Technology Review writes:

A Nokia research project could one day make it easier to navigate the real world by superimposing virtual information on an image of your surroundings. The new software, called Mobile Augmented Reality Applications (MARA), is designed to identify objects viewed on the screen of a camera phone.

The Nokia research team has demonstrated a prototype phone equipped with MARA software and the appropriate hardware: a global positioning system (GPS), an accelerometer, and a compass. The souped-up phone is able to identify restaurants, hotels, and landmarks and provide Web links and basic information about these objects on the phone's screen. In addition, says David Murphy, an engineer at Nokia Research Center, in Helsinki, Finland, who works on the project, the system can also be used to find nearby friends who have phones with GPS and the appropriate software.

[via Thejo] Fred Stutzman writes:

I came across a Harris Interactive poll entitled Friendship in the Age of Social Networking Websites that contained an interesting statistic - the average number of friends teens keep on respective buddy lists.

The poll found that teen have an average of 52 friends on the IM buddy list, 38 friends entered in their cell phone - but they have 75 friends in SNS. The poll also found a 75% of teens use SNS.

InfoWorld writes:

RSS (really simple syndication) is a favored XML format for individuals to get information from sources such as news sites and blogs. In fact, a recent Pew Internet Foundation survey found nearly one in three individuals consumes RSS feeds. But for enterprises, the most telling response was that 63 percent of these RSS users subscribe to work-related feeds.

That latter finding shouldn’t surprise IT managers. After all, RSS readers are easy to install and use. This technology does a fine job helping workers cut through irrelevant information that floods portals, enterprise search results, and e-mail. But as RSS’s popularity rises, so do risks. For example, precious network bandwidth is consumed when many employees update the same feed. Plus, there are security risks associated with accessing inappropriate feeds.

To get around these issues and give more employees the benefit of RSS, organizations are adopting enterprise RSS solutions. I tested three hot products in this burgeoning area: Attensa Feed Server, NewsGator Enterprise Server, and KnowNow 3 Enterprise Syndication Solution.

[via Vinu] Engadget writes:

The folks at GridNetworks, working in conjunction with content providers, are confident that they could get the CDN portion of the above scenario to well under 400 Terabytes. And, even more importantly, by pushing the data to the end-user grid in advance they would be able to lower the peak bandwidth requirements by at least another order of magnitude. The result is an extreme cost savings for the content providers.

Why does that matter to you? That's simple. It means more content. You see -- there are vast libraries of content sitting in vaults blocked by (among other things) delivery costs. It stands to reason that if an episode of "It's Like, You Know" costs 50 cents to deliver, it's got to sell for more than 50 cents, and, as great as the show was, few people are going to pay more than 50 cents to watch an episode. If, however, you can cut those delivery costs down to 5 or 10 cents, there's a whole new market to be had.

Excerpts from a WSJ interview with Bill Amelio:

WSJ: There are a lot of rumors out there that Lenovo is working on a $100 PC. What's the story?

Mr. Amelio: We're not there yet, but we've just announced a program in India and China with Microsoft and Intel that allows people to get access to a PC for somewhere between $100 and $150. The strategy goes like this: We take a fully functioning PC, and we drop the cost in half. The bank picks up one half, and the customer picks up the other half. Then the customer buys computer cards, just like you buy phone cards. You can buy a card for, say, 10 hours of computing. Over time, you essentially buy back the computer from the bank by buying computer cards. This opens up computing to people who would never be able to afford it otherwise.

WSJ: How do Lenovo's marketing strategies differ around the world?

Mr. Amelio: In India, we work with Bollywood actors and do key product placements on game shows. Outside of the U.S., soccer is very popular, so we hired Ronaldinho to do ads for us. In the U.S., we're working with the NBA [the National Basketball Association]. Another way is through the Olympics, which have broad appeal around the world. We're doing some interesting stuff with blogs, too -- check out the Design Matters blog on Lenovoblogs.com.

Tomi Ahonen in September 2006 wrote how South Korea's inherent advantages helped Cyworld succeed:

Cyworld is based in South Korea, the most digitally advanced country in the world. It has every advantage. The highest broadband penetration rate in the world - or actually neck-to-neck with Hong Kong to be precise. The highest penetration of 3G phones (over 50%, Japan a close second). The first country to launch mobile digital TV broadcasts over a year ago and already over 4% of all South Koreans have bought the new top-end TV-phones (there are no handset subsidies in Korea so they pay from 500 to 800 dollars for these ultimate top-end phones). 4% might not seem like a high number, but it is incredibly rapid. Blackberry is considered a big success. It has spent 5 years and still does not have 4% of the American population. Apple's darling, the iPod, took well over three years from launch to break 4% of the USA population. 3G next generation mobile phones first launched in Japan five years ago, took over three years to reach 4%. So for a gadget more expensive than a Blackberry, iPod or 3G phone (subsidised in Japan) - that TV-phones have achieved 4% penetration in little over one year is quite impressive indeed. But I digress - about Digital Korea.. Credit cards? 50% of South Koreans already use the credit card or debit card function on their mobile phones. The cities are now building intelligent parking lots to tell you where is the nearest available parking place. One in ten Koreans play online videogames every day. Worldwide about 5% of all web users maintain blogsites, in Korea it is over one third of the total population. 45% of all music sold in South Korea goes directly to mobile phones - note that iTunes accounts for only about 5% of the music sales in the USA. The Korean government aim is to have a robot in every home in ten years. South Korea is truly science fiction.

Specifically the monetary dimension of Cyworld was founded on solid economics. The Cyworld users would buy and sell content using a payment mechanism called the acorn (worth about 10 cents). These can be easily purchased on your mobile phone. So right from the start, Cyworld had a solid economic foundation to rapidly grow and build a robust foundation for success.

One in three South Koreans has a Cyworld membership and amongst people in their twenties the take-up is 90%. Jae-yeon says even her mother has signed up - and leaves messages for her daughter on her Cyworld page every day.
At Cyworld's headquarters, 3,000 servers handle traffic for the virtual world in a control room fit for a space mission.

The business is profitable - with most of its revenue coming from selling all that virtual furniture - and is expanding into China and Japan. "We have a new word in Korea" a manager tells me proudly - "Cyholic - for someone who is addicted to Cyworld."
...
Young Koreans are now so accustomed to running their lives via the internet that they find it difficult to conceive of how life would work if the technology wasn't there.

Back at her apartment I asked Jae-yeon what would happen if the internet crashed and she couldn't get to her Cyworld miniroom. "For how long?" she asked, a wave of panic crossing her face. "I just don't know how I would cope."

"The word Cy in Korean means 'relationship,'" said Cyworld executive Rick Kim. "Cyworld, therefore, literally means 'relationship world.' It underscores our commitment to creating an environment where wholesome, friendly relationships are created and maintained."

Cyworld user Shin said Korean social customs contribute to Cyworld's success. "Everyone (who visits your page) starts leaving you messages," said Shin. "If you don't write back or leave a (guestbook) message on their site, they get upset."
In Korea, not responding in a timely fashion is seen as rude and upsetting. The end result is a "vicious and unending cycle of messages," Shin said. "You can literally spend all day on the site writing everyone a message."

Cyworld uses real names for users' pages, so if people meet at a party, it's increasingly likely they'll swap Cyworld addresses, not phone numbers.

"Instead of asking for a phone number or e-mail address, people ask, 'Do you Cy?'" said user Jennifer Park.