While there have been lower-tier Android tablets available on the cheap for some time, Walmart's decision to promote Hisense's Sero 7 version for $99 starting this weekend marks an important next step in the tablet pricing wars.

You might see other 7-inch Android slates at drugstores and the like for similar prices or lower, but they aren't given the Walmart seal of approval through website banners like the one above from Walmart.com. The $99 Sero 7 isn't going to be confused with a high-end model, as it includes specs like a 1.6GHz dual-core processor from an unnamed manufacturer, standard 1,024x600 resolution, Android Jelly Bean 4.1, and a mere 4GB of storage (though it does include a microSD card slot for additional capacity). Then again, it is breaking the $100 price barrier.

If you are looking for a better-equipped model for less, the Sero 7 Pro still will only set you back $149, but you get a quad-core Tegra 3 chip, double the storage, the newer Android Jelly Bean 4.2, and a higher-res screen (1,280x800). That compares well with the Google Nexus 7 if you don't want 16GB of storage for $50 more.

Of course, there may be reluctance on the part of some buyers to purchase a tablet from a vendor like Hisense that's not well-known in the United States. Others may find the deal too good to pass up, however. Enough of such buyers may put more pressure on other Android tablet makers to drop their prices. Could $99 could be the next price point new budget tablets will be sold around?

Are you one of those who thinks the new Sero 7 tablets are a good deal? Are you planning to buy one? Let us know in the Talkback section below. 

[More: Walmart.com]

Android Central - The App!

Platform: Android

Price: Free

One of my favorite mobile websites is Android Central and for quite some time they had an application for their forums, but nothing to access their website. Last week, I wrote about the excellent CB10 app for their sister Mobile Nations website so I was quite excited to see the launch of an app for Android Central.

(Image: Android Central)

Android Central - The App!

Platform: Android

Price: Free

The Android Central app gives you quick access to news, reviews, editorials, forums, podcasts, and even wallpapers to use on your device. You can access the app from a widget or lock screen as well. They have plans to integrate notifications, a dark theme, and more in future updates.

(Image: Tetris Blitz)

Tetris Blitz

Platform: Android

Price: Free

I enjoy short form games and have always liked playing Tetris. The new Tetris Blitz game from Electronic Arts is a perfect smartphone game with a 2-minute timer for each game session. There are power-ups to add some dynamic actions to your game, Facebook integration to see how friends stack up with your scores, and more.

(Image: Tetris Blitz)

Tetris Blitz

Platform: Android

Price: Free

It is interesting how the game shows you all the possible places to put your puzzle piece and a single tap quickly drops it in that location. Don't be too quick to tap the first spot you see though, it still requires a stacking strategy to gain some serious points.

(Image: Evernote)

Evernote

Platform: iOS

Price: Free

I have been a premium subscriber to Evernote for years and wrote about the major update adding reminders so thought it was worthy to highlight in my weekly app roundup.

(Image: Evernote)

Evernote

Platform: iOS

Price: Free

Evernote is a cross platform note taking service that lets you capture text, photos, and voice recordings to use as notes. You can also include files and share your notes. It is extremely powerful and free. Premium services are priced at $5/month or $45/year.

(Image: Fast and Furious 6)

Fast and Furious 6: The Game

Platform: iOS

Price: Free

The summer movie season has started and one of the most exciting movies that premiered this week is Fast and Furious 6. Kabam released a game for iOS that lets you join the crew and compete in various car racing missions, including drag racing, drifting, and more.

(Image: Fast and Furious 6)

Fast and Furious 6: The Game

Platform: iOS

Price: Free

The graphics are excellent, the sounds are good, and tutorials are provided to help you understand the gameplay. I liked racing around in muscle cars and found the game enjoyable.

(Image: Itsdagram)

Itsdagram

Platform: Windows Phone 8

Price: Free, $1.49 for full version

Instagram is not one of my personal do or die apps, but for many people it is very important and is an app that limits their use of Windows Phone. While we don't yet have an official app, Itsdagram does a fine job and supports the Metro UI.

(Image: Itsdagram)

Itsdagram

Platform: Windows Phone 8

Price: Free, $1.49 for full version

The folks at WPCentral have a post on Instagram alternatives and they like this one and Instagraph best.

(Image: Man of Steel)

Man of Steel

Platform: WP8

Price: Free

Another movie-related app can be found on Nokia Lumia devices. Man of Steel is an app promoting the upcoming Superman movie. By playing various small games and challenges you unlock access to wallpapers, ringtones, DC Comics digital comic books, and more.

(Image: Man of Steel)

Man of Steel

Platform: WP8

Price: Free

The games are fun and I even enjoyed the digital comic books that were offered. I like the way the games use Superman's powers to complete the challenges.

(Image: Vivino Wine Scanner)

Vivino Wine Scanner

Platform: BlackBerry 10

Price: Free

My wife and I enjoy visiting wineries in Washington and California, but I am still a fairly new wine consumer so like to gather as much information as I can. The Vivino Wine Scanner app lets you easily capture an image of the wine label and see more information on the wine while also working through social networks.

(Image: Vivino Wine Scanner)

Vivino Wine Scanner

Platform: BlackBerry 10

Price: Free

I have seen this app on other platforms and this particular app is an Android port on BB10. There is also a Pro version of the app that supports features such as text-based searching, home cellar wine management, and more.

(Image: Endomondo)

Endomondo

Platform: BlackBerry 10

Price: Free

Endomondo has been around on other mobile platforms and is an excellent service for tracking your running, cycling, walking, and other activity with over 15 million users. Your duration, distance, pace and more is tracked. You can also race against other times and hear your audio coach prompt you during your activity.

(Image: Endomondo)

Endomondo

Platform: BlackBerry 10

Price: Free

There is a folded back page animation in the lower right that reveals a map view when you tap it. The app continues to run and track your workout when the display goes off and is one of the best fitness apps available.

I recently visited the just-opened Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw, a stunning $200m project, largely financed by the Warsaw regional and national governments, but with very strong support from the Bay Area's most impressive philanthropist: Tad Taube.

The museum from the back: still under construction but partially opened in April for the 71st Anniversary of the Uprising of the Warsaw Ghetto.

I first met Mr Taube in 2009 during a ceremony at city hall celebrating the twinning of the cities of San Francisco, and Krakow, in Poland. I was extremely impressed with the work he and his foundations are doing in Poland, a series of extremely ambitious projects trying to bring back to life the 1,000 year old culture of Polish-Jews, destroyed by a five-year industrial-scale system of German premeditated murder.

From death to life: A monument to the heroes of the uprising of the Warsaw ghetto in 1943 - just outside of the new museum, which is a monument to the life of Polish-Jews.

Poland's Jewish population of 3.3 million Jews, 10% of the entire population, was almost completely wiped out with only 300,000 surviving. Add another 3 million Polish citizens of other religious and secular backgrounds to the death toll, and the horrors of the Polish experience in the Second World War are pushed beyond anything we can imagine today -- even with Hollywood's best efforts.

The museum is an attempt to resurrect, rediscover, and reconnect with Poland's rich Jewish history and the truly extraordinary contribution of its populations to global culture.

The goal of the museum is very clear: To understand Polish culture you have to understand Polish-Jewish culture -- a 1,000 year history that started at the same time as the Christian origins of the Polish nation itself, in 960 CE.

Similarities are stronger than differences...

I grew up in a Polish household in London, UK, and when I was younger, I was often puzzled and pleased to find Jewish culture so similar. The food, attitudes, words, music, and the shared nature of our mothers. A Jewish mother is a Polish mother and vice versa.

The familiarity I experienced was because the cultures have the same roots.

As many as 80% of US Jews have their ancestry in Poland and its former lands to the east. For centuries Poland was a thriving center of Jewish culture, mysticism, the arts, and more. Poland has a long history of tolerance, giving shelter to oppressed groups such as early Protestants, driven out of Germany by endless religious wars.

Above, part of the museum building is covered in letters that spell the word "Polin"

" The letters signify the word "Polin" () -- the Hebrew word for Poland -- interpreted as "Po-lin": po ("here") lin ("[you should] dwell"). In the dramatic reach of the building's exterior, the medium is the message. The message of "Polin," reported to have come to Poland's first Jewish settlers from a divine voice, was interpreted as "a haven for Jews." Now, in this very place, a thousand years of Jewish history will shine in the light of the building's faade..."

The Museum of the History of Polish Jews | Taube Philanthropies

A tale of two town squares...

Polish-Jews in much of Poland led segregated and insular lives largely because of adherence to traditional values. In the brilliant book "Konin," British author Theo Richmond reconstructs pre-war life in his parents' town of Konin in west Poland. As he searches for his Polish-Jewish roots, his meticulous research brings back to life a vibrant community, rich in characters and pathos. He describes a town with two town squares, separate shops and separate schools. Daughters would be sent to the local public Grammar schools and knew secular Polish culture very well, but the boys would be segregated in Jewish religious schools from early age. It describes how the two peoples, sharing the same space but also living apart, might misunderstand each other, not understand the same things at times, and be prone to wild speculation about each other because they don't know enough about each other..

Telling stories about each other...to each other

I've always believed that the role of journalists is to help tell the stories of people and their communities to each other, so that we won't seem so strange from each other. And today we have enormously powerful media technologies that help us see others, and see other communities, with great insight and humanity.

The best example of this is the incredible job that the British media have done in showcasing the many diverse communities that make up the United Kingdom. Success is measured in how little strife there is between very different peoples. It makes for an outstanding cosmopolitan culture that cannot be matched anywhere.

It's good to see Polish-Jewish culture coming out of its dark cave, where its ghostly martyrs have been telling its story, a vastly incomplete one, the prequels are far more interesting.

Warsaw's newest museum is a jewel and it's the start of Poland trying to reconstruct its cultural genetic code and rediscover its own stories – representing tens of millions of lives engaged across a thousand years of industry and the arts. It's a fabulous story but most of us have only known its killer ending.

It's truly inspiring to see the start of this process of rediscovery, and by that very process – to deny the remaining victory of the Nazis – the eradication of a millennium of Polish-Jewish culture.

- - -

Please return for a profile of Tad Taube - Silicon Valley's top philanthropist with more than $550m in funds managed through his Taube foundations and the Koret Foundation. He escaped from Poland in 1939 just two months before war broke out, aged eight. He has made several fortunes in the chip equipment industry and in real estate. He has worked long and hard to make this museum a reality. His achievements rank way beyond those of any other Bay Area philanthropist, both in amounts of money and the metric of making a real difference over a multi-decade time-span. No one comes close to Thaddeus Taube.

- - -

Culture Watch: A reminder to startups that all businesses are cultural artifacts that need to know and understand the cultures they exist in -- or they might not exist for long.

As the niche, developing wearable computing market continues to spin, it will still be some time yet until consumers will embrace this new branch of technology. 

When Google Glass was announced in 2012, it was shown off in all kinds of leisure activities — from photo taking to video filming — and a range of personal activities that would bridge the gap between handheld devices and the real world. There was even the occasional skydive, suggesting anyone with Glass can go anywhere and do anything.

But Glass was not pitched to the enterprise or corporate world, and has yet to find its niche within the walls of business. And it likely won't — at least for the near future.

Read this

Exploring Google Glass: A fitting appointment, step-by-step (gallery)

Google is pulling out all the stops for welcoming more than 2,000 eager beavers into the Glass Explorer Program. Here's a close-up look at the fitting process.

• Read more

Google Glass is far from a refined product and has a way to go before it will have any meaningful impact in the consumer space. But while Google continues its public, paid-for and lengthy beta-testing process, it only has the consumer in mind.

It's an experiment that, like other services it has built on over time, could eventually be developed further to include business-minded types. But even then it would have to be, particularly at this early stage in development, a bring-your-own-device (BYOD) requirement rather than an IT budget spending all-out endeavor.

Yes, you can search things on the go. With developer support you could argue that it could boost e-commerce on the shop floor. Maybe it could act as a second or even third display for number crunching. All of these suggestions banded around ZDNet's New York bureau this afternoon seem rather weak, do they not?

There's no doubt that Google Glass could be big business for the search giant, but in turn how it reflects on other business remains at best minimal, and unlikely to dent any significant usage in the enterprise.

By creating apparently more problems than Glass actually solves, the primitive device has seen a significant amount of controversy and concern surrounding whether Glass could breach privacy, record people, invade people's personal space, and all the encompassing features that defines a "glasshole."

Developers: App makers hold the key to Glass' success. Its current bare-bones approach to search and access to its own product range circle isn't enough to bring in the business crowd — even if you're a Google Apps company. Until there's a hearty ecosystem that developers can plug into, there's little point in even taking on the platform. The ecosystem can only thrive with users. It's a one-way street, which becomes a symbiotic relationship.

There is a case that if enterprises fling open the doors to Glass and develop their own internal apps for the device, there's a case in point. But again, there are very few reasons why at this early stage in development 

Android: Glass supports Android, also iPhones. Android is creeping into cubicles across the land, but it's still void of any measurable enterprise-grade security. Some Android phones have been certified with FIPS 140-2 government-grade security thanks to the mobile manufacturers themselves — such as HTC — but that's no thanks to Google. Glass will have to reconsider its position on taking security less than seriously if it wants to make any meaningful impact in business, thanks to the Android factor.

(There is an argument that iPhones and iPads were not pitched to the enterprise either, but the business customer chose Apple after it began to bolster its security and functionality.)

Privacy: Government is a crucial enterprise player, at least in terms of security above other major business sectors, even finance. With varying levels of security clearance in the same office — some with higher access than others — the last thing you're going to want is documents floating around on camera that may or may not be currently filming away. Unless Google tackles this very basic privacy problem, Glass will remain a problem child in the workplace.

The 'stand out' (or lack of): Normally with any enterprise-based product, feature, or service, there's a pitch. Google isn't marketing Glass as an enterprise product, nor should it. There's very little in terms of value that the next-generation specs can actually offer ordinary workers. It doesn't boost productivity. It's a gimmick. Consumers love gimmicks because it's something they can choose to use a product or feature when they like.

For the enterprise, it's a core part of the workflow. Glass doesn't have one single feature or productivity factor that stands out and screams, "use me." If there were, we'd be harping on about it. For now, or at least until Google Glass 2.0 begins to embrace the worker population, there's little to offer in terms of 'stand out' quality.

Cost: Considering all of the above, the cost of the device alone is an enterprise turn-off, but also the very fact that the weak reasons that could be thrown in Glass' direction to justify even a small rollout across a corporate base. There may be some industries that may benefit from Glass, but if those benefits are limited to having something within your immediate eyesight rather than fetching your smartphone from out of your pocket, frankly you need to get less picky, more productive employees.

You don't need a million reasons to justify Glass. You just need one, and there don't appear to be any.

Related:

• Gallery: Exploring Google Glass: A fitting appointment, step-by-step
• Exploring Google Glass: A non-nerd's guide (and wish list)
• I/O 2013: Google Glass designers predict possibilities for wearable tech market
• Jason Perlow: Google Glass: Obnoxious and invasive at any price
• Charlie Osborne: Congress demands answers from Google over Glass privacy concerns

Yahoo has made an offer to acquire popular streaming video website Hulu, according to a new AllThingsD report.

The news comes days after the company announced that it would acquire microblogging network Tumblr for $1.1 billion.

The tech (media?) giant is hardly alone in the race; DirecTV, Time Warner Cable, William Morris Endeavor, KKR, Guggenheim Digital and The Chernin Group all seek a piece or all of the pie, Peter Kafka reports. Today, the site is jointly owned by News Corp., Disney and Comcast.

Readers should know that CBS Corp., parent company of ZDNet, has relationships and/or competes with a number of these companies. But that fact is precisely what makes this so interesting: while Hulu isn't a company we would typically cover on these business technology-oriented pages, the potential deal is interesting because it represents Yahoo's increasing move away from by-the-books technology and toward media.

In recent years, both Yahoo and AOL have spent considerable sums of money and time refashioning themselves into businesses that have reputations built on Web 1.0 technology but revenues built on advertising dollars. As with Tumblr, Yahoo's interest in Hulu demonstrates the company's eagerness to own the channels and sell against them.

Which prompts a simple question: What is a "technology company" these days, anyway?

The pair announced on May 24 that they are going to build together a version of a native YouTube application for Windows Phone 8 that will meet Google's terms of service. The new app will be available in the Windows Phone Store in the "coming weeks," according to a Google spokesperson.

A quick play-by-play recap for those new to the latest Google-Microsoft feud: On May 8, Microsoft fielded a YouTube application that it built itself for Windows Phone 8. The problem: The app violated Google's terms of service by not serving ads and allowing video downloads. Google sent Microsoft a cease-and desist; Microsoft just yesterday updated its app, ceasing video downloads but still not serving ads.

Neither company would say yesterday what their respective next moves would be in the matter.

On May 24, I received this joint statement from Google and Microsoft:

"Microsoft and YouTube are working together to update the new YouTube for Windows Phone app to enable compliance with YouTube’s API terms of service, including enabling ads, in the coming weeks. Microsoft will replace the existing YouTube app in Windows Phone Store with the previous version during this time."

In the interim period, while the two companies develop the new app, Microsoft is going to replace the Microsoft-developed YouTube app that it released on May 8 (and updated yesterday) with the older, not-so-functional-or-pretty HTML version of the YouTube app for Windows Phone.

Microsoft has been complaining that Google has been withholding access to application programming interfaces (APIs) it needed to create a fully-functional YouTube app for Windows Phone. This is Google's public API for mobile app vendors wanting to build YouTube mobile applications. I've asked Google and Microsoft whether this is the same API the pair will use to jointly develop the new app. No word back so far.

Google, for its part, has made it clear that it intended to be the one developing any native YouTube apps for mobile platforms. (Users of mobile platforms Google didn't support were supposed to use Google's mobile YouTube site. Google also made it clear it planned not to release many applications for Windows Phone 8 or Windows 8, citing low market acceptance for the platforms as the cause.

I'm not sure what happened behind closed doors (and would love to know), but as a Windows Phone user, it's nice I'll have the choice of using a native YouTube app or YouTube's mobile site in the coming weeks. 

What's your take, readers? Who blinked? Any guesses why?

Update: For those asking whether today's agreement means Microsoft and Google will also jointly develop a YouTube app for Windows 8/Windows RT, a Google spokesperson told me there was nothing to share on that front today.

This latest edition consists primarily of bug-fixes. Microsoft/Skype software engineer, Marco Cimmino, wrote: "Not only did we conquer the navigation issues and bugs from previous releases, but we increased the stability when logging in from a Microsoft Account. There are also greater efficiencies, such as not having to re-type your password when entering via 'My Account' if you are already logged-in with the client. Voice messaging is optimized for ease of use and is now just one click away from the options window."

Installing Skype on Linux is very straight-forward. Microsoft provides detailed instructions for most popular Linux distributions including, CentOS, Debian, Fedora, openSUSE, and Ubuntu. Many Linux distributions are also now including Skype in their software stores.

For example, I installed my copy and the 4.2 update, via Linux Mint 15's Software Manager. That said, 64-bit Debian, Ubuntu, and related distributions may need to install the libasound2-plugins:i386 package for audio support. In my case, I didn't need to install this.

Skype video-support, however, can be tricky. If you're finding you have trouble getting your Webcam to work with Skype, see this Linux Mint community posting, How to make Webcam compatible with Skype.

This version of Skype also doesn't have all the features of its Windows big brother. For example, Skype for Windows 8 now supports off-line video messaging. The Linux version has Skype's main functionality. It just doesn't have its bells and whistles.

Skype 4.2 itself—voice, video, and IM—is working well for me. While I'm much more of a Google Hangout user, especially since Google is integrating all its VoIP, video-conferencing, and instant-messaging features into Google Hangouts, That said, Skype has hundreds of millions of users. So, while Skype may not be your first choice for VoIP, it's handy to have it  ready and on call for when  friends or relatives want to ring you up with it.

Related Stories:

• Microsoft supports Linux desktop
• Alert: Skype account hijack technique may affect all users
• Skype for Windows 8 updated to include video messaging preview
• Outlook.com now offers Skype video calling directly from the inbox
• Is Microsoft reading your Skype instant messages?

The BBC, Britain's public broadcasting service, has reportedly suspended chief technology officer John Linwood after declaring its five-year, 100 million project to convert the organization's extensive video archives a failure.

The project, dubbed the Digital Media Initiative, intended to create a working production system that also gave its users easy access to volumes of archival footage. But the project was nothing but trouble, according to a report in The Guardian, blocking editors' access to footage for inclusion in high-profile breaking news reports and causing them to literally carry, via public transit and hired taxi, tapes from the company's physical archive in northwest London.

Tara Conlan and Charles Arthur report:

In an email to all BBC staff on Friday, director-general Tony Hall said he was halting DMI and admitted: "We have a responsibility to spend licence-fee payers' money as if it was our own and I'm sorry to say we did not do that here."

One insider called the DMI project "the axis of awful", while another source said: "The scale of the project was too big and it got out of hand."

Linwood, a Yahoo and Microsoft veteran, was responsible for the project. He has temporarily been replaced by BBC News head of technology Peter Coles.

Damningly, one BBC Trust member wrote to a member of parliament that the publicly-funded organization was "throwing good money after bad." The 98.4 million project was projected to save 95.4 million by halving the amount of video-handling needed to call up such footage, and was apparently 21 months behind schedule after only 24 months of development.

One member of Y Combinator's Hacker News community had tough words for the project.

"It serves as both a cautionary tale on outsourcing and a good example of when to recognise a sunk cost," jumblesale7 wrote. "The technology surrounding what they were trying to achieve has changed massively in that time frame but doesn't excuse them from delivering nothing of value."

The rumors and speculation makes it sound like a Google Edition HTC One is a sure thing, but I have to agree with ZDNet colleague Ben Woods when he writes it is a Sense-less plan and don't think people really understand what they will be missing. Let's take a deeper look at what you won't likely get on an HTC One without Sense 5.

Looking at the HTC One and features we find related directly to Sense, here is what you may lose with a Google Edition HTC One:

• Video Highlights: I am still impressed by the way my HTC One creates dynamic 30-second video highlights from images, video, and Zoes that I capture. My family and friends enjoy these videos and this feature is one of the main reasons I keep using the HTC One.
• Zoe: A Zoe is a 3-second video with 20 still images also captured that lets you capture more of the moment than just a single still image. They work well in Video Highlights and are fun to share with people.
• BlinkFeed: I honestly thought I would go to the standard Android home screen and bypass using BlinkFeed on my own HTC One. However, I find it extremely useful and my experiences validate HTC's studies that showed people do like to snack on bits of information.
• BoomSound: I have yet to find a smartphone with such great integrated speakers and if you are a heavy sleeper you will always wake to a BoomSound alarm. Thankfully, HTC gives you separate controls for the volume levels on ringtones & notifications, alarms, and music.
• HTC Car: I received a free HTC One Car Kit with my One purchased on T-Mobile and it works with the HTC Car utility that is provided as part of the HTC experience.
• Mail and Notes: As an Exchange user, I always preferred HTC Sense devices for a better email experience and the HTC One with Sense provides this compared to the limited vanilla Google client. Notes integrates with Evernote and lets you record audio in sync with text notes.
• Sense TV and IR remote: HTC includes their Sense TV utility that works with the top IR port to control devices and provide you with the ability to see your favorites and upcoming shows right in your BlinkFeed.
• Phone dialer: I previously wrote about some features on the HTC Onethat remind me of Windows Phone and the phone dialer is one that goes beyond what Google provides in Android. You can easily contact your favorite people, view recent communications, view their recent photo galleris, and view their latest status updates for a pretty amazing people-centric experience.
• Sense Voice: There are advanced dual microphones in the HTC One that work to manage in-call voice and I can confirm that my voice calls over th past month have been excellent.

Now, with the loss of most, if not all, of those features what makes the device compelling? The hardware is fantastic and every review I have read has stated that, but is the hardware alone sufficient to justify the device? For some, yes, but I still argue that the One is a much better device loaded with Sense. I would personally like to see HTC focused on an HTC One Sense update that includes more Highlight Video themes, Zoe storage management update, and other fixes related to the One we already purchased.

I have had many pure Google Nexus devices and in the past I preferred that experience for the speed, updates, and interface. Over the last year though, I have been very satisfied with stock devices and haven't hacked my Galaxy Note II or HTC One. Google vastly improved the operating system with Ice Cream Sandwich and Jelly Bean and folks like Samsung, LG, and HTC have added value to Android devices.

You can always buy a Nexus or even hack up your device to get an Android experience. Samsung will be rolling out a TouchWiz-free S4, again losing many of the software enhancements that set that device apart, and I have to imagine only the serious die-hard Android user is going to pay the full $650 price for one. Ben points out that the likely market for a full price HTC One that loses most of the cool features will be small and I completely agree.

Related ZDNet HTC One articles

• The HTC One Google Edition? A Sense-less plan, if you ask me
• T-Mobile HTC One: World's best smartphone on US best value major carrier
• HTC One review
• Improve smartphone photos with native editing tools (gallery)
• Mophie Juice Pack for HTC One provides protection and 2,500mAh: Gallery
• HTC One Car Kit brings its sleek design and functionality to the road: Review

In operation since 2000, Porto Digital is based in the capital of the state of Pernambuco (2672 km northeast of So Paulo) and is home to 150 IT firms that generated about R$ 1bi ($488 mi) in 2012. Companies based at the cluster work on technology areas ranging from urban mobility to neural networks and artificial intelligence for finance and banking, as well as security and outsourcing.

Provided by the Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES), the new funding is a major boost to the expansion plan of Porto Digital into a center of excellence for the so-called creative industries, which include games, audiovisual, music and design ventures.

Porto Mdia, the new facility, will be based at an old convent currently in ruins, which will be totally revamped with the new cash injection and will include labs, offices and incubators. The building renovation will take two years, but operation will commence at a temporary facility in July this year.

The new center will become "one of the most important platforms for the fostering of creative industries in Brazil," Porto Digital's director Francisco Saboya told Brazilian news agency Agncia Estado.

Porto Digital's strategy unites the creation of a high-tech economy for the state of Pernambuco with the redevelopment of the old center of Recife - the project is directly responsible for giving a new lease of life to about 50,000 square meters of historic buildings. The body running the tech cluster -  a joint effort of the private sector, government and academia - is also working on building skills for the tech industry and driving digital inclusion, with initiatives focused on local high school children.

The expansion of the Recife tech park is important because it further recognizes the need for large tech clusters outside the southeast region of the country - the city of So Paulo and the region of Campinas, also in the state of So Paulo, as well as Rio de Janeiro are still the largest centers of technology investment and excellence in Brazil.

Tech companies based outside these core areas often face all manner of challenges, including lack of skilled manpower, fewer networking opportunities and difficulties around attending relevant events and getting in front of possible investors, who are often based in the big cities.

The creation of Porto Digital and technology clusters in other parts of Brazil such as Florianpolis, in the southern state of Santa Catarina, are showing that it is possible to create better conditions for new, innovative companies to emerge - and the success of these initiatives, as well as more financial support from the federal government may well mean that other states will follow suit. 

Google has already demonstrated its interest in making high-speed Internet across the United States with through the Fiber project, but it looks like the tech giant has a global plan too.

See also: Google aims to push tablets as part of new education initiative

The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that the Mountain View, Calif.-based company is working on a monetary fund to build wireless networks in emerging markets.

Google hasn't commented publicly on the report or the fund yet.

But according to the WSJ story, based on unnamed sources, these are the main points to know.

The fund is expected to fuel wireless infrastructures primarily in rural areas where wired Internet connections aren't available, especially in Southeast Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa.

It still remains to be seen how Google plans to go about this project, either by building the networks itself or partnering with local wireless companies -- or some balance of both, depending on the market.

Such an initiative does fall in line with some of Google's more philanthropic schemes and rhetoric, much of which CEO Larry Page reiterated at Google I/O in San Francisco last week.

But getting more people online and enabling them with wireless connectivity also has possibility to boost the mobile user base in these regions, outfitting them as prime consumers for low-cost Android smartphones, featurephones, and even tablets.

In the interim, custom electronics developer Secret Labs is moving full steam ahead with its own .Net Micro Framework-based Agent watch, for which it has been seeking funding via Kickstarter since earlier this month. (Those are Secret Labs' shots of the coming watches, above, from the Kickstarter page.)

Secret Labs is the company behind the open-source Netduino line of custom electronics, as well as its own hardware, software and services used by the smart home and building control industries. For the Agent watches it has partnered with another New York City-based company, House of Horology, which makes Bedlam fashion watches, in developing the Agent.

The Agent watch is designed to talk to users' smartphones (Windows Phone 8, iPhone 4s or newer and Android 2.3 or newer) using Bluetooth. Users will be able to control their music libraries, display incoming calls and notifications and feel a vibration if they accidentally forget their phones, the Kickstarter page notes. Users also will be able to download additional watchfaces through their phones. 

The waterproof Agent watch, acording to its Kickstarter page, relies on a 120 MHz ARM Cortex-M4 prodessor, with a secondary AVR co-processor. It incorporates a 1.28-inch square memory display, Bluetooth 4.0 and an ambient light sensor. It supports Qi wireless charging and runs the Agent OS 1.0, which includes the .Net Microframework 4.3.

Microsoft developed the .Net Micro Framework embedded platform, which was the heart of the Microsoft SPOT watches, some early smart coffee makers and some other small, low-power devices that were unable to accommodate the .Net Compact Framework. In 2009, Microsoft ceased work on the .Net Micro Framework and turned code support over to the community.

Watch apps can be written in C# using Microsoft Visual Studio 2012 (including the free Express edition). Watch apps can be deployed over Bluetooth. Developers also can interact remotely with Agent via Bluetooth from their Objective-C, C#, or Java smartphone apps.

Secret Labs plans to order parts, build circuit boards, finish support for Bluetooth Low Energy mode between June and September. It is planning to obtain FCC, CE and Qi certifications in October, and start pilot production in November. Full production is slated to begin in December 2013, according to the Agent watch Kickstarter page.

Credit: Errand Shop

Credit: Matome

Credit: Zakkaya

Wireless mouse.

Credit: Happy Sorceress

Credit: Fab

Credit: ebay

Credit: Geek Alerts

Credit: Ali Express

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USB optical mouse

Credit: Think Geek

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A real spider embedded in acrylic. Glows in the dark

Credit: Amazon

Credit: Amazon

Credit: Slava Saakyan

Credit: Gadget Sin

Credit: Ankaka

While nearly 90 percent of business and IT leaders agree that big data can be useful in making intelligent business decisions, only one-third of companies have implemented big-data initiatives. That's the finding from a recent International Data Group (IDG) survey, sponsored by Kapow Software.

Furthermore, more than 50 percent of survey respondents said that they had only lukewarm success with getting big data to deliver value in terms of competitive advantage, differentiation, top-line growth, strategic insights, employee productivity and effectiveness, among other business metrics.

Respondents reported that big-data projects take too long, cost too much, and aren't delivering a sufficient return on investment (ROI). Part of this is because these projects require expensive consultants or hard-to-find data scientists. Yet, while this lag in adoption continues, the mass of data from a variety of sources is growing.

Among the barriers to drawing value out of big data, according to survey respondents, are:

• High cost and complexity.Many business leaders believe such projects require a prohibitively expensive infrastructure. Sixty percent said projects take 18 months or more to complete.
• Employee workarounds.Respondents said employees often take matters into their own hands, but without effective solutions, are resorting to manual aggregation. This is putting pressure on IT to automate these efforts.
• Poor data accessibility. Nearly half of IT leaders said they find it difficult to find, access, and integrate the right information, which is often unstructuredand spread among a wide variety of sources.
• Lacking skills and tools. Big data is proving to be inaccessible by employees without special training, again putting pressure on IT to pave the way.

Despite the current low reliance on big data, adoption is expected to increase over the next 12 months, as business and IT leaders turn to user-centric tools -- such as those provided by Kapow Software. With such tools, IT leaders anticipate improved productivity and a better relationship with the business leaders.

Business leaders surveyed are looking for a variety of benefits from an increased use of big data. They say the following are either "critical" or "very important:"

• More informed business decision - 80 percent
• Increased competitive advantage - 71 percent
• Improved customer satisfaction - 68 percent
• Increased end-user productivity - 62 percent
• Improved security or compliance - 60 percent
• New products and services - 55 percent
• Monitoring and responding to social media in real time - 33 percent.

For more information on the survey results, go to http://www.slideshare.net/Kapowmarketing/kapow-idg-bigdataidg051513 or http://www.kapowsoftware.com/. [Disclosure: Kapow Software is a sponsor of BriefingsDirect podcasts.]

You may also be interested in:

• Kapow Mobile Katalyst debuts as new means to rapidly convert web applications to mobile apps sans APIs
• Kapow launches data integration platform for rapid data delivery to multiple devices
• Kapow delivers Web Data Server 7.2 to make BI easier to extract from across web-based activities
• Web data services extend business intelligence depth and breadth across social, mobile, web domains
• Web data services provide ease of data access and distribution from variety of sources, destinations
• Web data services -- here's why text-based content access and management plays crucial role in real-time BI management
• Real-time web data services in action at Deutsche Boerse

See also: Salesforce Q1 earnings: in line; $893m revenue | Salesforce intros mobile apps for federal, state and local gov't response

Intellectual Ventures, which invests in and works with investors and technology businesses to drive innovation and invention, owns the rights to a portfolio of nearly 40,000 patents.

The most important points to know about these patents is that they cover products, solutions, and ideas from more than 50 technology verticals.

Beyond corporate partners, IV also works closely with government agencies, which are becoming highly sought-after customers as they finally start making the leap from legacy hardware infrastructures to integrating cloud platforms. Salesforce, along with the likes of IBM, Oracle and many more tech behemoths, have been busy pushing out new cloud schemes to attract government agencies.

IBM, for example, recently inked a 10-year agreement to elevate the infrastructure for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

Under the deal with IV, Salesforce will have the option of accessing Intellectual Ventures intellectual property for Defense program. Thus, it is very possible we'll see more government-minded solutions rolled out by the CRM giant in the near future.

You'd expect to hear about Salento in a travel blog, inviting you to explore the villages and secluded white sand beaches of this Italian gem. But there's more to the region than scenery: it's the home of one of Italy's first major experiments with e-voting.

First, the trivia. Martignano is the one of the region's smallest towns, situated in an area known as the Grecia Salentina, a language enclave of ten municipalities where griko is spoken, a language originating from ancient greek (Salento was once part of the Magna Grecia). Small yet culturally lively, Martignano still has one of the best broadband infrastructures in Italy. Melpignano is another town in the Grecia Salentina, and also uses griko.

Onto the politics: smaller towns and municipalities in Italy have recently been asked to cast their votes as part of an "advisory referendum" on the question of whether to join up with other towns with up to 5,000 citizens. It's a part of an ongoing countrywide bid to try to reduce public spending by cutting the number of small municipalities and provinces and the amount of administration that goes with them.

The citizens of Martignano and Melpignano were asked to cast their ballot earlier this month, but they weren't asked to do so using the usual school desks and wooden screens that typically make up impromptu polling stations in Italy. Instead, the towns' voters were to do their bit for democracy through a touchscreen ballot box.

This first experiment of e-voting was possible due to the interest and funding of Italy's Ministry of Interior, but also thanks to the work LeG staff (UniSalento e-Government Laboratory) and its deputy director, Professor Marco Mancarella. Mancarella is a legal consultant in digital law and has studied e-voting experiments held in Mexico, in the Jalisco region, where the e-ballot box was developed.

"The electronic ballot box is support mechanism for electoral activity only when the voter is expressing their [voting] preference and during the counting phase," Mancarella said. For the earlier stages of finding and registering voters, paper is still necessary, and individuals still have to present a valid form of paper ID and physically sign a polling register.

"Each polling station as we know it, with materials and staff, costs between €2,000 and €3,000 per election," Mancarella said. Each e-ballot box costs $2,000 (€1,600) and lasts between 10 and 15 years.

The economic advantages are obvious. But how does it work? Once the voter is identified through the traditional methods, he or she will see a display of all voting options, including submitting a blank ballot. The box registers the vote and prints a paper receipt, which is stored inside the machine. One thousand paper receipts cost $2.

In the event of disputes, the seals may be broken and a traditional count by hand can be used to confirm the results. In the meantime, the data will be sent electronically in real time through the Sistema Pubblico Connettivit (SPC) (the public connectivity system) thanks to the agreement with Clio, the first provider in Italy to obtain the SPC certification.

The e-voting set-up is also equipped with a Braille system and audio support, to allow blind or visually impaired voters to use the system.

While it's the first time Italy has used an all-electronic voting system, there have been earlier pilots that used some e-voting elements: a 2006 experiment was halted by then prime minister Giuliano Amato, for fear of tampering, as votes were cast and then transferred via USB keys - a system considered unsafe. Trentino attempted another trial in 2008, during its provincial elections, but paper ballots were used alongside electronic ones for verification.

Back when the HTC First Facebook phone was announced I asked if the backing from Facebook was what HTC needed to succeed with the One and First. According to Engadget's sources it looks like First may just go the way of the Microsoft Kin as the UK launch is delayed and may never happen.

A couple weeks ago AT&T offer a 99 cent promotion just a month after release. Some unconfirmed reports state that the HTC First is on the way out at AT&T and this 99 cent promotion is just a way to get rid of some inventory before the device is pulled from their offerings.

Engadget confirmed with EE in the UK that it was Facebook's decision to delay the release of the HTC First as they continue to work on a better Facebook Home experience. With a long delay, there doesn't seem to be much of a compelling reason to sell a phone as the market continues to move forward.

I haven't used the HTC First myself, but from what I hear it is a solid mid-range device that can easily be switched to a stock Android experience. A delay like this, if true, is definitely not a good thing for HTC. There was another unconfirmed report that HTC may have sold 5 million HTC One devices so there might be one bright spot for the struggling company.

The company provided me with a master unit and six cameras. I paid for the electrician out of pocket. Before I found the Alert system, I had originally wanted to set up nine cameras, but the Logitech system maxes at six, in any combination of indoor and outdoor cameras.

Although I was slightly disappointed that I couldn't string cameras everywhere without limits, the six cameras do cover the entire perimeter field of the building. Each camera has a 135-degree field of view, and while you can digitally zoom, I left them all at full, wide-angle and we are able to see everywhere on the property.

Let's start with the basics

The video-over-power technology works, and works quite well. Quality video over internal power is surprisingly solid, regardless of whether or not appliances like dishwashers or clothes dryers are running.

The system booted up and routed video properly from the first. It runs just fine. Since that was the biggest question mark, it was nice to see the technology perform with rock-solid reliability.

That's not to say there aren't some issues. There are, but nothing that can't be mended in subsequent software updates. The core of the system just simply works — and that's a darned rare thing to say about any networking product, let alone one that mixes video, power distribution, and the Internet.

As I mentioned in the previous articles, I only installed outside cameras. Each camera has its own array of infrared LEDs that are designed for night vision.

To my considerable surprise, this works amazingly well. I have a relatively large yard (land is pretty inexpensive in Florida), and the cameras illuminate all the way to the street in front and to the fence line in the back. Everything is in black and white at night, of course, but we can see the entire yard in pitch black, perfectly.

Daytime video quality is also quite good. It's not full HD, but 960x720 isn't something to sneeze at, especially when you're pumping six of those feeds through the building power. I haven't noticed any lost frames.

It looks more like 15 frames a second than 30, but even so, you can easily see someone walking up or driving by without any loss of action or fidelity (at least during the day). At night, you can't make out facial features, but you can see if there's an animal or a person walking around.

Recording

The system is set up to trigger recording on motion. You can select motion zones, so recording only happens if there is activity in certain zones. One camera in our back picks up street traffic from about two blocks away through the very edge of its view interface, so I turned off motion sensing for that small zone.

While we're talking about the motion sensing system, I should mention that the Alert Commander does offer email alerts and pop-up alerts. Since there's almost always some motion outside, I turned these off, but I can see how they'd be helpful, especially with indoor monitoring.

The system first records to 2GB microSD cards installed in each camera. If you want a bigger card, you can load up to a 32 GB micro SDHC card in each camera.

The Logitech Alert Commander software downloads the video from the cameras' microSD cards to a location on your computer, so there's another copy of the video available. I added a third backup. I've got a script that monitors the backup location and uploads the video to a remote cloud backup server. Each motion video clip is a simple MP4, so you can manipulate and examine the recorded video using standard tools.

The Commander software allows you to set a maximum amount of storage, and then deletes older recordings. At about 2GB a week, a relatively small amount of storage can store pretty nearly a year without blinking.

Installation

Installation is, in theory, quite simple. Certainly for an indoor camera, all you do is plug a cable into the camera and into the power brick, and plug that into the wall.

Logitech recommends a similar procedure for outside cameras. In fact, on the instructions, Logitech has a somewhat silly illustration showing a cable running from the outside camera, down the side of a building, to an exposed power socket. While this might be easy installation, having the camera's power right under the camera kind of defeats the whole security concept.

That's why I had to involve an electrician. First, my house has unusual wiring. As I've mentioned before, when we bought this house, it was a fixer-upper in the worst way. We pretty much gutted it and rebuilt it to my geeky specifications. As a result, we've got a power infrastructure normally more suited to a small data center than a house. Since I operate my office from home, that was a necessity.

Second, though, I didn't want to expose all the camera wiring both to the outside elements and to potential threats. The electrician mounted all the cameras to the overhanging soffits around the house, then ran the cable from the camera into the attic to the interface brick. Those power-interface bricks were installed in an array in the attic, and then ran on their own dedicated circuit back to the circuit breaker panel.

The HomePlug system is a security win as well, since the wire that extends outside the house to the camera isn't on the internal LAN, it's effectively firewalled into the camera's own private HomePlug network.

Since I needed everything installed to code, I used the same licensed electrician we used to run our power infrastructure and GigE to install the Alert system. You might not need an electrician, but keep in mind that if you're touching the circuit breaker box, some ordinances require licensing to do the work (and, of course, if you don't know what you're doing, you could be in for a nasty shock).

While we're on the topic of installation, I need to point out that you can't plug the cameras or the central hub into a UPS. Here in Florida, we have many power fluctuations, and so everything (including our crock pot) has a UPS between it and the the power grid. Logitech claims the cameras have built-in surge suppression, but we had one power failure recently which corrupted one of the SD cards:

I was able to reformat the card remotely and continue operating, but I do wonder how these cameras will perform over the long haul in the face of central Florida's weather and its impact on the power grid.

Next: Odd remote behavior and final recommendations.

Odd remote behavior

A big part of having an Internet-centric, mobile-enabled video surveillance system is Internet and mobile. It's here that the Logitech Alert system has some odd weaknesses.

First, the good: you can access your cameras (and, with a yearly fee, your recordings) from anywhere in the world via either a Web interface, an Android app, or an iOS app.

Both the Web interface and the Android app display what's happening in near real-time. They're each delayed by about a half second from the actual real-time display of the internal Commander software and actual meatspace activity. That means that if you're watching a person walking up to the house, the subject is probably about one step closer to the house in reality than what you're seeing.

For access all over the world, that's not a bad delay at all.

And then we get to the iOS version. I tested this on a third generation iPad and an iPad mini. With both of these, what's shown on the iPad is anywhere from 20 seconds to about 90 seconds behind real life. If a car drives by, you can say "one-Mississippi, two-Mississippi" a good 20 to 30 times before the car drives by on the iPad.

This doesn't render the product unusable on the iPad, but it's certainly not ideal. And given that both the Web interface and the Android version on my Nexus 7 displayed in near real-time, it's not my network connection or even the delay to Logitech's data center and back. It's the iOS app.

I have one more possible deal-breaker complaint about the remote implementation, and this applies to Web, Android, and iOS equally.

Monitoring remotely is time-limited. What I mean by this is you start monitoring, and after 5-10 minutes, the monitoring stops. You're actually presented with a display arrow that invites you to tap it to start monitoring again.

This completely defeats the idea of having a browser window at work open all the time to see what's going on at home, or a Nexus 7 sitting on the night table to monitor the baby. You can check in and see what's going on, but you can't just keep an eye on things.

Presumably, Logitech thinks you'll get an email alert, and then want to see what's happening. A more cynical view is they're limiting the time the connection is live to save overhead at their data center.

In any case, it's a serious flaw and Logitech needs to step up and fix it before this solution can be a truly credible remote monitoring solution.

Update: the Web interface has stopped showing one of the cameras claiming "Error getting camera settings", while the Commander PC-based interface works fine. I haven't had time to reset everything to see if it comes back online, but remote monitoring is definitely a bit more troublesome than local monitoring, which is rock-solid.

Wish list

I've been using the system for a few weeks now, and with the exception of the remote monitoring functions mentioned above, I'm quite impressed. I did find a few features I would have liked to have seen, and so here's a short wish list for future versions.

Many security systems have a way for the system to toggle between each camera in rotation in full screen. While Logitech Alert can display all six feeds simultaneously in a grid (which, by the way, is slick as heck), I'd like to see (or haven't found) the option to simply toggle between all six views in order, continuously.

The other thing I'd like is an instant 15-second or 30-second rewind. I'm probably spoiled by my Tivo, where you can easily jump back 15 seconds to replay what you just missed, but I found I really wanted that feature on the Logitech system. I'd often see something out of the corner of my eye, and rather than going into the recording system and trying to pull up the right recording, I just wished I could hit a quick replay button and see it play back.

The rest of the story

I told you about how Jerry the electrician didn't believe this thing would work. After completing the installation, his first comment was "Wow, it works." After all six cameras came online, he was enthusiastic enough about the product that it looks like he'll be recommending it to his clients.

Maybe next time I come up with some scheme I want his help with, he won't be quite as dubious. Nah!

Final recommendations

I've always generally liked Logitech products and for my purposes — seeing what's going on throughout the property and recording what I don't see — the Logitech Alert system performs quite well.

Technically, in terms of setup, running video over power, and even night vision, the system performs outstandingly well, substantially beyond both my expectations and what my electrician thought was possible.

However, while remote monitoring works, it has a few flaws. The delayed playback on iOS is annoying and the system does have a potential fatal flaw in that you can't perform continuous monitoring remotely, which means you can't set up tablet or browser at a security desk and monitor a whole building, watch the baby from the couch, or keep an eye on kitty from the office.

Because the monitoring stream cuts off after a few minutes, I simply can't recommend this system if you want continuous remote monitoring.

With everything else working so well, I do hope Logitech remedies this one flaw in a future update. At that point, I'd be able to recommend it unreservedly.

Busted videos

Logitech has collected quite a few surveillance videos showcasing some interesting behavior. They call these Busted Videos and some are a hoot to watch. My favorites are the large black bear and the small white cat:

To setup a reminder on your note, tap the clock icon at the bottom right of your open note. You can also then select a date for the reminder to appear with a slick animation appearing to help you set the time of the reminder. Reminders also appear at the top of your note list.

I especially like the swipe right to mark as done and the swipe left to change the due date options on my iPhone 5. Evernote offers up some examples of reminder notes, including birthday gifts, project planning, packing lists, and doctors orders. I am excited about the reminder functionality and look forward to the rollout on Android and other platforms.

It definitely isn't alone, according to a new national survey by Wakefield Research conducted on behalf of the organization behind the ".co" moniker.

Close to half of the 500 businesses responding to the survey said they had tried at least one other name before "settling" on the one they currently use for their Web identity. Slightly more than that (55 percent) indicated that they believe they have lost business as a result, while 52 percent would change their current name if they could.

The research anticipates a flood of new extensions that will become available over the next year, aside from the ones you might already know: .org, .com, .biz and so forth.

In the future, your company will need to sort through a whole slew of additional choices, such as those particular to a specific location (such as .nyc) or those that describe some value proposition of your business (such as .green).

"Small business owners who understand the distinctions among the different domain extensions, and can make the most informed choices, will be best positioned to survive and thrive online," said Lori Anne Wardi, co-founder and vice president at .CO.

Is it time to rethink your Web identity?