I have spent a lot of time with the iPhone and have to say it is amazing. While some companies have already tried and failed to compete with the iPhone (LG Voyager, etc.) the HTC Touch Diamond that was recently shown in London looks like a very solid phone, though it runs on Windows Mobile, that could compete strongly with the iPhone if offered on multiple service providers.
Features:
2.8-inch touch screen, with four times the pixels of most phones.
Vibrant TouchFLO 3D user interface, responding perfectly to your finger gestures when scrolling through contacts, browsing the web, and launching media… all vividly displayed as photos and artwork powered by the 3D graphics processor.
HTC Weather - providing a constant view of weather at home and abroad.
Surf and download at broadband speed with HSDPA internet connectivity.
3.2 megapixel auto-focus camera for quality stills and video.
4GB of internal storage to preserve more photos, music, files and exchanged data than ever before.
Integrated GPS for use with maps software for a full turn-by-turn satellite navigation experience.
It is no doubt that lots of companies are looking to market online and run interesting and unique viral marketing campaigns via the web. However, some of these marketing campaigns are just plain cooler than others, like the new online virtual world LEGO is trying to build.
Every year, kids spend a combined 5 billion hours playing with LEGOS…yes, 5 billion hours. This new online world will act as a massively multiplayer online game and be kind of like a Second Life built out of LEGOS.
“We want to make the connection between digital play and physical play,” said Mark William Hansen who is in charge of Lego Universe. “The physical experience is our core, the digital experience will never replace the physical experience, but it’s a nice add-on.”
The game’s internal currency will allow users to buy bricks, which can in turn be used to build digital creations or add onto creations already in progress.
LEGO Universe is not only a marketing gimmick, LEGO is turning it into one of their products and plans to begin selling PC Versions of the game next year.
Around two dozen LEGO employees are working on building the game, while another 70 or so individuals are working on creating the online world.
Another cool feature of LEGO Universe is that users will have the ability to use all 6000 bricks that LEGO creates and the option to have their digital creations physically created and shipped.
It is no surprise that most car accidents occur because drivers multi-task while on the road. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that 80% of all car accidents are caused by distracted drivers. While cell phone use in cars has become an all too common phenomenon, a new trend is starting to gain popularity, texting while driving.
According to a report by Nationwide Insurance, almost 37% of today’s youth text while driving. Yes, that’s almost 4 in 10 who try to send messages using their phones’ tiny keypads, while on the road.
“Multi-tasking has become such a daily part of our lives that many people don’t think about the risks to themselves and others when it’s done behind the wheel,” said Major George L. Daniels, Virginia State Police Deputy Director of Field Operations. “It only takes a few seconds to change a CD, grab a drink, dial a cell phone, crash your vehicle and change a life forever.”
The results where gathered from a survey of 1200 participants, a third of which also said they ALWAYS multitask while driving.
Luckily, NASCAR, Nationwide, and DRIVE SMART Virgina have teamed up to help educate teen drivers on the dangers of multi-tasking while driving (and especially texting while driving) by setting up a NASCAR driving simulator that shows how much texting and multitasking affects their driving.
“To remain safe behind the wheel, whether it is on a race track or on the streets, requires 100 percent focus,” said Clint Bowyer, driver of the No. 2 BB&T Chevrolet and current points leader in the NASCAR Nationwide Series who participated in this program. “If I allow myself to become distracted during the race it can cost me positions on the track, but driving distracted on the streets and highways can be extremely dangerous not only to the driver but to the other motorists on the road.”
Sure lots of people want to be rock stars and games like Guitar Hero and Rockband have helped make their dreams virtual reality, but what about the aspiring composer? That is apparently the logic behind UBS Virtual Maestro, a game like Guitar Hero, that shows you what it is like to be a composer, instead of a rockstar.
Users must wave a baton controller at exactly the right speed for the music to play properly. Wave it to slowly or too quickly and the entire performance will fall apart.
Currently the game allows you to play William Tell Overture, Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony or Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique and is being showcased at classical music performances across the nation.
According to USA Today, Teresa Nakra, an assistant professor of music at The College of New Jersey in Ewing, lead a team of developers who created the game using the remote from the Nintendo Wii. The game however, is much less complex than being a real conductor and just like with Guitar Hero, mastering the game doesn’t make you a musical talent.
Want to get your chance to play? The game will be showcased at the Philadelphia Orchestra Kimmel Center until April 15, the Seattle Symphony until April 28, the Cleveland Orchestra from May 2 through May 26 and the Ravinia Festival in Highland Park, Illinois from June 23 through August 18.
I know there are a lot of really hardcore Apple fans out there, but look at one Apple fan did to his mailbox to show his fanhood and support for the company:
Yahoo! announced today that it has partnered with its arch rival Google to display Google AdSense ads besides Yahoo! search results. Yes, Google will be serving ads on Yahoo! This is just a two week test and Google AdSense ads will only appear on 3% of all Yahoo! search queries, but it shows that Yahoo! is at least open to considering all options and doing what is best for their company.
There wasn’t much in the announcement, but it did say that this would not necessarily be a long term partnership. “The Company noted that the testing does not necessarily mean that Yahoo! will join the AdSense for Search program or that any further commercial relationship with Google will result. The Company further stated that it would not comment on the nature or timing of any potential relationship.”
There have been rumors of a Google/Yahoo! partnership for months now and it seems as if these rumors have been proved true. Google generates far more revenue per search than Yahoo! and this partnership could prove to be profitable for both parties.
Now the obvious problem with this is that a Google/Yahoo! partnership would dominate 90% of the internet search business, effectively creating a monopoly.
In response to this news, Microsoft official Brad Smith said, “Any definitive agreement between Yahoo! and Google would consolidate over 90% of the search advertising market in Google’s hands. This would make the market far less competitive, in sharp contrast to our own proposal to acquire Yahoo! We will assess closely all of our options. Our proposal remains the only alternative put forward that offers Yahoo! shareholders full and fair value for their shares, gives every shareholder a vote on the future of the company, and enhances choice for content creators, advertisers, and consumers.”
Yahoo! could also use this move to put Microsoft on the offensive and increase their offer for the Sunnyvale based company. After all, a Yahoo!/Google partnership would completely destroy any chance they had at gaining a foothold in the online search business.
According to information provided by StatCounter, the iPhone has catapulted to become the most popular mobile internet browser in the United States, pulling ahead of the Symbian OS browser used in Nokia phones. Globally, the Symbian OS Browser remains ahead of the iPhone broswer, though as the popularity of Apple’e new device grows, so will the usage of its web browser overseas.
What is is amazing is that the iPhone and iPod Touch browsers account for 0.23 percent of U.S. Web traffic, and .08 percent globally, despite the fact that it is only available in a select few areas.
“It would appear that iPhone is more than living up to its claims of being a user friendly internet browser, unlike many other mobile phones,” commented Aodhan Cullen, founder and CEO of StatCounter.
These results are based on a very large sample of more than 371 million page views globally from December2007 to March 2008, 71 million of which came from the United States.
So….what does all this mean? More and more people are using mobile devices to browse the web so it is in your best interest to provide mobile versions of your website for easy browsing on cell phones.
