was.

I sure could have used Where2Boss. It compares the route your taxi driver is taking with the one it thinks you should be taking. It also has a rate-your-driver function, forums to offer comments or complaints about drivers, and gamification badges that tell you whether you're beating public transit. Smartphones: keeping taxi drivers honest since 2007.

CoPilot GPS

(Free: iOS, Android)

I had a problem while traveling in London last October. First, I had no idea where I was. Second, I didn't have access to cellular data that would have enabled my Android or iPad to figure out where I was (no way was I going to spend on international roaming). I managed to duck into a Starbucks and grab some Wi-Fi for a couple minutes to get my bearings, but I got lost several times anyway. CoPilot GPS would have made it a cakewalk. Available for iOS and Android, CoPilot provides free navigation tools, including maps and directions, without a data connection. It also provides alternate routes and points of interest along your way. I was able to stumble toward Piccadilly Circus and then Westminster Abbey by blindly walking south, but that would not have been necessary if I had an offline maps and navigation service.

Trapster

(Free: iPhone, Android)

Many U.S. states have outlawed radar detectors that enable drivers to avoid police officers when they're driving too fast. Police don't appreciate citizens skirting the law, and a radar detector really has no other purpose. But that doesn't mean you can't use an app to avoid speed traps. Trapster alerts you to speed traps, red light cameras, accidents and traffic. The newest version is packed with features, including a "blue line" navigation on the map to show you where previous Trapster users have driven recently without close encounters of the ticket kind.

HopStop

(Free: iPhone, Android)

HopStop is one of the more useful and intuitive navigation apps for city dwellers. It delivers not only walking directions, but precise information on public transit options. Very helpful if you're in a new city or an unfamiliar part of town. Enter your address and where you want to go, and HopStop will give you all the route information you need.

Extra Mile

($0.99: iPhone)

Extra Mile is a voice navigation app that runs in the background while you drive. It automatically records distance traveled, fuel expenses, trip duration and driving patterns. It also taps into traffic cameras so you can see what you are getting into before you get into it. It offers a dashboard for easy in-app navigation and generates reports of your driving history.

Cosm: Disappointing Redesign By Internet of Things Pioneer Pachube

Richard MacManus — Mon, 14 May 2012 22:28:00 -0700

Early Internet of Things innovator gets a makeover and a new name: Cosm. It's attempting to become more social, but unfortunately it's likely to turn normal people off - rather than turn them on.

When we first started profiling the emerging trend of Internet of Things back in 2009, one startup stood out as an early innovator in the field. It had an unpronounceable name, Pachube (pronounced: Patch-Bay), but it was the first independent, open platform for sensor data. This week Pachube announced a new name - Cosm - and a redesign that attempts to make the service more social and easier to use.

The internet of Things is the catchphrase for when real-world objects - such as buildings, roads and household appliances - become connected to the Internet. Often it's via sensors, tiny microprocessor chips that record and log data such as sound waves, temperature, movement and so on.

Our first review of Pachube was just over 3 years ago. Over the following couple of years, Pachube attracted a small but enthusiastic community of developers. Pachube was subsequently acquired by cloud computing service provider LogMeIn in July 2011.

Internet of Social Things

Ten months after acquisition, Cosm (nee Pachube) is now targeting the social Web. Founder Usman Haque commented, in an email newsletter announcing the re-brand, that it is "focusing on helping people connect with each other as well as their devices." He added that "we aren't just building behind-the-scenes infrastructure."

Haque explained further:

"The idea of the internet of things needing a piece of equipment (a 'patch-bay') has become less useful than the concept of it involving shared 'workspaces' and 'environments' ('microcosms' and 'macrocosms'). Cosm has an even bigger vision than Pachube: we want it to help people, teams, companies & cities build, share and make sense of their own 'cosms': devices, environments, communities."

The problem is, the new design still emphasizes the "behind-the-scenes infrastructure" and the service is still too hard for normal people to use.

Cosm's Consoles

Cosm (which is a fantastic domain name, I wonder how much it cost?) is organized around the concept of a console. This is where you monitor feeds from real-world objects, either your own or other peoples. Cosm is hoping that you'll spend a lot of time following feeds of other people, such as team members, friends or family. Here is a screenshot of Usman Haque's console:

Haque has feeds monitoring his home, office, weather stations, power generators, plants and more. There is even a feed monitoring his Twitter account. Twitter is by far the easiest way to get started with your own feed in Cosm, but unfortunately I got an error when I tried to add my account.

In terms of following people, I managed to follow Usman ok - but I couldn't click on any of his activity. I don't know who his 15 other followers are or what comments he's made elsewhere on Cosm. This may be a design glitch, but if not then it's not particularly social.

Still Too Geeky For Mainstream

The problem Cosm has is that it's not very accessible to non-technical people. I'm fairly technically savvy - about as technical as a non-developer gets - yet when I browsed around Cosm I was dismayed at how little I could do. I couldn't even add my own feed, because the Twitter functionality wasn't working. I don't have any Arduino projects (basically this is an electronics DIY kit), so I didn't have many other options to create a feed.

I did follow Usman, as he'd linked to his console in the email newsletter... but how do I find other people to follow? As noted above, I couldn't even see who Usman himself follows. I certainly can't imagine any of my family or non-technical friends using Cosm. So I'm mystified as to how Cosm is more social than Pachube was.

However, This is The Future...

I'm being a little hard on Cosm, because I was expecting something more user friendly. However, I still buy into the vision for Cosm. In the not too distant future, we will indeed manage various feeds from household and other devices. As I wrote in my original review 3 years ago, one of the original goals of Pachube was to "open up the production process of smart homes" - to provide an alternative to products by the likes of Microsoft and Apple.

But for mainstream users, Cosm will need to become much, much easier to use. Otherwise the likes of Microsoft and Apple will win out. That's already the more likely scenario, regardless of Cosm's geeky user interface. But if Cosm is to have any chance at a wider user base, it needs to do more to encourage non-technical people to use the service. It also needs to help people understand the benefit of hooking up your plants (among other things) to Cosm. Right now there is little explanation of why I'd want to use Cosm in this way, let alone how to use it.

Report: Facebook Will Sell IPO Shares Between $34 and $38

Jon Mitchell — Mon, 14 May 2012 18:06:48 -0700

Facebook's Friday-morning IPO will be priced between $34 and $38 per share, according to AllThingsD's sources. That puts the overall valuation up to $104 billion. Last week, Bloomberg reported that the Facebook investor roadshow was generating "lackluster interest," but that doesn't seem to be the case as the IPO gets closer.

Indeed, the very same morning, Reuters reported that the Facebook IPO was "already oversubscribed." Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak says he would buy Facebook shares at any price. But many investors and analysts remain skeptical, pointing to Facebook's recently weak revenue and inability to monetize mobile access, which its users increasingly prefer.

Last month, from Facebook's paperwork related to its acquisition of Instagram, analysts expected a lower price of around $31 per share. Despite negative news about Facebook's inability to capture mobile revenue, expectations have risen since then. Last week, Facebook announced App Center, a way to promote mobile apps for all major platforms, which could be a strong new source of revenue.

The intense interest in Facebook's IPO is driving the industry into a frenzy, but the truth is that there really isn't a precedent for this. Facebook will be a new kind of public company. We'll just have to see how the market handles it.

The official pricing will be announced Thursday, and Facebook will be listed as "FB" on the Nasdaq Friday morning.

Unanswered Questions About Facebook's Data-Use Policy - Even After Public Q&A

Dave Copeland — Mon, 14 May 2012 16:00:00 -0700

The harder Facebook tries to explain its data-use policy, the more questions it leaves unanswered. Erin Egan, the social networking behemoth's chief privacy officer, did it again during a 30-minute video conference on May 14. Here's what she did and didn't say - and a summary of outstanding concerns about how Facebook can and can't take advantage of user data.

Egan’s session was window dressing on the announcement made on the company’s blog last week. While the exec answered the general questions read to her by Andrew Noyes, Facebook's public policy communications manager, most of her answers reiterated points covered in last week’s announcement. Even as more pointed queries piled up in the comments section beneath the streaming video, Noyes shifted the session at the 21-minute mark to answering questions not related to privacy.

We kept a running list of all the questions Egan didn’t get to, and we've asked Facebook to provide answers. We’ll update if and when the company illuminates the following questions, which were posted on Facebook’s site during the video Q&A session:

“Will Facebook ever consider implementing a way that a user can globally determine the level of information they would be willing to share with advertisers instead of the per-app method as it is today?”
“Will Facebook be using the data it collects to target ads on 3rd party sites?”
“Also, will it be licensing out this data to 3rd party networks and tech providers?”
“And also, will Facebook amend its data policies that will prevent an app-owner from using data accrued through Facebook after a user has uninstalled that app?”
“The revisions mention that Facebook ‘scans’ photos and tags for facial information. Even if I disable Tag Suggestions, can I request that Facebook delete the facial data you already have on me?”
“Someone from my Friends list copied a personal timeline photo of my child. I don't know her friends. How might I control use of my timeline photos?”
“How does [Friday’s initial public stock offering] change...my personal privacy controls as a FB user?”
“Placing an ad blocker disrupts how the apps in Facebook work. Why is this a problem now (within the last month or so) and was not a problem before?”

We’ve also asked once again for clarification on a question we initially asked over the weekend about a policy that seemingly allows Facebook users to vote down policies they don’t like.

Throughout the talk, Egan insisted that last week’s updates, including a sleek new landing page that Facebook calls its policy hub, aimed to clarify the policies. She was careful to stress that there had been no policy changes and that last week’s move was a response to a request from the Irish Data Protection Commission to better explain existing practices and highlight recent changes.

“Our goal here is to be really transparent with you about our practices,” Egan said.

Stop Flying Blind: Use Big Data to Benchmark Your Startup

Tim Devaney and Tom Stein — Mon, 14 May 2012 15:00:00 -0700

Most startups fail. Nine out of 10 never amount to anything more than fond memories and a forgotten Facebook page. One reason is that they often lack a clear picture of exactly how they’re doing until it’s too late. But there are tools designed to help you assess your startup's progress compared to similar companies.

The best way for startup founders to improve their chance of success is by learning to make better decisions. But if you want to make better decisions, you need better data. And that’s where Startup Compass comes in: It’s designed to help you benchmark your startup’s performance against thousands of others to identify what you’re doing right and what you need to improve.

Startup Compass collects data from tens of thousands of startups around the world. It collects lots of data, then creates best practices, recommendations and benchmarks to help entrepreneurs make better product and business decisions.

Big Data for Small Companies

“This is a big-data approach to startup success,” says Startup Compass co-founder and serial entrepreneur Bjoern Lasse Herrmann. “Big companies have analysts to make sense of their data, and executives can make decisions based on that data. But startups don’t have any access to that kind of analytics. We wanted to put analysts in the cloud for startups.”

“Startups can learn three key things,” Herrmann says. “First, which key performance indicators actually matter. Most startups don’t even know which KPIs they should track or why they should track them. Second, they learn how their KPIs compare to other companies’ KPIs so they will know if they’re on the right track. See, for example, their customer acquisition costs. The third thing they learn is what actions they need to be taking. We help businesses take the next steps.”

Startup Compass calls its approach “cracking the code of innovation.” We call it “how not to kill your startup.”

The 5 don'ts

The real value of Startup Compass is comparing your company to others like it, but Startup Compass also summarizes its findings in its Startup Genome report. Here are nuggets of wisdom from the first Startup Genome report, five things not to do:

1. Don’t scale too early. This is the No. 1 cause of startup failure. Startup Compass has found that 70% of startups crash because they scale prematurely.

2. Don’t work part time. Sleepy? Get used to it. People who work full time on their startups raise an average of 24 times more funding than those who work part time.

3. Don’t go it alone. Maybe you are the smartest guy in the room. But solo founders raise less than half the money that two to three co-founders raise.

4. Don’t ignore customers. Yes, they’re annoying. (What do they know?) But startups that track customer metrics have 400% more user growth.

5. Don’t forget about the technology. Startups without a tech-oriented co-founder are twice as likely to scale prematurely and have three to five times less user growth.

If you want advice on an ongoing basis, you can join Startup Compass and in exchange for data on your startup, the company will benchmark your startup monthly, comparing you to similar outfits, so you can keep your priorities in line.

Startup Compass has 17,000 companies now using the service for things like checking whether their churn rate is too high or their retention rate is too low - or if they should be spending more money on customer acquisition.

“We have a number of companies that have gone through the process and tell us they used our product and realized they were falling behind on this or that metric and were able to fix those things and adjust accordingly. As a result they were better able to acquire customers in the long run and didn’t waste more money on things that were not productive.”

Images courtesy of Shutterstock.

Meet Apple's Secret Feline App Tester

Jon Mitchell — Mon, 14 May 2012 14:30:00 -0700

UPDATE 3:22 PM: Is this for real? Well, she disappeared as soon as this article was posted, so what do you think? What goes on in Apple's app testing lab? Just ask Dive Apple. She may be a cat. She lives in San Francisco. She takes lots of photos of Apple products. And her Facebook posts ~~are publicly visible~~ were publicly visible (until we outed her). Let's take a look at what she has to say.

Is Dive Apple Legit?

We were introduced to Dive by a reputable developer, whose identity we will protect. The developer discovered this account through unusual activity on an upcoming iOS app while it was in review by Apple. It wasn't released yet, but here was Facebook user Dive Apple trying it out, mostly by taking pictures of Apple hardware.

Why is Dive Apple's profile public? That's a reasonable question. The account has eight friends, and they all have various levels of account privacy. To rigorously test the Facebook components of apps, Apple would have to try out all the various privacy levels. There's nothing too juicy here, but unreleased apps are definitely represented, as well as photos and videos of a few square feet of an Apple office.

UPDATE 4:57 PM: After reading this post, another app developer emailed ReadWriteWeb with more confirmation:

"I read your article about Dive Apple. I can confirm that 'she?' was one of the very first users of our app when we first submitted it to Apple. When we first soft-launched, we did some research on anyone signing up in Cupertino and we uncovered the same things you did. A lot of photo posts and Apple gear, including a few shots of Apple branded mugs and things not generally found on a regular fanboy's desk."

Dive Is Almost 4 Years Old

Dive was born in 2008, and the first thing she did on Facebook was test Naked Touch, which is apparently some kind of touch drawing app.

Dive Apple and Friends

Dive's friends are mostly animals (or Mon Calamari, an alien species from Star Wars), and most of them have "Dive" in their names. That makes sense for accounts designed for diving into apps and testing all the little Facebook-related bells and whistles. The various Dives all have different levels of Facebook privacy. Dive Apple is the least shy.

Hanging Out in Cupertino

Dive lives in San Francisco, but she spends a fair amount of time a 45-minute drive south in Cupertino. Her favorite place is the Duke of Edinburgh Pub and Restaurant, conveniently located between areas of Apple's main campus.

The Duke has pretty solid Yelp reviews, and it's located smack-dab in the middle of the techie part of Cupertino. After an Apple employee famously left an iPhone 4 prototype in a bar, The Wall Street Journal's MarketWatch called The Duke a "likely candidate" as a place to happen upon the next Apple lost-and-found prize.

Dive Loves Apple Stuff

Dive spends most of her days testing apps with names like Telefir Login and Zliq. Many of the apps on her Timeline don't appear in the App Store. Maybe they've been rejected; maybe they just aren't out yet.

Dive takes tons of pictures of her desk, which is covered with Apple hardware. There are iPads still in boxes, iPhones and iPods littered among the Magic Mice, and one tantalizing shot of an iMac with a sticky note and a sheet of paper visible.

The page is clearly an app review checklist. The header is hard to make out, but it seems to say "App Review Checklist." It's easier to make out the text at the bottom: "...storing an app from complete, make sure to claim the app back," it says. The last visible line reads "...complete until sonar is sent."

There's also a shot that shows Dive's suspiciously human (and male?) legs.

Dive frequently posts little snippets of video from various apps, but they don't give anything away. They're not embeddable either, but here's a post you can view on Facebook. (UPDATE 3:22 PM: Now that the account is gone, the video is gone, too.)

Dive doesn't leak any top-secret Apple devices. But she does test lots of apps, even ones that don't officially exist yet, so her feed is fun to watch. Even though it's mostly keyboard pics, Dive's Timeline offers some rare insights into Apple's app testing process.

You ~~can~~ could once find her at facebook.com/dive3452. Here's Bing's cached version.

Apple Gets Serious About Photo Sharing With iCloud Update

John Paul Titlow — Mon, 14 May 2012 13:45:00 -0700

Apple's Wordwide Developers Conference is still a few weeks away, but as usual, there's no shortage of clues about what to expect.

The latest news suggests that Apple is putting more focus on photos and their inherently social nature. The company is expected to push out an update to iCloud that enables users to share and comment on photos.

Details are sparse, but according to The Wall Street Journal, some are expecting a service akin to Flickr to emerge within iCloud. Whether it's a full-blown social service or something a bit more limited, the importance of photos and how they're shared among people is clearly not lost on Apple.

The iCloud update will come two months after Facebook agreed to acquire Instagram for $1 billion. The unexpected deal served as the latest - and perhaps most significant - measure of just how valuable social photography can be, especially on mobile devices of the sort that Apple manufactures (and on which Instagram existed exclusively until recently).

Apple has never been known for building its own compelling social products. The most obvious example is Ping. There's no reason this tendency couldn't change, but what the company is likely cooking up will probably be designed to fit nicely into iOS and iCloud and not necessarily cater to a larger public.

Currently, the way photos are handled within iCloud is pretty static. Photostream syncs photos across devices, but that's about it. The new upgrades will not only add sharing functionality but also the ability to sync videos.

What we'll see at the WWDC is, as always, the subject of widespread rumor and speculation, but the next iteration of iOS is a safe bet. In addition to these iCloud updates, Apple is expected to unveil its own proprietary, notably non-Google mobile maps application. We may also learn more about Mountain Lion, the next version of Mac OS X, and see a hardware refresh or two.

A Discreet Guide to Using Mobile Devices in the Loo

Jon Mitchell — Mon, 14 May 2012 12:00:00 -0700

Last year, British researchers swabbed 390 cell phones and analyzed what they picked up. Know what they found? One in six phones has poop on it. Four out of five are contaminated by some kind of bacteria. Sure, we all like to make our own calls while answering Mother Nature's, but that's just gross. Here’s a surefire way to avoid a crappy user experience on your smartphone or other mobile device.

Step 1. Wash Your Phone (Carefully!)

Here are the only Apple-approved instructions for cleaning an iPhone. They seem like good advice for any mobile device user. Don't do anything else. It will void your warranty. If you use water, do it carefully, and keep the wetness away from all openings. Don't use any kind of chemical. If your mobile is already contaminated, you'll just have to live with it.

Step 2. Choose Your Phoning Hand

Before you even walk into that bathroom, decide which hand is for the mobile and which is for wiping. If your device hand touches anything nasty, it's out of play. So make a choice and stick with it.

Step 3. Commence Your Business

Hopefully you don't need instructions for this part other than a reminder to keep your device hand well away from the drop zone, as it were.

Step 4. Return the Phone to Your Pocket (With One Hand)

This is the most delicate part of the procedure. When you're ready to rejoin polite society, you can restore your device to your pocket - but you must do so one-handed, taking care to avoid contact with potentially soiled items and surfaces. Once your device is securely stowed, you may wipe, stand and flush.

Step 5. Wash Your Freaking Hands

I'm embarrassed to feel it necessary to include this step, but once you have evacuated, and before you touch your mobile device again, wash your hands thoroughly with soap and warm water.

After researching this topic, I don't think I'll ever again feel comfortable borrowing someone's phone unless we all promise to follow this protocol. I promise. Do you?

Please leave your promise in the comments.