Posts Tagged ‘iPhone’

« Older Entries

Tweetdeck takes a step back from Apps, Bloggabase and other online musings

Friday, March 8th, 2013

Facebook goes all Google+

The big news from Facebook last night was a major overhaul of its news-feed interface, the main talking point being the similarities to the layout of Google+. It isn’t difficult to see why, side by side they do appear to have been made by the same team, as Mashable’s image below demonstrates.

Looking past the design similarities, Facebook has added in multiple news feeds, which in truth have been there for a while but were much more hidden, now they form an integral part of the new look, giving access to more specifics such as photos, music and celebrities you follow.

Facebook will start to roll out the changes almost instantly but it may take time to filter through to everyone, you can however get hold of it earlier here, just scroll to the bottom of the page.

Tweetdeck to remove apps

Big news for those of us who use Tweetdeck on a daily basis, the twitter management tool has announced it will no longer be supporting its apps.

Instead Tweetdeck will be focusing on its web browser offering and Google chrome plug-in, meaning the Windows and Mac versions of the programme which many rely on will have little attention going forward. The latest update to the Windows app already has issues ( at least it does for us) and major updates have been thin on the ground for some time.  It will be interesting to see with less platforms to focus on and an increased staff level what Tweetdeck comes up with over the coming months.

Google Maps Update

Google Maps, the knight in shining armor after the Apple Maps debacle, has just added another weapon to its armory with a vastly improved local search capability. For example, you can choose from a number of options to find the nearest coffee shops, along with being able to locate where friends live in your contact list are.

Nielson, famous for measuring television analytics in America, have been looking into how promoted tweet campaigns influence their audiences. Not a report for everyone but if you work within the realms of digital, marketing, SEO, etc. this is a hugely informative report on a form of marketing which is still in its infancy. It’s not very long, we promise!

Bloggabase Launched

Another one for digital marketers and bloggers, a new service launched this week aims to bring bloggers, and those who wish to reach bloggers, together in joyous digital harmony.  The service was in beta for a number of months, so is well tested and contains thousands of bloggers, more than 2,000 according to the site. With the recent Interflora issues and dodgy SEO tactics this could be a perfectly timed piece of kit!

Membership rates start at £100 p/m and rise to £500 p/m if you want all the bells and whistles.

Facebook banking

Commbank have given Facebook users in Australia the capability to bank using the social media platform, here are the four activities they will allow:

-Pay Facebook friends or anyone with an email address or Australian mobile number and an Australian bank account
-Request payments from more forgetful friends
-Gift payments to friends and family on Facebook for special occasions such as birthdays
-Make payments to Facebook events

The big question is whether or not users will feel comfortable banking on a site which is more often than not associated with having privacy concerns. It’s a real question of trust and Commbank being able to show their customers that it is safe to use.  Would you bank using Facebook? Let us know in the comment box in the blog.

Qoura

Quora is adding new features almost monthly it would seem, the latest from their production line is the ability to add product reviews for items such as books and DVDs. They hope to give a formal structure to the reviewing process, building on what the site does best, answering questions.

And finally….

How to cheat at Twitter

Ever wanted someone to see a direct reply but didn’t want to make it obvious?

Well check out the link above and all is revealed!

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in social media | No Comments »

Social Media Digest – Oreo takes the biscuit, Facebook friendship gets serious and more

Friday, February 8th, 2013

Super bowl blackout is hijacked by quick thing brands

Last Sunday was the 47th Superbowl, which if you didn’t already know is the annual end of season show piece of the American Football season in America. It is as you would expect an all singing all dancing extravaganza, one of the key events associated with the Superbowl are the adverts where brands spend big and go big, an ad this year was said have to cost around $4 million for a 30 second slot.

This year however a lengthy power cut gave a few quick thinking brands an opportunity to hi jack the social buzz around the event. When the dust had settled on The Baltimore Ravens victory, the talk had turned to an Oreo advert which simply read “You can still dunk in the dark”. Oreo had managed to steal the limelight from the big brands spending big bucks. So well done to Oreo.

Can you live off social media alone?

Can you live off just social media for a year? That is the quest of Zach Bussey, living off advertisements and product reviews via his blog Zach has lost ten pounds in weight but is doing well so far. He budgeted $12,000 to pay for  rent and Internet, and then rather bizarrely he emptied his apartment of all its contents. We will be keeping an eye out for how this goes for Zach and if we need to alert the red cross to send him emergency food packages.

Do you dare unfriend on Facebook

Would you purposely avoid someone in real life who had unfollowed you on Facebook? A new survey in America has revealed that almost half of users surveyed would avoid “De-frienders” ( I just made a word up I think)  if they saw them in public. Christopher Sibona who led the study said ‘Since it’s done online there is an air of unreality to it but in fact there are real life consequences. We are still trying to come to groups as a society on how to handle elements of social media.’ So choose your friends wisely and if that fails, avoid them.

Brazil is the the social media capital of the world

“A recent study found that Latin America’s online population grew faster than any other global region in 2011, rising 15 percent to 129.3 million visitors in December 2011. The number of searches in 2011 increased 38 percent to more than 21 billion in December. With an average of 173 searches per searcher, Latin America leads the globe in search frequency” Brazil has been highlighted as a key area of growth in social media, Twitter recently set up a Sao Paulo office and all statistics point toi an escalating growth in South America.

Twitter buys social media monitoring tool

Twitter has announced the purchase of Blue Fin Labs, specializing in the capture of date from second screen smartphone users whilst they watch their favourite shows. A similar concept to the arrangement that Nielson, the TV viewership company has with twitter where they use the micro blogging site to measure online buzz to partner there viewership statistics.

And finally – New monopoly piece

The Internet voted for a cat…….go figure.

 

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in social media | No Comments »

Social Media Digest – Gloves come off between Instagram and Twitter and Google Maps Returns

Friday, December 14th, 2012

Social Media Digest

Instagram vs. Twitter

Instagram shuts off Twitter support >Twitter Launches Pictures Filter>Instagram updates its App in Response.

The on-going spat between Instagram and Twitter appears to have reached a rather unsavoury end with Instagram pulling all support for the Instagram cards for twitter users which allowed users to open up images directly within Twitter. The only remaining option is to go to that extra effort of clicking the link, and no one wants to do that, do they!

JackpotJoy 50FT Rubber Duck gains a social media buzz

Never underestimate the power of a 50ft rubber duck floating down the River Thames. This simple but probably hugely difficult and expensive to organise stunt gained its fair share of social buzz. Images starting appearing in the morning and national coverage shortly followed as the duck sailed past iconic London landmarks. Bingo Company Jackpot Joy was behind the stunt as they encourage the country to have more fun as part of their new FUNdation campaign.

WedPics

Swap your disposable cameras on tables for a simple app. The technology works similar to many others out there which allow the aggregation of photos in to one gallery. A specific code puts users in to a feed for the wedding from then on it is possible to add friends who couldn’t attend the wedding as well as download imagery. All in all quite a handy little application really.

Word Press 3.5 launched

According to Mashable WordPress has “evolved from a blogging platform into a CMS that powers about 17% of the web” . The new update includes support for retina displays, Tumblr integration and a brand new and refreshed media manager which allows for a more pleasant experience when uploading media. All in all it should all work a bit more smoothly.

 

Google Maps is back for IOS!

The failure of Apples native Maps which launched with IOS6 is well documented, missing locations, incorrect directions were met with much annoyance from the iFaithful who loudly voiced their disapproval upon launch. Google made us wait, possibly just to watch Apple squirm for a while and then as a sort of pre Christmas present they released the app into the appstore, It took just seven hours for it to become the App stores most popular free application.

We can all navigate safely home for Christmas now, thanks Google!

And Finally…

Control Christmas Lights

Control this offices Christmas lights via the awesome power of the internet, get yourself in the queue, wait for your one minute turn and have some fun. Merry Christmas.

 

 

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in social media | No Comments »

The Snappy Rise of Instagram

Monday, July 30th, 2012

Since its launch in October 2010, popular photo-sharing app Instagram has grown in users and popularity – just this week the app has reached a whopping 80 million users who have shared more than 4 billion photos.

(Sadly it wasn’t stated how many of those photos were of cats/food/hipsters.)

Instagram has also become a topic of debate among both photographers and social media/app fans – do real photographers use Instagram? Can you believe anything that’s posted on the app? Is it the best photo-editing and sharing app, or is Instagram bettered by alteratives like Hipstamatic, Pixlr-O-Matic and Camera+?

At last count (May 2012) Hipstamatic only had four million active monthly users, so it seems that most photo app users are on Team Instagram. I know where my loyalties lie – I love Instagram. I love the filters, I love the social aspect both within the app and sharing to Facebook or Twitter, I love the use of hashtags and the new search features and I love the photos of cake. The only feature that I dislike is the way that Instagram crops photos into a square – like many users, I often take photos using my iPhone’s camera and then edit and share via Instagram later, so sometimes I end up cropping out details that I’d rather keep. This is where apps such as Pixlr-O-Matic come in handy, although it doesn’t allow the same in-app photo-sharing capabilities.

Instagram is great by itself, but even better to use with other apps and social sites. Users (myself includes) often use photo cropping apps such as Diptic to combine photos before laying a filter over them all, or share directly to Twitter and Facebook. Before its acquisition by Facebook, sharing photos to your newsfeed was clunky and awkward – users would often forgo Instagram’s direct sharing to save the photo and upload it to Facebook through its own app.  But now photos upload directly into their own Instagram Photos album, making sharing quick and easy. There are also apps to view photos away from your device, such as desktop apps or my favourite, Pinstagram – a mash-up of Instagram and Pinterest:

A variety of brands are using Instagram to great effect, too. Burberry presented its Instagram followers with a live feed of shots from its September shows – the Instagrammed shots were available before any other images surfaced. Tiffany’s also used the app in its recent ‘What Makes Love True’ campaign, teaming up with well-known blogger The Sartorialist to document shots of ‘true love’ in New York and Paris and offering its own downloadable Instagram filter. Sharpie uses Sharpie-drawn images and other topical and funny photos to encourage conversation in a much more engaging way than just posting product images.

Instagram has also become a parody of itself – the Rich Kids of Instagram Tumblr pokes fun at Instagram’s more well-to-do users, the Text-Based Instagram Twitter feed parodies some of the most commonly posted pictures and Twitter user @santlov has even got Woody in on the action…

Having gained 30 million users since April 2012 and showing no signs of slowing down, Instagram has cemented itself as a must-have app on both iPhone and Android – who are your favourite Instagram users?

Tags: , , , , , ,
Posted in social media | No Comments »

Social Media Digest: FacePal, Twitter and AmEx tie-up and Facebook’s Content Controversy

Friday, February 24th, 2012

Welcome once again to our weekly round-up of what’s going on in the world of social media. Don’t forget to get in touch and let us know what your favourite stories have been, too!

Facebook

1. Facebook has obtained money transmitter licenses in at least 15 US states, according to analysis by American Banker. While Facebook said during filing for its IPO that it had applied for licenses and planned to apply for more, it wasn’t made clear that Facebook already held the 15. Phew!

Is Facebook set to be a payment-handling contender, competing with Amazon, PayPal and Google? Last year the company generated $557 million, 15 percent of its revenue, from payments such as Facebook Credits. Users can buy credits so that they can purchase goods (to improve your Farmville farm, for example) or to buy digital media. It’s not yet clear whether Facebook is just erring on the side of caution when it comes to the law in obtaining the licenses or whether it plans to develop Facebook Credits into a money transfer service. Would you want to send that tenner you owe your mate via privacy problem-laden Facebook instead of PayPal?

2. In Twitter news, the microblogging site is rolling out its self-serve ad platform to 10,000 small businesses in a bid to broaden its revenue streams. Part of a partnership with American Express, AmEx cardmembers and merchants will be able to register to use the platform on a first-come, first-served basis and will be given $100 in advertising credits to put toward bidding on promoted accounts and tweets. Twitter CEO Dick Costolo noted that opening the self-serve platform, which lets advertisers make electronic payments instead of being invoiced by the sales team, is a key development for Twitter in what could be a banner year.

Twitter

While it’s great that Twitter is opening up its vast platform to more businesses, we’re wondering how users might feel about the increase of promoted messages in and around their feed? Time will tell; the AmEx roll-out begins in March.

3. Back to Facebook. Quick poll: what do you find more offensive, nudity or violence? The Guardian has reported on a document leak that reveals Facebook’s content policies including everything from breastfeeding to hunting to bodily fluids.

All-in-all, it seems that Facebook’s attitude to ‘offensive content’ is that gore is okay (ish) but nipples are a no-go. You might remember the uproar that occurred when Facebook removed breastfeeding images from its site – it turns out that the company’s official stance is that breastfeeding images must be banned if nipples are visible (male nipples are okay) but ‘crushed heads and limbs’ or ‘deep flesh wounds’ are allowed as long as no insides are showing. Facebook says that it is constantly reviewing its content policies – for the time being, we’d rather not see any crushed limbs or wounds, please!

4. Here’s a little bit of Friday fun for you – new app InstaMatch turns your Instagram photos into a modern version of the classic memory game. The game uses similar, but not identical, photos of objects such as clouds, cities and trees – making it a little bit harder than its traditional counterpart. There are three levels of difficulty and players can use the built-in themes (such as nature, etc), play using their own photos or use hashtags (#dog) to choose their own. InstaMatch lets two players compete on iPhone and four on iPad – clever and fun!

iPhone 5 Mock-Up5. And finally, the 5 is near. While the iPhone 5 isn’t expected to be unveiled anytime soon, Italian designer Federico Ciccarese has drawn-up these mock-ups that have been featured on Mashable. The design features a blasted aluminium back similar to what’s used on the MacBook Pro, MacBook Air and iMac and the headphone jack has been moved to the side to accommodate the stylish curved back with thinner head and tail. We think this looks really swish – especially the glowing logo. Very nice.

Tags: , , , , , , ,
Posted in social media | No Comments »

« Older Entries