Century 21 Moving Moves Toward Online Advertising

Century 21 Moving Moves Toward Online Advertising

Author JoeDigital | 21.01.2009 | Category Technology Viewpoint, World Wide Web

The affordability of online promotion is appealing to more and more businesses, as the economic crunch rolls on. Large advertising budgets are being cut into fractions, and companies, looking to make the most for their investment, are turning to Internet Marketing to make that happen.

The newest big player to make a major commitment to their online presence was one of the nation’s largest realty companies, Century 21, which has announced that a large part of their 2009 TV advertising budget would be redirected into online pursuits.

Beverly Thorne, Century 21 senior VP-marketing, remarked that, “the company’s research and testing revealed that its online investments in 2008 were substantively more productive and efficient than its offline efforts.”

One key attraction for moving online is that the advertising budget reaches much farther through online channels, and more effectively targets prospective customers. For a company such as Century 21, which spends as much as 10% on advertising, that equates to reaching a far higher number of intelligent and interested individuals, and meeting those people in ways that are more casual and provide more immediate information than was ever possible before.

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Music Piracy More Popular Than Downloads

Author JoeDigital | 19.01.2009 | Category Computers, Gadgets, Telecommunications, World Wide Web

The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) has shown that up to ninety-five percent of music downloaded online is illegal. For artists and music companies, this means big bucks that are being lost in fair sales, and the report starts off making the situation look dire indeed.

And while the illegal trading of music is a problem, the report goes on to show that music sales online have increased by around 25%, despite an overall market decease in 2008 of 7%. This increase in sales is recognized by many as the recouping of monies that would otherwise have been lost, if music companies had not undertaken a aggressive approach to online marketing, using social media sites such as FaceBook and Myspace to promote legal music downloads in ways that had never been imagined.

Analysts estimate that the digital music business has an overall worth of around $3.7 billion, which is not small matter. As company pundits and politicians debate how to regulate the illegal music trade, it like so many other Internet reform concerns, seems detined to solve itself, as responsible people gravitate towards legitimate methods of acquiring their music online. The focus has always been on getting the music, after all, it wasn’t a distaste for buying it. Music companies, now that they are providing methods of online sales, are regaining the customers they criticzed for abandoning them.

Oddly, the other side of that coin see the online community welcoming the music companies, and wondering why it has taken them so long to catch up with the 21st century.

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Economic Uncertainty Fuels Social Networking Growth

Author JoeDigital | 18.01.2009 | Category Technology Viewpoint, World Wide Web

Social media sites seem to be coming to the rescue for many people, during these uncertain economic times. MySpace reports that the average minutes a user spends connected has gone from 1 minute a year ago, to 7 minutes in the most recent reporting period. The figures, which were released a few days ago, show the 21-34 age group visiting the site has almost completely doubled from last year, at more than 160,000 now, and only 83,500 then.

Angela Courin, of MySpace, says they’ve seen almost a threefold overall increase in traffic. She went on to say that the site has never experienced such dramatic increases in the past.

As the financial meltdown has progressed, MySpace’s job site has seen a marked increase, along with another popular social networking site, LinkedIn, whose membership is at 31 million, up from 18 million at the start of 2008. People are looking for job openings, and to start new relationships with people that may be able to further them along their quest, and social network sites are meeting their needs, and thriving in the usage.

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LG, Netflix Partner On Movie Rental Televisions

Author JoeDigital | 10.01.2009 | Category Consumer Electronics, Technology Viewpoint, World Wide Web

A joint announcement from Netflix and LG Electronics on Sunday stated that the two companies are set to introduce TV sets that can screen Netflix movies directly from the Web without an external box.

The U.S. DVD rental company and the Korean electronics giant launched set-top boxes and Blu-ray DVD players last year that were equipped with the same Netflix software. Netflix also announced other partnerships, including one with Microsoft’s Xbox 360 to embed the movie software in its game consoles.

Subscribers of Netflix who buy one of these devices can hook it up to their TVs to watch movies that can be downloaded from the Internet instantly, as part of their monthly rental plan. The company eventually hopes to equip all home-entertainment screens with instant movie-viewing capability.

However, only around 12,000 of Netflix’s more than 100,000 movie titles and television episodes will be available for instant viewing — an option the company introduced in 2007.

LG’s new high-definition televisions, which will be on view at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week, are targeted at those Netflix customers who want the convenience of Internet-to-TV movies without the clutter of a set-top box or an additional DVD player.

Swasey said, however, that the Los Gatos, California-based company, whose trademark red envelopes are shipped to nearly 9 million subscribers, has no immediate plans to tie up with mobile phone companies, despite the growing popularity of smart phones like Apple’s iPhone and Research in Motion’s BlackBerry. “There’s a limited market for people who want to watch a 2 1/2-hour movie on a 2-inch screen,” he said.

Tim Alessi, LG Electronics USA’s director of product development, said the Netflix-enabled LG TVs should be on the market by spring. The new televisions use broadband Internet technology and are available in four models — LCDs with 42-inch and 47-inch screens, and plasma TVs with 50-inch and 60-inch screens, he said.

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Internet Car Radio

Author JoeDigital | 10.01.2009 | Category Consumer Electronics, Technology Viewpoint, World Wide Web

Forget AM, FM, and XM. A new wave of radio broadcast is right around the corner, and it’s called Internet radio.Thousands of customized stations can be configured for each radio, and then accessed from anywhere in the world, allowing a level of personalization that not even XM has been able to come anywhere close to.

The device, which uses 3G GSM, is likely to find its way to your car, your smartphone, and even your bluetooth headset. The prototype, which is not even definitely the only one of its kind, was introduced thrugh a partnership of miRoamerand Blaupunkt, and made its debut last week at CES, Las Vegas.

While everyon is excited about the idea of twens of thousands of stations to choose from, the inventors are quick to point out that the Internet Radio is really just a consumer-accepted means of getting digital technology into the cockpit of the family car, where it has thus far been slow to gain momentum.

“The move to develop an Internet car radio solution is a new paradigm and a real starting point for in-car digital media,” said Robert Demian, Head of Global Sales, miRoamer. “miRoamer was the first and remains the only true digital media platform. By partnering with Blaupunkt, who has always been recognized as the first to introduce new and innovative products to the car audio markets, consumers now have access to all of the great benefits of Internet radio in their car, while experiencing unparalleled sound quality and reliability that is far superior to what they are accustomed.”

“Integrating Blaupunkt stereos with miRoamer technology was a logical step in creating a truly multimedia driving experience,” said Dr. Gerhard Pitz, Head of Product Center, Car Radio, Blaupunkt. “Drivers will be able to use all the features they’re familiar with, such as phone, address book, Bluetooth and navigation, but with the first Internet radio, driven by miRoamer, we are able to offer them the ability to tune into the world.”

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Android on HP MiniNote 2133

Author JoeDigital | 08.01.2009 | Category Computers, Telecommunications, World Wide Web

Google Anroid is heading for NetBooks

Once Google Android was released, it was only a matter of time until it migrated away from smartphones and into the computer OS realm. After all, Android is intended as a Cloud Computing OS, and many of today’s laptops and UMPCs are little more than cloud computers.

A group of Canadians have ported the Android OS over to an HP Mini-note 2133, and the reports are that it is amazing combination. While the reports are that every worked well, there as yet no details available as to how the OS was put to the test.

As most people know by now, Android is the Mobile operating system recently released by Google, which premiered a couple of months ago on the Verizon G1, formerly known as the HTC Dream. It is a fully functional mobile operating system, intended to compete with such major players in the field as that used by Apple’s iPhone. For months, there have been rumors flying that Google is looking to compete even with software giants like Microsoft, especially with the popularity achieved by Google’s cloud computing software suite that provides most of the functionality of MS Office.

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Security Flaw In MD5 Algorithm

Author JoeDigital | 06.01.2009 | Category IT Security, Networking, World Wide Web

Independent researcher in both California and the Netherlands have discovered a weakness the Internet digital certificate infrastructure, which poses a threat of hackers impersonating site identifications trusted by most web browsers. In essence, hackers could make your browser believe it is on a secure website or email server while virtually undetectable phishing of your system is in progress.

The problem arises from one of several algorithms used to establish a secure https connection, known as MD5. This is not the first weakness discovered in MD5, either. A team of Chinese researchers presented the first one at a 2004 cryptology conference. In that case, they wee able to create a “collision attack, and generate two messages with the same digital signature.

The new discovery makes use of the collision method, but allows the hacker almost complete freedom in creating a rogue certification authority (CA) that will be verified by most commonly used web browsers, including both Microsoft and Mozilla. The team hopes to draw attention to this security weakness, and drive the industry to use stronger encryption methods.

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Dryers That Twitter

Author JoeDigital | 06.01.2009 | Category Computers, Telecommunications, World Wide Web

Admittedly, some things probably didn’t need to be invented, and this is most likely one of them, but it is still an interesting idea that could come in handy: Alternate methods for your clothes dryer to let you know that load is done. Now, we realize that most dryers already sound a buzzer, but sometimes that buzzer is in the wrong room, or you’ve become too involved in something online to notice that outside world without a friendly reminder.

This video will show you how to create a dryer alert system of your own, and your imagination can guide you in creating the perfect alert for your own needs. For some, a big flashing sign may be enough, bot other among us might need our digital devices to do the notifying, and in that situation, getting a twitter from your dryer could be the perfect way to go.

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Two iphone Apps For the Apple 3G

Author JoeDigital | 02.01.2009 | Category Consumer Electronics, Mac/Apple, World Wide Web

Onew of the biggest draws for the Apple iPhone 3G is its ability to download apps, customizing every iPhone for the needs of its owner. But what kind of apps are avilable, and why would you be interested?

MINT

This is a personal finances app that is both intuitive and fast.  You can track budgets, follow investments, and a host of other financial tasks, all from this one easy app. The cost is also very agreeable, at completely free.

Shapewriter 2.0 Pro

Click and drag on the touch keypad to spell out the letters in a word, and shapewriter will handle the details of printing them in the correct order. This program can add a great deal to your productivity at typing tasks. If you want to get the most out of it, pay the $10 registration, and unlock new features while removing annoying advertisements.

If you haven’t investigated the plethora of apps available for you iPhone yet, you’ve been leaving yourself in the dark. There are hundreds of apps out there, with functions that are entertaining and aesthetic, informational, and productive. What you do with your iPhone is emphasized by the types of apps you have available.

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WikiMobile

Author JoeDigital | 21.12.2008 | Category Computers, World Wide Web

WikiMobile is the power of Wikipedia coming to mobile devices

Great news for information junkies world wide. Wikipedia, one of the most popular internet destinations has finally got a mobile version. mobile.wikipedia.com is a downgraded version of its popular internet without images and adverts, making it particularly useful on slow connections although richer applications are available for apple Iphone users namely Wikicompanion.

The efficiency of the website is further increased by its breakdown of information into separate pieces displayed on separated pages. Another difference is that instead of choosing your language option users can now directly enter their queries. New features are expected to be added on the website. A future feature might see wikipedia giving its mobile users access to its 1000 odd spoken articles.

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