New iPhone Rumoured For This Summer

According to this article in the Globe and Mail, the Wall Street Journal is citing unnamed sources as responsible for rumors surrounding an upcoming new iPhone from Apple and in particular a version designed specifically for the Verizon network. Currently AT&T is the only authorized carrier of the iPhone in the U.S.

Both Apple and Verizon are refusing to comment.

Court Ordered Publication Ban Broken By Social Media Users

Rules in place to protect victims of crimes and, in many cases, minors are being inadvertently undermined by bloggers and social media site users. The concept of publication bans by the courts has been around for years, at least here in Canada, and have kept journalists from publishing details of certain cases that the court deems necessary in order to protect some or all of the parties involved. While journalists are well aware of the consequences of reporting on these details, it appears as though the general public is ill informed, ignorant, or oblivious to the concept of publication bans. Case in point, a judge in the case of a man involved in a recent abduction case in Moncton New Brunswick has placed details of the incident under a publication ban. Yet the writings of a social media user clearly ties the victim of the case to the incident. It will be interesting to see how the court reacts to this regardless of whether or not the unfortunate remarks have since been removed.

Source: CBC

iPad Turns Out To Have Superbowl Like Advertising Appeal

It looks as though the big advertisers are lining up for ad space in iPad apps and the platforms launch is drawing Superbowl like numbers! The New York Times is reporting that:

"iPad advertisements on print publishers’ applications cost $75,000 to $300,000 for a few months with some exclusivity, said Phuc Truong, managing director of Mobext U.S., a mobile-marketing unit at Havas Digital."

All the while developers are trying to figure out how to make the most of the opportunity and the hype. It's interesting that it has taken Apple to make this happen, I guess the advertisers are counting on the larger format of the iPad and the magic of Apple to make tablets / e-readers a mainstream consumer product and the publishers are doing a good job selling the launch.

French Arrest Hacker Who Targeted Obama Twitter Account

A 25 year old Frenchman who used the online persona HackerCroll has been arrested after hijacking US President Barack Obama's twitter account.

“This individual spread information about a dozen American personalities, notably Barack Obama, on specialist blogs,” Adeline Champagnat, head of the French office against online fraud, said.

HackerCroll appeared to be driven by the challenge and apparently acted alone in his quest to gain access to the accounts. No sensitive information was allegedly targeted.

“He thinks he is good at this, and he is,” Ms. Champagnat said.

The French were tipped off by the FBI according to this Globe and Mail article.

Offer-Based Ads In Your Mobile Apps?

Here is something to be on the lookout for! GIGaom is speculating a wave of in app offers as the result of the acquisition of Tapjoy by Offerpal Media.

Offerpal specializes in the kind of pitches that have quickly become very popular on social networking sites such as Facebook as a way to generate revenue and enable users to enhance the gaming experience. A casual gamer who accepts a trial offer from Netflix, for instance, could be rewarded with extra levels, while a fan of a mafia game could get a weapons upgrade by taking a survey.


Tapjoy delivers a related service for mobile developers looking to monetize their apps. The company offers free content or in-game upgrades to users who agree to download additional applications.

 I suppose it was inevitable, I just hoped it wouldn't happen so soon.

Is Voice Recognition Back? For Real This Time?

CNN technology writer John D. Sutter has compiled a case for why we should be taking voice recognition seriously. It's a story that has been written many times over the past few decades, but Sutter or at least some of the sources he's tapped believe that this time it might really stick. I'll admit that that it's a technology that has always been of interest to me and that the phone systems that I've used of late seem to be excellent at recognizing numbers and specific commands. The advancements of voice recognition technology. in particular applications that are aimed at cell phones and smartphones, is really looking like we may finally have a keeper.

"If you compare us to human performance, we are rapidly closing the gap," said David Nahamoo, IBM's chief technology officer for voice research.

Check out Sutter's article!

Google Street View Demystified

Ever wonder how that wonderful Street View technology worked? Here is the secret compliments of Google Japan...enjoy!



Note: Found via Gizmodo

Facebook Considers Panic Button

The BBC is reporting that Facebook exec's are in discussion with Britain's Home Secretary Alan Johnson regarding the Facebook luring and murder of a British teen by a known paedophile. "I emphasised that including the Ceop abuse reporting button on their site has the potential to transform child protection - and that the company should put this above all other considerations," said Johnson.

Facebook exec's say they are considering the option of a Panic Button but also defend their current measures saying:

"This innovative system has been developed by analysing millions of reports submitted over the years and testing ways to continually improve our system. 

"The system effectively handles all manner of potential abuse we see on the site, ranging from the common minor breaking of the rules, such as embarrassing pictures, to the extremely rare serious matters that are quickly escalated to law enforcement."

I like the idea as long as it is used as intended. Education is also a powerful tool.

Study Expects Mobile App Boom... Realy?

I don't think you have to be a genius to predict that mobile app development is going through the roof! It does however take some amount of thought to predict the magnitude of the explosive growth, but on the other hand the study quoted here was commissioned by an app store so take these numbers with a grain of salt...

According to the BBC:

"A study done for Getjar, the world's second biggest app store, said the market will grow to $17.5bn (£12bn) in the next two years. 

The study claimed downloads would climb from 7bn last year to 50bn by 2012 - a 92% year-on-year increase."

Big numbers!!!

Twitter Upgrades But No Monetization Plans Revealed

The hype around an announcement by Twitter founder Ev Williams at South by South West (SxSW) was that the company was going to announce it's plans for monetizing it's service but well all was said and done the actual announcement was viewed as underwhelming, with some attendees bailing before the key-note address was over.

"What Mr. Williams did announce is a Twitter expansion called @Anywhere. It allows users to log into other websites using their Twitter accounts, so they can tweet a link to something interesting without having to actually go to the Twitter site. Those third-party sites will highlight names and businesses that use Twitter and, when the mouse scrolls over them, a window pops up showing the user's account and latest activity there.

“Imagine being able to follow a New York Times journalist directly from her byline, tweet about a video without leaving YouTube, and discover new Twitter accounts while visiting the Yahoo! home page,” the blog post announcing the change said."

As an avid user and Twitter fanboy, I don't really care how they make money as long as they are able to keep the doors open without selling their souls and invading my screen space.

Source: CBC