NetZero, a brand left over from from the dialup days that refuses to die, has a trick up its sleeve to encourage you to buy one of its WiMAX data hotspot devices: it gives you 1GB of data every month to give away through Facebook, so you can buy friends with downloads. More »
The classic trick to spurring early adoption of a data hotspot service is to share it with others, and NetZero has every intention of being as giving as its precursors. Its new Data Share program lets those who own of the company’s WiMAX devices give away up to 1GB of data every month through Facebook, spread across five friends at 200MB each. Apart from needing NetZero hardware in a coverage area, there’s no financial strings attached — neither the sender nor the recipient needs to adopt more than the free, 200MB per month they already have just for showing up. The real dilemma is managing just who gets the data in the 4G provider’s first come, first served approach to the sharing link that hits friends’ social news feeds. NetZero is no doubt hoping that the ubiquity of the giveaway (and a half-off device sale during October) will put an early end to any rivalries.
Filed under: Wireless, Networking, Mobile
NetZero gives subscribers free data to share through Facebook, doles out friendship 1GB at a time originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 09 Oct 2012 06:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
The World Wide Web Consortium might just be the United Nations of web development, as it’s bringing together some frequent enemies to fight for a common cause through WebPlatform.org. The collaboration will see Adobe, Apple, Facebook, Google, HP, Microsoft, Mozilla, Nokia and Opera pool educational resources to create a comprehensive, frequently updated guide to creating HTML5 and other content for the open web. The companies’ instructional oversight is just the start, however — visitors will have chats and forums to devise their own solutions, and they’ll even have a better than usual chance at influencing mid-development web standards. It may be some time before we’ll see the first fruits of the organization’s work, but we’re already happy to see technology companies set aside some of their differences.
Filed under: Internet, Apple, Microsoft, Nokia, Google, HP, Facebook
W3C teams with Apple, Google, Mozilla on WebPlatform, a guide to building the open web (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 09 Oct 2012 03:23:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Facebook‘s Like button is famous with users the world-over, but it may not be long before folks have a couple more buttons at their disposal. Facebook is currently running a small-scale retail test with some of its partners that tosses “Want” and “Collect” buttons into the list. The test is for a new feature called “Collections,” which, according to a statement sent to PCMag, will allow retailers to share more details about their products with Facebook users.
Users will naturally be able to Like the collections they see on social network, while they’ll also have to ability to say they want the products in the collection by clicking on the Want button. If users are already collecting the products on display, they’ll be able to let the world know by clicking the Collect button. The world will know too, as your Want and Collect clicks will be added to your timeline.
Basically, think of this as a way for retailers to get customers excited for their products while gaining increased exposure at the same time. This isn’t the first time we’ve heard talk of a Want button on Facebook, as such a feature was rumored to be incoming back in June. Facebook has even dropped some hints that buttons aside from just the tried-and-true Like button would be making an appearance, so the roll out of an actual Want button shouldn’t surprise too many folks.
There isn’t any word when Facebook’s Collections feature will enjoy a broader roll out, but for now the company says that it won’t be available as part of a plug-in for other sites. Now, all we need is the oft-requested “Dislike” button and Facebook users will be good to go. We’ll be keeping an ear to the ground for more information on the Collections roll out, so keep it tuned here to SlashGear for additional details!
Facebook retail test introduces “Want” button is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
I’m glad someone finally made a parody that truly shows the impossibly high level of imbecility and self-congratulatory pretentiousness of that stupid Facebook ad that we had to suffer last week. More »
Facebook is testing its own version of Pinterest. It’s called “Facebook Collections.” It adds clickable buttons to posts about products from retailers, which then adds it to a personalized page that reminds you to buy it later. Ugh. More »
Facebook is getting into online commerce in a big way: last week they unveiled an easy way to send physical goods to friends, and today they’ve announced Collections. Collections, according to Facebook, is a way for companies to format image posts of products to facilitate easy sales through Facebook. Sounds a lot like another image-based social network, right? (more…)
By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Yes, college admissions officers are looking through your Facebook, Facebook: Over one billion served,
A handful of web browser developers and other leading tech companies have launched what’s called Web Platform Docs, which aims to create “a new, authoritative open web standards documentation site,” and addresses the issue of finding a single source of accurate and quality information on all web standards that are scattered around the internet.
The wiki-like website, while still in its alpha stages, provides detailed documentation on the many types of languages and formats that are used in web development, like CSS, HTML, JavaScript, and SVG. The companies behind the new project argue that developers are struggling to find authoritative information on modern web technologies, and usually end up trying to figure out the right solutions on their own through trial and error.
Companies involved in this new initiative include Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Mozilla, Opera, HP, Nokia, Apple, and Adobe, with the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) acting as the website’s curator. The companies want to stress that gathering information and creating a standard will be a community effort, so web developers and junkies of all kinds are encouraged to help out.
The new website will provide developers a single and definitive resource to go to, and they’ll find all sorts of useful information on the site, like API documentation, information on browser compatibility, and the status of various specifications. The website will eventually expand to include things like coding tools and various resources for web-related course educators.
Tech giants launch Web Platform Docs for web standardization is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Polycom has been a dominate figure when it comes to video conferencing in the enterprise market. However, the company is looking to shake things up with a suite of products that will make it easier and more affordable to communicate with other people. Polycom’s new RealPresence CloudAXIS Suite allows users to connect with anyone using a selection of different video chat applications, like Skype, Facebook, and Google Talk.
One of the coolest features of the new suite is its cloud-based platform that allows users to chat with others right through a web browser, so there’s no need for both parties to have anything more installed on their computers. This not only makes it easier for businesses to communicate with one another, but it also removes a lot of the hassle associated with video conferencing,
The CloudAXIS Suite will be available for both large enterprises and service providers, and will offer what Polycom calls Video Collaboration as a Service (VCaaS) on private or public clouds. Overall, the new suite revolves around better user-friendliness and improved support for other video chat programs to make it easier to communicate with more people.
While Polycom’s CloudAXIS Suite will only be available in the corporate sphere, the included features would be excellent for regular consumers as well, and if or when a time comes when a company creates an easy, no-hassle solution like this for consumers, it would definitely be a big hit.
Polycom announces RealPresence CloudAXIS Suite for easier access to third-party video chat apps is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Facebook‘s native Android app is in final testing, insiders claim, with the software – a replacement for the little-loved HTML5 app currently available for Google’s platform – nearly ready for primetime. Specific details of the new app weren’t revealed, but according to Engadget‘s tipster it’s being trialled internally with a full launch imminent. Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg had already conceded that the social site’s HTML5 apps were woefully unsuitable.
Speaking in September, Zuckerberg said that the switch from HTML5 to a native iOS app had seen users viewing twice as many stories in their news feed than before. The outspoken CEO has also described the Android HTML5 app as a “mistake” and it’s one Facebook seems keen to fix: word from inside the company suggested staff were being forced to use the Android app until they could make it better.
Mobile users are part of Facebook’s primary strategy at present, with a large chunk of regular users accessing the site via their smartphone or tablet. In fact, 600m of the 1bn active Facebook users are coming from a phone or other mobile device.
That leaves Zuckerberg & Co. with a significant problem, as mobile is far less monetized than Facebook on the desktop. The strategy for addressing that hasn’t been revealed yet, but the CEO has suggested that leveraging social data into mobile commerce is likely to be a key aspect of the push to make smartphone users pay their way.
Facebook’s native Android app release tipped imminent is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
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