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.
California Attorney General Kamala D. Harris reached an agreement with Apple, Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard and Research In Motion that could change how app makers address personal data and the way consumers download apps.
The companies have agreed “that California law requires apps to have privacy policies, and that they would begin asking app developers who collect personal information to include them,” reports the Wall Street Journal.
Twenty-two of the 30 most-downloaded mobile apps have no privacy policy. Moreover, most privacy policies are not clear to the average person.
The privacy policies will provide a means to prosecute companies which take or use consumer information improperly.
“Harris said that she agreed most privacy policies are ‘absolutely beyond the understanding of the average person,’ but that the six companies agreed in principle that app privacy policies ‘are going to be more clear and understandable,'” reports WSJ. “She said simply requiring privacy policies would force app developers to think about what information they are requiring from consumers — and why.”
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.
The technological possibilities of the Internet are challenging our traditional approach to TV, according to Eric Spiegelman writing for AllThingsD.
“When it comes to delivering audio-visual content to a wide audience, the Internet has lowered the barriers to entry so far that anyone with even the dinkiest camera can become a major broadcaster,” he writes. “The television industry may face a crisis of overhead when a large number of scrappy upstarts deliver comparable value with almost no fixed costs. Also, there are some aspects of the television business that the Internet simply does better, specifically when it comes to reaching an audience.”
The concepts of “channels” and “shows” are dramatically changing, especially as a result of YouTube.
Use of the iPhone as a TV remote is no longer a novel concept for Apple TV owners. Via AirPlay and a growing number of apps, viewers can “throw” videos wirelessly from the phone to the TV.
TV and publishing are becoming similar. “Reuters, Slate and The Wall Street Journal all have news and documentary programming on the new YouTube channel lineup. The New York Times and New York Magazine have been doing their own video programming for years. It’s only a matter of time before some of these compete with the cable news channels.”
While 55 percent of consumers consider point-and-shoot cameras as their primary photo devices, 18 percent now turn mainly to their smartphones for taking pics, according to a new study from the Consumer Electronics Association.
The number using smartphones as a primary means of taking photos has tripled in the past two years.
Although smartphone photography is on the rise, many rely on digital SLRs for higher-quality photos, reports the CEA.
“With 61 percent of photos taken as spur-of-the-moment shots, consumers liked the portability of smartphones. The study also found that consumers who used smartphones (and to a lesser extent, tablets) were more likely to use sharing applications, such as sending images via SMS services, email, or posting on social networks,” adds MediaPost.
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.
UK-based startup Speech Graphics has developed new software that predicts how facial muscles move to produce sounds.
“The new lip synching technology uses just audio input to automatically make a 3D character speak,” explains VentureBeat. “Since it uses a universal physics model, the company says it will work across all languages, saving game development time and resources.”
The team from the University of Edinburgh’s School of Informatics and the Centre for Speech Technology Research created the software in response to the growing quantity and cost of dialogue that appears in story-driven video games.
“With our technology, we’re aiming for robust high quality, even better than what you can achieve with motion capture. And because it’s audio-driven, it’s at a price point that makes it scalable to huge amounts of speech,” said co-founder Michael Berger.
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.”
Digital Connections (from digital marketing agency 360i) offers an interesting overview of emerging trends in second-screen apps and social TV, including tips for creating effective second-screen experiences for consumers.
1) Design the right space: “Create a space that makes sense for your show and community — find a balance between providing value for your network and value for your fans.”
2) Understand what you’ve created: “Make sure you understand all aspects of the app — if you want to prove value, make sure the app you’ve created has the ability to do so.”
3) Make the app available where fans are: “Be available — if you design an awesome app, your fans will want access to it all the time and from multiple devices; be sure to remain appealing to all ages and demographics.”
4) Try not to turn fans off: “Don’t irritate your fans — if you take the time to build the app, give your fans time to adjust before pushing ads in their face.”
5) Keep fans turned on: “Keep it fresh — your competition is fierce and your fans won’t make a commitment unless you give them a reason to.”
6) Be patient while awaiting results: “Give your community time to adjust to the second-screen experience before attempting to change it; if you’ve done everything right, second-screen success will follow.”