• BBC1 rapped over language used by Tom Kime pre-watershed
• Ofcom rejects complaints against Jimmy Carr and Alan Titchmarsh Show
Comedian Jimmy Carr has been cleared of breaching broadcasting regulations after referring to the pope as "king of the paedophiles", but BBC1's Saturday Kitchen Live has been censured after a chef swore when he spoiled an omelette.
Saturday Kitchen Live chef, Tom Kime, said "fucking hell" under his breath when he realised his omelette was sticking to his frying pan in an edition of the BBC1 show broadcast on 5 December last year.
The BBC said the programme's presenting and production team had not heard Kime make the comment until alerted after the show, so had not apologised on air.
Later the BBC confirmed to media regulator Ofcom that Kime would not be returning to the show, and apologised to viewers who had contacted the broadcaster to complain. Ofcom said the broadcast breached rules which prohibit the broadcast of the most offensive language before the watershed.
A total of 25 viewers complained to Ofcom after Carr made the comment on his Channel 4 quiz show Eight Out of 10 Cats on 2 February. However, the regulator cleared the broadcaster of breaching regulations on religious offence.
In a separate incident, six viewers complained to Ofcom about an incident on ITV1's Alan Titchmarsh Show after the daytime programme featured a package on sex toys in the run-up to Valentine's Day on 10 February. The regulator said it had not breached broadcasting rules on sex and nudity.
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Well, we kind of figured that Alice in Wonderland would set the top box office opening of 2010, but I dunno how many people predicted this: $116 million!
Now, I know that there was ticket-price inflation due to 3-D and so on, but still, even Avatar only opened to $77 million, and that was the biggest 3-D movie of all time. This, however, ranks as the biggest opening for a 3-D movie of all time.
Not only that, but this is the greatest opening of all time for a movie in the month of March, and for that matter, of any movie opening in any month before May. It also ranks as the sixth-greatest opening of all time. Not bad for a movie opening at this time of year.
The movie made $41 million on Friday and $45 million on Saturday, averaging $31,196 per location. Well over half of its locations were 3-D (and therefore benefited from the increased ticket prices for 3-D.)
So there you have another record falling, and as I have said before, it is really getting ridiculous the number of records that keep on falling for no good reason every week. As I have said, it has to be these ticket prices. Three big factors, I think, for why this was such a moneymaker: it was in 3-D, Tim Burton made it, and Johnny Depp was in it. There were likely a few other reasons.
Brooklyn’s Finest finished its opening weekend a distant runner-up. The weekend estimates are as follows:
So there you go, another record falls by the wayside. And they say the month of March is no good for blockbusters — not any more.
Back with another Reject Report later this week, where we shall ponder whether the Alice in Wonderland gravy train will continue for a while longer.
I don't know much about much, but after nearly thirty years of being married, I'm confident of these ten things any man can do to make himself a much better husband.
1. Embrace your wrongness. In the course of disagreeing with our wives, what many of we men fail to realize is that, invariably, we're wrong. We just are. We're trying to be right -- but failing. We can't help it. It's the nature of things. Men are bigger, hairier, stronger, and wronger. It's a fact we should just get used to. God knows our wives have.
2. Stop fidgeting while your wife's talking to you. It really is rude -- and you know it. If you don't stop doing that, then one day, when your wife starts talking to you about her day, you're going to start distractedly fiddling with the remote control, your cell phone, or something else, and she's going to suddenly shriek and stab you with a fork.
3. Remember that your tone does too matter. You know how in arguments with your wife, you keep thinking that if she would just focus on what you're saying, instead of on how you're saying it, then she'd see how right you are? Yeah, that's never going to happen. She needs to know you still love her as you're yelling at her. Women are funny like that.
4. Actually have opinions. Women like men who are clear on what they think, and why they think it. Men, though, enjoy ever waffling. Well, waffles are for kids. Stop it. Commit to thoughts, ideas, and decisions. Sure, you'll be wrong about whatever it is you decide to think. But you'll be attractively wrong. Wrong, but studly. That's the American way.
5. Give her presents. Women love to receive gifts. But men don't like to give gifts, because doing so takes time, money and trouble. Plus, you can never really figure out what to give a woman anyway -- and the idea that you have to give, say, a Valentine's Day gift, automatically invalidates the very reason people are supposed to give spontaneous gifts of love in the first place, which actually makes such gifts a manipulative insult. And those are your choices: Either do what she wants, or be right. And what have we already learned about you being right?
6. Stop being so hormonally crazed. Well, at least try to stop being so hormonally crazed. Okay, try to be less hormonally crazed. Okay, forget it. Just try not to get arrested.
7. Stop complaining about your job. Guys love to talk about -- and especially to complain about -- their jobs. Women, though often seemingly infinite in their patience and empathy, do have their limits. You'll know you've reached your wife's when, as you are telling her about your day, she starts to fidget.
8. Get okay with being late. Women have an internal guide that tells them which things it's okay to be late for, and which things it's not. Unfortunately, that guide is written in ancient Venusian. You don't read ancient Venusian. You don't read any Venusian. Invest in a hand-held DVD player.
9. Tell your wife how to behave in public. Women love this. It makes them feel like you're watching out for them, like you're helping them understand things about themselves that they don't understand, and should be aware of. I can't tell you how many times I've tried to explain this to my own wife as she was walking away from me.
10. Don't keep bugging your wife to give you some good ideas for a "Top 10" list you're writing when she's trying to get ready to go to work. Trust me on this one.
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Blog: JohnShore.com
I cannot watch an Academy Awards ceremony without remembering the crazy way a boyfriend ended our relationship on Oscar night in 1996. It's one thing to end a good relationship, and another to end it the way he did.
This was during my heavy dating period which started in 1995 and ended with my marriage to a wonderful man in 1998. I was in the fast-track NYC dating scene, holding my own after a long marriage and two immediate long relationships.
Let's call him Mark. He was everything I wanted, then. Think Chris Noth. And the beginning, high point and low point of the relationship all fell on memorable days which I remember every time those days come around.
--- Our relationship was consummated on New Year's Eve. Quite a countdown.
--- It climaxed so to speak in the limo from the airport in Lanai to the lodge there on Valentine's Day, with a necklace placed around my neck. Mark was a golfer, and his dream was to play the best Hawaiian courses in the world, adjacent to some of the best resorts in the world. And he took me along for a couple of romantic weeks.
Lucky me. I was smitten. I wrote him a long, mushy Valentine poem. Mistake.
---The relationship ended during Oscar night. We were supposed to have dinner at my place and watch the show together. Instead, that afternoon I got a message on my answering machine (Remember machines. The ones that garbled messages.)
I thought the message said. "Sorry, I won't be able to see you tonight. I do want to be with you. I know you'll understand."
Except I wasn't sure that it was "do" want to be with you, not "don't."
I played this message over and over. There was a pause and a garbled grunt that might have been "don't." But I wasn't sure. I rationalized it was a positive message. Why wouldn't he want to be with me? We got along great in every way.
I brought in my girlfriend Jane, who lived in the cottage I rented out behind my house. She listened carefully to the tape and decided it was "do," not "don't," and that he wanted to be with me but couldn't that night, and he knew I'd be understanding. (She thought we were perfectly matched, so she probably wasn't the best person to ask.)
I was distraught. Was it over or not? I had to call him up an find out. I finally did it during the Oscars, when Frances McDormand had just accepted her best actress award in Fargo.
"I got your voice message. Did you say you don't want to be with me or you do? I couldn't tell."
"I don't. I'm sorry. I just don't want to commit. We were getting too serious. And we're too much alike."
"What's wrong with being alike? We have a great rapport."
That poem I wrote him must have scared him! "But how could you dump me on an answering machine, just like that?
"I was afraid you'd cry, Lea."
My friend was there to comfort me, and I did cry. The Oscar show went on and we watched The English Patient, a tragic love story, win as best picture. I later wrote Mark a (lost) poem about being dumped on voice mail. It wasn't mushy.
The man who ended the relationship with me on Oscar night has been in a long-term relationship with the ex-wife of a famous liberal columnist for many years now. He still lives in his own apartment, last I heard. We have since made up and I have written about my trip to Hawaii with him in my book.
So when the best actress award comes up this Sunday--14 years later-- I will be thinking of the moment I found out I was dumped, as I do every year.
To paraphrase Sally Field winning her best actress award, I guess back then "he didn't like me. He really didn't like me." And he had a gutless way of telling me. But I got over it, and have done much better since thank you very much. In fact, I'll be watching this weekend's Oscar ceremony with a man who really loves me.
I saw this interesting article about all these dating websites, like eHarmony and the like, and how when it comes to dating across cultural lines, very few people, percentage-wise, are electing to consider dating someone that doesn't look like them. I was actually surprised by that to tell you the truth. It's not that I see an overwhelming number of so called "interracial couples," so I guess I shouldn't have been surprised. But based on my own life and circle of friends, I think maybe I have a warped view of reality.
Here are some segments from the article, titled "My Race Based Valentine" from Time magazine:
This Valentine's Day, more of us than ever will be looking for love online. And if recent studies are any guide, relatively few women on mainstream dating sites will bother to respond to overtures from men of Asian descent. Likewise, black women will be disproportionately snubbed by men of all races. Yes, even though America has been flirting intensely with a postracial label for some time, color blindness is not upheld as an ideal in the realm of online romance. On some sites, it's not even an option.
And there was this:
After attempting to control for attractiveness (using something OkCupid calls a picture-rating utility) and compatibility (on the basis of answers to questions covering everything from spirituality to dental hygiene), the study found that black women garnered the fewest responses of any female group. White women responded at much higher rates to white men than to men of color. Asian women's and Latinas' response rates showed even stronger preferences for white men.
But as the piece asked, does closing the door on the possibility of anyone that doesn't look like you, equal racism? Or is it just that old, "people are more comfortable being around other people who share their background and experiences" thing?
Frankly, I have to say it is both.
Which means it is undeniably, partially racism. And when I say it is a racist decision, in this case I am simply meaning it is a decision based in part or in whole on the color of someone's skin. As in I will not consider dating someone outside of my "race" or within a certain "race." It isn't necessarily the "I hate these people" variety, but "race" based decision making it is. And it is true whether one is White, Black, Asian or any ethnic group. And by the way, I am also not saying because you date or marry someone of the same culture you have made a "race-based" or culture-based decision. Maybe you just happened to find Mr. or Mrs. Right within in your culture and because you came across each other quite naturally. Here, I am talking about a definite decision to exclude from the possibility anyone and everyone that is in a certain group.
To purposely not check a certain box signifying a certain group of people that you would consider dating, by definition means you are making assumptions about that group and everybody in it. Or you are expressing a dislike for members of that group, as least when it comes to relationships. If all that matters was finding a mate that matched your interests and backgrounds then there would be no need to de-select any ethnic group because all of your other preferences and likes and dislikes would already filter out anyone who didn't share your values and background. Which might or might not eliminate most of certain groups anyway.
But de-selecting a certain group means even if they shared your values and interests, you wouldn't date them anyway.
Now some will argue that this is still not necessarily racism, but rather for some, a fear of what others around them might think and therefore it is simply the avoidance of unnecessary problems. And I can actually buy that. I do think for a lot of people it is too much to have to deal with society's judgments, which unfortunately, do still exist when it comes to certain types of relationships.
Which begs a whole different question.
Is it racist to give in to racists?
Read the full article here.
I think Sprint (NYSE: S) may have missed the Valentine’s Day boat on this one. Still, if the standard black and silver facade of today’s typical BlackBerry (NSDQ: RIMM) ain’t your thing, Sprint could indeed be well-served by bringing a new splash of color. Rumor has it that Sprint may have a BlackBerry Curve 8530 in the works, in red. If the Black and ‘Lavender‘ options aren’t doing it for you, red could be a welcome choice for some.
One day down the road I’d love it if you could pick and choose your device colors, or heck, even personalize it, as a service offered right from the carrier. I’m not talking about one-color options here, I’m talking full-out ColorWare style customization here. Of course, this will probably never happen for numerous reasons… So we’ll all need to continue to send our devices away to have them customized with the livery of our liking (for hundreds of dollars)… But still, wouldn’t that be awesome? Just think of the array of color schemes we’d see on devices around town if color customization and personalization was a standard option.
‘Yes, I’ll take a BlackBerry Tour 9630 with a carbon fibre battery cover, keep the stock chrome bezel, blue front color, and white keyboard with black lettering. Can you do that for me?’
One day, one day.
[Via: BerryAndroid]
Related News from IntoMobile:
Heidi Klum loves giving her husband Seal private fashion shows.
The 36-year-old supermodel works hard to keep the spark in their marriage alive and adores dressing up in the expensive jewels and gems given to her by her devoted singer spouse.
She said, “I love dressing up for him and putting on all the jewelery he gives me. It is such fun!”
Heidi and Seal, 47, been together since 2004 and raise four children together – daughters Leni, five, and four-month-old Lou, and sons Henry, four, and three-year-old Johan.
Because of their hectic family life, the couple have found they struggle to spend time together and have to rely on other family members to help them out with babysitting.
Heidi explained to the National Enquirer magazine, “You have to prioritize. But sometimes we do get to do our favorite thing. If my mum is here, we run off and go to Paris for the weekend!”
Heidi recently revealed she was planning to post Seal some underwear and other gifts because they would be apart on Valentine’s Day, February 14.
Speaking ahead of the romantic occasion, she said, “I’m making a very fun box of heart things. Kind of like an explosion of things; confetti hearts with cute underwear and chocolates. It’s a fun surprise box for him.”
Is Your Blog Your Social Media Hub? http://j.mp/bvfaT4
Corporate blog expert Debbie Weil has asked the question, “Should blogging be the hub of your social media efforts?” Tomorrow afternoon, Jay Baer and Chris Baggott will take a stab at answering that in a Compendium Blogware webinar of the same name. Sign up now. Seats are limited.
While Debbie has a fantastic discussion going on in the comments section of the post mentioned above, I thought it appropriate to talk a bit about the hub theory of blogging and ensure the notion is looked upon in the proper perspective.
First, we need to assume that we’re talking about blogging for business or corporations. This differs from personal/hobby or media blogs because with each you have slightly different purposes, goals and outcomes of success.
Image by base10 via Flickr
Personal blogs are ego driven. They are either personal opinion platforms for the author or the content is almost solely what the author chooses to write. Hobby blogs are much the same. Media blogs are focused on driving content around an audience’s needs or interests to draw eyeballs and increase exposure to the site’s advertising. The best corporate blogs are focused on driving business success while serving the audience’s needs.
As an example, look at Fairytale Brownies. They have a corporate blog which has a prescribed goal of winning search results around specific keywords. Their Facebook, Twitter and YouTube presences clearly drive people back to the blog for more information (along with other site-specific content that serves its respective community there). The blog is clearly their hub for connecting with customers.
If you visited their blog in February, you found specific calls to action for Valentine’s Day themed promotions. When you clicked through, you were taken to custom landing pages to buy Valentine’s Day brownies for your loved one. With similar approaches around the year (see St. Patrick’s Day ideas there now), Fairytale Brownies have driven thousands of visitors to their e-commerce site and report an impressive 13 percent conversion rate among those visitors to qualified leads. While they do not disclose specific financials, they have shared a 170 percent return on their investment in business blogging.
The reason (though I’m sure Baggott wants me to tell you it’s because they use Compendium) is because their blog is a hub for their social media efforts. They do participate genuinely on Facebook and Twitter, answering specific questions, thanking fans and the like, but continually bring the focus of the company’s social media efforts back to the blog and e-commerce opportunities. The clear focus to drive customers to the blog, thus giving them the options to click through and purchase is what drives their online success.
Can social outposts be your hubs? Sure. Are they as effective? I don’t think so. You can control you blog completely. Focusing that content on winning search results is easier to execute than on Facebook or Twitter. The more search traffic you can drive, coupled with the social media traffic you move from your outposts, the more your efforts are optimized.
For more, check out the webinar with Jay and Chris tomorrow. It’s free and will certainly be full of great information.
In the meantime, what do you think? Is a blog best used as the hub of your social media efforts? What about focusing your activities on Facebook or Twitter? The comments, as always, are yours.
Is Your Blog Your Social Media Hub? http://j.mp/aw9vhO
- Maddie GrantIs Your Blog Your Social Media Hub? http://j.mp/93LDFb
- Maddie GrantSection: Communications, Cellphones, Cellular Providers, Smartphones, Mobile, Gadgets / Other, Transportation, Web, Downloads
It must be a great feeling when you can sit back and watch something rake in $13,000 big ones a month. For Eddie Kim, he is already experiencing that ever since popularity of his Car Locator Android app increased tremendously in daily sales. However, it wasn’t always netting thousands of dollars a month, there were some days when he would be lucky to make just $80 a day!
Eddie Kim, creator of Car Locator, posted on his blog about the popularity and profits he has accrued since the app hit the Android Market. He offers some statistics on the app such as 70,000 free downloads, 6,590 paid downloads, and it once reached #4 top paid app in the travel category. Through the app’s lifetime, the price has increased from $1.99 to $3.99, but that does not seem to deter most Android users from downloading the app. Despite the positive numbers, it began only generating $80-$100 in revenue a day, until it became featured in the Market where it began reaching $400 daily, with a record of $772 on Valentine’s day alone! Kim suspects downloads increase enormously on weekends and holidays, cited by the nearly doubling in profit on Valentine’s Day.
Even though his app has been displayed on the featured apps in the Market, Kim claims it alternates top apps daily, and his app has been found through searches as opposed to featured apps. Unfortunately, it is hard to stop piracy on the Android platform, as Kim finds out through Twitter that it is quite possible to get the .apk file online. However, that does not take away from his achievement: $13,000 a month with room for improvement.
For ambitious Android developers, he offers this piece of advice:
If Android development is something you’ve been mulling over, I encourage you to make the leap. Though my experiences are clearly not typical, I definitely think Android is the ideal platform to be in for an individual developer.
Read [EddieKim]
Full Story » | Written by Natesh Sood for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
It was two years ago today that Lori Gottlieb's Atlantic magazine article, Marry Him: The Case for Settling for Mr. Right was released. The piece raised many eyebrows from feminists and those who thought they had to toss away their dreams of finding "the one" and live "unhappily-ever-after."
There's been a lot of attention and criticism about Gottlieb's bestselling book. It started with a phone call from my mother who said, "I'm watching this author on the Today show who wrote a relationship book. Do you know Lori Gottlieb?" I had to answer honestly that I didn't. I was one of the few who hadn't read the article.
I was unable to attend Gottlieb's personal appearance in Los Angeles just before Valentine's Day, but quickly found out that several of my friends and colleagues were featured in her newly released book with the same title of the controversial article. I knew we were meant to meet. When the invitation arrived for a dating advice panel in Los Angeles which was featuring Gottlieb along with authors Greg Behrendt, of He's Just Not That Into You fame and first-time author, Sascha Rothchild of How to Get Divorced by 30: My Misguided Attempt at a Starter Marriage, I quickly sent in my reservation and put the date on my calendar. The event was created by 826 LA, a non-profit writing/tutoring organization dedicated to supporting students ages 6 to 18. Proceeds from the dating panel would benefit the organization. Charity and dating advice moderated by Time magazine's funny man Joel Stein. It was a winning combination for me.
I decided it was time to meet Lori Gottlieb and find out what all of the controversy was surrounding her bestselling book. We planned to meet after the presentation for a private conversation about dating, love, romance, and of course marriage. Unlike many who have been very vocal against Gottlieb's book who ran to their blogs to quickly complain, yet never took the time to read it, I picked up a copy and read it cover-to-cover before our meeting. I have to admit, until reading the book, the thought of settling felt like having a bad stomach flu or something I would forever regret. The book, however, I felt was very well-researched and I was pleasantly surprised.
In my conversation with Gottlieb, I asked her if she truly believed that feminism has ruined dating and marriage for women. She quickly pointed out that feminism never referred to dating at all. She stated, "In feminism you should have equality and respect. It was never about if you should marry or not. It's about having high standards. Compromise is important to all relationships."
I asked her why she felt her initial article sparked so much negative emotion. She answered with, "It's very unsettling to see a woman who really wants to be married." She added, "I don't need everything to be happy. Our culture says that we need to be 100% happy to be fulfilled. It sends upsetting messages to say you have to have it all."
I wanted to hear her take on why she felt she was so misunderstood. Gottlieb explained to me that everyone thinks she is telling the world they have to settle for second best. Her book, she added, is about settling for the right things, not the wrong things. She urges women who want to get married to get their priorities straight by their 30s so they will be better off when they hit 40.
In a world where we judge people so quickly and the next pretty face is just a mouse-click away, women are disqualifying potential partners due to their long laundry list of must haves.
Gottlieb points out in her book that women have a list of 300 reasons on why they won't go out with a man on a second date. On the opposite side, she believes that the men have a simple list of only three.
She chuckled at the fact that Oprah called her the new marriage guru, as she had never been married. "Go figure?" she said. When asked if she could rename her original article, what would she call it? Her reply, How to Settle for the Perfect Man.
In the end, it's important to point out that Gottlieb isn't encouraging women to settle and be unhappy. She just wants those who are interested in marriage to learn how to value what's truly valuable-- and the sooner the better. If marriage isn't your priority, perhaps this book isn't for you. If living single makes you happy, then I say enjoy your single life. We all make choices on our romantic journey based upon the knowledge that we have at the time. I'm the first to admit that what I want now in a mate is much different than what I thought I wanted in my 30s.
At the end of our conversation, my last question to the bestselling author was, "Who will play you in the film version of your book?" Her answer, very appropriately was, "Someone who is good enough."
Julie Spira is a dating expert and the author of The Perils of Cyber-Dating: Confessions of a Hopeful Romantic Looking for Love Online. Visit her at CyberDatingExpert.com
A raw beef heart. [Photographs: Chichi Wang]
Around Valentine's Day there was a lot of heart lying around my kitchen because I had a feeling that the penis would not be appreciated by everyone at the table. Heart, on the other hand, is a fairly likeable cut. Beefy with a just slightly gamey flavor (think of the kidneys, except much milder in flavor), the texture of heart is something akin to a poultry gizzard. The heart is also one of the more versatile types of offal; the organ is tough and low in fat, but it takes well to either a quick-cooking or a long-stewed preparation.
Beef heart is by far the largest of the hearts you'll find at the butcher's counter. The organ weighs in at more than two pounds of pure flesh, and even what isn't flesh can be used in your cooking. On that day everyone took a few perfunctory bites of the beef penis, but the beef heart was lauded wistfully by one friend as being, "What I'd serve to my girlfriend on Valentine's Day, if I had a girlfriend." It may not be a cure for loneliness, but it does make for a beefy meal to be enjoyed with a nice glass of cabernet.
About the author: Chichi Wang took her degree in philosophy, but decided that writing about food would be much more fun than writing about Plato. She firmly believes in all things offal, the importance of reading great books, and the necessity of three-hour meals. If she were ever to get a tattoo, it would say "Fat is flavor." Visit her blog, The Offal Cook.
Inside and out, the heart has quite a bit of gristle and fat (above). The fat can be reserved and rendered into beef tallow for use in cooking. When fabricating the whole heart into smaller sections, work with each chamber of the heart individually, slicing off the pockets of fat and the layer of tissue on the exterior and trimming the gristle within. One beef heart will serve at least six people, if not eight.
A pan-seared beef heart.
Quickly browning or charring the outside while leaving the interior medium-rare is a fast and easy way to experience the heart. Like a steak, the organ benefits from being left to rest for a couple of minutes so as not to lose that beefy juice. Since the heart lacks the well-marbled fat of a good cut of rib-eye, it's best to leave the slices of heart on the rare side of medium-rare, as you would for a tenderloin, to prevent toughness. If you're cooking the heart indoors instead of grilling, it's best to quickly sear the slices on a cast iron to get a decent crust on the outside without overcooking the interior.
This particular beef heart was served with a persillade (finely minced garlic with parsley), but you could also pair it with a flavored butter as you would for a steak.
While I love fat, tendon, and marrow too much to eat a stew made entirely from heart, a couple chunks of the organ would be a welcome addition to a boef bourginon-style preparation. The chunks of heart, when stewed for two or more hours, will take on a texture slightly tougher than that of a well-stewed gizzard.
To be truly economical, you can grind up the scraps of heart to use in burgers or meatballs. Because the flesh of the heart isn't fatty, counteract the leanness by mixing the ground-up scraps with fatty ground beef. A 2:3 proportion of ground heart to ground beef is as far as you want to stretch the amount of heart in the mixture: use any more heart, and the grind won't contain enough fat.
The taste of the heart burger is not any beefier than a regular burger, but there is a faint offal taste to the grind that's noticeable to anyone who eats a lot of burgers on a regular basis (yours truly).
Finally, using all that extraneous fat you'll accumulate in the trimmings, you can render the fat for using in cooking. Potatoes browned in beef fat will pair with either the seared sliced of heart or the heart burger; a judicious dollop of the fat also makes a rich addition for use in stir-fries.
It may not be the $1m that Tapulous brings in each month for its Tap Tap Revenge series of iPhone apps, but independent developer Edward Kim is understandably pleased with his $13,000/month from the Car Locator Android app.
He's seen 70,000 downloads of the free app, but 6,950 of the paid-for version. Kim originally priced it at $1.99 per download, but increased it to $3.99—with the number of downloads unaffected by the price hike.
The app is pretty basic, it saves your location wherever you park, and when you return to the carpark it will help you navigate back to the location. Writing on his blog, Kim said:
"it was netting an average of about $80 - $100/day, until it became a featured app on the Marketplace. Since then, sales have been phenomenal, netting an average of $435/day, with a one day record of $772 on Valentine's Day."
He's happy to praise the way Android Marketplace swaps featured apps around, unlike the iPhone's App Store:
"Some may be quick to point out that a featured Android application is only able to net $400/day, while top iPhone apps make thousands. But the Android market appears to rotate applications in and out of the featured apps list in some psedo-random fashion. Every time I open the Marketplace app, the featured list is different and most of the time, I don't even see my app on there."
Back in November, when he had only 23,000 downloads and the paid-for version cost just $1.99, Kim credited the launch of the Droid as being a reason he'd seen such a spike in downloads. [Edward Kim via Mobile-Ent]
Image Credit: AndroLib
Rachel and her husband ordered a DVD set from a seller who shipped via USPS, but the package can't seem to make its way to them. Their saga includes a cryptic email update and a notice of a delivery attempt they say never occurred.
Rachel writes:
My husband and I recently bought ourselves a big present for our First Valentine's Day as a married couple: The (mostly) entire Mystery Science Theater 3000 DVD set! We were so excited when USPS sent us an email letting us know the shipper had mailed the package, and we would be informed of all future updates. Well, a few days comes and goes, and I get antsy. On Thursday, the 25th, I decided to look up the label number again, and see where my package was. Imagine my surprise when it said: "Notice Left - February 25th"I look up at my husband, who had been there all day (I work days), and I asked "Was there a notice from USPS under the door?" He replied in the negative. "Did anyone knock today?" Again, no. We were baffled. He guessed that maybe he had been in the restroom when they came by, but our apartment is not large. It's doubtful he would not hear someone knocking. And the bigger question was - where is this danged notice?
I immediately attempt to arrange a redelivery, using their online function. It allowed me to carry through the request without the specific "article" number from the notice slip, and I just used my label number in its place. Friday, the 26th, was an option for redelivery, so I crossed my fingers and pushed it through. I also signed up to be emailed for any and all future and current developments on the shipping of my package.
Friday came and went. Nothing. I checked the Track & Confirm, and as far as I could tell, nothing had come of my package since the notice was left. We grumble and furrow our brows but we shrug and say "I guess we can just pick it up in the morning at the actual post office."
That brings us to today. We wake up, and we stop by our actual mailbox (we're bad about checking our mail, I admit it) before heading out. Hey! It's a delivery attempt slip! Imagine that. Weird how it was down in the apartment mailbox and nowhere near our actual apartment! But since I had checked the Track & Confirm again before heading out and it seemed like our package hadn't gone anywhere since the first failed "attempt", we sally forth to the Post Office. After waiting about 15 minutes for a lady to come by the pick-up door, we are told that they can't find our package and it must be "out for delivery" they guess. I asked "Is it showing as out for delivery? because I checked the activity and it doesn't look like it's gone anywhere."
The lady just shrugged and said that must be it, because she can't find it. So helpful. A++ for effort.
With much grumbling, my husband and I pack up and head back home, hoping that A) the package delivery hadn't been "attempted" again while we were gone, though we assumed it would have because we fall firmly in Murphy's jurisdiction, and B) that somebody hadn't stolen our MST3K DVDs, because nobody seemed to have a clue where our package actually was. It isn't showing up as being checked in anywhere, or moved around at all, and it isn't at the place the delivery slip said it should be.
So, we go back home and keep our eyes peeled for a USPS truck. We find one at the apartment complex across the way. I approach the mailman waving my orange delivery slip as a token of friendship and peaceful questioning, and he informs me that he doesn't deliver to us, but the guy who does should be around within an hour and hasn't been by yet. Perfect! So we stake a vigil. We get bored after Car Talk ends and before Wait Wait Don't Tell Me comes on, and decide to ask the office ladies to keep an eye out for us and jump the mailman when he arrives.
Our apartment staff lady then tells us (I love this part), that the guy who delivers our MAIL is not the same as the guy who delivers packages, and that packages should be delivered before noon on Saturdays, so he should be by soon. So many questions run through my mind. How did the package delivery slip end up in our MAILBOX if the mail guy doesn't deliver packages? Why did USPS let me pick dates for redelivery and then not stick to them? What the hell do I do now?
We go back home and flop on the couch and hope that someone comes and delivers our package. Doesn't happen. I notice that our label number ( the original delivery #) and the "article" number on the delivery "attempt" slip are different. I check Track & Confirm on both sets of numbers. Only the original number comes up with anything, but it still hasn't changed since Thursday. The other set of numbers is like some weird amalgamation of our zip code and the old label number, but doesn't turn up anything.
I've tried using the official article number to request a 2nd redelivery on Monday, but I'm getting worried and frustrated. We have 1 car, I work during the day and go to school at night, so a lunch break is the only chance I have at visiting the post office again during the week, and it seems like nobody has a clue where our delivery is, so who knows if visiting again will even help. Even better, the FAQ for Redelivery on the USPS website returns this:
Redelivery scheduled and no one arrived
If your mailpiece was not redelivered as you requested, call 1-800-ASK-USPS (1-800-275-8777) and our Customer Support Representatives will assist you.
Ha! Fat chance. All that number gets you is a phone tree that flat out tells you "All of this information is up to date, and customer service is not an option at this time." Except I just tried it again and if I hit 0 enough times at the right moments, it dangles the option in front of my face, but says that I have to call during "business hours." Even when I tried calling on Friday during the afternoon, I kept getting put in robotic loops that refused to connect me to a CSR, so I'm not sure I believe it this time, either.At this point:
- I don't believe anyone attempted to deliver anything. We live upstairs and the mailman probably thought he had something better to do than bother knocking on our door in the afternoon, so he just put the slip in the mail and let it ride.
- I don't know where the heck my package is, and nobody at USPS seems to know, either, not that I can get one on the phone at all or in person for more than 20 seconds.
- I really want to watch some Tom Servo :(
Long (hopefully not entirely dull) story short, I just want someone to help me find my delivery. Am I misusing the article number on the delivery slip? Will they actually update the Track & Confirm status if it's loaded up to be redelivered, or will it just show up? Is it listed under a different number now that it's been "attempted"? And how do I talk to a living person without pissing off the nice robot lady who really wants me to believe that she can help me and I don't need to speak to a human being?
I'll try calling the post office again on Monday, I just fear that their answer will be the same as today's. "Well, it's not HERE." Yeah, thanks. It's not here either. So that's two places it isn't. Only 20 googillion more to check.
If you've spotted Rachel's MST3K package, please trap it and send it her way. Probably not via USPS, just to be safe.
Nicole Scherzinger reportedly devised a three-point plan to help rebuild her relationship with Lewis Hamilton.
The Pussycat Dolls singer, who rekindled her romance with the Formula One racing driver earlier this month, realized things needed change if they wanted it to work so came up with rules, which include spending quality time together.
A source told Britain’s Hello! magazine, “The reason they split in January was because they were hardly spending any time together, but crucially they never fell out of love. It was just before Valentine’s Day during a tearful heart-to-heart that they decided to give their relationship another go.
“Nicole agreed after laying down strict guidelines to put more romance into their relationship. One of those was that she didn’t want any interruptions when they dine out, meaning Lewis agreed to leave his BlackBerry at home. They also thought it would be an idea not to read tabloid stories about each other.”
The final part of the plan was that Lewis spoke to Nicole everyday, rather than just texting, while Nicole, 31, has agreed to reschedule her diary to spend more with her 25-year-old beau.
Nicole and Lewis confirmed they were back together after they were spotted holding hands and kissing at the Grove Shopping Centre in Los Angeles.
An onlooker said, “They were all over each other while chatting to fans. They were both completely smitten.”
Nicole, 31, also joked with a shop assistant when she was asked if there was anything particular she was looking for, saying, “This year – my wedding dress.”
The pair split in early January after 20 months together, with both blaming their hectic careers for the separation.
The full article is available to read in Hello! now.
Well, the best opening weekend for director Kevin Smith still wasn’t enough as Cop Out was nosed out by Shutter Island for its second straight winning weekend at the box office.
In third place was The Crazies with a good $16.5 million haul. The other piece of big news is that Avatar just passed the $700 million domestic mark this weekend as its record-breaking haul continues. It is now up to $706.9 million domestic and $2.5 billion worldwide.
Overall, no real surprises this weekend at the box office:
So there you have it. Like I said, it wasn’t all that “crazy” a weekend at the box office, but it’s still more money for Martin Scorsese (with Shutter Island now up to $75 million), and the best opening ever for Kevin Smith (his previous best opening was $11 million for Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back), and James Cameron’s movie now has made $700 million domestic. All in all, it’s been a weekend of riches for some famed directors.
That is it for now. Back later this week for another Reject Report!
Well, Valentine’s Day has passed and we’re onto the next holiday. It wouldn’t be a holiday if it didn’t come with a few ridiculous gadgets that you never knew you needed. These USB lights might just look like over-sized Christmas lights, but they are in fact brightly colored Easter eggs. I have a sneaking suspicion that they probably pass them off as Christmas lights when it’s December though.
These lights come in a cluster of 8 and are filled with shiny LED lights. Each one of those LED lights is capable of changing into 12 different colors. Just plug it into your USB port and away it’ll go. It’s pretty basic stuff. Just keep checking on USB Brando and you’re bound to own a USB gadget for every random holiday out there. You can purchase the set for $13 through USB Brando.
Source: GeekAlerts
The Social Games industry had a flurry of news this week. A report indicated Zynga could be worth more than $3 billion, Playfish announced that players sent 60 million valentine’s day virtual goods across Pet Society, Zynga confirmed that there will be no subscription for Farmville, WildTangent entered the advertising game with BrandBoost, we talked with Manu Rekhi at Lolapps about their Dante’s Inferno game and more! Read on for more.
Carnegie Mellon University Professor and Gaming Industry Veteran Jesse Schnell discusses Facebook games, virtual goods, a new style of development and the next era of game design and development. The presentation, entitled “Design Outside the Box” was given at the D.I.C.E. (Design, Innovate, Communicate, Entertain) Summit 2010 in Las Vegas, and has been virally spreading around the web. Also, Nickelback lost a popularity contest to a pickle 
A recently published study found that achievement in a video game could be predicted by measuring the volume of three specific structures of the brain. Intrigued by something he noticed about gamers, Kirk Erickson, a professor of psychology at the University of Pittsburgh, decided to investigate why expert game players tend to have improved measures of attention and perception, but when training novice game players, those measures could not be improved, even over 20 hours of practice. His theory was that novice players couldn’t learn because the veteran players had specialized brains, and he put this to the test in his latest study. The study may in the future be a stepping stone to understand how the social benefits of social gaming attract players of different
I recently had the chance to talk with Manu Rekhi, the Vice President of Marketing, Business and Corporate Development with Lolapps and a former Senior Product Manager with Google. Socialtimes.com had recently covered the implementation of Lolapps’ Dante’s Inferno application and we wanted to get a bit more information on the development of the application, the social gaming industry in general and the next steps for Lolapps. Click below to listen.
Today, Redmond, Washington-based WildTangent announced the BrandBoost advertising platform which allows social game players able to buy virtual goods by viewing ads. This follows a trend of recent expansions of virtual good purchasing options, including OfferPal’s Tasks system and Peanut Labs Media’s Cherry Deals Discounts.
Sebastien de Halleux, vice president of business development and strategic partnerships for EA Interactive, recently told Forbes that they had sold 60 million virtual goods on Pet Society in the two weeks leading up to Valentine’s Day. In addition, “tens of thousands” of real-world flowers were sold, up 20% from the same period and same promotion last year. The real-world flowers are one of Pet Society’s innovative features, where users are able to gain virtual currencies by purchasing flowers online from within the game. This publicly reported news also marks a shift for Playfish, who used to hold their cards close to their chest prior to being acquired by EA, a public company.
Rumors have been circulating about Farmville supposedly introducing a subscription fee into the game, but CNET is reporting that they will not be charging any subscription fee. The game has been in BETA since launch, and while the upgrade to the full version will likely involve some important changes, it’s doubtful that Zynga would use the occasion to alienate the majority of users on their largest game.
A new report by Global Silicon Valley Partner’s NeXt Up Research states that Zynga, the world’s top Facebook Application developer, may have a valuation of more than $3.3 billion. This is based on 35% growth over the next four years to expand this year’s revenue projection of $460 million to $1.1 billion in 2014. In addition to the valuation, the report’s analysis includes some interesting facts about their sources of revenue and user behavior.
Title says it all. Click to know more!
Section: Communications, Cellphones, Cellular Providers, Smartphones, Mobile
Palm has released information that reveals the company is struggling to remain competitive in today’s smartphone market. To lower expectations for its earnings report that are likely to disappoint, Palm confirmed analyst suggestions that its fiscal year 2010 revenues would be “well below its previously forecasted range of $1.6 billion to $1.8 billion.”
A press release revealed that slow sales have put a dent in Palm’s plans for a strong year. The Palm Pre/Pre Plus and Palm Pixi/Pixi Plus have not been adopted by consumers as quickly as the company had hoped, which has slowed orders from phone companies that carry the devices. “Our carrier partners remain committed,” CEO John Rubinstein said in the press release. “We are working closely with them to increase awareness and drive sales of our differentiated Palm products.”
Palm made this announcement early in order to lower expectations and prevent a dramatic dip in its stock when the company provides more details during a financial results conference call on March 18.
CEO Rubinstein also said in an internal memo that Verizon’s “execution of [the Palm Pre Plus’] launch was below expectations and are recommitted to working with us to improve sales.” Rubinstein is likely referring to Verizon’s inexplicable decision to paint the Pre as a phone “perfect for Mom on Valentine’s Day,” which split the potential demographic pool and made the Pre Plus seem like a phone designed for women. Palm has attempted to rectify the problem by have employees train Verizon sales reps on the products and increase billboard, bus shelter, and subway station advertisements.
Here is the full letter to Palm staff members:
Team,
This morning we announced preliminary results for our 2010 third quarter. Since the quarter has not yet closed, it is too soon to offer exact numbers, but we stated that we expect to report revenues for Q3 between $300 and $320 million. We also announced that we expect our revenue for this fiscal year to fall below the guidance we gave to Wall Street, which ranged from $1.6 to $1.8 billion. As we mentioned in our press release, our softer than expected performance is due to slower than expected customer adoption of our products, which in turn has prompted our U.S. carrier partners to put additional orders on hold for the time being. On a positive note, we expect to exit the quarter with over $500 million in cash on our balance sheet. We’re scheduled to announce our full financial results in March.
I realize this news is difficult to swallow. We made this announcement today to prevent a surprise for Wall Street when we announce quarterly earnings in March. In the meantime, the entire executive team has been working extremely hard to improve product performance, and have implemented a number of initiatives to increase awareness and drive sales.
Dave Whalen and I just returned from a very successful meeting with Verizon Wireless, where they acknowledged that their execution of our launch was below expectations and recommitted to working with us to improve sales. To accelerate sales, we initiated Project JumpStart nearly three weeks ago. Since then, nearly two hundred Palm Brand Ambassadors, supplemented by Palm employees from Sunnyvale, have been training Verizon sales reps across the U.S. on our products. Early results from the stores have already shown improvement on product knowledge and sales week over week. You may have also seen a growing number of Palm ads on billboards, bus shelters, buses, and subway stations—all getting the word out about Palm.
All of these efforts are examples of how we are working to accelerate adoption and grow distribution of webOS. In the next few weeks, your management will work with you to make sure your priorities are laser-focused, primarily on helping to increase sales, improve product quality and differentiate the Palm product experience.
Our goals are taking longer than expected to achieve, but I am still confident that our talented team has what it takes to get the job done.
We’ll schedule an all-hands meeting after our earnings announcement in March, and I’ll be happy to answer your questions.
Go team!!!
Read [BusinessWire and Wall Street Journal
Full Story » | Written by Andrew Kameka for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
We’re often thinking about what people are doing on social networks and one of the most common uses is keeping in touch with friends and family, especially for birthday greetings and holiday messages. Once the domain of e-greetings, social networks have instead become the common place to send & post messages. While the traffic to social networks continues to climb, the market share of visits to websites in the E-Greetings has declined each month year-over-year each month from January 2009 through January 2010. During the two peak months for E-Greetings category, February and December, visits decreased 24% and 16%, respectively.
On specific holidays, the same trend occurred, with the market share of visits to E-Greetings websites down, while the Social Networking category has increased. The only exception is Mother’s Day, where both are down and more people may be spending the day with their mothers rather than using social networks. Key holidays for the E-Greetings category, Valentine’s Day and Christmas Day, were both down 29% and 27%, respectively. Holidays have historically been a popular day for using social networks and Facebook, for example, became the most visited website on both Christmas Day and New Year’s Day, surpassing Google.
While there are many activities taking place on social networking websites like Facebook and Twitter, birthday (easy to remember the dates when other friends post messages) and holiday greetings appear to be eroding traffic away from the E-Greetings category.
We’re often thinking about what people are doing on social networks and one of the most common uses is keeping in touch with friends and family, especially for birthday greetings and holiday messages. Once the domain of e-greetings, social networks have instead become the common place to send & post messages. While the traffic to social networks continues to climb, the market share of visits to websites in the E-Greetings has declined each month year-over-year each month from January 2009 through January 2010. During the two peak months for E-Greetings category, February and December, visits decreased 24% and 16%, respectively.
On specific holidays, the same trend occurred, with the market share of visits to E-Greetings websites down, while the Social Networking category has increased. The only exception is Mother’s Day, where both are down and more people may be spending the day with their mothers rather than using social networks. Key holidays for the E-Greetings category, Valentine’s Day and Christmas Day, were both down 29% and 27%, respectively. Holidays have historically been a popular day for using social networks and Facebook, for example, became the most visited website on both Christmas Day and New Year’s Day, surpassing Google.
While there are many activities taking place on social networking websites like Facebook and Twitter, birthday (easy to remember the dates when other friends post messages) and holiday greetings appear to be eroding traffic away from the E-Greetings category.
After the success of both Wedding Crashers and The Hangover, Bradley Cooper seemed ready to jump all over the wave of good fortune and get to work on becoming a genuine movie star. He took paycheck gigs (All About Steve, Valentine’s Day) and kept the balance with a little bit of action (The A-Team). He’s also attached, of course, to the sequel to The Hangover. Not a terrible career plan, if you ask me.
Today we learned of another good choice made by the young actor: to stay far away from Terminator Salvation director McG. Entertainment Weekly is reporting that he’s dropped out of McG’s upcoming spy comedy This Means War — in which he was planning to star alongside Reese Witherspoon — due to scheduling conflicts with the second Hangover movie. The only problem is that This Means War was scheduled to shoot in the summer and The Hangover 2 wasn’t due to start until the fall. A source close to Cooper said that there were “creative concerns” about the McG project, including issues with the script. Our best guess is that Cooper realized that he was about to make a movie with McG and backed out. That’s what we’d do, anyway.
[Photographs: Robyn Lee]
While cruising down the aisles of a Washington D.C. Walgreens recently, I was smacked in the face with the the Easter candy aisle. Wait, what month is it again? Did Valentine's Day already happen? Bunny-shaped chocolates and jelly bean eggs were stocked from floor-to-ceiling. Ah yes, and there it was: the shelf devoted to Peeps products.
They had the usual five-packs in ranging pastel colors with both members of the marshmallow animal kingdom (chicks and bunnies) well-represented. But one small yellow wrapper advertised "New!"
This year, Just Born launched individually-wrapped chocolate covered Peeps (in both dark and milk chocolate flavors). It's nothing revolutionary, but maybe this is finally where they woo Peeps haters. Biting into it, you don't really think about Peeps. You just taste a chocolate-covered marshmallow blob. Granted, it has bright yellow guts, but it's not that far off from eating a Valomilk, Mallo Cup, or another cheap drugstore candy made with a super sweet chocolate shell and a stretchy, marshmallowy center.
Photo of the Day: The Peep Liberation Front
How to Make Chocolate-Covered Peepsicles
Peeps Lip Balm, Reviewed
It took a while, but Google is now indexing Pages from Facebook, Google said today via a tweet on its official account.
I’d been hearing rumblings over the past week or so that Verizon (NYSE: VZ) could indeed end the storm 9530’s run of touchscreen goodness in the near future. While some were surprised to hear that… I wasn’t. Don’t even get me started on the Storm (or the Storm2 for that matter!), I could go on for days!
ANYWAY, it looks like Verizon is indeed calling it quits on the 9530, as a new peek at an ‘End of Life’ (EOL) device list has leaked from Verizon’s internal systems. As you can see in the shot above, the devices listed have no remaining shipments… So if you want to grab one you better head on over to Verizon before they’re all snatched up. The devices going EOL on us are:
Crud. That’s a lot of devices… especially on the BlackBerry (NSDQ: RIMM) front. Well, if nothing else all this means is the aforementioned devices are, well, lets face it… OLD! They’ll no doubt be replaced by something new… and the circle of mobile device life goes on… and on.
[Via: GizmoFusion]
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