Facebook checks in to location-based services with Places

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg late on Wednesday announced the company's latest creation, a foray into the world of location-based services called Facebook Places.

"This is going to be a really fun and interesting summer," said Zuckerberg at the start of the evening. "We've got a lot of new products coming out." The first of these new products -- Places -- is a smartphone-based service that takes on much of the functionality provided by existing services such as Foursquare and Yelp.

Michael Sharon, Facebook's product manager for Places, demonstrated the service's capabilities, most of which appear functionally identical to the features already popularized by Foursquare. Through an updated version of the iPhone app or by browsing to touch.facebook.com on a mobile browser, users will find a main menu that shows nearby friends and offers a list of nearby places to check into.

Choose a place from the list and tap the "check in" button to check in, or tap the plus symbol to add a new place, and users will see a security notice explaining that they're about to share their location. The service also includes the ability to tag friends who are in the same location and check them in at the same time because, as Sharon explained, not everyone has a smartphone that supports Places yet.

Privacy controls

In light of recent concerns over Facebook user privacy, the company made a point of highlighting Places' security features. By default, check-ins are visible to friends only, though this setting is customizable to allow broader sharing or to restrict it down to just a few specific people.

Users will only be able to tag people who are on their friends lists, and then only when they first check into a place. This ostensibly limits the chances of mischief with the service, particularly because the only way to check a friend into a potentially embarrassing location will be to check oneself in as well.

Users will have the ability to remove themselves from any tag, just as with the existing photo sharing service. Additionally, users can choose to opt out of letting others tag them in Places.

Places will also include a reporting feature that will allow users to report location listings that are erroneous, offensive, or out of date. As of Thursday, Facebook will launch a read API that lets people read check-ins and find out more about a place. A write API and a search API are currently in beta in beta testing and will be rolled out to developers soon.

Facebook partners

When Sharon finished his overview of the service, he invited representatives from several popular location-based services to the stage to describe their companies' new features that integrate with Facebook Places.

Scott Raymond, CEO of Gowalla; Holger Luedorf, Foursquare VP of mobile & partnerships; Eric Singley, director of mobile products at Yelp; and Keith Lee, CEO of Booyah stepped up to the podium to talk about how they perceive the new service. Unsurprisingly, all four sounded bullish on Places, though at times the tone seemed a bit desperate.

Holger Luedorf of Foursquare used his time at the podium to answer the question on everybody's mind: "This basically validates that we're onto something and that we're adding value," said Lueforf, focusing on the positive. "We're looking forward to working with the Facebook team."

Google targeting Apple iPad with Chrome tablet?

Google Android was always going to be the heart of many Linux-based iPad like devices. That's not news. What is news is that Google and Verizon appear to be working together to create a Chrome operating system-based tablet.

According to a report from the Download Squad, HTC is building the Chrome OS tablet. The device will be sold in partnership with Verizon starting on November 26th. That date is already engraved in every retailer's heart as Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving and usually the biggest shopping day of the year.

After those nuggets of news, everything else that's been written about the Google Chrome tablet has been pure speculation. Yet I can believe this core of the story. Google already worked with HTC to deliver one of the first Android smartphones: the currently developer-only Nexus one.

On the carrier side, everyone who pays any attention to telephone company business-buddy relationships knows that Verizon and Google have been working closely together since the announcement of their net neutrality plan. So sure, the business relationships to make a Chrome tablet a reality are in place.

Besides, I think Google wants to jump-start the Android/Chrome tablet market. The very first Android tablets, like the Augsen GenTouch78, have been less than impressive. Just the very hint that Google may be making an iPad competitor already has buzz going.

That last part may also be important in its own right. Lately, Apple and Google have been getting along like cats and dogs. I think Google would be very, very — one more time, with feeling — very happy to put a spanner in Apple's hopes for an iPad Christmas.

Smartphone app would constantly monitor epilepsy patients

Engineers and medical experts have joined forces in Chicago to to create a small prototype device and complex software that can monitor brainwaves of people with epilepsy and then send them from a patient's smartphone to a monitoring center for analysis.

The team hopes that once the techology and software is developed, the data gathered could be used to warn epileptics in real-time that a seizure may be imminent, giving time to quickly stop driving or operating equipment. Data compiled from epileptic children could be interpreted by software in the child's smartphone, which would send a text message to a parent or guardian for help when needed.

"Making an emergency call for a patient in need is one of those huge unprecedented wins from this technology," said Sam Cinquegrani, CEO of Wave Technology Group. Wave software engineers are collaborating on the project with staffers at the University of Chicago Hospital's Pediatric Epilepsy Center.

Part of what inspired the project at Wave Technology is personal. Cinquegrani said he stuttered as a child, which some doctors said may be due to mild epilepsy. "I grew out of it and a lot of children do, but it made an impression," he said.

Cinquegrani said he met leaders in the univeristy hospital's epilepsy center a decade ago, which "gave me an opportunity to give back. We're excited about this because we can make a difference and give some quality of life back to children."

An estimated 3 million people in the U.S. have epilepsy, and 10% of the cases are so severe that patients could have several seizures a day, he explained. "Some people are in danger of dying from it," he added.

Since the new technology is designed to run on mobile devices, brain wave data could be gathered constantly to allow doctors to compute trends that would help in a patient's long-term care. Also, a compilation of data collected from many patients could be stored in a nationwide database where researchers could analyze it to come up with future treatments and cures, Cinquegrani said.

The prototype now in development includes a small 16-channel amplifier - smaller than a credit card -- that would be attached by wires to sensors on a patient's head. In the current design, a hat with a pocket sewn inside would be used to carry the amplifier.

The software would control the gathering of brain wave data by the amplifier and the ability to send it via Bluetooth to a smartphone carried by the patient, and from there to a typical cellular network for transfer to a monitoring center.

Intel-McAfee deal baffles security analysts

Several security analysts today expressed surprise that Intel would purchase security tool maker McAfee, noting that at first glance the move makes little sense for a pure hardware firm.

Intel Thursday agreed to buy McAfee for $7.68 billion, which analysts are calling a premium price tag.

"I'm baffled," said Peter Firstbrook an analyst with Gartner in Stamford, Conn. "I don't see any synergy at all between McAfee and Intel."

At best, he added, the acquisition could be a good venture capital investment for Intel. "And they may get a little cross R&D benefit from the deal as well," he said,

In fact, analysts said, the deal could prove beneficial to McAfee rivals like Symantec, Sophos and Trend Micro, at least in the short term. Each can be expected to move quickly to try and take advantage of a distracted McAfee prior to the deal's closing and during the integration phase, they said. "McAfee is going to be a little bit distracted for sure. It's probably good news for Symantec," and the other vendors, said Firstbrook.

Intel president and CEO Paul Otellini, said this morning that the acquisition was driven by Intel's belief that security has become a fundamental component of online computing.

"With the rapid expansion of growth across a vast array of Internet-connected devices, more and more of the elements of our lives have moved online," he said in a statement, adding that McASfee will bring to his firm "incredibly talented people with a track record of delivering security innovations, products and services ... [that are used to make] the Internet safer and more secure."

Intel said that McAfee will be a wholly owned subsidiary of Intel reporting into the Software and Services Group.

Firstbrook predicted that efforts to integrate McAfee's security technology into Intel hardware platforms will likely be a time consuming process, and noted that it could have been achieved more chickly and cheaply by simply partnering with security companies.

"It's a different product, it's a different market, it's a different customer base," Firstbrook said. "Intel moves in terms of quarters and years. McAfee has to move daily in terms of responding to [security] threats. One operates much higher in the stack. The other is much lower in the stack."

McAfee's enterprise customers are likely a bit puzzled by the move, said Andrew Jacquith, an analyst at Forrester Research in Cambridge, Mass.

"McAfee customers in many cases have reasons to be worried, and not just because of this deal," he said, noting that many users are already upset with McAfee over a flawed security update that crippled thousands of corporate PCs.

"In the wake of McAfee's DAT issue many customers were already looking for other suppliers," he said. Uncertainty over Intel's plans for McAfee "may accelerate that trend," he said.

Intel's purchase, though puzzling to the analyst community, is not the first time that a hardware company has purchased a security vendor.

For instance EMC purchased RSA in 2006, and IBM has gained security tools from Rational, Ounce Labs and WatchFire in recent years, Just this week, Hewlett-Packard said it had purchased Fortify, an application security vendor, for an undisclosed amount.

Pete Lindstrom, an analyst with Spire Security in Malvern, Pa., did say that the deal could help Intel diversify its business over the long term. "Intel is a big company flush with cash looking for ways to diversify. It's no secret Intel is interested in services, and McAfee has some interesting security services in the cloud," he said.

Nook e-reader software ready for iPhone, iPod Touch

Barnes & Noble today released free Nook e-reader software for the iPhone and the iPod Touch, along with updates to Nook software for the iPad that provide content rating capability and more.

The bookseller also sells a Nook e-reader device, but it has always focused on making its collection of 1 million e-books available on other readers and computer platforms, a strategy that not all of its competitors have followed. The company said today that it plans to continue to add support more platforms and devices in the future, but it didn't provide further details.

Barnes & Noble said it designed the Nook iPhone software to take advantage of the iPhone 4's high-resolution Retina display by maximizing e-book cover art and text. The software does work with earlier models of the iPhone and the iPod Touch as well, however.

Nook software is unique in that it allows customers to share certain e-books with other Nook software users for up to 14 days. Nook software is available for desktops and Android smartphones, as well as iPads and now iPod Touch and iPhone devices.

The update to the earlier-released iPad app provides a feature called "Rate" that allows users to rank their books by scoring them on a scale of one to five stars.

Nook e-reader software ready for iPhone, iPod Touch

Barnes & Noble today released free Nook e-reader software for the iPhone and the iPod Touch, along with updates to Nook software for the iPad that provide content rating capability and more.

The bookseller also sells a Nook e-reader device, but it has always focused on making its collection of 1 million e-books available on other readers and computer platforms, a strategy that not all of its competitors have followed. The company said today that it plans to continue to add support more platforms and devices in the future, but it didn't provide further details.

Barnes & Noble said it designed the Nook iPhone software to take advantage of the iPhone 4's high-resolution Retina display by maximizing e-book cover art and text. The software does work with earlier models of the iPhone and the iPod Touch as well, however.

Nook software is unique in that it allows customers to share certain e-books with other Nook software users for up to 14 days. Nook software is available for desktops and Android smartphones, as well as iPads and now iPod Touch and iPhone devices.

The update to the earlier-released iPad app provides a feature called "Rate" that allows users to rank their books by scoring them on a scale of one to five stars.