First graders are using Kinect for Xbox 360 to get to places like Disneyland (on a map, at least), and high school students are graphing mathematical equations with their bodies.
CRAIG, Colo. – March 6, 2012 – First-grade teacher Cheryl Arnett spent much of last summer playing Kinect for Xbox 360 with her grandkids. (more…)
*More Than 100 Million U.S. Mobile Subscribers Now Use Smartphones*
RESTON, VA, March 6, 2012 – comScore, Inc., a leader in measuring the digital world, today released data from the comScore 
MobiLens service, reporting key trends in the U.S. mobile phone industry during the three month average period ending January 2012. The study surveyed more than 30,000 U.S. mobile subscribers and found Samsung to be the top handset manufacturer overall with 25.4 percent market share. Google Android continued to grow its share in the smartphone market, accounting for 48.6 percent of smartphone subscribers.
OEM Market Share
For the three-month average period ending in January, 234 million Americans age 13 and older used mobile devices. Device manufacturer Samsung ranked as the top OEM with 25.4 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers, followed by LG with 19.7 percent share and Motorola with 13.2 percent share. Apple continued to capture share in the OEM market with 12.8 percent of total mobile subscribers (up 2.0 percentage points), while RIM rounded out the top five with 6.6 percent. (more…)
*British singer-songwriter’s aggressive bass and soulful lyrics underscore the emotional impact and the beauty of the Web in a new TV spot.*
REDMOND, Wash. — March 5, 2012 — When the newest TV ad for Internet Explorer airs tonight, viewers will see powerful visuals and a message about how the browser brings the beauty of the Web to users. But it is what they will hear that will really strike a nerve: the powerful bass line beat and the soulful lyrics of Alex Clare’s new hit “Too Close.” The song, from Clare’s debut album, “The Lateness of the Hour,” is bringing the British singer to the attention of a new global audience.
Born and bred in southeast London, Clare is a rising singer-songwriter whose style reflects the bebop, blues, electronic and U.K. garage influences of his youth. Whether he’s performing live or recording, Clare works to bring together heartfelt lyrics and melodic lines with aggressive bass and percussion to let the full emotional impact of the song come through. (more…)
*Yahoo! Screen now home to new slate of premium original comedy Web shows*
SUNNYVALE, Calif. — Yahoo! Inc., the premier digital media company, today debuts a variety of original comedy Web shows from a collaborative effort between Yahoo! and top-tier production partners. The new shows include “First Dates With Toby Harris” featuring Seth Morris (Funny or Die); “Sketchy” ( Electus/Principato-Young Entertainment ), and “7 Minutes in Heaven” with “Saturday Night Live”writerMike O’Brien (Broadway Video). The slate of comedy shows also includes an existing Yahoo! Studios original show, “Odd News,” Yahoo! News’ weekly wrap-up on the strangest stories from around the globe, hosted by comedian Greg Proops. All the new comedy shows will live on Yahoo! Screen (https://screen.yahoo.com), Yahoo!’s new online video destination.
In the coming weeks, Yahoo! will debut additional comedy shows including “Hackerazzi” ( David Morgasen ) and “Burning Love” (Paramount Pictures/Red Hour), which features an impressive lineup of celebrity talent and spoofs popular reality television dating shows. (more…)
Several specific regions of our brains are activated in a two-part process when we are exposed to deceptive advertising, according to new research conducted by a North Carolina State University professor. The work opens the door to further research that could help us understand how brain injury and aging may affect our susceptibility to fraud or misleading marketing.
The study utilized functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to capture images of the brain while study participants were shown a series of print advertisements. The fMRI images allowed researchers to determine how consumers’ brains respond to potentially deceptive advertising. “We did not instruct participants to evaluate the ads. We wanted to mimic the passive exposure to advertising that we all experience every day,” says Dr. Stacy Wood, Langdon Distinguished Professor of Marketing at NC State and co-author of a paper describing the research. (more…)
*Microsoft BizSpark One startup solves enterprise-class storage challenges with hybrid cloud approach.*
REDMOND, Wash. — March 2, 2012 — StorSimple takes an innovative approach to storage design, betting early on the Windows Azure platform and assembling a first-rate team to make cloud-integrated storage a reality for enterprise companies.
Like many other innovations, StorSimple’s breakthrough began with a fundamental observation followed by a simple question. (more…)
Milestone lets users explore a re-imagined, no-compromises Windows experience
BARCELONA, Spain — Feb. 29, 2012 — Microsoft Corp. today announced the availability of the Windows 8 Consumer Preview — the next milestone of the Windows operating system. This latest preview will be made available for download starting today at https://preview.windows.com. The Windows 8 Consumer Preview offers a more robust experience for testing the world’s most popular operating system and is available to the widest range of people yet following the initial release of the Windows 8 Developer Preview late last year. The Developer Preview received more than 3 million downloads. (more…)
COLUMBIA, Mo. — In the past few years, the video game industry has grown from a niche market into a major part of mainstream media. This increase in popularity and use of technology has allowed video game developers to insert more detail and nuance into the storylines of their games. Many video games have begun incorporating religion as a key aspect to plot points and story lines. Greg Perreault, a doctoral student in the University of Missouri School of Journalism, found that the many newer-generation video games equate religion with violence in the game narratives. (more…)
