Connecting to a Wi-Fi hotspot is hopefully about to get easier by eliminating the need for pop-up log-in screens.
“The Wi-Fi Alliance will begin to certify wireless devices for its industry-wide Passpoint initiative this July,” reports GigaOM. “With devices using the Passpoint standard, users will be able to connect to Wi-Fi hotspots without having to enter logon credentials with each connection instance and will be able to seamlessly roam from one Passpoint-enabled Wi-Fi network to another.”
“WPA-2 Enterprise security for Passpoint-certified hotspots is important, but the seamless roaming to other Passpoint networks and simple connections will surely appeal to consumers and corporate types alike; especially as we all start to carry more wireless devices,” comments the post.
In a statement, the Wi-Fi Alliance explained how it will use SIM cards for authentication: “Devices can be automatically granted access to the network based on multiple credential types. Passpoint supports Subscriber Identity Module (SIM)-based authentication, widely used in cellular networks today, as well as username/password combinations and certificate credentials. No end-user intervention is required in order to establish a connection to a trusted network.”
IP-based instant messaging and text services such as iMessage, Facebook Chat, Skype and Google Voice cost mobile carriers $13.9 billion in potential SMS revenue last year.
GigaOM suggests “that the challenge for carriers is finding a way to continue getting the same total dollars from subscribers while transitioning them to new services. Otherwise they might lose valuable dollars to IP-based voice and messaging services without making up the loss of voice and testing plan revenue.”
Ovum, which analyzed the monetary effect of these services on carriers, said that “operators are in a position of strength because they control the entire messaging structure through their access to the user’s phone number and usage data. The established billing relationship is a great advantage, as is the fact that operators control to a great extent the services to which the user is exposed.”
Mobile operators will have to be cautious when attempting to secure their revenue because consumers now have a variety of options that bypass traditional plans.
“By using new services they can piece together their own IP-based communications using a device, some handy apps, and their mobile data plan,” notes the post, detailing options like using a $30/month data-only SIM card.
The FBI is looking for developers for its Web alert system called the “FBI Social Media Application,” which plans to help the agency monitor social networks for threats.
The platform will cross-reference information from social sites with databases and will have the ability “to rapidly assemble critical open source information and intelligence … to quickly vet, identify and geo-locate breaking events, incidents and emerging threats,” according to a 12-page document posted online.
The FBI explained to Fox News: “[We] will not focus on specific persons or protected groups, but on words that relate to ‘events’ and ‘crisis’ and activities constituting violations of federal criminal law or threats to national security. Examples of these words will include lockdown, bomb, suspicious package, white powder, active shoot, school lockdown, etc.”
A forthcoming study from the Journal of Applied Social Psychology shows that Facebook profiles can actually be a good way for employers to judge potential employees because online personalities fairly represent the real you.
Unlike LinkedIn, Facebook is not strictly professional but shows a full view of the person.
Hiring specialists used to just use social networks to eliminate candidates who were doing something inappropriate but social media is now useful in evaluating potential work performance.
“Who received the highest scores? Raters favored students who traveled, had more friends and showed interest in many hobbies. In other words, raters favored the well-rounded users. And those ‘partying’ photos didn’t count against the user — rather, raters believed that users who socialized were more likely to be extroverted and friendly,” reports ReadWriteWeb.
A study by app analytics group Distimo showed that 42 of the top 110 apps available on both the Android Market and Amazon Appstore made developers more money on Amazon.
“Okay, so that’s not even half,” TG Daily writes, “but look at what we’re saying — apps that are purchased through an external website, meaning users need to log onto a computer, register their Android phone, complete the purchase through Amazon, and follow the instructions on their Android phone to get the content, are doing better than the same apps that are available directly on the phone.”
The article attributes this trend to Amazon’s marketing abilities, the successful proliferation of the Kindle Fire — inherently linked to Amazon — and Google’s inability to make content easy to find on the Android Market.
“…this just goes to show that making an open platform allows third parties to make an even bigger impact,” comments TG Daily.
Mountain Lion, Apple’s latest OS for desktops and laptops, may challenge Android as it brings more of the iOS experience into OS X.
The new software creates a “grand unified user experience” (GUUX), enabling seamless interaction among all Apple devices. It brought many features over from iOS and its notifications are synched between devices.
“Reading an email on my iPhone, for example, removes the notification for that message on my desktop,” reports Kevin Tofel for GigaOM.
This “GUUX” could threaten Android’s share as people look to move easily from one device to another. “Simply put, Android doesn’t have native integration with a true desktop platform. Instead, it is cloud-focused from a data perspective while leaning heavily on third-party apps, browser extensions and its own Chrome browser to offer a ‘use anywhere’ experience. It works, but based on what I have seen from Mountain Lion so far, it is looking more disjointed,” writes Tofel.
Google may catch on to this trend later on with its Chrome OS. Its new Chrome browser for Android is an example of this synchronization, showing tabs open in Chrome on a desktop — something Safari doesn’t do yet.
“How much could this interaction between Mountain Lion and iOS hurt Android sales?” asks Tofel. “That is hard to say. Those who prefer a greater range of control over their mobile devices will still likely choose an Android device in the near term. But people looking for a ‘grand user interface unification’ may give up some control in order to gain a seamless experience across devices and choose iOS, especially if they are current or new Mac OS X users when Mountain Lion arrives this summer.”
On Thursday, Comcast will launch Xfinity Streampix, “its own streaming-video service that will give existing Comcast video customers a similar selection [to Netflix] of old TV shows and movies over the Web,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Comcast’s new service will include such shows as ’30 Rock,’ from its own NBCUniversal unit and ‘Lost’ from Walt Disney Co.’s ABC, as well as movies like ‘Ocean’s Eleven,’ from Time Warner Inc.’s Warner Bros. The programs, typically of prior seasons of shows, will be available on the Web and on mobile devices to subscribers in and out of the home, similarly to Netflix’s offering,” according to WSJ.
Compared to Netflix’s $7.99/month cost, the service will only cost Comcast customers $4.99/month. Streampix will also be made available for no additional charge to more than two million customers who subscribe for premium tiers of video service.
With Comcast’s 23 million subscriber base, Netflix subscriptions might be challenged.
Facebook accounts for more than 90 percent of Zynga’s sales, but the online-game company is trying to change that.
According to inside sources, the company is creating a new publishing program for other game developers to promote wares in Zynga titles and on a separate portal. Zynga would get a portion of the sales, thereby diversifying their revenue, branching away from Facebook.
“Promoting apps made by other developers is likely to carry fewer risks than Zynga’s main business of developing games itself. The company’s profitability has been crimped by the cost of creating new blockbuster titles,” Bloomberg reports.
The project relies on partnerships but could make millions if Zynga can control a good part of the market.
Facebook takes 30 percent of the sales of virtual goods sold in Zynga games and this most likely won’t change in the new network. “Because Facebook Credits are used by all developers selling virtual goods on the social network and games promoted by Zynga, participating developers will still pay Facebook a cut of sales,” says Bloomberg.
Samsung is offering a new line of memory cards for digital cameras, camcorders, smartphones and tablets. Styled with a brushed metal design, the rugged cards are built to take on severe conditions.
“This new line of cards is guaranteed to survive being submerged in water for up to 24 hours, being run over by a 3,200 pound vehicle, or resist a magnetic current nearly as strong as medical magnets,” reports The Verge.
The new SD and microSD cards are available in “high speed” (reading 15-24MB/s, writing 7-13MB/s) and “plus extreme speed” (24MB/s reading, 21MB/s writing) as well as slower models. Capacities range from 2GB to 32GB.
Prices range from $9.99 to $89.99 based on the speed and capacity.
London-based social TV company Zeebox is launching clickable TV ads that enable UK users to “purchase products advertised on TV through their tablet or smartphone in real time,” the press release explains.
“Zeebox seems to be one of the only major players in the UK giving them the opportunity to really build a great product in their market and then come to the U.S. with a fine-tuned model and case studies,” comments Lost Remote, noting that U.S. social TV start-ups are also working to make ads useful.
The clickable ads utilize a video fingerprinting technology to recognize ads. A few seconds into the ad, a click-to-buy button appears in Zeebox’s real-time tag stream, with icons to identify the type of product (such as a song or travel service).
The company doesn’t have any deals in place with advertisers yet but is already providing click-through for tagged ads.
According to Zeebox co-founder and CTO Anthony Rose: “For now we’re using click-to-buy zeetags, with our systems and operators selecting the destination — for example, we send music purchases to iTunes, DVDs to Amazon, food to Tesco, cosmetics to Boots.”
In a move to bolster its long-term advertising business strategy, Twitter rolled out a new service for small businesses and advertisers using American Express cards to buy and place ads on the micro-blogging site.
“Since 2010, Twitter’s in-house sales staff has sold ‘promoted tweets’ to large businesses on a case-by-case basis,” explains Reuters. “The company spent last year developing a self-serve system that could handle a far greater volume of ad transactions and, in November, opened the system to a small number of clients for testing.”
Currently only available via American Express, Twitter plans to offer the service to additional cardholders in the coming months.
For investors and analysts, Twitter’s continual development of its business model is important to the potential upcoming IPO.
Google has disabled a computer code that it was previously using to bypass privacy settings on Apple’s Safari browser in order to track “the Web-browsing habits of people who intended for that kind of monitoring to be blocked,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
Google placed the code within ads displayed on popular sites and once activated, the code enables Google tracking across most websites. The sites, however, had no knowledge of the code.
“We were not aware of this behavior,” said Michael Balmoris, AT&T spokesman. “We would never condone it.”
In response, Google said in a statement: “The Journal mischaracterizes what happened and why. We used known Safari functionality to provide features that signed-in Google users had enabled. It’s important to stress that these advertising cookies do not collect personal information.”
Google faces criticism on a number of fronts, especially in response to the recent changes to its privacy policy across all its services. Its search results that promote Google+ have also been highly controversial.
Although there was no admission of wrongdoing, Netflix is paying $9 million to settle a class action lawsuit that claimed the streaming service violated the Video Privacy Protection Act by retaining information about viewers’ habits.
The lawsuit was filed in March 2011 by individuals claiming that the company maintained viewing information “long after they had canceled the service.”
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Netflix will continue to “push for changes in legislation that would allow it to make more uses of customer data,” like enabling users to share their viewing habits on social media sites.
“The House has approved a bill to do so, but the proposed legislation has encountered resistance in the Senate after it heard from some critics who say the VPPA is one of the few strong consumer privacy protections out there,” explains the article. “There’s also concern that eliminating the VPPA would allow sites like Netflix to share personal information with advertisers.”
Google Wallet has fixed its prepaid card security problem that came to light last week. Before the fix, anyone could “clear the app data from Google Wallet, reopen it, and gain access to the prepaid card,” explains The Verge.
In response, Google had temporarily shut down provisioning for the prepaid cards.
“The same firm that originally cracked Google’s PIN for Wallet, zvelo, has confirmed that it is possible to achieve root permissions on an Android device without actually clearing its data. Typically, when rooting a device, all data on it gets erased, eliminating most Wallet concerns. With zvelo’s new method for achieving root-level permissions, the original cracking attack on Google Wallet could be applied to non-rooted users,” explains the post.
Zvelo also noted that physical access to the device is not required to gain access to data: “a malicious app could initiate a brute-force attack to guess your Google Wallet PIN code, obtain root-level device access (even on a handset that hasn’t been tampered with by the user), and then transmit the data back to a remote server.”
Apple may be making a smaller iPad model to challenge competitors as the tablet market heats up. According to a person familiar with the matter, Apple is working with Asian suppliers to test a device with an 8-inch screen, breaking away from its current 9.7-inch screen standard.
The sources say that the smaller device will have a screen with a resolution of 1024 x 758, very close to the display on the current model. According to Engadget: “This jibes with what we’ve heard about the iPad 3 toting a Retina Display — unless the smaller unit is aimed at budget buyers.”
The Wall Street Journal notes that this doesn’t mean anything for certain: “Apple, which works with suppliers to test new designs all the time, could opt not to proceed with the device.”
Thus far, Apple has remained committed to the current standard size, which Steve Jobs declared in 2010 as the “minimum size required to create great tablet apps.” However, with their iPods and iPhones, the company eventually provided offerings of various shapes and sizes.
In early March, Apple is expected to announce its new iPad, which will reportedly have the standard screen size and be 4G LTE capable.
The market researcher IDC found “the iPad represented more than 60 percent of worldwide tablet shipments in the third quarter,” reports WSJ.
