Online Real Estate Technology

Households will pay at least $60 – and up to $190 – a month for internet services on the National Broadband Network, data from an internet provider shows.

The first retail pricing for services over the $36 billion NBN were released by internet provider Internode on Thursday.

Packages start at $59.95 a month for a basic 12-megabit-per-second (Mbps) service with a 30-gigabyte quota for downloads and uploads, The Australian newspaper reported on Friday.

At the top end, Internode said it would charge $189.95 a month for a 100Mbps service with a 1000GB download quota.

Internode blamed the high prices on ‘existing flaws in the NBN Co wholesale charging model’ and warned that regional customers could have to pay more to connect to the network.

Telstra, the commonwealth and the builder NBN Co signed definitive agreements for the rollout of the $35.9 billion scheme in June.

NBN Co plans to provide a fibre-optic cable network to 93 per cent of the population while the remaining seven per cent will have either fixed wireless or satellite broadband over the next decade.

View the original article here

The federal government says education, rather than legislation, is the best way to protect children using Facebook and other social media.

But the government has agreed to look at proposals being prepared by South Australia, including tighter age limits on use of the social media and giving parents more rights to access their children’s Facebook accounts.

The SA government will prepare a discussion paper on the issue after raising its concerns at a meeting of state and federal attorneys-general in Adelaide on Friday.

Federal Justice Minister Brendan O’Connor said the government was loath to legislate where legislation was not going to work.

‘I think education is the key,’ he said.

‘We need to make sure young people are informed about the potential risks.

‘The cyber world is a magnificent place, it’s a fantastic educational tool, it’s a fantastic place for people to engage socially.

‘But the internet is not a benign playground. There are potential threats to young people in particular.’

South Australian Attorney-General John Rau said Australia was going through a revolution in the way people consumed and generated information.

‘That is a technologically driven change that is way ahead of the legal system and probably the thinking of most governments around the world and certainly in this country,’ he said.

‘We are grappling with changes that are moving more quickly than most people would have thought possible only a few years ago.’

SA’s proposals are likely to include a provision to raise the age for Facebook users and to also require the site to seek proof of age.

They will also consider allowing greater parental access.

Facebook currently requires users to be aged at least 13, but there is no requirement to provide proof of age.

A SA mother found recently that her teenage daughter had uploaded inappropriate pictures of herself to her Facebook page but the mother was prevented by Facebook from removing them.

Mr Rau said that case highlighted the concerns of many parents, while Mr O’Connor said more needed to be done to educate and inform young people of the dangers associated with posting material online.

‘People need to think carefully about what they upload, what they put onto their Facebook and social websites,’ he said.

View the original article here

The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Australia (ICAA) superannuation specialist, Liz Westover has warned against real estate agents promoting the virtues of purchasing real estate within a self-managed superannuation fund (SMSF).

Westover has referred to recent promotional efforts on the part of real estate agents suggesting that the process is straightforward, but warns that this is not the case.

“These issues are never straightforward and there are a range of factors that need to be given due consideration, not only before entering these borrowing arrangements but also before setting up an SMSF,” she said.

Westover said SMSFs were not the best superannuation option for everyone, and should not be established simply as a vehicle to borrow to buy real estate.

“Borrowing can be a valuable tool within an SMSF to bolster retirement savings, but it must be used appropriately and in full knowledge of the facts and all the associated risks,” she said.

Westover urged people looking to borrow within an SMSF for the purchase of real estate to seek advice from a professional rather than a real estate agent.

Story by Mike Taylor www.moneymanagement.com.au

In the face of an outcry over so-called ‘naked’ body scans at airports, US authorities have announced plans for a new scanning system that eliminates ‘passenger-specific images’.

Transportation Security Administration administrator John Pistole said the agency would begin installing new software on its scanners ‘designed to enhance privacy’.

The new software ‘will auto-detect items that could pose a potential threat using a generic outline of a person for all passengers,’ the agency said on Wednesday.

‘By eliminating the image of an actual passenger and replacing it with a generic outline of a person, passengers are able to view the same outline that the TSA officer sees,’ a TSA statement said.

‘Further, a separate TSA officer will no longer be required to view the image in a remotely located viewing room.’

The news comes after protests and lawsuits over the use of so-called ‘naked’ scanners that take full-body X-ray images that show passengers’ genitals. In cases where people refuse such scans, TSA agents manually pat down passengers.

The TSA says the scanners protect fliers following the foiled 2009 Christmas Day plot to down a US jet by a Nigerian traveller who concealed explosives in his underwear.

Critics say the devices and the pat downs are invasive and demeaning.

US President Barack Obama last year said he understood ‘frustrations’ over the measures and had asked the TSA to ‘constantly refine and measure whether what we’re doing is the only way to assure the American people’s safety’.

Story source: www.bigpond.com

View the original article here

Author JK Rowling’s website devoted to fictional wizard Harry Potter will feature a bit of Google magic when it debuts later this year in the United States, according to the internet titan.

Rowling’s beloved Potter titles will be available on Google eBooks platform at Pottermore.com and Google Checkout will be the preferred payment system, according to Larissa Fontaine of Google Books new business development.

‘When you buy a Harry Potter e-book from Pottermore, you will be able to choose to keep it in your Google Books library in-the-cloud, as well as on other e-reading platforms,’ Fontaine said on Wednesday in a blog post.

The Pottermore team reportedly plans to use Google-owned video sharing service YouTube for online broadcasts.

‘Pottermore and Google are teaming up to integrate Pottermore with a number of Google products,’ Fontaine said. ‘Stay tuned for more Pottermore and Google wizardry on the web.’

In June, Rowling unveiled an interactive website featuring new material about the boy wizard’s world, while his adventures will also now be sold as e-books for the first time.

The free website, www.pottermore.com, will go live from July 31 for one million Potter fans who pass a special online challenge, and to the general public from October.

The seven e-books will be available through the website from October in partnership with Sony.

Rowling said Potter fans will be able to register on the free website using one of the young sorcerers from the books as their online identity, then play games and interact with elements of the fictional world.

The site will also have previously unpublished material that she has written on the backgrounds to the characters and their lives at Hogwarts Academy, a fictional school for young wizards.

The author laid down her pen – and Harry’s magic wand – when she finished the seventh book in 2007, with a stunning record of 400 million copies of the series sold around the world.

View the original article here

It is predicted that in five years everyone will own a mobile phone and half of these will be smartphones.

The head of Ericsson’s mobile infrastructure group says global mobile penetration will reach 100 per cent by 2016.

Australia is leading the way, with active SIM cards ownership making 115 per cent of the population.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics recorded that 31 per cent of children owned a mobile phone in 2009 and AIMIA found 40 per cent of smartphone users were over the age of 40.

View the original article here

Interactive marketers can’t help but look to online video to take advantage of branding potential richer than that for previous online display ad formats. But like its static display counterpart, banner ads, online video advertising can appear in numerous ad sizes, placements and creative types, making it difficult for marketers to decide where to start.

Research from Yahoo! indicates certain video ad units are better at boosting advertiser and brand recall than others, providing marketers a tentative roadmap for increased online video advertising success.

In Yahoo!’s study, video viewers recalled seeing pre-, mid- and post-roll ads more often than any other display ad type. More than half (53%) of respondents who recalled seeing some advertising remembered viewing these in-stream ads.

However, the pervasiveness of an ad unit type can still have a large influence on recall. For example, 35% of viewers were able to recall seeing static banner ads, one of the most common display ad types. In contrast, only 13% of viewers remembered seeing seemingly more eye-catching video banner ads.

This seems counterintuitive when comparing the dynamic nature of video to static creative. But users are much more commonly exposed to standard banner ads than online video banner ads; users can hardly recall ads they rarely or never see.

The concept of exposure influencing recall is also echoed in the fact that in-stream units like pre-roll ads—the most recalled ad unit types—are also the most used video units by US marketers, according to Break Media.

Viewers not only remember seeing these in-stream units, they also recall the ads’ subjects. Almost half (47%) of respondents said they remembered the brand or product advertised after viewing a pre-, mid- or post-roll video ad. This is not surprising given the often mandatory—and interruptive—viewing nature of these units.

Worth noting is the ability of expandable video banners and pop-up video ads to prompt user action: 39% of respondents reportedly acted after viewing an expandable video ad, compared to only 20% of pre-, mid- and post-roll video ad viewers.

Expandable and pop-up video ads were also more likely to aid users in purchase decisions than any other display ad type. Such findings hint at the potential use of these video ad units for direct response-related campaign objectives.

As the industry continues to mature and new formats undoubtedly emerge, video advertisers will be presented with new ways to engage viewers and enhance their brands. For now, brand marketers are best served leveraging the use of in-stream video ads and investing in the creation of professional, branded content to boost brand recall.

View the original article here

Computer hackers have targeted The Sun website with visitors being redirected to a hoax story about Rupert Murdoch’s suicide.

The group LulzSec, which has previously targeted companies including Sony, says it carried out the hijack, via messages on Twitter.

Internet users trying to access thesun.co.uk were redirected to new-times.co.uk and a story entitled ‘Media mogul’s body discovered’.

It suggested that Murdoch had been found after he had ‘ingested a large quantity of palladium’.

After that site stopped working, The Sun address was re-directing to LulzSec’s Twitter account, which claimed to be displaying ‘hacked internal Sun staff data’ in one entry.

A News International spokeswoman confirmed the company was ‘aware’ of what was happening, but made no further comment.

LulzSec is a group of hackers that has claimed responsibility for various high-profile computer attacks on bodies including FBI partner organisations, the CIA, the US Senate and a pornography website.

In the UK it also carried out a distributed denial of service attack – where large numbers of computers overload a target with web requests – on the Serious and Organised Crime Agency website.

The group’s name comes from the word lulz, which is online slang for laughter at someone else’s expense. Their logo is a cartoon man in a top hat and monocle, holding a glass of wine.

View the original article here

Comscore today released a study on Internet usage in New Zealand from its comScore Media Metrix service. The study found that Social Networking ranks as the leading online activity in New Zealand, accounting for 1 of every 5 minutes spent online in May. The study also found that females spent more time on social networking sites (5.4 hours per month) than males (3.7 hours per month).

“As one of the more mature markets in the Asia Pacific region, New Zealand is home to a digitally savvy audience base,” said Amy Weinberger, comScore vice president for Australia and New Zealand. “New Zealanders have a strong propensity to connect online, whether it is to other people through social networking or to content and information through access points such as entertainment and news destinations. Finding ways to reach and engage these audiences presents significant marketing opportunities to both local and global brands.”

Top Web Properties in New Zealand

In May 2011, Microsoft Sites topped the list as the most-visited web property in New Zealand, reaching 97 percent of web users age 15 and older in the country. Google Sites ranked second reaching 93.5 percent of visitors, followed by Yahoo! Sites at #3 reaching 86.4 percent of users. Facebook.com saw the strongest engagement of the top 10 properties with visitors averaging more than 5 hours on the site during the month. Web properties based in New Zealand or Australia captured the next three positions in the ranking with Fairfax Media, APN News & Media and Trade Me all reaching more than half of the online population in New Zealand.

Social Networking Accounts for Most Online Minutes in New Zealand

When looking at how New Zealanders spent their time online in May, Social Networking led as the most engaging online activity accounting for 21.1 percent of all online minutes in the country. Portals followed in second at 14.3 percent of total minutes, with Entertainment sites ranking third at 12.1 percent of minutes. Rounding out the top 5 were the News/Information (6.8 percent of time spent) and Auctions (6.7 percent) categories.

Females More Prolific Social Networkers than Males in New Zealand

Further analysis of the Social Networking category showed that although males and females account for nearly the same percentage of visitors to the category, females exhibit far stronger engagement with the category. Overall, females averaged nearly 50 percent more time on Social Networking sites than males (5.4 hours vs. 3.7 hours). Females age 15-24 averaged the most time social networking at 7.4 hours per visitor, while males age 15-24 averaged 6.4 hours during the month. When compared to an average Internet user, females were 15 percent more likely to view pages on social networking destinations (Index of 115), while males were 16 percent less likely to consume pages (Index of 84).

View the original article here

Social commerce may be on the minds of retailers everywhere, but buying through Facebook is still far from mainstream. But it is hard to say whether shoppers are being restricted by the lack of “f-commerce” opportunities on Facebook, or whether retailers are hesitant to experiment before seeing a strong level of interest.

Software provider Ability Commerce found that 79% of the Internet Retail Top 500 retailers have Facebook pages, yet only 12% offer apps or widgets that enable ecommerce transactions on the social network. Meanwhile, according to a joint study by Shop.org, comScore and Social Shopping Labs, more than half (53%) of Facebook users have reached a retailer’s website from its Facebook page, and 35% of online shoppers said they would be likely to make a purchase through Facebook.

Facebook has become the social media venue of choice among online buyers. Compete discovered that the number of online buyers using retailers’ Facebook pages increased 3 percentage points over the previous year, bumping blogs, forums and review sites to second place. Additionally, a third of respondents “like” six or more retailers or consumer products companies on Facebook.

The prospect of finding out about sales and promotions is a big lure. Over 56% of those surveyed by Compete visited retailers’ Facebook pages for this purpose, while 58% in the Shop.org study, which included Twitter and a company’s blog in the figure, cited deals as a primary motivation. Learning more about a retailer and keeping up to date on products were also important.

According to Compete, more than 20% of online buyers found Facebook pages “influential” or “extremely influential,” regardless of the channel where the transaction is completed. The numbers show promise for a less established retail offering.

A PowerReviews and e-tailing group survey discovered that more familiar online tools, such as customer reviews, Q&As and forums, beat Facebook for their effect on buying behavior, yet the popular site still fared better than mobile or Twitter.

Taken with Compete’s findings, this implies that Facebook is being used by online shoppers more than ever and is continuing to grow in popularity, but has yet to surpass more ubiquitous online community tools in direct influence on purchasing.

Retailers and consumer products companies could give the small but eager group currently connecting with them on Facebook what they are looking for: access to sales. Even if these online shoppers are not yet able to make purchases directly through Facebook, exclusive offers can engender goodwill, loyalty, sharing and increase the likelihood of taking the “f-commerce” leap when it is offered.

View the original article here