I stumbled upon a nice post by James Sherwood on The Register dubbed ‘Brits more hooked on mobile tech than Yanks are’- loved the sound of it, and wanted to bring some data to front.
It’s only fair I call out the final verdict. Brits win, Yanks loose. But let’s just take a look at some of the facts and figures:
Brits vs. Yanks
94% Brit youngsters own mobile phones vs. 80% Yank youngsters
4% of Brit adults resist to owning a mobile phone vs. 10% Americans think the same
17% Brits own more than one device vs. 11% Yanks say the same
Both kids and adults in the US and the UK prefer texting as a communication format
46% of UK adults claim they prefer texting over calling or emailing vs. 28% of Americans who say the same
One last interesting fact- 24% of US and 17% of UK adults coincide in that emailing is the only common online activity they have performed using mobile phones.
I get the feeling this data is not entirely accurate, however, its somewhat of a general scope. Things like population, coverage, phone plans, can all influence these numbers. However, you can at least tell mobile phone and internet technology still have a long way to go, and for one reason or another some people have not yet made the transgression. And the final outcome: TV is still reigning in the households.
Posted by Manuela Barreto @ July 23rd, 2008 in Media News
After much speculation on the subject, Google and Digg, the user generated site, look like they’re finally gonna tie the knot.
Rumors in the beginning put Microsoft as a possible contender for Google, however, Google’s bid was always above or around $200/$225 million.
Since previous attempts early this year, it’s been quite a roller coaster-. Sources from all over the place have been giving insight to the ‘possible negotiation’ but in the end, nothing has been formally confirmed. Seems like it can still fall apart at anytime. However, one thing I find quite intriguing is the whole Digg/Microsoft rapport. Why would Microsoft let go of this baby? After all, almost all of Digg’s revenue up to now comes from a three year advertising deal they signed with Microsoft.
Whatever the outcome may be, there’s a 50% chance Microsoft will be left without any deal, without any Digg. Make way for Google!…again.
Posted by Manuela Barreto @ July 22nd, 2008 in e-Commerce
TiVo, the provider of technology and services for digital video and Amazon.com have set to introduce a ‘product purchase’ feature today that will bring the idea of home shopping to a different level and redefine the art of watching TV.
Starting now, both TiVo subscribers and Amazon customers will be able to shop for anything they see on television using their remote control. (FYI: service is only available for all subscribers except those using TiVo on DirectTV). So, everyone with a TiVo at home will have on their on-screen menu, the option to buy CD’s, DVD’s, books, etc, specially those promoted on famed talk shows like ‘The Oprah Winfrey Show’ or ‘The Late Show’ with David Letterman.
Basically, next time one of those presenters hold up and promote some kind of product during their show…‘click’ and you will get.
TiVo is offering a great opportunity to advertisers with this new feature and are on the brink of becoming pioneers of what could be the latest breakthrough in advertising technology for the television industry.
Radioheadhas recently launched their promo video for their new ‘House of Cards’ single, which they filmed without using any cameras or lights, instead they did everything using a visualization technology which captures the shapes and relative distances of objects and plots them in 3D images.
The technology is comprised of a scanning system called Geometric Informatics, that produces structured light to capture three-dimensional images in close-up. It’s mere data absorption. Awesome.
Then, for depicting the surroundings and larger range atmospheres, like LA suburban scenes, they used another technology called Velodyne Lidar system. Impressively, this system uses 64 lasers rays all moving in 360 degrees at a rate of 900 times per minute and it’s how it plots the surroundings.
In addition, the band has teamed up with Google to share this data to anyone that might be interested in creating his/her own video of the sort. The data is available through the Google Code Site and just to help out some more, it allows users to play around with the data until eventually succeeding in the creation of a ‘video’. If so, users can also share their creations by posting them up on the YouTube group.
Go ahead, try it out, I’ve been kind enough to give you something to do over the weekend! Otherwise, watch the video below.
Posted by Manuela Barreto @ July 17th, 2008 in e-Commerce
Today Amazon.com announced the launch of its Video on Demand online store where users will be able to pick over an array of 40,000 movies and television programs right off the bat.
You choose, you order, it streams.
Clearly it’s a lot better than most internet video stores, won’t name call, which require you to chill in front of your computer for hours before you succeed to download onto your hard drive. You’ll find that the majority of people don’t have the time or patience to sit around and wait for downloads to complete.
“Our goal is to create an immersive experience where people can’t help but get caught up in how exciting it is to simply watch a movie right from Amazon.com with a click of the button,” claims Amazon’s digital media VP, Bill Carr. I couldn’t have explained it better.
To support high quality streaming and downloading, Amazon.com has partnered up with Sony as a start, in order to enable its Internet video store into the Sony Bravia TVs, through Sony Bravia’s Video link device. Other deals will be on their way in conjunction with other manufacturers and Internet devices.
Some cool features:
Less downloading time
You can store all your video selections in “Your Video Library”
You can log on to any computer, anywhere, or device and be able to access the desired video
2-minute previews will begin running the moment you visit the title of your selection
Don’t allow your city, state or island to just be a blob on the map! Its a good thing Google Map Maker added a new feature recently which lets you contribute or edit map information freely, however, its only currently available in certain cities.
The Google Team has realized, maybe due to continuous claims, that some of the places that appear on Google Maps, are in need for some major tweaking. Meaning, they may not even contain any rivers, roads or even bike trails. They’re just plain…blank. In the example below you can notice there’s the before and after versions of a map from Myanmar, which has slowly been modified by engineers from the area.
What better than having the locals contribute to ‘filling in the blanks’ of their own geographical region?
Some other regions in the world in need for local support and expertise are the following: Cyprus, Iceland, Pakistan, Vietnam and the Caribbean nations of: Antigua & Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Grenada, Jamaica, Netherlands Antilles, St. Kitts & Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent & the Grenadines, Trinidad & Tobago.
Although, as I was browsing through other sites, I found this blogger’s opinion to be quite reasonable. Stephen Shankland from Cnet News commented on how Google is continuously profiting from user-generated contributions that offer users better mapping, however, and I quote Stephen’s words, ‘wouldn’t it be nice if we could do it through a more neutral mechanism that lets others benefit from the work, too?’ I agree.
The Google Map Maker functions are very easy to use and basically anyone can add to any of these empty looking maps.Its just a matter of time before users become fully aware about the fact that their local knowledge could really give the search engine monster a hand.
