Celular Inteligente.-De juguete a necesidad.

Published: June 9, 2009 Smartphone Rises Fast From Gadget to Necessity. By STEVE LOHR Jim Wilson/The New York Times Joseph Sexton got a smartphone to help look for a job, but now relies on it. In today's recession-racked economy, penny-pinching is a national pastime. But people are still opening their wallets for smartphones. Sales of BlackBerrys, iPhones and other smartphone models are rising smartly and are projected to increase 25 percent this year, according to Gartner, a research business. Widely anticipated new models like the Palm Pre, which went on sale nationwide on Saturday, will help fuel that growth. Meanwhile, total cellphone sales are expected to fall. The smartphone surge, it seems, is a case of a trading-up trend in technology that is running strong enough to weather the downturn. And as is so often true when it comes to adoption of new technology, the smartphone story is as much about consumer sociology and psychology as it is about chips, bytes and bandwidth. For a growing swath of the population, the social expectation is that one is nearly always connected and reachable almost instantly via e-mail. The smartphone, analysts say, is the instrument of that connectedness — and thus worth the cost, both as a communications tool and as a status symbol. "The social norm is that you should respond within a couple of hours, if not immediately," said David E. Meyer, a professor of psychology at the University of Michigan. "If you don't, it is assumed you are out to lunch mentally, out of it socially, or don't like the person who sent the e-mail." The spread of those social assumptions may signal a technological crossover that echoes the proliferation of e-mail itself more than a decade ago. At some point in the early 1990s, it became socially unacceptable — at least for many people — to not have an e-mail address. Smartphones are not cheap, particularly in tough economic times. The phones, even with routine discounts from wireless carriers, usually cost $100 to $300, while the data and calling service plans are typically $80 to $100 a month. But recent smartphone converts are often people who count pennies, including many from the growing ranks of job seekers. Helene Rude of Briarcliff Manor, N.Y., was laid off from her job as a business development manager at I.B.M. this year, when her unit, among others, was the target of cuts. When she left, Ms. Rude had to turn in her company notebook computer with its constant wireless connection. So she got an iPhoneinstead, allowing her to be online no matter where she was, without having to lug a computer around. "I absolutely got it for the job search," she said. "I don't know if it's really an expectation, but if another job candidate returns an e-mail message eight hours later, and you get back immediately with a message that says 'Sent from my iPhone,' I think it has to be a check box in your favor." That is certainly the sort of message the wireless industry would like to reinforce. "Smartphones are seen as essential to be productive in a mobile society," said David Christopher, chief marketing officer at AT&T's wireless division. James L. Balsillie, co-chief executive of Research in Motion, maker of the BlackBerry, said the company's introduction of less business-oriented phones, with the general spread of mobile communication, explained the snowballing growth in BlackBerry users. They now number 25 million, nearly double the total a year ago and a tenfold increase in the last four years. The smartphone wave, industry analysts say, should continue to build. The room for gains is ample because, though rising, smartphone sales will still account for only a quarter of total cellphone shipments in the United States this year. And along with the Palm Pre, a host of new smartphone handset and software offerings are coming this year, from Apple, R.I.M., Nokia, Microsoft, Google and others. The industry's goal is to win over more rank-and-file converts like Joseph Sexton of San Jose, Calif., who calls himself "not a gadget person." Mr. Sexton, 45, decided to leave his job as a manager of a community health organization to travel and then look for other work, shortly before the financial crisis hit last fall. He soon found himself looking for work in a tough market, and got a smartphone as a digital assistant in his search. Now he is hooked. "It allows me to be on top of things, and always connected, no matter where I am," he said. Mr. Sexton searches the Web, takes notes and sends e-mail with his iPhone. When he has trouble sleeping, he reaches for his smartphone to read news or check e-mail. In fact, Mr. Sexton said, he finds himself reading more online these days and buying fewer magazines. "Basically, I'm walking around with a minicomputer in my pocket," he said. "And it's a part of me now, an appendage." Such a digital connection can have its downside. The perils of obsessive smartphone use have been well documented, including distracted driving and the stress of multitasking. CrackBerry, a term coined years ago, is telling. The smartphone, said Mr. Meyer, a cognitive psychologist, can be seen as a digital "Skinner box," a reference to the experiments of the behavioral psychologist B. F. Skinner in which rats were conditioned to press a lever repeatedly to get food pellets. With the smartphone, he said, the stimuli are information feeds. "It can be powerfully reinforcing behavior," he said. "But the key is to make sure this technology helps you carry out the tasks of daily life instead of interfering with them. It's about balance and managing things."

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Mercadeo para el mundo de la moda se toma la Web.

June 07, 2009. Fashion world turns to bloggers to get the word out By Emili Vesilind Many designers are bypassing traditional media in search of Web audiences devoted to style and their products. Christopher Serra / For The Times In a world where a 14-year-old with a blog might be the next Anna Wintour, the local fashion masses are increasingly giving the Web front-row status. When Joel Knoernschild, designer of cult men's brand KZO, wanted to break the news of his collaboration with fellow L.A. label Unholy Matrimony, he skipped over big newspapers and apparel trade publications and went straight to his favorite blog, Trend Land . "After it was posted on the site, all the other fashion blogs and websites picked it up," said Knoernschild, adding that KZO's inbox was soon flooded with requests for the new line. The Santa Monica-based fashion and culture website -- which runs chatty reviews of designer and fashion collections-- is among scores of relatively new websites and blogs based in L.A. that are reshaping the tumultuous media landscape. As designers, advertisers and readers increasingly seek them out, these rising arbiters of style are rapidly gaining clout and cachet. Independent brands and retailers have come to consider the Web an integral part of their marketing efforts, having seen established style websites like Daily Candy (dailycandy.com) and Fashionista (fashionista.com) help launch many a fledgling line. "We were the first to write about Rebecca Minkoff's [top-selling] Morning After bag," said Daily Candy's L.A. editor, Crystal Meers. "We get to see a brand turn into something a lot bigger -- and sometimes things literally start as, 'Can you come over and see some samples in my garage?' It's exciting." Los Angeles-based designer Jenni Kayne, who shows in New York each season, says that though she doesn't read many blogs, she makes sure reporters from the major ones, including L.A.'s WhoWhatWear (www.whowhatwear.com), are invited to her events. "Inviting the right bloggers is as important as inviting the bigger publications, and maybe even more important soon," she noted. "Magazines are getting smaller and smaller." And the universe of the online fashion-obsessed seems only to be expanding. When Corinne Grassini, designer for L.A.-based Society for Rational Dress, was in Dallas earlier this year on a tour promoting a capsule collection she designed for Barneys New York, she made it a point to meet with Jane Aldridge, the precocious 16-year-old blogger behind the breathless online fashion chronicle Sea of Shoes (www.seaofshoes.com). A blurb Aldridge posted early this year on the brand resulted in a rush of people signing the guest book on the label's website. "These blogs are to be appreciated, for sure," Grassini said. "As an independent designer you don't always have huge advertising dollars. Bloggers are a less 'spendy' way to get your name out there." Teen-focused mass brands and retailers have boasted souped-up websites for years, but the wise ones are also targeting blogs in their marketing efforts. One of the first campaigns for Quiksilver's new women's contemporary brand featured a gaggle of SoCal's independent fashion bloggers as models on the company website. "Blogs are the new wave of marketing," said Catlin Rawling, marketing manager for Quiksilver's women's division. "We want to start forming those relationships and inviting them to events. These bloggers are reaching all these girls we're trying to reach ourselves." The bloggers featured in the campaign are part of a groundswell of model-esque young SoCal fashion fanatics who post photos of their daily outfits online -- creating a kind of wardrobe diary. Among them, Taghrid Chaaban (see accompanying story); Rachel Nguyen (thatschic.net), a 19-year-old Orange Coast College student whose blog's motto is, "All you need is love, but a glossy Vogue is a glorious substitute"; and Krystal Simpson (whatisrealityanyway.blogspot.com), a 26-year-old professional model and Chloë Sevigny twin whose photos look as if they were ripped out of Nylon magazine. The sites are thin on commentary, but fat with fashion experimentation and unadulterated enthusiasm -- something fashion insiders can hardly ever muster. Still, these are niche destinations for a narrow audience -- namely, other fashion-obsessed young women. When the focus shifts to harder fashion news, the number of voices drops. But those who have embraced the task of digging it up and disseminating it have found a ready audience. Racked LA, which is owned by the Curbed Network in New York, has quickly become an authority on all things retail in L.A. since launching in April last year -- stalking empty lots and storefronts in hot pursuit of the next retail opening. At Racked, getting the goods first has always been top priority. "The speed of how things get disseminated is what makes blogs stand out," said Erin Manger, a freelance blogger for the site. "We'll have a notice for a sale up within five minutes of hearing about it." Former Racked LA editor Tasha Nita Adams, who often scooped major fashion publications during her time there, now runs the site Blackburn and Sweetzer(blackburnandsweetzer.com), reporting on retail and fashion news in the high-traffic shopping neighborhood sprawls from 3rd Street to Melrose Avenue near the Beverly Center in L.A. "I think people are looking for something that speaks to them and is very specific," Adams said. Hillary Kerr and Katherine Power, the founders and editors of the celebrity fashion site Who What Wear, are two in a growing cadre of online-only journalists in L.A. with print pedigrees. They were editors at Elle magazine before noticing that "a lot of magazines were going online or were folding," Kerr said. Before starting their site, "we didn't see anything that addresses celebrity fashion in a way that consumers can relate to," she said. With a subscriber list of 100,000-plus and 1.75 million unique visits a month, Who What Wear is a guilty-pleasure read, sans the Perez Hilton-style snark. Power and Kerr have a book due out in September, "Who What Wear: Celebrity and Runway Style for Real Life," based on the site, and they are developing a fashion news show with MTV. Merle Ginsburg, one of L.A.'s most well-known fashion journalists, was tapped last year by stylist Svengali Margaret Maldonado and her husband, Mikko Koskinen, to be the editor of their fashion blog, Fashion Rules (fashionrules.com). Ginsburg's experience and connections -- she was formerly on staff at W magazine and has written for publications that include Elle Décor and Rolling Stone -- make the site a rare insider's read among L.A. blogs. Recent posts included a play-by-play of a private dinner party with designer Catherine Malandrino, a heads-up on a VIP sample sale and savvy collection reviews. She sees her L.A. location -- 3,000 miles from the heart of the U.S fashion industry -- as advantageous. "There is a ton of fashion happening here," she said. "In many ways, the way people dress in L.A. has become more interesting than New York because we have much more freedom and funkiness. Celebrities seem to start more trends than New York socials or models these days -- and even Europe seems more fixated on dressing L.A. girls than New York ones." Maldonado, Koskinen and Ginsburg hope to add writers in other cities to expand the site, which gets 65,000 unique visitors per month. A series of books that Ginsburg said "relate to dressing in various cities," is in the works too. Instead of selling ads to make a profit, the site will eventually sell products. Palos Verdes-based Kelly Cook is already turning a profit with the website Bag Snob ( www.bagsnob.com) and its offshoots, Couture Snob ( www.couturesnob.com), Tot Snob ( www.totsnob.com) and Beauty Snob ( www.beautysnob.com.) Launched in 2005 by Cook and Tina Craig (who's based in Dallas), Bag Snob now garners 100,000-plus unique visitors monthly, and nets more than six figures a year via its affiliate programs with e-commerce sites including Net-a-Porter, Saks Fifth Avenue and ELuxury. It works like this: Cook and Craig blog about a bag, then link to one of their affiliates where shoppers can buy it. The bloggers get a cut of the profits on sales that come from these links to their site. (And their recommendations are like a priest's blessing -- bags they laud routinely sell out on Net-a-Porter.) "We wrote like we were talking to a girlfriend, and that really resonated with people," Cook said. "We talk about overpriced bags or blatant label whoring. My mom always said shopping would be the end of me, that it would destroy me. She was wrong." Open article at Los Angeles Times Website.com Privacy Policy. Los Angeles Times.

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Mapeando para mejoramiento social.

Monitor.

June 4th, 2009 Mapping a better world From The Economist print edition. Software: Interest groups around the world are using mapping tools and internet-based information sources to campaign for change.

Areas with fewer parks (lighter rather than darker green) have higher rates of childhood obesity (larger red circles)

CONVINCING people about the evils of housing segregation can be tough, says Barbara Samuels, a campaigner for fair housing at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Maryland. "People say, 'What's so bad about living in an all-black neighbourhood?' " she explains. But using a map that displays all the vacant houses in a segregated neighbourhood, how few jobs exist there and how little public transport is available, "you can show graphically how people are segregated from opportunity," she says. "Maps help you take complex information and portray it in a clear, intuitive manner. You can show segregation in a way that talking about it doesn't do." And compiling such maps is much easier than it used to be, thanks to new mapping tools and sources of information on the internet. Ms Samuels remembers, for example, the tedium of trying to draw basic data on maps by hand in the 1990s. But in 2005 she was able to use maps that displayed 14 indicators of opportunity—created for her by a mapping-technology specialist—to help win a housing-desegregation court case. For most people it is merely a handy tool to find a nearby pizzeria or get directions to a meeting. But mapping technology has matured into a tool for social justice. Whether it is to promote health, safety, fair politics or a cleaner environment, foundations, non-profit groups and individuals around the world are finding that maps can help them make their case far more intuitively and effectively than speeches, policy papers or press releases. "Today you are allowed to visualise data in ways you couldn't even understand just a few years ago," says Jeff Vining of Gartner, a consulting firm. Along with web-based resources, coalescence around more advanced tools has also helped, such as the emergence of ESRI, based in Redlands, California, as the market leader in mapping software. And the rise of open-source projects such as MapServer, PostGIS and GRASS GIS have made sophisticated mapping available to non-profit groups with limited resources. All this has made it much easier to create maps that explain—at a glance—something that might otherwise require pages of tables or verbiage. "A percentage or a table is still abstract for people," says Dan Newman of MAPLight.org, a group based in Berkeley, California that charts the links between politicians and money. "With maps, you can show people how an abstract concept connects to where they live." Wendy Brawer, founding director of GreenMap.org, a mapping site based in New York used by people in 54 countries, says maps can make a point even if they are in a foreign language. "Maps are really helpful for that 'Aha!' moment," she says. For example, "The Grim Reaper's Road Map: An Atlas of Mortality in Britain", published in 2008, reveals that the places with the highest numbers of smokers also have the highest rates of death from lung cancer. No surprise there. But the collection of maps from a British publisher of public-policy books also shows that cervical cancer is more likely to strike those in the north of England, and brain cancer is more prevalent in the south of Scotland. Such revelations can lead to investigations and eventual health improvements. The Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in Columbus, Ohio, which created the maps used in Ms Samuel's ACLU court case, has made "opportunity" maps of several American cities. The aim is to help people find neighbourhoods where jobs, health care, safety and public transport are in better supply—or to spur the creation of more such neighbourhoods. Rob Breymaier of MoveSmart.org, a non-profit group that encourages people to "move to opportunity", recalls using Kirwan's maps in Chicago in 2006 to help a family of eight. "They ended up finding a place in the north-west suburbs, which is a huge change from Chicago's south side," he says. The children ended up in better schools and stayed out of trouble, he says. Others have used maps to expose violence. Ushahidi.com was launched by four technologists to map citizen reports of post-election violence in Kenya last year using Google Maps. "We're building a platform that makes it easier to gather information around a crisis so that governments, or whoever is trying to hide the crisis, can't do it anymore," says Erik Hersman, Ushahidi's operations director. Sequences of maps can also be used to debunk misconceptions. Many in Los Angeles were pleased, for example, to learn that gun violence had decreased since the mid-1990s. But by developing a series of maps showing where shootings continued to happen, a local non-profit group called Healthy City was able to show that for some Los Angelenos, gun violence was as bad as ever. MAPlight used a similar time-lapse approach to show the influence of money on congressional votes. Starting in January 2007, it tracked which states (those growing sugar-beets and sugar-cane, it turned out) were making the most generous political donations in the run-up to a vote in July 2007 on subsidies for the sugar industry. But once the vote was tallied and the subsidy granted, states that had appeared bright red with political contributions suddenly revert to tan, indicating an instant drop in donations. "We make visible and real something that is usually invisible and abstract," says Mr Newman. Changing the way American politics is funded is a tall order. But some map-based campaigns have already produced clear results. For example, the Food Trust, a campaign group based in Philadelphia, used maps as part of its fight to reduce diet-related disease and malnutrition in urban parts of America. "I remember the first supermarket-commission meeting," says Jennifer Kozlowski, special assistant for the environment to David Paterson, the governor of New York. "Some of the maps in the report mapped obesity-related deaths and access to produce markets. It was as clear as day that something needed to be done." In January Mr Paterson announced the Healthy Food/Healthy Communities Initiative, including $10m in grants and loans for supermarket projects in under-served communities. Such examples underscore why campaigners are rushing to make the most of map technology. "We don't just want to be about mapping," says John Kim of Healthy City. "Maps don't change the world—but people who use maps do."

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Nuevos avances de Internet para móviles, abren nuevas oportunidades empresariales.

June 03, 2009. New strides in mobility signal opportunity calling "The immediate need for mobile technology in today's economic times is to lower costs of doing business." Right now there are over three billion cell phones in use throughout the world, which easily eclipses the installed base of personal computers. So how can midsized businesses get more out of the explosion of mobile devices? Think more employee efficiency, says David Brigida, a business executive for mobility and end-user services at IBM. "I think these handheld devices—the smart phones—are getting so powerful that they're really becoming a great tool, specifically in communication and collaboration," he says. "They're going to be effective in increasing employee productivity." Brigida's enthusiasm is understandable. As our systems and processes become more interconnected, our mobile devices need to evolve to keep pace with the new ways we work and live. And as mobile capabilities continue to evolve, midsized companies are discovering new ways to work smarter to be more flexible and responsive to customers. Today's pocket-sized devices can make work smarter—and midsized businesses more competitive—by providing a host of new capabilities, such as instant messaging and presence awareness. To leverage them for the sake of a smarter workforce, consider some best practices in mobile security and provisioning. Pilot program boosts the IQ of mobile phones Low cost, high bandwidth, wireless access, and better browsing capabilities are accelerating the promise of the mobile phone as a compelling platform for accessing information services. A glimpse into the very near future of mobility can be found in recent work performed as part of IBM's first-of-a-kind (FOAK) BlueStar pilot, which recognized this paradigm shift and developed automated mobile management services for insurance claims processing. The pilot enabled an insurance company to significantly reduce the amount of time required to process claims by leveraging technology to locate—and contact—the most appropriate and available claims adjusters for each case. The right agent was identified through a combination of GPS location technology, presence awareness capabilities and calendaring functions, and the case information was sent to the agent. Integrating new technology and business processes like these are a big step for many industries, explains IBM's Randy Moulic, manager of mobile services research. "There's a challenge to get insurance companies into a more computerized environment for most of their field workers—truly computerize and mobilize their business processes. It is a huge step for them." In order to make this big step, Moulic says, smarter devices like advanced handhelds needed to be provided in a way that ensured security. On the back end, BlueStar ensured that mobile workers at the insurance company could access information securely as well as more effectively. "We only put corporate and policyholder confidential information out onto the phone during the time period of the transaction of the claim," Moulic explains. "The agent in the field does the processing, and then, boom, all the critical information is sent back to the server, and information on the device is wiped clean by the back-end server so the field agent is not carrying around a whole lot of customer data." This policy-based approach to configuring information for on-the-go staff simplified the maintenance of mobile service products. Rather than having information dispersed on hundreds—or even thousands—of handheld devices, information briefly provisioned by a central server can be better monitored, upgraded and secured. The BlueStar pilot has demonstrated how to successfully deploy and manage mobile devices out to field workers. The approach enabled not only smarter device management, but also a smarter way to work. By leveraging BlueStar, the insurance company was able to integrate new technology and business processes, empowering mobile workers and boosting their productivity. The mobility menu expands According to Moulic, BlueStar capabilities are likely to be generally available by the end of 2009. But in the meantime, midsized businesses with employees on the go can investigate a number of mobility advances that are either available now or will be shortly. In the future, adds Brigida, traveling executives and road warriors will find even more ways to spur productivity and efficiency with mobility. As an example, he points out that many people use separate phones for personal and company business. "You don't want to carry multiple devices with you, a personal device and an enterprise device when you're traveling," he observes. "I think the dual-mode phone is something that in the short term—maybe in the next two years—could change the way we operate." Professionals in a number of industries are also likely to find more ways to quickly capture information remotely or while on the go. "Mobile technology can be used in a number of ways in healthcare—certainly to create and capture information quickly and at once in a hospital environment so you get that electronic medical record," Brigida explains. "I also see where mobile technology can be used for patient monitoring—connected to devices that do critical measurements in the home—being able to lower costs." Learn more from presence awareness to smarter grids, see how cities like Masdar City in the United Arab Emirates are getting smarter. Beyond BlueStar: See how IBM is making strides in Mobile Web Research and what's on the horizon for consumers and businesses alike. Whitepaper from Frost & Sullivan: Enterprise mobility applications for the small and midsized business. Presence awareness appears likely to be another big draw. For example, technologies are now available that allow users to set parameters for how they would like to be contacted at different times of day, or in specific situations. And just ahead, says Moulic, presence awareness seems poised to play a big part in making cities smarter. He points to the pilot smart city program in Masdar City in the United Arab Emirates as an example of what the future may hold. There, commuters will soon use mobile devices to order driverless electric cabs. Built-in presence awareness capabilities based on GPS and context-based awareness technologies, he says, will ensure that residents of this planned smart city will get to their destinations on time. Four steps to making smart mobility work In the here and now there are several things midsized businesses can do to start taking advantage of new mobility capabilities—while also setting themselves up for future advances. It all starts with security and provisioning, Brigida says. As he notes: "You have an asset out there that can easily be lost or stolen—and device management becomes very important." With these concerns in mind, he suggests that midsized businesses consider four areas critical to securing and provisioning mobile devices and technologies: Use asset management and tracking. As Brigida notes, technology is now available that allows IT departments to easily deploy—and delete—data over the air, or remotely. This, he explains, cuts costs in making mobile workers more productive, while also helping to secure critical information. Keep data safe—regardless of what happens to the phone. Because these devices are small, they are easily lost and stolen. This makes a disaster recovery plan essential—not just to protect critical data, but to remain in compliance with data regulations that require companies to be able to track and manage devices containing sensitive information. It's important, says Brigida, to be able to "back up and restore my devices, either on a user-initiated backup and restore or on a predetermined basis set by my policy. So if something happens to the device, I can quickly send out a new device to someone, and they can simply restore it over the air." Give employees access to real-time support. Ensuring that employees stay connected and more productive should be an important consideration for midsized businesses, Brigida says. "Have the ability to solve problems real-time. You don't have to send that device back to the office just to reconfigure the device," he advises. Choose a hosting platform ready for universal access. Hosted support should take into account all the ways in which mobile technology is used. "You have many carriers and you have many devices—the challenge is being able to take advantage of various devices in an enterprise and also personal devices in an enterprise across a variety of networks," Brigida says. Put together, these steps can go a long way in making the workplace smarter. "The number one thing they want to do out there is improve worker productivity," says Brigida of companies with mobile workforces. "The immediate need I see for mobile technology in today's economic times is to lower costs of doing business," he adds. But as mobile devices begin to eclipse other kinds of electronics, such as personal computers, midsized businesses can get ready to connect with new opportunities for greater competitiveness. Open article at ibm.com About IBM

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