Where are the $99 Tablets?

I just finished reading a TechCrunch blog letting folks know that WOOT! is selling HP TouchPad tablets today for $219.99. So what do you get - you get a refurbished 9.7” 32GB Wi-Fi Tablet running WebOS 3.0. In my opinion this isn't a very good deal - not even for the developer who believes that WebOS is coming back in a big way.
If you are in the market for a tablet - here are a few Android tablets that won't break the bank and actually have software being developed for them.
First take a look at the NOVO7 by Ainovo. This 7 inch tablet doesn't claim to be an iPad, but at prices staring at $89 its features are more than impressive. It $99 basic sports a front and back camera, HDMI out (1080p), plus a mini-USB and Android 4.0. So for $100 less than a Kindle Fire you get HDMI.
Or look at Idolian's $99 IdolPAD or its latest model the TorboTab C8 for $149.  Take a look at the IdolPAD.
There are better New tablet choices out there than the TouchPad.

QR Codes on the Rise in Print Magazines

According to a recently released study QR code appearances increased throughout 2011. 40% of the QR advertising activity came from the home, fashion and beauty categories. This growth should continue in 2012, as retailers look to lure in shoppers and more advertisers turn back to magazines for Tags.

Read Article: 
Mobile UX designers and marketing and analytics firm Nellymoser released today a comprehensive study of print magazine action codes. They took the time to review every 2011 issue of the top 100 national magazine titles: all 164,000 pages' worth. They found a total of 4,400 QR Codes, MicrosoftTags, Spyderlynk SnapTags, BEE Tags, JagTags, Digimarc watermarks and other codes with an iPhone or Android device. For each tag, they scanned and ran the resulting Web page or video. At least give them props for being thorough.

Google's biggest AdWords customers might surprise you

The infographic on the breakdown of Google's 2011 Ad revenue below is worth a look. You will recognize the brands and now you know how much they value Google platform in dollars. For companies that live on advertising dollars - here's your list of companies to call to try and steal some Google bucks.

Read the Article: http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57364908-93/googles-biggest-adwords-customers-might-surprise-you/

The home improvement chain and its competitor, Home Depot, are estimated to have spent more than $100 million combined on Google ad click-throughs in 2011. But it turns out that the finance and insurance sector is the industry that spends the most on Google, according to recently released estimates. ... Here's the breakdown: Of Google's nearly $38 billion in revenue last year (96 percent of which comes from advertising), more than 10 percent, or $4 billion, came from insurers, lenders, and other financial outfits like State Farm, Geico, and Quicken Loans. According to Wordstream, if you click on an ad that comes up after searching for the phrase "self employed health insurance," you just made Google $43.49.

RIM CEO's whacky new plan

If you want to send investors running in the opposite direction - look no further than RIM's new chief, Thorton Heins, who is keen on fixing the RIM's problem, U.S marketing! Steve Tobak's article is worth a glance - he tells us why Heins' and RIM are headed downhill.
RIM is a soon to be out of the picture player, who once dominated corporate environments to become a dinosaur of the decade.

Read the Article: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505125_162-57364400/rim-ceos-whacky-new-plan/

In what's quickly becoming a trademark "Oh no they didn't" style, RIM's floundering founders have decided to turn the company's reins over to a little-known insider, one of the BlackBerry maker's co-COOs, Thorstein Heins.
Heins wasted no time breaking out the company Kool-Aid when he announced in a conference call that he plans to stay the course, saying, "I don't think that there is some drastic change needed."
What a fascinating strategy for a company whose revenues have flatlined and whose profits and share price have plunged by over 70 percent over the past year.

Upstart mobile OS Tizen set to challenge iOS and Android

Backed by the likes of Intel and Samsung, Tizen, an open source operating system designed to rival iOS and Android. The good news is that there is always room for another to the party - as long as you understand that the party is being hosted by iOS and Android. Tizen may find a niche, but I doubt that it will compete in a meaningful way,

Read More: http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9223570/Upstart_Mobile_OS_Tizen_Previews_Code_
 An alpha release of the source code for the Tizen open-source operating system, aimed at giving Android and iOS a run for their money, is now available for download. Tizen is a Linux-based platform. It includes an HTML5 application framework and a customizable user interface, in addition to the operating system.

Tablet Visitors Spent 54% More Than Smartphone Visitors in 2011

Not very surprising that this study shows tablets users increased their shopping from devices that have become primary gateways to the internet. I expect these numbers to increase month over month, as the wait and see consumers finally caves in and joins the tablet party. As Adobe noted, non-Apple tablets will have an opportunity to establish themselves and I expect price to be the major factor in the consumer decision making process.
Shop for a Tablet



 Read More: http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2140454/Tablet-Visitors-Spent-54-More-Than-Smartphone-Visitors-in-2011

"Mobile is no longer a one-size-fits-all-strategy. It's like saying you have an Internet strategy. You have to get more granular. Audiences are really different," John Mellor, VP of business development for Adobe's Digital Marketing Business, said in an interview. He recommends that retailers segment their customers to account for the different audiences and their behaviors.
The study found that the average order values and conversion rates on Black Friday and Cyber Monday were higher than the averages for the 2011 calendar year and holiday season. However, the average order value during the 2011 holiday season totaled $111, which was $12 lower than the average order value during the 2011 calendar year.
The study is based on an analysis of 16 billion visits to the websites of more than 150 retailers in 2011. The average annual revenue of the sites is $260 million.

Google Lifts Chelsea, So City Hikes Tax Bill

 Only two things are certain in this life "Death and Taxes".  I may need to move to the Big Apple - My home state of New Jersey kills its residents with taxes -- I'd love to pay 7k  in taxes.

 Read More: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204301404577171431438979196.html

A year ago, Google Inc. paid $1.8 billion for the massive brick building housing its Manhattan headquarters in Chelsea. Now it is getting a New York welcome: a notice from the city that the building's property tax bill is about to go up by 17%, the largest increase of any major New York office address this year.

The city's Department of Finance will mail tax-assessment notices to the owners of a million properties in the next few days. Despite a soft real-estate market, the notices will inform many owners across the city that their taxes are due to go up in July, when the new fiscal year starts.

Apple to announce new digital textbook service?

While many may discount the importance of Apple's new service - it may dramatically change how our children learn and and the tools they learn with. When the Kindle launched - I wondered how long it would be before eReaders consumers would migrate to digital - Then the iPad arrived and I thought how long would it be before I would have to purchase a tablet as a required tool for my children's education. Apple's announcement may hold the answers for the education market. I already have colleagues who have been asked by their schools to purchase iPads for their children - I have a problem with purchasing a $500 iPad for a 6 year-old. So I hope Apple's announcement includes the "iPad Student Edition" @ $199.
On a media note, it will be interesting to see how this service will affect  publishers like Pearson Education.

Read More:http://gadgetbox.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/19/10188912-apple-to-announce-new-digital-textbook-service

Wikipedia Plans 24-Hour Blackout to Protest U.S. Piracy Law

Never mind taking over Wall Street - how about shutting down one of the most used resources on the web.That's what Wikipedia plans to to due in protest of the Stop Online Privacy Act.
Just this weekend, new tweeter, Rupert Murdoch attacked President Obama (when the White House expressed concerns about SOPA) and Google for profiting from piracy This fight will pit film studios/media companies/music studios against technology giants like Google/Facebook/Wikipedia.

Read More: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2012/01/17/bloomberg_articlesLXXMTT6S972A01-LXXTS.DTL

Jan. 17 (Bloomberg) -- Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia where users contribute and edit entries, will shut the English version of its website for 24 hours tomorrow to oppose proposed U.S. anti-piracy legislation.

The move is a protest against pending legislation including the Stop Online Piracy Act, or SOPA, bill, according to a statement by Wikimedia Foundation Inc., the non-profit organization that operates the encyclopedia

"If passed, this legislation will harm the free and open Internet and bring about new tools for censorship of international websites inside the United States," Wikimedia said in the statement.

World Bank and Google announce Map Maker collaboration

This project will prove to be a critical component in providing aid during disasters in developing countries. By leveraging Google's map platform the World Bank and relief organizations will be able to pool their data/research to more effectively respond to disasters.
While some organizations see the benefit in leveraging what already exists - others can't resist the urge to try their hand at reinventing the wheel. The Moscow government is doing just that. They have decided to develop their electronic map service, which will be used instead of Google maps or Yandex. So far, 20 billion roubles have been spent in what officials claim will be a system that provides tighter integration into the local infrastructure. The site will be up in a month or so at atlas.mos.ru



Read More:  http://www.sofiaecho.com/2012/01/17/1746570_world-bank-and-google-announce-map-maker-collaboration
The World Bank and Google announced on January 16 2012 an agreement aimed at improving the ability of developing countries to access a web-based community mapping tool and data to help better monitor public services, and improve disaster and humanitarian response efforts.
Under the agreement, Google will provide the World Bank and its partner organizations - including governments and UN agencies - with access to Google Map Maker underlying geospatial data that includes detailed maps of more than 150 countries.

Apple Announces January 19 “Education Event” in New York

From AllThingsD - Kafka 
Apple is ready to take on text books in iTunes -- now your children may really need an iPad of their own. Hopefully Apple will unveil a $299 version of the iPad.

Read More http://allthingsd.com/20120111/apple-announces-january-19-education-event-in-new-york/
Sources close to the company tell AllThingsD that the event will involve an initiative related to iBooks in education, presumably with some sort of tie-in to iTunes U.
Details beyond that are slim, though we’re told that this is an effort Jobs had been involved with in the months prior to his death. That could mean that it’s the textbooks-on-iPads plan that Jobs famously discussed with biographer Walter Isaacson. Fox’s Clayton Morris is hearing something similar.
The textbook market is certainly ripe for digital disruption, but the players that have emerged so far are pumping in a lot of cash with little to show for it.

Tablet as Time Machine: Old Magazine Issues Are Finding New Life on the iPad

Tablets have created new opportunities to generate revenue from old magazine content, which 5 years ago didn't exist. I led a number of magazine conversion projects, the first one was for American Heritage Magazine and the publisher had difficulty generating revenue from quality content.  The tablet has been a game changer for archived content. Tablet users will continue to want to find that old copy of Time for old times sake....!

Read more at www.theatlantic.com

At Hearst Magazines, 30 percent of the single copies sold on tablets are back issues.

And Hearst isn't the only company to be benefitting from the sale of archival issues. Over at Popular Science, AdWeek reports, back issues have accounted for a whopping 40 percent of the single digital copies the mag has sold this year. And at Popular Photography, the single-copy number jumps to 41 percent.

Those stats aren't just good news for a magazine industry that's always on the lookout for new ways to make money from old content

Facebook Worm Siphons 45,000 Accounts

With Facebook's popularity comes the unwanted attention of hackers. While this attack on affected a smaller number of the total Facebook user population -  it won't be the last attack. Social media users will need add some variety when creating social network accounts. And yes, your shouldn't use the same passwords for every account you have.

 Information Week

A server housing tens of thousands of stolen Facebook credentials was discovered--and it turns out the attackers employed a new version of an existing worm to pilfer the goods.

Researchers at Seculert say the attackers used a new variant of the Ramnit worm, which is best known as a financial malware family that steals FTP credentials and most recently morphed into a Zeus-like weapon that performs HTML code injection into browsers to steal online banking credentials. Ramnit represents some 17% of all new malware infections, according to Symantec data. "This is a variant which expands the financial-stealing of the previous version and now steals Facebook login credentials," said Aviv Raff, CTO at Seculert.

$299 iPad 2 seen shaking up tablet market

I sure hope that this is true. A $299 iPad would likely cause a shock wave throughout the tablet market. Consumers who were on the fence about spending $500 on an iPad would only have to justify spending $100 more than on a Kindle Fire. More than just grabbing a few customers from Amazon -- Apple will remain the tablet market leader -- that is unless Google unveils something special later this year.

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Read more at www.appleinsider.com

The new take from Taiwanese industry publication DigiTimes offered on Tuesday projects that Apple will keep its current iPad 2 available after it launches a third-generation iPad in the coming months. At most, it projects that the iPad 2 price will drop to $399 for the entry-level model, which would be $100 less than the current cheapest model, and would be a strategy similar to what Apple has employed with its iPhone lineup.

But Apple could be even more aggressive and price the iPad 2 even less, potentially at $349 or even as low as $299, the analysis concluded.

In Flop of H.P. TouchPad, an Object Lesson for the Tech Sector

 H.P.'s Touchpad will long be remembered as the most noticeable tablet to flop ever and not so surprisingly it relied on technology from Palm, a company which hadn't be an innovation leader in more than an decade. But even a poor performing tablet running an OS which developers weren't eager to build for could have succeeded -- for many non-technical consumers price is the important specification. Once the H.P. tablet fire-sale started -- it became apparent that consumers would purchase this "Flop Tablet" at $99. Within days the sold out tablets were appearing and being purchased on eBay for $199.



NYTimes
The TouchPad tablet from Hewlett-Packard was one of the most closely watched new gadgets of 2011 — and quickly turned out to be the year’s biggest flop.