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What Background Location Brings to the iPhone

cgseo — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 16:00:30 +0000

In the midst of the SXSW festival last month, we reviewed a mobile social network called LoKast . Our one lingering question about the app's utility, at the time, was were we really going to run around town staring at our phone to see if someone else nearby was running the same app? The answer was "no" then and is "no" now, but the difference now is that the iPhone OS 4.0 that was announced yesterday allows for background location multitasking . This opens up a whole new realm of experiences for the iPhone. Sponsor First, LoKast. LoKast is a self-described "disposable" social network. That is, as you move about and come near other people running LoKast, you can quickly interact with them. Then, when you move ot of range, you may never see them again. It is social networking based on location, without a persistent friends listing. So now, with background location monitoring, an app like LoKast is actually feasible. I can turn it on, leave it running and wander around town and perhaps have it notify me when I'm within range of someone. As Kim-Mai Cutler notes, background location also brings up some "slightly creepy" privacy concerns relating not only to applications running in the background, but also location based advertising. But what if you think about location based advertising like you think of iTunes' "Genius" function or all the other recommendation engine software you use? It may be tough to realize that you are not quite the unique snowflake you thought you were and that, indeed, everyday around three you end up at the same coffeeshop, but wouldn't it be nice for your iPhone to realize this and get you 20% off? Without you even having to lift a finger? Well, fine, maybe you have to lift an iPhone. The list of ideas for background location are endless. Of course, we'll have to see how quickly a battery gets drained with persistent GPS monitoring. Having the ability to let our phones deliver us information, as we move about the world, based on our location has some amazing potential. Think of EveryBlock , the hyperlocal news aggregator that Marshall Kirkpatrick went ga-ga over when it arrived in Portland. The block-level delivery of news wouldn't even need to wait for you to check it any more - it could simply deliver relevant information as you move about your day. Real-time rideshare services like Avego and Flinc suddenly become that much more feasible, in fast-paced, real-life situations. We could go on, but we have another couple of months before the next version of the iPhone OS comes out and we're already too excited as it is. What crazy, creepy or otherwise cool potential do you see with the new background location capabilities? Discuss

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What Background Location Brings to the iPhone

Do You Like Us Or Like Like Us? "Become A Fan" Changing To "Like" On Facebook

cgseo — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 15:28:11 +0000

In a memo to its advertisers, Facebook quietly announced that it would change the phrase "Become A Fan" to "Like" in what, at times, seems like an ongoing effort to confuse and enrage its users. "Like" has had a very specific, while malleable, usage for Facebook users and changing it to gear towards advertisers and Fan Page subscriptions is deceptive. Not only does the move seem like a confusing one for users, but it opens up their actions to the public, as becoming a fan of something is completely public to all who view your profile. Sponsor While the memo says that "users will understand the distinction through explicit social context, messaging and aesthetic differences", we expect that the majority of users will only find out the difference between liking now and liking then when they "Like" something that suddenly bombards their feed with stories and advertisements. The memo offers an example of how an ad for a page will look with the "language change". According to an article in Clikz on the change , the memo also points out that "Facebook users have been clicking the current 'Like' feature nearly twice as often as the 'Become A Fan' button". The reason, it seems to us, is apparent - clicking "Like" was a quick and easy way to convey approval, support or other simple sentiment, not a way to commit to being a fan and subscribing to news updates in their News Feed for perpetuity. "Like" offers a light-weight, consistent way for users to connect with the things they are passionate about. This lighter-weight action for connection to a Page on Facebook means that users will be making more connections across the site, including your Facebook Page. Changing what Facebook has identified as a "lighter-weight action" into an action that deeper implications is at the core of what we find deceptive here. Was there anything wrong with the language of "Become A Fan"? With that language, it was clear that there was a separation from any time I might "Like" something. I would be connected to that Page and would receive updates in my News Feed. It would show up, publicly, to anyone and everyone that viewed my page on the Internet, as a result of the privacy changes to the site last December. Were users clicking on "Become A Fan" less for a reason? Likely so - they didn't want to subscribe to that particular content in their news feed and, if they understood the privacy implications, because they didn't want to broadcast to the world what they saw as private thoughts and opinions. Discuss

Test Shows: iPhone Touchscreen Still the Best

cgseo — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 02:48:02 +0000

If the future is all about touchscreen interfaces, then performance of the screen in registering where it's been touched is pretty important. International design firm Moto ran a robotic finger test on 6 leading touchscreen smart phones to see how well they registered a robot's loving touch. Some of the phones did remarkably poorly, like the BlackBerry Storm and the Motorola Droid. The iPhone, Google Nexus One and HTC Droid Eris all did quite well. Check out the video below to see the tests and marvel at the apparent differences between touchscreens and their performances. Sponsor Robot Touchscreen Analysis from MOTO Development Group on Vimeo . As Sadat Karim writes on Neowin , "Hope is not lost though, as Moto Labs concludes that they do expect these problems to be remedied in the future as touchscreens mature and gain further traction in the industry. Commitment and competition will ultimately deliver seamless touch experiences for all consumers over time, since phone makers are continuously perfecting their products." To see touchscreen hardware nerds duke it out over the test, check out the Moto Labs blog . How about you, readers? Have you felt the difference in performance across some of these handsets? See also: User Interfaces Rapidly Adjusting to Information Overload Discuss

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Test Shows: iPhone Touchscreen Still the Best

Which Mobile App Platform Should a Startup Focus on?

cgseo — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 01:00:00 +0000

As much as startups want to launch their applications across all mobile platforms, it's often more realistic to focus on just one. But which one? The iPhone has the biggest numbers in terms of both apps and app buyers, whereas Android usage stats are rocketing. Earlier today we wrote about a new mobile analytics report that showed that Google is no Apple . We explained the difference between these two as relates to phone sales and usage. Now we'd like to highlight the difference for startups that are deciding which one to do business with. It's tempting to go with Apple because of their current sales figures, but in the long run Google is going to be a far less limiting business partner. Sponsor What's the Best Reason to Go With Apple? In early March at the Mobilex Conference in Chicago, Charles Yim, of Ad Mob explained his company's mobile metrics report : "Android and iPhone users download a similar number of apps every month and spend a similar amount of time using the apps. However, iPhone users continue to download more paid applications, with 50% of users purchasing at least one paid application a month compared to 21% of Android users and 24% of webOS users." This, as well as the iPad's pre-order numbers, is one of the strongest arguments for why the iPhone is the best way to go. So yes, the money is in Apple apps, but consider that app developers are starting to make equivalent money with Android. Difference between Apple and Google as a Business Partner Recently ReadWriteWeb guest writer Daniel Cawrey pointed out that Google makes most of their ad revenue by driving traffic to Google-owned websites. So the greater the number of apps Google can get on their websites, the more page views and resultant ad revenue they generate. Yes, that's good for Google. But since selling mobile apps increases the amount of page views Google can generate, the company is going to be far less concerned with charging or limiting app developers in the way that Apple does. Finally, mobile innovator forums are already being dominated by Android. Where do you think you'll find more app makers to partner with? There are far fewer barriers to app developers collaborating on the Android platform compared to the walled-garden of Apple. Tech startups often have to plan for long-term economic growth in ways that the current market says is not yet possible and when it come to long-term growth, Google Android is going to limit those possibilities far less than Apple. UPDATE: An earlier version of this story incorrectly described the Android and Google marketplaces. We regret the error. Discuss

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Which Mobile App Platform Should a Startup Focus on?

Google Takes Small Steps for Buzz, Points to Big Solutions for Social Networking

cgseo — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 22:15:04 +0000

Buzz , Google's controversial attempt to unseat Facebook as the most mainstream of social activity stream readers, just made some much-needed changes that Facebook could learn from as well. Buzz users now have more granular control over what social interactions with content trigger an email sent to their email inboxes and explicit explanations for why each piece of content was sent by email to them. These changes are a good start but ought to extended into the body of Buzz as well. Sponsor Just like most Facebook users can't explain the difference between the new algorithmically filtered News Feed and the raw bulk flow of the Live Feed, Buzz too could benefit from explaining the mystery behind the magic. As social networking analyst danah boyd said at the opening talk of SXSW today, privacy online is grounded in user control . Buzz violated the basic understanding of email as private when it surprised users by layering the new social network on top of their private Gmail. By granting users more control over information, today's changes are a small move in a better direction. Why Not Give Users The Tools to Drive Their Own Experience? Might social activity stream participation become more mainstream if users had clear and more complete control over what they see, what they expose and to whom? Many people believe that users are incapable of dealing with too many settings and need these decisions made for them. Perhaps it's just a user experience challenge, though. Nobody said creating the ultimate interface for mainstream users to drive their online activity was going to be easy. Google's move with Buzz today looks like a nice first start. Hopefully it will be extended beyond the Buzz and Gmail relationship. See also: How Google Buzz is Disruptive: Open Data Standards Discuss

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Google Takes Small Steps for Buzz, Points to Big Solutions for Social Networking

Twitter to Save Us From Ourselves & Phishing; More Is Needed to Make Innovation Safe & Viable

cgseo — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 01:12:28 +0000

It never ceases to amaze me how many high-tech industry elites get ensnared in every Twitter phishing attack. (See our November story 7 High-Tech Twitter Users Who Fell for Phishing Scams ) This evening Twitter announced that a new program will intercept links sent out by Direct Message and through email , checking to make sure they are safe. Phishing prevention is no small matter. Twitter's is a good move but a lot more is needed all over the web. If we want a transactional developer ecosystem of distributed identity and portable user data, there are both user education and technical changes that need to be made. Sponsor I don't mean to be pedantic about this, but here's my take on the subject. It's only because there is a big developer ecosystem creating interesting new services on top of our Twitter identities that any of us would ever consider logging in to Twitter while on another website. That ecosystem is great, and it's the kind of thing that an interconnected web that leverages portable user data would be filled with. But if user data is a form of currency and even people who are professional technology analysts (paid hundreds of dollars an hour for their technology advice - and many of these people are falling for Twitter phishing scams) - if even these people can't tell the difference between a good transaction and a bad one, then what does that say for the future of distributed developer ecosystems and data portability? Apparently, though, fooling people these days into handing over their Twitter login through an unsafe transaction is like taking candy from a baby. It's really easy. That's a failing of user education and of the design of distributed authentication transactions, isn't it? (Though it's tempting to blame the users who fall for it, it really is!) Remember when debit and credit cards were first introduced and many people didn't trust them? Aren't you glad we figured out how to make that work? Similarly, we need a combination of user education (don't give out your credit card number to random people who call you on the phone) and practical measures - credit card transaction receipts have two copies, your copy is the one with the full number printed on it - take it with you. Little things like that and more made plastic a viable platform for commerce. Distributed online identity needs similar measures taken. You know what also doesn't help? People who try to be helpful by urging users to not even click on phishing links. It's not like these are mysterious poisonous substances that will kill you if you touch them. Go ahead and click on them! Just don't give the resulting spoof pages your username and password. That's the problem! It's early days in all of this and more moves like Twitter's tonight will be needed. For the good of user security but also for the good of all the innovation this web has the potential to deliver. Discuss

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Twitter to Save Us From Ourselves & Phishing; More Is Needed to Make Innovation Safe & Viable

Google Solves the Fafebook Problem

cgseo — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 21:32:47 +0000

Millions of people around the world don't know what a browser is, they don't know the difference between a search bar and an address bar and they sure don't follow the finer points of Google's many little changes it makes to their search results. They go to the Google and they type in Facebook login. Then they click on the links that show up, sometimes with very humorous results . Google today introduced a new feature that will let mainstream users get search results to hold still and remain where they expect them to be. It's called Stars and it's essentially pinning a link permanently to the top of a search results page for a certain query. Sponsor Above: Probably not how this feature will generally be used. When one of our blog posts showed up high in a Google search last month for "Facebook login" we saw hundreds of thousands of confused people stream into our site and post typo-ridden comments like "I WANT MY FAFEBOOK!" Many of them couldn't tell that they were visiting a blog post about Facebook, and with Facebook Connect login, and not Facebook.com itself. Even though we said as much in big bold letters after the first few thousand of them. Thousands more people visited the site to gawk at those users and their comments. A common response was for web designers to say "we must not be serving mainstream users very well if they are confused in a situation like this." Enter features like Google Stars. It's a great idea. No dumbing-down the internet for those lucky relative few of us who do know how to use it, just some additional options for those who are still beginning to learn. Expect to see more developments like this as regular web use becomes a more common experience for non technical people. This may be an example of a best-case solution. Update: Several people in comments have said they don't think Stars are going to work for mainstream users, either. What do you think? Discuss

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Google Solves the Fafebook Problem

Always Be Closing: Ink the Deal and Do It Quickly

cgseo — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 21:00:00 +0000

Just because you've been in talks doesn't mean the deal is done. Entrepreneurs need to remain diligent about timelines in order to ensure that the deals they've set in motion actually come to fruition. If you're negotiating a term sheet, building a partnership or on the verge of an acquisition, get the papers signed. Legendary GRP VC investor Mark Suster has seen his fair share of successful deals, and he writes, "don't pop the champagne until the ink is dry on the contract and the money is in the bank." Sponsor Suster wrote a great post on the need to close deals in a timely manner. While it's important to negotiate well, he's seen firsthand how deals can go up in smoke if given too much time. Suster raised a round right before a market crash and is convinced that if he'd waited even a month, his offers would have been rescinded. He explains that market crashes, deal fatigue, complacency, or losing your deal sponsor could mean the difference between a banner year and a missed opportunity. Some suggestions to expedite the deal process include: 1. Don't Over Shop : Although a healthy interest from a number of players is important for leverage, shopping around too much has its downside. Says Suster, "There is a fatigue factor. If deals drift, people start whisper campaigns. It is a tight-knit industry. Like it or not everybody knows each other. " If you haven't closed a deal in a timely manner others may assume something negative is holding you back. 2. Don't Grind Every Detail : Know the important points that you want to negotiate and stick to them. He writes that you shouldn't get caught up in inconsequential details as they'll potentially add weeks to the legal process and you'll risk creating ill will with your newfound partners. 3. Don't Be Complacent : Suster suggests that you hold all those involved to their deadlines and ensure that lawyers get the documents out when promised. If someone is behind, call them and let them know you are both interested and that you're willing to fly out and meet them or take calls in the middle of the night to acommodate them. 4. Get People In Person : Put yourself, your negotiating partner, both sides of lawyers and the other party in a room to hash out the details. Suster stresses that it's important to create goals for what you want to accomplish and take breaks to gain consent from any higher authorities. Discuss

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Always Be Closing: Ink the Deal and Do It Quickly