"Gadget" Greg Gazin Demystifies Tech & Life in a useful, fun & practical way!
I guess timing is everything. Just in time for Valentine’s Day, or so it appears, UK-based Vertu, the maker of designer and luxury smartphones has unveiled the Vertu Ti, an Android-based smartphone with a starting price tag that might make you shake your head. Now it’s not diamond encrusted that costs almost as much as a house, but it could set you back almost as much as a stripped-down entry-level compact car.
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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?”
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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.
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.
This article is FREE to use on your websites or in your publications. However, Troy Media, with a link to its web site, MUST be credited.
EDMONTON, AB, Jan. 16, 2013/ Troy Media/ – Just as the 2012-2013 NHL Hockey season is finally getting under way, albeit months late, today marks what would have been the 112th birthday of Frank Zamboni Jr., the inventor and creator of the famous ice re-surfacer that bears his family’s name.
While we think of hockey as Canada’s game, the inventor of this incredible machine, used between periods at arenas everywhere and which we all want to ride on, was not from the Great White North. In fact, he was an Italian-American inventor from Eureka, Utah in the U.S. The birth of the Zamboni itself was in 1949, in a suburb of Los Angeles, California, now called Paramount. According to Wikipedia, there have been thousands of units sold, with the 10,000th unit – sold in April of 2012 – going to the home of the Habs – the Montreal Canadiens – to clean their ice at the Bell Centre.
To commemorate Zamboni’s birthday, Google has created yet another of its famous Doodles.
Doodles are basically spontaneous variations to the company’s logo used to celebrate or commemorate special events, milestones, birthdays and often the lives of famous people across a broad spectrum.
Often clever, funny and entertaining, they can take the form of images, drawings, animations and some are even interactive. Doodles first appeared in 1998 and different Doodles may appear on the Google homepage in different countries. For example, the 2013 New Years Day Doodle appeared globally, the 150th anniversary of the Tube appeared on Google’s UK homepage while recognition of Edith Piaf’s 95th birthday appeared on Google homepages in Switzerland, Austria, France and Germany only.
Frank Zamboni Jr.
The Zamboni commemorative Doodle for Jan 16, 2013, is a little interactive game with an almost Nintendo Super Mario Brothers look and feel, style and sound. Using the arrow keys on your keyboard, you navigate the Zamboni to clean and resurface the ice area. It’s fun and a little addictive. But be careful! If you take too long or neglect to minimize your path, you just might run out of gas. An odometer keeps track as to how much territory you have covered.
Take a few minutes or more today if you’d like to have fun with the Doodle. Simply visitGoogle.ca. If you missed any of the Doodles, you can find them, from all countries, going back to 1998 at the Google Doodle archive.
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.
This article is FREE to use on your websites or in your publications. However, Troy Media, with a link to its web site, MUST be credited.
There are so many cool gadgets being announced at the 2013 International CES there’s no way that we’ll be able to cover them all. So here are just a few to chew on to help you start your wish list for the New Year. READ MORE at G4TV.ca
Ever since my first exposure to The Beatles TV Series (the cartoons), at the age of five, I have been a huge music fan. And if you look back, there are those musical moments that become ingrained in your mind. As we get older, the details often begin to fade. Sometimes, we’re lucky. Maybe we’ve recorded that moment; maybe we have it on DVD, or 8MM film. But more often than not, the analog version of those bits and bytes or fragments thereof, are just there in our minds. Thank goodness for YouTube!
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Whether you are a male or a female, if you came back from the mall with a bathroom scale under your arm, it very possible that all h*** might break loose in the family household. But in a modern tech savvy family, a wireless hassle-free health-tracking device might just be a bit more welcomed.
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We’ve seen gold plated iPads and diamond encrusted iPhones, so why not a cool funky luxurious BlackBerry for that special someone? BBM enthusiasts, you will be happy to know that you have not been forgotten.
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iPhone 5 lineup Edmonton’s Southgate Centre (Friday Sep 21)
Apple has sold over 5 million* iPhone 5 models in the first three days following its official release last Friday. It’s a hit! So, unless you had previously reserved one, if you’re looking at taking one home today, whether or not you’re looking for an unlocked model, chances are, you’ll likely walk away disappointed. But not all hope may be lost, especially if you’re willing to do a little legwork, perhaps make a few phone calls and have a little patience.
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Also available via AMAZON
