Archive for August, 2007

George Hotz, 17, confirmed Friday that he had unlocked an iPhone and was using it on T-Mobile’s network, the only major U.S. carrier apart from San Antonio-based AT&T that is compatible with the iPhone’s cellular technology.

I also heard on the radio that US law does not prohibit this specific activity.  Read the rest of the article on CNN.com for more information.

Yahoo! recently profiled a really cool start up called Kiva.org.

Kiva, which means “unity” in Swahili, is a lending organization with a twist: Anyone with a bit of money and an Internet connection can step forward as a microlender to assist struggling third-world entrepreneurs get out of poverty.

This social venture was started by Matt and Jessica Flannery after they found out they had different career goals during pre-marriage counseling.  Jessica wanted to study microfinance in Africa whereas Matt was headed to Silicon Valley.

Happily, things worked out; Kiva now has loans totaling $10 million.  Read more about this interesting couple and their social venture, Kiva.org on the People of the Web.

On Aug. 18th, I wrote an article about Revver. At the end of the post, I said:

However, if more users start using this service and spreading the word, it is going to put the heat back on Google to roll out a video ad revenue sharing program soon!

Today, Google announced it plans to introduce overlay video advertising. The ad will not be like a typical commercial / broadcast advertisement (typically referred to in the industry as pre-rolls). As the DowJones article reports:

YouTube’s new ads involve a semitransparent, animated overlay that appears at the bottom of videos during the first 20 seconds of play and then disappears after 10 seconds.

Read the rest of the article to find out more about this new service and the preliminary results YouTube has seen so far.

The story Miles Levin briefly appears on the front page of CNN.com.  However, it soon disappeared as other topics such as Hurricane Dean and Michael Vick’s plea made the headlines.

This story caught my attention because Miles died on Sunday; he had alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma or cancer that develops in the connective tissues of the body.  What’s even more interesting about this story is that Miles has been blogging since 2005 ever since he was diagnosed with cancer.

If you’d like to read Miles Levin’s blog, go to www.carepages.com, register, and then search for LevinStory.  While Levin passed away, his thoughts and memories still live on through his blog.  It is also a reminder to all of us to celebrate life.

Although I really like YouTube, the service still hasn’t introduced their revenue sharing platform yet. Meanwhile, competitors such as Revver offer a viable alternative and are building greater customer adoption and loyalty.

I have been experimenting with Revver over the past few days. While this is not the first time Revver has caught my attention, I decided to take a serious look while incorporating clips from Joel Comm’s new Internet show.

So far, I am really impressed with how easy it is to incorporate into a blog platform such as Wordpress. In addition, I like how Revver is supporting the free enterprise system with the ad revenue sharing for both content creators and affiliates / promoters.

The downside I see right now is the fact that Revver doesn’t have nearly the amount of videos and traffic as YouTube. However, if more users start using this service and spreading the word, it is going to put the heat back on Google to roll out a video ad revenue sharing program soon!

Watch Revver’s CEO, Kevin Wells, discuss the company and service.

Check out Revver’s funky, hip video promoting its service too.

Justine Ezarik captured her experience on video as she unwrapped her 300-page iPhone bill. She told Gizmodo, the bill accounted for almost 30,000 text messages and 200 minutes of talk time on her iPhone alone.

Check it out.

Thanks to a comment from Jason Henderson of Big Marketing Blog, we now know the first episode is live. Tune in to watch first episode.

Oh yeah… Jason is one of the contestants too. Go Jason!

For one lucky contestant, this dream will become a reality. Starting tomorrow, twelve contestants will be vying for the chance to work with Joel Comm on his next business venture.

Tune into The Next Internet Millionaire and see whose idea reigns supreme (just kidding especially if you’re a fan of the Iron Chef television show).

Read the rest of this entry »

This one is funny if you haven’t seen it already.  I hope it helps you get through the work day or even the work week.

Enjoy!

We all know the Internet is creating many new, global business opportunities.  However, much of the press (and even my own articles) in North America are still focusing on American entrepreneurs and their technology ventures.  Sure, one could argue that these companies are global in nature.  But the rest of the world is not receiving their fair share of attention.

In lieu of this, I thought the Business 2.0 gallery of best non-US sites to watch is appropriate to share with this community.   Some interesting names pop up such as Stardoll, Vivapets, and Babytree.  I wouldn’t laugh too hard; some top tier venture capital firms such as Sequoia Capital are backing some of these ventures.  If you haven’t heard of some of them yet, you can bet you will be soon.
Be sure to check out the maps too!