AOL: Time To Pack It In Or Patch Things Up?

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Wow, everyone’s ganging up on Patch these days. No surprise, since it’s tied so closely to Aol., a company that has been declared dead so many times by frustrated naysayers that if it ever did expire nobody would believe the news. Yeah, Patch probably gets the dark shade of that negative halo…

Hello Privacy, Meet the New ‘Presence’ – Location

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[caption id="attachment_928" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="We can seeeee you..."][/caption]

Many years ago, when you were probably a tween, i was at AOL (sorry, Aol.) and a degree away from the following nugget. I think the folks involved included Ted , Barry Appelman and maybe Eric Bosco. I could have that a bit wrong but roll with me – I’m not the official techstorian and they’ll tell me if I’m wrong…

5 Questions for Lenny Rachitsky of Localmind

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This is the seventh in a series of Q&As with leaders/up-n-comers in the local space.

Who is he: Lenny Rachitsky, 29

What does he do: C-Everything of Localmind, as-yet-launched startup funded by Year One Labs, an incubator out of Montreal

Describe Localmind as if a friend’s mother asked, “So what is this Localmind?
I’m glad you asked, Mrs. Mom…

Location-Based Firewall Blocks Content Here, Not There

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Need to control what content gets through that iPhone based on where the user is standing? Welcome the very government-y sounding “Mobile Active Defense” from M.A.D. Partners, LLC.

This mobile firewall with “contents filtering mechanisms” enforces controls based upon the physical location of the mobile device using the company’s Mobile Enterprise Compliance and Security Server (MECS) for controlled access, security and compliance enforcement mechanism echoing “fixed” policies.

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Civic Networking: The Next Next Thing?

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This is the first in a series of guest posts by thought leaders in the local arena. We asked where local-social media might go in 2011.

By Tom Grubisich
Some Cassandras are forecasting the end of social networking. I will keep my ear next to my computer for the sound of some 600 million people migrating to the next big thing, but don’t think Facebook faces doomsday any time soon. Or Foursquare, Yelp or Gowalla, to name just a few of the proliferating social networks that have claimed a piece of Web space. But I do think social networking is on the threshold of an important evolution that will both affirm its basic value but also take it into new and ever more beneficial directions. Shaping this transformation are economic, technological and societal forces that are propelling people toward a path with many entry points but one destination: to act together and to do so smarter and locally…

Chat Up Nearby Drivers: It’s Mobile Social Traffic!

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Ever heard of “remote viewing”? Wiki defines it as the ability to see “an unseen target using paranormal means.” In the rational world one might apply a definition closer to what newcomer TrafficTalk does.

Almost as cool as seeing around corners with a third eye is doing it with the help of scores of people you’ve never met. And Traffic Talk might have ultimate confluence of realtime, crowdsourcing, social engagement utilities mated to make it happen.
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Profile Valet Shields Embarrassment, Improves Your Battery Life

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And it’s free!

Let’s start there, because as with most good software this is merely icing on the cupcake — if it’s that good you don’t care about shelling out a micropayment in an app store.

And some of you might already have done so, buying a similar Android app that takes a circuitous route to optimizing your device experience. Might want to rethink that purchase: Enter freebie Profile Valet from the guys at Pushpin Labs and say goodbye to the randomness associated with the feature functions happening under the covers of your favorite handset. What’s that mean exactly? It means your phone’s IQ just leaped 50 points.

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5 Questions for John Kim of Whrrl (Pelago)

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This is the sixth in a series of brief Q&As with leaders and up-and-comers in the local space…

Describe Whrrl as if a friend’s mother asked, “So what is this Whrrl?
I bet if we asked, you could name off the top of your head three favorite places to go and the things you do at those places. Finding new places that are perfect for you is hard because people are content to stick to what they know.

Whrrl increases the possibility of discovering something new — rather than you finding ideas, we believe the right ideas should find you…

Ultra Local, Simplicity, Ego Lead the Way in 2011

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I thought I’d wait for the smoke to clear on all the 2011 tech prognostications before filing a few of my own. These are actually a bit less predictions than bankable trends. Their focus is on mobile but also the things around the edges that will make mobile-local interesting, scary, useful, intrusive and wonderful in the coming 363 days.

Simple Gets Simpler: Successful online and mobile experiences will become much closer to being intuitive than ever before, anticipating not the geek’s natural next clicks but the average Jane’s. I’m not talking about Web 2.X, with its big buttons, oversize input boxes and Ajax popovers but rather one action to the next dictated by the glassy smoothness of an inhale following and exhale. This is true behavioral anticipation leaving no room for confusion and no time for pause. Simple = successful…