Google Voice Fans Petition For Desktop Client
Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin have shelved plans to release a desktop of the Google Voice VoIP client, prompting users to petition the company for its release. The company has apparently dropped the desktop version for a new, browser-based VoIP client. Google fans have started an online petition, asking Google to release a desktop version of the VoIP client. The website, giveusgvdesktop.com, is looking to gain support from at least 500,000 Google users to prove to the company that a possible desktop client will be in demand.
ITProPortal
Orange sets out new five-year plan
France Telecom-Orange group CEO Stéphane Richard has pledged to recruit 10,000 new employees in France by 2012 and increase the firm’s global subscriber base to 300 million by 2015 as part of a wide-reaching overhaul of the firm announced on Monday. The firm faces three central challenges – “an unprecedented social crisis in France, a fast changing ecosystem and a tense competitive and regulatory environment” – Richard said. These would be overcome as part of the five-year project, which Orange has dubbed “Conquests 2015".
Telecoms.com
FourSquare clocks one million check-ins a day
Foursquare has shown the social-networking world that it means business, by clocking 1 million check-ins in just one day. The smartphone app posted the number on 2 July, just after it announced it was given $20 million in funding. FourSquare is now said to be worth $95 million, has an active user base of around 1.8 million people and has signed up media partnerships with the likes of Starbucks, Marc Jacobs and Pepsi. Not bad for a company that employs just 27 people. Speaking about FourSquare's success, Ben Horowitz, who was behind the funding, said that the site was growing faster than Twitter was at the same stage.
Tech Radar
Touch Local extends reach with location-targeted ads
Business directory Touch Local is working with location-based ad network Geocast to extend its reach among local businesses and advertisers using geo-targeted advertising. Touch Local has agreed a deal with Geocast (formerly Bview) to use its incentive-based local advertising service that optimises ads based on location, behaviour and device. Local businesses are expected to offer discounts and vouchers using Geocast through Touch Local, in the hope of increasing footfall by up to 15%. It’s Touch Local’s first foray into location-based voucher marketing.
New Media Age
Flash tool vendor highlights Adobe's vision deficit
With the gripes over Apple’s lack of support in its mobile platforms for Adobe’s Flash technology, one of Adobe’s third-party developers is on the right track for handling content: seamless integration of both HTML5 and Flash. Dominey Design offers the Flash authoring tool SlideShowPro for displaying still and rich media content online. In addition, it sells an extension for Adobe Lightroom, a standalone edition, SlidePress (a WordPress plugin) and SlideShowPro Director, a content management system.
ZDNet
Government websites: how much does each one cost?
The latest government data reveals how £94.5m of government money was spent - before they even got to paying for staffing What does it cost to put a website together? The latest open data release from the Government, provides a fascinating insight into the running of the UK's major government websites.
The list, which doesn't include data.gov.uk, covers 2009/10 and details the government's website development, staffing and hosting costs - as well as a raft of data showing web traffic, accessibility and user opinions on the sites.
Guardian
YouTube vuln pwns Justin Bieber fans
Hackers and pranksters began exploiting a newly discovered scripting flaw on YouTube on Sunday, provoking rumours that a virus was spreading on the site. The cross-site scripting flaw (XSS) on the video-sharing website created a means for hackers to post JavaScript code in the comments sections of videos. The flaw meant that this JavaScript code was run on the machines of surfers viewing the same video clip. Predictable enough, pranksters at 4Chan have begun using the vulnerability to redirect surfers looking for Justin Bieber video clips to goatse or false reports that the irksomely clean-cut Canadian singer had died in a car crash. Denizens of 4Chan are separately trying to rig an online poll to encourage Beiber to play North Korea in an upcoming tour.
The register
Single EU patent on the way
The European Commission has presented a proposal on translation arrangements for a future EU patent, the final step needed for the realisation of a single EU patent which could encourage greater research, development and innovation in the technology industry.The Commission argued that the current system is far too complex and costly, and that individual inventors are forced to request validation at a national level of any patents granted by the intergovernmental European Patent Office (EPO). Under the new proposals, which build on the existing language policy of the EPO, EU patents will be examined and granted in one of the official languages of the EPO, i.e. English, French or German.The granted patent will be published in this language which will be the legally binding text. The publication will include translations of the claims into the other two EPO official languages.
V3
Democrats push for new Internet sales taxes
The halcyon days of tax-free Internet shopping will, if Rep. Bill Delahunt gets his way, soon be coming to an abrupt end.Delahunt, a Massachusetts Democrat, introduced a bill on Thursday that would rewrite the ground rules for Internet and mail order sales by eliminating the option for many Americans to shop over the Internet without paying state sales taxes.At the moment, Americans who shop over the Internet from out-of-state vendors usually aren't required to pay sales taxes. Californians buying books from Amazon.com or cameras from Manhattan's B&H Photo, for example, won't be required to cough up the sales taxes that they would if shopping at a local mall.
CNET
Earlybird: the next step in Twitter making money?
A new Twitter account is quietly launched speculation points to a new revenue stream, Twitter neither confirms nor denies. Intriguing things are afoot at Twitter HQ, no doubt many of them centred on generating revenue for the four-year-old company. It should come as no surprise, then, that a new account called Earlybird has launched, seemingly primed to channel offers, deals and other exclusive goodies from outside retailers. Earlybird looks the likely natural progression of other recently launched revenue streams, promoted tweets and sponsored trends. Speaking toRead Write Web, Twitter's Carolyn Penner gave nothing away: "There are interesting things in store for @earlybird. Keep waking up early and you might be the first to find out what they are."
Guardian
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