Featured Report: User Beware: That Mobile App is Spying on You

CIO Mobile

User Beware: That Mobile App is Spying on You

Aug,05,2014

by: 

Bill Snyder

 

Those apps you download on your smartphone may be free or very cheap, but there’s a hidden price you should be aware of: loss of privacy.The vast majority of the most popular iOS and Android mobile apps collect a variety of personal data from users, including location details, address book contacts and calendar information, according to a just-released survey by Appthority, a company that advises businesses on security.The report does offer some significant good news. Appthority found that very few of the apps it analyzed carried malware.Appthority, which says it has a catalog of around two million apps, analyzed a total of 400 of the most popular mobile apps available (based on downloads) in Apple’s App Store and Google Play. When it comes to free apps, there was essentially no difference between the two platforms.  Read More

ZD Net

Is the smartphone killing off society's social skills?

Aug,06,2014

by:David Gewirtz

Did ever notice how sometimes things can seem absolutely normal, until you look around and realize you could be in a Doctor Who episode? Last night was like that. It was late and I was at a local pub celebrating a friend's birthday. I'm not much of a pub creature. I sowed my wild oats a long time ago. Sowed them, harvested them, cooked them, and made meal out of them. But I'm -- quite thankfully -- past those days.   As a result, I only find myself in a pub-like atmosphere on those few occasions when I didn't plan far enough in advance to have a good excuse to get out of a social event. That means I manage to avoid having to go out on the town more than once every two or three months. Read More

RCR Wireless News

Mavenir looks to moderate NFV expectations as hype swells

Aug,04,2014

by: DAN MEYER

Network function virtualization has become a significant talking point across the mobile telecommunications space, with most wireless operators and equipment vendors looking more closely at the technology. That attention comes from the potential cost savings and potential improvements in rolling out new services that wireless carriers are always looking to take advantage of. IDC recently released a report predicting that network virtualization was “set to revolutionize the telecom industry as it transforms the culture and operational infrastructure, as well as the fabric of legacy proprietary infrastructures that have, until now, dominated the space.” That followed a report from Maravedis-Rethink released earlier this year that predicted early three-fourth of mobile operators will deploy some form of NFV by 2018, noting the move to NFV will be one of the most important ways carriers will “transform their cost base and their service delivery in the next few years.”   Read More

Wireless Week

Verizon to FCC: Throttling Unlimited Users “Widely Accepted”

Aug,05,2014

by: Ben Munson

Verizon has officially responded to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler after the Commissioner criticized the carrier’s decision to start slowing data speeds for some unlimited plan customers on its LTE network. The United States’ largest carrier called the practice “widely accepted,” according to Reuters. Verizon CEO Dan Mead, to whom the FCC’s letter was addressed, said the policy was in line with FCC principles. Verizon calls the practice “network optimization” and says that it will only apply to the top five percent of users on unlimited plans and will only take effect when the network is congested. The carrier says the policy will “ensure the fair allocation of capacity.”   Read More

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Featured Report: Mobile internet revenue to hit $700B in 4 years, growing more than 300%

VentureBeat

Mobile internet revenue to hit $700B in 4 years, growing more than 300%

July,30,2014

by: John Koetsier

Mobile revenue will jump more than 300 percent in the next four years, hitting $700 billion in revenue by 2017, according to a new report by Digi-Capital. No, that’s not all gems in Clash of Clans. In fact, most of the growth will be in mobile commerce, which Digi-Capital says will hit $516 billion. Consumer apps will account for another $74 billion, while enterprise mobility will hit $53 billion. Mobile ads, at $42 billion, and wearables, at $11 billion, will round out the $700 billion total. “Mobile’s so big, it’s hard to take in all at once,” report author Tim Merel told VentureBeat. “When we broke down the data by sector … what jumped out was the power of mCommerce to drive the market. Growing from over $100B to half a trillion dollars globally, it commands the lion’s share.” The next four years won’t only showcase the maturation of mobile, however. According to Merel, it will also highlight the ascendence of Asia. Read More

Marketing Experiments Blog

Copywriting: How to tip the scale so customers act

July,14,2014

by: Daniel Burstein

When writing copy for promotions, content and advertising, many writers tend to be pulled between two possible directions: creativity on one side, and communication on the other.

How can I be creative and still effectively communicate the ideas I have?

 Think like the customer

Creativity and communication are not the two opposing forces in the customer’s mind. The customer is weighing these two decisions:

• What is the value of this?
• How much will it cost me?

“Essentially the prospect, even if at a subconscious level, engages in elementary math: Vf_Ac - Cf_Ac, which is to say, they subtract the perceived cost force from the perceived value force,” said Flint McGlaughlin, Managing Director, MECLABS, parent company of MarketingExperiments.  Read More

Site Pro News

Content Marketing or SEO: Which is Most Crucial?

Aug,04,2014

by: Tina Courtney-Brown 

Every season, it seems some new marketing trend surfaces, and people speculate whether it will replace SEO all together. Perhaps we’re all a little sick of the unknown and infinite process that is SEO; but try as we might, it really isn’t a replaceable task.

Content marketing may be a new and trendy phrase, but the practice itself is ancient. Online, it’s become the single most successful means of educating folks about your industry, product, and services. And while content marketing is integral to great SEO, it has not, and will not, replace it. So how can the two best work together for maximum benefit? That’s the right question to explore.  Read More

Marketing Proofs

Three Questions You Have to Ask Yourself About Your Social Brand

Aug,01,2014

by: Lance Neuhauser 

Marketers often get preoccupied by trying to track their direct return on investment for social spend. How much does each "like" cost? How much in sales will each "like" bring in?

Those are the wrong questions to ask.

Social spend for marketers has ROI that far exceeds the number of "likes" a brand acquires.

Based on my experience with major national brands, trying to use social as a direct response channel or only to drive one specific action leaves a lot of business intelligence value on the table.To really add value to your social brand, you should be asking yourself the following questions. Read More

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Featured Report: 2018: 75 million wireless-connected health and fitness devices predicted to ship

Fierce EMR

Patients of EHR-users more likely to withhold information

July,28,2014

by: Marla Durben Hirsch

A provider's use of an electronic health record can cause a patient to clam up for fear that the data won't be secure, according to a new study in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association (JAMIA).

The researchers, from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and Dartmouth College, noted that EHRs are a "double-edged sword" in that they're perceived as improving the quality of care but also are seen as having privacy and security risks. Using a nationally representative sample from the 2012 Health Information National Trends Survey, they found that 13 percent of respondents reported having withheld information from their provider because of privacy and security concerns. Read More

Physicians Practice 

A Doctor Reflects on the Small Ways Technology has Changed Practice 

July,25,2014

by:Francis V. Adams, MD

I feel naked without my beeper.  I started wearing one when I was still in medical school more than 40 years ago.  I can’t stop my hand from searching my waist for the clip-on that attaches the beeper to my belt but it isn’t there. It should be on my right side so I can quickly grab it out of the holder and check my page. For all of these years I could not get dressed or leave my home without my beeper. In all that time I can only remember forgetting to clip it to my belt once. I was ill with a stomach flu and had a sleepless night, and I rushed out without it.  Once, my beeper stopped working. I called my answering service and they messengered over a new one.

After 20 years with that beeper I called and asked for a new model. Beepers had gotten smaller and I wanted the latest design.When I called my service recently to tell them I would no longer be carrying a beeper they could not even find the record of my being issued one. They did call the next day to say that they wanted it back. I guessed that they just wanted to see what it looked like.  Read More

HealthDataManagement

Top 7 Myths About HIPAA Security Risk Analysis

July,31,2014

by: Staff

The Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights’ pilot program to conduct HIPAA privacy and security audits showed that the top deficiency among audited organizations was the lack of a sufficient risk analysis plan. Coalfire Systems, an IT security advisory, audit and testing services firm, advises avoiding seven common myths about a security risk analysis.

Read More 

MobiHealthNews

2018: 75 million wireless-connected health and fitness devices predicted to ship

July,31,2014

by: Brian Dolan

By 2018 an estimated 75.7 million consumer health and fitness devices with integrated wireless connectivity will ship, up from 23 million such devices in 2011, according to a recent report from IHS Technology. The research firms points out that Bluetooth Smart-connected devices are the most popular, but devices that make use of the fitness and health-focused ANT standard also have a foothold.

The firm also expects that the semiconductors that provide the wireless connectivity for health and fitness devices will have “solid double-digit growth” this year and over the course of the next few.  Read More

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Featured Report:Looks are everything in wearable tech

Info World Mobilized 

The Tizen smartphone flopped -- and open source is to blame

July,29,2014

by: Galen Gruman

You know the saying: Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Now that Samsung has "indefinitely" delayed the launch of its first Tizen smartphone, can anyone believe any more open source mobile promises?

Open source mobile efforts have a history of failure: Moblin, Maemo, MeeGo, and Tizen are all examples that have been shepherded into oblivion by the Linux Foundation and an assembly of vendors. Canonical's Ubuntu Touch, Mozilla's Firefox OS, and Jolla's Sailfish (derived from MeeGo) all seem to be following similar trajectories to nowhere. Read More

Fierce Wireless

BlackBerry exec indicates more enterprise-focused devices are in the pipeline

July,29,2014

by: Phil Goldstein

BlackBerry (NASDAQ:BBRY) is aiming its forthcoming Passport smartphone squarely at the enterprise market, but has plans for enterprise-focused devices beyond that.

At an event in New York City that focused on enterprise security, BlackBerry executives touted the Passport, which will be released in September. The gadget has a 4.5-inch square HD screen and a physical keyboard. However, it's not the only enterprise-focused phone BlackBerry is planning, thought he company did not provide many details on its future product roadmap.  Read More

Tech Republic U.S.

Looks are everything in wearable tech

July,29,2014

by: Teena Hammond 

One of the first panel questions related to size. Does an oversized wearable appeal as much to the consumer as a more moderately sized one?

"It's about the application that matters. Sometimes it's if the wearable is meant for a construction worker, size might not be an issue, but if it's for a hardcore athletic sportsman and sportswoman, then definitely size matters," said Mikko Malmivaara, sales and marketing manager for Clothing Plus Ltd., which makes sensors for wearable tech clothing.

It's not just the size of the device, but how it fits against the body, said Amy Puliafito, spokesperson for Misfit Wearables, which produces the popular Misfit Shine fitness device. "In everything we did with Shine we were trying to eliminate a lot of friction points people have with their activity trackers," she said.  Read More

Fierce Developer

Vision Mobile: One-quarter of developers make nothing from apps

July,25,2014

by: Shane Schick

A disappointing 24 percent of developers will make absolutely nothing from the apps and mobile games they create, according to Vision Mobile. The firm's Developer Economics Report Q3 2014 is based on survey responses from more than 10,000 developers in 137 countries. 

• 50 percent of iOS developers and 64 percent of Android developers are below what Vision Mobile calls the "app poverty line" of $500 per app per month. 
• Besides the 24 percent who make nothing from apps, Vision Mobile said a further 23 percent make less than $100 per app per month. 
• The overall app economy includes its own "one percent." In this case, 1.6 percent of developers have apps earning more than $500k per month
• Games dominate app store revenues, but 57 percent of those games make less than $500 per month.
• Vision Mobile found that the more games a developer has shipped, the more likely they are to be financially successful. However, 70 percent of game developers have shipped less than four titles. Read More

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Feature Report: How to Display Prices on Your Business Website. Or Not.

Dex Media

How to Display Prices on Your Business Website. Or Not.

July,10,2014

by:Jeff B. Copeland 

NO. Never give a price till you’ve had a chance to persuade a customer of the value of what you’re selling and that’s best done by moving the conversation along from your website to a phone call or other two-way communication.

YES. Your customers are already price-checking your product or service on Amazon, Milo, Yelp, LegalZoom, AutoMD and on and on. Get into the price conversation up front. Plus, save yourself the trouble of giving sales pitches on the phone to shoppers who can’t afford you.  Read More

Ad Week

LinkedIn Ads Can Be Tested and Targeted Like Never Before

July,24,2014
by: Garett Sloane
LinkedIn advertising is growing up. The company officially launched Direct Sponsored Content today, a sign of maturity that has brands and agencies ready to invest more in the platform. Direct Sponsored Content allow an advertiser to test, tailor and target messages similar tohow they do on Facebook. 

Until now, brands could only sponsor messages that they first posted to their LinkedIn pages as organic content, limiting the freedom to test messaging without broadcasting to all followers and visitors to the page.

"This is a big step for LinkedIn monetizing the feed," said James Borow, CEO of Shift, a marketing software firm and LinkedIn partner. "Organic content amplified only takes you so far, so it's opening up this inventory for true 'A/B testing' and sophisticate advertising."  Read More

e-Marketer

Pinning? Bet You're Doing It on Mobile
July,22,2014
by: Staff
eMarketer estimates that 40.1 million US consumers will use Pinterest via any device at least monthly this year—and based on recent data, it’s likely that most of this activity will take place on mobile. According to Q2 2014 research by ShareThis, US internet users logging on to Pinterest via mobile were three times more likely to pin than desktop users.  Three-quarters of Pinterest sharing took place on a mobile device. In comparison, Facebook—which claimed the overwhelming majority of all social shares—saw just over half conducted via smartphone or tablet.  Read More

Site Pro News

Effective SEO Tips for Small Businesses

July,28,2014

by: Tina Courtney-Brown 

Every small business with an online presence has to deal with the issue of SEO. Most, however, haven’t a clue where to begin. As you delve into the topic across the endless articles on the subject, a feeling of being overwhelmed can easily taint the process; for many, the task seems daunting and endless.

In truth, SEO is not rocket science. While it can be a complicated formula, there are very clear and effective ways to kick start your SEO efforts. In other words, there are SEO tactics that are absolutely essential to success, and they provide the perfect foundation from which to build your strategy.

Don’t be overwhelmed. Be educated. Take the list below and implement each suggestion, one by one, and your rankings will reflect your efforts. They may not land you at the number one position over night, but they will give you a boost and provide insight on what’s working and what’s not. Having a place to start from is priceless. It’s time to dive in and master SEO.

Read More

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Feature Report:House bill seeks to phase in Medicare coverage of telemedicine, remote patient monitoring

MobiHealthNews

House bill seeks to phase in Medicare coverage of telemedicine, remote patient monitoring

July,23,2014

by: Jonah Comstock 

Representatives Mike Thompson (D-Calif.) and Glenn Thompson (R-Penn.) are set to announce a new telehealth bill soon. Like some of Mike Thompson’s previous telehealth efforts, the bill seeks to amend the Title XVIII of the Social Security Act, the law that has long limited government-reimbursed telemedicine to rural areas and specific use cases.

As Jonathan Linkous, CEO of the American Telemedicine Association (ATA), has told MobiHealthNews in the past, when the Social Security Act was passed telehealth was in its infancy and legislators, worried about abuse or that telemedicine wouldn’t be cost-effective, limited Medicare and Medicaid coverage to very particular cases. Only patients in rural areas could be reimbursed for any telehealth service that required patient-physician interaction, for instance. Those types of arbitrary restrictions have become increasingly obstructive for telemedicine practitioners over the years. Read More

HealthDataManagement

UnitedHealthcare Releases Mobile App to Non-Members

July,24,2014

by: Greg Goth

UnitedHealthcare's free mobile app Health4Me is now available to all consumers. The app gives users access to an array of healthcare information, including the ability to review market average prices for more than 520 medical services. Health4Me is designed to help all consumers make more informed decisions regarding their care, including the ability to:

* Locate nearby healthcare providers, and convenience care, urgent care and emergency care facilities

* Review market average prices for more than 520 medical services across 290 episodes of care, providing a comprehensive view of what consumers should expect throughout their course of treatment  Read More

Modern Healthcare

Working around exchange subsidy ruling should be easy: experts

July,23,2014

by: Darius Tahir and Paul Demko 

Tuesday's split decision in two federal appellate court cases over whether consumers shopping on the federal insurance exchange can receive premium subsidies could have major effects on the healthcare market. But some experts say officials in states that have not established their own state-run exchanges could solve the problem fairly easily if they want to, and that they will face significant political pressure to do so.

A study by the Urban Institute concluded that 7.3 million Americans would lose $36.1 billion in federal subsidies in 2016 if states that defaulted to the federal exchange can't access subsidies. That would have a big impact on the exchange insurance market, both in the number of consumers buying plans and in the health status of the greatly reduced pool of enrollees. Read More

Med City News

To make personalized medicine reality, Path2Cures speakers call for open data sharing

July,24,2014

by: Meghana Keshavan

Breaking out of research silos and collaborating more openly will be a big step in driving personalized medicine forward, said Dr. Andrew Futreal, a professor of genomic medicine at MD Anderson.

Futreal was one of a dozen personal-medicine experts from the private, public and academic sectors who spoke at a Path2Cures hearing Wednesday in front of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

It’s going to be an expensive proposition, after all, to tailor medications for each individual – so teamwork is key, the panel agreed.

“We’re sitting on a massive opportunity to do away with that single investigator-driven idea,” Futreal said. That’s what they’re doing, after all, at MD Anderson – exploring partnerships, and shedding the “homegrown” kind of research that’s typical of academia. Read More

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Featured Report: Will Apple bring developers to IBM's Watson ecosystem?

ZD Net 

Will Apple bring developers to IBM's Watson ecosystem?

July,20,2014

by: Larry Dignan 

One of IBM's primary motives for cutting a large enterprise deal with Apple may revolve around building a mobile and cloud developer ecosystem for cognitive computing and Watson.

Last week, IBM and Apple announced a broad enterprise pact where Big Blue would develop industry specific apps built on iOS. In addition, there were service, support and mobile device management parts of the deal. Apple gets some enterprise throughput with IBM that it couldn't achieve on its own. IBM gets a key partner in Apple and some help for its mobile efforts.

Read More

CIO Mobile

Mobile Workers: ‘I Want My BlackBerry Back’

July,23,2014

by: Tom Kaneshige

At a well-known investment firm in New York City, something strange is happening: Mobile app performance issues and privacy concerns have sparked a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) revolt, and now many employees are asking for their corporate BlackBerry back."It's a nightmare," says an IT executive speaking on condition of anonymity.The executive says he's tried four mobile device management (MDM) products and, in every instance, has had significant problems. Architectural failings made some rollouts difficult, he says. One MDM featured an impressive containerized solution but no push notifications for email. Another wouldn't let salespeople send email from inside the Salesforce app or open a PDF with GoodReader. Read More

Fierce Developer

How app developers are sizing up the Android Wear opportunity

July,21,2014

by: Shane Schick

For consumers, adapting to a smart watch is all in the wrist, but for app developers, it will take more to determine whether Android Wear is the right fit for what they want to create.News recently surfaced that Flopsy Droid, a clone of the massively popular Flappy Bird, would be among the first mobile games to make its way to the wearable platform Google announced at its I/O conference in late June. In other categories, however, such as fitness and health, Android Wear apps have been steadily hitting the market, while device manufacturers such as LG have created smart watches specifically tailored to the technology. For those that get in early, there is the potential to stand out, while those who wait may be able to avoid some of the early glitches that have hampered the move to wearable experiences.  Read More

Fierce Wireless

Verizon takes Smart Rewards customer loyalty program nationwide

July,21,2014

by: Phil Goldstein

Verizon Wireless (NYSE: VZ) will launch its Smart Reward program nationwide on July 24, giving all of its postpaid customers access to its customer loyalty program. The program, which was launched earlier this year in select markets, allows customers to accumulate points and then use those points toward discounts on the purchase of various goods and services. Verizon said customers who sign up for Smart Rewards will get at least 10,000 points when they register. The carrier said that customers will get points for activities such as signing in to the My Verizon online account management tool, paying their monthly bill, and other transactions like using the Verizon Trade In program or choosing paperless billing.

The Smart Rewards program is similar to the loyalty and reward programs offered by credit card companies, grocery stores and others. Verizon said its program offers customers discounts and savings of up to 40 percent on brand-name merchandise from more than 200 well-known brands. The program also gives customers offers on local shopping and dining they can redeem directly from their wireless device, as well as travel offers including discounts at more than 26,000 hotels. Read More

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