Google's I/O: Perfect Blend of Substance and Spectacle?

It used to be that technology companies would head to one or more of the plethora of industry trade shows to introduce new products and showcase their latest offerings. But in recent years many large companies have forgone the shows and instead have offered company-specific conferences and events.

This week Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) might have raised the bar for what attendees -- specifically those in the media and development communities -- expect from such events. The Web giant appeared to be in top form at its I/O developer conference held this week in San Francisco. Google unveiled new products and offered technical presentations -- and it went one better than any Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) event to date.

It had a skydiving spectacle, which drew at least as much attention as some of the products.

"The skydiving and Google Glass demonstration were definitely exciting," said Greg Sterling of Sterling Market Intelligence. "And the developer reaction to the event was enthusiastic. It's also the case that Google gives away hundreds of dollars worth of products, which everyone likes."

Of course, any product could have been used in the same demonstration.

"While over the top, the tablet was really only half working during the freefall demo," Jeremiah Owyang, industry analyst for the Altimeter Group, told TechNewsWorld. "You don't need a Google Glass product to do that. You could use a GoPro camera." 

Google's Showmanship

However, this presentation was big, and whether another product could have been used, it was Google that did it.

"Absolutely, the gamesmanship with that demo stunt surpasses the showmanship that even Steve Jobs had," Owyang added. "Other companies will have to up their game to the point that someone will have to jump out of a spaceship."

It must be remembered that the show is just the show, and at the end of the day the attendees want to see products. Google apparently knew how to give them the right mix of both.

"Google threw out a huge number of announcements and products: Nexus 7, Nexus Q, Chrome Box, Chrome for iOS, Google+ - with events and new apps -- and new mobile search capabilities," said Sterling.

While it is likely only some of those will take hold, the Nexus Q is one example that likely won't go anywhere without a price cut and retail distribution, he suggested.

"The Nexus 7 -- though very nice -- may also have a limited market without retail distribution," Sterling told TechNewsWorld.

Shift for Google 

 

What was also notable about the I/O conference was that it reaffirmed that Google has serious capabilities that extend well beyond its search prowess and browser development.

"This is a company that's shifting from one known for search to a broader consumer electronics company," emphasized Owyang. "They launched a bunch of physical consumer products and that is very different from being stuck in browser mode only. This allows Google to compete against retailers such as Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN) and hardware makers such as Sony."

Of course, a developer conference is a captive audience of fans who will cheer and support every announcement. The next step is seeing how these products fare with ordinary consumers.

"The Chrome box may have enterprise appeal, but it won't have any appeal to consumers," said Sterling. "So a year from now we'll see a mixed track record, in all likelihood, for many of these products. However, Google's core franchise such as search and advertising, is very healthy, and some of the mobile upgrades in Jelly Bean will ensure that it remains very competitive with the iPhone."

On With the Show

It won't hurt that Google did impress the audience -- and while it is unlikely Apple will actually have anyone jump out of a spaceship, this event will certainly goad its competitors to bring their own A game.

"I think the design and profile of this event -- meaning everything from its splashy theatricality to the 'wow" factor of the Nexus 7 to the developer-centric elements of the Nexus Q -- suggests that Google has taken several major steps forward in messaging maturity," said Charles King, principal analyst for Pund-It.

"You can attribute this to the return of Sergey Brin," he said. "That actually seems fair since the company never did anything remotely like this under Eric Schmidt. But it also serves notice to Apple and others."

This could prove important for Google, as it also proves that it fully -- or perhaps finally -- understands how crucial it is to craft individual messages for critical audiences.

"That's something every successful company does as a matter of course," added King. "But it's another sign of maturity which demonstrates that Google is more of a force to be reckoned with than ever before."

And how does Google compare to Apple? Is it fair to say that post-Jobs, Apple is looking somewhat sedate?

"Only if you believe that these events need to have splashy PR stunts," quipped Sterling.

Nor would he say that Apple is losing its edge -- "but the splash definitely helps the buzz around Google's brand."

Source: http://www.technewsworld.com/story/Googles-IO-Perfect-Blend-of-Substance-and-Spectacle-75524.html

It Took Less Than 10 Years for IT Not to Matter

Way back in May 2003, Nick Carr published the article “IT Doesn’t Matter” in the Harvard Business Review.

For those of you who don’t remember it, Carr’s piece was a doozy and then some. He argued that companies paying top dollar for the latest and greatest technological equipment were spending a lot to buy a very limited competitive edge, if any. The chief executive officers of the largest technology companies reacted to this proposition as you might expect. Ignoring all the nuances in Carr’s argument, they viewed it as a wholesale attack on technology. Carly Fiorina, then CEO of Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), called Carr “dead wrong.” Other technology kingpins chimed in with similar vitriol.

In truth, it has taken just about 10 years for Carr’s view of the world to reach mass adoption. Without question, some startups are producing cutting-edge technology and some customers are taking advantage of their wares to one-up rivals. On the whole, however, corporations now seem to prefer, whenever practical, to rent the same computing services their rivals do, rather than try to build custom systems.

 

Most of the people I talk to these days are like Siobhan McFeeney, who heads up information systems management for the AAA in Northern California, Nevada, and Utah. She has Salesforce.com (CRM) running for customer relations, Workday for human resources and financials, and Box for document-sharing and collaboration. “Sometimes it is a harsh reality when companies realize they are not IT companies,” McFeeney says. “We are in road service and a huge insurance agency. We are not an IT company.”

Salesforce—the granddaddy of the software-as-a-service companies—went public in 2004. NetSuite (N) followed in 2007. ServiceNow, Workday, and Box are all expected to go public in fairly short order. Using these names seems to constitute a badge of honor for forward-thinking chief information officers and chief technology officers.

The very companies that bashed Carr back in the day did very little to prepare for the cloud-computing era. Technology giants such as Oracle (ORCL), SAP (SAP), and IBM (IBM) failed to create attractive Web-service versions of their major software franchises, while HP, Dell (DELL), and others opted not to rent out computing power to their customers. Only recently has this started to change in a meaningful way.

The bad news for the big guys is that the cloud companies have shown a major reluctance to being acquired. The only companies willing to sell have been niche players, rather than true platforms like a Salesforce or a Workday. It’ll be interesting to see which cloud high-flyer gives in first—and just how high that acquisition price will be.

Source: http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-06-28/it-took-about-a-decade-for-it-to-not-matter

National Optical Fibre Network project gets PMO push

If the government has its way, more than two lakh gram panchayats of the country will soon have access to the high speed Internet connection. The Prime Minister Office (PMO) has now shown its keen interest in pushing the Rs. 20,000 crore for National Optical Fibre Network (NOFN) project, which is aimed at providing broadband connection to 250,000 gram panchayats. The PMO has decided to set up a coordination committee to ensure smooth implementation of the project.

The coordination committee will be headed by telecom secretary and other senior officials from information technology, health and family welfare, school education and literacy, higher education, food and public distribution, Panchayati Raj and rural development departments.

According to the government officials, the NOFN project is being rolled out by the Bharat Broadband Network Ltd (BBNL) – a special purpose vehicle set up to oversee the implementation of this project and rolling out of the network.

With the NOFN project, the Indian government aims to provide e-governance at panchayat levels as well. The coordination committee will be looking into the requirement of different ministries and government departments to have a pan-India broadband access. The committee will also prepare the framework to bring the e-services up to the Panchayat level.

The NOFN is a critical important project for the Indian governance as it envisages establishing telecommunication in all villages across India by 2014 and expanding e-governance in rural and far flung areas of the country. Setting up of the network will ensure high speed Internet and other telcommunication services in rural areas. To know more about NOFN project, read our previous coverage.


Source: http://www.thinkdigit.com/Internet/National-Optical-Fibre-Network-project-gets-PMO_9964.html

What's .Google want with 101 new .domains, anyway?

It's easy to dismiss Google's big play for a slice of the expanding Internet domain universe as just another side project from the Googleplex. Perhaps too easy.

Google, we learned last week, has applied for 101 domains -- or, more precisely, 101 generic top-level domains, or gTLDs -- and the number itself (surely the 101 Dalmatians reference was intentional) doesn't exactly suggest a new strategy on par with, say, Google+ or Android. The $18.7 million in application fees alone would hardly raise a single Larry Page eyebrow.

And yet this is Google, controller of so much of the Web's traffic that it's hard not to speculate -- which, to be fair, is all anyone can do at this point. Though the International Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has revealed which entities are applying for which new gTLDS, that's just the start. Now come months and months of legal wrangling, negotiations, and ICANN-sponsored auctions for the many contested names, also known as strings.

Google's domains-for-all strategy


Among the big tech companies partaking in this digital landgrab, Google stands out for one key reason: it's applying for a slew of generic strings that, should it win some, it plans to open up so that anyone can register any name, just as one currently can with .com (the shortage of available names notwithstanding).

The other big tech firms aren't doing this. Apple, Yahoo and Microsoft have applied only for names around their trademarks, such as .apple, .flickr, .windows, and .xbox (Microsoft's Craig Mundie, the company's chief research and strategy officer, speaks generally about the company's approach here). And while Amazon, which with 76 applications is the biggest player of the lot behind Google, has applied for gTLDs far beyond its brands -- .you, .free and .play, among them -- it wants total control of any name registered on its strings, as I wrote about here.

Then comes Google. A Google spokeswoman wouldn't say anything about Google's plans. Nor would she say which strings Google wants to run openly, which it wants for Google's internal use only, and which Google would offer with restrictions.

No matter. It's all there on ICANN's Web site, spelled out in separate applications for each string. It just takes digging. And the results are telling. We've broken them out here, excluding the non-Latin strings: red for Google only, green for open to all, and yellow for the restricted bunch. That includes such names as .car, which Google would issue only to sites that "offer content related to cars."

So, back to speculating. To play in this emerging world, Google created a new company, a registry called Charleston Road Registry, that would operate any gTLDs that Google wins. The question is how Google would sell domain names to the public. Google has long been an ICANN accredited registrar, which gives it the license to sell names to the consumers. But it has never done this. Instead, it has always referred customers to partners, such as Go Daddy and eNom, and it could very well continue to use those partners.

Challenging Go Daddy?


But that could also change. Google could start selling domain names directly to its hundreds of millions of users as well, in effect taking on Go Daddy, which did $1.4 billion in sales last year. (Go Daddy's CEO wouldn't comment for this story.) Google could even go further and give names away free. Bruce Tonkin, chief strategy officer for the domain services firm Melbourne IT, says there's nothing in ICANN's guidelines that would prevent Google or gTLD operator from doing this. 

And wouldn't that make sense for Google? Sure, .com dominates, but wouldn't plenty of people grab a .home, or .web or .shop name if they could -- especially if it were free? (Sidenote: all those three strings are contested so they might not end up in Google's hands). For Google, the more Web sites out there, the better. Those are sites that Google could potentially serve ads to. They're sites that could run Google apps. And so on.

Google has recently been making changes to help people more easily use Google products with their own domains. Just check out this Google blog post from earlier this month, "Easier domain verification," as an example.

Of course, it's super early to know how all this will play out. And the only on-the-record Google comments have been by Google's chief Internet evangelist, Vint Cerf, who has underscored the pet-project thinking in a blog post called, "Expanding the Internet domain space." He writes about the need for more dot-com alternatives, saying, "We're just beginning to explore this potential source of innovation on the web, and we are curious to see how these proposed new TLDs will fare in the existing TLD environment." Then, in an interview with my colleague, Stephen Shankland, Cerf said, "I think only a few new TLDs will be notably successful, but I could be wrong."

Just in case he is wrong, though, Google is trying to position itself out in front.

Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57459036-93/whats-.google-want-with-101-new-.domains-anyway/?tag=mncol;topStories

30/30: A Pretty but Shy Taskmaster

Why can't the iPad be a clock? What did it ever do, or not do, to convince Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) not to grant it that privilege?

It has a built-in Reminders app, just like the iPhone, and yes, the iPad will tell you what time it is in the digital readout at the top of the home screen.

But it has no built-in Clock app, with that familiar set of alarm, stopwatch and timer settings.

Why is that? An iPad looks fine on a nightstand or a desk, and you don't need to be hooked up to a cellphone network to keep track of how long the chicken's been on the grill. Why no Clock?

Luckily there's a wide assortment of third-party apps in the App Store that will do basically the same thing Clock will. Certain apps may even pull off certain functions better. 

Get to Work

30/30 is an app that focuses entirely on the timer function. And it's not just a digital egg timer that counts down the minutes, goes bing and calls it a day. It's also a task manager. Use it to plan out a work day, a project, a series of tasks or any situation in which you need to rifle through a set of jobs in X number of hours.

The interface is big, minimalist and actually kind of satisfying to toy around with. Everything is done with gestures. The top is your timer, indicating how much time is left for the task at hand. Below that is your to-do list.

Start by adding tasks to your list. This is done by spreading two fingers between two existing tasks, or just reverse-pinching the space below the clock if no tasks are present yet. Sometimes this gesture makes it a little tricky to add a task to the bottom of the list. My fingers kept sliding off the screen and onto the iPad's bezel. Try pulling the entire list up, then making a downward motion directly under the list with you thumb.

Now you'll need to name the task, select an icon to go with it (an envelope, a paper airplane, a Facebook (Nasdaq: FB) logo, or any of 22 others) and give it a color code. The allotted time of a task can be set in whole minutes anywhere from one minute to three hours.

Create a few tasks, then hit the clock to start the countdown. Once the first task's time is up, you'll hear a chime, at which point you'll need to manually move it on to the next task. The one you just finished will be placed at the end of your list. Yes, it's a never-ending circle of toil.

Tasks can be eliminated with a swipe, or moved around with a hold and drag. To pause for an unanticipated interruption, just touch the clock again.

Speak Up

30/30's minimalist design is pretty nice-looking; however, the app's settings and extra features are also kept to a minimum.

Hit the gear icon in the upper-left corner to get to the settings menu. The first row of icons aren't really settings so much as additional information. For example, the in-app shop isn't much of a shop. Basically, it's a function through which you can donate money if you like the app.

I Love This is simply an invite to rate 30/30 in the App Store. It seems odd to elevate this "function" (to use the term loosely) to a top-level entry in the settings menu, but at least it's less annoying than certain other apps that accost you with a plea for validation as you're trying to close out of the program and get on to something else.

The menu also includes a toggle for auto-pause (without it, the app will jump straight into the next task when the present one is finished) and for badge notifications. Its brightness toggle has two settings.

30/30's sound setting is also very constrained. I'm of the opinion that timers and task managers should be capable of everything from gently nudging users to bashing them over the head with a 20-pound nag hammer, depending on one's preference. I like to have a library of sounds at my disposal, from wine-glass-shattering ear-piercers to smooth bassy hums, as well as an array of repeating options. A timer app should be both a meek and mild servant as well as a vicious taskmaster that cuts through distraction with a chainsaw, depending on user preference.

Unfortunately, 30/30's only sound option is on or off. And when it's on, all you get is a shy little blip of a noise.

Bottom Line

30/30 looks great, and its gesture-based control system is slick and intuitive. The "done and I'm onto the next one" concept is good for when you need to drill down into serious work mode and abide a rigid schedule.

But the app could benefit from some additional versatility, especially as far as sounds are concerned. 30/30 lends itself to tasks that may require deep concentration, and when you're really lost in your work, a gentle chime may not be enough to pull you out and get you moving to the next task.


Source: http://www.technewsworld.com/story/75410.html

Google threatens legal action against YouTube conversion website

There are a number of websites that allow users to convert YouTube videos to audio or video for free. One of the popular YouTube video to audio conversion websites is YouTube-mp3.org. The website, which is said to have 1.3 million visitors per day, extracts audio from YouTube videos and lets users download the audio tracks. However, the growing popularity of the website has started to trouble Google, which has reportedly threatened to sue the conversion website.

According to Bittorrent web site Torrentfreak, Google, parent company of YouTube, has written a letter to Youtube-MP3's owner 'Philip' dated June 8, asking the latter to stop its services immediately and abide by its demands within seven days. In the letter, YouTube associate product counsel Harris Cohen pointed out that YouTube's terms of service bars any service to download YouTube content instead of streaming.

Cohen also pointed that to "separate, isolate, or modify the audio or video components of any YouTube audiovisual content made available through the YouTube API" is also prohibited. He further warned of “legal consequences” for YouTube-mp3 if the site continues the service.

The Torrentfreak report further says Philip has sent a reply to Cohen where he explains how his website serves a number of users every day and sought a phone number for further discussion. Philip further said instead of responding, Google blocked Youtube-MP3's servers from accessing Youtube.

"We would estimate that there are roughly 200 million people across the world that make use of services like ours and Google doesn't just ignore all those people, they are about to criminalize them," Philip said in a statement on Youtube-MP3.org. "With the way they are interpreting and creating their ToS every one of those 200 million users is threatened to be sued by Google." Read the full statement here.

It is surprising the conversion website managed to stay away from Google's eyes for so long. With Google taking on YouTube-mp3, it is being speculated the Internet giant will target other sites offering similar services soon.

Also read,

• Google's top seven contributions to the Internet
• Google's transparency report highlights 'alarming' rise in web censorship
• Google testing YouTube redesign; looks closer to Google+

Source: http://www.thinkdigit.com/Internet/Google-threatens-legal-action-against-YouTube-conversion_9887.html

Rich Russian Wants More Robots

Dmitry Grishin, the chief executive of Russian e-mail and social networking giant Mail.ru, has an elaborate wedding fantasy. He sees robotic drones flying around the guests and snapping their every move from every angle. “People today have very standard pictures,” Grishin says. “If you have drones, you can attach a camera and make very nice and different movies and pictures.” Add some bartender robots, and you get quicker refills, too.

On Friday, Grishin, 33, declared his intentions to fund a robotics revolution. He’s going to set up an investment company—Grishin Robotics—in New York, backed by $25 million of his dollars, that will look out for startups doing promising robotics work. Grishin intends to focus on consumer, as opposed to industrial robotic, applications. ”I think it’s very important to bring robotics to the mass market,” Grishin says. “Huge innovation will only come when people see the results in their everyday lives.”



In the mid-1990s, Grishin studied robotics while at university in Russia. He found that a lot of the technology was expensive, which limited it to industrial settings where large companies could afford to make the necessary investments. These days, cheap but powerful cameras, sensors, and other electronics are being used to form the basis of robotics projects. Grishin hopes to find 10 to 20 companies per year doing interesting work and to give them about $500,000 each.



The Mail.ru Group, a Russian investment company co-founded by Grishin, has stakes in Web giants Facebook (FB), Zynga (ZNGA), and Groupon (GRPN), among others. It’s also behind the Mail.ru service, which is Russia’s largest e-mail provider and a purveyor of social networking, instant messaging, and gaming sites.



Grishin wants to transfer his experience driving fast-paced consumer Web services to the robotics realm. “I believe in the Internet culture where you aim for big audiences and innovate quickly,” he says. “Robotics innovation should not happen at big corporations but instead in small startups with 20 to 30 engineers.”



Grishin Robotics will be located in New York, as it’s close to the thriving robotics scenes in Boston and Pittsburgh and not too, too far from Silicon Valley. “There’s also good work being done in South Korea, Germany, France, and Japan,” Grishin says. “You need a true international city, and New York is a great example of that.”



Source: http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-06-15/rich-russian-wants-more-robots

UK to Google: About Those Street View Records ...

The head of data protection in the United Kingdom, the Information Commissioner's Office, or ICO, is reopening its investigation into Google's (Nasdaq: GOOG) data collection, according to ZDNet.

The investigation stems from the U.S. Federal Communication Commission's April report that Google collected extensive data from WiFi connections while compiling pictures for its Street View service.

The ICO contacted Google on Tuesday to request information about the company's data collection practices while working on Street View in the UK, according to ZDNet. The letter reportedly asks for a precise account of what personal data Google collected.

One interesting plot twist: The ICO in 2010 told Google it could destroy some of the very data it now wants the company to disclose. This, of course, might make it difficult, or even impossible, for Google to comply with the request.

However, an ICO spokesman is quoted saying that "destroying data" and "having records" are not mutually exclusive, and that the 2010 ruling will have no bearing on the current ICO request.

Blog Freely

The London Times, which is among the first and most successful news outlets to implement a paywall for online material, has launch a Tumblr blog with free content, according to The Guardian.

The new blog is made up solely of opinion pieces and will feature teasers to articles at the outlet's primary site -- behind the paywall.

The Times seems to be loosening its grip on its content, according to The Guardian. For example, the outlet took down its paywall during the recent jubilee weekend, and it is planning to do the same on certain dates of the Summer Olympics, which will be held in London.

The Guardian reports that about 120,000 people subscribe to The Times, which charges pounds 2 per week (US$3.12) for online-only access and pounds 6 per week for a combination of online, print and tablet.

'Melrose Place' Meets 'The West Wing' Meets Twitter.

Valerie Trierweiler, the partner of French president Francois Hollande, has irked Hollande's party -- and presumably Hollande as well -- by tweeting support for a rival candidate of Hollande's ex.

The target of Trierweiler's tweet, Segolene Royal, is the mother of Hollande's four children, according to The Guardian.

She is embroiled in a parliamentary election battle against Olivier Falorni, prompting this tweet from Trierweiler: "Good luck to Olivier Falorni who has proved himself worthy, who has fought alongside the people of La Rochelle for so many years with selfless commitment."

Initially thought to be the product of a hacked account, Trierweiler confirmed to AFP that the tweet was indeed hers.

The Guardian writes that this Twitter mess threatens to undo the goodwill Hollande has been so eager to accrue since being elected in May. This soap opera harkens to former president Nicolas Sarkozy, who drew the ire of many for his well-documented penchant for scandal.

Sweden's Twitter Policy Goes a Little Sour

On Monday, The New York Times reported on Sweden's charming policy of letting different citizens author the nation's official Twitter feed for seven days at a time.

On Wednesday, the policy got less charming.

The author, a woman named Sonja Abrahamsson, used some crude language when discussing Jews, according to the Associated Press.

Among the topics covered by Abrahamsson were Jewish circumcision and Nazis. Drawing her inspiration from God-knows-where, she wrote that in Nazi Germany, Jews sewed stars onto their sleeves because otherwise it was impossible to tell who was Jewish and who wasn't.

Abrahamsson later apologized, but a marketing director from Visit Sweden, which set up the project, said they would not discontinue it.

Source: http://www.technewsworld.com/story/75369.html

Download: Flickr Browser (Windows Phone)

Photography lovers who own a Windows Phone can now access their Flickr accounts from their smartphones using the Flickr Browser. The app is already available on the iOS and Android platforms. Once installed, you can browse high resolution pictures through the app's touch-optimised navigation and upload images to your Flickr account with the in-app uploader. You can also share photos with through email, Twitter, and Facebook among other platforms. The app also lets you add titles, descriptions, comments, and tags, along with changing privacy settings with ease.


You can check out pictures from other users' Flickr stream via the Explore module. The app enables you to take high-quality photos from the in-app camera as well. It offers the ability to pin Live Tiles to your Home Screen for direct access to the in-app camera.

Developer: Yahoo!
Version: 0.9.0.0
Size: <1 MB
Price: Rs 70
Platform: Windows Phone
Download link: http://www.windowsphone.com/en-IN/apps/0582119b-55f0-4cf2-b6e5-73ca75494d7b

Source: http://www.techtree.com/content/news/1406/download-flickr-browser-windows-phone.html

Researchers work on smart city search engine

Researchers at the University of Glasgow are working on an urban search engine that will interrogate sensors and answer questions such as: "How crowded is the city centre?"

Sensors attached to traffic lights, lamp-posts and other city landmarks are seen as key to creating smarter cities.

They will create a vast amount of data and the hope is that citizens will make use of it to improve city life.

The plan is to test the search engine in a real city by 2014.

The project is part of a European-funded initiative, known as Smart ("search engine for multimedia environment-generated content"), which aims to create a system for internet users to search and analyse data from sensors.

The search engine will answer queries by automatically identifying cameras, microphones and other sensors that can contribute to the question.

"Smart builds upon the existing concept of 'smart cities', physical spaces which are covered in an array of intelligent sensors which communicate with each other and can be searched for information," said Dr Iadh Ounis of the University of Glasgow's School of Computing Science.

"The search results sourced from these smart cities can be reused across multiple applications, making the system more effective."

The project is a joint research initiative of nine partners including Atos, Athens Information Technology, IBM's Haifa Research Lab, Imperial College London, City of Santander, and PRISA Digital and Telesto.


Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-18408123

Apple Thunderbolt adapters arriving in Apple stores

Part of Apple's keynote address at WWDC this morning was a demonstration of its new MacBook Air and MacBook Pro systems, which have not only done away with optical drives but have also streamlined other I/O offerings. In order to save space in its systems, Apple has combined USB 2.0 and 3.0 connections, but has also fallen to relying on its Thunderbolt connections to provide the I/O connectivity from older Mac systems.

As the MacBook line has evolved over the years, Apple has attempted to remove legacy ports from the systems, including the Ethernet port from MacBook Air systems, FireWire from some MacBook systems, and the ExpressCard slot from all but its 17-inch MacBook Pro.

With the inclusion of Thunderbolt in its systems, what used to be Apple's reluctance to keep a port or two has become an opportunity for it to be rid of these altogether, especially since Thunderbolt allows for the addition of any I/O technology that is needed by the user. Currently both Apple's Thunderbolt Display and upcoming third-party docking stations offer similar opportunity, though they are relatively expensive and may include features (such as a display) that are not needed.

As of the announcements in today's keynote presentation, Apple is no longer offering Ethernet, FireWire, or ExpressCard connectivity as built-in options in its laptop systems; however, the company will sell Ethernet and FireWire Thunderbolt adapters for $29 each. Currently the Ethernet adapter is available in the Apple Store, and the FireWire adapter should soon join it.

Apple's product pages state that the adapters are compatible with the latest MacBook Air and MacBook Pro with Retina Display models, without mention of any other models; however, being Thunderbolt devices they should work with any system with a Thunderbolt connection.

The loss of built-in FireWire connections means the new systems will not natively use FireWire target disk mode. While it is unlikely one could put a Thunderbolt-only system into FireWire target disk mode using the Thunderbolt-to-FireWire adapter, it should be possible to read an older FireWire system in target disk mode via Thunderbolt with such an adapter.

These adapters from Apple come with a corresponding software update that should be made available via Software Update and will be required if you use one of the adapters with your system.

Source: http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13727_7-57450832-263/apple-thunderbolt-adapters-arriving-in-apple-stores/?tag=mncol;cnetRiver

How Social Media Is Changing CRM

It’s big news these days for tech watchers: CRM software stalwarts are rapidly acquiring startups that enable businesses to manage the increasing number and variety of social media platforms better. In May, Oracle (ORCL) bought Vitrue to help it publish and manage social media campaigns, and the company just announced the acquisition of Collective Intellect to help it monitor social chatter. Salesforce.com (CRM) purchased social media performance and sentiment tracking company Radian6 last year and now is acquiring Buddy Media, a Vitrue competitor.

What’s prompting the shopping spree? According to Laura McLellan, a research vice president at Gartner (IT), technology spending in the next five years will be directed more by chief marketing officers than chief information officers—a remarkable prediction. I predict those CMOs will be spending much of that money on CRM systems that integrate social media.

That’s good news for businesses that don’t have seven- or eight-figure technology budgets. Big, deep-pocketed early adopters of what is being called Social CRM are paving the way for smaller companies with limited resources to adopt the best new methods quickly, affordably, and with fewer of the missteps that have plagued CRM programs over the years.

It’s not that traditional CRM (telephone, mail, and e-mail communications from company to customer) hasn’t helped businesses that have used it. They’ve employed it to lower their costs and increase profitability, and their customers have benefited by receiving custom offers, product recommendations, timely resolutions to their complaints, and other rewards of data sharing. But there have also been notable downsides to CRM that have made it, according to my colleague Emily Griebel, “like an acronym for a disease.”

Haven’t we all experienced times when poorly executed CRM programs have made us a bit nauseous? Sometimes you could swear CRM means customer relationship manipulation, such as when clever marketers print customers’ names on a postcard, as if to fool them into thinking it was personally addressed. I smirk when I receive a mailer that says, “Just for you, Stephen” or something similarly pithy. Nobody calls me Stephen, other than my mother (and then only when she’s angry). It’s even funnier when it’s addressed to Stphn Mrkey or some other butchered version of the name with which Mom blessed me.

Other times you’d think CRM means customer relationship minimization. That’s never so much in evidence than with automated telephone answering systems. Tone-deaf corporations love them, but I’ve never met a human who doesn’t view them with contempt. Sure, they lower a company’s costs, but they do so on the backs of customers who are forced to navigate their way through a frustrating forest of options, only to end up at a dead end or repeatedly entering their account number because the customer service system isn’t compatible with the customer complaint system, which itself isn’t compatible with the customer service person speaking broken English who finally comes on the line after the customer screams “AGENT!” into the receiver 17 times.

Sometimes CRM seems to refer to customer relationship mechanization. I appreciate Amazon (AMZN) making suggestions based on my reading interests, but the fact that I bought a baby book for a friend doesn’t mean I’m pregnant.

Perhaps most stomach-turning is when CRM refers to cold, hard customer relationship monetization. A few years ago I was struck by the number of mailers I was receiving from the various divisions of a large credit-card company, so started to collect them. I found I was receiving an average of three to five per week—an annoyance to me and an immense waste of money for them. And in the past year alone, one of my favorite brands has e-mailed me 38 times (yes, I’ve been counting). I’m sure the content and frequency of e-mails is somehow based on my purchase activity (or lack thereof), but it comes across as insensitive and somewhat desperate. Good customers want to be courted, not cashed in, and courtship requires careful pacing and rhythm.

That’s the thing traditional CRM systems don’t account for well. Customer relationships aren’t built on information, they’re built on trust. And relationships are reciprocal; I’ll share with you my deep thoughts if you’ll share yours with me. When one party focuses too much on acquiring and leveraging information, trust can’t help but be compromised, if not breached. The problem with traditional CRM is that it turns people into data and relationships into rules of engagement. But technology has no empathy, and a database will never be as responsive as a living, breathing person.


Source: http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-06-08/how-social-media-is-changing-crm

Google Maps Travels Off-Road, Into the Sky, and Into the Pocket

Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) unveiled new features to its mapping technology Wednesday, including an offline mobile version of Google Maps and 3D enhancements to Google Earth.

The announcement comes just before Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) is expected to drop Google Maps from its built-in mapping application on the iOS platform and pursue advanced mapping development on its own.

But Google didn't mention Apple as it rolled out some of the newest features to its mapping services. 

Off the Beaten Path

Google Street View cameras are now going places where wheels can't. The company revealed a backpack equipped with cameras with which a trekker can capture images such as the Grand Canyon or the ski slopes for more expansive mapping capabilities.

Google also announced that in the next few weeks, users will be able to access Google Maps from Android mobile devices while offline from more than 100 countries.

Additionally, maps of some metropolitan areas will soon be displayed in 3D imagery. Google will collect the 3D images from a small fleet of airplanes equipped with Google Earth cameras

Google did not respond to our request for further details.

Getting Offline

One of the most in-demand new features to Google's upgrade is the offline capability, Matt Sheehan, principal and senior geospatial developer at WebMapSolutions, told TechNewsWorld.

 

"The way technology is changing now means people are getting rid of pens and paper and wanting to do a lot more on their smartphones and tablets, even though they're sometimes still in places where there's no connection," he said. "We have people ask us a couple times a week to help them build something offline."

The new offline capabilities would let an international traveler pre-load a map of a certain city and get around without an international data plan, for instance. The offline option would also be beneficial for workers who want to use an Android device in construction or conservation industries that must work in remote areas such as waterways and forests that don't have WiFi access.

Taking Competition Head-On

Google's announcement comes just days before Apple is expected to reveal its own mapping technology for its newest mobile operating system. Google Maps is the default service for iPhones and iPads, and getting dropped from iOS could be a significant loss for the search engine giant. But while Apple has a history of wowing audiences and winning loyal followers, said Sheehan, this is one area in which Google has had more development time and talent to prove it excels.

"The knee-jerk reaction from people in the industry is that Google is just doing it to one-up Apple, and maybe that's true," said Sheehan. "But Apple has a lot of catching up to do before it can reach what Google is doing in mapping."

If Apple can't catch up before it launches its presumed new mapping technology, it runs the risk of losing consumers early in its game, said Ming-Hsiang Tsou, professor in the geography department at San Diego State University.

"Apple is taking a big risk to break away from Google Maps because many iPhone Apps are relying on Google Maps' data -- both maps and location-based services," he told TechNewsWorld. "Apple's new maps maybe more fancy, 3D or colorful, but if Apple's maps cannot provide good quality of maps and location-based info, users will switch to Google Maps later."

Location-based services and mapping have even bigger potential going forward.

"What was most interesting to us was that the announcements weren't of a game-changing technology, as the 3D has been done before, but the truly enormous scale of Google's commitment to do this for such a large amount of data," Giles Collingwood, head of operations at Earthware, told TechNewsWorld. "They are obviously committing some serious bucks to the project."

Beyond the Map

The mobile frontier is relatively unpaved, said Sheehan, and Google, Apple, Bing and other mapping services realize that location-based services could be a huge break into leadership in the mobile industry.

"The announcements in mapping today are really being driven by mobile," he said. "There's a turf war going on between the companies, because we're kind of in a place where there's a lot of discussion about what's next in the mobile space. These updates are very much driven by consumers, and there's a lot of resources being focused using location for marketing."

That's part of the reason Google has such an advantage, said Tsou.

"The real value of Google Maps is not the map data itself, but the points of interests, such as gas stations, restaurants, schools embedded inside the map databases, which are called 'location-based services,'" he said.

Nailing down those location-based services and incorporating them into a larger business strategy will be key for the next leader in Web mapping, said Sheehan.

"It's moving beyond the map," he said. "It's beyond getting from point A to point B, and Google is kind of ahead on that, but nobody still knows what Apple or anyone else is going to do. But that's where the growth is."

Source: http://www.technewsworld.com/story/Google-Maps-Travels-Off-Road-Into-the-Sky-and-Into-the-Pocket-75323.html

Windows Marketplace Breaches 100,000 App Mark

Windows Marketplace, the application store for Windows Phone devices, now hosts more than 100,000 apps. The task took 20 months to achieve since its inception, but the growth has seen a tremendous acceleration in the past six months. Windows Marketplace had 50,000 apps in December 2011 and the number has since doubled. That being said, it still lags far behind Apple's App Store and Google Play hosting over 600,000 and 500,000 apps, respectively.


One of the reasons for the sudden surge can be attributed to active encouragement from Microsoft towards app developers in the form of an 18 million Euro investment in the Mobile Application Development Program at Aalto University. Moreover, the launch of several new Windows Phone devices such as the Nokia Lumia 900 could also be a reason for the spike. Nevertheless, Windows Marketplace has still got a lot of catching up to do with the competition, but if it can maintain the current momentum, it just might make it.



Source: http://www.techtree.com/content/news/1331/windows-marketplace-breaches-100000-app-mark.html

Microsoft's E3 Message: It's All About Games - and Everything Else

The Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) remains the biggest video game trade event in the world, but Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) proved that the electronic entertainment world could be very much in transition as the Xbox looks to continue its dominance in the living room.

"Xbox has moved from being the best-selling console in North America to being the best-selling console worldwide," Don Mattrick, president of interactive entertainment at Microsoft, told the audience at the Galen Center on the USC campus. "Today it is all about the Xbox 360, the only device that brings all your entertainment to you on one device."

Microsoft kicked off the 2012 E3 on Monday morning in Los Angeles with the official unveiling of "Halo 4" -- the popular action shooter that has helped establish the Xbox 360 as the leading video game console in the world. However, games were just the starting point.

Xbox will leap from the console to mobile phones, tablets and PCs this holiday season, Mattrick promised. 

Beyond Games at the Game Show

Microsoft announced several new plans for the Xbox 360 and Xbox Live, including Kinect voice recognition with Bing for Netflix (Nasdaq: NFLX), Xfinity, Hulu+, Cinema Now and Vudu. Among newcomers to the platform are Nickelodeon, Paramount Movies, Machina and Univion.

However, the drive beyond games didn't quite draw as many cheers as the big games that were shown to the video game press in attendance.

"I understand why they emphasize this content," said Paul Semel of Electronic Gaming Magazine. "It is really about appealing to the mainstream audience."

But games are still what E3 is about, Semel told TechNewsWorld.

For companies "to not push gaming at E3, even during the press conference, is at their own peril," added Semel.

Music, Sports and More

Besides movies and sports, Microsoft is pushing music.

"Xbox music is about your music, your way," said Yusef Mehdi, heading of marketing for Xbox Live.

Users will have 30 million music tracks to discover and share, Microsoft promised during the press conference.

Microsoft will also continue its push to draw sports fans.

"We want to be your home for every match, every game," said Mehdi, who announced that MLB TV now offers 100 games a week, while NBA Game Time and NHL Game Center will be coming to the service this year. Additionally, ESPN will provide 24/7 programming from ESPN, ESPN 2 and ESPN U, with live sporting events -- all available in HD.

Here synergy between games and sports is greater. Andrew Wilson of Electronic Arts (Nasdaq: ERTS) took the stage and was joined by legendary NFL quarterback Joe Montana to demonstrate "Madden NFL 13's" new support for Microsoft Kinect.

"As a sports fan, I am excited by it," Dave Rudden, the Web editor of Official Xbox Magazine, told TechNewsWorld. "I'm sad that they didn't include the NFL, but I like that this gives another way to see a lot more games."

Still a Game Console

While it's clear that Microsoft sees the Xbox 360 as part of an entertainment platform that can connect with other devices through its SmartGlass initiative that would allow sharing of content from the console to PCs, tablets and even smartphones, the company still is very much pushing games this year.

"Only the best games are on Xbox 360," said Phil Spencer, head of Microsoft Studios. "This will be the biggest year of games. We're also investing in news stories from some the industry's most creative developers."

The audience certainly warmed to hip hop artist Usher, who performed during a demonstration of "Dance Central 3," as well as to "South Park" creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone, who presented a quick introduction for "South Park: The Stick of Truth."

The press conference, which opened with an extended look at the epic action shooter "Halo 4," ended with an extended look at the upcoming epic action shooter "Call of Duty: Black Ops 2." In between, the audience was given peeks at action-focused games "Tomb Raider," "Splinter Cell Blacklist" and "Gears of War," suggesting Microsoft will still work to please as much as to appease the hardcore gamer.

"They showed the big games coming to the Xbox 360," added Semel. "It shows that there is still a lot of life in this system."

Source: http://www.technewsworld.com/story/Microsofts-E3-Message-Its-All-About-Games---and-Everything-Else-75290.html

A Google-a-Day Puzzle for June 4

Our good friends at Google run a daily puzzle challenge and asked us to help get them out to the geeky masses. Each day’s puzzle will task your googling skills a little more, leading you to Google mastery. Each morning at 12:01 a.m. Eastern time you’ll see a new puzzle, and the previous day’s answer (in invisitext) posted here.

SPOILER WARNING:


We leave the comments on so people can work together to find the answer. As such, if you want to figure it out all by yourself, DON’T READ THE COMMENTS!


Also, with the knowledge that because others may publish their answers before you do, if you want to be able to search for information without accidentally seeing the answer somewhere, you can use the Google-a-Day site’s search tool, which will automatically filter out published answers, to give you a spoiler-free experience.


And now, without further ado, we give you…


Source: http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2012/06/agad060412/