The threat of censorship over the Internet

SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) has been introduced in late 2011.  Mid January, the FBI decided to shut down MegaUpload. You can read it on megaupload.com. They also arrested all founders. It's sad, because MegaUpload was widely used on the whole planet.

But it isn't over. Now Mega Upload is down, all websites know that the governments are a real threat. And there are some changes that occur: 

• French authorities made irc.lc shut down its iframe pointing to the Anonymous webchat. 
• Twitter recently announced that will censor tweets.

It's as if the government have now full power on publishers. Although I understand that content has to be controlled, I'm worried. I doubt that the methods used are fair. This censorship is definitely not the solution... I wonder how will thing evolve...

Free Mobile shakes French mobile industry

Xavier Niel, CEO of Iliad is well known in France. He already turned the ISP (Internet Service Provider) industry upside down several times with his offers.
This time, he targeted the mobile industry with two outstanding offers:

All included: 19.99€- $25.50 (or 15€99 for Free ADSL subscribers)

• Unlimited calls (from France to more than 40 countries)
• Unlimited texts
• 3 Go data
• No commitment

Small package: 2€ - $2.50 (free for Free ADSL subscribers)

• One hour out-going calls (unlimited received calls)
• 60 out-going texts (unlimited received texts)
• No commitment

To become mainstream: integrate your product on existing tools

When designing a new service on the Internet, the goal of an entrepreneur is to become mainstream. That means they want their service to be used by everyone.
Now let's consider the new services that became mainstream after Facebook. The main names would be Twitter, Foursquare, Instagram, Angry Birds... The common factor that made these service become so popular is the fact that they were really easy to use. Actually they didn't change our old habits. They integrated on existing platforms. Therefore the barrier to use it everyday wasn't huge.

Uber redefines urban transportation in Paris

If you ever tried to travel by cab in Paris, you're probably aware that the French capital doesn't have enough taxis compared to the need. On the other hand, there are companies that let people hire a car with driver for a couple of days. These drivers usually have some spare time they would be happy to monetize.

Uber will efficiently connect people who need a ride with these drivers. The experience provided is just outstanding. They just launched their offer in Paris. I've tested it.

Social networks on war!

The social network market is very active these last days. Google recently decided to have their social network open to everyone. Facebook organized a developers summit last week, announcing a bunch of new neat features...

Now that Google Plus is live, there's a serious competitor to Facebook. Google Plus is great because I can use a single platform to share personal stuff with my friends and follow people of interest. However, the true value of Google Plus could be revealed as a social network for professionals. I'm not saying that Google Plus competes with LinkedIn... but it could be used with to connect with people who aren't really personal friends like coworker.

Steve Jobs leaves his CEO position at Apple

Earthquake at Apple! Steve jobs left. It's always a nightmare for big companies when they see their charismatic CEO leave. The success of Apple was really connected with the image of their CEO.
You might know that Jobs already left Apple in 1984. As a results Apple's sales went down and they had to buy Jobs's new company (NeXT) in order to retrieve their CEO and therefore their success.

But this time, things are going to be different. As he mentioned on his resignation letter, Jobs is going to stay as chairman in Apple's board. I don't see Jobs resignation as a real threat to the company. I'm positive his leaving has been fully prepared and I suspect Apple will release a huge piece of news in order to prevent a drop of its shares.

Motorola acquired by Google for $12.5 billion

Google just bought Motorla (the American phone manufacturer) for $12.5 billion. It's by far the biggest acquisition for Google (Doubleclick cost $3.1 billion and Youtube $1.6 billion).

This is a game changing announcement, since Google will produce hardware for the first time. It's often said that the main reason for this acquisition was Motorola's 20,000+ patents. Why not... I just don't see Google having any trouble paying for the licences (or court trials).

What I see in this acquisition is that Google will start to actually build its own devices. The competition with Apple and Microsoft will reach a new level! Now Google will build its own phones and tablet (Motorola Xoom is the greatest iPad competitor).