“Selfies” Gone Wrong

Last month, an Arkansas businessman, Allen Engstrom, got on plane across the country for a business trip with his Ipad in hand only to have expensive new media tool stolen sometime during his trip. Although this is an unfortunate event, he still may be in luck   to see the device again. Apparently who ever snagged up his IPad is now taking pictures of herself and accidentally sending the photos to Allen. Engstrom linked all of his Apple devices to the iCloud system, which wirelessly backs up and syncs data personal data including photos. Now with all of these photos of the women, Allen is posting them to other social media accounts to see if they can track down the thief. There have been countless repost of the Allen Engstrom’s original messages however he has yet to identify who the culprit is. Sadly, Allen turned off the GPS device on his IPad which has been a major setback. While there is still hope for Allen I would advice you to learn from this Arkansas man and keep those GPS or mapping devices on! They are there for a reason!

 

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/arkansas-man-woman-continues-self-portraits-missing-ipad-takes-social-media-idenitfy-article-1.1291939#ixzz2NwY9zNaj

 

http://www.chron.com/news/bizarre/article/Man-loses-iPad-but-gains-endless-funny-photos-of-4363067.php

Business Apps

I have recently been attending a lot of  work related conferences, and although they can certainly be long and boring a lot of helpful information is presented at them. Obviously paying attention is key, but not everything can be remembered off hand even with full focus. So based off a recommendation from a colleague have now downloaded an app called, “Evernote” and I must say it has helped out with my organization.

Evernote is clearly a note taking app, but it is easily accessible from your phone, computer, tablet etc. It allows you to easily organize your “stuff” but also allows you to bookmarks, search for related items, and even send notes to someone else in a matter of seconds. Evernote has a Hello Connect feature that can also connect your material to other accounts of your choosing such as your LinkedIn profile, Facebook account, phone contacts. This can help you remember possible contacts you have met at a conference and connect with them effortlessly.

I have yet to dabble in all of Evernote’s features but I would highly recommend downloading it even if you’re someone who likes to get something out of there head and into a safe spot.  This app is free but to get the premium Evernote( which has most of the features above) it is $5 per month that you can cancel any time. Please keep that in mind.

http://evernote.com/

http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/10-mobile-apps-for-conferences/

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/7-ways-to-make-use-of-evernote/

Ups and Downs in Emerging Media

One of the most obvious things I will take away from this IMC course is my appreciation for emerging media. New tools are in a constant state of development which is more than great; it’s life changing.  However, there is a lot of emerging media ideas out there that just don’t make it and I find it interesting how some of these ideas are so similar to tools that go on to be highly useful. 

Take Airtime for example.  Airtime was a late 2011 start up company created by the co-founders of Napster, Sean Parker and Shawn Fanning. This video chat company that these two invested over 33 million dollars in has sadly never lived up to the hype it was expected to have. Similar to a fairly popular social tool, chat roulette, Airtime lets you directly video chat with your friends on Facebook without plug in or downloads.

Since the company launched, Airtime has only 10,000 current users and has had to layoff most of their employees.  What this tells me is how important originality is.    And even with money and fame, this proves how difficult it is to get a start up business off the ground. Especially when it involves emerging media. 

 

 

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/10/19/daily-report-sean-parkers-start-up-struggles/

 

http://upstart.bizjournals.com/companies/startups/2012/10/05/success-eludes-even-the-best.html?page=all

Ok, Glass

This weekend while running errands I decided to treat myself an upgrade my phone to an IPhone 5. All weekend I’ve been like a kid on Christmas morning playing around with the newer features that my old versions didn’t have while my friends and roommates constantly stared at me like I was a day late to the party. But the scary thing is, I am.  The IPhone 5 is already old news, and soon IPhones in general could be out of style.

Last week I read an article in the New York Daily News updating technology enthusiast on the highly anticipated Google Glasses. “Google Glass,” for those who don’t know, are hands free head gear that act as your communication tool and more. By simply saying, “Ok Glass” everything from voice translating text messages to projector like images, videos, Internet data, to GPS navigation is the control of your own voice.

Last week, Google asked potential users to use the hashtag #ifihadglass  to their tweeter account to apply for a place on the pre-order list. But what is most shocking to me s not the features but the price. These individuals will have to fork over $1,500  to use the glasses plus take an instructional course in either New York, San Francisco or Los Angeles.

On Saturday, I bought my IPhone for $125, which I was told a third of the original price. Now I maybe cheap, but that amount of money  on of phone was big stretch for me. I can’t imagine spending well over a grand on a piece of emerging media that will be old news in a year. I would hold off on being a trend setter, and wait until the prices drop significantly before become up the new Google toy.

 

 http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/new-google-glasses-video-shows-new-specs-article-1.1269120#ixzz2LyI6I6Sc

http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2013/02/20/a-detailed-look-at-the-google-glass-experience/

Sweet Brown Has Got Time for Emerging Media

The other day I received an email from a friend and in the subject line it read “Guess Who’s Making it Big.” I opened up the email to find a Youtube link that directed me to a new video of Ms Sweet Brown. If you don’t know who Sweet Brown she has become rather big Youtube sensation from this actual news interview that is attached above.

The interview grew popular enough that additional videos were created that “remixed” or “autotuned” her voice into a popular song. Both videos generated millions of views, that recently placed Sweet Brown into her own dental commercial which was the link my buddy sent me via email.

As I watched the Sweet Brown’s commercial I certainly chuckled at the commercial itself, but also at the fact that this women is now smiling, acting and getting paid to be on television. So have your cameras ready because emerging media could literally change you life in an instant.

Below is a link to here newest television commercial

http://madamenoire.com/261786/toothache-aint-nobody-got-time-for-that-sweet-brown-stars-in-local-dentist-commercial/

http://thefw.com/sweet-brown-toothache-commercial/

Social Media Sunday!

 

As most of you know, yesterday was Super Bowl Sunday. And if you weren’t part of the 100 million people who tuned into the game , the end result was the Baltimore Ravens beating the San Francisco 49ers in the closing minutes of the game.

 

But what I thought was more astonishing then the game itself was the amount of people who couldn’t put their social media devices down during the most popular sporting event in America. A record 30.6 million social media comments were made last night on Twitter, Facebook and other tools. Now the fact that commercials are new, funny and interesting certainly plays a factor in on why people watch the game. However, Beyonce’s performance is what took over the spotlight with over 268,000 tweets-per-minute and instagram stated that 200 photos per second were posted of her during her set. The game also took an unusual break when the power suddenly went off in third quarter for over a half an hour. In that time, over 231,500 tweets were sent per minute.

 

Whether someone’s intent to watch the Super Bowl was for the game, commercials, or for a halftime performance people were ready and anxious to let others know how they felt through the game. Just another example how emerging media is growing ever popular. Below are some tweets surrounding the night.

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/technology/2013/02/super-bowl-2013-beyonce-blackout-among-most-electric-social-media-moments/

http://espn.go.com/blog/playbook/trending/post/_/id/13990/by-the-numbers-social-media-super-bowl

 

 

There’s No Need for Dating Apps in College

 

 

Just this weekend I caught up with my cousin Tom, a 21 year old senior at George Washington University, over dinner. Although we did some solid bonding, I couldn’t help notice him  keep glancing down at his phone. I figured he was texting, emailing, Facebooking, Tweeting etc. but he did it enough times that I had to flat out ask him what he was looking at. He smiled and said Tinder. I had no idea what this was so I had him explain.

 

He said it was a new IPhone App that college kids are using to see if a girl/guy is interested in you in the area. It’s connected through your Facebook where Tinder would show you someone you maybe interested in nearby. It’s “anonymous” until someone decides they like you back, then you can get there information to chat. According to him, this is the new trend around a lot of campuses. I couldn’t wrap my finger around why, but I thought this was weird.

 

When I attended college it was certainly the era when Facebook became popular. And I am not going to lie and say if I met a girl who I thought was cute in class or at a party, I didn’t friend request her on Facebook. But I also used Facebook to meet friends, stay in touch with old mates and overall be more socially connected to my college community.  Now it seems like Facebook’s big use for it is to find out who has a crush on you. To me this just seems a little over the top but it certainly seems that the days when students met one another by walking around a college campus seem to be over due to emerging media.

J

 

 

http://bostinno.com/2013/01/28/tinder-iphone-app-best-iphone-apps-for-dating/#ss__290055_1_0__ss

http://www.businessinsider.com/tinder-dating-app-2013-1

The Beginning of Emerging Media

Welcome to My Blog! My name is Kevin Stolarski and I am a graduate student at West Virginia University who is wrapping up a masters certificate program in Integrated Marketing and Communications.   For the next nine weeks, I will be part of a course focusing on emerging media and how it’s role and impact effects all of us on a daily basis.

For my initial post, I’d like to briefly go over why this topic is important, and that is because it is everywhere.  Emerging media can be considered any type of digital technology that has changed the way we can communicate. Social networks like Facebook and Tweeter, blogs, forums, instant messaging, mobile messaging, e-mailing are just a few examples of emerging media that are so defined in people’s life that most can’t go a day without it. Friends and family members redefine how we communicate with one another but entire business models are significantly changing because of the way it is heavily affecting the advertising and marketing community.

I’m enthusiastic about digging deeper into specific forms of emerging media over the next couple weeks and sharing some of the information I come across!