The TNS Group Tech Blog

Time for Zuckerburg to Face the Music of the Public

2012-01-31T15:18:00.000-05:00

Editor's note: Douglas Rushkoff, who writes regularly for CNN.com, is a media theorist and the author of "Program or Be Programmed: Ten Commands for a Digital Age" and "Life Inc: How Corporatism Conquered the World and How We Can Take it Back."

(CNN) -- We all knew he'd eventually get around to it: Mark Zuckerberg is expected to finally bring Facebook public. The company is reported to be preparing to file for an IPO -- initial public offering -- through which anyone will be able to buy shares of the social networking company on an open stock exchange.

As a media theorist, I used to ignore these business shenanigans. Who cares if these companies are private or public, profitable or in the red? How many non-Wall-Street-Journal readers even knew what an IPO was back before the Internet created the likes of AOL, Netscape, and Google?

But the fact is we do now think about the stock market. Many of us are aware that Apple's market capitalization is fast approaching half a trillion dollars, making it either the largest or second-largest company in the world behind Exxon Mobil - depending on the week. So when we hear that Facebook is preparing for an IPO that will likely dwarf Google's entrance to the public markets in 2004, particularly considering that the company doesn't sell tangible goods or services in the traditional sense, we can't help but wonder what this will mean for the future of Facebook, its users, its competitors, and the greater economy.

The way it appears at first glance - particularly for those who have been following Mr. Zuckerberg since he launched "The Facebook" from his college dorm or, better, those who have seen the movie "The Social Network" - is that the Zuckerberg juggernaut is continuing unabated.

This new form of media -- social networking -- will not only redefine the Internet, change human relationships, create a new marketing landscape, and challenge Google, but it will now rescue and alter the economy itself. Like virtual kudzu, it will infiltrate the financial markets, creating new sorts of opportunities for this peer-to-peer "social" economy to take root. We will all make our living playing Farmville, or designing new versions of it, or investing in companies that do.
Facebook expected to be largest tech IPO

In reality, however, I don't think we are witnessing Facebook's victory over the financial markets as much as its acquiescence to them. Yes, Apple challenged Microsoft for software supremacy, just as Facebook now challenges Google for Internet supremacy. But there's another operating system churning away beneath all this high tech activity, and it's called corporate capitalism. If a company is big enough -- and that means simply holding enough money -- then sooner or later that money influences the rest of the company's activities.

In Facebook's case, it meant approaching the legal limit of 500 investors, which triggers a requirement to open the books to regulatory scrutiny. It also meant dealing with a few thousand coveted employees who took jobs at Facebook instead of Google or Apple or anywhere else because they were hoping to get in on a big thing. The promise of cashing in a few million dollars worth of stock options helps many a programmer make it through a late night of coding.

The same goes for those who invested in Zuckerberg five or more years ago and want to cash in before the "social web" bubble pops, if it's going to. Facebook was taking so long to get to market that many people had begun selling their shares privately on what are known as secondary markets, putting Facebook's valuation even further out of the company's own hands.

Simply becoming a multi-billion-dollar company changes the essence of its goals, activities, and purpose. Its bloodstream becomes filled with cash, and cash has its own agenda. For just like print, TV, or the Internet, money is a medium, too. It has biases, or tendencies, programmed right into it. The kind of money we happen to use -- bank-issued central currency -- is biased toward lending. That's why we call our system "capitalism." It's about the capital: Our money is designed to favor those who lend it to others who actually use it to build companies or create value.

The more money a company takes in, the more obligated it becomes to function in accordance with the properties and rules of money. For example, since becoming public, Google has had to prove its devotion to its shareholders' interests by cutting pet programs, showing earnings' growth, and demonstrating focus over big dreams. Out with public experiments like Google Labs, in with products like Android try to compete with Apple's iOS and G+ to compete with Facebook. No more touting that employees get 20% of their work hours to do whatever they want. It's a real corporation, now, and has to behave like one.

By all accounts, Zuckerberg was trying to delay this eventuality as long as possible. He knows that becoming the CEO of a public company will not be nearly as much fun, or as free, as running an Internet startup. However much we may not like his vision for our future, his primary purpose was to change the world. He wanted to create the operating system on which human social activity took place.

What he has ultimately succumbed to, however, is the fact that Facebook was running on top of another operating system all along. Instead of revolutionizing our reality, by filing an IPO Mark Zuckerberg is finally getting with the program.

SOPA Lobbying Dollars Going to Waste

2012-01-30T14:22:00.000-05:00

The controversial anti-piracy bills that attracted tens of millions of dollars of lobbying for and against the proposed laws ironically were killed by free publicity.

"Old" media companies spent huge sums of money in support of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA). Those opposed -- Internet and "new media" companies -- lobbied hard and spent gobs too, though far less than their more organized rivals.

But Silicon Valley had a trick up its sleeve that trumped the millions of dollars more in lobbying muscle and the more established Washington presence of the old media guard: They reached out directly to their users for free.

Google, Wikipedia and others altered their homepages and websites in opposition of the bills last week, making the issue a topic of popular discussion across the country.

"The Internet really flexed their muscles during this fight, and their infrastructure helped them advocate their positions that others don't have at their disposal," said Michael Beckel, money-in-politics analyst at the Center for Responsive Politics.

It helped that the two bills were an issue that the public cared about. The opposition movement was trending on Twitter, and thousands of protesters joined in New York and San Francisco on Jan. 20 in opposition of the bills.

"When you have an issue that is salient, and the public cares about it, the money matters less," said Lee Drutman, data fellow at the Sunlight Foundation, a nonpartisan research organization. "Money matters more when it's a behind-closed-doors issue that hasn't faced much public scrutiny."

Lobbying analysts also note that it's really hard to change the status quo and pass legislation. Silicon Valley had the advantage of playing defense, which is a much better position to be in, experts said. There are so many hurdles to jump before a bill becomes law, so being on the opposition is always a good start.

It may have been painted as a David vs. Goliath fight initially. But the end result proved that the most money doesn't always win in Washington.
SOPA explained: What it is and why it matters

Media companies like Comcast (CMCSA, Fortune 500), Viacom (VIA), News Corp. (NWS), and CNNMoney parent Time Warner (TWX, Fortune 500) led the support of the bills, each spending millions of dollars on the issue.

Media lobbyists, including the motion picture, recording industry, cable, and broadcaster associations, also added millions of dollars to the fight, as did credit card firms Visa (V, Fortune 500), MasterCard (MA, Fortune 500) and American Express (AXP, Fortune 500).

Loads of cash were spent by the opposition as well, but most of that came from Google (GOOG, Fortune 500). After the search giant's millions, there was a steep drop off in lobbying dollars, with Yahoo (YHOO, Fortune 500), eBay (EBAY, Fortune 500), Amazon (AMZN, Fortune 500) and Microsoft (MSFT, Fortune 500) lobbying in the hundreds of thousands of dollars each.

Lobbying totals are only very rough estimates because companies often include multiple bills and issues in their lobbying reports to Congress. But Washington analysts said SOPA and PIPA were among the hottest issues in the fourth quarter.

SOPA and PIPA Hears the Internet Roar

2012-01-23T08:32:00.000-05:00

When the entire Internet gets angry, Congress takes notice. Both the House and the Senate on Friday backed away from a pair of controversial anti-piracy bills, tossing them into limbo and throwing doubt on their future viability.

The Senate had been scheduled to hold a proceedural vote next week on whether to take up the Protect IP Act (PIPA) -- a bill that once had widespread, bipartisan support. But on Friday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said he was postponing the vote "in light of recent events."

Meanwhile, the House of Representatives said it is putting on hold its version of the bill, the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). The House will "postpone consideration of the legislation until there is wider agreement on a solution," House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith said in a written statement.

The moves came after several lawmakers flipped their position on the bills in the wake of widespread online and offline protests against them.

Tech companies, who largely oppose the bills, mobilized their users this week to contact representatives and speak out against the legislation. Sites including Wikipedia and Reddit launched site blackouts on January 18, while protesters hit the streets in New York, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington, D.C. Google (GOOG, Fortune 500) drew more than 7 million signatures for an anti-SOPA and PIPA petition that it linked on its highly trafficked homepage.

The tide turned soon after the protest, and both bills lost some of their Congressional backers.

"I have heard from the critics and I take seriously their concerns," Smith said Friday in a prepared statement. "It is clear that we need to revisit the approach on how best to address the problem of foreign thieves."

PIPA and SOPA aim to crack down on copyright infringement by restricting access and services to sites that host or facilitate the trading of pirated content. (Click here for our explainer: What SOPA is and why it matters.)

Backed by media companies, including CNNMoney parent Time Warner, the bills initially seemed on the fast track to passage. PIPA was approved unanimously by a Senate committee in May.

But when the House took up its own version of the bill, SOPA, tech companies began lobbying heavily in opposition -- an effort that culminated in this week's demonstrations.

Reid hinted that PIPA may not be dead yet, saying: "There is no reason that the legitimate issues raised by many about this bill cannot be resolved."

Meanwhile, alternative legislation has also been proposed. A bipartisan group of senators introduced the Online Protection and Enforcement of Digital Trade Act (OPEN) on January 18 -- the same day as the Wikipedia site blackout.

Among other differences, OPEN offers more protection than SOPA would to sites accused of hosting pirated content. It also beefs up the enforcement process. It would allow digital rights holders to bring cases before the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC), an independent agency that handles trademark infringement and other trade disputes.

California Republican Darrell Issa introduced OPEN in the House, and Oregon Democrat Ron Wyden introduced the Senate version. OPEN's backers had posted the draft legislation online and invited the Web community to comment on and revise the proposal.

Soon after SOPA and PIPA were tabled, Issa released a statement cheering "supporters of the Internet" for their protest efforts.

He wrote: "Over the last two months, the intense popular effort to stop SOPA and PIPA has defeated an effort that once looked unstoppable but lacked a fundamental understanding of how Internet technologies work."

SOPA and PIPA - Its Not a Middleton

2012-01-19T10:25:00.001-05:00

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- While Internet giants staged a massive online protest against proposed anti-piracy legislation, hundreds gathered in New York for an in-person show of opposition.

Members of the New York tech community massed outside the offices of U.S. senators Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand on Wednesday afternoon in a protest coordinated by NY Tech Meetup, a local networking group.

"We're here to make sure our senators know that the New York tech community, which employs tens of thousands of people, really will not take no for an answer," said Nate Westheimer, one of the protest's organizers. "The provisions that are being suggested right now would undermine the way the Internet works."

Similar protests are scheduled to take place Wednesday in San Francisco, Seattle and Washington, D.C.

The online and offline protests are aimed at a pair of bills currently under consideration in Congress: the House's Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Senate's Protect IP Act (PIPA). The bills aims to crack down on copyright infringement by restricting access to sites that host or facilitate the trading of pirated content. (Click here for our explainer: What SOPA is and why it matters.)

Supporters, including CNNMoney parent company Time Warner, say measures like SOPA and PIPA are needed to crack down on rampant online piracy. Opponents counter that the bills are full of vague and broad mandates that could wreak havoc on the Web.

That's the line taken by those who turned out for Wednesday's protest in New York.

"We showed up because we think Congress is misinformed about the gravity of what they're proposing," said protester Dan Herman, the founder of business software maker ChatID.

Sebastian Delmont, the "chief geek" at real estate website StreetEasy, said he came "because I want to save the Internet."

Waving a placard with an anti-PIPA poem on it, he added: "Proponents of the bill say, 'Well, what is the alternative to piracy?' We've shown them over the years. It's iTunes, it's Netflix. People pirate for convenience. When they have cheap options that are convenient, they don't pirate."

Senators Gillibrand and Schumer released a joint response to the protest.

"There are two important issues in this debate: continued freedom of expression on the Internet and the ability to block online piracy. We believe that both sides can come together on a solution that satisfies their respective concerns," they said in a written statement.

The pair of anti-piracy bills have sparked an all-out war between Hollywood and Silicon Valley. The legislation enjoyed rare bipartisan support and had been on track for a quick passage until the tech industry mounted a fierce opposition. Now the bills have turned almost toxic in Washington.

"We're at a tipping point," a Senate Democratic aide told CNN on Tuesday.
"It will either become a huge issue or die down a bit, and that will determine the future of this."
SOPA explained: Why it matters

Schumer, who sits on the Senate Judiciary committee, voted in favor of PIPA in May when the committee approved the bill and sent it on to the full Senate for consideration. That vote was unanimous, with complete bipartisan support.

PIPA is currently slated for a Jan. 24 vote in the Senate, but the massive blowback from the Internet community has many lawmakers reconsidering. Six senators who backed the bill in May sent Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid a letter last week asking him to delay the vote.

"The process at this point is moving too quickly," they wrote. "We have increasingly heard from a large number of constituents and other stakeholders with vocal concerns."

That's exactly what those protesting on Wednesday hoped to get across.

Local tech leaders, including Google (GOOG, Fortune 500) head of public policy Andrew McLaughlin, Reddit founder Alexis Ohanian and tech writer Clay Shirky, made speeches at the protest, while the crowd chanted slogans including: "This is what democracy looks like."

That's a rally cry that's also popular a few blocks further south, at New York's Occupy Wall Street protest.

"This might be a very big turning point for people," said rally coordinator Westheimer. "As the generation of technologists you see today get a little bit older, you're definitely going to see them get more in politics."

Another Top 10 - Top 10 Tech FAILS of 2011

2011-12-30T11:45:00.001-05:00

Can't win 'em all, can you?

The highs were pretty high in the tech world in 2011, as new gadgets, updates and advances delighted the masses. I mean, Facebook made a change that most people (so far) seemed to actually like. What are the odds?

But the lows were lower. For every moment of digital bliss, it seemed, there was a clunker of equal or greater magnitude.

So, who are we to not rub salt in the wounds of those who got it oh-so-wrong this year?

In fairness, some of these "Doh!" moments came from folks who had otherwise good years. And nobody, not even perennial tech darling Apple, is perfect. (One hard-working journalist even had to write this very story twice after he accidentally deleted it and was forced to start over. Sweet, sweet irony.).

Sure, tech successes are nice. But these social-media miscues, foot-in-mouth e-moves and other digital duds gave us more to talk about in 2011.

Here are our 2011 "Tech Fails of the Year." Feel free to jump in the comments and let us know what we missed.

Weiner on Twitter

In a crowded and competitive field, former U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner grabs our "What Were You Thinking?" award for this one.

The congressman (we're staying away from name jokes because ... well ... too easy) was being talked up as possibly the next mayor of New York City when his Twitter account was apparently hacked by someone who sent lewd photos to some of his female followers. That's the story Weiner gave, anyway.

Except, as it turned out, that someone was him.

Many of us gave Weiner the benefit of the doubt in the scandal's opening hours. I mean, what public official would be dumb enough to get raunchy on a platform like Twitter, where anyone who wants to can follow your every tweet?

Turns out ...

He wasn't alone. Comedian Gilbert Gottfried tweeted jokes about the Japan tsunami and earthquake that killed more than 15,000 people. Actor and Twitter pioneer Ashton Kutcher posted a hasty tweet defending Penn State coach Joe Paterno -- before, he says, learning the full extent of the school's child-sex scandal. The resulting backlash even led him to quit Twitter, at least temporarily.

But for so badly misunderstanding the public nature of Twitter, for the whirlwind of lies that followed before he fessed up and resigned and ... yes ... for thinking women like it when you send them closeup pictures of your crotch on the Internet, Weiner earns this bulging "Fail."

Go Daddy's SOPA misstep

When the vast majority of the Web's most active players are against something, and when your livelihood depends on the Web's most active players, it's probably best to either go along or keep quiet about it, right?

Not so for Go Daddy, the Web registrar and hosting company known for its titillating TV ads. In December, the company made the ill-fated decision to come out in support of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA).

Google, Yahoo and Facebook are just some of the Internet heavyweights that have lined up to stop the proposed federal law, which would penalize websites that host pirated content. The bill has come under fire from Web-freedom advocates, who say it could dampen online expression.

Go Daddy, which had submitted testimony to Congress in support of the bill, issued a public statement supporting it -- even doubling down with a stronger statement when the Web backlash began.

Fast forward 24 hours and the company -- which had already earned ire in some quarters for its racy (some might say sexist) TV commercials and its founder's penchant for elephant hunting -- changed its mind amid a rash of defections.

Tens of thousands of domains, including more than 50 owned by Wikipedia's Jimmy Wales, were moved from Go Daddy, and that's before a Reddit-organized boycott planned for Friday. Oops.

'Duke Nukem Forever'

When video gamers wait 14 years for a follow-up to one of their favorite titles, they sort of expect it not to suck. In the minds of many, "Duke Nukem Forever" failed that important test.
Longtime gamers waited 14 years for \
Longtime gamers waited 14 years for "Duke Nukem Forever." Many would have been happy to wait longer.

First announced in 1997, "Forever" was to be a follow-up to a game that got lots of love for good-heartedly pushing the boundaries of sex, violence and naughty language in the emerging field of shooter games.

It was delayed. And delayed. And delayed. What finally emerged in June hit with a thud.

"At best, it can look a few years out of date; at worst, it is a blurry, stuttering mess," wrote CNN's Ravi Hiranand, in what actually was one of the kinder reviews of the game "Playing the game feels like being thrown back into the mid-'90s, and not in a happy, nostalgic sense."

In a post-"Grand Theft Auto" world, maybe waiting "forever" would have been a better idea after all.

The other tablets

As 2011 dawned, it appeared that Apple had created a thriving new space in personal computing with its iPad.

Beginning in January at the Consumer Electronics Show, a host of competing companies stepped forward with their rival tablets. The Motorola Xoom. BlackBerry's PlayBook. Samsung Galaxy Tab. The HP TouchPad.

One problem: Nobody bought them.

Most of the new tablets, many running Google's Android operating system, came in at roughly $500 -- about the same price as Apple's new iPad 2. And the public showed that at that price, they were happy going with the industry leader.

Some tablets got pulled. Others never made it off the production line. HP had some luck selling TouchPads -- after throwing up its hands and slashing prices to fire-sale levels.

One exception. Amazon may have cracked the code late in the year with its Kindle Fire, a smaller, simpler tablet that, at $199, is $300 cheaper than the least-expensive iPad 2.

Game off at PlayStation Network

When roughly 70 million users lose access to your gaming and entertainment network, it's a "fail."

In April, a hacker accessed account information for users of Sony's PlayStation Network, ultimately knocking the network offline in late April. It wasn't completely restored until early June and some gamers lacked access for weeks.

While getting hacked was bad, some users were even madder after Sony took a week from the time of the attack to let them know what happened.

Another, much smaller, attack happened in October. In the end, it looks like most of the network's fans stuck around -- a fact no doubt aided by multiple blockbuster game releases this year.

iPhones and bars don't mix

Seriously, Apple employees?

No ... seriously?

In 2010, the tech world was aflutter after an Apple employee, reportedly celebrating his birthday, lost a prototype of the unreleased iPhone 4 in a California beer hall.

Tech blog Gizmodo bought the phone, showcased it on their site, and touched off a firestorm that included everything from police raids to legal threats.

Well, at least we know that after all of that, it could never possibly happen again.

No ... wait. It happened again.

Tech blog CNET reported that an Appler left a prototype of the iPhone 4S in a Mexican bar and restaurant in San Francisco.

As our John Sutter wrote: "Here's a theory: Maybe there's some sort of connection between drinking and losing things?"

Netflix-Qwikster

Netflix, the Web's most popular movie-rental service, first rattled some customers by raising prices in July.

Then, in September, the company announced it was, basically, splitting itself in half. Web-streaming video would still come from Netflix. DVD-by-mail rentals would come from a separate company.

Called ... "Qwikster."

Where to start here? Customers who wanted both services complained about having to set up and maintain two different accounts on two different websites. Then there was the new name, which felt dated (Napster and Friendster, anyone?) and like it was spat out by some zany-misspelled-startup name generator.

Oh yeah ... and there was the fact that the "Qwikster" Twitter handle was already owned by a guy whose avatar was a weed-smoking Elmo muppet.

Chris Taylor, of Mashable, questioned whether Qwikster was "the worst product launch since New Coke."

It didn't even last as long as that syrupy mistake. About three weeks later, Netflix announced that Qwikster was dead.

PayPal plays Scrooge

Shutting down a fund to give presents to children in need at Christmas? Sounds like something one-percenter Mr. Potter from "It's a Wonderful Life" would endorse.

But that's essentially what Web-payment titan PayPal was doing before getting popped in the nose by the Internet.
PayPal temporarily shut down Regretsy\'s Christmas drive for kids in need.
PayPal temporarily shut down Regretsy's Christmas drive for kids in need.

Snarky blog Regretsy, when not mocking regrettable craft projects, has long maintained various charity funds. With the holidays approaching, actress and blog runner April Winchell (who writes on the site as "Helen Killer") announced a fund drive to buy toys for 200 children submitted by community members.

It was hugely successful, meeting its fundraising goal in the first 24 hours. Then PayPal, which was processing the donations, stepped in and froze the fund because it said Winchell used a "Donate" button that's supposed to be for nonprofits only.

The Web wasn't pleased.

Winchell used her popular blog to blast PayPal in less-than-friendly terms. Twitter users and other sites amplified the outrage.

A day later, PayPal said it "recognized our error" and even offered to donate to the fund.

God bless us ... every one.

iPhone 4S battery life

OK ... this one never reached the fever pitch that the iPhone 4's antenna problems did last year.

And maybe it's a sign that, when millions of people buy your product in the first few hours it exists, there are bound to be problems.

Despite not being the mythical iPhone 5, the 4S flew out of Apple stores when it was released October 14. But within hours, users started flocking to Apple's support forum to complain their batteries were running out of juice faster than Herman Cain's presidential campaign.

Apple publicly ignored the complaints for a little over two weeks. Then the company issued a statement saying that "a small number of customers" had complained about the battery and that an update to the phone's operating system was on the way.

As with the iPhone 4 "death grip," we'll call this a modest "fail" wrapped inside an epic win. The battery gripes didn't stop Apple from selling an iLoad of the new phones.

Bad year for BlackBerry
BlackBerry customers complained of mail delays and connectivity outages on their devices in October.
BlackBerry customers complained of mail delays and connectivity outages on their devices in October.

Alas, poor BlackBerry.

Research in Motion's crack-like gadget was once synonymous with "smartphone," effectively ushering in the era of messaging, e-mail-checking and other Phone 2.0 behavior.

But, 2011 wasn't kind.

It's bad enough that the iPhone and the rise of the Androids continue to muscle BlackBerrys out of the limelight. Then the BlackBerry PlayBook, RIM's effort in the burgeoning tablet space, arrived with a thud in April.

The capper, however, was an October outage at a data center that caused users to lose messaging ability in parts of Europe, the Middle East, India, Africa, Latin America and North America. (To their credit, RIM ultimately gave away a pile of free apps to the folks affected).

The outage lasted for several days and was the final straw for some users, who abandoned ship for other phones.

Changing the Guard at RIM

2011-12-15T09:30:00.001-05:00

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- When she stepped down as CEO of eBay (EBAY, Fortune 500) in early 2008 after a decade, Meg Whitman said it was time for a new voice at the ecommerce.

"I have repeatedly said that 10 years was about the right amount of time for any CEO to stay at the helm of a company," Whitman said at the time.

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With eBay's stock beginning to slide and earnings flat-lining, Whitman knew it was time for alternative ideas. John Donahoe, Whitman's successor, implemented a successful transition at the company by overhauling its pricing structure and shaking up management. It took time and some grumbling from customers, but the process revived the company's stock and earnings growth, much to investors' delight.

There's a potential lesson there for Research In Motion (RIMM).

It has been a truly horrifying 2011 for RIM. Multiple product delays, underwhelming sales, massive outages and public relations embarrassments have battered the company's earnings, stock, and share of the smartphone market.

Yet the company's long-serving co-CEOs, Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie, continue to cling to their stay-the-course mantra. They maintain that they have a strategy in place, and that they're the best people to lead the company through its current mess.

The co-CEOs had a long, long run of success. Lazaridis, at RIM's helm for 27 years, and Balsillie, who has shared that role for 19, introduced the revolutionary BlackBerry to the world in 1999. The product took the corporate world by storm, and 10 years later, in 2009, the BlackBerry brand controlled a 20% share of the world's smartphone market, according to IDC. In the U.S. market, its share was a dominant 43%, according to comScore.

But that success has run right into a brick wall. Consumers gravitated toward feature-rich iPhones and Android devices, and RIM's product development fell far behind its rivals'.

Today, BlackBerry maintains just 10% of the global market and 19% of the United States'.

Lazaridis and Balsillie say they have a strategy to get RIM out of its current quagmire. They have transitioned the company's software to the more modern BlackBerry OS 7 and, next year, BlackBerry OS 10 will become RIM's unified tablet and smartphone platform.

But the execution of the transition has been disastrous. BB7 devices were severely delayed in getting to market. They finally hit stores in August, and have undersold the company's expectations ever since. The also-delayed PlayBook tablet debuted this year, but without key features like built-in e-mail, contacts and a calendar. The software fix to add those apps has been delayed until 2012.

The company's revitalization efforts weren't helped by a three-day global outage -- the longest in RIM's history. Recently, RIM's bad news took a turn for the weird: Two executives (now former executives) got so drunk on a flight to China that they had to be restrained while the flight turned back to kick them off. The out-of-control flyers apparently chewed through their restraints.

Investors aren't laughing: Shares have fallen 76% this year.

Analysts say it's time for RIM to bring in new ideas.

"What's clear is if RIM keeps doing the same things, it's not going to get better," said Mark Mckechnie, analyst at Gleacher & Co. "RIM's leadership missed the market's strategic inflection point. When everyone began supporting rich media on their devices, they just stuck to their guns."

Some shareholders have called for Lazaridis and Balsillie's heads, but the board -- led by the co-CEOs -- has been resistant.

"I think to some extent RIM is still in denial when it comes to the shortcomings in their offering," said Carolina Milanesi, research director at Gartner. "Investors want to see a change, and new leadership is usually what investors take as a serious attempt to change."

Milanesi said it's understandable that Lazaridis wouldn't want to let go of the company he founded, but a new voice is needed in some form. She suggested that someone new could fill the role of chief information officer while Lazaridis stays on as CEO.

Others say that, as with recent shakeups at Hewlett-Packard (HPQ, Fortune 500), Yahoo (YHOO, Fortune 500), Avon (AVP, Fortune 500) and Nokia (NOK), leadership at the very top needs to go in order to bring about real, necessary change.

"RIM's leadership team must take responsibility for -- and ownership of -- the difficulties the company has experienced during 2011," said Declan Longeran, analyst at Yankee Group. He criticized the company's "complacency at the top."

Tole Hart, an independent analyst, suggested that an outsider would make the most sense to take over as CEO. He said the new leader should come from a company like Apple (AAPL, Fortune 500), Google (GOOG, Fortune 500), Microsoft (MSFT, Fortune 500), Samsung, or Motorola (MMI), all of which have adapted and moved to the forefront of the smartphone revolution.

Another camp of analysts says vision isn't the problem. Execution is. BB10, by all accounts, will be a much more modern operating system.

"This is probably the worst time for new leadership at RIM," said Ramon Lamas, analyst at IDC. "The company's in the middle of a huge transition. If you have CEOs that are manning the helm to guide company through rough waters, why would you want to change that?"

RIM, which will report its financial results Thursday after the markets' close, declined to comment for this story.

RIM already warned investors that the numbers won't be pretty. You know who those shareholders are going to blame if RIM keeps offering up more of the same. To top of page

Yahoo gets $610 Million From Lottery Scammers

2011-12-08T09:50:00.001-05:00

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Congratulations, you've won millions in a lottery that you didn't enter! Just wire us some money first to cover fees, and we'll send you your winnings!

These fake lottery email scams have become ubiquitous, with scammers sometimes posing as well-known companies to boost their credibility. In 2008, Yahoo sued several "John Does" for using its name and logo as part of a scam.

On Monday, a federal judge awarded Yahoo (YHOO, Fortune 500) $610 million in damages from the Thai and Nigerian scammers that the company was eventually able to identify through Internet records.

Yahoo's complaint reveals that between December 2006 and May 2009, more than 11.6 million hoax lottery emails were sent through its email system. The court awarded Yahoo $50 per scam email, a total of $583 million, for its victimization through violations of the Can-Spam Act.

The remaining $27 million is an award for trademark infringement. Yahoo was also awarded attorneys' fees.

Yahoo could use the cash: The court's total award is about half of the $1.2 billion profit that Yahoo netted for 2010.

But Yahoo stands little chance of actually collecting. None of the defendants -- a group of Thai and Nigerian individuals, a Nigerian corporation, and a Taiwanese corporation -- have responded to Yahoo's complaint. Nigeria is a famous haven for e-mail scammers.

The New York district court judge, Laura Taylor Swain, noted in her ruling that "apart from minor variations in phrasing and style, the [individual] emails [in the scam] are strikingly similar."

Swain concluded that the "circumstantial evidence is sufficient to support the reasonable inference that defendants are co-conspirators."

Is Your Smartphone Tracking Your Every Move

2011-12-02T14:28:00.002-05:00

The Web fallout continued Friday over news that a hidden app could be tracking smartphone users' activity.

Many bloggers and smartphone customers fretted about the privacy issues raised by Carrier IQ, an information-mining app secretly installed on many phones. But at the same time, other tech observers were beginning to say that some of those concerns may have been over the top.

First, a recap: On Monday, researcher and developer Trevor Eckhart posted a 17-minute YouTube video apparently showing how the software -- designed as a diagnostic tool to find and help fix mobile network problems -- runs on his smartphone and logs every keystroke, every text and the full URL of every website he visits.

News of the app's existence on millions of phones had bounced around on tech blogs for a while. But attention skyrocketed this week when Eckhart posted his video.

By Thursday, it had turned into a rapidly developing story in which new information seemed to surface hourly. Mobile carriers and smartphone makers rushed to dispute claims made by Eckhart and others who said they confirmed his findings, explain their use of the app or announce that they once used it but plan to get rid of it.

The potential ramifications obviously had privacy-minded folks concerned.

"A couple of things seem pretty clear," Jay Stanley, a senior privacy and technology analyst with the American Civil Liberties Union, said Friday. "We don't know what the company was storing or accessing or what their clients were storing or accessing, but they seem to at least have the capability to store and access a lot of very personal information."

Many mobile customers seemed to focus their concerns on the fact that the software runs without their knowledge and appears difficult, if not impossible, to uninstall.

For example, on Sprint's community forums, several topics had been created to discuss the issue. And customers weren't happy.

"There's no excuse to knowingly and willingly want to have that kind of invasive software, that potentially puts customers sensitive information at risk, on the phone," one customer wrote. "This software may violate multiple privacy laws, and that alone ought to void our contracts."

Sprint said it uses the app to root out network problems but can't see user activity. Other wireless carriers and smartphone manufacturers also responded. Verizon said it doesn't use the app, and Apple said it has stopped supporting it and plans to eliminate it altogether.

By Thursday morning, some on the Web were trying to put the brakes on the fears, though.

"Okay, folks, before we complete this public lynching, is there any evidence that Carrier IQ actually transmitted inappropriate data?" tweeted Declan McCullagh, a correspondent for tech site CNET.

In a message posted to Pastebin, Dan Rosenberg, an analyst with Virtual Security Research, wrote that some of the fears about Carrier IQ have been overblown.

"After reverse engineering CarrierIQ myself, I have seen no evidence that they are collecting anything more than what they've publicly claimed: anonymized metrics data," he wrote. "There's a big difference between 'look, it does something when I press a key' and 'it's sending all my keystrokes to the carrier!'.'"

"In my opinion, the media has made it more malicious than it really is and I am not concerned about my phone usage at all," wrote Matthew Miller, a columnist with tech site ZDNet. "It sounds to me like the software is designed to BENEFIT consumers and is not being used to track and target you."

But the ACLU's Stanley remains concerned. He cited promotional material on Carrier IQ's on website that notes its ability to track users' activities.

"If you look at their website, we don't know what their clients were buying, but we do know what they were selling," he said. "What they're saying to the media doesn't seem to comport to what they tout on their own website."

Carrier IQ says the core purpose of its tool is to uncover broad trends across a network. Its software can help carriers find out where calls are dropping and why, and zero in on device glitches.

For at least some of those who remain concerned (and there are no doubt many), there may be some hope of at least finding out if the app is running on their phones.

A new app in the Android Market, Voodoo Carrier IQ detector, is designed to help you simply find the kit on your phone if it exists. It's only a day old and not perfect, developers say, but will continue to be tweaked.

PC's Whipping up Come Secret "Apple" Sauce to Fend off The Tablet

2011-11-28T13:32:00.001-05:00

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- As the iPad eats away at personal computer sales, the PC appears to have found a potential savior in ... Apple?

It's an unlikely source, but it's true. Ultrabooks, the ultra-thin notebook computers with no hard disk drive or slot for a DVD, are a category of PC that was essentially invented by Apple (AAPL, Fortune 500) with its MacBook Air, which debuted in 2008. Now, PC makers are scrambling in their attempts to replicate Apple's secret sauce.

Market analysts expect them to succeed: Sales of Ultrabooks are forecast to boom over the next few years in the same way that netbooks took off in 2007 -- until the iPad debuted. Ultrabook sales will reach 136.5 million in 2015, making up 43% of notebook sales, according to IHS iSuppli.

The rise of the Ultrabook is expected to happen quickly. This year, IHS predicts fewer than 1 million Ultrabook sales, making up just 2% of all notebook sales. But next year, the thin notebooks will rise to 13% of all laptop sales, then 28% in 2013 and 38% by 2014.

The PC is in need of a white knight. Consumer demand for PCs is slumping badly, particularly in the United States, Canada and Europe. Industry consultancy Gartner has repeatedly slashed its PC shipment forecasts over the course of the year.

The iPad isn't going to kill the PC entirely, but experts say it's slowing purchases of laptops, particularly small notebook PCs like netbooks. When Hewlett-Packard (HPQ, Fortune 500) said it was considering getting out of the PC business in August, then-CEO Leo Apotheker cited as a prime reason that "the tablet effect is real."

"To compete with media tablets, notebook PCs must become sexier and more appealing to consumers," said Matthew Wilkins, principal analyst at IHS. "Enter the Ultrabook, which borrows some of the form-factor and user-interface advantages of the media tablet."
Does Intel's ultrabook stand a chance?

In May, Intel (INTC, Fortune 500) first unveiled the Ultrabook -- a name it trademarked. Intel describes an Ultrabook as a notebook PC that is thinner than 0.8 inches, has Flash memory, can be turned on instantly, is always connected and has a battery life of longer than eight hours.

That list rivals the features found in the iPad and similar tablets -- and, of course, the MacBook Air.

Unlike netbooks -- which typically have cramped keyboards, sluggish processors and stripped-down versions of Windows XP -- Ultrabooks have full-sized keyboards, run the latest version of Microsoft (MSFT, Fortune 500) Windows and will feature Intel's newest chipsets.

Netflix in Trouble

2011-11-22T13:52:00.000-05:00

Netflix dropped a double bomb late Monday: The company now expects to lose money for all of 2012, and it is looking to raise cash in a secondary offering of its stock.

Netflix (NFLX) warned in its last earnings report that it expects to be unprofitable "for a few quarters" starting at the beginning of 2012. The primary culprit is Netflix's pricey plan to expand its streaming video service into the United Kingdom and Ireland, but a wave of subscribers jumping ship hasn't helped.

Monday's regulatory filing extended Netflix's "we're going to lose money" warning to the full 2012 fiscal year. Shares of Netflix fell about 3.3% in morning trading on Tuesday.

The filing also revealed that Netflix is in the process of raising $400 million from investors to help bulk up its cash stash.

Netflix is selling 2.86 million shares at $70 apiece -- 6% below Monday's closing price -- to mutual funds and accounts managed by T. Rowe Price. That offering is scheduled to close around November 28.

It's also selling $200 million in convertible bonds to investment funds affiliated with Technology Crossover Ventures, a fund that has been investing in Netflix for more than a decade.

While that will give Netflix more money to invest in content, secondary offerings are sometimes considered ominous signs. They can signal that expenditures have outpaced expectations and that a company needs to raise more cash.

Netflix, which had $366 million in cash on hand at the end of last quarter, is facing threats from rivals with much deeper pockets. Studios are demanding more money for their valuable content, and the playing field is getting crowded. Beyond direct rivals like Hulu and kiosk service Redbox (owned by Coinstar (CSTR)), big tech players like Amazon (AMZN, Fortune 500) and Google (GOOG, Fortune 500) are jumping into the streaming game.

One analyst predicted earlier this year that Netflix's streaming content licensing costs will rise from $180 million in 2010 to a whopping $2 billion in 2012. Netflix said in its filing on Monday that it has payments of more than $3.5 billion due over the next few years to pay for content under contract.

Meanwhile, Netflix is losing some of those all-important licenses. In September, Starz ended contract renewal negotiations with Netflix and said it will pull its movies and TV shows from Netflix early next year.

That loss of content leaves angry customers asking why they're paying more for less. In July, subscribers were incensed after Netflix said it would begin charging separate prices for its DVDs-by-mail and streaming video plans. That amounted to a big price hike for Netflix customers, as the cheapest-possible bill for customers who want both services jumped from $10 to $16 a month.

As a result of the price hike anger, on September 15 Netflix was forced to cut its U.S. third-quarter subscriber estimates by 1 million customers, or about 4%, to 24 million. Shares plunged 19% that day.

But the real debacle came just three days later, on September 18. Netflix CEO Hastings announced that the company's movies-by-mail service would be rebranded as Qwikster, while the Netflix brand would be dedicated to streaming video.

Again, customers raged -- so much so that Netflix pulled a stunning reversal a few short weeks later and canceled the Qwikster plan. Many pundits and customers were shocked by the flip-flop move.

The subscriber ire is finally starting to cool. Cancellations "continued to steadily decline" in October and November, Netflix said in its filing this week. The company now expects its domestic streaming customer base to be flat in November and to resume "strongly positive" growth in December.

Breaking the White Male Tech Start Up Mold

2011-11-14T09:23:00.000-05:00

EW YORK (CNNMoney) -- In the tech world's startup scene, where investors gamble millions on promising ideas, accelerator programs operate as kingmakers. Get into a top one and you'll have access to seed funding, mentors and the industry's leading venture capitalists.

That's an edge that can reap rich rewards. It's also an edge that most often goes to those who fit Silicon Valley's typical demographic for entrepreneurs: Young white males. Few of the industry's incubators keep track of the racial and gender breakdown of the founders they choose to back.

Take Y Combinator, for example. Based in Mountain View, Calif., it offers a bit of launch funding, typically a few thousand dollars, in exchange for a small equity stake. But Y Combinator's real value is its network: Participants get legal aid, guidance and advice from well-connected industry veterans. The program's reputation is so strong that three of the industry's most influential investors -- Yuri Milner, Ron Conway and venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz -- offer every participant a no-questions-asked $150,000 investment.

Y Combinator has funded around 300 startups in its six-year existence. How many were run by women, or by minority entrepreneurs? Y Combinator has no idea.

"At the end of the day, as a startup investor, I only care about a great team and product," says Alexis Ohanian, Y Combinator's East Coast representative. "You could be from Mars, though the immigration hassle would be tricky."

Another Y Combinator representative told CNNMoney: "We've never collected any stats about people's race or ethnicity. It's not a big factor when we're judging applications."

That approach resonates with many in Silicon Valley. The tech industry likes to view itself as a pure meritocracy, where the only thing that matters is the quality of a visionary's idea and the depth of their technical skills.

But critics point out that subtle -- and sometimes not so subtle -- biases come into play. Legendary investor John Doerr made a telling, offhand remark a few years ago at a venture capital conference. He observed that the "world's greatest entrepreneurs" are almost all "white, male, nerds who've dropped out of Harvard or Stanford."

"When I see that pattern coming in -- which was true of Google -- it was very easy to decide to invest," he added.

Investor Mitch Kapor, who co-founded the Lotus Development Corp. 30 years ago and now runs his own technology investment firm, says the idea of a tech meritocracy is "an aspirational statement," not a factual one.

"Not everybody gets the same breaks; not everybody gets the same opportunities," he said in an interview this summer with Soledad O'Brien for CNN's Black in America documentary The New Promised Land: Silicon Valley. "The part that is meritocratic is great, and there's a big part of it that isn't. And so, please, let's not fool ourselves and pretend otherwise in some self-congratulatory kind of way."

Adobe Adnonding the Fight For Mobile Content

2011-11-10T09:13:00.003-05:00

(Wired.com) -- In an abrupt about-face in its mobile software strategy, Adobe will soon cease developing its Flash Player plug-in for mobile browsers, according to an e-mail sent to Adobe partners on Tuesday evening.

And with that e-mail flash, Adobe has signaled that it knows, as Steve Jobs predicted, the end of the Flash era on the web is coming soon.

The e-mail, obtained and first reported on by ZDNet, says that Adobe will no longer continue to "adapt Flash Player for mobile devices to new browser, OS version or device configurations," instead focusing on alternative application packaging programs and the HTML5 protocol.

"Our future work with Flash on mobile devices will be focused on enabling Flash developers to package native apps with Adobe AIR for all the major app stores," the quoted e-mail says.

In the past, Adobe has released software tools for mobile developers that create a single platform programmers can use to make applications that work across three major mobile platforms: Android, iOS and the BlackBerry OS. While it's seemingly easier than learning all of the native languages for each operating system, some developers have claimed a loss in app performance when coding in a non-native language that then gets translated into other languages.

The move indicates a massive backpedaling on Adobe's part, a company who championed its Flash platform in the face of years of naysaying about its use on mobile devices. Despite Flash's near ubiquity across desktop PCs, many in the greater computing industry, including, famously, Apple Computer, have denounced the platform as fundamentally unstable on mobile browsers, and an intense battery drain. In effect, Flash's drawbacks outweigh the benefits on mobile devices.

Flash became a dominant desktop platform by allowing developers to code interactive games, create animated advertisements and deliver video to any browser that had the plugin installed, without having to take into account the particulars of any given browser. However, with the development of Javascript, CSS, and HTML5, which has native support for video, many web developers are turning away from Flash, which can be a resource hog even on the most advanced browsers.

Apple made its biggest waves in the case against Flash in April of last year, when Steve Jobs penned a 1,500-word screed against the controversial platform, describing it as a technology of the past. Jobs and Apple disliked the platform so intensely, it has since been barred from use on all iOS devices.

Despite attempts to breathe life into Flash on other mobile devices -- namely, Android and BlackBerry OS -- Adobe has failed to deliver a consistently stable version of the platform on a smartphone or tablet. In WIRED's testing of the BlackBerry PlayBook in April, Flash use caused the browser to crash on a consistent basis. And when Flash was supposed to come to tablets with Motorola's Xoom, Adobe was only able to provide an highly unstable Beta version of Flash to ship with the flagship Android device.

"Adobe has lost so much credibility with the community that I'm hoping they are bought by someone else that can bring some stability and eventually some credibility back to the Flash Platform," wrote software developer Dan Florio in a blog post on Wednesday morning.

The drastic reversal in Adobe's mobile plans comes in the wake of the company cutting 750 jobs on Tuesday, a move prompted by what Adobe labeled "corporate restructuring."

An Adobe representative did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Groupon Hits the Market with a Splash

2011-11-07T11:10:00.000-05:00

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Shares of daily deals site Groupon closed at $26.11, roughly 31% above their initial offering price in the public debut of the stock on Friday.

Groupon (GRPN) had priced its initial public offering at $20 a share late Thursday, the last step on a rocky journey to its debut. Under the ticker GRPN, Groupon began trading Friday at about 10:45 a.m. ET on the Nasdaq stock exchange, and opened at $28, 40% above the target.

Raising $700 million for the company, Groupon's IPO was the second-biggest tech IPO in history, behind the $1.7 billion Google raised in 2004.

The stock ticked up as high as $31.14 before falling back to around $28 later in the morning. In mid-afternoon trading it remained in that range, at $28.29, and then slipped a bit just before the close.

Groupon ended the day with a valuation of more than $16 billion. At that price, the pioneering coupon company is worth more than many traditional retailers, including Whole Foods (WFM), Best Buy (BBY, Fortune 500) and Bed, Bath & Beyond (BBBY, Fortune 500).

Because of Groupon's recognizable name and cachet, some stock analysts had expected an even bigger rise at the open, particularly because a miniscule number of shares were being offered. At the last minute, Groupon's underwriters threw in an additional 5 million shares to make the offering 35 million shares.

That's still only around 6% of the company's outstanding shares -- a very small amount, given the public's interest in the company.

"I think 'highly disappointed' is the operative phrase," said David Menlow, president of IPOfinancial. "With such a limited number of shares offered in what could have been unlimited demand, I thought thought the markets should have responded better. Now that it didn't happen, it's causing people to take a second look at the company's fundamentals."

Those fundamentals aren't pretty: Since the moment Groupon filed its paperwork, it's been hit with criticism for unorthodox accounting measures, which led to several downward revisions of its financials.

Groupon's initial filing in June drew heavy scrutiny for the company's reliance on a nonstandard metric called "adjusted consolidated segment operating income." The unwieldy "ACSOI" stripped out Groupon's steep costs for marketing and acquiring new subscribers.

Under pressure from regulators, Groupon re-filed in August to instead use only standard accounting procedures. As a result, the operating profits that Groupon cited in its first filing became operating losses.

Then, in late September, Groupon revised its reported revenue to "correct for an error" -- namely, including in its revenue the cash it has to hand back to merchants for their share of the coupons Groupon sells. That effectively whacked Groupon's sales in half, to $688 million for the first half of 2011, down from the $1.5 billion it claimed previously.

Will Your Next Phone be Bendable

2011-11-01T16:58:00.000-04:00

As we enter the final months of 2011, the thoughts of tech watchers like me are turning to what we can expect in 2012.

Voice recognition in all our devices? Touch control replacing the mouse and keyboard? The death of the wallet as mobile payments become mainstream?

Maybe. But what I'm most excited about is something far more audacious: flexible screens.

Expecting this much-anticipated technology to become widely available in 2012 is optimistic but not unthinkable.

Last week, Nokia demoed a mindblowing prototype handheld device that lets you bend and twist the screen to complete actions like scrolling and zooming.

Pete Cashmore is the founder and CEO of Mashable.com.

Meanwhile, Samsung said on an earnings call last week that it expected to debut phones with flexible displays in 2012 and that flexible tablets would follow.

The advantages of flexible displays are obvious: They're more durable, and they pave the way for new input methods, such as bending the display to zoom.

But where will this new tech take us?

I think this technology will lead to the biggest breakthrough in mobile devices since the touchscreen. In fact, the next innovation in screen technologies may be an even bigger leap forward than touch displays.

Think not of a bendable display but of a foldable one.

You see, the biggest limitation of any device these days is screen size. There's a constant tension at play: You can have a small screen that fits in your pocket (your phone) or a big screen for home use (a tablet computer).

But you can't have both. Or can you?

The ultimate dream for these flexible displays is that they could roll up: Imagine a phone-sized device that could unfurl to be the size of a tablet.

Perhaps it would be like an ancient scroll, a tube that unrolls to create a full 10-inch screen. Or perhaps a phone display could expand in two directions, making it useable both when collapsed and when unfurled.

Ah, but why stop with our current form factors? Wouldn't it be wonderful if these devices could take forms more like the paper they replaced?

While the transition from newspapers, magazines and books to digital devices has led to a few compromises -- those tactile forms are all reduced to a rectangular square of glass -- flexible screens can mimic the paper they replace.

E-book readers might simply become single sheets of digital paper. Magazines and newspapers could be made up of multiple sheets that update their content wirelessly on a daily or even hourly basis.

Where flexible screens might have the biggest impact, however, is in their ubiquity. The iPad remains an expensive device, but that hasn't stopped it popping up in unexpected locations.

Some hotels let guests check in on an iPad installed with a custom app or even borrow one for the duration of their stay.

Upscale restaurants are using iPads instead of menus. One auto enthusiast installed one as his in-car entertainment system. Another put one in his kitchen cupboard, calling it a "kitchen entertainment system."

What will happen when screens are millimeters thick and virtually unbreakable?

Simply put: The cheaper, thinner, more portable and more durable screens become, the more uses we'll find for them. And what could be thinner or more durable than a flexible display? Any surface could -- and will -- become a screen.

Microsoft released a video this past week imagining what will happen when every surface is a digital display. It too is mindblowing.

It's an exciting future and one that's rapidly approaching: If the device makers can pull it off, next year could see the launch of the first "bendable" phone. Let's hope so.

Whats Next in The Tablet Market

2011-10-26T09:05:00.000-04:00

Props to Amy Graham for this great perspective
http://www.cnn.com/2011/10/25/tech/gaming-gadgets/smaller-cheaper-tablets/index.html

(CNN) -- Smaller tablet computers that are significantly more affordable and portable than the iPad are finally starting to hit the United States -- and they could hit a crucial sweet spot in the consumer market.

Recently Kobo announced the new Kobo Vox, which costs $200. That's the same price as Amazon's recently announced Kindle Fire. The Kobo Vox starts shipping Friday, while the Kindle Fire won't start shipping until November 15. The Barnes & Noble Nook Color, which costs about $250, is already available in stores and online.

Although marketed mainly as e-book readers, all three of these consumer devices are actually small tablet computers (7 inches long) that run the Android mobile operating system and use Wi-Fi -- no carrier data plan or contract required. So theoretically, they can do much more than just let you buy and read e-books.

This makes them potentially powerful tools for people who want access to the Web, apps and more -- especially people who face economic or other barriers to using smartphones or computers. Small, inexpensive, easy-to-use tablets could become an important bridge to help people cross the digital divide and gain expanded access to education, jobs, community, and other resources.

The grand vision of tablet computers is that, ideally, they'll allow the average, non-geeky person to do most of what can be done with a laptop computer -- in a way that's much easier to learn, use and carry around.

Certainly this is the case with Apple's iPad, which sold 11 million units in the last quarter alone.

But at this point, iPads start at $500 -- about what you might pay for a brand new 32-inch flat-screen TV at Best Buy, and twice or more what PC netbooks cost at most retail stores. From the perspective of typical consumers, especially given the current economy, that's a significant luxury investment.

This month there are fresh rumors that Apple may be planning to introduce a smaller and less costly "iPad mini." But nothing is confirmed, so don't hold your breath.

The tablet market is growing fast, and its dynamics are shifting quickly. According to a new report from Strategy Analytics, in the last year Android tablets grew from 2% of the global tablet market to 27%. Meanwhile, the iPad's global tablet market share has dropped from 96% to 67%.

That doesn't reflect a decrease in the iPad's popularity, but rather that consumer demand for tablets is not one-size-fits-all.

In fact, size is a key issue for people shopping for tablets. The iPad measures roughly 7-by-10 inches -- too big for a typical pocket or purse, and nearly twice the size of the basic Kobo Vox, Nook Color and Kindle Fire models. Digital devices that aren't as easy to carry around tend to mainly get used only at certain times of day, in certain settings.

For this reason it's questionable how "mobile" larger tablets like the iPad really are.

Aside from the Vox, Fire, and Nook Color, there are lots of other small Android tablets available. But so far these products have faced various challenges in the consumer market:

Cost: The Wi-Fi-only version of Samsung's 7-inch Galaxy Tab costs about $350, which is on the pricier side. The carrier-branded versions cost much less to buy up front if you agree to a two-year contract. For instance, Verizon currently sells the 7-inch Galaxy Tab for just $200, but data plans cost $30-$80 per month, and there's a $350 early termination fee.

Philadelphia Newspapers Inc., publisher of the Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News, is selling a small Android tablet by Arnova for just $99-$129 in a small pilot program -- but for that bargain-basement price you have to agree to a one- or two-year newspaper subscription, costing up to $13 per month.

Device quality: This is an issue for the cheapest tablets. For instance, one reviewer noted that the touchscreen performance on the Philly.com tablet is less than stellar.

In contrast, the Nook Color has been getting generally favorable reviews for device quality. The advance Kindle Fire reviews are also mostly positive.

Android's learning curve: This can be an obstacle for some. The straightforward Android experience that comes with tablets by Samsung, Motorola, Lenovo, and other manufacturers can be daunting to typical consumers -- especially the majority of U.S. consumers who don't yet own a smartphone. A more constrained but dependable out-of-the-box user experience can be simpler to learn and can make the average consumer happier, at least initially.

Gadgets that are more complex or open-ended tend to confuse or frustrate average consumers -- which generally isn't good for sales. Despite the high relative cost of Apple devices, and the fairly closed nature of the Apple ecosystem, there's a lot to be said for "It just works."

However, most "pure" Android tablets do offer one key advantage over constrained e-reader tablets: direct access to Google's Android Market, where there's a virtually unlimited choice of apps.

The Fire, Nook Color, and Philly.com tablets only offer apps through their own markets, not the Android Market, which means they can block the installation of competing apps, such those from other e-book vendors or publishers.

Also, even though Kobo touts that its Vox will offer access to "over 15,000 apps," the company has not clarified whether that will be through the Android Market or its own app store. Which means it's possible that you may not be able to install the Kindle e-reader app on the Kobo Vox -- at least, not without "rooting" the tablet to remove vendor controls, which can be a formidable technical hurdle.

The coming year -- especially the 2011 holiday season -- will probably indicate whether smaller tablets will play a leading role in the U.S. digital media landscape. If these devices start becoming as commonplace as iPhones and Kindles, they may become popular and powerful tools for the delivery of mobile services for health, education, jobs, and more.

Sure, you can use a small, cheap tablet to read books, watch YouTube, and play "Angry Birds." But maybe someday lots of people will be using these devices to get a college degree -- or perhaps to learn to read in the first place.

Google News for Those Who Really Care

2011-10-21T14:20:00.000-04:00

CNN) -- On this week's Tech Check podcast, Doug Gross, Stephanie Goldberg and Mark Milian discuss the roll-out of "Ice Cream Sandwich," Google's delicious new version of its Android mobile operating software.

Google debuted Android 4.0 this week in Hong Kong, along with the new Samsung Galaxy Nexus smartphone, which will be the first gadget to run it.

The crew discusses its features, including Face Unlock, which is designed to recognize the user's face instead of a password.

Mark has spent a week testing Siri, the new voice-activated "digital assistant" on the iPhone 4S. We discuss her strengths and weaknesses, as well has giving in to the irresistible urge to ask her questions from "2001: A Space Odyssey."

Our Reader Comments of the Week come from a story about WireDoo, the new search engine being developed by a team working with MC Hammer. Yes ... that MC Hammer. (As if there could be two).

And we present to you a Tech Fail of the Week that was 14 years in the making.

Michael Dell, founder of Dell Inc., was asked in 1997 what he would do if he were the CEO of Apple. This week he got a long-awaited opportunity to revisit his fateful words.

To listen to Tech Check, click on the audio box to the left. To subscribe, you can add Tech Check to your RSS feed here. You can also listen, or subscribe, on iTunes.

Hackers Take Aim at NYSE

2011-10-11T10:48:00.001-04:00

Thanks to David Goldman and CNN for the article

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Anonymous' call for a massive attack on the New York Stock Exchange's website was met Monday -- but very, very briefly.

A group calling itself Anonymous, a name used by disparate groups of online "hactivists," threatened to take down NYSE.com at 3:30 p.m. ET today as an extension of the "Occupy Wall Street" demonstrations that have continued into a fourth week.

The website was slow and then unavailable from about 3:35 p.m. to around 3:37 p.m, after which it returned to normal. Keynote, a mobile and Internet monitoring company, confirmed that NYSE.com slowed down during that time. It also measured widespread disruptions to the site between 5:30 p.m. and 5:55 p.m.

Another tracking site, AlertSite, measured "a definite increase in response times from 3:45 p.m. to 4 p.m. ET." After that, the site returned to normal. Monitoring site downforeveryoneorjustme.com also registered a series of brief outages.

But Rich Adamonis, a spokesman from the NYSE, rebutted the monitoring sites' findings.

"We detected no service outage on our corporate website at that time," he said.

In a message that went out in early October through a video on YouTube, the group called for a "distributed denial of service" (DDoS) attack, which directs a flood of traffic to a website and temporarily crashes it by overwhelming its servers. It doesn't actually involve any hacking or security breaches, and would have no effect on NYSE's stock-trading systems.

Adamonis confirmed that trading was not impacted.

DDoS is a tool that Anonymous has employed successfully before, taking down MasterCard.com and Visa.com for several hours on Dec. 8, 2010.

The YouTube video posted earlier calling for the NYSE.com attack proclaimed: "A new civil rights movement has begun. You now have an opportunity to make a difference. Join the protests. Organize your own. Watch online. Be a part of the movement."

Anonymous' attacks haven't always worked: It failed in an attempt to take down Amazon.com (AMZN, Fortune 500), which has extensive safeguards against sudden traffic spikes. The DDoS attacks have also led to the arrests of several participants.

At least a few people claiming to be part of Anonymous didn't think the attack on NYSE.com was a risk worth taking. One site used to coordinate Anonymous operations, AnonNews.org, posted a statement saying that it was "sincerely worried" about the plan, due to the bad press it could give to the Occupy Wall Street movement.

A back-and-forth debate raged across Twitter Monday afternoon, with various factions of Anonymous alternately cheering and decrying the planned attack.

But in the end, the chatter drew more attention than the actual effects of the cyberprotest. NYSE.com barely blipped, and the markets finished the day with a rally: The Dow Jones industrial average finished Monday up nearly 3%.

Facebook Fact or Fiction

2011-10-03T09:55:00.001-04:00

The recent deluge of Facebook changes -- both those that have already happened and those that are on the way -- have people talking.

OK ... that's an understatement. They have people shouting (with either glee or fury). And fuming. And, sometimes, freaking out.

When a site has roughly 800 million users, and each of those users has a quick and easy way to share their thoughts with others, interest is high and info starts flying fast in the face of what looks like a pretty radical overhaul.

Inevitably, that leads to things getting a bit confused sometimes. So, here's a look at some of the rumors that we've seen flying around about Facebook's big changes, along with our best effort to sort them out.

1. Facebook is going to start charging you

Do we actually have to address this one? Apparently, yes.

Every once in a while, this rumor starts cropping up in status updates -- often in all caps. Some people can't seem to get their brains around the fact that a useful service like Facebook is going to remain free. So people begin copying and pasting messages announcing the date the site is going to a pay model.

A quick glimpse and you'll find multiple "We Won't Pay For Facebook" groups. On Facebook.

So, of course, when all the new changes rolled out, the planets were aligned perfectly for the rumor to spring back up. This time, it apparently got so prevalent that Facebook addressed it.

"A rumor on the Internet caught our attention. We have no plans to charge for Facebook. It's free and always will be," the site posted on its own Facebook page.

Here's the deal: Facebook will never really have a reason to start charging you for using it. To oversimplify the situation, you aren't Facebook's customer. You're its product. The site's business model is based on advertising and it wants as many users as possible to dangle in front of the click-hungry advertisers.

Charging for Facebook would inevitably decrease the number of users. And that would decrease advertising revenue. It's not going to happen.

Verdict: False. Very false.

2. Friends will see the websites I visit, even when I'm not on Facebook

This one is partially true, with one big "if."

With what Zuckerberg called "frictionless sharing," Facebook users can have the stories they're reading on certain other websites pushed straight to their News Feed for friends to share. But this will only happen on sites with the Facebook "like" button -- and only when the user has given the site permission to share the info.

That addresses one big privacy complaint Facebook has been hit with in the past, when new features started automatically, requiring users to opt out instead of opting in.

But there's always the possibility for confusion. Some people might not realize that they're authorizing the feature or may simply forget they've enabled it. In that case, best not to make a habit of reading a bunch of articles about how to find a new job if you're FB friends with your boss.

Verdict: Partially True (If you enable it)

3. The Timeline is going to show all my photos and info (whether I want it to or not)

One of the biggest changes Facebook is making is switching users' profile pages into what's being called a Timeline. It will, in effect, make your profile look more like a blog, with a chronological stream of photos and posts from the entire time you've been on Facebook and even before.

People viewing your profile will be able to scroll through, year by year, and see what you were up to far more easily than they can now.

Reports of that have led some users to freak out, or even say they planned to delete all their photos before the feature rolls out.

Here's the deal: The Timeline will definitely make it easier for your friends to see your photos and posts, particularly older ones. A single click could take them from your recent and respectable photos from office parties and play dates to those infamous college keggers from days of yore (you know ... if you're young enough to have been on Facebook in college).

But you'll be able to curate your own timeline. You can remove photos or posts you don't want on it and resize images to emphasize (or de-emphasize) chapters of your life. At the end of the day, there will be nothing there that's not already available to prying eyes -- but the eyes just won't have to pry as hard.

Verdict: Mostly False

4. Facebook monitors my activity when I'm not logged in

This one isn't directly linked to the changes, but has cropped up as they're about to roll out. And, in truth, as more off-site sharing is introduced, it could become more prevalent.

Earlier this week, an Australian blogger posted data that he said shows information being sent to Facebook by users even when they're not logged into the site.

Facebook acknowledges that it uses "cookies" when you visit the site that then transmit data from other sites that are connected to it.

Facebook engineering director Arturo Bejar told the Wall Street Journal that the system is used to prevent phishing attacks and spam and to make it easier for users to log in on the sites they've connected to the social network. Facebook deletes the data immediately, he said, and it's never used to target advertising or the like.

"The onus is on us is to take all the data and scrub it," Bejar told the Journal. "What really matters is what we say as a company and back it up."

Verdict: True (But in a limited way)

5. I can't use Spotify unless it's linked to Facebook

This one depends: Are you already on Spotify? If so, you're in the clear. If not, or if you already signed up through your Facebook account, the two services are pretty much married, 'til digital death do they part.

To Spotify, the emerging music-streaming service, and Facebook, it's a seamless and convenient way to listen to music and share songs with your friends. To people who might want to listen privately, or those elusive few who don't have Facebook accounts, it's a hassle.

Users will still be able to use their Spotify settings to control what information gets sent to Facebook, though. So don't worry -- if you're secretly listening to lots of Bieber and Gaga on Spotify, you can still do it on the down-low.

Verdict: True (If you didn't already sign up)

Read the full article here - http://www.cnn.com/2011/09/28/tech/social-media/facebook-rumors/index.html

Actual CNN.COM Headline Today: Digital monkeys with typewriters recreate Shakespeare

2011-09-26T16:28:00.000-04:00

http://www.cnn.com/2011/09/26/tech/web/monkeys-typewriters-shakespeare/index.html

(CNN) -- It's a time-honored adage about the laws of probability: Give 1 million monkeys 1 million typewriters and they'll eventually type the entire works of William Shakespeare.

Now, a software developer in Nevada is putting that saying to the test. And his digital monkeys are off to a good start.

This weekend, Jesse Anderson wrote on his blog that a computerized simulation of the theoretical simian typing pool has completed "A Lover's Complaint," a narrative poem that appeared in a book of The Bard's sonnets.

"This is the first time a work of Shakespeare has actually been randomly reproduced," Anderson wrote. "Furthermore, this is the largest work ever randomly reproduced. It is one small step for a monkey, one giant leap for virtual primates everywhere."

Anderson's virtual monkeys began typing on August 21. Using open-source software called Hadoop, he created a huge group of "monkeys" that input random strings of gibberish. When a chunk of text matches a word used in Shakespeare's catalogue, it gets crossed off of a database of the plays and poems.

His database comes from Project Gutenberg.

So far, he said, over 5 trillion character groups have been churned out.

Based on a page updating the project's progress, several more works might be checked off the list soon. The monkeys appear to need only two more words to complete the comedy "The Tempest" and seven more to bang out "As You Like It." (There's been no explanation for why the computer monkeys seem to be lagging behind on Shakespeare's tragedies.)

"The monkeys will continue typing away until every work of Shakespeare is randomly created," Anderson wrote.

Permutations of the Infinite Monkey Theorem dates back as far as Aristotle (although he obviously didn't have a typewriter).

Anderson's inspiration came from a perhaps less likely source: "The Simpsons."

He says it harks back to a "Simpsons" scene in which Mr. Burns chains up 1,000 monkeys, giving them the task of writing a great novel and berating one of them for typing, "It was the best of times. It was the blurst of times."

Anderson's approach is, if nothing else, gentler.

"No monkeys were harmed during the making of this code," he wrote.

Blockbuster Down But Not Out Yet as Netflix Lurches to No-Where

2011-09-23T16:33:00.004-04:00

And just when you thought the industry was done with "power moves". See the full article from www.cnn.com here

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Blockbuster was expected to launch a Netflix rival on Friday -- and it did, kind of.

"Blockbuster Movie Pass," launching October 1, bundles Dish's traditional cable TV plan with Blockbuster's DVD-by-mail service. It also includes some streaming content: a library of 3,000 movies will be available for streaming to a TV, or 4,000 if you stream to computer.

That's a small subset of the 100,000 DVDs and video games Blockbuster says it has stocked in its by-mail catalog.

The service costs $10 a month as an add-on to a Dish subscription. New customers who sign up for Dish's "America's Top 200" package for $39.99 a month -- or any more expensive service -- with a 2-year contract will receive the service for free for one year.

New subscribers who sign up for Dish's "America's Top 120" package will get Movie Pass for free for three months.

The streaming catalog includes shows from Fox, Cartoon Network, Discovery, Epix, Fox, DIY, HGTV and TBS. A more specific list of content was not immediately available.

Blockbuster has long been teasing plans to launch a streaming service to compete head-on with behemoth Netflix (NFLX), whose recent price hike has led to consumer backlash and a scaled-back subscriber forecast. Friday's move is a step in that direction, expanding Blockbuster's streaming services beyond the pay-per-rental model it currently uses.

But like Netflix, Blockbuster faces obstacles in getting monthly subscribers access to the most popular movies and TV shows. Its pay-per-rental catalog features recent releases like X-Men: First Class and Bridesmaids, priced at $3.99 for 24-hour viewing rights. Those titles aren't likely to show up in its all-you-can-watch unlimited streaming offering.

Blockbuster didn't immediately comment on what content is included in its "Movie Pass" package. The package also isn't available to non-Dish subscribers, though company executives said to "stay tuned" for later announcements on that front.

Dish Network (DISH, Fortune 500) acquired Blockbuster in April for $320 million in a bankruptcy court auction. Blockbuster's U.S. businesses filed for Chapter 11 protection in September 2010, hoping to sharply reduce their nearly $1 billion debt. The company put itself up for sale in February 2011.

Blockbuster struggled for survival ever since media conglomerate Viacom (VIA) spun off the company in 2004. Its brick-and-mortar stores were bleeding cash as traditional video renting declined, and competition from Netflix and Coinstar's (CSTR) Redbox kiosks heated up.

But Blockbuster will also face high competition in the streaming space, both direct rivals like Hulu and big tech players that are eying the space, including Amazon (AMZN, Fortune 500) and Google (GOOG, Fortune 500).

Studios and cable providers have been careful not to let any single streaming service nab all of the valuable content. As a result of carving up the streaming video market, each service offers something a little different -- and no one can boast that they let customers watch all of their favorite shows.

Netflix Trying to BackPedal

2011-09-20T08:42:00.001-04:00

Great article from CNN.com - http://www.cnn.com/2011/09/20/tech/web/netflix-reaction/index.html

It has been a rough couple of months for Netflix. The company that virtually defined online movie rentals was swamped by an unprecedented wave of customer ire two months ago when it raised prices for both its DVD mailing and online streaming services.

Netflix announced this week that it's splitting itself in two and rebranding its movies-by-mail service as "Qwikster." Based on initial online responses, this latest effort didn't make things much better.

"Reed, thanks for reminding me that I should go somewhere else for my DVD rentals. It was an insult enough that you raised the price on me last month, right in the middle of the biggest recession since the Great Depression, but now instead of a sincere apology, all we get is excuses and a flimsy new name."

That's from a customer named Jonathan Ortega and it's one of more than 16,000 comments on a blog post by Netflix CEO Reed Hastings explaining the latest changes. In the post, Hastings announced that the service that made Netflix famous, mailing DVDs in those iconic red wrappers, was being spun off as Qwikster, while Web streaming video will continue to be called Netflix.

Not all the posts took the same flamethrower approach as Ortega's. But even some of the more evenhanded messages raised questions.

"While I appreciate the explanation (and e-mail) and I guess I understand your reasoning for doing this, the thing I'm having the hard time about is the separation of websites," wrote a user named Tellier Killaby Booth. "I don't understand why I will now have to go to two separate websites to manage my queues. The only reason that I have both services is because half the things I watch aren't available yet on streaming."

Chris Taylor of Mashable (a CNN content partner), questioned whether the spin-off of Qwikster was "the worst product launch since New Coke."

"As any marketer will tell you, there are some truly awful times to launch a new product -- like August, when few potential customers are paying attention, or January, when they're all shopped out from the holidays," Taylor wrote. "And then there's launching your new product in the 10th paragraph of an apology for some previous poor communication, as Netflix CEO Reed Hastings did late Sunday with Qwikster. ..."

Taylor, who says he has met and interviewed Hastings several times, calls him "one of the smartest and most amiable minds I've ever met." But he lays out a laundry list of problems, from the odd spelling of Qwikster to creating unnecessary confusion for customers who keep both streaming and DVD service.

The Internet wasn't unanimously down on Netflix's move, however.

Venture capitalist Mark Suster, who focuses on early stage tech companies, had a more positive take, calling Hastings' explanation "simply brilliant." (Worth noting: His company, GRP Partners, does not list Netflix as one of its investments.)

"[M]any short-termists will think it's a bad idea. Indeed, my Twitter stream tells me so," Suster wrote Monday on his blog. "I find much of the criticism so far fairly reactionary."

He argues that, by splitting off streaming from DVD delivery, Neflix can react more flexibly to the emerging streaming market while maintaining its hold on the mail-delivery market. Keeping them both under one umbrella would have made it harder to respond rapidly to changes in customer demands, he said.

As DVD customers decline in favor of streaming (and Suster says they inevitably will), Netflix may have to raise prices for DVD delivery, but could keep streaming prices the same under this model, he wrote.

"It's rare in business to see somebody like Reed Hastings tackle the massive changes happening to their businesses and deal with them before they're too late," he wrote. "Imagine if the record labels had been as bold. By making the separation, Reed can now point the Netflix business squarely at the future."

Facebook Co-Founder Speaks Out on The Network, The Google, and The Reality of Leaving a Billion Dollar Baby

2011-09-13T09:55:00.002-04:00

San Francisco (CNN) -- The founding principles of business ethics at Facebook, according to co-founder Dustin Moskovitz, are as straightforward as the site's privacy settings system.

Many of the early developers of Facebook have moved on to work at other companies, but they operate under a specific code, Moskovitz said Monday: A great idea is a prerequisite for starting a company, businesses should be built for the long haul, and Google is not an ideal employer.

He spoke at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference in San Francisco.

Moskovitz, who was portrayed in a few scenes in the "Social Network" movie, described the dark characterization of Facebook's founding as a creation myth, contrary to authors' depictions, courtroom testimonies and the Hollywood film. He and his crew executed "with the right ethics," and the many lawsuits were handled "in exactly the right kind of way," he said.

"When you build something really big, that stuff will happen," he said of Facebook's opponents. "It was a little scary at first."

Facebook's runaway success in 2004 was clear to the founders the day after they launched the website, Moskovitz said. No amount of money would have convinced them to sell the company, he said. But that theory had certainly been tested over the years.

Like several other high-profile Facebook founders, Moskovitz left to start his own company. It's called Asana and makes project-collaboration software for businesses. Some of the ideas for Asana were conceived when he was a manger at Facebook, he said.

Moskovitz agonized over quitting Facebook and "looked for every reason to stay," he said.

"We left Facebook because we had the idea for Asana," he said. "I hated the idea of starting my own company. I really didn't want to become an entrepreneur."

Mark Zuckerberg, Moskovitz and other Facebook elite helped romanticize the concept of starting a business, Moskovitz said. He said he regrets that consequence of his success because Silicon Valley is rewarding programmers who pitch unimaginative ideas.

The goal for many is to flip their companies to a frequent shopper like Google, which competes with Facebook in many areas.

Dave Morin, another Facebook founder who left to design a social network for more intimate groups called Path, spurned an offer from Google, Moskovitz said. There, he would have been locked into "indentured servitude" because of restrictions in his contract, said Moskovitz, who is an investor in Path and advised Morin not to accept the offer.

"All of those people (from Facebook's early days) have done great work and added a lot of impact to the world and, frankly, are financially very secure," Moskovitz said. "So the only thing they're interested in now is doing that again -- you know, adding massive impact to the world and thinking about the very long run, and trying to build companies that last and really change the world for the better."

And, of course, not working for Google.

Joe Carretta
The TNS Group
Formerly known as TigerNet Systems, Inc.
Office phone: 203.316.0112 x105
Office fax: 203.316.0118
Email: jcarretta@thetnsgroup.com<sviscardi@thetnsgroup.com>

Is Larry Page the Next Bill Gates... or Something More?

2011-09-02T11:11:00.002-04:00

Read the full article here - http://www.cnn.com/2011/09/02/tech/web/new-bill-gates-larry-page/index.html?hpt=te_t1

When Bill Gates testified via videotape in Microsoft's antitrust trial in 1998, he was combative and defensive, as if he couldn't believe how stupid the entire procedure was.

He didn't expect the tape to be shown in court. It was, and it was a disaster. Public opinion turned -- instead of a billionaire genius who had built Microsoft into the most valuable tech company in the world, he was a condescending monopolist who didn't have time for the legal system.

Amazingly, Gates didn't see it coming. As Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen relates in his recent autobiography, the anti-Microsoft sentiment "cut Bill to the core." Gates told the media that government attorney David Boies was "really out to destroy Microsoft."

In his rational engineer's mind, Microsoft was simply a winner. It had beaten its competitors by being smarter and working harder. It seemed deeply unfair for the government to build a case based on the complaints of those competitors and undo everything that Gates had worked so hard for.

Flash forward a decade.

Google is the new Microsoft. It dominates its industry so completely that a few slight tweaks to its search engine can throw other companies into turmoil by burying them in search results. It's using the incredible cash generated by that business to expand in a million different directions at once, from online video to social networking to mobile phones.

The man running Google, co-founder Larry Page, has a lot in common with Gates.

Like Gates, Page is often described in otherworldly terms, a near-genius with autistic tendencies like counting the seconds out loud while you're explaining something too slowly to him. Like Gates, he has run his own company for his entire adult life and has had uninterrupted success. Like Gates, he has an engineer's soul and is obsessive about cutting waste -- one of his first acts after taking over as CEO in April was to send an all-hands e-mail describing how to run meetings more efficiently.

Like Gates, he is hugely ambitious -- he once suggested that Google hire a million engineers and told early investors that he saw Google as a $100 billion company. That's $100 billion in annual revenue, not just stock value. (It's about one-third of the way there.)

And like Gates, Page may have a blind spot about the intersection of business and the Beltway. For instance, when Google paid $3.2 billion to buy display ad firm DoubleClick in 2007, it got a search-engine marketing firm called Performics as part of the deal. Obviously, Google would have to let Performics go -- federal regulators would never let the dominant search company own a search marketing company.

Except Page wanted to keep it, just to see how it worked. (Google sold Performics to advertising conglomerate Publicis Groupe in 2008.)

Back then, Page had a tempering force in Eric Schmidt, who was the company's CEO and was originally brought in by its investors to provide "adult supervision."

But since Page reclaimed the CEO title, the brakes are off. In his first five months, Page has reorganized the company to his liking, cut a bunch of marginal projects like Google Health and mobile app maker Slide, launched a social network to compete with Facebook and bid $12.5 billion to buy Motorola's mobile phone business.

Now, antitrust investigators are circling Google -- just like they did with Microsoft. Europe has already launched a formal investigation, and the U.S. Federal Trade Commission is taking a close look as well.

As Google keeps expanding with big, bold moves, Page will find himself thrust into the spotlight like he's never been before. For Google's sake, here's hoping he handles it with more grace than Gates.

Joe Carretta
The TNS Group
Formerly known as TigerNet Systems, Inc.
Office phone: 203.316.0112 x105
Office fax: 203.316.0118
Email: jcarretta@thetnsgroup.com<sviscardi@thetnsgroup.com>

Angie's List to go Public

2011-08-29T14:29:00.002-04:00

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Angie's List, a site where members can hire and review local contractors for auto or home services, filed Thursday to raise up to $75 million in an initial public offering.

Angie's List was founded in 1995, and at the ripe age of 16 the company is much older than its fellow Internet companies who have recently filed for IPOs -- including Groupon, LinkedIn and Pandora. It has amassed around 2.2 million reviews on its website.

But like most of its younger IPO-ing counterparts, Angie's List is not profitable. In 2010, the company reported a $27.2 million net loss on sales of $59 million.

For the first six months of 2011, Angie's List lost $25.8 million on revenue of $38.6 million.

Angie's List has two revenue streams. When the site launches in a new area, it offers free memberships to attract new users and reviews. After about two years, the new market is converted to paid memberships, where readers have to pay to access reviews. An Angie's List representative said rates vary by market, but subscriptions cost an average of $6 per month.

The site is now in 170 paid membership markets in the U.S., and as of June 30 it had more than 820,000 paying members.

Angie's List also lets service providers who are highly rated by its members advertise discounts and other promotions on the site. As of June 30, more than 192,000 of the 761,000 service providers reviewed on Angie's List were eligible to advertise.

Only 10% of the eligible service providers were advertising as of June 30, but that business makes up most of Angie's List's revenue. In 2010, service providers paid $33.9 million and members paid $25.1 million in fees.

Busy 2011 for tech IPOs: This year has been chock-full of Internet IPOs -- many from companies that have yet to turn a profit.

This month daily-deals site Groupon updated its IPO filing to change an accounting metric, which drew closer attention to its history of steep losses.

Professional networking site LinkedIn's (LNKD) shares more than doubled in its May IPO, even though the company turned only slight profits in 2010 and 2006, and has otherwise has been in the red every year since its 2003 inception. The stock is still trading well above its IPO price.

Pandora (P) shares also fared well, even though the unprofitable company had warned investors that it expected to continue losing money "through at least fiscal 2012."

But on Thursday, Pandora reported that it earned 2 cents per share last quarter on a non-GAAP basis, excluding stock-based compensation expenses. Using traditional accounting, Pandora lost $1.8 million for the quarter on sales of $67 million.

Joe Carretta

The End of an Era

2011-08-25T13:32:00.000-04:00

Apple CEO and co-founder Steve Jobs resigned today as chief executive officer from Apple. His place at the top of the company will be taken by Tim Cook, previously Apple's chief operating officer.

The Steve Jobs era

Some notable moments for Jobs and his companies over the years.

1976
Co-founds Apple with Steve Wozniak.

1984
Apple introduces the Mac.

1985
CEO John Sculley engineers Jobs' ouster from Apple.

1985
Founds Next Computer (later becomes Next Software).

1986
Buys computer graphics division of LucasFilm, to be renamed Pixar.

1996
Returns to Apple as adviser when Apple buys Next Software

1997
Named interim CEO of Apple.

2001
Apple introduces iTunes software and the iPod; the iTunes store follows in 2003.

2006
Disney buys Pixar; Jobs becomes largest shareholder.

2007
Apple introduces the iPhone.

2009
Takes 6-month leave of absence for medical reasons.

2010
Apple introduces the iPad.

January 2011
Takes medical leave of absence.

August 2011
Resigns as CEO, becomes chairman. Tim Cook becomes CEO.

Jobs has been dogged by a string of health problems in recent years that forced him to take periodic leaves of absence from the company. Jobs announced in January that he was taking an indefinite medical leave from Apple--his third in recent years--and handed over day-to-day responsibility to Cook. He told his employees in January, "I love Apple so much and hope to be back as soon as I can."

In January 2009, Jobs said that he was suffering from a hormone imbalance that was impeding his body's ability to absorb certain proteins. In April of that year, Jobs underwent liver transplant surgery and returned to work by early July. In August 2004, Jobs underwent successful surgery to treat a rare form of pancreatic cancer, which sidelined him until September of that year.

In a separate note to Apple's board members and the Apple community today, Jobs said that he was no longer up to the job of CEO.

"I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple's CEO, I would be the first to let you know. Unfortunately, that day has come," Jobs said.

Jobs concluded by saying that "Apple's brightest and most innovative days are ahead of it," and that he looks forward to contributing as Apple's chairman of the board, director, and as an Apple employee if the board allows it.

Cook, 50, joined Apple in 1998 and was promoted to COO in 2004. He has long been Jobs' right-hand executive, heading up shareholders meetings and earnings calls with Wall Street investors, and acting as a figurehead at product introductions.

The Jobs era

One of the most legendary businessmen in American history, Jobs turned three separate industries on their head in the 35 or so years he has been involved in the technology industry.

Personal computing was largely invented with the launch of the Apple II in 1977. Legal digital-music recordings were brought into the mainstream with the iPod and iTunes in the early 2000s, and mobile phones were never the same after the 2007 debut of the iPhone. Jobs played an instrumental role in the development of all three, and managed to find time to transform the art of computer-generated movie-making on the side.

The release of the iPad in 2010, a touch-screen tablet computer his competitors flocked to reproduce, could be considered the capstone of his career as a technologist. A conceptual hybrid of a touch-screen iPod and a slate computer, the 10-inch mobile device was Jobs' vision for a more personal computing device.

bs is considered brilliant yet brash. He values elegance in design yet is almost never seen in public wearing anything but a black mock turtleneck, blue jeans, and a few days' worth of stubble. A master salesman who considers himself an artist at heart, Jobs inspires both reverence and fear in those who work for him and against him, and is adored by an army of loyal Apple customers.

Jobs was born in San Francisco in 1955 and moved out of the city five years later to the Santa Clara Valley, later to be known as Silicon Valley. He grew up in Mountain View and Cupertino, where Apple's headquarters are located.

He attended Reed College in Portland, Ore., for a year but dropped out, although he sat in on some classes that interested him, such as calligraphy. After a brief stint at Atari working on video games, he spent time backpacking around India, furthering teenage experiments with psychedelic drugs and developing an interest in Buddhism, all of which would shape his work at Apple.

Back in California, Jobs' friend Steve Wozniak was learning the skills that would change both their lives. When Jobs discovered that Wozniak had been assembling relatively (for the time) small computers, he struck a partnership, and Apple Computer was founded in 1976 in the usual Silicon Valley fashion: setting up shop in the home of one of the founder's parents.

Wozniak handled the technical end, creating the Apple I, while Jobs ran sales and distribution. The company sold a few hundred of the Apple I, but found much greater success with the Apple II, which put the company on the map and is largely credited as having proven that regular people wanted computers.

It also made Jobs and Wozniak rich. Apple went public in 1980, and Jobs was well on his way to becoming one of the first tech industry celebrities, earning a reputation for brilliance, arrogance, and the sheer force of his will and persuasion, often jokingly referred to as his "reality-distortion field."

The debut of the Macintosh in 1984 left no doubt that Apple was a serious player in the computer industry, but Jobs only had a little more than a year left at the company he founded when the Mac was released in January 1984.

Is Innovation Slowing Down?

2011-08-23T16:45:00.002-04:00

Interesting article via CNET

http://news.cnet.com/8301-31921_3-20096067-281/peter-thiel-thinks-tech-innovation-has-stalled/?tag=topImage

ASPEN, Colo.--One of the Internet's most influential investors and entrepreneurs is offering a dire prediction: the pace of technological change is stagnating.

Peter Thiel, a co-founder of PayPal and early investor in Facebook, warned that--despite spectacular advances in computer-related fields over the last few decades--technological progress overall is actually "stalled out."

"There's been insane progress in computers, Internet, and all things related to it," Thiel told a conference here organized by the Technology Policy Institute last night. "It's been offset by incredible failure in energy. To a first order, the two things have cancelled each other out."

Among his examples: With the Concorde's last flight in 2003, the top speed at which people can travel has ceased to improve. Real oil prices are higher than during the Carter administration. Median wages in the United States have increased by only 10 percent since 1973 using government inflation data, and not at all using alternate calculations.

"We're no longer living in a society that cares much about science or technology," Thiel said.

Our lofty expectations from half a century ago about the ever-increasing pace of technological change have given way to more modest aspirations, he said: "Anybody today who talks about space jets and lunar vacations and flying cars is someone who's probably coming from another planet."

Thiel has placed his money where his beliefs are. In May, the Thiel Foundation announced the first 24 recipients of a fellowship that awards $100,000 each to youth under 20 years old--essentially encouraging them to drop out of college to become entrepreneurs. The Founders Fund, where he's a managing partner, has invested in aerospace, robotics, and biotechnology in addition to consumer Internet companies including Slide and Spotify.

In December, he organized a "Breakthrough Philanthropy" event at San Francisco's Palace of Fine Arts that allowed tech-oriented nonprofit groups to present brief pitches on why members of the audience should support potentially world-changing ideas like life extension. Thiel also has donated more than $1 million to the Seasteading Institute, which would like to see the world's oceans colonized (see related CNET article).

Joe Carretta
The TNS Group
Formerly known as TigerNet Systems, Inc.
Office phone: 203.316.0112 x105
Office fax: 203.316.0118
Email: jcarretta@thetnsgroup.com<sviscardi@thetnsgroup.com>

Be a 5 Tool Contributor

2011-08-19T11:40:00.003-04:00

John Stroili, COO of The TNS Group offered the following analogy between a 5 tool player in baseball, and a 5 tool sales person.

Ability to sell in all settings
Adequately technical where “adequately” is defined as meeting the minimum amount of technical proficiency demanded by the role (sales, engineering, etc.)
Excellent verbal and written communication skills
Strong Microsoft Office skills – Ability to be self sufficient and create quality written documents (Proposals (Word), ROIs (Excel), Project Plans (Project), Presentations (PowerPoint), etc.)
Well polished in front of a client

If you can attain proficiency in all of these sectors, you can be a well rounded, and more often that not, successful in many aspects of IT sales and business development.

When is the Next iPhone Coming

2011-08-17T15:53:00.002-04:00

An article from CNET.com

The iPhone 5 could go on sale on Friday, October 7, with preorders to start on September 30, according to the latest rumors in the ongoing saga of the hotly anticipated next edition of Apple's smartphone.

Citing intel from its own sources, 9To5Mac said yesterday that Apple had been eyeing either October 7 or October 14 as potential iPhone 5 launch dates. But with preproduction apparently running smoothly, the site says, Apple has opted for the earlier date.

Apple will reportedly offer the phone for preorder a week before it hits store shelves, looking at either September 29 or 30, though 9To5Mac's sources pin the 30th as the most likely date. Assuming the preorder date is accurate, at least for now, that also means Apple would have to hold its iPhone 5 unveiling sometime in September. Apple typically shows off new iPhones and iPads at high-visibility media gatherings some days or weeks ahead of the devices going on sale.

The October 7 date has also been floated by TiPb. However, the tech news site suggests taking the reports with a grain of salt since even if the date is on the money at this point, Apple's plans are fluid. Even 9To5Mac admits that "the date could and likely will change again."

But October itself has been strongly suggested as the launch month for the iPhone 5 by All Things D's Kara Swisher, pointing to information from her own sources.

Related stories:
* iPhone 5 rumor roundup
* September iPhone 5? October iPhone 5? Why it doesn't matter
* Apple store reportedly getting a 4G LTE hookup

TiPb isn't quite sure the new phone will be an iPhone 5. The site said it keeps hearing that the device will be an iPhone 4S with some improvements but the same design as the existing phone, a rumor that's been around for awhile.

Other reports say that Apple will launch two phones--the new and improved iPhone 5 and a more budget-friendly iPhone 4S, one that may even tap into the company's iCloud service to provide cloud-based storage. TiPb says that the debut of two new phones from Apple could explain the conflicting rumors that it's heard.

And yet other reports have put a potential iPhone launch date as early as September 7.

Adding further tidbits to the iPhone 5 saga, Macpost has published images purporting to be of replacement parts for the new phone. Replacement parts such as a camera lens and an audio jack have recently popped up online among different Chinese resellers, according to the site, and show some subtle differences from parts for the iPhone 4.

Finally, global carrier Telefonica will reportedly start cutting back on its stock of the iPhone 4 through September 12. Revealing the news, Engadget cited a source who said that such a move "will of course prepare us for the launch of a new smartphone." The source didn't offer up a specific date when the new phone will debut, though Engadget said it's heard that the launch will occur in October.

Joe Carretta

Google Making POWER Moves

2011-08-15T08:11:00.002-04:00

Google is buying cell phone maker Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion in cash in what is by far the company's biggest acquisition to date.

Google Inc. will pay $40.00 per share, a 63 percent premium to Motorola's closing price on Friday.

The companies say the deal has been approved by the boards of both.

Google CEO Larry Page says that the deal with "supercharge the entire Android ecosystem."

The deal gives Google direct control over the maker of many of its Android phones.

In premarket trading, shares of Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc. are up 60 percent, or $14.72, to $39.19.

Joe Carretta

Apple iCloud is Here

2011-08-02T10:19:00.002-04:00

According to an article on CNN Apple's iCloud.com website has gone live, allowing developers to test out the online version of MobileMe's replacement.

At the same time, beta versions of the iWork suite for iOS and iPhoto have also been made available. And inevitably, many details have already leaked to the web.

iCloud is Apple's new "sync" service. When you create or edit a photo or document on your iPhone, iPad, Mac or Windows PC, it is automatically pushed to any other device you have chosen.

Thus, you can snap photos on your iPhone and have them ready to edit on your iPad in seconds, along with a safe backup on your home Mac.

The iCloud.com site is the online home for your data. There's a calendar, an address book, a mail web app, access to the Find My iPhone service and a new section called "iWork." These all look a lot like their iOS counterparts, right down to the icons.

WIRED: Apple announces iCloud, Steve Jobs WWDC keynote

This is no surprise, as even the awful MobileMe used a very iPad-like interface for its Mail web app.

Most interesting are the online versions of Pages, Numbers and Keynote. Posted screenshots show that there is no editing or even viewing functionality yet. Visitors are told instead to launch the apps on their iOS device and switch on iCloud.

Perhaps there will never be a way to view your documents on the web, or maybe it will be added before the official launch.

Right now there doesn't seem to be any way to view your photos at iCloud.com.

WIRED: iCloud -- data in forefront, devices in background

Windows users needn't feel left out, either. Also available is the iCloud Control Panel for Windows (beta 3), which lets you configure iCloud on the PC. Photo Stream, contacts and calendars are supported, and presumably iWork documents might somehow be wrangled to open on the PC, too.

Cloud backup is also working in devices running the latest iOS 5 beta. You can choose to back up your camera roll (photos actually taken with the device), accounts, documents and settings to iCloud automatically whenever the iDevice is plugged in to power.

This is essential for anyone using an iPad as their main machine, and not tied to a computer with iTunes.

iCloud is free, and comes with 5GB storage. You can also pay for more. $20 per year will buy you 10GB storage, $40 will get you 50GB and for $100 you will get 50GB.

WIRED: iCloud's the limit -- how iOS 5, Lion push Apple's strategy

But before you rush out and spend the extra, remember that iCloud's storage quota doesn't include your photos, your iTunes music, you apps or your purchased books. In fact, 5GB looks like more than enough for most people. Extra storage can be purchased from within the iCloud settings app on your iOS device.

The iCloud service will launch to the public along with iOS 5, some time in September.

Read the full article : http://www.cnn.com/2011/TECH/web/08/02/icloud.goes.live.wired/index.html?hpt=hp_p1&iref=NS1

Joe Carretta
The TNS Group
Formerly known as TigerNet Systems, Inc.
Office phone: 203.316.0112 x105
Office fax: 203.316.0118
Email: jcarretta@thetnsgroup.com<sviscardi@thetnsgroup.com>

Gearing up For Apple Season

2011-07-26T10:50:00.002-04:00

An article on CNET Apple and AT&T are both reportedly gearing up their employees for September, the month that the iPhone 5 is expected to launch, according to several reports.

Apple will be bumping up its staff in U.S. retail Apple stores early this fall, according to MacRumors. This follows prior reports of Apple looking to increase staffing in the U.K. from August through October as noted by SlashGear and other tech news sites.

Apple is also bringing back former employees to work part-time for holidays, product launches, and the back-to-school season, added MacRumors, citing a former employee who received an invite to work between August 15 and September 15.

Of course, boosting retail staff around the end of summer is likely a response to more traffic from students going back to school, noted MacRumors. But the timing does coincide with the weeks that Apple would need to prep the iPhone 5 for its retail shelves if the new phone is to launch this fall.

AT&T has also reportedly been revving up its employees to prepare for more foot traffic at its stores in September, a source told Boy Genius Report. The carrier has asked its managers and employees to finish any current training as soon as possible so that they can be available at that time.

The iPhone's other U.S. carrier is anticipating a fall rollout for the next model. Incoming Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam recently said he expects the next iPhone to debut in the fall, though even he isn't sure.

"You will have to ask Apple that, but we expect that probably sometime in the fall, and I think you will see a significant jump there when we get to that point," McAdam said last Friday during a conference call.

The next iPhone has been the subject of varied rumors over the past few months. Some reports say the next iPhone will be only a minor update to the iPhone 4, while other reports have pointed to a entirely new and improved model iPhone 5. Though a variety of launch dates have been bandied about, some of the latest sources have pointed to a fall release, specifically sometime in September.

Joe Carretta

20 Most Expensive Google Keywords

2011-07-20T09:08:00.002-04:00

According to Wired.com Google is now making $3 billion a month in advertising - the majority of which comes from little text ads next to search results.

You might wonder how that's possible, and who's spending that much money on search ads.

The answer, according to Larry Kim - the founder of a company that sells software to analyze text ad campaigns - is in industries where a customer is worth a lot of money over the long-term.

Wordstream, Kim's company, analyzed search terms that advertisers pay the most to have their ads show up next to, and grouped the top 10,000 by industry, using its own software. They multiplied the so-called cost-per-click - what advertisers pay Google for each time someone clicks on their ads - times the number of times people search on that word. They then divided that pie up by keywords that fit different industries.

The top industry? Insurance, where companies eager to outbid their rivals for new customers pay Google more than $54 for a click. Together they make up 24 percent of Google's revenues from search advertising, according to Wordstream's calculations. Companies in the business of issuing loans come second, with CPC rates of more than $44 - providing nearly 13 percent of Google's revenues.

"There are lots of lawyers finding clients," Kim said. "Even if they have to pay for 50 to 100 clicks to get a client, they can get that back in a court case that last for years, all the while billing $500 an hour. The same thing happens with CRM software, where companies pay a high month fee."

(For more on how Google prices ads and tries to ensure ads are relevant, check out this great feature story from Wired Magazine about the money-making machine that is Google ad auctions.)

Speaking of lawyers, the mortgage and legal industries show up third and fourth, respectively.

Rounding out the top 20 is an odd entry - Cord Blood.

"I didn't know what that was," Kim told Wired.com. "Turns out the industry has to with rich parents preserving their child's umbilical cord with idea that the stem cells in it will be able to cure diseases in the future. And storage of cord blood has huge upfront cost and substantial ongoing payments."

Again - an industry that can make lots of money from a customer over a long period of time - making it not unwise to pay $27 per click, even if only one out of 50 of those who click on the ad actually signs up for your service.

The top 20 categories account for about 70 percent of Google's ad revenues, according to Wordstream's calculations. Wordstream, which offers some free keyword analysis tools, sells software that lets companies and search engine marketing consultants organize and manage their advertising campaigns.

As for the remaining 30 percent?

About 1000 different categories combine to make up that last 30 percent, each getting thinner and thinner - which Kim refers to as the "Long Tail," a reference to the Wired magazine article and later book by Chris Anderson. Those categories together "represent a tremendous amount of spend," Kim said.

This blog is a re-post from WIRED

Twitter Hashtags Coming to Google +

2011-07-18T16:22:00.002-04:00

By adding a single character to Twitter's vocabulary nearly four years ago -- # -- Chris Messina unlocked a wealth of useful information in Twitter.

Now he wants to bring the same creation, called a hashtag, to Google+.

Hashtags are terms beginning with the pound sign, also called a hash, for easy identification as a recognizable label.

Examples include #wwc hashtag for women's World Cup soccer or the ever-popular #fail hashtag for complaining when things go wrong. By following a particular hashtag, it can be easier to concentrate on content you might be interested in.

Messina sees hashtags as, ideally, a way that people can sift their Google+ "stream"--the collection of posts from all people a Google+ user follows.

"Lots of people have requested the ability to target content [to] their followers based on topic (i.e. only share content to people who are following me AND interested in, say, comics). Since the product doesn't support that kind of targeting, I'm just making something up, like I did with hashtags back in 2007," Messina said in a Google+ post; last week. But so far it's a manual process: "So, if you see 3 to 4 topic hashtags at the beginning of my posts (like subject lines but for topics), they're there so people can choose to ignore my post if they're uninterested."

The move is a bit surprising--not that Messina and others would want hashtags, but that Google, a company obsessed with organizing information and making it accessible, didn't do so itself.

Just because Google didn't build the feature into Google+ on day one doesn't mean the company has rejected it, of course. Google is particularly fond of releasing projects as early as possible then updating them as rapidly as possible. Public feedback on Google+ can help steer priorities for the company.

One possibility would be to augment Google+ with tagging abilities that parallel the service's linked names. By typing "+username" into Google+, the service inserts a live link to that user's posts. A "#" operator could similarly link to a live search of Google+ posts using the hashtag, though Google might need to work on presentation to balance how relevant and recent a post is and to show private posts shared with the person doing the searching. People also could follow a particular hashtag the way they can watch a particular circle's comments in the stream.

While Messina brough hashtags to Twitter, tags themselves long predate it. The Flickr photo-sharing service and Delicious bookmarking service use tags extensively, for example.

And Google itself has shown some appreciation for tags. Gmail labels, for example, are tags that can be applied to any message, and Google Docs collections work the same way.

Courtesy of CNET<http://www.cnet.com/>.com

Joe Carretta
Data-Tele Contractors
www.data-tele.net
Office phone: 201.229.0229
Cell Phone: 201.993.0494
Email: jcarretta@data-tele.net<sviscardi@thetnsgroup.com>

Please consider the environment before printing this email.

Autobot, Decepticon, or Router...

2011-07-13T09:59:00.003-04:00

For anyone who has seen Transformers 3 and works in Information Technology should know what this blog is going to be about. If you do not, well then you simply do not have as watchful an eye as I do.
During the third and final piece of The Transformers Trilogy, we saw the fine art of product placement moving beyond pristine looking new cards that morph into highly advanced machines and into the world of networking.
Still unsure of where this is going?
At least half a dozen times throughout the movie, audience members were granted with a front row seat to Cisco equipment in use at numerous terms. Whether hosting a teleconference from space, building an elaborate in home alien robot tracking network, or simply adjusting the FBI's internet access, Cisco's logo and products were front and center.
The placement was subtle when compared to past Transformer movies that had me questioning every Corvette or Denali I saw speed past me (robots in disguise??). But then again blowing an air horn is subtle when compared to the sound of the Transiberian Orchestra.
Will the future in Information Technology advertising be product placement?
Did anyone else notice this but me?
Feedback is always appreciated, but never expected.

PS: http://www.google.com/search?q=cisco+product+placement+transformers&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

Joe Carretta

How Google+ Can Become the "Next Facebook"

2011-07-11T10:45:00.003-04:00

Great article from CNN about how Google+ can catch Facebook.

If Google+ wants to be the next Facebook, it has to capture the key demographic that drove Facebook's early growth: college students, who blast out status updates and multimedia messages about as often as they blink.

The new social networking venture is still in trial mode with a limited number of users, but a swarm of twentysomethings are already kicking its tires. It's the features that Google (GOOG, Fortune 500) pitches as unique -- the detailed privacy controls of "Circles" and the "hangout" group video chat -- that have college-aged users the most intrigued.

"The ability to have more control over who sees my profile and activity is certainly a major plus," Harsh Sinha, a finance and computer science major at New York University, says of Circles. "It addresses a big concern."

Privacy is one area where Google -- despite its past stumbles -- may have an opening to edge past its rivals. Rachel Kraus, a recent graduate of Stanford University, says she started off with a higher regard for Google than its competitors: "I saw Facebook and Twitter as marketing tools, not social networks for my benefit," she says. "But I joined Google+ immediately because I trust that Google makes its products for the benefit of Internet consumers. Even the data they give away seems unobtrusive, and actually makes being on the Internet more efficient and specific to the kind of information I'm consuming."

Google+ is also appealing to those drawn to a clean slate. "Now that we have all learned what a social network really is, and realized that it doesn't really help to have 1000+ friends, I look forward to starting afresh with Google+ by only adding the people that I regularly keep in contact with," says Kim Saloner, a psychology major from Stanford.

But prying people away from their existing social networks won't be easy.

"Most people already have a Facebook that is well established," says Sinha from NYU. "They need a reason to divide their time and online lives."

Count Jenny Wales, a product design major at Stanford, among those who don't want to make that effort.

"No matter how much better or different Google+ is, there is no replacement for the five years of people, photos and comments I have access to on Facebook," she says. "I like that I can read about and relive those memories on Facebook."

Right now, college students are the youngest users Google is targeting: Google+ is restricted to those 18 and over. A Google spokeswoman said that rule will remain in place "until the right teen safety features [are] in place," so that younger users "are not seeing content they shouldn't be seeing."

Read the full article here

Video Chat and Bell Bottoms and Facebook and Skype

2011-07-07T13:32:00.002-04:00

According to our friends over at CNET<http://www.cnet.com/> Video chat is the big thing again, (like bell bottoms once were) at least according to Facebook, which let loose a new video chat service yesterday. Powered by Skype, the new feature lets Facebook users start video calls with one another while continuing to use the site.

While other video chat tools may have been built on top of Facebook's application platform, this now comes out of the box for Facebook users, old and new. The result is that Facebook's added yet another way for its 750 million users to communicate with one another.

But moving beyond the hype, the big thing you're probably wondering is how this new service stacks up to the groovy video chat tools found in Google+, the social network Google recently launched as a "field trial" (see CNET's hands-on). One of its crowning features, besides providing an alternative to Facebook, is that you can video chat with your friends in multiple ways. How do the two compare? The short of it is that Facebook is simpler to use. The longer answer is that you might be happier with Google in day-to-day use.

To help illustrate that, I've delved into some things you might want to do with these services to see how they really compare. The best way to do that is with common scenarios you'd run into when wanting to video chat with someone else. Below are five I ran into when putting both services through their paces (Google+ over the past week, and Facebook's all of today).

Scenario: You want to video chat with a technologically impaired friend/family member

How it plays out on Facebook: Facebook's added a video call item to every user profile to let you (or them) start a chat from that page. If they've never used the feature before, Facebook has them download a tiny plug-in file to run, which installs without requiring a browser restart. They then click on a button that confirms they want to chat, and the video starts up.
Want to start a video chat with someone on Facebook? It's hard to miss the option to do it.

Want to start a video chat with someone on Facebook? It's hard to miss the option to do it.
(Credit: Josh Lowensohn/CNET)

Arguably the most difficult part in all this is getting someone to download that plug-in and install it. Facebook says it only takes about 10 to 20 seconds, but you're going to want to make sure your friend or family member can actually find the plug-in installer file in the first place. Luckily, modern Web browsers do a pretty good job nowadays with helping you locate what you just downloaded. Facebook also does a bit of hand-holding here, telling you what to do to first get going.

How it plays out on Google+: Pretty much the same deal as on Facebook with regards to the plug-in aspect. The big difference is in where Google surfaces the video chat option.

There are two points of entry to get a video chat going: the chat list on the left hand side and the hangouts feature. These are entirely different chat experiences, with the chat being a one-to-one experience, and the hangouts being a place where you can chat with one or more users at the same time. Between the two options, it's easier to search for, and find someone to talk with from Google+'s home page using the chat tool. Facebook arguably has the edge here in keeping its buddy list equivalent on the same part of your screen at all times--something that's useful for folks who get lost easily.

Full article can be found here: http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-20077359-2/facebook-and-google-s-video-chat-tools-compared/?tag=topStories2

Joe Carretta

Google Showing Symptoms of Something Viral?

2011-07-06T17:09:00.001-04:00

An interesting look at the way Google went viral today thanks to our friends at geek.com

Full article can be seen here.
http://www.geek.com/articles/mobile/googles-releases-nexus-contraptions-rube-goldberg-game-2011076/

We’ve seen some pretty cool advertisements for phones in the past. Take the commercial for the Touch Wood SH-08C that featured a Rube Goldberg-esque creation of a wooden ball rolling through a homemade xylophone in the middle of a peaceful woodland scene, for example. Google has created an equally cool Rube Goldberg advertisement for its Nexus S phone, and instead of a video, Google has offered up an interactive game.

The game, called Nexus Contraptions, is more like a puzzle. It features sharp graphics, crisp sound effects, and all sorts of physics and gadgets that would make Goldberg proud. The goal is to get the little app balls into a funnel by building Rube Goldberg-like machines. There are fans, bombs, rubber band-contraptions, bubbles, magnets, and time-warps. There are four levels for each app – Gmail, Google Maps, Search, and YouTube — and each gets increasingly harder.

A timer counts the seconds of each level and your overall time. If you beat the top scores, you can put your name in the Nexus Contraptions Hall of Fame. The game is super addictive, so make sure to put aside a good 15 to 20 minutes of your day to complete the four levels. Some of the levels are downright hard, and make you wish you had the Angry Bird’s Mighty Eagle to clear the level for you.

You Want Me To Give You What?

2011-06-30T14:49:00.006-04:00

I'm sure that nobody wants to be inundated with demands from legal counsel to produce electronic communications based on a litigation hold; All the while preserving the chain-of-custody with produceable audit trails confirming the validity of ESI (Electronically Stored Information.) This is becoming more and more prevalent as we head further into our sophisticated IT future. E-Mail is not even the focal point at times, but rather instant messages, social media and the likes are now coming into question for legal purposes. There may come a time when an IT admin's dreams turn into nightmares when they're confronted with pending litigation.

Here's an excerpt from The Electronic Reference Discovery Model (edrm.net.) Click here for the full article:

"To contain mounting discovery costs and better manage risk, roundtable participants noted that organizations need to start taking steps now to both (1) establish and enforce information governance policies and (2) put into place the necessary procedures and tools for reducing the volume of data whenever litigation matters arise. Staying on top of emerging challenges, such as social media and mobile devices, and maintaining awareness of the international legal landscape were also viewed as important measures for organizations to take. Most believe that organizations that choose to invest the time and effort to proactively prepare will ultimately be well positioned to make the best possible business decisions when it comes to managing the cost and risk of complex litigation and compliance."

At any given time, your company could be required by law to produce any number of relevant electronic communications. Will your company be ready?

~TNS

Is it Neccessary to Get the New iPhone

2011-06-30T09:32:00.001-04:00

The iPhone turns 4 years old Wednesday.

By that we mean the "original iPhone," the one Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced in January 2007 and that went on sale -- to much fanfare and talk about a mobile "revolution" -- on June 29 that year.

It's hard to overstate the importance of that product on mobile computing, a field that really didn't exist until Apple came out with what was, at the time at least, probably the "smartest" and easiest to use of the smartphones.

In a presentation before showing off the iPhone -- which has a big touch screen and basically one button, a huge step away from the clickity-clack keyboards and postage-stamp screens of the day -- Jobs joked that Apple was just going to slap a rotary phone dial on top of an old-school iPod.

"Today Apple is going to reinvent the phone -- and here it is," he said. A picture of the rotary iPod-phone came on screen, to laughs.

That day in 2007 may seem like forever ago -- or just yesterday.

In technology, four years is an eternity. And the specs of the original iPhone do, in some respects, reflect how much has changed in that time.

The iPhone 4 shaved 2.3 millimeters off its waistline compared with the original iPhone, which was 11.6 millimeters thick. The new phone's camera is better -- 5 megapixels instead of 2. Its screen is sharper. Its processor is significantly faster, of course. And there's an app store now to support many new iPhone features, which didn't exist in June 2007.

The prices have changed, too.

The original iPhone, with 4 gigabytes of storage, went on sale for $500.

An iPhone 4 with 16 gigabytes of storage now costs $200 with a contract.

(Fun tech history aside: Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer literally laughed at the iPhone's price in a 2007 interview: "$500?! Fully subsidized?! With a plan?!" he said in a voice that climbed into opera-singer octaves. "I said that's the most expensive phone in the world, and it doesn't appeal to business customers because it doesn't have a keyboard. ...")

But put the original iPhone next to the iPhone 4, and they do look really similar.

Perhaps that's a good thing.

"The soul of the original is clearly still in place," Alex Rainert, the product head at Foursquare, wrote in response to a question about the iPhone on Twitter.

Maybe not all that much has changed.

"I think the original iPhone would still be a decent phone to use for a lot of people," said Roberto Sarjoo, a 27-year-old in Toronto who has owned all four iPhone versions. "The processing power would be slow, but because they've updated the software it's easier to use. ... It would still be a great phone."
January: Verizon announces iPhone 4

Apple, however, no longer supports the original iPhone. The fourth version of Apple's mobile operating system -- iOS 4 -- doesn't work at all on the original. And only limited features work on the iPhone 3G.

Some Apple fans still get nostalgic about the original phone.

"It was like nothing on the market -- nothing like anything anyone had seen before. It was exciting and addictive at the same time," said Henry Mbadugha, a 27-year-old in New Jersey who has owned each iPhone model.

At this point, pretty much any degree of Apple fanaticism is hardly surprising. People wait in overnight lines to get new iPhone models. Apparently some kid had an iPhone-themed birthday party.

This got us wondering: Is anyone out there actually celebrating the iPhone's fourth birthday? If so, let us know in the comments section

This is a repost of a CNN.com tech blog - which can be found here-
http://www.cnn.com/2011/TECH/innovation/06/29/original.iphone.four.years/index.html

Googling on Up.. or Down

2011-03-09T12:06:00.003-05:00

Thanks to the individuals over at Titan SEO. This blog is a based on theirs - which can be read here

Google has made yet another update to its ever-changing algorithm, and this time it is a change that will affect a whopping 11.8 percent of its search results.

Last week, Google announced its latest algorithm change will decrease the rankings for sites with a reputation for having low-quality or second-hand content. These sites are often called "content farms" or "scraper" sites, and although Google has declined to specifically name the type of site the new algorithm will be punishing, they have been clear that they want the change to affect sites known for copying the majority of their content from other websites.

One concern for many sites such as eHow, which carries both shallow and deep content, is that they will be penalized for the low-quality content but not necessarily rewarded for the high-quality information. Another unfortunate result of this update is that some clearly non-spam sites were also penalized. For example, ecommerce sites that included manufacturer-provided product descriptions for their merchandise were penalized if another site used those same descriptions.

However, a good measure of the effectiveness of the new algorithm is the external confirmation that 84% of the sites affected were among the top 50 sites most commonly flagged by users as "spam". These are the sites that typically look for the top search trends and generate a small amount of poor quality content on the cheap, and it shows. Luckily for the searcher, most of these sites are the ones you hope will disappear.

Hold onto Your MicroChips

2011-03-07T14:35:00.002-05:00

According to an article from CNET.com China will install CPUs developed by government-backed research institutions into a test supercomputer by the end of 2011.

The Loongson microchips will underpin the Dawning 6000 high-performance computing system, which is scheduled to be available for tasks as early as summer, China's state-owned People's Daily Online publication reported.

The Dawning 6000 will use up to 10,000 Loongson microchips and will eventually have a computing speed of more than 1,000 trillion operations a second, according to the article. (1,000 trillion operations are equal to a petaflop.)

For perspective, the Chinese Tianhe-1A leads the Top500 list of the world's fastest supercomputers, with a consistent speed of 2.5 petaflops and a theoretical peak of 4.7 petaflops.

Is the Cloud Falling From the Sky?

2011-03-01T10:27:00.003-05:00

An article on ZDnet outlined an incident that affects anyone who puts information up on the aforementioned “cloud”..
First of all what is a cloud?
Cloud computing describes computation, software, data access, and storage services that do not require end-user knowledge of the physical location and configuration of the system that delivers the services. Parallels to this concept can be drawn with the electricity grid where end-users consume power resources without any necessary understanding of the component devices in the grid required to provide the service.
The blogosphere was buzzing Monday with news of Google’s Gmail outage. ZDNet’s Larry Dignan outlined backup options, while young Zack Whittaker could barely contain his glee that Microsoft wasn’t alone in hosing a major webmail product. And yet, despite the inconvenience, the sky simply isn’t falling. The cloud is alive and well and Gmail remains one heck of a safe place to store your email (and everything else for that matter).
The outage referred to an incident last week when Google lost 38,00 users email account information. Basically for these affected users, their Gmail homepage looked like it did the first day they singed up for the service. This called into question obvious concerns regarding the safety of the cloud as a storage hub for individuals information.
As Christopher Dawson explains, Every time something like this happens, cloud naysayers take the opportunity to tell us why it’s a bad idea to store valuable information out in this mythical, mystical cloud. Those naysayers are usually no fans of Google, since the web giant has so much riding on cloud strategies and would just love for all of us to join them in embracing the unseen, distributed web. It’s not like Google has a competing desktop product for what it does. The Chrome OS only solidifies the idea that computers need merely be portals to the web with anything of value stored and synced across Google’s servers.
Therefore we are all left with our fingers crossed, and are eyes turned up toward the Google gods, hoping that every time we punch in our UN’s and PW’s that we see our electronic correspondence safe and sound up on the cloud.

Is ThunderBolt the Answer?

2011-02-25T16:08:00.002-05:00

This article is a reprint from www.cnet.com

Intel's long-awaited Light Peak technology, now known formally as Thunderbolt, is finally available on its first consumer device, and the company today unveiled more details about when we'll be seeing it in consumer PCs and gadgets.

First unveiled at the Intel Developer Forum back in 2009, the data transfer tech promises to replace a handful of ports with one that can do more things, and do them faster.

Its first inclusion in a computer is in Apple's MacBook Pro line, which refreshed earlier today with Thunderbolt ports across the line (see CNET's hands-on here). Intel followed up a few hours later with a press conference about the technology, as well as its plans to bring it to computers and devices over the next year or so.

To help readers better understand what the technology is and why it matters, CNET has put together this FAQ.

What is Thunderbolt?

Thunderbolt is Intel's new input/output technology that promises to bring transfer speeds that exceed what is currently available with USB 3.0, as well as extending that speed across several devices at once. In terms of where you'll see it, Thunderbolt will appear as a new port on laptops and PCs, as well as on devices that support it.
Intel unveils Thunderbolt (photos)

The technology itself makes use of existing DisplayPort and PCI-Express data protocols to open up what you can do with a single port into multiple uses and at high speeds. This includes "daisy chaining" up to seven Thunderbolt-equipped devices together, while retaining full speed across all of them at once.

How fast is it?
Thunderbolt currently runs with a top speed of 10Gbps, though promises to one day top 100Gbps in data throughput when it moves from a copper wire to optical fiber. In the interim, copper wire has both speed and cable length limits, keeping cable length at 3 meters or less. The data transfer is also bidirectional, meaning it can both transmit and receive data at the same time, and at its top speed.

During Intel's press conference about the technology this morning, the company demonstrated it working on a MacBook Pro, pulling four raw, uncompressed 1080p video streams through a Thunderbolt storage array, and feeding into a Thunderbolt-attached display, all the while topping more than 600MBps in its transfer speeds. An earlier test of just file transferring had gotten it up to 800MBps.

To put this in perspective of what's been available up to this point, that's twice as fast as the theoretical limit of USB 3.0, 20 times faster than USB 2.0, and 12 times faster than FireWire 800.

Here's a demo from this morning's Intel press conference that gives you an idea of what it's capable of in a video editing and viewing work flow, as well as a file transfer:

Joe Carretta

HP Wary about Consumer Spending after Earnings Fall Short

2011-02-22T17:26:00.002-05:00

An article<http://news.cnet.com/8301-31021_3-20034982-260.html?tag=topStories2> on CNET<http://www.cnet.com/> stated that HP<http://www.hp.com/> is optimistic, but wary of upcoming consumer spending.

Hewlett-Packard today reported that for the first quarter of 2011, the company brought in revenue of $32.3 billion. That's an increase of 4 percent from a year ago, but slightly below what Wall Street was hoping to hear. This was a bit upsetting for Wall Street analysts who were expecting revenue between $32.75 billion and $33.59 billion, and earnings per share between $1.26 and $1.32.

HP CEO Leo Apotheker released an upbeat statement on the earnings report: "I'm pleased with our EPS and margin expansion during the quarter. Going forward, we have the opportunity to further capitalize on our customers' demands for higher value-added solutions...HP has a powerful portfolio, including exciting, recently announced cloud and connectivity offerings. We are focused on leveraging these strengths to extend our leadership and accelerate growth."
During a conference call with reporters this afternoon, HP executives gave a couple reasons for HP's miss: the company's enterprise business didn't resign or land the same number of big enterprise contracts it expected, and the consumer PC market grew slower than previously anticipated.
"We had good growth in commercial sectors and we gained share in the U.S. enterprise sector however, it was offset by continued softness in the consumer PC market," Apotheker said.
As a result, HP today revised its full year 2011 revenue forecast slightly downward from $131.5 billion to $133.5 billion to between $130 billion and $131.5 billion. CFO Cathie Lesjak explained, "We continue to remain cautious about the consumer spending environment, particularly with PCs." The enterprise business, she added, will "grow behind yearly seasonality." In other words, it will be slower than HP anticipated several months ago.

Read more: http://news.cnet.com/8301-31021_3-20034982-260.html#ixzz1EjH7NVKT

Joe Carretta

I'm Pretty Sure This is How Skynet Started

2011-02-16T13:19:00.002-05:00

For those of you who are fans of Jeopardy; there is a new champion in the house.

IBM supercomputer Watson blew away the competition Tuesday night during its Jeopardy showdown with the game show's former champions Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter, commented Ian Paul on PCworld.com.

The computer was able to answer 13 of the first 15 Jeopardy clues virtually uncontested, with one answer going to Jennings and another problem that all three contestants got wrong. Watson ended the broadcast with $35,734, followed by Rutter at $10,400 and Jennings at $4,800. The competitors will square off again Wednesday night for a final Jeopardy battle.

Watson has been having some trouble on some advanced wordplay questions, and goofed on a final Jeopardy question but still blow away the human competition.

Joe Carretta

Nokia partnered with Microsoft

2011-02-14T15:09:00.003-05:00

A recent CNN article discussed Nokia has teamed up software giant Microsoft, the two companies plan on combining their efforts in hopes of increasing market share. A part of new agreement establishes that Nokia will be adopting Windows phones as its smartphone platform and Bing will be the default search engine on all Nokia phones. In regards to Nokia, they will provide software for mapping and other programs that will be added to Microsoft’s offerings.

Early Friday morning the two chief executives announced that this strategic partnership will be long-term. Like Nokia, Microsoft‘s share of the smartphone segment begin to crumble. According Gartner, last year Nokia had dropped to 37.6% from 46.9% the year before. Since this downturn both companies have begun efforts to revamp their smartphone platforms. Microsoft developed a new smartphone late last year called Windows Phone 7. In Nokia’s case, the new system MeeGoo will be dropped in support of the Windows Phone 7. With this alliance, experts believe that both companies chance of success will improve.

Please refer to link for the full article: http://www.cnn.com/2011/TECH/mobile/02/11/nokia.microsoft/index.html

Josh Rush

The Daily Bursts Onto the Scene

2011-02-10T09:28:00.002-05:00

A new brand of newspaper is calling into the question the very definition of the word.

The Daily, is a revolutionary media product built specifically for the iPad by some of the best in the business to bring you a package that’s smart, attractive, and entertaining. On Wednesday, February 2, Rupert Murdoch, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of News Corporation, announced the launch of The Daily on the iPad. Also present were Jon Miller from News Corporation, Eddy Cue from Apple..

The Daily is free for two weeks from the time you download it to your iPad, and then becomes available through Apple’s iTunes subscription service and via the iPad App Store for $0.99 a week or $39.99 a year.

The device is looking to capitalize on the emerging marketplace for tablet computers that has swept the corporate and personal landscape. Executives who no longer wish to carry around a laptop now have the exact same capabilities on a device that is a quarter of the size and weight.. and not to mention looks pretty cool.

Slowly fading from the marketplace are the traditional Blackberry and laptops that have ruled since the turn of the 21^st century.

Social butterflies, as well as the business hungry corporate professionals are gravitating towards this new device, due to its expanded functionality. TNS has been seeing a reflection of this in its growing demand for iPad, and iPhone support, and has been circulating these devices around our engineers in rode to familiarize them with the new technologies. TNS has engineers that are competent in both MAC and Windows technologies, making us a one stop shop for all of your IT needs.

Cisco "Mozy's" up with A Backup Solution

2011-01-25T09:22:00.002-05:00

This blog is a reprint of Lucas Mearian’s article on ITnews.com

Cisco Systems today unveiled a cloud storage feature for its series of entry-level desktop NSS 300 Series Smart Storage storage arrays.

The Mozy hosted backup service, which has been added to the array's management software, is designed to let users set up automatic cloud-based backups, said David Tucker, vice president of Cisco's small business technology group.

"The Mozy feature allows you to specify the files you want backed up to the cloud on a daily basis, so it can be very painless for the customer," Tucker said. "Let's say I've got files critical for my business and want to make sure I go one step further than on-site backup. This allows you to do that."

Cisco launched the NSS 300 Series Smart Storage arrays, its first desktop storage offering, last year. The arrays consist of two-bay, four-bay and six-bay desktop network storage boxes with up to 12TB of capacity based on 2TB SATA drives.

The NSS 300 line supports file sharing and backup for Windows, Mac, and Linux platforms. It can be set up in a variety of RAID configurations including RAID 0, 1, 5 and 6 (dual-disk drive failure resiliency).

Retail pricing of the arrays, which can be configured as network-attached storage (NAS) or as iSCSI target devices, ranges from $913 to $5,625, depending on capacity and functionality.

Mozy online backup service plans start at $145 for 25GB for one year.

Joe Carretta

The TNS Group

Formerly known as TigerNet Systems, Inc.

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CES 2011 Predictions

2011-01-06T09:14:00.002-05:00

From our good friends at CNN.com comes an article analyzing the greatest trends of CES 2011.

Here is a link to the direct article
1. Tablets

Whispers that Apple was preparing to unveil a touch-screen tablet computer dominated much of the chatter inside the Las Vegas Convention Center during CES 2010.

Attendees wanted to see tablets, and they especially wanted to see what would become known as the iPad. But Apple, a notable CES holdout, unveiled its popular tablet on its own terms -- three weeks later in San Francisco.

Instead, people at last year's CES mostly got glimpses of tablet prototypes. In his CES keynote, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer previewed several tablet devices, none of which have hit the market.

That will change this year as hardware makers, eager to stake a claim in a hot new gadget category, are lining up to take on the iPad. As many as 80 tablets, some perhaps running a flavor of Windows, will be showcased at CES this week, said Gary Shapiro, head of the Consumer Electronics Association.

Motorola Mobility is expected to debut its long awaited Android 3.0 tablet through a tight-knit partnership with Google. Engadget reports that Toshiba will kick off CES with its new unnamed 10.1-inch Android tablet, and Vizio, the maker of flat-screen TVs, will jump into the tablet market.

Other contenders will emerge as well. CES 2011 could bring the dark horse that narrows Apple's early but wide tablet lead.

2. Smartphones

Cell phones have long peppered CES booths, but the increasingly high-tech communication devices may have a bigger presence than ever in 2011. That's because cellular providers, which generally skip CES, will be there in full force this week.

Verizon Wireless, the top U.S. carrier, is not likely to announce a network-ready iPhone at CES. But Verizon will host a keynote and subsequent press event at which it will likely unveil smartphones compatible with its new, faster 4G data network.

Among them may be HTC's Thunderbolt, a large touch-screen Android phone, photos of which have already leaked to the Web.

AT&T and T-Mobile USA also are each holding press events in Las Vegas just before the CES show floor opens.

And Vizio didn't wait for CES to unveil an Android smartphone Monday with a 4-inch touch screen, HD video camera and a front-facing camera for video chat.

3. 3-D and internet-connected TVs

Television in three dimensions, with eye-popping visuals and bulky glasses, was all the rage at last year's CES. Attendees and the media were intrigued, but consumers have yet to embrace the expensive technology.

While 3-D will be back again this year, along with some mobile versions and sets that don't require glasses, many observers feel the technology still has a ways to go before it catches on.

So in the meantime, get ready for a wave of so-called "smart" TV sets, with built-in operating systems and software for streaming content from the internet.

Between, Apple TV, Roku, Boxee, TiVo and other so-called "set-top" devices, the idea of being able to access Netflix, YouTube and Hulu on a flat-screen in your living room is gaining traction. Google says its TV software won't have a big presence at CES, but Intel and plenty of competitors will fill those holes.

Expect new internet-connected TVs from LG, Samsung and other manufacturers.

4. Connected appliances

Beyond TVs, expect to see more unusual electronics getting outfitted with Wi-Fi or cell chips.

Cell carriers and appliance makers are pushing the idea of machine-to-machine -- that is, washing machines, refrigerators and energy readers that have the ability to access wireless data networks.

South Korean-based LG Electronics is promoting a line of home appliances that can send messages to your phone if, say, your refrigerator door is open.

Can a tweeting toaster be far behind?

5. Video gaming

Excluding a few weird, virtual-reality gizmos, video gaming is usually not a big focus of CES. Games have their time to shine in the summertime at E3, the year's big gaming show.

But gadgets are becoming a bigger part of mainstream console play, thanks to the recent excitement over gaming systems that react to players' motions instead of buttons on a controller. Microsoft and Sony are expected to showcase their Kinect and PlayStation Move, respectively at their massive CES booths.

Even Nintendo, which usually skips CES entirely, has reserved meeting rooms to privately demonstrate its hand-held 3DS device, which displays games in 3-D and is expected to hit U.S. stores in March. No glasses are needed, but let's hope the device doesn't mess with our eyes.

What is Facebook's Next Move?

2011-01-04T11:13:00.003-05:00

This past week, Goldman Sachs along with an unnamed Russian investor invested $500 million in Facebook. The investment makes the social media giant flush with cash, and string at a crossroad for the company.

The common mistake for companies with a sudden influx of cash is to spend on ventures outside their core competency that has brought them to where they are in the first place.

According to J.P. Morgan analyst Imran Khan, the answer is “yes.” Not only did Facebook just receive a significant monetary boost from one of Wall Street’s major banks, but the social networking site is also quickly catching up to Google in terms of Web traffic noted Elain Wong in her Forbes online article.

Stay tuned to the TNS blog to see what happens to Facebook, Google, and if the SEC decides something is not well in tech land.

Joe Carretta

Technology Myths... Busted!

2010-12-21T08:43:00.003-05:00

With the holidays among us, I think it is a great time for a list. I mean, the holidays is all about lists. You make a Christmas list, there is a list of things your true love gave to you, and there is the list of items you need to return on December 26^th.

So here courtesy of our friends at CNET, here is a list of the top ten technology myths of our generation.

1) You must wait 15 seconds before rebooting your computer
Since this is the myth that got me started on this, it's the first one I'll address.

I decided that since this was a hardware question, the best place to turn was to the Geek Squad, those hearty IT folks in the black and white VW Beetles. Last week, I spoke with Ismael Matos, a Geek Squad deputy field marshal, and asked him about the 15 seconds myth, as well as several others having to do with hardware.

Matos said that the question of how long to wait before rebooting a computer has to do with the health of the plates of the hard drive. Since the plates are spinning at speeds of up to 10,000 rpm, and need to come to a stop before rebooting, "it's definitely good that you wait just a little while" before restarting the machine.

But 15 seconds? That might be overkill, Matos suggested, though it certainly couldn't hurt.

"I'd say 5 seconds is [OK]," Matos said, "but 15 seconds to be on the safe side. If you want peace of mind, then 15 seconds is OK, but it's not a rule that's set in stone."

2) Size matters (in megapixels)
If you've listened to any camera marketing, you've probably had it pounded into your head that with megapixels, more is better. And of course, the more megapixels you want, the more you have to spend. What a coincidence.

Do megapixels matter?

But the reality may not back the camera companies' marketing.

As photographer and self-described photography expert Ken Rockwell puts it, "sharpness depends more on your photographic skill than the number of megapixels, because most people's sloppy technique or subject motion blurs the image more than the width of a microscopic pixel.

"Even when megapixels mattered, there was little visible difference between cameras with seemingly different ratings. For instance, a 3-megapixel [photo] pretty much looks the same as a 6-megapixel [photo], even when blown up to" 12 inches by 18 inches.

The Geek Squad's Matos would seem to agree. While he says that megapixels might matter if you're trying to put together a mural--or its cousin, a billboard--the average camera user would almost never see the difference between photos taken with most lower-megapixel and higher-megapixel cameras.

"You really start noticing the differences when you blow the picture up," Matos said. But "it really depends on the size of the image, and how much you plan on blowing it up...If you blow it up to 16 by 20 [inches], you'll still maintain the quality, and you won't notice any difference in quality" with fewer megapixels.

3) You have to run your battery all the way down before you charge it
This is one I've heard for a long time, especially when you're talking about what to do when you first get a new battery-operated gadget.

And while it's not that hard to imagine running the juice on a new device all the way down before charging it the very first time, that's not at all an easy thing to do on an ongoing basis given that we often find ourselves fearing being away from a power source and, therefore, charging up as a precautionary measure.

But Matos said that the best possible thing you can do for your device's battery is, in fact, to run it down to zero before re-charging, each and every time.

"If you start plugging an AC adapter in while it's half-charged," Matos said, "components in the battery start to settle, and so it doesn't maintain its ability to re-charge, and so you end up weakening the battery a lot quicker."

Matos said that, ideally, we'd all run our batteries down all the way every time, but he acknowledged that's not realistic for most people. So he nods to reality: "It's recommended, so whenever possible...just let the battery drain completely before you charge it up."

No need to cry over spilled coffee on your keyboard.

4) You can put a keyboard you've spilled coffee on in the dishwasher
Though this might be a myth that would get you to shake your head in pity at anyone who believes it--let alone practices it--Matos said that, in fact, it's true.

It only applies to wired keyboards, though; Nothing with a battery, or wireless components in it will keep operating after being run through your dishwasher.

But Matos said that as long as you don't use soap or warm or hot water, a cycle through the Kenmore will wash away the coffee and get you pounding away at the QWERTY before you know it.

5) Anything stored digitally will last longer than that on analog media
It's a lovely idea that once you've put something on your hard drive, or some other form of digital backup, you can depend on it being there in perpetuity. It certainly seems like it should be true. After all, digital seems impervious to the passage of time, right?

But counting on ever-lasting storage of your crucial 1s and 0s may well be a fool's game. According to the Associated Press, many important digital recordings are "at risk of being lost much faster than older ones on tape, and many are already gone."

The problem, the study cited by the AP reported, is that digital files run the risk of being corrupted, and some physical forms of digital media, such as CD-R discs, can begin breaking down in as little as three years.

And the same seems to be true of online recordings. "I think we're assuming that if it's on the Web, it's going to be there forever," Sam Brylawski, the co-author of a Library of Congress study on sound, told the AP. "That's one of the biggest challenges.

One part of the dilemma surrounding digital storage of audio and other important records, is that we've become trained to use such media given its ubiquity and its ease of use. "But the problem," Brylawski told the AP, "is they must be constantly maintained and backed up by audio experts as technology changes. That requires active preservation, rather than simply placing files on a shelf."

6) Turning a computer on and off regularly is bad for it
Another myth I heard when I canvassed my social networks was that a computer can be damaged over time by being regularly turned on and off.

In fact, said the Geek Squad's Matos, it's specifically recommended that you do power your machine off on a daily basis, for example at the end of each work day.

According to Matos, "Every computer needs its rest time," in part to be sure that if you're away from it and there are power fluctuations or surges, it isn't damaged by them.

As well, he said, it's recommended that if you're going to be away from your computer for small periods of time, you let it go to sleep while you're gone. But in any case, he said, a regular on/off pattern is definitely good for the computer, not bad.

7) Macs are immune to viruses
This myth is one that is pushed relentlessly, both overtly and subtly, by Mac fans, and, of course, by Apple. Everyone knows that Windows machines are constantly being bombarded by malware and that keeping them secure is a never-ending task.

But you rarely hear about such things from Mac users, and the common theory is that it's because Apple's computers are simply safe from being attacked.

Not so fast. It does seem, as has been well-reported, that that are far fewer exploits hitting Macs than their Windows-based cousins. But it's hardly because Macs are immune from attack. Indeed, according to security researcher Nitesh Dhanjani, it has much more to do with market share--there simply aren't anywhere near as many Macs out there as there are Windows machines.

"If we were to flip the market share, we would see a lot more exploitation in the wild," Dhanjani told my CNET colleague Elinor Mills earlier this year. "More specifically, browser security is one of the more important items to consider today from a risk perspective. I know Internet Explorer has had a considerable share of vulnerabilities, but the Safari Web browser also has a lousy reputation in the security community--it almost seems a child's play to locate an exploitable condition in Safari. Apple really needs to get its act together with Safari since OS X is enjoying a healthy market share climb at the moment."

Other security experts seem to agree that Macs' relative lack of virus problems has much more to do with the computer's market share than any kind of actual fortitude against attack. As Halvar Flake, head of research and CEO of Zynamics, told Mills, "Vista/Win7 has more extensive countermeasures against attacks and a codebase with presumably fewer security issues. But it's the operating system of the majority of users, hence making it profitable to attack. Attackers will therefore spend lots of time bypassing the countermeasures. Mac OS has fewer countermeasures and lots of easily exploitable bugs, but the market share is low, making it a less likely target."

Then again, the market share dynamic does, in fact, mean that Macs are less likely to get hit, so in that sense, they are safer. "For an everyday consumer that just wants to use a computer and not worry about getting owned with every click of the mouse, I'd go for a Mac," Joe Grand, president of Grand Idea Studio, told Mills.

Is your ISP tracking everything?

8) Your ISP is tracking everything you do
This may not be something most people are thinking about, but for those constantly worried about digital privacy, it is a signature concern, since, if true, everyone would be subject to tracking because we almost all have to get online through an Internet service provider.

Your ISP "is your local link to the worldwide computer network known as the Internet," Dave Roos wrote on Get Stuff. Every page request you make and every e-mail you send must travel through your ISP's routers first. It would seem, therefore, that your ISP has the power to scan and save every piece of data that flows through its system."

But before you get alarmed, Roos also wrote: "The truth is that it does have the power. Fortunately for us, it doesn't have the money or the desire to archive every bit of information that comes its way. ISPs in the United States don't routinely save the Web surfing histories and e-mail conversations of their users. It would simply be too expensive to save all of that data and the public outcry from privacy rights and civil liberties organizations would be deafening."

9) Girls don't play video games
The stereotype of gamers is clearly a teenage boy sitting in front of his Xbox, pounding away at one Halo or Call of Duty game or another for hours and hours on end. And while the industry certainly brings in many, many, many millions of dollars because of that pimply-faced teen, he's by no means the only face of the gaming community.

Indeed, women and girls make up a very large bloc of gamers--they just are a little more quiet about it.

"Girls and young women are a 'pot of gold' for the [video game] industry," George VanHorn, a senior analyst at market research firm IBISWorld, told Reuters. "The gaming industry has market characteristics that many would die for."

Reuters reported that in an IBISWorld study, "38 percent of U.S. gamers are female, up from 33 percent in just five years. From January through August of 2008, females ages 18 to 45 made up 28 percent of the total industry revenue, ranking second to males ages 18 to 45, who made up 37 percent."

So while they may not be the largest group of gamers, it's clear that women and girls are spending their fair share of time playing.

10) Anything you delete from your hard drive is gone forever
Given that we lay our lives bare on our computers--what with doing personal banking, storing family photos, researching our medical conditions, and so forth--it would be comforting to be able to believe that if we erase something on our computers, we don't have to worry about that data being available to anyone who might want to access it later.

Sadly, that would be a naive assumption. The truth is, it's very difficult to permanently get rid of your data. And if you want to do so, you probably need to go get a drill.

That's the advice of the Geek Squad's Matos, who said that, "When you delete [data], yes, [its] icon may be gone, but that information is still intact on the hard drive. The only thing the computer does is [mark] that section to be overwritten. It just gives the operating system the OK to write over that area."

So if the operating system isn't actually removing the data from your hard drive, how can you get rid of it?

Matos said it's not so easy, and you may not ever want to just hand an old computer off to someone else if you're worried about them accessing your private data.

The only way to ensure that no one can ever access it is to bring tools to bear. "Let's say you're getting rid of an old computer," Matos said. "You're going to want to take the old hard drive, take a drill, and drill 10 to 12 holes through the drive--and not in a straight line. Scatter the holes and make sure they go straight through."

Co-location Invigoration

2010-12-17T10:30:00.003-05:00

Whether it be due to a lack of space, sub-par power requirements, or for the purpose of a business continuity plan Collocation has become a viable options for small, mid-sized, and enterprise level businesses.

TNS partners with Cervalis and occupies a full cage at their world class data center in Wappinger Falls. By procuring its own cage, TNS can sell space to prospects by the unit, rather than by the rack, which is the standard policy at Cervalis.

There are many benefits to collocating your network hardware:

Collocation Provides Reliable Uptime

§ Within a "Class A" collocation facility everything is redundant so that if anything goes down the collocation customers server and network equipment will not even notice it as there are redundant systems in place that automatically replace those that went down. This includes; the air conditioning systems, UPS (uninterruptible power systems), power generators, utility power, network routers, redundant Internet backbones with plenty of extra capacity, and redundant onsite network engineering staff. Not every collocation provider and collocation facility includes all of these important services, but those that meet the Class A certification requirements.

o Better Network Speed and Reliability

§ Most collocation facilities run BGP and have redundant Internet networks and different Internet backbones coming into their facility. When a company sets up a network at an office they usually just get the Internet bandwidth capacity that they need such as a single T3, which is 45 Megabits, or an OC3, which is 155 Megabits without the redundancy. Premium Class A Collocation facilities go to a much greater extent to provide a fast and always reliable Internet network, for example Hurricane Electric's collocation facilities network connects to over 500 major national and International Internet backbone networks.

o Better Power Redundancy

§ At and office a company will have the primary utility supplied power and may also use a small UPS to backup the servers or computers on their network. Few offices have automatic emergency generators unless it is for a data center, hospital or other important office building. Even with the office buildings that do have an emergency backup generator it is usually the type of backup generator that has the ability to run for 2 or 4 hours and is rated for "backup". In the best "Class A" collocation facilities the generator is a "Prime Source" type of power generator and the UPS system is a whole facility UPS system. This type of system can take up a whole room with the electrical breaker panels, automatic generator switch gear, and large UPS systems. If an office wanted to install these type of power systems they would need to upgrade the power grid to the facility and get permits from the land owner and the City for the pad mounted large UPS systems to be installed

o Redundant and Improved Cooling / AC Environment Conditioning

§ Many office environments have AC systems that can handle a set amount of cooling for the environment and are set to run during business hours. When you introduce a large amount of servers or network gear, the power used is converted to heat that must be cooled. Office AC systems just aren't made to handle the additional cooling required for a large amount of server and network gear used for Internet applications. In addition to this, should the AC system at an office fail, or just need to be turned off for routine maintenance then the heat would rise. Hot computer equipment is prone to fail and has a much shorter life span.

o Significantly Lower Setup and Monthly Cost For Services

§ High bandwidth deals at a True Class A collocation facility can cost as little as $100/month for space for a server and Internet bandwidth on a dedicated 100Mbps Internet port or as little as $1080 for the whole 100Mbps within a collocation facility. This includes all the special redundancies and services that a collocation facility includes. Yet, if and office were to try to set up the same 100Mbps Internet bandwidth with just a limited redundancy to cut costs it would still cost more than 30 times the cost per month ($30,000) for a lesser service. Below is a detailed item by item explanation of what this would cost.

Visit www.thetnsgroup.com for more info, or call me at 203-316-0112 ext: 105 for a free collocation estimate today!

Joe Carretta

The Next Frontier

2010-12-16T10:36:00.002-05:00

Here at the TNS Group, we are constantly looking for ways not only to extend our reach to new clients, but also to expand our core offerings and drive the business upward. Recently when faced with the losing business to outside hosting companies, TNS explored the possibility of investing capital to create our own hosting environment, rather than risk losing the business.

A recent article on ITnews described how other companies in the tech sector are doing just that; looking beyond our borders for the next growth market to capitalize on.

Acer, the world's third largest PC vendor, expects fast growth in China next year as its revenue there climbs to US$2.5 billion from $1 billion this year.

The company believes its China operations will make up more than 20 percent of total revenue within 5 years, an Acer representative said, confirming comments made by Acer Chairman J.T. Wang at a conference in Taipei.

Acer believes China is going to become the world's largest PC market within the next two years.

In addition to Acer’s core line of laptop computers, they hope to enter the fray into the tablet market, which took off this year after Apple unveiled the iPad. A number of companies have followed with similar products that use touch screens, such as Samsung Electronics' Galaxy Tab and Research In Motion's BlackBerry PlayBook.

Acer executives earlier this year forecast the tablet market will reach about 40 million to 50 million units globally next year, and said Acer could take a 15 percent to 20 percent share of that market.

Taking a stab at a new global market is nothing new to TNS. After starting small in 1998, TNS has moved from a local Connecticut Citrix shop into a full service IT company servicing NJ, NY ant CT.

Joe Carretta

What is worth $960 Million?

2010-12-14T08:38:00.001-05:00

Dell agreed to buy data storage company Compellent Technologies for about $960 million in cash, to expand beyond PCs and catch up with rivals Hewlett-Packard and IBM in technologies like cloud computing according to an article on CNBC.com

Shares of Dell were lower Monday after it announced that it would offer $27.75 a share for Compellent, a price that is about a 3 percent discount to Compellent's closing price on Friday on the New York Stock Exchange.

Monday's deal was widely expected after Dell and Compellent announced last week that they were holding "advanced discussions." At that time, Dell said it would bid $27.50 a share.

In an attempt to position themselves for an economic recovery and become "one stop shops" for corporate clients' technology needs, Dell, HP, and International Business Machines have chased deals in the past year. Three months ago Dell lost out to HP in a bidding war for another storage firm, 3Par.

Dell sees the Compellent deal, expected to close in early 2011, adding to its adjusted earnings in fiscal year 2012, it said on Monday.

Data storage plays a crucial role in cloud computing, the accessing of remote computing power and data over the Internet. Dell entered this market in 2008 with its purchase of EqualLogic.

Compellent specializes in storage and recovery of data for small and medium-sized businesses, compared to the high end business targeted by 3Par. Dell said it plans to keep Compellent's existing operations in Eden Prairie, Minnesota.

While some analysts have said Dell did well to settle for the more affordable option, others have said Compellent, unlike 3Par, is not capable of addressing the needs of customers with large data centers.

Some analysts and bankers say NetApp could also be a target, but at a market capitalization of nearly $20 billion, they say it could be too big and the major technology companies have already bought storage technologies.

Joe Carretta

Ciao For Now!

2010-12-08T09:48:00.003-05:00

It is a sad day here at The TNS Group because it is my last day as the Marketing & Sales intern. I really enjoyed my experience here as part as the TNS team. I was able to learn a lot, meet a lot of great people, and had some fun in the process. I know that my experience here will be beneficial to me in the post-graduate world. Thank you to everyone at TNS for this great opportunity.

Unfortunately, this also means the end of my tenure as a tech blogger. To all my faithful fans and followers, I will miss providing you with the latest scoop on all things IT-related. Hopefully, my colleague Joe Carretta will be able to sustain the professional level of blogging that I have set (although he will never think of better titles than me).

It's been real.
Laura Matthews

Smartphones On The Scene

2010-12-07T09:40:00.003-05:00

The IT world is always buzzing with rumors of new features and gadgets, especially around the holidays. The TNS Group blog is here to set the record straight on the latest tech toys that will be in stores for the most wonderful time of the year.

- Samsung Nexus S Smartphone for Android 2.3: Google has announced the release of its latest operating system for its Android phone, featuring 16GB of internal memory, a front and rear facing camera, improved copy & paste functions, and a 4 inch contour display. This Smartphone will be available in stores on December 16, right in time for holiday shopping.

- BlackBerry Bold 9780 for T Mobile: This latest installment for BlackBerry features double the memory of its predecessor, 5 megapixel camera (improved from 3.2 megapixel), and is preloaded with the BlackBerry 6.0 Operating System. The Bold 9780 is in stores now.

- Samsung Focus for Windows Phone 7: This device has been dubbed the "first great device" for the Windows platform, features an easy-to-use layout, great display screen, and compatibility with Microsoft Word, Excel, and Powerpoint -- excellent news for businesses that utilize these programs. The best part? The rumors are true.. AT&T is offering a Buy One, Get One Free campaign for the holiday season.

- Now we get to the "core" of the rumors with Apple: There has been a lot of talk lately about the possible release of the iPad 2. While this is normally enough to get Apple fans' heads spinning, there is a catch. Rumor has it that Steve Jobs & Co are pushing for a February 2011 release date. Of course, this will really upset customers who bought iPads for the holidays. It seems that Apple wants to move the current iPads out of stores this holiday season to make room for the new ones to follow. Our advice? Although you may be dying for an iPad from Santa, try to hold out to see if there's any truth to the iPad 2. You don't want to be "outdated" in February.

There you have it, these are the holiday gadgets to look out for this season. Happy shopping from TNS!

Printin' All Over The World

2010-11-30T10:02:00.003-05:00

Although it may come as a surprise, printing is one of the most cost intensive areas of IT services. Think about it. How many times a day do you print? How many printers does your office own? Do you find yourself throwing out unnecessary pages? Have you ever thought of how much ink you were using by re-printing that colorful presentation?

Technological innovators such as Google and HP are coming up with ways to ease the troubled responses to these questions. Once again, the answer lies in the cloud. Cloud printing allows users to print on any application, on any device, to any printer in the world. This technology will change the game now that more and more businesses are relying on various devices (tablets, desktops, laptops) and working on a global scale with mobile applications. In other words, an executive can now print a document from his iPad to a printer in his office, all while sitting in an Amtrak train en route to a meeting.

Although cloud printing is not yet mainstream, companies should keep a lookout for it because it offers many advantages. Aside from saving on the cost to maintain several printers, cloud printing is the most "on demand" form of printing for increasingly mobile employees. Cloud printing is also secure because users can print documents to a specified printer without having to save it on the device, which is beneficial for maintaining the security of data storage.

Keep an eye out for new software such as ThinPrint and HubCast to transform the game of printing, and remember to check back here at The TNS Group blog or our website for the latest information on how to keep your company up to date in the fast-pace world of IT.

Beware of the Malware

2010-11-29T08:33:00.002-05:00

After Black Friday, small business Saturday, and now cyber Monday, holiday shopping is in full swing. While going to the mall might lend a ding on your car door, going online from the workplace can have a much worse impact on you and your company.

Cyber Monday not only traditionally draws workers away from spread sheets and emails and into online shopping sprees, but also brings them slower to Malicious attacks. According to a recent CNET article There will no doubt be malware hiding on retail sites, fake sites created just for distributing viruses and Trojans, and e-mails with malware-laden attachments and links leading to nastiness. Once inside the corporate network, the malware can easily spread to other computers in the company and leave back doors that can be used later for nefarious purposes, putting corporate data at risk.

Unless a company forbids Web surfing on company time and uses software to monitor and enforce the policy, there is little recourse once workers start browsing. IT departments should do what they can to protect the networks before then, by using the most up-to-date spam filters and anti-malware software and adjusting the enterprise Internet settings to alert users when a program attempts to download something.

TNS Group specializes in internet security and privacy not only on Cyber Monday, but all year round. With cutting edge spam filters, malware detectors, and various web monitoring tools, TNS helps IT departments control what does, and doesn’t appear on employees computer screens.

Our Heads Are in the Clouds

2010-11-23T10:22:00.003-05:00

There is much discussion in the technology world about the topic of virtualization and, specifically, cloud computing. But what exactly does this mean?

Cloud computing is Internet based computing which allows the sharing of resources, information, and software among multiple computers. It originally developed due to the ease of accessibility provided by Internet-based resources. It is known as "cloud" computing because the cloud is a metaphor for the Internet, as abstract depictions in diagrams of the Internet are often drawn as clouds.

Some of the key features of cloud computing are:

- Improves the speed of technological infrastructures
- Reduces costs
- Allows users to access systems via the Internet, no matter where they are or what device they are using (compatible with PCs as well as mobile devices)
- Enables sharing of resources across a large range of users
- Extremely reliable, allowing for business continuity and disaster recovery
- Improved security
- Easier maintenance of applications

Hopefully, this explanation has helped to clear up any confusion you may have had about cloud computing. If your business is interested in improving your infrastructure with virtualization, contact The TNS Group and ask us about our Total Care Solution.

Surviving Holiday Hustle & Bustle

2010-11-17T11:19:00.003-05:00

With the holidays right around the corner, it's time to come up with your holiday season survival plan. Before you become overwhelmed with trips to the mall, here are some tools to make your life easier. Al Sacco from CIO.com presents 10 Blackberry applications that will help you stay afloat in the coming month. The best part is, you can let your credit card rest.. most of these applications are free! The TNS Group tech blog would like to share with you a few of these great apps:

- Flixster for BlackBerry: Amidst of all of your holiday parties, don't forget that this season is a great time to go to the movies. This free app allows you to watch trailers, read reviews, find theaters, and purchase tickets from your phone.

- BlackBerry Wallet: If you utilize the convenience of online shopping, simplify the process even more by downloading this free app, which stores your gift cards, loyalty cards, credit card and shipping information. This will definitely be a time saver, and don't worry, the app is secure, so you won't have to worry about putting your credit card information on your phone.

- SBUX (Starbucks Card Mobile): With all the tiring shopping you'll be doing, you will definitely need some caffeine. As long as you have a valid Starbucks card, you can avoid lines and submit your order on your phone. At some Starbucks locations, you can scan your bar code to easily pay for your spiced latte.

- BeWeather: Although you have to pay for this app ($9.99), it's definitely worth it to have the most accurate weather information with you at all times during your holiday travels.

- Camera Plus: This app is affordable ($2.99) and allows you to take photos of your favorite holiday memories and then quickly attach multiple photos onto one e-mail. Without this app, you can only send one photo at a time. This way, you can send out your Christmas card to everyone in your e-mail database.

Use these great apps to navigate your way through the crowds this season. Happy shopping!

Apple's "Big" Announcement

2010-11-16T10:08:00.003-05:00

Yesterday, the technology world was buzzing with excitement because of a cryptic message on Apple's homepage reading "Tomorrow is just another day. That you'll never forget". Rumors swirled that the announcement could refer to cloud storage because of the new North Carolina data center.

However, at 10:00 am EST today, fans let out a collective groan. Really, Apple?! The huge announcement was simply that music from The Beatles is now available for purchase on iTunes, after seven years of negotiation.

This is not to say that we at The TNS Group are not Beatles fans. Who doesn't love listening to a little "Hey Jude" or "Let it Be"? But the problem is, most Beatles fans who wanted to enjoy this music on their iPod have already found ways to get it on there. Odds are, most fans have taken advantage of the release of digitally-remastered CDs and have long since uploaded them onto their iPods.

If somehow you don't already own copies of your favorite Beatles hits, you can purcase the entire collection on iTunes for $149.

We expected more from Apple, the leading innovator in today's technology. All of the hype surrounding the announcement turned out to be a very anti-climactic moment that left us feeling less than impressed.

Turn Your Office Green

2010-11-10T10:23:00.003-05:00

If you constantly find yourself at the printer, it might be time to rethink how you can save paper and save money. Here are some simple solutions on how to protect the environment -- and your wallet -- when you print.

HP has developed Smart Web Printing, which makes printing off of a website, which is usually cluttered with advertisements and images, more sustainable. This device works with any printer (not just HP's) and allows you to reorder parts of a website onto a single document. The best part is, it's free to download.

The FinePrint device attaches to the top of your printer and makes it easy to print multiple pages per sheet, print in grayscale to save on black ink, and remove unnecessary pages and images. This product will only set you back $50.

These two products are inexpensive and will ultimately help your business save money. The cost of paper adds up, and ink is costly. When you need to print a less important document or web page, cut corners by using these methods to be more sustainable.

Another way to get your green on in the office is by using cloud computing. According to a recent study sponsored by Microsoft, cloud computing drastically cuts down on energy. Your business can use anywhere between 30-90% less energy by switching to cloud providers, depending on the size of the company.

For more tips on how to improve the efficiency of your business, remember to check back at The TNS Group tech blog.

Good Food and Conversation with TNS

2010-11-09T10:24:00.004-05:00

The TNS Group and Compellent joined forces last Thursday for the much-anticipated Executive Technology Exchange. The event, held at Stamford's Capital Grille was enjoyed by all.

The TNS Group kicked things off with a preliminary company overview and presentation by TNS's Joe Carretta, explaining our business model and the competitive advantage a company receives by choosing The TNS Group. To demonstrate this point, Brian Boschert, the IT Director of Star Gas gave a client case study. Boshert explained how The TNS Group helped his company become a national leader in home energy.

Next, Compellent's Northeast Sales Representative Andrew Johnson informed the attendees about their latest Fluid Data Technology (For more information, read our previous blog entry here).

After an extensive question and answer period, the attendees enjoyed a delicious steak lunch and informative conversation. Thank you to all those who attended and helped make our event successful. If you were unable to join us, be on the look out for another Executive Technology Exchange hosted by The TNS Group in the future.

Google Buzz Settlement Reached

2010-11-03T09:45:00.004-04:00

Yesterday, Google announced that a federal district court judge approved a settlement for a lawsuit filed against them by Gmail users.

Google launched Google Buzz, a tool used for social networking and messaging in association with Gmail. However, Gmail users were upset because they were automatically signed up for Buzz. Without any consent, Gmail users had their data and frequent contacts displayed. Subsequently, users took Google to court, citing privacy violations.

District courts have approved a settlement, which requires that Google pay $8.5 million to organizations that provide education on Internet privacy and policies. Additionally, Google has made changes to its Buzz service and is educating its users on its privacy settings.

Yesterday, all Gmail users in the United States received an e-mail that clarified the nature of the settlement. Gmail users will not receive any monetary compensation for the lawsuit. In the email, Google stated, "Just to be clear, this is not a settlement in which people who use Gmail can file to receive compensation".

In a statement released today, Google announced, "We are satisfied with the agreement and are glad to move forward, We have always been committed to offering users transparency and choice in Buzz and all our products, and will continue to work together with users to provide the best experience possible."

Although the payout for the settlement is a large figure deal, it is clear that Google will not have a problem paying the $8.5 million. As previously mentioned on The TNS Group tech blog, Google will make an estimated $15 billion this year in advertising, and is continuing to grow and improve annually.

Is Your Vote Safe?

2010-11-02T11:16:00.003-04:00

Happy Election Day! If you were thinking of voting via the Internet, read on before you cast your vote.

With technology becoming so advanced and the Internet becoming increasingly widespread, more than thirty states will count votes from e-mail, fax, and voting websites this year. On one hand, the idea seems to have many advantages. In terms of "going green", online voting is extremely environmentally-friendly because it eliminates the use of paper. Additionally, in theory, online voting would increase voter turnout because people can vote from anywhere. Many people are unable to vote because they cannot leave work, they are elderly or disabled, or they are overseas. A great feature of online voting is that anyone can simply access a computer to cast their vote without having to leave work or the home.

However, virtual votes could threaten national security because it could expose network infrastructure and leave us vulnerable to cyber hacking. Unfortunately, this fear is very real. In tests by University of Michigan technology students, the voting systems for overseas and military voters was fairly easy to hack. Even worse, the University of Michigan students found that the system had already been hacked by individuals in Iran and China.

Your vote matters. Don't let it get manipulated or altered by foreign threats. Utilize traditional mechanical voting machines to cast your vote this election day.

Stay updated on all security and privacy news by keeping up with The TNS Group tech blog.

Google Outdoes Itself

2010-10-27T09:37:00.003-04:00

The Internet is technology's most formidable source, and it just keeps getting bigger. In fact, traffic increases at an amazing 40-45% each year! But what website is crushing all the competition?

None other than... Google. The search engine giant accumulated a third quarter revenue this year of $7.29 billion, a 23% increase from last year. Even more fascinating, according to recent data from Arbor Networks, Google accounts for a whopping 6.4% of all Internet traffic in the world!

The numbers don't stop there. Because Google is so widely used, its advertising sales are equally astronomical. This year, Google's total ad revenue will be an estimated $15.7 billion. To put that into perspective, last year Time Warner and Viacom, among the biggest media companies in the world, earned $8.8 billion and $4.7 billion in advertising revenue, respectively.

The Internet is expanding so rapidly, its hard to imagine what will come next. With impressive progress being made on Google's self-driving car, it seems that anything is possible. To stay up-to-date with the latest in technology news, keep checking back at The TNS Group's tech blog.

The Key Components of Compellent

2010-10-26T09:51:00.003-04:00

Compellent is a leader in providing effective solutions to business needs, such as data center virtulization, space reclamation, energy efficiency, enterprise automation, and unified storage. One outstanding feature of Compellent is Live Volume. As a recent tech article explains, "Live Volume can detect when VMware Vmotion moves a virtual machine from one server to another. Immediately after the detection of the virtual machine move, Live Volume will flag the replicated secondary volume as the new primary and will automatically reverse replication direction".

Another key feature of Compellent is the use of Enterprise Manager. Enterprise Manager utilizes a single console for administration of all Compellent systems, local and remote. According to Compellent's website, using Enterprise Manager is beneficial because it will:

•Maximize resource utilization and reduce disk costs using accurate capacity and performance data
•Streamline disaster recovery planning and replication configuration with a simple point-and-click interface
•Speed event resolution with centralized alert notification and event log management
•Identify trends and monitor storage use by business unit for accurate needs assessment and chargeback
•Automatically calculate energy savings and generate boardroom-ready hero reports

Compellent has many other features to offer, including their latest endeavor, Fluid Data Storage. To hear more about Compellents products and services, join The TNS Group at our annual Executive Technology Exchange on November 4th. For more information, contact Joe Carretta at 203-316-0112 ext. 105.

VMware On The Rise

2010-10-20T10:44:00.004-04:00

As consumer demand for virtualization increases, companies that specialize in this realm of the IT world are profiting. Specifically, VMware is enjoying success and having a great fiscal year. With third quarter revenue exceeding expectations, VMware is anticipating great numbers in the final quarter of the year. According to a recent tech article, VMware's maintenance and services revenue is up 49% from last year.

As the industry leader in developing virtualization technology, VMware revolutionizes IT infrastructure for businesses ranging from large scale data centers to single-server boutique firms.

The TNS Group only partners with companies that we trust. In fact, one of our employees, Joe Carretta, is currently attending a VMware sales conference to ensure that we know how to better serve our customers. The TNS Group is confident that by using VMware products such as Virtual Infrastructure, Converter, VMotion and VCente, your business will cut management costs and see easier and more reliable network manageability.

With Compellent, The Future is Fluid

2010-10-19T09:30:00.004-04:00

As one of our most truted partners, Compellent Network Storage Solutions is among the best in the business. According to their website, Compellent Fluid Data storage actually reduces the number of drives in a system by optimizing utilization through ultra-efficient technologies such as Thin Provisioning, Automated Tiered Storage, Replays (continuous snapshots) and Storage Virtualization.

You can increase your Storage Efficiency with Compellent:

•Optimize capacity utilization with Thin Provisioning, consuming disk space only as data is written
•Automatically classify and migrate inactive data to less costly, low-power disks with Automated Tiered Storage
•Minimize the cost of downtime by streamlining data backup and speeding data recovery with continuous snapshots
•Merge all disks into a single pool of storage with Storage Virtualization, delivering higher performance with fewer drives

Compellent now offers Fluid Data Storage, which can:

•Slash the time and cost of IT up to 80%
•Instantly respond to the increasing demand for IT services
•Enable network storage changes without application outages
•Reduce cycle time for every new technology and application
•Ensure data is recoverable and always secure
•Provide a fully virtualized foundation for your entire IT stack

For more information about Compellent, be sure to join The TNS Group at our Lunch n Learn on Thursday, November 4th at Capital Grille in Stamford.

Windows Phone 7 is the Latest Smartphone on the Scene

2010-10-13T09:42:00.003-04:00

On Monday, Microsoft launched Windows Phone 7, its smartphone to compete with Apple's iPhone and Google's Android. Microsoft's goal is to bring consumers an easy-to-use "glance and go" screen, which is customizable according to user preference.

Just in time for the upcoming holiday season, nine different phones will be available on sixty mobile operators. Users have a choice of Samsung, HTC, and LG phones, among other options.

The major benefit of this product is its use in business. As a Microsoft product, the phone will be seamlessly compatible with Outlook, PowerPoint, and other services from Microsoft Office.

The phone features 1 GHz processors, a 5 mega pixel camera, and a touch screen face including hardware buttons. Additionally, the popularity of games and applications will also be made available on the new Windows Phone 7. With the use of XBox Live, this phone will be a worthy competitor to Apple.

However, only time will tell if the Windows Phone 7 can compete with the massive popularity of the iPhone and Android in consumer markets. If your business utilizes any of these devices, The TNS Group is qualified to assist in all your Smartphone integration needs.

New Partnership for The TNS Group?

2010-10-06T10:46:00.003-04:00

The TNS Group just had a great meeting with Aruba Networks, which could potentially lead to a new partnership.

Aruba is one of the top wireless companies providing wireless mobility to offices. This company is looking for systems integrators to sell and install equipment for them. Knowing that The TNS Group is a leading IT Consulting Firm, Aruba came to us to discuss a potential partnership that is very exciting for our business, and for improving our services to our clients.

One of The TNS Group's five practice areas is Network Infrastructure. Some of our offerings are Blackberry, PDA, and Smartphone Integration, Data Center Consolidation, Remote and Mobile Access Solutions, and Technical Assessments. We are committed to providing our clients with the best and the brightest in the IT world, which is why we are considering this new partnership. Check back here at our blog for more updates about this potential partnership, as well as other TNS-related news.

Dell Unveils New Cloud Computing Software

2010-09-29T15:16:00.004-04:00

On Wednesday, Dell launched its new data center known as Virtual Integrated System (VIS) in order to allow businesses to switch to cloud computing. This new system comes as a result for enterprise demands to share data and resources among departments, which ultimately allows a company to decrease spending and increase productivity and workplace solidarity.

According to the senior vice president at Dell's Enterprise Product Group, Brad Anderson, “Dell’s VIS architecture is unique in that it works with a customer’s existing architecture and their current products and investments – whether from Dell or another provider".

They key features of Dell's new cloud software are that it creates virtualized resource pools and automates the way applications are deployed, all on one web-based platform. The Virtual Integrated System architecture is available beginning today.

If your company is looking to outsource its IT department, The TNS Group provides a reliable and effective method for all of your server virtualization needs. Call us today at 203-316-0112.

IT Companies Use Desktop Virtualization To Improve Services

2010-09-28T10:11:00.004-04:00

The latest in IT news reveals that Desktop Virtualization is quickly becoming the hottest IT trend. The advantages of desktop virtualization are plentiful, including simplified management, improved ROI, and better security.

For those unfamiliar with this IT trend, desktop virtualization is essentially used to store clients' operating systems, application stack, user profile, and data in one central location.

According to the most recent UBM TechWeb Research Report, 42% of IT companies surveyed are using desktop virtualization, or are planning to implement this method by 2011. Businesses are employing the use of desktop virtualization to enhance data security and improve rates of availability to clients. By allowing users to access programs and applications from desktops, assets are effectively consolidated and IT support can provide more efficient help to clients.

The survey, sponsored by Dell and Intel, found that 84% of IT organizations that utilize desktop virtualization felt that, as a result, technology met or exceeded their expectations.

This is beneficial for clients because they no loner risk losing data because of increased security, and it also becomes easier to access the desktop from a remote location.

As a leading IT consulting firm that provides the highest quality services, The TNS Group also utilizes desktop virtualization. By applying this method, The TNS Group is able to increase customer satisfaction because of easier maintenance and controllability. For our clients, this means less time spent on trouble shooting. The TNS Group will continue to seek out more techniques that will improve business technology.

Consumers Rate Macs Higher Than PCs

2010-09-22T09:54:00.005-04:00

In the past several years, more and more Americans have brought computers into their homes. According to a report released yesterday, consumers prefer Apple computers over Windows.

The American Customer Satisfaction Index, who commissioned the report, found that overall, customer satisfaction has been steadily on the rise since 1994, when the study began. This year, Windows users scored their level of satisfaction at 78 out of 100. Hewlett Packard, Dell, and Acer all followed behind closely with a score of 75.

The clear leader, for the seventh consecutive year, was Apple, whose customers rated their computers an 86 out of 100. Many analysts attribute this to a halo effect, resulting from consumer's fixation with iPods, iPhones, and the newest innovation, the iPad.

Although Apple computers are at the top, the lower-priced accessibility of PCs and recent improvements with Windows 7 could change the game and shift popularity back to the PC in forthcoming years.

No matter which type of computer your company prefers, The TNS Group has you covered. Our IT Support staff is competent in both Mac and Windows platforms, and is fully capable of assisting your business' IT needs.

Business is Booming for IT Companies

2010-09-21T10:40:00.003-04:00

In the past couple years, the majority of fields in the US economy struggled significantly to stay afloat. However, one market that managed to grow in revenue is the realm of IT Consulting. According to a 2010 survey of 172 CIO’s, CTO’s and Senior IT Executives from different US companies, IT budgets and salaries consistently increased, despite the nature of the downward economy.
The survey, commissioned by The Society for Information Management, found that 65% of CIO’s reported that their IT budgets were larger in 2010 than any previous year, and almost three quarters responded that they expected an even bigger increase in 2011. The good news for consumers is that a bigger IT budget translates to an enhancement in quality. With more available funds, companies are able to afford more IT training for their staff, thus a better-equipped workforce. Additionally, businesses are using their surplus of IT finances to focus on progressing interpersonal communication. Much of the IT budget will go towards improving written and oral communication, as well as marketing and presentation skills.
The TNS Group is no exception to this trend. In 2009, our company’s revenue increased by about 16%, and is projected to carry on this upward path. With this increase in revenue, The TNS Group will continue to seek the highest level of customer satisfaction, and is committed to customer surveys to find the best possible products for our clients.

Social Networking Improves Customer Relations

2010-09-15T15:45:00.004-04:00

According to an IT News article, despite the mass popularity of social media websites, a large number of corporations are unsuccessful in providing their clients with an online presence. According to a recent study commissioned by Siemens Enterprise Communications, only about 30% of companies are taking advantage of the benefits of using networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and blogs.

The aforementioned study also reported that 70% of customers desire some sort of online interaction with businesses, and almost 60% affirmed that if there was a social media presence, they would likely increase their loyalty to the business as a direct result of social media communication.

Because of the accessibility of social networking websites, a wide range of consumers can be reached via this outlet. In turn, consumers benefit by staying informed on any updates that would be relevant to them. Businesses that do not extend their expertise into the realm of social networking will lose valuable customers and could eventually become obsolete in the fast-pace technological world. This also could cause a disconnect between the companies and their prospective, and even current clients.

Unlike 70% of companies who neglect social media websites, The TNS Group maintains a Twitter account and, of course, a blog. At The TNS Group, we value our relationship with our clients, and are committed to interacting to improve customer relations. To stay posted on news regarding The TNS Group, be sure to check for updates on our Twitter and check back here at our blog.

Farewell!

2010-08-25T14:03:00.002-04:00

This summer I joined the TNS Group’s team as a Marketing/PR intern. I am now writing my last blog as this is my last day. I’m college bound next week, and going into my senior year. My experience at The TNS Group was extremely positive. Everyone here was very welcoming and eager to teach me about the IT industry. I just wanted to thank everyone for being so kind and teaching me so much.

I think we all can attest to IT being somewhat of a challenge for me but I tried to make the most of it! I learned so much relating to website design, pipeline reports, keeping up with the blog/twitter, creating PDFs, and cold calling from overhearing Joe and his “gift of gab”.

I’m very grateful for the opportunity to intern with this company and the skills that I obtained will surely benefit me in future positions. I wish you all the best of luck with business, you’re a great team and contributed to a great summer!

Thanks!

Tara McKenna

Intel to buy McAfee

2010-08-23T12:06:00.002-04:00

According to the New York Times, a business merger is about to take place. On Thursday, August 19^th Intel, the leading manufacturer of semiconductor chips agreed to buy McAfee, the computer antivirus software maker for about $7.7 billion in cash. Besides Intel’s efforts to produce a core-chip making, their efforts to expand the business and take over McAfee, has been their biggest effort to date in terms of expanding the company. Their last major purchase was in 1999, when Intel bought Level One Communications for $2.2 billion.

Paul Otellini, Intel’s chief executive, said, “In the past, energy-efficient performance and connectivity have defined computing requirements. Looking forward, security will join those as a third pillar of what people demand from all computing experiences.”

With The TNS Group being in the tech industry, we know that this industry has been one of the busiest for deal-makers and companies taking over new sectors. With Intel’s purchase of McAfee it will put the company into covering security tech.

Tara McKenna

Kids in Crisis Volunteering Today

2010-08-20T08:48:00.002-04:00

In addition to providing superior IT services to all of our clients, The TNS Group looks to give back to their community any chance they get. Today Office Manager Maggie Cabral, President Steve Viscardi, and Office Manager Maggie Cabral are all attending Kids in Crisis seminar today. The event will be focused around teaching children of this program how to use computers, and introduce them to the ever growing world of technology. The TNS Group finds this aspect of community life vital to its local connections, and frequently participates in many other charity events.

To learn more about Kids in Crisis and how you can help their cause visit their website

http://www.kidsincrisis.org/

Joe Carretta

Testimonials

2010-08-17T15:00:00.002-04:00

As a business progresses it needs recommendations that will ensure future clients that our work is commendable. At The TNS Group, we take pride in our work and we make sure that your IT performance will ensure long-term success for your business. With this mindset, we have recently received five new testimonials from very satisfied customers. Below are some testimonial excerpts:

1. “As a firm in the highly competitive financial services industry, we needed a vendor that would provide us with dependable and outstanding IT services. TNS has been more that an IT vendor to our firm. We viewed the TNS team as our partners and trust their expertise in devising our platform, providing our disaster recovery and most importantly, servicing our day-to-day technology support. The team of TNS individuals that have serviced our account have been beyond excellent – they are respectful of our data, our time, and our business. They have been instrumental in recommending (and not over recommending) products and services, and allowed our business to function smoothly.

-ARCIM Advisors

2. “Since partnering with The TNS Group, EC Scott has had vast improvements with our IT performance and stability. I would like to focus on the Total Care Solution that we recently purchased. The TNS Group was there every step of the way in designing the package that best suited our business needs and budget. Their professionalism and reliability let us experience the best possible customer service. “
- EC Scott

3. “Despite the challenging times in the publishing industry, The TNS Group has proven to be a valuable partner providing technical services at a good value. Whether it’s improving the security of our environment, enhancing our remote access capabilities, performance tuning and/or troubleshooting of our IT network performance, or a call for technical support help, The TNS staff has always been dependable and extremely capable of getting the work done.”
-Guidepost

We are very happy that The TNS Group’s work adds to the success of partnering companies. Thanks to all who contributed!

Tara McKenna

Away from it all

2010-08-16T11:49:00.003-04:00

What if we took a break, away from all of the technological machines and distractions we cling to every day? We are attached and addicted to some of these devices! It is argued that heavy technology use, which is only growing, can inhibit deep thought and cause anxiety, and that getting away or into a relaxing place can help (nature).

From an article in the New York Times, Todd Braver and a team of scientists did exactly this, and got away from it all. The team traveled to Glen Canyon National Park in Utah, and stayed there for a week pursuing one goal: to understand how our heavy use of digital devices and other technology changes how we think and behave, and how a retreat into nature might reverse those effects.

There was no cell phone service on location, laptops were left behind and e-mail was inaccessible. Some thought it was just time to relax and get away from work, but the trip’s organizer, David Strayer, a psychology professor at the University of Utah, said that studying what happens when we step away from our devices and relax our brains, how attention, memory and learning are affected-is important science. Mr. Strayer also added, “understanding how attention works could help in the treatment of a host of maladies, like attention deficit disorder, schizophrenia and depression. And he says that on a day-to-day basis, too much digital stimulation can “take people who would be functioning O.K. and put them in a range where they’re not psychologically healthy.”

At the end of civilization, or downstream, was where their adventure began. They rafted through the canyon, set up camp when it was dark and slept outside surrounded by nature alone. Participants noticed that nature started to refresh the brain. Mr. Strayer said, “Our senses change. They kind of recalibrate-you notice sounds, like these crickets chirping; you hear the river, the sounds, the smells, you become more connected to the physical environment, the earth, rather than the artificial environment.” A sad fact is that currently, more people are more connected to the artificial environment rather than the actual one we live in.

So do we need more time to let loose and get away from it all? It is questionable whether it will improve our mental and emotional capacity. The world, (in terms of technology) is growing immensely, so sometimes we need to step back and go back to basics.

Tara McKenna

Employee Workarounds

2010-08-11T12:26:00.002-04:00

IT Security is crucial for keeping the office systems clean of viruses. Certain sites cause pop-ups and viruses, hence the choice for some businesses to block specific sites. For marketing teams at many companies, social networking sites like Facebook and YouTube are essential for pursuing marketing strategies, but may cause trouble for the servers. However, I think it all depends on the industry your business is in. Does your company need social networking-or should it be blocked? As stated on ITNEWS, “If you work at the Department of Defense, I don't think any time at a social networking site on a secure computer is acceptable.”

Yet, there are sites that are universally blocked at all companies, some being pornographic and gambling sites. It goes without saying why these sites are blocked at the office.

Unfortunately, some employees have been working around blocked sites ignoring the consequences that follow. This puts the company’s network at risk. Hugh Thompson, Program Committee Chair of the RSA, said, “Industrious employees can, and do, find ways around site restrictions at work, potentially putting your network, data and even intellectual property at risk. Some workarounds can be dangerous because they might create a channel that data can flow out through that is not managed or monitored. These types of bypasses might make defenses like some data loss prevention systems less effective."

Some workarounds that employees are using include:

1. Typing IP address instead of domain name

2. Finding a cached version

3. Hiding behind encryption

4. Using proxy servers and other privacy-friendly tools

5. Using smart phones

As an IT company, The TNS Group must take all necessary precautions with which sites can harm our servers. Look into ITNEWS “Workarounds” to find the security fixes when employees enter blocked sites.

Tara McKenna

Customer Service

2010-08-04T13:23:00.002-04:00

A company’s reputation falls completely on the customer service it provides. By impressing a customer, they will become loyal to your business, and there’s nothing better than a loyal customer. Small businesses are familiar with the power of word of mouth (concerning your company’s services and capabilities). This power can contribute or take away from a company’s profit. At The TNS Group, we value our client’s opinions and urge constructive criticism. These components, we believe, will strengthen our company. Last month we sent out a brief survey to clients, in hopes of high-quality responses that would allow a follow up, then reference letter to be issued. After the survey was taken by clients, responses were received and references were requested. Fortunately we had positive feedback and many happy clients!

Inc.com recently wrote an article addressing the improvement of customer service. In the article it stated, “"The experience that individuals have with a company and then what they hear from friends and family influence their perception of and likelihood to do business with a company," says Megan Burns, a senior analyst at Forrester Research, a Massachusetts-based research firm that specializes in customer service. It's "absolutely an essential moment of truth for companies."

To quote ARCIM Advisors, “The team of TNS individuals that have serviced our account have been beyond excellent – they are respectful of our data, our time, and our business. They have been instrumental in recommending (and not over recommending) products and services, and allowed our business to function smoothly”.

Keep up the good work TNS Team!

Tara McKenna

Is Tumblr for you?

2010-08-02T15:10:00.003-04:00

New marketing campaigns for avid businesses include posting updates on social media sites like Twitter and Facebook. However, businesses are looking for a new unique way to speak to their clients and followers. According to an article in The New York Times, Tumblr is the new fresh outlet used for communication through blogging. It is said to be “the space between Facebook and Twitter”. Many companies are joining the Tumblr community, being that 25,000 new accounts are added daily.

Tumblr allows users to upload images, videos, audio clips, quotes and text to their pages. It also has a more conversational tone with the “followers”. Businesses can also portray their personality through Tumblr, where this is not as easy to do when using Twitter or Facebook.

Alexa Cassanos director of Public Relations for The New Yorker, and user of Tumblr said, “We can highlight graphic content like photo essays or slide shows to an audience that may not read the magazine. You just couldn’t do that, visually, on Twitter or Facebook.”

Companies that have hopped on the Tumblr bandwagon include, Rolling Stone, Newsweek, The Atlantic, Life Magazine, National Public Radio, The Paris Review, The Huffington Post, The New York Times etc.

At The TNS Group, we are always searching for new innovative ways to reach out to the public. Participating in different communicative outlets makes it easier to gain prospective clients and stay up to date with current ones. For this reason, we are looking into joining the Tumblr community.

Tara McKenna

Creativity fosters innovation

2010-07-28T14:45:00.002-04:00

In an industry where there’s a lot of competition, what makes us, The TNS Group stand out? This is what many companies ask themselves when attempting to distinguish the company from the rest of the pack. We at The TNS Group are professional, get the work done on time and put our clients first. However, to reach out to the public and enhance our business, we must stir up new creative ideas to stand out.

I came across an interesting article from Inc.com that gave eight tips on how to foster innovation in the company. They believe that creativity fosters innovation.

Put some of these tips to use to improve creativity and distinctiveness in your company. The eight strategies are as follows:

1. Let every employee play designer- No matter an employee’s job title; allow them to be a part of the creative process.

2. Provide lots of free time to think- Provide employees with “Think Days”. Encourage them to visit a spot that is conducive to reflection and see what ideas come back to the company.

3. Use new software to round up staff ideas- If employees are too shy to speak up, send out a company survey or start a blog allowing employees to voice opinions and ideas.

4. Encourage risk-taking- Encourage employees to try something they’ve never done before

5. Hold an intern contest- Interns are new to the scene, involve them in a unique way.

6. Reward million dollar ideas- Reward employees when they have ideas that benefit the company.

7. New project, new team-thrive on being an outfit of outsiders, diversity in teams will allow for more creative and different ideas.

8. Allocate 10% of time for invention - Encourage engineers and product managers to devote 10 percent of their workweeks to new ideas.

Tara McKenna

Can you see me now?

2010-07-27T11:53:00.002-04:00

Communication between businesses consists of constant emails, text messages, phone calls and voicemails. But do we get everything we need out of these non-visual communicative outlets? I don’t think so.

For example, when you have a conference call with a prospective client or vendor are you really sitting at your desk with your eyes pinned to the phone, 100% attention on the phone call? Maybe it’s just in my case, but no. Instead, activities include surfing the web, maybe taking notes, texting on our cell phones or just simply staring off into space. This is a common problem. It’s not intentional but sometimes it’s impossible to keep our full attention on the phone call when we have so many other things going on around us.

A new solution for businesses may be advancing our technology to communicate more effectively. Instead of conference calls, how about video chat? We use it with our family members and friends but should we shift this way of communication into the office? Here at The TNS Group, conference calls are scattered all over daily calendars. Would video conferences better benefit the pitchers and listeners?

According to Inc.com there are currently 3-Low Cost Video Chat Services available that are better made for business conferencing. They are as follows:

Tokbox: This service allows a video chat session with up to 20 people. You can share you screen, tweet invites, video e-mails etc. Testing assures that the audio and video are crisp. Cost – $9.99 for basic chats

OOVO: This service supports video chats with up to 6 people. Same applications as Tokbox, plus you can record videoconferences. There is a slick design and high-quality audio and video. However, users say the interface was a bit confusing. Cost- Free to $39.95 a month per user for business plan

Skype 5.0: This service is only for PC’s and allows video chats with up to 5 people. You can share your screen during calls and record video conferences using an add-on. Skype had the fewest dropped connections and smoothest calls among the other choices. But like ooVoo, it was a bit confusing. Cost- Free

Are video conferences going to become the norm for business-to-business communication in the future?

Tara McKenna

IT spending increases worldwide

2010-07-19T12:16:00.003-04:00

As an IT consulting firm, we at The TNS Group, have been watching the amount of IT spending being made each year. Currently, there is a forecasted 3.9% increase in worldwide IT spending for the year of 2010. According to Gartner, our IT spending in 2009 was $3.225 trillion. With the 3.9% increase we will be spending $3.350 trillion this year. A reason for this increase is due to the fact of the devaluation of the euro versus the U.S. dollar. Richard Gordon, research vice president at Gartner said, “The European sovereign debt crisis is having an impact on the outlook for IT spending. The U.S. dollar has strengthened against the euro during the second quarter of 2010, and this trend will likely continue in the second half of 2010, which will put downward pressure on U.S.-dollar-denominated IT spending growth."

More specific spending matters that will increase this year include worldwide computing hardware. It’s forecast to reach $365 billion in 2010, which is up 9.1 percent from last year’s total spending. This specific sector benefits much from a healthy PC sector since it accounts for two thirds of spending in this area. Mr. Gordon added, “Consumer shipments will continue to be powered by strong mobile PC uptake, while professional shipments will be buoyed by a new replacement cycle and migration to Windows 7."

The IT spending forecast closely reflects the global economic outlook. It’s said that it is stable at the time, but vulnerable to shocks in key regions. For this reason, IT spending must be analyzed fully.

Tara McKenna

The TNS Group Tech Blog

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