Microsoft launches Windows Phone ad blitz with Jessica Alba, Gwen Stefani

In an attempt to use the power of celebrity endorsements to promote the Windows Phone, Microsoft has rolled out new ads featuring prominent women.

Taking an aggressive approach with the promotion of the Windows Phone platform, Microsoft has launched two new advertisements starring actress Jessica Alba and No Doubt musician Gwen Stefani. Airing during primetime television tonight on commercial breaks within ABC’s Modern Family and NBC’s The Voice as well as late night talk show Jimmy Kimmel Live, the two advertisements highlight different ways that the Windows Phone platform has changed their daily life. The 33-second spot with Jessica Alba features the Nokia Lumia 920 and is co-branded with AT&T. However, the 32-second Gwen Stefani advertisement features the 8X by HTC and splashes the Verizon Wireless logo on the screen.

During the Jessica Alba spot, Microsoft is attempting to promote the use of the Kid’s Corner feature since young children like to play games on their parent’s smartphones. Similar to Netflix’s Just for Kids section, Kids Corner on the Windows Phone acts as a parental filter.

After Kid’s Corner is launched, it’s impossible for a child to access text messages, emails or other important areas of the phone without a password. In addition, parents can populate the Kids Corner with approved applications such as entertaining games, learning programs or other fun apps for young children. Kids can also listen to approved music through the Kids Corner interface as well as personalize the background. 

Alternatively, Microsoft is trying to highlight the usefulness of the Windows Phone platform for busy working women during the Gwen Stefani ad. Since early adopters of smartphones tend to be both men and women these days, Microsoft is clearly going after the female demographic for the opening round of Windows Phone ads. Ads featuring male celebrities are in the works though. According to Ad Age, two more advertisements will follow later in November featuring Saturday Night Live alum Andy Samberg as well as Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton. 

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Woman faces felony after posting photo of undercover cop on Facebook

Definitely a terrible way to use Facebook, an attempt to search for the identify of an undercover officer lands one woman in hot water.

Covered by ABC News earlier today, 30-year-old Melissa Walthall of Mesquite, Texas faces a felony retaliation charge after allegedly using her Facebook account to upload a photo of an undercover police officer. According to Mesquite police, Walthall posted the photograph of the narcotics officer on Facebook after he testified against 34-year-old George Pickens during a drug trial that occurred two months prior to the incident. In the caption of the photo, Walthall specifically mentioned that the officer was working undercover and posted “Anyone know this [expletive]?” in the description. It’s likely that Walthall was attempting to use social media to figure out the identity of the officer and subsequently spread that information rapidly online. 

While Walthall’s Facebook profile was set to private, Mesquite police learned of the photo after one of Walthall’s Facebook friends spotted the photograph with the revealing caption within their News feed. The unnamed person immediately notified police and supplied the police department with a copy of the photo. After questioning Walthall, police learned that the photo had been supplied by Pickens. 

After searching online, Pickens had discovered the photo on Facebook without any tag to identify the undercover officer’s personal Facebook account. Opposite from Walthall, his idea for social distribution to reveal the officer’s true identity was far less technologically advanced. With the help of his brother Bobby Stedham, Pickens made photocopies of the photo in the style of a lost cat or garage sale flyer. The duo planned to post the photo around local neighborhoods or pass it out on street corners.

When police searched the home where Pickens was residing, they discovered copies of the handout clearly outing the officer as undercover. They also discovered an unregistered sawed-off shotgun underneath the bed where Pickens slept as well as 28.6 grams of methamphetamine and a variety of equipment for drug distribution. For his role in the creation of the flyers, Stedham also faces a felony retaliation charge. 

Detailed in the Texas Penal Code, retaliation is defined as “A person commits an offense if he intentionally or knowingly harms or threatens to harm another by an unlawful act in retaliation for or on account of the service or status of another as a public servant, witness, prospective witness, or informant.”

However, authorities didn’t indicate if Walthall or Stedham will face significant jail time for their role in attempting to reveal the identify of the undercover officer that testified at Pickens’ trial. 

Regarding the publication of the photo on Walthall’s Facebook profile, Texas Municipal Police Association executive director Kevin Lawrence stated “It’s a very dangerous situation. If you’re trying to infiltrate a cartel, a drug ring, a gang, one of the keys is people have to believe you’re not an officer. Anything that hints at tying you to law enforcement is very dangerous.” Regarding social media accounts among police officers, Lawrence continued “There are too many opportunities for bad things to happen in exchange for very little up side. But the fact the officer shouldn’t have had a Facebook doesn’t excuse her either.“

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Complimentary iPad use in McDonald’s will be the greasiest iPad of all

McDonald's is installing iPads for use in one of its Virginia Beach location. Cool idea, or Contagion-in-real-life in the making?

In an attempt to digitize its dining experience, a newly-opened McDonald’s in Hampton Roads, Virginia will now offer customers complimentary use of Apple iPads installed at various booths of its retail store. The iPads will be held up on white stands, one of which holds two devices back-to-back, so diners can check their Facebook profiles, play games, and even shop online while they’re munching away at their favorite fast food item. 

“It’s a great idea to stay relevant, especially to a new generation,” Hugh Fard, the iPad-equipped McDonald’s owner who opened the new location last week, told The Virginian-Pilot.  ”People like to multitask, so why not provide that element for them?”

Fard said he found the inspiration to add iPads to his restaurant from a recent McDonald’s convention in Florida, and found that McDonald’s stores in Europe had iPad offerings developed and installed by a French-based company. After months waiting for an approval from the American-based headquarters, Fard was able to successfully lease five iPads from the French company so in case the devices are stolen or damaged, the company will replace the tablets.

It’s an interesting way to keep customers in the store longer (despite the fast food nature of the restaurant), but American McDonald’s has yet to warm up to the idea on a national basis. Depending on how the iPad installation is received, it could be possible for McD’s to begin expanding the feature to other retailers across the states. If so, it could be certain McDonald’s will begin installing its own Web limitations on the iPad so customers are restricted to using family-friendly websites and apps while you’re under the golden arches.

But still, as if it isn’t gross enough to touch public bathroom door knobs, touchscreen ticket booths, and escalator handrails, swiping your hand all over an iPad that’s been fondled by fries-covered fingertips may just change your mentality about tablets forever. 

What do you think of free iPad use in McDonald’s? A fun idea, or totally unnecessary?

Image Credit: The Virginia-Pilot

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Facebook reportedly launching second social gifting attempt with Facebook Gifts

Post-Karma's acquisition, Facebook is gearing up to launch Facebook Gifts, its second attempt at a gifting app in an effort to bolster its mobile revenue.

Facebook’s first post-IPO acqusition was the social gifting app, Karma, and the social network insisted that the app was not to be picked apart as an acqui-hire of its founders and team. True to its word, TheNextWeb reports that the social gifting app’s technology will be integrated into Facebook’s own social gifting platform set to be launched soon.

Karma is an iOS and Android app that works by offering platform for users to purchase in-app gifts curated by Karma staff. The company gift wraps the ordered products and ships them to the recipient.

The indication that Facebook was making a move first appeared through a job listing that InsideFacebook had noticed for a “merchant operations analyst.” The job posting initially published to Facebook’s Careers site and LinkedIn both have been taken down. ““We are looking for an individual with strong communication, organizational, and problem-solving skills to help us launch our Facebook Gifts product,” the post stated.

It’s also expected that Facebook will be rolling the site into Facebook Gifts altogether and shutting down the main hub altogether.

According to TheNextWeb’s insider, Facebook’s social gifting platform will be launched in the U.S. within a few weeks times. The acquisition and launch is of course motivated by Facebook’s struggle to improve its mobile monetization strategy. According to our earlier report on eMarketer’s United States net mobile advertising revenues, Facebook was projected to make just $72.7 million in advertising revenue in 2012 and lags behind competitors including Pandora, Twitter, Google Apple and Millennial Media. Come 2013, Facebook’s mobile mobile revenue is projected to skyrocket and earn $387 million, following behind Google.

We reached out to Facebook, but the spokesperson declined to provide any comment on the matter. So for now, TheNextWeb’s reports are left up to speculation and educated guesses.

Facebook conceded its foray into social gifting after the company built out the unsuccessful Facebook Gift Shop, which exclusively offered virtual goods like “Happy Birthday” virtual cards purchased using Facebook credits. Facebook even at one point was testing out a feature for third-party developers to integrate their own virtual and even physical gifts that users could purchase within the Gift Shop. Then social gifting was a feature that was scrubbed and taken over by third-party developers that integrated their technology into Facebook as a Facebook App.

With this in mind, existing developers in the social gifting space like Give.it and Wrapp may have something to worry about with the launch of Facebook’s own social gifting app. And what we would like to learn is whether gifts will include physical goods, virtual items, or a combination of both. By looking at the job listing we can expect at the least that products will purchased by Facebook and be housed by the company in a manner similar to the inner workings of Karma.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Twitter refines advertising services with ‘interest targeting’

Twitter has introduced ad target based on is user's interests in an attempt to lure more advertisers.

Today, Twitter has launched its own targeted advertising, which offers advertisers the option to target Twitter users’ specific ‘topical interests.’ The move puts Twitter a step closer to similar offerings from Facebook and Google.

Twitter offers the majority of its advertiser one of two advertising options: Promoted Tweets and Promoted Accounts. Promoted Tweets highlight an advertiser’s tweets and displays them prominently on a Twitter user’s feed. Promoted Accounts are featured at the top of “Who to follow,” on the left of their homepage. Initially, targeted ads on Twitter were all-encompassing through geography and devices. Targeting more specific categories wasn’t much of an option. But now Twitter offers two “flavors” of interest targeting.

The first can refine an advertiser’s efforts with its Promoted Tweets and Promoted Accounts campaign by targeting more than 350 interest categories in a two-tier hierarchy. For example, advertisers can select individual genres of entertainment from the broader “Movies and Television” category, which you can see in the example below.

In its second option of interest targeting, advertisers can target certain types of Twitter users based on the @usernames that are relevant to the advertiser’s campaign.  Twitter explains this feature in a blog post: “If you’re promoting your indie band’s next tour, you can create a custom audience by adding @usernames of related bands, thus targeting users with the same taste in music.” 

To further sweeten the pot, Twitter has lowered the minimum bid for ad runs to just a single penny, which will likely lure in a large number of smaller advertisers that might not have otherwise opted to promote their product or service on the microblogging platform.

To a degree, Twitter’s advertising services are nearing closer and closer to what Facebook has been offering all along. Even Twitter’s second flavor of interest targeting by usernames is reminiscent of Facebook’s sponsored results. Facebook advertisers can include their Facebook app or pages in the search results of its competitors by bidding for pages, apps, or places. With over 140 million monthly active Twitter users, and projected advertising revenue to reach $399.5 million by 2013, it’s still a far cry from the revised projection of $5.48 billion Facebook is expected to generate by next year. But the rate of its growth is indicative of the realization that Facebook’s ad revenue growth is leveling out, unlike Twitter’s hastening ad revenue growth. Facebook’s ad revenue is forecasted to grow 29.5 percent between 2012 and 2013, while Twitter’s ad revenue is expected to grow by 55 percent during the same period.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

New IKEA catalogs feature computer renders, moving away from still photography

In an attempt to cut costs and have more creative freedom, IKEA is pushing toward computer-generated press images rather than photography.

If you’ve ever looked at an IKEA catalog wondering how impossibly flawless the model rooms look, it might be because those pictures aren’t actually stills of a real showroom. According to reports from the Wall Street Journal, IKEA is now pushing toward 3D renderings of marketing pictures instead of real photographs — making our interior design dreams that much more difficult to attain.

The shift toward CGI renderings will both help IKEA cut production costs and think more imaginatively. ”With real photography you’re constrained by the four walls,” Anneli Sjogren, Head of Photography at IKEA, said. “A kitchen has to be built in a week or two and then torn down the following week to make room for a bedroom shoot… everything has to run like clockwork.”

Calling it a “clever way to save money,” Sjogren said with photoshoots, teams would toss out props for the previous shoots, making the entire process wasteful. With virtual renderings, artists can design entire sets for various rooms and adjust the color to appeal to particular audience. For example, American IKEA customers might find darker wood more modern while Europeans might prefer lighter wood hues. Designing the photos in 3D allows for artists to manipulate the changes without setting up new photoshoots.

This year, about 12 percent of photographs found in IKEA catalogs were created virtually. IKEA hopes to increase this margin up to 25 percent by next year. But will you miss the real life photograph?

If you can’t tell the difference between these two pictures, then probably not. One of the photos above is a real set while the other is a digital creation. The ability to make virtual renderings will also help IKEA cut down the time it takes to create a full catalog, which can run up to 10 months from concept to publication. IKEA’s first stab at 3D photographs began in 2005 with just three interns who specialized in graphic design for their graduate school thesis. Now, the Swedish furniture company is collaborating with photo schools to teach its staff of 285 photographers, carpenters, and interior designers more complex computer skills.

And in case you were wondering, the right photo is the 3D-rendered image. To see more photos of real versus fake IKEA photographs, check them out at the Wall Street Journal.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Tough and touch – the Sony Xperia acro S comes by for a visit

The Sony Xperia acro S stopped by our office and brought along its powerful 12 MP snapper and HD Mobile BRAVIA display in an attempt to impress us.

If you were thought that the Xperia acro S is just another smartphone, you thought wrong. It’s an IP57 certified device, meaning it’s dust resistant and can survive when submerged in up to a meter of water for as long as 30 minutes.

The Xperia Acro S is rather thick for a top dog at 11.9 mm, but makes up for it by bringing some extra element resistance and good handling. It also packs a 4.3″ display of 720 x 1280 resolution, which adds up to the impressive 342 ppi density. It also features the Mobile BRAVIA engine for enhanced colors and superior contrast.

Sony has blessed the Xperia Acro S with some serious image capturing prowess. Featuring 12 MP camera, capable of 1080p video recording on the back, the Sony Xperia acro S is certainly going to end up on many cameraphone lovers’ shortlists.

The Sony Xperia Acro S

Source : blog[dot]gsmarena[dot]com

Obvious Corp. introduces Medium, a new go at evolving Web media

From the creators of Twitter and Blogger comes Medium, a next-gen attempt at Web publishing.

When the early Twitter team composed of co-founders Biz Stone, Ev Williams, and early staffer Jason Goldman announced they would be relaunching their Obvious Corp. incubator this past Spring, the first product we heard anything about was the Quora-meets-Twitter Branch – but now it’s clear there is plenty more in the Obvious Corp. arsenal.

Yesterday, the team peeled back the wraps on Medium, a user-friendly, visually-heavy Web publishing platform. “[We] decided to take on the project of building a new publishing platform from scratch, not just because it’s in our wheelhouse, but because we believe publishing – and media, more broadly – is important,” Obvious Corp announced via blog. “…Medium is designed to allow people to choose the level of contribution they prefer.”

Thus far, only a select handful of Medium users have posting abilities, but the team has invited the world to come on in and take a look. The interface is simple as could be, and posted content is segmented by popularity and by how new it is. While you currently can’t use Medium for publishing your own content, everyone is able to comment and hit “like” on what’s currently available.

It should be obvious (no pun intended) right away that this is a next-gen blogging tool. Making a play for the CMS market is a smart one, as the Web publishing industry as a whole has grown rather complacent. WordPress, hands down, no arguments, dominates — it powers more than 16 percent of all Websites, at last count. And if we’re being honest here, there are no real competitors that can sway professional-level publishers away from WordPress. Tumblr, for all of its inherent usefulness and aesthetic appeal, doesn’t have the back-end capabilities that major media outlets need.

We’re at a crossroads with Web publishing, where curating, sharing, re-posting, and discovery are just as vital to a network as producing compelling content is. Medium uses the increasingly familiar tiles-on-canvas interface that Pinterest helped popularize, and big, browser-filling images that are quickly becoming a Web-wide staple. It actually reminds me of Jux quite a bit. There’s more focus on the topics – or collections, as Medium calls them – than the writers, which doesn’t speak much to its adoption as a WordPress killer.

But Medium probably isn’t trying to be a WordPress killer; no one has much interest in such a futile endeavor. Usually when a new Web product launches, it’s to capitalize on an emptiness in the market, or offer a better option to what’s currently available, and that doesn’t feel like what Medium is trying to do. Instead, Obvious Corp. seems to be trying to evolve the conversation about blogging and Web communication with Medium; it’s a gentle nudge in a new direction. Whether we’re receptive or not remains to be seen. 

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com