Google+Facebook+iPhone: 09/21/11

Wednesday, 21 September 2011

Samsung Could Lose by Open-Sourcing Bada

Since adopting Google’s Android platform, Samsung has witnessed massive growth in its smartphone sales, currently rivaling Apple for the top spot globally. The company’s march to become the smartphone king began in earnest last year with a solid strategy: Design one great device and tweak it slightly for individual carriers as needed. The Samsung Galaxy S was that one great device last year, and its successor, the Galaxy S II, is already Samsung’s fastest-selling smartphone ever.

But Android is only part one of Samsung’s master plan. Part two is Bada, the company’s own proprietary mobile platform. While Android has boosted sales and market share, it has also allowed Samsung to invest time and money in Bada as a platform and an ecosystem complete with its own application store. The upstart operating system is already doing well, reportedly outselling Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 platform in the first quarter of this year, with estimated sales of 3.5 million handsets. So why then would Samsung want to make the mistake of open-sourcing the Bada platform?

What will be the 'third smartphone ecosystem' to thrive amongst Android and iOS?

In what seemed like two separate, overnight explosions, both iOS and Android took the market by surprise, making the past three to four years especially hard for newcomers and even the veterans in the mobile realm. Mass adoption and rapid growth of these two smartphone platforms has proven to be problematic for the likes of smaller, up-and-coming firmwares such as webOS and Windows Phone. And even the platforms that used to run the show – most notably, BlackBerry OS – have found themselves scouring the bottom for remaining scraps of market share.

Despite the large chunk of the market that Android and iOS share, neither are perfect and there is space for improvement, possibly accompaniment. Coming from TechCrunch, Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam certainly thinks so, stating, "The carriers are beginning to coalesce around the need for a third ecosystem," and over "the next 12 months I think it will coalesce and you will start to see one emerge as a legitimate third ecosystem."

Of the current crop, which platform could possibly be the third ecosystem? Well, there are several possibilities, and the outcome depends on the actions of a handful of companies and their willingness to stay afloat. Quite frankly, I have to agree with MG Siegler of TechCrunch. Research In Motion and Microsoft are going to be duking it out over the next few months, fighting tooth and nail for every piece of market share they can snag. But I'm not necessarily saying Windows Phone will outgun QNX. It isn't as black and white as comparing apples to oranges; there are a million other factors to consider.

iPhone 5 on Oct. 4? Smartphone War to Heat up with AT&T Samsung Galaxy S2 Coming on Oct. 2

The smartphone world will witness momentous developments within days: Samsung Galaxy S2, which was delayed on AT&T, will make its debut on October 2 while the much anticipated iPhone 5 is expected to be showcased on October 4 in a special event.

The AT&T customers have started showing their frustration after the much anticipated Galaxy S2 failed to appear on September 18 while Sprint consumers had their new handset, the Epic 4G Touch.

On the other hand, iPhone 5 may be unveiled by Tim Cook as early as Oct. 4, reports All Things D. The report says: “While Apple could certainly change its plans anytime, sources said that the Oct. 4 date has been selected by the company to showcase the iPhone 5. Sources added that the plan is now to make the new device available for purchase within a few weeks after the announcement.”Given the emergence ofSamsung Galaxy S2 on different carriers it will be interesting to see what Apple has to offer when iPhone 5 is released.

Facebook adds new social Internet radio service

Facebook members will have the chance to listen and chat about music in real-time with their friends via virtual listening rooms through a new social Internet radio service.

Facebook will be offering a new app from Myxer Social Radio to bring friends together through music as they listen at the same time in rooms they create or that are created by their friends, with music choices enhanced by Myxer’s recommendations.

After downloading the free app on Facebook once it hits the site later this year, users can log in and see which friends are also using the service. Similar to Pandora’s streaming service, people can join different listening rooms or channels based on musical artists, such as Lady Gaga or U2.
However, Myxer — which has an existing mobile music service that includes 49 million users — takes it a social step further by allowing anyone in the room the opportunity to chat about the song and even record a "Song Story," a 30-second video where someone can explain what the song means to them.

Facebook founders make their way up Forbes 400

Think the ever-tanking economy and turmoil in financial markets have affected even the coffers of the very rich? Not so, if we’re to judge from the just-released 2011 installment of The Forbes 400 list of wealthiest Americans.

Gonzalo Fuentes / Reuters

Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg is No. 14 with a bullet on the Forbes 400.

In fact, the cumulative wealth of the 400 richest Americans as calculated by Forbes rose 13 percent last year to $1.53 trillion for an average of $3.8 billion per list member.

Also on the rise this year are the fortunes of several young technology entrepreneurs, led by 27-year-old Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. A gain of $10.6 billion as calculated by Forbes propelled him to No. 14 on the list, with a net worth of $17.5 billion; last year, he was no. 35. Zuckerberg even overtook Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, who each gained $1.7 billion in 2011, leaving them tied at no. 15.

Zuckerberg's is not the only Facebook face on the Forbes 400. Also making the cut are Facebook founding president Sean Parker, venture capitalist and Facebook backer Jim Breyer and Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz.

Other technology-related royalty on the list include LinkedIn’s Reid Hoffman, Groupon’s Eric Lefkofsky and Zynga’s Mark Pincus. It took a personal net worth of at least $1.05 billion to make this year's Forbes 400.
Read more at http://bottomline.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/09/21/7864115-facebook-founders-make-their-way-up-forbes-400

EA wants Facebook's users, $3 billion in digital sales

Three years after EA went from being one of the hottest kids on the video games block to industry also-ran, the leaner, more focused company now hopes to take on Zynga and make $3 billion in revenue from digital game sales in the next few years.

Chief Executive John Riccitiello told Reuters in an interview his company survived a "near-death experience," three years ago when its profit shrank, game quality was poor and it lacked an Internet presence.

"We were once a swaggering success in the Valley and then we were suddenly an afterthought," he said of the Redwood Shores, California-based company's position in 2007, when game sales started to slip worldwide.

The CEO said that swagger may never fully return, but through cost cutting, slashing the amount of games it makes and publishing top games on Apple devices, EA has re-emerged as company that is setting its sights on social gaming phenomenon Zynga.

It is within shooting distance. Zynga, which filed with regulators for an initial public offering of up to $1 billion in July, receives the bulk of its revenue from making games for social networks, notably Facebook.

Facebook users: Get ready for more changes

NEW YORK (AP) — Facebook is at it again. The social network is tweaking the home pages of its 750 million users, much to the chagrin of some very vocal folks.

The world's largest online social network is expected to announce even more changes on Thursday, when it holds its annual f8 conference in San Francisco for developers who create games and other applications for its site.

The gathering follows a trickle of changes to Facebook in the past few of weeks. Some, such as larger photo displays and a feature that makes it easier to group friends into categories, were met with approval — or at least silence, which in the age of social-media oversharing could well be considered an endorsement.

Then came Wednesday, when many users woke up to find their homepages altered, with what Facebook calls "top stories" on the top of their pages, followed by "recent stories" listed in chronological order. On the right side, meanwhile, there's something called a "ticker," a live feed of all the ongoing activity that also appears in users' news feeds. It's a kind of Facebook inside Facebook, if you will.

By mid-morning, the words "new Facebook" quickly became one of the most discussed topics on Twitter. Many comments were negative, though some pointed out that Facebook makes many changes to its site and people eventually get used to it.

Facebook Faces Access Tension

Technology start-ups are stepping up their bets on Facebook Inc., as more developers create companies that rely on the social network's 750 million members, rather than build a user base of their own.

But as other companies become more dependent on Facebook, the social network must walk a fine line between allowing unfiltered access to its users and exposing them to a flood of spam.

Enlarge Image

Getty Images

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, shown in July. Facebook is set to make a slew of announcements about integrating media more deeply into its network. The issue of access is expected to be a hot topic.

The issue, expected to be one of several hot topics Thursday at the Facebook developer conference known as f8, has become increasingly central to start-ups.

In the past, entrepreneurs might have built a competing social network or made use of Facebook as a tool to drive traffic to their own sites.

But now, companies like BranchOut Inc., a professional network, and Yardsellr Inc., a social e-commerce application, have emerged that rely entirely on the social network's users for their business. More such ventures are expected to pop up this year.

The rise of such companies is likely to be apparent at f8, as Facebook is set to make a slew of announcements about integrating media more deeply into its network. The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this month that Facebook is preparing changes designed to make the site a hub for listening to music, watching movies and playing videogames.
Read more at http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904563904576585192541226266.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

Dylan’s Desk: Facebook approaches a billion customers

With 750 million people using it, Facebook has become one of the most far-reaching computer platforms of all time.

The company will have a billion users soon, most likely within the next few months. Zuckerberg has beenpromising to hit that milestone for awhile, and I see no reason that he’ll miss. Sure, the social network may be inflating its numbers — and competition from Google+ could slow it down, somewhat. Given Facebook’s momentum, though, eventually Zuck will hit his mark. It’s just a question of when.

When he does, this will put Facebook in an extremely elite group that few other companies have matched.

Offhand, I can only think of two or three companies that have a billion active customers: Microsoft, Nokia, and maybe Samsung. Walmart probably has over a billion retail customers. You’ll no doubt think of some companies I’ve overlooked, so please email me with your additions.

But unlike most of these companies, Facebook has real names and contact info for every one of its customers.

That’s why Facebook’s upcoming f8 conference, happening this coming Thursday, Sept. 22 in San Francisco, is particularly relevant. The company has barely begun to turn its massive reach into revenues, as Paul Graham noted recently, but with its subscriber base on the cusp of a billion, it’s about to turn on the money spigot.

Facebook changes irk some of its friends

The world's most popular social-media site, which is making a habit of making changes and tweaks with little or no advance warning to its 750 million users, set off tons of dislikes Wednesday, angering many with a redesign that alters the look and feel of its popular profile pages.

News stories under Facebook's News Feed now top the pages instead of fresh posts from friends. Event reminders such as birthdays and friend requests are squished under a ticker-like function, part of a broader effort to give more of a real-time feel à la Twitter and upstart rival Google+, which opened its invitation-only social network to the public Tuesday. There also are newly designated categories for "close" friends, family, co-workers and others.

Motorola Electrify Available At Midnight Through US Cellular

You’ve heard of big game titles like Gears of War 3 and Dead Island getting midnight launches — why not smartphones? I guess US Cellular was thinking the same thing with the midnight release of their first dual-core smartphone, the Motorola Electrify Cheesy name aside, the Electrify is essentially the US Cellular branded Motorola Photon 3G (see what I did there?) we saw released a few months back on Sprint.

Specs remain largely the same featuring a dual-core Nvidia Tegra 2 processor, 1GB of RAM, 4.3-inch qHD Pentile display, 8MP rear/1.3MP front facing camera, 16GB of onboard storage and compatibility with all those exclusive Tegra Zone games.

The Electrify will be available at midnight tonight via US Cellular’s website for $200 after mail-in-rebate. There will be a very limited amount of in-store quantities come tomorrow, just make sure to call first. The official full launch for stores will hit on September 26th. Oh- and current Brief Plans who are eligible for an upgrade can also purchase the Electrify for $200 without signing into a contract.

Source:http://phandroid.com/2011/09/21/motorola-electrify-available-at-midnight-through-us-cellular/

Motorola Droid Bionic Review

The Motorola Droid Bionic went on a long journey this year. Debuting at CES in January, it was supposed to be the first dual-core LTE phone to hit Verizon. But when Verizon devices finally hit shelves during the summer months, the Bionic was nowhere to be found. Now it’s back with a completely new look and still sporting solid specs, but we still wish it didn’t have some of the weaknesses of recent Motorola devices.

Design and feel

We can’t complain about the design of the Droid Bionic. It looks slick. Following the design style of the Droid 3 and Droid X2, the Bionic has a large 4.3-inch screen surrounded by a shiny metal border. On the back of the phone is a rubberized plastic shell, which covers the battery, SD card slot, and LTE SIM Card. An audio jack, micro HDMI, and micro-USB port are all available.

The Droid Bionic is perfectly usable, but we’re going to get nitpicky. After using the Moto Photon 4G, we have to say that the “feel” of the Droid Bionic is not as good. Motorola has chosen to give this phone a boxier design with sharper corners, which makes holding it a bit more awkward than on the Photon, a phone that seemed to have ergonomics in mind. The thin power button on the top left is also a bit harder to reach than the larger, right-aligned power button on the Photon 4G. The volume rocker is equally lame compared to Motorola’s recent Sprint device: It’s actually a bit lower than you’d hope, forcing users to move their thumb down a bit more than comfort allows.

Twitter adds photo sharing via text message

Twitter added a new feature today that lets you share photos via text messages or SMS messages. Although there’s the official Twitter app and plenty of third-party clients, many folks still prefer sharing tweets by texting. With this new feature, they can now share photos along with their tweets by simply attaching a photo to their text message.

The new feature is available starting today on select carriers around the world. Those carriers include AT&T, Verizon, and Cellular South in the US; Vodafone, O2, and Orange in the UK; Vodafone Italy; Rogers Communications in Canada; VIVA Bahrain; and TIM Brazil. Twitter is working on expanding the service to other carriers.

Twitter has enhanced its Tweet by text message service in the past with the addition of a Fast Follow feature that lets anyone instantly receive Tweets on their phone by sending a text message, even without a Twitter account. Twitter also offered SMS Commands, which are a one-word commands that you can text to Twitter to get information, including Suggest, Stats, and Help.

Source:http://www.slashgear.com/twitter-adds-photo-sharing-via-text-message-21181694/

Facebook mashes Google+, Twitter into new design; here’s how to use it

BlogPost wrote earlier Wednesday on the changes to Facebook, and the general rancor among users the changes caused. But the complaints have not simmered down during the day. If anything, people have only become more bothered by the new setup, complaining aboutthe confusion — or simply canceling their account. And there are moreFacebook changes likely to come this Thursday.

(SOMEECARDS.COM)

In an effort to make you all not lose your minds, and to make the new Facebook more manageable, here’s a quick breakdown of how to use it.

First an explainer: in the increasingly competitive world of social sharing, Facebook added elements of its two main rivals: Twitter and Google+ to keep more people on their site. It means it’s now deciding what are the most important stories for you to see, it’s added a real-time update box (a la Twitter), and it’s increased its posting length (a la Google +). It also is letting people subscribe to other news feeds without actually friending them (a la both Google and Twitter). So here’s how to use it:

Twitter Buys Social Analytics Firm Julpan

Twitter has acquired Julpan, a startup founded last year that analyzes the way people share information on the social web with the goal of delivering fresh and relevant content to users.

The acquisition was announced by Julpan founder and CEO Ori Allon announced on the company website.

"With more than 230 million Tweets per day on every subject imaginable, Twitter gives us a chance to make an even greater contribution toward instantly bringing people closer to what is most meaningful to them," Allon said. "We look forward to joining forces with Twitter's engineering team to explore how we can best integrate and optimize Julpan's innovations."

Twitter confirmed the acquisition in an email statement, but did not disclose the price paid for Julpan. "We acquired them because Ori Allon and his talented team have taken social search to an entirely new level. This will quickly enhance our ongoing efforts to surface more relevant content to users in real time," spokeswoman Lynn Fox said.

Facebook’s Latest Updates Have Fans and Foes

It’s been a busy couple of months for Facebook and its 750 million users.

The company has recently updated several features on its Web site, including adding increased privacy settings, smarter lists of friends, a redesigned news feed and the ability to subscribe to stranger’s news feeds on the site.

I personally like the Facebook updates — although some do feel a little too much like Twitter or Google+. The subscribe button finally offers people a way to stay in touch with others without having to be friends. I’m also willing to take any added clarity to Facebook’s privacy settings, which have beennotoriously confusing in the past.

More important than my thoughts, there are 749,999,999 other people who have opinions about the site’s changes too. I asked people on Twitter andFacebook to share their thoughts about the latest site updates. Here’s what they had to say.

There are those who dislike the updates:

'Twitter terrorists' walk free in Mexico amid crime surge

MEXICO CITY -- Prosecutors on Wednesday dropped charges against two social media users dubbed the "Twitter terrorists" three weeks after their tweets and Facebook postings enraged authorities in the Gulf Coast state of Veracruz.

Dozens of supporters greeted Gilberto Martinez, 46, and Maria de Jesus Bravo, 56, at mid-afternoon as they walked out of the Pacho Viejo prison.

The terrorism and sabotage charges against the two - a math tutor and a grandmother - had brought ridicule on state officials for focusing on their alleged crimes even as violence mounted across the state.

Their release came a day after gangsters dumped 35 corpses on a road in a tourist district in the state's largest city, the port of Veracruz. Many of the corpses were disfigured from torture.

The lawyer for the two, Fidel Ordonez, said his clients were happy to be free but still distraught over their arrests on Aug. 25 and 26.

"They've never understood why they were accused of terrorism and sabotage," Ordonez said.

At the time, Veracruz Gov. Javier Duarte said the two provoked "hysteria" on Aug. 25 with tweets and Facebook postings alleging that gangsters were shooting children at schools in the Boca del Rio district. Another official said the postings generated such anxiety that parents rushing to the schools got in more than 26 automobile crashes, an assertion that has never been confirmed.

Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/09/21/2418664/twitter-terrorists-walk-free-in.html#ixzz1Yey2YRg2

Twitter to sell political advertising

Twitter, which just got into the advertising business last year, will start selling political ads this week.

he ads will appear as Promoted Tweets, which come up under certain search terms or in the timeline of Twitter users who follow a political campaign. Campaigns can also pay to appear on the top of search trends or to appear as suggested accounts to follow.

Promoted political tweets will be designated by a little purple check mark; commercial tweets sport an orange arrow. Campaigns who advertise on Twitter can also include a full, FEC-compliant disclaimer when users hover over their Promoted Tweets, Promoted Trends or Promoted Accounts.

Five campaigns have already signed up, including the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and the presidential campaign of former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney.

“Twitter is a leading platform for real-time engagement and @MittRomney is constantly looking for ways to share his vision to turn around the economy,” said Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul.

“We’re excited to continue leading the way in using new technologies to connect with our supporters,” said DSCC spokesman Shripal Shah. “Republicans have launched an all out war on seniors and middle-class families with their reckless agenda and we are going to hold them accountable in every way we can.” Here’s one of the committee’s first tweets,promoting President Obama’s “Buffet Rule.”

“ I can see these new political products being used frequently for rapid response and fundraising around the big, unpredictable moments that happen with every campaign,” said Mindy Finn, a Republican media strategist with Engage DC.

The company plans to expand to more campaigns once its political sales team is built up. Twitter hired Peter Greenberger, who worked on political advertising at Google for the past four years, as part of this effort.

RIM BlackBerry 7 OS

Research in Motion is losing cell phone market share pretty rapidly, but the company's hardware isn't the problem. Rather, it's the operating system and software. RIM BlackBerry 7 sounds like a major revision of BlackBerry 6 OSfrom the name, but it's really more of a version 6.1 (and it was referred to as 6.1 internally for much of the development process). I'll go through the significant updates below, but at it's core, BlackBerry 7 is still the same old operating system existing users are familiar with, which means it's considerably behind the times.

Samsung to Open Source Bada

It’s a tough world out there for mobile OSes. iOS and Android rule the skies, and Windows Phone 7 is trying to catch up. Nokia has pretty much thrown in the towel on Symbian (at least for higher-end phones) and adopted Windows Phone 7 as its go-to operating system, and upstart Meego looks to be dead, again, finally.

Often lost in the mobile OS shuffle is Bada, Samsung’s homegrown mobile OS. Although Samsung uses Android on its phones in the U.S., Bada can be found on the company’s overseas Wave handsets. Now, according to a report from the Wall Street journal, Samsung is planning to open source Bada sometime next year.

AT&T launching the Samsung Galaxy S II Oct. 2 for $199

The fastest selling Samsung smartphone, the Galaxy S II, arrives on AT&T’s network October 2 for $199 after contract. The carrier shared the release information Wednesday on its Facebook page, saying the phone will be available both on-line and in retail stores on the launch date. The high-end handset has been available in countries outside the U.S. since May andsold 5 million units in the first 85 days after launching.

Timing of the Galaxy S II on AT&T should prove interesting as the smartphone is arguably the best suited Google Android handset to compete directly against Apple’s iPhone, which is still a top seller on AT&T’s network.

The October 2 launch date for Samsung’s phone appears to be prior to an expected new iPhone. Apple is reportedly holding a press event on October 4, where it’s likely to introduce the next iPhone although the handset may not be available immediately. That would mean the Galaxy S II could enjoy several weeks of sales without competition from the newest iPhone model. Knowing that an updated Apple handset is due soon, however, consumers may hold off on the Samsung device.

Samsung Galaxy Skin 2012 Launch Rumors

When we first covered the flexible Samsung Galaxy Skin back in June, it was presented as a pure design concept. Thanks to its flexible AMOLED display, the Galaxy Skin was thought about as a phone that can take on many shapes: clamshell, bracelet, elongated… Somehow, International Business Times (ibt) claims that this concept will turn into a real product which will launch in Q2 2012. As you can imagine, the rumor is going through the web like a wildfire.Although flexible AMOLED displays have been demonstrated, bendable or wearable devices have yet to show up, even in the shape of reasonably working prototypes. Also, while the screen may be flexible, the rest of the phone like the battery, processor, memory, connector, wires etc… may not be – at least, until they get small enough to not mind about the bending nature of their host. At the very least, you should take those rumors with a good pinch of salt.

Source:http://www.ubergizmo.com/2011/09/samsung-galaxy-skin-2012-launch-rumors/

Samsung Galaxy S II makes its AT&T debut October 2nd for $199 on contract

You've endured almost a year's worth of Galaxy S II teasing, so what's a few more weeks? AT&T's swiftly sped past its "coming soon" announcement for Sammy's heralded handset, now giving us a firm release date of October 2nd for its NFC-enabled variant. You can snag the 4.3-incher when it hits the carrier for $199.99 on a two-year contract, and choose from the usual array of data packages -- with $15/mo being the minimum required. Make sure to enter your deets at the source link below so you'll be first in line for this sure-fire, sell-out device.

Source:http://www.engadget.com/2011/09/21/samsung-galaxy-s-ii-makes-its-atandt-debut-october-2nd-for-199-on/

AT&T announces Samsung Galaxy S II release date

AT&T has just announced that it’ll be launching its own version of the Samsung Galaxy S II on October 2nd for $199.99 on a new two-year contract. That’s the same price as the model Sprint just launched, the Epic 4G Touch — and considering the phone’s pencil-thin profile, blazingly fast Exynos dual-core processor, and well-received 4.3-inch Super AMOLED Plus display, it seems like a reasonable amount to charge. Who’s buying?

Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/atandt-announces-samsung-galaxy-s-ii-release-date/2011/09/21/gIQAeXLblK_story.html

LG Optimus EX dual-core Android smartphone details leaked

It appears that either LG is trying to tantalize us to death or their just giving South Korea all their next-level devices early because they’ve got love for the lovely region because just days after we saw ourfirst look at real-life photos of the LG Optimus LTE, we get to see what’s being called the LG Optimus EX. This is another dual-core device made by the two-letter manufacturer that’ll feature a rather stark and industrial design with a speaker grill on the bottom and top of a flat display sporting what appears to be the most recent version of

Not just one whole heck of a lot is known about this device as of yet, but we DO know it’s part nameL LG-SU880. This device is going to be released at first only on the Korean network SK Telecom and it’ll be running on Android 2.3.x Gingerbread. This smartphone will be 9.5 millimeters at its thickest point and, again, it’ll have a dual-core processor inside. We’re to understand that there’ll be a 1.2GHz dual-core processor inside though at the moment there’s no confirmation on what make and model the processor will be. Qualcomm or Texas Instruments are most likely if you ask your humble narrator, with NVIDIA moving to Kal-El sooner than later, penta-core ahoy!
Read more at http://www.slashgear.com/lg-optimus-ex-dual-core-android-smartphone-details-leaked-21181583/

Google, Intuit Help Small Businesses Get Online

Google's Virginia 'Get Online' campaign kicked off yesterday in Manassas.

Google selected the Hylton Performing Arts Center in Manassas as the venue to launch the Virginia leg of its national Get Your Business Online campaign because the area provides a centralized location for reaching the many entrepreneurs throughout Northern Virginia, according to information released by the Prince William Chamber of Commerce Wednesday.

Over 500 people showed up for the event that attracted all kinds of business owners— from bakers to home repair and daycare providers.

The Chamber and Intuit were partners in the September 20 launch event, which connected hundreds of small business owners with tools for creating websites and growing their business online.

“Small business is the engine for jobs creation. The more that we can do to support small business and alleviate unemployment, the better,” said Google Chairman Eric Schmidt.

Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell, a longtime supporter of small businesses, was also present and the event and addressed the audience.

Google Invites Everyone to Be Friends—on Its Social Network

After 12 weeks of socializing in select circles, Google has announced that anyone can sign up for its fledgling social network, Google Plus.

The uptake of the service now it is widely available will be crucial to the success of Google Plus, and to Google's ability to compete with Facebook as a force in social networking, and in selling more targeted ads. Google's social network was launched in June to positive reviews and considerable interest, but activity has slowed in recent weeks.

Unique features, especially the ability to target updates to different social "circles," were well received by the first rush of users. However, many of them appear to have stopped using the service, perhaps because so few of their friends also had access. Anyone can now sign up for a Google Plus account at this page.

Negative media coverage followed the recent drop in activity, but Bradley Horowitz, product manager for Google Plus told Technology Review that the behavior was expected.

"There has been a class of user that has seen [that] the product is not ready for them, and we expected that," Horowitz says. "The idea of the field trial was to get a critical mass of usage so that we could measure and instrument the system to understand what worked and what was broken, and we got sufficient traffic to do that."

Google Flight Search vs. Bing Travel: The Search Engine Showdown

On Sept. 13, Google released the new Google Flight Search feature, but how does it stack up to competitors?

Google has slowly entered the travel market with a similar hotel search and the acquisition of Zagat, a popular restaurant guide. However, when Google bought ITA Software, specialists in organizing flight data, it was rumored that something big was in store.

Bing Travel is the closest competitor to Google. It too is a search engine gone travel. Bing is a fairly new company created by Microsoft to take over MSN Search and Live Search. Bing Travel rose to prominence in the travel industry after buying FareCast, a previously popular travel site that predicted the best time to buy a flight.

The two competitors in the travel search showdown will be competing in five categories to determine the best flight search Web site. Let the games begin!

Google Says Oracle Seeking $2 Billion in Android Dispute (1)

Sept. 21 (Bloomberg) -- Google Inc. said Oracle Corp. lowered its damages request to at least $2 billion in a patent and copyright dispute over Android software, according to a court filing.

Google, which said the estimate includes $1.2 billion in damages for unjust enrichment in 2012 alone, asked a federal judge to exclude parts of the calculation that it says aren’t supported by the evidence.

In July, U.S. District Judge William Alsup in San Francisco threw out Oracle’s earlier estimate that it’s entitled to as much as $6.1 billion in damages in a lawsuit claiming Google infringed its Java patents when it created the Android operating system, now running on more than 150 million mobile devices.

Oracle’s new damages report “ignores governing law and the guidelines of this court’s July 22, 2011, order,” Google lawyer Robert Van Nest said in a letter to Alsup yesterday.

Alsup ruled in July that a new estimate should start as low as $100 million, a figure that Mountain View, California-based Google was offered in 2006 to license Java from Sun Microsystems Inc. Google rejected that offer by Sun, which Oracle later acquired.

Deborah Hellinger, a spokeswoman for Redwood City, California-based Oracle, the largest maker of database software, declined to comment on the Google filing.

Santorum asks Google to clean up search results for his name

(CNN) -- Former U.S. Sen. and Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum has a well-known Google problem.

For the uninitiated, if you Google Santorum's name, the first result you'll probably get is not his personal website but a fake definition of "santorum," a sexual byproduct that's a bit too graphic to talk about in detail here. (Of course, you can Google him and easily find out.)

We'll get into how that all happened in a second, but here's what's new: On Tuesday, the socially conservative politician lashed out at Google, saying the company could get rid of the sexual references to his name on the search results if it wanted to -- and perhaps would do so if he were a Democrat.

"I suspect if something was up there like that about Joe Biden, they'd get rid of it," he told Politico. "If you're a responsible business, you don't let things like that happen in your business that have an impact on the country."

He continued: "To have a business allow that type of filth to be purveyed through their website or through their system is something that they say they can't handle, but I suspect that's not true."

Santorum contacted Google and asked the company about the issue, Politico said.

In an e-mail to CNN, a Google spokeswoman said, "Google's search results are a reflection of the content and information that is available on the Web. Users who want content removed from the Internet should contact the webmaster of the page directly. Once the webmaster takes the page down from the Web, it will be removed from Google's search results through our usual crawling process."

She added: "We do not remove content from our search results, except in very limited cases such as illegal content and violations of our webmaster guidelines."

Google Takes the Hot Seat in Washington

In Google’s most high-profile antitrust hearing to date, Eric E. Schmidt, the company’s chairman, testifed before a Senate panelWednesday about how Google produces its search results, and whether it favors its own businesses, thwarts competition and hurts consumers.

“We get it,” Mr. Schmidt told the senators. “By that we mean we get the lessons of our corporate predecessors. We also get that it’s natural of you to have questions about our business.”

They had many questions, the most heated coming from Senator Mike Lee of Utah, who said he was a free-market Republican who was not in favor of government intervention. But he said he was deeply concerned that Google stifles consumer choice by giving its own businesses — like comparison shopping, local business reviews and travel search — an advantage in search listings and making it difficult for other sites to compete.

“Some of my fears have been confirmed,” Mr. Lee said after Mr. Schmidt answered questions. “I am troubled by some of Google’s practices — submitting its own offerings in natural search results, in the most prominent positions on the page.”
Mr. Schmidt, making the case that Google has made for months as its business practices have come under increasing scrutiny from antitrust regulators in the United States, Europe and South Korea, said that Google puts consumers first, even if that means that Web businesses are upset about their rankings in Google’s search results. It emphasizes loyalty, not lock-in, he said, so users can easily switch to another search engine if they want to. Google uses open-source technology and is more transparent about how its search engine works than its competitors, he said.

Facebook fortunes rise on Forbes 400 list of richest Americans

Facebook is making its mark on the Forbes 400.

Founder Mark Zuckerberg and his colleagues have taken key spots on Forbes magazine's annual list of the 400 richest Americans.

Zuckerberg, whose estimated wealth jumped by $10.6 billion to $17.5 billion, rose to No. 14 in 2011 from No. 35 last year, surpassing Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin. Page and Brin each added $1.7 billion this year and are tied at No. 15.

Others made rich by Facebook appearing on the Forbes list: founding Facebook president Sean Parker (who has a lengthy profile in Forbes depicting him as an agent of disruption), Facebook backer and board member Jim Breyer and Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz, the world's youngest billionaire.

Among other tech players whose growing fortunes have catapulted them onto the Forbes 400 are LinkedIn's Reid Hoffman, Zynga's Mark Pincus and Groupon's Eric Lefkofsky.

To make the cut this year required a personal net worth of at least $1.05 billion.

Microsoft chairman and co-founder Bill Gates is in the No. 1 spot for the 18th year in a row with a net worth of $59 billion.

Forbes paired Gates and Moskovitz to discuss their personal approaches to philanthropy. As the magazine points out, both dropped out of Harvard, both started tech companies and both have thought a lot about how best to give away their fortunes.

Facebook's enraging status update

Like, oh, around 750 million other users of Facebook, I logged on to the world's biggest social media network this morning and was immediately annoyed. Facebook had changed its user interface, again. Gone was the "Most Recent" button, which allowed users to see what their friends have posted in a simple, straightforward, chronological order. Now Facebook was indulging, again, in outright effrontery: employing its own secret algorithmic sauce to highlight what it considered the most important "top stories," while mixing in other recent posts far below.

Facebook also added a "Ticker" at the top right hand side of the page, which provided a real-time Twitter-like stream of status updates from all my friends. When I first checked it, it was packed with complaints about the new interface change. Judging solely from comments from myfriends, people don't want Facebook deciding what's most important, Facebook's suggestions were wrong, irrelevant and insulting, and why oh why oh why can't Facebook leave a good thing alone?

More college officials learn about applicants from Facebook

The rise suggests a growing acceptance of the practice, despite concerns that it invades student privacy.

"This is the world we live in now," says Paul Marthers, vice president for enrollment at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. "If you were able to find out that somebody misrepresented themselves in their application, I think it could be used to help you make a decision."

Nearly a quarter (24%) of admissions officials at 359 selective colleges say they used Facebook, up from 6% the previous year, and 20% used Google to help evaluate an applicant, says the survey, conducted by Kaplan Test Prep. Kaplan, which did not identify participating colleges, queried 500 colleges listed in U.S. News & World Report rankings and in Barron's Profiles of American Colleges.

Of survey takers who went online, 12% say what they found "negatively impacted" the applicant's chances of admission. That's down from 38% in 2008, when 10% said they consulted social networking sites while evaluating students. Among offenses cited: essay plagiarism, vulgarities in blogs and photos showing underage drinking.

Marthers and others say such checks are not routine — it's too time-consuming, for one thing. But "if ever a post is brought to our attention, you can be certain we'll check it out," says Ray Brown, admission dean at Texas Christian University. He says he rejected one applicant who, he discovered through an anonymous tip, had posted pornographic images of herself online.

Facebook Users: Get Ready for More Changes

Facebook is at it again. The social network is tweaking the home pages of its 750 million users, much to the chagrin of some very vocal folks.

The world's largest online social network is expected to announce even more changes on Thursday, when it holds its annual f8 conference in San Francisco for developers who create games and other applications for its site.

The gathering follows a trickle of changes to Facebook in the past few of weeks. Some, such as larger photo displays and a feature that makes it easier to group friends into categories, were met with approval — or at least silence, which in the age of social-media oversharing could well be considered an endorsement.

Then came Wednesday, when many users woke up to find their homepages altered, with what Facebook calls "top stories" on the top of their pages, followed by "recent stories" listed in chronological order. On the right side, meanwhile, there's something called a "ticker," a live feed of all the ongoing activity that also appears in users' news feeds. It's a kind of Facebook inside Facebook, if you will.

By mid-morning, the words "new Facebook" quickly became one of the most discussed topics on Twitter. Many comments were negative, though some pointed out that Facebook makes many changes to its site and people eventually get used to it.

Facebook Pages Drive New Business: So Where's Yours?

Pagemodo, the Facebook Page customizing firm, today released survey results which found that having a Facebook page has increased sales for small businesses and has driven traffic to their websites.

Haroon Mokhtarzada, CEO of Webs, Inc. - the parent company of Pagemodo.com — commented on the importance of Facebook business pages in a press release: "We live in a world that is increasingly driven by social media. There's been significant growth in Facebook for businesses over the past six months. Small business owners in particular see Facebook - and a professional website - as easy-to-develop business tools that can capture new customers and help them interact with current ones."

This survey of over 1,500 businesses found that 48 percent of them have increased sales because of their Facebook presence. Forty-seven percent said that the Facebook presence has driven traffic to their website.

Another key finding from this survey is the increase in adoption of Facebook as a business tool. Over 60 percent of those surveyed who didn't currently have a Facebook page said they had plans to create one within the next 12 months. About half of those said that plans are to create one within the next six months.

Read more: http://technorati.com/business/small-business/article/facebook-pages-drive-new-business-so/#ixzz1YcuwHbQh

Facebook Ad Revenue to Top 3.8 Billion in 2011

According to eMarketer, 2011 will be a banner year for Facebook with ad revenues rising 104% to 3.8 billion. And though this seems like an excellent achievement, it’s actually lower than the 4.05 they originally predicted at the start of the year.

Debra Aho Williamson, eMarketer principal analyst would like to note that, “This slight revision downward for 2011 should not be taken as a sign that Facebook’s overall business is losing momentum.”

Because by 2013, they’re expecting Facebook to pull in 7.0 billion. I imagine no one over there is weeping over the balance sheet.

This ad portion only represents part of Facebook’s income. When you add in Facebook credits and other sources, the 2011 number climbs to double what it was last year.

What’s interesting is that more people are putting their ads on Facebook, when the results of those ads still aren’t clear.

Facebook's problem: Market share?

Facebook's chief advantage over rival social networks like Google Plus is supposed to be its large number of users. But today I'm not so sure. After seeing a stream of complaints about Facebook's latest interface tweaks, I'm wondering if Facebook's big asset may also be working against it.

Sure it's great to have massive market share. But it can also be a lot tougher to innovate when you've been a long-time leader and your market starts to change.

Conventional wisdom says that Google+ will have problems making inroads in social media because of Facebook's enormous user base. But what if the experts have that backwards? What if the social media space is going through a significant upheaval -- one, say, near to the move from mainframes to desktops or PCs to mobile? Which network would be better poised to offer next-generation offerings: one that was recently built from the ground up with tech-savvy early adopters in mind? Or one that has years of unchallenged market dominance combined with legacy software code and users who aren't always receptive to change?

It's not necessarily a zero-sum game, since Google+ may be different enough from Facebook that both could survive social-media fatigue and flourish. However, the stepped-up pace of new Facebook features looks like the service doesn't want to risk falling behind in its offerings.

It may be coincidence that Facebook unveiled yet another "improvement" to its users' news feeds just as Google+ opened up to the general public, but the timing is certainly interesting.

Facebook users protest changes to News Feed, new 'ticker'

Maybe it's time for Facebook to finally roll out that "dislike" button.

Facebook is getting an earful about changes it made to the News Feed right before its annual developers conference Thursday.

Of course, anytime the social networking site makes changes, users revolt at audible levels. Facebook is the world's most popular social networking service with more than 750 million users, so even a small protest can stir up the Web.

The loudest protest came in 2006 with the launch of News Feed, which turned into one of the site's most popular features.

Now users are taking to their News Feeds to protest the overhaul of the News Feed.

And they are complaining in comments to the official Facebook blog post announcing the changes that were supposed to help users by surfacing the most important information about their friends instead of just the most recent.

The main complaint: An algorithm that spits out your "Top Stories" by crunching factors such as which friends you interact with most and which of your friends' posts get the most comments or "likes" isn't working.

Report: Apple iPhone 5 launches Oct. 4, plus WinMango news

Apple's iPhone 5 will make its public debut at a company event Oct. 4, according to an All Things D report.

That's nearly in sync with the Oct. 7 event that Sprint is holding in New York, where it's expected to announce that it will carry Apple's new smartphone.

It also gives Apple a jump on Nokia and Microsoft, which are announcing new Windows Phones later in October, presumably at Nokia's global conference in London on Oct. 26.

UPDATE: Microsoft is also playing launch hopscotch. This morning it announced that the new "Mango" version of Windows Phone will be released "in the next week or two." The revamped operating system is appearing on new phones and will be streamed out to current Windows Phone 7 devices via the hardware companies.

There's been a flood of early iPhone 5 rumors and reports based on whispers from unnamed sources.

But the early line on the new iPhone is that it will look roughly the same as the current model but have a bigger screen and 8 megapixel camera -- par with the latest Android and Windows phones -- and a new antenna design that fixes the iPhone 4 issue that cuts signals if the device is held a certain way.

The phone may be pitched as a 4G device if it works with AT&T's HSPA+ network, but there's no indication yet that it's going to work with the new LTE networks operated by AT&T and Verizon.

The All Things D report focused on the importance of Apple's new chief executive, Tim Cook, making a splash at the event.

Apple iPhone 5 Release Looms, iPhone Trade-Ins Skyrocket

Although Apple hasn't announced a release date for the iPhone 5, existing iPhone owners are already selling their handsets in anticipation.

Gazelle, a service that buys back old tech products, says the number of iPhone trade-ins through its Website has spiked by 84 percent in the last two weeks, and is still climbing. This is unheard of, Gazelle says, because consumers typically wait until after a product is announced before selling their old gear.

Consumers must be feeling confident that the iPhone 5 launch is imminent. The latest release date rumor, from All Things Digital's John Paczkowski, claims Apple will hold an event on October 4 to announce the new phone. However, sources said Apple won't actually release the iPhone 5 until a few weeks after the announcement.

Another tech buyback service, NextWorth, says trade-in values for old iPhones have been dropping ahead of the announcement.

Report: Apple Board Member Al Gore Says iPhones (Plural) Coming in October

At the Discovery Invest Leadership Summit taking place today, Al Gore is reported to have given an offhanded comment shedding light onto when we’ll be seeing Apple’s next major product(s) debut.

Gore, an Apple Board member, specifically said, “Not to mention the new iPhones coming out next month.”

As a board member, it’s unclear how familiar Gore actually is with Apple’s upcoming products, but he would be in-the-know about time frames for major launches. The Next Web learned of Gore’s statement through Toby Shapshak, the editor of Stuff Magazine. Shapshak is positive that the word “iPhone” was plural in Gore’s comment.

This is the first time someone with any specific ties to Apple has commented on the much-anticipated iPhone 5. Based on Gore’s statement, it sounds pretty certain that we’ll be seeing multiple iPhone models. An iPhone 5 and an iPhone 4S, perhaps? Or was he just referring to the usual 16GB and 32 GBflavors?

According to AllthingsD sources, we’re looking at an October 4 launch date with new CEO Tim Cook at the helm, while other reports speculate at least two different iPhone model debuts. One of the two iPhones is purported to be a budget model (akin to Apple’s past 3GS model). The other, the iPhone 5, is purported to include an A5 processor and a significantly redesigned look, including a larger display, an elongated home button and a thinner, tapered shape. Sprint is also rumored to be the latest carrier to start offering the iPhone, as well.