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New Media News Every Morning

T-Mobile sends “Presidential Alert” message to select customers

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After the terrorist attack that happened in September 11, 2001, The United sStates has become more conscious about what would happen in case a scenario similar that day occurs. It has led to a concerted effort to put in place measures to make sure that it never happens again or if it does, it is more prepared to handle the situation. One immediate result of this was the creation of the Department of Homeland Security. And now another step has been taken to further protect the American people – the Personal Localized Alert Network. [Read more…]

Originally posted on November 7, 2011 @ 11:17 am

Google Wallet: How it works

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Google has been consistently coming out with a lot of new products that have met with a lot of success. One of the most ambitious Google projects to be unveiled to the public is Google Wallet, which could be considered a highly effective payment platform using smartphones. So how does Google Wallet work?

Google Wallet uses an embedded near-field communications or NFC chip that allows users to use their credit cards, debit cards, coupons, store loyalty cards and other payment or discount products without having to physically use the card. With the use of the NFC chip, all the user needs to do is to use their smartphone and tap it onto a payment receiver to initiate and complete the transaction. Bigtime brands like Visa, MasterCard, Discover and American Express have already thrown their support for Google Wallet and will become part of the whole Google Wallet system. [Read more…]

Originally posted on September 21, 2011 @ 11:45 am

Car Theft Tweets?

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Surry Police are using everything at their disposal to combat car crimes, including the microblogging website Twitter. The English county believes the social media behemoth can be used to apprehend automobile thieves and vandals and prevent future offenses. It can also likely be used as a theft deterrent.

For a one-week period the police department will use Twitter to announce any car crime that comes into its contact center. By putting information in the hands of the public, the county hopes average citizens will take an active interest in cleaning up their streets.

Car theft

Car theft is one of the most common crimes reported to police in nearly every corner of the world. In the US alone, more than 1 million vehicles are stolen every year. This startling statistic doesn’t include minor car crimes like vandalism, which make up a significant amount of dispatcher calls. [Read more…]

Originally posted on September 27, 2011 @ 6:43 am

Flickr launches People in Photos feature

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flickr-logoI must admit that most of the time I search Flickr it’s for pictures of gadgets or landscapes, but according to the Yahoo!-owned photo service, it’s people that are the real stars.

To this end, they’ve launched a “People in Photos” feature which allows members to link people in photos to their Flickr accounts, in a similar way to how Facebook does it except that I suspect there are fewer people with Flickr than Facebook accounts.

On top of this, there are a range of security options (which the likes of Facebook could learn something from) whereby users have more control over how their image is featured in a photo. [Read more…]

Originally posted on October 22, 2009 @ 6:34 am

TechCrunch to Twitter: we’ve got the stolen goods, what should we do with them?

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burglar-posterImagine for a moment that someone burgles your house, steals some electronic equipment, and then phones you a couple of weeks later to ask if you’ve got the manuals for it. (actually, fans of British sitcoms may well recognise this from a “One Foot in the Grave” episode).

That’s what TechCrunch’s statement that they’ve “spent much of the last 36 hours talking directly to Twitter about the right way to go about [posting the stolen documents]” feels like.

Now we know that TechCrunch didn’t steal them, and that the person who did decided to pop the docs in a virtual scatter gun, and that TC has milked and got a lot of mileage out of what are essentially fairly boring internal memos, but it once again raises an interesting question on what’s fair game to publish. [Read more…]

Originally posted on July 17, 2009 @ 5:39 am