The 2014 Tax Small Business Owners Need to Know

AT'S THIS?

 

 

Tax season is a stressful time for everyone, but for business owners, the pressure can be especially high. From January to April, it's a whirlwind of sorting receipts and pay stubs, reviewing ledgers and completing IRS forms to ensure that everything is properly prepared and filed. Even though most businesses use an accountant, digging up all the necessary documentation and information needed for tax filing can still be a hassle.

Being unaware of important tax filing changes can add to the stress of this season. Mark Faggiano, CEO of tax automation software company TaxJar, noted several changes from last year that will affect small business owners:

• The tax rate for the top federal wage went from 35% to 39.6%.
• Business owners can claim a home office deduction if they use a certain space regularly and exclusively for business. The standard deduction is $5 for every square foot, up to 300 square feet. People filing for this deduction, will now only have to fill out one line, rather than a 43-line form.
• For small business owners in the highest tax bracket, the tax rate for long-term capital gains dropped from 20% to 15%.
• A new Medicare tax on investment income adds an increase of 3.8%.
• Online sales tax is now in effect is some states, so business owners need to be wary of particular states that they sell to.

Staying organized throughout the year and using tax preparation software can be really helpful come tax season, said Faggiano. Ensuring that all your payroll files are up to date is also important.

"Don't forget to go over your employee base and update your records," he told Business News Daily.

While you shouldn't wait until the last minute to file your taxes, applying for an extension is the best solution if you feel like you're running out of time.

"It's easy to get a tax extension for income taxes, both personal and small business," Faggiano said. "You may be better off extending instead of possibly making errors or missing deductions."

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Google Forced to Post Privacy Warning on Its French Site

French netizens visiting Google France began seeing an unusual message on the search giant's usually bare homepage on Saturday. The message informs users that Google has been fined 150,000 euros (around $200,000) for violating French privacy laws.

France’s Commissions Nationale de l’Informatique et des Libertés (CNIL) imposed the fine, and the obligation to post the notice, in January. The decision (French) ended a probe into Google's privacy policy change, implemented by the company in 2012, when all its services' privacy policies were unified into one. After the change, Google combined user data across its different services like YouTube or Gmail.

The CNIL found that the policy didn't give users enough control over their private information, and didn't do a good enough job of explaining exactly what Google can do with that data.

Google is appealing the fine, and asked a French court on Thursday to suspend the order to post the notice in the meantime, arguing that it would cause "irreparable damage" to its reputation. But the court rejected the last-minute attempt to avoid the public shaming and ordered Google to follow through with the order, as reported by The Wall Street Journal.

As a result, the visitors of Google.fr are seeing the following message.

A screenshot of the Google homepage in France, taken on Feb. 8, 2014.

[Translated] Statement: The sanctions committee of the Commision Nationale de l’Informatique et des Libertés has ordered Google to pay a €150,000 fine for violations of the ‘Data-Processing and Freedoms’ law. Decision available at the following address: http:www.cnil.fr/linstitution/missions/sanctionner/Google/.

To avoid any attempt by Google to skirt the spirit of the order by complying with a small "fine print" message, the CNIL even came up with the text of the notice, as well as the size of the font, the position on the homepage and the colors of the message.

This is the first time a European country has ordered Google to post such a notice, but the company has been under the microscope of European countries for years. In April of last year, six countries, including France, opened separate investigations into the company's privacy policies.

On the bright side, Google recently took an important step toward avoiding a $5 billion fine in a three-year-long antitrust investigation by tentatively settling with the European Commission.

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Apple: 130,000 iOS Apps Are From Chinese Developers

There are 130,000 apps from Chinese developers in Apple's App Store, according to numbers released Monday during the company's Q1 earnings call.

To put that in context, the App Store had more than one million apps in total as of last October.

The number of apps coming out of China will likely continue to rise, as Apple broadens its reach in the country.

Expansion in Asia was a big topic during Monday's call. Overall growth in China is up 20%, and revenue grew 31% during Q1.

Earlier this month, Apple partnered with China Mobile, the country's largest wireless carrier, tobegin selling the iPhone 5S and 5C.

"We've been selling with China Mobile for a week," Apple CEO Tim Cook said during the call. "Last week was the best week we've ever had for activations in China."

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What Google Is Really Doing With All Those Robot Companies

Since December of last year, Google has purchased at least six companies either buildings robots or creating technologies used in the development of robotics.

Former Google Android lead and current Google Robot Guru Andy Rubin's list of acquired companies reads a bit like a baseline robot kit:

Redwood Robotics for robot arms

Holomni for robot wheels

Bot & Dolly for robotics cameras

Boston Dynamics for creepy and cool mobile robots

DeepMind Technologies for artificial intelligence

Meka Robotics for humanoid robots

Industrial Perception for computer vision (which may or may not be for robotics)

While we know Google has interest in self-driving cars, the robot end-game is unclear. Sure, you can build an army of C-3POs, but for what?

Well, robots are excellent at repetitive tasks, like changing the settings on millions of computers so that they have Google.com as their home page and Google as their default search engine. Would these Google Robots invade homes to make the change or would Google offer it as a service? Send us your computer and our robots will "fix" them.

No one knows. Until then, I offer you the comic guesswork above.

AT&T Drops Price of Shared Plans to $130 a Month for 10GB

AT&T may have just started a new price war among wireless carriers by cutting the cost of its shared plans. The plans now start at $130 for two people to share 10GB of data along with unlimited talk and text, with extra lines costing another $15 each.

By comparison, the same two-person plan on Verizon Wireless costs $180, or $50 more. The difference grows as you add more lines, since Verizon charges $40 for each additional smartphone, so a four-line plan with 10GB of shared data costs $260 a month; on AT&T, it would cost $160.

Sprint offers a similar package with its "Framily" plans, although the comparison isn't perfect, since Sprint limits each line to 1GB of data. A four-line shared plan on Sprint, however, would include unlimited talk and text and costs $160 a month.

T-Mobile isn't a perfect comparison, either; the carrier also places data limits on individual lines in a shared plan. The cost of four lines, each with 2.5GB of data (for a total of 10GB), would cost $140 per month. However, users can upgrade to "unlimited" data for individual lines; the cost for unlimited on all four would be $180 a month (although large data use can lead to slower speeds due to throttling). T-Mobile's plans also include low-cost international roaming.

AT&T says the new rates apply to both new and existing customers. In addition, the carrier is giving a $100 credit to customers who add a new line, whether it's a smartphone, tablet, modem, feature phone or home line. That offer lasts through the end of March.

The competition for wireless customers has grown increasingly fierce

The competition for wireless customers has grown increasingly fierce in the past year, particularly since T-Mobile has begun to chip away at the dominance of AT&T and Verizon with new kinds of "contract-free" plans and populist marketing. Verizon is clearly the primary target of AT&T's move — the carrier is even name-checked in the company's press release.

Representatives for Verizon didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

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Report: Apple Working on Wireless, Solar Charging for iWatch

Apple is reportedly working on a battery for its not-yet-announced iWatch that could be charged both wirelessly and from the sun.

According to a New York Times report, the company is looking to build a smarter battery for its long-rumored smartwatch. The report notes that Apple engineers have experimented with — and are still testing — solar charging for the iPod and iPhone, too.

Apple is eyeing a wireless battery with magnetic induction for the iWatch that wouldn't need to be plugged in, the report stated. Induction charging would allow the device to be charged via a base with electromagnetic fields that would create voltage to fuel the iWatch. This technology is already found in some devices, including Nokia's smartphones. However, the report stated the experiment is still a few years away from launch.

Apple is also reportedly considering a charging concept that would include a solar layer added to the iWatch's curved screen that could give the device power from the sun.

Last week, a report surfaced that Apple's upcoming iOS 8 software will be largely fitness and health-focused and will launch later this year. The news suggests the long-rumored iWatch, which would likely integrate with fitness apps, is nearing a debut, too.

High-Tech Business Cards Digitize Contact Info With a Tap

Despite the high-tech tools we use to conduct business, in-person networking still feels instinctive, albeit old school. You won't find startup founders swapping contact info by bumping smartphones. Instead, they solidify their exchanges with business cards — a lo-fi tradition that hasn't changed much since its origins in European aristocracy.

TouchBase Technologies, an MIT startup that made a splash at last year's DreamIt Venturesaccelerator, has proposed a new option that falls somewhere between a traditional business card and the mostly unpopular digital alternatives already on the market.

TouchBase's cards are embedded with conductive ink circuitry, which mimics the electronic signal of a fingerprint. By tapping the card against a smartphone screen, the cardholder's digital profile is transferred to the recipient's mobile device in seconds.

"We realized that business cards really aren't going away," TouchBase CEO Sai To Yeung tellsMashable. "It's a critical part of business etiquette."

Tech ventures that try to replace the business card do so at their own peril. Google's Android Beam allows smartphones to exchange information through near field communication (NFC), but the technology hasn't been widely adopted as a business card alternative, partly becauseiPhones aren't compatible. Google also recently shuttered Bump, a similar mobile-to-mobile sharing app, and QR codes make a business card look cluttered and ugly.

The information stored on a TouchBase card is not limited to what's physically printed on it. When tapped against a smartphone screen in TouchBase's proprietary app, the card redirects to a digital profile with the cardholder's photo and contact information, with links to Twitter, LinkedInand Facebook profiles, as well as photos and videos of creative projects. This is in contrast to other card-scanning technologies, which rely on a photograph of the card to transcribe information (LinkedIn and Evernote both offer such apps).

"This is a way to keep the look and feel of your card, but when you want to share more information, you have that ability," Yeung says.

The TouchBase profile is cloud-based, so you can update your information at any time.

The TouchBase profile is cloud-based, so you can update your information at any time. Users can also track their cards, seeing who has "tapped" their contact information.

There are a few drawbacks to the card's current technology. TouchBase's trial run is limited to the iPhone 5, 5S and 5C, and the app cannot export information to your Contacts list. Because the card stock is not especially flexible, users might need to remove their iPhone cases in order to lay the card flat against the screen. Yeung says that TouchBase plans to print on more flexible card stock in the future, and that native apps for iPhone and Android are in the pipeline.

TouchBase's Indiegogo campaign will be funding until March 15. As of this writing, the startup has raised nearly half of its $30,000 goal.

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Microsoft May Breathe New Life Into Halo's Cortana AI

The hottest rumor for Microsoft Xbox Halo fans has taken on a life of its own: The voice and text-based virtual assistant service -- code-named "Cortana" and planned for release with Windows Phone 8.1 -- actually might be created with the real-life voice behind Cortana, Jen Taylor.

The rumor comes from MSFTnerd, and while there is no evidence to back it up, millions of Halo fans will be -- how should I say this -- totally freakin' stoked to hear Cortana may come to life as a real AI virtual assistant.
In fact, on one Windows Phone feature suggestion forum post, nearly 39,000 users have voted in a sort of ad hoc petition to encourage Microsoft to launch the service with "Cortana" as the official name.
That's just for the name -- not the real voice of Jen Taylor used with the name.

Why Cortana?

If you haven't played the massively popular Halo series of games on Microsoft's Xbox, you won't know Cortana from Siri, HAL or a turnip. However, millions of gamers -- teenagers and adults alike -- have spent hours upon hours following the artificial intelligence of a character known as "Cortana." She is basically a vaguely sexy hologram AI who helps the hero of the Halo series -- Master Chief -- fight off alien invasions and the destruction of pretty much everything we know and love.
Jen Taylor's voice is rich, seductive and nuanced -- and familiar in all ways good. To have it define an experience with Windows Phone similar to Apple's Siri voice assistant, if not in a more Windows-integrated way, would spark a fire of goodwill toward Microsoft.
In fact, there's a decent chance some fans would even leap into a Windows Phone device just because of this new Cortana. (I'm an iPhone-using Apple smartphone diehard, and this rumor made me pause -- and I can't even remember the last time I touched a Halo game. Such is the power of Cortana.)
It's a win win win situation.
If only it is true.

Where Does the Rumor Come From?

Cortana rumors have been floating around since last fall, but up to now, they focused just on the service and code-name -- what it would be, how deeply integrated into the Microsoft mobile, PC, Xbox, and online experience it would become.
This new rumor is spartan at best, posted with a teasing title, "What turns Cortana on."
The answer: "Bing Tell Me."
If this is true, the "Bing" comes from Microsoft looking to brand and elevate the search engine Bing to do something greater than word-based search. The "Tell Me" part is clearly a play on words that could have come from Microsoft's US$800 million acquisition of Tellme Networks in 2007. Tellme was popular voice-enabled mobile search service.
"Cortana will be voiced by Jen Taylor & will launch first in beta on Lumia this April for US developers," MSFTnerd reported, noting that the service will expand to the Bing app for iPhone in the U.S. this fall, and be extended to the Xbox One and to Windows users in 2015.
And that's about it.
Why April? Microsoft's sold out Build Developer Conference is slated for April 2-4 in San Francisco, where Microsoft is expected to show off Windows Phone 8.1.
Jen Taylor has provided other voices, most notably Zoey from Left 4 Dead and Princess Peach from the Mario series of games.

The App Store and Children, or Tim Cook's Latest Crock of Bull

By Chris Maxcer
TechNewsWorld
01/16/14 5:00 AM PT

Tim Cook's memo to employees strikes me as a lame attempt to "leak" Apple's message ahead of the FTC's settlement announcement. What bothers me most is not Apple's lack of leadership in protecting children -- and parents -- from unscrupulous apps. It's Tim Cook's brazen assertion that Apple has outshone its competition in that regard. Amazon, for one, puts Apple to shame when it comes to kids.

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I was pleased last year when Apple finally took a proactive stance and reached out to 28 million App Store customers who might have been bamboozled by shady in-app purchases in games designed to take advantage of children. However, even that action had dubious beginnings stemming from a class action lawsuit that Apple settled this summer.

Most recently, Apple settled a similar issue with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission over App Store in-app purchases, and the FTC released an announcement to that effect on Tuesday. Before the FTC could tout its "win" with Apple over the issue, Apple's CEO Tim Cook sent out an email to all employees alerting them to the agreement that Apple had just made with the FTC to provide US$32.5 million in refunds to affected customers.
So far so good. As most any iOS-loving parent will tell you, the options for locking down your iOS device to ensure that a child won't accidentally shell out real money through in-app purchases have been confusing at best -- if not outright pathetic for a company of Apple's brains and means. Reimbursing customers for unintended purchases -- some parents were billed for hundreds, some thousands of dollars -- just made smart business sense.
However, Apple's memo to employees reads as though it were intended for public consumption -- as if it were carefully crafted so that it could "accidentally" make it into the hands of the tech press prior to the FTC announcement.

PR Puffery

Frankly, it's full of Tim Cook defensively blowing hot air under the pretense of playing the good guy. This isn't what really bothers me -- it's just standard big-company-marketing-blowhard-out-of-touch-with-reality-business-as-usual standard practice. Who cares? Yet Tim Cook pretends to care, and I think he's full of crap.
Re/code "obtained" the official memo, which it republished in full. Here's what I take issue with:

"We have been negotiating with the FTC for several months over disclosures about the in-app purchase feature of the App Store, because younger customers have sometimes been able to make purchases without their parents' consent. I know this announcement will come as a surprise to many of you since Apple has led the industry by making the App Store a safe place for customers of all ages."

First of all, Apple has not led the industry in making the App Store a safe place for children. Sure, Apple curates apps so that a lot of sex- or drug-related apps don't get into its store, but it allows rampant violence instead. Protect? Hardly. All of our kids can easily find some extremely dubious apps in the short time it takes for a parent to cook up some macaroni and cheese. But hey, I think most parents know this, and they attempt to keep track of which apps their children are downloading and using -- if not approve the downloads for them.
Trouble is, a parent could download a free app that looked innocuous and fun, turn over the iPhone, iPod or iPad to junior, and within 15 minutes become obligated for all sorts of extra features or coins or gems through in-app purchases designed to make it easy for small children to tap the wrong buttons.
Apple approved many of these apps when few parents -- had they been the Apple app reviewers -- would have approved them for their own children. (And yes, I have some personal experience with this. In less than two minutes of play, while sitting right next to me, a small child managed to buy two monster trucks to the tune of US$50 to play a so-called "free" game. No way I'd ever allow any game into the App Store that offered overpriced in-app purchases in ways that would be hard for kids to ignore.)
In some ways, this is water under the bridge. Apple has since made it easier for parents to turn off in-app purchases -- as well as making the process just a bit clearer. In addition, the old default ability to buy anything for 15 minutes after entering your Apple ID has been addressed, too.

Cook's Made-for-Public-Consumption Memo Assertions Still Stink

Here's what Cook goes on to write:

"From the very beginning, protecting children has been a top priority for the App Store team and everyone at Apple. The store is thoughtfully curated, and we hold app developers to Apple's own high standards of security, privacy, usefulness and decency, among others. The parental controls in iOS are strong, intuitive and customizable, and we've continued to add ways for parents to protect their children. These controls go far beyond the features of other mobile device and OS makers, most of whom don't even review the apps they sell to children."

The parental controls in iOS are strong, intuitive, and customizable, Cook says, but he is totally out of touch. When I open my iPhone with iOS 7, nowhere on the main settings page do I see anything that vaguely represents "parental controls." That is not intuitive. Tap on iTunes & App Store. There are no parental controls.
To find any sort of control, you have to tap General, then scroll down until you notice Restrictions. Then, eventually, you'll find a way to require a password immediately for purchases. If you set that, your kid won't be able to make in-app purchases without your password. You can also eventually figure out a way to allow only apps that are rated 4+, 9+, 12+ and 17+.
Intuitive? Not for any busy parent I know.
Let me tell you about a company that is actually leading the industry in parental controls and creating a safe mobile environment for children: Amazon. That's right, the tablet upstart with the line of Kindle tablets. Amazon did something that Apple -- after selling tens of millions of iPads and providing billions of app downloads -- failed to do: It created a delightful and safe tablet environment for kids, complete with critical parental controls.
Amazon has a feature called "Kindle FreeTime Unlimited." It's a special app service that lets you hand over a Kindle and let a child explore the device -- and thousands of apps -- without worrying that something bad will turn up.
Without access to your email and calendar, the child won't be able to delete your messages or contacts, or surf into sexy or violent content while you do something parental, like attempt to fill out a mess of paperwork while standing in a QuickCare waiting room with a sick, feverish kid who desperately could use a distraction.
Amazon's hand-picked apps for kids 3-to-8 years old have no ads and no in-app purchases. Speaking of hand-picked, this isn't hard to do -- it especially shouldn't be for a company with as much cash as Apple has gathering electronic dust. Apple easily could create a parental commission to hand-pick titles it could then approve.
They could be called "Parent Approved Apps." They could have their own promoted section in the App Store and become coveted for App Developers. Instead of developers seeking to reward themselves by creating apps that try to trick kids into buying gems to complete a game, they would have an incentive to create an app that was honest and worthwhile.
Yet there are even more parent-friendly features in Kindle FreeTime: You can create multiple profiles for up to four kids -- different ages, different apps. Try that with an iPad. Oh wait, you can't. Access on an iPad is pretty much an all-or-nothing proposition. What about something simple, like screen limits? This is not a new idea. Amazon lets parents limit their child's screen time through handy tools. Parents can set daily limits or even restrict games or video in favor of books.
Apple doesn't have anything like this, and yet Cook talks like Apple is a leader in this space. Apple is not. Apple is woefully behind. Sure, some of the best apps in the world are available for kids on iOS -- but parental management tools? Barely there. Uninspired. Hardly a priority. Damn, I find it sad that Cook seems to think he can persuade us that Apple is leading here.

What's Up With Tizen?

Tizen is designed to be a low-cost, highly configurable OS that will make portable devices available to a wider range of consumers. Its developers hope to create an alternative mobile ecosystem to break the stranglehold of the big phone companies. Tizen's promise is to let carriers maintain a competitive edge by producing devices tailored to a particular user base.

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Consumers might soon have access to cheaper, more talented smartphones that could challenge the market dominance of Android and iOS.

At least that is the promise from the Tizen Association. The growing group of phone makers and application developers recently launched a partner program with 36 companies from all segments of the mobile and connected device ecosystems.
The Tizen Association is planning a widespread release later this year of its open source Tizen operating system. The new OS initially will run mobile phones, but it eventually could expand to power tablets and other portable devices.
Tizen evolved from the Meego framework after phone maker Nokia dropped its use to power Nokia phones. Tizen is still a very young project, noted Abraham Elias, chief technology officer of Sencha, which is working with the Tizen Association on the use of HTML5 and Internet browser capabilities.
"Consumers should see devices with Tizen in production later this year. I expect to see the 2.x branch of Tizen ship on these devices. Work is already being done on the 3.x branch," Elias told LinuxInsider.
"A key benefit with Tizen is that it is highly optimized around HTML5. From our standpoint, that is very encouraging. It runs Linux at its core, so it is very suitable to bringing in a range of technologies," he noted.

Who's Who

Tizen resides within the Linux Foundation, where its development is guided by a Technical Steering Group.
The Tizen Association is led by a consortium of mobile operators chartered with actively developing the ecosystem around Tizen. This development work involves market presence, gathering requirements, and identification and facilitation of service models. It also involves overall industry marketing and education.
The Tizen Technical Steering Group is focused on architecture and implementation, along with the formation of working groups to support device verticals. Many members of the Tizen community are active contributors to the W3C and other Web standards bodies.
The list of association partners includes eBay, Konami, Panasonic, Sharp, TrendMicro,TuneIn Radio, Sharp Electronics, Samsung and Panasonic.

Hedging Bets

The Tizen OS is driven by a grassroots movement within the industry to create an alternative, less expensive mobile market platform. Developers hope the Tizen ecosystem will give both vendors and consumers more flexibility than is offered by existing mobile ecosystems.
Consider the amount of money that Samsung is putting into the Tizen OS, suggested Tuong Huy Nguyen, principal research analyst for Gartner Research. It is a safe bet to say that with all of the tech-savvy people at Samsung, the company would not be supporting the Tizen effort unless it was sure it was going someplace.
"Based on what I have seen and my knowledge of the market, hardware vendors and carriers are looking for an alternative to the Apple and the Android ecosystems," Nguyen told LinuxInsider. "They want to have choices and be able to provide low phone-cost alternatives for themselves as well as their customers."

Field of Dreams

Introducing any new mobile platform takes a huge effort.
The first issue is gaining an established customer base. The second is accessing an extensive library of applications. The third is convincing developers to provide new applications for the platform.
That last issue is perhaps the most critical. It forces app developers to decide if they have the time and money to devote to Tizen over existing platforms, explained Nguyen.
"These issues are fairly significant. They are not insurmountable. It is an uphill battle for anyone who gets involved in it," he said.

Unknown Entity

Things have been quiet on the Tizen front for about a year, noted Ramon Llamas, research director at IDC, with developers drifting mostly toward iPhone and Android.
"Tizen still remains an X factor, and an untested one at that," he told LinuxInsider.
From an end user perspective, Tizen has yet to make headway as it remains unreleased. That is preventing developers from jumping on the bandwagon, Llamas explained.
"Yes, there have been some developers getting in on the ground floor, but that is the exception and not the norm," he noted. "The thing is that Tizen needs developers in order to remain viable in the market."

Turning the Corner

Tizen's vaporware persona could be about to change, however, and its technology advantages could impact mobile device performance.
"Based on what we are seeing with our testing, this is very encouraging for the Tizen OS," said Sencha's Elias. "The promise of Tizen is that it gives first-class citizen status to HTML5. That will be a big advantage to app developers."
The challenge for developers is how to tailor their applications for all the competing mobile platforms. With Tizen built around HTML5, developers can write one application and have it run on any device, he explained.

Possible Marketing Edge

Tizen's design will make it economical and feasible to tailor its features to specific user markets, according to Elias.
For example, a developer who markets mobile phones to the elderly could strip out all the operating system components for running apps that user market would never want or need, he explained.
Tizen will allow carriers and developers to take the core OS and customize it for the specific market the phone model targets.
"This is a differentiator that the other mobile OSes do not provide. We see this as a market positioning that will work to the various segments' advantage. This allows device makers to have flexibility in changing the design of the phone along with the customized internals. They can make the Tizen phone more personalized to the end user," Elias said.
The challenge for individual carriers will be how to differentiate the phones for the users they target.

Tizen for Tablets?

Tizen has been built from the ground up. It is not a phone application being crammed into everything else, observed Elias.
The Tizen OS already is being used to power several consumer products. Jaguar is developing a Tizen-driven dashboard display. Samsung is using Tizen as the OS for one of its digital camera lines.
"Tizen is not just an OS for phones. It is an operating system that can power pretty much anything. When you have that kind of integration everywhere, you can begin to see the world of possibilities with Tizen," Elias said.

Success Factors

The Tizen OS is attracting support from all segments of the connected device ecosystem, said Ryoichi Sugimura, a Tizen Association board member from NTT Docomo, at the Tizen Summit in November.
Tizen's design allows operators and device manufacturers to select features and services making the most sense for the device, the customer's location, and the most popular use cases, he said.
Despite the backing of Samsung, Intel and other large corporations, the Tizen OS will travel a rocky road to adoption. Tizen is not yet being heralded beyond its inner circle of partners.
"We expect to see efforts like this continue from time to time from one developer or another," said Gartner's Nguyen. However, "the forecast and expectation for any meaningful traction in the market is nil."

Huge Growth in Store for In-App Mobile Messaging

Offerings from Facebook perform incredibly well on mobile, said URX CEO John Milinovich. In fact, the majority of in-app advertising expenditure is likely to be spent on Facebook and Twitter, Juniper noted in a recent report. That said, there is hope for small developers building products based on geolocation technologies and other formats. The market is by no means locked up.

In-app mobile advertising is expected to jump significantly between now and 2018, according to new figures from Juniper Research. Ad spend in this category will reach US$16.9 billion by 2018, up from $3.5 billion last year, the consulting group found.

Smartphones currently account for approximately 70 percent of in-app ad spend, Juniper said, but that ratio is expected to change over time as tablet use claims a bigger portion of the mobile ecosystem.
By 2018, the tablet/smartphone adspend split will be almost 50/50, Juniper predicted.
Growth of in-app advertising will be driven by several factors, including improved targeting capabilities and the development of more effective interactive rich media ads, the report found.
There is another reason for the growth, Doug Rozen, senior vice present and general manager of MXM, told CRM Buyer.
In-app ad spending will increase over the next few years for the simple reason that consumers are spending more time accessing content in-app compared to other digital channels.
"More time spent in-app means more opportunity for advertising," Rozen said.

Changing Definition of 'App'

The very definition of an "app" is rapidly changing to include software developed for wearables like smartwatches and Google Glass, as well as cars outfitted with Android and iOS and smart home appliances from retailers like Sony and Samsung.
"This means more useful content for consumers to engage with -- the necessary element of any good ad placement -- and ultimately more opportunity for marketers," Rozen said.

Many Choices

In the near term, though, marketers will be focusing on formats for in-app ads running on smartphones and tablets.
Still, the range of choices and decisions already is wide, said John Milinovich, CEO of URX.
For example, there is a lot of interest in new native ad formats, he said, which boast higher conversion rates and competitive prices, although reach is still relatively small.
"Standard in-app banner ads, on the other hand, are still popular because they have the most reach, costs are relatively low, and conversion rates can be substantial if used correctly," said Milinovich.
There are also the offerings from Facebook to consider. These perform "incredibly well on mobile for both cost-per-install and cost-per-engagement, and remain popular with mobile marketers," he pointed out.

A New Thought Process

Advertisers are approaching in-app advertising in new and more thoughtful ways, Milinovich observed.
"Developing mobile marketing campaigns requires a sensitivity to the form factor that is often missed by brands who've just taken their desktop strategy and applied it to mobile," he explained.
Companies are beginning to understand that mobile apps are incredibly effective points of sale, said Milinovich. They provide a direct way for consumers to make purchases at the point of need.
"Mobile deeplinking creates the opportunity to drive users into the middle of apps to specific points of purchase," he noted, "cutting out several steps from the process."

A Caveat

All of this comes with a caveat, said MXM's Rozen. Five years is a very long time for a rapidly evolving industry.
"Just think, this time five years ago, we had just been introduced to the 3G iPhone, and iPads wouldn't debut until later in the year," he recalled. "We cannot predict a future that has not been fully invented."

http://mashable.com/2014/01/02/zuckerberg-charitable-donation-2013/

Web Applications bluebirdsols mobile app deveelopment company

Web Applications

http://www.bluebirdsols..comOur web technology service focus on three key objectives advanced technology, excellent quality, and robust commitment. We have developed web applications for various businesses to empower them with most efficient (quality and cost wise) solutions to beat competition

Our web technology service focus on three key objectives advanced technology, excellent quality, and robust commitment. We have developed web applications for various businesses to empower them with most efficient (quality and cost wise) solutions to beat competition
We offer a wide spectrum of new and innovative custom-made websites and designing solution using our business domain experience, technical expertise, profound knowledge of latest industry trends and quality-driven delivery model. Our expert developers have experience in providing effective web solutions that cut down cost, increase sales and improve revenue growth.
Bluebird  web design & development strengths:

• Professional website design solutions by our experienced creative design team
• Expertise in flash based widget development
• Website design affordability driven by user-friendliness and easy-to-navigate layouts.
• Innovative website and application development expertise,
  • Service Delivery Platform for E-Commerce Sites including Shopping Cart and Payment Gateway Integration
  • Dispatch Management System
• Document Management System (Web-based System runs on Microsoft Platforms).

Experience in designing effective web presence environments for clients worldwide
Range of Websites Developed:

• Corporate Websites
• Graphical User Interfaces for Software Applications
• Interactive Blogs
• Corporate Identities
• Branding Documents
• Corporate Branding Templates
• Corporate Flash Animations
• Dynamic Websites
• E-Commerce Applications
• Government Information Portals
• Utility Payment Gateways

Business Applications Bluebirdsols mobile app development company

Business Applications

Business  Application Development is intended for designing software for a specific business function/need. Quality planning and design is the key to successful custom development and helps organizations adapt to the rapid technology advancements and evolving business processes.

Business Application Development is intended for designing software for a specific business function/need. Quality planning and design is the key to successful custom development and helps organizations adapt to the rapid technology advancements and evolving business processes.

Mobile app development company bluebirdsols Mobile applications

Mobile Applications

Our specialization includes developing apps across multiple verticals. Our strong technical competency, well-defined methodology and a dedicated team of expert engineers and designers has helped us churn-out out some of the highly intuitive, entertaining and user-friendly apps

The mobile market has matured enormously over the past few years, so much so that it is predicted that the number of people accessing the internet via their mobile device will overtake access via a PC within the next 18 months. The proliferation of mobile devices like Smartphone and tablets is readily apparent in this generation. A mobile application not only enhances communication, but also encourages engagement.

Android Application Development :
Android has already created a sensation in the mobile market and will be the next-gen thing in the mobile-web world. A mobile software platform and OS based on the Linux kernel, Android allows developers to create code that can control mobile devices via Google-enabled Java libraries. A new wave in the crowded mobile market, Android is an important platform to develop mobile applications using the software stack provided in the Google Android SDK.
We approach Google Android Application Development in a proactive, high-calibre manner. Utilizing the complex Google Android SDK platform, our highly qualified Android application developers explore the unlimited possibilities of Android through its comprehensive set of development tools. Our Android SDK coders manipulate Google Android SDK’s APIs, debugging tools, handset emulator and sample code to create effective, risk-free Android-powered devices

iOS development : 
The iPhone is always dominating the smartphone market with its trendsetting software development, ever since its inception in 2007.  It has been upgraded tremendously, from the iPhone device to the SDK and iOS. We are updated with the latest iPhone trends to provide our clients the best app in the industry. We have experience and technical expertise of iPhone application developer who are committed to the purpose of programming various app of your choice.
Our iPhone 4 application developers use distinguished features of the iPhone 4 such as- Multitasking, Face Time, Retina Display, HD Video recording, Gyroscope, Accelerometer and Dual mic suppression to serve the purpose of designing unique apps.
We are expert iPhone application consultants and developers.  We offer our clients a full range of services and can help you from initial concept through to distribution and marketing as well as ongoing enhancement

Blackberry Development : 
BlackBerry is indispensable in the current settings of mobile application development for the entrepreneurial needs. Designed especially to target the business class people and professionals who are required to manage their business even while on the go, this smartphone is full of features and facilities whose usage can extend to an entire enterprise, small or huge. Our industry experience and knowledge in mobile application development allow us to build out-of-the-box, cost effective applications to enhance connectivity and render rich, multimedia user experience.
Our applications are highly scalable, sport rich functionalities and have built-in security features to deliver value to users. Custom-made to meet client’s needs, we create diverse be it for the enterprise, consumer or gaming market, our BlackBerry applications stand out for their creativity and rich usability.
Our skill pool is adept in both the software platforms that are used for BlackBerry app development: J2ME and MDS. We build feature-rich applications with extensive functionalities in the varied areas of BlackBerry application.
We are the BlackBerry app developers that deliver nothing short of the best in BlackBerry mobile application development for business collaboration/productivity or entertainment and utility.

Windows Mobile Development : 
Windows Mobile platform is the compact version of the powerful desktop Windows operating system. Giving developers the scalability and variety of options in developing custom Windows Mobile applications, Windows platform remains as the most preferred platform for both technical and non-technical people. Windows Phone 7 uses a mobile version of Internet Explorer as its browser and it aims to offer a familiar experience for Windows users. Adobe will also be included in the project with a mobile version of Flash. Software updates will be delivered via Microsoft Update.
At Bluebird developers are always ready to update themselves according to the changing nature of technology, which directly provides benefits to our clients in getting the solutions according to the latest trends. As a Windows app developer, we have now advanced from Windows Mobile 6.0 versions and are now technically competent to deliver high-level Windows 8 mobile apps. Our extended support, diverse technical knowledge, and unique delivery process enables us to meet all the business and personal requirements to be achieved through Windows apps development.