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Verizon and Redbox teaming up

Nike's Jordan brand will try to own those real-time conversations through a program of promoted tweets designed to blend into the ongoing social discourse on Twitter. Nike is not an official sponsor of the 2012 Summer Olympics, July 27 through August 12, but it is seeking to capitalize on the Games indirectly. When the Team USA men's basketball team is playing, the Jordan brand will include spontaneous real-time comments about the game in its promoted tweets. These Twitter ads will also contain pre-planned brand content and links.

AKQA, Big Spaceship, Razorfish, Team Detroit, UM and Y&R.

Mayonnaise brand Hellmann's and ad agency CUBOCC worked together to create WhatsCook, a live recipe service that lets users chat with real chefs or an expert cooking team and learn how to prepare meals in real time using the WhatsApp chat. Users just have to send their number via WhatsCook's website and a specialized cooking team gets in touch with them to find out when they need help with. After setting a schedule they can then chat via WhatsApp and start cooking.

Mitchell says three main things have emerged over the past few years. First, while simply soliciting Likes for chances at a sweepstakes win was once enough to grab users' attention, that no longer flies. "Now they want an experience that's rich unto itself," he says. "They don't want to interact with this app because of a .001% of chance of winning something, but because it's fun and something they want to share." But that doesn't mean adding unnecessary layers of complication; the second thing the Movement team has found is that simple apps perform the best with fans. Especially on Facebook, where a friend's photo album or potential paramour's profile are just a click away, too much clutter without a simple call to action can kill engagement. The third key: plan for mobile, even if it means just a page letting smartphone users know the app isn't mobile compatible.

combines google search power with yahoos content and services... shocking to think they are teaming up in some capacity at least to me daily 7.27

Google teaming up with Citigroup and Mastercard to roll out NFC payment capabilities- involves syncing up the credit card companies apps. will give google access to consumers digital shopping cart information (something that PayPal doesnt get. Google will play a similar role to what PayPal does now- it will be a third party entity)

"To accomplish the 5.9 percent error rate, which beats a 6.3 percent record set just last month, the Microsoft team leveraged neural language models resembling associative word clouds. That is, a word like "fast" resides much closer to "fast" than it does to "slow". This allowed the speech recognition engine to generalize between words and better recognize them in context. "

""With YouTube external annotations, we're trying to make it a very seamless process," said Lisa Green, industry director at Google. "If while you're watching it, you see something you really want, you can click... We've allowed the user to make the decision to make the purchase" in the video. The beta feature is available to all existing clients, although Google won't disclose how many advertisers have shown interest or signed up thus far. Juicy Couture, one of the first brands to adopt the shoppable feature, released a new video directed by Terry Richardson featuring Candice Swanepoel at the famed Chateau Marmont hotel. The fashion label features nineteen different products in the second video. YouTube's shoppable video ads will display a shaded rectangle in the middle of the screen whenever a product appears. When a user rolls over that embedded video link, the product name is displayed with a link to the purchase page. Google's product and sales teams are working with advertisers to bring these new ads into their videos on YouTube, Green said."

"Walmart began recruiting top Silicon Valley talent and acquiring start-ups last year. For instance, Walmart acquired Kosmix, a company that specializes in making web design more seamless, for $300 million. That team has been working for over a year to fix Walmart's systems and improve its website.  Walmart is investing in the "social gifting" market. A year ago, Walmart launched "Shopycat," which makes gift recommendations based on friends' Facebook profiles. The site is now called "Walmart Gifts" and allows customers to log in and get personalized recommendations based on Facebook and Twitter profiles.  The retailer got a better search engine. A dozen top engineers took 10 months to build it, and while the company won't discuss sales figures, they said the new system is more user-friendly. "If you search for cotton socks now, you'll actually find them," Manjoo writes.  Walmart is trying to lead the charge in same-day shipping. Its at an advantage considering that 96 percent of Americans live within 20 miles of a Walmart.  Walmart is investing like crazy in its mobile app. "Walmart imagines that as you go through an average day, you'll remember things you need--milk, bread, a new tennis racquet, a toy truck for your nephew's birthday--and tell the voice-enabled Walmart app. The app will list each item's location inside your local Walmart and include product info; eventually, it will also learn your preferences and offer recommendations. And once you're actually in the store, you'll be able to summon an associate to help you," Manjoo says. "

Microsoft Research Cambridge team built an augmented reality system to help brain surgeons visualize 3D brain scans.

With today's relaunch on iOS, the app offers a few more features - it has added support for "predictive March Madness" via its sports tile button, for example, and it can also alert you to nearby events and important occasions, like birthdays, as well as those from your own calendar. There are more news sources and sports teams available in the app, too, and you can better personalize your notifications.

Foursquare has teamed up with Visa and Mastercard to expand its check-in deals service that lets users earn better specials at more locations.

"Using the researchers' technique cuts that to 0.4 millijoules - a 99.96 percent cut. The team believes that the dramatic improvement in efficiency will lead to new services based on continuous GPS logging; for example, building a database of noise pollution levels in a given city, or getting tailored directions or search results based on the routes you most commonly drive."