In the 11 days leading up to Thanksgiving and through the weekend, “Twilight: Breaking Dawn – Part 2” generated millions of tweets, but unlike many of the other movies playing over the holiday, a fair share of the social chatter was negative.
A deeper analysis of the tweets found that the disappointment had more to do with the series ending, showing how engagement measurements have become more accurate.
IBM researchers partnered with the USC Annenberg Innovation Lab to analyze more than 5 million move-related tweets, finding “Twilight” accounted for 4.25 million. “Skyfall” came in second with only 700,000. However, the Bond film’s social sentiment was 90 percent positive, while “Twilight” dropped from 90 to 75 percent by Saturday.
“The mystery why a hit film like ‘Twilight’ might generate such a reception on Twitter could foreshadow the next advance in computer science,” notes The Hollywood Reporter. IBM used the artificial intelligence computer Watson, famous for beating humans on “Jeopardy!,” to determine the emotional content of tweets.
Steve Canepa, general manager for IBM’s Media & Entertainment Group, explains that “studios once had the luxury of slowly releasing a film, building audience momentum over time and adjusting marketing campaigns based on what was or wasn’t working,” THR reports.
“But now that social media audiences are rendering their snap viral judgments, Canepa believes it’s more important than ever that studios adapt likewise by getting their marketing correct at a film’s launch. And that means understanding more quickly than ever how audiences are reacting.”
“Canepa adds that predictive analytics driven by social sentiment also might help researchers appreciate which film and TV storylines work best in particular genres to precise demographics. Or which Hollywood stars match up best with each other,” the article explains.
French startup SigFox plans to roll out a wireless network covering the whole of France with just 1,000 antennas. But unlike cellular connections for phones that demand 5,000 microwatts, SigFox’s connections will use only 100 and will connect devices, not humans.
“SigFox is focused on connecting cheap sensors and ‘dumb’ home appliances to the Internet,” reports Technology Review. “The goal is to make all kinds of appliances and infrastructure, from power grids to microwave ovens, smarter by letting them share data.”
Thomas Nicholls, chief of business development at SigFox, explains that the technology used for human networks is not suitable for appliances. The company developed its own radio technology called ultra narrow band that “allows devices connecting to the network to consume very little energy, says Nicholls, and it allows for very long-range connections,” notes the article.
“Further cost savings come from operating the technology on parts of the radio spectrum that are free to use,” not the expensive licensed spectrum that cellular networks operate on. “Nicholls says it should be possible for SigFox to offer its service to a connected device for as little as $1 a year.”
“The features that make SigFox’s network cheap to install and maintain have the downside of limiting the network’s speed. At best, it can currently transfer information at the rate of 100 bits per second; 3G mobile networks move data at least 1,000 times faster. That rules out some visions for the Internet of Things, such as distributing cheap video cameras or microphones across the world. But Nicholls says that his company’s focus is on making it cheap to install Internet-connected sensors.”
SigFox connections could replace Wi-Fi as the standard for medical devices and gadgets because they maintain constant connection.
“Samsung will describe the first mobile applications processor to use ARM’s big.little concept at the International Solid-State Circuits Conference in February,” reports EE Times.
The company is scheduled to present details on the 28-nanometer system-on-a-chip incorporating ARM’s big.little architecture during the semiconductor industry’s premier conference.
“We expect the Samsung part is the first big.little processor,” suggests senior analyst Kevin Krewell of The Linley Group. “The A7 cores should be capable of handling most [smartphone] tasks, with the A15 cores only required for maximum performance needs, like video games.”
“Samsung will detail a 28-nm SoC with two quad-core clusters,” explains the article. “One cluster runs at 1. 8 GHz, has a 2 MByte L2 cache and is geared for high performance apps; the other runs at 1.2 GHz and is tuned for energy efficiency.”
“The chip and ones like it from Qualcomm, Nvidia and others will roll out in 2013, competing for sockets in tablets with Intel’s 22-nm Haswell, which will not be described at ISSCC.”
Also expected to be described at the conference: Nvidia’s 20 Gbit/s serial die-to-die link made in 28-nm CMOS (which may be part of Nvidia’s Project Denver and its family of processors merging ARM and graphics cores), a new version of the Godson 3B processor made using a 32-nm process from China’s Institute of Computing Technology, and a 200-MHz video decoder from Texas Instruments and MIT implementing the High-Efficiency Video Coding draft standard.
When driving, it’s helpful to have a competent navigator and DJ so you can focus on the road. And who’s better suited for the task than the pithy female assistant you already carry around in your pocket?
“General Motors says a number of its 2013 models will be compatible with Apple’s wise-cracking, know-it-all virtual assistant, Siri,” Technology Review writes. “In the Chevrolet Spark or the Sonic LTZ or RS, you’ll be able to connect to an iPhone and then use Siri’s Eyes Free mode without ever glancing away from the road. Siri will find directions, look up information online, send e-mails, and the rest.”
Already, voice control has become fairly popular in newer vehicles, but many of the proprietary systems are faulty or limited.
“Siri could perhaps offer drivers a more sophisticated, and less annoying, kind of voice control,” the article suggests. GM is only one of many car manufacturers that have announced plans to integrate Siri in their cars.
The post includes a video of the iPhone Siri functionality in the Chevrolet Spark.
“Will in-car voice control really be less distracting when virtual navigator can do so much more: everything from checking your calendar to sending out snarky tweets about fellow drivers?” Technology Review asks. “Siri might answer that, too, in time.”
Android phones currently control 75 percent of the global smartphone market and 53 percent of the American market, reports Business Insider. This is compared to 15 percent and 34 percent, respectively, for the iPhone.
However, despite this overwhelming lead in adoption, Android devices only contribute to about 20 percent of global Web traffic, notes the article. Comparatively, 60 percent of mobile Web visits come from iPhones.
This trend continued on Black Friday, as iPads and iPhones accounted for almost 20 percent of online sales, while Android only accounted for 5.5 percent, according to an IBM study.
“It seems like something is just fundamentally wrong with the Android platform, at least when it comes to interactive engagement by Android users,” writes Business Insider.
This trend could shape how app developers and advertisers approach the different platforms.
In an effort to spur the success of Windows 8, Microsoft offered 20,000 apps through the Windows app store during its first month — and users have downloaded the top 300 apps at a rate three times higher than Apple’s top 300 apps, writes TechCrunch.
But while Windows has seen a high volume of downloads, about 86 percent of the apps are free, which has resulted in Apple generating revenues five times as high as Windows, according to research from Distimo.
Windows has thrived in localized content. For example, 41 percent of the top apps in Japan are local applications, while 30 percent of Korea’s applications are local.
“The strong local proportion, Distimo notes, is because of two reasons. One, Microsoft has been effective at marketing them to local audiences. Two, there are actually a higher proportion of local apps. The percentage of apps that are U.S.-only in the Windows 8 app store is 65 percent, compared to 85 percent and higher in most other app stores,” writes TechCrunch.
The best way for Windows to monetize the app growth may not be to charge for the apps, but to use the app store popularity as an incentive to upgrade to new versions of Windows as they are released, suggest the post. If Windows can make the app store an essential part of the Windows ecosystem, people will be more inclined to upgrade to new software.
According to recent changes to Facebook’s privacy and governance policies, the social network could soon leverage user data — namely likes and dislikes — to build an external advertising network.
This means Facebook would generate revenue by showing relevant advertisements on sites other than Facebook, similar to how Google makes billions of dollars every year.
“This is the first real confirmation that the company is going to roll out an advertising network that extends beyond just its own walled garden, and it could turn out to be one of the biggest factors in the success or failure of Facebook’s revenue-growth strategy,” reports GigaOM.
“Everything you do and say on Facebook can be used to serve you ads,” explained Chief Privacy Officer Erin Egan to Forbes back in May. “Our policy says that we can advertise services to you off of Facebook based on data we have on Facebook.”
An external advertising network could double Facebook’s revenues, bringing the company to $10 billion a year, suggests the article.
Facebook could begin its advertising endeavors on Instagram. After implementing the system on its own entities, it could then expand to external sites.
“Access to information about the browsing and liking habits of a billion people isn’t something that comes along every day,” notes the article, underscoring the potential of a Facebook-driven advertising entity.
Amazon made a name for itself selling books and DVDs and has since become the world’s largest online retailer. But the company has also become a top player in the computing business, running as much as 1 percent of the Internet on its Amazon Web Services (AWS). The secret to Amazon’s success: offer services that customers will want to use.
Amazon created the Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2), which started as an experiment and evolved into “an Internet service that has completely changed the face of computing since it debuted a little over six years ago,” reports Wired. EC2 provides consumers instant access to unlimited computing power.
“With EC2, you can use all that computing power to run just about any software application you like,” the article explains. “Rather than loading your software on physical computer servers you’ve set up in a closet or a data center, you can load it onto virtual servers you’ve set up in your Web browser. And whenever you need more virtual servers, you can have them.”
“Part of the genius of EC2 is that it gave software developers virtual machines that behaved a lot like the physical machines they were familiar with,” the article continues. “They could run the same sort of software they had always used. Amazon didn’t try to tell the customer what he wanted.”
Google and Microsoft were quick to come up with competitors: the Google App Engine and Windows Azure. “The learning curve was steeper, and the public never really embraced them in the same way,” Wired says of the other services.
“Amazon is now well positioned to fend off the competition. [AWS CEO Andy] Jassy says that Amazon didn’t necessarily plan it this way, but EC2 and the other Amazon Web Services are businesses of low margins and high volume — the kind of businesses that Amazon knows better than anyone else trying to play the cloud game.”
By 2016, mobile data traffic will grow by a factor of 18, according to Cisco, or by a factor of 25, if Bell Labs estimates are accurate.
The Federal Communications Commission and cellular providers have both warned of a “spectrum crunch,” which would mean diminished service and higher costs for consumers. But as Technology Review reports, the big crunch might not be for quite a few years.
“We don’t have a spectrum crunch so much as we have a spectrum policy crunch,” says David Tennenhouse, vice president of technology policy at Microsoft. “The so-called ‘spectrum crunch’ really reflects artificial spectrum scarcity.”
“Part of the problem is simply hoarding: some companies have rights to more than they need, at times because business models didn’t pan out,” Technology Review suggests. “There’s a great deal of idle government-controlled spectrum, too.”
“The FCC is designing auctions so that the TV industry can release some of its spectrum next year,” the article continues.
Despite the concern about scarcity, much of the crunch actually arises from how the spectrum is leveraged. “Capacity depends on how efficiently spectrum is actually used in different places and at different times,” notes the article. “And when wireless networks are overloaded, the real culprit may be inefficient use of existing spectrum rather than a fundamental shortage.”
Improved technology could alleviate much of the strain. Wi-Fi towers offload data from cellular networks. Cheap shorter-range small cells — transmitters and receivers handling frequencies used by 3G and 4G networks — can help. Also, data can be encoded more efficiently so more information can be translated.
“Right now, we have a 15- to 20-year backlog of new technologies and architectures, including sharing and small cells, which can take us a long way into the future,” says Tennenhouse.
Following the early success of original content on its “channels,” YouTube has ramped up funding to produce more video. The Google-owned service is also expanding the channels overseas in the UK, Germany, France and now Japan.
“Google’s video guys aren’t talking about it openly yet,” AllThingsD reports, “but they’ll be replicating the same idea — YouTube advances programmers production money in exchange for exclusive content — with a handful of partners in Asia.”
One of the initial partners will be Vice Media, a video producer and ad agency that currently has three funded YouTube channels in the U.S.
Based in Brooklyn, the company “specializes in an edgy-but-not-too-edgy mix of youth- and sponsor-friendly content” and has recently attracted attention — positive and negative. Vice is expected to make $200 million this year.
In a related article, AllThingsD notes: “People familiar with the deals say that Google is likely handing out smaller advances to European programmers, because the video ad market pays out less than in America.”
The deals vary depending on market and content maker, but in general, Google offers interest-free advances for exclusive rights to the content. Once the company earns back the advance from ad revenue, the creators get a share of the ad profit.
According to a survey from Accenture, about half of U.S. consumers currently view content via over-the-top devices such as Roku media players and game systems.
“Consumers are also viewing content on mobile devices, creating video playlists, posting videos on social media, and learning about new TV programs and video offerings through social networks,” reports MediaPost.
The survey notes that 27 percent of consumers subscribe to streaming services such as Netflix, a number which now rivals the 28 percent who have satellite subscriptions.
“We are seeing a seismic shift in consumer viewing habits,” notes Robin Murdoch, a managing director with Accenture’s Media & Entertainment industry group. “The connected consumer is now comfortable viewing TV shows and video on a variety of screens, as well as sharing opinions of that content via social channels or recommendation engines.”
Not surprisingly, younger viewers are leading the charge with OTT video and discovering new content through social networks rather than commercials or program guides.
“Domestically, 82 percent of consumers between the ages of 18 and 24 watch some OTT video, with 60 percent watching at least a quarter of their video over-the-top compared to 32 percent of U.S. consumers overall,” explains the article.
“The survey showed that 35 percent of 18-to-24 viewers are interested in social newsfeeds of videos that friends have watched, compared with 11 percent of consumers age 45+.”
Some 250 New York City phone booths will soon feature large interactive touchscreens that provide local information and free Wi-Fi.
The first 10 opened around Union Square in Manhattan two days before Thanksgiving. New booths will be installed across New York’s five boroughs during the next few months.
“Cisco, which operates the new service in partnership with City24/7, said New York is the first city in the U.S. to have its public phone booths given the makeover, which involves the installation of large 32-inch touchscreens highlighting local news, local deals, entertainment listings and more,” reports Digital Trends.
“Information can also be fed from the so-called SmartScreens direct to a user’s smartphone,” notes the post.
“The new-look booths are equipped with a number of accessibility features, including screen repositioning for wheelchair accessibility and headphone access for the hearing impaired. Multiple languages are also available, including English, Spanish, Russian and Mandarin Chinese.”
Plans are underway to introduce the high-tech booths to additional U.S. cities and several international locations next year.
Some high-profile clothing store chains are reportedly using high-tech mannequins outfitted with small cameras to gain a better understanding of shoppers and passers-by.
“Benetton, for one, has started installing the EyeSee, created by Italian mannequin manufacturer Almax,” reports Digital Trends. “It’s been on sale for almost a year and is currently being used in stores in the U.S. and Europe. Up to now the technology, which uses face-recognition software, has been used in airports to help identify criminals.”
A camera embedded in one eye of the mannequin collects data to identify a shopper’s age, gender and race. Retailers can then use the information to cater store displays and product lines. Almax says one store featured children’s clothing after data indicated that kids comprised more than 50 percent of its visitors.
The company is reportedly working on a mannequin outfitted with a microphone to gain additional opinions from shoppers.
“Of course, most stores have a good number of security cameras dotted about — cameras which could utilize the same face-recognition technology — but incorporating the tech into mannequins should provide more accurate data as they’re positioned much closer to the passing consumer,” notes the post.
“It could really enhance the shopping experience, the product assortment, and help brands better understand their customers,” suggests Uché Okonkwo, executive director of strategy and management consultancy Luxe Corp.
Radical.fm is entering the rapidly evolving music industry with a new business model: “A completely free-to-stream, ad-free, no-strings attached music streaming service that could stir up the digital music market’s dust yet again,” suggests Digital Trends.
Already launched in Sweden, Radical.fm bundles music services into a single package — “namely, it gathers your Spotify, Pandora, Slacker Radio, Last.fm, Rdio, and even YouTube accounts.”
It currently features a library of 22 million songs. Labels and musicians are paid the same way they are on other streaming services. Outside of Sweden, users only have access to music from indie record labels for now.
“The number of features that this one platform offers is dizzying, but should it prove to be successful it could be the music industry darling that revolutionizes the radio and music streaming industry,” notes the post.
CEO and founder Thomas McAlevey says he is in negotiations with “labels at the highest level” to offer the streaming service in the U.S.
“However if Radical.fm doesn’t ‘get the direct deals we want with the licenses in time,’ McAlevey could switch on its currently-dormant radio feature and broadcast the music from any rights holders that are hesitant to jump on board thanks to the SoundExchange license Radical.fm has obtained,” explains the post.
Customers can now purchase iTunes digital gift certificates on Facebook, deepening the Facebook-Apple alliance that formed with integrated Facebook features on iOS 6. Users can recommend what music, videos or apps to purchase with the gift certificates.
“What the actual revenue split is remains a secret,” reports TechCrunch. “We do know there’s no shipping costs for either partner to pay for, and Apple typically taxes content and app creators 30 percent to be sold in iTunes.”
The iOS 6 release brought Apple and Facebook together through Facebook sharing buttons and contacts integration. “If today’s integration is a success, it could create a virtuous loop where Facebookers buy iTunes credits for friends, who buy media or apps and share news of their purchases back to Facebook,” notes the post.
The partnership also provides more legitimacy to Facebook Gifts, which recently left its beta phase and launched for millions of Facebook users.
TechCrunch explains that the real money in Facebook Gifts would be if Facebook begins suggesting who to buy gift cards for, and for what. Facebook certainly has enough user data to know who frequently makes purchases on iTunes, and who uses Facebook iPhone applications, so this should not be a difficult step to implement.
