Berlin – Google has entered the world of online storage with the introduction of Google Drive, but the US internet giant is just one of many companies offering the free service.

Internet users should not store all their files with one just provider, Michaela Zinke from the Federation of German Consumer Organisations (vzbv) recommends.

“A company like Google can create a detailed profile of its customers with information from the various services,” Zinke said.

Users of Google Drive have 5 gigabytes (GB) of storage available, with those wanting more space being able to purchase more.

Software for easier administration is available for Windows PCs, Mac computers and Android smartphones and tablets. An app for iPhones and iPads is to follow soon.

Google Docs will be integrated into the new offer.

Microsoft in April announced its own Cloud service programme called SkyDrive, which is currently only available in a Beta version. SkyDrive users have up to 7 GB of storage available.

Competitor Dropbox offers 2 GB, with the company also providing administrative software for PCs and mobile devices. The service allows users to send friends and acquaintances links to individual files, and also to share videos with larger groups of people.

Users of online storage services should take precautions in choosing where to store files. With US companies, for example, it’s possible that US security officials can gain access to the files.

“I would principally not save many or, better yet, any sensitive files on cloud services,” said Zinke.

Included in that are documents containing personal information. – Sapa-dpa

http://www.iol.co.za/scitech/technology/software/sensitive-files-give-cloud-services-a-miss-1.1290637

There are a lot of messaging systems available for mobile phones. Some have desktop counterparts, some are linked to social networks, and some apps just let you link all your chat accounts in one place.

Their role as so-called “SMS killers” is widely discussed, and understandably so when you consider SMSes typically cost between 20c and 80c per message.

You can get SMSes cheaper however, with 8ta’sprepaid voice service delivering particularly good value for money with its “send 5 per day and get 50 free for that day” offer.

By contrast, sending a 160 character message with an application like MXit can cost you 3c or less, depending on your data bundle.

Where instant messengers (IMs) shine though is in their ability to offer features SMS never could. Some let you know whether someone is busy typing a message to you; others offer message delivery and read receipts without incurring the additional cost that a network operator would charge for the same service.

A number of IMs also offer picture, video, and file transfers.

IMs can also be classified by whether they require users to create a separate username by which they are identified on the network, or if they use another way to identify users.

For example, WhatsApp, Viber, and the recently launched ZiNG opt to use a cellphone number to identify users. This offers the benefit of being able to use an existing address book to communicate with people rather than having to build a whole new contact list.

This comes at a potential privacy trade-off however, since the apps not only need to know your phone number, they must also have access to your address book, or at least be given the phone numbers of your contacts.

BlackBerry Messenger removes the chore of creating and remembering the password for a new account by using a unique PIN given to each BlackBerry device to identify users. Users still have to build a contact list separate from their address book by exchanging PINs, however.

Another way to group IMs is by the platforms they support. BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) and iMessage each run on just one mobile platform for example.

Others, like Google Talk and Skype, aren’t strictly “mobile instant messengers” and actually began on the desktop.

Considering all these factors, is it possible to determine the “best” mobile instant messenger? The answer is, unfortunately, a most unsatisfying, no.

Each service has benefits and drawbacks, and in the end users are going to select a network based on where their friends are, not feature-set.

Source: http://mybroadband.co.za/news/software/43425-mobile-instant-messaging-comparison.html

San Francisco – Facebook will pay $1-billion in cash and stock for the photo-sharing application Instagram, making its largest-ever acquisition months before the top social media website is expected to go public.

The popular Instagram application, which allows users to add filters and effects to pictures taken on their smartphones, has gained about 30-million users since it first launched in January 2011.

Despite a loyal and active following, Instagram lacks any significant revenue sources. The start-up, with roughly a dozen employees based in San Francisco, reportedly closed a $50-million funding round last week from investors including Sequoia Capital that valued the company at $500-million, according to the technology blog AllThingsD.com.

Facebook, which is expected to launch a $5-billion initial public offering in May, will acquire Instagram’s entire team.

“This is an important milestone for Facebook because it’s the first time we’ve ever acquired a product and company with so many users,” Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a blog post. “We don’t plan on doing many more of these, if any at all.”

The deal, a closely kept secret at the tiny start-up, is expected to close this quarter. CEO Kevin Systrom announced the transaction to Instagram employees at a 9am meeting on Monday, according to a source inside the company. – Reuters

Source: http://www.iol.co.za/scitech/technology/business/facebook-surprises-with-instagram-buy-1.1272128

London – Google has triggered outrage by pressing ahead with a new system that will invade the privacy of millions of computer users – and may even be illegal.

The technology giant on Thursday put into place fresh rules that allow it to monitor much more information about our internet use.

It can analyse use of YouTube, social network sites and is even able to search personal email exchanges for key words.

Crucially, the new rules allow it for the first time to then combine that data to build an ever-more intricate picture of personal habits.

The rules will permit private data to be shared between Google-owned services such as Gmail, YouTube or its Google+ social networking site.

Only those who use a Google account to access the services will be affected. Those who use Google simply as a search engine will not. Users can opt out of the new policy only by cancelling their account. Despite its desire to collect users’ data, however, when the Daily Mail asked Google on Thursday night how many UK account holders it had, the firm refused to say, insisting the information was commercially sensitive and therefore private.

It is thought the number must run into millions. Once Google has harvested the data, it will use it to boost advertising income by allowing companies to target account holders with marketing tailored to their interests.

However, the move has triggered concerns in the EU, which is investigating if it could be illegal.

Separately, privacy campaigners say the ability to spy on computer users without their explicit permission goes too far.

The EU has set up a committee of data protection watchdogs from across the continent – including Britain’s Information Commissioner – to investigate privacy issues.

And it has tasked France’s data protection watchdog – CNIL – to look at the Google case. Significantly, it has cast doubt on the legality and fairness of the new policy.

CNIL told Google in a letter dated February 27 that it would send it questions by mid-March.The French regulator wrote: “The CNIL and EU data authorities are deeply concerned about the combination of personal data across services: they have strong doubts about the lawfulness and fairness of such processing, and its compliance with European data protection legislation.”

Despite this warning, Google went ahead with the changes.

The tussle over data privacy comes at a delicate time for Google.It is already being investigated by the authorities in both the EU and US over whether it favours its own products in its search results.

EU Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding said European authorities believe Google is breaking the law “in numerous respects” with its new privacy policy.

“One is that nobody had been consulted, it is not in accordance with the law on transparency and it utilises the data of private persons in order to hand it over to third parties, which is not what the users have agreed to,” she told BBC Radio.

Nick Pickles, director of campaign group Big Brother Watch, said: “The public are in the dark about what the changes actually mean.

“Companies should not be allowed to bury in legal jargon and vague statements how they handle our personal information.”

Lawyer Susan Hall, of legal firm Cobbetts, said: “Since the new policy would pool all data collected from Google search, YouTube, Gmail and Google+, any measures taken to protect privacy and identity would be violated.” But Peter Barron, of Google, said the changes represent a simplification of its security policies, bringing them down from 60 to one.

“We announced in January that these changes were coming, and since then we have carried out a huge notification programme, including an email to every Google account holder,” he said. – Daily Mail

Source: http://www.iol.co.za/scitech/technology/internet/now-google-can-spy-on-everything-we-do-1.1247324

New York – Text-messaging has long been a big-time profit generator for US mobile operators, but they now risk losing these profits as consumers find cheaper ways to communicate.

SMS – short message service – is no longer all the rage, but it still generates an estimated 12 percent of service revenue for US operators.

Now, with many consumers turning to low-cost alternatives like iMessenger, BlackBerry Messenger and Facebook’s mobile messaging service, operators like Verizon Wireless, AT&T and Sprint Nextel risk losing a steady, superbly profitable source of income.

Customers using the new crop of messaging services must still pay for mobile Internet access, but the cost per message is much smaller than a monthly SMS service plan or per text charges, particularly as US carriers charge both the recipient and sender.

US operators still carry a lot of text messages on their networks, but they are seeing warning signs ahead.

“I do expect SMS to be under attack,” Verizon Chief Executive Lowell McAdam told the audience at an investor conference in December, noting that some European carriers have already seen texting alternatives hurt their financials.

In particular Dutch operator KPN blamed the messaging services of social networks such as Facebook and Twitter for a dramatic drop in text messaging revenue in 2011.

In South Korea one alternative service, Kakaotalk, now handles 30 billion messages a month, eating into traditional texting traffic at the country’s three mobile network carriers including SK Telecom.

“Every major wireless operator is seeing some substitution for text messaging,” said Mark Lowenstein, the head of wireless consulting firm Mobile Ecosystem.

Craig Moffett, an analyst for Sanford Bernstein, said carriers have a huge cause for concern as he described text messaging as “the most profitable service known to man.” – Reuters

Source: http://www.iol.co.za/scitech/technology/telecoms/smsing-is-so-last-season-1.1209150

The launch of a major new version of Twitter’s service signals one important thing: Jack Dorsey is back. And Jack is in charge.

His strength has always been in the “product” and up until now, there’s been an obvious void at Twitter.

In many ways, it was trying to do everything for everyone — Evan Williams’ strength was never in product (think “lists”), and temporary boss Dick Costolo was never going to be a visionary when it came to the platform.

1. Consistency

New New Twitter finally delivers a consistent experience across all platforms: web, mobile, apps. The service has always been disjointed. The web site was heading in one direction, a very liberal API meant a highly fragmented ecosystem of third-party apps, and mobile was very much an after-thought (until fairly recently). The acquisition of Tweetie, which meant it had an “official” app for Mac and iPhone, solved one problem but created another: Tweetie wasn’t exactly anything like website — they didn’t quite “belong” together. Dorsey’s influence in the product is obvious, and there’s been deliberate thought given to each element of the experience. There are rough edges — of course there’d be — but these will be fixed.

2. Identity

Folksy Twitter handles, which in the early days were the main element of a user’s identity, are far more de-emphasised in New New Twitter. Twitter now says “Retweeted by Hilton Tarrant” or “In reply to Hilton Tarrant”, regardless of my handle. This move sets Twitter up in direct opposition to Facebook and Google as a store of your online identity (something I’d argue is overdue and it needs to be). Why else would it redesign profile pages so prominently around the concept of identity? (It also means picking a handle is far less important; growth means unwieldy usernames like @DavidJones96_UK are becoming more common.)

3. Mainstream (or “ungeeking”)

By elevating the @ and # to two of the main tabs on the new platform, Twitter is trying to take rather obscure and geeky elements of the original service into the mainstream (despite the symbols). @ means simply “Connect”. # equals “Discover”. This is far simpler to understand and provides a more obvious home for each of these activities. You could see Twitter heading in this direction with the “Activity” tab, which it piloted recently (why were @ replies, retweets and follows separate streams in the first place?).

4. Monetisation

“Discover” is the key to making money. The infamous “Dickbar” that Costolo launched to “surface” content (and paid-for keywords/tweets/ads) never had a natural home on the top of your timeline. The # tab provides a natural home and the algorithms that help surface relevant content for you will become key to monetisation. The more Twitter knows about your interests (and who you’re following), the better it monetises. For advertisers, the new “brand pages” finally provide brands with a natural home on the service, instead of seeing that traffic sent off to Facebook.

5. Twitter everywhere

Allowing users to embed a tweet like they do with a YouTube video is an attempt at extending Twitter platform beyond just its properties (and third-party apps). Coherency on the different platforms (web, mobile, apps) is a big step to try take it into the mainstream. Expect some restrictions on what third-party apps can and can’t do in future. Growing Twitter beyond its current (limited) audience gives it the shot at monetisation it needs. It desperately needs to turn into a business (especially since it’s raisedover US$1-billion in venture capital funding to date!)

6. Culling the clutter

Lists and DMs (direct messages) have been folded into (/hidden in) the “Me” menu. You shouldn’t expect lists to stick around for much longer — you could argue they were never all that useful to begin with! The de-emphasis of DMs has caused a backlash online, but only really among the early adopters (who are probably the only ones using the feature). What is interesting to consider is Facebook’s push to private messaging (with the unified chat/e-mail/notifications inbox) versus Twitter’s push to (almost completely) public messaging.

This is not the end product, rather the start of Dorsey and Costolo’s vision of where Twitter is going. Expect a big push around monetisation in 2012.

Source: http://mybroadband.co.za/news/internet/39709-six-ways-the-new-new-twitter-changes-everything.html

Facebook on Thursday began transforming profile pages into interactive digital scrapbooks that let members of the world’s leading online social network tell the stories of their lives.

The “Timeline” feature being rolled out by Facebook was unveiled at a developers conference in September and comes with new ways for people to discover and share music, movies, books and news.

“Timeline gives you an easy way to rediscover the things you shared, and collect your most important moments,” Facebook said in a blog post announcing that the change is now available to its more than 800 million members.

“It also lets you share new experiences, like the music you listen to or the miles you run.”

Timeline visually graphs Facebook posts based on when they were uploaded, letting people look back at pictures from special events, memorialized accomplishments, pithy text exchanges and other updates from their lives.

After upgrading to Timeline, people will have seven days to privately review and edit how it will be viewable by friends at the social network before it automatically goes live online.

“Your new timeline will replace your profile, but all your stories and photos will still be there,” Facebook said.

Tools allow Facebook users to hide posts they do not want included in their Timeline or change settings regarding which of their friends or associates can see posts.

Facebook also tailored a version of Timeline for use on smartphones or tablet computers powered by Google’s Android software.

“Mobile timeline starts with your unique cover photo,” Facebook’s Mick Johnson said in a blog post. “As you scroll down, you’ll see your posts, photos and life events as they happened, back to the day you were born.”

Unveiling Timeline in September, Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg described it as “the story of your life.”

He demonstrated by showing how his new profile page chronicled his experiences from meeting US President Barack Obama to baby photos.

“What Timeline does is show all the recent activity and then as you go back in time it starts summarizing the things you’ve done in your life,” he said.

The changes come with a new class of Facebook applications that let people automatically allow chosen friends to see what they do or experience without needing to click “Like” or “Share” buttons.

Online music service Spotify, for example, will let Facebook users see what friends are listening to at any given moment and then listen along by clicking on a post.

The same principle will apply to computer or mobile gadget applications for digital books, news and films.

People will need to install third party applications to share snippets in Timeline profile pages, which will feature privacy controls. Applications will also require people to set data sharing “permissions” before they are used.

Partners ready with “open graph” applications include online streaming video services Netflix and Hulu. Applications are also available to deliver and share news stories from sources including Yahoo! and News Corp.’s The Daily.

Facebook’s transformation is likely to trigger backlash from ranks of notoriously change-averse users and to resurrect concerns over how effectively the social network protects people’s privacy.

Facebook said it has worked with privacy groups while developing Timeline and that it has made it simple and clear to control what information gets shared and with whom.

Source: http://mybroadband.co.za/news/internet/39995-facebook-timeline-feature-rolled-out-to-all-users.html

London – Facebook has admitted that it monitors every single web page its members visit – even when they have logged out.

In its latest privacy blunder, the social networking site was forced to confirm that it constantly tracks its 750 million users, even when they are using other sites.

Most would assume that Facebook stops monitoring them after they leave, but technology bloggers have discovered this is not the case.

In fact, data is regularly sent back to the social network’s servers – helping Facebook make billions of pounds each year from advertising, as such information is highly valuable.

The website’s practices were exposed by Australian technology blogger Nik Cubrilovic and have provoked a furious response across the internet.

Mr Cubrilovic found that when you sign up to Facebook it automatically puts files known as “cookies” on your computer which monitor your browsing history.

Some cookies remain on your computer after you log out, and report back when you visit a site connected to Facebook. This covers millions of websites and refers to anything with a Facebook “like” or “recommend” button on it.

Mr Cubrilovic said: “The only solution is to delete every Facebook cookie in your browser. This is not what ‘log out’ is supposed to mean.” – Daily Mail

Source: http://www.iol.co.za/scitech/technology/internet/facebook-is-watching-you-1.1146303

SouthTel have pushed back the launch of its video on-demand (VOD) service, which was originally slated for commercial availability during September 2011.

Earlier in 2011, SouthTel announced its “Push VOD:TV” product, saying that it would be trialled during August and launched in September 2011, around two months after MultiChoice launched its on-demand service, called DStv BoxOffice.

According to SouthTel’s website, Push VOD:TV will offer new release movies, classics, hit TV series, personalised music play-list, and educational programmes in mostly high definition (HD) format.

This will be through their personal video recorder (PVR) or as a hosted solution to mobile providers. SouthTel has entered into an agreement with MTN to trial video on-demand services nationally.

SouthTel VoD:TV Interface

Users will be able to place orders via the web, SMS, or iPhone, SouthTel said, listing a number of payment options: monthly subscription, online transaction directly from an Internet-connected PVR, or an offline transaction via SMS or mobile Internet. Billing methods will include mechanisms such as credit card, PayPal, or a monthy bill sent to subscribers.

The service will function similarly to DStv BoxOffice, which sends content to a PVR in spare capacity overnight, with old content being removed weekly to make space for newer programmes.

Oscar Dube, CEO of SouthTel, said that they have delayed the launch of Push VOD:TV until Q4 (October-December 2011).

He said that they “just want to make sure our product is functioning 100%” before making it commercially available.

Source: http://mybroadband.co.za/news/broadcasting/32926-southtel-push-vodtv-launch-delayed.html

A new search-engine study has identified Microsoft’s Bing as more effective than Google judging by the number of results users actually click on.

The study, by web tracking firm Experian Hitwise found that some 80 per cent of Bing searches led to a visit to one of the web sites identified in the results, compared to just 67 per cent of Google searches.

The study said that the relatively high percentage of searches that did not result in a visit to a website indicated that both the leading search engines had significant opportunities to improve their results.

The study found that Google’s share of the US search market dropped 2 per cent in July to 66.05 per cent as Bing-powered searches increased by 1 per cent to 28.05 per cent.

Yahoo, which uses Bing for all searches on Yahoo sites, increased its market share by 4 per cent to 15 per cent, while searches on bing.com itself dropped 2 per cent to 13 per cent.

Source: http://mybroadband.co.za/news/internet/31540-search-engine-study-says-bing-better-than-google.html