Volume 16, Issue 30        Atari Online News, Etc.       July 25, 2014   
                                                                           
                                                                              
                  Published and Copyright (c) 1999 - 2014
                            All Rights Reserved

                          Atari Online News, Etc.
                           A-ONE Online Magazine
                Dana P. Jacobson, Publisher/Managing Editor
                      Joseph Mirando, Managing Editor
                       Rob Mahlert, Associate Editor


                       Atari Online News, Etc. Staff

                        Dana P. Jacobson  --  Editor
                   Joe Mirando  --  "People Are Talking"
                Michael Burkley  --  "Unabashed Atariophile"
                   Albert Dayes  --  "CC: Classic Chips"
                         Rob Mahlert  --  Web site
                Thomas J. Andrews  --  "Keeper of the Flame"


                           With Contributions by:

                                Fred Horvat



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A-ONE #1630                                                 07/25/14

   ~ Canvas Fingerprinting!   ~ People Are Talking!    ~ Space Invaders Movie!
   ~ Tips To Become Pro Gamer ~ Classic Games in Movie ~ OS X Yosemite Beta!
   ~ Contest Winners Pirates! ~ LeBron James Is Better ~ Win 8.1 Update Soon!
   ~ Pong, Not Meant To Be!   ~ Google To Buy Twitch!  ~ Lenovo Stops Sales!  

                  -* Users Unhappy w/ Social Media *-
              -* Google Right To Be Forgotten Request *-
           -* Your Kids Worried About Parents Online Time *-



                                  =~=~=~=



->From the Editor's Keyboard              "Saying it like it is!"
  """"""""""""""""""""""""""



It's been another one of those weeks, so in the absence of time, we'll
just get right to this week's issue - lots of interesting stuff this week!

Until next time...



                                  =~=~=~=



->In This Week's Gaming Section  - Contest Winners Turn Pirates!
  """""""""""""""""""""""""""""    LeBron James Better Than You!
                                   Space Invaders the Movie!
                                   And much more!


        
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->A-ONE's Game Console Industry News   -  The Latest Gaming News!
  """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""



             Contest Winners Given Early Access to Game,
         Reward Devs by Cracking and Releasing It toPirates


Modern Combat 5 has been cracked and uploaded to multiple torrenting
websites over the weekend. MC5 is a first person shooter for iOS, Android
and Windows 8. The developer and publisher, Gameloft, ran a contest
recently and invited players into the game early. One of those winners
apparently cracked the game and began distributing it online.

Modern Combat's dev team is not pleased with the situation.

"As you can imagine I am really pissed off," wrote Gameloft community
manager Florian Weber on theModern Combat 4 Hub Facebook group. "To
anybody who got MC5 already, shame on you! We are making games for you
and all you can do is pirate them?

"Anybody which is talking to me and shows in some way that he already has
MC5 will get an instant ban. Seriously, this is why we can't have nice
things."

In a formal statement Gameloft says that they say they are taking action
to lock down any copies of the game that have leaked out.

"Following the release of several pirated versions of Modern Combat 5
prior the release of the game," reads the statement, "we have turned on
our anti-piracy systems and now all illegitimate users on a non-official
version have been incapacitated."

"Those who used this pirated version of the game just need to wait for
the official game release which is on Thursday July 24. We will continue
to stay alert and respond adequately to all hacking attempts."



            LeBron James Is Better at Video Games ThanYou


LeBron James' childhood friends could never defeat him in Shaq Fu, and
today, he's just as tough to beat in a game of Madden as he is on the
basketball court  all because of his incredible memory.

James is blessed (and cursed) with an eidetic memory,reports ESPN. It's
partly responsible for his success in the NBA: The basketball superstar
often amazes teammates, opponents, coaches and reporters with his
incredible ability to recall specific game situations from long ago.
He's able to remember details like the tactics teams used to defend him
and the exact locations of the shots he took.

He also memorized the entire move list in Shaq Fu. Featuring basketball
star Shaquille O'Neal, the much-maligned 16-bit fighting game from
Electronic Arts debuted on Genesis and SNES in 1994  years before
GameFAQs existed. (O'Neal and a studio called Big Deez Productionsraised
more than $473,000 on Indiegogo earlier this year to fund the development
of Shaq Fu: A Legend Reborn, a sequel to the original game.)

"LeBron was the only one who had memorized all the moves and so he'd win
every time. We all thought he definitely was cheating," said Brandon
Weems, one of James' lifelong friends, in an interview with ESPN.

According to Weems, who is now an assistant basketball coach at Oakland
University, James continues to stay one step ahead of his buddies.

"When you play Madden with him now you have to be careful which teams you
take, because he will know what your game plans were in the past when
you've played with him and he'll pick the opposing team knowing what
plays you want to run," Weems added. "You better save your favorite play,
too, because he'll remember what you ran before in situations and be
ready for it."

James, 29,returned to the Cleveland Cavaliers, his hometown team and the
place where he began his NBA career in 2003, earlier this month. He spent
the previous four seasons with the Miami Heat.



                        5 Tips for Becoming a Pro Gamer


You fancy yourself a pretty solid League of Legends player. Or maybe
youre untouchable when it comes to Halo. And now youre ready to see if
youve got what it takes to earn a living at it.

Pro gamers can certainly make bank. 25-year old Lee Jaedong Jae Dong
has earned more than $504,000 in 47 tournaments. And Johnathan Fatal1ty
Wendel pocketed more than $450,000 in tournaments (and a lot more in
endorsement deals).

But success in the e-sports world takes a lot more than just a lot of
practice and studying the moves of your opponents. We spoke with a few
e-sports champs to get their tips on what people can do to best prepare
for competition.

1. Know your weaknesses.?No matter how good you are, youre not perfect 
and it helps to know exactly where you fall short.

Yoan ToD Merlo has been called the best StarCraft II player from France
 and will be casting and commentating at this weekends Red Bull Battle
Grounds event in Atlanta. But he knows where the holes in his game are.

Try and prepare something for everybody, he says. Try to work on your
weaknesses. So me, for example, my Protoss vs. Terran is my weakest
matchup. I need to make sure I work extra on that matchup to make sure I
dont lose to the first good Terran I meet.

Sean Day[9] Plott, a former StarCraft II pro player who went on to
become a well-known e-sports personality, agrees  adding that
self-awareness is what makes a good player great.

Obsess on your weakness and faults as a player, he says. All you are
doing as a pro is trying to identify your mistakes and weaknesses  and
there is no weakness that is unfair to identify. It could be that your
win rate seems to go down after about three hours. What is causing that?
What is your attempt at a solution?  Its the willingness to zoom in,
and really identify the problems, and then practice them that makes a pro
player so good.

2. Stay rested.?There will be plenty of opportunities at e-sport events
to go out and party. And they can be tempting. But to be a winner, youll
have to resist the pressures to stay out late and socialize.

I think one of the things that really throws people off is you dont
realize how stressful the travel can be at times, says Nathan Nathanias
Fabrikant, an e-sportscaster and player for ROOT Gaming. Its really
hard to balance, when youre going to a lot of events.  [M]ake sure that
you sleep enough and that you have time to practice in between
tournaments.

There is such a thing as too much sleep, though.

Its very hard to play your A-game all the time, ToD says. For me, at
least, on average, I feel like I can play my A-game three or four hours
per day. Thats it.  Make sure you get some good sleep. At least eight
hours, but you shouldnt sleep 12 hours, or your cycle will be messed up
for day two.

3. Practice under poor conditions.?Winning on your home setup is one
thing, but tournament conditions wont always be ideal. In fact, theyll
often be less than optimal. Prepare for that.

Practice all the variables, Day[9] says. With the thermostat set to
60 degrees. To 80 degrees. With your chair too low or too high. All these
sort of things are going to be really useful because even if the
thermostat doesnt change a lot at the tournament, you have those extra
reassurances of control.

4. Prepare for an emotional roller coaster.?No matter how ready you think
you are, the emotions that flood players when a tournament rolls around
can be overwhelming.

The number one thing that an aspiring player at their first tournament
may face  that everything in your mind will be completely overshadowed
by this ridiculous swing of emotion, Day[9] says. In fact, the most
trying test for any competitor is learning to manage those emotions, and
how to use them positively, and play past the really negative ones.

Its not just newbies who have to deal with that emotional tidal wave.
Veterans face it, too.

Theres a couple pro gamers that, when theyre on their A-game, theyre
almost unstoppable, Nathanias says. And if theyre not in the right
mind-set, or they havent been taking care of themselves as much as they
should have, they have a lot more difficulty finding success.

5. Have a ritual.?Pre-game habits arent restricted to traditional
athletes. A routine can help you get into the right mind-set for a match,
something thats crucial for victory.

A lot of players have [rituals], Day[9] says. Maybe they listen to
music. Maybe they do sprints before their game. Leading up to the
tournament, players will do this before practice, and it helps to become
[a] training mechanism that your body responds to. No matter what youre
feeling, it doesnt matter  you just listen to that song before your
match, and you get into the zone. Its essentially practicing the
emotional control, with a ritual that is meditative and helps get you in
the mind-set.



                                  =~=~=~=



->A-ONE Gaming Online       -       Online Users Growl & Purr!
  """""""""""""""""""
 


                Pong: The Game That Was Never Meant to Be


Pong was the video game industrys equivalent of the Big Bang. Without
it, its impossible to know where  or if  things would be today.

That makes it all the more remarkable to hear that Pong was never meant
to be seen by the public. 

Instead, the game started as a simple training exercise, according to the
folks at TodayIFoundOut. Atari founder Nolan Bushnell assigned the idea
to Allan Alcorn to let him get his feet wet in coding a game, since
Alcorn had no game design or development experience at the time.

The rules were simple: Make a game with two paddles, one moving spot for
a ball, and digits that displayed the score. Alcorn, though, thought that
was boring, so he added a few flourishes, like having the ball bounce
off paddles at different angles, and speeding things up after each
return.

When Bushnell  and his partner Ted Dabney  saw the result, they were
impressed but still unconvinced that the public would care about the
game. That led them to put the now famous prototype in Andy Capps
Tavern to see how it did. (If players liked it, they figured, theyd
sell the game to Bally or Midway, who were partners at the time.)

You probably know the story from there. Pong was an instant hit. The
machine took in so many quarters that it malfunctioned  and people began
lining up outside the pub before it opened, just so they could play it.

Bushnell knew he had a hit on his hands, but he downplayed it to his two
larger partners, persuading them to withdraw their rights to buy Pong.
Once that hurdle was completed, Atari released an arcade version of the
game (which took in a then-unprecedented $35 to $50 per machine per
day).

A short while later, the home version was launched  and with that, the
video game industry was on its way.

Not a bad journey for a happy fluke.



           A Space Invaders Movie Is In The Works at WarnerBros.


Taito's arcade classic shoot 'em up Space Invaders and its unique tale of
invading aliens laying waste to the Earth in predictable waves are being
mined for a feature film,The Wrap reports.

Rights to the 1978 arcade game have reportedly been acquired by studio
Warner Bros., and screenwriter-producer Akiva Goldsman is attached to
produce the Space Invaders movie. Goldsman's credits include films like
Lone Survivor, I Am Legend and the Paranormal Activity series, as well as
TV show Fringe. He most recently wrote and directed Winter's Tale for
Warner Bros.

Space Invaders served as inspiration for the upcoming movie Pixels, which
stars Adam Sandler and Peter Dinklage and wasbased on a Patrick
Jean-directed short film of the same name (pictured above). It too will
feature an alien invasion inspired by  and, in the film, caused by 
classic arcade games.

Hollywood has designs on turning other classic arcade games, like
Asteroids and Missile Command, into feature films.



    Home Alone Director Will Stuff These Classic Game Characters
                      Into An Adam SandlerMovie


Donkey Kong, Pac-Man, Frogger and more will make an appearance in the
upcoming film Pixels,thanks to recent partnerships with several game
companies, Sony Pictures Entertainment announced.

Pixels stars Adam Sandler,Michelle Monaghan andPeter Dinklage's mullet
in a movie inspired by theshort film of the same name. After aliens
mistake footage of classic arcade titles for a threat from Earth, Sandler
and friends must team up to protect the planet from their game-inspired
assault. The list of partners and their relevant properties is as
follows:

Atari Interactive (Asteroids, Breakout, Centipede and Missile Command)
Konami Digital Entertainment Co., Ltd. (Frogger)
Bandai Namco Games Inc. (Pac-Man, Galaga and Dig Dug)
Nintendo (Donkey Kong)
Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. (Q*bert)
Taito Corporation (Space Invaders)
Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment (Joust, Defender, Robotron and
Wizard of Wor)

According to director Chris Columbus, there would have been "no way" to
make the movie without the classic game characters.

"They are as important to the film as the roles that Adam [Sandler],
Kevin [James], Michelle [Monaghan], Peter [Dinklage], Josh [Gad] and
Brian [Cox] are playing," Columbus said. "It was a real thrill to see
everything come together exactly as we envisioned it, and we're grateful
to have all of these fantastic companies on board."

Previously, the drector said classic characters will be "fully realized,
three-dimensional, pixelated characters that are quite threatening."

The original short, created by Patrick Jean, featured cameos from
characters such asDonkey Kong, Frogger and squadrons of Space Invaders.
Because of this, producer Allen Covert said, it was "critical" to use
them in the movie.

"We approached them with a deep love for their characters and a respect
for the elements that make them unique and iconic, and we've worked with
the companies to incorporate those elements into the film," Covert said.

For more on how Pixels went from a short to a full-fledged movie, check
outour interview with Jean and screenwriter Timothy Dowling. Pixels hits
theaters May 15, 2015.



                                  =~=~=~=



                           A-ONE's Headline News
                   The Latest in Computer Technology News
                       Compiled by: Dana P. Jacobson



         Google Grants Half Of Right To Be Forgotten Requests


Google revealed that it grants half of the de-index requests it receives
at a meeting with the European Court of Justice.

The search giant, along with Yahoo and Microsoft, had been called before
the court to answer questions about how they have handle de-indexing
requests resulting from the courts right to be forgotten ruling, which
requires the search engines to remove links to content deemed to be
inaccurate, outdated or irrelevant, ZDNet reports.

However, concerns have arisen over Googles current practices in
complying with requests. The company notifies the publisher of the links
to be de-indexed, which often leads to even greater public attention
toward the content, somewhat defeating the purpose of the request in the
first place.

So far, few details have merged from the meeting, although TechCrunch
reports that Google has confirmed that rejects about one third of
de-index requests, asks for more information for 15 percent of requests
and grants about half of all requests.

According to PCWorld, officials asked a number of questions about the
de-indexing process, such as the legal basis for sending notifications to
publishers and displaying them in censored results, both of which Google
does. The meeting was also intended to address the question of on which
domains the results would be de-indexed. Google, for example, has drawn
criticism for removing results from its European domains but not its
.com domain.

Although the answers to these questions have not yet been announced, the
three companies were asked to submit further answers in writing by the
end of the month.



  'Canvas Fingerprinting' Online Tracking Is Sneaky But Easy To Halt


A method for tracking users across the Internet called canvas
fingerprinting is simple to stop, but average Internet users may not
know how to do it.

A research paper concluded that code used for canvas fingerprinting had
been in use earlier this year on 5,000 or so popular websites, unknown
to most. Most but not all the sites observed used a content-sharing
widget from the company AddThis.

The researchers, from KU Lueven in Belgium and Princeton University,
described how companies are looking for new ways to track users in order
to deliver targeted advertising and move away from cookies, which can be
easily deleted or blocked.

The cookie is dead, wrote Rob Shavell, a cofounder of Abine, a company
that develops privacy tools, via email. Advertising and data collection
businesses need to evidence that their targeting is working for paying
clients, he wrote, but most users are unaware of how theyre being
tracked in new ways.

Following media coverage, AddThis admitted it ran a five-month test using
canvas fingerprinting within its widget but said the canvas
fingerprinting code was disabled earlier this month. Acknowledging
privacy concerns, the company said it would provide more information on
such tracking tests before starting one.

It worked like this: When a browser loaded the AddThis widget, JavaScript
that enabled canvas fingerprinting was sent. The script used a capability
in modern Web browsers called the canvas API that allows access to the
computers graphics chip, which is intended for use with games or other
interactive content.

An invisible image was sent to the browser, which rendered it and sent
data back to the server. That data can then be used to create a
fingerprint of the computer, which could be useful for identifying the
computer and serving targeted advertisements.

But of several emerging tracking methods, canvas fingerprinting isnt the
greatest: its not terribly accurate, and can be blocked.

Canvas fingerprinting may work best on smaller websites with stable
communities, wrote Wladimir Palant, creator of AdBlock Plus browser
extension, in a blog post. But it is less effective on a larger scale.

As soon as you start talking about millions of users (e.g. if you want
to track users across multiple websites) it is just too likely that
different users will have exactly the same configuration and wont be
distinguishable by means of canvas fingerprinting, he wrote.

Widgets such as AddThis can be entirely blocked with tools such as
AdBlock Plus or DoNotTrackMe from Abine, both extensions that can block
web trackers.

DoNotTrackMe, for example, can spot a browser making a request to AddThis
for content and block it, meaning AddThis couldnt transmit JavaScript
for canvas fingerprinting, wrote Andrew Sudbury, CTO and cofounder of
Abine, via email.

AdBlock Plus can also block these kinds of JavaScript requests, but not
by default, wrote Ben Williams, public relations manager for AdBlock
Plus, in an email.

The extension is intended to be used with a series of filters, or lists,
that enable certain kinds of blocking. Williams wrote that a user would
need to install the EasyPrivacy filter. The AddThis widget would be
blocked, along with any other JavaScript, he wrote.



                Google Signs $1 Billion Deal To Buy Twitch


Has the long-rumored merger of two online video titans finally occurred?

Venturebeat is reporting Google has signed a deal to buy game-streaming
service Twitch, for $1 billion. (Both companies are declining to comment
on the report.)

While nothing official has been announced - and the $1 billion figure is
not confirmed - gaming industry observers have been expecting a team-up
of the two companies since May, when Variety and The Wall Street Journal
reported the deal was being discussed.

Googles YouTube division is reportedly leading the charge here - and the
incorporation of Twitchs live-stream broadcasting technology could be a
big shift in its day-to-day operations.

Assuming that $1 billion price tag is correct, this would be the fifth
largest acquisition in Googles history - right below the companys 2006
purchase of YouTube for $1.65 billion - underscoring the sites
importance to Google.

Twitch, which was founded in June 2011, has seen its profile skyrocket
since last November, thanks in large part to partnerships with
Microsofts Xbox One and Sonys PlayStation 4.

The platform boasts a community of over 50 million unique users each
month, with 1.1 million broadcasters - and visitors averaging 106 minutes
per day on the service. (Total monthly views top 13 billion minutes. That
works out to a bit shy of 25 years, by the way.)

Simply put, it has become the Internets go-to spot to watch and
broadcast game streaming. (Among its investors is game publisher Take-Two
Interactive Software.)

Those are numbers YouTube envies - and could be a nice complement to the
growing number of game-focused celebrities on the site, like Swedens
Felix Arvid Ulf Kjelberg, better known as PewDiePie, who has nearly
29 million subscribers.



       Apple To Release Free Beta Version of New Operating System


Beginning July 24, a public beta of Apples new operating system for Mac
will be available to the general public to try out.

OSX Yosemite features a fresh new design, flatter icons, translucent
toolbars and windows, and plenty of increased integration with your
iPhone and iPad.

Its important to note that the Yosemite beta is exactly that, a beta, so
theres always the chance for bugs and glitches to emerge. If you give
the new operating system a try, its a good idea to make sure youve
backed up your computer first.

Not every feature promised for the consumer release of OSX Yosemite will
be available in the public beta form, as many of the interconnectivity
features are dependent upon the unreleased iOS8 mobile operating system,
which is slated for a fall release.

According to The Loop, Apple has included a handy Feedback Assistant
app for reporting bugs and issues with the public beta.

The final version of OSX Yosemite will be available as a free download
for many Mac computers in the fall.

Those with an Apple ID can sign up for the public beta:
https://appleseed.apple.com/sp/betaprogram/



          Next Big Windows 8.1 Update Reportedly Coming Soon


Microsoft may be getting ready to release its second scheduled Windows
8.1 update of the year. Known as Windows 8.1 Update 2, the upcoming
release is apparently smaller than Update 1, which was released earlier
this year, and will arrive on Patch Tuesday, which is apparently
scheduled for August 12 according to a leaked image posted on Russian
website PCPortal.org.ru.

Its not clear what newfeatures will be included in Windows 8.1
Update 2, or whether the update will only bring improvements and bug
fixes. Neowin says the update will be smaller than the previous one, and
may bring only enhancements to stability rather than front end
features.

Similarly, its not known whetherthe Start menu will return this year
via Update 2. A recent leak suggested that Microsoft will bring it back
in an upcoming softwareupdate, while a previous report said that the
Start menu will only arrive next year, likely inWindows 9, the
Microsoftsnext-gen operating system.

Other details about Windows 8.1 Update 2 arent available, except for the
leaked image that mentions the release date for Windows 8.1 Update 2,
which follows below.



           Lenovo Stops Selling Small-screen Windows Tablets
                  in the U.S. Due to Lack of Demand


Lenovo has issued a statement explaining it is not permanently exiting
the small-screen Windows tablet space in the U.S.

Lenovo has stopped selling Windows tablets with screen sizes under
10 inches in the U.S. due to lack of interest.

Lenovo has stopped selling two small-screen Windows tablets with 8-inch
screens: the ThinkPad 8, which was announced in January and a model of
Miix 2, which started shipping in October last year.

In North America, were seeing stronger interest in the larger screen
sizes for Windows tablets and are pleased with initial customer demand
for the ThinkPad 10, said Raymond Gorman, a Lenovo spokesman, in an
email.

The ThinkPad 8 is the most feature-packed small-screen Windows tablet
available, with a 1080p screen and USB 3.0 port. But it was also riddled
with charging, screen, connectivity and battery issues.

The remaining ThinkPad 8 stock has been redirected to developing
countries, where there is more interest in small-screen Windows tablets,
Gorman said.

In other markets, particularly Brazil, China, and Japan, the demand for
ThinkPad 8 has been much stronger, so we are adjusting our ThinkPad 8
inventories to meet increasing demand in those markets. If market demand
for ThinkPad 8 changes, we will re-evaluate our strategy, Gorman said.

The 8-inch version of Miix 2 is not available and there is no other
information about whether it will be again, according to a representative
who answered the companys sales telephone line. However, Lenovo
continues to sell Miix 2 with a 10.1-inch screen in the U.S.

Lenovos 7- and 8-inch tablets are available only with Android. The
tablets are priced between US$129 and $249.

Tablets are selling well, driven more by low-cost Android versions than
Windows, which could explain Lenovos move, said Bob ODonnell,
principal analyst at Technalysis Research.

Its impossible for Windows devices to compete, ODonnell said.

Its easier to use Windows 8 with screen sizes of 10 inches or more,
ODonnell said.

Smaller Windows tablets dont make any sense anymore, he said.

However, there could be some exceptions. Small notebooks have done well
in Japan and it would not be a surprise if small-screen Windows tablets
did well in that market, ODonnell said.

Microsofts Windows 8.1, when it was released in 2012, was initially
targeted at PCs and tablets with 10-inch screens or larger. But the OS
was extended to smaller screens with growing adoption of 7-inch Android
tablets. However, there have been questions about whether Windows 8,
which combines a tablet and desktop OS, would work well on 8-inch
screens.

Dell, Toshiba and Acer are among a handful of companies selling
small-screen Windows tablets. Microsoft in May reportedly planned to
announce a small-screen Windows 8.1 RT tablet along with the Surface
Pro 3, but scrapped plans at the last minute.

Microsoft wants device makers to build low-cost Windows devices and has
said it would license the OS to hardware partners at no cost. The company
in May announced Windows 8.1 with Bing, which would be sold license-free
to hardware makers.

With the back-to-school period in full swing, many companies are also
adjusting product shipments to meet growing demand for PCs and tablets.
Dell recently stopped online shipments of Chromebooks to meet existing
orders for the laptops.



                     Users Unhappy With Social Media


It turns out people are not so content with the services providing their
online social interactions  regardless of how much time they may spend
on their social media accounts.

That's according to a new report on e-business released Tuesday from the
American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI), an annual survey of 70,000
US consumers that measures their satisfaction with the products and
services they use from both foreign and domestic firms with large
presences in US markets. The e-business report looks at social media,
portals, search engines, online news outlets, and opinion websites.

Social media websites are among the companies with the lowest scores in
the index. The report attributes these low scores to privacy concerns
among users and the increasing proliferation of ads on sites such as
Facebook and Twitter. Both sites have recently rolled out new features
that let users buy items directly from their Facebook news feeds and
through paid-for tweets.

ACSI gave Internet social media an overall score of 71 out of 100, up
4.4 percent from last year. But it is still the fourth lowest-scoring
category in ACSI, "just above airlines (69), subscription television
(65), and Internet service providers (63)," according to the report.

While Facebook climbed five points to a score of 67, it is the
lowest-scoring social-media website, just behind LinkedIn and Twitter.
And data was collected for this survey before news broke that Facebook
had deliberately manipulated users' news feeds for purposes of an
academic study. Because this news angered many Facebook users, it is
possible its ACSI score could have been even lower had data been
collected after the fact.

LinkedIn saw its highest score to date at 67, as did Twitter at 69. This
follows a Twitter site redesign and platform changes that make it easier
for users to "integrate photos and videos," in addition to incorporating
real-time interactive pop-up Web notifications.

Wikipedia was the only site to see a decline in user satisfaction. It
fell four points to a rating of 74. But it's still in second place after
Pinterest, which has claimed the top spot for social media scores.

"Consumers have a new darling in social bookmarking site Pinterest, which
climbs 6% to an ACSI score of 76," the report states. "The site has made
steady gains with pinners over the past three years by adding features
and smarter search functions."

As people continue to transition to smart phones and tablets to access
Internet services, social media sites are lagging behind other e-business
websites for performance on different devices, according to the report.

"Freshness of content and ease of navigation varies widely among
individual websites, but on average, social media sites do not compare
well to other online businesses in any measure of the user experience,"
the report states, noting, however,that overall satisfaction with
e-businesses climbed by 2.9 percent to a score of 73.4.

Customer satisfaction with portals and search engines performed better,
garnering an average score of 80, thanks in large part to Google's
dominance. The search giant performed well ahead of all competitors in
the ACSI rating.

Customer satisfaction with news and opinion sites moved up only one
point to 74, which the report attributes mainly to increased readership
of non-mainstream media outlets.



      Your Kids Are Worried About How Much Time You Spend Online


The next time you feel the urge to harangue your kids to spend less time
with their faces attached to screens and more time in the real world, be
careful: They may deliver the same lecture right back at you.

A survey commissioned by the UKs New Forest National Park Authority
reveals that when it comes to screen time, parents are big, fat
hypocrites  at least in the eyes of their offspring.

The results shouldnt come as a surprise to any smartphone-wielding
parent. While six in 10 parents in the survey worry that their kids are
spending too much time in front of a screen, nearly seven in 10 children
feel the same way about Mom and Dad.

Other results from the survey:

 Roughly a third of kids worry that their parents have a hard time
separating themselves from their gadgets.
 25 percent of kids feel Mom and Dad have a double standard when it
comes to managing screen time.
 One in five British tykes feel their parents are so busy checking
email on their phones that they arent even listening (what, were you
saying something?).
 Perhaps to assuage their loneliness, four in 10 children have
communicated via text or social media with parents in the same room.

The Park Authority commissioned the survey to promote its new Tech
Creche  a safe place for parents and kids alike to park their gadgets
so they can fully appreciate the bounties of nature.

This problem is hardly limited to Britain. According to a 2013 survey by
eMarketer, U.S. adults spend an average of more than 2 hours and
20 minutes a day using their mobile devices, not including talk time 
nearly an hour more than they did the year previous.

Tamara Sanderson, who created TimeAway, which helps parents manage the
time their kids spend using smartphones, says she was inspired to create
the Android app by observing parents and their kids at a shopping mall.

There were lots of families together, but everyone was on their phones
or tablets, she says. It felt strange to be in a world where everyone
was physically together but mentally apart. I started blogging on the
concept, and then it evolved into an app idea.

Then she started using TimeAway herself  and discovered that she was
spending way more time staring at her own smartphone than she realized.
Thats why her next app will help adults manage their own screen time.

BeAway, due out this fall, will enable parents to put limits on their
own bad habits  to, say, keep them from checking work email after
10 p.m. or wasting hours on Facebook. If they break the rules, the app
will force them to put down the phone or pay a nominal penalty to a
charity.

And, of course, theyll really hear about it from their kids.



                                =~=~=~=




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