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MySpace is by far one of the most popular social networking sites owned by Fox Interactive Media and FIM recently launched an advertising supported, free ‘mobile’ version of MySpace.

All mobile users can access MySpace from their mobile devices by keying in : mobile.myspace.com.

The mobile version of MySpace practically allows me to do everything I do with the regular online version except for a catch that I can’t upload pictures (May be this is lined up in their next release or I hope so). Typically, I can receive and send messages and also can send, receive and accept requests. Can go into profiles and skim through them, can leave a comment on their profiles, update my blogs (this one is one of the best feature I could ask for, I can pretty much be on my blog 24/7), post bulletins, catch up with old friends and find new friends and yeah as am considered a bit moody, can update my mood status too.

As per the technology move from MySpace, this is not the first time they are coming out with MySpace as a mobile application, T-Mobile, Helio and AT&T users previously had access to MySpace access earlier for a small amount of fee. There still is difference between the both, coz the free version comes along with ads, an ad-supported model where as the paid version comes ads free, more like blogger in their earlier days.

FIM has realized the potential of internet on the move and cell phone and have made a right more. This growing trend will give an extra edge to people who are on the move. I’m sure sometime in the near future you can expect a lot of other Social Networking Sites coming up with the same model, after all we did see a lot of MySpace clones once MySpace was successful.

TRAI has introduced registration for “DO NOT DISTURB” for barring promotional calls. This would be of interest to all of us. Please see below the short codes of “Do Not Disturb” calls for following networks:-

1. IDEA : Type “DND” and sms to 555.

2. Airtel : Type “START DND” and sms to 121.

3. Hutch/Vodafone : Type “START DND ” and sms to 1909.

For the past several years, large established stores have had the upper hand in online trade when compared to mom-and-pop retailers, since online shoppers are skeptical of interacting with traders unknown to them. To enhance the profiles of lesser-known retailers, http://www.pricefight.com/ (an Austin, Texas-based shopping site) will soon display the following on every product page: the logos of retailers, their security policies, and customer service information.

Conventional search engines offer only comparative-shopping, based on the price of the products provided by various online retailers. But, PriceFight also shows a comparison in terms of a parameter that it calls “People’s Choice”, a merchant ranking based on a proprietary algorithm. This parameter includes factors such as customer service and the number of purchases by the PriceFight customer base.

PriceFight does not charge retailers based on the number of clicks but per acquisition. No start-up fee is levied for retailers wanting to include their inventory in the PriceFight search. To aid emerging retailers in gaining consumer trust, PriceFight also does not charge any fee for displaying their logos, special offers, and ad copies along with their product feed.

Quite an interesting move and the market also looks quite open, interesting and challenging as well.

Ever wished you could prioritize or go through voice messages just like you can with e-mail? CallWave Mobile, a new service from CallWave, a Santa Barbara, California-based phone applications company, allows you to do precisely this.

The service sends voicemail messages from a mobile phone to an e-mail account. It shows the caller’s name and message length in the subject line. Thus, users can easily sort, prioritize, listen to, and respond to messages from their e-mail inbox.

This is a free service and works with majority of US carriers including Cingular (NYSE:T), Verizon, (NYSE:VZ) and T-Mobile (NYSE:DT). Users can utilize the service without having to download software, purchase a new handset, or change mobile numbers.

If your enterprise is an online entity, you might have faced hindrances in opening a current account/ business account in the local bank. This account is vital to accept payments online from credit/ debit cards and your business will suffer due to this lacuna. Researches have proven that over 60 percent of online transactions are completed using credit cards.

Given below are three important and basic steps to establish a current account for your online enterprise.

List out your requirements
Your first task should be to make a detailed list of features and services your current account ought to have and then search for a suitable bank Do you need Real-time processing which means the transaction is completed immediately online. The other method is manual completion of the transaction where only information is collected online and the payment is collected manually. The former is expensive and necessary only if your volumes are very high.

Technology requirements
Most banks offer too many solutions as part of a single package. The service charges for the complete package are obviously higher. Sometimes these complete packages won’t be necessary for your website. Ensure that your bank’s software is compatible with your website.

Price of maintaining an account
Most banks have hidden charges which are quite high and you will not know about them until you see your balance reducing automatically. These could be things like transaction fees, fines etc. Given below is a list of tariffs most banks levy on a current account:

Online processing fees
This is a constant fee that the bank charges for every transaction irrespective of the volume of the transaction. This is usually around 2-3 percent.

Dealing fee
Banks have fixed charges in US$ for this fees and generally between $0.25-0.70 per transaction. This would be ideal if you are trying to market cost effective items on your website.

Periodic minimum maintenance fee
These are routine periodic (monthly, weekly etc) fees demanded by banks to maintain your account. These can include statement fee, transaction fee, excess usage etc.

Holdback and chargeback
Some banks withhold part of the transaction receipt to cover their charges in circumstances when the transaction is contested. Sometimes the banks also levy a chargeback fees to the account when these controversies are proved.

Hardware and software requirements and configuration
Installation fees are generally a percentage of the complete setup cost. Find out from your bank if you need to buy any new software to use their platform.

Checkout various banks
Don’t open your account in the nearest bank. Talk to different banks and get quotations from them and then after suitably evaluating facilities offered and how close they are towards your imagined fee. These fees are completely negotiable and don’t worry about your image and just ask for the fees.

In my previous post, I spoke about some of the legal obligations involved in online business and how to come over them. This is the concluding part of the series “Online  Business And it’s Legal Obligations”

Agreements and contracts

Any business transaction is an agreement between the enterprise and the customer and there can be several if the contract is not drafted properly. The common conflicts could arise in the conditions specified, reception of the terms, execution and obligation, reliable and convenient ways to pay among others.

Internet transactions should be similar to physical ones. You as the entrepreneur should take onus and set up a good system of support, agreements, customer and enterprise obligations, transparency, payback, etc. There is a legal stricture which clearly states that specifying the agreement conditions on your webpage is enough to hold customer liable to the terms, but it is recommended that you set up an interactive system where the client can actually specify that he is agreeable to the terms set by you. On your marketing website you must have additional information such as the terms of use, your company’s privacy policy, disclaimer etc.

Legal problems generally arise when a customer is not happy with your product and the after sales support. You must tailor your guarantee and warranty conditions to conform to local consumer support laws.

Ensure that your website provides a safe payment gateway and uses suitable encryption technologies. Give options to customers to place orders on phone etc. State a clear policy for fraud prevention and redressing. Ensure that your agreements are suitably worded and posted on your site.

Marketing, collections and handover of goods

If your business is completely online the conditions mentioned earlier in this article is relevant and there is lot more risks involved. Text and pictures posted on your shop windows can be easily copied and replicated in other sites and lead to frauds. The only way to combat this online piracy is to have a continuous audit of your intellectual property by filing for patents, copyrights and trademarks.

Eliminating plagiarism in these high-tech zones has not been successful at all. Evaluate the risks before agreeing to deliver your products online and also inform your customers about the possible risks involved.

Customer support online

The internet was originally conceptualized as a communication tool between two computers. This has now progressed to enable individual and community interactions subject to existence of such facilities in the relevant geographic areas. Ensure that your website clearly mentions the different areas in which your services are available. If you do get an order from a location you don’t service, ensure that you don’t process them.

Online transactions are brought to their logical ending through various methods. There are several legal implications about these online transactions which you have to be aware of in order to succeed in your online enterprise. This article is just a general guideline of the various legal aspects of online business. It is suggested that you take help from a certified advocate so he can study the exact circumstances under which your business is operational and advise you accordingly.

Transmitting products from the net

One of the biggest innovations of modern technology is the internet and its flexibility in transmitting and receiving data, especially digital data files. For instance if you want a particular software application you can just purchase the license and download it from the vendor’s website or register online the software you purchased from the retailer. Now we need to consider if this online delivery actually completes the seller’s responsibility to his client. What if the version is old, what if the client’s hardware is incompatible with the software? Can the software be used across the world? If so is there foreign language support built within the help part of the software?

One way to avoid legal complications which will cause lot of tension and waste of time and resources you could spell out clearly all the terms and conditions before the sale is completed. It is advisable to have a downloadable version of this terms and conditions on your website. When you define your marketing conditions, ensure that they are compatible with the usage conditions. If necessary set conditions which are applicable exclusively for online transactions? Provide enough room and leeway for customers to seek redresses if they are dissatisfied with your conditions.

If you want your online business to succeed you should tackle the problems first, especially those related to customers who are seeking refunds. Install a secure online gateway and provide options so that customers can forward their payments by draft, cheque or other means. Ensure that your agreements take in several problems such as problems in transmission, unavailability of stocks etc into purview.

Marketing, billing and physical transmission

If you are selling physical goods online there is a separate set of procedures to be followed. Your customers will browse your product offerings online, select order and then pay online or offline for the same. Once the transaction is complete you have to courier the goods to the client. Here you could run into problems of delivering to a remote location or into a separate country which will throw up a different set of legal challenges. What is legally sold in your country may be illegal in a foreign land and you could be penalized for shipping a certain product.

One of the best ways to avoid such problems; specify on your website the areas you would cover and from where clients will be serviced. And supposing if an order does come from a non-covered location, return the money with an apology, don’t process the order.

Another problem that might arise is the price difference between online ordering and buying through your distributor. Ensure that there is no pricing conflict or if there is then make sure that you explain the reason for the conflict.

We’ll look at the concluding part soon.

It’s not even four months since Apple Inc released iPhone, and they’ve already sold a record breaking 1 million phones. The very fact that they were tied only to AT&T, as I did discuss earlier was one of the major draw backs of iPhone, as anyone subscribed to other service could not use the iPhone.  This left people no choice but look at iPhone unlocking hacks not only in several parts of Europe and the US, but also in countries like India which put Apple in some kind of serious trouble.

The fact that the iPhone is yet to reach most parts of the world and Apple still taking their own sweet time is kind of irritating. Well Guess Britain is getting lucky next as Apple announced it’s release there in November, which looks like going to spread in Europe from here on..

Turbo SIM card was one of the first full SIM unlock for Apple iPhone which came out. This was a bit confusing and hence complex for an average Joe. Then was the buzz George Holtz created, a teenager published the way on how to unlock the hardware using only some soldering iron-fu and later on made a full report and released the instruction set too.

iPhonesSIMfree were the first to come up with a commercial software to unlock the iPhone. And as usual smart hackers hacked this hack to release an open source free solution to unlock Apple iPhone.

Steve Job’s said he’s not going to take this and that Apple has some updates which will ensure that the phones can’t be unlocked. A cat and mouse game for sure. Steve n his men are not the only smart people around, so am sure whatever plans or comes up with, only matter of time, there will be solutions for that too.

All those who were expecting fundoo features like the Wi-FI iTunes store on their phones, might just soon have something what they’ve been dreaming of, as Apple plans a software update for the iPhones sometime soon. And those who have already unlocked their software guess this will cause trouble as the chances are that Apple will include a padlock in the updates, so if your apple iPhone was unlocked then once you install the software the iPhone might be padlocked.

So you have decided to go online with your new enterprise. That is fantastic, but have you given a thought about what type of online operations you wish to have? Suppose you are an expert potter, you could just churn out several different kinds of pots and sell them on your website. But internet offers wide possibilities for you: auctioning your pots to highest bidder could be a great way to increase your income and interest in your pots. Your website could offer customers facility to virtually create the artwork for their pots, provide complete information about different material, designs, manufacturing methods etc about pots and make it a complete portal. You could even team up with lots of people in similar business and create a co-operative marketing website. The possibilities are endless.

There are several internet business models which you could adapt to succeed in your enterprise. But understanding the requirements, operations, internet platform/ technologies and components of each model is necessary. Depending on these aspects the costs of setting up your online enterprise also varies.

The most widely online business models and how they work have been discussed hereunder: marketing finished goods; marketing services and offering specific knowledge about certain subjects. In each of the three models there are immense possibilities of revenue generation.

Marketing finished goods
This is fairly straightforward and simple business model wherein you market goods you manufacture or deal with on the internet website instead of a brick and mortar shop. You could employ one of the three most common methods to accomplish this, setting up a virtual store, creating auctions online and listing your goods on an online marketplace and compete with other sellers. The transactions can be completed using secure online payment gateway to receive money and a reliable courier to ship products to customers.

Marketing Services
Akin to selling finished goods or physical items, you could offer services to prospective customers online too. Say for instance you could create marketing collateral for companies, offering backend support for online markets, offer programming services to companies who wish to host their own websites. You could have hosting services for websites etc.

Offering knowledge/ data online
Most of us consider that people want all information free on the internet. But it is not true. There are several netizens who are willing to pay for specific information even if it is delivered online through the web. You could create a data bank on specialized and advanced data and offer it to your customers. Apart from these online magazines (ezines), pay-to-access information websites and other knowledge portals also offer good money making opportunities.

It is not necessary that you stick to one of the above models when you do business on the internet. You could combine one or more models and establish a successful online enterprise. There are other variations too which could be used to succeed online.

Excerpt:  Data Interpretation is a very essential part it comes to have key information about a company and its statistics at a glance. I’ve made an effort to pen down a few goo Data presentation practices.

This part is the concluding part of Better Data Presentation. Read Part 1 before go further
Installing a Dashboard

Installing and operating dashboard software is not easy. A lot is dependent upon the kind of IT infrastructure the organization has installed and whether there is a common software platform for all departments or individual sections use customized software. If it is the latter scenario installing a dashboard could cause great confusion. In such scenarios it is recommended that a completely new combined solution would have to be developed to bring all employees under one dashboard.

There are several important aspects to be looked into before commissioning dashboard software. It would be ideal if one person is given the task of liaising with all the department heads and staff to find out the kind of data they require on dashboards to enable them to produce better results. The findings of this interaction could be a good starting point for the dashboard. Then comes the commonality question. How many elements need to be common across all the departments, how much customization is to be allowed for each section of your employees, so they can modify it to suit their needs and produce best results. It is best to introduce the dashboard concept slowly and with minimum and most necessary data on screen. Bombarding your employees with too much information may confuse them and sometimes scare them. Once the executives start getting used to the new platform you can continue providing them more data access and improve the software.

One of the vital aspects of the dashboard is to use real-time information databases as back end information providers for the front end. One of the common errors by executives is to take faulty data out of the primary database and modify them on their own computers. This makes your database and the dashboard useless. Ensure that any data copying should follow a proper procedure which ensures that the modified data should be reloaded into the main database. Also one trustworthy executive should be delegated the task of constantly monitoring data so that it remains clean, correct and current.

Remember that by investing in IT infrastructure you are enabling your executives to gain access to information and not just fancy machinery. It is important that the primary aim of any investment in IT is to enable better and clearer access to information and not just swank machinery and great brand names. Most importantly the database at the backend of all your software and dashboards should be con-current and accurate. This is one of the best ways to speed up processes and enhance decision making processes in your company.