News

All Web Developers Should Stop Doing This Immediately

Note: I wrote about practices like this here, and while I didn't discuss this explicitly, the linking strategy of pigeonholing web viewers, the practice of "Download my app" is one of the most frustrating, especially when you can't get back to your expected content easily.  Or in some cases, at all.

Christopher Mims

Microsoft advising users to apply latest critical security patches

Microsoft is urging Windows users to apply yesterday's security updates to patch critical holes affecting Internet Explorer and Media Player.

The critical IE update affects versions 7, 8, and 9, and could allow an attacker to remotely run code on a user's PC using a "specially crafted Web page," according to Microsoft. As such, someone who exploited the hole could grab the same rights as the local user, of special concern if the user has administrative rights.

Lance Whitney

Apple Sold More iOS Devices Last Year Than All Macs Sold Ever

It’s amazing what you see when you look closely at numbers, and super-analyst Horace Dediu of Asymco looks closer than most. Parsing some of Tim Cook’s keynote speech at Goldman Sachs earlier this week, he did some digging came up with the incredible graph you see above.

Dediu was inspired to dig out his graphing software when he read this statement from Cook:

Charlie Sorrel

iPhone Address Book Fiasco Should Be Apple's Cue to Build Its Own Social Network

Apple is good at many things, but so far, it has not excelled at "social" Web services. For example, Ping, the music-focused service it launched in 2010, is seen as one of its rare failures.

But now Apple has a real chance to do something "social" properly, by turning its huge and growing base of iOS users into a useful social platform, while maintaining appropriate privacy and security.

Dan Frommer

Does Your Branded Franchise Need Its Own Social Media Strategy?

While social media can perplex a single business unit, imagine the challenges and multidimensional complications that can arise when a franchisor decides to incorporate social media into his or her integrated communications plan. Social media does not dictate an entire marketing program, but it must be approached with the same level of attention and definition as the rest of its marketing counterparts.

Taylor Hulyk

How a simple list app called Clear may change how we use our devices forever

Some apps do a really good job of selling you what they have. They wrap features in beautiful graphics and lead you through the process of how they work with gorgeously descriptive text and images that conform perfectly to the way we all think an app should work.

Then there are apps that make you re-think the way that you’ve been using apps altogether, breaking the mold and re-forming it with just a few minutes of use. Clear is that kind of app.

Michael Panzarino

What Angie's List Knows About Customer Reviews

When we started Angie's List in 1995 — going door-to-door in Columbus, OH to find reliable contractors for my co-founder's home — our goals were simple: recruit members and collect reviews. After 16 years and millions of reviews, we are still in the same game.

Customers want to talk. And it doesn't matter what you are — small plumbing service or Fortune 500 — feedback matters. Turning testimonials into a tool rather than a threat takes understanding. Understand what your customers are saying, where they are saying it, and (most important) why they are saying it.

ANGIE HICKS

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