Readwrite Web
- Thu, 23 Feb 2012 02:06:28 +0000: Daily Wrap: RIM Playbook Disappoints and more - ReadWriteWeb
David Strom says the RIM Playbook isn't ready for primetime. This and more in today's Daily Wrap.Sometimes it's difficult to catch everything that hits tech media in a day, so we wrap up some of the most talked about stories. We give you a daily recap of what you missed in the ReadWriteWeb Community, including a link to some of the most popular discussions in our offsite communities on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Google+ as well.
Sponsor
What Facebook Says About Your Potential Job Performance
David Strom gives 4 reasons why The RIM Playbook Still Sucks, even after the recent upgrade. From messaging inadequacies to a power button that is almost inoperable, David explains why he's not happy with the Playbook.
The commenters on this story vehemently disagreed:
Patrick Zimmerman II - Really still suck? This tablet has never sucked. I use my tablet everyday for work and it saves me so much time working in .xls and .doc files, O and i do all my power point with it as well. To me I need a Tool and not a Toy. Maybe Apple needs to join WOW then you would be happy. Good Job RIM keep the Tools that work for me coming. O and i don't need a app for that
From Twitter the reactions were mixed:
Reviews Are In.Sorry, RIM: The Playbook Still Sucks rww.to/yrEQuS via @RWW
— Brett Bell (@heybrettbell) February 22, 2012Pretty damning on #tablets generally! "Sorry, RIM: The Playbook Still Sucks" rww.to/yX1cu8 @RWW
— Dan Purvis (@DanPurvis) February 22, 2012More Must Read Stories:
Amazon Launches Cloud-Based Business Process Automation Service
Amazon just announced the availability of a new service called Simple Workflow Service (SWF), which allows developers to define a series of complex steps in carrying out a business process, then implements and monitors those steps all together, as a service. "This new service gives you the ability to build and run distributed, fault-tolerant applications that span multiple systems (cloud-based, on-premise, or both)," writes Amazon's Jeff Barr. SWF can also work across mobile devices. (more)
Firefox Data Visualization Shows You How Dumb Your Passwords Are
Do you reuse passwords across multiple websites? The habit is alarmingly common, despite being a well-known security risk. You know how the warning goes: If you use the same password across a number of different websites and one of those accounts is compromised, some evildoer could infiltrate the other sites, potentially exposing a wide range of personal data and even putting one's finances or identity at risk. (more)
Do's and Don'ts For Using Storify
A lot of journalists are going to conferences and being told to use Storify, a site that lets you curate loads of social media on a given topic and present them in a narrative or timeline: you can, for example, pull tweets and YouTube videos, urls and Facebook posts. (more)
Mozilla is Placing Itself in Position to be the King of the Mobile Web
HTML5 Web apps are going to become a definitive section of the mobile ecosystem in 2012. The difference between the mobile Web and its native counterparts is that there is no one company seen as the de facto leader of the movement. Apple leads iOS, Google touts Android, Microsoft and Nokia push Windows Phone. The mobile Web? Lots of players, no clear leader. (more)
Ready, Set, Download the Universe
Download the Universe brings together 15 of the Internet's top science folks in an online forum that guides readers through the vast world of digital science e-books, texts and apps. (more)
Rawporter Is A Brilliant, But Poorly-Executed, Idea
The future of journalism, as Rawporter sees it, will include armies of regular people selling raw video footage to outlets who can't get a crew to breaking news events.
But, based on a test of Rawporter's iOS app Tuesday, the future of journalism is going to have to wait. And the test also provides a case study in why rushing an app out the door may not be the best business strategy. (more)
Judge Rules Against Man Who Claimed Harassment Over Embarrassing Facebook Photo
One of the first rules of public relations is "never be photographed with a drink in your hand," but now, in the Facebook age, it may simply be "never be photographed." (more)
Apple's Messages Beta: Pretty Meh in a Mixed OS World
As part of the Mountain Lion preview last week, Apple put out a beta of its revamped chat application, Messages. If you spend a lot of time connecting with other folks on iOS devices, Messages is a must-have. If not, it doesn't really add much to the mix. (more)
The Hats Swap Heads: Microsoft Uses EU Leverage to Pin Google on Patents
Microsoft confirmed to ReadWriteWeb this morning that the formal competition law complaint it filed this morning with the European Commission is against both Motorola Mobility (MMI) and Google, its would-be parent company. The office of the EC's Competition office confirmed to ReadWriteWeb this morning it has received Microsoft's complaint and will review it in due course, but will not yet release a copy to the public due to court rules. (more)
Keep up with ReadWriteWeb by subscribing to our RSS feed or email newsletter. You can also follow ReadWriteWeb across the web on Google+, Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn.
Discuss
- Wed, 22 Feb 2012 23:30:00 +0000: Flickr Can't Go Back To What It Once Was - ReadWriteWeb
Flickr will launch a major makeover in its quest to return to its once young and sexy past, according to reports from BetaBeat. The new Flickr homepage will look more like the slick, image-only homepages of online visual pinboard Pinterest and photo-sharing app Pixable. There will be little white space on the homepage. In the new version, photos will appear four times their current size. They will lie on the page, scattered about like puzzle pieces slipped together without overlap. Flickr is repositioning itself to look more like an app, which is right in line with Yahoo's "mobile first" strategy. But this is a Web-only photo community - and if Instagram is showing us anything, it's that the future of photography is in smartphones.
Sponsor
Next week, users will be able to see changes to their contacts page, which includes the removal of some whitespace. In late March, users will notice significant changes to the photo uploading process.
"This is an evolving design, one that will develop over time, starting with the redesign of the contacts page," a Flickr spokesperson tells ReadWriteWeb. "There will also be more changes to the site later in the year."
Photography by Smartphone Users, for Smartphone Users
Photo-sharing service Instagram is only available as an iPhone app, and it already has 15 million users. For more than a year, the Android app has been "coming soon," or so says CEO Kevin Systrom. According to data from Nielsen, Android users make up more than 46% of the smartphone market. Imagine all those Android users in addition to the already Instagram-obsessed iPhone users. And this is all without an existing Web version of the Instagram service. Plus, with a variety of third-party applications utilizing the Instagram API, the idea of a Web-only service doesn't feel very important at all.
When Kodak announced that it was preparing to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection earlier this year, it became clear that the nature of photography was in for a major change. Indeed, point-and-shoots and SLRs were hardly in use; instead, people were taking photos with their iPhones, first and foremost. Kodak launched two Facebook-integrated cameras at CES 2012, but it might be too late even for that.
But here's an interesting detail: Apple iPhone 4 and 4S, followed by the iPhone 3G and 3GS are the most popular cameras in the Flickr community. If Flickr can retool to focus on these users, who are most likely also Instagram users, there is a chance they can come back. But it will take some careful strategizing, and a product that's even more gimmicky fun than Instagram's tinted filters.
Will Flickr's new layout for the Web matter, especially when photography is becoming mostly smartphone-focused?
Here's a photo from my now-dormant Flickr stream. I just pinned it to one of my Pinterest boards and posted it to Facebook. It will drift downstream to other users, my friends and the Internet at large. Would that same thing have happened on Flickr?
Lead image courtesy of Shutterstock. Sailboat photograph by Alicia Eler.
Discuss
- Wed, 22 Feb 2012 23:01:00 +0000: Open Knowledge Releases Open Data Handbook 1.0 - ReadWriteWeb
The Open Knowledge Foundation (OKF) announced the 1.0 release of the Open Data Handbook today. The 1.0 release is the culmination of a project that started in October 2010 at a book sprint in Berlin as the Open Data Manual.The Open Data Handbook provides the introduction to what open data is, why organizations (particularly government) would be interested in providing open data, and how to go about it.
Sponsor
Open data proponents will find the Open Data Handbook pretty basic stuff, but it's an excellent resource to pass on to others. It's also the starting point for a lot more work.
Specifically, the OKF is looking for feedback on the text, contributions for the next version of the handbook, and help translating the handbook into different languages. Currently the handbook is only available in English.
The OKF is also working on additional guides and handbooks, like the data journalism handbook and data patterns handbook. If you're interested in contributing, check out the mailing list.
Discuss
- Wed, 22 Feb 2012 22:30:00 +0000: Xerox Goes Up Against RIM in 'BYOD' Mobile Device Management - ReadWriteWeb
.jpg)
The firm that entered our lives as "The Document Company" must reinvent itself again if it is to thrive in a world where paper is used less and less as the agent of transferring information. Taking a cue yesterday from Research In Motion, which last November set up a safety net for itself as a mobile document management (MDM) company, Xerox is now headed the same direction.Now, the former "Document Company" has announced it's setting itself up as a managed service provider for SMBs and enterprises to provision secure mobile devices, effectively reselling an MDM platform from Boxtone. If you think you're experiencing déjà vu, there may be a less-than-supernatural reason: Verizon has entered into a similar agreement with Boxtone, for similar services, on the exact same day.
Sponsor
Boxtone's MDM platform is geared around a policy management tool that extends the policy framework of Active Directory. The goal is to enable employees to bring their own devices (BYOD) into the workplace, including Android and iOS, and enable them to be provisioned, enrolled into the network, and secured. This places Boxtone in direct contention with Centrify, which last week announced a similar BYOD platform using Active Directory, available to some customers for free.
Xerox's ACS division will be offering Boxtone MDM service on its own cloud, with what it promises to be competitive fees, calculated per-device. ("Free" will be difficult to compete against, but we'll see how Xerox manages the quality issue.) Administrators will assign mobile policies to existing employees in AD, and will then be able to provision devices over-the-air. A white paper released by ACS yesterday (PDF available here) states the provisioning tool will work with iOS, Android, Windows Mobile (other sources list Windows Phone), and BlackBerry OS devices.
Boxtone's MDM monitoring dashboard [shown: Boxtone branding]
Boxtone's compliance management tool offers end-to-end compliance monitoring, with automated alerting of IT to potential violations, and background auditing and reporting.
According to ACS, Apple iOS users will need to acquire what's called an Apple Push Notification Service (APNs) certificate separately. It's an SSL certificate required for the signing of secured transactions, including e-mail - and with the Apple ecosystem, there's only one way to get it. Luckily someone outside of Apple thought it might be a good idea to document this process (PDF available here).
Xerox closed its acquisition of ACS in February 2010.
In the wake of its recent release of all new Droid devices including Droid 4 with a revised QWERTY keyboard, the thinner Droid RAZR, and the new Xyboard tablet, Verizon Wireless announced yesterday it will also be reselling Boxtone MDM tools to enterprise customers. For now, VZW will be concentrating on the healthcare segment, in hopes that health providers moving off the BlackBerry platform will consider Droid.
Discuss
- Wed, 22 Feb 2012 22:00:00 +0000: MasterCard Mobile Money Partnership Program Aims to Bring Mobile Payments Everywhere - ReadWriteWeb
For all of the talk about the mobile payments revolution, most of the world still deals in cash. About 85% of world retail transactions are still done with paper currency, while payment processors are smacking their lips at the prospect of increasing their share. The problem with digital payments in emerging markets is most people do not have proper bank accounts. However, they are likely to have mobile phones. So today, MasterCard announced a partnership initiative to turn those phones into payment processors. Walk into a store anywhere in the world and use your phone to make a purchase. The combination of currency with telephony holds great promise, one that MasterCard thinks will net it a billion new customers.
Sponsor
"In the majority of emerging countries the percentage of the population that has access to normal banking accounts as you and I have with a normal bank is limited. It is well below 100% of the population," said Mung Ki Woo, group executive for mobile and emerging payments at MasterCard. "On the contrary, penetration of mobile telephony has increased massively. To the point where in those countries, even the poorest, have 50%-60% penetration rates. This means that most adults can have access to mobile phones. Out of this this discrepancy was born mobile money services."
The MasterCard Mobile Money Partnership Program is intended to help 2.5 billion people in emerging markets gain financial services through their mobile phones. MasterCard is partnering with Sybase 365, Utiba and Comviva to bring transactions through telephony to brick and mortar and online merchants across the world.
The target locations for the partnerships will be in Africa, the Middle East, parts of Asia and Eastern Europe. All that will be needed to make a transaction between two parties is that each have a cellphone.
"What we have been doing over the last 10 months is reaching out to this world of mobile money services and building bridges to enable transactions between this world of mobile money services and the existing world of MasterCard accounts," Woo said. "For us we think that it is about getting the next billion customers and consumers connected to the MasterCard network."
Here are the specific services offer by the MasterCard Mobile Money Partnership Program:
- Prepaid companion cards that account holders can use at merchants that accept MasterCard cards.
- Virtual card accounts that can be used for e-commerce payments with a user's mobile money account.
- Person-to-person payments between subscribers of two different mobile money services.
- Face-to-face or remote payments using mobile phones for goods and services at merchants that do not have traditional point of sale systems.
Visa also announced a payments model in an emerging market today, teaming with a company called Monitise to bring mobile payments to India.
Imagine all the world's transactions as one giant river. Right now that river flows with physical currency and a small stream of digital transactions. Companies like MasterCard and Visa see emerging markets as the key to digitizing more of that flow.
Discuss
