Blog
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$99 Ouya game console delayed until late June
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President Obama Talks Jobs, Skills and Opportunity in Austin
Today President Obama traveled to Austin, Texas, kicking off a series of Middle Class Jobs & Opportunity Tours focused on creating a strong and vibrant economy built on good middle class jobs.
The first stop on today’s tour was Manor New Tech High School, where students are learning the real-world skills they need to fill jobs that are available right now. Watch the President’s remarks at the school here.
President Barack Obama has lunch and talks with local residents at Stubb’s BBQ in Austin, Texas, May 9, 2013.
(Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
Next, President Obama sat down for lunch (Texas barbecue, of course) with local residents to discuss his vision for making sure that hard work leads to a decent living. He also met with technology entrepreneurs who showed him some of the tools and products they are developing that will drive America’s long-term economic growth.
President Barack Obama listens to a presentation about a new car that you can drive a wheelchair into, at Capital Factory in Austin, Texas, May 9, 2013.
(Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
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Joss Whedon $100 M: He Doesn’t Have “Downey Money”
Joss Whedon recently cleared up some rumors on Whedonesque.com; namely, about how much he’s going to clear on “Avengers 2″.
“I’m not getting $100 mil[lion] on Avengers 2,” he wrote. “I’m not making Downey money. I’m making A LOT, which is exciting. I’m not pretending to be a poor farmer, an Everyman, an ANYman. But that number is nuts.”
The “Downey” in question would be Robert Downey Jr., who stars in “Iron Man 3′ and is reportedly paid quite a nice sum for the role.
Here’s the entire post:
Hi guys.
I was going to let it slide, but I’ve got this sour taste in my mouth. (Mmmm, lemonade!). Some facts are not facts. I’m not going to go into the whole thing, but jeepers, I’m not getting $100 mil on Avengers 2. If I were, I would come on this site and laugh and laugh and laugh. I’m not making Downey money. I’m making A LOT, which is exciting. I’m not pretending to be a poor farmer, an Everyman, an ANYman. But that number is nuts. A few other things about me that have been “reported” that people should take with a grain of salt:
That I throw wild Hollywood parties where everyone is naked and dancing and wild and I remember to serve enough snacks.
That I can get a movie greenlit by sighing and staring into the middle distance.
That I ate a unicorn and made it winter for three years.
That I “can write.”
Well, that’s a load off. Sorry to get so personal — the whole thing’s a bit tawdry. But honestly, it bugged me. I’m off for a nice juicy steak. There’s a place downtown that does it with rosemary butter, it tastes just like unico — like a steak.
BYE-ee! J.
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CheckinDJ is the Foursquare for Spotify
CheckinDJ may be the cure for the bar jukebox dominated by die-hard Nickelback fans. True to its name, it’s a check-in app that uses music preferences from social network profiles to create playlists for coffeeshops and other venues.
Built by Mobile Radicals, a group of researchers and developers at Lancaster University in the U.K., the little jukebox lets users input their music tastes by tapping their phones on the device. The combined tastes of the group determine the playlist, which is streamed from Spotify. The playlist is fluid depending on people’s participation, so no one user can hog the music with their own favorites. There is also a limit on how many times a user can check in, and the majority has to agree on a musical genre for it to get played.
CheckinDJ uses a capability that many smartphones already have – near field communication (NFC), similar to RFID and present for example in the Samsung Galaxy SIII (Samsung calls them TecTiles). Checking in involves tapping the phone to the CheckinDJ “jukebox,” which is built off a Raspberry Pi mini-PC. CheckinDJ can also be used with other NFC-tagged items like library or loyalty cards, and once a few musical genres are selected and a social network identity is input (this happens automatically when using smartphones), the user can enter the jukebox “system of influence,” where they will start to affect the playlist.
Playlist influence increases with each additional linked social networking account and each new connected friend that checks in. The system updates every 20 seconds to adapt to changing group composition and preferences. CheckinDJ sounds like the perfect app to help turn your neighborhood diner into a Harlem Shake flash mob.
Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.- NewNet Q4: Platform mania and social commerce shakeout
- NewNet Q4: Platform mania and social commerce shakeout
- Rankings: Spotify Leads the Streaming Music Scene
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Mobile app developed at UCLA helps women choose birth control method
A new, free iPad application developed at UCLA helps women navigate through the sometimes confusing process of selecting a birth control method using medically accurate information. The easy-to-use app highlights the most effective types of birth control and reveals potential side effects and risks associated with each option.The app, called Plan A Birth Control or Plan ABC, is designed to help a woman prepare for her visit with a contraception counselor or an OB-GYN. It was developed by Dr. Aparna Sridhar, a clinical fellow in family planning in the UCLA Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology.“Women using the app will be better informed and already have a baseline knowledge about what they’re looking for when they see their doctors,” said Sridhar, who is completing her master’s degree at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health. “That way, doctors may need less time to explain the different birth control methods, and can spend more time focused on a more narrow discussion tailored to the individual patient and her particular needs.”Available in iTunes, the app lists the top 10 forms of reversible birth control from most to least effective, ranging from the IUD to hormonal treatments to the female condom. Sridhar drew the content for Plan ABC from respected family-planning websites and vetted it for accuracy. One of her goals in creating the app was to ensure that women could easily access the most current, medically correct information, because much of the information on the Internet is either unreliable or dated, she said.Once a user selects a type of birth control from the app, questions appear that help the woman decide if that method is right for her. For example, smokers and women over 35 are advised to consider a type of contraception other than the birth control pill, because of the risk of complications.“The app tells a woman everything she needs to know about the form of birth control she chooses — a photo, how it works, how to use it, how it’s inserted, its efficacy and any side effects or warning signs that something may be wrong,” Sridhar said.Sridhar created the app in about three months as part of her fellowship research project. Development costs were funded in part by a grant from the Society of Family Planning. Now, Sridhar is conducting a study to measure how women’s knowledge of birth control methods is related to the differences in their contraception choice.“If the study finds that the app is as effective as seeing a birth control counselor or physician, then we can make it available in waiting rooms and save both time and money by using our human resources to handle issues that a piece of software can’t,” she said, adding that the app could eventually be accessible through kiosks in physician’s waiting rooms.Dr. Angela Chen, an associate clinical professor of obstetrics and gynecology at UCLA and chief of family planning services, said the app helps women actively engage in their own health decisions.“We anticipate that this will translate into better adherence to health commitments,” Chen said. “Witnessing the app being used by our patients over the past several months, I already see the benefit in terms of time saved by the clinicians. It makes our job much easier, and patients seem to enjoy navigating the app and engaging in a multi-dimensional learning experience about birth control.”For more news, visit the UCLA Newsroom and follow us on Twitter. -
iPhone growth stalls as Android continues to nip away at Apple’s market share
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Keeping Up the Fight Against Child Sex Trafficking
Ed. note: The full text of the op-ed by Senior Advisor to the President Valerie Jarrett is printed below. The piece is published today on The Huffington Post, and can be found here.
Yesterday, I was honored to attend the 7th Annual Pearls of Purpose Gala hosted by FAIRgirls. FAIR stands for Free, Aware, Inspired, and Restored, and it works to prevent the exploitation of girls worldwide with empowerment and education. At the gala, I spoke about the horror of child sex trafficking—a crime that President Obama and his administration have been fighting hard to end for good.
About a year ago, I visited FAIRgirls. I will never forget sitting around the table with a group of girls as they used beads to make earrings, necklaces, and bracelets. At first, I was struck at how hard they each concentrated on their masterpieces, with meticulous attention to detail. But then, slowly, they began to share their stories.
As the girls described the atrocities they had suffered—in many cases, for years—my blood boiled. How on earth could this happen time and time again, right here in our community? How could the internet be used so blatantly as a tool to sell our children into slavery?
At the same time, I was inspired by the professionalism and sensitivity of the FAIRgirls staff and the resilience, strength, and courage of each of the girls, as well as the steadfast and tender support they demonstrated to one another. Were it not for FAIRgirls, I cannot imagine what the future of thousands of girls would be.
It still shocks me that we are forced to ever string these three words together: Child. Sex. Trafficking.There is no issue as grave and devastating.While FAIRgirls is helping to transform the lives of girls, one girl at a time, we must all accept responsibility to vigilantly ensure that no girls are exploited, abused, or trafficked in the first place. And if they are, we must provide them with loving, patient, and comprehensive care so that they do not just survive, but thrive.
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GiveCorps Closes $822,000 Angel Round
GiveCorps has closed a round of angel funding worth $822,000. Investors include: The Abell Foundation; David Warnock, founder of Camden Partners; Vince Talbert, co-founder of Bill Me Later; Lou Pugliese, former CEO of Moodlerooms and former CEO of Blackboard; Frank Bonsal, Jr., co-founder of New Enterprise Associates (NEA); and, Joe Hardiman, former head of the National Association of Securities Dealers. Baltimore-based GiveCorps says it creates technology to make philanthropy easy and accessible to everyone.
PRESS RELEASE
GiveCorps, a Baltimore-based startup dedicated to creating technology to make philanthropy easy and accessible to everyone, has closed a round of angel funding worth $822,000.
The round allows GiveCorps to expand its team and expand the marketing of its newly launched GiveCorps.Pro platform. Investors in the round include:· The Abell Foundation
· David Warnock, founder of Camden Partners
· Vince Talbert, co-founder of Bill Me Later
· Lou Pugliese, former CEO of Moodlerooms and former CEO of Blackboard
· Frank Bonsal, Jr., co-founder of New Enterprise Associates (NEA)
· Joe Hardiman, former head of the National Association of Securities Dealers
“We’re honored to have a dynamic group of investors who see the vision of our platform,” said GiveCorps CEO Jamie McDonald. “Not only will GiveCorps be creating jobs, but our expansion enables us to reach, empower and grow more organizations.”
GivCorps.com launched in 2011, as a crowdfunding site for nonprofits that paired with special deals from area merchants and restaurants. The site quickly grew and the company was approached by a variety of nonprofits and universities who wanted a more comprehensive platform for their own fundraising.
“Though we originally launched with a consumer focus, several large nonprofits, including several colleges approached GiveCorps about the success of our platform,” said McDonald. “We recognized the power of the GiveCorps software as a tool for larger nonprofits seeking to grow support among online and Millennial constituents.”
The company recently launched GiveCorps.Pro, a turnkey SaaS solution for Higher Ed, K-12 schools, Faith Organizations and other large nonprofits. GiveCorps.Pro is a donor-centered, mobile, social, giving platform that helps organizations engage supporters, grow audiences, and boost their base of recurring givers.
Using GiveCorps.Pro, a nonprofit’s supporters can:● Give anytime, anywhere on a fully mobile platform – no app download necessary.
● Create personal profiles with their giving interests, their contact info and social links.
● Create GiveAccounts where funds can be ‘saved’ over time for giving, make giving affordable and easy for site users.
● Track all of their activity and store tax receipts through the “GiveVault.”
● Make their giving “green” with a completely paperless interface.
● Share their donations across a wide variety of social networks.
For organizations, GiveCorps.Pro’s powerful administrative tools offer reporting and analytics to learn from donors, to integrate with their existing donor management system, to capitalize on existing campaigns and marketing, and to maximize staff time for more impact.
About GiveCorps
Founded in 2011, GiveCorps combines technology, storytelling, and social marketing to redefine what it means to be a philanthropist. The mission of GiveCorps.Pro is to engage and inspire passionate support of giving communities so they can deepen their impact.
GiveCorps.Pro, the company’s private-label platform for institutional fundraisers, offers a donor-centered Software as a Service (SaaS) technologies to create long-lasting relationships with donors. GiveCorps.Pro helps organizations identify, market and publicize their impact, directly linking impact stories to giving opportunities. Utilizing the best practices of GiveCorps.com, GiveCorps.Pro provides a powerful, custom branded, fully mobile online giving platform to nonprofits, educational institutions, faith organizations and corporations.The post GiveCorps Closes $822,000 Angel Round appeared first on peHUB.
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Goldman Forms Resolute Anesthesia
Goldman Sachs Private Capital Investing Group has acquired Broad Anesthesia Associates and Mid-Florida Anesthesia Associates and formed Resolute Anesthesia and Pain Solutions, a statement says. The physician-founders and partners of the companies took part in the deal. Regions Bank has provided a senior credit facility to fund the Resolute’s growth initiatives. Cross Keys Capital advised Broad and Mid-Florida. Boca Raton, Fla.-based Resolute provides anesthesia and pain management services.
PRESS RELEASE
Resolute Anesthesia and Pain Solutions, LLC (“Resolute”), a provider of anesthesia and pain management services, has been formed, participants in the venture announced today. Resolute was formed by the physician-founders and partners of Broad Anesthesia Associates and Mid-Florida Anesthesia Associates in a recapitalization led by Goldman, Sachs & Co. (NYSE:GS). The company is based in Boca Raton, Florida.
The recapitalization of Broad Anesthesia Associates and Mid-Florida Anesthesia Associates was led by the Goldman Sachs Private Capital Investing Group. Both anesthesia groups were advised by Cross Keys Capital in the transaction. The newly-formed Resolute is a physician-led organization dedicated to delivering the highest quality of care to its patients. Resolute currently serves over 25 locations in Florida, Missouri, and Illinois and expects to grow by partnering with leading quality anesthesia groups nationally.
Regions Bank has provided a senior credit facility to fund the company’s growth initiatives. The partnership between Resolute and Goldman Sachs is unique in that it allows Resolute’s current and future physician-stakeholders to participate significantly in the future growth of the company.
Andrew Barnett will serve as the company’s Chief Executive Officer. As the former CEO of The Center for Wound Healing, Andrew Barnett has extensive experience building healthcare services organizations of national scale.
Resolute is investing in state-of-the-art revenue cycle management, electronic medical record, practice management, finance, insurance, contracting, and other administrative functions. The company has access to incremental equity and debt financing and expects to partner with other physician groups to create a leading national provider of anesthesia and pain solutions that is dedicated to excellence in clinical care.
As the growing cost of complying with federal and state regulatory requirements increased the time and financial burden of managing their practices, Resolute’s physicians sought a partner who could provide both the capital and the management expertise to grow their company while allowing them to focus on treating patients and providing the best quality of care.
“The practice of medicine requires increasing investments in information technology, operations and compliance,” said Dr. Harvey Plosker, a founding partner of Broad Anesthesia Associates. “Our view is that of all the strategic alternatives we looked at, our partnership with Goldman Sachs provides us with the broadest array of capabilities, including the management expertise and capital that will allow us and our partners to focus on practicing medicine and at the same time realize our long-term strategic goals.”
“We pride ourselves at being ‘ahead of the curve’ with respect to patient management, compliance and the overall patient experience,” said Dr. Marc Levine, a founding partner of Mid-Florida Anesthesia Associates. “We believe this emphasis is a key differentiator for us and the reason we have been so successful. We learned that Goldman Sachs shares this vision, and that our partnership provides Resolute Anesthesia and Pain Solutions with the foundation to deliver anesthesia and pain management services on a national basis with like-minded doctors who believe the patient comes first.”
About Resolute Anesthesia and Pain Solutions, LLC
Headquartered in Boca Raton, FL, Resolute provides anesthesia and pain management solutions to its patients. The company was recently formed by a group of physician partners in a recapitalization led by Goldman, Sachs & Co. Resolute provides state-of-the-art revenue cycle management, compliance, and administrative support capabilities and seeks to partner with leading anesthesia providers nationally. The company currently serves over 25 locations in Florida, Missouri, and Illinois.
About Goldman Sachs Private Capital Investing
Private Capital Investing (“PCI”) is Goldman Sachs’ investment platform dedicated to providing preferred equity and mezzanine capital to growth and middle market companies based in North America. PCI invests $20 million – $150 million of equity per transaction in the form of common, preferred, and structured equity. Contact: [email protected]
The post Goldman Forms Resolute Anesthesia appeared first on peHUB.
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Twitter Has Acquired Ubalo, According to Ubalo
While Twitter has not confirmed the news itself, the company has apparently acquired Ubalo, a “scalable computation” startup.
The news appears to have been broken by TechCrunch, and Ubalo has posted the following message on its homepage:
We’ve got some exciting news: The Ubalo team is joining Twitter. In early 2011, we started Ubalo to make large-scale computing easier and more accessible to a technical audience, and we’ve had a great time working with our partners and customers on a number of interesting products. When we met the infrastructure folks at Twitter, we realized that it’s a company with brilliant people, strong momentum, exciting challenges and a promising future. We quickly became enthusiastic about the possibility of collaborating with them and the impact we could have there.
A few days ago, Twitter agreed to acquire our technology and we agreed to join their staff. We look forward to working with Twitter in the years to come.
Thanks for your support and interest in Ubalo!
TechCrunch says Twitter declined to “officially” comment on the deal.
We’ve got some exciting news: The Ubalo team is joining Twitter. Read more: ubalo.com.
— Ubalo, Inc. (@ubalo) May 9, 2013
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Google TV gets free access to Hulu, ABC, NBC, CBS, and more via PlayOn for a limited time
One annoyance of Google TV has always been the lack of video streaming apps for the platform. PlayOn has arrived for Google TV to help, allowing users to stream Hulu, ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox, Comedy Central, MTV, VH1, Nickelodeon, and more than 50 other channels to the set-top box.
For a long time PlayOn has offered a way to stream content from your computer to devices that didn’t support it, including Netflix before it was officially available for Android. PlayOn streams video content though a home network, so a server application needs to be installed on your PC in addition to the PlayOn app on the device being streamed to.
Normally, PlayOn costs $25 per year or $50 for a lifetime license, but for a limited time, PlayOn is free for Google TV, so go and get it now. More information on PlayOn and the official press release can be found after the break.
More information: PlayOn.tv
PlayOn Brings Free Access to Hulu, ABC, NBC, CBS and More to Google TV
PlayOn software free to Google TV users
Business Wire
SEATTLE — May 9, 2013 – PlayOn, the media server software from MediaMall Technologies that streams online videos to TVs and mobile devices, today announced that PlayOn will be free for Google TV users for a limited amount of time. PlayOn brings online content from Hulu, Hulu Plus, ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox to Google TV, channels that are otherwise inaccessible on Google TV. With PlayOn, Google TV users can also stream online content from more than 60 channels like Discovery, Comedy Central and ESPN as well as personal media files.
“For more than two years, Google TV users have been blocked from watching their favorite shows and movies from Hulu and the major networks,” said Jeff Lawrence, CEO Media Mall Technologies. “PlayOn for Google TV effectively removes this barrier and opens up a lot of new content to cable cord-cutters. We feel using PlayOn with Google TV is a no-brainer, and we want to give users the opportunity to see why with our free PlayOn offer.”
Interested Google TV users can find information on how to install PlayOn for Google TV at http://www.playon.tv/googletv as well as how to redeem their free service for Google TV. This offer can only be redeemed through the above link and no credit card is required.
About MediaMall Technologies
MediaMall Technologies, the creators of PlayOn and PlayLater, was founded in 2003 to make it simple, affordable, and fun to enjoy your favorite movies, TV shows, and videos from the Internet on your TV or on the go. The PlayOn and PlayLater software products allow customers to recreate the traditional cable and satellite TV viewing experience using only the Internet and their existing hardware for a fraction of the price – and even extend that viewing experience to mobile devices. MediaMall operates with offices in New York, Seattle, and Copenhagen and can be found online at www.PlayOn.tv and www.PlayLater.tv. PlayOn and PlayLater are trademarks of MediaMall Technologies, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
Come comment on this article: Google TV gets free access to Hulu, ABC, NBC, CBS, and more via PlayOn for a limited time
Visit TalkAndroid for Android news, Android guides, and much more! -
Charles Ramsey Interview Gets The Autotune Treatment
Charles Ramsey is not your typical hero. That much was obvious in his interview last week after helping rescue three kidnapped women who had been held in a basement for a decade. That interview was soon turned into a song that became a viral sensation.
Ramsey told TMZ that he absolutely adores the autotuned version of his interview. He told the Web site that that he “couldn’t have ever done something like that” and that he fully intends to “bump it like I’m Tupac.”
So, what is Ramsey doing now that he has become an Internet sensation? He says that he’s now a manager for a local hip-hop artist named Mike Feez. The first song from Mike Feez will be out later this year, and is called “Dance Lyke U Humpin.”
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What Apple really means when it says it has “sold” a product
When can you count a smartphone as “sold” and when can you count it as “shipped”? For mobile industry reporters, this rather arcane argument never fails to come up each quarter when discussing the health of the players in the smartphone or tablet markets. And it always revolves around (who else?) Apple.
It’s almost gospel in the mobile tech media and among mobile enthusiasts that Apple reports the actual number of iPads, iPhones (and Macs and iPods) it sells directly to consumers during each quarter in its earnings reports. Those numbers are often used disparagingly against other mobile companies when third-party market research firms like IDC report shipment estimates. Still, it’s difficult to get a totally accurate picture of the market; we’ve struggled with it here along with everyone else.
The most common interpretation is that Apple is being open about its shipment totals while its competitors are too shy or scared to share their actual sales numbers. The latter is partly true: Samsung and Amazon, for example, two of the most prominent Android device vendors, famously refuse to share either shipment or sales totals in their quarterly results. There are no legal requirements that companies do so. But that secrecy can be used to imply that Samsung or Microsoft or ZTE or whomever are “channel stuffing,” which is retail lingo for shipping a bunch of products to a distributor even if a business can’t or won’t sell them, just to make it look like there’s demand for its product.
But in this case, it’s not quite that simple.
Apple’s “sold” numbers are really its shipment numbers, according to several prominent financial analysts who obsessively follow every word and number that emerges from Cupertino. Horace Dediu, who writes the Asymco blog, told me that “Apple’s reports show shipments not sales.” He added, “All vendors as far as I know report shipment data since that is what they can record.” He has written about the nuances of what being “sold” actually means as well.
When is a sale a sale?
An Apple store in China.
An Apple spokesman pointed me to the company’s earnings statements. Here’s what it says about how it recognizes revenue from the sale of a product:
The Company recognizes revenue when persuasive evidence of an arrangement exists, delivery has occurred, the sales price is fixed or determinable, and collection is probable. Product is considered delivered to the customer once it has been shipped and title and risk of loss have been transferred. For most of the Company’s product sales, these criteria are met at the time the product is shipped. For online sales to individuals, for some sales to education customers in the U.S., and for certain other sales, the Company defers revenue until the customer receives the product because the Company retains a portion of the risk of loss on these sales during transit.
Apple is certainly different from companies like Samsung: it has a pretty enviable outlet through which to hawk its own products. There are a little over 400 Apple Stores worldwide and they, along with Apple’s own website, do a lot of the heavy lifting when it comes to getting Apple products in the hands of customers. And products sold through Apple’s retail channels are indeed products sold directly to customers.
But Apple doesn’t only sell direct: it has retail partners too. We’re talking about big companies like Best Buy, Walmart, Target, to name just a few, and mobile carriers worldwide. Note that in Apple’s most recent earnings release, it reported $5.2 billion in net sales through its retail channel, but about $38 billion in net sales through all of its geographic regions, which represent the location of customers when they purchased products.
When Apple says it sold 37.5 million iPhones and 19.5 million iPads, as it did in its second fiscal quarter press release, this is often interpreted as Apple declaring that 37.5 million iPhones and 19.5 million iPads have been purchased and are currently in purses, pockets, backpacks and briefcases somewhere. But Apple, as several financial analysts pointed out, reports something called “channel inventory too,” which it announces during those same earnings calls.
“Their reported numbers are ‘sell in,’” Toni Sacconaghi, research analyst who follows Apple for Bernstein & Co., said. That number includes product sales to retail partners. “They typically state during their earnings call how much channel inventory changed in the quarter, allowing one to compute to sell out units for both iPhone and iPad.”
The “channel” is its collection of retail partners, which have grown steadily over the years to include retail powerhouses like Walmart and Best Buy. Apple knows how many iPhones and iPads it sent to AT&T or to Best Buy — during the most recent earnings call, CFO Peter Oppenheimer noted the company had “11.6 million iPhones in channel inventory, a sequential increase of about 1 million iPhones” during the quarter. Apple also said it had about “four to six weeks of channel inventory.” That means it takes about four to six weeks for its inventory going to retailers to sell out.Making it count
But Apple has already marked those 11.6 million iPhones as “sold,” since the company has transfered the product to its retail partners, in this case the “customer” as outlined in the revenue recognition criteria above. Therefore, to understand the bigger picture of how Apple is doing versus its competition, it’s best to count those 37.5 million iPhones as “shipped:” Apple doesn’t technically know if all 11.6 million iPhones sold to retail partners have actually been sold to end users, and for the purposes of recording a sale, it doesn’t care.
Obviously Apple doesn’t want iPhones or iPads piling up on store shelves, and there is certainly no reason to believe that is actually happening. It’s a good indication to Apple whether those products sold based on how often the retailer partner reorders products. So while demand for Apple products remains pretty high, automatically assuming that Apple sold all 37.5 million iPhones to actual people during that three-month period is wrong.
It seems like a small thing, but it is important to keep in mind when evaluating the mobile market, especially as it matures and multiple sales channels are employed. In order to present the clearest possible picture of how demand for Apple’s products stands in relation to its competitors, we will be referring to Apple’s announced numbers as “shipped” from now on.
Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.- Analyzing the wearable computing market
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- Mobile Q2: Smartphone growth surges; iPad’s rule continues
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Kate Moss Nude in New Self-Tan Ad
Supermodel Kate Moss is no stranger to nudity, though she may not always have been comfortable baring her famous body. Now, the 39-year-old model is showing more skin than ever in a new ad for self-tanning products.
St. Tropez, a self-tanning product line, this week announced that Kate Moss is the “new face and body” of St. Tropez. The company has released new ads featuring Moss nearly and completely naked, covered only in self-tan. St. Tropez will be marketing Moss’ look as the “Kate Tan.”
“I’m so excited to be working with St.Tropez,” said Moss. “I’ve been using the products since they started and it’s a really trustworthy, cool brand. I always feel more confident with a St.Tropez tan!”
“We’re absolutely thrilled that Kate Moss has chosen to work with us on our new campaign: it gives us the ultimate stamp of approval on the quality of our products,” said Michelle Feeney, CEO of PZ Cussons Beauty, parent company of St. Tropez. “Kate epitomises St.Tropez’s naturally glamorous approach to self-tanning and is a long-time advocate of the brand…Kate’s fashion icon status is important to us but now her growing number of beauty campaigns proves that her appeal as a beauty icon resonates with confident women across all age groups globally. Not only is she beautiful but she has this amazing attitude. St.Tropez is about confidence.”
As part of its new social media campaign, St. Tropez has posted a behind-the-scenes look at Moss’ photo shoot to its YouTube channel:
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How Facebook could save Nokia’s skin in emerging markets
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Google Shows Weird Experiment On YouTube Search Results
Some people (including myself and others around me) are seeing a weird message at the top of YouTube search results pages. It says: “Experiment: There may be confidential content in your search results. Please do not share outside Google.”
It is unclear what this experiment is exactly, but as reddit user tk338 suggests, “This is mere speculation, but it looks like something only employees should be seeing. Someone could have changed some privileges or something accidentally? In which case a privacy breach for Google!”
Another user suggests that it could have something to do with new social media tie-ins.
We’ve reached out to Google, and will update if we hear back.
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Adobe users to Adobe: take your cloud and shove it
Some users of Adobe’s Creative Suite software aren’t taking the company’s planned move to the cloud laying down.
A petition posted on Change.org Monday after Adobe announced a shift to all-cloud delivery of new Creative Suite features and versions has 3,000 signatures as of Thursday. Creative Suite — a bundle of software tools like Photoshop, Illustrator, Dreamweaver etc. — is a popular among artists, designers, publishers and others. But the current Creative Suite Version 6 will be frozen with no more updates and users wanting new features will have to shift to Creative Cloud. That requires a subscription costing $20 to $50 per user per month. If the user stops paying, the software stops working.
According to a petition posted by Derek Schoffstall, the issue is this:
” … all of Adobe’s consumers will not be able to make such a large payment every month on the CC subscription model. In the short term, the subscription model looks to be okay, but over time the only entity that is benefiting from this is Adobe. The (no longer) current model: paying a one time fee for infinite access is a much better business model and is better for the consumer.”
Some comments on the petition echoed what GigaOM readers had said earlier. Namely that freelance artists and designers — a key Adobe constituency — don’t want to rent the tools of their craft. Some threatened to stick with their existing Creative Suite product as long as possible and then seek alternatives like Corel.
One Change.org commenter, Lee Whitman, wrote:
“Due to the nature of the ‘upgrade at gun point’ nature of the change, and the forced ‘renting’ of software at prices that could be jacked up at anytime, I will not continue with the Adobe brand. It’s suicide for a small business model.”
Three thousand people isn’t a huge number out of an estimated installed base of 12.4 million Creative Suite users, but this is certainly not the kind of PR Adobe must have hoped for.
This isn’t the first time Change.org has been used to push tech vendors for change. Other petitions ask Verizon to cancel its wireless contracts and for LinkedIn to protect its users from stalkers.
Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
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Here’s Another Inside Look At PS4 Development From The Assassin’s Creed Team
Last week, Sony treated us to an inside look at PS4 development with the team behind Ubisoft’s Watch Dogs talking about the new hardware. Now Sony is back at Ubisoft again, but this time with the team behind Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag.
As expected, the Assassin’s Creed team absolutely adores the PlayStation 4. They say that the extra power allows them to add more detail to the game world. It’s nothing mind blowing, but gamers are sure to appreciate the extra flair here and there.
Like the Watch Dogs team before it, the Assassin’s Creed team seems to have latched onto the sharing capabilities of the PlayStation 4. The much lauded Share button and other social features will help make single player games part of a community that gamers may come to appreciate.
Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag will launch October 29 on the PS3, Xbox 360, Wii U and PC. It will most likely launch on next-gen systems – the PS4 and next Xbox – on their respective launch dates.
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McDonald’s Cuts Angus Burger, Adds Bacon 1/4 Pounder
McDonald’s announced this week that they will be cutting the Angus burgers from their menu, which are the most expensive items the restaurant serves.
The fast-food giant appears to be trying to keep a good selection as well as low prices, which may set them apart from their biggest competitors, including Wendy’s. They also announced they will be expanding their quarter-pounder line, including an option with bacon. It’s about time!
The company says the Angus burgers just didn’t stand a chance up against their lower-priced sandwiches or the dollar menu.
“When you can get four or five burgers off the Dollar Menu, nobody’s going to buy the Angus burger,” consultant Richard Adams said. “The Dollar Menu has become a real problem for these chains.”
Because of an intense drought last year, the price of beef rose substantially and restaurants had to compensate by offering up more chicken choices. Now, they say, they’re looking to give customers more options while keeping their food affordable in a rough economy.
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The Secret to Effective Motivation
An interview with Heidi Grant Halvorson and E. Tory Higgins, authors of Focus: Use Different Ways of Seeing the World to Power Success and Influence. For more, see the article Do You Play to Win–or to Not Lose?
A written transcript will be available by May 17.
