lalawag

Google Instant: Get the Wrong Search Result … Faster!

Akela Talamasca — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 20:03:21 +0000

Yesterday, the Twittercircle of Prosperity was all abuzz with wild speculation over Google’s newest homepage logo, which was composed of a series of dots that reacted violently to the approach of the cursor. Such incisive commentary as “pretty”, “this is awesome”, and “I’m trippin’ balls, man!” floated about, while tech industry thought leaders nodded wisely and stroked their beards. Myself, I had seen enough of this sort of reaction whenever I’d wander into the girls’ locker room in high school, so I remained unimpressed.

However, many pundits seemed to agree that whatever was going on would be cleared up at Google’s then-impending event, scheduled for the following Wednesday. Little clues were dropped by Google’s official Twitter feed — “Our doodle is dressing up in its brightest colors for something exciting coming very soon … ” and “Boisterous doodle today. Maybe it’s excited about the week ahead … ” promising something exciting in the works. I don’t know about you, but the idea of a sentient and excited “doodle” is fairly alarming. I’m fairly alarmed here.

Sure enough, today witnessed the unveiling of “Google Instant”, an update to the existing powerful search engine. What’s the big deal, you ask? “Instant” purports to deliver the search result you want before you even finish typing it! So … yay?

Now, don’t get me wrong (unless you’re going to pay me well for it, in which case you can get me any way you want me, tiger, rawr), I’m a fan of both progress and technology — which are not necessarily the same thing. Just ask Michael Crichton. The idea of a faster Google search is intriguing, but I wasn’t exactly pining away for celerity in the first place. When was the last time you had to wait more than a few seconds for a result? Correct me if I’m wrong, but the only time speed really matters is when lives are on the line, and chances are you’re not going to be doing a search for “How to stop a charging rhino” or “How to reattach your own head”. And if you are, I’m never going on vacation with you ever again, Mr. Grylls.

No, what I’m after is better results for my search term. More often than not, Google offers me a lot of exactly the wrong suggestions. They’re nice, but in the immortal words of Nicholas Cage, “Is it Ka’a'awa or Ka’a'a’awa?” However, I do appreciate that when typing in “kaaaa”, Google offers me no less than five different versions of “Khaaaaaaan!” But wait, look: Google Instant is live right now! Let’s play with it and see what it does! *snaps on surgeons’ gloves* Bend over and cough. Let’s commit some science.

Now, one of the claims made by the Googleoids is that Instant can predict what you’re searching for. So let’s start typing “a”: “amazon”, “aol”, “apple”, “att” pop up. Not what I want. Keep going with “ak”: “ako”, “akc”, “akamai”. Still not right. “Ake” gives us “akeena solar”, “akea”, “akebono”. “Akel” displays “akela”. AT LAST. However, it takes typing “akela tal” to get to my name. So I wouldn’t call Instant “predictive”, necessarily.

How does it do on speed? Not too bad, but if you’re going to call yourself “Instant”, a pause of a full second just ain’t gonna cut it. But whatever, this is Web 2.0; we have to expect this sort of thing. However, I’ve noticed something interesting. When I type “goats”, the little fuzzy critters pop up. When I complete it with “goatse”, Google Instant offers no results whatsoever. It isn’t until I hit the Enter key that the usual horrors appear. And this is with SafeSearch disabled. What’s up, Google? Chocolate rain? It’s in there, at “choco”. Double rainbow guy? Found after typing “dou”. Ah, but “2 girls” also gives me nothing until I hit Enter. I think I’m onto something … or maybe just on something.

Why does Instant not want to display famous NSFW memes? It’s not as though you can’t get at them by the traditional means, though it kills me to have to use the word “traditional” in this context. Here’s a fun bit of homework for y’all: try to get Instant to recommend the nastiest thing you can think of, and note the result. Let me know what you come up with in the comments below. Dammit, the people need their filth, faster! These vinyl-clad Dwarf hamsters aren’t going to … do … something … by themselves! They need direction, something new. I hate to break it to you, Google, but the Internet is for porn. And if you can’t give us the right porn fast enough, then let me give you another word that people think of when they hear the word “instant”: Bing!

Apple Redefines Conspicuous Consumption

Akela Talamasca — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 15:00:28 +0000

Apple, baby, why you gotta make me hate you? This is the second time I’m writing about you on Lalawag. That means that you make up 66% of my total content on this site! Dammit, Apple, isn’t 33% ENOUGH? *cries*

This past Wednesday — what the Danes call “yesterday” — Steve Jobs took the stage in shockingly aberrant attire (no turtleneck? it’s the apocalypse!) to announce a veritable slew of new products, designed to make strong men weep from desire and women go damp at the mere mention of iAnything. Only Steve-O could have the temerity in this economy to boast that Apple has 300 stores open worldwide, that they’ve shipped 120 million iOS devices, and sold 67 frillion songs through iTunes. Just once I’d like someone to hijack the visual presentation with shots of underfed children in Africa. “Oh, and One More Thing … try to feel good about Lady Gaga’s new outfit now.”

Do I own an iPod? Never mind that, let’s move on.

We will now go over what The Steve revealed. Take notes; there will be a quiz at the end of this post.

iOS 4.1

• High Dynamic Range photography! Those beer pong photos are SICK, bro.

• Game Center debuted, marking the point in history that non-gamers realized with dawning horror that there is a wider world out there that they never even dared to dread. A world filled with noobs, griefers, and teh 1337. You won’t be able to enjoy Flight Control for two minutes before receiving a challenge from XxXsmokeDog420XxX to play Blood Drinking Hell Guys. And if you don’t accept, everyone on Game Center will know you’re not uber! All you wanted was a little time with Plants vs. Zombies and instead received hot, steaming shame!

• Having said that, however, “Project Sword” does look amazing, I dunno.

iOS 4.2

• Is better than 4.1! Is one more! This is notable to iPad owners for containing the functionality that should have been present at launch, but wasn’t for some reason. Apparently even Steve-O can’t crack the whip hard enough sometimes.

New iPods

• Why is everyone applauding that Apple sold 275 squidillion iPods? Is Jobs going to give us all a cut? I love that man.

• New iPod Shuffle: Yo, it’s got BUTTONS, yo!

• New iPod Nano: Dude, what? A CLIP? My iCup runneth the hell over!

• New iPod Touch: It’s an iPhone without the Phone! Which, frankly, is enough to sell me. And I may be mistaken, but I could swear I heard the president of AT&T wince when this comparison was made. It was like that moment in the Simpsons when Bart and Lisa are watching video of Ralph Wiggum’s heart breaking in slow motion. “But Steve choo-choo-choosed me!”

iTunes 10

• New logo openly disses archaic CD format. “BRING IT” says non-sentient collection of pixels. Not since Pachelbel has musical notation been so … so edgy.

• Ping: what is it? It’s Apple’s new way to make Google searches confusing.

It’s also their new social media service that purports to connect everyone in iTunes to each other, making it easy to discover new music, follow musicians to find out what they’re up to, and broadcast to the world your shameful love of Air Supply. If this results in even more people telling each other to “Ping me!” then I will have to axe murder everyone I know.

New Apple TV

• We’ve talked about this, and now it’s true: $0.99 TV show rentals. While I still can’t quite wrap my head around this one, apparently these shows will be commercial-free, which runs directly against my hope/prediction in my previous post on the subject. Listen, Big Media Companies, I get that you’re scared. You’re seeing your carefully-built empires beginning to crumble under the onslaught of the Internet. Let’s face it: people want to experience content in new ways now, and you’re just not equipped to handle that.

But I’ve said this before, and here it is again: If anyone can make this work, it’s probably Apple. Apple can make people want things that they know are stupid (Buttons! Clips! Ping me – AAARGH). So if Steve-O says “No more ads”, go with it. I know it goes against everything you have grown up believing, but a metric fuck-ton of your audience hatehatehates commercials. Give it a try. I both hope and fear that you’ll be surprised.

• Bullet points are fun.

So that was the Apple event this past September 1^st, 2010. iHope it boggled you as much as it has me. Give me your comments below and let me know what you think, pro and anti. Oh, and the quiz I threatened. Q: Which of the announced products does Akela want? A: All of them.

I’m weak, people. Weak.

Digg Relaunch Finally Relaunches

Michael Arcand — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 21:47:54 +0000

Digg announced they were redesigning the site back in May when they invited some users to participate in the beta test of the new features. Today, this redesign has finally been rolled out to the public so we can all check it out. Here’s what you need to know about the new features on Digg.

At first glance, it looks like it hasn’t changed that much. However, you will notice the new default home page when you log in is the My News tab. This new section allows you to customize the stories that you see, from main news sources to your friends on Digg. More importantly, Digg now easily connects to your friends Twitter, Facebook, and Google accounts to integrate them into your My News tab. The more popular a story is with your friends, the better chance it has of appearing on the page, with the top stories from your friends in the right-hand sidebar, below the advertising block. For those of you who are fans of the old school Digg layout, never fear. The basics from the old home page layout are still accessible from the Top News tab.

Another interesting feature that Digg has is the integration with publishers to auto submit content from their site. By setting up a publisher account, websites can submit their content via RSS feed. This means that users no longer have to submit content manually, if the website is using this new feature. Manual submissions are still around for sites that aren’t using a publisher account, but they are much simpler. Images and descriptions are automatically added to the submission. This is great, as it will save time when submitting your favorite content.

You can of course follow lalawag on digg at http://digg.com/lalawag

/via Digg Blog

Apple To Get All Up In Hulu’s Grill

Akela Talamasca — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 15:00:02 +0000

So, here’s what I love about Apple (y’know, since you asked): they’re brazen. They just don’t give an iFork what you think; they’re going to do whatever the hell they wanna do and hope their adoring public makes it a success. And the craziest part is, it works, nine times out of ten. So that’s what my mindset always is whenever I hear anything having to do with Steve-O’s favorite company. No matter how ridiculous the story, I’m willing to humor it, because it’s Apple.

To wit: Apple is in talks with major TV companies to offer a show rental service. This would put them in direct competition with Hulu, but with the usual Apple twist: instead of a monthly fee, you’d rent episodes for $0.99. Are users ready to pay the same amount of money that buys them a song they can keep forever, for the ability to watch a show within a 48-hour time span? Before you answer, let me remind you: this is Apple we’re talking about. See my previous paragraph. Now how much would you pay? Currently “in advanced talks” with Apple is News Corp., which is the company that holds Fox. CBS, NBC, and Disney are also considering the service.

I imagine these high-level talks go something like this: “So instead of putting our shows on our sites for free, which forces us to eat the costs of hosting content that we don’t even get to directly recoup, you’re saying we can make money from them instead? I dunno, let me think about itSWEETSCREAMINGBUDDHAYESLET’SDOIT.” Then they all go out for ice cream. And by “ice cream” I mean “lap dances”.

Why this will be a success: a variant of the Stockholm Syndrome, by which captives begin to identify with their captors. It’s a guarantee that this service will only be available on an iDevice, at least until sales begin to flag, after which any 3G- or 4G-enabled thingy will have it. This means that it will be seen as a privilege to rent shows, because what, are you gonna NOT do the thing that everyone else is probably doing? Dude, I thought you were cool. I paid $50 to watch all my favorite shows this month, I don’t know what you’re watching. What? HULU? More like WHO CARES, amirite? Hahahahaha! Seriously, though, I need a loan, like whoa.

Here’s what I will pay $0.99 for:

That episode of Emergency! where the cute girl gets her toe stuck in the tub faucet
East Germany’s Most Disturbing Home Videos
Iron Chef: Prison Shower Edition
Any episode of Manimal
The Star Wars Holiday Special, just so I can show random passers-by how hilariously awful it was
Survivor: Stockton
Senate Subcommittee Smackdown 2: Electric Boogaloo

Apple, if you’re reading this, I have a request. Be like Hulu in this one regard: have your payment model and STILL force us to watch ads. I want to see just how far you can push things before we all come after you with pitchforks. Could even you get away with that? I dunno, but I’m dying to find out! Love, Akela

ExpressPark To Make Finding Parking Less Like Hell

Michael Arcand — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 19:39:01 +0000

How much time do you spend circling the block when you’re downtown looking for a parking spot before your next all important meeting? It gets more than annoying after a while, doesn’t it? Traffic analysis studies have shown that up to 30% of downtown metropolitan traffic is simply comprised of people looking for a place to park. Sounds kind of silly, doesn’t it?

Well, it just so happens that the L.A. Transportation Department is going to implement a solution to make your life a whole lot easier. The city of Los Angeles is working with the Caltrans and the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transporation Authority to install new meters in a 4.5 square mile area downtown next year. So what’s so special about this project? Well, for starters, these meters won’t just take cash. These bad boys will also take your credit card. I guess that’s one way to stop the meter from expiring.

Even more interesting than a meter that can take your plastic, they are going to install wireless pavement sensors to record parking space data. Then, based on the traffic and parking data, pricing for parking spaces can be adjusted month-to-month, based on supply and demand. City officials promise that the rates won’t go up after you’ve parked, and that the monthly adjustment will amount to no more than 50 percent up or down at any given adjustment period. Sounds like a fair way to do business, doesn’t it?

The only thing I can’t figure out is how they think this will stop vandalism of parking meters. According to the technicians who repair the current meters, vandalism is an out-of-control problem that just won’t go away. I would think that more sophisticated meters would only be more susceptible to vandalism than previous models. I guess we’ll find out next year.

The program is slated to kick off next summer. Current rates for downtown parking meters range from $1 to $4. The city collected $33 million from parking meters last year. It’s not clear if the new program will result in less or more revenue from the meters, but apparently that’s not the goal.

“What we’re striving for is pricing such that 85% of meters are occupied and 15% are open.” – Peer Ghent, Senior Management Analyst, LADOT

So there you have it. The future of parking meter pricing is based on supply and demand and payable with credit. Welcome to 21st century parking, L.A. style.

Previously on lalawag:

Adam Bain Flies the Coop on FAN, Lands at Twitter

Michael Arcand — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 21:01:25 +0000

Twitter has been on a hiring spree lately, and their latest big catch is Adam Bain, formerly the President of the Fox Audience Network, where he was overseeing the monetization for MySpace, IGN and other News Corp. digital outlets. With this switch in employment, Bain will become the President, Revenue over at Twitter, reporting directly to Dick Costolo, COO of the company.

Bain has an excellent track record of monetizing online digital properties. According to sources reporting to TechCrunch, News Corps.’ self-service advertisements are generating hundreds of millions in annual revenue for the company. There was even a plan in the works to spin-off the Audience Network into a separate entity, but the deal never came through.

Now, Bain will get a chance to build another digital property into a profitable revenue stream. While Twitter has already set up a couple of small advertising programs thus far, the company has plans to ramp up revenue – and quickly.

It’s Easier Than Ever To Stalk Someone With Facebook Places

Akela Talamasca — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 16:30:34 +0000

Facebook announced its newest service this past Wednesday, and I’ve started a pool to see how long it will be before it’s implicated in a murder spree. It’s called “Places”, and it’s not at all an attempt to cash in on the popularity of Foursquare.

Places lets you visit a … let’s call it a place – the all-night pachinko den, local happy endings massage parlor, Billy’s Moist Pillow Gazebo, what have you — and tell the whole Facebook-using world about it. ‘Cause what better way to destroy the ambiance of that little mom ‘n’ pop joint that only you know about? Broadcasting your location is the best method I know to say “NOTICE ME, ARBITRARY AND UNCARING UNIVERSE! I’M SIGNIFICANT!”

But it gets better. If you choose to hit up the local coffee shop and “check in”, your name will be added to the “People Here Now” section of the app. Hey, remember that girl you slept with last week, and how you said you’d call her, and you never did? Check it out: she’s in the coffee shop with you right now. Don’t look around! Maybe she hasn’t checked her iPhone yet! Where’s the bathroom? Can you crawl out the window? Dammit, when will this venti chai latte get here, already?

And in case none of this sounds out of control enough, it turns out that your friends can check you in themselves, which I’m thinking will lead to a lot of utterances of “Oops, sorry dude”. Especially when you reveal that you blew off one group of friends to hang out with another, which you know you do, you bad person, what kind of friend are you?

Now, it’s rumored that Places will be integrating with Foursquare somehow, sometime, but I hope that’s unfounded. I want a good old-fashioned grudge match, like the kind Apple and Microsoft used to have back in The Day. Ol’ Bill’s kinda checked out these days, and Steve-O is too busy being egotistical and arrogant to care for that sort of thing anymore, so it’s up to technology’s young Turks to pick up where they left off. I wanna see Mark Zuckerberg and Dennis Crowley face(book)-off/(four)square off with their forearms tied together “Beat It” style, while Eddie Van Halen’s dessicated carcass wails on his axe in the background. And then it wouldn’t matter who’s checking in whom, because we’d all be there, placing bets on the winner for the hearts and minds of the free world!

Inception. In theaters near you.

Mindshare LA’s August 2010 Event

Michael Arcand — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 18:34:15 +0000

Join Mindshare LA tomorrow night as they break in their new digs at the Exchange LA, located downtown. So what is Mindshare LA, exactly?

Mindshare LA is a unique monthly event which draws a brilliant crowd seeking connections, experiences and exposure
to new ideas. The program, the atmosphere, and the attendees make this monthly get together something you don’t want to miss. In fact, it has even been called “enlightened debauchery,” so you know it’s more than a boring meet-and-greet!

This month’s program includes neuroeconomist Paul Zak; Micki Krimmel, founder of NeighborGoods.net; representatives from the Pedal Patch Community; and the creators of Axe Cop. Music will be provided by Philadelphia-based DJ Jacob Henry. Interactive installations will also be in place from the UCSB Media Arts & Technology Program.

Don’t leave after the program, because that’s when the after program breakout sessions will take place!

Oh yeah, and don’t forget about the COMPLIMENTARY VODKA DRINK SPECIALS provided by Mindshare LA partners Pama and IZZE.

When:
Thursday, August 19, 2010 at 7:00 PM

Where:
Exchange LA
618 S. Spring St.
Los Angeles, CA 90014

Tickets:
Available Online

Previously on lalawag:

Media Leaders L.A. Networking Event

Michael Arcand — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 19:51:05 +0000

A local networking event will be taking place tomorrow night in Santa Monica, at the Bodega wine bar at Lincoln and Broadway. The event is being hosted by Social Media Leaders, and will provide you with a great opportunity to discuss current trends and events as well as new and innovative ideas in social media. Bring your business cards and join a group of marketing, advertising, PR, and technology leaders. These are the influencers in the field and this is your opportunity to exchange ideas and make connections that can take your idea to the next level.

Details:

Where: Bodega Wine Bar Santa Monica
814 Broadway (at Lincoln) Santa Monica, CA 90401

When: Wed. August 18th @ 6:30-9:30pm

Who: See who’s attending

Enjoy the drink discounts just for Media Leaders (6:30-7PM) Don’t be late!: $3 beers | $6 glasses of wine | Andrew Jackson $20 a bottle all night long!

Official RSVP Here

Twitter Get Its Own Retweet Button

Michael Arcand — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 17:58:17 +0000

Twitter is one of the top used services on the web. It’s like having your finger on the pulse of day-to-day trends and Internet memes. Media sites have been tapping into Twitter to spread the word about their latest blog post or news articles for months via TweetMeme. Today Twitter announced that they would be launching their own button that can be implemented on practically any website, allowing readers to re-tweet a story to their followers directly from the site.

So what is the difference between this and what TweetMeme has been doing all this time? First, it seems to mirror other sites like Facebook, in that it allows you to edit the tweet before it goes out instead of just tweeting the title and link for you. Secondly, after a successful re-tweet, you could be sent to a page of suggested users to follow. But instead of this being a Twitter-generated list, it’s actually a list generated by the website you’ve been visiting. That’s an interesting concept, to say the least. Technically, this feature is being produced in partnership with TweetMeme, so all TweetMeme buttons are now redirecting to the new Twitter feature rather than their own redirect URL.

The Twitter button blog post lists almost 30 websites that have already implemented this new feature, along with information on how to get your site on board. Check out the video presentation below and see what you think.

(As you can see, we’re already on board!)

Geek Rap: Killa Appz

Sean Percival — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 03:54:38 +0000

It’s hard to find a good developer, especially here in Los Angeles. Turns out I’ve been looking in the wrong places all this time. You know places like job boards and behind the local CVS pharmacy. Yes it appears that YouTube is actually a better place to find a great dev as proven here by MC Dave Berzack.

If you want to hire this guy check out his portfolio.

This Week In Events: August 9 – 13

Michael Arcand — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 19:44:26 +0000

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Collecta Comes to L.A.: Collecta is moving to L.A.! Since their entire team will be in town on tomorrow, they are throwing a meet and greet, and you’re invited, since you real lalawag. ;-)

They haven’t got their new digs set up yet, so they are currently working out of the Coloft in Santa Monica. RSVPs are requested to help them guesstimate how many people are going to show up, but if you don’t get around to sending an RSVP, that shouldn’t stop you from going!

Time: 6:30 p.m.

Location:
CoLoft
920 Santa Monica Blvd
Santa Monica, Ca 90401

Tickets: RSVP

Thursday, August 12, 2010

#140conf Los Angeles Summer Cocktail Party: Hosted drinks by #140conf & Whrrl, this is the event before the event. Come out and meet the people behind one of the top social networking conferences of the year.

Time: 7:00 p.m.

Location:
The Den of Hollywood
8226 W Sunset Blvd
West Hollywood, CA 90046-2414

Tickets: Registration

Thursday, August 12-13, 2010

Perseids Meteor Shower: This is one of the most famous meteor showers, responsible for the majority of meteor sightings by everyday people (non-astronomy geeks). The peak is after midnight on the 11th and will run through the night of the 12th. The Perseids in particular are known to produce up to 50 meteors or more per hour, which makes it one of the best showers of the year.

Time: Between midnight and dawn

Location: The Skies of the World (near the constellation Perseus)

Tickets: None needed! But you can still network with others and share your experience.

Valley Investors Look to Southern California

Michael Arcand — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 15:58:38 +0000

Yep, you read that right. The word on the street is that Silicon Valley investors aren’t as beholden to the tech mecca as they used to be. It seems that less than 10% of VCs living in the valley intend to actually invest there, at least according to the latest Pepperdine Capital Markets Survey. In fact, over 17% named Southern California as the number one area where they expect to invest over the next year. Also of interest is the fact that over 40% of all VC firms in the survey said they are raising money now or will be in the next year.

So what does this mean for lalaland? It means that opportunities should be opening up over the next year for startup firms looking for VC funding in LA, Santa Monica, and the SoCal area in general. So don’t be afraid to put yourself out there! It’s time to attend some mixers and get to know people in the know. Keep your eyes on this space and we’ll keep you posted to upcoming networking events in the SoCal area.

The Human Body in HTML and PHP

Sean Percival — Sun, 08 Aug 2010 19:49:38 +0000

A little weekend geeky fun for you in the form of the human body in HTML and PHP code. I don’t know about you but I love it when my private.php gets included.

/via Inquisitr

Demand Media Files For Its IPO

Michael Arcand — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 23:20:35 +0000

Just in time for your reading pleasure, local Santa Monica company Demand Media has filed its S-1 with the SEC. First off, CEO Richard Rosenblatt and his team should be congratulated on making it to the IPO stage. There are plenty of startups out there who will never even get off the ground far enough to contemplate an IPO.

However, there has been some concern over the fact that the Demand Media business isn’t profitable, at least not yet. This is the first look into the finances that anyone outside of the company has had, so it lays open to inspection some of the issues that the company may be experiencing.

First off, last years revenues of $198 million still resulted in a loss of $22 million overall. So far this year, the numbers aren’t looking much better: $6 million in losses with $108 million in revenue (through June of this year). Although Demand Media is probably best known for its content generation for such sites as eHow.com, that isn’t where it gets the bulk of its revenues from. It seems that its domain registration business, eNom, accounts for 44 percent of the revenue so far this year.

There is still a lot of information missing from this initial filing, such as how much money the company intends to raise and what it has in mind for a starting price on its stock. We do know that the company has received $335 million in funding to date, since its inception in 2006.

Finally, I’ll close with this clip of Demand Media’s founder and CEO describing their business model:

Apple Quietly Enables Streaming in Latest iDisk Update

Michael Arcand — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 20:24:20 +0000

Apple’s usual M.O. for launching anything significant is to talk it up before the launch, either at its own press conference or during another major press conference for another project. This time, they did nothing of the sort. And I think we all know why. Can you say DRM? How about DMCA?

So here’s the scoop. An iDisk software update (v. 1.2) just got pushed out. While it has an impressive list of features, there’s something that has been added that isn’t actually listed in the features. Call it an Easter egg, a bonus feature, or any other name you want; it’s still the same thing. Here’s what it amounts to: streaming and sharing music from iDisk. Yes, you heard me right. Just think about all the digital rights lawyers who are flipping out right about now.

If you’ve downloaded the new iDisk update, here’s how to find the hidden feature:

1. First things first. You will need to upload the music files you want to stream. iDisk doesn’t support syncing music files, so they will have to be added one at a time. Currently, playlists and cover art are not supported.

2. Access your iDisk on your computer or mobile device.

3. Look for the Music tab and select the file you want to stream.

4. The app can now be closed and will stream in the background (iOS 4).

5. You can enable sharing of your music files by clicking on the share files icon next to each track.

And there you have it, ladies and gentlemen. Apple is quietly testing the waters to see how far they can push the big music companies. This is sure to be challenged in court. We’ll have more as this story develops.

(Image Source: MichaelRobertson.com)

Previously on lalawag:

ITVFest: Who To Watch

Michael Arcand — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 17:35:56 +0000

The 2010 ITVFest kicks off this year with the red carpet gala tonight and opening day tomorrow, featuring some of the web series entries. The complete schedule for this years festival can be viewed and downloaded here. While there over 50 entries in this year’s competition, there are three that we think stick out above the rest. Check out the trailers below for Octane Pistols of Fury, 15 Minutes, and Illuminati Brothers. I think you’ll see why these are definitely ones to keep an eye on! Following the trailers is a complete listing of all entries for the main categories: Pilots, Web Series, and Web/Mobile.

It’s not to late to get tickets for the premiere independent television festival of 2010. Visit ITVFest.org for more information and to purchase your pass to ITVFest 2010.

Pilots:
15 Minutes
Axis
Birds of A Feather
Choir Boys Motorcycle Club
Deal O’Neal
Finding My Magic
Four Angry Men: Billion Dollar Blood Trail
Going To Pot
Illuminati Brothers
LA Manzana
Off Campus
Ogden: The Inappropriate Yoga Guy
Palisades Pool Party
Souvenirs
The Dojo
The Fall of Kaden
The Geniuses
The Hairdos
The Scottish Ninjas
The Wine Guy Unplugged with Anthony Gilardi
Treasure Coast
Twentysixmiles
We Are with the Band

Web Series:
A Good Knight’s Quest
Anyone But Me
Cell: The Web Series
Concierge: The Series
GOLD
Good Cop (Blank) Cop
Hamilton Carver: Zombie PI
Hot on the Red Carpet
Octane Pistols of Fury
Odd Jobs
Olga Kay’s Circus
PASSENGER
RHYME ANIMAL Web Series
SOLO – The Series
Squatters
Stoop Sale
Suck and Moan
The Ballad of Mary and Ernie
The Super Man
The Temp Life
the_source
Time Traveling Finger

Web/Mobile:
Duncan & Me
Life Advice from Old People
Mother Approved – Phobias
Patrick and Molly and all the small things
Permanent Stakeout
Sometimesdaily Explorers
The Jon and Eddie Show
Quick Tip Couple

Meet Jesse Draper, The Valley Girl

Michael Arcand — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 18:36:26 +0000

We had the chance recently to catch up via email with Jesse Draper, host of the hit web show, The Valley Girl, and we asked her a few questions about how she got started, what’s going on now, and what the future holds. Enjoy the interview and check out the minisode interview with Ted Turner afterwards!

1. What got you started in acting to begin with?
I knew I wanted to be an actress ever since I starred in “Chicken Little” in Miss Neigh’s first grade class at Oak Knoll School in Menlo Park, California. Haha. When I was little I always wanted to be an actress like my Aunt Polly. She’s an actress and I’ve always looked up to her. She’s one of my best friends and has always mentored me in terms of my acting career. She helped me prepare for my UCLA theater school audition. Even throughout college, I would call her and say, “Polly, I need a 15 minute monologue by tomorrow!” and she would either find me something or write me something. I felt really lucky to have such a great mentor and friend. She’s an incredible actress and I hope to have even half of the career she has!

2. Growing up in Silicon Valley, were you exposed to a lot of important business people, trend-setters?
I have to say I feel oddly comfortable in a room of suits. I did grow up around a lot of entrepreneurs that I have seen become huge successes. Because I grew up in Silicon Valley with a Dad who is in the technology business, I was definitely exposed to many of the latest trends in tech. As a kid, I was sometimes used to test various prototypes such as new computer games like Math Blaster or Gazillionaire Deluxe. I used Gazillionaire Deluxe to learn how the stock market works by selling alien goods to different planets and we also tested things like Skype and AIM. I feel like I had a cell phone pretty early on, and I was probably instant messaging before everyone else could say the word “Internet.” AOL was eye-opening to me. I am definitely a technology girl!

3. What made you decide to start The Valley Girl Web show?
Growing up in a business-oriented world, I looked up to these great entrepreneurs who were doing amazing things that I was always hearing about: the Google guys, Hotmail, Skype. I always wondered why there wasn’t a fun talk show for business people like “The Ellen DeGeneres Show.” After being in the entertainment industry for a few years, I soon learned that in order to be really successful as an actress, you have to do it all! You have to act, create, write and produce in order to control your career. I was the only actress who began attending production meetings when I was on Nickelodeon’s “The Naked Brother’s Band” to learn how a show was run. During hiatus after our second season, I started “The Valley Girl Show” and filmed a pilot season. Once we decided to call it “The Valley Girl Show” we sort of had to paint everything pink which has been GREAT for branding and there you have it!

4. Who has been your most difficult guest so far?
No one has actually been ‘difficult’. Everyone has a lot of fun on set. People write me emails afterwards telling that was the most fun they have ever had doing an interview. Ronnie Lott wrote me this email saying “You are gonna be a star!” The idea is to get the guests out of their typical routine interview and have them kick back a little. The show has been pretty successful in doing this. I have to say, there are things I do occasionally worry about beforehand like… “I hope that Elon Musk will eat escargot”…it turns out Elon really likes escargot! Or “Do you think Le Var Burton will be okay acting in a movie with me?” There is always the risk that they won’t do it, but we haven’t had a “No!” yet!

5. Who has been your most enjoyable guest so far?
So many come to mind! MC Hammer is just plain amazing and was so much fun on set! He just had a great attitude coming in and was ready for anything. Can’t touch MC Hammer! Elon Musk is one of my favorite entrepreneurs of all time and a personal hero, so that was a blast too. I’m always looking for great female entrepreneurs too. Someone who surprised me the most was Sinead Norenius who runs a social media inspired skin care line called Beautisol. It’s great to see rockin’ female entrepreneurs and she blew me away!

6. If you had to do everything all over again, is there anything you would change?
I have no regrets! And in terms of the show, I feel like I still have a way to go and I’m gonna take this thing all the way! There is still so much we haven’t done! I wouldn’t change a thing, we are ever-changing, ever-improving and “The Valley Girl Show” is something I built from scratch and it feels F—ING AWESOME that is has come this far. Why stop now? As long as no one stops designing pink inspired outfits, the show will go on! Does life get any better than doing what you love?!

7. Where do you see yourself in five years? Where do you want to be in your professional life?
In five years, I want to be known as an incredible entertainment entrepreneur and actress. I want to have created a worldwide approachable business and media brand with my business partner Jonathan Polenz starting with a talk show on network television. I want to be a role model for entrepreneurs and businessmen and women of all professions. I hope to encourage and inspire people everywhere to start their own company. I want to change the world!

8. Any time for a personal life? Are you single? (I’m sure there are a ton of single guys out there asking this question!)
I have a boyfriend who is absolutely incredible. I am not married and I am not looking to get married anytime soon. I’m a busy girl, I have too much to do first!

9. Who is the most important person in your life?
I never understand how people can answer this with one person. People shape people, not one person. If you know me, you know that my family and my friends are literally THE most important thing in my life. I would give the clothes off my back to any one of them. So here is what I am going to say; My family comes first and these are the most important people in my life; Mom and Dad! Adam, Billy, El! Coulter, Lisa, Nat, Alex, Aunt Becky, Grammy, Pops, Aunt Polly, Uncle Mike! Aunt I-Di! Brian! Kat, Kristin, Lisa, Lyndsey, Nisha, Ali, Mo, Gretchen, Alex, Kendall, You can’t do anything alone and I couldn’t do anything without the support of every single one of them.

10. Who has had the single biggest impact on your life, helping you to become who you are today?
My parents. Hands down.

The Valley Girl Premieres Next Week!

LAPD Security Concerns Delay Google Email System in L.A.

Michael Arcand — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 22:05:24 +0000

In an effort to lead the way in the creation of cloud computing applications, Google managed to swing a deal with the Los Angeles city council to provide cloud-based email services for all of the city’s 30,000 employees. However, there appears to be a snag in the implementation plan, as LAPD’s CIO Maggie Goodrich has expressed concerns over security protocols that have not been met by Google, which the department needs to protect sensitive police data. According to Goodrich, the conditions needed were set out from the beginning. Google just hasn’t delivered. Now past the June 30th deadline, the city is paying not only for the new, incomplete system, but also for the old system it has yet to migrate from. Although Google has agreed to pay the extra cost of the old system until November of this year, the cost could still run as much as an additional $400k over the next year.

It’s a shame that it has to come to this, considering the heated competition that Microsoft presented when the issue came to their attention last year. Despite their best efforts, the city council went the with cloud option that Google presented. Google now claims that they didn’t quite catch all the details in the requirements for the contract. So, this is your tax dollars at work, L.A.! What do you think of the Google pie-in-the-sky email debacle? Sounds to me like the city council should consider rescinding the agreement and offering Microsoft a go at it. After all, it doesn’t sound like things could get any worse.

Oh, and while you’re considering what you think, check out this promo video that Google is currently displaying on their government apps site:

Tuesday Morning Tech Roundup

ITVFest 2010 Schedule Announced

Michael Arcand — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 20:00:06 +0000

It’s just about time for the 5th annual Independent Television Festival (ITVFest), featuring the most diverse programming lineup to date. Come be a part of the independent television community and see independently produced television pilots and web series. There are over 50 selections this year, and attendees can also visit a variety of daily themed panels which go behind the scenes and see some of Hollywood’s leading voices talk about what it takes to produce an independent pilot or web series.

The event is being held at Laemmle’s Sunset 5, with the Opening Night Red Carpet Gala taking place on July 29th and the festival kicking off on Friday, July 30th and running through the following Thursday, August 5th, when the awards will be announced. If you’re involved in the independent television community, or if you aspire to produce your own pilot or web series, or even if you just want to see what this artistic community is all about, you need to make your way to the ITVFest. With some of Hollywood’s leaders there, this is one event you simply don’t want to miss. Tickets to ITVFest can be purchased online at ITVFest.org.

Below is the outline of the festival’s events as well as a detailed schedule listing (PDF):

July 29 (Thu) Opening Night Red Carpet
July 30 (Fri) Opening Day
July 31 (Sat) Development Day
Aug 1 (Sun) Production Pointers
Aug 2 (Mon) Web TV Day
Aug 3 (Tue) Branded Entertainment Day
Aug 4 (Wed) Interactive Day
Aug 5 (Thu) Pitch Day / Awards Ceremony

(Click on Full Screen below to view larger image)

ITVFest 2010 Schedule

The Valley Girl Premieres Next Week!

Michael Arcand — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 17:34:24 +0000

If you’ve never watched Jesse Draper‘s web show, The Valley Girl, you’re definitely missing out. Jesse’s show is a one-of-a-kind new media project that has been featured in the LA Times, San Jose Mercury News and even on NBC’s Press, just to name a few. The Valley Girl is becoming the web-based business version of The Ellen DeGeneres Show, with a flair of color and enthusiasm that only Jesse could bring to her interviews. Some of her past interviews have included Scott McNealy, founder of SUN Microsystems, Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla Motors, and Eric Schmidt of Google, just to name a few.

She’s kicking off this season on July 28th with an interview of none other than media mogul Ted Turner. What kind of questions will she get Turner to answer? You’ll have to tune in to find out! You can view previous episodes as well as catch the new season premiere on The Valley Girl website. In the meantime, check out the season three teaser below:

Meet Jesse Draper, The Valley Girl

Flipboard: The “Social Magazine” App

Michael Arcand — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 17:13:50 +0000

If you haven’t already heard, Flipboard is a new iPad app making waves in the Apple fanboy community. Okay, to be fair, it is a nice concept and has some very unique features that I appreciate. However, as Robert Scoble’s review points out, there are some negative aspects to this app as well. Here’s my take on Flipboard after playing around with it for a bit last night and this morning.

First, the good points. As everyone has been pointing out, this app integrates with your Facebook and Twitter accounts, but not like every other app out there. In fact, using a unique algorithm, it pulls in updates from the most active people you are following (hence the most engaging, in theory at least). The real kicker, however, is that videos and pictures are pulled right into the app, creating a magazine style appearance. Pictures are enlarged and clickable, and videos will play right there on the page, or can be expanded to full screen. It presents for a really nice and slick UI. Finally, you can add feeds and Twitter lists to the app, and customize the content that appears on the first page as the categories.

Now, for the downside. First off, there’s been so much hoopla over the app that I was experiencing trouble getting it to update my feeds instead of displaying a “No Content” error. It seems to be working okay today, but scalability might be an issue, despite recent funding to the tune of $10.5 million. Another negative for this app is twofold: some images and pictures just don’t look good when blown up for the magazine format. Finally, while this app might be okay for the average user, power users of Facebook and/or Twitter will be disappointed to find that there is no way to squeeze in a limited number of users instead of getting updates from thousands. Although the algorithm is set up to limit this, it’s not my choice of peeps. And while I did mention the ability to import a Twitter list as a main page category, only the first four lists are show as options. So, if you have more that four lists (as I do), you won’t be able to access all of them.

So that’s my two cents on the Flipboard app. Below is their promo video. Check it out. Download it for free. Tell us what you think.

Previously on lalawag:

Mysterious Take-down Notice Kills 70K+ Blogs At Once

Michael Arcand — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 17:05:33 +0000

It has only garnered a minor piece of mainstream action over on ReadWriteWeb, but there was a domain server that was taken down by the hosting company, BurstNET, reportedly at the request of a law enforcement agency:

“(Blogetery) was terminated by request of law enforcement officials, due to material hosted on the server. We are limited as to the details we can provide to you, but note that this was a critical matter and the only available option to us was to immediately deactivate the server.” – (Taken from Web Hosting discussion thread)

At first glance, this story appears very disconcerting for those concerned for the First Amendment amid the recent talk of an Internet “kill switch” to be implemented by Congress. However, a quick glance at the discussion thread shows the opinions of some that it must have been a very serious case for the mystery law enforcement agency to take down the entire server and give no information to the guy behind the domain. Apparently he has yet to receive a straight answer from BurstNET as to exactly why the server was taken down, leading some to speculate about everything from pirated movie and video links to child pornography. The bottom line, which seems to be the general consensus, is that the guy running the WordPress MU setup and offering free blog hosting is ultimately responsible for all of the content on his domain.

While I can certainly sympathize with the majority of folks who were doubtless innocent users of the Blogetery service, I would definitely hate to be in the shoes of the guy running the site. For now, your First Amendment rights are intact. But if you decide to write a blog, you’ll be better off sticking with a service you recognize, like Blogger.com or WordPress.com.

Previously on lalawag:

Apple Says: Antennagate is Overrated

Michael Arcand — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 18:04:34 +0000

So, Apple held a press conference this morning where Steve Jobs came prepared to address the iPhone 4 reception issues. There was a lot of speculation prior to the press conference about what Apple would do. Guesses ran the gamut from a full recall of the iPhone 4 to issuing simple bumper cases free to anyone who had a reception complaint. So what did Jobs have to say?

Jobs started out his sales pitch (I’m calling it that for lack of a better term) by demonstrating how other competitor smartphones experienced reduced reception when held normally in the hand, just like the iPhone 4. Do you see where he’s going with this yet? After demonstrating that the competition was no better, he moved on to compare the iPhone 4 to the iPhone 3GS, citing AT&T dropped call rates. According to AT&T, the iPhone 4 experiences only one additional dropped call per hundred over the 3GS.

Finally, Jobs gets around to addressing the “small number of users” affected by the dropped call problem. Citing the Consumer Reports article that says bumper cases solve the problem, Apple is going to offer a selection of cases (they can’t make enough bumpers for everyone to have one – over three million iPhone 4s already sold) on the website starting next week, which they will ship to anyone owning an iPhone 4. In addition, the offer of a full refund is still open, up to 30 days after purchase, as long as the phone isn’t damaged. That about sums up the response to antennagate.

Other announcements of interest from the press conference include:

White iPhone 4 to ship in July
Proximity sensor problems are being worked on
July 30th, iPhone 4 goes to 17 more countries

In closing, Jobs says over and over again that they do what they do because “We love our users.” Really, Steve? So what took you so long to admit there was a real problem instead of trying to pass this off as a software issue? Sounds to me like Steve Jobs is trying to kiss some ass in order to save face. Will it work? Sure it will. After all, Apple has the most devoted fanboys in the industry.

(Image Source: Engadget)

Old Spice Owns The Internet

Laurie Percival — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 19:34:10 +0000

If you haven’t been keeping up with the recent Old Spice marketing campaign you are seriously missing out. It started with a few hilarious commercials in which the actor tells you about how awesome he is and if your man wore old spice he too could smell good and be awesome. Some buzz was created about the commercials and then probably forgotten. A follow-up commercial came out and yesterday the Twitter account for @OldSpice started answering users tweets with video replies.

See this is how you do it right people, follow through. All day yesterday and today my stream has been full of tweets trying to get the attention of the Old Spice account to answer them with a video like the ones below.

To Kevin Pereira of Attack of the Show on G4 (@kpereira)

To Jim Alden @TechFrog

To Peter Shankman @skydiver

So what do you think of the marketing campaign? Will it inspire you to go out and buy Old Spice? Personally, if my man didn’t already wear Old Spice I would buy it for him. Wearing it makes him automatically better than you and have magical abs that appear with no work. Plus he can do a real Swan Dive.

Previously on lalawag:

Can Apple Face an iPhone 4 Recall?

Michael Arcand — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 19:17:10 +0000

From the first day out of the chute, Apple’s new iPhone 4 has faced the harshest criticism of any previous versions of the smartphone: accusations of a hardware design flaw. With many left-handed people reporting not just signal loss but actually dropped calls, the special antenna system so highly touted by Steve Jobs during the phone’s unveiling has come under scrutiny. Apple muddied the waters by claiming the issues were caused by software improperly calculating the AT&T signal strength and have indicated they are working on a fix.

All fine and dandy, until Consumer Reports up and confirms that the issue is definitely hardware related and not just in people’s heads. Then, among mounting criticisms on their own support forums, Apple pulls the plugs on several discussion threads that are critical of the new phone’s antenna system. So far, Apple is 0 for 2, and yes, we’re all counting.

Finally, Cult of Mac is reporting that various PR experts are claiming that Apple will have no recourse but to issue a full recall on the iPhone 4 model because of the poorly designed and functioning antenna system. So, will Apple end up having to face the music and pull the iPhone 4 from the market? Could they get by with issuing bumpers on request to all who want one for their new phones? Whatever they decide to do, they better do it quick. Word is spreading like wildfire, and combined with the fact that they’ve been losing mobile OS market share for the past two quarters, it’s not a good position for them to be in.

California Launches State News Aggregator

Michael Arcand — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 22:25:30 +0000

The state of California isn’t playing around when it comes to news resources on the Internet. They’ve launched a news aggregator website that takes information from 83 Twitter accounts, 40 YouTube channels and nearly 100 RSS feeds and pulls it all together in one news portal for the state. The new website, News.CA.gov, was launched last week by state CIO Terry Takai as an extension of the state’s current web portal, which gets more than 7.3 million unique visitors each month. According to Takai, Governor Schwarzenegger is fully behind the project:

Governor Schwarzenegger is committed to increasing transparency and citizen engagement, to keep Californians informed of all that is happening with their state government. The State is publishing a vast amount of news and information every day. With social networking sites and automated information feeds, state agencies are making it easier for news to reach the public. We have taken the additional step of creating this continuously updated news hub, a one stop destination for Californians to see what is happening in state government — all at a glance.

The site officially launched on June 2, 2010, with a new mobile version along with 40 apps designed specifically for smart phones. It also includes searchable maps, data on state parks, public schools, universities, libraries and more. Overall, the CA.gov website includes over 76k web-based services, which includes over 700 transaction-based services provided by state agencies.

Prince Hates the Internet

Michael Arcand — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 00:14:55 +0000

In what can only be described as a truly bizarre interview granted by Prince, the artist who used to be known as a symbolic image, he has stated his extreme dislike for the Internet, and indeed, all things technical. I’m sure this doesn’t apply to his magical sound producing electronics, just the ones that everyday people like you and I use.

In the exclusive interview given to the Daily Mirror’s Peter Willis, Prince actually says that the Internet is over:

The Internet’s completely over. I don’t see why I should give my new music to iTunes or anyone else. They won’t pay me an advance for it and then they get angry when they can’t get it. The Internet’s like MTV. At one time MTV was hip and suddenly it became outdated. Anyway, all these computers and digital gadgets are no good. They just fill your head with numbers and that can’t be good for you.

Really, Prince? Apparently he’s serious about his stance on modern technology. He’s gone so far as to ban his music from high-profile websites like YouTube and iTunes and has even closed down his own official website. Worst of all, check out the Prince MySpace page. And finally, in a move to somehow exclude all geeks from acquiring his music, his latest album, 20TEN, will only be released on CD format and distributed solely through the Daily Mirror.

WTF?!?

Previously on lalawag:

NeighborGoods Goes National

Michael Arcand — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 15:00:06 +0000

Los Angeles startup NeighborGoods.net, which we reported on at launch, is going national! What started out as a local concept where you could share, sell or buy items from others in LA is now expanding their reach to anyone across the country. Timing couldn’t be better, considering the state of the economy today is still quite fragile. People are looking for bargains everywhere you turn, and now they can find them around every corner of their neighborhood.
NeighborGoods builds on the ideas behind sites like Craigslist and Freecycle, both of which I’ve used successfully in my own little corner of America. However, NeighborGoods goes one step beyond the basics of either of those sites by tracking transactions on the site itself, which adds a layer of security you won’t find elsewhere. In addition, it offers users the option to borrow or lend and even rent items to other users. It’s a win-win for everyone involved.

“When we share our stuff, we get so much more for our money, we reduce waste, and we strengthen our local communities. Not only does NeighborGoods provide a way to save a little bit of money – it also connects neighbors in meaningful ways making for happier, healthier neighborhoods.” – NeighborGoods Founder & CEO, Micki Krimmel

To date, NeighborGoods.com has seen over $750,000 worth of inventory added to the network and received attention in popular press such as O Magazine, TechCrunch, GigaOm and Apartment Therapy, among others (such as lalawag!). Check out the details of how it works in the video below and don’t forget to visit the NeighborGoods.net website and register for this awesome service. I just did.
Congratulations to Micki and her team for this move forward. LA startups FTW!!!

Watch This Intro Video! from sparky rose on Vimeo.

Neighborgoods Launches In LA

Ad.ly Moves Into Twitter Apps

Michael Arcand — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 20:55:09 +0000

LA based in-stream advertising platform Ad.ly has just announced that they have launched an ad network for third-party Twitter app developers. This is in addition to several other recent announcements, such as their deal with MySpace to allow user’s to insert ads into their pages and monetize their content.

So what exactly does this mean for the average Twitter user, and is this something you might want to take advantage of to promote your business or service? Sean Rad, the founder of Ad.ly is calling it the “AdSense for the stream,” comparing it to the Google AdSense program for websites. The bottom line is that the network allows developers to tap into the Ad.ly API and serve contextually relevant advertisements within their third-party app Twitter stream. So, for example, third-party services such as Brizzly could tap into the new network and serve ads on their service to their users. The ads are not placed within the Twitter stream itself, which prevents Ad.ly from violating Twitter’s TOS.

As a Twitter user, you most likely won’t see any of these ads unless you access your account from one of the many third-party services out there. As a business person or social influencer, you might find it appealing to get into the mix and get your ads served on the network. While this could be advantageous if the targeting is spot on, it could also be disastrous if it isn’t. Check out how targeted their other ad networks are before making your move.

While it remains to be seen how the Twitter folks will react, Ad.ly has definitely jumped into the fast lane of Internet advertising platforms. In less than a year they have manage to integrate their services with some of the biggest players on the web, including Facebook, MySpace and Twitter. With over $5 million in current funding, I’m sure they will be around for a while.

Should you utilize the service? Why not, what have you got to lose? If you’ve used Ad.ly already on Twitter, MySpace, or Facebook, share your experience with us!

This Week In Events: June 29 – July 2

Laurie Percival — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 19:07:34 +0000

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

LAPHP June Meeting: Agile not by the book – Last time we were talking about version control, why SHOULD we and how we CAN do it with Git. Now we will discuss the overall organization of our development process. We invited Christophe Louvion, the CTO of the CityGrid Media (aka Citysearch) to share his experience and various practical insights on the agile software development.

Time: 7:00pm

Location:
CoLoft
920 Santa Monica Blvd
Santa Monica, Ca 90401

Tickets: RSVP

Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Social Media Day LA 2010 – Social media has changed our lives. It has not only changed the way we communicate, but the way we connect with one another, consume our news, conduct our work, organize our lives, and much more. So why not celebrate? We have answered the call to action and are assembling at the heart of LA — Culver City — to unite our fellow Angelenos to toast the information revolution and what it can do for education!

Time: 8:00pm

Location:
Choppe Choppe
Culver City, Ca

Tickets: RSVP

Thursday, July 1, 2010

Digital LA – Canada Cocktails – Canada Day, hurr-EH! So we’re getting together Canadians, Americans and friends to celebrate! We’ll also give shout outs to Canadians doing digital at the event. Optional: Wear white and red (our fave color), Canadian shirts with maple leaf, Vancouver Olympics logos, or even ear muffs if u got ‘em!

Time: 7:00pm to 10:00pm

Location:
Bigfoot West
10939 Venice Blvd
Culver City, Ca

Tickets: FREE for Canadians, or anyone who can correctly answer a Canada trivia question at check-in! Otherwise $10

Whitman’s Ad Full of Manipulation and FAIL

Michael Arcand — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 17:37:15 +0000

Meg Whitman recently unleashed her first ad against Jerry Brown in their race for the governorship of California. Unfortunately for Whitman, it appears the ad is full of photo manipulation. Case in point, Ben Huh, the owner and founder of FailBlog, has requested an apology from the Whitman campaign for spoofing his site in the ad and using it to further their proposition that Brown is “fail” personified.

We all know that sites like FailBlog routinely feature pictures and/or videos that the general public will find humorous and labels them as “fail.” But these are real pictures and real videos. Is it really fair of Whitman to spoof the site with Brown’s picture and thereby make the viewer think that he was once listed on the site? No, not really. What about the newspapers featured in the commercial. These appear to be fake, with fake headlines also touting Brown’s failures. But if none of the images and clippings in the commercial can be counted on as being real, then what about the facts?

I’m not registered to vote in California, since I don’t live there. But I can guarantee one thing…if I was, I would do my own fact checking instead of relying on Whitman and her advertising campaign to tell me the facts. And you can bet with her eBay millions and fundraising efforts, this won’t be the last manipulation coming out of the Whitman camp.

So what was the Whitman team’s response to the accusation by Huh and the request for an apology? You’re going to love this …

Jerry Brown owned failure 35 years before FailBlog launched its website. The only entity with an ownership stake in failure is Jerry Brown Incorporated.

In case you haven’t seen the offensive commercial, check it out below. The FailBlog spoof appearance takes place around the 50 second point in the video.

Previously on lalawag:

Ready, Set, Go: Tesla Motors IPO (TSLA)

Michael Arcand — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 19:17:57 +0000

Tomorrow is the big day for Tesla Motors, when they hope to raise around $244 million in operating funds for the company through an initial public offering. The green electric car startup began selling their vehicles two years ago, and remains the only highway-ready electric vehicles being sold in volume to date. Despite the fact that the company has sold over 1,000 Roadsters, each costing over $100,000, the company has yet to make a profit. The company’s first quarter losses surpassed $29 million, which was up $13 million from the previous year. Overall revenues for the quarter came it at just under $21 million.
While those numbers may seem dismal, there is quite a bit of talk in the green community about these vehicles. Currently targeting the high-end consumer market, there is no reason that the company could not begin producing vehicles for the middle-income market as well. You can check out what Tesla currently has to offer at their showroom in Los Angeles, located at 11163, Santa Monica Blvd. They are open Tue – Sat from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. and on Sundays from 12:00 noon to 5:00 p.m. The company’s IPO is slated to be priced tonight, after the market closes. Proposed price range for the stock is from $14 – $16 per share. The stock has been approved to trade on the NASDAQ exchange under the symbol TSLA.

Demand Media Files For Its IPO

How to Prevent Social Media Entitlement Syndrome

Melissa Jun Rowley and Nicole Jordan — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 16:00:20 +0000

In a day and age when sharing our stories, favorite videos, political views, product reviews, intimate moments, photographs, and random rants and raves across multiple digital platforms is part of our daily routines, our content is consumed at an unprecedented rate. Being accessible in real-time all the time can bolster our business and personal brands. That is the upside. The downside is the manner in which social etiquette is being increasingly bastardized in the Web 2.0 sphere because of a misplaced sense of entitlement and set of expectations our readers, followers, and Interweb friends have from absorbing the onslaught of our digital footprints.

One typical evening on Twitter a few months ago, Francisco Dao (@theman) coined the term social media entitlement syndrome. The dialogue I observed in my Twitter stream about SMES that night definitely struck a chord. As a frequent social medializer, I couldn’t help but wonder: a) have I ever had SMES? b) do I know people who do? c) can SMES be stopped?

The answers were a) yes b) yes and c) it can at least be mitigated. So after witnessing a series of events that have spawned misunderstandings, hasty judgment calls, and hurt feelings, Nicole Jordan (@nicolejordan) and I felt that the need for a Lalawag article on the issue could no longer be ignored.

The definition of SMES has a number of variations. Here are a few that we collected.

1. Feeling and behaving as if one should be granted certain privileges (event access, free products, job offers) because he/she is well-known in social media.

2. Expecting all-access to an individual’s private life because he/she occasionally posts personal items in social networks.

3. Acting like it’s acceptable and normal to piss (bombard w/comments, tweets, DMs) on someone’s social stream.

4. Demanding that people retweet your content, and resenting them if they don’t.

5. Assuming that because you correspond with someone via social media, you should be invited to every social gathering that person plans or is involved with.

It’s quite the catch-22. The main reason many people use social media is to connect with others. We connect by putting ourselves out there. The question then is where is the line in respecting privacy when so many of us are choosing to live publicly? As Francisco recently opined, “We’re dealing with a world where people think that it’s all community, as in community property.”

Being part of a community is one of the greatest perks that comes with using social media. But it’s gotten to the point that because so many people can see what we’re doing and who we’re doing it with that social boundaries no longer exist. There is no more reading between the lines because no one is drawing any lines. As a result, the same platforms that some communities have used to communicate and strengthen ties are becoming turn-offs for some people.

Much of the discrepancy may be due to the fact that people using social media have different agendas. Some use it strictly for business. Some for shits and giggles. Some for spying. And others use it simply to share and feel connected. And there are plenty of us that use SM for all of the above.

We talked to some of our online and offline friends and came up with a few common points for all of us who have been guilty of, fallen victim to, or grown weary of social media entitlement syndrome to keep in mind.

Business is Business, Not a Little Blue Bird

There is the old adage, “don’t shit where you eat,” which in a perfect world is great advice. But what if our professions require that we shit (network) everywhere? Are we to starve and live on nothing but a business cocktail here and there?

No. Becoming friends with people in our social media platforms and offline is beautifully human, not to mention fun. And though it’s often frowned upon, mixing business with friendship can be a wonderful experience. BUT being a social media acquaintance or a personal friend with someone does not mandate the pursuit of a professional relationship on either side. Our social networks, Twitter in particular, are extensions of our offline communities, where we share information, and we applaud and help one another. However, helping does not necessarily mean hiring.

The business and social lines or lack there of can be blurred in other ways, as well. Knowing who someone is through social media doesn’t mean we know them. People are only as transparent as they choose to be about certain aspects of their lives. We show people what we want them to see through social media. That’s not transparency, it’s strategic marketing.

We’ve heard countless stories about people who follow another on Twitter, are excited to meet the @, and then proceed to launch into a conversation with a tone that implies one expects the other to review something, respond to requests right away, get that person into an event, or that you’re now pals.

The term “friend” has become abused and is becoming devoid of meaning. We refer to our “social media” connections as friends so often that the word “friends” has become a throw-away term. Perhaps acquaintance sounds too cold for someone that you “share” with. But the truth is, you may follow an “influencer” and exchange some tweets, support with RT’s, drop some shout-outs so people saw you tweeting with said person, but none of that means you KNOW the person.

Relationships are more than 140 characters

Relationships, professional and personal, take time to develop. Lately, there seems to be a lack of understanding about this. Actions are executed at lightning speed in social media because they’re all done through a computer or a device. The problem is that we spend so much time plugged in that our ADHD-induced mentality is transcending into our lives offline, which reduces the value of putting time into cultivating important relationships with people. While connecting and sharing online can start a true friendship, it’s the time you spend together in person or on the phone, interacting, that really separates the wheat from the chaff, if you will.

Social media is enabling “Wedding Crashers.”

One of the beauties of the social web is that there is never a shortage of things to do. Your dance card can be full or empty, it’s up to you. People are always tweeting out and FB’ing events with open invitations, but more than once we’ve heard about gatherings that were meant to be private and ended up being was crashed by someone who saw it appear on a public timeline.

In one instance, a person ended up attending a private event at a home. When confronted after, the person said, “I didn’t think it was a big deal since so many people I knew were going.” The organizer became much more diligent about making events on Facebook private to prevent it from happening again.

Another example took place when a group of friends, mind you these were people who are actually friends, went out to dinner. Someone tweeted who was there and soon after three people that none of them knew showed up, said they saw the tweet and that they came to hang. No invitation was actually extended.

There’s much debate to the “if you want it private don’t tweet about it or keep it closed on Facebook” vein-of-thinking but what we’ve heard, and witnessed firsthand, is a pulling back and censoring of what people want to put out there. And not only that it’s starting to give rise to resentment.

Deciding what to share comes down to personal preference and knowing what your boundaries are and communicating them. If you really don’t want to have your name tweet-dropped because there’s a particular social media stalker just waiting for an opportunity to corner you in a private setting, let the people you’re with know so they can be sensitive to it.

Beware of social climbers

A term we’ve heard tossed around with much frequency is “social climber.” This can be a bit delicate as any person who appreciates social media can attest, the connections you make that you never would have otherwise is part of what makes it all so great. But, some people are starting to become more guarded with the people they meet through social media because they’re feeling used by others who appear to only want to make the connection so they can tweet-drop or FB you and up their street cred.

When we’ve heard this complaint it’s always followed with some qualifier like, “I don’t want that to come across as arrogant and that I don’t appreciate that someone is interested in being connected to me…”

This is, in part, a bit of the Twitter myth, no? The illusion that Twitter follower size or the appearances that you’re friends with a well-known @ is what creates influence. When someone starts to feel like they’re being “climbed,” one action we’ve heard is that they review that person’s tweets and evaluate the level of tweet-dropping, over-enthusiasm and level of aggressiveness to include themselves. If that person’s online actions tend to be geared toward “getting-in” and being “seen,” their target just might run even further away.

As stated earlier, both of us have been guilty of a little SMES. Everyone probably has at one time or another. To avoid falling ill with the syndrome keep these points in mind and most importantly try to remember, there is an entire world out there that has nothing to do with Twitter or Facebook.

Update:

See Nicole and Melissa talk about SMES on This Week in Social Media

The iPhone 4 Teardown

Michael Arcand — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 19:42:42 +0000

The iPhone 4 has been delivered into a few hands a day or two earlier than the official release date, which is tomorrow. Of course, as can be expected, the good folks over at ifixit have posted their teardown of the iPhone 4 from start to finish. There aren’t a whole lot of surprises to be found at this point, with most of the exterior visuals and product specs already released. However, there were a few things that caught my eye and made me take a closer look.

Start with the complete parts layout and see if anything strikes your eye, then take a closer look at the second two shots. In the first one you’ll see the new rear-facing 5 MP camera with 720p video at 30 FPS, tap to focus feature, and LED flash. This is one of the top upgrades from the iPhone 3GS’s mere 2.5 MP camera. In the last photo we’ve got a group of new items to ponder. On the right is the new A4 powerhouse made by Samsung. On the left is the 1 GHz ARM Cortex A8 core. Both of these are identical to the chips in the iPad. And what have we got in the middle? Any guesses? It’s the new 3 axis gyroscope that is believed to be designed and manufactured by ST Micro.

If this gets your appetite up for some more iPhone 4 teardown pics, be sure and visit ifixit.com for the complete teardown details.

LAPD Uses Social Media to Find Suspects

Michael Arcand — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 00:04:55 +0000

There was a time when something that you did in public could be done with some expected anonymity. With the proliferation of cell phone cameras for pictures and video, those days are gone. Now, there’s another aspect to public actions that takes our lack of privacy to a whole new level. What is that? None other than social media.

Now before you get all riled up, don’t get me wrong. I don’t condone the violence that was performed by the Laker’s victory “celebration” in the streets of LA. I think that the people who performed such criminal activity should be punished – if and when they are caught. It’s the method used to catch them that has me concerned.

As it turns out, LAPD is scouring social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube to find pictures and videos of the violence that took place, and using this information to track down the offenders. Intent on following this task through to the end, they say they’ve already got 46 people in custody and it could take months to round up the rest.

Although it is a valiant effort and I understand the motivation behind it, the opportunity for abuse is clear. Think for a minute about this quote from one of the officers on this particular task force:

In the age of phone cameras and digital video devices, it has in essence deputized the public in fighting. It has added to the maxim that police are the public and the public are the police. – Lt. Paul Vernon

Now I may be in the minority on this, but doesn’t it concern you just a wee bit that the police are actually encouraging this neighborly spying behavior? I just think that as we continue to progress in the digital age, our freedoms are slowly slipping away. I fear that one day we may awake to find we have no freedoms left at all.

I know you all don’t agree with me (maybe even the majority disagree). So sound off! What are your thoughts on this?

This Week In Events: June 21 -26

Laurie Percival — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 20:32:18 +0000

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Gravity Summit – Gravity Summit events help bridge the gap between the new Social Media Marketing tools and the business community. We seek to help educate and inform marketing professionals, small business owners, advertisers, and c-Level executives, and others, about the exciting new marketing and communications landscape that is evolving daily.

Time: 6:00pm to 9:00pm

Location:
UCLA Faculty Club
480 Charles Young Dr. East
Los Angeles, Ca 90095

Tickets: $40 Networking, Refreshments, Speakers Limited Seating

Digital LA – Social Games and Virtual Currency panel – Join us for our panel on Social Games and Virtual Currency. We’ll discuss the rise of social games, and how virtual goods are a key revenue model for games like Farmville, etc. We’ll also discuss virtual currency: when nothing is really something. Real attention and cash are being spent on virtual currency, and real growth and cachet for businesses and brands are resulting from its use. We’ll discuss in-game incentives for virtual goods, what works and doesn’t, and how entertainment, gaming companies, and researchers are using virtual currency.

Time: 7:00pm to 10:00pm

Location:
Ipsos OTX MediaCT
10567 Jefferson Boulevard
Culver City, Ca

Tickets: $25

Thursday, June 24, 2010

Social Media Advertising Consortium LA Salon – Join SMAC members for a lively discussion on how agencies and brands are testing, succeeding and testing some more in social media. A panel of top brands and agencies will share insights, look at best practices, campaign successes and discuss what’s next in measurement and research. Discussion followed by networking, wine & light hors d’oeuvres.

Time: 6:00pm to 8:00pm

Location:
IPG Emerging Media Lab
5700 Wilshire Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90036

Tickets: Free, RSVP

Saturday, June 26, 2010

SoCal Code Camp – Code Camp is a place for developers to come and learn from their peers. This community driven event has become an international trend where peer groups of all platforms, programming languages and disciplines band together to bring content to the community.

Date: June 26th and 27th

Location:
UCSD Extension Complex

Tickets: Free, Register

California To Turn Your Car Into a Mini Billboard

Michael Arcand — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 17:36:40 +0000

You’re driving down your favorite drag when you come up to a red light. After about four seconds the license plate on the car in front of you changes from the standard image plate to a bulletin posting the latest lost milk-carton child or other public service announcement. You look around and another plate is displaying an ad for a local pizza joint. Damn, now you’re hungry.

Sound crazy? Well, it’s the latest proposal to raise revenue for the state’s dwindling coffers and it comes from Democratic Sen. Curren Price of Los Angeles. According to Price, California would be the first state to use such technology as electronic license plates, called Smart Plates, to provide advertising on the already distracting roadways. The special plates would display a normal electronic version of the current California plates when the vehicle is in motion. But when the vehicle stops for more than four seconds, the electronic billboard kicks in. The license plate number would still remain visible in some portion of the plate, but an advertisement would be displayed as long as the vehicle remained stationary.

“The idea is not to turn a motorist’s vehicle into a mobile billboard, but rather to create a platform for motorists to show their support for existing good working organizations,” says Price.

I don’t know about you, but I’m not sure I want to advertise for anyone on my car, and I certainly don’t need the distraction while I’m cruising down the strip. If you think this deal sucks, contact the Department of Motor Vehicles and let them know. Better yet, why not contact Price’s office and voice your displeasure over your vehicle being turned into a billboard for the state.

Previously on lalawag:

Plancast Announces Widgets and API

Laurie Percival — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 16:16:03 +0000

Plancast, the site that easily allows you to share your plan with friends, announced today that they are releasing embeddable widgets for the site. There are two available at the moment, a sidebar widget and a full page one.

Both will show an account’s upcoming plans so your readers will know what you are up to. Here’s what the widget might look like in the sidebar of lalawag:

The release of these widgets will hopefully help spread the word about Plancast and how easy it is to use. Follow our Plancast here, and get your own account or widget by visiting Plancast.com. They also released an API, more information on that over on TechCrunch and the Plancast developer website.

Get to know them

Plancast – is the easiest way for you to share your plans with friends and discover what others are doing in the future. Plancast is lovingly made by Mark Hendrickson and Jay Marcyes, with help from friends like Chris Lea with system administration and Leah Culver with iPhone development. Peter Sauer helps us run things and get the word out; he’ll probably be the one who responds if you reach out to us.

Facebook Protest: Our Privacy Is Not For Sale

This Week In Events: June 14 -18

Laurie Percival — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 16:00:00 +0000

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Video Schmooze – Broadband Video Leadership Breakfast – Join us for breakfast with a panel of leading entertainment and technology industry executives who will share insights on the most important factors driving change in the digital distribution era, and what Hollywood must do to succeed.

Time: 8:00am to 10:15am

Location:
SLS Hotel at Beverly Hills
465 South La Cienega, Ca

Tickets: $90 Individual, additional prices per table

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Digital LA E3 Digital Drinks & Band Jam – We’re teaming up with GirlGamer and getting bands together again to repeat last year’s successful Band Jam (one of the bands got signed after A&R saw them perform at our event!)

Time: 7:00pm to 10:00pm

Location:
Conga Room
800 W Olympic Blvd
Los Angeles, CA

Tickets: $10 or FREE if you flash your E3 pass

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Mindshare LA – We’re excited to announce the program for June 17th’s Mindshare: from Augmented Reality to Sexual Cooking Techniques, from Financial Responsibilities for Babies to the Wisdom of Animal Dung Showering – this Mindshare is going to leave your brain spinning. Program here.

Time: 7:00pm

Location:
Club 740
740 S. Broadway
(Enter through the alley at 8th Spring St.)
Los Angeles, CA 90014

Tickets: $30

Scion Music(less) Music Conference – consists of debates, panels and workshops on issues in the music industry. The goal is to provide developing talent with knowledge and resources for their evolving careers.

Date: June 17 -18

Time: Registration opens at 8:30 a.m

Location:
Renaissance Hollywood Hotel
1755 N Highland Ave
Hollywood, Ca 90069

Tickets: RSVP
*RSVP closes 06/15/2010

“Pour on the Fun” Thirsty Thursday! – Meet up with thinkLA for a free-to-attend advertising industry networking mixer organized by AdZoo! Thirsty Thursdays are casual events (no name tags) that give people the chance to mix, mingle and make new friends in a relaxed atmosphere.

Time: 6:30pm to 9:30pm

Location:
Bungalow Club
7174 Melrose Avenue
Los Angeles, Ca

Tickets: Free

Inside the Microsoft Kinect Launch Party

Sean Percival — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 07:15:10 +0000

The official Microsoft Kinect launch party on Sunday night was a no technology event.

Wait, what does that mean?

Actually forget about what, how would one even enforce a ‘no technology event’? Sure we had fantasies like the Microsoft Security Team using one of those AWESOME body scanners like you saw in the movie Total Recall. Alas, I don’t think security was that tight considering local secret agent man @GeorgeRuiz twitpic’d a whole bunch of photos.

Let’s take a look at the event which featured a unique performance from @Cirque.

Felcia Day and Billie Crystal playing invisible video games, pretty normal night in downtown LA.

Oh great, matching outfits, I think we know where this is going…

Binary elephant FTW!

Here we go again, #flashbacks

SPOILER ALERT! THINGS HAPPEN

Tony Adam Helps Launch BlueGlass LA

Laurie Percival — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 17:01:16 +0000

BlueGlass LA is a unique conference experience that is coming to Los Angeles this July. Focusing it’s efforts on search marketing and social media, BlueGlass sets itself apart from other conferences by limiting attendance and brining in hard-to-get industry speakers to make it an intimate and intense experience.

BlueGlass LA is the follow-up conference to the Search & Social Summit that took place this year in May. We were able to catch up with Tony Adam, one of the brains behind the creation of the conference, to find out what to expect this July.

1. Give me some background on how BlueGlass LA came about?

Honestly, I’ve been wanting an online marketing focused conference in Los Angeles for some time now, about 2 years, so I have been pushing to make it happen. At Search and Social Summit, I was chatting with Dave Snyder and we decided to make it happen along with the help of Chris Winfield and 10e20. I pushed really hard and made sure that it happened with the help of everyone else involved.

2. Who are the people behind Blueglass that are making it all possible?

BlueGlass LA is a collaboration between internet marketing companies Search & Social and 10e20 along with myself, Tony Adam .

3. What do you think LA residents will benefit most from in attending BlueGlass LA?

Technology, Marketing, Media & Entertainment and any other professional in the LA area would benefit by coming to this because of the holistic online marketing approach that we are taking. We still have that Search and Social Media Marketing focus, but, with broader topics and appeal. At the end of the day we wanted the best speakers on a great lineup brought together for the most value of any other conference. At around $500, it is a steal compared to most other online marketing conferences of its kind.

4. Is it true that you are actually a SEO Ninja?

HA! I don’t think I am…People tell me I am modest about it, but, I’m still learning so much daily and when you have amazing peers like Chris Winfield, Dave Snyder, Greg Boser, Neil Patel, etc. around at all times, I feel like I’m just barely scratching the surface. :)

Thanks Tony, sounds like it will be an enriching experience. Tickets are on sale now at an Early Bird price and lucky lalawag readers can enjoy a 10% discount off of admission by using the code lalawagbgla.

The Early bird price, $495, runs until today June 10, 2010 so act fast . It includes admission to both days of the conference, all speaker sessions, hyper-networking opportunities with speakers and attendees, three meals/day (breakfast, lunch & dinner), cash bar and two nights of evening entertainment.

Details

Date: Monday, July 19th to Tuesday, July 20th

Time: Agenda

Speaker Line up:

Ben Huh from ICanHasCheezburger
Rand Fishkin from SEOmoz
Neil Patel from KISSMetrics
Tony Adam from MySpace
Marshall Simmonds from The New York Times
Greg Boser of 3Dog Media
Dave McClure from FF Angel
Vanessa Fox from NinebyBlue

…..and many more

Location:
Marina del Rey Marriott
4100 Admiralty Way
Marina Del Rey, CA 90292

Tickets: $495 Early Bird Price

Previously on lalawag:

@BPGlobalPR Twitter Account Comes Clean

Michael Arcand — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 21:47:13 +0000

When the BP oil disaster started back in April, a Twitter account was set up under the name BPGlobalPR. Now initially, you might think this account was set up by BP in order to disseminate information to the public about the crisis. That is, until you begin reading the tweets from this account. Like this one:

I’m pretty sure this didn’t fool anyone into believing this was a real account. This parody continued undiminished until this week, when BP apparently put the pressure on Twitter to make the account holder comply with Twitter’s Terms of Service as it relates to parody accounts. So the account holder changed the bio to read as a clear disclaimer against any relation to the real BP:

We are not associated with Beyond Petroleum, the company that has been destroying the Gulf of Mexico for 51 days.

The only thing they haven’t done (so far) is change the name to include the descriptive term ‘fake’, ‘not’, or ‘fan’. Of course, the account has never carried the blue verified check mark in the upper right hand corner, so that should have been a big tip-off to anyone who was confused.

So where do we go from here? So far BP has not indicated that they will ask for a complete take-down, although this is not outside the realm of possibility. But would this really be good for publicity right now?

This Week In Events: June 8- 12

Laurie Percival — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 20:41:53 +0000

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Digital LA THR Key Art Awards and Finalist Cocktails – Advertising, creative design, agencies, movie/home video marketers and ad sales and friends are invited to join us as we salute The Hollywood Reporter for their commitment to honoring the hard work of the digital creative community and toast this year’s Key Art Awards finalists in the following digital categories:

- Best Theatrical (digital, online banner, website design, buzzworthy)
- Best Home Video (online banner, buzzworthy)

Time: 7:00pm to 10:00pm

Location:
Philippe Chow
8284 Melrose Ave
West Hollywood, Ca

Tickets: $12

LA Tweet: LA’s Monthly Social Media Tweetup – LA Tweet is hosting their second social media event at the offices of Border Stylo! We’d love to see you there and casually chat about social media.

Time: 7:30pm

Location:
Border Stylo
729 Seward St.
Los Angeles, Ca 90038

Tickets: This event is free and does not require an RSVP

Thursday, June 10, 2010

Digital LA Games Go Hollywood Panel – Join us for our pre-E3 panel on Games Go Hollywood! Prince of Persia is the latest game to go big at the box office. And more and more games like Uncharted 2, Assassin’s Creed 2, and Call of Duty are inspired by movies’ cinematic angles and storytelling.

Time: 7:00pm to 10:00pm

Location:
Ipsos OTX MediaCT
10567 Jefferson Boulevard
Culver City, Ca

Tickets: Early Bird $25

S.O.L.O. The Series Premiere Party – The long awaited release of SOLO The Series is here! To kick off the web launch we are hosting a premiere at a fav Hollywood venue, Cinespace. SOLO is a sci-fi, comedy web series set in space, naturally.

Time: 7:00pm to 10:00pm

Location:
Cinespace
6356 Hollywood Blvd.
Los Angeles, Ca 90028

Tickets: Free

Friday, June 11, 2010

New Media Film Festival – The New Media Film Festival (NMFF) spotlights stories worth telling. We are looking for films that exemplify the power of the cinematic arts to inspire and transform. The festival celebrates innovative and imaginative visual work that can make audiences laugh, cry, think, and go beyond the ordinary.

Dates: June 11 – 13

Location:
Downtown Independent
251 S. Main Street
Los Angeles, Ca

Tickets: Details here

TechCrunch Meetup – Come, meet some startups, talk about tech, get some drinks and have a great time! We’ll have lots of free food and drinks + a Startup Demo Pit Competition!

Time: 8:00pm

Location:
Coloft
920 Santa Monica Blvd
Santa Monica, Ca

Tickets: Free, RSVP

Saturday, June 12, 2010

Digital LA – A-Team @ Drive-In Theatre – Road Trip! We’re heading out to Montclair to see the A-Team, opening weekend, at Southern California’s Mission Tiki drive-in movie theatre! Yup, we’re going retro to the drive-in to watch this classic reboot.

Time: 7:00pm to 10;00pm
*Try to arrive by 6:30 so we can park in a group

Location:
Mission Tiki Drive-In Theatre
10798 Ramona Ave
Montclair, Ca

Tickets: $12

WordPress Workshop – Welcome to the wpWorkShop! This is our first class, where you can get hands on experience from LA’s smartest WordPress’ users.

Time: Starts at 10:00am Full Schedule here

Location:
The CoLoft
920 Santa Monica Blvd
Santa Monica, Ca 90401

Tickets: Regular $50, At the Door $55

Glass hosts: USA vs England Word Cup Match – Join us and other soccer fans from LA on June 12th for the USA vs England game. Food and drinks are on us. Bring you, bring a guest, and feel free to show your team colors. This is a networking get together between our users, bloggers and the company people.

Time: 11:00am

Location:
Hollywood Billiards
5750 Hollywood Blvd.
Los Angeles, Ca 90028

Tickets: RSVP only and the list will close once full. Please email your rsvp to rsvp@writeonglass.com

Join the Glass private beta by visiting writeonglass.com and use the code: Cup2010
By joining Glass, and adding RaffleBot3000 as your contact, you’re entered to win world cup memorabilia. The raffle will be held during half time at the event.

Pulse Newsreader vs The New York Times

Michael Arcand — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 19:20:08 +0000

During the keynote address yesterday at the WWDC 2010 kick-off, Steve Jobs touted the Pulse Newsreader app as among the most promising for the new iPad. Of course, this wasn’t the only praise the app’s developers have had recently. The two Stanford University graduate students who developed the app were also praised recently in the New York Times’ BITS blog:

“Pulse is a stylish and easy-to-use news aggregator…News organizations still puzzling over their iPad strategies can perhaps derive some hope from Pulse’s success–or at least its price tag.”

Apparently, once the legal department got a chance to look over the app, they were less than thrilled. In just over six hours after the keynote finished, the Pulse app praised by Jobs was no longer available in the app store. So what was the New York Times’ beef with the highly-acclaimed news aggregator? Apparently they viewed the use of their RSS feeds in this particular app as a violation of their terms of service, according the All Things Digital:

“The Pulse News Reader app makes commercial use of the NYTimes.com and Boston.com RSS feeds, in violation of their Terms of Use. Thus, the use of our content is unlicensed. The app also frames the NYTimes.com and Boston.com websites in violation of their respective Terms of Use.”

There is only one problem with this whole scenario, of course. The fact is that there are literally dozens of other apps that use these feeds in the same way, albeit perhaps not in as visually appealing manner. The app was so popular that it had even hit the top of the app store charts a couple of times while being downloaded over 35,000 times at $4 a pop. I’ll admit I took a look at it and almost downloaded it too. So does this mean that the New York Times is going to declare war on apps that use their RSS feeds? How long will it be before we see Apple pull all of the paid aggregation apps without notice, just as they previously did with any they thought were too risque?

Only time will tell, but knowing Apple, it won’t be very long.

iPhone 4 Wrap-up

Michael Arcand — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 21:03:00 +0000

Today was the big day for the WWDC 2010 conference, with Steve Jobs giving the keynote speech. It was, of course, the announcement of the latest and greatest iPhone that had everyone waiting with baited breath for today’s announcements. Steve announced the new iPhone 4 to much fanfare, despite the fact that we’ve already seen the device (thanks to Gizmodo). However, it’s the features of the phone that we didn’t have all the juicy details on. So Steve laid out his top eight features, a couple of which were really lame in my opinion (iBooks and iAds, for starters) so I’m not going to do a rundown of those features. If you want a blow-by-blow of this morning’s event, you can check out the keynote liveblog post over on Digigasms, where I really work. ;-)

So let’s get down to the nittty gritty. What are the real features on this new iPhone 4 that will matter to most users? Here’s my top 5 picks, and analysis, of these features:

5. FaceTime - This is the new iPhone video chat application. You will now be able to video chat with your friends and family, but only if they have the iPhone 4. While the iOS software will be available for the 3G, 3GS and iPod Touch, not all features will be supported, and apparently this is one of those features. And while this feature can use either the front or rear facing cameras, keep in mind that the new front facing camera is VGA only, not the five megapixel HD version that is the rear facing camera.

4. Stainless Steel – You might wonder why I’ve included the stainless steel rim in my top five new iPhone 4 features. Well, it all comes from what this rim is actually used for. The rim is part of an internal antenna system that is used to boost signal strength for both WiFi and 3G signals. Now I don’t know about you, but that is a big deal for me. I don’t live in a big city (and from what I hear, AT&T isn’t all that great in some metro areas either), and out here in the boonies it pays to get good reception. Anything that will help with reception is a bonus in my book.

3. iOS 4 – The new operating system is being called the iOS 4, instead of the iPhone OS 4. This represents a major shift, indicating that the OS is no longer just for the iPhone, but is being developed for other “i” devices as well. Will this include mobile laptops as well? I think the key is that the market is pushing in the mobile direction and Apple wants to maintain their lead. I will be looking for versions of this iOS to be available for future MacBook systems as well.

2. Retina Display – Jobs has coined another phrase in his ever-evolving world of techno babble, and this time it’s part human. According to Steve, “retina display” is the display that the human eye can perceive, which at 10-12 inches is roughly 300 pixels per inch. The new iPhone’s resolution is an astounding 326 pixels per inch, for a total of 960 × 640 available screen space. So I think the point is that anything better and your eyes can’t tell the difference anyway.

5. Battery Life – According to Jobs, the battery life is longer because of a bigger battery as well as a better processor. 40% longer, to be exact. This comes out to seven hours of talk time on 3G, 10 hours of WiFi browsing and 300 hours of standby time. If these numbers hold up out in the field, this will be a phenomenal accomplishment, rivaling the iPad in battery life. I will be impressed. This is the most important new feature to me, simply because it is the biggest complaint of almost every iPhone user I know.

Well, that wraps it up for my top new features. Tell us what you think about the new iPhone and share your favorite features in the comments.

More Coverage:

Gdgt
Engadget
Gizmodo

iPhone 4 Photos

Sean Percival — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 20:11:36 +0000

The Apple iPhone 4 was announced today, here are some of the first official photos from Apple.

Twitter and The First Amendment

Michael Arcand — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 19:29:10 +0000

The First Amendment right to freedom of speech is one that we, as Americans, cherish very highly. It’s one of the things that sets us apart from totalitarian dictatorships or quasi-religious regimes like Iran, with its supreme Iyatollah.

But even here in America, land of the free and home of the brave, we still hear about people losing their jobs because they blogged or tweeted about their boss. And actually, that’s all legal, since most (if not all) states are “hire at will” employment, which means an employer can fire you just because…at least as long as they are willing to pay unemployment taxes.

However, colleges and universities have long been outstanding bastions of truth and liberty, where left and right alike coalesce to present their ideas, petitions and even protests. Freedom of speech, and especially freedom of the press, has been an inheritance passed down since the early days of our country. It has never been really challenged…until now.

It came to my attention earlier this evening through Twitter that a student at Mount San Antonio college was suspended for tweeting about her professor. There apparently was a personality conflict and when a student assistant found out, she notified the professor of the incident. He apparently felt threatened, despite the fact that his name wasn’t even mentioned in the twitter stream, and pulled enough strings to get the girl suspended.

Now, another late-breaking development has occurred. While doing research on First Amendment rights and other cases like this, the college news site, MountieWire.com, has pulled the news article completely. They’ve even gone so far as to expunge any record of it from their Twitter stream as well. And despite the fact that Google did index the page, it wasn’t cached – so at this point I don’t see any record of it being online, other than the hundreds of tweets pointing to the now-defuct URL, resulting in a 404 page.

As of right now it looks like not only was the student suspended, it appears as if the college newspaper was stiff-armed into backing down from the story altogether. There is no retraction, clarification or any evidence at all that the story was ever online.

While legally the paper and the student were well within their First Amendment rights, at least according to the research of this author (and I’m no legal expert), it appears that the pressure from the school’s administrators has had its impact. I’m sure this story is far from over. Let’s just hope that in the end its +1 for democracy and -1 for administrative BS.

Win a Sonos All-In-One Wireless Music System

Sean Percival — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 17:07:39 +0000

Let’s face it, everything looks better in black.

There’s just something inherently cooler about black. Something the other colors just don’t have.

YES I’M TALKING TO YOU ORANGE.

Turns out @Sonos, makers of those insanely cool all-in-one wireless music systems, agrees. They just released the Sonos S5 unit in stunning black and it looks GREAT. Prior to this, units were only available in beige-ish, great for your nerdy uncle but not you. No you’re reading @lalawag so already we know you’re much cooler than that. So cool in fact you want to own this awesome black music machine and control it via your iPhone or iPad Touch like some kinda of Jedi. That would be awesome, no?

Well here’s your chance to win one from the good folks at Sonos and lalawag. To enter simply fire off a mighty tweet like so:

I want to win a @Sonos S5 from @lalawag because _______

Fill in the blank with why you should win. Be fun, be creative and of course keep it classy. You have until Thursday 6/3 at midnight to get your tweet in. We’ll pick our favorite and post the winner here on Friday 6/4/2010.

*UPDATE: Congrats to our winner @alexeypro !!!(!)

In the meantime get your gadget lust on below with these first shots of the Black Sonos S5.

Learn more about these units at www.sonos.com/S5demo.

This Week In Events: June 1st – 5th

Laurie Percival — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 16:30:25 +0000

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Digital LA Cocktails – Come by, mix, mingle and enjoy Citysearch sponsored cocktails and apps as the sun sets on Sunset. Citysearch brings you the best of LA and this happy hour won’t disappoint. Please join us at Citysearch’s Frank Gehry designed IAC building in West Hollywood, big Citysearch news will be announced.

Complimentary hors d’ouvres provided by Poquito Mas and Buttercake Bakery and drinks provided by Karma Tequila.

Time: 6:00pm to 9:00pm

Location:
Citysearch – IAC
8833 West Sunset Boulevard
West Hollywood, Ca

Tickets: FREE to attend, RSVP required

TEDx Manhattan Beach Social – TEDx Manhattan Beach is pleased to announce our May Social. These monthly socials on the last Wednesday in the month are an informal compliment to the annual TEDxManhattanBeach conference. We will be providing beer, wine and healthy food. Two recorded TED talks on the theme of “food” will be presented. Followed by discussion, networking and more beer and wine.

Time: 5:30pm to 8:00pm

Location:
Private Residence
606 Ardmore
Manhattan Beach, Ca 90266

Tickets: Free to attend. RSVP to reserve your seat, space is limited.

*Will be asking for a $10 donation at the door to contribute towards the cost of drinks and food.

Social Media Breakfast Seminar – Join Esteban Kolsky, Principal and Founder of ThinkJar LLC and former Gartner Research Director, along with Blake Cahill, SVP of Marketing at Visible Technologies for an interactive breakfast presentation where they will address: Enterprise Adoption and Readiness, Total Cost of Social Media Ownership, What resource, technology, and service costs should you consider when investing in social and deploying it across your organization, Calculating ROI, Success Stories and more.

Time: 7:30am to 11:00am

Location:
W Los Angeles – Westwood
930 Hilgard Avenue
Los Angeles, Ca 90024

Tickets: $25

Thursday, June 3, 2010

Open Door Session for Entrepreneurs – We’re setting up shop in Santa Monica again to give some help and feedback to the LA start up community. All time slots are booked but there should be time in between to ask questions.

1:00 Capchure
1:30 One Tribe Mobile
2:00 AudioMicro
2:30 Elevated Games
3:00 SocialBlaze
3:30 Local.to

Time: 1:00pm to 4:00pm

Location:
Palomar Ventures
100 Wilshire Boulevard,
Santa Monica, Ca

Tickets: Free

LA Web Professionals Group June 2010 meeting – Illustrator CS5 Deep Dive – Deep discussion with guest speaker Chana Messer followed by Q&A. There will also be a networking break and tweet up with free food and a prize drawing.

Time: 6:30pm to 9:30pm

Location:
Moviola
1135 North Mansfield Ave.
Los Angeles, Ca

Tickets: Free, RSVP

Friday, June 4, 2010

Musicians Take over Chatroulette – Lets get a bunch of musicians to “take over” Chatroulette for a day. Share your music with random people – and get instant feedback! If they don’t like your tunes, they’ll click “next” (and be prepared to click next yourself). But you’ll be amazed how many people will appreciate your performance!

All you have to do is set up a webcam and a good way of capturing the audio on your computer. Then show up on chatroulette.com and play tunes until you get bored or grossed out. Or both. This is an *experiment*. It’s completely anonymous, so why not try it out!?!?

PLEASE USE THE HASHTAG #MusicTakeOver

Time: 12:00pm till Saturday, June 5, 2010 at 11:30pm

Location: On the interwebz at chatroulette.com

Tickets: None

Saturday, June 5, 2010

Digital LA Producers Cocktails – Producers of movies, TV, web series, videos, and friends are invited to network at our Producers Cocktails at the InterContinental Hotel. We’re inviting Produced By conference attendees to come on over from the Fox lot next door. FREE when you flash your Produced By conference badge.

We’ll also have a guest speaker from the PGA board to speak about the new digital Producer credits, now available for Transmedia, Video Games, DVD/Blu-Ray, Digital Visual Effects, Special Venue, Digital Animation, Broadband, iTV, and more! We’ll talk about what’s required to get the credits, what they mean and more!

Time: 6:00pm to 9:00pm

Location:
InterContinental Hotel
2151 Avenue of the Stars
Los Angeles, Ca

Tickets: RSVP to be informed of when the registration link is availalbe

TEDxHollywood 2010 – Inquisitive, fun-loving minds gather to watch live speakers and TEDTalks videos and spark a night of deep discussion and connection. In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TED has created a program called TEDx, a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience.

Time: 5:00pm to 10:00pm

Location:
TBD

Tickets: FREE

Don’t forget, Sunday is Facebook Protest Day!!

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