Just as consumer technology invades the enterprise, business-class technology is becoming available in the home market. A great example of this counter-trend—call it “the enterprisification of the consumer” instead of the consumerization of the enterprise—is Skydog, from Palo Alto-based PowerCloud Systems.

Skydog is a dual-band Wi-Fi router that also incorporates patented cloud-based intelligence to enable homeowners to optimize their network resources and manage bandwidth remotely from their smartphones. The idea is to make it relatively simple for parents to limit their children’s Web usage by time of day, total amount of time, site, site type, device and activity. With the Skydog router and the company’s HTML5-based data service app, users can monitor and manage their home network via iPad, iPhone and Android. They can also get personalized alerts about current usage or problems via text message.

Check out what our experts rated as the best wifi routers.

Skydog: The Router For Parents?

These opportunities for parents to take control of the home network could be Skydog’s “killer app.” If a parent is alerted via text that a child is streaming video after bedtime, for example, the Mom or Dad can temporarily remove the offend device from the network. If a user has multiple Skydog boxes set up, one at home and one in the home of their in-laws, say, both can be managed through the same account. No more hours on the phone helping out remote family members.

Not interested? That’s not too surprising. Few people pay much attention to their home networks these days, except when it goes down. That said, in my brief demo of Skydog – both the hardware router and the data service – one thing quickly became clear: When home networking data across all devices is exposed in an intuitive, visual format, network management and troubleshooting can become empowering.

Still not sold?

Skydog claims to allow busy parents to see and control home Internet usage, even when they are at work or otherwise out of the house. Parents can be alerted, for example, if a guest attempts to access the network. They can optimize network bandwidth so that a Skype call from the home office always takes precedence over a child’s YouTube habit. Children can easily be allotted special network access and usage privileges for the weekend or holidays.

Sold now? Not so fast.

Though several devices have been built, and PowerCloud Systems claims that it has been beta tested in more than 75 homes –

Skydog lives only if its Kickstarter campaign

, which launches Tuesday, convinces enough backers to pledge $79 to receive a Skydog box sometime in May. The company says the price will rise to $99 after the initial production run. The

Skydog team

hopes to raise at least $50,000 through Kickstarter and to build at least 1,000 additional devices by May.

Why Skydog Chose Kickstarter

I asked PowerCloud Systems founder and CEO and founder Jeff Abramowitz  why a company with experience in the enterprise networking world – and located in the heart of venture capital country – would choose the Kickstarter route? “The sales channel (for networking hardware like Skydog) is dominated by incumbents,” Abramowitz explained. “In addition, the Kickstarter campaign gives us buy-in with our target audience and allows us to work directly with those who want this solution.”

He also noted that a Kickstarter campaign, allows early adopters to provide valuable user feedback – and not only to the company itself. Skydog has also set up online forums so users can share best practices.

If Skydog’s Kickstarter campaign fails, what then?

It’s at least possible that the company’s patented cloud-based algorithms, which deliver network information to its users, can be embedded in other company’s devices. “We are keeping our options open as it relates to licensing software, and we will learn more about the users and prospective partners interest in this area through the Kickstarter campaign,” said Vivek Pathela, PowerCloud’s VP of Marketing.

Image courtesy of Skydog.

The post Skydog Router Boasts Network Management Tools—For Parents appeared first on ReadWrite.

These are your words, this is your story; a tale of pathos and woe, heartbreak and longing, action, violence, sex, death and transformation. Its overarching message will no doubt resonate deeply with the reader. 

Except, to have readers, your work must be published. Luckily, this is now easy to do for practically anyone. Where once writers had to rely upon agents and publishers to consider their work, anyone can publish their novel, essay, or non-fiction masterpiece on Amazon’s Kindle platform. 

Why Choose Kindle?

The Kindle is a series of eReaders and tablets offered by Amazon. In parallel, the company has also constructed an entire eBook publishing platform that allows authors—any author—to reach potentially more than a billion readers around the world.

Along with the Kindle device, a Kindle app is available for nearly every major web browser, smartphone platform and for both Windows and Mac-based computers.  Publish your work once via Amazon’s “Kindle Direct Publishing” platform and it instantly becomes available through the Kindle app on nearly any personal computing device.

Another reason to publish with Amazon’s Kindle platform is the fact that Amazon dominates the “eBook” market. 

Finally, even for those with minimal computing skills, publishing on Amazon’s Kindle platform is relatively pain-free. 

With these advantages in mind, here is the step-by-step guide to self-publishing your own works with Amazon’s tools.

1. Sign Up To Publish

At the bottom of Amazon’s home page is a link to “independently publish with us.” Click the link. You are ready to publish to Kindle. 

2. Create Kindle Publishing Account

Click “Get Started” to begin. 

You will need to use your existing Amazon account or create one. Note: You may be required to provide additional information, including your banking information, as Amazon will wire your royalties to your account on a quarterly basis. 

3. Add Title

With an account created, Amazon takes you to your “Kindle Dashboard.” This is where you will add your works and access reports on book sales. 

If your work is ready to be published, click on “Add New Title.” 

4. Enter Your Book Details

Here, you provide Amazon with details on your book, including title, authorship, book type, pricing and more. Note: You do not need to have an ISBN code when using Amazon.

5. Book Category

Amazon encourages you to add up to two “categories” for your book. This can include everything from “Body, Mind & Spirit” to “Dystopian Fiction.”

Recommendation: Chances are your book crosses more than two categories. Search Amazon for the book(s) that you think is most like yours. In the details page, Amazon includes the categories selected for that book. Use those. 

You can also add up to seven keywords.

Recommendation: Think of the words readers might use to find your work in a search string. Choose those words. If it is a book about Steve Jobs, for example, you might include: Steve Jobs, Apple, iPhone, Macintosh, Silicon Valley, Ashton Kutcher, iPad. 

6. Give Your Book A Cover

Even an eBook should have a cover, although it is not required.  

Amazon provides guidelines for uploading cover images and also includes a rather limited tool to create your own cover.

Recommendation: I strongly encourage you to hire someone to create a visually appealing cover for your work if you don’t have the skills for this. Services such as eLance can connect you with graphic designers at affordable prices. 

A poor cover image is likely to turn away potential buyers.

7. Time To Upload Your Book

Now comes the fun-scary part: uploading your book! 

Luckily, Amazon makes this rather easy. First, it asks you to choose if you will enable digital rights management (DRM) or not. If you enable DRM, this makes it harder for others to share your work and potentially harder for it to be copied and sold without payment.

Odds are very high that you will never lose sales (or money) because your eBook did not have DRM enabled. My recommendation is to go DRM-free. Click “do not enable digital rights management.” 

Now upload the book from your computer.

Amazon accepts the following formats:

• Word (DOC and DOCX)
• HTML
• ePub
• Text
• PDF

8. Formatting and Previewing

If your work has minimal formatting requirements—it looks like a normal work of fiction or non-fiction, for example—Amazon’s upload service is extremely good at retaining your formatting. Nonetheless, you should still preview your work even after successfully uploading it. 

If your work contains numerous images, for example, and/or charts or other special formatting requirements, you may need to use a special program for that and then save the document in PDF format. Amazon’s upload service should retain the proper formatting.

Recommendation: It’s still best to always remember that an eBook is presented on a screen. Screens come in many sizes – from iPad Mini’s to iPhones to a new BlackBerry and many others. Works that include multiple graphics, say, may simply never look as good on a electronic screen as they do in print.

After uploading your work, use the “Online Previewer” link to see how your book will look on different devices. Then, from the drop down list, Amazon lets you see what your book will look like on select Kindle devices, iPhone and iPad. If you wish to see how it will look on other devices, or in a browser, you will need to download the “previewer” tool.

9. Set Your Price

Amazon lets you set nearly any price you wish for your book. However, there are two different royalty options: 35% or 70%. Obviously, you want the 70% royalty.

In nearly all cases, choosing the 70% royalty is the wise decision. Know this, however:

• If you price your book below $2.99, Amazon will only offer the 35% royalty option. 
• In some smaller markets, Amazon only offers the 35% royalty. (The 70% option is available in the U.S., Canada, UK and most larger markets.)
• When you choose the 70% royalty option, Amazon also deducts a small “delivery fee” for each book sold. This is their additional fee for wirelessly distributing your work, and is based on the file size of your work. In the U.S., this fee is presently set at 15 cents per megabyte. (A Word document of approximately 100,000 words and with minimal graphics is typically no more than 1 MB.)
• There is no delivery charge with the 35% royalty option. 

Thus, if you charge $2.99 for your work and choose the 70% royalty option, your royalty for each book sold is likely to be:

$2.99 x .70 = $2.09 before delivery fee

$2.09 – .15 (delivery fee) = $1.94. 

You earn $1.94 for each book sold. (Authors are solely responsible for paying taxes.)

You can designate your book for sale in only certain countries, or worldwide. 

10. Finished!

Congratulations! You are no longer just an author, but an author whose book(s) is available across the world. Of course, it typically takes Amazon about 24-48 hours before your book is actually available for sale.

Once available, I also recommend you create an Amazon author page – a free service that links your bio with your book listing.

Some final notes. Throughout this process, Amazon somewhat aggressively promotes their “KDP Select” program. With KDP Select, if you agree to publish your work on Kindle—exclusively—for 90 days (this can vary) and allow Amazon customers to borrow it for free, Amazon will pay you a small fee each time the book is borrowed. Typically, this fee is close to the royalty you would have received had the book actually been purchased. 

Amazon obviously wants everyone to have their work available exclusively through Amazon. 

Given Amazon’s market share, you may wish to join KDP Select. Of course, this does preclude those who prefer to use Apple’s iBooks service, or other platform, from buying your work for three months. 

Lead image courtesy of Shutterstock. 

The post 10 Visual Steps To Self-Publishing Your Book On Amazon appeared first on ReadWrite.

We take pictures of ourselves, our food, our friends, the great moments of our life, the dullest minutia of our daily routine. Pictures by the hundreds, possibly by the thousands, quickly fill up our smartphone.  But are they there forever, only viewable on the small screen in your hand?

Despite what you might fear, your phone’s photos are not trapped inside your device. Nor do you require additional hardware to archive and later view them. You have many free choices to upload your pictures and enjoy them sans smartphone.

Smile! You Are the Product

Before diving into the features of the various services, it should be noted that taking advantage of any of these free cloud services comes with a potential price. As the saying goes, if an online site isn’t selling you a product, then you are the product. 

Upload the latest photos of your vacation to the South Pacific, for example, and social media sites such as Flickr or Google+ might suddenly include ads from travel sites in your feed. For most, this is a fair bargain. However, all your account activity and identity data, combined with any “tags” you include with your photos—place, date, and people’s names, for example—may, in the aggregate, be more personal information than you care to hand over.  

It is up to you to manage your privacy settings and use your good sense.  

The licensing agreement for each of these services—those many pages of legalese that you didn’t bother to read—may allow the company to sell your data, your location or even use your photos for advertising. Instagram, for example, recently altered its terms to allow them to offer your pictures for use in ads. Only a very public outcry forced them to change the rules.

The promise of free storage, accessible from multiple devices and shareable with friends and family, carries that sort of risk and you should pay attention to it. 

Business Model Catwalk

Since every company has different rules, it may prove useful to understand the business models of those offering you free service.

This is not a cautionary declaration strictly for social media sites. Consider the privacy policy of the popular Box service, which, unlike Yahoo, Google and Facebook, earns its money from charging for cloud services, not selling aggregate personal data to advertisers. 

This Policy in no way restricts or limits our collection and use of aggregate data, and we may share aggregate data about our users with third parties for various purposes, including to help us better understand our customer needs and improve our services and for advertising and marketing purposes.

Note, this is only a small portion of the Box policy. While Box says it will not sell your “personal” information, it acknowledges that “aggregate” information may be offered to third parties. In addition, since you are “sharing” information with others—your photos—what they might do with your images is now also out of your control, and out of the control of the cloud service provider.

You can simply never be 100% certain of privacy protections and loss of data, but understanding the risks is important.

The Cloud As Your Darkroom

When it comes to features, many of these services, such as the revamped Flickr or the delightfully simple Dropbox, are probably better options for storing and sharing your photos than your own computer’s hard drive. I know this all too well. My trusty old MacBook Pro gave out earlier this year, resulting in the loss of hundreds of photos and several files.

The best free sites, such as Flickr, not only provide ample storage, they offer tagging, search and presentation tools to enhance your photos. They also incorporate numerous social functions within their service.

Flickr

Flickr may promise a “free terabyte” of space, though each photo is limited to 200 MB in size.

That’s still pretty good for free. Download the Flickr app for iPhone and Android and you can even set it to instantly upload your photos as soon as you take them—a great time saver. These photos are kept private until you designate them for sharing.

Google+

You are probably a member of Google+, whether you realize it or not. If you have signed up to use any Google service in the past, including Gmail, then you’re in the Google+ club. This is not such a bad deal for photo lovers, since Google offers members 5 GB of free storage—plenty of space for your smartphone photos.

As with Flickr, the Google+ app for Android and iPhone includes an “Auto Backup” feature that lets you have all your smartphone pictures instantly uploaded. You can keep your pictures private or share them with specific individuals, or with “circles” of friends. 

Since Google+ is far more than a photo sharing site, some users may find it intimidating. If so, simply take advantage of the free storage and auto-upload feature.

Facebook Photo Sync

Did you know Facebook Photo Sync existed? Facebook announced “photo sync” last year. Install the latest version of Facebook on your iPhone or Android device and you can have your smartphone photos automatically uploaded to Facebook; all of them, not just one at a time. 

Here’s how to set up your Facebook app for syncing:

1. Go to the Photos tab in the app
2. Tap Photos
3. Tap Sync

All the photos you have auto-uploaded remain private until you designate which ones, if any, should be shared on your timeline.

Facebook Photo Sync offers 2 GB of free storage.

No-Frills Free Photo Storage  

Several other cloud services offer ample free storage space for your photos, without the emphasis on presentation or community. Some, like Dropbox, also make it a snap to sync your photos across all your registered devices.

Dropbox

Dropbox is one of the simplest cloud services available for storing your photos, or just about any file, in fact. With the iPhone or Android app, you can easily upload your photos to Dropbox, and they are synched across all your devices (with the same Dropbox account). 

The free version currently offers 2 GB of storage, though Dropbox offers numerous deals to increase this space. (Note: I received 50 GB free—for one year—with my recent purchase of a Samsung Galaxy S4.) 

Like the services noted above, you can have your Dropbox app auto-upload your photos as soon as you take them. You can also create folders for your photos—much easier via the desktop version—and share pictures inside these folders with others.  

You can also share photos via Dropbox integration with Twitter, Facebook and email.

Box

Box is a cloud storage service that provides 5 GB of free storage, with much more available for a fee. 

You can share individual photos or entire folders. Box also allows you to see when a picture you have shared has been viewed.

SkyDrive

Not to be outdone, Microsoft’s SkyDrive offers a pleasing 7 GB of free cloud storage.

There is an iPhone and Android app, however, only the Windows Phone version has an auto-upload feature.

Bitcasa

Bitcasa is a start-up that offers up to 10 GB of free storage.

The service also allows users to upload pictures and videos of virtually any size. If you choose to use Bitcasa’s paid service, you can have virtually unlimited storage for your photos—and any other file you want to store. You may find it much easier to use Bitcasa from your desktop, however. 

Everpix

Everpix is a clever new photo archiving service—though available only for iOS at this writing. Everpix uses “algorithms” to analyze each photo uploaded and then automatically places them into into various categories: Outdoors, Cats, Food, etc. If you have lots of photos to store, this auto-categorizing function can be a great time saver.

Another useful benefit of Everpix is that the company can figure out which photos are essentially duplicates, and remove them for you.

The free service offers nearly unlimited storage space—with the caveat that only the last 12 months of photos are accessible. Access to more than that requires a fee. 

The New Language of Images

We are awash in pictures because we love to document our lives and share our moments. Pictures express how we look, how we feel, what we care about, where we are. They expose our insecurities as equally as our boasts, our desires as much as our belongings, and can be shared with the world as easily as with our closest friends. 

The combination of always-there camera-equipped smartphones combined with popular photo-sharing services, are turning pictures into a secondary language, one potentially as impactful and seemingly as common as the written word.

Update: An earlier version of this story misstated Flickr’s current limits on photo storage and display. 

Lead image courtesy of 1000 Words/Shutterstock. All other images courtesy of Brian S. Hall.

The post The Best Services To Free The Pictures On Your Smartphone appeared first on ReadWrite.

“Give me your phone!”

“No! Give me your password!”

“Just give me your phone!”

“Just tell me your password again!”

“I told you three times, already!”

This exact scene has played out several times in my house. The conversation has even more looping subroutines when it involves my parents. No one, it seems, can type in my complicated password on their tiny smartphone touchscreens. At least, not on the first or second try. 

That is about to change: I will no longer have a password on my home Wi-Fi.

You’re welcome.

A Win For The Sharing Economy

The first thing that friends and family ask when they visit is: “What’s your Wi-Fi password?” No more. Now, anyone who enters my home—or ventures nearby—will have instant, unfettered access to all the World Wide Web has to offer.

With my move to the tourist mecca that is San Francisco, I expect more guests and visitors, all of whom will probably ask to use my Wi-Fi with less bashfulness than they ask to use the bathroom.

I don’t make houseguests sign in before “consuming” my water, electricity or heat. If neighbors need to borrow something—a cup of sugar, perhaps, or my lawnmower—they are welcome, no signature required. Why not bandwidth? My monthly cost for high-speed Internet is probably less than the value I receive as a homeowner by having happy neighbors who keep well-tended homes and look out for one another.

Perhaps my simple act of sharing will improve life in the neighborhood, if just a little.

Consider leaving my Wi-Fi network open my part in enabling the “sharing economy.”  

Not Afraid Of The Bad Guys

I am not terribly concerned that “hackers” will somehow discover I have a unsecured connection and use it for nefarious deeds. 

Hackers already have access to bandwidth. Are they really going to show up in my neighborhood, where retirees seem to love nothing more than to putter outside during the day? Watchful neighborhood eyes peering out the windows late at night are more likely to expose a hacker that any network security tools I can install.

My Wi-Fi network password contains—or once did—a capital letter, several numbers and a symbol. It’s unlikely the bad guys are even slowed down by this. Just last month, for example, we learned that the password that Apple generates for establishing an iPhone hotspot is, well, apparently very easy to crack:

According to researchers at Germany’s University of Erlangen, the way that the (iPhone) keys are generated—with a combination of a short English word along with random numbers—is predictable to the point where the researchers are able to crack the hotspot password in less than a minute. 

Teenagers: Get Off My Virtual Lawn

The only good reason to lock access to my Wi-Fi: teenagers.

Nearly all teenagers have smartphones. The likelihood is that most have hard data caps for these devices. This means they rely on Wi-Fi for much of their streaming, photo uploading, video sharing, and general 24/7 connectivity.

Having a teenager of my own has made me acutely aware of how today’s teens, fully and continuously connected to everyone on the planet via smartphone, have a legitimate problem contemplating the world beyond arm’s length. If there’s an open Wi-Fi connection available, odds are they will jump on, guilt-free and unconcerned about hogging some good Samaritan’s bandwidth.

I’m no prude. Queries such as “Kate Upton nude video” or “guy who breaks leg on skateboard” don’t upset me. Rather, I am a bit worried that a gaggle of bandwidth-devouring teens might put me in the crosshairs of my broadband provider’s customer-service department. Or worse, their lawyers.

Somewhat Afraid Of The Lawyers

With my last network service provider, I (unknowingly) agreed to an “Acceptable Use Policy.”  I have mightily edited their very direct stipulations. Acceptable use comes with numerous limits (my highlights in bold).

1. You agree not to use the Service for or in the pursuit of illegal purposes.
2. You agree not to directly or indirectly allow a third party to use the Service in an illegal or unsuitable manner.
3. You agree not to use the Service for harassment, threats, verbal abuse, and persistent unwanted contact of any kind.  
4. You agree not to post or transmit fraudulent information on or through the Service.  
5. You agree not to post or transmit any unsolicited material through any active medium such as email, chat, messaging, chain letters, advertisements, jokes, etc.  
6. You agree not to post or transmit any disruptive content. This can include, but is not limited to, material that is considered obscene, offensive, or extremely controversial.  
7. This Service is intended for personal, periodic, and active use of the World Wide Web, email, news groups, games and file transfers; You may stay connected so long as You are using the Service for this purpose.
8. You will not use continued and sustained excessive bandwidth as defined by the TDS Terms of Service in connection with Your use of the Service. 
9. You may not resell the Service or redistribute or reconfigure the Service to allow others to use the Service in an illegal, fraudulent or inappropriate manner.
10. Interpretation will be at the sole discretion of TDS.

Can I trust my neighbors—and their children—to abide by the rules I have signed up for? Always? 

Honestly, I don’t know. I am prepared to take that risk, however. Somebody has to start this.

Pay It Forward

In fact, it seems that a movement toward open access has already begun. At least, in baby steps. 

Last month, Comcast unveiled a plan where its Xfinity home routers will provide Wi-Fi service to the paying customer’s home at the same time that it broadcasts public access to Wi-Fi. (The router will partition the two networks so the public doesn’t have access to the customer’s local network.)

Access to “roaming” Xfinity customers will be offered free. “Guests” are offered two hours per month for free—with the option to pay for additional hours. Comcast says this plan will not affect paying customers’ access or bandwidth.

It’s not just service providers. Apple’s new AirPort Extreme, the company’s pricey new Wi-Fi router, lists “guest networking” as one of its core benefits:

With the guest networking feature, you can set up a separate Wi‑Fi network just for guests. Use a different password or no password at all. A guest network allows access only to the Internet, so your primary network — including any external hard drive, printer, or other LAN-attached device — remains secure.

And Apple’s far from alone. There’s a long list of routers that support guest networks. You just need to be willing to go through a brief setup process to configure your guest network—and you, too, can be out of the handing-out-passwords business.

A lot of places that used to charge for Wi-Fi are now offering it as a freebie. Connectivity is becoming as indispensable for a business as bathroom facilities, possibly as important as heating and air conditioning. Starbucks, which used to charge, went free years ago. I suspect these venues are realizing that it costs far more to collect payment and handle customer support than to simply offer this amenity—which, by the way, makes it easier to use their mobile apps and services. Target and Macy’s are offering free Wi-Fi: If you can’t find something in their stores, you’ll order it online, on your phone—but probably on their online stores, which are heavily promoted when you log in. It turns out there’s money in this free Wi-Fi idea.

The Power Of Networking

If businesses can treat their customers—”guests,” as Target likes to call them—this well, why can’t we treat our actual guests as hospitably when we invite them into our homes?

A guy named Bob Metcalfe invented Ethernet, the networking protocol that powers Wi-Fi. He also coined Metcalfe’s Law, which says that “the value of a telecommunications network is proportional to the square of the number of connected users of the system.”

That sounds good, though I can’t see what direct value I’ll get by opening up my Wi-Fi. I just know that I get to be a good host, and cut out one everyday hassle. The network will take care of itself, if we just drop this pointless barrier. 

Images courtesy of Flickr user angermann, Wikimedia and Apple

The post Take My Wi-Fi, Please appeared first on ReadWrite.

Road Trip! That quintessential American adventure, experiencing the nation via automobile, is about to begin for many of us this summer, myself included.

Readers may know I’m using my smartphone to help me find a new home. That new home is thousands of miles away. My teenage son and I have decided that we will make the move on wheels. My wife, his mother, insists this is crazy. Accordingly, she has booked a flight.

Her loss. We aren’t driving the Interstates, either. That’s for truckers. Instead, we’re taking the historic U.S. Route 50: Jump on in Ohio, drive through the plains, into Dodge City, across the Continental Divide, over the Rockies and through the stretch known as the “loneliest road in America” before arriving (almost) in San Francisco.

We intend to eat great local food, stop at unique spots along the way, take in the history, have fun, make it memorable and stay safe. To that end, apps will definitely help.

I have an iPhone. He has an Android. We share a Kindle Fire. With those platforms in hand, these are the apps we are using to help make this little adventure that much more enjoyable.

Dad Needs His Coffee

Priorities. Before mile 1, I must know that coffee is always nearby. Find Me Coffee (Free—iOS, Android)is a free app that will, yes, help me find coffee whenever I need it. Which is always.

Don’t Make Me Stop This Car

Let’s face it, driving along an old American highway across the country, for all its sights and sounds, hour after hour, day after day, means we will almost certainly hit more than one achingly long dull patch. We will need ways to lessen our boredom while inside the car. I’m not naive. 

With the miracle of technology, we have hours of video, thousands of pages and more games than we will ever need, all inside our smartphone. I recommend these, in particular:

• Amazon Instant Video (Free—iOS, Android).On both the iPhone and Kindle Fire, we have downloaded several hours of our favorite television series and movies, at reasonable prices. 
• Kindle (Free—iOS, Android) We have already downloaded several books. Hint: we share a single Kindle account on both the Kindle Fire and iPhone. Bonus hint: I scored a great deal on the entire series of original James Bond novels last month.
• Card Games (Free—iOS) The smartphone is the perfect gaming console and we both already have several games on our devices. However, I find that card games are a great way for me to keep boredom at bay while still keeping enough of my brain focused on my surroundings. This app includes several card games.

On The Road

Getting lost can be fun. Not finding your way back, less so. To combat this, I have installed Google Maps (Free—iOS, Android) on my iPhone.

Fact is, Google’s free mapping data is amazing, and the turn-by-turn directions and real-time traffic data can be a godsend. One issue keeps popping up: I have yet to figure out to tell the app that I never want to venture off Highway 50—it insists I take the Interstate highways. 

Waze (Free—iOS, Android) is a community-based navigation app that I also recommend. Waze incorporates GPS data and real-time information from its 50 million users to alert drivers about current road conditions. Use it and you won’t be surprised why Google spent a small fortune for it.

Food

Happy Cow ($2.99 iOS, $2.49 Android) is a vegan-friendly restaurant guide. My son and I are strict vegetarians, so during our long drive …

No, I’m just kidding. We plan to eat the greasiest, tastiest, most delicious local fare we can find, be it at a tavern, old-school drive-in, or some hidden regional gem tucked away that only the locals know about. We are relying on two apps to help with this culinary journey of discovery.

Food Network On the Road (Free—iOS, Android) includes all those spots from its shows such as Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives and The Best Thing I Ever Ate. I am hungry just thinking about this.

Yelp (Free—iOS, Android) is always at my side, and never more useful than when I am traveling. In fact, Yelp has probably changed how I eat. It tells me what restaurants are nearby, lets me select by food type, includes extremely useful reviews on most of the establishments – many of which I would not otherwise even know about. This is a must-have for our road trip. Never again stop at a chain restaurant.

Wish You Were Here

As I expect to have many grand thoughts while on the road, I have paid for the well-designed Voice Record Pro (Free—iOS) app to record my brilliance.

Of course, we aren’t only going to document our trip in words, sounds and pictures for posterity. We plan to share our adventures in real-time with friends and family.

For check-ins, I am using Foursquare (Free—iOS, Android), linked to Facebook (Free—iOS, Android). For sharing pictures, I will post to Instagram (Free—iOS, Android), also linked to my Facebook account. I plan to create several short videos as well, using Vine (Free—iOS, Android). These will be posted to my Twitter feed. 

I will also use Soundcloud (Free—iOS, Android) to record and then share the various interesting, funny or just plain odd sounds I hear. Maybe it’s from an AM-radio preacher, a crowded diner or just the sound of frogs and crickets at night.

The Journey

Of America’s many gifts to the world—and to the future—none are so perfect as baseball. As avid baseball fans, we are using the MiLB (Free—iOS) app to guide us to every Double-A and Triple-A game along our route. This is a must.

If, inexplicably, baseball is not for you, there are numerous apps which will guide you to famous landmarks, national parks, local oddities, museums and more. 

A few I recommend include:

• Best Road Trip Ever ($0.99—iOS) includes location and details on “10,000 offbeat destinations.”
• History Here (Free—iOS, Android) has information on, that’s right, historical sites and landmarks throughout America.
• Roadside America ($2.99—iOS) will set you back a few dollars but, like Best Road Trip Ever, contains information on all those cool things—like a giant ball of twine—that may only be found in just one place.

Sleep Tight

For both iPhone and Android, there are numerous apps to help you find just the right hotel for your needs with Hotels.com (Free—iOS, Android), or enable you to score a unique lodging experience using Airbnb (Free—iOS, Android). There are also Camp & RV ($9.99—iOS, Android) to help you find nearby campgrounds. If a bed and breakfast is what you prefer, InnTouch and others have you covered.

Since we are driving a car across country over 10 days, we will most likely spend our nights in standard roadside hotels.

Be Prepared And Organized

I am not expecting any roadside emergencies; I doubt anyone ever does. But, the free RepairPal (Free—iOS, Android) app sold me with its blurb:  the “RepairPal app tells you the right price to pay for your repair, finds you a great mechanic in the area, tracks all your repairs, and gives you one-touch access to roadside assistance.” Seems wrong to not have this with me.

I also have Weather Underground (Free—iOS, Android) to keep me posted on what the weather will be as we journey along.

To track expenses, including fuel, food, snacks and lodging, I have purchased the Road Trip ($4.99—iOS app.  

Eyes on the Road

We are often told that people have their attention focused on their smartphone screen, missing what’s happening all around them. Perhaps. In this case, however, smartphones will make our trip more fun, possibly more memorable, and offer us an opportunity to visit unique spots and meet people we might otherwise never have met.

I can’t wait for the trip to start.

Image of highway courtesy of Wikimedia. Image of giant ball of twine courtesy of peachsmack, via Creative Commons license.

The post Apps To Make Your Great American Road Trip Even More Enjoyable appeared first on ReadWrite.

Lost amid the heated and increasingly dull iPhone versus Android rhetoric is the prospect of the world on the cusp of placing amazing personal computing technology—smartphones—into the hands of not just a billion people, but billions of people. 

See also: New Firefox OS Phones Spur The Future Of The Mobile Web

Most new smartphones these days are destined not for America, but for India, Africa, South America and Asia. This giant market will forever alter the personal computing industry. More importantly, it will almost certainly have a sizable and cascading impact on the Web itself, on cultures and economics, and on how people connect with one another.

Emerging Market Growth

IDC expects about a billion smartphones to sell this year alone. This is a 33% increase over last year, and is fueled primarily by “emerging market demand.”

Smartphones have become increasingly common in emerging markets and it is often the first affordable means of computing for these markets.

What’s driving emerging market demand, however, is the rapid drop in price. In 2012, smartphones priced at $250 or less—no contract required—comprised 37% of all sales. Yet the market for smartphones priced between $75 and $100 grew an astounding 750%.

Prices are continuing to fall. IDC notes that smartphone prices fell 8% in 2012 and will drop 9% in 2013. 

Yet this market is far from saturated. While smartphone demand is growing at nearly 50% in the U.S., by global standards that’s anemic. This chart from Flurry reveals how few people in select areas of the world yet own a connected smartphone or tablet.

Testing The Nokia Asha

Just as surprising as the rapid drop in price is the rather astounding functionality of these devices. For example, the small, attractive Nokia Asha 310, available for only $100—that’s full price, with no carrier subsidy—offers the following:

• Phone and messaging
• GPS/maps
• Capacitive touchscreen
• 3MP camera
• App store/Music store
• Acceptable sound quality
• Facebook, Twitter and several EA games pre-loaded
• Popular apps like WhatsApp
• Exchange, Gmail and Yahoo Mail can be configured on the device
• It’s even possible, according to Nokia, to edit Microsoft Office documents, although I did not try this

I’ve been using an Asha loaned to me by Nokia (it is typically not offered in the U.S.). While the device has some significant failings, including surprisingly poor WiFi reliability, I was still repeatedly struck by its capabilities.

Along with the features listed above, the Asha 310 offers dual SIM support, which allows users to operate the phone for work and personal use and to take advantage of the lowest calling rates. This is an important feature in some parts of the world.

See also: With Firefox OS, Mozilla Takes On The ‘Closed’ Internet—Again

The Asha does not offer multitasking, does not support 3G, and its “Xpress Browser” doesn’t offer the full Web experience. Nonetheless, the Asha 310 does nearly everything you can do on an iPhone, excepting video and video calling—just not as well, not as fast, not as easily. But it’s only $100!

Smartphones For The Next Five Billion

Despite all that, I’m still not convinced there’s a long-term future for the Asha. Android, which already accounts for at least 50% of the global smartphone market, shows no signs of slowing down. Just last month, for example, Google opened Android Nation in India—a brick-and-mortar retail store and a clear sign of Google’s determination to grow Android in one of the world’s largest markets.

Google is planing to open several such stores throughout India. Android Nation serves as an “Android experience center”—think Apple Store, but for Android.

Nonetheless, the market is so big and growing so fast that it’s equally difficult to believe that only Android, or only Android and iPhone, for example, will dominate the planet. Mozilla CEO Gary Kovacs—out promoting the new Firefox OS for smartphones—said his organization is aiming at the next “2 billion smartphone users.” 

I find it impossible to understand how 3,4,5 or 6 billion people are going to get their diverse needs satisfied by one or two or five companies, no matter how delicious those companies.

Low-cost Firefox OS smartphones will soon be available in select areas of the world.

Look East, Look South, Look Everywhere

Smartphones are not a status symbol, but a productive, creative communications tool used by more than a billion people seeking to improve their work, increase their wealth, add to their joys and connect them to their region and the world.  

A $100 smartphone, amazing as it is, is not great. Not yet. Nonetheless, consider all that it can do for this price. Soon, billions will connect to Facebook and Twitter, to Google and medical resources, to learning and job opportunities, on an actual personal computer at a price once thought all-but-impossible. In this new reality, debates about iPhone versus Android have quickly become superfluous.

Consider this video Apple put together for developers at WWDC showcasing how (iPhone) apps can reach everyone and benefit anyone. If you can get past the Apple self-glorification, it’s a powerful illustration of how smartphones are connecting and empowering us all in ways we never imagined.

Today’s premium, costly iPhone 5 is likely 2016’s every-phone.

That is great news for the world.

The post The Next Billion Smartphone Users Will Have An Awesome Mobile Computing Device appeared first on ReadWrite.

Buying a home is a nasty, arduous and blessed task. It’s further complicated by the glaringly obvious fact that nobody makes any money until you buy. The feeling that you are so much meat waiting to be ground into sausage rarely goes away.

I should know. I am in the process of moving from the lovely state of Wisconsin to sunny California—specifically, the San Francisco Bay Area. There are, shall we say, some bracing differences in the two real estate markets, and not just in terms of price. (Did you say the actual ground beneath your feet sometimes … moves?)

Big Market For Real Estate Apps

Luckily for me and everyone else in the market, there are many useful real estate apps available across all major smartphone platforms. In fact, there are so many good real estate apps that it can be hard to choose the best one.

This shouldn’t be too surprising. The housing market in the U.S. is valued at about $10 trillion. Numerous companies are eagerly hoping to carve out a slice of this sizable American pie—and garner your loyalty—by helping you choose among the 70 million homes located throughout the country.

Zillow, for example, recently began airing this television commercial.

Having viewed nearly as many apps as properties in my ongoing search for a home, I can recommend these three: Trulia, Zillow and Redfin.

They each provide you with an abundance of listings and include the most important details of nearly every home displayed. Each app can text new listing alerts directly to your phone. All are optimized for real-time location-based house hunting, using the smartphone’s GPS. However, you can also search for properties by typing an address or city into the app’s search bar, or even touch-scrolling the app’s map to where you want to live. 

All three are available on iPhone, iPad and Android, and are all free. All three also have companion websites, with additional layers of information available, such as school rankings and property taxes. 

1. Trulia

Trulia is my favorite of the bunch, with a simple, intuitive design and ample listings of properties for sale and rent—along with links to open houses and agents. You can search by city or address, although I found it most useful to let the GPS service provide a map of all nearby homes for sale (within my specified criteria). As you drive through an area, the map can adjust, updating the homes quickly as your position changes.

With Trulia, it’s also very easy to set-up notifications and to save your searches. These may be linked to their website, so you can review your favorites on your laptop later. 

Trulia’s app often displays a small ad-sized listing of an agent across their map. At the beginning, this is helpful. After you’ve selected an agent, it becomes annoying. I would have been happy to pay about $2 for the app, say, to ditch these ads.

Trulia makes it a snap to get turn-by-turn directions to any property listed, and to quickly text your spouse of your latest find. You can also sort listings by price, features (e.g. number of bedrooms), and by “newest” listing – which can be very useful to know.

Use Trulia and you’ll wonder how people searched for homes before smartphones existed. 

2. Zillow

Because of the ease of use of the Trulia app, I have placed it above Zillow. The breadth of information that Zillow offers on each listing, however, makes it a must-have for your home search.

Zillow includes a photo tour of the property, a sales history and an estimate of its current value.

Spoiler alert: for the Bay Area, at least, the price estimate is wildly under-valued. This fact somewhat diminishes the Schaedenfreude of discovering that seemingly every buyer in the past ten years has lost a small fortune. 

Zillow includes a handy “draw” feature which lets you swipe an area on the map that then displays the listings within that area. The app also claims to include “pre-market” properties—those which may be coming on to the market soon. This might be a great feature, though I never saw any such properties in the Bay Area. And I would have jumped at them.

If you love good house porn, Zillow is the app for you.

3. Redfin

Redfin is also very good. The app provides a simple, yet robust search interface. You can search by GPS, type in a city or street—or even an MLS number—and narrow these down across several search criteria. These can include price, square footage, year built, number of baths and much more. 

For me, Redfin’s best feature was letting me know if a house was already “pending”—meaning, an offer had been made. This saved me a great deal of time. 

Redfin also lets you check out homes that have recently sold and for how much. This turned out to be extremely helpful information and has aided my subsequent searches.

Note: Redfin appeared to have as many or more listings than either Trulia or Zillow, at least within the Bay Area. In my personal app tests, looking for sales data in other states yielded fewer results.

Location, Location, App

I sometimes tell people that there are so many apps that they need to download three great ones, no more, and focus. But that’s not quite true.

While I do highly recommend all of the apps above, there remains that nagging uncertainty that some awesome property is out there, ready to slip away if I don’t reach for an alternative. So here are several backups for the paranoid house-hunters out there (i.e., all of you):

1. Foreclosures Real Estate

In the Bay Area, at least, a shocking majority of houses for sale are, in fact, houses in foreclosure. It may be the same where you are searching.

This app lists foreclosures, short sales, HUD homes and auction properties. 

2. For Sale By Owner

This app claims to be the “only” one to provide properties that are exclusively for sale by owner. It contains over 30,000 listings. As most listings in other apps are taken from the MLS, this app clearly serves a purpose.

3. Realtor.com

A very well-designed app from the National Association of Realtors. Not surprisingly, it appears to contain as many listings as any of my top three. This app also provides better in-app data on schools.

That said, I found my top three easier to navigate, and their information better optimized for my iPhone’s screen. 

4. HomeSnap

This is a popular app that includes all the available MLS listings. Its claim to fame is that the app lets you take a picture of a house and—based on the GPS data embedded in the photo—get back the sales information on that property.

I have yet to use this feature.

5. Google Glass

If you’re one of the very few people possessing Google Glass, I am not, you’re in luck. According to the New York Times, Trulia offers a Google Glass app.

6. Agents and Brokers

I found no compelling reason to choose a particular realtor’s app over any of those listed above.

The post Real Estate Apps From Android To Zillow appeared first on ReadWrite.

Despite the persistent gnashing of teeth over Jony Ive’s re-making of iPhone’s apps, colors and iconography in the upcoming iOS 7, the real story is the many new features that Apple is incorporating into its highly lucrative mobile platform.

Features such as wireless content sharing AirDrop could significantly impact user sharing behavior – at home, at work, and everywhere else. It’s not particularly revolutionary. Rather, AirDrop smartly leverages the core strengths of Apple’s unified ecosystem.

AirDrop, long available on Macs, is being offered with Apple’s iOS 7 – the next version of the popular operating system for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. According to Apple, AirDrop lets users share photos, videos, web pages, contacts – “and anything else from any app with a Share button.”

AirDrop sharing might include:

• A retailer “airdropping” a coupon into your Passbook app.
• Multi-player games with strangers on a train.
• Sharing meeting notes in an office setting.
• Guests sharing their favorite videos of the bride and groom during the ceremony.
• App developers might offer in-app freebies to customers who agree to “airdrop” a trial version of the app from their iPhone onto their friend’s iPhone. Advertisers may do the same.
• Families might share a variety of notes, lists, pictures and more across a plethora of “iDevices.”

Ecosystem Benefits

There are some very obvious caveats to all this, of course, despite the potential. Chiefly, in practice, AirDrop may ultimately deliver limited user value.

After all, smartphone-to-smartphone sharing already exists, yet have you ever actually seen people ‘bump’ their smartphones? This Samsung commercial is clever, but do you know anyone who’s actually used this feature that was not on television? 

AirDrop, however, has several advantages:

1. It comes pre-installed on iOS 7.
2. Every device with AirDrop will offer the same user experience.
3. It is fully wireless – no physical bumping of devices necessary.

Android Beam, Samsung’s S Beam, and apps like Bump, all require the devices touch each other, one-to-one, to initiate a file transfer. Even the more widely available NFC (near field communication) standards require devices physically touch one another or be in very close proximity, typically a few centimeters. AirDrop requires no touching and can transfer files one-to-many.

AirDrop works by moving media through the cloud, via Apple’s iCloud. It then establishes a Wi-Fi Direct connection between the devices to move files between points. The use of iCloud allows AirDrop to know other users’ locations and theoretically makes file sharing easier. In contrast, Android Beam creates a connection between two devices and then transfers media through Bluetooth. Samsung’s S Beam is similar, but uses NFC to establish the connection and then uses Wi-Fi Direct. Samsung’s new Galaxy S4 has the ability to share content (such the same song on several different devices with one person acting as a DJ controller) in much the same way as AirDrop works. 

AirDrop can assure everyone of its users the same exact steps to expedite the activity. Tap the “Share” icon. AirDrop reveals available users nearby. Tap their avatar and the file is sent.

This is where Apple’s ecosystem control delivers enhanced benefits to users. Two users wanting to transfer files will be able to open the same app, at the same time with the same results. While Android Beam (or the very similar S Beam) is present on all Android phones running version 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich or higher, the interface between smartphones from different manufacturers does not lend itself to a common experience. 

Analysts estimate that at least 550 million devices are now running iOS 6. If Apple can just as quickly transition them to iOS 7, that’s a massive potential user base with which to AirDrop the latest viral video, family photo, office gossip, or hit song.

The Ecosystem Giveth, The Ecosystem Taketh Away

Success will take time, if it is to happen at all. For AirDrop to work, users must have:

• iOS 7
• A newer iOS device – iPhone 5, iPad Mini, iPad (4th generation), iPod Touch (5th generation)
• An iCloud account

In addition, users must be physically close to one another – although AirDrop transfers should work over a rather large area, somewhat like accessing Wi-Fi across different rooms in a house.

Apple’s marketing for AirDrop focuses on photo sharing. Given the limitations of the service, at least at launch, this is no doubt a wise move to help prompt usage. Photo sharing services are hugely popular, after all. 

Security Concerns

Users can choose to accept AirDrop files from their contacts, or from anyone with the appropriate device, or not at all.

Security will be an obvious concern for most users. Apple states that AirDrop files are “fully encrypted.” Even still, it seems likely that someone masquerading as a contact – perhaps posing as a friend seated at the other end of a large college classroom – could send a malicious file that the recipient unwittingly accepts. There are no doubt other potential opportunities for ill intent.

Wireless analyst Jack Gold said: “security will clearly be an issue, despite Apple always claiming it’s not. Things get hacked.” 

New Modes of Sharing

Despite these limitations, AirDrop possesses the potential to spur new forms of sharing digital content -and thus, potential new applications and even new businesses could spring from AirDrop. 

According to mobile market analyst Chetan Sharma, AirDrop should prove a “better way to share than text or email.” He also noted that AirDrop could enable other “communication modes” such as “airdropping a coupon instead of email them.”

Again, the overarching concern, Sharma says, is that users must have very easy controls over what content they choose to accept, when and from whom. Otherwise, it becomes little more than spam.

The post How iOS 7’s AirDrop Could Transform The Way We Share appeared first on ReadWrite.

Gavin Newsom, lieutenant governor of California and former mayor of San Francisco, sounds tired – but still in a hurry. Darting between meetings in Silicon Valley and Sacramento, Newsom tells me that it’s long past time for government to embrace the opportunities presented by smartphones, social media, and Big Data. 

I spoke with Newsom as he was returning from a meeting at Cisco. As he said:

We have (leaders) in government who download a book to their Kindle in seconds, or order their groceries online. They understand the power of a 24/7 service, yet rather than adopting new technologies for their organization, we are patching old systems from the 1970s. These were great once, but now are becoming burdens.  

Newsom has an infectious optimism regarding technology’s ability to improve government services and foster openness. “We need to learn and scale,” he says of government.

The private sector is taking notice. Money, ideas and entrepreneurship are flowing into government at all levels. Not just to win big contracts or to promote immigration reform, but to use the very technologies that have changed homes and business to improve how government operates. 

Open Gov

Earlier this year, the Knight Foundation initiated the “Open Gov” challenge in order to, as the organization put it, “we sensed an opportunity to accelerate this nascent field and to help it develop solutions that serve defined needs.”

Four months later, the foundation has just announced eight winners who will receive just over $3 million in funding. These include: 

• Civic Insight: Providing up-to-date information on vacant properties so that communities can more easily find ways to make tangible improvements to local spaces.
• GitMachines: Supporting government innovation by creating pre-configured tools that developers in government agencies can use to easily build new technology.
• OpenCounter: Making it easier for residents to register and create new businesses by building open source software that governments can use to simplify the process.
• Procure.io: Making government contract bidding more transparent by simplifying the way smaller companies bid on government contracts.

Toward A Government App Store

Businesses that have worked with government for years also realize how mobile technology, social media and even smartphone apps can improve the delivery of service.

Recently, I spoke with Maury Blackman, CEO of Accela, a Bay Area company that develops mobile apps specifically designed to streamline government activities and to make it easier for people to communicate with officials, get information, pay taxes and fees, access services and so forth.

“Services once done in-person or online are now shifting to the smartphone,” Blackman told me. “Citizens expect around-the-clock access to government officials and services.”

The Civic Cloud

Accela has also built a app platform it calls “the Civic Cloud,” one designed to help government agencies and app developers work more closely with one another. The goal is to create smartphone apps for government agencies that thousands of local governments across the country could easily replicate.

If that effort is successful, developers would suddenly have access to a giant market. Meanwhile, government could offer improve service delivery, while citizens would get better roads, services and greater access to the government employees whose salaries they pay.

Such apps might include a location-based pothole-repair request service, or one that would let contractors submit permit requests from the field. It’s not hard to see how such apps could scale across city and local governments around the country.

In his book Citizenville, Newsom writes: “In the private sector and in our personal lives, absolutely everything has changed over the last decade. In government, very little has.” 

That finally may be about to change.

The post It’s Time To Hack City Hall appeared first on ReadWrite.

As Microsoft struggles to bring its lucrative Office franchise to Android, iPhone and iPad, investors and developers are seizing the opportunity to create business and productivity software optimized for the new era of mobile computing. 

These new tools won’t tend to look anything like Word, Excel or PowerPoint – nor Apple’s iWorks, nor Google Docs. Instead, they will leverage the strengths of mobile computing. They will be touch-based, real-time, collaborative and highly visual.

New Computers, New Tools, New Work

At the dawn of the PC age, many of those connected to the mainframe and minicomputer industries failed to understand how the humble “personal computer” was going to change everything, business included. It did.  

(See also Ballmer’s Latest Blunder: No Office For iOS And Android Till 2014)

Just as there was no “Office” for mainframes or minicomputers, there’s no reason to think that any “port” of Word, Excel and PowerPoint, no matter how good, will flourish in the new era of mobile computing. Who still recognizes the output of a Honeywell minicomputer, for example? 

Microsoft’s Office is an excellent business tool, albeit one designed for a personal computing era that is quickly fading – one in which large, stationary screens, mouse and keyboard input are the norm, and which favors feature-rich applications over task-based “apps.”  

Cars, Not Trucks 

There are already over one billion smartphone users, many of whom are “mobile only” or mobile-first users. As Steve Jobs said at the D8 Conference in 2010:

When we were an agrarian nation, all cars were trucks because that’s what you needed on the farms. Cars became more popular as cities rose, and things like power steering and automatic transmission became popular. PCs are going to be like trucks. They are still going to be around (but only) one out of x people will need them.

According to the NVCA, venture capital groups in the U.S. have poured $4 billion into “business/office” software since 2010, the year Apple launched the iPad.

Look at the popular “productivity” apps in Apple’s App Store and you can see the beginning of new forms of work, collaboration and value creation emerging:

• Dropbox, which allows users to store, access and share their media and files wherever they have a connection, has received over $250 million in funding. 
• The app Task cleverly combines color and gesture for to-do lists.
• Evernote – with $250 million in venture capital backing – has built an entire ecosystem around productivity-enhancing applications for mobile devices. 
• FiftyThree, the company behind the popular and highly innovative Paper app – available on iPad only – announced a $15 million Series A funding round last week.

FiftyThree’s goal for the cash is “to build the essential suite of mobile tools for creativity.” But don’t let that phrase fool you – in today’s world it may be that creativity is the new productivity.

After all, does a well-constructed 15-second Instagram video for a new brand drive more value than the well-researched business report an analyst created in Word? Is a single, clever Vine video more powerful than a PowerPoint presentation delivered in front of a thousand people at a prestigious industry conference? Can Excel effectively capture the value of an individual check-in? What about millions of check-ins?  

Value And Productivity Are Changing

There was a time when seemingly every personal computer had a copy of Office installed. Those days are gone. Social connectivity and collaboration fostered by mobile personal computing devices are enabling new forms of business.

Consider the rapid growth of the “sharing economy,” propelled in large part by smartphones that offer location-aware, real-time connectivity.

Last year, a University of Michigan study found that social media and online communities can be extremely valuable to businesses. Within a virtual community it said, “members could recommend products, share reviews, create favorite lists and socialize with each other online.” A deeper dive into the data found that a network member with more “friend” connections was more likely to spend more.

In this world, it may be far better to have capable community managers then spreadsheet wizards. 

The TCHO chocolate factory in San Francisco is considering a iPhone app that lets fans of its uber-pricey chocolates access shop floor cameras to watch the chocolate being made. Could a PowerPoint presentation promote the company’s product any better (or even as well)? 

Similarly, many job candidates might soon be better off curating a selection of tweets, news and images in a personalized Flipboard magazine than creating a traditional resume in Word or Powerpoint. Flipboard, which isn’t technically classified as a productivity app, has received $60 million in venture capital. 

These new forms of productivity and creativity are enabled by our new tools. Thus, those focusing on building a mobile alternative to PowerPoint or Word, for example – Microsoft included – likely will miss the larger opportunity borne of billions of smartphones and tablet.  

The post A New Golden Age Of Productivity Software Is Dawning appeared first on ReadWrite.

Geeks read. Geeks read books that probe dreams, envision life on Mars, posit hyperspace, reconstruct history, remake the world and reshape the notion of what it means to be human, or even just alive. 

The great geek works of fiction inspire engineers, scientists and entrepreneurs to dream their biggest dreams – or at least to muster the courage to light the way toward the future. These great books deserve to be celebrated. If you haven’t read all of them, you should.

Neuromancer

One of the most celebrated works of science fiction ever, William Gibson’s 1984 novel Neuromancer, is devoid of white-collar, IBM-like engineers. Instead, Gibson’s novel is populated with washed-up freelance hackers who associate with nefarious corporate shills wanting dirty deeds done dirt cheap inside the infinite blackness of “cyberspace.” All this burst on the public consciousness at a time when most of the planet had no desire to own a computer and couldn’t even imagine the World Wide Web, still a decade away.

Neuromancer gave dystopia a good name. Gibson’s work included the saved consciousness of individuals (in both RAM and ROM states), cybernetic implants, holograms, AI, cloud computing and ninjas. Gibson’s “cyberspace” inspired a legion of hackers.

The Shockwave Rider

John Brunner’s fast-paced 1975 novel features, among other things, “worms” (a term Brunner coined) propagating through massive cloud-like computer systems. It also includes hero hackers, real-time global connectivity, prediction markets, a mobile workforce, genetic engineering, identity theft, cougars and an economy and culture largely guided by Big Data and related algorithms. It is one of the most prescient works of speculative fiction ever written.

In The Shockwave Rider, smart people adopt various online personas in part to elude the government surveillance state. They also take pharmaceuticals to help them cope in a world of continuous change.

Stranger In A Strange Land

The many works of Robert Heinlein have inspired at least two generations to unleash their inner geeks, hone their tech skills, and to focus less on the business side of things than on where real change happens: in the basement or in the garage, where all the equipment is.

Heinlein’s works laud tinkering, inventing and science. His novels, no matter how speculative, were always well-grounded in science. As a forerunner of the soft libertarianism that pervades Silicon Valley, Heinlein was always ready to challenge the standards of his day, and clearly favored individual liberty over all else.

Stranger in a Strange Land (1961) is one of Heinlein’s most popular works. The protagonist, Valentine Michael Smith, is quite literally an outsider: the son of astronauts, raised by Martians, he possesses psychic and teleportation abilities – along with highly provocative views on sex, religion, relationships, and those who control government and religion. This book is also where we get the word “grok” from. Go for the uncut version.

The Fountains of Paradise

In 1979, Arthur C. Clarke wrote this novel about the construction of a space elevator using “hyperfilament.” Instead of using rockets, payloads and people – including space tourists – could take the space elevator up to a satellite in geostationary orbit. The plan succeeds despite a man-made hurricane from a hijacked weather-control satellite, which destroys the Earth base station. 

Clarke was never one to shy away from suggesting how his visions could actually be realized during or shortly after his lifetime. Since its publication, NASA has repeatedly discussed Clarke’s concept, and a successful Kickstarter project from last year is exploring the feasibility of a limited space elevator.

Hyperion

In 1989, Dan Simmons released Hyperion. High school geeks have never stopped devouring it. Though set in the 28th century, core elements of the world Hyperion envisions – including instant interstellar space travel, AI, galaxy-spanning connectivity, and implants that alter body, mind and emotions – will arise sooner than later. At MIT and Google, NASA and Genentech, for example, geek readers are already working on technologies that connect man and machine, that link the human brain with computing, and which may propel humanity beyond the solar system.

A dense, literary work, Hyperion deftly takes the reader on a journey through time, space and almost-magical worlds (possibly insufficiently distinguishable from advanced technology) via a plot that mirrors the The Canterbury Tales of the 14th century.

Humanity has spread across the galaxy thanks to the creation of instant interstellar travel via “farcaster” – think Star Trek’s transporter with unlimited distance and without the messy de-materialization. As with a fully connected Earth, a connected galaxy profoundly alters the economy and shifts power to those most capable of manipulating and managing technology – the TechnoCore.

Prominent in the book is the Shrike, a deadly humanoid-like creature that appears across the various stories within the story, and may remind geek movie action fans of Predator.

I, Robot

Is there any programmer in Silicon Valley – or anywhere, possibly – that has not memorized Isaac Asimov’s “three laws of robotics?”  Asimov’s work takes place in the 21st century, and intelligent robots are everywhere, taught to value human life above all else.

Engineering students that have read I, Robot over the past 60+ years have come surprisingly close to achieving Asimov’s vision. The “positronic brain” is, in our world, the microprocessor – which continues to advance. Great strides have been made in artificial intelligence, even if in forms not imagined by Asimov. Robots – as pets, vaccuum cleaners and autoshop welders – do surround us, albeit rarely in human form.

A collection of related short stories, I, Robot not only correctly scouted out much of the present that surrounds us today it inspired geeks to create it. See, for instance, the rescue robots battling it out in DARPA’s virtual robotics challenge.

And although Asimov wrote these stories in America in the 1950s, they feature the extremely smart Dr. Susan Calvin, expert in physics, cybernetics and psychology.

Cryptonomicon

While not as fun as Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson’s 1999 novel Cryptonomicon inspired readers to explore the opportunities presented by complex maths, coding, cryptography – and erasing one’s digital footprints.

Its heroes are World War II codebreakers and, in an overlapping story, 1990s computer programmer entrepreneurs. The 1990s team takes advantage of outside funding, brings together a group of savvy computer, telecom and math experts – and start-up veterans – and works to build a global digital currency. In the world of Cryptonomicon, it’s always better if you were smart and tech-savvy.

Cryptonomicon is a long work, filled with codes, ciphers, scripting, multiple characters – some of them historical figures – and the challenges of tackling major computing problems under incredible time restrictions. Geeks, hackers and engineer-entrepreneurs are revealed to be not only cool, but even world-saving.

Great Books Remain

When Amazon’s Kindle was released, Steve Jobs scoffed at the very idea of it:

It doesn’t matter how good or bad the product is, the fact is that people don’t read anymore.  

Wrong. Geeks read. The do-ers, the hackers, those boys and girls who stumble upon a great novel and know, from that very day, that it will always leave a mark.

No doubt, great works such as those by Connie Willis will be rediscovered by a new generation of budding geeks, via Kindle or in whatever format they are distributed. More recent works, from the Harry Potter series, to the accessible and referential works of John Scalzi, to Jo Walton and her alternate world fantasies, will likewise come to influence generations of smart, determined world-builders.

The post 7 Great Works That Inspired Geeks To Change The World appeared first on ReadWrite.

No one can accuse Google of not thinking big. Project Loon, Google’s audacious “moonshot” vision to bring mobile Internet connectivity to the billions without – via balloons – is one of the company’s biggest ideas ever. It’s madness, but it just might work. 

Considering the uniqueness of the idea, its use of old technology, and the potential impact it will have should Google succeed, you no doubt have questions. Here is a handy Q&A guide to help you understand Project Loon.

Balloons? Really?

Yes, really. The balloons are made of polyethylene plastic. They are approximately 15 meters in diameter and the entire apparatus is about 12 meters tall. Each balloon is powered via solar panels. 

The balloons will float along the winds in the stratosphere, approximately 20km above the surface. At such a distance, they cannot be seen with the naked eye. Each balloon is equipped with transceivers to communicate with nearby balloons and with a regional ground station and the specialized antenna Google developed to receive the signal.  

While only 30 test balloons were used at launch, Google expects far more floating in the sky should this project prove viable. Google says the balloons will provide mobile data connectivity equivalent to today’s 3G speeds, or possibly greater. 

How Does It Work?

Each balloon is networked to one another with a radio transceiver as in a mesh, designed to ensure signal reliability. A second transceiver keeps the balloon in contact with a network station on the ground and beams an Internet signal to specialized antennas that can be placed on homes, much like a very small satellite TV receiver.

There is also a back-up transceiver and a GPS on each balloon, so Google can monitor a balloon’s location. And each balloon will carry weather instruments, too.

Is This Just A Publicity Stunt?

Unlikely. Driverless cars seemed like a publicity stunt, as did Glass. Google has a way of surprising people with both the scope of their vision and its willingness to push it into reality. From the Project Loon announcement: 

We believe that it might actually be possible to build a ring of balloons, flying around the globe on the stratospheric winds, that provides Internet access to the earth below. It’s very early days, but we’ve built a system that uses balloons, carried by the wind at altitudes twice as high as commercial planes, to beam Internet access to the ground at speeds similar to today’s 3G networks or faster. As a result, we hope balloons could become an option for connecting rural, remote, and underserved areas, and for helping with communications after natural disasters.

That said, Google also states that “this is still highly experimental technology and we have a long way to go.” 

What Will Project Loon Be Used For?

According to Google, for 2 out of every 3 people on Earth, “a fast, affordable Internet connection is still out of reach.” Project Loon is an early, inspiring attempt to deliver reliable connectivity to those areas where it does not exist or is prohibitively expensive – the Southern Hempishere, in particular.

Google also mentions the ability to deliver communications using its balloons following natural disasters. Disasters such as Hurricane Sandy, which devastated Haiti last year before striking the U.S. East Coast, can cripple a region’s communications infrastructure for an extended period. Loon could potentially serve as a helpful backup grid.

Is This Just A Plot To Sell More Ads?

Maybe. But does it matter?

Of course, nearly all Google’s revenues come from advertisements posted onto connected screens large and small. The more people connected, the more advertisements. Google wins. This is its bold project, after all.  

The Tech

Google has been tight-lipped regarding exactly how this will all work. Project Loon technology includes, at minimum, the balloons, transceivers, terrestrial control equipment, on-board battery, solar panels and GPS, network monitoring equipment and terrestrial antennas that connect to Project Loon balloons. (These earthbound antennas resemble – you guessed it – red balloons; one is pictured at left – or above if you’re on a mobile device.)

The company has suggested that at this early stage, humans will be needed to monitor the system and individual balloons. This is a problem Google hopes to eventually resolve using “complex algorithms and lots of computing power.” 

Won’t The Balloons Float Away?

Yes! Only not much as you might suspect. Google claims to have “figured out” how to control the balloons by moving them up or down into the desired band of wind in the stratosphere, though it didn’t specify how, exactly.

The stratospheric winds and temperatures should presumably not present a hazard problem for the balloons or equipment. 

Should Google really ramp up this project to the point where it involves hundreds or even thousands of balloons, controlling the entire system will pose some pretty complex challenges. Do not be surprised to one day read a story about a Loon balloon landing on some farm in South America, for example.

Is This A Google X Project?

Yes, and it certainly seems like Google X is about the coolest place to work for in all of tech. The company states that Project Loon is just its latest “moonshot” effort.

Has This Been Tried in the Real World?

Yes. Google ran its first public test last weekend, in New Zealand, sending 30 balloons into the sky and offering 60 lucky volunteers 15 minutes of balloon-based Internet access. Smaller, private tests were conducted in California and possibly elsewhere.

The company says that “over time” it intends to set up similar pilots in countries with the same latitude as New Zealand (40th parallel south). It hasn’t provided any timeline for these pilots.

How Much Does All This Cost?

You won’t be surprised to learn that Google hasn’t specified what spent on this project, nor how much it intends to spend. Neither has the company offered any cost data for any of the equipment used or any indication of how many of its own employees are Loonies. All this is par for the course for Google.

As for (eventual) end users, it seems reasonable to assume that Google plans to deliver Internet connectivity expects its solution to ultimately cost less than satellite-delivered Internet, or be scrapped.

Ultimately, the costs may prove worth it. As my ReadWrite colleague Matt Asay noted in April:

Google is giving away hugely expensive fiber-based Internet access (in the U.S.), but not because it’s a charity. Google knows that the more people that spend time online, the more likely they will spend money with Google.

Will The Balloons Crash?

Each balloon is made of rugged polyethylene plastic. They use solar power to help remain aloft. The balloons float in the stratosphere, above rain and commercial aircraft, for example, and far below satellites.

Of course they will crash.

Google says each balloon includes a parachute to ensure a more controlled landing – not a crash, per se. The company adds that the balloons are designed to stay aloft for “100+ days.”

When a balloon is known to have reached its end of life or needs repair, controllers can arrange an orderly descent. Google has plans for designated Loon balloon collection points. Google has also suggested that the balloons and equipment on board can be re-used and recycled.

Google will notify the appropriate authorities, such as air traffic controllers, during both launch and descent. 

Where Can I Get Updates?

Project Loon has its own Google+ page. 

Wait. Are the Skies Open? 

Not, especially. There are many rules regarding airspace and who controls it, and also disagreements as to how far (up) such control extends.

Floating in the stratosphere means that almost certainly, Google will always be required to seek permission from any government whose airspace the balloons float into. In addition, while this project uses unlicensed spectrum, there’s no guarantee that will always be the case.

Luckily for Google, approximately 70,000 weather balloons are launched every year, which may mitigate some, though not all, of the legal and regulatory issues.

Can I Get Balloon Powered Internet?

If you are reading this, then probably not. This solution is not intended for you. As Google states:

There are many terrestrial challenges to Internet connectivity—jungles, archipelagos, mountains. There are also major cost challenges. Right now, for example, in most of the countries in the southern hemisphere, the cost of an Internet connection is more than a month’s income.

Given that Google can control the positioning of the balloons, it could – in theory – bring Loon to areas that have suffered connectivity outages following a disaster or conflict, for example.

Will This Be Another Failed Last Mile Solution?

We’ll see. As Google notes, most people don’t have affordable and reliable 3G-like access. This is obviously a difficult problem to solve.

Google has been working on delivering wireless connectivity using “white spaces” – publicly available radio spectrum – since at least 2010. Microsoft has just announced it’s joining a multi-organization effort to bring white spaces connectivity to underserved areas (such as rural communities) in Europe. Typically, such efforts function similar to today’s cellular networks – and most certainly do not use balloons. 

Many efforts to bring WiMax, a high-speed wireless service for more densely populated areas, were clear failures, despite early hype. Similarly, satellite-delivered Internet, which has succeeded for many, continues to remain relatively expensive and fraught with issues such as line-of-sight, visibility, and cost.

Google has said that, at minimum, balloons offer the potential for widespread, affordable Internet access. And that’s clearly a big part of the company’s mission when you consider Project Loon, the company’s other white spaces efforts and its Google FIber business in the U.S. True, it’s also a self-interested mission. But that doesn’t mean it’s not a good thing.

Images via Google Project Loon

The post A Handy Guide To Google’s Project Loon appeared first on ReadWrite.

iOS 7 is a truly audacious redesign of Apple’s chief operating system. I have been using the beta version since last week and it’s abundantly clear that Apple is determinedly focused on ensuring that iOS—the software underpinnings of the iPhone and iPad—remains the simplest, purest OS on the planet. 

It’s also obvious that the new iOS 7 design and enhanced functionality will kill off many non-Apple apps, including some good ones.

See also How Apple’s iOS 7 Changes Everything For App Designers

A Jarring Experience

For long-time iPhone users, the new design is jarring. Everything about the light, sparing iOS 7 looks different from its predecessors—fonts, colors and iconography, especially. There is also an updated browser, a slate of redesigned default apps, new swiping functions and more robust notifications. This all takes some getting used to.

Once mastered, however, it soon becomes obvious which apps will be made irrelevant thanks to iOS 7.  

For example, the new “Control Center,” which is available with a swipe up from the bottom of the screen, includes a flashlight. There is no longer any need for that long-kept Flashlight app of yours. Similarly, managing Wi-Fi connections via the Control Center is a breeze. Those few of you with Wi-Fi location apps can now delete them. 

I am unaware of anyone who actually uses Bump. No matter, iOS 7 negates the need for the app, as a new “AirDrop” feature wirelessly sends files to nearby iOS 7 users.

It’s intriguing to consider what might come from iPhone to iPhone AirDrop use, everything from instantly sharing music and videos, for example, to a clever new take on the “hot potato” game. Such opportunities notwithstanding, Control Center and its wireless sharing features, including AirDrop and AirPlay, will likely draw first blood against several minor app stalwarts.  

iTunes Radio Will Be Big

With iTunes Radio, it will now be much easier to buy and download a song you like the moment you hear it. You may not view this as a win, but make no mistake, iTunes Radio will be a winner. For those tens of millions of iOS users not currently using a music streaming service, iTunes Radio is the perfect entry point: it’s available through the “Music” app, is simple to operate and costs nothing.

iTunes Radio should choke off all but the very best, most-entrenched streaming music competitors. If you already have Pandora or a similar service with which you are pleased, Apple has given you no reason to switch to their ad-supported offering. With Pandora, for example, it’s slightly easier to create new radio stations, far easier to share with the world what tracks you are listening to and its enhanced features, such as liner notes, are missing in iTunes Radio. But, Apple’s newest offering is more than good enough to take on other streaming services, especially for undecided or uninitiated users.

The Browser Wars Are Over

Apple’s mobile Safari has always been the default browser in iOS devices. This meant there was little opportunity for competing browsers on the platform, even top-notch ones like Google Chrome. Now, however, there’s even less reason to seek out alternatives. The minimal design of iOS 7 makes for a fuller, more pleasing browsing experience, with more of the webpage visible.

The new design makes it very easy to bookmark a site, to share a post or designate it for later reading. Search is built into the nav-bar and the new cover flow-like tabbed browsing makes switching across sites easier than ever. It’s hard to expect the vast majority of users will opt for something different.

Weather Is Lovely

Apple has never allowed users to delete their abysmal default Weather app. This has always been egregiously anti-user. But with iOS 7, users now have little need to seek out alternatives.

The redesigned weather app is so clear, intuitive and attractive that it should suffice for most users. While not as functional as many of the paid alternatives, presentation and ease of use likely mean that far fewer users will seek out a non-Apple solution.

Legit Google Now Alternative

Apple’s new Notification Center is likely to impact the reach of Google Now, Google’s well-designed and popular “virtual assistant.” Now delivers timely, personalized information such as today’s weather and traffic in “cards” to users of the Google app.

iOS 7 does not offer a better alternative to Google Now. But, it will offer a decent solution that is built-in. Apple’s notification center delivers similar information to Now’s—such as stocks, weather, reminders and appointments—directly onto the lock screen. It is somewhat ugly and ungainly, though useful, and I suspect few users—of the several hundred million who use iOS today—will bother with Google’s non-native app, even if it is a superior offering.

Default Apps Are Barely Acceptable

This same issue runs through many of Apple’s default apps—they’re just good enough, and that’s more than enough. It’s one of the unspoken benefits of controlling your hardware and ecosystem.

Most of Apple’s redesigned apps, such as Reminders and Calendar, are so poorly constructed or so plainly ugly—such as Notes—that on any level playing field, popular alternatives for these would be under no threat whatsoever. This is not a level playing field, however. 

To be fair, the obvious failings of the default apps are likely due from the pitfalls that arise from a tightly constructed user interface.

Where the new iOS design fails is when a great deal of information must be presented within a single space, such as the seemingly simple reminder app. Date, place, time, alerts and notes must all be brought to the fore to create a single reminder. The pale, minimalistic new design template has a hard time supporting this.

Where iOS 7’s design template soars is when the interactive layer falls away, such as when watching a video. Controls disappear when you want and when you do need them, they are obvious but unobtrusive.

Instagram is Safe, Flickr is Better Off, Camera Apps Beware

I was not expecting the many changes to Camera nor the additional Photos sharing and reviewing functions.

With Camera, controls are simpler, and a new set of filters and editing tools have been added. Photos now (semi-automatically) organizes pictures into various “collections”—by place and time. It’s hard to predict how these changes will impact competing photo services.

But for all these changes, existing services will weather the additions well. Instagram, for example, is built upon a massive user base, so nothing in iOS 7 should threaten that. Flickr is a popular photo sharing and archiving service. With iOS 7, it’s now even easier to share photos with Flickr, Facebook and other services. I expect these social platforms to witness a boom in photo/video uploads.

Developers of camera apps are threatened, however. Filters and a panoramic feature are embedded in the new iOS camera,  with attractive controls and a camera function that can even be accessed via the Control Center. iOS 7 will make it harder to justify paying money for any but the very best camera apps.

Mail: Return To Sender

Apple’s default Mail app is slightly improved. The minimal design and new iconography offer a larger work space. A simple swipe makes it easy to trash or archive an email. It may be the best of Apple’s standard default apps. That said, there’s no great improvement here. 

For those that have found a better alternative under iOS 6, they will likely retain their allegiance.

Siri Ready To Fight Google Voice Search

Like the Now service, Google’s voice search is superior to Apple’s Siri offering. For many iOS users, however, Apple’s pre-loaded Siri has been good enough. Also, Siri is available at the touch of a button, from anywhere within the iOS experience. Not so the Google app and its handy voice search function.

And Siri has improved. Information is more pleasantly displayed and Apple has reportedly integrated Bing and Wikipedia to ensure better results. In my tests, Siri was slower to respond than in iOS 6 but I am going to assume this is because iOS 7 is still in beta.

Long Live the App 

Many apps and some popular services will be killed off or marginalized by Apple’s latest moves. However, I expect in total the app ecosystem will witness significant growth and innovation based on iOS 7’s many design, hardware and presentation changes.

The app will not die, but thrive, under iOS 7. But that doesn’t mean some existing apps won’t suffer through Apple’s iOS changes.

The post Radical iOS 7 Design Is Threat To Some Existing Apps appeared first on ReadWrite.

Crowdsourced advertising platforms – some with Silicon Valley backing – are sprouting up to liberate untapped talent from around the world and remake television (and video) advertising. Companies such as Tongal, Zooppa, Poptent and others are tapping the crowd for talent and hoping to leverage social media’s expanding reach and real-time impact to strengthen ties between products and people. 

Can you tell who made the Dannon yogurt commercial below starring John Stamos? It aired during last year’s Super Bowl:

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In fact, the ad was created by Remy and Andrew Neymarc, a pair of twenty-something brothers raised in France and possessing no formal video training. Their concept was chosen amongst thousands via the crowdsource advertising platform Poptent.

The crowd is seizing control.

Talent is Everywhere

College students – think Michael Dell and Mark Zuckerberg – can launch highly disruptive multi-billion dollar businesses right from their dorm room. But can they direct? Can they create mega-popular, award-winning television advertisements for global brands? The answer is a resounding yes. Ideas can come from anywhere, and talent resides everywhere. 

The commercial below, for example, is the direct result of crowd participation. The original idea for the ad and then, later, the finished commercial, were selected from entries by creators – some professional, many amateur – around the world.

Crowdsourced participation in the traditional world of television advertising is a big deal. The global advertising market has an estimated value in excess of half a trillion dollars. In a world of tablets and “second screens,” DVRs and YouTube, television still grabs the majority of this bounty.

This is in large part because viewers place a higher level of trust in television advertisements. Even in the second decade of the 21st century, television ads influence viewers far more than most other forms. Yes, this is also true for tech-savvy teens and young adults.

Television Advertising In A Multi-Screen World

Television may command a disproportionate share of trust and influence among advertising media, but each new advertising channel – your Twitter feed, or your smartphone screen, for example – has the potential to distract once faithful viewers.

It’s also now much harder for brands to develop and distribute a consistent message across these multiple channels, screens and media platforms. What works on the television screen may do nothing for someone updating their Facebook page on their iPhone. Multiple ads with varying sensibilities are thus required even for a single brand or product. This has forced advertisers to seek out new talent and new avenues for promotion.

Kurt Lohse is marketing director for Poptent, a social media platform that links brands looking for advertising with freelancers from around the world. The 65,000 independent filmmakers registered with Poptent, he told me, “run the gamut from boutique ad agencies to film school students with basic training.”

In a multi-screen world, well-made video content remains one of the most effective sales tools available, and demand continues to grow as the range of possible media outlets expands. Think “Super Bowl commercials to viral videos, web videos and everything in between,” as Lohse puts it.

In this new world, big brands need the crowd just to meet demand.

The Crowd Wants What The Crowd Wants

With more screens, more channels and more media platforms, it’s also become much harder for advertisers to deeply connect with every group or demographic. The top-down model no longer works. Asking a crowd to create an ad is much more likely to result in something that resonates with, well, that specific crowd. 

PepsiCo, which owns a number of food brands, including Doritos, has done just that in order to appeal to multiple demographics, particularly younger ones. In this case, the rather odd crowdsourced advertisement featuring a goat ultimately made it into the company’s Super Bowl ad blitz. 

Big brands use the crowd not just for ideas, talent and inspiration, but to help generate brand awareness – even at the ad concept stage.

Pizza Hut, for example, encouraged football fans to submit videos incorporating the idea of quarterbacks shouting “hut” to hike the ball. Along with many great entries received, the campaign itself was a clever means of increasing brand awareness long before any finished advertisement even made it onto the television screen.

While Pizza Hut selected the finalists in its crowdsourced challenge, a popular vote was used to decide which ad made it to the Super Bowl.

Deconstructing the Advertisement

Whereas companies like Poptent have created a platform that connects global talent with big brands, Tongal has taken the crowdsourcing model one step further – by deconstructing the advertisement into its constituent parts.

For example, I may have the perfect idea for the next great iPhone commercial. 

Note: Idea for next great iPhone ad: a virtual 3D Steve Jobs and Tupac Shakur share iTunes Radio playlists and wisdom as they are seated cross-legged on a barren desert.

Problem: I have absolutely no filming talent. Using Tongal’s platform, big brands offer “challenge rewards” not only for fully edited video advertisements, but for ideas for commercials. 

Tongal president and co-founder, James DeJulio, told me that this new model will permanently disrupt how television advertising gets made:

So many talented people have until now had little access to do really creative work. In Hollywood, for example, every studio relies on the same ten names for every action. (Crowdsourcing) rearranges the labor market for creative work.

Tongal has received $15 million in venture capital funding. The company works with popular brands by crafting an advertising “challenge.” First, is the idea challenge – anyone can submit a idea for the brand’s next commercial. The crowd – at least, those registered on the Tongal site – can submit and/or vote on these ideas. The most popular ones are then awarded a cash prize of, say, $500.

Video artists can then craft an advertisement based on the top five most popular ideas, for example. Again, these videos are voted on and the winner receives, say, $25,000. In addition, each winning participant across the challenge’s several stages has a chance for an additional slice of the reward pool. If the second most popular “idea” is ultimately used in the winning video, for example, the person with that idea receives an additional reward.

The entire process, from creating the challenge, generating ideas, and developing a finished advertisement takes about 8 weeks – far faster than the traditional model. Throughout the process the challenge is simultaneously being aggressively promoted on Twitter and Facebook. 

DeJulio estimates that “easily 10-20% of all television advertising over the next few years” will be based on a crowdsourced model. That’s tens of billions of dollars.

Surprisingly, money is not the driving factor for many participants. “More money typically equals better participation,” says DeJulio, but this is not always the case. The more people that use a product, such as a toothbrush or deodorant, the more likely it is that more and better ideas are generated via the crowd. This is doubly so, he suggests, for products that have a rabid fan base – for instance, women’s shoes.

A Whole New World

The rapid advancement of low-cost HD video tools, steady cams, and professional editing software, combined with globally accessible social media platforms which aggregate and empower the crowd, are finally disrupting the insular, highly profitable television advertising business.

Lego, Pringles, Axe, Pepsi, Nokia, and numerous others now rely upon crowdsourcing to generate ideas and foster new talent. Everyone wins. Big brands get a great commercial, possibly at a much lower price, and far faster than ever before. At the same time, talented folks from around the world have a chance to build a career in a new industry. Teens such as Zach Boivin have already earned thousands. 

Consider this advertising challenge linking Pringles and Star Wars. It yielded thousands of fan-generated entries, such as the one below.

The winner, to be selected later this month, will receive a $25,000 fee, and the winning ad will be shown on national TV. 

The post The New Mad Men Of Advertising Are… Everywhere appeared first on ReadWrite.

Pinterest is one of the most popular social media networks on the planet, yet for many men it remains a profound mystery. So I decided it was time to see what was really going on over there. 

First, the general perception that Pinterest is a largely female domain is not wrong. The vast majority of Pinterest users are indeed women, as the Nielsen Report chart below reveals. In fact, men are more likely to have a MySpace account than a Pinterest account. 

What Pinterest Really Is

While Pinterest describes itself as “a tool for collecting and organizing things you love,” it’s best to think of the site as mash-up of scrapbook, photo album, middle school art-class collage and that old shoe box stuffed with mementos you store in the back of a closet. If Pinterest were a magazine, I suspect it would be kept very close to a toilet. 

Except that Pinterest is all-digital, always accessible and highly personalized. 

This is how it works: you digitally “pin” various items – pictures, links, memories, ideas, collections, products you want to buy – onto digital “boards.” Pin as many items to your boards as you wish, create as many boards as you like on just about any topic imaginable: cars, technology, tattooed women.

The site makes pinning a snap, although does itself no favors by populating its instructions with such gentle reminders as “pinning things that express who you really are and what you really like is more important than getting lots of followers.”

Does any man think like that?  

One Man’s Life On Pinterest

Nonetheless, I jumped in, eager to explore an area of the web traversed by millions. After all, I like collecting “things” – even if I’m not sold on organizing them.

Be warned. Like loud, overly-pleasant chimes on the door handle of some gift shop on Main Street, the site makes it clear that all eyes are upon you the moment you enter.  

Pinterest encourages you to use your Facebook ID at sign-up, and then aggressively reminds you which of your friends or followers are already Pinning away. It also persistently beckons you to share everything you pin with everyone you know. I ignored these distractions, still embarrassed I was there at all, and just kept moving deeper inside.

Show Me The Money

Forget the gender thing. Perhaps most shocking to me about Pinterest is that it has received a staggering $338 million in funding – along with a $2.5 billion valuation! My journeys on Pinterest helped reveal why the site is so highly valued. The business opportunities are obvious, and an entire marketing ecosystem is springing up, with retailers eyeing “every pin on Pinterest as a distribution opportunity for our customer brands.”

Users “serendipitously” discovering retailer’s products to pin and later purchase is just one of many planned paths to monetize the site’s large user base and massive data stores. It may be the biggest one, however. According to the Wall Street Journal, referral traffic from Pinterest far exceeds that from Facebook and Twitter.

Nonetheless, some men are there, and for good reason. There is much on Pinterest for everyone to like. All it took to discover this truth was for me to embrace my inner grandmother.

When you find something you wish to pin – yes, it is a needlessly delicate word – Pinterest encourages you to “ like” it. Fortunately, this is not required. Just find items you like, products you need, and pin them onto the board of your choice. Pinterest displays each item in a visually pleasing grid that beckons exploration. The site also offers a set of apps, widgets, a bookmarklet service and other features to ensure there is nearly nothing on the Web that cannot be pinned. Soon, like me, you will have several boards filled with favored items; everything from pictures of Italian sportscars and women in cat outfits, to faded Three Stooges posters I need to convince my wife to let me buy.

Less Shopping, More Discovery

My initial view of Pinterest was that the site was a digital scrapbook for older women with plenty of time on their hands, and a sort of catalog wish-book for younger women whose dreams are, at present, larger than their bank balance. Turns out, this is absolutely correct – only it represents just a portion of what Pinterest is all about. Don’t think of Pinterest as a shopping site, per se. Rather, it’s a set of tools for visual – not textual, aural or location-based – online discovery.

When viewed this way, I have yet to reach the site’s limits. For example, I like World War 1 posters. In the Pinterest search box, I typed in “WW1 Posters.” Instantly, I was presented with many juicy finds.

I clicked on a favorite and discovered it was an Australian WW1 Poster. I added it to my newly created “Posters Board.” Pinterest, not surprisingly, encouraged me to share my newest find on Facebook. I declined. However, it also told me how many others had pinned the very same item, making it easy for me to explore those user’s various boards and pins. 

My excitement was soon tempered, however. Exploring other people’s boards can get a bit overwhelming – like shopping for Christmas presents on Black Friday. I returned to the board where I first discovered the old poster. I clicked the “website” link and was taken directly to a vintage posters shop – still more great stuff to collect, and still another unplanned time sink.

Later still, I returned to Pinterest and clicked on the profile of the user – a man – who had originally pinned the poster. He had numerous pinned items scattered across several boards: food, television programs, travel destinations. I decided to follow him and clicked on several of his other pinned items. 

Then I discovered a potential problem with the site – serendipitous discovery be damned.

Pinned items very often do not take you back to the originating source. A pinned photo of, say, a gorgeous white sandy beach may lead not to a travel site, for example, but to a Tumblr of patio furniture. This seems like a definite snag in the company’s plans to generate billions in profits. Of course, that’s its problem, not mine. 

Will I Keep Pinning?

Pinterest is very visual: It looks good on PCs and even better on touchscreens. And it’s a snap to use. It’s so easy to pin, in fact, that I can’t stop.

No worries. Thanks to Pinterest I quickly found others who had pinned the same items I was interested in. In a very big, busy, and densely populated world, I had, yes, serendipitously, discovered people who shared a very uncommon interest with me. 

Which is still the very best part of the Web.

The post Pinterest: One Man’s Surprising Journey appeared first on ReadWrite.

Americans watch about 40 hours of television every single week. Even in the Internet Age, television remains a cultural force, a unifying voice and quite possibly our chief storyteller. Do not view this as bad. A number of television programs over the decades have not only been great, but inspirational for viewers to become that which was once mocked: geeks. Several, in fact, have inspired our nation’s children to liberate their inner geekiness and dare to change the world.

Here are the 10 television shows that I think have most inspired generations of geeks. Not all are about computers or rockets, nor space travel or science. But all possess a common theme. Being smart, passionate, dedicated, hands-on and driven are qualities to be celebrated. 

10. Lost in Space

From the opening notes of the show’s theme song, it was clear: danger and adventure was at hand. Lost in Space was campy, no doubt, and laughably wrong about so much. All its faults can be forgiven, however. It’s best qualities were the stuff of dreams: traveling the galaxy was the norm, interacting with aliens to be expected, working alongside robots a part of everyday life. Even better: mom and dad and all the children were super-smart and highly capable. It went off the air before most of you were even alive.

9. Top Gear

Exceedingly British, preternaturally opposed to even great America cars, and their are many, Top Gear celebrates automobiles, engines, and learning by doing – in the most audacious, outrageous and ballsy challenges imaginable.

8. The X-Files

The truth is out there. Now go find it. This smart mystery-science fiction-thriller series never pandered, even while hunting down alien life forms in middle America. The X-Files spawned intense, volumnious online discussions, a decade-plus before Twitter arrived.

7. Futurama

The show that refuses to die – like Star Trek, which inspired it. Futurama taught America, once again, that animated shows can be smart, clever, provocative and fun. Space, time travel, genetic mutations, immortality, parallel universes – not to mention ridiculously amusing future inventions – are all topics for dissection. Your children love this.

6. Mythbusters

Is there anything more ‘geek’ than proving common wisdom wrong? Mythbusters gleefully takes on sacred cows and forces them up against the unwavering, un-feeling hegemony that is science. Plus, they blow stuff up.

5. Doctor Who

I’m American. I don’t get Dr. Who. And, honestly, Daleks seem ridiculous. Nonetheless, scientists, computer geeks and all the smartest kids have found awe and inspiration from this long-running British science fiction and fantasy series. It’s about time travel, space travel, aliens – and that rather deep reservoir of cleverness and mechanical aptitude that Brits seem to possess. 

4. Prisoners of Gravity

This ultra-low-budget Canadian television show may be the most geeky of all. Frustrated with the world, a man builds his own rocket, takes refuge on a orbiting satellite and spends all his time interviewing the most extraordinarily talented men and women of science… fiction and comics. “Dr. Rick” celebrates the creators, the visionaries, the builders of worlds – those who light a path to our future. 

3. Star Trek: The Next Generation

Building on the vision of the original Star Trek, ST:TNG otherwise boldly went where no one had gone before, its super-smart, exceedingly brave crew of men, women and children traversing solar systems, visiting alien worlds, fighting Borg, sacrificing their lives for their ideals and always always always putting their computer and engineering skills to the ultimate test. Space may not be the final frontier, but it absolutely inspires the best in all of us.

2. The Big Bang Theory

The most popular show on the list – and the most un-geek, truth be told. If not for the great geek shows of the past, however, the very shows which challenged us every week to think big and dream bigger, this comedy about misfit scientists trapped on present-day Earth likely never would have seen the light of day.

1. Star Trek

Could it possibly be any other show? Kirk. Spock. Scotty. Bones. Uhura. Chekov. Sulu. You know them and they matter deeply to you. More than any other television program, possibly more than any other work of fiction, Star Trek inspired you to believe in yourself, believe in a greater good, a better future, and work toward making it so.

Would there be iPhones without tricorders? SETI without Starfleet? Space shuttles without Gene Roddenberry? Star Trek has not simply inspired a generation of geeks, but several generations.

There were many great programs that did not make it into my list of ten. The Office, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Twilight Zone, Lost and many more. Add your suggestions in the comments section below.

The post 10 TV Shows That Really Inspired Geeks appeared first on ReadWrite.

The high-profile documentaryWe Steal Secrets:The Story of Wikileaks expanded into wider release in theaters and video-on-demand on Friday. Which would seem to be fortuitous timing, given this week’s revelations that the NSA has been rifling through email and personal documents stored by Internet giants like Google and Apple and collecting months of call-related data from Verizon.

And yet We Steal Secrets, which sets out to show how the post-9/11 American security state collided with the rise of global connectivity and social media, regrettably fails to probe what it all means. The documentary, directed by the undeniably talented (and Oscar-winning) Alex Gibney, doesn’t even bother to ask – much less answer – the biggest questions raised by the entire Wikileaks saga, such as:

• When does purportedly protective surveillance overreach, threatening personal privacy and constitutional protections?
• Is the U.S. safer because of Wikileaks? Or more democratic?
• Is it even possible to keep state secrets anymore?
• Where should we draw the line between government transparency and legitimate security?

Instead, We Steal Secrets devotes an inordinate amount of time to Assange himself – in particular, to the sexual assault allegations lodged against him in Sweden. (Those formed the basis for an extradition warrant that forced Assange to seek refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, where he’s now lived for more than a year.) Such charges are, of course, serious in their own right. But in the context of this film, they amount to a distraction from the much bigger issues at stake.

People, Not Machines

The film traces the creation of the Wikileaks site, focusing primarily on Assange’s troubled past and conflicted present. It then quickly touches on several of Wikileaks’ greatest hits – the so-called “collateral murder” video from Iraq, the release of State Department diplomatic cables spanning decades, and leaked documents from the financial industry following the 2008 financial collapse.

The prim, arrogant, self-serving Assange, as the film depicts him, was the right person at the right time to seize upon the opportunities presented by a new world, one in which everything is online and therefore accessible. Wikileaks was a audacious, highly visible attempt to encourage the uncovering and exposure of long-guarded secrets inside the halls of established power, both government and corporate.

Unexpectedly, the long-running U.S. war in Iraq provided Assange with just the opportunity he needed – in particular, when a tormented Army private named Bradley Manning enters the story. Portrayed as a mostly tragic, slightly heroic figure, Manning served unhappily in Iraq, tormented by his objections to the war and his own uncertainty about his sexual identity.

He was assigned the job of “intelligence analyst” and given near-unfettered access to shocking amounts of rather shocking military data. Which he then proceeded to hand over to Wikileaks, at least until he was arrested a few months later after an online “buddy” he’d confided in turned him in. (Manning’s espionage trial, by the way, also started this week.)

Manning’s story demands to take center stage, but unfortunately, the film fails to deliver. Wikileaks was as much a vehicle for Manning as it was the instigator of his deeds. A young man who seemed to have lived his entire life utterly unsure of his identity sought to define himself through a singular stunning act. For good or ill, he succeeded.

Sadly, all this is underplayed in We Steal Secrets.

Missed Opportunity

Meanwhile, the larger implications of Wikileaks and what it has wrought go largely unexplored. The documentary fails to give us the full story – or even a very good story – on Manning, government secrecy, the explosion of personal digitized data, the tension between security and privacy, or what all of that portends. 

We StealSecrets features war, leaks, terrorism, cover-ups, social media, identity crises, intrigue and an upending of traditional power structures. Yet after a well-paced introduction, it somehow barely manages to holds the viewer’s interest. Just one more sad, inexplicable failing in a saga replete with sad, inexplicable failings.

Images courtesy of We Steal Secrets: The Story of Wikileaks

The post Where ‘We Steal Secrets,’ The Wikileaks Film, Falls Short appeared first on ReadWrite.

Tim Cook and Apple may be constructing their “grand vision” for television but I’m not waiting, not even if Cook announces something awesome at the company’s WWDC next week. I’ve switched from Apple TV to Roku 3 and am happy I did. More options, more content, slightly better terms, a remote control that doesn’t feel like a cheap toy and, most surprisingly, an overall superior television experience.

Exiting The Walled Garden

Truth be told, until recently I was happy living inside Apple’s walled garden. Their cute, affordable Apple TV enabled me to access Netflix, Hulu+, YouTube and first-run content from iTunes.

Like all Apple products, Apple TV was amazingly easy to set-up. Even better, it played nice with my other Apple products: iPhone and iPad, in particular. Any content I rented on iPad, for example, could be accessed via Apple TV through the magic of Apple’s proprietary AirPlay feature.

AirPlay turns an Apple TV-connected television into a mirror screen for whatever is presented on my iPad or iPhone. It’s not limited to just iTunes content, for example. AirPlay let me beam my iPhone photo albums onto the big screen, or stream music from my iPod (app) to my television sound system with a simple tap.

AirPlay is further proof that controlling your hardware and ecosystem, as Apple does, can deliver unique, joyful customer benefits. Giving up AirPlay was tough, no doubt. All that iTunes content – several films and television shows – all now stored on my iPad, is inaccessible with my new Roku 3 device. Still, it’s been worth it. Not only do I have far more viewing options with Roku, I have already saved myself a tidy sum on iTunes “late” fees. 

No More Late Fees Ever!

For all its deserved credit for putting its users needs first, Apple nonetheless imposes a rather maddening 24-hour video rental limit on its iTunes content. If I start watching a movie, even a long one like The Hobbit, for example, I must finish it within a day or pony up another $3.99 rental fee. 

This isn’t just unfair, it’s likely to drive customers away – like me. After all, does Tim Cook even know why Netflix exists? Because its founder, Reed Hastings, got dinged with a $40 late fee. I’ve probably paid Apple more than that. 

At least Blockbuster – remember it? – had a reason for exhorbitant late fees. After all, rent a DVD from their store and it’s not available to anyone else. Not so in our magical, streaming, all-digital reality. If I rent The Hobbit from Apple’s iTunes, I am in no way limiting anyone else’s ability to watch the film. Apple even lets Canadians have 48 hours before igniting their virtual destruct button. Yes, I checked – it’s in the company’s rules. 

My dismay at having to pay an additional $3.99 to catch the final – unworthy – act of The Hobbit proved serendipitous. Roku is better. 

From iTunes To Amazon

The Roku 3 is available for the same price – $99 – and is about the same size of the Apple TV. Roku, however, has far more content viewing options available – the company claims over 750 “channels,” including Disney and HBO+. Roku is also easier to navigate, provides a better search function and, best of all, finally delivers Amazon Instant Video to my big screen.

Amazon Instant Video has content equivalent to iTunes, is just as easy to rent from, and, like Apple, offers a free iPhone/iPad app that makes it a snap to watch rented videos on my mobile device. Plus, for Amazon Prime members, like me, there is a great deal of video content that is available for free.

Even better: Amazon’s rental rules aren’t quite as restrictive as Apple’s. With Amazon, rentals expire in 24-48 hours. In my case, most of what I watched allowed me the full two days. Yes, including The Hobbit. More than once – as I tested this – some movies remained alive for 72 hours. Perhaps Amazon looks the other way?

The Little Differences Add Up

For both Roku 3 and Apple TV, there are no channels, per se. Rather, content is available from within various apps. To watch Netflix, for example, you select the app and browse their content. To watch Hulu+, select its app. There are, however, a few striking differences between the two platforms:

• iTunes, to no one’s surprise, is available only on Apple TV.
• YouTube, much to my surprise, is not available on Roku. At least, not in a standard, accessible app format.
• Roku has a clever “one stop” search function that scans across multiple apps. No more searching for a TV program inside each app to find out if it’s available.  
• Roku’s remote control app for iPhone is slightly better than Apple’s – in large part because Roku offers more content to choose from.
• In my personal tests, streaming over WiFi was slightly more reliable on Apple TV. 

Despite the loss of AirPlay, and the one-touch compatibility with my iPhone and iPad, I stand by my new choice. Roku is better.

Apple has allowed itself to be handily beaten by an upstart in an area that Tim Cook claims Apple is very interested in – control of the television and delivering premium digital content.

Perhaps instead of a “grand vision,” the company should focus on improving its existing offering.

Images courtesy of Apple Inc. and Roku. 

The post Why This Loyal Apple User Switched From Apple TV To Roku appeared first on ReadWrite.

There is no greater barometer on what people want than allowing them to be free to make a choice. When it comes to smartphones in the enterprise, that choice increasingly belongs to Apple.

The BYOD (“bring your own device”) trend continues to alter the personal computing landscape just as it upends traditional work boundaries and IT controls. The latest mobile security report from Good Technology reveals some striking information:

• Apple’s iOS devices thrive inside the enterprise – when workers bring their own device.
• Microsoft has yet to see any real gains from linking its smartphone and tablet OS with its massive PC install base.
• Despite the steady rise in smartphone and tablet sales, activations inside the enterprise are failing to keep pace. This could mean that larger companies are struggling to manage the complexities presented by BYOD.

According to Good’s Q1 2013 Mobility Index Report [PDF], mobile device activations inside the enterprise were up nearly 30% from the same time last year – a sizable increase, albeit less than the overall increase in smartphone and tablet shipments.

Though the report does not offer any conclusions, the disparity suggests that the many corporate issues associated with BYOD, including security, management, cost controls and support of employee-owned mobile computers, may pose more problems than many employees suspect. 

[See also: Is Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) Really Good For Workers?]

Android Rising, iOS Preferred.

Despite Android’s overall market share dominance, Apple’s iOS remains “the preferred enterprise platform,” according to Good Technology. As the report notes, Android device activations inside the enterprise increased “just five percentage points year over year.” This, despite the explosive growth of Android in 2012. 

Apple’s iOS is the enterprise mobile leader with a 75% of total mobile device activations. Android’s gains, while small, came at Apple’s expense.  

iPhone 5 Most Popular

According to Good, iPhone 5 is the most popular device for enterprise users, followed by iPhone 4S. The most popular Android device is the Samsung Galaxy S3, though it still trails the iPhone 3GS, which Apple no longer offers. The iPad is the most used tablet inside the enterprise.

It’s reasonable to expect more iPads – and Android tablets – invading the enterprise. Good’s data shows that while only 1 in 5 shipped smart mobile devices is a tablet. Inside the enterprise, one in four device actiations are tablets.

[See also: ReadWrite Survey Results: What A Typical BYOD Program Really Looks Like]

Microsoft Barely Registers

Despite Microsoft’s tablet push, it was Android-based tablets that saw a significant rise in enterprise activations – nearly doubling the number of activations in Q1 2013 compared to Q4 2012.

The news gets worse for Microsoft: 99% of all mobile device activations in the enterprise over the past year were either iOS or Android devices. In fact, Good’s numbers show that the Windows Phone platform actually dropped during this most recent quarter, falling from 0.5% in Q4 2012 to 0.3% in Q1 2013.

Expect to see more aggressive pricing, marketing and other appeals from Microsoft. It’s clear that iOS and Android are invading Microsoft’s enterprise stronghold.

Note: Good Technology is a long time rival of BlackBerry in the mobile security sector and BlackBerry devices are not included in this report.

Where Good’s Data Comes From

Take Good’s data with a grain of salt if you like. The company has made a significant enterprise push with Apple devices over the last several years while also partnering with Android manufacturers Samsung, HTC, LG as well as Windows Phone maker Nokia.

Good Technology analyzed activations by month among its enterprise and government customers that had at least five activated devices over the quarter. Due to the fact that BlackBerry/RIM devices use only the BlackBerry Enterprise Server for corporate email access, Good is not able to track BlackBerry activations.

Good Technology offers mobile security solutions to over 5,000 organizations in 130 countries. It claims to work with over half the Fortune 100. Good’s report is based on its data.

Image courtesy of Shutterstock.

The post Thanks To BYOD, Apple Invades The Enterprise appeared first on ReadWrite.

Technology enables our work, connects our world and changes our lives. So far, however, it has failed to definitively answer life’s big questions, like:

• Is there a God?
• Are we alone in the universe?
• What’s the best superpower to have? 

Where technology has foundered, though, perhaps the crowd – all of us – can succeed. After all, according to Wikipedia, the “wisdom of the crowd” is a well-documented principle:

The wisdom of the crowd is the process of taking into account the collective opinion of a group of individuals rather than a single expert to answer a question. A large group’s aggregated answers to questions involving quantity estimation, general world knowledge, and spatial reasoning has generally been found to be as good as, and often better than, the answer given by any of the individuals within the group.

Wisdom Of The Crowd

To find the answers to the questions that have eluded humankind from before the beginning of civilization, I consulted three popular sources of crowdsourced knowledge:

Yahoo! Answers: Anyone with a Yahoo ID can proffer a question or an answer. Regrettably, the site appears populated mostly by lonely teens – with a related level of expertise – and the design seems optimized for the late 1990s. 

Quora: Quora bills itself as “your best source of knowledge.” Unfortunately, it insists upon your social media identity as the price of entry. The site does have a powerful search function, although many questions seem posed for no reason other than to show off how clever the asker is.

StackExchange: StackExchange is comprised of various mini-sites, called “communities,” mostly technical in nature. There’s an Ubuntu community, an Android community and many others. No registration is required. Questions can even be altered by users. The result is sort of like Wikipedia, albeit mostly for ephemeral data for very technically specific questions.

I searched all three for the answers to the big-picture questions listed above. I still haven’t found what I’m looking for. 

Does God Exist? (Does Game of Thrones?)

On StackExchange, asking “does God exist” maddeningly brings up questions related to George RR Martin and something called the “eleventh metal.” On Yahoo Answers, the very first response is a paid link to “Does God Exist at Amazon” – sadly, without a definitive answer. Quora fared much better. Perhaps too well, as a barrage of answers and related questions were quickly presented on a page of seemingly endless text.

The best answer? I scrolled through scores of responses on Quora and found this posted quote from Einstein – which may be no answer at all:

“We are in the position of a little child entering a huge library filled with books in many languages. The child knows someone must have written those books. It does not know how. It does not understand the languages in which they are written. The child dimly suspects a mysterious order in the arrangement of the books but doesn’t know what it is. That, it seems to me, is the attitude of even the most intelligent human being toward God.”

Are We alone In The Universe? (Signs Point To Yes)

Next, I searched for the answer to “are we alone in the universe?” On this question, StackExchange failed wonderfully – leading me down a rabbit hole of questions concerning Star Trek, Star Wars and waffle irons. Quora’s crowd mostly just answered this question with another question. Define “alone” or define “we,” for example. 

Surprisingly, Yahoo Answers offered what I considered the best response – if not exactly an answer:

There are, in theory, 750,000,000,000,000,000 solar systems in the visible universe. Do you really think that only 1 solar system out of 750 sextillion solar systems has life?  

The Best Superpower? (A Fast Answer)

Fine. Forget life’s big questions. The singular conundrum that has plagued me since I was a child is: “What is the best superpower.” Here, at least, Yahoo Answers, powered in large part by youngsters, and Quora, its users a mash-up of Silicon Valley’s biggest dreamers and daringest wannabes, were actually able to shed some light.

Super speed was never the superpower I dreamt about, but a Quora member, Gary Stiffelman, made a strong case:

My answer is super-speed, like The Flash. It displaces flight, invisibility, invulnerability, teleportation and a lot of other powers.  

It can even displace super strength, as hitting something millions of times in a few seconds has the same effect as a single super blow. Fun stuff.

No Guarantee Of Accuracy 

Sadly, for life’s big questions, consulting the crowd has left me no wiser than before. Perhaps, even in an age of global connectivity, with information at our fingertips and technology all around us, there may be answers to questions we are still not yet ready to know – or can only discover on our own. 

As Wikipedia notes, “crowds tend to work best when there is a correct answer to the question being posed, such as a question about geography or mathematics.” Maybe God isn’t in the details…

Image courtesy of Shutterstock.

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