It’s that time again! Time for another asterisk-ridden diatribe on the state of the state in social media (for those of you who prefer asterisk-free diatribes, here’s a cleaner version)!

Except this year, we’re not merely asking “What the F**k is Social Media?” We’re asking “What the F**k is Social Media NOW?”

In 2008, when we published the original What the F**k is Social Media, the statistics were impressive and our message was clear: This is not a fad. It’s a revolution.

Two years later, the stats don’t just speak for themselves—they literally boggle the mind. Five hundred billion minutes per month spent on Facebook alone? My brain hurts just typing that number. Even the staunchest luddites out there can no longer deny that social media has become pretty darn ubiquitous. To emphasize this point, we asked a handful of super-smarties to contribute their interpretation of what social media is now, but we also want to hear from you.

What do you think social media is now?Don’t be shy, tell us!

Related posts:

1. The Social Media Revolution
2. What the F**K is Social Media: One Year Later
3. Social Media Tracker - Wave 4

Over the years Apple has taken product launches to new heights. Whether it’s due to hype, technological breakthroughs, or simply a loyal fan-base, Apple has, indeed, perfected the art of launching a new product. Thanks to the good folks at GigaOm we have breakdown of one of Apple’s most successful products, and launches… the iPhone. It happens every year and every year it gets bigger, with the latest version iPhone 4 launch selling 1.7 million units in just 3 days… Apple’s biggest product launch to date.

Other points to note:

• Apple shipped a record 8.75 million iPhones last quarter
• iPad orders surpassed 2 million units in July
• In late June, Apple announced that it had sold 3 million iPads in the products first 80 days of availability
• iPhone 4 Availability Check: Good Luck - After being completely sold out over the weekend launch just two weeks ago, iPhone 4’s remain in short supply as of this writing. Apple’s website currently shows they will ship in 3 weeks.

infographic via GigaOm

Related posts:

1. ‘New Creation’ Launch + Earnings = Big Week For Apple
2. The New iPhone 3G[s]
3. WWDC 2010 Keynote Takeaways

There are 550,000+ apps that are used on Facebook. Seventy percent of users engage with apps each month. There are one million app developers. Zynga, the top app developer, made $250 million in 2009. Of that amount, $80-$150 million is estimated to be profit, more net profit than Facebook itself made.

The most popular Facebook apps are:

Zynga

Rock You!

Electric Arts

CrowdStar

Playdom

Causes

Slide

6 Waves

Topzy

iLike

MindJolt

RIM

Facebook Pages

There are 1,500,000 active Facebook pages. The average value per fan is $136.38. Extrapolating on that, many celebrity pages would be worth enormous sums:

Michael Jackson, with 13.3 million fans, would have a page worth $1.8 billion. Family Guy has 9.5 million fans for a worth of $1.3 billion. Lady Gaga and Barack Obama each have 9.1 million fans, worth $1.2 billion each. Vin Diesel has nine million fans, worth $1.1 billion. Starbucks has 8.2 million fans, worth $1.1 billion. South Park has 6.2 million fans for a worth of $845 million.

Popular Facebook pages include:

Barack Obama

Lady Gaga

Michael Jackson

Family Guy

Vin Diesel

Megan Fox

House

Twilight Saga

Starbucks

Users

There are 500,000,000+ users of Facebook. Of those, 200 million users use it daily for an average of 55 minutes a day. If those users were all working for $5 an hour instead of going on Facebook, they would collectively earn $916,000,000 a day.

Advertisers

In Q1 2010, 176 billion display ads were posted on Facebook, 16 percent of the display ad market. Facebook says its advertisers have quadrupled since 2009.

If Facebook were a country, it would be the third most populous in the world after China and India. Today’s valuation of Facebook is $7.9-$11 billion.

via VisualEconomics

Related posts:

1. March 2010 U.S. Online Video Rankings - comScore
2. Online Video Continues To Surge
3. Social Networking and Blog Sites Capture More Internet Time and Advertising

It’s official, Project Natal has moved beyond its codename pseudonym and received its official name… Kinect. I think it’s perfect. Combining the key aspects of the Xbox 360 add-on: Being virtually connected to our consoles with the physical kinetic attribute of how we will be controlling them in games, entertainment, and more.

One of the coolest things about what the new Xbox 360 Experience is bringing to the table is that it is truly going to transform the living/family room. Not just by its unique gaming experience, and the ability of families being able to play together but… also by offering something unique for every member of the household. The overall strategy and direction Xbox has taken is pure genius. If they keep this up, Microsoft may well become one of the major players in our living room in the coming years.

From a gaming perspective Kinect for Xbox 360 is poised to open up entirely new audiences for Xbox - those that, up till now, have been accustomed to the Wii - families. Entire families. And they’ll move from the Wii too. Here why:

For Kids:

For Women:

For Families:

For Sports Fans:

For Gamers (Who, at this time, still need a controller):

With everything Kinect for Xbox 360 and Xbox Live has to offer, it will soon become a household appliance, as opposed to just another gaming console.

Watch a replay of the Xbox 360 live keynote from E3 2010.

Related posts:

1. Project Natal - The Innovation Journey
2. Project Natal - The future of gaming
3. Xbox Live Update Preview II Review

Proving that Steve Jobs really knows how to pick his catch-phrases (in a classic Jobs moment) he opens the Keynote with a customers email to Jobs claiming that he has experienced the truly “magical” powers of the iPad …

Of course, the big news of the day was the new iPhone 4. True to (Apple’s) form, the latest iPhone is a gorgeous piece of equipment. While slightly heavier than its previous siblings, it’s nearly 25% thinner and packs some serious hardware. Sporting Apple’s new silicon, A4 chip that equip iPads, HD Video Recording (720p), 5-megapixel camera, front-facing camera, 802.11n networking, and the remarkable Retina Display. (Check out the cool interactive comparison of the Retina Display vs iPhone 3GS Display. You can also find the full specs here.)Some more interesting things to note:

FaceTime, Apple’s new platform for mobile video calling, is a tremendous leap forward in mobile computing. It may take a little while for it to catch on and become wide-spread but… there’s is no doubt in my mind that this will revolutionize the way we communicate. Considering the fact that Apple is making it open source will provide some tremendous opportunities for future growth of the platform and will contribute to the ability of breaking barriers between operating systems.

The App Store:

Just last week, Apple surpassed 5 billion downloads from the App Store.

For me, the most inspiring news of the day was what Jobs also claimed to be his favorite stat of the show: Apple has paid over $1 Billion to developers (their 70% of the app store price).

One point that Jobs wanted make clear with respect to App submissions: upon 15,000 apps submitted a week, from 30 countries, 95% of them are approved within 7 days. Of those rejected, the top reasons are:

1. The app doesn’t function as advertised
2. Use of private APIs - as Jobs states, “We’re very clear on this, we do not accept private APIs” - and goes on to explain why
3. Crashes (the App simply crashes at start-up or too often)

There were a couple of other points Jobs wanted to make perfectly clear. iOS fully supports two platforms:

and

Highlighting some apps:

“We launched eBay application on the iPhone last year - 10 million downloads. It did $600 million of volume in its first year. It’s going to do $1.5 billion to 2 billion  this year.” - eBay CEO John Donahoe

While there was a lot more to cover… there just isn’t enough time. But luckily, you can find all the iPhone 4 goodness your heart desires, before the big day arrives on June 24th, right here on the Apple site.

Related posts:

1. WWDC 2009 Keynote Takeaways
2. iPhone: The Art of the Launch
3. Apple’s New Baby: The iPad

A story about the Semantic Web by Kate Ray

Whether you call it Web 3.0, the Semantic Web, or the Giant Global Graph… due to the massive amounts of information on the web, relational databases with linked data are inevitable. The above, roughly 15 minute, video provides a good overview of the semantic web, which is essentially a move to “extend principles of the Web from documents to data” thus creating a ‘web of data” (that, in one way or another, will certainly be one aspect of Web 3.0). You may not agree with everything discussed, but it’s definitely worth taking a look at and includes interviews with some of the web’s top minds and social thinkers.

From the author’s site:

MORE #SEMWEB

• Tim Berners-Lee’s 2009 ‘Linked Data’ TED talk (shown in the film) and 2010 follow-up talk
• W3C’s Semantic Web FAQ
• my earlier blog about the Semantic Web (complete with Jargon Dictionary)
• Linked Data project
• 2001 Semantic Web debut article in the Scientific American (Warning: “protected” by a paywall)
• Lotico – meet other SW enthusiasts In Real Life!

EXAMPLES

• Drupal – Open-source Semantic Web publishing software
• DBpedia – Structuring Wikipedia
• Siri – Your friendly neighborhood Semantic Web agent

IN THE NEWS

• Semantic Web app Siri bought by Apple – TechCrunch (4/28/10)
• Pew Research Center project on the Future of the Semantic Web (5/4/10)
• ‘Does Facebook Really Want a Semantic Web?’ – ReadWriteWeb (5/6/10)

ABOUT THE PEOPLE

• John Hebeler – is a scientist at BBN Technologies and co-author of the book, Semantic Web Programming.
• David Weinberger – is the author of Everything is Miscellaneous and co-author of The Cluetrain Manifesto (which began as a website), is currently a Senior Researcher at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard, and was a Senior Internet Advisor on Howard Dean’s 2004 presidential campaign. He blogs at Joho the Blog (and had this to say about the Semantic Web).
• Clay Shirky – is a writer, consultant, and adjunct professor at the Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP) at NYU. He is the author of Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations, and blogs prolifically about the media and the Internet. Read his original post about the Semantic Web.
• Nova Spivack – is a serial technology entrepreneur, was CEO/Founder of recently-acquired Radar Networks, makers of semantic search engine Twine, and is currently working on a new project, Live Matrix, that will be a guide to live online events. He blogs about web trends and technologies.
• Tim Berners-Lee – invented the World Wide Web in 1989 while working at the European Particle Physics Laboratory, CERN. He is currently Director of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), and of the World Wide Web Foundation, launched in 2009.
• Chris Dixon – is CEO/Co-Founder of social recommendation service Hunch, an investor in a number of Internet start-ups, and a leading blogger on Internet entrepreneurship in the New York area.
• Alon Halevy – is a Research Scientist at Google, lately working on Fusion Tables, a service for more flexible data management, still in beta. He blogs about technology and coffee.
• Jason Shellen – is a former Google engineer who started the Google Reader project, and currently the CEO/Founder of Thing Labs, makers of social media reader Brizzly.
• Lee Feigenbaum – is the Vice-President of Technology and Standards at Cambridge Semantics and co-chair of the W3C’s SPARQL Working Group, which oversees the semantic data query language. He blogs about Semantic Web technologies.
• Abraham Bernstein – is a Professor at the Department of Informatics at the University of Zurich and was the co-chair of the International Semantic Web Conference (ISWC) 2009.
• David Karger – is a Professor of Computer Science at MIT and was the other co-chair of ISWC 2009. He works on MIT’s Haystack project for information management and SIMILE project for data visualization.

Related posts:

1. Google Liquid Galaxy
2. Social Media Revolution 2 (Refresh)
3. The Future Internet: Service Web 3.0

If Facebook was a country, it would now be the third largest country in the world. It passed the U.S. earlier this year and is now eclipsed only by China and India in terms of raw population. That mind-boggling statistic — along with a few dozen more — are showcased in the above video, demonstrating social media’s explosive growth in recent years.

Based on the book Socialnomics by Erik Qualman, the video is a follow-up piece to his original social media stats video from last summer. While some of the stats are similar to last year’s version, others are updated with new figures and some appear for the first time. Information about the sources for all the statistics are available on Qualman’s blog. A few of the highlights include:

* More than half of the world’s population is under 30.
* Facebook tops Google (Google) for weekly U.S. Internet (Internet) traffic.
* Ashton Kutcher and Britney Spears have more Twitter followers than the populations of Sweden, Israel, Switzerland, Ireland, Norway and Panama.
* 50% of mobile Internet traffic in the UK is on Facebook.
* During the 4+ minutes it takes to watch the video, more than 100 hours’ worth of video will be uploaded to YouTube (YouTube).
* Amazon sold more electronic books for the Kindle than physical books on Christmas.
* If you were paid $1 for each posted Wikipedia (Wikipedia) article, you’d make $1,712.32 per hour.

via Mashable

Related posts:

1. The Social Media Revolution
2. What the F**K is Social Media: One Year Later
3. What the F**k is Social Media NOW?

YouTube Viewers Watched Average of 96 Videos per Viewer in March

RESTON, VA, April 29, 2010 – comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released March 2010 data from the comScore Video Metrix service showing that more than 180 million U.S. Internet users watched online video during the month. YouTube delivered video to more than 135 million viewers during the month, reaching 3 out of every 4 online video viewers at an average of 96 videos per viewer.

Top 10 Video Content Properties by Videos Viewed

U.S. Internet users watched 31.2 billion videos in March, with Google Sites ranking as the top video property with 13.1 billion videos, representing 41.8 percent of all videos viewed online. YouTube accounted for the vast majority of videos viewed at the property. Hulu ranked second with 1.1 billion videos, or 3.4 percent of all online videos viewed. Microsoft Sites ranked third with 655 million (2.1 percent), followed by Yahoo! Sites with 478 million (1.5 percent) and CBS Interactive with 457 million (1.5 percent).

*Rankings based on video content sites; excludes video server networks. Online video includes both streaming and progressive download video.

Top 10 Video Content Properties by Viewers

More than 180 million viewers watched an average of 173 videos per viewer during the month of March. Google Sites attracted 136.0 million unique viewers during the month (96.0 videos per viewer), followed by Yahoo! Sites with 56.2 million viewers (8.5 videos per viewer) and CBS Interactive with 46.7 million viewers (9.8 videos per viewer).

*Rankings based on video content sites; excludes video server networks. Online video includes both streaming and progressive download video.

Top Video Ad Networks by Potential Reach

In March, Tremor Media ranked as the top video ad network with a potential reach of 96.5 million viewers, or 53.5 percent of the total video viewing audience. Adconion Video Network ranked second with a potential reach of 81.6 million viewers (45.2 percent penetration) followed by Advertising.com Video Network with 80.8 million viewers (44.8 percent).

Other notable findings from March 2010 include:

• The top video ad networks in terms of their actual reach delivered were: Joost Video Network (by Adconion Media Group) with 38.0 percent penetration of online video viewers, SpotXchange Video Ad Network with 19.9 percent, and BBE with 19.1 percent.
• 84.8 percent of the total U.S. Internet audience viewed online video.
• 135.3 million viewers watched 12.9 billion videos on YouTube.com (95.6 videos per viewer).
• The average Hulu viewer watched 26.7 videos, totaling 2.6 hours of video per viewer.
• The duration of the average online video was 4.3 minutes.

About comScore
comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR) is a global leader in measuring the digital world and preferred source of digital marketing intelligence. For more information, please visit www.comscore.com/companyinfo.

via comScore Releases March 2010 U.S. Online Video Rankings - comScore, Inc.

Related posts:

1. Online Video Continues To Surge
2. Online Video Viewers Surge in July
3. Online Video Stats For 2009 And Beyond

Now that I’ve had my iPad for a couple of weeks I figure I’ve given it enough time to come to a reasonable conclusion of whether or not, as a device, it makes sense and how it fits into my life. Granted, as a digital/new media professional, my computer use and needs are quite different than a typical persons might be. Even though I knew after day one that this new “magical” device was an ideal fit for my lifestyle - both as a consumer and as a professional - I wanted to put it through a series of real world tests before coming to any conclusions and writing a post about it. So, now that there’s been ample time, here it is.

The more I use it, the more I realize that the iPad fits perfectly into my digital lifestyle… much more so than I thought it would. Prior to the iPad, one of the items on my wish-list was another desktop, an iMac to be exact.  The reason for this was that I currently use my 17″ MacBook Pro as my primary computer, in the office and on the road. In the office I utilize it as a full blown desktop with a workstation setup, including: a stand, bluetooth keyboard, trackball, USB hub for various USB and FireWire devices, and external speakers. On the road, well… as you might know, it’s a beast on the road, handling like a portable desktop. It’s great! But, sometimes it’s just too big and it’s always a little sketchy to have your primary machine with you. Plus, I probably use it on the road, and for outside meetings, about 15-20% of the time. The rest of the time it’s safe and sound. Now that I have an iPad, I can leave my MBP safe and sound at the office while I utilize the iPad as a laptop… it’s the best of both worlds. The iPad is way easier to carry around than a laptop, and my MBP can stay safe in it’s workstation environment, but can also be taken on the road if need be. I love it!

Considering that my primary issue with the iPad upon its announcement was that it would be running solely on an iPhone Operating System, one of the criteria I wanted to test was that, while on the road, what couldn’t I do with the iPad that I could do with my MBP. The answer is not that much given what programs I generally use while on the road and at meetings. I obviously can’t launch any of my Adobe apps like Photoshop or Dreamweaver (natively from the iPad) but, then again, I never do when in a typical meeting, except if I’m working remotely. Although, if I really need to, I can roll up my designer or developer sleeves by launching any CS4 app via Desktop Connect. Plus, more and more I’m managing websites via various Content Management Systems and blogging platforms, like Drupal and WordPress, which are managed from a web-based interface that work just as good on the iPad as they do on the desktop (with the exception of the backend maintenance - which can also be achieved through SSH via Desktop Connect. The result, an iPad and an iPhone is all I need to stay completely connected and productive while away from the office. It’s the perfect go-between device for my iPhone and MacBook Pro.

I can basically handle all my business activities from the following screen. Which just so happens to include some of my favorite Business Apps (so far) for the iPad.

Desktop Connect -  An essential App for staying completely connected. With this program, I can access my Mac from anywhere… providing full access as if I was in front of it. Whether I need to view some documents, launch and edit something via any Adobe CS4 program I have, demo one of my Flash sites, or grabbing some flash video I can’t access via the iPad. Though, watching video via Desktop Connect is not ideal as the frame rate is significantly reduced but, I was able to view Hulu and Boxee videos (see below).

Here, File, File - Is another must-have for accessing files on your other machines. Definitely one my favorite apps on the iPad as well as the iPhone. (While they haven’t released their iPad only [or, HD] version yet, the hybrid works great.) Not only can you access any file on your other computers to view or export via email, but the other beautiful thing about HFF is that you can also stream media to your iPad / iPhone. The other day I was remotely streaming a full-length 1.1GB movie from my home computer to my iPad and it played back perfectly.

Instapaper - One of my favorite cloud based apps that works just as expected on the iPad.

Evernote - As with Instapaper, Evernote is another must have tool for keeping organized in the cloud, and they’ve done a great job with their iPad App.

Omnifocus - As my readers know, this is my go-to app for getting things done and even though Omni Group hasn’t yet released their iPad only version, the iPhone (or, hybrid) version works great.

GoodReader - The best PDF Reader for the iPad I’ve come across. It’s a terrific PDF reader and makes it a breeze to manage files.

Adobe Ideas - Is one of those simple, free, apps that is just genius. It’s a simple drawing/sketching/mapping tool that you can use however you please but it has some very cool features that only Adobe would deliver to us in a free app.

iWorks for iPad - at $9.99 each Pages, Keynote, and Numbers for the iPad are by far the best word processing, presentation tool, and spreadsheet programs for the money. Transferring native files between the Mac and the iPad is also a snap via iTunes or by email, as well as several other export options.

Notes (pre-installed) - Great for taking notes to sync with your Notes on the iPhone and in Mail on the Mac via iTunes sync.

There’s no doubt about it, Apple is definitely taking their iPad Business customers seriously.

The keyboard is super responsive, I actually wrote this entire post on the iPad with the virtual keyboard. I’ve gotten pretty used to the iPhone keyboard and can definitely type faster on it than I used to on my BlackBerry Pearl, and the iPad keyboard is obviously far superior just because of it’s size, especially when in landscape mode. On a side note, one thing that really helps with typing on the iPad is using Apple’s iPad Case. The case itself is pretty ingenious and I feel it’s a must have companion. It can be folded in a variety of ways and is not only great for typing on an angle but, it also serves as a great display when folded on its edge for watching video and giving presentations. It’s just a slick all around case. It’s also very liberating to be able to walk into a meeting with what looks like a super thin, incognito, writing pad or (paper) notebook and know that I have everything I need right at my fingertips.

Over the past couple of weeks I’ve also whipped up a Keynote presentation and presented it on the iPad. I’ve sketched out a couple impromptu client wireframes on Adobe Ideas. Stayed up to date with all my action items, and created new tasks and projects, via OmniFocus. Written numerous notes via Notes and Evernote. Created a couple of Pages docs. I’ve used it more for email than my iPhone and perhaps even my MBP. And, best of all, I no longer need to drag my 17″ MacBook Pro around with me to meetings and presentations. Now, it hasn’t been all roses and there have been a couple of drawbacks but the advantages have far outweighed them. One of which is that while extremely convenient, presenting a deck on the iPad does lack a certain impact that comes with the big 17″ display of the MBP (I have yet to pick up the VGA adapter to test the hook up on a big screen but will be doing so shortly) and if you’ve created a presentation for a larger screen you’ll have some work ahead of you to reformat it for the iPad, as I experienced with a 30 slide deck I had some fun with. The other drawback of presenting on the iPad is it’s lack of a remote, though I’m sure one will be appearing for the iPhone shortly in the App Store.

Web browsing really is far better on the iPad than on any other platform I’ve experienced, even though there is no flash support (more on that later). It’s also a lot faster on the iPad that anything else I’ve experienced. But, the main benefit to browsing on the iPad is that it’s just so natural. If you think about it, Steve Jobs hit it right on the head when he pointed out that the way we use personal computers today is pretty archaic… it hasn’t changed since it’s introduction, with the exception of the mouse now several decades old. You also find yourself bobbing back and forth from the monitor as you discover things that engage you. With the iPad it’s all right there, smack dab in front of you with complete control. Switching from landscape to portrait mode for improved reading, and scrolling through pages with a swipe of a finger…. it really is a remarkable experience.  Getting back to reading for a sec, I find it’s a vast improvement as well. Being that the internet is the primary source I get my news from and I use my computer for the majority of reading (documents and such) I’ve welcomed the iPad with open arms. I think we all can agree that reading on a computer, no matter how nice the screen is, sucks big time. Whereas reading on the iPad is actually quite enjoyable, whether it be on the web, through iBooks, email or Marvel Comics. Plus, after reading, and viewing, some books and periodicals on the iPad, I have no doubt that this is where the future of print, or shall I say touchscreen, publications are at.  I won’t get into all the entertainment factors and features that the iPad brings forth (here, I’ll get into that in Part 2), but I can sum them up in one word… and that is, wow! Viewed on the stunning 9.7-inch (diagonal) LED-backlit glossy widescreen with a 1024-by-768-pixel resolution at 132 pixels per inch (ppi), images, video, and games look spectacular.

Quick note on the Flash support. I’ve been a huge supporter of Flash for well over ten years and there’s no doubt that it has maintained its position at the forefront of helping build a truly interactive Internet. Flash continues to create groundbreaking releases and the latest version, Adobe Flash Professional CS5, is the best yet with some mind-blowing capabilities. However, there is one big issue with Flash, it’s a resource hog. It’s actually worse than that… it’s more like a hog on steroids. Just check this screenshot… Flash is eating up nearly 107 % of my cpu resources. That just absurd. If Flash was running on my iPad the battery would last closer to 40 minutes than to the 10+ hours Apple claims, which I’ve experienced myself.  Unfortunately, since Adobe can’t seem to figure this out, and it hasn’t seemed to bother them for years, these may just be the last days of Flash.  It’s no longer needed. Between CSS 3, HTML 5, and JavaScript, websites will be able to do everything Flash delivers without any proprietary plugins or excessive CPU clocking. Meaning that, interactive websites will be accessible across all platforms on all devices without having to install a thing, or kill your devices battery life.

Viewing one of my Flash projects on the iPad via Desktop Connect

For those who think the iPad is just a big iPod Touch, an analogy that has been used excessively ever since it was announced, the fact of the matter is that it is not. My thoughts are that those who are saying that haven’t yet had the opportunity to experience it first hand. Because as soon as you hold an iPad it becomes very clear at this is not just a big iPod. The size itself (about 7 iPod Touch’s) lends itself to so much more. Those are the same naysayers that didn’t think the original iPod or iTunes would make a dent in the distribution and consumption of digital music. Cut to 7 years later and iTunes is the largest music retailer in the United States (ahead of brick and mortar giant Wal-Mart) and Apple has sold over 100 million iPods.

I could probably go on for another 1000 words on other features that I love about the iPad but I’ll just wrap it up here and save the rest for another time. But to sum it all up, there’s no question that the iPad has proven to be a great purchase. Further, now that I’ve lived with it for a couple of weeks and used it for both productivity and media consumption, there is no question in my mind that the iPad is indeed a game changer. I predict that in 3-5 years time the iPad will be the top selling computer device in the US. By that time, the 16 GB wifi model will be closer to $100, the iBook store will have every book and publication imaginable and it will just be too good and cost effective not to pass up. But, then again, these are just my own personal thoughts. On that note, I’ll leave you with one last link…

Boxee on the iPad via Desktop Connect

Hulu on the iPad via Desktop Connect

Related posts:

1. The iPad: Apple’s Next Gold Rush
2. Apple’s New Baby: The iPad
3. WWDC 2010 Keynote Takeaways

Morgan Stanley’s annual internet trends report presented by Mary Meeker on April 12, 2010

View more presentations from Andrei Marinescu.

Key takeaways:

• Mobile Internet - Will be bigger than the Desktop Internet within 5 years
  • Mobile Internet outpaces Desktop Internet adoption, with Apple leading the way
  • We are now in the early stages of the 10 year Mobile Internet cycle
  • Mobile is revolutionizing commerce - with constant product improvements
  • 5 Trends Converging:
    • 3G
    • Social networking
    • Video
    • VoIP
    • Impressive mobile Devices
• Online Commerce gaining share vs. Offline
• Social Networking has surpassed Email usage
• Users now expect their computing connectivity via the cloud 24/7 on their mobile devices
• Game changing communications and commerce platforms (Social Networking + Mobile) are emerging very rapidly

Related posts:

1. Morgan Stanley’s Mobile Internet Report
2. Social Networking and Blog Sites Capture More Internet Time and Advertising
3. The Future Internet: Service Web 3.0