Hey, Apple and Google: Stop trying to wolf the whole mobile pie • The Register

“Apple is a terrible Google, which is a terrible Amazon, which is a terrible Apple.”

It’s become a truism that the way to win in mobile is with an end-to-end, hardware-to-software-to-cloud strategy. I just wish this were as good for consumers as it seems to be for vendors. If I could get any wish fulfilled for 2013, it would be to have Apple and Google, in particular, go back to doing what they do best – rather than doing “all the things” in an attempt to squeeze out maximum value from a captive consumer.
via Hey, Apple and Google: Stop trying to wolf the whole mobile pie • The Register.

The Web We Lost – Anil Dash

Really interesting article afrom Anil Dash about how the web has changed, a few points I like are his views on single-sign-on – In 2003, if you introduced a single-sign-in service that was run by a company, even if you documented the protocol and encouraged others to clone the service, you’d be described as introducing a tracking system worthy of the PATRIOT act. There was such distrust of consistent authentication services that even Microsoft had to give up on their attempts to create such a sign-in. Though their user experience was not as simple as today’s ubiquitous ability to sign in with Facebook or Twitter, the TypeKey service introduced then had much more restrictive terms of service about sharing data. And almost every system which provided identity to users allowed for pseudonyms, respecting the need that people have to not always use their legal names.

Also his view on personal websites – In the early days of the social web, there was a broad expectation that regular people might own their own identities by having their own websites, instead of being dependent on a few big sites to host their online identity. In this vision, you would own your own domain name and have complete control over its contents, rather than having a handle tacked on to the end of a huge company’s site. This was a sensible reaction to the realization that big sites rise and fall in popularity, but that regular people need an identity that persists longer than those sites do.

via The Web We Lost – Anil Dash.

New services bypass Apple DRM to allow pirated iOS app installs without jailbreaking on iPhone, iPad – The Next Web

“If you’re looking to steal apps from developers — lets not kid ourselves about what’s happening here — it is now easier than ever to do so.”

Late last year, the closure of the uber-popular Installous marked the end of a promiscuous era in iOS app piracy.

Now, several new services are on the rise that are filling the gap and offering easy installation of pirated apps, even on devices that have not been jailbroken.Updated with statement from Zeusmos’ developer below.The two that have risen to the forefront are Zeusmos and Kuaiyong. While the former has been around for a few months, it has gained significant steam since the exit of Installous. The latter has appeared seemingly from nowhere over the past couple of weeks.Both of these services are dangerous for app developers because they offer simple, one-tap installs of pirated apps and do not require that devices have been jailbroken in order to do so. This is an enormous problem, as it opens up the arena for their use from the relatively small fraction of users with jailbroken devices — as was the case with Installous — to any unscrupulous users of iPhones and iPads.

If you’re looking to steal apps from developers — lets not kid ourselves about what’s happening here — it is now easier than ever to do so.

via New services bypass Apple DRM to allow pirated iOS app installs without jailbreaking on iPhone, iPad – The Next Web.

You’re not anonymous. I know your name, email, and company.

Another example of why just because you can doesn’t mean you should. Privacy advocates are already looking to strangle the ad industry. This just adds fuel to the fire. Users don’t even know they need to opt-out of this kind of tracking which leads to media stories and then people blocking all tracking technologies even the benign ones which fund the web.

For example, if [a visitor] went to XYZ.com and filled out a web form and then [the visitor] later visited 42floors.com, [42Floors] would be able to identify [the visitor] by name/email as well as company details even though [the visitor] never filled out a web form on [42Floors.com].

via You’re not anonymous. I know your name, email, and company..

Why would anyone apply for a job on Facebook?

The Facebook Job Board Is Here: Recruiting Will Never Look The Same – Forbes

Facebook announced its long-awaited job board this morning, ushering in a new era of online recruiting and, eventually, what’s likely to be an important new source of revenue for the company. After a yearlong “Social Jobs Partnership” with the U.S. Department of Labor and other government agencies, the company released the Social Jobs Partnership application today, an interactive job board that aggregates 1.7 million openings from recruiting companies already working on the platform, including Work4 Labs, BranchOut, Jobvite, DirectEmployers and Monster.com.

I don’t think it’s much of an issue to be fair – jobvite is scary asking for facebook details (plus it never worked very well) and really most people are friends on facebook with work colleagues. You’d want ot be very careful that apps and boards didn’t publicise your activity and we all know how Facebook treat privacy controls…

via The Facebook Job Board Is Here: Recruiting Will Never Look The Same – Forbes.

Backlash against Amazon tax in the UK

So two things strike me as odd about the Amazon sweepstakes.

1. We don’t have Black Friday in the UK as we don’t celebrate Thanksgiving so it’s an odd promotion for the UK.

2. They don’t seem to have engaged anyone about the broadly negative comments about their tax avoidance schemes in the UK.

Such as

Felicitas Aga Are you kidding, Marco? Amazon doesn`t pay tax in uk!!!

Annina Eales i won’t be buying anything from you again unless you start paying tax

via Timeline Photos.

20 experiential web design trends for 2012 | Econsultancy

Web design by its very nature continues to evolve, as it must, to make the most of modern browsers and the likes of HTML5, CSS3 and JQuery, and to provide a wonderful user experience for tablet and smartphone owners.

Nowadays there is plenty of opportunity to stand out from the crowd, by being ahead of the curve, or by embracing new techniques that can help you to improve the performance of your website.

via 20 experiential web design trends for 2012 | Econsultancy.

How Zappos’ User Agreement Failed In Court and Left Zappos Legally Naked (Forbes Cross-Post)

In January, Zappos (part of $AMZN) announced a massive data security breach affecting 24 million consumers.  As typically happens in these situations, plaintiffs’ class action lawyers swarmed over Zappos for the breach, filing dozens of lawsuits.  Zappos tried to send the lawsuits to arbitration based on an arbitration clause in its user agreement.  Recently, a federal court struck down Zappos.com’s user agreement, denying Zappos’ arbitration request.  This is an unfortunate ruling for Zappos, because its contract–now dead–would have been quite helpful in combating this high-profile and potentially very expensive data security breach lawsuit.   More importantly, the mistakes Zappos made in its user agreement–though common throughout the Internet–are completely and easily avoidable.  This post will make some suggestions for how to avoid Zappos’ fate.

via Technology & Marketing Law Blog: How Zappos’ User Agreement Failed In Court and Left Zappos Legally Naked (Forbes Cross-Post).

American Apparel causes Twitter outrage with ‘Hurricane Sandy Sale’ | The Wall Blog

When will brands ever learn? Do people not use the internet and read stuff? When it comes to social media we are now at a point when we have a fat pile of case files detailing how various brands have failed at social media, but this does not apparently stop other brands copying these mistakes over and over again.

This time around it is the turn of American Apparel. It has had the bright idea of rolling out a “Hurricane Sandy Sale” ad and as you might guess has sparked something of a Twitter backlash and ensured its brand will forever be linked with the words “social media fail”.

via American Apparel causes Twitter outrage with ‘Hurricane Sandy Sale’ | The Wall Blog.

The Death of Display As We Know It? (Again)

Yes, Display Is Dying A Quick DeathYes, the banner ad as we knew it is no longer, and thank God. Remember those pixelated 728×90 leaderboards with static images for online adult chat sites that had absolutely no relation to any of the content on the page? Or those flashing online casino banners that just blinked blindingly quickly, almost screaming for your online attention? Or the first animated interactive game banner with the fly-swatter that moved every time your mouse moved? That was pretty novel at the time.We’ve come a long way baby Ahem … pardon the dated 1960s ad slogan reference. I’m clearly a product of consumerism. Today’s rich media ads and those annoying screen-takeovers are paving the way for tomorrow’s new crop of ad units, social ads and mobile banners. People have now gotten smarter, and so have the ads. Many believe that this new direction is changing and redefining the game for brand advertisers. Yes, according to several ballers in the ad industry I know, it’s time for celebration, and I may need to break out my pack of Virginia Slims to celebrate.

via The Death of Display As We Know It?.