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Saturday, July 23, 2011

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez governs homeland using Twitter (Yahoo! News) : Technet

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Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez governs homeland using Twitter (Yahoo! News) : Technet

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez governs homeland using Twitter (Yahoo! News)

Posted: 22 Jul 2011 05:47 PM PDT

Make Your Own Subscription Service: Introducing Memberly (Mashable)

Posted: 22 Jul 2011 06:07 PM PDT

Sarah Kessler Sarah Kessler – Fri Jul 22, 9:07 pm ET

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. Name: memberly

[More from Mashable: Lollapalooza Festival App Adds Group Texting for Easier Planning]

Quick Pitch: Memberly is a platform for subscription programs.

Genius Idea: Promoting subscriptions as a sustainable business model.

[More from Mashable: Turntable.fm Is Now Licensed by ASCAP, Will It Come Out of Beta Soon?]

Jack Cheng and his two cofounders launched Steepster, a social network for tea drinkers, in 2009. It soon occurred to them that a tea club, in which members receive a shipment of new teas each month, would be a perfect complement to the site. But they were working long hours to get their site off of the ground, and never thought about making the investment of time and money that starting such a program would entail .

Three years later, they decided to revisit the project -- and while they were at it, solve the subscription program logistics problem for everyone else, too.

"With blogs, you don't need to understand the backend [in order to make one]," Cheng says. "We wanted to give the same simplicity to running a subscription program."

On Thursday, the team launched Memberly. The platform makes it easy to start and organize such a program -- by offering a subscription page that doesn't require coding, automatic billing of customers, auto-generated labels or a portal for handling customer correspondence.

Right now the only programs using the site are Steepster and a vegan boutique called Little Otsu that is selling a subscription for mini art books. More are scheduled to roll out in the coming weeks.

Cheng says he hopes to appeal to businesses that would traditionally run a subscription service -- such as coffee shops and wine sellers -- as well as encourage people to be creative with new services.

"The subscription model is a really great business," he says, "With something like Etsy, you have to be on call waiting to fill orders of your business will suffer. You might not get any orders for weeks and then get 15 in one day."

With subscriptions, you can plan ahead and order supplies in bulk. And, Cheng hopes, pay a 5% cut of any sales to Memberly in exchange.

Image courtesy of istockphoto,

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.

This story originally published on Mashable here.

Google "Places" drops outside customer reviews (Reuters)

Posted: 23 Jul 2011 01:49 PM PDT

– Sat Jul 23, 4:49 pm ET

CHICAGO (Reuters) – Google Inc has removed excerpts of customer reviews from sites such as Yelp and TripAdvisor from Google Places, its competing online service aimed at helping consumers search for local businesses.

The move, announced in Google's official blog on Thursday, follows the disclosure of a U.S. antitrust investigation last month.

The federal probe concerns whether Google, which dominates U.S. and global markets for search engine advertising, abuses its market power by favoring its own services over those of rivals in online searches and through other practices.

The blog post made no mention of the investigation.

"Based on careful thought about the future direction of Place pages, and feedback we've heard over the past few months, review snippets from other web sources have now been removed from Place pages," Avni Shah, Google's director of product management, said in the blog post.

Google said it added a function for Google users to write their own reviews at the top of its Place web pages.

It said the search pages' rating and review counts would only include reviews written by Google users, although the company would continue to list links to other review sites.

Google's "Places" offerings of local ratings and reviews, originally called Hotpot, were introduced last fall.

(Reporting by Julie Ingwersen)

China inspects electronics stores after fake Apple shops report (Reuters)

Posted: 23 Jul 2011 10:44 AM PDT

– Sat Jul 23, 1:44 pm ET

SHANGHAI (Reuters) – Chinese industrial and commercial authorities in Kunming have started to inspect all of the southwestern city's electronics shops after an American blogger wrote about fake Apple stores, the official Xinhua news agency said on Saturday.

The inspections were carried out after three self-named "Apple Stores" were exposed via the Internet, but are not authorized by Apple Inc., it said.

The inspections will look into business licenses, authorized permits on brand use, and the purchase channel of each store, said a worker with the city's industrial and commercial department.

The result of the inspections will be announced to the public soon, the worker said.

The three alleged fake Apple Stores were discovered by a traveling blogger named "BirdAbroad," who posted photos and challenged the stores' legitimate status and rights to use Apple's logo which sparked a media and online frenzy.

Apple has four genuine Apple Stores in Beijing and Shanghai and none in Kunming in Yunnan province. The company has 13 authorized resellers in Kunming.

(Reporting by Jacqueline Wong; Editing by Myra MacDonald)

Glut of Android Tablets Floods Market, Drives Prices Down (ContributorNetwork)

Posted: 23 Jul 2011 02:28 PM PDT

Jared Spurbeck Jared Spurbeck – Sat Jul 23, 5:28 pm ET
Contribute content like this. Start here.

Remember in January, when it looked like the Samsung Galaxy Tab -- the original 7-inch one -- had sold more than 2 million tablets?

Well, we now know that wasn't the case. And whether the actual sales were "quite small" or "quite smooth," way more Galaxy Tabs ended up in stores than were actually bought. The reason for the confusion, see, was because people mixed up unit shipments -- the tablets that shipped from Samsung to the stores -- with unit sales, or the tablets that actually sold in the stores.

But we'd never do that again. Right?

History repeats itself

I admit, I got a bit mixed up myself in an earlier article. I saw something that said that Android had taken a third of the worldwide tablet market, and I got all excited and ran with it.

John Gruber of Daring Fireball, however, crunched the numbers and figured out that, surprise, it was unit shipments all over again. And the actual Android tablet market share is exactly as bad as you'd think it is, to look at the people around you who have iPads.

(In my defense, Android tablets are more common in my social group. Although I suppose that says something about my social group.)

How bad is Android tablet market share?

Well, according to Gruber, from the stats that Apple's released it's sold almost 30 million iPads of both models. As for Android tablets, individual tablet manufacturers haven't released statistics (except for Samsung's "quite smooth" sales figures), but Robert Synnott suggested a way to estimate: Take Google's statistics for active Android devices, then multiply by the percentage that runs Honeycomb, the tablet version of Android.

Obviously, this method won't work as well later this year, when both Android smartphones and tablets run Ice Cream Sandwich. And it fails to take into account the Android tablets that run earlier versions of Android, like the HTC Flyer and (again) the 7-inch Samsung Galaxy Tab. But even if all 2 million Galaxy Tabs are added in, the numbers are bleak: 0.9 percent of all Android devices run Honeycomb, so that means there are probably fewer than 3 million active Android tablets total.

Fortunately, Google's loss is your gain.

Clearance prices on tablets

Obviously, not very many people want these new Android tablets, or at least not as many as are being made. The Asus Transformer sold out its first shipment, but that's probably more due to its price tag than anything else -- $100 less than a new iPad 2. And it doesn't help that the iPad 2 is still hard to find in some places.

Perhaps because of these sluggish sales rates, the Android blogs that I follow announce a new sale or coupon seemingly every week. The most recent is good for $100 off any Android tablet at Staples, besides the Nook Color. Not too long ago the Motorola Xoom had an apparently-permanent price drop to $500, and the original 7-inch Galaxy Tab has already hit the bargain basement.

If you have your heart set on an iPad 2, sales on Android tablets aren't going to help you get one. But if you've been wanting an Android tablet, it's definitely a buyer's market.

How Newsy creates videos fit to view on multiple Android devices (Appolicious)

Posted: 23 Jul 2011 07:00 AM PDT

Will You Ditch Facebook for Google+? (PC Magazine)

Posted: 23 Jul 2011 01:00 AM PDT

Leslie Horn - PC Magazine Leslie Horn - Pc Magazine – Sat Jul 23, 4:00 am ET

The comparison between Google+ and Facebook is unavoidable. The two companies haven't always been the best of friends, and Google arguably launched its new social network as a direct challenge to Facebook.

It's still early, but G+ seems to have been well-received thus far. Google CEO Larry Page said last week that Google+ has already added 10 million users who share about a billion items on the site each day. Ancestry.com founder Paul Allen estimates that the number of users has climbed to 18 million this week. Then ComScore said yesterday that Google+'s user base had climbed to 20 million.

But Facebook has about seven years and 750 million users on Google+'s one month and 20 million or so Plusers. Not to mention, Facebook has been immortalized in an Oscar-nominated film. Needless to say, Google has some catching up to do. However, Facebook has suffered recently from low consumer satisfaction and pervasive privacy concernts. Regardless, the two social networks are on track to duke it out in the coming months.

Have you joined Google+? Have you been able to snag one of the highly-coveted invites to the baby social network? At this point, the service seems to be dominated by tech folks and early adopters, but as the aforementioned numbers indicate, it's growing. It also got a boost this week when Apple approved the Google+ iOS app and released it into the App Store, where it quickly became the number one free app.

But do you have room in your life for more than one social network? It seems Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg does; he joined Google+ within the first week of its launch.

Will people ditch Facebook, the most popular social network, for Google+, a new player? Or will they use both? Answer this PCMag poll and share your thoughts in the comments section.

Three Ways to Get Movies onto an Android Smartphone (ContributorNetwork)

Posted: 23 Jul 2011 11:46 AM PDT

Jared Spurbeck Jared Spurbeck – Sat Jul 23, 2:46 pm ET
Contribute content like this. Start here.

You probably already know that 20th Century Fox is making Android copies of movies available on its Blu-Ray releases, starting with "X-Men: First Class." But digital copies are nothing new; only Android-compatible versions are. And there are easier, and cheaper, ways to get movies and TV shows onto an Android device.

Here are a few:

Streaming video services

Mobile Flash on Android hasn't quite delivered the desktop experience yet. Movies are jittery even on "superphones," especially in HD.

Streaming video services like Netflix just added a bunch of supported machines to its lineup, and Hulu's working on it also.

With the Netflix app, you can keep watching on your phone as you walk out the door, right where you left off on your PC or other device. It requires a Netflix subscription, but a free 30-day trial is available. Meanwhile, the Hulu app lets you watch certain movies and shows for free, and lets you watch current episodes of many TV series with a Hulu Plus subscription.

Android Market movies

It's true: You can now rent movies from the Android Market. Or if you can't right now, you'll be able to soon; the upgraded Android Market hasn't appeared on my smartphone yet, but Google says that it's rolling it out to everyone, and you should have it in the next few weeks.

You can browse their selection right now, at market.android.com/movies. Rentals start at 99 cents and go up to $3.99 for recent films like "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1." Each film's listing shows how long you can have the film on your smartphone or tablet, and how long you have to finish watching once you start; for the Harry Potter film, that's a 30-day rental period and a 24-hour "active period."

DVR apps

If you have AT&T U-Verse digital television and wireless Internet, you can use the AT&T U-Verse app to watch some of your shows. As AT&T explains on the app's Market listing, "We don't yet have the rights to make shows available on all devices, or to make more shows available for watching. We're working hard to continue to gain rights for mobile access."

Verizon, DirecTV and XFinity (previously known as Comcast) all have DVR apps available on the Market as well, but none of them let you actually watch TV shows on your Android device. They do let you set shows recording at home, however, so you can watch them when you get back.

Jared Spurbeck is an open-source software enthusiast, who uses an Android phone and an Ubuntu laptop PC. He has been writing about technology and electronics since 2008.

Blobster developer explains how to create an IOS game with mainstream appeal (Appolicious)

Posted: 23 Jul 2011 12:00 PM PDT

How DailyCandy provides a sweet mobile experience (Appolicious)

Posted: 23 Jul 2011 05:00 AM PDT

YouTube video apparently shows Norway killer with gun (Reuters)

Posted: 23 Jul 2011 12:59 PM PDT

– Sat Jul 23, 3:59 pm ET

OSLO (Reuters) – A video on the YouTube website promoting a fight against Islam apparently shows pictures of the man suspected of a gun and bomb attack in Norway, wearing a wetsuit and pointing an automatic weapon.

The pictures appear at the end of an approximately 12-minute video called "Knights Templar 2083." The video was posted at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQOfH8Dj1mw.

The pictures in the video also appeared on the now closed Facebook page of Anders Behring Breivik, detained after 85 people were gunned down at a youth camp and another 7 killed in a bomb attack on Friday.

A Norwegian discussion website, http://www.freak.no, also had a link to a 1,500-page book called "2083 - A European Declaration of Independence."

It was not possible to verify who uploaded the video, which was posted on July 22 by an Andrew Berwick.

The 2083 book is also signed by an Andrew Berwick. The author says within the document that Andrew Berwick is an Anglicized version of Anders Breivik.

(Reporting by Patrick Lannin and Johan Ahlander; Editing by Sophie Hares)

Oracle to question Larry Page in Google patent lawsuit (AFP)

Posted: 22 Jul 2011 08:58 PM PDT

by Glenn Chapman Glenn Chapman – Fri Jul 22, 11:58 pm ET

SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) – Oracle will get to question Google co-founder Larry Page under terms set by a US judge presiding over a patent suit pitting the business software titan against the Internet giant.

Oracle can depose Page "for a maximum of two hours, excluding breaks" regarding the value of Android and whether Google intentionally infringed on patents at issue, Judge Donna Ryu said in a written decision on Thursday.

"(Page) reportedly made the decision to acquire Android Inc., and thereby develop and launch the platform that Oracle now contends infringes its patents and copyrights," Oracle lawyers argued in their request to the court.

"Oracle believes that Mr. Page's testimony will likely be relevant with respect to a number of other key issues in this case as well, including the value of the infringement to Google," the letter continued.

Google has asked to depose its chief executive, Larry Ellison, in the case.

Oracle is accusing Google's Android software of infringing on Java computer programming language patents held by Oracle stemming from its recent purchase of Java inventor Sun Microsystems.

Google has denied the patent infringement claims and said it believes mobile phone makers and other users of its open-source Android operating system are entitled to use the Java technology in dispute.

Google opposed the bid to question Page and three other current or former executives in the final weeks of the discovery process, arguing that Oracle was "gnashing its teeth with an eleventh-hour attempt to cram" in more depositions.

Ryu is also allowing Oracle to depose two of its other targets, Bob Lee and Tim Lindholm.

Oracle this week complained to Ryu that Google is not providing answers to questions about the Mountain View, California-based company's non-mobile businesses.

Oracle wants Google to reveal details such as total search volume broken down by keywords and the Web content it indexes.

Google has resisted with the reasoning that those facts are not relevant to the case because Android powers smartphones and tablet computers, according to Oracle.

Google has maintained that Sun, before it was acquired by Oracle, had declared that Java would be open-source, allowing any software developer to use it, and released some of its source code in 2006 and 2007.

Oracle completed its acquisition of Sun, a one-time Silicon Valley star, in January of 2010 and subsequently filed suit against Google.

Google-backed Android software is used in an array of devices that have been gaining ground in the hotly competitive global smartphone and tablet markets.

Google won a round in the pre-trial proceedings when US District Judge William Alsup rejected a bid by Oracle to use an expert witness's testimony who said damages in the case could be as much as $6.1 billion.

Alsup ruled that the Boston University finance professor's report "overreached in multiple ways" by factoring in Google revenues that went beyond the Android mobile platform.

"Each and every overreach compounding ever higher damages into the billions - evidently with the goal of seeing how much it could get away with," Alsup reasoned.

Alsup gave Oracle a chance to enter a revised estimate of damages prior to the trial, which was tentatively slated to start in October.
at 9:31 PM

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