Archive for the ‘Technology’ Category
« Older Entries | Newer Entries »Facebook Privacy. You don’t need to quit.
Tuesday, May 18th, 2010
Half of my feeds is about Facebook and their privacy policy. A complete case of propaganda built up by the blogo-journalistic cartel. Few thousands of top self proclaimed internet right activists are trying to convince 300 Million users that their life is ‘exposed’ by Facebook voluntary exploitation of public data.
Facebook offers a wide selection of options to protect your info and we will go through those steps a bit later. But let’s not be hypocrite here, if you want to keep your life private you need to stay away from social networks. Permanently.
Those attacks are becoming more targeted against Mark Zuckerberg like an attempt to stop the ascension of a giant. The worst is to come after I read the upcoming release of a movie describing Facebook’s founder as a drunk billionaire geek who is a sex-mad “borderline-autistic” conniver.
Mike Arrington wrote an excellent note on the subject but personally I think Zuck will have to face the same hatred Jobs and Gates faced decades ago. Hopefully genius will prevail.
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Now here is how you can simply protect some level of privacy on Facebook.
Simply login to your account and head to ‘Privacy Settings’
Once you get there click on ‘Personal Information and Posts’
This will give you access to a set of customizable features. For best protection chose ’only friends’ to all options.
I personally do not accept wall posts. If a friend has something to say he can:
- send me a message or – comment one of my entries.
Finally you can opt-out from public searches meaning search engines will not display your Facebook profile
One last recommendation – be sure to set privacy settings on applications and games. You surely don’t want to share your recent activity across the board:
Be curious and explore those pages. You will find lots of useful information.
The only valid reproach we can aim at Facebook is the lack of universal control of privacy [windows way for security] where user can set level of data sharing from None to Public in one click.
Tags: arrington, facebook, movie, privacy, settings, zuckerberg
Posted in Entrepreneur, facebook, Social Media, TechCrunch, Technology | 4 Comments »
Twitter K.O. system
Sunday, April 11th, 2010
It all started with a blog post by Fred Wilson about 3rd party apps temporarily filling holes for Twitter followed by a series of announcement that sparked the Twitt-o-sphere on fire. The young growing social network officially released their first mobile application for Blackberry and announced the acquisition of Tweetie (leading iPhone client).
What does it mean for other 3rd party applications offering competing products on BlackBerry and iPhone? Well it doesn’t look too good to be honest- terrible news for Socialscope, Ubertwitter and Seesmic who devoted thousand of hours building a Twitter client for Blackberry and ultimately hoped to be acquired by Twitter…
The official application uses non-public APIs, offers no request limitation (recently Twitter raised their limitation to 150 requests per hour) and can be easily promoted virally by Twitter as a featured application. So many reasons for developers to spoof a revolt and to call for a broken Twitter eco-system…I call it bullsh*t.
Because frankly – this is what they were all looking for. To beat the watch and build a good enough client so Twitter will buy them out. It didn’t happen although Twitter had initiated contact with those companies. Obviously the price range to acquire a Blackberry client didn’t make any sense to Twitter’s investors (Fred Wilson at least) so they decided to go build their own. If one of the apps had been bought out – the feedback would have been very different.
When I hear stories about Twitter eco-system it reminds me of a quote from Louis C.K. “it’s funny how quickly the world owes him something he knew existed only ten seconds ago”.
About 15 months ago I wrote this post discussing about Twitter’s options to drive revenue. The main threat to revenue stream was obviously the existence of 3rd party applications making money on the back of the social network. Not many developers were too concerned about it and kept raising money to bite the hand that feeds them.
This is why Ev Williams promptly announced the acquisition of Tweetie, confusing everyone on Twitter’s real intentions for future growth. Will they buy or will they develop?
In the meantime, many Twitter clients will disappear from the radar until developers can focus on producing genuine ideas and not just filling holes.
Tags: developers, eco system, seemsic, socialscope, tweetie, Twitter, ubertwitter
Posted in android, Blackberry, Entrepreneur, Geek, iPhone, Social Media, Technology, Twitter | 1 Comment »
5 days with the iPad
Thursday, April 8th, 2010
Here are my thoughts after 5 days of regular usage of an iPad.
- The device has an autonomy of >10 hours which is really amazing considering it’s running on Wifi most of the time.
- iPad’s screen quickly becomes covered with finger prints obscuring the image. I’ll be waiting for a screen protector like this one.
- Wifi is flaky. Not sure if it’s a hardware problem but shutting wifi off and then back on again solves the problem on my unit. Hoping for a firmware update to solve it permanently.
- Lack of a native clock application is unacceptable. Apple has it on the iphone and ipod. It’s the #2 feature of any computing device. How did they miss it?
- No native calculator is also a big fail in my opinion. Why should I pay $4 for a basic 30ko application that should be built-in?
- Apostrophe key is not present on main keyboard. You need to go one layer down. Very annoying. Hopefully another bug easily fixable via a firmware update. For the apostrophe shortcut, just hold the coma via @madamelolo
- I didn’t know the iPad had a microphone. Nice tip from Andy Abramson. Works great when using Skype (BTW Skype app is not yet iPad friendly).
- Seamless video playback. I watched 2 movies so far with great brightness, perfect picture, almost no pixelization.
- Picture frame feature will make any hotel room look like home. Simply launch it from the lock screen (not obvious at first) and enjoy your family pictures full-screen with a bunch of possible slideshow effects.
- Unless I missed something, Safari can’t remember your passwords. Don’t feel like buying 1password application to fill the blank. Will wait for an update. Go to setting–>safari–>autofill to save login/password via @madamelolo
- Keyboard is pleasant, efficient and precise despite what some tech journos wrote. I type most of my emails on the tablet and I find it extremely accurate.
Most people I met that haven’t bought one yet are saying to be waiting for a newer version. Although a newer version is always coming 
there is supposedly somewhere between 400.000 to 700.000 units sold so far. If I was into hardware I would build a line of accessories based on this iPad case with integrated webcam, solar panel, or extra-battery. The iPad case is the perfect extension to add functionality to an already powerful device.
Last point after a few days showing off the tablet around is the sociability of the object. Andy also mentioned it to me. As soon as I pull it out my backpack, it brings immediate attention from strangers asking millions of questions. Becomes annoying after a while to be honest.
Tags: apps, cose, covers, finger prints, ipad, wifi
Posted in Apple, Geek, iPhone, itunes, Technology | 9 Comments »
iPad – the Wow Effect
Saturday, April 3rd, 2010
No need to do another unboxing of the iPad. Twitter has thousands of them. Instead I will give my take on this incredible piece of hardware. It goes far beyond being a big iPhone. The iPad is the ultimate all-in-one-killer. It kills the iPhone but more generally smartphones, ebook readers (sorry Amazon, Sony and all the others), netbooks, multimedia players, and to some extent laptops in general.
Two years after changing the face of Telecom, Apple is leading the path to a new era of computing. Forget those huge carton boxes for a laptop, 4 cd-roms, the heavy-duty wall charger, the Targus roller case and the 40 20 min set-up.
iPad is ready to use out of the box– in fact Apple has redefined what we called plug and play.
I can’t imagine the storm of desperation building up at HP, Dell, Sony and all the others. What have those guys been doing all that time? What the heck happened to their expensive R&D department?
Apple did a fantastic job creating a device that has no competition out there. They clearly invented something we didn’t have. Not just an enhanced version of the iPhone.
There are some drawbacks such as lack of Flash support, frontal camera, memory card slot, usb ports. But the device is so exceptional that none of the above should stop you from buying an iPad.
I overheard some voices stating they would rather wait for the 3G version. Well don’t! You can tether the iPad with your phone via WiFi or Bluetooth and it works.
So no need to pay another $200 and wait any longer. Plus you have the option to pick a faster network such as Verizon or Sprint 4G.
On a side note, Gmail offers a brand new layout on the iPad which leads me to think they didn’t specifically did it for Apple but for new tablets running Android OS supposed to be out later this year. Google will have to strike high to compete with Apple’s iPad. Very high.
Tags: abc app, ipad, iPhone, ipod, kayak, kindle, tablet
Posted in Apple, ebook, Geek, Gmail, iPhone, itunes, Sony, Technology, Telecom | 3 Comments »
Labotec Closes An Important Round of Funding
Tuesday, March 16th, 2010
Or the story of a side project turning into a big adventure.
At the beginning 2 friends with a lot of ideas, Pierre-Olivier Carles and myself, decided to launch a mobile application incubator. Few weeks later we are working on a website, legal paperasserie, blog, recruiting…and since then it has been an amazing experience. We are not really the young and reckless entrepreneurs but this project brought all the good vibes from day 1. 8 months later I am particularly proud to welcome Xavier Niel and Jeremie Berrebi on board of Labotec Inc.
Jeremie Berrebi is also a long time friend with a hyper-creativity syndrome We always wanted to work together and lately we were discussing of some crazy project that will maybe see the light one day.
Xavier Niel [for our fellow non-french readers who haven't got a clue who he is please check here] is a role model for entrepreneurs and his investment in Labotec means a lot to me. We will live up to his expectations. That’s a promise.
Before you get the boring press release, here is the moral of Labotec: business opportunities are not a miracle, they are the fruit of collaborative work and mutual respect.
We also want to fund your project and this is just a click away – click here to become the next Inspirer.
————————-
Miami, FL (March 15, 2010) Labotec announced today that it has secured a round of funding from major strategic partner Kima Ventures, founded by Jeremie Berrebi (Zlio, Net2One) and Xavier Niel (Free,Iliad). Europe-based fund Kima Ventures joins Kipost and FS Ventures as an investor in Labotec. The company plans to use the funds to accelerate growth in all areas of its business and to support its plans for massive scale in 2010.
Labotec is pioneering a new form of mobile applications publishing based on crowd-sourced ideas. Since its recent inception, Labotec has received hundreds of new project ideas from 27 countries. 3 applications have already launched (iSOS for Android, iMove2Music for iPhone, FakeSMS for iPhone) and 20 are slated for release by the end of the year. Labotec engages with innovators that have always dreamed to see their ideas commercialized and be given the right tools to succeed in the marketplace.
“Mobile applications are becoming a must-have for subscribers and carriers, Labotec has the potential to turn an idea into a great business” said Jeremie Berrebi, partner in Kima Ventures.
“Our goal is to produce a user-oriented portfolio of applications on mobile devices such as iPhone/iPad/iPod, Android or BlackBerry” explains Florian Seroussi, Labotec co-founder.
“Kima Ventures and its founders bring another layer of opportunities we couldn’t approach until now” says Pierre-Olivier Carles, CEO of Kipost.
According to research analyst Research2guidance, the surge in applications will be driven by a fast-growing number of smartphone users, estimated to increase from about 100 million in 2009 to nearly 1 billion by 2013. Yearly application revenues will rise from US$1.94 billion (2009) to US$15.65 billion in only four years, according to most recent research findings.
About Labotec Inc
Labotec’s mission is to select great application ideas for iPhone, iPod, iPad, Android or Blackberry, finance them, and gather the required resources together to go to market with a finished application on any Application Store.
For that purpose, Labotec has established a selection and approval process that is both simple and swift. Labotec Inc HQ is based in Miami, Florida, with an office in Toulouse, France.
About Kima Ventures
Kima Ventures fund launched in 2010 by entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs. Our goal is to support and finance innovative companies with seed capital all over the world and to promotes the growth of startups, supporting them in the fastest and most effective ways.
Kima Ventures partners with the best business angels and venture, funds, and invests primarily in projects that meet a simple need and have a simple business model.
Labotec Inc
Miami, Florida, USA
Twitter: @Labotec
info@labotec.com
PR Contacts:
Stephane Menoret
stephane@labotec.com
+33 6 77 55 01 41
Tags: android, apps, berrebi jeremie, fakesms, iPhone, kima ventures, Labotec, niel, pocarles, xavier niel
Posted in android, Apple, Blackberry, Entrepreneur, Friends, iPhone, Labotec, Technology, Uncategorized | No Comments »
Facebook to become World #1 brand name
Wednesday, December 30th, 2009
Back in August I predicted Facebook will take #1 rank away from Google in traffic before the end of the year. December results are not out yet but there is a high probability I am right. As I was looking for data on the subject – a new question arise.
Is traffic a sign of popularity? 
So I went on writing down numbers on a scrapbook. My primary goal was to search brand names and the number of search associated with that brand. To do so I used the Top 100 brand by Millward Brown [PDF].
Surprisingly Facebook, Twitter, iPhone, My Space are not listed by the research institute. Even in a brick and mortar world, Facebook should be in top 5 most known brands.
Below are results found using Google.com [US English page as of December 30, 2009].
Few basic observations: Google and Facebook together are more popular than Web. US takes the lead with over 23 billions search results. USA and War all together are less popular than Yahoo!
Behind those figures I see two conclusions. First, top brands -as described in the study published by Millward Brown- are yet far behind in terms of web image. Their online presence is a failure for 95% of them. This should give hope to all online viral social media jungle marketing agencies out there. The second conclusion is sadder: traffic doesn’t mean revenue. Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, MySpace and Hotmail generating over 5.3 billion of search results have an estimated global revenue of $1.3 billion for 2009 representing 0,003% of Wal-Mart’s 2009 revenue.
It brings us back to valuation calculation- should we continue to use online popularity or traffic to rate online businesses?
What do you think?
Tags: analytics, brands, facebook, google, myspace, ranking, seo, Twitter, us, web traffic, windows
Posted in Apple, Content, Economy, google, iPhone, Mac, Microsoft, Social Media, TechCrunch, Technology, Twitter, World | No Comments »
True mess, wrong phone.
Monday, December 7th, 2009
Jeremie Berrebi wanted me to read Getting Real by 37Signals. I highly recommend it to anyone planning to launch a startup. Their caveats, disclaimers, and other preemptive strikes says it all:
“… the ideas in this book won’t apply to every project under
the sun. If you are building a weapons system, a nuclear control
plant, a banking system for millions of customers, or some other
life/finance-critical system, you’re going to balk at some of our
laissez-faire attitude.
Don’t get huffy if you read some of our advice and it reminds
you of something you read about already on so and so’s weblog
or in some book published 20 years ago. It’s definitely possible.”
Some precious advice found in the book came back to me after reading Truphone’s blog earlier today. Truphone is a VOIP – Voice Over Internet- provider. Their mission is to offer “free and low-cost international calls”. Every attempt to bring down price of telecommunication is a good one as long as you remember to Keep It Simple Stupid – KISS.
Here is basically what Truphone came up with: get a Truphone account online, buy an iPod Touch, get a contract with a carrier for an always-on portable device (MiFi type), add a 24 months contract, buy a headset with microphone built-in, add funds to your Truphone account and you are good to go for low cost telecommunication of the 21st century.
This is the most ridiculous telecom offer I’ve ever seem.
Subscribers are ready to pay additional dollars for convenience i.e. they are not ready to sacrifice simplicity to save 2 cts on a telephone call.
“Conventional wisdom says that to beat your competitors you need to one-up them. If they have four features, you need five (or 15, or 25). If they’re spending x, you need to spend xx. If they have 20, you need 30.
This sort of one-upping Cold War mentality is a dead-end. It’s an expensive, defensive, and paranoid way of building products.
Defensive, paranoid companies can’t think ahead,
they can only think behind. They don’t lead, they follow.
So what to do then? The answer is less. Do less than your
competitors to beat them. Solve the simple problems
and leave the hairy, difficult, nasty problems to
everyone else. Instead of one-upping, try one-downing.
Instead of outdoing, try underdoing.”
There will be 3 kinds of comments after this post, some saying I don’t understand nothing about innovation, some saying I’m an ass for trashing a competitor and certainly a bunch of comments for Viagra and male enhancement. So here comes the natural disclaimer: I have a lot of respect for competition and doers. Truphone does great things and I have used their service several times. They are not a competitor of my core business Global Roaming. Never was. At Global Roaming we do one thing and one only: providing a hassle-free SIM card for travelers.
There is an ongoing temptation to start ‘innovating’ in a wrong way by adding a bunch of useless features just to prove we can do it. Think market adoption, simplicity, sales pitch and PR before you sign off on a R&D project.
“The secret to building half a product instead of a half-ass
product is saying no.
Each time you say yes to a feature, you’re adopting a child. You
have to take your baby through a whole chain of events (e.g.
design, implementation, testing, etc.). And once that feature’s
out there, you’re stuck with it. Just try to take a released feature
away from customers and see how pissed off they get.”
Bottom line Truphone has used heavy dollars to develop a feature that has zero need. What’s next – turn my watch into a Truphone capable device?
Tags: complex, failure, global roaming, ipod, marketing, mifi, simcard, Telecom, truphone, voip
Posted in Apple, Geek, iPhone, Technology, Telecom | 3 Comments »
Droid for Dummies
Saturday, November 7th, 2009
One thing I noticed while purchasing a Droid at my local BestBuy -was the lack of basic knowledge fro
m potential buyers.
Fortunately most will learn fast and adopt geeky habits but some will return their new phones very disappointed Droid did not meet their expectations.
So here is a little tutorial on how to make the best out of your new phone.
First steps to properly use the Droid:
- Remove gently protection sticker on the battery cover BEFORE inserting the battery. Failure to do so will make the battery door irremovable. Been there, done that.
- You need a Gmail or Google Mail App account to operate an Android phone. If you don’t have one you need to create one. Technically you can use an Android phone without a Gmail address but you’ll be missing 80% of core features. I suggest you sign up for a Gmail and add your other email accounts. Gmail account will just be used to sync your contacts, Latitude, Market, etc.
- To configure your phone, you will need to access “settings”. Unlike the iPhone, “settings” icon is not showing on home page. To access the “settings” press the central lower tray to pop up all applications. They are sorted from A to Z. Get to “settings” and start configuring.
- If – like me- you like to keep your phone protected you will need to set it up. By default Droid does not offer protection i.e. PIN code. Android 2.0 introduces a new form of screen lock called “pattern”. Press on central tray, scroll to “settings”, go to “location and security settings”, check mark “Require pattern”. The rest is very intuitive.
- Once your phone is protected from curious, very likely they will try to input pattern. After 5 attempts, phone is locked 30 seconds. Every wrong attempt after 30 seconds will re-lock your phone for 30 seconds. If you forgot your pattern, you can still log on to your phone using your Gmail username and password.
- Market is the application store for Android powered phones. To access Market you need to have a valid credit card on file via Google Check Out [Google Merchant account a la Paypal].
- Downloaded applications are assigned to your Gmail account. Whenever you change phone you simply need to logon using your Gmail credentials and all your apps will be available for download again at no cost.
- For now – Droid offers only 3 home screens. You can add shortcuts, widgets or folders by keeping your finger pressed on an empty spot. A menu will pop up offering several options.
- Background image format covers all 3 panels. Screen definition is a bit odd 960X854 pixels. Check Droid Forum Gallery for cool wallpapers.
- I strongly suggest you install “power control” widget on your central panel. You will be able to toggle Wifi on/off, Bluetooth on/off, GPS on/off, and brightness with a single touch. Very useful.
- To use the camera you need to press on the gold button located on the lower right side of the phone. You cannot use the camera without unlocking your screen first. Keep finger pressed a couple of seconds to launch camera. For now, camera is slow and auto-focus needs an urgent firmware update.
- On most applications you can use the search function. Easy access to search needs a single pressure on the magnifier icon located on the right inside of lower toolbar. Very handy to search applications in Market, contacts, emails, etc.
- To optimize battery I suggest, you set “screen time out” (located under Settings/Sounds and Display) to 15 seconds. By default it’s 1 minute. Also under Sounds and Display, adjust brightness to low. Also in Sounds and Display, set Animations Off. Do not keep Wifi on all the time, mostly on Verizon where network is faster than most Wifi connection. Remember to turn Bluetooth off if you don’t use it. No need to keep GPS on in the house J
- You cannot remove pre-installed applications. To uninstall applications you downloaded and no longer want to have go to “settings/applications/manage applications. A short way to remove an application is to keep your finger pressed on the application icon and use the pop up menu to uninstall it. Very smart.
Here I will stop as I believe further steps are not for beginners.
Let me know if you have additional tips or tricks and I will add it to the post.
Happy Droiding.
Tags: android, bestbuy, droid, dummies, eclair, power control, settings, tutorial, verizon, vzw
Posted in android, Geek, google, iPhone, Technology, Telecom | 23 Comments »
International Domain Names: Internet Set To Add Non-English Web Addresses
Monday, October 26th, 2009
This is an incredible news to revive a saturating industry. ICANN has decided -after 40 years- to open domain names to non-English web addresses. Briefly, it means you will soon be able to register www.été.com or www.שלום.com. Registrars around the planet must be ecstatic about the news. Same for hosting companies. Brands, individuals are obviously less happy to have to spend few more dollars to increase domain name protection. Not sure how search engines will react but it sure adds a lot of work for them. Indexing, ranking international non english domain names is looking like a real challenge.
“We’re confident that it works because we’ve been testing it now for a couple of years,” he said. “And so we’re really ready to start rolling it out.”
Of the 1.6 billion Internet users worldwide, Beckstrom – a former chief of U.S. cybersecurity – said that more than half use languages that have scripts based on alphabets other than Latin.
“So this change is very much necessary for not only half the world’s Internet users today, but more than half of probably the future users as the use of the Internet continues to spread,” he said.
Read more here:
International Domain Names: Internet Set To Add Non-English Web Addresses
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Tags: domain names, ICANN, internet, non english, web, www
Posted in Content, Geek, google, Technology, World | No Comments »
Sony eReader vs Amazon Kindle 2.
Friday, October 16th, 2009
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Electronic books are not my cup of tea. I resisted as long as I could to move to digital content. Nothing can match the touch of a book, the smell of inked paper, the easy access to any page, sneaking preview of chapters and the legacy you leave to younger generations.
Anyway we have to live with our times and I decided to give ebook a try. My daughter has a Kindle and reads about 2 books per week. She takes it everywhere.
I personally find the Kindle ugly and lacking basic features making any attempt to try the device worthless. Choice was limited to Sony eReader or Kindle. Soon new devices will be released- obviously upcoming readers can only get better.
The #1 difference between Sony and Amazon is accessibility. Kindle is an online device with wireless capabilities (limited to US market and soon to be open to international) as the Sony eReader is an offline device where you need to connect to your desktop/laptop in order to download books.
I do not see the need to download a book wirelessly as a mandatory feature. It’s not a news or weather service. You can download hundreds of books on a Sony and be set for a long long time. The only thing you need to add a book to Sony eReader is a USB cable. You can even use memory cards. Sony supports all memory card formats adding more flexibility and more storage to the ebook.
Being wireless and connected to ONLY Amazon store is an extremely restrictive feature of the Kindle. Wireless doesn’t mean openness. You must buy your books from the 350,000 titles available. It’s a lot -I agree. But Sony eReader gives you access to Google’s library of 1million FREE books and tons of other libraries accessible online in all languages.
One of the top features Sony added is the touch-screen ability. I love flipping pages using my finger. Makes digital content user-friendlier for an old man like me.
At last my choice for the Sony eReader PRS-600 was final after someone showed me Calibre. Calibre is a magic piece of software that turns ANY digital content into a reading material on the Sony eReader. Magazines, word docs, books, tutorials…anything you can see on your computer can be readable on the Sony.
It gives also access to ebooks purchased by a friend who willingly lends you his book. One thing Kindle cannot handle. If you bought a book and your wife wants to read it on HER Kindle – she cannot transfer your purchase. Recently Amazon pulled OUT books that were purchased on the Kindle store directly from users device. This is inadmissible for me. When I buy a book – it’s mine and I can decide to lend it to my kids without violating any copyrights. There is no fear one will come to my place and take it off the shelf.
If books were not going from one hand to another – literature would have died long time ago. I do not encourage anyone to steal but I must admit it’s a killer feature.
Sony has learned from the ATRAC days that open file formats are more preferable than proprietary ones. By supporting the ePub format, Sony’s essentially guaranteeing that your digital library will always have a home. Stick with Kindle’s proprietary format, and you’re forever a slave to Amazon’s device.
Same feature that made iPod so popular. Take an mp3, drag it on iTunes and enjoy the music. No question asked.
Conclusion: my subjective review goes towards Sony eReader. Three good reasons: cheaper, better, richer. For a detailed review of Sony PRS-600 read Ilene Hoffman post on http://www.electronista.com/reviews/sony-prs-600-touch-ereader.html
Tags: amazon, ebook, epub, ereader, kindle, prs-600, Sony
Posted in Apple, Content, Geek, google, itunes, Sony, Technology | 6 Comments »
