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Thursday, May 03, 2012

RIM To Developers: We’ll Make Sure Your App Earns At Least $10K In Its First Year

With the release of their BlackBerry 10 beta development tools and Dev Alpha devices earlier today, RIM has made it very clear that they want to build up as much developer love as possible before BlackBerry 10 officially launches.

Well, as it turns out, that's not the only thing they're doing to attract devs. Alec Saunders, RIM's VP of Developer Relations, revealed at BlackBerry World that RIM will guarantee developers of quality apps a minimum of $10,000 in annual earnings — if developers come in under the $10K mark during their first year, RIM will actually pay them the difference.

Ah, but there's a catch (isn't there always?). In order to qualify for RIM's generous offer, the apps in question must meet a strict new quality certification program whose standards have yet to be laid concretely laid out. One thing is known for sure though — once an app has been officially approved for sale in the App World and nabs that new certification, it has to generate at least $1,000 on its own before RIM swoops in and cuts the developer a check.

Translation: the apps can't completely suck. Sorry fart app devs, that means you.

It may not be the most novel approach — hell, just look at Microsoft's track record — but it certainly drives home their developer-focused point. Frankly, it also smacks a bit of desperation. The one-time king of the smartphone realm now seems so hard up for more good apps that they're willing to pay developers to build nifty things for their new platform.

Then again, with all of mud that's been flung at RIM in the recent past, I can't really blame for turning to payouts to make their platform a safer bet for developers. Creating rich, meaningful mobile content takes plenty of time and effort, and RIM is clearly doing whatever they can to make sure their app store gets some of that good stuff. Now the big question is whether or not RIM will be able to keep the momentum from this program going after they blow through their budget.

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/D-OVSEeCOhY/

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Weebly Adds Slick iOS App To Its Quietly Huge Web Site Creation Business

I keep hearing rumors about the ridiculous amounts of money that Weebly is making. But the San Francisco company, which provides a set of tools for small businesses and other organizations to easily create their own web sites, has only scoffed at the nine-figure amounts I've thrown at them. Instead, they've shared something else — a new mobile app that lets new users quickly create their own sites, or existing folks manage what they have going.

In a series of quick swipes, it lets you get through naming a site, upload images, choosing a theme, and publishing your first post. If you want to get fancier, you can also take photos and alter them with a set of filters, or shoot videos to publish.

The admin interface lets users manage multiple sites, and comes with some of the core features from its home site, including comment moderation, and form creation for surveys, contact lists and submissions (which will all also work on mobile).

The free app is available (here) for iPhone now and Android later, cofounders Dan Veltri and David Rusenko tell me. Language support is currently available for English, French, Spanish, German, Portuguese, Italian, Chinese and Dutch.

Web-savvy folks may not realize it, but many organizations still lack a strong online and mobile presence. For example, Frederic recently covered an industry study showing that 95% of independent restaurants don't have a mobile site, and only 40% have online menus.

Yes, there are a number of other companies out there that let people set up their own sites. But Tumblr is more of a social network, Facebook and Twitter accounts are more about getting distribution than providing a full set of features, and heavier-duty blog platforms like WordPress require more work to set up and maintain.

Weebly's main competitors are companies like Wix and Webs.com — or, rather, the lack of awareness among categories of users like those poor independent web site owners.

It's making big inroads, though, which is why I keep hearing those revenue rumors. Since launching in 2007, it has gained 11 million registered users (people who have set up web sites), and accounts for around 2% of all sites on the web. Traffic is around 75 million unique visitors a month. Its net promoter score — an industry calculation of how likely users are to recommend a service to others — is an unusually high 80%.

Its revenues, which come from special features like e-commerce stores, have made the company profitable since January of 2009, the cofounders tell me from their awesome new offices downtown — and "very profitable" today.

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/HRMTe1IO-2c/

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Wedding Startup Appy Couple Has A Wait List 7,000-Strong And It’s Still In Beta

Your wedding day is supposed to be the biggest day of your life — but it's also the hardest. Planning a wedding can be one of the most stressful processes known to man, especially known to woman, so it only makes sense that someone would build an app for that.

Her name is Sharmeen Mitha-Sehgal, and her app is Appy Couple. Essentially, Appy Couple lets you compile all the information about your wedding, including photos, the story of how you met, the proposal story, events associated with the wedding, hotel information for guests, the bridal party, and way more into one app.

Brides and grooms, but mostly brides, can start by visiting Appy Couple online and requesting an invitation. Once you're in, you can choose from hundreds of themed designs to pick the one that best fits the mood of your wedding. From there, you can add all the relevant info, like the type of stuff I mentioned above.

The dashboard is online only, but it uploads everything in real-time so guests and members of the bridal party can keep tabs on what's new. Guests can also upload photos of their own, which will be transformed from a gallery into a slideshow the moment the wedding begins. This means that anyone who unfortunately can't attend the wedding can still keep up with the magical day remotely.

Once the bride sets up her information, Appy Couple offers an email package that notifies all of the people involved that an app has been created for her wedding, and that they can access it by downloading the app and entering a specific code.

The idea makes perfect sense. Weddings are notoriously difficult to plan, coordinate, and pull off without a hitch, and Appy Couple streamlines and simplifies the process to keep everyone in the loop without sending out hundreds of various invitations and having the same conversations over and over again.

But what's even more awesome than the app is the traction it's gained in such a short time. After seven weeks in beta, the app is already being used in over 50 countries. They started by offering just 200 invites to a beta group, and in just a few hours, 150 of those invitees had started planning their weddings.

They opened up another round of invitations, and after seeing similar up-take, Appy Couple decided to open up a waiting list. At this very moment, approximately 7,000 people are waiting to use the app. That's about 1,000 users a week.

Sharmeen explained that, even with the high demand, it's important that they stagger the number of users on the platform to make sure that everything runs seamlessly while the app is still in beta. It is, after all, the most important day of these peoples' lives.

Appy Couple will monetize its product through in-app purchases. Themes range from free all the way to $200 for some limited edition designs, and since Appy Couple handles all the heavy lifting in terms of hotels, rental cars, etc., the company will also get an affiliate commission.

Appy Couple is available on iPad, iPhone, Android, and the web. TC readers interested in getting their bridezilla on can use the following code to get an invite, APPY4TC, or click here.

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/neGnXrE-fnQ/

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Google Updates Google Docs With 450 New Fonts, 60 New Templates And More

Google today announced that it is bringing web fonts to Google Docs. Thanks to this update, you can now use 450 new fonts in your Google documents. These are the same 450 fonts Google already features on its Web Fonts site for web designers. In addition, Google also announced that it added over 60 new templates to its template gallery over the last month, improved support for screenreaders in Docs and added more options for inserting images into documents, including support for Google Drive and webcams. Docs users can now also search for images in the LIFE photo archive and insert them into their documents.

The highlight of this update is definitely the ability to use web fonts in Google documents. Until now, the selection of fonts in Google Docs was limited to standard like Arial, Georgia, Trebuchet, Courier, Verdana and Comic Sans.

Thankfully, the new fonts won't just suddenly all appear in a long drop-down menu. Instead, you will be able to select the fonts you want to add to your selection one by one.

Here is the full list of recent Google Docs updates:

Google Drive launched as a place where you can create, share, collaborate, and keep all your stuff.
There are now a few more options for inserting images in Docs, including inserting from Google Drive, searching for images from the LIFE Photo archive, or taking a snapshot with your webcam.
Charts in spreadsheets now has support for minor gridlines and options to customize the formats of axis labels
Accessibility in Docs got better with support for screenreaders in presentations and with the addition of NVDA to our list of supported screenreaders.
From File > Page setup… you can now set the default page size for your new documents.
It's now easier for speakers of right-to-left languages by automatically showing bidirectional controls when you type in a language that might use them.
Apps Script had many improvements, including
- A new ScriptService for programmatically publishing your scripts and controlling when they run.
- A new function to find the root folder of someone's Drive.
- An increase in the allowed attachment size in emails from 5MB to 25MB.
- An increase in the size of docs files you can create from 2MB to 50MB.
There are now over 60 new templates in our template gallery.

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/RK3IJ2DJTkI/

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FreeAgent Acquires Financial Software Startup 60mo; Lands Investment From Lightbank

UK-based cloud accounting software company FreeAgent has acquired finance-tracking startup 60mo. The U.S. startup's team will be incorporated into FreeAgent's new American division. FreeAgent has also received an additional, undisclosed investment from Lightbank, which also was an investor in 60mo. This is Lightbank's first international investment, says the firm's partner Paul Lee.

60mo, which we've covered here, is an online service that helps businesses manage their finances by importing data from QuickBooks, FreshBooks, and a variety of financial institutions like Bank of America, Chase, and American Express. Once the data is in the system, you can use 60mo to create financial projections, manage your business's budget and share the data with your accountant or investors — it's sort of like a Mint for businesses.

FreeAgent will be leveraging 60mo's expertise in the US accounting software market to adapt its own cloud-based online accounting system specifically for American users. FreeAgent is an accounting SaaS that is designed specifically for freelancers, independent workers, and small businesses.

The company says a dedicated US version of the FreeAgent system will be launched in the coming months. The firm also plans to adapt the UK system's tax forecasting and tax return-filing capabilities and incorporate these into the US version of FreeAgent in the near future.

Since its launch in 2007, FreeAgent has steadily been accumulating a loyal customer base. The company started 2011 with 4,000 paying subscribers, and finished with 16,000 paying customers.

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/ezNRH4cUOHE/

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Writing powerful website copy that turns visitors into customers

Forget SEO. Ok, don't forget it entirely but for a minute, let's pretend it isn't even a blip on the radar screen of what's important when writing website content. How do you write copy that turns visitors into customers?

Put yourself in your visitors' position

How do your visitors feel when they arrive at your website? Do they feel relieved knowing they have found the information they searched for? Or do they feel less confident than ever about what it is you do, sell or offer? Do they land on your website and unwittingly dive deeper and deeper into its pages being drawn in by the wonderful, compelling content? Or do they glance at the first sentence and click out to try someone else's site?

These are all vital considerations when writing copy for your website. Have you ever distanced yourself as the business owner and really looked at your website to see how inviting it is to others? If you don't find the content interesting, informative, entertaining or powerful, how would anyone else?

Optimisation schmoptimisation

The thing is, Search Engine Optimisation – or SEO – has a lot to answer for. There's an awful lot of information out there on the World Wide Web about how to attract traffic to your website. You have to do some pretty serious research on keywords and determine which are high-ranking and which are highly competitive. You also have to determine which 'long tail keywords' will help you cast a wider net and broaden your audience. Then you have to write your copy to incorporate all of that wisdom without it seeming like it's written for the so-called 'Google-bots'.

Frankly, SEO is important, but when it comes down to brass tacks, your website content has to drive your visitors' buying decision. The best SEO in the world will attract heavier traffic than 42^nd Street on opening night of Les Miserables. But, just like the famous New York City thoroughfare, the traffic may not be targeted to that one particular attraction. Each page on your website has to have its own SEO optimisation to attract the right visitors to the specific page they're looking for. Sound complicated? It can be! And you'd be forgiven for thinking that hiring a copywriter would be the best way to attack the issue.

Website visitors arrive via more routes than Google search

Remember, visitors don't only arrive at your site via Google search, and this is a factor that escapes many people's minds when they think about writing their website content. Website visitors also arrive at sites via:

Paid Google or Facebook ads
Social media links
Recommendations from friends or colleagues
Referrals from other sites
Banner ads
Typing the URL in from a business card, car signage, T-shirt or shopfront sign
Information in print material including books, newspapers and magazines
Marketing material such as flyers, banners, special offers

Few of the above rely on SEO at all! But however your visitors arrive at your site, you need to ensure that their needs are met once they get there. Your website content must perform on several key fronts:

Does it answer as many questions as possible that a potential customer may have?
Does it speak to the potential customer in a language they would expect from a company that offers what yours does?
Does it alienate with too much tech-speak and corporate mumbo jumbo?
Does it direct visitors along a clear path to conversion? In other words, does it take them from interest to enquiry or purchase without too many distractions that may make them switch off?
Does it make it easy for your visitor to do business with you?
Does it articulate your brand values?
Does it read naturally … without an obvious concentration of repetitive keywords that make it seem like it's trying too hard to be Google's best friend?

Visitors first, Google second

Considering Google recently overhauled its algorithms to make SEO even more complex than before, now is the perfect time to be writing your website content with your visitor in mind. The highest traffic volume in the world won't increase your sales one iota if your visitors can't – or choose not to – read what you're about. Writing for your customer will naturally incorporate many of the keywords that will help Google to help visitors find your site. Once you've written your site, then you can retrofit the appropriate keywords that turn up as a result of your research.

http://www.dynamicbusiness.com.au/blogs/writing-powerful-website-copy-that-turns-visitors-into-customers-02052012.html

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XOOPS 2.5.5 Final Released | CMS Report

http://cmsreport.com/content/2012/05/xoops-255-final-released

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Seven ways to protect business information on Mac and Windows

When business information is on the line, your entire organisation is at risk, particularly as a small business. You can't afford to let complacency be the hallmark of your security strategy, and you can't think you're invisible to the bad guys. For SMBs that use Macs to fuel their businesses taking the appropriate steps to protect their information, is now a necessity.

Walk into any business today, either large or small, and it is not difficult to find an Apple device sitting on a desk somewhere. In fact for the first time, Apple has recently become the fourth largest PC vendor in Australia, according to analyst firm Gartner – providing an insight into the scale of Apple penetration locally.

The Mac community has grown enormously in the last decade – and now cybercriminals are taking notice, as evidenced by the recent Flashback outbreak. The Flashback virus, which targets a Java vulnerability in Mac OS for which Apple has since issued a security update, spread quickly.

This Trojan infected upwards of half a million Mac machines, some of them in Australia, creating a large botnet that transfers information back to the cybercriminals. While Apple responded quickly with a security update to address this issue, Flashback should be a wake-up call for SMBs – malware authors now consider Mac computers a viable battleground along with the Windows platform. In fact, Symantec has identified new Java Applet malware that targets this same Mac vulnerability and Windows at once – it checks which OS the machine is running on and downloads a suitable malware for the OS.

Complete Information Protection for SMBs
What should small business owners be doing to protect their information from the latest threats to Mac and Windows machines? The answer is a combination of technology and policy.

Deploy a reliable security solution throughout your organisation – on Mac and Windows endpoints. Today's security solutions do more than just prevent viruses. They scan files regularly for unusual changes in file size, programs that match the software's database of known malware, suspicious e-mail attachments and other warning signs. It's the most important step small businesses can take toward keeping computers clean of malware.
Keep your security software current and your OS and third-party applications updated with the latest patches. New viruses, worms, Trojan horses and other malware are born daily, and variations of them can slip by software that is not current.
Develop security policies and educate employees about internet safety, security and the latest threats. Train your employees to be wary of email attachments, links from unknown sources, and unusual software update requests. Most infections can be prevented by adhering to organizational policy and exercising caution.
Enforce strong password policies. Maintaining strong passwords will help you protect the data stored on a laptop if a device is lost or hacked. Strong passwords have eight characters or more and use a combination of letters, numbers and symbols (e.g., # $ % ! ?). Have employees change their passwords on a regular basis, at least every 90 days.
Implement encryption technologies on desktops, laptops and removable media. With encryption, your confidential information is protected from unauthorized access, providing strong security for intellectual property, customer and partner data.
Protecting information is more than implementing an antivirus solution. Backup and recovery is a critical component of complete information protection to keep small business desktops, servers and applications running smoothly in case of disruption – whether it's a flood, an earthquake, a virus or a system failure.
Regularly check your defenses to be sure everything is working properly.

The Internet is shrinking the world of business, allowing small businesses to connect with customers everywhere, but it's also bringing security risks to SMBs. Regardless of your situation, the size of your business, or whether you're on Mac or Windows systems, it's time to start securing your information. If you're concerned that you may be infected with Flashback, Symantec has provided a free detection and removal tool for download here. More information about Symantec's SMB solutions can be found here.

http://www.dynamicbusiness.com.au/blogs/seven-ways-to-protect-business-information-on-mac-and-windows-03052012.html

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The business bringing sCommerce to Australian shores

If its success in the US is anything to go by, the sCommerce phenomenon looks set to take hold in the Australian market – and one local beauty venture is at the forefront of this new online shopping experience.

sCommerce, a derivation of eCommerce, stands for subscription commerce and is a business model where customers pay a monthly fee for access to a range of products and services. One of the first Australian sCommerce ventures is Lust Have It!, an online beauty service that sends a sample box of five luxury beauty products to subscribers each month. Each box comes with expert product reviews, hints and links to an eStore, which sells full size products.

Founder Nicci Herrera, a 20-year beauty industry veteran, said when it came time to set up her business she looked to US company Birchbox for inspiration.

"I had an idea for a company but I wasn't sure how to execute it and when I saw the US version I knew what I needed to do," she said.

Lust Have It! launched in July 2011 after Herrera saw there was a gap in the market between high-end professional beauty products, and what's available to the average consumer.

"People want to buy professional products but often they can't justify the expense unless they know it's going to work for them. So, giving them the chance to trial a product in their own home allows them to buy beauty products with confidence," she said.

Key investor and Foundry CEO Dale McCarthy said: "Beauty boxes are a hot sector for investors as they are revolutionising the way consumers discover and buy beauty products in a digital age."

Less than a year after starting Lust Have It!, Herrera recently announced acquisition of rival online beauty supplier Glossy Box.

Glossy Box CEO, Alexandra Podeanu said the merger would make Lust Have It! a "clear market leader in Australia."

"This industry consolidation is definitely a win/win for subscribers," said Herrera, adding that she believes the merger will make it easier to uphold the quality of products she supplies.

Herrera also said she hopes her business will increase consumer confidence levels by educating customers and allowing them to trial products before they buy.

http://www.dynamicbusiness.com.au/entrepreneur-profile/the-business-bringing-scommerce-to-australian-shores-03052012.html

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2012 Market Data Industry Outlook – 4 Major Trends all Leading to the Cloud

2012 Market Data Industry Outlook – 4 Major Trends all Leading to the Cloud:

'via Blog this'

7 Salient Trends and Directions in Cloud Computing | CloudTweaks.com - Cloud Computing Community

7 Salient Trends and Directions in Cloud Computing | CloudTweaks.com - Cloud Computing Community:

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How to Connect Your HDTV and Smartphone With MHL | PCWorld

How to Connect Your HDTV and Smartphone With MHL | PCWorld: "After all, it's no secret why your smartphone battery sucks--it's that big, beautiful phone screen. Most phones today will encounter battery issues while pushing a 1080p movie to a massive HDTV; however, with an MHL cable charging the phone or tablet while it's playing, you'll have a juiced-up device that's ready for mobile use when you’re done watching the latest Hollywood blockbuster."

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The Samsung Series 9 SA970 Monitor: Premium Style, Brilliant Display

The Samsung Series 9 SA970 Monitor: Premium Style, Brilliant Display: "The Series 9 monitor has the ability to produce over one billion colors with an amazing resolution of 2560 x 1440 (WQHD), which is four times more detail than a traditional HD panel. "

'via Blog this'

Wednesday, May 02, 2012

Cloudfogger - Free File Encryption for Dropbox and the Cloud

Cloudfogger - Free File Encryption for Dropbox and the Cloud:

You love the cloud? With Cloudfogger you don't have to worry
about your privacy, your provider or lost devices any more.
Cloudfogger secures your files and you're in control, no matter where you keep your files

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Top 5 Ways To Freak Out Potential Investors

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Top 5 Ways To Freak Out Potential Investors

No one believes they have an ugly baby. And all entrepreneurs are convinced that their businesses are better than the other guy's. So chances are you're sure (or at least really hopeful) investors will be lining up, eager to put money into your business.

Angels, VCs and banks take a more clear-eyed approach. If they see any of these five warning signs, they're likely to put away their wallets and head for the hills.

Whether you're looking for private equity, venture capital or angel investors, there are some common warning signs practically guaranteed to scare investors away from your business. Here are five red flags to makesure you're not waving:

1. A weak management team. Knowing the people behind your business is one of the biggest factors in an investor's decision to fund — or not to fund — your business. Coming up with the idea - like the next great mobile app - is the easy part. Really. What's hard is being able to successfully execute that idea. Investors want to see a team with experience in your industry and niche, as well as a track record of success. Make sure your team is balanced so your partners or key people are strong in the areas where you're lacking.

2. Hiding things. Investors need to know not just the good, but also the bad and the ugly. Don't sweep the negative aspects under the rug. I'm not saying you should air your dirty laundry at the beginning of your pitch, but you do need to acknowledge the challenges you face — external and internal — and show that you have a realistic plan for overcoming them.

3. A risky industry. It's harder to succeed in some industries than in others. You need to be aware of this reality because your potential investors certainly are. If your industry typically has a high failure rate, explain how you plan to beat the odds. Do your homework, analyze your competition and present your best case.

4. Asking for too much money. Investors want to know you're not throwing their cash around. If the initial investment you're seeking seems unreasonably high, they will be justifiably suspicious that you're burning money too fast, making you a bad risk. This isn't the '90s; 21st-century startups need to operate lean and mean. (For more on this, see Scott M. Fulton's Bullpen Capital's Duncan Davidson on VC Funding and "The Era of Cheap"). Explain your financials to show how carefully you're managing your money, cutting where you need to and spending in all the right places.

5. Unrealistic projections. Outlandishly high projections for market share, growth or profits put...

With $200M pledged, Kickstarter is becoming two businesses

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With $200M pledged, Kickstarter is becoming two businesses

Three years in, Kickstarter has become two distinct businesses, said co-founder Yancey Strickler. The company was originally conceived as a patronage service to help artists give life to ideas. But it's now becoming a store front where products are getting pre-ordered and sold, helping entrepreneurs gauge real-world demand for products.

Speaking at the Wired Business Conference Tuesday, Yancey recounted the success of the platform, which has grown to $200 million in contributions, 22,000 successful projects and 2 million backers. Now, 44 percent of projects meet their goal. While the growth is dizzying, the evolution of the platform has also been a challenge, said Strickler.

While 95 percent of the projects are still artistic projects–film is the largest vertical–the design and technology categories now represent 5 percent of all projects and 15 percent of all money raised. Increasingly Kickstarter is known for selling gadgets including the Pebble smartwatch that has raised more than $7 million. Fueling this kind of direct commerce wasn't the original goal of Strickler and co-founder Perry Chen, but it's what Kickstarter has become.

"As a business we have a sense of what Kickstarter is, but other people have different ideas of what it is," Strickler said.

Kickstarter's evolution is a function of the open nature of the platform, which for its first two years had very little instructions on how creators and investors could use it. We're starting to see some people try to take advantage of that to push scams. Strickler said even now, Kickstarter is not doing much screening beyond ensuring that the money raised is for a project and is not going toward a company, a non-profit or to support a lifestyle. He said Kickstarter is proving that it's really about tapping the community and that anyone can use the service to raise funds if they engage with an audience.

But he said that investors need to be aware of the limitations of using Kickstarter as a retail store. Pledging money down doesn't necessarily mean that users are guaranteed to get a product.

"My concern is they're buying something that doesn't exist yet," Strickler said. "It's not like the Pebble guy has a warehouse in Ohio. He has to make these things."

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content.

How Apple will become a mobile carrier

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How Apple will become a mobile carrier

What's next for Apple? Apple will provide wireless service directly to its iPad and iPhone customers. First, Apple will sell data packages bundled with iPads. Then it will sell data and international roaming plans to iPhone customers through the iTunes Store. And in time — sooner than many think — Apple will strike wholesale deals with several mobile operators so that Apple can provide wireless service directly to its customers, as Apple Mobile.

Will domestic and global mobile operators like AT&T, Vodafone, Telefónica and others "play ball" with Apple? Many in the U.S. were surprised six years ago when AT&T capitulated to Apple's terms to become the first carrier to offer the iPhone six years ago. Conventional wisdom is that the struggling operators compromises, not a leading operator like AT&T. But Apple makes everyone "think different."

And in hindsight, the first iPhone deal was a brilliant strategy that has continued to pay huge dividends to AT&T. In the last quarter just reported, four out of five smartphones AT&T sold were iPhones.

Apple changed the formula of the relationship between operator and handset vendor, with Apple having more bargaining power than the operator for the first time in mobile history. And that's the point.

Apple will make an offer carriers can't refuse

Today, mobile operators would have a hard time saying "no" to the world's largest and fastest growing company, which builds the devices everyone wants. Apple tends to have its way with operators. Any reluctance on the carrier's part to offer Apple a sweetheart wholesale deal would be outweighed by the huge business opportunity presented. It's a classic case of "The Prisoner's Dilemma." The carrier's biggest fear is that if it says "no", the business and growth would go to a competing carrier and it would be kicked the curb.

It's no secret that Apple has been thinking about this strategy for some time. Apple filed a patent for "Dynamic Carrier Selection" on October 10, 2006, just a few months before Apple announced the first iPhone. The diagram in the patent application portrayed Apple as the wireless service provider connecting to multiple carriers. This would allow Apple to make wholesale cellul...

Flash storage never sleeps

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Flash storage never sleeps

The flash-storage market got another jolt of momentum last week with speculation that EMC is considering an acquisition of Israeli flash startup XtremIO, but that might have been just a sign of things to come. Although a flash M&A spree is likely to ensue if EMC closes that deal, the two biggest names in the flash storage space — Violin Memory and Fusion-io– are keeping the hits coming in the meantime.

For Violin the news is (what else?) more money. The company is expanding the $50 million Series D round it closed in late March to $80 million and is making room for new strategic investor GE Asset Management. The previous $50 million was at an $800 million valuation, although Violin CEO Don Basile told me then he expects the company is worth billions should it go public later this year.

A couple commenters noted in my post on the EMC-XtremIO rumors that Violin is all about performance, and that such a focus won't necessarily win the day for flash-storage companies hoping to become standard fare within enterprise data centers. Whether that's a fair assessment of Violin is open for debate, the commenters' general point about quality of service, virtualization integration and other enterprise-grade features as the true differentiators is well taken. If all car buyers cared about was speed, luxury automobiles would resemble racecars more than dens. Still, barring a colossal collapse, Violin's piles of cash, huge valuation and laundry list of strategic investors suggest it has the goods to find itself among the industry leaders for a long time.

For Fusion-io, which went public itself last year, and has been flying high since, its momentum comes in the form of early support behind its recently released ioMemory software development kit. Fusion-io and Violin are architecturally quite different — the former being a server-side PCIe component and the latter being a network-attached storage array — but Chris Mellor at The Register offers an insightful take on how certain deployment scenarios are blurring the line between the two companies.

Specifically, he writes, deployments of new Fusion-io SDK partner Couchbase and new Violin partner SAP (with its HANA in-memory database) end up looking remarkably similar in theory. Either way, hot application data resides in-memory (DRAM), while everything else resides on flash. Couchbase on Fusion-io is more like a motorcycle wi...

BofA Tech Guru preaches 6 cloud truths

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BofA Tech Guru preaches 6 cloud truths

Private cloud computing is big among security-obsessed financial services companies and Bank of America Merrill Lynch is no exception. In a note sent out by the company this week, Brad Spiers, the senior vice president who heads up Compute Innovation for the giant financial services firm, had some insightful points to make about BofA's use of cloud technology and cloud computing in general.

Here are some takeaways:

Private cloud mandate remains, but changes: For most financial services firms, secure private clouds (i.e., clouds they build and manage in house for themselves) remain the way to go. But Spiers foresees possible change. Over the past six months, he's seen evidence that vendors are starting to "get" data security requirements and is more confident that the bank will build a secure private cloud with vendor partners. Over time, that is.

GPUs are big in banking: The BofA uses GPU (graphics processing unit) computing techniques often seen in online gaming and in high-performance scientific computing to run simulations in its derivatives business.

Applications have to catch up with cool technologies: Solid-state storage and in-memory databases are great if you have software that can use them. But … "I want software that I can buy that takes advantage of storage hierarchy changes. SSDs are a great first step in boosting performance, but applications are not yet written to take advantage of this technology," Spiers wrote. Similarly, despite talk about "benefits of in-memory database as the network hierarchy expands with large, fast options, the software is not optimized at the drive and OS level," he said.

Other hot technologies worth watching: Non-volatile memory, software-defined networking and more parallel compute options have all caught his eye.

What BofA runs now: As of the end of last year, Bof A ran just south of 90,000 physical servers and 40 percent of them were running a hypervisor. Most of these multi-core, mid-range machines have 16 to 96 G of memory, and run Linux and Windows. Many of the bank's businesses were running in IT "silos."

What's coming:

10 Beautiful Apps & Websites To Drool Over

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10 Beautiful Apps & Websites To Drool Over

Yesterday we discussed the trend of beautiful apps and websites in 2012. It's an increasingly Visual Web and great design is a key part of getting attention nowadays. We put the call out over social media to find out your favorite examples of gorgeous apps. In this post, with your help, we've listed 10 examples of beauty in the modern web app or website.

Unsurprisingly, iOS apps are very well represented in this list. Apple's design philosophy is highly regarded and many of its apps are similarly beautiful. That said, if you have a favorite lovely app on Android, Windows Mobile or another OS, please note it in the comments. In no particular order, here are our selections:

1. Flipboard

Showed the way for glorious design on the iPad. Even better now that it's been enhanced for the high-definition retina display of iPad 3!

2. Jux

The pretty version of Tumblr. Jumbo pictures and large fonts abound.

3. Tweetbot

iPhone Twitter client "with a lot of personality."

4. Paper

Drawing tool for iPad, with an appealingly simple UI.

5. The Verge

Tech blog launched on the premise of a new kind of design for blogging. It's colorful and fun.

6. Wunderkit

Personal project management tool, available as a desktop app for Mac OSX or an iPhone app.

7. Newsify

Mobile app for Google Reader (iOS).

...

Why we love to use iPad indoors — WiFi

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Why we love to use iPad indoors — WiFi

Sure, I have blogged ad nausem that iPad, iPhone and other smart devices are boosting demand for Wi-Fi connectivity (and hence gear) both at home and offices. But I couldn't help but share this data from Actix, a London-based mobile network analytics company. In a press release they note:

By analyzing data from a live 3G network in a major city, the mobile network analytics and optimization specialist has found that only 5% of iPads are used outdoors and whilst iPads account for just 1% of data sessions, they use four times more data than an average 3G device. Key findings from the study were:

iPads account for less than 1% of all data sessions but make up 5% of total traffic.

95% of iPad usage is indoors.

90% of traffic from the iPhone 4 and 80% from Blackberry devices is from indoor use.

This isn't surprising. Apparently 9-out-of-10 iPads being sold are WiFi only. I use my iPad to watch Netflix and Vimeo, but not over 3G. The networks are pokey and bandwidth is expensive.

But I bet this changes with the availability of LTE-based iPads, despite the expensive price tag on the data plans. Thanks to better speeds on the networks and ease with which I can access data instantly, I have stopped carrying my MacBook Air and instead never leave home without the LTE-version of iPad and the Apple keyboard just in case I need to draft something longer.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
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Online Video Content Pioneer Revision3 In Acquisition Talks With The Discovery Channel

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Online Video Content Pioneer Revision3 In Acquisition Talks With The Discovery Channel

Seven years in, Revision3 and its stable of stars have more than survived the tough early days of building a video content business on the web. The San Francisco company is now bringing in a respectable 100 million video views per month, following a big 2011 — and it may be about to cash in.

It's been working on a sale for the past several weeks, we're hearing from multiple sources, with the acquirer being a television-based media company, The Discovery Channel. The price is between $30 million to $40 million, according to one person (in the range of what another video content company, Next New Networks, sold to YouTube for last year). The deal could close as soon as this week.

The company reported ad-based revenue growth of 53% in 2011 — albeit with no hard numbers disclosed — and a video view increase of 359%, to 800 million views. It also grew its YouTube subscriber base to more than 4.5 million people over the same period, a four-fold annual gain.

The company has also been well-supported by top tech investors, having raised $10 million in two rounds from Greylock Partners, with additional funding from Marc Andreessen and Mark Cuban.

Meanwhile, The Discovery Channel, which describes itself as the #1 nonfiction media company in the world, hasn't had an especially strong web presence. So the match seems to make sense.

LG Cloud, a streaming service for all three of your screens, launches on May 1st | The Verge

http://www.theverge.com/2012/4/30/2988005/lg-cloud-announcement-release-date

IBM’s Pick Of SugarCRM Creates More Rivals For Oracle - Digits - WSJ

http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2012/04/30/ibms-pick-of-sugarcrm-creates-more-rivals-for-oracle/

For SugarCRM, the IBM deal gives the company more legitimacy and shows its ability to secure key contracts against larger foes. SugarCRM is building a business aimed at delivering management services around a core of open-source software that clients can deploy in a private or public cloud.