People Making Money Online

Hands up – I admit I am a techno-skeptic. I hate technology for the sake of technology, I want technology that actually benefits me and improves my life. Apple’s iPad – what’s the point of the iPad? You can’t connect it to your work network and it still doesn’t support Flash. Social media, what is the point of Social media? If I want to communicate with someone I’ll either ring them up on my (okay I’ve actually got a smartphone!) phone or call round and see them. But then along comes Google and they are reportedly taking social media ‘citations’ as part of their ranking algorithm so I am suddenly forced to start paying attention.

What is a Citation?, who cares – well I do now because I need to earn them apparently to move my business forward. I have been running my online business at Stinkyink.com for nearly ten years. In that time we have survived Google's Florida update and all the others through to Panda and managed to grow our business based on good old fashioned link building and website optimization, but now suddenly I have to start paying attention to something else.

Let’s be honest here, I run a commercial website selling ink – it’s not the sexiest product in the world and is difficult to make exciting. Most people actually positively resent buying ink cartridges because the perception is that they are poor value for money so to get positive social media ‘citations’ is always going to be a tough call. So, kicking and screaming I’ve been forced to pay attention to Twitter and Facebook. Do you know what, I have just realised that Twitter is a really useful tool for me, not necessarily for promoting my business or myself indeed, but by being careful about who I follow and building up a list of relevant follows over the past few months I am finding that I spend useful time learning things. My biggest frustration is tweeting and then nobody responding, do I live in a vacuum?

So Twitter for us is becoming a useful resource. Those words are a bit like saying ‘that cabbage was very nice’ not a sentence that I would normally utter! I see friends of mine with commercial sites, who tweet once every six weeks ‘Sale’ or ‘special offer’ and even I understand that is not the way to earn ‘citations’ or anything else worthwhile, you do have to engage with these mediums to get any benefit and that takes time and attention, if you don’t have that time then stick with the trusted SEO methods of link building and optimization.

Continued on the next page

T-Mobile introduced a new Android application on Wednesday called “More for Me.” The app offers T-Mobile customers with phones running Android 1.6 or later, daily deals based upon their preferences, location, and interests. Discounts are provided by sites such as LivingSocial, which is available in more than 260 markets, but there are also exclusive discounts from T-Mobile or its partners. T-Mobile customers simply need to install the T-Mobile More for Me app from the Android Market to get started. Read on for the full press release.

T-Mobile Launches More for Me — Combines Daily Deal Offers Into One Easy Place for Consumers



The beta version of the T-Mobile More for Me application for Android provides personalized offers, discounts and deals to consumers on any mobile operator

BELLEVUE, Wash. — June 15, 2011 — T-Mobile USA, Inc. today announced More for Me™, a nationwide aggregation service that offers consumers the best in daily deals. The service is completely free. Beginning today, consumers using nearly any Android™-powered smartphone can download the beta version of the T-Mobile More for Me application from Android Market™ to get the best and timely offers, discounts and deals from some of the biggest names in daily deals tailored to their preferences, location and interests.

More for Me is the first nationwide daily deal aggregation service of its kind from a national wireless carrier. Discounts and deals are generated from popular social buying sites, such as LivingSocial – the online source for handpicked experiences at a great value – as well as exclusive offers from T-Mobile and its partners. Customers can get discounts on a wide variety of products and services, making it easier than ever for people to save money while on the go.

“Consumers are constantly looking for ways to save money and are turning to social buying apps in droves,” said Brad Duea, senior vice president, value added services marketing,

T-Mobile USA. “With T-Mobile’s More for Me application for Android smartphones, we’re bringing together the leading daily deal sites into one easy-to-navigate place so consumers spend less time searching and more time saving.”

The T-Mobile More for Me application is customizable, enabling consumers to find the most relevant deals, closest to their exact location. Users have the opportunity to see deals from a variety of retailers, in nearly any city, with many deals tailored to meet their specific interests and preferences.

“LivingSocial works directly with merchants in all of our 260+ global markets to craft great deals that drive our valuable members through their door,” said Jake Maas, senior vice president, corporate and business development, LivingSocial. “We are excited to bring our handpicked experiences to the millions of consumers who will enjoy T-Mobile’s new More for Me app.”

T-Mobile Android customers, and anyone with an Android-powered mobile phone using Android 1.6 or higher, can download the More for Me application from Android Market for free today.

In partnership with Out There Media, a global leader in mobile advertising, T-Mobile will expand More for Me to reach virtually all of its customers, regardless of phone type, by offering them the option of receiving free text messages of exclusive offers, discounts and deals. The T-Mobile More for Me application is also expected to be built for other popular mobile operating systems later this summer.

In both the application and opt-in text message experience, T-Mobile More for Me enables consumers to specify their interests and demographic information in order to receive the most relevant offers, deals and discounts.

More information on the T-Mobile More for Me application is available at https://market.android.com/details?id=com.tmobile.moreforme.

Tags: Android 1.6, Android Market, app, application, carrier, daily deals, deals, Living Social, LivingSocial, MOre for me, savings, Special, T-Mobile, T-Mobile USA, Tmobile


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By abs-cbnNEWS.com and U.S. News Agency / Asian

Photos of a beaming Charice with Hollywood superstars Salma Hayek and Kevin James have been posted on the Internet.

Caughtonset.com carried several pictures of the 19-year-old Filipino international singing sensation and her co-stars on the set of “Here Comes The Boom.”

The photos were shot outside Faneuil Hall in downtown Boston where the cast members shot scenes on May 13, the website said.

“Here Comes The Boom” is Charice’s second Hollywood film.

In the film, the “Pyramid” singer will play Malia.

Charice was part of 20th Century Fox’s live-action animation film “Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel.”

Directed by Frank Coraci (“Click” and “The Wedding Singer”), “Here Comes The Boom” tells the story of a music teacher who will do everything to keep the school music program running.

The film will be screened in 2012, reports said.

In her previous interview, Charice, dubbed as the rising Asian pop star, said she yearns to appear in a horror film.

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Spurs target Drogba and Foster, Liverpool eye Serie A playmaker and Brazilian starlet keen on Chelsea switch.

Make: Online | <b>News</b> From The Future – Amputee Demonstrates Bionic Hand

News From The Future - Amputee Demonstrates Bionic Hand... Last year, Patrick, a 24-year-old Austrian, decided to have his dysfunctional hand amputated and replaced with a bionic hand. He lost the.

Encyclo: The CrunchBase for the Future of <b>News</b>

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Making Money Without

Alt Attribute & Seo

SEO Optimization images is becoming more and more essential in SEO (Seo optimization) for websites. The ALT attribute is a critical step that is sometimes forgotten. This is often a lost chance of better rankings.

In Google's webmaster guidelines, they advise the use of alternative text for that images in your site:

Images:. Make use of the alt attribute to provide descriptive text. Additionally, we recommend utilizing a human-readable caption and descriptive text round the image.

Why would they ask us to do that? The answer is easy, really; search engines like google have a similar problem as blind users. They can't begin to see the images.

Many webmasters and inexperienced or unethical SEOs abuse the use of this attribute, attempting to stuff it with keywords, hoping to achieve a particular keyword density, which is not as relevant for rankings now since it was previously.

On the contrary, high keyword density can, on some search engines, trigger spam filters, which might result in a penalty for your site's ranking. Even without such a penalty, your site's rankings will not take advantage of this plan.
This process also puts persons who use screen readers at a greater disadvantage. Screen readers are software-based tools that actually read aloud the contents of what's shown on the screen. In browsing the net, the alt attributes of images are read aloud too.

Imagine listening to a paragraph of text which is then repetitions of many keywords. The page will be not even close to accessible, and, to put it mildly, will be found quite annoying.
What is an Alt attribute?

An ALT attribute should not be used as a description or a label to have an image, though lots of people use it in that fashion. Although it might seem natural to assume that alternate text is a label or perhaps a description, it's not!

What used inside an image's alt attribute should be its text equivalent and convey the same information or serve the same purpose that the image would.

The thing is to provide the same functional information that a visual user would see. The alt attribute text should be the "stand in" in the event that the look is unavailable. Think about this question: Should you replace the image using the text, would most users get the same basic information, and wouldn't it create the same response?
Some examples:

 

Some SEO Optimization Tips

If a search button is a magnifying glass or binoculars its alt text ought to be 'search' or 'find' not 'magnifying glass' or 'binoculars'.

If an image is supposed to convey the literal contents of the image, a description is appropriate.

If it's meant to convey data, then that information is what's appropriate.

If it's meant to convey using a function, then your function is what ought to be used.

Some Alt Attribute Guidelines:

Always add alt attributes to images. Alt is mandatory for accessibility as well as for valid XHTML.

For images that play merely a decorative role in the page, use an empty alt (i.e. alt="") or perhaps a CSS background image so that reading browsers do not bother users by uttering things like "spacer image".

Remember that it is the function of the image we are attempting to convey. For example; any button images should not range from the word "button" within the alt text. They ought to emphasize the action performed by the button.

Alt text should be determined by context. Exactly the same image in a different context may require drastically different alt text.

Attempt to flow alt text with the rest of the text because that is how it is going to be read with adaptive technologies like screen readers. Someone hearing your page should hardly be aware that a graphic image can there be.
Please keep in mind that utilizing an alt attribute for every image is required to meet the minimum WAI requirements, that are used since the benchmark for accessibility laws in UK and the rest of Europe. They are also necessary to meet "Section 508" accessibility requirements in the US.

It is important to categorize non-text content into three levels:

Eye-Candy
Mood-Setting
Content and Function

I. Eye-Candy

Eye-Candy are things that serve no purpose apart from to create a site visually appealing/attractive and (in many cases) satisfy the marketing departments. There isn't any content value (though there might be value to some sighted user).

Never alt-ify eye-candy unless there is something there which will enhance the usability of the site for somebody using a non-visual user agent. Make use of a null alt attribute or background images in CSS for eye-candy.

II. Mood-Setting

This is actually the middle layer of graphics which may actually set the atmosphere or set the stage so to speak. These graphics are not direct content and may 't be considered essential, but they are essential in that they help frame what's going on.

Try to alt-ify the 2nd group as makes sense and is relevant. There might be instances when doing this might be annoying or detrimental with other users. Then avoid it.

For instance; Alt text that is identical to adjacent text is unnecessary, and an irritant to screen reader users. I recommend alt="" or background CSS images in such cases. But sometimes, it's vital that you understand this content in there for all users.

Most times it depends on context. The same image in a different context may require drastically different alt text. Obviously, content should always be fully available. The way you use this case is really a judgment call.

III. Content and Function

This is where the look is the actual content. Always alt-ify content and functional images. Title and long description attributes can also be in order.
The main reason many authors can't figure out why their alt text isn't working is that they don't know why the pictures exist. You need to determined precisely what function an image serves. Consider what it is concerning the image that's vital that you the page's intended audience.

Every graphic includes a reason behind being on that page: since it either enhances the theme/ mood/ atmosphere or it is advisable to what are the page is attempting to explain. Understanding what the look is perfect for makes alt text easier to write. And practice writing them definitely helps.
A way to look into the usefulness of alternative text is to imagine reading the page on the phone to someone. What would you say when encountering a particular image to make the page understandable towards the listener?

Aside from the alt attribute you have a couple more tools available for images.
First, in degree of descriptiveness title is in between alt and longdesc. It adds useful information and can add flavor. The title attribute is optionally rendered by the user agent. Remember they're invisible and never shown like a "tooltip" when focus is received via the keyboard. (So much for device independence). So make use of the title attribute just for advisory information.
Second, the longdesc attribute points towards the URL of a full description of an image. When the information contained in an image is essential towards the concept of the page (i.e. some important content would be lost when the image was removed), an extended description than the "alt" attribute can reasonably display should be used. It may offer rich, expressive documentation of a visual image.

It ought to be used when alt and title are insufficient to embody the visual qualities of the image. As Clark [1] states, "A longdesc is a long description of the image...The aim is by using any length of description essential to impart the details of the graphic.

It wouldn't be remiss to hope that a long description conjures a picture - the look - in the mind's eye, an analogy that is true even for that totally blind."

Although the alt attribute is mandatory for web accessibility as well as for valid (X)HTML, not every images need alternative text, long descriptions, or titles.

Oftentimes, you're better off just choosing your gut instinct -- if it's not essential to include it, and if you don't possess a strong urge to get it done, don't add that longdesc.

However, if it's essential for the entire page to operate, then you have to add the alt text (or title or longdesc).

What's necessary and what's not depends a great deal about the function of the image and it is context about the page.

The same image may need alt text (or title or longdesc) in one spot, although not in another. If the image provides absolutely no content or functional information alt="" or background CSS images might be appropriate to make use of. But if the image provides content or adds functional information an alt would be required and perhaps even a long description will be so as. Oftentimes this type of thing is really a judgement call.

Image Search Engine Optimization Tips

Listed below are key stages in optimizing images:

Choose a logical file name that reinforces the keywords. You should use hyphens within the file name to isolate the keyword, but avoid to exceeding two hyphens. Avoid using underscores like a word separator, like for example "brilliant-diamonds.jpg";

Label the file extension. For example, if the image search engine sees a ".jpg" (JPEG) file extension, it's going to assume that the file is a photo, and when it sees a ".gif" (GIF) file extension, it's likely to assume that it is graphic;

Ensure that the written text at the image that's highly relevant to that image.
Again, do not lose a great opportunity to help your site with your images in search engines. Begin using these steps to position better on all of the engines and drive more traffic for your site TODAY.

Search Engine Optimization

Note the Client companies are based in either the US or Canada and the “percentage of traffic outside key service areas” are based on each client’s target market.

For instance, if a client only services the US only, any traffic outside the US would be traffic outside their service area.

Evaluating Your Own Traffic For Relevance

To use our own web design and Internet marketing business as an example, we service both Canada and the US, but were getting 24% of our traffic from other international countries. Big portions of that traffic were companies looking to sell their services to us.

These international visitors would fill in our web forms and call us to inquire, untimely skewing our website analytics data by not giving us a real understanding of how our website was performing to quality prospects.

A solution had to be implemented to significantly reduce the amount of resources we were dedicating to people outside our service areas.

Ultimately, we didn’t want to be contacted from people we couldn’t help. The four possible solutions we considered were:

1. Create a custom report in Google Analytics to filter out the unwanted data (reporting related)


2. Adjust the content of our website (website related)


3. Block the traffic from specific Countries from viewing our website (server related)


4. Don’t change anything.

Option #1

When evaluating the first solution, creating a custom report to filter out this data in Google Analytics, this would clear up our analytics data. Implementing a filter would provide a more realistic picture of quality prospects we could service in our geographic area instead of those prospects or solicitors in other counties we don’t service.

This option didn’t run the risk of blocking any traffic or robots that we do want. It’s also a simple filter to add in Google Analytics. We set up another Profile with the country exclusions filters. A new Profile was the preferred approach, rather than going through the extra steps of creating Custom Reports.

However, setting up analytical filters doesn’t fully resolve the issue, since these visitors could still access our site, fill in web forms, and contact us, ultimately wasting resources that we could dedicate elsewhere.

It wouldn’t give us a true picture of what was going on. It also wouldn’t resolve the problem – we didn’t want to be contacted by companies from some outside countries.

Option #2

Updating the website content to say you only service a specific area is another solution that we considered.  This would inject more geo-targeted keywords into your site, which would help in local SEO. Adding a graphical map, drop-down options and/or links that allow the visitor to select their country would help qualify visitors.

Some of the downfalls of this option include spending a much higher amount of time to implement versus the other options. The success of this would also be dependent on how honest the visitor is.

Assuming visitors are reading your website content, adding geo-targeted keywords into your site would set a clearer expectation of service area delivery. However, this option still doesn’t resolve the issue of sharing contact information that allows unsolicited visitors to contact us and invalid web form data.

Option #3

How about blocking or filtering visitors automatically based on their IP address? When considering to block website visitors by IP it’s important to first evaluate the reliability of the IP address(es). The accuracy of an IP list is over 99.5% on a country level and 80% on a city level. The smaller the location, the less reliable the IP address.

Internet Service Providers change IP addresses they designate to customers. Some change them more frequently than others, which is why you want to keep the database of IPs updated. Scheduling a monthly update is typically a good routine if city level IP authentication is required. Country level is much more static.

The benefit of blocking the country via IP address would not only clean up analytical data, but also ensure our sales funnel was more efficient and provide a more accurate picture of real prospects in all systems. We needed to consider other issues in this approach.

One concern was the potential for a search crawler coming from an IP in the location we were planning on blocking. For example, there was a possibility that Google’s search crawler would also be blocked if it came from the same country. The implementation of this option is more technical. One would need to obtain a list of IP addresses for the desired locations and update the websites htaccess file.

In our example, the inquiries from some countries became so frequent that we couldn’t ignore it any longer. After much debate, we decided to ban the countries; however, we would only ban one at a time to evaluate the effects.

For instance, one of the largest traffic sources, accounting for approximately 20% of this, was from India, a market we don’t service. These Indian visitors were companies looking to sell their services to us.

We executed the ban in the polite Canadian way. We also implemented the Google Analytics profile with the country filter to monitor future website statistics versus the past.

Those visitors that came from our blocked list would land on a different page that displayed a nice message. It read: “Thank you for visiting. However, we don’t provide services in your area.”

In sum, the tests have gone over very well. Banning the country from our website has significantly cut down the number of unsolicited calls, emails and web form requests. It also gave us a much more accurate picture of how our website was performing within our own target market and service area.

Considerations For Blocking Traffic By Location

If you’re considering this strategy, some factors to consider when filtering visitors include:

• Why do you want to filter website traffic?


• Which locations would you want to filter?


• How much traffic do you currently get from locations outside your service area?


• How important is this traffic?


• How to funnel visitors outside your service areas?


• The accuracy of the IP addresses locations in mind.


• Effects of non-human visitors.

A few months after we implemented this, we received a direct mail package that contained pens with our logo on them from a company that wished to sell us branded pens.

Guess what it said under our logo? “Thank you for visiting. However, we don’t provide services in your area.” We had a good laugh. Someone obviously didn’t read what they printed. It was evidence that our website block was working and a nice souvenir.

The key takeaway, as always, is monitor your traffic and conversions. Track where your quality traffic is coming from and decide for yourself if you should block the traffic of certain countries. Make sure to proceed with caution to ensure that you are not missing some opportunities.

Think outside of the box for other ideas of how you can use that traffic. Perhaps referring the traffic to a partner or creating a unique service for specific markets is another option to consider.

Opinions expressed in the article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Search Engine Land.

Related Topics: 100% Organic - Search Engine Optimization Tips | SEO: General

The following is part of a multiple part series covering image optimization techniques. This article is intended for beginners through intermediate SEO’s; if this doesn’t pertain to you, you may want to skim as most of this will probably be review material for you.

Some of the big questions many people ask are why would they even want to perform image optimization? Doesn’t it just help people who want to steal or hotlink images? And is there really any meaningful traffic or links that you can get from image optimization? IMHO the answer is yes. Let’s say someone is going on a trip to Italy. They might do image searches for things to do or see in Italy and for famous Italian landmarks like the Leaning Tower of Piza, the Trevi Fountain, or St. Peter’s Basilica. Thanks to Google’s universal search results, images provide a way to get onto the first page (or, in some cases, the top result) and get a click through, an ad view, or adsense impression. It might even get a lead generation completion. Maybe you run a fish store. If a university professor or government agency needs a picture of a fish and your image result appears, and you allow your images to be reused in exchange for a link, this can be huge way to passively build links slowly over time (true story! It happened for a client I used to have). Now that we’ve got the why out of the way, let’s talk about the “how” of image optimization.

Filenames

This is one of the most basic elements of image optimization. If you have an image of blue widgets, I would name your image “blue-widgets.jpg” or “blue-widgets.gif”. You can use other formats like PNG, but I have gotten better results with “jpg” and “gif” files. You can use other characters like underscore as word delimiters, but I get better results with hyphens. You can run the words together if they are separate in other factors. I have found stemming plays a role (ie widget vs widgets), but you can get around it using other factors. I haven’t seen capitalization play a role, but I prefer to use all lower case because I usually use Apache servers and case sensitivity matters. If you are going to have multiple images of the same object-type, I suggest adding a “-1″, “-2″ onto the end.

Now, before the hate mail or hate tweets start, it is entirely possible to have an image rank without the keywords being in the file name–IF there are enough other factors in place. However, you should ask yourself why would you give up a chance to give a search engine a signal about what an image is about? If you work on a large ecommerce platform or other large database application, chances are good that your gold diamond earrings will have an image file name like “GDX347294.jpg” that corresponds to the item’s SKU or other internal classifier. So, yes, you will have to sacrifice the keyword for business reasons.

ALT Text

Let’s get the basic information out of the way: ALT text was designed for screen readers or visually-impaired people to know what they weren’t seeing. Your goal is to use it to satisfy the screen readers while being keyword focused enough for the search engines and without being a keyword stuffing spammer. Here’s an example of ALT text variations:

Keyword stuffed: discount hotel room paris france

ALT text only: Eiffel Tower

SEO optimized: Eiffel Tower from Louvre Bons Enfants hotel room

Striving to find a balance between pleasing the search engines and text readers can be a juggling act. If you are risky with some of your other SEO techniques, I’d play this on the safe side.

Headings and Bold Text

If image optimization for a particular image is important, I really like to optimize the image with bold or a heading tag of the term I’m chasing right above the image. I’ve found this really helps give a strong signal to the engines

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A 75-year-old woman was recently arrested by the Georgian police after she single-handedly cut off Internet connections in Georgia and neighbouring Armenia.

AFP reports that the pensioner was digging for scrap metal with the intention of stealing it when she stumbled upon a fibre-optic cable which runs through Georgia to Armenia, forcing thousands of Internet users in both countries to lose Internet connection for several hours. Georgian Railway Telecom, the company that owns the cable, said that the latest damage was serious, causing 90 percent of private and corporate Internet users in Armenia to lose access for nearly 12 hours while also hitting Georgian Internet service providers.

“I cannot understand how this lady managed to find and damage the cable. It has robust protection and such incidents are extremely rare,” Giorgi Ionatamishvili, Georgian Railway Telecom’s marketing head, told AFP.

Apparently, this wasn’t the first time it happened. In 2009, another scavenger damaged a fibre-optic cable while hunting for scrap metal in the impoverished ex-Soviet state, forcing many Georgians’ Internet connections to get interrupted.

The woman has been charged with damaging property and could face up to three years in prison if convicted.

"Getting data privacy 'right' is an economic and social imperative. Trust and confidence in the security and privacy of the critical systems of our planet - especially the digital version of its central nervous system, the Internet - is foundational to individuals' continued engagement and reliance on such things as online commerce, e-health and smart grids. If individual consumers don't feel that their privacy and security are protected, they will not support modernization efforts, even though the capabilities of technology advancements are proven and the potential benefits to society are extensive.

"Here's an example of the tensions we face: The ability of smart grids to conserve resources relies on the ability of, and commitment from, consumers to monitor and modify their individual usage. An individual using a smart meter understands the difference in the cost of using electricity at peak versus non-peak hours and could opt to lower their usage during more costly time periods. At the same time, data from the meters can reveal sensitive information such as work habits, shower schedules, use of medical devices such as dialysis, and whether or not a house is occupied."

"I don't worry that the technology will have a negative impact on consumer privacy," wrote Mark Roberti, founder of RFID Journal in a June overview of the state of the RFID market where privacy is concerned. "Instead, I worry that ignorant legislators trying to score points with uninformed voters will pass laws that limit the many benefits RFID can deliver--and that is a much bigger threat to consumers."

Today's agreement in Europe appears not to be the kind of legislation Roberti feared. As a framework focused on self-reporting it may be too little, ultimately, but it's a start.

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Texas Open: Kevin Na sets PGA Tour record for worst par-4 hole with 16

Kevin Na set a new low Thursday for the worst par-4 hole in the PGA Tour record books, shooting a 15 to plummet to 10-over following a nightmarish sequence of shots.

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Breaking tech <b>news</b>? Get email notifications as it happens. - TNW Voice

We're in the technology news business. To that end, if it's old, it isn't news. Given that you're reading this, chances are that you live, eat, sleep and breathe the tech lifestyle and want to get the news as soon as it happens. ...

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Former ABC <b>News</b> President David Westin Announces Next Move - The <b>...</b>

He's named president and CEO of the News Licensing Group, launching this summer.

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Given the current cost of components, a prepaid contract-free iPhone with less internal storage would likely earn Apple only about 16 percent gross margin if it were priced at $300, a new analysis has estimated.



Analyst Charlie Wolf with Needham & Company took a closer look at the prospect of a hypothetical "iPhone lite," to see if it would be in Apple's best interest to build such a product. A cheaper iPhone has been viewed as a strategy that would work to Apple's advantage in emerging markets like China.



In February, both Bloomberg and The Wall Street Journal reported that Apple is working on a smaller and cheaper iPhone that it could sell contract-free. Soon after, The New York Times chimed in, and claimed that while Apple is not working on a smaller iPhone, it has explored opportunities in developing a cheaper handset.



Wolf largely agrees with the Times, and doesn't see a smaller iPhone with a new form factor as something that would be in Apple's best interest, even though it would be the easiest way to cut costs and created a cheaper handset.



"In our view, the iPhone would not be an iPhone if the display were, say, cut in half," he said. "Such a move would (dramatically) reduce the value of the iPod module for video viewing as well as the size of web sites accessed through the Safari browser. A smaller screen would also degrade the experience in using some applications, not to mention the possibility that some applications would probably have to be rewritten to accommodate a smaller screen."



iSuppli estimated that the 16GB iPhone 4, when it launched last June, carried a bill of materials of $188. The iPhone has an average selling price of $625 with a carrier subsidy, while gross margin is usually around 50 percent, suggesting that additional costs like assembly, software, testing, licenses and warrantees add up to $100 or more.



Ruling out the possibility of a smaller iPhone, Wolf said Apple could reduce internal storage from 16GB to about 4GB, but that would only reduce the bill of materials by $30 to about $157. By his estimation, such a handset would still have a total cost of $270.



"Apple would at best break even if it priced an iPhone Light at $250; and it would earn a modest 16% gross margin if it priced it at $300, which we regard as the high end of the range for a prepaid phone," Wolf wrote.



Gross margins of just 16 percent would be a number uncharacteristically low for Apple. For example, in its last quarterly results for the 2010 holiday buying season, Apple reported margins of 38.5 percent, or more than twice Wolf's estimate for a low-cost, no-contract iPhone.



"We suspect that the iPhone's designers and engineers have thought about this a lot more than we have so that the cost savings would be somewhat greater than we've estimated," Wolf said. "If, for example, the expenses incurred beyond the cost of components could be materially reduced, Apple might be able to earn a gross margin of 20% pricing the phone at $250 and 33% gross margin pricing it at $300."



The possibility of a cheaper iPhone with fewer features was hinted at by Apple Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook earlier this year. Cook, in an interview with Bernstein Research analyst Toni Sacconaghi, said Apple doesn't want its products to be "just for the rich."



Cook reportedly said that Apple is planning "clever things" to compete in the prepaid handset market. He also stated that Apple is "not ceding any market." He also referenced China, where Apple has found great success of late, and noted that it is a "classic prepaid market."

Video calls were a mainstay of classic sci-fi films, and even today there’s something almost magical about seeing your friends and family on the screen of a portable device. Video calling has been around for some time, but it’s only really in the past year or so that its got more attention among regular users. That’s thanks in no small part to Apple and FaceTime, as found on the iPhone 4, iPad 2 and other gadgets from the company’s range. Read on as we give FaceTime the full SlashGear 101 treatment!

So Apple invented video calling, right?

No, not at all, though they did do a lot to make it easier to use – just as long as you have the right hardware. Video calling is actually a part of the 3G standard, which – if the carrier and whatever phone you’re using supports it, which isn’t the case in the US – has been available since around 2003. Unfortunately a combination of high pricing, poor understanding by users, mediocre quality and patchy reliability meant this form of video calling has never really taken off.

Apple’s FaceTime takes advantage of the company’s tight control over the iPhone, iPod touch, iPad and MacBook software, which has allowed it to polish the video calling experience to the point where everyday use is possible. Now FaceTime is available to anybody at the touch of an on-screen button.

Do I need an Apple phone to use FaceTime?

Not necessarily a phone, but definitely something with the Apple logo. FaceTime was first supported on the iPhone 4, which was Apple’s first mobile device with a front-facing camera (i.e. one that looks at the user, rather than out the back of the handset). The latest iPod touch and iPad 2 both have front-facing cameras and FaceTime support as well, and Apple has released a FaceTime app for its Mac and MacBook computers so they can join in the fun as well. FaceTime comes free on the mobile devices and the very latest Macs, and is a $0.99 download from the Mac App Store for earlier Mac owners.

Okay, so how do I use it?

It’s pretty simple, just as Apple was aiming for. On the iPhone you make a voice call in the normal way and then tap the FaceTime button on-screen to switch to video. On the iPod touch and iPad 2, you start a video call in the FaceTime app. You’ll need an Apple account in order to make and receive calls, since that’s used as the “phone number” for devices other than the iPhone 4.

Currently, FaceTime video calls can only be made when you have a WiFi connection, not when you’re using the mobile network for data. That’s a limitation Apple has put in place itself, though the company has said it is working on removing it in the future.

I’m not into Apple, can I video call with something else?

You certainly can, though the process gets a bit trickier. Various apps are available for Android and other mobile phone platforms which promise video calls, sometimes over not only WiFi but the 3G mobile networks too. That means you can make video calls when away from your home network or a WiFi hotspot, as long as your signal is strong enough.

Skype, Fring and Qik are all among the companies offering video calling apps, though their effectiveness often varies on a phone-by-phone basis. Not all phones have front-facing cameras, either, though they’re becoming more common on the latest handsets. A future SlashGear 1010 feature will look at the best video calling apps if FaceTime isn’t your thing.

Apple has said it plans to open up FaceTime to other manufacturers, so that non-Apple phones can make and receive calls too, but so far there’s no sign of that actually happening.

More information at Apple’s FaceTime page.

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During today’s Google earnings call, one analyst asked for some color on Google’s mobile business. CFO Patrick Pichette didn’t give much more in terms of specifics, but he did offer up some color. “Without any radical effort, we already announced at end of Q3 this is a $1 billion run-rate business,” says Pichette. Mobile is “growing at an amazing blazingly pace,” he says. “We tripped into $1 billion.”

Mobile search is definitely something Google is keenly focussed on. Senior VP of Local Jeff Huber noted on the call: ” In terms of where it trends over time, the smartphone is becoming an extension of the person, and how they do everything.”

Google is tackling that opportunity with mobile search obviously, but also with Android, which comes with Google search built-in as the default. Google is seeing 350,000 Android devices being activated a day.

Asked whether Google would have to build out a local salesforce with feet on the ground to take advantage of the new mobile and local advertising opportunities, sales chief Nikesh Arora didn’t rule out any possibilities. “we will use a combination of existing sales teams and methods and others that might be required,” he responded. Sounds like Google is picking itself up and going after the next billion dollars or two in mobile search.

Photo credit: Flickr/ Jeffrey Beall

If the players win the fans lose. I see it as if the players win, the price continues to climb out of control, making ever seeing a game life at the stadium impossible to justify with the economy the way it is. Although I don't believe the owners care about lowering prices to allow the medium income family, but at least the need to raise prices isn't there. Direct TV has climbed to over $300 to watch your favorite teams. So, why they argue about the 9 billion we give them a year, we have to set back and wait to see how there going to pay for all this by emptying our pockets, while we thank them for agreeing on the terms.



Read more at the San Francisco Examiner: http://www.sfexaminer.com/sports/nfl/2011/03/theres-nothing-normal-about-these-nfl-labor-talks#ixzz1JWifUR00
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New Google <b>News</b> for Opera Mini - Official Google Mobile Blog

So we have rolled out a redesigned Google News for Opera Mini in all 29 languages and 70 editions of Google News. This includes an enhanced homepage featuring richer snippets, thumbnail images, links to videos and section content ...

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Big Media Falls for GE <b>News</b> Hoax (Cont&#39;d) - Giovanni Rodriguez <b>...</b>

The Week takes a short look at what yesterday's GE news hoax may have actually accomplished: --"It was a glimpse of an ideal world." Idea here is that the fake storyline might have helped people imagine a world where businesses "biggest ...