The 54th Annual Grammy Awards attracted 39.9 million viewers making it the second-largest Grammy audience ever. Additionally, the event was significant in terms of social and digital measurements.
“According to Bluefin Labs, the Grammys earned 13 million social comments. That breaks the record from last week’s Super Bowl and absolutely dwarfs every other entertainment event from the last year,” Mashable reports.
The Grammy Live second screen experience saw 1 million viewers across the Web, iPhone and iPad.
The post tracks the overall social sentiment throughout the programming. Social comments peaked when Adele’s “21” was awarded Album of the Year.
HTC will be the first smartphone manufacturer with Sony’s PlayStation Certification, allowing its devices access to the cross-platform gaming network PlayStation Suite.
Originally, the PlayStation Suite was only available on Sony’s smartphones, but that business has been struggling — and expanding the PS Suite to HTC expands the customer base for Sony’s software.
The service will work to make HTC smartphones more appealing to gamers, but may hurt sales of Sony’s PlayStation Vita.
According to Mobiledia: “The Vita’s primary competition is smartphones. Casual gamers, one of the fastest-growing segments in the market, are highly unlikely to spend big money on a dedicated portable gaming system when they can play games on a device they already own, and even some hardcore gamers are getting their fix on their iPhone and Android devices. The PlayStation Suite pays particular attention to this audience, allowing users to play classic console games of the past on a device that’s already in their pocket.”
Trying to make your article popular on Twitter? A new white paper by HP Labs reveals how.
Researchers analyzed 40,000 articles posted to Twitter, focusing on content rather than just the rates or numbers of tweets. ReadWriteWeb lists some of the results:
“Source was the biggest indicator. The more reliable the source, the better chances of a tweet.”
“Stories in popular categories will spread more rapidly.”
“Mention a known person, place or organization and you’re also more likely to get your story tweeted (which explains why celebrities’ names often litter the trending topics column whenever I log into Twitter).”
“Emotional articles were no more likely to be spread than objective articles.”
Hasbro and Zynga, two rivals in the online videogame world, have announced a new partnership in the physical world of toys and board games.
The companies are teaming up to create games and toys based on Zynga’s online games such as “FarmVille” and “Mafia Wars.”
“Though both companies could use a boost, toy and gaming experts aren’t sure the tie up will help either all that much,” the Wall Street Journal reports. “That is because for the time being, at least, the partnership doesn’t extend to Zynga making new videogame versions of Hasbro’s board-game classics. Electronic Arts Inc. currently holds the digital rights to Hasbro board games. Still, a person familiar with the matter didn’t rule out the possibility of an expanded relationship in the future.”
Hasbro’s game and puzzle sales have been declining, due to “an inability to fully capitalize on the rise of the casual smartphone and social-media games that have made Zynga a burgeoning power,” indicates WSJ.
According to researcher Appdata.com, Zynga’s Scrabble knockoff “Words with Friends” currently has 13 million active monthly users on Facebook, as compared to Scrabble’s 1 million.
Microsoft recently launched Kinect for Windows, the first Kinect sensor licensed for commercial use.
“Microsoft Dynamics, the company’s unit that develops enterprise resource planning and customer relationship management (CRM) software applications, is currently exploring business scenarios that could benefit from the use of Kinect technology,” reports ReadWriteWeb.
The workplace version of Kinect would have a wide range of uses in various industries and Microsoft believes it would be especially helpful in fields that require gloves (for safety or sanitation). Using the motion-detection technology bypasses the need to remove gloves.
“Or what about food service? You’ve been in the store where the worker wearing gloves makes your sandwich, then has to remove the gloves to operate the cash register,” said Microsoft Business Solutions Technical Fellow Mike Ehrenberg. “We all see a lot of things in the workplace that don’t make a lot of sense and can be improved.”
ReadWriteWeb added an update to its original post: “On Friday, a spokesperson for Microsoft clarified the company’s plans for exploring Kinect motion-detection technology in the workplace. The spokesperson said no products were currently in development.”
Facebook is addressing the biggest threat to its IPO: getting revenue from the rapidly expanding — and thus far unprofitable — mobile platform by pushing “featured stories” from sponsors.
These sponsored stories keep users within the Facebook app rather than directing them to an advertiser’s Web page. The solution will hopefully minimize clutter on the mobile screen that often results from display advertising.
“Mobile display ads can be tricky because they create any number of rendering problems among the myriad of different phone browsers on the market and could drive up consumers’ data plan fees — neither are good bases for a marketing relationship,” reports GigaOM.
Facebook is expected to include sponsored posts in the news feeds of its mobile apps in March, prior to its $5 billion IPO.
Nikon has announced the newest addition to its professional DSLR offerings. The D800 features a 36.3 megapixel sensor, high ISO shooting capabilities, high definition video modes and a 51-point autofocus system.
“Where the D800 primarily differs from the D4, at least as far as performance is concerned, is in its 36.3MP, 7360 x 4912 pixel, full-frame CMOS sensor,” reports Ars Technica. “Nikon has chosen to emphasize raw resolution instead of extremely high ISO capabilities. Like the D700, the D800 can go up to 6400 ISO sensitivity, or can be ratcheted up to 25,600 in an extended ‘Hi 2’ mode. The D4, on the other hand, captures 16.2MP, but can shoot at a mind-boggling 204,800 ISO when pushed to its limits.”
Nikon hopes the D800 takes off in movie making and live video broadcasting with its ability to shoot at various resolutions and frame rates, and its audio inputs, monitor output and HDMI control to monitor live while recording.
The D800 comes equipped with a Compact Flash slot as well as an SD card slot, but won’t be compatible with the new XQD cards.
It is set to launch in late March for $2,999.95 — with a special D800E version for studios and scientific applications available in April for $3,299.95.
Disney is considering imposing a 28-day wait before making content available to Redbox and other DVD services, according to CEO Bob Iger.
“We are in discussions to go to the 28-day window — to not sell directly our physical goods to these entities unless they adhere to a 28-day window,” he told analysts on Tuesday.
Other studios — including FOX, Universal and NBCUniversal — already have a 28-day window in place and Warner Bros recently extended its window to 56 days.
“Iger said during the question-and-answer period on a conference call to discuss quarterly earnings that Disney’s studio hadn’t imposed a delay on the likes of Redbox before because ‘it was not seeing any effect from these dollar-rentals on their sell-through business,'” according to The Hollywood Reporter. However, soft DVD sales may now be the result of these services.
“[The studio] decided to take a step in the direction of further protecting the initial window of the sell-through,” Iger said.
Even though desktop computer sales have been down, monitors continue to proliferate as more and more people adopt multiple screens. The New York Times reports that 179 million monitors were sold worldwide last year compared with only 130 million desktop computers.
Monitors are now bigger, cheaper, and slimmer, making the multiscreen approach more accessible and attractive. New communication tools (such as social media) also drive the monitor sales, allowing for improved levels of multitasking.
One study conducted by the University of Utah showed people are more productive with two screens when working on editing tasks. Having more monitors cuts down on the time it takes to toggle between windows, saving users about 10 seconds every five minutes of work.
However, some psychologists argue the opposite, saying productivity declines when you can’t focus on one screen and are constantly scanning multiple views.
According to comScore, Amazon’s fourth quarter growth of 35 percent more than doubled the overall e-commerce market growth, which increased 14 percent in Q4.
The comparison is slightly skewed because Amazon’s results include international sales and mobile phone purchases, which comScore doesn’t track. Even so, Wall Street had estimated a 40 percent growth from the 2010 fourth quarter.
AllThingsD posted several notable findings from comScore’s report:
“The fourth quarter represented the ninth consecutive quarter of positive year-over-year growth, and fifth consecutive quarter of double-digit growth rates.”
“For the entire year 2011, U.S. retail e-commerce spending reached a record $161.5 billion, marking a 13 percent increase from 2010.”
“The categories that grew by at least 18 percent year over year: Digital content and subscriptions, jewelry and watches, consumer electronics, toys and hobbies, and computer software.”
“10 days in Q4 surpassed $1 billion in online spending.”
“52 percent of e-commerce transactions included free shipping, representing an all-time high.”
“Skype for Windows version 5.8 is out, bringing several interesting features, including full HD video-calling, group screen sharing and Facebook integration,” reports Mashable
The new video calling functionality for Facebook works even with social networkers who don’t use Skype. According to the post: “To start a video call with a Facebook buddy, select the person in your list and click ‘video call.'”
Group screen sharing is available with Skype Premium and allows users to share their screen or an application window with others on a conference call.
Also new: full HD video calls, a push-to-talk hotkey, the ability to hide offline Facebook contacts and Bing toolbar integration. Additionally, the new version claims to address several bugs, “including the one that prevented you from adding a phone number to a group which belonged to a Facebook contact.”
According to a study by the content sharing company Shareaholic, Palo Alto-based start-up Pinterest now drives more referral traffic on the Web than Google+, YouTube, Reddit, and LinkedIn combined.
Pinterest is a virtual pinboard that allows users to collect and share photos online, and it has rapidly gained ground over the last year.
The company accounted for 3.6 percent of referrals in January, just behind Twitter at 3.61 percent.
Facebook came in first, responsible for 26.4 percent of all referral traffic in January. StumbleUpon held a distant second with 5.07 percent.
The link includes Shareaholic’s study results, including Google and other top companies’ referral traffic percentages.
The popular Square credit card readers are coming to select retail outlets, enabling mobile transactions at stores equipped with T-Mobile smartphones.
In an effort to help small businesses, the company hopes the readers will especially help cash-only businesses.
“This easy-to-use solution, paired with T-Mobile’s affordable small business plans, aggregated business applications, equipment financing and trade-in services, and in-store support, allows small businesses to maximize their wireless investment and transform their business,” the press release states.
The announcement makes T-Mobile the first wireless carrier to offer Square credit card readers in stores.
Earlier this week Google created an official Google+ page for Android developers to connect and share ideas.
Within a few hours of the launch, the page had nearly 7,000 followers. Google hopes the page will facilitate discussions about new developer tools, SDKs, and training material.
“If you like Android and want to learn more about developing your own apps and software for the platform, this will be a great place to start. The page will also host Google+ Hangouts and will allow the developers to share video and pictures from developer events all around the world,” reports SlashGear.
“It’s no surprise that Google would roll out this sort of page for Android developers,” adds the post. “This is the sort of thing Google+ was meant for.”
Google sent a 13-page letter to several members of Congress, standing firm behind its changes to Google privacy policies.
The company said the changes are intended to “make [the privacy policies] simpler and more understandable, and to improve the user experience across Google.”
According to the letter, Google is not collecting any additional data about individuals and users’ existing settings will not be affected.
“If a user is signed in, she can still edit or turn off her search history, switch Gmail chat to ‘off the record,’ control the way Google tailors ads to her interests using our Ads Preferences Manager, use Incognito mode on Chrome, or use any of the other privacy tools we offer,” explains the letter.
Google’s letter comes in response to representatives’ concerns about consumers inability to opt out of data collection.
