Category: Uncategorized

On Wednesday, Adobe began shipment of their flagship software bundle, Adobe Creative Suite 4 (CS4). The new product lineup, used by design professionals and web developers, shares many of the same features with its predecessor Adobe Creative Suite 3 (CS3). Nevertheless, it also provides plenty of new, robust features for improving workflow, efficiency and creating rich media content.

So the question is: does CS4 offer enough to give corporations a good reason to upgrade? Here’s a quick run down of significant features:
Continue reading “Is Adobe CS4 worth it?”

A new survey shows that digital ad spending is on the rise, even in a weakened financial market. Not to say we told you so, but traditional media is feeling the pinch. Looking at the stats actually, it could be more like a punch in the face. Epsilon CMO reports 65% of Chief Marketing Officers admit their “ad budgets will decrease because of the troubled economy, but more of their money will go toward digital/interactive marketing than before.”

The study acknowledges that marketing budgets always tighten in difficult economic times–even as it goes against the age-old wisdom that this is precisely the time to augment advertising spending. But despite reduced cash flow, marketers increasingly feel they can get more bang for their buck in digital channels. As a result, reasons Epsilon, “This means a shift away from traditional marketing and to interactive and digital marketing that is data-driven and targeted; an approach that is already generating demonstrable returns.” Check out the graph after the jump.

Continue reading “Digital advertising to kick TV’s behind?”

It is what is on the inside that counts: Apple is freshening up its MacBook laptop design and technology. The faithful lined up in Cupertino for the announcement, and the blogs tracked the event like pundits on the eve of a presidential election day.

Don’t expect a touch-screen laptop or another MacBook Air. But, clearly the company is taking the learnings of the MacBook Air into its new computers–the laptops are lighter and thinner, while including as many or more high-end features as the previous models. Digital Daily writes, “In many ways, these notebooks are more beautiful on the inside than they are on the outside.”

Another interesting note, Steve Jobs announced the company will no longer be using Intel Corp. graphic chips–instead moving to Nvidia Corp in the quest for faster processing technology.

Continue reading “Tuesday’s sexy tech trifecta”

Breaking up is no different than it was twenty years ago—it is painful and discombobulating. Now after “the talk” and both parties going their own way, you can continue the unsaid words via email. And often it’s after drinking a few glasses of wine. Even if you spell check, it won’t do you any good. The worst part is, the next morning rife with mortification, there is nothing you can do about it. Believe me, I did it after a long relationship crashed this past May. I wish Gmail had come up with their latest invention sooner. I wouldn’t have lost my pride along the way.

Google’s Gmail has a new feature called Mail Goggles that could be a tremendously helpful tool. When you enable Mail Goggles it checks to determine if you really want to send that late night email. You must solve a few easy math questions in 43 seconds or less after you click “send.” See a screenshot after the jump.

Continue reading “New tool prevents drunk emailing”

BlackBerry applications have been around for some time, but no one has aggregated these apps into a user friendly, stand-alone client for the BlackBerry…until now.

Introducing the BerryStore, a third-party BlackBerry application that aggregates dozens of free, handy applications that can browsed, reviewed, and downloaded directly to your BlackBerry.

Unlike the official BlackBerry Application Center, which is supposed to debut with the much-anticipated BlackBerry Storm, the BerryStore is compatible with all BlackBerrys, both old and new (including the Storm). The BerryStore is also available regardless of carrier (just go to BerryStore.com and download the application)–whereas the Application Center, according to some sources, will be individually hosted by carriers and may not be standardized.
Continue reading “BerryStore sweetens BlackBerry app market”

GameTap cuts ahead of one of the most anticipated titles of this year with a re-release of the original through ad-supported play. But their model may be too early to the party.

This fall will see the release of a game called Fallout 3, which is one of the games likely to win game of the year for 2008. What’s interesting about this game, is that it is a sequel to a game from ten years ago.

The above scenario presents an interesting conundrum. For older games, where do gamers go to play the back-content to the new release? One new option is to play the original on GameTap. For free.

Continue reading “GameTap is early to the party”

While Google has achieved and maintains their dominance of the search marketing landscape, they have been investing countless resources in building products and services to get their tentacles into nearly every media and marketing platform. Google TV Ads brings the Google ad sales marketplace to Dish Network and NBCU inventory. Google’s mobile operating system, Android, will launch later this month in the T-Mobile G1 phone. Google Apps is their foray into the SaaS game. The Chrome browser launched a few weeks ago and we’ve all had plenty of time to play with Gmail and iGoogle.

The runaway success of Google’s AdWords and AdSense was built on word of mouth, an accurate and efficient consumer experience and business results for advertisers. But, as Google continues to expand their business and consumer products some observers and company insiders think the company ought to break from tradition and produce some old fashioned advertising to help promote and distinguish their products from competitors. Continue reading “Google’s land grab turns ‘old school’”