Vendor/Device neutral proposition designed to excell reach amongst consumers.

More Reach, More Yield and more Frequency.

Biggest test of all is whether Android see this as an opportunity or a threat. I suspect the later as Google Plus and other Google services will be in competition with Facebook. The game here is ADVERTISING and Consumer Intelligence. The challenge here is to what end will consumers give away privacy over colloboration. IS there a middle ground ?  In the business world yes – Microsoft O365.

The first mobile call was placed in April 3, 1973 by Motorola engineer Martin Cooper, head of a team working on mobile communication technologies.

Cooper made the call on Sixth Avenue in New York, before going into a press conference using a Motorola DynaTAC – a device that weighed one kilogram, (2.2 pounds) and had a battery life of 20 minutes, according to Motorola.

Cooper told the technology website The Verge last year that he placed the first call to a rival, Joel Engler of Bell Labs.

“To this day, he resents what Motorola did in those days,” Cooper said.
“They thought that we were a gnat, an obstacle… we believed in competition and lots of players. And we also believed – our religion was portables, because people are mobile. And here they were trying to make a car telephone and a monopoly on top of that. So that battle was the reason that we built that phone.”

Cooper and his team were honored earlier this year with the Draper Prize by the National Academy of Engineering for their work.

In 40 years, the industry has come a long way. Research firm IDC predicts 900 million smartphones will be sold in 2013 — along with roughly the same number of more basic feature phones.

And the phone has become a key advertising platform – eMarketer said US mobile advertising spending grew 178 per cent last year to USD 4.11 billion, and spending is expected to rise a further 77.3 per cent to USD 7.29 billion in 2013.

Read more: http://www.penmai.com/forums/real-life-stories/48903-happy-birthday-mobile-phone-turns-40-a.html#ixzz2PWcsP4h4

The move by data-protection authorities from Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, and the Netherlands is the first co-ordinated and formal procedure by EU states against a single company on privacy, underscoring European frustration with Google.

European watchdogs can currently impose only fines below €1m but new EU-wide rules could soon empower them to inflict on companies penalties up to 2 per cent of their global annual turnover.

In Google’s case that would add up to about $760m, based on its 2011 revenues. The new rules could be approved by the end of this year by EU lawmakers and member states.

The move comes five months after a probe led by CNIL, the French watchdog representing EU regulators, concluded that Google had failed to give users adequate information about how their personal data were being used across its multiple platforms.

Google responded that its privacy policy respected European law. “We have engaged fully with the data-protection authorities involved throughout this process, and we’ll continue to do so going forward,” it said in a statement.

The Mountain View-based group has faced intense criticism for its privacy policy since it first moved to merge customer data held across its various services such as Gmail and YouTube, which alone holds the data of more than 1bn users.

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The US group said its new privacy terms, which combine 60 former policies into one for all its customers, would allow it to provide a better service. Google Now, which provides intuitive updates based on calendar entries, location patterns and emails, is one example of a service making use of the new approach.

“It is good to see that six national data-protection authorities are teaming up to enforce Europe’s common data-protection rules,” said Viviane Reding, EU commissioner for justice. “I am confident that the European Parliament and the EU member states will strengthen Europe’s enforcement tools substantially in the course of this year.”

EU privacy officials have also criticised aggressive US lobbying on behalf of Google and Facebook to relax new privacy laws being considered by Brussels.

The news comes a day after Google confirmed that its privacy director, Alma Whitten, was leaving after nearly three years in the role.

Ms Whitten was appointed in 2010 after Google admitted that its Street View cars had been recording data from the unprotected WiFi networks of homeowners, for which it paid CNIL a €100,000 fine. Lawrence You, a member of Google’s privacy team, will take over the role.

Google said the move was unrelated to actions by the EU regulators.

The company is also fighting EU competition authorities over the prominence of its own products in Google search results.

Last week Microsoft published, through a consultant, findings of a survey showing that Google’s competitors were being disadvantaged by sitting lower in search results than Google’s own services in areas like shopping and travel. On March 21 2011, complainants in that investigation published an open letter to, Joaquín Almunia, EU vice-president, urging him to take action.

Nick Pickles, director of Big Brother Watch, a UK privacy campaigner, said: “Google has repeatedly put profit ahead of user privacy . . . It is essential regulators find a sanction that is not just a slap on the wrists and will make Google think twice before it ignores consumer rights again.”

Datacenter Efficiency by Dileep Bhandarkar

Surface Windows 8 Pro 64gb is available online or from store shelves at all Microsoft retail stores in the U.S. and Canada, at Staples and Best Buyin the United States and from Best Buy and Future Shop in Canada. Customer response to the launch of Surface Pro has been amazing. We’re working with our retail partners who are currently out of stock of the 128GB Surface Pro to replenish supplies as quickly as possible. Our priority is to ensure that every customer gets their new Surface Pro as soon as possible.

Surface Pro gives you the power and performance of an Intel Core-powered PC in a tablet package. Whether you’re a road warrior looking for the one device to pack or you’re looking for a PC that will get the job done and still help you have fun, this is the device for you.

To go along with your new Surface Pro, you can also pick up a new Wedge Touch Mouse Surface Edition and three new Touch Cover Limited Editionsin red, magenta, and cyan which will be available in all markets where Surface is currently sold. Starting today, you can buy a new 64GB standalone version of Surface Windows RT so you can choose a Touch (or Type) Cover of your choice – like one of the Touch Cover Limited Editions I just mentioned!

I’m also excited that as of next Thursday there’ll be 13 more countries in Europe joining the Surface family. On February 14th, we’ll be bringing Surface RT to Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.

Surface RT and Surface Pro represent countless hours of research, prototyping, experimenting and building an amazing product that really is the ideal stage for Windows 8. Our hope is to share with you here through our blog some of that work in the coming weeks!

Now with the Surface family, you can decide which device best suits your needs. Whether you’re a business professional who needs to use Photoshop while you’re traveling to make edits to a picture, or a blogger wanting a simple and seamless way to update your blog, there’s a Surface for you. Surface Pro, which provides the power and performance of a laptop in a tablet package, is great for taking notes with its pen while you’re sitting in on a meeting and responding quickly to emails while using your Touch Cover (or Type Cover!) keyboard. Surface RT offers the convenience of a tablet with some laptop capabilities. It really is about entertainment first as a tablet with all day battery life all in a package that’s super lightweight.

Well, since I’ve spent some time sharing with you the exciting qualities about Surface Pro, I’m eager for you to get your hands on one. So stop by one of the above mentioned retail stores and check one out for yourself! Oh, and one more thing don’t forget to get yourself a Limited Edition Touch Cover before they’re all gone!