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February 23, 2010
No titillation for you! Apple explains sex app purge
Last week, Apple began purging from its iTunes App Store most iPhone/iPod Touch programs that included sexually related content. The cleansing affected apps that ran the gamut, from those showing outright nudity to others that revealed women in underwear or swimsuits.
Overall, an estimated 5,000 apps got nuked.
Developers received notifications that their apps were being yanked, and one of them - Jon Atherton of Chilifresh, which makes an app called Wobble - actually got someone at the notoriously secretive Apple to lay out some ground rules:
1. No images of women in bikinis (Ice skating tights are not OK either)
2. No images of men in bikinis! (I didn't ask about Ice Skating tights for men)
3. No skin (he seriously said this) (I asked if a Burqa was OK, and the Apple guy got angry)
4. No silhouettes that indicate that Wobble can be used for wobbling boobs
[deletia]
5. No sexual connotations or innuendo: boobs, babes, booty, sex - all banned
6. Nothing that can be sexually arousing!! (I doubt many people could get aroused with the pic above but those puritanical guys at Apple must get off on pretty mundane things to find Wobble "overtly sexual!)
7. No apps will be approved that in any way imply sexual content (not sure how Playboy is still in the store, but ...)
Other than Atherton's conversation with an Apple rep, and a typically vague comment from Apple PR, the company hasn't offered any official details about what's going on. But now, Apple's chief marketer Phil Schiller has talked to the New York Times about the change in policy:
Philip W. Schiller, head of worldwide product marketing at Apple, said in an interview that over the last few weeks a small number of developers had been submitting "an increasing number of apps containing very objectionable content."
"It came to the point where we were getting customer complaints from women who found the content getting too degrading and objectionable, as well as parents who were upset with what their kids were able to see," Mr. Schiller said.
Since Apple loosened content restrictions a few months back, an increasing number of offerings have been sexual in nature, and many have become quite popular. In fact, they began to show up frequently in best-seller lists. I recall looking at a list of top paid apps a few weeks ago that had several titillating titles in it and thinking, "This is getting kind of sleazy." Indeed, the fact that about 5,000 apps were purged is telling.
But one of the things that has irked developers of smaller apps - some of whom were making good money - is that big names apparently get to stay. For example, Sports Illustrated has a free app related to its annual swimsuit issue, which clearly violates Apple's new standards. It has not been removed.
Nor has Playboy's own app, which is even more sexual in nature, as you'd expect.
Schiller explained the policy discrepancy in the NYT interview:
When asked about the Sports Illustrated app, Mr. Schiller said Apple took the source and intent of an app into consideration. "The difference is this is a well-known company with previously published material available broadly in a well-accepted format," he said.
In other words, big media companies get a pass. Might this have something to do with Apple wanting to strike future content deals with these companies, particularly with its new iPad table being released next month?
Frankly, the App Store really was getting a little tawdry, and in some ways I welcome Apple's move. But, as often has been true with App Store policies, this has been poorly handled. First Apple relaxes restrictions, and developers understandably rush in to make sales. Then, Apple yanks the rug out from under them, while allowing established media brands to continue to profit from sexually oriented material.
At best, this is bungling on a grand scale. At worst, it's self-serving hypocrisy. If Apple is going to be a gatekeeper for what amounts to an information revolution - and the app phenomenon is exactly that - it needs to get its act together, and quickly.
Posted by Dwight at 08:08 AM in Apple, Software, iPhone
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• Apple Purges Blue Apps from Online Store - Apple's marketing chief Phil Schiller finally explains the company's purge of sexually oriented apps. They've been removed because some women and parents complained. Playboy and Sports Illustrated get to stay, though.
• Exclusive: How Google's Algorithm Rules the Web - Wired looks at the process Google goes through to improve the quality of its searches.
• Google Jazzes up Ad Platform for Publishers - DoublClick now offers services for smaller sites.
• Twitter Blog- Measuring Tweets - Twitter is seeing 50 million tweets each day, up from 2.5 million this time last year.
• Seesmic's Web App Now Does Threaded Twitter Conversations - While it still doesn't beat out software clients, it's a great choice if you can't install software on your machine (say, at work).
• Vudu Convinces Wal-Mart to Pay Up: Why an Also-Ran Web Movie Service Sold For More Than $100 Million - Wal-Mart wants to get into the streaming movie business.
• Glitch knocks Rollingstone.com offline - Those trying to get to the site saw a temporary landing page, leading some to speculate Rolling Stone had forgotten to renew its domain registration.
• Palm webOS 1.4 coming Feb 25th with video recording? - For Palm Pre and Pixi phones.
• Microsoft, Amazon strike patent deal covering Kindle and Linux - Microsoft is receiving a payment from Amazon, presumably heading off litigation.
• Amazon named America's most-trusted and recommended brand and Kindle test at Princeton reduced paper use by 50 percent
• Apple ranks third in BusinessWeek customer service survey - Behind LL Bean and USAA.
• Apple To Bring iPhone OS To New Gadgets and Should Apple TV switch to the iPhone OS?
• First Look: Apple's Massive iDataCenter - It costs $1 billion and is five times the size of Apple's Newark, Calif., facility.
Posted by Dwight at 06:35 AM in Linkposts
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February 22, 2010
Join our Twitter news army
We just went live with a new version of our chron.com home page. It's got a cleaner, more streamlined look.
One of the new features you'll probably spot right away is "Follow us" It's located to the right of our top stories list, and - for now - shows Twitter updates from Houston Chronicle news feeds and staffers.
I say "for now" because we'd like to invite you to the party. We want to include tweets from Houston Twitter users in the mix.
For some time now, we've been using the hash tag #hounews to designate Houston-area news in our Twitter updates. We've asked local Twitter users to do the same, and many of you have responded enthusiastically. But with this new component on on our home page, we want to broaden this.
Here's how it will work:
We're looking for area Twitter users who'll give us permission to add their feeds to a list that will feed the "Follow us" window on our home page. But, we'll only show tweets that include the #hounews hash tag.
If you're in that list and you become aware of something of interest to folks in the Houston area, tweet it and use the #hounews tag. It will then show up in that widget on our home page.
What constitutes "something of interest"? It can be anything from breaking news - a fire, a car accident, a major announcement - to items that folks might want to know about: an upcoming concert, a new restaurant opening, a noted speaker coming to town.
In other words, if it's something that might compel you to say "Hey, didja hear about . . . . ?" to a local friend, then that's "something of interest".
Oh, and retweets are fine. If you spot someone else with local news, feel free to retweet that item with the #hounews tag.
Interested in becoming part of chron.com's Twitter news army? E-mail me. I'll take a look at your Twitter feed and, if it looks like you're a fit for the group, we'll add you to the list.
Oh, and some of you have noticed a list called "Broccoli" on my own Twitter page. This is a list of people I'd particularly like to see join our group. If you're on the Broccoli list, please e-mail me and let me know if you want to play.
Posted by Dwight at 02:00 PM in Social media
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'Chuck Norris' botnet kicks in your router's door
When I look at the list of Wi-Fi networks around me using my notebook or smartphone, I'm always gratified to see most of them now are password protected. Gone are the days when home users turned on their Wi-Fi routers, connected it to a cable or DSL modem and never bothered to turn on encryption.
However, too many users leave another security hole wide open by failing to change the default password that allows access to their router's settings. Once an intruder can get his or her hands on a router's configuration pages, that router's network is effectively hijacked.
Which is the point of a new botnet discovered by security researchers in the Czech Republic. It has been amusingly dubbed the "Chuck Norris botnet," but there's nothing funny about what it does. From PCWorld:
Security experts say that various types of botnets have infected millions of computers worldwide to date, but Chuck Norris is unusual in that it infects DSL modems and routers rather than PCs.
It installs itself on routers and modems by guessing default administrative passwords and taking advantage of the fact that many devices are configured to allow remote access. It also exploits a known vulnerability in D-Link Systems devices, [Jan] Vykopal said in an e-mail interview.
A D-Link spokesman said he was not aware of the botnet, and the company did not immediately have any comment on the issue.
Like an earlier router-infecting botnet called Psyb0t, Chuck Norris can infect an MIPS-based device running the Linux operating system if its administration interface has a weak username and password, he said. This MIPS/Linux combination is widely used in routers and DSL modems, but the botnet also attacks satellite TV receivers.
Vykopal, by the way, heads up the network security department with Masaryk University's Institute of Computer Science.
Once installed, the researchers say, the botnet can redirect site requests by computers on the network to pages the serve up malware. In other words, the infection on your router or DSL modem and lead to a different infection on the network's PCs.
But here's the good news: Removing the infection from your router or modem is relatively easy. The offending code lives in the device's RAM, so merely powering down and restarting will erase it.
The PC World article mentions D-Link routers, but it does not name other devices that use the MIPS software. Just to be safe, if you've never changed the default password used to access your router's settings, now would be an excellent time to do so.
Posted by Dwight at 07:16 AM in Security
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• U.S. pinpoints code writer behind Google attack: report - Investigators think they may have found the person who wrote code used in the hack of Google and other big companies.
• Privacy, complexity seen as Google blind spots - As it grows, Google's missteps are getting a higher profile. Is the company doing too much to do anything well?
• Why we don't trust Devil Mountain Software (and neither should you) - Larry Dignan at ZDNet lays out a strange case in which an InfoWorld writer allegedly is revealed to have been posing as the non-existent CTO of a software company he owned. And An unfortunate ending
• Why You Can't Pry IE6 Out Of Their Cold Dead Hands - Companies have a variety of reasons for not upgrading, ranging from the fact that they never upgrade to the fact that their IT departments like that the browser is so limited.
• Networks Wary of Apple's Push to Cut Show Prices on iTunes - They're skeptical that sales will go up enough to make up for the price cut.
• The NYT's blogs are set to be paywalled - Though exactly how it will work is not yet known.
• Chuck Norris Botnet Karate-chops Routers Hard - Didn't change the default password on your router? The Chuck Norris botnet may be kicking down your network's door.
• AOL Moves to Build Tech 'Newsroom of the Future' - AOL wants to reinvent itself as a creator of original content, and is trying to innovate in news to do it. And The AP Is Using Twitter To Send People To Facebook. Wait. What?
• For Chip Makers, the Next Battle Is in Smartphones - Intel, which has almost no presence in smartphones, is about to enter the market.
• Textbooks That Professors Can Rewrite Digitally - Teachers can customize the books for their classes.
• CHATROULOLZ Collects Great Chatroulette Screencaps So You Don't Have To - It's a lot safer than diving into Chatroulette directly . . . though just as weird.
Posted by Dwight at 06:35 AM in Linkposts
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February 21, 2010
Linkpost | 2.21.2010
• >5000 Apps Banned; The New Rules - The great sexually related content purge continues at Apple's App Store. Even ice-skating tights are off-limits!
• Rumor: The iPad To Go On Presale Next Week - Possibly as early as Thursday. Also New iPad Tidbits
• An Adobe Flash developer on why the iPad can't use Flash - Big problem: The way Flash applications react to the mouse cursor. On a touch-based device, there is none.
• Video Chat coming in future iPhones - There are references and icons to it in the newest iPhone SDK.
• Twitter phishing attack in progress -- don't click on "lol, is this you??" - It would come as a direct message.
• Attack code for Firefox zero-day goes wild, says researcher - There's no patch yet for the flaw in Firefox 3.6. For now, the code only targets Windows XP and Vista.
• The Digital Dictatorship - The Internet is not just a tool for democratization . . . it can also be a tool for oppression.
• WhoseTube? - A musician in Australia complains that his label won't let his band post videos to places other than YouTube - even though doing so four years ago made one of their songs an international hit.
• China school denies link to Google attack: report
• Google ditches Google Gears in favor of HTML5 development and Hello HTML5 - Google will no longer develop Google Gears, and will focus on the capabilities of HTML5.
Posted by Dwight at 09:04 AM in Linkposts
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February 20, 2010
Linkpost | 2.20.2010
• Toward a Grand Unified Theory of n00bs - Why "normal" people have such a tough time with technology. This is long, but important reading. If you're a software or Web developer, you own it to your users to read this.
• Google: "With Buzz We Failed To Appreciate That Users Have Differing Privacy Expectations" - Even though Buzz was tested internally, Google didn't "get" what non-employee users might expect . . . which is a general problem with geek-driven software design.
• Does Google Make Us Stupid? - According to a new Pew survey, most people don't think so.
• Beware the rogue Wi-Fi access point in Windows 7 - Microsoft's newest OS can turn a PC into a Wi-Fi access point, allowing others to connect to it, and possibly to your corporate network.
• 8 Cell Phone Myths and Facts - No, cell phones can't blow up gas stations (despite the signs on the pumps), nor will they kill hospital patients or give you cancer.
• NY Times executives discuss plan to charge online readers - The NYT's leaders believe they won't significantly lose Web traffic.
• Musicblogocide 2010: The Blame Game - No parties are innocent in the case of Google pulling down Blogspot blogs that offered music . . . some of which was label-authorized.
• School District Says It Only Turned Spy Cameras On 42 Times; FBI Now Investigating - The district says it has ended the practice of installing spying software on students' notebooks.
• Apple plans dual graphics enhancements on future MacBook Pros - Sources say Apple's working on tech that doesn't require users to log out to drop back to the secondary graphics adapter.
• Apple's War On Porn Is Just Getting Started - But some big-name sex-related apps remain. Apple hasn't removed Playboy's app (though some Maxim titles are gone).
• Couple marries in Apple store, quotes Steve Jobs in their ceremony
Posted by Dwight at 09:06 AM in Linkposts
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February 19, 2010
Echofon: The best new Mac Twitter client
For a while now, I've been a big fan of Tweetie, a Twitter client for the Mac. Atebits, which develops Tweetie, also makes the best iPhone Twitter app, Tweetie 2. Both programs are elegantly designed and make Twitter very easy - and more fun - to use.
But lately, the Mac version has been getting long in the tooth. It doesn't support many of Twitter's newer features, such as Lists, which make managing information from those you follow much easier. Although the iPhone app was updated with List support soon after the feature was released, the Mac version has languished.
I've directed a few queries about the status of Tweetie for Mac at Loren Brichter, the brains behind Atebits, and have not gotten an answer. He doesn't appear to have talked about it recently, though there is this interesting update in his Twitter stream:
"It's just a big iPod touch" is the new "less space than a nomad". The Mac had a great run, but this is the end of the desktop OS.
Has Atebits given up on creating programs for Mac OS X? Boy, I hope not. Brichter has a real eye for design, and it would be a shame to see him walk away from desktop development.
In the meantime, I've found an alternative, and while it may not be quite as aesthetically cool as Tweetie for Mac, it has the features I need, and then some.
Echofon for Mac is currently in beta testing, and while that's going on it's free. If you're an iPhone user, the name will be familiar, because developers Naan Studio offer an iPhone app by the same name.
In fact, one of Echofon/Mac's most interesting features is that it will sync with the paid version of the iPhone app, something the two Tweeties won't do.
Like Tweetie/Mac, Echofon/Mac has a simple, streamlined interface. While clients such as Seesmic or Tweetdeck will let you see multiple columns at once, Echofon is more like Tweetie and Twhirl, limiting your view to one column. I actually prefer this - the Tweetdeck type of display takes up too much screen real estate, and if you're stricken with serious ADD as I am, having that much activity in your face is horribly distracting.
But when you do need to see more, you can. Twitterfon/Mac has a slide-out drawer - an interface convention common to a lot of Mac applications - that can show you a variety of things. It will display an individual users' tweets, search results, updates from a Twitter list or a conversation between users.
Echofon/Mac also will highlight keywords in your main timeline. Let's say you always want to know when one of your friends uses the word "broccoli". Enter that as a keyword, and you'll see it highlighted in yellow when it's used.
The program is still in development, and still needs some key features added. For example, you don't get to choose the URL shortening service in the current version - it's Bit.ly or nothing. But Naan recently added the ability to enter your personal Bit.ly API key, which then lets you track how many times your URLs have been clicked, so I suspect we'll see other services added soon.
You also can't choose your photo service yet - you're stuck with Twitpic.
Echofon/Mac is small, fast and light on its feet. Recent beta updates have plugged some memory leaks, so it's better behaved.
There's no word yet when the final version will be out, or how much it will cost. As I mentioned, the preview version is free for now. If you're a Mac user with a Twitter account, you should grab it and try it out. Unless Tweetie/Mac gets an update soon, this will be my primary Twitter client when I'm using a Macintosh.
When you follow me on Twitter, I'll be interacting with you on Echofon.
Posted by Dwight at 08:09 AM in Software
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This is the weekly open comment thread in TechBlog, your opportunity to sound off like a champion on whatever's on your mind related to personal technology.
Leave a comment, and I'll approve it. Who knows, I might even score you from the judge's table.
Actually, all that needs to be said about the 2010 Winter Olympics showed up last night on Twitter, courtesy of our old buddy Jim Thompson. This pretty much sums 'em up:
Update: The second annual Mom 2.0 Summit started today in Houston, and I just stumbled found this incredibly moving video produced by The Shutter Sisters and Katherine Center for the event.
If you have children - and maybe even if you don't - it may make you weep.
While I'm not sure this is very Mom 2.0 - the feelings and ideas expressed in the narrative are timeless, really - it's beautifully done. If you've got kids, watch it.
Posted by Dwight at 07:00 AM in Open-comment Fridays
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• Report: Facebook Served As Primary Distribution Channel For Botnet Army - Malware used to infect thousands of computers by German and Chinese hackers was planted in many cases via Facebook.
• Two Chinese Schools Said to Be Tied to Online Attacks - Including a college with ties to the Chinese military.
• School used student laptop webcams to spy on them at school and home - Big School District Superintendent is watching! And LMSD response to 'invasion of privacy' allegation
• Wordpress.com is down, taking over 9.2 million blogs with it. [Update: It's Back Up] and WP.com Downtime Summary - Wordpress.com went down for almost two hours Friday, taking big sites like TechCrunch and GigaOM down with it.
• News about our Search Alliance with Microsoft - Regulators in both the U.S. and Europe sign off on the Yahoo-Microsoft search deal.
• Exclusive: Microsoft Crashes Phone Bash - Microsoft and Asus are reportedly working on a Microsoft-branded Windows Phone 7 Series device, though it's apparently hit some bumps in development.
• Apple Now Blocking 'Overtly Sexual' Apps from App Store - The company's sending notices to developers telling them its policies have changed.
• What Steve Jobs Said During His Wall Street Journal iPad Demo - Gawker says Jobs savaged Flash to the WSJ editorial board. Then the WSJ savaged Apple in a subsequent op-ed.
• Apple conceals iPad freight records - report - Most other companies leave their shipping information public.
• Sony Ericsson CEO: Google asked us to build the Nexus One, we refused - The company didn't want to dilute its own brand by being second-fiddle to Google.
• Want Sex.com? Have A Million Dollars? Get In The Auction Line Then!
• Comcast launches online backup service - Your first 2 GB are free. Mac support coming later.
• Dell Posts Higher Revenue But Its Profit Falls 5% - Largely due to the rising cost of parts. Looked at the price of RAM lately?
Posted by Dwight at 06:35 AM in Linkposts
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February 18, 2010
WinXP reboots caused when patch meets malware
![image_thumb[3]](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/web/20100223161338im_/http://blogs.chron.com/techblog/image_thumb3.png "image_thumb[3]")
Last week, reports surfaced that some computers running Windows XP computers were crashing to a Blue Screen of Death, then getting caught in an endless reboot loop. The problem appeared to be related to a fix Microsoft issued for this month's Patch Tuesday.
Security writer Brian Krebs reported hearing from a computer tech who had discovered a common factor in all the affected systems he'd seen - the presence of a nasty piece of malware hidden on the users' hard drives.
Now, Microsoft confirms that a rootkit is indeed responsible for the problems with those Windows XP PCs. From the Microsoft Security Response Center blog:
We wanted to provide you with an update on our ongoing investigation into the "blue screen" issues affecting a limited number of customers who installed MS10-015. We have been working around the clock with our customers, partners and several teams at Microsoft to determine the cause of these issues. Our investigation has concluded that the reboot occurs because the system is infected with malware, specifically the Alureon rootkit. We were able to reach this conclusion after the comprehensive analysis of memory dumps obtained from multiple customer machines and extensive testing against third party applications and software. The restarts are the result of modifications the Alureon rootkit makes to Windows Kernel binaries, which places these systems in an unstable state. In every investigated incident, we have not found quality issues with security update MS10-015. Our guidance remains the same: customers should continue to deploy this month's security updates and make sure their systems are up-to-date with the latest anti-virus software.
The question arises: How did Microsoft miss this when it was testing its patch? The answer: Microsoft doesn't test computers with known malware because the machines are not reliable.
This issue was not caught as part of our testing because oftentimes when malware is present, infected systems are put in an unstable state. These types of infections often leave the machine in such an unstable state that it cannot be reliably tested. This is because Malware writers use unsupported and potentially destabilizing methods for compromising machines because they want to keep their malware hidden from anti-malware software. In the particular case of Alureon, malware writers modified Windows behavior by attempting to access a specific memory location, instead of letting the operating system determine the address which usually happens when an executable is loaded. The chain of events in this case was a machine became infected, during which the malware made assumptions as to the layout of the Windows code on the machine. Subsequently MS10-015 was downloaded and installed, during which the location of Windows code changed. On the next reboot the malware code crashed attempting to call a specific address in Windows code which was no longer the intended OS function.
In other words: Sorry, we don't support malware.
The blog post goes on to note that newer versions of Windows have features that help prevent this kind of attack. And the rootkit doesn't affect 64-bit versions of Windows at all.
If you experience the BSoD and neverending reboots associated with installing the patch, then clearly you've got a bigger issue, even if you restored your system to working order. You'll need to get the rootkit off your PC.
Adrian Kingsley-Hughes of ZDNet offers a link to a free Sophos tool that will remove it. However, that Sophos page indicates rootkits like this "can be very hard to remove". It's ominous that Microsoft's blog post points you to instructions for reinstalling Windows, after you've backed up your critical data, of course.
Posted by Dwight at 07:37 AM in Microsoft, Security
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• HP Looking to Undercut iPad Pricing With 3G-Capable Slate Device - The Slate device HP showed off at CES may sell for less than the equivalent iPad, under $620. Dell, Sony and Acer are also developing similar devices.
• HP earnings: Strong first quarter results, 2010 outlook - Profits are up 25 percent, and HP expects strong sales for the rest of the year.
• Apple's Prices for E-Books May Be Lower Than Expected - Some of the most popular books could still be priced close to Amazon's $9.99.
• Overseas contractors feel pressure from Apple's rules of secrecy and Reuters Reporter Assaulted While Investigating Apple's Top-Secret China Suppliers - Contractors can lose Apple's business if they're caught leaking info. A Reuters reporter working on this story was assaulted.
• Bad memory card? Could be a 'ghost' - Unauthorized shifts of workers produce cards during off hours out of defective materials. These memory cards can make their way into the "authorized" chain, which may explain why many go back quickly.
• Windows Phone 7 development docs leaked - Looks like WinPhone7 will indeed multitask, and older Windows Mobile apps may run on it (though with interface tweaks).
• Introducing -- Windows Phone Classic - Windows 6.x phones will continue to be sold after Windows Phone 7 Series devices are out. The older OS will be renamed Windows Phone Classic.
• 10 Hot Questions About Windows Phone 7, Answered - A nice FAQ from PC Magazine.
• Local class action complaint filed over Google Buzz - A complaint filed in federal court alleges Google violated the law by sharing confidential data without its users' consent. Also Google Patches Buzz Security Vulnerability
• Google Buys reMail iPhone App for Gmail - Google will discontinue the app but make use of its mail search.
• BlackBerry users get Amazon Kindle app
• Opera Demos Its iPhone Web Browser, It's Damn Fast & Will Be Submitted To Apple - It's at least 5 times faster than Mobile Safari on the iPhone 3GS. Unfortunately, it doesn't do multitouch, and there's no guarantee Apple will ever approve it. Also Firefox for Android coming 'late this year'
• AOL To Launch "Hundreds" Of Local News Sites In 2010 - As part of its Patch network of sites.
• HBO GO, the Best Online Video Service I Cannot Use - Nick Bilton of the NYTimes laments the fact that he's not able to watch HBO GO, because it's only available to cable subscribers.
• 3 Tesla Execs Dead In Palo Alto Plane Crash - The employees were killed when a small private plane went down in a neighborhood. The crash also caused a power outage in the town.
• Core i3 takes on Athlon II - How do today's processors compare to those of yesteryear? A Pentium 4 vs. a Core i3? Interesting results . . .
• Tech Industry Catches Its Breath - Most of the devices unveiled at Mobile World Congress were tweaks of existing products, not great leaps ahead.
• Broad New Hacking Attack Detected - More than 2,500 companies were infiltrated by hackers in China and Germany.
• Classmates.com plans to digitize yearbooks, charge to view online - Your old high school yearbook picture could end up on the Web.
Posted by Dwight at 06:35 AM in Linkposts
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February 17, 2010
Houston's Werkadoo reworks itself
Werkadoo, a Houston startup we first wrote about early last year, has revamped and relaunched.
Last year, the web company billed itself as an online marketplace where businesses and independent contractors could find each other, similar to Elance and oDesk.
But it wasn't too different from the competition. To set itself apart, Werkadoo decided to automate the job matching process and match companies with workers based on questionnaires they answer about themselves and what they're looking for, a la eHarmony. Workers answer questions about work habits and other behavioral traits, while employers answer questions about the types of candidates they're seeking.
The site uses an algorithm developed by University of Houston researchers to make the matches and will also match workers with potential teammates for project work.
"We realized no other job board brought in the human element that took in to account how well a person might fit into a company's culture," said co-founder Travis Skweres.
The site is free for workers but employers pay a fee: $175 to post for an individual and $350 to post for two or more people. As of its launch Monday, the site had two projects posted and about 100 registered users.
The company was founded by CEO Bridgette Penel, who also heads the U.S. operations of venture capital firm Zikyn. Before joining Zikyn, she was director of project management for Houston-based Priority IT. Co-founder Skweres met Penel while pitching his former startup, Adjungo, at the Houston Technology Center.
Posted by Purva Patel at 07:07 AM in Houston technology
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• Google: Android now shipping on 60,000 handsets per day and The Android Who Cried Wolf - Android may become a victim of its own success, with new, better phones coming so quickly that customers are confused.
• How Google Went Into "Code Red" And Saved Google Buzz - Silicon Alley Insider plots out Google's "war room" strategy to fix Buzz. Also Privacy watchdog files complaint with FTC over Google Buzz [Updated]
• Amazon e-Book share to fall from 90% to 35%, Analyst Says - Once other big players, such as Apple and Google, enter the market.
• Hackers at Pwn2Own to compete for $100K in prizes - Hack into an iPhone 3GS, BlackBerry Bold 9700, a Nokia phone running Symbian and possibly a Motorola Droid, and you could win $10,000 or more.
• FCC calls for 100Mbps across most of US - Sign me up! But New data: 40 percent in US lack home broadband
• Study: Ages of social network users - Ages vary based on site, but the largest group are in the "younger middle-aged" category.
• Microsoft to pull Facebook, MySpace into Outlook - Using an add-in called Outlook Social Connector. It also pulls in LinkedIn. However, you can't at the moment, push data out to the networks.
• Facebook Launches Zero, A Text-Only Mobile Site For Carriers and Facebook Drives 44 Percent Of Social Sharing On The Web
• Twitter's hiring binge brings it to 140 employees - An employee for every character it allows in its updates.
• Apple announces MacBook Repair Program for hard drive issues - Older MacBooks may have hard drive issues, with replacements made out of warranty.
• HBO Prepares Site That Will Offer Shows and Movies - It's already available to Comcast customers who subscribe to HBO via cable.
• Turf War at the New York Times: Who Will Control the iPad? - The print guys want to charge $20 to $30 a month; the digital guys, $10 a month.
• The Wired Tablet App: A Video Demonstration - Is this the future of magazines?
• Verizon to allow unlimited Skype calling over 3G starting next month - Though only some phones will support it initially, including many BlackBerries and Verizon's Droid and Droid Eris.
Posted by Dwight at 06:35 AM in Linkposts
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