Dual-Core Nvidia Tegra 2
LG first discussed the LG Optimus 2X dual-core Tegra smart phone at their press conference yesterday. They talked about their new NOVA display which features full 1080p HD video playback. With full HDMI out and only 9.2mm thick, the LG Optimus seems to be the first of a new generation of smart phones. The next question we need to get answered is how long will the battery last playing 1080p video?Yesterday at CES 2011, NVIDIA has partnered with LG to launch the most powerful smartphone that we have seen to date, the LG Optimus 2X. Beauty on the outside, monster on the inside.Tegra 2 is a dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 CPU, which is the world's first mobile dual-core CPU. It enables faster Web browsing, snappier response time, and better overall performance. Then there is the Ultra-low powered (ULI) NVIDIA GeForce GPU which is where the 3D game playability and 3D user interface gets its horsepower. The SOC is capable of 1080p video playback output to your HDTV! We caught up with NVIDIA later at Digital Experience and we were able to get a closer look at the Acer tablet. The video above shows off the game title Dungeon Defenders. This game title is made by Trendy Entertainment and is powered by Unreal Engine 3 game engine. It can be played cross-platform, allowing players to play on PC, console and mobile devices at the same time. NVIDIA and many others see mobile computing skyrocketing and compared CES 2011 to Comdex 1995 when Windows 95 was released. NVIDIA has a lot riding on Tegra 2, it's expected to be used in super phones, tablets, and automobiles. Yes I said automobiles. BMW and Tesla have adopted Tegra 2 to power the in-car information displays!
from - http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1513/1/
Friday, May 20, 2011
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Buzz marketing is an indirect communications
Buzz marketing is an indirect communications method that has been used successfully in the promotion of a wide variety of products, services, and ideas. By identifying and cultivating nonmedia opinion leaders, the technique generates word-of-mouth communications between these early adopters of products and services and the early and late majority of people who tend to follow their lead. Opinion leaders can be categorized as ordinary or extraordinary, technical or social, and specialist or generalist, depending on the nature of their communications, expertise, and range of knowledge. Buzz marketing is most useful for ideas that are memorable, produce small changes in behavior that have big effects over time, and have the potential to reach a "tipping point" in terms of momentum among a target population. Pharmacists can use buzz marketing for promoting innovative services such as pharmaceutical care. A case study is presented on the use of buzz marketing by a health system for decreasing antibiotic resistance through lessening of public demand for antibiotics and support of physicians in prescribing the agents appropriately
There's a new marketing catchphrase that's getting rave word-of-mouth reviews. From articles in the popular press to conversations in the classroom, huge companies to boutique marketing firms, suddenly it seems you can't talk about new products without addressing 'buzz marketing.' "People are buzzing about buzzing," says Wharton marketing professor Barbara Kahn. "People think it's cool. There is something almost empowering about the idea of being able to 'buzz' your way into the products people buy."
Buzzing: What Is It?
Put simply, buzz marketing is the practice of gathering volunteers to try products, then sending them out into the world to talk up their experiences with the people they meet in their daily lives. The idea is that the more people see a product being used in public, or the more they hear about it from people they know and trust, the more likely they will be to buy it for themselves. Of course, word-of-mouth has long been the way that many people find their favorite products, or learn about a new favorite movie, book or restaurant. "For years, people recognized the power of word-of-mouth in convincing, influencing, affecting consumer behavior," says marketing professor Jerry Wind. "It has more credibility than traditional advertising." But it's a fairly recent development for companies to try to create a structure around the practice, to harness and direct the way that word-of-mouth spreads -- and to attempt to measure its effect on sales once the 'campaign' is complete. "Buzzing isn't really new. The hype about these different kinds of buzz agents is what's new," says Kahn
In practice, buzz marketing can take several different forms. Some companies identify particular types of people to do their buzzing for them. Known as 'mavens' (for readers of Malcolm Gladwell's Tipping Point) or 'influencers' or 'early adopters,' these are the people who naturally set cultural trends, who define what is cool before the rest of the world even realizes it exists. "Gladwell put it in terms that everyone understood, but basically there are people out there who can tell what's cool and what's not. We all know them -- the people who tell us about great restaurants, or who have cool clothes before we do," Kahn says. "To make buzzing really work, I do have to believe that the person I'm listening to is discriminating, that he or she knows something I don't. Otherwise that person is not giving me anything new." Procter & Gamble pioneered this approach on a large scale by recruiting hundreds of thousands of 'maven' teenagers to create buzz about new products -- some as mundane as toothpaste. "P&G started this idea of manufacturing word-of-mouth," says Wind. "They recruited a quarter million teens to talk about their products. Now they are in the process of recruiting mothers to do the same thing because they have suddenly realize that word-of-mouth is a powerful thing."
Other buzz marketers rely less on natural trendsetters and more on 'connectors.' "If they really want something to spread -- to see not just a slow diffusion but a big jump in awareness -- you go to the connectors," Kahn says. "Oprah is the king of all connectors. Basically these are people who have bigger rolodexes than the rest of us. They have lots of contacts in different circles, so word will spread. Fast."
But Does It Work?
Buzz marketing stands in direct contrast to traditional television or radio advertising -- the classic 'mass marketing' approach that is based on the premise of broadcasting a message as widely as possible, assuming that this is the best way to reach the largest possible number of interested consumers. Buzzing, which might also be described as 'micro-marketing,' assumes that a person-to-person marketing message is much more powerful because it is so personal -- and that it could potentially reach more people than a broadcast message, if only it is buzzed about in great quantity by people who have very long contact lists and no qualms about promoting products to anyone who will listen.
Wind points to a survey performed by CNW Marketing Research on the 15 largest U.S. television markets as evidence of why buzz marketing is becoming so important to companies today. It found that more than half of the ads for cars, credit cards and pet-related products are ignored by television viewers. In addition, 42% of ads about home products are ignored, as are 45% of fast food advertisements. The numbers are far worse in the case of viewers with personal video recorders such as TiVo. For that group, 95% of fast food ads were skipped, as were 68% of car ads, 80% of pet product ads, and 94% of financial product advertisements. "The 30-second commercial is becoming less and less powerful. We have to realize that most of the money spent on advertising is being wasted, so advertisers have to look for others sources and ideas for marketing their products," Wind says.
That's why Vespa turned to buzz marketers to ride its scooters around town and talk up their 'cool factor' when they debuted, and why Ford loaned its new Focus cars out to buzz agents for the first six months of its launch. In each case, companies looked for ways to gain high visibility and personal recommendations through buzz.
Not every product can be effectively marketed by buzz agents, however. "It has to be an interesting one," says Kahn. "Products do have to live up to the hype, they do have to deliver. If these products aren't delivering coolness, this will not over time be a credible method." According to Kahn, products that fit this description are fashion items and items of cultural interest such as TV shows, books and movies -- anything that connotes a sense of being 'in the know.' "They have to be products where value comes from the social interaction," Kahn says. "What you wear, what movies you go to, what things you read -- these are all influenced by social opinion. There are other things that I buy where I don't care what other people think about them. I like Sweet Tarts. I don't really care what anybody else thinks about Sweet Tarts. But I like to go to the 'in' restaurants, and I want to have read the book everybody's talking about. I want to know what everybody's talking about around the water cooler."
The fear for buzz marketing is that, however successful it may currently be, the effectiveness of the approach will inevitably be diluted through overuse and, dare we say it: too much buzz. "Right now it's a very nontraditional practice which makes it exciting," says marketing professor Peter S. Fader. "But look at pop-up ads and email marketing, which five years ago, when you saw them for the first time, seemed interesting. Now they are at the point of tremendous annoyance. They went from clever, path-breaking and really, truly creative to this incredible annoyance where now, people have just thrown out the baby with the bathwater. And there is no question that buzz marketing is poised to go exactly the same way.
"Buzz marketing needs to be used very judiciously for it to remain effective," he adds. "Otherwise people will become so skeptical and annoyed by it that they will become completely immune to the marketing virus that [marketers] are trying to spread." Fader doesn't think companies will succeed in preserving buzz marketing as an effective tool because they simply don't exercise restraint when they have discovered a new marketing approach. And perhaps even more importantly, Fader says, they regularly confuse useful marketing tactics for real marketing strategy.
"What people have to realize is that it's not a strategy; it's a tactic. That's an important distinction," he notes. "Buzz marketing is one of many elements that a company should be doing when trying to get a new product out to market. It's a specialized tactic. But these days companies are relying on it too heavily, losing sight of what they really should be focusing on: strategy." According to Fader, the buzz about buzz marketing is analogous to the hype that surrounded the Internet in the late 1990s, when so many companies mistook the web and its technology for a new business 'strategy' rather than the sales and information channel that it is. "Your strategy is what your overall approach is going to be. It's answering bigger questions such as, 'Are we trying to leak into the market slowly or are we trying to explode into the market all at once?' For example, there are very different sales patterns for movies, which explode, versus new MRI machines, which need to be eased into the market. Next, you ask things like, 'Do we start with a high price and bring it down? A low price and bring it up? Do we advertise slowly and spread out the message?' Those are strategic questions."
Once set on strategy, tactics come into play. "There could be a role for buzz building in both skim and penetration marketing strategies," Fader says. But buzz marketing should be combined with other forms of marketing to create a pattern of tactics that support the overall strategy. "It needs to be decided in concert with decisions about what other forms of both traditional and non-traditional forms of marketing should they be using, and exactly how much of the budget should they be spending on each form of messaging. Too many companies are starting with tactics and backing into them as a strategy. I'm a little afraid that people are loading onto particularly small bandwagons such as this and losing sight of the larger, more important issue of resource allocation."
According to marketing professor David R. Bell, who conducted a study looking at retail purchase patterns for online retailer Netgrocer.com, "in general, we should expect the 'buzz effect' to be most prominent the first time a consumer tries a product." Netgrocer.com, he says, "ships nonperishable groceries using FedEx anywhere in the U.S., so we took a look at their customer data to see how their customer base evolved over both time and space." With traditional grocery stores, Bell says, customers can all be found within a 10 mile radius of the store. For an online store that ships anywhere, one might expect to see no geographic pattern at all. "What we found was that there were in fact very strong spacial clusterings: New customers came from the places where existing customers lived. It demonstrated very strong social contagion patterns - word-of-mouth. Your neighbor orders from Netgrocer.com, tells you about it, and you decide to try it, too."
Bell, however, also discovered something else: Word-of-mouth apparently has a shelf life. "Before people try something once, they don't have their own experiences to make judgments, so they will try something based on what their social acquaintances tell them. But for repeat customers, there was no spacial pattern at all because the decision to purchase again requires no input from others. You will buy something if you liked it the first time. Period."
The Ethical Debate
For some, buzz marketing raises not just strategy questions, but serious ethical issues as well. In most cases when marketers talk about buzz marketing 'agents' they mean regular citizens who have volunteered to be product guinea pigs -- people who receive no financial compensation, but do get products in advance of their release to the general public in exchange for a promise to talk them up if they like them, and to provide feedback to companies about what they and others think. Sometimes, however, marketers blur these lines in their effort to create buzz, hiring actors to pose as Average Joes, similar to what Sony Ericsson did to promote one of its digital cameras.
Actions like these raise the question of whether there is something inherently unethical about buzz marketing itself. After all, even those 'buzz agents' who are not monetarily compensated do receive free products in exchange for their services, and few freely admit their status as agents to the people they are buzzing to. For some, the ethical question amounts to just a vague twinge of discomfort when they realize a friend's excitement over a new product is part of an orchestrated corporate effort to create buzz on the street. For others, it raises the specter of a paranoid future where corporate marketers have invaded every last niche of society, degrading all social interaction to a marketing transaction, where no one can be certain of anyone else's true opinions or intentions.
Wharton marketing professor Lisa Bolton is one of the hard-liners in the buzz marketing ethics debate. "I realize not all buzz marketing is subversive. Sometimes it's just a case of getting people on the street and getting the word out. But stealth marketing, where you don't know that something's part of a marketing campaign because people don't identify themselves as such? I thinks it's wrong. It's unethical. Over the long term, when people find out, they will feel deceived and betrayed. Ultimately, it will damage a company's brand equity."
Bolton, who teaches consumer behavior at Wharton, recently discussed buzz marketing in her class. During the discussion several students identified themselves as buzz agents for various boutique marketing companies; some were currently aiding buzz marketing efforts for everything from forthcoming books to new consumer products. Most students were intrigued by the idea of buzz marketing, and few said they perceived any ethical conflict. "They claim that they only act as buzz agents for products they truly like; therefore, they aren't lying when they praise them. They seem to focus on what they are saying, not why they are saying it," Bolton says.
Still, the students don't identify themselves as agents unless directly asked and this is what makes the difference, according to Bolton. "Whenever the buzz agent doesn't identify himself upfront as a marketer, the customer interaction is deceptive and, therefore, unethical. Research in psychology suggests that consumers are more readily persuaded when they do not know that the other person is trying to persuade them. By not revealing their persuasive intent, the buzz agent is gaining an unfair advantage that undermines social interaction. We usually assume that other people, in ordinary discourse, are not trying to sell us something; when we know we are being marketed to, we can raise barriers to try and protect ourselves," she says.
Bolton's students changed their tune a bit when she proposed this scenario for them to consider: "At one point I said, 'So John, you're sitting in a bar and a cute girl chats you up and you're feeling like 'Oh wow, this attractive person is talking to me.' It's only after she's gone that you find out it's a marketing ploy. Suddenly they said, 'Yeah, I'd feel pretty bad, [like I had been] taken advantage of'. Because now they are the victim."
Wind disagrees. "I don't see any ethical problem as long as the company provides the product to a person and that person is totally independent in terms of saying whatever they feel about the product to the customer. If we say, 'Here's the product and here's what to tell people,' then you're not allowing them to really express themselves. That's when it undermines credibility," Wind says. "Consumers are more sophisticated than people give them credit for. Buzz marketing is like sampling; it's simply providing exposure to the product. You're not forcing them to buy anything; you're just exposing them to it. They are not stupid. They will try it and if they like it, they will do more research and maybe buy it themselves. It's useful. If they don't like it, they won't buy it."
Besides, adds Wind, relying on word-of-mouth marketing may actually force companies to create better products. "Research shows that negative word-of-mouth is seven times more powerful than positive word-of-mouth. This really forces people to have good products. Otherwise, when you turn people loose to say whatever they want, you could be in real trouble."
There's a new marketing catchphrase that's getting rave word-of-mouth reviews. From articles in the popular press to conversations in the classroom, huge companies to boutique marketing firms, suddenly it seems you can't talk about new products without addressing 'buzz marketing.' "People are buzzing about buzzing," says Wharton marketing professor Barbara Kahn. "People think it's cool. There is something almost empowering about the idea of being able to 'buzz' your way into the products people buy."
Buzzing: What Is It?
Put simply, buzz marketing is the practice of gathering volunteers to try products, then sending them out into the world to talk up their experiences with the people they meet in their daily lives. The idea is that the more people see a product being used in public, or the more they hear about it from people they know and trust, the more likely they will be to buy it for themselves. Of course, word-of-mouth has long been the way that many people find their favorite products, or learn about a new favorite movie, book or restaurant. "For years, people recognized the power of word-of-mouth in convincing, influencing, affecting consumer behavior," says marketing professor Jerry Wind. "It has more credibility than traditional advertising." But it's a fairly recent development for companies to try to create a structure around the practice, to harness and direct the way that word-of-mouth spreads -- and to attempt to measure its effect on sales once the 'campaign' is complete. "Buzzing isn't really new. The hype about these different kinds of buzz agents is what's new," says Kahn
In practice, buzz marketing can take several different forms. Some companies identify particular types of people to do their buzzing for them. Known as 'mavens' (for readers of Malcolm Gladwell's Tipping Point) or 'influencers' or 'early adopters,' these are the people who naturally set cultural trends, who define what is cool before the rest of the world even realizes it exists. "Gladwell put it in terms that everyone understood, but basically there are people out there who can tell what's cool and what's not. We all know them -- the people who tell us about great restaurants, or who have cool clothes before we do," Kahn says. "To make buzzing really work, I do have to believe that the person I'm listening to is discriminating, that he or she knows something I don't. Otherwise that person is not giving me anything new." Procter & Gamble pioneered this approach on a large scale by recruiting hundreds of thousands of 'maven' teenagers to create buzz about new products -- some as mundane as toothpaste. "P&G started this idea of manufacturing word-of-mouth," says Wind. "They recruited a quarter million teens to talk about their products. Now they are in the process of recruiting mothers to do the same thing because they have suddenly realize that word-of-mouth is a powerful thing."
Other buzz marketers rely less on natural trendsetters and more on 'connectors.' "If they really want something to spread -- to see not just a slow diffusion but a big jump in awareness -- you go to the connectors," Kahn says. "Oprah is the king of all connectors. Basically these are people who have bigger rolodexes than the rest of us. They have lots of contacts in different circles, so word will spread. Fast."
But Does It Work?
Buzz marketing stands in direct contrast to traditional television or radio advertising -- the classic 'mass marketing' approach that is based on the premise of broadcasting a message as widely as possible, assuming that this is the best way to reach the largest possible number of interested consumers. Buzzing, which might also be described as 'micro-marketing,' assumes that a person-to-person marketing message is much more powerful because it is so personal -- and that it could potentially reach more people than a broadcast message, if only it is buzzed about in great quantity by people who have very long contact lists and no qualms about promoting products to anyone who will listen.
Wind points to a survey performed by CNW Marketing Research on the 15 largest U.S. television markets as evidence of why buzz marketing is becoming so important to companies today. It found that more than half of the ads for cars, credit cards and pet-related products are ignored by television viewers. In addition, 42% of ads about home products are ignored, as are 45% of fast food advertisements. The numbers are far worse in the case of viewers with personal video recorders such as TiVo. For that group, 95% of fast food ads were skipped, as were 68% of car ads, 80% of pet product ads, and 94% of financial product advertisements. "The 30-second commercial is becoming less and less powerful. We have to realize that most of the money spent on advertising is being wasted, so advertisers have to look for others sources and ideas for marketing their products," Wind says.
That's why Vespa turned to buzz marketers to ride its scooters around town and talk up their 'cool factor' when they debuted, and why Ford loaned its new Focus cars out to buzz agents for the first six months of its launch. In each case, companies looked for ways to gain high visibility and personal recommendations through buzz.
Not every product can be effectively marketed by buzz agents, however. "It has to be an interesting one," says Kahn. "Products do have to live up to the hype, they do have to deliver. If these products aren't delivering coolness, this will not over time be a credible method." According to Kahn, products that fit this description are fashion items and items of cultural interest such as TV shows, books and movies -- anything that connotes a sense of being 'in the know.' "They have to be products where value comes from the social interaction," Kahn says. "What you wear, what movies you go to, what things you read -- these are all influenced by social opinion. There are other things that I buy where I don't care what other people think about them. I like Sweet Tarts. I don't really care what anybody else thinks about Sweet Tarts. But I like to go to the 'in' restaurants, and I want to have read the book everybody's talking about. I want to know what everybody's talking about around the water cooler."
The fear for buzz marketing is that, however successful it may currently be, the effectiveness of the approach will inevitably be diluted through overuse and, dare we say it: too much buzz. "Right now it's a very nontraditional practice which makes it exciting," says marketing professor Peter S. Fader. "But look at pop-up ads and email marketing, which five years ago, when you saw them for the first time, seemed interesting. Now they are at the point of tremendous annoyance. They went from clever, path-breaking and really, truly creative to this incredible annoyance where now, people have just thrown out the baby with the bathwater. And there is no question that buzz marketing is poised to go exactly the same way.
"Buzz marketing needs to be used very judiciously for it to remain effective," he adds. "Otherwise people will become so skeptical and annoyed by it that they will become completely immune to the marketing virus that [marketers] are trying to spread." Fader doesn't think companies will succeed in preserving buzz marketing as an effective tool because they simply don't exercise restraint when they have discovered a new marketing approach. And perhaps even more importantly, Fader says, they regularly confuse useful marketing tactics for real marketing strategy.
"What people have to realize is that it's not a strategy; it's a tactic. That's an important distinction," he notes. "Buzz marketing is one of many elements that a company should be doing when trying to get a new product out to market. It's a specialized tactic. But these days companies are relying on it too heavily, losing sight of what they really should be focusing on: strategy." According to Fader, the buzz about buzz marketing is analogous to the hype that surrounded the Internet in the late 1990s, when so many companies mistook the web and its technology for a new business 'strategy' rather than the sales and information channel that it is. "Your strategy is what your overall approach is going to be. It's answering bigger questions such as, 'Are we trying to leak into the market slowly or are we trying to explode into the market all at once?' For example, there are very different sales patterns for movies, which explode, versus new MRI machines, which need to be eased into the market. Next, you ask things like, 'Do we start with a high price and bring it down? A low price and bring it up? Do we advertise slowly and spread out the message?' Those are strategic questions."
Once set on strategy, tactics come into play. "There could be a role for buzz building in both skim and penetration marketing strategies," Fader says. But buzz marketing should be combined with other forms of marketing to create a pattern of tactics that support the overall strategy. "It needs to be decided in concert with decisions about what other forms of both traditional and non-traditional forms of marketing should they be using, and exactly how much of the budget should they be spending on each form of messaging. Too many companies are starting with tactics and backing into them as a strategy. I'm a little afraid that people are loading onto particularly small bandwagons such as this and losing sight of the larger, more important issue of resource allocation."
According to marketing professor David R. Bell, who conducted a study looking at retail purchase patterns for online retailer Netgrocer.com, "in general, we should expect the 'buzz effect' to be most prominent the first time a consumer tries a product." Netgrocer.com, he says, "ships nonperishable groceries using FedEx anywhere in the U.S., so we took a look at their customer data to see how their customer base evolved over both time and space." With traditional grocery stores, Bell says, customers can all be found within a 10 mile radius of the store. For an online store that ships anywhere, one might expect to see no geographic pattern at all. "What we found was that there were in fact very strong spacial clusterings: New customers came from the places where existing customers lived. It demonstrated very strong social contagion patterns - word-of-mouth. Your neighbor orders from Netgrocer.com, tells you about it, and you decide to try it, too."
Bell, however, also discovered something else: Word-of-mouth apparently has a shelf life. "Before people try something once, they don't have their own experiences to make judgments, so they will try something based on what their social acquaintances tell them. But for repeat customers, there was no spacial pattern at all because the decision to purchase again requires no input from others. You will buy something if you liked it the first time. Period."
The Ethical Debate
For some, buzz marketing raises not just strategy questions, but serious ethical issues as well. In most cases when marketers talk about buzz marketing 'agents' they mean regular citizens who have volunteered to be product guinea pigs -- people who receive no financial compensation, but do get products in advance of their release to the general public in exchange for a promise to talk them up if they like them, and to provide feedback to companies about what they and others think. Sometimes, however, marketers blur these lines in their effort to create buzz, hiring actors to pose as Average Joes, similar to what Sony Ericsson did to promote one of its digital cameras.
Actions like these raise the question of whether there is something inherently unethical about buzz marketing itself. After all, even those 'buzz agents' who are not monetarily compensated do receive free products in exchange for their services, and few freely admit their status as agents to the people they are buzzing to. For some, the ethical question amounts to just a vague twinge of discomfort when they realize a friend's excitement over a new product is part of an orchestrated corporate effort to create buzz on the street. For others, it raises the specter of a paranoid future where corporate marketers have invaded every last niche of society, degrading all social interaction to a marketing transaction, where no one can be certain of anyone else's true opinions or intentions.
Wharton marketing professor Lisa Bolton is one of the hard-liners in the buzz marketing ethics debate. "I realize not all buzz marketing is subversive. Sometimes it's just a case of getting people on the street and getting the word out. But stealth marketing, where you don't know that something's part of a marketing campaign because people don't identify themselves as such? I thinks it's wrong. It's unethical. Over the long term, when people find out, they will feel deceived and betrayed. Ultimately, it will damage a company's brand equity."
Bolton, who teaches consumer behavior at Wharton, recently discussed buzz marketing in her class. During the discussion several students identified themselves as buzz agents for various boutique marketing companies; some were currently aiding buzz marketing efforts for everything from forthcoming books to new consumer products. Most students were intrigued by the idea of buzz marketing, and few said they perceived any ethical conflict. "They claim that they only act as buzz agents for products they truly like; therefore, they aren't lying when they praise them. They seem to focus on what they are saying, not why they are saying it," Bolton says.
Still, the students don't identify themselves as agents unless directly asked and this is what makes the difference, according to Bolton. "Whenever the buzz agent doesn't identify himself upfront as a marketer, the customer interaction is deceptive and, therefore, unethical. Research in psychology suggests that consumers are more readily persuaded when they do not know that the other person is trying to persuade them. By not revealing their persuasive intent, the buzz agent is gaining an unfair advantage that undermines social interaction. We usually assume that other people, in ordinary discourse, are not trying to sell us something; when we know we are being marketed to, we can raise barriers to try and protect ourselves," she says.
Bolton's students changed their tune a bit when she proposed this scenario for them to consider: "At one point I said, 'So John, you're sitting in a bar and a cute girl chats you up and you're feeling like 'Oh wow, this attractive person is talking to me.' It's only after she's gone that you find out it's a marketing ploy. Suddenly they said, 'Yeah, I'd feel pretty bad, [like I had been] taken advantage of'. Because now they are the victim."
Wind disagrees. "I don't see any ethical problem as long as the company provides the product to a person and that person is totally independent in terms of saying whatever they feel about the product to the customer. If we say, 'Here's the product and here's what to tell people,' then you're not allowing them to really express themselves. That's when it undermines credibility," Wind says. "Consumers are more sophisticated than people give them credit for. Buzz marketing is like sampling; it's simply providing exposure to the product. You're not forcing them to buy anything; you're just exposing them to it. They are not stupid. They will try it and if they like it, they will do more research and maybe buy it themselves. It's useful. If they don't like it, they won't buy it."
Besides, adds Wind, relying on word-of-mouth marketing may actually force companies to create better products. "Research shows that negative word-of-mouth is seven times more powerful than positive word-of-mouth. This really forces people to have good products. Otherwise, when you turn people loose to say whatever they want, you could be in real trouble."
Friday, May 13, 2011
what is the best tablet
what is the best tablet
When the first Apple iPad and the Fusion Garage JooJoo were released within days of each other in early 2010, the world got its first real taste of tablets—and, what some might say, is an excellent summation of the breadth of quality future tablets would offer. At the high end, the iPad, and now the iPad 2,
sony s1
is the benchmark tablet to beat, with top-notch, seamless design paired with a robust app store. The now-discontinued JooJoo was a clunker—it lacked internal storage, often crashed, and basically didn't have any apps, only some basic tools. In between these bookends lies the rest of the tablet field, with early Android tablets (anything running a version lower than Android 3.0) ranking closer to the JooJoo end of the spectrum and newer Android tablets like the Motorola Xoom and upcoming second-generation Samsung Galaxy Tabs taking aim at the iPad. Upon first glance, the upcoming RIM BlackBerry PlayBook also looks to be quite the competitor, with its own operating system and the ability to run some Android apps. So which of the plethora of deceivingly similar-looking tablets is worth your sizable investment? Let's look at the key factors you need to consider:
First Off: Do You Even Need a Tablet?
Simply put, tablets aren't really filling any true need right now—they are neither replacements for full-fledged computers nor smartphones. A tablet is a touch-screen media device that is actually most similar to a very advanced portable media player—or an MP3 player with a much larger screen. Yes, many of them have mobile service features, but currently none of them make phone calls via a traditional mobile provider. And while you can get work done on a tablet, you won't get a desktop-grade operating system, like you'll find on a PC. Tablets are basically lightweight versions of laptops in every sense—they weigh less, and they're lighter on features. The advantage they offer over laptops is an easy way to check e-mail, browse the Web, consume media, and play games—just like a smartphone. But with a tablet you get a much bigger screen with more real estate. The bottom line is, you probably don't need one, but if you want a tablet, read on.
Operating System
First, just like with a computer, you must choose your allegiance. Apple's iOS is the mobile platform used by the iPad, as well as the iPhone and iPod touch. By now, you're probably familiar with iOS even if you don't own an iPhone, seeing as the device is as ubiquitous in public as it is in television and movies. On the iPad and the iPad 2, iOS works very similarly to the way it does on the iPhone, with certain tweaks made here and there to take advantage of the tablet's larger 9.7-inch screen. The built-in iPod app on the iPad, for instance, has an extra side menu for additional navigation options that wouldn't fit on a 3.5-inch screen. Generally speaking, the great strength of Apple's iOS is twofold: it's incredibly easy to use, and the wide selection of iPad apps—more than 65,000 tablet-specific titles at the time of this writing—download easily and quickly and work uniformly well with very few exceptions.
Google's mobile OS, Android, is a different story. There are several iterations of Android, but only one—Android 3.0, a.k.a. Honeycomb—is designed specifically for tablets. Right now, only one tablet offers Honeycomb—the Motorola Xoom—and that makes it the iPad's most viable contender, for now. It is a showcase for Android 3.0, which features an improved, more visual multitasking bar than iOS, as well as superior e-mail notifications. Unfortunately, these two particular strengths, though legitimate, are not strong enough to topple Apple's iOS when you look at the bigger picture. The home-screen for Honeycomb, for example, can get easily cluttered because there are so many different ways to organize, rather than just putting things in tidy folders as you can with iOS. The one you choose will largely depend on your personal preference, so if you can try before you buy, you should.
Apps
Android lacks a strong selection of apps. Even with the newly announced Amazon App Store, the number of Honeycomb tablet-friendly apps that work well is very low. We could linger on this section, but the bottom line is simple: if you want lots of apps for your tablet, right now, nothing out there beats the iPad. Apple's App Store is well-curated and offers deep selection—no competitor can come close to claiming this right now, partially because apps made for Android tablets have to work across multiple screen sizes, while iPad apps are designed specifically for one device. It sounds simple, but the variation in size (and manufacturers) complicates things greatly. It remains to be seen what kind of options will exist for the BlackBerry PlayBook. Eventually, one hopes, the other app stores will catch up to Apple, but if a wide range of compelling apps is your main priority, Apple is currently your best bet.
Design and Size
This consideration is a bit obvious, but size—both screen real estate and storage capacity—is important to consider. First things first: When you hear the term "10-inch tablet," this typically refers to the size of the screen, measured diagonally, and not the size of the tablet itself. Apple continues to offer the iPad in one size only (9.7-inch screen). The Xoom comes in one screen size too (10.1 inches), but Samsung just announced new Galaxy Tab models in multiple sizes (8.9- and 10.1-inches) in addition to the current 7-inch Tab and the trend for other companies seems to be: the more sizes, the better. In other words, you have plenty of options, but the higher quality tablets thus far have veered towards the larger end of the scale since they offer a better finger-centric, touch screen experience. The weight of a tablet is one definite advantage it has over a laptop—but let's be clear, at around 1.5 pounds (in the case of the iPad 2) they're not as light, as say, your cell phone. After you hold one on the subway for ten minutes, your hand will get tired. Setting it flat in your lap, rather propped up on a stand, is also a little awkward.
As for storage, the more the better—those apps, when combined with a typical music, video, and photo library, can take up a lot of space. Right now storage tops out at 64GB of flash-based memory, with many of the quality tablets we've seen available in 16, 32, and 64GB varieties. Larger capacity models can get as expensive as full-featured laptops, especially when you factor in cellular service plans.
Wi-Fi-Only vs. Cellular Models
Most tablets come in a Wi-Fi-only model or with the option to pay by the month for 3G (or eventually, 4G) always-on cellular service from a provider like AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, or Verizon Wireless. If you want to use your tablet to get online anywhere, you should opt for a model with a cell radio. Of course, this adds to the device's price, and then you need to pay for cellular service. Generally, though, you can purchase data on a month-to-month basis, without signing a contract, and charges typically don't exceed $20 monthly, as long as you stay within data-usage limits.
Another way to get your tablet online: Use your 3G or 4G phone as a Wi-Fi hotspot for your tablet—this won't work with every phone/tablet combo, so you should check with the carriers before you buy in.
Cameras & Video Chatting
With the release of the iPad 2, Apple caught up rather quickly to its tablet competition and added front- and rear-facing cameras for stills and video. The Xoom has a higher quality rear-facing camera than the iPad's lackluster offering, but the bottom line is: the cameras on all of these tablets are currently more toy than tool. None of them is a legitimate replacement for even a point-and-shot camera.
But the inclusion of front-facing cameras means tablets offer video chat features—but not all video chat apps are created equal. Google Talk for Honeycomb, which comes preloaded on the Xoom, is a top-notch app; simple to use, and it operates via Google accounts. You can chat with anyone who has a Google account. However, not all Android tablets are created equal—be wary of any tablets that lack access to the Android Market. It's also worth pointing out that any Android tablet lacking Honeycomb, like the Dell Streak 7, is not running an OS intended for a tablet, and thus, its apps often offer a weak user experience. Despite its cameras and video chat capabilities, the Streak 7 utilizes inferior apps for chatting and cannot utilize the Honeycomb version of Google Talk. Apple's FaceTime works similarly well, but is limited to certain Apple products, making it far less versatile than Google Talk.
Price
Like with most gadgetry, you get what you pay for, and tablets are no exception. If you spend anything less than $500-$600 (which seems to be the magic entry-range for Wi-Fi-only models like the iPad 2 and the Motorola Xoom), don't say we didn't warn you. The CherryPal Cherry Pad is a fine example of what $188 will get you in the tablet world—not a lot, including a low-quality screen and a serious lack of features. As for 3G (and 4G) enabled tablets, the pricing varies widely depending on manufacturer, capacity, and plan, but expect to pay at least about $20 per month on top of a higher up front fee—the lowest iPad 2 3G tablet price is $629 for 16GB, for instance.
Finally, before you buy, if you can, head to your local electronics store to get hands-on time with some different tablets, so you can see which feels and works the best for you. And for the latest lab-tested tablet reviews, hit our
When the first Apple iPad and the Fusion Garage JooJoo were released within days of each other in early 2010, the world got its first real taste of tablets—and, what some might say, is an excellent summation of the breadth of quality future tablets would offer. At the high end, the iPad, and now the iPad 2,
sony s1
is the benchmark tablet to beat, with top-notch, seamless design paired with a robust app store. The now-discontinued JooJoo was a clunker—it lacked internal storage, often crashed, and basically didn't have any apps, only some basic tools. In between these bookends lies the rest of the tablet field, with early Android tablets (anything running a version lower than Android 3.0) ranking closer to the JooJoo end of the spectrum and newer Android tablets like the Motorola Xoom and upcoming second-generation Samsung Galaxy Tabs taking aim at the iPad. Upon first glance, the upcoming RIM BlackBerry PlayBook also looks to be quite the competitor, with its own operating system and the ability to run some Android apps. So which of the plethora of deceivingly similar-looking tablets is worth your sizable investment? Let's look at the key factors you need to consider:
First Off: Do You Even Need a Tablet?
Simply put, tablets aren't really filling any true need right now—they are neither replacements for full-fledged computers nor smartphones. A tablet is a touch-screen media device that is actually most similar to a very advanced portable media player—or an MP3 player with a much larger screen. Yes, many of them have mobile service features, but currently none of them make phone calls via a traditional mobile provider. And while you can get work done on a tablet, you won't get a desktop-grade operating system, like you'll find on a PC. Tablets are basically lightweight versions of laptops in every sense—they weigh less, and they're lighter on features. The advantage they offer over laptops is an easy way to check e-mail, browse the Web, consume media, and play games—just like a smartphone. But with a tablet you get a much bigger screen with more real estate. The bottom line is, you probably don't need one, but if you want a tablet, read on.
Operating System
First, just like with a computer, you must choose your allegiance. Apple's iOS is the mobile platform used by the iPad, as well as the iPhone and iPod touch. By now, you're probably familiar with iOS even if you don't own an iPhone, seeing as the device is as ubiquitous in public as it is in television and movies. On the iPad and the iPad 2, iOS works very similarly to the way it does on the iPhone, with certain tweaks made here and there to take advantage of the tablet's larger 9.7-inch screen. The built-in iPod app on the iPad, for instance, has an extra side menu for additional navigation options that wouldn't fit on a 3.5-inch screen. Generally speaking, the great strength of Apple's iOS is twofold: it's incredibly easy to use, and the wide selection of iPad apps—more than 65,000 tablet-specific titles at the time of this writing—download easily and quickly and work uniformly well with very few exceptions.
Google's mobile OS, Android, is a different story. There are several iterations of Android, but only one—Android 3.0, a.k.a. Honeycomb—is designed specifically for tablets. Right now, only one tablet offers Honeycomb—the Motorola Xoom—and that makes it the iPad's most viable contender, for now. It is a showcase for Android 3.0, which features an improved, more visual multitasking bar than iOS, as well as superior e-mail notifications. Unfortunately, these two particular strengths, though legitimate, are not strong enough to topple Apple's iOS when you look at the bigger picture. The home-screen for Honeycomb, for example, can get easily cluttered because there are so many different ways to organize, rather than just putting things in tidy folders as you can with iOS. The one you choose will largely depend on your personal preference, so if you can try before you buy, you should.
Apps
Android lacks a strong selection of apps. Even with the newly announced Amazon App Store, the number of Honeycomb tablet-friendly apps that work well is very low. We could linger on this section, but the bottom line is simple: if you want lots of apps for your tablet, right now, nothing out there beats the iPad. Apple's App Store is well-curated and offers deep selection—no competitor can come close to claiming this right now, partially because apps made for Android tablets have to work across multiple screen sizes, while iPad apps are designed specifically for one device. It sounds simple, but the variation in size (and manufacturers) complicates things greatly. It remains to be seen what kind of options will exist for the BlackBerry PlayBook. Eventually, one hopes, the other app stores will catch up to Apple, but if a wide range of compelling apps is your main priority, Apple is currently your best bet.
Design and Size
This consideration is a bit obvious, but size—both screen real estate and storage capacity—is important to consider. First things first: When you hear the term "10-inch tablet," this typically refers to the size of the screen, measured diagonally, and not the size of the tablet itself. Apple continues to offer the iPad in one size only (9.7-inch screen). The Xoom comes in one screen size too (10.1 inches), but Samsung just announced new Galaxy Tab models in multiple sizes (8.9- and 10.1-inches) in addition to the current 7-inch Tab and the trend for other companies seems to be: the more sizes, the better. In other words, you have plenty of options, but the higher quality tablets thus far have veered towards the larger end of the scale since they offer a better finger-centric, touch screen experience. The weight of a tablet is one definite advantage it has over a laptop—but let's be clear, at around 1.5 pounds (in the case of the iPad 2) they're not as light, as say, your cell phone. After you hold one on the subway for ten minutes, your hand will get tired. Setting it flat in your lap, rather propped up on a stand, is also a little awkward.
As for storage, the more the better—those apps, when combined with a typical music, video, and photo library, can take up a lot of space. Right now storage tops out at 64GB of flash-based memory, with many of the quality tablets we've seen available in 16, 32, and 64GB varieties. Larger capacity models can get as expensive as full-featured laptops, especially when you factor in cellular service plans.
Wi-Fi-Only vs. Cellular Models
Most tablets come in a Wi-Fi-only model or with the option to pay by the month for 3G (or eventually, 4G) always-on cellular service from a provider like AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, or Verizon Wireless. If you want to use your tablet to get online anywhere, you should opt for a model with a cell radio. Of course, this adds to the device's price, and then you need to pay for cellular service. Generally, though, you can purchase data on a month-to-month basis, without signing a contract, and charges typically don't exceed $20 monthly, as long as you stay within data-usage limits.
Another way to get your tablet online: Use your 3G or 4G phone as a Wi-Fi hotspot for your tablet—this won't work with every phone/tablet combo, so you should check with the carriers before you buy in.
Cameras & Video Chatting
With the release of the iPad 2, Apple caught up rather quickly to its tablet competition and added front- and rear-facing cameras for stills and video. The Xoom has a higher quality rear-facing camera than the iPad's lackluster offering, but the bottom line is: the cameras on all of these tablets are currently more toy than tool. None of them is a legitimate replacement for even a point-and-shot camera.
But the inclusion of front-facing cameras means tablets offer video chat features—but not all video chat apps are created equal. Google Talk for Honeycomb, which comes preloaded on the Xoom, is a top-notch app; simple to use, and it operates via Google accounts. You can chat with anyone who has a Google account. However, not all Android tablets are created equal—be wary of any tablets that lack access to the Android Market. It's also worth pointing out that any Android tablet lacking Honeycomb, like the Dell Streak 7, is not running an OS intended for a tablet, and thus, its apps often offer a weak user experience. Despite its cameras and video chat capabilities, the Streak 7 utilizes inferior apps for chatting and cannot utilize the Honeycomb version of Google Talk. Apple's FaceTime works similarly well, but is limited to certain Apple products, making it far less versatile than Google Talk.
Price
Like with most gadgetry, you get what you pay for, and tablets are no exception. If you spend anything less than $500-$600 (which seems to be the magic entry-range for Wi-Fi-only models like the iPad 2 and the Motorola Xoom), don't say we didn't warn you. The CherryPal Cherry Pad is a fine example of what $188 will get you in the tablet world—not a lot, including a low-quality screen and a serious lack of features. As for 3G (and 4G) enabled tablets, the pricing varies widely depending on manufacturer, capacity, and plan, but expect to pay at least about $20 per month on top of a higher up front fee—the lowest iPad 2 3G tablet price is $629 for 16GB, for instance.
Finally, before you buy, if you can, head to your local electronics store to get hands-on time with some different tablets, so you can see which feels and works the best for you. And for the latest lab-tested tablet reviews, hit our
Monday, May 9, 2011
Game industry in America
Game industry in America
U.S. video game industry sales rise 3% in February
March 11, 2011|By Alex Pham, Los Angeles Times
The video game industry received a rare lift in February, with sales rising 3% in the U.S. as consumers dug deeper into their pockets to buy motion controllers and consoles from Microsoft Corp. and Sony Corp.
February's increase was only the third positive month of the last year for the industry.
Americans spent $1.36 billion last month on games and consoles, up from $1.33 billion in February 2010, according to a report released Thursday by the market research company NPD Group. A 10% uptick in console sales helped to offset a 5% decline in the amount of money that players spent on games.
Although consumers bought more games in February than last year, the average selling price plunged this year, triggering a drop in game sales to $601.4 million last month from $633.6 million a year earlier, according to NPD.
Console accessories, once a sleepy category, surged 22% to $257 million from $210 million, driven in large part by sales of Microsoft's Xbox Kinect motion controller, which retails for $150. The Redmond, Wash., technology giant announced Wednesday that it had sold 10 million Kinect controllers since launching the device in November.
At the same time, sales of portable consoles such as the Nintendo Dual Screen and the Sony PSP suffered a 27% drop as more consumers reached for their smart phones to play games on the go. Nintendo's release later this month of its 3DS portable console, which boasts 3-D viewing without glasses, is aimed at giving the category a much-needed boost.
Among game titles, Call of Duty: Black Ops retained its No. 1 position despite being on the market since November. "It has now become the bestselling game in history, topping Wii Play," said Anita Frazier, an NPD game analyst.
Dancing games also dominated the charts, with Ubisoft's Just Dance 2 and Michael Jackson the Experience moonwalking their way to the Nos. 2 and 9 positions, respectively
U.S. video game industry sales rise 3% in February
March 11, 2011|By Alex Pham, Los Angeles Times
The video game industry received a rare lift in February, with sales rising 3% in the U.S. as consumers dug deeper into their pockets to buy motion controllers and consoles from Microsoft Corp. and Sony Corp.
February's increase was only the third positive month of the last year for the industry.
Americans spent $1.36 billion last month on games and consoles, up from $1.33 billion in February 2010, according to a report released Thursday by the market research company NPD Group. A 10% uptick in console sales helped to offset a 5% decline in the amount of money that players spent on games.
Although consumers bought more games in February than last year, the average selling price plunged this year, triggering a drop in game sales to $601.4 million last month from $633.6 million a year earlier, according to NPD.
Console accessories, once a sleepy category, surged 22% to $257 million from $210 million, driven in large part by sales of Microsoft's Xbox Kinect motion controller, which retails for $150. The Redmond, Wash., technology giant announced Wednesday that it had sold 10 million Kinect controllers since launching the device in November.
At the same time, sales of portable consoles such as the Nintendo Dual Screen and the Sony PSP suffered a 27% drop as more consumers reached for their smart phones to play games on the go. Nintendo's release later this month of its 3DS portable console, which boasts 3-D viewing without glasses, is aimed at giving the category a much-needed boost.
Among game titles, Call of Duty: Black Ops retained its No. 1 position despite being on the market since November. "It has now become the bestselling game in history, topping Wii Play," said Anita Frazier, an NPD game analyst.
Dancing games also dominated the charts, with Ubisoft's Just Dance 2 and Michael Jackson the Experience moonwalking their way to the Nos. 2 and 9 positions, respectively
Saturday, May 7, 2011
iPad1 still a good choice
iPad1 still a good choice
Magnus Nystedt
Now that Apple’s iPad 2 has been released and is set to arrive in the Middle East at some point soon, the question is whether you really need it?
With iPad 2, you get mainly three things: cameras, more speed, and a slimmer design. The slimmer design is the point that is most subjective, although there’s no denying that Apple did an amazing job packing more into a smaller space while keeping battery life the same.
Magnus Nystedt
Now that Apple’s iPad 2 has been released and is set to arrive in the Middle East at some point soon, the question is whether you really need it?
The answer is, for most of us, pretty obviously “no, we don’t”. But I’m specifically talking about the choice between Apple’s new iPad and all its bells and whistles and the original iPad, released just a year ago. Perhaps you own an iPad 1, and you’re considering whether to upgrade or perhaps you are thinking about buying your first iPad; let’s look at your choices
With iPad 2, you get mainly three things: cameras, more speed, and a slimmer design. The slimmer design is the point that is most subjective, although there’s no denying that Apple did an amazing job packing more into a smaller space while keeping battery life the same. Cameras are no doubt a great attraction, and an obvious reason to get the latest model. The camera on the rear may shoot 720 HD video but it takes stills only at 960x540 pixels, not even a megapixel worth. The front-facing camera only supports 640x480 and is good only for video conferencing. If you plan on use FaceTime for video conferencing you should be aware that in the UAE, that service is blocked and the application will most likely not installed on official iPads sold here.
The added speed in iPad 2 is probably where you would see most difference in everyday use. Apple’s dual core A5 processor adds significant boost in processing power and better graphics also helps to make iPad 2 really fast. If you like to play games, especially graphics-intensive 3D games, you will definitely see a difference. What also matters is double the RAM in iPad 2; 512MB up from 256 in the original model.
One important thing to remember is that the software is the same on the two iPads. Currently the latest version is iOS 4.3.1 and it runs just as well on both. With Apple’s track record of keeping older products running on the latest software, there’s no need to worry about the original iPad becoming obsolete anytime soon.
With all what’s new in iPad 2 you’re wondering why should you even look at buying the old model? Well, the truth is for most of what you would do with the tablet, like browsing the Web, e-mail, social networking, reading a book, etc. you will not see any difference. So then you’re left with whether you need the cameras and I would put it to you that most users may say they want cameras but will hardly, if ever, use them.
The bottom line is this: you can save some money by going for Apple’s first-generation iPad and it can do almost everything the new one can and just as well. So, why not look beyond the “latest and greatest?” Even if you buy the original iPad, I’m sure you’ll be very happy with it as it is still quite simply a stunning product.
from - http://www.khaleejtimes.com/Displayarticle09.asp?section=technology&xfile=data/technology/2011/April/technology_April30.xml
Monday, May 2, 2011
Osama Bin Laden history
Who Is Osama Bin Laden?
by Michel ChossudovskyProfessor of Economics, University of Ottawa
A few hours after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon, the Bush administration concluded without supporting evidence, that "Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda organisation were prime suspects". CIA Director George Tenet stated that bin Laden has the capacity to plan ``multiple attacks with little or no warning.'' Secretary of State Colin Powell called the attacks "an act of war" and President Bush confirmed in an evening televised address to the Nation that he would "make no distinction between the terrorists who committed these acts and those who harbor them". Former CIA Director James Woolsey pointed his finger at "state sponsorship," implying the complicity of one or more foreign governments. In the words of former National Security Adviser, Lawrence Eagleburger, "I think we will show when we get attacked like this, we are terrible in our strength and in our retribution."
Meanwhile, parroting official statements, the Western media mantra has approved the launching of "punitive actions" directed against civilian targets in the Middle East. In the words of William Saffire writing in the New York Times: "When we reasonably determine our attackers' bases and camps, we must pulverize them -- minimizing but accepting the risk of collateral damage" -- and act overtly or covertly to destabilize terror's national hosts".
The following text outlines the history of Osama Bin Laden and the links of the Islamic "Jihad" to the formulation of US foreign policy during the Cold War and its aftermath
In the Wake of the Cold War
In the wake of the Cold War, the Central Asian region is not only strategic for its extensive oil reserves, it also produces three quarters of the World's opium representing multibillion dollar revenues to business syndicates, financial institutions, intelligence agencies and organized crime. The annual proceeds of the Golden Crescent drug trade (between 100 and 200 billion dollars) represents approximately one third of the Worldwide annual turnover of narcotics, estimated by the United Nations to be of the order of $500 billion.14
With the disintegration of the Soviet Union, a new surge in opium production has unfolded. (According to UN estimates, the production of opium in Afghanistan in 1998-99 -- coinciding with the build up of armed insurgencies in the former Soviet republics-- reached a record high of 4600 metric tons.15 Powerful business syndicates in the former Soviet Union allied with organized crime are competing for the strategic control over the heroin routes.
The ISI's extensive intelligence military-network was not dismantled in the wake of the Cold War. The CIA continued to support the Islamic "jihad" out of Pakistan. New undercover initiatives were set in motion in Central Asia, the Caucasus and the Balkans. Pakistan's military and intelligence apparatus essentially "served as a catalyst for the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the emergence of six new Muslim republics in Central Asia." 16.
Meanwhile, Islamic missionaries of the Wahhabi sect from Saudi Arabia had established themselves in the Muslim republics as well as within the Russian federation encroaching upon the institutions of the secular State. Despite its anti-American ideology, Islamic fundamentalism was largely serving Washington's strategic interests in the former Soviet Union.
Following the withdrawal of Soviet troops in 1989, the civil war in Afghanistan continued unabated. The Taliban were being supported by the Pakistani Deobandis and their political party the Jamiat-ul-Ulema-e-Islam (JUI). In 1993, JUI entered the government coalition of Prime Minister Benazzir Bhutto. Ties between JUI, the Army and ISI were established. In 1995, with the downfall of the Hezb-I-Islami Hektmatyar government in Kabul, the Taliban not only instated a hardline Islamic government, they also "handed control of training camps in Afghanistan over to JUI factions..." 17
And the JUI with the support of the Saudi Wahhabi movements played a key role in recruiting volunteers to fight in the Balkans and the former Soviet Union.
Jane Defense Weekly confirms in this regard that "half of Taliban manpower and equipment originate[d] in Pakistan under the ISI" 18
In fact, it would appear that following the Soviet withdrawal both sides in the Afghan civil war continued to receive covert support through Pakistan's ISI. 19
In other words, backed by Pakistan's military intelligence (ISI) which in turn was controlled by the CIA, the Taliban Islamic State was largely serving American geopolitical interests. The Golden Crescent drug trade was also being used to finance and equip the Bosnian Muslim Army (starting in the early 1990s) and the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA). In last few months there is evidence that Mujahideen mercenaries are fighting in the ranks of KLA-NLA terrorists in their assaults into Macedonia.
No doubt, this explains why Washington has closed its eyes on the reign of terror imposed by the Taliban including the blatant derogation of women's rights, the closing down of schools for girls, the dismissal of women employees from government offices and the enforcement of "the Sharia laws of punishment".20
from - http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/CHO109C.html
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Apple White iPhone 4
Apple White iPhone 4
Since getting confirmation last week from Apple that the white iPhone 4 is absolutely, positively going to launch in the very near future, we've been flooded with rumors about just when the smartphone will finally be available. We've seen it in Verizon's computers, and heard from Europe that the phone might be showing up on April 26. Now there's one more date to throw in the running, with a report out of England saying the iOS device may arrive this week, on April 20.
ThreeUK is offering the white iPhone 4 on pre-order, advising interested customers that the earliest they should expect the device to ship would be this Wednesday, the 20th. There is some concern that this information may be a typo; after all, Apple only confirmed the phone a few days ago, with nothing more committal than saying it would be out this spring. You'd think that if the company bothered to make a statement regarding the phone's release just a week before its launch, it would have something a little more concrete to reveal regarding the phone's availability.
It's probably not a smart move betting on this rumor, but it's one more possibility of which you should at least be aware.
from - http://pocketnow.com
Since getting confirmation last week from Apple that the white iPhone 4 is absolutely, positively going to launch in the very near future, we've been flooded with rumors about just when the smartphone will finally be available. We've seen it in Verizon's computers, and heard from Europe that the phone might be showing up on April 26. Now there's one more date to throw in the running, with a report out of England saying the iOS device may arrive this week, on April 20.
ThreeUK is offering the white iPhone 4 on pre-order, advising interested customers that the earliest they should expect the device to ship would be this Wednesday, the 20th. There is some concern that this information may be a typo; after all, Apple only confirmed the phone a few days ago, with nothing more committal than saying it would be out this spring. You'd think that if the company bothered to make a statement regarding the phone's release just a week before its launch, it would have something a little more concrete to reveal regarding the phone's availability.
It's probably not a smart move betting on this rumor, but it's one more possibility of which you should at least be aware.
from - http://pocketnow.com
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