Facebook charging users?

Facebook is going public on the stock market but what does it mean to you and me, the people that use facebook?

Up until now, Facebook seems to have been doing OK in making money but do you know where that money comes from?

It is the advertising you see in the margins. But how do those ads make so much money? Facebook rakes in a lot of revenue and those ads are nothing special. They are tiny right? How could anyone make so much money on such a tiny part of a screen?
They key is in showing the right advertising to the right people. Ever notice how most of the ads seem to be related to the things you like or the things you are talking about? Ever wonder how the facebook machine seems to know what you like? Facebook has access to your personal information that you share with your friends, family and aquaintances and uses it to make sure you see ads that could mean the most to you.

Imagine that I want to sell something and I want to advertise it on facebook. As a business owner I know what my most valuable customer will look like. I know what age range, gender, location and interests my best customers have and I want to get more of those ideal customers.
When I advertise on facebook, I specify which people I want to show my ads to. I don’t pay for my ads to be shown to people that do not fit my demographic. My advertising campaign instantly becomes more valuable to me because it is efficient and as a result I will pay a little extra to be exposed to the people that matter to me.
That is how Facebook manages to make more money per view or “impression” than other websites that do not target their advertising slots as tightly as facebook does.

Now, we see facebook go public. Facebook now has a new set of owners it has to keep happy to maintain it’s value. Surely it will have to charge us to keep making money. What would you do if facebook started charging a monthly rate or a couple of cents every time we made a status update. Would you stick around? I know I wouldn’t.
Let’s take a step back and look at what makes facebook so valuable. Sure they get money from advertising but why? Tightly focussed campaigns? Sure. But what good is a tight campaign if you only show it to a couple of hundred people instead of a couple of million? It loses it’s value very quickly. Facebook would risk losing millions of users if it was to start charging for access and every user is advertising dollars. In short we are the product that facebook is selling to advertisers.
So where can facebook start making more money? The answer is closer than you think. If you have a smart phone or tablet have a look at facebook with that device now. What do you not see? Advertising.

Mobile advertising in facebook is the next big thing and more people access facebook on their phones and tablets than pretty much other way. This is a massive opportunity for facebook and is perfectly timed with this IPO to give the investors some revenue growth to look forward to. As for future projects we have rumors around a Facebook branded phone and we could see facebook included in other devices such as televisions and other appliances as they get smarter.

In all, the Facebook IPO looks well-timed and there is plenty of opportunity for further growth. Facebook’s immediate future for now looks pretty bright and it is now sharing the ride with public investors. My only regret is not getting my hands on some of these shares.

Disclaimer : I am only an observer, I am not a financial expert – trust me! This is in no way a recommendation for you to buy or sell anything. I am not a financial adviser.

New file in 6PR Recordings

I have uploaded the latest recording of this mornings show for those that might have missed it. iPhone and iPad users should also be able to listen to the latest recording by clicking here.

6PR Tech Hour May 16, 2012

ACCC takes a G off the new iPad

Looks like Apple has decided it has better things to do with its legal fund than fight the ACCC and it has dropped any reference to 4G, LTE and Wimax in its Australian stores and advertising relating to the latest iPad.
Because Australian (and European) networks operate on different frequencies to the US and Canadian carriers Apple’s claims of access to network faster than 3G services are not valid. 4G/LTE simply does not work in Australia and as a result, the ACCC has ordered Apple to clarify.
Unlike other Apple legal battles, this was over in a comparative blink of the eye.
See the full ZDnet story here. http://www.zdnet.com/blog/london/apple-gives-in-ipad-3-drops-82164g-tag-to-avoid-lawsuits/4683

Game Over for Game.com.au?

On Monday the Australian game retailler Game appointed Price Waterhouse Coopers as administrators as the retail chain determines its future. Right on top of the highly anticipated release of Diablo III! This is bad timing as pre-orders are now in doubt and could put extra pressure on the administrators. This thins the field of retail competitors to one specialist player, EB Games with JB HiFi, Harvey Norman, Retravision and others fighting it out for remaining share. Even with the assumed backing from the GAME Europe business it seems as though GAME Australia could not get enough market share from the EB Games as well as online alternatives.
For the GAME announcement got to their website and for the News.com.au report click here.

Anonymous stakes claim on all of US data.

In an interview with Postmedia News, Chris Doyon a hacker with links to the organisation has indicated that members of the hacker collective have access to the world’s most powerful secrets. Going along the logic that the world is now controlled by information that is no longer under physical lock and key instead it is flying about the world as 0′s and 1′s. It is only a matter of time according to Doyon that this information will be released to the public and potentially spells trouble for the current perceived powerbrokers in Government and the corporate worlds. This goes back to last week’s discussion regarding how control of information can have a big impact on the balance of power and can be demonstrated by how laws regarding cross media ownership are applied to big players in the media sector. Full story here.

Review : Sniper Elite V2 misses the mark

Following the hype surrounding Rebellion/505 Games latest game Sniper V2 Elite I decided to have a look at this controversial title. Christian groups are calling for the banning of the title due to extremely graphic content. The content in question is when you successfully shoot an enemy the gameplay slows to “Bullet Time” showing the bullet leaving the barrel of your rifle, travelling to the target and then meeting its target. This part of gameplay can either show the bullet passing through the body or switch to an “x-ray” view showing the passage of the bullet through organs and bones. Sadly this seems to be where most of the effort has gone as the enemy AI (the way the enemy reacts to your actions) is simple and overall gameplay/finish does not measure up to other shooter heavyweights like Call of Duty, Battlefield 3 and Modern Warfare to name a few.
If you like the original Sniper title or the genre then you might enjoy this game. If you are more for the classic combat simulator/shooter then you will find this title is really not for you. That said, the title deserves an R18+ rating but has somehow scraped in as MA15+ for the time being.

New Macbook Pro tipped to be announced soon

Apple’s portable powerhouse the Macbook Pro is expected to get a bump in specifications according to leaked performance reports which indicate that MBP will be running Intel’s latest architecture code named Ivybridge and sporting a display similar to the Retina Display we see on the new iPad and latest iPhone. I like the expected quality of this display and the thought of using next generation electronics promises performance and excellent battery life. How these new models will physically compare to the current stable is only speculation but insiders are tipping that the new MBP will look more like the Macbook Air.
Check the story here.

Google makes drivers obsolete in Nevada – kinda.

Google has successfully licensed its mini fleet of autonomous cars with a few special conditions. These cars are allowed loose on the Nevada roads but only if they have a person in the drivers seat and the front passenger seat in case things go pear-shaped. The license plates are also red making the cars easy to identify on the road. This is a step forward in testing but the real test will be when the cars are driving about on normal plates as I think having other drivers around the car know that it is autonomous may change their behavior. Engadget has a short report here.

Warning : Lenovo all-in-one PC’s are hot.

No really, they can start a fire and I am not speaking metaphorically. Lenovo has extended it’s previous voluntary recall of the M70z and M90z desktops.

A defect within the internal power system which has the potential to overheat and cause a fire has extended to cover an additional 500 units. If you have a M70z or M90z all in one, please visit this page to see if your unit is affected.
All M70z and M90z all-in-one owners are advised to unplug their computers (turning off alone is not recommended) until they have determined that their computer is no longer within the recall batch.

New audio track

Due to some fun with the audio track needing a little extra tweaking to work right, uploading the latest recording from this weeks chat with Chris Ilsley at 6PR was later than I would have liked. The file is now available in the 6PR recordings section or you can stream the file direct from here.

6PR Tech Hour May 8, 2012

Samsung Galaxy S III announced

I have done my own article with my view on the latest and potentially greatest smartphone yet.
Read about it here.

Security pain continues for Apple

Users of OSX Lion (10.7.3) using encryption may be shocked to find that the key used to encrypt the hard drives or files on a hard drive is stored unencrypted on the hard drive. This is like leaving the key to your house under doormat or flowerpot by the front door. This security flaw was discovered (and reported) by a security researcher back in February. Apple is still yet to respond after the story broke to mainstream media under a week ago.
Read the tech crunch article here. At this point, users of 10.7.3 will only be affected if someone manages to gain access to the computer with a view to access the data. This would be an excellent time to make sure you know where your computer is at all times and check to see if your Java is up to date.

Opinion – Samsung Galaxy S III

Dislaimer : I have not had the pleasure of actually laying my hands on the Galaxy S III so everything you are about to read is based on industry reviews and a little bit of my own speculation based on facts presented. If there is a phone carrier out there willing to let me play with one I will be happy to give it a run. Anyone? I promise to give it back – maybe.

As expected, Samsung announced the Galaxy S III smart phone on May 3rd which will carry the flag for the Android camp and packs a serious punch.
Starting with the screen weighing in at 4.8 inches, this screen is BIG, bigger than the iPhone 4s at 3.5 inches. Boasting a super AMOLED  display the look is big and bright with even deeper blacks as AMOLED technology does not use a backlight as the individual LED pixels generate their own light. The iPhone can still boast a better resolution than the Galaxy and it may take a while before we see the major players match Apple in this corner. Still, when it comes to screens you cant argue with bigger is better. The processor is a thumping quad core powerhouse running at 1Ghz which should be serving up pretty slick performance even with the tarted-up Android 4.0 dressed in Samsung’s touchwiz interface.
A MicroSD card slot allows expansion that the iPhone does not offer which is a big tick in the favour of Samsung. (Come on Apple, loosen up!)
The main camera captures 8 Megapixels which will rival most point and shoot cameras and the front facing camera clocks a respectable 1.9 megapixels for video calls. A really cool trick with the front camera is that it is now used to perform gaze tracking and facial recognition. While you are looking at the phone, it will know and when you look away it powers down. The facial recognition brings an interesting angle to security but makes me worry about Nicholas Cage wanting to steal my face to make calls on my dollar. Team this up with S-voice, Samsung’s answer to Apple’s Siri and you can hope for some really intuitive responses from a phone that claims to know what you want to do next instead of waiting for you to tell it (when I see it, I will believe it).
There is also NFC (Near Field Communications) bringing us one step closer to putting our wallets in our phone and the Samsung S-Beam allows you to wirelessly share photos and video with other Galaxy S III owners. The online media and gaming services Game Hub, Video Hub and Music Hub will take care of delivering entertainment making sure you keep up with the Apples.
4G connectivity in Australia is not confirmed (yet) but since this model originated from Europe I would say the chances of speedy LTE (4G for the marketing hype-peddlers) is a strong possibility.
Battery life is not confirmed as far as I can tell which casts doubt over how long you can run between charges. Here’s hoping the AMOLED screen gives back what the quad core processor and 4G transceiver takes away. This can really impact on sales for this unit as battery life is a big factor when choosing any phone. That said, the battery IS removable which is a huge plus, I repeat a HUGE plus. Apple, are you listening?
After all these big steps forward it is disappointing to see Samsung has opted for glass and plastic construction with rounded corners may make it feel cheaper than it should. If I am holding a flagship of a phone I am happy for it to have a little heft in it. A little extra weight makes the phone feel more substantial, a little extra battery not only makes the phone feel like a heavyweight it will also reap a little extra time between charges. We might see this in after market parts but this may be something Samsung should of provided from the get go.
At the end of the day, this promises to be a feature-rich phone but within a year we are expecting the next iPhone so Samsung’s time in the sun may be limited. The ecosystem is maturing and the Galaxy III S is a real contender and seems to have the upper hand for now. If you want a phone “right now” and this phone is on the market I would definitely lean towards it but this could all change when Apple returns fire.
It is a great time to be a consumer as the big boys are trying to score points with increasing lists of features and usefulness. The way we use our phones seems to be undergoing some big changes and I can’t wait to see what the next few years have in store for us.

New section – audio library

Due to limitations with soundcloud (LOVE the service though!) I can only have 2 hours max of audio hosted on the soundcloud system. This would be fine if I was a recording artist putting out songs around 3 – 5 minutes long. But since my content is REALLY long I have keep my audio on box.net where their service is much better suited to what I want to do.

IOS users at this point may have to find another way to listen until I either get a podcast registered with Apple or I find another way to share with IOS people. For now though you can download the MP3 to your computer for sync/playback via itunes or your favorite MP3 player/manager.

You will find the link to the recordings along the top of the site or you can simply go here.

6PR Tech Guy – Audio

Another show done and posted for the people that do the clever thing at 2AM – sleep.

Visit http://soundcloud.com/6prtechguy/ben-aylett-02-05-2012 or go here.

6PR Tech guy – a week in tech

Last Minute Update – leaving the internet for a year?

Journalist Paul Miller from theverge.com has just started on a year long journey. This journey he will take alone as he is going to try going a whole year without using the internet or SMS. This seems like a very bold experiment and I will be very interested to see how this pans out. It’s the old story of you don’t know what you had until it is gone. Paul says he will still use his computer and has switched to a “dumb” phone but he has disabled wifi and has set up a post box so he can continue to do his work. Can we function in this day and age without being connected to the rest of the world? If there was some kind of “e-pocalypse” that wiped out the connected world would the world still work?
I have no idea but I would like to find out. You too can find out here .

The hard drives most likely to expose your data aren’t your own.

According to a UK study, 48% of 200 used hard drives picked up in local markets still had recoverable data on them and most of the data seemed to come from a corporations than from home users. This raises concerns about private information of individuals kept by companies is not securely destroyed.
This can be remedied by either employing a military-grade deletion practice (dismantling and physically shredding the drives and disposing of the waste in at least 3 separate locations), employing a really thorough disk wipe tool or by encrypting the entire drive with a tool like truecrypt.
I would really like to see statements regarding the destruction of data in corporate data privacy policies.
Check out the original Arstechnica article here.

Steve Wozniak finds his old friend Steve Jobs in… A Windows Phone?

In the beginning of Apple two friends messed about in a garage making things. From here the first Apple computer was born. Those friends were Steve Jobs and Steve “Woz” Wozniak. Jobs was clearly the guy with the business head and had an eye for product design. Woz had a passion for technology and was a good practical match for the Jobs flair.
Now Woz is well known for still having a passion for technology and carries no less than 4 phones with him (2 of them iphone 4 s). Recently he was asked about the Nokia Lumia 900 running Windows Phone 7 that he carries around.
“Just for looks and beauty, I definitely favor the Windows 7 phone over Android,” Wozniak said.
“I’m kind of shocked on every screen — much more beautiful than the same apps on Android and iPhone. So I think that what Microsoft or Nokia did is that they went to some of the key app makers and got them to deliberately make specialized beautiful ones or they put their own themes on…”
“I also surmised that Steve Jobs might have been reincarnated at MS due to a lot of what I see and feel with this phone making me think of a lot of great Apple things.”
Have a look at the full PCMag.com article here.