Ad swap startup Tap for Tap launches paid network to help app developers drive revenues
Victoria-based ad tech startup “Tap for Tap” first launched to help app developers promote each other via unused ad space. Originally, the network followed an “impression exchange” system: for every impression an ad received through your app, you’d earn credits to promote yourself.
Since then, the company pivoted from impressions to a tap-based system (aka clicks), and is now releasing a paid advertising element to help developers monetize their apps.
According to the company, “once developers used [Tap for Tap's] free platform to generate a solid base of installs for their app, they’d move on to a more traditional ad network to drive ad revenues from their users.” Clearly, it makes sense to close that loop. ”We built the monetization platform so developers would be able to use Tap for Tap to both get users and make money,” the company tells us.
Tap for Tap’s ”auction based system” lets app developers purchase ad space by the click (starting at $.03) and the install (starting at $.40). Co-founder Eric Dyck tells us these rates will rise as competition for installs increases.
As for Tap for Tap’s success, the company claims to have signed up more than 7000 developers, and that it can “generate 1,000′s of cost-free app installs.”
Interested app developers can check out the service via the link below:
See the original post here: Ad swap startup Tap for Tap launches paid network to help app developers drive revenues
Microsoft suffers from same hacking attack as Apple, Facebook, small number of computers infected
Microsoft has announced via its Security Response Center blog that it has been the victim of a hacking similar in nature to those experienced by Apple and Facebook recently. Matt Thomlinson, General Manager of Trustworthy Computing Security at Microsoft, has penned a blog post on the matter.
Thomlinson makes reference to the Facebook and Apple hacking events by name, indicating that the vector for attack was the same. These incidents were perpetrated by utilizing a zero-day Java vulnerability injected into an iOS developer website without the owner’s knowledge.
Microsoft chose not to make a statement during the ‘initial information gathering process’, says Thomlinson. The investigation turned up a ‘small number’ of infected computers, including some in the Mac business unit. Thomlinson says that they were infected with malicious software using ‘similar techniques’ to those already documented by Facebook and Apple. Microsoft has no evidence of affected customer data at this time.
“This type of cyber attack is no surprise to Microsoft and other companies that must grapple with determined and persistent adversaries,” Thomlinson adds. ”We continually re-evaluate our security posture and deploy additional people, processes, and technologies as necessary to help prevent future unauthorized access to our networks.”
This latest round of hackings began becoming public earlier this month, with an acknowledgement by Twitter that it was hacked and up to 250k user accounts may have been compromised. It continued with Facebook announcing that a Java exploit had been used to install Malware on employee computers. Apple was the next to go public, noting that the same methods that had been used to attack other organizations were also in play.
The vector for these attacks was popular iOS development site iPhone Dev SDK. We previously detailed exactly how the hack was implemented without the owner of the site even knowing.
The hackers used this account to modify our theme and inject JavaScript into our site. That JavaScript appears to have used a sophisticated, previously unknown exploit to hack into certain user’s computers.”
A previously unknown Java vulnerability that was patched on Mac computers by Apple after the hacking was uncovered was used in all cases. The timeline for the malware’s presence on the site is still under investigation, but it looks as if it was ended voluntarily by the hacker on January 30th.
Earlier today, in what appears to be an unrelated incident, Microsoft Azure components went down worldwide, affecting many services including Xbox Live. The cause of that appears to be an expired security certificate.
As our own Emil Protalinski notes, this kind of ‘watering hole’ attack is only going to get worse as time goes on, and affects those of us who are ‘computer savvy’ just as much as it does novices.
Image Credit: Stephen Brashear/Getty Images
Read the original post: Microsoft suffers from same hacking attack as Apple, Facebook, small number of computers infected
Codecademy Partners With Twitter, Evernote, Box, And Others To Offer A Suite Of New API Lessons
It’s a great time to be a programmer right now, for many reasons — one of which is the wide variety of open application programming interfaces (APIs) that are available that allow developers to build applications with sophisticated features more quickly and easily than ever.
Codecademy, the startup that aims to teach people everywhere how to code, wants to help make those APIs even more accessible. Today Codecademy is announcing that it has partnered with a number of established web companies to offer a host of new lessons that concentrate on the basics of building with their specific APIs.
Codecademy first launched API lessons last month, but this release brings a number of new big name API providers to the mix. Codecademy now has lessons for building with APIs from Twitter, Evernote, Box, and Gilt. The full list of Codecademy’s new API partners is rounded out by WePay, Microsoft SkyDrive, 23andme, Mashape, Ordr.in, Firebase, Easypost, Github, MailChimp, and Dwolla.
What can be done with these types of APIs is significant, Codecademy co-founder Zach Sims told me. “Within a few minutes of starting lessons on Codecademy, users can do a few really awesome things,” he says. The Twitter API lesson teaches users how to read twitter from the code editor and create their own tweets, while the WePay and Dwolla APIs let users send money from the code editor and create invoices, for just a couple examples.
It’s a nice update from Codecademy, which has steadily iterated on its platform since its August 2011 launch and now has 17 staffers and $12.5 million in VC funding. Updates such as these makes the Codecademy platform a more robust one not just for beginning programmers, but also for people with a bit more experience that are keen to learn new things.
Check out the full list of new API lessons here.
More here: Codecademy Partners With Twitter, Evernote, Box, And Others To Offer A Suite Of New API Lessons
‘State’ Opinion Network Defines You By What You Think, Not How Famous You Are
State wants to democratize opinion sharing, and make Twitter and Wikipedia looks like elitist popularity contests. Led by Jawbone founder Alexander Asseily, State has raised $14 million and will launch later this year. Today it revealed details to TechCrunch about its strategy and investors, plus the first screenshots of its app that could help you change the world or just geek out.
“Opinions are the one thing everyone is qualified to give”, explains Asseily, State’s co-founder and Chairman. “On Wikiepedia, only experts can curate. If you’re on Twitter and you say something witty, it might retweeted, but that’s a bit of a crapshoot. “You could say 98% of people are effectively muzzled” on social media because only people with big audiences or lots of background knowledge are really heard.
State hopes to give a voice to everyone by combining the ease and short-form format of Twitter with the built-in audience of new blogging platforms like Medium and Quora Blogs. Asseily explains “State is the simplest way for people everywhere to connect their opinions with the world. That applies to you no matter who you are, how popular you are, or how eloquent you are. This is supposed to appeal to the broadest set of people. We’re trying to get individuals everywhere to stand up and speak on whatever topic.”
State plans to roll out with an invite-only beta this spring, and you can sign up here for early access. Asseily didn’t want to discuss too many specifics about the State interface, but from the screenshots and some coaxing I was able to eke out that State’s mobile apps will start by showing you several opinion areas you could weigh in on, like music, entertainment, sports, news, and politics. In those, you’ll find feeds of opinions from other users that you can comment on or endorse. State also plans to have embedded feeds on news sites (the BBC and Al-Jazeera in the screenshot), so you can wax about what you’re reading.
When you post, State hopes to analyze or categorize your thoughts to connect you with like-minded individuals. That means you’ll have people listening even if you don’t have tons of followers. It levels the playing field, and Asseily notes that “On Twitter, saying something frequently increases your chances of being discovered.” But on State, “If you’re loud it doesn’t necessarily give you more airtime.”
In more care-free areas like arts and culture, State could just be fun place to discuss your favorite Radiohead song, the best soufflé recipe, the worst player on the New York Yankees, or what will happen next on House Of Cards. But for more serious topics like news and policy, State hopes to let people harness their passion and take collective action, such as petitioning to change out-of-date laws.
The key to State’s business is structuring opinion data into something that could aid outside companies. Right now, everyone from news outlets to entertainment companies pay to mine insights from the Twitter firehose. Asseily wants State to take sentiment analysis to the next level. He says “Twitter is a phenomenal service, but it’s unstructured real-time data, and that make it a challenge to extract meaning.” With State, “the insights will be generated in such a way that they are far more precise than what exists.”
The former Jawbone founding CEO and current chairman hopes that if his new startup gains scale, business will open their wallets to look into our hearts and minds. The game plan has attracted $14 million in funding from an unconventional list of investors, including Niklas Zennstrom of Atomico, Len Blavatnik of Access Industries, Richard Witten of Columbia College, Xavier Niel of French ISP Iliad, former UK Minister for Trade Lord Mervyn Davis, current Jawbone CEO and co-founder Hosain Rahman, Marc Simoncini: of Match’s Meetic and Jaina Capital.
State’s got a big challenge ahead. Trying to tear people away from their ingrained social networks and post directly to State won’t be easy. State users will be able to quickly syndicate opinions to their Facebook and Twitter accounts, and with any luck their friends will follow them back to the opinion network.
The State team is split between the UK and US, It includes Alexander, along with his brother Mark Asseily who is the startup’s CEO, and was the head of product development for VoIP disruptor Rebtel and director of biz dev for Skype. To assist with the roadmap and traction in key opinion categories, State has recruited some solid advisors like Atom Factory CEO and Lady Gaga manager Troy Carter, Internet activist Nigel Shadbolt, author Dr. Deepak Chopra. State’s also brought on Tim Berners-Lee, one of the “inventors” of the World Wide Web who spoke at Davos last month about the need for something like State.
The pursuit of knowledge doesn’t have to be the realm of geniuses alone. There needs to be a middle-ground between sites where only the intelligentsia are creators, and the chaos of old-school forums where anonymous trolling derails conversation. State is trying to invade the space of some of the best-entrenched services on the web. It’s in for a tough fight, but if it succeeds, it could liberate our opinions to make us happy, and to make things happen.
Sign up here for early access to State’s upcoming invite-only beta.
See the article here: ‘State’ Opinion Network Defines You By What You Think, Not How Famous You Are
WordPress ecommerce themes support, Maya shop themes
webdesigninsydney.com Shop Themes ★★★★★ MayaShop is a fresh WordPress theme that utilises the powerful JigoShop and Woo Commerce plugins to create a versatile WordPress powered shop, with unlimited layout options and unlimited skins. Make this theme your own. This tutorial has been created to show you how to add products to your website. Add the information, colour or cabinet types. Add images and prices.
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