Making Money Job

RNC Chairman Candidate Mike Duncan: ‘There Is Not Enough Money’ In Politics

The Republican National Committee will soon hold elections to potentially replace its gaffe-prone chairman Michael Steele, and today, FreedomWorks held a forum for those vying for the job. All the candidates present — Steele was conspicuously absent — touted their fundraising ability, but Mike Duncan, a former chairman running for another term, took the opportunity to wax poetic about campaign finance. Despite the recent troubling and unprecedented explosion of money in politics, Duncan called money “the mother’s milk of politics,” and argued, “there is not enough money” in politics:

DUNCAN: Money is the mother’s milk of politics. There is not too much money in politics, there is not enough money. When you consider that we spend $7 billion in this county a year on potato chips. We spend $4 billion, a little over $4 billion, according to the National Retailer Association on Halloween — on costumes and candies.

Watch it:

Thanks to the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision, this year’s election saw a flood of money into politics, with corporations, special interests, and wealthy individuals spending like never before. Nearly $4 billion was spent on the 2010 cycle, making it the most expensive midterm in history, with more spent by outside groups this year than during all the midterms since 1990 combined. A disturbingly large portion of this was secret money spent by front groups like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Karl Rove’s American Crossroads, which do not have to disclose their donors. This system allows a tiny group of individuals to have an outsize impact on American democracy. For example, in August, an astonishing 91 percent of the millions American Crossroads raised came from just three billionaires. And while the Chamber claims to represent hundreds of thousands of businesses large and small, the vast majority of their funding comes from just 45 mega-corporations.

But it’s not surprising that Duncan would support this flood of special interest money in politics, as Republicans benefited most from secret money, and spent more than Democrats overall. According to a New York Times analysis, eight of the top ten outside political groups were GOP-aligned, including the top four.

However, the American people do not agree with Duncan that there should be more money in politics, especially when it comes to corporate money. A PCCC poll from last week showed that by a double-digit margin, voters would support a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United and once again restrict corporations from directly spending on elections. Meanwhile, a People for the American Way poll from June found that 85 percent believe that there is too much corporate money in politics. And a poll from the 2008 presidential campaign found that “Americans by 3-1 think too much money is” spent on politics.

Andy Lyons/Getty Images

This Saturday, the No.24 West Virginia Mountaineers will host the Rutgers Scarlet Knights in a Big East showdown that could determine who wins the conference title.

The Mountaineers come into the game off an impressive 35-10 win over Pittsburgh, and with a win this week and a Connecticut loss, it will be the Mountaineers representing the Big East in a BCS bowl game.

First, West Virginia has to take care of a struggling Rutgers team that has lost five straight, including a 40-13 loss to Louisville last week.

West Virginia is a perfect 15-0 against Rutgers at home, but the last two have been close.

The oddsmakers aren’t giving Rutgers much of a chance in this one, as the current college football odds have the Mountaineers favored by 20 points over the Scarlet Knights at home.

 

Rutgers (4-7, 1-5)

It didn’t really seem like the Scarlet Knights showed up to play last week against the Cardinals, as they allowed Louisville to score a touchdown on their first four offensive possessions, and it’s hard to imagine that this team will play any harder on the road this week.

Rutgers got a strong performance from running back Jordan Thomas, who ran for 120 yards and a touchdown on just 16 carries. Jeremy Deering added 51 yards and a score on just 12 carries, but neither of these two figure to do much against a West Virginia defense that comes in ranked second in the country against the run, allowing just 87 yards a game.

That means quarterback Chas Dodd is going to have to step it up and make some big plays in the passing game. Dodd went just 14-of-32 for 177 yards with no touchdowns and two interceptions against Louisville, just one week after throwing for 335 yards and four touchdowns against Cincinnati.

 

West Virginia (8-3, 4-2)

The Mountaineers come into the game this weekend on a three-game winning streak, and you have to give credit to the West Virginia defense that has allowed just 10 points in each of the last three games and comes in ranked second in the country, allowing just under 13 points a game.

Last week against Pitt, the Mountaineers defense had a tough time stopping the Panthers offense from moving the ball up and down the field, but they forced three fumbles and an interception.

The Mountaineers went into half with a 14-7 lead, but had been outgained 205 to 75. The offense got it going in the second half, as the Mountaineers finished with 360 yards on the game.

Quarterback Geno Smith attempted just 12 passes but completed nine of them for 212 yards and three touchdowns. Shawne Alston led the Mountaineers with 71 yards rushing, while Ryan Clarke added 28 yards and two touchdowns.

The Mountaineers offense has struggled at times this season but should be able to get things going against a Rutgers defense that struggles against both the pass and the run.

 

Looking at the Odds

While the Mountaineers aren’t exactly the most explosive offense, I think you have to lay the 20 points on them this week.

Rutgers has nothing to play for but the season being over, and even if they tried on offense, its unlikely they put many points on the board. Rutgers has allowed 109 points in their last two games.

My final score prediction is West Virginia 31, Rutgers 9.

Interested in making some money this college football season? Check out what our expert college football handicappers have to offer in their weekly college football picks.

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Live Blog: President Obama&#39;s <b>news</b> conference – CNN Political <b>...</b>

President Obama will hold a previously unscheduled news conference on Tuesday at 2:20 p.m. likely focusing on the compromise with Republicans on tax cuts, the White House announced. Check back here for CNN's live blog of the press ...

Light Can Generate Lift - Science <b>News</b>

Researchers create a lightfoil that can push small objects sideways.

Scripting <b>News</b>: My JSON River of <b>News</b>

My JSON River of News. By Dave Winer on Monday, December 06, 2010 at 9:45 PM. First a few preambles... Permanent link to this item in the archive. 1. I'm a big believer in the River of News style of feed reader. Reverse-chronologic. ...

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Live Blog: President Obama&#39;s <b>news</b> conference – CNN Political <b>...</b>

President Obama will hold a previously unscheduled news conference on Tuesday at 2:20 p.m. likely focusing on the compromise with Republicans on tax cuts, the White House announced. Check back here for CNN's live blog of the press ...

Light Can Generate Lift - Science <b>News</b>

Researchers create a lightfoil that can push small objects sideways.

Scripting <b>News</b>: My JSON River of <b>News</b>

My JSON River of News. By Dave Winer on Monday, December 06, 2010 at 9:45 PM. First a few preambles... Permanent link to this item in the archive. 1. I'm a big believer in the River of News style of feed reader. Reverse-chronologic. ...

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Live Blog: President Obama&#39;s <b>news</b> conference – CNN Political <b>...</b>

President Obama will hold a previously unscheduled news conference on Tuesday at 2:20 p.m. likely focusing on the compromise with Republicans on tax cuts, the White House announced. Check back here for CNN's live blog of the press ...

Light Can Generate Lift - Science <b>News</b>

Researchers create a lightfoil that can push small objects sideways.

Scripting <b>News</b>: My JSON River of <b>News</b>

My JSON River of News. By Dave Winer on Monday, December 06, 2010 at 9:45 PM. First a few preambles... Permanent link to this item in the archive. 1. I'm a big believer in the River of News style of feed reader. Reverse-chronologic. ...

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Live Blog: President Obama&#39;s <b>news</b> conference – CNN Political <b>...</b>

President Obama will hold a previously unscheduled news conference on Tuesday at 2:20 p.m. likely focusing on the compromise with Republicans on tax cuts, the White House announced. Check back here for CNN's live blog of the press ...

Light Can Generate Lift - Science <b>News</b>

Researchers create a lightfoil that can push small objects sideways.

Scripting <b>News</b>: My JSON River of <b>News</b>

My JSON River of News. By Dave Winer on Monday, December 06, 2010 at 9:45 PM. First a few preambles... Permanent link to this item in the archive. 1. I'm a big believer in the River of News style of feed reader. Reverse-chronologic. ...

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Live Blog: President Obama&#39;s <b>news</b> conference – CNN Political <b>...</b>

President Obama will hold a previously unscheduled news conference on Tuesday at 2:20 p.m. likely focusing on the compromise with Republicans on tax cuts, the White House announced. Check back here for CNN's live blog of the press ...

Light Can Generate Lift - Science <b>News</b>

Researchers create a lightfoil that can push small objects sideways.

Scripting <b>News</b>: My JSON River of <b>News</b>

My JSON River of News. By Dave Winer on Monday, December 06, 2010 at 9:45 PM. First a few preambles... Permanent link to this item in the archive. 1. I'm a big believer in the River of News style of feed reader. Reverse-chronologic. ...

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RNC Chairman Candidate Mike Duncan: ‘There Is Not Enough Money’ In Politics

The Republican National Committee will soon hold elections to potentially replace its gaffe-prone chairman Michael Steele, and today, FreedomWorks held a forum for those vying for the job. All the candidates present — Steele was conspicuously absent — touted their fundraising ability, but Mike Duncan, a former chairman running for another term, took the opportunity to wax poetic about campaign finance. Despite the recent troubling and unprecedented explosion of money in politics, Duncan called money “the mother’s milk of politics,” and argued, “there is not enough money” in politics:

DUNCAN: Money is the mother’s milk of politics. There is not too much money in politics, there is not enough money. When you consider that we spend $7 billion in this county a year on potato chips. We spend $4 billion, a little over $4 billion, according to the National Retailer Association on Halloween — on costumes and candies.

Watch it:

Thanks to the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision, this year’s election saw a flood of money into politics, with corporations, special interests, and wealthy individuals spending like never before. Nearly $4 billion was spent on the 2010 cycle, making it the most expensive midterm in history, with more spent by outside groups this year than during all the midterms since 1990 combined. A disturbingly large portion of this was secret money spent by front groups like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Karl Rove’s American Crossroads, which do not have to disclose their donors. This system allows a tiny group of individuals to have an outsize impact on American democracy. For example, in August, an astonishing 91 percent of the millions American Crossroads raised came from just three billionaires. And while the Chamber claims to represent hundreds of thousands of businesses large and small, the vast majority of their funding comes from just 45 mega-corporations.

But it’s not surprising that Duncan would support this flood of special interest money in politics, as Republicans benefited most from secret money, and spent more than Democrats overall. According to a New York Times analysis, eight of the top ten outside political groups were GOP-aligned, including the top four.

However, the American people do not agree with Duncan that there should be more money in politics, especially when it comes to corporate money. A PCCC poll from last week showed that by a double-digit margin, voters would support a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United and once again restrict corporations from directly spending on elections. Meanwhile, a People for the American Way poll from June found that 85 percent believe that there is too much corporate money in politics. And a poll from the 2008 presidential campaign found that “Americans by 3-1 think too much money is” spent on politics.

Andy Lyons/Getty Images

This Saturday, the No.24 West Virginia Mountaineers will host the Rutgers Scarlet Knights in a Big East showdown that could determine who wins the conference title.

The Mountaineers come into the game off an impressive 35-10 win over Pittsburgh, and with a win this week and a Connecticut loss, it will be the Mountaineers representing the Big East in a BCS bowl game.

First, West Virginia has to take care of a struggling Rutgers team that has lost five straight, including a 40-13 loss to Louisville last week.

West Virginia is a perfect 15-0 against Rutgers at home, but the last two have been close.

The oddsmakers aren’t giving Rutgers much of a chance in this one, as the current college football odds have the Mountaineers favored by 20 points over the Scarlet Knights at home.

 

Rutgers (4-7, 1-5)

It didn’t really seem like the Scarlet Knights showed up to play last week against the Cardinals, as they allowed Louisville to score a touchdown on their first four offensive possessions, and it’s hard to imagine that this team will play any harder on the road this week.

Rutgers got a strong performance from running back Jordan Thomas, who ran for 120 yards and a touchdown on just 16 carries. Jeremy Deering added 51 yards and a score on just 12 carries, but neither of these two figure to do much against a West Virginia defense that comes in ranked second in the country against the run, allowing just 87 yards a game.

That means quarterback Chas Dodd is going to have to step it up and make some big plays in the passing game. Dodd went just 14-of-32 for 177 yards with no touchdowns and two interceptions against Louisville, just one week after throwing for 335 yards and four touchdowns against Cincinnati.

 

West Virginia (8-3, 4-2)

The Mountaineers come into the game this weekend on a three-game winning streak, and you have to give credit to the West Virginia defense that has allowed just 10 points in each of the last three games and comes in ranked second in the country, allowing just under 13 points a game.

Last week against Pitt, the Mountaineers defense had a tough time stopping the Panthers offense from moving the ball up and down the field, but they forced three fumbles and an interception.

The Mountaineers went into half with a 14-7 lead, but had been outgained 205 to 75. The offense got it going in the second half, as the Mountaineers finished with 360 yards on the game.

Quarterback Geno Smith attempted just 12 passes but completed nine of them for 212 yards and three touchdowns. Shawne Alston led the Mountaineers with 71 yards rushing, while Ryan Clarke added 28 yards and two touchdowns.

The Mountaineers offense has struggled at times this season but should be able to get things going against a Rutgers defense that struggles against both the pass and the run.

 

Looking at the Odds

While the Mountaineers aren’t exactly the most explosive offense, I think you have to lay the 20 points on them this week.

Rutgers has nothing to play for but the season being over, and even if they tried on offense, its unlikely they put many points on the board. Rutgers has allowed 109 points in their last two games.

My final score prediction is West Virginia 31, Rutgers 9.

Interested in making some money this college football season? Check out what our expert college football handicappers have to offer in their weekly college football picks.

http://www.ddfghhdfxd.com/]advertising

Live Blog: President Obama&#39;s <b>news</b> conference – CNN Political <b>...</b>

President Obama will hold a previously unscheduled news conference on Tuesday at 2:20 p.m. likely focusing on the compromise with Republicans on tax cuts, the White House announced. Check back here for CNN's live blog of the press ...

Light Can Generate Lift - Science <b>News</b>

Researchers create a lightfoil that can push small objects sideways.

Scripting <b>News</b>: My JSON River of <b>News</b>

My JSON River of News. By Dave Winer on Monday, December 06, 2010 at 9:45 PM. First a few preambles... Permanent link to this item in the archive. 1. I'm a big believer in the River of News style of feed reader. Reverse-chronologic. ...

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Live Blog: President Obama&#39;s <b>news</b> conference – CNN Political <b>...</b>

President Obama will hold a previously unscheduled news conference on Tuesday at 2:20 p.m. likely focusing on the compromise with Republicans on tax cuts, the White House announced. Check back here for CNN's live blog of the press ...

Light Can Generate Lift - Science <b>News</b>

Researchers create a lightfoil that can push small objects sideways.

Scripting <b>News</b>: My JSON River of <b>News</b>

My JSON River of News. By Dave Winer on Monday, December 06, 2010 at 9:45 PM. First a few preambles... Permanent link to this item in the archive. 1. I'm a big believer in the River of News style of feed reader. Reverse-chronologic. ...

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Live Blog: President Obama&#39;s <b>news</b> conference – CNN Political <b>...</b>

President Obama will hold a previously unscheduled news conference on Tuesday at 2:20 p.m. likely focusing on the compromise with Republicans on tax cuts, the White House announced. Check back here for CNN's live blog of the press ...

Light Can Generate Lift - Science <b>News</b>

Researchers create a lightfoil that can push small objects sideways.

Scripting <b>News</b>: My JSON River of <b>News</b>

My JSON River of News. By Dave Winer on Monday, December 06, 2010 at 9:45 PM. First a few preambles... Permanent link to this item in the archive. 1. I'm a big believer in the River of News style of feed reader. Reverse-chronologic. ...

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Live Blog: President Obama&#39;s <b>news</b> conference – CNN Political <b>...</b>

President Obama will hold a previously unscheduled news conference on Tuesday at 2:20 p.m. likely focusing on the compromise with Republicans on tax cuts, the White House announced. Check back here for CNN's live blog of the press ...

Light Can Generate Lift - Science <b>News</b>

Researchers create a lightfoil that can push small objects sideways.

Scripting <b>News</b>: My JSON River of <b>News</b>

My JSON River of News. By Dave Winer on Monday, December 06, 2010 at 9:45 PM. First a few preambles... Permanent link to this item in the archive. 1. I'm a big believer in the River of News style of feed reader. Reverse-chronologic. ...

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Live Blog: President Obama&#39;s <b>news</b> conference – CNN Political <b>...</b>

President Obama will hold a previously unscheduled news conference on Tuesday at 2:20 p.m. likely focusing on the compromise with Republicans on tax cuts, the White House announced. Check back here for CNN's live blog of the press ...

Light Can Generate Lift - Science <b>News</b>

Researchers create a lightfoil that can push small objects sideways.

Scripting <b>News</b>: My JSON River of <b>News</b>

My JSON River of News. By Dave Winer on Monday, December 06, 2010 at 9:45 PM. First a few preambles... Permanent link to this item in the archive. 1. I'm a big believer in the River of News style of feed reader. Reverse-chronologic. ...

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Live Blog: President Obama&#39;s <b>news</b> conference – CNN Political <b>...</b>

President Obama will hold a previously unscheduled news conference on Tuesday at 2:20 p.m. likely focusing on the compromise with Republicans on tax cuts, the White House announced. Check back here for CNN's live blog of the press ...

Light Can Generate Lift - Science <b>News</b>

Researchers create a lightfoil that can push small objects sideways.

Scripting <b>News</b>: My JSON River of <b>News</b>

My JSON River of News. By Dave Winer on Monday, December 06, 2010 at 9:45 PM. First a few preambles... Permanent link to this item in the archive. 1. I'm a big believer in the River of News style of feed reader. Reverse-chronologic. ...

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RNC Chairman Candidate Mike Duncan: ‘There Is Not Enough Money’ In Politics

The Republican National Committee will soon hold elections to potentially replace its gaffe-prone chairman Michael Steele, and today, FreedomWorks held a forum for those vying for the job. All the candidates present — Steele was conspicuously absent — touted their fundraising ability, but Mike Duncan, a former chairman running for another term, took the opportunity to wax poetic about campaign finance. Despite the recent troubling and unprecedented explosion of money in politics, Duncan called money “the mother’s milk of politics,” and argued, “there is not enough money” in politics:

DUNCAN: Money is the mother’s milk of politics. There is not too much money in politics, there is not enough money. When you consider that we spend $7 billion in this county a year on potato chips. We spend $4 billion, a little over $4 billion, according to the National Retailer Association on Halloween — on costumes and candies.

Watch it:

Thanks to the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision, this year’s election saw a flood of money into politics, with corporations, special interests, and wealthy individuals spending like never before. Nearly $4 billion was spent on the 2010 cycle, making it the most expensive midterm in history, with more spent by outside groups this year than during all the midterms since 1990 combined. A disturbingly large portion of this was secret money spent by front groups like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Karl Rove’s American Crossroads, which do not have to disclose their donors. This system allows a tiny group of individuals to have an outsize impact on American democracy. For example, in August, an astonishing 91 percent of the millions American Crossroads raised came from just three billionaires. And while the Chamber claims to represent hundreds of thousands of businesses large and small, the vast majority of their funding comes from just 45 mega-corporations.

But it’s not surprising that Duncan would support this flood of special interest money in politics, as Republicans benefited most from secret money, and spent more than Democrats overall. According to a New York Times analysis, eight of the top ten outside political groups were GOP-aligned, including the top four.

However, the American people do not agree with Duncan that there should be more money in politics, especially when it comes to corporate money. A PCCC poll from last week showed that by a double-digit margin, voters would support a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United and once again restrict corporations from directly spending on elections. Meanwhile, a People for the American Way poll from June found that 85 percent believe that there is too much corporate money in politics. And a poll from the 2008 presidential campaign found that “Americans by 3-1 think too much money is” spent on politics.

Andy Lyons/Getty Images

This Saturday, the No.24 West Virginia Mountaineers will host the Rutgers Scarlet Knights in a Big East showdown that could determine who wins the conference title.

The Mountaineers come into the game off an impressive 35-10 win over Pittsburgh, and with a win this week and a Connecticut loss, it will be the Mountaineers representing the Big East in a BCS bowl game.

First, West Virginia has to take care of a struggling Rutgers team that has lost five straight, including a 40-13 loss to Louisville last week.

West Virginia is a perfect 15-0 against Rutgers at home, but the last two have been close.

The oddsmakers aren’t giving Rutgers much of a chance in this one, as the current college football odds have the Mountaineers favored by 20 points over the Scarlet Knights at home.

 

Rutgers (4-7, 1-5)

It didn’t really seem like the Scarlet Knights showed up to play last week against the Cardinals, as they allowed Louisville to score a touchdown on their first four offensive possessions, and it’s hard to imagine that this team will play any harder on the road this week.

Rutgers got a strong performance from running back Jordan Thomas, who ran for 120 yards and a touchdown on just 16 carries. Jeremy Deering added 51 yards and a score on just 12 carries, but neither of these two figure to do much against a West Virginia defense that comes in ranked second in the country against the run, allowing just 87 yards a game.

That means quarterback Chas Dodd is going to have to step it up and make some big plays in the passing game. Dodd went just 14-of-32 for 177 yards with no touchdowns and two interceptions against Louisville, just one week after throwing for 335 yards and four touchdowns against Cincinnati.

 

West Virginia (8-3, 4-2)

The Mountaineers come into the game this weekend on a three-game winning streak, and you have to give credit to the West Virginia defense that has allowed just 10 points in each of the last three games and comes in ranked second in the country, allowing just under 13 points a game.

Last week against Pitt, the Mountaineers defense had a tough time stopping the Panthers offense from moving the ball up and down the field, but they forced three fumbles and an interception.

The Mountaineers went into half with a 14-7 lead, but had been outgained 205 to 75. The offense got it going in the second half, as the Mountaineers finished with 360 yards on the game.

Quarterback Geno Smith attempted just 12 passes but completed nine of them for 212 yards and three touchdowns. Shawne Alston led the Mountaineers with 71 yards rushing, while Ryan Clarke added 28 yards and two touchdowns.

The Mountaineers offense has struggled at times this season but should be able to get things going against a Rutgers defense that struggles against both the pass and the run.

 

Looking at the Odds

While the Mountaineers aren’t exactly the most explosive offense, I think you have to lay the 20 points on them this week.

Rutgers has nothing to play for but the season being over, and even if they tried on offense, its unlikely they put many points on the board. Rutgers has allowed 109 points in their last two games.

My final score prediction is West Virginia 31, Rutgers 9.

Interested in making some money this college football season? Check out what our expert college football handicappers have to offer in their weekly college football picks.

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Live Blog: President Obama&#39;s <b>news</b> conference – CNN Political <b>...</b>

President Obama will hold a previously unscheduled news conference on Tuesday at 2:20 p.m. likely focusing on the compromise with Republicans on tax cuts, the White House announced. Check back here for CNN's live blog of the press ...

Light Can Generate Lift - Science <b>News</b>

Researchers create a lightfoil that can push small objects sideways.

Scripting <b>News</b>: My JSON River of <b>News</b>

My JSON River of News. By Dave Winer on Monday, December 06, 2010 at 9:45 PM. First a few preambles... Permanent link to this item in the archive. 1. I'm a big believer in the River of News style of feed reader. Reverse-chronologic. ...

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Live Blog: President Obama&#39;s <b>news</b> conference – CNN Political <b>...</b>

President Obama will hold a previously unscheduled news conference on Tuesday at 2:20 p.m. likely focusing on the compromise with Republicans on tax cuts, the White House announced. Check back here for CNN's live blog of the press ...

Light Can Generate Lift - Science <b>News</b>

Researchers create a lightfoil that can push small objects sideways.

Scripting <b>News</b>: My JSON River of <b>News</b>

My JSON River of News. By Dave Winer on Monday, December 06, 2010 at 9:45 PM. First a few preambles... Permanent link to this item in the archive. 1. I'm a big believer in the River of News style of feed reader. Reverse-chronologic. ...

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Live Blog: President Obama&#39;s <b>news</b> conference – CNN Political <b>...</b>

President Obama will hold a previously unscheduled news conference on Tuesday at 2:20 p.m. likely focusing on the compromise with Republicans on tax cuts, the White House announced. Check back here for CNN's live blog of the press ...

Light Can Generate Lift - Science <b>News</b>

Researchers create a lightfoil that can push small objects sideways.

Scripting <b>News</b>: My JSON River of <b>News</b>

My JSON River of News. By Dave Winer on Monday, December 06, 2010 at 9:45 PM. First a few preambles... Permanent link to this item in the archive. 1. I'm a big believer in the River of News style of feed reader. Reverse-chronologic. ...

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Free Making Money

About a third of the top grossing apps in the Apple App Store are now making their money through the sale of virtual goods within the application after being free to download, according to research done by tech blog GigaOm.

The free-to-play model has so far served as a good way to entice users with free apps and then make money off the sale of virtual goods. Apple finally caved to developers and created a system to allow iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad users to make purchases from within apps last fall. The design allows developers to create a free app and then get the user to purchase a very cheap virtual good, such as a better weapon in a game. It then becomes much easier to convert a non-paying user into a paying one.

Freemium applications are making a good bit of money. In January, mobile analytics firm Flurry said that the freemium games it tracked generated revenues of $9 per user per year, on average. In June, that number had risen to $14.66 per user per year. Previously, these games were generating around 99 cents to $1.99 per user per year. 34 of the top 100 apps are free, but make their money through in-app purchases of mostly virtual currencies as well as other premium features, according to GigaOm’s report.

Apple takes a 30 percent cut of all purchases made within applications. That’s the same amount that Facebook, another large host of social games (including Zynga’s Farmville), charges its game partners.

Apple’s App Store now has around 300,000 apps for sale and for free download. And the App Store is growing by around 1,000 apps every day. The Android marketplace, which has applications for phones running on Google’s Android operating system, only has around 113,000 applications according to some metrics.

Score another one for social games developer Zynga, which first brought the freemium model to the forefront as a significant source of revenue for games and other applications. Its games have become insanely popular, and the company is now worth as much as Electronic Arts — one of the largest publishers in the world — by some metrics from its virtual good sales alone.

Next Story: Microsoft and Cisco throw down the gauntlet for living room teleconferencing Previous Story: Nintendo: the gaming landscape has changed forever, but console’s are doing just fine

Viber

Thursday, 2 December 2010

Viber is a new free VOIP app, currently available only for the iPhone. I’ve been trying it today, and have a few notes.

The Good

• Initial setup is very easy. Your phone number is your Viber identifier. You launch the app, tell it your phone number, and a moment or two later they send an SMS to that same number with a code to confirm it. Enter the code in Viber and you’re done.




• It works over 3G (and Wi-Fi, of course).




• It’s designed as a replacement for, or at least an alternative to, the built-in Phone app. Call another Viber user and the call goes through Viber over IP; call a non-Viber user from Viber and it switches you to the iPhone’s built-in Phone app and initiates a regular voice call. The idea is you can always go to the Viber app when you want to make a call, regardless if the recipient is on Viber or not.




• Incoming Viber calls work even when the app isn’t running, thanks to push notifications.




• Call quality, even over AT&T 3G, is pretty good — far superior to actual phone calls. The poor audio quality of iPhone voice calls in the U.S. is shameful. A call to a friend in the Netherlands sounded great too — a few very brief glitches, but good sound overall and very low latency.

The Bad

• Poor matching of existing phone numbers. The Viber app detects when your friends sign up for Viber by matching their numbers in your address book. But I had a friend (who signed up for Viber) whose contact entry in my address book was in the form “1 (###) ###-####”. The Viber app couldn’t identify him until I edited his phone number to the form “(###) ###-####”.




• No custom ringtones — you’re stuck with the single default one Viber provides.




• When you sign up for Viber, they send a push notification to everyone in your address book who has already signed up for Viber. I’m not sure it’s right to call this a privacy issue, per se, because it’s only sending notifications to people whose phone number you have and who have your phone number, but I’m opposed to any service that sends notifications to others on my behalf without my consent. And there is no way to turn this feature off.




• As stated above, the Viber app attempts to serve as a replacement for the built-in Phone app — acting as a front-end for both Viber VOIP calls and regular cellular voice calls. But it’s not really a replacement for the Phone app — it can’t access your voicemail or your recent (voice) calls list. So you still need the Phone app.




• You don’t pay Viber a cent for using it, but when you’re on 3G, calls using Viber count against your data plan limit. And, given that Viber is iPhone-only and AT&T offers free calling between AT&T users, it raises a question as to why you’d use it. (One answer: the audio quality really is far superior.)

The $64,000 Question

So the app is free, accounts are free, domestic and international calls are free, and there aren’t any ads. How do they make money, or plan to make money? According to this interview with TechCrunch’s Robin Wauters, they have no idea:

So how does the company intend to make money, considering that its
apps will be completely free? Value-added services, Marco tells
me, although it seems that they haven’t quite figured out which
ones those will be yet.

Presumably they’re burning through a pile of venture capital to do this. I suppose if that makes sense for anyone, it does for a service like Viber, where it’s essential to get as many users signed up as quickly as possible to make it a viable communication network. They’re going head-to-head with Skype, which claims to have over 50 million daily users. But eventually the shoe has to drop. Jason Fried said it better than I can, in an interview with HP Input/Output:

The things you do more often are the things you’re going to get
good at. So if you get really good at spending money, you’re
going to be really good at spending money. If you have to work on
making money from day one, you’re going to get really damn good
at making money. And that’s what you need to be as an
entrepreneur.

The problem I have is when companies’ business model is free
only. And then they say, “We’ll figure out how to make money
later.” As if there’s going to be this magic switch they can
flip. If you’re not practicing making money, you’re not going
to be able to flip that switch and just know how to do it really
well. You need to have some time. You need to have some experience
at making money.

Color me old-fashioned, but I’m skeptical of any company that comes out of the gate with a product that generates no revenue whatsoever. I know, all sorts of companies launched with no revenue — Google, Flickr, Twitter. Maybe I’m wrong to dwell on this.

Update: John Nack asks if I’m equally skeptical of Instagram, the popular new photo sharing service/app, which also is free of charge and ad-free. (And which, not coincidentally I say, is also iPhone-only for now.) I am, sort of. I really like Instagram a lot, and wish they’d let me pay for it. But it seems obvious to me how Instagram could make money. They could go the Hipstamatic route and sell additional photo editing filters as in-app purchases. (Their FAQ even mentions this.) They could start showing ads on web pages displaying shared photos. Likewise with Google in its no-revenue salad days — it was always obvious they could eventually just start serving ads. It certainly wasn’t obvious what kind of ads Google might go with, but it was obvious they could go with some kind of web page advertising in search results. With Viber, I’m not sure they have an obvious revenue route if all calls are already free of charge. Charge for voice mail?

Update 2: Robin Wauters, via Twitter: “For the record, the company hasn’t raised funding, it’s the iMesh folks bootstrapping.”

bench craft company rip off

Movie <b>News</b> Quick Hits: Emma Stone&#39;s &#39;Spider-Man&#39; Look, Annie Nods <b>...</b>

Posted Dec 6th 2010 3:05PM. Filed under: Trailers and Clips, Movie News, Sundance Film Festival, Cinematical. Email This. -- Emma Stone debuted her Spider-Man look for the first time at Trevor Live in Hollywood over the weekend. ...

Exclusive: Gen. Petraeus Not &#39;Sure&#39; Victory in Afghanistan by 2014 <b>...</b>

In my exclusive interview with General David Petraeus he was encouraged by the progress made since President Obama's surge of forces into Afghanistan, but is he confident that the Afghan army can take the lead from US forces by NATO's.

This Week in Credit Card <b>News</b> - MoneyBuilder - making sense of <b>...</b>

Provided by LowCards.com More Than Eight Million People Drop Out of Credit Card Use More than eight million consumers stopped using credit cards over the past year, according to a new study by TransUnion. The use of general purpose ...

bench craft company rip off

Movie <b>News</b> Quick Hits: Emma Stone&#39;s &#39;Spider-Man&#39; Look, Annie Nods <b>...</b>

Posted Dec 6th 2010 3:05PM. Filed under: Trailers and Clips, Movie News, Sundance Film Festival, Cinematical. Email This. -- Emma Stone debuted her Spider-Man look for the first time at Trevor Live in Hollywood over the weekend. ...

Exclusive: Gen. Petraeus Not &#39;Sure&#39; Victory in Afghanistan by 2014 <b>...</b>

In my exclusive interview with General David Petraeus he was encouraged by the progress made since President Obama's surge of forces into Afghanistan, but is he confident that the Afghan army can take the lead from US forces by NATO's.

This Week in Credit Card <b>News</b> - MoneyBuilder - making sense of <b>...</b>

Provided by LowCards.com More Than Eight Million People Drop Out of Credit Card Use More than eight million consumers stopped using credit cards over the past year, according to a new study by TransUnion. The use of general purpose ...

bench craft company rip off

Movie <b>News</b> Quick Hits: Emma Stone&#39;s &#39;Spider-Man&#39; Look, Annie Nods <b>...</b>

Posted Dec 6th 2010 3:05PM. Filed under: Trailers and Clips, Movie News, Sundance Film Festival, Cinematical. Email This. -- Emma Stone debuted her Spider-Man look for the first time at Trevor Live in Hollywood over the weekend. ...

Exclusive: Gen. Petraeus Not &#39;Sure&#39; Victory in Afghanistan by 2014 <b>...</b>

In my exclusive interview with General David Petraeus he was encouraged by the progress made since President Obama's surge of forces into Afghanistan, but is he confident that the Afghan army can take the lead from US forces by NATO's.

This Week in Credit Card <b>News</b> - MoneyBuilder - making sense of <b>...</b>

Provided by LowCards.com More Than Eight Million People Drop Out of Credit Card Use More than eight million consumers stopped using credit cards over the past year, according to a new study by TransUnion. The use of general purpose ...

bench craft company rip off
Película Noticias <b> </ b> Quick Hits: &#39; &#39; s Emma Stone Spider-Man Mira &#39;, Annie Asiente <b> ...</ b> Enviado diciembre sexta 2010 3:05 PM. Filed under: Trailers y clips, películas Noticias, Festival de Cine Sundance, Cinematical. Este correo electrónico. - Emma Stone estrenó su look de Spider-Man por primera vez a Trevor vivo en Hollywood el fin de semana. ...

Exclusiva: el general Petraeus no &#39; &#39; Claro victoria en Afganistán en 2014 <b> ...</ b> En mi entrevista exclusiva con el general David Petraeus se sentía alentado por los progresos realizados desde el aumento del Presidente Obama de las fuerzas en Afganistán, pero que confía en que el ejército afgano puede asumir el liderazgo de las fuerzas de EE.UU. en la OTAN.

Esta semana en la tarjeta de crédito <b> Noticias </ b> - MoneyBuilder - sentido de lo que <b> Siempre ...</ b> por LowCards.com más de ocho millones de personas abandonan la tarjeta de crédito utilizar Más de ocho millones de consumidores dejaron de usar las tarjetas de crédito durante el año pasado, según un nuevo estudio de TransUnion. El uso de propósito general ...


bench craft company rip off

Movie <b>News</b> Quick Hits: Emma Stone&#39;s &#39;Spider-Man&#39; Look, Annie Nods <b>...</b>

Posted Dec 6th 2010 3:05PM. Filed under: Trailers and Clips, Movie News, Sundance Film Festival, Cinematical. Email This. -- Emma Stone debuted her Spider-Man look for the first time at Trevor Live in Hollywood over the weekend. ...

Exclusive: Gen. Petraeus Not &#39;Sure&#39; Victory in Afghanistan by 2014 <b>...</b>

In my exclusive interview with General David Petraeus he was encouraged by the progress made since President Obama's surge of forces into Afghanistan, but is he confident that the Afghan army can take the lead from US forces by NATO's.

This Week in Credit Card <b>News</b> - MoneyBuilder - making sense of <b>...</b>

Provided by LowCards.com More Than Eight Million People Drop Out of Credit Card Use More than eight million consumers stopped using credit cards over the past year, according to a new study by TransUnion. The use of general purpose ...

bench craft company rip off

About a third of the top grossing apps in the Apple App Store are now making their money through the sale of virtual goods within the application after being free to download, according to research done by tech blog GigaOm.

The free-to-play model has so far served as a good way to entice users with free apps and then make money off the sale of virtual goods. Apple finally caved to developers and created a system to allow iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad users to make purchases from within apps last fall. The design allows developers to create a free app and then get the user to purchase a very cheap virtual good, such as a better weapon in a game. It then becomes much easier to convert a non-paying user into a paying one.

Freemium applications are making a good bit of money. In January, mobile analytics firm Flurry said that the freemium games it tracked generated revenues of $9 per user per year, on average. In June, that number had risen to $14.66 per user per year. Previously, these games were generating around 99 cents to $1.99 per user per year. 34 of the top 100 apps are free, but make their money through in-app purchases of mostly virtual currencies as well as other premium features, according to GigaOm’s report.

Apple takes a 30 percent cut of all purchases made within applications. That’s the same amount that Facebook, another large host of social games (including Zynga’s Farmville), charges its game partners.

Apple’s App Store now has around 300,000 apps for sale and for free download. And the App Store is growing by around 1,000 apps every day. The Android marketplace, which has applications for phones running on Google’s Android operating system, only has around 113,000 applications according to some metrics.

Score another one for social games developer Zynga, which first brought the freemium model to the forefront as a significant source of revenue for games and other applications. Its games have become insanely popular, and the company is now worth as much as Electronic Arts — one of the largest publishers in the world — by some metrics from its virtual good sales alone.

Next Story: Microsoft and Cisco throw down the gauntlet for living room teleconferencing Previous Story: Nintendo: the gaming landscape has changed forever, but console’s are doing just fine

Viber

Thursday, 2 December 2010

Viber is a new free VOIP app, currently available only for the iPhone. I’ve been trying it today, and have a few notes.

The Good

• Initial setup is very easy. Your phone number is your Viber identifier. You launch the app, tell it your phone number, and a moment or two later they send an SMS to that same number with a code to confirm it. Enter the code in Viber and you’re done.




• It works over 3G (and Wi-Fi, of course).




• It’s designed as a replacement for, or at least an alternative to, the built-in Phone app. Call another Viber user and the call goes through Viber over IP; call a non-Viber user from Viber and it switches you to the iPhone’s built-in Phone app and initiates a regular voice call. The idea is you can always go to the Viber app when you want to make a call, regardless if the recipient is on Viber or not.




• Incoming Viber calls work even when the app isn’t running, thanks to push notifications.




• Call quality, even over AT&T 3G, is pretty good — far superior to actual phone calls. The poor audio quality of iPhone voice calls in the U.S. is shameful. A call to a friend in the Netherlands sounded great too — a few very brief glitches, but good sound overall and very low latency.

The Bad

• Poor matching of existing phone numbers. The Viber app detects when your friends sign up for Viber by matching their numbers in your address book. But I had a friend (who signed up for Viber) whose contact entry in my address book was in the form “1 (###) ###-####”. The Viber app couldn’t identify him until I edited his phone number to the form “(###) ###-####”.




• No custom ringtones — you’re stuck with the single default one Viber provides.




• When you sign up for Viber, they send a push notification to everyone in your address book who has already signed up for Viber. I’m not sure it’s right to call this a privacy issue, per se, because it’s only sending notifications to people whose phone number you have and who have your phone number, but I’m opposed to any service that sends notifications to others on my behalf without my consent. And there is no way to turn this feature off.




• As stated above, the Viber app attempts to serve as a replacement for the built-in Phone app — acting as a front-end for both Viber VOIP calls and regular cellular voice calls. But it’s not really a replacement for the Phone app — it can’t access your voicemail or your recent (voice) calls list. So you still need the Phone app.




• You don’t pay Viber a cent for using it, but when you’re on 3G, calls using Viber count against your data plan limit. And, given that Viber is iPhone-only and AT&T offers free calling between AT&T users, it raises a question as to why you’d use it. (One answer: the audio quality really is far superior.)

The $64,000 Question

So the app is free, accounts are free, domestic and international calls are free, and there aren’t any ads. How do they make money, or plan to make money? According to this interview with TechCrunch’s Robin Wauters, they have no idea:

So how does the company intend to make money, considering that its
apps will be completely free? Value-added services, Marco tells
me, although it seems that they haven’t quite figured out which
ones those will be yet.

Presumably they’re burning through a pile of venture capital to do this. I suppose if that makes sense for anyone, it does for a service like Viber, where it’s essential to get as many users signed up as quickly as possible to make it a viable communication network. They’re going head-to-head with Skype, which claims to have over 50 million daily users. But eventually the shoe has to drop. Jason Fried said it better than I can, in an interview with HP Input/Output:

The things you do more often are the things you’re going to get
good at. So if you get really good at spending money, you’re
going to be really good at spending money. If you have to work on
making money from day one, you’re going to get really damn good
at making money. And that’s what you need to be as an
entrepreneur.

The problem I have is when companies’ business model is free
only. And then they say, “We’ll figure out how to make money
later.” As if there’s going to be this magic switch they can
flip. If you’re not practicing making money, you’re not going
to be able to flip that switch and just know how to do it really
well. You need to have some time. You need to have some experience
at making money.

Color me old-fashioned, but I’m skeptical of any company that comes out of the gate with a product that generates no revenue whatsoever. I know, all sorts of companies launched with no revenue — Google, Flickr, Twitter. Maybe I’m wrong to dwell on this.

Update: John Nack asks if I’m equally skeptical of Instagram, the popular new photo sharing service/app, which also is free of charge and ad-free. (And which, not coincidentally I say, is also iPhone-only for now.) I am, sort of. I really like Instagram a lot, and wish they’d let me pay for it. But it seems obvious to me how Instagram could make money. They could go the Hipstamatic route and sell additional photo editing filters as in-app purchases. (Their FAQ even mentions this.) They could start showing ads on web pages displaying shared photos. Likewise with Google in its no-revenue salad days — it was always obvious they could eventually just start serving ads. It certainly wasn’t obvious what kind of ads Google might go with, but it was obvious they could go with some kind of web page advertising in search results. With Viber, I’m not sure they have an obvious revenue route if all calls are already free of charge. Charge for voice mail?

Update 2: Robin Wauters, via Twitter: “For the record, the company hasn’t raised funding, it’s the iMesh folks bootstrapping.”

bench craft company rip off

Movie <b>News</b> Quick Hits: Emma Stone&#39;s &#39;Spider-Man&#39; Look, Annie Nods <b>...</b>

Posted Dec 6th 2010 3:05PM. Filed under: Trailers and Clips, Movie News, Sundance Film Festival, Cinematical. Email This. -- Emma Stone debuted her Spider-Man look for the first time at Trevor Live in Hollywood over the weekend. ...

Exclusive: Gen. Petraeus Not &#39;Sure&#39; Victory in Afghanistan by 2014 <b>...</b>

In my exclusive interview with General David Petraeus he was encouraged by the progress made since President Obama's surge of forces into Afghanistan, but is he confident that the Afghan army can take the lead from US forces by NATO's.

This Week in Credit Card <b>News</b> - MoneyBuilder - making sense of <b>...</b>

Provided by LowCards.com More Than Eight Million People Drop Out of Credit Card Use More than eight million consumers stopped using credit cards over the past year, according to a new study by TransUnion. The use of general purpose ...

bench craft company rip off

Movie <b>News</b> Quick Hits: Emma Stone&#39;s &#39;Spider-Man&#39; Look, Annie Nods <b>...</b>

Posted Dec 6th 2010 3:05PM. Filed under: Trailers and Clips, Movie News, Sundance Film Festival, Cinematical. Email This. -- Emma Stone debuted her Spider-Man look for the first time at Trevor Live in Hollywood over the weekend. ...

Exclusive: Gen. Petraeus Not &#39;Sure&#39; Victory in Afghanistan by 2014 <b>...</b>

In my exclusive interview with General David Petraeus he was encouraged by the progress made since President Obama's surge of forces into Afghanistan, but is he confident that the Afghan army can take the lead from US forces by NATO's.

This Week in Credit Card <b>News</b> - MoneyBuilder - making sense of <b>...</b>

Provided by LowCards.com More Than Eight Million People Drop Out of Credit Card Use More than eight million consumers stopped using credit cards over the past year, according to a new study by TransUnion. The use of general purpose ...

bench craft company rip off

Movie <b>News</b> Quick Hits: Emma Stone&#39;s &#39;Spider-Man&#39; Look, Annie Nods <b>...</b>

Posted Dec 6th 2010 3:05PM. Filed under: Trailers and Clips, Movie News, Sundance Film Festival, Cinematical. Email This. -- Emma Stone debuted her Spider-Man look for the first time at Trevor Live in Hollywood over the weekend. ...

Exclusive: Gen. Petraeus Not &#39;Sure&#39; Victory in Afghanistan by 2014 <b>...</b>

In my exclusive interview with General David Petraeus he was encouraged by the progress made since President Obama's surge of forces into Afghanistan, but is he confident that the Afghan army can take the lead from US forces by NATO's.

This Week in Credit Card <b>News</b> - MoneyBuilder - making sense of <b>...</b>

Provided by LowCards.com More Than Eight Million People Drop Out of Credit Card Use More than eight million consumers stopped using credit cards over the past year, according to a new study by TransUnion. The use of general purpose ...

bench craft company rip off

Movie <b>News</b> Quick Hits: Emma Stone&#39;s &#39;Spider-Man&#39; Look, Annie Nods <b>...</b>

Posted Dec 6th 2010 3:05PM. Filed under: Trailers and Clips, Movie News, Sundance Film Festival, Cinematical. Email This. -- Emma Stone debuted her Spider-Man look for the first time at Trevor Live in Hollywood over the weekend. ...

Exclusive: Gen. Petraeus Not &#39;Sure&#39; Victory in Afghanistan by 2014 <b>...</b>

In my exclusive interview with General David Petraeus he was encouraged by the progress made since President Obama's surge of forces into Afghanistan, but is he confident that the Afghan army can take the lead from US forces by NATO's.

This Week in Credit Card <b>News</b> - MoneyBuilder - making sense of <b>...</b>

Provided by LowCards.com More Than Eight Million People Drop Out of Credit Card Use More than eight million consumers stopped using credit cards over the past year, according to a new study by TransUnion. The use of general purpose ...

bench craft company rip off

Movie <b>News</b> Quick Hits: Emma Stone&#39;s &#39;Spider-Man&#39; Look, Annie Nods <b>...</b>

Posted Dec 6th 2010 3:05PM. Filed under: Trailers and Clips, Movie News, Sundance Film Festival, Cinematical. Email This. -- Emma Stone debuted her Spider-Man look for the first time at Trevor Live in Hollywood over the weekend. ...

Exclusive: Gen. Petraeus Not &#39;Sure&#39; Victory in Afghanistan by 2014 <b>...</b>

In my exclusive interview with General David Petraeus he was encouraged by the progress made since President Obama's surge of forces into Afghanistan, but is he confident that the Afghan army can take the lead from US forces by NATO's.

This Week in Credit Card <b>News</b> - MoneyBuilder - making sense of <b>...</b>

Provided by LowCards.com More Than Eight Million People Drop Out of Credit Card Use More than eight million consumers stopped using credit cards over the past year, according to a new study by TransUnion. The use of general purpose ...

bench craft company rip off

Movie <b>News</b> Quick Hits: Emma Stone&#39;s &#39;Spider-Man&#39; Look, Annie Nods <b>...</b>

Posted Dec 6th 2010 3:05PM. Filed under: Trailers and Clips, Movie News, Sundance Film Festival, Cinematical. Email This. -- Emma Stone debuted her Spider-Man look for the first time at Trevor Live in Hollywood over the weekend. ...

Exclusive: Gen. Petraeus Not &#39;Sure&#39; Victory in Afghanistan by 2014 <b>...</b>

In my exclusive interview with General David Petraeus he was encouraged by the progress made since President Obama's surge of forces into Afghanistan, but is he confident that the Afghan army can take the lead from US forces by NATO's.

This Week in Credit Card <b>News</b> - MoneyBuilder - making sense of <b>...</b>

Provided by LowCards.com More Than Eight Million People Drop Out of Credit Card Use More than eight million consumers stopped using credit cards over the past year, according to a new study by TransUnion. The use of general purpose ...

bench craft company rip off

About a third of the top grossing apps in the Apple App Store are now making their money through the sale of virtual goods within the application after being free to download, according to research done by tech blog GigaOm.

The free-to-play model has so far served as a good way to entice users with free apps and then make money off the sale of virtual goods. Apple finally caved to developers and created a system to allow iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad users to make purchases from within apps last fall. The design allows developers to create a free app and then get the user to purchase a very cheap virtual good, such as a better weapon in a game. It then becomes much easier to convert a non-paying user into a paying one.

Freemium applications are making a good bit of money. In January, mobile analytics firm Flurry said that the freemium games it tracked generated revenues of $9 per user per year, on average. In June, that number had risen to $14.66 per user per year. Previously, these games were generating around 99 cents to $1.99 per user per year. 34 of the top 100 apps are free, but make their money through in-app purchases of mostly virtual currencies as well as other premium features, according to GigaOm’s report.

Apple takes a 30 percent cut of all purchases made within applications. That’s the same amount that Facebook, another large host of social games (including Zynga’s Farmville), charges its game partners.

Apple’s App Store now has around 300,000 apps for sale and for free download. And the App Store is growing by around 1,000 apps every day. The Android marketplace, which has applications for phones running on Google’s Android operating system, only has around 113,000 applications according to some metrics.

Score another one for social games developer Zynga, which first brought the freemium model to the forefront as a significant source of revenue for games and other applications. Its games have become insanely popular, and the company is now worth as much as Electronic Arts — one of the largest publishers in the world — by some metrics from its virtual good sales alone.

Next Story: Microsoft and Cisco throw down the gauntlet for living room teleconferencing Previous Story: Nintendo: the gaming landscape has changed forever, but console’s are doing just fine

Viber

Thursday, 2 December 2010

Viber is a new free VOIP app, currently available only for the iPhone. I’ve been trying it today, and have a few notes.

The Good

• Initial setup is very easy. Your phone number is your Viber identifier. You launch the app, tell it your phone number, and a moment or two later they send an SMS to that same number with a code to confirm it. Enter the code in Viber and you’re done.




• It works over 3G (and Wi-Fi, of course).




• It’s designed as a replacement for, or at least an alternative to, the built-in Phone app. Call another Viber user and the call goes through Viber over IP; call a non-Viber user from Viber and it switches you to the iPhone’s built-in Phone app and initiates a regular voice call. The idea is you can always go to the Viber app when you want to make a call, regardless if the recipient is on Viber or not.




• Incoming Viber calls work even when the app isn’t running, thanks to push notifications.




• Call quality, even over AT&T 3G, is pretty good — far superior to actual phone calls. The poor audio quality of iPhone voice calls in the U.S. is shameful. A call to a friend in the Netherlands sounded great too — a few very brief glitches, but good sound overall and very low latency.

The Bad

• Poor matching of existing phone numbers. The Viber app detects when your friends sign up for Viber by matching their numbers in your address book. But I had a friend (who signed up for Viber) whose contact entry in my address book was in the form “1 (###) ###-####”. The Viber app couldn’t identify him until I edited his phone number to the form “(###) ###-####”.




• No custom ringtones — you’re stuck with the single default one Viber provides.




• When you sign up for Viber, they send a push notification to everyone in your address book who has already signed up for Viber. I’m not sure it’s right to call this a privacy issue, per se, because it’s only sending notifications to people whose phone number you have and who have your phone number, but I’m opposed to any service that sends notifications to others on my behalf without my consent. And there is no way to turn this feature off.




• As stated above, the Viber app attempts to serve as a replacement for the built-in Phone app — acting as a front-end for both Viber VOIP calls and regular cellular voice calls. But it’s not really a replacement for the Phone app — it can’t access your voicemail or your recent (voice) calls list. So you still need the Phone app.




• You don’t pay Viber a cent for using it, but when you’re on 3G, calls using Viber count against your data plan limit. And, given that Viber is iPhone-only and AT&T offers free calling between AT&T users, it raises a question as to why you’d use it. (One answer: the audio quality really is far superior.)

The $64,000 Question

So the app is free, accounts are free, domestic and international calls are free, and there aren’t any ads. How do they make money, or plan to make money? According to this interview with TechCrunch’s Robin Wauters, they have no idea:

So how does the company intend to make money, considering that its
apps will be completely free? Value-added services, Marco tells
me, although it seems that they haven’t quite figured out which
ones those will be yet.

Presumably they’re burning through a pile of venture capital to do this. I suppose if that makes sense for anyone, it does for a service like Viber, where it’s essential to get as many users signed up as quickly as possible to make it a viable communication network. They’re going head-to-head with Skype, which claims to have over 50 million daily users. But eventually the shoe has to drop. Jason Fried said it better than I can, in an interview with HP Input/Output:

The things you do more often are the things you’re going to get
good at. So if you get really good at spending money, you’re
going to be really good at spending money. If you have to work on
making money from day one, you’re going to get really damn good
at making money. And that’s what you need to be as an
entrepreneur.

The problem I have is when companies’ business model is free
only. And then they say, “We’ll figure out how to make money
later.” As if there’s going to be this magic switch they can
flip. If you’re not practicing making money, you’re not going
to be able to flip that switch and just know how to do it really
well. You need to have some time. You need to have some experience
at making money.

Color me old-fashioned, but I’m skeptical of any company that comes out of the gate with a product that generates no revenue whatsoever. I know, all sorts of companies launched with no revenue — Google, Flickr, Twitter. Maybe I’m wrong to dwell on this.

Update: John Nack asks if I’m equally skeptical of Instagram, the popular new photo sharing service/app, which also is free of charge and ad-free. (And which, not coincidentally I say, is also iPhone-only for now.) I am, sort of. I really like Instagram a lot, and wish they’d let me pay for it. But it seems obvious to me how Instagram could make money. They could go the Hipstamatic route and sell additional photo editing filters as in-app purchases. (Their FAQ even mentions this.) They could start showing ads on web pages displaying shared photos. Likewise with Google in its no-revenue salad days — it was always obvious they could eventually just start serving ads. It certainly wasn’t obvious what kind of ads Google might go with, but it was obvious they could go with some kind of web page advertising in search results. With Viber, I’m not sure they have an obvious revenue route if all calls are already free of charge. Charge for voice mail?

Update 2: Robin Wauters, via Twitter: “For the record, the company hasn’t raised funding, it’s the iMesh folks bootstrapping.”

bench craft company rip off

Movie <b>News</b> Quick Hits: Emma Stone&#39;s &#39;Spider-Man&#39; Look, Annie Nods <b>...</b>

Posted Dec 6th 2010 3:05PM. Filed under: Trailers and Clips, Movie News, Sundance Film Festival, Cinematical. Email This. -- Emma Stone debuted her Spider-Man look for the first time at Trevor Live in Hollywood over the weekend. ...

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Making Money Online Easy

As part of the ongoing Mashable Awards, we’re taking a closer look at each of the nomination categories. This is “Most Influential Social Good Champion” supported by Yahoo!. Be sure to nominate your favorites and join us for the Gala in Las Vegas!

Social Good is a brand new form of online giving that draws both from small non-profits and large brand cause-marketing campaigns. But like any burgeoning movement, social good requires champions to bring it to the public and promote its growth.

While “social good” and “influence” may not have absolutely concrete definitions (is influence based on Twitter followers? Raising the most money?), it is easy to see when an individual has taken on the cause of social good to create some real change.

Even though the exact parameters are a subjective call, we scoured the web for three social good activists who are using their skills to create change. We’ve highlighted three individuals who are utilizing social media and online campaigns to shape the way that we think about activism.

1. The Free Agent

Beth Kanter and Allison Fine defined the concept of the “free agent” this year in their book, The Networked Nonprofit. A “free agent,” as they defined it, is a “person who is passionate about a social cause, but is working outside of a nonprofit organization to organize, mobilize, raise money, and engage with others.” Using social media tools, free agents are able to make an impact that was once only capable within the infrastructure of an organization.

We’ve covered a number of free agents who had influence this year. Individuals like Shawn Ahmed, who posts YouTubeclass="blippr-nobr">YouTube videos about poverty in Bangladesh; Mark Horvath, who gives homelessness a voice through his We Are Visible and Invisible People projects; and even Dan Savage, who launched the It Gets Better Project in September to support gay teens who face adversity.

Kanter, a free agent herself, has played an influential role in helping non-profit organizations accept and cooperate with these social media-powered activists. Among her efforts, she facilitated a conversation at the State Department’s Tech@State Civil Society 2.0 event about how non-profits and free agents can work together.

2. Ben Rattray, Founder and CEO of Change.org

There are two hurdles that almost every cause campaign struggles with. The first is making the complexities and realities of its cause understood. The second is mobilizing people effectively. Change.org, which was founded by Ben Rattray in 2006, helps solve both.

The site has more than 100 writers who contribute in-depth reporting on 15 different causes. When people come to the site to read about a cause they’re passionate about, they also have the opportunity to take action toward that cause by signing petitions. While these cumulative actions lack the drama of a protest, mobilizing a large network toward one specific action has proved a lot more effective than a hodgepodge of independent actions.

Change.org has partnered with thousands of non-profits, and together the community has accomplished more than 100 “victories,” in which they’ve changed an unjust practice, law or policy. The organization connects activists with similar passions, and by doing so it gives them power as a cohort that they would never have as individuals.

3. Scott Harrison, Founder of Charity: Water

Charity: water uses 100% of public donations to fund water projects and is transparent about how donations are used. Both of these qualities make it somewhat of an oddball in the non-profit world — which might be exactly what the non-profit world needs.

When people donate money to most organizations, they’re not sure what happens to their donation or how efficiently it was used. When they give to charity: water, they can look up a picture and GPS coordinates of the project they contributed to. Since the organization relies on private donors for the money that makes it run, there’s no doubt about whether your donation ended up paying for somebody’s flight instead of funding a water project. The organization even covers its PayPal fees on donations.

This model of transparency and accountability has created trust and helped raise more than $20 million for 3,196 projects in the past four years. We hope that its success will influence other non-profits to do the same.

What’s Your Pick?/>

Who were your social good champions this year? Let us know in the comments or nominate them for a Mashable Awards.

The Mashable Awards Gala at Cirque du Soleil Zumanity (Vegas)/>

In partnership with Cirque du Soleil, The Mashable Awards Gala event will bring together the winners and nominees, the class='blippr-nobr'>Mashableclass="blippr-nobr">Mashable community, partners, media, the marketing community, consumer electronics and technology brands and attendees from the 2011 International CES Convention to Las Vegas on Thursday, January 6, 2011. Together, we will celebrate the winners and the community of the Mashable Awards at the Cirque du Soleil Zumanity stage in the beautiful New York New York Hotel. The event will include acts and performances from our partner Cirque du Soleil Zumanity. In addition, there will be special guest presenters and appearances.

Date: Thursday, January 6th, 2011 (during International CES Convention week)/> Time: 7:00 – 10:00 p.m. PT/> Location: Cirque du Soleil Zumanity, New York New York Hotel, Las Vegas/> Agenda: Networking, Open Bars, Acts, Surprises and the Mashable Awards Gala presentations/> Socialize: Facebookclass="blippr-nobr">Facebook, Foursquareclass="blippr-nobr">Foursquare, Meetup, Plancast, Twitterclass="blippr-nobr">Twitter (Hashtag: #MashableAwards)

Mashable Awards Category Sponsor:

Yahoo! is an innovative technology company that operates the largest digital media, content, and communications business in the world. Yahoo! keeps more than half a billion consumers worldwide connected to what matters to them most, and delivers powerful audience solutions to advertisers through its unique combination of Science + Art + Scale. Yahoo! is proud to sponsor this Mashable Award because Yahoo! is focused on connecting individuals to a community of millions so they can change the world together. That’s How Good Grows at Yahoo!. Yahoo! is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California. For more information, visit the company’s blog, Yodel Anecdotal.

Image courtesy of iStockphotoclass="blippr-nobr">iStockphoto, RichVintage

For more Social Good coverage:

class="f-el">class="cov-twit">Follow Mashable Social Goodclass="s-el">class="cov-rss">Subscribe to the Social Good channelclass="f-el">class="cov-fb">Become a Fan on Facebookclass="s-el">class="cov-apple">Download our free apps for Android, iPhone and iPad

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