As businesses struggle to learn the most effective social media strategies, Business Insider takes a look at the most popular companies on Facebook today.
The list focuses on 20 companies that market products to consumers (it does not include all the entertainment brands, celebrities and companies such as YouTube that draw a high number of likes on the social network).
The data comes from Likester’s marketing platform called AdCenter.
“While many of the companies on the list are huge brands, there are some surprises,” notes the post. “Companies that are smaller and more niche have discovered that using Facebook effectively can make them hugely popular.”
Levi Strauss, for example, was the first major retailer to include the Facebook ‘Like’ feature on its commerce site. Nutella designed a recent campaign that linked its content with social messaging related to the Olympics.
The list includes the following companies (from 1-20; check out the post for details regarding their social strategies): Coca-Cola, Disney, Converse, Starbucks, Red Bull, Oreo, Skittles, McDonald’s, Pringles, Victoria’s Secret, Walmart, Monster Energy, Target, Ferrero Rocher, Nutella, Adidas, Disneyland, Zara, Levi’s and Burberry.
Wired has posted an interesting article this week on the Hulcher film camera and its unfortunate decline in a digital world.
“For more than five decades, the Charles A. Hulcher Co. filled an important niche in the camera world,” explains the article. “Their cameras, which shot up to 100 frames per second, were used to make photos of everything from Space Shuttle launches to Major League Baseball games.”
But today the company has only four employees. “Digital has pretty much killed film cameras,” says Richard Hill, a Hulcher employee since the 1950s.
The original Hulcher 70 was built in the 1950s so that NASA scientists could study rocket launches in slow motion. The camera was capable of shooting 50 fps on 70mm film. When Charles Hulcher’s cameras became popular for other applications, the company produced 35mm versions that eventually reached 100 fps.
“The cameras achieved this high speed by running 100 feet of film between two large spools like a movie camera,” reports Wired. “Unlike a movie camera, however, Hulcher ran the film horizontally instead of vertically, creating a larger image area and in turn a high-resolution negative.”
The U.S. Navy used Hulcher camera technology in submarine periscopes. The Royal Canadian Air Force used the cameras for aerial surveillance. Sports photographers were fans of the Hulcher cameras because they were affordable and could be outfitted with lenses from other companies.
“One of the most famous photographers to use the Hulcher was John Zimmerman, who worked for Sports Illustrated, and made several well-known shots with modified Hulcher cameras,” notes the post. “Instead of just allowing the camera to fire multiple shots on sequential frames of film, Zimmerman would often disable the film-advance mechanism, creating vivid multiple exposures that captured the graceful movement of various sports figures.”
Golf Digest photographer Dom Furore says he used his Hulcher camera up until four years ago when he finally made the switch to digital with a modified two-camera system using Casio EX-F1s. Sports Illustrated photographer Heinz Kluetmeier claims the Hulcher images are sharper than those created with digital alternatives. “I wish we had a better digital equivalent,” he says.
Charles Hulcher passed away in 1994, but his company remains in operation five days a week, building the occasional custom high-speed camera, performing repairs on older models and producing small parts in the machine shop for NASA and other customers. “We just do this because we love it,” Hill says. “We’re always here for our customers.”
YouTube has launched a new Elections Hub that will include content from ABC News, Univision, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Al-Jazeera English, BuzzFeed and others.
The hub plans to provide live footage of the Republican and Democratic national conventions in addition to the first live online streaming of the presidential and vice presidential debates.
“We’ve seen there is a huge demand for political news on YouTube,” says Olivia Ma, YouTube’s news and politics manager.
Ma notes that the campaigns of President Obama and challenger Mitt Romney have uploaded more than 600 videos since April 2011. She says the campaign videos, and others that reference the two candidates, have been viewed nearly 2 billion times.
“With Election Hub, viewers will select the coverage they want to follow from a menu of options. Once they’ve made a choice, they’ll be able to watch live and on-demand campaign coverage — and participate in discussions,” reports the Los Angeles Times.
According to a Pew Research Center report, the number of people who go online to access political news has almost tripled since 2000 — “even though that growth has leveled off in the current election season because of a lack of interest among the younger users who are traditionally the most avid consumers of Internet news,” notes the article.
Hulu plans to roll out a redesigned website over the next few days that replaces its traditional programming grid with larger images and offers new personalization features.
The new version of the video streaming site, which can be previewed at New.Hulu.com, includes such personalized features as offering recommendations based on viewing history.
It has also added “Browse” and “Staff Picks” features. An updated search bar is designed to assist with accessing content faster.
The changes were put in place to improve content discovery, according to the company blog post.
“We’ve started by using larger, more vivid artwork to feature last night’s TV episodes and new additions to Hulu,” wrote Rob Wong, Hulu’s VP of product, on the blog. “We’ve also implemented a new tray-style format to make it easy for you to browse and discover content. And for logged-in users, we highlight the ‘Shows You Watch’ to make it super easy to jump directly to the shows you are already enjoying on Hulu.”
The CNET post includes a 1-minute Hulu Guided Tour video.
LG has announced that its new 84-inch ultra high definition LCD TV is ready to ship in South Korea with plans to launch internationally in September.
“The 84LM9600 does 3D with LG’s Cinema 3D passive glasses technology, however its ultra high pixel count means you’re still watching in 1080p even with the resolution loss since it starts at 3,840 x 2,160, and also features ‘3D sound’ with integrated 2.2 channel speakers,” reports Engadget.
Unfortunately, 4K content is still hard to find, but plug the $22,000 TV “into a BDP-S790 Blu-ray player, certain PS3 apps or just output the latest video you’ve shot and it should be worth the price of admission,” suggests the post.
“LG has equipped its UD 3D TV with Cinema 3D technology to ensure the impressively large display provides the most immersive viewing experience possible,” according to the press release. “3D Depth Control allows viewers to fine-tune the ‘distance’ between near and far objects on the screen for a custom 3D experience. The 3D Sound Zooming feature then analyzes the on-screen objects to generate sound according to their location and movement.”
“The 4K display market is still in its infancy but it was important for LG to claim a stake in this space,” says Havis Kwon, president and CEO of LG Electronics Home Entertainment Company. “LG’s UD 3D TV represents a whole new level of home viewing experience because it offers every advanced technology we currently have to offer.”
LG will have a production model on display at the end of this month during the IFA 2012 conference in Berlin, Germany.
Nikon unveiled its first Android-powered camera this week, the Coolpix S800c, available next month for $350.
The slim camera features a 16-megapixel BSI CMOS sensor, a 3.5-inch OLED WVGA touchscreen, a 10x optical zoom lens, built-in GPS for geotagging and 1080p movie capture mode.
“It possesses the ability to generate its own network and tether with your phone,” reports Engadget, “and users can also download photo sharing applications directly onto the cam’s 4GB of internal storage.”
Engadget takes a closer look at the camera with a hands-on review: “The main selling point here is that said ‘smart camera’ is powered by a slick (and near-vanilla) Android 2.3.3 with Google services, so with the built-in Wi-Fi, you can upload your 16-megapixel images or 1080p videos straight to your various social networks or other cloud services.”
The review notes that battery life may not be ideal for prolonged entertainment, but is complimentary of the camera’s speed and quality and the OLED multitouch display.
“The most interesting thing we discovered was that it seems the camera part of the S800c can run independently from Android while the latter is still booting up,” notes the post. “Rather than letting the device stay on standby like most other Android devices, Nikon uses a shut-down timer that activates once Android goes on standby.”
“When the camera’s completely switched off, hit the power button and you’ll go straight into camera mode which lets you shoot immediately, then about half a minute later the interface seamlessly goes back to smart mode, which is when you can hit the back or home button to toggle the Android unlock screen.”
Millions of American citizens still do not have adequate access to broadband Internet, according to a report from the Federal Communications Commission that points at service providers for taking their time in offering high-speed services in rural areas.
“The FCC’s annual broadband report, released Tuesday, says that 19 million Americans are still without broadband,” reports CNET. “And even though things are improving, the agency says, the pace of deployment is still too slow.”
This is an improvement over last year’s 26 million without broadband, but marks the third year in a row that the FCC says the high-speed service is not being rolled out in a “reasonable and timely fashion.”
“The U.S. has now regained global leadership in key areas of the broadband economy, including mobile, where we lead in mobile apps and 4G deployment,” FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said in a statement. “But in this flat, competitive global economy, we need to keep driving toward faster broadband and universal access.”
However, John Bergmayer, senior staff attorney for Public Knowledge, argues that much needed competition is lacking when it comes to broadband.
“Unfortunately, the FCC is about to approve a deal between Verizon and several large cable companies that would allow Verizon to start selling cable broadband instead of its own DSL broadband in many markets,” said Bergmayer in a statement. “This is the clearest sign yet that broadband competition in the U.S. is far from what it should be. The FCC should work to improve broadband competition, which will in turn help its goals of broadband deployment and adoption.”
Ariel Braunstein and Scott Kabat, formerly of Pure Digital Technologies (creator of the Flip Video line of camcorders), have launched a new venture called Knowmia — “a crowdsourced video platform designed to help teachers find and create online video lessons while improving the learning experience for students,” reports Digital Trends.
Knowmia is a member of Y Combinator’s collection of start-ups. Its software curates video lessons from teachers around the world for a personalized, affordable approach to online tutoring.
“The platform offers more than 7,000 free lessons that cover a variety of subjects, including algebra, chemistry, history and American literature,” notes the post.
The videos are primarily from YouTube and Vimeo. The start-up has recruited teachers who add related content including notes and quizzes. The goal is to create a centralized hub for educational videos.
Digital Trends draws comparisons to Khan Academy and TED’s new education platform.
“The team describes its ‘Knowmia Teach’ app as an ‘iMovie for teachers,’ allowing educators to mark up their lessons and videos in interactive demonstrations for their students,” explains the post. “In this way, Knowmia’s app competes directly with that of Educreations and ShowMe, both of which offer interactive whiteboards for teachers that let them create interactive, multimedia lessons.”
“High frame rate (HFR) cinema isn’t here yet, but it’s one of the most talked-about topics in the media and entertainment space,” notes Debra Kaufman for Creative COW. “But how many frames per second is ideal? How does HFR cinema change the workflow and the bottom line?”
A group of experts met for a panel during the recent SIGGRAPH conference in Los Angeles to discuss “why we should be excited by the opportunities of HFR cinema and what we can expect in day-to-day production and post workflows.”
“The higher the frame rate, the more realistic the image, and even more so with 3D,” said pioneer Douglas Trumbull. “My interest is in hyper-cinema. By combining 3D with extremely high frame rate on an extremely large screen at extreme brightness, the result is more like live performance. This offers a new interesting unanticipated opportunity to make movies that are like live events. The viewer is in the movie, on the adventure.”
HFR advocate James Cameron screened test footage of identical content comparing 24 fps, 48 fps and 60 fps versions. His producing partner Jon Landau explained that HFR technology can raise the impact of both 2D and 3D experiences.
“We want to find technologies that disappear and transport the audience more into the narrative story,” said Landau. “We thought 3D was one step in that direction. We have a responsibility as filmmakers to continue to push technology to tell stories in better ways, to tell stories that couldn’t be told before and to drive people out of their homes into theaters.”
ILM visual effects supervisor Dennis Muren experimented at home by playing Ray Harryhausen’s stop-motion animated film “The 7th Voyage of Sinbad” at higher rates and noted how motion looked more natural and characters looked less artificial. He also experimented with TV commercials at 120 fps.
“I think HFR is a great tool,” Muren said. “It’s closer to reality. You can always filter the camera or cut it back, all the things that cameramen have done to take the curse off video. But the audiences can connect more. Add 3D on top of that and you’re there. I’m a big proponent of it.”
The panel discussed the history of frame rate experimentation and the cost and production considerations that led to 24 fps as a standard for film. The group also addressed current experimentation and how dramatically new the possibilities are in a digital process. Additionally, obstacles were addressed, specifically the potential massive amount of data involved with HFR production.
“The enthusiasm over the possibilities of HFR cinema was tempered by some of the impact on VFX and post production toolsets and workflows,” reports Kaufman. “But if the past — including the recent past with the adoption of 3D — is any indication, this won’t hold anything back.”
Reaction to the upcoming 48 fps screenings of Peter Jackson’s “The Hobbit” will be influential, suggests Kaufman: “If audiences are enthusiastic, everything will fall into place: studios will greenlight HFR projects, some directors will enthusiastically embrace it, hardware and software vendors will come out with the technology to handle it, and the VFX and post houses will deal with the consequences, as they always have.”
We should expect a decline in network television coverage of this year’s national political conventions, but a dramatic “gavel-to-gavel” increase in Web streaming.
Online video will move to the forefront as the top four broadcast networks compete with new rival start-ups such as Politico and The Huffington Post to cover speeches and events live via the Web.
The Internet will take center stage when Republicans convene in Tampa, Florida next week and Democrats the week after in Charlotte, North Carolina.
“NBC, in fact, is likely to forgo prime-time TV coverage entirely of the Democratic convention the night of Wednesday, September 5, when it is contractually bound to air the kickoff game of the NFL season between the New York Giants and the Dallas Cowboys,” reports the Wall Street Journal.
“This year, more than any other cycle, we are going to reach millions more viewers in ways other than just television,” said Marc Burstein, senior executive producer for special events at ABC News.
There will also be some interesting social tie-ins as more audiences are expected to access coverage via smartphones and tablets than TVs.
“Time magazine, for example, has formed a partnership with Foursquare, a location-based mobile check-in service, for the conventions, in which Time has provided content that users can unlock when they get to certain locations in Tampa and Charlotte,” notes the article.
“CNN has joined with Facebook Inc. to gather political sentiment from its users. Bloomberg has teamed up with Event Farm on apps to simplify ticketing to events at the conventions. Other organizations, including National Journal, have launched their own apps to help visitors navigate the conventions.”
VentureBeat recently took the new Cadillac XTS sedan for a test drive and reports on the company’s CUE (Cadillac User Experience) digital system.
CUE has an in-dash display with 8-inch capacitive LCD touchscreen and a heads-up display on the lower part of the windshield.
“It’s kind of a space-age experience, dubbed ‘car infotainment,’ that gives us a glimpse of the future of cars and technology,” notes VentureBeat.
CUE lets you call up your favorite radio stations and phone numbers. Up to 60 favorites can be reached with one or two finger gestures.
“Points of interest can include any locations, like your home and work addresses, the best gas station, the nearest grocery store, and other places that you go to often,” notes the post. “If Starbucks is your favorite coffee place, you can tap on the Starbucks favorite button and it will call up the nearest places.”
The system includes a 1.8-liter storage space under the dash with USB for charging your iPhone or calling up your music collection on the dashboard screen. You can easily access apps on the screen (Android phones can also connect via Bluetooth).
“Navigation works particularly well with CUE. If you have a map showing you turn-by-turn navigation, the lower part of the menu will fade out and disappear if your finger isn’t near it,” explains the review. “This gives you a bigger map screen to view, helping you navigate better by minimizing distractions. You can pinch and zoom on the 3D map to focus on a particular spot on the map. Points of interest, weather, and your Onstar safety system are also easily accessible.”
Those who want to avoid the touchscreen while driving can opt for voice commands via Nuance speech recognition technology.
CUE, powered by a three-core ARM11-based processor, comes standard in the new Cadillac ($44,075-$61,805).
“Outline transition plan for new CEO. Discuss potential candidates and process,” states a confidential internal memo dated in July, and obtained by Variety. The three-page document reportedly details how two of Hulu’s parent companies, News Corp. and Disney, plan to transform the streaming service.
“Whether that plan will be carried out with or without CEO Jason Kilar, whose future at the joint venture has been the subject of speculation for nearly two years, is the question,” reports Variety. “But sources caution that no search committee has been hired nor have other candidates been approached for his job. There have been preliminary talks between Kilar and Hulu board members about his future, but without resolution.”
The article notes this is an example of the “central tension gripping media conglomerates today as they juggle the often conflicting interests of growing the brands of tomorrow while still protecting existing revenue streams.”
A management buyout of Providence Equity Partners, another Hulu owner, is expected to close in September. The buyout will allow Hulu execs with vested shares, including Kilar, to cash out. The change in ownership structure could also lead to significant changes in content licensing agreements.
“As tremendous a payday as the one likely coming to him next month, he’s likely to be richly rewarded for sticking it out and growing the company to the point that could yield greater upside down the line,” the article points out regarding Kilar. “That said, his owners remain concerned he has enough money coming to launch a new vision elsewhere.”
According to Variety, the memo also outlines potential amendments to programming:
1) “No more exclusivity for current-season content once restricted to Hulu and the networks’ respective websites. Now Disney and News Corp. can turn around and license programming to another third-party, i.e. YouTube, which could dilute Hulu’s competitive advantage in the marketplace.”
2) “No more content parity. ABC.com and Fox.com will be able to hold back certain content to differentiate their own sites from Hulu, which was once entitled to everything on the networks’ sites.”
3) “Exclusive ‘super-distribution’ rights Hulu once retained to syndicate content to third-party sites like Yahoo and AOL would revert back to Disney and News Corp.”
In the wake of a federal ruling that online video viewing is protected by U.S. privacy law, Hulu could face millions of dollars in damages for transmitting consumer information to third parties.
The suit alleges that the video-streaming service forwarded viewing information of its users to Scorecard Research, Facebook, DoubleClick, Google Analytics and QuantCast.
“In a proposed class-action against Hulu, U.S. Magistrate Laurel Beeler ruled the Video Privacy Protection Act of 1988 applies to Hulu,” reports Wired. “The popular video-streaming service… argued that the 1988 act, passed to protect video store rental records, did not apply to streaming services.”
“The question is whether the mechanism of delivery here — streaming versus bricks-and-mortar delivery — ends this case at the pleading stage,” wrote Beeler. “Hulu’s remaining argument is only that it is not a ‘video tape service provider’ because the VPPA does not expressly cover digital distribution (a term that did not exist when Congress enacted the statute). Given Congress’ concern with protecting consumers’ privacy in an evolving technological world, the court rejects the argument.”
Congress adopted the VPPA in 1988 after Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork’s video rentals were published in a newspaper. The act requires consumer consent for disclosure of such information, something that may not suit today’s digital approach to media.
“Netflix is lobbying Congress to alter the law, seeking to allow its customers to automatically share their viewing history on Facebook or other social-networking sites,” explains Wired. “Music streaming services allow this feature, but the Video Privacy Protection Act forbids it for video.”
“The Hulu privacy case is now one step closer to trial, and the question of who can share your video playlist is about to break wide open,” suggests ReadWriteWeb in a related post. “The VPPA, the argument goes, puts video streaming businesses at a serious disadvantage on the social Web, especially when you compare them to, say, audio streamers like Pandora and Spotify.”
Closing arguments are likely to be held this week in a potentially groundbreaking lawsuit that could impact how tablets and smartphones look and work.
As previously reported on ETCentric, Apple is seeking $2.5 billion in damages from Samsung for alleged patent infringement, while Samsung has countersued for $422 million.
“After nearly a month of testimony in the legal dogfight between Apple and Samsung over patents, the two parties are expected to make their closing arguments on Tuesday,” reports The New York Times. “It will then be up to jurors to hash out which Apple patents, if any, Samsung stepped on when it created devices that compete with the iPhone and iPad.”
Should Apple win, Samsung and others will likely start designing smartphones and tablets that look very different from Apple’s products.
However, a win for Samsung could have the opposite effect. “Expect to see an awful lot of Apple knockoffs without fear of retribution,” says Michael Gartenberg, an analyst at tech research firm Gartner.
“Although Apple sued Samsung, the outcome of the case has broader implications for other companies that create devices based on Google’s Android operating system, along with Google itself,” notes the article.
“Apple wants an order permanently barring Samsung, the largest maker of Android smartphones, from selling products in the United States that violate its patents. A legal victory against Samsung could give Apple extra ammunition in lawsuits it has filed against other Android makers,” explains NYT.
While some reports suggest Samsung has been on the defensive much of the trial, analysts have suggested the outcome may not swing fully in one direction or the other.
Jorge Contreras, associate professor of law at American University, predicts a “mixed result” — with Apple winning a few of its claims and losing others. Contreras suggests Apple has better footing with its claim of infringement on design patents for the iPhone and iPad, but has a challenge in proving claims regarding “utility patents” that address various software functions.
A promising new technology hopes to offer 3D films on television displays without the need for special 3D glasses. According to the Fraunhofer Institute, researchers plan to unveil the technology at the end of the month during Berlin’s IFA trade show.
The Fraunhofer Institute for Telecommunications research team at the Heinrich-Hertz Institute in Berlin says it has developed a new technology that converts Blu-ray 3D content in real-time to be shown on autostereoscopic displays.
“We take the existing two images and generate a depth map — that is to say, a map that assigns a specific distance from the camera to each object,” says Christian Riechert, research fellow at HHI. “From there we compute any of several intermediate views by applying depth image-based rendering techniques.”
“And here’s the really neat thing: the process operates on a fully automated basis, and in real-time,” adds Riechert.
Simultaneous interpretation allows the viewer to screen a 3D Blu-ray disc without the need for glasses while enjoying the same familiar experience of a conventional stereoscopic approach, including the ability to fast forward, rewind, start and stop, etc. The researchers claim that flickering on the edges of objects (commonly due to imprecise estimations) is now imperceptible.
The team’s next step is to collaborate with industry partners to port the software onto a hardware product that can be used with televisions. The post suggests it will be “at least another calendar year” before we see a product in stores.
