Posted by Susanne 
Well it’s another week with digital news (and mainstream news for that matter) dominated by the launch of the iPad 3. The world has gone mad for it and it’s lovely to see Apple’s Steve Wozniak in line to buy one (as per usual) at a store in California. The reviews have been universally glowing with even the most demanding of journos struggling to find things to criticise. Whilst everyone is getting excited about this new piece of gorgeousness from Apple, we mustn’t overlook the huge number of business and marketing applications that the iPad/tablet revolution is unleashing.
And right on cue, there have been major announcements made by two media organisations: the BBC has confirmed a download pay service and , which will allow programmes to be bought and downloaded shortly after their live broadcast and Trinity Mirror Newspapers has announced that it will be launching paid tablet editions of some of its key titles including The Daily Mirror. This is an interesting development in the ‘who pays for media’ saga and it we wait to see who will be the next to follow.
Of course this week saw the end of SXSW and there’s waaay to much to talk about so we will leave it to Mashable to give their comprehensive wrap on this amazing annual event, which just gets better every year, although we would just like to draw your attention to this interview with Brandee Barker, former PR boss at Facebook, who was responsible for many of the major launches there and has since gone on to work with many of the leading names in digital.
And on the subject of Mashable, there is also the stunning news that Pete Cashmore may be on the verge of doing a deal with CNN which would catapult Mashable into the ‘A’ team of global media and make Pete very rich in the process. Fantastic stuff!
Another big announcement this week is from Paypal who are launching a service aimed at small businesses. PayPal Here is a small business mobile payment system and is a combination of a free mobile app and thumb-sized card reader, putting a PayPal cash register in the pocket of anybody who wants one. Although they will have to be careful with security, with Apple under pressure for App Store fraud, which is becoming rather too common.
And with a quick round of the rest of the news, Groupon has been a firm slap on the wrist by the OFT and told to clean up its practices – so if you are thinking of using Groupon in client promotions, make sure that everything complies with ASA rules and consumer protection legislation; a new super energy efficient chip from Arm means that lots of ‘things’ will be able to be internet enabled, such as light bulbs and credit cards, thus opening up sorts of possibilities for consumers and businesses. Lovely stuff; France is floating the idea of having an ‘Amazon tax’ which would help small businesses cope against the might of internet giants ; Spotify will over take iTunes in two years (bit of a no brainer that one) although no doubt by then Apple will have invented some other ground-breaking piece of technology that will change the goal posts once again and finally, if your technology was giving you a hard time last Friday (ours was) then it was probably those pesky solar storms , but they are rather beautiful to look at.
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