Sunday, February 03, 2008
Friday, February 01, 2008
Microsoft to buy Yahoo! for $44.6Bn?
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
How to present like Steve Jobs
First read on Damien Mulley's fluffy links.
Monday, January 28, 2008
Qtrax, first music major endorsed P2P service... NOT!
Guardian
Choosing forgiveness over permission is a risky PR strategy. Qtrax got huge amount of coverage, especially after the majors denied their agreements. They will always be able to make further announcements when deals are finalized and blame their over-enthusiastic nature for their first release: Now there is media interest to hear what they have to say and users know they exist. On the other hand, it adds unnecessary pressure to their negotiations with the music industry and their credibility will be dented. The end result: A lot of confused users will check-out Qtrax.com. I hope that their PR strategy was planned and that they provide some explanations on their website to capture this spike in traffic.
Sunday, December 23, 2007
Happy Holidays, Best Wishes for 2008
prosperous new year.
Thursday, December 20, 2007
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
I tried Three’s new Skype phone and I liked it
Two months later, upon my return to the UK, I received as promised 2 phones for a month long trial.
The phone
The silver ring around the Skype button is borderline bling but overall the phone is sleek and elegant in its simplicity. And it has a really nice feel when you hold it. I guess Three must have spend weeks with focus groups just to get the right weight, not too heavy, not too light resulting in this smooth feeling handset that fits nicely in the hand.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7DlZ-E5P8xVnAcJlYP7hC4I_lEBx9pE7L-0SEFE6wyEn7GlEZLA-crO7-1HxpSYojIHz2juFe2M5l3W0phBD3RdZLzbt9zt3snRHM_OeLL3NE4n7E4yXMrO8HjXajxZPGzt00Gw/s320/Skype_Phone.jpg)
Decent colour screen, 2MB camera, takes pictures, videos and many other things that I could not be possibly bothered to mention, as I am not that geeky. Specs are there if you are interested (select a phone and click on "Mobile details").
The interface
Among the phones I used, Motorola consistently ranked worst in terms of clunky, non-intuitive user interface. Nokia is doing a pretty good job but I always had a soft spot for Sony-Ericksson. I am adding to my favourites Three’s interface which is easy to use and aesthetically pleasing. Good job for people like me who would rather never use a functionality than opening a user manual.
Skype
This is the crux of the matter. You can call and receive calls on Skype using Three’s network, which means you don’t rely on finding a wifi connection. Finally, I could talk to my Skype friends without being glued to my laptop. Because I am using Three’s network , voice quality was much better than my normal Skype calls. When logged-in to Skype (just press the “Skype” button), you will see your contacts and their status. To call, just select a contact and you are on. You can use Skype chat as well but the Three Skypephone does not support Skype Out or Skype In.
Live TV
The picture quality of live TV is impressive. Sharp and good streaming. On offer: BBC1, BBC3, BBC News, National Geographic, FHM, MTV…
Facebook, MSN, eBay and the likes
It has all that if you need it. There is a handy shortcut to Google Search on Three’s launcher (like a “Start menu on Windows). There is a direct link to Youtube as well so instead of spending too much money on video calls, post your clip on your Youtube channel for your friends to watch and reciprocate.
Finally, the price…
Now this is where it gets complicated, there are lots of information on rates and plans but it is a bit all over the place on Three’s website, and the small print is hard to find.
Pay As You Go (no contract)
You can buy a handset for £59.99 that includes a £10 top-up. You can use Skype for 30 days with a “fair use” policy (4,000 Skype minutes and 10,000 chat messages per month) but you need to top-up again with a minimum of £10 every 30 days.
Contract
Contracts are 18 months, which is far too long to consider for someone like me who spend months abroad. The cheapest plan is £12 a month and gives you 100 minutes or text messages. The phone comes free with the same “fair use” policy for Skype.
Live TV is £5 a month and add another £5 for unlimited web surfing. This will go on top of PAYG or contracts.
Verdict...
I showed the phone to a couple of friends and they all agreed that it is a looker with great functionality, with Skype, Live TV an mobile web among their favourite features (in order). As far as I understand, rates are competitive but my hunch is that you need to spend lots of time on Skype at time when you don't want to be at home to make it worthwhile. Otherwise you may be better off sticking to Skype on your laptop and a cheap call plan for calls/texts. The 18 months contract is a no go for me but I may look into the PAYG option after I speak to Three’s sales reps to clarify call rates for that option.
Overall, the Skype Phone is on top of my 2008 must-have list and I am glad I tried it.
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
The story of stuff: how the real world works
"The Story of Stuff:
From its extraction through sale, use and disposal, all the stuff in our lives affects communities at home and abroad, yet most of this is hidden from view. The Story of Stuff is a 20-minute, fast-paced, fact-filled look at the underside of our production and consumption patterns. (...) It'll teach you something, it'll make you laugh, and it just may change the way you look at all the stuff in your life forever."
Friday, December 14, 2007
BlogNation to shut down amidst much mud-throwing 2.0
Back to how much Facebook has replaced blogging now...
Thursday, December 13, 2007
Facebook to license platform methods and tags to counter Google's OpenSocial
"Now we also want to share the benefits of our work by enabling other social sites to use our platform architecture as a model. In fact, we’ll even license the Facebook Platform methods and tags to other platforms. Of course, Facebook Platform will continue to evolve, but by enabling other social sites to use what we’ve learned, everyone wins -- users get a better experience around the web, developers get access to new audiences, and social sites get more applications."
Bebo already announced that it will focus its efforts on applications compatibility with Facebook (while continuing to support Open Social).
Are we heading towards a format war between Google and Facebook?
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Adobe and Yahoo put online ads into documents
Will your Dell laptop PDF brochures have HP ads all over?
Big Tech blog
Monday, December 10, 2007
You Will Control 25% of Entertainment by 2012
I told you so.
Mobile Crunch.
Wednesday, December 05, 2007
Saturday, December 01, 2007
Facebook's Beacon More Intrusive Than Previously Thought
Full article on Washington Post
Friday, November 30, 2007
Victory! Facebook stopped invading my privacy.
Story on BBC.
Facebook’s official reaction:
Facebook Update on Changes to Beacon
No stories will be published without users proactively consenting
We appreciate feedback from all Facebook users and made some changes to Beacon in the past day. Users now have more control over the stories that get published to their Mini-Feed and potentially to their friends' News Feeds.
Here's how the Beacon changes work:
- Stories about actions users take on external websites will continue to be presented to users at the top of their News Feed the next time they return to Facebook. These stories will now always be expanded on their home page so they can see and read them clearly.
- Users must click on "OK" in a new initial notification on their Facebook home page before the first Beacon story is published to their friends from each participating site. We recognize that users need to clearly understand Beacon before they first have a story published, and we will continue to refine this approach to give users choice.
- If a user does nothing with the initial notification on Facebook, it will hide after some duration without a story being published. When a user takes a future action on a Beacon site, it will reappear and display all the potential stories along with the opportunity to click "OK" to publish or click "remove" to not publish.
- Users will have clear options in ongoing notifications to either delete or publish. No stories will be published if users navigate away from their home page. If they delay in making this decision, the notification will hide and they can make a decision at a later time.
- Clicking the "Help" link next to the story will take users to a full tutorial that explains exactly how Beacon works, with screenshots showing each step in the process.
These changes are in addition to those made earlier to improve the notifications on partner sites as follows
- Users were sometimes moving away from a page before a notification could be fully displayed. We changed the process so that we confirm the full display of the notification before any information can be sent back to a user's Facebook account.
- The notification appears more rapidly and is more clearly displayed.
There has been misinformation in the market about some key aspects of how Beacon works:
- Participation in Beacon is free for all partner sites.
- Beacon only allows for the sharing of specific actions on the specific sites participating in Beacon.
- Beacon only has the potential to display actions to a selection of a user's friends through News Feed and on a user's Mini-Feed.
- Facebook is not sharing user information with participating sites and never sells user information.
As with all its products, Facebook will continue to iterate quickly and listen to feedback from its users
Thursday, November 22, 2007
Innocent advertising on Facebook
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvbzusf6_E-gHorOAFlrGnmH-2Wxo6pJnKnx9pEC4IJVAdLcBoUaivpPpsyz1PjUz8AN_PHjm5N3Q_IKKpZv6KXj9DcmBl-k02780ohEaAKqDQSDHsMto_DknmT-Q4PNnf0P_PdA/s320/innocent_facebook.jpg)
Whenever you befriend an innocent fruit juice, be it honeyed mango or crushed strawberry, your Facebook "friends" will be automatically notified:
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhu4Hx9Un4VTMWbFNtNwp0Ocsgjarn7PAuWVVLx-IgAa7o7RZZPSquwYEz6jEvK-0Ku94CLVEvOdfS5-51OxFHLufYxpgaOXPL-H7ymOaCFR2ltVKlf5Mut1dcCnowGTXn7WcwKqQ/s320/minifeed_innocent.jpg)
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
The 20 Worst Venture Capital Investments of All Time
Thursday, November 15, 2007
France is on strike!
The Economist for a more serious take on the issue.
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Virtual habbo thief arrested
Monday, November 12, 2007
Facebook's advertising illegal in the State of New York
Chris Kelly, Chief Privacy Officer of Facebook, said the ads are a “representation” of the action users have taken: choosing to link themselves to a product thus it would be difficult for someone to object because that person had already chosen to publicly identify themselves with the brand doing the advertising.
Full article in the NY Times.
Wednesday, November 07, 2007
Facebook to Turn Users Into Endorsers
Article on NY Times.
Tuesday, November 06, 2007
Mobile phones: introducing Google Android
As I am typing this, sipping a Cabernet Sauvignon, watching a rerun of Star Wars' "Attack of the clones"on HBOFW and laying-out a user journey for Karmony's Facebook app (to be released this week), I cannot help thinking how much Google has become the default "site" for much of my web needs. I only search on Google, Gmail is my primary personal email address, Google News is my first point of call to see what's going on in the world, I welcomed OpenSocial as it will make our job easier as developers (for Karmony) and I cannot wait to get a phone where I can play with Google Maps (which is not an overpriced/over hyped iPhone)... It all becomes a bit scary how much a single company wields power over the web...
Sunday, November 04, 2007
Is Wikipedia legally responsible for its content?
Friday, November 02, 2007
Thursday, November 01, 2007
Google lures MySpace for OpenSocial
From Reuters
I reckon that Facebook should join in.
PR pitching bloggers: Wired editor Chris Anderson's bans PR spammers
Chris then publishes a list of about 300 banned email addresses, a real who's who of public relations practitioners. Comments to the post are entertaining, mostly supportive of the initiative. There are some PR guys whining in the lot (the entertaining part).
Personally, I hope that this will be a wake-up call for lazy PR execs who spam bloggers with press releases or who infringe editors/journalists' personal space. I do receive about 2 emails a week, nothing like what Chris Anderson must be dealing with. I rarely follow-up as they often consists of a copied and pasted press release about some topics I couldn't care less about (some company won an award in Oregon...). Sometimes there is a short note offering me an interview with some executives I never heard of (to talk about awards won in Oregon...).
When I was working with Hill & Knowlton, we went to great length to build relationships with bloggers. It takes a lot of time and efforts but the end result is that you don't end up in a banned list like Chris Anderson's, for all to see and to spam you in return.
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
The next 25 years of video games: behold The Matrix
Google to take on Facebook with OpenSocial?
Full Californian experience: my first earthquake
Monday, October 29, 2007
Organic food really IS better for you, claims study
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Microsoft buys stake in Facebook as human species slowly splits into two
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Double glazing salesman 'punched customer for getting quote from a rival firm'
Saturday, October 13, 2007
French Tech Connection Party in San Francisco
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Google acquires Jaiku
Tuesday, October 09, 2007
Interflora, flowers experts, not delivery experts
Industry Experts Blog Hot Topics in Online PR, Marketing
The Fall season kicked off September 24 with guest blogger Peter A. Gloor of MIT's Sloan School of Management, who blogged about analyzing workplace communications. The season continues Oct 15 with computer communications expert Dave Taylor answering that menacing question: Is it okay to get paid to blog?
The blog show features a different guest blogger each week. Our guests are renowned professionals, educators and authors in the field of online communication.
Here is the Fall lineup:
October 15-19, 2007
GUEST: Dave Taylor, Blogsmart, Ask Dave Taylor
TOPIC: Is It Okay to Get Paid to Blog?
October 22-26, 2007
GUEST: Ted Demopoulos, Blogging for Business
TOPIC: Should CEOs Blog?
October 29-November 2, 2007
GUEST: Dianna Huff, Marcom Writer Blog
TOPIC: Writing Search Engine Friendly Copy
November 5-9, 2007
GUEST: Lois Kelly, Foghound
TOPIC: Conversational Marketing: Mood over Matter?
November 13-16, 2007
(Nov. 12 is Veteran's Day)
GUEST: Shel Horowitz, Ethical Marketing Expert
TOPIC: Blogger's Code of Ethics: News or Ruse?
"This Week on IAOCblog.com" takes place at http://www.iaocblog.com/. For more information, please visit this site or contact dreich@tulane.edu.
Saturday, September 29, 2007
Good bye Hill & Knowlton, Hello Karmony!
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Mobile Television: Europeans not interested
Facebook user? You are worth $238
Myspace was sold two years ago for $580 million and claims 100 million users.
Monday, September 24, 2007
Pirate Bay sues media giants for 'sabotage'
Story on the Register.
Friday, September 21, 2007
Tianducheng, Paris' replica made in China
Article on Yahoo!
More pictures on Reuters.
Thursday, September 20, 2007
Short List:: new free weekly men magazine
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
Monday, September 17, 2007
The world's best hotels on a budget
If you like travelling in style without breaking the bank, this book looks like a must have.
Thursday, September 13, 2007
Healthcare companies / eMarketer not web 2.0 ready
Most pharma companies still build "Web 1.0" brochureware websites with limited user information. I agree that the regulatory framework doesn't help.
However, Lisa Phillips names some exceptions such as Rozerem where visitors to the website can see a "video featuring the characters from its TV spots--Abraham Lincoln, a talking beaver and a sleep-deprived young man--with each imploring users to click on his individual section to learn more about the drug".
It's abit more creative but really, how web 2.0 is that??? It's just a layer on a brochureware website...
From Online Media Daily EMarketer report is there.
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Facebook costing firms over £130m a day
Monday, September 10, 2007
Friday, August 31, 2007
Thursday, August 30, 2007
Free asian anime, music and drama on Crunchyroll
nvestment group pays £50m cash for Hirst's diamond skull
Article on Evening Standard.
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Only 5% of UK corporations use blogs on a regular basis,
Where do chinese people eat out in london?
- Young Cheng (Shaftsbury avenue) for quick lunch
- China China in Chinatown for mixed meat takeaways when I feel lazy and skint
- Royal China (Bayswater or Baker Street branch)
- Four Seasons in Bayswater for duck noodles
- The Hare & Tortoise on High Street Kensington for their soft shell crabs
- Pearl Liang (hidden gem in Paddington for posher meals - lobster noodles is recommended)
- Kiasu on Bayswater for authentic Singaporean fares
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
World's strangest laws: In Indonesia, the penalty for masturbation is decapitation...
- "It is an act of treason to place a postage stamp bearing the British monarch upside down".
- "In France, it is forbidden to call a pig Napoleon."
- "In Ohio, it is against state law to get a fish drunk"
- "In Florida, unmarried women who parachute on Sundays can be jailed."
- "In Chester, Welshmen are banned from entering the city before sunrise and from staying after sunset."
- "In the city of York, it is legal to murder a Scotsman within the ancient city walls, but only if he is carrying a bow and arrow."
Friday, August 24, 2007
How to Make Skype Portable via USB
Mark O'Neill explains how to carry your Skype around on Read/WriteWeb. I am summarising it here.
- Create a folder and copy the file "skype.exe" into it.
- Create another folder inside your folder and call it "data". Inside, create a text file called "skype.bat" with the following text: skype.exe /datapath:"Data" /removable.
- Copy to your USB key. Done.
Monday, August 13, 2007
Wired: Advertisers waste millions in Second Life
Friday, August 10, 2007
Thursday, August 09, 2007
Tuesday, August 07, 2007
Food branded McDonald's just taste better. Ask the kids.
- "almost 77 percent said the labeled fries tasted best while only 13 percent preferred the others".
- "54% percent preferred McDonald's-wrapped carrots versus 23 percent who liked the plain-wrapped sample".
- "29 kids chose McDonald's-wrapped burgers and 22 chose the unmarked ones" (not clear cut).
- "Fewer than one-fourth of the children said both samples of all foods tasted the same".
Article on CNN
Friday, August 03, 2007
Steven Wright
1- I'd kill for a Nobel Peace Prize.
2- Borrow money from pessimists - they don't expect it back.
3- Half the people you know are below average.
4- 99% of lawyers give the rest a bad name.
5- 42.7% of all statistics are made up on the spot.
6- A conscience is what hurts when all your other parts feel so good.
7- A clear conscience is usually the sign of a bad memory.
8- If you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain.
9- All those who believe in psycho-kinesis, raise my hand.
10- The early bird may get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.
11- I almost had a psychic girlfriend but she left me before we met.
12- OK, so what's the speed of dark?
13- How do you tell when you're out of invisible ink?
14- If everything seems to be going well, you have obviously overlooked something.
15- Depression is merely anger without enthusiasm.
16- When everything is coming your way, you're in the wrong lane.
17- Ambition is a poor excuse for not having enough sense to be lazy.
18- Hard work pays off in the future, laziness pays off now.
19- I intend to live forever - so far, so good.
20- If Barbie is so popular, why do you have to buy her friends?
21- Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines.
22- What happens if you get scared half to death twice?
23- My mechanic told me, "I couldn't repair your brakes, so I made your horn louder."
24- Why do psychics have to ask you for your name?
25- If at first you don't succeed, destroy all evidence that you tried.
26- A conclusion is the place where you got tired of thinking.
27- Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it.
28- The hardness of the butter is proportional to the softness of the bread.
29- To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism; to steal from many is research.
30- The problem with the gene pool is that there is no lifeguard.
31- The sooner you fall behind, the more time you'll have to catch up.
32- The colder the x-ray table, the more of your body is required to be on it.
33- Everyone has a photographic memory, some just don't have film!
Monday, July 30, 2007
Useful sites for those considering buying a property in the UK
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsj24q5RtqUvcoawesF_fjLs_q0DzqjfVxSI3rJ8JNlxaQUxLZAc6YZc535U1_MnILKTf7GGLMnRxEhVPIAVBPQi6OA4XsScDW0KN-SuZdsOYA0i285A-iGDb1uiOzpy6Um-aZlw/s320/real-houseprice-graph-2007.png)
Friday, July 20, 2007
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Introducing Yugma
Paris to offer free Wi-Fi
Article in French
Saturday, July 14, 2007
London underground dinner party
Friday, July 13, 2007
Teens Leaving MySpace For Facebook?
Thursday, July 12, 2007
European Internet users spend more time online than watching TV or reading newspapers
European internet users spend 14.3 hours a week online, compared with 11.3 hours watching TV, and 4.4 hours reading newspapers or magazines, the research group said. 36% of people who go online said they spent less time looking at the television as a result.
BBC News
Friday, July 06, 2007
Will Facebook kill Linked-In?
I've been on Linked-In for a few years and signed-up to Facebook recently, as most people I know in the
Networking is not about collecting “connections” but getting to know people beyond what’s written on their business cards. Too many Linked-In users treat the network as a customer database. Facebook, at least for the moment is indeed a better tool than Linked-In for quality of relationships, which determines a personal network's value.
New UK Fiat website
Fiat re-launched its
Fiat is a Digital PR client in
Wednesday, July 04, 2007
Preserving our collective memory in the digital age
Think about it, we can still read 5,000 years old Egyptian hieroglyphs or medieval manuscripts but we can't access a file on a floppy disk, read a Betamax tape or a Philips CD-I... There is a danger of loosing our collective memory because we record it on highly perishable media. And the pace of change drives the cost of re-recording it again and again for national archives, who are often poorly funded.
I reckon that in 10 years time, it will be fashionable to handwrite letters again, just because it involves efforts and makes the recipient feel special. And your letter will be preserved for hundred years for posterity, unlike that "reply all" email.
BBC article
Sunday, July 01, 2007
Saturday, June 30, 2007
Are search engines responsible for the content of the websites they link to?
If the case is successful, any search engine accessible in the UK could be liable for defamation suits.
From VNUNET.com and Tech.blorge.com
Friday, June 29, 2007
Just one in five customers getting broadband service at speed advertised
Jason Lloyd, Head of Broadband at the survey commissioner: "I urge all people to check what deal they are on and then ask their broadband provider for a free upgrade".
I will follow that advice as my own broadband provider delivers me speed of up to 20Kbps at present...
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Monday, June 25, 2007
Myspace v. Facebook? Social sites reveal class divide in America
Thursday, June 21, 2007
Friday, June 15, 2007
Le blog de Valéry Giscard d'Estaing gives me a French lesson in blogging
French blogueurs vocabulary:
- A blogger = un blogueur. Plural: blogueurs
- A blog post = un billet. Plural: billets
- A comment = un commentaire. Plural: commentaires
- A trackback link = un retrolien. retroliens
- RSS feed = fil des billets
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
G8 summit, Nicolas Sarkozy and treacherous vodka shots
Via Guy who saw it on The Register
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
iGoogle
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
Monday, May 21, 2007
Online adspend up to more than £2bn in UK
Thursday, May 17, 2007
Engadget send Apple's shareprice tumbling
Via an email from El Blogador.
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
Youtube water and whisky experiment highlights failings of science teaching in the West
What's even more entertaining is to read comments to that simple physics experiment: "it's magic!", "it's a fake!". This is a nice segway to this article that compares science curriculum for 14 years old students in the
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
MIT Scratch
Flickrvision
Via El Blogador