Apple is reportedly considering a new move into social media with a possible strategic investment in Twitter.
“While Apple has been hugely successful in selling phones and tablets, it has little traction in social networking, which has become a major engine of activity on the Web and on mobile devices,” notes The New York Times.
“Social media are increasingly influencing how people spend their time and money — an important consideration for Apple, which also sells applications, games, music and movies,” notes the article.
According to unnamed sources who claim to be briefed on the matter, “Apple has considered an investment in the hundreds of millions of dollars, one that could value Twitter at more than $10 billion, up from an $8.4 billion valuation last year,” details NYT.
A Twitter partnership could prove valuable for Apple, amidst growing competition with companies such as Google and Facebook, which already have a strong footing in the social sphere.
Strengthening the ties between Apple and Twitter would come during an era of significant uncertainty in the mobile market. “Battle lines that seemed clear just a year ago are rapidly blurring as companies push into new areas of the market and clash with former allies,” explains the article.
“Those guys are a great partner,” said Twitter CEO Dick Costolo of Apple. “We think of them as a company that our company looks up to.”
“Apple doesn’t have to own a social network,” said Apple CEO Tim Cook, at a recent tech conference. “But does Apple need to be social? Yes.”
Apple’s latest version of OS X, Mountain Lion, launched last week with a significant AirPlay Mirroring update.
“Don’t look now, but Apple just created a formidable cord-cutting platform,” suggests Wired. “The new operating system can change the way we watch video in the living room, and might even compel some users to finally cancel their cable and satellite services.”
According to the article, video that’s available online can now easily be watched on an HDTV with a Mac running Mountain Lion and a $100 Apple TV.
The mirroring feature available with Mountain Lion, “uses the same basic tech found in iOS devices: Your computer wirelessly transmits whatever is playing on your Mac desktop to your Apple TV, which then shoots this mirrored content to your HDTV via an HDMI cable,” explains Wired. “Display settings are automatically determined by your Mac, so you don’t have to adjust the resolution over and over again, hoping to find the perfect recipe for optimal TV watching.”
“AirPlay for Mountain Lion is a great method for beaming any desktop content straight to your HDTV, and this includes streaming video from Web pages, computer games, and, yes, even illegal videos collected from BitTorrent,” notes the article. “And if the greater tech industry takes more bold steps toward changing how video is delivered, the future is going to be rough for cable and satellite providers. Something has to give.”
Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) has proposed an amendment to the Cybersecurity Act of 2012 that would alter the Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA).
The VPPA was authored in 1988 after a list of video rentals by Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork was published in a newspaper. As currently written, the VPPA requires written consumer consent (or a police warrant) in order for video history information to be shared.
The newly proposed amendment would allow for Netflix video viewing histories to be shared automatically on Facebook.
“Netflix has spent nearly $400,000 lobbying Congress this year,” reports Digital Trends. “Part of that money was spent on changing the VPPA, and the rest went toward Net neutrality and other Web-related issues. Netflix eventually wants to allow users to be able to stream videos through their Facebook accounts.”
Additionally, Senator Al Franken (D-Minnesota) has proposed an amendment to remove Section 701 of CSA2012 that “provides companies with the explicit right to monitor private user communications and engage in countermeasures,” according to the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
The U.S. Senate is scheduled to begin debate on the Cybersecurity Act this week.
New software upgrades to Dish Network’s controversial AutoHop DVR feature may bolster its legality and help position the company against the lawsuit brought on by broadcasters NBC, CBS and Fox.
“Dish has been quietly tweaking the functionality inside its multi-room DVR, dubbed the Hopper, which allows subscribers to skip over commercials in primetime broadcast series one day after being recorded on the device’s hard drive,” reports Variety.
Subscribers can now select which channels to record rather than to have all four major networks recorded automatically. They can now delete recordings at any time. And, most importantly, the default to skip ads is set to “no.”
“While the changes may seem minor, they seem to represent a calculated strategy on Dish’s behalf to shift responsibility to viewers for the recording and ad-skipping rather than let them passively receive these features,” notes the article.
Shifting that responsibility could become a key component in assessing the legality of AutoHop, since a similar 2006 case has been cited as a possible precedent.
When content creators sued Cablevision regarding its remote-storage DVR, “the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the legality in a decision that hinged on the degree to which the viewer had control over the technology.”
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office published a series of 25 new patents for Apple this week.
Patently Apple writes about one in particular, “that touches on advancing television, advanced 5D technology, interactive gaming, teleconferencing, advanced tactile feedback technology, virtual reality data gloves and even a unique touch signature for starting a future vehicle.”
Apple acquired the patent “years ago” from Canadian inventor Timothy Pryor. “Apple’s granted patent is a sweeping patent covering the widest range of applications that I’ve ever seen,” writes Jack Purcher in the report.
Purcher provides interesting details, highlighting 14 potential advantages of the patent for Apple, further noting that it could lead the way to developments involving the long-rumored Apple TV.
“Much of Apple’s newly granted patent focuses on projection TV technology and applications,” he writes. “Yet the patent makes it clear that the ‘concepts, while they’ve been shown in the context of a rear projection display device… are really quite usable in the context of the invention with any sort of display device.'”
Purcher also notes Wii or Kinect-like gaming capabilities as well as virtual reality and simulation using the invention.
As the new chief executive at Yahoo, one of Marissa Mayer’s top priorities is hiring promising managers and product people at a time when, “Yahoo’s talent pool has been reduced to puddles, as the best techies have gone elsewhere and promising newcomers have come down with colorblindness when it comes to purple,” suggests Wired.
While some remain skeptical that Mayer can attract new talent, Wired reveals her “secret weapon.” Since the early 2000s, Mayer worked to recruit the best of the best for Google’s Associate Product Manager program — and she still keeps in close touch with the 300 people that have passed through.
“Don’t be fooled by the modest title, prefixed by that timid word ‘associate.’ The most coveted entry post at Google is spelled APM,” notes the article. “This is an incubation system for tech rock stars.”
“The APM program is one of our core values — I’d like to think of one of them as the eventual CEO of the company,” Google’s executive chair Eric Schmidt once said.
Reportedly, the APMs continue to meet periodically with Mayer for check-ins and advice.
“The program has a been massive success, with APMs filling key roles in dozens of key Google products, ranging from apps to search to ads,” the article states, adding “it would be not be surprising if some of these baccalaureate APMs wind up at Yahoo. In addition, former APMs all have their own networks, and can tip off Mayer to promising hires.”
Following her move, Mayer sent out an email to the APM network as an update and a promise to keep in touch… and possibly as a welcome to the Yahoo family.
Half-Life 2 art director Viktor Antonov is disappointed in today’s video game landscape, suggesting that there are too many war games, sequels, and games that take place in New York.
Antonov challenges developers to explore science fiction and to create games within fictional landscapes. He believes this requires more creativity and yields a more interesting product. He is also surprised that we are not seeing more expansion into sub-genres.
“There’s a place for thousands of different sub-genres and genres,” notes Antonov. “Imagine the times when you were in the ’40s and there were Westerns in Hollywood cinema: there were so many of them that none will be compared with another one, because there was a genre.”
He believes his new game, “Dishonored,” will help bring artistic integrity back to fictional video game worlds. The world in the game, Dunwall, is molded after London and Edinburgh in the mid-1800s to the 1930s.
“We have gone out of our way to defend the art part of the project, and set a very high standard — unusually high standard, in terms of precision and art production,” explains Antonov. “Part of this was not just doing the drawings, but talking and communicating with the publisher and the game designers and creative directors that that’s really necessary.”
Antonov believes Dunwall will excite players even more than Half-Life 2’s iconic “City 17.”
“We have a pretty good excitement about the project now, but we’ll know once someone has experienced the game, where art meets music meets gameplay meets rhythm — and that creates the thing that has no vocabulary, which is the game experience: these climactic, unforgettable moments that you get in three games in your life and you remember forever,” he says.
Hardware has always played an important role in the gaming sphere, often dictating capabilities and prominence. All that may change, suggests Fortune, as cloud computing enters the scene.
“So-called cloud gaming involves a kind of apostasy,” the article states. “The more technical wizardry inside the , the more fantastic the graphics displayed on-screen. (And the higher the price.) In contrast, cloud games are rendered by remote servers that beam images to screens over the Internet.”
Cloud computing has the potential to make gaming operate like streaming video services. But not without obstacles to overcome such as high quality graphics overwhelming data lines and delays or glitches from network lags, Fortune points out.
Despite challenges, companies like OnLive and Otoy have made a name for themselves with their successful cloud rendering platforms. Also, Sony recently purchased Gaikai, which streams high-quality games via Java, in a move that validates the cloud gaming business.
David Dennis, the senior group manager for Xbox, is not sold, however. “A model where someone is playing a AAA blockbuster game where there could be latency issues — and by the way, while they’re playing, they’re running up the meter on their broadband, adding huge, incremental costs on top of their standard broadband bill — is not an infrastructure or model that scales on a consistent global level.”
For now, Microsoft plans to promote online features like saving game data, distributing digital games and streaming content — i.e., features that don’t require high-speed fiber connections.
Even so, cloud companies like OnLive threaten to overthrow the current gaming market by making expensive hardware obsolete. This could mean pricey acquisitions in the near future, especially as physical content sales continue to decline.
Writing for Wired, Steven Levy comments on the changing ways in which society is digesting video content.
“We are well clear of the world of television — where video meant sitting down in a living room and watching carefully scheduled, professionally produced ‘shows’ — and now are about to move from our more fluid, DIY and YouTube-infused paradigm into something different: an explosion of video as its happening now,” he writes.
Levy notes the proliferation of live-streamed events and the popular use of Skype services to boost his point of view that within 10 years, “more than half” of the video we see will be live streaming.
He predicts that “the next step is for everyone to make use of the tiny, high-quality HD cameras in our phones and our computers to routinely stream live to selected friends or everyone,” citing services like Ustream and YouTube as proof of a growing trend. There’s also Justin.tv, the upcoming Airtime, Socialcam and more.
The coming generation is likely to appear daily on some form of Internet-streamed video. “Fundamentally, 30 million Americans are five feet away from a video camera 24 hours a day. It’s never been that way before,” says Socialcam CEO Michael Seibel.
“An entire generation already is unaware that it was once thought of as a huge novelty to ‘be on TV,'” suggests Levy.
Facebook’s number one priority is taking over the mobile space with advertisements.
“Over the last month, Facebook has been stressing its mobile-first strategy in meetings with advertisers and agencies,” reports Adweek. “With 488 million monthly active users on mobile in the first quarter, it presents a solid revenue stream to Facebook.”
Advertisers are seeing a great response with test runs of Facebook’s mobile advertisements.
Marketers had been wanting to run ads within the News Feed, so “it’s not surprising that initial reports are showing that ads are performing so well,” according to David Berkowitz, VP of emerging media at 360i.
“I’m very curious to see how much they dive into mobile in detail and what they’re going to break out, not just impressions but performance and how well those match up with other reports that have been out there,” he adds. “In general, marketers are looking for more justification for their ad spending.”
Will the new influx of advertisements on Facebook’s mobile app result in a decline in mobile app users?
Tech spending is up $114 billion from last year and is expected to hit $2.1 trillion in 2012, reports Gartner Research.
Mobile services, mobile phones and entertainment services are the most significant segments of the consumer tech market.
This year, mobile services are expected to account for 37 percent of the total consumer tech spending at $800 billion, while mobile phones will take up 10 percent with $222 billion. According to Gartner, those numbers will increase to $1 trillion and $300 billion respectively by 2016.
The study shows mobile app stores and e-text content will see impressive growth by 2016.
Entertainment sits at $210 billion spent for 2012, somewhat eclipsed by mobile.
“While consumers are willing to pay for content they view as ‘worth it,’ they will approve of ad-supported services only if those services come with free functions, such as cloud storage, VoIP, or email,” VentureBeat writes. “Another finding is that some segments of the tech market are spurring growth in others.”
Companies in different sectors should collaborate on a better ecosystem for tech consumers, says Gartner, because “the advent of all-you-can eat or umbrella data plans that cover all devices will increase hardware sales.”
When it comes to social media marketing, it’s not enough to use someone who is influential. The person must also have a network of influential friends, not just susceptible followers, says a new study from Sinan Aral and Dylan Walker of New York University.
“The biggest takeaway for marketers and others trying to spread messages through social media may be that influential Facebook users are less susceptible to influence than non-influential ones, and influencers tend to cluster in the network,” notes ReadWriteWeb.
Also, people are most influential on others within their own age group, and “the older a person is, the more influential and less susceptible he or she is on Facebook.”
“For now, the best marketing strategy is to target influencers who have already adopted a product, the researchers said,” according to the post. “Individuals who already use a product can be given incentives to influence their peers, as opposed to giving individuals with susceptible peers incentives to adopt a product.”
The study had some other interesting findings: “younger users are more susceptible to influence than older users”; “men are more influential than woman”; “women influence men more than they influence other women”; and, “married people are the least susceptible to influence in the decision to adopt products.”
For marketers, this means advertising specifically women-oriented may be ineffective. And more importantly, “the key is finding the clusters of influential users within a social network to get a message disseminated as quickly as possible.”
Google wants to reinvent the way we watch television so “you don’t have to settle for old-time television anymore,” according to executives.
Its new Fiber TV, the DVR/cable box service announced this week, enables users to record 500 hours of TV and record up to eight shows at once using Google’s new, ultra-fast Internet network.
For $120/month and a $300 construction fee (waived for those who sign a two year contract), customers can get the Fiber TV service and select various plans, similar to cable boxes.
Customers who buy the TV package will also get a free Google Nexus 7, pre-installed with the Fiber TV app. The app, also available on iOS and Android, allows users to search programs and control live TV and DVR.
“‘Fiber TV will integrate with all popular social networks, making live TV more relevant than ever,’ Google execs said during the presentation. You’ll also be able to watch different shows, on different TVs and devices, in the same house all at the same time,” reports The Verge. “There will be ‘tens of thousands’ of movies and shows on demand, all of which you’ll be able to watch on multiple devices.”
NBC has released additional details regarding its planned 3,500-plus hours of online summer Olympics coverage.
The Gold Zone video channel will automatically transfer viewers from a final in one sport to a live moment in another, with text commentary for each event.
NBC Olympics will work with Google+, Shazam, Instagram, Tumblr and GetGlue as social media partners. As previously reported, the network has announced deals with Facebook, Twitter, Adobe and YouTube.
NBCOlympics.com “will also include live streams of the Olympic content on four NBCU cable channels, rewinds of all the event coverage, news, highlights and athlete profiles,” reports Broadcasting & Cable.
“It will also feature multiple streams for certain sports, such as gymnastics or track and field that would allow the user to choose a stream dedicated to the long jump or javelin.”
Two apps developed by Adobe will provide digital coverage. The TV Everywhere app NBC Olympics Live Extra will feature live streams of all 32 sports for authenticated subscribers. Another, the NBC Olympics app, is offered to everyone, including those without a multichannel subscription.
“It has much less video content but includes groundbreaking ‘Primetime Companion’ features,” notes the article. “This will offer a variety of social media tools on Facebook and Twitter as well as trivia, polls, slideshows, videos and athlete bios that are synchronized to the live primetime coverage on NBC.”
We should expect to see an unprecedented amount of crossover between online social media and television broadcast coverage when the Olympics begin on Friday.
In an interview with The New York Times, Twitter CEO Dick Costolo addresses whether the micro-blog is a media or technology company, describing it as some variation of both.
“I think of the company as a technology company that is in the media business,” says Costolo. “Our business is an advertising business, we don’t sell technology… I don’t need to be or want to be in the content business.”
Instead of encouraging external Twitter apps, Costolo is building a Twitter platform with its own API.
In a recent example, Twitter featured tweets from Pocono 400 drivers and teams last month. “The NASCAR-branded page that Twitter highlighted in television ads was incredibly visceral, with pictures from inside driver’s cars. Fans could practically smell the fuel from the pit,” notes NYT.
Twitter has announced a similar page for the Olympics.
Engagement rates with ads especially on mobile have been better than with traditional Web ads.
“Our vision for the company is simple: Twitter brings you closer,” concludes Costolo. “You can say something now and broadcast and everyone around the world sees it immediately.”
Apple is reportedly considering a new move into social media with a possible strategic investment in Twitter.
