Talk about youth-targeted marketing. Fanta, the fruit-flavored soft-drink brand owned by Coca-Cola, is launching a mobile application in the UK based on technology that only people under 20 can hear. The application, the Fanta Stealth Sound System, uses the same technology first used rather controversially in Britain to discourage "yoot" from loitering outside of shops and bus shelters. Like the Mosquito "teen repellent", Fanta's mobile app uses high-pitched frequencies that generally those over 20 can't ...

داریوش قنبری نماینده ایلام خطاب به وزیر امور خارجه گفت: «رقمی بین 600 تا یک هزار میلیارد دلار باید از کشور عراق غرامت دریافت می کردیم و متاسفانه دریافت این خسارت از عراق را به فراموشی سپرده ایم، چرا؟ متکی نیز در پاسخ وی سخنانش را با تاریخچه جنگ تحمیلی عراق به ایران و قرارداد الجزایر شروع کرد و سپس با اشاره به قطعنامه 598 و بند 7 آن که عنوان کرده تعیین خسارات از ...

Our friends Howie and Mun Hew from the Mobile Monday Singapore + Open Web Asia mafia invited us to give a presentation on Asian SNS. We eventually decided to add some stories about the entrepreneurs behind the most successful services, and how they came about. The slideshow below was more a visual support than providing content (given the presentation conditions). We talked about Mixi (Japan’s largest SNS), Cyworld (Korea’s), Tencent (China’s largest IM-based SNS), DeNA ...

In the past few weeks we spoke at over half a dozen conferences in places like Thailand, Korea, China, Hong Kong, Shanghai… with topics ranging from investment, Internet, social media to advertising. It made us feel that the whole conference business is at a crossroad and will have to focus more and more on what make a good conference. In those connected times, most events still fall into the “offline” and “broadcast” category, having no ...

Hundreds of people waited in line last week to get their hands on the Blackberry Storm, the first touchscreen device from Research In Motion. Too bad the warning not to buy it didn't come until today. The highly anticipated phone was expected to be RIM's and Verizon Wireless' response to the iPhone, but obviously in the rush to get it out for the holidays, it's a flop. In doing so, it not only falls short ...

The use of the mobile internet in Britain grew eight times as fast as the growth of the wired internet, according to the latest study from research firm Nielsen Online. Of course, the actual number of Britons surfing the wired internet is still overwhelmingly higher. The Mobile Media View report found that from Q2 to Q3 2008, the number of Britons using the mobile internet increased by 25 percent to 7.3 million from 5.8 million. ...

Drug dealing on craigslist has become so rampant that the city's special narcotics prosecutor has asked the online trading post to curb the ads, the Daily News has learned. Bridget Brennan's undercover investigators have bought drugs offered on craigslist personals...

A Framework for Success in Iraq - Michael Gerson, Washington Post opinion A war that once seemed likely to end in a panic of helicopters fleeing the American Embassy now seems destined to conclude as the result of a parliamentary process. A landmark status-of-forces agreement (SOFA) -- requiring the withdrawal of US combat troops from Iraqi cities by the end of June and from Iraq itself by the end of 2011 -- is headed for ...

When it comes to emerging markets, there's been a lot of talk of how the mobile web will be the dominant way that people access the internet. Now there's evidence from Opera Software (OSL: OPERA), the browser makers, who in its October "State of the Mobile Web" report, found that the mobile web is replacing the wired web in Southeast Asia. Looking at data and metrics from its mobile browser Opera Mini, the company found ...

The 7 Greatest Stories in the History of Esquire Magazine... in Full [Esquire]

Cats are sleeping on homegirl's album 'cos she's Beyonce's baby sis. If you f-ck with all the throwback motown pop (Duffy, Estelle, Raphael Saadiq etc.) that's been coming out post-Amy Winehouse, check this out though....More:Solange - "I Decided" [YouTube video]

The Financial Times reported today that Hulu, the joint venture video streaming site created by News Corp and NBC Universal, will soon pass YouTube in revenues. Hulu, which provides free, ad-supported streams of many popular television shows and movies, is available only to U.S. users and is expected to generate $70 million in 2008. YouTube is expected to have revenue of $100 million this year. Hulu does not traffic in user-generated content and has only ...

Oui, il est toujours possible d’innover en matière de design mobile ! Simplement, il faut se creuser un peu le ciboulot. Comme les deux designers Kyung-Ryul Lim et Miyeon Kim, qui ont imaginé le «8», un drôle de téléphone. L’engin dispose de deux écrans dont l’interface se modifie suivant l’utilisation qu’on souhaite en faire : passer un coup de fil bien sûr, mais aussi consulter le dictionnaire électronique, regarder une vidéo, surfer sur internet… Reste ...

Charles had a nice post a while back on Wikipedia and the changing world of scholarship. He deals pretty well with what wikipedia is (an on-line, collectively edited encyclopedia) and what the pluses and minuses of that are. I use Wikipedia all the time, and it is the first thing I talk to the majors about in the methods class, since I know it is their first choice for research. Still, while some people call ...

marusannさんの写真：

Collected by abduzeedo Since the very beginning of Abduzeedo, our team has been bringing cool photography inspiration for you. We’ve featured many awesome photographers, from the ones with innovative techniques to oldschool guys, and all that. And today we’ve made a list. We love lists. :) From classic Alberto Korda to hyped Dave Hill, our list actually ins’t that long, but we’ve tried to remember the photographers that inspired us in some way… and at ...

1、 当前国内手机流媒体消费市场现状－流量资费过高成拦路虎 中国互联网络信息中心（CNNIC）近期发布《第22次中国互联网络发展状况统计报告》，数据显示，目前中国2.53亿网民中，使用手机上网的网民数已经达到7305万人，占全部网民数的28.9%.2008年上半年，使用手机上网的网民数量增长了2265万人。这一较高的增长率一方面与移动用户规模高速增长现状有关，一方面也受移动运营商推广活动和奥运热潮的影响。使用手机上网的网民中，男性较多，占到63%.18~24岁年龄段网民最多，占到56.1%，30岁及以下年龄段群体则占到了86%，通过手机上网主要是年轻网民的选择。使用手机上网的网民中，有相当大的一个群体是学生网民，占总体手机网民的39.7%.这批用户对于GPRS流量是十分敏感的，2005、2006年中移动大力推广WAP网站服务，绝大部分地区都是20元包无限量流量的，这极大地刺激了用户群。那个时期，WAP的发展非常快。而现在的中移动等运营商则调整了GPRS套餐包月服务，除广东、浙江、山东（20元包80M）外，其他各省移动均一律采用“20元月租含50MB流量”的政策。超出套餐限额的流量则按0.03元/K的标准收取，根据艾瑞调研数据显示，手机网民月均手机上网资费支出主要集中在50元及50元以下，比例为94%，因此，我国移动运营商GPRS资费过高已成为手机流媒体业务开展的拦路虎，使得该消费模式无法迅速形成用户市场规模，也造成我国手机流媒体各类运营门户的经营环境极其严峻，长期无法形成盈利收入，市场一直处于培育期的现状。 据网上报道，2008北京奥运会期间，中国移动在全网重点推出了手机电视业务，用户下载客户端后可以收看20个奥运频道，流量收费仅为0.1元/MB，较标称的20元/MB下降了2000倍。用户收看一小时的手机电视仅需付流量费0.5元，当然，用户此外还需向央视和上海文广支付每月10元的内容费。奥运会的精彩内容和低廉的收费政策使得中国移动的手机电视用户激增，截至8月19日，有超过100万人通过中国移动的网络用手机欣赏奥运视频，节目点击次数近700万，累计播放时长达到30余万小时，中国移动手机电视客户端软件下载次数达30多万次。但我国的智能手机销售数量每年已超过了1500万部。与数千万全球通智能手机用户的数量相比，高昂流量资费形成的消费瓶颈和应用惯性，也使这次手机看奥运的市场推广活动始终无法达到与其活动性质相对应的用户体验数量规模。 在最近做的“手机上网用户GPRS费用使用情况”调查中，69%（无限量包月的地区除外）的手机上网用户在每个月20号左右用完当月的包月流量，20号以后大部分WAP网站的各项数据呈明显的下降趋势。业内人士认为，“20号现象”实际是移动互联网发展到一定阶段的产物，侧面反应了手机上网已有相当的普及度，同时也在一定程度上严重制约了大流量业务和移动互联网行业的发展。今年我国手机市场的情况是：智能手机已基本达到EDGE化，由于市场竞争上的因素，FEATURE PHONE手机95％还处于使用GPRS信道的状态。明年FEATURE PHONE手机EDGE化的水平估计无法超过30％，其普及进度不会太快。即便如此，面对运营商GPRS套餐为50兆的流量资费政策，手机EDGE化对全国大部分地区移动流媒体业务的拉动态势并不容乐观，当然行业应用手机视频监控市场除外。 2、 手机流媒体市场的运营推广窗口 由于上述的因素，根据易观国际的调查，2008年手机上网用户使用视频业务的比例仅为13％，不过消费需求跟随移动音乐的市场还是在缓慢增长。但是应该看到，手机流媒体业务运营在流量资费上目前存在两个运营推广窗口：广东移动：2008年10月新的GPRS资费套餐：20元包150兆省内cmwap流量，50元包500兆省内cmwap流量。浙江移动：20元包200兆省内，不区分cmnet和cmwap.上述套餐适合中国移动所有品牌的客户并可通过短信立即进行套餐订制。在当前运营商普遍实行20元50兆包月资费政策下，这两个省份就成为手机流媒体独立WAP视频门户的黄金宝地，剩下的就是企业是否愿意精耕细作的问题了。根据iResearch艾瑞咨询最新出版的《2008年中国手机网民手机上网行为研究报告》数据显示，广东省的手机网民占到全国总数的36.7％，远高于浙江省的5.6％，第二，三名分别是河南8.7％，福建8.5％。 针对GPRS流量运营推广窗口，根据广东、浙江两省的号码段（在用户注册时已提供），可进行用户首次访问后的市场跟进推广，要为用户制定出每月150兆，200兆，500兆的流媒体内容消费推荐方案。什么内容用户最喜欢看，相信国内已经运营数年的独立WAP视频门户运营团队都很清楚，剩下就是实行考核淘汰机制了 3、 CMMB市场发展对流媒体业务的影响 未来两年，CMMB电视手机在与流媒体手机业务竞争总无疑处于绝对优势，H264解码芯片将逐步会在FEATURE PHONE中档手机上成为标配。用户会更多地将CMMB的视频画面质量与流媒体视频进行比较，各大运营商及手机视频门户也会进一步提高对流媒体视频质量的要求，希望能做到高帧数，大画面，无中断。对3G及EDGE流媒体的运营系统技术将提出更高的要求，在与CMMB的业务竞争上，手机流媒体也只能以交互式电影点播及其他手机增值业务服务为主要卖点。

+ This article is a monthly column written for the Chinese business magazine Asian Business Leaders and TMT news service Interfax in November 2008 + In his Neuromancer novel back in 1984, William Gibson had a device allowing a person to share their perceptions with a remote observer. Today, connectivity allows us to plug into people’s knowledge and thoughts like never before, to the point that the Internet is starting to evolve from a gigantic ...