Earlier this year I wrote about the scams on Facebook, mostly the IQ ads which duped users into signing up for mobile subscriptions plans in exchange for a score.  I calculated that these ads could be generating millions from unsuspecting Facebook users. It turns out that figure is more like hundreds of millions. It seems that the games, such as Farmville and Mafia wars, the drink quizzes, and who knows what other spam bombarding Facebook news feeds  are making some people very rich. Yes, they have chosen riches over ethics, but that is common in unregulated advertising mediums. Hopefully, someone at Facebook will learn from Google and improve their policies for a better experience for all users.  Dennis Yu, writes an inside account about Facebook advertising. Michael Arrington, the TechCrunch blogger,  wrote a piece that MSNBC picked up in their reporting.  Meanwhile, that next request to send a heart to someone or quiz invitation may not have actually come from your friends, but from the advertisers use of their personal information.

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While IBM has a beta full release of Lotus Notes and Domino 8.5.1, allowing iPhone users to enjoy the software’s automatic syncing capabilities for e-mail and calendaring, there is no announced support for the android platform. This means that people who buy the Verizon google phone, i.e. the Droid, will not be able to sync their corporate email to the device if their company uses Lotus Notes.

This past year, IBM announced the availability of their Lotus Notes and Domino 8.5.1, which includes Lotus Notes Traveler 8.5.1 with its planned synching capabilities for email and calendar features on the iPhone. IBM is touting this as one way to make Apple’s iPhone a business tool, something 73% of users say is not the case. Maybe Lowell McAdams has the similar position on the android smart phones. Verizon executives have been quoted that the Droid is positioned as a consumer phone. Verizon has made it clear that the Droid is their most anticipated launch of the year. They’ve been sending out an unusual amount of teaser information, commercials, culminating in a countdown clock to November 6th, 2009. Some of the phone’s features were covered in a recent Verizon Droid review summary. For the record, Lotus Notes Traveler software is supported on the following mobile device platforms:

Apple iphone

Nokia Symbian devices

Microsoft Windows Mobile 5, 6 and 6.1

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Have you seen the “I don’t” commercials? These commercials are driving consumer awareness about the impending arrival of the Droid Cell Phone. Specifically, Verizon customers have  been hoping for the iphone to become available on their network.  The phone they will get may be even better. The patience has paid off. The industry is abuzz over the Motorola Droid. What is the Droid cell phone? It is the first Google Android 2.0-based smartphone. Verizon Wireless will make it available on Friday, Nov. 6, in the United States. Meanwhile, the DroidDoes marketing campaign hit the airwaves about two weeks ago.

The reviews are starting to trickle in and expectations are climbing that the Droid can beat both the Palm Pre and Blackberry Storm II performance when it comes to competing with the iphone. The Droid boasts a beautiful high-resolution screen, multi-tasking apps, free turn-by-turn GPS navigational system, and both a touch keypad and hardware keypad. Yet, the reason is plain and simple. Palm Pre lacks the network, and the Blackberry Storm II lacks a physical keyboard. You take the best of those two phones, put it on the Verizon network, and you have the makings of a iphone clone for Verizon.

PC World sums up the five best features nicely in an article written by JR Rapheal. Rapheal notes that the Motorola Droid has key features that take aim at some of the iphone shortfalls, such as that the battery can’t be replaced, complaints that the data service is slow, complaints that 3G access is dysfunctional, complaints that the device couldn’t do MMS messaging, and more. AT&T and Apple have also been the focus of controversy related to rejecting the Google Voice app, and trying to block third-party VoIP solutions.  The Droid supports flash in its browsers, which makes it one of the few wireless phones to have a mobile browser that can. Verizon confirmed in the media that its network can handle the data bandwidth demand Droid phone users will need as it rolls out nationwide.

Music may be the key reason that customers stick close to the Apple world. Once users have a large library of songs in the .m4a format, it takes some work and software to convert those files to mp3 format. However, it may be worth the time to convert over to standard mp3 formats to find better cheaper music players.  The Droid does come with a built in App for playing MP3 music.

What is the best deal on a Droid cell phone? The answer is buy it for $199 with a two year plan. Also expect the email/web plan of $30 to be a requirement for Droid users. You can pay full retail if you need a Droid mobile phone before you are eligible for an upgrade.  Verizon offers three data plans for Droid customers: $30 month on top of your voice plan’s rate for non-Exchange usage, $45 per month on top of your voice plan’s rate for Exchange usage, and $50 per month total cost for a data-only plan (whether or not you use it to access Exchange).  Like most smartphones, the Droid does not support IBM’s Lotus Notes or Novell’s Groupwise. It does support Google’s Gmail in addition to Exchange.

Finally, anyone owning RIMM stock felt the pain on Monday November 2nd as Citigroup downgraded Research in Motion (RIMM : NASDAQ) since 28% of RIMM sales come from Verizon and a new baby is on the way.

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