Spotify’s Daniel Ek must’ve really enjoyed his time on stage with fellow young-gun chief executive Mark Zuckerberg at this year’s f8 conference, because yesterday he took to the stage in what was the company’s first ever press conference to announce its new ‘game changing’ app platform.
There has been a lot of talk recently about how some brands are disappointed with their level of engagement with users on Facebook. Apparently the number of people ‘liking’ brands seems to be on the wane and those that do like brands seem to have little interest in interacting with them. There are of course some spectacular exceptions, such as Cadbury Crème, Wispa, iTunes , Topshop and New Look to this rule – many of whom are in the fashion space – but it does seem that more and more people are becoming convinced that Facebook is not the magic bullet for brand marketing any more.
So why is this happening? Well firstly, it appears that Facebook users are becoming less aware of brands maybe because there are now so many on Facebook. And secondly that brands aren’t really producing content that inspires their followers. Read More
Fans of UK 80s-style synth duo Monarchy can access an exclusive track using an iPhone’s image-recognition technology, ahead of the single’s official release on 30 August, thanks to a deal with music streaming website Spotify. Read More
The ebook price war has begun in the US. Amazon has cut the price if its Kindle from $259 to $189 (£128) and Barnes & Noble’s wi-fi-only version of the Nook will sell for just $149 (just £100). Read More
Lots of publishers have reimagined their magazines as an iPad app, but no one yet has created an iPad-only magazine. Until now. The first issue of a title called Sideways is available from the US app store for $3.99, and appropriately for a magazine that targets earlier adopters its content is focused on that readership’s current obsession – their iPad. Read More
Image courtesy of Ars Technica
You would have to live under a small rock to have missed the fact that yesterday saw another Apple WWDC event, another Steve Jobs keynote and predictably, another truck load of speculation. Read More
Pepsi has launched a location-enabled iPhone app for US cola drinkers that lets them find Pepsi-serving venues in their immediate vicinity and collect rewards points by visiting them — including free songs. Read More
British iPad owners and soon-to-be owners can rejoice – Apple has finally switched on its iPad App Store in the UK, which means that users can now purchase apps directly, rather than via a US iTunes account. Read More
For readers who go crosseyed at the huge paragraphs of text in our newspapers, the editorial cartoon is the page we turn to for a little comic relief – literally. Read More
Spotify has announced its next step toward digital music streaming domination with a major upgrade that includes some brand new social features that have got a lot of people very excited.
The service now allows you to connect it to your Facebook account, pull in your friends who are also on Spotify, and generate a profile that includes your favourite tracks, artists and your playlists. Read More
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