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<title>Haaze.com / tamatha205 / Published News</title>
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<pubDate>Fri, 03 Jun 2011 07:10:20 +0000</pubDate>
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<title><![CDATA[Apple's iCloud: The halo effect]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=apples-icloud-the-halo-effect</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=apples-icloud-the-halo-effect</comments>
<pubDate>Fri, 03 Jun 2011 07:10:20 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>tamatha205</dc:creator>
<category>Mobile &amp; Electronics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=apples-icloud-the-halo-effect</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ Apple has inked its licensing pact with Universal Music Group and will reportedly charge $25 a year for an iCloud subscription. That revenue stream--once you factor in splits with the music industry--is essentially peanuts, but the value of iCloud will go well beyond the profit and loss statement. First the news, CNET's Greg Sandoval reports that Apple has cut a licensing deal with Universal Music. That move gives Apple all the major labels and Universal brings U2 and Lady Gaga to the iCloud party. Meanwhile, the L.A. Times reports that Apple will &quot;eventually&quot; charge $25 a year for iCloud and sell advertising around the service. View the full gallery When you factor in the revenue split with the music industry--labels 58 percent, publishers 12 percent and Apple 30 percent--Steve Jobs &amp; Co. will get $7.50 in revenue for each iCloud subscription. As for the rudimentary math, Apple is projected to move 184 millioniPhone units in calendar 2011 and 2012, according to Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster. We'll assume that half of those iPhone subscribers will ultimately pay for iCloud with Apple getting $7.50. That's $690 million in revenue a calendar year. Apple is also expected to sell 75 millioniPad units over calendar 2011 and 2012. Again we'll assume half of those iPad users buy the iCloud subscription. Those iPad units will deliver $281 million in revenue a year in calendar 2012. As for theiPod, Apple is expected to move 81 million units over calendar 2011 and 2012. We'll assume one third of those iPod users will get iCloud--it's unclear whether the Nano will be able to  tap into Apple's cloud service. One third of that iPod base still gets you $200 million in revenue a year.  The grand total for Apple from iCloud at $25 translates into about $1.2 billion in annual revenue for the company. That's not a huge deal for a company the size of Apple, but it's not chump change either. In Apple's most recent quarterly SEC filing sales of music-related products--iTunes sales--were $574 million for the first six months of Apple's fiscal year.  In a nutshell, iCloud will at least double Apple's music-related revenue if that $25 a year figure is accurate. The math obviously gets more interesting for Apple if it gets 75 percent of its iPhone, iPad, and iPod users on iCloud. And the figures would really look good if you assume that Apple goes with a working-class iPhone that gives it a much larger addressable market of 500 million units or so.  However, given that Apple is expected to report revenue of $103 billion in its fiscal year ending September 30, iCloud is a nice add-on, but not a financial boon.  So what's the big deal For Apple, iCloud and streaming music gives the company a nice moat against Google and Amazon, two companies that jumped first into the music locker business. In addition, Apple ensures that iTunes becomes more of a platform.  In the big picture, however, iCloud is more about the halo effect for Apple. The direct revenue attributed to iCloud doesn't matter as much as the value in the Apple chain. When we get real numbers to play with, the iCloud revenue impact will be more clear. For now, there's enough information to get a rough idea of how iCloud fits into Apple's revenue machine.  Sterne Agee analyst Shaw Wu summed up the iCloud impact, which goes beyond direct revenue.  iCloud could be a very big deal, making iTunes even more powerful and useful by allowing access to content from any device, anywhere. In addition, we notice that every time a major new feature is added to iTunes (like TV and movie rentals), its utility value increases, which in turn drives more hardware sales, i.e., iPhone, iPad, and Macs. Press reports indicate that Apple has reached cloud licensing agreements with the major music labels. What is less clear is if Apple has also reached deals with providers of TV shows, movies, and e-books. Regardless, we believe reaching cloud music deals would be a great start and further distance Apple from Google, Amazon, Microsoft, and others, which in the last 10 years or so have failed to put even a minor dent to iTunes.  This story originally appeared on ZDNet's Between the Lines as &quot;Apple iCloud: Nice incremental revenue boost, but halo effect more notable.&quot;   <br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Instant voice mail and online role-playing: iPhone apps of the week]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=instant-voice-mail-and-online-role-playing-iphone-apps-of-the-week</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=instant-voice-mail-and-online-role-playing-iphone-apps-of-the-week</comments>
<pubDate>Fri, 29 Apr 2011 07:10:09 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>tamatha205</dc:creator>
<category>Technology</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=instant-voice-mail-and-online-role-playing-iphone-apps-of-the-week</guid>
<description><![CDATA[(Credit:CNET)Some interesting Apple news this week from AppleInsider revolves around Apple's acquisition of the iCloud domain name. Apparently, according to sources, Apple paid Sweden-based company Xcerion an estimated $4.5 billion for the domain. It is rumored that the cloud service will be announced this summer at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference here in San Francisco.There have already been plenty of rumors that Apple's cloud service would enable users to stream music to iOS devices, but according to the article, it may also offer a personalized &quot;locker&quot; where you can keep photos and videos as well. It will be exciting to see how this all pans out at WWDC, and whether people will be more inclined to sign up with iCloud than with MobileMe, which received a somewhat lukewarm response from users.What kind of things would you like to see offered in an Apple-based cloud service What would be a reasonable price for such a service Let us know in the comments.This week's apps are an instant voice mail messenger and a full-featured MMORPG that closely resembles one of the most popular games of all time.HeyTell lets you send your location by hitting the crosshairs button before recording your message.(Credit:Screenshot by Jason Parker/CNET)HeyTell (Free) is a voice mail messaging app that's been out for quite some time, but a friend told me about it recently and I thought more people should check it out. The idea with HeyTell is, instead of calling or sending a text message to a friend, you can send an instant voice mail--as long as your friend has HeyTell installed. Start by touching the green-on-white person-shaped icon to add people from your contact list. You also have the option to connect HeyTell to your FaceBook account, but I wonder whether people really want everyone they've ever known sending them voice mails. When selecting friends from youriPhone contact list, HeyTell offers a premade invite you can send via text message to have your friend download the free app.Using HeyTell is obviously a different way to communicate--replacing text messages with voice mails--and it is definitely fun to hear how people respond to rapid-fire voice messages. The interface plays into the fun: to send a voice mail, you simply press the big orange Hold and Speak button and HeyTell records your message until you let go, kind of like using a walkie talkie. The app keeps all of your shared replies so you can go back and listen to individual messages. You can even save favorite messages to enjoy later. Beyond its main functions, HeyTell offers a few for-pay Extras (tab on the bottom right of the interface). For $1.99 each, you can add a Voice Changer to create silly-sounding messages' Emoji support to add fun icons to your name (seems overpriced to me)' Message Wipe to have messages expire after a specified amount of time' and (for $2.99) Group Broadcast, which lets you send out voice messages to your designated groups of friends. I only downloaded the Voice Changer add-on, but was honestly not very impressed by the results. Any one of these purchases will turn off the in-app ads, but the ads are pretty easy to tune out when using HeyTell.Overall, HeyTell is an interesting way to communicate and is definitely more efficient than sending text messages. If you like the idea of quick voice mails to get your point across, you should definitely check out this free app.The resemblance to World of Warcraft is obvious, but that doesn&amp;39't make this game any less fun to play.(Credit:Screenshot by Jason Parker/CNET)Order and Chaos Online ($6.99) is Gameloft's answer to World of Warcraft on the iPhone, borrowing liberally from what has been called the most popular MMORPG of all time, and however you feel about Gameloft, I think it did a great job. The graphics on the iPhone 4 Retina display are as smooth as can be, and the touch-screen interface will be familiar to anyone who's played an FPS (or other 3D RPG) on the iPhone--use the joypad on the left to move and swipe a finger on the right to control direction and to look around.Along with basic movement, Order and Chaos does an admirable job of making all of your interface elements easy to access. A tap on your character's avatar in the upper left brings up most of your main options, including viewing your inventory, looking at your quest log, checking out your character skills and attributes, sorting through spells, and creating groups. For actions, Order and Chaos does away with the &quot;action bar&quot; found in many desktop RPGs and instead uses a scrollable wheel of buttons in the lower right, which--while handy--is a little hard to navigate when in the heat of combat. You also have a chat window at the bottom and two extra hot bars at the right where you can place things like potions and food for easy access.You start by choosing from four available races, then pick from four classes: Warrior, Mage, Monk, or Ranger. You also can pick your gender, choose from a few different hairstyles, and alter the features of your character's face with a few different presets. Once you've chosen a name, you'll be dropped into a beginner area of the world and the game does a good job of showing you the ropes for movement, obtaining quests, and engaging in combat.As you complete quests, you'll gain experience and be able to level up your character with new skills (or spells depending on your class) and unlock items you couldn't use at lower levels. Each character has two skill trees that slowly unlock as you advance in levels, giving you the option to pursue specific skills to specialize your character.Gameloft borrowed just about everything from Blizzard's hit game: the cartoonlike artistic style, the look of the landscape, the character design, the onscreen text colors, and just about everything else. But Order and Chaos Online lacks the imagination and storyline of World of Warcraft' you end up feeling more like you're working to advance than like you're playing a game. Every quest has the familiar &quot;Kill six of these monsters&quot; or &quot;Gather 10 of these minerals&quot; kind of feel, with little in the way of an interesting storyline to pull you along.Even with these issues, new skills and spells will probably be enough motivation for most players to continue grinding away. Order and Chaos Online is easily the best MMO available on the iPhone, with a very smooth RPG experience that anyone who plays games from the genre will enjoy. As with any game with this much depth, I have to wonder how much time people are willing to spend playing on the small iPhone screen (if you have aniPad, the larger screen will definitely help), but either way, having a full-fledged MMO in your pocket is a pretty amazing thing.It's important to note that when you log in you are given a free three-month subscription, but after that you'll need to subscribe for 99 cents per month, $1.99 for three months, or $2.99 for six months. While you might be put off by a subscription, my guess is that most people won't mind paying for a few months and then canceling once the next big game comes along.What's your favorite iPhone app Do you agree that HeyTell is a fun way to communicate with friends What do you think about long and involved games on such a small device Let me know in the comments!<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Apple's iAds app found to bend App Store rules]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=apples-iads-app-found-to-bend-app-store-rules</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=apples-iads-app-found-to-bend-app-store-rules</comments>
<pubDate>Wed, 06 Apr 2011 07:10:13 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>tamatha205</dc:creator>
<category>Mobile &amp; Electronics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=apples-iads-app-found-to-bend-app-store-rules</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Apple&amp;39's iAd Gallery application(Credit:Apple)Apple is no stranger to posting its own advertising on Apple.com, even grouping together online and TV ads on specially promoted pages. But a new iOS application Apple released yesterday, which showcases third-party ad campaigns as part of its iAd platform, manages to violate the company's own App Store guidelines.As pointed out by Business Insider, the free iAd Gallery app breaks the 13th item in Apple's functionality rules, which stipulates that &quot;apps that are primarily marketing materials or advertisements will be rejected.&quot; The app itself is made up entirely of advertisements that users can interact with as if they saw them inside of an application. Based on a section in Apple's iAds guidelines, the app could also be considered as violating the rule that says &quot;apps that are designed predominantly for the display of ads will be rejected.&quot; In the iAd application's description, Apple positions it as a resource of sorts, giving users a way to &quot;learn about the featured ads, including the advertising agencies behind them.&quot; The application also contains some bookmarking and exploration tools that let users save ads they like, and browse campaigns by brand.Still, there's no arguing that the application remains a delivery mechanism for ads that Apple would be unlikely to allow from third parties based on its own rules. Proof enough of that was churned up by Engadget, which had been contacted by the maker of Ads Tube, an application that was designed to collect and organize iAd campaigns for viewing. That app was rejected in June for having &quot;minimal user functionality.&quot; Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Apple's iAd platform was introduced around this time last year as an alternative to third-party mobile-advertising tools provided by Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, and others. The underlying technology, which had application developers sticking in just a few lines of code to have Apple serve up hand-picked ads in their applications, was built into Apple's iOS 4 and launched with 17 participating brands in July.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Mozilla offers do-not-track tool to thwart ads]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=mozilla-offers-do-not-track-tool-to-thwart-ads</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=mozilla-offers-do-not-track-tool-to-thwart-ads</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 24 Jan 2011 08:10:26 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>tamatha205</dc:creator>
<category>Mobile &amp; Electronics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=mozilla-offers-do-not-track-tool-to-thwart-ads</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Mozilla, acting on a U.S. Federal Trade Commission proposal, has offered a detailed mechanism by whichFirefox and other Web browsers could prevent Web pages from tracking people's online behavior for advertising purposes.With Mozilla's do-not-track technology, network data packets from the browser would signal to a Web site that a person doesn't wished to be tracked. Then comes the tricky part: getting Web site operators to cooperate.Alex Fowler, Mozilla's global privacy and public policy leader, said that with the mechanism, the browser would alert a Web site during basic communications that use the Web's Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP). He also acknowledged that getting Web sites to cooperate is a crucial difficulty in getting the system to work:As the first of many steps, we are proposing a feature that allows users to set a browser preference that will broadcast their desire to opt-out of third party, advertising-based tracking by transmitting a Do Not Track HTTP header with every click or page view in Firefox. When the feature is enabled and users turn it on, Web sites will be told by Firefox that a user would like to opt-out of OBA [online behavioral advertising]. We believe the header-based approach has the potential to be better for the Web in the long run because it is a clearer and more universal opt-out mechanism than cookies or blacklists...The advantages to the header technique are that it is less complex and simple to locate and use, it is more persistent than cookie-based solutions, and it doesn't rely on user's finding and loading lists of ad networks and advertisers to work...The challenge with adding this to the header is that it requires both browsers and sites to implement it to be fully effective. Mozilla recognizes the chicken and egg problem and we are taking the step of proposing that this feature be considered for upcoming releases of Firefox.Mozilla&amp;39's explanation of its proposed do-not-track technique for letting people opt out of behaviorally targeted advertising.(Credit:Mozilla)Mozilla has long had privacy as part of its mission to empower users of the Internet. In practice, privacy remains a broad, thorny problem, however' what one person sees as corporate intrusiveness another can see as a way to offer genuinely relevant ads.Mozilla doesn't appear to be acting alone. Today, &quot;Google is expected to announced a privacy tool called 'Keep My Opt-Outs' that enables users to permanently opt out of ad -targeting from dozens of companies,&quot; The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday, citing an unnamed source.The FTC proposed a Do Not Track mechanism last year (click for PDF).&quot;While some industry members have taken positive steps toward improving consumer control, there are several concerns about existing consumer choice mechanisms,&quot; the FTC said. Among them, &quot;industry efforts to implement choice on a widespread basis have fallen short,&quot; consumers aren't generally aware of the technology when it's available, and it can be hard to use.&quot;Given these limitations, [FTC] staff supports a more uniform and comprehensive consumer choice mechanism for online behavioral advertising, sometimes referred to as 'Do Not Track,' the report said. &quot;Such a universal mechanism could be accomplished by legislation or potentiallythrough robust, enforceable self-regulation.&quot;For details on Mozilla's proposal, check posts by Sid Stamm and Mike Hanson. Also available is Mozilla's do not track FAQ.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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