19 new stories on The Next Web today |  |
- Movie-streaming service LoveFilm jumps onto its first Internet set-top box
- Microsoft to patch Windows Phone 7 unlock exploit with first update
- PlayStation hacker Geohot sued by Sony over PS3 jailbreak
- Ofcom To Probe New T-Mobile Bandwidth Restrictions
- Entrepreneurs and drugs, sex and alcohol
- Microsoft Challenges Apple’s ‘App Store’ Trademark Filing
- 7 Ways to Measure Your Influence Online
- [Updated] Military coup in Tunisia? With no mainstream attention, the revolution is being Tweeted.
- How To Dance At A Rave
- Google Chrome drops H.264 video support. What does it mean to you?
- The iPhone is on Verizon and Android will be just fine.
- Google fires a shot at Yelp; brings Hotpot recommendations to Maps
- So Who Really Owns Facebook? [Chart]
- Is the Microsoft consortium patent purchase really off? We don’t think so
- Is the Cloud Touch by INQ the real Facebook phone?
- Gingerbread launcher, live wallpaper and keyboard come to the Android Market for free
- Pose is poised and ready to be your new favorite shopping app
- Reeder for iOS updates with faster loading and 5,000 feeds
- Royal Bank of Canada Implements Microsoft Surface 2.0
- Try Petflow to feed your puppy and puppies everywhere
| Movie-streaming service LoveFilm jumps onto its first Internet set-top box Posted: 12 Jan 2011 03:57 AM PST
LoveFilm has announced its movie streaming service is now available for Sony’s SMP-N100 network media player, an Internet-connect device that offers Sony Bravia Internet Video support along with video, audio and photos from connected USB devices. As LoveFilm is already available on a range of Sony and Samsung TVs, Blu-Ray players and home theatre systems, as well as Sony’s Playstation 3 the move isn’t that surprising. What is a little surprising is that we’re yet to see the service make its way onto the ‘cool kids’ of the Internet-connected TV box world. While Netflix is all over Apple TV, Boxee Box and the like in the US, its European counterpart is yet to make an appearance there. Ironically, LoveFilm offers the Boxee Box for sale in its online shop regardless. LoveFilm has recently been the subject of rumours of an acquisition by Amazon, which already owns a large stake in the company.
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| Microsoft to patch Windows Phone 7 unlock exploit with first update Posted: 12 Jan 2011 03:30 AM PST
Winrumors notified us to a blog posted on the ChevronWP7 blog which notes that the “coding error” used in the ChevronWP7 unlocker will no longer work after the next Windows Phone 7 update which was confirmed at CES 2011. The ChevronWP7 unlocker was released in late November, providing handset owners with a way to side load homebrew applications – the first allowing the use of custom ringtones. The tool worked by fooling the operating system into registering itself as a Windows Phone 7 developer device with an app, instead of Microsoft directly. Microsoft then chose an admirable avenue of approach – instead of requesting the tool was pulled and strong-arming the ChevronWP7 team, the Redmond company directly contacted its developers (Rafael Rivera, Chris Walsh and Long Zheng) and engaged in discussions as to officially supporting homebrew applications in the future. As a result, the team agreed to pull the tool from its website. The three developers are due to fly out to Redmond next week to begin these discussions but have also said they intend on “pushing for stronger protection of WP7 developer intellectual property (IP) on the platform as we believe both can co-exist on the platform”. We will of course keep you updated on the discussions – we hope there will be a positive outcome for all involved.Image Credit |
| PlayStation hacker Geohot sued by Sony over PS3 jailbreak Posted: 12 Jan 2011 02:58 AM PST
Hotz, various members of the fail0verflow team (that helped make the tools available) and another 100 unnamed defendants have found themselves subject to a lawsuit that acuses the individuals involved of “distributing software, tools and instructions that circumvent the TPMs in the PS3 System and facilitate the counterfeiting of video games” via the internet. Hotz’s website currently reads:
The website then lists three PDF documents, pointing to a “Motion For TRO”, “Proposed Order” and a “Complaint”. Sony has not yet filed a lawsuit for copyright infringement but has issued a banning order on the hack, limiting details of the exploits in the future. Hotz has yet to disclose how he intends on fighting the order but has mentioned that any donation requests for legal fees are not legitimate at this time.DigitalSpy, Image Credit |
| Ofcom To Probe New T-Mobile Bandwidth Restrictions Posted: 12 Jan 2011 02:28 AM PST
The company amended its data policy, leaving customers unaware of whether they will be affected. A monthly allowance that once totaled 1GB has now been slashed in half to 500MB, to provide ”a better experience for all our customers who use internet on their phone”. This caused confusion amongst Android handsets owners who had specifically purchased 3GB of data per month, as it was not know if the cut would affect them also. The cap affects customers who use their devices to watch YouTube videos via their handsets or utilise apps that consume higher amounts of bandwidth. The company has said the restrictions will only be in place for app use and streaming, whilst email and browsing remains unaffected. Ofcom highlights the fact mobile operators need to advise customers of changes one month in advance, stating that users could have a case for early termination of their contract without charges if the changes are proven to be unacceptable. T-Mobile gave its customers a three week notice period, meaning the company has already fallen foul of the regulatory rules. T-Mobile says that the majority of its customers will remain unaffected, however many are up in arms about the drastic u-turn whether they are heavy data users or not. Are you affected by this cap? Let us know in the comments.KnowYourMobile, Image Credit |
| Entrepreneurs and drugs, sex and alcohol Posted: 12 Jan 2011 02:17 AM PST About 3 years ago I wrote a post titled “Alcohol: a Business Tool?” about the advantages of a hangover during negotiations. Lets just say the post was controversial as a lot of people warned against the danger of alcohol abuse and the importance of having a clear mind during important meetings. To those who couldn’t take a joke: cheers! Doug Englebart, the inventor of the computer mouse, experimented with LSD as a young inventor and it is no secret that Steve Jobs has had great experiences with LSD too when he was young:
When Wozniak had to solve difficult problems for the Apple II he used to go home, spread out the computer component out on his bed, smoke a joint, and then stare at his bed until he had solved the problem. On the one hand entrepreneurs have to be clear thinking, analytical, hard working people. On the other hand entrepreneurs tend to be creative thinkers, not afraid to try out new things and experiment. There are lots of entrepreneurs, think Richard Branson, who have rockstar status including sex-apeal and some substance, ahem, use. So what do you think: do drugs and alcohol go hand in hand with entrepreneurship or should entrepreneurs always keep a clear head? For those entrepreneurs who wants to follow in Steve Jobs’ track I have some LSD tablets available, for the rest I will happily make some fresh orange juice. But seriously, what is your opinion? |
| Microsoft Challenges Apple’s ‘App Store’ Trademark Filing Posted: 11 Jan 2011 11:54 PM PST
The move follows Apple’s attempts to trademark the term, registering with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to prevent other companies and rival application marketplaces from being able go under the same heading. Microsoft is fighting the application, registering its own opposition filing (PDF here) with the US Trademark Trial and Appeal Board stating that “undisputed evidence shows that ‘app store’ is a generic name for a store offering apps”. Microsoft’s lawyers write in the summary judgement that:
Microsoft argues that the media now use the generic term to cover lots of different mobile application marketplaces and is not specific to the iPhone, it even states that Apple CEO Steve Jobs has used the phrase generically – he was quoted referring to Android Market competitors by the term:
With Steve Jobs mentioning those all-important words when referring to rival app marketplaces, it could demonstrate that Microsoft has a point. The US Patent and Trademark Office is going to have its work cut out, although it has moved to block generic word combinations in the past. Terms such as ”The Computer Store”, “Log Cabin Homes”, “Candy Bouquet”, and others have been denied by the body. Should Microsoft successfully block the filing, it would intend on using the term for its own offerings, as would many other companies judging by how they currently market their applications:
Microsoft contends that Apple has registered the term to build on its early success but as mobile applications have become ubiquitous, it can no longer control how the media and general public refer to the “app stores”. It cites precedents that have merit, it’s very possible Microsoft could prevail in this battle. What do you think? Should Apple have control over the term ‘App Store’? Let us know in the comments.TechFlash, Image Credit |
| 7 Ways to Measure Your Influence Online Posted: 11 Jan 2011 08:48 PM PST
All kidding aside, if you're managing a company or a personal brand online, the following services will help you understand how your message is getting across. Klout
Klout uses both Twitter and Facebook data to tally the influence results and it rewards users with badges that can be shared. These social achievements are earned by gaining more "Klout" by increasing your reach and obtaining more unique retweets. Do you participate? Are you a good listener? A section called the Influence Matrix measures your online personality and will display how engaged you are with your audience. There's also a feature that finds the individuals that you're most influenced by and who's influenced by you. All in all, there's quite a bit of information that you might find useful such as how many unique retweets you have, and your inbound/outbound message ratios. PeerIndex
PeerIndex offers an analytics dashboard that gives users a closer look at their authority on the web, and it also compares you to your friends. By default it picks a few random people to compare you with, however, any Twitter user you choose can be added to the comparison graph. Linking a site or blog to your profile will additionally help the service improve the accuracy of the authority results. EmpireAvenue
Users can earn Eaves from their activity on Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, YouTube and Facebook fan pages as well as unlock badges. EmpireAvenue doesn't offer a powerful analytics dashboard like the other services we mentioned in this article however, it's an interesting service nonetheless. And it does have numerous features that post influencers on a rank list, both inside and outside the EmpireAvenue community. At the end of the day, we'll have to just assume that it properly calculates engagement through its use of shares. By the way, my BBETA stock has gone up +11.449 since I started writing this review — I’m rich! Postrank
This service will give users in-depth information about their online presence however the sign-up process is a bit frustrating to say the least. Users are required to add a website to complete the sign-up process, but after following the multiple server-side steps to get it verified, I was personally left with nothing. The errors I'm receiving could be an anomaly, and I'm hoping they are because there appears to be a wealth of information within Postrank personal analytics. Without my site being verified, I can only tell you what I’ve learned from the site about the analytics. Postrank offers a scoring system that calculates the level of engagement from your audience. And, the engagement is scored by what Postrank calls the five C's of engagement; creating, critiquing, chatting, collecting and clicking. On the surface, it looks powerful. Backtype
Each URL uses a different set of measurables often offering a lot less information than using a Twitter profile URL. After searching my YouTube page URL, the data offered was limited to the latest tweets that mentioned my channel, and a click stats option that requires a paid membership. To be clear, anyone can use Backtype for free although the more comprehensive analytics will cost you. The membership fee of $100 per month may be steep but it's going to give you a crazy amount of data. It brings you tools that measure your reach, impressions, URL stats and how your tweets are converted to traffic. Twitalyzer
It focuses on things like your networks' location, letting businesses know where to target their campaigns and marketing efforts. Visuals and graphs of your reach and influence on Twitter is offered in exportable forms, a perfect tool for social media managers that need to present their work to their companies. Another one of the many fantastic features is link tracking. Twitalyzer has integrated its service with Google analytics and popular link tracking services such as bit.ly so you’ll be able to accurately track content. There are three types of plans available; individual, business and agency. The individual plan is $4.99/month but in order to access the majority of Twitalyzer features, you'll need to upgrade to the business plan for $29.99/month. Anyone on Twitter can get "Twitalyzed" from the main page without an account for free, and it will give you a few details like your impact type (reporter, trendsetter) and impact score, an overall rank determined by comparing you to the other Twitter users on their network. But, for anything up and above those features, you’ll need a paid account. TwitterGrader
How popular are you in your local area? This service also has TwitterGrader elite lists that give users a running list of who's most popular (based on the TwitterGrader ranking) in a specific region. The elite lists can be used as a handy tool for discovering influential Tweeple in your respective city. It also lists popularity by top users, brand, gender and cities. The Bottom Line:These services do not exactly measure the quality of your conversations or connections. In saying that, these services only give users a glimpse of where they may be positioned compared to other users within the community. So if you’re a regular user, you should keep in mind that while getting an idea of how much "reach" you have on the web is great, it isn't as important as making meaningful relationships.Quora Question, Image: Jersey Shore |
| [Updated] Military coup in Tunisia? With no mainstream attention, the revolution is being Tweeted. Posted: 11 Jan 2011 08:43 PM PST
Update at the end of post. According to reports that we’re seeing on Twitter, a military coup against the Ben Ali regime and President Zine el Abidine Ben Ali has erupted in Tunisia. However, it appears that mainstream media attention to the events of the past few weeks in the embattled country have been minimal, with the notable exception of a 26 year old protestor who set fire to himself and later died. It’s worth noting immediately, however, that every bit of information that we have here is based on reports via Twitter and thus not confirmed by any official source, government or otherwise. While writing this, we’re seeing nearly equal reports of a coup happening as well as a coup not happening. What happens, then, without mainstream media coverage? The revolution is being tweeted. The cause of the unrest, according to an article on the Al Jazeera (an English-language news channel headquartered in Doha, Qatar) website, appears to be related to high unemployment rates and costs of living in the country. Despite the promise of more jobs, protests have continued and security forces have been accused of using excessive force against the protesters. In answer to the protests, schools and universities have been closed until the fighting subsides. The most recent reports from those within Tunisia state and from what we’ve seen on Twitter are that the Ben Ali regime has been brought down by a military coup and that General Rachid Ammar has been given temporary status as President. However, it’s again worth noting that these are rumors. The latest update from the only news source that we’ve seen covering anything about Tunisia comes again from Al Jazeera and does not mention anything other than unrest: We’re gathering more details as we can. In the mean time, you can follow along on Twitter with the #SidiBouZid hash tag. While we here at TNW do not claim to be war correspondants or political reporters, it’s simply worth noting that there is a decided lack of mainstream media coverage for an event that could be catastrophic to those involved. Update #1 Jan 12 08:20 GMT : According to Jillian C York at GlobalVoicesOnline the rumor has been refuted by its source: “I was wrong relying on @SBZ_NEWS on a coup of #tunisia. #sidibouzid my mistake. No coup. Stay tuned.” |
| Posted: 11 Jan 2011 07:49 PM PST Lessons learned, my friends. Lessons learned. |
| Google Chrome drops H.264 video support. What does it mean to you? Posted: 11 Jan 2011 07:17 PM PST
Ultimately, Google’s decision to drop support for H.264 is likely a good one. But the immediate problems are going to be difficult to deal with. As John Gruber points out on his blog, Daring Fireball, there is a bit of confusion that is brought about by Google’s choice:
Now, let’s talk about the rest of the world as we know it — YouTube uses H.264. Google will have to re-encode everything on the site to WebM. Android supports H.264 and is maintained by Google. Will Google drop the support? What about the other major sites that use H.264 streaming? As Gruber points out, it’s up to them to accept WebM (or Theora) as a standard in order to continue to be played within the Chrome browser. But why does any of it matter? Simply speaking, Chrome is growing faster than almost any browser in history. Moreover, Google hasn’t yet stated whether it would drop support for the Flash codec (which also plays H.264, mind you) which is anything but “open”. These are the immediate issues that you, as a Chrome user, will be subject to dealing with. The end result, if WebM is widely adopted, would actually be good for the user. Truly open codecs open the door to support from a massive number of platforms and holds the promise of ending “not compatible with your browser” messages. But, as the Internet has gone, we’ve very seldom seen wide adoption of open standards and the WebM fight has only just begun. For now, you likely won’t notice any changes. The Chromium Blog states that the changes will go into effect within the “next couple months”. Let’s cross our fingers that content providers can come up with a happy medium in that time, else our beloved Chrome browser could feel some ill effect from gutsy changes by the Google camp. |
| The iPhone is on Verizon and Android will be just fine. Posted: 11 Jan 2011 06:41 PM PST
The short answer? I won’t. The longer answer, I feel, is like the same as many Android devotees but here are the fine points for those who have yet to understand: Apple’s Favor to AndroidThe single biggest favor that Apple (and/or Verizon) ever did to the Android platform was in waiting so long to bring the iPhone 4 to the largest carrier in the US. Had the iPhone rolled out from day one with a GSM and CDMA version, I would venture to say that Android would still be clawing to gain ground. Instead what happened is that Android had time to become viable. Those who “settled” for an Android phone because of carrier restrictions or those hardcore Android fanatics who dealt with the OS when it sucked (and I’m not talking all that long ago) managed to stick it out long enough for Android development to really get a firm grasp of what the platform should be. Think I’m wrong? Look around at all of the people who are claiming how great of a phone the Nexus S is. Take a quick glance at how many Motorola Droid models have been sold. There’s a reason, folks — Android has gotten good, and Apple’s tendency to take its sweet time with releases is likely a major factor in that. Fundamentally Different
The hard fact for iPhone owners to swallow here is that some of us really enjoy the Android platform. We tend to be the ones who want a fully-featured smartphone, but perhaps we’re not as apps-centric as iOS users. I love it when Android gets good apps, and I really do use them. But for the majority of my exposure to my phone, I’m using it for notifications and email. For me, Android is by far the better platform in both of those arenas. Now here’s something that will really blow your mind — I’m not only a fan of Android, I’m also a Mac user. A die-hard Mac user, at that. I honestly think that OS X is superior to Windows in so many ways that I can’t even begin to count them. But that simplicity that I love in my desktop OS does not carry over to what I want from my mobile device. I want more options and I get them via Android OS. The Global Scenario
Now, why does this matter? Simply put, it matters because the entire argument against the iPhone in the US surrounds the carrier. AT&T has been the most crippling factor in the entire iPhone system. But in other parts of the world, the iPhone works just fine. It’s slick, it’s fast and it doesn’t drop calls nearly as often as it does here. And yet there are people who live in areas where the iPhone works just fine who continue to choose Android. Amazing, isn’t it? Apparently there is more to the market than just a single phone. While the iPhone did indeed set the standard (as the iPad has for tablet devices), the rest of the market has had a really good opportunity to catch up — and in some cases even surpass — the gold standard device. So stop the shouting. Stop the crying out about the death of Android. As I’ve said in the past, not every product kills another. If the death were going to happen, we’d be digging up bones by now and that’s simply not the case. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to use TweetDeck for Android to watch the conversation about this post. Why? Because it’s still better on Android than the iPhone. |
| Google fires a shot at Yelp; brings Hotpot recommendations to Maps Posted: 11 Jan 2011 04:10 PM PST
Where will this get really interesting? Look at Google’s near-field communication that it has embedded into the Nexus S. Imagine going into a local venue and having your phone recognize where you are. You’re then given the chance to put a Hotpot recommendation into the system and your friends can immediately see what you think of the place. Of course, that part is somewhat in the future. For now, it’s still a great recommendation system (and better in some ways than Yelp, even, by our standards) and well worth a try. Want to give it a shot, just head over to Google Hotpot and sign yourself up. What do we want? A newly-updated version of Google Maps with Hotpot overlays, please. |
| So Who Really Owns Facebook? [Chart] Posted: 11 Jan 2011 03:28 PM PST While Goldman Sachs might have tossed a pretty heavy sum of money at Facebook, that still didn’t amount to much. In fact, only about 4% of the company as a whole is owned between Goldman Sachs and its clients. So who owns the biggest chunk? Facebook’s staff, of course. Given the current valuation, a 30% ownership from Facebook’s staff means that they collectively hold around $15 billion. The rest of the numbers? An interesting chart from reface.me breaks it down for us:
Want the latest and greatest from the social monster that is Facebook? Make sure to bookmark TNW Facebook for all the news.Photo: Scobleizer |
| Is the Microsoft consortium patent purchase really off? We don’t think so Posted: 11 Jan 2011 03:07 PM PST
To begin, we reported in the middle of December that Microsoft was putting together a massive patent consortium that included plans to buy $450 million in patents from Novell, who was in the process of being acquired by Attachmate. Today, news came that the deal has somehow taken a bad bend. To quote the source: “In a move that will be seen by many as a big win for open-source advocates, a plan to create a consortium led by Microsoft to buy Novell patents has been withdrawn.” Naturally, as is our protocol, we asked Microsoft for comment. They replied (Microsoft spokesperson): “This is a purely procedural step necessary to provide time to allow for review of the proposed transaction.” Immediately we began to smell something odd. Sure, PCWorld had guessed that “[the withdrawal of the filing to form the group to buy the patents] is likely voluntary as authorities would not yet have had time to investigate the proposal,” but why even voluntarily pull the file? Microsoft and its friends were not, so far as we can tell, rebuffed by a governmental agency. But what Microsoft said is that their withdrawal was merely a move to provide time for review. In other words, so far as we can parse, the deal appears to be far from dead. Of course, we wanted more. We dug high and low, deep and high, and only manged to confirm that the comment Microsoft had given us did apply directly to the patent situation. Given that, we can translate Microsoft’s official comment into this: “[The filing withdrawal] is a purely procedural step necessary to provide time to allow for [governmental] review for the [proposed purchase of $450 million in Novell patents].” So then, since we know that, let’s dispel some rumors. It is completely unclear that Microsoft ever really minded complaints from open source advocates who feared the deal. The people who wish to claim that Microsoft pulled the file merely to avoid bad press, we feel, don’t fully understand the competitive nature of Microsoft as a corporation. Secondly, we are not 100% certain that the deal is ‘on’ for the future. Another friend of ours states that “[Microsoft's consortium] will refile,” which we feel is correct. However, are not completely certain that it is true, so we are hesitant to be so forthwith. In accretion, despite the news that came out today, we would place a bet on Microsoft refilling and buying the patents despite what is floating around the media. Now, the good stuff. Microsoft had to pull the file, they would not do so without cause, so you have to ask the question, why? We have a gut feeling, and one that is just a hunch, that Microsoft had some internal jockeying to handle. Microsoft would have to refile, we presume, if it had to make significant changes to the makeup of the consortium. Keeping Microsoft, Apple, EMC and Oracle all in line at once must be a very tall task. That is what we have right now. If you know something, send it our way: alex@thenextweb.comTop Image Credit |
| Is the Cloud Touch by INQ the real Facebook phone? Posted: 11 Jan 2011 02:29 PM PST You’ll likely remember a few months ago when the rumors started flying about a Facebook phone. Well, churn up the old mill again because it looks like we might have stumbled onto the Facebook Phone once more. This time, INQ Mobile appears to be making an Android-based device that includes a homescreen with “mulitple entry points to different Facebook functions”. Beyond that, though, it will have a widget that displays “a feed of status updates, albums, videos and photos”. So is it being ordered by Facebook? Not likely. Nevertheless, it’s still an interesting twist on mobile marketing toward the Facebook generation. Let’s face it, many of us have friends or our own kids who would be all over a Facebook phone if it ever hits the market. |
| Gingerbread launcher, live wallpaper and keyboard come to the Android Market for free Posted: 11 Jan 2011 02:08 PM PST
So, want to try them out but don’t want to root your Android device just yet? You can easily snag the Android 2.3 launcher, live wallpaper and keyboard directly from the Android Market. According to Recombu, developer Steven Lin has done us all the favor of uploading the 2.3 goodies to the Market and has made them available for free. To grab them, just head to the Market and search for “Gingerbread launcher”, “Gingerbread keyboard” and/or “Gingerbread live wallpaper”. Make sure you grab the uploads from Steven Lin and you’ll be set. Of course, you’ll need to set the new keyboard and launcher for use, just as you would with any other keyboard or launcher. The new live wallpaper is slick, looking much like the one from Android 2.2 but a bit cleaner without the gridded background. The launcher is very similar to what you’d see from AWD Launcher, including 5 screens and quick access boxes on the bottom. The keyboard, probably my favorite feature, has a load of great options including the ability to do one-touch word selection for suggestions and copy/paste. Overall, really slick apps and no risk involved. That’s just the stuff we like to see. |
| Pose is poised and ready to be your new favorite shopping app Posted: 11 Jan 2011 01:52 PM PST
While the two aforementioned sites simply aim to help you get dressed in the morning, Pose also encourages users to log pricing and product information for other curious shoppers.
I couldn’t rush to the nearest Williamsburg clothing store to test it out at the time of posting, but here’s how the sharing feature will look on the website, and see to the right for a screenshot of the app. “Posers” is a unique part of this app experience, essentially a feed of hot fashion finds. The feed is compiled by a handpicked group of fashion experts with discerning eyes including designer Norma Kamali, celebrity stylist Melis Kuris and Lauren Sherman, the editor of Fashionista. Today the company announced that it raised $1.6 million from True Ventures, GRP, and Founder Collective, with angel investors Dave Morin and Shawn Fanning. The app is available now for the iPhone (Free) and is coming to Android soon. |
| Reeder for iOS updates with faster loading and 5,000 feeds Posted: 11 Jan 2011 01:26 PM PST
There are a couple of fixes, as well. Blank folders and crashes while syncing should be no more. Want to take it for a spin? Grab the download for iPhone or your iPad and let us know your thoughts. |
| Royal Bank of Canada Implements Microsoft Surface 2.0 Posted: 11 Jan 2011 01:11 PM PST The Royal Bank of Canada With Microsoft Surface, RBC begins a new generation of banking in its institution, and its hoping the implementation of Surface will add a fun and interactive experience to improving financial literacy. Using Surface the possibilities are endless, and we’re assuming that RBC will continue to develop apps that include educational information about your financial situation, along with info on new products or services its offering. In a demo at CES last week, we got a peek of an RBC app that showed us how a mail-out flyer could be used to enter customers into a draw/contest, just one of the ways that companies can get customers to engage these new Surface kiosks. We had a chance to speak with RBC's Alan Depencier, VP of Marketing Services & Transformation earlier today. He told us that in the last few months, RBC has rolled out the new Surface kiosks in two new retail locations that include an interactive environment called Discovery Zone. Alan said that RBC is excited about the new Microsoft Surface due to its smaller size and pixel sense technology. A technology that enables RBC to mail-out flyers with unique codes that are recognized by infrared sensors on Surface. RBC's new concept stores in Halifax and Burlington provide a less intimidating experience for customers Alan mentioned. And as he points out, RBC has found that giving customers a way to learn about their financial goals through interactive applications, is a great way to ease customers into initiating conversations about complicated financial topics. Alan also tells us that by using RBC’s animated Coin application, it gives customers a better idea of the benefits of a tax free savings account. The Coin app demonstrates how much customers would save by dropping virtual coins into a pseudo-savings account on the screen. For tech-junkies, it adds a bit of excitement to understanding your financial profile and with the use of animated applications like Coin, it adds a level of simplicity to banking services. For whatever reason, I may even listen to a shiny new Surface rather than my financial adviser. Maybe that’s just the geek in me. The video below shows us a working model within one of its new retail locations. |
| Try Petflow to feed your puppy and puppies everywhere Posted: 11 Jan 2011 01:03 PM PST
While there are many companies that sell pet food online, you can also buy pet food online directly from Amazon and Petco with an average shipping charge of $15. Petflow, a New York City based start-up which recently launched with 5 million in funding, lets users pick the pet-food they want and then set up scheduled deliveries for an extremely low shipping fee of $5 on all orders. Starting tomorrow PetFlow will donate $40 on behalf of anyone who signs up for their service through the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) link on their home page.
Fun fact: A homeless dog in many parts of South America is referred to as “El Perro del Mondo,” which translates as “Dog of the Universe.”TechCrunch |
T-Mobile’s decision to 
Asking someone if they've ever seen an episode of Jersey Shore may illicit the same response as if you asked "Have you ever Googled yourself?" Look, we know you have on both counts whether you'll admit it or not. So in the spirit of narcissistic superficiality we present you with 7 ways to measure your influence online.
Klout
PeerIndex
EmpireAvenue
Postrank
Backtype
Twitalyzer 
TwitterGrader
With a single 
Throwing caution to the wind and firing a shot over the bow of Yelp, Google has just announced that it has implemented 
Jealous of all of your Nexus S-toting friends? Yeah, me too. Without a doubt the biggest thing that I love about pure Android phones or ROMs is that the launcher is so clean. Of course, there’s also the added benefit of little things like a new Live Wallpaper or in the case of Gingerbread, a new keyboard.
At the end of our latest 
Here’s how it works: Snap a photo of the item you've discovered and add its price and store location. If you’re looking for feedback or just want to show off what you've found, type a message to your friends or followers and share via e-mail, Facebook or Twitter.
Reeder, which 
It’s not often I get to write cute, cuddly and feel-good stories. But seeing as though almost everything is based on the Web these days, do-good pet-food startups fall right in line.
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