scenarios
O2 leaves 3,000 employees to their own devices, launches a major remote-working pilot
thenextweb.com
O2 is today launching what’s it’s calling “the biggest flexible working initiative of its kind,” as it lets a quarter of its 12,000-strong workforce work remotely for the day. Employees at the UK mobile operator’s Slough HQ will carry out their daily duties as normal, except they’ll be working from...
RIM wrecks its own devices, so you don't have to (video)
www.engadget.com
Bend, drown, drop and zap? No, that's not your mnemonic device for surviving a fire, it's actually RIM's protocol for destroying their own products. In a trio of behind-the-scenes videos released today, the company's pulled back the curtain on its Hardware Support Lab's process, giving users a peek at...
How smartphones and tablets are fueling commerce
gigaom.com
Smartphones and tablets are driving both in-store and online commerce, but their roles are distinct in many ways. Nielsen shed some light on how consumers are using both types of devices to aid their shopping. Overall, 79 percent of respondents in a survey conducted in the first quarter said they...
YC-Backed GoCardless Launches PayLinks, A Bitly For Payments
techcrunch.com
GoCardless, the Y Combinator-backed startup founded in 2010 by Oxford graduates Hiroki Takeuchi, Tom Blomfield and Matt Robinson, is today launching a new product called PayLinks which aims to be something like a Bit.ly for payments. With its dead simple interface, anyone can create a shortened, tweet-friendly link in around 60...
Startup takes on cloud over-provisioning
gigaom.com
Cloudyn, an Israeli startup, says its new SaaS service can help businesses stop buying more public cloud services than they need. As more companies put workloads on Amazon Web Services or other public cloud infrastructure, many pay for more services than they need because it’s hard to track how many...
Facebook to Marketers, It’s Time for a Click to Action
techcrunch.com
Editor’s note: Brian Solis is principal at Altimeter Group, a research-based advisory firm. You can follow him on Twitter @briansolis. You Like me…you really Like me. Wait. Maybe you don’t really Like me after all. According to our Facebook engagement metrics, only 1% of you actually react when we post. So,...
Sidecar: A mobile app that’s trying to reinvent the phone call
www.geekwire.com
Sidecar co-founder Rob Glaser RealNetworks founder Rob Glaser, who helped usher in the era of online video and audio, now wants to reinvent the phone call as we know it. “Basically, if you think about the phone call, it has been the same thing for 50 years,” said Glaser, noting...
Pew: 65% of experts say most people will adopt mobile payments by 2020
venturebeat.com
There’s no doubt that mobile payments are generating plenty of hype among the tech community, but how long will it be until they go mainstream? 65 percent of experts surveyed by the Pew Research Center agreed with a statement that said mobile payments would take off by 2020, according...
DC police chief announces shockingly reasonable cell camera policy
arstechnica.com
DC Police Chief Cathy Lanier We've written a number of stories about police officers interfering with citizens who are trying to record the actions of police in public places. In some cases, cops have arrested citizens for making recordings in public. In others, they've seized cell phones and deleted...
‘Big brother’ black boxes to soon be mandatory in all new cars
www.bgr.com
Beginning in 2015, all new cars in the United States will likely need to be fitted with data-recording “black boxes” very similar to the devices currently used in aircraft. The U.S. Senate has already passed a bill that will make the devices a requirement, and the House is expected...
Cybram 001 simulator helps doctors practice brain surgery without risking lives (video)
www.engadget.com
Sometimes it's awesome to be a guinea pig; take for example, getting down and dirty the Consumer Preview of Windows 8. When it comes to brain surgery, however, there are no happy little accidents -- and let's face it, Bob Ross would've been a horrible surgeon. Thankfully, a new...
Six scenarios where the iPad is trouncing the PC
news.cnet.com
TechRepublic's Jason Hiner has little use for an iPad. But he's pinpointed six areas where it's become the preferred device for others and is disrupting the PC market. [Read more]...
Dropbox Has Hired Outside Experts To Investigate Possible Security Breach
techcrunch.com
The spam attack and related possible address leak over at Dropbox may be even more serious than we originally thought. According to a message posted by the company over on its forums, they’ve now brought in “an outside team of experts” to assist Dropbox’s own security team in the investigation....
Twist, an app for iPhone, saves time with accurate ETAs
venturebeat.com
“Where” is yesterday’s news. The next big opportunity in mobile is “when,” said serial angel investor Bill Lee who’s backed the likes of Posterous, TweetDeck, and Yammer. Add Twist to that list, a startup backed and co-founded by Lee that today unveils its time-saving application for iPhone. “Twist is...
Windows 8 Will Come In Three Different Flavors (Two For x86, One For ARM)
techcrunch.com
Microsoft just announced that Windows 8 will come in three different flavors: Windows 8, Windows 8 Pro and Windows RT. Windows 8 will be the mainstream consumer edition. The Pro version will bring a number of features that most mainstream consumers don’t necessarily need to Microsoft’s next operating system, including...
DigiMo Cracks The Code: Mobile Payments With No Point Of Sale Changes
techcrunch.com
DigiMo, is a mobile payments platform that actually makes sense to me. When I sat down with CEO Yossi Yarkoni and VP of Marketing Nir Shimony at the Mobile World Congress to hear about their concept, which is piloting in Israel right now, the first thing I thought was “wow,...
Apple shareholders: The odds are against a dividend today
tech.fortune.cnn.com
The company is likely to hold on to its $100 billion cash hoard -- at least for now Click to enlarge. Source: Asymco.com I suspect that the number one question on the mind of Apple (AAPL) shareholders gathering today at 1 Infinite Loop for the company's annual meeting is what Tim...
MTV Takes The Beta Label Off Its Music Meter App For Finding New Artists
techcrunch.com
MTV is unveiling an update to its Music Meter mobile app today. This is version 2.0, and also the first version to abandon the “beta testing” label, suggesting that MTV has worked out any early kinks — and is ready to make money. The app first launched in March 2011...
How the Internet of Things could help us cope with severe weather
thenextweb.com
Britain isn’t known for handling poor weather well; an inch of snow can be enough to grind the transport network to a halt. Now a project run by business and technology community Cambridge Wireless aims to explore how the Internet of Things could help the UK cope with severe weather...
Microsoft Names Windows 8 Versions (You Might Want To Get Comfortable)
www.fastcompany.com
News updates all day from your Fast Company editors.Late yesterday Microsoft revealed what it would be calling its upcoming Windows update. There are three versions, starting with Windows 8--the plain vanilla "one size doesn't quite fit all, at all" variety. Then there's Windows 8 Pro with boosted encryption, device managment,...
CSS filter effects get GPU-accelerated in Chrome
arstechnica.com
Have you ever wanted to apply Instagram-like filters to HTML elements? Well, now you can. The CSS Filter Effects specification, which is backed by Adobe, defines a mechanism for applying common graphical filters to Web content. It can be used to adjust brightness, saturation, hue, and contrast. It can also...
TNW Pick of the Day: Indecisive? Ovoto lets you create impromptu ‘yes or no’ polls around photos
thenextweb.com
If you ever have problems making decisions on what shoes to buy, which gig to go to or where to book your next holiday, this app will likely be right up your street. Ovoto is the product of Ireland-based social search startup HeyStaks, and it’s available to download for free...
Xbox 360 "SmartGlass" turns phone or tablet into second controller
arstechnica.com
Ars Technica Time to grow a third hand. Microsoft today announced "SmartGlass," a new technology for Xbox 360 that will turn your phone or tablet into another controller, allowing all sorts of new scenarios for video games and entertainment in general. SmartGlass, unveiled at E3 today, isn't Windows-only, as...
Wealthfront Releases New Tool to Demystify Post-IPO Stock-Selling
pandodaily.com
Wealthfront continues to fight the New York-based, suited-up wealth management zombies with the thing Silicon Valley does best: Technology. The online financial company is making a big push to get the business of newly minted Valley millionaires. Unlike the zombies, Wealthfront is taking the non-pushy sales route, seeking to demystify the...
Xbox & Chumby hacker designs open source Geiger counter
gigaom.com
Xbox hacker and co-founder of the Chumby project, Bunnie Huang, has designed an open source Geiger counter to help citizens in Japan detect radiation in the wake of the nuclear disaster in Japan, Huang writes on his blog. After several design iterations, Huang writes that he created a Geiger counter...
Google Books Data Mining Reveals Mad Men's Big Historical Flaw: Business Lingo
www.techdirt.com
The TV show Mad Men has quite a reputation for going to great lengths to be as authentic as possible. The clothes, the props, the scenarios are all supposedly thought out in great detail. While some who were actually in the business at the time quibble with certain aspects of...
Sweden’s Anyfi turns any Wi-Fi network into a small cell
gigaom.com
Iliad’s Free Mobile is shaking up France’s wireless market with a cheap mobile data service that uses millions of residential broadband Wi-Fi access points to offload 3G traffic. Why haven’t more carriers followed Iliad’s lead? Most carriers don’t have the Iliad’s ingrained advantage: it manages both its customers’ handsets and...
Ross Still Not the Boss (Yet): Yahoo CEO Selection Now Likely to Take Longer Than Many Expect
allthingsd.com
According to multiple sources close to the situation, the selection of a CEO of Yahoo will not be announced today at its annual meeting, as many anticipate. In fact, sources said, it might take several more weeks, although that could certainly change quickly. In other words, despite a strong...
Une Bobine is a flexible, hybrid stand/dock/cable for iPhone
9to5mac.com
Recently launched as a Kickstarter project, Jon Fawcett of Akron, Ohio and his new company [Fuse]Chicken have invented a flexible gooseneck accessory with built-in USB cable that doubles as a shapable stand and dock for your iPhone. The benefits of the Une Bobine (which is French for “A coil”)...
SK Telecom Smart Learning robots add twist to interactive learning, we go hands-on (video)
www.engadget.com
They aren't quite up to Johnny Number Five's level of fame and stature, but SK Telecom's new "Smart Learning" robots have something it (he?) never could have dreamed of: the power of a smartphone. The mechanical critters are designed to be next-gen educational tools for our posterity, and only...
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