The Social Election: 2012

Democrats & Republicans will take the debates to social media.

The presidential election is coming up this November and political campaign managers and party representatives are leveraging social media to reach voters. Historically, the 18-25 year old voting demographic is least likely to vote. However, Obama and Romney are positioning their values and party image to appeal to the young voting generation. It's no debate that this election will be taken to the social media arena. Click on either candidates' names above to connect with their Facebook pages!

Delta using mobile technology to improve experience at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport

Delta Air Lines Logo

Delta Air Lines (DL) began their deployment of more than 250 iPads in three new restaurants on Concourse G at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.  This is a project that Delta is helping fund to transform the traditional airport into a high-tech, high-quality experience for travelers.

Apple News: What Patents Did Samsung Violate?

Samsung (Left) vs. Apple (Right)

A federal jury made up of nine jurors decided the fate of Samsung on Friday and ruled that Samsung must pay more that $1 billion dollars for allegedly infringing on five of Apples patents.  After just 700 questions and 3 days of deliberation, the jury returned with their decision.  

Samsung tried to avoid court by negotiating with Apples, but Apple took them straight to court and is now trying to get eight of their smartphones actually banned in the U.S.  This is a pretty blaring contrast to non-U.S countries that say Samsung didn't copy any of Apples products.  Although the $1 billion dollar price-tag for "cheating" isn't a huge financial blow for Samsung, it may detour other companies, including Samsung, from creating Apple "look alike" products.  NY Times says, "Customers could end up with some welcome diversity in phone and tablet design - or they may be stuck with devises that manufacturers clumsily revamped to avoid crossing Apple."

Just some of the patents that Apple has claimed that they infringed on are:

1. The Bounce Back Effect - when scrolling to the end of the list
2. The Pinch to Zoom Effect
3. The Physical Design of the iPhone

Samsung claims that they will ask the court to overturn their decision and if they don't they say they will take it to higher court.   Do you think that Samsung will counter sue to protect their company and claims that they didn't actually copy Apple?  Or do you think they will revamp their entire line of devises just to stay in the race?

The Facebook App

Facebook has revamped its mobile app.

Facebook is revamping its mobile app in an effort to make checking in on your friends faster. In response to criticism about its app's slow loading time, the tech company is overhauling the iOS app for iPhones and iPads. Beginning Thursday, users can upgrade to the new app on the Apple platform.

Facebook has invested a significant amount of time and claims a trio of improvements including opening the app, scrolling the newsfeed and opening photos. A ripple effect occurs when you "Like" a post and status updates, check-ins, comments and maps appear in real-time.

InstaCube takes Instagram to a new level

Instacube display (source: nowhereelse.fr)

We have all come to know and accept Instagram as part of our typical social media experience.  However, there haven't been many ways to share and display your photos outside of smartphones and computers (unless you want to turn your Instagram pictures into coasters).  Instacube might be the solution. 

Apple Answers to Problems with SMS Spoofing

Apple has to answer to a pretty big allegation today.  A well-known hacker, pod2g, opened up a pretty big can of worms for Apple claiming that he had found a flaw in iOS dating all the way back to the beginning of Apple.  He mentioned this on Twitter a few days ago and also on his blog this afternoon.  Pod2g claimed that he found a flaw that he believes Apple knows about and that other hackers may know about as well.  What does this mean for the security of your text messages? 

Your text messages may not be as private as you thought and they may not even be from the person you thought they were from.  Text messages are exchanged though mobile devices over the carrier's network.  Text messages can be created and the Reply To address changed.  This makes text messages appear from one person, but responses are sent to a different address.

In response to these allegations, Apple encourages users to use their service, iMessage, instead of downloaded text services.  Apple states that they take “security very seriously," in a statement.  “When using iMessage instead of SMS, addresses are verified, which protects against these kinds of spoofing attacks.”  SMS users should also be wary of links to photos, videos, and websites that may be suspicious.  This spoofing can lead users to trust people and texts that they shouldn't.

Have you ever received SMS text messages that are spoofed?  How could you tell they were spoofed?

Are We Square?

Pay With Square App, invisible payment for you.

Square is an electronic payment system that transfers funds without sliding a plastic card. Two years ago, Square developed a payment system that attaches to smart phones and tablets and operates as a point of sale system. Recently, Square CEO Jack Dorsey, just landed a deal with Starbucks that will revolutionize the way we pay. As co-founder of Twitter, Jack Dorsey knows how to capitalize on evolving technology.

Funny Autocorrect Typos in Text Messages

With the week only halfway over, I can safely say that many of you are getting anxious to get to your weekend.  Instead of posting something serious regarding mobile technology, I took the time to browse the web and collect some screenshots that highlight a problem that most of us have encountered - the autocorrect.  Let's take a moment to laugh at the texts that were sent with completely different meanings than originally intended. 

Note: The images that follow may contain adult language

Mobile Project Management System

Project Management for Individuals & Groups

Whether you are planning a birthday party, making a grocery list, or writing down a great idea, Trello helps you keep track of it all - in one place.  Think of this application as a mini-Project Management software provider that is web-based and has apps for both Apple and Android smartphones for free.

Android is eating away at Apple's share

Android owns 68% of the global smartphone market.

As of spring 2012, nearly half of all Americans own a smartphone, about 46% of the adult population. The percentage of adults who own a tablet nearly doubled over the 2011 holiday season from 10% to 19%. With how dominate Apple has been recently, Google is stealing some of the limelight. Android has surged ahead of Apple in  the smartphone market share.

According to a Wednesday report from the research firm IDC, "Google's Android surged to a whopping 68% share of the global smartphone market last quarter. That's four times the 17% market share held by Apple" (CNN).

Google experimenting with Gmail results in search queries

Gmail Icon

Earlier today, Chris Taylor reported on Mashable about a new feature that Google is rolling out.  One million beta testers are being sought out to test out a feature that will show results from Gmail when you search in Google.  The results will appear on the right-hand side of the screen (where pay-per-click advertisements usually can be found).

With this feature, Google is essentially doubling the amount of data that users search with each query - Gmail data is about the same size as the  search database.

When users are searching on Google, they have the option to "hide personal results" - giving you privacy if you are searching with company nearby.

While this new search feature is a phenomenal display of how much data Google searches in under a second, I still think the personal results will be irrelevant to a majority of the Gmail users.  Most people have their personal email accounts managed so that they know (at least vaguely) what messages are being stored.  Along with that, most personal users probably don't search for things on Google that they are already discussing in email dialogue.

The only Gmail users that will benefit from the new search feature will be the following: 1) People who collect offers from companies whose mailing list they have signed up for, and 2) Topic specialists.

The users that collect advertisements from companies might do a search and remember that they had a coupon code that they could use on a next purchase - making for a quick copy-and-paste.  The topic specialists will be those who follow tons of news regarding an industry, hobby, or their profession.  For example, a marketing professional might follow news from tons of stories (such as social media marketing, advertising, mobile marketing, etc.).  That way, doing a search might yield some articles that he or she already has in Gmail.

Overall, I don't think that the new search feature for Google is very relevant.  However, I still think that it is impressive that Google is doubling the amount of data that is being used for their search engine.

What do you think about this feature?  Are any of you beta testers?  Let me know.

No More YouTube App!

YouTube is the world's second largest search engine, right behind Google and right before Yahoo!  It is where you look up the day-to-day "How-To" videos, find music videos, create channels, and if you're the outgoing-type, it's a great place to express yourself.  You may even get famous like Justin Beiber or Rebecca Black... even Jefferson Bethke.  But the question of the day has been - do you use the YouTube app that seems to be planted on every phone and tablet?  YouTube is a Google-product, yet it was on every version of the iPhone and iPad until... today.

London Olympics: The Social Podium

Over 1 billion people will be viewing the summer Olympic games.

Not every athlete qualified for London and not every loyal fan is able to afford cheering from the sidelines of the games. But every one can connect to the London summer Olympics through the social media platform. If social media was an Olympic event, there would be about one billion athletes (mobile users and TV viewers combined) competing for the gold. Here's a breakdown of social networks and their activity during the London games.

Facebook experimenting with "Save for Later" feature

Save for later (photo by cultofmac.com)

Facebook is currently experimenting with a new feature for both the desktop and mobile versions of their website.  Save for Later allows users to add stories to a Saved folder.  This is similar to the Favorites feature on Twitter - minus the notification that it sends to users.

On the mobile version of Facebook, users can save a story by holding down on it until a window pops up with the option to save the story.  For the desktop version, this feature is displayed next to the Share, Comment, and Like buttons.

The good thing about this feature is the fact that it doesn't send notifications when users save stories.  Instead of having to like content and then view it on your profile activity later, you can simply have your own collection of funny pictures or interesting content that you don't have time to read immediately.

Currently, the Save for Later feature is being tested with a small percentage of the Facebook users.  For mobile users who have been selected to test it, there is no update necessary to use this function.  It was released Tuesday to a portion of the iPhone, iPad, and desktop users.

I personally think that this feature is much better than just liking material on Facebook.  It creates a personal cache for users to visit engaging material (or save it to show others) without having to share it publicly on your profile.  It also keeps your profile and notifications clean of clutter!  What do you think about this feature? Is this something that you would use?