Sponsoer by :

Thursday, November 10, 2011

Consumer's guide to downloadable gifts (AP) : Technet

Sponsored

Consumer's guide to downloadable gifts (AP) : Technet

Consumer's guide to downloadable gifts (AP)

Posted: 10 Nov 2011 03:09 PM PST

By JESSICA MINTZ, For The Associated Press Jessica Mintz, For The Associated Press – Thu Nov 10, 6:09 pm ET

Remember when gifts were objects, purchased or crafted and wrapped with a bow, then presented with a flourish?

Over the last few years, gift cards have become a popular alternative, and now as we become increasingly connected to our smartphones, laptops and e-readers, gifts are going digital, too. Here's what you need to know to navigate a holiday shopping season without gift wrap or envelopes or even little plastic cards.

• E-books

You can still buy bestsellers for loved ones who have swapped their paperbacks for an e-reader such as Amazon.com's Kindle, Barnes & Noble's Nook and Sony's Reader. Of the three, Amazon is the only one that lets you choose a specific Kindle e-book to give as a gift. Barnes & Noble and Sony direct you to purchase a physical gift card or send an electronic one via email, either to yourself to print and present, or directly to the recipient.

To buy a book for a Kindle owner, head to the Kindle e-book store on Amazon's website. Click on any book title, and you'll see an option to "give as a gift." Amazon will send an email to the recipient once you finish checking out. When the recipient gets the notification by email, she can click on a link to accept the gift and send the title to her Kindle device. This works the same way for people who use Amazon's Kindle software to read books on smartphones and computers, too. If the recipient loses the notification email, you can go into your own Amazon order history and resend it, for no extra charge. And if it's a book the recipient has already read, she can exchange it for Amazon.com credit.

One downside if you like to get all your holiday shopping done early: Anything you order is instantly delivered.

Here are some relevant links:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html/?nodeId200555070

http://ebooks.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/60/kw/gift/r_id/166

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/u/NOOK-Gifts-NOOK-Gift-Cards/379003182

• iPads and iPhones

For the uninitiated: Apple's iPad tablet computer and iPhone smartphones can be loaded up with music, movies, games, books and useful (or frivolous) programs called "apps" through Apple's iTunes store. You can buy a plastic iTunes gift card where gift cards are sold, but you can also send almost all of those types of media as gifts.

You've got to download the iTunes software and create an account if you haven't already. Then, in the iTunes store section, browse for the album, TV series or game of your choice. Next to the button prompting you to "buy this album," there should be a little arrow. Click it and pick the option to give as a gift instead.

There is one major exception: Apple doesn't yet allow you to give e-books as gifts via iTunes. And as with giving Kindle e-books, gifts from iTunes are delivered when you pay for them, making advance holiday shopping a challenge.

Details at http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2736

• Groupon, LivingSocial and other group-discount sites

Some of the most-talked-about startups are group-buying sites, and Groupon, which just went public, is king of the heap. These companies send emails to their members every day advertising a special deal at a local shop, restaurant, spa or other business, usually something along the lines of, "$10 for $20 worth of donuts." Once you buy a deal, it's stored in your account. When you're ready to use it, you can either print out the voucher and turn it in, or you can pull it up using a smartphone app once you're in the store.

The number of Groupon-esque sites is growing by the day; if you're interested but don't know where to start, you can sign up with a deal aggregator like Yipit, which collects all the deals in your area in a single email.

If you see a deal that will make a perfect gift, Groupon and LivingSocial make it pretty easy. Both show "give as a gift" options right on the main deal page.

When you click to purchase a Groupon, an email goes to the recipient. If you would rather make it a surprise, you can send it to yourself, then print and hand it over later. Groupons are almost all transferable, even though the name of the buyer will remain on the voucher. Just be sure to look over the fine print to confirm. If one of your recipients is all about Groupons, but you don't see a deal you know she'll like, the company also sells gift cards.

With LivingSocial, once you buy a deal, you can also go into your account later and opt to give something as a gift. This site lets you set a date for delivery, making it easier to surprise your recipient. There are some quirks in the LivingSocial gifting process. For one thing, if you say you're going to print out the voucher, but then change your mind, you won't be able to email it as a gift later. Good thing there's a pretty detailed "help" section on the site: http://help.livingsocial.com/help_topics/gifts

Now, using coupons and discounts to buy gifts isn't new. But when you give the gift of Groupon, the recipient will know you paid less.

• Facebook-based gift cards and mobile apps

Lord & Taylor is among the retailers experimenting with what they're calling "social gifting," which in their case means making it easy to tap friends on Facebook to pitch in for a gift certificate. If you're not already a Facebook devotee, it probably doesn't make sense to join up just for this. But if you already have connected with friends on the social networking site, keep reading.

From Lord & Taylor's Facebook page, you can click a link that says gift cards to install a virtual gift card app. Pick the recipient and the amount you want to spend, and set a date for delivery in the future. Once you pay for the gift card, you can then invite others to contribute additional money to the gift card. You could tweet or email the link, or the app will help by suggesting friends you have in common, so you can send a quick Facebook message. You could post the plea to your own Facebook wall, too, though the recipient might see that.

On the delivery date, the recipient will get an email or a Facebook message showing how much each person contributed; they can send the gift to their phone or print out a barcode to redeem the gift certificate.

A growing number of other stores, including Starbucks and Target, allow customers to pay via mobile phone apps, and gift cards can be converted for use in those accounts.

• Startups

Several Internet startups are taking different approaches to digital gift-giving. One, KangoGift, lets you send a gift certificate for everything from a basic cup of coffee to a six-week music class by text message to a recipient's cell phone, or right to their Facebook page. Then they can just bring their phone along and show it to the merchant to redeem their gift. Most of the offers are clustered in four cities — Boston; New York; Madison, Wis.; and Chapel Hill, N.C. — but there are some national merchants on board, such as Fandango for movie tickets, that sell things that can be redeemed online.

Another, Giftly, lets you bundle up to three different shops, restaurants or services into a single gift package — tickets at three artsy movie theaters, or pints at three different microbreweries, maybe. You decide the amount and the merchants, then send either by email, Facebook or snail-mail. This makes it easy to customize a gift, even if the merchants themselves don't offer gift cards or gift certificates.

But the recipient needs to be fairly tech-savvy. To redeem the gift, the recipient actually pays for it herself, then goes online at the shop with her smartphone to get the same amount reimbursed to a credit or debit card she registers with Giftly. (To get around the little matter of not everyone owning a smartphone, the startup is also working on a prepaid debit card that only works at the locations specified on the Giftly.)

More information at http://www.giftly.com or http://www.kangogift.com.

With many of these options, one of the biggest challenges is timing. In some cases, the only way to give a gift on the first night of Hanukkah or Christmas morning is to dash to the computer at the right moment to hit send.

But even for the most tech-savvy on your gift list, you might be better served making the presentation more traditional, says Tracy Tuten, an associate marketing professor at East Carolina University who has made gift-giving research her specialty. That's because all the emotions that make gifts an important part of relationships happen when you hand over the neatly wrapped package and not when the person is actually getting the pedicure you bought for her with a Groupon.

And while teenagers may be the earliest adopters, buying them a gift that can be sent straight to their smartphones comes with the same pitfalls as any other type of gift, Tuten says. It must walk the line between proving you have made an effort to understand who they are and what they like, and giving them enough choice that they don't feel boxed in.

Sorry, technology hasn't fixed that problem yet.

IDC expects Thai floods to hurt PCs in new year (AP)

Posted: 10 Nov 2011 03:16 PM PST

– Thu Nov 10, 6:16 pm ET

NEW YORK – Heavy flooding in Thailand won't hurt PC sales significantly this holiday season, research group IDC says.

The disaster's real effect isn't expected to hit makers of personal computers until early next year. In a worst-case scenario, PC shipments could drop more than 20 percent from previous forecasts in the first quarter of 2012.

Many of the personal computers that will be sold during the holiday season have already been produced or can be made with existing supplies of hard drives, limiting disruptions from the flooding, IDC said Thursday. IDC expects PC shipments in the October-December quarter to be less than 10 percent below earlier forecasts because of constraints in the supply of hard drives.

Computer manufacturers, the companies that supply hard drives and the makers of components for those drives have been bracing for troubles. Many factories that produce hard drives in Thailand have temporarily closed as flooding has gradually spread since August. Prices for hard drives have spiked, and computer makers such as Dell Inc. and Apple Inc. have been monitoring supplies.

John Rydning, IDC's research vice president for hard drives and semiconductors, said larger manufacturers will likely get first access to the hard drive supplies that are available. But another IDC analyst, Loren Loverde, said that even the largest vendors will face shortages.

IDC said Thailand accounted for up to 45 percent of worldwide hard drive production in the first half of the year. It said nearly half of that capacity was affected by the flooding as of early November.

On Wednesday, Cisco Systems Inc. said it was watching for the effect on disk drives for its set-top boxes and on its optical-networking products. It said it has contingency plans in place to minimize any impact and has factored that into forecasts, but it expects things won't return to normal for several quarters.

Senate rejects GOP bid to overturn Internet rules (AP)

Posted: 10 Nov 2011 09:43 AM PST

By JIM ABRAMS, Associated Press Jim Abrams, Associated Press – Thu Nov 10, 12:43 pm ET

WASHINGTON – Senate Democrats on Thursday turned back a Republican attempt to repeal federal rules designed to prevent Internet service providers from discriminating against those who send content and other services over their networks.

Republicans argued that "net neutrality" rules announced by the Federal Communications Commission last December were another example of federal regulatory overreach that would stifle Internet investment and innovation.

But Democrats, and the White House in a veto threat, said repealing the FCC rules would imperil openness and freedom on the Internet. "It would be ill-advised to threaten the very foundations of innovation in the Internet economy and the democratic spirit that has made the Internet a force for social progress around the world," the White House said.

The vote to against taking up the bill, along party lines, was 52-46.

The rules, approved 3-2 with the three FCC Democrats in favor and the two Republicans opposed, tried to find a middle ground between phone and cable companies desiring more control over their networks and the content providers wanting unfettered access to the Internet.

The rules bar service providers from favoring or discriminating against Internet content and services, including online calling services such as Skype and Web video services such as Netflix, that could compete with their core operations. They require broadband providers to let subscribers access all legal online content and prohibit wireless carriers from blocking access to any websites or competing services.

The House, where Republicans command a majority, voted last April to repeal the rules, saying the FCC lacked the authority to set Internet policy and that there was no need for the federal government to intervene in an already open Internet. They said the rules would stifle investment in broadband systems.

The rules, said Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, are "a stunning reversal from a hands-off approach to the Internet that federal policymakers have taken for more than a decade."

She brought up the resolution under the Congressional Review Act, which allows lawmakers to challenge regulations issued by federal agencies. The rules are scheduled to go into effect on Nov. 20.

The FCC, said Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., "would rule as a de facto police of the open and free Internet."

But Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., said the resolution was misguided. "It will add uncertainty to the economy. It will hinder small businesses dependent on fair broadband access. It will undermine innovation. It will hamper investment in digital commerce."

Without a free Internet he said, "there would be nothing to prevent Internet service providers from charging users a premium in order to guarantee operation in the `fast lane.'"

The rules give providers flexibility to manage data to deal with network congestion as long as they publicly disclose those practices. They do not specifically ban higher charges for faster transmission of data, but do outlaw "unreasonable network discrimination."

Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., said those trying to overturn the rules say they want to "liberate the Internet when, in fact, what they want to do is imprison the Internet within the hands of the most powerful communications entities today to act as the gatekeepers."

Rockefeller and Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., another backer of the FCC rules, cited a letter to the FCC chairman written before the rules were finalized saying that "a process that results in commonsense baseline rules is critical to ensuring that the Internet remains a key engine of economic growth, innovation and global competitiveness." Among the signees were the CEOs of Google, Inc., Amazon.com, Netflix, Inc., Facebook, YouTube and eBay, Inc.

Just Show Me: How to download and backup your data from Facebook (Yahoo! News)

Posted: 10 Nov 2011 05:56 PM PST

New device shines light into your ears to treat the winter blues (Yahoo! News)

Posted: 10 Nov 2011 05:46 PM PST

Flash Sales Powerhouse Vente-Privee Launches in the U.S. (Mashable)

Posted: 09 Nov 2011 03:39 PM PST

Lauren Indvik Lauren Indvik – Wed Nov 9, 6:39 pm ET

Vente-Privee, the 10-year-old French company credited with developing the luxury flash sales model adapted by Gilt Groupe and others in the U.S., arrived stateside Wednesday. The launch comes less than 24 hours after Gilt.com announced that it would begin shipping worldwide. Like Gilt.com, Vente-Privee offers deep discounts on designer merchandise, namely apparel and accessories for women. Sales begin at 10 a.m. each day and last 72 hours. For now, the site will run sales on only one to two brands per day, gradually scaling that number heading into the holidays.

[More from Mashable: Gilt.com Goes Global]

Gilt, by contrast, runs sales on as many as 10 or 12 different brands in it's women's category each day. Sales begin at noon and last 36 to 48 hours on average.

Vente-Privee's U.S. division is a joint venture between American Express and the French company. According to WWD, both companies have each invested approximately $35 million in cash and another $5 million in "human capital and technology transfers." The U.S. division expects to generate $500 million in annual sales within the next three to four years, having brought in $1.28 billion in revenue in Europe last year.

[More from Mashable: 3 Ways Digital Innovation Can Make Luxury Brands Exclusive Again]

Gilt, which has scaled rapidly -- expanding into a number of different verticals and hiring upwards of 700 employees since its launch in 2007 -- has yet to turn a profit.

Still, the U.S. market should prove something of a challenge for Vente-Privee. Although Vente-Privee has 14 million registered users in Europe -- more than three times the number of signsups Gilt has amassed in the U.S. -- the name has little recognition stateside. The same goes for many of the smaller European brands that will go on sale on the U.S. site.

American Express will help with the former problem, at least: The company will be reaching out and incentivizing its 30 million cardmembers to become customers of the site. Cardmembers will be offered a $20 statement credit on their first purchase between now and the end of the year. Membership Reward Points can also be exchanged for Vente-Privee gift cards.

This story originally published on Mashable here.

Report: Facebook nears privacy settlement with FTC (AP)

Posted: 10 Nov 2011 03:58 PM PST

– Thu Nov 10, 6:58 pm ET

SAN FRANCISCO – Facebook is nearing a settlement with federal regulators that would require the world's most popular online hangout to obtain approval from its users before making changes that expose their profiles and activities to a wider audience, according to a report published Thursday.

Citing people familiar with the situation that it did not name, The Wall Street Journal said Facebook has agreed to make the changes to resolve a nearly 2-year-old investigation by the Federal Trade Commission.

Both Facebook and the FTC declined to comment to The Associated Press.

If the settlement is approved by FTC's commissioners, it would require Facebook to get explicit consent from its 800 million users before changing its privacy settings, according to the Journal.

Seeking a user's prior consent is known as an "opt in." Facebook sometimes makes changes that it believes will improve its social network and then leaves it to users to reset the things that they don't like — a process known as "opting out." Companies introducing a feature or service generally prefer an "opt out" system because fewer people take the steps required to get out of the changes.

The FTC opened its probe into Facebook after the website made changes that automatically showed users' names, pictures, hometowns and other personal information available for anyone on the Web to see. That upset people who had deliberately programmed their privacy settings to confine that information to a specific group of friends or family.

As part of its proposed settlement, Facebook would also submit to government reviews of its privacy practices for 20 years, according to the Journal.

The audits are similar to the scrutiny that Internet search leader Google Inc. agreed to undergo earlier this year. That agreement settled an FTC investigation into Google's handling of people's personal information in February 2010 when it launched a service called Buzz to counter Facebook. Buzz exposed the email contacts of unwitting users, a breach that the FTC considered to be a deceptive practice.

Google is now in the process of closing Buzz to focus on another social network called Plus that debuted in June.

In an interview with Charlie Rose shown earlier this week, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said he believes the website's changes over the past year have given users greater control over their privacy.

"I think we're going to need to keep on making it easier and easier, but that's our mission, right?" Zuckerberg told Rose. "I mean, we have to do that because now, if people feel like they don't have control over how they're sharing things, then we're failing them."

Google Offers tops Android Apps of the Week (Appolicious)

Posted: 10 Nov 2011 02:30 PM PST

UltraViolet downloads arrive just in time for the final Harry Potter release (Digital Trends)

Posted: 10 Nov 2011 09:26 PM PST

Mike Flacy Mike Flacy – 30 mins ago

harry-potter-2

After the movie studios botched the initial launch of UltraViolet before the Blu-ray release of Horrible Bosses last month, the collective group of UltraViolet backers has finally enabled the ability to stream and download standard definition movies. With Universal Pictures, Lionsgate Entertainment, Paramount Pictures, Twentieth Century Fox, Sony Pictures Entertainment and Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. all pushing the technology, the studios hope consumers will want to download copies of movies onto portable devices like smartphones or tablets. UltraViolet acts as a digital locker that enables users to download or stream a purchased film from the cloud. 

UltraViolet-logoThis move is designed to curb efforts to rip high definition movies to other formats and ultimately slow piracy. It's also considered an added feature for anyone that purchases a physical copy of a new film. Released films that support Ultraviolet include Horrible Bosses, Green Lantern and Crazy Stupid Love. After the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2, future releases with Ultraviolet functionality include The Smurfs, Friends with Benefits, Cowboys & Aliens, The Hangover Part II, One Tree Hill: Season Eight, the Underworld Trilogy and Final Destination 5. To access the digital download of the film, consumers locate a redemption code within the packaging and redeem the code with the Flixster film service. Warner Brothers also owns the Flixster application as they purchased the company earlier this year.

In order to start some buzz around Ultraviolet, Warner Brothers is handing over advertising dollars to Twitter to turn the #UltraViolet hashtag into a promoted trending topic. Unfortunately, Twitter users are getting it confused with the critically panned, 2006 release of UltraViolet starring Milla Jovovich. Some Twitter users were hoping for a sequel to the film while others laughed at the mention of the movie. In addition, opponents of the UltraViolet that view the technology as restrictive DRM are leaving one-star reviews of the final Harry Potter movie on Amazon in an attempt to dissuade consumers from purchasing the Blu-ray copy of the film.

This article was originally posted on Digital Trends

More from Digital Trends

Zediva permanently shut down, forced to pay MPAA nearly two million

Warner Bros. encouraging consumers into Flixster Collections to choose entertainment

Top 10 summer movies we hope don't suck

Hollywood studios pledge support for UltraViolet

Nokia's phone of the future? Touchscreen covers whole device (Digital Trends)

Posted: 10 Nov 2011 08:39 PM PST

Trevor Mogg Trevor Mogg – 1 hr 17 mins ago

To celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Nokia Research Center, the Finland-based mobile phone maker has unveiled a new concept phone, the Nokia Gem.

The unique thing about the Gem is that the entire surface of the handset is a touchscreen that changes its appearance depending upon on the function chosen by the user.

Choose the map function, for example, and one side of the device will show a detailed, close-up map of your location while the other side will show a broader view.

And as you can see from the images, no space is left unused – even the sides of the device are covered in virtual buttons.

On the Nokia Conversations blog, the man who led the team that created the Gem, Jarkko Saunamäki, said, "Now, when you launch an application like the camera, your mobile phone still looks like a mobile phone, but with Gem, when you launch the camera application, the whole phone looks like a camera."

He continued: "You can have one image wrapped around the whole device or one on each side, as demonstrated in the stylish video animation [see below] when the woman user photographs some wallpaper and adopts it as the design for her phone casing."

Jarkko calls the Gem "the ultimate customizable device."

It's even suggested that advertising messages could be displayed on the back of the phone, enabling its user to receive a discount on bills.

When you consider all the dead space on the surface of a mobile phone, it makes perfect sense to somehow utilize it. However, with the whole device transformed into a touchscreen, it's not entirely clear how you'd avoid accidentally activating functions you don't want to activate. But overall it looks like a rather cool bit of kit that one day, in one form or another, could become part of the handsets of the future.

This article was originally posted on Digital Trends

More from Digital Trends

China Telecom to make stateside debut in 2012

First look: The Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime

Livestand takes on Flipboard: Our hands-on analysis

RIM officially launches BBM music service

This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Facebook ‘pleased’ that Google now searching its comments (Daily Caller)

Posted: 10 Nov 2011 08:08 PM PST

Microsoft launches a Beacon-infused revision of Xbox.com (Digital Trends)

Posted: 10 Nov 2011 07:28 PM PST

Mike Flacy Mike Flacy – 2 hrs 28 mins ago

xboxcom-social

Announced on the official Xbox.com blog, the Xbox 360 team at Microsoft has replaced the "My Xbox" section of the site with a section of the site simply called "Social". Users will immediately be directed to the new Social page when logging into the Xbox site with a gamertag. While the look of the site has changed slightly, the most notable addition within this new social push is access to the Beacon feature that's included in the upcoming Xbox 360 dashboard update. Beacon is a hybrid of a message and a notification that lets other players know that a user wants to play a game immediately or sometime in the future. For instance, a Xbox Live member could leave a Beacon for another player asking to play multiplayer in Gears of War 3 later that evening. 

beacon-messageBy including this capability on Xbox.com, players don't have to be at a console to schedule a game. Xbox 360 owners can schedule matches while sitting at work. It's also possible that Microsoft will open up the API for Beacon to third party developers allowing for mobile apps that tie into the messaging system. To setup a Beacon, a user goes to the game page within the Activity feed and clicks on "Set Beacon". Each Beacon has a limit of a 40 character message and Xbox 360 owners can create three Beacons at any given time. With the Beacon set, players will be alerted when friends are playing the same game and the activity feed can be searched for Beacons among the friend's list.

Other updates to Xbox.com include the ability to purchase movies and television shows from the browser as well as the ability to search through the Zune video catalog. In addition, the social page has adopted the "Metro" styling of the upcoming dashboard update and users will be greeted by a similar tile structure of various featured content. 

This article was originally posted on Digital Trends

More from Digital Trends

Microsoft’s complete game lineup from E3 2011

Xbox LIVE dashboard upgrade leaks

Microsoft pays tribute to Star Wars with limited edition Xbox 360

Microsoft E3 landing page leaks Kinect upgrades, Halo 4 news

DynaStunts leads iPhone Games of the Week (Appolicious)

Posted: 10 Nov 2011 02:00 PM PST

T-Mobile Adds Galaxy Tab 7 Plus To Tablet Portfolio (NewsFactor)

Posted: 10 Nov 2011 07:05 PM PST

Mark Long, newsfactor.com Mark Long, newsfactor.com – 2 hrs 52 mins ago

T-Mobile said Thursday that the wireless carrier will begin selling Samsung's new Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus tablet in its stores nationwide beginning next week. Through the addition of Samsung's updated 7-inch model, T-Mobile will be able to offer customers an entire portfolio of tablets with 7-inch, 9-inch, and 10-inch multi-touch displays.

"Consumers want a selection of affordable, highly mobile tablets that can deliver the content they want virtually anywhere they go," said T-Mobile Vice President Jeremy Korst.

The Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus will have an initial post-rebate price of $250 when it debuts nationwide on Nov. 16. However, buyers with approved credit will also have to pay $10 per month on an interest-free basis for an additional 20 months to complete their purchase.

Amazon as well as Barnes & Noble are also rolling out color tablets of their own this month that will cost consumers substantially less. On the other hand, neither the Kindle Fire ($200) nor the new Nook Tablet ($250) offers a cellular connectivity option.

Connectivity Options

T-Mobile is betting that many of its subscribers will be attracted to the Samsung tablet, which offers high-speed packet access plus connectivity. As much as three times faster than a conventional HSPA connection, HSPA+ will give T-Mobile's tablet users the requisite speed bump for downloading multimedia files as well as meet the needs of business professionals who need to maintain a fast anywhere/anytime connection while on the go.

Tipping the scales at just 0.77 pounds, Samsung's svelte 7-inch model also offers a number of other connectivity options in addition to HSPA+, including Bluetooth 3.0 and Wi-Fi (802.11 a/b/g/n). Also on tap is Wi-Fi Direct, which enables Wi-Fi devices to communicate with each other without the need for a wireless access point or hot spot.

What's more, the Samsung tablet offers voice and video call support without requiring the use of a headset. Also aboard is Samsung's full-touch user interface for mobile devices. TouchWiz enables new panning and tilt features by drawing upon the motion detection data produced by the device's built in accelerometer and gyroscope.

Overage-Free Plans

Samsung's Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus runs Google's tablet-friendly Android 3.2 platform, otherwise known as Honeycomb. Weighing 0.77 pounds, the new device has a 1.2 GHz dual-core processor, a USB 2.0 port and the user's choice of 16 GB or 32 GB of storage memory, together with a front-facing 2-megapixel camera and back-facing 3 megapixel camera that doubles as a 720p high-definition camcorder.

Pre-installed software offerings include Samsung Media Hub, which enables tablet users to rent or purchase movies and TV program episodes for viewing on the tablet's high-resolution screen at 600x1024 pixel screen. Also on tap is a WildTangent gaming platform that will enable users to play free games as well as rent or purchase premium gaming titles.

T-Mobile offers three data plans for the Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus and other media tables that are priced at $40 (2 GB), $50 (5 GB) and $80 (10 GB) per month and require a two-year service commitment. All three plans are overage-free, which means that data speeds are reduced once tablet users exceed their monthly data caps.

However, Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus will see their normal data speeds resume at the beginning of the next billing cycle. Additionally, all three overage plans include unlimited Web access via Wi-Fi at T-Mobile hotspots around the nation.

One third of employees use Facebook while at work (Digital Trends)

Posted: 10 Nov 2011 07:58 PM PST

Mike Flacy Mike Flacy – 1 hr 59 mins ago

facebook-at-work

According to a recent survey conducted by British job site Reed.co.uk, approximately 33 percent of employees admit to using social networking within the office. Facebook was the most popular choice preferred by 45 percent of the people that did admit to logging into a social network. Facebook was followed by LinkedIn, a social network that's becoming commonly used to research potential candidates for job openings. Other choices included video sharing site YouTube, Twitter and various blogs. Marketing and IT professionals are the most likely to be browsing social networks at work while engineers and accountants were far less likely to log into Facebook during the workday. 

Sneaking Facebook at workWhile two thirds of the respondents believe that companies have a right to ban social networks within the workplace, less than 30 percent of the companies in the survey completely block access to all social networks while another 40 percent limit access to social networks. Thirty-two percent didn't block any social networking sites or bother to set up a policy to forbid employees from logging into the networks. Of the people that did log into a social network on a daily basis, 35 percent claim that it was specifically for business. Ten percent claim it was for personal reasons and 55 percent went with both options.

While 62 percent of the employees only log into the social networks one to two times a day, the remainder log in more than three times a day. Five percent admit to visiting into a social network over ten times a day. Many employees do attempt to keep social network visits on personal devices though. Sixty-four percent check networks like Facebook and Twitter on mobile devices such as a smartphone, but 36 percent do use a work computer to log into social networks. As more employers look into how much time employees are spending on Facebook, it's likely that companies will become more restrictive with network access rights.  

This article was originally posted on Digital Trends

More from Digital Trends

LinkedIn CEO says Google+ can’t coexist with other social networks

StumbleUpon accounts for half of all U.S. social media traffic on the Web

LinkedIn now No. 2 social network in the US

Twitter who? iOS 5 connects with multiple social platforms, including Facebook

Survey: iPad set to be pushed aside by Kindle Fire this holiday season (Digital Trends)

Posted: 10 Nov 2011 05:47 PM PST

Trevor Mogg Trevor Mogg – Thu Nov 10, 8:47 pm ET

amazon-kindle-fireIt looks like Apple's iPad finally has some serious competition on its hands. According to the results of a recent survey by consumer electronics shopping and review site Retrevo, shoppers in the US interested in buying an iPad this holiday season are outnumbered by more than three times by those interested in Amazon's Kindle Fire – and it's not even on the shelves yet.

Of those considering purchasing a tablet, 44 percent said they would take a look at Amazon's Kindle Fire while only 12 percent said they would definitely get an iPad.

At $199, Amazon's 7-inch 8GB tablet, which goes on sale next week, costs $300 less than Apple's cheapest iPad, the 16GB Wi-Fi only model.

Encouraged by the number of pre-orders it has received since the Kindle Fire was unveiled in September, the e-commerce giant has reportedly ramped up production to meet demand. The Fire will start shipping next week.

Retrovo's study, which involved more than 1,000 consumers, showed that tablets could be the hot item this holiday season, with 69 percent of respondents saying they're looking to buy one, or want to at least find out more about them.

Retrovo said that “the iPad 2 is starting to show its age and the new Kindle Fire is about to make the scene with a very attractive $199 price point.â€

It also commented on Amazon's timing regarding the release of the Fire. "With the iPad 2 nearly a year old and the iPad 3 rumored to not be available until next year (missing the holiday season), Amazon may have timed the launch of their tablet just right."

The unveiling of Barnes & Noble's Nook Tablet on Monday, however, undermines the survey's results somewhat. The research was carried out before the Nook Tablet was announced, and with a spec sheet similar to that of the Fire, it'll no doubt be of interest to consumers too. Barnes & Noble's new tablet, which hits the shelves later next week, also sports a 7-inch screen and runs a version of the Android operating system, although it has double the internal memory and costs $50 more than the Fire.

Of course, with Apple having sold somewhere in the region of 35 million iPads since its launch in 2010, Amazon has some catching up to do, but if the results of Retrovo's survey prove accurate, this holiday season may see a noticeable shift in the tablet market for the first time.

This article was originally posted on Digital Trends

More from Digital Trends

Amazon’s tablet will be named the Kindle Fire

WSJ: Amazon tablet due in October

Why did Apple choose Twitter over Facebook for iOS 5?

Police use Apple iOS tracking data for investigations

US regulators charge Chinese company Longtop (AP)

Posted: 10 Nov 2011 05:05 PM PST

– Thu Nov 10, 8:05 pm ET

WASHINGTON – U.S. securities regulators have charged a Chinese software company with violating disclosure rules by failing to file accurate financial reports. Longtop Financial Technologies Ltd., whose shares no longer trade on the New York Stock Exchange, could face having its securities suspended or permanently revoked.

The Securities and Exchange Commission announced the charges Thursday against Longtop, one of several Chinese companies with possible accounting problems whose shares trade in the U.S. Longtop shares were stripped from trading on the NYSE in August but continue to trade in the over-the-counter market. An administrative law judge at the SEC will decide the case.

The SEC said Longtop failed to file a report for its fiscal year ended March 31. Its auditor has cast doubt on annual reports filed for 2008-10, the agency said.
at 10:11 PM

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)

My Blog List