Mash Me Up

It’s official. Sharing on Facebook / Twitter is as good as sex. Who says ? Harvard University no less. So what is it that pushes our buttons ? Boasting. Apparently it’s orgasmic…

I saw the initial report on CNN last night and it is echoed all over that interweb thing today by the likes of the Telegraph, CNET and even the Medical Journal.

It seems that a team of neuroscientists at Harvard studied 300 subjects using fMRI brainscanners to see what effect ‘boast posting’ (just made that up) had on areas of the brain. It seems that the pleasure receptors which light up when you are disclosing intimate details about yourself online are the same ones that are stimulated when you either eat a good meal, win some cash or have a Poke (pun totally intended).

Diana Tamir who led study said “This helps to explain why people so obsessively engage in this behaviour. It’s because it provides them with some sort of subjective value. It feels good, basically.”

Well I’ve got to be honest I’m not quite sure that I believe the study… my main problem being, how do they know what areas of the brain light up when you are having sex ? Surely there isn’t that much room in an fMRI scanner ?

On Facebook you can currently share anything from a career limiting photo to lurid details of your private life. And now it seems you can share your major organs too…

In an exclusive interview with ABC earlier today, Mark Zuckerberg announced that Facebook users in the US & UK can now share their donor status and connect them with people who require transplants (the thought of someone spamming me for the availability of my spleen concerns me slightly).

It seems the inspiration for the idea came from dinnertime chats with his medical student girlfriend Priscilla Chan (conversation about organ transplants whilst tucking into a rack of ribs doesn’t do much for my appetite but each to their own).

Commenting about the new service Zuckerberg said “Facebook is really about communicating and telling stories… We think that people can really help spread awareness of organ donation and that they want to participate in this to their friends. And that can be a big part of helping solve the crisis that’s out there.”

All very worthy and well intentioned. And yet it seems that Mr Z doesn’t always practice what he preaches. As of today he hasn’t actually signed up to be an organ donor on his Timeline. In fairness he has been quite busy promoting the new service so maybe he simply hasn’t had time to update his status…

Fancy publishing your own magazine ? Well very soon you’ll be able to thanks to Steve Chen & Chad Hurley. Don’t recognise their names ? Well these are the boys who launched a rather popular site called YouTube a number of years ago. And now they are going to do for magazines what they did for video…

Details are pretty sketchy right now but tech site Fusible reported earlier today that the duo have just launched an app called ‘Zeen’ and users are being invited to sign up on their website or friend them on Facebook. For now, nothing more than that. Cryptic hey ?

They are clearly adopting the ‘tease & reveal’ strategy to generate maximum interest and most likely to piggyback on the current buzz surrounding Pinterest.

It’s going to be big… and don’t forget YouZeen it here first ;o)

Well we didn’t see that one coming did we ? Well I didn’t anyway. Microsoft buys Skype. For around $8 US billion. That should have been in my top 10 predictions for the year in my January blog post. But it wasn’t. Oops. So why did I fail to spot it and what are the potential implications of the deal ? And what do we call it ? Microskype or Skypesoft ?

A feature in the Huffington Post suggests that Microsoft needs a game changing gadget to get some skin back in the game.

 “Microsoft desperately needs an iPad — a hit product that will sell millions, inspire fanatical devotees, and have people lining up before dawn — and despite sinking billions into its search engine, Bing, and smartphone software, Windows Phone 7, it has yet to woo consumers away from Apple and Google in meaningful numbers (though its success with gamer favorite Kinect suggests potential).”

To put some of that into context, Apple sold 14 million iPhones in the final quarter of 2010. By comparison Microsoft had sold around 2 million phones running the Windows Phone 7 operating system.

So what would they use Skype for on mobile ? Video calls ? Well Skype is already available as an app on most smartphones and video chat has hardly set the world alight to date. Dan Costa, executive editor at PC Magazine  put it like this “The thing about video chat is that it’s a feature everyone wants but no one uses. Skype has been offering video chat services for a while but find most people use Skype to make voice calls for free.”

Maybe the answer lies in gaming. As Huffpost mentioned in their article, Microsoft have had a hit with Kinect, shifting 10 million units since launch. Aligned to the Xbox and the online service  Xbox LIVE they could offer a significant upgrade to the offering by using Skype to enable its users to connect more closely.

Microsoft could take the battle to the living room and the TV screen, an arena where they have had some success and where their tech heavyweight rivals like Apple and Google have (so far) failed to penetrate successfully.

Again Dan Costa commented that “there is a real opportunity for Microsoft to integrate Skype with Kinect. Eventually, it could maybe even bring teleconferencing into the living room. Microsoft Kinect…could have a great telepresence platform: Instead of using Xbox to play games, mom and dad could be using it to place calls and check in on relatives.”

Rumors in Hollywood of a sequel to the classic E.T (The Extra-Terrestrial) were finally confirmed today with the release of an extended trailer for E.T 2 – Extinction. It features original stars Drew Barrymore & Henry Thomas who will reprise their respective roles of Gertie & Elliott plus there are guest appearances from Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman and even Barack Obama (who plays himself as the US President)

Spielberg has teamed up with the original screenwriter Melissa Mathison who wrote an outline for a sequel over a decade ago entitled E.T. II: Nocturnal Fears. The story involved Elliott and his friends, who are kidnapped by evil aliens and must contact E.T for help. That script never saw the light of day but was rediscovered by Spielberg who apparently read the screenplay again and decided that it was a movie worth making.

Controversy over the movie has already begun as the storyline is not in keeping with the original. The first installment of franchise was a heart-warming family film with an emphasis on the touching relationship between a young boy and an alien trying to find his way home. The sequel is an altogether different proposition (as you can see from the attached trailer) as it is now an action / horror movie featuring ET’s rather ’bloodthirsty’ relatives who are keen on populating our planet (and eradicating mankind at the same time).

Spielberg has also not directed the film this time. His role is only as Executive Producer and the directing duties have been (rather controversially) handed to Wes Craven (best known for teen slasher flicks such as A Nightmare on Elm Street and Scream). Not surprisingly E.T Extinction has already been given a provisional R rating.

It should be interesting to see what audiences make of the movie when it opens a year today in 2012 and whether Spielberg will go on to conclude the trilogy with the rumored E.T vs Aliens vs Predators 3 (in 3D)

E.T 2 – Extinction (extended trailer)

Charlie Sheen. Tiger Blood. Warlock Napalm. Clearly the ex ‘Two & a Half Men’ celebrity is bonkers. But who knew that the star of such celluloid classics as Platoon, Wall Street and the epic All Dogs Go To Heaven 2 would be the basis of a case study into how to harness the power of social media…

BBC News reported yesterday the story of an Irish student called Jonny Campbell who claimed on Twitter that he had won an internship with Sheen’s social media brand ‘ Team Sheen’. The competition for the internship was announced last month and has already received over 82,000 applications (many of them from porn stars according to varied lurid reports).

Anyway, the search for an overall winner was apparently still under way, when Mr Campbell tweeted: “O-M-G! I just received an email to congratulate me for winning the internship with Team Sheen. #Winning!”

It seems the graphic design student then posted a fake email on his blog from Team Sheen which supposedly confirmed his success.

Within hours the story was everywhere and he was being interviewed by local TV stations, radio and press. 

Just a day later it was announced that the whole exercise was a hoax, writing on his blog: “From the outset this has been a carefully orchestrated stunt and you’re probably wondering why?”. It seems his own video entry to the competition included a secret message which stated that “On March 29th I will lie and say @jonnycampbell won Charlie Sheen’s Internship.”

Jonny went on to explain that the purpose of the competition was to demonstrate an ability to harness the power of social media. In that respect you’ve got to give the boy some credit… but I’m guessing that one of those porn stars will probably still win the internship.

It started badly. Ratings for the latest series of American Idol were down 13% vs last season when it began in January. The equation of add Tyler add Lopez subtract Cowell just wasn’t working out.

But it seems that as the US public have grown used to the new judges and fresh format because the audience figures have balanced out and even started to rise. This week was Motown Week and everyone loves Motown right ? So maybe that’s the reason why ratings were up. Or possibly it was because the judges used their one time only ‘save’ for that contestant who looks like the weird one from The Hangover. Whatever the reason, ratings are improving and it is still the highest rating show with an average or 23.5 million viewers. And that’s pretty impressive right ?

But Fox shouldn’t get too complacent (idle ? sic). This week, the aforementioned Mr Cowell has been on the interview circuit here in the US announcing the LA launch of the auditions for his new show ‘The X Factor’ which premieres in the Fall (or the Autumn for those of us who speak English rather than American). It has been a huge success in the UK to the extent that Idol no longer exists as a format there.

Should be interesting to see how The X Factor gets on in the US but I’m still going with my prediction (made in my blog at the start of the year) that it will beat Idol in the ratings. With one caveat. It depends on the new judges. So far they have announced only one (some record producer called L A Reid who frankly we’ve never heard of). Rumours abound as to the identity of the other judges with names like Paula Abdul, Cheryl Cole, Nicki Minaj, Nicole Scherzinger and Mariah Carey all being thrown into the mix. The initial success of the show will inevitably depend on the calibre of the judges and then it’s over to the usual mix of freaks, misfits, sad back stories and the occasional real talent that will determine its ultimate success…

Twitter is 5 years old today. The first ever tweet (“inviting co-workers”) was sent by Jack Dorsey to colleagues at San Francisco web firm Odeo 5 years ago today and with those (rather uninspiring) two words, launched a global phenomenon.

To gain a billion “tweets” took 3 years. Just 2 years later more than 200 million users post that number… every single week.

That said, Twitter has been operating at a loss. However, since integrating ads within the site, it is now valued at US $3.7bn.

Most followed ? Lady Gaga 8.9 million followers. Justin Bieber 8.3 million followers. Britney Spears 7.2 million followers. Not an arbiter of taste then it seems.

But be wary of this 5 year olds power. This pre-schooler can also lose you your job. I’m in the US this week and the big news here is that a comedian called Gilbert Gottfried who is best known for the voice of the Aflac duck (frankly no idea, but something to do with a big DR insurance campaign out here apparently) was fired after he tweeted some truly reprehensible jokes about last week’s earthquake / tsunami in Japan. Sounds like the idiot had it coming.

39,000 feet up, 9 hours to go and zero in-flight entertainment. It’s broken. So much for technology hey ? And as someone else has the copy of Top Gear I wanted (typical) I get offered the latest issue of the self-proclaimed ‘gadget magazine’ and tech fest that is T3. Oh the irony.

Still it’s a darn good read is T3. Loads of stuff in there about the latest / greatest gizmo’s and what to expect in the not too distant future. And as it’s been a while since I did a list (you love them, don’t deny it) I have decided to compile an unofficial list of my favourite bits from the March issue…

• It’s been 10 years since iTunes was launched (way back when Steve Jobs had to explain what it meant to ‘rip’ a CD)
• For every hour that passes, people are playing 16 years worth of Angry Birds (Hitchcock will be turning in his grave)
• Nintendo expect to shift 4 million units of the new 3DS by the end of March (and optometrists are just waiting to cash in on kids’ contact lenses)
• RIM are about to launch the new OS for the Blackberry which promises a better user interface and a fresher, more intuitive feel (given the current OS that can’t be that difficult can it ?)
• Apple have filed a patent for a hybrid laptop / tablet… so basically a crossover Mac / iPad (and I have already decided it’s going to be called the MiPad… copyright S Blakeman March 2011… and if Apple want to use it then boy is it gonna cost ‘em)
• The theoretical maximum download speed over 4G is 1GB per second (‘woo’ I hear you say)… although we are unlikely to see that until at least 2014 (‘boo’ I now hear you say)
• Android smartphones have overtaken iOS phones in the US for the first time (according to Comscore Nov 2010) with a 26% market share
• Cans are cool and musicians are taking note… started by Dr Dre, the bandwagon was promptly jumped on by Lady Gaga… and now there are some ‘dope’ headphones from Ludacris (Signeo Soul) and 50 Cent (The Sleek)… and according to T3 “all that shit is mad ill”. Apparently.

Skype. 145 million monthly users. $860 million USD of annual net revenues. Successful right ? But Skype only has 8.8 million monthly ‘paying’ users. And last year Skype had a net loss of about $7 million USD. Doesn’t look quite so good now does it ? 

And investors remain concerned about Skype’s ability to make a profit from their huge user base. And given that Skype’s proposed IPO could be the biggest in the tech sector since Google raised $1.67 billion in 2004 , there is a fair bit at stake. So they have decided to go down the advertising route as a new income stream.

I reckon it needs a name though. Skype and ads. Hmm. Like Brad and Angelina. Brangelina. So rather cleverly (I think) I’ve called them Skypeads (see what I did there ?). Snappy hey ? (don’t forget you heard it here first… and let’s be honest most probably the last).

Fortune magazine predicts that Skypeads (it works right ?) can make as much as $200 million a year in advertising revenues and with the likes of Visa, Groupon and Universal Pictures already signed up that sounds more than achievable. 

Does that mean it will affect the consumer experience ? Well according to the Wall Street Journal the ads, which will initially appear in the US, UK and Germany, would not interrupt users with pop-ups or banners in the middle of their conversations. Be interesting to see what the initial feedback will be from users and also what the new ‘experimental’ formats are that Skype have mentioned. 

Skypeads. Maybe I should consider a copyright ?