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Wednesday, April 17, 2013

LinkedIn Refreshes Mobile App

On Thursday, LinkedIn unveiled an overhauled version of its mobile application, its first refresh in nearly two years.

In recent months, the company has put its muscle into refining its mobile offerings â€" with good reason. Mobile accounts for nearly a third of the traffic to LinkedIn, nearly double from the previous year. In addition, the company said mobile page views have increased 250 percent. (It declined to break out specific figures.) In addition, the company said that each second, 90 LinkedIn profiles are viewed on its mobile application.

“We’re at an inflection point,” said Tomer Cohen, director of mobile products at LinkedIn, who oversaw the redesign. The service is not for just typical business professionals, he said. “We’re now focusing on everyday use, with people using the app multiple times a day.”

The company redid its visual interface and freshened its news feed to simplify the news, updates and information that users see when they start the application. They only spend a few minutes in the app each time they open it, so the company wanted to make sure they were seeing valuable, timely information.

“It’s really important to nail that interaction right,” Mr. Cohen said. “It’s really important people get their content really fast.”

He said that LinkedIn has watched the pool of users expand from traditional business people to anyone who is employed or hoping to be.

“We saw the mainstreaming of our base. It’s not just around profile views and searches, it’s a lot of content consumption, commenting, liking and sharing,” Mr. Cohen said.

The company says it is determined to buy companies and introduce products that make LinkedIn more useful to those who use the site to hunt for jobs, get career information, look for prospective hires and hone their network of contacts.

Most recently, the company bought Pulse, a start-up that helped people browse news and information on their phones, although LinkedIn executives say that the technology and assets acquired have not yet been integrated into the latest mobile version.



Dozens Injured in Fertilizer Plant Explosion in Texas

A massive fire and explosion at a Texas fertilizer plant outside of Waco has wounded dozens of people, damaged a local middle school and nursing home and prompted local officials to set up a triage center on a local football field, officials said.

The Waco Tribune is reporting that several firefighters and others were injured in the West Fertilizer plant in West, Texas about 8 p.m.

The Waco Tribune said that the fire spread to multiple buildings, including a nursing home, a middle school and an apartment complex that sent people to local hospitals and the football field for treatment.

The explosion was so large that people reported feeling the ground shaking in North and Central Texas.



Were You or Someone You Know at the Marathon Finish Line?

NBC

Enlarge this image without labels.

Over the past several days, Times reporters and editors have been working on identifying and telling the stories of the people in the image above, a frame from a video filmed at the moment of the first explosion at the Boston Marathon. We have found many of the people seen here, but would like your help in identifying more. Are you visible in this photograph taken Monday afternoon or do you know someone who was there? Please fill out this online form and include your location. A reporter or editor will follow up on all relevant leads.



Today’s Scuttlebot: Twitter TV and New Google Stores

The technology reporters and editors of The New York Times scour the Web for important and peculiar items. For Tuesday, selections include a humorous comparison of Silicon Valley and kindergarten, a look at concentrated industries like the wireless business and the patterns of reaction to big news on social media.

There’s Something About Smartwatches

Rumor has it that Apple, Samsung, Google and Microsoft are all working on some sort of thingamajig that is worn around the wrist, which people are calling a smartwatch. None have arrived on the market yet, but they have everyone wondering whether or not this will be the biggest mobile device since the smartphone.

But will people really want to own and wear one?

Some people, of course, can’t wait. New gadgets can still titillate and excite even the most jaded consumer. But will it become a multibillion dollar market, as major hardware makers and software developers alike hope? That has yet to be seen.

Technology reporters Jenna Wortham and Brian X. Chen weigh in on three questions about the latest phenomenon in hardware.

What Will They Look Like?

Jenna: There’s no doubt that mass-market wearables are the next big thing in computing. They haven’t always had to look cool to catch on â€" take the pager and the Bluetooth headset as examples. So it is less a question of form and more a question of function. What will these things be able to that our other body machinery, including phones, fitness devices and tablets, don’t already do?

Brian: As a successor to the smartphone, a smartwatch will probably be a touchscreen that is worn around the wrist, capable of running apps. It will no doubt look like something that Tony Stark (or Elon Musk) would want to wear: futuristic, minimalist, slick. I’d imagine that it will come in a variety of colors, and people will be able to choose between different-style digital watch faces to display the time.


How Will They Be Used?

Brian: I would think that a smartwatch will barely even be noticeable unless you were actively looking for it on someone’s wrist, similar to the subtlety of the Nike FuelBand or Jawbone Up, which are just solid-color bracelets.

But the thing I think people may find jarring about smartwatches is how users will interact with them. Take the Pebble, for instance: When a text message is received, it shows up on the watch screen. When I was with a colleague who wore a Pebble, he would stare at the watch every few minutes whenever he received a message from his girlfriend. People usually interpret this body language to mean someone is short on time and needs to be somewhere else, which could raise some tension. I think it will be key for companies to figure out how to make a smartwatch that doesn’t create awkward social situations.

Jenna: In my trial run of the Pebble smartwatch, I was impressed by how cool it felt to wear it, but disappointed that it didn’t streamline my life more. Then there are etiquette issues. Glancing at your wrist constantly, trying to decipher what’s happening on that minuscule screen, is distracting and rude. But maybe that’s only temporary until we all have them. Only time will tell.

With all new technologies, there’s always an adjustment period where we figure out what role a new social service or piece of hardware plays in our lives, from autocorrect to Siri to GPS. It’s always a little bit bumpy and prone to awkward moments or comical glitches, and smartwatches will be no different. I think it’ll be telling to see who the initial market will be â€" likely early adopters, runners, business professionals, kids. Will it expand beyond that, or will smartwatches just end up being another piece of smart-garbage collecting dust on our closet floor, alongside our old discarded Razrs, Nintendos and GPS units?

Will They Succeed?

Jenna: Cost will be a factor, as will interoperability. Will Samsung’s smartwatch only work with its Galaxy line of phones? And Google’s, Androids? If the walling off of gardens continues to happen as we’ve seen it in the past, the future looks bleak for the broader success of any of these devices, except maybe Apple’s. Limiting the reach of any new, experimental piece of hardware had a significant impact on the success of the Nexus Q, Google’s music hardware, and others. Then again, each maker has the chance to really rethink how their device interacts with their suite of other products. If Microsoft’s watch had a singular and cool tie-in to the Kinect, for example, that could dazzle consumers and move the category forward.

Brian: As was the case with smartphones, apps will define the value of a smartwatch. One can only imagine the potential for software when it is connected to the body. For example, perhaps a smartwatch could contain a heart rate monitor, which would enable software for tracking your workout, or monitoring your health very closely. Or imagine if the smartwatch’s music player automatically picked songs with a BPM that matched your heart rate. There are plenty of interesting possibilities.

But I think the biggest question is how much these are going to cost. It seems inevitable that a smartwatch will be complementary to a smartphone, so I can’t imagine people wanting to pay much more than $150 for such a device.

Readers, share your thoughts on smartwatches in the comment section below. Are you interested in buying on? Why or why not?



There’s Something About Smartwatches

Rumor has it that Apple, Samsung, Google and Microsoft are all working on some sort of thingamajig that is worn around the wrist, which people are calling a smartwatch. None have arrived on the market yet, but they have everyone wondering whether or not this will be the biggest mobile device since the smartphone.

But will people really want to own and wear one?

Some people, of course, can’t wait. New gadgets can still titillate and excite even the most jaded consumer. But will it become a multibillion dollar market, as major hardware makers and software developers alike hope? That has yet to be seen.

Technology reporters Jenna Wortham and Brian X. Chen weigh in on three questions about the latest phenomenon in hardware.

What Will They Look Like?

Jenna: There’s no doubt that mass-market wearables are the next big thing in computing. They haven’t always had to look cool to catch on â€" take the pager and the Bluetooth headset as examples. So it is less a question of form and more a question of function. What will these things be able to that our other body machinery, including phones, fitness devices and tablets, don’t already do?

Brian: As a successor to the smartphone, a smartwatch will probably be a touchscreen that is worn around the wrist, capable of running apps. It will no doubt look like something that Tony Stark (or Elon Musk) would want to wear: futuristic, minimalist, slick. I’d imagine that it will come in a variety of colors, and people will be able to choose between different-style digital watch faces to display the time.


How Will They Be Used?

Brian: I would think that a smartwatch will barely even be noticeable unless you were actively looking for it on someone’s wrist, similar to the subtlety of the Nike FuelBand or Jawbone Up, which are just solid-color bracelets.

But the thing I think people may find jarring about smartwatches is how users will interact with them. Take the Pebble, for instance: When a text message is received, it shows up on the watch screen. When I was with a colleague who wore a Pebble, he would stare at the watch every few minutes whenever he received a message from his girlfriend. People usually interpret this body language to mean someone is short on time and needs to be somewhere else, which could raise some tension. I think it will be key for companies to figure out how to make a smartwatch that doesn’t create awkward social situations.

Jenna: In my trial run of the Pebble smartwatch, I was impressed by how cool it felt to wear it, but disappointed that it didn’t streamline my life more. Then there are etiquette issues. Glancing at your wrist constantly, trying to decipher what’s happening on that minuscule screen, is distracting and rude. But maybe that’s only temporary until we all have them. Only time will tell.

With all new technologies, there’s always an adjustment period where we figure out what role a new social service or piece of hardware plays in our lives, from autocorrect to Siri to GPS. It’s always a little bit bumpy and prone to awkward moments or comical glitches, and smartwatches will be no different. I think it’ll be telling to see who the initial market will be â€" likely early adopters, runners, business professionals, kids. Will it expand beyond that, or will smartwatches just end up being another piece of smart-garbage collecting dust on our closet floor, alongside our old discarded Razrs, Nintendos and GPS units?

Will They Succeed?

Jenna: Cost will be a factor, as will interoperability. Will Samsung’s smartwatch only work with its Galaxy line of phones? And Google’s, Androids? If the walling off of gardens continues to happen as we’ve seen it in the past, the future looks bleak for the broader success of any of these devices, except maybe Apple’s. Limiting the reach of any new, experimental piece of hardware had a significant impact on the success of the Nexus Q, Google’s music hardware, and others. Then again, each maker has the chance to really rethink how their device interacts with their suite of other products. If Microsoft’s watch had a singular and cool tie-in to the Kinect, for example, that could dazzle consumers and move the category forward.

Brian: As was the case with smartphones, apps will define the value of a smartwatch. One can only imagine the potential for software when it is connected to the body. For example, perhaps a smartwatch could contain a heart rate monitor, which would enable software for tracking your workout, or monitoring your health very closely. Or imagine if the smartwatch’s music player automatically picked songs with a BPM that matched your heart rate. There are plenty of interesting possibilities.

But I think the biggest question is how much these are going to cost. It seems inevitable that a smartwatch will be complementary to a smartphone, so I can’t imagine people wanting to pay much more than $150 for such a device.

Readers, share your thoughts on smartwatches in the comment section below. Are you interested in buying on? Why or why not?



Updates on the Aftermath of Boston Marathon Explosions

The Lede is following the aftermath of Monday’s deadly explosions at the Boston Marathon. The F.B.I. released photos showing remnants of bombs that exploded in black nylon bags at the finish line of the race. Prayer vigils were held for the victims of the blasts, which killed three people and injured more than 170.

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