Centives

Microsoft is now officially the owner of Skype, the instant messaging client used by millions around the world. Arstechnica took a look at what Microsoft is likely to do with its new acquisition:

• Skype is likely to retain a mass consumer market appeal through integration with Windows Live, Xbox, and Microsoft Outlook.
• Skype will also probably be integrated with Lync, Microsoft’s business communications program. Because they are built upon different software code bases it could take up to two years for the two to become truly assimilated.
• Skype should soon see a debut on Microsoft’s new Windows Phone 7 platform.

To read more about the features Microsoft is likely to bring to Skype as well as its future under Windows 8 click here.

Source: Arstechnica

Meet the Numi, a $6,400 toilet produced by Kohler. Sam Brobart was given the opportunity to test it for a month and wrote about the experience in The New York Times. Some of the highlights from the review include:

• There are no levers or buttons. All of the features such as heating, drying, and, of course, flushing, are handled through a large touch screen panel.
• The luxurious supplement automatically detects your presence in the bathroom and greets you by raising the lid. When you’re done it detects if you were sitting or standing and adjusts the type of flush accordingly.
• It also comes with an mp3 player with separate music profiles for different family members.

To read about its other strengths and weaknesses, as well as the final verdict on whether or not you should buy it read the full review over here

Source: The New York Times

Via: Life Inc.

Researchers at the University of Maryland found that higher home prices lead to an increase in the number of births in a home. Some of the more interesting points include:

• Researchers estimate that a 10% increase in house prices would lead to a 4% increase in births
• While the paper does not include data from 2008 onwards, it should be noted that housing prices dropped 18% in 2008 while birth rates fell by 2%
• With the continued uncertainty in the housing markets, America’s fertility may continue to fall.

To find out how the effect varies by ethnicity read the paper here.

Source: NBER

Via: Freakonomics

In Slate Peter Aspeden writes that HBO transformed television from something that was viewed as “the lowliest form of cultural consumption” into a premiere art form. In this article he discusses the attributes that helped HBO achieve this success and take in $4 billion along the way.

• The Larry Sanders Show was the tipping point for the network. Viewers realized that HBO was doing “something original and distinctive.”
• This and other shows attracted the creative community which soon learnt that their ideas would be given a fair chance on the network.
• All of this combines to create a commitment to quality and excellence in television programming that is the reason for HBO’s success.

Find out more about redefinition of television as well as which TV show is considered the “best televisions series ever made” over here.

Source: Slate

The class of 2012 is facing better hiring prospects than the class of 2011 did. It appears that hiring will increase by 9.5% for those in the class of 2012 over the levels the class of 2011 saw according to employers. Current projections also predict that pay increases will amount to around 6% from an average of around $48,000 to an average of around $51,000. The highest paid major is looking at an average salary of $82,740 and that major is petroleum engineering. Some worry that this increase in hiring is largely made up of “replacement hires,” though, and therefore its impact on the unemployment rate and overall jobs picture is still uncertain.

Source: Yahoo!

In this article, investment strategies for improving education levels in the U.S. is debated. Some argue that investing in programs at the college level are cost effective and beneficial, while others argue that the greatest results are to be had when investing in the early stages of education. This latter argument is based on the assumption that a solid foundation is most beneficial and skill will then build on itself. The article ultimately sides with this argument, citing many studies that early investments in education benefit both attendance rates and college completion rates. The benefits seem to be felt even outside of educational results, as these early programs also appear to benefit the health and mortality rates of the children involved.

Source: Economix Blog

A new study claims that Google search results are a good indicator of future stock performance. Many studies aim to predict stock performance based on the attention given to the stock by investors (as attention is a good indicator that they would like to buy that stock). It is difficult to find ways to measure these attention levels, though, and if this study is correct, Google may offer one of the most effective methods. Apparently, looking at Google search results also helps explain the high prices of IPOs as the number of Google searches for these stocks often surge during the week leading up to the IPO.

Source: Freakonomics Blog

India is currently spending billions of rupees on a new Unique Identification System for its citizens. The system aims to give all Indians a unique 12 digit number that they can use to access government and private services. Wired went to India to find out more about the system and its progress. Some of the highlights of their extensive analysis include:

• The government is recording both finger prints and retina scans. By itself finger prints would only have a 95% accuracy. By combining the two the system has a 99% accuracy. Moreover certain Indians have had their finger prints rubbed away by years of hard labour, and finger prints are inadequate for children whose prints are still developing. Iris scans face none of these drawbacks. The bigger challenge though may be human error while inputting data. One study places this error rate at 4.2%. At the moment identity cards are not being issued, instead an individual’s retinas or finger prints should serve as adequate identification.
• Less than half of Indian households have a bank account, and hold their money in cash instead. This means that this money is not being invested in the country’s growth, nor is it earning interest for the individuals. Transferring that money into bank accounts would inject billions of dollars into the capital system. The designers of the new system hope that it will encourage Indians to open up bank accounts as their identities can now easily be verified. Systems are even being put into place to verify identity via mobile phone apps, allowing individuals to withdraw money from their accounts without ever having to visit a branch that might be miles away.
• The creators of the system want to make it an open database that any company can use to validate somebody’s identity including schools, airlines and other institutions. But this openness comes with severe risks. As hard as the designers are working to make it a secure system with multiple state of the art safeguards they note that “there’s no lock in the world that can’t be broken.” But they also point out that credit card numbers are stolen all the time and those are still widely used.
• The system is called “Aadhaar” which means foundation. It is run on India’s cell phone network and the government is massively expanding investments into the broadband system so that it is capable of dealing with the 100 million requests per day that the system is meant to eventually deal with.

Find out more about the logistical hurdles both technical and administrative as well as the implications for security and civil liberties over here.

Source: Wired

Steam is a digital games distribution and experience platform. Individuals can buy games online, have them downloaded to their computer and then play it through Steam, all without ever having to leave the computer to visit a store, or to insert a cd. At a conference the software President of Valve, the company that owns Steam, Gabe Newell suggested that games were priced too high. Some of the key points from the presentation include:

• It’s difficult to run tests on the effect of prices on demand in retail stores since prices can’t easily be changed.
• In a promotion where Steam reduced the price of Left 4 Dead by 50%, sales increased by 3,000%
• During a holiday period when Steam discounted third party titles sales increased by 300%
• Brick and mortar store sales were unaffected by the discount

Read more case studies and fine out how much more money publishers made after they cut their prices over here.

Source: Edge