700,000 iPads Sold [REPORT]

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Mashable/~3/D05TCBrjMRU/

The latest estimates for iPad sales may surprise even the most optimistic Apple watchers: Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster puts the number at 600,000-700,000 this weekend, including pre-orders.

By comparison, it took Apple more than 70 days to sell 1 million iPhones after the initial launch.

Brainstorm Tech writes:

In a report to clients issued Saturday night, Munster’s estimated that by midnight Sunday, Apple will have sold 600,000 to 700,000 iPads, including pre-orders — more than double his relatively conservative pre-launch estimate of 200,000 to 300,000. (Other analysts had published estimates of 300,000 to 400,000.)

…It took Apple 74 days to sell its first million units of the original iPhone, and three days each to sell a million units of the iPhone 3G and the iPhone 3Gs.

The estimates were made after Munster’s team put in calls to Apple stores around the country, although it’s worth questioning how accurate that method might be.

Tags: apple, ipad

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Researchers prove that Twitter can predict, “with astonishing accuracy”, how well a movie will sell.

http://thenextweb.com/socialmedia/2010/04/02/researchers-at-hp-labs-discover-that-twitter-can-predict-with-astonishing-accuracy-how-well-a-movie-will-sell/

Researchers prove that Twitter can predict, with astonishing accuracy, how well a movie will sell.

Researchers prove that Twitter can predict, with astonishing accuracy, how well a movie will sell. Two researchers at HP Labs have proven that Twitter mentions can give an shockingly strong indication of how well a movie will sell in its opening weekend.

Sitaram Asur and Bernardo Huberman have shown Twitter works better than the current industry standard, the Hollywood Stock Exchange (HSX). In fact, tracking number of mentions in the lead up to a movie’s opening weekend showed that Twitter has a 97.3% accurate in predicting opening weekend box office in comparison to the Hollywood Stock Exchange which had a 96.5% accuracy.

As impressive as this may be, we’re unlikely to see Twitter replace the Hollywood Stock Exchange but rather compliment it. This is because, as Fast Company points out, Twitter is only likely to work well for big budget movies that have had a great deal of money thrown at them. For independent movies and movies on a lower budget, Twitter is virtually useless.

Interestingly, it does spark the idea as to whether we’ll see Twitter become used (and abused) more to ensure opening weekends are as successful as possible. With the number of celebs on Twitter, it’s very possible we’ll see a gradual trend towards celebs pushing their latest project or others. Actress Alyssa Milano will soon star in her own TV show and she can be seen, understandably so, essentially selling the show to her fans in the lead up to its airing. Whether the producers took into account her large and devoted following on Twitter, who knows – but they would been clever to take that into account when selecting who to have in the leading role.

Original title and link for this post: Researchers prove that Twitter can predict, “with astonishing accuracy”, how well a movie will sell.

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Google Acquires Web Video Platform Episodic

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Mashable/~3/EqwcZ37sC9Q/

Google has just made yet another acquisition: web video platform Episodic. Late last year, it was rumored that Google was interested in acquiring Episodic competitor Brightcove, but that deal never materialized.

Now, Google gets a platform — which we first reviewed back in 2008 — that handles all aspects of video distribution — from the uploading, to the hosting, to the monetization and analytics.

In a blog post, Episodic says that customers will experience “no interruption in service,” though we imagine we’ll eventually see Google’s advertising platforms integrated.

Here’s Episodic’s full statement on the deal:

“We are thrilled to announce that Episodic has been acquired by Google. The entire Episodic team is extremely excited about this new partnership and what it means for our customers and the evolution of online video.

The Episodic team will join Google and continue its work to bring a great video experience to the Web, mobile phones and IPTV devices. There will be no interruption in service for existing Episodic customers.

At Episodic, we have always felt that these are the very early days of online video and that there is far more growth to be had. To put it in perspective, our industry is barely 15 years old. We’ve just received our learner’s permit, we still can’t drive without adult supervision and we’re certainly not old enough to buy a drink…legally.

From our earliest discussions with Google, it was clear that the teams shared this belief and together we obviously see huge potential in online video. Our product visions were also complimentary and together we will continue to produce innovative video technology for our customers and their viewers.

Speaking of our fabulous customers, we want to thank you all for your support and your willingness to experiment and sit on the bleeding edge with our team. We can’t wait to show you all what’s coming.”

Add the deal to Google’s long list of recent acquisitions, which include image-editing tool Picnik, social search engine Aardvark, and mobile email utility reMail. Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt has hinted several times that his company will continue to be an aggressive acquirer, and with a huge war chest, we expect the deal-making to continue.



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Tags: episodic, Google, video


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Video: Google Earth Navigation Coming to the Audi

http://thenextweb.com/location/2010/04/01/google-earth-navigation-coming-to-the-audi/

Video: Google Earth Navigation Coming to the Audi

We had a chance take a look here at the Where 2.0 Conference in San Jose, California at the unreleased Google Earth integration into the Audi. The feature will be available in Europe later this year and in North America in 2011. Take a look.

Original title and link for this post: Video: Google Earth Navigation Coming to the Audi

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TIME Magazine Debuts $4.99 iPad App (TWX)

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider/~3/OKFIWFeDIcI/time-magazine-debuts-499-ipad-app-2010-4

TIME magazine

TIME magazine released their iPad app today. It's available at $4.99 per issue in the iPad store. A new issue of the app will be available each Friday.

According to TIME, the magazine will not update magazine content with each new issue. Users essentially have to make a conscious decision each week to download the app, which puts them at a disadvantage.

TIME's iPhone app is free. So is their website, which is iPad-friendly.

  • Will the magazine content update with the new issue on the app every week?

    No. For now, users can purchase and download new issues from the app store each week.

  • Does the weekly issue expire?

    No. Once you purchase the app, you will have access to the content from your iPad device for as long as you keep the app.

  • Can I share the digital issue with friends?

    No. There are currently no share features available.

  • Will the magazine content update with the new issue on the app every week?

    No. For now, users can purchase and download new issues from the app store each week.

  • Does the weekly issue expire?

    No. Once you purchase the app, you will have access to the content from your iPad device for as long as you keep the app.

  • Can I share the digital issue with friends?

    No. There are currently no share features available.

  • The app includes all articles from the print edition plus

    • International coverage and and select content from TIME Global Business edition.
    • Live updates on top stories from time.com's newsfeed
    • Videos and photo slideshows
    • "Unique interactivity including landscape and portrait mode, scroll navigation and customizable font size"

    According to TIME, there are no sharing functions integrated in the app.

    TIME developed their iPad version with New York's The Wonderfactory, the same design shop that made that dazzling Sports Illustrated app. Dutch publishing software company WoodWing also contributed to the project.

    As we told you before, TIME signed up Fidelity, Korean Air, Liberty Mutual, Lexus, Toyota and Unilever as launch advertisers.

    Join the conversation about this story »


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    Twitter’s Search Results By Popularity Goes Live

    http://thenextweb.com/apps/2010/04/02/twitters-search-results-popularity-live/

    Twitters Search Results By Popularity Goes Live

    Twitters Search Results By Popularity Goes LiveAs we reported last month, Twitter is attempting to make their search results more relevant by ordering Twitter search results by importance.

    Twitter’s Developer Advocate Taylor Singletary shares details of the roll out in Twitter’s developer talk Google Group.

    Singletary explains that Twitter aims to make Twitter’s search results more “valuable by surfacing the best tweets about a particular topic.” To do this, Twitter analyses the number of times the tweet was retweeted, favorited, replied to and more and plans to improve on the algorithm over time.

    What Twitter have done cleverly is that they have chosen to only display ‘at most’ 3 of these tweets at the top of the page. The tweets will highlight the number of times the tweet has been retweeted as an indication of its popularity. This will ensure the new feature doesn’t entirely replace the current set of search results but does ensure important tweets are visible.

    The new feature is live on http://search.twitter.com, we couldn’t find too many searches that featured the a “popular tweet” but one example can be seen below or click here.

    Twitters Search Results By Popularity Goes Live

    The feature is also optionally being made available to developers via the Twitter API.

    Developers are able to access:

    • Mixed Tweets – receive both “popular tweets” and most recent tweets for the query. This is the equivalent of the future default behavior.
    • Popular Tweets – receive only “popular tweets” for the query.
    • Recent Tweets – receive only recent results for the query. This is the equivalent of the behavior you’ve come to expect until present


    Original title and link for this post: Twitter’s Search Results By Popularity Goes Live

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    Facebook Creates New Kind of “Unofficial” Community Pages

    http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/InsideFacebook/~3/cCVirFQhgso/

    So many people have been creating unofficial Facebook Pages that the company has a new version of the feature available for them today, called “Community Pages.”

    Facebook wants businesses, other organizations, public figures and other “official” entities owning their own pages. But, since the Pages launched as a feature of the site a couple years ago, how do we say… non-representatives of these entities have been making Pages on their own.

    Facebook regularly takes Pages away from these people and gives them to the rightful owners, which is one reason why you might see certain slow-growing Pages gain thousands of fans overnight. Other times, it just shuts them down. Unlike domain squatting on the open web, Facebook doesn’t allow first come, first serve Page creation. It wants authorized Page owners actively doing things like interacting with users, spending on advertising, etc.

    Meanwhile, lots of other people have used Pages for a variety of things, apart from any “official” usage. You can check out some of the more amusing examples over on our independent PageData tracking service. Note that the top non-official Page we’re tracking is “I dont care about your farm, or your fish, or your park, or your mafia!!!” It has 5.82 million fans, and is in 10th place in our rankings overall behind Pages for big social games like FarmVille and Mafia Wars.

    Here’s how Facebook describes the purpose of Community Pages on the site:

    Generate support for your favorite cause or topic by creating a Community Page. If it becomes very popular (attracting thousands of fans), it will be adopted and maintained by the Facebook community.

    More:

    We’ve seen all the creative ways our users have used the product to capture the causes, topics and ideas that they care about. So we’ve created Community Pages to give our users opportunities to express their enthusiasm and creativity, while allowing for Official Pages to continue representing official entities such as businesses, bands and public figures.

    Groups on Facebook serve a different purpose from Community Pages and are for communicating with other Facebook users around professional interests and hobbies.  We expect that with the launch of Community Pages, where potentially thousands of people will be connecting, Groups offer a much more intimate setting for discussion and collaboration.

    Facebook hasn’t explained clearly what it means when it says “adopted and maintained by the Facebook community.” When we asked, Facebook only told us that “if, over time, it gains a large fanbase, it will be adopted by the community and it will not have one specific owner.”

    What about Groups? Before Pages, they were the main way that people created funny memes for self expression or to share with their Facebook friends. The main differences today: Groups can have various privacy settings while Pages are public; Group owners can’t message members if it has more than 5,000 people; Pages provide more customizable options, designed for marketers; Pages include the Insights analytics tool; because Pages are public, information in them appears in search results (Community Pages are another way, then, that Facebook can get more content in search engines while maintaining its goals for Official Pages). For in-depth details on how different Facebook tools can fit into your marketing strategy, see our Facebook Marketing Bible.

    We’ll update with more details on Community Pages as they become available.

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    NFC: Never Mind Credit Cards, Pay With Your Phone

    http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/readwriteweb/~3/WR1NwYKK2z0/nfc_never_mind_credit_cards_pay_with_your_phone.php

    One of the emerging trends of the Mobile Web is using your phone to interact with the real world. We're not just talking about 'checking in' to locations, either. There's a world of more practical functionality that hasn't yet ramped up in the West - using your phone as a payment device (for example mobile ticketing), getting special offers from retailers, downloading data from the Web via 'smart posters' on the street, and more.

    A key technology driving some of these interactions is NFC, which was one of Gartner's 8 Mobile Technologies to Watch in 2010. It's a technology that you ought to become familiar with; whether you're a technologist, a marketer, or a consumer looking to make the best use of your smart phone (and aren't we all!). So in this post we give you an overview of what to expect from NFC.

    Sponsor

    What NFC is & Why You Should Care

    As we explained earlier this year, NFC (Near Field Communication) is a short-range communication technology for mobile phones. It's similar to Bluetooth and has a range of about 10 centimeters. There are three main use cases, according to its Wikipedia entry:

    1. Card emulation: the NFC device behaves like an existing contactless card;
    2. Reader mode: the NFC device is active and reads a passive RFID tag, for example for interactive advertising;
    3. P2P mode: two NFC devices are communicating together and exchanging information.

    Using the phone to emulate a smart card means that it can be a deployed as a payment device (similar to a credit card), identity card, security device, and more. This type of functionality is already common in Asia, but it hasn't yet taken off in the States.

    Using the phone as a reader allows the phone to interact with RFID-enabled objects in the real world, for example posters embedded with chips that connect to mobile web sites or applications.

    NFC in Mobile Phones & Services

    For these use cases to become a widespread reality, an NFC chip must be pre installed in most mobile devices. According to Dan Butcher from Mobile Commerce Daily, this probably won't happen until 2011 at the earliest.

    One issue is that NFC is not a current feature of the iPhone or Android, the tools of choice for many Web early adopters. However one handset manufacturer is showing the way with NFC: Nokia. Its Nokia 6131 NFC phone can be used as a credit card, travel card, loyalty card and a "multi-purpose smart card."

    Along with NFC handsets, NFC-enabled services will arise for applications such as mobile payments. As BusinessWeek reported recently, Alcatel-Lucent has announced a new mobile payment hosting service for mobile operators, in partnership with payments systems specialists Clear2Pay and PingPing. However, the article noted that other emerging mobile payment services aren't using NFC - including Nokia Money and Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey's new business Square (our review).

    NFC Has its Issues, But Also The Momentum...

    There are issues with NFC, perhaps the biggest being its limited range. In order for NFC to work, you need to hold your mobile phone close to the RFID tag or reader device. An alternative that has a longer range is DASH7, which we'll review in an upcoming post.

    However NFC holds the most promise for delivering contactless mobile payments to consumers, along with other real world use cases.

    Image credit: nicolasnova

    Discuss


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    Belgacom/Telenet, iets voor jullie!? -> Whoa, the Official Netflix Streaming iPad App [IPad Apps]

    http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/pGEwP4IqG0k/whoa-the-official-netflix-streaming-ipad-app

    If this leak's legit, whoa. Netflix Watch Instantly streaming video on the iPad is one of two video apps we're desperate for, besides Hulu (also supposedly coming). Potentially, a true killer app. Updated. More »


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