"The amateur iPhoneographer demographic is huge - there are far more iPhone 4S, iPhone 4 and iPhone 5 users in the world than had already joined Foap. But the founders also wanted to keep it iPhone only. So the founding pair decided to create a greater incentive for Foap's army of iPhoneographers to get their friends to join the community too: by offering commission.
Every photo license on Foap costs $10. For every one sold, the photographer gets $5, while Foap keeps $5. But now, if you invite a friend, you get 10 percent of each of their photos that are sold. Your newly invited friend the photographer still gets their $5, though - your 10 percent "commission" comes out of Foap's take."
"While at least Life-magazine-killer TV has served as a platform for the creation of some great artworks (HBO's "The Wire," created by newspaperman-turned-TV-auteur David Simon, comes to mind) and inspired the creation of new art forms (see the upcoming Smithsonian retrospective of the work of "father of video art" Nam June Paik), it's hard to imagine what of lasting value hot web-native media brands like Gawker and BuzzFeed are contributing to visual culture and art history.
Which brings me to an email I got last Wednesday from Gawker promoting its "top story" of Dec. 5., titled "The 13 Most Powerful Images of Naked Celebrities of 2012," which quickly racked up more than a million page views. It was a sequel to a Gawker post from the previous day titled "The 19 Most Powerful Images of 2012," which was mostly a shameless, edited-down rip-off of a BuzzFeed post titled "The 45 Most Powerful Images Of 2012," consisting of intense wire-service photojournalism from Reuters, the AP, Getty and others, which derive most of their support from old-school print-centric publications around the world. Gawker's excuse for its act of, uh, curation: "Who has time to scroll through 45 pictures?""
"In the case of Electiongrams, NBC is relying on a start-up called Chute that provides back-end tools for large-scale photo management to brands and large media companies. Chute helps its clients pull in photos that people share through email or sites like Facebook, but also offers human and automated moderating tools."
Even if we have the best intentions for keeping in contact with old friends, former colleagues and random acquaintances, as our social networks grow, it can be hard to follow through. Here are five apps that try to make it a little easier.
According to Deadline, three different endings were filmed for this Monday's Hawaii Five-0, each featuring the reveal of a different killer.
During the live broadcasts (both East Coast and West Coast), viewers will be encouraged to vote for whodunit via Twitter or the official CBS site - the winning ending for each broadcast will be aired in real-time. This could, at least in theory, lead to CBS airing a different ending in New York than in Los Angeles.
Shopster that uses the geo-location services in the iPhone (or iPad or iPod touch) to not only keep track of where you frequently buy your groceries, but what you buy at which store. Then it can notify you when you're near those locations and what you might possibly need to run in and grab.
Cody also acts as a kind of virtual coach. When users first load the app, they're asked to identify their goals - from losing weight to building muscle tone to de-stressing. For now, the app just surfaces original content about workouts, healthy living and other topics that match up with those goals. But, ultimately, Javid said, the plan is for Cody to learn from users' activity and recommend articles, workouts, people or places that fit their interests. In time, he added, the app could integrate with fitness tracking devices to get an even more comprehensive view of each user.
