The Online Magazine Focused on App Design, Branding & Marketing

There have been some stories floating around the web that Apple offered to buy Loewe, a manufacturer of high-end televisions based in Berlin, Germany. Loewe said it hadn’t received an offer, but that doesn’t mean anything, so I did some research.

Browsing around on Loewe’s website, which is mostly in German, and incomprehensibly to my single language mind, I did discover some interesting facts that lend some credit to the rumors: (1) Loewe is already working to integrate its televisions with the iPad, check out the Loewe Assist Media App in the AppStore – think of it like an awesome remote control; (2) Loewe TV’s are similarly sexy to the Apple designed products we’ve come to love; and (3) Loewe’s financial difficulties make it an attractive target for Apple.

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Designed by Rocksauce Studios, iGoToo is an upcoming iPad app that has one simple goal: to forever change the way you travel! In addition to using it to find local recommendations and make your way around your location, iGoToo lets you design custom tours, letting you plot out your daily adventures and follow them like clockwork. Your tours can then shared with all iGoToo users, letting other travelers share in your experience.

There’s a lot going on in iGoToo and rather than blather about it up here, how about we watch the awesome commercial we shot for the app?
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Social Media Marketing has quickly become the new wave of advertising and avenue to promote products and services. Not only does social media center around your personal contacts, it can also bring a new level of interaction and networking with potential customers. It has increased communications for businesses to foster brand awareness and often, improved customer service. Additionally, social media has become an inexpensive way for businesses to organize marketing campaigns.

Before getting the word out on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, Pinterest, Google+ LinkedIn, Youtube, Vimeo, or Yelp an evaluation needs to happen. Who is the ideal audience: clients, users, customers? What kind of social media are they engaged in? How will you market your product across these networks?

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One of the unavoidable perils of the Internet are spammers. Spammers have an uncanny way of finding their way into every facet of our online lives: Facebook, Email, Discussion Boards, and, yes, Twitter. Not only are spammers annoying to deal with (anyone who runs a website certainly has to deal with scammy pingbacks and spam comments), but they also erode the integrity of established websites. Like a virus, spammers infect the host, replicate and repeat until the host is all but dead. Then, they move on to the next one; like Internet zombies.

Indeed, spammers have the potential to shut down an entire social network. When legitimate contributors find that meaningful comments have been overrun and lost in the spam, they begin to look for other communities to spend their time. When this exodus gains momentum, once vibrant communities are quickly transformed into ghost towns full of cheap advertisements.

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In the words of Dave Chappelle, “There are so many amendments in the Constitution of the United States of America. I can only choose one: I plead the fifth. Five. One, two, three, four, fifth. Anything you say, fifth.” I miss you Dave!

Back in February, I wrote an article titled: Digital Law: The Fifth Amendment and Passwords Don’t Mix that introduced you to some developments in privacy law. Specifically, whether your Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination can protect you from being compelled to decrypt a hard drive with potentially damning content. Today, I’ll update you on that case and add some fresh perspective.

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A few weeks back, we discussed AT&T’s Quest For Spectrum. Basically, AT&T is getting close to maximum capacity on its wireless networks and needs to acquire spectrum from other companies or risk even worse customer satisfaction ratings. In that article, we looked at the failed T-Mobil bid, trouble with a bid for Qualcomm’s 700MHz spectrum, and the allure of acquiring Dish Network, which has some spectrum to spare. One possibility I hadn’t considered was AT&T limiting existing users’ data access, which appears to be exactly what the nation’s second largest wireless carrier is officially doing. If AT&T cared so little about customer satisfaction, as it seems, they would have been better off doing nothing and leaving us to complain about our unlimited plans not working (not an intentional action by the company).

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A couple weeks ago, I came across an interesting research paper titled: “The Cost of Reading Privacy Policies” by Aleecia M. McDonald and Lorrie Faith Cranor. In this paper, the authors thoroughly research the utility of having online privacy policies and calculated their societal costs. The results are alarming…so you better keep on reading.

People take privacy policies very seriously, especially high-trafficked websites like Facebook and Google. In fact, privacy policies have become the focal argument of their most ardent critics. The good news is that after a couple of FTC investigations, players like Facebook have had to clean up their act. Though, I’m still skeptical of what they’re doing over there in Facebook land.

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Netflix doesn’t have a Facebook app!

Well they do, just not in the United States. There is a Facebook app for Netflix in 46 other countries; however, an estimated 23.4 million of Netflix’s 29 million subscribers live in the United States. We can safely say that Netflix’s Facebook presence hasn’t even begun.

So, what is stopping the rent-by-mail/video streaming giant from engaging in proper social networking? A little thing called the Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA), Pub.L. 100-618 (the current law can be found at 18 USCS § 2710). VPPA was signed into law by then President Ronald Regan in 1988, and prevents any videotape service provider from disclosing rental information outside the ordinary course of its business, which is narrowly defined in § 2710 to mean, and I summarize, “keep people’s video rental history private.” Period.

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If you’re inclined to read more, Ice Miller, LLP has a thorough write up on VPPA.

Blockbuster helped bring the VPPA into law after publishing Supreme Court nominee, Robert Bork’s, video rental history. It was also sued in 2008, for violating VPPA in connection with Facebook’s Beacon program. Facebook eventually had to provide a more clear way for companies to turn off the Beacon, which tracked Facebook users’ e-commerce habits.

I think Facebook needs to amend its privacy policy and practice to quit storing all our freaking data! As these examples show us, there can be dangers to companies wanting to integrate with Facebook. The bigger issue is that Facebook can essentially collect free data simply by because its users also use other services. Doesn’t seem fair to me.

Without admitting guilt, Netflix recently had to paid out $9 million to settle a lawsuit claiming it violated VPPA, bringing its quarterly earnings down a notch. See page 31 of Netflix’s 10k filing for more details. Essentially, the plaintiff claimed that Netflix illegally retained his video rental records after he discontinued service. The law requires Netflix to destroy any personally identifiable information connecting an individual to video rental history records within a year “from the date that the information is no longer necessary for the purpose for which it was collected.”

Having recently been stung by a VPPA suit itself and having learned from Blockbuster’s mistakes, it is unlikely we will see a Netflix app on Facebook anytime soon. At least in the United States. However, Netflix hopes to change the law with HR 2471, which passed the House vote and is currently before Senate. It’s short, and you can read the full text of the bill here.

What do you think? Should you be allowed to opt into a Netflix/Facebook App to share our video history with friends? It would sure be easier than having to keep two windows open and manually update our status. 

Facebook is set to go public and investors are valuing the company at a number even Dr. Evil would be proud of: one-hundred BILLION dollars ($100,000,000,000). To put that into perspective, the highest you could count to in a 100-year lifetime, assuming you counted every second of your entire life, is a little over 3.1 billion. Dreams do come true, if only for a lucky few.

While Facebook’s valuation isn’t the highest on Wall Street, it stands formidably at about one-half that of the current market cap of General Electric (NYSE:GE). As I’m sure you are well aware, founded in 1892, GE is a conglomerate that makes products such as aircraft engines, a number of household appliances, and MRI devices among others. GE also owns just under half of NBC Universal. Investors say that Facebook is worth half of this. Tulips anyone? Mashable has an interesting slideshow called “10 Giant Things Less Valuable Than Facebook.” It’s worth browsing, if only for comic relief.

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There’s a chance this footage is fake. I certainly wouldn’t be surprised if it was. There are enough convenient cuts to make its fabrication a reality and this is the internet: we have to cynical because we’ve been tricked too many times. The online age has transformed all of us into skeptics. With that out of the way…

This video is amazing. It’s also a commercial, which may very well make it one of the greatest commercials of all time. No joke. To be specific, it’s a commercial for G-Form’s Extreme Edge iPad case, which is wrapped around a iPad 2 as it is lifted 100,000 feet into the air — riiight on the edge of space — by a weather balloon. The balloon is popped and the iPad falls to the ground in footage that is sure to unnerve anyone with even a slight fear of plummeting to death from the stratosphere. The footage itself and scope of the endeavor is so impressive that the fact that the Extreme Edge case keeps the iPad completely intact feels like an afterthought…although I know what iPad case I’ll be picking up when the time comes.

The only thing that comes off better than the case in this video is the GoPro camera, which not only captures all of the footage beautifully, but survives the fall as well! Watch the video after the jump.

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