The continuing saga of Google’s new unified privacy policy has taken an interesting turn today as the attorneys general (or other ranking legal officials) from 36 US states and territories posted a letter to Google CEO Larry Page to express concern over the company’s new unified privacy policy.

The letter (PDF), which comes from the National Association of Attorneys General, expresses “strong concerns” with the new privacy policy. The letter cites several reasons for concern with the new policy. The primary concern is that the policy “appears to invade consumer privacy” by sharing information users enter in one of Google’s services with all of Google’s services. They note that consumers may not wish to have their information distributed in this way, and that the lack of any opportunity to opt out of the unification is therefore troubling. The letter also expresses concern for Android users, who are in many ways even more tied to Google’s products and services than the average internet user. For them, the letter points out, Google’s statement that those who do not like the unified policy need not sign in to their Google accounts does not apply.

The attorneys general also see a conflict between the new privacy policy and “a respect for privacy that Google has carefully cultivated as a way to attract customers.” They note that Google has repeatedly insisted that they value user privacy, and that this insistence has drawn many users to Google’s products. These users “are now having their personal information ‘held hostage’ within the Google ecosystem.”

The letter concludes with a request that Google reply to the attorneys general by February 29th to arrange a meeting to discuss the issues concerning the new privacy policy.

There is no word yet on what Google’s response to the letter will be. A request for comment sent to Google has not yet received a response.

Kansas City must be feeling like the prettiest girl at the Google Pageant these days. First the city gets chosen as the starting location for Google Fiber, the company’s project to broaden access to and increase the speed of the internet, and now it looks as if the largest city in Missouri may get to be the first place to try on some kind of TV service offered by Google.

The Kansas City Star reports that Google Fiber submitted the necessary applications to operate a video service in Missouri and Kansas, which strongly suggests the city will be getting some kind of television service related to or provided by Google. As ever, Google was doing its best to downplay the excitement. “We’re still exploring what products will be available when we launch Google Fiber,” Google spokeswoman Jenna Wandres said in an email to the Star.

Giving Kansas City a streaming internet service that moves at the speed of one gigabyte per second would be a great way to explore those options, as I’m sure the citizens of Kansas City will agree.

The application submitted by Google reveals a little more info – at least enough to sugar-coat those already sweet fantasies of video-streaming bliss.
In the Kansas application, Google said it “will utilize national and regional video headend facilities” – essentially programming collection points – “to send IPTV” – a television-over-Internet technology like that used in AT&T’s Uverse service – “across a private (Internet protocol) network to subscribers.”

Keep in mind this is all speculative reporting at the moment, but… if it walks like a duck and sounds like a duck, right?

Alongside all the great content already hitting the PlayStation Vita today, Capcom is releasing Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 for the titular handheld.

For those who don’t know about the fantastic Marvel vs. Capcom series, imagine taking all the greatest characters and fighters from both the Marvel and Capcom universes and mashing them together in one giant fighter.

While Capcom might have some raised some ire among gamers over their decision to release Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 so soon after the release of the original, the decision seems to be a good one.

The expanded roster is worth the $40 asking price alone as it adds 12 new characters to the roster bringing the total character above 50. Some of the new characters include fan favorites Phoenix Wright and Rocket Raccoon.

Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 also adds some much needed balancing tweaks to the main game that make the game far more competitive but easier for new players to ease themselves into the mayhem. Players can also watch the other fighters duke it out live over the Internet with the game’s Spectator mode.

The game’s transition to Vita suffers no harm as its a nearly flawless port of the console versions. The only difference is that players can take the game on the go with them. It’s going to be my preferred version as I love playing fighters on handhelds over consoles.

The reviews so far confirm my suspicions that the game has turned out to be a great treat for portable fighting fans. You won’t want to miss this one, folks. Let Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 take you for a ride.

Quara has announced that users can now spend their credit to promote their content. Spending credits will allow users to broadcast to a larger audience. If it ia a promoted item it will appear with a special icon on the reader’s screens. So if you have something important to share, or a burning question, you can spend some credits and get your word out to a larger audience.

If you haven’t used Quara before here’s a discretion of what they do from the Quara blog site:

“Unlike traditional social networks, Quora gives you access to people who haven’t explicitly opted in to follow or friend you. This makes the product powerful, but it means that one person’s actions can affect many other people. Credits mediate the flow of information so that people aren’t overwhelmed by the increasingly vast number of other people who have access to them. This allows us to continue to build features that let you access large audiences and diverse groups of experts, and furthers our goal of connecting you with everything you want to know about.”

The whole system of currency is based on your reputation. If you answer questions with clear articulate and knowledgable answers you earn credit. If simply mock people and provide no insight or clarification, your reputation will suffer and you will earn very little. I guess it’s social capital at its very finest. Anyhow, it costs capital to post questions and now, to promote questions to larger audiences. But, if it’s a subject or question that you really need addressed, it must be worth it.

Here are some responses from users on the blog site about the addition of ‘pay for promotion’ at Quora:

“One tiny thing you might wanna consider: if you’re requiring an expenditure of 50 credits to ask a question, perhaps make the slider cap out so the user is left with 50 credits.”

Awesome. Thanks, Adam, for the announcement and a big thanks to the Team’s tireless efforts to make Quora a better place.

“I think this is awesome. Promoting an answer has already got me two upvotes out of the blue. My only concern is that even at 100 credits, that would mean I need 10 upvotes to recuperate my costs and that’s a high number of upvotes for the average answer.”

“It’s gambling. Spend some to promote a question with the hope or either getting more answers or upvotes. For those that want to play and really enjoy tracking the credits it’s a great feature. It’s going to change the nature of Quora more.”

“I’m just a little worried that good questions from new (ie not power or “celebrity”) users will get buried by the whole commodity market of credits, and people with influence (ie people with lots and lots of credits) will be able to pack user feeds with posts and questions which are more relevant to them than to everyone else.”

“Wow, 50 Credit cost to ask a question is HUGE! My gut reaction is that it will do a LOT to improve question quality on the site, as well as help reinforce the idea of questions being reusable.”

So it sounds like people are generally excited about the addition of the new feature, but there is some concern too. I haven’t used Quora so I wonder if this new ‘pay for promotion’ could drown out some highly relevant or interesting topics or questions. If the whole point is gaining exposure to get feedback or answers, how does a new user gain enough clout, or credit to even make using Quora worth while? I would really be interested to know. I guess I should use Quora to find out.

Dell reported record-high revenues for the 4th quarter of 2011, though profits were slightly down. Desktop and laptop sales slumped, while server sales have increased.

Dell’s revenue for Q4 last year was $16 billion, up 2%, while its net income was down 18%, at $764 million, compared to $927 million for the 4th quarter of 2010. Dell called 2011 the “company’s most successful financial year ever,” with a full year revenue increase of one percent to $62 billion, according to The Inquirer.

Michael Dell, chairman and CEO of the company, goes on to say, “I’m very pleased with our fiscal year results and the strong performance we’re seeing in our commercial businesses. We remain focused on developing and acquiring new technologies and capabilities, and our IT solutions portfolio has never been stronger. Customers are now seeing Dell in a fresh light, and we’re heading into the new year with strength and optimism.” Dell’s expanding strength as an enterprise solutions provider helped to drive revenues of late, which saw a record $18.6 billion in 2011. Dell’s net income for the fiscal year was $3.5 billion, up 33%.

Consumer business experienced a drop of 2% in revenue to $3.2 billion, and fell 43% in operating income to $39 million. The company attributed this to the general decline of the U.S. economy. Dell also released the Inspiron Duo last year, which has a unique flip-hinge design akin to a tablet, but likewise dropped out of the U.S. tablet market after discontinuing it’s Streak 7.

Dell expects revenue growth of 5 to 9 percent for 2012, with typical seasonal declines in its consumer and public businesses, for Q1 of this year.

Atlanta knows how to save a buck or two, according to a new study from Coupons.com. In a survey released today identifying the most frugal cities in the United States, the Big Peach is the best at not spending a lot.

These are complicated economic times and people are looking for whatever break they can get when it comes to parting ways with their hard-earned money. “Across the country, more Americans than ever before are turning to digital coupons to help them save their hard-earned cash,” said Jeanette Pavini, Coupons.com household savings expert. “The South and Midwest dominate the list of most frugal U.S. cities, out-saving other regions including the West and Northeast.”

Joining Atlanta in some good old southern frugality were Tampa (#2), Raleigh (#4), and Nashville (#10). However, the distinction of the most frugal region in the country belongs to the Midwest, where nine cities rank among the top 25 most frugal cities.

See below for the full list of the most frugal cities in the country. Oddly, what’s going on east of the Mississippi that’s got everybody couponing so much?

You may have noticed that Ohio has three cities in that list, two of which are in the top ten. Those three coupon-clipping cities have given Ohio the distinction of most frugal state in the United States.

People in Atlanta aren’t just printing off coupons and zipping out to stores, either. The city was the most “on-the-go” frugal city, as well, due to the high number of people using their mobile devices in order to cash in their coupons.

Anybody in these cities (or beyond) an unabashed couponer? What’s your favorite way to save? Share with the rest of us below in the comments.

Smartphone owners are becoming increasingly dependent on their phones to help them shop, according to a recent report from Nielsen. Nearly a third (29%) of smartphone owners use their phones while they shop. What’s more, many want the option to use their phone to pay for their merchandise.

The most popular activity for shoppers using their smartphone is price comparison. Countless apps in the iOS App Store and Android App Market allow users a myriad of ways to check prices of products at both online and brick-and-mortar retailers. Thirty-eight percent of smartphone owners check prices online while they’re in a store, and 38% also shop from their phones. Reading online reviews of products was the second most popular activity at 32%, while nearly a quarter (24%) look for online coupons.

Interestingtly, the least popular activity on Nielsen’s list is also the thing the most smartphone owners wish they could do. Only 9% of users said that they use their phone to pay for goods or services at the point of sale, yet over 70% of all app downloaders said they were at least slightly interested in doing so. Interestingly, iPhone users expressed more interest in mobile payment technology than Android users.

Several Android phones have the necessary near-field communication (NFC) technology to power mobile payment systems. Google even has its own mobile payment service, Google Wallet, that is available to some Android users. The iPhone, on the other hand, has no NFC capabilities, despite persistent rumors that the technology would be coming to the previous two generations of iPhone.

Rumors that the next iPhone would be getting NFC technology gained new life earlier this month when MasterCard executive Ed McLaughlin said in an interview that every handset manufacturer he knew of had NFC technology in the works. When asked if that included Apple, McLaughlin avoided answering directly, but insisted that every manufacturer was working to incorporate NFC.

Whether Apple really is working to incorporate NFC into the iPhone is certainly up for debate, but Nielsen’s numbers suggest that they have good reason to consider it. Almost 40% of iOS users said they were either extremely interested or very interested, while a further 36% said they were somewhat or slightly interested, leaving only 25% of iPhone users who were not interested in the technology at all.

What do you think? Would you like to see mobile payment technology come to the iPhone? Would you like to see it expanded on Android phones? Sound off in the comments.

Recall when Charlie and Willy Wonka traveled around Earth in a glass elevator in Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator? Remember how fun that sounded? Your childhood dreams (or adulthood dreams, depend on when you read the book) of taking a stellar trip in an elevator might be a reality in the foreseeable future.

A Japanese company has announced plans to construct an elevator capable of traveling all the way up to space that would peak at a terminal station where, even more incredibly, people live. The company, Obayashi Corporation, aims to complete a space elevator by 2050 thanks to the engineering wonder that is carbon nanotubes, which are said to be 20 times stronger than steel.

As you could probably imagine, the amount of carbon nanotubes needed to construct such a colossal elevator is a barely fathomable. Obayashi didn’t state exactly how much of the material would be needed, but the plan calls for a cable to be stretched into space about 96,000 kilometers (or 59,651.63 miles). To put that into context, that’s a quarter of the distance between earth and the moon. Have a gander at the diagram offered up by Obayashi that illustrates how this elevator might look.

Since I know you’re wondering how long the trek would be to take this great elevator through the sky, travelers can expect to spend about 7-1/2 days traveling up to the station.

The idea for space elevators has been around for several years and has been discussed by companies before. Have a look at the video below that, in addition to other things, features a space elevator-building competition hosted by NASA a few years ago. Going back even further, the USSR was even discussing plans for a space elevator all the way back in 1982, which generated much inspiration among sci-fi luminaries like Arthur C. Clarke.

The idea of a space elevator might seem counter-intuitive to some but, in practice, it makes more sense than any current means of space travel because commuting via space elevator would cost a lot less than launching space shuttles. And, as you can probably intuit, less cost for space trips means more trips into space. Michio Kaku, your friendly neighborhood physicist and futurist superstar, explains in the video below why this method of space travel would greatly benefit any exploration of outer space.

Sometimes, we humans really are an exquisitely imaginative and fun species.

Is your iPhone app plagued by slowdown when attempting to scroll down pages? Does the animation hit lag? Twitter could have potentially hit similar problems with their newest app update for iPhone, but avoided it with some simple tweaking.

Twitter’s engineering blog addressed the concern above in a blog post titled, “Simple Strategies for Smooth Animation on the iPhone.” The entry explains what causes slowdown in animation on the iPhone, how they avoided it and what others can do to make their apps run smoother on the device.

The post first explains how the iPhone handles animation. They say that animation on the iPhone is powered by Core animation layers. The GPU is not optimized to animate layers, so the CPU handles all the cell drawing. It then hands off the rest of it to the GPU as a texture to be displayed on your screen.

The problems with can come from two sources – either the GPU is being overloaded with too many operations or the CPU is not drawing the cell fast enough.

The team displays a simple short tweet as an example for how they fixed the problem of a GPU being overworked. Under normal circumstances, every element of the tweet from the avatar to the text would have to be drawn as separate cells by the CPU. The Twitter team fixed this problem by compiling all the text and the image into a single cell. This reduced the amount of work the CPU and GPU had to do.

Another way to reduce lag is to avoid blending. They point out that tweets on the iOS app have a “drop shadow on top of a subtle textured background.” They avoided the problem of blending by “reducing the area Core Animation has to consider non-opaque, by splitting the shadow areas from content area of the cell.”

They also suggest that developers check for pixel alignment. If the the width of the pixels is set an odd number, the program will set out to apply anti-aliasing to smooth out the edges. Anti-aliasing is one of the most expensive operations to operate on GPUs.

The team goes on to provide some code that will help solve an animation problem called a “pop” that occurs when a cell is about to scroll into view. They say that a cell only has 17 milliseconds “to provide content before you’ve dropped a frame.”

At the end, they point out that sometimes you just can’t apply any tricks to make animation go smoothly. The biggest problem comes from pictures in the “Discover” tab on Twitter for iOS. They succeeded in keeping smooth animation on these pictures by turning them into a pre-rendered image and storing them in a cache.

Hopefully these tips will help you to develop smoothly animated apps for the iPhone. I don’t know much about app development, but I know that a smooth framerate in video games keeps the player invested. I’m going to assume it’s the same in the app development world.

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden has released a report highlighting the need for expansion of the United States broadband spectrum. At the core of his report is what he calls the “spectrum crunch” or huge surge in wireless internet traffic brought about by the popularity of wireless devices like smartphones and tablets. His main concern is that wireless network providers will not be able to handle the rising levels of traffic with under their current capacities. Biden is calling for huge investments to be made in upgrading both the capacity and efficiency of existing broadband networks while also adding new options.

Innovation is a core motivator for the upgrade claims Biden in his report:

“Wireless broadband has the potential to transform many different areas of the American economy by providing a platform for new innovation. Areas where the innovations will likely have significant impact include consumer products and services, such as media-rich mobile apps and high definition streaming video; products to enhance business productivity, such as mobile video conferencing solutions and access to web-based business applications; health care, where the quality of care will be enhanced and costs reduced through products like patient-physician video conferencing and remote transmission of diagnostic information and images; and education, where digital classroom materials and educational applications are already enhancing learning.”

His report also speaks in depth about building a dedicated wireless network for public safety official and emergency services. He claims this will open clogged networks that many service people currently deal with and provide critical information on demand:

“With sufficient dedicated spectrum for public safety use, public safety personnel will have access to critical information even in emergency situations when commercial wireless networks are congested.”

He believes this could be a project that stimulates the economy as well as fueling innovation and could have a great impact on job creation:

“Like other information and communication technologies that have transformed the economy in the past, the spread of wireless broadband is likely to increase the rate of growth in per capita income; spur economic activity through new business investment; and support many new high- quality jobs.”

The effort and funds that are being set forth also put America on par with other countries like Japan and South Korea who have grown abundant with wireless and broadband options. Biden believes that all of these factors make an investment in fighting the “spectrum crunch” a wise investment that should be a real revenue generator for the country.

Twitter is a wonderful place for one-liners. To be funny on the site, you’ve got to be sharp and practice economy of language. You’ve only got 140 characters to make an impression.

And what better way to wind-down the work day than with a selection of some of the day’s most entertaining tweets.

Enjoy!

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@BettyFckinWhite
Betty F*ckin’ WhiteIt’s National Margarita Day! Who wants to salt my rim? 3 hours ago via HootSuite ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

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@firstworldme
First World ProblemsThe deli forgot the paper between my cheese slices, and now they’re stuck together. #firstworldproblems 39 minutes ago via twitterfeed ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

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@L8tweets
I FollowBack; j/ask!I bet Rick Astley struggles with Lent. #L8 4 minutes ago via Echofon ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

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@YoGirlLilJ
Jamie. ☺✌Today is Ash Wednesday, the joyous day upon which we celebrate the life of Ash Ketchum and make vows to catch ‘em all in the coming year. 2 hours ago via web ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

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@bigu
BrookeLive each day like it’s National Margarita Day. Actually, don’t. That’s alcoholism. Today only, live like it’s National Margarita Day. 2 minutes ago via web ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

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@RuthBourdain
Ruth BourdainWhen National Margarita Day falls on Ash Wednesday, does it mean Catholics must give up Jimmy Buffett for Lent? That shouldn’t be too hard. 5 hours ago via web ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

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@TheAuthorGuy
Christopher MooreAsh Wednesday is the day we all get together and watch the Evil Dead movies, right? 2 hours ago via web ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

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@TheFakeESPN
The Fake ESPNPop Warner has announced they’ll start using NFL rules in order to better protect their kids from injury. 15 minutes ago via Twitter for Mac ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

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@JennyJohnsonHi5
Jenny JohnsonI’d say you’re more of a mix between an Ewok and a hooker. RT @KimKardashian: I’m such a mix between Charlotte and Carrie! 44 minutes ago via Echofon ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

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@wheatnik
wheatnikTexting for beginners: STFU = Shut the fuck up. LOL = Shut the fuck up. LMAO = Shut the fuck up. ROFL = Shut the fuck up. 1 hour ago via Tweetbot for iOS ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

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@EliTerry
Eli Terry“Grandpa, grandpa! Tell us again about the time you whittled a 189 character idea down to a perfect 140 character tweet!” 46 minutes ago via web ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

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@DamienFahey
Damien Fahey“Don’t steal, don’t kill, put some stuff on your forehead, maybe sometimes don’t eat meat? Look, I’m clearly running out of ideas here” -God 1 hour ago via web ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

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@thesulk
Alec SulkinI’m dorky enough to know that there’s an Orc who looks like Alice Cooper in “The Two Towers”. 3 hours ago via Twitter for iPhone ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

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@hipstermermaid
braden graeberI just had a cup of coffee so terrible that Stephenie Meyer is writing a series of books about it. 3 hours ago via Twitter for iPhone ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

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@PimpBillClinton
Bill ClintonNewt Gingrich’s hair looks like it was cut by a right-handed dude using left-handed safety scissors. 3 hours ago via TweetCaster for iOS ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

Kim Dotcom, founder of MegaUpload, was released from jail today on bond, after a New Zealand court deemed that he wasn’t a flight risk. Though the NZ Crown might appeal the decision to set Dotcom free for the time being, it had been deemed that it is unlikely that he would be able to access the funds to flee the country. Kim was quoted as saying, “I just want to go home.”

“I’m relieved to go home and see my family, my three little kids and my pregnant wife,” he added, according to Stuff NZ.

Here are some Twitter reactions:

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@wired
WiredMegaupload CEO Kim Dotcom Granted Bail in New Zealand, But Banned From Net http://t.co/Zbzba70f 12 hours ago via Bitly Composer ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

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@Liberationtech
LiberationtechIs Megaupload’s founder a criminal mastermind, or world’s most entertaining scapegoat? http://t.co/74fsF1EF 1 hour ago via HootSuite ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

.ditto172415712109936642{background: #C0DEED url(http://a0.twimg.com/images/themes/theme1/bg.png) no-repeat;padding: 20px;} .ditto172415712109936642 a { color: #0084B4;} p.dittoTweet{background: #fff;padding: 10px 12px 10px 50px;margin: 0;min-height: 48px;color: #000;font-size: 18px !important;line-height: 22px;-moz-border-radius: 5px;-webkit-border-radius: 5px;} p.dittoTweet span.metadata {display: block;width: 100%;clear: both;margin-top: 8px;padding-top: 12px;height: 65px;} p.dittoTweet span.metadata span.author {line-height: 22px;color: #666;font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;} .mainlink {font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 26px;color: #1F98C7;text-decoration: none;} .mainlink: hover {color: #1F98C7;text-decoration: underline;} .tweet {font-size: 24px;} p.dittoTweet span.metadata span.author img {float: left; margin: 0px 7px 0px 0px;} p.dittoTweet a:hover {text-decoration: underline;} p.dittoTweet span.timestamp {font-size: 12px;display: block;color: #999;} p.dittoTweet span.timestamp a {color: #999;text-decoration: none;} p.dittoTweet span.timestamp a > span {display: inline-block;width: 16px;background-image:url(http://images.ientrymail.com/socialditto/everything-spritev2.png);background-repeat: no-repeat;} p.dittoTweet span.timestamp a.reply > span {background-position: 0px 3px;} p.dittoTweet span.timestamp a.reply:hover > span {background-position: -16px 3px;} p.dittoTweet span.timestamp a.retweet > span {background-position: -80px 3px;} p.dittoTweet span.timestamp a.retweet:hover > span {background-position: -96px 3px;} p.dittoTweet span.timestamp a.favorite > span {background-position: -32px 2px;} p.dittoTweet span.timestamp a.favorite:hover > span {background-position: -48px 2px;}

@lyndonhood
Lyndon HoodWait, does this mean Kim Dotcom is gonna get ousted as Myor of Auckland Central Remand Prison? 24 minutes ago via TweetDeck ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

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@angelfleming
Angel Fleming#tcot #teaparty #fyi Jail: ‘A bit like American Idol audition’… http://t.co/cuQSSrcr 11 minutes ago via HootSuite ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

For those The Beatles fans who don’t know how to make their own ringtones or just want to spend more money on their favorite band, The Beatles are now offering ringtones based on their songs exclusively through iTunes.

The ringtones all last 30-seconds and come from 27 of the bands number one hits. Those hits include “I Want To Hold Your Hand,” “Can’t Buy Me Love,” “A Hard Day’s Night,” “Help!,” “Let It Be,” “Come Together” and other hits.

The ringtones are priced at $1.29 each. While it may seem like a little steep for just a ringtone, you can rest easy knowing that your ringtones will be of much higher quality than any The Beatles ringtone your friend makes with their shoddy ringtone creator.

In all seriousness, why would you want to pay $1.29 for 30 seconds of a song when the full song is at the same price? I’m not here to question the band’s motives, but doesn’t this just seem like the people who handle The Beatles’ estate suddenly realizing that ringtones exist?

A ploy like this could have worked five years ago, but it’s so easy to make your own ringtones now that a marketing move like this makes little sense.

If you choose to buy the ringtones, more power to you. I’m just going to suggest you google “ringtone creator” and just save yourself some time and money.

Atlanta Plastic Surgeon, Dr. John LeRoy is one of the most active plastic surgeons on the social network with a Twitter following @JohnLLeRoyJrMD of over 100,000. Dr. LeRoy is committed to having a strong online presence and has always been an early adopter of technology as one of the first Atlanta practices to have a website back in 1996. Dr. LeRoy uses the web to help improve the experience and facilitate communications with patients. According to Dr. LeRoy, “Technology, social media and quality patient care have become tightly interwoven over the past few years and play an important role in enhancing patient care, particularly in the field of cosmetic enhancements.”

Dr. LeRoy uses the web in a variety of ways to provide personalized, quality and enhanced care to his patients. He keeps them up to date with the latest advancements in plastic surgery and provides patients with easy access to information and education. By utilizing social platforms, his patients have the ability to easily contact him or other experienced experts and professionals for advice and dialogue.

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@JohnLLeRoyJrMD
John L LeRoy Jr MDHave you hear of the Band Aid #Facelift? http://t.co/MTJ0Y3ZO 4 days ago via web ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

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@JohnLLeRoyJrMD
John L LeRoy Jr MDDid you know that #Botox treatment was the most frequently performed minimally invasive cosmetic procedure in 2011… http://t.co/QBi8x6S5 1 day ago via Facebook ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

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@JohnLLeRoyJrMD
John L LeRoy Jr MDPlastic Surgery Really Does ‘Turn Back the Clock,’ Study Finds – Businessweek http://t.co/bXvpXg1p via @BW 22 hours ago via Tweet Button ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

“Social Media is personal,” adds Dr. LeRoy. “Patients can ask questions and get expert opinions now as opposed to throwing their question out on a message board, as done previously, and receiving feedback from unknown individuals.” Reaching 100,000 Twitter followers presents a unique opportunity for this popular, tech-saavy Surgeon to provide a vast number of patients with the information they need regarding plastic surgery and it’s benefits.

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@JohnLLeRoyJrMD
John L LeRoy Jr MD100,000 Twitter followers today. Thank you. 5 days ago via Facebook ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

This morning I reported on complaints lodged to European Union’s (EU) competition regulators by Microsoft against Motorola. The main gist of the article is that Motorola neglects to make its patent technologies available at a fair cost to other manufacturers who wish to use their technology in non-motorola devices. Microsoft and others say this has been a huge revenue stream for Motorola to the point where it represents a substantial competitive advantage.

With the acquisition at hand and Motorola transitioning ownership, many are wondering if Google will reverse the trend and offer patented technology at an affordable rate. Because many of the patents Motorola currently holds control wi-fi connectivity and wireless video transfer, high prices could jeopardize our ability to enjoy these features on many of the most popular products. More importantly, these technologies are industry standards and motorola is violating a major component of modern industry: fair competition.

Microsoft has stepped to the plate and said that it will not seek any injunctions on firms that pursue industry standard solutions with technology Microsoft holds patents on. While Apple and Cisco have agreed to the same policy, Google is not buying into it. This leaves us wondering what will happen once Google is in control of the Motorola patents.

The European Union and the U.S. Department of Justice have turned their attention to the issue and the EU Commissioner made this statement in connection with the complaints:

“I can assure you that the Commission will take further action if warranted to ensure that the use of standard essential patents by all players in the sector is fully compliant with EU competition law and with the FRAND commitments given to standard setting organisations.”

The U.S. Department of Justice makes similar assertions in their statement:

“In light of the importance of this industry to consumers and the complex issues raised by the intersection of the intellectual property rights and antitrust law at issue here, as well as uncertainty as to the exercise of the acquired rights, the division continues to monitor the use of standard essential patents (SEPs) in the wireless device industry, particularly in the smartphone and computer tablet markets. The division will not hesitate to take appropriate enforcement action to stop any anticompetitive use of SEP rights.”

So consumers should hope for a resolve to this issue soon, as these expensive patent prices are being passed on to us. I am surprised that there is not a standardized prize for using industry standard patents. Perhaps that is a solution, but I am sure there is more to the patent laws and pricing than I can conclude from this article. I will follow up any any actions taken by Google, Motorola, or the regulators involved.

A patent application recently filed by Google suggests that there may be plans in the works to bring the Android operating system to desktop and notebook computers. The new patent is one of several recent filings that suggest that Android will be making the jump from phones and tablets to computers.

As reported by Patently Apple, the patent details some of the ways in which the touchscreen controls already present in the Android operating system could be matched to a multi-touch trackpad, not unlike the kind found in Apple’s Magic Trackpad and their MacBook computers.

There have been hints recently that Google may be planning to unify their two operating systems, Android and Chrome OS. The recent release of the Chrome browser for Android may have been an indication of such a merger, as are rumors of tablets designed to run Chrome OS. At the same time, rumors concerning the next major Android release, Android 5.0 Jelly Bean, have suggested that Android tablets may be getting the capacity to dual-boot Android and Chrome OS.

Of course, as with all patent filings, this doesn’t mean that we should expect to start seeing computers running Android on retailer shelves any time soon. Nevertheless, Google is definitely looking at bringing Android into the computer market. The move makes sense in a lot of ways, so we can probably expect to see more information on this in the coming months.

What do you think? Would you by an Android laptop? And Android desktop? Let us know in the comments.

Preventable Adverse Elements, or PAEs, account for 50 to 100,000 deaths in the U.S. each year. One major contributor to PAEs is patient medication errors, and the implementation of e-prescription systems can cut down on these mistakes, according to Patexia.

Part of the problem with medication errors is the multiple steps needed to administer a drug in a traditional hospital setting. In the inpatient setting, a doctor writes the prescription order for the patient’s chart, a nurse transfers the order to the pharmacy, the pharmacy reviews it, sends it back, and the nurse finally administers the medication. Mistakes can be made at the many points of this process – handwriting can be illegible, drug allergies or drug interactions can be missed, etc. E-prescription systems seek to eliminate these sorts of errors, which can cost hospitals up to $3 million per year.

E-prescription systems allow healthcare providers to log prescription medication into a computer, which is then sent to a pharmacy, and administered. Many of the aforementioned points of error are eliminated, and doctors have better access to menus regarding dosing options, routes of administration, patient medical history, possible drug allergies, etc. A recent Australian study reports that the use of e-prescriptions cut down on medication errors by about 60%, and reduced serious drug related errors by 44%. Hardwriting legibility issues and incomplete prescription orders were mostly eliminated with the e-system, though interestingly, drug allergy/interaction errors were not really affected – though these issues were rare going into the study.

The use of e-prescriptions is in the rise, according to a report by Cal eConnect, which shows a jump from 3% to 25% between 2007 and 2011. Coupled with the latest developments of an iPhone-connected smartpill, advances in e-prescribing for the administering of e-drugs might all but eliminate preventable adverse elements in the future.

A new update to the Google Docs app for Android does a few things, but most importantly brings a popular feature from the desktop version of Google Docs to mobile: real-time document editing.

From the official Google blog:

We want to give everyone the chance to be productive no matter where they are, so today we’re releasing a new update to the Google Docs app for Android. We’ve brought the collaborative experience from Google Docs on the desktop to your Android device. You’ll see updates in real time as others type on their computers, tablets and phones, and you can just tap the document to join in.

The update also tweaks the UI to make it cleaner for mobile, for example you can now pinch to zoom focus to a specific paragraph and reverse that out to the whole document. Google has also added rich text formatting (bold, italics, font colors), layout tools (bullets, indents, numbered lists) and cursor presence so you can see where each editor is within the document.

Along with the update, they also unveiled this cute little ad that shows the benefits of collaborative document editing on the go. It’s called “Best Best Man” and shows how Google Docs could be used in a very stressful situation:

This new ad is particularly important in the context of Microsoft’s recent onslaught of advertisements slamming Google Apps and specifically Google Docs. One Valentine’s day ad bashed Google Docs’ lack of style as a “cupcake without the icing.” Another recent ad from Microsoft, Googlighting, slams Google Office apps and once again, Google Docs is clearly the main target.

As far as ads go, I’d say Google’s is better – but that shouldn’t surprise to anyone who has seen some of their amazing ads for Chrome.

In other Office Apps news, we might be getting a Microsoft Office Suite for iPad in the near future, or we might not. More on that here.

For those that felt Facebook ads and sponsored posts just weren’t cutting it, some new leaked documents from the social network detail their plans to change how premium ads are displayed starting February 29.

In leaked documents obtained by Gigaom, Facebook will reportedly be upgrading its premium ads. Facebook claims that the new ads will have a much larger reach than their previous ads. The main change being that ads will now resemble normal Facebook page posts.

The ads will originate from the product’s page in the form of a post. Facebook says that ads will be larger which allows “more points of engagement for users. The new ads will also feature “more prominent placement of social context.” Some stats about the new ads they are throwing around include 40 percent increase in engagement, 80 percent more likely to be remembered and 16 percent increase in fan rate with “significant increases in purchase intent.”

The old, or as they say “classic,” premium ads will be discontinued on February 29. Links to sites off Facebook and marketplace ads will remain unaffected by the changes.

The new premium ad system will work as such:

The brand in question creates a page post from six different types – status update, photos, videos, links, questions or events. The post is then turned into an ad that will display on the right side of the page where ads are currently displayed now. If the person viewing the ad has friends who like the page in question, the ad will expand showing their friends’ likes. There will also be a spot for fans to interact directly with the ad through commenting.

There are also tools that will allow brands to display ads only to fans or non-fans of the product in question.

Some people might not like Facebook allowing advertisers to disguise their ad as just a normal Facebook post, but I think it’s absolutely genius. The main point of social networks is to get more personal and a brand getting personal with their fanbase, even through ads, is a win-win for everybody. Besides, the ad will still say “sponsored post” so it’s not like they are really trying to trick you.

If you still don’t like the idea of sponsored posts parading around as normal Facebook posts, just install AdBlock Plus and stop complaining.

You can check out the leaked presentations below for more details:

Facebook Premium Ads Overview

Facebook Premium Ads Guide

Do you like Facebook’s new premium ads? Or do you think they should have just stuck with the classic way of making sponsored posts? Let us know in the comments.

Amazon has removed any e-book offerings from Independent Publishers Group (IPG) until some new terms can be reached regarding compensation. Though print editions of the distributors books are still available, the new terms Amazon has proposed would significantly cut revenue on both print and electronic titles for IPG. Currently IPG is the second largest independent book distributor.

Mark Suchomel, President of IPG sent out an alert email yesterday commenting on his dealings with Amazon:

“Amazon.com is putting pressure on publishers and distributors to change their terms for electronic and print books to be more favorable toward Amazon. Our electronic book agreement recently came up for renewal, and Amazon took the opportunity to propose new terms for electronic and print purchases that would have substantially changed your revenue from the sale of both. It’s obvious that publishers can’t continue to agree to terms that increasingly reduce already narrow margins.”

Suchomel thinks that it is important that his clients stand behind him as he attempts to regain favorable terms with Amazon. He elaborates further:

“Remember that Amazon continues to be an important account that sells a lot of units. This is a business decision on Amazon’s part, and hopefully they will soon decide to reverse it and buy at our standard terms.”

“I have spoken directly with many of our clients and every one of them agrees that we need to hold firm with the terms we now offer. I’m not sure what has changed at Amazon over the last few months that they now find it unacceptable to buy from IPG at terms that are acceptable to our other customers.”

I think it is great that Amazon is negotiating better deals for their customers, and it is their job to do so, but ideally it would not come at the expense of the artists and businesspeople who make the publications a reality at the retailer. A disturbing trend that I see in big business today is negotiation that goes beyond win-win and represents a substantial loss to one of the parties involved.

Walmart is famous for its cut-throat negotiations with suppliers and there is no doubt in my mind that penny pinching is behind the abuses at Foxconn when it comes to delivering low costs to Apple. It is not always a best practice to deliver recording breaking profits to your shareholders when your partners are suffering on the fringes of staying in business. Perhaps Amazon needs to take this into account from a PR standpoint if not from a sustainability perspective.