Oneforty launches Twitter App Store

Twitter now has its very own app store, offering a directory of third-party services and apps based on the popular micro-blogging service.

It's the work of a startup called Oneforty. And included in the 1,300+ apps already tracked in the store are all the mobile Twitter apps for iPhone, Android, BlackBerry and other platforms. It's the first attempt to offer a central directory of apps that use Twitter's API, and ranks apps according to popularity and user ratings.

Oneforty is also tied closely into Twitter itself, getting users to sign in with their Twitter ID, and bringing up lists of tweets mentioning each product when browsing.

Mobile is a big part of the store, because Oneforty plans to make money from affiliate fees - for example when users click through to buy a paid Twitter app from iPhone's App Store. I just signed up and received my beta invite.

Emergence of China, India, and Brazil in the World Economy

Created by Joe Swainson, recent graduate of University Arts London (Camberwell College). He created this poster to show the shift in our world economy with emergence of certain markets. Countries covered are: United States, Japan, Germany, United Kingdom, France, Italy, Russia, Brazil, India, China. Data sources are United Nations historical data and Goldman Sachs forecasting data.

Each circle represents the size of the nation’s economy every decade from 1970 to 2050. The countries are ranked by GDP each decade from largest to smallest. Pay attention to the forecast for China, India and Brazil.

Shared by Paul Denlinger

iPhone TV Advertisements

Below are some TV advertisements of iPhone.

Rumors : AOL Shutting Down Its Mobile Ad Business?

In a somewhat surprising move, rumors are circulating that AOL will slowly start shutting down its mobile advertising networks and begin letting its current contractual agreements expire. Are they truly wanting to get out of the mobile ad business? Sources close to the matter indicate that all signs point to yes.

What is weird about this rumor is that AOL had acquired Third Screen Media, a mobile advertising company not too long ago in 2007 for $80 million, and according to sources in the know, the new CEO Tim Armstrong, and the head of the advertising department Jeff Levick are planning to either shut down the mobile advertising network all together, or just let all their contracts lapse over a period of time.

In addition, AOL has been quietly not renewing the deals they have with their existing publishers for their mobile ad network and instead letting them go to competitors- another indication AOL has no intent on keeping their mobile ad business afloat.

With this exit at AOL, the future of mobile advertising is surely going to be hazy and definitely not going to be a positive news for the industry. I hope AOL has a good explanation moving forward.

RIM shares nosedived more than 10%

Shares in Research In Motion (RIM) fell almost 10 percent in after-hours trading as the BlackBerry-maker reported weaker than expected quarterly profit and an outlook that disappointed analysts.

Revenue for the company's fiscal second-quarter was US$3.53 billion, up 37 percent from US$2.58 billion in the same quarter of last year while net income for the quarter was US$475.6 million, down from US$495.5 million a year ago.

Adjusted net income was US$588.4 million. The company's main devices segment accounted for 81 percent of revenue (in addition to 14 percent for services, 2 percent for software and 3 percent for other revenue). RIM said it shipped approximately 8.3 million devices in the quarter and added 3.8 million net new BlackBerry subscriber accounts, bringing its total BlackBerry subscriber base to around 32 million.

RIM forecast revenue for its current quarter in the range of US$3.60-US$3.85 billion, a gross margin of 43 percent and net subscriber additions in the range of 4.0-4.3 million. However, the outlook received a lukewarm reception from many analysts. A lot of people on Wall Street have been talking up Q3 as one where RIM was going to come and blow everybody away and so there was this expectation and even though it's perfectly decent guidance with all kinds of great year-over-year growth and gross margins, it doesn't live up to the advance billing.

Twitter worth $1 billion!

Microblogging juggernaut Twitter is poised to raise about $100 billion in new funding, bringing the firm's total valuation to around $1 billion despite the absence of a discernible revenue model.

Citing sources briefed on Twitter's plans, The New York Times reports the new investors include Insight Venture Partners, T. Rowe Price and current backers Spark Capital and Institutional Venture Partners. The Times notes that for context, Twitter's $1 billion valuation is bigger than many traditional businesses. With about 60 employees and experimenting running advertisements on its website, its still rather hard for many to understand how investors can come up with such valuation.

Not sure why Twitter would need so much of that money as they had raised $55 million recently. Most speculation suggests Twitter will earmark the new investment to expand its technology infrastructure in advance of future growth, or acquire one or more of the myriad startups developing desktop and mobile software applications based on the Twitter service.

Twitter presently boasts about 54 million users worldwide.

Truth In Advertising

The below video is so far from the truth, and you are going to have a good laugh.

BusinessWeek - Top Global Brands

BusinessWeek's 2009 report on the 100 Best Global Brands is based on data collected during the 12 months ending June 30, 2009. Last year, IBM knocked Microsoft off of the second-place perch it held for years.

This year, the software giant managed to retain its bronze-medal position, despite dropping four percent from a brand value of $59,007 million to $56,647 million. This is the first year-on-year decline in Microsoft's public history. Apple, on the other hand, jumped four places, finally making it into the top 20 and increasing its brand value by 12 percent, from $13,724 million to $15,443 million.

The top 20 companies for 2009 are listed below. To see the full list, head over to BusinessWeek.

1. Coca-Cola ($68,734 million)
2. IBM ($60,211 million)
3. Microsoft ($56,647 million)
4. GE ($47,777 million)
5. Nokia ($34,864 million)
6. McDonald's ($32,275 million)
7. Google ($31,980 million)
8. Toyota ($31,330 million)
9. Intel ($30,636 million)
10. Disney ($28,447 million)
11. Hewlett-Packard ($24,096 million)
12. Mercedes-Benz ($23,867 million)
13. Gillette ($22,841 million)
14. Cisco ($22,030 million)
15. BMW ($21,671 million)
16. Louis Vuitton ($21,120 million)
17. Marlboro ($19,010 million)
18. Honda ($17,803 million)
19. Samsung ($17,518 million)
20. Apple ($15,443 million)

Courier : Microsoft's Secret Tablet and it looks impressive

Courier is a real device, and it's in the "late prototype" stage of development. It's not a tablet, it's a booklet. The dual 7-inch (or so) screens are multitouch, and designed for writing, flicking and drawing with a stylus, in addition to fingers. They're connected by a hinge that holds a single iPhone-esque home button. Statuses, like wireless signal and battery life, are displayed along the rim of one of the screens. On the back cover is a camera, and it might charge through an inductive pad, like the Palm Touchstone charging dock for Pre.

Check out the video below.

Source : Gizmodo

China Mobile has 500 million subscribers

China Mobile has become the world's first mobile operator to pass the 500 million subscribers milestone. In a brief customer data update on its website this morning, the Chinese market-leader said it had reached 503 million customers by the end of August. It said it added 5.3 million customers (net additions) in August to reach the half a billion milestone, which means that the operator has added 45.7 million customers (cumulative net additions) in the year to date.

The world's largest Operator by subscribers also said that it had signed up 1.3 million subscribers to its new 3G network by end-August. The TD-SCDMA-based network branded as 'G3' - is being rolled-out countrywide this year. According to Wireless Intelligence forecasts, China Mobile is on track to achieve 512 million connections by the end of the current quarter (Q309) with TD-SCDMA connections accounting for 1.5 million.

Michael Jackson - This Is It

Trailer for Michael Jackson’s This Is It movie, footage of MJ preparing for his This Is It concert.

Michael Jackson's This Is It in HD

The 3 Stages of Life

1. Teen age:

Have Time + Energy …but No Money


Working Age:

Have Money + Energy …but No Time


Old age:

Have Time + Money …but no Energy

So the moral is Don't wait, enjoy life before you reach Stage 3 !!

iPhone users don't like mobile ads

Owners of Apple's iPhone are prolific users of mobile apps, but are turned off by mobile advertising, recent research has revealed. A study of mobile advertising from Chitika found that mobile ads served to iPhone users had a click-through rate of just 0.30%, compared to 0.48% for mobile internet users in general.

But even this average is around half of the clickthrough rate for desktop browsing, which is around 0.83%.

“It appears given the numbers that mobile users are not receptive to advertising – a phenomenon that is not surprising, given the mobile users’ propensity to be searching for quick answers or directions,” Chitika said.

A separate survey from Compete found that iPhone users are far more likely to download apps for their handsets than competitors such as RIM.

Around 72% of iPhone users had downloaded 10 or more apps from the iPhone app store, while only 27% of BlackBerry users had downloaded 5 or more apps from RIM's store, Compete said.

Apple has managed to convince iPhone users of the value of mobile apps, a Compete researcher told the New York Times, which has also helped foster an unusually high level of loyalty amongst iPhone owners.

iPhone owners have embraced paid apps, Compete added, but most users prefer to pay less than $5 per app.

Social networking is one of the most popular categories of apps, with 71% of those surveyed reported accessing Facebook from their mobiles. But although microblogging site Twitter would seem perfectly suited to smartphones, 85% of smartphone owners said they preferred accessing the site from their computers.

Other popular download categories include entertainment, gaming, music, and weather.

Indian mobile content market will hit $2.3bn by 2013

A new report by analyst mobileSQUARED 'India: Birth of a mobile content superpower 2009 – 2013' forecasts that the market will be worth $835.78 million in 2009, but will virtually triple by 2013.

The Indian mobile market consists of more than 400 million mobile subscribers, but is growing at 15 million new connections per month and will hit 700 million subscriptions by the end of 2010.

This is fuelling huge new revenues despite delays in the roll out of 3G. The primary sources of revenue in the market are from ringback tones, ringtones, graphics, wallpapers and mobile games with the RBT market constituting the largest single area of content.

Licenses for 3G spectrum are not likely to be issued until late 2009 after a series of delays by the Telecoms Regulator of India (TRAI). 3G will be essential to the development of value-added services market by reducing barriers to entry for the mass market, according to the report.

To put this into perspective, even if just 10 per cent of Indian consumers take up 3G over the next decade there will be more than 100 million next-generation mobile users on the sub-continent.

The 56 page report is available for purchase from mobilesquared.co.uk fro. £300 plus VAT.

China is No 1 with the highest number of broadband subscribers

The Asian broadband market grew at a healthy 18% over the past year ending in June, with China contributing to two-thirds of growth in subscribers, the Broadband Forum said. The Chinese market also accounted for 28% of the world's growth over the past 12 months.

The latest Point Topic research shows that Asia is now home to nearly 40% of the world's 444.3 million broadband subscribers, the Broadband Forum said. China continues to lead the world in broadband subscribers, reaching 93.5 million by the end of the quarter.

Japan took third place with 31.1 million lines, and was the only nation in the top 10 to show increased subscriber growth quarter-on-quarter over the last year. The only other Asian nation to reach the top 10, South Korea, ended the quarter with nearly 15.9 million subs.

In the rankings of Asian countries, Australia narrowly beat out India for fourth place, with 7.2 million versus 6.6 million broadband users. Next came Taiwan, then Vietnam, Hong Kong, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, New Zealand, Thailand and in last place, Indonesia.

Asian IPTV usage grew by around 54%, the Forum said, with the region's operators adding 1.2 million subscribers last quarter alone. Asia now has around 3 million IPTV subscribers.

Top 10 broadband countries

1. China - 93,549,000
2. USA - 86,227,582
3. Japan -31,085,500
4. Germany - 24,086,250
5. France - 18,324,300
6. UK - 17,838,200
7. South Korea - 15,876,992
8. Italy - 12,855,463
9. Brazil - 10,469,755
10. Canada - 9,618,107

50 million iPhones and iPod Touch devices out there

Something to worth pondering and how far Apple's devices are going to take on the gaming world. Steve Jobs appeared on stage at the Annual Apple event recently to say that the company has sold 30 million iPhones to date. Later in the same presentation, SVP of product marketing Philip Schiller confirmed that they have sold 20 million iPod Touches. That’s a total of 50 million devices that have access to the iTunes App Store, which has more than 75,000 applications. In all, users have downloaded 1.8 billion applications.

Schiller took the opportunity to knock the competition when it comes to gaming and entertainment titles on the iPhone OS compared to the Sony (NYSE: SNE) PSP and Nintendo DS. Schiller said the PSP has 607 titles, the Nintendo DS has 3,680 titles and the iPhone has an overwhelming 21,178 and that number isnt stopping anytime soon. Extremely amazing figures taking into consideration the devices had only started its mobile journey in 2007.

Sauna World Cup Involve Sitting in 140 Degree Celsius Heat

Yes, my friends, there is such a thing call Sauna World Cup. The Sauna World Cup championships challenge heat-lovers to withstand 140°C heat, lose literally liters of sweat, and do it for longer than anyone else—which is only a few minutes.

The video below shows footage from the 2009 at the Sauna World Cup championships. Sweat baby sweat...

Motorola finally unveils their First Android-Based CLIQ with MOTOBLUR

T-Mobile USA today announced the upcoming availability of the Motorola CLIQ with MOTOBLUR, the first Android-powered device from Motorola and the first device to feature the innovative MOTOBLUR solution. The CLIQ will be available exclusively in the U.S. from T-Mobile later this fall.

Below are 2 brief video tours of the Motorola CLIQ. The Motorola CLIQ for T-Mobile is the manufacturer’s first Android-based phone. It will run the personalized MOTOBLUR interface, capable of taking all important information from the world of social networks and serving it right on the user’s homescreen. Hardware features include a 3.1-inch HVGA screen, 5MP autofocus camera, 3.5mm jack, 3G, Wi-Fi and a side-sliding QWERTY keyboard. There will also be an international version, called the DEXT.

Its probably the last chance for Motorola to shine. Its either they come up with some kick-ass range or being kicked in their ass. The odds is against them, while the idea of adopting Android sounds great, frankly i dont see how it will save them as there are way too many device manufacturers cranking out similar looking devices with similar features. It would be interesting to see how Motorola will get out of this mess.

New Apple's iPod Nano with Video

The new iPod Nano might be the most sexy miniature music player ever invented. The new iPod Nano has all the same features as the previous iPod Nano PLUS FM radio, camera, bigger screen, pedometer and even a partridge in a pear tree.

The new iPod Nano is available from today. The 8 GB will go for $149 and the 16 GB for $179. The new iPod Nano is the musical equivalent of a Swiss Army Knife… handy, efficient and everybody wants one in their pocket

How about doing karaoke with Powerpoint

The idea of PowerPoint Karaoke is just great. Its definitely ideal for corporate events and even for casual events. PowerPoint Karaoke provides you with a presentation on slides regarding a topic that you have no idea about and that you have never seen before and all you need to do is to speak and improvise with what you see on the slides.

This little game is a great way to break the ice with your co-workers and brush up on your improvisation skills. The winners are selected based on such criteria namely the flow, gesture, jargon, credibility and getting through to the end of the slides. Each contestants are given 5 minutes to talk on 10 slides. I shall try this in our next corp event.

The New Android App Market

Google trickled out some screenshots from the upcoming refresh to the Android marketplace today. This will be version 1.6 of the marketplace, but there’s no word on exactly when it’s going to be released.

BMW, Ford & GM Use Augmented Reality for Car Maintenance

BMW is working to create augmented reality maintenance tutorials for service technicians. Augmented reality, or AR for short, blends computer graphics into real footage in real time. The tutorials, complete with voice-over narration, would be seen using a pair of AR goggles.

BMW isn’t the only company in the auto industry to make use of augmented reality; Ford of Europe recently used AR in an interactive mobile campaign for the launch of the Ford Ka. GM is also researching ways in which augmented reality technology may be of use to them. As far as car makers are concerned, the future is virtual now.

Imagine this technology going beyond car maintenance, soon we will be living in a world of "Minority Report."

Cellphones and Brain Tumors: 15 Reasons for Concern, Science, Spin and the Truth Behind Interphone

A new report called “Cellphones and Brain Tumors: 15 Reasons for Concern, Science, Spin and the Truth Behind Interphone” was released Tuesday by EM Radiation Research Trust. It claims that previous studies on the topic were flawed.

This report, sent to government leaders and media, details eleven design flaws of the 13-country, Telecom-funded Interphone study.

It concludes:

-- There is a risk of brain tumors from cellphone use

-- Telecom funded studies underestimate the risk of brain tumors

-- Children have larger risks than adults for brain tumors.

Full report (PDF)

[via Slashgear]

Controversial WWF 9/11 commercial

WWF 911 commercial
door dalagelli

Dont Text and Drive

This texting while driving PSA has to be one of the most graphic public service announcements I have ever watched.

The texting while driving PSA is horrific, as it shows the events of a car crash caused by negligence in gruesomely realistic detail. The shock that this ad conjures up is enough to not only make you stop texting and driving, but perhaps even stop driving all together.

Check out the video of the texting while driving PSA above, but be warned that it is extremely visual.

Super Mini Netbook Emerge as PC of Choice for Japanese

You might think that a full-sized laptop is the best option to stay connected while you’re on the move, but netbooks are emerging as the computer of choice for many Japanese users. Seated next to me at Adtech Tokyo was this Japanese gentleman who was practically typing up all his notes in a terminal no bigger than my palm and another in front of me who is working on a super small Japanese made brand netbook.

Netbooks are relatively inexpensive. With a price tag of under $500, it’s feasible for many users to have a larger laptop or full-sized desktop at home and keep a netbook on deck for travel. For users on a budget, it’s hard to beat the price of a netbook, especially when basic features like the Internet and the ability to run Windows applications are preserved. while on a business trip is significantly diminished compared to the cost of a laptop.

Netbooks are lighter and more portable than their full-sized counterparts. Sure, a 17” laptop is far more travel-friendly than a desktop, but a 10” laptop is more travel-friendly still. This is a gadget that will fit neatly on even cramped economy tray tables—as well as in your tote bag, backpack or large purse. And with a weight well under 4 pounds, its definitely portable to be carried anywhere. Netbook is definitely the trend and no wonder there are to be found everwhere in Japan.

Sony's Cam with Me Website

This was perhaps one of the best digital marketing execution presented at the Adtech Tokyo yesterday; an embedded website within a blog. A truly world class and heart warming done by Hakuhodo Japan for Sony. There is little need to be said, check it out yourself by click here. My apology as i was having difficulty embedding it on my blog.

Skype sold for $2.1b

eBay will sell a controlling stake in VoIP subsidiary Skype in a deal that values the business at $2.75 billion. The buyers, a group of private equity firms led by Silicon Valley-based Silver Lake, will pay $1.9 billion in cash and a $125 million loan from eBay for a 65% stake.

eBay will own the remaining 35%. The auction firm bought Skype for more than $3.1 billion in 2005, but later wrote down $900 million as it was unable to extract value out of Skype’s huge user base.

Skype is now the world's largest international voice carrier, generating nearly 74 billion minutes of use in 2008, according to Telegeography. While 65.5 billion of these minutes were free Skype-to-Skype calls, the company recorded revenues of $551 million last year, up 44%, and eBay predicts its sales will top $1 billion by 2011.

Investing alongside Silver Lake are Index Ventures, Netscape founder Marc Andreessen’s Andreessen Horowitz and the Canada Pension Plan.

There really is an app for almost anything, even when there shouldn't be.

Check out this app, a wonderful iPhone app parody video by Adam Thinks.

Juniper projects Mobile ad market to reach $6b by 2014

Mobile advertising spending will swell to nearly $6 billion by 2014 from just $1.4 billion this year, according to projections from Juniper Research.

Mobile web advertising alone is projected to grow fourfold to a $2 billion market over the same period, the New York Times said.

The growth will be generated by a surge in mobile internet usage, and an accompanying increase in consumer adoption of mobile internet services.

Juniper expects much of the growth to come from emerging markets such as China and India, where fixed-line connectivity remains low. For example, mobile accounted for nearly 90% of all internet users in India in 2008.

But figures from IDC indicate that the mobile market remains a tiny part of the total online advertising world – which generated $13.9 billion in advertising revenue in Q2 alone, the Times added.