Celebs paid to tweet

Australian celebrities are being offered as much as $10,000 (NZ$13,000) for a single tweet endorsing products to their thousands of Twitter followers, say sponsorship experts.

But while US celebrities like Kim Kardashian, Lindsay Lohan and Snoop Dogg are reportedly already enjoying large one-off payments to promote brands and products on Twitter, the dash for cash is yet to catch on across the ditch.

The celebrities need only post a one-line product endorsement in exchange for the fee, and according to Britain’s Marketing Week, Range Rover approached 40 British celebrities this week to tweet in a similar way about the recently unveiled Evoque 4×4 in the UK.

Bruce Kaider, president of Sponsorship Australasia and founder of a sports management company, confirmed that high profile Australian sportspeople were already being approached to endorse products on Twitter for fees of anything between $500 to $10,000 per tweet.

“Some celebrities have 50 to 100,000 people engaged with what they’re doing every day, so it’s a great direct marketing piece,” he said.

“But I think like most trends here we are usually six to twelve month behind the US and we are probably a little more conservative in Australia than US where people are more open to celebrity endorsements.”

US websites like Ad.ly and SponsoredTweets are also helping to shake up traditional sponsorship models by matching advertisers like Sony and Microsoft directly with the celebrities on their registers for one-off transactions.

Lindsay Lohan’s profile on SponsoredTweets says she will tweet for a $US2985.80 fee, while Khloe Kardashian (sister of reality star Kim) will tweet for a slightly lesser $US2941. For an extra thousand, advertisers can procure the tweeting services of model Holly Madison.

Boasting a collective reach of 100 million people, the Ad.ly network says it has had Snoop Dogg, Kim Kardashian and Paul Pierce (Boston Celtics) on its payroll, and offers to place celebrity endorsements in any public stream such as Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, and StatusNet.

Krista Thomas, vice president of marketing, said Ad.ly helps brands connect directly with 5000 of the top celebrities, athletes and experts in the US, giving a direct channel to their Twitter followers.

“We have done 10,000 endorsement campaigns in the US and are working with 150 big brand advertisers – including Microsoft, Sony, American Airlines, Toyota, AT&T and more,” she said.

// Payment is on a per-tweet model, and Thomas said some influencers can earn as much as five figures per tweet based on an algorithm that takes into account followers, activity and engagement.

However Zoe Warne, founder of Melbourne-based digital ad agency August, considers the one-off model a “cheap and nasty” form of sponsorship and warns that it could carry long term risks for celebrities tempted to make a quick buck.

“There will always be that temptation and there will always those that will go through with it, but they are risking their integrity and reputation and Twitter is a very public type of forum,” she said.

US rules compel celebrities to add the word “ad” or “spon” to paid-for comments, and Warne said non-disclosure by celebrities tweeting about products for cash, amounted to “the same sort of deal as cash for comments”.

Scott McClellan, executive director of the Australian Association of National Advertisers said social media campaigns would fall under the existing advertising code of ethics in Australia.

“We have quite a strong statement in the code around being honest and truthful and obviously not misleading person in any way.

”We believe that abbreviated terms like ‘spon’ will very rapidly be understood by consumers as being commercial in their nature and people will learn there is a cost associated with accessing the material.”

He said his biggest concerns were related to children, who would be particularly vulnerable to social media marketing from celebrities.

“For children there would be a much greater onus on the advertiser to be clear about the offer they are presenting,” he said.

Source: www.stuff.co.nz (inc. Image)

Smart phone, pity criminals are proving even smarter

The global obsession with the iPhone is not only becoming a threat to security: an entire criminal industry has sprung up around it, says the head of the Australian Crime Commission.

Speaking at an Australian Institute of Criminology conference in Melbourne, John Lawler said an ”overwhelming desire for instant services [was coming] at the expense of security and safety”.

This year Apple’s chief financial officer told a shareholder meeting that more than 70 Fortune 100 companies were either using or trying out iPhones, and it was rapidly replacing the BlackBerry as the must-have business phone.

But unlike the BlackBerry and other smartphones, the iPhone does not allow a company’s IT staff to install and upgrade its own security software, leaving business networks at risk of penetration.

Mr Lawler also said the increasing ubiquity of the phone meant that criminals were finding more and more opportunities to use it to intrude, to steal and to defraud.

”With the explosive uptake of personal communication devices there are certainly already opportunities that appeal to organised criminals,” said Mr Lawler, who spent 25 years with the Australian Federal Police before becoming the Crime Commission’s chief executive in March last year.

Even the desire for the phone is creating a burgeoning black market, he said.

In May European police launched raids in 11 countries to break up a Neapolitan mafia ring that was importing and distributing fake iPhones made in China.

Source: www.stuff.co.nz

Apple trademarks catchphrase

This post was originally published on Mashable.com

Apple has filed a trademark application for the company’s now ubiquitous catchphrase “there’s an app for that”.

Apple filed for the trademark back in December 2009, citing first commercial use of the phrase on January 26, 2009, per trademark documentation.

The trademark was filed in the Advertising, Business and Retail Services, Computer and Software Services and Scientific Services categories.

The trademark applies to “retail store services featuring computer software provided via the Internet and other computer and electronic communication networks; retail store services featuring computer software for use on handheld mobile digital electronic devices and other consumer electronics.”

The “there’s an app for that” tagline plays a large role in Apple’s marketing and advertising initiatives around the iPhone and all other iOS devices. The phrase has become so popular that it has permeated pop culture and become repurposed and parodied in a number of fashions. It makes sense, then, that Apple would want to trademark the phrase and prevent other businesses from profiting by the commercial use of the phrase without its consent

Source: www.stuff.co.nz

Android nips at Apple’s heels

It seemed Android smartphones was all anyone at a telecoms industry pow-wow in California talked about this week.

After years alone in the limelight, Apple’s iPhone now shares it with a slew of devices built on Google’s operating system.

At the CTIA wireless industry show in San Francisco, Android smartphones, such as Motorola’s Droid, Samsung’s Galaxy S and HTC’s Evo, dominated displays and conversations.

Sales of the iPhone are still growing at a healthy clip and its annual smartphone launches generate hype that rivals only dream of matching. In addition, Apple could get another boost if Verizon Wireless gets the iPhone on its network next year, as many expect.

But Android is giving Apple a run for its money in the consumer market, according to research data. Android was the most popular platform among US customers who bought smartphones in the past six months, despite the launch of the iPhone 4 in June, Nielsen reported.

“Anybody who watches it with a keen eye would be crazy to assume that Android wouldn’t gain more share than Apple over time,” Pacific Crest Securities analyst Andy Hargreaves said.

“They’ve got more devices, they’re going to be on more networks across a wider spectrum of price points.”

Android has effectively expanded the smartphone market, which had been dominated by Apple in the consumer space and Research in Motion in the business world.

ComScore said Android gained 6.6 percentage points of U.S. market share from May through August, while Apple remained essentially flat and Research in Motion – which makes the BlackBerry – shed 4.1 percentage points.

ComScore put Apple’s US smartphone market share at 24.2 percent and Android’s at 19.6 percent.

FREE TO AIR

Hargreaves said that because Android software is free for handset makers to license, it means Apple could have a tougher time generating higher margins on the iPhone than its rivals can on their smartphones.

Analysts estimate Apple sold about 12 million iPhones in the September quarter, which would translate into roughly 60 percent growth from last year.

That’s despite reports of a faulty antenna on the device.

But rivals are nipping at its heels. Motorola on Tuesday announced what it called the single largest launch of Android devices at any one time. It also unveiled the Droid Pro, as it aims to make inroads in the enterprise market.

“The Motorola phones are pretty good. The HTC phones are pretty good,” said Sterne, Agee & Leach analyst Vijay Rakesh.

But Rakesh said much of Android’s growth has come because of heavy promotion at Verizon Wireless, the biggest U.S. mobile provider, which is owned by Verizon Communications and Vodafone Group Plc.

Rakesh expects Android growth to slow next year if Verizon begins to offer the iPhone, as many analysts expect.

“The only thing Verizon could push was Android. Next year, if Apple gets on Verizon, that should slow,” he said.

The developer community has also increased its support for Android. Apple launched the craze for mobile applications when it opened the App Store in 2008.

Apple’s store now boasts more than a quarter of a million apps for purchase. The Android Market is smaller, with more than 80,000 apps, but can still offer its growing user base access to many of the most popular mobile programs.

Source: www.stuff.co.nz

Apple slapped by watchdog as new iPhone cracks emerge

Australia’s consumer watchdog has taken Apple to task over warranty issues as reports surface of new design problems relating to the iPhone 4’s glass body.

Telstra, following discussions with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, agreed to provide full two-year warranties for customers who buy handsets on two-year contracts. The agreement included all manufacturers except Apple.

“Although nearly all major handset manufacturers have agreed to honour full warranties, the ACCC continues to have concerns in relation to warranty issues with the Apple iPhone,” the ACCC said.

ACCC chairman Graeme Samuel said the strengthening of Telstra’s mobile warranties, which comes after a similar agreement with Vodafone Hutchison Australia, was designed to avoid customers being “hung out to dry”.

“Just because the manufacturer’s warranty period is up, it does not mean that consumers can be hung out to dry if they are left with a faulty product and ongoing service contract,” he said.

Previously, phone manufacturers offered standard one-year warranties but Samuel said in a phone interview that the ACCC took issue with this in cases where phones are sold on contracts that last longer than a year. Retailers then managed to negotiate two-year warranties with all major handset manufacturers except Apple, which charges customers extra for extended warranty.

“The retailers are saying well we can’t negotiate a 24 month warranty with Apple because it’s too expensive,” he said.

“The truth of it is they can but it’s going to cost them, and of course that cost would  then be passed on to the consumer in the purchase price of the phone. Consumers will then make up their mind whether it’s a better deal to buy an Apple iPhone or a Samsung or HTC.”

The consumer watchdog’s concerns come as new reports surface of large cracks appearing in the iPhone 4’s body when certain third-party slide-on cases are used.

The affected cases are Apple-approved third party products, not the rubber “bumper” sleeves that Apple was forced to give away free following the “Antennagate” issue that causes reception problems when the iPhone 4 is gripped in a certain way by the bare hand.

Well-known tech blogger Ryan Block, who ran Engadget.com before starting a new site, Gdgt.com, reported that sources inside and outside Apple had told him that the iPhone engineering team have been sent into “lockdown” over “another potential design flaw”.

“Apple has apparently found that non-bumper style cases – specifically those that slide onto the iPhone 4, which are occasionally prone to particulate matter getting caught between the rear of the phone and the case – can cause unexpected scratching that could quickly develop into full-on cracking or even much larger fracturing of the entire rear pane of glass,” Block wrote.

“To put it another way: Apple is afraid you might buy a standard slide-on iPhone case, put it on your phone, and then discover the next time you take it off that the entire back of your device has been shattered by no fault of your own.”

Anthony Agius, owner of the popular Australian Apple community site MacTalk, said he hadn’t seen any first-hand reports of Australian iPhone 4 owners experiencing the problems described by Block.

But he said some users had complained about Apple’s iPhone warranty process, specifically that they were receiving refurbished replacement models instead of new phones and that they had to wait weeks to get a repaclement via a telco.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Apple was working on a new version of the iPhone 4 for Verizon Wireless in the US, to be launched early next year, that would have a slightly different form factor to fix some of the design problems.

Separately, the white version of the iPhone 4 has still not been released, with little in the way of an explanation from Apple.

The glass design of the iPhone 4 is pleasing to the eye but within days of the handset’s launch repair shops were complaining that it smashes too easily. Dropped phones are not covered by Apple under warranty.

Other reported iPhone 4 issues include the recent daylight savings bug and a mysterious camera fault that causes a coloured tinge to be added to photographs.

Apple did not respond to a request for comment (Surprise, Surprise!).

Source: www.stuff.co.nz (inc. Image)

Nokia begins N8 deliveries

The world’s leading cellphone maker, Nokia, said on Thursday it has started to ship its flagship smartphone model the N8, boosting its share price.

Shares in Nokia were 3.5 percent stronger at 7.46 euros by 0951 GMT, outperforming the STOXX Europe 600 Technology index, which was 0.7 percent up.

“The reaction is surprisingly small when looking at how the share price has developed in the past week,” on shipping speculation, said Nordea analyst Sami Sarkamies.

Last week Nokia said it had delayed by a few weeks deliveries of the N8 to clients who had pre-ordered, hitting its shares on the day chief executive Stephen Elop started at the helm of the company.

The N8 is seen by analysts as Nokia’s first real challenge to Apple’s iPhone, more than three years after its launch.

Its success and timing of its introduction are seen crucial to Nokia’s profit margins in the third and fourth quarter.

Sarkamies noted the new flagship device was expected to have a bigger impact on profitability in the fourth quarter than in the third.

FIM analyst Michael Schroder said: “N8 is a step forward for Nokia when considering its portfolio. It is an important device as Nokia attempts to get back to the category of the most expensive smartphones.

“Smartphones is the category that generates the largest part of the result, although in terms of volumes it is still small.”

Nokia said the N8 would be widely available in coming weeks.

“The N8 has received the highest amount of pre-orders in Nokia’s history,” said Jo Harlow, head of the company’s smartphone unit, in a statement.

The N8, first to use Nokia’s new Symbian software, was originally scheduled to reach consumers in June.

In April, Nokia warned the software renewal would take longer than expected due to quality problems, and said that the model would reach consumers by the end of September.

A weak offering of smartphones and problems with software were seen as the main reasons for Nokia replacing Chief Executive Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo with Stephen Elop from Microsoft.

The N8 stands out among its rivals for its 12 megapixel camera, but has a slower processor than Samsung’s leading model, the Galaxy S, and Apple’s latest iPhone.

Source: www.stuff.co.nz

Millions hit by Facebook glitch

Millions of office workers, students and other procrastinators found themselves at a loss this morning when they awoke to find Facebook was down.

The site was “currently experiencing site issues” meaning many users were shut out of the service – some for the second day in a row.

Some are still reporting they cannot log in to the site. 

The company is yet to say what caused the problem, reporting only that there were ‘latency issues’ with its ‘API’ on its developer site.

The problem is clearly broader than that, however, with thousands of users tweeting about the outage.

Some were distraught: “I feel like a fish out of water,” tweeted one user.

Others were confused: “Does Facebook being down mean I have to actually talk to people face to face?” another said.

Some even tried to get the credit for the problem, such as this tweet from @alqaeda: “#facebook is down. Not sure if we did that, but we should claim credit anyway. Hitting the infidels where it hurts, etc.”

In a statement, Facebook said it was trying to resolve the issue as quickly as possible.

Yesterday, trouble with a third-party networking provider was blamed for the stoppage.

Facebook boasts more than 500 million members worldwide.

Source: www.stuff.co.nz

Nokia delays N8 again

Nokia said it would delay again its flagship smartphone N8 model, hitting its shares on the day new chief executive Stephen Elop started at the helm of the world’s top cellphone maker.

The N8 is seen by analysts as Nokia’s first top-range model to challenge Apple’s iPhone more than three years after its launch. Its success is seen as being crucial for Nokia’s profit margins.

“A single device does not normally have a significant impact on Nokia’s … development. But with the N8 the firm has much more at stake,” analysts at FIM Bank says in a note.

“The new delay is once again a blow to Nokia’s already tarnished image and it could also endanger the firm’s Q3 earnings target,” it said.

A company spokesman said the first phones were still scheduled to leave factories by the end of September, but deliveries to consumers who had preordered the phone would be delayed by a few weeks.

“In some markets, we had planned to start delivering the N8s to our pre-order customers by the end of September. To ensure a great user experience, we have decided to hold the shipments for a few weeks to do some final amends,” the company said in a statement, adding that the N8s would reach consumers in October.

Nokia announced the delay only a few days after the September 15 closure of its showcase event of the year, Nokia World.

“This is embarrassing,” said John Strand, chief executive of Danish telecoms consultancy Strand Consult.

The N8 smartphone, first to use Nokia’s new Symbian software, was originally scheduled to reach consumers in June.

In April, Nokia warned that the software renewal would take longer than it had expected due to quality problems and said that the N8 would reach consumers by the end of September.

The weak smartphone offering and problems with software were see as the main reasons for Nokia to replace its chief executive.

Stephen Elop, from Microsoft, started at his job as Nokia’s chief executive on Tuesday.

The N8 stands out among its rivals for its 12 megapixel camera but has a slower processor than Samsung’s top model Galaxy S and the latest iPhone.

Source: www.stuff.co.nz (incl image)

//

Banks plan iPhone transfer

ANZ and National Bank customers with iPhones will be able to transfer money to anyone with a mobile phone for free from early next year.

The iPhone application, called goMoney and available to ANZ’s Australian customers for free, lets users send up to $1000 a day to mobile phone contacts without the need for their bank account details.

ANZ New Zealand’s Kerri Thompson says the application is being tailored for the New Zealand market before “going live” here early next year. “The launch of goMoney will soon see ANZ customers have access to the most advanced mobile banking service available in New Zealand, where they can do their banking using a secure iPhone application anywhere, any time.”

ANZ staff in New Zealand and Australia jointly developed the application, she says.

Australian users can select Australian phone numbers from their contacts list to make the payments and can also make payments by entering bank account numbers if they wish. Recipients who did not use goMoney could go to an ANZ website to retrieve their money using a unique PIN number sent via text, The Australian reported. Customers who download the application need only a four-digit PIN to access it and can access up-to-date account balances and a 30-day transaction history.

Massey University director of banking studies David Tripe says the application could have greater appeal in Australia. “It may be a goer. One of the things here is that it’s actually still relatively easy to make a direct person-to-person payment using internet banking and that goes straight into a bank account. You can do that in Australia in some circumstances, but it isn’t as simple.”

ANZ group manager for innovation Peter Dalton says goMoney could be made available for other smartphones such as BlackBerrys or phones running Google’s Android operating system, but the iPhone was its main focus.

Ninety per cent of mobile access to ANZ Australia’s websites was through the iPhone, he said.

More than 30,000 Australian customers had downloaded goMoney since it launched in late August.

ANZ Australia is also testing its ePOS Mobile iPhone application with merchants, which lets them process credit and debit card payments in the field, meaning they do not have to carry Eftpos machines around.

Source: www.stuff.co.nz (inc image)

Uni bans Facebook & Twitter

A central Pennsylvania technological college with fewer students than many Facebook users have friends is blacking out social media for a week.

The bold experiment at Harrisburg University of Science and Technology – which has drawn praise, criticism and even a jab on late-night TV – means students and staff can’t access Facebook, Twitter or a host of other ubiquitous social networks while on campus.

Provost Eric Darr said the exercise that began Monday is not a punishment for the school’s 800 students, nor a precursor to a ban, but a way for people to think critically about the prevalence of social media.

The blackout comes on the heels of a report that web users in the US spend more time socializing on Facebook than searching with Google, according to data released last week from researchers at comScore

Still, Darr said he can’t believe the controversy generated in the Twitterverse, blogosphere and academia, with some accusing the school of inflicting “a terrible thing and an infringement upon people’s rights.”

“By and large, the students are supportive of the whole exercise and don’t get so worked up over it,” Darr said.

On campus, attempts to log in to MySpace or LinkedIn return the message: “This domain is blocked.” E-mail, texting and other web surfing is still allowed, but not instant-messaging.

Student Ashley Harris, 22, said the blackout has freed her to concentrate on her classwork instead of toggling on her laptop between social networks and the lesson at hand.

“I feel obligated to check my Facebook. I feel obligated to check my Twitter. Now I don’t,” Harris said. “I can just solely focus.”

Part of Harris’ willingness to disconnect stemmed from her feeling that the experiment demonstrates the young university’s focus on innovation. The private nonprofit institution was founded in 2003 and operates out of a 16-story building in downtown Harrisburg, the state capital about 95 miles northwest of Philadelphia.

Adam Ostrow, editor-in-chief of the social media news site Mashable.com, said he’d be interested to see if the university collects any hard metrics from the ban, such as better class attendance or more assignments turned in on time.

But he doesn’t think a blackout is feasible over the long-term. Though Facebook has been blocked in some workplaces as a time-waster, it is a crucial tool for college students to co-ordinate social schedules, organise events, plan study sessions and collaborate on assignments.

“You really can’t disconnect people from it in the long run without creating some real inefficiencies and backlash,” said Ostrow.

Ironically, the university hosted a social media summit on Wednesday – mid-blackout. That caused some angst for guest speaker Sherrie Madia, communications director for the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, who, like many, is used to tweeting during conferences.

She said the buzz around the ban has started a much-needed conversation about effective use of social media and how to balance online life with the world offline.

“Do we really want to be enslaved to Facebook or Twitter?” Madia said. “Once you create anything in social media, you have to feed the beast. When you stop adding content, you disappear.”

The university has created course work around the ban, and some students will write essays about their experience. Comedian Jimmy Fallon joked in Monday’s late-night monologue that he knows the title of those essays: “We All Have Smart Phones, Dumbass.”

Darr acknowledged students can use smart phones to bypass the university’s computer network or go to a nearby hotel for unblocked WiFi. And at a tech-centric school, he said, some students will try to get around the firewall just to prove they can.

Yet if people feel that compelled to check status updates or Twitter replies, that’s important to know.

“I want an honest reaction to the experiment,” Darr said.

The provost also confessed to some trepidation: College officials can’t use social networks this week either for student recruiting, business networking or curriculum planning.

“Next week, I will be as thankful as the next person we’re back on social media,” Darr said.

So will junior Giovanni Acosta, 21, who said he’s been texting up a storm trying to co-ordinate social events without Facebook and Twitter.

But student Dan Warseck, 36, said it doesn’t bother him – he prefers face-to-face communication and doesn’t even have texting on his phone.

“I’m not one of these people who puts their life online,” Warseck said. “My friends have my phone number if they really need to get in touch with me.”

Harris thought for sure she’d cheat on the blackout, but to her surprise she’s embraced it – although she does draw a line in the sand.

“I don’t know if I could turn off my phone,” Harris said. “I don’t know if I could be that liberated.”

Source: www.stuff.co.nz