‘Facebook has unveiled a new messaging platform which takes aim at one of the internet’s first applications, email.

Although blogs had been speculating that Facebook would announce an email service to rival Google’s Gmail and others, Facebook said email was just one component of its plans.

Declaring email past its prime in the age of texts and instant messages, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the company doesn’t believe email is going to be a modern messaging system. The first internet email system arrived in the early 1970s.

“If we do a good job, some people will say this is the way that the future will work,” Zuckerberg said.

Zuckerberg dismissed notions that Project Titan, as its service is called, is the “Gmail killer” it’s been dubbed as in the media.

But he also said that just as high school students are forgoing email in favor of shorter, more immediate chats, more people down the line will send IMs and chats because it’s simpler, “more fun” and more valuable to use.

Though email is still a primary form of communication for older adults, recent studies suggest this is not the case for young people.

Text messaging has surpassed face-to-face contact, email, phone calls and instant messaging as the primary form of communication for US teens, according to a 2009 survey from the Pew Research Center’s American Life Project.

Email use was the lowest – only 11 per cent of teens said they use it every day to interact with friends, compared with 54 per cent who said they text daily and 30 per cent who said they use land-line phones.

The popular social network unveiled its plans in San Francisco, a day before Zuckerberg speaks at the web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco.

Underscoring the enormity of the project, Facebook’s director of engineering, Andrew Boz Bosworth, said 15 Facebook engineers worked on the project for 15 months.’

Source: The Courier Mail

Are Emails Finished? is a post from: OE Design Blog

I recently spent four days on an island with no internet and mobile phone access. It was absolute bliss…..but as you will read in this article….for some it may have been hell.

Read why…

‘THE average Australian spent 17.6 hours a week online in 2009, according to Nielsen’s Australian Internet & Technology Report 2010.

And if you’ve got broadband, or are aged between 16 and 29, you’re likely to fritter away even more time, with the biggest internet users clocking up as many as 22 hours a week.

If you think we’ve cut back elsewhere to compensate, you’re wrong. According to the same report, we spend 13.4 hours a week watching TV, and more than eight hours watching DVDs. In part, it’s because we’re multitasking, with 49 per cent of us watching TV while we surf the net.

It’s also never been easier to go online – 43 per cent of people with internet access also own a smart phone, meaning they spend another two or more hours a week browsing, even when their computer is nowhere in sight.

Our favourite websites? Google takes the cake, but social networking site Facebook is giving it a serious nudge.

In fact, for the first time ever, the internet and social networking sites have overtaken mobile phones as the preferred way for Australians who have online access to communicate with family and friends.

Which means we’re spending less time talking, and more time “chatting” with our fingers. Or updating our “profiles”.

Or taking a look at other people’s websites.

TECH ATTACHED

Dr Rob Cover, a media expert from the University of Adelaide, thinks there are a few reasons why the country’s internet usage figures keep creeping up.

“Social networking sites are highly compelling because they’re very ‘social’ in nature, which is different from TV – networking is highly interactive. And the level of compulsion to social network is higher than other activities because of the nature of an online computer, which also acts as a tool for work and study. It’s easy to have a browser with Facebook open while you’re working.”

That is why the number of times Australian employers blocked access to social networking sites jumped from 2000 per day in 2008 to 6000 in 2009.

Dr Darryl Cross, an Adelaide-based psychologist who regularly sees clients with “technology attachment” issues, says the appeal is also the fact that the average person can nab a slice of the internet for themselves.

“That wasn’t possible five years ago,” he says.

“Now people can put pictures and thoughts up, and are buzzed when other people are interested in what they’re doing and saying – it feeds the ego. And being able to snoop around in other people’s ‘lives’ not only feeds into our natural urge to be nosey, but it gives us a sense of importance.”

COUNTING THE COST

So are we fast becoming a nation of online addicts? Is it time to follow the UK’s lead, where earlier this year a London hospital opened the first technology addiction centre?

Dr Cover is wary of using the word “addiction”, at least in relation to social networking. “I’m currently involved in a project looking at ‘digital addiction’ and the findings suggest social networking isn’t addictive in the way we think of drug addiction. But I agree that it’s a powerful procrastination tool.”

Earlier this year, youth and self-development group Oxygen Factory released the results of a survey which found that four out of five Australian high school students think Facebook distracts them from their homework.

And while there’s no question technology has, in so many ways, changed our lives for the better, some experts say all this flitting between texting, emailing and browsing undermines our ability to focus.

What’s also of concern is that Dr Cover says he’s noticed a definite drop in confidence among 18- to 23-year-olds when they’re speaking in “real-life” situations.

“But on the other hand, there’s a very significant increase in confidence and ability to contribute to an online forum. “I think there’s a perception of the computer screen as a barrier or protection, whereas face-to-face communication doesn’t offer this.”

Dr Cross adds that the “instant gratification” nature of the technology adds fuel to the fire. “There’s no buffer, no time to cool off. It’s all too easy to send someone a text in the heat of the moment. That can get people into trouble.”

ARE YOU DEPENDENT?

Has your relationship with technology become unhealthy?

Find out by seeing how many of the following questions you answer “yes” to.

1. Is it starting to interfere or disrupt other activities?

2. Do you regularly check your messages before doing
anything else?

3. Do friends and family criticize you for the amount of time you spend online?

4. Does the thought of not being able to access a social networking site for a period of days or weeks make you anxious?

5. Do you prefer on-screen activities and communicating with people online, rather than leaving the house? ‘

Source: The Sunday Mail

Are You Online Addicted? is a post from: OE Design Blog

‘THERE are about 90 staff working across six Subway restaurants on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast and Subway owner Jason Sandford-Bell was looking to gain control of a spiraling wages bill.

Having attempted a paper-based system and Excel spreadsheets to try to determine costs, Mr Sandford-Bell was no closer to an accurate forecast.

“We were using a fairly complicated Excel spreadsheet, which was all done by the managers individually on the computer system at the stores,” Mr Sandford-Bell said.

“One of the problems was it was taking a manager up to an hour to be able to get the roster correct because it was a fairly cumbersome way of doing it.”

And there was no way of confirming if staff members were available for a shift other than what was written on an availability book. “It was quite slow and time-consuming, and it really just failed in its accuracy on a regular basis,” he said.

Mr Sandford-Bell searched the internet, spoke to other franchisees, as well as head office group Subway Systems Australia, which recommended web-based employee scheduling and rostering solution Roster with ROSS. The program was developed by South Australian company Zarloc.

“We started looking into it and did a trial run and it was immediately clear how successful it was compared with what we were doing, and how it would help longer-term.”

Mr Sandford-Bell said the program was the most user-friendly for staff, with on-call and email support as well as systen training provided. It was rolled out across all six Subway stores about seven months ago.

“The staff can log on from anywhere, with their own log-on details, to put their availability down,” he said. “They can view the roster online and they receive it via email.”

Mr Sandford-Bell said store managers were able to see exactly what their roster costs would be for the week. “They put the percentage into the program that we want to achieve, they start allocating shifts, which are all hourly-based, because they have got the hourly rate for the staff member in, and it calculates an hourly cost, daily cost and then a weekly cost. It means we can hit a percentage very accurately, which we never used to be able to with the Excel spreadsheet.”

Mr Sandford-Bell said the ROSS system could link with Subway’s point-of-sale program.

“It gives you a guideline of how many staff you should have on — so it helps you to roster your system based on your previous sales from the year before.”

At the close of a week, ROSS exports time and attendance data to accounting packages. Mr Sandford-Bell said it now took a manager just three to five minutes to complete a roster, which was delivered via email and SMS.

He said the group was able to aim for a set percentage of 25 per cent of total sales per store collectively allocated to wages.

“Using this program, we can hit that percentage every week and we have shaved close to five to six per cent off our wage bill from this time last year,” Mr Sandford-Bell said.

He expects to save between $90,000 and $130,000 in reduced wages for the year.

“A lot of our staff are Gen Y and they are really adept at being online and used to being on the internet, so this isn’t a burden for them, they actually quite enjoy it,” Mr Sandford-Bell said.

The ROSS system is priced per roster, with free upgrades. Mr Sandford-Bell pays about $7-$8 per weekly roster for six stores, plus an administration roster. He is invoiced monthly and pays up to $220 a month.

“Plus any little upgrades that we wanted they did for us, and they were able to adapt the program to make it even better for us.”

Mr Sandford-Bell next plans to trial a new addition to the ROSS system with a “clocking on” style program for staff members.

CASE STUDY: SUBWAY

The problem: The company lacked tools to accurately forecast labour costs. It needed a faster way to confirm staff availability and produce rosters.

The process: Web-based employee scheduling was introduced, and rostering system Roster with ROSS, developed by Zarloc.

The result: Labour costs are down by between $90,000 and $130,000 a year. Shift information is delivered by email and SMS.’

Source: The Australian

Spreadsheets Out & Online Rostering System In Equals More Profit is a post from: OE Design Blog

Here’s why…

‘From his radio earpiece to the palm pilot in his hand, George Gevas is the epitome of the thoroughly wired waiter.

When he greets diners at Darling Harbour’s Criniti’s Southern Italian restaurant, he can chat to the chef through his headset and lead customers to tables complete with computer tablets which allow them to choose their drinks and meals before he’s handed them a menu.

The touchscreen is replacing the human touch in restaurants across Sydney. From Quay Restaurant, which has its 400-bottle wine list on the restaurant’s iPad, to North Sydney’s Mondo Global Tapas where the 15 iPad menus have proved particularly popular with solo dinners and parents with children, technology is transforming the restaurant experience…

…technology for waitstaff and chefs is changing at such a rapid rate that training is becoming an important part of the recipe for a successful restaurant, according to Michel Laroche, a hospitality teacher at TAFE’s Western Institute in Orange, which trains more than half of the NSW restaurant staff.

‘It’s not just tapping in who wants what for dinner these days – technology is playing an increasingly important role in collecting demographics about diners to help restaurateurs know things like their customer’s food preferences and birthdays…it’s utterly changing the relationship between kitchen and the diner,’ he said.

…Rock pool’s Neil Perry, who has installed a video link between his Sydney and Melbourne kitchens to watch service in his restaurants and is planning to use iPads to train his service staff.’

All part of the new recipe for technological and future business success.

Source: The Sydney Morning Herald

The New Recipe For Technological Success is a post from: OE Design Blog

‘The Global Financial Crisis has spurred more investors to take charge – which is why online trading is attracting 100,000 new customers every year.

From a slow start in the late 1990s online trading has ridden the boom in interest in the stock market and rising internet penetration, to the point where it now accounts for about 12 per cent of the trades put through the Australian Securities Exchange(ASX).

That’s not bad, given that the big investment banks – which do almost wholly institutional business – account for almost 80 per cent of trading.

And online broking is still a growth industry, according to the nation’s internet brokers.

‘I think online broking will add a percentage point or two to its market share every year for the foreseeable future,’ says Stuart Sayers, managing director of ETrade, the number two online broker, with 22 percent of the market (behind CommSec, which has 53 per cent.)

‘It almost has to, based on trends we see in the internet penetration and the take-up of online banking. Australia is not quite 100 per cent internet penetration, but it’s pretty close. And internet banking use grows at about 6-7 per cent a year, every year.’

‘That tells me that, one, older people are becoming more comfortable online; and two, younger people, that’s what they do with everything. Those two factors will grow in importance every year….’

‘We’re seeing about 100,000 new customers a year, and that number has grown steadily over the past four to five years – and it had a bit of a jump over the past year,’ Brian Phelps, head of distribution and margin lending at CommSec says. ‘We believe this reflects more people wanting to take charge of their investment. Two years ago, we were averaging 35,000-40,000 trades a day. About a year ago, it was averaging 50,000 trades a day: over the course of the last financial year we averaged 75,000-80,000 trades a day.’

Arnie Selvarajah, chief executive officer of Bell Direct, the online brokering arm of Bell Potter, says the average trade size on the online market has crept up to about $10,000-$12,000…

The next growth boost for the online broking industry is the access through handsets such as the iPhone. Since the iPhone was introduced in Australia in 2008, Mr Selvarajah says the handsets use has grown to the point where about 5 per cent of Bell Direct’s clients that log in each day do so via an iPhone.

The online trading market is also being boosted by the burgeoning market for contracts for difference (CFDs) in Australia now estimated at $350 million in size, and involving 35,000 investors. This market is conducted wholly online.

Source: The Australian

Online Trading On The Up & Up is a post from: OE Design Blog

The following article in The Australian newspaper this morning confirms what has happened to me personally…

‘Smartphone users are more likely to surf the internet than make a phone call as the behavioral patterns of consumers change, new research reveals.

With the latest iPhone hitting the Australian market last week, a global study by media company Initiative found that 51 per cent of owners of smartphones such as the iPhone and Blackberry were using their phones more for data-driven applications, mostly web surfing, while only 39 per cent were using them mainly to make calls.

Christopher O’Keefe, managing director of Initiative in Sydney, said use of smartphones was changing as customers upgraded, with implications for advertisers and content creators.

He said he believed mobile internet use was being underestimated.

“On any given day an Australian smartphone user spends an average of 27 minutes accessing mobile internet. And iPhone users are interacting with mobile internet more frequently than any other handset user.”

About 70 per cent of iPhone owners used their phones to surf the internet several times a day. 49 per cent of Blackberry owners used theirs that way, and 44 per cent of Nokia users did.

“Australians are avid emailers in the morning, taskers during the day, and social networkers after work.” Mr O’Keefe said.

When at home, many smartphone users were using their phones to surf while watching TV or listening to the radio.

Australians are also more interested in fun, escapism and social connectivity than the global average.

But the research also exploded the myth that younger owners are the most open to advertising on their smartphones. “Interestingly, people aged 35-44 are most engaged with mobile communications from companies rather than the younger generation, with almost 70 per cent of people in the demographic opening most or all of signed-up alerts,” he said.

The research also suggests consumers still view mobile advertising space as uncluttered, with just 36 per cent saying they were exposed to too many banner ads. And it was found that nearly 24 per cent of people in Australia were choosing to use the internet via their phone rather than on a PC.

“Convenience and accessibility are the primary reasons.”

Recent analysis of Vodafone by Ovum also showed that future growth was in data rather than voice.’

Source: Simon Canning for The Australian

The Ever Expanding World Of Smartphone Users is a post from: OE Design Blog

Mr Murdoch’s News Corp has ridden the iPad wave, selling 20,000 apps for its newspapers. The sales included 4500 subscriptions for The Australian app and 5000 for The Times in Britain.

Analysts estimate Apple will sell up to eight million iPads this year.

Mr Murdoch said he expected to gain at least an additional 1.1 million paying subscribers to The Wall Street Journal he owns, thanks to the iPad. The Journal already charges a similar number of people for access to restricted content on its website. So far 10,000 people are reading the newspaper on their iPads, according to Mr Murdoch. Another 100,000 people who already buy the Journal and have it delivered at home are also using the iPad to read it, he said.

‘To introduce them to it, we’re giving them that for nothing. But later on, we’ll charge probably a discounted rate, if you’re also buying the paper itself, ‘ he said.  In comparison, a spokesperson for The New York Times said last week that its iPad application – entirely free of charge for now – had been used by 300,000 people.

Last Tuesday, Mr Jobs – Apple’s CEO – said that ‘any democracy depends on a free, healthy press’, a thought echoed by Mr Murdoch, who said he was convinced that tools like the portable tablet computers would not spell the end of the press. ‘Most people over 50 love the tactile experience of reading a real newspaper,’ said Mr Murdoch.

‘But it doesn’t mean that you won’t also have this or take it with you or read it on the train or whatever. Or use it for your email or whatever. Or give it to your kids to play games on it.’

Gold Coast Bulletin

Ipad Making News(Papers) is a post from: OE Design Blog

Borders, owned by REDGroup Retail, launched the Kobo eReader yesterday for $199, undercutting Amazon’s Kindle e-book reader by $103.

The company also introduced a Borders iPhone app for reading digital books, and promised to deliver other apps for Blackberry and Android smartphones, as well as its potential rival, the Apple iPad that is due in stores next Friday….

Borders’ online store features more than two million digital books for download, though the REDGroup Retail group managing director Dave Fenlon admitted that only 50,000 were available for sale, while the rest were free books, many out of copyright.

New-release books typically cost between $10 and $15 to download.

More than 100 publishers have signed up to be part of the Borders online bookstore, and Australian children’s author Garth Nix said the companies should embrace the opportunity to weed out copyright theft and sell more titles….

A recent worldwide survey of 13,000 consumers by the Boston Consulting Group showed 28 per cent of respondents expect to buy an e-book reader in the next year.’

Jennifer Dudley-Nicholson – National Technology Writer www.couriermail.com.au

E-xciting E-Book Launch Hits Australian Market is a post from: OE Design Blog

‘Google has turned its popular application into an advertising medium, with Australia the test bed in the search giant’s bid to open new revenue streams.

Australian web surfers have become the first in the world to see advertiser logos on the Google Maps website, highlighting the locations of five companies – NAB, Bankwest, JB Hi-Fi, LJ Hooker and Chemist Warehouse. Fitness First and BP are also understood to be preparing to launch advertising on the service.

The new advertising channel has been developed by Google engineers in Australia and is being piloted in both Australia and New Zealand. If successful, it will be rolled out globally.

The logos will pinpoint the location of advertiser’s stores and outlets, ranging from bank ATMs to petrol stations and coffee shops. Viewers can click through to get information on the store or a corporate website.

Google product manager Matthew Leske said the idea initially had been to make map references more useful to users by using the logos they would see on the street.

‘The primary thing was to help users – how do you help people recognize a location instantly?’ Mr Leske said. ‘The second thing was: how can we let advertisers take advantage of this?’

Advertisers will be charge per thousand views for each logo, even when several logos for a company appear in the same view – but the system will also show logos based on the relevance of the consumer’s search,

The function will be available on desktop and laptop PCs first, and eventually on mobile phones using Google’s Android operating system.’

Source: The Australian

Australia, Google Maps & More Money is a post from: OE Design Blog

One lesson from the research is that the theory you have to be young to be switched on is false. ‘Your use of technology is strongly linked to behavioural patterns or attitudes to life, rather than age,’ Mr McCrindle said.

So when it comes to being a consumer, then who are you?

1. Downagers – who is Generation Y in attitude but not in age. You often hear that young people are the early adopters of technology, but it is actually the baby boomers who spend more on technology than any other generation. They’re using the technology, they’re connecting, they’re social networking and they’re texting their kids.

2. Explorers – they are positive towards technology, they’re looking to use technology, but they’re new to technology.

3. Power Workers – They’re using technology not just in a social context and they’re not new to technology. They are empowered by technology. Yhey’re using it in a very useful and productive and profitable way.

4. Traditionalists – They just are not interested or motivated by the technology.

Along with the consumer groups, there are the four behavioral labels.

1. The Agree-ers – are those who see the benefit of technology and they’re across it to talk about it and nod their head but they don’t adopt and get into it. They might sign up for a Facebook site but they’ve never done anything with it or they register for a Twitter account but haven’t sent a tweet yet.

2. The Embracers – are those who follow the trends.

3. The Seekers – are those on the cutting edge.

4. The Hecklers – are those who don’t see the benefits, with excuses like it doesn’t suit their needs.

When it comes to the new must-have gadgets such as iPad or Amazon’s wireless ebook reader the Kindle, the Agree-ers will talk about one, the Embracers will buy one, the Seekers will be excited about the next generation, and then there are the Hecklers who have a different approach again.  ‘They say it’s portable, it’s lightweight, you can read books on it – what about a book?’

Source: The Courier Mail McCrindle Research

Technology Consumers and Behaviours – Who Are You? is a post from: OE Design Blog