Tag Archives: news

Samsung announces international Galaxy S III will receive Android 4.1 update today

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Samsung announces international Galaxy S III will receive Android 4.1 update today

Today, we have some great news regarding the international model of the Samsung Galaxy S III as well as some of the manufacturers’ other devices.  First, the international Galaxy S III is going to receive the Android 4.1 Jelly Bean update starting today.  The first market to officially receive the update push is Poland.

Unfortunately, the Android 4.1 roll out is subject to market conditions and carrier requirements, which means the update for American Galaxy S III models could be further down the road.  Hopefully, the remaining carriers and Samsung are able to work closely together in order to get the updates out as soon as possible.  New features for the Galaxy S III in Android 4.1 includes improved Pop up play, blocking calls mode, and an easy mode.

In addition, Samsung announced another ten devices that are scheduled to receive Android Jelly Bean in the near future.  These devices include Samsung Galaxy S II, Galaxy Note, Galaxy S II LTE, Galaxy Ace 2, Galaxy Chat, Galaxy Tab 2 7.0, Galaxy Ace Plus, Galaxy S Advance, Galaxy Note 10.1, Galaxy Tab 2 7.0, Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus, Galaxy Beam, and Galaxy Mini 2.

Hopefully all of the devices mentioned above will receive the highly anticipated Android 4.1 update in the near future.

[TheVerge]

Silicon Valley Vet: This Is How You Grow

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A startup is a company designed to grow fast. Being newly founded does not in itself make a company a startup. Nor is it necessary for a startup to work on technology, or take venture funding, or have some sort of “exit.” The only essential thing is growth. Everything else we associate with startups follows from growth.

If you want to start one it’s important to understand that. Startups are so hard that you can’t be pointed off to the side and hope to succeed. You have to know that growth is what you’re after. The good news is, if you get growth, everything else tends to fall into place. Which means you can use growth like a compass to make almost every decision you face.

Silicon Valley Vet: This Is How You Grow

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A startup is a company designed to grow fast. Being newly founded does not in itself make a company a startup. Nor is it necessary for a startup to work on technology, or take venture funding, or have some sort of “exit.” The only essential thing is growth. Everything else we associate with startups follows from growth.

If you want to start one it’s important to understand that. Startups are so hard that you can’t be pointed off to the side and hope to succeed. You have to know that growth is what you’re after. The good news is, if you get growth, everything else tends to fall into place. Which means you can use growth like a compass to make almost every decision you face.

Forty Injured In Mass Brawl At Chinese ‘iPhone 5′ Factory

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Almost 2,000 workers at a Chinese electronics factory were involved in a mass brawl which has injured 40 people and resulted in the closure of the plant.

Taiwan’s Foxconn Technology Group, which has been involved in several controversies involving its working conditions, said that a “personal dispute” began the fight at the Taiyuan factory in the north of China.

The dispute between several of the 79,000 employees at the factory spilled over into a large fight on Sunday evening, in which 40 people were injured after about four hours.

A Chinese news agency said that 5,000 police were sent to contain the fight.

A number of people were also arrested at the factory, Foxconn said.

The factory – one of many that Foxconn operates in China, building electronics for most major firms – is focused on automotive parts and electrical components. It is also used to assemble the iPhone 5, according to workers quoted by Reuters, though that has not been confirmed.

“The cause of this dispute is under investigation by local authorities and we are working closely with them in this process, but it appears not to have been work-related,” Foxconn said.

According to Reuters, workers said police were still at the site and the plant was closed for the day.

Foxconn is the trading name of Hon Hai Precision Industry Co, which employs about a million workers in total across China.

Recently Samsung said it would investigate the Foxconn factories it uses after claims of child labour being used there by China Labour Watch.

Earlier this year about 1,000 workers were reported to have ‘rioted’ at a Foxconn factory in Chengdu, while Apple appointed labour monitors to respond to further claims of abuse.

Jeffrey Tinsley: FOMO Trumps FOPL With American Adults

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It seems like the whole world has been swept into the social media vortex in recent years — after all, when both your Grandma and your neighbor’s Cocker Spaniel have Facebook pages, you know that connectivity has reached an all-time high. And, ask any young professional pursuing a new business opportunity or overall career change — in order to stay current in today’s job market, social media connectedness is paramount to success. While we are definitely seeing “app overload,” staying current on popular apps and social media tools are essential to establishing industry thought leadership, finding new personal and business opportunities, driving awareness around a company and its products, and building rapport with a company’s customer-base. Add to the mix the proliferation of new platforms, networks and apps.

For all the different ways we connect, well, ‘there’s an app for that.’ So it is interesting that a recent study from Pew Internet & American Life suggesting that a fear of the loss of digital privacy was strong enough to prevent American adults from installing and utilizing many applications on their mobile phones (the study suggested about one-half of those surveyed opted not to install an application if it asked for too much personal information). The reality, however, is that the fear of missing out (“FOMO”) is a much stronger deciding factor than the fear of privacy loss (“FOPL”) when it comes to plugging in.

We have become used to staying up-to -date in real-time, with news being delivered and received instantaneously via e-mail, Facebook, Twitter and myriad other apps. Connectivity and interactivity is at the point where it’s not official until it’s “Facebook Official” (“FBO,” if you will). Plain and simple — while people may be averse to a loss of privacy, they are even more averse to being left on the sidelines while the rest of their network happily rides off into the social sunset, tweeting and sharing along the way.

A recent study by MyLife.com conducted by Harris Interactive showed nearly two-thirds of American adults (62 percent) are afraid of missing something (be it news, an important event or status update) if they don’t keep an eye on their social networks (and this shoots up to 74 percent for those who are single). In fact, respondents were willing to put up with some pretty terrible trade-offs in order to keep their access to social media- nearly 40 percent of respondents said they would rather do their taxes, get a root canal, or spend a night in jail before they’d delete their social media accounts.

Part of the reason for the reliance on social media is the sense of pleasure and connectedness we find when posting our thoughts and experiences online. A recent Harvard study found that roughly 80 percent percent of posts to social media sites like Twitter and Facebook are announcements about one’s own immediate experience, finding that “disclosing information about oneself activates the same sensation of pleasure in the brain that we get from eating food, getting money or having sex.” (LA Times). And yet another study, conducted by the University of Chicago, suggested the ‘addiction’ to social media, or the desire to check your email or social networks, was stronger than addiction to alcohol or cigarettes — when it comes to willpower, resistance to social media desires measured the weakest (Science News).

One thing’s for sure, however: not all platforms and applications are created equal (and this will unlikely come as a surprise to anyone…(What? People are more loyal to Facebook than Place My Face?). The Harris study showed users much more reliant on mega-networks like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn: 84 percent of users can’t go a week without logging into Facebook — and 61 percent of users can’t go even one day. There is a source of frustration, however, when it comes to managing all these networks and platforms — one-third of respondents struggled with remembering different passwords, while other respondents cited keeping track of their multiple accounts and maintaining each account as a burden of social networking. So while it may be true that consumers have some concerns about privacy control, it seems the more overwhelming issue is finding a solution to managing and consolidating our networks into something manageable and protected — once those apps are downloaded. So, people may report favoring privacy over plugging-in but my bet is that — between the fear of missing out, the rush that comes with oversharing online, and the overwhelming desire to log on — social media and the apps that enable us to do consume and share right from our pockets aren’t going anywhere anytime soon.

David Westin: Don’t Quote Me

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The New York Times has spoken: Executive Editor Jill Abramson has issued a new policy that forbids “after-the-fact quote approval” — except when it’s OK. And, she’s right on both counts (even if they’re on two sides of the issue).

Journalists take justifiable pride in their independence. They don’t want anyone telling them what they should report — not the government, not advertisers, not corporations that employ them and certainly not the people they’re reporting on. That makes sense. We want to believe that when a reporter is telling us something, it’s because she believes it to be true. Period.

So, when we hear that some reporters allow the people they’re interviewing to “approve” direct quotations, it sounds outrageous. We know that politicians and other news subjects are spinning the press all the time. It’s hard to get around that. But if in a momentary lapse of candor they say something they’d like to take back, why let them? After all, we don’t just quote press releases, so why should we give interview subjects “do-overs” until they get things just the way they want them?

The most recent flap started back in July when the New York Times reported it had become standard practice for the Obama campaign to demand quote approval before agreeing to interviews. There quickly followed condemnations, such as from Dan Rather (saying it turns journalists from “watchdogs” into “lapdogs”). Others, like David Carr of the Times, saw it in a more nuanced light — sort of like a summer cold; regrettable and to be watched carefully, but sometimes inevitable. Andrew Beaujon of Poynter showed us how there may be some room for asking people to confirm they’ve said what reporters think they’ve said because sometimes reporters “mangle” quotes by mistake. And then Michael Lewis told us that, in arranging the extensive access he got to President Obama for his Vanity Fair profile, he agreed he wouldn’t use any quotes that the White House didn’t OK.

When I ran ABC News, we didn’t give our interview subjects the opportunity to see what we’d recorded before we aired it. Now in fairness, it’s a lot harder to go back and re-shoot an interview than it is to change a few words in a print story.

It would be easy simply to say journalists shouldn’t run quotes by those they’ve interviewed. Ever. But as in so much of journalism (and life), it’s not that simple. I’ve had various reporters call me over the years to talk about some story they’re working on. Often, I’m not directly involved in the story, but they want some more general sense of television news and how it works. I’ve run a news organization, so I want to help them if I can. But I don’t want to be part of the story. So, the reporter and I agree that our conversation will be “on background.”

So far, so good. I’ll give the reporter my perspective on how things work, the reporter will take it into account, and the chips will fall where they may.

But there have been times (more often than you might think) when the reporter has asked me whether she could put on the record something I’ve said. And, most often, I’ve agreed, provided only that the quote is accurate (which it’s pretty much always been). I don’t ask to clean it up or tone it down. But the reporter wouldn’t be free to use the quote at all (or at least to attribute it to me) unless I agreed to change the “background” agreement we’d made.

In cases like these, would the audience really be better off not having the information or having it from a “knowledgeable insider?” Would we all have been better off if Michael Lewis had not had all that access to President Obama and told us what had seen? The goal here is to get as much of the truth out to the public as possible. That’s a hard job for any reporter, and it’s only getting harder as politicians and corporate leaders and just about everyone else “PR’s up,” the way perps always “lawyer up” on television dramas.

So, as I say, the New York Times looks like they’ve gotten it just about right. They’ve warned everyone to keep it down to a dull roar. Don’t agree too readily to give quote approval. But don’t rule it out altogether either.

In the end, we’re still going to have to rely on the good sense of our reporters to get the story, get it right and tell us as much as they can. If that involves some approving of quotes, then maybe that’s OK. You can’t legislate good journalism. The ultimate responsibility will remain where it’s always been: Those of us in the audience have to judge for ourselves which news sources are using all the tools available to them to help us learn the truth and which are falling down on the job.

Twitter: We’ll Have Interactive Tweets Someday

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By Gerry Shih

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Twitter will soon roll out a free tool for users to handpick and publish selections of tweets, reflecting the company’s commitment to remain a neutral, interactive platform rather than become a media company, CEO Dick Costolo said Friday.

The new tool will allow users, including journalists, to manually curate and display tweets to accompany breaking news events.

“We’ve known for a long time that for events in the real world, the shared experience is on Twitter,” Costolo said at the Online News Association conference in San Francisco. “We want to create an ability to curate those events.”

Costolo dismissed speculation that Twitter had plans to operate like a traditional media company, following a recent move to restrict access to tweets only through its website or official app. Previously, many users could read tweets through third-party applications with extra features.

Observers had widely predicted that Twitter, founded in 2006, is intent on treating its stream of published tweets much like a traditional media product that it has full control over, and which it can charge for advertising.

“It’s not about being a destination,” Costolo said. “I’m a huge believer in syndication. Platform companies always outflank and outlast point solutions and individual products.”

The decision to tighten control over tweets came after the company realized it had invested significant resources in its service, but other companies were making money off of it without adding “accretive value,” Costolo said.

“We were spending all this money” eliminate fake accounts and improve the Twitter experience, Costolo said, but users still had a “choice” of “experiences.” Fake accounts may be created by spammers or impersonators.

But the company has promised to unlock Twitter’s full interactive potential once it has regained control over how users access Twitter across desktop computers and mobile devices.

Soon, users will see tweet boxes, known as cards, include live features that will look nothing like the 140-character messages units that they evolved in the early days of the service.

Costolo offered examples of interactive features, such as live polls for the NBA All Star game showing real-time results directly within a tweet box.

“We want to migrate to a world in which the 140 characters can serve as a caption for additional functionality,” Costolo said. “We’d like that to include things like real-time data, even an application functionality.”

One of the services available on third-party clients but not from Twitter itself – the ability for a user to download the full archive of his or her tweets – will be available by the end of the year, Costolo predicted.

In the hour-long talk, Costolo also revealed the scorching pace of expansion at his company. Twitter, which relocated into new offices in central San Francisco in July, now boasts 1,300 employees, more than three times its headcount just 18 months.

(Reporting By Gerry Shih; Editing by Richard Chang)

Bill O’Reilly: Mitt Romney Is Losing Because Of The Internet

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Why is Mitt Romney falling behind in the polls?

It’s the Internet’s fault, Bill O’Reilly claims.

“Everybody is now diverted, their attention is diverted, because they have machines 24-7,” the Fox News host said on his show Thursday, explaining his theory that the electorate’s ignorance may just be what’s fueling Romney’s slide in the polls.

“They’re texting, whatever they’re doing. They don’t have time to read, they don’t have time to watch news programs, they don’t have time to do anything. They catch little things here and there. But I’m thinking that maybe the electorate in America is so dumbed down now…by the Internet, that’s all they do now,” he continued.

O’Reilly’s guest host Laura Ingraham agreed with the theory.

“I think you’re onto something. Very much so,” she said, adding that many voters seem to only pay attention to “pop culture moments” rather than the “really, really serious problems facing America.”

But O’Reilly and Ingraham were quick to point out that their Fox News audience was exempt from this criticism.

“We’re not talking about you guys. You guys are engaged,” O’Reilly said.

This is not the first time that the political pundit has blamed the Internet for a politician’s woes.

Last year, in the wake of the sex scandal involving Arnold Schwarzenegger, O’Reilly said that “cowardly sociopaths” on the Internet who “hide in the weeds in their basements” were behind the former governor’s downfall, Gawker notes.

h/t: Media Matters via Salon

Bill O’Reilly: Mitt Romney Is Losing Because Of The Internet

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Why is Mitt Romney falling behind in the polls?

It’s the Internet’s fault, Bill O’Reilly claims.

“Everybody is now diverted, their attention is diverted, because they have machines 24-7,” the Fox News host said on his show Thursday, explaining his theory that the electorate’s ignorance may just be what’s fueling Romney’s slide in the polls.

“They’re texting, whatever they’re doing. They don’t have time to read, they don’t have time to watch news programs, they don’t have time to do anything. They catch little things here and there. But I’m thinking that maybe the electorate in America is so dumbed down now…by the Internet, that’s all they do now,” he continued.

O’Reilly’s guest host Laura Ingraham agreed with the theory.

“I think you’re onto something. Very much so,” she said, adding that many voters seem to only pay attention to “pop culture moments” rather than the “really, really serious problems facing America.”

But O’Reilly and Ingraham were quick to point out that their Fox News audience was exempt from this criticism.

“We’re not talking about you guys. You guys are engaged,” O’Reilly said.

This is not the first time that the political pundit has blamed the Internet for a politician’s woes.

Last year, in the wake of the sex scandal involving Arnold Schwarzenegger, O’Reilly said that “cowardly sociopaths” on the Internet who “hide in the weeds in their basements” were behind the former governor’s downfall, Gawker notes.

h/t: Media Matters via Salon

Can Children Buy Booze On eBay?

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The Internet can already seem like a dangerous place for a child. There are the persistent concerns of cyber bullies and sexual predators, as well as a child’s potential exposure to inappropriate content like pornography.

But now it seems that there’s yet another hazard to add to the list: underage drinking.

ABC News’ “20/20″ reports that children could very easily obtain alcohol online from websites like eBay:

We asked Xander, 13, to head to [eBay] and try to buy liquor there. One vendor refused to sell his product when Xander and a “20/20″ producer declined to send a copy of an ID showing that the buyer was of legal drinking age. But Xander was able to successfully place an order with two other vendors.

“All I had to do was type in vodka on the search bar, click one button and it can send it to my house,” Xander told “20/20.” (A “20/20″ producer paid for the purchases.)

Visit ABC News to learn how eBay responded to the news.

In May, a study conducted at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill found that underage individuals who attempted to buy alcoholic beverages online were successful in 45 percent of attempts.

“We were amazed at how easy it was,” said Rebecca Williams, the UNC researcher who led the study. “With just a few clicks on their computers or smartphones, kids can order alcohol and have it delivered to their homes.”

Eight under-21 youths participated in the study, placing orders at 100 Internet sites that sell alcohol. They successfully purchased alcohol on 45 out of 100 attempts.

The participants were allowed to lie about their age when making purchases, but they did not use fake IDs and had to provide their real IDs if asked. According to the study, “only 12 orders failed immediately when the participant placed the online order or shortly afterward.”

Researchers found that the problem does not merely lie in the lack of protective barriers in place, but also in the sheer number of alcohol vendors that one can choose from:

In 2007, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, there were 225 internet vendors that primarily sold alcohol; they were responsible for $2.4 billion in annual sales. In 2009, when Williams and her team searched for alcohol vendors, they found more than 5,000. “We had to stop searching at 5,000 because of budgetary constraints,” Williams says.

So if one website denies a child access to alcohol, there are still thousands of other sites that he or she can turn to.

“The fact that there are literally thousands of online outlets selling alcohol and that purchase attempts by underage persons are successful almost half of the time tells us how insufficient the protections are for our youth,” David Jernigan, director of the Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth at Johns Hopkins School of Public Health in Baltimore, told Bloomberg in May. “The bottom line is that alcohol regulation and enforcement are simply not keeping up with new technologies.”

Richard Branson Plans To Start Mars Colony

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Richard Branson is going to Mars.

The British billionaire and adventurer, whose company, Virgin Galactic, is among the world’s most prominent space tourism firms, told several news outlets this week that he hopes to start a community of humans on the Red Planet.

“Obviously, you are going to want scientists initially,” Branson told The New York Post Tuesday evening at a chic Conde Nast event in Manhattan honoring tourism visionaries. “You’re going to want physicians, you’re going to want comedians, you’re going to want fun people, beautiful people, ugly people — a good cross-section of what happens on Earth — on Mars. People have got to be able to get on together, because it’s going to be quite confined.”

In a separate interview with CBS, Branson, 62, said that in his lifetime starting a population on Mars is “absolutely realistic. It will happen.” (The average life expectancy of males in Britain is 78, so we can expect to see a Martian neighborhood pop up in the next 16 years, if Branson’s prediction is accurate.)

A study based on NASA data released last year found that areas of the planet may be more habitable than previously thought. Some three percent of Mars could sustain life, the report by The Australian National University concluded. A large portion of the planet’s habitable area, the study noted, is underground.

New findings on the possibility of humans populating Mars is likely on its way. On August 6th, NASA’s newest Mars rover, the Curiosity, touched down on the planet after an eight-month flight. Early images made headlines, and prompted NASA scientists to compare the Martian landscape to “portions of the Southwest United States.”

Virgin Galactic, for its part, is a leader in the growing pack of private space firms that are trying to cash in on the cosmos. In the wake of President Obama ending NASA-funded space flights in July 2011, a host of space entrepreneurs are launching intergalactic business models. Branson’s firm is preparing to offer commercial space flights at $200,000 for a two-hour trip, likely in the next year. Planetary Resources, another space startup, recently announced plans to sell raw materials extracted from near-Earth asteroids.

“You’ve got a Democratic party who have decided, ‘Let’s now let private enterprises take this forward,’” Branson told CBS Tuesday. “I think they’re absolutely right. The private companies can do it at a fraction of the price.”

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Kayley Kravitz: Farewell to Facebook

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I’ll admit it: when I originally deactivated my Facebook account in fall 2011, I did it to hide. I’d chickened out of graduate school abroad. My first “serious” relationship had come to a spectacular end. Explaining myself to almost everyone I had ever known was a terrifying prospect. In my own small way, I chose to emulate my teenage hero Richey Edwards and simply disappeared.

It’s been almost a year and I can’t say that I miss Facebook one bit. Sure, I lost touch with some acquaintances but that was inevitable when I moved to the other side of the country. I have a new found appreciation for emails and Gchat. Certain friends I converse with almost daily on Gchat; others I hear from every few weeks in the form of a lengthy email or old-fashioned phone call. I’m still in contact with my closest friends. I’ve got Twitter (under a pseudonym) to keep me abreast of interesting things happening in San Francisco.

While it has been debated, studies have shown that Facebook contributes to depression and feelings of extreme loneliness. Even some of my most well adjusted friends have commented on the constant stream of engagement and wedding photos making them question their own life choices. How could it not? Instead of being happy with our own lives and focusing on personal timelines and milestones, we’re constantly bombarded with the news of our friends’ accomplishments. While we can be happy for them, it’s exhausting when we feel like we have to keep up.

Our online identities are carefully crafted. We choose only our most attractive photos to display on our profiles. We write status updates about the exciting things we’re doing, places we’re going and people we’re with. When you’re sitting alone in your room on a Friday night listening to Morrissey, it’s easy to forget that your Facebook news feed is only a tiny fraction of what is happening in your friends’ lives. It’s only what they choose to share. Most people don’t share the bad stuff. I know it’s silly but I fell for the Facebook fiction. I felt like everyone had these fabulous, fulfilling lives while I was on the outside looking in.

Horror stories have been published about employers asking for job applicants’ Facebook passwords. Recently, psychologists discovered that employers frown upon applicants without a Facebook presence. The lack of a profile raises many red flags: is this person anti-social? Was once tagged in too many party photos? Is he or she just pretentious?

It’s clear that the work/life balance we once had is gone. Most employers used to respect an employee’s personal life. Now, it can make or break your chances of being hired. In 2010, I landed my first post-college job. My boss joked that he almost didn’t hire me because my Facebook page was unsearchable. Now I think he may have actually been serious.

With all of the negative press against Facebook (going public, anyone?) I can’t help but wonder if it’s slowly but surely going the way of MySpace. Facebook is no longer just a social media tool; it’s overrun with advertisements and games. I loved Facebook while I was in college. It was a great way to keep in touch with my friends at different universities. It made organizing campus events a breeze. Now that I’m in the real world, Facebook just grates on me. Like Noel Gallagher once sang, “Am I cracking up or just getting older?” I don’t think I’m alone in my feelings as it’s gradually becoming cool to not be on Facebook.

Deactivating Facebook is incredibly freeing. I still have an Internet presence — you can find me on LinkedIn and if you dig hard enough, even Twitter and Tumblr. I’m not trying to pretend like I was a Facebook saint when I had it. It’s embarrassing now but I was the queen of “vaguebooking.” A combination of passive aggression and sad song lyrics, I never wanted to directly address things that made me upset. It’s a typical mindset when you’re 22. Without Facebook I have more time to cultivate close friendships with people, even ones on the other side of the world. While I still maintain an Internet presence, I can focus on my professional appearance rather than my social one.

Kayley Kravitz: Farewell to Facebook

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I’ll admit it: when I originally deactivated my Facebook account in fall 2011, I did it to hide. I’d chickened out of graduate school abroad. My first “serious” relationship had come to a spectacular end. Explaining myself to almost everyone I had ever known was a terrifying prospect. In my own small way, I chose to emulate my teenage hero Richey Edwards and simply disappeared.

It’s been almost a year and I can’t say that I miss Facebook one bit. Sure, I lost touch with some acquaintances but that was inevitable when I moved to the other side of the country. I have a new found appreciation for emails and Gchat. Certain friends I converse with almost daily on Gchat; others I hear from every few weeks in the form of a lengthy email or old-fashioned phone call. I’m still in contact with my closest friends. I’ve got Twitter (under a pseudonym) to keep me abreast of interesting things happening in San Francisco.

While it has been debated, studies have shown that Facebook contributes to depression and feelings of extreme loneliness. Even some of my most well adjusted friends have commented on the constant stream of engagement and wedding photos making them question their own life choices. How could it not? Instead of being happy with our own lives and focusing on personal timelines and milestones, we’re constantly bombarded with the news of our friends’ accomplishments. While we can be happy for them, it’s exhausting when we feel like we have to keep up.

Our online identities are carefully crafted. We choose only our most attractive photos to display on our profiles. We write status updates about the exciting things we’re doing, places we’re going and people we’re with. When you’re sitting alone in your room on a Friday night listening to Morrissey, it’s easy to forget that your Facebook news feed is only a tiny fraction of what is happening in your friends’ lives. It’s only what they choose to share. Most people don’t share the bad stuff. I know it’s silly but I fell for the Facebook fiction. I felt like everyone had these fabulous, fulfilling lives while I was on the outside looking in.

Horror stories have been published about employers asking for job applicants’ Facebook passwords. Recently, psychologists discovered that employers frown upon applicants without a Facebook presence. The lack of a profile raises many red flags: is this person anti-social? Was once tagged in too many party photos? Is he or she just pretentious?

It’s clear that the work/life balance we once had is gone. Most employers used to respect an employee’s personal life. Now, it can make or break your chances of being hired. In 2010, I landed my first post-college job. My boss joked that he almost didn’t hire me because my Facebook page was unsearchable. Now I think he may have actually been serious.

With all of the negative press against Facebook (going public, anyone?) I can’t help but wonder if it’s slowly but surely going the way of MySpace. Facebook is no longer just a social media tool; it’s overrun with advertisements and games. I loved Facebook while I was in college. It was a great way to keep in touch with my friends at different universities. It made organizing campus events a breeze. Now that I’m in the real world, Facebook just grates on me. Like Noel Gallagher once sang, “Am I cracking up or just getting older?” I don’t think I’m alone in my feelings as it’s gradually becoming cool to not be on Facebook.

Deactivating Facebook is incredibly freeing. I still have an Internet presence — you can find me on LinkedIn and if you dig hard enough, even Twitter and Tumblr. I’m not trying to pretend like I was a Facebook saint when I had it. It’s embarrassing now but I was the queen of “vaguebooking.” A combination of passive aggression and sad song lyrics, I never wanted to directly address things that made me upset. It’s a typical mindset when you’re 22. Without Facebook I have more time to cultivate close friendships with people, even ones on the other side of the world. While I still maintain an Internet presence, I can focus on my professional appearance rather than my social one.

Jure Klepic: Today’s Visualization Tools Help Our Brains Understand Social Monitoring

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My last post, “Taking Multi-Dimensional Marketing to the Next Level,” touched on the amazing capacity of the human brain for learning. Through the process of plasticity, we can interpret more complex messages and make decisions faster than we ever believed was possible. With the amount of input coming at us from all ends of the social universe, tools are being developed that can help our brains quickly sort through this information. Tickr is a visual monitoring tool that helps process information and makes it easy to understand. Similar to a stock ticker that provides information needed to make investment decisions, Tickr provides social media information needed to make marketing decisions.

In its teacher’s guide on the brain, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) states that plasticity relates to the brain’s ability to change and reorganize in response to some input. Our brains can form new synapses or strengthen old ones if nurtured and engaged, but can also lose brain functioning if not exercised and challenged regularly. Plasticity is the ability of our brains to change with learning. Social media, when used properly, can keep our brains engaged so we continue to grow and develop. The story changes somewhat, however, for those who are trying to monitor social media for the purpose of brand marketing. Currently these companies and agencies have a number of platforms which are constantly providing information and updates. While their brains are learning to sort through this information avalanche, Tickr points out the crucial bits of information they need to make decisions relating to their product, service or brand.

Companies engaged in brand marketing use Tickr to filter social media mentions in real time and display results in sync with their performance metrics. Case studies show that PepsiCo Gatorade uses Tickr to identify key online influences while Global Financial Services uses it to see the impact of real-word news. Banks of computer screens may have information from other platforms, but often the one displaying the Tickr information is the one that receives attention first.

How Tickr and others adds to social monitoring? “The problem with many existing dashboards is that they quickly overwhelm the senses. They’re powerful tools, but they are also very complicated. Now multiply that by five or ten screens, which is increasingly common with digital control centers at big agencies and large consumer brands, and have a degree of complexity and data overload that can actually hinder rather than facilitate monitoring and analysis of digital events. Tickr simplifies the presentation of digital data by selecting the most relevant information, and displaying it in a way that the human brain can quickly and easily process.” said Olivier Blanchard, the author of Social Media ROI.

Many brands and agencies use tools like Radian6, BrandWatch and Pulse for social media monitoring purposes, but adding Tickr makes the process smoother and easier to understand. Blanchard adds, “Tickr doesn’t compete against those other tools; its value is multiplied when used in conjunction with them. Conversely, their value is enhanced when the most relevant digital information — call it macro-information — can be garnered at a glance at one screen. Tickr allows digital and social monitoring managers to quickly go from a macro-view to a micro-view without having to dive into layers of drill-down menus. It’s a force-multiplier in any monitoring platform ecosystem. It provides the fastest view of what is happening across the most pertinent channels: news, blogs, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, even your own internal data, like sales. That’s powerful.”

In a section titled “Neuroanthropology, Understanding the Encultured Brain and Body,” Daniel Lende talks about Timothy Ingold’s assessment of the social brain. Ingold was incensed that Robin Dunbar tried to isolate the study of the human brain and separate it from its social functionings. Ingold says that the brain must be considered as part of the universe because our bodies are part of the world.

Tickr is a tool that helps our brains function as a part of the larger, rapidly changing social universe in which we live today.

Patrick Mott: It’s a Connected World

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It’s true: Everywhere we turn there’s technology, and truth be told, we can’t escape it. Think about it — I bet there isn’t one place you can think of where there isn’t technology. We’re just a connected society. We constantly want to be in touch. Smartphones, Twitter and Facebook don’t make it easy for us to disconnect either.

But what happens when we do disconnect? Well, it happened to me and let me tell you, you don’t know fear until technology breaks down (OK, maybe that’s a stretch!). But recently, Apple’s iCloud mail service went down, affecting about one percent of all users. As luck would have it, I was part of that one percent — my email was down and sheer panic set in. Some people may say that’s a bit of an overreaction, but it’s a legitimate fear (‘FOMO,’ or fear of missing out). So what does happen when we, much to our dismay, are forced to disconnect? There is a constant fear that we will miss out on something. And in your head, you can’t stop thinking of what you may miss out on.

But that just isn’t healthy. For almost 48 hours while my email was down, I was in constant fear that I would miss something. As NBC New York reports, depression and anxiety many times can be attributed to FOMO. We live in a world where news is constantly evolving and changing — one minute it’s about the iPhone 5, the next it’s about Britney Spear’s debut on “X Factor.” This is why social media, especially microblogging sites such as Twitter, can be very dangerous. We’re so used to being connected and ‘with it’ that when we’re not, something seems extremely wrong.

So why is it that some can’t just check Twitter for something to do? It turns into a compulsive activity where we constantly need to know and be a part of what’s going on. While some may argue that knowledge is power, getting to the point where you almost have a panic attack when your email is down is just plain ridiculous. Yahoo! News recently reported that nearly 40 percent of 2,000 social media users surveyed stated they would rather do any of the following than give up social media:

Wait in line at the DMV
Read War and Peace
Do their taxes
Give up an hour of sleep each night for a year
Run a marathon
Sit in traffic for four hours while listening to polka music
Get a root canal
Spend a night in jail
Clean the drains in the showers at the local gym
Give up their air conditioner/heater

You may be thinking, “Is disconnection really possible?” Well, a on a five-day vacation, a self-proclaimed social media addict and CNN journalist, Kiran Khalid, gave up social media. Not surprisingly, by disconnecting from obsessively tweeting and checking social media, she really did enjoy her trip.

Here are some quick tips to help you disconnect:

Start by telling your followers that you plan on taking a break or are limiting your use
Set limits on when you’ll use it. For instance, you could set a daily limit of how many times you’ll check social media.
Avoid it — well, not entirely. But many teens have their social networks on their smartphones; keep your phone away from you for a bit so you’re not tempted!
Be realistic. Social media is meant to be fun and informative, so try and keep it that way!

The bottom line is this:In a digital age, we’re connected in so many ways. But remember that it’s not the end of the world if you miss out on being the first to retweet Kim Kardashian’s tweet or the first to know that the iPhone 5 was unveiled. Remember to take the time to disconnect from the world. We all need it, even when we think we don’t. So next time you’re on vacation and you see a beautiful ocean, enjoy it — don’t Instagram it.

Edward J. Black: Internet Freedom in Democrat, Republican Platforms Is a Good Start

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President Obama met young voters on their own turf recently as he fielded online questions in an open, “ask me anything” Reddit forum. The event, which drew two million people to the social news site and crashed servers, illustrates the Internet’s potential not just as a two-way communication medium, but as a way to change the relationship between the government and those they govern.

The tremendous power of the Internet as a means for political communications is just one reason I was greatly relieved to see measures that would curtail freedom of expression like SOPA put on indefinite hold in Congress and measures like fair use and safe harbors on the table for negotiations in the 21st century trade agreement — Trans-Pacific Partnership, under negotiation in Leesburg, Va., this week.

Another key step towards recognizing the value of Internet openness was seen when both the Republicans and Democrats added Internet freedom provisions to their party platforms.

Both parties support the current multistakeholder approach to Internet governance and promise that they will oppose efforts by some countries to impose more government control over the Internet.

While they agree on this international issue, the party platforms differ on government involvement in cybersecurity and privacy with the Republicans slating these as issues for the private sector. The Republicans, however, do trumpet an all too often forgotten area of privacy — how governments treat private, electronic information. That’s often even more critical as citizens often don’t have a choice about information they share with government or with electronic information the government takes action to obtain. In the Republican platform, personal data gets “full constitutional protection from government overreach.”

The Democratic platform also says that using federal funds to increase Internet access in rural and underserved areas can create jobs opportunities and boost the economy. The Obama administration so far has invested $7.2 billion in stimulus money to expand Internet access mostly to anchor institutions likes schools and hospitals in rural areas, coming under criticism from fiscal conservatives.

While neither President Obama nor Mitt Romney’s acceptance speech mentioned the goal of Internet freedom, Obama did renew his commitment to math and science education, asking for support to recruit 100,000 math and science teachers over the next 10 years, sounding much like President Clinton’s program to put 100,000 additional police on the streets.

Aside from keeping the tech economy growing by fueling it with new, qualified, talent, there are few budget items on the tech industry’s agenda. The tech industry is proud to be such a bright spot in this recovering economy, and there are encouraging signs the country is going in the right direction with more broadband deployment and a renewed commitment to balanced intellectual property policy and Internet freedom.

At first glance this news story about letting a baby dance to a Prince song on YouTube, as this Economist article highlights, is different and will no doubt appear in a different news category than Internet blackouts in Egypt, but the principle behind both issues is similar.

Whether the issue of the day is copyright infringement or open Internet access, censorship or a trade agreement, what the U.S. and the rest of the world could most use is an Internet freedom platform on which to base their daily policy challenges. These seemingly separate issues are united, or should be united, by common principles that support Internet freedom.

As countries that support free speech face a range of threats to Internet freedom from Internet restricting countries as well as those with good intentions who want to restrict the Internet to combat social ills, having a written document stating common principles and practices to maintain the open Internet could only help.

T-Mobile’s Galaxy S Relay 4G launches Sept. 19 for $149 on two year contract

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T-Mobile’s Galaxy S Relay 4G launches Sept. 19 for $149 on two year contract

According to a recent news release by T-Mobile, its latest QWERTY Android smartphone is going to launch on September 19 for the affordable contract price of $149 on a two year contract.

Announced only four days ago, the Samsung Galaxy S Relay 4G will be available for consumer purchase in-store and online in just nine days.  Specs and features found on the Galaxy S Relay 4G includes a 1.5GHz dual-core Snapdragon S3 processor, 1GB of RAM, Android 4.0, a 4 inch Super AMOLED display, 5 row QWERTY keyboard, 5MP rear facing camera, 1.3MP front facing camera, and 4G HSPA+ connectivity.

The $149 price comes after a $50 MIR and represents the Classic plan price.

Alex Palombo: Twitter, Facebook and Mobile Ads: Why They Matter

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In a reassuring report that proved young people stuck around after the VMAs, President Obama’s speech last week at the DNC produced a record of 52,757 tweets a minute on Twitter. The week before, Governor Romney’s speech sparked 14,239 tweets a minute. The disparity could be explained a few different ways — Romney’s voters are most likely older while Obama’s base is younger and grew up technologically literate, Romney’s speech was very similar to his past stump speeches and there was nothing new to tweet about, Romney is really a goof and Obama is far more cool, take your pick.

But setting aside the disparity between these figures, what these numbers mean is that people are watching television differently, and mobile social technology is growing in importance in current events. Rather than waiting to talk around the water cooler the next day, people are picking up their phones and crowding around the virtual water coolers of Twitter and Facebook to talk about it now.

I’m not pointing this out to say that people tweeting are important to politics. I point it out to show how Twitter and Facebook are important as not only social networking sites, but as powerful and influential mobile platforms — platforms that progressives and Democrats should be seriously looking at as more than just tools for feedback and praise.

Twitter users are more likely than not to be using the site on a mobile device rather than a traditional computer, and Twitter has been proven to drive more sales than Facebook.

This means that to be successful, progressive politicians and advertisers should tailor their message to fit a smartphone app — what looks good on a computer might not necessarily look good on a phone. And with 25 percent of Internet users relying on smart phones and other mobile devices like tablets and mp3 players rather than computers or laptops, an ad being unappealing on an app mobile platform is, as Biden would term, a BFD.

This visual breakdown of the applications is purely opinion, but the format of the mobile apps for both Twitter and Facebook may be to blame for this disparity in sales. On an iPhone, the mobile Facebook app looks (more or less) like this:

2012-09-07-facebook_0.jpg

On the app, each message is a small box, within a list of larger boxes, with a toolbar and a sidebar and, yes, more boxes. There’s buttons to swap to your friends list, to your news feed, to your events, and to your personal messages. It’s a lot happening on a 3.5-inch screen. As the photo shows, advertisements tend to be smaller than status updates, making them difficult to see — and if you can’t see an ad, it’s not effective.

The Twitter app is less busy, and looks like this:

2012-09-07-b_twitter_for_iphone_and_android_updated.jpg

The Twitter app format is really just a list of statuses with links to photos. When you click on the link, the application takes you to a separate screen to see a preview the link or photo it’s talking about. This is great for advertisers because the 140-character limit already marries well with short, punchy slogans, and gives you the option of linking to your product site or photo.

I think the key with this one is how easy news and advertisements are to share. On Twitter, you can slide your finger over any given message and hit the “Retweet” button, whereas on Facebook’s application, the share button is harder to find. It allows ads and tweets to go viral so much more quickly than on the Facebook mobile app, which makes it attractive to advertisers; essentially, people who like your ad will spread it for you.

It’s only a shame so few people use Google+, because in addition to making sharing and commenting easy, the mobile app is visually stunning.

This “viral” element and the ease of sharing is the new way of spreading a message in politics. And the immediacy of social media, coupled with the immediacy of news media, makes social media platforms the perfect venues for a campaign to virtually reach out to voters. With the GOP outspending the Democratic Party by tens of millions of dollars, this viral, user-driven spread of campaign advertisements is cost effective and more interactive than traditional advertising.

By its mobile nature, this strategy targets the millenial generation of voters — the recently registered first-time voters who live on their cell phones. The voters who are most likely to be helped by Democrats’ plans for more Pell Grant funding, student loan reforms, protection of contraceptive rights and health care programs.

More than that, this smartphone-based campaign tactic offers more than the “viral” factor — they offer progressives a wider socioeconomic base of people looking at their advertisements and campaign material. According to a study by the Pew Research group, more low-income Internet users are purchasing smartphones rather than computers and using them to connect online — rather than paying for a computer and an Internet bill every month, they simply have to pay a phone bill. And in an election so laser-focused on the economy, welfare and health care, aren’t these the very voters that Obama and progressives are trying to reach?