stormtroopers in star wars could definetly use this advice.
apple vs. google vs. microsoft [infographic]
via gizmodo.com
this infographic shows the areas that apple, google, and microsoft are doing battle on. the third world war to control the future? google vs. apple vs. microsoft
what does each party want? microsoft wants computing to continue to be tied to the desktop—three screens and a cloud, as steve ballmer is fond of saying. for apple it's all about closed information appliances with lots of third-party apps, computers anybody can use. and finally for google it's about all roads leading to the internet, and the internet is currently synonymous with google.
star wars: uncut. new "the escape" trailer.
for those that don't know star wars: uncut is a project that is recreating star wars: a new hope frame-by-frame by editing together 500 15-second crowdsourced scenes. star wars: uncut is truly a labor of love.
above is just a five-minute trailer; the full version of star warts: uncut will be screened in copenhagen on april 19th.
underachieving at-at. [inspiration]
via thedailywh.at
you've got to love a collage of star wars at-at underachievers. does star wars have a cultural impact? look no further.
history of location technology. [infographic]
via mashable.com
nice location technology evolution infographic / graph. now with so many location based technologies available and their intertwining with social media, will they really be the future?
connected marketer gets an iPad. [photos] ((tag:apple, ipad)
arriving in the "non-reservation" line (notice the black curtain in the apple store).
apple always takes care of people waiting in line with starbucks coffee and smartwater.
still a while to go.
the line begins to take shape.
the store opens at 8:55 a.m.
a swarm of (blue) apple store employees.
the line finally starts to move.
at the front of the line; the next "non-reservation" customer.
the apple store full of iPad customers.
the line when i left.
iPad.
iPad - open box.
iPad out of the box.
iPad announcement email. iPad wi-fi model available today.
here's the apple iPad announcement that arrived in my inbox this morning.
Inc. 1 Infinite Loop, MS 83-DM, Cupertino, CA 95014.
|
how mobile is changing social media. [infographic]
via flowtown.com
interesting infographic on how mobile is shaping the way social media is consumed.
some highlights: 25% or more than 100 million of all facebook users access it from a mobile phone, and those who do, are twice as active on social networks compared to people accessing from a computer. also, 35-54 year olds are the most active mobile social users.
first apple iPad reviews are in.
a handful of iPad reviews have been published online so far and they’re largely positive. of course with the expected caveats on the lack of a camera and lack of support for flash and multitasking. overall the consensus is that apple has a shot at creating a brand new digital media category with the iPad.
a number of reviews make special mention of its speed - a major selling point for apple devices over the competition in the past (e.g. google android), a battery life that exceeds apple’s claims.
following are excerpts from eight of those early reviews:
I believe this beautiful new touch-screen device from Apple has the potential to change portable computing profoundly, and to challenge the primacy of the laptop. It could even help, eventually, to propel the finger-driven, multitouch user interface ahead of the mouse-driven interface that has prevailed for decades. But first, it will have to prove that it really can replace the laptop or netbook for enough common tasks, enough of the time, to make it a viable alternative.
The first iPad is a winner. It stacks up as a formidable electronic-reader rival for Amazon’s Kindle. It gives portable game machines from Nintendo and Sony a run for their money. At the very least, the iPad will likely drum up mass-market interest in tablet computing in ways that longtime tablet visionary and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates could only dream of.
No company can generate as much hype around a product launch as Apple. But that’s perfectly OK because no company is also nearly as successful at producing a new product that can justify almost any level of excitement that precedes it. They don’t do it with every product launch, but bloody hell: they’ve done it with the iPad….The most compelling sign that Apple got this right is the fact that despite the novelty of the iPad, the excitement slips away after about ten seconds and you’re completely focused on the task at hand…whether it’s reading a book, writing a report, or working on clearing your Inbox. Second most compelling: in situation after situation, I find that the iPad is the best computer in my household and office menagerie. It’s not a replacement for my notebook, mind you. It feels more as if the iPad is filling a gap that’s existed for quite some time.
The techies are right about another thing: the iPad is not a laptop. It’s not nearly as good for creating stuff. On the other hand, it’s infinitely more convenient for consuming it–books, music, video, photos, Web, e-mail and so on. For most people, manipulating these digital materials directly by touching them is a completely new experience–and a deeply satisfying one. The bottom line is that the iPad has been designed and built by a bunch of perfectionists. If you like the concept, you’ll love the machine. The only question is: Do you like the concept?
Is the iPad a perfect product? No. And the omissions will give the anti-Apple crowd plenty of ammo. Why do I need this extra device that’s not a full-fledged laptop? Where’s the camera? What about Flash? Um, how about multitasking? These are all valid complaints, but one thing I can say about most Apple products, and certainly the iPad: There may be things it doesn’t do, but what it does do, it does remarkably well. Aside from the aforementioned limitations, there isn’t a lot else to gripe about. And to my great surprise, you can actually get real work done with the iPad.
Manic, nonstop use revealed a number of things: battery life is better than I anticipated. I got a full day of constant internet-connected use (it barely left my hands) on one charge. It fits well in my lap when eating, and it’s easy to wipe off stray noodles and arugula leaves and get right back to Twittering….I like it a lot. But it’s the things I never knew it made possible–to be revealed or not in the coming months–that will determine whether I love it.
It turns out the iPad isn’t as much a laptop replacement as I thought (though it could easily be used as one). Instead, it’s an entirely new category of mobile device. For example, now when I want to surf the Web from the couch or back deck, the iPad is the device I choose. Starbucks? Same thing. Think of the iPad as a new arrow in your technology quiver, an arrow that will often be the best tool for a given task. I had high expectations for the iPad, and it has met or exceeded most of them.
Apple’s engineers know something those other companies don’t: form has trumped function. You can load up a tablet with horsepower and extra features till it can do your taxes and lick the stamp, but if it’s not instantly obvious how to use those features without a manual — and if you don’t look good using them — nobody cares. The iPad isn’t wildly feature-rich. It doesn’t run Flash, and the only browser it runs is Safari. Like the iPhone, it can’t multitask, and it doesn’t appear to have a serious file-handling system. I’ve tried its much ballyhooed full-size virtual keyboard, and it feels like typing with frostbite. It doesn’t even have a damn camera. But you will care about it, because whoever designed its graceful lines and intuitive interface cared about you.
topeka: april fools from google.
via google.com
for april fools day 2010, google has decided to choose "a different kind of company name" and rename itself topeka. as in topeka, kansas. not bad as far as april fools jokes go. don't forget to read the humorous google blog post about this topeka name change. personally, i'm rather fond of the new topeka google logo.
there's even already an entry in the history section of topeka's wikipedia entry.
travelocity becomes first brand to use chatroulette for marketing.
via mashable.com
it was only a matter of time before the first marketers discovered chatroulette and use it for marketing purposes. the official travelocity gnome is the first to jump in and use chatroulette for marketing purposes.
screenshots sent to mashable.com by travelocity confirm that the gnome is hiding out there in chatroulette’s mysterious corridors on people to market travelocity's services to: he wants to motivate chatroulette users to step away from their webcams for a moment and take vacations.
according to adweek, “the idea is that folks sitting around video-chatting with strangers could use the excitement of travel.”
the iconic gnome uses signs to get his message across (see above). they read messages like, “this would be more fun if we were in rio.”
when asked if they are tracking activity or offering special promotions, travelocity responded, “we’re still experimenting so we haven’t applied any measurements just yet. once we figure out how we’ll move forward we will think about other applications like deals and offers.”
i believe that chatroulette is more than just seeing random penises, so it’s great to see that companies like travelocity agree. it still remains to be seen what becomes of this experimental test run, but it's definitely a clever approach to utilizing this new channel for marketing purposes.
how will the future of chatroulette marketing look? as always with any new form of digital media i believe that solid marketing / advertising strategy is that backbone to any success: focus on the marketing objectives, marketing strategies, and then the marketing tactics.
star wars: galactic empire state of mind [inspiration]
via collegehumor.com
instant classic. not only is it a pretty good song by itself - remake of jay-z & alicia keys "empire state of mind" but there's so much more:
> each original star wars trilogy movie gets a verse
> leia plays max rebo's piano from jabba the hutt's palace
> leia's obvious, but still funny dj headphones
> ewoks which are more disturbing that actual ewoks in return of the jedi
> rebel pilots & stormtroopers bust-a-move
> slave leia
> boba fett
facebook facts, figures & statistics for 2010. [infographic]
another cool graph. great job by digitalbuzzblog.com stuffing as much facebook data including facebook facts, a facebook timeline, and facebook statistics into one infographic or visualization.
some of the facebook numbers are really mindblowing.
the history of marketing [infographic]
via flowtown.com
ever wonder exactly how modern marketing came to be? check out this marketing history infographic by flowtown.com based on some research that illustrates the history of marketing from the stone age to today in a nice graph.
looks like twitter has peaked?
Check out these interesting infographics based on Barracuda Networks recent study of Twitter. This study analyzed Twitter accounts with at least ten followers, who followed at least ten people, and has tweeted at least ten times. This pared down the users by 79%.
Full story and graphics at Next Generation Online.
More Twitter tips and tricks.
twitter announces @anywhere to give third-party access.
twitter to launch @anywhere, a tool that will allow third parties to tap into its functionality and content.
twitter plans to roll out a set of API frameworks enabling third-party sites to allow their users to log-in using their twitter accounts, pull information and content from twitter and add functionality that lets people tweet or share from other sites directly onto twitter. The functionality, that will be similar to Facebook Connect, isn’t yet ready for a full launch but participating sites will include a slew of big players including: Amazon, AdAge, Bing, Digg, Ebay, The New York Times, Yahoo, and YouTube.
Biz Stone, twitter co-founder, said, “Soon sites many of us visit every day will be able to recreate these open, engaging interactions providing a new layer of value for visitors without sending them to Twitter.com.” Twitter was expected to unveil plans around its advertising model, but instead announced the @Anywhere tool at the South By South West festival in the U.S. yesterday. Last week it launched location-based functionality, which allows users to show the town or city they are tweeting from.
twitter is finally starting to unveil something that resembles a plan - something that has been missing for too long. Just look at all the improvements and changes Facebook has made in order to stay ahead of the pack.
mobile social media access grows in triple-digits year over year
A recently released study by comScore showed that more than 30 Percent of Smartphone Owners Access Social Networking Sites via a Mobile Browser. That's a lot of people. But, the even bigger statistic is that access to social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter has grown at an almost unbelievable rate: Facebook access via mobile browsers grew 112% in the past year, while Twitter saw a 347% increase. Very interesting is that comScore does not include mobile apps in their statistics. Adding in all the Twitter and Facebook apps for iPhone, Android, and Blackberry surely push the percentage even higher.
I think Mark Donovan, comScore senior vice president of mobile says it best: "Social networking remains one of the... fastest-growing behaviors on both the PC-based Internet and the mobile Web... "
| Number of Mobile Subscribers Accessing Social Sites via Mobile Browser(3-month average ending Jan. 2010 vs. Jan. 2009 Total U.S. Age 13+) | |||
|
| Total Audience (000) | ||
| Social Network Site | Jan-09 | Jan-10 | % Change |
| Facebook.com | 11,874 | 25,137 | 112 |
| MySpace.com | 12,338 | 11,439 | -7 |
| Twitter.com | 1,051 | 4,700 | 347 |
| Source: comScore MobiLens, March 2010 | |||
Galactica: Sabotage [Inspiration]
via youtube.com
If you love rap or the beastie boys and scifi then this will truly blow your mind. It’s a video mashup of battlestar galactica and the beastie boys song "sabotage." Combining my favorite show and favorite song of all time equals not only inspiration of the day but probably of the month.
Mobile market size is staggering [Infographic]
Too much mobile market info or data? Not sure of that, but I'd still recommend sitting down and strapping on your seatbelt before taking in this chart of the mobile market.
In Taiwan and Luxembourg the average person has more than one cell phones. Compare that that to less than every other person in the United States and it quickly becomes clear how far catching up the United Stats has to do in the mobile arena.
26% read news on mobile devices - Pew Research
A new report from the Pew Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism reveals that more than 1 in 4 Americans read news on mobile devices including Smartphones.
The report, "Understanding the Participatory News Consumer," studies the impact of digital media on news consumption and interaction behaviors. The part of the study that focused specifically on the growth of mobile devices reveals that more than 80% of adults now own cell phones and 37% use their phones to access the Web. According to Tom Rosenstiel, Director of PEJ, "Those numbers are only going to go up as the penetration of smart phones grows. The computer of the future is held in your hand."These figures mirror a recent report from the Federal Communications Commission, which studied both wired and wireless broadband connectivity in the United States. The FCC is currently pushing to expand the wireless spectrum available to mobile broadband providers in anticipation of strong growth in consumer demand for these services.The PEJ report highlights the importance of that trend to media organizations. "What the data shows is people are increasingly looking for news at their convenience, and nothing is more convenient than the device in your pocket," Rosenstiel said in an interview Friday.Another finding of the PEJ report: 46 percent of "on-the-go" news consumers are also "news participators," meaning they actively contribute to the creation or distribution of information by commenting on articles, tagging content, contributing images, videos and articles, or sharing a link with their social network. PEJ further identifies a highly engaged sub-group of mobile news consumers, about 13 percent of U.S. adult Internet users, who are characterized by daily news readership across multiple platforms including mobile, online, print and television.The study reveals that while those highly engaged consumers are reading a lot of news, they do so from multiple outlets on multiple platforms. Just 7 percent of Americans get their news from a single source, while 46 percent visit four to six sources, in print, Web, TV and mobile on a typical daily basis.Rostenstiel said the notion of foraging for news can be a positive one for news organizations. "People graze but they don't graze very far." He noted the average engaged news reader has a half-dozen sources they return to frequently. "So, while people are hunting for what they are interested in, they are not hunting everywhere. They are hunting among a landscape of sources they know and are familiar with."
Mobile Social Networking More Popular Than Desktop In The U.S.
A recent study from Ruder Finn shows that U.S. mobile users:
- spend 2.7 hours per day on the mobile web
- 91% socialize on the mobile web to vs. 79% of desktop users
- 45% post comments to social networks
- 43% connect with friends on social networks
- 40% share content
- 38% share photos
All these statistics support the finding from the Guardian that 50% of all the U. K. mobile usage goes to Facebook. This is another fact pointing us in the direction that real-time search, mobile and social media are all merging into one.
Forget Google Maps. I'll be switching to Bing Maps soon
via youtube.com
Awesome Flickr integration coming from Bing Maps soon. This will combine two of my favorite things: maps & flickr.
Why Google Buzz will be "Big in 2010"
Big in 2010
While writing this blog post, I have the 1984 cult classic "Big in Japan" from Alphaville stuck in my head. So, I encourage you to hum the refrain from "Big in Japan" in your head as you read this blog post.
I have been thinking about this blog post and what will be “Big in 2010” for a while now, but the recent announcement of Google Buzz really validated my thinking. The three big trends I’ve seen growing over the last 6 months or so are: Local, Mobile, and Real-Time. Stick with me and you’ll see why Google Buzz is the manifestation of these three trends into one application and will be “Big in 2010”.
I'll start off by talking about "Local." Towards the end of last year, local really started becoming more and more prominent - from the Google caffeine update that incorporates more and more local results via maps to local social media apps such as foursquare. Now, when you search for "pizza" you not only get the results of Papa John's, Domino's, and Pizza Hut, but also a map with local pizza place results. In addition, when you think about the much talked about and discussed Google algorithm (there are actually three different algorithms): the standard result page algorithm, the Google Maps algorithm, and finally the algorithm for Maps included on the Google Results page. With Google Buzz I can tag my updates with a location so they become searchable via location and by looking at a map. Want to see what people around you are saying? No problem anymore thanks to Google Buzz
Next up is "Mobile." According to some estimates, by 2013 more people will access the Internet via a mobile device than via a desktop. Beyond being portable and always in the pocket of your consumer, this trend is here to stay for good. There are close to 5 billion mobile phones worldwide. There are many different ways to market to mobile – from SMS and display ads to Apps. However, the most important thing is to offer your potential customers a mobile optimized experience, which may be a mobile website or a mobile app via iTunes or the Android Marketplace. Enter Google Buzz on your mobile device and you are catering to the heavy social users. No iPhone app for Google Buzz? No problem! Just like with Google Voice it runs via HTML 5 directly in the iPhone’s built in browser: Safari.
The final of the trends I want to talk about is “Real-Time.” Real-time search is here. It’s not the future anymore. All search engines are pulling in real-time results from all over the place, including press releases and Twitter. Most social media platforms offer real-time search, with Twitter being the most prominent. Just go to search.twitter.com and type in your brand or company and watch the magic happen. Real-time search can be scary. Real-time updates are what Google Buzz is all about, just like Twitter it offers a constant feed of what people are saying and sharing around you. It’s like having a constant conference call going on and listening in on what people are saying.
Below is the dissection of a typical search results page – notice the real-time results in purple.
How big are all of these three trends? Big enough that Google introduced its newest invention, “Google Buzz,” which incorporates and excels at all three of these trends in one application. So: are Local, Mobile and Real-Time here to stay? If Google Buzz catches on, it will defiantly continue to grow and be the “it” thing in 2010 – Or, “Big in 2010”.
In a nutshell, Google Buzz is the newest social network and sharing product built by Google. Buzz offers a stream of status updates, pictures, links, and videos from your friends. You can “like” these items and you can comment on them. Real-time updates from Flickr, Picasa, Google Reader, or Twitter can also be automatically imported into a Buzz stream.
Unbelievable Japanese Star Wars TV spot for “sea chicken”
via crunchgear.com
Star Wars has always been popular in Japan, so seeing Luke Skywalker and the gang in a Japanese TV commercial from the 1978 isn’t a big deal. But seeing the Star Wars franchise being used in this fashion to promote “sea chicken” (canned tuna) is just crazy - crazy Japanese TV commercial acting included.
The actors in the TV spot, are just look-alikes.
CSS3 replacing Flash? Watch an AT-AT Stomp All Over Flash
via gizmodo.com
Above is a still image of an AT-AT walker (on an Apple iPad). But, if you go here using any WebKit browser (e.g. Safari or Chrome), it comes to life like on Hoth. It looks like a cool Flash animation, except it's not, it's pure CSS3 magic (read about how CSS3 can replace Flash here).
(Link to AT-AT walker in all its CSS3 glory. Remember you need to be using a webkit browser).
"You'll Never Walk Alone" German Lyrics
After sharing the Mainz 05 pre-game ritual with some friends in the UK (Plymouth Argyle fans incase you were wondering) of standing up, stretching your Mainz 05 scarf above your head and singing "You'll never walk alone" with the other 20,300 fans (minus opposition supporters) I was encouraged to translate the song into German. (See a video of Mainz 05 fans singing it here). After unsuccessfully searching Google for the German Lyrics of "You'll never walk alone" I decided to translate them myself. I know that this amounts to blasphemy as "You'll never walk alone" is holy in soccer (football) circles. So, don't worry I'm not encouraging anyone to sing the song in German. The results of my attempt to translate this holy song can be seen below.
Wenn du durch einen Sturm geht Halt dein Kinn hoch Und habe keine Angst vor der Dunkelheit. Am Ende des Sturms Ist ein goldener Himmel Und das süße silberne Lied einer Lerche.
Lauf weiter durch den Wind, Lauf weiter durch den Regen, Obwohl deine Träume verworfen werden. Lauf weiter, Lauf weiter mit Hoffnung in deinemHerzen Und du gehst nie alleine, Du wirst niemals alleine gehen.
Lauf weiter, Lauf weiter mit Hoffnung in deinem HerzenUnd du gehst nie alleine, Du wirst niemals alleine gehen.
Steve Jobs interview about the Apple iPad (Video)
Interview with Steve Jobs starts at 1:55
Here are my two favorite highlights from the quick Q&A between Steve Jobs and Walt Mossberg:
Why would I pay more for a book from Apple? > "That won't be the case."
Battery Life of 10 hours for reading? > "You're not gonna read for ten hours."
Hitler responds to the Apple iPad
via techcrunch.com
The Downfall meme that will never die... Personally, I can't get enough of these parodies - I'm not sure if it's because Downfall is one of my all-time favorite movies, or because Bruno Ganz does such a spectacular job at playing Hitler, or the scene truly fits as a rant in virtually all situations.
While everyone is loving the iPad, one person who doesn’t like it is Hitler. In the YouTube parody above, which takes that now all-too-common scene from the movie Downfall and replaces the subtitles with a rant against the iPad. It’s the meme that will never die (there are at least 50 Hitler parodies using the same scene with different subtitles).
So what exactly does Hitler have against the iPad?
> “The iPad won’t support multitasking”
> “They didn’t give it a camera, fine. But it’s on AT&T! How am I supposed to use their crappy network?”
“eBooks? If I wanted eBooks, I’d buy a Kindle.”
> “It could have single-handedly destroyed netbooks. But what do we get instead? An oversized iPod Touch!”
> “It can’t even make phone calls!”
> “I wanted to watch videos of lolcats while laying on the couch. But no, they won’t even give it flash support.”
I have the same issues with the iPad, but it’s funnier when Hitler says it
20 things I already know about Apple's iTablet / iSlate
Found this very true list while browing for news on Apple's big announcement tomorrow.
Give Bing a Chance? Over my dead body
via geekculture.com
This comic reflects the thoughts of many Apple Evangelists and Fanboys. However, people need to realize that the world has changed and that Google is now just as "evil" as Microsoft once was. Just don't expect andy MacOS Zune support any time soon :)
A famous leader once said "You can always form an alliance with the enemy of tomorrow against the enemy of today."
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