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You’ll really hear it here first in music app for unsigned bands

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It takes a special kind of optimist to bet their own money on whether there's a big enough audience out there to support a discovery app for music videos by unsigned and emerging bands

Turns out Amman Ahmed, founder of Rormix, is exactly that kind of believer.

"The majority of people, especially in the venture-capital and investor scene, get kind of put off by the music industry," said Ahmed, speaking by phone earlier this month regarding the run-up to the Manchester, UK-based startup's launch, back in April

"The only reason I was able to take Rormix to where I needed it to get to," he said, "is that I invested around £60,000 of my own money to prove the concept." ...

More about Indie Music, Music App, Entertainment, Music, and Apps Software

By |November 1st, 2014|Apps and Software|0 Comments

This is your chance to ask Mark Zuckerberg anything

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Mark Zuckerberg is prepared to take your questions

The massively wealthy, Mandarin-speaking Facebook founder will be hosting the social network's first public Q&A next Thursday on Nov. 6 at 2 p.m. PT (5 p.m. ET)

You can already submit questions to Zuck by commenting on his announcement post. If you're too shy to ask something yourself, there's the option to "vote" for what questions get answered by liking comments.

The Q&A will last an hour, but considering there are already almost 5,000 comments on the post, there's no way he'll get to them all. ...

More about Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, Privacy, Marketing, and Social Media

By |October 31st, 2014|Apps and Software|0 Comments

For Microsoft Outlook for Mac, 2015 has come early

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Microsoft Office for Mac won't be coming until 2015 but the new Outlook for Mac is available now.

The company rolled out an updated version of Outlook for Mac for Office 365 users Friday and revealed new details about when the rest of its Office software will be available.

"This release offers a more familiar and consistent experience between Outlook on the PC, Outlook on the web and Outlook Web App (OWA) for iPad, iPhone and Android devices," the company wrote in a blog post.

The user interface in the newest version of Outlook has been revamped with a more modern design, improved scrolling and faster loading. Microsoft also improved its Exchange functionality with faster syncing and online archive support that allows users to search their Exchange archive from within Outlook. ...

More about Microsoft, Tech, Outlook, Microsoft Office, and Office 365

By |October 31st, 2014|Apps and Software|0 Comments

Mobile growth, ad attention and a birthday

Usage of mobile advertising is growing faster than any other digital ad format, but what is this doing to publishers' overall CPMs and revenue? Big brands are no longer putting up with worthless impressions, so check out how many a company like Kraft is ignoring. Publishers are new measurement standards beyond viewability, and are looking for additional ways to gain attention to the ads they're websites are serving.

Also, the banner ad turned 20 years old this week.

Here are a few of the headlines we found interesting this week …

  • The Mobile CPM Train Wreck (MediaPost) – Taking the information from the previous article and turning it toward the publishing sector, what does this mobile growth mean for ad revenue. The growth in mobile is replacing desktop usage, as opposed to adding to a publisher's overall audience. Since the CPMs of mobile banners are far less than the CPMs of desktop display banners, this is creating lower overall revenue for some publishers. So with that in mind, what can be done about it? “Fight back and raise CPMs,” this article says.
  • How Publishers Are Seeing The Light On Ad Blindness (AdExchanger) – Purch CEO Greg Mason writes that the industry's problem isn't about ads being viewable to real people (as opposed to bot), but in getting those ads actually viewed by the audience. Ad blindness, a person's tendency to simple ignore ads, is the real issue. The solution, Mason writes, is relevancy, simplicity and placement.
  • Defining Bricks to Build the House of Time and Attention (Digital Content Next) – Meanwhile, Digital Content Next CEO Jason Kint writes this week about the publishing world transitioning to what he calls the AV World — as in, the world “after viewability.” Kint takes a look at time-based measurement, but stresses that publishers can't carry the entire burden of the much-needed transition.

THE BANNER AD'S MILESTONE: Also this week, the banner ad turned 20! Ad Week offers an infographic timeline of the banner ad's existence, and Fast Company breaks down the history of the banner ad.


By |October 31st, 2014|Advertising Technology|0 Comments

Photo challenge: Bring out your dark side

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For this week's Mashable Photo Challenge, bring out your dark side. Explore the outdoors after sunset, look for shadows on dark pavement and entertain your superstitions

Your submissions can be ...

More about Photography, Halloween, Social Media, Apps Software, and Mashable Photo Challenge Guest Series

By |October 31st, 2014|Apps and Software|0 Comments