Why Entertainment Will Drive the Next Checkin Craze

In recent months, a crop of services have popped up that re-purpose the checkin concept, popularized by Foursquare, and connect it to media and entertainment, as opposed to location.
In theory, the idea of checking-in to cultural concepts (like media, music, etc.) and not places is one that doesn’t jive in the real-world. It would follow then that the apps that provide this service — GetGlue, Philo and Miso — are silly and far too extreme in ideology to attract anything more than a testbed tech audience.
In practice, this alternative checkin behavior is one that is more cultural and familiar than anything the location checkin offers. In fact, it emulates the way we experience entertainment in our everyday lives. The desire to share is unchanging — it’s how we share that will continue to evolve with the help of social media and entertainment checkin services.

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The Culture of Entertainment

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Television shows such as Mad Men may not be monster hits when it comes to traditional ratings measurements, but those who do watch tend to do so religiously and with a fervor nearing obsession.
Watching Mad Men is a shared experience, whether you’re at a viewing party or alone in your bedroom, simply because of the culture surrounding the show. There’s a connected feeling you get when you experience a new episode for the first time. That’s why passionate viewers, if they’re socially inclined, are the type of people who will no doubt run to Facebook() and Twitter() to share their anticipation and viewing experience with the world.

10 Entertaining eBay Facts You Might Not Know

As the world’s largest marketplace, eBay has hundreds of millions of listings live at any given moment. Since its founding in 1995, the company has grown from just one curious computer programmer to over 15,000 employees. Over the past 15 years, eBay has become one of the largest companies in America, consistently ranking in the Fortune 500, and is one of the most recognized brands around the world.
Throughout the years, the world has gawked at some of the oddest items listed on eBay, including, among others, old gum, entire towns, and even spouses. The fact that anyone can list almost anything (yes, there are some restrictions), makes this site one of the most interesting places to find rare or outlandish items.
We took a deeper look at the history behind eBay and pulled together some of the most entertaining facts about the company that we could find. Here are 10 that you might not know.
Fill us in on any fun facts that you may have in the comments below.

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1. eBay was Originally Called AuctionWeb

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This screenshot is the earliest example of the AuctionWeb homepage, circa March 1997, but the basic design did not change from May 1996 to September 1997. Click the image to see the full-sized screenshot.The site we now know as eBay was launched during Labor Day weekend in 1995 as “AuctionWeb,” by entrepreneur Pierre Omidyar in his living room in San Jose, California.

The closing of the Internet*

Imagine you are trying to start a news site in your community. Your competitor, part of a national chain, offers instant-on, full-screen HD video and a host of other data-intensive features that load the moment you hit “click.” But though you have a broadband connection, even simple videos that you’ve posted load slowly and play in fits and starts.
So you call your Internet provider — most likely Verizon and Comcast — and ask what’s going on. A sales person explains to you that if you want your readers to enjoy the same rich multimedia content as you competitor, then all you have to do is pay another $1,000 a month.
You can’t. You struggle on. And, within six months, you shut down.

That is a likely scenario if we move away from net neutrality — a vitally important principle that all Internet traffic should be treated the same. The FCC has been trying to mandate net neutrality, only to be shot down in the federal courts. And today the New York Times reports that Google and Verizon have been involved in negotiations to come up with a multi-tiered Internet with different levels of service and different levels of pricing. [Update: Or perhaps not. See below.]
“It’s like the end of ‘Animal Farm’ where pigs and humans sit down at the dinner table,” tweeted new-media strategist Steve Yelvington. In fact, Google at one time had been a leader in pushing for net neturality.
Please understand what net neutrality is not. There is nothing wrong with charging consumers more for better Internet service. Broadband costs more than dial-up, and fast broadband costs more than slow broadband. That’s life.

Twitter to Show Photos and Videos in the Stream [UPDATED]

A new Twitter () setting called “Tweet Media” has rolled out to some of Twitter’s users, strongly suggesting that the company will soon embed videos and photos in the stream.
Tweet Media, which the Mashable () team and others have been able to access under Twitter’s account settings, asks you whether or not you want to show photos and videos from everyone. It also comes with the following description of the setting:

How will Apple respond to the DMCA revision? They won’t.

Today’s adjustment of the DMCA has far-reaching legal implications, which will only be evident after a few weeks, months, or even years as various parties exploit them however they can. I’m going to let the experts play in that sandbox. But one of the new rules seems to have had a specific target in mind: Apple. To wit:

(2) Computer programs that enable wireless telephone handsets to execute software applications, where circumvention is accomplished for the sole purpose of enabling interoperability of such applications, when they have been lawfully obtained, with computer programs on the telephone handset.

The language is a bit confusing, but the end result is the legalization of jailbreaking your phone and side-loading apps. Not that it was ever illegal, although some Apple store employees thought otherwise. Now that it’s been made official, however, one might reasonably expect a bit of give from Apple on this point, since they have taken such great measures to prevent such actions. But I’m pretty sure that apart from a little lip service, Apple will continue with the exact same policies, with the sort of blithe arrogance that simultaneously compels and repels consumers.
From a legal standpoint, it seems pretty clear that this ruling and Apple’s prohibition of jailbreaking are actually non-overlapping. As I noted in my User’s Manifesto, the only real consequence of your jailbreaking your phone is annulling the license agreement you “signed” when you bought the iPhone — a private contract between a user and a company. The extent of the repercussions is that you’re cut off from Apple; this can be serious, as in the recent case of a guy who actually had a faulty iPad (it caught fire), but Apple refused to return it, as it had been jailbroken. Them’s the ropes, kid.

Facebook Testing “Delete Account” Option.

This is still developing, as we’re seeing mixed reports around the Internet. However, it appears that Facebook has released a Delete Account option, in addition to the previous Deactivate Account.
In the past, in order to delete your account, there were quite a few hoops that a user had to jump through. This new feature appears to make the account deletion process considerably easier.
According to a report on Slashdot, the option (which appears to only be showing for some users), will “permanently delete your account and all information you have shared”. It is worthy to note, however, that Facebook’s terms of service allow the site to keep that information once it has been acquired.

10 Fascinating Facebook Facts

Facebook’s astronomic rise, staggeringly large user-base, and world’s youngest self-made billionaire CEO make it one of the most fascinating companies around today.
While everyone knows the basics about the service’s Harvard dorm room origins, we’ve delved a little deeper to find out more interesting snippets of info.
Here are 10 facts you might not know about Facebook (), so read on and let us know your favorites in the comments box below.

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1. Al Pacino’s Face Was on the Original Facebook Homepage

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Prior to a major homepage redesign back in 2007, Facebook’s front page used to feature a man’s face partly obscured behind a cloud of binary code.
Dubbed the “Facebook guy,” it was not known who the mystery man was — until recently. David Kirkpatrick has revealed in his book The Facebook Effect that the image is a manipulated photo of Al Pacino created by a friend and classmate of Mark Zuckerberg.

Time-Lapse Twitter Visualization Shows America’s Moods [VIDEO]

A group of researchers from Northeastern University and Harvard University have gathered enough data from Twitter to give us all a snapshot of how we Americans feel throughout a typical day or week.
Not only did they analyze the sentiments we collectively expressed in 300 million tweets over three years against a scholarly word list; these researchers also mashed up that data with information from the U.S. Census Bureau, the Google Maps API and more. What they ended up with was a fascinating visualization showing the pulse of our nation, our very moods as they fluctuate over time.
The researchers have put this information into density-preserving cartograms, maps that take the volume of tweets into account when representing the land area. In other words, in areas where there are more tweets, those spots on the map will appear larger than they do in real life.
It will surprise almost no one to learn that findings indicate a general mood slump mid-day and mid-week, when we are most likely to be at work. Our tweets show that we’re happiest in the early morning and late evening; during the week, our mood tends to peak on Sunday morning.
Less predictable, perhaps, is the fact that West Coast tweets were “happier” than tweets from the East Coast. Although West Coast Twitter users expressed emotions in the same cycles as the East Coast users (with a three-hour gap, of course, because of time zone differences), the West Coasters didn’t dip as low in mood as the East Coasters by a significant margin.

Apple Is the New Microsoft, Part 2 (Updated)

Apple surpassed Microsoft two months ago as the world’s most highly valued tech company, and is now challenging the Redmond giant on another key metric: In a blowout third quarter, AAPL posted record revenue of $15.7 billion, which should be close to or exceed what Microsoft reports on Thursday.
Apple’s quarter easily surpassed consensus expectations, per Thomson Reuters, posting net income of $3.25 billion, or $3.51 per diluted share. Gross margins were down slightly year over year — 39.1 percent compared to 40.9 percent — and international sales accounted for more than half of all business, 52 percent.
The Thomson Reuters consensus for Microsoft’s revenue is $15.27 billion. Among the 29 analysts polled, the highest estimate was only a tad above what Apple has actually reported, at $15.74 billion. As of today Apple still has a higher market capitalization than Microsoft, but not by much.
Apple’s hardware story in the 3rd quarter is equally impressive:

Apple Passes Microsoft as World’s Largest Tech Company

What a long, strange trip it’s been.
Apple’s market capitalization officially passed Microsoft’s Wednesday afternoon, making the Cupertino, California, company — for the first time — the largest technology company in the world.
With a market cap of $241.5 billion versus Microsoft’s $239.5 billion, Apple also became the second-largest company on the S&P 500, according to Standard & Poor’s analyst Howard Silverblatt. At the moment, only Exxon Mobil is bigger.

Free iPhone 4 Cases to Cost Apple $175 Million

Apple’s solution to Antennagate — free cases — is likely going to cost the company $175 million in revenue.
Apple posted record earnings this quarter. However, its recent success has been marred by controversy over the iPhone 4’s reception issues, specifically how holding it by its lower-right side can decrease reception.
Apple held a press conference last week to address the issue. Its solution to the problem: free cases for all.
Cases don’t grow on trees, though. During today’s Q3 earnings conference call, Apple revealed that it predicts that the free iPhone 4 cases and bumpers will result in $175 million in deferred revenue. It hits Apple’s books as a liability — essentially a debt or a negative balance on the bottom line. Apple says that it will expense the cost of the cases, which will help mitigate the overall cost on the bottom line.
In other words, Apple is accounting for $175 million in lost revenue on its Q4 balance sheet, all due to free bumpers and cases.
While no company wants to lose out on $175 million in revenue, the alternative — reduced iPhone 4 sales due to Antennagate — was far less palatable. And it’s important to note that this is just Apple’s cost estimate — the actual number could end up being more or less than $175 million, depending on iPhone 4 sales and how many customers take advantage of the free case offer.
Still, it looks like Antennagate will be just a drop in the bucket for a company that made $15.7 billion last quarter alone.

Android Devices Get Video Calling via Adobe

A new Adobe AIR demo is making the rounds today; it shows how Android phones can be used for user-to-user video calls.
Built using an upcoming release of AIR 2.5, this app is the Android () and Adobe developer communities’ answer to FaceTime. The more generous in spirit would call this move “cheeky.” At any rate, it throws yet another log on the bonfire that is the Adobe-Apple public dialog.
The app was originally called “FlashTime,” but the name was changed to avoid some confusion.
Mark Doherty, Adobe’s Flash Platform Evangelist for mobile, said this isn’t an official release from Adobe; rather, it’s something he built over the course of three days to test the features of AIR 2.5 for Android. We’d love to show you his demo video here, but unfortunately, that clip is currently password-protected and not for public consumption.
Doherty doesn’t plan to release the app as a product, but he said he will open-source the code. He expects the code to be stable and finished by next week; interested parties should contact Doherty directly.
AIR and Flash for Android were announced first in February.

Facebook Among Web’s Worst in Customer Satisfaction [SURVEY]

The 2010 American Customer Survey Index conducted by ForeSee Results gave Facebook 64 out of 100 points in a customer satisfaction survey; that’s lower than any other business in its category. However, it’s not at the bottom of the social media heap; MySpace received one point less.

ForeSee Results CEO Larry Freed says that “privacy concerns, frequent changes to the website, and commercialization and advertising” are responsible for the low rating. Those reasons for dissatisfaction mirror the ones revealed in previous surveys.
By contrast, Google () received a score of 80 (though that’s 7 points lower than last year’s score), Bing () and Wikipedia () managed a 77, Yahoo () pulled a 76 and YouTube () landed at 73. Facebook () also received a lower rating than any of the major news websites, which were led by FOXNews.com at 82. MSNBC.com and CNN.com trailed behind at 74 and 73 respectively.
We’d love to see what Twitter ()’s score would be, but the survey excluded Twitter because so many of its users experience it through third party applications, making it difficult to judge how much their perceptions reflect Twitter itself.

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Not Dissatisfied Enough

A Social Media Diva Reveals Her Formula for Winning The Influence Project

Visitors to The Influence Project have no doubt seen the tiara wearing, turquoise phone-wielding, beatific smile bearing Mari Smith. But who is she and how did she emerge as one of the front-runners in this project? Her bio says she's a "Social Media Speaker & Trainer, Chic Geek & Facebook Passionista!, author of @FacebookMktg and Spiritual Truth-Seeker." We spoke last week and discussed her YouTube tutorial for The Influence Project, Twitter hijackers, and how she went about dispatching her influence campaign.
Mark Borden: One week in, you've kept your place in the front row. What made you decide to participate in The Influence Project?

Online, Mobile Ad Spending Explodes, Threatens Traditional Media?

Some thinking about online advertising spend in 2010 suggests that this year it's going to see serious growth, which is fabulous news for new media. But it's potentially bad news for traditional publishing.
The analysis is coming from ZenithOptimedia, which has been revising its estimates for online advertising spend in 2010 upwards for several months now. Its latest piece of thinking has attracted some attention in the online media itself because it predicts that the spend in 2010 will rise some 13.1% throughout this year, and even zoom upwards another 16.1% in 2011. That figure is an amazing indicator that the economic downturn really is over, as ad spend was one of the big indicators that the recession was biting deep.

Bandage iPhone 4 Reception Issues with Antenn-aid [PIC]

On Friday, Steve Jobs announced that part of Apple’s response to the whole iPhone 4 antenna problem would be to offer free cases for all iPhone 4 owners. However, if you don’t like the idea of having your beautiful phone marred by a bumper or other case, consider this adorable (and inexpensive) option to masking tape or silicon: the Antenn-aid.
Antenn-aids are described by the seller as “custom vinyl sitcker[s] for your iPhone 4.” The Band-Aid for your iDevice is designed to be placed over the lower left corner of the antenna. And while the seller takes great pains to ensure that buyers understand that the Antenna-aid is for entertainment purposes only, chances are, the solution will work at least as well as tape or another type of protective covering.

The bandages are being sold in packs of six for $4.99. Each Antenna-aid is a different color so you can color-coordinate.
How useful (or not) the decals actually are is kind of irrelevant. We’re just really taken by the ingenuity and creativity of such a creation. As much as I love my iPhone 4, I still find the idea of having to have a bandage for the device just to make a phone call (assuming you hold your phone while touching the problem areas) absolutely hysterical.

Android Versus Android: Which Phones Are Winning on the Web? [STATS]

Smartphones are one of the most talked-about and hotly debated consumer electronics on the block these days, and manufacturers are pumping out more of these devices each month.
So, how are these devices measuring up in the arena of public opinion? A few 140-character user reviews can say a lot about a phone’s early success or failure, and we’ve got details on what social media junkies are saying about a few Android () devices, including the Droid X, the HTC Evo, and the HTC Incredible.
In the past year or so, we’ve gone from “smartphones” to “superphones” — slick, sexy pieces of hardware with huge screens, HD capabilities, powerful cameras, zippy processors, impressive browsing capabilities and more apps than you can shake a stick at. Technology has accelerated quickly over these months, and Android devices are competing nicely with Apple’s iPhones. How they compete amongst themselves, however, is another story.
Many of these phones are selling faster than they can be built. And each one is making a significant media splash at its launch. In the public eye, is there one Android to rule them all?

Coming Soon From Twitter: “THE MOST AMAZING CLIENT YOU’VE NEVER SEEN”

When Twitter bought Atebits in April, a lot of us were excited about the possibilities. After all, Atebits (aka Loren Brichter) was the company behind Tweetie, the best iPhone Twitter client and arguably the best desktop Twitter client as well (though Mac-only). Developers, however, were not as enthusiastic. Many wondered what it meant for the state of the Twitter third-party ecosystem.
So far, the results of the acquisition seem to have worked out well for everyone. Tweetie for the iPhone was reborn as Twitter for iPhone. And while it’s largely the same, it has added a few bells and whistles thanks to the tighter Twitter integration. But other third-party clients, such as Seesmic and TweetDeck, have continued to thrive as well.

HP files for “Palmpad” trademark

A short time ago, HP applied to the USPTO for a trademark. “Palmpad.” I can’t be the only one who just gets a good feeling from this.
We knew that HP was going to get their money’s worth from Palm when they nixed their Android plans and downplayed their Windows 7 tablet. While reports still have them making the latter in at least some form, statements from HP and Palm indicate that webOS is going to be the focus for HP’s portable computer business.
Like I said, I get a good feeling from this. The other “pad” devices, including the iPad, just don’t sound right — even with going on four million iPads in the wild, I still feel like that name is a compromise. “Palmpad,” though, that sounds right. Like something out of sci-fi in one way, but something you can get used to saying in another way. When you pair a great name with a great product that truly differs from the competition (here’s hoping), there really is a chance for success.
We know webOS is a solid foundation for a tablet, and we know there are smart software people at Palm and smart hardware people at HP. Their huge investment in this project suggests they understand its weight, and seeing the success of the iPad has allowed them to set their sights high. The timeline is pretty indistinct, but by shuttering Android and putting Windows 7 hardware on autopilot, I bet they can put something out in the first quarter of 2011. Of course, the next iPad will be looming then. Giddiyup, HP!
[via MyHPmini and PreCentral]

Samsung Creating Unbreakable AMOLED Screens

Samsung is planning to launch a display with an AMOLED plastic panel on the universal board within two years. Why? Because by switching to the plastic panel, the AMOLED display would become unbreakable.
Samsung's process in making the indestructible screen is to put a thin film transistor (TFT) on the plastic panel and to replace the vinyl protection sheet with polyimide film. Of course, if you drop your phone the glass will still break, but at least you'll have a working touchscreen underneath the shards.
Samsung plans to start producing these new AMOLED screens in two years. Let's hope they can figure out how to make AMOLED readable in the sun by then too. [OLED-display.net]