Sunday, May 15, 2011
Gary Vaynerchuk: “99.5 Percent Of Social Media Experts Are Clowns” (TCTV)
In essence, businesses need to better understand how to use social media and how to apply an authentic human touch while doing so. Vaynerchuk thinks current efforts are abysmal. “”99.5 percent of the people that walk around and say they are a social media expert or guru are clowns,” he says, continuing with “we are going to live through a devastating social media bubble.”
Saturday, May 14, 2011
Friday, May 13, 2011
The Mobile Privacy Hearings: Senators Prod, Apple And Google Defend
When researchers Alasdair Allan and Pete Warden announced at the Where 2.0 Conference in Santa Clara a few weeks ago that iPhones and 3G iPads are storing records of where their users are and where they’ve been, the news created quite a stir. Google also stores a similar list on Android devices, so naturally questions have swirled in the last few weeks around how both Apple and Google are collecting and using this location data and to what extent it encroaches on user privacy.
Yesterday, representatives from both companies were called before a senatorial subcommittee to answer questions from the likes of Senators Al Franken (Minn.) and Patrick Leahy (Vt.) on whether or not our mobile devices are becoming Big Brother 2.0.
During the testimony, the senators were careful to say that the government is well aware of the many benefits of the technology created by both companies and is in no way eager to stifle innovation or create knee-jerk legislation. That being said, in the words of Senator Leahy, while the “digital age can do some wonderful, wonderful things for all of us … American consumers and businesses face threats to privacy like no time before.”
Naturally, even without the information that has recently come to light, there has been a growing concern among lawmakers and consumers alike that both Google and Apple are not doing enough to become guardians of the user’s personal data rather than wholesalers. Leahy told the representatives that he was “deeply concerned” about the reports that iPhones and Android devices were “collecting, storing, and tracking user location data without the user’s consent”.
“I am also concerned about reports that this sensitive location information may be maintained in an unencrypted format, making the information vulnerable to cyber thieves and other criminals”, the Senator said.
As to the basic allegations that lay before the two giants of the mobile space, Apple has previously stated that, though it is partly at fault for not educating its users to fully understand the technical issues with providing fast and accurate location information, the company does not (nor has it ever) tracked the location of a user’s iPhone.
At the time, Apple explained that, while it did find a few bugs in the architecture, it was adamant that it is using the location data stored on its devices to maintain and improve upon a crowdsourced database of WiFi hotspots and cell towers — not to keep a log of a user’s prior location. The geo-tagged data from iPhones, for example, is used to help build data about WiFi networks and cell tower locations, which let location-based services work even when GPS/satellite positioning isn’t available or functioning seamlessly.
Be that as it may, Senator Franken noted that consumers remain confused, so he posed the question directly to Apple’s VP of Software Technology Bud Tribble: “does this data indicate anything about the user’s location, or doesn’t it?”
Tribble’s response was to reiterate the main message to the average consumer: that the data is a record of the location of cell towers and WiFi hotspots, it does not contain any customer information. It is anonymous. However, that comes with a nuance. When a portion of that database is downloaded onto your phone, your phone knows which hotspots and towers it can transmit through, so the combination of the location of those towers and your phone knowing which towers it can transmit through, allows the phone to give you a basic location without GPS.
So, he is essentially saying, yes of course Apple tracks your location. That’s what GPS and WiFi and cell tower positioning are designed to do, and yes it does store location-based information on its devices in order to do that, but no it isn’t keeping a full history of your locations, and while it does know where you are, it doesn’t necessarily know who you are.
Though Apple doesn’t seem to be doing anything intentionally nefarious with this information, the point remains that the laws of this country have not yet come anywhere near to adequately addressing the capabilities of modern technologies. In an earlier panel, Jason Weinstein, deputy assistant attorney general of the Criminal Division of the U.S. Justice Dept, told the subcommittee that once companies have access to consumer info (if you give Apple or Google permission to use your location or something similar), they can legally share that data with third-party businesses.
Only when companies have previously promised not to share something, like your location, can they be held accountable in court. As Justin Brookman, the Director for the Center of Democracy & Technology’s Project on Consumer Privacy, said, “the default law in this country for the sharing of data is that you can do anything you want”, with the exception being any prior promise the company has made not to share specific data.
Franken also asked the representatives from the two companies about the fact that they run the biggest app stores in the world, yet require no privacy policy for their apps, and so asked them if they would consider adding a privacy policy.
Alan Davidson, Google’s director of public policy, said that Google has relied on a permission-based model which requires users to give permission before any sharing takes place, but that the next step is important for Google to consider and is “a very good suggestion”. He said that he would “take that issue back to leadership”. And for Apple, Tribble said that Apple contractually requires third-party developers to disclose if they’re going to do anything with user information, but does not integrate an over-arching privacy policy. He then continued on to say that a general privacy policy would not be enough, that true transparency goes beyond what’s in the privacy policy and needs to be integrated into the user interface of an app, designing feedback to the user about what’s happening to the information into the actual app.
Franken then asked Tribble about why Apple only asks users if they want to share location with an app, while Google asks the user if they want to share location, address book information, contacts, and so on. Tribble responded by saying that a long checkmark box of opt-in sharing options would only confuse the user and be unwieldy both to present and read on a mobile device.
There’s no doubt that Tribble makes two valid points here, but Ashkan Soltani, an independent researcher who has worked with the Wall Street Journal on mobile-privacy investigations, shortly thereafter quickly cut to the heart of the matter. He told the senators that the biggest privacy threat to mobile users today is the simple fact that “consumers are repeatedly surprised by the information that apps and app platforms are accessing”. Users are entrusting their phones and computers with a great deal of personal information, he said, and these platforms are not taking adequate steps to make clear to the consumer that third-parties have access to this information.
Not only that, but the other issue is that platform providers, too, are often caught off-guard as to the types (or amount) of information they’re gathering. Soltani cited the examples of Google Street View collecting WiFi information during Street View surveys and this recent example of Apple’s location storage cache.
So, it seems that not only are lawmakers and legislation slow to catch up to the uses and capabilities of modern technology, so too are the providers themselves. Going forward, Soltani suggested, we will need to begin to formulate solid definitions to questions as fundamental as “What does ‘opt-in’ mean?” and further define oft-used concepts like location. Is a user’s location defined within 4 feet or 100 miles? What is “anonymous” going to mean in a location-crazy world, and how are we going to define “third-party” and what those “third-parties” rightly have access to?
The legislative process is just beginning here, and may well be glacial in its progress. Though there is certainly some questionable thinking to be found coming from these two companies in how they’re thinking about privacy, it’s great to see evidence of their willingness to work with the government to find the best solution for enterprise — and more importantly, the consumer — going forward.
Kudos to the senators and the subcommittee for asking the right questions.
YouWeb Incubated Pluto Plays Music Combines Gaming With Helping Kids Learn Music
Social and mobile incubator YouWeb, who has helped create OpenFeint, CrowdStar, iSwifter and Sibblingz, is announcing its latest venture—mobile ‘edutainment’ startup Pluto Plays Music.
Pluto Plays Music is an educational game and iPad app that combines scrolling gameplay dynamics with musical notes to get the kiddies interested in learning music. The game follows the main character, Pluto, a penguin on a quest to master a variety of songs on different instruments. Children can learn basic songs like Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star as well as more classical pieces like The Magic Flute by Mozart, Ode to Joy by Beethoven, Swan Lake by Tchaikovsky.
While Pluto Plays Music is free to download and play, users can purchase virtual goods via the game’s in-game currency, pearls. Using pearls, players can unlock new levels and instruments including the piano, xylophone, and guitar. Players can also earn pearls to use toward purchases by completing simple tasks like opening the app daily and performing songs. The game also ranks players by their level of apprenticeship, depending on how effectively they complete and learn the songs in the game.
The game itself is using sister company OpenFeint’s plug and play social gaming platform to allows players to compare their scores and ranking with other players around the world.
YouWeb founder Peter Relan tells us that he picked this particular company to incubate because of the tremendous potential of edutainment games for children on tablet devices.
Last month, YouWeb celebrated the first exit with the acquisition of OpenFeint by Japanese gaming company, GREE, for $104 million.
Mike McCue: FlipBoard Is Seeing More Than 10 Million Flips Per Day (Video)
When it comes to publishing apps on the iPad, there are two models: 1) social readers that bring all your realtime news feeds together like Flipboard; or 2) single-title apps from major publishers like the New Yorker, The Daily or the New York Times. Those two models are also dividing along the lines of subscriptions versus ad-supported/free.
In the video above, Flipboard CEO Mike McCue makes the case that in tablet publishing, “the bulk of the revenue will come from advertising.” To make his point, he shares some recent numbers from Flipboard, which is seeing more than 10 million “flips per day”, up from 3 million two months ago. A “flip” in the app is like a pageview (in the video, he says 10 million flips per day, but later he checked the number and it is actually 11.4 million). Of the 2 million people who have downloaded the Flipboard app to their iPads, I’ve heard from other sources that about half are active, which would mean that on average each user flips through 10 pages a day.
McCue thinks there will be a place for subscriptions as well, especially for premium media brands, and would love to be able to place subscription buttons on premium content within Flipboard. My idea is that if you already subscribe to a publishing app on iTunes, the articles should be able to appear in Flipboard, News.me or any of the other general reader apps. But if they are not already a subscriber, some sort of all-you-can-eat subscription model would have to be worked out, with Flipboard doling out the money based on how many times articles from a particular publisher is read. It can get complicated because “people like to see their content atomized,” says McCue.
That’s why he thinks advertising will produce more revenues than subscriptions. It is easier to split advertising revenues with publishers based on readership. His investors agree. They just put in another $50 million into Flipboard, betting that he is correct. Although McCue and I have debated whether he needs that much, I also think that advertising is the way to go with tablet publishing. McCue also hints that Flipboard’s iPhone app will come out this summer. Watch the video to find out more.
Thursday, May 12, 2011
Google I/O 2011: Ignite
Brady Forrest, Kyle Machulis, Matt Cutts, Pamela Fox, Jamie Wilkinson, Patrick Davison, Monica Rogati, Annalee Newitz, Joseph Pred
Ignite is back to top off your brain after a packed day. This year we will learn about the Brain API, the similar...
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Discovery Channel: Megaquake, hour that shook Japan documentary Part 1 of 3
Discovery Channel's new one-hour special MEGAQUAKE: HOUR THAT SHOOK JAPAN will tell, through the eyes of those who lived it, the story of the moment the 9.0 magnitude earthquake struck northeast Japan on March 11, 2011 and the tsunami that followed, resulting in more than 12,000 deaths. Poignant testimonies and remarkable footage captured that day will reveal what happened in those crucial moments following the quake as a tsunami barreled toward land at 500 miles per hour. The special will also examine scientifically what happened that day and attempt to piece together when Mother Nature may strike again. MEGAQUAKE: HOUR THAT SHOOK JAPAN, featuring exclusive interviews and never before seen footage, premieres on Discovery Channel on Sunday, April 24 at 10PM e/p and will subsequently roll out on Discovery networks around the world.
Discovery Channel and its production partner, Darlow Smithson Productions, includes in its movie an exclusive sound recording captured at the Wake Island hydro-acoustic station 2,000 miles away in the Pacific Ocean. The station belongs to the global monitoring network of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO). The recording, made by ultra sensitive hydrophones at a depth of 1,300 meters, was subsequently sped up by 32 times so it could be audible to human ears - enabling people to hear the actual sound of a 600km long section of the fault line in the earth's crust rupturing and grinding against rock with the power of 600 million Hiroshima bombs.
Viewers will also hear the very personal stories of those who experienced events of March 11th. Firefighter Takayama Yukio was inside the nuclear plant when the earthquake struck. He will recall the sense of fear and desperation among those inside. The special also includes footage of Yukio and his fellow firefighters inside the reactor.
In the aftermath of the earthquake and tsunami, Japan's Sendai Airport was a nightmare - cars were strewn about the runway, debris littered the terminal and there was no power. Hear about the chain of events in an exclusive interview with the air traffic controller, Kibuna Yoshihiko, who was on duty that day.
The special also features interviews with Americans who were in Japan on March 11th, including Paula Lutze who was teaching school in Sendai. Exclusive footage shows Lutsy in school that day. She was instrumental in rescuing children caught up in the chaos of the tsunami.
Additionally, the new Discovery special will examine the Pacific Ring of Fire - a name given to the region devastated by natural disasters in recent years - to assess whether the earth's tectonic plates are in a phase of increased activity, which could result in further seismic events. Through exclusive interviews with top seismologists and oceanographers, the documentary will piece together where Mother Nature might strike next.
MEGAQUAKE: HOUR THAT SHOOK JAPAN is produced for Discovery Channel by Darlow Smithson Productions, where Tom Brisley and Guy Davies are executive producers and Simon Young is producer. For Discovery Channel, Stephen Reverand is executive producer.
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
核電變色龍郝龍斌
日本首相菅直人敢停掉濱岡核電, 除了自己的勇氣之外, 一些地方首長的支持也是功不可沒. 靜岡縣知事川勝平太、大阪府知事橋下徹、名古屋市長河村隆之、愛知縣知事大村秀章等等, 都在背後力挺菅直人. 所以, 核電問題雖是中央政府的層次, 地方首長的態度也很重要.
那麼台北市長郝龍斌的態度究竟是什麼呢? 當年陳水扁停建核四時, 郝龍斌曾連署提案倒閣. 光憑這一點, 你會以為他是擁核人士. 但我翻閱一下舊紀錄, 赫然發現他曾在立法院就"立即停建核電廠"一案投下贊成票. 民進黨執政時代, 他當環保署長, 主導通過「環境基本法」，其中第23條明定：「政府應訂定計畫，逐步達成非核家園目標」. 所以蔡英文現在講的非核家園, 郝龍斌也有貢獻.
看來郝龍斌似乎是個反核人士. 但他的立場總是隨著官位而改變. 看我質詢他時的支吾其詞, 就知道他其實是沒有態度的......
Pioneer Prototypes Android-based Cyclocomputer (Video)
If you thought Android can be used just to power phones, tablets, TVs or similar devices, think again: Pioneer is now using the Google OS (version unknown) in the development of a “next-generation” cyclometer. It helps users track four main parameters: speed, cadence, heart rate, and power.
The prototype, which sports a 2.2-inch color LCD (non-touch) screen and a trackball, also features a pedaling motor that measure the force on the crank.
Current features include ANT+ support, GPS, a microSD slot, a microUSB port, a thermometer, and 12 hours of battery life. The device weighs 100g.
This video (shot by our friends over at Diginfonews in Tokyo) provides more insight:
Flipboard's Mike McCue at SXSW
Flipboard's Mike McCue at SXSW
Kara Swisher interviews Mike McCue, CEO and Co-founder of Flipboard, the social and news reading app, at the South by Southwest festival in Texas.
蕭青陽 - Story Island
3 times Grammy's Award nominated designer talked about the creative process of his latest album in TEDx Guangzhou event.
李欣芸《故事島》風潮音樂11/15正式發行。
影片為精裝版內頁製作過程，費時費工！是蕭青陽與《故事島》相遇後，碰撞出充滿台灣味的設計作品！值得您我一起來品味&收藏！
(請注意：影片備註過程皆為12倍速快轉)
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