Nokia Lumia 928 Windows Phone With 8.7-Megapixel PureView Camera Available May 16 For $99.99 On Contract
Nokia has officially pulled back the curtain on the Lumia 928 Windows Phone 8 device, which advertises its PureView camera as its marquee feature. The new flagship phone offers an 8.7-megapixel rear-facing camera, which boasts optical image stabilization for better low-light photography and more stable pics overall.
The new phone has wireless charging and NFC, as did its predecessor, and comes with a 4.5-inch OLED display, which has a 1280 x 768 display with 334PPI, the same as the Lumia 920. Overall, the phone looks to be fairly similar to that device, with Nokia emphasizing the camera difference as its major selling point.
Other stats include the same touch-sensitive tech that can work through gloves and with long fingernails that was introduced with the 920, a 1.5GHz dual core Qualcomm processor, a 1.2 megapixel front-facing camera, 1GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage. It’s also sleeker than the 920, which should be a good way to convince buyers its an upgrade from the last one. The fact remains that Nokia is essentially just re-skinning an existing phone, however, so it’s not likely to upset the cart too much in terms of mobile industry composition.
Nokis is likely pushing the camera tech as the big difference here as a way to help highlight why the 928 might appeal to Android and iPhone customers, as the tactic of playing up the Windows Phone 8 angle hasn’t done much in terms of attracting customers so far. But overall this launch feels a little off-key, as the official reveal came by way of a simple press release, wedged between Nokia events for the new Asha 501 (in Delhi) which Elop attended, and one next week, which is definitely a Lumia event but about which not much else is known for sure so far.
Nokia is probably going to be rolling out a number of announcements next week, which could include tablet or phablet hardware, according to recent speculation. They’ll still have time to hype the 928, too, but it is unusual to see a pre-announcement like this ahead of a big splashy press event like the one next week. The Lumia 928 goes on sale at Verizon for just $99.99 on a two-year agreement just two days after Nokia’s event on May 16.
Taco Bell Asks Twitter Followers To Add Them On Snapchat, Users May Soon See Snaps From Brands
Snackchat! Taco Bell tweeted, “We’re on Snapchat” last night, urging their Twitter followers to add them for a “secret announcement” sometime today. This is the first major brand to use Snapchat to reach customers, and could signal the beginning of Snapchat’s monetization.
Snapchat is an ephemeral photo messaging application that raised a $13.5 million Series A in February. Taco Bell reached out to Snapchat on Twitter yesterday; after a couple of responses from Snapchat (below), Taco Bell announced that they’re on Snapchat at the handle “tacobell.”
@tacobell lol yes we should. Just had a delicious Doritos locos taco last night
— Snapchat (@Snapchat) April 30, 2013
@tacobell okay! If you send an email to support@snapchat.com we’ll make sure it gets to the right place!
— Snapchat (@Snapchat) April 30, 2013
In December, when Snapchat co-founder Evan Spiegel told me the company was prototyping monetization features, I wrote about the most likely ways the company could monetize:
With a very captive audience, Snapchat could have very profitable ads. Imagine a picture snap once a day or every 10 snaps where you have to hold the image and view the ad for five seconds before using the app more. Or an advertising video snap that played on its own for 10 seconds, instead of you holding it down to view.
The problem with most mobile ads is that they take up too much of the screen at random times (Facebook app newsfeed, anyone?) and both mobile and web ads are ignored by users as they adjust to where the ads are located and just scroll past them.
Snapchat could offer advertisers a highly engaged user for a very brief period of time.
The most interesting part of this Taco Bell development is that the company asked followers to add them on Snapchat. There are two settings for “Who can send me snaps”: friends and everyone. Snapchat sends all users, regardless of their settings, video snaps on holidays like Christmas and New Years. If Taco Bell is asking users to add them, it means they’re — at least for now — only sending snaps to people who add them. But, at least from the tweets above, it looks like there’s been some sort of collaboration between Taco Bell and Snapchat so far.
Taco Bell doesn’t need Snapchat’s help to snap people who have friended Taco Bell. So the logical next step would be sending snaps to everyone, the way Snapchat sends holiday snaps to all users — regardless of settings and who they’ve friended.
This could be very lucrative revenue source for Snapchat. Rather than banner ads covering part of the screen in snaps, users could ignore snap ads and simply not open them. But I think a lot of users, myself included, would open most of the snap ads out of curiosity. And obviously, an opened snap reaches highly engaged eyeballs, as it fills the whole screen, with the user physically touching the ad.
Of course, some users will be pissed off by ads invading their Snapchat inboxes, a far more private space than the public streams of social networks. For now, Taco Bell snapping to their “friends” is an interesting first step towards monetization.
I’ve Snapchatted Spiegel and Taco Bell asking for comment (seriously). I’ll update the post if I hear back and once Taco Bell sends out their surprise Snapchat announcement.
Update: reader Adam Britten points out that this is not the first brand to use Snapchat, as frozen yogurt chain 16 Handles used the app for a coupon campaign in January. Nonetheless, Taco Bell is a far more recognizable brand with a huge marketing budget, so their use of the app is likely more indicative of a larger trend both for brands and Snapchat users.
Read more: Taco Bell Asks Twitter Followers To Add Them On Snapchat, Users May Soon See Snaps From Brands
Twitter’s Kevin Weil Says The Big Advantage Of The Company’s New Keyword Targeting Is Timing
Earlier today, Twitter announced that it will allow advertisers to target their promoted content based on the keywords in a tweet. I had a brief conversation with Senior Director of Revenue Products Kevin Weil who laid out Twitter’s perspective on the announcement’s significance.
“People always say that you are what you tweet,” Weil said. (Always?) At the same time, he noted that the content of those tweets haven’t been a significant part of Twitter’s ad targeting — instead the company uses things like your device, geographic location, and “interest graph” based on people you follow. With today’s announcement, he said the content in public tweets have now become a “first-class citizen.”
Coverage of the announcement, including TechCrunch’s, has emphasized the ability this gives Twitter to target ads based on purchase intent, similar to Google’s search advertising. Weil made a similar point, but with a slightly different spin. He said that Twitter’s current interest graph targeting allows advertisers to find the “who” — in the other words, the audience that’s likely to be interested in the topics that they want to promote.
“With keyword targeting, you get the when,” he said. So an advertiser isn’t just targeting based on your general interests, but also what you’re interested in right now. Twitter’s blog post described this as reaching an audience “at the right moment, in the right context.”
Weil said that this shouldn’t change the experience for the user. They won’t see more ads — it’s just an extra way to target those users. Nor does it change Twitter’s emphasis on only showing ads that are genuinely engaging to users, he argued. Engagement rates for Twitter’s ads are usually 1 percent to 3 percent, but they’ve been significantly higher in early tests of ads that also use keyword targeting.
He added that this is something that could be useful to both small and large advertisers. For example, if there was a big sporting event, a large brand advertiser might want to run an ad targeting anyone who’s talking about the game. A neighborhood bar, on the other hand, could advertise their happy hour deal by targeting similar keywords, then use geotargeting to limit their audience to users nearby.
Weil will be speaking on our advertising panel at Disrupt NY, and I hope to get more details about the program from him then.
Originally posted here: Twitter’s Kevin Weil Says The Big Advantage Of The Company’s New Keyword Targeting Is Timing
Good Morning America Says Twitter Will Make A ‘Big Announcement’ On The Show Tomorrow
Good Morning America has tweeted that Twitter will be making a major announcement on the show tomorrow.
Tomorrow on #GMA: @twitter will be making a BIG announcement… tune in!
— Good Morning America (@GMA) April 18, 2013
So what is Twitter planning to unleash tomorrow? The most likely guess is the official launch of Twitter Music, after more than a week of hints, including code in the app’s placeholder page showing its web interface.
The microblogging platform is also reportedly in talks with with Viacom And NBCUniversal for a content-sharing agreement, but since Good Morning America is on ABC, the company probably won’t be announcing a deal with rival networks.
While a TV show might seem like an offbeat place for an online social networking platform to announce major news, Twitter has done so before. Back in September, it debuted its new profile page design and iPad update on the TODAY show.
Read more: Good Morning America Says Twitter Will Make A ‘Big Announcement’ On The Show Tomorrow
What The Facebook Phone Actually Means
Ambient intimacy, accelerated social life, thawed relations between Google and Facebook, and an iPhone that looks impersonal by comparison. These are just a few of the short-term ripple effects of the Facebook “Phone” project to be unveiled April 4th. In this video, I recap leaked intel from my sources and 9To5Google, show photos of the phone itself plus its software, and discuss why you might even care.
To some people and a lot of businesses, it’s going to be a big deal over the next year. Even bigger if it succeeds. Watch the video to see why.
…And then there’s the long-term plan. Facebook Phone International. Where it holds the hands of the developing world and brings it online, social from the start. But that’s another story.
If text is more your thing, read our in-depth coverage of the Facebook Phone below, and check back at 10am PST on April 4th as we report live from the announcement at Facebook headquarters:
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[Image Credit: LivePencil]
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