Pretty tweet observation

Last week, I wrote a blog about new media's role in this year's presidential election. A year or so ago, I would have thought that social media, like Facebook, would have an extremely big part to play in this year's election. Well, it hasn't as much as I would have thought. However, Twitter has. As this astute New York Times blogger pointed out, Twitter is making a relatively big splash when it comes to people discussing politics over the Internet. OK, so it's no Huffington Post, but it is still pretty cool, nonetheless.

Faux Facebookers emulate Greeks

Social media like Facebook is a great way to keep up with family, friends, and co-workers.  Now it's also the next great way to get a Trojan virus to infect your computer.  

Well, not Facebook itself.  But apparently some innovative scammers have been sending some fraudulent e-mails that have Trojan viruses attached to them.  Nice, huh?  

Simple tip to avoid a costly mess:  navigate to Facebook and view your updates, friend requests, and comments there.   And also use common sense.  I rarely click on links sent to me in e-mails.  But if I did, I would heed the warning signs.  See the log in window in the screenshot of the e-mail above?  Um...Facebook doesn't do that.

While this isn't really Facebook's fault, it raises some concerns about Facebook.  Recently, there has also been an increase in people hacking users' accounts and spamming people's walls.  That's something I haven't seen since MySpace, and that's part of the reason I closed my MySpace account.  

I can't help but think that this is another unfortunate side effect of Facebook opening the Web site up to everyone instead of just college students.  

MySpace and the music industry share a big hug

Any time the words "music" and "Internet" are mentioned in the same sentence, one would have to think that the music industry has its lawyers on the phone in a heartbeat.  Well, not in this case.

Several big music labels and MySpace announced an agreement that will see an upgrade in MySpace's music section in what will be called MySpace Music.  In the past, MySpace bands' pages have had some limited news and biographical sections along with anywhere from three to five songs, which could sometimes be downloaded for free.  Well, MySpace Music incorporates more information along with a jukebox and the ability to purchase music through Amazon.com.  

I saw reported on one Web site that individual songs could be purchased for $.79 to $.99.  If the majority of the songs are $.79, that could put a squeeze on some of the iTunes music store's fanbase.  Most individual songs on iTunes are $.99.

It's an interesting agreement, and Brad Stone, the author of that blog posting, seems to think it will gain MySpace more attention if users embed their MySpace Music jukeboxs in other forms of social media.  

Twitter Effect

I've recently started using Twitter. I had heard of it before I signed up for an account last week, but I never really considered it more than your average social media Web site.

CNN is the place I go for news. Rick Sanchez is the anchor of a news program on CNN at 3 p.m. on weekdays. He uses Twitter to gauge his viewers' reactions to certain issues, and he frequently uses the networking site while he is broadcasting live.

After signing up for a Twitter account, I realized that two of my favorite anchors, Sanchez and Anderson Cooper, both use Twitter. Their updates frequently link to either full stories or blogs with frequent updates. It is an excellent way for news to become disseminated even faster and farther.

Going into this year's election, I thought that social media like Facebook would play a pivotal role in the outcome of not only the primaries but also the general election. It has not played as significant a role as I would have thought, but Barack Obama has utlitized facets of new media such as text messaging and Twitter as well.

Like Sanchez and Cooper, Obama links to news stories, events and multimedia on his Twitter to actively disseminate news about his campaign in a way that I did not imagine when I made my prediction about new media's role in the election mid-way through last year.

Will Obama's use of social media like Twitter give him an edge over John McCain in this fall's presidential election? I guess we'll see November 4th!

You can follow me on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/realmadrid1086

The Google Revolution

Of course, Google's new T-Mobile G1 will never be as cool as Dr. Shamp's iPhone, but it can sure as hell try.  Google introduced the PC-esque phone to rival Apple's iPhone, and if nothing else the price ($179) will certainly be competitive.  

Like we discussed earlier today in the Digital Brown Bag, Apple will always be the cool thing for people to have.  But like we all know, especially after the recent release of Google Chrome, Google is on the up in their quest for world domination.  

Using Google's Android software, the G1 has many of the same qualities as the iPhone.  It utilizes a web browser to access Web sites like Gmail and Youtube.  It also has a touch screen with a full slide-out keyboard, as you can see in the picture above.  

Android is one of several efforts by Google to extend its dominance from the PC-Web to the mobile Web. The software is its effort to ensure that its consumer services — as well as its advertising systems — are widely available on mobile phones.

Kodak ups the ante

Kodak recently released a new version of the pocket video camera.  The Kodak Vi6 shoots in High Definition, despite being able to fit in one's pocket.  Unlike predecessors from Pure Digital that could hold only 2 GB, the Vi6 is capable of storing 32 GB of video with a memory card.  The price of the Vi6 is $180.00 plus a memory card for maximum storage space.  

VERDICT:  Everything seems to keep getting smaller and smaller.  Perhaps with the affordability and size of the Vi6, we'll see an increase in "citizen media."