Wednesday, January 19, 2011

19 new stories on The Next Web today

19 new stories on The Next Web today

Link to The Next Web

Heathrow Express Ticket Purchasing Comes To The iPhone

Posted: 19 Jan 2011 04:08 AM PST

A new iPhone app from rail company Heathrow Express, the rail link between London and Heathrow Airport, allows users to plan and book their journey in advance, purchasing tickets directly from their iPhones.

The app launched on the App Store today but has been available on BlackBerry, Android and Java-enabled devices for little over a month, keeping passengers up to date on train times and the status of the train, whilst delivering an electronic ticket direct to the phone, eliminating queuing altogether.

With ticket purchasing functionality, the Heathrow Express app becomes the first such app to be launched in the UK.

The app has been accredited by Barclays, a trusted name in banking, and is PCI DSS compliant, which serves at the international standard for data security. All major credit cards are supported except for Maestro.

9to5mac, Image Credit

Tesco Mobile reaches 2.5 million subscribers, reminds us it has shops in South Korea

Posted: 19 Jan 2011 02:49 AM PST

Tesco has announced that its Tesco Mobile subscriber base has surpassed 2.5 million people, with Christmas sales helping the mobile virtual network operator reach the milestone.

Tesco Mobile experienced double digit airtime growth in each quarter of last year, boosting its subscriber numbers by 25% in the same period. Tens of thousands of Tesco Mobile handsets were activated on Christmas Day, many of them Apple iPhone’s, one of the the company’s most successful handset that tempts customers with only a 12 month contract.

Tesco Mobile isn’t a network operator, instead the company uses the O2 network but operates separately from the Telefonica-owned company.

The company believes that its increase in users was fuelled by the opening of over 200 Tesco Phone Shops – opening its first store in Bristol in November and but also expanding internationally to open shops in Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Poland, Turkey, Hungary and South Korea.

South Korea, who knew?!Mobile News, Image Credit

What would your life be like in another country? If It Were My Home tells you

Posted: 19 Jan 2011 02:15 AM PST

Ever wondered what would life be like if you lived in a completely different part of the world? If It Were My Home is essentially a comparison engine for the world and can tell you whether the grass really is greener elsewhere.

Say you live in the UK; pull up Brazil and you get a map showing just the two countries’ sizes compare along with a wide range of stats. Apparently in that South American country, I would have a 3.6 times greater chance of dying in infancy, use 64.37% less electricity and would die 6.9 years earlier. On the up-side, I’d have a 7.3% better chance of being employed.

The site can compare these stats, and many more, for just about every country in the world. Would you have more money living in Malaysia or the Democratic Republic of Congo? If It Were My Home will tell you.

Reminding us a little of the BBC Dimensions site we’ve previously covered, If It Were My Home initially got attention last year when it offered comparisons of any country to the Gulf Oil Spill and the Pakistan flood, but has since been expanded to be a much more comprehensive service. With so many stats and comparisons to be made, it’s well worth exploring.

Hacker News

HTC expected to ship 9.5 million smartphones in Q1 2011

Posted: 19 Jan 2011 02:08 AM PST

A new report from Digitimes, citing the Chinese-language outlet Economic Daily News (EDN), suggests that HTC has increased its shipping estimates for the first quarter of 2011, upping its forecast to 9.5 million handsets, an increase of around 500,000 handsets from earlier predictions.

The report builds upon suggestions that HTC has already informed its suppliers that they will need to prepare to supply parts and components for as many as 60 million handsets in 2011, as the company prepares to introduce new Android and Windows Phone 7 smartphones over the coming year.

HTC will soon deliver its fourth quarter results, reporting on whether it met its target of 8.5 million smartphone sales in the final quarter of 2010. If the mobile giant’s shipments surpasses that figure, its revenues would have risen 20% from the previous quarter to US$2.93-3 billion, providing the taiwanese giant with almost a 10% market share.

Digitimes notes that HTC will deliver its 2010 report and fourth-quarter results on January 21, something tells us the company will have exceeded its estimates, it will need to if it wants to compete with Nokia and Apple.

Sony chooses Opera to power its BRAVIA and Blu-ray internet experiences

Posted: 19 Jan 2011 01:39 AM PST

Opera Software has been chosen by electronics giant Sony to deliver its powerful browsing technology for its new Sony BRAVIA televisions and Blu-ray Disc players as the company looks beyond mobile and the desktop to power consumer electronic devices within the home.

The partnership will see Opera deliver a more interactive browsing experience, utilising the company’s own Opera Devices Software Developer Kit (SDK) which is cross-platform, supports all major browsing standards, whilst running on Internet-connected TV’s and Blu-ray players.

Expect Opera to facilitate a market for Internet TV web applications and widgets, whilst delivering flawless web browsing that supports technologies like HTML5, HbbTV and OIPF.

The announcement signals a new challenge for Opera Software, the company has already enjoyed success on mobile devices, using its patented compression technology to reduce the size of requested pages before delivering them to the handset. The company announced in April 2010 that its software was being used by 100 million users worldwide, half of them mobile, and when it launched its iPhone application, the app surpassed one million downloads in one day.

Sony, on the other hand, is creating devices with integration in mind. We recently showed you a new BRAVIA television that incorporated a PlayStation 2 console into its base, the partnership with Opera Software shows where the company is heading as to deliver high-quality content via the Internet.Image Source

Arabnet: Will 2011 Top its 2010 Debut?

Posted: 19 Jan 2011 01:34 AM PST

Arabnet 2010 PanelFocusing on Arab Internet from an international perspective, Arabnet is a conference organized by the International Business Alliance Group (IBAG) to bring together the Internet community to network and help launch the hottest startups from across the region.

The 4-day conference will take place on March 22-25 in beautiful Beirut, Lebanon, was a hit last year with over 600 attendees, 25,000 virtual attendees and 40 top-notch speakers from across the MENA, Europe, and Silicon Valley who all came together to make the event a resounding success.

Upon completing a colossal pan-Arab tour during December 2010, the organizers of Arabnet have set out to make 2011 even bigger than last year’s success. And they got the MENA web industry’s heavy hitters lined up to share the fun.

The ArabNet team apparently travelled through Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the UAE, and Egypt armed with workshops and specialized speakers hitting conference centers and University auditoriums encouraging them to launch their own businesses.

Arabnet Bus CrewArabnet in Cairo

The three week trip labeled “Entrepreneurs without Borders” managed to land some strategic partnerships with the likes of Bank Audi, Aramex, Google, N2V and MBC Group.

Over 1,500 people participated in these workshops, where they were given the opportunity to connect with and learn from lawyers, investors, experienced entrepreneurs and business leaders from their communities.

Arabnet isn’t cool because it’s held in Beirut during the springtime, that’s just a perk. Arabnet uniquely manages to bring together young and passionate Arab entrepreneurs with the royalty of the Middle East’s web industry.

Figures such as Fadi Ghandour, Samih Toukan, Maher Kaddoura, Rabea Ataya, and Talal Abu Ghazala to name a few, have been shaping what is today’s Middle Eastern web scene for the past decade will be speaking in panels, providing Q & A sessions and more, to knowledge (and money) thirsty rising stars from around the region.

Last year’s main attractions included an Ideation session and Startup demo where entrepreneurs presented their ideas for successful online businesses, some are being incubated while others are already witnessing rapid growth.

One thing that bugged me about Arabnet 2010 was the prolonged, dragged out, old school ‘The Youth is the Future’ speeches some Lebanese politicians made. I hope Arabnet organizers can confine them to 60 sec on stage. But only if absolutely necessary.

So it looks like Arabnet 2011 is up for a real challenge, but judging from the size of the sponsors and the popularity it’s been gaining with the roadshow, it’s definitely on the right track. What do you think Arabnet should do in 2011 to make it big?Image Credit

Egyptian Startups Vimov, ALZWAD Receive Investment from Sawari Ventures

Posted: 19 Jan 2011 12:25 AM PST

Sawari Ventures launched their first venture fund sponsored by no other than CEO of Orascom Telecom Naguib Sawiris yesterday kicking it off with an initial investment in 2 Egyptian startups.

"The Middle East is poised to become the next global center of entrepreneurship," said Ahmed El Alfi, Founder and Chairman of Sawari Ventures in a press release yesterday. "Local entrepreneurs possess world-class talent, but need access to capital, mentorship and expanded networks to realize their full potential."

The first startup is Vimov are the developers of top-selling iPhone/iPad weather app Weather HD, in addition to popular iPhone simulator platform iSimulate. Based in Alexandria, Egypt, vimov launched in 2008 have a very promising future in the global app development market.

The other company is ALZWAD, a unique, multi-platform infotainment and communications ondevice portal for feature phone users across the Middle East owned and managed by former Vodafone Egypt's Director Ziad Aly.

ALZWAD have been witnessing rapid growth over the past 12 months targeting the Middle Eastern regional mobile user market with their hit mobile lifestyle portal and content aggregator ME3ALMOBILE (meaning ‘Me on the mobile’) along with their free iPhone app Gazar.

The Egyptian mobile market is considered the largest in the region with an estimated 57 million mobile users in the 3 operators in the country.

The investments don’t come as a shock considering the sponsor is Naguib Sawaris CEO of Orascom Telecom, the largest telecom network in the Middle East. Details of the size of the investment were not disclosed.

We hope to see more of these investments, and can’t wait to see what new products vimov will be producing with this boost of cash.Arab finance, via ArabCrunch, Image Credit

Samsung teases its next flagship smartphone, will be unveiled February 13

Posted: 18 Jan 2011 11:52 PM PST

Manufacturers aren’t just starting up their hype machines, they are in full flow, counting down the days until Mobile World Congress commences on February 14.

Samsung has begun teasing what looks to be its next flagship smartphone, the natural successor to the Samsung Galaxy S, announcing one of its famous “Unpacked” events just before MWC at a location in Barcelona.

Samsung is calling it the “next evolution in mobile” and that’s about as much as you are going to get until the company starts making more information available by way of teaser previews come February 1.

With the tagline “EVOLUTION is FATE”, we are most probably looking an LTE handset but nothing will be confirmed until the teaser previews drop at the beginning of next month or some enterprising individual can leak information that can all but confirm the new device.

Watch this space, we will update you with all the news on this new Samsung handset.PhoneArena

Google Earth, Picasa and Chrome now available to Iran

Posted: 18 Jan 2011 10:52 PM PST

In another of those odd situations that arise in Internet culture, US-based Google had been blocked since 2009 from providing software downloads to Iran. Today, according to the Google Blog, those restrictions have been lifted and with the lift comes the first chance for Iranian citizens to download Google Earth, Picasa and Chrome.

We're committed to full compliance with U.S. export controls and sanctions programs and, as a condition of our export licenses from the Treasury Department, we will continue to block IP addresses associated with the Iranian government.

Citing Google’s desire to help people create, communicate and share opinions, Google seems to be counting the lifted restrictions as a victory for free information. It’s worth noting, however, that Google specifically states that it will block IP addresses which are known to belong to government agencies.Techmeme

Uncensored Playboy on the iPad? Must not be porn.

Posted: 18 Jan 2011 08:45 PM PST

In an interesting twist, Playboy’s voyage to the iPad will contain a whole lot less censorship than the iPhone version has, at least according to a tweet from Playboy owner Hugh Hefner. In answer to a question from Twitter user @hughmcook, Hefner stated with no clever language that Playboy on the iPad will be uncensored:

Now what’s the story? Either Hefner is going to be sorely disappointed when his magazine’s application gets the denial, or Mr. Jobs has turned on his heel to an earlier statement. The reference, in case you’re not familiar, comes from a situation earlier in 2010 when Gawker writer Ryan Tate had an email conversation with Jobs wherein Jobs stated that the iPad (or perhaps Apple in general) offered “Freedom from porn.”

So obviously our curiosity has been raised. Does Apple not consider Playboy to be pornographic in nature? While the publication does offer a considerably more artistic take on nudity than some of its counterparts, its photographic content does fall well into line with the understood definitions of pornography.

So what’s your take, fine reader of TNW? Maybe my thoughts are all wrong and the reason it won’t be censored is because it won’t contain any pictures. After all, you do read Playboy for the articles, right?Image Credit, ScepticGeek

Google regains search share in China

Posted: 18 Jan 2011 08:34 PM PST

After a bad 2010 for Google in China, it is poised to get back on their feet in 2011 by gaining back the market share it lost.

It’s starting to look good as PCWorld reports that Google search’s ad share finally sees a rise after a year of decline. In Q4 of 2010, Google search ad revenues rose to 23.1%–a 1.5% growth from the previous quarter. This, however, is still a long way from its 35.6% share in end of 2009.

Google’s decline in the Chinese market began at the start of 2010 when the company announced it might leave the country after being the victim of a cyber attack that it said originated in China. This followed the company’s move to stop censoring search results in China by redirecting all users from its Google.cn page to its unfiltered Hong Kong search engine.

Although all has been resolved, it still resulted to a shift to Baidu.com, Google’s biggest competitor, which now controls a 71.7% market share. Determined to bounce back up in spite of the setbacks, Google held an event in Beijing that promoted products and services such as the Google function that will allow users to search and view foreign web pages that have been automatically translated into the selected language.

Additionally, Google still aims to capitalize on its display ad market which is fairly doing well, while starting to target businesses that wants to advertise on its platform as well.

Google may not gain the top spot any time soon but this rise in share is definitely a good sign for the world-dominating search engine. After all, a small piece in a huge pie is still pretty big–we’re talking about the world’s biggest Internet base here with more than 400 million users.PC World, Dailytech, Image Credit

10 Canadian Tech Trends for 2011

Posted: 18 Jan 2011 08:14 PM PST

Smartphones and tablets predicted to outsell PC’s in Canada 2011

Based on a recent annual report from Deloitte Canada, a division of the global consulting firm, it's predicted that 425 million smartphones and tablets will be sold this year in Canada. The study also forecasts that Canadians will only purchase 400 million personal computers, 25 million less than mobile devices.

Deloitte's 2011 TMT Canadian predictions are based on research and in-depth interviews from Deloitte alumni, clients, industry analysts and leading executives within technology, media and telecommunications (TMT) fields.

Deloitte Canada's TMT team has listed its top 10 trend list for the year. The following predictions are what TMT says will be the most significant trends that will impact Canada in 2011.

1. Smartphones and tablets: More than half of all computers aren't computers anymore

2011 marks the tipping point as we move from a world of mostly standardized Pc-like devices to a far more heterogeneous environment. In this new era, price, performance, form factor and other variables will be diverse..as employees are increasingly being allowed to pick their own devices, the cost for IT departments to manage a mixed network for both PCs and non-PCs is likely to be much higher.

2. Tablets in the enterprise: More than just a toy

In 2011, more than 25% of all tablet computers will be bought by enterprises. Although some commentators view tablets as underpowered media-consumption toys suitable only for consumers, more than 10 million of the devices will likely be purchased by enterprises in 2011.

3. Operating system diversity: No standard emerges on the smartphone or tablet

By the end of 2011, no operating system (OS) on smartphones and tablets will have a dominant market share. Some will have more than a 5% share, but no single player will become the de facto standard.

4. Social network advertising: How big can it get?

Social networks are likely to surpass the milestone of one billion unique members in 2011 and deliver over two trillion advertisements.

5. Television's "super media" status strengthens

In 2011, television will solidify its status as the current super media, defying some commentators' prophecies of imminent obsolescence. Viewers around the world will watch 140 billion more hours of television than last year, worldwide TV advertising will increase by $10 billion, the global TV audience will grow by 40 million to 3.7 billion viewers, and TV shows will be the most common conversation topic around the world and the subject of more than a billion tweets.

6. PVRs proliferate! The 30-second spot doesn't die!

By the end of 2011, more than 50% of television owners in the U.S. and UK are expected to own a personal/digital video recorder (PVR/DVR) and have the technological ability to skip ads. However, given most PVR owners will continue to watch the majority of their television live (known as "appointment to watch" television), TV advertising will be almost entirely unaffected in these markets.

7. Push beats pull in the battle for the television viewer

Viewing will be delivered on a traditional "pushed" basis (i.e., the schedules will be determined by channel planners)…Searching will be available to varying degrees of sophistication, ranging from simple search apps selectable from an on-screen menu, to powerful functionality that enables searching across a wide variety of broadcast, streamed and stored content.

8. What's "in-store" for Wi-Fi: Retailers roll-out Wi-Fi to encourage in-store

In 2011, 25% of North American big box and anchor tenant retailers will begin offering free in-store Wi-Fi access to shoppers…when shoppers do in-store online comparison shopping, the likelihood of purchasing appears to go up, not down: when an online search reveals that competitor's prices are similar, many shoppers proceed with the purchase at the store they are in, rather than drive around to save a few dollars.

9. Getting to 4G cheaply: Will many carriers opt for 3.5G instead? The proliferation of new computing devices doesn't mean that we need new networks

In 2011, the deployment of next-generation Long Term Evolution (LTE) wireless networks will fall short of industry expectations due to the continuing viability of the latest third-generation (3G) wireless technologies, such as High Speed Packet Access (HSPA+), and the handsets that work with them.

10. Wi-Fi complements cellular broadband for "data on the move"

The volume of data uploaded or downloaded from portable devices via public Wi-Fi networks will grow at a faster rate (25% to 50%) than the volume carried over cellular broadband networks in 2011…mobile providers should view Wi-Fi and cellular broadband as complementary and build out blended networks, or partner with Wi-Fi providers as appropriate.

For the most part, I agree with Deloitte’s predictions for 2011.  We’ll likely see Canadians pick up more tablets and smartphones than PCs this year, one of the main reasons being that the experience of using tablets and smartphones is largely curated attracting the mainstream non-tech folk.  Do you agree or disagree with any of the top 10 predictions from the report? Give us a shout in the comments.Image: iPad, Deloitte, CBC

Wallcast: Your computer’s wallpaper just became a social digital photo frame

Posted: 18 Jan 2011 07:44 PM PST

I have to admit, first off, that I’m a sucker for a great wallpaper. When I find a great one, it’s like a moment of zen bliss for me. What I hate, though, is that I tend to get tired of them pretty quickly. While there are great options out on the Internet to find wallpapers, Wallcast has done something different by providing you a customized, self-refreshing wallpaper for your Mac or PC, made up from your own photos.

Back when I reviewed the Pulse digital photo frame from Kodak, one thing that I really loved about it was that you could give out an email address where others could send pictures to your frame. Wallcast allows the exact same thing, only with less hassle in the UI. Once you sign up, you simply add 5 photos to get started. You can select your background, select how often you want your display to refresh (and yes, multiple displays are supported, with refresh times for each) and even manually refresh or pause the refreshing at will.

So how does it look? I have to give credit to Wallcast. The backgrounds really are great. I chose one described as Black Leather and I’m quite happy with how it looks:

After you get up and running, you can send yourself more photos (you’ll have a personal email address to which you can send, created by your username) or you can choose to upload them directly via the web interface. Of course, emailing from a mobile phone works too, so it’s a great way to share photos with your friends if you so choose. The wallpaper will refresh at intervals that you select (15 minutes, by default), so you’re assured a new look every few minutes.

So now, the parts we don’t necessarily like.

First off, there’s no way to change the framing for your photos. While they do look great as is, more border options would be welcomed. There’s also a section in the Terms of Service that we don’t really like the sound of just yet:

From time to time the Service may provide links that will take you to other, third party websites. These links are provided for your convenience.

What this sounds like, to us, is that Wallcast will be serving us advertising. As of yet, I’ve not seen any, but the service is free and it wouldn’t surprise me if we saw it happen. After all, by signing up you’re agreeing to see these “links”. Again, it’s important to note that we haven’t seen this yet, but it’s likely to happen.

The app seems to be well-coded, too. It runs very light, without any increased memory use from leaks over time.

So there you have it. Give Wallcast a run and let us know what you think. So far, it’s a double thumbs up, from me. While I had to send back the Pulse photo frame, I’m pretty sure that my MacBook isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.Image Credit

Twitter expands language localization to Korea

Posted: 18 Jan 2011 05:51 PM PST

As Twitter expands its reach, one of the largest problems with which it has to deal is localization. Starting today, the more than 2 million Twitter users in Korea will have Twitter in their native language.

According to a blog post (in Korean), Twitter has seen a growth rate of over 10x in 2010, and more is expected. In view of that, Twitter for Mobile and Twitter.com are now available in Korean. Although Koreans have already access to twitter for quite some time now, blogger Ajenneja pointed out that features such as using hashtags and performing search could be quite buggy when using Korean words with more than 3 characters.

Existing users can now change their language settings to under account setups. The iPhone and Android apps have been updated as well as support for mobile sevices through LGU+. We’re looking forward to seeing more tweets from our Korean Twitter friends. Now if only more Twitter clients supported on-the-fly translation.

Image Credit

Incredibly cool 3D printer creates objects out of titanium

Posted: 18 Jan 2011 05:11 PM PST

Oh sure, 3D printing is still cool, regardless of the medium. Until now though, we’ve seen it done with either ABS plastic or with some forms of powder which then becomes a solid in the rendering process. We’ve only recently seen 3D printing done with any sort of metal, and this is the first time that the metal in question happens to be titanium.

See that golf ball-esque piece in the top there? That’s created from pure titanium powder by a company called i.materialise. The idea is that, instead of just doing 3D printing to show prototypes, you’ll actually be able to have pieces crafted that can be used in the real world:

Titanium's high heat resistance, high accuracy and unparalleled strength lets designers now make things that before now could only be made by the research and development departments of only the largest corporations in the world. By putting this technology in the public's hands were democratizing manufacturing and giving you the opportunity to, design and order something this is exactly as you want it to be.

Of course it’s a bit pricey, so you’ll need to bear that in mind before you go having your titanium chess set crafted. A 2x2x4-centimeter item will run you a cool $124. Want to super-size? You can step up to an internal volume of 4 centimeters for a mere $192. Then again, compared to the over $1 million price tag to buy the printer for yourself, that’s quite the bargain.

Have an idea for something that you’d like printed? The i.materialize team will be happy to do that for you. There’s a space on the site where you can upload your own 3D model, then choose all of the parameters yourself. Personally? I want a custom titanium sleeve for my MacBook Pro. I wonder how much that would run…

Huawei brings strength to Canada’s wireless industry

Posted: 18 Jan 2011 04:56 PM PST

Huawei, a major Chinese telecommunications solutions provider has set up its North American headquarters in Markham Ontario, bringing the province a state-of-the-art test lab designed to help improve the telecommunications industry in Canada.

Its new headquarters currently employs approximately 200 people and will "expand our highly competitive offerings and support capabilities to our key customers in Canada" Huawei stated in a press release published today. And, it will position Huawei closer to its Canadian telecom customers; Bell, Telus and now Wind Mobile.

More Research and Development Centers coming to Canada

Bell, a major telco in Canada has signed a memorandum of understanding with Huawei to create and maintain a joint innovation center in Canada that will focus and investigate broadband wireless networks and network products. The new center's location has not yet been announced however it will offer its Canadian customers enhanced business and technology benefits, according to Huawei.


Huawei brings innovative solutions to Canadian telcos

Bell and Telus

Huawei took on a big part in developing the framework for Telus and Bell's high-speed network, a partnership that began with the major Canadian telcos back in 2008. Huawei assisted in infrastructure development of HSPA+ networks providing solutions for the HSPA overlay that moved the networks closer to the global 4G wireless standard.

Strengthening our support of Bell's mobile innovation and investment strategy helps us at Huawei to achieve greater heights in sales, knowledge transfer and product development.

Wind Mobile

Wind Mobile, a newcomer in the wireless industry in Canada, has just announced that it will be using Huawei's HD voice technology to offer its customers better quality voice services. HD voice's technical name is wide Band AMR and it's a patented speech coding technology that is said to produce excellent speech quality.

Huawei was instrumental in helping us create a technology that will do for phones what high-definition did for television. With the customized Wide Band AMR Service, our customers will realize superior voice quality and an improved overall experience." -Wind Mobile

Government funding

In April 2010, Huawei opened its first research and development facility in Ottawa and it invested more than $50 million. Huawei's Ottawa-based R&D center is investigating ways to speed up networks and increase processing speed in circuit chips. A facility that the Ontario government has given $6.5 million to in the form of a government grant. With the explosion of smartphones predicted to hit the market in Canada this year, cutting-edge research facilities dedicated to advancing wireless technology is great news for Canadians.

Huawei's vision, scale and technology innovation is playing a major role in shaping the future of telecommunications in Canada.. As well, I congratulate Huawei for its ongoing commitment to further strengthening the wireless industry's contribution to the Canadian economy. – Bernard Lord, President and CEO of the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association(CWTA).

rcr wireless, Business Wire -JV, Business Wire -HQ, Financial Post, Image: Text

Not making money as a YouTube partner? Here are some tips from YouTube itself

Posted: 18 Jan 2011 04:23 PM PST

YouTubeYouTube hosted a live event today to help partners get the most out of their YouTube revenue.

Phil Farhi of YouTube, began the event by telling partners about a few of the new initiatives that YouTube is working on, to help make partners as successful as possible. He started by bringing us through the history of advertising on YouTube.

Phil mentioned that just 3 short years ago, YouTube began using in-video and overlay ads, the first step in monetizing videos. And following the first format of ads, YouTube brought Ad Sense ads, enabling smaller advertisers/customers to get on board, allowing YouTube to capture a broader range of advertisers.

Next came in-Stream Ads (mid and pre-roll ads), a format that was launched about two years ago. YouTube said this has been popular because advertisers will pay more for ads that are similar to the format on TV. At almost the same time, promoted ads were introduced and it was proven to drive traffic to videos that were featured using the 'promoted video' format.

A few months ago, a new ad format for partners called TrueView was rolled-out. This format lets users watching a video skip the ad after five seconds. An ad format that YouTube says is less interruptive and doesn't risk annoying your audience because it gives them the chance to hit stop.

Phil asked the question " What makes a movie a successful?" Using the movie industry as an analogy, he went on to explain that there are many factors that come into play that make up the overall picture; ticket prices, seats filled, distribution etc. It's the same with YouTube as he pointed out. Partners shouldn't look at one aspect such as RPM (revenue per thousand page views) or CPM (cost per thousand, as an example $1 or $5 per thousand views), they should look at everything including geography.

A few points to take away

Good partners focus on overall revenue and aren't fixated on "ticket price". They also work hard at building a strong audience as well as trying to increase views. Good partners look at geography, RPM and CPM.

Bad partners look at the wrong metrics and don't build up their audience. Partners who only focus on RPM might think everything is fine however, it's critical that users concentrate on CPM as well and continue to build audience loyalty.

YouTube says advertisers are creating content that competes with user content, and millions of users are watching advertisements on the site. Think about the popularity of Superbowl ads.

Keep experimenting! Compare ad formats by type and geography and play around with different scenarios. Try enabling ads after your loyal audience has seen them or try it in reverse. Play with different recipes and see what happens when ad formats are enabled/disabled. There is a wide variety of ways to make revenue.

Take a good look at revenue break downs and compare formats; True View, in-Stream, etc.

Better reporting for ad formats coming soon. YouTube admits that partners don't have the best reporting feature right now.

YouTube will be adding an option for partners to opt-in to just TrueView Ads without needing to be signed up with other formats.

Ensure the metadata on videos have the correct information and enough words to help YouTube’s algorithm bring the best targeted ads to your videos

More details on the Novell patents that Microsoft and friends want to buy

Posted: 18 Jan 2011 03:01 PM PST

The great Microsoft led patent purchase is back on, and it’s nearly as if nothing has changed.

There was a very confused news story that made the rounds a week ago that claimed that the Microsoft headed consortium called CPTN Holding was not going to buy hundreds of millions of dollars in Novell patents, surprising industry insiders.

We dug around and called shenanigans nearly right away, and have now been vindicated. Microsoft and the rest of its CPTN Holdings crew are back at the buying table. A new filing with the SEC from January 14th shows that CPTN Holdings will be buying more than 800 patents that relate to management, security, and identity and collaboration.

The total number of patents to be purchased has changed slightly. The original tally of 882 patents has declined to 861 following the discovery that some of what were thought to be patents were actually expired patent applications. CPTN Holdings will, provided that the sale does finally occur, buy 861 patents and 20 lapsed applications.

The difference between the first number of 882 entities and the final 881 entities is one patent being previously double counted. According to reporting on ZDNet, the EU government officials in charge of antitrust are not worried about the sale.

What comes next? It could be that CPTN Holdings actually manages to pull the trigger on the purchase, creating a very odd situation wherein a group of the most bitter technology rivals have a bag of goodies to share and distribute as they see fit. Who else wants to bet it won’t end well?Top Image Credit

Developers: Got a Facebook app but no one’s using it? Meet: Appbistro!

Posted: 18 Jan 2011 02:27 PM PST

Apps are the new goldrush, everyone wants to make them and if you get it right, like Angry Birds, you can make millions of dollars in your sleep, but with over 70,000 apps on Facebook’s platform alone, if your app isn’t going viral on people’s walls it’s hard to get exposure to the right market.

Appbistro.com aims to solve this problem, they are creating a marketplace where developers, small businesses, brands and agencies buy, sell, and review Facebook Applications.

Appbistro was founded by Ryan Merket and Nalin Mittal in February of 2010, here I chat to them about investment, revenue model and aims for the company.

Infographic: A Decade of Data Storage

Posted: 18 Jan 2011 02:25 PM PST

Rackspace, a cloud computing and cloud hosting company based in Texas, has put together a brilliant infographic depicting the advances in data storage over the last decade.

From the “I love you” virus becoming the most expensive virus in computer history, to P2P networks, PCs, IBM‘s Millipede chip, YouTube, cloud computing, Twitter, TB hard drives, the iPhone, BluRay technology, and holographic storage. As technology advances rapidly, it leaves behind obsolete artifacts in its wake, and re-shapes society forever.

Online Storage

Some are slow to keep up. Take note that just 19 years after it revolutionized data storage, Sony stops making 3.5in floppy disc in 2010.

Where do you think we’ll be in another 10 years?

via @LaughingSquid

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