Just uploaded today’s Seriously Social News Podcast for Friday, 17th May 2013.
Wow, what a week for technology and social media! With so much happening it has been impossible to fit into one episode– so I’ll be doing a 2nd one solely on all the news from the Google I/O conference– hopefully should have that ready by Monday 20th May. In this episode we cover Windows 8.1, the Surface Pro coming to the UK, Outlook.com integrating with Google Talk, Skype security issues, Samsung 5G, a new MailChimp, the social media app Buffer adding retweets, updates for Pinterest mobile apps, Foursquare adding restaurant menus and SoundCloud intergrating with Google+.
http://iag.me/podcasts/seriously-social-news-22/
Show Notes
Windows 8.1
Good news for Windows 8 customers was revealed this week by Microsoft in that the next update will be coming out this year. The project codenamed “Windows Blue” has now been named as Windows 8.1 and will be launched as a public preview on the 26th June and launched publicly later this year. The good news is that this is a free upgrade and is part of Microsoft’s plan to roll out more significant updates over the lifetime of the current operating system. It also seems that Microsoft have listened to the concerns about the new start screen– the Modern UI or metro interface as it is sometimes called. Much of the complaints have been that it is more difficult to get to the main desktop and the removal of the start menu that has been around since the days of Windows 95. Windows group chief marketing and financial officer Tami Reller told the Financial Times that “We feel good that we’ve listened and looked at all of the customer feedback. We are being principled, not stubborn”. That could mean some radical changes, but does that mean Microsoft are retreating from the bold move that was the start screen? We’ll just have to see!
Surface Pro
Those of you in the UK who have wanted to get their hands on Microsoft’s high end tablet the Surface Pro will be in luck very soon. Microsoft have announced that it will be launched in the UK on Thursday 23rd May. The 64Gb version will cost £719 and the 128Gb version will be £799. The big advantage of the Surface Pro tablets is that you can run full Windows desktop applications on them– so you will be able to transfer your work from your home or business computer to your Surface Pro and continue to work. Will you or your business be buying one?
Outlook.com Google Talk
If you are a Hotmail email user you will already know that you have been migrated over to the new http://outlook.com email service from Microsoft. In my view it is a huge improvement and although not as feature rich as GMail it is well worth considering if you’d rather use another service. Microsoft are adding new services regularly and have already integrated Skype. In a surprise move, after listening to customer feedback, Microsoft have added Google Talk integration to http://outlook.com although this doesn’t include video or audio talk. This is particularly interesting since Google have made some big announcements themselves when it comes to Google Talk this week at their I/O event.
Microsoft Listens to your Skype Conversations
Microsoft bought Skype back in May 2011 for $8.5 billion and has been heavily integrating it into Windows 8 and other services such as Outlook.com. Not everything is so rosy though as revealed by UK Security blog “The H”. It has been found that sending a link via Skype chat can be intercepted by Skype supposedly on the basis of scanning for spam. Skype responded to the findings by pointing to their data protection policy which states that Skype may use “automated scanning within Instant Messages and SMS to (a) identify suspected spam and/or (b) identify URLs that have been previously flagged as spam, fraud, or phishing links.”. Some may argue that this is very similar to the way Google scans GMail messages in order to provide targetted ads but the difference is that historically Skype chat was supposed to be secure and encrypted. I think the answer to that one is that it is not secure any more.
Samsung 5G?
The marketing department of Electronics giant Samsung has been overdrive this week in the announcement of successful testing of 5G and promising this by the year 2020. However if you start to read into it in a little more detail you soon realise that the testing has only been very limited and there is still some way to go before they can offer reliable speeds of over 1Gbps. Even the use of the term “5G” is pure marketing fluff since it is unlikely that such a term will ever see the light of day. Currently there are many different types of so-called “3G” and “4G” round the world and 4G itself is supposed to get us up to the 1Gbps speed anyway. With LTE or 4G adoption uptake being very slow, certainly here in the UK due to a monopoly by mobile carrier EE and high costs, it’s difficult to know how newer technologies will be adopted.
_New MailChimp _
My favourite email newsletter and email marketing software, MailChimp is getting a massive upgrade soon. The new MailChimp will start to roll out to users in June as an optional upgrade and gives a fully responsive layout optimised for desktops, laptops, tablets and smartphones. If you haven’t checked out MailChimp, then it’s time to have a look since they have been releasing a lot of great features recently. I’ll let you know how I get on with the new layout once I get access.
_ Buffer adds retweeting_
Scheduling Social Media tool, Buffer has launched a great new feature which allows you to schedule your retweets. Buffer is a fantastic tool that allows you to schedule your posts across Twitter, Facebook profiles and pages as well as LinkedIn profiles and groups. Whenever you want to add a post to your buffer queue you just click the Buffer button in your browser and type your status or share an article as well as choose which networks you want to share them too. This new retweet feature will allow you to retweet on a schedule which is useful when you want to do a lot of retweeting but don’t want them all appearing at once– cluttering your stream.
Updated Pinterest Mobile Apps
Popular pinning social network Pinterest, have updated their mobile apps for iOS and Android. You can now mention other users in a similar way to Facebook and Google+ by prepending the @ symbol to another user’s name. When you get mentioned by another user, you now get notified immediately by a new push notification feature.
_ foursquare Menus_
Popular location app, Foursquare are adding restaurant menus by integrating with menu management company, Locu. Businesses can add their menus to their Foursquare profile so that users in their area can instantly see what they have on offer. Currently this is only available to restaurants in the US, but Foursquare told me to stay tuned for broader coverage soon.
_ SoundCloud integrates with Google+ Sign In_
And finally, Sound social network SoundCloud has integrated with Google+ sign in which means that you will see popular users and sounds to the right of your search results. This could mean more exposure for artists’ music or even podcasters like me.
https://soundcloud.com/iagdotme/seriously-social-news-episode-22
