Facebook "Transparency" as Seen by Jon Stewart

Jon Stewart on Mark Zuckerberg's concerns about transparency. Steward captures the irony.

‘The Daily Show’ Weighs In On The Facebook Investment Frenzy [Video]

Apple Launches Mac App Store

Apple has launched its new Mac App Store with more than 1,000 free and paid apps in the catalog. Apps can be bought them using an iTunes account.

The Mac App Store offers apps in Education, Games, Graphics & Design, Lifestyle, Productivity, Utilities and other categories. Users can browse new and noteworthy apps, find out what’s hot, see staff favorites, search categories and look up top charts for paid and free apps, as well as user ratings and reviews.

Apple’s Mac App Store Opens for Business

What's Hot at Consumer Electronics Show

Verizon CEO Touts 4G

It's fast. It might be pricey, not in terms of formal price ($50a  month for PC dongle service, with a 5 Gbyte cap, $80 for a 10-Gbyte cap), but if it encourages people to watch lots of video on their PCs, using the air cards, that they might not have in the past, it could get expensive.

International long-distance slumps, while Skype soars

Growth in international call traffic has slumped while international traffic routed using Skype continues to accelerate, says TeleGeography Research.

International phone traffic grew an estimated four percent in 2010, to 413 billion minutes, down from five-percent growth in 2009, and a far cry from the 15 percent average growth rate achieved during the previous two decades.

Of course, traffic is only part of the story. International long distance, as well as most other forms of long distance service, also have been affected by lower per-minute pricing as well.

International long-distance slumps, while Skype soars: CommsUpdate : TeleGeography Research

Gartner Says Worldwide IT Spending to Grow 5.1 Percent in 2011

The telecom equipment market is poised for strong growth in 2011, with worldwide telecom equipment spending forecast to grow 9.1 percent, according to Gartner. Strong sales of mobile devices are largely responsible.

In absolute terms the most significant change occurred in the mobile services forecast. A combination of updated connection data, increased average revenue per unit in certain countries and stronger local currencies resulted in an upward revision of our mobile service forecast across 2010 through 2014. The CAGR for global mobile services revenue from 2009 through 2014 has been increased to 7 percent, up from 5.3 percent.

Gartner Says Worldwide IT Spending to Grow 5.1 Percent in 2011

Gartner Says Business Intelligence Will Go Mobile

By 2013, 33 percent of business intelligence functionality used by enterprise workers will be consumed via handheld devices, says Gartner.

Also, by 2014, Gartner expects 40 percent of spending on business analytics will go to system integrators, not software vendors. That would be a significant change.

Traditionally, organizations bought products almost exclusively from software companies and system integrators then helped the buyer to implement them.

However, the growth of user-driven initiatives, external information sources and the integration of unstructured content make this traditional approach increasingly risky and potentially uncompetitive.

Buyers can now evaluate solutions – for example marketing campaign effectiveness in financial services, as total packages, and select a lead provider, often a service provider, to deliver it. That leaves lots of room for changes in the supply infrastructure, with app providers becoming integrators.

At first, mobile business intelligence will largely consist of existing reports and dashboards ported to the mobile device but by 2012, Gartner predicts that organizations and vendors will develop mobile analytic applications for specific tasks or domains.

Gartner Says New Relationships Will Change Business Intelligence and Analytics

Near Field Communications for Retail: 3 Basic Modes

Some idea of the things near field communications might mean for mobile payments in retail settings can be gleaned from the three basic communication modes. In "passive" mode, the mobile device sends data to a terminal (cash register or card reader). That's the same sort of thing people do today with automated toll booth readers. Obviously there are some basic payment functions this will work for.

In "active" mode the NFC device can exchange data with another powered NFC device. Obviously one can image many more things that would be possible in active mode, from authentication to in-store messaging and queries.

In card emulation mode, NFC can replicate the functional capabilities of payment cards, mass transit ticketing cards, building entry cards and others. Data flows from the NFC device to the card-reading device—a contactless point of sale (PoS) terminal, turnstile or building entry device.

In active reader mode, NFC can grab information from passive NFC tags to run applications, visit Web sites, call people or perform any other number of actions executable by a mobile phone. Data flows from the tag to the NFC device.

In peer-to-peer mode, an NFC device can link to other NFC devices in much the same way Bluetooth currently does, but it has greater security. The greatest number of in-store loyalty and other apps will use P2P.

Yankee Group :: Research Report

Cisco Videoscape Suggests How Hard Cable Operators Are Working at Integrating Online Video

Cisco today announced the release of Cisco Videoscape, a TV platform for service providers that brings together digital TV and online content with social media and communications applications. Videoscape is part of Cisco's overall video strategy to provide the next generation of TV that is simpler for consumers, and is intended to support cable operators anxious to integrate online video with linear video.

Cisco is currently working with several major global service provider customers, including Telstra, to enable next-generation video experiences through the Videoscape platform.

Cisco and Service Providers Aim to Reinvent the TV Experience with 'Videoscape' -> Cisco News

Cisco's View of the Video Future

Facebook Has More Than 600 Million Users

Users aren't "revenue," and neither are "eyeballs." But it can help. Facebook has 600 million monthly active users, according to a document Goldman Sachs is showing clients interested in investing in Facebook.

To the extent that Facebook increasingly is seen as a useful advertising venue, those users or eyeballs are going to be important, at some point.

Facebook Has More Than 600 Million Users, Goldman Tells Clients

Is Google Now Microsoft? Facebook Bull Thinks So

Rare is the company that keep up hyper levels of revenue growth forever. Even if you agree with this view, Facebook itself is going to be "legacy," sooner or later.

Tablets, Internet TVs will Lead Consumer Electronics Show

Not all Consumer Electronics Innovations Get Adopted

By some rough estimates, only about 20 percent of new consumer electronics products actually succeed in a significant way, in terms of sales. Here are some that, in the past, didn't make it.

U.S. Consumer Technology Sales: Smartphones, Tablets, E-Readers Gain

U.S. consumer technology holiday sales declined five percent in 2010 totaling $10.3 billion, according to the NPD Group.

The traditional categories felt significant spending pressure from smartphones, tablet and e-reader sales, as well as the rebound in the video game market. Overall NPD estimates that 2010 sales for the 9 week sales period will total $14.9 billion down 4 percent from last year.

What is significant here is that all three of the strong categories are mobile products.

Notebook unit volume fell 9 percent with little to no discounting, as average selling prices remained flat. Netbook unit volume declined 38 percent compared to the 2009 season and accounted for 19 percent of Windows' notebook sales, down from 27 percent of last year's volume. Desktop sales also took a hit dropping 16 percent in units.

U.S. Consumer Technology Holiday Sales Drop 5 Percent in 2010, According to NPD