Friday, October 15, 2010

19 new stories on The Next Web today

19 new stories on The Next Web today

Link to The Next Web

Palm Grabs Key Nokia and Samsung Employees [TNW Mobile]

Posted: 15 Oct 2010 03:23 AM PDT

AllThingsD are reporting that Palm have just made some very interesting new hires, going after some of the key executives at Nokia and Samsung, even sourcing talent from its parent company HP to help push its new range of WebOS-enabled smartphones and recoup its share of the market back from Nokia, Apple and the Android OS.

Palm has managed to tempt ex-Nokia MeeGo executive Ari Jaaksi, who had cited personal reasons for the reason behind his departure, Samsung’s Victoria Coleman, who was the woman in charge of the company’s R&D Center in San Jose and Steven MacArthur, the SVP of HP’s consumer applications business, to join the company to help strengthen and redevelop key parts of the company’s WebOS operating system and re-strategise its sales.

These high-profile hires shows just how committed Palm and HP are to taking the fight to the current smartphone market leaders, appointing people who were already successful in the mobile industry to lead them in a fightback against Apple, Nokia, RIM and other emerging smartphone manufacturers.

Palm suddenly look like a whole different prospect, we can’t wait to see what comes of these new appointments.



[Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.]

Android Pulling In $1 Billion Revenue This Year [TNW Mobile]

Posted: 15 Oct 2010 02:45 AM PDT

Google held a conference call yesterday to brief investors, journalists and analysts on its financials in the last quarter. Focusing on it’s non-core businesses like YouTube, display advertising and mobile, Google pulled in an incredible $7.29bn Q3 revenue, $1.4bn increase from the previous year.

Many wouldn’t expect it, but Google’s Android mobile operating system is helping Google bring in $1 billion revenue a year, helped largely by the fact that the OS will constitute 17.7% of the global mobile device market by the end of 2010 (according to Gartner) coming in second only to Nokia and its Symbian OS but ahead of Apple’s iOS.

Google’s CEO, Eric Schmidt, is almost surprised by Android’s success, noting the following on the conference call:

“Android is much bigger than I could ever have hoped for. Android can become a hugely profitable business for us. Search on mobile will eventually exceed that of PCs … so, eventually, mobile will be a very, very strong revenue stream in comparison to PCs.”

Schmidt has previously said that Android would eventually be a $10 billion business for Google and whilst the company is still a little way off from that projection, the OS is finding its way onto an increasing number smartphone devices and now tablets, even finding its way onto netbooks and laptops.

As mobile use continues to grow and the market booms, Google will undoubtedly have its plans set out to capitalise on the increase take-up of its OS. Not bad for a company that releases a “free” operating system.Phandroid



[Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.]

First events unveiled as Internet Week comes to London [TNW UK]

Posted: 15 Oct 2010 01:13 AM PDT

The first Internet Week Europe is fast approaching and judging by the first batch of events that have been announced, it’s going to be rather good.

Started in New York in 2008, Internet Week is a chance for the digital industry to raise its profile through a programme of conferences, parties, meet-ups and the like. Now the idea has crossed the pond and Internet Week Europe hits London on 8-12 November 2010.

Here’s our pick of the preliminary events schedule:

Can You Draw the Internet? – Saint@RKCR/Y&R will pose this question to numerous industry big wigs and will pitch the ‘professional’ response against the minds of young children from the E13 Learning Community.

Storytelling for Children in the iPad age presented by Penguin Publishing, Hosted by Ravensbourne – in co-ordination with a competition launched by Puffin to create content for the iPad, Adrian Shaughnessy will chair a panel who will discuss the future of digital publishing.

Digital Archaeology presented by Story Worldwide – an exhibition curated by Jim Boulton, showcasing 15 years of the creativity and inventiveness that built the world wide web as we know it. The creators of these most influential web expressions will talk about their forgotten jewels.

A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down presented by James Wigg / Mediverse – a mix of art, design, well-being with a twist of medicine for anyone interested in digital media and the future of health. A social evening with a varied schedule of 10 minute presentation.

MixInSocial - This event will invite the audience to participate in an interactive performance. A live session band will create a social mix by responding to audience requests for the next song, sent via Twitter from their smartphones, all filmed and streamed live to the internet. Hosted by Last Exit.

You can peruse the full event calendar here.Image source



[Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.]

Bayt.com Communities Launches MarketingHub.me [TNW Middle East]

Posted: 15 Oct 2010 12:21 AM PDT

Global MarketingBayt.com the region’s largest jobs portal is adding Social Networks for professionals targeting regional high demand jobs bundled into a service called Bayt Communities which they kicked off with MarketingHub.me namely for those interested in Marketing.

The portal which is still in public alpha wasn’t built for the hard core marketer alone, rather the creators have made it a hub for all those interested in the marketing industry with blog posts from thought leaders in the marketing industry such as Yousef Tuqan CEO of FlipMedia and other big names from the regional marketing industry.

screenshot of marketinghub.me

The site which is divided into four sections focuses on providing industry specific knowledge some curated into ‘News & Articles’ from sources such as eConsultancy.com and FastCompany.com. The site also provides what ‘Thoughtleaders Say’ in a group of blog posts transferring knowledge and allowing members to follow them in a twitter like style that’s doesn’t come in real time.

MarketingHub.me which is still rough around the edges is well designed, simple and to the point, but is very susceptible to turning into a self indulgent marketing social network it’s creators should beware of falling into by continuing to curate and allow the community to contribute to the networks content.

I personally liked the fact I didn’t need to register, rather using my existing Bayt.com credentials to log into the website with minor tweaks to my profile image and online presence. You can also take a quiz and perhaps get some insight on where you stand career wise using the ‘Career Assessment’ tool.

Avoid the ‘From the Community’ section till after you’ve followed a couple of existing members as it won’t contain any updates otherwise, try my account ahmadfahad or for testing.

We’ll keep you posted on any developments and additional networks to Bayt’s Communities, but for now try it out if you’re a marketer or are interested in exactly what marketers do for a living.Image



[Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.]

Will Freemium Save Msrofi.com From Financial Mismanagement? [TNW Middle East]

Posted: 15 Oct 2010 12:18 AM PDT

Lemonade StandMsrofi.com which launched back in February of 2010 to provide better financial managing of the everyday’s Arab input, output is quite ironically having some financial turbulance of it’s own, thus invoking the Freemium model as a last resort.

The service aspires to be an extremely stripped down version of US online financial management service Mint.com has been providing it’s financial management services free of charge we’ve covered earlier here, but it appears that alone isn’t paying the bills.

The service will be providing their existing basic services free of charge, but will start rolling out services over the next 6 months they will be charging a premium for (which is where Freemium gets it’s name from) such as smartphone, iPad apps and interfaces for existing services, and even a shiny new desktop application.

Screenshot

The tough question to ask is whether or not these shiny new toys will be worth paying money for by Msrofi’s 1,000 users, which quite frankly seems highly unlikely. Not to be the pessimist but perhaps the founders would be better off relying on donations, or services that add value rather than simply providing new service interfaces.

Msrofi while easy to use and quite handy lacks many of the most basic functionalities expected in such a service mainly due to weak online financial regulations, hampering Msrofi and other similar services from providing things like online bank account integration.

Of course the same flawed online legal infrastructure allows companies like Msrofi.com to operate without a legal framework that insures it’s customers personal and financial details will not be disclosed or shared with 3rd parties, such as the Syrian government which is where the company is based.

Depending on partnerships and ads has been highly warned against in a region where online purchasing power is staggering to find it’s feet but appears to be slowly improving with time.

The founders of Msrofi have come to the same conclusion, expressed in a blog post published on their website earlier this week, meaning that in the next 6 months we’ll see just how well Msrofi handles online financial management in the first person.Image



[Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.]

ClearlyContacts Giving Away 10,000 Pairs of Glasses Through Facebook [TNW Canada]

Posted: 14 Oct 2010 04:09 PM PDT

It’s pretty obvious that I wear glasses. I’ve worn glasses, in fact, for over 30 years. I’ve always been lucky enough to be able to afford new glasses when I needed them, not everyone, however, is so lucky. So to celebrate and honor World Site Day, Vancouver-based ClearlyContacts will be giving away 10,000 pairs of glasses. Yeah, 10,000 pairs. Oh and they are doing it through Facebook.

Starting at midnight on Tuesday October 19th, ClearlyContacts will start dropping coupon codes on their Facebook page. I don’t know if this is a first, a Canadian first, or what. All I know is that it’s a really great thing to do.

Without my glasses I can’t see. Period. The big “E” on the eye chart? Yeah without my glasses it’s more like “what big E?”. I can’t imagine what it would be like to need glasses, can’t afford them, and not be able to see clearly. It’s just something that I know I couldn’t bear.

I bought my last couple pairs of glasses through ClearlyContacts (for the first time in my life I have two pairs of glasses I can switch between) and my wife has, oh, three pairs from them (as well as her contacts). While it’s tempting for me to pick up another pair of glasses through the free glasses event, I think it’s better to use the coupon code GOGOBOGO which gets you buy one, get one free glasses until Sunday at midnight.

I need a pair of sunglasses come to think of it…ClearlyContacts, Press release, Photo credit p*p from Flickr



[Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.]

[Update: back up!] Yahoo’s Homepage Goes Down, Sub-Domains Fine [TNW United States]

Posted: 14 Oct 2010 02:21 PM PDT

Yahoo.com is back online! The downtime lasted for more than 30 minutes according to our estimates. Please see update 3 below.

Yahoo’s homepage is completely borked at the moment, all the while its sub-domains are up and dandy. We are looking into just what is going on.

As of now, the site has been offline for (as far as we can tell), more than 30 minutes. Sites of Yahoo’s size do not tend to suffer from downtime of this sort due to redundant data centers around the world and massive excess capacity to handle traffic spikes.

Ask yourself, when was the last time you tried to go to Google.com and it failed? You can keep tabs on whether Yahoo’s homepage is back online by refreshing this link, which will run the test for you. It should be noted that Yahoo.ca is also suffering from downtime, while Yahoo.co.uk is not.

Yahoo has yet to comment on Twitter as to just what is going on. We have contacted Yahoo for comment [please see statement in update 4]. According to media expert Robyn Tippins the last time Yahoo.com was down was in 2009.

It of course has to be noted that there have been numerous acquisition rumors for Yahoo in the last day, with AOL being the most named potential suitor. AOL is said to be working with private equity groups to raise the total funds needed to consume Yahoo. This downtime is not helping Yahoo’s cause to stay standalone.

Update – If you run a search on Twitter, complaints surrounding the downtime are running hot and wild. The people have spoken, bring us back our Yahoo! [I wasn't sure if anyone on Twitter still used Yahoo, to be honest]

Update 2 – People on Twitter are going bonkers over this bout of downtime, which continues to surprise me. Really, when was the last time that you went to Yahoo.com on a whim?

Update 3 – As of 4:47 Central Time in the US Yahoo.com is back online. We are still awaiting comment from Yahoo.

Update 4 – Yahoo released the following statement:

For a brief period this afternoon, Yahoo.com was inaccessible to some users. We have identified the issue and are working to correct it immediately. We know that this may have caused some inconvenience and we apologize to our users who might have been affected.

Image Credit



[Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.]

Check out the data on the Gap logo debacle: Yeah people hated it. [TNW Canada]

Posted: 14 Oct 2010 01:41 PM PDT

I just caught a post from Sysomos about the whole logo change The Gap made recently. In all honesty, it didn’t really hit my radar (I had to bashfully ask someone why everyone had these silly avatars with a blue square in the corner). Essentially, by the time I noticed it, The Gap had switched back to the old logo.

What is still interesting is how we how have more tools to analyze and document what happened with real metrics. See the anecdotal stuff is great for water cooler chats, but when you get into a boardroom you need facts, data, and charts to back it all up. Sysomos first looked at just the general conversation pattern, and I think you can see when the discussion started to take off:

That chart just looks at the chatter on Twitter, so you can imagine what might have been going on in other social networks. Now peaks and valleys in discussion make for interesting points, but what I really thought was cool was looking at the words used in those tweets during these peak times:

The fact that “logo” is in the center shows that “logo” was a huge component of the discussions at during that time, the thicker and darker the lines are coming out of the center shows the strength of the connection between logo and that word. Yeah I like the tie between “logo” and “debacle” too.

Regardless, it’s the analysis of the data that is cool. The Gap can not only see the obvious (people were talking about the logo a lot), but also the subtle—the language used to talk about it.  If social media killed the new Gap logo, then at least we now have the data to show it.Source: Sysomos



[Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.]

Google reports $7.29bn Q3 revenue, $1.4bn increase from Q3 2009 [TNW Google]

Posted: 14 Oct 2010 01:27 PM PDT

In the wake of Goole moving Marissa Mayer to a new position, and while rumors of its fall abound, Google has once again pulled out substantial revenue for the third quarter of 2010. At $7.29 billion, this is above the estimate of $5.25bn that was the consensus among Wall Street.

According to Google CEO Eric Schmidt:

Our core business grew very well, and our newer businesses — particularly display and mobile — continued to show significant momentum. Going forward, we remain committed to aggressive investment in both our people and our products as we pursue an innovation agenda.

As many continue to question Google’s push with Android, revenue reports such as this, with statements directed at Google’s mobile hold, should leave no doubt that the Mountain View company has found its way to monetize.



[Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.]

Japanese Auto-Racing Commentators Go Insane [TNW Shareables]

Posted: 14 Oct 2010 01:16 PM PDT

Here’s a fun video to get your weekend started a bit early. Don’t you wish these guys would do the commentary for golf or other slightly more sedate sports events?



[Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.]

Wibiya launches a platform and API for their popular toolbar [TNW Apps]

Posted: 14 Oct 2010 12:59 PM PDT

Wibiya is a company that you know, but you don’t know that you do. Often when you open a website a toolbar appears at the bottom that has social and sharing options. That toolbar is nearly always a Wibiya widget. The company is popular provider for website owners everywhere.

Love them or hate their intrusion, Wibiya’s toolbars are massively popular. They are viewed by 175 million unique people every month, and can be found on 80,000 different websites. That is rather impressive distribution, you must say.

The company is not satisfied with that success so far, and is looking to open up and grow even faster. To meet that goal, Wibiya has just launched a developer platform that includes an API for everyone to access and work with. Often when a company does something like this they are looking to attract developers to their system; given the size of Wibiya’s install base, this new release was probably a response to demand, not a hope for it.

The company has big goals for the platform:

Developers are now invited to submit different types of applications from toolbar apps to website plug-ins that are not toolbar related, any type of technology is welcome including API mash-ups.

The submission process is very simple, developers are invited to go through a simple registration process during which they enter some general information on their application and upload a few graphic files for the application marketplace.

The new developer platform is launching with partnerships with Yahoo!, Bit.ly, and AddThis. Wibiya has plans to release three further APIs in the near future to allow for more varied applications to be built.

What are you going to use Wibiya’s new tools to build?Image Credit, WashingtonPost



[Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.]

Massive GetGlue growth spawns grand new discount feature [TNW Apps]

Posted: 14 Oct 2010 12:23 PM PDT

GetGlue, a social network which allows one to check-in to forms of entertainment; music, TV shows, movies, and more, is growing at a parabolic rate.  After launching apps for the iPhone, Android devices, the iPad and revamping their mobile site, GetGlue experienced over 8 million unique check-ins and ratings in August.

8 million is nice, but you know what's even better?  10 million.  That's right, GetGlue today announced their social network saw 10 million unique check-ins for the month of September, a more than 600 percent growth rate since January according to the graph above.

That level of growth has allowed GetGlue to secure a new, grand, deal for its users. Today GetGlue has announced a first-of-its-kind discount program for True Blood fans through a partnership with HBO.  The discount program represents the first time that fans of a TV show receive discounts simply by checking in to their favorite program.  True Blood's devoted fan base was the impetus behind its selection as the first program to be selected for the launch of the new promotion.

How do the discounts work?  Based on the segmentation of GetGlue users, the discount one receives will be tier-based.  All users will receive a 10 percent discount, Fans (Truebies) will receive a 15 percent discount, Superfans (Makers) will receive a 20 percent discount, and the Guru (the most knowledgeable fan of True Blood as voted on by his or her fellow users10% discount for all users) will receive a $50 dollar gift card. Users can cash in on the discounts to purchase True Blood memorabilia, swag, and DVDs in the HBO online store.

Not a fan of True Blood?  No worries.  GetGlue will announce additional partners in the next 3-4 weeks.  Further, in speaking with GetGlue Founder and CEO, Alex Iskold, plans are in the works to add discounts to GetGlue's already popular stickers which will take the form of coupons and scannable barcodes on the stickers one receives.

One item of note: discounts are currently available only on GetGlue.com, but with the coming updates, they will be available on iPhone, Android, iPad and other apps.

Never the less, if you are fan of True Blood, great things are coming your way, and for fans of other shows, equally as great things are in the offing from GetGlue in the coming weeks.  Stay tuned.



[Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.]

The FCC will look into cellphone bill-shock [TNW United States]

Posted: 14 Oct 2010 12:18 PM PDT

Ever received a cellphone bill that was off the charts and not know why? If you live in the US some help may be on the way. The FCC unanimously voted to probe into cellphone overage charges, and to perhaps lay out new rules for consumer alerts.

The FCC is mulling over regulatory changes that will force carriers to let their customers know when they are near the limits of their allowed voice minutes, text messages, and data usage according to their current plan. Consumers often lack simple ways to stay up on their current usage versus their total allotments.

There is a long history of erroneous consumer cell phone billing, something that was pushed into the spotlight with a recent Verizon meltdown involving it repaying tens of millions of dollars to consumers that it had over billed. Such ‘mistakes’ are a thorn in the eye of the FCC, who wants to clear the air around billing.

To alert customers that limits were being reached, the provider would send them voice and text alerts to ensure that they knew, and could thus voluntarily embark on overages if they so choose to. This will quite obviously cut into what was perhaps a fat profit line for carriers, but will make cellphones fairer for all users.

Republicans have expressed some hesitation over costs that may prove expensive for carriers, but are coming along with the investigation thus far.

The FCC expects to field some 1500 complaints this year concerning bill-shock.Image Credit



[Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.]

Entercom Picks Strutta to Run Its Radio Station Contests [TNW Canada]

Posted: 14 Oct 2010 12:10 PM PDT

We all like to win stuff. Radio stations like to have contests and give stuff away (so do I in fact), the problem is that running contests can be a rather large pain in the tush. Vancouver’s Strutta has built a contest platform that makes the process much less painful. Already pretty popular, Strutta has another feather in its cap: The 110 station radio network operated by Entercom has chosen Strutta as their contest platform for all its stations.

Entercom tried out Strutta for a few of the stations in the network and now Strutta is the choice for all the stations across the U.S. in the network.

Running a contest with Strutta starts at $500 for the basic version and $2500 for the pro version, but you can try and set up the contest for free. If you’re interested in running a contest, give them a shout. If you are running a contest for a charity, don’t hesitate to contact them; the folks at Strutta have a great record for helping and supporting good causes.

Hat tip to Radio-info.comEntrecom press release, Source: Radio-info



[Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.]

Pitch me! [TNW Canada]

Posted: 14 Oct 2010 11:35 AM PDT

So you’re a cool Canadian tech startup and are doing something cool or interesting. Or maybe you’re one of the “old timers” on the tech scene and have something big planned. Either way, I have a question for you:

Why haven’t you told me?

Sure, TNW Canada might be new on the scene, but I’m not new to this biz. You might remember me from Pimp Your Work, Maple Leaf 2.0, or Blognation Canada or maybe one of my other blogs I’ve run in the past. What am I interested in?

If it runs on a website, a mobile device, or a computer I’m interested.

Is that all?

Okay, if it helps people do their jobs better, I’m interested (the lifehacks kinds of things)

Really?

Really.

My beat is Canadian tech, so I’m pretty open to just about everything related. Product reviews? You bet.

If you want to reach me, email is best: tris [at] thenextweb [dot] com. Yes, of course I have Skype and phone, but email let’s me have a nice record. If you’re emailing me things, really the more the better. Pictures, docs, info … you know the usual.

Of course I love exclusives and will honor embargoes if you have something you are tying with a launch.

Last thing, if you’d like to advertise here on TNW Canada, I’ll have that information up soon.



[Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.]

Are You In The Club? Is My New Favorite App [TNW Apps]

Posted: 14 Oct 2010 10:53 AM PDT

There is something about the internet that consistently creates interesting applications that do little, and yet force action from more people than you would ever expect. Remember MillonDollarHomepage and its massive impact despite doing nearly nothing at all?

There is a new application that is bubbling beneath the surface, an app that does so little it is a mockery of its larger inspiration. Enter Are You In The Club?

The idea was hatched by John Kershaw who coded the whole deal (it probably took 37 lines of code, leaving him plenty of time to blog about his work), and took it to profitability in just 7 hours. What does it do? For $1 you can have your name on the list of people “in the club.” The list is public.

That’s it.

You may be thinking that this is the stupidest, worst idea ever, but you have to admit that exclusivity has a draw all its own. Oh, and one more thing, the faster you sign up, the better your number will be. There are 44 members in the club right now, and since I just coughed up my $1 I am hoping to be number 45. If you join you will be number 46, and will thus be less cool than myself. That is how this sort of things works, right?

Let’s get into where this wonky idea came from:

I've been toying with having an exclusive (very pretentious) collective online for a while. It was talking in the hallway about this idea with house-mates this afternoon that I made a joke that turned into this evening's start-up.

What if you have a club you had to pay a dollar to be a member of, but all membership gave you was your name on an official and public list of members?

Yeah, it’s not the next Google, but as it has cost the creator a mere $22 or so so far, and as people are continuing the sign up (like myself, the sucker that I am), you have to admit that Mr. Kershaw picked up on a very important (and profitable) part of the human psyche: I want to be better than you in whatever way I can, no matter how inane. The idea has bought him lunch so far, and if it goes viral might by him a new suit. Good luck, John.

I am in the club, are you?

- Update: John put together a cartoon outlining his business model. We hope that he will pitch this to VCs just to watch their faces twitch. It deals with the fact that after joining the club you can invite your friends:


Image Credit



[Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.]

PayPal isn’t ignoring Canada [TNW Canada]

Posted: 14 Oct 2010 10:40 AM PDT

While at the CONNECT conference this week, I had the opportunity to chat with the General Manager of PayPal Canada, Darrell MacMullin about what is going on at PayPal and the state of electronic payments in Canada. First off, this wasn’t a pitch in any way, shape, or form, not that I didn’t try to press Darrell for the inside scoop, this was a nice, casual chat. Darrell is quite a nice guy with a rather impressive pedigree in the ebusiness world (Chapters online, eBay Canada, now PayPal) and certainly knows his stuff. After the usual pleasantries I got right to something that I know all Canadian PayPal users want to know:

Why does it take so long to get money from PayPal into my bank account!

Only to be followed by:

When will Canada get great products like PayPal debit/credit cards?

Darrell had to chuckle at both of these questions. You see when he came to PayPal working on the bank transfer process was (and is) one of his top priorities. He’s asked the question a lot it seems. Turns out the simple reason is that Canadian banks are different. Okay, well I could have figured that out myself, but the deeper reason is that in the U.S. there is a centralized clearing process, so things can go more smoothly. Canada? Yeah, not so much. So while Darrell is working on the problem, it’s an uphill battle.

As for things like the PayPal debit/credit cards or being able to take a picture of a cheque to deposit it, these are things that are also tied up in the differences between Canada and the U.S. One thing I didn’t know was that the system for being able to take a picture of a cheque and have it electronically deposited was a direct result of 9/11. Turns out that when the towers fell, a lot of the paper lost was made up of paper cheques. After that the U.S. Government mandated a program to make sure that didn’t happen again, creating a centralized system for managing this. Canada doesn’t have this, not that PayPal doesn’t want to bring it to Canada.

That’s really the bottom line, Canada is one of PayPal’s top five markets in the world. We’re not under the radar, we’re not being ignored, and soon some great things will be announced in the mobile payment space (I kept pushing, but I got bubkus on details). As a loyal PayPal customer (I even have a merchant account), I was chided for not having the PayPal app installed on my phone (I just hadn’t gotten around to it) and got a nice demo of “bump to pay” and the myriad of charities that I can instantly donate to with a simple tap. I got schooled on that one and was pretty impressed. Good folks at PayPal and I’m promised exciting news in short order.PayPal



[Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.]

My favorite news reader, my6sense for Android, gets some hefty upgrades [TNW Apps]

Posted: 14 Oct 2010 07:52 AM PDT

my6sense, which we talked about back in September, has quickly grown into my favorite way to read news on my Droid. While there are offerings that do a great job of aggregation, nothing beats the intuition factor of my6sense. Having an application that can truly get to know you and your preferences is such a time saver, but it’s true genius comes in its ability to find the things you wouldn’t find yourself.

Since its launch on the Android platform, it has seen more than 10,000 downloads and continues to make real improvements with each release. Today, with the release of version 1.3, you’ll see this:

  • Better Buzz: Read full Buzz posts in your my6sense Buzz stream, and share content with full previews to Buzz
  • Twitter Tweaks: You can now send replies and direct messages from your Twitter stream
  • Set Sorting: 'Remember my last sorting mode'. Per your requests, we adjusted the app so that when you sort a stream by time or relevance, that sorting becomes the default view for that particular stream.
  • Improved Items: Bringing you a more dynamic stream view with regards to read and skipped items
  • Twelve hr Time filter: Added 12 hour time filter for relevant items (see 'Menu'->'Settings' in the app homescreen)
  • Instapaper! Save items to instapaper from the app

For those of you who have been using the app for any length of time, you’ll understand immediately how great these changes are. For the rest of you, simply know that the my6sense team has gone to work coming up with answers to all of the major questions we long-time users have asked.

You can grab my6sense, for free, from the Android Market. Please do, and be prepared to not make up your mind about it for around two weeks. Because of the learning algorithm, the application simply gets better every time you touch it.



[Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.]

Police force tweets emergency calls, scores Twitter hit [TNW UK]

Posted: 14 Oct 2010 07:28 AM PDT

A UK police force has scored a major hit today by tweeting every single 999 emergency call it receives over a 24-hour period.

Greater Manchester Police‘s move has seen an overwhelming response among UK Twitter users today as over one hundred tweets per hour are published, reporting everything from real emergencies like thefts and potential accidents to non-emergencies like Threatening messages on Facebook and a man asleep on a toilet in a theatre.

Why is the force doing this? As Inside the M60 reports today, GMP is currently faced with having to make budget cuts of up to £7 million. Chief Constable Peter Fahy has opted to use social media to show how much work the police has to deal with and how cuts stretch resources, saying a lot of police work “is not recognised in league tables and measurements – yet is a huge part of what we do.”

The tweets, spread out over three accounts in order to get around Twitter’s API limits on account usage (even on its own website), have captured the public’s imagination with two spoof accounts being set up. This one is arguably producing the most humorous results, which the other was reprimanded by the police for using their official crest logo. That said, sometimes real life is funnier than parody. See this example: “Call 384 report of man holding baby over bridge – police immediately attended and it was man carrying dog that doesn’t like bridges”.

Meanwhile, we hear that open data enthusiasts are already working on code to analyse data from the calls. It’s fair to say that social media agency Gabba has hit on something with this seemingly simple campaign. The public has got to see the sheer range of calls, some appropriate, some not, that the police has to deal with, generating lots of word-of-mouth discussion and media coverage. Whether it will have any lasting effect beyond public awareness of stretched police resources remains to be seen, but it’s still a bold move that’s paid off.

You can follow Greater Manchester Police’s tweets at their three accounts here, here and here or via the hashtag #gmp24 The ‘experiment’ ends at 5am on 15 October, British Summer Time.Image source



[Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.]

National Schools Film Week sports seriously NSFW domain [TNW UK]

Posted: 14 Oct 2010 07:13 AM PDT

An initiative by the National Schools Film Week (or NSFW) encourages UK students and their teachers to view a wide variety of films at local cinemas.

It’s a festival that has the interests of schoolchildren at heart, until it asks them to key in their web address.

You see, the National School Film Week (NSFW) shares its acronym with the shortened version of the term “Not Safe For Work”, a label usually attached to a link or description on the web that might contain questionable content. The festival operates using the domain name NSFW.org, a website that is perfectly harmless until someone decides to mistakenly key it is dot-com counterpart or falls foul of internet monitoring software.

NSFW.com (we won’t link it) provides vistiors with YouTube-style portal for more adult content, providing videos, pictures and chat services. Whilst National Schools Film Week is only running for seven days, NSFW.com is available at anytime for your viewing pleasure.

It looks like the people behind the festival didn’t do much in the way of research, we wonder how the Film Education team will dig themselves out of this one.The Register



[Notice: this is the RSS feed for ALL stories from across The Next Web - that means a lot of stories every day - for just our top stories, subscribe to our Top Stories RSS feed here.]
Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)