| TRENDING STORIES IN TECH & GADGETS | | | | | | | ALL STORIES IN TECH & GADGETS | | |
| TweetStarGame a Modern Database for Modern Sports | | Friday, March 09, 2012 10:21 PM | Sam Laird |
|  The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here. Quick Pitch: A one-stop, constantly updating database of social media's most influential athletes in different sports and leagues. Genius Idea: As social continues to permeate sports, brands, fans and players will want to quickly know who wields the most power online. Sports and social media are becoming more and more intertwined. Twitter has become central for fan conversation. Brands routinely use Facebook for sports-themed promotions. Teams are even beginning to pick up on Pinterest. And players are all over social networks. But there are few one-stop shops to quantify and analyze which athletes are working the social web best. TweetStarGame aims to fill that void. The site ranks players in different sports, leagues and divisions according to Klout score, and creates "starting lineups" based on whose numbers are highest. The site's 25-year-old founder Caleb Mezzy hopes it eventually becomes a go-to source for information on the intersection of sports and social. "Ultimately, we want to become similar to what ESPN is for player stats," he says. For now, TweetStarGame is very much in startup mode. Mezzy runs it with the help of two friends on top of his day job in social media, but the site has gained some attention recently in the world of sports blogging since launching in earnest just before the new year. Before the Super Bowl, Klout itself actually sourced the TweetStarGame's organized data for an infographic on which teams and players were best on Twitter. Mezzy also says TweetStarGame can provide value for companies looking for potential endorsers because "a brand can go in and see which players are most influential in their territory -- for example just the National League Central -- instead of having to search through each individual Klout score." Building the site's profile and influence are the main focus for now, Mezzy says, then revenue streams will become more of a priority. The site recently launched a store featuring t-shirts of players' Twitter handles -- a funny and appropriate take on the popular "shirsey" apparel genre that crosses t-shirts with jerseys. While it still has a ways to go before becoming a viable business, TweetStarGame is an interesting idea extremely appropriate for the modern sports zeitgeist. If players themselves buy in to its rankings and actually compete for high rankings, however, the site could become huge. Do you think TweetStarGame can become a success? Let us know in the comments. Series Supported by Microsoft BizSpark The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark, a startup program that gives you three-year access to the latest Microsoft development tools, as well as connecting you to a nationwide network of investors and incubators. There are no upfront costs, so if your business is privately owned, less than three years old, and generates less than U.S.$1 million in annual revenue, you can sign up today. Image courtesy of iStockphoto, LUGO |
| What Happens If You Lose Your Smartphone? [VIDEO] | | Friday, March 09, 2012 9:42 PM | Kate Freeman |
|  It's a nightmare scenario -- you lose your smartphone. Wallets are no longer the only item in our purses, bags or back pockets that need protecting. Most peoples' smartphones contain personal information -- like account passwords that can easily make financial transactions. Norton AntiVirus maker Symantec employee Kevin Haleyand and Scott Wright of Security Perspectives Inc. set up an experiment called, "The Symantec Smartphone Honey Stick Project" to see how many "lost" smartphones would be returned and if the data would be accessed. They planted 50 smartphones in five cities: New York City, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, San Francisco and Ottawa, Canada. Each phone was set up with simulated personal and corporate data and equipped so that Haley and Wright could monitor what was accessed on the phones. The results, well, let's just say people are curious creatures. Six out of 10 finders tried to access the social media and email accounts on the phones, but perhaps they were trying to find the owner's contact information. However, eight out of 10 finders attempted to access files marked, "HR Salaries" and "HR Cases." And nearly half of the people who found the phones tried to access the phone owner's bank account. The bottom line: Protect your data. Symantec offered data protection tips for corporate executives with company smartphones and consumers with personal smartphones. Tips included: Use the screen lock feature and have a password to access the phone; don't leave your phone unattended and add something to it to make it stand out amongst other phones (a sticker or a case); and get your hands on some smartphone security software. Smartphones are so convenient because they carry such a massive amount of our personal information, which also makes losing one so upsetting. If you've lost your phone, you've not only lost the device (which can be pricy) but you've also lost all the valuable information on it. Haley thought about this dilemma after his wife was mugged and the contents of her purse were stolen. The first question he asked her, he says in a blog post on Symantec was, "Are you alright?," followed by "Did you cancel the credit cards and call a locksmith to change our locks?" and third, "Did they get your phone?" Haley says in the post that he realized this was a major security problem. It would be easy to argue why losing your smartphone would be worse than losing your wallet. At least with a tangible wallet you can cancel cards and reorder them. Sure, you're out whatever money you had in your wallet, but for the most part only a few steps are needed to remedy a missing wallet. Losing a smartphone, on the other hand, means someone has access to your personal emails, text messages and the most worrisome: Many apps will sign into your accounts simply by opening them. Smartphones don't contain our driver's license with our personal address, but anyone who uses it can see all of our friends and if you're a check-in type, (Foursquare, Facebook) they can see where you've been. What do you do to keep the information on your smartphone safe? Tell us in the comments. â?ªPhoto courtesy of iStockphoto, TommLâ?¬ |
| Apple Patent Suggests 'iWallet' Is Headed To the iPhone | | Friday, March 09, 2012 9:10 PM | Emily Price |
|  A new patent awarded to Apple this week hints that the company may be adding mobile payments to the next version of the iPhone. The patent is called "Parental Controls," and it deals specifically with controlling how children (who aren't the ones paying the bills) and are able to use stored payment information. The language Apple uses and photos in the patent papers seems to suggest that product would be more than just preventing children from paying for R rated movies. "Various techniques are provided for establishing financial transaction rules to control one or more subsidiary financial accounts. In one embodiment, a financial account management application stored on a processor-based device may provide an interface for defining financial transaction rules to be applied to a subsidiary account. The financial transaction rules may be based upon transaction amounts, aggregate spending amounts over a period, merchant categories, specific merchants, geographic locations, or the like. The device may update the financial transaction rules associated with a subsidiary account by communicating the rules to an appropriate financial server. Accordingly, transactions made using the subsidiary account by a subsidiary account holder may be evaluated against the defined rules, wherein an appropriate control action is carried out if a financial transaction rule is violated." If implemented, the system would allow parents to control how much their child is able to spend, where those purchases can take place and what types of transactions will be allowed. Images from the patent suggest that a parent will be notified if their child is trying to make a purchase at a Best Buy or if they're trying to purchase alcohol or tobacco -- both things you can't currently do on the iPhone. The patent also hints that Apple may be integrating some sort of mobile payment solution that can be used outside of its own ecosystem in the future. Along with the patent is a photo of an iPhone with Near Field Communications (NFC) capabilities. NFC would allow you to pay for a purchase wirelessly through your phone from some distance, rather than having to fumble around your wallet or purse for your phone, credit card or cash. SEE ALSO: Why Your Smartphone Will Replace Your Wallet Mobile payments are starting to gain steam in the U.S. Apple, though, is a missile piece in the American mobile payment puzzle. While Apple has a history of filing for technology patents it never implements, the patent filing is one of many iWallet-style patents the company has filed. The patents indicate an iPhone mobile payment option may in fact be on the way. If launched, Apple's main competition in the mobile payment space would be Google's new Google Wallet and the recently launched Isis. Would you use your phone to make purchases in a store? Sound off in the comments below. |
| Catch Every Great March Madness Moment With Thuuz App | | Friday, March 09, 2012 8:19 PM | Sam Laird |
|  March Madness: so many games, so little time. The tournament begs an obvious question -- how do you separate the "meh" from the must-watch? The mobile app Thuuz (pronounced "thooze," like enthusiasm) can do that for you. The app uses algorithms to rate games in real time according to excitement on a scale of zero to 100 (see photo), then notifies you once your personal threshold for drama is reached. It's been available for Android and iOS since last fall, but it's adding a set of new social features late next week -- just in time for March Madness. "Our thesis is you don't have to get out of work," says CEO Warren Packard. "Let Thuuz monitor every game and just take a time-out to watch the best ten minutes." Here's how Thuuz works. You provide information on the sports and teams you like and how hardcore a fan you are. The biggest fans will be notified anytime a game reaches 75 on the app's excitement scale, less invested fans when games reach 90, and the most casual when a game nears 100. If your favorite team is blowing someone out, you'll hear about that too, just for kicks. Packard says the most dedicated fans typically receive two notifications per sport per day, fans with middling interest two per week, and the most casual fans two per month. The new social functionality will allow friends to follow and share games with one another on Thuuz. You'll be able to share games you're looking forward to as well as crescendos of excitement. Packard says the personalized friends feature is "a really nice complement" to the purely algorithm-based notifications. Down the line, Packard says the company will add notifications for fantasy sports players and gamblers. But for this year's March Madness, Thuuz is already an excellent addition to the sports fan's app arsenal. Have you tried Thuuz already? Do you think it's a good idea? Let us know in the comments. BONUS: March Madness Must-Follows on Twitter |
| How Windows 8 Tablets Could Seriously Challenge the iPad | | Friday, March 09, 2012 7:30 PM | Pete Pachal |
|  Now that the new iPad has been revealed, everyone's chiming in on whether it's a disappointing incremental upgrade or a fantastic breakthrough. None of that matters to its success, of course. If every single previous iPhone and iPad product launch is any indication, Apple is going to sell truckloads of these things no matter what any expert, hater or fanboy says. However, there's one thing that makes this iPad release different from ealier ones: The new iPad will be the Apple device that goes head-to-head with Windows 8 tablets when they arrive later this year. Microsoft's new OS will spawn an entirely different species of tablet than the Android devices that have so far been Apple's main competition. And if Microsoft plays its cards right, it could be the one that finally gives the iPad a serious challenge in the market. So far, no product has been able to do that. The first "real" Android tablets, like the Motorola Xoom, were largely ignored by consumers. The newer tablets and latest Android upgrades are certainly better, but they're still hampered by an amorphous ecosystem. Those examples of up-scaled phone apps on Android that Tim Cook cued up in his keynote were pretty damning, and he also said there were 200,000 iPad apps in the App Store. Google doesn't give an official count of tablet-specific Android apps in Google Play, but estimates are in the thousands. Tablet Non-Contenders Non-Android tablets look even worse. RIM fumbled the launch of the BlackBerry PlayBook so badly that the tablet -- and possibly RIM's whole credibility in the space -- will never recover. HP killed its consumer tablet offering, the TouchPad, mere weeks after launch upon realizing the iPad was an opponent it couldn't hope to defeat. Certainly, the Amazon Kindle Fire and Barnes & Noble Nook are success stories, but they kind of cheated. Both have only managed to carve out a niche market among tablets by selling their devices at a rock-bottom prices (the Kindle Fire's is so low that Amazon may be selling it at a loss). They can only do this by using the device itself as an outlet to sell specialized content. These products aren't going toe-to-toe with the iPad -- they're fighting over the scraps of the market it's left behind. So far no device has been able to seriously challenge the iPad experience in its entirety. Basically, the tablet market has yet to see its Motorola Droid, the phone that finally showed, along with Android 2.0 software, that the iPhone wasn't the end-all-be-all of smartphones. Android's success skyrocketed after its release. Windows 8 to the Rescue? Could the tablet market's dark horse be a Windows 8 device? It's possible, but it hinges entirely on how consumers respond to the new user interface, Metro. The thrust of Windows 8 -- and why it's such a big gamble my Microsoft -- is that it brings the same UI to tablets and traditional PCs (desktops and laptops). Metro is ideally suited for touchscreens, but it works with a mouse and keyboard, too. (Here's a full breakdown of Windows 8.) There's a reason Microsoft has done this, and it's not really the spirit of bringing tablet features to your laptop. Quite the opposite, in fact. In order to have any hope of succeeding in tablets, Microsoft has to convince its army of Windows developers to make software for those tablets. But no one's going to develop software for an unproven OS where the company has seen little commercial success (no current Windows tablet has significant market share). However, if your entire OS, including traditional PCs, is running the same software, then developers almost have no choice but to design apps for tablets. Windows 8 essentially turns all Windows developers into tablet developers, potentially giving the Windows 8 tablet platform the fuel it needs to expand rapidly and finally give the iPad a real opponent. The Catch: Metro Again, almost. There's one thing that could hold it back: consumers rejecting Metro. You see, Windows 8 lets any user turn off Metro and just use the traditional desktop. If enough of them do, many developers may simply choose not to create Metro apps. After all, if most of your customers are just switching to the old Windows environment anyway, why bother? That would let the air out of the expanding Windows 8 tablet balloon pretty quickly, and that's even before we consider the wild cards of potential device fragmentation, how Windows will work on ARM devices and whether or not consumers will even accept a tablet as their main computing device. Microsoft needs to get Metro 100% right if Windows 8 tablets are going to have any hope. If users like Metro, then the developers will follow, and a real ecosystem will emerge. If not, the iPad will probably be the only tablet worth talking about for a long, long time. BONUS: A Tour of Windows 8 and Metro |
| Here's How Apple Put a Retina Display in the iPad | | Friday, March 09, 2012 4:44 PM | Pete Pachal |
|  The so-called "retina" display for the new iPad is by far its most obvious -- and technologically remarkable -- feature. After all, the upgraded screen crams more than 3 million pixels in an area smaller than a piece of paper. How did Apple do it? A display analysis company has the answer. First, it's important to understand the challenge. Besides the added difficulty in miniaturizing smaller components, when you shrink pixels down to the size they are in the new iPad, the tiny little wires that send signals to the pixels start to get so close together that they can affect each other. The problem is called cross-talk (or, more precisely, capacitive coupling), and Apple's right when it says on the iPad features page that it can affect the quality of your image. To overcome the issue, Apple separated the actual pixels from the signal wires with a thin resin layer, according to this brief analysis from DisplaySearch. By putting an acrylic film just 3 micrometers thick in between the pixels and the wires, it eliminates cross-talk and also has the benefit of increasing the screen's "aperture ratio" -- the amount of screen space that light actually passes through (if you look close enough at an LCD screen, you'll see lines between the pixels which contain components that drive the pixels). The technology is called a Super High Aperture, or SHA, design. You can see how it differs from a regular LCD in the DisplaySearch table below. And this may come as a shock, but Apple didn't invent the tech. DisplaySearch says SHA screens were pioneered by Sharp and JSR years ago, but they weren't widely adopted because of the cost of production and difficulties in manufacturing large quantities of the screens. However, the recent demand for high-resolution mobile displays has led to a surge in production. More than 25% of today's LCDs include the new tech, says DisplaySearch. It also means Apple is exaggerating just a wee bit when it says that to create the iPad's retina display, it had to design the device "in a completely new way." How much of a game-changer do you think Apple's 2,048 x 1,536 retina display is? And is it the main reason you'd buy one? Sound off in the comments. BONUS: The New iPad in Detail |
| U.S. Appoints New Chief Technology Officer | | Friday, March 09, 2012 2:25 PM | Alex Fitzpatrick |
|  President Obama has appointed Todd Park as the new U.S. Chief Technology Officer (CTO) on Friday. Park previously served a three-year tenure as the CTO for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. While there, he helped launch HealthCare.gov, a website that allows American citizens to compare public and private health insurance plans available to them based on their zip code. Alex Howard, a journalist who covers the intersection of government, the Internet and society, calls Park's appointment as CTO "extremely exciting." "This is some of the best personnel news to come out of Washington and the federal government under President Obama," writes Howard. "Park has been working to revolutionize the healthcare industry since 2009. Now he'll have the opportunity to try to improve how the entire federal government works through technology." President Obama created the role of CTO when he first took office. The CTO's job is to ensure the newest technologies and latest advances are employed to "make the Federal government work better for the American people," according to the White House's blog post. He or she is tasked with helping to "modernize" the Federal government, which has been "relying too heavily on twentieth century technology." Watch Todd Park's presentation on "how open data can improve America's health" below, courtesy O'Reilly Media: Park is replacing the president's first CTO, Aneesh Chopra, who held the position for three years until he stepped down in February. During his tenure as CTO, Chopra worked on the president's National Wireless Initiative and the development of a nationwide broadband network for first responders. He also championed the idea of a "consumer's bill of rights" which would protect citizens' online data. Images courtesy of Flickr, jdlasica |
| Magician Turns Isis Mobile Payment System Into Magic | | Friday, March 09, 2012 2:11 PM | Lance Ulanoff |
|  Here at South by South West (SXSW), it takes a lot to stand out from the crowd. Some companies use free bikes and coffee, others crazy in-booth games. Isis, the mobile payment system brought to you by T-Mobile, AT&T and Verizon is using magic to turn heads. Cyber-illusionist Marco Tempest uses sleight of hand, the natural properties of touch-screen devices and their built-in accelerometers to create engaging digital magic (youâ?Tve seen him at LeWeb and here). This morning at SXSW, he deftly explained how the NFC-enabled Isis system can work for your mobile payments. No, he doesnâ?Tt mention that Isis competes with Google Wallet or that not many phones have built-in Near Field Communication chips (he did note after the demo that you can get a special NFC sleeve for your iPhone). Tempest, however, does name a compelling case for the use of sleight of hand to pay for your stuff. And I guess that's the point. Paying with an NFC device can conceivably be as easy as waving your phone at a reader and then going about your day. Mobile payments are pretty much what they sound like: The ability to pay for real goods without taking your credit card out of your wallet. You simply wave an NFC-enabled phone at a reader, enter a PIN on your phone and then complete the transaction. It may take some magic for NFC payments to take off as the competition between Google Wallet, which has Visa's backing, and Isis has grown somewhat contentious. Watch the video, see if you can follow along and then let's talk in the comments about NFC payment systems and exactly how Tempest makes his digital magic. |
| Predict Apple's Next Game-Changing Innovation [CONTEST] | | Friday, March 09, 2012 1:50 PM | Todd Olmstead |
|  IPad launch day has come and gone. The flurry of excitement surrounding the big Apple product announcement has died down, at least until the new iPad releases on March 16. The new device is an upgrade to the previous iPad 2, offering new features like the retina display, 4G LTE capability and an improved camera. When we asked you what feature you were most excited about, though, clearly only one upgrade mattered: retina display. About 69% of you voted in favor of it, out of more than 1,000 votes. Yesterday, we asked you to look even further down the road: ten years, in fact. What would the iPad of 2022 look like? The responses varied. Some of you thought it would be smaller, and others predicted it would be foldable and flexible. A common response was that there would be no frame, just glass. Many thought it would be transparent or would feature holographic technology. But we've decided that the winning prediction comes from MikeYoungMC, who wrote:
We particularly liked his idea of "textural APIs," but also appreciate his humor: "Most of this technology will be used for sharing pictures of cats." Here's a man who understands the Internet. For his answer, MikeYoungMC will win a $500 Apple gift card and a Belkin prize pack. He's our second winner, following Amanda Grondahl, who won Thursday. If you didn't win, take solace in the fact that we have three more gift card/prize pack combos to give away. Today, we're asking you to look ahead once again, but not quite as far this time. From iOS to the iPhone to the iPad, Apple has a recent history of innovating in ways that change not just the face of Apple but the industry itself. We want to hear your predictions for what the company's next game changer will be. Read on to learn how to enter.
Today, we're asking: What do you think Apple's next game changing product will be?
How To Enter The Contest Tell us in the comments: What do you think Apple's next game changing product will be? OR Tweet your response with the hashtag #mashtech. Submit your response by 12:00 p.m. EST on Monday, March 12. If you've not commented before, it's easy: Just sign in to Mashable Follow with your existing Facebook or Twitter account and start posting! Please use your real identity in the submission so that we may contact you via email, Twitter or Facebook to let you know youâ?Tve won. This contest is limited to residents of the United States who are 18 or older. We look forward to hearing your responses! Read our full contest rules here. Image courtesy of iStockphoto, Camrocker |
| T-Mobile Exec: Era of Cheap Cellphones Should End | | Friday, March 09, 2012 10:47 AM | Pete Pachal |
|  U.S. carriers should scrap the device subsidies that they use to make cellphones artificially cheap, a T-Mobile executive said, explaining that those subsidies are hurting the industry. Speaking at GeekWire Summit in Seattle, T-Mobile Chief Marketing Officer Cole Brodman said the cheap prices that consumers see when they buy a cellphone don't reflect what the device is actually worth. â?oIt actually distorts what devices actually cost and it causes OEMs, carriers â?" everybody to compete on different playing fields,â? he said. â?oAnd I think it is really difficult, especially from a consumer perspective, because it causes consumers to devalue completely the hardware they are using." Brodman said the low price of smartphones leads consumers to treat them as "throwaway" devices and pointed out how "unfortunate" it was for a customer to discard a dual-core device with an HD screen after 18 months. He said if he were "king for a day," he'd put an end to device subsidies. SEE ALSO: T-Mobile Announces Plans for LTE Launch in 2013 When one of Brodman's fellow panelists pointed out that, as the fourth-largest wireless carrier in the U.S., T-Mobile was far from powerless on the matter, he cited the difficulties in doing so alone. "â?oItâ?Ts hard when the other three donâ?Tt want to play along," said Brodman. "It becomes difficult because consumers vote with their pocketbooks, and they will almost always pick a low device price oftentimes over a low rate plan price or a bundled rate plan price." Brodman added that T-Mobile had "experimented" with the no-subsidy model more then any other carrier in the country. What do you think about device subsidies? Would you be willing to pay a higher price for your phone for a smaller phone bill and more freedom to switch carriers? Have your say in the comments. Image courtesy of iStockphoto, RapidEye |
| |  |  | | | TOP STORIES TODAY TOP TOPICS | |
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home