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Twitter Rolls Out ReTweet Feature

Arnold Zafra — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 20:51:28 +0000

Twitter is testing out a new way of ”ReTweeting” to selected beta users. Here’s how the Twitter blog explains this “new feature.”

We’ve just activated a feature called retweet on a very small percentage of accounts in order to see how it works in the wild. Retweet is a button that makes forwarding a particularly interesting tweet to all your followers very easy. In turn, we hope interesting, newsworthy, or even just plain funny information will spread quickly through the network making its way efficiently to the people who want or need to know.

In short, the “ReTweet” feature which you can now see as part of the options for each of the tweets in your Twitter public timeline can be easily ReTweeted to your followers. The ReTweet button is represented by a rather odd-looking RT icon (see attached illustration)

You simply click on that icon and Twitter will automatically ReTweet the post to your followers. You’d see the phrase “Retweeted by you” just below the post which you just ReTweeted, similar to the like and unlike features of Facebook.

So, expect more ReTweets coming to your Twitter public timeline once the feature is rolled out to everyone. Perhaps even more than original “tweets” from people you follow.

Social Network for Moms to Stream Live Child Birth, What?

Arnold Zafra — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 11:50:30 +0000

Is the current generation so hooked with social networking and other online activities that a young pregnant woman would let others view her most painful experience on the internet? Believe it or not, it’s true. A young pregnant woman who is expected to give birth anytime soon agreed to stream her time inside the delivery room.

Lynsee, a 23-years old, a teacher from Minnessota, and so pregnant has allowed social networking site MomsLikeMe the right to broadcast her child delivery. Lynsee, has been actively sharing her pregnancy experience with the site since she found that she was pregnant.

Lynsee considers the broadcasting of her delivery as a way for her to teach as well as make her feel like she was actually a textbook.

On the day of her delivery, anyone who has internet connection may view Lynsee’s delivery on the MomsLikeMe site. Cameras will be strategically located inside the delivery room to ensure that no delicate shot angle will be accidentally revealed.

This practically means that anyone who can access MomsLikeMe on the day of Lynsee’s child delivery can actually view her inside the delivery room. There will be two cameras inside the delivery, each of them located strategically so as not to reveal too much of Lynsee while she is giving birth.

Unfortunately, the ABC News article did not mention the exact date when Lynsee will give birth. If you’re interested to know the exact date, you might find it at MomsLikeMe.

Motorola DROID is All Geared Up to Battle the iPhone and Others

Arnold Zafra — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 15:04:07 +0000

With several mobile phones running Google’s Android platform already out in the market or are about to be released by current popular mobile phone makers, who woud have thought that Motorola might actually come up with possibly the best Android phone of them all?

I mean, Motorola has been struggling to join the likes of Apple, Samsung, HTC and even LG into the “smartest” phone niche but never seemed to get it right. Until now, as the Motorola DROID was finally launched. This early, Motorola DROID is gaining some accolades from industry analysts.WSJ Matt Mossberg got an early hands on with a working unit of the Motorola DROID, and reading his review, you could easily tell that he was more than please with the said smartphone. He mentioned some minor flaws and shortcomings of the phone which render it inferior with the iPhone, but still he was all praises with the Motorola DROID.

Some highs of the Motorola DROID include – ability to run multiple apps at the same time, bigger and sharper high resolution 3.7-inch screen, 5mp camera, 6.5 hours battery life and more. While the lows include – 25% heavier than the iPhone, no multi-touch feature, awful keyboard, and lesser panels for displaying apps.

The Motorola DROID will be available through Verizon network for $200 plus two $70 monthly service fee and two year service contract.

It seems that Motorola has finally did it right this time. But still, it’s still to early to tell whether mobile phone users would actually shift to Motorola DROID. If that happens, three companies will be more than happy – Motorola, Verizon and Google.

Luxury Goods Makers Resort to Private Online Shopping Site to Sell their Overstocks

Arnold Zafra — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 14:39:16 +0000

If there’s one good thing the came out of the recently ended recession, that has to be the proliferation of members-only online shopping sites. And guess who are supplying their wares? None other than the makers of luxury goods which have found a new avenue to sell their goods particularly the overstocks which remained in their inventory.

Thanks to private online shopping site such as Gilt Groupe, Rue La La, and Ideeli, luxury brands have found their way to fashionistas who were forced to tighten their belt during the economic recession.

The demand for luxury goods in those private online shopping sites were so high that Forrester Research predicts that sales from the three major players in online shopping industry will amount to $300 million this year. That’s a significant figure considering that the economic recession has just ended.

That sales figure also contributes a lot to the estimated $1 billion online sales of luxury goods that the industry will make come year end.

What could be causing this phenomenon? There are several factors that contributes to this – sale price mentality among shoppers, the exclusivity of the online shopping site which makes shoppers all the more excited to get in and once they are in, will have the tendency to shop till their drop, and other factors.

The good news is, this might be just the beginning of a bigger and bolder future for online shopping sites. As the market matures, expect companies to push out more marketing strategies that would lure more online fashionistas to shop on these sites.

Apple and EMI Team Up to Bring an apple USB Loaded with Beatles Songs

Arnold Zafra — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 12:00:04 +0000

Apple in collaboration with is releasing an Apple-shaped USB loaded with 14 Beatles stereo titles. Included in the USB are all the remastered visual elements of the CD’s originally containing the 14 Beatles songs. In addition, the USB will also be loaded with 13 mini-documentary films about the Beatles’ studio albums, replicated UK album art rate photos and other notes.

The special USB boasts of 16GB capacity capable of holding contents in FLAC 44.1 Khz 24 bit and MP3 320 kbps formats. The USB supports both PC and Mac too.

How limited is unlimited? We’re talking of around 30,000 Apple USB.

The Apple USB will be released to the UK market on Dec 8, followed by the U.S. release the next day. It will set you back for $279.99.

Amazon Associate Launches “Share on Twitter” Feature, Sponsored Tweets in Sheep’s Clothing?

Arnold Zafra — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 11:34:24 +0000

I’ve created an Amazon Associate account a long time ago but never get to earn significantly from the referral program. The only time I got a commission from a sales coming from Amazon links from my blog is when a friend click on the link and actually purchase the product online.

Fast forward to now. Amazon Associates has launched a new feature that might actually give us easier way to gain commission. And this feature is called – Share on Twitter.

Much as I don’t want to admit it, Amazon Associates works similar to Sponsored Tweets. But instead of posting random tweets that promotes various advertisers, Amazon Associate’s Share on Twitter feature lets you post Amazon product links as tweets.

To use this feature, you need to have an Amazon Associate account. Just view any product that you want to promote on your Twitter account and then click on the “Share on Twitter” button located at the Site Stripe of any Amazon.com page.

Once you’ve clicked the “Share on Twitter” button, you will need to log in to your Twitter account. Your Twitter’s update box will then be populated with the pre-arranged tweet that includes a shortened URL for the product page and a brief sales pitch. You’re free to edit the brief statement to suit your preference. Then just click on the update button to publish the “sponsored” tweet.

Dead easy, right? But earning might not be as easy though. Unless of course your Twitter followers are avid Amazon users, and would be generous enough to click on the link on your tweets before purchasing Amazon items.

Best Buy Shifts to Online DVD Movie Delivery

Arnold Zafra — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 11:21:00 +0000

For Best Buy, it’s better late than never. While online movie delivery is no longer a new thing, it’s only now that the company more popularly known for selling DVDs has finally decided to start embracing the current trend in the movie distribution industry – direct online streaming.

To do this, Best Buy is set to announce that it has teamed up with SonicSolutions for the use of its CinemaNow streaming technology.

The new service will allow consumers to purchase a DVD movie which they can later play on any device, be it on TV, Blu-ray disc player, PC, handheld devices or even smartphones.

According to Best Buy’s senior VP for entertainment Chris Homeister, the DVD movie streaming service will be available starting next year and it will be a Best-Buy branded offering.

Best Buy’s partnership with CinemaNow follows their recent deal with Netfllix which made its movie library available on Best Buy’s Insignia Blu-ray disc players.

We’ll see if this will be as successful as Best Buy’s DVD distribution service.

Opera Releases Version 10 of Mobile Browser for Nokia and S60/Symbian Phones

Arnold Zafra — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 08:08:26 +0000

The latest beta of Opera Mobile 10 for Nokia, Sony Ericsson, and Samsung mobile phones running on Symbian and S60 OS is now available for download. This latest version of the popular mobile web browser offers sleeker design similar to the previously released Opera Mini 5 beta for Java phones.

Other new features include – speed dial, tabbed browsing, password manager, touchscreen optimized and keypad-style navigation. Opera also put a priority in the web browser’s performance, making it twice as fast as the previous version of Opera Mobile for S60/Symbian phones. The speed of downloading pages as well as zooming and panning has also been greatly improved.

Basically, Opera Software promises that Opera Mobile users on S60/Symbian phones will have the same experience when using Opera’s desktop browser. The mobile web browser uses the latest generation of the Opera browser that renders websites and applications in a similar fashion as the Opera browser.

To get the Opera mobile browser, simply point your phone’s built-in web browser to http://m.opera.com/mobile/ and follow the instructions to install the software on your phone.

Netvibes is Relaunching to Catch Real-Time Feeds

Arnold Zafra — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 19:21:10 +0000

Netvibes, one of the most popular web dashboard, start pages which can also serve as an aggregator for all your favorite news feeds is planning to relaunch soon. This time around Netvibes is taking a cue from the hype build by the so called “real-time” information produced by “real-time” information producers such as Twitter and Facebok to come up with a web dashboard that mines these real-time information.

Scheduled to go in private beta this week, the new Netvibes codenamed Wasabi edition will add support to Pubsubhubbub and RSS Cloud protocols. These tehcnologies will be used to inform Netvibes about new feed items which will then be pushed automatically to Netvibes subscribers’ browsers. And subscribers don’t have to refresh their browser to see the new items – that’s why it’s called “real-time.”

The question is, can Netvibes deliver the goods successfully? Will see about that once Netvibes Wasabi comes out and we’re hoping to get that exclusive invite.

Amazon Should Not Worry About Nook, But with the iPhone Instead

Arnold Zafra — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 11:09:54 +0000

It looks like Amazon should not worry about the upcoming Barnes & Noble’s Nook ebook reader but with the iPhone instead. According to a report by analytics research company Flurry, book apps for the iPhone have overtaken previous most downloaded category – game apps.

Beginning September, one out of every five new apps that launched in the iTunes Apps Store were actually ebooks which can be read by many ereader apps available for the iPhone. This was not the trend from August 2008 to August 2009, when the top downloaded apps belong to the games category.

Flurry further predicts that this trend will continue and it might come a time when iPhone apps will take Amazon Kindle’s market share in ebook sales.

Amazon’s woes could have been aggravated if the rumored Applet Tablet comes into reality. The good news is, should the Apple Tablet push through, some Apple insiders are saying that it will not be geared for ebook reading but rather as a portable media device.