Bill Gates Surpasses 100,000 Twitter Followers in 8 Hours

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Mashable/~3/3vH276bkr2E/

Eight hours ago, Microsoft founder Bill Gates joined Twitter. Five hours ago, Twitter’s Caroline Mizumoto tweeted about it. And moments ago, @BillGates broke 100,000 Twitter followers.

If you’re looking for the breakdown, that’s about 12,500 Twitter followers per hour, or ~208 new tweeps per minute. In reality though, Bill’s follower count escalated after Caroline’s tweet, meaning his real rate of growth is about 20,000 new followers per hour.

The last time we’ve seen a new Twitter user with this kind of momentum was Oprah when she first joined. Mr. Gates is not only the world’s richest man, but one of its most popular it seems. His legacy as an entrepreneur and a philanthropist are far from forgotten.

Welcome to the Twitterverse, Bill Gates.


Tags: bill gates, microsoft, trending, twitter

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Chinese Premier Talks Up Internet of Things

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/readwriteweb/~3/-xNS_5KjCk8/chinese_premier_internet_of_things.php

In the last quarter of 2009, a number of significant public speeches were made about Internet of Things in China. It started on August 7, when Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao made a speech in the city of Wuxi calling for the rapid development of Internet of Things technologies. It included this equation: Internet + Internet of Things = Wisdom of the Earth. Wen Jiabo followed up with a speech on November 3 at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, in which he encouraged breakthroughs in key technologies for sensor networks and the Internet of Things.

When was the last time you heard President Obama talking about Internet of Things? The Chinese Premier has made it a regular part of his speeches and interviews.

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That's not to say that the U.S. isn't doing anything. As Pat Burns noted in his excellent 2009 year in review of wireless sensor networks, the U.S. Department of Defence has already invested heavily in Internet of Things technologies. But China is poised to make rapid growth in this area in 2010.

Here's an excerpt from an interview Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao did with the Xinhua News Agency at the end of December:

"This concept [of Internet of Things] first came to my mind when I talked with a group of young researchers who returned to China after their overseas studies," Wen said, referring to those he met during his inspection tour to east China's Jiangsu Province in November.

"I learned Internet of Things is a network that can be applied to infrastructure and services. The program will have a rosy prospect," Wen said.

According to Internet of Things, when objects ranging from books to airplanes are equipped with minuscule identifying devices, they can be identified and managed through computer networks.

Internet of Things was one example Premier Wen cited while outlining the country's initiatives to foster new growth areas, especially in emerging strategic industries."

This would be the equivalent of President Obama talking directly about the Internet of Things to the Washington Post or New York Times. It's significant that China is putting such high level emphasis on a set of technologies that many techies in the Western world still consider very early stage.

What then can we expect from China this year in Internet of Things? According to Chinese consulting firm CCID Consulting, in 2010 China will push forward with major policy initiatives. Chinese government departments will introduce "relevant industry support policies to speed up the development of China's Internet of Things industry." At the same time, Chinese provinces, municipalities and industrial parks will release supporting policies. Jiangsu Province and Beijing will be the pacesetters, according to CCID Consulting.

In a follow-up post, we'll explore some practical examples of China's current focus on Internet of Things.

Discuss

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Zynga Raises $1.5 Million For Haiti In Five Days

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider/~3/ZPZyx7cZzqE/zynga-raises-15-million-for-haiti-selling-virtual-goods-2010-1

Mark Pincus

Selling virtual goods through its top four games, Facebook games-maker Zynga raised $1.5 million for Haitian earthquake victims in five days, the company tells us.

FarmVille, FishVille, Mafia Wars and Zynga Poker users from 47 countries donated to U.N. World Food Programme (WFP) by buying limited edition virtual goods.

Read the rest of this story »

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Apple, Microsoft in Cahoots: Bing to Replace Google as Default iPhone Search Engine? [Search]

http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/FP0Y2KlhpnI/apple-microsoft-in-cahoots-bing-to-replace-google-as-default-iphone-search-engine

According to BusinessWeek, Apple and Microsoft may be in talks to defenestrate Google as the iPhone's default search engine, in favor of Bing. This Apple-Google battle for the mobile throne is getting heated.

This is all coming from "two people familiar with the matter," so, you know, eat a bowl of salt or whatever, but it sort of makes sense in a Machiavellian kind of way. Windows Mobile 7 notwithstanding, Apple's competition in the mobile arena isn't Microsoft, but Google, and so it's not really that outlandish, especially considering that Bing isn't necessarily a worse search engine than Google. Apple avoids throwing unnecessary support to Google (although the iPhone will still feature Google Maps, YouTube, and Gmail) while Microsoft gains a huge market for Bing. Everybody wins, except Google, who only mostly wins.

What do you guys think? If Bing was the default search engine on your phone, would you go through the necessary steps to change it to Google? I have a feeling a lot of people might just not care. [BusinessWeek]

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Twitter goldrush on the way. Old usernames to be released

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheNextWeb/~3/_BHbzkKopv8/

Twitter Username GoldrushTwitter tells us it is planning to release all of its old, neglected usernames from inactive accounts for others to grab – and some of them are bound to be in big demand.

Many early users of the service picked up short usernames (first names and catchy short words) but since then have decided to abandon them. Unfortunately, they’re kept under lock-and-key by Twitter. There’s virtually no way to get hold of a previously owned Twitter name that you really want.

Twitter’s current policy states that “An account is considered inactive if it hasn’t been logged into or updated in over 6 months. Inactive accounts may be automatically removed from Twitter. To keep your account active, be sure to log in and post an update within 6 months of your last update.”

In actual fact, unused accounts aren’t deleted. Unless an account has breached Terms of Service (for example by sending spam messages) it sits idle and unloved.

Backdoor routes to your ideal username

As covered by our Editor-in-Chief, Zee a year ago, there used to be a ’semi-official’ way to grab a username by simply contacting Twitter with the details of the inactive username that you wanted to take. Maybe in part thanks to the demand generated by that post, the service was discontinued.

Now, the only time Twitter will transfer ownership of a username to you is if you own a trademark relating to the name. Back on my old blog 14sandwiches I covered the story of how the BBC got control of the @BBCNews name from someone who misused it.

Besides that the only way to get Twitter to give you a username is if you know the right people. Journalist and podcaster Ewan Spence managed to switch from @EwanSpence to @Ewan by, as he wittily put it, “hanging around the internet till I used the irl.api and bumped into the right person at Las Vegas”.

A official solution is on the way

We reached out to Twitter for comment on this matter and a spokesperson for the company told me that the company plans to release all inactive usernames and deleted usernames in the future but doesn’t have a date set yet.

If you’ve got your eyes on an inactive username, sit tight and get ready to pounce when Twitter flicks the switch. There’s likely to be race for the really hot ones. You may still be waiting some time but we’ll let you know if we hear any more news about exactly when this might happen.

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Apple’s Secret Cloud Strategy And Why Lala Is Critical <- if this is correct, this evolution will be huge!

Apple’s Secret Cloud Strategy And Why Lala Is Critical
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  • by Guest Author on January 19, 2010

    This is a guest post from Michael Robertson, a 12-year veteran of the digital music business. He is the founder and former CEO of digital music pioneer MP3.com. He is currently the CEO of music locker company MP3tunes. Robertson is also an adviser to Google Voice.

    For years there’s been speculation that Apple would supplement their $1/song (now $1.29) iTunes business with a monthly subscription service, but their upcoming plans are quite different and once again are positioning them to lead the digital music industry into a new era. Leveraging their ubiquitous iTunes software Apple plans to upgrade their users almost over night to a cloud music service in an ambitious move to beat Amazon and others to a cloud music service. Record labels are wary to give Apple even greater dominance which is why Apple’s new strategy is designed to sidestep new licenses from the major labels.

    Apple’s recent acquisition of digital music startup Lala rekindled speculation of an iTunes subscription service. There’s no shortage of subscription offerings (Napster, Rhapsody, Spotify, Pandora, etc), but none have attracted the millions of subscribers necessary to make the high royalty structures work. Experts have pondered that Apple’s design expertise and hardware integration could make subscription work. And leveraging Lala’s digital library, licenses from the major labels, and a management team who cycled through several business models including the ten cent web song rental could make it a reality. It’s a logical assumption, but after talking to a wide variety of insider sources it’s clear there is no upcoming Apple subscription service and Apple has far different plans.

    Lala will play a critical role in Apple’s music future, but not for the reasons cited above. Lala’s licenses with major labels are non-transferable, so they’re not usable for any new iTunes service. The 10 cent song rental model never gained traction and does not cover mobile devices thus is of little value to Apple. What is of value is the personal music storage service which was an often overlooked component of Lala’s business. As Apple did with the original iPods, Lala realized that any music solution must include music already possessed by the user. The Lala setup process provides software to store a personal music library online and then play it from any web browser alongside web songs they vend. This technology plus the engineering and management team is the true value of Lala to Apple.

    An upcoming major revision of iTunes will copy each user’s catalog to the net making it available from any browser or net connected ipod/touch/tablet. The Lala upload technology will be bundled into a future iTunes upgrade which will automatically be installed for the 100+ million itunes users with a simple “An upgrade is available…” notification dialog box. After installation iTunes will push in the background their entire media library to their personal mobile iTunes area. Once loaded, users will be able to navigate and play their music, videos and playlists from their personal URL using a browser based iTunes experience.

    Apple will link the tens of millions of previously sold iPods, Touches, AppleTV and iTablets to mobile iTunes giving users seamless playback of their media from a wide range of Apple branded devices. Since media will be supplied from the user’s personal collection, Apple is freed from the hassles of device and region limitations. iTunes shoppers will be able to continue to buy music and movies as they can now with purchases still being downloaded, but once downloaded they will be automatically loaded to their mobile iTunes area for anywhere access. Again because users are in possession of the materials no new licenses are required from the record labels or publishers.

    Some are curious why Apple with thousands of engineers would need Lala talent and technology. For sure Apple could copy Lala technology, but time is of the essence and Lala lets Apple move faster in transitioning from their PC software business to a cloud service. They get a knowledgeable digital music engineering team, plus a code base to build upon which already does uploading and web playback. There’s precedence for this strategy. The iTunes software did not originate within in Apple but came via an acquisition. Finally, Apple gets the quick witted, brilliant, but occasionally loony Lala CEO Bill Nguyen who will play a future role in Apple. (Although one wonders how Jobs and lime light relishing Nguyen can co-exist.)

    It’s critically important that technology companies build and maintain a core strength. This cornerstone allows them to command a significant portion of the profit stream and is a beachhead to launch other initiatives. Think Amazon/e-commerce, Microsoft/OS, Google/search, Apple/media. Jobs is keenly aware of the digital transition from PC to cloud centric programs and services. It’s imperative Apple lead in this transition or risk ceding leadership in media to others such as Amazon, Real, Microsoft, Yahoo, etc. Lala will help Apple protect their media franchise from encroachment by accelerating their cloud efforts. iTunes users can expect mobile iTunes in 2010.

    NRC Handelsblad app: Toegang tot alle artikelen

    http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/frankwatching/~3/PXLUnjFT6a8/

    nrc-appHet nieuws uit de krant op je iPhone. Een gesprek met Han-Menno Depeweg over de NRC Handelsblad app.

    1. De NRC Handelsblad nieuwsapplicatie geeft toegang tot alle artikelen die in de krant verschijnen. Dit geeft de mogelijkheid om overal ter wereld de actuele versie van NRC Handelsblad te lezen.
    2. We willen onze journalistieke producties op alle geschikte platformen distribueren. Daarom zijn we twee jaar geleden begonnen met het ePaper.
    Inmiddels is het ePaper geschikt gemaakt voor vrijwel alle beschikbare ereaders (waaronder de iPhone, via Stanza). Ondanks dat NRC Handelsblad al te lezen was op de iPhone, hebben we besloten een ‘native’ iPhone app te maken. Een app biedt ons meer journalistieke en creatieve mogelijkheden dan het ePaper.
    3. In de applicatie is het mogelijk om de gehele krant vanaf 15.00 uur te downloaden, dit heeft als voordeel dat de krant ook offline gelezen kan worden. Alle artikelen zijn dan volledig te lezen in een weergave die is geoptimaliseerd voor het iPhone-scherm. Daarnaast bieden we ook het laatste nieuws van nrc.nl <http://nrc.nl>  aan.
    4. De applicatie kost eenmalig € 0,79. Daarvoor krijgt de koper een gratis editie om de mogelijkheden te bekijken. Vervolgens kunnen digitale abonnees van NRC Handelsblad de krant iedere dag vanaf 15.00 uur gratis downloaden naar hun iPhone. Wie geen digitaal abonnement heeft, betaalt 79 eurocent per editie. Binnen twee weken is de tienduizendste digitale versie van NRC Handelsblad gedownload.
    5. De applicatie is in opdracht van NRC Media gemaakt op basis van onze digitale editie.

    Wat doet de applicatie?

    “De NRC Handelsblad nieuwsapplicatie geeft toegang tot alle artikelen die in de krant verschijnen. Dit geeft je de mogelijkheid om overal ter wereld de actuele versie van NRC Handelsblad te lezen.”

    nrc-krant-appWaarom deze applicatie?

    “We willen onze journalistieke producties op alle geschikte platformen distribueren. Daarom zijn we twee jaar geleden begonnen met het ePaper. Inmiddels is het ePaper geschikt gemaakt voor vrijwel alle beschikbare ereaders (waaronder de iPhone, via Stanza). Ondanks dat NRC Handelsblad al te lezen was op de iPhone, hebben we besloten een ‘native’ iPhone app te maken. Een app biedt ons meer journalistieke en creatieve mogelijkheden dan het ePaper.”

    nrc-krant-app

    Hoe werkt de applicatie?

    “In de applicatie is het mogelijk om de gehele krant vanaf 15.00 uur te downloaden, dit heeft als voordeel dat de krant ook offline gelezen kan worden. Alle artikelen zijn dan volledig te lezen in een weergave die is geoptimaliseerd voor het iPhone-scherm. Daarnaast bieden we ook het laatste nieuws van de site van NRC aan.”

    Wat zijn de facts?

    “De applicatie kost eenmalig € 0,79. Daarvoor krijg je een gratis editie om de mogelijkheden te bekijken. Vervolgens kunnen digitale abonnees van NRC Handelsblad de krant iedere dag vanaf 15.00 uur gratis downloaden naar hun iPhone. Wie geen digitaal abonnement heeft, betaalt 79 eurocent per editie. Binnen twee weken is de tienduizendste digitale versie van NRC Handelsblad gedownload.”

    Wie maakt de applicatie?

    “De NRC Handelsblad applicatie is in opdracht van NRC Media gemaakt op basis van onze digitale editie.”

    Lees meer

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    Twitter's Growth Slows Dramatically

    http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/readwriteweb/~3/Uoux9h2QYRg/twitters_growth_slows_down_dramatically.php

    hubspot_logo_jan09.jpgAfter news about the landing of US Airways 1549 in the Hudson first broke on Twitter in January 2009, the microblogging service quickly captured the imagination of a new group of potential users. Throughout the first months of 2009, Twitter grew at a rapid pace, peaking at a growth rate of 13% in March 2009.

    Now, however, according to the latest data from HubSpot, Twitter's growth is slowing dramatically. In October 2009, Twitter's growth rate had fallen to 3.5%. On a positive note, though, the average active user on Twitter today is more engaged than six months ago.

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    hubspot_twitter_growth_jan09.jpg

    Most Twitter users, however - even if they are now more engaged on average - still have fewer than 100 followers. Only 18% of all Twitter users have more than 100 followers. A total of 81% of all users are currently also following less than 100 people. Just 6 months ago, the average user was just following around 40 accounts.

    hubspot_twitter_follower_counts_jan09.jpg

    HubSpot's analysis also shows that more Twitter users now include bios (54%), links (65%) and location data (41%) in their profiles.

    International Footprint Increases

    As we pointed out earlier this month, social media analytics firm Sysomos also noted that most of Twitter's growth is currently happening internationally. According to HubSpot's analysis of over 5 million Twitter accounts, 40% of the top 20 Twitter locations are now outside of North America. In July 2009, only 15% were from outside North America.

    For Twitter, this means that its current user base is making better use of the service, but the company also has to worry that its growth is slowing down. Maybe some of the earlier high growth rates were inflated by spam accounts, but a 3.5% growth rate is very low and the overall trend is only pointing down at this time.

    Discuss

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    Top internettrends 2010 (Jungle Minds)

    http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MarketingFacts/~3/DZhuIt0M7Rc/

    De drie belangrijkste trends voor 2010 zijn location based services, mobiel internet en usability. Althans, dat vonden 200 internetprofessionals op het jaarlijkse event van Jungle Minds. Het ging om een ‘hot-or-not’ stemming. ‘De uitslag is interessant aangezien het voorspelt waarin de internetgemeenschap gaat investeren in 2010,’ tromroffelt het persbericht. Uit totaal 40 onderwerpen kwam middels stemkastjes de top tien tot stand. Hieronder die tien internettrends: Lees meer over: Top internettrends 2010 (Jungle Minds).

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