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  • Online Education: Why Are Some Online Schools Lacking In Credibility?

    You’ve seen the ads by now for various online schools; all encouraging you to sign up today and get to work on advancing your education.

    The selling point is that you can earn your degree from anywhere.

    However, what these businesses are not telling you is that you could be wasting your time and money.

    Even though acceptance of online degrees is said to be on the rise, it could be that your particular school isn’t seen as particularly credible.

    Before signing up for an online degree program at an internet-only college, perhaps there are some things you should consider.

    Online School vs. Online Degree

    The first thing to know is that online degrees and online schools are not mutually exclusive. There are accredited colleges that have online courses. Sometimes only certain classes are available in an online format. Other times, the entire degree can be earned online.

    If you receive a degree from an accredited, respected institution, that will matter far more than if you earned that degree online.

    The Trouble With Scams and Diploma Mills

    A huge part of the reason that online degrees were seen as suspect is because many of the businesses had no background in education whatsoever.

    A study by the National Bureau for Economic Research found that many of these for-profit institutions were nothing more than “agile predators”:

    We [f]ind that for-profit students end up with higher unemployment and “idleness” rates and lower earnings six years after entering programs than do comparable students from other schools, and that they have far greater student debt burdens and default rates on their student loans.

    It’s believed that many of these schools exist to make money rather than provide students with the tools necessary to obtain a career after they’ve earned a degree.

    Credibility A Code Word For Bigotry?

    Another interesting fact noted is that these online schools tend to target persons who are poor, minorities, stay at home moms, and the elderly.

    Why is this interesting?

    Because these are groups most likely to experience a form of discrimination: classism, racism, sexism, and ageism.

    Could it be that online schools are distrusted not merely because of the format of education, but because they reach out to so-called undesirables?

    It’s something to consider.

    Although diplomas advertised on television may fill you with skepticism, they still represent something for which to be thankful: A continuous call to better one’s self and seek to create better career opportunities.

    The best thing you can do is to research the institution’s history and find out if it’s a trusted school. Also be on the lookout for reviews and testimonials.

    These steps to become better informed should prepare you to make the right decision about getting an online education.

  • Tax Forms: Where To Go To Obtain Them

    It’s the time of year that everybody dreads…tax time. While it something that we all try to avoid doing, it simply has to be done.

    So, where do you start? First, you need to decide how you plan to file them. Are you going to use software and do it yourself? Are you going to do it manually? Are you going to use a preparer? Second, however you choose to file, it is important to gather the materials that you will need in advance, most importantly the tax forms.

    Below are some suggestions on where you can obtain these forms:

    1.) Online
    Tax forms and other publications can be accessed on the IRS website, IRS.gov, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Here, you can easily view the different forms that are available and print the documents that you will need. This site can also give you suggestions on how and where to file.

    2.) By Mail
    If you choose not to print the forms online, you can order them from the IRS National Distribution Center. The address is 1201 N. Mitsubishi Motorway, Bloomington, IL, 61705-6613, and the forms should be delivered within 10 business days after they receive your order.

    3.) By Phone
    Another alternative to printing the forms online is to order them by phone. By calling 1-800-TAX-FORM (800-829-3676) Monday through Friday 7:00 AM to 10:00 PM local time (except Alaska and Hawaii which are Pacific time), you can order tax forms, instructions and publications. Again, you should receive your documents within 10 business days.

    Hopefully this helps, and will allow you to be prepared when the 2014 filing season opens on January 31, 2014.

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • Larry Flynt: Upgrade Your Magazine Hiding Techniques

    In the very near future, you won’t need to hide your Hustler magazines from Mommy Dearest or Dearest Wife; Larry Flynt, the number one most “Powerful Person in Porn” according to some, tells us in a CBS Sunday Morning Interview that Hustler magazine is on its way to the internet.

    Flynt fought battles to keep Hustler alive in its early days (how many adult content mavericks can say that someone has tried to assassinate them?), and he doesn’t plan to abandon it, despite the fact that the magazine has dropped to below 100,000 issue purchases a month now.

    With the virtually unlimited amount of adult content readily available for anyone with a click of a button these days, Flynt is rolling with the times and is only selling the magazine online starting next month. To be fair, most magazines are struggling with physical copy purchases– and most already have online versions of their magazine.

    If there is any word to describe Larry Flynt, controversial has to be it. He is not as widely loved as his colleague Hugh Hefner, and the reasons might possibly be warranted. With the first issues of Hustler in 1974, the world had access to women portrayed in a bit less of a tasteful manner than Playboy. Possibly in attempts to separate himself from the 20-year-old magazine that had a monopoly on adult content, Flynt introduced the world to the first instances of a woman with an open vagina in a magazine. His decision to print nude pictures of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis purchased from the paparazzi certainly didn’t increase his popularity either.

    Either way, Flynt continues to glide about in his gold-plated wheelchair taking advantage of his God-given American rights, and people will either love or hate it. The jury is out to determine if a large number of people worldwide suddenly become computer whizzes as they make sure to leave no virtual tracks of visiting the upcoming virtual Hustler magazine.

    Image via WikiCommons

  • Cyber Monday Deals on Phones, TVs

    Cyber Monday Deals on Phones, TVs

    Now that Black Friday 2013 has come and gone, retailers and shoppers alike are plunging into the next wave of the holiday shopping frenzy: Cyber Monday.

    Referring to the Monday after Thanksgiving and originally created to lure holiday shoppers to spend their dollars online, the term Cyber Monday made its US debut in 2005. Since then, it has become one of the biggest shopping days of the year.

    This year, consumers can find great Cyber Monday deals on phones and televisions.

    No matter what size television you’re looking for, there’s a cyber deal for you:

    • Westinghouse 32″ HDTV for $199.99 (Target)
    • Samsung 46″ HDTV for $478 (Walmart)
    • LG 55″ LED HDTV with Soundbar for $799 (Walmart)
    • Samsung 65″ LED HDTV for $999.99 (Best Buy)

    Motorola is offering its celebrated smartphone, the Moto X, for $349 on Monday for “any carrier, no contract, any color combination.”

    You can snag an HTC One 32 GB smartphone on Amazon for as little as $0.01 with a two year contract from AT&T, Sprint, or Verizon.

    CNet’s Marguerite Reardon says the best smartphone deals she’s seen so far are for the Samsung Galaxy S4.

    Apple’s iPhone is conspicuously absent from most Cyber Monday smartphone deal roundups.

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • 5 Tips for Protecting Your Online Presence

    There are a few commonsense ways to help protect your reputation online. Some companies offer such a service for a fee, but you can do a lot yourself to keep your reputation sterling.

    The first step for anyone should be reviewing their own social media accounts. Embarrassing photos, status updates, or even the use of foul language can reflect negatively on a person looking for employment, promotion, or business partners. In certain situations, a photo or comment could even cost someone the job he already has. Everyone should be aware of what their social media accounts say about them, and take action to correct anything that could reflect negatively upon them.

    The next step is to familiarize yourself with the various privacy policies of social media websites. These vary from one site to another, and while avoiding having embarrassing material show up online should be the top priority, it is also a good idea to be aware of who can see what sections of a person’s pages. Adjusting settings to allow certain things only to be seen by certain people would be a wise step for those who don’t want to revamp their pages completely.

    The third and final step relating to social media is speaking with friends and family privately about appropriate uses for social media. Photos that may be funny with friends may not be so funny when current or potential employers see them. While avoiding cameras completely may not be possible, most people will respect a person’s wishes not to be tagged in photos that they would not want business associates to see.

    When protecting your online presence, you must also be aware of search engine results. A fourth step that people can take in this area is posting a lot of information that they don’t mind having people see online. This could be anything from regularly updating a website or blog, posting on popular forums, or even writing product reviews under their own names on sites that place high in search engines, like Amazon and Ebay. It’s not possible to avoid having people post negative information online, but it is possible in most cases to dominate the search engines so that such negative information shows up lower in results and is less likely to cause a problem.

    A final step toward protecting your online presence is always respond to negative information that shows up high in search engine rankings. Most people will understand that nobody will have completely positive interactions with others, and some negative information will show up on just about anybody online. The best way to address this is to respond honestly to criticism, telling the other side of a story without insulting the original poster. Under the best scenarios, that person may even respond in a positive way. This approach will demonstrate that an individual is concerned with his reputation and his honor, and will go a long way toward mitigating the effects of negative information online.

  • Nielsen Is Now Measuring Online TV Viewers

    Nielsen Is Now Measuring Online TV Viewers

    Nielsen, the long-time leader in TV audience measurements, is taking their methodology online.

    Today, the company announced a pilot program for the Nielsen Digital Program Ratings which will track TV content viewed online. The pilot starts with a handful of big-name partners – A+E, ABC, AOL, CBS, The CW, Discovery Communications, FOX, NBC and Univision. The pilot is set to begin in May and run through July, but Nielsen is already announcing that the Digital Program Ratings will see a commercial launch. The pilot program is simply serving to “fine-tune” Nielsen’s methods before they hit primetime, or, later streamed on the internet time – whatever.

    “The pilot for Nielsen Digital Program Ratings is a major milestone for the industry,” said Eric Solomon, SVP for Global Digital Audience Measurement at Nielsen. “As a companion product to Nielsen Online Campaign Ratings, Nielsen Digital Program Ratings will enable clients to better understand the online audience for their programming by harnessing the same methodology Nielsen already uses to measure the audience for related advertising.”

    Nielsen says that they will start by measuring TV content viewed online, on computers. For instance, CBS will be able to see Nielsen’s numbers for how many streams their online content got on their official site. During the pilot, initial results will only be shared with clients, but Nielsen hopes to make the data public when the program sees a full launch later this year.

    Of course, Nielsen plans to expand the program to “additional content types and devices” in the future. So we’re talking streams from sites like Hulu or YouTube, made on and iPad or Xbox.

    Nielsen already has an presence in online metrics, including web content (YouTube videos and such). They also track websites based on visitors. This pilot program marks their first foray into tracking online streams of traditional TV content, however.

    “The potential to measure video viewing of specific programs on linear TV as well as the Internet is significant,” said Alan Wurtzel, President of Research and Media Development, NBCUniversal. “It’s an important step toward reaching the ‘holy grail’ of true cross-platform measurement.”

    It’s an interesting move from Nielsen, but the online viewership tracking won’t really come into its true form until Nielsen is measuring all types of online TV streaming across all types of devices. Although Nielsen is just announcing this pilot program, it’s clear that full inclusion is what they envision.

  • Wii U Owner Accidentally Gains Access To Miiverse Debug Page

    The Wii U launched yesterday, and there’s already reports of problems. A large day one update has been bricking some consoles after the system was turned off during the update. Those kind of problems are commonplace, but the Wii U reportedly succumbed to an entirely different problem for a few hours yesterday.

    Trike, a member of gaming forum NeoGAF, reported yesterday that he had gained access to the debug page in Miiverse, Nintendo’s social network for games. Here’s the report from Trike:

    I found out I could access the debug menu on Miiverse by hitting the “X” button on the gamepad while hovering over the exit button. I found an admin access list or something to that effect. I couldn’t really do anything from there though. I could view different messages from a developer though. One mentioned that there would be big games coming out(announced?) on the 10th of December. A different said “POKEMON” and “SUICIDE”. Sorry, bro.

    I went to another link that lead me to some test messages. I thought they were real when I found them, because they were posted 20 minutes ago from the time I accessed them. I could flag them for prohibited content, spoilers, and something else that I forget.

    Then I went to a different link on the debug menu and it showed three different Miiverse subforums I could access that would be coming out on December 20th. I clicked on the “games for teens, kids and blahblah” (forgot the other two, I think family games was one of them?) and it lead to some sort of dispute between Timelord celebrities Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt. There were even more subforums for games specifically, including Yoshi’s Island Wii U and Soul Hackers, and less specific ones like “Metal Gear Solid” and “Resident Evils”. By the time I stopped posting on gaf to check for more it was fixed, and someone pointed out that Nintendo put up a tweet about a miiverse fix.

    I don’t know if I really could flag posts to be deleted or whatever, but I know I could not make myself an admin or delete admins. At least when I pressed the buttons nothing happened.

    Such stories pop up on NeoGAF from time to time, and are quickly debunked. In this case, however, it seems that it was legitimate. Trike not only posted pictures of his time in the Miiverse debug page, but Nintendo themselves confirmed the issue in a statement to Gamesindustry International. The company said that what the user accessed was nothing more than a “mock up menu” and that access to it has now been removed.

    Mock up menu or not, the supposed debug page contained a number of interesting tidbits that will fuel rumors for some time. One in particular contained a number of subforums for games that had not been listed on the Miiverse yet. Some of the titles point to unannounced games like Yoshi’s Land Wii U, Donkey Kong, Metroid, and a title called Soul Hackers that might be referring to a Shin Megami Tensei game of the same name. Check it out:

    Wii U User Accidentally Gains Access To Miiverse Admin Page

    It seems that Trike’s accidental “hack” into the Miiverse has caused some Wii U owners to fear that Nintendo’s network may be easily compromised in the future. Gamers aren’t exactly confident in security anymore after hackers took down Sony’s PlayStation Network for over a month.

    Nintendo is still relatively new to this whole online thing, but the company has made some great strides with the Wii U. The company’s services, however, are only as good as its security. We’ll find out in the coming months and years if Nintendo can keep its network safe from those who would want to bring it down.

    [h/t: Sophos]

  • 55% of Adults Go Online Using Cellphones [Pew Study]

    Pew Internet Research has been keeping track of how often people are using their cellphones to go online, and as of April 2012, 55% of adults who own cellphones are using them to go online.

    A majority of adults are now using their mobiles to check email or surf the internet.

    Pew research also points out that 88% of the adult population in the United States owns a cellphone. Statistically speaking, that means almost half (49%) the adult population is going online via cellphones to check email or use the internet for various purposes.

    Sticking with the same theme, over 40% of the respondents from the study said they go online almost daily, or on a typical day. If you refer to the chart below, you can see this mobile internet access trend is growing fast.

    Of course, Pew includes all the stats on these folks who are using their cellphones to go online. Take a look at their data on race, gender, income, and several other factors. As usual, they give us a very comprehensive view.

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  • Nintendo Direct Reveals Final Wii U Gamepad And Online Capabilities

    As we reported yesterday, Nintendo held one of its increasingly common Nintendo Direct presentations to discuss the “concept” behind the Wii U. We all thought it was going to be pretty uneventful, but Nintendo managed to surprise us and then some.

    The big news from the presentation was the redesigned Wii U controller which is now dubbed the Wii U Gamepad. Iwata says that the name was referencing the NES controller and how many fans referred to it as a gamepad due to it being flat. The name wasn’t the only change, however, as he confirmed that the Wii U was to have analog sticks instead of the circle pads from last year’s prototype.

    The analog sticks were revealed with a leak from Traveler’s Tales last month, but we also noticed two extra buttons that had us all confused. Nintendo explained these two mystery buttons during the presentation as a TV button and an NFC reader/writer. The TV button will allow the Wii U Gamepad to operate independently of the Wii U and become an infrared universal remote. The NFC reader/writer is for scanning in cards or action figures which we saw in the leaked Rayman Legends trailer.

    Nintendo Direct Wii U Gamepad

    The company also showed off what the Wii U is capable of in the online realm through a bizarre commercial featuring a young man playing a zombie-themed FPS. It’s one of the most bizarre things that Nintendo has ever created and I couldn’t help but laugh at how absurd it was.

    As you can see from the commercial, Nintendo is introducing a social networking service directly into their console called the Miiverse. It allows gamers to see what their friends and other people playing the same game are saying. It’s comparable to a constant dialogue running in the background about your favorite games that you can see whenever you hit up the home menu.

    Nintendo Direct Wii U Gamepad

    One of the things that you will notice in the commercial is that one of the people is browsing the Miiverse on their mobile phone. Nintendo will be bringing Miiverse to the 3DS, PC and browser-enabled mobile devices. It will be available for the Wii U at launch, but the service will be launching at a later date for other platforms.

    One of the other components of the Miiverse is called Mii Wara Wara which roughly translates to “the sound of things happening.” It’s meant to relate the concept of people talking about the games they’re playing. You may notice that the Wii U home screen shows a bunch of game icons with Miis gathering around them with speech bubbles talking about said title.

    Nintendo Direct Final Wii U Gamepad

    This functionality will also be extended to games as Nintendo showed the same Mii speech bubbles appearing over specific levels in what appears to be New Super Mario Bros. Mii.

    Nintendo Direct Final Wii U Gamepad

    Nintendo spent the majority of the presentation talking up the Wii U Gamepad and the Miiverse as ways to expand the gaming audience and make our lives more connected. That’s great and all, but there are some gamers that don’t want that. Nintendo isn’t going to ignore the core this time around as they are also releasing what they call the Wii U Pro Controller for those who want more traditional control methods. It is essentially an Xbox 360 controller but with both analog sticks at the top.

    Nintendo Direct Final Wii U Gamepad

    If you want to catch up on all the news revealed during the Nintendo Direct presentation, you can watch it below. Nintendo used this event to focus on the controller and online, so expect nothing but games Tuesday during Nintendo’s press conference. Check back here for our coverage to see what Nintendo has in store for the next year and beyond.

  • In-Depth Study of Online Ad Delivery

    In the cVE Charter Study from ComScore, involving online advertising campaigns for 12 national advertisers, we are seeing that a large number of ad campaigns are not going to plan and the quality of ad delivery is varying greatly. The study evaluated the effectiveness of ad delivery based how and where the ads were placed including whether or not the ads were in-view, to the target audience, in a brand friendly environment, and free from fraud.

    Findings:

    • Ad Placement: 31 percent of ads were not in-view, meaning they were never being seen by the audience.
    • Targeting audience based on interest over simple demographics (sex, income) has proven effective. 37% of ads delivered reached audiences with known interests relative to their brand.
    • Advertisers must keep a watchful eye on the type of content their brand is being associated with. 72 percent of the campaigns felt their ads were being delivery alongside objectionable content.
    • Fraud is still a concern. .16% of ads were delivery to non-human targets from the IAB spiders and bots list. Though this number is low, unknown bots and more sophisticated fraud methods were not considered, making this kind of threat difficult to quantify.
    • The findings showed that neither ad visibility nor the quality of the audience reached is reflected in the price of digital advertising. Advertisers need to do their own research in finding the best ad buy for their dollar.

    These findings outline the necessity of in-depth campaign management throughout the entire length of an ad campaign.

    It also demonstrates the need for a “viewable impressions” measurement when calculating the cost for advertising. Too much money is going out the window on ads that are not even being seen by customers.

    “With 31% of vCE Charter Study impressions not being viewable, it is now abundantly clear just how important in-view measurement is to online campaign validation,” said Linda Abraham, comScore CMO. “In order for any digital GRP metric to be relevant in the online space and to be cross-media comparable, it must include validated ‘viewable impressions’ in its calculation. While audience and geographic validation are crucial – and should not be ignored – if a digital campaign rating does not also take into account whether or not the ad had the opportunity to be seen, then the metric fails to deliver a true apples-to-apples comparison to all other media.”

  • 167 Liquor Stores Up For Auction Online

    It won’t be on eBay, but this online auction is getting much attention in the Pacific Northwest. An online auction was launched yesterday for 167 state-run liquor stores in Washington State. Thanks to voters who passed the initiative last November, the auction will be the first by the Washington State Liquor Control Board. The state is also the first to privatize its state-run liquor business since the 1930s and Prohibition. In 2011, gross liquor sales for the state was over $888 million.

    Speaking for the Washington State Liquor Control Board, Brian Smith said, “What’s being auctioned today will allow interested parties rights to apply for a liquor license at current location. You’re buying the right to apply for a liquor license and then purchase the right to sell at that location.”

    An interesting part of the initiative explains that If you’re a grocery store or big box store with over 10,000 square feet of space you do not have to bid. Not surprising to many residents since Washington-based warehouse chain Costco was a large financial supporter of the initiative donating the majority of $23 million spent (Washington’s single donor contribution record for a state initiative) to capture 59% of the approval votes needed for the measure to pass.

    @steph_jane2
    Stephanie Jane 2    I want one!!! “@kxly920: Washington to Auction Off State-Run Liquor Stores– http://t.co/ZDfDEr8v”

    @SpokesmanReview
    SpokesmanReview    Washington is going to auction off its state-run liquor stores. Minimum bid: $1000: http://t.co/T4Gt2siy 1 day ago via TweetDeck ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

  • Online Video Captures Assad Man Defecting

    Abdo Husameddine, Syria’s Deputy Oil Minister, announced his defection in an online video. Husameddine is the highest ranking official to leave President Bashar Assad’s regime since the country’s uprising last year. The Deputy Oil Minister explained he was defecting due to the brutal crackdown on dissent which has claimed thousands of Syrians’ lives in the past year.

    Husameddine identified himself as an “assistant” to the Oil Minister and a member of the ruling Baath Party in the video that was posted on YouTube. In the video, he is shown reading a paper, wearing a suit and tie and sitting on a sofa at an undisclosed location and he says, “I, Abdo Husameddine, Deputy Oil and Mineral Resources Minister, announce my defection from the regime and resignation from my post and declare that I am joining dignified people’s revolution.”

    The defecting official continues, “You have inflicted on those you claim are your people a full year of sorrow and sadness, denied them their basic rights to life and humanity and pushed the country to the edge of the abyss. I do not want to end my life servicing the crimes of this regime.” Husameddine has served for the regime for over 33 years in a variety of government positions. In the YouTube video, Husameddine said he was defecting, “knowing full well that this regime will burn my home, persecute my family and make up a lot of lies. I advise my colleagues to abandon this sinking ship.”

    (image)@michaeldweiss
    michaeldweiss    Syrian opposition hails high profile defection of deputy oil minister – Telegraph http://t.co/VwdEM2Rx via @Telegraph(image) 10 hours ago via Tweet Button ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

    (image)@hisham_melhem
    Hisham Melhem    Video of Syrian deputy oil minister Abdo Hussam Eldin announcing his defection& denouncing‘savagery’of Assad’s regime http://t.co/K1aPL9Mi(image) 21 hours ago via web ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

  • Audi A3 Allows Internet Access On The Go

    The new A3 from Audi is nearly identical to the 2012 A3, at least as far as length and height, but it will be slightly wider and will feature a longer wheelbase. The weight of the A3 has been very appealing to buyers and consumers are hoping the new A3 will have the same aluminum front fenders and hood which have saved the 2012 A3 around eighty pounds. The really exciting thing about the new A3 is how well it will connect owners to the outside world with technology.

    The interior has been redesigned and has a “floating” dashboard with round air vents. It also features a redesigned instrument cluster and climate control panel. The optional 3D color display for the Driver’s Information System has an ultra thin retractable MMI monitor. Another ergonomic innovation is the MMI navigation plus with MMI touch which is designed as a touchpad. With it, drivers can use finger motion or gesture based control to input letters and numbers easily. This is a first for the auto industry.

    The new A3 excels in many other areas. It’s driver assistance systems range from radar assisted cruise control to side assist, active lane assist, traffic sign detection, park assist and the pre-sense basic safety system. The latest A3 has an information system that includes a Bang & Olufsen audio system, MMI navigation plus and mobile phone preparation with online services to bring “real time” online traffic information and using a WLAN hotspot, allows A3 passengers to access the internet while traveling.

    @Audi
    Audi    Yesterday we unveiled the all-new A3 in Geneva. Check out the totally redesigned interior: http://t.co/7vw4RV8T Nice upgrade? 1 day ago via TweetDeck ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

    @HJPfaff_Audi
    H.J. Pfaff Audi    Audi A3 with MMI Touch gesture-based entertainment system hands-on http://t.co/L8oQhuKB 40 minutes ago via Argyle Social ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

    @razorfish_de
    Razorfish Germany    Razorfish launched the world’s first gesture controlled web special for the new Audi A3. Just follow your intuition: http://t.co/sbo8y0RE 4 hours ago via web ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

  • Real Online Gambling for Zynga Games?

    According to Business Insider, Mark Pincus, CEO of social gaming company Zynga, said at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media and Telecom conference, that online gambling and Zynga’s games are a “natural fit.”

    “I think it’s a good natural fit. I think, philosophically, the part people haven’t noticed yet, real money gaming is the perfect fit with virtual goods and social games.”

    Zynga would be naturally well-positioned for this kind of transition. With 30 million monthly players, Zynga Poker is the largest online poker game in the world, and the company is releasing more gambling related games like Zynga Bingo.

    “We’re interested, but you should expect to see us do a lot more than what you’ve seen in offshore casinos,” said Pincus.

    We wander what “a lot more” means when it comes to online gambling, an already multi-million, all be it illegal industry.

    This revelation may have come just in time, as many analysts believe social gaming, and Zynga in particular, has and will continue to see stagnation.

    A recent Justice Department ruling may open the door for online gambling on social sites like Facebook. With people already shelling out millions for Zynga coins, just to by a virtual upgrade for their virtual farm, the possibilities for making money on gambling in that market are endless.

  • Paypal Puts Publishers’ Panties In A Wad

    Paypal Puts Publishers’ Panties In A Wad

    So what’s got e-book publisher for independent authors Smashwords and others who are concerned about censorship all worked up? Apparently, PayPal issued Smashwords an ultimatum regarding certain categories of erotica published through the site. Mark Coker, Smashwords founder reported the payment processor PayPal had told the publisher to remove books in certain categories (erotica) and threatened to stop doing business with them if they didn’t comply. In an e-mail issued to Smashwords’ Authors, Publishers and Literary Agents, Coker alerted and apologized for having to modify the site’s Terms of Service regarding erotic fiction containing bestiality, rape and incest.

    “Paypal is requiring Smashwords to immediately remove the above mentioned categories of books. Please review your title(s) and proactively remove and archive such works if you are affected. I apologize for the short notice, and I’m especially sorry for any financial or emotional hardship this may cause the authors and publishers affected by this change. As you may have heard, in the last couple of weeks PayPal began aggressively enforcing a prohibition against online retailers with certain types of ‘obscene’ content.”

    Response to the news and the issue has been heated. An article written by Selena Kitt, entitled, “Slippery Slope: Erotica Censorship” posted on her blog had a big response. Here’s an example:

    (image)

    Erotica is one of the most popular genres on the net today and according to Chris Meadows in TeleRead, (news and views on e-books, libraries, publishing and related topics) Erotica has played a key role in the early adoption of e-books, which allowed people to read what they wanted, anywhere, without having to be embarrassed by any sexy book jackets or covers. It’s really a shame that payment processing concerns from companies like Amazon and PayPal are making it harder for online retailers to sell.

    (image)@Sheri_Hart
    Sheri Hart    @jane_l Thx for keeping the PayPal #censorship front and centre. Hopefully more #writers, #booklovers and bloggers will speak up.(image) 2 hours ago via web ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

    (image)@TheTechChat
    TheTechChat    @thDigitalReader No, PayPal isn’t stopping Smashwords from doing business. They’re just stopping them from using PayPal. @EvilWylie(image) 2 days ago via TweetDeck ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

  • Consumers’ Financial Lives Becoming More Digital

    Cha-ching! In the United States, half of all bill payments made (by households with access to the Internet) are being paid online. Nearly forty percent of mobile banking users have paid a bill using their phone and one out of every four online households have used mobile banking. Interesting numbers and findings from the latest Fiserv Consumer Trends Survey announced today by Fiserv, a leading global provider of financial services technology solutions. The survey was completed in August of 2011 by 3,000 individuals representative of the U.S. online population and provides insight into the consumer use of digital channels for financial services since 2002.

    The survey revealed that consumers are increasingly moving toward online and mobile channels for their daily financial management and that demand for tablet banking services will be growing in the future. According to Fiserv, the proliferation of smartphones, changing consumer expectations and entrance of non-traditional competitors has sparked a literal mobile banking revolution that financial institutions should consider an urgent call to action. To remain competitive in this rapidly evolving area, financial institutions will have to utilize mobile banking and payments strategies. Detailed findings from the survey are available in a free research paper, “Financial Services Continue the Digital Shift,” at www.fiserv.com/research

    Consumers have definitely gone digital and are moving beyond only using mobile channels to check balances or locate an ATM. Mobile banking is gaining popularity with a remarkable increase in transactions. Smart users are now taking advantage of being able to pay bills and transfer money online. The survey results found that sixty percent of users use a mobile browser (most common) for mobile banking access. Forty-one percent of those surveyed utilized downloadable apps and thirty-two percent used text messaging.

    Geoff Knapp, Vice President, Online Banking, Digital Channels for Fiserv remarks, “Consumers’ lives are becoming more and more digital, and their financial lives are no exception. They are increasingly turning to the online and mobile channels for everything from opening accounts to sending and receiving money, and their interest in using new devices like tablets for financial services is strong.”

    Nineteen percent of online households currently own a tablet and another twenty percent plan to purchase one according to the survey. This means almost forty percent of online households could own a tablet by the middle of 2012. Additionally, multi-tablet homes are emerging with thirty-seven percent of current tablet owners saying they plan to purchase another. These current and future tablet owners and operators plan to use them to view monthly statements, pay bills, view real-time account information and transfer money.

    Mobile and Tablet Banking – Fiserv Consumer Trends Survey

    View more presentations from Fiserv

  • AdamEve.com Argues Over America’s Adult Content Viewing Habits

    We do a lot of articles about a certain company with an Apple as their logo. This is not the one we usually report about. AdamEve.com claims to be America’s most trusted source for adults products. The company is well known for not shying away from asking questions about sexual behavior, so it shouldn’t come to anyone’s surprise that in a recent release, they are questioning the statistics regarding how much time Americans spend watching adult content.

    According to the information in question, 33% of American adults say they never view adult content and 20% claim only to view it once or twice a year. 22% say they view it once or twice a month, 16% admit to once or twice a week, 6% view it daily, 2% more than once a day and of course 2% refused to answer.

    When Adam and Eve Facebook followers were asked the same questions, 53% said they viewed adult content every day, 32% said they enjoyed the material every week, 5% said more than once a day, 3% said every month, 3% once a year and 4% answered never. The web-based survey, conducted by an independent third party survey company, of over 1,000 American adults age 18 and above, was sponsored by Adam and Eve to study sexual preferences and practices.

    According to Adam and Eve’s resident sex expert Dr. Kat Van Kirk, “We’re all visual creatures and utilizing erotic movies can be a great way to explore our sexualities individually and as couples. It can be a fantastic way to break the monotony in a relationship and even learn a few new tricks. Plus there are many full length DVD movies that have stellar production values, plot lines and acting, which can have a wider appeal to a female audience.” Dirk Diggler would be proud. “Sex Chat with Dr. Kat” and “Daily Sex Tips from Hawaii” can be found on podcasts through iTunes or on www.drkat.com.

    @DrKatSexChat
    Dr. Kat     Sex Toy 101 – How to Choose Your First Sex Toy – http://t.co/fIGCYOOv via @AdamandEve 7 days ago via shareaholic app ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

    Chad Davis, Adam and Eve’s Director of Marketing adds, “Adam and Eve sell millions of adult DVDs each year, as well as adult toys and novelties. Someone is definitely enjoying the materials we provide, even with the amount of free content available online.”

  • Study: Online Role-Playing Games Hurt Marriages

    Online role playing games negatively affect real-life marital satisfaction, according to a new Brigham Young University study published today in the Journal of Leisure Research.

    The study reports that 75 percent of spouses of sword-carrying, avatar-loving gamers wish they would put less effort into their guilds and more effort into their marriage. The researchers, led by graduate student Michelle Ahlstrom, and recreation management professor Neil Lundberg, studied 349 couples to learn how online role-playing games such as World of Warcraft, affect marital satisfaction for both gamers and their spouses. And in some cases, gaming even increased satisfaction.

    “It’s common knowledge that many couples experience challenges around gaming,” Lundberg said. “Particularly when husbands are heavy gamers, it clearly has a negative impact on their marriages.”

    What the researchers found confirms popular opinion, with some interesting new details. The study revealed it’s not the time spent playing games that caused dissatisfaction, but rather the resulting arguments or disrupted bedtime routines. These issues can cause problems such as poorer marital adjustment, less time spent together in shared activities and less serious conversation, the study reports.

    “It’s not the hours that make a difference,” Lundberg said. “It’s really what it does to the relationship– whether or not it creates conflict and quarreling over the game.”

    The study showed that gaming is dominated by men, but there is a contingent of women gamers who play with their spouses.

    “We didn’t realize that there was a whole group of couples who game together,” Lundberg said. “In those gaming couples where the marital satisfaction was low, the same issues existed. For example, if they argued about gaming and bedtime rituals were interrupted, even though they gamed together, they still had lower marital satisfaction scores.”

    However, the study found that for couples in which both spouses play, 76 percent said that gaming has a positive effect on their marital relationship. Interestingly, for those who do game together, interacting with each others avatars–their online persona—leads to higher marital satisfaction. However, both must be satisfied with their mutual participation, especially the individual who plays less.

    “Not all video games are bad,” said Ahlstrom, the graduate student. “Some are fun leisure pursuits that when played together may strengthen your relationships with others. With any type of gaming, consider the content of the game. Consider what you are doing in the game, how much time it is taking, how it is affecting you, your schooling, work, sleep, body and especially how it is affecting your spouse and marital relationship.”

    The researchers believe the problem could be more severe than the study shows because they found many dedicated gamers were not willing to participate in the study. The average age of the respondents to their nationwide survey was 33, and the average marriage length was 7 years. Of those couples in which only one spouse gamed, 84 percent of the players were the husbands. Of those couples where both gamed, 73 percent of those who gamed more were husbands.

    “This study really does verify that gaming has an effect on marital satisfaction,” Lundberg said. “It’s not just a random occurrence that a few couples are dealing with. Based on the large number of married gamers – 36 percent of multi-player online role-playing gamers report being married– we can assume this is a widespread issue.”

  • The Number of Gamers Is Increasing, Says ParksAssociates.com

    According to a study done by ParksAssociates.com, people are really transforming into gamers. The website defines a gamer as an individual in a broadband househols who plays at least one hour per month. The report mentions that 135 million people play at least one hour per month.

    It seems that most new-comers are attracted to free-to-play games on social media sites like Facebook. The report says this is one reason the gaming population has spiked so much since 2008. Games like Farmville and online slot machines on Facebook keep players engaged for long periods of time.

    Games are becoming quite popular on mobile devices such as smartphones as well. With games like Angry Birds and Temple Run, mobile gaming is just as addictive as any other platform and the results don’t lie; there’s money to be made.

    The mediums which gamers use to fulfill their playing desires varies from PC/laptop to actual gaming consoles such as Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. The graph below illustrates the variances in preferences among gamers.

    Since the introduction of tablets a few years ago, the mobility potential exploded. Tablets, being much like smartphones-minus the phone-are now a great and popular mobile device. With the ability to support apps, tools and games, this device is a real asset to mobile device users. With that being covered, the tablet mobile gaming platform has substantially gained momentum in past months as mobile/tablet games have become increasingly popular.

  • Three Years and Facebook Deleted Photos Still Online

    Facebook came forward friday, admitting that your old “deleted” pictures and other content is still online; they say the content “did not always delete images from content delivery networks in a reasonable period of time even though they were immediately removed from the site”. Facebook says they’re working on an updated system that speeds up the process for deleting old content that was originally supposed to done away with months even years prior.

    Ars Technica did an online investigation in 2009 and what they discovered was not positive findings. The investigation found that “deleted” photos do not necessarily delete when there is a direct link to them existing on Facebook’s servers. Users may certainly “delete” the photo from their page, but if anyone had a direct link to that photo, it can remain accessible until Facebook updates their system. Facebook says they are working with their content delivery network to reduce the amount of time that backup copies persist.

    Ars Technica followed up on their investigation greater than a year later and the so called deleted photos were still accessible. Stories began to roll in; “horror” stories were told of harassment using old photos that were supposed to be deleted years ago, but were still accessible due to that direct link.

    Now it’s 2012 and things haven’t really changed, numerous photos that were “deleted” at the times of the investigation and the followup are still online and Facebook still reported that they were “working” on the issue. Facebook had this to say about the situation:

    “The systems we used for photo storage a few years ago did not always delete images from content delivery networks in a reasonable period of time even though they were immediately removed from the site.”

    Facebook spokesperson Frederic Wolens says that photos still remaining online are “stuck” in an old legacy system that never operated properly; he stated that the company is working on a new system that will expeditiously remove the content with the span of a month and a half. For real, you guys. Wolens was quoted saying:

    “We have been working hard to move our photo storage to newer systems which do ensure photos are fully deleted within 45 days of the removal request being received. This process is nearly complete and there is only a very small percentage of user photos still on the old system awaiting migration, the URL you provided was stored on this legacy system. We expect this process to be completed within the next month or two, at which point we will verify the migration is complete and we will disable all the old content.”

    Mr. Wolens says Facebook is truly updating everything so that all the old content will be properly disposed in a timely period; up to 45 days. Facebook is currently in the process of building this new system and it’s said that it could take a couple of months still to complete.

  • Facebook Asks Journalists To Sign Non-Disclosures

    Our old friend Facebook is being pretty uptight about their privacy. Reportedly, before a recent news conference, Facebook officials asked attending journalists to sign a non-disclosure agreement, which entailed protocol that they were to follow once they arrived at the Seattle branch of the company. According to kplu.org, Dan Sytman, the Attorney General sent out an e-mail that said:

    “Facebook asked me to pass this on to you. They require it of all visitors to their facilities. It only applies to things that you might accidentally stumble upon while you are there and covers nothing discussed during our news conference. Please either bring a signed copy or be ready to sign upon arrival.”

    Journalists were a little upset needless to say, giving that their journalistic freedom was being, for lack of a better term, stolen. Journalists then got a little pep in their step as two hours later another e-mail was sent to agencies from Sarah Lane, the AG’s Director of New Media, stating.

    “I’m writing on behalf of Dan Sytman. You may disregard the nondisclosure agreement that we sent earlier.”

    So you may be curious as to what the agreement may have said. Well, partly it entailed:

    “You may become aware of non-public information related to Facebook and its products, services, programs, features, data, techniques, technology, code, ideas, inventions, research, testing, methods, procedures, know-how, trade secrets, business and financial information and other activities through disclosure, observation or otherwise in the course of your visit … All Facebook Confidential Information remains the property of Facebook. You agree not to disclose any Facebook Confidential Information to any third party, and to take all reasonable precautions to prevent its unauthorized dissemination …”

    The full agreement can be seen below.

    If you were a journalist or if you are a journalist, how does this information make you feel? Do you feel it’s right, whether it’s legal or not, to ask journalists and media to pretty much forget what they see? We want to know what you think, leave us comments below.