Tips For Building A Privacy Culture

Tips For Building A Privacy Culture: No Good Idea is Too Small to Try
Sometimes HIPAA training alone is just not enough to drill into peoples' heads why and how patient information needs to be protected. So, how are organizations getting medical staff to do the right thing?

Christmas Day retail traffic up 27% over 2011; Amazon & Walmart most visited sites

Christmas Day retail traffic up 27% over 2011; Amazon & Walmart most visited sites:

Christmas Day traffic in the U.S. to the largest online retailers — including Amazon, Walmart, and Target — increased by 27 percent over 2011, according to new data from Experian.
“Christmas Day 2012 saw a 27 percent increase in online traffic to the top 500 retail sites compared to 2011,” wrote Matt Tathan, the director of public relations at Experian, in a blog post. “The top retail sites received more than 115.5 million total U.S. visits. To date the holiday online traffic for the past seven weeks to retail sites are up 10 percent for 2012 vs. 2011.”
The top five most visited retail sites visited were Amazon, Walmart, Target, Best Buy, and Macy’s.
Here’s the top ten list:

Experian notes that Christmas Day saw the highest increase so far in U.S. online traffic for holiday milestones with a 27 percent bump. Cyber Monday had an 11 percent jump, Black Friday was up 7 percent, and Thansgiving was up 6 percent. The day after Christmas has not yet been counted. The graph below lays it out:

Other notable data points from Experian’s research include:

• Apple iTunes visits increased 193 percent and Apple.com visits increased 155 percent on Christmas Day 2012 vs. Christmas Eve 2012, with the top product search terms sending traffic to the Apple.com site was iPod Nano, iPad Mini and iPad 4.
• Amazon.com visits increased 24 percent on Christmas Day 2012 vs. Christmas Eve 2012, with the top product search terms sending traffic to the site was Amazon Kindle, Kindle Fire and Kindle.
• Gift card searches increased 6 percent in 2012 vs. 2011 and the top gift cards searches this past week were for Visa, iTunes and Amazon.

Top photo via Vladstar/Stock Free Image

Filed under: VentureBeat

Amazon tops in customer satisfaction, as Apple slides out of the top 5

Amazon tops in customer satisfaction, as Apple slides out of the top 5:
Apple’s online store slid out of the top five in customer satisfaction while Amazon remains tops, according to an online retailer study by Foresee. In fact, Apple had its lowest score in four years, achieving only an 80 percent rating.
Amazon retained its industry-leading 88 percent satisfaction score from 2011 in the study, which asked more than 24,000 consumers about their online shopping experiences between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Dell slid to 77 percent — below average —  while Netflix improved slightly. The worst performer, however, was JCPenney, slipping from 83 percent to 78 percent.
Amazon has had the highest score running for eight consecutive years, according to Foresee.
“At this point, Amazon has been dominant for so long and has such a history of focusing on the customer, it’s hard to imagine anyone else coming close,” ForeSee president and CEO Larry Freed said in a statement. “Companies should emulate Amazon’s focus on the customer, which is clearly linked to superior revenues over the years.”
In Apple’s defense, it might argue that those superior revenues are not accompanied by significant profits. And that it’s difficult to maintain high standards when the company increased net sales 144 percent from $108 billion in 2011 to $156 billion in 2012 — a staggering number that is quadruple Apple’s sales from just four years ago.
What I can say from personal experience is that Apple seems to be working hard at improving. I recently ordered a MacBook Air for my son for Christmas, and when there was some concern over whether it would arrive in time, Apple added an iPod Shuffle to the order, gratis. (The Air did eventually arrive on time.)
But customer service is a numbers game as well as a personal, one-on-one business.
“We’re seeing that even some of the largest companies in the country are at risk if they lose sight of customer satisfaction,” Freed added. “Satisfaction with the customer experience … is the most important predictor of future success.”
Here is ForeSee’s list of the top 100 online retailers in the U.S., with their customer satisfaction scores:

photo credit: jgarber via photopin cc, McFlickr via photopin cc

Filed under: Business, Enterprise, VentureBeat

Smartphones will replace keys on upcoming Hyundai cars

Smartphones will replace keys on upcoming Hyundai cars:
NFC is becoming more prevalent in the mobile space. The technology has been featured in a number of smartphones and tablets from manufacturers such as Samsung (005930), Motorola, Nokia (NOK) and Research in Motion (RIMM), among others. The possibilities with NFC appear to be endless, from mobile payments and wireless sharing to one day even controlling our vehicles. South Korean automaker Hyundai (005380) recently announced plans to incorporate the technology into its vehicles in the next few years. The company’s new Connectivity Concept will allow drivers to control various aspects of their car with an NFC-equipped smartphone.
“Hyundai’s Connectivity Concept showcases the brand’s philosophy of making tomorrow’s technology accessible to a wide range of customers,” Allan Rushforth, SVP and COO of Hyundai Motor Europe, said. “With this technology, Hyundai is able to harness the all-in-one functionality of existing smartphone technology and integrating it into everyday driving in a seamless fashion. As the technology continually develops there will be capabilities to store driver’s seating positions and exterior mirror settings, providing customers with a comfortable and individual driving environment.”
Drivers will be able to lock and unlock cars by placing a smartphone on a special NFC-tag, eliminating the need for traditional keys, and will also sync all user content such as music, phone contacts, radio station preferences and individual profile settings from a compatible phone. If that isn’t enough, cars will even able to wirelessly recharge a smartphone’s battery.
Hyundai hopes to bring NFC technology to production models by 2015.

Intel to cooperate with HP, Lenovo, Quanta, Compal to launch smart TVs in 2013

Intel to cooperate with HP, Lenovo, Quanta, Compal to launch smart TVs in 2013: Intel will cooperate with Hewlett-Packard (HP), Lenovo, Quanta Computer and Compal Electronics to launch smart TVs in 2013, according to component makers.

Apple iPhone is the choice of Generation Y in the U.S.; Samsung is on top overall

Apple iPhone is the choice of Generation Y in the U.S.; Samsung is on top overall: A new report from Forrester Research concludes that those belonging to Generation Y, defined as those in the 24-32 age bracket, are the largest owners of the Apple iPhone with a 29% share followed by those in Gen Z (24%) and those in Gen X (22%); not counting age, Samsung owns 24& of the U.S. market for smartphones followed by Apple and LG with both accounting for 18% of the Stateside smartphone market each...

2012: When mobile shaped the future of computing

2012: When mobile shaped the future of computing:

This year, the mobile industry showed us what lies ahead for computing.
We saw surprising new devices that gave us a glimpse at what personal computers could look like several years from now. We got an operating system that straddles both desktop and mobile. And we watched manufacturers obsessively refine what smartphones and tablets can be.
While 2012 didn’t have any single products that were as exciting as when we saw the iPad or iPhone for the first time, I have a feeling we’ll look back at this year as a turning point. This is the year that significant developments in mobile shaped the tech world for years to come.

The new platform wars begin

The mobile industry has been mostly about iOS and Android for the past few years. Research in Motion has been in a freefall in market share, while Microsoft struggled to find its legs in mobile.
But this year, Microsoft finally started to matter, posing even stronger competition to Google and Apple with both Windows Phone 8 and Windows 8. The software giant showed that the next platform wars will be all about uniting the desktop and mobile — something that Google and Apple still need to work on.
The latest version of Windows Phone actually runs a version of Windows 8’s kernel, which in theory should make it easier for developers to create apps for both platforms. Windows 8 is an interesting beast as well. By making a tablet-focused touchscreen interface the centerpiece of its desktop operating system, Microsoft has literally placed a bet on the future. Eventually, most PCs will look like tablets, but for that to happen, there needs to be a tablet OS that’s as productive as a desktop platform.
And while Apple will undoubtedly introduce touchscreen MacBooks soon, it still has to deal with the fundamental divide between iOS and OS X. Microsoft may be off to a messy start with Windows 8, but it will surely have an easier time dealing with the inevitable union between tablets and laptops. (More on that below.)
The biggest loser in the future union between tablets and laptops will likely be Google. Android has always been focused on mobile devices, and it still took Google some time to fully adjust it to tablets. I don’t see much hope for Android when it comes to mimicking desktop productivity on future tablet-like PCs. (And yes, I know I may eventually eat these words. But the glacial pace of Android’s evolution doesn’t really give it much chance as a future Windows-killer.)

The line between mobile and desktop is blurring

You need only look at Microsoft’s Surface tablet to see how the face of mobile and desktop computing is changing. Is it a tablet, or is it a laptop? In truth, it’s both — though that idea has been difficult for even some tech pundits to wrap their heads around. The Surface the physical representation of everything Microsoft is trying to do with Windows 8, and while I was disappointed with it in my review, I can’t deny that this is where we’re headed. Tablets need to get more productive, and laptops need to be as convenient as tablets.
Microsoft is gearing up to launch the Surface Pro early next year, which will run both Windows 8 apps and older Windows programs. Sure, it’s twice as expensive as the first Surface, but it shows that Microsoft’s bold hardware concept has plenty of potential.

Windows 8 has also spawned plenty of other notebook/tablet hybrids, like the Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga (which we found brought out the best and worst of Microsoft’s new OS) and HP’s Envy X2. We’ll likely see manufacturers experiment with different variations on tablet hybrids over the next few years. That’s a good thing for consumers — eventually you’ll be able to get a hybrid computer that suits you perfectly.

iPhone 5 and iPad Mini: The (small) shape of things to come

Both the iPhone 5 and iPad Mini show that, in the world of smartphones and tablets, smaller is often better. Down the line, I expect we’ll see more reasonable screen sizes in both smartphones and standalone tablets (at least those that aren’t trying to be laptops as well).

Almost paradoxically, most smartphone manufacturers have been obsessed with bigger screens over the past few years, to the point where they’re barely even “mobile” anymore. Last year Samsung’s 5.3-inch Galaxy Note was considered ludicrously large, but this year, 4.8-inch and 5-inch smartphones were practically the norm. (The Galaxy Note II, for the record, moved up a 5.5-inch display). Meanwhile, Apple’s “big” screen bump was from a 3.5-inch screen to a wider 4-inch display on the iPhone 5.
The iPhone’s smaller screen hasn’t stopped consumers from lapping it up. And it’s hard not to see the logic for bigger screens from other phone manufacturers — it was a very clear way to show how they offered something more than Apple. (Never mind that they didn’t have the same level of apps or build quality.)
But there’s no way the screen-size race can continue at its current rate. Once you start getting past 5-inch screens, you begin to inch into tablet territory, after all.
With little room to grow, we’ll likely see most smartphones sticking with screens around 4.5-inches in the future. I’ve found phones bigger than that to be too awkward to handle with one hand, and sticking with a more reasonable screen size also helps to conserve precious battery life. The iPhone 5 is still my preferred smartphone experience today, even though I also walk around with a Nexus 4, which has a big 4.7-inch display.
Apple will have to offer a bigger iPhone screen eventually, but I can’t see it going much bigger than 4.5-inches. This is a company that’s so obsessed with one-handed usability that it chose to make the iPhone 5’s screen taller and wider, rather than just grow it proportionally like many other manufacturers.
The iPad Mini, meanwhile, shows precisely why smaller tablets are ideal. It’s my favorite tablet so far, right behind the 7-inch Nexus 7, because it’s so light and portable. Smaller tablets also have a big price advantage: The iPad Mini starts at $329, while the Nexus 7 starts at $199. Starting with the first iPad, Apple has been trying to the idea that tablets around 10-inches were ideal, but I’ve always found those to be too clunky for prolonged use, and too expensive for many consumers.
Eventually, there won’t be any room in the market for big standalone tablets. Smaller tablets will beat them on price and convenience, and hybrid notebooks will be able to offer big tablet-like experiences with the productivity of a full-fledged PC.

Wrapping up

In the end, 2012 was more about the gradual evolution of the mobile industry, rather than any singular groundbreaking announcements. But it was still an important year for anyone interested in the overall direction of computing. It was also a clear indicator that we’ll soon have little reason to isolate “mobile” from the rest of computing.

Filed under: Gadgets, Media, Mobile, VentureBeat