Mereja

Category: News

  • Americans Are Responding to the State of the Union

    Earlier tonight, the nation heard from President Obama, when he laid out his plan for a strong middle class and a strong America. And now, the White House is hearing from many of you. 

    Jason, who described himself as a veteran, told us: "I went to college using the GI Bill and was able to buy a home using the VA Home Loan. Please continue to give veterans the benefits they deserve and give them more help for transitioning out of the military back into civilian life." Jason was responding to something the President said during his address: "We will keep faith with our veterans – investing in world-class care, including mental health care, for our wounded warriors; supporting our military families; and giving our veterans the benefits, education, and job opportunities they have earned."

    A new tool created by the White House enables Americans to find the passages in the President's speech that highlight the issues you believe are most important, and then offers you the chance to let us know why. 

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  • President Obama’s 2013 State of the Union

    President Barack Obama delivers the State of the Union address (February 12, 2013)

    President Barack Obama delivers the State of the Union address in the House Chamber at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., Feb. 12, 2013. (Official White House Photo by Chuck Kennedy)

    Tonight President Obama outlined his plan for a thriving middle class and a strong America.

    "Together, we have cleared away the rubble of crisis," he said, "and we can say with renewed confidence that the State of our Union is stronger."

    The President described a strategy that will make the United States a magnet for jobs and manufacturing, equip every American with the skills they need to do those jobs, and ensuring that hard work leads to a decent living — through investments manufacturing, clean energy, infrastructure, and education.

    He asked Congress to send him legislation to reform immigration, combat climate change, increase the minimum wage, and reduce gun violence.

    To make sure you get the most out of the State of the Union, we put together an enhanced broadcast with charts, infographics, and important statistics. Watch that here:

    You can read President Obama's full remarks here. Or you can listen to the audio here:

    We're also introducing new tool you can use to dig in to the President's speech, line by line, and tell us what resonates with you and matters for your community. It's called the Citizens Response. Check it out here. 

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  • New From NAP 2013-02-13 00:00:00

    Final Book Now Available

    The Food Forum convened a public workshop on February 22-23, 2012, to explore current and emerging knowledge of the human microbiome, its role in human health, its interaction with the diet, and the translation of new research findings into tools and products that improve the nutritional quality of the food supply. The Human Microbiome, Diet, and Health: Workshop Summary summarizes the presentations and discussions that took place during the workshop. Over the two day workshop, several themes covered included:

    1. The microbiome is integral to human physiology, health, and disease.
    2. The microbiome is arguably the most intimate connection that humans have with their external environment, mostly through diet.
    3. Given the emerging nature of research on the microbiome, some important methodology issues might still have to be resolved with respect to undersampling and a lack of causal and mechanistic studies.
    4. Dietary interventions intended to have an impact on host biology via their impact on the microbiome are being developed, and the market for these products is seeing tremendous success. However, the current regulatory framework poses challenges to industry interest and investment.

    [Read the full report]

    Topics: Food and Nutrition

  • Barack Obama’s 2013 State of the Union: Talks for deeper thinking on the issues

    State-of-the-UnionPresident Barack Obama ended his 2013 State of the Union address just minutes ago saying, “We are citizens. It’s a word that doesn’t just describe our nationality or legal status. It describes the way we’re made … Well into our third century as a nation, it remains the task of us all, as citizens of these United States, to be the authors of the next great chapter in our American story.”

    Read the full text of Obama’s speech. Or think more about the issues brought up in it by watching these TED Talks and Playlists.

    War and peace:

    Jobs and the economy:

    Science, innovation, invention:

    Leading the world:

    And of course, SOTU hero Desiline Victor:

  • IER President Thomas Pyle Responds to State of the Union

    WASHINGTON D.C. — IER President Thomas Pyle released the following statement in response to President Obama’s State of the Union address, given tonight before a joint session of the United States Congress:

    “Tonight, the president affirmed the renaissance in American manufacturing and recognized the promise of American energy. Yet he seems to misunderstand the reason that manufacturing jobs are coming back to America and why domestic oil and natural gas production are on the rise. These bright spots in an otherwise dark economic time have happened despite the president’s policies, and not because of them.

    The proof of his administration’s failure is that, despite federal lands and waters much larger than the combined private and state lands in the U.S., the CRS says 96% of this increase in oil production occured on non federal lands. Something is very, very wrong with the president’s energy programs.

    “It is telling that President Obama seemed more concerned about climate change than job creation, clearly following a well-worn path for this administration where no crisis goes to waste in pursuit of the President’s progressive agenda. For this administration, a deadly hurricane means a chance for carbon taxes. A crop-killling heat wave means another opportunity to attack the coal industry. Virtually any nightly weather report can be exploited to justify the empowerment of Washington regulators and more hurdles for affordable energy. In fact, the only jobs the president seems to be worried about are at the Environmental Protection Agency.

    “The President promised to ‘keep cutting red tape and speeding up new oil and gas permits.’ Yet his record is a more reliable indicator of his agenda than his rhetoric. Currently, it takes more than 300 days to get a permit to drill for oil or gas on federal lands, compared with 10 days in North Dakota where an energy boom has led to the lowest unemployment in the country. For all his talk of speeding up permits, it is telling that one permit remains on ice: the Keystone XL pipeline.

    “In the very next breath, the president promised to spend more federal dollars on efficiency standards and green energy progams. He just doesn’t seem to get it. More spending from Washington will neither solve our fiscal crisis nor promote American energy independence.

    “Essentially, the president’s plan amounts to greater dependence on Chinese financiers to reduce dependence on OPEC. Trading one form of foreign dependency for another is not a path forward.

    “This past week, the Institute for Energy Research released a report detailing a path forward to economic growth, job creation, and much-needed tax revenues without a single dollar of government spending required. This study, entitled “Beyond the Congressional Budget Office,” estimates that the United States could experience more than $14 trillion dollars in GDP growth, nearly $80 billion in annual federal tax revenues, and nearly 2 million jobs every year if the administration would get out of the way and let the American people go to work producing energy on our federal lands and waters.

    With commonsense solutions and a commitment to American energy security, we can move forward. What we do not need is more of the same false rhetoric, or more of the same failed policies.”

  • A miniature TED all about love

    TED@250-mainSome people go over-the-top for Valentine’s Days, showering their loved ones with candy and roses. Others bemoan Valentine’s Day as the ultimate Hallmark holiday. Wherever you stand on this spectrum — as Cupid pulls back his bow this week — it’s hard not to think about your own relationship or lack thereof. It’s a question deeply embedded in all our minds: what, exactly, does it mean to love in our technology-soaked era?

    Helen Fisher: The brain in loveHelen Fisher: The brain in love

    Inspired by Helen Fisher’s classic TED Talk, “The brain in love,” we invited three speakers with big ideas on relationships, sex and family to our New York office for a TED@250 salon, part of a program to tackle timely topics. Love was certainly in the air.

    After a screening of the incredibly sweet office-romance film “Post-It Love,” Christian Rudder stepped to the stage. The co-founder and editorial director of OKCupid, Rudder set out to parse some of the data pouring into the site at all times from its users. For example, Rudder shared that when a man on the site writes a woman without any previous interaction, he has a 25% chance of getting a response from her. Meanwhile, women cold-writing men through the site have a 40% chance of a reply. Rudder shared another interesting tidbit — that half of responses are sent to a message are sent with seven hours. As Rudder put it to a big laugh, “Seven hours is basically the half-life of your hopes and dreams.”

    TED@250-RudderBut Rudder shared an inspiring bit of news. Every day, 500 people deactivate their OKCupid profiles because they met someone through the site. “All it takes is one,” says Rudder. This sentiment was echoed in the ahhhh-worthy Google video, “Parisian Love,” which tells a moving love story via search.

    Bruce Feiler, author of Walking the Bible and the new book The Secrets of Happy Families, stepped up next to share the surprising thing that has revolutionized his family life: agile programming. A method of software development, agile breaks down large projects into small, do-able bits — allowing people throughout the process to give feedback as they go. Agile was developed in opposition to the “waterfall method,” where people in charge determine the flow of the project and people inside the process have no input.

    TED@250-FeilerApplying this to a family means creating detailed daily checklists. “You can’t underestimate the power of making a checkmark,” says Feiler. “It works in offices and it works with kids.” Agile in the home also involves having weekly meetings to talk about what went well over the course of seven days and what needs improvement. And Feiler reveals a surprising fact about his twin 8-year-olds: that they’re able to pick their own punishments and they generally give themselves harsher ones than their parents would have picked.

    Finally, we heard from Esther Perel, author of Mating in Captivity, who spoke about keeping passion in long-term relationships now that human beings “live twice as long” as we used to. Perel nailed the basic challenge of modern relationships — that, on the one hand, they must to satisfy our deep-seated need for security, dependability and permanence while at the same time meeting our equally strong need for adventure, mystery and the unexpected.

    TED@250-Perel“Can we want what we already have?” Perel asked. The answer is yes. But because Perel sees desire as the space between the self and the other, she reveals that this can be achieved in some counter-intuitive ways — in part by being more selfish and savoring moments of absence. Her thoughts were truly surprising and inspiring.

    Stay tuned for these great talks on TED.com and the TED Blog in the upcoming weeks.

    Photos by Cloe Shasha

  • New report highlights global governments’ failure to support family-friendly policies

     
    A new report launched today by the UCLA World Policy Analysis Center presents never-before-available comparative data on nearly every country in the world, revealing how millions of children across the globe face conditions that limit their opportunities to thrive and reach their full potential. Dr. Jody Heymann, dean of the UCLA Jonathan and Karin Fielding School of Public Health, co-authored the study.
     
    “Changing Children’s Chances” provides a thorough analysis of the laws and public policies of 191 countries covering the areas of poverty, discrimination, education, health, child labor, child marriage and parental care.
     
    Governments in both developed and developing countries are not taking widely agreed-upon steps in critical areas known to make a difference to children’s opportunities, said Heymann.
     
    This new research, she says, aims to focus global attention on these issues to ensure that existing policies governing child welfare are fully implemented and that new measures are introduced that will enable children’s full and healthy development.
     
    The report includes unique full-color world maps and tables offering insights into global policies on a range of topics, including how long girls are protected from marrying, compared with boys; which countries charge tuition fees for secondary education; which countries guarantee paid leave for new mothers and fathers; and which offer inclusive education to children with disabilities.
     
    Among the findings of the “Changing Children’s Chances” report:
     
    • Child labor and minimum wage
     
    167 countries (out of 189 from which data were available) have established a national minimum wage, yet in 40 of these countries, a family with a working adult with one dependent child may be expected to subsist on $2 or less per person per day.
     
    Six countries have no legislated minimum age for employment. Children may be put to work as young as 12 or 13 years old in five countries, at age 14 in 29 countries, and at age 15 in 63 countries.
     
    •  Maternity and paternity leave
     
    While the vast majority of countries provide maternity pay for new mothers — just eight do not, including the United States — far fewer make similar arrangements for fathers. Only 81 countries provide paid leave that can be taken by men, either through paternity leave (67 countries) or through leave-time available to either parent.
     

    • Education and special needs
     
    While universal free primary education has become a reality for most of the world’s children (in 166 of the 174 countries from which data were available), 61 countries still charge tuition for all or some secondary education.
     
    Despite global recognition that inclusive education helps children with special needs achieve their full potential, only 73 countries place children with disabilities in the same classrooms as non-disabled children; 62 include them in the same schools, but not necessarily the same classes; and 28 educate them separately.
     

    • Child marriage
     
    Girls are particularly vulnerable to early marriage, which can often result in them being taken out of school. In 54 countries, they are permitted to marry between one and three years before boys.
     

    • Children with disabilities
     
    Just 58 countries worldwide provide specific cash benefits or supplements to cover the needs of children with disabilities.
     
    “Progress over the past few decades demonstrates that where there is a will, there is a way to make dramatic changes in children’s lives, from survival to basic education,” Heymann said. “However, our findings show how far nations still have to go to realize a world where all children have a chance to thrive, not just survive. National laws and policies in areas ranging from labor to education to poverty reduction fall far short of what countries have committed to in international agreements. At the same time, there are resource-constrained countries that are ahead of the curve, showing the feasibility of action and giving hope that dramatic change is possible.”
     
    Commenting on the “Changing Children’s Chances” report, Professor Sir Michael Marmot, director of the Institute of Health Equity at University College London, said: “The findings of this new report confirm that children the world over are being denied opportunities to live to their potential. What happens in a child’s early life — regardless of where they are in the world — very much determines their chances to lead healthy and productive lives in their adulthood.
     
    “The inequalities children face in their early years lead to continued inequalities in later life. We simply cannot afford to let this continue to happen, and we have to use the growing body of evidence to address the social determinants of children’s health and the conditions in which they are born, grow, live, work and age.”
     
    Representatives from governments around the world will soon be gathering, as part of a United Nations initiative, to set global goals that the world’s nations should strive for — the so-called “post-2015” agenda. This agenda is currently being formulated, and recommendations from the UN’s High-Level Panel of Eminent Persons will be made to the UN secretary general this May.
     
    “Changing Children’s Chances” calls on world leaders to consider the following recommendations, among others, in shaping the post-2015 agenda:
     
    • Education
     
    Make education free, especially secondary education. Quality secondary education and the employment opportunities it provides are key to lifting young people out of poverty.
     
    Increase educational-attainment requirements for teachers, accompanied by improved salaries and training to ensure that enough qualified teachers are available.
     

    • Labor and workplace
     
    Protect children and youth from working long hours, which interferes with success at school.
     
    Ensure that minimum wages are high enough to lift families out of poverty without relying on child labor to supplement family income; provide financial assistance to low-income families supporting children.
     
    Ensure that workplace policies are in place that enable working parents to care for their children — especially critical in the context of changing global labor-market conditions.
     

    • Marriage
     
    Establish a minimum age for marriage that is the same for both sexes and that is high enough to allow children and youth to complete secondary education.
     

    • Parental care
     
    Countries that have not yet done so should guarantee paid maternity, paternity and parental leave, as well as leave to care for children’s health needs.
     

    • Fighting discrimination
     
    Ensure that legal and constitutional provisions create a strong foundation against discrimination for all children and adults across the lines of gender, ethnicity, employment, religion and sexuality.
     

    • Children with disabilities
     
    Address the specific needs of children with disabilities, including their access to inclusive education and the provision of supplementary income to meet their special needs. 
     
    Baroness Massey, chair of the United Kingdom’s All-Party Parliamentary Group on Children, welcomed the report’s publication and recommendations.
     
    “This report highlights yet again that supportive policies frame what caring families are able to provide for their children,” she said. “The steps taken by governments do make the difference for children’s chances, whether ensuring access to quality education, protection from child labor and early marriage, good health care, working conditions that enable parents to care for their children, or freedom from discrimination. We must continue to strive to hold countries publicly and visibly accountable for the policies that are central to the lives of all children.”
     
    The World Policy Analysis Center is the largest data center examining social and economic policy globally, covering hundreds of aspects of policy and national outcomes in 193 countries. With an international team and nearly a decade of work carried out at Harvard University, McGill University and UCLA, the center has brought together for the first time quantitatively comparable findings on laws and policies in all 193 UN countries. The “Changing Children’s Chances” report presents these groundbreaking findings for children. 

     
    The UCLA Fielding School of Public Health is dedicated to enhancing the public’s health by conducting innovative research; training future leaders and health professionals; translating research into policy and practice; and serving local, national and international communities.

     

    Additional information for editors:
    • Tweet about “Children’s Chances” using #kidschances.
    • Dr. Jody Heymann will be in London from Feb. 7–14 and will be available for interviews.
     
    VIDEOS on the ‘Changing Children’s Chances’ report:
     
    Dr. Jody Heymann, dean of the UCLA Jonathan and Karin Fielding School of Public Health:
     
    Sir Michael Marmot, director of the Institute of Health Equity at University College London:
     

     
     
    Baroness Doreen Massey, chair of the UK’s All-Party Parliamentary Group on Children:
     

     
     
    Catherine Mbengue, of the African Policy Child Forum and former senior adviser to UNICEF:
     

     
     

  • Microsoft pushes Office 365 with ‘Quick Start’ video series

    Microsoft has made no real secret that it prefers you to buy an annual license for software, as opposed to purchasing a non-expiring version. Office 2013/365 is the first real example of that, but will surely not be the last. Since the products’ release, the company has pushed out PDF guides to help guide you along.

    Now the push continues with a video version of those “Quick Start” guides. Earlier today the Office team announced the release of five videos in a new series that will give users a head-start on the new app suite.

    “If you have just six minutes to spare, you can get acquainted with the new Office by watching the five videos below”, according to Microsoft.

    The five videos cover very brief information on what is included in Office 365 Home Premium, how to get started, using Office everywhere, how to set up Office 365 on five computers and adding family members to your subscription.

    To help lure you in, the company makes it as painless as possible with PDF and video guides to get you started, varied pricing that can be either monthly or annually — warning: monthly costs more in the long run, and the ability to use one license on multiple home computers. Oh, and the company is also offering an additional 20 GB of SkyDrive storage and 60 minutes of Skype credit.

    Is there really any question left about which direction customers are being steered? Still, regardless of that, it probably is the best deal for most households. To check out the videos, one only needs to visit the Office blog for links to each and every one of the the five.

  • Google Revenue From Mobile Estimated At $20 Billion In 2016

    Marin Software has released a new report looking at mobile search advertising around the world. The report cites data from Cowen and Company about Google’s estimated mobile revenues, which indicates that Google will make as much as $20 billion in mobile revenue in 2016.

    “According to a research report from Cowen, Google earned $2.5 Billion in mobile rev- enue in 2011,” says the report. “And by 2016, it’s estimated that mobile could drive $20 Billion in revenue for the search giant. The exponential growth in mobile advertising largely tracks consumer adoption trends. Smartphones now have a greater than 50% penetration in the US mobile phone market. And mobile advertising isn’t just limited to phones. In fact, sales of mobile devices (phones and tablets) running Google Android are expected to have eclipsed ‘PC’ sales in 2012. And consumers worldwide have already bought more than a billion iOS and Android devices.”

    “The emerging world of the mobile-enabled consumer is quite different from the pre- smartphone world,” it continues. “In this new reality, the walls between online and offline commerce are crumbling. Case in point: today’s consumers routinely check product reviews and compare prices online while they’re in a brick and mortar store.”

    Google Mobile Revenue

    This is why Google launched the controversial Enhanced Campaigns model for AdWords last week.

    You can find Marin’s full report here.

  • Slidehare Introduces New Tracking Analytics Tool

    In May 2012, LinkedIn acquired document presentation startup SlideShare. Since that time, the company has been integrating itself into LinkedIn’s carefully managed (and profitable) corporate culture.

    Today, SlideShare announced a very LinkedIn-style feature for its service. The new feature, called “Send Tracker,” is an analytics tool that will allow users to gather metrics on how people use Slide Share presentations. For example, the software could report back on who viewed a presentation and how much time they spent on each slide. It can also send alerts when people click through emails or view SlideShare content.

    The feature is geared toward marketers and salespeople, so that they can observe potential customers and focus their time on prospects who engaged well with a presentation. It’s a free feature for subscribers to SlideShare’s premium “SlideShare Pro” service.

    As expected, SlideShare has prepared a slideshow that covers the highlights of the new feature. The SlideShare presentation is embedded below, and it probably uses Send Tracker analytics to send data back to SlideShare. I’ll leave it up to each reader to decide whether they consider their SlideShare viewing habits private, and engage with the presentation accordingly.

  • Fear Not, Surface Fans, More 128GB Surface Pros Should Be On Store Shelves By Saturday

    SurfaceProRight

    Microsoft launched its curious Surface Pro hybrid earlier this week, but it turns out that actually trying to buy one was a bit more problematic than people had hoped. Folks looking to get their hands on one of the 128GB models had it especially rough — the $999 device sold out in Microsoft’s online store and some of the company’s retail outlets, not to mention some Best Buy and Staples locations.

    Well, according to a tweet from Surface GM Panos Panay, the process of snagging a 128GB Surface Pro will be much easier in just a few days — he confirmed that units were on their way to Best Buy and Microsoft retail stores and that they would be ready to sell by Saturday.

    Naturally, Panay didn’t let that tentative timeframe slip uncajoled — he engaged the masses on Twitter in an hour-long chat earlier today that also saw him tackle questions about the Surface Pro’s stylus and the company’s toe-tapping commercials. It wasn’t until a user named @EvanSturdivant pressed Panay on the generic statement about Surface Pro availability he had previously issued that the truth finally came out.

    At first glance, all these reports of Surface Pro sell-outs seem to point to a considerable amount of demand for the product — Paul Thurrott noted the existence of “Apple-like lines” in some Microsoft stores — but we’ve since learned that the scarcity of the Surface Pro may have had more to do with limited supply than overwhelming demand. Both 64 and 128GB Surface Pros were apparently in short supply when some people called around asking for them, and one unlucky ZDNet writer had to schlep to a Microsoft Store 50 miles from where he lived because it was the only place he could find a 128GB model. As is usually the case, some people began to cook up some strange conspiracy theories (like one that claimed Microsoft deliberately limited supplies in order to say that it had sold out of Surface Pros), but I seriously doubt that’s the case. Sure, the whole rigmarole was a headache for people itching for a high-end Surface Pro, but the smart money’s on all this being an issue of mismanagement and not malice.

  • BlackBerry Working With Soc.io Android App Store to Bring More Apps to BlackBerry 10

    BlackBerry and the developer relations team has done a great job bringing lots of Android apps to the new Z10. I see a lot of games on BlackBerry World are Android ports and they seem perform as if they were coded natively. BlackBerry has been working with Soc.io, one of the top Android app stores to bring even more apps over to the budding platform.

    The Soc.io Mall has over 10000 apps and games in their catalogue and makes a great pitch to their developers in which an easy porting process can open the door to a whole new revenue stream. They’ve set up a site that helps developers with the process and also offers incentives and prizes.

    Click here to get started developing for BlackBerry 10.

    Click here to visit the Soc.io Android Mall.


  • Star Trek The Game Might Just Impress In April

    Star Trek is more popular than ever thanks to J.J. Abrams’ reboot of the series in 2009′s Star Trek. Now the sequel – Into Darkness – is almost upon us, and you know what that means, right? Yep, another hastily put together movie tie-in that will most assuredly disappoint.

    I realize that such an early assessment is really unfair, but Gearbox Software had more than five years to get Aliens right. They flubbed that, so forgive me if I don’t think Digital Extremes can make a competent Star Trek game in a year and a half.

    Oh wait, this actually looks kind of good. Sure, it doesn’t look like classic Star Trek, but it looks a helluva lot like J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek universe. That’s only a good thing in my book as his universe is far friendlier to what video games need to succeed as adaptations.

    Maybe we can give Digital Extremes the benefit of the doubt here. After all, the studio is responsible for one of the best games of 2012 – The Darkness II. The developer proved it could take a license and craft an awesome game around it then. What’s to stop them from doing it now?

    Of course, an adaptation of a comic book gives developers more freedom than a film adaptation, but being allowed to craft their own story that’s not tied to the events of either film may just help it along. I don’t think any of us will have any complaints as long as it doesn’t end up like Aliens: Colonial Marines.

  • Bieber Rips Carney On Twitter After Grammy Remark

    Justin Bieber has shot back at the drummer for The Black Keys, Patrick Carney, following a remark he made after the Grammy Awards on Sunday night.

    When asked about Bieber’s supposed “snub” at the awards show–which saw The Black Keys take home several trophies–Carney said, “He’s rich, right? … Grammys are for music, not for money … and he’s making a lot of money.”

    Bieber promptly fired back on Twitter.

    He must not be too mad, though, because soon after, he retweeted Stewie Griffin.

  • Dropbox for Teams targets the enterprise

    I love my Dropbox account. Or, I should say that I love the idea of my Dropbox account. I will be the first to admit that I honestly do not use it very much. I work from home and rarely have reason to share files. My wife, however, uses that account on an almost daily basis. She shares school files with her students via Dropbox. In other words, it is a business tool — even for someone who simply teaches Spanish to grade school kids one day per week. Now, the company has made it an even more useful business tool with a host of new features announced today.

    In prefacing the announcement, Dropbox representative Emil Ibrishimov takes a second to brag about the fact that “people at over two million businesses and 95 percent of Fortune 500 companies are using Dropbox — from law firms working with their clients to international businesses staying in sync across the world”.

    Ibrishimov goes on to explain that the company has been “working with our customers to design features that give them the insight and tools their businesses need, while keeping the simplicity that makes Dropbox so easy to use”.

    The new features are for the “Dropbox for Teams” service and offer better control for administrators. These include the ability to view recent activity, third-party apps that have been added, activity between all team members, sharing controls and more. Admins can even download reports that display all of that data, meaning those folks in the cubicles need to be even more careful about what they are sharing.

    Dropbox for Teams is available on a scaled platform depending on the size of your business. Accounts start at $795 per year for five users and additional users will cost $125. Storage is also scaled based on this. The new features announced today are available immediately and all of this is controlled through a brand new Admin Console.

    Photo Credit: T. L. Furrer/Shutterstock

  • Mobile, Social Media Becoming Increasingly Important To Moviegoers

    Are you the kind of person who uses their mobile device during a movie? If so, shame on you. That being said, you’re not alone as new research has found that most moviegoers use some kind of mobile device to augment the experience.

    In Nielsen’s 2012 American Moviegoing report, the group found that mobile moviegoers “spend more, consume more content and are more actively engaged in the moviegoing process.” The report found that the moviegoers are increasingly moving to mobile with 69 percent of moviegoers owning a smartphone and 29 percent owning a tablet. It also found that mobile device owners see more movies with smartphone owners seeing nine percent more movies, and tablet owners seeing 20 percent more movies last year compared to their non-mobile device owning contemporaries.

    Outside of the theater, tablet owners are the biggest film consumers. The report says that they watched 47 movies on average last year, 10 more than the average moviegoer. Tablet owners are also more likely to spend more, and buy their tickets online.

    Movie Consumers Are Increasingly Going Mobile

    Being closely tied to mobile, social media’s impact on the moviegoer experience can not be ignored either. Nielsen’s report found that that the 18 to 24 and 25 to 34 age ranges used social media the most to discuss films. The overall moviegoer population is seeing increases in social media use as well.

    Mobile Device Owners Watch More Movies, Spend More Too

    From a certain point of view, this is great news for marketers who can take advantage of new advertising venues on mobile to reach a larger audience. I just ask that you turn off your phone during the movie. The annoying warning before the movie starts is there for a reason.

  • Carnaval Celebrated With Google Doodle in Brazil

    Google has a doodle on its Brazil home page today, celebrating Carnaval (Carnival).

    Google regularly celebrates Carnaval from Feb 7-12. For the third year in a row, YouTube is streaming events. In a post on February 4, Google wrote:

    What better way to experience a party the size of Brazil than by connecting to the rhythms and local traditions of six different cities—from Rio de Janeiro’s samba and Salvador’s axé to southern Brazil’s frevo. This year, you’ll be able to enjoy the festivities of Salvador, Rio de Janeiro, Olinda, São Luís do Maranhão, Ouro Preto and Pirenópolis.

    Pick from a series of live feeds, camera angles and performances from the city of your choice, right in the middle of the party. Channel feeds are made possible by a combination of YouTube Live and Google+ Hangouts. In total, you can access a total of 150 hours of live Carnival feeds—from your laptop, tablet or smartphone.

    Google has also joined with photographers to upload pictures of “Carnaval’s best moments” from 20 different Brazillian cities at Google+ Carnaval.

  • News from 12th February 2012


    Copied from my Twitter @egyptologynews account

    Preserving one of Egypt’s most efficient ecosystems: The mangrove. Egypt Independent http://bit.ly/12J7hqI

    Amara West excavations 2013: the past as seen in photos from a photographic kite flown over the site. British Museum http://bit.ly/VSDSDl

    Malqata dig diary: One enigmatic feature of the site is a huge area over 72,000sq.m that is a vast deposit of potsherds http://bit.ly/Y7jf68

    Eleventh International Congress of Egyptologists, Bibliotheca Alexandrina 13th-20th September 2013 http://bit.ly/PBKUIi

    A Roman statue head has been repatriated to Egypt from Brazil. With photo. Luxor Times http://bit.ly/YUTTLC

    Not news, just a short article on the AE city of On (Heliopolis), but might be of interest to some. Daily News Egypt http://bit.ly/YQFcJw

    Job opening: Herbert Thompson Lecturer in Ancient Egyptian Language, University of Cambridge, Department of Archaeology http://bit.ly/14QLgow

    Digital Archaeology. Uncovering the “A New Look at Ancient Egypt” website after years of neglect. http://bit.ly/YSgkRw

    Free online: The Goddess Hathor and the women of ancient Egypt. Danielle Basson. MPhil, University of Stellenbosch http://bit.ly/YaIoP7

    French archeologist Michel Wuttmann found dead in his Cairo apartment, investigators suspect foul play. Washington Post http://wapo.st/12J4oGt

    Barry Kemp and his team have resumed work at Amarna. Their email newsletter is copied here: http://bit.ly/V2hWeb

    Amara West Dig Diary 2013: the latest from Cemetery C. British Museum http://hvrd.me/WUYD3o

    Speaking at Harvard, Egyptologist Marc Gabolde offered different interpretation of Tut DNA evidence. Harvard Gazette http://hvrd.me/WUYD3o

    Brown University’s Abydos Dig has uncovered a skeleton in the North Cemetery, among other finds. Brown Daily Herald http://bit.ly/X1sGYy

    Egyptology News Blog, Andie Byrnes

  • Fitbit’s Updated Android App Packs Wireless Sync Support For Samsung’s Galaxy S III and Note II

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    Nike may not be planning to release an Android companion app for its activity-tracking FuelBand, but rival Fitbit is eager to make sure that health-conscious Droid owners are well taken care of. To that end, the company pushed out a new version of its Fitbit Android app that finally brings Bluetooth 4.0 sync support to Samsung’s Galaxy S III and Galaxy Note II.

    It’s sure to be welcome news for Android-devoted owners of the Fitbit One or Fitbit Zip (the forthcoming Flex wristband is supported too), but let’s face it — wireless sync support for two smartphones may seem a little underwhelming. Still, it’s certainly a step in the right direction, especially considering just how widely those particular Samsung handsets are.

    As more than a few people pointed out the other day, Android-powered devices make up a huge chunk of the global smartphone market and basically ignoring all those users like Nike has is a course of action that seems awfully silly.Even so, Fitbit’s slow rollout is rather telling — while the company has said that it will work to bring wireless syncing to more devices in the weeks and months to come, ensuring a smooth and timely sync experience doesn’t really seem to be a one-size-fits-all process.

    Even Fitbit representatives acknowledge that this most recent version of the app isn’t exactly perfect. Apparently, the development team still thinks of this release as something of a beta since the sync process still takes a little longer than they would like. Sadly, my Fitbit has disappeared into the wilds of my desk drawer, so I couldn’t see how long it took for me personally, but those of you with all the prerequisite hardware may as well give it a shot.

  • Enterprise app stores seek to cure BYOD woes

    The so-called “bring your own device to work” movement is great for employees looking to use their own (and newest) stuff and for business managers looking to cut hardware costs but a nightmare for IT admins. So they’re fighting back, just too bad at the typically glacially slow pace of big enterprises.

    Gartner predicts that by 2017 one-quarter of enterprises will have their own mobile app stores offering sanctioned wares for employees.

    “Apps downloaded from public app stores for mobile devices disrupt IT security, application and procurement strategies”, Ian Finley, Gartner research vice president, says. “Bring your own application (BYOA) has become as important as bring your own device (BYOD) in the development of a comprehensive mobile strategy, and the trend toward BYOA has begun to affect desktop and Web applications as well”.

    BYOA and BYOD extenuate problems going back to early PCs and extending through several waves, such as Palm Pilots, BlackBerries, iPhones and iPads, among others. Each of these is development platform, rich with apps, as well as device. Around them, employees commingle professional and personal activities and data, too often poorly managed and posing unforeseen security risks.

    “Enterprise app stores promise at least a partial solution but only if IT security, application, procurement and sourcing professionals can work together to successfully apply the app store concept to their enterprises”, Finley says. “When successful, they can increase the value delivered by the application portfolio and reduce the associated risks, license fees and administration expenses”.

    Enterprises have to do something, seeing as how many encourage BYOD. According to “Good Technology’s 2nd Annual State of BYOD Report”, 76 percent of enterprises with more than 2,000 employees have programs in place, and the total is expected to reach 88 percent this year. However, the largest and smallest businesses are slowest adopters. Among organizations with 10,000 employees, only 46 percent have BYOD programs in place, up from 35 percent in 2011. One-quarter of businesses with less than 2,000 employees follow suit.

    There is a startling shift in costs — to employee up rather than organization down. Good finds that in half the companies with BYOD programs, employees pay for devices and supporting services, such as cellular data for cell phones, tablets and some laptops.

    But that’s for the hardware. Many IT operations must contend with BOYA, as natural consequence and nuisance. Hence, the rise of enterprise app stores.

    In the short term, mobile device management (don’t you just love these analyst conventions) will lead the way. “Today, most MDM providers have a simple way of extending apps to mobile devices, usually through a basic agent on the device, but many are launching more-sophisticated app stores that can host enterprise and third-party apps to be accessed by smartphones, tablets and PCs”, Phillip Redman, Gartner research vice president, says. “The development of mobile apps and the support of MDM will drive most enterprise app store implementations during the next 12 to 18 months”.

    Long-term, Gartner sees enterprise app stores as a means of encouraging developers to submit competing apps. Employees get more choice, IT takes more control and businesses benefit from sanctioned choices rather than the Wild West they contend with today.

    Photo Credit: andrea michele piacquadio/Shutterstock