Mobile Carriers Must Rediscover Themselves to Survive The Onslaught of Communications Apps

Last year Viber CEO Talmon Marco took the fight to the telco companies around the world. On stage at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, he described how Viber had introduced various features to text messaging in just two years that SMS still did not have after decades. This year, WhatsApp CEO Jan Koum announced voice calling for WhatsApp at the same event. The war between telco infrastructure companies and communication services companies is becoming more intense.
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Founded by Flickr Creator, Slack Launches to Tackle Internal Corporate Communications

Internal communications is an aspect that has continued to haunt companies as they scramble between using one set of tools to another, often mixing them up creating difficult to trace trails and records of what is being said by whom and when. At DailySocial we’re proud to say that we’ve been using Slack for the past few months. The messaging and collaborative app, built by Flickr co-founder Stewart Butterfield and his team at Tiny Speck, was officially launched overnight.

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[Manic Monday] Pengaruh Kesenjangan Digital Terhadap Layanan Digital

Kesenjangan digital adalah sebuah keadaaan di mana akses terhadap koneksi internet dan semua layanan yang tersedia melalu internet tidak merata. Pusat-pusat pemerintahan dan perdagangan, k0ta-kota besar di seluruh dunia mungkin semuanya sudah menikmati akses internet, tetapi masih banyak daerah di dunia yang masih belum terjangkau, terutama daerah-daerah pedesaan. Kondisi ini seperti dilema telur dan ayam, berhubung investasi untuk membangun jaringan ke pelosok itu cukup mahal, tapi potensi pengguna internet di daerah-daerah tersebut masih kecil. Ini sebabnya banyak program ‘internet masuk desa’ itu didukung oleh pemerintah ataupun program-program independen seperti yang dilakukan Google.

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[Manic Monday] The Digital Divide’s Effect On Planning Digital Services

The digital divide is a situation where access to the internet and services provided through it are not spread equally. Centres for government and trade, and the big cities all over the world probably all have internet access, yet many areas in the world have not received it, especially in rural areas. This condition is a chicken and egg predicament – the investment to build out a network to rural areas is very costly, but the potential of internet usage in those areas is relatively small. This is why most rural connectivity projects are government supported, or through independent projects like what Google is doing.
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[DS Notes] Greater Calls For Encryption Following NSA Spill

As the fallout of the Edward Snowden case continues, American journalism professor Jeff Jarvis posted an opinion piece for Guardian arguing for increased encryption for private communications. He argues that Internet companies owe it to consumers to provide a secure communications line that will maintain their right to privacy and must stand by that right in pushing for greater transparency when governments make a request to turn over user data. On a related note, increased encryption has impeded a handful of court-approved US government surveillance, reports Wired. While the numbers are tiny compared to the entire effort (15 out of nearly 3400), 2012’s Wiretap Report marks the first time in the report’s history that the US federal government acknowledges wiretapping failure due to encryption. This follows Cnet’s report in April about iMessage causing problems for the DEA.

Secure Communications App Reline Opens Registration For Beta Testers

At AngelHack Jakarta, a number of teams produced quite a few solid product prototypes but none incited more debate than Reline, an app that facilitates secure communications for mobile devices. Never mind that the app isn’t the first of its kind, many in the audience, especially some of the judges thought the app shouldn’t have been made at all as it will encourage illegal activities. Last week however, Reline’s developers announced open beta for testers.
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Facebook Just Rolled Out Voice Calls Internationally

Earlier this week Facebook rolled out the ability to make voice calls on its Messenger app for iOS for members in the UK following an initial launch in the US and Canada in January. From today, without having to update the Messenger app, Facebook has enabled voice calls for its International members. The service essentially turns Facebook Messenger into a phone app, along the lines of Asian messenger apps Line, KakaoTalk, and WeChat.

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