Apple Genius Commercials - No Longer A Steve Job's Company

Apple’s recent commercials have not been received well by many.

The recent release of new Apple Genius commercials has many wondering exactly what is going on down in Cupertino. Previous Apple commercials for years would cause one to really think as they were always thought provoking. Going back to the famous 1984 commercial which I recently watched, Apple has had a long run of really great commercials. Each of them would get their point across in a very intelligent manner to the audience. The Apple versus Windows commercials were fun and enjoyable to watch. And all them were able to get their point across without resorting to child like advertising. This was the Steve Jobs way of communicating the message to the masses.

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Apple Genius Commercials - No Longer A Steve Job's Company

Apple's recent commercials have not been received well by many.

The recent release of new Apple Genius commercials has many wondering exactly what is going on down in Cupertino. Previous Apple commercials for years would cause one to really think as they were always thought provoking. Going back to the famous 1984 commercial which I recently watched, Apple has had a long run of really great commercials. Each of them would get their point across in a very intelligent manner to the audience. The Apple versus Windows commercials were fun and enjoyable to watch. And all them were able to get their point across without resorting to child like advertising. This was the Steve Jobs way of communicating the message to the masses.

But the recent commercials centered around Apple Genius almost seem child like in there presentation. All of this never would have been done while Steve Jobs was in charge of the company. The message does show that the people who are considered to be true Apple Genius' really do come through and answer all questions related to Apple products. But the representation of average people as being inept and helpless has been seen by many to be almost insulting. In some reports, Apple has received a "D" for the new ads. And rightly so.

Even some who were involved in previous Apple ad campaigns are not pleased with these recent ones. Apple has always held people with some respect in their commercials, but these new ads seem to treat average people as being almost dumb and inept. Is that really the message that Apple wants to be sending with these ads?

"In past ads, Apple has shown "ordinary people doing extraordinary things," simply because Apple products are so easy to use. Now we have thick people who want to be better, but need a Genius to help. Not exactly flattering.

Apple has always shown the intelligent side of their users even while indicating that there is always something more to learn about their products. With some of these ads, they are showing people on the edge of being dumb. The airline video of someone having to put something together before the plan lands is just plain crazy. And making these bad ads even worse is the fact that they have been shown during the Olympics of all places. A huge audience to test market a new concept. For me, that concept has failed them horribly. And many have the same response to what Apple has put forth.

How do you feel about the new Apple Genius commercials?

Olympic Internet Traffic Increases Disrupts Coverage

Tweeting in London overloads one mobile network at Olympics.

The Olympics games has presented some challenges and with those has seen a large influx of people using mobile technology to get the word out at events. And one of the most used is going to be that of Tweets, those short bursts of text which are shared with the world over Twitter. After that comes Facebook and other Social Media activities where people share what is going on in their lives at the moment. And with the Olympics, we would expect to see a rather significant increase in those activities.

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Olympic Internet Traffic Increases Disrupts Coverage

Tweeting in London overloads one mobile network at Olympics.

The Olympics games has presented some challenges and with those has seen a large influx of people using mobile technology to get the word out at events. And one of the most used is going to be that of Tweets, those short bursts of text which are shared with the world over Twitter. After that comes Facebook and other Social Media activities where people share what is going on in their lives at the moment. And with the Olympics, we would expect to see a rather significant increase in those activities.

And that is exactly what has happened. There were a reported 9.66 million tweets from the actual start of the opening ceremony until the end of the NBC delayed viewing. While a decent number of those Tweets were from the US, it gives you an idea of just how popular Twitter is going to be during the Olympics. We had talked about the Olympics being the first true test for Internet Streaming, but was dealing with the streaming of video. It did not take into account all the Tweeting that was going to be taking place. And that is on top of the streaming video.

Since Tweets are short in nature, you might not think it would impact mobile networks. And you would be wrong in making that assumptions. There are reports of impacts to the Men's and Women's cycling events. This was for the coverage which was relying on GPS signals to be sent over a wireless network back to the broadcast booths. The numerous Tweets during the race placed too much of a strain on the wireless network for broadcasters.

In the coverage, they rely on GPS transmissions over the wireless networks from GPS devices on the cyclists which show position. It also shows how far apart the cyclists are from each other for timing. So, without those signals, those who were broadcasting the race where guessing using their own watches rather than the information collected and presented by computers. So, after the first 2 days of the Olympics, they are already having problems with the Internet and wireless streaming or Tweets.

One official with the Olympics said that those lining the cyclists route where sending hundreds of thousands of Tweets and would like people to not send so many.

"Of course, if you want to send something, we are not going to say 'Don't, you can't do it', and we would certainly never prevent people," he said. "It's just - if it's not an urgent, urgent one, please kind of take it easy."

It is unclear as to exactly what an urgent Tweet is as compared to a not urgent Tweet determination is. We will leave that for others to try and figure out. I am not sure anyone is going to be able to make that determination. All Tweets are deemed as urgent when you are at the Olympics.

There were years to plan for the Olympics with new wireless capabilities being added for this very thing. There has been a Social Media commitment to support Twitter and Facebook, so one would believe there would be enough wireless coverage to handle anything people could throw at it. The live streaming aspect of the Olympics was very recent and appears not really matter as much as what we have seen in the past few days.

How many other events at the Olympics which depend on GPS which might be interrupted by high volumes of Tweets is unknown. The only thing we can hope for at this point is that the current handling of wireless mobile devices doing Tweets is handled far better in the coming days. This high volume test would have appeared to have failed when it came to the cyclists and GPS tracking.

So far, this is not a good sign for being able to handle high volumes of wireless traffic at the Olympics.

App Store - What's In A Name?

For Apple, it appears to mean everything to them for their App Store.

Ever since Amazon came out with it's App Store, Apple has been at odds with them for name recognition and attempting to confuse the consumer public. Apple seems to be in a mindset of using the courts to protect their products and as such, they continue that activity against Amazon. All of this began back when Amazon created the AppStore for Android, which Apple objected to because of the similarity in the name. But when they dropped the "For Android", it changed this to the Amazon AppStore versus the Apple App Store. The similarity between the 2 names is too much for Apple.

Apple filed its complaint back in March of 2011 at the time that Amazon launched its Android store which they were calling "Amazon Appstore for Android". There was a lot of press about the competition which Amazon was creating between Google and itself. And that competition was sure to confuse consumers as to where to go and get Android Apps. The court filing by Apple seems to have gotten drowned out in all the focus between Amazon and Android.

Since that time, Apple has amended the complaint in November 2011 to expand it when Amazon dropped the "for Android" from their store name. You can see that on their site and elsewhere. It is with this change, that Apple became concerned about the blurring of the name to further confuse the public. Amazon and Apple both sell music and apps under very similar store names. The difference between AppStore and App Store may get lost for most of the population.

The similarities in the names has Apple concerned and they have done the normal method of attacking the competition through the courts. They do make some valid points in the current suit against Amazon. One is the logos that each is using. And if you look at each of them from each company for their app store, they do look somewhat similar, though lawyers would probably argue otherwise.

In the most recent court actions, Apple is asking Amazon to produce an executive who has knowledge of the name change. They want to find out the reasons behind the dropping of "for Android" from the name and grill them to see if the intent was to confuse consumers between Apple and Amazon.

"As such, evidence suggesting that the name of Amazon's Service is actually 'Amazon Appstore,' or at least that Amazon has consciously chosen to cease or minimize the use of 'for Android' with its mark, is highly relevant to Apple's offensive case," Apple said.

All of this gets down to what is in a name? For Apple, it is everything to them and may well mean lost sales to Amazon because of the similar name and logo being used by Amazon. Recent information suggests that Apple should be concerned about protecting their market and trademarks as well.

It seems that Amazon revenue per user as compared to Apple revenue per user in the app stores is way too close for Apple to be ignoring. While Apple is still the king for apps, Amazon is generating 89% of what Apple generates per user in the app store. And that number is too close for Apple and means they are potentially going to lose some business. Or even worse, defectors from the iPhone to Android smart phones. That is something which Apple has to do everything to protect. It is a battle which they must not lose.

For Apple, the name and logo for their App Store must be preserved to protect their interests, product lines and profit. While this is just another lawsuit to protect their interests, this one seems to be one which if they lose, could impact their future.

Are We Heading For Another Internet Bubble?

Recent stock price drops at technology companies raise the question.

With the events this week involving two technology companies and the dropping in the value of there stock, some are now starting to ask the question as to whether we are head for another Internet Bubble which is on the verge of popping. The previous one ended in 2000 with a pop in all the large run up of IPO’s with inflated stock prices on earnings that had never been reported. It would appear that we are moving in that direction again as people are seeing dollar signs in IPO purchases just because of the fast run up of the companies. The Google IPO and rapid rise in the value of the stock seems to be leading the interest in Internet IPO stocks.

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Are We Heading For Another Internet Bubble?

Recent stock price drops at technology companies raise the question.

With the events this week involving two technology companies and the dropping in the value of there stock, some are now starting to ask the question as to whether we are head for another Internet Bubble which is on the verge of popping. The previous one ended in 2000 with a pop in all the large run up of IPO's with inflated stock prices on earnings that had never been reported. It would appear that we are moving in that direction again as people are seeing dollar signs in IPO purchases just because of the fast run up of the companies. The Google IPO and rapid rise in the value of the stock seems to be leading the interest in Internet IPO stocks.

IPO's are returning to being popular and everyone seems to be interested and wanting to get on board. Start ups are being very popular again, just as they were in the 1999-2000 period, everyone wants to get in on the ground floor and get rich quick. Though the companies have changed from what was being offered in the previous Internet Bubble, the general interest seems to be very much the same. Yet this time, it is all centered around Social Media. The Facebook lead up to the IPO shows just how interested people are in getting in on the IPO. Average citizens took large sums of money to be used in buying in to the stock. And there was no guarantee they would get the stock and many did not because of the interest.

But, with the recent IPO for Facebook and their 1st quarterly report, the stock has not been doing well. Some are saying that we are in for a coming Internet Bubble burst and to beware. Much was what we are seeing right now would tend to indicate some validity to those statements. You only have to take a look at Zynga, whose stock has gone down too much. Dropping close to 50% this past week does not show that IPO stocks are going to sustain over the long run.

There are some who point to a far different investing model now as compared to what was going on in 1999 and 2000. While that may be correct, the vast majority of what we are seeing is related to Social Media and there can only be so many of those in existence and survive. And few of the business models have a revenue stream to justify high valuations when they do an IPO. Yet, people are willing to invest in a coming IPO on Twitter just because of who they are.

If people jump on all these Social Media IPO's just because they are associated with Social Media and there is a shift from Social Media to somethings else, there is going to be a huge crash on the valuations of the stocks for those companies. There has even been recent indications that Facebook's popularity may be declining in the US and if correct, may be signalling a shift.

Even the Mootly Fool is questioning whether we are repeating the dot-com bust. And they may well be correct in their statement. The whole Social Media is an area which has not proven itself out for the long term in making money. And that is what stocks are supposed to be about. Facebook's first quarterly company report as a public entity did not meet what some people expected and as such, the stock took a hit. Then there is news that Facebook purchased Instagram for $1 billion and it makes you wonder.

Instagram has not even been around for 2 years and yet it got an extremely high price. Facebook now has an expenditure to put on the books and Instagram's future revenue will probably not justify the purchase price. It is these kinds of things which are happening which are causing a growing audience to question whether we are heading towards another Internet Bubble and burst. More then likely, we are already inside the Internet Bubble and the questions has become, how long before it breaks.

Even some of those individuals who where involved in the previous Internet Bubble are now warning of the coming bubble to anyone who is willing to listen to them. I am not someone who has a background in the financial areas, but did suffer from big loses in the previous burst of tech stocks. I did not go crazy on investing, but tried to pick what was considered proven companies. In the end, it did not matter.

This discussion about whether we are in for another Internet Bubble is going to continue much in the same was as it did in 1999-2000 until the evidence becomes too much to argue against. For now, I am viewing Social Media stocks as a possible Internet Bubble which will end up having far reaching impacts.

Twitter Went Down Today. Were You More Productive?

Twitter feeds went dark and you could not Tweet at all.

No, it is not the end of the world. Yes, Twitter went down this morning and took popular tools such as TweetDeck and HootSuite with it. Those two depend on Twitter being up and functioning in order to display Tweet streams. So, you found that TweetDeck went blank with nothing coming across. Or HootSuite stopped working and briefly displayed the “Twitter API is down” message. If you are like me, you started to think that it must be my connection to the Internet which is having a problem. Or that my Internet provider is blocking Twitter from coming to me. So, you connect to mobile.twitter.com and get the same results. That is when you start to get the feeling you are completely cut off from the world.

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Olympics To Be First True Test Of High Volume Internet Streaming

NBC to provide live stream for all events at Olympics.

We have never really had a high volume stress test of what the Internet can handle in terms of streaming video. Sure, there are large volumes of people who watch YouTube, there favorite show or a movie via the Internet. But these are spread out over time and there has never been a concentrated request for streaming video that can test the unknown bounds of what the Internet is cable of handling. That is until this week when the Olympics kicks off.

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Twitter Went Down Today. Were You More Productive?

Twitter feeds went dark and you could not Tweet at all.

No, it is not the end of the world. Yes, Twitter went down this morning and took popular tools such as TweetDeck and HootSuite with it. Those two depend on Twitter being up and functioning in order to display Tweet streams. So, you found that TweetDeck went blank with nothing coming across. Or HootSuite stopped working and briefly displayed the "Twitter API is down" message. If you are like me, you started to think that it must be my connection to the Internet which is having a problem. Or that my Internet provider is blocking Twitter from coming to me. So, you connect to mobile.twitter.com and get the same results. That is when you start to get the feeling you are completely cut off from the world.

For those of you who look at Twitter more often than you do any work, this is disastrous news. You are probably still recovering from the fact that it was not available for about 30 minutes today. Withdrawals are tough for those who make Twitter part of their lives. What would happen if the Internet went down resulting in far more problems. You would not have any idea that Twitter was down, because you could not check your email or do Google Searches for "Twitter down". But now might be the time to reflect on whether Twitter plays too much a part in your life. If you were having serious problems because it was down, now might be a time to re-evaluate.


The one question which probably cannot be answered with any certainty is whether people became more productive during the time period when Twitter went dark. Since we were not spending all that time looking at Tweets, creating Tweets or ReTweets, it provided an opportunity for us all to do other activities which potentially might benefit someone else. Such as an employer who you are working for. Or even yourself if you are a small business owner. Twitter does seem to consume a large amount of time throughout the day.

The odds are, you were not more productive, even though many would like to believe that you took that time to do other tasks. And some of those tasks may be considered more important than Twitter. There are those who have looked at Twitter as a time waster and a time saver, so the jury is still out on that one. The general consensus is that Twitter does take up time which could be spent on other things. Those who use Twitter and other Social Networking tools see them as a benefit.

So, when a beneficial tool like Twitter stops working, it feels like my entire day has been disrupted. And as a result, my stress level goes up impacting my ability to be productive that day. While some may think that removing a tool like Twitter for a few hours might have a tendency to improve productivity, the reality is that it will impact productivity for the period of time that it is down and for many hours after that time. Social Networking tools such as Twitter have become part of the day to day lives that we live.

If tools like Twitter were to disappear for more than a day or even longer, we would see a drop in productivity as everyone would be going through withdrawal symptoms trying to get over the loss. Did you experience anxiety during the time Twitter was down?

Olympics To Be First True Test Of High Volume Internet Streaming

NBC to provide live stream for all events at Olympics.

We have never really had a high volume stress test of what the Internet can handle in terms of streaming video. Sure, there are large volumes of people who watch YouTube, there favorite show or a movie via the Internet. But these are spread out over time and there has never been a concentrated request for streaming video that can test the unknown bounds of what the Internet is cable of handling. That is until this week when the Olympics kicks off.

The Olympics are going to be live streaming all 302 events in all 32 sports over the Internet. If ever there was going to be some stress test of the limits of what the Internet can carry, this will be it. It is going to be the first time that all of the Olympic coverage will be available live. That means you can watch it on your smart phone, your tablet or your computer. And as much as you can possibly handle as it will all be available live.

This will be unprecedented in the sheer volume of video being streamed around the world in a 2 week period. And it will surely be the single test of exactly how much video can be handled at one time. Around the world, there could well be 14 hours of streaming content from the Olympics. It will be that number here in the US in TV's, computers, tablets and smart phones. And it is the Internet connections which are to be tested.

It does appear that the wireless carriers here in the US saw this coming a while back even though NBC recently announced they would be providing all the live coverage via their "NBC Olympics Application" which will operate on iOS devices and Android mobile devices. And that is going to place a burden on wireless carriers, especially here in the US. And you wondered why the US wireless carriers have been changing their data plans for the past several years to eliminate unlimited data.

Over the past 2 years, they have been slowly making changes to cut back on the amount of wireless data traffic you can consume from your wireless carrier. The wireless carriers knew that at some point, video streaming of live events was going to take off. They got an idea from back at the Winter Olympics where they streamed over 400 hours of the events live on NBC. With the summer Olympics, they are going to be live streaming over 4500 hours of live video feeds to watch.

Much has changed since the winter Olympics and there are a whole lot more mobile devices in the hands of people. More smart phones and far more tablets than 2 years ago and with many more devices, there are many more to consume the live feeds over wireless connections. And the wireless carriers have thought through what it might mean to them if they did not try and throttle back some of the extremely high volumes of data.

The one way to accomplish that was to significantly reduce what people can normally get. Then when the Olympics comes alone, you are less likely to consume high volumes of data watching the Olympics. And if you are willing to do that, they are going to get you with the overage fees for exceeding your plan. They were pretty smart.

For Internet providers, they are going to see an increase in the amount of traffic to a much higher degree. For Comcast customers using the Internet to watch the Olympics, there may be issues with much higher traffic. I have seen some issues with things hanging up periodically over past few weeks where throughput does degrade. I am hoping that was because Comcast was making preparations for better throughput starting on Friday.

All the Internet providers are going to be experiencing much higher volumes of traffic for the next few weeks. And this can be considered a test for handling higher capacity along with delivering consistent video streams. There has been talk for years about changes for content viewing from traditional subscription TV to now getting it over the Internet.

The Olympic streaming over the Internet may launch a new way of getting programming in the future.

Samsung Gets Request From Apple To Pay $2.5 Billion

In exchange, Apple will pay them 5 cents per unit. Sounds fair enough.

In the continuing battles between Samsung and Apple, there always seems to be a few surprises. At least those which surprise some of us. The latest one is a request from Apple lawyers where they want Samsung to pay damages to Apple of over $2.5 billion. That seems like a radically high dollar amount. There are a number of things this covers and appears to satisfy Apple’s needs in settling the case. For Apple’s part, they are proposing to pay Samsung what appears to be a much lower amount, to the tune of 5 cents for each unit where Apple has reportedly violated Samsung patents. Looking at this, Samsung comes out the big loser.

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Targeted Advertising, Concerned About Your Online Privacy?

If not, you really should be and things are going to be heating up next year.

A growing number of people are concerned about their online privacy. And that trend looks like it is continuing to grow over the past few years. It was not that long ago when the Facebook privacy issues started to surface with information which was thought to be private was suddenly exposed to the web. Since that time, people have become more sensitive to protecting their information. For a time, I thought that younger generations where beginning to not care about keeping there information private. But, I am seeing a trend in the opposite direction. In Facebook, I am seeing far fewer wall posts from people and I attribute that to the desire to protect ones privacy.

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Targeted Advertising, Concerned About Your Online Privacy?

If not, you really should be and things are going to be heating up next year.

A growing number of people are concerned about their online privacy. And that trend looks like it is continuing to grow over the past few years. It was not that long ago when the Facebook privacy issues started to surface with information which was thought to be private was suddenly exposed to the web. Since that time, people have become more sensitive to protecting their information. For a time, I thought that younger generations where beginning to not care about keeping there information private. But, I am seeing a trend in the opposite direction. In Facebook, I am seeing far fewer wall posts from people and I attribute that to the desire to protect ones privacy.

In a recent survey from TRUSTe, they released their Online and Mobile Privacy Perceptions Report. They are reporting the trending change where people now are more concerned about their privacy on the web. This was done with 1033 adults and 544 smart phone users, all in the US. While you can review the report yourself, it seems that online privacy has taken a jump in recent years. And this year, interest has grown a lot.

Some of this I attribute to the location tracking scandal last year, catching up phone manufacturers and wireless carriers alike. This is where they were collecting information about where you were at which could be used to track you. But there are other activities beyond this which are now becoming a big focus for the public and the legislative bodies here in the US. And that is online behavioral advertising (OBA). And it is that item which has jumped to the top of people's concerns. If you are not aware of what this is, it is targeted advertising where you are tracked to see the type of web pages that you go to and the things that you click on. Another form of tracking, but this time for advertising purposes.

The idea of prohibiting this activity has been the topic of discussion for more than a year. There have been discussions about Do Not Track legislation and that is what has created the battle between the public and businesses. The Federal Government wants to implement regulation to provide for an opt out for everyone. Businesses do not want to lose a key part of their targeted advertising. And thus the discussions continue.

But after having talks going on for over 10 months without a resolution, we may be getting close to a policy coming out to protect consumers since businesses are not willing to budge very far on this. I am sure there are those who disagree what that being put in place. We should start hearing a lot about this beginning in December once the elections are over.

Business who use the information they collect about peoples browsing habits are saying that to block the collection would kill the internet. That is obviously an over blown statement meant to get ones attention. If everyone chose to opt out of information being collected about them, it would have a significant impact on a number of businesses. Take for instance our site here.

We place ads on the site which do use browsing information collected by Google to display a targeted ad. Without that information, the ads would potentially be random or tied to what is on the page only. That would potentially impact revenue. We are very small and if you consider large sites who rely on revenue from ads being clicked, they are going to be impacted. And the amount of money being paid for each ad being clicked is also going to go down.

This issue is the obvious divide between individuals wanting to keep their privacy when they browse versus the goal of businesses to make money on the Internet. Ad revenue on the Internet is a very big business and a significant interruption in that could alter the future for a number of companies. But, keeping my personal browsing habits is also very important in my concern about privacy. I did a few tests to see just how well the targeted advertising does work and it is impressive just how quickly they make adjustments.

I went out looking for some development software and hit 5 sites which were selling it. Any browsing that I did after I did that had an ad on various sites for the development software. The targeted advertising is quick to make changes so that they can get you to click on a link and hopefully buy something.

In the end, I think there is going to have to be options on sites or in browsers which will give you the options to not be tracked. It will probably be in your browser, much in the same way that you can block cookies from being placed on your machine. Giving people the option in a browser to turn it on or off would provide the best solution. For a time, there will be a lot of people turning it on. As time goes by, the number of people opting to not be tracked will more than likely go down.

Expect to hear a lot more about target advertising as we approach the end of the year. The level of discussion is going to get very lively as there is a lot at stake for businesses.

When Some Services Do Not Keep Up With Technology

Moving from one location to another forces you to deal with moving services.

Most of us have been there. You are moving from one location to another and you have to move your various services as well. You phone, internet connection, cable, power, water and trash which should cover just about all of them. I am sure there are a few others that I am forgetting and you can correct me for those that I have missed. In today’s world of continually evolving technology, we would all hope that most of the service providers have taken advantage of the technology to make their world and yours easier when you make a move. Unfortunately, things do not always go according to plan.

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When Some Services Do Not Keep Up With Technology

Moving from one location to another forces you to deal with moving services.

Most of us have been there. You are moving from one location to another and you have to move your various services as well. You phone, internet connection, cable, power, water and trash which should cover just about all of them. I am sure there are a few others that I am forgetting and you can correct me for those that I have missed. In today's world of continually evolving technology, we would all hope that most of the service providers have taken advantage of the technology to make their world and yours easier when you make a move. Unfortunately, things do not always go according to plan.

I was recently talking with someone who had move from one house to another. While the move was only about 10 miles, there is always something which can go wrong. Murphy's law comes to mind. If something can go wrong, it will go wrong. If you move to a brand new house which has never had services, that makes the move far more difficult. But when you move to a location which already had all the services in existence, you expect the turn on of services to be a snap.

With technology, so much can be done remotely so that you do not have to sit at home waiting for someone to show up. For things like cable hook up, they still want someone to physically be there because they come out to the home. But with all the changes over the years at the phone companies, they can do something in a remote location to turn things on and often do not have to even show up at your house. Unfortunately, things still happen and in the related story, AT&T turned on of phone services did not go as planned.

My friend had to be a home between 8:00 AM and 8:00 PM which is the window they would be turning on services. Not sure why he had to be there since they were turning on the service from a remote location. So, he sat there expecting to have someone knock at the door or the phone to ring proving that things were ho0ked up and working. No one knocked on the door and the phone never rang. Given that he has a cell phone, they could have called him as well to let him know the status of the turn on.

So, the next day, he called AT&T to check in and get another time when they would show up. He also wanted to know why he had not been contacted. AT&T checked the line and said it was working correctly. They checked it while he was on the phone and they said it just keeps on ringing. That is strange because he has an answering machine attached to it. And there was someone at home when they tested it. Quite obviously, they ho0ked up the number but they had no idea as to where is might be ringing.

In this day and age of technology, it makes one wonder why they cannot take advantage of email, texting or actually calling someone to tell them their phone is hooked up and working. At that moment, the person would be able to pick up the phone to verify they had a dial tone. In this case there was no dial tone. It would seem that a decision to leverage technology to improve customer service seems to have been ignored. Given the high proliferation of cell phones, that provides a great way to communicate with the customer.

The specifics of this problem may be unique, but the method of making sure to communicate with the customer are often common. I have had to call Comcast over the years and it is rare that I get a phone call from them letting me know they will be late. I have had some good experiences with them as well where they do call and want to come over early.

Given the size of AT&T and all the technology they have at their disposal, you would think that communication with customers would improve. The idea of sitting at home with no communication from them regarding what is going on is not a good use of technology. Even worse is the idea of having to sit at home from 8:00 AM to 8:00 PM and not get any service.

While I would like to hope this is a rare occurrence, I am sure that many of you can provide far more stories and experiences with having services hooked up where the simple use of existing technology would have made the process far easier.

USB Phone Charger In Credit Card Size From ChargeCard

Getting a credit card size USB charger by contributing to a KickStarter company.

How often have you left the house and realized that you do not have a charger for your smart phone? Probably more than you would like to admit. I have done it numerous times. Years ago, it was not as big a deal as phone batteries lasted days instead of the hours for today. Smart phones which last for more than the work day under normal usage are deemed to have good battery life. Most do not last that long and require you to charge your phone some time during the work day.

So, anything which might be able to save you when you are in that situation would be of benefit. Purchasing a charger or another USB cable is not exactly what you want to do because of a mistake. Now, the ChargeCard is being announced as part of a KickStarter funding project for a truly unique and valuable device. That device is a USB phone charger which is the size of a credit card and made of ABS plastic. It has a fold out arm in the middle which has a USB plug on it to plug into a computer so that you can get a charge. You can clearly see the right hand edge in the picture above which plugs into the iPhone connection port.

They have raised their goal in a very short time and still have more than 30 days to go during the funding window. And for contributing, you get a ChargeCard. You will not get one right away as it will take months for them to ramp up production, but you will get something in return for your contribution.

As you can see from the picture, they are just about the size of a credit card and can fit in your wallet. Coming in at 0.1 inches in thickness, they can fit in a wallet and in some phones, inside the case, depending on the case. At the moment, they are producing ChargeCard USB cards for the iPhone and are actively working on providing them for Android phones via the microUSB ports which are used to charge the phones. The whole principle is simple and it is a wonder why no one has thought of this before. You can expect to see these massed produced with company logos on them as give away items late this year.

Watch the video and see just how easy it is to carry and use this.

Dropbox Unsure As To Spam Email Origination

Continuing investigations by outside security firm have not revealed anything.

The problems being reported with Dropbox where email addresses used by clients exclusively for Dropbox use are now receiving email spam is continuing. There has not been much information from Dropbox, though the forums are flowing with comments from everyone as to what they think the problem is behind this. Dropbox itself is not releasing much of any information and pretty much leaving everyone in the dark about it. The one thing you can determine from reading through the posts is that this reported “security breach” is pretty much limited to Dropbox account in Europe and not the US. That does not provide any more confidence that things are secure.

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Dropbox Unsure As To Spam Email Origination

Continuing investigations by outside security firm have not revealed anything.

The problems being reported with Dropbox where email addresses used by clients exclusively for Dropbox use are now receiving email spam is continuing. There has not been much information from Dropbox, though the forums are flowing with comments from everyone as to what they think the problem is behind this. Dropbox itself is not releasing much of any information and pretty much leaving everyone in the dark about it. The one thing you can determine from reading through the posts is that this reported "security breach" is pretty much limited to Dropbox account in Europe and not the US. That does not provide any more confidence that things are secure.

We reported on the hiring of security experts a few days ago and not much has been revealed by Dropbox. They have not even provided the name of the company they have engaged to help them try and figure out what has happened. About the only thing which has come out is a post on the forums which looks to be from someone who works at Dropbox.

From Graham A. "Dropboxer"
Hi all,

We wanted to give everyone another update on our investigation into the reports of spam.

- As of today, we’ve found no intrusions into our internal systems and no unauthorized activity in Dropbox accounts.
- We’ve reached out to users who’ve reported receiving spam messages and are closely investigating those reports.
- Security is our top priority and we’ll let you know if we uncover evidence that these email addresses came from Dropbox.

Thanks for your patience. Investigations like this can take time and we’re working hard to get to the bottom of this.

-Graham

This is not a public announcement and one that took some digging to find in reading through the forum. They are trying to reassure everyone by saying they have not found any intrusion or unauthorized activities to date. That does not mean they did not happen, just that they have not been able to find any. They still have not concluded their investigation and we hope that it is determined conclusively that there were not security breaches into the Dropbox systems.

Things are still pretty much up in the air as to exactly what is going on with the spam emails sent to European Dropbox users. It is obvious that email addresses where gathered and turned over to some group which then sent the spam. Whether Dropbox has servers in Europe that contain the email addresses of accounts there is unknown, but could very well be the case. We just do not know what is going on. Another situation could be an employee who has gathered email addresses and sold them for money. At the moment, that appears to be the one I would like to have be the reason behind all of this. It would mean that no one hacked their systems, but rather an employee. While it is very bad that email addresses are being used for spam, knowing that an employee took this would provide confidence that Dropbox systems are secure.

Investigations like this take a long time and like the Sony investigation over a year ago, the lack of information caused problems for Sony. At the moment, Dropbox is not revealing very much. It could be the investigation is closing in on who is responsible for this and they do not want to reveal what they are doing. Let's hope that is the case and this will all be resolved and revealed shortly.

The best outcome is that an employee is behind this and the Dropbox systems are secure.

Reports Of Security Breach At Pinterest Growing

Few reports as to spam emails and hacked accounts coming out.

It seems that so many web sites are being attacked and security breaches happening, that it makes you wonder what is going on. These get a lot of news coverage as to what has happened and numerous reports go along with that. But, there is talk about a security breach over at Pinterest, but there is almost no reports about what is going on. It seems that Pinterest is still trying to determine exactly what has happened and how it may have occurred.

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New Apple Patent Will Mean More Patent Infringement Suits

Apple now has patents to graphical interface for smart phones.

Pictures from Free Patents Online
Word is coming out regarding patents which Apple has secured from the United States Patent Office. Patent number 8223134 has been granted on July 17, 2012 to Apple Inc. and with this grant, Apple now has all the tools to go after all their competitors. As the pictures from the granted patent are showing, Apple now has the patent to the graphical interface to touch screen smart phones. This was filed as “Portable electronic device, method, and graphical user interface for displaying electronic lists and documents” and as the name implies is far reaching. This is giving Apple a whole new arsenal in which to go after the competition.

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Dropbox Brings In Security Experts After Security Breach

Forensic examination being conducted because of security breach.

The news this week has Dropbox hiring security experts because spam emails were sent to and received by some Dropbox users. That does not sound like it is all that different from what we all get everyday. But in this case, the email addresses receiving these were reserved exclusively for use at Dropbox and no where else by some. That would mean that someone was able to gain access to a list of Dropbox user’s email addresses. And that is a huge breach being reported. This is another problem in the cloud and one that should make everyone a little more concerned about just how secure the cloud actually is.

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Apple Forced To Publish Samsung Did Not Copy iPad

Apple being forced to eat crow by UK court.

Apple and Samsung have been going at it all over the world in the courts. And it seems that Apple has had the upper hand in winning patent infringement injunctions for the purpose of delaying the sale of Samsung Galaxy smart phones and tablets. When those have been imposed, Samsung has been able to get some over turned, but they have lost sales as a result. Now, in a recent revelation by Bloomberg News, Apple is going to have to now publicly acknowledge that Samsung did not copy the iPad design in the tablets they have been producing. For Apple, this will be rather humiliating for them.

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Facebook Popularity Declines As Google+ is More Liked

Has Facebook hit its peak here in the US?

It seems that the recent news regarding Facebook is that it is not “liked” as much as Google+. And that is the result from a American Consumer Satisfaction Index survey which has released their results today. And those results are creating quite a stir because of the improvement of Google+ and the decline of Facebook. It may well be that Facebook has become way too saturated here in the US with just about everyone having a Facebook page. And those pages are not as well received as they once were because of the recent changes for Timeline and the increasing of advertising.

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Reports Of Security Breach At Pinterest Growing

Few reports as to spam emails and hacked accounts coming out.

It seems that so many web sites are being attacked and security breaches happening, that it makes you wonder what is going on. These get a lot of news coverage as to what has happened and numerous reports go along with that. But, there is talk about a security breach over at Pinterest, but there is almost no reports about what is going on. It seems that Pinterest is still trying to determine exactly what has happened and how it may have occurred.

There is a long story from TechCrunch regarding Pinterest locking some accounts because of reported hacks that are going on. This goes back to July 16th when Pinterest sent out questionnaires in an attempt to narrow down exactly what happened. You can see the actual "locked account survey" to see the kinds of things they are asking people. The questions and information being gathered seem to make it rather obvious that they are fishing for an explanation as to what is going on.

Another site reporting on this is LLSocial.com and they are providing some limited information and it looks to be the source for the report by TechCrunch. Why this has not been picked up by many bloggers is unknown as this is quite a story. It could be due to a lack on understanding by Pinterest as to exactly what has happened. Here is what we can gather and it has been going on since prior to July 7th when things escalated with the number of reports, which is not good.

It seems that people may be "pinning" something from Facebook on Pinterest. And it is that item which may be cause a problem. It apparently put itself on to Make Money Online in one report. That appears to have been the start of the problem for some, but not all. The pinning of the item hacked their account and others who clicked on the pinned item had their accounts hacked. But it looks like this is not the only source and that seems to be part of the bigger of problem of trying to figure out just how widespread this may be.

Others are saying they never linked something from Facebook to Pinterest. They may have clicked on something in Pinterest which resulted in their account getting hacked. In the comments from the LLSocial.com site, some are speculating that this may have something to do with the names being used for boards. And some specific names for boards that contain the word "Products" for example are being hacked and taken over. In some cases, the board name is deleted and another one with a similar name is created. Some have been inactive for a few months and logged in to find their account had been hacked and someone posting to their account.

It would appear the problems here are widespread and Pinterest is struggling to keep up with the volume of reports. Given that it appears they are still guessing, it is going to be a while before they can determine exactly what is going on. It would appear there is some flaw in Pinterest and the code behind it. And until they can figure out exactly how this is happening and the scope of it, it is very difficult to "Pin" down what the problem is and make corrections to stop it.

We all remember the complete shutdown of Sony's Play Station gaming site over a year ago because hackers had gained access to many of their servers and services. The situation at Pinterest is starting to look shaking with limited information coming out and a number of theories as to exactly what is going on. Whatever the flaw in their system is, they had better figure it out quickly or their reputation will disappear quickly because of the security problems.

Dropbox Brings In Security Experts After Security Breach

Forensic examination at Dropbox being conducted because of security breach.

The news this week has Dropbox hiring security experts because spam emails were sent to and received by some Dropbox users. That does not sound like it is all that different from what we all get everyday. But in this case, the email addresses receiving these were reserved exclusively for use at Dropbox and no where else by some. That would mean that someone was able to gain access to a list of Dropbox user's email addresses. And that is a huge breach being reported. This is another problem in the cloud and one that should make everyone a little more concerned about just how secure the cloud actually is.

At the moment, we do not know the specifics of what actually resulted from the security breach and how much information was compromised. The reports of the breach and spam emails has many talking this week about the cloud and security. The sharp rise in spam emails to addresses being used only for Dropbox is causing concern among many. Dropbox is reassuring everyone that there has been no breach of data which is being stored by them.

Unfortunately, it is difficult to accept that as they still have not determined how someone might have been able to gain access to the list of email addresses. And this has been going on for close to 2 days as they investigate exactly how someone was able to gain access and get email addresses. The bigger concern of gaining access to data or accounts has not been specifically stated as not having happened. At this point, many are very concerned about the security of their account.

This comes about a year after another breach in security at Dropbox. In that situation, Dropbox had made a software change which essentially removed the need for a password. All you needed to know was a valid email address and you were in. While that one only last 4 hours, it does highlight just how easy it is for something to go wrong.

Dropbox is used all over the world and some are saying it is being used inside some locations where privacy and security are very important. As an example, Apple and NASA are listed as having Dropbox being used by employees to move data around. And it is that usage which does have the potential to open computers up if someone were to completely breach the internals at Dropbox and figure out how to do far more damage. It is an unknown as to what the potential for this kind of thing is. And yet, we are being told that the data is secure.

The cloud has turned into this huge entity which we all rely on everyday without really realizing it. From your mobile device that is doing backups into the cloud to the large volume of web sites and business operating on the cloud. Our reliance on the cloud has created a situation where everything is now more centralized than ever before. If someone is able to breach the security at a cloud location, they have much more information to grab then before when things were widely distributed.

We can hope that Dropbox is able to specifically identify exactly what was taken, how it was done and then plug the hole in security which allowed it to happen. They have a very limited time window to complete this activity before users of Dropbox begin to become very concerned. And it is the security of their data in the cloud that they are and should be most concerned about.

Facebook Popularity Declines As Google+ is More Liked

Has Facebook hit its peak here in the US?

It seems that the recent news regarding Facebook is that it is not "liked" as much as Google+. And that is the result from a American Consumer Satisfaction Index survey which has released their results today. And those results are creating quite a stir because of the improvement of Google+ and the decline of Facebook. It may well be that Facebook has become way too saturated here in the US with just about everyone having a Facebook page. And those pages are not as well received as they once were because of the recent changes for Timeline and the increasing of advertising.

It seems that everyone one has a Facebook page and that includes your parents and more than likely your grandparents, depending on your age. As a result, Facebook has tried to become all things to all people. And that is just not possible to achieve. In the survey results from ACSI show rankings for those in the Social Media area with some very startling results. This is based on questions to gauge user satisfaction with the various social media sites. The biggest one is just how far down the chart Facebook has moved to the bottom for those who were measured in the most recent results. As an example, MySpace is no longer being measured. So Facebook came in at the bottom at 61 which is 5 points lower than the score a year ago. Seems there is a trend playing out here for user satisfaction.

Above Facebook is LinkedtIn at 63. At the top of the scale is Google+ and Wikipedia, both at 78 points to represent the user satisfaction levels. Given that Google+ has not been out yet a year, they have grabbed people's attention for their interface and the survey shows that. When Google+ came out, there was a lot of discussion about how they were going to do. And when the growth was not there, some wrote them off. But, Google wanted Google+ to be something different and it does not want to be like Facebook. Which this does prove out.

Facebook has had problems for the past few years with privacy, or the lack thereof. They seemed to be in the news because they were revealing too much information about people when they should not have. Then there were the changes to the interface, most notably Timeline. Users have not been as happy as they should and this recent survey results show that to be the case. I have been observing that the number of posts that I am seeing from people has dramatically dropped of. This could be because everyone is tightening things down that much more or they are just not adding wall posts like they used to.

And competition from the likes of Pinterest at 69 does not help. It seems that more folks are posting pictures over there than at Facebook. Pinterest has a clean interface along with Google+. Facebook has cluttered up the interface with advertising trying to increase revenue and the screens are not as nice as they once were. Google+ has continued the Google idea of clean and uncluttered screens. As long as Facebook continues to add things to the screens, they will continue to remain at the bottom.

Another item in the survey which Facebook took a hit for and Google+ got points is the mobile interface. Facebook continues to struggle with their mobile interface and if they cannot get that corrected, Google+ will continue to be the beneficiary in the user satisfaction surveys. For now, Google+ seems to be doing all the right things.

Facebook has challenges ahead of them here in the US and around the world. Recent information has Facebook seeing declines in users in the US (1.1%) and in a number of other countries. With this kind of news, they may see more of that as people look to other interests because of the user satisfaction survey.

And then there is the price of their stock........

RIM Fighting A Losing Battle For Blackberry Survival

The rise and fall of RIM looks to be moving towards an end.

More than 5 years ago, RIM was the mobile phone provider and the one that everyone was striving to become. With the release of the Apple iPhone, the shift away from the Blackberry phones began. Even though RIM could have maintained their market share, an apparent decision was made to focus on the Blackberry Playbook at the expense of the Blackberry phone market. By not taking the approach of being a dynamic company and focusing too heavily on corporate companies and the public sector, RIM missed out on the market.

Read full article

Wireless Carriers Need To Supply Microcells For Free

Carriers have tools in place to correct many reception problems.

Dead zones are dreaded words for mobile phone users. The ability to get a wireless signal on your cell phone is one of those never ending battles we seem to fight. Mobile phones have become a critical item in our day to day lives and the ability to not be able to use it is very frustrating. This is all because “dead zones”, which are areas where there is not wireless coverage. We have all experienced it at one time or another. It may have been a dropped call or the frustrating “No Service” display on the screen. Either way, one would think that given the rapid growth of technology, wireless carriers could work to resolve these dead zones. There are solutions which are available, but they come with costs which make the carriers money and provide limited benefit. Read full article

RIM Fighting A Losing Battle For Blackberry Survival

The rise and fall of RIM looks to be moving towards an end.

More than 5 years ago, RIM was the mobile phone provider and the one that everyone was striving to become. With the release of the Apple iPhone, the shift away from the Blackberry phones began. Even though RIM could have maintained their market share, an apparent decision was made to focus on the Blackberry Playbook at the expense of the Blackberry phone market. By not taking the approach of being a dynamic company and focusing too heavily on corporate companies and the public sector, RIM missed out on the market.

This has been a slow and long process and is best shown by an infograph of their time line over the last 5 years. In 2007, they were the most profitable company in Canada. How things have changed for them since that time. They have had multiple layoffs at the company with the last one being 30% of the current workforce. How can a company survive after letting that many employees go? Then there is the continuing exodus of management. This is a huge brain drain and is continuing.

Future for RIM - Delay of Blackberry 10
It does not look like there is much of a future for RIM as there is no positive reports coming out. The biggest news being reported is the delay in the release of Blackberry 10. That is to be some time next year. This is another delay. It was delayed until the end of 2012, which many already felt was too late to save the Blackberry line. With this most recent delay, can the company survive? The Blackberry London phones look exciting, but they are not going to show up until Blackberry 10.

Future for RIM in India
India has been one of the remain strongholds for the company with continuing strong sales there for their Blackberry Phones. But even that appears to be slowing down. In a recent report, India's slowing economy is impacting Blackberry sales. Having been dominate in India, to now lose that market strength comes at a time when RIM needs every sale they can get. Other phones are now becoming popular in Asia as well, leaving RIM with a shrinking market.

Developers moving away from RIM platform
There are numerous reports of RIM seeing the departure of app developers from their platform. While disputing the app developers loss, it appears that it is indeed happening and spells another new low for the company. At a time when they need some positive news, this comes as another problem area and spells a darkening future.

RIM loses court case in California
To add to the mess which RIM is facing is a jury decision against RIM where they have been ordered to pay 147.2 million in a patent infringement case. This could not have come at a worse time for the company. Given the financial condition of the company and the value of the stock, this spells big trouble if they are not able to get it reversed.

RIM could be purchased
While RIM wants to remain independent, the future of the company in some form may require them to be purchased. They may be able to sell more of their patents to help prolong the company until Blackberry 10 comes out. But given the number of times it has been delayed, this is not a sound idea unless they know for sure that it will be a specific release date. There are many companies being listed as potential buyers, but that is all speculation. RIM is known for their Blackberry Enterprise servers and the associated technology could interest several companies along with the supporting infrastructure all over the world.

Will RIM survive beyond 2012?
At the moment, the answer to that does not look positive. News continues to stream out indicating big problems for them this year. With the delay of Blackberry 10, they are facing some big challenges and more than likely are not going to survive. This did not happen this year, but has been building for years because they did not make the adjustments to compete with the iPhone and other manufacturers of touch screen phones. The public has driven the market from phones which include fixed keyboards to touch screens and RIM has not kept up with that.

The Blackberry Storm was their attempt to move in that direction, but it did not get very far. As a former owner of the Storm, the idea was a good one, but the implementation just didn't seem to make it. This was partly because of bugs at launch which should have never been there. Unless there is a release of a startling new product from RIM by the 4th quarter, it would appear they are not going to survive long enough to return to past glory with the Blackberry 10.

Wireless Carriers Need To Supply Microcells For Free

Carriers have tools in place to correct many reception problems.

Dead zones are dreaded words for mobile phone users. The ability to get a wireless signal on your cell phone is one of those never ending battles we seem to fight. Mobile phones have become a critical item in our day to day lives and the ability to not be able to use it is very frustrating. This is all because "dead zones", which are areas where there is not wireless coverage. We have all experienced it at one time or another. It may have been a dropped call or the frustrating "No Service" display on the screen. Either way, one would think that given the rapid growth of technology, wireless carriers could work to resolve these dead zones. There are solutions which are available, but they come with costs which make the carriers money and provide limited benefit.

All of these rely on the same idea of extending their network through the use of a home based extender. They come with names like microcell, fermtocell, picocell, network extender, etc. and all serve the purpose of bringing a strong cell phone signal into a home or business. They have very limited range and you can configure them to only work with your phone. These connect into your network connection to the Internet, such as with XFINITY or U-verse, and provide a wireless signal taking very little bandwidth. For this, they charge fees to make revenue from these devices.

Verizon changes a one time fee of $249.99 which is pictured above. You can find these on eBay with a large number of listing. I am a Verizon customer and have chosen to live outside the city. Having purchased the Galaxy S3, I am not getting the kind of service I would like at home which is 3G. At work I get a 4G signal and am near a cell pod which provides a very strong signal. Getting a network extender looks to be a solution to no signal on one side of the house and a poor signal on the other. Other carriers charge either a one time fee or a monthly fee. The problem with this is they are missing an opportunity to resolve dead zones in neighborhoods and need to take advantage of correcting the problem. And charging a fee is not an option.

Currently, most of the microcell devices allow you to block other wireless phones from accessing the device. And these devices are carrier specific. By giving these away for free and opening up the signal for say 200 yards, they could blanket 8 to 10 homes or more with a solid wireless signal. It would also require that they not allow for any restriction for access. By providing these free network extenders, they could provide for strong signals in areas where they do not have complete coverage or areas where coverage is weak. It does appear that the carriers are more interested in making money than keeping customers happy.

There are drawbacks for using this as a way to provide for better coverage. The positive side is that you can start a call on your microcell and leave your location and your phone will switch over to your wireless settings. On the flip side, you cannot be using your phone and then have it switch over to the microcell when you return. It just will not work. The other potential one is that signals may interfere with your neighbors. Given that it is the same signal as you get from a cell tower, that is an unlikely situation.

The cost of putting up a cell tower is expensive and trying to have complete coverage is difficult. With the cost of these much smaller cell pods, carriers could solve a lot of their problems with coverage and keep their customers happy and loyal. You only have to look back on the iPhone and AT&T coverage to see how fast something can get out of hand. For those who experience spotty coverage at home or work, this would be a great solution. For carriers, this would provide for happier customers.

Sounds like a win-win. What do you think?

NFC Mobile Payments Too Slow For London And Olympics

London Underground minimum performance not meet by Mobile Wallet.

We have been waiting for NFC payments to take hold this year with smart phones. Last year, estimates had them taking off by the middle of the year here in the US as more smart phones had the NFC capabilities included. The Galaxy S3 from Verizon does not have Google Wallet as Verizon is working on their own implementation for NFC payments. All of this makes one wonder how much longer it is going to be before things get organized and there is widespread usage of NFC payments. So, here we are past the mid-point in 2012 and we are not hearing much about wide scale adopting of NFC payments.

What is the problem? Is this a Fragmentation problem because of all the competing groups and methods for processing payments? It could be, but there may be some other problems involved with getting things implemented. Things for the future are looking better, but that is still in the future. Recent discussions at the TechCrunch Disrupt New York event had people talking about the future.

"NFC is coming. It's a wave," he said. "But there are a lot of hitches in use cases. People can get a discount from an ad. That's much more simple. But when NFC is in an environment where where 2 seconds make or break the transaction at the merchant level, there are still issues that need to be overcome." In other words, while NFC sounds like the future of mobile payments, and probably is the future of mobile payments, don't throw out your credit cards just yet.

And it is that 2 seconds for make or break which seems to have it be a breaking for the future of NFC for some. With the coming Olympics in London, there was a lot of hope for taking advantage of NFC payments there. But, one group has decided to not use NFC payments. In the London Underground, which is often referred to as "The Tube", they have set the acceptable threshold of processing an NFC transaction at 500 milliseconds. Anything longer than that will slow the movement of people through the payment gates.

And it is because it takes longer than 500 milliseconds to process the mobile payment, they have decided to not use NFC payments in the London Underground. This is a big deal and points out some of the problems with the NFC processing of payments. People expect to Tap and Go, but with NFC, it has turned into Tap, Hold and then Go. The end result is that it slows the process down when you are trying to move large volumes of people.

In the case of the coming Olympics in London, anything that impedes the rapid flow of people onto the rails is not acceptable. And it is those kinds of things which appear to be slowing the acceptance of NFC payments for things like mass transit. There needs to be significant improvement in the process to gain wider acceptance.

If you have to do more than "Tap and Go" to make purchases, people are going to look at alternatives. People may use NFC to purchase a card which has amounts added to it to make purchases. And that is because the "Tap and Go" features currently work best with a card. That is what the London Underground is relying on for their Oyster payment card, which is widely used in the London Underground. Until NFC can break the 500 millisecond barrier, acceptance and usage is going to slower than some had hoped.

Stopping Texting While Driving - Unclear On The Concept

RIM comes up with a solution which they have now patented.

Every now and then something comes along which makes you wonder if the person behind it was unclear on the concept and the latest one comes care of RIM, the makers of the famous Blackberry phones. As if they did not have enough troubles already, they have now been granted a patent to enable CAPTCHA when doing texting while the phone is moving faster than 3 mph. The intent is to encourage people to stop texting while driving, but this is where the unclear on concept comes into play.

In the patent granted to RIM this week, they now have a patent which displays CAPTCHA in the form of a picture which the person has to look at and type in the answer to a statement being asked of them. In this case above, the expected answer would be "dog". We are assuming that upper and lower case does not matter. The intent is to make it much more difficult for the person doing the texting. There are various levels of the pictures and answers which are displayed based on the speed which the phone is moving at.

This works by using built in GPS to measure how fast the phone is moving. If one is on a train, you would have to solve the CAPTCHA to text which would be a real pain since you are a passenger. But the main design of this is for someone who is driving a car, not a passenger. Though the passenger in a car would be subjected to the same CAPTCHA display and puzzle solution. There is nothing to stop the driver from trying to do this anyway.

At speeds from 3 - 6 mph up to 124 - 149 mph, the CAPTCHA requirement would come into play and require a solution to be entered to be able to text. Why they put an upper end on the speed at which the phone is traveling is anyone's guess. I see this as another unclear on the concept. Do you see it the same way?

RIM has been looking at ways to reduce texting while driving for safety reasons, but this one misses the mark by a lot. People who want to text are going to do it while driving unless the phone is disabled. Adding another layer of complexity to texting is going to be seen as a challenge and people are going to do it anyway. Whether RIM implements this or not is unknown, but we can hope that they do not as it is not going to change the behavior of a majority of people.

Here in California, people are prohibited from texting while driving, but they do it anyway. It is often hard to see what they are doing. On the other hand, it is illegal in California to hold your phone to your ear while driving, but people continue to do it anyway. And the high number of people doing it is very visible as you drive around. If they are not going to stop holding their phone to their ear to talk while driving, what makes anyone think they are going to stop texting while driving because of the addition of CAPTCHA to be able to text while driving?

This is another one of those unclear on the concept stories.

Cloud Storage Competition Between Dropbox and Google Drive

Dropbox doubling storage for Pro accounts at no addition charge.

Who ever said that competition is a good thing had it exactly right. And for consumers of Dropbox and their cloud storage, you are getting a benefit. Specifically, those who pay for the Pro service are getting an increase in storage with no additional charge. That increase is double the space. So, if you are paying for Pro 50 which gives you 50 GB of storage, you will get bumped up to 100 GB of cloud storage. If you are paying for Pro 100 which gives you 100 GB of storage, you will get bumped up to 200 GB of cloud storage. And the best news of all is that the prices will not increase for you. All of this is increasing today.

Dropbox is a very popular service which many people use. It is the first one that people think of for cloud storage. That is because they work across more devices than anyone else and that gives them an edge. But recently, Google has released their Google Drive product which is cloud storage as well. In comparison, with Dropbox you get 2 GB of free cloud storage which you can increase by referrals up to 18 GB. Not bad. By contrast, you get 5 GB of free storage with Google Drive and you do not need to do any referrals. The beginning space gives the advantage to Google Drive.

We know that Dropbox is facing some stiff competition from Google Drive. That may explain the latest changes they have made to their paid cloud storage versus the free cloud storage. Google Drive offers 25 GB at $2.49 per month and 100 GB at $4.99 per month. In comparison to this, the prices for Dropbox yesterday were 50 GB at $9.99 and 100 GB at $19.99. It would seem that Google Drive is a better deal.

With the increases in space, it is now 100 GB for $9.99 and 200 GB for $19.99. While Google Drive may seem like a better deal, they do not cover all the devices that Dropbox currently does. And Dropbox has made their process on a computer extremely simple to use. That is the reason that it is so popular. What should you consider? It is personal choice and for some, that means using both. If you are a small business owner, you are going to have to use both products to meet the needs of your clients.

We are probably going to see more competition, but with Dropbox offering free storage for a limited time on some new smart phones and tablets from Samsung and others, they have the advantage over Google right now. And that may not change anytime soon. Sure the coming Google Nexus tablet may offer some free storage for a limited time, but they do not have all the business relationships which Dropbox does. And it is specifically what gives Dropbox a huge advantage in the cloud storage market.

Looks for continuing competition where you, the consumer, come out the winner.

QR Codes Which You Can Eat - Who'da Thought

Taco Bell comes out with eatable QR Codes

We have all seen QR Codes in our travels to the store or in magazines or on web sites. These funny looking square boxes seem to be growing and showing up just about everywhere. It seems that there was no end to where they were able to put them and that now extends to food. Taco Bell has come up with an editable QR Code and you can watch the video below where they talk about it. But they are not the only one who has taken QR Codes to a whole new level.

A German food company has been able to print QR Codes on editible paper which they then put on the top of cookies. They call them Qkie's. Novel idea and one that you may see in the near future which is in Europe right now. This has turned into a product brand for them. Another company using the editable paper is Clever Cupcakes in Montreal.

Most of the other editable QR Codes are a collection of things, such as cup cakes or M&M's, to then form a QR Code. The idea of a single item, such as the Qkie, is one that could well show up more in the future. The idea of using editable paper makes a lot of sense. Otherwise, you are creating the QR Code by hand which would take quite a bit of time.

So for now, we can talk about these few and wonder about what might come in the future. If you know of others, please add them in the comments so that they can be shared with everyone.

Making Of The Cantina Bell QR Code

Your Smart Phone Could Be Spying On You Right Now

We all rely on our smart phones and do not think about the information they collect about us as we go about our day to day lives. But we really should be concerned about exactly what our smart phones are able to collect and what law enforcement can do with that information. Remember the big deal last year when it was revealed that wireless carriers could get information about us as we moved from cell site to cell site. That information reveals where you have been traveling and is very valuable. Much of the focus back then was about what individual phones were collecting and after wireless carriers in the US pledged to make changes, things quieted down.

But in reality, the vulnerability of our phones is now beginning to come out. And it is even worse then what was talked about last year. This is the result of a story regarding a significant rise in surveillance request from law enforcement. The requests in 2011 are 62% higher for AT&T as compared to 2009 and that should alarm people. There were over 1.3 billion requests last year for all the wireless carriers. The information they are requesting can show where you have been and how long you were there. If you are concerned about privacy, then this should really scare you. No longer is it about listening in phone calls which does require a warrant. Now there is much more information based on location tracking and a warrant is not required.

There are calls for Congressional investigation because of the rapid rise in "warrantless cell phone" requests of the wireless carriers. The wireless carriers seem to be more than willing to turn over information because they can charge a fee to cover their costs in turning over the information. AT&T made $8 million last year in fees. Don't think that it costs wireless carriers to turn over this information. The fees they charge more than cover any costs they incur. And all of this is without a warrant. While some requests are turned down, most are fulfilled by wireless carriers.

To give you an idea of just how many they are filling, you only have to look at staffing. AT&T has a group of 100 full time employees who review each request and respond to the law enforcement agency making the request. Verizon has a team of 70 full time employees. Some of the requests come from court orders, but many do not. It is those which are not court orders which should have everyone very concerned.

The unfortunate reality is the laws are trailing far behind the fast moving technology. And with just about every new phone coming with GPS and cell phone towers tracking your movement as you move between cell sites, you are visible even though you do not realize it. And more smart phones are being purchased everyday which have better technology in them. Signals are getting stronger and the move to 4G LTE is only going to make things faster. And that is exactly what law enforcement wants.

For the law enforcement community, there is big treasure to be gleaned from the information which they want to collect and right now, there are no requirements to restrict them in the requests. As long as the wireless carriers can make some money out of selling this information, they will continue to comply with requests until such time as warrants are required.

Given how fast laws get created to keep up with technology, it will be a while before things change in an effort to protect our privacy. For now, if you have a smart phone, you are not as private as you think.