Month: June 2010

According to Bloomberg, the phone that has so many customers buzzing will finally be available on a carrier other than AT&T.

Verizon Wireless, the largest U.S. mobile-phone company, will start selling Apple Inc.’s iPhone next year, ending AT&T Inc.’s exclusive hold on the smartphone in the U.S., two people familiar with the plans said.

The largest carrier in the US will get the most popular phone as well. The news isn’t supposed to be public yet and neither Verizon or Apple will confirm or deny the leak.

Apple has had the iPhone on lock since 2007. During that time, they have made a ton of money from being the exclusive dealer for the iPhone. This is even amid complaints about their network being able to handle the load and a bunch of security mishaps surrounding the latest iPhone 4 launch. The relationship between Apple and AT&T has been trending downhill for a while now. We even asked the question here: Is exclusivity in Apple’s best interest? Apparently, the answer is “No.”

Apple sold 1.7 million iPhones in just three days after the iPhone 4 came out. Many speculated just how much more ridiculous those numbers would have been had Apple not been limited to a single carrier: AT&T.

“Apple is going to dramatically increase the number of devices it sells in the U.S. when exclusivity at AT&T ends,” said Hodulik, who is based in New York and rates Verizon shares “neutral.” “It’s hard to ignore the quality issues that AT&T has faced.”

Now, we will get to see exactly that. The iPhone has people buying phones at a time when the mobile market is near saturation and most people already have a phone. With that type of pull and the network reliability that Verizon offers, we should be in for some big numbers from Verizon and Apple next year.

One third of AT&T’s activations in the first three months of this year came from customers who were new to the carrier. I suspect that many iPhone activations involve people terminating their current contracts or otherwise jumping through a lot of hoops just to get the Apple device. I predict a similar move away from AT&T to Verizon when they officially launch the iPhone.

Mint.com just added a feature that may make your life that much easier and help you reach those financial goals you’ve been dreaming about. There are many tools out there for tracking your finances and setting up budgets. These range from desktop applications to web apps like Mint, Buxfer, and Xpensr. Most will tie into your bank accounts and keep your financial data updated directly from the source.

While this gives you a clear picture of where you stand, it doesn’t really do much for you in the long run. You know how much money you have in savings, but what are you saving for? You have a clear snapshot of what’s available in your checking account, but what should you do from there? This is where financial planning comes into play and it’s probably a topic that most people cringe from. Even if you have clear goals in mind, it’s often hard to see the path to those goals in your daily transactions.

In the past, you would need to do a lot of guess-work to figure out what type of budgets to set. Even with the advanced budgeting features in Mint, while they take your activity and other variables into account, still require you to make stuff up. Mint’s new Goals feature aims to take some of the burden from you and make this type of planning simpler.

As we dig ourselves out of debt or try to figure out the right decisions to make for our future, Mint’s Goals is the perfect companion. Once you’ve logged into Mint, you should see a new tab labeled Goals which takes you to the overview page. Most of the common goals that you might have are already here: paying off a credit card, saving for a car, going on vacation. If none of these presets fit for your goal, you can choose to create a Custom Goal.

Each goal runs you through a series of questions specific to that goal. Your answers help Mint figure out what your next steps should be. For instance, if you want to buy a new car, Mint will ask you whether you have a price in mind or a specific type of vehicle. It also offers a link to the KBB to estimate the cost of your dream car. There is also a feature where you can upload an image of your goal. Imagery definitely goes a long way to helping you stay focused.

Once your goal is set up, in can be tracked using an existing bank account or a new one. If you do not attach the goal to an account, it obviously cannot be tracked. Once you have assigned a goal to an account, you cannot assign any other goals to that account. This will help you to keep things simple and do one thing at a time. You can, however, attach a goal to multiple accounts. This comes in handy if you want to include your regular savings account and a long-term investment account.

Mint does a good job in pulling out the details necessary for you to reach your goals, but you have to actually do the work. A few tips from the Mint blog include:

• Creating a separate account – it’s hard to mentally separate your money when you’re in a fix, so just make a separate account. You will be less likely to spend your savings if you make them a little harder to access.
• Be realistic – you know how much you make a month, so don’t go budgeting for a house you saw on cribs just because the computer says you can.
• Use automatic deposits – don’t rely on yourself to put the money away. Take advantage of direct deposit and make it so that you never even see the money.

via All Things Digital

As Foursquare board member Bryce Roberts puts it, the “wire transfer heard ‘round the world” was authorized yesterday. The amount was a cool $20 million and it concludes a long and drawn out battle regarding Foursquare’s future. Early on, CEO Dennis Crowley toyed with the idea of actually selling the company. Yahoo and Facebook were both trying to court the young location-based startup.

During the battle for Foursquare, Andreessen Horowitz originally withdrew in the confusion, but this was part of the plan. They now lead this round of funding, cooperating with existing investors Union Square Ventures and O’Reilly AlphaTech Ventures. It’s hard to deny that Foursquare is a great opportunity. They have been able to forge partnerships with major brands before even receiving Series B funding. According to Horowitz, they have a “great Founder/CEO” and are going after a “gigantic market.” Specifically talking about Crowley, Horowitz says he sees the leadership traits they look for when investing and Crowley is a “keeper of the product vision.”

Crowley has put in a lot of work during the fundraising process. The money will be put to good use in expanding the company’s vision and work force. They need more engineers to expand the product. The current staff of 27 has outgrown their current location and will be moving into a bigger spot within the same building. “It’s awesome,” says Crowley, “we can hear them building it upstairs right now!”

A major point to keep in mind is the hard decisions Dennis Crowley and Foursquare had to make in the interest of turning a hot product into a successful company. “It is a really cathartic and emotional decision to make,” says Horowitz. “If you look at what those guys had to walk away from—generations of your people being set financially in order to try to build a great company—that takes a lot of courage.”

Remaining independent is an intelligent move for Foursquare. Any service can become location-aware. As a matter of fact, Twitter, Google Buzz, and Facebook are all now location-aware or in the process of adding the feature. Horowitz makes an extremely important point in that the value of Foursquare is not that it lets you share your location. As with many other successful web services, the value comes in the information that Foursquare holds and collects. Foursquare is only in the early stages of development and it has the potential for a very successful future.

Looks like another employee has accidentally leaked company secrets. Well, not secrets about his own company. It seems one Derek Goode, in possession of slides on Windows 8, posted them online in a public place. Probably by accident, but you never know. An Italian blog then got their hands on the slides and the web has been buzzing ever since. The slideshow covers many details of the new operating system, including information on launch strategy and a Windows App store.

They are not all that specific on Windows 8 features, but offer a unique inside look at at Windows 8 and enough information that they seem pretty authentic. One slide shows that Windows has been eyeing Apple’s swag and looks to duplicate the same type of customer loyalty and ease of use.

Facial recognition is a pretty exciting feature to see coming. Windows 8 users may be able to avoid the hassle of logins and passwords entirely, while still being able to keep up some level of security. Simply sit down in front of your computer and your webcam identifies your face to let you into your system. User accounts can be stored in the cloud, so you can have a roaming profile. Carry your settings around wherever you go. This all creates a user-focused system for managing identities.

Once again, Microsoft appears to be recognizing trends and trying to stay on top of them. The slides show a focus on the customer as an individual, even in the case of enterprise. They repeatedly talk about the ecosystem around their software being an important factor in success. Engagement is also a major focus in choosing their target audiences as well as addressing their developer market.

Form factor is also a concern here. The slides talk about 3 major formats: Slate, Laptop, and All-in-one. Yes, they are discussing Windows Slate devices. Other features mentioned include:

• A push-button reset feature which will do a complete re-install without destroying your personal data
• Better help system so that users can fix things on their own
• A Windows App Store
• Fast startup. This seems to be a way to make boot/shutdown look faster by simply combining logout/login and hibernate.

Microsoft has yet to comment on the slides, but they do look pretty official. Each one has a watermark with a “Microsoft confidential – released to … Under NDA.” Another important point to note is that each slide also says “DISCLAIMER – WINDOWS 8 DISCUSSION, THIS IS NOT A PLAN OF RECORD.” This indicates that, assuming these slides are the real deal, the end strategy could be vastly different. More details at the Microsoft Kitchen.

A few days ago, Digg CEO Kevin Rose tweeted about a rumor he had heard that Google was launching a new social networking service called Google Me. This is supposed to be Google’s answer to Facebook. Now, backing up Rose’s claim, Founder of Quora and Former Facebook CTO Adam D’Angelo responds with some details. Apparently, someone on Quora asked if Google Me was a “fake rumor,” “misleading evolutionary product update,” or an actual new social network from Google.

In his response, D’Angelo responds with the details he’s gathered so far:

• This is not a rumor. This is a real project. There are a large number of people working on it. I am completely confident about this.
• They realized that Buzz wasn’t enough and that they need to build out a full, first-class social network. They are modeling it off of Facebook.
• Unlike previous attempts (before Buzz at least), this is a high-priority project within Google.
• They had assumed that Facebook’s growth would slow as it grew, and that Facebook wouldn’t be able to have too much leverage over them, but then it just didn’t stop, and now they are really scared.

Sounds like a pretty believable story. Google hasn’t really made any moves to address Facebook directly. They probably didn’t see them as any type of competition and I think everyone was a little surprised by how huge Facebook has become. They have branched out into areas beyond simple social networking, even providing ways for content creators to plug into the social network using advanced widgets. The talent grab from FriendFeed had a huge impact. Who would have thought something as simple as a Like feature would become so popular across the web?

Regardless of Google’s past, I don’t think they have ever really attacked social networking directly. Google Wave was always a collaboration tool, regardless of how so many may choose to compare it to Twitter or Facebook. Buzz is still just an aggregator at this point, not very flexible and still literally locked inside your inbox. FriendConnect was cool for a second, but it’s almost completely faded into the background as it wasn’t really connected to anything.

That is really the point. Google has all the pieces. They have the technology. For some reason, they haven’t really put things together yet. Whether Google Me is a reaction to Facebook’s success or the last step in a long-term plan to social networking dominance, I do hope that the rumors are true. Real competition for Facebook only means better services for users.

mSpot has launched the elusive music in the cloud solution that Apple and Google have hinted around at implementing. Right now, you can sign up for a free mSpot account and upload 2GB of your personal music collection to the cloud. You will be able to play your 2GB of music for free from any internet-connected Mac/PC and your Android mobile device. Sorry, iPhone users, no mSpot for you yet. mSpot doesn’t make you sync your devices or anything when you add music to your cloud, it just works with minimal hassle.

With mSpot, you are actually uploading your collection to the cloud. There is no matching/verification process like Lala had before Apple shut them down. This means that you are listening to your own collection and not a frustrating copy of it. As far as mSpot is concerned, this also means they don’t have to make any deals with the big record companies to stay in operation. They are simply offering a method of storing/playing your audio data in the cloud. We’ll see how far this takes them as similar services have faced lawsuits in the past.

Once your collection uploads, you can access the iTunes-like interface from just about any web browser. Your Windows Media Player, iTunes, or other music and playlists are automatically duplicated using the mSpot desktop client. Once you’ve installed the mobile app, you can access the same data from your phone. mSpot sets aside some local space on the phone (an amount that you can specify) to store a copy of what you’re playing. This is to guard against bad signal and preserve playback quality.

mSpot keeps things simple and has worked flawlessly for me so far. Both the web and the mobile interfaces were responsive, intuitive, and easy to look at. If 2GB of cloud storage is not enough, you can always upgrade:

• Additional 10GB for $2.99/month
• Additional 20GB for $4.99/month
• Additional 50GB for $9.99/month
• Additional 100GB for $13.99/month

While mSpot is now ahead of the curve, Google and Apple may both soon enter the fray as they have each already acquired a related service and seem poised to enter the cloud music space. If mSpot can avoid being crushed by these two competitors while avoiding lawsuits from the big record companies, they should do just fine. Until then, grab a free 2GB account and let us know how you like it in the comments.

One of the most exciting announcement that came with the iPhone 4 was FaceTime, a new video chat platform from Apple. FaceTime allows for real-time video chat with minimal lag. Just as exciting as FaceTime is, it comes with a few limitations. If you want to do a FaceTime chat with someone, you have to both have shiny new iPhone 4’s and you both have to be connected to WiFi. These are some pretty stiff limitations and take some of the air out of the announcement, but the DeviceKnit Blog has figured out a way to make things a little less restrictive.

It’s not so much a solution as it is a work-around. Rather than requiring you to be near a WiFi hotspot, you will need to create your own mobile one. The first step is to activate tethering on your iPhone plan, which will run you about $15/month. You will also need a laptop for this to work.

Turn on tethering in Settings > General > Network > Internet Tethering on your iPhone 4 and connect it via USB. You’ll see a new “iPhone USB” connection option pop up in the Network preference pane in System Preferences:

Go to the Sharing preference pane, and turn on Internet Sharing to share your USB connection over WiFi/AirPort:

Now, connect to the network you just created with your iPhone, and you can FaceTime all you want.

Again, it’s not really a solution to the problem. Best case scenario would be the ability to use FaceTime wherever you want and also without having to carry your laptop with you. This setup at least gives you some options for when you need to get your FaceTime on when you’re on the go. The extra $15/month isn’t really that serious if you are really into video chat.

We may see better solutions that get rid of the laptop tethering entirely once the iPhone 4 is officially jail broken, (it actually has been jail broken already, but the solution can’t be released at this time because it contains Apple’s code). The WiFi limitation on FaceTime is definitely something that many would love to get rid of, so expect to see more workarounds and solutions in the near future.

Hootsuite Makes Major Improvements

Just when you thought Hootsuite was the best social media management interface on the planet, it goes and gets even better. Hootsuite5 takes full advantage of HTML5, bringing you visually appealing themes along with improvements under the hood. The new interface offers more space for actual tweets, one of the biggest issues I always had with it. They’ve integrated Google Analytics so you can easily monitor your social media campaigns. Integrated GeoSearch shows you localized conversations. Drag & Drop upload, new (or old style) retweets, and InstaLoad (more responsive interface) are also included. Last, but not least, Facebook integration has been enhanced so that you can include thumbnails in your posts.

Apple Tells Customers They’re Doing It Wrong

When the photos of the iPhone 4 were released, people wondered what the bands were around the phone’s outer edge were for. Once the phone was released and we learned it was the antennae, many thought this was an awesome step in engineering and design. Now that people have the phone in hand, it seems they’re having serious reception issues caused by those same hands. Holding the phone a certain way, apparently the way everyone likes to hold their phone, interferes with the antennae and messes up your reception. Apple’s response? Don’t hold it that way. (via engadget)

Windows 7: The Fastest Selling Operating System in History

You can make any argument you would like against Microsoft, but it won’t change the fact that they now hold the title for the fastest selling operating system in history. 150 million copies of Windows 7 have been sold since October 2009. They are moving 7 copies of Windows 7 every second. That is a lot of Windows and it looks like the Vista backlash is long gone and forgotten.

Google Can Remote Wipe Your Android Phone

For some reason, Android security lead disclosed in a blog post that Google had removed a specific application from the Android Market. Not only that, but the application was also remotely wiped from phones that already had it installed. You read that right, Google has a kill switch on your apps. All of them. This might be scary except for the fact that it’s fully disclosed in the Android Market TOS. The feature is there so that malicious applications can be nuked. As a side note for those wondering why there was such an uproar over a similar feature in the App Store, Apple didn’t disclose the feature up front and still didn’t acknowledge it for several days after it was stumbled on by a developer.

This weekend, June 26th, it’s going down at the Fort Greene Festival. A celebration of cultures, cuisine, and artistic diversity in Brooklyn. This is the second year that the festival is being help and it’s expected to attract a large audience. The Fort Greene Festival iPhone app provides the perfect companion guide to the festivities.

It includes a realtime map and approximate schedule of events. Bookmarking, sharing, and social media integration are also included. The app also collects Twitter updates that include the #fortgreenefestival hashtag. These are updated in realtime in the app and offer an easy way for users to interact with others at the festival. In two clicks, you can post your own update and broadcast to thousands of other festival attendees. As an added bonus, the app features a contest where you can enter to win a $50 iTunes gift card.

If you have ever been to a festival, you may already know how difficult it can sometimes be to figure out where the specific stage or event you want to see is located. Other times, you don’t even know where you are. The Fort Greene Festival app puts all that information in the palm of your hand and keeps you updated in real-time. The ability to see what others are saying about the festival, as it happens, could also be instrumental in finding out the hot spots of the moment.

Once again, we see the power of location-based services and mobile applications. With this iPhone app, not only can attendees figure out exactly what’s going on, but the festival organizers could make sure they direct people where they want them. This particular app only seems to tap Twitter, but messages could still be planted with the #fortgreenefestival hashtag.

They could have taken things a step further by having real-time alerts for each event, giving users a description and directions to find it. The app could also have featured popups to remind users about restaurants or other places where they could part with their money.

The Fort Greene iPhone app was created by Caravan Interactive, a local mobile marketing agency, and can be downloaded for free via iTunes. The festival is hosted by Malik Yoba and Rosie Perez with a headline appearance from Common.

It seems that Microsoft has finally redeemed themselves in the Windows 7 operating system, selling 150 million licenses of the new operating system so far. After Windows XP, Vista was released, to the dismay of many customers and users. To this day, there are people still running XP because they are afraid to upgrade. This has been going on for nearly a decade.

According to AllThingsD, “CEO Steve Ballmer claimed the OS had sold twice as many units as any operating system in a comparable timeframe, though he didn’t offer a hard number.” This was at Microsoft’s annual meeting last fall. It seems that Ballmer spoke the truth about these numbers. Selling 7 copies of Windows 7 every second is not only an awesome marketing tag line, but it makes Windows 7 the fastest selling operating system in history.

It seems there is huge demand for a new Windows operating system. 75% of companies are looking at Windows 7 for their business. Besides the sleek new interface, much of the interest in Windows 7 lies in its seamless integration with Windows Live. These are the free apps for sharing, photos, movies and communication. These Windows Live Essentials enhance the Windows 7 experience by tying the power of the PC to the flexibility of the cloud.

Today, July 24th, Microsoft is releasing beta versions of the new Messenger, Photo Gallery, Movie Maker and Sync. This new beta version of Windows Essentials is focused on “connecting Windows 7 to the cloud services you already use, and making everyday tasks simpler, so that you can do more on your PC.”

Microsoft seems like a completely different company from its Windows XP/Vista days. They are almost cruising the bleeding edge of web technologies and desktop integration with those technologies. The cloud is a central part of their newest products, but they have also made sure to provide a pleasing desktop experience.

Regardless of the direction of the web and the direction technology in general is moving, Microsoft seems to be focused on staying relevant and that can only mean good things for businesses and consumers.

Are you running Windows 7 already? Do you plan to get it in the near future?

Feeling the need for speed, latest beta of the Flock browser is ditching Mozilla Firefox for Google-supported Chromium. Flock is the social networking remix of the popular Firefox browser, sporting deep integration with your social media websites and services. You might recall that Blackbird, the browser geared toward the black community, is based on Flock. Chromium is the open-source equivalent of the Google Chrome browser.

The Flock 3 beta is currently only available for Windows, but a Mac version should be ready by early July. Previous versions of Flock were basically Firefox with a gang of social networking plugins and services integrated. I had really wanted to get into it, but speed and resource usage was always an issue for me. This version of the Flock browser is a completely different beast, primarily because of the new underlying code. Chromium/Chrome is made for speed and efficiency while Firefox is just now trying to catch up in those departments. The have also trimmed the fat and only support a handful of services, including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Flickr.

A monetization partnership between Google and Flock puts a big Google search bar in the middle of your Flock homepage. Could this be part of the reason for the change in browser engine? Who cares. I think the switch is a good deal not only for Flock, but also for it’s users and potential users. Keeping up with all of your social media activity is a challenge for most and Flock has always aimed to make it easier, it was just slow and bulky before now.

When you first start Flock, it will ask you to connect with Twitter and Facebook. This is to be expected as it’s a social web browser. What is more interesting is the Flock sidebar, which is the first sidebar in Chromium. The sidebar is where most of the action happens, streaming updates from your social networking connections while you browse the web. A “Talk about this page” button makes sharing across your social networks as easy as a click. The “superbar” which combines search into the location bar also pulls up your social media contacts.

You would think that the Mozilla version of Flock would be a done deal at this point, but Flock CEO Shawn Hardin says this is not the case. They will continue to support the Mozilla version of Flock and are planning to release a new version of it. Hardin says that Flock has had a relationship with Mozilla for 5 years and they have no plans to sever it at this point.

SkypeKit is a new collection of APIs that will allow Skype voice and video calls to be integrated into internet-connected device or application. Up to this point, Skype has been able to integrate with some devices (phones, TVs, mobile devices) through direct partnerships, but SkypeKit will open the floodgates for integration with just about any consumer device from any manufacturer.

At Skype, we believe that every connected device is, potentially, a communications device. We envision a future in which you’ll see and converse with the people in your life no matter where you are or what you’re doing — sitting in your car, watching TV in your living room, or just checking the time.

SkypeKit gives developers all the features of Skype in the background while allowing developers to handle the actual presentation and user interface. SkypeKit goes well beyond the current Skype API. It currently supports Linux, with Windows and Mac support to follow in the next few weeks. SkypeKit is targeted at consumer electronics companies and desktop application developers.

This is a good move for Skype. Many consumer devices come with some type of internet connection and this will make it easy for device manufacturers to integrate Skype into their products. While Skype is easy to use for most, there are still some consumers that don’t grasp the concept or have trouble getting it working. By integrating directly into the hardware, Skype can become a new standard of communication and will be accessible to a wider range of customers.

The SILK audio codec is an important piece of this new set of APIs. SILK is the audio codec preferred for Skype calls and they are making it available royalty-free in hopes that it becomes the standard. “The value of the codec is in the breadth of its adoption,” says general manager John Christensen, “we want it to be a common codec.”

SkypeKit is in beta and only available to a limited number of developers so far. If you are a developer and want to integrate Skype directly into your products, you can request an invite to the SkypeKit Beta Program here.

Online video content is a booming business. People just love to watch videos and other people love creating videos. The problem is, some of those videos are just not that good. It may not even be the content itself, just that it doesn’t get to the point or trails off at the end. We’ve come to a point where we don’t have time to wait. Your fans, customers, potential customers, and future business partners grow impatient. This is where editing comes in, but this usually requires software and a somewhat technically inclined person.

So what do you do? YouTube suggests their new online video editor, now available in TestTube. TestTube is the staging area for ideas YouTube is just trying out. While the online video editor is simple, this is also it’s greatest strength. Most of the time, you just need to do a quick edit on a video to cut out the fluff. You might also just want to take a few videos you’ve made and splice them together into one production. Do you really want to fire up a fancy software program for something so simple? Do you want to learn how to use that program? Probably not.

With YouTube’s online editor, you can easily edit your existing videos, cutting out the parts you don’t need. You can also add multiple videos to the project to make one compilation. This will help you keep your videos focused and interesting to your audience. You can also use this tool to create a compilation video, combining all the best moments from your videos into one. This technique is often used in blogging, creating one post that links to all your best content on one subject.

The online video editor shows you all the videos you’ve uploaded to YouTube in the left pane. Drag these or click the ‘+’ sign to add them to the timeline for your new video. As you add new clips, you can edit them by hovering over them and clicking the edit icon (looks like scissors). Drag the marker on the left to the place where you want this clip to start and the right marker to where you want it to stop. It’s really that simple.

You can have a maximum of 7 video clips with a total duration of 10 minutes. You can also add an audio clip from Audioswap library. This gives you tens of thousands of songs to choose as your soundtrack. One feature that would really make this tool pop is transitions, but being creative with where you splice your videos can keep things looking professional.

Once your done, set a title and publish your video for all to see. One click of a button and you’re good to go. If you’ve been avoiding video editing, this may be exactly what you need to offer more value to your audience.

The new version of Bing for iPhone adds two very interesting features. The first is the ability to see relevant status updates from your social networks within your search results. The second is Visual Scanning feature which is very similar to Google Goggles.

Connect your Twitter and Facebook accounts within the Bing application to enhance your search results. In addition to seeing your standard results for a specific query, you will also see updates from your social networks that are relevant to the search. This is like automatic crowd sourcing.

Say you’re thinking of buying an album from an artist you’re not that familiar with. While you’re researching clips and background on them, you will be able to see what your friends and contacts have already said about them. The new Bing app also makes it easy to share content you find across Facebook, Twitter, and via email.

Using your iPhone camera, you can now scan bar codes, cover art, and other items. Microsoft is calling this Visual Scanning, probably because they couldn’t think of anything cooler…like “Google Goggles.” Once you’ve scanned a CD, book, or other product, you can see details about it. A description, pricing, reviews, and links to where you can buy that product may be included.

It seems that, to the dismay of many, social media will remain a part of search results. While some think they should be excluded, relevant updates from your social circle are useful in most cases.

We also see visual search becoming a new standard here. Being able to search for things not just with words, but by scanning a barcode or taking a picture is an awesome feature for mobile users and helps connect potential customers directly to merchants. Instead of just asking a friend where they got their new shoes, you could scan them, check out the details, and by them without blinking an eye. Microsoft seems to be taking this area seriously with Microsoft Tag and now this update to the Bing app.

Other features in this update include updates to the Movies section, giving you access to more videos, trailers, and showtimes. You can also use the new Shopping section to search for products, price them, and buy them.

via TechCrunch

There are many reasons why you might opt for a refurbished laptop instead of buying a new one. The primary obstacle is that buying a used computer is frowned upon for apparently no good reason. We will invest thousands in a car that is several years old, but spending hundreds on a laptop that might be just a few years old seems out of the question. Once you have overcome the mental block, it’s time to figure out exactly how to go about finding a good refurbished laptop.

One thing to keep in mind while searching is that you probably don’t need as much laptop as you think. Many of us go out and buy top of the line hardware, the fastest graphics processor, the biggest hard drive, the fanciest software add-ons, all so we can check email and browse the web. Take a good look at how you will be using your new (to you) laptop so that you have a good idea of what your minimum specs can be.

Knowing where to look is the next step. When shopping for a used car, you probably don’t want to shop at just any lot. There is no telling what these guys are doing to make a buck and you don’t want to get stuck with a lemon. The same goes for your laptop. Stick with major manufacturers who have a brand name to protect. They usually offer some type of certification that the used hardware is checked out and tested before being resold to you.

Dell, for instance, offers 3 choices depending on your comfort level:

• Previously Ordered New – Systems that may have been shipped to customers, but have never actually been used by anyone. They are tested and then repackaged by Dell Outlet.
• Certified Refurbished – Fully refurbished systems that may have been used by another customer. They are tested and repackaged to meet original factory specs.
• Scratch and Dent – These may have some obvious physical blemishes, but are otherwise just fine. If you’re not picky, you can probably catch a steal in this category.

Other manufacturers you might check out include Apple, Lenovo, and HP. If you’re having a hard time finding a “refurbished” or “used” section, look for the “outlet” area of the site.