Valleywag wrote a post speculating what could be Mullenweg’s “life change” mentioned in a recent twitter. This comes in the wake of a recent $29.5 million round of funding. Matt Mullenweg is the founder and creator of Automattic, the maker of wordpress, the blogging platform of which this and many blogs run.
So what was the entrepreneur twittering about? The purchase of ma.tt, his new blog domain. .tt is the namespace for Trinadad and Tobago, and while it costs a hefty $500 a year to register, I can definitely say I’m jealous.
OpenMoko is a GNU / Linux based open software development platform. Developers have full access to OpenMoko source and they can tailor their implementations to underlying hardware platforms. via: openmoko.com
For people who have iphone envy but they can’t stand how closed apple is being with developers, there’s the Neo 1973. It’s the first phone made exclusively for the open moko platform. Finally, a phone developers can salivate over. I mean, just look at the set-up you can get for just $400! (the cost of an iphone):
Best of all, the phone should be supported by ATT & T-Mobile in the US! Frankly, I’m kind of surprised that major carriers would allow such and open piece of hardware to be on their networks considering how they usually act.
However, the phone being shipped as of this writing is, in fact, geared towards developers. Before you can make any calls you’ll need to boot your own OS. That’s where I decided the neo 1973 was too much for me…
The promised day arrives! Facebook no longer requires an “is” in its status updates, finally ceasing its assault on the English language.
I couldn’t agree more. I’m surprised it has taken this long for this to happen. What’s funny is that twitter is based soley around this concept. What keeps facebook from swallowing twitter whole?
The next time your friend sends you a video that has gained “viral” status, keep your sanitizing wipes handy. In a guest post on TechCrunch, Dan Greenberg details how his company, The Comotion Group, takes promotional videos and makes them viral. I had suspected this for some time now, but I wasn’t really sure how successful it was. Apparently, pretty successful.
Their strategy includes spamming friends with new videos for their clients, as well as planting arguments in the comments section of youTube to create controversy. The article gives pretty decent insight into how not all successful videos are organically popular. However, should I care? If the video is entertaining it shouldn’t matter whether someone paid for its popularity right? Perhaps, but something makes me feel uneasy.
FYI: I am not affiliated with or related to Matt Monahan of The Comotion Group.
Dutch police are questioning a group of 17-year olds accused of stealing virtual furniture from Habbo, a virtual world much like Second Life. Habbo Hotel is most popular in Europe where teens go to socialize and even spend real money on virtual items like furniture to decorate their rooms.
Apparently, by creating fake websites pretending to be Habbo, the teens were able to steal other users’ passwords and, subsequently, steal items from their rooms. But they’re virtual items. Who cares, right? Wrong. The furniture stolen was reported to have been worth over $5,800.
According to a spokesperson from Habbo:
It is a theft because the furniture is paid for with real money. But the only way to be a thief in Habbo is to get people’s usernames and passwords and then log in and take the furniture.
Over the past few years, users have been willing to pay more and more money for virtual goods that have little to no practical value(at least not in the real world). As much as I love the internet and technology, I still can’t justify spending my hard earned cash on little collections of pixels and code.
Ok, back to the ranting and raving. Facebook has released two advertising products, Insights and Beacon. Inisghts is designed to take advantage of all that personal data you’ve been uploading for some time now. An advertiser can pay for Ad placement based on gender, religion, relationship status etc. So, you could hypothetically by served an Ad for a dating for dummies book because your profile proclaims you to be “single” looking for “random play.” P.S. You’re creepy.
Beacon, on the other hand, places tracking cookies on your computer to monitor your activity on other website like eBay and Travelocity, and then relay that information to your facebook friends’ news feeds.
Brilliant. Now my friends know when I buy self help books…
From now on I have to remember to delete my cookies before I buy something online. Otherwise, it could be broadcast to my entire social graph. Hopefully, some day the news feed evolves into this:
The TrendWatch is the collective postings of some of the FullSIX Group’s designers, strategists, and consultants on new media and marketing trends. It is meant to be an impromptu think-tank, and is a way for us to share theories and beliefs about how we think communication and connectivity is evolving.
We work for The FullSIX Group; a leading full service marketing agency with digital DNA. From our 15 international offices with over 600 employees, we constantly embrace and encourage innovation to make integrated marketing and communication campaigns that are more accountable and efficient for our clients.
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