Kaleem

Google Talk beta released: VoIP & Instant messaging service launch

Kaleem — Wed, 24 Aug 2005 06:39:00 -0400

Look out Yahoo Messenger, MSN Windows Messenger and Skype! There's a new kid on the block named Google Talk. Google launched its Google Talk beta late yesterday (Aug. 23). The client software integrates with Gmail and the service is now open to Gmail users only.

The three Internet search rivals -- plus upstart Skype -- are now directly competing with each other on instant messaging (IM) and Internet telephony / voice over IP (VoIP) services.

Things just got a whole lot more interesting.

Microsoft in talks to buy Claria (Gator) Spyware/Malware developer for $500 million

Kaleem — Tue, 05 Jul 2005 23:40:00 -0400

The New York Times' Steve Lohr and Gary Rivlin report that Microsoft is in talks with spyware / malware / adware purveyor and developer Claria (Gator) for $500 million. Claria was formerly named Gator until an image makeover and re-branding effort in advance of an aborted IPO in 2004. The name Gator had become synonymous with unethical practices, intrusive spyware and aggressive pop-up ads -- a notorious reputation that just wouldn't do for the dog and pony show that precedes IPOs.

The Wall Street Journal's Mylene Mangalindan and Robert A. Guth attempt to explain Why Microsoft May Wade Into 'Adware' ...

Social networks: Keep friends close, live longer

Kaleem — Thu, 16 Jun 2005 23:17:00 -0400

The CBC has a story about a longitudinal research study that shows people who have a strong social network of friends have longer lifespans than those without those social networks.

It puts an interesting spin on the Internet social networking phenomenon.

I'm curious if those electronic social networks will show a similar positive effect.

The bonds of friendship may help us to live longer, say researchers who found a strong social network was more important than family ties for survival. ...

MSDN Canada starts Internet podcasts ... sort of

Kaleem — Wed, 15 Jun 2005 21:59:00 -0400

Mark Relph over at Microsoft Canada is getting into the podcasting game ... using Windows Media Audio files (WMA).

Sure, Microsoft has a vested interest in promoting the WMA file format but would it hurt to provide the show encoded in the MP3 format?

MP3 is the de facto standard and deeply entrenched as the king of the hill, despite numerous competing audio formats that have come and gone over the years. MP3 is familiar to everyone, every digital music player out there supports it and people want it. So why not provide it, as ...

You've got a lawsuit! AOL sued over Internet telephone technology / Patent infringement for $200 million

Kaleem — Wed, 15 Jun 2005 19:55:00 -0400

The Washington Business Journal's Jeff Clabaugh reports that AOL is being sued for $200 million by a New York company that claims AOL's Internet telephony (VoIP) services violate a patent it holds.

Judah Klausner's Klausner Technologies claims that AOL is "violating Klausner's intellectual property rights by offering services in which subscribers receive visual notification of new voice messages, including caller identifying information, and can selectively retrieve voice messages using their displays."

The voice services that Klausner claims violate his patent include AOL Voicemail, AOL Call Alert, AOL by Phone and AOL VOIP Internet Phone Service -- essentially the entire AOL VoIP portfolio ...

Canada's CRTC will regulate Internet telephony (VoIP)

Kaleem — Thu, 12 May 2005 23:38:00 -0400

Canada's telecom regulator -- the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) -- ruled today that it would begin regulating voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) communications when used as a local telephone service.

It's a significant decision and I haven't yet had time to go through it, but from what I have gathered so far, the rationale behind the decision is that VoIP-based new entrants to the local phone market should have a fair and fighting chance to compete against the telecom giants -- known as incumbent local exchange carriers (ILECs) like Bell and Telus -- which could easily heavily ...

Microsoft, Ethnography, Strategy and User Experience Research

Kaleem — Mon, 04 Apr 2005 17:15:00 -0400

Normally I wouldn't link to what is primarily a public relations exercise from Microsoft, or any other company for that matter. But this time Microsoft's PR team has focused on usability by profiling a member of its user experience research group, ethnographer Tracy Lovejoy.

Two of the most common issues that I come across when speaking to clients are:

a fundamental lack of understanding of the value that good user experience (UX) design brings to a product or service and
ignorance of the work that goes into the process.

It's not surprising considering ...

Mobile Phone Complexity: Usability vs. Features -- Who is the customer?

Kaleem — Sat, 02 Apr 2005 00:00:00 -0500

The New York Times ran an article yesterday (Mar. 31) about feature creep: the growing number of features in modern cell phones and the corresponding inability of end-users to access those functions as the device become more complex.

Increasing complexity, especially for a mass market device, is an enemy of a good user experience (UX). It's a difficult problem to solve because of the limited size of display screens on mobiles and the limited input interface.

More features do not mean a better mobile phone...

Google Gmail adds rich text formatting and another gigabyte, increases storage to 2GB

Kaleem — Fri, 01 Apr 2005 23:23:00 -0500

A year after it launched its Gmail beta on April Fool's day, Google has released some significant upgrades to its Gmail e-mail service (no joke). The most notable of these new features is the addition of a rich text formatting tool that effectively transforms Gmail into a simple word processor. The features match or best those Microsoft offers with the WordPad software included in Windows.

One very nice feature of the rich text formatter is the Remove Formatting button. You can remove some or all text formatting with one click. The feature is a little buggy as it doesn't always remove all of the formatting of heavily-styled text on the first attempt but it's an excellent feature from a usability standpoint. It sounds so simple and logical that a user should be able to select any or all text and remove the formatting with a click but, as far as I have been able to determine, Google is the first to implement it....

April 1, 2005: Google Gulp Beta Smart Drink & Yahoo Slacker announced / Viral marketing

Kaleem — Fri, 01 Apr 2005 23:12:00 -0500

Google has made a tradition of launching innovative products on April 1.

Last year it was Gmail, its free e-mail service with a gigabyte of storage. More storage doesn't sound like much of an innovation but Google's offering changed the rules and forced the dominant free e-mail providers, Yahoo and Microsoft, to upgrade their own stagnant free e-mail services to compete.

Today Google announced the beta (test) version of the Google Gulp smart drink, which comes in four different flavours: Glutamate Grape, Sugar-Free Radical, Beta Carroty and Sera-Tonic Water.

It also announced some significant upgrades to GMail that include doubling storage limits to 2GB and a rich text formatting tool.

Not to be outdone, Yahoo announced its upcoming Yahoo! Slacker services suite, which ...

Norway: Interaction Design Seminar April 12, 2005

Kaleem — Wed, 30 Mar 2005 16:09:00 -0500

Bergen University (UiB) and Bergen's National Academy of Arts (KHiB) are hosting a free one-day seminar on interaction design.

I'd be particularly interested in hearing what Interaction Designer & Experience Architect Priya Prakash of the BBC's Mobile & Streaming Group has to say about the state of user experience and design when it comes to mobile devices because I constantly hear -- and make -- complaints about the limitations of cell phones.

Too bad I'll be on the wrong side of the ocean.

Bergen University (UiB) and Bergen's National Academy of ...

Sony PSP launch: Demand high, EB Games presells 70%; ATV Offroad Fury for PSP delayed

Kaleem — Wed, 23 Mar 2005 18:05:00 -0500

I just got back to the office after attending the Sony PSP launch event earlier today.

A minute after midnight (March 24) Sony will officially make its debut into the North American handheld videogame market when major retailers throw open their doors to let hardcore gamers get their own PlayStation Portable (PSP).

High demand
Demand appears to be as strong as it was for the Nintendo DS portable game system which launched last November, if not stronger.

Videogame specialty retailer EB Games is one of Sony's launch partners along with Wal-Mart, Blockbuster, Rogers Video (in Canada), Toys R Us and ...

Yahoo-Flickr deal: $30 million or $35 million? Less?

Kaleem — Mon, 21 Mar 2005 23:39:00 -0500

Robert "Scobleizer" Scoble asked the question: "How much was Flickr paid?" Depending on whom you believe, as low as $15 million or as high as $30-$35 million.

SiliconBeat/Mercury News' Michael Bazeley comments on the Yahoo-Flickr deal:

No word yet on the terms of the acquisition, which was likely a cash and stock deal. But one source told us the total price tag was about $30 million.

Om Malik thinks otherwise and says:

My sources tell me the price tag is close to $35 million, and not [the] rumored $30 million.

John Battelle low-balls it and ...

Yahoo buys Ludicorp & Flickr online photo sharing and management service

Kaleem — Sun, 20 Mar 2005 16:31:00 -0500

Caterina Fake has confirmed in the Flickr Blog that Yahoo has acquired Flickr -- the exceptional online photo sharing and management service -- along with parent company Ludicorp.

Yahoo actually does acquire Flickr
Holy smokes, SOMEBODY out there is bad at keeping secrets!! Yes! We can finally confirm that Yahoo has made a definitive agreement to acquire Flickr and us, Ludicorp.

It was only a matter time until one of the online giants took notice of the phenomenal Flickr and snapped it up, especially after Google's acquisition of Picasa last year.

There were two thoughts that immediately came to mind upon reading about ...

Norway's new filesharing laws / Canada redux?

Kaleem — Tue, 09 Nov 2004 22:06:00 -0500

Norway is introducing new filesharing laws that appear to be modeled on Canada's. It seems the recording industry has convinced the Norwegian government to diminish the rights of its citizens by making filesharing illegal, then pay the industry with (new?) taxes so citizens can have the privilege of ripping digital audio files of CDs that they already own.

The question is, will Norway actually legislate the new laws, or will the country just let a policy committee order the change as in Canada's case when the Copyright Board imposed a levy -- an unlegislated tax -- on all recordable media...

Outsourcing: India using Canada as back door to US software industry

Kaleem — Wed, 27 Oct 2004 21:32:00 -0400

The Toronto edition of Metro International newspapers/Toronto Star reports that 'more Indian companies are opening back doors into the United States by setting up shop in Canada.'

The practice is called nearshoring.

"There are some (U.S.) customers who feel a great affinity to the Canadian market," said Ramalinga Raju, chairman of Hyderabad-based Satyam Computer Services Ltd., India’s fourth-largest computer services firm.

Raju, visiting Satyam’s Toronto-based Canadian headquarters yesterday, said in an interview that Canada is a unique market because of its proximity to the largest economy in the world and its ability to easily assimilate global talent....

Billboard Magazine adds mobile phone Top 20 ringtones chart

Kaleem — Wed, 27 Oct 2004 20:14:00 -0400

Billboard Magazine announced that it is launching a Top 20 Hot Ringtones Chart for polyphonic ringtones. The chart is co-produced by consulting company Consect.

An m-Qube executive I met at a conference last spring -- his name escapes me now -- explained that rapper 50 Cent's In Da Club ringtone outsold the digital music download of the full song by a ratio of 10 to 1 in 2003. He thought that this was brilliant since ringtones are essentially 10% to 20% the length of a music single, but sell at about the same price as -- or more than -- a single track.

The Wall Street Journal's Ethan Smith reported on the ringtone industry...

Gbrowser.com & speculation of a Google-branded Firefox Web browser

Kaleem — Mon, 25 Oct 2004 19:40:00 -0400

Speculation about a Google-branded Web browser has been re-ignited after talk of a Firefox-based project in the works.

Google's registration of Gbrowser.com on April 26, 2004 spawned a great deal of speculation that Google was about to enter the Web browser market and attempt to dethrone the current king, Microsoft and the Internet Explorer Web browser.

It was a logical leap. After all, Google launched its Gmail beta service with 1000 megabytes of e-mail storage on April 1 -- I, like many others initially thought it was an April Fool's joke, especially after reading the tone and language ...

Privacy: 185 Canadian hospitals allow patient data to be sold to private companies

Kaleem — Mon, 25 Oct 2004 08:08:00 -0400

This week CBC Marketplace -- the CBC's consumer watchdog show -- aired a story about how Canadian hospitals allow private companies into maternity wards, capture patient data, then sell that information to other companies like Pampers, Procter & Gamble and Allianz Funds

This is a privacy violation of the first order.

What's even worse is that it's negative-option marketing that requires expectant mothers to explicitly opt-out.

In exchange the hospitals get a few thousand dollars and sometimes some medical equipment.

It turns out that Karen’s hospital allows a photo company called Growing Family into the maternity ward.

They take more ...

William Gibson resumes blogging

Kaleem — Sat, 23 Oct 2004 17:36:00 -0400

Writer William Gibson has resumed blogging. For those who don't know him, Gibson is probably the most well-known author of the so-called cyberpunk literary movement of the 1980s. Cyberpunk was "a school of science fiction whose works are characterized by countercultural antiheroes trapped in a dehumanized, high-tech future."

Gibson is credited with coining the word cyberspace -- originally to describe a simulated reality within computers and computer networks (not unlike the 1982 Disney movie Tron) -- in his 1984 novel Neuromancer. The term is now commonly used to refer to the Internet.

Gibson stopped writing ...

First Gmail spam received / Privacy problem?

Kaleem — Fri, 15 Oct 2004 22:20:00 -0400

I received my first Gmail spam today.

Why do I think it's spam? Because I don't know anyone on the recipients list, my address isn't on the recipients list -- even though a very similar address is -- and the content is typical of the "funny joke" spams that I have seen over the last decade.

I know each of the very small circle of people who have my Gmail address. I can count them on one hand. All of them are very aware of how to avoid spam, both coming and going.

The message appears to be a mass e-mail message from India ...

What do women game designers want? The same thing everyone else does

Kaleem — Thu, 14 Oct 2004 23:22:00 -0400

The New York Times published a feature about women in the computer and video games industry, including programmers, game designers, and producers. Among the women interviewed for the article are Ion Storm's Denise Fulton, executive producer of the next Deus Ex sequel; Nicky Robinson, a veteran programmer with 21 years in the games industry; Sheri Graner Ray, a senior game designer at Sony Online Entertainment; and Laura Fryer, Director of the Advanced Technology Group and an executive producer with Microsoft's Xbox division.

Unfortunately the article is incredibly shallow and therefore all-too-typical of many of Katie Hafner's reports.

Beyond the usual platitudes about ...

Photo ID now required to buy or rent computer & video games in Canada

Kaleem — Thu, 14 Oct 2004 16:11:00 -0400

The Toronto edition of Metro International newspapers/Toronto Star explains why Canadian gamers now need photo identification to buy or rent computer and video games. The new restriction is part of the Retail Council of Canada's (RCC) Commitment to Parents initiative, which "requires retailers across Canada to support and enforce the ESRB ratings for computer and video games." The Entertainment Software Association of Canada (ESAC) and the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) are also partners in the program.

The RCC says that it has the support of 90% of game retailers in the voluntary program. Retailers that support the program include...

British music industry wins High Court ruling, ISPs must divulge customer identities / Canada, CRIA vs. ISPs

Kaleem — Thu, 14 Oct 2004 14:05:00 -0400

Several UK Internet service providers (ISPs) have been ordered by the British High Court to give the identities of 28 people accused of music file-sharing to the British Phonographic Industry (BPI). The BPI is the UK equivalent of the Canadian Recording Industry Association (CRIA) and the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). The ISPs being forced to hand over their customers' identities is the first step for the BPI to file copyright-infringement lawsuits similar to those in the USA.

Mr. Justice Blackburne's court order is a major victory for the BPI. It is also a victory for the International Federation...

Google Desktop Search beta released

Kaleem — Thu, 14 Oct 2004 12:29:00 -0400

Google launched its new Google Desktop beta search tool today, providing a feature that Microsoft has long promised in the "next version" of the Windows operating system.

Google has risen from obscurity a few, short years ago to become the king of Internet search.

Now it's going to invade Microsoft's territory -- the desktop -- by delivering something to Windows users that Microsoft has been promising its customers for about 10 years: an easy way to find the files that they're looking for.

Google says that its free application indexes your computer hard drive to let you find e-mail, Web pages, instant messaging...

Apple iTunes coming to Canada in 2004: HP Media Center PC & Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005

Kaleem — Tue, 12 Oct 2004 16:22:00 -0400

Canada is (finally) about to get Apple iTunes service.

The hint came after a Microsoft briefing on Sept. 23 about the company's upcoming holiday product line, after I asked a Microsoft product manager when MSN Music was coming to Canada. The manager didn't know, but suggested I take a closer look at the materials that HP provided.

An information card from HP Canada about its upcoming Media Center PC line was included in the kits that Microsoft distributed. Under the "Included software" section the fine print reads "... Apple iTunes for Windows ...."

Unfortunately all information about the Media Center PC was embargoed ...

Gmail Drive add-on for Windows / Internet Explorer

Kaleem — Sat, 09 Oct 2004 14:27:00 -0400

Someone has come up with neat little utility that effectively turns your Gmail account into a virtual hard drive on your Windows PC. The author explains:

GMail Drive creates a virtual filesystem on top of your Google GMail account and enables you to save and retrieve files stored on your GMail account directly from inside Windows Explorer. GMail Drive literally adds a new drive to your computer under the My Computer folder, where you can create new folders, copy and drag'n'drop files to.

The application was inspired by the Linux-based GmailFS by Richard Jones.

I haven't tried it yet, but I suspect...

SANS Institute unveils 2004 Top 20 Internet Security Vulnerabilities list

Kaleem — Fri, 08 Oct 2004 19:27:00 -0400

The SANS Institute released 2004's Top 20 Internet Security Vulnerabilities list, its fifth edition of the annual list.

It's a good, evolving guide that draws attention to the problem of Internet security which is of growing importance as we become more reliant on the Internet as a platform for our communications and commerce. (More on the relative importance of Internet security in another blog post -- when I get some time to write about that).

Notable additions to the list are e-mail client software vulnerabilities and instant messaging vulnerabilities on the Windows list. I am unsure why both of these were not added to the list before....

Nintendo DS @ CEATEC: Wireless software/content downloads

Kaleem — Thu, 07 Oct 2004 21:50:00 -0400

CNET News.com / GameSpot's Hirokiko Noiizumi reports from the Nintendo press conference at the CEATEC technology conference in Tokyo that Nintendo president Satoru Iwata said the dual-screen Nintendo DS handheld gaming console will feature downloadable software and content via its wireless networking function.

This isn't really surprising but it immediately opens the Nintendo DS to the possibility of malware, viruses and other security vulnerabilities.

I wonder how long it will be before the first DS virus or worm is discovered and propagated.

"We are absolutely considering the idea (of going into the movie business)," Iwata said. Although we don't have anything...

Gmail new features, usability, design & business strategy

Kaleem — Tue, 05 Oct 2004 19:26:00 -0400

New features
I logged into my Gmail account yesterday -- yes, it's still in beta -- and noticed a couple of changes that were trumpeted by a link which exclaimed "New Features!" in bright red letters, like so.

I now regret that I didn't take some screenshots the first time I logged in. That would have made it easier to track the evolution of the interface and make it easier to illustrate what I will now attempt to describe with words....