Welcome

Welcome to another edition of the Prompt Communications newsletter. This week we've got news of MySpace's attempt to claw back some of the limelight from Facebook, as well as a startling revelation about what people really want for Christmas this year.

If you enjoy reading this newsletter, why not take a look at our blog too? This week we've discussed Google's plan to combat copyright infringement on YouTube, and the British government's study into the possible effects video games have on children.

Technology News

Beginning of the end for analogue telly in Britain
By Dave Wilby

On Wednesday at 2am BST, the official switch off of analogue TV signals began in regions across Britain, with the town of Whitehaven in Cumbria becoming the first place to enter the digital-only era. BBC Two's analogue signal was the first to go in the town, with all other signals turning off from 14th November.

According to the BBC, more than 92% of Whitehaven’s 25,000 homes had already installed a Freeview set-top-box, cable or satellite feed to continue watching telly. The remaining 15% of analogue households across the UK will have to likewise by the end of 2012, beginning with the rest of Cumbria before Christmas and ending with London around five years from now. Check out the full schedule and regional maps in this BBC Digital Television QnA.

This Christmas give them the gift of love – but only if there aren’t any computers available
By Duncan Heaney

Dear Santa,

For Christmas this year, I would like a brand new laptop with a 17inch screen, 2 Gb of ram, a top of the range graphics card, and a minimum of 160Gb hard disk.

If that's not possible, I'd like world peace.

Thanks very much,

Duncan

MSN is reporting that a survey by a consumer electronics industry trade organisation has revealed that computers are the most desired gift in America this year. Peace and happiness came in second and big screen televisions third. Who needs peace and happiness when you've got Windows Vista?

The top position last year was occupied by clothing, with computers coming in fourth. In a reversal, this year clothes were voted as the fourth most desired gift. The survey's organisers conducted 1,003 telephone interviews with US adults in order to generate their results. A survey into which specific gadgets people wanted to receive as gifts this year revealed that portable music players are currently the most desirable. In addition, videogame systems were the most popular gadgets people were planning to give away as a gift. It all points towards a spectacular holiday season for the consumer electronics industry in America.

US Media News

By Tarryn Morley

US

Dennis Kneale, previously managing editor of Forbes, joined CNBC Cable Network on Oct. 16 as a media and technology editor. He joined Forbes in 1998 to help with the expansion of the publication’s coverage of technology, media and health. Before joining Forbes, Kneale spent 16 years at The Wall Street Journal, where he was a senior editor for computers, telecommunications, health and science coverage. No replacement has named at Forbes as yet.

Elizabeth Woyke has resigned as staff editor at BusinessWeek to join Forbes.com as a technology and telecommunications reporter. Woyke had been with BusinessWeek since 2005. She began her new job at Forbes.com on Oct. 15.

Nicholas Carlson has been hired as the first New York-based associate editorforValleywag, a blog covering technology industry gossip. Carlson was previously as an associate editor for Internetnews.com, an IT news site.

Michael Caruso has left Conde Nast Portfolio, where he was contributing editor at large. During the Portfolio’s recent launch, he oversaw various features articles. Previously, Caruso was editor in chief at Men's Journal and Details. Since his departure from Portfolio, he has been appointed CEO of DailyTube.com, a site which aims to offer viewers the best new videos on the web.

UK Media News

By Tarryn Morley

UK

There have been several recent changes at Dennis Publishing's IT Pro. Maggie Holland has been promoted from senior section editor to deputy editor. Former staff writer, Nicole Kobie, has been promoted to section editor. Following Rene Millman's departure in September, editor Chris Green is now covering Storage, Security and Networking.

Imagine Publishing is launching a new gaming magazine titled Total PC Gaming on November 8. Aimed at hardcore gamers, Total PC Gaming covers all aspects of PC gaming, including previews and reviews of the latest games, retro gaming and hardware. Every issue will also include MMO Worlds, a 20-page section covering the MMORPG market. Total PC Gaming will be published 13 times a year and will retail for £3.99.

Jane Martinson, previously associate city editor at The Guardian, has been appointed editor of the paper's weekly Media Guardian supplement. Martinson, who begins her new role in January 2008, replaces Matt Wells who is to become head of audio.

MySpace to open up to developers
By Sean McManus

MySpace is pinching Facebook’s idea to allow third-party developers to integrate applications with its site. Facebook provides a basic social networking tool, and enables developers to create plug-ins that members can use to enhance their profiles or to network with their friends. Users can add an aquarium, and send each other fish, a video player, or any number of quizzes or games of ‘tag – you’re it’. Indeed, there are now 6,000 Facebook plug-ins, all of which require users to provide personal information normally restricted to friends to the mysterious developers behind the application. But nobody seems too fussed about that.

MySpace has over three times the users of Facebook, but will head off the competition by enabling developers to plug in to its site too. As a result, MySpace will be enhanced with thousands of new functions, some of which might even be useful. Given that MySpace is used extensively by musicians, there is great potential to combine members’ music with image generators or to make it easier to surf music across the site. What’s likely to happen, though, is that profiles will become polluted with any number of stupid games.

Smart businesses open their content for mashing up, but the MySpace and Facebook approach is the reverse: instead they open up the platform, and invite developers in. That way the social networks retain all the value in the user base and the site functionality.

Despite their massive memberships (188 million registrations on MySpace), these social networking sites have struggled to make money. Ambitious developers can see this as an opportunity to tap into a massive audience. Cynical developers might wonder, though, whether Rupert Murdoch’s secret message is: “We’ve spent a fortune on this site. No idea what to do with it. Any bright ideas, anyone?”

Apple swallows a Leopard to catch a Tiger
By Dave Wilby

It was officially confirmed this week that Apple’s new OS X operating system, codenamed Leopard, will be wriggling and tickling inside a Mac near you next Friday 26th October from 6pm. If you’re too excited by the replacement for Tiger to work over the next week, why not just stare at the countdown clock on Apple’s website?

According to CNET, the Leopard launch was delayed earlier in the year in case it went unnoticed amid all the iPhone furore. It’s probably worth the wait though, as Apple is promising more than 300 new features over Tiger, including a radical ‘dock’ GUI, more robust security doodads, a Time Machine automatic-backup service, support for the trendy OpenDocument Format (ODF) and a revamped Finder. Leopard will cost £85 ($129) for a single-user license, £129 ($199) for a five-user pack, £319 ($499) for a 10-client server edition and £629 ($999) for an unlimited-client edition. CNET thinks an upgrade path will be available too.

Web 2.0 Watch

The power of social bookmarking
By Lance Concannon

I’ve recently been devoting much of my spare time to getting a kind of community driven news/discussion site off the ground for people with a casual interest in finance and the economy (non-stop rock and roll, my life). Having launched the site a few months ago, I decided recently that it was stable enough for me to encourage larger numbers of visitors. So, I came up with an idea for a nice piece of link-bait (that is, content designed specifically for the purpose of encouraging people to link to it) – a quick and easy diagram illustrating how many pints of beer we could have bought with the money so far spent on the war in Iraq. Possibly a little too flippant for such a serious issue, I agree, but it had the essential ingredients of being related, albeit loosely, to the site’s subject matter whilst also likely to be of interest to the broader public.

I posted a link to the content on a couple of discussion forums I lurk in, and since the initial feedback was that people liked it, I decided to go for the big-time and try my luck with the leading social-bookmarking services to see if I could reach a wider audience. I submitted the link to Digg, Reddit, Del.ico.us, StumbledUpon, as well as a few less well known services, and sat back waiting for the excess bandwidth charges to roll in from my hosting company.

The story bombed on Digg, earning just three votes and, according to my traffic stats, it resulted in less than a dozen visits. Del.ico.us, was just as bad. It fared slightly better on Reddit, sending approximately 100 visitors my way over the following week. But the real winner was StumbledUpon, which accounted for approximately 10,000 unique visits to the link over the same period. More important than this, however, was the number of other blogs and websites which linked to the article after discovering it on these social bookmarking services. These links may not contribute much traffic individually, but as any savvy webmaster knows, they help an awful lot with improving your site’s search engine rankings.

This time I struck gold with StumbledUpon, but I think it’s safe to say that as long as you’ve got some good quality viral content rather than outright spam, all of these social bookmarking services have the power to give your campaign a strong head-start.

Website of the Week

By Duncan Heaney

www.howstuffworks.com

Howstuffworks.com is a website that does exactly what it says on the tin – it explains how things work. The site contains a very large selection of interesting and accessible articles, on an incredibly diverse range of topics. These explanations range from the useful, such as ‘How Does HDMI work?” to the not so useful but interesting, such as ‘How Does Quantum Suicide Work?’

In addition, the site has regular articles on all kinds of subjects that answer questions you never really thought to ask. A personal favourite of mine this week, is ‘Can Water Go Bad?’ which explains how water can become undrinkable, and the best ways to preserve its purity. All articles are categorised and have links to others, allowing the reader to expand their knowledge

The site features video explanations and how-to guides. There is also a strong participation element – the site actively encourages reader feedback and involvement.

We hope you find the Prompt Communications newsletter an interesting read. For any feedback on our newsletter, or to discuss how we can help you with your technology PR, marketing, social media and blogging consultancy, copywriting or surveys, please contact us using the details below. We are always delighted to hear from you.