Much has been made of Steve Jobs' revelation in his authorized biography about having "cracked" how to develop a revolutionary interface for an integrated television set, a disclosure that has led to claims of Apple working to launch a Siri-enabled television set by 2013.
The Wall Street Journal takes a look at how seriously Sony is taking the Apple threat, sharing comments from Sony CEO Howard Stringer about the strategies the company is seeking to employ, beginning with a "platform" spanning all the way from mobile devices to television sets.
Sony has a "four screen" strategy of offering network services on mobile phones, tablet computers, personal computers and TV sets. "I spent the last five years building a platform so I can compete against Steve Jobs," Mr. Stringer said. "It's finished, and it's launching now."
Stringer also claims that Sony has some ideas about a "different kind of TV set" that it has been working on as it seeks to beat Apple to the punch.
Mr. Stringer declined to discuss details of what Sony has on the drawing board, but said, "There's a tremendous amount of R&D going into a different kind of TV set." He added that he has "no doubt" Apple's late leader Steve Jobs also was working on changing the traditional TV set.
"That's what we're all looking for," said Mr. Stringer. "We can't continue selling TV sets [the way we have been]. Every TV set we all make loses money."
There are plenty of myths that surround MythTV: it's for hardcore enthusiasts only, you need a dedicated Linux box and that it's totally incompatible with Redmond's offerings. Whilst Microsoft HTPC users could previously access recordings, they didn't get the live TV, commercial skipping and DVR powers that the software is famous for. That's all changing, thanks to a group of developers who have ported the native front end to Windows. You can either grab a pre-compiled binary of the project, or for those who wish to do it themselves, follow our source link to find all the details.
Social networking has become a pervasive part of our everyday online experience, and by extension, that means the analysis and application of social data is an essential component of business.
In the following interview, "Social Network Analysis for Startups" co-author Maksim Tsvetovat (@maksim2042) offers a primer on social network analysis (SNA) and how it has relevance beyond social-networking services.
What is social network analysis (SNA)?
Maksim Tsvetovat: Social network analysis is an offshoot of the social sciences — sociology, political science, psychology, anthropology and others — that studies human interactions by using graph-theoretic approaches rather then traditional statistics. It's a scientific methodology for data analysis and also a collection of theories about how and why people interact — and how these interaction patterns change and affect our lives as individuals or societies. The theories come from a variety of social sciences, but they are always backed up with mathematical ways of measuring if a specific theory is applicable to a specific set of data.
In the science world, the field is considered interdisciplinary, so gatherings draw mathematicians, physicists, computer scientists, sociologists, political scientists and even an occasional rock musician.
As far as the technology aspect goes, the analysis methods are embodied in a set of software tools, such as the Python-based NetworkX library, which the book uses extensively. These tools can be used for analyzing and visualizing network data in a variety of contexts, from visualizing the spread of disease to business intelligence applications.
In terms of marketing applications, there's plenty of science behind "why things go viral" — and the book goes briefly into it — but I find that it's best to leave marketing to marketing professionals.
Does SNA refer specifically to the major social-networking services, or does it also apply beyond them?
Maksim Tsvetovat: SNA refers to the study of relationships between people, companies, organizations, websites, etc. If we have a set of relationships that may be forming a meaningful pattern, we can use SNA methods to make sense of it.
Major social-networking services are a great source of data for SNA, and they present some very interesting questions — most recently, how can a social network act as an early warning system for natural disasters? I'm also intrigued by the emergent role of Twitter as a "common carrier" and aggregation technology for data from other media. However, the analysis methodology is applicable to many other data sources. In fact, I purposefully avoided using Twitter as a data source in the book — it's the obvious place to start and also a good place to get tunnel vision about the technology.
Instead, I concentrated on getting and analyzing data from other sources, including campaign finance, startup company funding rounds, international treaties, etc., to demonstrate the potential breadth of applications of this technology.
Social Network Analysis for Startups — Social network analysis (SNA) is a discipline that predates Facebook and Twitter by 30 years. Through expert SNA researchers, you'll learn concepts and techniques for recognizing patterns in social media, political groups, companies, cultural trends, and interpersonal networks.
How does SNA relate to startups?
Maksim Tsvetovat: A lot of startups these days talk about social-this and social-that — and all of their activity can be measured and understood using SNA metrics. Being able to integrate SNA into their internal business intelligence toolkits should make businesses more attuned to their audiences.
I have personally worked with three startups that used SNA to fine-tune their social media targeting strategies by locating individuals and communities, and addressing them directly. Also, my methodologies have been used by a few large firms: the digital marketing agency DIGITAS is using SNA daily for a variety of high-profile clients. (Disclosure: my startup firm, DeepMile Networks, is involved in supplying SNA tools and services to DIGITAS and a number of others.)
What SNA shifts should developers watch for in the near future?
Maksim Tsvetovat: Multi-mode network analysis, which is analyzing networks with many types of "actors" (people, organizations, resources, governments, etc.). I approach the topic briefly in the book — but much remains to be done.
Also, watch for more real-time analysis. Most SNA is done on snapshot-style data that is, at best, a few hours out-of-date — some is years out-of-date. The release of Twitter's Storm tool should spur developers to make more SNA tools work on real-time and flowing data.
The new "whole home solution" from TiVo consisting of the four tuner Premiere Q DVR and Preview extender is finally available for the first time, from RCN. The initial rollout is taking place in the Washington D.C. area, marketed as the Whole Home Bundle consisting of one Premiere Q and one Preview for $29.99 monthly. Additional Preview extenders, which lack tuners and hard drives entirely, can be added for $9.99 per month. While DVR features like pausing live TV aren't currently available, Gizmo Lovers points out a DSLReports post by an RCN rep indicating that early next year it will gain the ability to start recordings on the Q remotely, so users can press record, then pause, rewind, or fast forward freely. The Preview box still has yet to hit retail, but those who need four tuners in their TiVo can always pick up the Premiere Elite which features a bigger hard drive than the Q. A press release with all the details is after the break, or you can check the forum post for more Q&A.
This post originally appeared on the American Express OPEN Forum, where Mashable regularly contributes articles about leveraging social media and technology in small business.
So, you’ve launched a company, but you want to go in a different direction regarding the logo, name and maybe even some product features. A full relaunch is not easy, but it could be the “X factor” that drives your startup to success. Mashable spoke with Cassie Lancellotti-Young, VP of marketing at Savored — a restaurant reservation site that launched in 2010 as VillageVines — and Luke Brassinga, a principal at social media marketing firm Likeable Brands.
What Necessitates a Rebrand?
First off, let’s explain one thing: A rebrand isn’t just a name change. “True rebranding involves updating a company’s goals, message and culture,” Brassinga says. There are several good reasons for a rebrand — a merger, an acquisition, a diversified product line, an outdated company, an unsuccessful brand or a split company (think Netflix and Qwikster, prior to the reversion) can all merit a relaunch.
Brassinga says there are also times when you should not perform a rebrand. A rebrand is a tough move to pull off, so if your company has significant brand equity, you could very well end up losing customers if the process isn’t done well (again, look at Netflix and Qwikster). A rebrand is better suited for a startup or small business that experiences a profound shift in identity.
Savored, which used to be VillageVines, is one such small business that benefitted from a rebrand. The site, which offers reservations at top restaurants for a $10 fee in exchange for 30% your total bill, underwent a name change in June, less than a year after the site’s initial launch. VillageVines was live in five cities, but by its name alone, you might not know what it offers. But “Savored” connotes delicious food and is a much more direct word, ultimately making it a better name for the company. It was a well executed rebrand that was done with good reason.
How Do I Change My Vanity URLs on Social Sites?
When you come up with a new name, you should make sure you can get not only your .com domain name, but also the handles on various social sites so your communities have a new place to congregate around your brand.
Facebook: Just like you can’t change your personal Facebook vanity URL, you can’t change a Facebook Page URL once you have more than 100 fans. (This seems unnecessary, but makes sense when you think about people selling their fans.) But the Savored team was undeterred. “Once we found an appropriate contact at Facebook to approach about our situation, we found the team there to be extremely accommodating, and they actually did allow us to simply switch our page name to Savored in light of the circumstances,” says Lancellotti-Young. We’re not sure how successful that would be for a business that doesn’t have millions of dollars of funding, so if the aforementioned trick doesn’t work, you may have to create a new Facebook Page and encourage your fans to migrate to the new Page.
Twitter: You can easily change your Twitter handle, as long as the desired username is available. If your ideal handle is taken but inactive (and you have trademark and copyright information), then explaining your case to the Twitter team could nab you that handle. On the contrary, you could just start a new handle and have your fans follow you there. Lancellotti-Young says Savored opted to start a new handle instead of migrating its fans because “we realized that by simply killing @VillageVines and making it @Savored, we’d lose a lot of our important tweeting history from the VillageVines brand,” Lancellotti-Young says. This tweeting history was important to the Savored story and indicated that VillageVines had developed a solid product and fan base long before Savored launched. So the team took over the @Savored handle and started from scratch, keeping @VillageVines as an “archive” and as a way to direct fans to @Savored (see above).
If you decide to keep your old brand handle, be sure you check in for direct messages and @replies so you can offer the same level of customer service and guide that tweeter toward the brand’s new social profiles.
YouTube: You can’t change the user name on a YouTube account, but you can create a vanity URL that directs to your old page — this video clip explains the process. In short, if there had been youtube.com/villagevines, the company could have set up a vanity URL (youtube.com/savored) for the rebrand. The Savored URL would redirect to the old VillageVines channel page, but the Savored URL would show in the address bar. This prevents users from having to re-upload videos and losing all the comments and subscriptions. Doing this basically puts a “mask” of the new brand on the old YouTube page.
And of course, you should keep your old website URL and have it redirect to the new website — this makes it easier for customers to find the new site without jumping through hoops to reestablish connections (like if they have it bookmarked).
How Do I Announce the New Brand?
So you’ve changed your name — now how do you let the world know? Here are some tips for getting the word out and explaining the rebrand and what it means to users.
A Personal Note: Your CEO should send an honest, heartfelt message to your customers/users/subscribers explaining the rebrand, why it came about, what this means for the company and what it means for the consumers. Promise (and mean it) that there will be no adverse effects on customer service or product quality and reiterate how important your extant fans are. Be responsive and receptive to complaints and feedback that come your way — your customers come first and need to be treated well in order to adapt to the rebrand.
Press Outreach: Try not to have just the rebrand be the story — “Hey, we have a new name” doesn’t add any value and merit a blog post or newsletter blast. But if you rebrand and add new features or bells and whistles, your customers will have more incentive to stick with you through the change. That also gives the press more reason to cover the rebrand — there’s real news the audience should know about. Make it clear to the press that it’s just a rebrand and not a new product. “We bundled news about our new website (including our new content from Zagat), new name and (five) new markets as one bigger tale to better convey the fact that we’d been around a while,” says Lancellotti-Young. This move gave the brand street cred and created much more of a story for bloggers and news sites to pick up.
Google AdWords: AdWords are a great and effective way to get the word out about your new brand, but there are ways to maximize AdWords’ effectiveness. Because VillageVines already had a Google AdWords campaign running and had built up an edge on Google, they used AdWords to beef up Savored’s SEO by piggybacking off of VillagesVines’ success. Lancellotti-Young says that buying keywords for VillageVines and redirecting them to Savored would be “a nightmare” for SEO rankings, so the company went with ads like, “VillageVines is now Savored.”
When you’re setting up AdWords for the new brand, be aware that Google requires your new site to be live in order to approve the ads that direct there.
SEO: You’ve probably received a good amount of press for your “old” name — how do you parlay that SEO advantage to your new brand? Reach out to the press that’s already covered you to let them know of the change (they may make updates, and the rebrand announcement may merit an additional blog post). Savored also used a “commenting strategy,” whereby the team commented on old press posts (see above) with information about Savored and the five new cities it had expanded to.
Consistency Across the Web: Be sure your brand pages and team’s individual social profiles (LinkedIn, Google+, etc.) are all updated to reflect the change. The Savored team started making a list of everything that needed to be updated to “Savored” about a month before launch so that when the rebrand was about to go live, the team could divide and conquer to ensure a seamless transition.
Partnerships: Make sure any partners are abreast of the rebrand and have the proper logos and information in place so they can update things on their end. Savored notified partners 7 to 10 days in advance to make sure resources could be allocated to make the change in time for the launch, and Lancellotti-Young recommends giving ample lead time.
Has your business been through a rebrand? Have more tips? Let us know in the comments below.
Google tried it. Countless others did, too. It's largely believed that the single reason Apple hasn't offered up a true television is the impossible nature of dealing with pay-TV providers, and in reality, trying to merge online programming and traditional cable / satellite is a chore that no one seems to be capable of completing. Based on a leaked software build (v1.5) obtained by GigaOM, Boxee is apparently toying with the idea of integrating live TV (as in, "broadcast TV stations") within the Boxee Box's interface; all you'll eventually need is a USB dongle. We're told that an EyeTV One USB TV tuner wasn't recognized -- even in the new software -- and while it was obviously nonfunctional as it stands, the verbiage is quite clear about what's in the pipeline. Unencrypted broadcast signals built neatly within Boxee's heralded, socially-adept interface? Bring it on.
It’s been said that multitasking makes you less productive, yet that hasn’t stopped the majority of U.S. smartphone users from juggling multiple devices. As many as 80% of people multitask on a mobile device while watching TV, finds a new study.
Using a laptop in front of the TV is no new behavior, yet few TV spots capitalize on the fact many consumers hold an Internet-enabled device in their hands as commercials air. The DVR presented hurdles for advertisers a decade ago as viewers were able to fast forward through ads. Today, tablets and smartphones introduce a new challenge: A more engaged yet distracted consumer. Apps and tools, such as Shazam, might offer one way for marketers to get viewers interacting with ads.
Yahoo Mobile and Razorfish polled 2,000 U.S. adults on their mobile habits and device preferences, to help marketers better understand consumer behavior.
We pulled out 7 intriguing stats on consumer multitasking patterns.
38% of respondents say browsing the web enhances their TV viewing experience, while another 38% say it makes them more distracted.
70% of respondents multitask at least once a week; 49% do so daily.
15% are on their phones for programs’ entire durations.
The top 5 programming genres attracting multitaskers are reality, news, comedy, sports and food.
94% of reported multitaskers engage in some form of mobile communication while watching TV, such as exchanging email, sending IMs, texting, talking or social networking.
60% browse the mobile web, of which 44% search for unrelated content and 38% search for related content.
Mobile traffic spikes during halftime shows of sporting events; Yahoo Sports saw a 305% increase during the last Super Bowl halftime show.
What do you think marketers can learn from these patters?
New stats show that Twitter has taken over the picture-sharing market from third-party apps such as TwitPic and Yfrog. Third-party apps used to be the only way users could share images through the social network, however, Twitter jumped into the arena late this summer with its own uploader baked into the standard tweet box.
The official Twitter app has quickly climbed to the top. According to Skylines, a social image search site, 36.1% of photos shared on Twitter come through the official image uploader. TwitPic is in second place with 30.3% and Yfrog is in third with 21.1%. Instagram is in fourth place with just 12.5%. Its low ranking is both surprising and impressive. Instagram has quickly shot up in popularity as a premiere photo app for iOS devices. This means that while 12.5% may seem low, it’s coming only from people using iPhones or iPads. Not bad considering the three leaders work with web images and most major mobile carriers.
The stats are bad news for TwitPic, which previously held 45.7% of the picture-sharing market just five months previous. While some sites are already ringing the death knell for third-party photo apps, the stats shows that TwitPic and Yfrog are hanging in there. It is clear, however, that these apps will need to do something to differentiate their services from Twitter’s uploader if they want to survive.
Twitter’s photo-sharing win brings up the question of whether official apps and services risk killing competition and third-party innovation. This is becoming ever-more clear as Twitter ramps up its features such as URL shortening.
Who:Mike Kus. A graphic designer, web designer and illustrator living in Bath.
Followers: 82,085
Photos: 451
Favorite Filter: Earlybird
How he's using Instagram: "I try to use Instagram to document my daily life and to photograph what surrounds me. I live in Bath, U.K.; so most of my pictures [are] places and people around Bath."
Inspired by: "I carry my iPhone everywhere and when I see something that interests me I take a shot. There's nothing I particularly set out to do. I like photographing architecture and people, mainly."
At the Mashable Media Summit last Friday, Pete Cashmore provided a broad overview of media’s trajectory. He covered the rapidly advancing mobile industry, the relationship between tablet technology and the current media climate, and social interaction around TV and music.
Cashmore touched on Facebook‘s frictionless sharing capabilities. “Any action on the web can be automatically shared to your Facebook profile,” he explained. The audience (and the #MediaSummit chatter) especially buzzed when Cashmore talked about flexible displays and bendable device screens, one of several items on his own personal wishlist.
Tune in to Pete Cashmore’s Media Summit speech for a comprehensive overview, and let us know which technology-fueled media changes you’re looking forward to.
The Mashable Media Summit in Pictures
Media Summit 2011
The Mashable Media Summit on Nov. 4 at the Times Center in New York City attracted professionals in digital, tech, advertising, sales, marketing, mobile and publishing from all over the world.