David Gelles Will.i.am flows on Silicon Valley

May 2, 2013 9:44 pm by David Gelles

Will.i.am, the futuristic frontman of The Black Eyed Peas, established his Silicon Valley bona fides long ago.

The “technology obsessed” rapper made a viral video for Barack Obama in 2008, sent his music back from Mars via the Curiosity rover, and is Intel’s “director of creative innovation.” He drives an all-electric Tesla, is partnering with Steve Jobs’ widow, Laurene Powell Jobs, and markets a $300 high-tech iPhone case.

But in a song on his poorly-reviewed new album #willpower, will.i.am takes his infatuation with startup culture to another level.

Called “Geekin’”, the track begins with a thudding chorus in which he repeats: “Get my geek on, get my, get my geek on.” Read more

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Posted in Tech |

David Gelles GetGlue gets $12m new funding

January 11, 2012 5:00 pm by David Gelles

Social television startup GetGlue — which lets users “check-in” to TV shows — has raised another round of funding from existing investors, including Time Warner, and a new lead investor, RHO Ventures. Read more

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Posted in Digital media, Internet, Social |

David Gelles NFL deals come with digital rights

December 15, 2011 7:49 pm by David Gelles

When the National Football League yesterday struck a trio of eye-popping deals with big TV networks, the focus was rightly on just how valuable live sports have become to broadcasters today.

But buried in the press releases heralding the agreements (which will bring the NFL $24bn over nine years) was some rather revolutionary news: the TV networks also secured the digital rights to the most popular sport on television.  Read more

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Posted in Digital media, Internet, Mobile |

David Gelles Romney looks to Twitter for fans

November 18, 2011 9:32 pm by David Gelles

President Barack Obama famously used Twitter to energise his followers during the 2008 campaign. Now Mitt Romney, a leading candidate for the Republican nomination, is seeking to conjure up the same magic. Read more

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Posted in Digital media, Internet, Social |

David Gelles Digital marketing’s latest dirty trick

October 27, 2011 12:12 am by David Gelles

Advertisers can be pretty shameless about weaseling their way into editorial content. Whether unethically buying coverage, quietly working with celebrities for endorsements, or good old-fashioned product placement, companies big and small regularly employ such tactics as part of their marketing arsenal.

But today Gawker.com uncovered what looks to be a new wrinkle in the shady world of buying online influence. According to Gawker, a small marketing firm called 43a offered to pay writers for inserting links to its clients’ websites. The fee: $130 – $175 per link. Read more

Posted in Digital media, Internet, Social, Tech |

David Gelles Hearst says iPad magazine apps are better without Adobe

June 10, 2011 1:08 am by David Gelles

Hearst, publisher of magazines including Cosmopolitan and Esquire, took at shot at rival publishers Condé Nast and Time Inc on Monday, as it unveiled its new centre for developing and showcasing digital editions of its titles. Read more

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Posted in Mobile, Software |

David Gelles iPad 2 slated for a March 2 debut

February 23, 2011 5:10 am by David Gelles

Apple is returning to its favourite venue for product launches on March 2, hosting an event at San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Center for the Arts where it is expected to unveil the iPad 2, according to people familiar with the plans.

The company has reserved the main stage at the multifunction venue for next Wednesday, marking a return to the site where it last year launched the original iPad and the iPhone 4. Read more

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Posted in Computers, Consumer Electronics, Hardware, Mobile |

David Gelles Free Gap jeans with Facebook Deals

November 5, 2010 6:44 pm by David Gelles

When Facebook Deals launched on Wednesday, an impressive raft of launch partners were already signed up. The Palms in Las Vegas was giving away a third night free, Chipotle was giving away a second entree on the house, and Gap said it would be giving away 10,000 pairs of jeans on a date to be determined.

When I arrived at work this morning, it was clear that the Gap promotion was happening today. More than a dozen people were lined up outside the Gap across the street from our office.

After dropping my bag, I grabbed a notepad and my iPhone, and darted over to see if I could be one of the lucky ones to claim the Deal. Read more

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Posted in Tech |

David Gelles Facebook partners with DST rival Yandexr

October 29, 2010 1:37 am by David Gelles

Results from Facebook pages will soon begin appearing in Yandex, the leading search engine in Russia. Yandex.ru will also get a Facebook widget on its homepage.

It’s another example of search engines gaining access to the growing trove of information on Facebook’s social graph, and making search a bit more social. Just two weeks ago, Facebook deepened its ties with Microsoft’s search engine, Bing.

But the partnership also puts a wrinkle in Facebook’s relationship with investor Mail.ru (formerly known as Digital Sky Technologies). Mail.ru and Yandex are rivals, competing aggressively for eyeballs in Russia’s booming internet market. Read more

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Posted in Social |

David Gelles Square doesn’t work with iPhone4 (Updated)

October 20, 2010 8:50 am by David Gelles

Square, the much-hyped mobile credit card processing system created by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey has a big problem: it doesn’t work with the iPhone4.

In a blog post buried deep in the support section of Square’s website, the company acknowledges that the Square card reader interferes with the already problematic iPhone4 antenna.

“This renders our card readers inactive for your iPhone4,” the company wrote on October 9. “We are working on redesigning our card readers and will be contacting our iPhone4 users as soon as they are ready for shipment.”

Update: Square has clearly been scrambling for a fix for awhile now. The day after this post was published,  they emailed to say that, “As of today, we have shipped new card readers to to active users who are accessing Square via an iPhone 4.” Read more

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Posted in Commerce, Mobile |
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