My most optimistic take on that whole “monetizing Instagram” thing Facebook said

It should come as a surprise to no one that Facebook plans to monetize Instagram, one of its biggest investments to date and a hugely growing platform. But now that some sort of advertising structure has been confirmed, what exactly will the implementation look like?

Facebook has confirmed it will soon begin “monetizing” Instagram – an industry speak for “the ads are coming.” Since the social network’s acquisition of the photo-sharing platform, what the partnership means in advertising terms has been much discussed.

In exact terms, Facebook VP of Global Marketing Solutions Carolyn Everson told Business Insider, “There are many brands that use Instagram right now to try to get a feel for how to engage with their followers. We will definitely be figuring out a monetization strategy.”

While the headline “Ads are hitting Instagram!” is admittedly sexier, this isn’t necessarily what’s going to happen. Reading between the lines, you could imagine that Facebook plans something like its recent mobile ads push for Instagram. Those look like the image at right. 

These advertising instances are fairly unintrusive, given that they blend into the rest of your News Feed, but are obviously not content your friends posted. Of course, Facebook and Instagram are different networks, and seeing something exactly like this pop up in Instagram, amidst photos of Amaro and Walden-filtered sunsets, dinners, dogs, and plane windows would definitely interrupt the user experience. It would be out of place and sacrifice design. It would be bad.

It’s so obviously bad that I have to imagine that when Everson says Facebook is “figuring out a monetization strategy,” she isn’t just trying to find a nice way to say “we’re putting ads all over that thing, suckers!” She means it, and when she says that plenty of brands are already using Instagram for marketing purposes, she’s right. Warby Parker has amassed 38,000 followers and gets plenty of likes and comments on its posts, and it personally reaches out to users who posts photos with the #WarbyParker tag. Nike is similarly making good use of Instagram, with a myriad of specific accounts for users – consumers – to interact with.

Clearly, Instagram is a great avenue for brands to reach buyers, something Facebook has some experience with. Since launching the Open Graph, the way Facebook is going about marketing is through trying to make it a seamless, natural part of its environment. Sure, there are sidebar ads, logout ads, and, now, mobile ads … but most of these have been a part of Facebook’s structure for a really long time. Throwing this type of content into the Instagram mix simply doesn’t make as much sense.

Now what does make sense are tools like brand pages, promoted hashtags, and deals. Facebook could offer premium accounts to brands, wherein they could then pay for promoted hashtags and accounts (yes, like Twitter), making them more visible to users. They could also allow these businesses to run deals for users who post photos where they’ve checked into the location. There are a lot of unique opportunities here that aren’t just straight-up ads in our Instagram photo stream.  

But maybe I’m just being optimistic. If there’s anything we’ve learned recently, the user experience is absolutely, always on the chopping block. 

View the original article here

Microsoft's beefing up security with Windows Phone 8 may make custom ROMs a thing of the past

While there is a lot to look forward to with Windows Phone 8, some of the changes may not be as noticeable but no less important. Windows Phone 8 will have a number of significant changes under the hood to bolster the security of the platform.

Windows Phone 8 will have device encryption throughout the entire device including the OS and its applications. Designed along the same lines as Windows 7 PCs, encryption kicks in as soon as you power up the device. This system, based off of Bitlocker (but adapted for Windows Phone) was something first reported on back in February as an early rumor.

BitLocker is a logical volume encryption system that is present in Windows 7 and will be present in Windows 8.  BitLocker is designed to protect data by providing encryption for entire volumes or drives within a computer to protect the integrity of a trusted boot path.  The main difference between the PC version of encryption and what we will see on Windows Phone 8 is that the encryption keys are not manageable on our Windows Phone as they are on desktops or laptops.

Two exceptions will be present with Windows Phone 8 encryptions. If you live in a location that does not allow the importation of encryption technology the device encryption will be disabled. The other exception is with the SD card due to unknown issues with the performance of swappable SD cards. Keep in mind that the SD card can only be used to store pictures, music and videos, not documents. While what is stored on the SD card may not be encrypted, the data on our Windows Phone will be.

The other big security feature coming to Windows Phone 8 is the SafeBoot Feature. In a nutshell, the SafeBoot Feature makes it very difficult for malware or an component that lacks the correct digital signature to be loaded on your Windows Phone. Each device will get a unique key burned into a chip along with a number of common keys from Microsoft and the OEM. When you power up the Windows Phone the firmware will start a Unified Extensible Firmware Interface. The UEFI will only validate and launch elements that have the correct digital signature from Microsoft.

The downside, for some, with the SafeBoot feature is that it will not be possible for custom ROMs to be built because the developers won't have access to the correct digital signatures.

Lastly, the base footprint of the Windows Phone OS has reduced and Microsoft is now requiring all applications to run in the same sandbox as third party Marketplace apps. This will limit the area any compromised app will have access to and add further protection to lower system levels such as the device registry or locked API's.

While it is nice to see Microsoft strive to make our Windows Phone as secure as possible, these efforts also explain the reluctance to offer the Windows Phone 8 upgrade to existing devices. The existing devices lack the keyed chip the new phones will have which could present a weakness in the security system. While existing devices are fairly secure within their own rights, I can understand why Microsoft isn't willing to take the chance.

Source: MobileJaw; Thanks, Mike S., for the tip!

View the original article here