Drive further in EV mode with Ford’s EV+ algorithm

Ford’s new EV+ cleverly extends emissions-free driving by learning your driving habits through a combination of smartphone application and GPS.

Ford knows hybrid and plug-in hybrid owners want to spend the greatest possible amount of time driving in EV (electric-only) mode, leaving the gasoline engine at rest for as long as possible. Not only is an extended EV mode both eco-friendly, it also makes the most of the energy stored in the on-board batteries and saves on gasoline.

Eager to accommodate eco-minded customers and further separate itself from the competition, two Ford engineers developed a way to use GPS signals, allowing C-MAX Energi (plug-in hybrid) and Fusion Energi to remain in EV for extended periods of time.

Virtually everyone has a daily routine: driving from home to work in the mornings and from work to pick up the kids at school in the afternoon, then stopping by the store before finally heading home. What if, Ford engineers wondered, your car could recognize your familiar stomping grounds and extend your EV range?

EV+ works by cleverly harnessing the already built-in GPS unit included within each Ford model fitted with Sync. Ford uses the SmartGauge app, which is standard on all Ford plug-in hybrids, to determine if the vehicle is near (within an 1/8^th of a mile) a frequently visited location. When the system recognizes a frequently visited location, it will leave the gasoline engine off, ignite the EV+ light on the dashboard so the driver knows the system has been engaged, and squeeze what it can out of the remaining on-board battery power.

Ford hasn’t divulged exactly how the EV+ works, but from what we can gather, the system limits throttle response thereby drawing less juice and prolonging the electric driving range. This in turn allows the batteries to drain down more readily than they normally would, assuming you will soon be home and able to charge it up.

For customers who find the idea of their vehicle actively tracking and interacting with their daily routine a bit unsettling, the EV+ system memory can be erased with the push of a button or fully disabled.

While the system is downright ingenious and will certainly save countless numbers of gallons of gas for drivers each year, we wonder what the added stress on the battery packs will be. If the system is normally designed to shutdown and revert to a standard gas/electric drive mode at a given level of remaining battery charge, what will be the outcome of drawing more power from the battery pack?

In spite of our skepticism, we’re pleased to see Ford using big-bother technologies to improve fuel economy, even if it seems a bit weird at the outset.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Microsoft Office for iOS and Android arriving early next year

Back in May we reported the sighting of what looked like Microsoft Office running on an iPad. Back then Microsoft denied working on such an application but turns out that wasn’t true at all.

According to The Verge, Microsoft has been working on a version of Office for iOS as well as Android and plans to release early next year. The iOS version will be released around late February or early March and the Android version will arrive in May.

The version of Office for iOS and Android will be a read-only free app that will allow users to view Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents on their mobile devices. Should they wish to edit them, they will need to purchase an Office 365 subscription. Organizations could also distribute codes for Office 365 for their employees. Unlike the full version of Office found on Windows and Windows RT devices, the iOS and Android version would only allow basic editing, for obvious reasons.

Source : blog[dot]gsmarena[dot]com

Google releases stock Android Calendar app on the Play Store

Google has released the stock Jelly Bean Calendar application on the Play Store that can now be installed by anyone with a device running Android 4.0.3 and above.

This is great for someone who has an Android device with a custom calendar application, such as the ones Samsung and HTC like to install on their devices, but want to use the stock Calendar app that you find on Nexus devices.

If you already had this application pre-installed on your device, you would have an update waiting for you in Play Store. This means that Google can now update the app through the Play Store, rather than through the next version of Android, whenever that happens. After the update, you’ll notice that the app now has a new icon. Other than that, the application is identical to the previous version.

The app is live on the store and you can download or update it from the link below.

Source : blog[dot]gsmarena[dot]com

Google releases new Play Store update, brings some much needed changes

Google has released v3.9.16 of the Play Store application for Android and with it come some useful new features. One of the new features is the ability to delete apps from your ‘All’ apps list within ‘My Apps’. Anyone who has been using Android for a while will know that this list is cluttered with useless apps that you only downloaded once and then deleted but are now permanently part of that list. Well, not anymore.

Applications in this list that are currently not installed on your device will now have a delete button next to them, so you can instantly remove them from the list. Moreover, you can now press and hold over these items and delete a whole bunch of them simultaneously.

Another useful new change is that the Play Store app finally remembers your position in a list. Before, if you scrolled down a list and clicked on an item and then went back, you’d go at the top of the list. This would be extremely frustrating of you had scrolled down a lot. Now, the app remembers your position, so you can go back and continue scrolling down from where you left off.

Other minor changes include new notification icons that appear when there is an update available, along with expandable notification option. Your phone will now also show the icon for the app that you updated instead of the same generic icon it showed before. The new Play Store app is also smaller in size than previous versions.

The update is rolling out now so you’ll have to wait for it to arrive on your device. Alternatively, you can click on the source link below and head over to Android Police, who have uploaded the APK for your downloading pleasure.

Source : blog[dot]gsmarena[dot]com

Google Maps on the original iPhone was a last minute addition

One of the most important applications on the original iPhone was the Maps application that Steve Jobs demoed with a prank call to Starbucks. But it has now come to light that about a month before the phone was announced, no such application even existed on the device.

According to a story by The New York Times, the maps application was not at all part of the original plans for the phone. Steve Jobs thought of having the application on the phone just weeks before the announcement because he thought it would help show off the multi-touch display better.

He then set two engineers who came up with the original maps application in just three weeks before the announcement. Apple then cut a hasty deal with Google to provide the mapping data for their application. This should have been easy back then because the two companies had good relations and Google’s then CEO Eric Schmidt was part of Apple’s board of directors and also came on stage during the iPhone announcement. The last minute inclusion of Maps also tells us why the original iPhone did not have GPS, which was then added in the iPhone 3G next year.

Of course, over time the relationship between the two companies became tense to the point where Apple had to come up with another source for the mapping data (the data for the current Maps application in iOS 6 is provided by TomTom, among others) and the rest is history. Still, it’s interesting to know that the original iPhone would not have had a Maps application at all had Steve Jobs not thought of it at the eleventh hour.

Source : blog[dot]gsmarena[dot]com

Apple adds new section for alternative mapping software in the App Store

Yesterday, Tim Cook penned a letter to iOS 6 users, apologizing for the sorry state of their new Maps application and promised that they are working hard to make it better. While most would have stopped at that, Cook went on to suggest alternative mapping services that users can use till Apple Maps becomes usable.

Now, Apple has gone one step ahead and created a section in the App Store that can you can find on your iPhone, titled ‘Find Maps for your iPhone’. Clicking on it will show you a bunch of different mapping services, free and paid, that you can download and install on your iOS device.

Source : blog[dot]gsmarena[dot]com

Google updates Play Books application

Google has released an updated version of the Google Play Books application for Android. Some of the biggest complaints with this application were the lack of dictionary, note taking and highlighting abilities and Google has addressed all of them in this update.

As you can guess, you can now add highlights to the text and take notes while reading books. There is also a built-in dictionary now, so you can quickly look up a word.

Other additions include ‘Places’ info cards, translation, sepia mode and sliding page-turn animation. Lastly there are the usual bug fixes. It seems you still can’t open PDF files on your device using the app, which is sad.

Source : blog[dot]gsmarena[dot]com

iTunes 11 debuts with enhanced iOS compatibility, Facebook features

While the iPhone 5 was the big announcement, Apple's ever-present music store got a sizable redesign as well. Both iOS and application versions of iTunes have new looks coming soon.

While the big news to come from the Apple press conference was the highly anticipated iPhone 5, Apple also snuck in an update to its iTunes music store. After hyping up just how great the product already is, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services, Eddie Cue, told the crowd at the Cupertino headquarters that the “number one music store in the world” was going to get better — or at least different.

After realizing that two thirds of all iTunes purchases have come from iOS devices, Apple started with a redesign of the mobile app, according to executives. The new look is more streamlined and consistent throughout the store, from music to books and videos. The screenshots show a banner of featured content at the top of the store, followed by rows of new and popular items below it. The store is promising to yield better search results and improved performance. You’ll also be able to preview products while browsing, a handy feature for anyone that actually likes to try — or listen — before buying. The App Store also got a new layout that prominently features Facebook integration. You will be able to “like” and share your favorite apps through the Store. The iTunes iOS app will be available September 19 along with iOS 6.

While the iTunes app got a nice revamping, the desktop application also got its share of changes. The new iTunes comes with an edge-to-edge design will make the browsing and viewing experience more immersive, as options from your library and the store sprawl across the length of the screen. Clicking on an album cover will cause the album to expand in line, revealing the tracks of the selection. It’s very much a design cue from iOS. A new feature called “In the Store” will show top songs and albums from an artist, allowing you to finish off your discography of your favorite musicians. 

Browsing the new iTunes library by artist will allow for some artist-to-listener sharing. For instance, when you look at Coldplay’s library, you can also see pictures that the band is sharing with their followers. It feels like a feature borrowed from the ill-conceived Ping music network. 

If you’re playing music from a playlist or a full album, the music player will have a drop-down menu called “Up Next” that will show songs that are next in the queue. The pop-out mini player also got a redesign. It’s smaller, sleeker, and has the same handy drop-down feature. The mini player displays a small clip of the album art with the name of the song and artist currently playing. The same area becomes the control panel for when you want to change songs. You can also pull up the search bar, which now provides a live preview of your search term, including album covers.

Movies received an overhaul similar to the music department within iTunes, with the edge-to-edge view of all your video collections. Because iTunes has full iCloud integration, films you were watching on your iOS device can now be continued on your desktop or other computers running iTunes with the iCloud. The iTunes 11 download will be available late October.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Google releases new YouTube app for the iPhone, iPad version arriving later

We reported last month that Apple will be officially dropping the YouTube application out of iOS with the release of iOS 6 due to the expiration of their license. At the same time Google also announced that they will be releasing their own application for iOS to make up for the loss, and they have.

A brand new YouTube application is now available on the App Store and can be downloaded for free on your iPhone and iPod touch. We decided to try it out and see how it fares.

The similarities to the new Android YouTube app become clear once you launch the application. The iOS app features the same wide tiles for videos on your home feed. You can swipe left on the screen to display additional options, such as your account page and all the feeds you subscribed to. Scroll down further and you will come across all the categories on YouTube.

There is the all-important search button in the top right and the application also provides search suggestions as you type. Open a video and again it looks similar to the Android version. You can click on the tabs below the video or swipe horizontally to move between the sections. You can also share the video on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, email or SMS.

Overall, the application seems quite nice but there are two major problems at the moment. First of all, there is no iPad version yet, however, Google has assured that it will be released in the coming months. Secondly, and more importantly, there is no option to upload a video. This seems rather ridiculous and Google has provided no reason nor any tentative dates as to when the feature will be implemented. Hopefully, it will be added in future updates.

Source : blog[dot]gsmarena[dot]com

Latest Google Drive update for iOS lets you create and edit documents

When Google released the Google Drive application on iOS, it was a mere shadow of the application available on Android. The most you could do in that application is view all your files and documents uploaded on Drive but the lack of editing made the application fairly useless.

Well, that’s taken care of with the latest update, which brings with it several new features, the big one being able to edit all your documents. You can now tap on your documents and enter a view-only mode but with the tap of the Edit button you can start writing and also get basic formatting options. The documents are collaborated so any changes made elsewhere reflect immediately on your device. Unfortunately, editing is only available for documents and not for spreadsheets or presentations.

You can also create documents now but there is no option to create spreadsheets or presentations. The Android version at least lets you create spreadsheets.

Other changes in the new version include the ability to create folders and move items between them, ability to upload photos and videos and take pictures from the camera, ability to delete files, richer Google presentations with animations and speaker notes and support for over 30 languages.

The Android version also got an update and brings with it ability to create folder and move to folder, option to auto-sync pinned content while on 3G, richer Google Presentations viewing experience, basic table support in Documents Editor, create, reply and resolve comments in Documents Editor, view and change fonts in Documents Editor, pinch to zoom in Documents Editor, print files using Google Cloud Print and option to resume interrupted uploads.

Source : blog[dot]gsmarena[dot]com

Grooveshark bypasses app store bans with browser-based mobile app

In the face of app store bans by Facebook, Google, and Apple bans, Grooveshark has launched an HTML5 mobile browser-based application.

What do you do when you’re banned from the Facebook App Store, Apple’s App Store and Google Play? By launching an in-browser mobile player, of course! And that’s exactly what controversial music streaming service Grooveshark has done.

Long suspected of shady music practices that both music labels and musicians, Grooveshark has been in and out of lawsuits for suspected violations of copyright infringement and failure to pay royalties for years.

Grooveshark’s browser app has been built in HTML5, and leaves behind crash-prone Adobe Flash. According to the company, users can search, discover, and play more than 15 million songs from any mobile device, or listen to genre-based stations and listen to tracks shared by friends.

In one respect, the app stores bans are a blessing in disguise. Managing the app and implementing new features on the browser app doesn’t require the hard coding and different languages that would otherwise be necessary to maintain native apps for Android, iOS and, soon, Windows Phone 8 devices. Rather, the company will simply have to add additional code depending on the browsers supported.

When testing out the app ourselves, we noticed that the app sticks the user experience that we’re used to from a native app. We can sign into our profile and view our existing content, from saved playlists, to favorites, followers, and users that we’re following. All said, it functions much like it would like a Spotify app. But as a browser app, it has its limitations. Features like the ability to slide your fingers to move pages from left to right or visa-versa is lost, and there’s a slight but noticeable delay when interacting with the app.

If you like the convenience of a button that opens up the app, you can do so by adding the site to your Home Screen on your iPhone.

Unlike Spotify and Pandora, which negotiate and pay for the rights to stream libraries of music from music labels like Universal Music, EMI, Sony and Warner Music Group, Grooveshark enables its users to upload their own music onto its platform and share that content with other Grooveshark users. The company claims that this strategy allows it to bypass the need to pay royalties to musicians and music labels. Theoretically, Grooveshark imparts the accountability of uploading infringing music to its users. Of course in practice, the accountability may ultimately lie with Grooveshark, which claims to abide by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) — a belief backed by the courts on at least one occasion so far.

There hasn’t been an official explanation for why Grooveshark has been banned from app stores, but it’s evident that the very public copyright infringement claims mounting against the service, Apple, Google, and Facebook aren’t taking any chances with supporting Grooveshark. Still, Grooveshark hasn’t been deterred as its browser app first launched in the United States on Wednesday, with an international launch due in the coming months. 

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Google Play Store gets smarter, provides app recommendations based on what you and your friends use

Google has added a new feature in the Play Store application on Android that should appear automatically when you launch the app. You will notice there is a new ‘Recommended For You’ section right on the featured page along with other categories.

Clicking this category opens the Recommended Apps section, where you will find a list of a whole bunch of apps selected based on the apps that you have downloaded in the past and the apps that your friends have been +1′ing.

You will see the reason below each app title as to why it’s there in the list and on the side you will see its cost as well as a button to remove it from the list. Thankfully, when you click on an app and then go back, you are not taken to the top of the list like in the My Apps section.

Source : blog[dot]gsmarena[dot]com

The Evernote evolution continues with Evernote Business and Moleskine ‘Smart Notebook’

The productivity platform continues to assert itself with a new niche, Corporate-focused application and a smart notebook from Moleskine.

Today, Evernote kicked off its second annual developer Trunk Conference, complete with a little numbers showing off and some big announcements for the productivity platform. Before diving into the new launches, here’s a quick look at Evernote’s growth:

• Evernote now has 40 million users
• 15,000 developers are using the Evernote API
• 8 in-house Evernote-made apps

For quite awhile now, it’s been clear that Evernote is more than just an app. What began as a mobile answer to the legal yellow pad has evolved into a rich, note-taking, memory-making ecosystem that is multi-device and function focused. That’s in part largely thanks to its devotion to developers, who have created a rich variety of apps to keep Evernote current, useful, and competitive. Evernote users don’t have to settle for stagnancy. Some recent fundraising hasn’t gone unnoticed either, which CEO Phil Libin explained to me earlier this year as a sweet spot where the company “can take the most risks, experience, and do what we love.”

Evernote Business

And today we’re getting to see some of the fruits of their labor and the effects of this fundraising. First new development: Evernote Business, which “includes everything Evernote has to offer with a number of powerful new features designed exclusively to meet the needs of our business users,” says the company. Evernote is already a popular platform for corporate use, but it’s traditionally worked in a much more personal sense. This means Evernote will start competing with the likes of Yammer, Asana, and Do from Salesforce – although it’s a paid service, not a free one with premium features, and will cost $10 a month.

Among the new tools are features like an admin console, a billing system, and easy on-boarding for current users. Interested in beta testing? You can sign up here, otherwise you’ll have to wait until December when it’s formally launched.

Smart Notebook

Also announced at the Truck Conference was the Evernote Smart Notebook by Moleskine. Evernote’s job is to eliminate the need for last-gen note-taking (e.g. with paper and and writing utensil), but the collaboration between old and new could easily be a popular one for the almost-converts who just can’t put down the pen.

“We’ve partnered with Moleskine to develop a new, limited edition Evernote Smart Notebook that’s designed specifically for the new Evernote iOS application,” says Evernote. “Together, we created a gorgeous notebook that includes a number of special features that allow you to take your ideas off the written page and place them right into Evernote, where they’ll be searchable, organized and available forever.”

The two have come together to design a special type of page that the new Evernote iPhone app can very clearly read. It creates a high contrast visual so the image you’ll have in the app is far more life-like than other pictures of text you take, and it’s supposed to be able to accurately recognize handwriting as well.

It also comes with Smart Stickers, which the app will read for auto-labeling your written entries.

The Smart Notebook is definitely a bit of a novelty item, but at $30, it’s an interesting and affordable one – and there are plenty users (ahem… this one right here) who can’t give up the physical act of list-making just yet. 

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Facebook updates iOS app, brings massive performance upgrade

Facebook has updated their mobile application for iOS, which brings with it significant improvement to the performance. Unlike the older version of the app that was based on HTML5, which, in other words, means that it was a simplified web browser loading the Facebook mobile website, the new version uses native code like most of the other apps out there.

What this means is that there is no more lag in scrolling and the performance is silky smooth, like that of one of the stock applications.

Other changes include a slightly different UI with a different view for photos on your timeline. You can also tap to open these photos and then swipe your finger up or down on them to close them, with a slick transition animation. You also have a new banner at the top that announces the arrival of new posts and you can tap it to quickly go to the top.

If you use Facebook regularly on your iOS device, you should download the update immediately. There is no similar update available for Android as of now.

You can download the Facebook app for iOS from here. You can find more information about this update in the link below.

Source : blog[dot]gsmarena[dot]com

Skype app update for iOS adds photo sharing ability

The Skype application for iOS has been updated and now boasts the ability to let you send images to your contacts, something that you could only do through the desktop client before. There is no size limit on the images you upload so you can upload as big an image as you want, provided you have a suitable data plan.

Other changes include performance improvements, updated privacy settings, minor visual improvements and bug fixes.

You can download the Skype app for iOS from here.

Source : blog[dot]gsmarena[dot]com

Social chat client ooVoo unveils four-way mobile video chat

As the market keeps experimenting with social video, ooVoo continues to build its social chat app.

Social video call application ooVoo continues to build, and today is announcing it’s now enabled four-way video mobile chats. The Web application, which boasts 54 million users, already offers 12-way video chat sessions, but the mobile version will now be able to handle up to four different users in one call, on one screen. The feature is available for Android and iOS, and is operable between users on different operating systems.

Video has become a hot social commodity – and for skeptics, a big question mark. Various startups are attempting to understand where social and video intersect; will its practical possibilities or its creative potential resonate most with users? There’s a ton of experimentation going on here.

OoVoo is clearly trying to exploit both. The application deeply integrates with Facebook but also uses a familiar Skype-like set up for launching and holding calls. In a demo and call with ooVoo execs Jay Samit and Larry Lieberman, they made it clear how important a priority social is to them. “It’s the marriage of communication and social,” Samit tells me. “Facebook is there so you can stay in touch with what your friends did; this is how you can show your friends what you’re actually doing and not miss those spontaneous moments.”

Despite this emphasis, there’s plenty below ooVoo’s surface that makes it a compelling service. During my hands on time with the service, video and audio feedback were spot on. That terribly distracting delay between video and audio that even the most popular chat and call apps are subject to was nowhere to be seen. This lack of reliability makes it rather impressive that ooVoo’s able to stream four videos to individual handsets at once. “How well our video calling works it a testament to our engineers’ hard work and witchcraft,” Leiberman tells me. OoVoo analyzes the various devices’ signals it’s working with, and will drop video for the weakest signal if need be, keeping audio running and keeping both operating for the devices with bandwidth that are able to handle it. “If you can’t handle video up and video down, we keep the audio going for you, and both going [for the other people on the call] so no one loses the experience,” says Leiberman. Competitor services, largely, just drop calls entirely once one of the participant’s bandwidth is unable to support it.

In addition to enabling four-way video chat, the ooVoo update always always you to text during the call — so if you have a private message for one of the participants, you are able to contact them via SMS one-on-one.

“Mobile is taking place on social,” Samit tells me, emphasizing that more social elements is the number one requested feature from ooVoo’s users. This new push means ooVoo’s bent on exploring and exploiting that intersection.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

avast! Mobile Security adds ant-theft features

avast! Mobile Security application for Android has received a major update in version 2.0 and now includes a very useful feature in the form of anti-theft protection. This features were initially found in the beta version but are now part of the main app. With the help of this feature, you will be able to locate your phone on a map and will also be able to use other commands such as remotely trigger a siren, remote lock and even remote wipe using the excellent web portal.

The application is also smart enough to send a message whenever it detects that the SIM has been swapped. This way, if someone steals your phone and swaps the SIM, you will be able to locate the phone on a map and also have the mobile number of the perpetrator, thus making it easier to find your phone.

You will need to create an avast! account for these features to work, which is a small price to pay for peace of mind.

Other new features in this update include network meter for tracking your data usage, real time scanning of apps and messages, improved user interface for tablets, a new widget and much more.

As before, avast! Mobile Security is a free download and is worth having on your phone at least for the anti-theft features if not for the anti-virus functionality. You can download the app here.

Source : blog[dot]gsmarena[dot]com

Google Play Store gift cards set to arrive on August 26 in US stores

We recently reported that Google has quietly added support for gift cards in the latest version of the Play Store application for Android but the feature has not been enabled or announced yet. That’s because they gift cards themselves aren’t available yet.

Well, it seems that’s about to change soon, as a leaked image from Target is confirming that the Play Store gift cards could be hitting their shelves as early as August 26.

That’s the day the gift cards are expected to go on sale. It could happen that Google might officially announce them even before that. We’ll just have to wait and see. Too bad these will only be available in the US for a while.

Source : blog[dot]gsmarena[dot]com

So long, Mr. Popular: Fake Follower Check outs surprising Twitter frauds

The Fake Follower Check application shows how many famous people's follower count has been wildly inflated by spammers and block purchases.

It’s been a bad week for Twitter fans. First, the company hinted that the new Twitter API would break a whole lot of third-party developer’s software. Now, StatusPeople has proven that a whole lot of people’s all-important follower count is fake as @FakeSteveJobs.

StatusPeople is a company that makes “social media platforms for business.”  But unlike many companies with that mission statement, it doesn’t just promise to get your business more followers; it helps you figure out how many of your existing followers are spammers, inactive, or otherwise mere social media clutter.  That’s the purpose of their Fake Follower Check, an application that runs a follower list through a set of spam criteria. FFC mostly looks for followers who have few or no followers or tweets, but follow a lot of people themselves.  It’s not exactly a bulletproof algorithm – will no one hear the silence of social media’s introverts – but it’s not bad as a quick and dirty review system.  

Things get more interesting when you run Fake Follower Check on other people’s follower lists. A clever reporter at Business Insider decided to run some Twitter-loving celebrities through the FFC, and discovered that pop stars like Justin Bieber and Lady Gaga have follower lists that are 45 to 48 percent fake, President Barack Obama’s follower list is about 41 percent phony, and Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has a follower list that’s 22 percent spammers.  Over at Metafilter, user crunchland decided to check for both fake and inactive accounts on the follower lists of prominent right-wing political figures, and discovered that not only were the faker numbers high, but Michelle Malkin, Rush Limbaugh, and Barack Obama all had more fake and inactive followers than real people.

All of this would be nothing more than drive-by schadenfreude if not for the fact that many media outlets, celebrities, politicians and corporations use follower counts as a measure of their real-world success.  When Newt Gingrich was trying to convince the press that his presidential candidacy wasn’t just a scheme to get casino billionaires to buy him lunch, he pointed to his follower count as proof of his grassroots popularity, only to be accused of buying that count. Similar accusations have been lobbed at Mitt Romney, whose follower list included a number of users whose only presence online was a page offering to increase your Twitter following for a modest charge. 

Why would anyone pay for a bunch of fake followers?  First and foremost, because it leads to real followers. Jason Rundle, at PR Daily, tried buying a block of 1,000 fake followers to see if it would affect his real follower count, and was depressed to find that “my new, lifeless flock convinced other real people that the profile was popular and influential.”  That kind of increase can have real consequences when a high follower count can bring Hollywood agents and major publishers to your virtual door, reasoning that anyone with that many followers must have a built-in fan base.  Even Saudi clerics are taking an official position on the ethics of buying fake followers; as with most things Saudi clerics take a position on, they think it’s bad.

The practice of paying people to simulate popularity predates Twitter, the Internet, and the English language.  Long before the Roman Empire, rich men would hire professional mourners to follow their funeral trains making a great show of weeping to convince bystanders of their noble character.  The practice was so common that the Greek legislator Solon banned it in 6th century B.C., though it remained both frequent and frequently banned well into the 19th century. On a similar but more cheerful note, the word “claque”, today used to refer to a politician’s advocates, originated in early 19th century France, when professional agencies would arrange for crowds of any paid-for size to come cheer your theatrical or operatic performance, a useful service in the days when riots would often break out over who had the bigger audience.  So while buying followers may be a sleazy way to get donations, press attention, and ego gratification, it is at least a charming outbreak of traditionalism in the new media world.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Next version of uTorrent to include “featured torrents” as a form of advertising

The makers of popular BitTorrent client µTorrent have announced some changes that they will be making in the upcoming version of the application and how they plan on monetizing it.

So far, the free version of µTorrent offered to install toolbars during installation and that was the only source of revenue for the developers from the free version. The next version of µTorrent, however, will include something called “featured torrents”.

Featured torrents will be sponsored torrents that will appear at the top of your torrent list. These will usually be to content such as movies, music, games, software, etc. Of course, all of this will be genuine and offered directly by their respective owners. This is supposed to help encourage people to download genuine content and at the same time act as a source of income for µTorrent developers.

The featured torrents will only appear in the free version of the client and not in the Pro version.

For more information, click on the source link below.

Source : blog[dot]gsmarena[dot]com