Business News Holding

Tag: twitter

  • Tech and TV: Two Good Friends


    The tech world, at one time truly believed the Web posed a serious threat to the TV industry. But all that has changed now. Instead, it appears that tech, and TV are joining forces. We see these new associations in many ways. The following three associations shed insight as to how these interactions are working.

    Twitter and TV

    We see this new joining of forces through projects like that of  Twitter’s new advertising strategy, which is aimed at TV viewers. Its purpose is in not stealing huge TV ad budgets, but instead in helping TV advertising become more cost-effective.

    Twitter in association with TV advertisers, plans on plugging into the large number of tweets that go on during live TV shows. Then, the idea is to offer this information to advertisers, so they can make their advertising minutes more effective. The objective is for Twitter to define when certain advertisements run and identify consumers who tweeted about the programs and the advertisement, allowing TV advertisers to reach out to these audiences through Twitter.

    The point is to make TV more engaging and interactive. By focusing on this, Twitter aims at continuing the TV conversation and use the advertising to engage with audiences through the social platform. This is now possible because millions of people now use smartphones or tablets as they watch TV, and this combined social media-advertiser engagement may just appeal to this multi screen approach.

    The Shazam and TV Interaction

    Another demonstration of this union is the approach Shazam, a UK app company, has had substantial success in the app music streaming industry. However, the company has started a new approach working with TV commercial companies. The project involves allowing TV viewers to access added content delivered by advertisers to their smartphones. The idea may be a profitable one, but there are still a few glitches in the interaction process; by the time viewers see this symbol on their screen and reach for the phone to activate the app, it can be too late. A new updated version of the Shazam iPad app seems to be the solution. The app can be said to be automatic, listening for TV programs or ads it supports, then inviting a viewer to buy a soundtrack of the program, music or other special offer.

    The Xbox One

    This is another project demonstrating this joining of TV and tech. Through this gaming console, the Xbox One stresses the TV functionality of the device. In the US Microsoft promotes the idea that Xbox owners can switch seamlessly from playing games to watching TV through and alter smart voice and gesture interface. No longer do these gaming devices seem to be threatening the TV industry, but instead, are working hand-in-hand with programming and advertisers.

  • Users Complain of Spotty Google Talk Services

    Google spends an awful lot of time and money advertising some of their services, and Google Talk, featured on Gmail and Google+, receives a large percentage of that attention. Yet any users who attempted to use Google Talk on the east coast of the United States and around the world during one day last week disappointedly met only dead air.

    The service drop occurred just before 7AM EST, and continued for the next six hours. During that time, none of Google Talk’s VoIP services or video conferencing capabilities were available. Google hopped on their sites to report that they were aware of the problem, and that it was impacting a majority of their users. They promised swift action, which then took much of the day to materialize.

    Issues like these are one of the only things keeping VoIP companies from expanding their dominance even further. People need reliable telephone service, and many Google customers are businesses. Losing voice, chat and video services for more than half a day could be devastating if the timing is poor.

    VoIP-List.com: extensive catalog of voip providers, available software and hardware resources.

    The timing of the Google Voice crash was also quite strange in that it occurred on the same day that Twitter crashed for several hours. Of course they couldn’t be related, but that’s millions upon millions of dissatisfied users.

    Before Twitter went down, reports were surfacing there that the Google Talk delays were seen not only in the United States and the UK, but actually all around the world. Google did not give a reason for the issue, only promising to resolve it expediently. Hours later, they were able to solve the problem.

  • Top 10 Activities of the New Smartphone Users

    A recent study by Ericsson ConsumerLab points out 10 of the most common activities of a new smartphone user.

    In the order of popularity, the new smartphone users inaugurate the device by installing check-in applications like Foursquare, in order to let friends know their location. The next activity is installing navigation applications that provide maps and traffic information, applications that enable them to watch TV on the Internet, watch movies, or play online.

    On the sixth place are ranked the applications that allow users to watch videos live on the Internet, followed by applications that enable them to access social networking games, to use Twitter and read or write on blogs.

    In addition, 69% of respondents recognized that use applications to access the Internet on a daily basis, and 20% of them use every day large data traffic services, such as video and TV applications, maps and navigation.

    The study was conducted on markets in India, Brazil and Russia, where the use of applications is different from the model seen on developed markets. For example, two out of five users are visiting rarely or never the official platforms that markets applications and download, instead, applications from third party websites or forums. Almost half of users have firstly downloaded applications on computer and then transferred them to the smartphone.

    "These figures reveal strong interest in apps that enable consumers to deal with daily challenges and interact with people, places and things in their urban surroundings. We believe that, "Smartphones and apps will be key in transforming everyday life for people in high growth markets going forward into the Networked Society", said Jasmeet Singh Sethi, Senior Specialist at Ericsson ConsumerLab.

  • Samsung Launches Omnia W with Windows Phone Mango

    Samsung, the world’s number two mobile phones manufacturer, has announced the launch of the Samsung Omnia W, the first company's smartphone based on the latest version of the Microsoft Windows Phone, also known as Mango.

    Omnia W has 3.7-inch Super AMOLED screen, a 1.4 GHz processor, 5-megapixel camera and 512 MB RAM and 8GB internal memory.

    According to Microsoft, Windows Phone was developed in order to provide intuitive phones, "smart and socially connected." The six Microsoft applications provide interesting content and innovative communication experience. Windows Phone People Hub integrates the most important social networks: Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Windows Live, so that the users to always stay connected to the communities they belong.

    Office Hub offers greater productivity in movement and includes access to Windows Live Sky Drive, which offers 25GB storage capacity and easy access to documents and media files. Users can create and edit documents through the mobile versions of Microsoft Office Excel, Word and PowerPoint, but can also use the One Note, a platform designed for taking notes, allowing convenient storing of the voice memos, pictures and notes in text format.

    The flawless access to entertainment can be made thanks to the integration of Picture Hub, Music & Video Hub – provided by Microsoft Zune – and Game Hub, which provides the latest social gaming experiences through Xbox Live. This interface allows players to chat even during the game.

    Users can stay up to date with the latest news and events via the Now 2.0, which offers live information regarding business, stock markets or weather. RSS Time allows downloading and reading RSS feeds for newspapers, magazines and blogs in an easy and digestible format; the articles of interest can be instantly shared by e-mail or posted on Facebook.

    The device offers enhanced integration of social networks, by adding the Twitter and LinkedIn networks to Omnia’s interface. Thus, pictures and videos can be shared instantly across a variety of social networks with no complications.

    Omnia W will be commercially available in late October in Italy and gradually worldwide, including the rest of Europe, CIS, Latin America, Africa, Southern and Southwestern Asia.

    You may also want to read:
    iPhone Did Not Conquer Yet the Hearts of the Rich
    Apple Launches Two New Smartphones in 2011: iPhone 5 and iPhone 4S
    Telematics Update Releases “In-Vehicle Smartphone Integration” Report

  • iOS 5 Launched at WWDC 2011, 200 New Features

    WWDC, the annual Apple conference, passed without the much awaited launch of the iPhone 5, but the company has not left their fans empty-handed, presenting, among other, the new version of the iOS 5. iOS 5 will bring over 200 new features on iPhone, iPad and iPod touch this fall, the most important being the Notification Center and the iMessage, Newsstand or PC Free systems.

    The Notification Center brings together all the notifications in one location that can be easily managed while iMessage is a redesigned messaging service that allows you to send messages, pictures or videos from all the devices running on iOS 5.

    Apple has listened to criticisms and has also launched the PC Free function, which gives iOS devices users the possibility of activating the product without a PC connection.

    With the new iOS 5 and iCloud, after you’ve entered your Apple ID, iCloud will integrate “into the cloud” all the applications, emails, contacts, photos and music, all without the need to be connected to a computer.

    iOS 5 provides Twitter integration for most applications, so you can access the tweet functions from Photos, Safari, Camera, Maps and YouTube, with a single touch.

    For the fans of magazines and newspapers, the new iOS 5 comes with Newsstand, a new way of organizing the subscriptions, more elegant and more intuitive.

    Safari has also undergone some improvements, including the Reader mode that makes easier reading the text.

    Other improvements that come along with the new iOS 5 are related to the Game Center, mail or keyboard.

    IOS 5 beta is already available for developers, and the final version will be available for free in this fall for iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, iPad and iPad 2, but also for the fourth and third generation of iPod touch.

    You may also want to read:
    Apple Presented the iCloud Service
    Nokia E6 and X7 Ready for Delivery in Europe
    ASUS PadFone – a hybrid between smartphone and tablet
    Google Wallet, Launch Followed by Trial

  • Poken: Say Goodbye to Business Cards

    Stephane Doutriaux

    Poken is a startup based in Switzerland with offices in Silicon Valley, CA. Poken has established itself as the social business card for staying connected. The Poken network makes it easier to connect and stay in touch with the people that you meet.

    The first product is a fashion accessory that you can carry on your keychain and easily share your social media information by touching pokens and connecting with them on the poken platform.

    Data is wirelessly and instantly sent from one device to the other based on the proximity and now both users will have the contact information that matters most in a digital world.

    The Poken network online allows you to download your data stream to view your contacts, allowing you to see who you just met. The data includes all of their social profiles allowing you to to connect with them on a much deeper level. Simply explained, you can see their latest Tweets, their latest Facebook updates, their Flickr profile, etc, all based on what profiles they filled out and added to their Poken.

    "Many people easily forget name, I’m one of them, but we remember people more easily when we can see faces or key in on information that remind us of where we met them," says CEO and Founder, Stephane Doutriaux in an interview with Smartphone.Biz-News.com.

    The network has now become an action verb. The hope for this startup is that more and more people Poken each other.

    The Concept of Poken

    The idea first came to Stephane while in business school, completing his MBA program. Originally from Canada, transplanted to Switzerland, Stephane enjoyed the camaraderie of his classmates but all good things come to an end. On graduation day everyone was exchanging emails, phone numbers, but residence information was hard to share because few had permanent locales.

    It’s too easy to assume that everyone has a Facebook or LinkedIn account, and in this case, it was just not so. In various countries around the world, certain popular networks are not as popular and substituted with local niche networks. In this case it made it hard to keep track of everyone.

    Stephane notes that "In the world today, internationalization is changing how we communicate and stay in touch with one another."

    Aside from exchanging emails and phone numbers, another option was to surf the school alumni network which is manually exhausting and very hit and miss.

    In an example Stephane gave, with 90+ people in his graduating class alone, he was not always sure if he found the right "John Smith" in the database, and if he didn’t, he started his search all over again. It just didn’t seem functional, and created more confusion and frustration when you sent invites, hoped they responded, hoping the invite didn’t go into junk mail.

    "Finding people can be filled with too many barriers," states Stephane.

    This was where the inception of Poken came from, a quick touch and go system that could gather you everyone’s information, giving you multiple points of contact.

    The name itself came from a lot of brainstorming. In Facebook you can poke someone which gives them access to your profile for a few days, and it says that you’re wanting to get to know them. A token is a piece of information in the digital world, so Poken was the natural combination of both those words. An important factor to the entire process was it had to be something that did not exist already, but was catchy enough to attract attention.

    Thus Poken as it stands today was born.

    The World Pokens

    Staying connected is increasingly important, especially with a younger generation that is constantly switching jobs or residences. To be clear, Poken is more than just the little devices you see on our site, Poken in a broader sense is the act of connecting with people in the real world. Poken looks to create ways that people can build a network, they are also looking at mobile devices and other real world products that makes sense to use when you connect with people in the real world.

    Poken strives to be as universal as possible. They added many popular networks, and depending on what countries took off, they’d look at them and see what networks were heavily used there and create a network connection for them. Now an open API exists where the networks themselves are able to create their own social connections for the product to recognize.

    "The debut of Poken has been a wild ride. I had a startup back in 2000 that didn’t get as far as Poken has today so I’m happy to see that it’s been received well," Stephane shares.

    Poken started out with fundraising efforts, and building a strong team, but what gained them traction and notoriety was an online site that encouraged users to spread Poken around them, share with their friends, and accumulate points and popularity, and for some even money. That really started working well in many different countries, and in some that could not support the bandwidth required for a system like Poken. So it was very surprising.

    The Poken interface is very simple and logical, where users can upload information from their keychain accessory, no drivers, no installation required. Click the link on the drive and the website pops up. You’ll see the people that use Poken and when you met them.

    The timeline matches your real world experiences with the people you meet. Finding people is simplified since it’s easier to remember a general timeline as opposed to finding them on Facebook contacts when you can’t remember their name. The timeline has proven to be effective for users so the user interface has remained for now.

    Currently Poken is sold in more then 40 countries. For 2010 they are working on updates to the tools used to create a Poken network with a more targeted strategy. They are still a relatively small startup, so no TV or billboard, no Superbowl ad, but keep doing what they do best.

    A focus on building tools for advertisers and event organizers is key in their plans. The hope is to encourage people to use Poken where they are at establishing an ecosystem of contacts.
     

  • Behance iPhone App is "Twitter for Actionable Tasks"

    INTERVIEW: Scott Belsky, founder and CEO of Behance, tells smartphone.biz-news about his company’s Action Method iPhone application – a free and innovative app aimed at increasing users’ productivity.

    Any productivity tool that has the word "action" in it sounds like it surely must have something going for it.

    So when the Behance team launched its free iPhone app six months ago, the fact it was based on the idea of capturing and managing "action steps" – tasks that need completing – made it sound like a pretty good prospect.

    As Scott Belsky, founder and CEO of Behance, explained to smartphone.biz-news, the idea is to help creative professionals organize their work by taking action.

    To do so they have created an ecosystem around the company’s Action Method project management software, the Behance Network, and Behance paper products.

    "What we decided to do was try and help people through offline and online media to organise their lives with a bias towards action," he said.

    Scott Belsky, CEO of Behance

    "This is what makes it special compared to other management tools out there.  Action is the central part of the entire experience."

    Belsky said the premise for the Action Method is very simple.  It comes down to three elements:

    • Action steps
    • Back-burner items
    • Reference items (other "stuff" in life that accumulates)

    Belsky said that people focus too much on deadlines instead of what matters most – action and delegating.

    When Behance started out selling paper products in the US several years ago the rationale was – and still is – to produce a well designed system for productivity.

    The Action Method Online application then followed as an everyday tool for people to manage action steps and their lives.

    Then, came the mobile version – currently just for the iPhone app but the New York-based company are testing a beta for Blackberry.

    "It’s exciting. Many people are downloading the app and using it," said Belsky.

    During the design process the Behance team spoke with people that used Microsoft Product Manager, Basecamp and other project management tools.

    They found that a lot of people used them – but didn’t really use them. And tasks such as updating the system are looked upon as a chore to be avoided.

    Collaborative Tool

    They also aren’t collaborative, so tasks that need someone else’s input have to be communicated – usually by email.

    However, since Action Method is designed as a collaborative management tool, users can delegate tasks to other users – but in a more effective way.

    Messages are sent, not by email, but by what Belsky describes as "Twitter for actionable things", which are displayed as action sets on the iPhone screen.

    "The idea is not to just have a to-do list but to engage people through multiple different lenses," he said.

    Various new features are being planned for the iPhone app which Belsky said will push it to a new level, as well as some important additional features for the on-line app.

    Valuable Tool

    For many people work and life do not separate, so the app is intended to make users look more often at their actionable tasks.

    Since the tool has to be accessible at all times, it can be used both on-line and off-line, and then synched when connected again.

    So even if you are stuck in the subway without internet access, it doesn’t mean everything draws to a halt.

    "Mobile extends that functionality," he said. "We do not have an excuse any more."

    "It’s about the little action steps that pop into your mind that you need to do. You can capture these thoughts."

  • Fring Targets Mainstream Users With New Funding


    VoIP start-up fring has announced that it intends to accelerate its growth plans after completing a third round of funding.

    Avi Shechter, fring co-founder and CEO, said a key objective is to make the free VoIP and IM service easier to use for mainstream "fringsters".

    While no details on the level of funding were available, all previous fring investors participated in this round including US based North Bridge Venture Partners, Pitango Venture Capital, Veritas Venture Partners and VenFin Limited.

    Shechter said fring is already turning the mobile into the "ultimate social device" by mashing up people’s favourite forms and modes of communication.

    "We plan to add to the fring experience and make it an ever more central part of fringsters’ social lives," he said.

    fring users can currently share experiences with friends on facebook, Twitter, Last.fm, among others, while communicating via Skype, MSN Messenger, GoogleTalk TM, Yahoo!TM, AIM and ICQ.

    Shechter said the new capital would be used to make fring even more accessible to the rest of the mobile world.

  • Dial2Do Making Hands-free Mobile Tasks Simple


    Irish start-up Dial2Do are creating quite a stir at this year’s Mobile World Congress.

    The Dublin-based company lets you do various tasks on your mobile simply by calling a number and speaking.

    So you can send email or text messages, record reminders, post updates to Twitter or Jaiku stream or even listen to internet content – all while driving your car.

    Ivan MacDonald, Dial2Do’s CEO, told smartphone.biz-news that the service was designed to be easy and handsfree.

    He said typical users were commuters who wanted to make the most of the their drive time to get get tasks done.

    Currently available in 20 countries around the world it so far only comes in an English language version, but MacDonald said a Spanish service was coming shortly.

  • Truphone Anywhere Launches on Android G1


    Truphone has announced its Truphone Anywhere application is now available for Android-enabled mobile handsets.

    The offering coincides with T-Mobile’s announcement earlier this week that the G1 mobile phone is be rolled out into various continental European markets.

    A German version of Truphone Anywhere for Android is being made available and will be the first native language multi-communications application in the Android Market in Germany and Austria when it launches at CeBIT in March.

    The application is available now as a download on the Android Market in the UK and the US.

    The company says Truphone Anywhere for Android delivers an all-in-one conversations hub that offers customers low international call rates, in addition to the cost of a local call.

    Truphone customers can also Instant Message their friends across a variety of networks including MSN, Yahoo!, Google Talk and Twitter from within one Android application.

    Users can acces Google Talk for the price of a local call, and similarly will soon will be able to Instant Message and call their friends on Skype.

    The launch means that Truphone is now available on Android, the Apple iPhone, the Apple iPod touch, Blackberry and Nokia devices.