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iPhone 3GS vs. iPhone 4 - courtesy of Engadget

If you’re reading this and don’t already own one of the new iPhones, it’s likely that you aren’t all that interested in the gadget-fest that is Apple fandom.  With all the hype and buzz flying around about the iPhone 4 for the past two months, it seems that everyone who would want one probably has one.  After all, AT&T and Apple’s pre-ordering systems for the phone crashed on the first day of taking orders after more than 600,000 people tried to get theirs.

So far, the iPhone 4 is smartly outperforming the sales release of the iPhone 3GS last year, but hasn’t yet  eclipsed the iPad.

One thing is certain: this is by far the best yet from Apple.  First off, it’s design (physically) is entirely new and unique for iPhones.  It’s very sleek, simpler and more elegant.  It’s also noticeably more powerful, using the same A4 chip that’s in the iPad – custom designed for Apple.  Graphics and apps run a little faster – noticeably, so it’s better.

The iPhone 4 also has the expected WiFi adn Bluetooth 2.1  built-in.  The biggest change, though, comes with the new OS 4.  This new operating system offers multi-tasking.  Something that’s been missing on iPhones up to this point and which has been a bone of contention amongst many users.

The two new cameras don’t hurt either, with the simple VGA “web cam” on the front and the great 5 megapixel camera/video on the back.  What most users will notice almost right away, though, is the vast improvement in graphics quality.  This is a combination of a better rendering engine inside the phone and much higher quality glass covering the outside of the phone.  Video, pics, and everything else just look much, much better.

Overall, the iPhone 4 is nothing to run away from.  If you don’t have one and don’t like Apple products, then so be it.  You do have to admit, though, that it’s a very fine piece of work and definitely the best smart phone offering to-date.

Twitter and the FTC came to a settlement this week after a lengthy investigation by the Federal Trade Commission into Twitter’s past lax security practices. The security concerns in question arose from a number of security breaches at Twitter where users’ accounts were gained access to and in some cases abused.

Hack number one occurred in January 2009 which compromised the accounts of a number of high profile users, including those of Barack Obama, Britney Spears and the Huffington Post. This particular hacker gained access to the accounts by using machine code that repeatedly tried random password combinations, eventually gaining access. The hacker then proceeded with sending an unauthorized tweet from Barack Obama’s accounts offering a competition that will earn winners $500 in free gasoline.

In the second case a hacker gained access to the administrative account of a Twitter employee by hacking into the employee’s private email account and reading a message that contained the administrator password in plain view.

The FTC accused Twitter of missing some obvious security holes: for one, Twitter should have had a mechanism barring a user from logging in if too many failed login attempts are made and secondly should have prohibited employees from storing passwords and other company data in private email accounts.

Twitter says that at that point in time it was still a small company and less aware of how popular the service was going to get and that all  security issues that  investigated had subsequently been fixed. Nonetheless the FTC ruled, stipulating that the company is ‘not to mislead consumers about privacy issues’ over the next 20 years,  needs to do an independent analysis of its security measures once a year and that the company will be fined $16,000 for every security breach.

Whereas before the FTC had no way of punishing Twitter in case of a security breach, it now has some teeth in terms of what it can do. Twitter, of course, believes that won’t be necessary.

Coaloo is a brand new internet platform which promises to aggregate your entire digital life in one place. Coaloo, pronounced kuu-ah-loo, is not only offering content management and distribution services but unsurprisingly also offers an element of social networking. The website confronts users with an uber-trendy video presented by German actor Jan Hartmann that runs through some of the basics.

By centralising contacts, videos, news feeds and music Coaloo will help users to do “meaningful and sustainable things” and “help others to live a better life”.

Exactly how Coaloo can achieve that remains unclear but according to double-click data, the site has had over 43,000 unique visitors with about 20,000 signing up for an account since the site went live in May. Digging deeper, we learn that its intentions are not entirely altruistic as the makers aim to monetize the experience via the affiliate and referral route. The long term aim is to allow users to create internet businesses hosted on Coaloo with audiences harvested from its (hopefully) large user base. Coaloo will try to combine the content aggregation, referrals and paid-for affiliate services with .com hosting.

And the whole thing is held together with elements of social networking in one big Amazon / Facebook / Youtube / Flikr mash-up. The makers of Coaloo promise not to sell your data or use an ad-supported business model, relying entirely on subscription fees. But by trying to be all things to all everyone, Coaloo runs the risk of losing its purpose and confusing potential customers. Or, it could turn out to be just what netizens have been crying out for.

All industries are now tapping into ecommerce, and the food services industry is no exception.  In an attempt to keep pace with modern technology, restaurants, fast food and coffee shop chains are adding web ordering, table reservation tools, Facebook pages and iPhone applications to complement their current services.

Web ordering and Smartphone applications have helped offer hard working people a quick and convenient method of ordering products and services. Dunkin Donuts’ iPhone application can be added to a group listing for reciprocal ordering.  Personalised favourite menu options help to make orders even speedier.

Domino’s Pizza also offers a successful pizza sales option with mobile-based order tracking. According to Domino’s Pizza, 30% of total sales originate as web orders and web sales are expected to supersede telephone orders in 3-5 years.  Companies such as Domino’s Pizza are also cashing in on the popularity of social networking sites and are introducing revenue share incentives for people who add Domino’s Pizza’s ads to their Facebook pages.

Pizza Hut, the U.K. and world’s leading pizza delivery chain has also followed suit, estimating an average 25% increase in sales since it launched its online ordering feature in 2007.  Pizza Hut discount codes and Pizza Hut discount vouchers, also available online, make web ordering even easier and purchase more economical. Diners can now also use online table reservation tool functions and also collect web orders from dine-in restaurants.

Online web ordering options makes it simple for people to organise last minute outings and are an easy way for businesses to increase sales by taking advantage of today’s hectic lifestyle, where people are often in need of food on the go.

Toshiba unveiled its dual-touch-screen Libretto W100 notebook yesterday and the clamshell with no physical keyboard was an instant blogosphere hit.

The little computer has two 7-inch touch screen displays (1024×600) and has a 1.2GHz Intel Pentium U5400 processor to back it up.  A keyboard can appear on the bottom screen and the device can be turned in various directions to change how things appear on the screens.  So when reading a book, holding it upright will have page one on the left and page two on the right.

Engadget gave a glowing hands-on review of the device, which will be sold in limited quantities at about $1,000 each as Toshiba tests the market for the idea.

VentureBeat pegs the dimensions at 4.84 x 7.95 x1.2 inches (height, width, thickness) and only 1.8 pounds.  The little LIbretto also has force-feedback, so games and typing can feel realistic and give a return to the user.  Much like many smart phones use very light vibrations to give keyboard feedback on-screen.

A very cool device, the Libretto will hit the market in limited quantities in about a month and if successful, will likely be re-released later this fall for the Christmas market.  The device is capable of responding to multiple finger touches and on more than one screen at a time as well.

Very cool as a fully-functional notebook computer.

Most major news outlets have included some sort of comment service for their website, so that readers can place comments on any articles that are posted. However, moderating the comments posted by every man and his dog can often involve armies of moderators, especially for a site like Huffington Post.

In the case of the Huffington Post, an army of 30 human moderators in combination with software are employed to moderate the nearly 30 million comments the site receives every month. The Huffington Post finds this a major issue to the extent that it had made its first ever acquisition by buying Adaptive Semantics.

Adaptive Semantics is the developer of an application called JuLiA which uses ‘supervised machine learning’ to reduce the workload of human moderators to something more manageable without removing comments which normally add to the debate around a particular news piece. Other companies currently using technology from Adaptive Semantics include CNN, Newsweek and Disqus. By purchasing Adaptive Semantics the Huffington Post will exclude their competitors from using this technology – the news site will honour existing contracts but does not plan on renewing them.

Beyond the moderation of comments, the semantic analysis technology can also move the best comments up the list, and the Huffington Post thinks that there are also further applications for the technology. One idea is to award ‘badges’ to users who regularly comment on certain topics, e.g. Afghanistan, so that other users can identify and follow the opinions of ‘experts’.

However, semantic analysis is not the only way towards successful moderating. Websites such as Slashdot and engadget use creative user moderation techniques in an attempt to achieve the same goal. For the users at least, the effort pays off as quality debate is encouraged while abusive comments are kept off the radar.