Image via CrunchBase

As most people have heard by now, Facebook bought Instagram (a photo sharing service) for $1bn last week.  Some people think it was a crazy move and confirms that another Internet bubble is forming while others think it was a wise strategic move.

Let’s look at the bubble side of things and the valuation.  Facebook didn’t actually hand Instagram a check for $1bn, most of the $1bn was in Facebook stock – which has its own ‘crazy’ valuation now approaching $100bn – and any cash probably came out of the funding round that

Instagram had just recently completed.  In other words, the real cost was simply the cost of closing the deal (lawyers).  From the perspective of FB and Instagram the deal seems like a winner.  If FB don’t float for the big bucks, Instagram’s valuation would have plummeted anyway and having Instagram does add value to the FB proposition.

This then give rise to the next question, is FB worth $1oobn?  Who knows.  Sure they have incredible reach but how much money can they really make and how well will they survive the next ‘big thing’.  For those of you have been online for awhile you’ll remember that Yahoo used to be the big kid on the block with Excite (who?) close on its heals.  Microsoft was the evil empire, Apple almost went bust, google was a small start up and Janet Street Porter said the Internet was a passing fad.  In other words, things can change very quickly on the Internet and there are no givens – for anyone!

Excite (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Related articles

• Zuckerberg closed Instagram deal without Facebook board approval (arstechnica.com)
• Instagram wanted $2bn in Zuckerberg’s secret Facebook negotiations (slashgear.com)
• Explore Instagram Photos without the Apps (labnol.org)

(Photo credit: dougbelshaw)

What a complex issue this is.  Where do you draw the line?  Giving up some privacy has some benefits so they say. One ID card with a micro chip means it’s easy for you to get access to services, pay for things, clear immigration or simply prove who you are – or someone posing as you.

I’ve been following two disturbing trends recently and both involve monitoring in some way:

• apps that access all the data on your phone and social networking site
• phone tracking software to ‘make sure your family and children are safe’

This is some scary stuff.  Let’s look at  the apps first – have you ever read the T&C’s.  Why does a jogging app need access to your contacts and calendar, or your Facebook and google+ account? Or your calls list, or text messages?  All apps seem to need this now and to be able to upload it to their servers.  WHY?  There is no justifiable reason why – it’s so they can make more money by selling your information and milking your content.  This needs to stop, IMHO, but not in everyone else’s.  I asked my son about it and he said that at first he was worried about it but when nothing bad happened and as an app had been down loaded 100′s of thousands of time he wasn’t concerned any more.  I think we’ve heard that rationale before.

In the UK for quite awhile now you’ve been able to track people through their mobiles – of course so you can snoop protect your kids – and spy locate your spouse.  In the US there’s a new service called Family Locator, just in case you lose them, happens to me all the time.  You know, I don’t know how we ever managed to grow up safely without all these tools.  Having to use pay phones and not being in constant contact was so dangerous, I am really surprised children ever got home for dinner or survived long enough to turn into surveillance obsessed parents.  As for spouses – wonder if this will push the divorce rate up.  Forget affairs, how about, “I’m still at work” when you’re actually having a drink with a work colleague…. Actually nah, I’m sure someone will come up with an app that will allow errant kids and spouses to spoof the whole thing.

Related articles

• Is your non-profit cell phone policy and apps violating clients’ privacy? (donordreams.wordpress.com)
• Do You Value Your Internet Privacy? (readwriteweb.com)
• Is our privacy just worth 50 cents? (digitalprivacy.at)

The new Apple iPad has just hit the three million sold mark – in one weekend!  No matter how you slice it, that is seriously impressive and no matter how much others try, no one it seems can emulate the success of Apple launches.  Even more impressive for a company that almost went to the wall 10 years ago but managed to save itself by making an MP3 player -oops sorry, that’s Dell speak, Apple made an iPod with attitude.

It’s quite simple on the one hand, their success that is, it’s because people are buying an idea, a concept, an ideology – not just a boring piece of technology.  When someone buys a Dell, they’re buying  a piece of equipment, end of story.  When someone buys an Apple product they’re buying a lifestyle.  It’s all in the spin.

Sony almost got it right.  Other than Apple they were the first ones to understand mass consumer electronics and the need for style and dependability – and that people will pay a premium for it.  The problem is they could never quite master that ‘cool’ thing. Dependable, nice looking, functional, good value, yes.  Cool, nah.

For a great vid that explains this much more succinctly than I ever possibly could, watch Simon Sinek.  I have watched this numerous times.  It seems so straight forward and easy, but it’s not, otherwise we’d all be doing it.

Related articles

• Apple Sold Three Million New iPad Units To Date (pocketnow.com)
• The New iPad – A Boon To Photographers And A Tip (photofocus.com)

Google has recently merged all their privacy policies into one policy for everything.  In a nutshell, they will share all your data across all their services ‘in order to deliver better service for users’ – read sell more ads.

The irony here is that they will be in fragrant breach of the new EU changes to the pricavy law.  The good news is that they have the deep pockets to fight this and hopefully can unwind this silliness.  The bad news is that they are collecting so much data on users it is unreal – from your mobile, gps location, photos, surfing habits, emails (they read them to dish out ‘targetted’ ads).  Not to say they’re the only ones collecting uber data on us, seems everyone is, from O2 to Apple.

Related articles

• Google’s new privacy policy sparks controversy, but is it necessary? (rtv2100blog.wordpress.com)
• International Group Of Privacy Commissioners Express Concern Over Google’s New Privacy Policy (googleexposed.wordpress.com)
• Google and its new privacy policy (rrajiv.wordpress.com)

If you’re not aware of the upcoming changes the EU is imposing on your website this May, you should be.  It will affect almost every website out there, including yours.

You may not know what cookies are but chances are your website uses them – if it didn’t, it should have.  Cookies are the little files set on people’s computers to remember information about users – like what page they were on and shopping baskets.  From May you won’t be able to set them without user permission in advance.

In a nutshell, if you use any analytics for tracking site visitors, like google analytics, then you must obtain prior permission from visitors to your site to set the cookies.  To get an idea of what this does to web traffic, take a look at the stats from ICO (the Information Commissioners Office) who are responsible for enforcing this, they had a 90% drop in traffic.

If you haven’t already, speak to your webmaster and decide what you are going to do, here’s a link to some  guidance notes from ICO.

Related articles

• Will the upcoming EU cookie law affect my website? (marketing.yell.com)
• EU Cookie Law – just 80 days to comply (allisterfrost.com)
• Countdown to new EU regulations (connected-uk.com)

Transparent windows, how fantastic is that.  Imagine, it’s a clear window one minute and a touch screen computer the  next, or a TV, or an entertainment system.  Check out the Samsung Transparent Window and I’m sure you’ll want one too – unfortuately they’re not available yet.  Wonder what the fish will make of it once fish tanks are made like this – come to think of it, would you actually need the fish any more.

Related articles

• Samsung’s Transparent Smart Window (stuffmideast.com)
• Samsung reinvents the window using a transparent touchscreen display (geek.com)

Remembering passwords (Photo credit: hardeep.singh)

The strength of your password WILL determine how easy it is to guess/hack and therefore for someone to access your online accounts. The grid below demonstrates how important it is to have long passwords (minimum 7 characters) and to mix up upper and lower case letters with numbers (if you include other characters such as symbols as well your password just gets stronger).

Ideally we should have different passwords for every site but the reality is that we can only remember so many passwords so, my advice, come up with a few different ones that are difficult to guess.  Use one for regular sites you visit and need to log into, one for social networking sites, one for shopping and one for online finances. Of course, don’t be silly and use birthdays, names or other information linked to  you.

Tip: What I do is look around me – the web pages I happen to be on, my house, my office, TV etc and take a couple of things I see and make them into a non-sensical word, add numbers and caplitalise a few letters. eg. 13AiWind2 – combo of 13 and Aiwa and Window and 2 (no laughing at what it sounds like, at least I can remember it).

Related articles

• Internet Security (rhubblog.wordpress.com)
• Is your bank password a hacker’s dream? (cheap.co.uk)
• Is Your Password Safe? (kymx.radio.com)

I saw this video and it really sparked my interest and got me thinking. Is online social media really going to cause some kind of revolution or is it just another fad that will die out sooner or later? Personally, I think it might be a lot closer to the former that I initially thought a couple of years ago.

JailbreakMe 2.0 is a website that will jailbreak Apple i-devices simply by visiting http://www.jailbreakme.com from within the i-device’s mobile version of Safari.

One of the very first methods developed for users to “jailbreak” the original iPhone was via a website called JailbreakMe. Those who owned the iPhone could simply visit this website right from the iPhone mobile version of Safari and the website would jailbreak the iPhone, allowing owners to install unofficial applications and utilities that Apple will not allow into the official App Store. One such utility, for example, is capable of software unlocking the iPhone, ie allowing it work on other mobile service carriers.

This jailbreak service worked for a short period of time before Apple was able to identify the mobile Safari loophole and block it.

While other methods of jailbreaking have since then been released, JailbreakMe 2.0 is now capable of jailbreaking any iOS device (iPhones, iPod Touches, and iPads) that runs either iOS 4.0, 4.0.1, or 3.1.2.

Here’s a neat trick for downloading flash videos right from within the Safari web browser. While there are tons of free programs or plug-ins out there that will do this for you, this trick uses features built right into the Safari browser.

By downloading these videos and a compatible player, you can watch the videos anytime you want, even without an internet connection! Additionally, if you have a handy video converter utility, you can put these videos on your iPod, Android, iPhone, PSP or other personal media player or smartphone.

Most online videos that use a flash player are actually streamed in a file format called “.flv” which stands for flash video. Examples of such videos are located on YouTube, Vimeo, and other popular video sites.

Here’s how to get started:

1. First of all, you’ll want to make sure you have Safari. If you’re using an Apple computer running Mac OS X, Safari should already be either in your dock or your Applications folder. If you’re using a PC, you will have to download Safari from here: http://www.apple.com/safari/
2. Launch Safari and go to the video of your choice. If you’re on YouTube, for example, go ahead and start the video and click play.
3. Now you’ll want to launch the Safari Activity Window from either the Safari Menu Bar on a Mac or the Safari Tool Bar on a PC. This utility allows you to see every single component, as it loads, that is involved in making a web site look and behave the way it does. You’ll also be able to see how much space, ie memory, that the component takes up.
4. You should be able to spot a single component that is bigger in memory size than all the others. Additionally, this component should also still be downloading, ie the streaming video. You’ll see the number go up right in front of your eyes as more of the video loads in the player on the actual website.
5. Double click this downloading component when you’ve found it and Safari should automatically add it to your Downloads list as a file that ends with the extension “.flv”

That’s it! You’ve now got the video downloaded on your computer to watch whenever you want. However, you will need a compatible player.

If you’re on a Mac, I recommend you install Perian, which will enable QuickTime to play back almost any kind of video file.

If you’re on a PC, I recommend you use either VLC or MPlayer. Either player is capable of playing back many, if not all, of the popular video formats.