Archive for: June 3, 2009
June 3, 2009
 It looks like Sony Ericsson is suddenly getting serious about the U.S. market again. Coinciding with its W995A high-end handset launch today, Sony Ericsson has announced a new mobile app store via its new PlayNow service. The move comes via a partnership with GetJar, marking the first time a major cell phone vendor has outsourced such an effort. The GetJar link gives PlayNow users access to over 45,000 additional mobile apps, and will give developers an updated, streamlined submission process for new applications. This will all sit alongside the movie and music service PlayNow already offers. GetJar's mobile app store has been online since 2005 and currently fields over one million downloads per day across 200 countries, the company said in a statement, with 450 million downloads to date--almost half of Apple's recent one-billion-download milestone for its App Store (although Apple reached it much more quickly, and with just one handset line on one carrier).
    
 When a company promotes its product or service, making it ubiquitous or even necessary, what obligation does that company have to its users? If the service is free is there any obligation at all? How about if the service has become part of the fabric of society--a listing from Google, a Facebook account, an email address. These free services create real world value for users until something goes wrong. Then the headaches are as real as the value was.
I searched the term "Facebook account disabled" in Twitter
kidzrevil Facebook disabled my account. No notification nothing. They were just like f**k it DISABLE !
WookieeChew I'm so upset with Facebook! If my account has been disabled what happens to all my YoVille money? My pet will die if I can't feed it! Ugh!
IDLawResources Can someone tell my followers on Facebook that FB disabled my account due to consumer education content issues and I am now on Linked In
I'm picking on Facebook because of the experience of Andy Thibault. Andy is an investigative journalist by trade but on Facebook he was just another victim of a hack. Who knows how phishers got into Andy's account, but they did and they sprayed his email list with come-ons to their ".ru" domained phishing site. It wasn't pretty.
I saw the problem before Andy because I got one of "his" emails. Facebook didn't want my help. To me this next paragraph reads like the Fire Department saying only the owner of a home could report it was on fire!
It is possible that malicious software was downloaded to your friend's computer ...
 I have to confess: I somewhat disagree with PCMag.com's official review of Microsoft's Bing.com, which was largely positive. In part, that's because of one thing: the search results don't do a great job of differentiating between actual and sponsored search results, and I think that the layout of those results is still a step below Google's results, which have become the benchmark. With that said, one service I have taken advantage of a number of times is GOOG-411, Google's voice-driven service, which not only offers free 411 service, but also the capability to perform searches around a particular area and connect you to the business or location. I'm not sure often these services are used. But if you do, I'd urge you to try out BING-411 (see the connection?). It's at least comparable if not slightly superior to what Google has accomplished.
Both services ask for a city and state to begin with, as well as the
name of or the category of a local business (e.g, "dentist"). Both
services also allow searches around a particular intersection, or just
the city at large. My test city, "Benicia, California," was recognized
by BING-411, but not Google's service. Trying an alternate ("Los Gatos,
California") was picked up properly by both services. Other search
locations were also recognized correctly, but failing even just once
eliminates an entire city from Google's service, a big black mark.
I'm slightly disappointed that BING-411 allows advertisers to sponsor
the top two search results, which I naturally toss out as being
irrelevant. That only allows BING-411 one more result in its first
grouping, forcing users to ask for additional results. But BING-411 also addresses ...
 During the announcement of the PlayStation 3-exclusive Final Fantasy XIV at yesterday's Sony E3 Press Conference, another big bit of Final Fantasy news slipped in under the radar. On Tuesday, Final Fantasy VII--one of the best-selling and influential RPGs, well, ever-- was made available for download on the PlayStation Network, which can be accessed by the PS3 and PSP. The game costs $9.99. Final Fantasy VII--for those of you who are really, really late to the bandwagon--was released in 1997 for the PlayStation. The story centers around a mercenary named Cloud Strife who joins with others to defeat a corporation that is killing the planet. Post by Sean Ludwig
 
How are you spending your time online? Many of you are apparently on Facebook, as the total number of minutes spent on the social networking site jumped 700 percent in the last year, according to Nielsen.
Visits increased from 1.7 billion in April 2008 to 13.9 billion in April 2009, making it the number one social networking site based on total minutes and unique visitors, for the fourth month in a row.
Not to be outdone, MySpace remained the number one social networking site when ranked by video streams and total minutes spent viewing those videos. In April, viewers watched 120.8 million video streams for 384 million minutes -- an average of 38.8 minutes per person.
Facebook visitors, meanwhile, spent 113.5 million minutes viewing video in April, with an average of 11.2 minutes per video viewer.
Who is spending all this time on these sites? Facebook is most popular among users aged 25 to 39, while MySpace is tops with people aged 12 to 24.
Despite the numbers, Nielsen warned that it could all be over tomorrow.
"Remember Friendster? Remember when MySpace was an unbeatable force? Neither Facebook nor Twitter are immune," Jon Gibs, vice president of media and agency insights at Nielsen Online, wrote in a blog post. "Consumers have shown that they are willing to pick up their networks and move them to another platform, seemingly at a moment's notice."
 
Nintendo capped off its E3 2009 press conference today by attempting to demonstrate that despite the company's focus on family-friendly projects, the Wii isn't just for kids. Nintendo announced a handful of partnership titles at the end of the conference, including Capcom's Resident Evil: Darkside Chronicles, Electronic Arts' Dead Space Extraction, and Sega's The Conduit. The big surprise, however, was the unveiling of the newest Metroid game, Metroid Other M, a partnership with Team Ninja that takes a decidedly grownup turn for the popular Nintendo Franchise. The company debuted an explosion-filled trailer for the game, which is due out in 2010.
 
Listen up, San Francisco residents. Is there a leaky fire hydrant on the corner? A huge pothole on your street? Unsightly graffiti on your building? Starting today, you can contact city 311 officials via Twitter.
Mayor Gavin Newsom and Twitter co-founder Biz Stone on Tuesday announced that the city's non-emergency 311 information service will accept inquiries and complaints via the ubiquitous micro-blogging service.
To "tweet" into the SF 311 call center, visit sftwitter.sfgov.org and click the "Follow Me" link. Users will then receive an email and/or direct message from the call center with the response, "How can I help you?"
Users who do not have a Twitter account will be asked to register, but they will only have to go through the sign-up process once. The city considered auto-follow, but found that "two way follow makes it easier to create requests.
Users can then write a direct message or Tweet to @SF311 from a browser or smartphone. You can also text complaints from regular cell phones. Address the text to "40404" and type "d sf311 [message]" in the body, remembering to include a space between the "d" and the "s".
Operators are manning 311 calls and inquiries 24 hours a day, though "the amount of time it takes for SF311 to receive the tweet will vary based on the response of the Twitter network," according to the city.
Get the rest of this story on pcmag.com
 
Windows 7 is scheduled for an October 22 release, Microsoft confirmed Tuesday.
Microsoft will also provide a "tech guarantee" upgrade option for those using older versions of the Windows operating system.
The release to manufacturers (RTM) is expected in late July, a spokesman said.
Steve Guggenheimer, vice president of Microsoft's OEM division, is expected to provide more details during a Wednesday morning keynote at Computex in Taipei. Microsoft will also post additional information on its Web site after the speech.
Earlier this month, Microsoft said it expected to release Windows 7 in time for the holidays.
"If the telemetry we receive from the Windows 7 RC meets our expectations in terms of quality, then we expect to hit [release to manufacturers] in 3 months or so," spokesman Brandon LeBlanc said at the time.
Microsoft unveiled the release candidate (RC) for Windows 7 on May 5, a week after it was released to the company's TechNet and MSDN programs.
A public beta was released at this year's Consumer Electronics Show (CES). Bi-hourly shutdowns of that beta will begin on July 1, Microsoft said last week.
Rumors of an October release date surfaced in late April, but were unconfirmed until now.
 
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