Service to Catch Cheating Partners

Technology isn’t always used for the purposes it was envisioned. US-based LIGATT Security launched SPOOFEM.COM back in January 2007. The company’s staff were shocked when they began to receive questions on whether the service could be used to catch a cheating partner.

“We get phone calls from women who say, ‘I think my husband is still talking to his ex-wife, I want to be able to find out; can you help?’” said Gregory Evans, inventor of SPOOFEM.COM.

SPOOFEM.COM allows its subscribers to call any number and have any number they wish show up in the caller ID. So if you’re a woman, who wanted to find out if your husband is talking to his ex, you would call his cell phone and have his ex-wife’s telephone number show up in his phone’s caller ID; then see how he answer’s the phone. If your husband answers the phone, “Hi Honey,” you have the proof you need to confirm your suspicions.

In addition to allowing subscribers to change their Caller Identification Number (CID) so that their number will show up differently on another person’s caller ID, SPOOFEM.COM subscribers can also create spoofed text messages, which show a different number or name of the person sending the text. The service also offers a voice changing feature, which does just that — changes the subscriber’s voice. Subscribers have the choice of selecting a male or female voice. The conversation can be recorded and then e-mailed to your personal e-mail address. Subscribers can join SPOOFEM.COM for as little as $9.

Broadband Undermining TV Services

Within the next three years, more than 16 million US TV households may be using their broadband service more than they use their TV sets today, reports In-Stat in “US TV Viewer Survey: Online Bids to Usurp Pay TV.”

“Today’s stable and profitable subscription TV services are facing new competition from online and mobile entertainment services, and from new, high-quality packaged goods, such as HD-DVD and Blu-ray discs,” said Gerry Kaufhold, In-Stat analyst. “The very nature of what consumers call ‘entertainment’ is undergoing a profound change in which the ability to instantly share content with friends, family members, and those connected on social networks or buddy lists is creating micro user communities that replace traditional entertainment sources such as TV programs. As more high-quality content becomes available online, savvy consumers are considering ways to reduce their monthly bills by getting everything from the Internet.”

In-Stat’s survey also revealed that up to 30 percent of respondents would drop subscription TV and use the Internet for TV. Additionally, 42 percent of respondents said that they are not getting enough international news and information from their current TV delivery services, even though there are hundreds of channels available.

Global Mobile Net Services Market $66 Billion

According to the Yankee Group, an untapped global market for mobile Internet services exists, which should already be worth more than $66 billion per year. Instead, it has only reached $9.5 billion. The full extent of these services’ positive financial and socioeconomic impact has yet to be reached because service providers and their technology partners worldwide are not overcoming a wide range of barriers to adoption quickly enough. As a result, large numbers of consumers are being denied affordable and reliable mobile access to the Internet, and service providers are missing out on a huge revenue opportunity.

The Yankee Group’s Report. “Mobile Internet Utopia: Imagine if Supply Could Satisfy Demand,” asserts that the $66 billion figure for global consumer mobile Internet services is a conservative estimate because it refers only to access. It excludes all incremental revenue from the billions of transactions consumers would generate if they had ubiquitous mobile Internet access. If operators make it a priority to provide accessible, easy-to-use services, and flat-rate price plans they can drive significant additional growth in mobile data usage and average revenue per user.

The report notes that improved access to the mobile Internet can deliver enormous opportunities, both in terms of financial impact and positive socioeconomic effects. As an example, providing individuals with access to high-speed mobile Internet services for the first time would enable them to create completely new types of service, around which whole new industries would emerge.

Vote Online in the US Presidential Primary

If you are an American living abroad, it’s time for you to take steps so you can vote in the upcoming US Presidential Primaries. If you are a registered member of the US Republican Party, you must register to vote with your individual state of residence. See www.republicansabroad.org for more information.

However, if you are a Democrat, you have an interesting choice. The Democrats Abroad Global Presidential Primary will take place from Feb. 5-12, 2008 with voting methods that include the Internet.

This primary takes place alongside state primaries being held throughout the United States. American citizens living abroad have the option of voting in the Democrats Abroad Global Presidential Primary or in a state presidential primary.

Votes cast in the Democrats Abroad Global Presidential Primary will count alongside those of other members of Democrats Abroad toward the allocation of Democrats Abroad’s 22 delegates to the Democratic National Convention. As such, individual votes carry significantly more weight than a vote in a US state primary or caucus.

To vote in the Democrats Abroad Global Presidential Primary, a voter must be a member of Democrats Abroad, the official overseas arm of the Democratic Party of the United States. You must also be age 18 or over on Nov. 4, 2008 and be temporarily or permanently, resident outside the United States. Complete the online membership form free at www.DemocratsAbroad.org/join.

Arab Corporates Don’t Report Financials Online

In research carried out by Arab Advisors to create “The Arab World Online Transparency Index 2007 (OTI),” the overall results reveal a grim situation when considering the global competitiveness of the Arab world. The research shows that there is still a huge gap between the leading Arab nations and the rest of the world in terms of the online reporting on financial performance and social involvement. Arab corporates simply don’t recognize the growing importance of online transparency.

With national Internet penetration rates rising, national stakeholders will start to look toward corporate websites for their information.

Also, if the Arab world truly wants to be a globally competitive region, the quality of the corporate online presence should be improved drastically. Furthermore, Arab Advisors also recommended that companies and governments make an effort to standardize Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) reporting in the Arab world, and that they should make their websites more user friendly, user orientated and interactive.

“When we look at the individual company level, the UAE real estate company Emaar Properties ranked high in the index, very closely followed by Kuwait’s Mobile Telecommunications Company. Out of the 50 companies in the Index, only 21 received a satisfactory score of 50 percent or above,” Sander Hofman Arab Advisors research analyst wrote in the report. “The results per country show that Egyptian companies score highest both in the usability and content dimension, while being trailed by boomers Qatar and UAE. Stunningly, the economic heavyweights in the analysis, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, perform the worst in both dimensions. Looking to the difference between regions, it is interesting that the Levant outperforms the GCC in both dimensions.”