First of all, what is SEO?

Wikipedia defines it as:

“Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the visibility of a website or a web page in search engines via the “natural” or un-paid (“organic” or “algorithmic”) search results.”

Search Engine Optimization is Obviously Part of Marketing.

Search Engine Marketing is certainly a tactic to get more customers to your website. Most website goals are to bring buyers to the company website, and to get them to convert. You want them buying the products or services you are selling. This is marketing. SEO should go in marketing, right?

Well, not so fast.

Search Engine Optimization is Obviously Part of I.T.

When you search engine optimize or as I call it, “Awesomeize” your website, it is a technical act.

Much of the work up front will be changes to website copy, backend work on page titles and meta tags, and other technical work that requires the knowledge and assistance of your IT team. You go through best practices to identify the correct keywords, structure, tags, and content of the site. When you are dealing with the structure and programming of the site, this needs to be done by web engineers, who understand the language of ‘teh interwebs.’

It’s a two-way street. For this reason, SEO bridges marketing and the I.T. dept. And for your in-house SEO to be effective, you need to have buy-in from each dept. But really, SEO is a marketing tool, not just another I.T. project.

SEO is Marketing Tool, not really an I.T. project.

It’s easy to define and allocate a project based on the expertise needed to do the work. This happens all too often with SEO. Because a large part of the practical work seems to fall to the IT department, especially if you’re working with an outside SEO firm and implementing SEO work in-house, it’s easy to also delegate the bulk of the SEO decision-making power to the IT team as well. However, SEO is a marketing tool and requires intricate knowledge and consideration of marketing and branding strategy.

I.T. may work on a large portion of the SEO project, but I.T. involvement, as well as most major SEO decisions should be managed by your marketing team. A lot of companies have their SEO department be strictly I.T. and many companies have their SEO departments in the Marketing department. I’ve heard bitches and whines from both sides of the fence. But, it all boils down to this question, “Is the work getting done, effectively?”

There are two main types of SEO, on-page and off-page, there are different functions that fit under each dept.

On-Page SEO is more Technical, the changes done to the site. It is the changes you make to your website that will help your web pages to be indexed correctly by the search engines. By doing this, you are laying the foundation for future success in your search engine rankings. Here is a great On-Page SEO Checklist that may come in handy for you, when you are “Awesomeizing” your website.

Offpage SEO is a combination of all the things that can help you to rank your website well in the search engines.

• Factors which are not located ON your Web site pages
• There are many functions involved in Offpage SEO that if you do correctly, can help you to get your site ranked well in Search Engines.

Here is a great Off-Page SEO Checklist that will certainly be enlightening after you’ve completed your on page SEO recommendations.

So Where Does SEO Fit?

It can be a tough business decision to definitively decide where you place your SEO team. Again, part of your On-Page SEO is done by the I.T. Dept, but it doesn’t mean that I.T. should be driving the SEO bus.

In fact, Marketing should be driving the SEO Bus, but many of the passengers on that bus will be from the I.T. Dept. It truly does bridge both worlds, so the people in charge of your company’s SEO should be able to fluently speak the language of marketing along with the language of the I.T. dept. You can’t have one without the other, if you want to fully Awesomeize your web presence. Together, I.T. and Marketing can help make your website shine in the eyes of Google… and that’s really what you want, right?

Adiqus was birthed out of the idea that we need to give people deals and discounts based on proximity and location. A Groupon meets Foursquare… 2-3 months BEFORE the iPhone came out. So, we worked diligently on our project. Having a daily deal program where everyone would see ads based on where they log in from. And… having local agents in each market called Advangelists.

This is what Groupon and Living Social in some ways now actually do. Being in Kansas City, it is a small market that tends to get few investment dollars. So, we didn’t get to build the vision. It pisses me off and disappoints me… but, I realize that I am on the right track. Having a solid idea that you don’t capitalize is my own fault and there is lots of lessons to be learned. And I keep getting on the horseand will continue to do so. But for now, let’s marvel at the millions that I have lost. lol.

Here are some of the numbers that Groupon through out in 2010. The Wall Street Journal says that the CEO mentioned $760 Million in revenue in 2010. So, this chart I’m about to show you is about 8 months worth of data.

Read More: What $480 Million Looks Like to Groupon

Paul Butler a student of math and visual design badassness. He had collected approximated data from Groupon by monitoring deals at the end of each day. He then put this data into a large database and began to map it out. Each box is a deal. He used height to represent number sold, and width to represent the price. Area is therefore gross revenue, and color is city for the top 20 cities.

Click for a larger, interactive version. Only works in browsers that support SVG, i.e. not IE.

This is seriously bad ass and shows which types of businesses succeed in the daily deal market.

The outside of the Xoom is not that original, in my opinion.  It’s a tablet.  There were 1,231,449 just like it at CES, – 10.1” display with 1280×800 resolution, front (2MP) and back-side (5MP with flash) built-in cameras and weighing in at 1.6lbs. The back-facing camera captures video recording at 720p while the display playbacks video at 1080p.   Not too shabby.

However, the inside of Xoom is bad ass.  This is why the Xoom became the stand-out gadget this year at CES.  They crammed a powerful punch into this tablet, the NVIDIA Tegra 2 dual core 1GHz processor. Pow!  The Xoom also includes a 32GB hard-drive and 1GB DDR2 RAM.  Motorola is also reporting battery life of 10 hours of dedicated video which really makes it a stand-out from many of the tablets we saw this year.  Really?  10 hours of video play?  I’ll have to test this firsthand to believe that.

One reason that I think the Xoom is one of this year’s stand-out is its OS – Google’s Android 3.0 (Honeycomb) software, which has been specifically customized for tablet hardware.

Previous versions of the Android OS have relied on physical buttons embedded in the hardware to navigate menus within the OS but Honeycomb eliminates that in this OS build as the main navigation buttons – Home, Back, and Menu – have become part of the touchscreen. This is a crucial improvement for the OS as it makes it a more universal OS that will give hardware manufacturers a bit more liberty to innovate.

One of the highlights is the way that Gmail widget works. It’s been a long time coming and is accompanied by new widgets for calendar, contacts, browser and a YouTube links. The Xoom also comes with a barometer, along with the accelerometer, magnetometer, ambient light sensor and gyroscope.

The Xoom will launch on Verizon 3G in Q1 of this year but will be upgradable to 4G LTE in Q2 which we think is great.

Motorola came out swinging… let’s see how consumers react to this great device.

The LG Revolution might look pretty familiar to you, as it is Verizon’s version of the incredibly badass LG Optimus 2X, in appearance anyway. We have not been able to acquire any confirmation that it’s 1GHz processor is the same dual-core Tegra 2 found in the 2X. I’ll try to get confirmation on this as soon as we can. Even though LG sent us out to cover this, this is an honest opinion, the LG Revolution and the Optimus 2x phones makes LG a legitimate player in the US smartphone market.

The Revolution uses 4.3-inch capacitive touchscreen display as its main canvas and fully supports video chatting, thanks to rear and front-facing cameras (5 megapixel main, with flash) and it has full support for Skype Mobile with video. Awesome. Also a feature that I love about this phone is that has mobile hotspot features that allow the Revolution to connect to up to eight nearby Wi-Fi connected devices. (Finally, since my Moto Droid Gen 1 can’t do this without rooting) And like many LG smartphones these days, the Revolution also supports DLNA(INFO) media sharing.

Other features of note include Bluetooth 3.0 support, 16GB of internal storage, and a microSD memory card slot.

No pricing information for the LG Revolution is available yet, but Verizon mentioned that the Revolution will be available in the first half of 2011.

The phone is smoking fast, it has a beautiful display, and it is thankfully NOT going to be on the AT&T network. So, for that I am grateful.

This is most likely my next phone.

The LGNewsroom site has all of the press information about the new products being released here at CES.

The LG Press Conference began with a video of Jane Lynch from Glee telling us about the power of SMART. Check this, Jane was NOT wearing a jumpsuit.

Wayne Park, President and CEO of LG Electronics, talked about the products that LG is releasing here at CES. The main components of business they are focusing on are the Home Entertainment division, Home Appliance division and Mobile Phones division. They are dedicated to making all of their products “Smarter”.

According to Park, LG is developing technologies to gauge the future market landscape. Strengthening business competitiveness is a key area of focus for LG in 2011, as well as preparing for future business in the coming years. LG is making a strong push in investing in R&D and innovation.

Quality management is another key focus for 2011, LG is championing the mantra of quality, from the top of their organization to the lower ranks.

Face the challenges of 2011 to sustain growth and keep LG at a competitive edge in their core business division.

Next up, CTO, Dr. Skott Ahn, the former CEO of the Mobile Communications division. He was responsible for 20% growth year over year, every year in charge.

Smart TV is a product that LG is launching this year. In 2010, they launched broadband TV, in 2011, Smart TV is the reinvention. They will offer premium content providers such as Google Maps, Hulu, Youtube, Netflix and many others.

Plus, they are launching a Smart TV app store that looks pretty impressive. They are launching the Smart TV Upgrader, which will put LG App Store onto any TV with HDMI. This seems very similar to Apple TV.

Mobile Smartphones
Smartphone Roadmap, in 2011, LG is launching the Optimus 2x is the worlds first smartphone with a Dual Core processor, NVidia AP20h, plus it plays 1080p HD. It is also pretty small weighing in at 3.8oz and slim at a mere 0.36 inches. Very slim phone with an amazing display that is very bright. In fact, LG claims it to be the brightest display on smart phones.

Smart Appliances
So, LG has created some new amazing home appliances that can connect via wireless connectivity. The appliances contain what LG calls ThinQ technology, which allows for “smart access”, “smart diagnosis” “smart food management”, “smart adapt” and “smart grid.”

Smart access control allows users to monitor home appliances with their Smartphone / Tablet. You can also personalize your appliacance by downloading wash cycles, recipes, etc.

The Smart Grid function helps reduce electricity automatically.

LG is also have a smaller press event tomorrow where they are launching their line of Tablets.

All in all, I am very impressed with the new line of products by LG. They are launching over 30 new TVs and 14 new mobile devices.

I heard of some rumblings that Skype was going to release this but to wait until CES next week to look behind the wizards curtain.

Skype’s official iOS client finally has the ability to make video calls, allowing it on:

• iPhone 3GS
• iPhone 4
• 4th-gen iPod touch

iOS Skype allows users to have real-time video amongst together iPhone to iPhone, but also with users of Skype’s Windows, Mac, and Linux clients along with the ASUS Videophone.

3GS phones obviously don’t have the convenience of a front-facing camera, but they can still broadcast video from the rear-facing camera.

Additionally, if you have an iPad or 3rd-gen iPod Touch, you’ll be able to receive video from others and broadcast audio only. The service is free and works over both WiFi and 3G. Skype has a huge PC presence, so this Skype iOS functionality may put a pinch on FaceTime usage.

No word on when Android, Blackberry and other mobile OS’s will be video-capable for Skype.

There will be “plenty more” announcements in Vegas next week, Skype promised, so who really knows. But, iOS Skype is available in the iTunes Store, go grab it. [I'm gonna get it on my iPad, immediately after I hit Publish.]

January is quickly approaching. What does this mean for early adopters and lovers of cool tech gadgetry? Only one thing, CES is nigh. This will be a fun time to go to CES, as many companies are preparing to take on Apple iPad with tablets of their own. I expect internet TV to get some love at CES this year, as well. There will certainly be tons of new smartphones released. Also, I’m expecting solar gadgets to be prevalent as well as increased strength in batteries and in storage devices.

On January 6, Las Vegas will once again play host to the world’s largest gathering of consumer electronics makers. Drooling tech lovers and hordes of journalists will flock to the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) to see the what’s in store for 2011.

Last year’s four-day conference at the Las Vegas Convention Center attracted about 125,000 attendees and roughly 2,500 exhibitors. To put it in perspective, the first CES took place in New York City in June, 1967 with only 200 exhibitors and about 17,500 attendees. Since then, CES has grown more than ten-fold.

Obviously, I expect to see tablet’s galore. And it really only took 12 months for the iPad to FINALLY get some competition. Being an owner of an iPad, I can’t imagine not having a functional tablet anymore. My kids use this thing all of the time. The educational games are amazing and there are plenty of apps to keep you occupied. Again, Apple got a good head-start on competition, so it will be difficult for other consumer electronics companies to catch up… so their products better be top notch.

Sure there are many ways to make the iPad better, industry pundits have talked about them all year: no camera, no HDMI output, no USB, etc. etc… Apple will certainly fix most of these on iPad 2.0, I’m sure. Sure, Apple will have some competition being exhibited at CES, but, it won’t take long to steal back the thunder, as MacWorld Conference is January 26-29.

Apple likely sold more than 10 million iPads in 2010, with Samsung’s Galaxy emerging as the only real competition for holiday shopping dollars.

Several companies are looking to close the gap, and many are expected to unveil tablets running on Google’s popular Android operating system. Rumor has it that Samsung will respond with an updated Galaxy tablet, while Asus is prepping an ultra-thin 10-inch Android device. Motorola, Research in Motion, Toshiba and the Palm/HP combination are other key tablet players to watch in Vegas.

However, the biggest story in 2011 may be the delivery of Internet-based content to the television set, according to Shawn Dubrovac, CEA’s Chief Economist and Director of Research.

“This won’t be about the technical feasibility of bringing the Internet to the TV, this will be about the meaningfulness for the end-user of marrying the TV with the Internet,” said Dubrovac.

Because consumers do not replace TVs frequently, Dubrovac expects an increasing number of set-top boxes (and accompanying services) launch at the 2011 CES, even though there are rumors that Google is going to hold back releasing Google TV, until the software is ready for primetime.

LG Mobile contacted us and is sending us out to try their new releases, so Mobile Local Social will get to experience LG’s new product line first hand. I look forward to demoing the products and writing reviews on everything that we find at CES.

2011 should be an interesting year for new consumer electronics, and for networking with some of the industries most influential technologists.

There are many different sites out there and many need passwords. As far as the passwords are concerned, there can NOT be only one.

/lifts Highlander katana to defend self from bad pun backlash

I should preempt this quick article by saying that the best practice is to have a different password for every site that is generally complex so that none can be connected to each other.  That being said, no one that is not OCD is doing this. You could do this and keep them in KeePass if you really wished to be that paranoid.  The following is what I choose to do.  Proceed at your own risk.

I generally use three different strengths of passwords with six different site associations.  They are listed in order of security importance from least to greatest. Your opinion of  security importance may differ:

1. Blogs, Spam Email accounts- These are unsecured (non Https) sites and garbage email accounts (used for spam and random sign ups with companies I don’t trust yet) -

Easy password- May be this is a noun of some sort or a number combo.  I use this one over and over again.  I really don’t care if it is compromised. Easy to remember and quick to type.  I allow my browser to store it,  and the site to store it as well if possible.   Sorry Gawker…you fall in this category.

2. Social Sites (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Friendster, Myspace) – You know you had a Friendster account once.

Medium password (not shared with any other sites besides these types) – Medium means you take the easy password and add a special character and may be a number to it.

3. Monetary Transaction Sites (use credit card info over Https)- Amazon, Newegg, Overstock, Etc -

Hard password- Hard is a combination of letter, number and special characters equating to about 6-8 characters. I share it amongst these monetary sites as if any are compromised, I can simply tell the bank to reissue my credit card and claim theft. Also, do not keep your credit card information on file at the site.  Don’t be lazy, take the card out of your wallet and retype the numbers in.  Do not allow your browser to record this data in memory fields.  Someone get’s your PC?  No good.

4. Paypal, Visa/Mastercard credit card confirmation

Hard password (not shared with any other sites)

5. Bank Accounts- (your physical banks online access site)

Especially hard password (not shared with any other sites)-  Especially hard means a minimum of 8 characters or more with upper and lowercase letters, at least two number, two special characters and NO associations with anything in your life whatsoever.  This password is totally random and could not be socially engineered.

6. Primary Real Email (Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo, AOL, Etc) -You mom still has AOL, liar

Especially hard password (not shared with any other sites)

If your real email is ever compromised…..you could be royally screwed.  This is unless, of course, you do not keep any personal data, that if in the wrong hands could lead to identity theft in your email account.  I know, difficult to uphold this kind of integrity with the mass amounts of data we have to remember in today’s world.

Therefore, a word of advice if you are very diligent, don’t keep any passwords to other sites in your main email. Memorize them.   Don’t keep any records of your bank interactions here either. Basically keep those things locked in a safe in your home on physical paper if you have to.  Same goes for your personal info and families info like Social Security numbers etc.  Don’t store them in your email account.  If you absolutely have to keep private data online, an option here is to have a second primary email that you use to store info, but do not forward, only type directly or upload info to this email.  That way no other email account  has a record of the secret info storing one.

Additionally you may have a seventh password that is only applicable for some folks.

7. Special Sites -Like if you OWN a blog-

Especially Special Hard Password (phat chance breakin’ this one folks, just walk away if you know what’s good for you)

I know it may seem ridiculous to have up to seven different passwords but when Gawker was compromised Yahoo (very intelligently) contacted me to ask me to change my email account password because it was linked to my Gawker account. Fortunately I only link Blogs with my dummy email account, and I don’t use the same password.

This is a very good reason to create a “garbage” email account and only use it with your non-monetary transaction sites.  For monetary transaction sites it’s up to you if you want connect them with a main real email account.  BUT do NOT use the same password no matter what.  So…when Gawker said that they had been hacked I just changed my Gawker password and changed my xxxxxxxxx@yahoo.com garbage account password and I was done.

No loss for me.

On the social network sites it’s a good idea to use an incorrect birthday that is a year, month, and day wrong (could even be 1 off). I use a pattern here as well so that if I am ever asked due to a security access reason, I know that I may have used my “alternate” fake birthday. I choose NOT to display my birthday in my social networks for this reason. If someone gets my SS and is able to look up a parent’s maiden name, hometown, etc…well..you get the point.

Examples of strong passwords (that use at least 8 characters).

Here is an example of a strong password using a kind of L33T (“elite” hack password manipulations) speak,  in case you are unaware.  I’ll take the word-

password

and show how even though it is 8 places, I can turn it into 11 places.

p4$Sw0Rd*49

I have upper and lowercase letters. p S w R d (notice I did NOT put the first letter as uppercase)

I have two special characters,
one that replaced an S.                                         $ *

I have exchanged some letters
for numbers.                                                            a=4 O=0(zero)

I put a random special character at the
end and some numbers that are
significant to me but not connected to
anything (no parents birth years or
anything like that)                                                  *49

It’s important to use a word that no one would expect. Not your kids name alone either. Combine a name with a word if you have to use someone’s name then change it to the variation you see above. Manipulate the combo name/word into an complex password.  Be aware that mixed passwords take a long time to brute force decipher while simple names and phrases can be done in almost an instant depending on the hacker.

Easy vs. Hard passwords- What does that mean to a hacker?
Click on Images for full screen

See here how a class A (all classes listed at the end of the post), the weakest PC using free or easily available cracking software can break your 9 character number only password in 28 hours?  This means your nine year old kid can use L0phtCrack, Cain or John The Ripper password cracking software, and with a Playschool netbook get into your secret stuff.

On the other end of the spectrum. Having at least 8 characters mixed up as I have done to the word password above means that even a class F supercomputer would take over 80 days to break it.

Here you can see that a password like “B33r&Mug”   takes 83 days on a class F setup to break. Even on a class D machine your nine year old will be 30 by the time he breaks your password.

I was fortunate to not have a real email account tied to Gawker with the same password.  I hear that others were not so lucky and now they have to deal with the aftermath.

I hope this helps my fellow readers/writers.

“Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.”

Source for time to crack info:

http://www.lockdown.co.uk/?pg=combi

Images via Joystiq & MaximumPC.

Not unlike cleaning out your closet, it tends to clean the soul.  Also like cleaning out your closet, there’s a certain profile of items you tend to get rid of each time, twindling down until you have the guts to get rid of all of these types of things.

So here’s a list of the profiles that I get rid of when I do my Twitter Spring Cleaning… (and I can say “spring” cleaning for a post in December because I’m in the southern hemisphere where it’s spring, woohoo!)

Image from a Similar Post on Twittercism.com

• The Automated DM – Recently I’ve been receiving a lot of automated messages as soon as I start following someone thanking me for following them and what they’re all about.  Is this supposed to make me think the message isn’t automatic and you’re actually interested in our virtual friendship?  I don’t care how much of a big deal you are, these messages are phony!  They’re the products that don’t even make it to spring cleaning because as soon as you buy them, they come with a defect and you have to return them right away or else you won’t get your money back (dignity = money in this analogy in the Twittersphere).  These are the kind of people who will #FF you if you #FF them or only write you a LinkedIn recommendation after you write theirs, and so on…
• The Obnoxious Friend/Colleague – You know who I’m talking about.  The person who is your friend or who you work with who started following you but who doesn’t know how to use Twitter.  They think it’s Facebook or you know… their e-mail account, a new way to send text messages, or their online center of narcissism.  This person tweets things like, “@soandso, what time are we meeting up for dinner tonight?” (ok, text or e-mail that) “what a great 10 mile run” (… i hate people who talk about how in shape they are …), “woke up feeling so sad today” (the person who’s always complaining about life and needs attention), “get a life and stop talking shit about me!” (the epic indirect totally direct comment sans the @), and of course the ultimate waste of a tweet “Good Morning Twitter!”  I wait for that person to get enough followers and unfollow after I can’t take it anymore.  The spring cleaning analogy?  You know that shirt you bought on sale and never wore but only bought it because it was on sale?  Yeah… get rid of it.  Someone else will put it to good use.
• The Web Rockstar – Unless you have good content, I don’t follow you if you have more than 10,000 followers and follow 2 people (actual celebrities aside)… your boyfriend/girlfriend and the company sponsoring you. And if there was an option to follow yourself, you would do that too.  Oh, and if you tweet that you’re “Only 100 followers away from 15,000,” make that 101.  This is the most self absorbed twitter profile that exists.  The person probably isn’t really that popular in real life but put up a cute profile picture and initially had good content and BAM, blew up online and now charges a grand per sponsored tweet.  They live on retweets and followers.  These are those really expensive jeans you bought because @soandso told you they make her look 5 lbs thinner, but your ass couldn’t look any bigger in them.  Don’t do that to your self image.  Don’t let the brand name get in the way of your well being…
• The Industry Expert – I work in the Search Marketing industry and nothing annoys me more than an SEO or Search Marketer who only tweets about SEO.  On one hand, these people make me feel better about life because I realize I have a social life outside of work and they probably don’t.  On the other hand, they make me sad because it makes me feel like I don’t work hard enough. I realize people have twitters that are focused on a certain industry or sector, but when your tweets consist of 100% dialogue with other people in the industry and referencing articles and posts 24/7 as soon as their posted, you lose a little bit of credibility as a human being in my point of view.  So take this as you’d like, but to me, this “book” you bought that references every other book you’ve already read is unecessary, send it to your public library and invest in more leisureful (is that a word?) literature.
• The Nosy Neighbor – This person is the one who is constantly butting in on your tweets with other people.  If I find a video that reminds me of a friend of mine and I tweet, “Love this video! http://youtu.be/1234 – Reminds me of @soandso and our weekend at the beach!”  I’ll get this 5.7 seconds after my tweet “HOW ROMANTIC!!! RT @_polyana Love this video! http://youtu.be/1234 – Reminds me of @soandso and our weekend at the beach!” (ok that may be more than 140 characters.  This person is that thing that was rotting at the back of your fridge that you’ve been too lazy to take out… really, it’s going to make the rest of what’s in your fridge smell pretty soon too…
• The Promo Freak – This one’s THAT GIRL who all she does is tweet promos and contests she’s trying to win.  In between these tweets she is a mix of the obnoxious friend/colleague and the nosy neighbor.  These are your old college t-shirts from random events and parties you got for free and are 8 sizes too big (or too small).  Not everything that was free should be cherished nor people who spend their day thinking up ways to get free stuff… you can make do without them
• The Self Promoter – All this guys does is tweet his blog posts, links to interviews and podcasts featuring him, and RT’s tweets of his that other people retweeted!! He’s not in a category of his own… this guy is almost always either an industry expert or a web rockstar!

Am I PMSing?  Maybe.  Am I bitter towards these types of people? No, just who they become on their Twitter accounts.  I’m really quite friendly, I promise… I’m just practical.  And keeping these kinds of people off my following list helps me stay that way!

Who do you love to unfollow on Twitter?

*Oh, and feel free to call me out on any of the above if you see this sort of behavior on my twitter account – @_polyana – I would hate to be called a hypocrite!!

This is completely true and changing the world as we know it.  The folks over at Cognitive Media created this visual art transcription drawing.  Here is what they had to say:

“Here’s our latest effort in the video Scribing arena. I say arena, but there seems to be very few of us doing this sort of thing. This is for the RSAnimate series we are doing. We are getting a great response from it and we are fortunate to have great sponsors at the RSA. We thank them and the great speakers we get to listen to and translate. If it wasn’t for the rich content they provide, we wouldn’t be able to do what we do.  Anyway, Dan Pink gave great talk at the RSA in London about what motivates us and here’s how we translated what he said. We are just about to start work on another two ‘animations’ and they should be up very shortly.”

As a part of the community of Android users that are constantly innovating beyond what Google issues as the stock operating system, I can see this concept coming to fruition all the timer.  With new innovations becoming a reality on a daily basis, simply because of developers that work to give back to the community of their knowledge freely, compliments being their only compensation.

Back in November we had a post about this.  I am re-posting as I really enjoyed the video.

(Thanks for the tip Rick)

Next generation aims to reduce power consumption and help make way for tiny wireless sensors.

The new spec for Bluetooth 4.0 has just been approved by the Bluetooth Special Interest Group, the organization that sets the standards for this technology.  The newly approved speculation adds a low-power specification for transmitting small data bursts over short ranges.
According to a press release posted by the SIG on Bluetooth.com, Bluetooth 4.0 promises to dramatically reduce power consumption and some of the new low energy devices will be able to operate for years on standard coin-cell batteries.

“Some of these new low-energy devices will be able to operate for years on just a tiny, button-sized battery,” said Mike Foley, executive director of the SIG.

Foley said the Bluetooth 4.0 technology is being certified and licensed for use in chips and devices and that companies can begin designing and manufacturing devices using the standard.

“The ability to run on such a minuscule amount of power – as little as 10% of the energy used by classic Bluetooth devices – will enable a host of new uses for wireless products in everything from sports and fitness to and home entertainment,” he said.

Devices equipped with the Bluetooth 4.0 will be able to run on as little as 10 percent of the power of previous Bluetooth devices.  The group also plans to develop a watch equipped with an alarm that would sound if users leave a device like their cell phone behind.

The Bluetooth SIG has more than 13,000 member companies worldwide, including  Ericsson, Intel, Lenovo, Microsoft, Motorola and Nokia.

Products equipped with Bluetooth 4.0 are expected to be out on the market by Fall of 2011.

As I skimmed the iPad app store the other night, the one app that struck me most (besides Flipboard) was one that actually set way, way down at #55.  It was the highly-touted Hulu + app, possibly one of the most hoped-for and touted apps by the iPad crowd.

The price was set at $9.99.  So far, the iPad has done a phenomenal job of stretching our limits in what users are willing to spend via digital, download-driven purchases.  The $.99 standard was set years ago with the introduction of iTunes and music downloads, and for the most part, it transitioned over to the app store and became the entry-point for paid apps in the space for over three years.

There is an unspoken expectation in iTunes app land.  If you download a free app, expect/respect the fact the developers need to keep their lights on too, so banners and interstitials are going to be there.   Pay for the app?  Banners are nowhere to be seen.  Heck, one of the biggest selling points in paid apps is the absence of advertising all together.

Hulu + first erred in this area.  When the $10 monthly fee was announced, a somewhat surprised crowd at least initially surmised that pre, mid and post-rolls would be kicked to the curb.  As fans downloaded and launched the app, they were surprised to see the same ads they saw on its free desktop component laced throughout the app.  Hulu actually thought people would pay $120 a year just to be able to carry an ad-driven Hulu portal around on an iPad vs. a laptop.

Think of the easy comparison, TV.  You have your free and basic cable channels, where we expect a solid 20 minutes of advertising on the hour.  Once we pay for the HBO’s, the Starz, the Showtimes, we pay to have those commercials taken away.  Hulu, in essence, is trying to become an HBO with commercials.  In reality, it appears they are trying to model their pricing after Netflix, while neglecting to reflect their massive DVD infrastructure and mailing centers that justifies a monthly-based fee.

If Hulu was smart they would have realized the subscription-based pricing model (or lack thereof) has so far been a failure in the mobile application space.  Time, Wall Street Journal, the big publications that were once going to be saved and revolutionized on the iPad are nowhere to be seen on the top paid downloads list due to this very reason.  Why pay $240 a year for an iPad Time subscription when I can get the print one for $29?  The reason is twofold:  the tendency for companies to over-estimate how much people are willing to spend on new technologies (see Dyson bladeless fan) and failure to respect the success of the discount-based subscription print models of the last 50 years.

Nearly every application that requires a monthly (or weekly) fee to receive updated content has failed to deliver any sort of discount-based pricing tier.  In the print and magazine world, long-term subscriptions often generated discounts in excess of 70% and a large majority of their business.  In iPad land, it’s $4 or $10 a month, regardless if you are here for a month or here for three years.  The failure to reward loyalty and long-term commitments with discounts is a simple yet huge mistake that quite honestly has not been executed properly in the mobile space yet.  Until this simple “problem” can be fixed, applications that require a monthly or weekly fee will continue to be plagued with low ratings and nasty reviews.

If there was ever a “good bad problem” to have, this would honestly be it for the iPublications and Hulus of the world.  There’s a simple and proven solution out there…discount-based subscriptions and price tiers.  There’s no tech issues, no“app crashing” problems to solve (which seems to be affecting a huge amount of iPhone/iTouch apps that are running O/S 4 on 3G or 3GS right now, but I digress.)  These iPublications and video services need to realize that even in the light of sexy, new technologies, people are still going to be realistic and even cautious with how they spend their money in these spaces  Until they provide a welcoming and realistic pricing model, subscription-based applications will continue to be nothing more than the Ryan Leaf’s of the iPad app store.

Looks like Engadget has the scoop on a possible (probable?) Android/Sony gaming phone.

Here’s some info:

“Here’s what we can tell you about the hardware: if you’re a gaming fan, this is exactly the kind of phone you’ve been waiting for. The device is described as cross between the Samsung Captivate and the PSP Go — in other words, it’s a landscape slider with game controls in place of the typical QWERTY keyboard. The D-pad is here, but instead of the small joystick, the device will have what was described as a “long touch pad” for analog controls, along with standard PSP buttons and shoulder buttons. The phone has a large display, described as being between 3.7 and 4.1 inches with WVGA or better resolution, a 5 megapixel camera that we’re told might not be final, and it’ll likely have a 1GHz Snapdragon CPU on board. The phone is mostly black with some silver highlights, and the gamepad area is white / silver in color. Apparently it’s currently branded as a Xperia device, but it looks like it will carry PlayStation branding as well. Those who’ve seen the phone say it looks “pretty damn sexy.” The mockup above probably doesn’t do the actual hardware justice, but it should give you an idea of what you’ll be dealing with.”

On the software side, it looks like the device will be running Gingerbread (Android 3.0) with a phone-specific skin, and there will be a new area of the Android Market specifically for the games.

Jump over to Engadget for the entire article and the massive ” Android + Sony + Gaming = FTW” and “Heeeeellllzzzz yeah” commentary.

Gizmodo mock up:

Apple has purchased the patents for an electronic casing industry called Liquidmetal®.

On August 5, 2010, Liquidmetal Technologies, Inc., a Delaware corporation (“Liquidmetal”), entered into a Master Transaction Agreement with Apple Inc., a California corporation (“Apple”), pursuant to which (i) Liquidmetal contributed substantially all of its intellectual property assets to a newly organized special-purpose, wholly-owned subsidiary (the “IP Company”), (ii) the IP Company granted to Apple a perpetual, worldwide, fully-paid, exclusive license to commercialize such intellectual property in the field of consumer electronic products in exchange for a license fee, and (iii) the IP Company granted back to Liquidmetal a perpetual, worldwide, fully-paid, exclusive license to commercialize such intellectual property in all other fields of use (together with all ancillary agreements, the “Master Transaction Agreement”).

This video show the elasticity of the compound.

From the companies website:

“As the demand for product “miniaturization” continues in the electronic casings industry, Liquidmetal® alloys enable smaller, thinner and more durable designs. Current casings technology is pushed to the limit in supporting these new designs and specifications, especially requirements for larger LCD screens, thinner wall sections and pure metallic surface finishes for products such as mobile phones, PDA’s and cameras.

Liquidmetal alloys possess a unique combination of performance and processing characteristics that are in many ways superior to all available high performance materials such as magnesium, aluminum, titanium and plastics, providing innovative design and manufacturing solutions to the electronic casings industry.

Key Casings Advantages:

With approximately 2.5 times the strength of commonly used titanium alloy and 1.5 times the hardness of commonly used stainless steel, Liquidmetal alloys enable sophisticated, engineered designs required by the evolution of new technologies
Enables thinner, smaller designs while providing greater protection for internal components
Permits thinner walls while providing greater strength
Allows larger, wider screens for expanded features and capabilities
With precision net-shape casting, Liquidmetal alloys can be readily fashioned into intricate, innovative designs resulting in a unique aesthetic advantage
Excellent durability
Scratch and corrosion resistant
Non-reactive

As the demand for innovative electronic casings product designs increases worldwide, Liquidmetal alloys’ cutting edge materials technology is finding an ever increasing and important role in providing designers, engineers and manufacturers solutions to meet expanding customer needs. Liquidmetal alloys combine the processing and cost advantages of competing technologies and performance characteristics that exceed current super alloys which position Liquidmetal alloys in the forefront of many design centers around the globe.”

As seen on Gizmodo.

Let me start by saying that my reasons are mine and mine alone. I don’t pretend to know why others are involved; that isn’t a huge concern of mine. And while I am sure there is a certain level of vanity in it all, that level is very, very low.

For me, it’s all about business; and  while I understand that isn’t some altruistic warm and fuzzy reason (I’m not trying to save the world here) it is my reason.

My company started as a web and brand development business eleven years ago and with the onset of social media we have moved more towards the direction of marketing and PR through social media. Plain and simple, this project allows me to show my clients that I can use my reach to help their company to succeed.

And then, when the bills are paid, I can use that reach for some great causes (here is the warm and fuzzy), like the event that we just did with the Wisconsin Humane Society.

One last thing,  I don’t look at this as a competition, but as a project as Fast Company has so aptly named it. We are all in this together,  and to that end I’m listing the people I know who are involved with the project and would love for you to support them by clicking their links and please feel free to comment with people you know and include their links. Let’s see what we can do when we support each other.

Charles Gartland  – http://fcinf.com/v/abnw

George Kasica – http://fcinf.com/v/b7bq

Eric Sforza – http://fcinf.com/v/awud

Jon Kurozawa – http://bit.ly/aoupAQ

Chad Schomber – http://fcinf.com/v/c5pd

Sarah White – http://fcinf.com/v/ahjx

A. Ryan Thompson – http://fcinf.com/v/djjk

Nate St. Pierre – http://fcinf.com/v/bxch

Susi Schuele – http://fcinf.com/v/dokl

Rebecca Bradley – http://fcinf.com/v/doc3

Mia Kurozawa – http://fcinf.com/v/csvg

Charles Gartland – http://fcinf.com/v/abnw

TweetUp Girls – http://fcinf.com/v/br74

Jeanette Pham – http://fcinf.com/v/b24p

And me – Michelle D’Attilio – http://fcinf.com/v/dxub