‘We can hear you having sex’: Messages to neighbors via Wi-Fi network names a growing trend, report says

An increasing number of computer users setting up Wi-Fi in their homes are reportedly sending out messages to annoying neighbors via their wireless network names.

The creation of the Internet has meant that the options are now vast for those people who’d rather not use their vocal cords to communicate with another person, preferring instead to engage in more indirect methods of communication – they can, for example, send an email, an instant message, an SMS, or a text. Communicating through the name of your wireless network can also be added to the list, a method which is a fast-growing trend, according to a BBC report on the subject.

When someone sets up a wireless network at home, they’re prompted to give it a name so it can be easily identified. That name will be seen by anyone within range who searches for a wireless network using a computer or mobile device.

In most cases, these names are nothing out of the ordinary, something like “Bob1” or “mycomputer123”. However, recently more and more people are using their network names to send out messages to neighbors.

According to the BBC, many of the names relate to noisy neighbor issues. “Stop wearing heels”, “Stop slamming the door” and simply “shut up” are listed as examples. Perhaps these are the work of desperate people for whom a polite face-to-face request failed, or maybe they simply tremble at the thought of direct confrontation with their noisy neighbor.

Sex, or noisy sex, is also the subject of some network names. “We can hear you having sex” is a common one, while “Stop having so much sex” is also listed.

Naming networks in this manner is the digital equivalent of sticking an anonymous note into the mailbox of whoever’s causing offense, except that this way the offender won’t necessarily know it’s him or her being targeted (unless the network name includes a house or apartment number – or even the person’s name). Also, the offender needs to be fiddling about with their wireless settings in order to see the list of nearby networks, something they most likely don’t often do.

So, no, it certainly won’t ever be the most effective form of communication, though for many it is, one assumes, a bit of fun and an additional way of trying to get their message across.

Seen any interesting network names in your neighborhood recently? Got a good one yourself?

[Image: Pavel Ignatov / Shutterstock]

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

This new startup wants to inject some Ooomf into the App Store

Ooomf launches its app discovery and creation platform, a place to participate and curate app products and collections. Take that, App Store.

The app market has become a very important one, and it comes down to numbers: As of May, 50.4 percent of Americans used smartphones, according to a Nielson report; we’re seeing new statistics on how they invade our personal lives; both the Google Play Marketplace and iOS App Store are well beyond the 20 billion download mark at this point; and, perhaps most telling, using a smartphone to make a call comes in as the fifth most popular function — most of it is spent using apps.

Suffice it to say that apps are big business.

Singular app developers aren’t the only ones who’ve noticed the trend, and a new wave of app creation and management platforms are hitting the scene to help with monetization as well. And that includes newly launched Canadian import, Ooomf.

The Montreal-based Ooomf began as a Startup Weekend pitch that pivoted during the team’s time in an accelerator program. “We had two major evolutions,” founder Mikael Cho tells me. “The first idea was to help people market their products online with influencers, and we saw that what we were doing with that was incremental, and not a big change. We had feedback from our users and we started thinking about our backgrounds in user experience and design and marketing, and thinking about the problems we could really solve there. So we started thinking about mobile and we saw that our expertise really aligned with mobile.”

The other piece of Ooomf’s evolution was nailing down the specifics of how it would help app developers. So for starters, the service creates a Website for its users. “One of the things they had to do in getting their app out there was make a site, because Apple requires it,” says Cho. “And we were like “oh, okay, right away, we’ll do that for you.’” He describes the process as incredibly simple — we’re talking Tumblr simple, people — and says it takes less than a minute to have your app’s Web landing page up and running. Sure, it’s a little thing, but it’s an effective one; the caliber of an app’s proprietary page is sort of like a book cover — we’re not supposed to judge it, but lots of us most certainly do.

As the team has refined the product, it’s added a community element to Ooomf. “We allow people to participate in the creation of an app,” says Cho. “So if you have an idea or a prototype or a design, you can put it on Ooomf and let the community vote on features and participate in it.” Crowdsourcing leaves no stone untouched, and that’s quickly including app creation. There are a handful of companies pre and post-launch who are doing this exact thing, though using a variety of mechanisms to encourage audience participation. But the idea remains the same: Everyone has an app idea, and this is a place to put them.

The other beast of a problem Ooomf is tackling is app discovery. If you haven’t noticed, the consumer and developer world largely hates the App Store’s feeble attempts at showcasing apps and helping us find new ones. In addition to supporting and participating in app creation, users can also make their own curated app catalogs. “You identify as a creative, or a traveling nomad, or a hustling innovator, and we have different apps in each category,” Cho tells me. “But the entire idea is to be a part of the whole life cycle of an app, from idea to creation.” Ooomf also offers a “Coming Soon” category to help with discovery of upcoming apps — something that developers fear in the App Store: If you don’t crack the top on your debut day, you can sink fast and furiously.

Apple’s lack of App Store discovery upgrades has been a boon to teams like Ooomf: It’s basically ceded an entire platform to outsiders. Of course, we now have word that Apple is about to flip a switch and turn Genius on for the App Store, and that some of that Chomp acquisition will finally be making its debut. I asked Cho if there’s any fear on Ooomf’s part about this, and he seems to feel the way that I do about it: Too little, too late. He also mentions that Apple’s App Store algorithms still allow the Ooomf team to offer something useful.

At the moment, everything on Ooomf is free, and will remain so for pure users. Cho says that within the year, paid-for features will be introduced on the developer-side and it will either be based on the number of apps someone is making or the numbers of things they use Ooomf to help them do. He also talks about working with developers on incentivizing user participation — offer people early beta testing or future discounts on in-app purchases if they were there from day one.

Clearly, Ooomf’s strategy is to give developers a stage — which is surprisingly becoming tricky territory these days. “I definitely think it’s important to really cater to developers. You’ve seen with Twitter the massive growth that occurred because, yes, there were users, but because every developer was building a Twitter client or something for the application,” Cho says. “There was so much open data and Twitter was able to grow massively because of that.”
“Eventually, we’ll have our own data and open our own API, and we’ll use the App.net approach.”

Today, Ooomf is available via Web and also has optimized its site for mobile. The iOS app will launch this November. 

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com