Monster’s China Dream Shattered, Its $240 Million Site Sold Off for $30 Million

After months of confusion, and weeks of crises that culminated in protests and guards posted at the office doors, the troubled jobs listing site ChinaHR has finally been sold off. Previously owned by US-based Monster (NYSE:MWW), ChinaHR has now been bought by the Irish company behind IrishJobs.ie for a reported $30 million.

That $30 million figure has not been confirmed by either parties, but it is cited with confidence by The Irish Examiner today.

According to the new acquisition agreement, Monster retains a 10 percent stake in ChinaHR, while the new owners, MyJob and its Dublin-based parent company Saon Group, hold the remainder. The Irish company already has a Chinese jobs listings site at MyJob.com.

The ChinaHR site retains Monster branding today.

All this is in line with rumors we looked into recently that suggested ChinaHR was sold to MyJob for this relatively tiny sum. It means a monster-sized loss for Monster, who piled in over $240 million into ChinaHR from 2005 to 2008 as Monster’s initial China investment turned into a major acquisition.

Saon Group operates across 29 countries. The ChinaHR acquisition boosts MyJob’s reach to about 200 cities across China, as well as strengthening its presence in the country’s major cities.

At the moment, the ChinaHR site (pictured) retains the same Monster co-branding as before.

But MyJob is still facing the same tough situation that caused ChinaHR to come undone, including strong homegrown competition from major web portals’ own HR sites, as well as indie rivals such as 51Job and Zhaopin.

(Sources: Techweb and The Irish Examiner)

The post Monster’s China Dream Shattered, Its $240 Million Site Sold Off for $30 Million appeared first on Tech in Asia.

Link to full article

Read More

Optimizing for a new mobile platform? Don’t get discouraged, says Tapjoy’s Chris Akhavan

Optimizing mobile apps for a new platform is not as difficult as it looks, says Tapjoy’s Chris Akhavan. However, you will need to get in on the game early and have a lot of patience.

BlackBerry (formerly RIM) has just launched its latest BlackBerry 10 platform, and along with this launch, developers are expected to come out with their own apps on the new platform. BlackBerry is not exactly the most popular mobile platform today, which is why the company has been encouraging developers to port their apps, giving incentives and bonuses along the way.

The 70,000 BlackBerry 10 apps featured so far on BlackBerry World is testament to how “developers will continue to confront new and diverse platforms as the mobile market grows,” says Tapjoy senior vice president Chris Akhavan. However, as new platforms are launched, these come with “proprietary needs for customizing apps and added time to optimize.”

Given the extra effort needed to optimize apps for new platforms, Chris gives a few tips:

• Getting in early is a big advantage – Everyone wants to be first. If you’re one of the first, and can build a strong relationship with the platform, those relationships will pay off over time through things like being first in line when there are opportunities to be featured, and getting more up-to-date information about what’s in the pipeline.
• Porting won’t be as hard as it used to be – New platforms feel your pain; they want to make it easy for you. Try not to worry too much about it.
• Patience is key – If you believe in a platform, don’t get discouraged. Expect first 6-9 months to be unimpressive, but there’s value in sticking with it.
• Marketing – Success means different things on different platforms, and they require different approaches. For example, iOS is about quick bursts of installs where Android is more about engagement – expect your marketing strategy to need adjustment on any new platform you design for.
• Stick to basics – There are a few tried-and-true development approaches when it comes to designing for a mobile device. Be sure not to get too overwhelmed by the new platform so that those basics don’t change.

Tapjoy is a mobile ad and monetization platform that lets users opt-in to videos, services and other ads in exchange for virtual currency. In July 2012, Tajoy launched its US$5 million Asia fund, which offers monetary support and consultancy to mobile app developers, as well as inclusion in its distribution network of about 339 million monthly global users.

The post Optimizing for a new mobile platform? Don’t get discouraged, says Tapjoy’s Chris Akhavan appeared first on e27.

Link to full article

Read More

How India can minimize credit-card fraud in 60 days ["Eliminate Landline (un-encrypting) POS terminals immediately"]

The news that more than 30crore (~USD 6Million) of credit card fraud is hitting Indian consumers with potentially more to come is most disturbing – not because of the scale of the fraud, but because of the trivial cost today of minimizing such fraud. While the longer-term migration to Chip cards and PIN or Aadhaar-biometric authentication might be inevitable, these are also extremely expensive and impossible to implement overnight. As someone who has been in mobile payments in India and is currently an investor, I have seen many new and secure technologies developed in India that can help address this problem.

Like all problems, there are often incremental solutions where 90% of the value might be obtained with 10% effort – and indeed in this situation, there are several things the industry could do to make things easier and safer for merchants and consumers. All 3 suggestions could be implemented in less than 60-90 days if the industry so chooses!

1) Eliminate Landline (un-encrypting) Point of Sale (POS) terminals immediately

The first generation of POS terminals read card data on the magnetic stripe when it was swiped and transmitted them without encryption over landlines. Skimming fraud can happen in such cases merely by tapping the phone-line, without even the Merchant knowing it, and a clone of your credit card can be manufactured and used in a different part of the world within 30 minutes. This risk can be eliminated by replacing all existing un-encrypting POS terminals with encrypting terminals. While this may appear expensive, the emergence of the low-cost but extremely secure encrypting Mobile POS terminals – already available in India via Citibank, HDFC Bank, ATOS, YesBank, State Bank of India & American Express at a sub-1000 rupee price-point – makes this an incredibly simple and affordable solution for merchants to adopt.

2) Restaurants introduce Pay @ Table – ideally with the consumer swiping the card

A second variation of Skimming fraud happens at restaurants or wherever you give your card to a waiter – the waiter can procure a skimming device and copy the magnetic stripe data that is subsequently cloned. In today’s portable device world, such practices should be eliminated. We have to move away from the “folder” to a “Pay @ the Table” model – this ensures that the card never leaves your sight. Once again the Mobile POS terminals can minimize such fraud risks.  Today a few restaurants are beginning to use this as a tool to reduce their risk while reassuring consumers.

3) Turn OFF my card when I am not using it!

While the first two points are on the merchant POS side, the third suggestion revolves around the consumer side. The credit card industry has always worked with the model that a credit card has got to be easy to use. However banks have got to offer the consumer the option of a simple “ON/OFF” Switch when they want to do a transaction. One approach is to use a simple technique like a Missed Call from the registered mobile number to turn “on” the credit card for say one transaction or 15 minutes. In other words, as a consumer, when I have to pay my bill, I pull out my mobile phone and dial a number. I then hand my card to the retailer and everything goes through. However, even if someone has skimmed my card, they can never use it unless my mobile phone “pre-activates” the card. Over time, a smart-phone application could perform the same task. This will ensure that no thief can use my card on the Internet or at the POS, whether domestically or internationally.

These three simple approaches can indeed reduce risk to merchants and or and reassure consumers that their Credit or Debit Card is indeed the safest way to pay at the till or at a gas station or at a restaurant. The low-cost and speed with which these solutions can be deployed make further delays unacceptable.

About the Author: The author, Sanjay Swamy is currently Managing Partner at AngelPrime Partners, an early-stage investor. He was previously CEO of mChek and served as a volunteer on Authentication & Payments for the Unique Identification Project. He is an active proponent of electronic payment transactions. He can be followed on Twitter @theswamy

 

Disclosure: Sanjay Swamy is an investor in ZipDial and Ezetap.

Related posts:

1. Flipkart enables ‘save card’ feature, will store credit card details [PCI DSS 2.0 compliance certification]
2. Rupay Card Network By NPCI – Rupay Debit Card, Rupay Credit Card Payment Gateway
3. PayMate launches PayPOS App that turns your phone into credit card processing terminal

Link to full article

Read More

In the midst of ED probe, Flipkart CFO Karandeep Singh quits. “Personal reasons”, says Flipkart

Karandeep Singh, the Chief Financial Officer of eCommerce firm Flipkart has quit the company, at a time when the company is being investigated by the enforcement directorate for allegedly violating government norms on foreign direct investment in multi brand retailing.

The news surfaced on a Quora thread (Flipkart warehouses raided on 30 nov, whats next?), where an Anon user has commented that “Ed folks spent a lot of time with cfo last week. They also spent long time at the ws retail cubicle inside flipkart warehouse.”

Flipkart spokesperson confirmed the resignation to NextBigWhat and said that Singh quit the company for personal reasons. We asked Flipkart if his resignation has anything to do with the ongoing ED probe, but the company said that his resignation was personal.

Working with Flipkart has been a great opportunity and I am glad to have been able to contribute to the Flipkart growth story. It has been a great learning experience working with a young, dynamic team and while I would have loved to continue my work here, for personal reasons have decided to move on. I wish Team Flipkart the very best!! [Karandeep Singh]

In an e-mail response, Sachin Bansal, Chief Executive officer, Flipkart said  that “Singh will be sorely missed at Flipkart. Though we are sorry to see him go – we understand that personal commitments sometimes take precedence and we wish him only the very best in his future endeavors.”

Singh had joined India’s largest online retailer Flipkart in December 2011. The company, hailed as the poster boy of Indian e-commerce, came under government scrutiny last year.

Flipkart & Government investigations

In December 2012, the government had ordered enforcement directorate to investigate Flipkart for alleged violation of norms laid down by the government pertaining to foreign direct investment in multi brand retail.

The government earlier said that it has received references alleging violation of the FDI policy be certain companies including Bharti Wal-Mart/ Cedar Support Services Limited and Flipkart Online Services.

Four months ago, the Indian government had allowed up to 51 % Foreign Direct Investment in multi brand retail. At the time, it seemed like multinational giants like Amazon and Walmart would soon set shop in India. However, the government said that e-commerce companies with FDI are not permissible in India.

As we wrote in an earlier post, e-commerce companies raised millions of dollars from foreign investors and in the absence of clearly articulated government norms specific to e-commerce were in a bit of a grey area.

Related posts:

1. Flipkart office was raided by Enforcement Directorate on Nov 30th? [Updated]
2. Flipkart, Bharti Wal-Mart being probed for alleged violation of FDI norms
3. Government says e-commerce companies with FDI are not permissible in India [Amazon and party will have to wait]

Link to full article

Read More

Times Internet backed content network Instamedia sold, Cofounder Ankit launches BetaOut

Content Network, InstaMedia which raised $4mn funding from Times Internet has sold its properties to different companies.

The company tried creating a content network – right from a news content site to lifestyle (bornrich.org) to gadget, but eventually Instablogs was rebranded Instamedia and sold to a dubai based media group. It was doing around 20Million pageviews when it was sold.

Times Internet CEO, Satyan Gajwani mentioned the following in his December blogpost.

Led by Ankit Maheshwari, Instamedia focused on creating cost-effective content at scale. Despite a great team, a number of macro factors worked against us, namely Google’s increased shift away from new publishers. As a result, the model didn’t scale the way we hoped, and the business has scaled back from its initial goals.

From what I know, Instamedia was sold in the month of Sep, 2012 to Dr. Prem Jagyasi, though the news wasn’t disclosed. Medianama reports that BornRich is being bought by Instablogs cofounder, Nandini. BornRich was one of the top properties for Instablogs and the SAAS product, Instapress has been sold to Dubai group.

Cofounder, Ankit has launched BetaOut, with Vishal Gondal on the company board.

Instablogs : A Few Gutsy Steps.

- Started from Shimla and operated from the city for a pretty long time (move to Delhi after funding). Yeah, of all the places, the team chose Shimla to start off and even managed a great team working from there (have been to their office and I guess it was one of its kind in Shimla :)).

- Built its own CMS.
If you were around in 2005, you’d know that WordPress and Drupal were not what it is today. They were crappy and had limited features. Instablogs ended up building its own CMS and invested a lot of effort in InstaPress which they licensed to a few media properties including UTV.

- Experimented with Opinions/Features
The team had a strong product attributes and one of the features I always admired in Instablogs was the commenting feature. For any opinion piece (article), commentors could take a side (i.e. Agree or Disagree) and that leads to a lot of engagement.

- Experimented with formats.
For example, a MyYahoo like module, the daily video section etc.

Part of Morpheus’ first batch, the bigger vision for Instablogs was to become DemandMedia from India and while the team successfully created few great properties, they decided to move on and incorporate their experience in the new product, BetaOut.

Cofounder Ankit shares:

“Coffee on a bright Sunday morning in 2005 and various lifestyle magazines sitting idle on a coffee table.

The idea to launch lifestyle blogs in different niches and bringing bloggers together just took over my thoughts. Within days we had built a small team and officially opened doors for Instablogs.

Our reader base grew quickly. In a year, we touched our first million pageview per month mark and never looked back. We quickly outgrew our 200sqft office and technologies very fast. Many times had to move to bigger servers in short spans.

We wanted to scale and sought external funding.

We raised $4million in venture capital in 2010 with a business plan to scale our content operation quickly. The plan was to build a team of internal and freelance contributors who would work together without diluting the vision of each site.

Bigger might be better, but bigger also means extra set of problems. Managing a small team where everyone knew each others dog’s and girlfriend’s name and a team working in different time zone that never had any face to face interaction is completely different.

Senior editors started struggling with managing freelancers and training new team members, while freelancers queries on a large part remained unanswered or delayed.

We had a powerful CMS built which could easily handle content distribution and vast amount of traffic with minimal server resources, but communicating across the team started becoming a nightmare.

We hacked together Basecamp, Google Docs and our CMS for a workflow but it proved inadequate for scalable content operation. We tried various tools and wrote tons of code to integrate them in our CMS, but the reality was that our editors were working like managers. They were focussing more on team management than actual content strategy.

One thing we failed to realize at that time was that we needed a proper content production management software in addition to a world quality CMS.

CMS are meant for managing content, and we had built one of the best CMS out there. We even licensed it to Nokia and a media giant UTV in India. But, where we struggled was absence of a software bringing an order to the editorial newsroom chaos.

One of the biggest success mantras for Demand Media was building a great application to manage large team from ideation, delegation, workflow engine, feedback mechanism, payment management, performance tracking of team members and a robust editorial calendar. WordPress and Drupal just like our internal CMS, Instapress, are perfect for managing and distributing content but building a workflow engine in them as a module are more of hacks than the actual solution.

Eventually Instablogs was rebranded Instamedia and sold to a dubai based media group. It was doing around 20Million pageviews when it was sold.

But what I am doing now is still connected to that cup of coffee on a Sunday morning.”

-

This is how startups evolve!

Related posts:

1. Instablogs Raises $4mn From Times Internet, Launches SAAS Based Content System
2. Instablogs launches Daily News Video Show – GroundReport
3. Samwer brothers’ Rocket Internet backed startup launches Coupon site in India

Link to full article

Read More

Report: ZTE Shuts R&D Lab and Scales Down Operations in India

India’s Economic Times cites sources who claim that Chinese telecoms firm and phone-maker ZTE (HKG:0763; SHE:000063) is shutting down its research and development (R&D) operations in India. In addition, ZTE is thought to be aiming to cut costs amid falling telecoms revenues in the country by “sharply scaling down its services business.”

The paper suggests this is not a backlash against ZTE (and Huawei) per se, and is due to “reduced networks gear spending by mobile phone companies” across India.

But as we noted back in November, the Indian government might follow the US in launching a national security investigation into Huawei’s and ZTE’s telecoms services.

The post Report: ZTE Shuts R&D Lab and Scales Down Operations in India appeared first on Tech in Asia.

Link to full article

Read More

JFDI.Asia unveils 8 teams for first Bootcamp in 2013; each gets USD 20K investment

JFDI.Asia, Singapore’s most prominent startup accelerator, has announced the eight startups that will join its first bootcamp, which will start on 21 February. The teams will receive a SGD 25K (USD 20K) investment right away.

Below are the eight teams:

AskAbt, from India, have a platform to manage real-time crowdsourced queries

Collabspot, from France and Philippines, have a novel approach to Customer Relationship Management

DayTripR, from Singapore and New Zealand, have an online data collection utility

DocTree, from Singapore and India, have software for medical practice management

Duable Chinese, from the USA, make Chinese language learning fun and effective

FashFix, from Singapore and Malaysia, helps fashionistas turn their wardrobes into blog shops (FashFix was a top 15 finalist at startup competition Ideas.Inc)

My Fitness Wallet, from Singapore, are working on health and wellness

Referoll, from Singapore and Vietnam, have a business that recruits participants for research studies (SGE featured them last year)

JFDI has left open the possibility that one or two more teams may join the bootcamp before it begins.

In this batch, about 30 percent of participants are eight Singapore citizens or permanent residents. 10 percent of the entrepreneurs are women, double of last year but still small. A total of 262 teams applied, which meant a successful application rate of 3 percent.

Rejected teams were given detailed feedback and advice on how to increase their chances for subsequent openings. JFDI will run its 100-day bootcamps twice a year.

The post JFDI.Asia unveils 8 teams for first Bootcamp in 2013; each gets USD 20K investment appeared first on SGE.

Link to full article

Read More

Mobile newsstand SCOOP dramatically increases title selection, launches web store

Indonesia’s Scoop, a mobile newsstand app, announced today that it has signed an exclusive deal with Gramedia Book Publishing Group that will see over 10,000 local books and novels from the publisher make its way into SCOOP’s web store, which has also just launched.

The collection adds to Scoop’s existing cache of 9,000 books, magazines, and newspapers. Gramedia is a prolific book publisher in Indonesia that pumps out over 50,000 local books a year, with a tenth of them being new entries.

Users can now proceed to the web store to make purchases. Their items can then be shared with up to five devices, all of which will require the Scoop mobile app to view the book or magazine. The web store is offering discounts of up to 91 percent and will throw in a free second-year subscription for every annual subscription made to a title.

Already a leading digital publisher in Indonesia, Scoop’s new web store can eventually increase its reach in Indonesia and beyond since purchasing on the web is easier than doing so on a smartphone with its limited screen real estate.

“As we grow our library, our users require more channels to discover our partners’ content. The web store gives us this flexibility in term of user interface, content discovery and fast deployment,” said Willson Cuaca, CEO of Apps Foundry, the company behind Scoop.

Right now, 85 percent of Scoop’s revenue comes from iOS and the rest from Android, and the monthly average revenue per paid user for iOS is 60 percent higher than for Android.

The service has some 500k downloads so far, with 92 percent of its readers coming from Indonesia.  For now, Scoop is keeping monthly active user figures close to its chest.

Willson anticipates that 2013 would be Android’s year in Indonesia and therefore expects revenue from that platform as well as the web store to rise.

The company is expanding on two fronts by increasing the depth of its collection and growing its geographical reach. Its recent partnership with Ookbee, a dominant e-publisher from Thailand, is aimed at widening its inventory since collective bargaining results in better deals with bigger publishers.

It’s also working on partnering with publishers beyond Southeast Asia. Scoop isn’t really to announce anything at this point, but we’ll be sure to update this article when it is.

The post Mobile newsstand SCOOP dramatically increases title selection, launches web store appeared first on SGE.

Link to full article

Read More

JFDI Picks 8 Startup Teams for 2013 Bootcamp

The Singapore-based JFDI nurtured and graduated its first ever batch of incubated startups last May, and now it’s time for JFDI to pick out its next bunch of hopefuls.

In a new blog post today, JFDI points out that the eight selected startups have already won an immediate S$25,000 (US$20,000) investment to tide them over for 100 days and sleep-starved nights of programming, pivoting, and pot noodles. The grand prize comes at the next Demo Day where S$600,000 (US$485,000) in seed funding is up for grabs. As with any demo day, it’s also a chance to wow us bloggers and – more importantly – catch the eyes of investors.

Before seeing the list, JFDI notes that “10 percent of the entrepreneurs taking part are women, double the number from last year” – which is good news. Plus, 30 percent of those involved are Singaporeans, and the average team is made up of over three people to form a “holy trinity” of “a hacker, a hipster, and a hustler.” On this startup blog I guess I am, lamentably, the hipster [1].

Here are the chosen startup teams, including one familiar name to regular readers:

1. AskAbt

From India, this is a platform to manage real-time crowdsourced queries.

2. Collabspot

With team members from France and the Philippines, this startup aims to take a novel approach to customer relationship management (CRM).

3. DaytripR

Not yet online, this Singapore-meets-New Zealand team is an online data collection utility.

4. DocTree

DocTree is building software for medical practice management, and is made up of entrepreneurs from India and Singapore.

5. Duable Chinese

From the US, this is aimed at fairly proficient learners of the Chinese language and promises to “analyze your Chinese level and link you to personalized articles that match your reading level.”

6. FashFix

This is the most consumer-oriented startup of the eight, which “helps fashionistas turn their wardrobes into blog shops.” A joint Singapore and Malaysia startup.

7. MyFitnessWallet

From Singapore, this team is working on health and wellness analytics.

8. Referoll

Last on this alphabetical list is the familiar name Referoll. It rewards people for participating in market research and promises companies that it can find them great respondent-project matching. Its founders are from Singapore and Vietnam.

We’ll look out for the graduates in a 100 days’ time.

---

1. He says while listening to the new My Bloody Valentine record on NPR.  ↩

The post JFDI Picks 8 Startup Teams for 2013 Bootcamp appeared first on Tech in Asia.

Link to full article

Read More

[Singapore] Startup Grind Singapore: Fireside chat with mig33 cofounder Steven Goh

Fireside chat with Steven Goh, cofounder at mig33, at Startup Grind Singapore

Welcome back to Startup Grind Singapore! Join the first fire-side chat in the year 2013 with Steven Goh, the CEO and cofounder of mig33, a global mobile consumer internet company, and a Director of BellDirect, the first online stock broker in Australia.

Steven cofounded mig33 in 2005. He aims to build a mobile Internet community by connecting consumers through popular Internet applications on feature phones. He ventured to Silicon Valley in 2007 and steered the growth of mig33 at North America. Steven relocated the company back to Singapore in 2009. By the end of April 2011, mig33 has attracted 47 million registered users worldwide.

Come to the fireside chat on 26th February be inspired by a pioneer in Internet consumer market. Expect to hear the wisdom on getting a startup off the ground, consideration in hiring talents and a seasoned entrepreneur’s view on the potentials in emerging markets.

In this meetup, we would like to invite passionate grinders to share the business ideas they are working on and get feedbacks from the ground.

Send registration on sharing ideas in advance to son@startupgrind.com

AGENDA

- 6.30pm: Registration & self introduction (dinner to be served)
- 7.00pm: Fireside chat with Steven Goh
- 7.30pm: Q & A
- 8.00pm: Grinders to share the business / product ideas.
Speaker and the ground to give feedbacks
- 8.30pm: More networking

WHAT IS STARTUP GRIND?

Startup Grind is a series of event designed to help educate, inspire, and connect local entrepreneurs. Each month we welcome an amazing speaker to share their story with our community and tells us what worked, what didn’t, and what they’ll do differently next time. It’s an amazing opportunity to learn from the best, network with other members of the startup community, and improve your chances of entrepreneurial success. For more information visit www.StartupGrind.com or follow us on twitter @StartupGrind.

Event details:

• Start: Tuesday, 26 February, 2013 07:00 p.m.
• End: Tuesday, 26 February, 2013 09:00 p.m.
• Venue : Plugin@Blk71 71 Ayer Rajah Crescent, #02-18, Singapore 139951, Singapore
• Register here
• Organizer : Startup Grind

The post [Singapore] Startup Grind Singapore: Fireside chat with mig33 cofounder Steven Goh appeared first on e27.

Link to full article

Read More

10 tips for better online security

Norton introduces 10 tips for better online security in conjunction with Safer Internet Day.

We have World Internet Day and International Internet Day and now we have Safer Internet Day (SID). Technology can sometimes be a tricky thing but we don’t have to be a computer wizard to stay safe. SID is organised by Insafe in February each year to promote safer and more responsible use of online technology and mobile phones. Such awareness is especially targeted to children and young people across the world. This year’s SID is the tenth edition of the event, taking place today with the theme of Online Rights and Responsibilities. Focusing on the theme “Connect with Respect” aims to resonate with its young target audience.

In conjunction with Safer Internet Day 2013, Norton by Symantec urges internet users to stay safe with the following 10 tips.

1. Never reveal your personal information because you don’t know who might be watching you. Refrain from putting personal details online such as home address or telephone numbers as cybercriminals may use this information and create a fake profile with these details.
2. Do know that everything you post online stays online. This means your potential future employer or university admission teams may get to see that unflattering side of you through social networking sites. Therefore, be sensible in what you share online.
3. Remember to check your security and privacy settings. Try to limit the visibility of your own page to people whom you are comfortable with to share those precious posts, photos or videos.
4. People always commit faux pas when it comes to password safety. It is better to choose a password with a mixture of letters, numbers and upper and lower case characters. Never share your password with anyone even if they promise not to tell anyone. You are your own vault.
5. Going that extra mile to lock your phone may seem like a hassle to some but truth is, it is that extra second of unlocking effort that will help to keep your mobile phone safe. Always protect your mobile device by making sure it is pin-protected. Download a security app to wipe out all data in your phone in case you mobile is lost or stolen.
6. Being drilled from young, we are often taught not to talk to strangers. Same rules apply online. Never agree to meet up with unknown persons and report to an adult or police immediately if you are concerned about your safety.
7. It is best to listen to the adults who know best because they are genuinely worried for your safety. We hear news of cybercriminals targeting unsuspecting teenagers and it is on a rise. Share concerns about mobile phone usage with a trusted adult if you are worried.
8. Many have succumbed to online shopping and while it is not a bad thing, it can be damaging for your financial account if no safety concerns are in place. Always be wary of unsecured or unknown websites. Use reputable outlets and known retailers. Any transactions should only take place across secure web pages by identifying a padlock sign in your browser address bar and the website address includes https. The ‘s’ stands for ‘secure’.
9. Sometimes we get suspicious links in an email, IM or on social network. Cybercriminals have known to hack into your friends’ account and send messages urging you to transfer money. Ignore when you know it sounds fishy.
10. Most importantly, make sure your security software is up to date. Security software is available on all types of devices such as mobile phones, tablets and PCs. Make sure to have the latest security software on your devices to stay protected at all times.

Remember, going online can be fun but always remember to stay safe.

Source : Safer Internet Day

Image Credits : Safer Internet Day

The post 10 tips for better online security appeared first on e27.

Link to full article

Read More

DailyDose: HP takes a dig at Dell’s bid to go private & Square COO quits

DailyDose, your everyday technology brief is here. In today’s edition: A disturbing development at Square, Dell’s bid to go private, Instagram’s new full image feed for browsers and more.

Square Inc’s Chief Operating Officer Keith Rabois has resigned from the company following accusations of sexual harassment made against him by a Square employee.

In his defense, Keith wrote on his blog:

(1) The relationship was welcome. (2) Square did not know of the relationship before a lawsuit was threatened; it came as a complete surprise to the company. (3) He never received nor was denied any reward or benefits based on our relationship. And (4), I did not do the horrendous things I am told I may be accused of. Read more here.

Dell to go private in $24 billion deal, Microsoft lends support, HP takes a dig

Michael Dell struck a deal to take Dell Inc (DELL.O) private for $24.4 billion in the biggest leveraged buyout since the financial crisis, partnering with the Silver Lake private equity firm and Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) to try to turn around the struggling computer company without Wall Street scrutiny, reports Reuters. Read more here.  For the deal, Microsoft has provided a $2 billion loan to Dell. Read Microsoft statement here.

What did Dells chief rival HP have to say about all this?

“Dell has a very tough road ahead. The company faces an extended period of uncertainty and transition that will not be good for its customers. And with a significant debt load, Dell’s ability to invest in new products and services will be extremely limited. Leveraged buyouts tend to leave existing customers and innovation at the curb. We believe Dell’s customers will now be eager to explore alternatives, and HP plans to take full advantage of that opportunity,” a statement issued by HP said.

Apple Inc is ramping up its emerging market strategy

In January, the company received approval to establish both a physical Apple Store as well as an online store in Indonesia, where it will invest between $2 million and $3 million to build out its retail operations. In Russia, Apple debuted an iTunes store in December 2012, as part of a wider strategy to create more localized experiences for iOS device owners in 56 markets. More here.

Facebook May Soon Be Tracking You At All Times

Facebook already knows who all of your friends are, when you broke up with your last girlfriend/boyfriend and what you did or wish you didn’t do on spring break last year. But if that wasn’t enough, Facebook may soon be tracking you at all times. Bloomberg reported on Monday that Facebook is “developing a smartphone application that will track the location of users … even when the program isn’t open on a handset.” The purpose of such an app is to help Facebookers find friends when they’re out and about. Such an app, Bloomberg said, could be used to sell ads based off of where users go. It’s something that will be of huge value to advertisers, but may not go down easy with users for obvious privacy reasons. More here.

Instagram Launches Full Image Feed For Web Browsers

Instagram has just announced that its full feed has made its way to the web, meaning that users no longer have to access through the dedicated mobile apps to check out all of their content, and participate in the conversation around posted photos.

The web-based feed comes in both desktop- and mobile-optimized flavors, meaning you’re set if you’re using something like BlackBerry not yet graced by an official app (minus the ability to post photos, of course). Instagram has been making overtures to the web after remaining mobile-only for a long time, but this goes beyond simple flirtation. More here.

Related posts:

1. DailyDose: Dell close to finishing $23 billion leveraged buyout & Facebook’s new location tracking app
2. DailyDose: Dell likely to go private
3. BSNL, MTNL’s IPTV Service (MyWay) takes on Private DTH Players

Link to full article

Read More