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Media Future: Gadget war moves into the lounge

Arthur Goldstuck (@art2gee) Sony, LG and Samsung all stole the show at the International CES last week with TV sets that, once again, raised the stakes in both technology and marketing.

The war for domination of consumer electronics has shifted from the handheld portable gadget to a device that is firmly ensconced in the living room.

At last week’s International Consumer Electronics Show (CES), the launchpad for the industry that owns Las Vegas in January every year, smartphones took a backseat. One dazzling TV set after another was unveiled to oohs and aahs – and aarghs from those who had just bought the previous state of the art version.

There was little to choose between the flagship screens of the world’s TV giants, with the big three, Samsung, LG and Sony, all unveiling versions of the new Ultra High-definition (UHD) 4K standard – sets with double the resolution of High-definition TV.

Sony stole a march on its rivals, however, with the world’s first 4K TV using OLED (Organic Light-emitting Diode). Samsung, for its part, put out a 3D OLED TV.

Weekly Top 10: Fastest rising search terms from South Africans on Google

With the help of Google Trends we are publishing the top 10 searched for phrases (minus the sexy stuff of course) by South Africans on Google over the previous seven days.

Fastest rising web searches
bafana bafana +90%
uj +90%
tut +80%
efiling +70%
linkedin +60%
university of pretoria +60%
eskom +50%
facebook login +50%
sars +50%
sars efiling +50%

Tech Law: Social media insight — Randi Zuckerberg and contextual privacy

by Paul Jacobson (@pauljacobson) One of the biggest ironies of the 2012 holiday season was Randi Zuckerberg’s family photo being tweeted by her sister’s Facebook friend, Callie Schweitzer, and the resulting privacy debate.

Weekly Top 10: Fastest rising search terms from South Africans on Google

With the help of Google Trends we are publishing the top 10 searched for phrases (minus the sexy stuff of course) by South Africans on Google over the previous seven days.

burry stander Breakout
kim kardashian +350%
matric results +350%
happy new year +250%
matric results 2012 +250%
unisa +130%
cricket +110%
jobs +60%
sars +60%
beeld +50%

Best of 2012: Best Phones of 2012

Arthur Goldstuck (@art2gee) declares his choice for the Best Phones of 2012.

Our Phone of the Year divided into high-end smartphones, mid-level and low-end smartphones, and feature phones. The list breaks away from the traditional top 3 approaches, as a wide variety of devices have emerged to suit different needs.

Best of 2012: Most Useful Business Gadget of 2012

Arthur Goldstuck (@art2gee) picks devices that can save your social, business and career life.

What defines a great gadget? Arguably, it can be captured in a single word: desire. The high end of smartphone, tablet and laptop ranges depend heavily on this basic concept for their market share.

But then there are the rest of the gadgets, as well as the rest of the market, where both consumer and business users are looking not only for the best value for money, but also the highest utility.

One way to sum it up is: can this gadget save your life? And here we’re talking about social life, business survival and career success.

The lousy record of “hyper-targeting”

by Bob Hoffman (@adcontrarian) In the past I’ve written a couple of posts (here and here) about the lousy record of “hyper-targeting.” My bottom line on this has been…

“As we have developed the ability to target people more and more precisely on the web, click-through rates of these hyper-targeted ads have dropped dramatically.”

The question is, why? If you believe conventional advertising wisdom, being able to target people based on individual behaviors, attitudes, and demographics ought to make advertising substantially more effective. And yet no one’s smarter than the facts. It hasn’t made online ads more effective. So what’s going on?

Best of 2012: Tablet of the Year

Arthur Goldstuck (@art2gee) picks the best tablet computers of 2012.

The best tablet on the market is not always the best value for money on the market.

While most major technology manufacturers make tablets, not all are able to bring them to market at prices that makes sense. As a result, no-name brands compete alongside the biggest names in the business. They can’t match the quality of the big guys, but their prices are often unbeatable.

The choice for the best tablets of the year takes both of these factors into account.

The tablet ranking is divided into 10” devices or thereabouts, those with screens smaller than 9”, and then the overall choice of Tablet of the Year.

Tech Law: Media myths about the new Instagram Terms of Use

by Paul Jacobson (@pauljacobson) A number of media services are clinging to the idea that Instagram is selling users’ content and that Instagram has the right to do this in perpetuity. As usual, many of these media services have not taken the time to actually read and understand the Terms of Use or the changes that are coming next month.

Tech Law: Media insight — What changes to Facebook’s governance structure mean for users

by Paul Jacobson (@pauljacobson) Facebook’s changes to its Statement of Rights and Responsibilities and its Data Used Policy generally attract a fair amount of attention and consternation. Its latest changes are no exception and while there is reason for some concern, the proposed changes won’t have the radical impact many fear it will.