AOL to Acquire TechCrunch.

AOL said on Tuesday that it was buying the influential technology news blog TechCrunch to bolster its growing online editorial business. The deal, signed on stage at a TechCrunch conference here, will add to AOL’s technology coverage, which also includes the gadget blog Engadget. The companies did not disclose terms, but the price tag was more than $25 million, according to a person with direct knowledge of the deal who was not authorized to speak publicly. The acquisition is another step in AOL’s quest to revive its reputation as a hub for online news. Under Tim Armstrong, AOL’s chief executive, the company has hired hundreds of reporters to cover local news for the company’s Patch property, in a bid to strengthen online advertising revenue.

AOL is betting heavily on ad-supported content as its future, after its spinoff from Time Warner last year. The strategy sets it apart from Google, which does not create any of its own content. AOL also said on Tuesday that it had acquired 5min Media, a Web video syndication company that distributes a library of video clips from 1,000 media companies to other Web sites. It also bought Thing Labs Inc., which makes software for consumers to post online. Mr. Armstrong told the TechCrunch conference audience that AOL would use TechCrunch as a pillar of its technology coverage. It will operate independently from Engadget, he said, but the two sites will use some of each other’s content. TechCrunch, founded in 2005 by Michael Arrington, a lawyer, is widely read by technology industry insiders for its mix of breaking news and commentary — some of it bombastic. The company generates $10 million in annual revenue and $3.5 million in profits, he has said. It gets about 3.8 million unique visitors a month, ranking it as one of the more popular technology news sites. AOL’s Engadget gets about 7.3 million visitors a month.

Mr. Arrington, who is a major editorial voice for the site and a crowd-drawing fixture at his conferences, said in an interview that he planned to stay with TechCrunch for years, if not “all my life.” The agreement includes incentives to encourage the site’s staff to stay for three years. Mr. Arrington said that AOL had promised “not to impose their bureaucracy” on TechCrunch and that he would retain editorial control. Over the years, financing for TechCrunch has come entirely out of Mr. Arrington’s pocket. Mr. Armstrong of AOL first approached TechCrunch about an acquisition in May, according to Mr. Arrington, who added that the talks accelerated in the last four weeks. The two companies had discussed a deal two years ago, but nothing came of those talks, he said. Yahoo and CNet, owned by CBS, had also courted TechCrunch, Mr. Arrington said.

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Twitter launches new ad format, kills an old one

Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt, onstage at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference in San Francisco on Tuesday, plugged the moneymaking potential of Twitter. Twitter strikes me as being a very important platform, Schmidt said. Twitter should be able to come up with advertising and monetization products that in our opinion are highly lucrative. Twitter Chief Operating Officer Dick Costolo was in New York at the Interactive Advertising Bureau's Mixx Conference on Tuesday with a similar pitch.

That's where he unveiled a new initiative called Promoted Accounts. Advertisers can boost their audience on Twitter by paying Twitter to automatically suggest to users with similar interests that they "follow" the advertisers. Costolo said in an interview this month that Twitter was pleased with the performance of Promoted Tweets, which appear at the top of updates, and Promoted Trends, which are featured on a list of trending topics. Advertisers pay when users click on a link, which happens about 5% of the time. The idea behind the latest initiative is to give businesses the opportunity to get their updates in front of users, not just their ads. Twitter plans to roll out a self-serve advertising system for small businesses next year. Costolo also said Twitter was abandoning its earlybird initiative, an account that Twitter users could follow to get daily deals from advertisers.

It was a big day for Twitter: It surpassed MySpace in unique visitors to become the third-most popular social networking service. According to its latest stats, Twitter has more than 160 million users and is adding 370,000 users a day. Twitter had nearly 96 million unique visitors in August, up 76% from the same period a year ago, ComScore said. MySpace shed 17% in the same period, dropping to 95 million unique visitors last month. Twitter and MySpace are tiny compared with Facebook, which jumped 54% to 598 million unique visitors in August, and Microsoft’s Windows Live profile, which combines the company’s Web-based e-mail and other services to grab 140 million unique visitors. Twitter could gain more visitors with its redesign launched two weeks ago.

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Kinect for Xbox 360 Connects Advertisers and Consumers.

Brands are jumping in to a new era of engaging and connecting with consumers. Microsoft Advertising today announced at Advertising Week 2010 that a full lineup of forward-thinking companies is bringing its brands to Kinect for Xbox 360, the new controller-free gaming and entertainment experience that responds to body movement and transforms how people play, entertain and connect with family members and friends. Chevrolet, Sprint and T-Mobile USA Inc. will each launch respective ad campaigns throughout the Kinect console experience, “Kinect Sports,” “Kinect Adventures” and “Kinect Joy Ride” game titles.

With Kinect for Xbox 360, we are removing the last barrier to interactive television — the controller, said Mark Kroese, general manager of the Interactive Entertainment Advertising Business Group at Microsoft. We have seen tremendous momentum from the advertising community, including big campaigns from Chevrolet, Sprint and T-Mobile. These visionary marketers are leading the entertainment revolution with ground-breaking campaigns that are highly engaging.

Advertising campaigns will commence with the much-anticipated North America launch of Kinect on Nov. 4:

• Chevrolet. As announced in June, Chevrolet is the first automaker to launch a multiscreen ad campaign that allows consumers to test-drive Chevrolet vehicles in “Kinect Joy Ride,” the first controller-free racing game from Microsoft Game Studios. When Kinect for Xbox 360 launches this fall, consumers will have the opportunity to take the test-drive concept to a new level by driving the Chevrolet Volt in “Kinect Joy Ride.” Also, after viewing the video advertisement in-dash on Xbox LIVE or on the Web, consumers will be able to unlock and download Chevrolet Cruze, Camaro and Corvette cars to drive in the game. Chevrolet will then kick off the new year with an ad campaign in the Kinect Hub showcasing the same vehicles.

• Sprint. As a longstanding and pioneering Xbox LIVE advertiser, Sprint understands the value of connecting with the Xbox community. This fall, Sprint is sponsoring the launch of “Kinect Adventures” with a co-branded retail experience on Xbox LIVE and a sponsored contest in which “Kinect Adventures” players have the chance to get their pictures featured on Xbox LIVE. Consumers attending New York Comic Con can play “Kinect Adventures” at the Sprint booth.

• T-Mobile. Another Xbox advertising pioneer, T-Mobile is taking advantage of the immersive user experience in “Kinect Sports” with fixed product placement throughout the games including volleyball net signage, custom bowling balls and foam fingers held by the arena audience. T-Mobile is further supporting the game title through a sponsorship on the Xbox 360 console. Xbox members can visit a website on the dashboard to access exclusive video content and participate in the first launch weekend Play & Win contest with prizes including Family Gold memberships. Also, during the holidays T-Mobile will support “Kinect Sports” Play & Win programs with two Xbox Family Game Nights in November and January.

The Kinect platform provides an innovative way for brands to connect with consumers by enabling them to physically explore and engage with branded content through voice and gesture. While creating brand and consumer interaction on a new level, Microsoft works closely with its partners to ensure it delivers engaging experiences that are relevant and add value to the entertainment experience itself.

Kinect for Xbox 360

Formerly called “Project Natal,” Kinect for Xbox 360 delivers a whole new way to play, with controller-free games and entertainment. For advertisers, it provides an innovative way to connect with consumers by enabling them to physically explore and engage with a brand through voice and gesture. A special sensor recognizes players and responds to their movements and gestures. Kinect can also take pictures during gameplay, which players will be able to upload to their favorite social sites when the game ends.

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Blackberry launches Playbook rival to iPad.

Research In Motion, the Canadian maker of the BlackBerry SmartPhone, introduced its first tablet computer on Monday at a developers’ conference in San Francisco. But in a return to its roots, the company said that the new device, the BlackBerry PlayBook, would be aimed mainly at business users. After popularizing wireless e-mail, R.I.M. has ceded much of its leadership in the SmartPhone market to Apple and phones based on Google’s Android operating system. The introduction of a tablet computer will not end criticism from some analysts that R.I.M. is now playing catch-up with Apple. But in a bid to distinguish the Playbook from Apple’s iPad, Michael Lazaridis, R.I.M.’s co-chief executive, said that the new tablet contained several features requested by corporate information technology departments.

In an address to conference attendees, Mr. Lazaridis called the PlayBook “the world’s first professional tablet” and repeatedly emphasized that it was fully compatible with the special servers that corporations and governments now used to control and monitor employees’ BlackBerry devices. While the company offered some specifics about the new device, it left many questions unanswered, most notably the tablet’s price. The company was also vague about its release date, indicating only that it would be available early next year. Among the PlayBook’s novel features are outlets that allow it to display material on computer monitors or television sets, but Mr. Lazaridis made no effort to use them during his presentation. As animations showing the device’s features appeared above him on a giant screen, he did little more with the PlayBook in his hand than switch it on.

It’s a very real product, said Charles S. Golvin, principal analyst with Forrester Research. But obviously it’s very much a work in progress. Perhaps responding to criticisms that the operating system for R.I.M.’s phone is outdated, the PlayBook will use a new operating system developed by QNX Software Systems, a company R.I.M. acquired from Harman International earlier this year. The new device can also display Web pages created using Adobe’s Flash software, a capability not found on the iPad. To underscore that point, Shantanu Narayen, the president and chief executive of Adobe, appeared on stage with Mr. Lazaridis. While R.I.M.’s phones and tablet will have incompatible operating systems, Mr. Golvin expects that outside software application developers will work around that issue by using Flash, as well as standard Web page protocols.

R.I.M. has lagged well behind Apple in terms of the number of applications available for its hand-held devices. But immediately after the PlayBook announcement, Amazon said that it would introduce a Kindle e-book application for the Playbook. Unlike the most expensive iPads, the PlayBook cannot connect directly to cellular networks. Users will be able, however, to connect to the Internet through a wireless Bluetooth connection to their BlackBerrys or by using Wi-Fi networks.

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Connecting like professionals: Windows Live and LinkedIn

From the Blog of Microsoft.com, it has been made official the windows live coming in together with Linkedin. What they said on the blog is; we’re pleased to announce another of those great partnerships: LinkedIn. We love LinkedIn’s tag line, “Relationships Matter,” because at Windows Live, our goal is to create great experiences that keep you connected with the people who matter most.

With over 75 million members in over 200 countries and a new professional joining approximately every second, LinkedIn is clearly a leader in professional social networking that we’re excited to partner with. There are four key areas we’re focused on in our deep integration with LinkedIn:

·        Keeping your contact list organized with auto contact linking across Hotmail, Messenger and the rest of Windows Live.

·        Helping you use Messenger to keep up with what your LinkedIn contacts are doing.

·        Making it simple to share updates from Messenger to your LinkedIn contacts.

·        Helping your Messenger friends keep up with what you’re doing on LinkedIn.

·        LinkedIn contacts

With nearly 50% of users actively using 2 or more social networks, linking social networks together becomes a messy business for your contact list if not handled with care. Your contact list can become easily flooded with duplicate records for the same person from the contact details you already have, their Facebook or MySpace friend details, and now their professional contact information from LinkedIn. We recognize how tedious it is to manually clean up duplicate contacts in your contact list, but it’s important that you have easy access to the right contact information for the right situation. For example, when you send a work-related email, you may use a different email address than when you send a personal note to the same person. When you make the LinkedIn connection with Windows Live, your LinkedIn contacts are automatically linked to the same contact you already have stored in Windows Live, so that you have one record with the combined set of information. Now you can compose and send email to your LinkedIn contacts right from Hotmail. Having your LinkedIn contacts connected to Windows Live doesn’t end with just email, however. Your LinkedIn contacts are available to you across Windows Live, including in Photo Gallery. You probably wouldn’t think to associate photos with your LinkedIn activities, but with people tagging in Photo Gallery, for example, you could tag a photo of someone you saw at a conference, because it’s always helpful to put a face to a name.

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To Advertisers, Twitter's a Fledgling

Twitter Inc.'s foray into advertising is receiving mixed reviews among marketers, underscoring the challenges of turning the popular micro-blogging service into a highly profitable enterprise. The popularity of Twitter has fueled expectations that marketers could use the service to target relevant ads to consumers interested in real-time information about breaking events and other topics. Since launching its much-anticipated advertising products in April, Twitter has signed on more than 30 big-name brands, including Coca-Cola Co., Virgin America and Starbucks Corp., to test them. Some marketers say that early results are promising but that advertising on Twitter remains an experiment. Other marketers, including PepsiCo Inc.'s beverage brands and Best Buy Co., who tested out Twitter's new advertising products—some without cost—haven't made new ad buys. Marketers say they definitely aren't ruling out advertising on Twitter in the future, but that it's still early days and they are figuring out what works.

"The jury is out" on whether Twitter can become a home for brand advertisers, said David Cohen, an executive vice president at Universal McCann, a media-buying agency owned by Interpublic Group of Cos. Twitter offers "Promoted Tweets," where marketers pay to have their messages listed as the first result when a user conducts a search on Twitter.com; the site handled about 130 million searches in August, according to comScore Inc. The company soon will experiment with ads that target users based on the content in their tweets, or messages. Marketers who tried out Twitter's new advertising product at launch didn't pay for the initial tests, according to two digital-ad executives. Now, Twitter is selling Promoted Tweets for upwards of $100,000. Marketers say they want more targeting options and better metrics to track the impact of their ad campaigns.

They also question whether consumers pay attention to paid ads on social-networking-type sites, however. Some see more benefit in using the sites' free options, such as creating Twitter accounts and interacting with users. "It is a totally new and different kind of ad format. There is a lot we still have to learn and think about," says Shiv Singh, head of digital for PepsiCo Beverages, which tested Twitter's ads this summer but has yet to make any further Twitter buys. For Twitter, a four-year-old service, much is riding on its efforts to woo Madison Avenue in its first serious attempt to generate revenue. The San Francisco start-up was valued at about $1 billion during a recent financing, according to people familiar with the matter. Twitter executives say their ad push has just begun and they are under no pressure to show revenue growth anytime soon, so long as users continue to flock to the service. Twitter executives say the ad products have exceeded expectations. Chief Operating Officer Dick Costolo said that on average 5% of Twitter users who saw a Promoted Tweet interacted with it, a rate that is "an order of magnitude greater" than most online ad campaigns.

Nearly 80% of the companies who tried Twitter's Promoted Tweets or a similar ad product known as Promoted Trends made a second buy, a Twitter spokesman said. When a Twitter campaign is a hit with users, it has the ability to make a big impact as people share the message with their friends, some marketers say. Airline Virgin America promoted the launch of its new service to Toronto in April by offering special discounts to Twitter users. The promotion drove the airline's fifth-highest sales day to date, says Jill Fletcher, Virgin America's social-media communications manager. In recent weeks, Twitter began rolling out a redesign of its website designed to give advertisers a better platform to showcase photos or videos, said Evan Williams, Twitter's chief executive. Each day Twitter users post more than 90 million messages, called tweets, nearly triple the number posted per day in January. About 375,000 new users are signing up every day, and there are now more than 160 million registered users around the world. As part of its efforts to woo marketers in New York, Chicago and elsewhere, Twitter in recent months hired experienced advertising executives from Google Inc. and Facebook Inc., among other companies. Ad spending on social networking-type services remains a small fraction of the total online ad market. Marketers this year are expected to spend about $1.7 billion on social networks—just 6.7% of the total $25.1 billion market, according to research firm eMarketer Inc.

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Cyber Attacks Test Pentagon, Allies and Foes

Cyber Attacks Test Pentagon, Allies and Foes http://alturl.com/4sgsu

Cyber espionage has surged against governments and companies around the world in the past year, and cyber attacks have become a staple of conflict among states. U.S. military and civilian networks are probed thousands of times a day, and the systems of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization headquarters are attacked at least 100 times a day, according to Anders Fogh Rasmussen, NATO's secretary-general. He further said, It's no exaggeration to say that cyber attacks have become a new form of permanent, low-level warfare. More than 100 countries are currently trying to break into U.S. networks, defense officials say. China and Russia are home to the greatest concentration of attacks. The Pentagon's Cyber Command is scheduled to be up and running next month, but much of the rest of the U.S. government is lagging behind, debating the responsibilities of different agencies, cyber-security experts say. The White House is considering whether the Pentagon needs more authority to help fend off cyber attacks within the U.S.

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Making shopping more of a snap with your smartphone

Here are a few free and inexpensive smartphone apps that make shopping a little less of a chore.

ShopSavvy (free for Android, iPhone, Nokia and $1.99 for iPhone 2G): It also offers barcode scanning and wish lists like the other two. ShopSavvy also recognizes QR codes, those codes you may see popping up in stores and magazines that look like some kind of inkblot or obscurist black and white box art. Another helpful feature is the price alert for items you're interested in. It lists prices for stores built on clicks and bricks.

Shopper (free for Android, BlackBerry, 99 cents for iPhone or the free "Lite" version): This is one of the apps that includes RedLaser barcode scanning. There's also a Web interface you can access from your computer of choice. The lists you create are sharable via e-mail or through the app. Shared lists will update with any changes. You can customize your stores lists with those you frequent and get a list of weekly deals.  You can also use the app to track your grocery budget and spending. It'll calculate what's on your list versus what's in your cart, add in tax and the discount for any coupons you have. Remember we mentioned scanning? Well, for those of us who are more impulse buyers than planners, you can scan items into your shopping list. And if it's something you plan to buy again, you can make it a favorite to save the information you've already entered. It'll also send "carts," so you can let your other half know what's already been bought.

Google Shopper (free for Android): This Google app lets you do a voice search and image or barcode search. Same concept, tap and zap. You can share results through many avenues including Bluetooth, e-mail and Twitter. Like RedLaser, this app lets you do comparison shopping online and offline. It also provides reviews when available. You can also use your Android phone to snap the cover of a book, DVD or video game to get details (available in SnapTell for iPhone). The voice-searching works fine, too. But it can be a little less specific. For instance, if you just say ‘The Lucky Ones,’ you're likely to get a bunch of results to weed through until you find the one you're really looking for.

Groupon (free for Android, BlackBerry, iPhone): So one of the trends that seems to continue making its rounds is coupon crowdsourcing. There are typically one to three deals in your area per day. (Now there are more than 70 cities covered.)  A minimum number of people have to buy the deal to make it viable, then it's on your credit card, that is. You end up with a voucher that you can either print out or present on your mobile phone. Just consider that you may have to hand over your precious device to a complete stranger if you choose not to print it. There's typically an expiration date and restrictions. The user interface on the app is super slick and easy to use.

RedLaser (free app for iPhone):  Think red laser as in the laser in the scanner at the cash register. By tapping the lightning bolt on the screen and steadying the phone's camera over a barcode, you can get details in a flash. If the camera isn't picking up the barcode, you can tap in the digits in the code. You can create wish lists of your scans and e-mail your list. It's a great tool for comparison shopping online and offline. There's a ‘local’ feature that looks for your products at nearby locations using the location services of your phone.  On many food items, RedLaser calls up nutritional information. Of course, it doesn't always find what you're looking for, but we've had more hits than misses.

Evernote (free for Android, BlackBerry, iPhone, Palm Pre/Pixi, Windows Mobile): This app is one of those gems that you probably have sitting on your phone and never use. But make a note to yourself to use it. Not only is it accessible on multiple smartphone platforms, you can use it on your Mac or PC, making it quite the MVP. You can create text lists, photo and audio notes. We recently used it for both a honey-do list and for mattress shopping, complete with geolocated photos. There are also numerous apps that play nicely with Evernote, letting you save snippets and clippings into Evernote.

Living Social (free for Android, iPhone): This is another super easy-to-use group discount app. They've recently expanded to add 25 more markets in the United States including Albuquerque, Salt Lake City, Fresno and L.A.'s South Bay, as well as parts of the United Kingdom and Canda. Check the site for a full list. Like Groupon, there's a time limit to get the deal and a minimum number of buy-ins before it's a go. The app also includes a list of things to do in your particular area, but it's apparently just another form of advertising. We're told a Blackberry app is in the works.

Yowza (free for iPhone): Essentially, these are coupons on the go for everything from chicken wings to six-strings to slingbacks. We used this the other day at Lane Bryant, who is a recently added retailer. Although the attendant at the register wasn't familiar with this type of coupon, she did easily type in the discount code once she confirmed the store actually did take them. One of the nice features is that many of the coupons allow for multiple use. You slide the arrow to reveal the code, and it gets counted as one use. Kind of tricky - saving you money by encouraging you to spend more. The Yowza!! Savings tab could be helpful in justifying to your significant other that spur-of-the-moment spending spree at Guitar Center, for instance. And, if you're the kind that overshares, you can also e-mail, tweet or Facebook how much you saved.  Like most of the other apps above, it has a geolocation feature that lets you know what participating stores are near. You can track specific stores and tag coupons for use later.

Cardstar (free for Android, BlackBerry, iPhone): You can lighten your load somewhat by either tapping in or zapping in your loyalty cards. This is likely the most labor-intensive and yet simple of the bunch. It does one thing -- stores your loyalty cards. Unfortunately, you have to meticulously type in the numbers yourself, leaving room for human error. That said, it keeps all of the membership numbers you may ever need. We're hoping in future upgrades, they do include the ability to tap in a photo of the number or barcode.

Key Ring Rewards Cards (free for Android, iPhone): Less labor-intensive, this app also can be quite handy for those times you're without your keyring and can't remember which phone number it's listed under. You can either type in the digits or snap in a photo of the barcode. Also, for those stores that use Cellfire coupons that get uploaded to your loyalty card, you can track which coupons you have available.  On both of the loyalty card apps, we did have difficulty on a few fronts getting our on-screen barcodes scanned. There was the psychological barrier and then the technological one. Several efforts with different hand-held scanners failed. Don't bother trying with flatbed scanners; they won't work. These are just 10 we use most out of hundreds out there. Just about every retail operator out there worth visiting has an app available, with a variety of features.

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Tough Times for Independent IT Dealers

Authorized companies receive inventory directly from the manufacturers and set prices based on manufacturer's suggested retail price. Independent resellers sell used, refurbished or gray market equipment—factory-sealed equipment purchased on the open market—and set the prices for those products. Independent dealers say large manufacturers in recent years have encouraged customers, including the government, to buy goods through authorized channels only, which the manufacturers say helps ensure the merchandise isn't counterfeit. The global information-technology industry loses about $100 billion a year to counterfeiters.

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Stuxnet worm targeted high-value Iranian assets.

The recent war is not with guns and battleships but with computer viruses, One of the most sophisticated pieces of malware ever detected was probably targeting high value infrastructure in Iran. Stuxnet's complexity suggests it could only have been written by a nation state, some researchers have claimed. It is believed to be the first-known worm designed to target real-world infrastructure such as power stations, water plants and industrial units. It was first detected in June and has been intensely studied ever since.

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Mac version of Photoshop & Premier Elements 9 out.

Mac version of Photoshop & Premier Elements 9 out http://alturl.com/z9rfx

Adobe Systems has finally launched Photoshop Elements 9 & Premiere Elements 9 for Mac  users. The popular consumer photo and video-editing softwares will be available for both Windows and Mac users for the first time. The new version of both the products feature all the tools users need to make the most of their photos and videos, claims the company. Adapted from Photoshop CS5's Content Aware Fill feature, the content intelligence in the Spot Healing Brush analyzes what's in the image and quickly de-clutters or repairs photos (like removing tourists from a crowded scene) with a swipe of a brush, magically filling in the background.

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'One app for all' effort launches.

'One app for all' effort launches http://alturl.com/iqofc

A European project to develop an application environment for every internet-connected device has received 10m euros in funding. The project aims to sidestep operating systems and proprietary app stores by providing a web-based approach. The idea would enable a given app to work, for example, on a web-ready television, in a car and on a mobile, no matter the makers of the devices. However, industry insiders say the idea is unlikely to get off the ground. The Fraunhofer Institute for Open Communication Systems (Fokus) in Germany is leading the effort, dubbed Webinos. It is a group of 22 organisations including mobile operators Deutsche Telekom and Telecom Italia, manufacturers such as Sony Ericsson and Samsung, and standards body the World Wide Web Consortium. The problem is the extreme platform fragmentation, said project lead Stephan Steglich.

We have a lot of different platforms that apps run on - the iPhone, Android, Symbian - and that's only on the mobile side. If you extend that to include the automotive part and consumer electronic area you have more platforms. Companies can afford to have an app on two or at most three platforms - they're extremely costly to develop and ensure the user experience. That's what we want to address - to provide a system that runs on all these platforms and domains, where the developer comes up with one application for one platform and lets you run it on all these devices - mobiles, automotive, gaming, and so on.

Rather than develop yet another operating system or work on a service that translates software from one platform's code into another's, the project's central idea is to make applications run in a web environment, rather than directly in the depths of a given device's operating system. The greatest common denominator among all these devices is the web browser - that's the only thing people can use to accept the same content. Other initiatives have tried to replicate elements of Webinos, but have so far gained limited foothold.

In February, for example, mobile operators banded together to form the Wholesale Applications Community, designed to offer apps across a range of mobile platforms. Shashi Fernando, the company's chief executive, says that while Webinos has an impressive roster of participants, it is unlikely to revolutionise the world of apps. In particular he refers to the big bear in the room - Apple - who have yet to subscribe in any meaningful way to similar efforts. If Apple don't come to the table, you're eliminating yourself from one of the fastest growing manufacturers in the world. I think the problem is that these groups don't really understand there are companies that create platforms that work across multiple devices. There is no interest in a standardisation of platforms because those companies need to differentiate their product.

What is more, there is facade of cooperation that may actually work to stifle the kind of innovation that Webinos is aiming for. We sit on a few of these initiatives, like the Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem - an industry-wide initiative around film and TV to standardise format and digital rights management. Every major manufacturer is in there, every provider of services, every DRM provider, every studio's behind it. Everybody's trying to play nice and yet nothing is getting off the ground because there are too many vested interests. He said that while a ubiquitous web-based platform could drive down the cost of apps as well as address device compatibility, such a situation would lead to a "free-for-all". At the moment at least there can be a guarantee around quality if (individual app providers) can keep control of it.

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Friended for $100 Million.

Friended for $100 Million http://alturl.com/2fysk

The FaceBook Founder & CEO Mark Zuckerberg founder plans to announce a donation of up to $100 million to the Newark schools this week, in a bold bid to improve one of the country's worst performing public school systems. Newark spends about $22,000 a year on each of its 40,000 pupils, but only about half of its students graduate of which only one-fifth go to four-year colleges. More than 85% of the Newark students at community colleges need remedial help in math and English. The state took control of the troubled Newark system in the 1990s, and this month Gov. Chris Christie informed the city's superintendent that his contract wouldn't be renewed after June 2011.

Mr. Zuckerberg is setting up a foundation with $100 million of Facebook's closely held stock to be used to improve education in America, with the primary goal of helping Newark. Mr. Zuckerberg has had a long-standing interest in education, particularly teachers' low salaries, according to a person familiar with the discussions. Over the last year, he had a series of meetings with people involved in education and developed a relationship with Newark Mayor Cory Booker. Mr. Zuckerberg attended public high school in Ardsley, N.Y., before transferring to the private Phillips Exeter Academy in Exeter, N.H.

The donation comes at a time when foundations and wealthy investors are increasingly funneling large amounts of money to public education—but with strings attached. In Washington, D.C., this year foundations pledged millions of dollars to pay for an increase in teacher pay that is tied to teachers' abilities to show they can help students improve. While Mr. Zuckerberg has made charitable donations in the past that have not been widely reported, this is by far his largest and represents his debut as a major philanthropist. According to the person familiar with the discussions, Mr. Zuckerberg decided he did not want to wait until he was near his career's end before getting involved in major philanthropy.

The announcement of the gift has been planned for Friday on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" show, which has been using this week to draw attention to education. The timing of the announcement was driven by the Mr. Christie and Mr. Booker, over the objections of Facebook executives, said the person familiar with the discussions. Mr. Zuckerberg's pledge comes as the company he founded confronts a Hollywood film's scathing depiction of the executive. "The Social Network," which opens in wide U.S. release Oct. 1, suggests Mr. Zuckerberg may have stolen the idea for his social-networking site

Mr. Zuckerberg was not available, a spokeswoman for Mr. Christie couldn't be reached, and Mr. Booker declined to comment. A $100 million donation to a school district is rare, but not unprecedented. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which has pumped almost $5 billion into K-12 education, awarded Tampa' Hillsborough County School District $100 million last year to overhaul how teachers and trained and evaluated. No plans have yet been finalized on how the gift to Newark will be spent. Mr. Booker is supposed to draw up those plans and get community support for them, said the person familiar with the discussions.

The donation has the potential to be matched by another $100 million that Mr. Booker has been working on raising from private foundations and others. The $200 million that could be raised would amount to more than 20% of Newark's budget of $940 million. Under terms of the understanding between Mr. Zuckerberg, the Republican Mr. Christie and the Democratic Mr. Booker, the mayor would become the governor's representative to devise plans for the schools. according to a person familiar with the announcement. Mr. Booker plans to make education the focal point of his second term, just as he made crime the centerpiece of his first. Mr. Zuckerberg will fund for the foundation with his private stock in Facebook, and will arrange for a transaction on the secondary market for the foundation to turn the shares into cash as needed, said the person familiar with the discussions. The move will represent a relatively small dilution in his stake in the company, the person said.

Facebook has over 500 million users world-wide. Investors value the company at more than $20 billion. Mr. Zuckerberg owns more than a quarter of Facebook's stock, say people familiar with the matter.

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Google releases censorship tools.

Google releases censorship tools http://alturl.com/94um8

The US government asked Google for user information 4,287 times during the first six months of 2010. During the same timeframe the UK government put in over 1,000 such requests. This is just two snippets from Google's new Transparency Report, a set of tools designed to show censorship levels around the globe. Civil liberty groups welcomed the tool but called on Google to provide even more detail about the requests. Earlier this year, Google released details about how often countries around the world ask it to hand over user data or to censor information. The new map and tools follows on from that and allows users to click an individual country to see how many removal requests were fully or partially complied with, as well as which Google services were affected.

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Google Voice iPhone apps: They're baaaack!

Google Voice iPhone apps: They're back!

For those of us with iPhones, the challenge with Google Voice isn't getting calls at a number you can forward from phone to phone. It has been with making calls from that virtual number. That's where apps enter and then they disappeared. You may recall that last summer Apple rejected Google's iPhone app for its Google Voice service and pulled three $3 Google Voice-enabled apps that allowed you to use Google Voice from your iPhone because of what developers were told was iPhone feature duplication (dialer, SMS, voice mail, etc.) An inquiry from the Federal Communications Commission ensued.

Well, the apps, they're back!

Over the past few days, two GV apps went on sale: GV Mobile+ and GV Connect.

As little aside: One previously available, VoiceCentral, was recently rejected, but seems to be feeling good about it. While not thrilled with the outcome, the developers say they're thrilled by the response -- after having been in "review purgatory" for over a year. Baby steps toward a more open process. We took the two currently available for a test spin.

GV Connect - What it does: It's a dialer that helps you dial others using your Google Voice number. (You know, so your GV number is the one that shows up in caller ID, not the one you're actually calling from and trying not to give out.) First off, GV Connect includes all the standard features you'd want in a dialer app, but one of our favorite user-friendly inclusions is the call button. It's super simple to toggle between the phones you want to forward the call to. This becomes quite useful when you realize that cell reception is rather spotty where you are and have a land line at your disposal. A nice touch, letting you make calls more quickly while capitalizing on the flexibility of the GV service without having to go into settings. The screen for keypad tab indicates the city you're calling and its local time -- so 212 elicits a New York designation across the top of the screen under the number and lists a three-hour time difference from our Los Angeles calling location. Not as useful a feature as it once might have been with area codes being less meaningful in this mobile era.

You can also see in the top right of the keypad tab how much calling credit you have available.  Again, not very useful if you never go beyond the courtesy 10-cent credit. In the voicemail tab, you get two lines of transcription (useful enough, depending on the reliability of Google's transcription, which can be rather spotty at times), the call date and the ability to star favorites or messages you want to remember later. You can also toggle among all messages, the ones you haven't read yet and the ones you marked. Once you go into a message, you can access the recording on the same page as the transcript appears. You can also write notes to yourself and block the contact from both the voicemail and text message pages, if you wish. This app, like its competitor below, allows you to hear the voicemail either over the phone's speaker or by putting your ear to the phone. There's also a character count in the text message tab. Bottom line: Toggling made easy. The call button is a nice addition, and voicemail is nicely packaged.

GV Mobile+ - What it does: This is a blast from the past, a remade version of one of the apps removed from the App Store in 2009. It was at the top of our list then and again gets a great reception.  Among the things we like about this app is the favorites tab -- Apple doesn't provide access to your phone's favorites list. When you flip to contacts from the keypad, you have access to the full list of contacts as well as the tab of favorites. If you have multiple accounts, you can easily toggle between them with a single tap in the settings. In fact, adjusting settings is easy to set up and fairly intuitive. Some of the other notable user-friendly features are landscape support throughout, the ability to set a default area code and startup tab, being able to set the frequency of data sync and phone number recognition (or displaying the name of a contact when you type in a number that's in your contacts).

In the voicemail list, in addition to the name or number of the person who called, it shows how long ago the message was left and the first line of transcription. It doesn't include the actual date. We weren't thrilled by having to tap on a button labeled "trans." at the bottom of the screen to see the transcription. It would have been more intuitive to have that launch by tapping the arrow on the right of the message. Instead, by tapping the arrow, you trigger a menu allowing you to call the number back, send a text or add the information to your iPhone contacts. A few things the developer says are in the works: push, VoIP and alternate dialing. Speaking of dialing, offline dialing, which is supposed to let you place calls when no data connection is available, didn't quite work as planned when we used the app. It kept getting locked up in the Google Voice number's voicemail when we tried it. Another disconnect is that those of us who paid their $3 last year get to pay three bucks yet again to get what is essentially an upgrade that would normally be free for an app that Apple didn't pull from its App store.

Bottom line: Clean interface. Allows a favorites page for frequently called numbers. Good app (again), but not thrilled about having to pay full price (again) for what's essentially a long-delayed upgrade. For those of us who prefer the price of "free," you can always launch the Google Voice webpage from your home screen. Many of us without jailbroken phones have had to use that for the past year, and it still works just fine. Who knows, we might soon just see a Google app for Google Voice. Stay tuned.

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Make Your Own Kind of Music - On a Windows PC.

Make Your Own Kind of Music – On a Windows PC http://alturl.com/4mp28

Recently, a few of us had the chance to spend some time with Windows DJ Darek Mazzone during his weekly modern global music show “Wo’ Pop” on KEXP, a radio station broadcasting in Seattle, New York and worldwide on the Web. We crammed into the small DJ booth to watch Mazzone and his crew work. While Mazzone queued up his song selections, show assistants Brenda Tausch, Liza Zinina and Rebecca Campeau scoured the Web for information on each group or artist to feed into KEXP’s real-time online playlist. “Wo’ Pop” features music from what Mazzone calls the “six corners of the world” – from Cambodian rock to Cuban hip hop and everything in between.

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Twitter flaw pumps out spam links.

Twitter flaw pumps out spam links http://alturl.com/wr8v9

A flaw in the website of microblogging service Twitter is being used to pump out pop-up messages and links to porn sites. Users only have to move their mouse over the link - not click it - to open it in the browser. Thousands of Twitter accounts have so far posted messages exploiting the flaw including Sarah Brown, the wife of former Prime Minister Gordon Brown. The malicious links look like a random URL and contain the code "onmouseover". Some reports suggest that the code is being spread by a worm, a self-replicating and malicious piece of code.

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Bonding With Fans Who Can't Get Enough.

Bonding With Fans Who Can’t Get Enough

(Source - NYTimes.com)

THE Pittsburgh Penguins, who had a major draw in their young center Sidney Crosby, were looking for an innovative marketing approach to spring back from recent National Hockey League troubles. Fan morale by 2008 had been dampened by the team’s loss in the Stanley Cup finals to the Detroit Red Wings that year and by the 2004-5 N.H.L. lockout when the season was canceled after management and the players union could not agree on a contract. The Penguins decided to help rebuild ties with fans via cellphone, a campaign that the team says has resulted in a fivefold increase in sign-ups for its mobile fan club. That response prompted the team to offer more mobile options for its coming season in its new arena. “We did a lot of research, including focus groups, online surveys and arena surveys to see how we could best reach fans season round,” said Jeremy Zimmer, the team’s director of new media. The research helped the team focus on its fans who agreed to be contacted by cellphone, about one-fifth of its 1.5 million person fan base; the team defines its base as those who have watched, attended or listened by radio to at least one Penguins game in the last year, Mr. Zimmer said.

The Penguins hired Vibes Media, a Chicago mobile marketing company, to help it create the Pens Mobile Club, where fans could receive news, recaps and commercial offers — including free tickets from Chevrolet to the Pittsburgh auto show and discounts on Coors Light beer at local bars — on their mobile phones. The result has been an increase in club members to 72,440, up from 14,000 in the 2008-9 season, the team announced last month. Like the Penguins, more sports teams and leagues are communicating with fans intensively by mobile devices, largely because they are “incredibly passionate and identify with their teams so they are accepting of receiving a lot of information,” said Ben Davis, a founder of San Francisco-based Phizzle, which works with clients like the National Basketball Association’s Cleveland Cavaliers, which sends 1.5 million text messages each month — including scores, statistics, news and other updates — to its mobile subscribers.

The Cavaliers’ mobile alert program also delivers fan-requested content, like game schedules and team statistics, Mr. Davis said. The team partners with companies like the roast beef sandwich chain Arby’s for enter-to-win-via-text contests where winners — of a free meal or a coupon — are chosen randomly. Phizzle also works on mobile marketing with the National Hockey League’s San Jose Sharks and the Nashville Predators, the N.B.A.’s Philadelphia 76ers, and with Madison Square Garden — where the New York Knicks and the Rangers play — this fall. In the 2009-10 season, N.B.A. Mobile, which has 100 mobile applications, had more than 1.7 million downloads, according to figures from N.B.A. Digital. The N.H.L. has started a mobile site, m.nhl.com, which displays live game scores, and summaries and recaps of the scoring for completed games. Teams also are mindful that some two billion tickets — for sports and other events — are projected to be purchased via mobile devices this year, and rise to 15 billion by 2014, according to Juniper Research, which tracks mobile commerce and marketing.

“Mobile has a lot of tentacles, from building a database of fans, reaching commercial sponsors, selling tickets and merchandising,” said Michael Falato, vice president of sales for Txtstation, an Austin, Tex., mobile marketing company that works with sports teams like the Miami Dolphins of the National Football League. Over the last two seasons, the Dolphins’ text club more than quadrupled its initial 8,000 membership, he said. Fans can text — but not call — in questions and comments to the team’s daily afternoon radio show, or, for example, text in a choice for most valuable player during the football season. And texts are tied to prizes like free tickets and other awards like upgraded stadium seating, said Wayne Partello, the Dolphins’ senior director of content and creative. Mobile marketing raises a team’s public profile and is especially valuable for collecting data on fans, sports marketing experts say. That data can later be tied to commercial deals that benefit the team, like signing up subscribers to cellular carriers like Verizon or AT&T — which several teams, including the Penguins and the Dolphins, do.

“It’s all about selling eyeballs, and mobile brings it down to the individual level, “ said Stephen R. McDaniel, associate professor of sports marketing and consumer psychology at the University of Maryland. This is a win for sports organizations, he said, “because the team is building and maintaining fans, and, at the same time, it is enhancing its second revenue stream that comes from sponsorships and promotions.” No team “has the silver bullet,” said Jack Philbin, president of Vibes Media, which also helped the Stanley Cup champion Chicago Blackhawks last season add 30,000 fans to their mobile database. But, “this is the most intimate device we can use.” Last season, the Penguins increased its number of mobile fans by teaming up with Delta Air Lines in a text contest in which fans could enter a random drawing to win two plane tickets from Pittsburgh to Paris. The campaign was promoted online and in radio spots as well as at games, and in two weeks, the team attracted 34,000 entries. Of those, more than 3,000 joined the Pens Mobile Club.

The Penguins also have iPhone and Android applications, and a BlackBerry app is in the works. The apps offer news, archived video, game schedules, statistics and standings and the ability to follow Twitter conversations about the team. Other teams, including the Dolphins, Baltimore Orioles, the Chicago White Sox and the Washington Capitals, also use Twitter to give fans the latest news. When the Penguins play this fall, those seated in the new 18,000-seat Consol Energy Center will be able to connect, via cellphone, with the Yinzcam Mobile video system, a pilot project with nearby Carnegie Mellon University. The system allows those in the arena to simultaneously watch the game from six angles. They also will be able to see game statistics, roster and other information, and view instant replay, accompanied by in-phone ads from the sponsor, Verizon — but only in the arena. During intermissions while the ice is being resurfaced, ticket holders will be able to send text messages that will appear on the scoreboard, vote for the best player and receive real-time game statistics, Mr. Zimmer said. The Penguins system will also allow tracking of which seating section has the highest amount of texting, and fans sitting in postgame traffic will be able to text in comments and questions to the Penguins call-in radio show, he said.

In the Pittsburgh area, the Penguins mobile effort is focusing on more than 100,000 fans ages 21 to 24. Students often stood in line for hours to buy discounted tickets and were turned away when the game was sold out, Mr. Zimmer said. So the team worked with the apparel company American Eagle Outfitters to set up the American Eagle Student Rush Club, whose 15,500 members can be notified by cellphone texts about ticket availability — or absence of tickets when a home game is sold out. Each alert, which carries “AE Student Rush” across the top, also includes a promotional offer like the one recently that said the 4,023rd student to reply would win four free tickets. The Penguins are having some fun as well. Recently the team notified, by cellphone, its Rush Club members about a “student flush” day. The Penguins promised the first 400 students a T-shirt and an early look at the new arena if they showed up to help test the Consol Energy Center’s sanitation system. One day in early June, the students converged and simultaneously flushed all the arena’s toilets “so we could see if everything worked,” Mr. Zimmer said with a laugh.

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Google Android to beat iPad

Google Android to beat iPad http://alturl.com/87tdk

Tablet computers running Google Inc's Android  will star t taking sales from Apple Inc's iPad this holiday season and may surpass it in a few years as device makers adopt the software for a slew of models. Samsung Electronics Co showed the newest Android-based tablet for the US market at an event in New York. AT&T Inc, Verizon Wireless, Sprint Nextel Corp and T-Mobile all have agreed to sell the Galaxy Tab, Samsung said in a statement. The device will be available in time for the holidays, carriers said.

Smartphones running Android have already surpassed Apple's iPhone in the US, according to researcher Gartner Inc. Google may repeat its success with tablets because its operating system is freely available to any company, said Ed Moran, director of insights at Deloitte Services LP. There are a whole slew of factors behind the success: the open-source nature of it, the lower price, it's not proprietary to one company, Moran said in an interview. Will that port over to the tablet? I don't see why not.

Dell Inc, Acer Inc and LG Electronics Inc have said they will make Android tablets. Motorola Inc, which makes Android- based smartphones, hopes to introduce a tablet computer early next year, co-Chief Executive Officer Sanjay Jha said. AT&T and Sprint will subsidise the price, two people familiar with the deal, who asked not to be named because the plans weren't public, said last week. The Galaxy tablet, which has a 7-inch screen and can play high-definition videos, will go on sale in Europe in October, according to WP Hong, Samsung's head of global planning. The device can also run Flash Player.

The device is as comfortable to use standing on a crowded train as it is relaxing on the couch at home, Omar Khan, Samsung's chief strategy officer, said in the statement. The design makes it completely pocketable in your pants or jacket. Though Google doesn't charge for Android, broad adoption of the software may open up related revenue opportunities. The company could increase its mobile advertising sales, expand the market for its search engine and boost its application store, said Jim Friedland, an analyst at Cowen & Co. By having an open Android system out there, it's actually accelerating the adoption. Tablets will increase the amount of time that people stay on some sort of computing device, which expands the traffic and people that Google can monetize.

Android tablet evolution

Android may take three or four years to outsell the iPad as it evolves into a system that can take advantage of the larger screen and video capabilities of tablets. That's similar to the amount of time it took for Android to develop and become popular after the iPhone was released in 2007. Apple, based in Cupertino, California, sold more than 3 million of the touch-screen iPads, which access the Web and work as a calendar, media player and e-reader, in the first 80 days.

'Wild West'

Dell, based in Round Rock, Texas, sells a 5-inch Android tablet called the Streak and will follow up with devices that have larger screens next year. Android for smartphones surpassed the iPhone and BlackBerry in the US last quarter, Stamford, Connecticut-based Gartner said last month. Globally, Android became the third-most popular operating system, with its market share jumping to 17.2 per cent from 1.8 per cent a year earlier. Globally, Android trails Nokia Oyj's Symbian and BlackBerry maker Research In Motion Ltd. The competition for market share is similar to Apple's rivalry with Microsoft Corp when personal computers became popular. Apple had a "cleaner product that was easier to use," though not as many developers worked on the platform because it wasn't as widely deployed. Restrictions on applications that go into the App Store can hold back innovation.

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B2B, B2C, What next? M2M - Forthcoming opportunity for Mobile Networks

B2B, B2C, What next? M2M – Forthcoming opportunity for Mobile Networks

The business community today is buzzing with business jargons like B2B (Business to Business) or B2C (Business to Consumer) but what is next, right then I heard of something heading out, it was referred to as Machine2Machine (M2M), this further lead to my inquisitiveness of its potential revenue opportunities. M2M space is worth to watch for next 2 - 3 years with product vendors & service providers getting focused to ripe benefits from untapped growth potential from yet to mature M2M market. It should be interesting to get more insights on this new buzz word?

The very concept of Machine to Machine is networking of digital communication in between remotely held devices. M2M Technology allows information exchange without human interference and covers range of technologies & applications which connects devices to back-end IT infrastructure. Latest developments in M2M Technologies are hinting incredible revenue growth for Communication providers. Real time data accessible from remote machines or devices is changing the way businesses operate. Major telecommunication providers are making significant investment to upgrade infrastructure to cover potential M2M markets over the next 5 years. This step is not only towards being super efficient & also towards reducing business overheads and also for additional revenue generation and improved customer satisfaction. Technological changes and cut throat competition are driving the industry interests towards M2M spreading across domains like Retail, Logistics, Transportation, Utilities, Communications, etc.

Why do this? The ultimate goal on bringing in M2M is adapting a technological solution that will help to improve customer service & loyalty. Thus, impacting revenue growth opportunities, optimized utilization of infrastructure and reduced cost through utilization of real-time information. The applications available in the market today across various industry verticals may not fully integrate business model & adapt to system requirements for M2M. Communicating Sequential Processes (CSP’s) will now have to focus on developing unique business operating models & processes powered by next generation Open Source Software or Business Support System’s Infrastructure and Billing applications to tap the potential revenue from M2M. In order to meet M2M needs, billing systems should be upgraded to support low average revenue per unit business models providing scalability & flexibility for volumes fluctuations, real time charging & billing capabilities to support a complex business model.

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With new line of iPods, smaller isn't always better

With new line of iPods, smaller isn't always better http://alturl.com/kwpc5

With Every new year Apple's lineup of media players gets a little smaller, and each year the results - while evidence of some extraordinary engineering - don't make quite the same case for upgrading from an older version. The latest crop of iPods, introduced Sept. 1 at a media event in San Francisco, show that a miniaturization mind-set still rules at Apple. But they also show that gadgets can be too small.

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Windows Phone Developer Tools Are Final

Windows Phone Developer Tools Are Final

When the Windows Phone 7 OS went gold two weeks ago, the Windows Phone ecosystem began the final preparations for the upcoming launch. OEMs and mobile operators have begun final testing of their handsets, but developers have had to wait just a little while longer to complete apps and games. Today, that wait is over. The Windows Phone Developer Tools have gone final, and we have released to the Web. This release is English only, but we will be releasing the French, Italian, German and Spanish language versions in the next couple of weeks. For developers to put their apps into the marketplace, opening in early October, you will need to download this version of the tools. Any application built with a previous version of the tools will fail application certification in the Marketplace. When you do submit your application, you can expect it to take about five days to pass or fail certification, though you can check the status of your app submission at any time at the developer portal. For more information on passing certification, please see the Windows Phone 7 Marketplace policies.

First up are apps. Some of the biggest names in apps and games are working to bring the right mix of high quality content to Windows Phone 7. We’ve been working closely with these companies to ensure that customers find quality across the categories of apps and games about which they care. Just last night we hosted a little get together where .NET Developer Platform VP, Scott Guthrie, and Windows Phone Developer Platform GM, Charlie Kindel, talked about bringing creativity to life on Windows Phone 7. I provided a few examples that demonstrate what’s possible on our platform by showing near final apps for Twitter, Netflix, OpenTable, Flixster and Travelocity for the first time anywhere. We have posted the app demo videos for your enjoyment. You can also see what Scott had to say about the tools, and his new

Twitter app. While these companies are known to many of you, what’s really blown the team away has been the quality and creativity coming from the broader developer community. Just look at some of the apps and games that have already caught our eye on YouTube. Even cooler, check out this company called UberGeekGames, who created BulletAsylum. This is a game I can only describe as Geometry Wars + Missile Command. Ian, this looks awesome, and I cannot wait to get this game when you release it. As we mentioned above, we’re taking lots of steps to help ensure that people find quality apps for their phone. We also appreciate the need to respect the wisdom of the market and not introduce arbitrary restrictions on what kind of app can be submitted. Besides, every developer has to start somewhere, and every developer deserves to have that moment where they show their friends their app running on a phone.

The final release of the Windows Phone Developer Tools is the culmination of hard work on the part of many talented people. We couldn’t, however, have done it without the help of the community. The feedback we received since our initial release in March has enabled us to make some changes, resulting in a better finished product. Everything you need to begin developing apps is included in a single download: Visual Studio 2010 Express for Windows Phone, the Windows Phone Emulator, Expression Blend 4 for Windows Phone, and XNA Game Studio 4.0. The installer is smart enough to download only what you need, and the tools will work with your existing Visual Studio 2010 and Expression Blend 4 installations.

The community was also instrumental in ensuring that key controls were made available with the developer tools. The Panorama control is one of the core components of the Windows Phone Design System (codenamed ‘Metro’) that powers the Hubs that are such a prominent part of the product. Panorama based applications offer a unique manner to view controls, data and services in a long horizontal canvas that extends beyond the confines of the screen, and provides the touch and animation features that invite the user to explore and consume your application. The panorama generally serves as the starting point from which the user can drill into subsequent experiences. Pivot is the second unique control to Windows Phone 7 provided as part of the final developer tools. Pivot is a way to visualize data for customers, but give them the ability to filter from one view of the data to another. The speed and simplicity of the control will be a welcome enhancement to data driven applications. Lastly, the Bing Maps control was added to the final release of the tools. We are now giving developers the ability to instantly build compelling map experiences that include a full suite of map functionality that users have come to expect… search, directions, scroll, zoom, aerial view, street view and more, all with a single drag and drop operation. We’ve also provided this control with a free commercial license for your Windows Phone apps. Go forth and be awesome.

While not included in the Windows Phone Developer Tools, another control you’ll want to know about is provided by the Microsoft Advertising team. There are developers who want to sell their apps, some who want them to be free, and even more still who will want to put ads inside of their apps. The Mobile Advertising SDK is available today making is very easy for developers to generate ad revenues from their apps. The team has also released the first real-time, bid-based mobile ad exchange, allowing for revenue maximization of ad placements when they are served. Raj Kapoor has a great post talking about this release. Also based on feedback from the community, we are separately releasing the Silverlight for Windows Phone Toolkit. These controls are being released under MS-PL license. There are six controls in total, and these are meant to augment the Windows Phone Developer Tools experience. The GestureListener provides developers with a control to handle the full range of gesture events, including Tap, DoubleTap, Hold, Drag, Flick and Pinch. There is also a DatePicker and TimePicker to make it easier and more uniform to get dates and times from customers, and they will localize automatically to the correct date and time format setting. The other controls are ContextMenu, WrapPanel and ToggleSwitch. You can download the controls, and get more information, at the Silverlight Codeplex site.

For those developers looking for additional help getting to awesome, we have been hard at work creating more great training courses. A while back, we introduced our Jump Start training series. The first 12 sessions have delivered an astounding 125,000 hours of video based training. We’re adding more content to the JumpStart series, including such topics as how to use the Panorama and Pivot controls, using Blend to build Windows Phone 7 apps, tombstoning and improving the performance of Silverlight apps on the phone. This will be a one day live session event on Sept 21st presented by the wonderful Rob Miles and Andy Wigley, and you can register here for the live session. Registration space filled up last time – over 2,000 live participants. If you miss this live event, rest assured we will be posting the videos to Channel9 shortly afterward. Subscribe to them through Zune and iTunes. If you want a little more personalized training, you can always attend the pre-day Bonus Track at DevConnections, focused on Windows Phone 7 development. This is an all day, in depth, technical event being run by Shawn Wildermuth of AgiliTrain. Our own VP Joe Belfiore will be there as well. It’s going to be well worth the price of admission. Like I said, we had a lot of stuff to share. Our primary goal in building the Windows Phone Developer Tools was to make it fast, easy and fun to create amazing and beautiful apps and games for Windows Phone 7. The developer platform is really all about enabling developers to build whatever they can dream up. The unique capabilities built into the application platform, manifesting in distinctive UI and great user experiences, mean that developers can take a fresh start and rethink the experiences they are delivering to the mobile screen. The tools are nothing short of what you should come to expect from a company that values developers; amazing, and fully supported by a company that puts you, the developers, first.

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Justin.tv Releases iPhone Streaming App

In 2007, Justin Kan, a San Francisco developer, decided he would start documenting every moment of his life and stream it to a Web site for anyone to watch.

Those who were interested could see Mr. Kan wandering around, going to board meetings, eating lunch and engaging in other mundane, and sometimes unpleasant, activities. After a few months of the experiment, he turned the project into Justin.tv, a Web site that makes it possible to stream yourself to viewers over the Web.

Now Justin.tv is trying to encourage its users to begin streaming more content from their mobile phones. And to enable this, the company announced on Thursday the release of a free downloadable application for the iPhone.

Caleb Elston, a developer at Justin.tv, noted in a company blog post that he had seen a 20 percent increase in video streaming since the company unveiled a similar mobile broadcasting app for the Android platform. Mr. Elston said his company’s new apps  “are the easiest, highest quality and most reliable ways to share what’s happening right now.”

The iPhone streaming app has a simple, one-click button to begin broadcasting, and it offers users the ability to share their broadcasts on social networking sites, including Twitter and Facebook. The streams will work over 3G or WiFi.

Although Justin.tv is not the first to offer this kind of experience, the company has a lot of users. Some streaming channels on Justin.tv get as many as 50,000 active viewers, and there are over 2,000 active channels at any moment.

But some of the more heavily viewed channels are sometimes illegal, and the Web site continues to struggle with users who stream content illegally on the service.

Earlier this year, the Ultimate Fighting Championship subpoenaed Justin.tv because its users were illegally broadcasting U.F.C. fights. Other large corporations have complained about illegal streaming in the past.

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Facebook alternative Diaspora rolls out first code.

Facebook alternative Diaspora rolls out first code.

Developers have been given their first glimpse of a community-funded and open alternative to Facebook. Diaspora describes itself as a "privacy-aware, personally-controlled" social network. It was conceived earlier this year by four US students during a period when Facebook came under fire for its privacy settings. The open-source project has now released its first code to developers and also published screenshots.

This is now a community project and development is open to anyone with the technical expertise who shares the vision of a social network that puts users in control, the team said in a blog. Many of the features shown on the site will be familiar to people already on social networks such as Facebook, including the ability to share messages, photos and status updates. The team said they are currently working to integrate the site with Facebook and to make it easy for people to take control of and move their personal data. They aim to launch the first public product in October.

Privacy win

Their idea of building Diaspora started earlier this year during a period of intense criticism of Facebook, the world's largest social network. The site, which boast 500 million members, was criticised for having overly complex and confusing privacy settings. It was eventually forced to roll out simplified controls. We want to put users back in control of what they share, Max Salzberg, one of the founders of Diaspora. The team turned to the fundraising site Kickstarter to raise funds to build the network, eventually raising $200,642 from nearly 6,500 people. Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, reportedly donated to the project. The launch of the first code marks a milestone for the project. However, the team warned that there were still problems to iron out.

It is by no means bug-free or feature-complete, but it is an important step for putting us, the users, in control, they wrote. However, bugs may not be the only challenge the network faces, said Nate Elliott, principal analyst at research firm Forrester. It seems they are simply copying Facebook with a different architecture. If the only differentiation is around privacy, I can't image they will persuade enough people to move away from Facebook and the network effect it has. He said the site was a great concept but ideas like data portability were difficult to implement. However, he said, it may influence Facebook in other ways.

Facebook has been very good at recognising what is good about their competitors and pulling in those best features. He said the site had successfully incorporated features from Twitter and location service FourSquare. If Facebook genuinely see this as a threat or see that people really like it as an idea, it may influence what they do for privacy. Others have questioned whether there is too much expectation on the service. While it's possible for four talented computer scientists, in a summer, to make a piece of software that's so compelling and attention-grabbing, not just in theory but in actual use - it's also far from likely, wrote Dave Winer, a US software developer, before the code was released.

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