Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Technology Stocks : Apple Tankwatch -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: rnsmth who wrote (6453)	7/9/2011 9:05:58 PM
From: sylvester80	Respond to of 32692

A Must-See How-to Guide to Google+ -- Created By Users By Daniel Ionescu, PCWorld Jul 9, 2011 10:30 AM pcworld.com The Google+ social network has sparked users to create a how-to guide to the invite-only service. It's a must-see. Titled Google+ Tips and Tricks , the open document is more than a simple list of suggestions on how to make the most out of Google+. So whether you started using Google+ from the beginning, or you just joined this weekend (when invitations have reopened), you will want to check out this guide. Once you've caught up with the terminology on Google+, including, Circles, Sparks, Hangouts, and Huddle, the crowd-sourced guide has an exhaustive list of advanced tips and tricks, including how to search inside Google+ (posts and profiles, via Google's Chrome browser), or how to update your Facebook status via Google+. The guide also includes several Chrome extensions to add further functionality to Google+, such as themes, desktop notifications, and sounds. This collaborative Google+ document is also a prime example of how Google's social network is a boon for other services from the company, making Google stronger. MySpace cofounder Tom Anderson, who is ranked as the 14th most popular Google+ user, has been sharing on Google's service on several occasions his thoughts on the gelling power of Google+. In a recent post, he said that "Google+ really seems to be primed to make good on that original premise -- that everything gets better when it's social." "And unlike Facebook, Twitter, or anyone else, Google already has the most advanced set of products," he wrote. Anderson says Google+ is making him use Google products that he formally only had a slight interest in. "In the past week, I've started to toy with Blogger & Picasa. Why switch to Gmail, I used to think? Yahoo will do just fine. I've been using Gmail more and more," Anderson explains. Google+ is still a young product, in a relatively limited field trial. At this stage, most of the members of the network are Google employees, journalists or early adopters in general, who are prone to make the most out of the capabilities offered by Google+. The real test for Google+ will be when the service is publicly available, which will show whether Google+ has the power to drive more use to Google's services and convince people to quit Facebook at the same time.

To: rnsmth who wrote (6453)	7/9/2011 9:18:00 PM
From: sylvester80	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 32692

Google’s +1 button more popular than Tweet button Mike DunnJuly 8, 2011Social Media digitaltrends.com After only being available for just over a month, Google's +1 button has already become more popular than Twitter's Tweet button. Are you using Google+ yet? With how hard it is to get an invite, we are sure the majority of you are not, which makes this news even more interesting. BrightEdge, a SEO platform, released information today that breaks down just how many websites are using all the fancy new social networking widgets. For instance, all of Digital Trends’ articles have a handy “Tweet”, “Like”, and “+1” buttons to help you share the articles you love the most with your friends and followers, but how many other websites offer the same convenience? Twitter’s Tweet and instant follow widgets are only used on around three percent of the top 10,000 websites. In comparison, Google’s new +1 button, which was launched on June 1, is already on four and a half percent of the top sites. Google+,which hasn’t even been available for two weeks, seems to be taking the Web by storm. To help put just how quickly the +1 button took off, in the first month that +1 buttons have been available, they have shown up on over 100,000 websites. In the first week of Facebook’s Like button, it was on 50,000 websites. The report also outlines some other very interesting information. Most shocking for us, only 49 percent of the top 10,000 websites have either Facebook or Twitter integration on their homepages. Not to point out the obvious, but that means that over half of the web’s top sites still aren’t taking full advantage of social marketing. It already seems as though everywhere you look you see something linking back to Facebook, Twitter, and now Google+, and they still have plenty of room for growth, it seems.

To: rnsmth who wrote (6453)	7/9/2011 9:34:03 PM
From: sylvester80	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 32692

After losing to Amazon, Apple loses playlist patent suit, must pay $8M July 9, 2011 11:15 AM PDT by Michelle Meyers news.cnet.com A federal jury in Eastern Texas, the same district where Lodsys has filed all of its patent suits, has ruled against Apple in a case accusing the iPod maker of infringing on patents for downloadable playlists. Bloomberg first reported Friday on the verdict requiring Apple to award $8 million in damages to the patent holder, Personal Audio, a nonpracticing entity--meaning it licenses patents but doesn't actually have any other business. The jury found Apple liable for infringing on the patents and upheld their validity, Bloomberg reported, citing Personal Audio's lawyer, Ron Schutz. Personal Audio, a patent licensing company with an office Beaumont, Texas, filed the case in 2009 seeking $84 million in damages. The U.S. patents in question are No. 6,199,076, "Audio program player including a dynamic program selection controller" and No. 7,509,178, "Audio program distribution and playback system," according to intellectual-property tracking blog FOSS Patents. Other defendants initially included in the case were Sirius XM Radio, Coby Electronics, and Archos, but they all settled in May and July of 2010. FOSS Patents' Florian Mueller shed further light on the ruling by noting that at a mere $8 million in damages, Apple "only has a limited incentive to appeal the decision." But the company could appeal in hopes of negotiating a discounted settlement. Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment about a potential appeal. Mueller likened the case to one targeting iOS developers filed by Lodsys, also a nonpracticing entity that chooses to work with a court known to be more sympathetic to those in its business. In May, Lodsys sent letters to Apple iOS and Android developers notifying them that their mobile apps were infringing on four patents. Lodsys sought a percentage of each application developer's revenue, even threatening to go back to collect income that had already been earned. Apple responded that its licensing agreement with Lodsys covers its developers, a claim that Lodsys has rejected. Of course, for Apple, the patent war goes both ways. Of recent note, Apple is seeking to keep four of Samsung's newest mobile devices from being made or sold within the U.S, in a patent battle between the two tech giants. And Apple has entered into a consortium of companies buying 6,000 patents and patent applications from the bankrupt Canadian telecom equipment maker Nortel.