Archive for the ‘Entertainment’ Category
PayPal handles 60% of web transactions, leaves Google in the dust
Friday, May 18th, 2012
PayPal processes 60% of web transactions, Google is the fastest payment gateway, and some unlucky surfer had to wait over 92 seconds for his online purchase to complete.
Those are only a few of the findings in New Relic’s study of the web’s most popular payment gateways (infographic below). A payment gateway is the web equivalent of a modern cash register: It ensures that you are you, that you appropriately have access to your card, and that you can, in fact, be trusted to pay for the purchase you’re making.
New Relic, a web app performance management company, studied 65,000 payment transactions by 21,000 web applications and came up with some astonishing findings.
PayPal is by far the biggest payment processor on the web, at least according to this sample. During the test period, PayPal processed over 66,000 payments, more than three times as many as the nearest competitor, Authorize.net. Google Checkout came in fifth with just over 3400 payments.
Google does win, however, in the speed category. Google Checkout’s average payment processing time was a blistering .26 seconds. In less than a third of a second, New Relic spokesman John Essex said, Google has to “collect and transfer your payment information – name, address, card number, purchase details, etc. – to the financial institution”, and then, of course, query Visa or Mastercard to see if you are a good credit risk, get a response, and return it to the website’s e-commerce engine. PayPal’s performance was only mediocre, but hardly pokey, averaging just under one and a half seconds.
The longest transaction, by far, was via an Australian payment gateway, Eway.com.au. At least one payment took at least 92.44 seconds to complete. Datacash and USAepay.com were not far behind, at 89 and 56 seconds, respectively. Those are the extremes, however; average performance at these services was 3-4 seconds.
Speed is critical in any web application, according to Essex: “As with any step in the online shopping experience, it’s increasingly critical for the payment gateway functions to happen quickly and effortlessly for the consumer – any lag in transaction time can lead to loss of a return customer. No one likes to be kept waiting.”
Least of all the websites that are waiting for your money.
Image credit: Flick user Steve Snodgrass
Filed under: VentureBeat 
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A Windows racket: Microsoft will clean crapware off your PC for $99
Wednesday, May 16th, 2012
The PC crapware problem has finally gotten bad enough that Microsoft is now charging users to fix it.
For $ 99 Microsoft is now offering to strip consumers’ Windows PCs of all unnecessary software pre-installed by PC makers, AllThingsD reports. Affectionally dubbed “crapware”, the software is installed by PC makers in exchange for cash from vendors and is almost universally hated by owners of new Windows PCs.
This makes the removal program an arrangement bordering on a racket: PC makers get paid to put the software on computers, and Microsoft gets paid to remove it. Perhaps this questionable situation is part of the reason Microsoft never made it a priority to advertise the offer, even though its been around since 2010.
To be fair, as Microsoft PR pointed out to VentureBeat over the phone, the $ 99 fee is more than just crapware removal. Also included in the offer are things like Windows 7 and Microsoft Security Essentials installation, data transfer, and 90 days of free phone support.
The program is offered via its Microsoft Stores, of which there are a disappointing sixteen. It’s an expansion of Microsoft’s “Signature” initiative, wherein Microsoft sells consumer crapware-free PCs directly to consumers. That program has been around since 2009, though its never been very well publicized. (Paul Thurott first reported on it back in February.)
A better solution? Prevent the software from being installed in the first place.
Filed under: VentureBeat 
Clean, crapware, Microsoft, racket, Windows
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Dressed in Metro, LinkedIn looks good on Windows Phone
Tuesday, May 15th, 2012
Good news, Windows Phone owners. Professional social network LinkedIn, in its quest to master mobile, has released another stunning mobile application — but this one is just for you.
The application, the company’s first official release for the platform, is a full-featured release that plays perfectly with the Windows Phone operating system, and even incorporates the unique Microsoft Metro style and design.
And, as a little bonus gift, LinkedIn said that the Windows Phone application offers users more functionality in the companies and jobs sections than offered in its apps for iOS and Android.
“You can find and connect with millions of professionals worldwide, quickly access a real-time update stream with news and information from your professional connections, read timely news impacting your industry, keep up-to-date with your professional groups, search for jobs, and follow your favorite companies’ news,” LinkedIn’s mobile product manager Tomer Cohen said.
LinkedIn for Windows Phone is out now and works on devices running version 7.5 or higher of the operating system.
The professional social network now has more than 150 million members and is performing well on the public market. The company recently reported strong first quarter earnings of $ 188.5 million in revenue and $ 5 million in net income.
Photo credit: coletivomambembe/Flickr
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Zuck’s dawdle in the NY Sheraton bathroom, a sign of things to come
Sunday, May 13th, 2012
That little anecdote about Facebook’s roadshow meeting in New York was widely reported this past week, but it’s being picked up as symbolic of Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg’s indifference to Wall Street.
For those of you who missed the report, Zuckerbeg was still in the men’s room as the audience of Wall Street heavy-hitters waited for him outside in the ballroom of the Sheraton hotel on Monday. His deputy, Sheryl Sandberg was apparently forced to get started with questions and answers while they waited for him. When he did come out, he wore a gray hoodie, which was considered a snub by some of the buttoned up suits of Wall Street. Here was Zuckerberg, supposedly trying to sell the street on the merits of Facebook’s IPO, and he just wasn’t taking them seriously.
The anecdote anchors the NYT story this morning about Zuckerberg.
Arguably, it’s exactly Zuckerberg’s defiance, and his focus on doing what is important to grow his company, and impatience with formalities that interfere with that focus, that make him such a strong product leader. Investors in Facebook better get used to it, because this isn’t going to change.
It’s that worry, about whether Zuck is mature enough to lead the company, that accounts for the different accounts going on right now about how Wall Street is embracing Facebook’s IPO plans. Some are saying there is robust investor demand for the IPO shares, while other reports suggest that there is weakness. In fact, those two reports can be compatible, because the latter one referred mainly to Wall Street institutional investor appetite, and was simply citing a few representatives of that group of investors. If Facebook decides to rely on individual investors — the non-suits — there’s plenty of interest in the IPO.
Despite his critical comments, analyst Pachter is recommending investors buy the company’s stock — and that’s even though he doubts whether Zuckerberg is the right person to lead the company.
For now, Zuckerberg will be firmly in control, and he’s done very well so far along the road. At just eight years old, Facebook is about to be valued somewhere close to $ 100 billion as a public company, one of the biggest, if not the biggest accomplishments of an entrepreneur yet. It’s just way too early to start asking whether this guy is fit to run the company. He’s already come a long way as a leader, as I documented three years ago.
As long as Facebook continues to grow revenue and profits decently over the next few years, my guess is there won’t be any serious question about his leadership. But if he fails to execute, you can be sure eyes will soon turn toward the more polished Sandberg for direction — and no, it wouldn’t come as a surprise if the board has to orchestrate a coup to put her in that leadership position (like what happened to Jobs).
[Photo credit: Reuters].
Filed under: VentureBeat 
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Spotify update lets you create radio stations from playlists, share to Tumblr, & more
Friday, May 11th, 2012
Streaming music service Spotify is rolling out a new version of its desktop software for Windows and Mac today, adding a handful of new features and improved functionality.
Version 0.8.3 of Spotify includes the ability to create custom radio stations based on a particular playlist or album, much in the same way Pandora does with Artists or genres. That station will then play music that’s similar to the playlist/album of your choosing. The feature is sure to delight the subset of people who like to mix bad hip-hop with twangy country oldies.
The new version also includes a new “Instant Search” feature, which allows you to hover over search suggestions as you type to get instantly rendered results in the main view. While this is a small change, it’s definitely the little things that count, such as past additions like crossfading and gapless playback.
The company is also boosting Spotify’s social sharing capabilities in the latest software version. The HTML code that will embed a “play button” on other websites/blogs, which launched last month, can now be obtained by right clicking on any album, playlist, or track. The company has also added custom short URL spoti.fi for Twitter as well as deeper Tumblr integration that lets users share music content from Spotify directly to their Tumblr page. Sharing is a key component of Spotify’s success, with Facebook’s Timeline integration being attributed to its massive user growth in the last year.
Spotify is also trying to raise awareness of its new app platform, which brings tons of social features to the streaming service. Yesterday, the startup featured two apps — Tastebuds.fm and Fellody — that allow its users to find a new romantic interest base on their musical tastes and discover new music from their social circles.
The new version of the app is rolling out to users now, and should be completed over the next few days. Those who don’t want to wait can download the update from Spotify’s website.
Screenshots via Spotify
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Urban Airship has delivered 20B push notifications, doubling in just 4 months (exclusive)
Thursday, May 10th, 2012
Mobile marketing and messaging leader Urban Airship has served more than 20 billion push notifications through iOS, Android, and other platforms, the company revealed.
Urban Airship currently is helping more than 65,000 companies — including ESPN, Groupon, and other big names — with app notifications, a challenging but ultimately rewarding aspect to apps. You don’t want to annoy your customers with constant pop-ups, but there’s an incredible opportunity to having your brand appear on people’s home screens often. For instance, adding notifications from Urban Airship helped data-compression utility Onavo increase awareness by 75 percent and boost customer satisfaction 50 percent.
Now the company has enabled 20 billion push notifications, a new milestone that it reached on Sunday. That’s according to chief marketing officer Brent Hieggelke, who I met with today at the CTIA Wireless conference in New Orleans. Hieggelke said the milestone was a surprise because the company took two and a half years to reach 10 billion notifications, a milestone it hit in January. Then, just four months later, Urban Airship doubled that number.
“Every month we set new records for growth,” Hieggelke told me. “But we were all surprised by the shape of that curve.”
The company has been spotlighted by both the tech press and the mobile industry for enabling a powerful new level of marketing. Just today, the company won first place at CTIA’s Emerging Technology Awards in the Mobile Marketing & Advertising category.
Next up on the company’s agenda is sign more customers and educate marketers with its “Good Push” campaign. “We want to explain to people how to maximize the value of notifications,” Hieggelke said.
Portland, Ore.-based Urban Airship has raised $ 21.6 million to date, with backers including Salesforce, Verizon Wireless, Foundry Group, and True Ventures. Its last round in November totaled $ 15.1 million.
Photo illustration: Sean Ludwig/VentureBeat
Airship photo: ER_09/Shutterstock
Arrow image: Umberto Shtanzman/Shutterstock
Filed under: mobile, VentureBeat 
Airship, delivered, doubling, Exclusive, just, months, notifications, push, Urban
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Want to try your hand at Windows Phone development? This should make it easier
Tuesday, May 8th, 2012
Microsoft has just released hundreds of pre-built mobile app components, open-source projects, and SDKs for Windows Phone development into the wild.
The new components and APIs come via Verious, a marketplace for plug-and-play bits and pieces for mobile applications.
And from what we’ve been hearing from mobile developers around the world, this library of goodies couldn’t have come at a better time.
Developers are intrigued by Windows Phone’s gorgeous interface — the legendary Woz even said his Nokia Lumia handset was more like a friend than a phone.
But at the same time, developers are hesitant to make big investments of time, energy, and company or personal resources when the platform is still relatively unstable. The Lumia line, which put all Nokia’s eggs in Microsoft’s basket, has been notoriously underperforming, even to the point that some shareholders are suing the company. Why would a developer have any confidence that a Windows Phone app might be successful?
Today’s news takes some of the edge off that roadblock, at least cutting down development time significantly. Verious worked closely with Microsoft to get these components together and launched, and here are some examples from Verious’ Windows Phone collection:
- The largest existing collection of Metro-style icons, which is generally sold for $ 499
- A package of eight Silverlight UI controls to greatly reduce development time
- A collision detection system/physics engine for games, simulations, etc.
- A few mapping and charting tools
Don Pitt is a VP at Verious; in an email conversation with VentureBeat, he said that now is, indeed, an interesting time to dip one’s toes into the Windows Phone waters.
“We’ve seen a lot of interest in the platform with developers. You are correct that the Metro interface has a lot of them excited. We’re hearing that the Metro UI is an evolution of Visual Studio, so it is an easy transition for many developers.”
Ah, Visual Studio — don’t get me started. I love Visual Studio, and I was surprised to learn as a fairly green developer that quite a few (non-Microsoft) developers appreciate Visual Studio, as well.
However, there’s an existing and quite large community of Microsoft developers out there, too, especially in the enterprise; and Pitt points out that they might also feel quite comfortable developing for Windows Phone.
And of course, there’s the millions-strong army of general developers who can create hybrid mobile web apps for Windows Phone — and just about any other platform. Verious is also releasing a slew of HTML5 goodies today for mobile developers, and Pitt sees the convergence as highly beneficial.
“Hybrid HTML5/native apps is a big trend, that only becomes more compelling when you add a third platform like Windows Phone to the mix,” he said. “For companies that want to be on all three platforms (iOS, Android, and Windows Phone), they have to look at leveraging web technologies so that they have some shared assets across platforms. This is helping drive our component model and is a big reason why we are launching both Windows Phone and HTML5 categories at the same time.
“I definitely think that companies looking to move to Windows Phone from other platforms will look to web technologies to ease the transition.”
Of course, native functionality is still necessary for accessing certain hardware components — for now. But the mobile web is gaining a fearsome amount of traction these days, and it looks like Verious is right on trend.
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Apple dominating Android with 84 percent of mobile gaming revenue
Sunday, May 6th, 2012
There’s a reason why so many developers feels iOS users are more valuable than Android: Apple is killing it in mobile gaming with 84 percent of all mobile gaming revenue in the US.
“When analyzing Apple’s successful monetization, there is one dominant factor outside of differences in audience demographics and preferences: Apple requires users to connect their credit card information directly to their account, thus creating a seamless purchase experience,” said Newzoo chief executive Peter Warman in a statement.
Newzoo surveyed 17,000 individuals and took revenue data from the top 200 grossing games in the iOS and Android marketplaces. In the United States, mobile gaming overall grew from 75 million to 101 million players across all platforms. That is broken down into 69 percent of people playing on smartphones and 21 percent on tablets. While more people are introducing games to their daily train commute, playing to procrastinate, or adding a new device into their gaming repertoire, the more important fact is that paying players on the rise. Indeed, Newzoo predicts mobile gaming will see another double-digit revenue year in 2012.
Paying players have grown 35 percent to 37 million players, and those individuals play 5 times more money in iOS games, than they do on Android. As Warman noted before, this is probably because of how easy it is to actually buy the game — or in app purchases. Once you’ve set up your Apple ID on your iPad or iPhone, you simply need to put in a password to buy games. There’s no entering billing information or credit card numbers. It’s so easy, Apple has had to make it harder (i.e. more password check points) to protect parents from having children rack up in-app purchase bills.
According to Newzoo, in-app purchases are where developers are really seeing the money. Ninety-one percent of mobile gaming revenue comes from money spent inside the game on both Android and iOS.
Newzoo attributes the overall growth to tablets and smartphones getting better screens (see: the Retina display on the new iPad) and processing power. The company says 62 percent of “core console and PC gamers” are also playing games on smartphones or tablets — a noteworthy number as mobile games were once seen as a way to pass the time, as opposed to a place for serious gamers to practice their skills.
hat tip Forbes
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Amazing new touch technology could revolutionize smartphones, doorknobs, your sofa
Saturday, May 5th, 2012
What if any object in the world, not just smartphones and tablets, could know when and how you were touching them? If a team working at Disney Research and Carnegie Mellon University continues to make progress, soon we may have smarter chairs, doorknobs, bathtubs, and even living things.
Using the researchers’ new technology, called Touché, we could sense what is touching an object (human or fork?), how it is being touched (pushing, pinching, grasping), and which body part is touching it (hands, elbows, number of fingers). That means a flat surface could recognize if you are standing, sitting, or Tebowing on it.
Touché operates on the same general principle as the capacitive sensor in your touchscreen phone. The difference is that where most smartphones only capture one frequency, which they interpret as touching or not touching (plus position data), Touché senses complex configurations by sweeping over a wider range of frequencies. The technique is called swept frequency capacitive sensing (SFCS), and it requires processing a much larger amount of information than traditional capacitive sensors — something that has become easier with today’s faster and cheaper microprocessors.
The technology needs only one electrode, which opens the applications to almost any object that can conduct electricity. That means humans can become a sensor and, even cooler, the different parts of a body could be detected based on their capacitive properties. Even water can be turned into a touch sensor.
One potential application is a desk surface which is all touch-sensitive, allowing you to manipulate objects on your screen with far greater fidelity than even today’s best tablets. Fingers may be imprecise compared to a mouse pointer or a stylus, but that’s only because the tablet is small. Give your hands the entire surface of your desk to work on, and the results might be beyond our current imagination.
The researchers came up with their own neat concept uses: a music player that’s controlled by touching your own hand (hit a pinky to pause, two-fingers on the palm to play); doorknobs that lock, trigger lights, or display messages based on how you touch them; a sofa that turns on the TV when you sit down, then turns down the lights when you recline; and bowl of cereal that frightens a child who uses the wrong utensil.
Another use the research team is considering is to control and access our increasingly smaller computer interfaces, as well as the elimination of traditional input devices like keyboards or mice. Tools which currently need to be large enough to provide space for a manipulable user interface could continue to shrink.
“Devices keep getting smaller and increasingly are embedded throughout the environment, which has made it necessary for us to find ways to control or interact with them,” team member Chris Harrison said in a statement.
The team will be presenting their research at CHI 2012, the Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, in Austin next week. They have already been recognized with a much sought-after Best Paper award.
Check out this quick demonstration of the technology in action:
Photo credit/Flickr
Filed under: offBeat, VentureBeat 
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Is the Call of Duty: Black Ops II drone war realistic? (videos)
Thursday, May 3rd, 2012
In Call of Duty: Black Ops II, a terrorist leader takes over America’s drone and robot armies and turns them against their creators. But some gamers have reacted to this scenario — set in 2025 — with scepticism.
Now Activision has released videos describing all of the research it did on the subject of future warfare and just how plausible the plot of this first-person shooter could be. The game developers at Treyarch, the studio behind the game, insist the storytelling is plausible and have created this five-part video documentary to show off new sci-fi ways to kill.
As we noted earlier, the game has some scenes in the 1980s, but it moves into a near future where a terrorist leader has hacked into America’s military systems and hijacked an entire fleet of drones. The leader, Raul Menendez, sends them to destroy American cities such as Los Angeles and then threatens China, triggering a potential global war that can only be headed off by black operations agents.
The flashpoint for the conflict turns out to be a bid to corner the market on rare earth elements, of which China controls 95 percent. If we’ve fought wars for control of oil supplies, then it’s not crazy to think we’d fight for rare earth metals, which are a key part of the electronics food chain and a subject of trade disputes. Those rare earth elements are also the root of all of our military electronics equipment.
Part of this awesome arsenal is a currently experimental microwave heat-ray gun and a self-guiding bullet. All of these weapons are in development. In the 1980s scenes, you get to see the weapons of the old days, and then you see how they compare to the weapons that change war in the future.
Another weapon is the quad-rotor drone with an on-board camera. Such drones already exist, and they’re becoming a bigger part of America’s military muscle. The Central Intelligence Agency has waged a secret “drone war” against Al Qaeda operatives in Pakistan and other countries. Wayward UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) are also in the news: pilot error may have led to a drone falling into the hands of Iran.
Drones are even being integrated into civilian air operations. And ground-based robots are an increasingly significant part of the military’s future, according to “Wired for War” author Peter Singer. With all the news about Anonymous and hacking, it’s entirely plausible that a terrorist could launch a cyber attack that takes over a fleet of robots.
Check out the videos below, headlined by retired Lt. Col. Oliver North and Singer. Singer says, “The future is not as far off as we think. We’re not ready for it.”
“I don’t think the average American grasps how violent war is about to become,” said North. He added, “I don’t worry about a guy who wants to hijack a plane. I worry about a guy who wants to hijack all the planes.”
Filed under: games, gbunfiltered 
black, Call, drone, Duty, realistic, videos
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