Google set to launch mobile payment system

With the advent of the smartphone my personal habits have changed. I no longer where a wrist watch, I gave my digital/video cameras away, I tossed my voice-recorder and soon I'll be leaving my credit cards behind.

Amplify’d from www.tgdaily.com

Google's believed to be ready to launch its long-rumored mobile payment system for Android this week.

Based on near-field communication (NFC) the 'mobile wallet' system would allow customers to pay for goods by simply waving their phone in front of a reader at checkout. It would also provide special offers, couplns and targeted advertising Read more at www.tgdaily.com

 

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Playboy puts every issue ever made online

How fitting after my post this morning. Playboy launched i.playboy,a subscription service that includes access to their archives. Sorry bunnies,but this isn't going to be the revenue source someone sold you on. Samir Husni, summed it up best, `Do I need it? Do I want it? Is it relevant to me? The Answer "NO".

Amplify’d from www.tgdaily.com

According to The Chicago Tribune, Playboy has launched an Internet subscription service Thursday called i.Playboy.com that lets viewers see every single page of every single magazine. Sophisticated perverts can see the first issue nearly 60 years ago that featured Marilyn Monroe or the ones hitting the newsstands today.

Jellinek is confident that people will pay the $8 per month or $60 per year for a service that's “meant to appeal to that sense of collective nostalgia and affinity.” He says the website is “the world's sexiest time machine” and “an anthology of cool” for a magazine he calls “the Mount Rushmore of literary greatness.”

Jellinek acknowledges that the whole thing pretty much an experiment aimed at a niche audience, but he also says the service has value because it offers an exceptional window into America’s perverted past. Read more at www.tgdaily.com

 

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Google scraps newspaper-scanning project

In a media where the shelf life (and value) of content is measured in minutes, Google's answers the question about the value of old newspaper content by pulling the plug on its scan project. About six years ago publishers became obsessed with the idea of converting their archives into digital formats to create new revenue streams. Unfortunately, it didn't work then and it wasn't working for Google. Simply put, "Old news is old news and its isn't worth paying for."

Amplify’d from news.cnet.com

Google might have near-boundless ambition, but every now and then it throws in the towel. The most recent example: a project to scan newspapers for publication online.

Instead, Google told the Phoenix that it's focusing on "newer projects that help the industry, such as Google One Pass, a platform that enables publishers to sell content and subscriptions directly from their own sites."

The paper also said Google is waiving the fee it had planned to charge newspapers to purchase the digital scans, including rights to use it elsewhere with other partners. Read more at news.cnet.com

 

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Media Partnership Plays Digital Catch-up

It has been a slow and long journey for "NIM". Unfortunately, the industry won't notice and neither will consumers. There are simply too many Chef's in this digital kitchen.

Amplify’d from www.adweek.com

The publishing industry’s digital newsstand, which has been in the works for two years, is finally up and running. Next Issue Media, a joint venture of Time Inc., Hearst, Condé Nast, Meredith and News Corp., was set to unveil a “preview” of its digital store Wednesday.

But don’t get too excited. Only seven titles are available (Esquire, Popular Mechanics, Time, Fitness, Parents and The New Yorker), and they’re only accessible on Samsung’s 7-inch Galaxy Tab from Verizon Wireless. Read more at www.adweek.com

 

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Hacker Heaven in the Cloud

The cloud is making it more cost effective for companies to conduct business. Unfortunately, hackers are taking advantage of the same scalability and cost savings to launch attacks like to one on Sony.

Amplify’d from www.bloomberg.com

For three pennies an hour, hackers can rent Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN)’s servers to wage cyber attacks such as the one that crippled Sony Corp. (6758)’s PlayStation Network and led to the second-largest online data breach in U.S. history.

Last month’s attack on Sony compromised more than 100 million customer accounts, the largest data breach in the U.S. since intruders stole credit and debit card numbers from Heartland Payment Systems in 2009.

The episode will cause individuals and companies to rethink what data to put on the cloud and force companies to potentially double what they spend on application security Read more at www.bloomberg.com

 

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Amazon Places a Massive Tablet Order

Amazon launched the e-reader revolution and its ready to take on the iPad. It will be interesting to see if their dominance in the e-reader market translates with its customers - who can easily purchase an iPad and download the free Kindle app.

Amplify’d from goodereader.com

The Amazon Tablet rumored to be in development just got a massive boost in reality as the online behemoth recently placed a large order for Amazon branded Tablets with Quanta Computers.

Quanta has verified that it is going to start shipping out the Amazon tablets in second quarter of 2011, so it looks like summer time. It seems like they intend to put out almost 700,000 units in the next three to six months, with an order size of around 3.5 billion dollars. Read more at goodereader.com

 

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