Hasta La Gadget!

Twitter’s advertisement program was only available for several businesses in the past, but in order to generate more ad revenue this year, Twitter has decided to make its advertisement program available to anyone and everyone. The ads program allows users and small businesses to promote their brand and their products through promoted tweets and accounts. The tweets can be adjusted to appeal to the general public, or only to a targeted audience.

In the past, the ad program was only accessible to businesses who received a personal invite from Twitter. Now all anyone needs to do is sign-up to be considered. All you need to do is answer a few questions and you’ll be on your way. You can choose to promote your tweets, or you entire account. The pricing system is similar to Google AdWords, where you can set a budget to control how much you spend, and you can place bids to decide how much you want to spend per follower/click.

This new move from Twitter is one of its first steps its taking to achieve its goal of generating $1 billion in ad revenue alone by 2014. Currently, its ad revenue for this year is expected to be a little over half that amount, but with the expansion of its ads program, and its more aggressive move towards mobile, its goal seems more and more realistic. It also helps that there are over 200 million people who are currently using its service and over 400 million tweets being sent out everyday.

Twitter has focused a lot of its efforts into expanding and developing its advertisement platform. Back in February, it released an advertisement API that lets businesses create more targeted ad campaigns. The program saw impressive results, with some businesses seeing a huge increase of new followers on a daily basis. Twitter also improved its keyword-targeted ads so that when a user tweets about a product, like soda, they would see an advertisement for soda quickly after. While increased advertisements may be deterring, Twitter’s ad program becoming available to users and small businesses should do wonders in helping them grow their exposure and their businesses.

[via Twitter]

Twitter makes ads program available to all users is written by Brian Sin & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

This phone can do sit-ups.

(Credit: Queen's University)

The MorePhone is a very acrobatic smartphone. It’s made with a flexible display and shape memory alloy wires. When a call comes in, it activates the wires and causes the whole phone to curl up. It’s an unmistakeable visual cue that you’ve got someone on the line.

The curling smartphone was developed by researchers at Queen’s University Human Media Lab in Canada. The thin electrophoretic display that makes the movement possible was manufactured by Plastic Logic, a company specializing in plastic electronics. The alloy wires can trigger the phone to curl up at all corners, or to curl back individual corners to indicate different events, like an incoming text message or e-mail.

“Users are familiar with hearing their phone ring or feeling it vibrate in silent mode. One of the problems with current silent forms of notification is that users often miss notifications when not holding their phone,” says Roel Vertegaal, director of the Human Media Lab and creator of other flexible phone prototypes. “With MorePhone, they can leave their smartphone on the table and observe visual shape changes when someone is trying to contact them.”

Related stories

• … [Read more]

  Related Links:
  LG eyes flexible OLED-equipped smartphone for Q4
  Apple eyes future devices with flexible displays
  Samsung Galaxy S4 vs. HTC One: A clash of two Android titans
  Smartphone innovation: Where we’re going next (Smartphones Unlocked)
  Five Android apps that prolong your smartphone’s battery life
  

  

  Share this:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Tumblr
  • LinkedIn
  • More

  • Reddit
  • Pinterest
  • Pocket
  • Email

Starting tomorrow, AT&T will be offering a new trade-in program to customers that gives them at least a $100 in credit when they bring in their old smartphone in favor of a new one. This means that as long as you are willing to part ways with your older device, you can get at least 50% off a new smartphone priced at $199.

The Samsung GALAXY S 4, BlackBerry Z10, and HTC One are all priced at $199, so if you were to trade in your old junker, you would only be paying $99 for one of these phones. Furthermore, for mid-range smartphones that are priced at $99, you’d be getting these for free if you traded in your old phone.

In order to get a trade-in value for your old phone, you’ll have to answer some basic questions about the condition of it first, including functionality as well as if anything is broken. Then you have to enter in the device’s serial number and the phone number of the phone (it has to be an AT&T number). Once that’s done, you’ll be able to see how much your old phone is worth.

Then again, you’re probably still better off using another service like Gazelle, Swappa, or even eBay. You’ll most definitely get more money out of your old device, and depending on what service you use, you can haggle with the price in order to get the best deal possible. At that point, you can take that money and get yourself a brand new phone.

AT&T’s new trade-in program gives users half-off on new smartphones is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Just a few days back Windows 8.1 build 9385 leaked screenshots popped up on the internet. This particular build isn’t available on file sharing websites, yet, though that hasn’t stopped some fresh screenshots from being posted online. One of the additions hinted at by these screenshots include better developer tools for Internet Explorer 11. Developers are likely to get an entirely new interface for a variety of options, including debugging. The Kiosk Mode that was discovered a couple of weeks ago has apparently been renamed to “Assigned access.” Kiosk mode will enable the device user profile to be locked down to a single app.

(more…)

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Uncover Takes MacBook Customization To The Next Level With Laser Cut Art, Lenovo ThinkPad S431 Is Powered By Windows 8,

Stand in a line of people in just about any major metropolitan area in the world and you’ll see the same thing: slouched shoulders and down-turned faces staring glumly at smartphone screens. Some people never look away, completely immersed in whatever is happening in the palm of their hands, while others get stuck in a loop of pulling phones from pockets or purses and popping on the screens for just a moment before putting them away again for just a minute or two.

Smartphones are amazing things, but for those who have become addicted to messaging instant gratification, they are a bit unwieldy. This annoyance gets even worse as these devices grow larger and larger. One approach would be to relax a little and stop feeling so compelled to check for Facebook notifications every 30 seconds. Those fully immersed in the information age, however, will be more inclined to fix the physical inconveniences presented by the problem. A heads-up display seems like a natural fit, and thus we have Google Glass. It’s a headset with a projected display, a camera and a data connection that could revolutionize the mobile device industry. It could also cause a public uproar over privacy concerns. Is the potential worth the risk? Join us after the break to see.

Filed under: Wearables

Comments