Archive for March, 2012

PayPal to Announce Square Competitor Thursday

It is about time that Paypal picked up his game.  I always talk about how much I like square but the reality is I seldom use it.  Paypal is obviously more widely recognized and it is what most customers feel comfortable using.  Adding an efficient mobile payments solution like square would be nice.  What would be nicer is if PayPal lower their fees.

2 location based apps that we like and seem to be a hit a SXSW

location-based technology seems to be the new trend. It’s like google within google. Localmind’s tagline is “Know what’s happening. Now.” So say you’re at dinner with your friends, and want to have a nightcap at a local bar, but don’t know of any bars in the area that have room for a big group. Pop open Localmind, find a user at a bar in the area, and simply ask them, “Hey, is it crowded over there?”

Facebook Pages: Big changes by March 30th. Ready or not.

Big changes are coming to Facebook pages. The new changes will essentially bring your business out of the dark into the social media world. In terms of Facebook, the fifth largest country in the world. Ready or not these changes will come by March 30th. You will have a chance to “pin” key events in your business history, milestones. The ability to engage directly with your audience (complaint, etc). And of course, ads.

Apple’s first Ad for the new iPad

The commercial emphasizes the new retina display.  Using the message, “Everything is more brilliant.”  The increasing attraction to photography and the desire for us to capture the world around us makes this a great product.  Good job apple.

KONY 2012

This video is going viral and it’s going viral quick.  As I type this thousands are doing the same, that’s how viral it is. 5 million hits in 2 days.  The purpose is to catch KONY of course, but there are so many more issues at play here that makes this a huge phenomenon.  It shows the power of social media, the internet and it gives you a glimpse of how our world already changed.

Browser Trends March 2012: IE8 Falls Below 20%

While Chrome is on the rise, IE seems to be going in the opposite direction. It is a good thing in my opinion because it shows that users are realizing the problems that we as developers have been struggling with for some time now with IE. Still I would hope for a more standardized browser system where only features would be the difference and not their ideas of how we should experience the web. Here are the statistics according to: worldwide StatCounter

Browser January February change relative
IE 9.0+ 11.45% 12.09% +0.64% +5.60%
IE 8.0 20.82% 18.86% -1.96% -9.40%
IE 7.0 3.63% 3.32% -0.31% -8.50%
IE 6.0 1.56% 1.48% -0.08% -5.10%
Firefox 4.0+ 20.01% 20.39% +0.38% +1.90%
Firefox 3.7- 4.77% 4.49% -0.28% -5.90%
Chrome 28.45% 29.88% +1.43% +5.00%
Safari 6.61% 6.76% +0.15% +2.30%
Opera 1.96% 2.02% +0.06% +3.10%
Others 0.74% 0.71% -0.03% -4.10%
IE (all) 37.46% 35.75% -1.71% -4.60%
Firefox (all) 24.78% 24.88% +0.10% +0.40%