15 posts tagged “techcrunch”

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5 Big Lessons to Learn from Nokia’s Ovi Store Launch

You can read this post on my new blog, Socializemobilize.com

Post a comment Tags: nokia, techcrunch, mobile applications, ovi, mobile content, developer relations, george linardos, app store …

5 Great Reasons To Twitter.

Tonight I caught up with a mobile industry colleague who asked me why he should bother with Twitter when he already has a blog and Facebook account.  Here's my reply:

Twitter is so easy, fast and rewarding that I've stopped blogging as much in favor of Twittering more.  Twitter is is a micro-blogging platform (i.e. 140 characters or less of text). It now feeds all of my Facebook updates.  Here are the reasons why I think you'll like it:

  1. It's fast and easy to get started and update - 10 seconds a crack (max) Twitter is the latest land grab, so I've taken the liberty of signing you up for an account (so that no one claims your name).  Email to you forthcoming. Your password is ******.  At least you'll have the real estate if you decide to try it.
  2. Twitter is growing very fast (~2.5M users worldwide), and there's an active community. Here are the stats & demographics from Quantcast: http://www.quantcast.com/twitter.com.
  3. You get breaking news faster than anywhere else on the web.  It's a great way to keep up with and spread the latest news in tech and mobile.
  4. You can monitor and mitigate what people think of a particular brand  People are talking about brands all the time on Twitter. In the mobile industry, for example, here are the conversations going on about Nokia: http://search.twitter.com/search?q=nokia.
  5. There's a great mobile and tech conversations on Twitter... Twitter provides you with a quick and easy way to start a conversation with people and brands you find interesting and stay in touch with folks you already know offline.  Here are a handful of the folks that I'm following in the mobile and tech arena with names you might recognize.
    1. Tim O'Reilly: Founder of O'Reilly Media: http://twitter.com/timoreilly
    2. TechCrunch: http://twitter.com/TechCrunch
    3. Robert Scoble: http://twitter.com/Scobleizer
    4. MOTODEV (Motorola's developer community): http://twitter.com/motodev
    5. Kara Swisher (Boomtown blog): http://twitter.com/karaswisher
    6. Pete Cashmore (Mashable blog): http://twitter.com/mashable
    7. Jeremiah Owyang (Senior Analyst of Social Computing at Forester Research): http://twitter.com/jowyang
    8. Facebook: http://twitter.com/facebook
    9. Dave Morin (Facebook Platform): http://twitter.com/davemorin
    10. Mario Sundar (Evangelist for LInkedIn): http://twitter.com/mariosundar
    11. Loic LeMeur (Founder of Seesmic): http://twitter.com/loic
    12. MG Seigler (Venture Beat): http://twitter.com/parislemon
    13. TED (updates about the TED conference): http://twitter.com/tedtalks
    14. Guy Kawasaki: http://twitter.com/guykawasaki
    15. Jerry Rocha: Social media and mobile guy at Neilsen: http://twitter.com/jerryrocha
    16. And so many more!  If you sign up and want other recommendations, start following "mrtweet" and go to http://www.mrtweet.net/, which will feed you recommendations based on your interests/who you follow.

Give it a try, and follow me on Twitter.

Want to Twitter this post? Here's the TinyURL: http://tinyurl.com/9b7kvq

2 comments Tags: ted, social networking, facebook, techcrunch, social media, robert scoble, guy kawasaki, tim o'reilly …

Social Media and Mobile News Round-up 1/6/09

For those of you that disconnected during Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, New Year, etc…  Welcome back. Here’s a summary of the most interesting social media and mobile news I read in the last few weeks:

Apple:

  • 1/6/09: At Macworld….
    • Apple announced tiered pricing for songs on iTunes that allows record labels to charge higher amounts for more popular songs… Their new pricing scheme, which will launch in April will offer songs at 69 cents, 99 cents, or $1.29.  When I heard this, I couldn’t help but think of the old Taco Bell commercials of the early 1990s… “.59, .79, .99”  I know record labels need to make a buck, but I’m more inclined to pay $1.29 for a taco than I am for a new song on iTunes.
    • On a happier note, songs will finally be DRM free and 256 Kbps AAC by the end of Q1. Today, iTunes store has 8 million DRM-free songs. By the end of March, they’ll have 10 million.  
    • And, if you’ve got an iPhone 3G, you’ll be able to download songs directly to your iPhone over the 3G network, and the songs will sync between your computer and your phone….Ahhh… Finally!
    • In FY 2008, Apple sold 9.7 million Macs, and Mac sales increased at two times the rate of the overall PC market.
    • The new version of iPhoto within iLife will have facial recognition software, which allows you to pick photos of a specific friend from your album without a text tag.  And, iPhoto will be Facebook and Flickr compatible!
  • 1/5/09: Steve Jobs told the world that his recent rapid weight loss is due to a hormone imbalance and not a return of pancreatic cancer.


Facebook:

  • 1/2/09: Facebook sued Brazilian start-up Power.com for trademark and copyright infringement, violation of the computer fraud and abuse act, and unlawful competition.  Facebook’s complain states that Power.com “is offering a product that solicits, stores and uses Facebook login information to access information stored on Facebook computers without authorization and to display Facebook copyrighted material without permission.” You can read the NY Times article that describes the suit here.
Microsoft:
  • 12/31/08: Proving that the “blue screen of death” is alive and well, Microsoft’s 2006 30GB model Zune experienced a massive failure on the last day of 2008, and users were not amused. The bug appears to have been fixed, though users are still unhappy about it.

Twitter:
  • 1/5/09: Twitter was hacked over the weekend, and 33 high profile accounts were hijacked. There was also a separate phishing scam through the direct message capability.  You can learn more about it on Twitter’s blog.

UIQ:

Verizon:
  • 1/5/09: BusinessWeek reports that “The $5.9 billion acquisition of cellular carrier Alltel Corp. by Verizon Wireless will close on Jan. 9”.  This will mean that Verizon trumps AT&T as the largest US mobile operator with ~ 78 million subscribers.

Xobni:
1/5/09: Xobni (inbox spelled backwards), the company behind a very cool outlook plug-in that turns your email inbox into a social network, announced $7M in Series B funding from new investor Cisco Systems and Xobni’s existing investors.

Layoffs:
1/6/09: Clearspring, which plays in the widget distribution space laid off 20% of its workforce in early December, and their President/COO, Jay Rappaport is leaving.

Misc. Social Media & Mobile News:

  • I just learned about Twtpoll, which lets you poll your Twitter followers.  Looks like a great idea if you’re a brand that wants feedback from its community of users.
  • 1/1/09: California passed a no-text messaging while driving rule, which became legal on Jan 1. I can’t help but wonder how it can be illegal to text while driving, and yet, it’s perfectly okay to fiddle with your radio, AC, or GPS.  Not that I’m advocating texting while driving. It just seems like an inane law, given the many distracting things you could be doing while driving.
  • 1/3/09 The 1.0 version of a Firefox add-on called Power Twitter launched, allowing “search, search scoped to a specific user, status history peeking on mouseover, Facebook status updates, inline YouTube, Flickr, and TwitPic, url expansion, url translation to page titles, and open web update (news feed) mapping.”  It sounds interesting to me and gets good reviews, but I’ve heard a few complaints from people I follow on Twitter, so I’m waiting until the next release.
  • 12/31: TechCrunch did a great piece on the Top Social Media Sites of 2008, which summarizes data from comScore.  Top Social Media Sites (ranked by unique worldwide visitors November, 2008; comScore):
  1. Blogger (222 million)
  2. Facebook (200 million)
  3. MySpace (126 million)
  4. Wordpress (114 million)
  5. Windows Live Spaces (87 million)
  6. Yahoo Geocities (69 million)
  7. Flickr (64 million)
  8. hi5 (58 million)
  9. Orkut (46 million)
  10. Six Apart (46 million)
  11. Baidu Space (40 million)
  12. Friendster (31 million)
  13. 56.com (29 million)
  14. Webs.com (24 million)
  15. Bebo (24 million)
  16. Scribd (23 million)
  17. Lycos Tripod (23 million)
  18. Tagged (22 million)
  19. imeem (22 million)
  20. Netlog (21 million)
  • 12/31/08: TechCrunch has an interesting article on the rise of Y-Combinator, start-up Scribd.  Scribd allows users to post and share documents online.  TechCrunch reports: “According to the comScore numbers, it has more unique visitors worldwide than imeem and almost as many as Bebo, with 23.5 million visitors in November, 2008. (In the U.S., it had about 4 million visitors).”  And, Scribd grew “218 percent from November, 2007.   Pretty incredible stats for a company that initially only raised $300,000! “
  • 12/31/08 The UK loves watching the TV show “Big Brother,” and rumor has it, they may be forced to live a frightening real-life version of it in the future.  The Guardian reports,

“The private sector will be asked to manage and run a communications database that will keep track of everyone's calls, emails, texts and internet use under a key option contained in a consultation paper to be published next month by Jacqui Smith, the home secretary.
A cabinet decision to put the management of the multibillion pound database of all UK communications traffic into private hands would be accompanied by tougher legal safeguards to guarantee against leaks and accidental data losses.”

Even though the report hasn’t yet been published, critics of its rumored contents are speaking out against it including Sir Ken Macdonald, the former director of public prosecutions.

  • 12/31/08: Obama’s Change.gov site is getting great use.  According to TechCrunch, “more than 74,031 people have submitted more than 53,369 questions (and counting) for his administration and voted 3,122,015 times to prioritize the questions in a Digg-like fashion.”  You can see the top list of questions here.
  • 12/30/08: Hitwise reported 3 interesting holiday social media trends in the UK:
  1. “Facebook accounts for 1 in 22 UK Internet visits on Christmas Day”
  2. "Video site YouTube received more UK Internet traffic than Microsoft Windows Live Mail (Hotmail) for the first time during Christmas week 2008.”
  3.  “social networks accounted for 1 in every 10 UK Internet visits during Christmas week.”
  • 12/26/08: Amazon.com announced it’s best Christmas season ever with “6.3 million items ordered worldwide on the peak day, Dec. 15, which is a record-breaking 72.9 items per second.”
  • 12/15/08: BusinessWeek reports that Palm will launch its new Nova OS at CES.  After several layoffs, many ups and downs over the years, I find it amusing that they decided to name it Nova (“no va” means “no go” in Spanish.)  Chevrolet learned how disastrous that name could be when it launched the Chevy Nova years ago.  I’m not sure if this was lost on Palm’s marketing team, if it was an inside joke, or if they knew about it and decided to buck tradition and go with the name anyway. I love Palm, and I’m keeping fingers crossed they find a way to make this work. I think it’ll be tough in to re-gain developers’ trust after several false starts in recent years.
2 comments Tags: apple, flickr, myspace, macworld, wordpress, youtube, blogger, hack …

Social Media & Mobile Post Turkey Round-up

I took a blogging break for Turkey, so this social media and mobile round-up includes the most interesting news in mobile and social media since November 21:

Apple:

  • Apple is changing the App store to show a broader range of top apps in each category and separated free from paid apps.  Hopefully this will discourage developers from arbitrarily lowering prices of their apps to make them turn up closer to the top of the listings. 
  • Apple gives developers the ability to deliver promo codes for their iPhone apps.
  • iTunes App store results, 5 months in.
AOL:
  • Bebo launched “Social Inbox” on December 10.  It “combines e-mail, social networking and media recommendations in one easy-to-use interface. “ 
Facebook:
  • Facebook is reportedly running A/B tests on its sign-up process. I think this is great. Testing is a very important part of improving customer experience, and more companies should test UI regularly. Here’s more on the test.
  • Facebook announced the 5 grand prize recipients of its fbFund of $225,000 each: GroupCard, Kontagent, Mousehunt, by HitGrab, WedSnap created the Weddingbook application, and  Wildfire
  • TechCrunch interviewed Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg here.
  • Facebook Connect is now generally available.  TechCrunch reports “Now any third party website that wants to pull personal data about visitors from Facebook - and send back activity reports to their news feeds - can do so by first filling out a self-service application.”
    • Good article from NY Times. Facebook Connect attempts 2 turn around dismal performance of social media ads.
  • Oodle will power the Facebook Market (classifieds)
FIM:
  • MySpace launched its new MySpace Toolbar for Firefox and Internet Explorer.  It enables: auto login, alerts, updates, Myspace Search by Google, quick links and user links from your browser.
  • MySpace announced DataPortability Project  with new data portability standards.
  • MySpace launches streaming mobile video.
Google:
  • Mobile / Android:
    • The Open Handset Alliance announced that the following 14 companies joined the Alliance: AKM Semiconductor Inc., ARM, ASUSTek Computer Inc., Atheros Communications, Borqs, Ericsson, Garmin International Inc., Huawei Technologies, Omron Software Co. Ltd, Softbank Mobile Corporation, Sony Ericsson, Teleca AB, Toshiba Corporation and Vodafone. 
    • “Google's Android Open Handset Alliance Project unveiled the Android Dev Phone 1. The Android Dev Phone 1 is hardware and sim unlocked G1 in black with a special skin aimed at developers.  The Android Dev Phone 1 sells for $399 in 18 international markets. “
    • The Phandroid blog speculates that Google will soon introduce Ringtones and Wallpapers to the Android Market.
    • Google advertisers can now “show [their] desktop text and image ads on the iPhone, the T-Mobile G1, and other mobile devices with full (HTML) Internet browsers.”
    • The Kogan Agora is the latest Android phone. It’s now available for pre-order and will be released Jan 29, 2009.
    • Here’s an interesting summary of Android Market performance from MediaLets.
    • HTC raised G1 sales forecasts for 2008 to 1 million devices.
  • Chrome:
    • Google’s new browser, Chrome, exited beta on December 11.
  • Gmail:
    • Gmail adds to-do list management (“tasks”) to its list of features.
    • You can now SMS through Gmail’s new task manager. You can activate it here.
  • Search:
    • Google released zeitgeist 2008, a summary of the “big events, memorable moments and emerging trends that captivated us in 2008”.  The fastest rising global search terms? That’s right folks, it’s the ever frightening, “Sarah Palin” at #1 and “Jonas Brothers” at #10.  Obama falls in at #6.  In the UK, Google reports: “From BBC's iPlayer to Facebook to YouTube, many of the top searches in Britain this year have been for our favourite websites. We also see three web-savvy politicians come tops in searches”.  Check out all the stats here.  Very cool stuff.
    • FriendConnect is now open for all websites.  As TechCrunch reports “Google Friend Connect is OpenSocial’s answer to Facebook Connect. It lets other websites accept a member’s OpenSocial OpenID username and password to log into their sites. More importantly, it also lets websites access users’ social data, which includes friend lists, profile information, feed messages, reviews, ratings and the like.”
  • YouTube:
Microsoft:
  • CrunchGear speculates that Microsoft may announce a Zune Phone at CES 2009.
Motorola:
  • MOTODEV’s Widget Developer Challenge underway. Be one of the first 100 unique submissions received by December 18, 2008, and win a $250 gift card to Amazon.com.  Click here to learn more.
  • Motorola introduces Rokr EM35 with WebUI widgets & Windows Media support & music player with virtual surround sound.
Nokia:
  • Nokia announced the N97, which looks like a very cool phone.
  • Nokia announces “Point and Find” mobile image recognition technology. It allows users to point their camera phones at poster or billboard and get more information on what’s being advertised on their phones. I’ve seen technology like this before from companies like Pongr and Kooaba.  It’s great to see a big mobile OEM embrace it.  Check out a demo of Point and Find here.
  • Nokia released a new email platform for Ovi. Check out the beta here.
Yahoo:Misc:
  • Recent Layoffs:
    • CBS Interactive: CBS Interactive laid off workers at LastFM, but rumor has it that CBS Interactive isn’t reporting the extent of layoffs across CBS Interactive.  CBS isn’t confirming the extent of the layoffs, but TechCrunch is speculating: “According to a source inside Cnet, the buzz is that the total number of employees asked to leave today was “275-ish.” A CBS spokesperson wouldn’t confirm that number. So take it as a rough estimate.”
    •  Microblogging platform, Pownce, closes doors & founders including Digg's Kevin Rose join Six Apart
  • Industry News:
    • Mobile ad rates drop as inventory increases. Experts say mobile CPMs are ~$15 compared w/ ~$23 earlier this year.
    • Blogging platform, Tumblr received $4.5M in series B investment from its Series A investors in a new round of funding this week.  They also announced that they’ll be releasing premium services. 
    • VC firm, Accel Partners, announced two funds worth $1Billion.
  • Industry Events:
    • LeWeb08 took place in Paris December 9-10.  
      • While I couldn’t make it to Paris, I enjoyed watching some of it on UStream.  
      • The interview with Marissa Mayer, Google’s Vice President of Search Product, was particularly good.
      • In particular, the closing session on the main stage with the Gillmor Gang was entertaining.  I don’t see it up on the Gillmor Gang site yet, but fingers crossed they’ll post it when they’re back from Europe.   
      • Seesmic founder and organizer of Le Web, Loic LeMeur apologizes for “organizational issues” at LeWeb08.
  • Technology announcements:
    • Hi5: Announced virtual gifts on December 10.
    • Opera: The alpha of the Opera 10 browser is now available for free download.
    • TechCrunch reports that “Netvibes Founder Building iPhone-Like Operating System For Netbooks” called Joliweb.
    • TechCrunch reports that UStream is entering the race to dominate the live mobile broadcasting market (other players include Qik, Kyte, and FlixWagon).  See a video and analysis here.
    • New Start-up, “Give Real” encourages people to forget about giving virtual gifts in favor of giving “real drinks redeemable at any bar or restaurant.”  Check it out here and as an app on Facebook.
  • Misc.
    • Itsmy released a mobile social networking study of 15,000 active users. Results here.
    • In her November 21 BoomTown blog Kara Swisher summarized the Astia Awards Dinner, which celebrated venture capital firms that support women-led companies. I’m not a fan of awards dinners so I wouldn’t normally mention one, except that for this one, Venture Capitalist, Tim Draper, who couldn’t make it to the event in person, sent in a very funny video of himself taking off a piece of clothing for every woman-led company he’s invested in.
    • Vodafone buys European mobile location and navigation services company, Wayfinder.
    • Sling.com, which, like Hulu, allows you to watch TV shows online, launched in beta.

1 comment Tags: six apart, apple, flickr, opera, myspace, lastfm, mobile, vodafone …

Nov 14: Weekly Social Media & Mobile News Summary

  • Apple
    • Apple is now the #2 smartphone manufacturer. Nokia remains #1, RIM is now#3, and Motorola is #4. More here.
    • The iPhone surpassed the Motorola Razr as the top selling consumer phone.
  • Facebook
    • TechCrunch reports that Facebook violated its own privacy policy to give Microsoft access to user emails: “Microsoft’s Invite2Messenger appears to violate that policy. Messenger users are asked to log in to Facebook, and then the names and email addresses of all that user’s Facebook friends are then sent to Microsoft and displayed in clear text on a page they control (Facebook itself only shows friend’s emails as images to prevent scraping). You check off which friends you want to invite to use Messenger, and then Microsoft sends each of them an email to install the client and become friends with you. Screenshots of the process (with emails removed) are below.“
    • Facebook launched an app that allows users to vote for their favorite FBFund apps.  There are 25 finalists, five of which will receive $225,000 FBfund grants. Add the app here.
  • Google
    • YouTube launched a “new advertising program that enables all video creators -- from the everyday user to a Fortune 500 advertiser -- to reach people who are interested in their content, products, or services, with relevant videos.” 
  • Motorola
  • Nokia
    • Nokia cut its 4th quarter outlook on handset sales from the 1.26 billion it forecast in October to 1.24 billion handsets. It also forecast a decrease in the global market for fixed and mobile network infrastructure. More here.
  • Sony Ericsson
  • Twitter
    • Twitter surpassed its 1 Billionth tweet this week.


  • Misc:
    • Recent Layoffs:
      • TechCrunch reports 58,709 tech layoffs over the past two and a half months. Check out the TechCrunch Layoff Tracker to see the latest Layoff news.
    • Technology announcements:
      • Loopt:
        • Loopt has become more popular than the MySpace and Facebook mobile apps on iPhone.
        • Loopt has reportedly hired Allen&Co to represent them in a financing transaction or sale
        • To cut costs, Loopt is partnering with a Qualcomm subsidiary, SnapTrack, which provides GPS data for a monthly fee.
  • OpenSocial celebrates its one-year anniversary. You can see the presentation from the press and developer event here.
      • Soocial launched its public beta.  They say that they “aim to link all currently disconnected address books to each other. A change in one of these address books will result in a change in all your connected devices.”  It’s getting good reviews. Check it out.
      • European events search engine Happener just launched after a year in development. Check it out.
      • You can now make your own customized guide book at Offbeatguides.com, which was founded by Technorati founder Dave Sifry.

2 comments Tags: apple, myspace, mobile, youtube, nokia, google, social networking, motorola …

11/7/08: Weekly Round-up of Social Media & Mobile News

  • AOL:
  • AOL announced its earnings this week.  The most interesting part of the report: “Revenues decreased 17% ($207 million) to $1.0 billion, due to a 26% decline ($165 million) in Subscription revenues and a 6% decrease ($33 million) in Advertising revenues. The decline in Subscription revenues reflects mainly a decrease in domestic AOL brand subscribers, related primarily to AOL’s strategy to offer its e-mail and other products free of charge to Internet consumers. Driving the decrease in Advertising revenues were declines in display advertising on AOL Network sites and sales of advertising on third-party Internet sites, offset partially by an increase in paid-search advertising.” 
  • Apple:
    • According to a recent report by SquareTrade, The iPhone is more reliable than Blackberry and Treo after one year of ownership.  This doesn’t surprise me since there are less externally moving parts on the iPhone than a Blackberry or Treo.  The study is summarized by MobileCrunch here.
  • Facebook:
  • Google:
  • LinkedIn:
    • According to an Anderson Analytics’ study, LinkedIn users are high income.  You can see a good summary of the review here.  Among the findings: LinkedIn users that make between $200,000 and $350,000 were around seven times to have more than 150 LinkedIn connections than those who made less money. 66% of LinkedIn users are identified as “decision makers”.
    • TechCrunch reports that LinkedIn cut 10% of its staff, some of which will be re-assigned to other roles:
  • MySpace:
    • MySpace launched with Auditude, an online video tracking platform.  Auditude fingerprints user posted videos to determine who the “content owner” is. It then inserts advertising into the video and tells the user whose content they’re watching.
    • TechCrunch reports that  less than 1 month after it’s launch, MySpace MyAds is making a load of money: “Demand for the product was immediate and significant, we’ve heard from multiple sources close to the company. Average daily revenue, say our sources, is $140,000 - $180,000, which means MyAds is at least a $50 million/year business for MySpace already.” 
  • Nokia: 
    • Nokia laid off around 600 workers in “follow-up” to its earlier 2008 layoffs.  Nokia Research Center is also going to “sharpen its focus on fewer but stronger research areas.” You can read the announcement here.
    • Nokia launched the beta of “FriendView”, “a location and micro-blogging service that helps you stay in touch with your close friends. It let’s you share where you are and how you feel from home, work, or on the go. With Friend View it is easy to meet up at only a moment’s notice. “   
  • RIM:
  • Samsung:
    • Samsung reportedly surpassed Motorola in US Mobile market.
  • Twitter:
    • Twitter is contemplating corporate accounts as a way to make money.
    • Twitter is now hiring a Director of Strategic Partnerships. This is the company's first business development hire... At last, the answer to "How do those guys plan to make money?!" question will likely soon be answered.
    • TechCrunch reports that “Digital Garage, Twitter’s partner with Twitter Japan, launched Twicco, a site that lets Twitter users create groups and then subscribe to them.” 
    • <Repeated from above> Rumors are swirling… Will Facebook buy Twitter? 
  • Yahoo:
    • Flickr: The 3 Billionth photo was uploaded to Flickr this week.  
  • Misc:
    • Rumor has it…
    • Recent Layoffs:
      • <repeat from above> LinkedIn 10% layoff
    • M&A:
      • Wink & Reunion.com are merging and will launch a new site next year: “Through this merger, we're redefining the people search space by bridging existing social networks and providing consumers with the tools they need to find, be found, and stay connected," said Michael Tanne, chief executive officer of Wink. "We're aiming to create an entirely new online experience that simplifies people's lives by making it easy to find and keep up with everyone they know. There will be exciting developments in the coming months as we integrate our strengths and push our business forward." 
    • Technology announcements:
      • PerfSpot: Perfspot will be rolling out “Friendvouch” to its 25M members in 3 million member segments over the coming months.  Friendvouch enables users to sign up for advertising offers, which they can send to heir friends.  When those friends indicate interest, Perfspot then sells those details back to advertisers and rewards the referring user.   Here’s how the Friendvouch website describes it: “Make great recommendations and earn cash with friendvouch. friendvouch is a community of people created to connect you directly to your favorite brands. Become a brand ambassador while earning money in the process.”  
      • Barak Obama & Joe Biden: The office of the President Elect launched a transition website, where people can learn about what they’re planning. There’s a blog, newsroom, job application submission, agenda information, and more. Citizens are encouraged to submit their ideas to the future administration on all agenda items including technology. 
      • MobileCrunch did a nice summary of the “Mobile Market View” study by The Kelsey Group.  The most interesting point from my perspective: “18.9% of mobile consumers in the United States are now toting smartphones, with 49.2% planning to pick one up within the next two years.”  
      • Though not released this week, I learned about the Pico Pocket Projector by Optoma, which is one of the coolest things I've seen in a while.  For all of you mobile geeks, this pocket-sized projector seems to solve the problem of needing an Elmo to showcase the latest and greatest app on your phone AND makes it easy to project the videos you store on your ipod or mobile phone on a wall... Very cool.


4 comments Tags: apple, flickr, myspace, treo, samsung, nokia, palm, microsoft …

Weekly Round-up of Social Media and Mobile News of Interest

I'm starting do to a quick weekly round-up of the Social Media and Mobile news that I find most interesting.  Enjoy

AOL:

  •  AOL Journals and AOL Hometown are shutting down (joining Xdrive and BlueString)
Apple:    
  • Apple announces retroactive improvements to “MobileMe”. The following improvements were silently launched in Sept. : http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3182
  •  iPhone users in the US now get free wi-fi at all AT&T hotspots.
  • Ralph Lauren launched an iPhone app.  I agree with TechCrunch... They're better off focusing their mobile marketing dollars and efforts elsewhere...Like ShoZu. ;-)
Fox Interactive Media:
  • Rumor has it…According to TechCrunch, MySpace Music's CEO position is going to Courtney Holt, MTV Networks' executive vice president of digital music and media. 
  • TechCrunch reports that MySpace is getting out of the Netherlands, closing its Amsterdam office and moving Beneluz ops to Berlin. When it’s attempted acquisition of Hyves didn't happen in February, it opened an office in Amsterdam to enter the Dutch market.
Facebook:
  • Facebook’s lead over MySpace is reportedly widening. The global gap between the two is now 43.2 million visitors.
  • Rumor has it… Facebook may be looking for more investment earlier than anticipated. TechCrunch reports that the bad economy may be slowing Facebook’s revenue growth, causing Facebook to look for investment in Dubai.
  • TechCrunch reports that Facebook Connect will officially launch on Nov 30.
Google:
  • Mobile text messaging apparently coming soon to Gmail.
  • Google launched Google Apps Labs, which makes it “easier for business customers and schools using Google Apps to also take advantage of our innovations and ideas that aren't quite ready for prime time. We encourage your organization to experiment with the Google Labs features listed below to improve how you communicate and collaborate.”
Motorola:
  • Motorola's earnings call..."$3.1 billion, down 31 percent compared to the year-ago quarter. The segment reported an operating loss of $840 million, compared to an operating loss of $248 million in the year-ago quarter. The loss this quarter includes significant charges, primarily related to decisions and plans to consolidate silicon and software platforms and simplify the product portfolio."
  • Reportedly cutting 3000 jobs, 2000 in mobile unit.
Yahoo!:
  • Yahoo! is now open: They are attempting to open their network, unlock social relationshps, and "mesh" Yahoo! expeirneces with other sites.  Developers can learn more here.
Miscellaneous news:

2 comments Tags: myspace, gmail, google, technology, microsoft, yahoo, openid, motorola …

Doubting Yelp. Defecting to Rummble Beta.

Yelp burned a bridge with me this week, and I'm defecting to the Rummble beta.  Rummble is London-based mobile + web 2.0 start-up that provides geographically relevant recommendations and reviews from likeminded people.

My frustration with Yelp started when I got an email from my dentists' office… Earlier this year, I wrote a glowing review of my dentists, a fantastic couple who took over the practice from my former dentist when he retired.  Noticing that mine was the first Yelp review anyone had written of the new practice, I emailed my dentists to thank them for their great work and let them know about my review.  They replied thanking me for my review.  After my latest visit, I got an email from one of my dentists, checking in to make sure that I was happy because they noticed that my positive Yelp review was no longer posted on Yelp.com.  I went online to look, and sure enough, while I could see the review on my page, it didn’t appear in the public view.  There was only one other review listed – also a 5 star positive review.

Bewildered by why my review was removed, I re-posted it again, and it appeared in public view. I then emailed Yelp to ask what happened.  In the note, I explained that I wasn't a spammer, but rather a social media blogger with a positive track record of contributing to online communities.  I received the following response:

Hi Lisa,

Thanks for contacting Yelp about your reviews.

Yelp has a system that automatically determines which reviews show for a given business. Just as your Yahoo or Gmail email account doesn't deliver every email (spam, etc.), we don't show every review. This protects both business owners (by suppressing reviews that may have been written by a malicious competitor, for example) and consumers (by suppressing reviews that may have a definitive bias, having been written by owners or their friends). It's important to note that these reviews are not deleted (they are always shown on the user's public profile) and may reappear on the business-listing page in the future.


I wondered how my review could have been "automatically" removed by Yelp. I am not a spammer.  I have only written a handful of carefully written Yelp reviews, and none of them feature spam-worthy words like "lumberjack", "rolex", or "viagra".  If someone like me (thoughtful reviewer with a track record of social media involvement) was 'automatically' screened out by their system, I couldn’t help but wonder what sort of reviews I was missing out on when I used Yelp to discover new places.  I was also frustrated because I took the time to write a review to help the 'Yelp' community, and yet, no one in the community could see it.   The worst part is that I felt like my relationship with one of my favorite service providers was compromised by Yelp’s "automatic" screening system, when my dentist was left wondering whether I’d removed the review on purpose.

I wanted to keep liking and using Yelp, so I replied asking what would have 'flagged' my reviews to their spam filter.   I asked if was possible to get my review re-instated to Yelp at large.  Here’s their response:

Hi Lisa,

Thanks for taking the time to write us again.

While we can't evaluate individual cases or re-instate specific reviews, we certainly appreciate your feedback and are continually striving to improve the user experience.

We recognize that this explanation may prove frustrating, but we hope you understand that our efforts and actions are geared toward increasing the overall trustworthiness of Yelp as a place for people to share local knowledge.

Thanks again for caring enough to contact us and for trying to make Yelp better for everyone.


I was disappointed by Yelp’s refusal to evaluate individual cases or explain their filtering criteria.  Yelp acknowledged using an unreliable system to screen out ‘spam’.  Yet, they wouldn’t explain how their filtering ‘system’ worked.  At the end of the day, I was more annoyed by Yelp’s explanation than their removal of my review.  

Isn’t the whole point of an online community to allow every user to provide their input and have others flag abuses of the system?!  Wikipedia has a vibrant community and manages to keep its users relatively honest through community policing.

Reading Yelp’s response, I couldn’t help but imagine the customer service agent shrugging her shoulders, sticking out her tongue and making a facetious "I dunno" face.  The image inspired me to do a little research about other’s experiences with Yelp.  So, I Googled “Yelp complaints” to see what came up.  Here are a couple of  interesting articles on the subject:

Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman said recently in the NY Times, “We put the community first, the consumer second and businesses third.” Their goal is clearly to make businesses need Yelp, but not to expect a lot of help when it comes to disputes. Complain all you want, you’re just proving that you need Yelp more than they need you.


My recent experience makes me doubt Yelp's assertion that it puts community first.  Until I have a reason to change my mind, I’m boycotting Yelp.  Instead, I’ll be using Rummble, and encouraging others to turn it into a vibrant and unfettered online community that allows users to share geographically relevant recommendations from likeminded people.  One of the coolest parts is that it allows you to get not only local recommendations but national and international recommendations from your network - a useful bonus for frequent travellers.  If you want to join in, add me as a friend on Rummble (username: "socialmedia", email: socialmediablog@gmail.com). 

I'm curious to hear about your experiences with Yelp.  If you're not a Vox member, feel free to email me your comments, and I'll post them manually.

5 comments Tags: ratings, community, social networking, yelp, techcrunch, web 2.0, social media, online community …

Top 10 Reasons Why I Haven't Bought an iPhone 3G

  1. The line: I spent 4 years living in England, the rumored birthplace of queuing.  I know the rules of standing in a line, and I respect a good queue.  It avoids people trampling on each other, and that's a good thing.  But, when a line is 1/4 mile and 3+ hours long, count me out.  I can't think of a single reason why I'd wait in a line for anything longer than 30 minutes, except for maybe medical care or food, following a major disaster.  A week after the iPhone 3G came out, I stood the line in front of the Apple Store very briefly with a friend before discovering that it was still hours long, and the chances of getting a 16GB model were slim to none.  We left in favor of brunch. Since then, I've had the opportunity to play with friends' iPhone 3Gs, and I'm happy I didn't wait longer in line.
  2. You can only use one app at a time: As if the queues in front of the Apple store weren't enough, once you get the iPhone home, you've got to line up your apps too.  That's right, you can only use one 3rd party application on your phone at a time.  I gave up on PalmOS because it is a single threaded operating system that only allows you to use one application on the phone at a time.  I was excited for the iPhone 3G because I assumed that with the launch of the App Store, Apple would launch a device that enabled several apps to run at the same time.  Unfortunately, it's one at a time.  Until this changes, some of the coolest mobile apps out there won't work as well on the iphone as they do on other phones.  Being able to keep one app open while checking another app is a valuable feature, especially when you're cutting and pasting information between applications.
  3. No copy and paste: Speaking of cutting and pasting, you can't copy and paste on the iphone.  TechCrunch reports that Proximi has an app called MagicPad, which is awaiting approval to launch from the App Store.  But, MagicPad won't enable you to copy and paste from one application to the next.  The main ways I want to use copy and paste on a phone is to copy from my browser or email and paste into my calendar or contacts.
  4. Built-in battery and abysmal battery life: 3G speeds, massive data streaming, and multimedia applications are a battery suck for mobile phones.  That's why so many "smart phones" are still huge... They've got big batteries.  The iPhone 3G looks much more elegant than any of the other mobile phones on the market, but the battery life leaves something to be desired.  Most mobile phones have a removable battery, which means that if you're a power user, you can swap in a spare battery if your phone goes dead. iPhone 3G has a built in battery.  So, if your battery goes dead, you need to find an outlet and wait for the phone to re-charge.  That's especially inconvenient if you're a road warrior or want to use your iPhone for all of it's features - phone, music, applications, GPS, etc.  Also - anyone who has had a laptop for a couple of years knows that battery life decreases over time. The same is true with mobile phones.  I worry that after a year or so, battery life on the iPhone 3G will dwindle and replacing that battery (which requires monkeying with the hardware) will likely be expensive and time consuming.
  5. Reported performance problems switching between many apps: I've heard reports from friends that when you download a large number of apps from the App Store (say 15) and open and close them throughout the day, the iPhone 3G goes a little nuts - blanking out parts of the screen, showing jumbled lines of text, etc.  To correct this, you've got to soft reset the phone.  This really only impacts power users, but it sounds like enough of an issue that I'd like to wait for a fix.
  6. No turn by turn directions:  iPhone 3G has integrated GPS but no turn by turn directions, which means that you can't use it as a GPS while you're driving.
  7. I have a Love/Hate Relationship with Multi-Touch: Multi-Touch is cool, but sometimes, I just need a keyboard... In bright daylight, it's tough to see an LCD screen.  The iPhone 3G's "Multi-Touch" technology does not provide sensory input that allows you to feel what keys you're pressing.  It requires you to actually see the keys.  I much prefer a QWERTY keyboard, though I would rather have a screen the size of the iPhone.  I'd love to see someone come up with a jelly case that incorporates a real keyboard on the back of the iPhone - so that I can look at the big, beautiful screen as I touch type.
  8. Tethering isn't possible: Most 3G smart phones allow you to 'tether' your phone to your PC - using your phone as a modem.  iPhone 3G does not.  This means, that you've got to buy a separate card for your Mac or PC to enable it to connect to AT&T's network.  Wireless cards are cumbersome... I'd rather use my phone.  Apparently, I'm not the only one. Yesterday, TechCrunch reported that "tempers flared" when a tethering application that was briefly being sold on the iPhone App store was quickly taken down.
  9. Removing the SIM card voids your iPhone 3G warranty: I work in the mobile industry and am constantly trying new phones.  To do this, I swap my SIM card out of one phone and into another.  Apple says that taking your SIM out of your iPhone voids your iPhone warranty.  Frankly, swapping my SIM should be my prerogative.  If I own several phones, I should be able to use whichever one I want - depending on the circumstances.... If I'm at my client site (Motorola), I may want to use my Motorola Q9H (smart phone), but if I'm going out for a night on the town, I might want to swap to a smaller, more portable phone that fits easily in my pocket. 
  10. The iPhone 3G is locked to AT&T: You must use your iPhone with an AT&T SIM card.  I'd like the option of paying more for an iPhone to unlock it so that I can use it with a pay as you go SIM card when I'm overseas (to avoid overseas roaming rates).  I still use my AT&T SIM to check messages when I'm abroad, but it seems silly to pay $2/Minute to make a local call when I'm visiting London.

P.S.  8/4/08: #11 (which should actually be #1): The Daily Mail (authority on all things tabloid-worthy) just published the following article which claims: "Apple to launch the iPhone 'nano' in time for Christmas." 


2 comments Tags: apple, techcrunch, iphone, at&t, lisa whelan, iphone nano, mobile review, app store …

Plaxo Hits Another Foul Ball to Left Field

At the end of November, I published a Dear Abby-esque post on Plaxo Pulse.  In it, my friend, Paul emailed me to get my opinion on Plaxo Pulse, and I didn't have many (okay, ANY) positive things to say about it.  So, it was with great amusement that I read Michael Arrington's post on TechCrunch this morning - Plaxo Flubs It. 

I'm all for companies that creative to solve challenges, but not when they infringe on the privacy of others or the terms of use that other companies put in place to protect their users/customers.  I'm continually amazed by how many people and companies (especially in the world of web 2.0) are willing to cast ethics and good sense to the side to benefit themselves in the short term. 

Wouldn't it be great if instead of letting rogue product managers run wild finding ways to benefit their customers to the detriment of innocent bystanders, more web 2.0 execs started standing up for what the internet should be about - making the world a better place?!  As those first Google employees used to say,"Don't be evil."

5 comments Tags: internet, google, social networking, techcrunch, web 2.0, social media, plaxo, michael arrington …