Google Labs Will Shut Down

Google announced Wednesday that it plans to shutter its Labs department in an effort to focus more on its products.

For years, Google Labs has been, to quote the company, “a playground where our more adventurous users can play around with prototypes of some of our wild and crazy ideas and offer feedback directly to the engineers who developed them.” That playground has birthed the likes of the Google Reader and Google Goggles — to name a very few.

Google announced the loss of Labs via its blog, stating: “While we’ve learned a huge amount by launching very early prototypes in Labs, we believe that greater focus is crucial if we’re to make the most of the extraordinary opportunities ahead.”

Many Labs experiments will end, Google says, and other products will be folded into different areas. Android apps in the Lab phase, however, will still be largely available in the Android Market.


Source: Mashable

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Obama Loses 36,000+ Twitter Followers in #Compromise Campaign [STATS]

President Obama created a barrage of activity on Twitter on Friday afternoon when he began urging his more than 9 million followers to tweet at their Republican Congressmen to “ask them to support a bipartisan solution to the deficit crisis.”

The @BarackObama account then proceeded to tweet out the Twitter handles of Republican Congressmen state-by-state. The account has also been making use of the hashtag #compromise in an effort to drive home the message of bipartisanship.

The results so far have been mixed. According to NM Incite, the #compromise hashtag had been used more than 22,000 times and reached 36 million users (followers of accounts using the hashtag) as of around 5 p.m. ET on Friday, and people had mentioned the President some 28,000 times in tweets. NM Incite says 40% of the @BarackObama mentions and 28% of the #compromise tweets expressed positive sentiment, with only 13% and 12% of them expressing negative sentiment, respectively.

As we noted in our earlier coverage, however, some users felt the state-by-state tweets were creating way too much noise — the President has lost nearly 37,000 followers so far today. You can see the drop as the day progressed in this chart from Simply Measured:

Obama’s losses appear to have been Republican’s gains, at least when it comes to followers. The National Journal notes that Republican congressmen on Twitter picked up a total of about 6,500 new followers Friday thanks to the exposure on the President’s widely followed account.

Meanwhile, certain states seemed more supportive of the President’s campaign than others. According to data from 140 Elect LLC, Twitter users in California, Georgia and Alabama retweeted the President’s call to action the most — more than 300 times in each state — while voters in South Carolina, Mississippi and North Dakota showed the least engagement with less than 100 retweets of their state-specific message.

Meanwhile, Simply Measured took a look at the states that made the most use of the #compromise hashtag:

Members of Congress also used the opportunity to fire back at the President (or echo his sentiments) with their own tweets, as you can see in the gallery in this link:

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Google+ Update Makes Managing Circles Easier

Power Google+ users — those with lots of Circles — are intimately aware of how frustrating it can be to manage them. Your most-used Circles can get hidden at the bottom of a long list. But Google+ engineer Brett van Zuiden now comes to the rescue with some welcome Friday afternoon news: You can now reorder your circles.

“We’ve been hearing that you want a way to reorder your circles — so when you add people, view your stream, or share, that list of circles is in the order that works for you,” van Zuiden writes on Google’s thriving social network. “We thought it was a great idea, and today, we’re launching this on Google+.”

In the Circles tab, simply drag-and-drop your Circles to reorder them. Your Circles will now appear elsewhere in the social network in the order you’ve determined.

And that’s not all. “When in the circles tab, you can drag a circle up into the space where all your people are to view all the people for that circle,” van Zuiden adds. “For those in-the-know, it’s called ‘Circle in Tab.’”

The feature release is a relatively minor addition — it probably should have made the first private beta build. Still, it’s an update that could ease a little pain for Google+’s most Circle-happy users.


more at Mashable

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IE Users Have Lower IQ Than Users of Other Web Browsers [STUDY]

A recent study links intelligence test results with browser usage — and the results don’t look good for users of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, especially its older versions.

The study, titled “Intelligence Quotient (IQ) and Browser Usage” by Canadian company AptiQuant, compiled IQ test scores of 101,326 individuals older than the age of 16 and divided them into groups according to the browser they use.

The results are fascinating. Users of Internet Explorer 6 have an average IQ score barely more than 80; Firefox and Chrome users fare much better, with average IQ scores of around 110, while Opera and Camino users have an average IQ score more than 120.

It’s also interesting to note that average IQ scores of IE6 users were significantly higher in 2006, and that the IQ scores get better with newer versions of IE.

Internet Explorer 6 has long been a thorn in the side of developers who hated it for its non-compliance with web standards, while users struggled with its many security flaws. This new study will probably induce more mockery of the ancient (but still sometimes found on older computers) browser and its users, but it’s probably not telling us that much about the browser itself — it’s about unwillingness to upgrade to a new version of any software.

The study concludes that “individuals on the lower side of the IQ scale tend to resist a change/upgrade of their browsers.” It’s only logical that users with a higher IQ are more likely to experiment, choose a different software version or variant (notice that users of IE with Chrome frame score very high on IQ tests) or listen to upgrade suggestions and security advice.

In March, Microsoft started a campaign to get users to stop using Internet Explorer 6. But did it take into account the fact that many IE6 users tend to have lower than average IQ scores? Maybe that’s the key to finally getting rid of the world’s most hated web browser.

“Individuals on the lower side of the IQ scale tend to resist a change/upgrade of their browsers. … Now that we have a statistical pattern on the continuous usage of incompatible browsers, better steps can be taken to eradicate this nuisance,” the study concludes.

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Jackass Movies Come to Facebook

 

The complete Jackass series of films is now available to rent directly on Facebook.

Paramount Pictures has made Jackass The Movie, Jackass 2, Jackass 3, along with the digital-only features Jackass 2.5 and Jackass 3.5 available on Facebook. The films can be rented with Facebook Credits.

It’s another sign that Facebook is gaining ground as a movie rental platform. Warner Bros. started making its films available on the social network earlier this spring and has continued at a steady clip.

Along with the rentals, Paramount Pictures also released a new Jackass ClipApp that allows fans to assemble their own Jackass experiences, using over 100 pre-selected scenes from all five movies. The resulting clips can then be shared with friends over Facebook.

As a film franchise, Jackass already has strong digital roots. Jackass 2.5 was the first digital release from a major studio. It generated more than 20 million views in its first week.

 

more at Mashable

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Apple Now World’s Top Smartphone Vendor, Has More Cash than U.S. Government

It must feel good to be a part of Apple today: the company was proclaimed the world’s top smartphone vendor by Strategy Analytics, and its cash reserves are now bigger than the U.S. government’s balance.


According to Strategy Analytics‘ report, Apple is now the world’s largest smartphone vendor by volume with 18 percent market share. Nokia is now number three with 15%, behind Samsung which grew an amazing 520% annually to grab a 17% share of the global smartphone market.

Also, with a $75.9 billion balance Apple is obviously doing really well in the “cash reserves” department, but it sounds even better when you hear the U.S. Treasury Department say that the government now has a total operating balance of $73.8 billion.

Apple’s stock price recently surged passed $400, and its total market capitalization is more than $363 billion, which makes it the second largest company in the world, behind Exxon Mobil. The Cupertino giant is already on top of the world, and the only question right now seems to be: how much higher can it go?

 
more at Mashable

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Letter from Lulz Security, Anonymous and AntiSec [ Hacking ]

Dear staff of PayPal, its customers and friends around the world,

This is an official communication by Anonymous lulz, and Security, united in the name of AntiSec.

In recent weeks, we were outraged by the arrest by the FBI and threats perpetrated against people involved in protests modern form of information operations. The security forces continue to fly in the face of their ridiculous rules. The members of Anonymous could face a fine of $ 500,000 and fifteen years in prison, all this why? To be part of an activist movement that fights for the people on the web. Many of the Anon arrested are accused of taking part in DDoS attacks against corrupt and greedy organizations, such as PayPal.

What the FBI needs to learn is that there is a big difference between adding a voice to the chorus part in a sit-in digital LOIC and control of a vast botnet infected computers. However, today, both involving the same sentence.

In addition to this unacceptable incompetence of the police, continues to steal PayPal funds to Wikileaks, real beacon of truth in these dark times. PayPal continues to wash their hands of any guilt and simultaneously encourages and helps the police to hunt down participants in the movement AntiSec.

Quite simply, we, the people, are disgusted by these injustices. We do not stop and we will not step from any company or government. We are not afraid, and this is what you should be scared of you. We are not terrorists here: you are, there obstacles and pursuing your interests.

We urge anyone using PayPal to close their accounts immediately and take coinsiderazione alternative. The first step to be truly free is to put one's trust in a company that freezes the accounts if it wishes, or when it is under pressure from the U.S. government. The desire to bend the laws of PayPal should be proof enough that it does not deserve to get customers. He does not deserve your business, does not deserve your respect.

Join us in our last operation against paypal - Twittered pictures of your account closed, speak to us about the IRC, Tell it to the world. Anonymous has become a powerful channel for information and, differnza of the various governments of the world, we are here for you to compact. Always.

Signed, your allies,

Lulz Security
Anonymous
AntiSec

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Google Launches Hotel Search Tool With Room Price Data

Google has launched Hotel Finder, an experimental search tool, which enables users to define key lodging preferences in hopes of finding the perfect hotel for their travel needs.

Users input their preferred location, dates, price and rating details, and Hotel Finder delivers its top recommendations, in a list or on a Google Map. For the moment, it’s only available in the U.S.

Here’s how Google aims to improve hotel hunting with this tool:

• Finding the perfect location. If you’re not a local, it can be difficult to figure out what area of a city you should stay in. Hotel Finder highlights popular areas on the map results. Google calls this the “tourist spotlight,” and it is used to determine an optimal zone for you to stay in. The shape of this area can be adjusted to focus on a smaller area. This is useful if you’ve got a rough destination in mind, such as along the Hudson River or near Times Square.

• Getting a good deal: Users can choose a price range to search within, as well as compare that hotel’s historical pricing data to its current listing price. Clicking on a hotel will bring up the cost of a room per night and how that compares to previous prices. Google calculates what percentage the cost is above or below the normal. Bargain hunters, start your engines.

• Comparing hotels: Hotel Finder simplifies comparative shopping. When users click on on a hotel, its full details pop up, including photos, Google Places reviews, pricing and other information. You quickly flip through results by using keyboard shortcuts (“J” and “K”) within the list view — a feature also found in Google Reader and Google News.

• Making a shortlist: Users can build a shortlist of hotels they’d like to compare further. These results are marked with a red dot in the Google Maps view, and appear at the top of the page in the list view.

Click on the “Book” button in either view and a list of external options are shown. Clicking on a booking option pulls up that site — such as Priceline or Expedia — in a new tab. (Google isn’t getting into the business of booking hotels itself.)

Take a look at Hotel Finder’s features in the gallery below, test it out and let us what you think about the new tool in the comments below. How does it compare to other hotel-shopping methods?

Google Map Search Results

Hotel Details

Search Results in List View

Google Hotel Finder

more at Mashable

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Google’s New Page Speed Service Promises to Speed Up Your Website

Google still wants to make your website load faster. The company started on its web optimization quest with the Page Speed browser extension, then it moved the Page Speed tool online with an API and now Google is offering up the Page Speed Service.

Google’s new Page Speed Service is invite-only at the moment, but if you’d like to request access, head on over to the sign up page and drop your e-mail and URL in the form.

Google’s new Page Speed Service is one part optimization tool and one part content distribution network (CDN). Google essentially grabs your website, caches it and serves it from the company’s extensive network of servers around the world. The best part about Page Speed is its simplicity — all you need to do is point your DNS to Google’s servers. After that Google handles the rest and you don’t need to worry about minifying your JavaScript, compressing images, caching, gzipping, or any other web performance best practices.

For your site’s visitors everything works just as it always has, the page load times are just shorter. At least that’s the theory. In reality, how much the Page Speed Service will speed up your site varies considerably depending on how well optimized your website is to begin with.

The Google Code blog reports that, on average, pages served from Page Speed are between twenty and sixty percent faster. If you’re curious to see how Google’s Page Speed service stacks up against your current setup, you can compare load times through WebPageTest. I ran my site through the test and the Google optimized version was roughly 40 percent faster, though judging by the screenshots it didn’t quite render properly.

The rendering problems may have been WebPageTest’s fault, though the Page Speed Service documentation seems to indicate that not every page is going to render properly. The Page Speed Service offers a tool to blacklist any specific pages you don’t want Page Speed to serve up because it doesn’t render them properly.

It’s also worth bearing in mind that, while a 40 percent speed boost did shave over half a second off my site’s page load times, most of the performance gain came from Page Speed’s heavily cached CDN. If your site is already well-optimized, but lacks a (somewhat expensive) CDN, Google Page Speed isn’t going to help you out any more than existing services like Amazon’s CloudFront or any other CDN.

The Page Speed docs explain some more in-depth methods of testing your website using various browser proxy add-ons so you can perform your own, more thorough speed tests before you commit to using the Page Speed Service.

For now the Page Speed Service is free, but don’t expect that to last. Eventually, when Page Speed opens up to everyone, Google plans to start charging for it. For now the company isn’t committing to actual prices, saying only that Page Speed will be “competitive.” Presumably that means something in the ballpark of Amazon’s S3, CloudFront and similar services.

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Face Recognition Coming to iOS 5

Apple is planning to include face detection capabilities in the next version of its smartphone/tablet platform, iOS 5, 9 to 5 Mac has discovered.

It is too early to tell exactly how the face recognition in iOS 5 will work, but it appears Apple plans to open it up to developers via several API controls, including a call for recognizing the position of the person’s eyes and mouth. This means that in the future we’ll be seeing iOS apps utilizing face detection from third-party developers and possibly from Apple itself.

The technology behind this feature probably comes from Polar Rose, a Swedish face recognition company, which Apple acquired in 2010.

Check out this video showcasing an augmented reality app called Recognizr, which Polar Rose co-developed.

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Android Now Owns 39% of Smartphone Market [STATS]

Android retains its crown as the top smartphone operating system in the U.S., while RIM continues to falter, according to the most recent data from Nielsen.

In assessing the latest data from June, Nielsen found that 39% of the smartphone market belongs to Google’s Android operating system. Apple has 28% of the market, while RIM and the BlackBerry OS are down to 20%.

When we compare those figures with the data Nielsen released for February through May, Android is up 3%, Apple is up 2% and RIM is down 3%.

When it comes to top phone manufacturers, however, Apple is the clear winner. Like RIM, Apple has the advantage of controlling the software and the hardware for its smartphone platform. Unlike RIM, Apple sells only three smartphones in the U.S.: the iPhone 4 (AT&T), the iPhone 4 (Verizon) and the iPhone 3GS (AT&T).

HTC is the biggest Android manufacturer, according to Nielsen, with 14% of the Android market. Motorola and Samsung have 11% and 8% respectively.


more at Mashable

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The First Battleship Trailer = Transformers + Top Gun + Milton Bradley

We aren't sure what to make of this first 'Battleship' trailer other than it appears director Peter Berg wasted a whole lot of money on making this movie look just like 'Transformers.' Not that we had much faith to begin with -- after all, this film is based on a board game.

The two-minute clip shows the Navy finding some type of extraterrestrial ship in the water as it begins shooting giant peg-like explosives (like the pegs from the game!). The teaser even manages to sneak in a romantic story line with Taylor Kitsch and Brooklyn Decker -- Apparently Kitsch's character, Alex, is looking to marry Sam, the daughter of Admiral Shane (played by Liam Neeson). Of course Admiral Shane is not happy about this.

Check out the trailer below.

Video Player Controls

Source: MovieFone

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Russia Takes Gold at National Geographic World Championship

Defending champs from Canada faced off against
Chinese Taipei and Russia in a contest that host Alex Trebek called
the most challenging World Championship yet. NGS photo.

Defeating teams from 16 other regions, Russia took top honors at the 10th National Geographic World Championship held today at Google headquarters in Mountain View, California. Canada, the defending champion, came in second, and Chinese Taipei was third. The biennial competition, in which teams of students answer questions on physical, cultural and economic geography, is organized by the National Geographic Society. Google was the sponsor of this year’s contest.

Russia has entered a team in every National Geographic World Championship since the competition began in 1993. This is the first time the country has won. The Russian team comprised Alexander Bondarchuk, 16, of St. Petersburg; Masha Samoletova, 16, of St. Petersburg; and Egor Shustov, 16, of Sludyanka.

The Canadian team members were Alexander Cohen, 15, of Ottawa, Ontario; Aoife O’Leary, 15, of Surrey, British Columbia; and Alejandro Torres-Lopez, 16, of North Vancouver, British Columbia.

Representing Chinese Taipei were Chen-Luo Cheng, 15, of Taipei; Po-Chen Chu, 14, of Taitung; and Tong-hong Hsu, 14, of Banqiao District, New Taipei City.

In an Olympics-style ceremony, gold, silver and bronze medals were awarded to the first-, second- and third-placed teams. Alex Trebek, host of the U.S. television quiz show “Jeopardy!”, moderated today’s finals.

Russia, Canada and Chinese Taipei qualified for the final round after obtaining the highest combined scores in a written contest on Sunday and in Monday’s preliminary activity that included a hands-on activity at the San Francisco Zoo.

Students were eligible to take part in the World Championship competition by winning or being a top finisher in the national competitions of their home regions. The 14 other teams competing this year were from Australia, Bulgaria, China, Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, India, Mexico, Nigeria, Poland, Singapore, Slovakia, the United Kingdom and the United States.

John Fahey, chairman and CEO of the National Geographic Society, said the competition was a great way for talented young geographers around the world to match wits against each other and to enjoy a rewarding cross-cultural exchange. “The competition enhances geo-literacy, international dialogue and understanding, and promotes friendships around the globe,” he said.

The World Championship is held every two years. The first contest, held in London in 1993, was won by the United States, which beat teams from the United Kingdom and Russia. The Australians, competing against four other teams, won the 1995 competition in Orlando, Fla. The third championship, held in 1997 at National Geographic headquarters in Washington, D.C., was won by Canada, which bested eight other teams. The United States won the fourth competition against 11 teams in Toronto, Canada, in 1999. The United States also took first place in the 2001 contest in Vancouver, Canada; in 2003 at Busch Gardens, Fla.; and in 2005 in Budapest, Hungary. The 2007 competition at SeaWorld, San Diego, was won by Mexico. Canada took top honors in 2009 in Mexico City.

Teachers: want to compete next year? Now’s the time to apply for the 2012 U.S. National Geographic Bee.

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iPhone 5 Set for Record Launch: 35% of Consumers to Buy New iPhone

Anticipation in the consumer electronics world is soaring for the launch of Apple's iPhone 5, which is rumored to be hitting store shelves this fall.  About 35 percent of consumers plan to purchase the latest iPhone upon its release, according to a survey by PriceGrabber, a part of online shopping site Experian.

The Cupertino, California-based firm typically unveils a new iPhone model at its annual developers' conference in June.  Thus hype on the iPhone 5 picked up after CEO Steve Jobs did not talk about the iPhone 5 at the conference.  Sales of iPhone 5 are expected to surpass the 1.7 million units sold for the iPhone 4 within 3 days of its release.

Last week, Apple launched its the new MacBook Air line of laptops together with the Mac OS X Lion, Apple's eighth major operating system update for Mac desktops and its laptops.  The iOS 5, Apple's operating system for the iPhone and iPad tablet, is due to launch this autumn. 

According to reports Apple did not confirm, Apple is releasing a thinner and lighter iPhone at the end of September, together with the iOS 5.  The new iPhone is said to be similar to the current iPhone 4, but slimmer with an improved eight-megapixel camera.  iPhone 5 will reportedly have a A5 processor, a more powerful chip that was added to the iPad 2, which was released in April.  Production problems have delayed the iPhone 5's launch, The Wall Street Journal reported weeks ago, citing sources it did not identify.

Of the PriceGrabber survey respondents, 51 percent indicated that they will buy the smartphone within the first year of release, 30 percent will purchase it before the end of 2011, 14 percent will buy it within the first month, and 7 percent will buy it within the first week.  Conducted from July 1-11, 2011, the survey includes responses from 2,852 U.S. online consumers.

Lower Price, More Battery Life
Consumers are hoping for an improved battery life and reduced costWhen it comes to the new features shoppers deem most important in their decision to purchase the iPhone 5, practicality seems to reign.  When respondents were asked to select new iPhone 5 features most important when considering a purchase, 59 percent indicated a better battery life, and 55 percent are looking for cost reduction.  Forty-six percent said that 4G network compatibility was important to them, 45 percent are hoping for a larger screen, and 42 percent would like an improved camera.

"Our survey data confirms the strong following Apple has built around its iPhone, with more than one-third of consumers planning to upgrade to the latest model only a little over a year following the release of the iPhone 4," stated Graham Jones, general manager of PriceGrabber. "Anticipation and brand loyalty are certainly high, but in today's 24-7 work culture and uncertain economic environment, consumers are cautious to look for a reasonably priced phone that will perform optimally over an extended time period."

Top Choice for Mobile OS
PriceGrabber said consumers' love for Apple products is clear. When asked which smartphone operating system they prefer, an overwhelming 48 percent of PriceGrabber survey respondents said Apple iOS. Nineteen percent of respondents indicated that they prefer Android OS, 7 percent said Microsoft Windows, and 6 percent chose RIM BlackBerry.

Respondents also were asked which smartphone they would prefer to receive as a gift.  An astonishing 69 percent of consumers indicated that they would most like to receive Apple's iPhone 5. Seven percent said they would like to receive Motorola's upcoming Droid Bionic, 4 percent would prefer to get the Samsung Galaxy S II, and 3 percent said the BlackBerry Curve.

Going Back to Basics
PriceGrabber noted that these days, smartphones' abilities are practically limitless, and app marketplaces are full of solutions to enhance everyday life.  However, according to PriceGrabber's survey data, smartphones' simplest features remain the most popular. When asked what they generally use their smartphone for, 88 percent of respondents said phone calls, 77 said email, 73 percent indicated texting, 69 percent use it to browse the Internet, 51 percent said searching, and 50 percent use the phone's Global Positioning System. 

Shopping Aid
According to PriceGrabber, even in our largely virtual world, the thrill of shopping in a real brick-and-mortar store has not died.  PriceGrabber's survey data found that 36 percent of consumers said they use their smartphone for shopping.  When these respondents were asked to select all the ways in which they use their smartphones for shopping, 48 percent said they compare prices online when shopping in a store; 35 percent use it to scan product bar codes to find the best price; 29 percent use localization features to find nearby products; and 28 percent like to receive coupons, deals and alerts while on the go.

When asked how often they make shopping-related purchases on their phone, 22 percent of respondents said a couple of times a month, 16 percent said a few times a year, and 12 percent said one or more times per week.

"Mobile shopping has truly emerged as a trend among savvy consumers, and what positions it for long-term success is the fact that consumers can use their smartphones as an enhancement to the shopping they already do in brick-and-mortar stores," said Jones. "Analysis of our survey data shows that shoppers are not just sitting behind a computer doing their shopping from home; they are engaging with and leveraging the technology of their smartphones to take advantage of what their local retailers have to offer, which is certainly a promising prospect for the Main Street economy."


more at IBTimes

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Scotland Yard Arrests Suspected LulzSec Spokesman

Scotland Yard says it has arrested a teenager accused of being the voice of LulzSec, the loose group of hackers behind some recent, notable site takedowns.

A 19-year-old who used the online name Topiary was arrested in Scotland, Scotland Yard said Wednesday. He faces charges for cybercrime, hacking and network intrusions, according to reports.

This latest arrest is the third made in the UK related to LulzSec. Another 19-year-old LulzSec suspect was arrested a month ago in Essex, England. According to the Guardian, he is due to appear in court August 30. A 16-year-old was also arrested and has been released on bail.

Hackers who identify themselves with the group have in recent months targeted the CIA’s website, Rupert Murdoch’s Sun newspaper, the U.S. Senate’s site, Sony’s PlayStation Network and online games. And less than a week ago LulzSec and Anonymous released a joint statement in response to a law enforcement crackdown on hacking.

“These governments and corporations are our enemy,” the statement said. “And we will continue to fight them, with all methods we have at our disposal, and that certainly includes breaking into their websites and exposing their lies.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, airportrait




more at Mashable

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Samsung Reigns as Android’s True Champion

Samsung has its sights on being the king of all things Android.

The company announced Wednesday that its Galaxy S 2 smartphone reached record sales numbers for the company, with more than 5 million handsets sold in the first three months since the smartphone’s debut. And that number accounts for only a quarter of the company’s total smartphone sales over the past three months.

“[Samsung is] claiming that they shipped 19 million smartphones in the second quarter,” IDC mobile analyst Al Hilwa told Wired.com in a statement. “That is a great number of devices, and assuming that most of them are Android phones, then it is a feat for Android.”

The numbers are only going up from here. Thus far, the Galaxy S2’s release has been limited to South Korea (where Samsung’s global HQ is located), parts of southeast Asia and a handful of European countries. The phone’s U.S. release is slated for some time in August, according to Samsung president of mobile business and digital imaging Shin Jong-kyun. The news was first reported by Korean news agency Yonhap.

“In just a few months the Galaxy S II has led the way in driving Samsung’s unmatched performance in the smartphone industry” Shin said in a statement. “This reflects the strong support from carrier partners globally, who in choosing the Galaxy S II as their flagship device have reaffirmed the device’s status as a premium, market-defining Smartphone.”

A little perspective: Samsung’s first highly popular smartphone, the Galaxy S, hit the five million mark at around four months, with the lion’s share of those sales occurring in the United States. And after six months of global sales, the Galaxy S hit 10 million units sold.

Compare that to Motorola’s Droid One smartphone — once considered the most successful Android phone — which sold 1.05 million devices in the first 74 days of release. Since its first major successful Android phone, Motorola has strived for another hit device. The Atrix– the smartphone-cum-laptop hybrid device which Motorola first introduced in January — looked to be the company’s next hit phone. But high prices for the accompanying peripheral hardware that made the phone unique deterred customers, keeping the Atrix from gaining any significant following.

“Device makers have always craved being platform owners,” Hilwa told Wired.com, “which is why they end up developing as much software and tinkering with the UI’s, so that they can move up the food chain.”

And that’s exactly what Samsung is doing. The company plans to unveil a major revamp of its TouchWiz user interface at an event in New York next week. It’s a timely release, considering Apple’s iOS 5 revamp announcement just over a month ago.

Aside from competing for customers with rival Android manufacturers, Samsung is fighting battles on other fronts. Apple is currently suing Samsung in a bitter ongoing patent dispute, claiming the South Korean company is ripping off Apple’s product designs. Samsung quickly filed countersuits against Apple, claiming Apple was encroaching on Samsung’s intellectual property by using a method to improve connections between cell phones and cellular towers.

Samsung’s battles with Apple extend outside of the courtroom, of course. When measured against Apple’s iPhone sales, Samsung’s numbers pale in comparison. Apple sold over 20 million iPhone 4 smartphones in the past three months alone, according to the Cupertino-based company’s last earnings report. That’s over 100 million iPhones sold to date.

A straight apples-to-apples comparison (so to speak) is misleading. Samsung isn’t just competing against Apple and its iOS platform. As one of many manufacturers producing hardware running the same operating system, customers can choose between Motorola, LG, Sony Ericsson and others to get their Android fix. That’s not to mention the other competitors in the space like RIM, HP and Nokia, though the latter two admittedly have a negligible market share.

If Samsung continues to pull ahead of other Android devices in the pack, the company seems to be the only true competitor to Apple’s skyrocketing smartphone success. In the first quarter of 2011, Samsung accounted for 13 percent of all smartphones sold globally, up from just three percent during the same period of time the previous year. That’s more than any other Android manufacturer, according to IMS Research. It’s important to note that rival manufacturer HTC isn’t far behind, however: The Taiwan-based company is just three percent behind Samsung in market share, according to IMS.

There’s also competition on the tablet device front, where Samsung may be putting out some of the best hardware. DisplayMate president Dr. Raymond Soneira recently compared five of the leading tablet devices on the market — four of which were Android-based, with the last being the iPad 2. Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1 came out ahead, touting the best display out of all five devices, including Apple’s (though it should be noted that Soneira found Samsung’s colors oversaturated to a noticeable degree).

The devices themselves, however, are just one part of the overall package. “Samsung has done a great job on making compelling hardware, the look, feel and capabilities,” Gartner mobile analyst Phillip Redman told Wired.com in an interview. “But the total ecosystem is not in its hands like it is Apple’s. It really isn’t just about the hardware. That’s important—but it’s the ecosystem that includes the OS, the application stores, the developers, content—all of that that will make something successful.”

Apple certainly has a leg up on its competitors in the overall ecosystem. The company has approved over half a million apps for its App Store as of May, double the amount currently found on the Android Market. And of course, Apple owns its software, hardware and retail stores. The company also keeps strict control over its app ecosystem, with final say on what is and isn’t acceptable for its store.

So even if Samsung can corner the Android landscape, can it stand up to Apple, a company which seems to have the entire package going for it?

“Samsung and Motorola Mobility will be great competitors to Apple,” Redman says, “but they aren’t of the same leadership caliber, position and vision.”


more at Wired

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“Man Without a Facebook” Shows Merits of Being “Untaggable” [VIDEO]

Everyone knows that if you’re not friends on Facebook, you ain’t friends in real life. Well, everyone aside from the emotionally stunted, that is — which is the message behind parody trailer, The Man Without a Facebook.

The mini film, an obvious play on The Man Without a Face that was created by writers and directors Dan De Lorenzo and Ben Stumpf, promotes the merits of being “untaggable,” which seem to include writing with pens, coming up with words sans Google and understanding why men and women like each other.

Sounds about right.



more at Mashable

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Google+ Traffic Falls As Users Spend Less Time on Site

After a running start, Google+‘s growth may be slowing down a bit. A report from Experian Hitwise found both traffic and users’ average time on the social network fell last week in the U.S.

Total visits to Google+ declined about 3% to 1.79 million in the U.S. for the week ending July 23 compared to the previous seven days, according to the research company. The site received 1.86 million visits the prior week. Average time on the site was down 10%, from 5 minutes, 50 seconds to 5 minutes, 15 seconds.

Matt Tatham, a rep for Experian Hitwise, was careful not to overplay the findings. “This is not a huge drop,” he says. The company extrapolates its figures from data from ISPs and from an opt-in panel of about 2.5 million users.

The report comes after Google+’s traffic enjoyed a steady climb since its June 28 debut. Last week, comScore reported that the network hit 20 million unique visitors. Some were so enamored with Google+ that they closed out their Facebook accounts and moved all their activity to the new network.

What do you think? Has the novelty of Google+ worn off or is this just a blip on the road to world domination?


more at Mashable

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iPad To Dominate Tablet Market Until 2015

The iPad will continue to dominate the growing tablet market until Android tablets take over in 2015, according to forecasts from Informa Telecoms & Media.

The study estimates that Apple currently owns about 75% of the tablet market, which is expected to expand from less than 20 million units in 2010 to more than 230 million in 2015. By that time, Apple’s share of the market will drop to just 38%, due largely to the proliferation of cheaper and more advanced Android tablets. Still, it will take another year — until 2016 — for Android tablets to outsell Apple ones.

RIM’s prospects for market expansion are less optimistic, the study finds. Once the PlayBook begins supporting Android apps and 4G connectivity — HSPA+ and LTE versions are expected before the end of 2011 — sales are expected to improve.

Other analysts are more bullish on Apple’s market dominance. A study released by Gartner in April predicted the iPad will maintain a 47% share of the tablet by 2015, with Android hovering just above 38%.

Who will win the tablet wars, and how long will it take?


more at Mashable

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Google+ Claims 20 Million Members in First Month

Does the world really need a new social networking site?

Maybe it does, and maybe that helps explain the success of Google+. It only turns a month old on Thursday, but it already claims up to 20 million members. And since the service went live, Google Inc. stock has gone up nearly 30 percent, raising the value of the company (the "market cap" in Wall Street jargon) by $45 billion.

"They're probably the only company well positioned to launch a Facebook alternative," said Danny Sullivan, founder of Search Engine Land and a prominent Google-watcher. "People like alternatives. Twitter doesn't offer a full-fledged alternative to the Facebook experience. Google does."

Google+ is still far smaller than Facebook, but it is already stealing attention and advertising dollars. It offers one-stop shopping for people who want to link up with friends and family, but don't like using multiple sites.

"Google+ has aspects of Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn in it, and folks are a bit overwhelmed with all of the different social networking services," said Rob Enderle, a technology analyst based in San Jose, Calif. "Folks have also crammed these other services with tons of 'friends' they don't really know, and the sheer volume of activity has weakened the quality of the experience."

Google+ will look familiar if you've used Facebook -- but different. There are photos and comments from friends, but there are also "circles" into which you can categorize people with whom you've linked -- friends, family, acquaintances and so on. There may be something silly from that Saturday-night party that you'd share with close friends, but not with a business connection.

Enderle says the mix is well-thought-out. "Google+ thus simplifies their online social networking life," he said in an email to ABC News, "and has allowed them to start over choosing their 'friends' more judiciously, preserving the quality of the experience."

That said, tech-industry wags like the irony that the most-followed public figure on Google+ is Mark Zuckerberg -- Facebook's founder. (Well behind, according to Google+ Statistics, are Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Google's founders.)

And writers have noted there's a tech-geek Silicon-Valley quality to Google+; Zuckerberg's 388,000 followers can't compare to the 11 million on Twitter that Lady Gaga or Justin Bieber each command.

But Google is not complaining. It has a success on its hands. "For people who love Google," said Sullivan, "it's like they've found a home where they can be loud and proud about the company."

One other thing: There is an aura of exclusivity to Google+. When it started you had to be invited to join, even if only by a friend you hadn't seen in years. "That last created a bit of a feeding frenzy that I think surprised a lot of us," said Enderle. "In a way they used social engineering to create initial demand and that was new to them."

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Save your friends from outdated email

You’ve probably already improved the lives of your friends and family members by helping them switch to Gmail, but what about that one friend who still hasn’t made the switch? It’s time to take a stand and stage an intervention.

Don't worry. We'll help you out.

HOW TO STAGE AN INTERVENTION
Follow these three simple steps

1. Select from your contacts

2. Create a customized email

3. Send to your friend

 

more at Email Intervention

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LulzSec and Anonymous hacker suspects arrested by US, UK and Dutch authorities

Computer crime authorities will be hoping that they have struck a significant blow against the Anonymous and LulzSec hacking groups, following a series of raids and arrests on both sides of the Atlantic.

In the United States, 16 people have been arrested in connection with an internet attack last year against PayPal - an assault which was claimed by the loosely-knit hacktivist group known as "Anonymous", in retaliation for the website withdrawing support for WikiLeaks.

According to a Department of Justice press release, arrests were made in Alabama, Arizona, California, Colorado, the District of Columbia, Florida, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Mexico, Ohio and the District of New Jersey.

In all, FBI agents executed more than 35 search warrants as part of the co-ordinated investigation.

In addition, the UK's PCeU arrested a 16-year-old youth known as "T-Flow" in South London, on suspicion of breaching the Computer Misuse Act. The teenager is allegedly connected to hacks perpetrated by the LulzSec and Anonymous groups.

Finally, the Dutch National Police Agency arrested four individuals for alleged cybercrimes related to the case.

Defendants named by the US authorities include:

* Christopher Wayne Cooper, 23, aka "Anthrophobic"
* Joshua John Covelli, 26, aka "Absolem" and "Toxic"
* Keith Wilson Downey, 26
* Mercedes Renee Haefer, 20, aka "No" and "MMMM"
* Donald Husband, 29, aka "Ananon"
* Vincent Charles Kershaw, 27, aka "Trivette", "Triv" and "Reaper"
* Ethan Miles, 33
* James C. Murphy, 36
* Drew Alan Phillips, 26, aka "Drew010"
* Jeffrey Puglisi, 28, aka "Jeffer", "Jefferp" and "Ji"
* Daniel Sullivan, 22
* Tracy Ann Valenzuela, 42
* Christopher Quang Vo, 22

In addition, 21-year-old Scott Matthew Arciszewski, 21 who was arrested by the FBI in Florida, was charged with hacks targeted at the Tampa Bay InfraGard website.

InfraGard is a public-private partnership for critical infrastructure protection sponsored by the FBI.

Meanwhile, 21-year-old Lance Moore, of Las Cruses, New Mexico, was charged with allegedly stealing confidential business information from AT&T's web servers. Moore is said to have worked as a customer support contractor at the firm and is alleged to have downloaded thousands of documents and other files that he was not authorised to access.

The AT&T files were later published by the LulzSec hacking group.

Computer crime authorities will no doubt be hoping that they have struck a significant blow against the Anonymous and LulzSec hacking groups - but anyone who believes we have heard the last of the hacktivists is probably going to be sourly disappointed.

more at Naked Security

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An Interview With a Target of the FBI’s Anonymous Probe

The feds are taking Operation Payback seriously: In response to the Anonymous attacks on Paypal, Mastercard, Amazon, and other corporations that severed ties to Wikileaks in the wake of Cablegate, the FBI has served more than 40 search warrants and subpoenas as part of an ongoing grand jury investigation into the attacks based in San Jose, Calif. We spoke to one target of the investigation, a 19-year-old woman who lives on the West Coast, anonymously about the FBI raid on her home, her participation in the movement, and the FBI's fundamental cluelessness about the nature of Anonymous.

The woman, who operated Internet Relay Chat (IRC) rooms where efforts to shut down Paypal and other sites were planned under the screen name "No," was raided late last month. Agents served a search warrant, questioned her, and seized two computers, her iPhone, and a router. Far from being a devious "hacker" who used her skills to undermine global corporations, "No" describes herself as a computer illiterate—"everything I know about computers I have learned since November"—who simply helped keep order and crack jokes in IRC channels. She says she never actually participated in DDOS attacks or cracking corporate security. And the FBI agents who raided her house at 6 a.m. displayed disconcerting naivete about what they were investigating: One agent asked her if she had a Guy Fawkes mask, the ad hoc symbol of anonymous that was adopted as a real-world totem by some protesters against Scientology but remains largely a digital badge. It would be weird if she actually had one.

The interview was conducted via e-mail and has been edited into a coherent Q-and-A.

Why did you get involved in Anonymous?

I saw something about them. Some web article. I said, "Wow, wtf are these people?" So I initially joined the IRC to watch them. It seemed like an interesting concept. A large group of angry people with supposedly no control structure tearing shit up online. I wanted to know if they really had no command structure. I wanted to know how it worked. Like a clock, sort of. Watch it. Take it apart. See how it ticks. And I liked what they were doing. I disagree with copyright. I disagree with how companies can shit on our rights and the government stands by and does nothing. I disagree with how a single mother can be sued for millions of dollars over 15 or 20 songs when those same songs are 99 cents on iTunes.

So what did you do? Did you participate in any DDOS attacks?

The phrase I used to use is "I don't lead Anonymous. I don't lead anyone. I just troll with authority." I never hosted a hivemind. I never wrote a piece of DDOS software. I never touched a server. I was a channel operator. Meaning, I had the ability to ban people from the channels I was operator on, kick them from those channels, change the [rules] of the channels. As far as the "did participate in DDOS, etc." question: That is, ironically, the same question the FBI asked me. "Do you have to DDOS or vandalize websites or hack to gain operator status in Anonymous?" My answer was: "No. That would be stupid. What if you are a horrible op and you abuse your privilege?" We give op to the people who we think will do a good job of maintaining the channels.

Why did the FBI target you?

My personal opinion is that, when I was "no," I got away with quite a bit of bullshit on the servers. I had op in quite a few channels. I was allowed to do things that the average user would have been banned for. I was friends with a few of the people that the FBI considers higher up in Anonymous. I helped in some of the setup channels. I think the FBI came to my house that morning thinking that I either was "high up" in Anonymous, or could and would hand them the people they are looking for. None of these things are true. I am just a user the IRCops [or people running IRC servers] find particularly amusing and so they let me get away with the ridiculous amount of running amok that I have a tendency to take part in.

Can you describe the raid?

It was six in the morning. I had just woken up to get ready for work. Obnoxious people in vests banged on my door and pointed guns at me when I was in my fucking pajamas. Later they told my family that I was "arrogant and belligerent." I disagree. I think they expected me to cry. I think they expected me to ask for forgiveness. I think they expected me to panic and give them everything I knew. I think that these are stupid expectations based on the fact that I am 19 and female. I think that they were disappointed with what I gave them.

What were they looking for?

The warrant said they were looking for anything that could store files connected to, or software for, hacking, infiltrating, DDOS attacks, etc. This could be anything from a phone, to a USB stick, to a microSD [Flash card], to a computer, to a backup disk. I think they are still looking for a leader of Anonymous. The sad thing is, there is no leader to give them. If they catch an IRCop, if they seize the servers, someone will just make new servers, build a new IRC network, new IRCops will step forward. No one person or select group of people select the targets. If enough people say "Lets DDOS Paypal," Paypal gets DDOS'd. Not by everyone. There is rarely an op where everyone takes part. Because, who is going to make them DDOS? There is no governing body. If they are looking for the responsible party in the Paypal raids, they should look at Paypal. I did not convince 7,000 people to attack Paypal. Paypal convinced 7,000 people to attack Paypal.

So what did they take from you?

The whole thing was sort of a botch. I had this flier hanging on my fridge. It's a picture of my little sister, and it says "The [insert little sister's name] Liberation Front." I made it as a joke about how strict my mother is. It looks quite like some of the fliers that have been made for Anonymous. They brought it into the living room where they were asking me questions and asked very seriously, "Is this an upcoming operation for Anonymous?" I laughed and almost said, "Yes."

The whole time they are asking me questions in my living room, I can hear the rest of the team in my kitchen looking over my laptop giggling and all excited like little kids. You expect the FBI to be professional. I mean, they have the vest, the gun, the little LED flashlight that leaves spots on your eyes. They all have the over exaggerated adjective "special" in front of their "agent". The whole 9 yards. And then you hear them gasping and cooing over my Mac because they are so excited they think they caught a cyber terrorist. (Who cyber terrorizes from a Mac?) I think, that to them, the raid was a game. The agent in charge of my particular warrant actually asked me if I owned a Guy Fawkes mask. I told him no and then asked him if he was disappointed that he wouldn't have a picture of "a real live Anon's mask" to hang in his office. He actually said yes. He gave me his card before he left. Later on, when he talked to my family, he told them that if I released his info to Anonymous, he would bring "the full force of the FBI" down upon me.

They found my German dictionary in my room and kept it with them when they were asking questions. Rather funny in my opinion. Very "Boondocks Saints". Like I might start insulting them in German and think they couldn't look it up later.

I think the American public sometimes has this general image of the FBI as professional and well informed and omniscient. Up until this point, I sort of held this same belief.

Do you fear you will be indicted?

There is a tiny little part of me that is like, "Oh shit. It's the FBI." But in honesty, there is nothing I can do if they choose to press charges. All I can do is try to not give them more evidence against me and not make it easy for them to reach a conviction.

Or do you just think it was just that they were digging through your stuff to look for bigger fish?

I think they thought they were catching a bigger fish, or that I would lead them to bigger fish. I am not a big fish. I am rather harmless. I have a propensity for teaching other Mac users how to use their Macs. Last I checked, this is not a crime. Although, I think that certain government agencies (including Steve Jobs, who I am convinced is a government agency) would like to make it illegal.

Have you also been called to testify before the grand jury?

No I have not. I was disappointed by this. I think I would have been a fun person to question. Maybe because they didn't want to pay for a German translator?

Why do you think the feds consider some folks "leaders"? Just that they're more active?

I think the Feds need there to be a leader. How do you cut the head off a snake that doesn't have a head? They are looking for the fastest most efficient way to kill Anonymous. If they ever kill Anonymous, it won't be fast and it wont be efficient. They would have to oppress many, many civil rights to do so. As far as taking out those who are more active—I can tell you that we had a boy in the Netherlands who used to help a lot with Anonymous. He got caught. He was 16. Before he got caught, Anonymous had maybe 15 Dutch on the whole IRC. After he got caught a special channel had to be made just for all the Dutch people that were coming in.

How'd they find you?

They found me through the IRC. I did not make myself a particularly hard person to track down, because I did not believe and still do not believe that I am worth prosecuting. I am harmless. The warrant said they were looking for anything that could be used to hack or infiltrate. I do not hack or infiltrate. Everything I know about computers I have learned since November. That is if you can consider a Macintosh a computer.

How has this affected you financially? Emotionally?

Well, I had a surplus when they hit. I have since moved out of my father's house. We disagree on my civil rights. He believes I should give them everything. I believe I should give them nothing. He believes I am not entitled to privacy and a doorknob. I believe he is a drunk who needs to learn how to clean the kitchen. Me and my father no longer speak and he refuses to call me by my name. He calls me either "terrorist" or "enemy of state." I find these amusing. I am even thinking of making t-shirts.


more at Gawker

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Exclusive First Look: The Smurfs Movie Storybook App for iOS

The popular children’s cartoon The Smurfs has been adapted for the big screen in the 3D flick The Smurfs Movie, starring Neil Patrick Harris and Hank Azaria. Now showing on iPhone and iPad, in advance of the film’s July 29 debut, is the companion iOS application — The Smurfs Movie Storybook.

The application, developed by mobile children’s book application publisher iStoryTime, is targeted at junior Smurfs fans and follows the storyline of the upcoming feature film.

The $2.99 storybook for iOS, released Tuesday, features images from the film and celebrity character voiceovers. It offers young readers narrated read-alongs with manual flip or auto-play options, and includes a “Spot-The-Mistakes” game.

Movie companion applications are becoming must-offer appetizers and desserts by an entertainment industry hungry to drive audiences to theaters. The Smurfs Movie already has its own Farmville-knockoff in the “The Smurfs Village” game for iOS, and app maker iStoryTime has a long-standing relationship with Sony Pictures to create storybook applications for select films.

iStoryTime is also the publishing platform behind the Kung Fu Panda 2, The Penguins of Madagascar, Shrek Forever After and Transformers Mix & Match storybook applications.





more at Mashable

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National Geographic World Championship comes to Google

It’s summer vacation for many kids, but 51 students from 17 different regions have been spending their time off polishing and fine-tuning their geographic skills to prepare for this year’s National Geographic World Championship, a biennial geography competition hosted by the National Geographic Society.

This year, Google is the proud sponsor and on Wednesday, July 27, we’ll host the three final teams from Canada, Chinese Taipei and Russia at our campus in Mountain View, California. The preliminary rounds included a written exam on Sunday and activities at the San Francisco Zoo on Monday morning. Teams ventured to various zoo exhibits and were asked to identify climate maps and geographic locations associated with 10 different animal habitats housed throughout the zoo.

Since most of you can’t be here to witness the action in person, we’re going to live stream the finale, hosted by Alex Trebek of the game show JEOPARDY!. Tune into the National Geographic YouTube Channel Wednesday at 10:30 a.m. PDT to cheer on these young competitors from wherever you are in the world.

Through this competition, we aim to inspire the future generation of leaders and innovators to become more geographically literate and have a deeper understanding about the world they live in. We hope you are as excited as we are to see such enthusiasm and passion around geographic education.

Please join us in wishing all of these young geographic experts the best of luck!

Source: Google Blog

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Google+ adds $45 billion to market value

The launch and hyper growth of Google's ambitious Google+ social site has helped fuel a meteoric rise in the company's stock.

Thursday marks one month since the search king unveiled its Google+ to grab attention and advertising dollars away from Facebook. Google+ is the search company's foray into social networking that numbers more than 10 million members since launch.

In that time, Google stock is up nearly 30%, boosting the company's valuation by $45 billion to a market capitalization of roughly $200 billion.

"Google+ has had a lot to do with the perceptions," says Scott Kessler, equity analyst at Standard & Poor's Equity Research. "People look at Google as being … a pretty important player in social media."
Put into perspective, the valuation gain is more than half the estimated value of privately traded Facebook. The social-networking giant holds an $84.7 billion valuation on the private stock-trading network Sharespost.com. And Facebook launched more than seven years ago.

Google's one-month valuation jump is more than five times Twitter's estimated $8 billion value and more than double Groupon's $18.1 billion, according to Sharespost.com. Twitter hasn't filed to go public.

Google stock traded at $482.80 on June 27, the day before Google+ launched, and closed at $622.52 Tuesday. Google shares touched a 52-week high of $642.96 earlier in the year.
To be sure, Google's blockbuster second-quarter profit gains of 36%, reported July 14, didn't hurt in nudging up the stock. But Google opened the earnings call trumpeting whopping adoption numbers for Google+ and focused praise on the product's mojo companywide. CEO Larry Page used the call to tout Goggle+'s 10 million users, grabbed in just two weeks.

Still, it remains to be seen how well Google+ fares once the honeymoon is over. Google has already taken some lumps over its axing of business users. Google responded by saying it plans a launch for businesses later this year.

Early reviews of Google+ are mostly favorable. Many say Google's concept of letting people group those they interact with into different social circles is a key differentiator from Facebook.

"This is a nice, clean service that's really working well," says IDC analyst Karsten Weide.
"Whether it's a win or not remains to be seen. Those user numbers look good."


more at USA Today

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What is Google+ (Google Plus) and do I need it?

Welcome to the Google+ project
Real-life sharing rethought for the web

Interactive Tour

Circles
The easiest way to share some things with college buddies, others with your parents, and almost nothing with your boss.

Find out more | Take a tour.

Hangouts
Let friends know you're free for a video hangout, any time, anywhere. Then catch up, watch YouTube, or... just hangout.
Find out more | Take a tour.

Sparks
A feed of just the stuff you're really into, so when you're free, there's always something waiting to be watched, read, or shared.

Find out more | Take a tour.

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How Much Time Do You Spend On Facebook? This Browser Plug-in Knows All

How many hours did you lose to social media last week? Is online gaming or ESPN dampening your productivity? A new service makes answering this kind of question much easier by tracking your browsing habits the same way sites like Mint.com track your finances.

Voyurl‘s private beta version was a recommendation engine based on friends’ and the general community’s online activity, as collected by a plugin they installed. When you added a friend, you could see what new sites he or she was visiting. You could also see what sites the community visited most often.

Two other companies are making products that share browsing data, but it still isn’t widely accepted. Voyurl founder Adam Leibsohn says the service has a tendency to “freak people out” and was difficult to use effectively. Even so, beta users logged 4 million URLs using the product.

The new version of Voyurl still relies on clickstream data gathered with a similar plugin, but keeps the pages you visit completely private. Instead, it uses the data to make recommendations without asking for active feedback — no stars, no ratings, no thumbs up or down.

A curated list of recommendations is created based on what sites you visit and how you behave on them. Factors like scrolling and mouse hovering are taken into account to decide what you like.

Users who install the Voyurl plugin also get a detailed description of how they use the web, including how much time they spend browsing, the sites they spend the most time on and their browsing patterns. You can also compare your behavior to the average user.

“You’re looking at yourself in a mirror you didn’t know existed,” says Leibsohn, who used rent money to finance the startup while he found accommodation on couchsurfing.org for a year. “You say, oh, I didn’t know I spent that much time on Facebook.”

Image courtesy of istockphoto, photosipsak

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Virtuemart and Nooku Collaboration?

heyhooo nooku folks,

after the RC2 of vm2 I finally found the time to write here. I had some questions, but before I was on that list I got the answer directly via skype by dave (thanks for this). So who I am and what I want here?


I am Max Milbers, leader of the virtuemart project. I dont like to repeat my self as you, so using DRY in communication

http://www.joomlasverige.se/joomla/english-section/74-quick-questions-max-milbers

The introduction of myself is at begin and not too long I think.

Hm what are my interest in nooku? I must admit I didnt had the time yet to follow the conversations, but I wanna start with it. I am quite sure about that big people try to destroy joomla and it seems that nooku is what we (maybe we all) thought years ago, what joomla would be now.

After Kerkrade we started to use nooku conventions for the database. We use now in virtuemart abstract controllers, models and tables. We worked really hard the last 2 months to convert vm2 again more OOP, so that we can switch easier to nooku.

My goal and imho and afaik the rest of the vm team is with me is that VM2.2 should be written in nooku to be future proof.

I am really glad since kerkrade as I saw Johanns presentation and as I had good talks with David that you started/joined this great work. Atm we are not able to contribute something, because VM2 itself is a huge project. But I am quite sure we will do, when we actually start to port vm2 to nooku.

Greetings
Max Milbers

PS: You may have a bit fun and look into the version.php of the vm2
Rc2 (only when you already playing with it).

 

 

more on this at Google Groups

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HOW TO: Successfully Run a Social Media Contest

This post originally appeared on the American Express OPEN Forum, where Mashable regularly contributes articles about leveraging social media and technology in small business.

Online contests can be a great way to build a fan base, gather data and engage an audience. Whether you have run a contest previously or not, there are four things to keep in mind as you prepare for, and execute, your campaign.

1. Get The Lay of the Land

Start with a clear understanding of your target audience and marketing objectives. Too often I’ve seen a clever promotional concept that is not well aligned with desired outcomes or simply doesn’t resonate with the consumer. Acknowledge the assets and limitations you have to work with. It is important to understand your audience and what you expect from them. It is also important to think about the appropriate channel for engagement, whether it be on your brand site or blog, a Facebook Page, Twitter, etc.

One of the biggest fears people have when it comes to setting up a contest is rules and regulations. Legal and policy concerns may seem like a daunting deterrent, but they needn’t be. So long as you adhere to some key criteria in the administration of your contest, there should be little to worry about. If you don’t have legal resources in-house, choose a promotional services company that can help advise you.

If you are planning to use Facebook for your promotion, be sure you are familiar with their Promotions Guidelines. Using a third-party application is important when conducting a contest on Facebook, but be sure that your application developer is familiar with all of Facebook’s platform policies. The guidelines for running a contest on Twitter are a bit less restrictive, but there are also limitations to what can be done with a promotion in 140 characters.

2. Plough the Soil and Sow the Seeds

You may have repaired your tractor, put a fresh coat of paint on the barn, or invested in a state-of-the-art new irrigation system, but if the soil wasn’t prepared or seeds were never planted, you can’t expect much to grow. Likewise, when it comes to online promotions there is often so much focus on the legal, the creative or the technology that the basic logistics and marketing don’t get the attention they deserve. Clients are left scratching their head or scrambling to put a plan in place when the contest launches and nobody enters.

Ensure that the entry process is easy to navigate and the entry requirements are clearly explained. A contest that requires someone to submit a photo or video through one platform, share through another and vote on a third, is bound to generate confusion and frustration. Having a good entry flow without unnecessary barriers will provide the groundwork to facilitate a positive user interaction with your brand.

If you are asking people to create an original piece of content for your contest, remember that this can take some time. You can avoid the appearance of a failed launch by promoting the contest in advance and sharing the entry requirements with those most likely to submit an entry. Having “seeder” entries in place can serve as an inspiration to other participants and help build early momentum around your campaign.

3. Tend to Your Crops

“If you build it, they will come” may have worked for Kevin Costner in Field of Dreams, but it is not a good mantra for running an online contest. Running a successful online contest requires a well thought-out marketing plan that spans the life cycle of the promotion.

It is important to continuously communicate through the various channels available to you. Communication should target both prospective and active participants, encompassing both entrants and voters (if you have voting in place). Like any other social media program, a contest is an opportunity to engage in an active dialogue with your fans and followers. Sharing contest updates, responding to questions and providing encouragement for users to share their entries or rally the vote are all tactics that will benefit your contest. Be prepared to deal with feedback, both positive and negative, that may be generated.

4. Harvest and Replant

Once your contest has concluded, you have the opportunity to learn and improve for your next campaign. The companies that see the most success are those that have a commitment to contests as part of their marketing, but also have an open mind to how they utilize them. Many farmers follow the practice of crop rotation, planting a series of dissimilar crops in sequential seasons. This practice helps to diversify risk but has also been shown to improve crop yield. Similarly, conducting a variety of promotional programs and repeating on a regular basis can yield social media success.

Whether you are simply a hobby farmer or plan to make contests your cash crop, the tips above should help your marketing. Let us know if you have any other tips in the comments.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, KLH49


more at Mashable

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