Apps Used to Report Community Issues in Arizona
More Valley cities are using mobile technology to enable residents to report neighborhood issues like overgrown weeds or barking dogs, but critics say the smartphone applications could foster distrust and suspicion as ordinary citizens become the eyes and ears of local government.
The increasingly popular “citizen reporter” apps make it easier for officials to resolve public-property issues, such as graffiti and potholes, but many communities have expanded the technology to include more personal violations, including unsanctioned yard sales or even expired vehicle tags.
Nick Dranias, constitutional policy director for the Goldwater Institute, a Phoenix-based conservative watchdog group, said the apps encourage people to “surreptitiously report on their neighbors.”
The rise of e-reading
21% of Americans have read an e-book. The increasing availability of e-content is prompting some to read more than in the past and to prefer buying books to borrowing them.
One-fifth of American adults (21%) report that they have read an e-book in the past year, and this number increased following a gift-giving season that saw a spike in the ownership of both tablet computers and e-book reading devices such as the original Kindles and Nooks.1 In mid-December 2011, 17% of American adults had reported they read an e-book in the previous year; by February, 2012, the share increased to 21%.
The rise of e-books in American culture is part of a larger story about a shift from printed to digital material. Using a broader definition of e-content in a survey ending in December 2011, some 43% of Americans age 16 and older say they have either read an e-book in the past year or have read other long-form content such as magazines, journals, and news articles in digital format on an e-book reader, tablet computer, regular computer, or cell phone.
Download the full Pew Internet Research report here
Amazon vs. Apple: Competing Ecosystem Strategies
…Amazon is differentiating itself from Apple in terms of both its footprint and its profit model. Apple captures the bulk of its profits the moment an iPad is sold, while its partners capture value over time as users consume services. In contrast, Amazon’s profits accrue over the lifetime of the customer with every on-platform purchase In this regard, Amazon’s incentives seem more aligned with those of its media partners (“we win together over time”) than Apple’s with its partners (“I win first; you later…maybe”).
Aligning, enticing, and — occasionally — subsidizing partners are the new ante in the ecosystem game. Amazon and Apple will go down as case studies in alternative strategies for succeeding in ecosystems. Their product-focused rivals will illustrate what it means to be “stuck in the middle.”
Click to read the entire piece in HBR
Technology Patents: Useful and Ridiculous
Google is under fire for alleged patent infringement in its Android mobile operating system. Intellectual property is a vexed issue in technology, with empire built on some innovations, and some laughable attempts to restrict rivals from implementing trivial features.
Yes, Even iPhones Can Spy on You, Too
By ADAM CLARK ESTES for the Atlantic Wire
An Apple hacker has discovered that Carrier IQ, the shady smartphone software recently found to be logging keystrokes on Android and BlackBerry devices, is also installed on the iPhone. Don’t worry, fanboys. It’s off by default — probably. After
As on other smartphones, the presence of Carrier IQ in Apple’s iOS firmware is difficult to detect. Prominent iPhone jailbreaker “chpwn” discovered traces of the code on Thursday, after Android security researcher Trevor Eckhart dug into the code of his Google-made operating system to discover that Carrier IQ was recording tons of user data, even the contents of text messages. Hacker blogs are referring to Carrier IQ as a “rootkit,” a type of virtually undetectable software that provides privileged access to your data. In 2007, CNET reported that rootkits were “tops on the criminal hackers’ To Do lists,” though Carrier IQ markets its services to mobile carriers like AT&T and Sprint, as the name suggests. It’s also not a new service, as chpwn explains in a blog post (emphasis his):
