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Atari Online News, Etc. Volume 16 Issue 39
Volume 16, Issue 39 Atari Online News, Etc. September 26, 2014
Published and Copyright (c) 1999 - 2014
All Rights Reserved
Atari Online News, Etc.
A-ONE Online Magazine
Dana P. Jacobson, Publisher/Managing Editor
Joseph Mirando, Managing Editor
Rob Mahlert, Associate Editor
Atari Online News, Etc. Staff
Dana P. Jacobson -- Editor
Joe Mirando -- "People Are Talking"
Michael Burkley -- "Unabashed Atariophile"
Albert Dayes -- "CC: Classic Chips"
Rob Mahlert -- Web site
Thomas J. Andrews -- "Keeper of the Flame"
With Contributions by:
Fred Horvat
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=~=~=~=
A-ONE #1639 09/26/14
~ eBay: Hack Nothing New ~ People Are Talking! ~ Google Hits Back!
~ PlayStation TV Coming! ~ PS4 Fastest Selling! ~ Adobe Buys Aviary!
~ China Uses Black Boxes ~ How To Use 1Password! ~ Google+ Not Forced!
~ Iran vs. Social Media! ~ Ello, The Anti-Facebook ~ Apple Pay Exciting?
-* Net Neutrality Debate Points *-
-* Internet Braces for Shellshock Worm *-
-* Majority of Mac Users Safe from Bash Bug! *-
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->From the Editor's Keyboard "Saying it like it is!"
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Until next time...
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->In This Week's Gaming Section - PS4 Fastest Selling Sony Console Ever in Asia!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" PlayStation TV Coming to U.S. in October!
China Police Put Black Boxes in Arcade Games!
=~=~=~=
->A-ONE's Game Console Industry News - The Latest Gaming News!
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PS4 Becomes Fastest Selling Sony Console Ever in Asia
Sony has announced at Tokyo Game Show today that the PlayStation 4 is the
fastest selling Sony console in Asia, surpassing both the PS3 and the PS2
by a large amount.
Not only that, but Sony also announced that because the PS4 is doing so
well in Asia, PS Vita sales have gone up by a whopping 25% there. The
increased PS Vita sales will hopefully give the system a bit of a boost,
as it had previously been floundering ever since it was first launched.
Why do you think PS Vita sales have increased? Do you think the PS4's
remote play ability has something to do with it, or is it maybe the
large amount of amount of cross-buy titles?
PlayStation TV Coming to U.S. in October
Available in Japan since last year, the PlayStation TV will go on sale in
the U.S. this Oct. 14 for $99.99, Sony announced. The set-top box is due
to launch in Europe one month later with a price tag of 99.99.
When connected to a television, PlayStation TV provides access to a
selection of PS Vita, PSP, and PS One games, in addition to allowing
users to access saved movies, TV shows, and music like any other set-top
box.
The system also allows PlayStation 3 and 4 players to pick up a saved
game on a different screen thanks to its Remote Play feature.
Aside from the around 700 games available through the service (including
God of War, Tomb Raider, and Tekken), three PS Vita games will be
provided for free with purchase (Worms Revolution Extreme, Velocity
Ultra and OlliOlli).
PlayStation TV has an internal storage capacity of 1 GB (expandable via
memory card) and is compatible with the DualShock 3 and DualShock 4
controllers.
In the US, the device will be available in a bundle including a
DualShock 3 controller, an 8 GB memory card and The Lego Movie Videogame
for $139.99. No bundled offers have been announced so far for the
European market.
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->A-ONE Gaming Online - Online Users Growl & Purr!
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Police In China To Fight Gambling By Putting 'Black Boxes' In Arcade Machines
Gambling is illegal in China, super illegal, which is one of the many
reasons Macao is now the gambling capital of the world. In China,
gambling is often associated with video game arcades. To circumvent
gambling in arcades, Shanghai authorities are now putting black boxes
inside arcade machines.
Thats right. Shanghai Morning Post is reporting that Shanghai public
security has gotten in touch with Chinese arcade manufacturers to put in
tamper detectors in new arcade machines.
In China, arcades are constantly associated with gambling. Internet cafes
and video game arcades often carry signs that read No gambling allowed.
The association also comes with the fact that some arcades and net cafes
have been revealed to be underground gambling dens. Gambling was the
reason why there was a massive arcade cabinet destruction a few years
back.
Just last week, Shanghai police cracked down on a gambling den in the
Putou district of Shanghai. Twelve men were arrested for running the den
and their arcade machines and profits were confiscated by the police.
These new tamper detectors are said to work similarly to aeroplane black
boxes, machines that log a planes travel. When these chips detect a
change in the arcade cabinet that isnt normal, the chip will dial
out to public security.
=~=~=~=
A-ONE's Headline News
The Latest in Computer Technology News
Compiled by: Dana P. Jacobson
The Internet Braces for the Crazy Shellshock Computer Worm
A nasty bug in many of the worlds Linux and Unix operating systems could
allow malicious hackers to create a computer worm that wreaks havoc on
machines across the globe, security experts say.
The flaw, called Shellshock, is being compared to last springs
Heartbleed bug because it lets attackers do some nasty stuff in this
case, run unauthorized code on a large number of Linux computer
servers. The flaw lies in Bash, a standard Unix program thats used to
connect with the computers operating system.
The good news is that it doesnt take long to patch the bug. At Internet
infrastructure provider CloudFlare, admins scrambled for about an hour
this morning to fix the flaw, which was disclosed late on Tuesday. We
got 95 percent of it done within 10 minutes, said Ryan Lackey, a
security engineer at the company.
Because Shellshock is easy to exploit it only takes about three lines
of code to attack a vulnerable server Lackey and other security
experts think theres a pretty good chance that someone will write a
worm code that will jump from vulnerable system to vulnerable system,
creating hassles for the worlds system administrators. People are
already exploiting it in the wild manually, so a worm is a natural
outgrowth of that, Lackey said.
To exploit the bug, the bad guys need to connect to software such as PHP
or DHCP which use Bash to launch programs within the servers
operating system.
There are still some important questions about the bug. One is whether
other operating systems that use Bash Mac OS, for example are
vulnerable. Another big one: How many Linux server applications and
appliance-like Linux devices things like storage servers or video
recording devices might be vulnerable to the flaw? Many of these Linux
systems do not use the Bash software, but those that do could be
vulnerable to attack and difficult to patch.
In the grand scheme of things, Shellshock is not as big of a problem as,
say, phishing attacks, which continue to trick Internet users, said
Robert Graham, CEO of Errata Security. However, its slightly worse than
Heartbleed, he says.
Its in more systems. Its going to be harder to track them down and
patch them, and you can immediately exploit it with remote code
execution. Heartbleed let criminals steal your username and passwords,
but it didnt make it quite so easy to run your own malicious software
on a vulnerable system, Graham says.
Like Heartbleed, the new bug has been around for a long time, and was
introduced in a widely used piece of open-source software. In the wake of
Heartbleed, the open source community came up with some money to beef up
the security of several popular open-source tools. And it may be time to
add a few more including Bash to that list.
Vast Majority of Mac Users Safe from Shellshock Bash Bug, Apple Says
Apple says most Mac users are safe from a newly discovered security flaw,
one that could in theory allow hackers to take over an operating
system.
Known as the Shellshock or Bash bug, the latest vulnerability for the
worlds computers involves the execution of malicious code within a Bash
shell, which is a command-line shell used in many Linux and Unix
operating systems, and by Apples Mac OS X operating system. Apple,
however, says most people using its software have nothing to worry
about.
The vast majority of OS X users are not at risk to recently reported
bash vulnerabilities, Apple reportedly told iMore.
Bash, a UNIX command shell and language included in OS X, has a weakness
that could allow unauthorized users to remotely gain control of
vulnerable systems, Apple said. With OS X, systems are safe by default
and not exposed to remote exploits of bash unless users configure
advanced UNIX services. We are working to quickly provide a software
update for our advanced UNIX users.
The Bash glitch is reminiscent of the Heartbleed security flaw that left
information stored on data servers potentially vulnerable to hackers.
Heartbleed was first identified in April, and an estimated 300,000
servers were still exposed two months later.
For now, it seems theres nothing ordinary computer users can do to
protect against the new security flaw, with the responsibility for
patching the potential exploit resting with those who manage Web
systems.
Anybody with systems using Bash needs to deploy the patch immediately,
Tod Beardsley, an engineering manager at security firm Rapid7 told CNET
yesterday.
Net Neutrality Debate Is Reaching A Key Point
The hot-button issue of Internet service that treats all Web traffic the
same - also know as Net neutrality - has been pushed off the front pages
in recent weeks. But you can expect it to return with a vengeance soon.
For instance, earlier this week in Sacramento, Calif., two commissioners
from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) spoke at a hearing
hosted by Rep. Doris Matsui (D-Calif.) as part a series of forums about
the topic taking place across the nation.
FCC moves forward with plan to allow Internet fast lane
The FCC calls the Internet we all know today the "Open Internet."
According to the agency, "It's open because it uses free, publicly
available standards that anyone can access and build to, and it treats
all traffic that flows across the network in roughly the same way. ...
Under this principle, consumers can make their own choices about what
applications and services to use and are free to decide what lawful
content they want to access, create, or share with others. This openness
promotes competition and enables investment and innovation."
Along with hearings on the subject, the FCC has received nearly 4 million
comments on its proposed Net neutrality rules, which are expected to be
unveiled at the end of the year.
"Everything we do today is dependent on a free and open Internet,"
Representative Matsui told CBS affiliate KOVR-TV. "Net neutrality is
fundamental to that. That means that nobody is actually taking charge of
it. There are no toll gates."
Many advocates and consumers are concerned that without net neutrality,
major Internet providers like Comcast (CMCSA) and AT&T (T) will not only
control the speeds at which consumers get certain services and
applications on the Internet but charge more for (or even deny access
to) access to certain services or applications.
The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee also held hearings this month on Net
neutrality. "Open Internet rules are the Bill of Rights for the online
world," Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) said in a statement
ahead of those hearings. "It is crucial that rules are put in place to
protect consumers, online innovators, and free speech."
Google Hits Back at News Corp Over Piracy Allegations
Google hit back at News Corp for calling it a platform for piracy and an
'unaccountable bureaucracy,' in a point-by-point rebuttal that stressed
the internet search company's commitment to fighting online crime.
In Google's official blog, Rachel Whetstone, head of global
communications, defended the company's practices while taking a jab at
News Corp-owned British tabloid The Sun.
In the post titled "Dear Rupert," referring to News Corp executive
chairman Rupert Murdoch, Whetstone said Google has invested tens of
millions of dollars to battle piracy on its YouTube video website and
removed 222 million web pages from its search engine last year due to
copyright infringement.
Whetstone also defended Google's practice of ranking search results,
denying that it was the "gatekeeper to the Web, as some claim."
Earlier this month, News Corp chief executive Robert Thomson wrote a
letter to Joaquin Almunia, the European commissioner for competition,
urging the commission to reconsider a settlement with Google over its
search practices.
Thomson said Google was "willing to exploit its dominant market position
to stifle competition."
Google, the dominant search engine in Europe, has been the target of a
European Commission investigation since November 2010, when more than a
dozen complainants, including Microsoft, accused the company of promoting
its own services at their expense.
Almunia, the outgoing antitrust chief, said in May he wanted to close the
case against the world's most popular internet search engine before the
end of his five-year term, but he recently announced that he would be
unable to do so before he steps down next month.
Almunia's successor, former Danish economy minister Margrethe Vestager,
who will take up her post in November, will have to decide whether to
continue settlement talks with Google, charge the company or drop the
case.
eBay: Phishing, Hacking Attack Hitting Users Not Anything New
eBay phishing attacks continue, but the auction site holds its lax
stance. These vulnerabilities aren't new, says an eBay spokeswoman.
Injecting malicious content into the heart of eBay, an ongoing string of
phishing attacks is continuing to take advantage of veteran sellers and
collecting the financial details of some of the auction site's most
discerning shoppers.
While traditional phishing attempts presents web users with a malicious
clone of legitimate sites, eBay has been suffering from attacks that are
being embedding between authentic listings for merchandise. eBay users
who stumble onto one of the malicious listings and attempt to buy the
advertised merchandise are redirected into a payment portal, where their
financial details are directed into the palms of hackers.
eBay has taken heat from security firms for the lack of urgency it has
had in addressing the phishing attempts. After the BBC gave light to
several of the malicious listings, an eBay spokeswoman said the attacks
made use of common scripting languages and weren't new to the site.
"This is not a new type of vulnerability on sites such as eBay," said an
eBay spokeswoman. "This is related to the fact that we allow sellers to
use active content like Javascript and Flash on our site. Many of our
sellers use active content like Javascript and Flash to make their eBay
listings more attractive. However, we are aware that active content may
also be used in abusive ways."
eBay users Paul Castle complained to eBay about the baited listing back
in February of 2014. eBay was said to have responded to Castle by
notifying him that the issue had been escalated up its chain.
"I was just browsing in Digital Cameras and came across a
password-harvesting scam," said Castle in an email to eBay. "[Following
the link] "transfers immediately to a password harvest scam page."
The series of phishing attempts embedded in eBay's sites comes just
months after over 145 million username and password pairs were discovered
to have been compromised sometime around March of 2014.
Though eBay has yet to release a formal statement on the latest series of
phishing attempts, it launched a full investigation into the password
breaches and delivered a report of its findings.
"Cyberattackers compromised a small number of employee log-in
credentials, allowing unauthorized access to eBay's corporate network,"
eBay stated in a release. "Working with law enforcement and leading
security experts, the company is aggressively investigating the matter
and applying the best forensics tools and practices to protect
customers."
eBay advised users to change their passwords though it said it found no
evidence that suggesting any of the hacked financial and personal data
was compromised.
How To Use 1Password, An App That Lets You Log In
to Any Account with Your iPhones Fingerprint Scanner
One of the most unsung features of iOS 8 is right underneath your finger.
Apples new mobile operating system lets third-party apps access the
Touch ID (fingerprint) feature in the iPhone 5s, iPhone 6, and iPhone 6
Plus. So now, with the free iOS app 1Password and a bit of preparation,
you can log in to an online account with just a quick scan of your
fingerprint.
At least in theory. Though 1Password represents the holy grail for many
people the ability to both keep your passwords secure in an encrypted
vault and bypass annoying log-ins by simply holding a finger on the home
button its not nearly as seamless as anyone would like it to be.
Thats because the 1Password app is currently compatible with very few
mainstream apps. So few, in fact, that I can list them here: Etsy,
TweetBot, and VSCO Cam (those, and a few indie ones).
We hope that, as 1Password attracts more fans, the developers of popular
apps will make their products work with it. In the meantime, you can use
1Password to speed through logins on websites when youre using your
Safari browser. (1Password is also available as an app and a browser
plugin for Mac, Windows, and Android.)
Before you take the dive, its important to understand the security
implications of 1Password. The service doesnt actually make sites like
Amazon and Facebook lockable by fingerprint. Rather, 1Password uses your
fingerprint to unlock its own vault, which holds your passwords to those
other services. That means that you must use a super-secure password to
secure your vault, and that you must continue to use complex and unique
passwords for each individual service. Otherwise, your accounts remain
susceptible to being hacked the old-fashioned way.
And keep in mind that the trade-off to security is convenience. Even
with 1Password, each login takes about five taps on your phone. Thats
probably less effort than manually typing in a password, but its still
a drag. Albeit a very necessary drag.
Heres how to use 1Password on your iPhone:
1. Download the iOS 8 app here.
2. When you open the app, itll ask you whether youd like to sync with
an existing 1Password account or start a new one. If youre new to this
app, select the latter. Tap Create new vault.
3. Youll then be prompted to enter a Master Password, which is the one
phrase that youll need to access all the other passwords you store. I
know, I know: Youre probably already feeling password fatigue. But make
a real effort here: Make it complex, long, and unique. Treat this one as
the most important password youll have, because it will hold the key to
all your other passwords. Id recommend that you create a string of
lower- and uppercase characters with a few symbols and numbers mixed in.
Please dont make it one of these.
4. Heres the exciting part! You can enable your iPhones fingerprint
scanner to unlock 1Password whenever you open the app. This way you dont
have to type in that super-difficult password you created just a few
seconds ago every time you want to log in to something.
You can always adjust or expand these settings by heading to the apps
Settings section and navigating to Security ? Touch ID.
5. Next comes a prompt to sign up for 1Passwords newsletter, but thats
not necessary. Youll also be given a choice of whether youd like to
sync your data via iCloud (this may take a few seconds). If you use
Dropbox or another cloud storage service, skip this step. You can always
add those accounts later. When youre ready to begin, tap Lets go!
(1Passwords exclamation point, not mine).
6. Youll be brought to a Categories page. This is where youll be able
to create and organize your many digital accounts, credit card
information, and form fodder. To create your first one, tap the + button
in the upper-right corner of the screen.
7. Whenever you want to enter a new piece of information into the vault,
you must first categorize it. Im guessing youll be using this tool
primarily for log-ins, so lets start there. Tap Login.
8. Youll be asked to name the account and type in your username. Below
that, therell be an auto-generated password.
The idea here being that if this is a brand-new account, you can
automatically use this ultra-strong password to access it. Chances are,
however, that youve already established log-in information for sites
like Facebook and Amazon. It might be safer to change your password to a
random string of letters and numbers, but that involves actually logging
into the website in question and resetting that info. If youd rather
not do that right now, simply delete that section and type in your
password for that service.
Below that, youll see a place to enter the name of the site this log-in
works for. You can type something like Amazon.com, and 1Password will
automatically generate the companys symbol in the log-in profile.
Dont celebrate just yet youre far from done. Next up, youll need to
open up Safari and tap the Share button at the bottom of the screen.
Swipe left over the lowest tier of icons all in gray until you see the
More icon. Tap it.
10. Youll see a page titled Activities. At the very bottom of it,
therell be an option to enable 1Password.
11. When youre done, go back to the share options. The 1Password icon
should now show up in your choices. If you dont want it to be so
hidden, then simply hold your finger on the app icon and drag it to the
left.
Phew; now youll never have to do that again. Good riddance.
12. Its time to go to a website youd like to log in to. For this to
work, you have to have first created a log-in profile for this site
within the app, obviously.
Tap the Share button and select the 1Password icon.
The 1Password vault will show up. At this point, you can either enter
your master password or hold your finger down on the home button for
Touch ID.
13. 1Password will automatically analyze what website youre on and
generate the best log-in option. In this case, it automatically
recognizes Amazon. Tap the name.
14. Your login information will load, and then youll have to tap
whatever Sign In button the site provides.
And now youre done. Well, sort of. Youll need to create profiles for
every other log-in or credit card you feel like having on hand. Needless
to say, this is a project you might have to set aside some time for (or,
for the advanced user, you can synchronize your mobile version of
1Password with the copy running on your Mac or PC).
It takes a while, but in the long run itll be worth it.
Google Finally Stops Forcing You To Use Google+
When Google+ first launched back in 2011, Google pegged the social
network as the future of the company, even going so far as to force users
to create a Google+ account in order to use Gmail, Google Docs and almost
every other Google-owner service.
Finally, after years of complaints, a new No Thanks button allows you
to avoid this process and just create an account for that individual
platform. It looks like Google is finally accepting Google+s fate.
Forcing users to sign up for a platform they didnt actually want to use,
probably wasnt a good idea.
Over the last few months, Google has been slowly separating many of its
popular platforms from Google+. Earlier this month Google separated
Hangouts, its video calling and chat service, from Google+, and back in
August, Bloomberg reported Google has plans to also unlink its photo
service from Google+.
Google+s failure as a social media platform doesnt mean it wasnt
useful, in fact, its image-backup service and ability to post to specific
groups of friends, were great and useful. The platform just couldnt
compete with much larger and more established social media platforms like
Twitter and Facebook. Many people also likely didnt want to sign up for
yet another social network.
These changes follow the creator of Google+, Vic Gundotra, leaving Google
a few months ago. Its widely speculated Google has plans to turn Google+
into a product rather than a social network.
Back when Google+ first launched the platform combined Gmail, YouTube,
Blogspot and various other Google services, sharing user data from
different Google service in one central place.
Its unclear what Googles future plans are for Google+. Its possible
that at some point in the future Google+ could slowly disappear, just
like other Google platforms like Google Reader.
Iran Chief Prosecutor's Ultimatum: 30 Days To Block Social Media
In a move to roll back the limited political and social liberalization
experiment introduced by Iran's reformist President Hassan Rouhani, the
country's hardline conservative judiciary has given the government one
month to block WhatsApp and other social media and messaging services.
Chief prosecutor Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei accused Communications
Minister Mahmoud Vaezi of failing comply with earlier directives to cut
off social networking sites and apps "with immoral and criminal
content."
"Despite a three month grace period to allow you and your colleagues
enough time, no effective action has been taken to filter out immoral and
un-Islamic offenses," said Mohseni-Ejei, who was appointed first deputy
judiciary chief last month.
The final warning, which was broadcast by Iranian media on Saturday, is
a response to what Mohseni-Ejei says is a failure by Communications
Minister Vaezi, who promised in May to introduce what he called "smart
filtering" to restrict "obscene" material from being viewed or shared.
Rouhani, who has been in office for one year, has said that he views the
internet "an opportunity, not a threat."
Iran, whose population is approximately two-thirds under the age of 35,
has struggled with how to manage technology and the internet.
Somewhat hilariously, an Iranian judge summoned Facebook founder and CEO
Mark Zuckerberg to appear in court in May over complaints that
Facebook-owned apps Instagram and WhatsApp violate privacy.
What is Ello? And Why Is It Being Called The Anti-Facebook?
You've probably never heard of Ello, but you will soon.
Ello being called the anti-Facebook. No adds. No tracking. No marketing.
"We believe a social network can be a tool for empowerment. Not a tool
to deceive, coerce, and manipulate but a place to connect, create and
celebrate life," Ello says on its website. "You are not a product."
Ello is catching on fast, and some are saying that it could be the next
new big social media site. It's become so popular in fact that the
website become invitation only because its servers couldn't handle the
traffic. Invitations are going for up to $100 on eBay.
Vivienne Gucwa, a travel blogger and photographer from New York, was able
to get her hands on an invite. She told the Monitor that she joined Ello
after she began seeing posts about it on Facebook and Twitter.
"I like it a lot," Ms. Gucwa says. "Ello feels like a mashup between
Tumblr, Twitter, and Facebook to a smaller extent. It's great that you
can selectively decide what content you want to follow from your friends
by separating their content into either noise or the default friend
stream."
Ello was the brainchild of Paul Budnitz, founder of the high-end Budnitz
Bicycles, as well as a toymaker and an author. With the help of his
seven person team, Ello launched in March and began its roll-out in
July. The site started with a few signups, and then people began
joining in the thousands. Mr. Budnitz told BetaBeat that request to join
the site went from 4,000 to 27,000 an hour. That number can't be
verified, but earlier this week, Ello was one of the most searched-for
terms on Google, with more than 150,000 searches in two days.
Ello is clean and simple and let[s] us connect with our friends and see
awesome stuff, without feeling manipulated by a big system that was
making social networking no fun, Mr. Budnitz told The Wall Street
Journal.
A lot of social media sites have tried and failed to compete against
Facebook. Think Google+, Diaspora, iTunes Ping. None of them worked, but
Ello could be different.
I dont know if its going to ever be the next big thing, but it is
definitely in the right place at the right time, said Christopher-Ian
Reichel, a user-experience executive in New York, told The Wall Street
Journal. Reichel added that the site is buggy and lacks content, but
people are still joining. Facebook is at a critical moment where
entire segments of its audience are all looking to jump ship.
Many Facebook user are disgruntled by Facebook's tracking of users and
the recent manipulation of news feeds to see how people reacted. And
members of the LGBT community became extremely upset when Facebook
announced that all users must use their legal names. Many in the LGBT
community were upset that they were kicked off of Facebook for failing
to comply with the new mandate, including well known drag queen RuPaul.
Artists, bloggers, people who are concerned about privacy, people who
have had problems with stalkers, celebrities, and members of the LGBTQ
community sometimes choose not to use their real names out of personal
preference, or to protect themselves, Mr. Budnitz told BetaBeat. All
these people are being kicked out of Facebook.
Gucwa, who is still on Facebook and has more than 400,000 followers, she
says she can understand why people want to leave.
"Facebook seems to have reached a plateau over the last few months," she
says. "Between issues with their algorithm and the newsfeed and the
recent drama with names, I think a lot of people are waiting to see what
else is out there."
Because of network effect, users have stayed on Facebook, even if they
are upset at the company, because that is where their friends are. But
if Ello can begin to attract people away from Facebook, then the company
could be a legitimate competitor in social media.
Without any advertisements on the site, many are questioning how Ello is
going to make money. Andy Baoi announced that Ello received $435,000 in
seed money in January from FreshTracks Capital, a venture capital group.
Mr. Baoi wrote in an Ello post, "Building something like Ello takes
money. [Venture capitalists] don't give money out of goodwill, and
taking VC funding even seed funding creates outside pressures that
shape the inevitable direction of a company."
But Ello said they do have a way to make money, but exactly how much
money it will bring in is another question.
"Very soon we will begin offering special features to our users. If we
create a special feature that you like, you can choose to pay a very
small amount of money to add it to your Ello account forever," Ello
states on its website.
Ello is still in beta mode, and there are some glitches with posting
pictures and searching for friends.
"I think people need to remember that Ello is still very much in beta and
that the developers have a lot planned for the site" Gucwa says. "They
have a rather robust features list including features that are coming
soon."
As with any social network, getting users is important. But if enough
people are disgruntled with Facebook's policies, Ello could be there to
take them in.
Adobe Buys Photo Editing Startup Aviary
Adobe has acquired popular photo-editing toolkit Aviary for an
undisclosed amount, the companies announced.
Aviary provides developers (and outside companies like Yahoo) with a set
of photo-editing tools they can build into their own apps, and thats
exactly why Adobe wants it. The acquisition accelerates Adobes strategy
to make Creative Cloud a vibrant platform for third party apps, through a
new Creative SDK, Adobes press release states.
Adobes new Creative SDK (Software Developers Kit) provides access to
Creative Cloud APIs, enabling developers to add features to their apps
such as accessing files stored in Creative Cloud, pulling elements out
of Photoshop files, and applying image-editing tools from the cloud.
Its currently under development, and Adobe plans to offer a beta
version in the next few months, it stated. The addition of Aviary will
give the company additional tools that it can add to that SDK, as well
as the ability to reach many iOS and Android developers already using
Aviarys toolkit.
Aviarys tools have become quite important when it comes to editing
images on other services, and Aviary has seen 10 billion photos
processed through the service last year alone, as VentureBeat reported
back in April. In addition to a toolkit for developers, Aviary also
offers a popular iOS and Android app for editing photos, also called
Aviary.
Aviary will continue operations as usual for now, which will include
providing support for the Aviary SDK, according to CEO Tobias Peggs. The
Aviary team will also work closely with Adobe-owned creative community
Behance and Adobes creative cloud platform.
Founded in 2007, the New York-based Aviary previously raised $19 million
in total funding from Spark Capital, Bezos Expeditions, and others.
Why Digital Marketers Should Be Excited About Apple Pay
The service creates an instant audience for new mobile marketing and
customer loyalty apps, like those used by automotive retailer Pep Boys
to steer campaigns.
During the first weekend of its existence, Apples iPhone 6 found its
way into the hands of 10 million peoplecreating an instant audience
for its forthcoming mobile payments service, Apple Pay. The numbers
will be higher the instant I publish this.
That makes digital marketing expert Jack Philbin downright gleeful.
This is like the moment I remember from 2003 when American Idol put
text messaging on the map, he says, referring to the reality shows
decision to let fans vote singers on or off the show via SMS. Apple Pay
is that moment when marketers really have to pay attention to mobile.
Thats because the new service should draw attention to an app that a
far larger number of iPhone owners already have on their smartphones,
Passbook. Apples AAPL mobile wallet lets someone save and organize
airplane boarding passes, movie tickets or gift cards that can be
scanned for redemption. Payments are usually tied to credit- or
debit-card accounts. While few brands exploit its features today, the
mobile payments discussion is prompting them to reconsider Passbooks
potential for reaching consumers with promotional offers or loyalty
apps.
No one wants to carry 30 loyalty cards in their wallet, Philbin says.
Everyone wants to take it digital.
As co-founder and CEO of marketing technology company Vibes (and
chairman of the Mobile Marketing Association in North America), hes got
a vested interest in that point of view. Its platform helps the likes of
Allstate, Bloomingdales, Gap and Sears create and broadcast mobile
campaigns. Historically this has been done using SMS, but now Vibes
helps brands do the same within Passbook or Google Wallet (a similar
concept for Android mobile devices). They become a living, breathing
loyalty card, Philbin says.
For an example of how this works, consider Vibes work with Pep Boys.
The automotive service and retail chain uses is mobile wallet
application to (among other things) remind someone about when its time
for an oil change or some other sort of maintenance. Notifications can
be scheduled or triggered by proximity. Early results suggest that about
one-quarter of customers who received a promotion sent to Passbook opted
to save it; 30% of offers added to either Passbook or Google Wallet were
redeemed in store.
So far, Vibes has managed at least 300 campaigns of this nature. Its
seminar focused on the new Passbook features (held in mid-September)
attracted almost 1,000 people, Philbin says.
Still skeptical about the prospects? Sure, near-field communications
technology (the tap to pay approach that Apple Pay will use)
accounts for just 2.5% of mobile payments. But thats still almost $8.2
billion this year, and using a smartphone for transactions is something
some of us do every day: close to 15% of all Starbucks transactions in
the U.S. are now made with its app (thats an average of 6 million per
week). For some, its becoming a learned behavior, Philbin says.
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