Source: http://feeds.celebritybabies.com/~r/celebrity-babies/~3/lCQKJsJPz7o/
Sunday 24 March 2013
Mini Chic! See Harper Beckham?s Designer Rain Boots
"Harper loves her Marc Jacobs wellies! Rainy day in London," the fashion designer wrote.
Friday 22 March 2013
Exec CEO Justin Kan Talks Competition, Cleaning, And Future Plans
Hot on the heels of Exec’s Cleaning Service launch in NYC, we couldn’t resist the opportunity to get CEO and co-founder Justin Kan in the studio for a quick chat. We also couldn’t resist checking out the service in action, and thusly hired Execs from the company’s standalone Cleaning app to help tidy up our NYC Aol Ventures crib. For those unfamiliar with Exec, the concept is quite simple. Exec lets you hire people on a case-by-case basis for errand-running and cleaning. The app originally launched as an errand-running service, letting Execs who sign on to the platform (and pass background checks) run to get you coffee, pick up your dry cleaning, or assemble that Ikea bed for you. You’re charged $25 per hour, the majority of which goes to the Exec and a percentage of which goes to the company. After realizing that cleaning was dominating over 50 percent of Exec’s orders, the company launched a standalone Cleaning app in February. Since, the cleaning side of the business has expanded to Boston, Los Angeles, Chicago and here in New York City. “We wanted the cleaning app to be the easiest thing you can imagine,” said Justin. “We don’t want you to have to make any decisions.” He mentioned that most of the current cleaning services force you to play phone tag and call a number of services. Meanwhile, on Exec, you simply open the app and are instantly given the availability for your house cleaning and a quote. But even though cleaning makes up a large part of the Exec business, we can’t forget about errand-running. I asked Justin how Exec gets users to change behavior, as most people in the younger demographic feel somewhat uncomfortable giving directions for others to do their chores. But Exec has added layers to the app that give you prompts for what you might do with it, like have someone stand in line for you at Brunch. (Justin’s actually used Exec for that very purpose.) As the company continues to enter new markets, the biggest challenge (according to Justin) is handling the logistics on the backend as the apps scale. In the past eight months, over 11,000 people have applied to be Exec contractors. Not only does the company have to handle the massive hiring funnel, complete with interviews and background checks, but also handle scheduling thousands of workers with real-time tasks onSource: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/dXoqvO528jY/
Saturday 9 March 2013
Feds crack down on text-messaging spammers
The Federal Trade Commission has gone to court to stop companies from allegedly bombarding cell phone users with hundreds of millions of unwanted text messages that promised ?free? gift cards.
The FTC complaints, filed in courtrooms around the U.S., charge 29 defendants with sending more than 180 million of these spam texts.
"Today's announcement says ?game over? to the major league scam artists behind millions of spam texts," said Charles Harwood, acting director of the FTC?s Bureau of Consumer Protection in a statement.
If you have a wireless phone, there?s a good chance you got one. The text messages offer free $1,000 gift cards from big name companies such as Wal-Mart, Target and Best Buy.
(Related: Warning: Bogus 'smishing' messages tell lies)
The FTC claims the texts were designed to get people to click on a link that would take them to deceptive websites that requested sensitive personal information ? supposedly needed for shipping ?before they could get that ?free? card.
The commission suspects the information collected was sold to other companies for marketing purposes.
But that was just the beginning. Once the personal information was gathered, people were directed to another site where they were required to sign up for a number of ?offers? in order to be eligible for the gift card.
The FTC?s investigation shows some people had to sign up for as many as 13 offers. This often meant providing a credit card number to sign up for some type of subscription. In some cases, they had to submit applications for a credit card, an action that would show up in their credit history and could affect their credit score.
(More information:FTC Cracks Down on Senders of Spam Text Messages Promoting "Free" Gift Cards)
In its complaint, the government claims the operators of these websites violated the FTC Act by not disclosing all of the conditions attached to that supposedly ?free? gift ? including the possibility that ?lucky winners? would be required to spend money to get it.
The FTC says its investigation shows the text messages were sent to random phone numbers, including to cell phone subscribers who did not have a text message subscription plan. These consumers paid the cost of receiving that spam text. While it may seem like everyone has a text plan, the FTC says as many as 12 percent of mobile phone users do not.
The FTC?s complaints target those who allegedly sent the unwanted text messages and those who allegedly operated the deceptive websites. The courts are being asked to stop the companies and individuals from continuing ?their alleged deceptive and unfair practices? and to freeze their assets.
Herb Weisbaum is The ConsumerMan. Follow him on Facebook and Twitteror visit The ConsumerMan website.
Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/business/feds-crack-down-text-messaging-spammers-1C8736229
Wednesday 13 February 2013
Apple rumored to have a team of over 100 designers already working on the iWatch
The rumors surrounding a possible iWatch are starting to hit fever pitch. Earlier in the week, The Wall Street Journal and the New York Times claimed to have knowledge of its existence and now Bloomberg has added to those rumors. According to ?two people familiar with the company?s plans?, Apple has a team of over 100 designers working on the device.
Apple Inc. has a team of about 100 product designers working on a wristwatch-like device that may perform some of the tasks now handled by the iPhone and iPad, two people familiar with the company?s plans said.
The team, which has grown in the past year, includes managers, members of the marketing group, and software and hardware engineers who previously worked on the iPhone and iPad, said the people, who asked not to be named because the plans are private. The team?s size suggests Apple is beyond the experimentation phase in its development, said the people.
As the saying goes, there is no smoke without fire and there is certainly a lot of smoke hanging around when it comes to the iWatch rumor. Apple will have to pull off something pretty spectacular if the rumoured iWatch is to become a hugely popular product. The idea of running iOS on a tiny screen doesn?t appeal to me all that much however until we know exactly what Apple is working on, it?s too soon to comment. If it looks anything like the concept image above then it could be massively appealing!
Are you excited by the rumored iWatch?
Source: Bloomberg Image: GottaBeMobile
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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/9yLZ5PJmWss/story01.htm
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Tuesday 12 February 2013
10 Things to Know for Today
Pope Benedict XVI blesses the faithful from his studio's window overlooking St.Peter's square during the Angelus noon prayer, at the Vatican, Sunday, Feb. 10, 2013. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
Pope Benedict XVI blesses the faithful from his studio's window overlooking St.Peter's square during the Angelus noon prayer, at the Vatican, Sunday, Feb. 10, 2013. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
An Indian woman weeps as she watches from a staircase as rescue workers tend to the bodies of those killed in a stampede on a railway platform at the main railway station in Allahabad, India, Sunday, Feb. 10, 2013. At least ten Hindu pilgrims attending the Kumbh Mela were killed and more then thirty were injured in a stampede on an overcrowded staircase, according to Railway Ministry sources. (AP Photo/Kevin Frayer)
Snow begins to melt on cars parked at a dealership after a winter storm in Hartford, Conn., Sunday, Feb. 10, 2013. A howling storm across the Northeast left much of the New York-to-Boston corridor covered with more than three feet of snow on Friday into Saturday morning. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill)
1. POPE BENEDICT XVI TO STEP DOWN
The 85-year-old pontiff, the first to resign in nearly 600 years, says his advanced age and diminishing strength have made it too difficult to carry on.
2. SNOWED-IN NORTHEAST TRIES TO GET BACK TO WORK
Public transit returned after more than 3 feet of snow fell in some places and New York reopened a major highway where hundreds of cars were stranded.
3. MANHUNT FOR EX-LA COP MOVES TO SUBURBS
Police surround the Irvine home of a believed target of Christopher Dorner, and evacuated a San Fernando Valley store after a reported sighting.
4. HORSEMEAT SCANDAL SPREADS THROUGHOUT EUROPE
France says Romanian butchers and Dutch and Cypriot traders were involved in the supply chain that put horsemeat disguised as beef in frozen food. EUROPE-HORSEMEAT
5. GATES BACKS OVERSIGHT OF DRONE PROGRAM
The former defense secretary supports proposals for a special court to review Obama's deadly strikes against Americans linked to al-Qaida.
6. TWISTER DAMAGES MISS. CAMPUS
The governor was to tour hard-hit Hattiesburg today where windows were blown out and roofs ripped off at his alma mater, University of Southern Mississippi.
7. STAMPEDE AT HINDU FESTIVAL KILLS 37
At least 30 others are hurt when thousands celebrating the Kumbh Mela fell into a crush rushing between train platforms.
8. REAL-LIFE CRASH ON REALITY SHOW
Three people died in a helicopter crash near Los Angeles while filming an untitled military-themed show for the Discovery Channel.
9. GRAMMYS SPREAD THE LOVE WITH SURPRISE BEST ALBUM WINNER
Mumford & Sons' Babel won the top prize, while the Black Keys' Dan Auerbach took home four trophies and Fun. won best new artist.
10. WHY YOU'LL FIND THE YANKEES PRESIDENT AT DOG SHOW
Randy Levine, co-owner of Mitch, a 5-year-old yellow Lab, says: "He's like Derek Jeter. Very calm."
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Sunday 10 February 2013
Deceased programmer invented 'Like' button before Facebook, says lawyer
A patent firm has filed a lawsuit against Facebook on behalf of a deceased computer scientist who might have dreamed up the famous "like" button before Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg even got his start.
The suit revolves around two patents held by the family of Joannes Jozef Everardus Van Der Meer, who died in June, 2004, just months after Facebook's Harvard debut.
According to the complaint, on Sept. 1, 1998, Van Der Meer filed an application with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for a "Web page diary" which allows users to "collect personal information and third-party content, organize the information chronologically on a personalized Web page, and share the information with a selected group of people, such as the end user's friends, through the use of user-settable privacy levels."
Sounds vaguely familiar, no? Hello, Timeline.
Van Der Meer's second patent application describes a method of automatically transferring content from a website to a user's personal "Web page diary" with a click, allowing people to "collect interesting content as they browsed the Web."
Rembrandt ? the company that represents independent inventors and patent holders such as the family of the deceased programmer ? suggests that the second patent outlines the functionality of the Facebook "Like" button. You click it, content of some sort is thrown onto your Facebook Timeline. Or your "Web page diary." Po-tay-to, po-tah-to.
The first patent (U.S. Patent No. 6,415,316) was issued on July 2, 2002 and the second patent (U.S. Patent No. 6,289,362) was issued on Sept. 11, 2001. While the patents were pending (and after they were issued), Van Der Meer attempted to "commercialize his inventions." He formed a company and bought a domain, surfbook.com, to launch a "pilot system that utilized some of the innovations described in his patents." He died before seeing his vision through, however.
The odd similarities between Van Der Meer's domain of choice and Facebook's aside, his patents sound as if they could be applied to nearly any of today's social networks. Nonetheless, legal action is currently only being pursued against Facebook and AddThis, a company which "acts like an enhanced version of the Facebook transfer script," according to Rembrandt's complaint, thereby allegedly infringing on U.S. Patent No. 6,289,362 as well.
"We're not currently pursuing claims against anyone else," Thomas Melsheimer, one of the lawyers representing Rembrandt, told NBC News, "but that doesn't mean that won't happen." (One might assume that Facebook was singled out because one of its patents cites one of Van Der Meer's, implying that the company was aware of it.)
Rembrandt is seeking "no less than a reasonable royalty" for the alleged patent infringement. It's tough to guess what this might amount to, but Ars Technica's Joe Mullin does point out that Rembrandt has managed to successfully "wrest a $41 million verdict from contact-lens maker Ciba Vision in 2008" while working with a husband-wife inventor team who developed what may have set the groundwork for the extended wear contacts many of us use.
Additionally, as Melsheimer pointed out to NBC News, the company representing the case, Fish & Richardson, is "one of the largest firms practicing intellectual property" in the U.S. (The firm once beat Amazon in court, when representing an independent feminist bookstore in an infringement case.)
Get the popcorn ready, folks. I have a feeling we'll be hearing about this case for a while.
Want more tech news or interesting links? You'll get plenty of both if you keep up with Rosa Golijan, the writer of this post, by following her on Twitter, subscribing to her Facebook posts, or circling her on Google+.
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Tuesday 29 January 2013
59% Of All Android Tablet Usage Comes From The U.S., Where Amazon?s Kindle Fire Leads The Pack
Android tablets have nearly caught up to iPad devices as the world's most popular tablet platform, and some project that they?may even overtake?iPads later this year. According to new research from app analytics company Localytics, the U.S., and specifically Amazon, should take the most credit for that trend: some 59% of all Android tablet usage came from the U.S., with over half of that attributed to Kinde Fire and Fire HD tablets.Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/lSKiJqX6cxg/
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