Roopa is tapping into the outlacement service provided by her old company. Elise had another promising job interview today. And Kris has been contacted by a jet-charter company interested in seeing his resume. Read the rest of this entry »
My, but we have some angry people out there. In response to our debut in Sunday’s paper, dozens of folks weighed in on the plight of our three laid-off workers. Some were sympathetic. But not all. Read the rest of this entry »
We interrupt your iPhone fun for a brief message.
All iPhone play and no security can make the pocket computer a dangerous toy.
VeriSign, a provider of Internet infrastructure services, announced today it is releasing a security app for the device.
Its VIP Access for Mobile application, which is free to consumers through Apple’s online App Store, installs a one-time-password credential on the phone. It can be used along with a username and password to increase security of online accounts.
The authentication service can be used at dozens of Web sites, including eBay, PayPal and AOL, which pay a fee of $3 to $10 per account, according to a VeriSign spokeswoman.
OK, you can get back to gaming.
New Orleans has not been a repository of good news this decade, but perhaps the post-Katrina environment is starting to show results.
Jackson Square in New Orleans
Sustainlane.com, a Web green-living guide, evaluated how green the fleets were in America’s big cities, and handed Nawlins the crown. That’s because 100% of its public vehicles are propelled by alternative fuels. That list includes biodiesel, hydrogen, ethanol, CNG, electricity or gas-electric hybrids.
Here is the top 10 list, as well as the percentage of the fleet in each that’s green:
1. New Orleans, 100%
2. Las Vegas, 90%
3. Omaha, 74%
4. Fort Worth, 70%
5. Portland, 60%
6. Colorado Springs, 58%
7. Kansas City, 50%
8. Dallas, 49%
9. Albuquerque, 47%
10. San Francisco, 47%
The national median for green fleet % inthe 50 largest cities is 19.5%. San Jose’s fleet is 34.3% green, according to a SustainLane.com spokeswoman.
Greenpeace gave Apple some kudos on Tuesday for improving its environmental policies. But the environmental activists made clear that the iPhone maker still has a long way to go before earning Greenpeace’s stamp of approval.
Apple ranks 10th out of 17 companies in the organization’s latest report (summary; PDF) on the environmental policies of leading technology firms. That’s not only an improvement from Greenpeace’s report last fall, when the organization ranked Apple 13th, but it also puts Apple well ahead of fellow PC makers Dell, Hewlett-Packard and Lenovo.
Less than a year old, Apple’s online App Store is on its way to becoming a billion-dollar marketplace for iPhone applications that often sell for no more than a few dollars, according to Mobclix, a start-up that offers developers analytical data garnered from mobile devices.
The App Store, which allows independent software writers to sell applications for the iPhone, is growing 38 percent a month and adding 200 new apps a day, says Santa Clara-based Mobclix. The company expects the online store to be a billion-dollar marketplace within two years.
Already, more than 31,000 apps are listed in the store — 29 percent of which are free — substantially more than the official 25,000 apps Apple executives recently reported, Mobclix said. There have been 800 million downloads from the store, up from the 500 million Apple reported earlier this year.
“You have a new validation of how big of an economy this could be,” said Mobclix co-founderVishal Gurbuxani. “Mobile apps is not a new concept. But having a centralized distribution is new. Simplicity is the key — that’s where Apple is shining.”
The market is new and Apple will face competition from other major mobile vendors, including Microsoft, Research In Motion and Google, all of whom are building online app stores, as well, he added.
Mobclix reports that 60 percent of online buzz about App Store apps regard those that are free. This indicates that free apps supported by advertising could be a better business in some cases than charging a fee, said Gurbuxani, whose start-up is one of a handful popping up in the new iPhone ecosystem offering services to developers.
“It’s the behavior and intent of users that basically leads to actionable business insights,” he said. “It’s business intelligence you can act upon.”
For instance, Mobclix can provide data that shows 20 to 30 percent of users who download an application use it every day.
“It shows how many daily users they have,” he said. “It’s a way you can monetize your apps.”
Another service the company has developed is called Link Exchange, a viral ad model in which clients can advertise their apps on each others applications.
AT&T was excoriated earlier this month by the technorati attending the South By Southwest conference in Austin. It seems with all the geeks attending the confab with their iPhones, the carrier’s network was overloaded. Attendees reportedly couldn’t access the Web, send text messages or even place phone calls.
The giant carrier did address the problems — two days after the conference started — by turning up the bandwidth on its existing towers.
One might think that the company would learn its lesson; i.e., a critical mass of geeks in one area at one time yields network overload. But apparently not.
See the video here: Part One: The Job Was You
The Pink Slip 2.0 project, following the lives of three recently laid off Silicon Valley workers, is officially up and running. Check out today’s Mercury News’ page for the stories and photos, then go online to see Emmy Award-winning Dai Sugano’s compelling multimedia presentation on our three subjects.
Then follow us along here, in the paper, online and on Twitter as we explore the fiscal and emotional challenges of being out of work today.
The job-hunting world reflects the real world in all its diversity. So it’s not surprising at all to learn from my former colleague Eric Olvera that Out & Equal Workplace Advocates has launched it’s own take on the burgeoning family of job boards out there. this one focused on gays. Read the rest of this entry »
California’s Employment Development Department said today it will be opening certain offices from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at on Saturdays beginning tomorrow. Computers and phones will be available for folks who may not have access to such items at home to help them Read the rest of this entry »
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