Chat Multi-Tasking Is How Facebook Home Could Rattle Apple And Google | TechCrunch

Robust multitasking as the killer feature -- with some clever user interface design

"The feature is a true game-changer because I believe we’ll see similar functionality emulated and improved upon in other apps and operating systems. I would be extremely surprised and disappointed if the next version of Apple’s iMessage didn’t have some kind of chat multi-tasking. The same goes for the Google’s rumored unified messaging system that’s supposed to launch at some point in the near future. Hopefully they’ll offer true, simultaneous messaging and other app usage."

Chat Multi-Tasking Is How Facebook Home Could Rattle Apple And Google | TechCrunch

Rip-Off of Windows Phone’s People-Centric Interface was Inevitable | Windows Phone content from Paul Thurrott's SuperSite for Windows

tbd if Microsoft also patented the color blue...

"And now we have Facebook Home. And even Microsoft is (finally) complaining about the idea theft.
“I tuned into the coverage of the Facebook Home event yesterday and actually had to check my calendar a few times,” Microsoft communications chief Frank Shaw wrote in a post to the firm’s official blog. “Not to see if it was still April Fools Day, but to see if it was somehow still [2010]. Because the content of the presentation was remarkably similar to the launch event we did for Windows Phone two [and a half] years ago.”"

Rip-Off of Windows Phone’s People-Centric Interface was Inevitable | Windows Phone content from Paul Thurrott's SuperSite for Windows

Why Zuckerberg Beamed as He Announced Facebook Home for Android [Techonomy]

From David Kirkpatrick's Facebook Home perspective

"Make no mistake—this is an epochal shift. Facebook is shedding its past as a system for PCs and wholly embracing a new role for a new era—a provider of information and experiences for people moving throughout the world, not sitting still. Zuckerberg and the Facebook executives who spoke today were emphatic about the importance of what they were announcing. Cory Ondrejka, the company’s VP of mobile engineering, said it bluntly at the announcement: “With Home it’s not just mobile first, but mobile best. We want mobile to be the best, the fastest, the highest-quality way to experience Facebook.”"

Why Zuckerberg Beamed as He Announced Facebook Home for Android

Microsoft threatened as smartphones and tablets rise, Gartner warns | Technology | guardian.co.uk

Check the full article for more details on the research

“In a new forecast published on Thursday morning, Gartner says that by 2015 shipments of tablets will outstrip those of conventional PCs such as desktops and notebooks, as Android and Apple's iOS become increasingly dominant in the overall operating system picture. Android in particular will be installed on more than a billion devices shipped in 2014, says Carolina Milanesi, the analyst who led the research.

Operating system shares forecast from 2012-2017. Source: Gartner, April 2013”

Microsoft threatened as smartphones and tablets rise, Gartner warns | Technology | guardian.co.uk

Mark Zuckerberg on Facebook Home, Money, and the Future of Communication | Wired Magazine | Wired.com

Excerpt from a Steven Levy interview

"Why education [for charitable contributions]?
It’s not a coincidence—my wife, Priscilla, was a teacher when she graduated from Harvard. And I teach a middle school class over in East Menlo Park.
You’re teaching a class?
Yeah, every week. It’s on how to build a business. Every Tuesday we go over one skill, and each group has a side project. When the class ends, they’ll come to Facebook and sell the products they’ve made, like they’re marketing them."

Mark Zuckerberg on Facebook Home, Money, and the Future of Communication | Wired Magazine | Wired.com

The Girl Scouts’ New Cookie App: Will the Scouts Finally Embrace the Internet? : The New Yorker

Sign of the times

"As of two years ago, an eleven-year-old member of the Girl Scouts who has sent E-mails, studied the art of online commenting, and been schooled in “oops! moments” on the Internet may be eligible to earn a badge in “Netiquette.” The patch is diamond-shaped, with four colored stripes, and stitched with two opposing faces that look like this ; ) and this \ -:, as if the patch were a Web-ified comedy-tragedy mask. That dual impression has guided the Girl Scouts as they inch toward the Internet with timid steps. Now the organization is expanding its digital presence with the release of a new Girl Scout Cookie Locator mobile app, which uses G.P.S. to track down nearby Thin Mints. So far, more than eighty-eight thousand people have signed up."

The Girl Scouts’ New Cookie App: Will the Scouts Finally Embrace the Internet? : The New Yorker

Data Leak Reveals Big Secret Trove of Global Wealth - NYTimes.com

Accounts offshore but not offline

"But the enormous size of the data dump obtained by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, a Washington-based group that, along with affiliated news media organizations, announced its coup on Thursday, has punched a big hole in the secrecy that surrounds what the Tax Justice Network estimates are assets worth at least $21 trillion held in offshore havens. “This could be a game-changer,” said Mr. Murphy, the author of a book about offshore tax shelters. “Secrecy is the key product these places sell. Whether you are a criminal laundering money or just someone trying to evade or avoid taxes, secrecy is the one thing you want.” Once this is gone, he added, “it creates an enormous fear factor” and has a “massive deterrent effect.”"

Data Leak Reveals Big Secret Trove of Global Wealth - NYTimes.com

Mark Zuckerberg: Why we don't want to build a phone - Fortune Tech

Excerpt from an extensive interview

"Fortune: I have to imagine that when Google (GOOG) developed Android as an open platform, they didn't mean for Facebook to do this.
Zuckerberg: I'm not sure how they're going to react. We're building this as software that you can download on to phones. One of the nits about Android is that the software [on each phone model] is a little different, so it took some work to make it work on every given phone. So to start, we are only going to support downloads on five or six phones. I think that Google has this opportunity in the next year or two to start doing the things that are way better than what can be done on iPhone through the openness of their platform. We'd love to offer this on iPhone, and we just can't today, and we will work with Apple to do the best experience that we can within what they want, but I think that a lot of people who really like Facebook -- and just judging from the numbers, people are spending a fifth of their time in phones on Facebook, that's a lot of people. This could really tip things in that direction. We'll have to see how it plays out."

Mark Zuckerberg: Why we don't want to build a phone - Fortune Tech

Facebook Home: Android takeover and Google punch to the head | ZDNet

A new Home for Facebook

"Facebook said it isn't going to "massively fork Android" and it will respect the open nature of it. Rest assured that Google can't be happy. Samsung isn't happy.
From a business perspective, Facebook Home is a work of art. Every Android phone can become a Facebook phone now. Facebook has grabbed mobile share, possibly ad share and knocked Google in one swoop."

Facebook Home: Android takeover and Google punch to the head | ZDNet

Big Data's Promise and Limitations : The New Yorker

A timely big data reality check

"Most of what’s written about Big Data is enthusiastic, like Kenneth Cukier and Viktor Mayer-Schonberger’s gushing ode “Big Data: A Revolution That Will Transform How We Live, Work, and Think,” which is currently selling briskly on Amazon, or the recent Times article on Mayor Bloomberg’s geek squad, and how “Big Data’s moment, especially in the management of cities, has powerfully and irreversibly arrived.” But despite the sense of excitement and promise surrounding the industry, Big Data isn’t nearly the boundless miracle that many people seem to think it is."

Big Data's Promise and Limitations : The New Yorker

Google parts ways with Apple over WebKit, launches Blink | Internet & Media - CNET News

Google project naming insights

"The Blink name is a reference to the despised and now extinct blink tag of early HTML that made text blink off and on. It follows the pattern of Google naming projects after what it deems relics from the past: Chrome is designed to minimize user-interface "chrome" that surrounds Web pages; the Chromebook Pixel's high-resolution screen is designed to make pixels disappear; and Blink is designed to do away with browser engine irritations."

Google parts ways with Apple over WebKit, launches Blink | Internet & Media - CNET News

Anonymous Is Cyberattacking North Korea For Making Stark Threats - Business Insider

Sign of the times

"Hackers aligned with Anonymous claim to be carrying out numerous cyberattacks against North Korean websites, urging North Korean citizens to rise up against their "oppressive" government."
[...]
“So you feel the need to create large nukes and threaten half the world with them? So you're into demonstrations of power?, here is ours:
- We are inside your local intranets (Kwangmyong and others)
- We are inside your mailservers
- We are inside your webservers,” read the statement."

Anonymous Is Cyberattacking North Korea For Making Stark Threats - Business Insider

Samsung Teams Up With Mozilla on New Android Browser Tech - John Paczkowski - Mobile - AllThingsD

In other browser news, Google Forks WebKit And Launches Blink, A New Rendering Engine That Will Soon Power Chrome And Chrome OS (TechCrunch)

"The two companies said today that together they are developing a new browser engine for Android and the ARM architecture. Called Servo, the engine will be written in Mozilla’s new Rust programming language, optimized for multi-core computing and, in the words of Mozilla CTO Brendan Eich, designed to cast aside “old assumptions” about how a browser engine should work."

Samsung Teams Up With Mozilla on New Android Browser Tech - John Paczkowski - Mobile - AllThingsD

SAP Accused of Inflating HANA Hardware Numbers - Arik Hesseldahl - News - AllThingsD

Big data doubts

"“If we take management at its word and believe that HANA’s two-year license growth [rate] through FY13 is about 120 percent, then this means that the other 90 percent of SAP’s license business, Apps and BI, is growing at … roughly 2 percent, materially below category growth rates,” Goldmacher wrote. “Our research and experience lead us to believe that SAP is allocating product revenue subjectively and that this is resulting in an inflated HANA growth rate. This could give the appearance of market momentum that doesn’t yet exist.”"

SAP Accused of Inflating HANA Hardware Numbers - Arik Hesseldahl - News - AllThingsD

Samsung Will Open Mini-Stores Inside 1,400 Best Buys - NYTimes.com

The WSJ view: "Best Buy has figured out what to do with some of the empty space in its cavernous stores: Turn it over to Samsung."

"Samsung on Thursday said it would open 1,400 of the stores by the end of June. Called a Samsung Experience Shop, each store will be an entire section at Best Buy devoted to showcasing Samsung smartphones, tablets, cameras, laptops, televisions and accessories. It will also include customer support for Samsung products, similar to the Genius Bar at Apple stores."

Samsung Will Open Mini-Stores Inside 1,400 Best Buys - NYTimes.com

As Web Search Goes Mobile, Competitors Chip at Google’s Lead - NYTimes.com

Excerpt from a search market snapshot

"People are overwhelmed at how crowded the Internet has become — Google says there are 30 trillion Web addresses, up from 1 trillion five years ago — and users expect their computers and phones to be smarter and do more for them. Many of the new efforts are services that people do not even think of as search engines.
Amazon, for example, has a larger share than Google of shopping searches, the most lucrative kind because people are in the mood to buy something. On sites like Pinterest and Polyvore, users have curated their favorite things from around the Web to produce results when you search for, say, “lace dress.”"

As Web Search Goes Mobile, Competitors Chip at Google’s Lead - NYTimes.com

Amazon cuts S3 storage prices AGAIN • The Register

Playing for keeps

"Cloud titan Amazon Web Services has cut the cost of getting data out of its storage service, putting pressure on rivals Google and Microsoft.
Request pricing for S3 GET operations across the company's nine globe-spanning data center hubs have been reduced by 60 per cent, and prices for PUT, LIST, COPY, and POST requests have been cut by 50 percent."

Amazon cuts S3 storage prices AGAIN • The Register

4 ways to add content to Feedly [Ebook Friendly]

Check the full post for some useful Feedly tips

"Feedly is a top replacement for Google Reader. It’s my service of choice for several months, mainly because it does more than other RSS feed apps. Surely, it delivers content only via valid RSS feeds, but the way it syndicates it makes it a very useful discovery tool.
Actually, the moment of adding content to Feedly is already the beginning of content discovery."

4 ways to add content to Feedly

Dropbox vs Amazon: Nobody can compete with Jeff Bezos [Slate]

From a dire Dropbox reality check

"I like Dropbox. I like it so much that on Monday I upgraded from the 2GB free version to the one where you get 100GB of storage. It costs $99 a year. Then today I looked at the pricing for Amazon's competing service. They'll sell you 100GB for $50 a year. Plus they'll give you 5GB for free. And unlike Dropbox, Amazon offers intermediate options. You could get a 50GB account for $25 a year. As I say, I like Dropbox. And I'm already paid up for a year, so I won't be switching any time soon. But it's hard to see how the company can compete with Amazon rushing in, offering a superior free product, and cutting Dropbox's prices in half. Apple tried and failed in an effort to purchase Dropbox several years ago, but I think in the long term the founders will end up wishing they'd sold."

Dropbox vs Amazon: Nobody can compete with Jeff Bezos

Safari Still Winning the Mobile Browser War - John Paczkowski - Mobile - AllThingsD

tbd if people using Chrome on iOS appear as Safari users (since iOS Chrome is forced to use Apple’s version of WebKit), but impressive results for Apple either way

“Apple’s mobile Safari browser is beset on all sides by eager challengers, but it continues to hold its own, as the latest market share data from Net Applications shows.

Safari for iOS captured 61.79 percent of all mobile browser Web traffic in March according to Net Applications*. That was a nice jump from the 55.41 percent it grabbed in February — enough to reaffirm Apple’s dominance of the space for the time being.”

Safari Still Winning the Mobile Browser War - John Paczkowski - Mobile - AllThingsD