Facebook to File for $5b IPO Today

Internet Drowns in Inaccurate Anti-ACTA Arguements

Ocado’s Mobile Sales Growth

Instapaper Founder Marco Arment on the App Economy

Marketing Budgets 2012

Digital Storytelling

“Agile” Digital Music 2012

Angry Birds Boss: Piracy Gets Us More Business

The Platform Graveyard: Lessons Learnt

RIM Restyles Next Generation Blackberry

PhoneGap Build Support Comes to Version 1.4.0

Making an iOS App is Not Cheap

A House Designed Like  Web Application

76 Storage APIs

Design Apps: Beauty & Functionality

Heineken’s Valentine’s Day ‘The Serenade’ Facebook App

Twitter’s CEO has been talking; defending his company’s controversial moves towards censorship globally as well as talking about the nature of Twitter itself.  In case you were in any doubt, Twitter s not a Media Company despite selling advertising;

“We’re in the media business, but we’re not necessarily a media company.  We don’t create our own content; we’re a distributor of content and traffic. We’re one of the largest drivers of traffic to other media properties.” said Dick Costolo at a media conference yesterday evening.

Elsewhere in the US Obama’s promised ‘Hangout’ on Google+ yesterday US-time was an dubbed a high tech ‘townhall meeting’, check out the covered topics in the link below where you can watch his political ‘Plus’ session.

BSkyB to Take on Netflix and YouView with Internet TV Service

Twitter is Not a Media Company, CEO Says

Obama’s Google+ Hangout: Protect the ‘Fundamental Integrity’ of the Internet

Google Aims for Better Android Apps with New Google+ Page

New Flaming Lips Song Features Siri on Vocals

Apps to Help You Deal with Too Many Apps

Social’s Future

Square’s Mobile Payments Gain Obama’s Backing

Turn Your Facebook Timeline into a Movie

2012: Convergence is Here

OpenMEAP HTML5-Based Mobile App Versioning System

Twitter Launched New GitHub Page

AirDroid: Manage Your Android Phone from Your Computer’s Desktop

A Short Study of Identity in a World of Many Social Channels

Elsewhere in Social Media Facebook’s Timeline is creating controversy, with a backlash against the imminent mandatory change to everyone’s profiles causing one Guardian contributor to brand the site’s management as ‘sociopaths’ for their lack of care toward’s people’s privacy and many questioning whether it contradicts new legislation protecting people’s data in the US.

Twitter Brand Pages to be Enhanced

Twitter’s New Censorship Policy is Good for Activists

Almost Nobody Wants Facebook Timeline

Why is Software Development Estimation so Hard?

iOS Games Worthy of Attention

2011 Best App Ever Awards

Pinterest Becomes Top Traffic Driver for Retailers

Client Has a Problem with a Site: Send Them Here

The State of iCloud-Enabled Apps

Augmented Reality Poetry Book via a Webcam

Tiffany’s Instagram Campaign Could Go Much Further

Stella McCartney’s 360 Degree Geo-Targeted Campaign

Google Wallet Struggling to Gain Acceptance?

Samsung Boosted by Galaxy

FBI to Monitor Facebook, Twitter, MySpace

Twitter Will Become Available in Right to Left Languages Soon

Smartphone Penetration Hits 42% Across ‘EU5′

Television to Become More Like Netflix

David Oglivy’s Copywriting Advice

Wikileaks Founder’s TV Show to be Aired on Russion Channel

Nokia Q4: Scrambling for a Grip

Building Games that Run on Poor Mobile Connections

Is Your Blog in this PR Database of 1.3m Blogs?

The Best Tools for Universal Note-Taking

What’s Cooking in Java8

Good Technology Report Shows Apple’s Domination

Developers Debate Android Gaming Potential

‘HTML5 Please’

Apple’s Q1 Results: Record-Shattering Revenue and Profit

McFail: When Branded Twitter Hashtags Go #HorriblyWrong

Assange to Present Own TV Show

MySpace Has a Facebook App

Chart That Puts Apple Up There with Oil

Kindle Touch Software Update 5.0.3

Time Out Prepares to Launch Online Social TV Guide

Multichannel Boosts Email

Mobile Shopping Increases Nearly Threefold

Ubuntu HUD

Rasberry Pi’s GPU Double the Performance of iPhone 4S

Vox.io’s URL-Based Alternative to the Telephone

Facebook Timeline and What Marketers Need to Know

In today’s news Obama keeps up his reputation as the most savvy Social Media user ever to hold office in the White House with a ‘Hang Out’ session on Google Plus scheduled today.  He will be answering questions via the new White House Google Plus page that have been submitted through YouTube, and will be streamed live on whitehouse.gov.  Multichannel expertise!

In other news, Anonymous is threatening a Hack on Facebook this weekend in a bid to excerpt their power after hacking several major sites following the Megaupload sting at the weekend.

Scroll down also to see one prediction in our newsletter this month for Augmented Reality, which has just been employed by Absolut Vodka in a new app and check out how QR codes can be used to measure conversion rates…

Obama Hangs Out on Google Plus

Anonymous Threatens Facebook Attack This Saturday

Absolut Vodka Launches Augmented Reality App

QR Code Stickers Turns Real World Objects into Digital Conversions

What the Decline of Print Means for Digital

Tumblr Hits 15 Billiong Monthly Pageviews

Google+ Finally Allows Pseudonyms

Amnesty Uses Shazam to Boost e-Petition Response

Android to Replace iOS for Developers

Mobile, the Future of Discounts?

Orange to Provide Wikipedia Free in Middle East & Africa

American Ruling Forcing Decryption of Laptops

Java Anti-Patterns

Whac-A-Banker

Nokia Lumia Sales Seen Topping 1m

The Death of Megaupload to Spark a ‘Spotify for Movies’

Work in Progress: Kirin Pipeline

Lazyweb: Git on Android

Why Google+ Matters to E-Commerce

Apple’s iBook Lockdown

Facebook’s New Open Graph Features Impact on f-Commerce

Nielson U.S Smartphone Numbers

How Bounce Rate Optimization Improves Search Rankings

Google+ Misleading Statistics

Google+ is Not a Social Network

Twitter Too Busy Growing to Worry About Google+

64% Would Pay-To-Stream Film in UK

London 2012 to be ‘Biggest Media Event in History’

Snicker’s Stupid Jordan Twitter Stunt

Domino’s Pizza Tracker

Search Plus Your World’s Impact on PPC

StumbleUpon for Power Users

BlueTrain Mobile Publishes “Mobile Marketing Map”

Facebook Timeline Apps: Should You Use Them?

iPhone Over Takes the Camera and Kodak Goes Bust

Social Media

2012 marks the year Facebook goes public in “one of the most hotly anticipated flotations in US corporate history” and “the biggest internet public offering since Google” – according to the Guardian’s Media and Technology reporter Josh Halliday.  With estimates on the network’s worth hovering around the $100bn mark, many are hotly anticipating April’s deadline for Zuckerberg to announce Facebook’s profit margins.

Elsewhere expect Social Media to continue to blur into other aspects of our lives; as customer service, entertainment and commerce continue to collide with networks such as Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr.  Companies such as Netflix and Spotify are uniting with Social Media platforms to attempt to curb piracy and create an integrated online one-stop-shop where all online activities exist within a social network, while e-commerce sites will continue integrating to Social where higher conversion rates and better customer understanding await those that are smart about it.

From a business perspective B2C Social Media engagement will be more important than mere presence.  Quality rather than quantity will apply more than ever in 2012 as more networks mean more to choose from to promote brands and services.  As Cindy King puts it: “The old mantra of ‘be everywhere’ is quickly being replaced with ‘be where it matters to our business.’”
Social Media, especially Twitter, will continue to play a part in the emerging dialogue on freedom of speech and information.  The Leveson enquiry, online protests such as the current battle against SOPA and the controversial relationship between social networks and civil unrest promise to continue to play out in 2012 with reactionary proposed legislation instigating impassioned rhetoric in the fields of politics, internet and information-based services and the media. While the issue of piracy could reach boiling point with new laws emerging and tougher regulation systems.

Technology, Innovation and Daily Life

Going on 2011’s progress towards an interconnection between aspects of our daily life with cloud-based technologies, such as Ford’s cloud connected ‘Evos’ car, it is widely believed that 2012 be the year we start laying the groundwork towards an Internet of Things.

Phones in general will get more powerful in 2012, with devices such as the HTC Edge –“ the first quad-core mobile phone with a quad-core 1.5GHz processor”-, Galaxy Nexus and rumours of an iPhone 5 highly anticipated this year.  As phones get more powerful companies like Motorola with their Atrix phone are pushing towards docks that turn your smartphone into a laptop in a growing trend towards a single, highly powerful and adaptable device that performs multiple functions.

Phones are replacing cameras, the iPhone was announced as the world’s most popular camera recently, and next on the humble phone’s list of devices to conquer is the credit card as NFC and m-commerce continues to pick up speed this year with large-scale companies such as Visa and Google investing in the new technology and research predicting the mobile virtual currency market to hit 4,8bn by 2016.  Although critics say we won’t be leaving our wallets at home just yet this year NFC and mobile payments are part of wider trend in which commerce is moving towards more integration, convenience and multiple channels. 

Another everyday product that is being digitally revolutionized is the TV, which after 2011’s move towards integrated Smart TVs is the next thing on many technology companies’ hit-lists to master, including a company you may have heard of called Apple.  Apple hasn’t announced anything official regarding their foray into TV but it is widely thought to be the next step for the company post-Job’s death.  Smart TV’s have the potential to become, like the phone, a major integrated digital product that replaces the PC as we know it, showcasing Apps, integration into other devices and functions and our Social networks like never before.

 The other big buzz-word for 2012 is Augmented Reality which has the potential for real innovation this year.  Marketing promotion, functionality, task support (for things such as surgery or parts assembly), navigation, entertainment, education and art are all areas in which AR has the potential to innovate.  This year however expect AR to feature more heavily in devices, gaming and promotional activity.  The possibilities are quite exciting.   

Voice recognition is also a showstopper of a technology which after adoption by Microsoft Kinect and the iPhone 4S’s Siri in 2011 may begin to appear in other aspects of daily life from Smart TVs to household products. However it may still be a while before human’s and computers have seamless conversations if the misunderstandings Siri encountered last year are anything to go by.

Wider View

If 2011 was defined by radical social unrest globally and a question of freedom of information, I believe digital and technological progress in 2012 will hinge on legislation changes, lawsuits and whether the Internet is able to continue empowering groups and individuals.

I think 2012 will be a year when many of the connections, institutions, businesses and products that were lost or are in danger of being washed away by the digital revolution will learn to utilise our new digital landscape to rebuild, reconnect and survive.  If they’re smart.

 by Elle Holgate

Links / Sources:

http://econsultancy.com/uk/blog/8517-social-media-in-2012-the-expert-view?utm_medium=feeds&utm_source=mobile

http://www.psfk.com/2012/01/news-internet-trends-2012.html#ixzz1jtlVCrtb

http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/30698.asp

http://www.fastcompany.com/1776893/augmented-reality-outfit-junaio-aims-at-a-sci-fi-future-with-object-recognition?partner=rss

http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/30723.asp?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ImediaConnectionAll+%28iMedia+Connection%3A+All+Stories%29

http://econsultancy.com/uk/blog/8645-mobile-virtual-currency-market-to-hit-4-8bn-by-2016-report?utm_medium=feeds&utm_source=mobile

“Web versus native” is the “Mac vs PC” debate of the 21st century: a frequently hyperbolic argument based on the false premise that for one to win, the other must lose. The web won’t be going away any time soon, and every aspect of it is being actively developed by smart, well-funded organisations who live and breathe it. At the same time, mobile users are voting with their feet and choosing native apps over web, where both are available – see the investigative work of Ben Evans, who concludes that 70% of Facebook mobile users use apps. This fits in with figures Comscore revealed at Mobile Monday in London this last July: mobile web usage is growing, but app usage grows faster (for Facebook at least).

So here’s a prediction: contrary to what you might read elsewhere, 2012 isn’t the year when native apps are overtaken by the web. For services which are frequently used or have a commercial aspect, apps are justified and so increase their lead; but there’s plenty of room elsewhere to allow for a healthy growth in mobile web use too.

Kindle is looking increasingly interesting, with over a million devices being sold a week in the run-up to Christmas. That’s not bad, but in the same quarter Apple sold just over 28 million iPhones and iPads (2.3 times as many), and Google announced 700,000 Android activations a day (4.9 times as many). Whatever the proportions, that’s three healthy ecosystems: that’s good news for consumers, and good news for providers of content and services who can reach them.

It’s hard to imagine that B2C sales of apps are sustainable. We’ve just seen the mighty (and endearingly frank) UsTwo come clean about sales of their excellent Whale Trail game, which despite being high quality and getting lots of press attention has so far failed to turn a profit, and is unlikely to do so on the back of Android sales alone. A resetting of expectations regarding the riches to be found in indie game publishing is long overdue. We saw this happen with J2ME games in the mid-2000s, and with the web itself at the turn of the millenium: frictionless distribution is not the only ingredient of a successful business.

And finally, a few stories to keep an eye on this year: the various lawsuits in which Android is embroiled (Oracle vs Google, Motorola vs Android, Samsung vs Apple) make for fascinating reading with the aid of the excellent FOSS Patents blog from Florian Mueller. Nokia and Microsoft have executed well so far on their first product, the Lumia; whilst a good product may not itself be enough (as HP/Palm showed with WebOS), it’s a great first step and Microsoft will be spending heavily this year to keep up momentum. And finally, 2012 is set to be a big year for the newspapers: buffeted by scandal and with the honeymoon of their first tablet apps over, now working out how they’ll build sustainable digital businesses.

by Tom Hume

In other news read about Steve Wozniak’s remarks that stirred the now-familiar iOS vs Android debate and why the World Bank is now counting on Google Data from Maps.

Major Websites to Blackout This Week in SOPA Protest

Protect IP Act: The Lowdown on How it Would Break The Internet

SOPA is a Red Herring

World Bank Assumes Control of Google Map Data

Steve Wozniak: Android is Better Than the iPhone in Some Ways

App Store Quantity Does Not Equal Success

Fragmentation in Not The End of Android

Which Mobile Payments Provider is Right for You?

GroupShot: Clever Photo App

50% Off Facebook Ads, If You Keep Your Users On-Site

Meme-Based Board Game Uses Kickstarter for the Win

Finished Angry Birds?

Tablets Will Transform the Classroom

87% of Connected Consumers Prefer Websites & Mobile Sites Over Apps?

Marrying Content with Mobile Apps