Month: February 2011

Hulu and Viacom have entered into a partnership that will bring back The Daily Show and The Colbert Report. The deal also brings popular TV shows from Viacom’s media networks, including Comedy Central, MTV, BET, VH1, Spike TV, and TV Land to the Hulu Plus subscription service.

“We are very pleased to partner with Hulu in a way that recognizes the value of our strong brands and the passionate young fans who are attracted to our content. The Hulu Plus service offers us the opportunity to connect with our audiences through an exciting subscription and ad supported platform that is complementary to our existing distribution arrangements. This innovative agreement allows us to benefit from the success and expansion of Hulu and we look forward to bringing our popular content to their growing audience.”

The press release mentions “Let’s Stay Together” as one of the shows coming to Hulu. It airs on BET directly after The Game, which generated more social media buzz than any other prime time show during its comeback premier. While not mentioned in the release, it will be interesting if The Game will show up on Hulu as well.

With Hulu’s new hybrid revenue model, it looks like Viacom had a change of heart. Some of the content, like the Daily Show, will be available for free on Hulu. Other shows will be available to Hulu Plus subscribers, including more than 2,000 episodes of programming from Viacom’s library.

via PRNewswire

I figured it wouldn’t take long to catch on. Especially for an artist like Lupe Fiasco, who regularly uses social media and technology. Lupe is using a QR Code to promote his album Lasers.

The QR Code reads “Scan with Red Laser” and takes you to a mini-site where you can order different combo’s of Lupe Fiasco gear and music. You can use laser for everything now a days  like a laser engraver from BossLaser. The premium package, for example, includes:

• Lasers CD
• Lasers T-Shirt
• Lasers 18×24″ Lithograph
• Sew-on Patch
• Immediate MP3 download of “The Show Goes On”
• MP3 download of “Words I Never Said”, sent at 12:01am EST on 2/8/11

This is the type of innovation and integration with technology that will keep artists eating as the music business turns itself on its head. Artists will need to create an experience around their music that helps fans feel connected. As the music basically becomes free for download, the intangible aspect of being a part of something becomes more important. Check out the Black Eyed Peas recent iPhone app as another example.

via @Corvida

Today, Feb 3rd, is the day that Verizon customers can begin pre-ordering the CDMA iPhone. While Verizon has maintained that their cellular network will be able to handle the influx of new iPhone customers, it appears their website is having no such luck. Business Insider reports:

Since I need a new phone, I logged on at 5 A.M. to put in my order. For the last three hours Ive been greeted with this screen that reads, “Sorry, an error has occured.”

Im not alone, either. A look at Twitter reveals others are having the same problem.

We can only hope that we won’t see the same type of pre-order debacle caused by AT&T when the iPhone 4 launched. A few initial hiccups are probably normal, so it remains to be seen if Verizon will buckle under the pressure. Keep in mind, this is only Verizon customers. Who knows what will happen when the floodgates open on February 10th and AT&T customers start jumping ship.

Initial reports show that, while the Verizon iPhone is just about identical to it’s GSM cousin, that CDMA radio makes a difference. Calls are clear and crisp. Dropped calls and call quality issues are few and far between. You may not be able to use your data connection while jabbering on a call, but many AT&T customers can’t maintain calls anyway.

At a press event today for Android 3.0 Honeycomb, one of the most exciting announcements was a web-based store for the Android Market. Most of the Honeycomb features and goodies demonstrated at the event were already known. Check out the video for a refresher:

One of the more exciting announcements was the addition of a website for the Android Market. Now, you can finally browse the market from somewhere other than your actual Android device or a third-party service.

The website makes it easy to discover great new apps with a bigger, brighter interface. You can also send apps directly to your Android device with just a few clicks—no wires needed. We’ve built in new social features, too. You can share apps with your friends through Twitter. And you can read and post app reviews directly to Android Market from the web or from your device.

Speaking of third-party services, sites like AppBrain.com will need to stay ahead of the game if they want to stay in play. It looks like the Android Market web interface covers many of the features that users have become accustomed to from these other sites. At the time of this writing, though, you cannot login to the Market.Android.com site. It throws an “invalid request” error. Let us know if you get in.

Another nice development is the addition of video chat based on GTalk. Now, Android users have an official way to do video chat with other Android and Gmail users just as iPhone and Mac users can chat via Facetime. They demoed the featured by calling up Cee-Lo, which is awesome by itself because it means Cee-Lo has an Android device and…well..it’s Cee-Lo! Unfortunately, he ended the call with a simple “Peace” rather than that “F” word that launched his recent single.

Android 3.0 was built for tablets with larger screens, so it remains to be seen what features we will see in the latest Android 2.2 devices. Hopefully, with Google breaking out many of the features of Android into individual apps on the Market, we may get some 3.0 love without waiting on the carriers to get it together.

via Official Google Mobile Blog

It seems Mozy has realized that offering unlimited backup for $5/month just isn’t good business anymore. The unlimited plan is dead and tiered pricing has taken it’s place. It’s seems many users are upset, but the change seems logical. Times have changed since Mozy started doing backup in 2006. Everyone and their grandma is capturing photos and video. In many cases, the video is in HD, as high megapixel cameras are cheap and most phones can record HD.

They have removed the unlimited plan and will give you 50GB of storage for $5.99/month. According to Mozy, this will cover a majority of their userbase. You can add 20GB for $2/month. This plan covers 1 computer. For $9.99/month, you can get 125GB and backup 3 computers. Each additional computer is $2/month.

The new pricing takes effect immediately for new customers. Existing customers have until March 1, 2011. Also, existing customers will be allowed to keep their unlimited backup plans for the duration of their current monthly, annual, or biennial plans, and will migrate to a new plan at the end of the term. If you re-up on an annual or biennial plan, you get an additional free month.

Of course, there is always the 2GB free plan, which I’ve been using for quite some time now. Mozy’s referral program can get you some additional space for adding friends and family. Lifehacker also provides some Mozy alternatives if the new plans are just too much for you.

via New MozyHome Plans

Today, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of News Corporation Rupert Murdoch unveiled The Daily. This is the much-anticipated publication created in cooperation with Apple especially for the iPad.

“New times demand new journalism,” said Mr. Murdoch. “So we built The Daily completely from scratch — on the most innovative device to come about in my time — the iPad.”

“News Corp. is redefining the news experience with The Daily,” says Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “We think it is terrific and iPad users are really going to embrace it.”

The Daily will debut at $0.99 per week or $39.99 per year. It will contain up to 100 pages focused on six key areas: news, sports, gossip and celebrity, opinion, arts and life, and apps and games. They promise views spanning across the political spectrum, cultures, and generations.

Besides text and pictures, The Daily will be able to provide a unique mix of audio, video, and real-time data along with social media integration. This opens things up for the editors to tell each story in the best format.

“In short,” says Mr. Murdoch, “we believe The Daily will be the model for how stories are told and consumed in this digital age.”

You can download The Daily app for free from iTunes.

via The Daily

Popular dating sites Match.com and OkCupid have decided to make it official. Match.com, part of the IAC family, has acquired OkCupid for $50 million in cash plus future payments dependent on performance.

According to IAC, OkCupid has “been the fastest growing dating site in the advertising-based category.” It’s a free site which attracts a younger user base than you would find on a Match.com.

“We know that many people who start out on advertising-based sites ultimately develop an appetite for the broader feature set and more committed community, which subscription sites like Match.com and Chemistry.com offer, creating a true complimentary relationship between our various business models,” says Greg Blatt, CEO of IAC.

Match.com previously acquired People Media for $80 million and Singlesnet. Blatt says, “we believe coordinating the adjacent business models will help fuel continued growth for both.” OkCupid co-founder and CEO Sam Yagan will continue to run the site.

OkCupid’s free model has been very successful. It originally launched as an alternative to sites like Match.com, which tend to make money on failing to match users and gathering new users rather than creating relationships. This acquisition may be an attempt for Match.com to funnel users into their subscription-based system. Some feel it is a bad much, but it remains to be seen how this will affect current OkCupid users.

via Mashable, The Atlantic

Google recently accused the Bing search engine of copying their search results. The whole situation began as Google engineers worked on spelling corrections. Spelling corrections are one of the features that Google takes much pride in. They even claim they can correct misspellings that have never been misspelled before. From the Official Google Blog:

It all started with tarsorrhaphy. Really. As it happens, tarsorrhaphy is a rare surgical procedure on eyelids. And in the summer of 2010, we were looking at the search results for an unusual misspelled query [torsorophy]. Google returned the correct spelling—tarsorrhaphy—along with results for the corrected query. At that time, Bing had no results for the misspelling. Later in the summer, Bing started returning our first result to their users without offering the spell correction (see screenshots below). This was very strange. How could they return our first result to their users without the correct spelling? Had they known the correct spelling, they could have returned several more relevant results for the corrected query.

Based on this case, Google created 100 “synthetic queries” and monitored them closely. These are things a person would probably never search for. Mostly, stuff like [hiybbprqag]. For these queries, they inserted pretty much random sites as the top result. Within a couple of weeks of starting this experiment, Google’s fake results started appearing in Bing. Of course, Microsoft completely denies copying Google:

“We use over 1,000 different signals and features in our ranking algorithm. A small piece of that is clickstream data we get from some of our customers, who opt-in to sharing anonymous data as they navigate the web in order to help us improve the experience for all users.” — Bing Corporate Vice President Harry Shum

It seems that Google was not happy with Microsoft’s denial and their latest post (linked below) goes into detail on the various queries used to catch Bing in the act. Whether it’s something their engineers are doing manually or a result of IE8′s Suggested Sites or Bing Toolbar’s Customer Experience Improvement Program, the end result looks like cheating.

“Put another way, some Bing results increasingly look like an incomplete, stale version of Google results—a cheap imitation.” — Google Fellow Amit Singhal

via Official Google Blog, Mashable, Search Engine Land

As we all know, February is Black History Month. It’s a month where we honor those who have made an impact on American culture for equal rights, those who have invented, those who have a helped others and those who have inspired everyone to be the best they can be, not only as a person of color but as a human. Last year for Black History Month, I started an online series called 28 Days Diversity where I would feature someone new everyday for the month of February for just being awesome in their own right. Even though it’s black history month, the goal for 28 Days of Diversity is to feature not just African-Americans but other minorities in the web/tech space. Also note that 28 Days of Diversity is not a popularity contest or an influencer list but a list of thought leaders in the social web sector, including entrepreneurs, bloggers, conference organizers, IT professionals and friends not ranked in any particular order who I have either met in person or followed online. Each post will include a picture, bio, two links from the selected person and this paragraph.

For 2011 I wanted to not just feature individuals but also address a topic that affects everyone. For 28 Days of Diversity 2011 each post/person will answer the question How can we use technology to close the digital divide? So for the next 28 days, come back to visit SocialWayne.com/tag/28daysofdiversity and 28daysofdiversity.com to see who’s on the list.

Today, LG brings their flagship smartphone, the Optimus One, to Virgin Mobile as a prepaid device called the Optimus V. The Optimus V brings most of the features the average consumer would want in a smartphone, without the contract or hefty price tag. You get a decent Android phone without a contract for $150.

Features of the LG Optimus V include Android 2.2 Froyo, 600MHz processor, 3.2″ HVGA display (320×480 resolution), 3MP camera, 2GB of internal storage and a microSDHC memory card slot. It run’s on the carrier’s 3G network, but also supports Wi-Fi connections.

As we reported last year, LG is aiming for a different set of customers than the iPhone 4 or HTC Evo. They’re aiming to hit more average, less techy folks who want something powerful but simple. It’s a great deal for the price. It’s pre-paid, it’s Android (Virgin Mobile’s first), and it’s a good phone for the price.

Check out the unboxing below to see the Optimus in action.

via Phone Arena, CrunchGear

In celebration of Black History Month, TheGrio.com will launch “TheGrio’s 100: History Makers in the Making Class of 2011,” today. TheGrio’s 100 will highlight African-Americans in business, education, sports, science and the environment, media, service and activism, politics, health, pop culture, and the arts who are making a difference.

TheGrio’s 100 will be featured across NBC news outlets like NBC News, MSNBC and msnbc.com. They will also make use of “several” social media platforms to engage with the community. One of those platforms is Foursquare, where you can now unlock your very own Black History Badge.

TheGrio is working with Foursquare, the location-based mobile application, to generate branded content and create a Black History “badge” that users can unlock by following TheGrio on foursquare and checking in at 100+ locations across the country that have been identified as historically relevant to Black History Month.

It’s good to see such an interesting use of the Foursquare Tips feature. Some of the stops include Morehouse College, the Black Soldiers Memorial, and the African American Museum of Dallas. Check out foursquare.com/thegrio to see what spots you should visit. You can also follow TheGrio’s 100 on Facebook and on Twitter (@thegrio with hashtag #thegrios100).

via theGrio.com

Today, February 1st, Google unveils a project that will give you access to thousands of artworks online in “extraordinary detail.” The project is simply called Google Art Project, but the results are nothing less than stunning.

Working with 17 art museums over the last 18 months, Google has built an online collection of thousands of artworks and a selection of super high resolution or ‘gigapixel’ images. They partnered with Altes Nationalgalerie, The Freer Gallery of Art Smithsonian, National Gallery (London), The Frick Collection, Gemäldegalerie, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, MoMA, Museo Reina Sofia, Museo Thyseen – Bornemisza, Museum Kampa, Palace of Versailles, Rijksmuseum, The State Hermitage Museum, State Tretyakov Gallery, Tate, and Uffizi and Van Gogh Museum.

Google worked closely with the museums in finding the best works to feature, the best collections to display, and even what angles to capture them from. The Google Art Project includes everything from Botticelli’s ‘Birth of Venus’ to Chris Ofili’s ‘No Woman, No Cry.’

A specially designed Street View ‘trolley’ took 360 degree images of the interior of selected galleries which were then stitched together, enabling smooth navigation of over 385 rooms within the museums. The gallery interiors can also be explored directly from within Street View in Google Maps.

Each of the 17 museums also chose a single artwork to be featured in super high resolution or ‘gigapixel’ format. These images contain about 7 billion pixels, enabling the viewer to study details of the brushwork and patina beyond that possible with the naked eye. Amazing stuff.

‘This initiative started as a ’20% project’ by a group of Googlers passionate about making art more accessible online. Together with our museum partners around the world we have created what we hope will be a fascinating resource for art-lovers, students and casual museum goers alike – inspiring them to one day visit the real thing.’ — Amit Sood, Head of Art Project, Google

Check out all the fancy artwork at www.googleartproject.com and watch the video here for a behind-the-scenes look at the project. There is also a YouTube channel.

via Engadget