Learn how to free yourself from your expensive PPC keyword addiction by learning how to write for the long tail of search. The idea plays off of the popular notion from Wired Mazazine Editor Chris Anderson.
Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology.
How many apps does it take to screw in a light bulb? That was the question facing Microsoft as rival mobile operating systems backed by Apple and Google added tens of thousands of applications giving users stylus-free access to a wide range of capabilities. For a company whose co-founder trumpeted the notion of information at your fingertips, it was a bitter position. The light bulb wasn’t screwed, but Microsoft looked as though it was.
Finally, though, the light bulb has turned on, and it has lit a path in the opposite direction from the guiding user interface philosophy that characterized Windows Mobile, née Windows CE, since it powered devices known as Pocket PCs. With its miniature Start menu, menu bars and icons, Windows Mobile had been designed to present a familiar interface to those used to using Windows 95. In this case, however, familiarity bred contempt. As Microsoft’s Joe Belfiore repeated several times during his introduction of the new Windows Phone 7 OS, “the phone is not a PC.”
Continue reading Switched On: Making it different versus making a difference
Switched On: Making it different versus making a difference originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Feb 2010 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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[Thanks, Prateek and Nasman]
Notion Ink Adam gets detailed, pictured in its latest form originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 14 Feb 2010 18:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
It’s coming. And soon. Of course, you know darn well we’re referring to the day where no human in any nation can text and drive legally, and we’re seeing the US Department of Transportation get us one step closer with its latest mandate. Effective immediately, bus drivers and interstate commercial truckers are disallowed from texting while operating a motor vehicle, and should they choose to send that one last SMS anyway, they’ll be hit with “civil or criminal fines of up to $2,750.” Needless to say, the Advocates for Highway Safety are pretty stoked about the notion, but they confess that this isn’t taking things far enough. And for anyone who has been sideswiped by someone special telling someone more special “I LUVRZ U XOXO LOL” while doing 80 on the I-15, well, they’d probably concur.
DOT bars bus drivers and commercial truckers from texting while driving originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 26 Jan 2010 17:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Devices running iPhone OS 3.2 have been spotted in online application logs, which one analytics firm believes is evidence that there are at least 50 Apple tablets currently in testing. Flurry Analytics peeked into the data that came with these devices and “reliably placed” them, geographically, on Apple’s campus in Cupertino. Though this development certainly shows something is coming, there’s little evidence to show that it’s anything more than a standard update to the iPhone OS.
Flurry justifies its belief that these 50 devices are Apple tablets because the apps being tested were heavy in the games, entertainment, news/books, and lifestyle categories. This, of course, is what has allegedly been the focus of Apple’s yet-to-be-announced tablet, which is widely expected to be media focused.
This assumption on Flurry’s part may eventually prove to be true, but there is otherwise no evidence that it’s tablets that are being tested. What about iPhone OS 3.2 for—wait for it—the iPhone? After all, those app categories are ones that users tend to favor on the iPhone as well, and a software update for the device may be imminent. (This is a view shared by our sister publication Wired.)
It does, however, dispel the notion that Apple may roll out iPhone OS 4.0 this Wednesday at its special media event. (At best, Apple may talk about 4.0 at the event, but the company has never historically rolled out a full point release at this time of year.) At this point, the Apple world is a group of blind men and the supposed tablet is the elephant—everyone “sees” something different from their own perspectives and no one can agree on what it is. Luckily, we’ll only have to wait another 48 hours before finding out the answer. Probably.
Despite Facebook privacy changes and serious cases of Twitter Fail Whale, social media use has increased astronomically since this time last year: During December 2009, global users spent an average of five hours on social networking sites, up from three hours in December 2008. That’s an 82% increase.
Nielsen just released a report on its blog detailing increased social media use, and the results are impressive, while not exactly shocking. Some highlights:
– Social networking sites are the most popular online destinations globally (based on the amount of time people spent there in December), with games and instant messaging coming in second and third, respectively. (Side note: As gaming becomes more popular on sites like Facebook, it will be interesting to see how this affects time spent.)
- In December, Facebook was the most popular social networking site globally, with 67% of social media fans logging in. In addition, time spent on Facebook has been on the rise; globally, people spend close to six hours per month on the network.
- In the U.S., people continue to spend more time on social networks, but year-over-year growth for Facebook and Twitter individually outpaced overall growth for the category at large.
- Twitter was the fastest-growing social networking site in December 2009, during which it had 18.1 million unique visitors. That’s up from 2.7 million unique visitors in December 2008. Still, month-over-month, unique visitors decreased 5%, lending credence to the notion that the microblogging site’s popularity may be flatlining.
Here are some charts from Nielsen showing social media’s ascent:
So what does all this mean? Basically what we and a bevy of social media experts have been saying for months now: Social networking is a force to reckoned with.
Sites like Facebook and Twitter are getting the most eyeballs, which means we have to figure out how to use them to their maximum potential — whether it be by optimizing ROI or attempting to mine them for journalistic purposes.
What social media site do you hit the most? Let us know in the comments.
Image courtesy of iStockphoto, Norebbo.
Tags: facebook, social media, twitter
Fan-made render? Very possible, but we’re intrigued by the notion. The gang at Mobile01 have laid out two more photos of what is being called the Motorola Shadow (not to be confused with the T-Mobile Shadow), which in a nutshell looks like Droid / Milestone with a white keyboard and wrist strap. Even more interesting is the assertion that this could be Google’s next flagship device, here lovingly dubbed the Nexus Two. Now while there is no way to corroborate at this point, we could totally buy this as feasible. After all, what better way to complement the Nexus One slate than with one with physical QWERTY? And who better than the company whose Android 2.0 device increased the platform’s mindshare at supersonic speeds, with a CEO willing to signify support even at the launch event for a competitor’s product? Color us curious — wrist strap-laden render after the break
[Thanks, Serge]
Continue reading Motorola Shadow is Nexus Two with sliding QWERTY keyboard?
Motorola Shadow is Nexus Two with sliding QWERTY keyboard? originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 16 Jan 2010 15:47:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Although comedy troupe Improv Everywhere has yet to post the official video of yesterday’s No Pants! Subway Ride in New York City, footage of the stunt is already all over the web.
Every January since 2002, a group of brave participants in the Big Apple get together to perform one daring (and more than slightly unsanitary) feat: Riding the subway sans pants.
This year, Improv Everywhere — which is described on its website as a group of thousands of “undercover agents” who “cause scenes of chaos and joy in public places” — rallied together close to 3,000 folks in their skivvies to parade through the tubes. The end of the road was Union Square, where the pantless wonders converged after braving the 28-degree chill.
Although the sheer silliness and scale of the prank is noteworthy, perhaps more impressive is how fast footage of the event has leaked onto the web. Improv Everywhere plans to have an official video out next week, but there’s already tons of videos, like the one below, flooding YouTube as we speak.
So the question becomes: Will anyone care enough to tune in next week? Or will they get their fill of fripperies today and today alone? While you ruminate over that notion, check out last year’s official vid below:
Tags: humor, media, social media, video
Could sugary sodas power your next phone? Chinese designer Daizi Zheng thinks so. He’s created a conceptual model of a phone, for Nokia, that would run on bio battery, using enzymes to generate electricity from carbohydrates.
Essentially Zheng’s conceptual phone would only need a sugary soda to operate.
We don’t know about you, but we’re totally fascinated by the idea and intrigued by the notion of getting refills for our phones in the future. No word from fast food chains on whether or not a soda phone refill will cost extra.
Dezeen has the scoop on the story and shares Zheng’s idea and photos. In Zheng’s own words:
“Through out my research, I found that phone battery as a power source, it is expensive, consuming valuable resources on manufacturing, presenting a disposal problem and harmful to the environment.
The concept is using bio battery to replace the traditional battery to create a pollution free environment.
Bio battery is an ecologically friendly energy generates electricity from carbohydrates (currently sugar) and utilizes enzymes as the catalyst.
By using bio battery as the power source of the phone, it only needs a pack of sugary drink and it generates water and oxygen while the battery dies out.
Bio battery has the potential to operate three to four times longer on a single charge than conventional lithium batteries and it could be fully biodegradable.”
Tags: gadgets, Mobile 2.0, Nokia, trending
Continue reading Verizon and NVIDIA team up for 1080p, LTE sportin’ tablet PC
Verizon and NVIDIA team up for 1080p, LTE sportin’ tablet PC originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 07 Jan 2010 17:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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