EU agrees single charger standard, in blow to Apple

Yahoo – AFP, Alex PIGMAN, June 7, 2022

 

European officials on Tuesday agreed the text of a proposed EU law imposing a standard charger for smartphones, tablets and laptops sold in the bloc, in a blow to Apple. 

EU member states and MEPs believe a standard cable for all devices will cut back on electronic waste, but iPhone juggernaut Apple argues a one-size-fits-all charger would slow innovation and create more pollution. 

For most portable devices the requirement for charging via a USB Type-C port will come into effect from late 2024, negotiators said, while laptops will be given more time. 

The USB-C rule will also stretch to digital cameras, headphones, headsets, portable speakers and E-readers, they said. 

Lawmakers agreed on the common charger based on a proposal that was made by the EU executive -- the European Commission -- in September, but came more than a decade after the European Parliament first pushed for it. 

The decision will be formally ratified by European Parliament and among EU member states later this year before entering into effect. 

"We have been able to do it in nine months, that means that we can ... move fast when there is a political will," the EU internal market commissioner Thierry Breton said. 

"We are able to say to the lobbies, 'sorry, but here it is Europe and we're working for our people'," he said. 

The 27-nation union is home to 450 million people, some of the world's richest consumers, and the imposition of the USB-C as standard could affect the entire global market. 

"This is a rule which will apply to everyone," said MEP Alex Agius Saliba, who led the negotiations for the European Parliament. 

"If Apple ... or anyone wants to market their product, sell their products within our internal market, they have to abide by our rules and their device has to be USB-C," he said. 

The rules will also give shoppers the option to opt out of receiving a new charging cable when purchasing an electronic device. 

'Planning ahead'

And in order to prepare for the future, the law has provisions to set a standard on wireless charging. 

This was "not to end up ... legislating for a technology which is basically dying out, so we are also planning ahead," Saliba said. 

Apple, which already uses USB-C connectors on some of its iPads and laptop computers, has insisted any legislation to force a universal charger for all mobiles in the European Union is unwarranted. 

"The proposal is vastly disproportionate to any perceived problem," the company said in its response to the commission when the law was being drafted. 

Imposing a charger standard, it argued, would stifle innovation and "reduce European consumer choice by removing more affordable older models from the market". 

Consumers currently have to decide between phones served by three main chargers: "Lightning" for Apple handsets, the micro-USB widely used on most other mobile phones and the newer USB-C that is increasingly coming into use. 

That range is already greatly simplified from 2009, when dozens of different types of chargers were bundled with mobile phones, creating piles of electronic garbage when users changed brands.

In making its proposal last year, the EU said the current situation remained wasteful and that European consumers spent approximately 2.4 billion euros ($2.8 billion) annually on standalone chargers they bought separately. 

The European Commission had long defended a voluntary agreement it made with the device industry that was set in place in 2009 and saw a big reduction in cables, but Apple refused to abide by it.

One year on, EU's GDPR sets global standard for data protection

Yahoo – AFP, May 24, 2019

European Union (UE) Justice Commissioner Vera Jourova addresses a press
conference taking stock of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)

The EU's strict data laws have set the global benchmark for protecting personal information online since coming into force a year ago, but some worry that many users have barely noticed the change.

The "General Data Protection Regulation" (GDPR), launched on May 25 last year, enhances the rights of internet users and imposes a wide range of obligations on companies, including that they request explicit consent to use personal data collected or processed in the European Union.

The EU has billed it as the biggest shake-up of data privacy regulations since the birth of the web, saying it sets new high standards as the world seeks closer scrutiny of tech giants like Facebook, Google and Amazon.

It has also prompted other authorities around the world to strengthen their own data laws.

The US state of California, home to global tech haven Silicon Valley, last year adopted stringent data legislation largely inspired by the GDPR.

Japan meanwhile has worked with the EU to finalise common rules to offer its citizens an equivalent level of data protection as the GDPR.

And Australia plans to significantly strengthen sanctions against companies that breach data privacy rules, following the EU's lead -- the GDPR allows fines of up to four percent of a firm's turnover.

Companies slow to implement

But the transition has not always been easy -- companies inside and outside the EU have spent a total of hundreds of millions of euros to comply with the regulations.

Much of this has gone to upgrading how firms handle the vast amounts of data streaming in every day.

"Many companies face a major problem: their IT system was designed around providing services, but not around the data, which is constantly duplicated in all directions, sent to multitudes of providers and suppliers," said Gerome Billois, an expert at the IT service management company Wavestone.

He added that 31 percent of companies fail to implement the GDPR's "right to be forgotten" -- which allows people to have their personal data deleted -- because "they don't know precisely where the data is".

But Jean-Michel Franco of the French software company Talend says the industry is now "starting to get up and running" in implementing the GDPR.

Users ignoring rights?

However several campaign groups that defend the rights of internet users say that the GDPR's lofty goals are still a long way from being reached.

The main difference that most EU internet users notice under the GDPR are consent banners that pop up as they access a website.

Many users simply give their consent in the quickest way possible rather than asking for "more information" and being led into a maze of dense information and further questions.

A recent study of one urban transport website found that nearly 80 percent of users simply clicked the "accept all" button to move onto the site as quickly as possible.

Only around 10 percent of users chose to read the information detailing their rights -- if the explanations were short -- while another 10 percent read them thoroughly, according to the study of more than 280,000 people conducted in February by mobile marketing firm Ogury.

145,000 complaints

But while many internet users may pay the changes little heed, the GDPR has empowered some to take action against tech giants.

So far nearly 145,000 complaints and questions have been registered with the EU's national authorities in charge of enforcing the GDPR, an initial assessment revealed this week.

The complaints have also triggered severe penalties, including France's record 50 million euros ($56 million) fine on US giant Google for not doing enough to inform users on how their data is used.

EU Justice and Consumer Affairs Commissioner Vera Jourova has said the regulation is like "a one-year-old baby who has an appetite and is very agile".

There was widespread criticism in the months leading up to the regulation coming into force, but now voices "around the world are calling for comprehensive data protection rules similar to GDPR", she added.

African nations face dilemma over digital switch

The UN has set June as the deadline for moving from analog to digital transmission. Only a few African countries seem prepared for the change. Even the largest television markets on the continent are lagging behind.

Deutsche Welle, 23 Feb 2015

A group of people stands near three large satellite dishes in a rural area.
Photo: John Hrusa epa dpa

Staring at a blank TV screen has become a reality for most Kenyans, and many other African TV viewers could face the same fate come June 17. That is the deadline set by the UN's International Telecommunication Union (ITU) for television programs to be transmitted only digitally.

After the deadline, satellite dishes and antennas will receive their signals via a different technology. Theoretically, it will be possible to receive many more channels and enjoy improved image quality.

There is a story behind Kenya's black screens. President Uhuru Kenyatta's government ordered a consortium of four major television networks to be blocked from broadcasting in analog. This happened after they refused to change their signals to digital. The media houses argued that they were not ready yet, and now they are in court trying to push for one hundred more days to prepare for the digital transition.

Apart from Nigeria and South Africa, Kenya is one of the largest television markets in Africa.

The Standard Group,one of Kenya's leading media house, says
it needs more time for the switchover

All three countries are not ready for the switchover, says Mike Jensen, an IT specialist with the Association for Progressive Communications (APC) based in South Africa. "The Kenyan situation is probably the worst-case scenario on the continent; South Africa is pretty close," Jensen said. "In Nigeria, only one state has made the switch," Jensen told DW.

Nationwide coverage after the switchover to digital broadcasting is by no means ensured in African countries. As in Kenya, it is often about money. The change is costly for governments and citizens alike, the APC states on its website, which seeks to create an awareness of the issue.

Television viewers will usually need a decoder, which costs about $50 (44 euros), to decode the digital signal. Moreover, television companies will have to dig deep into their pockets to be able to broadcast their programs using the new technology.

Tanzania a digital model

Vera Moses, a Tanzanian viewer, says she is happy with the digital reception. "The quality of the pictures is good," she told DW in an interview.

Tanzania is one of three countries that has already largely switched to wide-band Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB). "In Dar es Salaam we already switched off analog transmission at the end of 2012," John Nkoma, the director of Tanzania's Communications Regulatory Authority (TCRA), told DW. Most cities are now receiving programs via DVB-T, which is terrestrial digital broadcasting via antenna. The remote parts of Tanzania receive broadcasts via satellite.

Dar es Salaam has already gone digital

It took some persuasion to convince citizens and businesses of the merits of the new system, Nkoma said, as he revealed two secrets to Tanzania's success: Firstly, decoders were taxed less. "The price for the decoders is artificially low," Nkoma said, "so they have become affordable." Tanzanians can get a decoder for $30.

Secondly, user habits were taken into consideration. "The public was used to free-to-air channels, so we required that in the digital broadcasting platform there would be the five popular channels of this country and those would be available as free channels." Viewers whose subscriptions expire would have these five channels to fall back on.

Market interests

But according to APC's Mike Jensen, that is not the whole story. Tanzania and neighboring Rwanda had forced the switchover on the public by shutting off the analog signal. Of course, there were citizens in both countries who simply could not afford the necessary equipment, Jensen said.

He thinks governments should guarantee a realistic compensation for the costs. The price of a decoder, Jensen said, was also a big issue in Mauritius. The government ordered large amounts of cheap decoders from China. Many of which had defects.

Satellite transmission is also to be digitalized

Jensen also does not understand the date the ITU has chosen. He estimates that by then only six countries may succeed in formally completing the switchover.

Germany has already changed to digital broadcasting, and so have most of the other industrialized nations. But Latin America has planned the switchover for as late as 2020.

Jensen says African telecommunications companies pushed for the early date for Africa. These companies, he said, were the only ones to profit from such a date, because they wanted to monopolize television broadcasting.

US to relinquish key oversight role for Internet

Google - AFP, Rob Lever (AFP), 15 March 2014

A picture taken on March 15, 2013 in Paris shows the screen of a computer

connected on the internet and displaying a webpage (AFP/File, Lionel Bonaventure)

Washington — The US government announced Friday it was giving up its key role in charge of the Internet's technical operations, handing over those functions to "the global multistakeholder community."

The US Commerce Department said it would seek "to convene global stakeholders to develop a proposal" for a transition away from US government oversight of the Internet's domain name system.

The move "marks the final phase of the privatization" of the Internet domain system, a statement said.

In 1997, the Internet domain system was handed over by the US government to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, a non-profit group.

The decision comes with Washington under pressure following revelations about vast surveillance programs operated by the secretive National Security Agency to collect data through a variety of methods.

The end of the US oversight role has no immediate impact for Internet users, and ICANN will continue to administer the network's key technical functions.

The shift seeks "to support and enhance the multistakeholder model of Internet policymaking and governance," said the statement from the Commerce Department's National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA).

The US agency's role administering changes to the so-called "root zone" of databases underlying the Internet makes it a steward of that system, even though the functions are contracted out to ICANN and the infrastructure company Verisign.

"The timing is right to start the transition process," said Assistant Commerce Secretary Lawrence Strickling.

"We look forward to ICANN convening stakeholders across the global Internet community to craft an appropriate transition plan."

The statement said the US hopes to "support and enhance the multistakeholder model," and "maintain the openness of the Internet" under any new system.

ICANN welcomed the announcement and said it was moving forward on a transition plan.

"We are inviting governments, the private sector, civil society and other Internet organizations from the whole world to join us in developing this transition process," said ICANN president and CEO Fadi Chehade.

"All stakeholders deserve a voice in the management and governance of this global resource as equal partners."

- ICANN administrator role unchanged -

ICANN said its role as administrator of the Internet's unique identifier system remains unchanged.

"The Internet's Unique Identifier functions are not apparent to most Internet users, but they play a critical role in maintaining a single, global, unified and interoperable Internet." ICANN said.

A screen shows a rolling feed of new 'Generic Top-Level Domain Names

 (gTLDs) which have been applied for during a press conference hosted by

ICANN in central London, on June 13, 2012 (AFP/File, Andrew Cowie)

But the change leaves some questions unanswered on the future stewardship of the Internet.

Daniel Castro, analyst at the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, criticized the "negative" move.

"And the government knows it's negative," he told AFP. "That's why they released it on a Friday afternoon."

Castro said the change opens the door to other governments modifying the Internet architecture for political reasons.

"It's one thing for the US government to step back," he said.

"The concern is how do we make it work in practice. Given that other countries have said they will use the Internet for political purposes this threatens the long-term stability of the basic technical functions of the Internet."

In a blog post, Castro said the US has been a force for openness of the Internet.

"Internet users and businesses worry that countries such as Russia or China may manipulate ICANN to censor online content that is outside their borders," he wrote.

"Currently, the US government acts as a deterrent... It is unreasonable, however, to expect all foreign governments to continue to respect ICANN's operating principles in the absence of the US government's oversight and protection of core values."

The leaders of the Internet technical organizations welcomed the news.

"The transition of the US government stewardship has been envisaged since the early days of (ICANN) functions contract," said a statement from the World Wide Web Consortium, Internet Engineering Task Force and other groups.

"This transition is now feasible due to the maturity of the Internet technical organizations."

Related Article:

Internet privacy as important as human rights, says UN's Navi Pillay

WhatsApp: the new text messaging

As texting turns 20, could this popular app that allows phone users to chat for free take the place of SMS?

Guardian, Charles Arthur, Tuesday 4 December 2012

WhatsApp … RU still using SMS? LOL! Photograph: Getty Images/
OJO Images

You've heard of texting, right? Billions of people use text messages, which have just turned 20. And you've heard of BBM (BlackBerry Messenger), the free system for users of BlackBerry phones where, unlike texts, sending or receiving messages costs nothing because it's done as data that you have already paid for in your contact.

OK. But have you heard of WhatsApp? If you're under 25, the answer is almost certainly yes. It is a cross-platform mobile messaging app that allows you to exchange messages without having to pay for SMS, and has an estimated 250 million users worldwide. That's more than four times as many as BBM, and it has the mobile operators increasingly worried, because it works like BBM – over data – but on any phone that can run the app, including phones running Android, Windows Phone, Nokia's Symbian and S40, BlackBerry OS and Apple's iOS. To communicate with someone, you both have to have WhatsApp installed. (It will recognise your contacts who do have it from their phone number.) That's a potential market of many hundreds of millions of users, and although the company hasn't released any formal numbers, it's safe to say that it's already really big, and likely to become even more so.

WhatsApp was started in 2009 by two ex-Yahoo staff, Jan Koum and Brian Acton, and presently handles more than 10bn messages per day. And it's also one of the most popular paid-for apps on any platform. Why a paid app (you have to buy it on the iPhone; it's free for the first year on other platforms) rather than totally free? Koum and Acton recently posted on the company blog to explain: "These days companies know literally everything about you, your friends, your interests, and they use it all to sell ads," they wrote.

"We wanted to make something that wasn't just another ad clearing-house. We wanted to spend our time building a service people wanted to use because it worked and saved them money and made their lives better in a small way. We knew that we could charge people directly if we could do all those things. We knew we could do what most people aim to do every day: avoid ads."

Text messaging may still be pulling in the money from pay-as-you-go users, but these days they can get data bundles that let them send endless numbers of WhatsApp messages, and never touch the gold-plated text message (whose per-message cost, especially on PAYG, is miles out of kilter with what it costs to deliver or send).

Tero Kuittenen, of the Finnish consultancy Alekstra, says: "I believe we are facing a period of accelerating erosion of SMS volumes – this is not going to be a linear process." WhatsApp, he says, has grown tenfold in a year: "Even though WhatsApp is such a fresh phenomenon, it has already played a major role in pushing Spain's SMS volume into 25% annual decline."

So if you haven't heard of WhatsApp, you might soon do. And if you have, when's the last time you sent a text?

Facebook is updating its Messenger

 app for Android mobile phones allowing 

people send messages via their data

plan. Photograph: Manu Fernandez/AP

Related Article:

Facebook turns Messenger into a text message killer - New

EU slams Web standards body over Do Not Track

Deutsche Welle, 11 October 2012

The EU's Digital Agenda chief warns time is running out for the Web's standards body, W3C, to develop a tool good enough to help users protect their data against commercial interests.

It's not easy for companies to make money online - the number of people willing to pay for an online subscription remains relatively low.

Many internet companies, including newspapers, still tend to rely on people's clicks on ads to make their money.

The more targeted the ad, the more advertisers are willing to pay. And in order to target an ad, they use tracking tools, such as cookies.

Each time you click on an ad, or "like" something on Facebook, or read a particular newspaper article - your clicks are being converted into valuable consumer data.

But privacy-friendly regulators like the EU Commissioner for the Digital Agenda Neelie Kroes want it to be standard that users have to first give their consent before companies can collect and make use of any such personal data.

Kroes has, however, grown increasingly frustrated the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), a Web standards body made up of 50 blue chip companies and some data privacy experts.

She had tasked the W3C with developing an improved "Do Not Track" (DNT) tool to prevent companies from collecting data on Web users without consent - but now says it's dragging its heels.

Consent is required

On her blog, Kroes explains the idea behind DNT in the following way:

"If you log in to a web service, the cookie that remembers that you are logged in is fine - and indeed this makes our lives a whole lot easier online. But a cookie that is used to build a profile of what you are doing online is less OK: it might mean that your web surfing over time (searches, web pages visited, the content viewed, etc.) is tracked, for example, in order to match ads against your interests as determined from the profile. The use of such cookies requires your consent."

Neelie Kroes has accused the W3C of watering down Do Not Track standards

Kroes had set the W3C a deadline of June to agree on new tracking standards. But they missed that deadline.

Finally, in early October, the W3C presented its draft for the DNT. But regulators were left disappointed - and Kroes was angry.

This Thursday (11.10.2012), Kroes accused the main players of watering down the tool.

"Let me be frank: standardization work is not going according to plan," she said in a speech to business representatives in Brussels. "In fact, I am increasingly concerned about the delay and about the turn taken by the discussions hosted by the W3C."

Issues left open

Germany's highest data protection authority agrees that progress is weak.

"The W3C's draft left several issues open, including the definition of first-party cookies," said the federal data protection commission in a written statement to DW. [Editor: first-party cookies are set with the same domain as the one you're visiting and are often used to enhance the user experience.]

Jon Leibowitz, chairman of the US Federal Trade Commission, goes further, describing the W3C's draft on DNT as "a loophole you could drive a virtual truck through."

The draft suggests first-parties could be exempt from the DNT rule to guarantee users continue to experience a smooth time on the Web. But Germany's data protection commission warns the exemption should not include cookies from marketing companies.

Some companies like Microsoft have embraced DNT. The software and hardware maker has implemented DNT as the default setting on its web browser, Internet Explorer.

Every click you make - they'll be tracking you

Kroes has welcomed Microsoft's initiative - and that of other companies - but still wants DNT to become universal practice.

"Online privacy and online business need to go hand in hand. Privacy is a fundamental right, if your idea doesn't work with that, it won't work at all. People won't use what they don't trust," says Kroes. "And they will stop using what they learn to distrust. If that happens, online businesses miss out on a huge opportunity of new and bigger markets."

Almost the final warning

A DNT standard is due to be adopted by January 2013.

But advertising companies are seen as a strong lobby within the W3C, and Germany's data protection commission is worried, saying "the tool will probably fail to meet requirements set out by EU rules."

Meanwhile, colleagues close to Kroes say her patience is wearing thin.

It is said she would prefer to achieve her goal of a working DNT through communication with the W3C.

However, if things continue the way they are now, her office has suggested that the final resort could be to change the EU's ePrivacy directive.

The directive is designed to help consumers become aware of the ways in which their data is collected online. It calls on website operators to obtain permission from users before they store or retrieve any personal data.

Currently, only national regulators can fine companies that flout the rules.

But DW has been told the directive could be changed to allow the European Commission to impose its own fines.

Facebook removes abortion tips, then restores them

RNW, 2 January 2012, by Marco Hochgemuth 

Rebecca Gomperts (Women on Waves)

Facebook temporarily removed the profile picture of Rebecca Gomperts, the Dutch founder of Women on Waves, an organisation that works to provide women with safe, legal abortions. The image consists of a block of text providing information on how women can self-induce an abortion without the assistance of a doctor. Women on Waves was furious, but media attorney Quinten Kroes said there was little they could do.

Rebecca Gomperts was shocked when she received an email from Facebook informing her that her profile photo had been removed because it violated the website’s terms of use known as the Statement of Rights and Responsibilities.

Apology

Meanwhile Facebook has sent her another message, apologising for the removal, and claiming it was an error. Ms Gomperts was given permission to reinstate the image. She assumed that the service's change of mind was prompted by the flood of protests and publicity it had created.

Describing the contentious picture, Rebecca Gomperts said,

“It’s actually a sticker we designed to provide information on how women can safely induce an abortion using a medicine called Misoprostol. The text is based on information and research from the World Health Organisation. So it is really quite safe.”

The English-language text says that to induce a safe abortion women should buy 12 Misoprostol tablets at a pharmacy. They are advised to say the drugs are intended for ‘their granny who has arthritis.’ When the tablets are taken a few hours apart they will induce labour accompanied by abdominal cramps and vaginal bleeding eventually leading to a miscarriage after about 10 hours. Diarrhoea is the most common side-effect. In case of a high fever and severe pain women are advised to see a doctor, who should be told the patient suffered a miscarriage.

Legally unassailable

Women on Waves says the removal of the photograph is in violation of article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights - which specifically mentions ‘the right to ... seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media’ – and the European Convention on Human Rights. However, media and privacy lawyer Quinten Kroes says this not entirely true:

“Women on Waves refers to very basic human rights, such as the freedom of expression. These fundamental rights are primarily intended as protection from government interference, which is not what this is about. Facebook has not removed the profile photograph as a result of pressure from any government, but on its own initiative. From that perspective, Facebook could argue its own freedom of expression was at stake here. Facebook cannot be made to spread ideas the company does not support.”

Mr Kroes says Facebook's legal right to remove the text is based on its' extensive and legally unassailable terms of use: “They will undoubtedly include articles granting Facebook the right to remove specific texts because the texts violate certain norms or prompted complaints from other users.”

Men kissing

This is not the first time Facebook has removed photographs from profile pages for alleged terms-of-use violations. Earlier, photographs of partially nude people, works of art involving (too much) nudity and of kissing men fell victim to Facebook’s censorship.

“It really worries me that there should be so much censorship on the internet. Regardless of whether it’s Google or Facebook,” says Rebecca Gomperts, “Because when you no longer know what’s going on, you can also no longer discuss it. That’s what we all should protest against.”

Kroes says leaving Facebook is the only thing users can do to protest against the removal of photographs. And indeed, Ms Gomperts is considering leaving Facebook in favour of its competitor Google+. But that site has just this week become the subject of a fierce discussion on its strict terms of use.

US columnist MG Siegler angrily reported that his profile photograph had been removed because it showed him giving the middle finger. Since then, numerous people in the US have expressed their support by posting photographs on their Google+ profiles in which they make a similar gesture.

Related Article:

Facebook unwelcome in Vietnam, but Zuckerberg OK

Tech Leaders Predict Indonesia Will Lead the Future of Mobile

Jakarta Globe, July 23, 2011

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The pace of innovation and change in mobile devices is so dizzying it is difficult to predict the winning platforms and products of the next few years.

With that caveat, a panel of technology executives and experts nevertheless took out their crystal balls on Wednesday at the Fortune Brainstorm Tech conference in this Colorado resort to take a glimpse into the mobile future.

Before an audience of movers and shakers from Silicon Valley and elsewhere, they looked at trends among smartphones and the fast--growing market for tablet computers pioneered by Apple's iPad.

"I'd say that whatever we can imagine in this room right now will be possible in five years," said George Colony, founder and chief executive of technology and market research company Forrester.

"Everyone will have smartphones within four years, all over the world, it'll be so cheap," Colony said. "By 2014 we believe that one--third of Americans will own a tablet."

Frank Meehan, founder of handset maker INQ Mobile, repeatedly brought up the futuristic Steven Spielberg film "Minority Report" to describe the possibilities on the horizon for mobile devices.

In the 2002 film, star Tom Cruise notably moves pictures, documents and video around on an interactive screen at lightning speed using just hand motions.

Colony traced the evolution of the user interface for mobile devices to the current touchscreen technology popularized by the iPhone and iPad and pondered what might come next.

"Microsoft could take the Kinect technology and that could be the next big change," he said of the motion--sensing XBox 360 game controller from the US software giant.

"If you look back at over 30 years of tech, all of the big changes have come through changes in user interface," Colony said. "Always look to user interface if you want to understand where the thunderstorm will be."

Stephen Hoover, chief executive of PARC, Xerox's legendary research and development unit, said next--generation mobile capability will involve the seamless "integration of the physical and digital worlds."

Mobile devices will be able to provide "the information that's most relevant to me now, physically where I am, and in the context of what I'm trying to do," Hoover said.

"We're at the cusp of really being able to integrate all of these different sources of data and understand people's intention in context and give them the information that's useful at the time they need it," he said.

Todd Bradley, executive vice president of US computer giant Hewlett--Packard, agreed and said mobile devices will possess an ability to deliver what he called a "ubiquitous experience."

He spoke of "the ubiquity of a device that knows I'm at Starbucks and that I read The New York Times when I'm at Starbucks."

The US coffee chain is already allowing patrons in the United States to pay for their lattes with mobile phones, and the Fortune Brainstorm panelists said they expect huge growth over the coming years in mobile payments.

"I actually wonder if the lead in mobile isn't going to come from Asia," said Meehan. "In China, in India, in Indonesia the mobile operator is your source of cash."

Hoover said the increasingly powerful cameras built into mobile phones and tablets will provide all sorts of other opportunities.

"You look at the quality of the cameras today in the device and the power that they have and there's a lot of things you can do with scene recognition," he said.

"I hold up a camera to the sign of the restaurant and get recommendations," Hoover said. "We have that technology today, it's about putting it together." 

AFP

Swedish startup to turn iPhones into credit card readers

Deutsche Welle, 7 June 2011

iZettle will beta test its product
first in Sweden

In a DW interview, iZettle CEO Jacob de Geer says after being inspired by an American startup, he wanted to turn his iPhone into a device that could read chip-enabled debit and credit cards, which are common in Europe.

For over a year now, cafes and other small businesses in the US have increasingly been using a new mobile payment system called Square. It's a little cube, about the size of a sugar cube, that plugs into a smartphone audio jack. Just open up the application on the phone, and boom - the barista can accept credit cards by swiping the magnetic stripe through the little slit on the cube.

But in Europe, nearly all credit cards use more secure chips instead of magnetic stripes. So, a Stockholm-based startup called iZettle is planning on testing its new iPhone-based credit card reader across Sweden later this month. If successful, the company hopes to expand to the rest of Europe, too.

To learn more, Deutsche Welle spoke with Jacob de Geer, the company's CEO.

How did you come up with the idea for your company, and what influence did the American startup, Square, have on you?

The background to me starting iZettle, roughly a year and a half ago, is that my wife is actually an entrepreneur. She imports reading spectacles and sells them at different trade fairs. One of the biggest problems that she had was when she wanted to rent one of the traditional point-of-sale devices - it was a very complex process. They're extremely expensive. You can only rent them for a minimum of three months and you have to go to your bank.

So she was a bit fed up, and said to me: 'Why doesn't anyone invent something that you can use with your iPhone? Haven't we come to a time when that should be possible?'

And I started Googling, and I read about Square and I told her to get one of their magnetic-stripe readers. But shortly after that she got a response saying that they were not able to respond to the demands of the European market. That was sort of when I started investigating what was needed for Europe, and why no one else had gotten started with a similar kind of venture.

iZettle CEO Jacob de Geer
said his wife helped inspire
the company's creation

Definitely, we've been inspired by Square. They've been a great inspiration. They've been doing a great job over there. We see them as a colleague in this business rather than as a competitor since we operate in such different markets. The US is a mag-stripe market and Europe - and more or less the rest of the world - is a chip-card market, with totally security demands.

Can you explain, a little bit, the difference between a mag-stripe and a chip card system?

The mag-stripe is a pretty old-fashioned way of transferring the card information and transferring it into a point-of-sale device. It's pretty easy to read the information off a mag-stripe. It's extremely easy to skim.

You mean to copy that information illegally?

Yes, exactly. In Europe, and in the rest of the chip-card reading world, we are obligated to follow the standards of EMV (the standard set by Europay, MasterCard and Visa.) to improve security.

From what I can tell based on the pictures on your website, there's a device that connects at the bottom of the iPhone, is that right?

That's right. We use the dock connector instead of the audio jack. There are several reasons for that. One of the reasons is that in order to power a chip, there's a certain voltage required and you can't get that voltage out of an audio jack. So we need to use the dock connector instead. We're trying to marry two different systems - the requirements of the mobile industry, and Apple's demands, and the other is the chip-card industry, and the chip-card demands. The least common denominator is to create the solution that we have produced.

The reader won't be much bigger
than the card itself

Your target market, at least initially, is probably Europe. But you mentioned that the chip-card market extends to other parts of the world as well. Are you able to process payments in other currencies, in other countries?

When we start [this month], we will do a beta in Sweden to make sure that everything is ok and that the customers like our products, as well as the people who are actually paying in the terminals and that they like what they see. The interesting thing is that the solution that we have come up with, it's global. All the certifications are global. It's not a Swedish thing, or a German thing. We can go after any chip-card market with this same kind of technology.

So are you doing the Square model as well, which is to give away the readers for free, and charging a small percentage as a way to make money?

I think that whole idea is really compelling for everyone. That's what we've been trying to replicate from a business perspective. Combing the fact that we have all these requirements from EMV and the system that we live and work with, with the fact that we want to give the readers away, that has been a complex process to create a secure system that is so cheap that we can give readers away for free, but with the same security level. But we managed, and we're through that. We have the same business setup as others, like Intuit and Square.

So what percentage are you taking per transaction?

To be honest, we haven't really decided yet. We're still talking to focus groups in Sweden. We'll probably be pretty much where Square started, which is three to four percent per transaction, plus a small fixed fee.

Interview: Cyrus Farivar

Editor: Nathan Witkop

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