Good Medicine From the Mystery Tablet

Apple is trying to get Australian media companies to provide content for its supposed iTablet.

Bill Keller, executive editor at The New York Times, appeared to hint at a staff meeting that the paper is developing content for an upcoming Apple tablet.

"We need to figure out the right journalistic product to deliver to mobile platforms and devices," he said. "I'm hoping we can get the newsroom more actively involved in the challenge of delivering our best journalism in the form of Times Reader, iPhone apps, WAP, or the impending Apple slate, or whatever comes after that." A video of his speech was posted in the Nieman Journalism Lab blog.

Apple, for its part, has publicly divulged zero details on what features such a tablet might offer, or even whether the company really is developing one. Even so, expectations for a tablet have been running high for months, and the gadget blog Gizmodo published a description of such a product in August based on an anonymous source who claimed to have inside info on the device. The Apple tablet looks like a large iPhone and will have a 10-inch screen, according to the article. It will come in two editions, one with a webcam and the other for educational use. The price would be between $700 and $900.

That pricing may be a bit steep for non-Mac fans. An online survey of 753 consumers on Apple tablet pricing commissioned by online consumer electronics shopping site Retrevo found that 64 percent of PC users and 32 percent of Mac users wanted to pay less than $600 for an Apple tablet.

The survey found 16 percent of PC users and 27 percent of Mac users would pay between $600 and $800 for an iTablet. More than twice as many Mac users as PC users -- 41 percent compared to 20 percent -- would pay more than $800.

Top 9 Web 2.0 Drivers for E-Commerce Success

Social tools are becoming increasingly important as the Web becomes more social -- yet retailers are struggling to find social tactics that drive real sales and ROI. Not every social activity is appropriate -- it depends on the product a retailer sells, the competition, consumer behavior and the retailer's commitment to invest in the resources needed to develop and maintain social initiatives.

Is social media/Web 2.0 for retail just hype or an essential part of doing business in the 21st century? Web 2.0 includes leveraging social commerce on Web sites, blogging/podcasting and participating in social networks like YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and anywhere a retailer or its customers can create and share content

No. 1: Customer Reviews

Many retailers find themselves wondering what Web 2.0/social media activities they should be involved in. This article ranks social commerce activities by business impact, with No. 1 having the highest impact and No. 9 the lowest.

Ninety-six percent of retailers rate customer ratings and reviews very or somewhat effective, according to Shop.org, the online division of the National Retail Federation. Reading reviews helps sellers better understand their customers and their own products, which will also help them improve product descriptions and marketing strategies.

Customer reviews can be condensed into short summaries and posted on blogs. They may include user-generated photos or videos.

No. 2: Shopping Widgets

Shopping widgets are pieces of portable content that can be displayed almost anywhere on the Internet. Widgets have a graphic user interface (GUI) that displays product or other information, which retailers can use to push out an interactive experience to affiliate sites, customer sites, social networks and more.

Zazzle's MySpace widget provides over 15,000 bands with the ability to sell band merchandise (printed on Zazzle products) right through bands' MySpace pages where fans hang out.

Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN) offers affiliates an "Omakase" widget which matches Amazon products to the keywords on the affiliate's Web site, store or blog.

No. 3: Questions and Answers

Some sites offer question and answer tools in addition to customer reviews. Customers may ask the shopping community or the merchant to address specific concerns about a product, such as "Does this brand fit true to size?"

Like reviews, questions and answers improve product information and can improve conversion. They also help retailers improve their product copy by allowing them to understand what's important to their customers.

The downside is the time lag between a question asked and answered, and in some cases, the quality of consumer-generated answers which may need to be moderated for accuracy.

No. 4: Twitter

Another way to ask and answer questions is through Twitter. Users can get nearly instant answers to questions directed at a retailer or the general Twitter universe.

Twitter allows retailers to monitor what is being said about them and can be used as an alternative form of RSS/email marketing, a way to share deals and coupons, promote contests or other simply put a human face to a company. Due to its growing popularity, some customers will prefer using Twitter to communicate rather than telephone or email, so it's important to offer it.

Despite Dell's (Nasdaq: DELL) claims of driving millions of sales through Twitter, for most retailers Twitter will serve as a customer service and marketing channel rather than a sales channel.

No. 5: User-Generated Cross Sells

User generated cross sells/photos provide suggestions to consumers on available related products or services and are ideal for fashion, cosmetics and home decor. They are typically less effective for electronics, software, and industrial supplies.

User-created lists like Amazon's Listmania and the iTunes Store's iMixes can help customers discover new items through similar consumers and provide one more way for Amazon and Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) to move more products.

Wetseal customers can use the Wetseal Runway to create outfit sets and browse outfits that other visitors have created.

Like customer reviews, customers prefer to see what other people like them would bundle, rather than what the store's merchandiser would bundle. There is reason to believe that user-generated cross-sells will have similar popularity to ratings and reviews as more e-stores adopt them.

No. 6: Facebook Pages

Though it is free and easy to set up a Facebook account, the business impact of using Facebook is often determined by the popularity a firm has at the outset.

Facebook pages allows sharing and inviting friends to participate, rather than simply forwarding emails or product pages to drive customers to a Web site. Despite the low cost, maintenance and promotion of Facebook pages, this presence still requires human resources.

Big brands that have successfully built their Facebook fan base include Sephora and Victoria's Secret. Sephora leverages Discussions and Polls among other features of its page and even asks fans what Sephora's ideal posting frequency should be.

Victoria's Secret has special features like Angel Profiles (bios of the famous models), information on how to find the best fit, and links to the store to mix and match products, which can all be shared to fans' Facebook profiles.

No. 7: Co-Browsing

Co-browsing describes the navigation of a Web site by several people at the same time and is ideal for consultative situations where people want to shop together. It holds great potential for customer service, especially when it comes to improving live chat capabilities.

Products like ShopTogether and PurchLive add a social component to a retail site by offering the ability to invite a friend to co-browse an online store in real-time. For example, Charlotte Russe gives shoppers the option to invite friends through Twitter and Facebook. It updates their status with a shortlink for anyone who wants to join them on their visit.

No. 8: Retail Blogging

Blogs can be a great way to connect with customers, talk about new products, share interviews, videos, podcasts, news, photos and jokes, although they are less likely to drive sales than other Web 2.0 initiatives.

They can be a branding/loyalty vehicle attracting links and search engine traffic. Retail blogs require a lot of love and nurturing to stay fresh and popular. Posting a random article every three months doesn't cut it.

Bluefly, Powell's Books and Sephora have stuck to strategies that work for their audience and support long-term engagement and loyalty that hopefully translates into sales -- or at least better search rankings.

No. 9: Video Sharing

Video sharing can greatly improve conversion rates and reduce returns. It's very simple to set up an account with YouTube -- or any other video-sharing site -- and upload videos.

However, there's a disconnect between watching a video and buying a product through a video-sharing site. This could change if YouTube builds out its click-to-buy capabilities beyond iTunes. (The click-to-buy feature embeds links to purchase products right in the video.)

Adding video to Youtube and other video-sharing sites can help retailers obtain additional search engine exposure, since Google likes to mix in video results with regular Web pages, news stories and image results (blended search).

YouTube itself has search functionality, so for the effort required to upload video already in use on its site, a retailer gets an extra benefit. As with widgets, people can post video to their blogs and Web sites if they find it interesting.

Intel Moves to Larrabee into 2010 || What a move

According to a report published by c’t magazine, Intel is now aiming to launch Larrabee in a variety of flavors in 2010 and has scrapped the previous late 2009 plan. Intel’s Joseph Schultz made this comment during the opening of a visual computing research center in Saarbruecken, Germany. Spokesman Nick Knupffer confirmed the narrowed-down date, but declined to provide further comments.
Schultz also told c’t that it will be a “big challenge” to compete with Nvidia’s and AMD’s products and especially highlighted the power-efficiency achieved by AMD’s Radeon graphics cards.

Intel is very careful providing any information about its x86-based Larrabee. What we know, however, is that the device will be based on second-generation Pentium processor technology with the P54C core. The first Pentium core (P5, 800 nm, 60 and 66 MHz) was in development since 1989 and was introduced in 1993. The P54C was launched in 1994 with speeds up to 120 MHz, while the succeeding 350 nm P54CS reached 200 MHz. The 55C core (280 nm up to 233 MHz) followed in 1995 and was replaced with the Pentium II in 1997.

Larrabee is expected to come in multiple flavors with at least 8 cores at the low-end have at least 32 cores on the high-end. At a clock speed of 2 GHz, the 32-core version could be topping a theoretical maximum performance of 2 TFlops.

Intel Core i7 Extreme Edition Nehalm

Intel Core i7 Extreme Edition: The Worlds Fastest Processor
By Admin on November 25th, 2008

The ‘extreme’ edition of the Intel Core i7 is perfect for gaming or other demanding tasks, boasting 3.2 GHz of core speed as well as three channels of DDR3 1066 MHz memory. This incredible processor is not only incredible for high speed, high quality gaming, but, due to the components of the processor, it is also incredible for other tasks which are strenuous on your computer, such as video and photo editing: the Core i7 Extreme handles any task you may throw at it, and you’ll never be disappointed with the performance of your processor again.

This quad core processor also includes eight processing threads with Intel’s incredible HT technology and eight megabytes of Intel Smart Cache, and, should you combine the processor with the Turbo Boost technology, you’ll experience the same speed on big and demanding applications like video editing software as you would with smaller applications such as word processors and other similar programs.

Other additions to the Core i7 Extreme include Intel’s HD boost technology, which allows your computer to let you watch high definition videos and multimedia easily, without slowing down other applications. Combined with other pieces of breakthrough technology, the new Hyper Threading technology activates more power when you need it, keeping your computer running at a constant speed. So, why not listen to music while you’re editing that photo you took on holiday? With this processor, the possibilities and capabilities of your computer will soar to a new level, making you wish you’d used it from the start.

This super intelligent processor allows you to game, edit or watch anything faster than you’ve ever done it before, delivering technological breakthroughs in many different areas, meaning that you’ll never have frustrating computer speed problems ever again.