Saturday, February 26, 2011
The Future of the Connected Car
Most of us who watched Knight Rider as a kid expected that by 2011 we would be driving sleek, self-aware cars like KITT — cars that would take us seamlessly from A to B while cracking witty one-liners.
Though that future has not yet come to pass, things are starting to get exciting in the in-car technology space. Connected cars are hitting the consumer market in a price bracket that makes them a realistic option for many. One prediction sees “near saturation” in the U.S. market in as little as four years’ time.
“In terms of connected cars, we see the growth to be significant,” says Mark C. Boyadjis, a senior automotive analyst for IHS iSuppli. “Our forecasts for OEM Monitored, Telematics-enabled vehicles in 2010 sit at 4.5 million sales, with a heavy part of that coming from the U.S. and Western Europe, whereas this industry grows to 22.7 million by 2015.
“In 2015, however, there will be a much larger portion coming from China, Brazil, and Russia, as well as near saturation in developed markets like the U.S., Western Europe, and Japan.”
So what can we expect from these connected cars? We’ve spoken to a major motoring manufacturer, a futurist, an automotive analyst and other industry experts to find out.
1. Your Car as Your Credit Card
You may currently enjoy contactless payment at tolls via a smart card, but in the future we will see such cashless transactions extended to other areas of motoring, such as parking charges and fuel payments via embedded tech in your car.
Skymeter is one company developing products in this area. Its Financial GPS solution could offer wide-ranging changes to the way we pay for our driving.
“With Financial GPS, consumers can get one bill at the end of the month for every car-related cost: their parking, their insurance, their lease, their roads, even full repairs coverage,” saysKamal Hassan, CEO of Skymeter Corp.
“Everything would be paid automatically per minute or per mile, based on your actual driving and parking. Drivers could then control their costs. Not driving for a week would save you money on your lease, your insurance and even your municipal tax bill.”
We asked Hassan how far off such solutions are for the average consumer. “I believe we are two to three years away from seeing consumer cars with embedded Financial GPS units. GPS navigation units like Garmin started as aftermarket devices then moved into the car. Financial GPS will follow the same path.”
BMW meanwhile is working on a smart car key that, as well as controlling some in-car electronic functions, could be used for contactless payment. Just a prototype at this stage, BMW envisions your car key as your credit card as early as next year.
2. Your Garage as a Docking Station
Wi-Fi technology is the breakthrough addition to the connected car platform that’s going to make all the difference. While Bluetooth is great for in-car communications and streaming music, it’s cellular and Internet connectivity that truly puts the “connected” in connected car.
Ford has recently enhanced its Microsoft SYNC-based MyTouch system with Wi-Fi, meaning cars with the tech, such as the 2012 Ford Focus, can be turned into mobile Wi-Fi hotspots.
We spoke to Jason Johnson, product development engineer at Ford, about why this is such a major development and what we can look forward to in the future. “We’re envisioning, for example, a web browser in the car for when you’re parked,” Johnson revealed, as well as the potential for easier platform updates.
“With Wi-Fi, imagine your parking garage is a docking station for your car, so overnight your car wakes up, SYNC wakes up and it grabs the latest software update via the Wi-Fi,” says Johnson. “So that’s the beauty of the connected car. Just like all your other mobile devices can get updated on the fly, why shouldn’t your car also be able to be updated that way?”
Although this OTA update concept is exciting for the entertainment and navigational aspects of cars, looking further into the future, just imagine how much more convenient it would be to fix software-based technical issues remotely via an update, rather than the current logistical nightmare a recall brings.
3. Voice Controls for Your Car
The connected car, typically with a touchscreen console, has one major flaw — it’s potentially dangerous to interact with while driving. The answer to this is voice control, in which you speak commands to the system.
Ford has employed voice recognition into its connected car platform and we asked Johnson about it.
“Voice control is now starting to become the primary interface in the car because it allows you to keep your hands on the wheel, your eyes on the road and focus on the task of driving. Instead of picking up your iPhone and browsing through the music, you can just say ‘play artist,’ ‘play genre,’ ” Johnson explains.
But how capable is the voice recognition technology? Do you have to memorize a ton of unnatural commands? Ford’s system can currently understand 10,000 words — an impressive vocabulary for a car.
“What you’ll see from Ford is that we want to make device integration easier to use with voice control, and over time you’ll be able to have more of a natural conversation with the system,” says Johnson. “Over time you’ll be able to say ‘Hey SYNC I wanna listen to some jazz.’ ”
We also spoke to Nuance, the company that powers the voice recognition in Ford’s systems about what the future holds in this area.
“The connected car is the present and future. In the near future, drivers will be able to dictate messages or web searches from the convenience of their car — and the system will respond accurately,” Fátima Vital, senior marketing manager of automotive speech for Nuance told us.
“This functionality isn’t just for a select few either. More and more car manufacturers regard speech recognition is an indispensable feature. A J.D. Powers report shows that drivers with a speech-enabled navigation system record the most satisfaction with their cars. Hence the reason it is now available across a whole range of vehicle segments, from luxury cars to the smallest mass market vehicles. By 2020, expect the majority of the vehicles to have in-build speech recognition.”
And voice control is going to be important for convincing consumers about the safety of driving cars with such advanced dashboards. Garry Golden, lead futurist with NYC-basedFutureThink predicts this is one hurdle manufacturers could face.
“We will certainly be more social inside our cars and services such as OnStar and SYNC might serve as a buffer between friends, family and businesses. But as move towards a future where cars can command our attention as much as our cell phones, I expect to see a growing cultural backlash around this notion of distracted driving and inattentive drivers.”
4. Apps to Control Your Car
Currently a fledgling market, controlling certain functionality of your car via your cell phone will soon be commonplace for new car owners.
BMW, Ford, GM and Volvo have already dipped their toes into the water as far as companion apps for your car go, with some more advanced options offering the ability to remotely unlock the car, start the car and sound the horn, all from a distance. The number of such apps is expected to grow significantly over the next few years.
“From the consumer’s point of view, the connected vehicle will be largely accessible via the computer and smartphone. Application integration is growing vastly as OEMs put their daily relevance in the pocket of their buyers. OEMs are making apps for owners manuals, telematics remote controls, new location-based information, plus integrating those existing entertainment apps like iheartradio, radiotime, Slacker, and Pandora,” says IHS iSuppli automotive analyst Boyadji.
While the current crop of apps work on the driver activating the controls, Golden sees the future of this area in proximity-based sensors and related automation.
“Most operations inside the vehicle are being brought onto the web and will be controllable by secured devices. But the real innovations will be those automated systems based on machine-to-machine interfaces that eliminate the need for human commands,” Golden explains.
“As you walk towards the car, your phone will adjust temperature, turn on the music and unlock the door as you step closer.”
Conclusion
As the engineering specifications of rival car models get more and more in line with each other, we’re sure that consumers will be increasingly likely to take into account the car’s connected platforms before making purchasing decisions.
Each manufacturer needs to push to make its platform the leading option for the connected consumer, because as Johnson demonstrates, each manufacturer’s system will be exclusive to the brand, and in competition with its rivals.
“The unique thing about SYNC is that it’s a Ford creation, what makes SYNC is SYNC,” says Johnson. “It’s just not something you could go to another parts supplier and say ‘Hey, give me SYNC.’ ”
In the same way that consumers develop preferences for computer or cell phone operating systems, always sticking to iOS or Android, for example, we think as consumers get used to in-car connectivity platforms, they will want to stick to the same platform with future purchases.
This means that the car company that gets it right at this early stage is set to benefit greatly. As Golden says, “If the battle of the 20th century was Ford versus General Motors, the next century might be Ford SYNC vs. GM OnStar.”
Friday, February 25, 2011
Windows & Service Pack 1 is available
Hello Loyal Readers,
We are writting you this morning to let you know that Windows has released a service pack for Windows 7 which is very important to download. Please go here for more information on how to update your system. If you would like for Business Remedy to assist in an effort to make sure that the process goes smoothly we are offering this service to the first 25 people who request via email to info@BusinessRemedy.net.
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Tuesday, February 22, 2011
8 Tips For Creating a Successful eBay Storefront
This post originally appeared on the American Express OPEN Forum, where Mashable regularly contributes articles about leveraging social media and technology in small business.
If the Internet has a quaint pastime, selling stuff on eBay is probably it. Before a thriving e-commerce sprouted a handful of platforms on which anyone can sell anything to anyone else, there was a slightly thrilling novelty to participating in the online auction. “Yes,” we told our friends, “I sold it on the internet.”
Some of the mystery and magic may have been lost over the last 15 years, but the easy selling platform remains. Up to 100 individual listings per month are free on eBay, but many people go beyond that — the site’s 90-million-person community now buys enough (about $1,900 worth of goods every second) to support many full-time businesses. If you’re thinking about setting up a storefront on eBay, here are eight pieces of advice to keep in mind.
1. Ask Yourself if eBay is Right For Your Business
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Obama to Meet With Zuckerberg & Other Tech Execs During San Francisco Trip
U.S. President Barack Obama is paying a visit to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerbuerg and a roster of other technology executives during a trip to the San Francisco Bay Area this week.
On Thursday, February 17, Obama is slated to sit down with Zuckerberg and other tech CEOs at a private dinner during his overnight trip to the West Coast. President Obama will not be making any public appearances in the San Francisco area.
According to White House Press Secretary Jay Carney, “The focus of the discussion is innovation and job creation, and these are representatives of businesses… who know a lot about private sector job growth.”
While innovation, one of the key talking points from the President’s recent State of the Union address, is to be the main topic of discussion, “Obviously other topics could come up,” said Carney.
For security reasons, neither the White House nor Facebook representatives can confirm any other details, but a full roster of attendees will be released soon.
Social media has played a big part in Obama’s presidency, and it has also played a huge role in international politics recently. We’re interested to learn what may come of the President’s meeting with San Francisco’s technology leaders, and we’ll report more about that meeting as details emerge.
WOW! This is going to be interesting.
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
HANDS ON: Sony Ericsson’s “PlayStation Phone”
The Sony Ericsson booth at Mobile World Congress is much like any other at the week-long event in Barcelona: neon lighting, shag carpeting and racks of phones on large plastic stands. But most of the phones are looking distinctly unloved. Just one of their brethren is getting all the attention — the Xperia Play, informally (and more appropriately) known as the PlayStation Phone.
The Xperia Play is an Android phone where the slide-out keyboard has been replaced by slide-out PlayStation controls for easy gaming. Yesterday, Sony announced the Xperia Play would be available sometime this spring worldwide; in the U.S. it will be carried on Verizon. Some 50 games, many of them classics from the PlayStation One, will be ready at launch, according to Sony Ericcson. You’ll be able to buy them through a virtual PlayStation store, accessed via the Android Marketplace.
I had the opportunity to take the Xperia Play for a test run, and I was pleasantly surprised by how enjoyable I found it. I’ve owned several PlayStations in my lifetime, but I’ve never been much of a fan of the platform. I had zero interest in the PSP, the pricey portable gaming platform that has been losing out to the more innovative (and cheaper) Nintendo DS. Neither seemed like devices I had room to carry around. I’m not alone: In December, a report by research firm Interpret showed a significant rise in smartphone gaming and a decline in PSP/DS use.
But the Xperia Play isn’t merely a PSP with phone functionality added on. It has been redesigned from the ground up. On the surface, it looks and acts like a respectable, regular touchscreen phone running Android 2.3, or Gingerbread. It wouldn’t immediately tip your boss off to your status as a gamer. Wait until the boss goes out of the room, however, and you can slide out the panel with the game buttons. This has triggers on the back, and a pair of touchpads that act as joysticks.
I found the touchpads actually easier to handle than joysticks or the D-pad (arrow keys). Moreover, I was surprised to learn, the screen itself remains touch-sensitive when in game mode. This means that games for the Xperia will have more kinds of input at their disposal than a Sony PSP, a Nintendo DS or an iPhone. For that matter it has more potential inputs than a PlayStation3, or any other console.
Of course, whether all those inputs are used in games depends on game developers. Only a few of the launch games I sampled — which included FIFA 10, Asphalt 6 and Bruce Lee — were optimized for the touchpad joysticks. Then again, it took iPhone game developers a while to catch on to all the possibilities inherent in that device, and now you’d be hard-pressed to find an iPhone game that doesn’t use the accelerometer. The Xperia Play designers deliberately left out an accelerometer, convinced that gamers don’t want to swoop their phone around the room while playing. Perhaps that was one input too many.
Who do you think will use this the most?
Everloop Brings New Social Network for Tweens to 56,000 Schools
A new social network that aims to be a Facebook alternative for children between the ages of 8 and 13 is launching on Tuesday. Schools, brands and investors are already on board.
The network, Everloop, operates much like Facebook (virtual currency, photo albums and games included), but requires verified parental permission to join. Parents can also select which of their child’s actions on the site they would like to be notified about, and have the option to restrict features like IM and friend suggestions. All activity on the site is monitored by the company to prevent inappropriate behavior.
These key features make Everloop compatible with The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), which prohibits websites from collecting information from children under the age of 13 without parental consent. Most tweens bypass this law on other social networks by simply lying about their birthdays. Schools, on the other hand, generally block social networks like Facebook and Twitter for the same reasons that unsupervised public platforms make some parents of tweens nervous.
Because it is COPPA-compliant, Everloop can be used in schools. In April, a partnership with Internet safety education program i-Safe will bring the platform into about 56,000 schools. I-Safe will incorporate a white-label version of the network into its curriculum in order to demonstrate social media skills (and get parents to sign over permission to use Everloop sites in the process).
Everloop is not restricting itself to schools as other child-safe social networks like Edmodo have. Nor is it ignoring brands that are clamoring for the attention of its demographic. The network has already partnered with virtual concert site Planet Cazmo and other children’s brands that are eager to share their content on a platform that kids already go to rather than build one of their own. Branded goods, such as stickers that children can use to decorate profile pages, are also in the works.
This business model has persuaded vFormation and other angel investors to put $2.5 million into the company. But will the platform persuade kids to move from Facebook to Everloop?
While various national news stories have made it clear that Facebook isn’t age appropriate for tweens, its also clear that the line between “age appropriate” and “not cool” is delicate. Everloop argues that the content on their site will be more appealing to children than content designed for adults on other social networks. (FarmVille for sixth graders?) The company has been successful with pitches to investors and partners, but convincing tweens to make the site their online home base might be its toughest sell yet.
I think this is one of the best things that could have been created because it will cut down on the number of child predators found in today's social networks. If you have a tween then you need to sign them up on Everloop.
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Google Translate App Hits the iPhone
Globe-trotting iPhone users rejoice — the official Google Translate for iPhone app is now available in the App Store. The iPhone app [iTunes link] appears to be much like the existing Android app (launched January 2010) in functionality — allowing users to speak to translate in 15 languages and to translate words and phrases into more than 50 languages. You can also listen to your translations spoken aloud in 23 different languages. One can also zoom in on text to read it more easily, as well — this is a feature that the Android app lacks. This official app basically echoes the web app in functionality, allowing one to view dictionary results for single words, and check out starred translations and history (even when not online). The iPhone app, however, lacks a few features that the Android version boasts: namely SMS translation and the experimental Conversation Mode, which is supposed to allow you to talk with a nearby person in another language. by 
Publish
Saturday, February 5, 2011
Trademark Database Trademarkia Debuts Automatic Activity Notifications
Search engine Trademarkia, which launched at TechCrunch50 in 2009, is an comprehensive database of over 6.5 million U.S. trademarks filed since 1870, including dead marks. Today, the database is launching a new feature that’s sure to be useful for both startups and large companies—automatic trademark activity notifications.
Trademarkia scans of all the marks and returns results in a visual grid that’s a lot easier to make sense of than the USPTO’s trademark database. You can search by company, theme, product category, or even filing attorney. Companies can also file a trademark with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office through the site. And Trademarkia.com offers trademarked logo search that allows users to search inside millions logos for specific features or design elements.
With the new feature, the search engine will deliver instant notifications about new trademark filings and other activities by email. Anytime activity takes place, such as a new filing, approval or “office action,” Trademarkia will deliver you an email alert for the companies, brands or filings you choose. And the service is free.
Friday, February 4, 2011
Small Business News: Tax Update!
Tax time is just around the corner. Here is some breaking news and some tax tips and tricks designed to make tax preparation for your small business a bit less complicated this year. Enjoy! Unpopular 1099 ammendment repealed. An amendment tied to the healthcare reform law that would have complicated reporting requirements, especially for small businesses, has been repealed by a U.S. Senate vote Wednesday. The effort to eliminate the amendment, which has been strongly criticized by business groups, enjoyed bi-partisan support with both Democrats and Republicans pledging to eliminate the troublesome amendment. Accounting Today Why the IRS could be giving you money. You may never have expected to see the day when the Internal Revenue Service might be handing you a check (other than a tax return), but it looks like the time has come. Payments to whistle blowers who report non-compliance should create a new incentive. Learn more about how you could earn extra money from the IRS for helping to recover funds. Open Forum How to file your small business taxes. A question and answer session with a new small business owner about how to file your small business taxes. If you’re new to small business and most especially to filing a small business tax return, you will definitely want to check out this article to get you started. Are you new to filling out small business tax returns? What questions do you have about the process? Boston.com Your refund could be bigger this year. Check out the details of the Small Business Jobs Act passed last September and how they will effect your small business tax return. It’s really important to research changes in the tax laws and how they impact your small business today. How will changes in the tax law affect your tax return this year? U.S. News & World Report How to claim your health care tax credit. Not all small business owners need to be crest fallen about the controversial new health care reform legislation. In fact, new 2010 legislation may entitle some small business owners who already provide health care insurance for their employees to tax credits under the right circumstances. To learn more about whether your small business may qualify for the tax credit, check out the IRS Website for more details. Red, White and Blue Press Permenant breaks for small business? Could the White House be considering the extension of certain small business tax breaks indefinitely. Specifically, the administration’s proposal looks at permanently eliminating capital gains taxes on some small businesses. What do you think of this proposal and how would it affect your small business? Accounting Today Critics say small biz tax cuts not enough. Opponents of a new White House policy aimed at extending small business tax cuts argue they just don’t go far enough. Certainly lower taxes have always been helpful to businesses of all kinds. What is your take? What tax concessions are necessary to encourage business growth and job creation. The Hill Startup America indeed! The White House (and others) are beating the drum for an initiative aimed at targeting and boosting high growth startups. But does the initiative effectively leave out huge swaths of America’s small business community. Worse yet, does it screen out the very kinds of small high growth startups it should be targeting the most. Huffington Post Your small business bartering primer. You probably don’t need to be told that bartering with other small businesses for goods and services you and they need can often be a huge benefit for all involved. The trouble comes at tax time when explaining such non-monetary exchanges can be hard to explain and could even result in an audit. Here’s how to navigate through the bartering issues without mishaps at tax time and avoid being audited in the process. Open Forum Home business tax suggestions. Home business entrepreneurs can be confused when starting out about what exactly is tax deductible in their new venture. But the fact is that some simply rules of thumb exist when evaluating expenses to determine whether or not they entitle you to a deduction come tax time. If you want to learn more about what constitutes an acceptable home business deduction there are a few key questions to ask. How many of your home business expenses are deductible on your taxes this year? The New Business Idea From Small Business TrendsBreaking News
Tips & Tricks
Policy
Other Issues
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Thinking of Moving? Here’s 10 Cities to Avoid
Where to go and what to do? For a majority of young American college graduates and Millennials, there is a desire to expand beyond what they know and move to a city that can help them to advance further in their careers.
However, there are certain places you may want to avoid if you're planning on making a change and leaving the safety of your parent's basement. Known for its seemingly never-ending supply of lists, Forbes recently released its rankings of the most miserable cities in the U.S. Among other factors, they were chosen because of their depressed housing markets, lack of job opportunities and low quality of life measurements.
While some of the cities are not exactly surprises – Cleveland, for example, is not known for its bustling community of young entrepreneurs – there are eight cities from California on the list, some of which have taken turns for the worse over the past decade as the state's unemployment rate soared. Here's a list of the top 10 cities to check OFF your list when you're looking for a change of scenery.
1. Stockton, California
Unemployment in this California city averaged 14.3 percent over the past three years – one of the worst rates in the entire U.S. Moreover, housing prices have plummeted more than 58 percent over the same period of time.
2. Miami, Florida
There are two reasons Miami doesn't occupy the top spot: It has no income tax and the ample sunshine of Southern Florida can help soften the sadness that comes from living in a city with one of the highest foreclosure rates in the country and more than 404 corrupt government officials convicted of crimes this decade.
3. Merced, California
Since 2008, this California town has had an average unemployment rate of 16.2 percent; the median home price has also fallen by 64 percent.
4. Modesto, California
According to Forbes, the median home in Modesto was valued at $275,000 in 2006 – and $95,000 today. If you're looking to bring a car with you when you move, you'll definitely want to rule out this city: In 2009, Modesto had the second-highest auto theft rate in the U.S., with 3,712 vehicles stolen.
5. Sacramento, California
For those making $50,000 per year, expect to be hit with a tax rate of 9.55 percent in the state capital. Furthermore, with its one professional sports team, the NBA's Sacramento King's, winning only 26 percent of its games the past two seasons, there's little to cheer about.
6. Memphis, Tennessee
Though Tennessee does not have an income tax, it still levies a 9.25 percent sales tax, one of the highest in the nation. Violent crime was down in 2009, but is still tops in the country.
7. Chicago, Illinois
Chicago has waited 102 years for its Cubs to win another World Series – enough said – and its sales tax of 9.75 percent is one of the highest among big cities in the U.S.
8. West Palm Beach, Florida
Over the past three years, the median home price is down 39 percent in the West Pal-Boca Raton area; analysts also are projecting prices to continue to free fall this year, with some predicting a 22 percent drop as more foreclosures occur.
9. Vallejo, California
Vallejo has the distinction of serving as the largest California city to file for bankruptcy; with its 12.5 percent projected unemployment rate for 2011, there aren't many job opportunities in this Northern California former Navy town.
10. Cleveland, Ohio
Since Lebron James bolted Cleveland for Miami, there hasn't been much to be thankful for in this Midwestern city. The weather is lousy by most standards, corruption plagues the government and the city has no sports championships since 1964.
10 Tips for Working Trade Shows
Aren't trade shows supposed to be dead now? More than a decade ago, with the rise of the Internet, many predicted trade shows would go the way of the dodo. But instead, trade shows and conventions have flourished. I think people long for personal contact more than ever in our era of Webinars, video calling, and instant messages. Also, the more global business becomes, the more convenient it is to meet everyone at a trade show in Las Vegas or Boston, rather than trying to see customers one at a time. So no surprise thattrade-show organizers report stable revenue, even through the downturn. Still, trade shows often represent a serious financial commitment, even if you don't rent a booth. Sometimes, it's hard to know whether a particular trade show will be worth the expense. I've been to dozens of trade shows over the years. Here are my tips for how to evaluate trade-show opportunities, and how to get the most out of the trade shows you decide to attend:
Flickr Accidentally Wipes Out Account: Five Years And 4,000 Photos Down The Drain
Yahoo’s Flickr may have another PR nightmare on their hands. IT architect and Flickr user Mirco Wilhelm couldn’t log on to his 5-year old account yesterday, and when he asked the Flickr team about this issue they flat out told him they had accidentally flushed his entire account, and the 4,000 photos that were in it, straight down the drain.
Apparently Wilhelm reported a Flickr user with an account that held ‘obviously stolen material’ to the company last weekend, but a staff member erroneously incinerated his account instead of the culprit’s.
Hello,
Unfortunately, I have mixed up the accounts and accidentally deleted yours. I am terribly sorry for this grave error and hope that this mistake can be reconciled. Here is what I can do from here:
I can restore your account, although we will not be able to retrieve your photos. I know that there is a lot of history on your account–again, please accept my apology for my negligence. Once I restore your account, I will add four years of free Pro to make up for my error.
Please let me know if there’s anything else I can do.
Again, I am deeply sorry for this mistake.Regards,
Flickr staff
Ouch.
What amazes me most about this story is how calmly Wilhelm reacts to the termination of his account:
It is kind of nice, getting an additional 4 years of service subscription for free… but I already received free Pro subscriptions for the next year just by taking part in some events and competitions.
So how can this really compensate losing close to 4000 “linked” pictures from my web albums? I have to recreate most of these links manually, which will take weeks, if not months of my free time! Not to mention, external websites that had linked these images (including some official Yahoo! and Flickr blogs).
…
Since Flickr had deleted the account an all the related object, they cannot reactivate anything more that the account itself, leaving me with an empty shell of what I did during the last 5 years. This would be acceptable, if I had a free account. But since I’m a paying customer, I would expect a bit more that a “Again, I am deeply sorry for this mistake.”
I expect at least a process that can undo this kind of mistakes. For any other kind of compensation, I will take some time to consult.
I’ve never been a big Flickr user, but I had always assumed a simple click of the button couldn’t delete an account and its content altogether, rather than simply deactivate it.
It never occurred to me that a team member could just wipe out accounts without the means to reactivate them if it turned out to be a mistake.
And what about backups for Christ’s sake?
For what it’s worth, Flickr’s Zack Sheppard commented in the Flickr forum thusly:
We’ve been working on the ability to restore accounts for a while and hope to have it completed early this year.
We have been in contact with Mirco and may be able to restore his account. The partial work that has been done so far may make it possible to retrieve the account. It’s only a maybe but we want to try and do everything we can to rectify this mistake.
Just as people have stated above, we also believe this is an important feature to have in place for cases like this when there was an error. As many of you know we usually do not discuss features before they are released but because of the community concern we wanted to let you know in this case.
So basically there hasn’t been a way for Flickr to restore accidentally removed paid accounts since the company was founded, maybe they can do something about Mirco’s account (you have to wonder what would have happened hadn’t he raised a big stink about this in the first place) and users should be so lucky that Flickr is letting them know they might be able to restore erroneously terminated accounts at some point in the future.
Duly noted.
Information provided by CrunchBase
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