Continue reading Microsoft and Samsung sitting in a tree, patent s-h-a-r-i-n-g

Microsoft and Samsung sitting in a tree, patent s-h-a-r-i-n-g originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 28 Sep 2011 11:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We are the connected generation. Thanks to our ever-present mobile devices we are always ‘on’ and connected. This allows us to capture a record of all the great things we do, and share our experiences, our recommendations and our memorable moments with friends, colleagues and the world at large, through the medium of popular social networks like Facebook, Twitter, and Yelp. We broadcast these moments out to the rest of the world. We let others share in our passions and see the details of our daily lives. We have become the lifeblood of information for our friends and followers, and they have taken on the role of gatekeepers as we filter and pump information from network to network.

As the opportunities to share information have become more ubiquitous, there has been an increasingly hyped-up debate and concern around the topic of privacy. But is privacy really the issue? As Jeff Jarvis rightly points out, the reason for using social services is for sharing, not hiding. Twitter and Instagram are prime examples of this, where the user is forced to choose between sharing everything or limiting their sharing to a personally selected group who apply for the privilege. Nonetheless, the fact is that although many of us want to share, we want to be able to fine-tune our audience. This challenges services like Facebook where you determine sharing settings in advance of your broadcast.

Has the notion of a ‘friend’ become too diluted by the many different definitions of ‘contact’ across social media networks? Path is trying to redefine this by limiting the number of friends you can add to 50, encouraging you to only share with your “real friends.” But then the question is whether this really solves the issue? Do we only want to share with our close social circle, or do we (as I would argue) have things we want to share with other groups of contacts we would not classify as “friends”?

The problem is that there is currently no universal standard for privacy settings. Each social network has implemented their own interpretation as it applies to types of content shared on their platform. As social networks open up their APIs, allowing users to give third parties access to their content, their social media content can become spread across multiple services. Every network defines their privacy and sharing settings differently, so there is significant ambiguity around how these settings translate when transferring content among services. If you try to inherit privacy settings from multiple services the level of complexity that results is enormously challenging both from a development and a user perspective.

No one has solved this problem yet, and it is a highly relevant and important issue that needs to be addressed. We need a platform where you can manage and arrange all your connections into one simple structure, allowing you to easily define the privacy layers for how, and with whom, you share your content online. And this platform needs to integrate all the social networks.

Facebook Connect was a good first attempt at this, but sadly they quickly closed down their API that allowed you to invite your Facebook Friends to join third-party services. Now you can only view and add friends who are already signed up to that service. The continuation of Facebook Connect in its original form would have made Facebook the major organ of social media sharing, pumping content between networks and controlling the flow to new arteries of social circulation. For users, this would have allowed them greater control and continuity of how their content was shared beyond the confines of Facebook’s network.

Until we create a unified theory of sharing across social networks, there will continue to be great concern around the conflicting definitions of individual privacy. Regulators, in their efforts to protect internet users, are already discussing how to create barriers to protect the individual and simultaneously stifle social sharing. What we need is not greater personal protection through legal limitations, but consistency and standards that are recognized across social networks.

This past week the Google+ platform was revealed, ushering in a promising new chapter in the movement towards a universal standard of privacy. Google+’s ‘circles’ interface allows users to easily organize their network of contacts into spheres of association. Their organizational model for privacy takes what Facebook has developed one step further by allowing the user to easily visualize their different spheres of contacts, and determine which group they want to share updates with as the final step in broadcasting content. Wouldn’t it be great if I could link that structure to all of my other social networks? Let’s hope that Google+ hurdles past the point where Facebook Connect retreated from and becomes the new heart of social network sharing.

Eric Lagier is the cofounder and CEO of Memolane, a service that creates social media timelines for individuals and companies. Lagier formerly was the director of hardware and mobile business development at Skype.

Image courtesy of Flickr user Josh Hallett

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On paper, he was just another developer at Facebook. In reality, his influence on Facebook and its future is much larger. Joe Hewitt, who built the initial version of Facebook for the iPhone, left the Palo Alto, Calif.-based social networking company Friday. It was his one-man effort, which then turned into a full-blown revolution, and led to carriers clamoring to tie-up with Facebook. Hewitt announced his exit from Facebook on his blog.

Today was my last day at Facebook. Normally when I leave a job I go out cursing the management and wishing I had left much sooner. In the case of Facebook, I sent heartfelt emails to all of my managers thanking them for the privilege of letting me work there, and I genuinely meant it. Facebook was the longest I ever worked at one company, and the best employer I’ve ever had.

Working at Facebook was like having my own startup, but with a paycheck instead of ramen. Management gave me the freedom to work on my own ideas, and just like with real startups, some of my projects never made it out of the lab, while others shipped and were huge successes. The brilliance of Facebook management is encouraging everyone to take initiative, take risks, and wear as many hats as you can. I wish more tech companies operated like this.

Having known Hewitt for a while, I can safely say that he means every single word. Not one to give lip service, Hewitt is a straight shooter. He joined Facebook after Mark Zuckerberg & Co acquired Parakey, a company Hewitt co-founded with Blake Ross about four years ago. Hewitt’s contributions to the mobile ecosystem, including his work on Facebook for iPhone, was the main reason we included him the inaugural GigaOM Mobile Influencers list. Here is what we wrote about him:

In the world of software, there are few who qualify for rock star status. But Joe Hewitt, a New Jersey-born programmer, is one of them. He started out at Netscape in 2000, working on the browser’s user interface, after which he went on to help longtime cohort Blake Ross reinvent the Netscape browser as Mozilla’s Firefox. In 2006 he left Mozilla to work with Ross on a new startup, Parakey, that in turn was acquired by Facebook in 2007.

Then when Apple launched the iPhone, Hewitt released iUI, a user interface library that consisted of a combination of javascript and CSS, and allowed for the easy development of web applications that matched the device’s native visual elements. Later he wrote an iPhone-specific version of Facebook, which has helped to both take the social network to the top of the mobile heap and jumpstarted the adoption of social networking services on all major mobile phone platforms. What’s even more surprising: Hewitt is the one-man programming machine behind Facebook for the iPhone.

After spending his energies on the iPhone, he moved away from Apple’s platform and turned his attention to the Android platform. Today Facebook is a mobile monster, possibly working on its own mobile platform. Hewitt says he is going to work on new tools for developers and designers. On his blog, he wrote:

And so, I’m independent now, and I’m going to pour myself into understanding the needs of modern developers and designers, and creating software to fill those needs. There are so many opportunities that I can’t even predict what I will end up building, but I am pretty sure I know where I am going to start. I can’t wait.

Here is a video interview I did with Hewitt back in 2009:

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If you wish to prevent any sort of mishap while driving, there are a few points that need to be taken into account. If you take these couple of measures to aid your self in your driving adventure, you might get out on top of the crash crowd. Bear in mind, driving on the road is not an easy task, and it’s assumed that being behind the wheel is more of a privilege than a right.

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The Brother HL 2030 printer is a good buy for home use and small to medium offices. It is a fast, small, and inexpensive monochrome laser printer. You will be pleased with the 17 ppm, one of its main selling points. It also provides superior printing quality thanks to the Brother HL 2030 toner and a high paper sheet capacity. All this for $79.99 is not a bad deal when compared to other models. The only point that might not please you is the fact that it lacks some of the bells and whistles other printers include.

Brother is storming the market with affordable printers and cartridges other companies are struggling to compete with. This printer does not come with all the gadgets and gizmos many printer buyers are getting used to. If you are expecting to get a scanner, double-side printing and a photocopier, you are going to be disappointed. This printer is just that, a printer. A very fairly priced printer with good specifications, but still just a printer. However, it has features that make it a good investment for your home or office.

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The Brother HL 2030 printer is a compact, fast, high quality monochrome laser printer that will surpass the expectations of most home and office users. The price of less than $80 is a bonus, as is the large sheet tray capacity of 250 pages in such a small printer. The features to look out for are its speed, 17 ppm, quality printing, 2,400 x 600 dpi and an optional external wireless option. This is a great feature for homes and offices that are aiming for a wireless environment with no annoying cables to worry about and clean around.

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