Bodies dropped in a faint across the International Date Line yesterday and today as panicked iPad users received the "Not Charging" message in the upper right-hand corner of their brand new tablets.

Even ReadWriteWeb was not free of the need for smelling salts as one of our new iPad-owners followed her instinct and hooked the tablet up to her laptop in the same fashion she always has for her iPhone. That feeling that mixes acid running down your bones and your stomach dropping into your shoes was temporary if acute. A bit of rummaging and she plugged the proprietary charger in.

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Endgadget reported that neither USB hubs nor Wingtel rings would charge the device either.

Apple's iPad support page on charging states that this is a result of insufficient power output from some computers, rather than a design fault. Further, if you put your iPad to sleep, it will charge up.

Either way, the charging constraint is an issue, mostly as it limits the available avenues to recharging on the go. But perhaps as important was the apparent failure in the company's user experience process. Not a hard ball to drop, given how intently a company and its teams live with the product they are developing, but an important one nonetheless. At the very least, the message "Not Charging" was inaccurate if not outright untrue.

Generally speaking, RTFM is not enough. Thinking through user experience, including testing by/> [...]

Sun Apr 04, 2010 20:00 pm

As online marketing and search engine marketing in particular have evolved over the years, more and more metrics and data sources have become available to marketers. This is a great thing for analyzing campaigns and strategies, learning from them and improving upon them. However, all of this data can get extremely overwhelming, which is why it's important to have strategies for the analytical process itself.

A couple weeks ago, Google's Analytics Evangelist, Avinash Kaushik gave a keynote speech at Search Engine Strategies New York. WebProNews interviewed him shortly after, picking his brain about how online marketers can sort through and maximize the incredible amounts of data they have access to.

Kaushik says a lot of people will open their analytics tool and just look at the top ten or twenty rows of data, but there are strategies to help you see more of the picture. A few specific examples:

- In-line segmentation
- Tag Clouds
- Keyword trees

Basically, these are all things that can take large amounts of keywords and let you visualize the top performers, and understand the data. It can help you look at how strong your brand terms are, compared with dif/> [...]

Tue Apr 06, 2010 09:15 am

Google announced early this morning that it would acquire Global IP Solutions Holding. The company provides the VOIP engine behind Yahoo, AOL, WebEx and Lotus conferencing and had said last month that it would be the first to bring video chat to Android phones.

Google has offered $68.2 million for the company, which it has said it will use for real-time video and audio communications.

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"The Web is evolving quickly as a development platform, and real-time video and audio communication over the Internet are becoming important new tools for users," said Rian Liebenberg, an engineering director at Google, in a statement.

The question now is, what does Google plan to do with this acquisition? The company can keep hold of it and use it to power real-time video communication on Android. It could also create a direct competitor with Skype by adding video capabilities to Google Voice (such as are already possible with GChat, but with mobile capabilities). At the same time, Google could offer the technology to developers via API in an attempt to become a defacto place to look when deciding to add real-time communications to Web applications.

Larry Dignan at ZDNet also brings up an interesting point - what will become of GIPS' multitude/> [...]

Tue May 18, 2010 07:20 am

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said today his office is investigating 22 online businesses that deceptively link consumers to fee-based membership programs that charge unauthorized fees for discount offers.

The investigation found online shoppers are unknowingly directed to a membership program seller's website that is separate from the online retailers site. Information about joining the membership program and its consequences, including the fact that the consumer is agreeing to transfer their credit or debit card information, is buried in the fine print and cluttered text.

Cuomo said his office has reached an agreement with online movie ticket retailer Fandango to end similar practices.

"This online scheme has impacted the finances and tried the patience of tens of millions of consumers nationwide. Well-known companies are tricking customers into accepting offers from third party vendors, which then siphon money from consumers' accounts," said Attorney General Cuomo.

"I commend Fandango for doing the right thing by ending the practice of sharing consumers' financial information with these discount club sellers. I expect the other businesses to follow Fandango's lead and adopt these reforms to protect consumers who shop online."

Cuomo has sent subpoenas to 22 businesses that have deals with the three major companies that offer these discount programs: Webloyalty, Affinion/Trilegiant and Vertrue.

The subpoenas seek information about retailers' practices of sharing consumers' account information with membership program companies; their knowledge of any deceptive solicitations; and compensation from the membership companies. T/> [...]

Wed Jan 27, 2010 14:35 pm