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Steve Jobs to meet with President Obama today
According to ABC News, President Obama's West Coast field trip is going to kick off in San Francisco with dinner. Not just any dinner, mind you. This happens to be dinner with the outgoing CEO of Google, Eric Schmidt, Mark Zuckerberg (who built some sort of newfangled website) and our own Uncle Steve. According to the White House, they are meeting as part of an "ongoing dialogue with the business community on how we can work together to win the future, strengthen our economy, support entrepreneurship, and get the American people back to work." After dinner, there is no further published information on the official White House schedule, so I don't know who will get to put up their "The President Slept Here" sign. However, once he's wrapped things up in the Bay Area, it's been announced that Obama is spending Friday in my neck of the woods, visiting one of Intel's plants in Hillsboro, Oregon. He'll be there with Intel CEO Paul Otellini talking about Intel's investments in educational programs and manufacturing upgrades at their plants in Oregon and in Arizona. This is the second time the President has formally met with Jobs. Their first publicized get-together took place in October of 2010. [via AppleInsider]
Gemalto puts Facebook on a SIM chip, Zuckerberg's plan for world domination coming along nicely
Smart card guru Gemalto is going to help Mark Zuckerberg take over the world! Ok, not really, but the company has made it possible to put Facebook on just about every GSM phone on earth by running it on a SIM chip. This allows every poke, friend request, and wall post to be transmitted by SMS -- meaning no data plan required -- so that the non-smartphone crowd can access Facebook on the go too. Gemalto, using only the brightest and most creative marketing minds out there, has named the solution "Facebook for SIM." Users get a free trial for an undisclosed period of time before a subscription for the service becomes necessary -- carriers are positively salivating at the prospect of all that extra SMS traffic lining their already deep pockets, no doubt. We knew that Mark had big plans for putting Facebook on phones, but we didn't figure that dumbphones would get to join in the social networking fun. Finally, a chicken in every pot and a Facebook phone (or three) in every home.
Zuckerberg: Expect 'dozens' of Facebook phones this year (update)
He's said it before: there will be no Facebook phone. And now it's clear what he meant -- Zuck's strategy is to integrate Facebook into every phone telling us today at the HTC launch event in Barcelona that we're only seeing the first wave of Facebook-enabled phones hitting the market, with dozens of phones featuring deep social integration coming this year. See Mark (or is it?) lay down the law after the break. Update: Facebook's official blog just chimed in with some factual heat -- some of those "dozens" of new Facebook phones will have the social network "as an element of the device hardware itself." If you ask us, it sounds like the physical Facebook button is going to be a thing.
Mark Zuckerberg meets the fake Mark Zuckerbergs on Saturday Night Live (video)
Mark Zuckerberg, the man who invented poking and the subject of a major motion picture in 2010 just met his nemeses on the set of Saturday Night Live. No, not the Winklevoss twins, we're talking Jesse Eisenberg, the man nominated for an Academy Award after playing Zuckerberg in The Social Network. Toss in Andy Samberg and we've got a comically uncomfortable situation from Web 2.0's very personification of awkward. All hail the Zuck Bergs!
Apple employees love Steve Jobs
Silicon Alley Insider has put together a chart that shows the approval ratings employees have for various CEOs at major tech companies. The chart is based on data from Glassdoor.com and reveals that Steve Jobs is the most-favored CEO, ranked by his own employees, followed closely by Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook and Eric Schmidt of Google. Employees at struggling Yahoo give their CEO, Carol Bartz, a high-50s point rating, while outspoken Microsoft CEO, Steve Ballmer, comes in last place out of the companies listed in the chart. Earlier this year Barron's published a list of tech's most-respected CEOs which put Steve Jobs in the number one spot and called him "the world's most valuable CEO."
Don't hold your breath for a Facebook iPad app
While many of us (including me) are clamoring for an official iPad Facebook app, Mark Zuckerberg pretty much dashed any hopes for one at today's Facebook Mobile Event. When asked why there wasn't an official iPad app yet, Zuckerberg replied, "The iPad isn't mobile." Uh, what? He apparently later back tracked and said that while he loves working with Apple, the iPad isn't as mobile as a phone. Erick Tensing, Facebook's head of Mobile Products, then explained that the explosion of tablets isn't going to be about the iPad alone and there would be many offerings from vendors running Android OS. That leads Facebook to believe that committing limited resources to one tablet just doesn't make sense. What you're gonna see, according to TechCrunch's Jason Kincaid, is a web-based mobile app version of Facebook that targets tablets across the board. All I'm asking now is that they hurry it up, besides some feature loss while viewing Facebook on an iPad, the entire site locked iPad owners out of zooming and scaling a few weeks back. Facebook released an updated version of its app for iPhone and iPod touch earlier today. [via TechCrunch]
Updated Facebook app released for iPhone and iPod touch
TechCrunch reports that Mark Zuckerberg showed off the new version of his company's Facebook for iPhone app at today's Mobile Event. Facebook v3.3 adds a new Groups feature and also updates the existing Places feature. Among the improvements to Places, it will now be easier to tag your friends into a venue and it will be easier to add photos alongside a check-in. The update also features a Deals function that lets you "discover great deals around you" (translation: here comes the location-based advertising). Zuckerberg also said that the Facebook app was on the "vast majority of iPhones." The updated Facebook app is now available in the App Store.
CE-Oh no he didn't!: Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg says 'the iPad's not mobile... it's a computer'
Facebook's mobile event today may not have had the revelations many were expecting, but CEO Mark Zuckerberg did drop a bomb of sorts in the Q&A at the end. Responding to a question about a possible Facebook iPad app, Zuckerberg shot back by saying that "the iPad's not mobile... it's a computer." Of course, he did quickly clarify that he didn't mean to be rude to Apple, and added that "we all love Apple products," the iPad just "isn't mobile in the same way."
Does Apple want to buy Facebook?
Jobs and Facebook founder/CEO Mark Zuckerberg met for dinner the other day. Many presumed that they were discussing Facebook Connect and Ping integration, but what if it were something more, like Apple buying Facebook? Kafka thinks that Apple acquiring Facebook makes sense because Facebook doesn't compete with Apple in any significant way, and Facebook is something that Apple couldn't compete against even if it wanted to. Plus, Facebook is already competing with Google, "which has to make Jobs like it even more," Kafka argues. What would Apple buying Facebook lead to? Every Facebook user would probably automatically have an iTunes Store account. FaceTime chat could be integrated into Facebook chat, potentially leading to increased sales of iOS devices. If Apple continues down the road of using not only phone numbers, but email addresses and eventually Facebook IDs as designated FaceTime "phone numbers," then 500 million users would already have a FaceTime ID to use when all telephony goes VoIP. Apple has the cash to buy Facebook outright (Facebook is valued at around US $25-35 billion), but will they? Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg seem to share a lot of traits (not to mention both having had movies made about them), but could two of the most powerful people in tech -- with equally powerful egos -- work together?
Steve Jobs friends Mark Zuckerberg to talk about Ping
The Los Angeles Times is reporting that Steve Jobs invited Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg to his house for dinner a few weeks ago. The dinner is presumed to have been a meeting about Ping and Facebook integration. Despite getting over one million users in 48 hours, Ping has yet to gain much traction in the social networking world. Ping is designed to follow your friends and find what music they like. Right now, finding your friends is a bit of a pain, but if Ping users could find their friends via Facebook Connect it would do much to increase Ping membership and use. When Ping first launched, Facebook Connect access was briefly implemented before being quickly blocked by Facebook. A few days later Steve Jobs told All Things Digital that Facebook had "onerous terms that we could not agree to" regarding Facebook friends connecting on Ping. But just two weeks ago Facebook CTO Bret Taylor told Silicon Alley Insider that he's "very confident" that the two companies could find common ground to work together. The Times article interestingly points out that years ago Apple was Facebook's first big commercial sponsor through its Apple Students group. But, as we've learned from a certain movie, many of Facebook's original friends have become enemies. Let's hope the dinner has brought two of the biggest names in tech closer together (and come up with a Facebook iPad app in the process).
Trent Reznor: Mark Zuckerberg is no Steve Jobs
In a recent interview with Drowned in Sound, former Nine Inch Nails front man Trent Reznor discussed the Social Network soundtrack and exactly why Mark Zuckerberg is no Steve Jobs. Reznor is currently promoting the soundtrack he recorded for The Social Network, otherwise known as "the Facebook movie." In the interview, Trent describes why he's not a fan of Facebook; specifically, the license that it and similar services seem to give users to exaggerate themselves, saying, "I've seen that with people I know in real life, and I check them out online, it's not always the same person." He also goes on to describe the media's current fascination with Zuckerberg and compares it to another famous tech company CEO: "When I see the media heralding Zuckerberg, putting him up on a pedestal of genius and mentioned in the same breathe as Steve Jobs, I'm highly degree [sic] with that. He was in the right place, at the right time, with a functional tool." Reznor has long been an Apple fan. Five years ago, he released the Nine Inch Nails songs The Hand That Feeds and Only as GarageBand files, and he's used Apple software to record both music and recent tours. However, he went on a tirade when the Nine Inch Nails app was ejected from the App Store in 2009.
Dear Mark Zuckerberg: Where's the Facebook iPad app?
Dear Mark Zuckerberg, You've made the the biggest social network on the planet, you've made quite a few enemies, and you've made Jesse Eisenberg into Hollywood's next Oscar-winning megastar (I know all this because I just saw your Mr. Fincher's movie). Now why can't you make a Facebook iPad app? When you announced your event the other day, I got excited and thought one small announcement might be an iPad app. I wasn't the only one either. But the event came and went, and while Facebook's new download feature is freaking awesome, an official Facebook iPad app would be pretty cool, too.
Facebook phone rumors resurface, Mark Zuckerberg fails to deny them
Let's try to untangle this Facebook mobile phone mess, shall we? Mark Zuckerberg has recently sat down with Michael Arrington of TechCrunch -- the source of the original rumor -- to try and dispel some of the confusion that has arisen as a result. The first thing the Zuckmeister says is that Facebook isn't looking to build its own OS or hardware and is absolutely opposed to competing with the likes of the iPhone and Android. What Zuckerberg wants is deeper social integration, positing the question, "What could we do if we also started hacking at a deeper level?" While there'll be no single answer or solution for all phones, Mark firmly believes that social elements have to be designed in from the start: On phones we can actually do something better. We can do a single sign-on if we do a good integration with a phone, rather than just doing something where you go to an app and it's automatically social or having to sign into each app individually. Those are the two options on the web. Why not for mobile? Just make it so that you log into your phone once, and then everything that you do on your phone is social. Notably, he fails to deny rumors of such deeply integrated devices being in the pipeline, and Bloomberg has trotted out a trio of insider sources who claim INQ Mobile has been engaged to produce two smartphones with just that purpose in mind -- you know the same INQ that already makes Facebook-heavy handsets, so this could very well be little more than a rebrand. One is said to feature a QWERTY keypad and a touchscreen while the other is an all touch affair, and both are reputedly headed for an early 2011 launch in Europe, followed by a late 2011 arrival in the USA. AT&T is the carrier that's closest to picking them up, we're told, though deals haven't been finalized on what could be sub-$100 phones after subsidies are distributed. So, whatever happens, we're staring down the barrel of a couple of glorified featurephones with deep social integration. Kin 2.0, anyone? Anyone?
Breakfast Topic: Real ID or Real bad IDea?
When Blizzard first announced the Real ID concept at last year's BlizzCon, it seemed like a promising idea. The ability to keep in touch with real-life friends across realms and even across different Blizzard games seemed like something World of Warcraft needed, what with some real friends being separated by faction or realm. With new games on the horizon, it also seemed cool to be able to call someone playing Starcraft 2 and pull them into Azeroth if you lacked one more member for that heroic dungeon. Sure enough, when Patch 3.3.5 was implemented, I had a lot of fun hooking up with my real friends on other servers, and it was truly awesome to be able to chat with them even if we weren't on the same faction or even realm. Of course, after a while, it became clear that there was just no way to turn it off -- I always knew what my real friends were up to, from running dungeons to putting up auctions on an alt or griefing lowbies on a character previously unknown to me. This also meant it was impossible for me to jump onto a low-level alt on some low-population server for some mucking around without their knowing. Not that my friends were ever going to intrude or anything, but there just wasn't any real personal time with my Real ID status always being broadcast. Yesterday, it got even stranger. Blizzard suddenly announced that the new forums would display everyone's real first and last names if they chose to post on them. For some reason, Mark Zuckerberg's idea of opt-in privacy is becoming the norm. The Facebook founder has said that when people share more, the world becomes more open and connected. It's a maverick notion, and people always have the option to keep mum on things, after all. In many ways, it works for social media. And there's the rub.
iPhone 4 may natively support Facebook video uploads
Maybe this is the kind thing that would make Facebook head Mark Zuckerberg like his iPhone a little more. The folks over at 9to5Mac.com dug into the iOS 4 SDK, and found some XML code that seems to indicate that video uploads to Facebook will be integrated with the new OS on the iPhone 4. Most likely they'll show up as an option for submitting your recorded videos direct from the native iOS video app. While this is a little bit of an brow-raiser, it's not completely surprising. When you consider the reported Facebook integration coming for calendars and contacts, among other things, it's a natural progression It's a bit odd, however, to have this capability native to iOS, when the official Facebook iPhone app already supports video uploads. I'm just wondering when Facebook's remaining iOS developers are going to get around to an iPad native Facebook app; I mean, how hard can it be? [via Engadget]
The Virtual Whirl: Community guide to Virtual Worlds
Welcome to The Virtual Whirl, a new weekly Massively column covering virtual environments generally. The term 'virtual world' is slowly seeing less use, being supplanted by the more general 'virtual environment', but the world term still has a fair bit of life left in it. Virtual environments covers a whole lot of ground. From William Crowther's original efforts in 1976 that based a game in a virtual version of the Mammoth Cave in Kentucky, virtual environments have been a part of gaming, artificial intelligence and behavioral research, modeling, telemetry and process control and more. Nowadays we're seeing Second Life, Blue Mars, There.com, IMVU and others trying to find places in non-game contexts, like content-development and prototyping, publishing and performance, entertainment and social, education and business; efforts that are met with varying amounts of success.
