In May, Microsoft and Nokia will launch the “AppCampus” a program to develop mobile applications supported by Aalto University on the outskirts of Helsinki. This program has a lifespan of three years, will be based AppCampus up to 18 million euros, the two parties had undertaken to invest 9 million euros each.

“The AppCampus program has been set up to foster the creation of innovative mobile applications for the Windows Phone ecosystem and in addition, Nokia platforms, including Symbian and Series 40, to create a new generation of self-sustaining mobile startups” said Microsoft in an official statement.

AppCampus begin in May, collecting submissions of applications designed by entrepreneurs or students. Microsoft and Nokia will fund the development, therefore the most promising and most innovative. Past two years the campus of the University of Aalto have created thirty startups. For those of you who want to participate you can find more useful information’s on this web site.

Credit card transactions are worth trillions of dollars worldwide each year, but despite years of long-tail merchants being able to accept payments through systems like PayPal online, real world card transaction devices have been slow to arrive.

Now three are hitting the market at the same time: one specialised box office solution from Eventbrite, and a number of general purpose plug-in card readers to attach to mobile devices.
Startup companyEventbrite has recently launched a credit cardreader device that connects to an iPad. The device, called the At The Door Card Reader (Eventbrite is better at product than name development, it seems!)lets Eventbrite customers handle door and merchandise charges at their events. The app even works with a wireless receipt printer from Star. Transaction data is backed-up and encrypted. For a further guarantee of safety, Eventbritewill fight charge-backs on behalf of its users “so they can take credit card payments and still sleep easy”. To boost uptake, the company is waiving their usual 2.5% transaction fee for people who use the At The Door Card Reader system – though it does charge a 3% credit card fee.

Eventbrite CEO and Co-Founder Kevin Hartz said in a statement: “At The Door transforms an off-the-shelf iPad into a paradigm-shifting tool for managing sales for events. We’re essentially taking the devices that are proliferating among consumers and transforming them into perfectly-tailored tools for event organisers, at no cost, and with greater impact than anything previously available.” The $10 app and device combination is currently available in the US only. But demand will be high worldwide. As the company points out: the At the Door system lets users view real-time door sales reports alongside online sales; it collects attendee contact and demographic data that are integrated into online reports; it eliminates the need for time-consuming training with its easy-to-use iPad interface; and reaches on-the-spot customers that couldn’t be reached before.

Meanwhile, PayPal is using its global reach to launch “PayPal Here” – a physical card processing device that works with the iPhone to process credit card transactions. In March 2012 they rolled out their physical card reader infrastructure to 4,000 Home Depot stores in the US, though it foresees small stores as its main marketplace.
EBay CEO John Donahoe said of PayPal Here: “it has the most complete set of features and functions of all available products on the market [and it] will be backed by PayPal, which means it will go global fast, and will have access to over 100 million customers.”

Paypal has 100 million registered users but at present only those with iPhones can use the system (PayPal says it will be rolling out an Android version soon but hasn’t commented on details of a tablet app). The app is complemented with a card reader, but PayPal thinks that its killer edge comes from three unique features.
The first of these is a PayPal debit card that will give merchants instant access to their PayPal takings – they will also earn 1% on any transactions made with the card. The second is that the PayPal Here system doesn’t need a card reader – the merchant can use their phone camera to scan a credit card. And the final weapon in the PayPal here armoury is the low transaction fee of 2.7%, undercutting Square’s fee of 2.75%.

But Square, launched last year by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, is already taking $4billion of mobile transactions per year. The merchant fee of 2.75% hasn’t deterred thousands of small retailers from using the system as it still massively undercuts traditional credit card transaction costs. Jack Dorsey explained to Wired.com:
“[When we first launched, we] tried to get a merchant account and it was a disaster. We had to create a whole corporate structure. We’d sign up with one firm and they’d route us to a completely different organisation. It took four weeks. Meanwhile, we had to pay to get our account set up and enter into a one-year agreement. Then we found out there was a monthly fee. Then a PCI [Payment Card Industry] fee.And a gateway fee. Then there was the interchange [which is] the amount you pay to accept credit cards — 1.79 to 4%of every transaction. Everyone takes a cut: the merchant bank, issuing bank, credit-card company. Then there’s the independent sales organisations that sell the credit-card terminals.We thought we could do it a lot better. We wanted to make it so anyone come go through that whole process in one download. You put in your name and address, we ship you a reader, and you’re done. For free. All you pay is 2.75 per cent per swipe. That usually covers the interchange and leaves a small amount for us.”

Square currently works with the iPhone and iPad and Android but like the Eventbrite product, the system is only available in the US and Square may find itself lagging as PayPal exploits its existing international reach.

Square Dongle and Android app

Paypal Here Dongle with iPhone

In May, Microsoft and Nokia will launch the “AppCampus” a program to develop mobile applications supported by Aalto University on the outskirts of Helsinki. This program has a lifespan of three years, will be based AppCampus up to 18 million euros, the two parties had undertaken to invest 9 million euros each.

“The AppCampus program has been set up to foster the creation of innovative mobile applications for the Windows Phone ecosystem and in addition, Nokia platforms, including Symbian and Series 40, to create a new generation of self-sustaining mobile startups” said Microsoft in an official statement.

AppCampus begin in May, collecting submissions of applications designed by entrepreneurs or students. Microsoft and Nokia will fund the development, therefore the most promising and most innovative. Past two years the campus of the University of Aalto have created thirty startups. For those of you who want to participate you can find more useful information’s on this web site.

Mobile phones today are ambassadors of communication in a globalized society. They keep people in touch and online no matter where they are in the world.

It was in January of 2007 when the Apple CEO Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone. Needless to say, integration between the mobile phone and daily life has never been the same since then.

Just how far is the iPhone’s reach? Experts estimate that more than a hundred million iPhone units have been sold globally. And Apple says that over fourteen billion apps have been downloaded as of June 2011. Indeed, mobile Internet is moving the face of the communications industry, and is changing the way people live their lives.

There is an app for that

Lost? There is an app that gives you access to maps.

Shopping? Your phone can lead you the best deals in your area.

Confused? Open a search engine and easily find your way.

Bored? The list of games available for iPhones is endless.

An app is a shortened term for a web application or online application. It is software you can use on your iPhone. Today, there is an app for just about anything. For businessmen on the go, there are applications that can help juggle everyday tasks. This article counts five of the best for productivity.

Once you’ve invested your time and energy in creating viral content you want it to spread as far and as fast as possible. The most important metric is the K-factor (or contagion rate) – that is: how many other people does each host infect. For viral growth you need a K-factor of at least 1.4.

Leaving it to chance isn’t going to work – people don’t share everything that they encounter any more, there’s just far too much content for that to happen organically. But there are things you can do to ensure that your users share your content as much as possible.

1)      Make them “level up” – Dropbox and Quidco do this very successfully, rewarding their users with more storage and cash rewards for each successful referral. You can apply this strategy to your viral content by only allowing people to unlock premium content after a certain number of shares or successful recruitments.

2)      Give them all the necessary tools – your users will have multiple channels and multiple socialnetworks that they can use to share your content. Make sure you have one-click share options for all the major sharing platforms, and allow users to embed and deep link to your content. The more generous you are with your content the more likely they are to share it.

3)      Be specific – use the old chain letter technique of requesting a certain number of shares. “Please send this to five friends” works better than “please share this with your friends.” Not only is it a specific, measurable call to action, your user is most likely to think of friends that would appreciate the content rather than scattershotting it across their network.

4)      Promote trust – if you ask to access a user’s address book, or to create messages in their timelines, then you need to demonstrate that you will use those privileges responsibly. Although confirmation screens reduce the follow through rate you don’t want the backlash that comes from acting without permission.

Stephen Fry’s experience with Shortmail was very quickly picked up and retweeted by his many followers. The PR blowback has cost them dearly:

5)      Use persuadable events in the user’s timeline – when a user levels up in your game or rates a video as five stars, offer them the chance to brag about it. Wall badges and twitter stickers are used by apps like GetGlue to encourage users to keep sharing their interactions with friends. Endomondo allows you to post every successful workout to Twitter and even to ask for pep-talks as you exercise. These don’t feel like viral pushes to the user – they feel like value added features that let you brag about achievements or ask for support – but they keep your content in their timeline.

6)      Focus on retention – the more times a user interacts with your content, the more likely they are to share it. Create reasons for them to keep coming back: launch new content regularly, or have them work towards an accumulated status that they warm for multiple check-ins. Foursquare’s “Mayor” system is a prime example of a way of getting users to repeat the same action in the hope of accumulating a reward.

7)      Make space for UGC – if your users can make something with your content, or if they can remix it, they are more likely to want to share the results of their efforts with friends. Apps like Androidify encourage you to create Android-themed avatars of yourself and your friends and it’s almost impossible to resist sharing the result.

8)      Encourage fan sites – avoid the temptation to control your content with take-down notices and heavy handed techniques, particularly if your aim is to build brand awareness. Let remixes, homages and fan-art proliferate! Each bit of UGC is not only free advertising, it’s a clear signal that someone cares enough about your brand to get involved. Consider hosting fan-art and fan-mix competitions. The Warcraft series does this very successfully, encouraging users to send in their screencaps and fan art.

9)      Build new social networks – another thing that the Warcraft series has done very well is to encourage people to join guilds and to take part in pick up groups (PUGs). These are a fantastic way to increase retention and sharing. Not only do people become invested in the groups that they have joined, they will actively seek out and recruit other people to join those groups. In terms of retention and sharing, this strategy delivers huge benefits.

10)   Nurture your seeds, or buy ready-grown roots – Getting that first wave of users is often the biggest obstacle. One of the most important aspects of creating a successful viral campaign is speed. An overnight sensation is more likely to create a buzz than a slow burning fuse. Many agencies have paid seeders that they use – these are well connected bloggers, tweeters and Facebook users who can be guaranteed to get your content out to a large number of followers. If you’d rather not use this strategy, you can create your own “seedlings” by having a pre-recruitment phase. Ask people to register for an invitation: create the illusion of scarcity and make them wait for a launch date. When you launch you will have a ready made first wave of users who have been anticipating your content for a long time.

Good content isn’t enough to ensure viral success. By following these simple hints you can boost shares and retention, whatever your niche.

About: Raja Writes on SEO, Blogging, Web Design, Web Hosting. He regularly writes on eCommerce Hosting Reviews at WebHostingReview.info