Hasta La Gadget!

The Moto X rumors and news haven’t slowed, and today another source has come forward with some information about Google’s marketing budget for the flagship handset, which is said to be up to $500 million. The information was given to the folks over at The Wall Street Journal, which also comments on claims regarding the handset’s prices and carriers.

Reportedly, Google’s market plans are part of the reason the Moto X will be carried by the four big carrier in the United States: AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint, and Verizon. It was suggested that Google may exceed the reported $500 million marketing budget, which is mostly reserved for the United States, as well as for “some overseas markets” that weren’t specified.

In addition, and what is no doubt good news, Motorola worked it out with the carriers that bloatware will be kept to a “minimum,” according to the sources. The same sources also confirmed that the customization features we’ve been seeing in various leaks are true, saying that various color options will be available for the handset, as well as custom engraving on the back of the device if desired.

The sources then went on to talk about pricing, saying that it will have “comparable” pricing to competing smartphones, with the iPhone 5, HTC One, and Samsung GALAXY S 4 all be specified. As such, users are likely looking at a price of $199 with a two-year contract, or several hundred dollars without contract subsidization. It is also said the handset’s pricing then could drop a little while after its launch.

This follows in line with comments regarding the Moto X’s pricing made by Motorola’s Dennis Woodside during the D11 conference. Says Woodside, he doesn’t anticipate the wide range in handset pricing to persist, and that he feels Motorola is now in an industry receptive to it “building a low-cost, high-quality market.”

SOURCE: Android Community

Moto X reportedly to have up to half a billion marketing budget is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2013, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Any advanced Internetter knows that the best way to enjoy the pure Internet is to get an ad blocker. It zaps away all the excess and gives you the meaty good stuff. However, it looks like companies are figuring ways to circumvent ad blockers… by paying them off. Google is reportedly paying one of the most popular ad blockers, AdBlock Plus, to not block Google’s ads.

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We’ll admit that we haven’t been particularly impressed with the sponsored tweets we’ve been getting courtesy of Twitter’s current ad model. To address the issue, the service is toying around with a more targeted program, offering up ads to users from those businesses and brands they’ve shown an interest in. Rather than simply mining mentions on the service, the new model utilizes browser cookie IDs and scrambled email addresses, so those who’ve actually visited that site are more likely to get adverts from it. Not interested in taking part? You can uncheck the box next to Promoted content in your settings to opt out.

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Source: Twitter Blog

AT&T has updated its privacy policy and disclosed that the carrier may begin selling its customers data to other businesses, although they stated that the data would be anonymized so that no one individual could be identified. However, AT&T said that customers will have the option of opting out if they choose.

AT&T says that the reason for selling the user data is “to deliver more relevant advertising,” which is surprising to hear at all, and many privacy concerns for other big services on the internet focus on this topic. Selling user data for improved advertisements is nothing new, but its ubiquitousness doesn’t lessen the concern that users have.

Verizon Wireless, Google, and Facebook are just a few of the big tech companies that have long been selling user data to marketers and advertisers in exchange for improved and catered advertisements on their websites. The IDC predicts that the sale of user data will become a $24 billion industry by 2016.

As for how AT&T will sell its user data, the carrier provided some insight as to what information will be sold to marketers. Specifically, things like demographics will be included, as well as viewing behavior for AT&T’s U-verse television service, and make and model information of mobile devices with regional information of these devices as well.

Again, this shouldn’t be too surprising to folks, and users are able to opt-out at any time, which may still upset some privacy advocates, as opting-in is much better for the consumer than opting out, since it takes an extra step that many users may forget about or not know that the option is even there.

SOURCE: AT&T

AT&T privacy policy updated, may start selling anonymous user data is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2013, SlashGear. All right reserved.

We toss around likes as if they were high fives on the Internet. As affirmation of people doing the right thing. As oh hey look cool. As being silly and ironic. As the digital form of support. As a hug. As a fist bump. But what do those thumbs up actually do? Boosts someone’s ego? Spreads your online seed? In reality, nothing.

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