The display is desaturated, claims a wimpy 840x504 resolution and requires distracting frames that break up the image. Seeing this, though, gives the impression that even if it is years and years away, the day when we can control the natural light in our houses, watch video or displays a HUD on the living room window will come. Eventually. [Tech-On via OLED Display]
Source: http://googleretail.blogspot.com/2008/10/making-sense-of-cpcs-and-holiday-trends.html
10/28/2008 09:36:00 AM
Labels: 2008 Winter Holiday, Online Traffic Trends, Seasonality
A few weeks ago, Hal Varian, Google's Chief Economist, had a post on "Clicks, Christmas and Conversions". In the post, Hal talks about the importance of understanding the inter-play between CPCs (Cost-per-click), conversion rates (CR) and CPAs (Cost-per-acquisition). Hal stresses that retailers need to focus on the CPA when evaluating the success of their online campaigns and not get hung up on rising CPCs during the holiday season, because they are only one factor in the equation of success. (Of course we could get into a much meatier conversation around ROI and how to accurately measure ROI of online campaigns which it is much more complicated than simply dividing the cost of online advertising/online sales. The true ROI model should include a metric for offline sales generated by online advertising among other metrics...but this is a discussion for a later date)
Therefore, the answer to why we shouldn't get hung up on rising CPCs during the holiday season is: although CPCs rise, conversions rise at a more rapid clip which in turn serves to depress CPAs. The upfront rise in CPCs during the October-November research period is offset by spiking conversions and the resultant plunge in CPAs in the December purchasing period. CPAs are the bottom line!
Traffic is high on Thanksgiving day (now often referred to as Brown Thursday) but it is not the peak day for conversions or purchases because consumers are in the research phase on Thanksgiving day, planning out their online purchases and in-store shopping trips for the next day, Black Friday. Black Friday is when retailers traditionally start offering large price discounts. Additionally, Cyber Monday (the Monday after Thanksgiving), known for its high online retail sales, sees a slight dip in CPA and then December 1 rings in the purchasing season. We also see the clear and expected conversion rate increase on Green Monday (Dec. 10, 2007/ second Monday in December) which has been noted as being the strongest online retail sales day. If the trend holds, the highest online retail sales day of 2008 will fall on December 8th.
Finally, in thinking about the 2008 winter holiday season, here's what we know:
Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/434966875/
Filed under: Desktops, Laptops
source: http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/aviary_out_of_private_beta_discount_offer.php
Aviary is indeed a very comprehensive image editing suite. While testing the different applications, we were impressed with the overall speed of the service and how closely the apps resembled more traditional desktop tools. While the feature set of Phoenix, the core program in the suite, doesn't quite rival that of more fully-featured desktop applications like Photoshop or evenPaint.NET, the combination of all the Aviary apps makes this suite an attractive alternative.
Like most of its free rivals like FotoFlexer or Picnik, Aviary can import pictures from most of the popular online photo-sharing sites, including Flickr, Facebok, and Picasa. Its features, however, go far beyond the functionality of these free online applications and the Peacock application allows you to experiment with images in ways that no other online application has allowed you to do so far.
Overall, Aviary is definitely worth a try. You can sign up for a free (but limited) account here, or follow this link to claim your $55 discount if you decide to go for the paid version before November 3rd.
"LaCie & Carbonite Partnership"
New One Year Unlimited Online Backup Offer· Unlimited online backup for one full year at no additional cost
· Carbonite software available on LaCie drives after October 15th
· Automatic backups provide complete data security
· Data encryption ensures user privacyPORTLAND, OR (October 2008) LaCie announced today a new service package to
benefit hard drive consumers: LaCie One Year Online Backup. This unique
service provides unlimited online backup for one full year after
installation with the purchase of any LaCie external storage device.Recognizing the importance of secure digital media for both consumers and
professional users, LaCie has partnered with Carbonite, Inc., an innovator
in online backup technology, to ensure that each LaCie drive purchased will
be bundled with their award-winning services.For one year following software installation Carbonite will automatically
backup the LaCie drive by finding new and mo! dified f iles, encrypting them
twice before leaving the original workstation, then transmitting them by
HTTPS (SSL) to a secure data center, where the information remains
encrypted, protecting the user¹s privacy. Additionally, backups are
completed only when the computer is idle, so the process never interferes
with computer performance.³Taking into account the quality of information users place on our drives we
wanted to go beyond our expertise in hardware to provide the best options to
our customers,² said Philippe Spruch, LaCie Chief Executive Officer. ³LaCie
Online Backup provides one year of unlimited online storage to showcase the
importance of backup strategies that keep data safe, and our dedication to
helping users get there.²LaCie is known for developing security technology products for Mac, PC, and
Linux users, and the creation of the LaCie One Year Online Backup package
aims to increase the overall value to consumers who choose to manage their
digital content through external hardware. LaCie One Year Online Backup will
be available in November for PC users, with a Mac version to be released at
a later date.Availability
Unlimited LaCie Online Backup will be available at no extra charge for one
full year beginning November 2008 on LaCie consumer hard drives.
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