Archive for the 'Internet' Category
You always here about those sweet homes, cars, and watches and all that other stuff the crooks have. And, we always hear about how the badge will auction that stuff at pennies to a dollar after Sonny and Crocket have nabbed the bad guys. But where does one find such deals? PropertyRoom.com is one such place and it has just added 93 new agencies to its site so the bounty is now even greater! SvenOnTech was told that, ” Auctions on PropertyRoom.com include stolen and found property recovered by law enforcement agencies as well as municipal surplus. Auctions cover practically every category, from laptops, iPods, tools, and cameras to watches, jewelry, and designer handbags. Increasingly, auctions also include seized and surplus cars, trucks and heavy equipment.”
Much like eBay, auctions start at the 99 cents point and price is driven up by bidders looking for a great deal. Some items have reserves while others don’t. Unlike eBay, each deal is backed by the badge and is guaranteed against fraud.
So next time you’re looking for a cheap Lambo and a Rolex, take a look at PropertyRoom.com.
Symantec Corp (Nasdaq: SYMC), makers of
Norton security software, today released the first volume of the Norton
Online Living Report (NOLR) revealing that, more than ever, adults and
children around the world are getting emotionally and socially connected
online - including dating, friendship and playing - as well as for
information and communication. The NOLR, undertaken by Harris
Interactive, revealed some startling statistics about how Internet-Age
technologies have affected families across the world.
Up to half of online adults worldwide and up to 40 per cent of online
children worldwide have made friends on line, with 72 per cent of
responding UK adults having translated at least one online friend to an
offline friend. In the UK, 43 per cent of online adults and 26 per cent
of children enjoy their online relationships as much or more than their
offline friendships. This indicates a major shift in how people relate
to one other and provides potential clues for the future of human
interaction.
Another common theme worldwide reveals that parents’ perception of what
their children are doing online does not reflect the reality of what
their children say they are doing. For example, one in five responding
children admit to conducting activities online that they know their
parents would not approve of with 24 per cent of UK online children
spending tenfold or more time online than their parents think they do.
The survey revealed that 72 per cent of responding parents in the UK are
concerned about their children’s activities online, with 25 per cent
having no idea about what their children are doing on the internet.
This can have shocking consequences: Five times as many children online
in the UK have been approached by a stranger online than their parents
believe. In UK, adults believe that four per cent of children have been
approached online by a stranger. The actual per cent reported by UK
online children is 20.
This story sits a little close to home as I have been personally been installing T-Mobile HotSpots for nearly two years nearing 200 stores installed in Northern California in that time period. With Starbucks’ announcement yesterday (and I had an install for Sacramento called off minutes before pulling into the Starbucks parking lot), AT&T customers have much to benefit starting this spring. Those with AT&T broadband services will have unlimited Internet service at any of 7,000 Starbucks stores. Starbucks Card holders will receive 2 hours a day free with an option to purchase a “session” for $3.99. Unfortunately the statement does not explicitly state if AT&T cellular (formally Cingular) customers will obtain free or discounted Wi-Fi access. The statement did say, “AT&T will soon extend the benefits of Wi-Fi at Starbucks to its wireless customers.” Hopefully that means smartphone users, i.e. iPhone. If you do not fit any of the above described users, than you can pay $19.99 per month and have access to an additional 70,000 other hotspots world-wide.
Analysts are a bit surprised as to why Starbucks has left T-Mobile for its Wi-Fi access but having spoken to many “partners” (Starbucks terminology for employees) myself, it’s obvious why T-Mobile lost a great contract. The number one complaint I heard from partners was why did customers have to pay for the access? The second major complaint was that partners also had to pay for the access. Now both of these complaints are answered with the AT&T deal with more than 100,000 partners and, again, all AT&T broadband customers receiving unlimited free Internet access. Chris Bruzzo, chief technology officer of Starbucks Coffee Company, echos this in his statement released Monday, saying, “This is what our customers have been waiting for — free Starbucks-quality Wi-Fi.”
What does this mean for iPhone users? Outside of the unclear statement for free Wi-Fi access, it does open a world of possibilities for Apple’s smartphone holders. AT&T has provided point-of-sale systems for Starbucks for ten years and now with a public Internet connection in all Starbucks’ locations by year-end, it will make for a perfect synergy to let Apple exploit its already golden relationship with Starbucks. Apple’s free iTunes use at many locations today could expand to the ability to order a Latte or pound of Komodo without even being in the store. Based on Starbucks statement of “comprehensive communications agreement”, it’s easy to see Apple adding the capability to iPhones and Wi-Fi enabled iPods to make an order without having to walk up to the register. The user would simply make payment via their iTunes account and walk over to the Barista and pick up their drink. What market potential for both Apple and Starbucks to offer its customers. This would aid Apple in future sales and help Starbucks increase traffic to its stores. With T-Mobile, a competing carrier of AT&T, this would have been a bit difficult for Apple to work out. Now, it seems it’s just a matter of sending Steve Jobs down to San Antonio and speaking to some of the brass at AT&T corporate.
Other incentives for iPhone and iPod users could come from this deal with AT&T and Starbucks which may not make Apple’s rumored five year exclusive contract with AT&T so bad after all.
Billed as the site, “All things Apple. Past, present and future,” ThoughtDifferent.com chronociles the past of Apple.com as far back as July 1997. Unlike the Way Back Machine (Internet Archive), ThoughtDifferent seems to be a bit heavier in complete pages of Apple’s past site. Presented in the Cover Flow format, you’ll be able to go back month by month (if available) and then a single click brings up the page (an image) with history to it on the left side. The oldest page in the archive from July 1997 tells us that, “The earliest homepage found shows how radical the new design was. In 1997 this style (and still is) was a standard layout for a page. Cluttered with text and information and graphically not too pleasing on the eye.” It still amazes me how bad web pages looked back then…and I thought they were cutting edge at the time!
You can look at this page and remember that OS X once wasn’t the big news, but rather Mac OS 8 (and its “Platinum” look) was. Also found on the page is Newton’s Internet Enabler 2.0 giving Newton users access to Ethernet.
Boston still had Macworld in the summer, Mars was saying hello to NASA’s Sojourner and Apple was showing of QuickTime VR of the planet, and you could win a PowerBook 3400/200. Oh, don’t forget about Apple’s eMate, either. 
Aaah, memories…
If you’re looking for the easiest way to find music on your iPhone outside of iTunes that includes things Apple’s music store won’t have, then you will need to go to Seeqpod. With Seeqpod, you can enter anything you’re looking for and up it’ll come in a list which allows you to play each found track. For those using this site often, you can now add it as a Webclip, the new feature in the iPhone 1.1.3 update that lets you put a bookmark right on your home screen, on your iPhone. Thoughtfully, Seeqpod has also created a nice icon for your Webclip per Apple’s standards located at the iPhone Dev Center at apple.com.
So get searching and add that Webclip to your iPhone (or iTouch) today!
Alltel Wireless, America’s largest network, today announced that it is the first U.S-based carrier to offer small business customers SalesNOW®, a contact, activity and deal management software designed for the BlackBerry® and the Web. SalesNOW utilizes the functionality of the BlackBerry to provide customers with the ability to manage their sales data in the palm of their hands.
With the SalesNOW application, professionals can track and manage their contacts, deals, activities and e-mails as well as access and share information with their entire sales team. Customers can perform these activities on their BlackBerry or on the Web through an individual, secure SalesNOW account. Changes the user makes within SalesNOW on the BlackBerry are automatically synced to SalesNOW on the Web and vice versa. The application also allows sales teams to provide up-to-date information on sales activity, view and print weekly activity reports, collaborate on team forecasts, track sale details and next steps on business deals.
Additionally, SalesNOW enhances administrative time management and productivity by giving users the ability to update graphical reports and dashboards, which allows professionals to focus on building quality customer relationships.
“SalesNOW allows our small business customers to better manage their workload no matter where they are,” said David Maddox, director of advanced data solutions for Alltel Wireless. “This innovative solution is the ultimate sales tool for the mobile professional and demonstrates Alltel’s commitment to deliver the most beneficial business applications available today.”
The software is available for $25 per month for individual users or $40 per month for enterprise users with qualifying smart choice data plan on all Alltel Wireless BlackBerry smartphones. For more information, or to purchase SalesNOW and subscribe to the service, visit www.alltelsolutions.com or consult with an Alltel Business Representative by calling 888-4AT-BIZZ.
On alltelsolutions.com, business customers can find an array of solutions to fit every business need. Alltel recently launched several products to assist its customers in their daily tasks, including Alltel WiFi, an easy-to-use solution that instantly provides customers with laptop access to thousands of hotspots, and TimecardGPS, an application that enables users to track employee locations, record shift time and capture job or work order information.
Alltel also offers its business customers with smartphone devices “smart choice packs” a special rate plan, which provides national voice minutes with an unlimited data plan and features such as “My Circle,” an industry-defining feature giving customers on varying calling plans the freedom of unlimited calling to and from five, 10 or 20 numbers on any network for free.
One of the biggest gripes with most for all the other iTunes wannabe types is the lack of Mac software. Universal yanked its content from Apple’s popular video downloading service for its own little venture with the likes of Fox called hulu. As you may have guessed, hulu is Windows only and at this point, is a private beta. Sources have indicated to SvenOnTech that only a few episodes are available for viewing of each show and it is using Adobe’s Flash technology. Your stuck to your PC screen.
SyncTV wants to change all that. It wants to share the video love with Windows, Mac, and Linux users. Giving each of them a client, now everyone can enjoy their favorite shows, now or later. Unlike hulu, all shows will be downloadable and will eventually even support portable media devices. What ever you choose to download, you can go a la carte or get every episode of every year. No restrictions. While this all sounds like iTunes, sans the Linux version, Apple won’t give you any of its content in HD. SyncTV does. To prove how good it looks, SyncTV is showing off its service on a 1080p HDTV at CES this week.
As for content, this seems to be the limited aspect of SyncTV. Only recognizing one show, Dexter, SyncTV has a long way to go before it can take on Apple or even hulu. Fortunately though, the Internet has removed the boundaries of “popular” and with “networks” such as Revision3 and ZiffDavis, featuring DL.TV, the old school TV networks may find itself lost in the shuffle just a few short years from now.
GPS software manufacturer Northport Systems, Inc., has launched Fugawi Touratel, a new cell phone-based outdoor navigation software and interactive web site, today for use in the United States.
Designed to enhance outdoor activities such as hiking, mountain biking, fishing, hunting and more, Fugawi Touratel provides exceptional map detail on a wide variety of mobile phone handsets as well as the complimentary touratel.com website.
A first in GPS software solutions for the outdoor recreation market, Fugawi Touratel is a Web 2.0-based cell phone navigation software product that delivers high-resolution US Geological Survey (USGS) topographic maps, air photos and urban photos to a wide variety of cell phone models within the USA. In addition, users receive a host of other useful third-party location based applications, such as detailed streets maps of the USA, all for one low monthly fee. Fugawi Touratel is currently compatible with many models from Motorola, Samsung, Sanyo and LG, on the Sprint, Alltel and Boost networks with more networks and cell phone models to be added shortly. Because Fugawi Touratel utilizes the cellular network-derived “Assisted GPS” location, the supported phones do not require a specific-use internal or Bluetooth connected GPS. Also, due to its unique Web 2.0 architecture, the user does not need to download and install client software – the entire Fugawi Touratel application works through the internet connection. Users will benefit from added map content and ongoing product development instantaneously, without the need to download updates or apply patches.
“We are pleased to offer USGS topographic maps to the public at no charge though our new web resource, touratel.com,” said Robin Martel, president of Northport Systems. “Our Fugawi Touratel Web 2.0 backend also allows us to address tremendous consumer demand for mobile navigation technology by delivering outdoor GPS applications to a much wider variety of existing phones which could not previously be used for navigation.”
The touratel.com website is a free service enabling users to view and print copies of high quality maps. The site contains all of the USGS topographic maps for the USA, including Hawaii and Alaska, at all available scales, including 1:24,000, 1:100,000 and 1:250,000. Also available through the intuitive tab-based interface are high quality air photos and Google™ maps so the user can review their area of interest utilizing several different map sources. Users can zoom in to any part of the USA and print paper copies to take with them. From the website, users can also check the compatibility of their specific cell phone and, if they wish, sign up and immediately start navigating with the USGS topographic maps on their handset.
“Our Touratel web services have been designed from the ground up to allow for rapid development of richer feature sets and growth into new applications and markets”, continues Martel. “We will add new map content and additional services in early 2008.”
Availability
For more information on Fugawi Touratel, or to learn more about Northport Systems and its entire product line, please contact (416) 920-9300, or visit www.touratel.com. A regularly updated list of compatible carriers and handsets can also be found on the new
touratel.com website.
Social bookmarking has become a very popular, and powerful tool, on the Web in the last year. Nearly every blog, ours included, contain easy to use links to add a story or clip to your favorite bookmarking site. But what to do while on your mobile device such as your Blackberry, Treo, or iPhone? No worries, mate, that guy who brought you PalmInfoCenter now is bringing you PhoneFavs.
MobileInfocenter’s PhoneFavs works with any device, mobile or desktop, from smartphones to iPhones, to PDAs, to tablets to those new micro-computers to your big ‘ol PC. Heck, you can even access it at pfavs.com (I love short lazy URLs!) to help on finger fatigue. With this new site, you can, “store, organize and share bookmarks and access them on their mobile phone, anywhere,” as told to SvenOnTech. Organized into three categories (Bookmarks or Favs, handpicked mobile link directory, and a “mobilizer” that automatically adjust web pages for your device), PhoneFav’s makes it easy to navigate right from the main page. PhoneFav will help keep your favorites organized while on the go.
“PhoneFavs is a portable tool-chest for enriching your browsing experience on a mobile device,” said Ryan Kairer, founder of MobileInfocenter and principle architect of PhoneFavs. “With PhoneFavs at your disposal, you can save cool sites and longer articles to read on your phone in a mobile friendly format at your leisure. It also serves as a gateway to discover new sites and services designed especially for the mobile web.”
Bookmark PhoneFav on your mobile device today.
The Internet’s free encyclopedia, Wikipedia, is getting some competition. Google is working on it’s very own knowledge site by invite only. In a twist of digg and Wikipedia, Knol will allow any user to write about anything they desire and users will rate the article. Unlike Wikipedia’s allowing of other writers to make corrections to an existing post, Knol will only allow the original author to make edits. Google’s vice president of engineering, Udi Manber, added to a recent blog entry that he feels knowing who the author is adds more significant power to the article than not knowing, stating, “We believe that knowing who wrote what will significantly help users make better use of web content.”
As everything Google, the author will have the ability to embed ads into each post obtaining a “substantial” amount of the returns according to Google. Further, the ranking value will also have effect of where the article will appear on regular searches from its main page.
Google will be providing the web space, hosting, bandwidth, and editing tools all for free to the author. According to Danny Sullivan, editor in chief of Search Engine Land, Google will need such a service to stay competitive. We’ll see if this is truly competitive or just another blur in an already growing arsenal of Internet applications for the Mountain View, California giant.
[Via PC World]