901am

New Media News Every Morning

Microsoft To iPhone: OneNote To Rule Them All

By

After remaining exclusive upon Windows Mobile 7, Microsoft has apparently had a change of heart after announcing that they have ported OneNote to the iPhone.

If you use an iPhone, now you can experience the organizing power of OneNote right there. Starting today, you can download Microsoft OneNote Mobile for iPhone from the iTunes App Store, and it’s free for a limited time. […]

OneNote Mobile for the iPhone lets you capture and review notes and lists on your phone. Notes are automatically backed up and synced with free Windows Live SkyDrive online storage, so that you can access them from virtually anywhere – your PC, phone, and browser. Collecting thoughts and ideas on the go is what OneNote was made for. (Microsoft Office Exec Blog)

The app thus far supports the iPhone although Microsoft has not announced whether they will consider making this a universal app for iPad lovers. [Read more…]

Originally posted on January 18, 2011 @ 5:00 pm

YouTube Gives Musicians Another Reason To Love Android

By

Musicians big and small will now have a new reason to rejoice about Android as Google has just provided a new way to generate some revenue off of the millions of users who watch their music videos everyday.

Starting today, we’re welcoming VEVO’s extensive library of official music videos from artists like Lady Gaga, Rihanna, Kanye West and U2 onto the YouTube 2.0 app for Android, available around the world. To watch these videos your mobile phone needs to be running Android 2.2 (Froyo).  […]

In addition to these features, tens of thousands of YouTube partner videos will also now have pre-roll ads appear on the YouTube 2.0 app for Android. This not only expands distribution opportunities for partners like VEVO, but also opens up more revenue to partners distributing their content to mobile. Although we’ve tested ads on mobile over the years, this is our largest step in mobile monetization to date. (Official YouTube Blog)

Google also announced that the mobile ad market is on course to generate $1 billion in 2011, which should help convince a few artists to allow their music videos to be viewed upon mobile devices (as many artists only allow them to be viewed by desktops and notebooks).

With more users sporting an Android device, extending the ability to view their favorite videos upon their smartphone makes sense as it can help “starving artists” pay the bills (especially as the world climbs out of a recession).

Originally posted on January 12, 2011 @ 8:39 pm

One in five online consumers have been victims of cybercrime

By

It continues to be a boom time for cybercrime according to the latest Consumer Reports National Research Center “State of the Net” survey. Consumer Reports found that one in five online consumers have been victims of cybercrime in the last two years to the tune of an estimated $8 billion. And the overall rate of the crime has remained consistent over the five years that Consumer Reports has been tracking.

But Consumer Reports notes that the problem stands to get worse as rising unemployment and foreclosures fuel a wave of recession-orientated Internet scams, and as the popularity of social networking and data center services grow, creating more openings for identity thieves. Consumer Reports found that 13 percent of social-network users experienced some form of abuse.

Additionally, Consumer Reports estimates that 1.2 million consumers have had to replace their computers over the past two years due to software infections and an estimated 3.7 million households with broadband Internet access did not use a firewall to protect against hackers. Below are additional findings related to major online threats:

• Phishing or sending authentic-looking but fraudulent e-mail designed to steal sensitive personal information is a continuing concern. Consumer Reports estimates that about 7 million consumers gave phishers personal information over the past two years; that’s 1 in 13 online households. Among scam victims, 1 in 7 lost money in the past two years, comparable with data from the last survey. Total damage to U.S. consumers through phishing attacks works out to about $483 million.

• Spyware: Consumer Reports found 545,000 households had to replace computers in the past six months and one in 12 people had serious problems with spyware.

• Online identity theft: Consumer Reports estimates 1.7 million households were victims of ID theft committed over the Internet in the past year, of those two-thirds said the incident occurred because of an online purchase.

Originally posted on January 2, 2011 @ 11:15 pm

Will Carrier Billing Help Android Appeal To More Developers?

By

It looks like iOS developers will have yet another incentive to sell their apps upon Android after Google announced that the long awaited carrier billing feature is now live for AT&T customers.

Today, I am pleased to announce the availability of AT&T Direct Carrier Billing for Android users on the AT&T network. AT&T Android users can now easily charge their Android Market purchases to their monthly accounts with only a few clicks. With the combination of Android Market’s new app discovery features and a carrier-backed frictionless payment method, users will find it significantly easier to discover and purchase applications of their choice. […]

We strongly believe carrier billing is a great way to make it easy for users to purchase and pay for applications. In addition to the availability of AT&T and T-Mobile US carrier billing, we’ll continue to partner with more carriers to offer carrier billing options for their subscribers. (Android Developers Blog)

Despite Android’s massive success (as one can tell by Steve Jobs loathing of the OS), Google’s mobile OS has not had as much luck in attracting premium developers, especially those upon iOS.

Since not everyone has (or wants) a Paypal or Google Checkout account, utilizing carrier billing should make it easier for developers to generate revenue off of their applications, which may convince iOS developers looking to expand their product to seriously give Android a hard look.

This could translate into Android not only matching iOS in the number of quality applications, but also help them surpass Apple in the number of total apps as well.

Originally posted on December 23, 2010 @ 2:28 pm

Skype Compensating Users For Downtime

By

In what has probably been one of the worst downtimes in the history of Skype (perhaps rivaling that of even Tumblr’s outage), it looks like the VoIP king is slowly bringing its services back online.

While this outage could not have come at the worst time (during the holidays nonetheless), it looks like loyal customers will be compensated for the outage that has affected millions of users.

It’s taken some time to do, but we’re making steady progress. To put things in perspective, there are now around 16.5 million people online on Skype around the world. This is about 80% of what we’d normally expect to see at this time of day.

We’ve stabilised Skype’s core functionality – IM, audio and video – but it will take longer for us to restore offline IM and group video calling. It’s been a tough 24 hours for many of you – and I’d like to thank you for your patience as we bring Skype back to normal.

I realise that it’s difficult to compensate you for not being able to talk to or see your friends, family or colleagues, but we’re planning to offer Skype Credit vouchers to all of our loyal paying customers to thank you for your continued support. (Official Skype Blog)

Skype has yet to reveal how much compensation users will receive (as well as when the credits will role in), but either way it’s good to see Tony Bates (the CEO of Skype) explaining the issue via video to users who are obviously not pleased with the inability to contact their loved ones.

The VoIP king plans on updating more users via Twitter (@Skype) as well as blogging, although users can also report problems to @PeterAtSkype (who has been keeping everyone updated regarding the downtime).

Originally posted on December 23, 2010 @ 3:37 pm