Featured Report:Looks are everything in wearable tech

Info World Mobilized 

The Tizen smartphone flopped -- and open source is to blame

July,29,2014

by: Galen Gruman

You know the saying: Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Now that Samsung has "indefinitely" delayed the launch of its first Tizen smartphone, can anyone believe any more open source mobile promises?

Open source mobile efforts have a history of failure: Moblin, Maemo, MeeGo, and Tizen are all examples that have been shepherded into oblivion by the Linux Foundation and an assembly of vendors. Canonical's Ubuntu Touch, Mozilla's Firefox OS, and Jolla's Sailfish (derived from MeeGo) all seem to be following similar trajectories to nowhere. Read More

Fierce Wireless

BlackBerry exec indicates more enterprise-focused devices are in the pipeline

July,29,2014

by: Phil Goldstein

BlackBerry (NASDAQ:BBRY) is aiming its forthcoming Passport smartphone squarely at the enterprise market, but has plans for enterprise-focused devices beyond that.

At an event in New York City that focused on enterprise security, BlackBerry executives touted the Passport, which will be released in September. The gadget has a 4.5-inch square HD screen and a physical keyboard. However, it's not the only enterprise-focused phone BlackBerry is planning, thought he company did not provide many details on its future product roadmap.  Read More

Tech Republic U.S.

Looks are everything in wearable tech

July,29,2014

by: Teena Hammond 

One of the first panel questions related to size. Does an oversized wearable appeal as much to the consumer as a more moderately sized one?

"It's about the application that matters. Sometimes it's if the wearable is meant for a construction worker, size might not be an issue, but if it's for a hardcore athletic sportsman and sportswoman, then definitely size matters," said Mikko Malmivaara, sales and marketing manager for Clothing Plus Ltd., which makes sensors for wearable tech clothing.

It's not just the size of the device, but how it fits against the body, said Amy Puliafito, spokesperson for Misfit Wearables, which produces the popular Misfit Shine fitness device. "In everything we did with Shine we were trying to eliminate a lot of friction points people have with their activity trackers," she said.  Read More

Fierce Developer

Vision Mobile: One-quarter of developers make nothing from apps

July,25,2014

by: Shane Schick

A disappointing 24 percent of developers will make absolutely nothing from the apps and mobile games they create, according to Vision Mobile. The firm's Developer Economics Report Q3 2014 is based on survey responses from more than 10,000 developers in 137 countries. 

• 50 percent of iOS developers and 64 percent of Android developers are below what Vision Mobile calls the "app poverty line" of $500 per app per month. 
• Besides the 24 percent who make nothing from apps, Vision Mobile said a further 23 percent make less than $100 per app per month. 
• The overall app economy includes its own "one percent." In this case, 1.6 percent of developers have apps earning more than $500k per month
• Games dominate app store revenues, but 57 percent of those games make less than $500 per month.
• Vision Mobile found that the more games a developer has shipped, the more likely they are to be financially successful. However, 70 percent of game developers have shipped less than four titles. Read More

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Feature Report: How to Display Prices on Your Business Website. Or Not.

Dex Media

How to Display Prices on Your Business Website. Or Not.

July,10,2014

by:Jeff B. Copeland 

NO. Never give a price till you’ve had a chance to persuade a customer of the value of what you’re selling and that’s best done by moving the conversation along from your website to a phone call or other two-way communication.

YES. Your customers are already price-checking your product or service on Amazon, Milo, Yelp, LegalZoom, AutoMD and on and on. Get into the price conversation up front. Plus, save yourself the trouble of giving sales pitches on the phone to shoppers who can’t afford you.  Read More

Ad Week

LinkedIn Ads Can Be Tested and Targeted Like Never Before

July,24,2014
by: Garett Sloane
LinkedIn advertising is growing up. The company officially launched Direct Sponsored Content today, a sign of maturity that has brands and agencies ready to invest more in the platform. Direct Sponsored Content allow an advertiser to test, tailor and target messages similar tohow they do on Facebook. 

Until now, brands could only sponsor messages that they first posted to their LinkedIn pages as organic content, limiting the freedom to test messaging without broadcasting to all followers and visitors to the page.

"This is a big step for LinkedIn monetizing the feed," said James Borow, CEO of Shift, a marketing software firm and LinkedIn partner. "Organic content amplified only takes you so far, so it's opening up this inventory for true 'A/B testing' and sophisticate advertising."  Read More

e-Marketer

Pinning? Bet You're Doing It on Mobile
July,22,2014
by: Staff
eMarketer estimates that 40.1 million US consumers will use Pinterest via any device at least monthly this year—and based on recent data, it’s likely that most of this activity will take place on mobile. According to Q2 2014 research by ShareThis, US internet users logging on to Pinterest via mobile were three times more likely to pin than desktop users.  Three-quarters of Pinterest sharing took place on a mobile device. In comparison, Facebook—which claimed the overwhelming majority of all social shares—saw just over half conducted via smartphone or tablet.  Read More

Site Pro News

Effective SEO Tips for Small Businesses

July,28,2014

by: Tina Courtney-Brown 

Every small business with an online presence has to deal with the issue of SEO. Most, however, haven’t a clue where to begin. As you delve into the topic across the endless articles on the subject, a feeling of being overwhelmed can easily taint the process; for many, the task seems daunting and endless.

In truth, SEO is not rocket science. While it can be a complicated formula, there are very clear and effective ways to kick start your SEO efforts. In other words, there are SEO tactics that are absolutely essential to success, and they provide the perfect foundation from which to build your strategy.

Don’t be overwhelmed. Be educated. Take the list below and implement each suggestion, one by one, and your rankings will reflect your efforts. They may not land you at the number one position over night, but they will give you a boost and provide insight on what’s working and what’s not. Having a place to start from is priceless. It’s time to dive in and master SEO.

Read More

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Feature Report:House bill seeks to phase in Medicare coverage of telemedicine, remote patient monitoring

MobiHealthNews

House bill seeks to phase in Medicare coverage of telemedicine, remote patient monitoring

July,23,2014

by: Jonah Comstock 

Representatives Mike Thompson (D-Calif.) and Glenn Thompson (R-Penn.) are set to announce a new telehealth bill soon. Like some of Mike Thompson’s previous telehealth efforts, the bill seeks to amend the Title XVIII of the Social Security Act, the law that has long limited government-reimbursed telemedicine to rural areas and specific use cases.

As Jonathan Linkous, CEO of the American Telemedicine Association (ATA), has told MobiHealthNews in the past, when the Social Security Act was passed telehealth was in its infancy and legislators, worried about abuse or that telemedicine wouldn’t be cost-effective, limited Medicare and Medicaid coverage to very particular cases. Only patients in rural areas could be reimbursed for any telehealth service that required patient-physician interaction, for instance. Those types of arbitrary restrictions have become increasingly obstructive for telemedicine practitioners over the years. Read More

HealthDataManagement

UnitedHealthcare Releases Mobile App to Non-Members

July,24,2014

by: Greg Goth

UnitedHealthcare's free mobile app Health4Me is now available to all consumers. The app gives users access to an array of healthcare information, including the ability to review market average prices for more than 520 medical services. Health4Me is designed to help all consumers make more informed decisions regarding their care, including the ability to:

* Locate nearby healthcare providers, and convenience care, urgent care and emergency care facilities

* Review market average prices for more than 520 medical services across 290 episodes of care, providing a comprehensive view of what consumers should expect throughout their course of treatment  Read More

Modern Healthcare

Working around exchange subsidy ruling should be easy: experts

July,23,2014

by: Darius Tahir and Paul Demko 

Tuesday's split decision in two federal appellate court cases over whether consumers shopping on the federal insurance exchange can receive premium subsidies could have major effects on the healthcare market. But some experts say officials in states that have not established their own state-run exchanges could solve the problem fairly easily if they want to, and that they will face significant political pressure to do so.

A study by the Urban Institute concluded that 7.3 million Americans would lose $36.1 billion in federal subsidies in 2016 if states that defaulted to the federal exchange can't access subsidies. That would have a big impact on the exchange insurance market, both in the number of consumers buying plans and in the health status of the greatly reduced pool of enrollees. Read More

Med City News

To make personalized medicine reality, Path2Cures speakers call for open data sharing

July,24,2014

by: Meghana Keshavan

Breaking out of research silos and collaborating more openly will be a big step in driving personalized medicine forward, said Dr. Andrew Futreal, a professor of genomic medicine at MD Anderson.

Futreal was one of a dozen personal-medicine experts from the private, public and academic sectors who spoke at a Path2Cures hearing Wednesday in front of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

It’s going to be an expensive proposition, after all, to tailor medications for each individual – so teamwork is key, the panel agreed.

“We’re sitting on a massive opportunity to do away with that single investigator-driven idea,” Futreal said. That’s what they’re doing, after all, at MD Anderson – exploring partnerships, and shedding the “homegrown” kind of research that’s typical of academia. Read More

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Featured Report: Will Apple bring developers to IBM's Watson ecosystem?

ZD Net 

Will Apple bring developers to IBM's Watson ecosystem?

July,20,2014

by: Larry Dignan 

One of IBM's primary motives for cutting a large enterprise deal with Apple may revolve around building a mobile and cloud developer ecosystem for cognitive computing and Watson.

Last week, IBM and Apple announced a broad enterprise pact where Big Blue would develop industry specific apps built on iOS. In addition, there were service, support and mobile device management parts of the deal. Apple gets some enterprise throughput with IBM that it couldn't achieve on its own. IBM gets a key partner in Apple and some help for its mobile efforts.

Read More

CIO Mobile

Mobile Workers: ‘I Want My BlackBerry Back’

July,23,2014

by: Tom Kaneshige

At a well-known investment firm in New York City, something strange is happening: Mobile app performance issues and privacy concerns have sparked a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) revolt, and now many employees are asking for their corporate BlackBerry back."It's a nightmare," says an IT executive speaking on condition of anonymity.The executive says he's tried four mobile device management (MDM) products and, in every instance, has had significant problems. Architectural failings made some rollouts difficult, he says. One MDM featured an impressive containerized solution but no push notifications for email. Another wouldn't let salespeople send email from inside the Salesforce app or open a PDF with GoodReader. Read More

Fierce Developer

How app developers are sizing up the Android Wear opportunity

July,21,2014

by: Shane Schick

For consumers, adapting to a smart watch is all in the wrist, but for app developers, it will take more to determine whether Android Wear is the right fit for what they want to create.News recently surfaced that Flopsy Droid, a clone of the massively popular Flappy Bird, would be among the first mobile games to make its way to the wearable platform Google announced at its I/O conference in late June. In other categories, however, such as fitness and health, Android Wear apps have been steadily hitting the market, while device manufacturers such as LG have created smart watches specifically tailored to the technology. For those that get in early, there is the potential to stand out, while those who wait may be able to avoid some of the early glitches that have hampered the move to wearable experiences.  Read More

Fierce Wireless

Verizon takes Smart Rewards customer loyalty program nationwide

July,21,2014

by: Phil Goldstein

Verizon Wireless (NYSE: VZ) will launch its Smart Reward program nationwide on July 24, giving all of its postpaid customers access to its customer loyalty program. The program, which was launched earlier this year in select markets, allows customers to accumulate points and then use those points toward discounts on the purchase of various goods and services. Verizon said customers who sign up for Smart Rewards will get at least 10,000 points when they register. The carrier said that customers will get points for activities such as signing in to the My Verizon online account management tool, paying their monthly bill, and other transactions like using the Verizon Trade In program or choosing paperless billing.

The Smart Rewards program is similar to the loyalty and reward programs offered by credit card companies, grocery stores and others. Verizon said its program offers customers discounts and savings of up to 40 percent on brand-name merchandise from more than 200 well-known brands. The program also gives customers offers on local shopping and dining they can redeem directly from their wireless device, as well as travel offers including discounts at more than 26,000 hotels. Read More

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Featured Report:How to Ask For Customer Reviews

Dex Media

How to Ask For Customer Reviews

March,,2014

by: Jeff B. Copeland

You know that online reviews help drive customers to your business. But did you know they also improve your visibility in online searches? It’s true—Google looks for reviews about your business across a variety of sites when it determines where you rank in searches.So now is the time for local businesses to go after more reviews, spread across more sites that publish reviews–not just Yelp, but Google+ Local, Angie’s List and other local directories like DexKnows.com. Read More

Telecompetitor

Columbia U Studies Mobile Advertising Do’s and Don’ts

July,16,2014

by: Andrew Burger

Though they appear on small screens, mobile display ads – banner ads that pop up in mobile Web browsers – “can have a big effect on consumers who are in the market for certain types of products,” according to researchers at the Columbia Business School.“Digital advertising in mobile channels is experiencing explosive growth,” Miklos Sarvary, report co-author and co-director of Columbia University Business School’s Media Program, points out. According to eMarketer, brands spent $8.4 billion on mobile advertising in 2013, and that’s expected to quadruple to $36 billion by 2017. Read More

Marketing Sherpa

How Copyblogger used content and a free paywall to grow its email list by 400%

July,17,2014

by: Brian Clark

How do you build an email marketing list in a distrustful environment? This is the question that Brian Clark, Founder and CEO, Copyblogger, asked in his session at Email Summit 2014 in Las Vegas.  "It's harder and harder to sell free content in exchange for an email address because people are afraid of what you're going to do with it, what you're going to do in the sanctity of their email inbox," he said.  Copyblogger didn't trust that traditional methods of delivering content, such as a newsletter, would be effective enough to drive list opt-ins for its new free content paywall, "MyCopyblogger." With that, they wanted to offer more perceived and actual value than they believed a newsletter send could provide.  Read More

AD Week

How the World's Top Sports Marketers Learned to Love Mobile, Social and Female Fans

July ,15,2014

by: James Cooper

The business of professional sports has never been bigger or more complex. Games are seen via multiple media and screens, and are time-shifted. Social and mobile have become first-string players. And sports is the last true collective viewing hearth at scale. Ours is a golden age for the avid sports fan and casual spectator—and a busy and intense inflection point for sports marketing teams.

Four executives stand at the leading edge of this transition. They also happen to be judges for this year’s inaugural Clio Sports Awards, to be presented in New York on July 17. They are Dana White, president of Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC); John Miller, CMO of NBC Sports Group; Lisa Baird, CMO of the U.S. Olympic Committee; and Robert Gottlieb, evp, marketing for Fox Sports Media Group. Read More

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Featured Report: Telemedicine Poised for Growth, but Barriers Hinder Widespread Adoption

EHR Intelliegence

23% of providers use Epic, but VA EHR is tops for satisfaction

July,17,2014

by:Jennifer Bresnick 

Nearly a quarter of physician providers with an EHR are currently using Epic Systems,according to data from the 2014 Medscape EHR Report, but the wildly popular interface doesn’t get anywhere near the highest marks for user satisfaction.  That honor goes to the VA-CPRS, the EHR used by the beleaguered Department of Veterans Affairs, with Epic left languishing in seventh place behind several of its most significant competitors. Read More

iHealthBeat

Telemedicine Poised for Growth, but Barriers Hinder Widespread Adoption

July,09,2014

by: Staff

Advocates say telemedicine is primed for wider adoption, but regulatory and reimbursement problems are getting in the way.In an iHealthBeat audio report by Kenny Goldberg, experts discussed efforts to realize the benefits of telemedicine and the policy challenges that are limiting adoption of the technology.  Read More

HIX

Employers On Private Exchanges Troubled By Employee Communication Challenges

July,18,2014by: ANDREA DAVIS

Early adopters of private health care exchanges shared their experiences this week at EBN’s Private Healthcare Exchanges conference in Chicago, with many reporting employee communication as one of their primary challenges in moving to the exchange model.

Leslie Vander Gheynst, director of KWRI human resources with realtor Keller Williams, which has 100,000 real estate agents across the U.S., says communication and education was “extremely difficult because those agents are not focused on how the health care reform bill is going to affect them.” Keller Williams replaced its mini-medical plans last December and now offers its sales associates (classified as independent contractors, or 1099 workers, for IRS tax-filing purposes) access to a private exchange through ConnectedHealth. Read More

MobiHealthNews

What will the IBM-Apple partnership mean for healthcare?

July,17,2014

by: Jonah Comstock 

When it comes to tech partnerships, it’s hard to imagine one more hard-hitting than Apple and IBM, two companies who announced this week that they would be collaborating on enterprise software for iPhones and iPads. Apple is also rolling out a new customer service and support offering specifically for enterprise customers. Read More

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Featured Report: Yes, Facebook's popularity will decline

ZD Net

Yes, Facebook's popularity will decline

July,10,2014

by: Robin Harris

Remember when Princeton researchers published a paper asserting that Facebook would lose 80 percent of its users by 2017, based on analyzing Google Trends data for Facebook searches? Everyone had a good laugh over that, not least of all Facebook, whose clever comeback used similar data to find that Princeton was in trouble.

Yet a second study (Strong Regularities in Growth and Decline of Popularity of Social Media Services) by researchers Christian Bauckhage and Kristian Kersting of Germany's noted Fraunhofer Institute has reached a similar conclusion. And they looked at 175 different Internet services — including Friendster, Myspace, Secondlife, Yelp and Zynga — across 45 different countries.  Read More

Dex Media

3 Things You Can Do to Help Your Website Now

July,07,2014

by: Marion Jacobson

Review What You’ve Got When was the last time anything new got added to your website? If the answer is anything other than “Today!” then you have a huge opportunity to make a difference.Review the existing content on your site. Does each page have a separate and distinct purpose or are you basically repeating the same info on your home page, your “About” page and your “Services” page? Do you only have ONE page for services? Create a sub-page for every product/service you sell and make sure you fill each page with useful information for your target customer. Read More

Mobile Commerce Daily

39pc of leading retail mobile sites lose sales because of redirects

July,11,2014

by: Chantal Tode

Many of the top 500 e-retailers use unique m-dot sites that redirect users an average 3.03 times before landing on the right site, resulting in poor user experiences that are costing these retailers sales. With all the talk about responsive Web design and adaptive design, new data from Web optimization firm Yottaa reveals that 150 of the top 500 eretailers still have a unique m-dot site. As the crucial holiday season approaches, too many of these retailers are not taking the steps to insure that mobile users land on their sites quickly, a potentially costly misstep as research shows that just a one-second delay in site response time can reduce conversions by 7 percent. Read More

WIX BLOG

20 Content Ideas for Your Website or Blog

July,14,2014

by: Staff

Sometimes, coming up with new content for your website or blog can be a trying task. If this has proved true for you recently, worry not. Just when you think you’ve exhausted every possible form of content, we’re here to shine a light on some inspirational gems that will get that content flowing from your fingertips before you know it.  Read More

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