Month: January 2011

The Huffington Post and BET co-founder Sheila Johnson are launching a HuffPost section devoted to African-Americans. The new section will be called “HuffPost GlobalBlack,” and is expected to debut in early March. Huffington Post co-founder and editor-in-chief Arianna Huffington says the goal is simply to cover more stories “of importance to the black community.” GlobalBlack marks the first of 27 sections in the Huffington Post that will be focused on race.

“We have the supreme irony of having the first African-American president, which is such a historic event and a milestone, while at the same time, conditions for African-Americans are deteriorating, in terms of unemployment, in terms of high school graduation, in terms of the number of African-American males in prisons.” — Arianna Huffington

Last year, we asked why so many Twitter users are black. Edison Research reported that 25% of Twitter users were African-American. The Media Audit reported that 32% of media consumed by African-Americans is from the Web. We also talk and text the most, outpace other ethnic groups in mobile app usage, and 35% of us choose to watch TV online.

Even as African-Americans adopt digital methods of media consumption and communication, Sheila Johnson believes the “African-American voice is really falling off the radar screen.” Johnson sold Black Entertainment Television to Viacom in 2000.

“We’re on other radar screens, with other digital sites, which is wonderful. But I really wanted to bring the real news, the storytelling — to really bring back the voice of the black community on some relevant news and views.”

“We’re going to be able to fill that void,” Johnson adds.

Groupon may be the best known group-buying site around, but competitor LivingSocial is making a name for itself with a little help from its big brother Amazon. Today, they launched a promotion that is buzzing across all social networks and trending on the search engines.

The deal offers buyers who subscribe to LivingSocial a $20 Amazon gift card for just $10, and according to a number of reports the cards have been flying off the virtual shelves, as word of the deal spreads through Twitter and other social networks. With an estimated 300,000 cards sold within a few hours of the deal being launched, the offer was already worth about $3 million. If the pace of buying continues, the deal — which is available for 24 hours — could generate as much or more gross revenue as a deal that Groupon did with The Gap last year, which brought in about $11 million.

Jeremy Liew of Lightspeed Ventures, one of LivingSocial’s financial backers, said that the deal is “the first step of operational integration” as a result of the Amazon investment, which totalled $175 million. It’s unknown exactly how much revenue this will generate for LivingSocial, but it definitely shows that the partnership between Amazon.com and LivingSocial could put some serious pressure or Groupon.

At the time of this writing, the LivingSocial deal has 19 hours remaining, so get it while the getting is good.

via GigaOm

Today The Loop 21 announces that Ken Gibbs will join the staff as Chief Operating Officer & Executive Editor. Danielle Belton, Janee Bolden, Michael Brody and Keli Goff have all been named Editors. Theloop21.com, a leading African-American website for economic and political news, has made key alliances with media companies and has steadily grown their audience over 2010. This has prompted them to expand and invest in some executive-level talent.

Ken Gibbs is a digital media pioneer, serving as a critical member of the founding team for Africana.com, which was later acquired by Time Warner and rebranded as AOL Black Voices. He has also contributed here at Black Web 2.0 and held senior positions at InteractiveOne and Essence.com. Gibbs will run the overall editorial processes at The Loop 21, including oversight of the management and editorial staff.

Danielle Belton, writer and creator of the award-winning politics and pop culture blog blacksnob.com, will become the Money & Politics Editor. Janee Bolden, previously Managing Editor at Bossip.com, will serve as Culture & Entertainment Editor. Michael Brody, formerly a national news editor for the Fox News digital platform and Editorial Manager at PR Newswire, steps in as Front Page & News Editor. Keli Goff, an accomplished author and analyst for networks including MSNBC and CNN, will serve as Contributing Editor for Special Reports.

“This is an exciting time for us,” said Darrell Williams, founder & publisher of theloop21.com. “We’ve achieved and surpassed a number of key milestones in 2010 and we are building on the momentum. I’m extremely pleased to welcome a wealth of senior operations and editorial talent to our team who are committed to our vision and mission.”

On Martin Luther King Day, Steve Jobs released a letter saying he would be taking a medical leave of absence. It’s believed he did this on a holiday in order to avoid Apple stock taking a big hit in the US, but the Frankfurt exchange saw an immediate drop of 7%, shaving more than $22 billion off the company’s market cap. The next day, AAPL dropped sharply at about %6, but quickly rebounded. In total, they only saw a 3% drop.

There are a few major factors at work here. The first is that Jobs has been out twice before. During those times, there were major drops, but the company has continued to exceed expectations since then. Also, yesterday, Apple had their earnings call for the first fiscal quarter of 2011. They blew away most Wall Street estimates.

At an increase of 71%, the company posted its highest revenue ever at $26.74 billion. Earnings grew 78%, for a net quarterly profit of $6 billion, thanks to massive sales of 16.24 million iPhones (up 86% year-over-year) and 4.13 million Macs (up 23%). Apple also shipped an impressive 7.33 million iPads. Only iPod sales declined, yet Apple still shipped 19.45 million units. Sales of the iPod Touch shot up 27%, and now represent half of all iPods sold. (via Fast Company)

One thing missing from the earnings call was any commentary whatsoever on the health of Steve Jobs. No one even dared to ask. Many have speculated that his medical absence is related to his previous liver transplant in 2009. A University of Chicago Medical Center transplantation expert tells Scientific American that there are a myriad of complications that can result from a liver transplant. The use (or under use) of immunosuppressants can cause everything from hypertension and hypoglycemia to organ rejection and viral infection.
Should you or your child find yourself in a life-threatening situation, please call 911. In many other emergency dental cases, our team at orthodontist The Woodlands can provide you with proactive, fast service to help preserve your teeth. We have experienced doctors that are prepared to act quickly to prevent any further damage or pain.

Whatever the case may be, we all wish the best for Jobs and hope for a speedy return. Some are already thinking the unthinkable, though. Forbes speculates on what Apple would be like without Steve Jobs, who brings an element to the company that no one will be able to duplicate. To date, Apple only releases products that Jobs himself has scrutinized closely and approved.

When he leaves, someone else will have the power to make those decisions. But he or she may not have Jobs’ sense, as he once put it, of where the technological puck is headed. And no matter who the new CEO may be, that person will never have the authority that comes from having founded the company, been ousted, and returned to rescue it from bankruptcy.

At this point, Apple is on a roll and it doesn’t seem that anything will stop them. They have a vision and a plan and Jobs may be taking a breather because he knows all their ducks are in a row. What do you think?

The hotly debated Comcast-NBC merger has been in the making for over a year now and has finally been approved by the FCC and the DOJ. This will mark the first time one company will control both how television and movies are made and how they get into your living room.

Comcast, the largest U.S. cable company, is buying a 51 percent stake in NBC Universal from General Electric Co to create a $30 billion business that would include broadcast, cable networks, movie studios and theme parks.

There are a few requirements to the deal that should protect against the most obvious abuses of power. Comcast will be restricted from withholding content from competing content providers. Comcast must also commit to remaining open so that customers can access all web content.

Most notable in the deal are stipulations regarding Hulu. Comcast was forced to relinquish all management rights to Hulu. They will retain a financial stake, but won’t be able to interfere with its management. This is to prevent Comcast from messing with “the development of products that compete with Comcast’s video service.”

Their was only one vote in the FCC against the merger and it came from Commissioner Michael Copps. He says “the potential for walled gardens, toll booths, content prioritization, access fees to reach end users and a stake in the heart of independent content production is now very real.” Democratic Senator Al Franken also opposed the deal, saying “the FCC has given a single media conglomerate unprecedented control over the flow of information in America.”

The merger officially goes into affect on January 28th.

via Reuters, TechCrunch

A page which appears to be run by The King Center has been vandalized. Rather than posting racist comments on the wall of the Facebook Page, the vandals have decided to post photos instead. At the time of this writing, the photos of the page has been overrun with racist words and disturbing imagery.

It’s not clear if this page is truly owned and operated by The King Center, but the page has over 827 thousand Likes and shows up as the first result in Facebook search. Official or not, the page is getting attention and something needs to be done.

The photos seem to have been uploaded by a small group and are showing up in the Photos tab as well as in the sidebar. Definitely a reminder that we don’t live in a post-racial America and highlights the importance of guarding your social media outposts.

via BV Black Spin

Lil Wayne’s Twitter account was hacked yesterday. The username was changed from @liltunechi to @lilchinetu and the hacker began having a little fun at the expense of Wayne’s 1.2 million followers. The hacker also took the time to slam some of Wayne’s celeb colleagues. In one instance, he attacked Atlanta entertainer Soulja Boy:

“I sent a donations to your paypal, check it, I heard you got 13,000 sales lil homie, i feel bad for you! #DamnSoulja”

At this time, reports have come out that Wayne has regained control of his account, but I’m skeptical. The original account, @liltunechi, has been suspended. The account used to hurl insults, @LilChinetu, repeatedly claims to be the real Weezy and even has a Twitition floating around. This account has also posted that @LilTuneChi_Real (a protected account) is an alternate account for Wayne, which makes no sense.

Another account, @LilTunechi_YM, claims to be the backup account for @LilTunechi (Weezy’s original Twitter handle), which also makes no sense.

At the time of this writing, none of these accounts carries the Verified label that might suggest the account is official.

via AllHipHop.com, HipHop DX, The BoomBox

According to inside sources, the next iteration of the iPhone will be a complete rethink of the popular multi-touch smartphone. At its core, the device will feature a new processor and chips which will support most wireless carriers worldwide.

To start, the iPhone 5′s internals will be different – the device will run on a new, combined CDMA/GSM/UTMS chipset from Qualcomm, which will support both AT&T and Verizon here in the U.S., as well as other carriers worldwide – perhaps even an expanded lineup, as would now be possible. Along with the iPad 2, this chipset change represents the transition away from Infineon as the iPhone and iPad chipset maker. Going forward, Qualcomm will make the chips for all Apple mobile devices.

Striking about this launch will be the absence of Steve Jobs, who will be out on medical leave. Some wonder if his team can pull off the launch, which should be some time this summer, without their leader. While Steve will be taking it easy, I sincerely doubt the visionary and control-freak behind devices like the iPhone and iPad won’t still be pulling all the strings.

Details on the iPhone 5 are scarce, but it’s rumored it will launch with NFC. This is the same technology featured in the latest Android Gingerbread devices that allow for mobile payments. Apple also acquired Siri, a personal mobile assistant company that has been merged with Wolfram Alpha and a slew of social media services which should make the iPhone 5 competitive with Android’s Voice Search and Voice Actions. Lala is another acquisition that could mean major changes for iTunes. Could we finally see a cloud-based iTunes integrated into the iPhone 5?

more details at ReadWriteWeb

According to a letter sent to all Apple employees today, CEO Steve Jobs will go out on medical leave to focus on his health. His leave has been granted by the board of directors. Tim Cook will handle day-to-day operations at Apple, but Jobs will continue to handle “major strategic decisions.”

I have asked Tim Cook to be responsible for all of Apple’s day to day
operations. I have great confidence that Tim and the rest of the
executive management team will do a terrific job executing the exciting
plans we have in place for 2011.

It is not known why Jobs needs a leave of absence at this time. It is well-known, however, that he has had pancreatic cancer and had a liver transplant in the past.

I love Apple so much and hope to be back as soon as I can. In the
meantime, my family and I would deeply appreciate respect for our
privacy.

Apple’s quarterly earnings report is scheduled for tomorrow. It’s doubtful that we will learn more from Apple about Steve’s health as they have not been very open on the subject before.

via RWW

VLC Removed from Apple App Store

VLC, a very useful multi-format and Open Source media player, was removed from Apple’s App Store due to licensing issues. Usually, Apple is at fault in situations like this, but the situation here is a bit more complex. A Nokia employee by the name of Rémi Denis-Courmont basically twisted the rules a bit in order to get the free and open source VLC app removed, saying that the GNU General Public License that is tied to VLC conflicted with the terms detailed in Apple’s own App Store licensing.

Before anyone grabs a pitchfork and/or torch and starts marching toward Cupertino, it’s worth noting that VLC’s removal from the App Store has nothing to do with Apple’s preferences. Rather, it’s a direct result of one man’s misguided crusade… a man who, (perhaps) coincidentally, is an employee of Nokia, one of Apple’s competitors in the mobile space.

Even though VLC has been removed from Apple’s App Store, you can still get it on Cydia if you have a jailbroken device.

via Obama Pacman, TUAW

MySpace Lays off 47 Percent

Struggling to find themselves, MySpace has recently made major changes in direction and focus. The goal is to become an entertainment destination for Gen Y. CEO Mike Jones says this tighter focus also meant a “tighter ship with a smaller, nimble crew.” Jones added that MySpace will enter into strategic local partnerships in the U.K., Germany and Australia to manage advertising sales and content. On January 11th, MySpace cut staff by about 500.

via All Things Digital

Twitter Challenges Secret WikiLeaks Order

The U.S. government recently got a court order demanding that Twitter turn over information about a number of people connected to WikiLeaks: founder Julian Assange, accused leaker Pfc. Bradley Manning, former WikiLeaks spokeswoman Birgitta Jonsdottir, and WikiLeaks activist Jacob Appelbaum. Attached to the records request was a gag order, a routine practice by law enforcement. Standard procedure for companies like Twitter and Google would be to notify a user before giving up their information, giving them a chance to protect themselves. The attached gag order would prevent them from exercising this policy. Instead of simply giving up the goods, Twitter successfully overturned the gag order and notified its users of the request. Wired writes that Twitter’s response should be the industry standard.

Google Drops H.264 Support From Chrome

Google has decided to remove H.264 support from the Chrome web browser. This has ignited a firestorm of comments from users speculating why they would make such a move. Others say that, since Google is citing “openness” as one of their motivations, they should go ahead and dump Flash as well. In dropping H.264, Google is attempting to put the focus on WebM, a video spec they can actually control. This is not really an immediate win for Google but, more likely, an investment into the future of web video.

So why did Google do it? One theory is to take a shot at Apple. But this announcement seems like a precursor to a very expensive exercise for Google itself: If Google is really serious about WebM, which this seems to indicate, they will have to transcode all their YouTube assets to the new format, and start building support for this into their other products, like Android. Seems too much like “Cutting off the nose to spite the face” kind of action.

A commenter on Reddit summarizes the situation very well:

In the short term. This is a power play. The market is fragmented (e.g., no Flash on iPhones) and things will eventually coalesce, and Google doesn’t want them to coalesce into video tag/H264. They’re gambling that they can use their position (the most-used browser by techies, plus the most-used smartphone OS in the world) to force everyone to move off of H264 and onto open codecs.

via ArpitOnline, Google

The latest beta of the upcoming Firefox 4 web browser has been uploaded to the official Mozilla FTP servers. Firefox 4 Beta 9 brings the inclusion of the IndexedDB web standard “for the storage of significant amounts of structured data in the browser and for high performance searches on this data using indexes.”

Only a couple of days ago, Mozilla’s senior director of platform engineering Damon Sicore wrote, “Team, we’ve worked tremendously hard on Firefox 4, and it’s time to ship it. I’m seeing the same burst of excitement and activity that we’ve seen in the endgame of every release. We must press hard now.”

Firefox 4 is expected to officially arrive in February, with at least one more beta release coming before then as developers work to stomp the last of the bugs. While it will feature speed increases in Javascript and tweaks under the hood, one of the main focuses for Firefox 4 is ease-of-use. You can get the latest Firefox 4 beta from official mirror servers. More info on Firefox 4 at the Mozilla Blog.

via PC World, Ghacks

According to James Choi, marketing strategy and planning team director of LG Electronics, the Windows Phone 7 didn’t do as well as expected. “From an industry perspective we had a high expectation,” Choi tells Pocket-Lint, “but from a consumer point of view the visibility is less than we expected.”

“LG has been closely collaborating with Microsoft from the beginning. What we feel is that it is absolutely perfect for a huge segment out there. What we feel is that some people believe that some operating systems, mainly Google, are extremely complicated for them. But Windows Phone 7 is very intuitive and easy to use”, explains Choi when we asked how it was all going.

Choi says that LG believes there is still a market out there for Windows Phone 7. At this point, it’s only available on a higher tier because of hardware requirements. Once mid and low-tier devices start showing up, the market share should grow.

Choi didn’t comment on when we might see new LG Windows Phone 7 handsets, but the Mobile World Congress is coming in February. Microsoft is also expected to release a major update to the Windows Phone 7 platform (Mango) some time in the summer.

via Pocket-lint

BGR has got their hands on a photo of the BlackBerry Dakota. As they put it, it’s “the device that’s going to sit right at the head of the BlackBerry family dinner table.” The Dakota records video in HD, features 3G Mobile Hotspot, and NFC.

• Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE
• Tri-band UMTS
• 5 megapixel camera with HD video recording, flash, and image stabilization
• 4GB of built in storage, 768MB of RAM
• 2.8-inch VGA 640×480 capacitive screen
• WiFi b,g,n on 2.4GHz and 5GHz frequencies
• 3G mobile hotspot
• MicroUSB port
• Bluetooth
• NFC
• Magnetometer
• Accelerometer
• Proximity sensor
• 10.5mm thin
• Launches with BlackBerry OS 6.1

For BlackBerry fans, this is exciting news. The Dakota blends the BlackBerry keyboard you may be used to with many of the features in the latest Android and iOS devices. The question is, will it be too little too late for RIM?

via Boy Genius Report