Google has acquired a seven-year-old company that develops facial-recognition technology for images and video, though the Web-search giant didn’t say what it plans to do with it.

The company, called Pittsburgh Pattern Recognition, or PittPatt, is run by three “image analysis” and “pattern recognition” specialists with PhD’s from Carnegie Mellon University, according to its site. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed.

A statement on PittPatt’s site said on Friday that “computer vision technology is already at the core of many existing products” at Google, including Image Search, YouTube and Picasa, “so it’s a natural fit to join Google and bring the benefits of our research and technology to a wider audience. We will continue to tap the potential of computer vision in applications that range from simple photo organization to complex video and mobile applications.”

A Google spokesman said PittPatt developed “innovative technology” in the area of computer vision and that its research “can benefit our users in many ways,” without elaborating.

Regarding face recognition, the spokesman said, “We’ve said that we won’t add face recognition to our apps or product features unless we have strong privacy protections in place, and that’s still the case.”

Google has said it built facial recognition technology for smartphones into a product known as Google Goggles, but withheld it. “As far as I know, it’s the only technology that Google built and after looking at it, we decided to stop,” said Google Chairman Eric Schmidt last month at a conference. “People could use this stuff in a very, very bad way as well as in a good way.”

During its annual developer conference in May, Google showed off something called “Virtual Camera Operator,” which uses computer-vision technology to stabilize mobile video chats by following a person’s head movements and to determine who is speaking during a multi-person video conference so that the camera would automatically focus on the speaker.

It also recently launched Google+, a social network that lets people share and store photos, among other things. Rival Facebook has face-recognition technology to identify people in photos, which has raised concerns from privacy advocates. The technology, first introduced last year, was designed to help Facebook users easily identify and mark, or “tag,” friends in photos as they upload them to the social-networking site.

“If for any reason someone doesn’t want their name to be suggested” for tagging, “they can disable the feature in their Privacy Settings,” Facebook has said.

PittPatt’s software “accurately counts the number of people viewed by a video camera” and “it can automatically generate reports measuring the presence and movement of people over extended periods of time,” according to a cached version of its website.

Some of the “practical applications” of the technology include measuring “the effectiveness of digital signage, advertising, kiosks and narrowcasting”; “customer traffic flow,” or gathering “insight into customer behavior and shopping patterns; “security-related matters” such as being able to send alerts when the PittPatt software detects a face that isn’t in its database.

PittPatt offered a tool for people to “integrate face finding and tracking into your own product,” and in 2007 it partnered with General Electric to develop an “intelligent security camera system,” the site said. The GE system “will obtain high resolution facial imagery using a motorized pan-tilt-zoom camera that will track and zoom in on faces that enter the field of view,” according to the site.

When people feel like shopping, they are increasingly pulling out iPads and other tablets, so much so that shopping on tablets could someday outpace shopping on smartphones and even computers.

That is the conclusion of a report by Forrester Research that is to be published Monday, based on a joint survey with Bizrate Insights. Even though just 9 percent of shoppers own tablets, sales from tablets already account for 20 percent of mobile e-commerce sales, the report said, and 60 percent of tablet owners have used them to shop.

“Everyone thinks that mobile phones and mobile commerce are the next big things, and I think what this data shows is it’s probably actually tablets,” said Sucharita Mulpuru, an e-commerce analyst at Forrester who co-wrote the report. “We have always capped e-commerce at 10 to 15 percent of total retail sales, but this potentially has the capability of really expanding e-commerce much beyond that.”

Tablets offer retailers and shoppers something that cellphones and computers cannot — the experience of flipping through a print catalog, with big photos and rich imagery — and with shorter load times than many Web sites.

For instance, TheFind’s Catalogue for the iPad, which includes retailers like Crate & Barrel and Sephora, lets people flip through pages. Gilt’s Jetsetter app for travel uses the iPad’s accelerometer and gyroscope to show resorts from different angles. Retailers can send personalized catalogs to customers’ tablets based on their interests and purchase history, Ms. Mulpuru said.

For retailers, these types of features give them a chance to show off their products instead of competing solely on price with dozens of other retailers accessible with a Google search and a click. For shoppers, 80 percent of whom use their tablets in the living room, they make online shopping a leisurely experience in a way it hasn’t been since e-commerce came along.

“The element of discovery is missing online, because most people go to Google, and Google isn’t about discovering something online, it’s about typing something into a search box,” Ms. Mulpuru said. “This is much closer to the actual physical browsing experience.”

Forty percent of tablet owners use their tablets instead of their personal computers when both are available, Forrester found. And though more people are shopping on smartphones, they use them mostly for comparing prices and receiving mobile coupons, and get frustrated by the small screen when browsing items or entering billing information. A majority, particularly young people, prefer shopping on tablets, the report said.

Still, retailers have been slow to catch on. The average retailer has spent just $14,000 developing shopping tools for tablets, which Forrester calls “anemic.” And though Forrester expects that a third of adults will own tablets by 2015, the majority of people will not own the devices.

Half of Africa's one billion population has a mobile phone – and not just for talking. The power of telephony is forging a new enterprise culture, from banking to agriculture to healthcare.

Mobile phones in Uganda's capital, Kampala: 10 million people across the country own a phone. Photograph: Yousef Eldin

Earlier this month, on a short bus ride through the centre of Kampala, I decided to carry out an informal survey. Passing through the Ugandan capital's colourful and chaotic streets, I would attempt to count the signs of the use of mobile phones in evidence around me. These included phone shops and kiosks, street-corner airtime vendors and giant billboard ads, as well as people actually using their mobile phones: a girl in school uniform writing a text message as she hurried along the street, a businessman calmly making a call from the back of a motorcycle taxi swerving through heavy rush-hour traffic. Not only were half of the passengers on my bus occupied with their handsets, our driver was too, thumbing at his keypad as he ferried us to our final destination. After five minutes, I lost count and retired with a sore neck. There was more evidence here than I could put a number on.

My survey underlined a simple fact: Africa has experienced an incredible boom in mobile phone use over the past decade. In 1998, there were fewer than four million mobiles on the continent. Today, there are more than 500 million. In Uganda alone, 10 million people, or about 30% of the population, own a mobile phone, and that number is growing rapidly every year. For Ugandans, these ubiquitous devices are more than just a handy way of communicating on the fly: they are a way of life.

It may seem unlikely, given its track record in technological development, but Africa is at the centre of a mobile revolution. In the west, we have been adapting mobile phones to be more like our computers: the smartphone could be described as a PC for your pocket. In Africa, where a billion people use only 4% of the world's electricity, many cannot afford to charge a computer, let alone buy one. This has led phone users and developers to be more resourceful, and African mobiles are being used to do things that the developed world is only now beginning to pick up on.

The most dramatic example of this is mobile banking. Four years ago, in neighbouring Kenya, the mobile network Safaricom introduced a service called M-Pesa which allows users to store money on their mobiles. If you want to pay a utilities bill or send money to a friend, you simply dispatch the amount by text and the recipient converts it into cash at their local M-Pesa office. It is cheap, easy to use and, for millions of Africans unable to access a bank account or afford the hefty charges of using one, nothing short of revolutionary.

Safaricom didn't invent mobile banking: it existed previously in countries such as Norway and Japan, but on a small scale and with nothing like the seismic effect it had in Kenya. The established banks weren't happy at first – they tried to shut down M-Pesa soon after it started – but now they are getting in on the game, and it is estimated that by 2015 global mobile transactions will exceed one trillion dollars. According to California-based mobile-banking innovator Carol Realini, executive chairman of Obopay: "Africa is the Silicon Valley of banking. The future of banking is being defined here… It's going to change the world."

The mobile banking phenomenon spread quickly to other countries in the developing world. Uganda's largest telecom company, MTN Uganda, created its own version, MobileMoney, in March 2009. Within a year, 600,000 Ugandans had signed up. Now, thanks to aggressive recruitment drives to win more subscribers – MTN agents trolling the streets for new customers are known as "foot soldiers" – the service has more than 1.6 million users.

MobileMoney outlets are everywhere in 2011: the distinctive canary-yellow buildings and kiosks that house them are dotted around not just Kampala but the greater part of the country. The MTN network reaches 85% of Uganda, and MobileMoney is available everywhere MTN has coverage. Many of the villages I travelled through, however minor or remote, had at least one tell-tale splash of yellow.

Mobile phones carry huge economic potential in undeveloped parts of Africa. A 2005 London Business School study found that for every additional 10 mobile phones per 100 people in a developing country, GDP rises by 0.5%. As well as enabling communication and the movement of money, mobile networks can also be used to spread vital information about farming and healthcare to isolated rural areas vulnerable to the effects of drought and disease.

Despite the proliferation of phones in Uganda, however, a digital divide persists. How can information be understood and properly implemented when more than a third of the country's adult population cannot read or write? And can complex and detailed information be managed by anything less than a smartphone, which is beyond the means of most Ugandans?

Read the whole article...

A few weeks ago, Juniper estimated that the transaction value of mobile payments for digital and physical goods, money transfers and NFC transactions will reach a whopping $670 billion by 2015, up from $240 billion this year. Today Gartner is releasing its data report, taking a look at actual users of mobile payments services. Gartner’s research shows that mobile payment users worldwide will surpass 141.1 million in 2011, a 38.2 percent increase from 2010, in which mobile payment users reached 102.1 million. Worldwide mobile payment volume is projected to total $86.1 billion, up 75.9 percent from 2010 volume of $48.9 billion.

While Juniper’s estimates for mobile payments transaction volume were loftier ($240 billion for this year), Gartner analysts claim the mobile payments market is growing slower than expected.

Gartner says that particularly in developing markets, growth in mobile payments is not as strong as expected. Sandy Shen, research director at Gartner, writes, While developing markets have favorable conditions for mobile payments, such as high penetration of mobile devices and low banking penetration, this is no guarantee of success, unless service providers adapt their strategies to local market requirements.

Shen adds that she believes the mass market adoption of NFC payments is at least four years away, with the biggest “hurdle” as changing users behavior from using cash and credit cards to using their mobile phone. And she predicts that in 2011, merchandise purchases from mobile apps like eBay and Amazon will account for 90 percent and 77 percent of all mobile payments transactions in North America and Western Europe, respectively.

In developing markets, Gartner says money transfers and prepaid incentives will drive transaction volumes. In Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa, these two services will account for 54 percent and 32 percent of all transactions in 2011, respectively.

It’s interesting that Gartner doesn’t seem to be too bullish on NFC in the near future. Clearly Google is making a big bet on NFC with the launch of its mobile payments product Google Wallet. And PayPal just announced its integration with NFC for Android phones. Perhaps that leaves more breathing room for innovative companies like Square to continue to disrupt the mobile payments space without adopting NFC technology.

BerlinBundesjustizministerin Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger erwartet nach dem Urteil des Europäischen Gerichtshofs für Menschenrechte (EGMR) zur Meinungsfreiheit von Arbeitnehmern hierzulande eine starke Auseinandersetzung über die Veröffentlichung von Missständen. „Die EGMR-Entscheidung wird die Diskussion in Deutschland beleben, wie man mit Whistleblowing in allen Bereichen umgeht“, sagte Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger dem Handelsblatt.

„Wer Kenntnis von unethischen oder illegalen Zuständen hat und die Entscheidung trifft, solche Zustände öffentlich zu machen, bewegt sich in einem Spannungsfeld", betonte die Justizministerin. Auf der einen Seite gebe es zweifellos Missstände, die an die Öffentlichkeit gehörten, damit sie bekämpft würden - und die nur durch Whistleblowing bekannt werden könnten. „Auf der einen Seite muss sich jeder Arbeitgeber oder Behördenchef auf seine Mitarbeiter verlassen können“, sagte die FDP-Politikerin. Bei der Reform des Beschäftigtendatenschutzes habe sie sich dafür eingesetzt, dass sich Angestellte bei Datenschutzverstößen jederzeit an die Aufsichtsbehörden wenden könnten.

Der Europäische Gerichtshof für Menschenrechte hatte am Donnerstag entschieden, dass die fristlose Kündigung einer Arbeitnehmerin wegen der Veröffentlichung von Missständen bei ihrem Arbeitgeber gegen die Menschenrechtskonvention verstößt.

Targeted online advertising has left many people slightly creeped out by the many ways strangers collect their online data. But a new study suggests that strangers aren’t the only people who are likely to collect personal information without your notice.

The study, which surveyed more than 1,000 online individuals, found that the percentage of significant others, spouses and parents who admit to digital snooping is significant and — at least among romantic partners — on the rise. It was commissioned by consumer electronics search engine and review site Retrevo.

About 33% of respondents admitted to checking a significant other’s email or call history without their partner’s knowledge at least once. Married couples were even more likely to snoop, with 37% of married respondents admitting the same.

Parents, however, were the worst online snoopers. Thirty-nine percent of mothers and 36% of fathers said they had done some digital snooping (across the board, women were more likely to admit to snooping than men). The majority of parents, 59%, also said that tracking their children’s location with a cell phone service or other device wouldn’t be a problem.

“Consumers may have just as much to fear from people they know than big corporations,” reads the study’s conclusion.

Do these results surprise you? Do you think that there’s ever an excuse for online snooping? Is it right for parents to snoop on their children?

This morning Google made an announcement of magical significance: the Harry Potter eBooks, which are being released for the first time this October, will be available via its Google Books platform. That sounds like it should be a given, but in the case of Potter it isn’t — author J.K. Rowling is selling the books exclusively through Pottermore, a site that she launched with much fanfare last month.

Some reports took this to mean that Potter wouldn’t be making his way to the Kindle (or that end-users would have to deal with clunky workarounds to get the book off of Google Books and onto Amazon’s popular device). Fortunately, that isn’t the case: we’ve received word from an Amazon spokesperson that the company is “working closely with Pottermore to make sure Kindle customers will be able to buy and read J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter books.”

That’s important, because even before today’s Google announcement people have questioned if Potter would come to the Kindle. Pottermore is reportedly distributing the books in a DRM-free format, and historically Amazon has only sold its books with DRM. Update: Amazon says that they actually sell lots of Kindle books without DRM, and that the decision is up to the publisher. It’s unclear exactly what Amazon is going to do here, but obviously they’re working something out (and they have a strong incentive to, given that the series has sold 450 million copies in print). One thing to note: Amazon’s statement makes it clear that Potter is coming to the Kindle, but it’s still feasible that there could be different release windows in play.

As for the purchase process itself, it sounds like users will buy the books from Pottermore, then choose which eBook platform they’d like them delivered to.

And while it doesn’t have exclusive rights to the books, Google does have a leg up on Amazon in at least one respect: they’ve been chosen as “the preferred third party payment platform for all purchases made on Pottermore.com” — you’ll be able to pay with either Google Checkout, or your credit card. Given how many people will flock to the site, this could well introduce Google Checkout to a lot of people for the first time.

Finally, Google hints that there will be more coming from its partnership: “Stay tuned for more Pottermore and Google wizardry on the web this summer, leading up to when Pottermore opens.”

Seit dem heutigen Mittwoch haben aufmerksame Verbraucher eine neue Anlaufstelle für Beschwerden von irreführenden Lebensmittelkennzeichnungen: Die Verbraucherzentrale Hessen und die Verbraucherzentrale Bundesverband haben die Webseite Lebensmittelklarheit.de gelauncht. Aufgrund des großen Andrangs von 20.000 Anfragen pro Sekunde brach das Portal kurz nach dem Start zusammen. Ute Bitter, Sprecherin der Verbraucherzentrale Hessen, sprach gegenüber dapd von einem "echten Überlastungsproblem".

 

Das Portal solle schnellstmöglich stabilisiert werden, so Bitter weiter.

Bundesverbraucherministerin Ilse Aigner und die Verbraucherzentralen hatten am Vormittag den Startschuss für die Webseite gegeben. Verbraucher werden darauf dazu aufgerufen, sogenannte "Mogelpackungen" zu melden. Eine Fachredaktion prüft dann die anonym gestellten Fragen zu Aufmachung und Kennzeichnung der Lebensmitteilung und leitet den Fall bei eindeutigen Rechtsverstößen an die Lebensmittelüberwachung weiter. Für den Start wurden rund 20 Produktbeispiele online gestellt. In regelmäßigen Abständen sollen Chats zu wechselnden Themen angeboten werden.

Begleitend zum Internetportal wird es zudem Marktuntersuchungen und Verbraucherbefragungen geben, um die Repräsentativität der im Internet gewonnenen Erkenntnisse zu überprüfen, kündigten die Initiatoren an.

Bereits zum Start wurde Kritik an dem Projekt laut. Industrie und FDP hatten die Webseite als "Internet-Pranger" bezeichnet. Aigner wies dies zurück. "Wir fördern den Dialog, das ist das Gegenteil von Pranger", wird die Bundesverbraucherministerin zitiert. Ihr Ministerium fördert das Portal mit 775.000 Euro im Zweitraum von zwei Jahren.

 

Jeder vierte Jobsuchende nutzt Social Media. Zu diesem Ergebnis kommt der Global Workforce Index, den der Personaldienstleister Kelly Services in regelmäßigen Abständen erstellt. Demnach haben bereits 39 Prozent der Befragten ihren aktuellen Job aufgrund einer Stellenanzeige im Web gefunden. Immerhin noch 16 Prozent entfallen auf die Bundesagentur für Arbeit, auf Platz drei liegen persönlichen Empfehlungen mit 12 Prozent. Print-Anzeigen sinken in der Relevanz.

 

Nur bei sieben Prozent führte die Bewerbung auf eine Anzeige in Printtiteln zum Erfolg. Verblüffend ist, dass gar nicht mal die Jungen den Löwenanteil bei der Social-Media-Jobsuche ausmachen. Es sind die 30- bis 47-Jährigen, die sogenannte Generation X, gefolgt von den 48- bis 65-Jährigen - den Baby Boomern. Erst auf Platz 3 rangieren die 18- bis 29-Jährigen, so ein Ergebnis der Studie.

Das beliebeste Social Network unter Jobsuchenden ist Facebook mit 33 Prozent. Knapp auf Platz 2 liegt LinkedIn mit 32 Prozent. 23 Prozent der Befragten würden andere Webseiten nutzen, zehn Prozent greifen auf Blogs zurück, drei Prozent suchen via Twitter.

 

Interessant: Mehr als ein Viertel der Befragten gab an, sich Sorgen über die von Ihnen über sie geposteten Inhalte in Social Networks zu machen. Rund 28 Prozent glauben aber auch, dass ein aktives Engagement in Social Media der Karriere zuträglich sei. Das mag auch daran liegen, dass rund 30 Prozent der Befragten erklärten, dass ihr Arbeitgeber eine Social-Networking-Policy verfolge.

An der Befragung haben rund 90.000 Personen in 30 US-Bundesstaaten im Zeitraum von Oktober 2010 bis Januar 2011 teilgenommen.

 

 

 

 

The Internet of Things, when real world objects are connected to the Internet, is a trend that we've been actively tracking since early 2009. So far a lot of big technology infrastructure and solutions companies have gotten behind the trend, for the simple reason that they see a huge market opportunity. As more and more 'things' go on the Net, it creates more demand for network infrastructure like sensors and routers. Enter the likes of Cisco and Verizon Wireless. Likewise, more technology solutions will be developed to upload and manage data from real world objects. Enter the likes of IBM and HP.

Cisco has designed an infographic that offers a simple example of how Internet of Things will affect you in your everyday life. It also states that by 2020, there will be 50 billion 'things' connected to the Internet - everything from your body, car, alarm clock and even cows.

There has been some contention about the number of connected things and by when. Cisco's prediction of 50 billion devices by 2020 matches Ericsson CEO Hans Vestberg's prediction earlier this year within a similar time period. However IBM recently put it at 1 trillion connected devices by 2015. Indeed in April 2010, Cisco's own CTO Padmasree Warrior said that by 2013 the number of devices connected to the Internet will reach 1 trillion. So even Cisco doesn't seem to have a consistent prediction.

Regardless, as the infographic below shows, the number of things connected to the Internet has already exceeded the number of people on earth. So this is a big trend - and big business for Cisco and other technology companies.

Infographic via All Things D

Roughly 40 law enforcement agencies around the country are using iPhones to identify people with a criminal record, WSJ reports.

The technology is developed by BI2 Technologies, out of Massachusetts.

By taking a photograph from a distance of five feet or less, cops will be able to check someone's face against a database of criminal photos. It can even scan someone's iris.

There are interesting legalities involved -- facial recognition is a hot button issue when it comes to privacy law, and only certain states are granting access to their photo database.

Either way, it's a cool reminder about how robust the iPhone platform is.

Zur Haupturlaubszeit im Sommer wollen viele deutsche Arbeitnehmer ihren Schreibtisch offenbar nicht gänzlich alleine lassen. Sie halten per Mobiltelefon den Kontakt zur Firma. Das zeigt eine aktuelle und repräsentative Umfrage der E-Plus Gruppe mit TNS Infratest unter 1.000 Verbrauchern.

An sich soll ein längerer Urlaub der Erholung dienen, dennoch stehen sowohl Frauen (42 Prozent) als auch Männer (41 Prozent) im Urlaub prinzipiell „Gewehr bei Fuß“, wenn das Handy am Strand oder in den Bergen aus beruflichen Gründen klingelt. Eine Unterscheidung machen die Geschlechter dagegen beim Reiseziel: Männer halten es anscheinend für wichtig, in Zeiten der Globalisierung für den heimischen Betrieb weltweit verfügbar zu sein. Immerhin fast jeder Dritte – stolze 29 Prozent – nimmt den Anruf aus der Heimat auf dem Mobiltelefon an. Die Frauen halten sich zurück, nur jede Fünfte (18 Prozent) will weit fernab des Betriebs am Geschehen im Büro teilhaben.

Neutral betrachtet ist etwa jeder vierte Deutsche (24 Prozent) bereit, dem Chef oder den Kollegen am Telefon aus dem In- und Ausland zu helfen. Nur 17 Prozent sind es, wenn der Urlaub in Deutschland stattfindet. Jedoch steigt der Anteil im Urlaub mit dem Bildungsgrad und dem Einkommen: Mit 54 Prozent geben mehr als die Hälfte aller Akademiker über das Mobiltelefon Hilfestellung aus der Ferne. Ebenso scheint ein gutes Gehalt verpflichtend zu wirken – fast 48 Prozent derer mit einem Einkommen jenseits der 2.500 Euro haben kein Problem damit, im Urlaub für die Firma erreichbar zu bleiben.

Aber: Jeder Fünfte (20 Prozent) fährt im Jahr 2011 ganz ohne Mobiltelefon in den Sommerurlaub, möchte für niemanden greifbar sein – weder für die Firma, noch für Familie und Freunde. Dabei ist diese Art der Zurückhaltung zumindest aus Kostensicht gar nicht notwendig. Inzwischen gibt es viele Tarife und Flatrates, die das Telefonieren, Simsen und den mobilen Surfspaß bezahlbar und damit entspannt machen. Kunden von BASE, E-Plus und vielen Partnermarken telefonieren dabei besonders preiswert: So kostet eine Minute im Tarif „Reisevorteil plus“ innerhalb der EU nur 29 Cent/Minute. Und mit 9 Cent ist auch das Versenden von Kurzmitteilungen aus dem EU-Raum so günstig wie zu Hause.

Stiftung Warentest bestätigt: Surfen im E-Plus Netz ist günstig
Im EU-Ausland surfen Reisende am günstigsten mit den Prepaid-Tarifen von simyo, blau.de, MedionMobile, myMTVmobile und BASE – das bestätigt die Verbraucherzeitschrift Finanztest in ihrer Ausgabe 7/2011. Im Vergleich von 44 Anbietern schneiden die Mobilfunkmarken im E-Plus Netz am besten ab: Prepaid-Kunden zahlen dort im voreingestellten Standardtarif gerade einmal 49 Cent zum Beispiel für eine E-Mail plus Urlaubsfoto bei einer Datengröße von einem Megabyte (MB). Die beim Finanztest-Vergleich so überzeugenden 49 Cent pro Megabyte für die mobile Datennutzung im EU-Ausland gelten auch für Vertragskunden von BASE und E-Plus mit dem Tarif „Reisevorteil Plus“. Zum Vergleich: Andere Anbieter verlangen laut Finanztest für dieselbe Datenmenge bis zu 19,80 Euro.

Praktische Paket-Optionen für Urlauber
Pünktlich zur Urlaubszeit gelten für fast alle Prepaid-Marken im E-Plus Netz wie simyo, blau.de und myMTVmobile zusätzlich EU-Paket-Angebote: Mobilfunkkunden zahlen für das EU Sprach-Paket 50 einmalig 4,99 Euro – anschließend können sie in der Europäischen Union 50 Minuten innerhalb von sieben Tagen für abgehende Gespräche nach Deutschland und ankommende Telefonate nutzen. Mobile Online-Surfer wählen das siebentägige EU Internet-Paket 50 für ebenfalls 4,99 Euro mit einem Volumen von 50 MB. Beide Optionen können problemlos miteinander kombiniert werden.

Zur Umfrage
Vom 6. bis 8. Juni befragte die E-Plus Gruppe über TNS Infratest insgesamt 1.000 Verbraucher, davon 822 Arbeitnehmer. Das Ergebnis ist repräsentativ.

Der Suchmaschinengigant Google hat zahlreiche belgische Zeitungsverlage, die über einen Online-Auftritt verfügen, aus seinem Angebot geworfen. Das Paradoxe an der Situation: Ein Dachverband der Zeitungen hatte gegen die unentgeltliche Listung der Zeitungsinhalte bei Google News geklagt. Nun echauffiert man sich über den plötzlichen Rauswurf.

Wie das Fähnlein im Wind verhält sich gegenwärtig die Copiepresse, ein Dachverband belgischer Zeitungsverlage. Vor wenigen Wochen konnte man einen juristischen Sieg gegen Google Belgien einfahren. Man hatte den Suchmaschinen-Riesen wegen dessen "Google News"-Angebot verklagt. Der Grund ist europaweit wohlbekannt. Google bereichere sich an den Inhalten der Zeitungsverlage, die man unentgeltlich bei Google News verlinke. Der Konzern würde enorme Summen durch die Verlinkung erwirtschaften. Die Verlage wiederum gehen leer aus. Die Wahrheit liegt - wie so oft - in der Mitte.

Nachdem ein Gericht Google dazu verurteilt hat, 25.000 Euro Strafe pro auftauchendem Artikel eines der genannten Verlage zu bezahlen, hat man offenbar drastische Mittel ergriffen. Seit dem gestrigen Freitag sind die Websites sämtlicher Zeitungen, die die Klage des Copiepresse-Verbands unterstützt haben, aus den Suchergebnissen gefallen. Man kann nur erahnen, wie viele Zugriffe Google den Seiten lieferte. Der rasche und einstimmige Aufschrei der Verlage lässt es aber erahnen.

Von einem "Boykott" ist die Rede. Man wirft dem Suchmaschinen-Unternehmen vor, dass dies eine Art Rache für die juristische Niederlage sei. Sehen kann man das natürlich so. Tatsache ist aber vielmehr, dass das Urteil sehr allgemein gehalten ist und sich nicht nur auf Google News bezieht. Nach Ansicht von Google ist auch die Websuche betroffen, wie der Google-Sprecher William Echikson erklärte.
"Wir haben nichts mit einem Boykott zu tun. Wir würden uns sehr freuen, Copiepresse wieder aufzunehmen, wenn sie uns ihren Wunsch, in der Google Suche aufzutauchen, mitteilen und uns von der potenziellen Strafe dafür freistellen."

Bereits am Freitag versuchte ein Artikel bei La Libre Stimmung gegen den Rauswurf zu machen. Freimütig erklärte der Journalist, dass man die Google Suche von Google News differenzieren müsse. Die Journalisten hätten kein Problem damit, wenn ihre Inhalte von der Suchmaschine ausgegeben werden. Aber man habe sehr wohl etwas dagegen, dass die Inhalte in Google News auftauchen.

Eine interessante, obgleich absurde Logik. Google wiederum hat an dieser Stelle deutlich Zähne gezeigt. Bedauerlicherweise ist nicht bekannt, für wie viele Zugriffe bei den Verlagswebsites man verantwortlich ist. Es dürfte jedoch ein beachtlicher Anteil sein, der auch wirtschaftlich relevant ist. Ansonsten hätte man geschwiegen. Das hart erfochtene Urteil wird somit zu einer Retourkutsche für die Zeitungsverlage. Vermutlich hatten diese erwartet, dass Google eine Bezahlung für die Inhalte anbietet. Genau das Gegenteil war jedoch der Fall.

The widespread use of search engines and online databases has affected the way people remember information, researchers are reporting.

The scientists, led by  Betsy Sparrow, an assistant professor of psychology at Columbia, wondered whether  people were more likely to remember information that could be easily retrieved from a computer, just as students are more likely to recall facts they believe will be on a test.

Dr. Sparrow and her collaborators, Daniel M. Wegner of Harvard and Jenny Liu of the University of Wisconsin, Madison, staged four different memory experiments. In one, participants typed 40 bits of trivia — for example, “an ostrich’s eye is bigger than its brain” — into a computer. Half of the subjects believed the information would be saved in the computer; the other half believed the items they typed would be erased.

The subjects were significantly more likely to remember information if they thought they would not be able to find it later. “Participants did not make the effort to remember when they thought they could later look up the trivia statement they had read,” the authors write.

A second experiment was aimed at determining whether computer accessibility affects precisely what we remember. “If asked the question whether there are any countries with only one color in their flag, for example,” the researchers wrote, “do we think about flags — or immediately think to go online to find out?”

In this case, participants were asked to remember both the trivia statement itself and which of five computer folders it was saved in. The researchers were surprised to find that people seemed better able to recall the folder.

“That kind of blew my mind,” Dr. Sparrow said in an interview.

The experiment explores an aspect of what is known as transactive memory — the notion that we rely on our family, friends and co-workers as well as reference material to store information for us.

“I love watching baseball,” Dr. Sparrow said. “But I know my husband knows baseball facts, so when I want to know something I ask him, and I don’t bother to remember it.”

The Internet’s effects on memory are still largely unexplored, Dr. Sparrow said, adding that her experiments had led her to conclude that the Internet has become our primary external storage system.

“Human memory,” she said, “is adapting to new communications technology.”

 

We all love predictions. And we love Facebook – some more than others. It has been around for a long time now. The history comes now with an infographic via Social Media Influence. The most amazing data? The prediction: $30 billion in global purchases expected to occur on the social network during 2015.

Would yuo believe that data provided in the infographic? Do you love Facebook shopping? Have you ever purchased something through Facebook? Let’s see the value of these predictions from your perspective…

Asia-Pacific is economically diverse, but universally high mobile usage unites the region. Mobile users in Asia-Pacific are increasingly looking at their phones as a first screen, whether to download media, access the internet or communicate with peers—and marketers.

eMarketer estimates over 2.1 billion people in Asia-Pacific will use a mobile phone at least monthly this year, representing over half the population of the region. By the end of 2011, Asia-Pacific will account for 56% of all mobile users in the world. Growth will be steady, with penetration reaching 72.6% by 2015 for a mobile population of nearly 2.9 billion.

“There is a dramatic contrast between highly advanced mobile countries such as Japan and South Korea and huge developing nations like China and India,” said Noah Elkin, eMarketer principal analyst and author of the new report, “Asia-Pacific Mobile: Redefining the Digital Landscape.” “And within the emerging markets in particular, there is a second divide, where the majority of mobile users own simple prepaid phones and a small but growing number sport smartphones and advanced feature phones.”

Mobile phones in some developing markets may have limited capabilities, but that is not stopping consumers from using them in innovative and unexpected ways. Internet access rates are high despite the preponderance of feature phones, and SMS remains a vital tool for delivering everything from marketing messages to banking services.

eMarketer estimates just under 30% of Asia-Pacific mobile users, or 623.3 million, will log on to the web via mobile at least monthly in 2011. Mobile internet penetration is expected to rise to 42.1% of mobile users in the region by 2015. And for many of these users, mobile is the first screen for internet access.

As the mobile internet user population mushrooms, mobile advertising is forecast to see similarly meteoric growth. Combined mobile ad spending for the region’s three largest markets—Japan, China and India—will rise from $2.01 billion in 2011 to $3.94 billion in 2015.

“Mobile devices have grown ubiquitous across Asia-Pacific, and marketers have likewise become an omnipresent part of the landscape,” said Elkin. “With mobile as the first or only screen, users are well acquainted with and often more accepting of mobile advertising.”

Google hat seinen Kartendienst Google Maps um ein Live-Traffic-Feature erweitert. Neben Deutschland gibt es die Echtzeit-Verkehrsinformationen nun auch in Österreich, Belgien, Tschechien, Dänemark, Irland, Israel, Luxemburg, den Niederlanden, Polen, der Slowakei, Spanien und der Schweiz. Mit dem Dienst lässt sich das aktuelle und künftige Verkehrsaufkommen in Google Maps anzeigen. Der Service funktioniert im Browser, aber auch auf dem iPhone. Den größten Vorteil haben aber Android-User.

Nach Angaben von Googles LatLong-Blog werden die Verkehrsinformationen alle fünf bis zehn Minuten aktualisiert. Zusätzlich zur reinen Stauschau soll der Dienst auch in einer Beta-Version für die Google Maps Navigation nutzbar sein, die bislang nur auf Android Smartphones läuft. Auf dem iPhone ist die Stauschau automatisch aktiviert, lässt sich aber in den Karteneinstellungen im Menüpunkt "Verkehr ausblenden" deaktivieren.

Für die Navigation greift die Software auf das Kartenmaterial von Google Maps zurück, das nun bei der Routenberechnung wiederum mit Informationen aus Google Traffic verknüpft wird. Ist eine Straße zu stark befahren, berechnet die App automatisch eine neue Route. 

Neben dem aktuellen Verkehrsaufkommen gibt Google auf Basis vorhandener Daten auch für einen festgelegten Wochentag bzw. eine festgelegte Uhrzeit eine Stauprognose ab.

Im Browser steuert man den Service ganz einfach über Google Maps an. Im rechten oberen Eck lassen sich mehrere Layer auswählen, darunter "Verkehr" oder "Öffentlicher Nahverkehr". In der linken unteren Ecke kann der User zwischen dem aktuellen Verkehrsaufkommen und der prognostizierten Verkehrssituation für die kommende Tage wechseln. Anhand unterschiedlicher Farben soll der User erkennen, mit welcher Geschwindigkeit sich der Verkehr vorwärtsbewegt: rot/schwarz signalisiert Stop & Go, rot signalisiert zäh fließenden Verkehr, gelb zeigt hohes Verkehrsaufkommen und grün freie Fahrt.

Für die Echtzeit-Verkehrsinformationen verwendet Google nach eigenen Angaben überwiegend Daten von einem Drittanbieter, und zu einem kleinen Teil Daten aus Crowdsourcing.

U.S. law-enforcement agencies are increasingly obtaining warrants to search Facebook, often gaining detailed access to users' accounts without their knowledge.

 

A Reuters review of the Westlaw legal database shows that since 2008, federal judges have authorized at least two dozen warrants to search individuals' Facebook accounts. Many of the warrants requested a laundry list of personal data such as messages, status updates, links to videos and photographs, calendars of future and past events, "Wall postings" and "rejected Friend requests."

Federal agencies seeking the warrants include the FBI, DEA and ICE, and the investigations range from arson to rape to terrorism.

The Facebook search warrants typically demand a user's "Neoprint" and "Photoprint" -- terms that Facebook has used to describe a detailed package of profile and photo information that is not even available to users themselves.

These terms appear in manuals for law enforcement agencies on how to request data from Facebook. The manuals, posted on various public-advocacy websites, appear to have been prepared by Facebook, although a spokesman for the company declined to confirm their authenticity.

The review of Westlaw data indicates that federal agencies were granted at least 11 warrants to search Facebook since the beginning of 2011, nearly double the number for all of 2010. The precise number of warrants served on Facebook is hard to determine, in part because some records are sealed, and warrant applications often involve unusual case names. (One example: "USA v. Facebook USER ID Associated with email address jimmie_white_trash@yahoo.com," a sealed case involving a drug sale.)

In a telephone interview, Facebook's Chief Security Officer, Joe Sullivan, declined to say how many warrants had been served on the company. He said Facebook is sensitive to user privacy and that it regularly pushes back against law-enforcement "fishing expeditions."

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More Americans own Smartphones than hold a bachelor’s degree or speak another language in their homes, according to a Pew Internet Project report released Monday.

In a telephone survey, 83% of respondents said that they owned a cellphone of some kind and 35% of the 2,277 U.S. adults questioned in English or Spanish said that they owned a smartphone.

Not surprisingly, wealthy, well-educated and young respondents all had high levels of smartphone ownership. African-Americans and Latinos in the survey were also more likely to own smartphones than whites. But just about everyone who owned a smartphone was likely to use that phone to access the Internet.

Nine in 10 smartphone owners (87%) used their phones as Internet portals — about 78% of them did so every day. Nearly a third of smartphone owners use their device as their primary Internet connection.

With so many people relying on their phones for both verbal and digital communication, it’s no wonder the word cloud the researchers compiled to show respondents’ feelings toward their cellphones includes words like “necessary,” “convenient” and even, perhaps somewhat disturbingly, “love.”

Despite reports to the contrary, Twitter’s developer ecosystem seems to be alive and kicking. The information network now has more than a million registered third-party Twitter applications, the company revealed Monday.

With 1 million applications, Twitter’s ecosystem has growth significantly in the past 12 months. Just one year ago, Twitter had 150,000 registered applications. Now, the company says it has more than 750,000 developers around the world contributing to its developer community.

“A new app is registered every 1.5 seconds, fueling a spike in ecosystem growth in the areas of analytics, curation and publisher tools,” the company writes on its blog.

The highlighted areas of growth are key — and speak to the type of apps that the company is encouraging its developer community to build.

Twitter has been criticized for encouraging third-party development, then building its own products that compete directly. Twitter’s photo-sharing service, which could take away photo-sharing audiences from TwitPic, Yfrog and others, is a recent example of this type of behavior.

Twitter has also acquired app makers such as Tweetie and TweetDeck, making it difficult for other Twitter client makers to compete.

But Twitter has been attempting to clarify its stance toward application makers. In March, the company told developers to steer clear of pure-play Twitter clients. Instead, Twitter would prefer developers focus on social media analysis around Twitter data.

In conjunction with Monday’s announcement, Twitter is also releasing a new Twitter Developer site.