15 new stories on The Next Web today |  |
- The hybrid laptop carrying case, work surface, and chair
- Toshiba outs its Tegra 2-powered Android Honeycomb tablet
- Kindle users form e-book “Lending Club” on Facebook
- Samsung Galaxy Player debuts on Amazon UK, gets £149 price tag
- Facebook’s 50 billion valuation, in perspective [Infographic]
- Did StumbleUpon just pass Facebook for social media traffic?
- Samsung Galaxy S hits target, surpasses 10 million units sold
- Values, Value and Valuation — The money is all relative
- Facebook raises $500 million from Goldman Sachs; has $50 billion valuation
- This vending machine with its 47-inch touchscreen will blow you away
- The MacBook Hair
- China’s Great Firewall blocked 350 million “pieces of harmful information” last year
- 5 Online Media Trends for 2011
- Need help sticking to your New Year’s resolution? Try Fitango, a new platform to improve your lifestyle
- 8 Action Items For Social Media in 2011
- How to find out about new Apple products before anyone else
| The hybrid laptop carrying case, work surface, and chair Posted: 03 Jan 2011 03:59 AM PST It’s a laptop bag, desk and a chair. And it folds into a tiny package. No really!
Designed by brothers Nick and Beau Trincia and no word on pricing and availability yet. A few more photos:
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| Toshiba outs its Tegra 2-powered Android Honeycomb tablet Posted: 03 Jan 2011 03:06 AM PST Toshiba has announced it will be entering the tablet market once again, this time coming with a 10.1 inch, dual-core Tegra 2-powered device that will run Google’s Honeycomb Android software once the operating system update becomes available. Engadget had the chance to look at one of the devices a few weeks before Toshiba decided to announce its new tablet, presumably waiting until CES 2011 was upon us, creating a buzz so attendees will want to see what the tablet is like in the flesh.
The unnamed tablet will be exactly the same size as the iPad, coming in a tiny bit heavier but packing some impressive features. The tablet will feature a capactive 1280 x 800 high resolution display, an ambient light sensor and an accelerometer. That’s not all, it will also ship with a 5MP camera on its rear with a 2MP camera for video calling on the front, coming with an array of accessible slots and jacks with USB, HDMI, SD and mini-USB all catered for. At the time Engadget viewed the device, the operating system wasn’t ready so the tablet was never turned on. They did get to handle it though, remarking that the device was solid in the hand and that it had a swappable rubberised rear panel meaning it could be customized but also that the battery could be replaced if needed, +1 for Toshiba. The tablet will be released when Google drops Honeycomb, this is expected to be around May time. Expect some more information on this tablet to be announced soon.
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| Kindle users form e-book “Lending Club” on Facebook Posted: 03 Jan 2011 02:39 AM PST
The club, set up as a Facebook page, has been “Liked” by 770 people at the time of writing and the page’s Discussions tab is busy with people requesting books offering up lists of the books they have available to lend to others. All that’s required for a user to lend a book to someone else is that person’s email address. Amazon’s lending period lasts 14 days, and during that period the lender will be unable to access the book, with rights restored to the purchaser once the two weeks are up. Whether Amazon anticipated users organising themselves into a lending club or not, we’re not sure but it’s likely to result in many lost sales. After all, most books can be comfortably read in 14 days. If all you need to do to get hold of Kindle books is to request a loan from a stranger online, how many will you actually bother to buy? At present, Kindle book lending is only available in the US and the number of people offering to lend books compared to the total number of books available is low. However, can Amazon really do anything to stop this growing? Offering a lending feature is a DRM-controlled goodwill gesture to paper books, where lending is impossible to restrict. Lending is currently only possible for titles where rightsholders have allowed it. If organised lending continues to increase, will those publishers that have taken a chance on letting their titles be borrowed get cold feet, killing the feature off entirely? The many users currently happily sharing their favourite books with others will no doubt be praying that’s a negative.Image source |
| Samsung Galaxy Player debuts on Amazon UK, gets £149 price tag Posted: 03 Jan 2011 02:25 AM PST
The 8GB version is similar in many respects to the iPod Touch, allowing for apps and functions found on the Galaxy S smartphone range, minus the ability to make calls (at least via mobile operators, VOIP applications should be available via the Samsung Apps marketplace and the Android Market). With the 8GB version costing £149 and the 16GB version setting you back £180, the former comes in a respectable £40 cheaper than its Apple equivalent (on the official website, around £25 cheaper on Amazon), really taking the competition to the Cupertino company. The Galaxy Player features a 3.2-inch WQVGA LCD screen, 2MP camera, support for 32GB of external storage, FM radio, a microphone and a changeable battery. With support for Ogg Vorbis, FLAC, XviD and DivX, users will be able to consume a variety of media formats on the go, dragging and dropping files on to the player by way of its DNLA support. The Samsung Galaxy Player looks set to push Apple on all fronts and will almost certainly be one of the first Android-powered music-centric devices to make it in the Apple dominated personal music player market. We are all for competition (and lower prices) – this product, no matter who makes it, has been a long time coming.Image Credit, ElectricPig |
| Facebook’s 50 billion valuation, in perspective [Infographic] Posted: 03 Jan 2011 02:11 AM PST Read about Facebook’s 50 billion valuation this morning? I did but had a hard time visualizing that number. That is why I decided to create a little graph visualizing that number against the market capitalization of some other internet companies. Such as Apple (295 billion) and Twitter (an estimated 3 billion). Click for the full 800×800 pixel version:
Feel free to use the graph on your own blog but please do link back here. Thanks. |
| Did StumbleUpon just pass Facebook for social media traffic? Posted: 03 Jan 2011 12:21 AM PST
Statcounters stats compromise of the top seven social media websites, including Stumbleupon and Facebook, as well as Twitter, Reddit, YouTube, Myspace and Digg. Facebook consistently held top spot over the course of 2010, at times accounting for over half of the traffic sent out from the seven websites, before dipping at the end of the year. Stumbleupon is well known for its ability to drive huge numbers of visitors to websites that have been “Stumbled”, sending users to different websites that have been marked with with a “Thumbs Up” by other users (over 12 million of them in fact), in effect vouching for the target website and deeming it legitimate and a decent source of information. The company’s CEO Garrett Camp tweeted the milestone this morning, stating:
You might be wondering what constitutes being a top social media website. Statcounter stated back in April that Stumbleupon was consistently in the top two Social Media sites in terms of generating traffic, actually bypassing Facebook back n March 2010. The traffic generated by a website can be different to the amount of visitors a website gets, for example, you would expect Stumbleupon’s 12 million users to generate less pageviews on the Stumbleupon website than Facebook’s 600 million users. Great news for Stumbleupon but the figures need additional context. Over the Christmas period, Facebook became the most popular website in the UK for the first time, knocking Google’s UK search portal from top spot. We later reported that Facebook beat Google to top spot as the most visited website worldwide according to Hitwise. Statcounter does track an average of 15 billion page views per month on more than three million websites, is this sample size large enough to accurately confirm that Stumbleupon is receiving more social media traffic than Facebook in the U.S? Stumbleupon can definitely send traffic but Facebook is also very consistent in terms of traffic generation.
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| Samsung Galaxy S hits target, surpasses 10 million units sold Posted: 02 Jan 2011 11:37 PM PST
We previously reported that the handset had surpassed the 9.3 million mark, putting the company in touching distance of its 10 million unit goal as the new year loomed. It’s end of year push meant that Samsung sold some 700,000 units worldwide in just over a week, an impressive feat even if the holiday season could have helped drive demand. Samsung Hub reports that Samsung was selling an average of 1.4 million devices per month, equating to 40,000 units per day. Device sales were strongest in North America with over 4 million units sold, 2.5 million in Europe and over 2 million in South Korea. Samsung has already outlined its plans to become the number one mobile manufacturer worldwide, this is a very impressive start for the electronics giant.Image Credit |
| Values, Value and Valuation — The money is all relative Posted: 02 Jan 2011 10:21 PM PST
ValuesDo you, like me, find yourself more inclined to use or purchase something that comes from a company that you can believe in? The ethos of a company can — for me at least — completely break me away from the product. That very fact, because I feel that I’m likely not alone in my actions (or lack thereof) can have a serious impact on the bottom line of a company. Look at Facebook, for instance. When the Social Graph was announced and the new privacy changes went into effect, many people threw up their hands in disgust. But many others continued with life as usual, even if a bit annoyed. Why? Because Facebook has this outward appearance of a company that’s simply trying to do cool things, and it needs information in order to do them. The company’s values seem, for the most part, to be in line with the things that we Internet users want. As such, there was a lot more wagging and a lot less barking from the angry dogs crowd. You’re starting a company? There’s likely something to be said for developing an ethos ahead of time, making it known and then sticking to it. Would Google be where it is today if not for the “don’t be evil” tag line? Even if you don’t fully believe that the company runs that way, you still remember it. Point made. Value
That quote is one that has stuck with me for some time now. A few years ago I was making my living selling cars and it is sometimes exceedingly difficult to overcome the objection of price. In the technology world, we’re constantly being offered products for “free”. The only cost? A bit of information, a slice of our privacy or somethings similar. But then, after using those “free” products, we start to build our own value for them. Don’t believe me? Just look at some of the things that you likely use every day. Gmail? You’d pay for that. Twitter? You don’t want to admit it, but it’s likely become a valuable asset to your daily Internet life. The same can be said for so many things and yet we get them for “free”. But there’s a down side to this issue as well — it becomes very difficult for a maker to charge for a product when there are free alternatives. Don’t believe that? When was the last time that a box office movie didn’t get a torrent version? And yet, even as companies try to build value in their products, still others think that the economy allows for them to set their own values and tell us what something is worth. TV networks are probably the most well-known perpetrators of this heresy. Apple TV launched, ABC and Fox decided to jump on board and see what would happen. Some of the rest? They decided that $.99 was devaluing the product and yet as the provider of the product, there is no one entity that is more unqualified to name the value. Consider it a lesson in business, I suppose. The potential buyer will determine the value of your product. Always. ValuationNow here’s a sticky one. Valuation is one of those strange things because it means so many different things to different people. To the potential investors, it’s a measure of how much money can be made. To the business owner it’s a gauge of how well the business has done. To the end user? It’s…honestly not much. As a case in point, around TNW we love Twitter. We want to see it succeed and we are sure that it will. The valuation continues to climb prior to any IPO and yet, as users of the service, it really doesn’t matter much to us. Sure, it would matter if the site closed its doors, but beyond that there simply isn’t anything about the valuation number that matters. And so, as an entrepreneur you have to ask yourself where the balance lies. Do your company values allow you to build value in your product? If so, then the chances are that your valuation will end up right where it needs to be. There’s a fair amount of truth in the thought that, if you handle the small stuff, the big stuff will fall into place. So with that, I offer you a thought going into the new year — start with your values. The rest will fall into place. |
| Facebook raises $500 million from Goldman Sachs; has $50 billion valuation Posted: 02 Jan 2011 09:09 PM PST
Long considered one of the most stable investment groups on Wall Street, Goldman’s investment tends to hold considerable more credibility than the typical “analyst” valuations that we’ve seen in the recent past. Of course, this still doesn’t answer the question of “when is the IPO”, but it will, as the Times notes, adds pressure to Facebook to make the offering happen. Another unanswered question is what will come of those investments into pre-IPO shares of the company. As the US Securities and Exchange Commission has opened an investigation into the deals, the current SecondMarket valuation stands at roughly the $56 billion mark. As Facebook continues to grow in popularity and traffic, the next questions are all about the money. You can be certain that The Next Web will have all of the details as they’re available, and plenty of conjecture even before then. Interested in where this places Facebook alongside other Internet giants? See here. |
| This vending machine with its 47-inch touchscreen will blow you away Posted: 02 Jan 2011 03:52 PM PST
If you live in Tokyo (or in Japan for that matter) you may be well acquainted with the vending machines operated by JR East Water Business Co. but for us, the vending machines that this company operate in the JR East stations in Tokyo will quite simply leave you in awe. The machine itself centres on a huge 47-inch touchscreen panel which will watch you with its cartoon eyes until you walk up to it. Detecting that someone is approaching, the vending machine will switch to the storefront, displaying drinks that are available to buy (it won’t display any beverages not in stock).
Selecting a drink will bring the product into focus, displaying price and a little more information about it – the user can then pay for the drink using cash, using Suica (a prepaid card) or by using your mobile phone. According to Akihabara News, the machine is able to determine the age and gender of the person using it, suggesting specific drinks for that person. As a result, JR East Water Business has published a press release stating the machines take 3x more sales than other vending machines, apparently the machines are so popular people queue just to interact with them, with people between the ages of 20 and 30 most likely to buy something. The vending machines, created by design company Design Studio S have proved so popular, JR East Water Business is hoping to roll out 500 of them in the next two years. Here’s a video of it in action: |
| Posted: 02 Jan 2011 12:02 PM PST So thin it fits in a pixel? Victor Anselme figured that at the current rate of innovation within years the MacBook Air would be as thin as a human hair. That might be a tad too optimistic but I like his thinking. Check out the mock-up ad, including side, back, front and opened up views:
Looks like Victor wasn’t the first to think of the ‘hair’ metaphore. I also found this Youtube clicp from September 2008: |
| China’s Great Firewall blocked 350 million “pieces of harmful information” last year Posted: 02 Jan 2011 09:58 AM PST
As 2010 came to a close, Chinese officials did what they did best, hosting formal meetings demonstrating how their governmental departments had performed over the year, presenting statistics to back up how well they had done. One such person was Wang Chen, the deputy head of the Communist party’s propaganda department and head of the State Council Information Office, they guy who helped regulate the Internet for Chinese users and decide what content should be blocked. On Thursday, Wang presented his statistics to the media, particularly focusing on how much Internet content he had helped censor. The head almost seemed to boast about how much content had been blocked, stating the following:
With Mark Zuckerberg recently visiting the country, Wang refused to discuss whether Facebook would be allowed special exclusion from the strict firewall, also dismissing the fact that Zuckerberg would have used his visit to discuss possible exemption from a Great Firewall blocking. Earlier in 2010, we reported on the sentencing of a female activist who was given a year in a labour camp for one retweet. Retweeting a message on Twitter posted by her boyfriend, the woman went missing for a few days, even missing her wedding day – such is the level of censorship in the country. It could be a while until we see Google or Facebook making headway in China, at least at the moment.Image Credit |
| 5 Online Media Trends for 2011 Posted: 02 Jan 2011 09:21 AM PST As the new year begins, here are five trends that are likely to make an impact in the online media world in 2011. Cloud-based media libraries
Thus far only small players like mSpot and LaLa (purchased and closed down by Apple in 2010) have addressed cloud-based media solutions in this way. However, only the big players like Apple and Google (rumored to be launching its own music service with a cloud-based element soon) are likely to have the server capacity to make the idea a reliable, scaleable consumer proposition. A more readable Web
We recently covered Treesaver, a company that will soon offer a set of customizable templates that publishers can use to present their content with a highly readable magazine-style app. It appears Flipboard is heading for the browser too. Will it be a fad or a revolution? Time will tell but expect to see a number of experiments in this field this year. Shakeout in the e-book market
One thing’s for sure, a wide range of competing formats isn’t good for consumers and the public will most likely opt for the easiest, best supported service. A possible outcome is that some of the less successful players will adopt a more successful rival’s format. Third-party Kindle devices, anyone? With the right economic incentives from Amazon, it could be a win for all concerned. Online 3D video goes mainstream
It’s certainly likely that we’ll see big media outlets start pumping out a lot more 3D video but if handheld 3D video cameras can be made popular at a cheap enough pricepoint we could well see an explosion of user-generated three-dimensional content too. By the end of the year, a pair of 3D glasses could be a useful accessory when watching online video. Beyond that, how about an iPhone 3D? Nintendo’s forthcoming 3DS handheld shows that portable 3D gaming is viable – who will be the first to bring it to the mobile world? The “Post-blog” Blog
Gawker Media head honcho Nick Denton recently wrote an explanation of how his network was “Moving beyond the blog” with a new layout that ditched the decade-old “reverse chronological list of posts” blog format to a more magazine-like template that highlights the biggest stories of the day. Elsewhere, Mashable has entered into content deals that see some of its stories published in print media as it expands its business beyond the online realm. In 2011, we’ll most likely see more deals of this kind as smart, nimble blogs capitalize on their content production strengths in new ways.Image 1, Image 2, Image 3 |
| Posted: 02 Jan 2011 08:05 AM PST
Fitango, a socially driven, lifestyle based platform launched last month to help people build and complete “Actionplans,” which can vary from life goals like learning Spanish or more short-term goals like completing your holiday shopping. The Actionplans are laid out for the user step-by-step, spread evenly across the Fitango calendar. The thought process is that users can actually complete their goals by spreading out small tasks, which is a good idea: read last year’s WSJ article, which argued that human willpower is an extremely limited mental resource. The site certainly helps human beings realize the first step to making any change- the step of “self-awareness.” Users can choose from over 200 Actionplans, written both by accredited experts and Fitango’s staff. , 90% of which are currently free. Users can recruit friends as “Motivators” to keep them going, join a “Bubble” to discuss their plan, and share plans and progress via Facebook. The site also employs game mechanics to help you along. For example, I just signed up so I received the “Rookie” medal, which if I wanted to, I could “brag about” (share) on Facebook. Other badges include Achiever, Artsy, Athlete, BFF, Bragging, Bubbly and Cheapskate. The site itself has a clean, simple look with an easy-to-sign up Facebook log-in option.
Fitango’s latest release includes features such as “Gifting Actionplans,” so now you can buy an Actionplan for someone else. Fitango is also providing a platform for experts to sell their own plans through the platform – like an app store for personal motivators. At the moment this would be in the form of Actionplans, but Fitango says they’re currently building the ability to sell live video-chat consultation through the site. So what are your New Year’s resolutions? And do you think social media can help? |
| 8 Action Items For Social Media in 2011 Posted: 02 Jan 2011 08:01 AM PST
Twitter MonetizationTwitter can still claim that they are in their growth phase but with a recent valuation of close to 4 billion they need to start thinking about monetization very soon. They've had a spectacular year of growth and Twitter continues to be one of the most useful tools around that many of us simply could not live without for a number of seasons but at the end of the day, they simply can't keep burning through cash at the rate they are if they are to succeed long term. They've tried a couple of things over the last year with limited success but they need to find an automated self serve ad platform like Google and Facebook have in place that generates billions in revenue over the coming years. They have the users and enough smart people working there to do it so my guess is that by the end of 2011 they'll start to get there. Less Noise
Better Customer ServiceSome of the brands using Twitter for customer service are already doing a fantastic job and it is affecting their reputation in a very positive way but having said that, the vast majority of brands and businesses are not there engaging in quality customer service yet. It's not good enough to say any more that they are thinking about embracing Twitter or looking towards it because it needs to happen immediately. The new consumer wants their information delivered at high speed and expects it to be so. The days of updating a website as the first point of contact are gone and people expect the immediacy provided to them in realtime a la Twitter. Facebook Credits Become Widespread
Continued Progress From YoutubeYoutube has gone about it's business a lot quieter that the other social networks this year but I think their evolution has been seriously impressive. Not only have they seen stunning growth with stats like 36 hours of video uploaded to the site every minute, but they've also massively improved the quality of their videostream and added a huge amount of impressive new features. Youtube have been quite aggressive in the way they've been monetizing the content throughout the last year with a whole slew of new ad formats. In 2011 Youtube needs to get better content either through partnering or producing their own. Youtube also needs to find ways onto your television like they have tried to do that through Google TV and Leanback. It is only through that combination of better content and being in your living room that they will find the bigger advertising money and become far more profitable. 2010 has been a great year for them in terms of progress and 2011 needs to be the same so as they evolve out of a simple video sharing site Google Needs To Wake Up
Location Based Services Need To Hit MainstreamIt's been a great year for location based services like Foursquare and Facebook Places. Marketers all over the world have been getting themselves very excited about the possibilities that it offers and local businesses have been using them to target consumers. The main stream adoption is still not there though and that will need to happen in 2011. LBS seem to have been embraced far quicker in the USA but for people to start offering better deals there needs to be widespread adoption around the world. Facebook places should change a lot of that and their self service deal platform is impressive but the majority of the world is still not yet aware that they can “check in” to physical locations. Another Break Out ServiceTwitter is 4 years old at this stage and Facebook is coming up on 7 years since launch. Foursquare was one service that many were trumpeting as the next big service. 2011 will be the break out year for the next big service and the chances are that it could be something that has been launched already and that the early adopters are already using. There are a vast number of services out there but one I am most excited about is Instagram, the photo sharing site. It essentially only lets you share fancy photos with your friends but it has already amassed 1 million followers and has some basic social features built in that could easily be expanded upon. 2011 will see massive growth for them and they'll either become massively mainstream or get bought out by a much bigger rival. That is of course only one small start up to watch and the entire social media space should have lots of traction for start ups and hopefully provide another huge success story.
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| How to find out about new Apple products before anyone else Posted: 02 Jan 2011 06:06 AM PST Albert Einstein supposedly said ‘The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources’ and I’m sure the same goes for a lot of blogs. But today i decided to write about one of my sources. Why? Just because this is a tiny and cute little project that managed to grow a loyal following and has some interesting data to show.
I have been subscribing to their newsletter since they launched and that is how I’m often quicker with new Apple product news than some of the other blogs out there. I’m not the only one getting their updates though. Also listening in are people working at Nasa, BMW, IBM, Xerox and Apple itself(!). That last company seems weird at first unless you think about the fact that product launches are generally kept secret to everybody within the company except Steve Jobs and a handful of others. That means that approximately 49,390 employees have to rely on blogs and YAASC to find out about other product launches.
The service started with a little script that only displayed an ‘online/offline’ check at MacEinsteiger.de, the mother company behind YAASC, and from there grew to a separate service that now checks different countries and even compares the ‘before’ and ‘after’ state of the Store so you even know what happened during the downtime and which products were released or removed. There is no businessmodel behind the service and they rely on donations to keep the service up and running. Some of the data they have collected so far is interesting though and might even be valuable. One feature is the Product Life Cycle Guide which displays how long ago a products was refreshed, or added, to the Apple Store. Its life cycle is an important indicator for when new products tend to come out so well worth a check if you are thinking about buying that new MacBook Pro (Don’t, upgrade imminent!). You can also see a current status of all world wide Apple Stores in one overview. Last time I checked all was well in Apple land: all Apple Stores were online. Lastly you can see which countries are most eager to find out when the Apple store goes offline. Most subscribers are from the US, a lot from Germany (not surprising as that is where the service is based) and then the UK, The Netherlands and France. As you will see from the numbers there the service is still small and relatively unknown. You can keep following this blog, the other Apple Blogs out there and Steve’s keynotes but subscribing to ‘Yet Another Apple Store Check‘ might just give you that edge over your friends and could make you the first one in your circle of friends to be able to Tweet “The Apple Store is down! new products?” And maybe, one day, you will be able to Tweet about the Revolutionary New Laptop With No Keyboard: |
Sasmung’s Galaxy Player device has emerged on 
According to analytics service 
Samsung has officially confirmed that its Galaxy S smartphone range has eclipsed 10 million units sold, hitting the company’s target just 7 months after the device launched.
China’s Great Firewall is well known – the country enforces strict measures to ensure citizens are unable to sign up to social networks or enjoy websites hosting “harmful” information outside the country.
If you’ve never been able to keep a New Year’s resolution or just think you’ll need a little extra help this year, why not harness the power of social media to give you a boost?
Social media still suffers from a noise issue. It's like a constant fog horn blaring out and the big problem is that you miss most of the good stuff. There have been some improvements in relevancy filters but to a large extent your networks are all set up manually and unless you take the time to personally curate them you are not going to be getting the best information. We need to crack the noise issue and make sure you only get the information and content that is relevant to you while filtering out the useless noise. We are already seeing the first private networks emerging, such as 
Up until now 
Google needs to wake up and see that the whole social world is engulfing them 
The service I’m talking about it called ‘Yet Another Apple Store Check’ and what is does, and does well, is check whether the Apple Store is down, or not. It does that every few minutes and for every Apple Store in the world. If a store is down 
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