opportunity

Study finds Twitter hard to resist

A new study is suggesting that Twitter users may not be able to help themselves, as it’s revealed the microblogging site just might be more addictive than cigarettes. The University of Chicago Business School study – measuring how well people can resist desires – also claimed that some individuals may be more likely to give into cravings for social media than those of sleeping and sex. “Modern life is a welter of assorted desired marked by frequent conflict and resistance, the latter with uneven success,” experiment leader Wilhelm Hofmann said. The study monitored participants aged 18 to 85, who were signalled seven times a day over a 14 hour period. They were asked to report whether they were experiencing any desires, what type of desires they were experiencing, the strength of the desire and whether it was in conflict with any other desires they might also be having. Researchers discovered that as time wore on, participants found their willpower weakened – the most frequent instances of ‘self-control failure’ were recorded with media.

Original post: 
Study finds Twitter hard to resist

opportunity

Sony names gaming chief Kazuo Hirai CEO

Sony has tapped Kazuo Hirai to replace chief executive Howard Stringer when he steps down from on 1 April. Mr Hirai has long been considered the heir-apparent for the CEO position – as a savvy gaming executive; he has been credited with turning things around at the company’s unprofitable PlayStation business and was promoted to head of consumer products last March. He takes the helm just as Sony is predicting its fourth year of net losses for the fiscal year ending 31 March 2012. The company is likely to announce its third quarter results tomorrow and provide more information on the company’s management shake-up.

Read the rest here: 
Sony names gaming chief Kazuo Hirai CEO

opportunity

Angry Birds boss doesn’t see Piracy as a bad thing

Rovio boss Mikel Hed has said he doesn’t necessarily see piracy as a bad thing when it comes to Angry Birds. Speaking at the Midem conference in Cannes, the Angry Birds maker explained the company sees efforts to pursue pirates in the court system as ‘futile’ – so long as pirated products are not harmful to the brand or ripping off fans. “We could learn a lot from the music industry, and the rather terrible ways the music industry has tried to combat piracy. “We have some issues with piracy, not only in apps, but also especially in the consumer products,” he said. “There is tons of merchandise out there, especially in Asia, which is not officially licensed products.” Hed also explained he believes there is a lesson to be learned from the music industry – namely, approaching customers as fans, rather than users. “We took something from the music industry, which was to stop treating the customers as users, and start treating them as fans. We do that today: we talk about how many fans we have,” he said.

Here is the original:
Angry Birds boss doesn’t see Piracy as a bad thing

opportunity

Justin Timberlake brings MySpace back

Justin Timberlake is bringing MySpace back. In the final moments of Panasonic’s press conference at the CES conference in Las Vegas, actor-musician Timberlake took to the stage to announce a revamp of the fallen social network and a new partnership with Panasonic. “The TV, long before the internet, was our supplier of true word of mouth, our originator of water cooler talk, and now with this exciting partnership of MySpace and Panasonic, we’re ready to take television and entertainment to the next step – by upgrading it to the social networking experience,” Timberlake said. By partnering with MySpace, Panasonic is hoping to provide an integrated experience where users can watch TV and interact on the social platform simultaneously through a new app it calls ‘MySpace TV’.

Here is the original: 
Justin Timberlake brings MySpace back

opportunity

Caution: Avoid These Four Social CRM Pitfalls

You can make the most of the opportunities presented by social CRM (SCRM) and social media by avoiding these four common mistakes. Social Media — It’s Not A Broadcast Network Many companies fail to grasp the two-way nature of social media. So they use sites like Facebook and Twitter to saturate their audience with messages while making no effort to listen to their customers and respond appropriately. It’s the social media version of “shock and awe.” This is understandable given the evolution of marketing as outbound communication only. But today, such behavior is seen as loutish and clueless. Your Customers Might Misbehave — You Can’t You should behave as a peer with your customers, not a pal. Your customer community may be fairly rambunctious, even coarse on line, but that doesn’t mean you should match their behavior. You shouldn’t.

Originally posted here: 
Caution: Avoid These Four Social CRM Pitfalls

opportunity

Facebook ordered to increase privacy by Irish regulators

Facebook has received a full audit of its systems by Irish regulators and agreed to make more than a dozen privacy improvements within the next six months. The recommendations made by Irish Data Commissioner Billy Hawkes came after an investigation concerning the social network’s use of personal user data launched in October. Facebook houses all its user data and operations outside of the US and Canada in Ireland. Two months ago, regulators launched the investigation after a series of controversies surrounding Facebook user data surfaced, with claims of ‘shadow profiles’ being created for non-members. The regulators found this was not the case, and that Facebook only collects data about non-users for security purposes.

Read the original:
Facebook ordered to increase privacy by Irish regulators

opportunity

Flagging Kindle Fire to be stoked with update

Despite its name, the Kindle Fire – Amazon’s highly promoted tablet – has seen relatively lukewarm success with its early users; however, a soon to be released update will seek to rekindle the fire (pun intended). When the device first hit the market, Amazon insisted the Kindle Fire was a hot top-seller . However, enthusiasm has somewhat cooled as the list of user complaints have grown, including: no external volume control; an off switch that is easily hit by accident; no privacy on the device; sluggish touch screens; as well as the ‘fat finger problem’ – where items on the screen are too small, leading to tap errors and accidental activation. According to a recent report in the New York Times , the individual grievances recorded on Amazon’s website have received some confirmation. Nielsen Norman Group co-founder Jakob Nielsen said the Fire offered a “disappointingly poor” experience and added, “I feel the Fire is going to be a failure. I can’t recommend buying it.” All of this would be enough to augur an early death for even the most heavily marketed item, but Amazon sees the Kindle as critical to its future success, and is willing to acknowledge it is working on improvements. “In less than two weeks, we’re rolling out an over-the-air update to Kindle Fire,” said Drew Herdener, a company spokesman. The update will reportedly include improvements in performance and multi-touch navigation, as well as allowing customers to edit the list of items that show what they have recently been doing. As the New York Times put it, “No more will wives wonder why their husbands were looking at a dating site when they said they were playing Angry Birds.” Additionally, an improved version of the device itself is due soon, though Amazon has declined to say exactly when.

Original post:
Flagging Kindle Fire to be stoked with update

opportunity

YouTube acquires RightsFlow

YouTube has acquired licencing service RightsFlow, it has announced. The popular video-sharing website will use RightFlow’s muscle to help tackle online copyright issues and provide “smart copyright management” to its platform. “We’re excited to announce that we’ve acquired RightsFlow, a New York-based company that helps songwriters, recording artists, record labels, distributors and online music services manage music rights,” product manager David King wrote on the YouTube Blog . “As new ways of consuming music have emerged, RightsFlow has been at the forefront of solving the complex issues of licensing and royalty payment management. “By combining RightsFlow’s expertise and technology with YouTube’s platform, we hope to more rapidly and efficiently license music on YouTube, meaning more music for you all to enjoy, and more money for the talented people producing the music.” As YouTube has evolved, so have licensing agreements and copyright issues. In its earliest form, YouTube came under fire from critics who claimed the video site allowed and encouraged materials to appear on its site that infringed copyright laws. Both YouTube and its parent company Google have been involved in several legal disputes on the issue – including a class action suit lodged by a group of music publishers accusing YouTube of allowing pirated materials to appear on site. After reaching a settlement in August, the publishers said in a statement: “As a result of this resolution, music publishers will have the opportunity to enter into a license agreement with YouTube and receive royalties from YouTube for musical works in videos posted on the site.” YouTube has since worked to shake any pirated content out of its site with a filter system, and by adding RightsFlow to its arsenal the web’s most popular video-sharing service will conceivably be in a better position to help artists and groups tackle issues regards rights and distribution.

More:
YouTube acquires RightsFlow

opportunity

YouTube gets a makeover

YouTube have rolled out their biggest-ever site facelift today, with new features including news feeds and social network sharing options. Many of the overhauled features have social element to them, in keeping with Google’s new social direction. “Our recent Channels expansion, our grants and education programs, and this design are all focused on helping you discover a broader range of entertainment on YouTube,” the company said in a blog post . “We’re always innovating and testing new stuff out to make the experience the best it can be for you.The new homepage displays a central news feed and features videos that have been uploaded to the site by users on Google+.” Large Facebook and Google+ buttons are positioned on the left hand column so users can share and see video content from YouTube on their chosen social network. “To help you get more into YouTube, we’re making it easier to find and follow great Channels when you arrive.

Read the rest here:
YouTube gets a makeover

opportunity

Gaming and social media on agenda for ‘Next Gen’

Tech-savvy learners may soon have the opportunity to get hands-on with computer science and development at an earlier age. Creative industries minister Ed Vaizey has called for reform in school curriculum relating to IT and computer sciences lessons, following recommendations in a report conducted earlier this year. The minister believes changes to the school curriculum incorporating a wider range of technologies, including video games and social media, could help keep the UK “at the forefront” of that business sector. Vaizey’s comments were set out in the ‘Next Gen’ report – an independent study commissioned by the Department for Culture, Media and Sports in July 2010 and published earlier this year. The report contains 20 detailed recommendations for the government, industry and schools to consider. “The economic and cultural value of the UK’s video games and VFX sectors is clear and the long-term potential of their global markets present a great opportunity for UK-based businesses,” Vaizey said . “It is an industry that has real potential to create the high quality jobs of the future that will be so important as we recover from the recession

Read more: 
Gaming and social media on agenda for ‘Next Gen’

Next Page »