"Gadget" Greg Gazin Demystifies Tech & Life in a useful, fun & practical way!
At this time of the year my InBox usually gets flooded with heart-infused PR pitches vying for my attention. But when this one arrived with the subject line – “Tis the season to be single & selfish – treat yourself with the perfect gift this Valentine’s Day,” I was teetering on “Return to sender”, but my actual reply was a single word – “Really?”
Read more…AND ENTER at CANOE TECH BLOG
EDMONTON, AB, Feb. 6, 2013/ Troy Media/ – Phillip Lüpke from Germany is €10,000 richer for purchasing a song from the Apple iTunes Store. It’s not just any song, it’s “Monkey Drums” (Goksel Vancin Remix) by Chase Buch. But what’s particularly special is that it’s the 25 billionth download from the world’s most popular music download site.
Apple announced the record setting milestone today, singling out Lüpke. He’ll be awarded a €10,000 iTunes card, about C$13,500 in addition to the recognition and bragging rights. The €10K should allow him to multiply his collection and then some.
Twenty-five billion is a lot of songs. To put it into perspective, if every person in the world were to download three to four songs from the iTunes store, that would be roughly the same number of songs that have been actually downloaded to date.
Fans continue to download songs from iTunes at a record pace. After its inaugural launch in April 2003, it took until February 2006 to reach one billion. About four years later, on February 24, 2010 – Steve Jobs’ 55thbirthday – that number hit 10 billion. It only took just over two and a half years for that number to double yet again.
There seems to be no end in sight to the growth.
“(We’re) averaging over 15,000 songs downloaded per minute,” according to Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services.
The ability to purchase from the iTunes store is more than just a convenience to music purchasers.
“In a lot of ways, iTunes has leveled the playing field for musicians. Whether you’re unsigned, indie, major, whatever – it’s the place most people go to buy digital music,” said Wesley Schultz, guitarist and lead vocalist of The Lumineers. “iTunes doesn’t exclude any musicians simply because they’re not yet established or popular.”
Greg Gazin is a Tech Columnist, Small Business and Technology Speaker and Senior Editor at Troy Media. He can be reached at Gadgetguy.CA on Twitter @gadgetgreg or you can find him on Empire Avenue at(e)GADGET1.
Being accustomed to using an iPad, I thought it would be an interesting exercise to leave the iPad at home and take along the iPad mini. I wanted to see if it would live up to my expectations and the claim by “Sir” Jonathan Ive, Apple’s senior vice president of Industrial Design, that the iPad Mini is a “concentration and not a reduction of the original”.
Read more…AT CANOE TECH BLOG
When you think of brands that influence you, what kind are they and which ones first come to mind? According to a recent study of most influential brands, the top three, ranked highest by Canadians are tech-related. In fact, technology brands grab five of the top ten spots.
Read more…AT CANOE TECH BLOG
EDMONTON, AB, Feb. 1, 2013/ Troy Media/ – The great thing about technology is that there’s never a shortage of new and exciting things, and sometimes not-so-new and not-so-exciting things, to test, to talk and write about.
Of course, the challenge we all have is keeping up – to be able to wade through the flurry of emails, announcements, press releases and phone calls and faxes. Yes faxes!
But as I scanned through the hundred or more of this morning’s emails, the one with the subject line “BlackBerry Super Bowl Commercial Still Image” caught my attention.
Of course, the big news this week was the release of the long-awaited and much-anticipated BlackBerry 10, along with the rebranding of Canada’s once-darling Research in Motion.
But back to the email from Research in Motion’s, now BlackBerry’s, corporate communications manager. It read:
Hi – (notice the non-personal touch)
As you may know, coming out of the launch of BlackBerry 10 this week, BlackBerry will be featured in Super Bowl XLVII on Sunday for the first time ever. This unique execution will be part of a broad marketing campaign about the totally re-designed, re-engineered and re-invented BlackBerry. As part of this activity, we are sharing a still image of the Super Bowl commercial with our social channels – including 30 millions fans on Facebook and Twitter – to draw them into a conversation about BlackBerry 10 during this highly social event. We’d like to provide you with this still in case you’re interested in sharing it with your readers, and we encourage you to watch our full commercial on Sunday.
I looked at the still image and I was baffled. I thought to myself, “what?” I know it’s from the commercial, but how can I share this with my readers? I don’t get it. There’s no oomph, there’s no wow, and I thought this wouldn’t pique anyone’s interest. I even responded back to the sender with similar comments.
I jumped over to Facebook and Twitter and found that others had offered similar reactions. I added my comments to the social media cause and returned to my daily perusing and purging of today’s Inbox.
But here’s the thing.
I couldn’t get that picture out of my mind. It wasn’t my curiosity or interest about what it meant, but rather why the company, which was likely spending $4 million or more on a 30 second ad in Super Bowl XLVII this coming Sunday, would send out what appeared to be a dull, boring nondescript photograph.
It bugged me so, that I decided to write about it.
Congratulations BlackBerry, you succeeded in getting me to share your pitch and your image with my readers, maybe not exactly in a way you might have thought, but, nonetheless, mission accomplished!
Super Bowl XLVII kicks off Sunday, February 3rd at 6:30PM E.T., live from New Orleans.
Greg Gazin is a Tech Columnist, Small Business and Technology Speaker and Senior Editor at Troy Media. He can be reached at Gadgetguy.CA on Twitter @gadgetgreg or you can find him on Empire Avenue at(e)GADGET1.
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