Profy

Given upcoming Facebook IPO and the impressive valuation the company will most probably get, we can obviously make a conclusion that Facebook already knows everything they need about monetization. But yesterday I realized Facebook could be missing a huge extra revenue opportunity that I wanted to discuss here. I am perfectly aware that this revenue source would have been criticized vigorously in the US so it hardly has any chance of implementation but it is still fascinating to even consider the extra dollars.

So I wanted to share this idea – even if jokingly – inspired by a chat with a friend of mine that started with the words ‘Facebook is evil’. Even if you know perfectly well who the real evil is in the IT industry, you will probably agree that my friend had her reasons to say so...Given upcoming Facebook IPO and the impressive valuation the company will most probably get, we can obviously make a conclusion that Facebook already knows everything they need about monetization. But yesterday I realized Facebook could be missing a huge extra revenue opportunity that I wanted to discuss here. I am perfectly aware that this revenue source would have been criticized vigorously in the US so it hardly has any chance of implementation but it is still fascinating to even consider the extra dollars.

So I wanted to share this idea – even if jokingly – inspired by a chat with a friend of mine that started with the words ‘Facebook is evil’. Even if you know perfectly well who the real evil is in the IT industry, you will probably agree that my friend had her reasons to say so.

The thing is that she has recently met a guy and was happy to submerge into what looked like a totally charming love affair which could even[...]

Russian scientists from Intersoft Eurasia have reported plans to manufacture a device that will enable iOS, Android and Windows 7 mobile devices to measure radiation and inform the user of normal or elevated levels.

Basically the dosimeter is nothing but a sensor based on graphene, the material awarded with Nobel prize in 2010. It will be manufactured as a standalone device that can be connected to a smartphone with a dedicated application installed that enables use of such a device...

I have almost made a very spontaneous purchase today. I have stopped moments before buying an iPhone 4S that claims to be officially intended for the Russian market for an unbelievably low price of less than $700 for a 16GB model. But since I hate to make purchases on spur of a moment and will be able to make the same purchase of an unlocked device in the US officially from Apple, the voice of reason stopped me. But it has not stopped thousands of other people today...

Personally I have never met a certified blogger with a diploma proving their blogging skills and abilities. Not even at geeky parties in the Silicon Valley or meetups in NYC. Probably I have just never asked for a diploma but I suspect that most of my fellow bloggers are self-educated in addition to frequently being self-employed.

Now it looks like I’m in for a chance of actually meeting a properly educated blogger on another side of the ocean as the Russian city of Chelyabinsk (which is way closer to my home Novosibirsk than San Francisco or New York) announces opening of the first blogging school in Russia...

I have discussed here quite a few times how limited PayPal is for users in the country I happen to live in, Russia. For those of you who are not aware of the problem, Russia for PayPal is on the list of countries with limitations where users are allowed to send money using their credit cards but they are unable to receive payments or even upload money to their PayPal balance. Obviously, it makes PayPal extremely one-sided and rather impossible to use. This has been a reason for many complaints from users but has never resulted in a change of PayPal’s policy...

One of the largest Russian mobile carriers Megafon and the leading Russian search engine Yandex need to explain quite a lot of things to their users today due to an unspeakable data leak as thousands of SMS messages sent via Megafon website got publicly available in Yandex search results...

I know that it’s not the 1st of April today and we are much closer to May now but I could not help but check the calendar when I’ve read a title in the local news today: a well-known retailer announces availability of iPad 2 in the city where I live.

But the huge (I mean HUUUUGE) irony is that Apple does NOT sell iPad 2 in Russia officially. Only yesterday Russian news agencies reported that official sales of the gadget are further postponed and we should not expect to have them in the country before at least mid-summer...

It is no secret for people living in Russia that waiting for official sales of Apple products to begin in Russia can take too long and really leave you with an outdated version of a gadget once you finally manage to buy it officially – only to realize a few weeks later that a new version is already announced (or shipped) in the US. So you can now either live with what you already have or start longing for a new version right away.

So many people choose a totally different approach: they buy their gadgets abroad when they are still fresh – and far from officially available in Russian stores...

Russian celebrities are not really that different from every other celebrity in the world in their hunt for PR. Logically, many of them quickly jumped on the Twitter bandwagon when they realized the PR power of it. Tina Kandelaki, a TV personality, is one of the most active Twitter users among Russian celebrities as she reports quite a number of her daily events to more than 50 thousand of followers. And today she has had her account hacked.

The irony of the entire story is that the account has not even been stolen by some clever hacker (and we are supposed to have plenty of them in Russia) – it was just a journalist...