Group items tagged

Juniper report on mobile IM/group messaging

There's an easier way to recycle your old mobile phones and receive instant cash in exchange. Users can drop off their used device at an ecoATM, which can automatically detect the phone model and determine its working condition. It can evaluate the phone on the spot and give the user a market value based on its assessment. If the consumer is happy with the price, then they have the option to either take the cash or donate the money to a charity.

Tagging this as it seems to support whatever we end up calling Lessification. You don't need to keep and store books to have instant access to just about anything. Now add movies, music, photos...

Just what we need in the Lab

When the weather becomes a hot topic on Twitter, the Weather Channel will try to seize the moment with some custom content thanks to a new deal with Twitter. The idea is to draw third-party advertisers to sponsor the content. Under the ESPN deal, for instance, Ford inserted a pitch for its Fusion before replays of college football instant replays tweeted by ESPN. Here, a hurricane, for instance, might be a sponsorship opportunity for insurers like State Farm, which tried its hand at various forms of digital advertising during Hurricane Sandy last year. Other current TWC advertisers include Scott's, Jeep and L.L. Bean. **Could be something for Pennington. Sponsor good spring weather.**

SMS & MMS from your computer or tablet. Uses your current Android phone number. Instant notifications on computer/tablet. See who's calling you...on your computer screen. Left your phone in car? Forgot it at home? No worries.

But if we have learned anything in the last few years, it is that traditional media are now only in charge of part of the story. There is a paucity of facts and an excess of processing power because everyone with a keyboard is theoretically a creator and distributor of content. Most of those efforts begin from behind a firmly established battle line, then row backward to find the facts that they need. Was that a dark spot on the back of George Zimmerman's head in the grainy police video, or evidence of a beat-down? We retweet and "like" what we agree with and dismiss the rest. As if the overheated cable news debate weren't enough, social media are fueling the story with misinformation, along with incendiary calls to action. There is a Twitter account called "@killzimmerman" that suggested George Zimmerman needed to be "shot dead in the street." On Twitter, the movie director Spike Lee passed on what he thought was Mr. Zimmerman's address, but it was wrong and an elderly couple was forced to flee from their home. And what if Mr. Lee had gotten it right? (Mr. Lee has since apologized and reached a settlement with the couple.)

Just in case we hadn't covered this. Amazon expanding its video offerings.

Amazon claims more video traffic than Hulu and Apple