Category: News

Continue reading…

You’ll never guess what you gave up Google Reader for? The tried-and-true makes way for a few, ah, experiments. Newest: Chrome World Wide Maze. Geekdom is abuzz about the oddity this evening. I’m simply baffled, although I see the benefits as a technology preview, which surely must be the point.

Essentially your mobile device running Chrome becomes a remote control for a 3D-maze makeover of any website. I couldn’t help myself. I chose bing.com. The setup is a bit convoluted, using — and therefore showcasing — tab sync. The process involves opening the site from tabs already available on the other device and completing a handshake using a six-digit number. Then the fun begins, or would have if Chrome Beta for Android hadn’t crashed and disconnected while my wife took photos. (Hey, every story needs art.)

The marble maze uses WebGL and Java Script among other browser tech to make the magic happen. You’ll need a phone with Chrome running Android 4.x or iOS 5 or higher and Mac or Windows PC. Chrome OS is not listed in the requirements, but I had no problem setting things up on Chromebook Pixel. Nor is Windows 8 listed; I haven’t tried it yet.

Oh, some of you may want to take Dramamine, if you knowingly suffer from seasickness. 🙂 The ding, dingy music may sooth those people only slightly inclined while driving the irritable to rage. (The opening music gives me Sonic the Hedgehog flashbacks.)

Chrome Experiments aren’t new, by any means. I had fun with the Peanut Gallery two days ago (do check it out). Chrome World Wide Maze surprises for a few reasons:

• Making over websites into playgrounds — you choose
• Using tab sync to link up computer and phone
• Turning the phone into a remote control

You can expect more of the latter. The ill-fated Nexus Q uses Android device as remote control, and YouTube works this way today on Google TV. They’re just the beginning.

Now excuse me while I go Scroogle bing.com.

Photo Credit: Anne Wilcox

LG mentioned that the Optimus G Pro would be available in North America in the 2nd quarter of this year. It looks like we are one step closer to this promise being fulfilled as an LG phone with the model E980 stopped by the FCC for a little visit.  Considering the Optimus G is the E970, I think it’s a lock that AT&T will be bringing this beast to it’s network soon. As a reminder, this phone sports a 5.5-inch 1080p display along with a quad-core 1.7GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 CPU. We will let you know more as soon as we hear it.

source: FCC
via: Engadget

Come comment on this article: LG E980 clears the FCC, could be Optimus G Pro for AT&T

Looks like the folks over at Delicious may have a case of Digg envy: I stumbled across a seemingly new site called D.me today that serves up a continuous stream of stories in a design that looks a lot like the recently-relaunched Digg.com, with a bit of Pinterest mixed in for good measure.

The site offers users to access content sorted by media types (articles, products, videos, music and photos) as well as through a free-form search. All of this can be combined, enabling you filter results to just photos and videos related to a certain subject. There even seems to be an element of personalization, offering users to display “more links like this.”

However, currently, only articles and a very small number of videos are on display, and search doesn’t seem to work at all.

There’s no about section on the site, and nothing that directly connects it to Delicious. However, the AVOS team, which acquired Delicious two years ago, also bought the D.me domain, and in fact briefly used it as a kind of link shortener and email forwarder for Delicious. And a look under the hood reveals that D.me is in fact powered by the Delicious API.

At this point, it’s very unclear what the future holds for D.me. An email inquiry to the AVOS team went unanswered. It’s possible that D.me was just a test for the AVOS platform, which the company describes on its website as a “common technology stack we’re building to underpin shared features across the AVOS product portfolio.”

However, there’s also a chance that AVOS learned a lesson from its botched attempt to reinvent Delicious after it acquired the site. A number of features, including the idea of curated collections of links dubbed “stacks,” were eventually rolled back.

Maybe AVOS decided to leave Delicious alone, and experiment with more innovative ideas for content discovery on a separate site.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• Report: NoSQL Databases – Providing Extreme Scale and Flexibility
• Building a better feed
• Finding the Value in Social Media Data

The Wall Street Journal has it that Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski will resign tomorrow, clearing the way for President Obama to appoint the head of the country’s primary communications regulatory agency for the second time. The Journal cited two unnamed sources, one an official within the FCC.

Update: A spokesman from the FCC Chairman’s office declined to comment on the Journal story.

Genachowski replaced Kevin Martin (and interim FCC chairman Michael Copps) in 2009 after being nominated by Obama. Genachowski worked on Obama’s first presidential campaign as chairperson of his Technology, Media and Telecommunications Policy Working Group. The working group germinated the seeds of Obama’s National Broadband Plan, which Genachowski oversaw when he took over the reins of the commission.

Since then Genachowski has been in the spotlight on many occasions, advocating the need for more cellular spectrum and proposing the reallocation of TV airwaves for mobile broadband use. Some of those spectrum proposals, however, landed Genachowski and the commission in hot water, such as the conditional waiver -– later retracted — they granted LightSquared to use its satellite spectrum for a terrestrial LTE network.

Perhaps the most controversial period of his tenure, though, was the nearly one year that the FCC weighed and eventually quashed AT&T’s planned acquisition of T-Mobile. The decision is considered a victory for the competitive market and consumer choice after a long period of unfettered consolidation in the telecom industry.

Not all of the commission’s decisions have been so consumer friendly under Genachowski. The commission let pass Verizon’s spectrum deal with the cable operators, which has big implications for competition in the residential broadband market.

Genachowski’s retirement, if true, doesn’t come as a huge surprise. News reports have indicated that the forthcoming departure of Republican FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell clears the way for Genachowski’s departure as well, as it leaves the commission with a 2-1 Democratic majority.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• A look back at mobile in Q1
• A look back at mobile in the third quarter
• Mobile 2012 and beyond

Wells Fargo Insurance, part of Wells Fargo & Company, named Richard Colton head of its Mergers and Acquisitions Industry Practice. Serving middle market and large corporate customers, including private equity firms, the practice provides clients with insurance, risk, due diligence, and employee benefit services and solutions. Colton, who will be based in new York, previously served as co-founder of Aon’s mergers and acquisitions group and was also former chairman of Lockton’s mergers and acquisitions group.

PRESS RELEASE:

Wells Fargo Insurance, part of Wells Fargo & Company, named Richard Colton head of its Mergers and Acquisitions Industry Practice. Serving middle market and large corporate customers, including private equity firms, the practice provides clients with insurance, risk, due diligence, and employee benefit services and solutions. In his role, Colton will work closely with clients pursuing opportunities with private equity-related transactions, as well as lead related sales and growth initiatives, and operations. Based in New York, he will report to Peter Gilbertson, regional managing director for Wells Fargo Insurance’s Northeast region.

“Throughout his career, Richard has been a pioneer in developing private equity-related risk and insurance solutions,” said Gilbertson. “Under his leadership, Wells Fargo Insurance will not only better serve our customers, but will be a valuable resource for other businesses throughout the company that serve the private equity industry.”

The Wells Fargo Financial Sponsors Group, part of Wells Fargo Securities, is one of the other business lines that benefits from the practice. “The credibility and leadership that Richard brings to this vital service nicely rounds out our offering of corporate and investment banking products and solutions to our private equity clients,” said Brian Van Elslander, managing director and head of Wells Fargo Financial Sponsors Group.

Colton previously served as co-founder of Aon’s mergers and acquisitions group and was also former chairman of Lockton’s mergers and acquisitions group. He received his Bachelor of Science degree from Long Island University.

About Wells Fargo Insurance

Wells Fargo Insurance(1) is the fifth largest insurance broker in the world (Business Insurance, 2012). With 127 offices in 37 states, Wells Fargo Insurance provides solutions for a wide range of customers, including retail consumers, high net worth individuals, small businesses, as well as middle market and large corporate customers. The 7,000 insurance professionals of Wells Fargo Insurance write or place $15 billion of risk premiums annually in property, casualty, benefits, international, personal lines, and life products and also includes the nation’s largest crop insurance provider, Rural Community Insurance Services (RCIS).

About Wells Fargo & Company

Wells Fargo & Company WFC -0.80% is a nationwide, diversified, community-based financial services company with $1.4 trillion in assets. Founded in 1852 and headquartered in San Francisco, Wells Fargo provides banking, insurance, investments, mortgage, and consumer and commercial finance through more than 9,000 stores, 12,000 ATMs, the Internet (wellsfargo.com), and has offices in more than 35 countries to support the bank’s customers who conduct business in the global economy. With more than 265,000 team members, Wells Fargo serves one in three households in the United States. Wells Fargo & Company was ranked No. 26 on Fortune’s 2012 rankings of America’s largest corporations. Wells Fargo’s vision is to satisfy all our customers’ financial needs and help them succeed financially.

(1) Ranking includes Wells Fargo Insurance Services USA, Inc., Wells Fargo Insurance Services of West Virginia, Inc., Wells Fargo Insurance, Inc., and Rural Community Insurance Company

The post Richard Colton to Lead Wells Fargo Insurance M&A Industry Practice appeared first on peHUB.

Devicescape, a San Bruno, Calif.-based WiFi software maker, has appointed Jeff Baeth to the position of CFO. Baeth joins the company from Jajah, where he served as CFO, helping facilitate the company’s sale to Telefonica S.A. in 2010. Devicescape has raised nearly $16 million in funding, including from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and August Capital.

PRESS RELEASE:

Devicescape today announced the appointment of Jeff Baeth to the position of Chief Financial Officer. Baeth comes to Devicescape from JAJAH, Inc., where he served as Chief Financial Officer and helped facilitate the company’s acquisition by Telefonica S.A. in 2010. He brings over 25 years of finance and accounting experience with high tech companies.

“We’re excited to bring aboard someone with Jeff’s depth of experience,” said Dave Fraser, CEO of Devicescape. “As Devicescape continues its rapid growth, Jeff’s history scaling the operations of innovative and disruptive companies in the telecom space will prove invaluable.”

Prior to joining JAJAH, Inc. in 2007, Baeth was senior vice president at VeriSign Inc, where he was instrumental in scaling the company from a startup to a global industry player with revenue of over $1.6 billion. He was a member of the Office of Chief Financial Officer and was responsible for managing VeriSign’s global financial and performance management operations. Additionally, Baeth was part of the VeriSign M&A team that conducted the acquisition of Jamster, Network Solutions, and m-Cube. Prior to joining VeriSign, Baeth served in finance and accounting roles for Adobe Systems Inc., KLA-Tencor, and KPMG.

“I’m excited to join Devicescape at this critical time in the company’s growth trajectory,” said Baeth. “The company’s value to the mobile ecosystem is obvious: operators gain the ability to economically boost network capacity with high-quality Wi-Fi networks and consumers enjoy an elevated mobile experience. With the recent launch of PopWiFi, Devicescape again demonstrated its leadership in curating public Wi-Fi and offering its carrier-grade Curator Service to mobile network operators.”

PopWiFi, a proximity marketing service for venue owners offering amenity Wi-Fi, was launched by Devicescape at Mobile World Congress in February and gives venue owners a uniquely simple, yet powerful ability to interact directly with customers in-store and on-device. The service is available to the millions of venues that are part of Devicescape’s Curated Virtual Network (CVN).

About Devicescape Devicescape moves beyond Wi-Fi Offload and uniquely combines intelligent network selection with the world’s largest curated virtual network of high-quality Wi-Fi hotspots. This enables mobile operators to magnify their capacity-reach and elevate the “always best connected” experience. Headquartered in San Bruno, California, Devicescape is privately held by leading venture capital companies including Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, August Capital, Jafco Ventures, and Enterprise Partners. For more information visit www.devicescape.com.

The post Jeff Baeth Joins Devicescape as CFO appeared first on peHUB.

Earth911, a Scottsdale, Az.-based company that gathers, distributes and analyzes localized recycling information for its customers, has added Ed Skernolis to its advisory board. Skernolis spent 14 years with the Environmental Protection Agency, and 18 years as the director of government affairs for Waste Management, among other roles.

PRESS RELEASE:

Earth911, Inc., an Infinity Resources Holdings company (otcqb:IRHC) IRHC -5.45% , welcomed another key industry advisor to its strategic consulting team with the addition of Ed Skernolis, a 40-year veteran of the recycling industry whose legacy includes the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Waste Management, Inc., National Recycling Coalition (NRC), and Keep America Beautiful (KAB). As an adviser to Earth911, Inc., Skernolis will open conversations about collaborative solutions to achieving true product stewardship between members of his professional network and Earth911, Inc.

Skernolis spent 14 years with EPA, 18 years as Director of Government Affairs for Waste Management, Inc., 2 years as Acting Executive Director of the NRC, and most recently served as Senior Vice President, Recycling, for KAB before retiring at the end of 2012. At KAB, Skernolis led the creation and rapid growth of the Recycling Department, fostered significant growth in America Recycles Day and the campus-based competition RecycleMania, and oversaw creation of the K-12 Recycle-Bowl competition, the Annual Recycling Symposium, and KAB’s highly successful Public Space Recycling Initiative, which has placed almost 100,000 recycling bins in public areas around the country.

“The recycling value chain is complex and requires an understanding and appreciation for all of its moving parts to be successful within the system,” said Skernolis. “I’m looking forward to working with Earth911 to make valuable connections that will take recycling and product stewardship to new levels.”

Skernolis, now working as an environmental consultant, is a thought-leader in recycling strategies and consumer education programs to make recycling second-nature. His ideas helped innovate recycling throughout the supply chain, government and private industry by championing more streamlined recycling collection and processing and improving consumer outreach. Throughout the economic crises of the past decade, Skernolis spoke and wrote confidently about maintaining the growth of recycling programs and the long-term financial benefits to businesses as well as communities.

“Ed Skernolis brings his own personal brand of success, relationship-building and diplomacy that helped him guide organizations through decades of change in the way recycling is implemented and communicated. We’re thrilled that Earth911 will benefit from having this knowledge leader on board,” said Corey Lambrecht, Earth911, Inc. President and COO.

Skernolis received three special service awards while at EPA and received the Distinguished Service Award from the Environmental Industries Association while with Waste Management. Skernolis joins other notable advisors to Earth911: Gowri Shankar, venture partner with Naya Ventures, and digital media pioneer and former Disney executive Bernard Gershon.

Gowri Shankar is a venture partner with Naya Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm. Shankar is an expert advisor for mobile marketing and served as a member of the founding team at Sprint PCS where he initiated both direct and online wireless sales in the early 90s. Most recently he served as president and CEO of SinglePoint, a mobile marketing agency for media companies where he pioneered interactive TV through mobile with NBC Universal, MTV, CBS and Disney.

Shankar has an established track record of building and growing companies in both Europe and India. He serves on the board for Skedi, Carbon Credits International and is an advisor to ReQall and Zoomingo.

“Earth911 is the only provider that can bring location and product disposal together in a mobile device, allowing companies to engage with their customers throughout the product lifecycle,” said Shankar. “The possibilities for Earth911 to enable customer engagement are open to the imagination.”

Bernard “Bernie” Gershon, who joined with Earth911, Inc. as an advisor in 2011, is president of GershonMedia, which provides advisory services to digital media enterprises. He’s made both the 2012 and 2013 AlwaysOn Power Players New York City list.

Gershon spent 15 years at The Walt Disney Company earning recognition as a pioneer in online and mobile video. As the senior vice president and general manager of corporate strategy, business development and technology, Gershon developed new digital businesses for the company, as well as new digital revenue opportunities for all Disney/ABC content, including broadband, wireless, cable, IPTV and VOD. Gershon was instrumental in delivering Disney/ABC content, including “High School Musical,” “Desperate Housewives” and “Lost,” to Sprint’s mobile video service. He also created, launched and distributed the 24-hour ABC News channel, ABC News Now.

Gershon served as senior vice president & general manager for ABC News, Digital Media Group and is credited with stabilizing and nurturing ABC News’ online businesses. He has also been recipient of the George Foster Peabody Award, RTNDA Edward R. Murrow Awards and numerous Webby Awards. In 2003 he was named in the top 10 of Streaming Media Magazine’s list of the Most Influential People in Streaming Media. He also serves on the advisory boards of top digital companies, including Boxee, Fwix, Row44, Woozworld, and several other companies in the mobile and online video space. He also serves on the board of SpotXchange.

About Earth911, Inc.

Earth911 gathers, distributes and analyzes localized recycling information to assist manufacturers, organizations and consumers with product end-of-life solutions. Working to increase the recycling and disposal of consumer goods since 1991, Earth911′s services enhance and support companies’ responsible waste initiatives. The Earth911 Recycling Directory is the largest and most accurate in the nation, with more than 1.6 million ways to recycle more than 360 types of materials. Follow @Earth911BizNews or visit http://business.earth911.com to learn more. Earth911, Inc. is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Infinity Resources Holdings Corporation (otcqb:IRHC) IRHC -5.45% . Infinity Resources Holdings companies provide innovative waste reduction and landfill diversion solutions for recycling and proper disposal of commercial and consumer waste streams. Visit http://www.infinityresourcesholdingscorp.com/.

Forward-Looking Statements This document contains forward-looking statements that are subject to a number of risks, assumptions, and uncertainties that could cause the Company’s actual results to differ materially from those projected. These risks, assumptions, and uncertainties include the following: the ability of the Company to raise capital; the ability to complete systems within currently estimated time frames and budgets; the ability to compete effectively in a rapidly evolving and price-competitive marketplace; changes in nature of telecommunications regulation in the United States and other countries; changes in business strategy; the successful integration of newly acquired businesses; the impact of technical change; and other risks referenced from time to time in the Company’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The post Earth911 Adds Veteran Recycling Exec to Advisory Board appeared first on peHUB.

President Barack Obama and President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority walk past an honor guard at the Mugata Presidential Compound in Ramallah, the West Bank, March 21, 2013.

(Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

President Obama was in the West Bank for the first time since 2008 on the second day of his visit to the Middle East, where he held meetings in Ramallah with Palestinian Authority President Abbas and Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Fayyad, and attended a cultural event at Al-Bireh Youth Center. President Obama, who was joined by Secretary of State John Kerry in his meetings, commended President Abbas and Prime Minister Fayyad for the progress that they’ve made in building the institutions of a Palestinian state.

“I’ve returned to the West Bank because the United States is deeply committed to the creation of an independent and sovereign state of Palestine,” President Obama said in a joint press conference with President Abbas. “Like people everywhere, Palestinians deserve a future of hope — that their rights will be respected, that tomorrow will be better than today and that they can give their children a life of dignity and opportunity. Put simply, Palestinians deserve a state of their own.”

In the interests of the Palestinian people, and also in the national security interest of Israel, the United States, and the world, President Obama reaffirmed “that the United States remains committed to realizing the vision of two states.”

We seek an independent, a viable and contiguous Palestinian state as the homeland of the Palestinian people, alongside the Jewish State of Israel — two nations enjoying self-determination, security and peace. As I have said many times, the only way to achieve that goal is through direct negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians themselves. There is no shortcut to a sustainable solution.

The President also spent time in Jerusalem today, this morning where he toured the Israel Museum and again in the afternoon, where he delivered remarks to the Israeli people from the Jerusalem International Convention Center. In his speech, President Obama spoke about the “unbreakable bonds of friendship” between Israel and the United States.

read more

It’s been hinted at and implied in the past but Apple is serious about apps using universal devices identifiers (UDIDs) now: starting May 1, it will be rejected from the App Store, the company told its third-party developers on Thursday.

On its developer site Apple writes:

Starting May 1, the App Store will no longer accept new apps or app updates that access UDIDs. Please update your apps and servers to associate users with the Vendor or Advertising identifiers introduced in iOS 6.

UDIDs, which were intended to be anonymous, have been used by publishers, developers and advertisers to track their app’s usage and more accurately target advertisements almost since the App Store opened in 2008. But there are huge privacy implications with that practice: with just a bit more identifying data, a device’s UDID can be traced to a specific owner.

Apple first mentioned it would start rejecting apps that used UDIDs, due to privacy concerns, in late 2011. Then almost exactly a year ago, there were signs the company’s app review team had begun enforcing that rule. Then in September 2012, Apple introduced a replacement system for advertisers to use, the Advertising Identifier, an anonymized number that users can choose to reset, or opt out of altogether.

By May 1, the Advertising Identifier will have been available for eight months; plenty of time for those who want to understand how their apps are being used to switch over to the new system.

Besides UDID use, 9to5Mac notes that App Store reviewers will also be looking for apps that aren’t optimized for Retina displays and will reject them, along with iPhone apps that are not optimized for the 4-inch screen of the iPhone 5.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• Analyzing the wearable computing market
• Confused about the wireless markets? Here’s a breakdown
• Carrier IQ and the continued erosion of operator trust

An interview with Elizabeth Grace Saunders, founder and CEO of Real Life E and author of The 3 Secrets to Effective Time Investment.

Download this podcast

A written transcript will be available by March 29.

One of the more innovative features of Sense 5 is BlinkFeed, which aggregates all of your social media and general news content into one gorgeous tiled interface. In their latest promo video, HTC highlights BlinkFeed in a pretty unique way. The video begins showing a young woman on a train alone with her HTC One. Upon using BlinkFeed, the images on her BlinkFeed come to life, reading aloud her status updates from her social networks as well as various news stories she has added to it. Check out the video after the break.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Come comment on this article: HTC One’s BlinkFeed highlighted in new promo video

This week, the President spoke on American Energy Security at the Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois, celebrated the luck of the Irish, honored leaders in STEM education and small business, filled out his NCAA tournament brackets, announced his nominee for the Secretary of Labor, and embarked on a 5 day trip to Israel, the West Bank, and Jordan.

read more

SQL or NoSQL? In-memory or hard disks? Graph? These questions have been top of mind in recent years as developers and IT administrators check out new-age databases capable of handling scale-out data sets. Executives from four databases showed how they stand out in a hot market at GigaOM’s Structure:Data conference on Thursday.

Emil Eifrem, CEO of Neo Technology, touted the power of Neo4j and other graph databases to show relationships among disparate varieties of data with nodes, edges and key-value properties. (Think of Facebook’s Graph Search as one version.) The style takes inspiration from the connections among neurons and synapses inside the brain, Eifrem said. But, like other NoSQL databases, Neo Technology’s Neo4j product doesn’t use the SQL programming language, which could limit its adoption among enterprises.

Damian Black, CEO of SQLstream, touted his database’s use of SQL, calling it “lingua franca for data management.” Sure, it isn’t the easiest language to use. Still, “you know it’s going to save, it’s going to work,” he said. “It’s auto-optimizing. It’s proven.” Plus, it might be easier to find developers who can use it. As specialized databases get more attention, that’s become a more important point, said the moderator of the talk, GigaOM Research Analyst David Linthicum.

Different databases have different sweet spots. For Ryan Garrett, vice president of product of MemSQL, it’s comparing real-time data — from the trading floor, say — with recent historical data from perhaps a day or a week ago. Andrew Cronk, CEO of TempoDB, said his database excels at crunching time-series data in long columns coming off of many new connected devices.

Black believes storing data in memory provides a clear advantage. “It’s obviously going to be faster if you’re pulling it from memory,” he said. Eifrem took issue with that notion, saying that Neo4j runs on wherever sufficient memory is available. “Generally speaking, we want to be as horizontal as possible,” he said.

Legacy database vendors such as Oracle still command large swaths of the database market. But specialized databases such as the four on display here could keep chipping away as data sets get larger and larger. Because there are so many flavors, a few databases could become leaders, rather than just one, as they really do have different strengths and weaknesses and use-case sweet spots. At least they do for now.

Check out the rest of our Structure:Data 2013 live coverage here, and a video embed of the session follows below.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• Listening platforms: finding the value in social media data
• A near-term outlook for big data
• 12 tech leaders’ resolutions for 2012

Verizon Wireless just updated its messaging service with an interesting and extremely useful feature. The carrier will now allow you to send text and multimedia messages from your PC or tablet just as you would from your phone.

The new integrated messaging feature basically divorces Verizon’s SMS service from the device it’s attached to, virtualizing the customer’s messaging client in an Android tablet or iPad app or within a web browser. In the PC, You can activate the service in the My Messaging tab once logged into the Verizon’s customer portal. So long as the messaging portal remains open messages will start popping up in your PC (Chrome, Safari, Internet Explorer and Firefox are supported, though Explorer won’t receive pop-up notifications). On the tablet, the service works like any other messaging apps, spawning push notifications whenever a new SMS or MMS is received.

The service works very similar to many SMS forwarding and cloud-based SMS applications we’ve seen from messaging outfits like MightyText, Zipwhip or DeskSMS. The difference between, say, a MightyText and Verizon Messaging, is Verizon isn’t intercepting messages as they reach the phone. They’re coming straight from Verizon SMS infrastructure, and require no phone client. You can utilize the service no matter what kind of mobile phone you use or whether the phone is even turned on or connected.

As over-the-top messaging services like WhatsApp, Pinger, TextMe and TextPlus, as well as platform-specific apps like Apple’s iMessage and BlackBerry Messenger, carriers are starting to see more messaging traffic move off their traditional SMS networks. Operators like Rogers in Canada – and now Verizon – have been trying to combat that trend by expanding their communications capabilities (and the phone number associated with them) beyond the phone.

It will be interesting to see if Verizon uses this as a building block for more cloud communications services. It could start virtualizing the phone’s voice capabilities in the browser or tablet, turning it into a mobile carrier version of Skype or Google Voice.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• CES 2012: a recap and analysis
• The fourth quarter of 2012 in mobile
• Mobile Q2: Smartphone growth surges; iPad’s rule continues

I’m sorry I’m too late to get anyone to these events today but I did want to applaud the efforts around Minneapolis to promote digital literacy. Today the city and various partners are kicking off a series of activities to promote digital literacy in 2013…

The City and its partners are hosting a series of open houses March 21 to encourage new users, community members and businesses to get connected with local community technology resources.  In addition to libraries and parks, there are several locations in Minneapolis where residents can use computers with Internet for free, and improve their digital literacy skills. These locations are referred to as “Community Technology Centers” and the following locations are partnering with the City to host these open houses through their association with the Technology Literacy Collaborative, a local network of digital inclusion supporters committed to sharing best practices, advocating for technology and digital literacy skills and access, and promoting collaborative efforts.

Partners include:

• Free Geek Twin Cities
• Project for Pride in Living Learning Center
• NorthPoint Health and Wellness Center, Inc.
• Pillsbury United Communities / Oak Park Neighborhood Center
• Pillsbury United Communities / Waite House Neighborhood Center
• University of Minnesota – Urban Research and Outreach-Engagement Center (UROC)

You can learn more about the yearlong effort on the City of Minneapolis website. You can also get a nice personal view of the event from a recent article by Alan Palazzolo in MinnPost. He makes the point that while there are some great resources out there, the hard part is getting word to the folks who most need it. So if you see a time and place to share the news, I hope you will.

Speaking of hopes, I’m also hoping that this citywide effort might spur efforts on a wider scope and/or serve as a model to others. I suspect that one impetus for the effort is the 2012 Minneapolis Digital Inclusion survey spearheaded by Otto Doll. It’s not the first time I’ve said that I’d love to see that survey expanded!