The Consumers Union, the nonprofit publisher of Consumer Reports, has called on the US government to issue regulations for the coming era of mobile payments just like it has for protecting consumers from credit and debit card fraud.

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The group argues that while mobile payments backed by credit card may be protected under existing legislation, payments charged to phone bills or pre-paid deposits required for mobile commerce by some phone companies may receive no protection at all.

"Consumers should not be expected to figure out what protections apply to each competing new payments venture," Michelle Jun, staff attorney for Consumers Union, said via coverage by NearFieldCommunicationsWorld.com today. "Regardless of the technology or business organization involved, the same high level of consumer protections should be guaranteed by law and contract for any payment service. Now that mobile payment ventures are emerging in the US, it's time to harmonize and extend consumer protections for all payment services."

Earlier this month, analysts ABI Research outlined some of the obstacles NFC faces in becoming an everyday means of commerce, as well as some of the more viable software alternatives.

No matter how it's implemented, the era when most of us leave the house with our wallets, keys and phones in hand is likely to be surpassed soon by a time when the phone performs many more functions than it does today. Consumer fraud protection for that such a method of commerce is only logical and certainly seems timely.

Be you British or American (or anything else for that matter), odds are good that you’re a  fan of Bond.  James Bond’s global appeal as an international man of mystery spans decades of film history.  Recent news out of Bond producer MGM, though, will definitely put a cramp in the spy’s style.

It seems that MGM is in the midst of a huge money crunch.  Many of their major projects have either been postponed or cancelled, including unnamed Bond film #23.  The movie was set to be directed by Sam Mendes and again starring Daniel Craig, but now it looks like both need to look for a new job.

Is the Bond franchise dead?  Not a chance!  Mark Adams of Screen International said, “This doesn’t mean the end of the Bond films. The question is how long it will take to make another one.”  The British spy is in some ways bigger than the movies themselves and MGM will doubtlessly either restart production at some point or, more likely, sell the franchise to one of its competitors.  Spyglass Entertainment and Summit Entertainment are both considered contenders for the purchase.

What can we do in the meantime? I suggest holding a Bond-style wake with vodka martinis, tuxedos, and a marathon of Dr. No all the way through to Quantum of Solace.  Just remember to bring your laser watches, exploding toothpaste, and your Aston Martin!

[Mirror.co.uk via FlickSided]

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According to an April 12 SEC filing, Abbott, Vice President of Software and Services for the company, will be boxing his knick-knacks on the 23rd.

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"Palm is implementing a retention program for certain key employees, including executive officers," the company wrote the SEC. "The program includes equity awards and cash bonuses to be earned over a two year period provided that the individuals remain as employees of the Company. As part of this program, Jeffrey P. Devine, Palm's Senior Vice President of Global Operations, and Douglas C. Jeffries, Palm's Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, each received a grant of restricted stock units pursuant to Palm's 2009 Stock Plan and a cash bonus of $250,000."

Similar packages are common in a sale situation. They help to maintain continuity during a change-over. They also avoid the flight that may give potential buyers, media and customers the appearance of a wholesale flight by major decision-makers who might be "in the know."

Net income rose to $1.96 billion ($6.06 a share) from $1.42 billion ($4.49) last year.

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After-hours trading saw the company's stock nose down 5%, despite the gain. The decline might be a result of fear that Google, which was known to spend freely, perhaps too much so, before the downturn was right back at it.

The increase in revenue had its parallel in operating expenses. Higher payrolls, increased advertising expenses and acquisitions were responsible, all of which the company plans on continuing throughout the year. Hiring for 2009 dipped but 2010 is likely to be a different story.

The fact that Google's purchase of mobile ad network AdMob is currently under review by the Federal Trade Commission may have also contributed to the restraint of the market.

Bottom photo by Franco Folini

More often, though, dirty IT jobs put people in tough positions — like having to explain to a crew of arrogant geeks why the network can’t be upgraded the same day payroll needs to run; or why you’re not a spammer despite what it says on your business card; or how lying about your company’s products is probably not a good strategy for long-term growth. You may be forced to take the blame for a failed project even when it’s not your fault or to expose wrongdoing at your workplace even if it puts your career at risk.

Dirty jobs never rest, and neither do the people charged with doing them. Be thankful you aren’t one of them. And if you are — well, at least you have a job. Right?

Got any dirty IT jobs stories to share with us? If so, then we’d love to hear all about them in the comments section below (anonymously, of course!).

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Its motto is, "Democratize Fashion" - a tall order.

The site, led by Harvard Business School alumnus Daniel Gulati, will put designers and companies together with consumers on two levels, financially and critically. Financially, an investment in a designer will return the ability to apply credits toward purchasing that designer's garments.

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Critically, the full space of social media tools will be used. Viewers may browse collections, vote them up or down and suggest ideas for new garments or lines and praise or criticize designer directions.

Although Gulati told us he could not divulge the number or nature of the designers he has waiting in the wings, a screenshot on the company's blog shows the names Phillip Lim, Alexander Wang, Donna Karan and Jeffrey Montero.

Given the increasing comfort level that consumers have with dialogic shopping - as well as the horrendous downturn in an industry that was already plagued with vicious gatekeepers - it could provide a price-conscious connection to haute couture, as well as the sense of investment that fashion-oriented television shows like Project Runway have tapped into.

In addition to the front page of the website, Fashion Stake also has its blog, a Twitter account and a Facebook page.

Trumba's customers use the company's software to publish interlinked calendars and provide other modular features to their websites. Clients include media companies like the New York Times and Ottaway Newspapers, academic institutions like Kansas State and Emory Universities, and groups like the City of Seattle and the New Orleans Saints.

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The custom objects advance the inherent modularity of Trumba's offerings. From Trumba:

"To quickly grasp the idea of an Object, think of it as a table. Each record is represented by a row. Each attribute is represented by a column. Because Objects are tables, you can use them to store any collection of data that you might want to publish on your website."

Dan Hickman, Trumba's president, wrote us:

"Some of our competitors offer a canned venue or performer features that let you track and publish that information along with your calendar but our custom objects feature lets you create any type of content that might be associated with your events. The feature can even be used to publish a connected database of information that's not even related to your calendar."

Examples include attaching venue descriptions and pictures to events, to provide detailed listings of departments in a sleekly retrievable fashion and the ability to solicit and utilize user-generated content.

Disclosure: The author helped Trumba start their first blog many years ago.

You may have noticed that Facebook isn’t exactly my favorite social media network. There are 100 reasons not to like Facebook, but now I have another one. According to the Financial Times, Facebook traffic has just surpassed Google. Over the last year the company has seen phenomenal growth, especially among the baby boomer crowd. But as of this week it made up for a 7.07% of popularity compared to Google’s 7.03%. For Facebook, that’s more than a 5% growth over the past year.

But unlike Google, the Facebook model is just beginning to find its marketing and moneymaking potential. In comparison to Google, who took in an estimated $23bn last year, Facebook will likely see somewhere from $1bn to $1.5bn this year.

So why the heck is Facebook so popular? Admittedly, I used Facebook  before any other social media network (Geek Confession #204). Back then, it was a bit like MySpace lite. Now, I swear, everyone I ever knew, met, or thought about is on Facebook. I guess one of the biggest draws for the service is its ease of use (provided they don’t mess with the design every three weeks — which they seem to be in the habit of doing). Unlike many other social networks, Facebook has a fairly shallow learning curve.  As a result it seems far easier for people with less computer experience to participate. It has a far broader reach in that way.

What is surprising however, is that unlike other social media networks, Facebook doesn’t seem to be just going after communication.  As the article indicates, they’re going up against Google. And Google, as we all know, is a search engine (in spite of their rather lame attempts at creating social networks *cough* Buzz *cough*).

A few weeks ago, I finally figured out why Facebook bothers me so much.  It’s that, under the guise of a social network, the site really just wants to be part of everything you do online: it’s inward facing, not outward facing social networking.  Certainly, Google is doing this as well, with AdWord integration. But there seems to be something rather uncomfortable about creating a Web portal that’s starts as a social media front. Combining personal photographs and correspondence with day to day internet browsing just feels a little too Big Brother for me… and potentially a recipe for disaster.

But, don’t panic yet. As with all statistics, it’s important to take things in stride. From the article:

The Hitwise figures only cover visits to the Google.com site, meaning that services such as Gmail, YouTube, Google Maps and searches carried out in a box in a browser toolbar are excluded. Taking all Google properties into account, the internet company accounted for 11.03 per cent of US website visits last week, compared with 10.98 per cent for Yahoo properties and 7.07 per cent for Facebook, according to Hitwise.

If we’ve learned anything about the Internet over the last 20 years, it’s that it is ever changing and absolutely unpredictable. Granted, I’m not exactly cheering for Facebook, but it’s interesting to see the way that Internet hard hitters are playing it out, and which users seem to have the most influence.

[via Fark]

[Photo: Hitwise]

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THE NEW DORK – Entrepreneur State of Mind (Jay-Z ft Alicia Keys Spoof)

Not only is the tune pretty catchy, but it’s absolutely brilliant from a marketing point of view. After giving shout outs to major blogs such as Techcrunch, Mashable, Valleywag, Gizmodo and Geekologie (which almost all covered it following the release day), the video uses the opportunity to push Grasshopper, a virtual phone startup based in Needham, Massachusetts. Bravo guys, well done!

Lyrics after the jump.

LYRICS:

Now Im in the blogosphere, Now I’m in the twitterverse
Fans get so immersed, But I’m a nerd forever
I’m the new Zuckerberg, And since my website
I been cookin dough like a chef servin killa-bytes
Used to be the basement, Back at my mom’s place
Buildin web traffic so that we could sell an ad space
Make way for the, One man businesses
Bail outs finished with, White collar criminals
New sega genesis, Entrepreneur time
Makin big plans, To dominate the online
Yeah, I’m on YouTube, this is one man
Sharin’ google revenue, With songs on my webcam
Science is the new art, Databases day to day
Geeks spreadin’ sheet smarts, Hustle, make the data pay
I could be in Valleywag plus Geekologie
Tell from my avatar, That I’m most definitely

The New Dork,
Social networks – what dreams are made of, There’s nothing you can’t do
Now you’re the New Dork
This V.C. money is brand new, The geek is now damn cool
Let’s hear it for new dorks, new dorks, new dorks

Catch me up in Techcrunch, Right on the homepage
Hell, I’m on Gizmodo, In a photo bout a phone craze
And I’m up in Mashable, weekend trip to New York
Bar pitty, 1oak, parties full of New Dorks
Now I’m pitchin business plans, From the backs of napkans
Micro-lend to Africans, Monetize Kazakastan
Catch me up on linked-in, Dog, C.E.O.
You can see where I be, With the I.P.O.
Now I’m up in skinny jeans, Now a hipster’s lurkin’
Used to be a reject, But now I’m steady jerkin’
Now my glasses mainstream, Now the girlies eyein me
Popular kids copy me, The new swag is irony
Comin’ from the small time, Girls couldn’t find me
Now I scale models, Like I climb on top of Heidi
Start big trends, with tweets that I pass on
You should follow me, cuz I’m friends with Ashton

CHORUS

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[Via MUO]

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