We have been keeping up with the progress of Nokia’s and Intel’s collabortaive mobile operating system, bringing you screenshots of its first stable release to developers.

Over the weekend, new shots emerged of the MeeGo UI, showing us that the OS is continuing to be highly customizable, giving the user the option to completely change the way the UI looks and feels. MyNokiaBlog grabbed the screenshots, pointing out how the the 1.1 release of MeeGo has integrated a interactive lock screen, giving owners to check out any missed calls, text messages, emails.

The lock screen has two unlock mechanisms, one you have to drag the lock icon at the bottom into a designated square, the other you can drag it from the top downwards.

Multitasking has a cover-flow/carousel feel to it, allowing the user to scroll open application windows. Again, MeeGo is designed to allow users to specify different views and settings, giving users the option to choose a grid option which shows four open windows at a time:

MeeGo’s app menu is pretty standard but instead incorporates a 3×4 grid and a bottom launcher bar. Like iOS, users can scroll to different pages of apps but with MeeGo, the user can customize the experience by changing icon size, font, sound, haptics and feedback graphics to include a 4×5 grid if they wished:

By incorporating elements from both Nokia’s Maemo platform and Intel’s Moblin operating system, MeeGo will hopefully appeal to legacy users of Nokia handsets by offering new and innovative smartphone features and the ability to customise the mobile experience.

From what we can see here, MeeGo’s UI is slick and visually appealing, we just hope it hardware specifications can match those of HTC, Apple and Motorola.

Original title and link for this post: New MeeGo User Interface Screens Emerge

News Digital Media, the digital division of News Limited, has acquired Australia’s largest price comparison site, GetPrice, for an undisclosed amount.

The full acquisition was completed in several rounds over several years.

News Digital Media initially acquire a significant minority share in the company in October 2007 along with two further options, which it has now exercised. In July 2009 it increased its investment to 52.5 per and today’s announcement sees News Digital Media acquire the remaining 47.5% it didn’t own.

The chief executive officer of Getprice, Chris Hitchen, and his senior management team, including chief operating officer and company co-founder, Jared Oken, will remain with the business, though they have no equity position in the company:

“We have sold out completely, News now own 100%. We’ve elected to stay with the business because we’re genuinely excited about what we can achieve in partnership with News.” said Hitchen.

In providing some detail on the acquisition, News Digital Media CEO, Richard Freudenstein gave the following insight into the Australian online retail market:

 “Over the next four years the Australian online retailing market is predicted to grow by 50 per cent to $18 billion. With 57 per cent of online shoppers now visiting a comparison website before making a purchase decision, we see a very successful and highly profitable future for Getprice.”

The outcome is an excellent result for Hitchen and Oken who founded Getprice in 2005. It’s also good news for the local startup industry,  which will continue to have access to Hitchen as an investor and mentor:

“Running Getprice is still very much a full-time job but I will continue to be actively involved in the start-up community outside of that, largely through passive investments, provided there is no conflict with News. “

—

Original title and link for this post: News Digital Media acquires Australian price comparison site GetPrice

One of the most talked about websites to come out of beta in 2010 in Silicon Valley has been question and answer site Quora. Quora does a number of things correctly aimed at getting its users to both ask and answer questions, however, the still very new service still has some features and issues that we would like to see addressed to make it even better.

Quite often, we notice that the site hangs up on requests, and we’d like to see that addressed. This isn’t a major flaw, and one that can certainly be addressed with more resources, but Quora is noticeably slower than we’d like to see it. Perhaps it is fast enough for most – maybe we should ask a question about it…

While there are date stamps on answers, it is a little frustrating to not see a date stamp on questions. We understand that Quora wants the question to stand the test of time or something (like Wikipedia in a way) but knowing how fresh the question is would probably entice more people to answer them.

Especially as Quora already has a (rather detailed) email notification system set up for following people, topics and questions, it’s a bit surprising that the service hasn’t added the ability to follow an RSS feed of any of those activity streams. Of course, an even better way to do that would be with an…

Quora will really be an extremely interesting platform to build on when and if the service releases one or more APIs. To get extremely meta on this request, you can check out the Quora question “Is Quora planning an API?” that has an answer by co-founder Charlie Cheever. We know that our own Boris would probably love a Quora API. With the absence of developer APIs, however, the final request is even more pressing…

Mobile apps

Quora does have a mobile version of its website (which isn’t half bad frankly), but still, if the service isn’t going to offer third-party developers the opportunity to build stand-alone mobile apps or integrate the Q&A stream into existing services/apps, then we’d really like to see Quora itself come out with apps on the major mobile platforms. However, as Quora really does seem focused on enhancing its website for the foreseeable future (not to surprising really, considering the founders came from Facebook), we might have to wait quite some time before this happens, if at all.

So those are our top 5 requests, how about you? Please let us/Quora know in the comments!

Original title and link for this post: Question: What are 5 things we’d like to see Quora offer?

An editorial yesterday in the LA Times called “Fidel Castro, Internet Junkie” says the 84-year-old Cuban reads 200 to 300 online articles a day, and “is fascinated by WikiLeaks”.

The LA Times article is based on an lengthy interview Castro did with the Mexican newspaper La Jornada, where he reportedly said that the Internet, “has put an end to secrets…. We are seeing a high level of investigative journalism, as the New York Times calls it, that is within reach of the whole world.” He also said that the Internet is, “the most powerful weapon that has existed.”

Castro, however, isn’t just an Internet consumer – he’s also apparently a prolific blogger (one of about 300 in Cuba). So now you know.

(Note: Isolated Cuba does not have a fiber-optic connection to the rest of the world, and must rely on old underwater telephone lines and for satellite-based broadband to connect to the Internet. The LA Times editorial says that estimates put Cuba’s Internet penetration of between 2.6% -13% of the population depending on whether its based on international (the 2.6%) or Cuban government statistics (the 13%). Either way, Cuba has by far the lowest percentage of Internet users of any nation in the Western Hemisphere. Those that do have access face censorship and restriction as well.)

Original title and link for this post: You Know Who Likes WikiLeaks? Fidel Castro.

An editorial yesterday in the LA Times called “Fidel Castro, Internet Junkie” says the 84-year-old Cuban reads 200 to 300 online articles a day, and “is fascinated by WikiLeaks”.

The LA Times article is based on an lengthy interview Castro did with the Mexican newspaper La Jornada, where he reportedly said that the Internet, “has put an end to secrets…. We are seeing a high level of investigative journalism, as the New York Times calls it, that is within reach of the whole world.” He also said that the Internet is, “the most powerful weapon that has existed.”

Castro, however, isn’t just an Internet consumer – he’s also apparently a prolific blogger (one of about only 300 in Cuba according to the LA Times). So now you know.

(Note: Isolated Cuba does not have a fiber-optic connection to the rest of the world, and must rely on old underwater telephone lines and for satellite-based broadband to connect to the Internet. The LA Times editorial says that estimates put Cuba’s Internet penetration of between 2.6% -13% of the population depending on whether its based on international (the 2.6%) or Cuban government statistics (the 13%). Either way, Cuba has by far the lowest percentage of Internet users of any nation in the Western Hemisphere. Those that do have access face censorship and restriction as well.)

Original title and link for this post: You Know Who Likes WikiLeaks? Fidel Castro.

At Apple’s music event they introduced Ping – a social network for music that lets you follow users/artists and comment on their activities. The other important announcement Apple made was about Game Center going live soon.

Over the past few days it has been interesting to follow the event’s coverage because you know who has both these services ready and live for their mobile platform? Not Android, take another wild guess, not Palm either… It’s Microsoft.

Zune Social lets you create your own circle of friends and share your music preferences with the web at large, and it has been around for quite a while. Then there’s Xbox LIVE. Neither offerings from Microsoft have been considered as reason for iTunes Ping or Game Center.

Apple did not create a Facebook meets Twitter meets iTunes since it was a magical way to make people buy music, they wanted to make sure Microsoft did not claim a social one-up. Game Center did not come out solely because iOS is the best selling portable gaming platform. Apple realized that users enjoy competing with their friends and score themselves, Microsoft had this as another potential USP with Xbox LIVE for Windows Phone 7.

The wide-spread existing Xbox LIVE community and the Zune Social user base Microsoft has is significant to their mobile strategy, Apple decided to do something about it.  GigaOm calls Ping the future of social commerce, well with all due respect, this future has been around for quite some time.

In Apple’s favor, the collective wisdom of the Internet seems to have avoided mentioning Windows Phone 7 as the catalyst for Apple’s new services. I say Windows Phone 7 was the primary reason why Apple launched them. While Jason Calacanis might be right in saying Jobs created Twitter and Facebook in his spare time, the motivation wasn’t to “eat Zuck for breakfast”. It was to ensure that Apple had a reply to Windows Phone 7’s strengths.

Jobs might not openly accept it but introduction of iTunes Ping and Game Center clearly imply that Apple considers Windows Phone 7 as competition. Microsoft, you’re back in the game.

Original title and link for this post: iTunes Ping and Game Center, Apple’s answer to Windows Phone 7

Without a doubt, one of the most awaited titles for Android was a simple game. That game, of course, was Angry Birds.In fact, for the past 3 months, it has been one of the search terms that has brought the most notable traffic to our Apps channel here on TNW.

Then, a few days ago, it finally happened. The free beta of Angry Birds came to the Android Market (though apparently only for those running Android 2.2).

Over the past few days, I’ve spent a considerable amount of time playing the beta…for you know…testing purposes. While the game is great fun, of course, what it signals is considerably more important than what it is.

Since the launch of the Android Market, one of the major complaints has been in the lack of quality of Android applications. They’re, put simply, not nearly as polished as what we see on the Apple platform or even the offerings that we saw for WebOS. By and large, the Android platform has been left severely wanting for quality, useful applications that also looked good. For the most part, you were able to select 1 or 2 of those qualifiers, but rarely did you get all three.

A couple of months ago, however, I stumbled onto Homerun Battle 3D by Com2uS. It was the first time that I had seen an Android game that not only delivered on the strengths of the platform, but did so in a really great-looking wrapper. That was my first spark of hope, but I knew that it would take something much larger than Homerun Battle 3D in order to change the tide.

While there are a wealth of reasons as to why development for the Android hasn’t picked up speed, they’re simply not worth going into here. The point, more specifically, is that Rovio has now shown that it can be done, and done by a title that has held the #1 most downloaded spot around the world for quite some time.

I’m going to head out onto a limb and say that the Android Market will, quite soon, start seeing more titles that rival those available on the App Store. Rovio has shown that it can be done, and in doing so has raised the bar for other developers.

Original title and link for this post: Angry Birds: How one little game signals the rise of Android apps.

I never knew this, now I understand why there are always so many interesting infographics like this one:

Original title and link for this post: The dirty truth about Infographics!

Just in case you’ve missed it: Apple released iTunes 10 last week and it has a new icon. In theory that wouldn’t be worth blogging about but as these things go there has been a major uprising among iTunes users who think the new logo is dumb, ugly, misplaced or simply boring.

Some people want the iTunes 9 Logo back.
Other people are finding out ways to do that.

To be honest I never liked the old logo and was excited to hear Steve Jobs announce the new one. I also completely agreed with him that the whole CD metaphor is misplaced. Very soon CDs will be as current as VHS tapes.

But wait. Doesn’t that go for the YouTube icon too? That television set is older than Steve Jobs himself, right? Besides that I welcome a new icon.

But why keep the note? iTunes is as much about music as it is about CDs. I hardly use iTunes for music. I need it to sync my iPad and iPhone. To buy, download and watch movies and series. And I use it to find Apps to use on my iDevices. So, a better name would have been iMovies, iStore, iSync, iApps or iConnected. Or any other name with a ‘i’ in front of it.

iTunes? That’s just one of the things that this app does, and I don’t use it that much.

Following that logic the note doesn’t make sense either. Why not just use the App store icon? Or just show a large ‘i’ on a blue dot? Why the note?

These are, of course, all senseless ramblings on a Sunday afternoon. Apple decides what Apple decides and all we can do is get used to it or… well, there is no alternative really.

So, to help you get used to the new icon here are some sources for entertainment:

Follow the hilarious thoughts (and insults) of the new iTunes 10 icon on Twitter:
http://twitter.com/itunes10icon

Follow the dying words of the iTunes 9 icon:
[twitter.com]

Want your old iTunes 9 icon back? Here is a simple tutorial on how to do it:
[www.macstories.net]

A very nice alternative design that brings the iTunes icon in line with the iPad and iPhone version:
[ryanrjames.com]

Want more alternatives to the iTunes 10 icon? Here are 10 beautiful alternatives:
[www.macstories.net]

And last but not least, a nice cartoon to put this whole discussion in perspective (Click for a bigger image):

Original title and link for this post: The New iTunes 10 icon: sucks or rocks?

Early last week, TNW’s very own Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten posted an article titled “Job 2.0 – The End of Profession.” The general idea: having a job isn’t the be all end all these days. People don’t have jobs anymore, or, if they do, they have a lot of other occupations alongside it and they consider them all their “job”. A plumber isn’t just someone who fits pipes, he or she is also a marketeer. A dentist can also be a photographer. We don’t stick to being one thing nowadays. It makes being at a party and trying to explain what you ‘do’, a complicated matter. Well, I think it’s nonsense.

First, let’s take a look at how we have supposedly got to this point. The article states that there are two reasons for this ‘multi-talentization’: “The first is the internet and the second is our increased proficiency in everything”. Many online tools give us an opportunity to do the things we used to go to school for, in some cases for quite some time as well. But today, anyone can make a film or a graphic design. Anyone can compose a song. Piece of cake. “The learning curve for a lot of skills has decreased immensely over the past years.”

But is this really work? Just a hobby? Just some activity?

Just because there are many applications which make it easy to do or create things, that doesn’t mean they are done well. Or that the results will be anything more than mediocre. And it doesn’t mean you can do it without learning anything. That’s not ‘increased proficiency’, but ‘increased availability’. The difference between a good photographer and an average photographer has nothing to do with a state-of-the-art camera, but is about having a good eye.

Let’s be honest, not everything can and has to be of top quality. But there’s still a difference between learning real skills, training and practice them on the one hand and doing things you like to do on the other hand. As a hobby. Let everyone do his or her job and by all means do other hobbies but they’re not your job. It gives me the creeps to think about my dentist, being distracted by a nice little bird on the window sill, just because he’s also an ornithologist. And heaven help me if I end up with a plastic surgeon who’s learned the trade by watching video’s on Youtube.

Original title and link for this post: Job 2.0? Whatever…

The new-look version of the BBC’s iPlayer TV and radio on demand service is set to go live early next week following a three-month beta period.

The new look site is a significant upgrade on the previous site, offering a sleek new design, personalisation features and integration with Facebook and Twitter to make sharing programmes easier.

In a blog post, the BBC’s James Hewines says that he hopes the new design is a step towards TV’s inevitable social future: “While social networks are now a well established phenomenon, socially enhanced TV and radio aren’t. It’s early days yet, but we’re pretty sure that this is going to be an important facility in the near future. Together, we hope these features represent a crucial evolutionary step in the enjoyment of online TV and radio.”

The BBC says that 75% of users of the beta iPlayer preferred it to the previous version and usage of the beta has recently been as high as 10% of the total iPlayer audience. Meanwhile 18,000 beta users linked up their Twitter and Facebook accounts to the servie while 70,000 users utilised another new feature to mak programmes as ‘favourites’. The most frequestly chosen favourite shows were Eastenders, Doctor Who, Top Gear, Mock the Week and Sherlock.

While the BBC appears to be cautious about setting a precise day for launch, in an email to The Next Web a BBC publicist said that Monday was the planned day. The new version is still available in beta here.

Original title and link for this post: New look BBC iPlayer set to launch within days

Apple’s Ping music social network has been met with all sorts of user opinions; some love it, some hate it, others recognise it has potential if it continues to innovate and evolve.

Late yesterday, Apple announced that over one million people have already signed up to its Ping social network, a milestone achieved in less than 48 hours. Users have already been connecting with their friends, following their favourite music acts, no doubt helping Apple sell a whole lot of iTunes music tracks.

To take advantage of Ping, users must download iTunes 10 and select the Ping option in the iTunes Music Store.

“One-third of the people who have downloaded iTunes 10 have joined Ping,“ said Eddy Cue, Apple’s vice president of Internet Services. “As many more people download iTunes 10 in the coming weeks, we expect the Ping community to continue growing.“

Even though there have been issues surrounding Facebook integration, the stability of the service itself and a distinct lack of music acts available to follow on Ping, Apple will no doubt be extremely happy with its foray into the social networking space. As more and more people upgrade to the new iTunes, the one million users registered already are set to grow quickly.

Original title and link for this post: Apple: One Million Ping Signups In Under 48 Hours

We may have already instructed you on how to upgrade your Apple device to iOS 4.1 a little earlier than the Cupertino-based company would have liked but today Apple have confirmed the official release date of its iOS 4.1 firmware; the 8th September.

Posting up a new page on the iPhone Update section of its website, Apple details all of the new features iPhone and iPod Touch owners can expect to get, including Game Center, iTunes Ping, HDR Photos, HD Video uploads and a number of other improvements.

iPhone 3G owners will noticeable speed improvements with this update, iPhone 4 users will finally get that proximity sensor fix. To get the official iOS 4.1 release, you will not have to wait any longer than next Wednesday, easy.

Original title and link for this post: Apple UK Website Confirms September 8th iOS 4.1 Release

YouTube shall not, according to a ruling by a German court today, publish videos and must provide information to settle compensation for a holder claiming copyright to Sarah Brightman performances. The suit, which has been tied up in German court for quite some time, finalized today in a 60-page ruling.

Google will, according to a statement by the Associated Press, take some time to evaluate the ruling, but plans to appeal the decision.

It is not specifically stated whether the “performances” were live or pre-recorded music videos. If they were indeed music videos, then that narrows the list of potential plaintiffs to four, according to Wikipedia:

A&M Records (1993)
East West Records (1995–2001)
Angel Records/EMI (1997–2007)
Manhattan Records/EMI (2008–present)

The suit at hand holds its own importance, but what is possibly more detrimental moving forward is the precedent that has been set by YouTube being found liable for the actions of a user.

In a similar case, according to Search Engine Land, YouTube was found not liable in a US court. All national laws being different, however, it opens the door to many more suits in the future.

Original title and link for this post: Google found liable in German YouTube copyright case; intends to appeal.

In a strange bit of serendipity, we’re learning now that the lawsuits filed shortly after the launch of Google’s Buzz are being settled on the same day that Google announces its newly-revamped privacy options.

According to Reuters, Google will set back $8.5 million to cover attorney fees, with the remainder being donated to organizations that are focused on Internet privacy. While another portion of the settlement would require Google to “undertake wider public education about the privacy aspects of Buzz”, it is not clear if today’s announcement is a product of this settlement.

The question that remains, of course, is how much the attorneys will profit from this, and what balance will remain to go toward the privacy organizations. Regardless of the funds, as Buzz continues to grow (albeit slowly) in popularity and features, privacy will continue to come into question from its users.

Original title and link for this post: The Google Buzz lawsuits are finally settled. $8.5 million to be paid.

There’s a story circulating today about how Facebook is testing a feature of its search function. The feature, it is said in an article on All Facebook, will allow news articles that have been “Liked” to show up in the search stream on Facebook. The question that must be raised by this, of course, is who will care?

Blogs will care. The author of that news story will care. In some cases, the site where that news story is hosted will care. Google…will not care. For that matter, neither will tens of millions of people who will still use Google search to find their relevant information.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not fool enough to believe that Facebook Search is irrelevant. However, I think that it all has to come down to a matter of context. While the Open Graph has opened a lot of doors, and while many people are including Facebook Like buttons on their pages, it still is not the end-all popularity contest that some people are making it out to be.

While some have said that Google must be “hearing footsteps”, I have to say that Google is probably not all that worried just yet. In order for Facebook to become a major player in any sort of search (be that semantic, contextual or otherwise) the behavior of its population has to take a dramatic shift.

Those like buttons that you see all over the place? Those are social. You are wanting to show people on your Facebook friends list the things that you deem to be interesting, important, etc. However, we are nowhere near the point yet where true informational searching is going to be done via your social graph.

Want proof of that claim? Show me the Internet browser that has a “Search Facebook” box as a standard feature.

There is no doubt that, in the future, the importance of social search will grow. However, that time simply hasn’t come yet. This is, quite possibly, a good step in that direction for Facebook. Nobody should be foolish enough to think otherwise. But to discount Google’s dominance based on a single feature is a bet that only a fool would make.

h/t to RWW for the image.

Original title and link for this post: Facebook displaying liked articles in search. Google last seen attempting to care.

Despite my using Gmail for most of this past decade, I am surprisingly bad at it. I never archive. My label use is pathetic. Gmail Labs is an unexplored, foreign world. I have 46,919 unread emails right now, and it will be much higher by the end of the day.

Most of all though, I don’t care. I am a champ at scanning email to find and kill the priorities, and PR people always ping you twice, right? Let’s be realistic: most people have poor inbox management skills. I am hardly the only schmuck in this situation.

However, even though I am a dedicated email slob, until recently my inbox was a free land. My various email addresses are public (they all funnel into a single Gmail account, which is bad Karma I have been told), meaning that anyone who wants to ping me has the option. I try and read as many emails as I can, but I can’t read them all. Still, every email used to have the same weight. One email, one vote etc.

No more. Now with Gmail’s priority inbox, all the lifting is (mostly) done for me, meaning that I can scan Gmail and read three critical emails and dodge the sifting process that used to be part of my life. No more will I catch a funny note from someone with weak English asking my opinion on iTunes. That note probably won’t make it to my ‘Important and Unread” section leaving it with little chance of being read.

The new Gmail nearly ensures that we will read fewer emails in total, which is both good and bad. Email is an unstoppable problem, being as thorough as the next bum was always good enough in the past. Now you don’t have to try.

Oh no. Never give a lazy user a shortcut if you want them to be thorough. Priority inbox is both a blessing and a curse: my email experience is streamlined but biased. What is sad is that I suspect in six months, when we all get fully set in our new priority ways, Twitter is going to be the best way to ping a non-friend. Unless we’re Justin Bieber or Lady Gaga, we all read our @messages.

I have a plan to read over everything in my ‘Everything Else’ section twice a day. Well, it’s 1:28 and I need to get to it for the first time, so I will leave you with this: in the new Gmail life is vicious and unfair, and I have sneaking suspicion, unread.

Original title and link for this post: You Are Now My Inbox Peasant – Confessions Of An Email Slob

We’re starting a fortnightly series of posts giving you the heads up on interesting upcoming events in the media and technology space. For all mentioned events we’ve organized a special discount for TNW readers, so make sure to check here before you decide to buy a ticket. This post is supported by PressDoc for Events

APPNATION, September 13-14, San Francisco.
APPNATION is an ambitious and bold new thought leadership conference and exposition focusing exclusively on the burgeoning consumer applications revolution and global app economy. The inaugural APPNATION event will feature speakers and exhibitors from leading companies from across the app economy including Google, Fox, Zynga, Microsoft, The North Face, AT&T, GetJar, Mediabrands, Major League Baseball, General Electric, The Wall Street Journal, Sequoia Capital, Accel Partners, and dozens of others. Developers: Win cash prizes in the “Pimp My App” contest!

TNW readers get 30% off full conference registration by using code MHFC30!

EDGE, September 23rd, Ljubljana, Slovenia
At the EDGE Conference you can listen to and learn from some of the most prominent and inspiring international speakers and take advantage of the vastly extensive network of leading CEOs, managers, entrepreneurs, politicians, and other unique and successful individuals from all over Europe.
This year’s topic of the EDGE Conference is “Innovation”. The conference seeks the edge of innovation from different aspects. The way of exploring new ideas, new products, processes, and services has dramatically changed in the last decade and has brought significant changes in society and environment.

TNW readers get 20% discount. Use ‘TNW’ as partner code to get the discount.

midVenturesLAUNCH, September 28, Chicago
midVenturesLAUNCH is the largest startup conference in the Midwest, showcasing new and innovative startups and apps in the technology space. Bringing together entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and media from all parts of the tech community, midVenturesLAUNCH is a unique opportunity to watch new ideas come to life.

TNW readers get 20% discount

ChallengerDay, November 18th, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
The third edition of Sprout ChallengerDay is a day full of inspiring entrepreneurs. Here you can learn to grow your company and meet up with other inspiring entrepreneurs.
Speakers include Ben Huh, founder of the Cheezburger Network and Failblog, Geraldo Vallen, founder of Join the Pipe, the network that ‘creates’ clean drinkwater for the world, investor Hubert Deitmers, Quooker-director Niels Peteri and trendwatcher Reinier Evers (Trendwatching.com). More to be announced.

Be inspired, and learn from great entrepreneurs. We welcome you to Amsterdam. TNW readers get a 100 EUR discount

Are you hosting an event yourself? Think it would be relevant to our readers? Please contact Sophie to discuss media partnerships with TNW/

Original title and link for this post: Upcoming Media & Tech Events You Should Be Attending [Discounts & Free Tickets]

Mark Cuban.  Brilliant, entrepreneurial, and in need of something.

For those unfamiliar with Mark Cuban, here’s a brief, emphasizing brief, overview of the last 10+ years of his life.  Cuban, who along with Todd Wagner, started Audionet, combining their mutual interest in college basketball and webcasting.  This venture grew into what would eventually become Broadcast.com, acquired by Yahoo! in 1999 for $5.9 billion in Yahoo! stock. Currently, Cuban is the owner of the Dallas Mavericks, of Landmark Theatres, and Chairman of HDNet.

Brief.

Now Mark Cuban wants to talk to you, and unfortunately, not me.

In a post on his blog, Blog Maverick, which I highly recommend following, he writes the following:

“If you develop Social Games I want to talk to you. Im looking to invest in  games,  developers and projects

Im looking for consumer and corporate applications. I’m not looking for knockoffs of existing games/apps. I’m also looking for physical products that have integrated social gaming components . My preference for all the above is that they run on or  integrate deeply  with Facebook and/or Itunes 10/Ping and all the devices they support.”

You can post them here or email me at blogmaverick@aol.com.

If I like it , I will respond. If I dont, I wont.  I wont sign and NDA.”

Three things from the post struck me:

1. His preference that applications “run on or integrate deeply with Facebook and/or Itunes 10/Ping.  iTunes 10/Ping is interesting given that it’s only 3 days old.  More interesting however is the focus on Facebook and iTunes 10/Ping only.  Why?  I see this as an extension of his past and present media ventures, Broadcast.com, expanding the reach of HDNet and Landmark Theaters’ forays into television and movie content, and doing so by leveraging the user base of both Facebook and iTunes 10/Ping.
2. The NDA.  A NDA, for those unfamiliar with them, is a legal contract between at least two parties that outlines confidential material, knowledge, or information that the parties wish to share with one another for certain purposes, but wish to restrict access to by third parties.  Cuban will not sign a NDA.  This move by Cuban is smart and provides him with a huge advantage.  Why?  He may receive a few, hundreds, or even thousands of  inquiries to his post, all of which he will not bind himself legally not to disclose.  Small companies, individual developers, usually do not copyright or patent their creations, so in essence, Cuban is having others do his thinking for him and those doing so will have no recourse should he choose to use the idea.  Well played Mr. Cuban.  Well played.
3. Finally, and who knows how quickly he threw this post up or what device he composed it on, but the grammar and other errors are deplorable.

It will be interesting to see what, if anything comes from Cuban’s request for products/developers focusing on Social Games.  What do you see as Cuban’s end goal?  Will you submit your name and idea for consideration?

Original title and link for this post: Have a great idea? A chance to put your best “face” forward and “ping” a billionaire.

We’ve waited, and so have you, to get a look at Angry Birds on the Android. The wait, it seems, is over. Well, sort of. The version that is now available from the Android Market is beta, and so there might be some bugs. But it’s also free. We did a quick play through the first few levels, so here’s our video review:

So there you have it. Now, take a quick scan of the QR code and get downloading, will ya?

Original title and link for this post: Angry Birds beta now available for Android

Mark Cuban.  Brilliant, entrepreneurial, and in need of something.

For those unfamiliar with Mark Cuban, here’s a brief, emphasizing brief, overview of the last 10+ years of his life.  Cuban, who along with Todd Wagner, started Audionet, combining their mutual interest in college basketball and webcasting.  This venture grew into what would eventually become Broadcast.com, acquired by Yahoo! in 1999 for $5.9 billion in Yahoo! stock. Currently, Cuban is the owner of the Dallas Mavericks, of Landmark Theatres, and Chairman of HDNet.

Brief.

Now Mark Cuban wants to talk to you, and unfortunately, not me.

In a post on his blog, Blog Maverick, which I highly recommend following, he writes the following:

“If you develop Social Games I want to talk to you. Im looking to invest in  games,  developers and projects

Im looking for consumer and corporate applications. I’m not looking for knockoffs of existing games/apps. I’m also looking for physical products that have integrated social gaming components . My preference for all the above is that they run on or  integrate deeply  with Facebook and/or Itunes 10/Ping and all the devices they support.”

You can post them here or email me at blogmaverick@aol.com.

If I like it , I will respond. If I dont, I wont.  I wont sign and NDA.”

Three things from the post struck me:

1. His preference that applications “run on or integrate deeply with Facebook and/or Itunes 10/Ping.  iTunes 10/Ping is interesting given that it’s only 3 days old.  More interesting however is the focus on Facebook and iTunes 10/Ping only.  Why?  I see this as an extension of his past and present media ventures, Broadcast.com, expanding the reach of HDNet and Landmark Theaters’ forays into television and movie content, and doing so by leveraging the user base of both Facebook and iTunes 10/Ping.
2. The NDA.  A NDA, for those unfamiliar with them, is a legal contract between at least two parties that outlines confidential material, knowledge, or information that the parties wish to share with one another for certain purposes, but wish to restrict access to by third parties.  Cuban will not sign a NDA.  This move by Cuban is smart and provides him with a huge advantage.  Why?  He may receive a few, hundreds, or even thousands of  inquiries to his post, all of which he will not bind himself legally not to disclose.  Small companies, individual developers, usually do not copyright or patent their creations, so in essence, Cuban is having others do his thinking for him and those doing so will have no recourse should he choose to use the idea.  Well played Mr. Cuban.  Well played.
3. Finally, and who knows how quickly he threw this post up or what device he composed it on, but the grammar and other errors are deplorable.

It will be interesting to see what, if anything comes from Cuban’s request for products/developers focusing on Social Games.  What do you see as Cuban’s end goal?  Will you submit your name and idea for consideration?

Original title and link for this post: Have a great idea? A chance to put your best “face” forward and “ping” a billionaire.

Google has just announced that it is “trimming” its privacy policies, eliminating 12 redundant product-specific policies and simplifying its overall privacy policy. The policy changes take effect on October 3 (i.e. one month from now). Here’s what Google had to say on it’s Official Blog:

“So we’re simplifying and updating Google’s privacy policies. To be clear, we aren’t changing any of our privacy practices; we want to make our policies more transparent and understandable. As a first step, we’re making two types of improvements:

1. Most of our products and services are covered by our main Google Privacy Policy. Some, however, also have their own supplementary individual policies. Since there is a lot of repetition, we are deleting 12 of these product-specific policies. These changes are also in line with the way information is used between certain products—for example, since contacts are shared between services like Gmail, Talk, Calendar and Docs, it makes sense for those services to be governed by one privacy policy as well.
2. We’re also simplifying our main Google Privacy Policy to make it more user-friendly by cutting down the parts that are redundant and rewriting the more legalistic bits so people can understand them more easily. For example, we’re deleting a sentence that reads, “The affiliated sites through which our services are offered may have different privacy practices and we encourage you to read their privacy policies,” since it seems obvious that sites not owned by Google might have their own privacy policies.

Simpler is always better, so we applaud Google for making these changes, and hope that not only will Google continue to make strive to make its privacy policies as straightforward as possible, but that other sites will follow suit.

Original title and link for this post: Google Simplifies Its Privacy Policies, Takes Effect October 3

Apple’s iPad is a monster hit, making it a product that Apple wants to ensure is as available as possible. Throughout the early days of its life, production lag and delays were the name of the iPad ordering game.

No more. The time required between ordering and iPad and having it be shipped to you has dropped to a mere 24 hours. This stems from Apple ramping up production for iPads to a shocking 2 million a month.

But Apple wants more. The Cupertino giant has indicated to its supply chain that it wants to ramp up total production to 3 million iPads a month later this year. That would aggregate to some 36 million built and shipped iPads for 2011, a stunning number.

Could this be boost that iBooks needs? Perhaps it’s time that Kindle stepped up and gave us the straight numbers.

Original title and link for this post: Apple Building 2 Million iPads Monthly

Cooklet is an “international culinary platform” for organizing recipes, finding new ones and getting cooking tips.

Love It: Really slick design. Great organization.

Hate It: Being international, there is sometimes a language barrier.

Overall: 4/5

One part that my bio doesn’t say about me is that I’m a foodie. I absolutely love to eat, and I love to cook. I’m always searching for new recipes and ways to keep them better organized. Cooklet, it seems, might be just the site I’ve never knew that I always wanted.

Cooklet is a few different things:

• Recipes Organizer
• Shopping Assistant
• Community Sharing
• Cooking Academy
• Conversion Tools
• Multiple Timers

The cool part, seeing as cooking is a somewhat mobile activity, is that you can have Cooklet on your desktop, laptop, iDevice or any other smartphone. No worries about running back to your desk mid-whisk.

I could tell you all about it, but the video is probably the best way to really get a look at what all Cooklet can do:

The site is still in beta, at the moment, so you might find the occasional bug. However, from what I’ve seen so far, it’s sure to be out of beta soon. Signups are open, so drop by and give it a shot, then let us know what you think.

Original title and link for this post: Foodie geeks rejoice. Cooklet makes cooking even more fun.

Rumours have been rife for months that Google would be making a serious play in the music sphere and it looks like that might be happening sooner rather than later.

Reuters reports that Google is in talks with record labels to decide how a music service from the company would work and that something is hoped to be launched by Christmas this year.

The report says that Google is yet to actually strike up any licensing deals with major labels, but that labels are reportedly “excited” about the prospect of a significant competitor to Apple’s iTunes in the music sector. While Apple kickstarted the mainstream digital music market, labels are reportedly wary of iTunes holding too much of a dominant postion.

With Google moving into TV and music, it is expanding beyond its roots as a technology and advertising company to be a media distributor in its own right. “We’re cautiously optimistic because Google has great scale and reach but doesn’t have a track record in selling stuff”, one music industry source told Reuters. Given the shaky reputation of the Android Market to date, and a quickly-shelved direct phone sales business, this is an area that may well be a valid concern.

Regardless of the business realities, we’re excited to see what Google’s music solution looks like and how it integrates with its web, mobile and TV outlets.

Original title and link for this post: Google music service “to launch before Christmas”

As we reported earlier, Twitter has published new figures showing that it now has 145 million registered users. The thing is, that doesn’t really tell us much about how many people are actually using the service.

“Registered users” is very different to “Active users”. Facebook, for example, announced in July that it had over 500 million active users. This is a statistic that Facebook recently tweaked to improve its accuracy and should give a good indication of how many people regularly interact with the site.

Twitter, however, doesn’t give this figure, making it difficult to determine the true size of its userbase. Third party developers who work with the API have their own ideas. Jesse Stay is the man behind SocialToo, a service that provides useful tools for Twitter and Facebook users. Commenting on Twitter’s latest stats via Google Reader today, he says:

“I wish they’d go with the number their competitors are going with – number of active users. Just stating # of registered users is an unfair comparison (unless they really want Facebook to start touting the number of registered users on their system). My own estimates show only about 30% of Twitter’s numbers are active, based on a sample of 5-10 million users I have cached.”

Now, that’s only one developer and we’ve no way of verifying what he says. However, when you bear in mind all the people who try the service and leave; people who have registered themselves but not used their accounts; not to mention spam accounts,  there’s bound to be a significant drop-off from that 145 million figure.

Twitter’s latest stats say that 78% of users access its service via Twitter.com. According to Comscore, the site received nearly 93 million unique visitors in June. However, visitors don’t necessarily equal active users as some are likely to visit, for example, individual celebrity pages without actually signing up themselves. Yet more traffic will come from search engine results too.

In short, we don’t know how many people are actively using Twitter and until they release such a figure, we can but guess.

Original title and link for this post: How many people are actually using Twitter?

The Samsung Galaxy Tab went official yesterday, displayed before the masses at IFA 2010 in Berlin, creating quite a buzz around Samsung’s newest tablet device.

Not only has the device launched, its also been rooted. Yes, you read that right. A group of Android developers, based in Germany managed to get their hands on a prototype Galaxy Tab, a month before it goes on general European sale, successfully rooting the device.

Details behind the hack aren’t known but Sera-Apps did post up an image showing the Galaxy Tab and its Superuser Notification:

It’s likely the prototype was running a prototype Android build and certain bugs/holes will be patched before release. Root access can bring with it custom ROM’s and feature hacks, we wonder if Samsung will look to actively lock this baby down before it goes on sale.

Original title and link for this post: Samsung Galaxy Tab Rooted, A Whole Month Before Its Release

A report released by ICM  shows 9 out of 10 people find broadband terminology in advertising misleading when compared against the actual speeds they recieve.

Consumers are becoming increasingly frustrated with broadband companies describing speeds as ‘up to’ which are very rarely delivered due to the UK’s broadband infrastructure.

The main issue arises with connections over copper lines, where speed can be heavily affected by the distance to the exchange, whereas with fibre optic cabling, provided by Virgin Media for example, can provide a much more consistent speed.

A report by Ofcom in July of this year, stated some interesting research regarding the actual speeds customers can expect (please see below) when purchasing broadband with a certain ‘up to’ speeds being advertised.

Ofcom Broadband Research July 2010

As mentioned, because Virgin Media offer fibre optic cabling, its performance is usually closer than the competition to the actual average speed while providers including AOL, TalkTalk, Sky that piggy back BT’s infrastructure fall worryingly short.

For example an advertised package from Orange for 8mbps actually only produces an average speed of between 3.3 to 4.2 which is around half the promoted amount.

Ofcom Report - Detailing actual average speeds by provider.

From an advertising point of view, promoting more realistic speeds to customers in certain areas could prove a logistical nightmare, but the current terminology and the above actual average speeds are clearly frustrating consumers.

In addition, broadband companies are clearly not providing the tools to make the actual speeds customers could expect or are recieving more transparent, especially for the less tech savvy users.  The report from ICM stated that 90% were unsure of the actual speed they were receiving.

If prospective customers were either clearly told in the signing up process, or provided tools to determine the expected speed in advance, there would likley to be much less of an uproar.

Original title and link for this post: UK consumers byte back at broadband advertising

In Twitter’s latest blog update, Twitter co-founder Evan Williams addresses developments at the company since its Chirp conference, discussing how it has overcome difficulties associated with getting Twitter on your mobile phone and growing the service outside of the main Twitter.com website.

Williams explains that whilst Twitter knew there are a large number of apps on the iPhone App Store, users were finding it difficult to select an appropriate application because none actually bore the name “Twitter”. Seeing this a potential reason for users not using the service at all, the acquisition of Tweetie was mooted and soon became Twitter for IPhone.

The acquisition was closely followed by the release of official apps on both BlackBerry and Android platforms, helping Twitter to increase its total mobile use by 62% since mid-April with 16% of all new users now start on Twitter using their mobile device, compared to 5% when Twitter launched its first Twitter-branded mobile client.

The mobile clients have helped bring more users to Twitter, helping to attract and retain active uses. Williams notes that nearly half of all active users (46%) now make mobile a regular part of their Twitter experience.

Mobile applications were the primary focus of Williams’ post but he also touched on how Twitter was expanding through the use of third-party Twitter applications. At the time of writing it is estimated that there are almost 300,000 OAuth applications registered with Twitter, giving users alternative ways to create or view their friends tweets.

With progress being made both on mobile and via third-party applications, Twitter now has 145 million registered users and its Promoted Products service is proving successful.

Original title and link for this post: Twitter Now Has 145 Million Users, Total Mobile Use Up 62%

Google’s “Don’t be Evil” mantra is frequently under attack in some humorous ways.  A group called ConsumerWatchdog has posted a video, part of larger collection regarding Google, on their YouTube channel that pokes fun at Google CEO Eric Schmidt.

You’ll recall that Eric Schmidt has made some odd claims recently.  One is, and I paraphrase, that once today’s youth reach 18 they will need to change their names.  Another is his opinion that blogging is not high on the list of things he enjoys.

The latest video from ConsumerWatchdog makes fun of Schmidt’s view on privacy, including the comments made in a 2009 interview where he said, “If you have something that you don’t want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place.”

According to the Wall Street Journal, “part of the video is being used in a 15-second ad on a giant screen in Times Square too. (And these are all posted on on Google’s YouTube. Oh, the irony.)”

Whatever you think of Google and their CEO (personally I think he’s just a tad bit “off”), enjoy the video and feel free to let us know what you think of Mr. Schmidt and Google.

Original title and link for this post: Google CEO Eric Schmidt selling Ice Cream is deliciously creepy.

Yes, I absolutely meant to end that with an exclamation point. From day one that I downloaded Skype on my Droid, I have been frustrated by the fact that it would only work over 3G and not over WiFi. Finally, the cries of many have been answered.

According to Android Central, and verified by my download from the Android Market, the newest version of Skype for Android allows for simultaneous WiFi and 3G connections. No more disabling your WiFi just to run Skype!

The caveat, of course, is that it’s still only for Verizon users (for now). But if you’re paying your monthly dues to the big red V, you should head to the Android Market and get to updating.

Original title and link for this post: Skype for Android finally works over WiFi!

As Twitter matures and more content of various forms are shared on it, we’re finding an increasing need to have better ways to access that content. Be it pictures, video or even a user’s profile, the applications that tend to shine the brightest are the ones that give us the easiest access.

Twitter is not blind to that fact, and today introduces Twitter for iPad. Unlike some iPad applications, which are just iPhone applications in larger proportion, the Twitter for iPad app really lets the content shine. Navigation in the application is even changed, somewhat, to better suit the iPad platform. Here’s what the Twitter Blog has to say:

Tapping on a Tweet opens a pane to the right. Depending on the content in that Tweet, you’ll see a video or photo, or maybe a news story, or perhaps another Tweet. You can continue tapping on Tweets, opening new panes, and getting new content as long as you’d like to. And, it’s really easy to move between panes by swiping to the right or left.

Gestures: You can pinch on a Tweet to quickly view details about the author and to take actions on a Tweet, such as reply or retweet. Put two fingers together and pull down on a Tweet to peek at the replies, showing the entire conversation leading to that Tweet.

Twitter for iPad is available now, in the App Store. Give a download and let us know what you think.

Original title and link for this post: Twitter for iPad finally lands. Includes gestures and a new UI.

You may or may not have heard that Apple held an event today at which they announced a number of things (full recap here).  One of those things was Ping.

What is Ping? According to Apple CEO Steve Jobs Ping is like “Facebook and Twitter meet iTunes.”  Continuing, “But it’s not Facebook, it’s not Twitter, it’s a social network all about music.”

Once you upgrade to iTunes 10, you can sign up for the social network all about music, Ping.  But how will your friends find you, and you them?  Here’s how to find your Ping URL and pass it along to anyone and everyone:

1. Go to your Ping profile.  My “excellent” one is presented below.

2.  Right-Click or Control-Click on your name:

3. Select “Copy Link”:

That’s it.  Now that you’ve copied your link you can share it with all.  Granted, the link is long, but that’s how people can easily locate you without having to conduct a search in Ping itself, being invited by email or through Facebook.

By the way, I can be found on Ping here.

Initial thoughts on Ping?  Likes/dislikes?

Original title and link for this post: Tip: Finding your Ping profile URL

In case our coverage of today’s Apple keynote wasn’t enough to fill your appetite, you can now download the entire keynote via iTunes. It is a rather gigantic 726 MB file, so you might want to get started now…

In our opinion, the download is well worth the time if only to see the amazing graphics in the upcoming Epic Games release for the new iPod Touch.

Original title and link for this post: Missed today’s Apple keynote? iTunes has it ready for download.

Interestingly enough, Yahoo! Groups are still heavily populated and manage to serve as a meeting grounds for millions of people worldwide. The newest update, it seems, brings about some great new features and a really slick UI. Let’s take a look, shall we?

It starts with a new homepage, which combines all of your groups memberships into one easy to access area:

From there, you will find a simplified posting interface, a new conversations panel and then my personal favorite part, the new photo sharing options.

Overall, there are really good chances throughout the Groups pages. So if it’s been a while since you’ve visited the site, it’s worth another look. Full details can be found on the Yahoo! Groups Blog.

Original title and link for this post: Yahoo Groups slims down while picking up new features

Here at TNW we often talk amongst ourselves about how we wish we had X or Y Google service for our TNW accounts. Apparently Google has heard the mumblings and has started to roll out an application to selected Google Apps customers that will allow them to try out some of the otherwise-unreachable features for their business.

According to Wired, the service will start rolling out to “Trusted Testers” later this year and will enable Blogger, Reader, AdWords and Picasa, “among others” to be accessed via Google Apps accounts.

The thought, as has always been the idea behind Google Apps, is to give companies such as Microsoft a run for their money in the much-desired enterprise software market. While many Google Apps users already utilize services such as Google Docs and Gmail, the additional features will certainly be welcomed by all.

While Google Apps itself is a free service for up to fifty employees, there is a $50/month/user charge to get support and guaranteed uptime. That $50, for so long, has been a thorn in the side of many Apps users, as we were paying money for accounts that had limited connections to the other Google services that everyone else can use for free.

Oh, by the way, if a Google is reading this then we’d love to be Trusted Testers here at The Next Web. Thanks!

Original title and link for this post: Google is testing expanded Apps access for Google Apps customers

Reddit is sick and tired of being called small, and puny, and little, and teeny, and microscopic, and all of that. The company is taking a stand. Using numbers that Kevin Rose himself shared for Digg and their own traffic numbers, Reddit is demanding respect:

Big huge high resolution version.

Original title and link for this post: Reddit: Hey, We Are Bigger Than Digg!

Apple today announced the new iteration of its Apple TV device that will sell for $99. As we’ve reported, it was the most popular announcement Apple made today based on Twitter stats. That said, we also said that it is nothing to write home about, and on the face of it, it certainly doesn’t seem all that revolutionary.

In response, Boxee – which also aims to bring online video to the big (TV) screen – posted a response saying that while they love Apple products, they think that Boxee and Apple will be taking different paths to getting online video onto living room screens, with Boxee taking an “open” approach. Sitting off to the side, is Google TV, which of course was demoed this spring by Google at its i/o conference, and which we’re all still waiting to see in real life. There are other devices as well, including the Roku, Internet-enabled TVs, etc.

However, from my perspective, I really need to ask at this point – as cool as some of these devices/services portend to be, are they really necessary? Is Steve Jobs right when he says that no one wants to plug their computers into their living room TVs?

First of all, it seems to me that many of these devices/services are on a mission to give us another “thing” that we really don’t need. Honestly, I have a DVD player, and even that I really don’t need – my computer plays DVDs fine. At least gaming consoles like the XBox and Playstation give us some gaming power – what does an Apple TV give us that we can’t get from our computer? HDMI out? Check. And Netflix, Hulu and YouTube streaming work just fine and dandy on my computer, thank you very much.

As far as striping away the clutter of the keyboard and mouse in favor of a simple remote control, I do get that – but I think that remote control should be a smartphone and/or a tablet that controls my computer/TV. Granted, a touch based computer that could take multi-touch controls from my iPad would be better than a mouse-based one, but again, do I and/or the vast majority of consumers need one more device?

Obviously, I’m arguing that we don’t. Perhaps if these systems were baked right into the displays, it would be another matter, and certainly there are manufacturers that are trying just that (pretty much unsuccessfully to this point). However, until these devices can start doing something my computer can’t (and I’d argue my computer can do a heck of a lot more, like let me play with Google Earth on my modestly large TV), even an attractive $99 price tag just doesn’t seem all that justified. We’ll see a revolution in this space eventually, but it doesn’t seem to be here yet.

Original title and link for this post: Could it just be that good old computers are the best online video devices?

An old saying in the automotive industry states that every dollar spent on marketing should earn you three. It’s exactly this result-driven approach that makes it difficult for a rather conservative business to adopt new media as part of their marketing strategy.

Cars however, have large natural fan bases. As soon as the fans on Facebook and other social networks started creating their own groups, the brands knew they had to dive in the social media pool themselves. However, it is a process that – like in most industries that are still being run by 40+ year old Marketing Managers – takes a lot of time and effort.

While not getting into specific brands, let’s look at a few examples:

A brand headquarters in Munich only just recently decided to appoint a staff of two to maintain the company’s international Facebook page that now has over 263,000 fans. The former Brand Manager in the Netherlands tells us the German HQ has a well thought out content strategy for the page.

“The team in Munich updates the Facebook stream with several messages a day. All news, imagery and video that is related to our models, events or race competition is posted almost immediately’.

International car brands are now often trying to support local Marketing Departments in other countries to start their own Facebook pages and other social media accounts. However, it’s always up to local management how far they want to go.

With some managers not to keen on innovation, change is often sparked by a new generation. Again, from the brand manager:

“About a year ago we asked one of our interns to do a research paper on Social Media in the automotive industry. She ended up being hired as a Junior PR consultant and initiated our Social Media press releases that are now an example to all our foreign colleagues, and many other companies even.”

The thing that is most appealing to car marketeers is the possibility Social Media offers in terms of target audience segmentation. A car can have a lot of different target audiences. On one hand there are the race-enthusiasts who like watching the Supercar Challege on Assen Circuit, on the other there’s often a more artistic fanbase who like the brand because of it’s designer retro look.

In view of these different segments, brands are even going as far as creating two entirely different Facebook pages for these groups of people. While one section might embrace design competitions, others will focus solely on the racing aspects. However, the smart money is in keeping a separation between the two.

Still, the automotive marketers hang on to their old beliefs when it comes to selling cars and audiences one should address. Another famous golden rule often referred to by professionals in the business is that ‘You don’t sell cars to women’ simply because it’s always the man who buys a car, even if it’s going to be her’s.

However it seems as if brands who now break this rule do get rewarded for finally reaching out to that other half of the population. A recent effort of on manufacturer – who launched their own line of nail polish in the three colours of their new model – gained a massive amount of media attention on blogs and news sites. The campaign was simply remarkable, new, and worth spreading: The ultimate social media strategy.

In another great example, brands are using social media to drive more publicity and fans to their events. Events such as club tours for owners are being organized via Facebook, with the RSVP function coming into heavy use.

The most interesting use, however, seems to be launches via social networks. Seeing brands do initial model launches via social media is not only exciting from the aspect of technology, but also because of the targeted market. Add mobile Internet and location-based services into these launches and you are set for a perfect storm of publicity, in a very inexpensive manner.

Beyond all examples, however, there is a certain “sticky” factor with social media. You’re able to spend much more time focusing on details in a social media event than you could in a 30 second TV commercial, and those details are likely to remain in place for months or even years to come.

So does the $1 becomes $3 equation still stick? It’s very likely. Instead of the massive costs of TV, radio and print advertising, social media strategies can be implemented with only a minimal staff of educated people. Staffing these portals and keeping up communication can often be done with limited cost, as well. So yes, it’s very likely that $1 becomes 3 bucks as an end result.

Original title and link for this post: How the automotive industry is finally starting to ‘like’ social media

The FCC has issued a public notice (PDF) stating that it would launch further inquiries into broadband industry practices and consumer concerns. Given how long these sorts of inquiries take, this almost certainly means that we’re not going to see regulation of service provider practices anytime soon.

On the positive side, the notice very strongly indicates that the FCC has sided with consumer interests against some of the more troubling parts of the regulation proposal put forward by Google and Verizon.

There are two main pieces to the inquiry. The first is to learn more about “Specialized Services” which may bypass or supplant the open internet. One of the big concerns about the Google-Verizon proposal is that a company like Google could put servers for YouTube on site with Verizon’s towers, allowing Verizon customers priority access to YouTube as they would not have to actually connect to the internet to use it, i.e. YouTube’s content would be on Verizon’s non-internet network.

Of the FCC’s proposed solutions, none of them are to prevent this sort of priority access, but the organization does seem to be edging strongly on the side of severe limitation. Two very good suggestions from the notice are 1) to limit how many priority services a carrier can provide, and 2) to guarantee the continued expansion of open broadband internet access so priority services don’t start to slowly replace the internet.

The other component to the FCC inquiry is to find out “how, to what extent, and when openness principles should apply to mobile wireless platforms.” Google and Verizon raised ire when they suggested that no net neutrality regulations should be applied to mobile internet access. This section does not propose any real protections for consumers, other than that providers disclose what services they would choose to “manage,” meaning how they would throttle traffic.

Original title and link for this post: FCC Responds To Google-Verizon Proposal With Further Investigations