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)

Internet the new face of warfare?

A new Air Force manual for cyberwarfare describes a shadowy, fast-changing world where anonymous enemies can carry out devastating attacks in seconds and where conventional ideas about time and space don’t apply.

Much of the 62-page manual is a dry compendium of definitions, acronyms and explanations of who reports to whom. But it occasionally veers into scenarios that sound more like computer games than flesh-and-blood warfare.

Enemies can cloak their identities and hide their attacks amid the cascade of data flowing across international computer networks, it warns.

Relentless attackers are trying to hack into home and office networks in the US “millions of times a day, 24/7.”

And operating in cyberspace “may require abandoning common assumptions concerning time and space” because attacks can come from anywhere and take only seconds, the manual says.

The manual – officially, “Cyberspace Operations: Air Force Doctrine Document 3-12” – is dated July 15 but wasn’t made public until this month. It is unclassified and available on the internet.

It dwells mostly on protecting US military computer networks and makes little mention of attacking others.

That could signal the Pentagon wants to keep its offensive plans secret, or that its chief goal is fending off cyberattacks to keep its networks up and running, analysts said.

“Their primary mission is in some ways defensive,” said James Lewis, a cybersecurity expert and a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Lewis said the government still hasn’t decided whether offensive cyberwarfare is the province of the military or intelligence agencies.

“Who gets to do it? Is it a military operation?… An intel operation?” Lewis said. “They’ve made a lot of progress in the last year but they’re still sorting out the doctrine.”

Noah Shachtman, a contributing editor to Wired magazine and a fellow at the Brookings Institute think tank, said even the limited mention of offensive operations in the manual surprised him.

The manual cites one example of a cyberwar objective as “shutting down electrical power to key power grids of enemy leadership.”

“That’s usually not the kind of thing we talk about doing to others,” Shachtman said. “The offensive stuff is supersecret.”

Much of the manual is entry-level material, Shachtman said, citing an appendix listing 10 things Air Force personnel should know, including a warning not to open attachments in e-mails from unknown senders.

“The equivalent appendix would be like, ‘This is a gun. Guns are unsafe. Please do not point them at your face,”‘ Shachtman said.

The manual explains how dependent the military and civil society have become on computer networks for communication, banking, manufacturing controls and the distribution of utilities.

It also outlines the vulnerabilities of the internet, including the relatively low cost of computers that could give an adversary a way to block, manipulate, damage or destroy a network.

It describes a 2005 incident when a hacker or hackers got access to personal information of more than 37,000 Air Force personnel.

The manual points out that much of the internet’s hardware and software are produced and distributed by private vendors in other countries who “can be influenced by adversaries to provide altered products that have built-in vulnerabilities, such as modified chips.”

Defending the entire US military network is unnecessary and probably impossible, the manual says. Just as the Air Force doesn’t try to defend every square mile of airspace around the globe, it won’t try to defend the whole of cyberspace.

“Whether used offensively or defensively … conducting particular cyberspace operations may require access to only a very small ‘slice’ of the domain,” the manual says.

Overall US military cyberwarfare operations will be the job of the US Cyber Command, which began limited operations in May. It will have components from the Army, Air Force, Navy and Marines.

The Air Force component – the 24th Air Force at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas – is part of the Air Force Space Command at Peterson Air Force Base, Colo.

Lewis said the Cyber Command had a hand in the content of the Air Force manual.

“I see it as the first step in assigning special missions to the services. It’s a division of labor among the services,” he said.

The Marine Corps’ cyberspace operation document is still in development, a spokeswoman said. Army and Navy officials didn’t immediately respond to Associated Press questions about their planning.

Responsibility for civilian and government cybersecurity is less clear. Congress is debating between giving more power to the Homeland Security Department or the White House and the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

Homeland Security and the National Security Agency announced this month they would co-operate to strengthen the nation’s cybersecurity.

Source: www.stuff.co.nz

Microsoft wants to take over your car

Microsoft could be about to invade your car. Not content with launching its latest Windows-powered smartphone, the company has launched a new assault on the software that powers your car.

Although the software giant already provides systems for Ford, Kia and Fiat, it wants to improve in-car connectivity with Windows Embedded Automotive 7. The new system can control the car’s stereo, connect music players via Bluetooth and sync with smartphones to access phone contacts and calendars.

It can be operated either by a touchscreen or voice commands. Microsoft says you will be able to send a text message from your car just by speaking.

Another big change will be the ability for car companies to use Microsoft’s Silverflight media player, a rival to the popular Flash player.

The integration of Silverlight means improved 2D and 3D graphics on car video screens. Kevin Dallas, of Microsoft’s Windows Embedded Business Unit, said: “Microsoft deeply understands that technology collaboration is paramount to the evolution of integrated, in-vehicle infotainment systems.”

Microsoft is not the only big-name software company to get involved in cars. Research in Motion, the Canadian company behind the BlackBerry smartphone, bought QNX Software, a leading in-car software company, earlier this year.

QNX already has deals with leading brands including Audi, BMW and Hyundai.

Thilo Koslowski, of Gartner Inc, said: “Consumers are increasingly demanding access to new multimedia content, productivity solutions, and connected services for entertainment and communication from their in-vehicle system, similar to what they expect from their other devices.”

Fiat is the only car company in Australia to use a system developed with Microsoft – Blue&Me. It allows drivers to control car functions by voice.

Nissan’s Leaf electric car will use Microsoft’s software to power its in-car entertainment as well as a program that will calculate the location of the nearest re-charging stations.

Source: www.stuff.co.nz

Google to reveal anonymous critic

A business consultant who wants to know who’s been anonymously disparaging and fixating on her online has gotten a court to force Google to tell her.

As she joined a growing number of people who have persuaded courts to unmask troublesome cyber ciphers, Carla Franklin said Wednesday she hoped her case would help others combat similar problems.

“The Internet cannot become a safe haven for harassers and stalkers,” she said in an e-mail.

Google Inc. declined to comment. The Mountain View, Calif.-based online giant says it doesn’t discuss individual cases to protect users’ privacy, but it follows applicable laws.

A Manhattan court ruling issued Tuesday gives the company a couple of weeks to provide Franklin with identity and contact information for the person or people who posted denigrating comments and unauthorized videos of her, beginning last year.

The videos, posted on Google-owned YouTube, were clips from an innocuous student film in which she had appeared years before, coupled with personal information about her to create an unsettling online shrine, she said. Franklin did some modeling and acting before becoming a consultant to nonprofit organizations.

The comments, made though another YouTube channel, featured a sexual slur and were posted alongside videos she made for Columbia Business School while earning a master’s degree there, she said.

The postings were humiliating, creepy and potentially hurtful to Franklin’s professional prospects, she and her lawyer have said.

Franklin said in a blog post of her own this month that she believes she knows who’s responsible, but she went to court last summer to get proof so she could potentially pursue further legal action. Her court case didn’t involve Columbia.

While anonymous commentary became an instant tradition and valued aspect of the Internet, it’s also become a scourge for people and businesses who have found themselves bullied and besmirched by shadowy critics. And it’s become an issue for courts trying to weigh self-expression rights against defamation and other legal claims.

“There’s a tension there – there’s a First Amendment right to be able to speak anonymously, but there’s no First Amendment right to violate the law,” said Bennet G. Kelley, a Santa Monica, California, attorney who specializes in Internet law.

“People think: ‘It’s the Internet. I can do whatever I want,'” he said, but “the law applies, online and offline.”

Still, enforcing it can be a challenge. While a number of states have laws against cyberharassment or cyberstalking, it can be difficult for authorities to go after suspects who can easily change aliases and may be in another jurisdiction.

Prosecutions do happen, including the recent trial of a New York man accused of using phony online identities to harass and discredit his scholar father’s adversaries in a heated academic debate over the origins of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

The son, Raphael Golb, was convicted last month of identity theft and other charges. He said his pseudonymous e-mails and blog posts amounted to academic whistle-blowing and satire, not crime; he plans to appeal.

Some people end up going to court themselves to stop being trashed online. In one high-profile case, Vogue cover model Liskula Cohen successfully sued Google in a New York court last year to get the name of a blogger who had made derogatory remarks about Cohen’s hygiene and sexual habits.

Cohen said the comments on the site were defamatory. The blogger, ultimately identified by court order as Rosemary Port, said her privacy was violated, and she had a right to her opinions.

Source: www.stuff.co.nz

Kiwis first to get Windows phone

New Zealand has become the first country in the world to take delivery of Microsoft’s answer to the iPhone, the Windows Phone 7.

Vodafone New Zealand made the HTC 7 Trophy phone, one of nine Windows Phone 7 models to be sold worldwide, available online at 12.01am today and was selling the phones from its retail stores from noon today.

The Microsoft release is in stark contrast to Apple’s release of the iPad, earlier this year, which saw New Zealand tech heads wait months for the model while other countries lapped it up.

The Windows Phone 7 includes special versions of Microsoft’s Office productivity suite including the Outlook email program, as well as the Internet Explorer web browser, and Windows Media Player for playing digital music and video.

Meanwhile Microsoft New Zealand’s competition for software developers to design a Windows Phone 7 application with a New Zealand theme is due to close on November 1. There is a Trade Me category in the competition.

Source: www.stuff.co.nz

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

Sony unveils web-surfing TVs

Sony’s lineup of sleek televisions boasting Google’s Web-surfing system will go on sale Saturday, testing how much consumers are willing to pay to combine access to the entire Internet with their regular TV programming.

The high-definition sets unveiled Tuesday evening in New York will have LCD screens ranging from 24 inches to 46 inches, with recommended retail prices from US$600 to US$1,400.

Sony will begin selling the new sets in its online store Saturday, and they should be available in Best Buy’s US stores by early next week. Pre-orders are currently being taken at both Sony’s and Best Buy’s websites.

Sony’s price for its Google TV sets is US$200 to US$400 higher than comparable TVs without the highly touted software, a differential that threatens to dampen sales at a time the still-shaky economy is causing more households to pinch their pennies.

The strong sales of Apple Inc.’s iPhone and iPad have demonstrated that people are still willing to open their wallets to buy breakthrough gadgets, but persuading them usually requires a snazzy marketing campaign that shows why the products are worth the extra money.

Forrester Research analyst James McQuivey said he isn’t convinced that Sony and Google will be able to make a compelling enough case to turn this new generation of TVs into a must-have item, even though he is impressed with the technology inside the sets.

“Price is going to be important,” he said. “Google TV is a powerful experience, but most people aren’t going to understand it unless they can see it in action. And Google isn’t known for its consumer marketing experience. I think they have the right concept here, but I am not sure about the execution yet.”

Sony is planning a marketing blitz to promote its Google TV sets through the holiday shopping season, although the company isn’t saying how much it will spend on the campaign. Google traditionally has refrained from buying TV ads, relying instead on its ubiquity on the Internet and the marketing acumen of its partners.

Like millions of mobile phones that have been sold in the past two years, Sony’s new TVs will be built on Google’s Android operating system. They will navigate websites with Google’s Chrome browser and rely on Intel Corp.’s Atom chips for their processing power. The system can comb through the Internet, television programming guides and even DVRs from satellite operator Dish Network Corp. to find all video connected to a request entered into a search bar at the top of the screen.

“Finally, you can seamlessly search your favorite TV programs and websites on the same screen, at the same time,” said Mike Abary, senior vice president of Sony Corp.’s home division.

The remote control for Sony’s Google TVs includes a standard, “QWERTY” keyboard to enter the search requests or make other comments on the Internet while retaining the ability to watch TV simultaneously.

Logitech International SA has bundled the same Google TV package into a set-top box that can be plugged into existing TVs with HDMI sets. The Logitech boxes, already available for pre-order, are selling for US$300, undercutting a similar box with a Blu-ray player that Sony is selling for US$400.

Google TV devices will likely face their stiffest competition from an array of less-expensive boxes that also connect to popular Internet services such as movies from Netflix Inc. and songs from Pandora’s music-streaming site.

But those enticements haven’t been enough to get most people to buy Internet-connected boxes. McQuivey estimates that Apple has sold about 1 million of its set-top boxes so far. Roku Inc. has sold even fewer since it entered the market more than two years ago, McQuivey said, even though the price for its Internet player has fallen to US$60.

Those relatively modest sales figures show how reluctant people have been to inject the Internet into the three to five hours they spend, on average, in the so-called “lean back” mode of watching television.

But that almost certainly will change as younger people who have grown up Web surfing on their computers while channel surfing on the TVs look for products that bring together the different media. The only question seems to be how much longer it will be until the market reaches the tipping point where Internet TV goes mainstream.

Sony’s own research has identified consumers who are under 44 years old as the most likely buyers of the new Google TV sets. McQuivey thinks the market is probably even narrower than that right now, ranging mostly from people between 30 and 45 years old who have settled down into their own households and can afford fancy TVs.

Convinced the Internet TV will be the next big thing, other consumer electronics manufacturers such as Samsung Electronics, Vizio and Mitsubishi also are promoting Web-connected sets and Blu-ray players.

And after brushing off Internet TV as nothing but as “hobby” for years,” Apple CEO Steve Jobs appears ready to get serious about the market. His company last month introduced a retooled set-top box that sells for just US$99.

The Apple TV product is still more limited than Google TV’s system, but McQuivey said that may not matter to consumers who have come to love Apple’s “prettier and shinier” gadgets.

There should be ample opportunity to convert more people to Internet TV, given that McQuivey expects about 22 million new TV sets to be sold in the U.S. next year.

Google Inc. CEO Eric Schmidt appears fairly certain a lot of them will be showing content from the Web.

“Instead of wasting time watching television, you can waste time watching the Internet,” he said in a recent speech.

Source: www.stuff.co.nz

Microsoft sends out major fix

Microsoft issued its biggest-ever security fix on Tuesday, including repairs to its ubiquitous Windows operating system for flaws that could let hackers take control of a user’s personal computer.

Microsoft released 16 security patches to address 49 problems it identified in its products.

It said four of the patches were high priority and should be deployed immediately to protect users from potential criminal attacks on the Windows operating systems. The patches are software updates that write over glitches.

Microsoft said it also repaired other less serious security weaknesses in Windows, along with security problems in its widely used Office software for PCs and Microsoft Server software for business computers.

The total of 49 vulnerabilities exceeds the previous record of 34, which was set in October 2009 and matched in June and August of this year.

The constant patching of PCs is a time-consuming process for corporate users, who need to test the fixes before they deploy them to make sure they do not cause machines to crash because of compatibility problems with existing software.

Source: www.stuff.co.nz

Windows Phone Comes to NZ!

New Zealanders will be some of the first in the world to get their hands on the new Windows Phone 7, which goes on sale later this month in line with the global launch. Microsoft believes the gloves are officially off in the smartphone market with the Windows Phone 7 launch. Mark Bishop, Windows Phone Business Manager at Microsoft New Zealand says Windows Phone 7 has the smartest of the smarts and Microsoft is set to compete aggressively with other offerings. “We think the time is right for a different kind of phone – people’s needs and expectations of phones are increasing and there is a great opportunity in the smartphone space to offer a different experience. We have built a phone for people that don’t want to live on their phones, but rather have phones that help them live their lives, doing more in less steps. The lines between our work and home lives have blurred – Windows Phone 7 will deliver an innovative set of features for social networking, entertainment and marry those with our traditional strengths in messaging and productivity.” Windows Phone 7 is designed to bring together what customers care about most, quickly and easily through the ‘glance and go’ functionality. Key features of Windows Phone 7 include: The only smartphone with Hubs and Live Tiles that update on the Start screen so you can see all the information you care about at a glance Making it easier and faster to find popular features such as pictures, music, games and information about friends and family Combining basic every-day tasks like Search, taking pictures, interacting with contacts or managing email to do more in fewer steps The first phone to have one button to Bing, Xbox LIVE, Office, Internet Explorer Mobile and the Zune experience all built in The Windows Phone 7 will be launched initially on the Vodafone network, making them Microsoft’s premier partner for launch Vodafone’s GM of Business Marketing, Becky Lloyd says, “We are delighted to be working with Microsoft to launch this fantastic new smartphone to New Zealanders and to be Microsoft’s premier partner for launch. The combination of Windows Phone 7 with our smart network is going to provide an exciting smartphone experience for our customers.” More than 1,700 people have downloaded the developer tools for building applications for the Windows Phone 7 in New Zealand. Gavin Jones, Senior Developer at Enlighten Designs says the Windows Phone 7 is a fantastic and easy platform to develop applications on. “I am really excited about the fact it seems such a simple platform to design and develop applications – the tools are easy to use and Microsoft has leveraged a lot of its existing technology. It is also fantastic to see that the design tools are free to download, and having the local Microsoft New Zealand team to talk to and ask questions has made it a lot easier to get involved and make our mark on the Windows Phone 7.”

Vodafone is launching with the HTC 7 Trophy. The phones can be purchased as part of a Vodafone pricing plan, or alternatively, Prepay customers can buy handsets for $899. Windows Phone 7 plans on Vodafone start from $40.85 per month (includes 30 minutes of calls, 300 texts and up to 250Mb of data) with the handset priced at $799. To get a Windows Phone 7 for under $500, customers can sign up to the $81.75 monthly plan which includes 120 minutes, 600 texts and up to 250Mb of data. For more information visit http://www.vodafone.co.nz/windowsphone, call into a Vodafone Store, talk to your Vodafone Business consultant or Account manager for more details, or visit

Source: www.windowsphone.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