Desktop Versus Web-Based Email: FIGHT!

There has been a war raging for over a decade now: desktop client or webmail? Like the Mac versus PC debate and so many others in the world of technology, they become full-fledged jihads over what is, at the end of the day, a matter of personal taste.

In the past week, our Editor-in-Chief Zee M Kane posed the question on Google+. The answers were varied, but showed a strong lean towards webmail ? Gmail in particular. Let?s have a look at the arguments for and against both desktop and web-based email.

Desktop Mail Clients

We used clients for quite some time after the arrival of the first webmail interface because they gave us faster access to locally stored messages and allowed us to queue up emails in our outbox to go out the next time we were online.

Primarily, the ongoing popularity of the email client was supported by the fact that the Internet used to be a horrible thing that tied up your phone line and lost races to snails.

For a long time, webmail didn?t give heavy users the organizational power they needed. It wasn?t until Gmail came along that things really changed in that department.

It?s in that vein of productivity that I find one of the most appealing reasons to move back to the client. ?I?m just finding there?s something about the browser that instinctively makes me want to.. well? browse,? said The Next Web Editor-in-Chief Zee M Kane in his Google+ thread on the subject.

?I?m noticing that using a desktop email client rather than a browser keeps you focused,? says Kane. ?I don?t find myself opening that new tab for no reason.?

In response, Adam Helweh said that ?since using Gmail I have seen my eyes wander to other tabs far too much.?

It can?t be denied that this is a failing on our parts as human beings, not the software itself. But what really matters is how we?re best enabled to be productive with our email, and the distraction of the browser is a valid point.

Perhaps the biggest point in favor of clients is about managing multiple accounts. For the average user with one email account, this isn?t a big deal. For those with only a couple of Gmail or Google Apps accounts, Gmail?s fairly recent addition of an account switcher makes things easier.

But if you?ve got more than five, you?re in for a headache using webmail, even with the recent removal of Google?s strange three account simultaneous sign-in limit. The client gives you one place to quickly and easily look at every account of every kind.

It is technically possible to do this in Gmail, using forwarding and incoming POP3 as well as the ability to send from an address, but the implementation is fiddly and the interface is not designed for it. I tried it for a few years before ultimately settling for separate accounts.

Webmail

One of the advantages of webmail is that it eliminates the need for extra apps. For much of the last decade, the dream of the cloud has been attached to the romanticization of doing anything and everything, from corporate spreadsheets to shopping lists, inside the browser.

The reality is that the cloud has increased our options. We can use the same information in a variety of apps and clients, including the browser, and across devices without worrying about conflicts and synchronization.

Even so, the computer resource-conscious love to consolidate, and accessing mail from the browser means one less app to access. But the benefits may not be all that desirable ? I?ve seen both a single Gmail tab and OS X?s Mail sit at 200MB or more of memory usage.

?Google has made it so much easier to do everything via the browser,? says Andrew Pack. Sometimes it?s not about resources. It?s just convenient.

?I want to access my mail from anywhere,? was the sentiment among some users who stated an anti-desktop stance. But there?s no denying that clients are becoming less and less a place to store email and more of a way to access it instead as protocols such as IMAP slowly (too slowly) kill off POP3. Access from anywhere is only problem when the email server doesn?t have webmail access at all to begin with.

But that doesn?t mean it?s annoying to maintain accounts across apps and platforms, and for those with a view to the low maintenance, it doesn?t get easier than webmail.

Resurgence of the Client

Ever since it stopped being difficult to get a Gmail account when it was in invite-only beta, it seems like desktop clients died a sudden death. There were always webmail users ? people I?ll never understand who were able to tolerate Hotmail?s interface ? but it seemed to me that pre-Gmail the client was king.

In recent times we?ve seen a resurgence of interest in the client. First we had Postbox, which promised to bring the dusty old email client into the modern era and improve productivity at the same time. More recently we?ve seen Sparrow, which has grabbed the attention of the Mac productivity in a way that surprised me for this class of software.

But perhaps this new wave of modern clients is moving a little too fast in an effort to look like a modern alternative to the ancient clients of myth and legend. Sparrow has no POP3 support. And despite what the typical reader of a blog like The Next Web might think, outside of our privileged bubble, POP3 is still widely used in some settings. I had a client give me POP3 details for an email account a couple of months ago and had to choose to forgo Sparrow for another client or run the account through a Gmail account ? which are strangely more capable of connecting to POP3 server than this desktop mail client is.

Sparrow feels to me like it has promise, but in striving for minimalism has left features out that just aren?t ready for that treatment. Apple does this sort of thing all the time and there is inevitable complaining, but I just don?t see POP3 as being in the same place the floppy was when it was removed from Macs.

Now that Lion is out and Mail has been greatly improved, I?m opting to move back to the client for a trial run. Without the distraction of tabs and the addition of full-screen mode, there?ll be less gnawing at my attention when I need to focus on getting to Inbox Zero. I won?t have to switch between tabs to check on various email accounts or make sure they?re all signed in every morning or every time I re-open the browser. I won?t have to resort to strange workarounds to use POP3-only accounts. And there?ll be smoother integration with apps like Address Book and iCal.

The Bottom Line

This debate isn?t a winnable one. Today, webmail and desktop clients compete with each other toe-to-toe on feature set. There?s no performance reason to use one or the other. One could argue that using OS X Mail over webmail has strong benefits in operating system integration, but that?s not an argument for clients in general.

We?re left to settle the debate with subjective things like our own ability to focus in various computing environments. It?s interesting to me, though, that the technology itself plays less of a role. There?s a level of maturity where performance isn?t an issue, feature set isn?t an issue, suitability for one type of connection or another isn?t (unless you live on a farm) ? it comes down to user experience.

That?s a good thing in my opinion. When developers have to focus on creating an optimal productive interface instead of just creating the most technically advanced products, the consumer wins.

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Source: http://thenextweb.com/lifehacks/2011/08/01/desktop-versus-web-based-email-fight/

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Blog - When is a Window also a Touch Screen?

Don't you find windows just a tad too ... static?

We are entering an age when an image surrounded by a frame -- on your laptop, on your TV, on your tablet -- is almost expected to be interactive. Why then, hasn't that happened yet with windows? Several projects in the works, from car companies and designers, envision a time in the not-too-distant future when windows will be more like touchscreens.

Take Toyota's collaboration with the Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design, for instance. "Window to the World," as the concept is called, envisions car windows that add an interactive layer to the scenery outside. A video (that appears to be largely the work of special effects) shows how the concept would work. At times the window could act as an Etch-a-Sketch of sorts, with the passenger tracing, say, the outline of a sheep. In another mode, the screen could estimate the distance of various objects from the side of the car; in another, it could recognize objects (a barn, a bike), and offer up vocabulary lessons in a foreign tongue. And with the reverse-pinch motion now familiar to touchscreen users, the passenger could even zoom in on an object in the distance.

If all that seems a bit excessive, for what can mostly be achieved with binoculars and a phrasebook, then Glasgow University's project in a similar vein might interest you more. The project is slightly different -- rather than serving as a souped-up Gameboy to pacify the impatient passenger, GU wants to make the next generation of "heads-up displays" already familiar from the world of military aviation. These would be computer-screen like windshields for the driver of the vehicle to glean data (speed, fuel levels), without having to take his or her eyes off the road.

As The Engineer recently reported, it's a quest that's involving researchers across Europe, including the automaker Fiat and the glassmaker Saint-Gobin. At the heart of the project is an effort to commercialize 3-D nanostructures on the windows surface that "affect the brightness and direction of the light." Rather than projecting the display on the windshield, LEDs would emit light at the windshield's edge; the nanostructures imprinted on the glass would then emit the light in the proper locations to display information. The whole process would be more energy efficient than an old-school projection method. If the project works, it could also lead to brighter LED screens and even "dumb" windows that nonetheless let in more natural light (hence Saint-Gobin's interest).

Still not satisfied with the selection of brainiac windows in the works? The Los Angeles Times directs us to one more: interactive touchscreen car window stickers. Whereas Toyota's interested in the passenger, and Fiat's interested in the driver, Cadillac -- and the digital marketing agency it's working with, Fusion92 -- is interested in the potential buyer who's just walked into the showroom. "At first glance, it looks like any ordinary window sticker displaying price, features, fuel economy and such," explains Fusion92 on its site, "but when a customer walks by the car the window comes to life, making the glass a fully interactive touch-screen kiosk." A prospective buyer can fiddle with the sticker to customize the car's features, watch videos of the car in action, and share information about the car over Facebook and Twitter. A video shows the sticker in action.

Enough with looking through windows; apparently, it's time to start looking at them.

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News Analysis: After Protracted Fight, Both Sides Emerge Bruised

The president, with his re-election on the horizon, emerges from the showdown in a diminished state after giving considerable ground and struggling to rise above a deep partisan intransigence that has engulfed Washington. And Republican leaders, especially Speaker John A. Boehner, are bruised after navigating the intractable sentiment of the Tea Party movement.

A full victory lap was not expected ? or, perhaps, deserved ? by those on either side of the debate, which has consumed the capital, unnerved the financial markets and infuriated the American public. Yet even as a compromise was announced on Sunday evening, both parties were prepared to try to define the deal as staying true to their respective principles.

How well each of them does in shaping perceptions of the outcome could have a substantial effect on the 2012 presidential race and the balance of power in Washington as the ideological fight over the size and role of government grinds on.

Mr. Boehner faces an immediate test on Monday, needing to bring along enough Republicans to push the deal through the House. The Republican presidential field will have to decide how to navigate between the compromise reached by Congressional leaders and the passions of the Tea Party movement.

Mr. Obama?s challenge is to reassert himself as a leader and use the outcome to position himself on the campaign trail as the voice of reason and moderation in a bitterly polarized capital.

?Is this the deal I would have preferred? No,? Mr. Obama said from the White House. ?This process has been messy; it?s taken far too long.?

For Mr. Obama, the most imminent blessings are avoiding a default and delaying the next fight over raising the debt limit until after the 2012 election. (House Republicans wanted to have another debate early next year.) He also can present himself as a deficit-cutting president, even though a fair share of the $2.4 trillion in cuts is unpopular with his core followers.

But the fine print of the agreement makes clear that Republicans received more of what they demanded than did Mr. Obama, who acquiesced in his initial call for a balanced mix of spending cuts and new revenues, despite repeatedly trying to seize the bully pulpit to build support for his argument.

For many liberals, this concession ? and the president?s unwillingness to make a more full-throated case for greater action to address joblessness and protect other Democratic priorities ? could undermine legislative support for the deal and increase the challenge of motivating voters in 2012.

The White House and the Senate may be controlled by Democrats, but the debate unfolded squarely on Republican turf. It is yet another sign of how the country?s politics have changed since Mr. Obama?s term began, and of the new climate facing Republicans who are jockeying for the chance to challenge the president next year.

As Mr. Boehner has witnessed throughout the debate, the newly empowered voices in the Republican Party can be difficult to control. He faces the near certainty of large numbers of defections from his ranks on Monday as he tries to win support for the compromise with the Senate, which he needs to avoid sinking the deal and owning the political fallout.

?This isn?t the greatest deal in the world,? Mr. Boehner told House Republicans in a conference call on Sunday evening. But, he added, ?It shows how much we?ve changed the terms of the debate in this town.? 

While the White House has taken a measure of comfort from the displays of dysfunction in the Republican ranks, there has not been a shortage of discord among Democrats. The liberal group MoveOn.org said on Sunday that it was ?extremely troubling that it now appears that some Democrats are willing to give in to Republican demands to make this already disastrous plan worse for working families.?

The outcome, perhaps, was better for Mr. Obama as a presidential candidate than as a president. His ability to face down House Republicans over the next 18 months is in question, but when he faces voters next year, his advisers believe that the debt ceiling fight will have created a clear contrast between his priorities and that of a Republican Party that he and his allies will no doubt portray as extreme.

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Obama and Leaders Reach Debt Deal

With the health of the fragile economy hanging in the balance and financial markets watching closely, the leaders said they would present the compromise to their caucuses on Monday in hopes of enacting it before a Tuesday deadline to avert default.

Even as the president was speaking from the White House on Sunday night, Speaker John A. Boehner was on a conference call with House Republicans, trying to sell them on the proposal he had signed off on only minutes before.

Since he is likely to lose the most conservative elements of his rank-and-file, Mr. Boehner faces the task of framing the pact as friendly enough to Republican principles to win over a significant group of House Republicans without alienating Democrats he will need to push it over the top.

President Obama, in a hastily called appearance with reporters that ended a day of uncertainty, said that the compromise would ?allow us to avoid default and end the crisis that Washington imposed on the rest of America.?

?It ensures also that we will not face this same kind of crisis again in six months, or eight months, or 12 months,? he said. ?And it will begin to lift the cloud of debt and the cloud of uncertainty that hangs over our economy.?

Just before Mr. Obama spoke on television, the two Senate leaders, Harry Reid and Mitch McConnell, took the floor to endorse the pact as well.

?I am relieved to say that leaders from both parties have come together for the sake of our economy to reach a historic, bipartisan compromise that ends this dangerous standoff,? said Mr. Reid, the majority leader.

The tentative agreement calls for at least $2.4 trillion in spending cuts over 10 years, a new Congressional committee to recommend a deficit-reduction proposal by Thanksgiving, and a two-step increase in the debt ceiling.

The announcement concluded a tumultuous 24 hours that saw hopes rise Saturday night over the prospect of a deal that might have concluded the budget stalemate. By Sunday, worry set in again as lawmakers and White House officials struggled to hammer out the fine points of an agreement that must clear a Senate controlled by Democrats as well as the Republican House.

If the deal is approved, establishing a special joint committee to explore deficit reduction, it will ensure that the size and scope of the federal government and the tension between spending and taxes will remain front and center in the Washington debate headed into the 2012 election.

Markets reacted favorably to the announcement, with Asian markets jumping on news of the deal. The Nikkei was up nearly 2 percent in late-morning trading; the dollar rose against the Japanese yen.

President Obama tempered his comments by noting that ?there are still some very important votes to be taken? and that winning House approval would be a particular challenge.

On the conference call, Mr. Boehner sought to portray the new agreement as one heavily tilted toward the Republican call for no new revenue, and he said it met the goal of instituting cuts greater than the amount of the debt limit increase. In a presentation, he said the pact would prevent a ?job-killing default? ? a warning to lawmakers that failure to raise the limit could add to the bleak employment picture.

?Our framework is now on the table that will end this crisis in a manner that meets our principles of smaller government,? said Mr. Boehner, who said he hoped to get the legislation onto the House floor as quickly as possible. Participants on the call, which lasted about an hour, said that the tone was cordial and that lawmakers expressed less resistance than had been anticipated.

At the same time, Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, the former speaker and current Democratic leader, was noncommittal about the plan, suggesting that Democrats might not rally behind it. ?I look forward to reviewing the legislation with my caucus to see what level of support we can provide,? she said in a written statement.

Robert Pear and Jackie Calmes contributed reporting.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: July 31, 2011

An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated when the automatic cuts would occur if Congress does not approve a second round in a few months. They would occur at the end of the year 2012, not 2011.

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Amid New Talks, Some Optimism on Debt Crisis

After a tense day of Congressional floor fights and angry exchanges, Senator Harry Reid, the majority leader, called off a planned showdown vote set for after midnight, but said he would convene the Senate at noon on Sunday for a vote an hour later. He said he wanted to give the new negotiations a chance to produce a plan to raise the federal debt limit in exchange for spending cuts and the creation of a new Congressional committee that would try to assemble a long-range deficit-cutting proposal.

?There are many elements to be finalized and there is still a distance to go before an arrangement can be completed,? said Mr. Reid, who just a few hours earlier had played down talk of any agreement. ?But I believe we should give everyone as much room as possible to do their work.?

Mr. Reid?s announcement set off an almost audible sigh of relief on Capitol Hill, where lawmakers and their aides had been bracing for an overnight clash over the debt following a day that had seen a heated House vote and lawmakers trudging from office to office in search of an answer to the impasse.

The first indication of a softening of the hard lines that have marked weeks of partisan wrangling over the debt limit came in the afternoon when the two leading Congressional Republicans announced that they had reopened fiscal talks with the White House and expected their last-ditch drive to produce a compromise.

Following the House?s sharp rejection of a proposal by Mr. Reid to raise the debt limit and cut spending, Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader and a linchpin in efforts to reach a deal, said he and Speaker John A. Boehner were ?now fully engaged? in efforts with the White House to find a resolution that would tie an increase in the debt limit to spending cuts and other conditions.

?I?m confident and optimistic that we?re going to get an agreement in the very near future and resolve this crisis in the best interests of the American people,? said Mr. McConnell, who noted he was personally talking to both Mr. Obama and Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., a favorite partner in past negotiations.

Mr. Boehner, who would have to steer a compromise through the House, said he based his confidence on the prospect of an agreement on the sense that ?we?re dealing with reasonable, responsible people who want this crisis to end as quickly as possible.?

A Democratic official with knowledge of the talks said that Mr. McConnell called Mr. Biden early Saturday afternoon, the first conversation between the two men since Wednesday. The official said they talked at least four more times on Saturday as they tried to work out an agreement.

The deal they were discussing, this person said, resembled the bill that Mr. Boehner won approval for in the House on Friday more than it did the one that Mr. Reid had proposed.

It would immediately raise the debt ceiling by about $1 trillion, accompanied by a similar range of spending cuts, and set up a new bipartisan committee that would work to find deeper cuts in exchange for a second debt limit increase that would extend through the 2012 election.

A failure of the new committee to win enactment of its proposal could then set off automatic spending cuts across the board, including to entitlement programs. Other ideas were swirling around the Capitol as lawmakers searched for a way to avoid default. One of Mr. Reid?s top lieutenants said he saw at least a glimmer of hope.

?We are a long way from any sort of negotiated agreement,? said Senator Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, the No. 2 Senate Democrat, ?but there is certainly a more positive feeling about reaching an agreement than I?ve felt in a long time.?

The flurry of activity came as anxiety built up in many corners, including among Wall Street investors worried about the effects on the markets and active-duty soldiers worried about their paychecks.

After Mr. McConnell sounded a hopeful note, Mr. Reid called members of the Senate to the floor to hear him dispute the claims by his Republican counterpart and accuse Republicans of failing to enter into serious negotiations even as the Treasury risked running out of money to pay all its bills after Tuesday.

Reporting was contributed by Jackie Calmes, Helene Cooper, Binyamin Appelbaum and Robert Pear from Washington, and Thom Shanker from Kandahar, Afghanistan.

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Amid New Talks, Some Optimism on Debt Crisis

After a tense day of Congressional floor fights and angry exchanges, Senator Harry Reid, the majority leader, called off a planned showdown vote set for after midnight, but said he would convene the Senate at noon on Sunday for a vote an hour later. He said he wanted to give the new negotiations a chance to produce a plan to raise the federal debt limit in exchange for spending cuts and the creation of a new Congressional committee that would try to assemble a long-range deficit-cutting proposal.

?There are many elements to be finalized and there is still a distance to go before an arrangement can be completed,? said Mr. Reid, who just a few hours earlier had played down talk of any agreement. ?But I believe we should give everyone as much room as possible to do their work.?

Mr. Reid?s announcement set off an almost audible sigh of relief on Capitol Hill, where lawmakers and their aides had been bracing for an overnight clash over the debt following a day that had seen a heated House vote and lawmakers trudging from office to office in search of an answer to the impasse.

The first indication of a softening of the hard lines that have marked weeks of partisan wrangling over the debt limit came in the afternoon when the two leading Congressional Republicans announced that they had reopened fiscal talks with the White House and expected their last-ditch drive to produce a compromise.

Following the House?s sharp rejection of a proposal by Mr. Reid to raise the debt limit and cut spending, Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader and a linchpin in efforts to reach a deal, said he and Speaker John A. Boehner were ?now fully engaged? in efforts with the White House to find a resolution that would tie an increase in the debt limit to spending cuts and other conditions.

?I?m confident and optimistic that we?re going to get an agreement in the very near future and resolve this crisis in the best interests of the American people,? said Mr. McConnell, who noted he was personally talking to both Mr. Obama and Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., a favorite partner in past negotiations.

Mr. Boehner, who would have to steer a compromise through the House, said he based his confidence on the prospect of an agreement on the sense that ?we?re dealing with reasonable, responsible people who want this crisis to end as quickly as possible.?

A Democratic official with knowledge of the talks said that Mr. McConnell called Mr. Biden early Saturday afternoon, the first conversation between the two men since Wednesday. The official said they talked at least four more times on Saturday as they tried to work out an agreement.

The deal they were discussing, this person said, resembled the bill that Mr. Boehner won approval for in the House on Friday more than it did the one that Mr. Reid had proposed.

It would immediately raise the debt ceiling by about $1 trillion, accompanied by a similar range of spending cuts, and set up a new bipartisan committee that would work to find deeper cuts in exchange for a second debt limit increase that would extend through the 2012 election.

A failure of the new committee to win enactment of its proposal could then set off automatic spending cuts across the board, including to entitlement programs. Other ideas were swirling around the Capitol as lawmakers searched for a way to avoid default. One of Mr. Reid?s top lieutenants said he saw at least a glimmer of hope.

?We are a long way from any sort of negotiated agreement,? said Senator Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, the No. 2 Senate Democrat, ?but there is certainly a more positive feeling about reaching an agreement than I?ve felt in a long time.?

The flurry of activity came as anxiety built up in many corners, including among Wall Street investors worried about the effects on the markets and active-duty soldiers worried about their paychecks.

After Mr. McConnell sounded a hopeful note, Mr. Reid called members of the Senate to the floor to hear him dispute the claims by his Republican counterpart and accuse Republicans of failing to enter into serious negotiations even as the Treasury risked running out of money to pay all its bills after Tuesday.

Reporting was contributed by Jackie Calmes, Helene Cooper, Binyamin Appelbaum and Robert Pear from Washington, and Thom Shanker from Kandahar, Afghanistan.

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5 Brazilian startups that will get a boost in 2011

Ever heard of AcessoZero,  Anuncie.LaCrowdtestEuDecido or Vozis? Probably not yet, but this could change soon: Aceleradora just announced that these are the five Brazilian early-stage startups it will mentor during its 2011 cycle.

What is Aceleradora

We recently listed Aceleradora as one of the nine Latin American accelerators you need to know (see previous story). Founded by angel investor Yuri Gitahy, it has been around since 2008, well before the recent boom of accelerators in the country. Many local startups went through Yuri?s mentoring, which makes Aceleradora a reference for the Brazilian market.

2011 selection process

This is why it comes as no surprise that Aceleradora received 135 applications for its 2011 acceleration program. Out of these 135 early stage startups, 20 were shortlisted in March 2011 to participate in the second selection phase. So why did it take so long for Aceleradora to unveil its final list? According to its blog, there are two reasons for this delay:

  • Aceleradora decided to start a few acceleration activities with some of the teams to test them;
  • Based on the shortlist published in March, funds and angels started approaching some of these 20 projects; for confidentiality reasons, Aceleradora decided to wait to make its final list public.

During these months, Aceleradora listened to the feedback it got from mentors and investors on the startups? business models and products. It also observed the teams and their capacity to raise awareness for their startups and engage customers, a new selection criteria it introduced this year.

The selected companies

Aceleradora?s selection was finally published this Friday; here are the winners:

  • AcessoZero, an online social city guide where users can read comments on local businesses and find deals;
  • Anuncie.La, a classified website which focuses on ?knowing who you are buying from?, thanks to integration with social networks;
  • Crowdtest, a testing service that leverages crowdsourcing to improve software?s quality;
  • EuDecido, a reverse group buying system;
  • Vozis, a call routing platform which can unify different phone numbers (including Skype) into one unique number.

What?s next

As usual with acceleration, these companies will benefit from mentoring sessions to improve their business models, pitches and visibility. The process will also involve targeted help in each key area (legal, sales, marketing, planning?), as well as introductions to investors. It could also involve small capital investments if needed.

So, is any of these companies the next big thing? It?s still hard to tell; Aceleradora interestingly points out that it can?t guarantee that these startups will be successful, grow and receive investments. Neither can it be sure that they?ll perform better than the 16 shortlisted companies that didn?t make it to the final selection ? Aceleradora is very honest about the uncertainties that go with early-stage investing. What it can guarantee, though, is that each of these early stage projects will receive all the support Aceleradora can give to help them succeed.

What?s your point of view on early stage investing? What criteria would you use?

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Source: http://thenextweb.com/la/2011/07/31/5-brazilian-startups-that-will-get-a-boost-in-2011/

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AT&T to throttle unlimited data users starting October 1

What began as a rumor yesterday has been officially confirmed: AT&T will begin throttling mobile broadband speeds later this year. In an announcement today, the carrier said it is taking steps to cope with the exploding demand for mobile data and the resulting network congestion. At least a part of that plan will include the reduction of data throughput for the remaining subscribers of the companies unlimited data plan -- at least those who exceed a certain monthly bandwidth threshold, anyway.

AT&T explained that the change will only affect 5% of unlimited subscribers who consume "extraordinary" levels of data. Such users account for much of the company's traffic, using 12 times more data than the average of all other smartphone customers. AT&T didn't say how much data the its heaviest users consume, but if it's any consolation, the company said you could receive thousands of emails, visit thousands of sites and stream hours of video each month without making the top 5%.

"Typically what puts someone in the top 5 percent is streaming very large amounts of video and music daily over the wireless network, not Wi-Fi. Streaming video apps, remote web camera apps, sending large data files (like video) and some online gaming are examples of applications that can use data quickly," the carrier explained. As you undoubtedly realize, Wi-Fi usage doesn't count against your mobile data consumption, and that includes the 26,000 public Wi-Fi hotspots AT&T offers.

It's unclear how much you'll be allowed to use before having your speeds reduced, nor has AT&T mentioned precisely how much they'll throttle data hogs. The change will go in effect starting October 1 and we assume the company will offer more details by then. It should be noted that customers on AT&T's tiered plans won't be affected. Subscribers of the company's $15 200MB DataPlus, $25 2GB DataPro or $45 4GB DataPro plans, you should still be able to pay for unthrottled overages.

This is yet another nail in the coffin of all-you-can-eat data plans. Besides Sprint, most major US carriers have implemented metered bandwidth of some form. AT&T introduced its tiered plans last summer and Verizon followed suit this month with capped plans and $10/GB overages. T-Mobile still offers unlimited consumption, but it does throttle speeds.

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Source: http://www.techspot.com/news/44878-att-to-throttle-unlimited-data-users-starting-october-1.html

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Amid New Talks, Some Optimism on Debt Crisis

After a tense day of Congressional floor fights and angry exchanges, Senator Harry Reid, the majority leader, called off a planned showdown vote set for after midnight, but said he would convene the Senate at noon on Sunday for a vote an hour later. He said he wanted to give the new negotiations a chance to produce a plan to raise the federal debt limit in exchange for spending cuts and the creation of a new Congressional committee that would try to assemble a long-range deficit-cutting proposal.

?There are many elements to be finalized and there is still a distance to go before an arrangement can be completed,? said Mr. Reid, who just a few hours earlier had played down talk of any agreement. ?But I believe we should give everyone as much room as possible to do their work.?

Mr. Reid?s announcement set off an almost audible sigh of relief on Capitol Hill, where lawmakers and their aides had been bracing for an overnight clash over the debt following a day that had seen a heated House vote and lawmakers trudging from office to office in search of an answer to the impasse.

The first indication of a softening of the hard lines that have marked weeks of partisan wrangling over the debt limit came in the afternoon when the two leading Congressional Republicans announced that they had reopened fiscal talks with the White House and expected their last-ditch drive to produce a compromise.

Following the House?s sharp rejection of a proposal by Mr. Reid to raise the debt limit and cut spending, Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader and a linchpin in efforts to reach a deal, said he and Speaker John A. Boehner were ?now fully engaged? in efforts with the White House to find a resolution that would tie an increase in the debt limit to spending cuts and other conditions.

?I?m confident and optimistic that we?re going to get an agreement in the very near future and resolve this crisis in the best interests of the American people,? said Mr. McConnell, who noted he was personally talking to both Mr. Obama and Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., a favorite partner in past negotiations.

Mr. Boehner, who would have to steer a compromise through the House, said he based his confidence on the prospect of an agreement on the sense that ?we?re dealing with reasonable, responsible people who want this crisis to end as quickly as possible.?

A Democratic official with knowledge of the talks said that Mr. McConnell called Mr. Biden early Saturday afternoon, the first conversation between the two men since Wednesday. The official said they talked at least four more times on Saturday as they tried to work out an agreement.

The deal they were discussing, this person said, resembled the bill that Mr. Boehner won approval for in the House on Friday more than it did the one that Mr. Reid had proposed.

It would immediately raise the debt ceiling by about $1 trillion, accompanied by a similar range of spending cuts, and set up a new bipartisan committee that would work to find deeper cuts in exchange for a second debt limit increase that would extend through the 2012 election.

A failure of the new committee to win enactment of its proposal could then set off automatic spending cuts across the board, including to entitlement programs. Other ideas were swirling around the Capitol as lawmakers searched for a way to avoid default. One of Mr. Reid?s top lieutenants said he saw at least a glimmer of hope.

?We are a long way from any sort of negotiated agreement,? said Senator Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, the No. 2 Senate Democrat, ?but there is certainly a more positive feeling about reaching an agreement than I?ve felt in a long time.?

The flurry of activity came as anxiety built up in many corners, including among Wall Street investors worried about the effects on the markets and active-duty soldiers worried about their paychecks.

After Mr. McConnell sounded a hopeful note, Mr. Reid called members of the Senate to the floor to hear him dispute the claims by his Republican counterpart and accuse Republicans of failing to enter into serious negotiations even as the Treasury risked running out of money to pay all its bills after Tuesday.

Reporting was contributed by Jackie Calmes, Helene Cooper, Binyamin Appelbaum and Robert Pear from Washington, and Thom Shanker from Kandahar, Afghanistan.

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Gaming 29 - The Post-Pub Podcast

Gaming 29 - The Post-Pub Podcast

Posted on 17th Jul 2011 at 08:23 by Podcast with 14 comments

Custom PC veteran Phil Hartup and PC Pro's Mike Jennings join Joe and Paul for a late-night, post-pint rant. This episode of the podcast, perhaps because it's sponsored by alcohol, stumbles along with vague coherency through topics such as BioShock Infinite and Just Cause 2.

Mass Effect 2 is obligatorily drawn into the discussion too, as is tradition.

Boozy fumes aren't enough to stop us tackling the thorny issues, however - Phil explains why he expects Battlefield 3 will be a shoddy console port, while Joe shoots down the defence that 64-player multiplayer is something to be proud of.

*hic*


On top of that, Phil brings us a report on how APB: Reloaded is faring after being brought back from the dead, while Joe orates further on his favourite topic of the moment; Frozen Synapse.

As always, we've also got our weekly competition, which this time gives you a chance to win yourself a copy of Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood on the PC and Raving Rabbids on the Nintendo 3DS. You can also find out who won the last competition and bagged themselves a Roccat Vire Gaming Headset.

As ever, the bit-tech hardware podcast features music by Brad Sucks, and was recorded on Shure microphones. You can download the podcast direct, listen in-browser or subscribe through iTunes using the links below. Also, be sure to let us know your thoughts about the discussion in the forums.

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