House Explodes With Audio-Visual Holiday Spectacular | Adrants

November 19, 2012 ~ lmehit ~ Leave a comment

Previously published in 2005 but worth another look every year around this time.

This has absolutely nothing to do with advertising unless, of course, this person starts stringing lights for marketers (which he ultimately did…so we guess it does now). You have to marvel at the relentless dedication and months of preparation something like this requires.

This isn’t just your average Holiday house lighting. It’s a full blown light and audio spectacular. The music is Trans-Siberian Orchestra’s “Wizards in Winter” and the lighting spectacular was created by Carson Williams, an electrical engineer for Cincinnati Bell Technology. Give it a watch. It’s a classic. And a viral sensation.

You have got to see this!.

Facebook and Yahoo! NOT forming strategic alliance | VentureBeat.com

November 19, 2012 ~ lmehit ~ Leave a comment

[Update] Rumor has it the rumors are wrong. While Facebook and Yahoo! may work together on certain projects and collaborations, a search alliance is not likely to be one of them in the near future.

Female executive powerhouses Marissa Mayer and Sheryl Sandburg may be forging an alliance between their two companies.

UK newspaper The Sunday Telegraph reported that Mayer, who is the CEO of Yahoo! and Sandberg, the COO of Facebook, are discussing ways the they can work together to conquer the internet. There is already some overlap between Yahoo! and Facebook, but according to unnamed sources, “board members expect the talks to lead to much more substantial collaboration based around web-based search.”

Is bracing for impact really helpful in an airline crash? | Air & Space Magazine

November 19, 2012 ~ lmehit ~ Leave a comment

Or is it just meant to make us feel like we’re doing something?

Spending weeks (if not months) reading about Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger’s heroic landing of US Airways Flight 1549 in the Hudson River in January 2009 led the Air & Space copy chief to wonder: “When an airplane is about to make a bad landing and the pilot tells passengers ‘Brace for impact,’ does that instruction really help? Could it actually hurt? Is it just a placebo to make the passengers feel like they’re doing something?”

4 things marketers can learn from the Papa John’s spam lawsuit | Econsultancy

November 19, 2012 ~ lmehit ~ Leave a comment

How much does it cost to send a text message?

It’s often less than a cent if you’re a marketer sending in bulk, but U.S. pizza chain Papa John’s could be forced to pay $1,500 a pop for 500,000 text messages its franchisees sent in 2010.

A class action lawsuit alleges that the chain’s franchisees, though a third party text messaging service, sent promotional ads to consumers without their permission in violation of a 1991 law. The attorneys for the plaintiffs in the case are asking for $250m in damages, but a jury could award triple that amount if it decides that Papa John’s willfully violated the law.

While it remains to be seen just how likely an eight-figure verdict is, and it would seem that there’s a decent chance the class action will be settled before the matter is put in the hands of a jury, Papa John’s plight provides several good lessons for other marketers using SMS to reach consumers.

Read Article.

Spotify For Magazines Comes To The US | PSFK.com

November 19, 2012 ~ lmehit ~ Leave a comment

Paris-based startup, LeKiosk, has taken the concept of a physical newsstand and transferred it online. Offering a variety of publishers across genres, ‘a Spotify of the magazine world’ if you will, they have already been touted as the top Apple app for 2011. “The world’s first 3-D newsstand” is designed to offer users the chance to peruse content in a visual and simplified manner, eliminating ownership of physical versions yet still offering the chance to save the content. The UK version of the app actually provides a version of a British-style newsstand with a virtual way to scroll through available titles in a simulated version of the real life experience

9 People to Remove From Your Inner Circle | Inc.com

November 13, 2012 ~ lmehit ~ Leave a comment

When you’re trying to get a business off the ground, the people you surround yourself with matter. Keep these nine types at a distance.

You are what you eat, and you definitely are whom you associate with. The people closest to you make all the difference–in a good and a bad way.

Of course, it can be tough to find great new connections and friends to add to your inner circle; people who will support you, help you, and encourage, motivate, and inspire you.

It’s a lot easier to spot the people in your inner circle who are holding you back.

If you have people like these in your inner circle, remove them:

C7 Chromebook; How Low They Can Go? | TechCrunch.com

November 12, 2012 ~ lmehit ~ Leave a comment

Google and Samsung recently unveiled a $249 Chromebook, which seemed like a new pricing floor for a capable, light computer that’s designed for users who spend most of their computing time on the web. Today, Google announced the new Acer C7 Chromebook on its website, which ups the ante (while lowering some specs) with a $50 cheaper Chrome OS notebook which also features an 11.6-inch display, but also boasts an Intel Core processor and a 320 GB hard drive.

Google Android Now Powers 3 in 4 Smartphones | searchenginewatch.com

November 12, 2012 ~ lmehit ~ Leave a comment

Google’s Android platform has reached record worldwide sales numbers, according to analysts. Research firm IDC said that the Google mobile OS is the first to surpass 100 million quarterly shipments in a single quarter.

The platform powered some 136 million handsets, giving Android a 75 percent market share of all shipments. The company noted that Android also saw its shipments rise by 91.5 percent over the previous year’s quarter, a growth rate roughly double that of the smartphone market as a whole.

Analysts credit the soaring sales in part to Google’s ability to build and maintain a large ecosystem for the platform.

“Google has a thriving, multi-faceted product portfolio. Many of its competitors, with weaker tie-ins to the mobile OS, do not,” explained IDC senior research analyst Kevin Restivo. “This factor and others have led to loss of share for competitors with few exceptions.”

Second in the quarter was Apple’s iPhone.

Canadian Supreme Court Invalidates Viagra Patent | Wired.com

November 12, 2012 ~ lmehit ~ Leave a comment

The Supreme Court of Canada is invalidating Pfizer’s patent on the popular erectile-dysfunction drug Viagra for failing to openly disclose the drug’s active ingredient, as required by Canadian intellectual property law.

The 7-0 decision Thursday to open Viagra to competition ahead of its 2014 patent expiration underscores a major difference in how the Canadian and United States courts are interpreting patent laws.

Both nations have so-called “patent bargains” that require the disclosure of a drug’s chemical compounds in enough detail so that scientists can replicate it and learn from the invention, thus benefiting society. In exchange, the inventor, in this case Pfizer, gets the exclusive rights to market the invention for a limited period.

But “sufficiency of disclosure lies at the very heart of the patent system,” the Canadian high court ruled Thursday, and “adequate disclosure in the specification is a precondition for the granting of a patent.”