New Facebook features cause privacy concerns

Tuesday, 27 September 2011 17:00
Jessica Guynn / Los Angeles Times

SAN FRANCISCO—Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said its new features create “frictionless sharing.”

 

But they are causing friction with some users and consumer groups.

Facebook unveiled last week services that make it easier for its 800 million users to share more information about themselves and their lives online. The social-networking service showed off a dramatic redesign of users’ profiles, a timeline that charts in chronological order all the information users have shared in the past. Facebook also said that third-party applications would—with users’ consent—automatically share every action users take, such as the songs they listen to or the videos they watch.

Privacy watchdogs are urging the Federal Trade Commission to look into the new features that they say push users to share more than they may feel comfortable sharing.

Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the watchdog group Electronic Privacy Information Center, which has criticized Facebook in the past, said he was sending a letter to the FTC pressing his organization’s concerns, which he says the agency has so far failed to address.

“It’s getting really difficult to evaluate the changes that Facebook makes, and I say that as a privacy professional. I can’t imagine what the typical user goes through,” Rotenberg said. “Users might opt in to what Facebook is planning to do, but Facebook never gives users that option. It just marches forward and users have to go along.” Facebook did not respond to a request for comment. An agency spokesman declined to say if the FTC is investigating Facebook. The FTC does not discuss investigations unless the subject of an inquiry discloses the investigation, she said.

Privacy watchdogs aren’t the only ones who say Facebook is stripping away its users’ privacy. Writer Ben Barr of technology blog Mashable in a blog post said, “We’re at the point of no return.”

“Facebook’s passive sharing will change how we live our lives. More and more, the things we do in real life will end up as Facebook posts,” Parr wrote. “And while we may be consoled by the fact that most of this stuff is being posted just to our friends, it only takes one friend to share that information with his or her friends to start a viral chain.”

Facebook says it gives users the ability to control the privacy of their personal information. And it has taken recent steps to give users even greater control.

But it continues to be dogged by privacy concerns as it taps users’ information to better target advertising. Advertising sales make up most of the income for Facebook, which is preparing for a highly anticipated initial public offering next year.

With Internet companies gathering huge volumes of personal information, lawmakers and regulators in the US and Europe have stepped up scrutiny.

In March, Google settled with the FTC, which had accused the Internet search giant of engaging in deceptive practices with the rollout of the social-networking service called Buzz. Google agreed to put in place a privacy program and to be audited by a third party every other year. Over the summer, Google launched another social-networking service, Google+, which is seen as a credible competitor to Facebook.

Spotify and other third-party applications are already being made available to Facebook users. The redesign of users’ profiles will roll out in coming weeks.

As consumers tried to digest the latest Facebook changes, another concern emerged: Blogger Nik Cubrilovic accused Facebook of using cookies to track users when they are logged off from the service.

Facebook engineer Gregg Stefancik denied that the company tracked users in a comment on Cubrilovic’s blog post. Stefancik said that Facebook alters—but does not delete—cookies when users log out. But he says Facebook does that as a safety measure and does not use the cookies to track users or sell their personal information.

In a statement, Facebook said the logged-out cookies are used to identify spammers and phishers and detect when an unauthorized person is trying to access a user’s account, among other things.

Tim Whitlock, chief technology officer and co-founder of Brandfeed, a company that helps promote brands, said users should think through the consequences of sharing personal information on Facebook.

“Most people understand that sites like Facebook are free to use for a reason. It’s not because Mark Zuckerberg loves you, it’s because Facebook and its peers make money from your data and from your eyeballs,” Whitlock wrote. “We need to start thinking beyond what our data is currently used for...and wonder what else the information we hand over today might be used for tomorrow.” 

http://www.businessmirror.com.ph/home/life/17085-new-facebook-features-cause-privacy-concerns

Investors pour $85 million into Tumblr

Agence France-Presse

10:26 am | Tuesday, September 27th, 2011 

 

Logo taken from
HTTP://WWW.THUMBLR.COM

SAN FRANCISCO—Tumblr on Monday announced a fresh round of funding that poured $85 million into the fast-growing online service for sharing pictures, videos, written musings and other digital snippets.

Greylock Partners and Insight Venture Partners led the investment round, which included infusions of cash from Peter Chernin’s investment business and English billionaire Sir Richard Branson.

The money will be used to ramp-up the service founded in New York City by David Karp in 2007.

“Tumblr has grown into a revolutionary service for self-expression that is changing the social landscape around the world,” said Deven Parekh of Insight.

“We’re excited to be a part of the future of the company, and to include Tumblr among our list of investments that, like Twitter and Flipboard, are fundamentally changing the social paradigm on the Web,” he said.

The number of Web pages viewed monthly at Tumblr has rocketed to 13 billion from two billion at the start of the year, according to Karp.

The approximately 30 million blogs at Tumblr generate more that 40 million posts daily, according to the microblogging service.

“From the early users signing up to easily share all of the things they cared about, to the global community today… it’s been a remarkable four years,” Karp said.

The staff at Tumblr has grown to 50 from 15 in the early days and the startup is working on “our biggest project to date,” Karp said, without divulging details.

“It’s amazing how quickly it’s become part of the fundamental infrastructure of the Web,” Greylock partner John Lilly said of Tumblr.

“We see some of the same early dynamics in Tumblr that led us to invest in Facebook, Pandora, and LinkedIn, so are very excited to add Tumblr to that list.”

http://technology.inquirer.net/4611/investors-pour-85-million-into-tumblr/
 

The future of computer displays

By: Charles E. Buban
Philippine Daily Inquirer

7:43 pm | Sunday, September 25th, 2011 

For this writer who started working with a monochrome cathode ray tube computer monitor—also known as the green screen—a color CRT device would be a welcome replacement even though it soon could become obsolete itself due to advancements in display technology.

Devices that utilize light emitting diodes and liquid crystal displays are based on LCD technology to create the image we see.

But LCDs need a light source because these devices do not emit any light. Thus, LCDs act as shutters, blocking out a portion of the spectrum of light produced by the light source.

Manufacturers call this the backlight.

It is this backlighting that diff�rentyates the two: While an LCD uses cold cathode fluorescent lamps (CCFLs) for illumination, an LED display, on the other hand, uses white diodes that are not only located behind the LCDs but also along the edges of the screen.

Superior

Like CCFLs, LEDs are bulb-like devices that emit visible light when an electric current passes through them. But according to manufacturers, the light shed by an LED is much superior and tends to significantly enhance the picture quality produced by an LCD screen.

Moreover, manufacturers claim that LEDs do not burn out easily and may withstand more than 100,000 hours of usage. These devices use up a lot less of electricity and may last even longer than CCFLs.

Recently, AOC came out with its 21.5-inch LED widescreen monitor (e2243Fw) touted to be the next stage of computer display evolution.

The e2243Fw that was lent to me by AOC was a sight to behold. At P9,090, the monitor is just half an inch thick (12mm) and weighs only 2.5 kg. Best of all, it takes up very little tabletop space.

Minimalist

The front bezel and bottom half of the stand are black. Everything else is pretty much white. That minimalist design will blend well with most work stations.

The quality of the plastic shell is a bit on the flimsy side but, as fragile as the monitor appears to be, the e2243Fw is sturdy enough to withstand shocks.

The monitor is easy to set up since a quick start poster is provided, showing you how to snap the monitor’s post in place. After that, you only have to connect the power cord and VGA cable. A DVI cable is also included.

The power and menu buttons are located at the base and are touch sensitive, lighting up even before you touch them.

Brighter, sharper

Despite the limitations of my video card, the e2243Fw display is brighter and even sharper than most LCD screens I see at the office.

While this image quality is debatable as newer LCD displays in the market also boast of features that greatly improve image quality, one aspect that cannot be taken for granted is the fact that LED displays, like AOC’s e2243Fw, consume only a fraction of power to produce a similar image or graphic.

While consuming just 25 watts maximum, the e2243Fw still has a power savings mode where the display gets to use up a mere 0.1 watt. Now this is more than enough reason to choose an LED display.

http://technology.inquirer.net/4577/the-future-of-computer-displays/
 

Security firm unveils 2012 anti-virus products

By: Paolo G. Montecillo
Philippine Daily Inquirer

7:41 pm | Sunday, September 25th, 2011

To keep up with evolving computer viruses, top consumer information technology security companies are now relying more and more on “cloud” technology that can deliver real-time protection for clients.

Recently, Kaspersky Labs unveiled its new Internet Security application for 2012.
The company said the new version of its flagship home-user product features a ground-breaking innovation called “hybrid” security protection.

“Kaspersky Lab strives to continually improve the technologies we use in order to successfully counter the ever more complex computer threats that appear daily. That is why Kaspersky Internet Security 2012 and Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2012 feature a whole host of new and improved features,” the company said in a statement.

It said the old way anti-virus programs used to work was by downloading periodic patches to keep its database of known threats. These patches were saved on a user’s hard drive.
But with roughly 35,000 new malicious programs coming out each day, doing it the old way no longer cuts it, the company said.

“There are no signatures for these new threats, meaning innovative methods are required to detect them,” it added.

In the 2012 version of Kaspersky Lab’s home user product, cloud-based technologies—the cutting-edge of antivirus development—have been improved.
By regularly exchanging information between products installed on computers of other users around the world, which become centralized databases in the cloud, the most up-to-date threat information is made available to protect users.

Based on data collected from other users, the company’s central data base can determine the “reputation” of a file downloaded from the Internet.

The new software does the same for Internet addresses to detect sites that may not be safe.

Users will then be shown a file’s threat rating as determined by the Kaspersky Security Network cloud service.

In a separate announcement, Symantec likewise unveiled its new Internet Security program under consumer brand Norton.

It also unveiled the new Norton One security application—a single program that provides security from IT threats for multiple devices.

“Today’s Internet-enabled household relies on multiple devices to communicate, work, shop and play,” Symantec said.

Based on its research, Symantec said an average user has 4.5 devices in one’s household connected to the Internet. These include desktop computers, laptops, tablets and mobile phones.

“All these devices need protection against online threats. But [we need] to provide more than just basic security and must cover the distinct needs of all the household’s connected devices,” the company said.

“Norton One is a one-of-a-kind, new model that will address the security and service challenges that consumers face today.”

http://technology.inquirer.net/4573/security-firm-unveils-2012-anti-virus-products/

Internet use rising in Philippines, says Smart

By: Paolo G. Montecillo
Philippine Daily Inquirer
1:05 am | Monday, September 26th, 2011 

Internet use in the country has been rising since the start of the year, driven by the ever-increasing affordability of smartphones and data usage rates, leading carrier Smart Communications Inc. reported.

In a statement over the weekend, Smart said the amount of data transmitted on its mobile broadband network has grown on the back of the six-fold increase in the use of its Smart Bro dongles since February and the continuing rise in the number of smartphones connected to its network.

The company said this indicates a shift in the habits of the average Filipino cell phone user.

“In just six months we have recorded a tremendous increase in data consumption as evidenced by the spikes in usage,” said Smart chief wireless advisor Orlando B. Vea. “If there are still doubts on where the industry is headed, this should put an end to all speculation”

Blackberry devices continue to account for the majority of smartphones with a 44 percent share.

Devices running on Google’s Android operating system have a 27 percent share but growing at an average of 20 percent a month.

Meanwhile, Smart Bro enjoyed significant growth as usage increased 576 percent from February to August.

Despite this, however, Smart said the maximum speed for the Smart Bro Plug It had been increased while the quality of Internet service had improved.

Speed tests conducted by independent engineering Nesic firm showed that Smart Bro bests the competition by as much as 2.29 megabytes per second.

Smart’s parent firm Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) is currently undergoing a P67-billion expansion of its network as the group prepares for the exponential growth of data and Internet use in the country.

The measures include, among others, the installation of additional fiber-optic cables which connect wireless services to base stations, base stations to the core network, and the core network to international gateways.

“Like the fiber that we eat, fiber optic cables are good for the health of the PLDT network,” the company said.

By the end of 2011, the group plans to have over 56,000 kilometers of fiber cables installed nationwide.

http://business.inquirer.net/21439/internet-use-rising-in-philippines-says-smart

Pinoys on time: 'Juan Time' launched

By Helen Flores (The Philippine Star) 
Updated September 24, 2011 12:00 AM

MANILA, Philippines - The Department of Science and Technology (DOST) launched yesterday the “Juan Time” campaign that aims to promote time-consciousness among Filipinos.

“With Juan Time, Filipino time will come to mean on time and no longer late,” Science Secretary Mario Montejo said.

The DOST’s Science and Technology Information Institute said the campaign was aimed at promoting the nationwide use of Philippine Standard Time (PST). Juan Time is a word play on “One Time,” with “Juan” being the common name for Filipinos.

Montejo urged the public to synchronize all watches with the official time, which can be viewed on the website of the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA), http://www.pagasa.dost.gov.ph.

According to the DOST, “Filipino time” describes the Filipinos’ penchant for starting, or arriving at, events some 15 to 30 minutes later than the set time.

“It has become a notorious habit that, unknown to many, pulls back the country in terms of lost productivity,” the DOST said.

“PST, the country’s official time, sets only one common time in the archipelago’s more than 7,100 islands,” Montejo said.

He said Juan Time reminds Filipinos that keeping to the PST avoids the difficulties of having confusing, unsynchronized time.

The PST was established decades ago under the auspices of PAGASA, an attached agency of the DOST, but was never strictly enforced.

PAGASA has been the country’s official timekeeper since 1978 per Section 6 of Batas Pambansa Blg. 8.

The PST is set via PAGASA’s timing system that consists of rubidium atomic clock, Global Positioning System receiver, time interval counter, distribution amplifier, and a computer. The system automatically calculates its time difference with every satellite within its antenna’s field of view.

To effectively implement the Juan Time campaign, the DOST has partnered with the SM Mall of Asia, Metro Manila Development Authority, SM Supermalls, Nido Fortified Science Discovery Center, Team Manila, Lamoiyan Corp., and Discovery Channel.

http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?articleId=730348&publicationSubCategoryId=63

Philippines: Open data, open government

by Jojo Malig, abs-cbnNEWS.com

Posted at 09/23/2011 10:36 PM | Updated as of 09/24/2011 6:16 AM

 

MANILA, Philippines - The premise is simple -- make government information open to public scrutiny.

President Benigno Aquino is confident that the Philippines' participation in the international Open Government Partnership (OGP) will empower citizens as it will give them better access to information in government's hands.

Aquino, in his speech during the formal launch of the OGP at Google's New York office, said government transparency, accountability, and citizen involvement are needed for poverty alleviation, as well as inclusive and sustainable economic growth.

"The Philippines' participation in the OGP is consistent with our administration's commitment to honest and effective governance," he added. "This is what democracy is all about."

"I believe that it is incumbent on all of us to confidently assert that governments that do things right should have no problem keeping our fellow citizens informed and engaged, and are thus, partners of government in its fundamental task of addressing the needs of the people,"  he said at the "Power of Open" forum. "The result is an empowered citizenry, which is the essential aspiration at the heart of the digital revolution sweeping the globe: where technology liberates the individual and renews a sense of solidarity between the public and private sectors," he said at the "Power of Open" forum.

The Philippines is one of 8 governments and 9 civil society organizations that founded the OGP.

Under the initiative, the United States, Brazil, Mexico, Indonesia, Norway, the Philippines, the United Kingdom and South Africa will announce country action plans with concrete commitments to advance open government domestically. 

The founding governments will also endorse the Open Government Declaration of Principles, which recognizes the value of enhancing transparency, reducing corruption, promoting civic engagement and employing new technology and tools in pursuit of improving lives.

Open government commitments

The Philippines has achieved its initial commitments, according to a draft of the country's action plan presented in the OGP.

The commitments include:

• Mandatory disclosure of budget information
• Transparency in local governance
• Placing the entire corpus of laws and Supreme Court decisions  and Presidential issuances online
• Jumpstarting citizen participation in government through participatory budget processes, and planning
• Partnerships for effective service delivery
• Institutionalizing public accountability
• Results-oriented fiscal management.
• Accountability of government corporations
• Citizen's charters and citizen's report cards
• Revenue integrity
• Performance challenge for local governments
• Leveraging technology and innovation in electronic procurement and precision in targeting social protection beneficiaries
• Digitizing releases from congressional allocations
• Online avenues for public feedback and communication

The Philippines has also made other promises under the OGP.

These include improving transparency of government agencies, promoting access to government information, deepening citizen participation, expanding participatory budgeting, establishing an "empowerment fund," and institutionalizing social audit of public infrastructure projects.

 Other plans are:

•  Harmonizing performance measurement systems in government
• Installing results-oriented budgeting in more agencies
• Increasing compliance with citizen's charters
• Embedding accountability in local governance

Unified Philippine data portal

Under the initiative, the government also wants to maximize technology and innovation by setting up a single portal for government information.

Access to information produced by Philippine government agencies is still limited online.
Some agencies either have outdated data online or have presented it in a way that makes it difficult to collect, analyze, synthesize, and storify.

These include a data journalist's worst nightmare -- figures published on PDFs instead of spreadsheets.

The government's need to improve data content curation and filtering mechanisms can be also compared to what Nicholas Sparks once explained as the difference between situational overload and ambient overload.

He describes situational overload as a "needle-in-haystack problem"  -- you can't find what you want amid the rubbish.

Ambient overload, on the other hand, is having far too much of what you want: a haystack-sized pile of needles, according to Sparks.

The Philippines, if it completes the unified data portal project, will join the ranks of countries that have already created unified open data web sites to distribute a portion of the data they collect.

The websites are data.gov (US), data.gov.uk (UK), data.gov.au (Australia), data.gc.ca (Canada), opendata.go.ke (Kenya), data.norge.no (Norway), and data.overheid.nl (Netherlands).

The World Bank and the United Nations have also established similar unified open data websites.

According to the Philippines' OGP action plan, the government plans to develop the national data portal in 2012 in consultation with stakeholders.

The proposed portal will comply basic open data standards and will also allow citizens to give their feedback on government performance, according to the plan.

Other government plans include the installation of a government integrated financial information management system, improved electronic bidding and procurement, establishment of a National Justice Information System, creation of a national registry of farmers and fisherfolk, electronic transparency for congressional allocations, and interactive fiscal fransparency.


How about the FOI bill?

Critics, however, believe that much still needs to be done with regard to Philippine government fully embracing the global open data movement.

A lawmaker, party-list Rep. Rep. Teddy Casiño, pointed out that the Palace does not even see the Freedom of Information (FOI) bill as a priority.

Casiño, author of House Bill 133, accused Aquino of hampering the enactment of the FOI bill.

He said Aquino didn't even mention the FOI bill in his New York speech.

"He is not showing the whole picture. His credibility will suffer if the FOI bill is not enacted within the year," the lawmaker said. "So my advice to the President is, prioritize the FOI bill, it is about time that he fulfils his promise of transparency and open governance."

http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/insights/09/23/11/philippines-open-data-open-government

Facebook's Zuckerberg unveils revamped profile: Timeline

By Rachel King |
September 22, 2011, 10:39am PDT

Summary: Facebook’s new Timeline redesign of the profile page gives users more control and a chance to look back on everything they’ve ever published on the social network.

If you’ve ever wanted to go way back on your Facebook profile to find a really old post from 2006, now you can much easier than clicking on a link at the bottom forever on end.
Say hello to Timeline. Basically, it’s all of your stories and apps in a new way to express who you are.

The first major announcement at Facebook’s F8 Developers Forum on Thursday morning revolves around what CEO Mark Zuckerberg described as “the heart of the Facebook experience.”

It’s a lot more visual. All of the old basics are there, but in a drastically different presentation than we’ve ever seen before. Yes, there’s the Wall, which Zuckerberg said is “more nicely designed,” as well as visual tiles of core apps (friends, map, likes and photos), and recent activities.

At the core is the namesake of the new layout: the actual timeline. Dating back to 2004 (as well was “way back”), users can scroll instantly (to the point where it made some conference goers a bit dizzy as it scrolled so fast on the big screen) throughout all of their wall posts, photos and more. Basically, the timeline starts with a user’s birthday.

This will also be available on mobile devices.

Timeline can be filtered down to one type of content by clicking on filters (a.k.a. Timeline views). The most intriguing and new filter to the profile is the map, which draws on Facebook Place by showing where you’ve checked-in along with where you lived and worked.

Another new feature is called Reports, which uses a person’s apps and takes content to create a summary of what you’ve been working on elsewhere on Facebook. Of course, this can be broken down by dates too.

Along with the timeline, the most obvious change to Facebook members is going to be the giant “Cover,” which acts like a wallpaper of sorts. Essentially, it’s a giant image that sits at the top of a person’s profile with that user’s normal Facebook profile picture layered on top of the image towards the lower left-hand corner.

“Timeline is a completely new aesthetic for Facebook,” Zuckerberg proclaimed, positing that each profile will be more distinct from the other than ever before.

Looking back, Zuckerberg said, the last five years of social networking have been about getting people signed up and connected with the people in their lives. By now, most people see that social networks are going to be an ubiquitous tool around the world, he added, noting that Facebook nas now seen half a billion users log on in a single day.

Going forward, Zuckerberg argued that the next era is going to be defined by the apps and depth of engagement now possible.

What’s more exciting is all the things that are now possible now that all of these connections are in place.

“Our job is to make this product the best way to share everything you want and the best way to express who you are, Zuckerberg explained.

Timeline will be available to developers starting today, with the beta version launching immediately. Users can sign up for it and it will be rolled out in the coming weeks.

 http://www.zdnet.com/blog/btl/facebooks-zuckerberg-unveils-revamped-profile-timeline/58753

Facebook aiming to take over our lives with media app integration

By Rachel King | September 23, 2011, 3:00am PDT

Summary: Facebook is taking over our lives, one status message from one app at a time.

If you thought Facebook was everywhere before, brace yourself. We’re just scratching the surface of where the social networking is going: world domination.

On Thursday, CEO Mark Zuckerberg introduced the next wave of Facebook’s Open Graph platform, which will basically give way to sharing all sorts of actions and information from different apps and services. Even more basically than that, it will enable Facebook members to share just about anything and everything they are doing online. (Well, at least everything that is appropriate.)

The highlight here is that this is being extended to media and lifestyle apps, such as Netflix, Spotify, The Daily, and Flipboard. Facebook has a whole host of partners, but within a year — you name the app, and these features will probably be available. It’s not exactly the kind of music and movie streaming integration people were possibly expecting, such as an extension of Facebook’s existing in-program rentals from Warner Bros. and other studios down the road.

But, there’s really no escaping Facebook at this point. So if you thought it was annoying when all of those Farmville notifications popped up on your News Feed, just wait. It’s going to get so much more crowded. A peculiar side effect might be that with that much more information being posted on a regular basis, Facebook might see more return visits each day as users want to keep tabs more often.

I will admit there were some examples that caught my attention and favor, which I will likely use when available. For example, there will be direct integration of the Foodspotting app, which will post images and restaurant locations directly to one’s profile — er, Timeline. Sure, it helps define a person’s personality on their Timeline, but in reality, it just helps people show off even more. And isn’t that what Facebook is all about anyway?

The good news is that there are a couple ways to avoid this if you’re not interested in all of this extra information and options. First, you can still choose to ignore certain items and users who post too often. (Come on, we all have someone that we’ve blocked from the News Feed.) Second, you could opt to not participate yourself. None of this stuff is mandatory, so if you see it in an app, just ignore it and move on. Facebook has promised less pop-up notifications and has rewritten them to make them clearer, but time will tell if users really find them less annoying or not.

However, for people who do like to share things often — or even just once in a while and are looking for simpler ways to go about it — then this next step for Open Graph really will benefit. Either way, it will change the way people use and view Facebook — for better or worse.

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/btl/facebook-aiming-to-take-over-our-lives-with-media-app-integration/58813?tag=nl.e539

The Advent of the Global Brain

Chrystia Freeland, Reuters

09/23/2011 | 06:44 PM

Get ready for the global brain. That was the grand finale of a presentation on the next generation of the Internet I heard last week from Yuri Milner.

G8 leaders had a preview of Milner's predictions a few months earlier, when he was among the technology savants invited to brief the world's most powerful politicians in Deauville, France.

Milner is the technology guru most of us have never heard of. He was an early outside investor in Facebook, sinking $200 million in the company in 2009 for a 1.96 percent stake, a decision that was widely derided as crazy at the time. He was also early to spot the potential of Zynga, the gaming company, and of Groupon, the daily deals site.

His investing savvy propelled Milner this year onto the Forbes Rich List, with an estimated net worth of $1 billion. One reason his is not yet a household name is that he does his tech spotting from Moscow, not a city most of us look to for innovative economic ideas.

Milner was speaking in the Ukrainian city of Yalta, at the annual mini-Davos hosted by the Ukrainian pipes baron and art collector Victor Pinchuk (Disclosure: I moderated at the event). What was striking about Milner's remarks was how sharply his tone differed from that of the other participants.

The Americans — among them the economists Lawrence Summers and Paul Krugman — were glum about their country's economic stagnation and its political inability to adopt policies that could end it. The Europeans — a group that included the foreign ministers of Sweden and Poland, and Jurgen Fitschen, who has been named co-chief executive of Deutsche Bank — were worried about the sovereign debt crisis.

Even the Turks and the Indians, whose economies grew more than 8 percent last year, were anxious about uneven development at home, and the threat of economic tsunamis coming from abroad.

Milner's perspective was entirely different. For one thing, at a time when where you sit so often determines where you stand, Milner almost perfectly represents a global technology elite whose frame of reference is planet Earth. He mostly lives in Moscow but has recently purchased a palatial home in Silicon Valley. He addressed the Ukrainian conference by video link from Singapore.

From that vantage point, the most pressing issue in the world today isn't recession and political paralysis in the West, or even the rapid development and political transformation in emerging markets, it is the technology revolution, which, in Milner's view, is only getting started. Here are the changes he thinks are most significant.

• The Internet revolution is the fastest economic change humans have experienced, and it is accelerating. Milner said that 2 billion people are online today. Over the next decade, he predicts that number will more than double.
  
  
• The Internet is not just about connecting people, it is also about connecting machines, a phenomenon Milner dubbed "the Internet of things." Milner said that 5 billion devices are connected today. By 2020, he thinks more than 20 billion will be.
  
  
• More information is being created than ever before. Milner asserted that as much information was created every 48 hours in 2010 as was created between the dawn of time and 2003. By 2020, that same volume of information will be generated every 60 minutes.
  
  
• People are sharing information ever more frequently. The pieces of content shared on Facebook have increased from 140 million in 2009 to 4 billion in 2011. We are even sending more emails: 50 billion were sent in 2006, versus 300 billion in 2010.
  
  
• The result, according to Milner, is the dominance of Internet platforms relative to traditional media. "The largest newspaper in the United States is only reaching 1 percent of the population." he said. "That compares to Internet media, which is used by 25 percent of the population daily and growing."
  
  
• Internet businesses are much more efficient than brick-and-mortar companies. This was one of Milner's most striking observations, and a clue to the paradox of how we find ourselves simultaneously living in a time of what Milner views as unprecedented technological innovation but also high unemployment in the developed West. As Milner said, "big Internet companies on average are capable of generating revenue of $1 million per employee, and that compares to 10 to 20 percent of that which is normally generated by traditional offline businesses of comparable size." As an illustration, Milner cited Facebook, where, he said, each engineer supports 1 million users.
  
  
• Artificial intelligence is part of our daily lives, and its power is growing. Milner cited everyday examples like Amazon.com's recommendation of books based on ones we have already read and Google's constantly improving search algorithm.
  
  
• Finally — and Milner admitted this was "a bit of a futuristic picture" — he predicted "the emergence of the global brain, which consists of all the humans connected to each other and to the machine and interacting in a very unique and profound way, creating an intelligence that does not belong to any single human being or computer."
  

More than most of us, Milner understands that changes in what he calls "the offline world" can have real bite: He lived through the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the politics and economy of Russia today are no cakewalk. But, in a year that has seen the Arab Spring and the threat of the collapse of the euro, Milner's predictions are an important reminder that the most significant revolution may be happening in cyberspace. — Reuters

http://www.gmanews.tv/story/233269/technology/the-advent-of-the-global-brain

Internet as vital as food, water, air —millenials

JM TUAZON, GMA News

09/22/2011 | 04:32 PM

In a revealing study that cements the role of new technologies in people's lives today, it was revealed that Internet now ranks along the same level as air, food and water as basic necessities for millenials.

According to the 2011 Cisco Connected World technology report released Wednesday, four of every five individuals aged 18 to 20 years old consider the Internet as a "fundamental resource" for the human race, with some even saying that it is more important than having a car, dating or partying.

The survey of some 2,800 college students and young professionals across 14 countries also revealed that more than half said they "could not live without the Internet," citing it as an integral part of their lives.

When it all comes down to it, 64 percent of college students they'd rather have an Internet connection than a car, while 40 percent said the Internet is more important than dating, going out with friends, or listening to their favorite music.

"Whereas previous generations preferred socializing in person, the next generation is indicating a shift toward online interaction," the study said. "More than one in four college students globally (27 percent) said staying updated on Facebook was more important than partying, dating, listening to music, or hanging out with friends."

The Cisco report echoes recent studies suggesting how Internet has become a central part of people's lives across the globe. Just recently, a study by the London's Science Museum revealed that people in the UK think the Internet is more important than flushing their toilets or even taking a shower.

The United nations (UN), on the other hand, has gone so far as to declare the Internet as a human right, saying the Internet allows "individuals to exercise a range of human rights, and to promote the progress of society as a whole."

Shunning traditional media

The Cisco report also showed that the Internet is increasingly becoming the primary mode by which millenials access information, with the mobile channel slowly gaining prominence.

At least 66 percent of students and 58 percent of employees cited a mobile device—including laptops, smartphones and tablets—as the "most important technology in their lives."

The study also showed that smartphones are slowly inching ahead of desktops as the "most important" device used daily, at 19 percent and 20 percent, respectively.

Television, while still at the top three of important devices to source information, is steadily declining in appeal, with fewer than one in 10 millenials citing it as the most important device for them.

"As TV programming and movies become available on mobile devices, this downward trend is expected to continue," the study added.

Similarly, the study noted how paper is slowly going the same dead-end route, with only one in 25 millenials citing the newspaper as the most important tool for accessing information.

What's surprising, however, is that one in five students said they have not bought a physical book (excluding textbooks) in a bookstore in more than two years—"or never at all," the study said.

This trend, however, is not lost on stakeholders of the book industry —especially publishers, who have already begun to make the shift toward digital publishing: the University of the Philippines Press, for example, has started digitizing part of their collections for distribution in Amazon's Kindle Book Store. — TJD, GMA News

http://www.gmanews.tv/story/233126/technology/internet-as-vital-as-food-water-air-millenials

Mobile GMail now allows multiple sign-ins

09/22/2011 | 04:50 PM

Smartphone users with more than one Gmail account got a boost from Google, which rolled out this week a new multiple sign-in feature for Gmail for mobile.

Mobile software engineer Dominic Leung said the new features for Gmail in the mobile browser aim to make Gmail users more productive while on the go.

“Just like on your desktop, you can now to sign into multiple accounts simultaneously. To sign into an additional account, click on the account switcher at the bottom of the threadlist, then click ‘Sign into an another account.’ You can quickly switch between accounts by selecting the desired account from the Accounts menu," Leung said in a blog post.

Another new feature is a mobile-specific signature that will let friends know a Gmail user is responding via mobile phone – so they will understand why a message is short or contains typos.

Leung also said the new Gmail for mobile has a vacation auto-responder, just in case one has forgotten to set his or her out-of-office auto-reply before going on a trip.

On the other hand, Leung said Gmail’s multiple sign-in support has updated URLs so that each account can have a separate bookmark.

A separate article on The Next Web noted support for multiple accounts has been around in Gmail for desktop computers. — TJD, GMA News

http://www.gmanews.tv/story/233129/technology/mobile-gmail-now-allows-multiple-sign-ins

With new Windows, Microsoft will show whether it can go mobile

Saturday, 17 September 2011 17:37  
Janet I. Tu / The Seattle Times 

SEATTLE—The next version of Windows is being billed as a radical reinvention of Microsoft Corp.’s flagship operating system—the most extensive overhaul since Windows 95. 

But just as important, it comes at a time when the market has evolved, with computers and mobile computing devices being used in ways vastly different from even a few years before.

It’s a world in which sales of Windows—though still, by far, the most dominant operating system on PCs worldwide—have declined and Microsoft’s competitors have charged ahead on mobile platforms.

Apple Inc. is leading the market in tablets with its iPad, and Google Inc.’s Android and Apple’s iOS operating systems are dominating on smartphones.

With Windows 8, Microsoft has to show that Windows can continue to dominate computing as computing moves to new hardware platforms.

So there’s a lot of interest in Microsoft’s conference this week for developers, called Build, where Windows 8 and other new products are expected to be shown.

Starting Tuesday, developers worldwide will congregate in Anaheim, California, to hear from Microsoft’s top executives, get road maps for the company’s new offerings and attend sessions to help them build for, and work with, Microsoft products.

Here’s what we know about it so far.

QUESTION: How is Windows 8 different from Windows 7 and other previous versions of Windows?

ANSWER: Windows 8—which is still just a code name—is the first version of Windows designed from the beginning to run on both PCs and Web tablets. It will have a touchscreen interface as well as the more traditional mouse-trackpad-keyboard interface.

Aside from the touchscreen interface, which computer makers can choose to incorporate, another noticeable difference will be the start screen, which will use “tiles” instead of icons.

That tile interface, called Metro, is similar to the one now used in Microsoft Windows Phone smartphones. The tiles can include real-time updates from applications and touching or clicking on the tiles launches the apps, which can be Web-powered or Web-connected. The interface should also allow for a faster, more fluid switching between running apps.

Q: Because Windows 8 incorporates touch, will those using Windows 8 on a desktop still be able to use a mouse and keyboard with it?

A: Yes. Microsoft has said that although the new user interface is designed and optimized for touch, it works equally well with a mouse and keyboard.

PC makers will still make desktops and laptops with mouse or trackpad and keyboard.

Windows President Steven Sinofsky said in a post on Microsoft’s “Building Windows 8” blog that users will be able to choose which interface to use: traditional desktop style or the new, tile-based Metro style. And they can switch between the two.

This will definitely apply to PC users. And going by the words of Julie Larson-Green, Microsoft’s corporate vice president of Windows Experience, it may be true for tablets, as well.

“The user interface and new apps will work with or without a keyboard and mouse on a broad range of screen sizes and pixel densities, from small slates to laptops, desktops, all-in-ones and even classroom-sized displays,” she said in a June Microsoft News Center story previewing Windows 8.

Q: Why is Microsoft making this radical a departure in its most well-known product?

A: It’s a step toward what’s called a “unified ecosystem,” where various devices—PC, tablets, phones, TV, game consoles—can all run on one platform.

The idea is that it provides coherence and consistency for the user, who would experience a similar look and feel across different devices.

Theoretically, it also makes it easier on developers—the people who make the products and systems that work with Microsoft’s offerings—to produce one application that could work across different platforms, though applications would still need to be optimized for each different type of device. Microsoft is expected to talk about this at Build.

Other companies are moving toward a unified ecosystem, as well. Apple, for example, did so earlier this year when it came out with OS X Lion, which incorporates more of the touch interface used in its iPad and iPhone.

Q: So will Windows 8 be running on a different platform than previous Windows versions?

A: Windows 8 will run on standard PC hardware, and also on mobile systems based on the small “System on a Chip” (Soc) hardware used in phones and Web tablets.

Computer school raided over alleged pirated software

abs-cbnNEWS.com

Posted at 09/21/2011 2:52 AM | Updated as of 09/21/2011 11:03 AM

MANILA, Philippines – Officials of the National Bureau of Investigation-Intellectual Property Rights Division (NBI-IPRD) conducted a raid at the AMA Computer College, Inc. along the South Luzon Expressway (SLEx) on Tuesday.

Autodesk Systems, Inc. and Adobe Systems, Inc., through Federis and Associates Law Offices, alleged that the school uses pirated software in its computer laboratories, prompting authorities to conduct a raid.
Autodesk is the owner of AutoCAD software while Adobe is the owner of Adobe Photoshop, Adobe CS2, Adobe Premier CS2, Adobe ReaderX, Adobe Premier Pro 2.0 and Macromedia Dreamweaver.

The school will face charges of violating copyright infringment laws under the Republic Act 8293 or the Intellectual Property Code.

Authorities confiscated around 30 computers.

The school’s administration, meanwhile, denied that it is using unauthorized software.

In a press statement, the school said it has “always been compliant with all the IP laws relating to computer software licenses.”

According to Atty. Angel Enrico Mira, corporate secretary of the AMA Education System, the raid was conducted in a “Gestapo-like manner”, adding that “students were threatened, reason why we were forced to suspend classes.”

“Issues on the alleged ‘unauthorized software’ are without basis considering that these are software that can be downloaded through the internet by any student using the internet laboratory, operating similar to any internet café,” the statement said.

The school also accused representatives of the Business Software Alliance (BSA) of coercion.

“Instead of listening to our reasons, the BSA representatives, Attys. Ponce and Poblador, were coercing the company to purchase additional licenses from them amounting to around P100 million. These representatives, in the presence of NBI agents, also declared that our company has to pay NBI agents 20% of whatever settlement we can arrive at. Said acts are tantamount to illegal marketing,” it said. -- Report from Maan Macapagal, ABS-CBN News

http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/nation/metro-manila/09/20/11/computer-school-raided-over-alleged-pirated-software

Google+ social network opens to the world

Agence France-Presse

1:12 am | Wednesday, September 21st, 2011 

SAN FRANCISCO—Google opened its Google+ social network to the world on Tuesday, dropping the need for an invitation to join the Internet giant’s rival to Facebook.

“For the past 12 weeks we’ve been in field trial, and during that time we’ve listened and learned a great deal,” Google senior vice president of engineering Vic Gundotra said in a blog post.

“We’re nowhere near done, but with the improvements we’ve made so far we’re ready to move from field trial to beta… Anyone can visit google.com/+, join the project and connect with the people they care about.”

The announcement came as part of a list of the 10 latest improvements Google is making to the social network it launched in an invitation-only test format on June 28.

Enhancements to Google+ included letting members take part in video-chat “Hangouts” using camera-enabled smartphones or tablet computers, or broadcast video presentations to groups of watchers using “Hangouts On Air.”

Google said it has also woven its Internet search expertise into the social network by adding a query box.

“Google+ is still in its infancy, of course, but we’re more excited than ever to bring the nuance and richness of real-life sharing to software,” Gundotra said.

“Over the next day we’ll be rolling out all of these features globally,” he said.

http://technology.inquirer.net/4359/google-social-network-opens-to-the-world/
 

Google opening smartphone wallets

Agence France-Presse

8:07 am | Tuesday, September 20th, 2011

 

 

SAN FRANCISCO—Google opened its smartphone wallet to the public on Monday.

Shops taking part in the program began letting people pay for purchases with taps of Nexus S 4G smartphones from Sprint.

“With Google Wallet, you can tap, pay and save using your phone and near field communication (NFC),” vice president of payments Osama Bedier said in a blog post at the Internet giant’s website.

Google Wallet uses an NFC chip embedded in a smartphone to allow a user to “tap-and-pay” for purchases at a checkout register equipped with the PayPass system from CitiMasterCard.

“We’ve been testing it extensively, and today we’re releasing the first version of the app to Sprint,” Bedier said.

Wallet software is being sent to Sprint Nexus S 4G phones in the form of an automatic over-the-air update, according to Bedier.

“Simply install the app and the next time you spot one of the more than 300,000 PayPass locations around the globe, you’ll be ready to go,” gdgt.com co-founder Ryan Block said in a blog post at the MasterCard website.

“I’m really excited about taking another step closer to a future where using your portable device to instantly pay is as easy, convenient, and commonplace as making a call from anywhere in the world,” Block said.

Google along with financial partners Citibank and MasterCard and telecom ally Sprint began testing Wallet in May.

Wallet initially works with the Nexus S 4G smartphone from Sprint and will eventually be expanded to more Android phones.

Visa, Discover and American Express made their respective NFC specifications available to Google on Monday so their payment cards could be added to future versions of Wallet, according to Bedier.

“Our goal is to make it possible for you to add all of your payment cards to Google Wallet, so you can say goodbye to even the biggest traditional wallets,” Bedier said.

Customers can also use a Google Prepaid card to pay for purchases, topping up the Google card with any payment card, and take advantage of Google Offers, the Mountain View, California-based company’s online discount coupon program.

Google said Wallet will be accepted at more than 124,000 merchants nationally at launch and more than 311,000 around the world.

NFC technology is being tested or used in a number of countries already, notably France, but Wallet will be the first to bring it to the United States on a potentially large scale.

Stephanie Tilenius, Google’s vice president for commerce and payments, has described Google Wallet as the “next generation of mobile commerce.”

“We’re building an open commerce ecosystem that for the first time will make it possible for you to pay with an NFC wallet and redeem consumer promotions all in one tap, while shopping offline,” Tilenius said.

In addition to allowing for mobile payments, Google Wallet allows consumers to pay using gift cards and to redeem promotions such as discounts or coupons.

Google is defending itself against a lawsuit filed by eBay and PayPal charging the Internet giant tapped into the online financial transaction service’s know-how for the mobile payments project.

http://technology.inquirer.net/4343/google-opening-smartphone-wallets/

Speeds of Smart Bro Plug-It, Pocket Wifi increased 70%

Monday, September 19, 2011

SMART Broadband, Inc. (Smart Bro) has increased the maximum speeds of its portable products by as much as 70 percent. Smart Bro Starter Plug-It users can now experience speeds of up to 3.6Mbps (up from 2.0Mbps) while Power Plug-It and Pocket WiFi users can experience speeds of up to 5Mbps (up from 3.6Mbps) at no extra cost, the company said in a press statement.

According to Smart Broadband Internet and Data Services Head Giovanni Bacareza, the increase in download speeds is a result of Smart and parent company PLDT’s (Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co.) continuing network upgrades.

“Our Starter and Power Plug-Its are now able to reach such speeds thanks to the billions we’ve invested in improving our network,” said Bacareza. “Our customers have attested to this improvement and even third party entities have verified that fact.”

Bacareza refers to the recent round of speed tests conducted by independent engineering firm NESIC Philippines, Inc., which showed that Smart Bro’s connection speeds beat the competition with an average of 0.74Mbps.

NESIC’s tests were conducted in 100 sites across the country and were held during various times of the day.

PLDT and Smart’s network upgrades are scheduled to continue until 2013. A total of P67.1 billion has been earmarked for the endeavor, which includes the upgrading and installation of network elements such as cell sites, fiber optic cables, and international gateways.

“It’s easy to say that you have the fastest devices and the fastest wireless connection speeds, but if you don’t have a solid infrastructure working in the background, you can’t deliver quality service to your subscribers,” said PLDT and Smart Technology Group Head Rolando G. Peña.

The Smart Bro Starter Plug It (P995),the Smart Bro Power Plug-It (P1,245), and Smart Bro Pocket WiFi (P3,895) are available in all Smart Wireless Centers and in leading electronics stores nationwide.

The company is also offering various prepaid load and pricing schemes from P10 per 30 minutes of use to P200 for five days unlimited surfing.

Also available from Smart is the 4G HSPA+ Smart Bro Rocket Plug-It (P3,995), which is capable of speeds of up to 12Mbps. (PR)
 

Published in the Sun.Star Cebu newspaper on September 20, 2011.

http://www.sunstar.com.ph/cebu/business/2011/09/19/speeds-smart-bro-plug-it-pocket-wifi-increased-70-180251

 

Google, Intel engage in tag-team tech play

By: Raquel P. Gomez
Philippine Daily Inquirer

10:14 pm | Sunday, September 18th, 2011 

 

INTEL INNOVATIONS Intel CEO Paul Otellini, holds up
a Google Android phone running on an Intel chip
during the keynote address at the Intel Developer
Forum in San Francisco, Tuesday, Sept. 13, 2011. AP
Photo/Paul Sakuma

SAN FRANCISCO—A Windows PC desktop powered by a solar cell the size of a postage stamp, several devices that share display contents such as video, photo and notifications seamlessly, a communication tablet that may replace your traditional phone in the office, and Google’s Android OS finally getting into Intel’s space—these are what’s in store for consumers, Intel said during the Intel Developer Forum here.

Over the past several years, Intel has been expanding into the mobile devices space, which is growing more rapidly than personal computers.

Intel’s partnership with Google, whose Android is now the most widely used mobile operating system, is expected to accelerate the Santa Clara-based chipmaker’s stalled presence in the smartphone and tablet space.

Intel president and CEO Paul Otellini said smartphones powered by Intel’s Atom chips and running on Android OS would be available in the first half of next year.

The two tech titans will work together to optimize future versions of Android for Intel’s family of low-power Atom processors. This means that future versions of the Android platform will support Intel technology, in addition to other architectures.

“Combining Android with Intel’s low power smartphone roadmap opens up more opportunity for innovation and choice,” said Andy Rubin, senior vice president at Mobile at Google. “This collaboration will drive the Android ecosystem forward.”

According to Otellini, “by optimizing the Android platform for Intel architecture, we bring a powerful new capability to the market that will accelerate more industry adoption and choice.”

Intel’s demo of a desktop powered by a postage-sized solar cell reaffirms the company’s effort to reduce not only the size of microprocessors but also its power consumption.

Intel’s processor roadmap has now gone into the 22 nm microarchitecture technology with the introduction of thin notebooks called “Ultrabooks.”

The devices are ultrathin powerful notebooks capable of all-day computing with a single battery charge. The Ultrabook also offers 10 days of connected standby battery life.
The device is powered by Intel’s next-generation microprocessor called “Haswell” and it will hit the shelves next year.

Otellini said the Haswell project is a result of the company’s obsession with power reduction.

He predicted the microprocessor platform power innovation will reach levels that are difficult to imagine today.

Open source gaining in PHL - House ICT chair

09/17/2011 | 08:59 PM

Adoption of open source software by government agencies, business and other sectors bodes well for pending legislation on open source, according to Representative Sigfrido R. Tinga, chairman of the House committee on information and communication technology (ICT).

Tinga, told GMA News Online Saturday at the Software Freedom Day program at the University of Santo Tomas (UST), that "government is not usually an innovator when it comes to technology," but he assured that his committee will act on ICT measures.

Tinga said it is only a matter of time before open source technology gains wide acceptance in the country. He added that some technology solutions being offered these days could soon be rendered obsolete by open source.

In the House, the only measure filed about free and open source software (FOSS) is House Bill 1011 of Bayan Muna Partylist Representative Teddy A. Casiño. The counterpart in the other chamber of Congress is Senate Bill 2821 of Senator Manuel B. Villar.

"The government will continue to be dependent on proprietary and foreign software technologies unless it actively supports FOSS initiatives and gives preference to the use of FOSS in institutions," said Rick Bahague, national coordinator of the Computer Professionals’ Union, also at the Software Freedom Day activities in UST.

Executive branch initiatives

Last July, Budget Secretary Florencio Abad said the Aquino administration is seriously considering adopting open source technology, especially because of the potential for significant cost savings.

Trade Secretary Gregory Domingo has taken on the task of studying the open source matter further.

In his budget message for the proposed 2012 General Appropriations Act, President Beningo Aquino III said his administration has “focused P2.9 billion to support major ICT projects that promote transparency and accountability in government operations and more responsive front line services."

Aquino enumerated major ICT projects of the Bureau of Customs, Bureau of Internal Revenue, Department of Environment and Natural Resources, the Supreme Court, Commission on Elections, and the government procurement system. However, the budget message did not mention any software policy or ICT subscriptions plan of government.

ICT strategic plan

Included in the Philippine Digital Strategy 2011 – 2016 is an entry espousing the creation and promotion of “open source applications for national government agencies and local government units where appropriate and provide appropriate training."

The agency that presented the master plan, the Commission on Information and Communications Technology (CICT), was abolished shortly after the plan was unveiled and what remained of the agency was placed in an ICT office under the Department of Science and Technology.

Science Secretary Mario Montejo has assured that his agency adopted the Philippine Digital Strategy. — ELR, GMA News

http://www.gmanews.tv/story/232709/technology/open-source-gaining-in-phl-house-ict-chair

The Great Debate: Is 'Post-PC' Era Bunk or Legit?

No post-PC era vs Pro post-PC era

Opening Statements

Post-PC era is bunk

Zack Whittaker: This just in: The PC is not dead. I'll concede that the mouse is making its way to the scrap heap---along with the USB flash drive and DVDs. However, the QWERTY-keyboard reigns as the all-mighty technology. No tablet, iPad or smartphone can take the QWERTY away from us. Touch-keyboards are terrible for writing essays or lengthy word documents, and smartphones only work if you have dainty hands. The traditional PC is not dead---it's just evolving. We see them in offices, homes, Internet cafes, and for good reason. They remain the 'base' device we use to make things happen -- whether it's CAD drawing for engineers or PhotoShop for designers.

All this "post-PC era" talk is bunk. The iPad isn't a PC, and never will be. While Jason thinks in MIPS, beeps and chips, he's delusional about the post-PC era. If we adopted his view today, we'd be blinded by shiny objects and suffer from plunging productivity. Even worse, we'd be saddled with "post-PC junk."

Post-PC era is here already

Jason Perlow: We are living in the beginning of what Steve Jobs called the "post-PC" age. But what does "post-PC" actually mean? Tablets such as the iPad, and other light computing devices, are going to replace the PC. I'd argue that the post-PC era encompasses a broad set of technologies that will eventually kill the PC as we know it today.

What do I mean? The x86 platform---30 years old this month---is toast. Speed, storage, graphics and I/O have all improved, but we're on an architecture not much different than the original 5150 PC. The PC architecture---hatched at IBM and turned into a standard by Wintel---is almost certainly in its final decade in the consumer space. We have entered a post-PC era and that means the x86 is going extinct. Personal computing won't disappear, but the PC as we know it will. The platforms delivering the post-PC era---ARM, tablets, smartphones, cloud computing---will bear no resemblance whatsoever to the PC. I guarantee it.

The Rebuttal

Summary: The debaters have presented their rebuttals and closing arguments. Voting closes 2pm ET / 11am PT Thursday, when moderator Larry Dignan delivers his verdict.

http://www.zdnet.com/debate/the-great-debate-is-post-pc-era-bunk-or-legit/6293524