Varshyl Blog

Angry Birds Movie Begins To Take Shape

admin — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 09:28:56 +0000

Development for an Angry Birds movie is being hatched with the help of a former Marvel Studios executive, but the movie won’t be hitting multiplexes until 2014 at the earliest.

Rovio, the creator of Angry Birds, hired former Marvel Studios chairman David Maisel as a special adviser last week. Maisel, who left Marvel in 2009 after Walt Disney Co. bought the studio for $4 billion, will be executive producer on the yet-untitled flick.

“There has been so much chatter about an Angry Birds movie, but now it’s real,” Maisel told. “The process is starting now.” Maisel was at Marvel from 2003 to 2009, and executive produced Iron Man, Hulk, Thor and Captain America: The First Avenger.

Bringing Maisel on is Rovio’s latest steps toward expanding its Angry Birds franchise into feature films. Last month, the company bought Finnish animation studio Kombo, which will start working on short films using the Angry Birds characters. The development of a full-length movie, however, will take three or four years, Peter Vesterbacka, Rovio’s chief marketing officer, told The Telegraph last month. Vesterbacka said Rovio is open to working with Hollywood studios, but added, “We don’t have to do what everyone else is

Rovio is also betting big on the continuing popularity of the franchise, which has only been around for two years. Will fans continue to be loyal to Angry Birds in three or four years, or will they have moved on to something else? Tell us what you think in the comments.

Now, hide Facebook from your boss by converting it into an Excel sheet!

admin — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 09:27:51 +0000

Melbourne, July 06 (ANI): Now, you can easily check your Facebook account at your work place without the fear of being caught by your boss.

A website developed by a university student allows you to automatically convert your Facebook news feeds into an Excel spreadsheet, reports the Herald Sun.

Users can instantly see what their friends are up to on Facebook with updates appearing as new spreadsheet rows.

Uploaded pictures and videos can be viewed by hovering over the entries, and users can interact by “liking” the updates with a simple click on the spreadsheet.

The page, with its intentionally corporate look, is slyly titled “daily cash reconciliation” so wasting work time appears to nosy onlookers as diligent financial work.

The HardlyWork.in site was created by Yale computer science major Bay Gross, 20, after a friend doing a government internship told him she had to wait until after work to read his Facebook updates. (ANI)

How to create real change in online marketing in 2011?

admin — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 10:39:00 +0000

You might have forgotten your holidays ever happened by now, but it’s not too late to focus on a handful of fundamental changes that will really make a difference to your ability to drive sophisticated marketing in your business. And we do mean fundamentals. As the tactics of digital marketing are maturing, the organizational barriers that often get in the way of high quality marketing in large international businesses are now ripe for revamping.

Here’s what we think you should have on your radar.

1. Invest in content

Chances are there are few marketing activities that you do that are not dependent on content. More than strategy, technology or even budget, we find that a lack of good quality content is the single biggest marketing barrier that our clients face on a day to day basis. In order to address this, businesses need to start investing in content as strategic business asset in itself, rather than as a phase within an individual project. The latter always ends up in a rush job and that empty feeling that things could have been so much better. Content strategy is the answer to this ill. Basically, it is a systematic approach to building a resource base of content continually, while also working the logistics – the people, processes and technology need to be aligned to make the process run smoothly. We call it thinking like a publisher. Publishers know their audience, they recruit the right people for the job, they create a schedule, they use technology to organize the process and then they move mountains to get things done on time. None of this easy, but it will have a dramatic effect on marketing if you can start to get it right.

2. Improve team structure

This one is really for the senior managers who have the luxury of leading from the top. But, we are convinced that the structure of your marketing organisation makes a big difference when it comes to its effectiveness. Are the people who hold the knowledge in your company closely linked with the people who are responsible for creating and publishing your content? Are the people who know your customers best able to provide feedback and input directly and efficiently? Do you have processes and controls in place that allow staff across the business to get involved in social media but with proper training and guidance? Are any of these employees measured on their involvement or contribution to the marketing process?

We advocate the setup of formal and informal team structures. The central team consists of specialists – those who are experts in their fields whether it be brands, content, social media or technology. This is your formal team. And, you must do frequent analysis for gaps and create compelling business cases for growth. However, the informal team is becoming increasing important as online marketing integrates itself more tightly into the business. This includes of wide range of people who sit within specific business units outside of the central team. They are specialists in their particular areas of this business, but they ideally have a keen interest in communicating with customers and taking advantage of digital and social technology to influence customers and projects. If you involve them, through collaborative business planning, joint-operational teams and through training, these people should do a number of things for you. First, they should support your marketing agenda within their business units because you’ve included them along the way and they believe in what you are trying to achieve. Second, they can learn from the training, guidance and overall objectives you supply them with and combine this with their existing knowledge to create great ideas themselves, or even manage some decentralized marketing activities on a day-to-day basis. They will often be able to do this more quickly and effectively than central marketing, and as the size of this ‘informal network’ expands throughout the business your marketing capabilities will grow exponentially. You just need to build in the controls to keep up. This sort of hub-and-spoke style of marketing management is almost becoming the norm in companies that are mature in their use of social media and other online marketing strategies.

3. Take control of social media

More than a few marketers are already losing sleep this year because they are under pressure to do something, anything in fact, with social media. It is too easy for those around you to pick out this particular type of marketing activity due to its newcomer status and put pressure on you to adopt activity in a knee jerk fashion. On one hand they are right; you probably should be doing something because social media does offer some pretty great opportunities. It’s just not that simple though. Many social media activities have started up quickly only to run out of steam and ultimately wither and die. This doesn’t help anyone. Customers do notice and it harms the credibility of social media as a business tool, and possibly that of the entire marketing function. So even if you are not an expert in social media you can take control of it. First, understand that social media is not a strategy in itself. It is a set of tools and channels that extend existing strategies and build on the existing objectives of the business. Make sure, at all costs that these objectives drive your decision making. For example, Dell’s Ideastorm initiative is not successful because it’s a social media strategy. It’s successful because it’s jointly a customer service strategy (listening to and interacting with customers) and Product Development strategy (putting customer needs behind product development), which both preceded use of social media in the business. Without multi-departmental buy-in and support beyond the social media side of things, this initiative would never work. We like to say that social media can amplify and accelerate existing initiative. In this case, Dell used the tools and channels offered by social media to do just that. Your job is to pull out the priorities that are most important in your business and then engage the right type of specialists to make implementation a reality.

The second way to take control is to analyse the business’s ‘readiness’ to support social media. Like any online marketing activity, you need to have the buy-in of a variety of stakeholders, appropriate support and resourcing, knowledge, content, follow-up mechanisms and of course, budget. Instead of looking to create a grand strategy across the whole business, look for the business units that have clearly defined objectives along with the support elements mentioned above. They’ll offer the best hope of creating something that can be developed properly over the long term and the also the best chance of using social media to impact the business in a way that those who hold the purse strings will pay attention to later when you are asking for bigger and better budgets for next year.

4. Get out of the office

The downside of digital marketing’s increased ability to be reactive, is that people get used to working in this a reactive way all of the time. And this can mean that less research, which can be considered slow and expensive relative to digital campaigns, is done as part of the marketing planning cycle. This is a false economy. If you want to create content that sells, you need to know exactly what customers are thinking. If you want to integrate digital marketing with the sales cycles, then you need to know what your buyers are thinking and feeling throughout the buying process. This means research. But, research doesn’t have to be expensive or time consuming – you just need to care enough to do it. Sometimes, it is simply a matter of time and energy of getting some staff and customer together to share thinking. Or, holding a series of telephone interviews every month and then building the data into your customer personas. There is a virtual angle here as well. We are very interested in the new social monitoring tools that allow you to understand how your brand is perceived by customers and how new marketing activity is being received in the market in real time. They aren’t expensive, and they are easy to set up and use.

5. Review marketing technology

For too long, the technology that drives marketing has sat in the domain of the corporate IT team. This needs to change. This requirement is based on two realities: 1) if your marketing activities are dependent on operational IT resources – those supporting the day-to-day IT needs of the business or its customers outside of marketing/sales – then you will inevitably find yourself in a queue at the very times that you need to be nimble and fast. And, 2) the nature of marketing technology has evolved to the point where it is a specialism in itself. There is now an array of technologies that you can deploy from Enterprise level portal and content management systems to Open Source and Software-as-a-Service (Saas) technologies. However, most importantly for anyone involved is the ability to maintain a constant awareness of business objectives and marketing plans alongside that technical understanding in order to build an adaptive suite of technology that serves the varying needs of the business and your customers. It’s hard for everyday IT staff to do their day jobs and to keep this front of mind on your behalf.

We propose a two-tier approach to technology. First, there are large scale technologies that offer robust capabilities but they require equally robust budgets, timelines and resource plans. These are the tools you might use for long term investments such as the corporate website. This shouldn’t change every day and it does need to be controlled, so something more permanent and expansive is appropriate. However, there is another set of tools that offer flexibility and scalability – meaning the ability to get them up and running quickly with less investment and change them when your needs change. You might be more likely to use these for short-term campaigns or fast-moving activities such as marketing automation, blogs and e-mail marketing.

Beyond the technology itself, we propose that corporate technology function start to divide themselves to include a specific discipline dedicated to ‘marketing technology’ that runs with its own staff, resources and objectives. This approach acknowledges the future demands that marketing will put on the IT skills of the business and the increasingly divergent skills required between traditional corporate IT and marketing technology.

Finally, there is a new role evolving that will pull together that gap that often sits between marketing and technology, unsurprisingly called a Marketing Technologist. Chances are there is a person already in your business that shows both interest and aptitude for straddling the two functions. If you know who they are, consider evolving their role. If you don’t, consider bringing someone in. Anyway, there is a good overview of the position here.

Nothing we’ve said in this post is going to be easy to achieve. But we see the same issues crop up so often in our client’s businesses, that we are convinced that change is required to make significant advances in the ability of businesses to meet the marketing demands of their internal stakeholders and their customers.

Blackberry to launch Playbook this month

admin — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 10:12:58 +0000

After mobile phones, the competition is hotting up for “tablets” in India with BlackBerry-maker Research in Motion (RIM) all set to launch its PlayBook in the country later this month to face the likes of Apple”s iPad and Samsung”s Galaxy Tab.

The Canadian firm will launch PlayBook in Indian markets and some other countries this month, sources said. According to the company”s website, the PlayBook is scheduled to be launched in 16 countries, including the UK, Netherlands, Hong Kong, Australia, UAE and India.

“The price is going to be competitive with the other products and in line with the global pricing as well,” they said.

The price in India could range between Rs 22,000 and Rs 32,000, depending upon its storage capacity, from 16 GB to 64 GB.

Globally, PlayBook is available at USD 499, USD 599 and USD 699 for the 16GB, 32GB and 64GB versions, respectively.

Since the launch of Apple”s iPad, the tablet market is witnessing huge competition, with new contenders launching their devices. A tablet PC, though smaller in size, has PC-like functionalities.

Apple”s rival in the computing space, Dell had launched the ”Streak” last year in India, while homegrown telecom handset makers like Spice and Olive have also launched similar devices at much lower price points.

The BlackBerry tablet has received a mixed response from the markets where it has been launched. According to reports, unlike rival iPad, which sold like hot cakes on its launch in April last year, the PlayBook just sold 50,000 copies in the first week of its launch on April 19 in the US and Canada.

BlackBerry has over one million users in India and RIM would target them.

The PlayBook is a seven-inch tablet that runs on a new operating system built by QNX Software Systems — a RIM unit that makes software used to run everything from cars to nuclear reactors.

On a PlayBook, users can go online only using a Wi-Fi network or by synchronising the device to their BlackBerry smartphones.

According to analysts, sales in the tablet PC segment in India are expected to touch one million units over the next 12 months.

With 3G (high-speed internet services) being rolled out aggressively, the opportunity has only expanded, they said.

How to protect our personal data from hackers

admin — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 10:09:55 +0000

Computer hackers have an ability to cause chaos by using personal data that they have stolen. But the theft can be prevented if people are careful with their information.

Personal finance expert Carmen Wong Ulrich shared advice during a talk on ‘The Early Show on Saturday Morning’ on how to protect personal information and what to do when hackers get their hands on it.

“The first line of defense is always your passwords, and the information on your computer,” CBS News quoted Ulrich as telling co-anchor Betty Nguyen.

“Make sure you go right to your computer, change your log-in information and password information on everything from your credit card accounts to where you shop through retailers and your email, as well because, as we saw-Google and Yahoo – the hackers are coming in from everywhere,” she said.

Ulrich, author of ‘The Real Cost of Living’, said almost three-quarters of us use the same password on several accounts.

“Please stop doing that! Protect the banking part as much as you can, because the hackers will come in from the company side. But they’re coming in on your side, too,” she implored.

“Also, use one computer, if you can, to do your banking. I know it’s hard (with everyone using so many different devices). Try to do it all on one computer. That limits exposure.

“And, never, ever do banking or do transactions online on an open Wi-Fi. It’s very tempting because it’s so easy. You could be sitting in a coffee shop or the airport or wherever you are. Squatters will sit there and scour that Wi-Fi. So definitely don’t do that.

“And don’t use your debit card online. This runs counter (to conventional wisdom), because credit cards, people say, are bad. But a credit card protects you and your cash.

“Of course, there’s (a) liability (limit) with your debit card. But who wants their accounts emptied of cash? Instead, use your credit card online, so at least you don’t expose yourself, cash-wise,” she stated.

Mobile Web or Mobile Apps?

admin — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 10:07:08 +0000

With the continued advancement of HTML5 technology, marketers and publishers are beginning to debate the necessity of investing in mobile applications, as mobile websites become increasingly sophisticated. Why develop for numerous platforms – such as Android, iPhone and BlackBerry, for example – when you can develop just once in HTML5?

Speaking at the OMMA Mobile conference in New York City this morning, however, Louis Gump, VP of mobile for CNN, suggested attempting to choose between the two strategies is “like asking which wheel you’d rather have on a bicycle.”

Acknowledging that it would be “great” to develop just once for a range of devices, Gump stressed that consumers continue to consume media and content through both channels. “Start with the consumer in mind… If you’re trying to decide between mobile web and apps the answer is both, and both are going to continue to grow, we believe,” he said.

Despite that outlook, Gump did suggest a tipping point would eventually be reached, and implied mobile web could eventually replace the native application. “If history is any guide, mobile web will have some major event that helps it come around, he said.

For a publisher such as CNN that approach makes complete sense, as it attempts to cultivate the largest audience it can, regardless of platform. According to Ken Harlan, co-founder and President of mobile ad network MobileFuse, however, the mobile web holds greater ad promise than apps.

“We definitely feel that’s going to be where a large portion of the traffic is over time. We just don’t know when that’s going to be,” Harlan told ClickZ, adding “We’re servicing both channels, and I’m not going to make that bet, but we’re not focusing on apps.”

One important distinction between the two channels remains the issue of tracking and targeting, however. In-app measurement remains far more effective than that on the mobile web, thanks largely to the fragmented way in which mobile devices handle cookies. Despite that fact, Harlan believes his network’s strength in mobile web sets it apart from its rivals. “Mobile web is probably 65 percent of our traffic. We’ve concentrated more on mobile web than anyone else,” he said.

For agencies and advertisers, however, those metrics are essential to justify continued investment in the channel, and many focus their media buys on the app space as a result. “In-app is easier than mobile web to measure. We can get pretty accurate and similar metrics to those we would get online,” explained Paul Gelb, VP and mobile practice lead for Publicis-owned Razorfish.

Why Apple’s 11 Inch MacBook Air is TSA approved?

admin — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 06:56:25 +0000

Have you heard? Apple’s new 11-inch MacBook Air is preapproved for airport security. That’s right: Carry one of those bad boys through a TSA checkpoint, and you don’t even have to take it out of your bag.

So what sets the MacBook Air apart from other noncheckpoint-friendly notebooks? It isn’t that the TSA is full of certified Apple fanboys. The truth is that it all comes down to size.

Though Apple doesn’t consider the 11-inch MacBook Air a netbook, the computer’s small profile puts it in the same category as netbook-designated devices — at least, in the eyes of Homeland Security. We tech folks may look at things like specs and price tags when categorizing a computer, but the TSA is more concerned with how much space the system takes up.

In the case of Apple’s 11-inch MacBook Air, the fact that the computer is “smaller than a standard-size laptop” is the sole reason the TSA green-lighted it to stay inside your carry-on at airport security. As first reported by CNN, the MacBook Air is seen by the government as the same type of gadget as an iPad, an e-reader, or — yep, you guessed it — a netbook.

“Small and portable electronic items … should not need to be removed from their carrying cases,” a TSA spokesperson tells me.

The big question, then, is where we draw the “small item” line.

Would Apple’s new 13-inch MacBook Air, for example, be OK to go through an airport checkpoint while inside a bag? What about ultraportable but high-performing notebooks on the PC side of the equation — will they get the same security love as Apple’s 11-inch Air? What is the “standard size” of a laptop nowadays, anyway?

It turns out there’s no easy answer.

In the case of the 13-inch MacBook Air, the TSA has yet to reach a final verdict, according to CNN. A TSA representative did tell me that anything “similar in size to an iPad” should generally be safe to stay in your bag. She was unable, however, to provide any firm guidelines as to what separates a “small and portable electronic item” from a full-fledged laptop. Long story short, there is no magic number.

Rather than obsess over the size of your gizmo, then, the smartest option may be to go with a checkpoint-friendly laptop bag. Throw your notebook, netbook, or whatever you want to call it in one of those suckers and — unless you’re flagged for extra screening — you should be able to breeze right through airport security.

And yes, by “breeze right through,” I mean “waddle through shoeless while hanging onto your unbelted pants and the little dignity you have remaining.”

But hey, at least you won’t have to unpack your laptop.

The Story Behind Google’s Interactive Les Paul Guitar Logo

admin — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 06:46:02 +0000

On 9th June’s morning, millions of people logged onto the Google homepage and saw a newly designed Google logo in the shape of a guitar to honor Les Paul on what would have been his 96th birthday. They’ve been creating these Google doodles for a decade – usually honoring holidays and special anniversaries – but this one was different. Users could drag their cursor over the guitar strings and actually play songs, and even record their work for posterity. Within hours of the posting, users had posted videos of themselves playing “Stairway To Heaven,” “Hey Jude” and many other songs. “We were just overwhelmed with the positive response,” Ryan Germick, the Google Team Lead behind the project, tells Rolling Stone. “People just took it and ran with it.”

The guitar chords you hear actually began with Google’s Creative Lab Designer Alexander Chen’s own Les Paul guitar. “I basically just played 20 or 30 notes and then chose the ones that made sense for the doodle,” says Chen. “I specifically chose G because that was the first set of chords that I learned on the guitar and that was the one most people learn. I thought that would be a fun way to have a sort of beginner-style guitar entry point.”

Chen was well equipped to help create the Doodle: he’s released a series of albums with the projects Boy in Static and Consulate General. “It’s indie pop with some sort of experimental shoegaze-y noise layers,” he says. “I’ve opened for bands at some pretty big venues, like Irving Plaza. But I’ve sort of switched gears and now do more of this music and art intersection instead of the normal recording of albums.”

Google’s entire design team was thrilled by the creative ways in which people used the Doodle. “Some of the most unexpected uses are the ones that delight us the most,” says Chen. “We saw a YouTube video where people brought three computers and were playing as a trio. We didn’t totally anticipate that. It’s just kind of neat to see people giving each other music lessons all over the Internet.”

The Doodle is going to come down this weekend, but it probably isn’t going away forever. “Our interactive Pacman Doodle from last year was so popular we kept it alive at google.com/pacman,” says Germick. “Our engineers are working on a way to keep the guitar Doodle alive. I think it will continue to see life.”

Kaspersky’s easier activating 2012 security software won’t activate for anyone Continue reading on Examiner.com Kaspersky’s easier-activating 2012 security software won’t activate for anyone – National Technology | Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/technology-in-national/kaspersky’s easier activating 2012 security software won’t activate for users

admin — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 06:22:30 +0000

Kaspersky is a respected security firm who’s software is considered among the best. Earlier this week, it released new versions of its security products (Internet Security 2012 and Antivirus 2012, although for some reason the U.S. site continues to sell the 2011 product). That’s not a problem. The problem is that those with existing keys can’t activate the new versions.

As noted on Kaspersky’s forum, people who have existing licenses which worked on their 2011 products cannot get the activation keys to work with the 2012 version. Instead they are greeted with the error message above.

Ironically, one of the new features that Kaspersky touts with its 2012 versions is improved activation. The email sent to subscribers includes the following sentence:

“Improved product activation. In Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2012 product activation, license purchasing and migration is too easy.”

Perhaps it’s too easy because it simply doesn’t work.

What’s still more ironic is that when the emails spotlighting the new versions went out to existing customers, forum posts indicated users were upset because the download links weren’t working. In other words, customers were irritated because they couldn’t get the new software, and now that they have the software, the software won’t activate.

Google likely to buy Admeld for $400MN

admin — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 06:11:50 +0000

Internet search giant Google is in talks to acquire the display advertising company, AdMeld, for around $400 million.

At present, Google heavily depends on text search ads for its major revenue generation, but if this acquisition sees the light of the day, it will help Google establish enter, and establish its foothold in the display advertising business.

Last year, Google bought Invite Media, a company that helps advertisers and agencies use “real time bidding” to buy display ad space.

The procurement of AdMeld is Google’s latest move in the display advertising business.

“We’re at the beginning of a user-focused revolution, where people connect and respond to display ads in ways we’ve never seen before.” — Neal Mohan, Google’s vice president of display advertising

Deal underway
The blog company, TechCrunch first reported that the deal has been inked, but inside sources leaked that the deal had not been clinched and negotiations might still collapse.

However, this acquisition by Google is likely to attract serious scrutiny from government regulators, as Google already dominates in text and display advertising arena, said the Times.

Google keen to take advantage of growing display ad trend

On Thursday, Neal Mohan, Google’s vice president of display advertising, in a speech at the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s Internet Week affair, highlighted Google’s Intent in display ad business.

According to him, the display advertising would become a $200 billion industry and websites will offer more interactive ads, with video or in-ad games.

“We’re at the beginning of a user-focused revolution, where people connect and respond to display ads in ways we’ve never seen before,” Mohan wrote in a blog post regarding his speech.

About AdMeld

Launched in 2007, AdMeld is driven by Michael Barrett, former chief revenue officer for Fox Interactive Media.

The company banks more than $30 million in venture capital from Foundry Group, Spark Capital, Norwest Venture Partners and Time Warner Investments, and it currently has over 500 customers including Fox News, The Weather Channel, and Hearst Television.

The ad optimizer AdMeld helps publishers sell display ads in real time. The advertisers can instantly bid for ad space every time an internet user lands at a publisher’s web site, for showing their ads to that user.

The New York based company provides publishers the ability to catch the best prices for their ad inventory using Google’s DoubleClick Ad Exchange, Yahoo’s Right Media, OpenX and other ad exchanges.