WWWorld.ru · Темы дня · Разделы дня · Интересы дня · 2012 · Свежие новости

Motorola began shipping its new Atrix 2 smartphone to wireless carriers in selected markets such as New Zealand, Singapore and Thailand this month. Even better, the Atrix 2 is currently available in the U.S. through AT&T, a Motorola Mobility spokesperson said Friday. Priced at $99.99 for customers signing up for a two-year service contract, AT&T's Atrix 2 smartphone can double as a mobile entertainment center for road warriors and globe-trotting business executives -- even as it delivers a range of business security and productivity features. On the enterprise side, for example, the Atrix 2 offers data encryption on both the device and the SD card. Other business-class features include PIN lock, password protection and inactivity timeouts. What's more, IT departments also gain the ability to wipe the phone remotely if lost or stolen. Additionally, AT&T's enhanced Internet Protocol virtual private network, or IP VPN, provides business users with corporate access across multiple IP-based infrastructures in more than 60 countries. The Atrix 2 is currently powered by Google's Android 2.3 platform, also known as Gingerbread. However, Motorola Mobility plans to deliver "Ice Cream Sandwich" Android 4.0 upgrades to Atrix 2 users based in the United States, Latin America, Asia-Pacific and other selected markets beginning in the third quarter of 2012. Under the Hood The Atrix 2 has a 4.3-inch, touch-sensitive TFT display with 540x960-pixel resolution, and is equipped with a 1GHz, dual-core processor, 1 GB of RAM, 8 GB of ROM and a 2 GB microSD card that can be expanded to a maximum of 32 GB of data storage. Beyond its built-in GSM, UMTS and HSPA+ cellular network radios, the Atrix 2 also offers users standard Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n and Bluetooth 2.1+EDR wireless connectivity options. Other hardware capabilities under the hood include an e-compass as well as accelerometer, light and proximity sensors. Additionally,... newsfactor.com »

When Benjamin Gleitzman moved from New York to the San Francisco Bay area, he used a talking turn-by-turn driving app to guide him across the country. In the middle of Wyoming, the voice told him to turn left where there was no road. Rather than complain to the maker of the app, called Waze, he logged in and made a note for anyone else who happened to drive that way that the road wasn't there. It was a small gesture of consideration to his fellow travelers. But such niceties have started to add up. Taking a page from Wikipedia, services like Waze have marshaled armies of unpaid contributors and their GPS-equipped smartphones to map wide swaths of the world from scratch. Consumers, companies and even disaster relief organizations have come to rely increasingly on such "crowdsourced" maps and their key advantage: When the landscape changes, so can the map. "I can see that it gets incrementally better every day," said Gleitzman, a 25-year-old programmer, who these days depends on Waze to steer him around traffic during his commute, thanks to hundreds of users in and around San Francisco whose cars' speeds and locations are tracked automatically as they run the app. Waze started in Tel Aviv in 2006 as an open-source mapping project called Freemap and today claims 14 million drivers around the world, including more than one million in Israel alone. Of those total users, the company says about 45,000 are dedicated map editors, while another 5,000 serve as regional managers to ensure the accuracy of the maps of their parts of the world. In a video animation CEO Noam Bardin likes to show to highlight the power of the crowd, a blank screen is filled with colorful lines representing the highways and streets traveled by Waze users in Tel Aviv over 24 hours... newsfactor.com »

The Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) trend is in force, but employees want more than the ability to use their own devices on the corporate network -- they also want more flexibility in the way and when and where they work. So says Cisco. The Cisco Connected World Technology Report found that more than 40 percent of college students and young employees said they would accept a lower-paying job that had more flexibility with regard to device choice and mobility than a higher-paying job with less flexibility. Cisco has a solution: a unified wireless policy that promises to support a consistent user experience and simplify network management. The networking software is based on Cisco's Borderless Network architecture and connects wired, wireless LAN, cellular and VPN through Cisco's Identity Services Engine. Dubbed Cisco Unified Wireless Network Software Release 7.2, the software is now available globally. "BYOD is not just about connecting user-owned devices and allowing guest access," said Rebecca Jacoby, senior vice president and CIO at Cisco. "It's about what you do after that. That's when things get interesting." Consistent User Experience The key word with Cisco's solution is consistency. Cisco is promising to help IT optimize the experience for various users with any type of device, and any type of desktop -- native or virtual -- across the wired or wireless network. "Dealing with networks and devices is difficult for network managers today because you have to set independent wireless policies for your wired and wireless networks," said Zeus Kerravala, principal at ZK Research. "Cisco is trying to make it possible for users to stop thinking about the concept of wired and wireless access. By creating a uniform consistent experience with users so they know what to expect. That's a big challenge for IT today. When users know what to expect they tend to be... newsfactor.com »

As every business and many consumers know, information is power. And, once again, there's a public struggle between Facebook and some of its users over who controls that power. The stimulus for this most recent firestorm is a revision by the company of its Privacy Policy. Last week, Facebook published its proposed changes for the site's Statement of Rights and Responsibilities, which describes its relationship with its users, including privacy issues. The company said in a statement that "many of the changes are administrative," such as replacing the term Privacy Policy with Data Use Policy, but the revisions are not going over well with some users. 'I Reject the Changes' The proposed statement draft was posted with the intention of receiving user comments for up to one week, but that was enough time for a significant number of thumbs-down opinions from users in the U.S. and elsewhere. For instance, more than 30,000 members of the German-language Facebook site all delivered the same, single sentence in their native language, which translated as "I reject the changes." One concern is the revised language describing what information is available to which apps. The relevant line currently reads, "When you use an application, your content and information is shared with the application." The proposed revision reads, "When you or others who can see your content use an application...." To some users, that raises alarms about apps installed by friends being able to read your information. Facebook replies that their current policy already allows this, and that the new wording is simply intended to make the policy as clear as possible. The company noted that users can go into Privacy Settings and control whether apps have access to their information. Another bone of contention is simply that the word "privacy" is being replaced by references to "data use," but Facebook and others... newsfactor.com »

In a move to appease privacy advocates and consumers alike, Yahoo on Thursday announced plans to implement a "Do Not Track" tool across its global network of Web sites by early summer. That would make Yahoo the first major search-engine player to take the step. Do Not Track is a common term to describe a way for people to opt out of online behavioral advertising. Yahoo's Do Not Track tool has been in development since last year and is almost ready for prime time. Yahoo said its tool is in accordance with the Digital Advertising Alliance's principles. This sitewide Do Not Track mechanism -- which also includes Yahoo-owned Right Media and Interclick -- promises to provide a simple step for consumers to express their ad targeting preferences on Yahoo sites. "Yahoo has decided, for PR reasons, to get out in front of Do Not Track and be seen as responsive to consumers and their privacy concerns rather than dragging their feet," said Greg Sterling, principal analyst at Sterling Market Intelligence. "Everyone eventually will need to do some version of this. Yahoo is wise to seize the initiative and gain the positive exposure that will come with it." Mozilla's Do Not Track Version Mozilla plans to offer a feature to let users opt out of online behavioral advertising. Dubbed Do Not Track, it's the Firefox maker's latest effort to put users in control of their Web experience. Mozilla is proposing a feature that allows Firefox browser users to set a preference that will broadcast their desire to opt out of third-party, advertising-based tracking by transmitting a Do Not Track HTTP header with every click or page view in Firefox. "When the feature is enabled and users turn it on, Web sites will be told by Firefox that a user would like to opt out" of online behavioral advertising,... newsfactor.com »

Numerous Web sites remained shut down [in China] as the Communist government sought to penalize popular social media sites for circulating rumors of a coup. The state-run Xinhua News Agency said Beijing police questioned and admonished an unspecified number of Internet users and detained six people for "fabricating or spreading" online rumors. The government shut down 16 Web sites, including two Twitter-like services that have more than 250 million users. The microblogging services -- known as weibo in Chinese -- Sina and Tencent had their comment functions disabled to "clean up" rumors that included talk of "military vehicles entering Beijing and something wrong going on in Beijing," the state Internet Information Office told Xinhua. Twitter, like Facebook and YouTube, is banned because the Chinese government wanted more control over the services. The Chinese Web sites went wild with rumors after the unexplained dismissal March 15 of Bo Xilai, the party chief of Chongqing city, who was rising high within the party ranks but has not been seen in public since then. The ambitious son of a revolutionary Maoist leader, Bo had hopes, now dashed, of an appointment this year to China's top decision-making body, the nine-member Politburo Standing Committee. His fall came soon after a scandal made unusually public by Chinese Internet users: the attempted flight of Bo's onetime police chief. Wang Lijun spent a night in a U.S. Consulate in Chengdu in March but was refused asylum and handed over to China's feared state security. Wang, who built a reputation for busting organized crime, also disappeared. The Chinese government said he left his job to relieve "stress." The government's actions this weekend indicate its difficulty operating with its traditional secrecy because of the explosion of Internet and cellphone use in China. Internet users top half a billion, and mobile phone accounts now exceed 1billion, according to government data. For... newsfactor.com »

With all the social media out there, can't someone figure out a way to use social networking to help save energy? One environmental group believes it has found a way. On Tuesday, Opower announced a new "social energy app" that can be used with Facebook friends to compare energy usage. The organization said in a statement that the app, the result of a six-month development effort, is intended to help users find energy savings opportunities, in a spirit of friendly competition and shared information between friends, schools, non-profit organizations, or companies. 16 Participating Utilities The app, available by searching Opower on Facebook or visiting a participating utility's Web site, allows users to sign on with their Facebook login, and then connect their utility account, if their utility is a participating organization. With this data, the app allows users to compare specifics, set up contests, and use other features intended to raise informational awareness about energy use. The app is a collaboration between Opower, Facebook,and the National Resources Defense Council. Opower said it is developing new features for the app, such as connecting with smart meter and gas meter data. Previously, Opower had been delivering energy-saving information to customers of participating utilities by mail. Opower said that 16 utilities nationwide are participating in its network, representing 20 million households, or about one in every six consumer customers of electricity in the U.S. The release of the app follows, by a few months, the Green Button initiative from the White House, a challenge for utilities to enable customers to download and compare data about their energy use. Utilities currently working with Opower include ComEd in Chicago, Burbank Water & Power, Consumers Energy in Michigan, City of Palo Alto Utilities, Rochester Public Utilities, and Pacific Gas & Electric in California. Users whose utilities are not participants will need... newsfactor.com »

So you thought Macs couldn't fall prey to hackers? Think again. A Trojan horse is entering through the back door of Apple computers with a nasty payload -- and it hit more than a half-million users before Apple slammed it shut. The Flashback Trojan infects computers running Mac OS X. The massive botnet is now using upward of 550,000 infected Macs, most of which are reportedly in the United States and Canada, according to Russian anti-virus vendor Dr. Web. Here's how victims are getting infected: the Trojan is redirecting Mac users to a bogus site from a compromised resource or via a traffic distribution system. Then, Java code is used to load a Java applet that contains the exploit, Dr. Web explained. News reports indicate links to more than 4 million compromised pages were on Google at the end of March. Target On Your Mac? We asked Graham Cluley, senior security analyst at Sophos, about his thoughts on the latest attack against the Apple platform. "Undoubtedly more and more Mac users will be targeted by malware," Cluley said. "Although there is much more malware for Windows than Mac, that's not to say that Mac malware doesn't exist." Why so much focus on Mac when they have so little market share? Because, Cluley says, Mac market share is growing and, unfortunately, many Mac users have been far too laid-back when it comes to security, incorrectly believing that they're somehow immune to attacks. "Inevitably, some cybercriminals will target Mac users because they are a 'soft target' which hasn't protected itself as well as Windows users," Cluley said. "Run an anti-virus, keep your Mac patched with the latest security updates. Luckily there are free anti-virus products for Mac home users." Sophos has a free anti-virus product on its Web site. Apple has issued a patch that fixes... newsfactor.com »

Facebook's record-setting deal to gobble up a tiny but fast-growing startup is jaw-dropping. But as the cliche about government spending goes: "A billion here, a billion there and pretty soon you're talking real money." A billion dollars is the biggest payoff ever for a mobile application (a free one, no less), and will likely net co-founder and CEO Kevin Systrom -- only five years out of Stanford University -- a cool $400 million. The other co-founder, Mike Krieger, is expected to net around $100 million and much of the rest will go to making an unusually quick profit for investors. Even for a company like Facebook that is likely to be valued at $100 billion in its initial public stock offering later this spring, the sum isn't exactly chump change, and won't yield any immediate return. Eyes on the Prize But although some may see it as a sign of potential binge splurging, most analysts see it as a smart investment that shows long-term vision and a determination to head off rivals before they get to the pass. "One billion dollars to assure a $100 billion acquisition isn't a bad deal," technology consultant Rob Enderle of the Enderle Group told us hours after Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the deal (via Facebook, of course). Observers noted that fast-growing Instagram, downloaded by as many as 30 million users, was quickly becoming a Facebook competitor for photo-sharing. But Enderle believes that Zuckerberg and company were more worried about Pinterest. The invitation-only online bulletin board for topics and photos has also grown exponentially, with an estimated 10 million registered users since its closed-beta launch in March 2010. It has also racked up some impressive metrics, with users spending an average of 98 minutes per month on Pinterest, according to comScore. It is seen as particularly appealing... newsfactor.com »

Poor Instagram users. First, their beloved photo-sharing application moves from iPhone-only exclusivity to the Android phone masses. A week later, Facebook swallows up the tiny startup behind the app for $1 billion. The purchase sparked worries that Facebook might shutter Instagram or change it for the worse by harvesting their personal information or shoving ads into their carefully curated photo streams. "I've tried very hard not to be part of the Facebook ecosystem," says Darwin Poblete, a Brooklyn, New York-based architect who has used Instagram since its early days. "Now I feel like the purchase has sucked me in. I'll have to see how the privacy settings change to decide if I will leave it." Instagram has attracted more than 31 million users in less than two years. Its near-cult-like early followers were loyal iPhone users who flocked to the app for its ease-of-use, its playful filters that can make even boring photos look artistic, and its lack of ads, status updates and other clutter. Apple named Instagram the iPhone App of the Year in 2011. To be fair, both Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Instagram CEO Kevin Systorm sought to reassure people that the app is here to stay. Unlike all the other startups Facebook has bought, Instagram will remain available to people who don't use Facebook or don't want to connect it to their accounts on the world's most populous online social network, the CEOs said. "Millions of people around the world love the Instagram app and the brand associated with it, and our goal is to help spread this app and brand to even more people," Zuckerberg wrote on his Facebook page announcing the purchase on Monday. It's hard to say, though, what Facebook might do a year or two from now. After all, its site's constant evolution has been a big... newsfactor.com »

Google is tweaking its social network, Google Plus, to make it easier to use and to distinguish it from rival Facebook. The most visible change is a new navigation ribbon on the left side of the Google Plus page with icons for the most used features, such as games, photos and your personal profile. Hover over an icon to do specific tasks, such as add photos from your phone or an online album. You can reorder the features in the ribbon and hide the ones you don't use often. The changes, announced Wednesday, are designed to help Google Plus adapt more easily to growth -- and to make room for new features in the future. In a blog post, Google calls the ribbon "an obvious (and clutter-free) space for The Next Big Feature, and The Feature After That." Google Inc. CEO Larry Page has made Google Plus the centerpiece of his effort to tie all of the company's services together. Google is worried that Facebook has been carving out a competitive advantage by stockpiling valuable information about people's social circles and interests. The data has given Facebook the means to target ads precisely and deliver content tied to a user's hobbies and tastes. Google said Google Plus has attracted more than 170 million users since its debut nine months ago. That lags Facebook's 845 million user count, but it's far greater than Facebook's tally at that stage in its history. Google Plus has yet to hold most users' attention. Visitors have been spending an average of just a few minutes per month on the network, compared with six to seven hours on Facebook, according to the research firm comScore Inc. The new design could help Google retain users by making the experience more pleasant. The navigation ribbon, for instance, offers users more flexibility than Facebook in customizing a... newsfactor.com »

It's been a tough week for Google: litigation, an embarrassing Gmail outage and a fine from the Federal Communications Commission. And it's only Tuesday. The FCC issued an interim report over the weekend in which it slapped the search engine giant with a $25,000 penalty for what it said was obstruction of its investigation into how data are collected for Google's Street View mapping feature. Drop in the Bucket While that is a minuscule sum for the multibillion-dollar company, it is bad public relations after previous reprimands from the government over its failed social-media network Google Buzz, which opted Gmail users in without asking. However, Google officials could spin it positively by noting that the FCC's report found no evidence that it violated laws against eavesdropping by picking up unencrypted Wi-Fi data with its roaming Street View cars during a three-year period beginning in May 2007. That did not satisfy the Electronic Privacy Information Center, which called on U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to investigate the matter, saying the FCC did not have the authority to properly investigate. The Gmail outage began before 12:45 p.m. Eastern Standard Time on Tuesday, when Google announced on its Google Apps Status Dashboard that it was "investigating reports of an issue with Google Mail." About a half-hour later, the company said the issue affected less than 2 percent of its estimated 250 million users, but at 1:46 p.m updated that figure to "less than 10% of the Google Mail user base." The company warned: "While we have resolved this issue with Google Mail, it's possible that some users may experience message delays because affected accounts weren't available to receive messages. The messages will be successfully delivered after account access is restored." A far worse outage occurred on Feb. 24, 2009, when the entire system was inaccessible for 2-1/2 hours. The problem was... newsfactor.com »

Adobe detailed on Monday the latest version of its flagship product, Creative Suite 6. In addition to scores of new features, the mammoth release, scheduled to sell within the next 30 days, is accompanied by a new Creative Cloud and a subscription-based model. Creative Suite 6 comes in four editions -- Design and Web Premium, Design Standard, Production Premium, and Master Collection. Creative Cloud allows users to download and install all 14 CS6 applications, plus two new HTML5 products, Adobe Muse and Adobe Edge preview, plus cloud-based sync and storage. 'Radical New Way' The company said in a statement that Creative Cloud was "a radical new way of providing tools and services that will change the game for creatives worldwide." Muse allows designers to create and publish HTML5-based Web sites without writing code, and Edge provides tools to create HTML5 animations. With Creative Cloud membership, users can also deliver mobile apps they've developed to iOS and Android marketplaces through the Cloud's publishing services, or publish, manage, and host Web sites with access to Adobe Typekit and its large library of fonts for Web sites. Updates to CS6 applications will be available via the Cloud before they are generally available as updates. The Cloud also provides integration for Adobe's growing line of touch-based tools, which now include Photoshop Touch, Adobe Ideas, Adobe Collage, Adobe Debut, and Adobe Proto. With a new app for the desktop, called Creative Cloud Connection, users can sync, share, and store files across devices, up to 20 GB. The Cloud is available through a subscription membership of $49.99 monthly, with a one-year contract, as well as through a month-by-month option or a lower, special introductory price for owners of earlier Creative Suites. The company said it is currently developing training, support, and community features for Cloud users. Adobe Mercury Graphics Engine Michael Gartenberg,... newsfactor.com »

For computer users, a few mouse clicks could mean the difference between staying online and losing Internet connections this summer. Unknown to most of them, their problem began when international hackers ran an online advertising scam to take control of infected computers around the world. In a highly unusual response, the FBI set up a safety net months ago using government computers to prevent Internet disruptions for those infected users. But that system is to be shut down. The FBI is encouraging users to visit a Web site run by its security partner, http://www.dcwg.org, that will inform them whether they're infected and explain how to fix the problem. After July 9, infected users won't be able to connect to the Internet. Most victims don't even know their computers have been infected, although the malicious software probably has slowed their web surfing and disabled their antivirus software, making their machines more vulnerable to other problems. Last November, the FBI and other authorities were preparing to take down a hacker ring that had been running an Internet ad scam on a massive network of infected computers. "We started to realize that we might have a little bit of a problem on our hands because ... if we just pulled the plug on their criminal infrastructure and threw everybody in jail, the victims of this were going to be without Internet service," said Tom Grasso, an FBI supervisory special agent. "The average user would open up Internet Explorer and get `page not found' and think the Internet is broken." On the night of the arrests, the agency brought in Paul Vixie, chairman and founder of Internet Systems Consortium, to install two Internet servers to take the place of the truckload of impounded rogue servers that infected computers were using. Federal officials planned to keep their servers online until March,... newsfactor.com »

Google is already facing spasms of suspicion and confusion as it tries to persuade people to entrust their personal documents, photos and other digital content to the company's new online storage service. That became apparent shortly after Tuesday's release of the long-awaited Google Drive service. Before the day was over, technology blogs and Twitter users were picking apart a legal clause that made it sound as if all the users' content stored in Google Drive automatically would become the intellectual property of Google Inc. That could have meant authors writing their next novels and employees collaborating on spreadsheets with confidential data would find all that suddenly belonging to Google. As it turns out, the worries are probably unfounded. The language is actually standard legalese to give Google the licensing rights that it needs to deliver on the services that users request. The way that Google keeps documents in its data centers requires the company to obtain a license to "host, store (and) reproduce" the files. When a co-worker needs to read a document in a different language or even make minor revisions, Google needs the rights for "translations, adaptations or other changes." Even the everyday occurrences such as someone watching a video or pulling up a text file at an Internet cafe requires Google to retain permission to "publicly perform" or "publicly display" such content. That doesn't mean Google will take a screenwriter's work in progress and produce a movie off it, even though the legal language might make it seem as if Google could. "Our terms of service enable us to give you the services you want -- so if you decide to share a document with someone, or open it on a different device, you can," Google said in a Wednesday statement. The hubbub still may do some good by prodding more people to read the rules... newsfactor.com »

Facebook users who like using social media for a higher purpose, take heart. Or at least a kidney. The networking giant's founder this week announced that users will now be able to use a tool that announces whether they are organ donors and could perhaps match up donors and recipients. At the very least, CEO Mark Zuckerberg hopes it will promote awareness of organ donation. 18 Deaths Each Day "Today, more than 114,000 people in the United States, and millions more around the globe, are waiting for the heart, kidney or liver transplant that will save their lives," wrote Zuckerberg and COO Sheryl Sandberg in their announcement on Facebook's Newsroom page, titled Friends Saving Lives. "Many of those people -- an average of 18 people per day -- will die waiting, because there simply aren't enough organ donors to meet the need. Medical experts believe that broader awareness about organ donation could go a long way toward solving this crisis. And we believe that by simply telling people that you're an organ donor, the power of sharing and connection can play an important role." Users can now note in the new timeline feature that they are donors and share when and why they made the decision. They can also use privacy settings to control who sees that information, which appears in Timeline as well as the news feed. The new feature comes as Facebook is about to launch its initial public offering for the stock market, and the timing is not likely coincidental. "One of the problems with Facebook is that it kind of has the feel of a trend," said Rob Enderle, principal analyst at the Enderle Group. "It's great for sharing the pictures of piano-playing cats but some folks will tire of this. A more practical application, like driving more people to donate organs, create cash... newsfactor.com »

Kodak will close its online photo service on July 2 after a federal bankruptcy judge approved selling the business to Shutterfly for $23.8 million. Shutterfly Inc. emerged last month as the sole bidder for Eastman Kodak Co.'s Kodak Gallery. The judge issued an order approving the sale last week. Kodak, which filed for bankruptcy protection in January, is selling the photo printing, storage and sharing business to generate cash and to narrow its focus. The two companies offer similar services, where basic sharing of photos is free and users pay for prints, photo books, digital copies on DVDs and other products. The services still make money, but demand has declined in recent years as people increasingly share photos online through Facebook and other social networks. In an email to Kodak Gallery users on Monday, Kodak said people who do not want their photos transferred will have to inform Kodak by May 28 by visiting its Web site and choosing to "opt out" of the migration. After July 2, customers won't have access to any photos on Kodak Gallery. Shutterfly will contact users in June with details on the transfer. Users can link a Kodak Gallery account with an existing one on Shutterfly, or have a new one on Shutterfly created automatically. Kodak warned that because the migration "will be a massive undertaking, involving the movement of billions of photos," customers' images may not appear on Shutterfly for months. Photos will appear under a "Kodak" folder in Shutterfly. Kodak said customers must complete orders for prints and other products by July 2, or order from Shutterfly after that. Kodak allows full-resolution downloads of photos for free, but Shutterfly does not. That means users wanting the originals for free must retrieve them before July 2. Users can also buy DVDs with the full-resolution files through either service. newsfactor.com »

Myspace, the once-mighty social network ultimately toppled by Facebook, settled a privacy investigation by the Federal Trade Commission and agreed to submit to privacy audits over the next 20 years. The settlement, over charges that Myspace misrepresented its privacy policies to users, is similar to deals the FTC struck previously with Facebook Inc. and Google Inc. The FTC said Tuesday that despite telling users it would not share personally identifiable information with others, Myspace gave advertisers users' "Friend ID" numbers. That allowed advertisers to find users' publicly available personal information, often including full names, and could even lead advertisers to discover users' web-browsing activity. In the settlement, Myspace agreed not to misrepresent its privacy policies. It also agreed to implement a comprehensive privacy program and to submit to regular, independent privacy assessments for two decades. Myspace, launched in 2003, was a popular Internet destination for years. But the social network was beaten by Facebook. News Corp., which had bought Myspace for $580 million in 2005, sold it to Specific Media last year for $35 million. Specific Media, based in Irvine, California, is an online ad network operator. In a statement, Specific Media said it settled to "put any questions regarding Myspace's pre-acquisition advertising practices behind us." It said it had conducted a thorough review of Myspace's advertising practices and privacy safeguards following the acquisition and had "successfully improved upon Myspace's historical practices, bringing the social media platform to the forefront of industry best practice for ad delivery." In March 2011, the FTC settled with Google over charges that it deceived users and violated its own privacy policy when it launched a social-networking service called Buzz. The settlement requires Google to obtain user consent before sharing consumer information with third parties if it alters a service to use the data in a way that would violate its existing... newsfactor.com »

Facebook is updating its data use policy in an attempt to give people more clarity on how the company uses information they share. As part of the changes, Facebook is also signaling that it may start showing people ads on sites other than Facebook, targeting the pitches to interests and hobbies that users express on Facebook. The move comes a week before Facebook Inc.'s expected initial public offering of stock. Facebook held events with potential investors this week, including one in Silicon Valley on Friday, and it has posted a version of its road show online. The offering could value Facebook at nearly $100 billion -- more than Kraft, Ford and other major brands. The policy changes are in response to an audit by Irish data-protection authorities last year, Facebook said Friday. The commission had asked Facebook to be more transparent about how it collects people's data and uses it for advertising, as well as how long it keeps such information. Facebook plans to notify its more than 900 million users of the changes through advertisements around the site and on its mobile apps. Users who want to dig deeper can read a version of the policy that highlights the changes word by word. Erin Egan, Facebook's chief privacy officer, will host an online chat Monday to answer any questions. Egan said the company wasn't substantially changing its business practices, but wants to "err on the side of providing too much information." Facebook's overseas headquarters are based in Dublin, Ireland, a member of the European Union. This means the company is required to comply with European data privacy laws. Facebook said the changes were also a response to feedback from its users. As part of the changes to the policy, Facebook has created a section to explain how it uses technologies such as cookies to deliver ads,... newsfactor.com »

Nokia is struggling on many fronts, but the company is performing well in emerging markets -- and it's looking to boost its chances with two new mobile phones that play on its strategy to connect the next billion consumers. The Nokia 110 and Nokia 112 aim to attract young, urban consumers who want to experience a fast, affordable online experience. Both devices incorporate social-media aspects, like Facebook and Twitter integration. And a Nokia browser promises to consume up to 90 percent less data by compressing Web sites in the cloud. "Today's mobile phone users want a quick Internet experience that allows them to discover great content and share it with their friends -- but without being held back by high data costs," said Mary T. McDowell, executive vice president of Mobile Phones at Nokia. She's betting consumers will look to the Nokia 110 and 112, which combine browsing, social media, apps, entertainment and long battery life. Casual Gaming Savvy The devices have a 1.8-inch display that Nokia characterizes as "optimized for gaming." In the months ahead, the Nokia 110 and Nokia 112 will bring free EA Games, including favorites like Tetris, Bejeweled, Need for Speed The Run, Monopoly Here & Now, and SimCity Deluxe. The Nokia 112 features a preloaded eBuddy instant messaging service so users can tap into popular chat services from the mobile device. And both phones offer an upgraded camera that lets users customize contacts with photos, or share images via social networks and Bluetooth. The VGA camera promises sharper, clearer pictures with support for up to 32GB of external memory, enough for more than 6,000 songs or 90,000 pictures. Consumers can tune into radio stations and share songs with friends over Bluetooth. And all this with a promised 10 hours of talk time and nearly a month of standby. The Lumia... newsfactor.com »

With more than 50 percent of U.S. mobile phone users now equipped with smartphones, demand for mobile apps continues to soar. The average number of mobile apps per smartphone jumped from 32 apps to 41 apps during 2011 -- a 28 percent rise in comparison with 2010, according to a new report from Nielsen. However, U.S. smartphone owners spent about the same amount of time using mobile apps each day in 2011 as they had during the previous year -- 39 minutes per day versus 37 minutes per day, Nielsen said. Nielsen researchers said 70 percent of the survey's respondents expressed "concern over personal data collection" and 55 percent were "wary of sharing information about their location via smartphone apps." So we asked Al Hilwa, director of applications software development at IDC, what developers need to do to address privacy concerns as well as prod U.S. smartphone users to spend more time using their apps. Hilwa said he expected to see the development of new app types as well as the further expansion of apps into other areas of life. "And developers will continue to chase ever narrower opportunities" while hoping to "hit areas that have not transitioned fully from Web to mobile, or aspects of life not digitized fully yet," Hilwa said Wednesday. "But at some point this pace of growth will slow down." Claiming More Minutes Privacy and security considerations definitely stop some people from using apps. "And that may be another area where the industry can move to claim more minutes of app usage by increasing the confidence in apps," Hilwa said. Clearly, users ramp up the most toward app usage in their first few months of smartphone usage. "After that, a steady state ensues, and it is a challenge for the app ecosystem to keep existing users engaged," Hilwa said. "There... newsfactor.com »

Like promoted tweets on Twitter and sponsored messages on Google and YouTube, paid Facebook posts may soon linger in your Newsfeed if users are able to pony up a fee to make sure their latest status updates get the proper attention. The world's largest social network is testing a system in New Zealand allowing users to pay a range of nominal fees, in the area of $2, for those "sticky" promotions, which ostensibly would allow the update to stay in friends' Newsfeeds without being pushed down by incoming posts. Building Confidence BBC News reported the trial program last week. Facebook told the network, "This particular test is simply to gauge people's interest in this method of sharing with their friends." It's one of the potential revenue streams Facebook seems forced to explore as it offers its stock to the public and needs to convince investors that it is not a long-running fad. Facebook has long rebuffed rumors that it would eventually start charging users a membership fee, or roll out some kind of premium service, declaring on its log-in page that it's "free and always will be." As far back as 2009, hoaxes about a paywall prompted Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg to tell BusinessWeek: "We are not planning on charging a basic fee for our basic services. That question stems from people thinking we're growing so quickly, we're running out of money. We're growing really quickly, but we can finance that growth." But as the IPO looms, as pop singer Gucci Mane might say, Facebook these days is "all about the money, money, money." The company is also planning a paid app store and reportedly partnering with restaurant chains for sponsored coupon offerings. Return on Investment? Relying on ad sales no longer seems enough now that General Motors this week opened a conversation about whether those ads are... newsfactor.com »

The "Do Not Track" movement has one more corporate supporter. On Thursday, leading social media site Twitter announced that it will honor requests from users who do not want their online behavior monitored and reported. With this action, Twitter becomes an official supporter of the voluntary privacy initiative for U.S. companies, which has been backed by the Federal Trade Commission, the Mozilla Foundation and online privacy organizations. A set of best practices for U.S. sites goes into effect next year. In Europe, the mandatory European Union Privacy Directive goes into effect on May 26 for all European-based companies and for multinationals. 'Tailored Suggestions' Twitter has begun implementing experiments in "tailored suggestions," which recommends whom users might want to follow, based on a user's personalized information. The site points out on its company blog that, as a supporter of Do Not Track, "we will not collect the information that enables this feature" if someone has DNT enabled in browser settings. Twitter has gone so far as to tweet that "we applaud the FTC's leadership on DNT." The move by Twitter was praised Thursday in a statement by Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., who said the action "is something that responsible, competitive companies can do." Mozilla has recently noted that nearly 9 percent of its desktop users and 19 percent of its mobile users are using the DNT feature in its browser. A Do Not Track option is now available in Mozilla's Firefox, Microsoft's Internet Explorer and Apple's Safari Web browsers, and soon in Google's Chrome. But in the U.S., Web sites have the option to comply or not. To assist Web sites in managing and disabling tracking-related third-party tags, Cupertino, Calif.-based Ensighten recently released a free Web tool. Called PrivacyDNT, it allows Web site owners to identify all third-party tags, create lists of which ones... newsfactor.com »

Start-up Sidecar has taken the wraps off a new smartphone app that enables users to share live video and other multimedia content with friends, family members and fellow workers even as they are talking on their phones. Sidecar makes it possible for users to share photos instantly or deliver the entire contents of an album stored on their phones while chatting with the recipient. Interconnected Sidecar users also will be able to simultaneously view other content, such as an interactive street map. With Sidecar the goal is to help handset users break out of today's voice-calling silo, said Sidecar CEO Rob Williams. Until now, people who wanted to do more than talk "had to toggle back and forth between voice calls and whatever else they wanted to share with the person they were calling," Williams said Tuesday. There has been tremendous innovation in smartphones in every area except the basic phone call, Williams observed. Sidecar tears down these barriers and lets people easily share live video, location, photos, and contacts while they talk," he said. "The result is a more fun, engaging, and expressive conversation." Connecting Users Worldwide Among other things, the new Sidecar app enables live videos to be shared with others even as they are being captured by the user's handset camcorder. The service is free whenever both the user and the recipients have Sidecar installed on their phones. By instantly sharing maps, Sidecar makes it easy for commuters looking for rides to visually inform drivers just where to pick them up and drop them off. Sidecar is already geared up to serve the commuting needs of the communities of passengers and drivers around the world, said the company, which is based in San Francisco and Seattle. The new Sidecar app also gives users the ability to swiftly pass along and integrate... newsfactor.com »

Coming a few days after Facebook's Wall Street debut to mixed reaction by investors, Microsoft's new social network had been widely seen as a possible rival to Mark Zuckerberg's juggernaut. "Is this the next Facebook?" asked Fox News as the network, So.cl (pronounced Social), was opened to general users after a long beta-testing period. A Bing Bulletin Board But the fledgling network, geared toward students, as was Facebook initially when it was conceived in Zuckerberg's Harvard dorm room, seems to be more akin to a hybrid of search engine Bing and Pinterest, the upstart topic-based content-sharing network. "Express Yourself," So.cl implores potential users on its homepage. "With So.cl you can share your search and express your ideas through beautiful collages of content." When a user enters search topics, a field is instantly populated with images related to the topic to be shared with the user's contacts. They can also connect through chat and video parties. "Video parties let you search, and quickly assemble a list of movies to view together with friends," reads the site's FAQ. "You can view any existing party collection created by any other So.cl user, or create your own, and easily chat with other So.cl users." All posts are visible to other users by default unless they are marked private. "We expect students to continue using products such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other existing social networks, as well as Bing, Google and other search tools," Microsoft tells visitors on the FAQ page. "We hope to encourage students to reimagine how our everyday communication and learning tools can be improved, by researching, learning and sharing in their everyday lives." For now, users can only sign in through their Facebook or Windows Live accounts. Facebook's phenomenal success has launched a slew of new sharing initiatives from the successful Twitter to the failed Google Buzz... newsfactor.com »