It seems that most new-comers are attracted to free-to-play games on social media sites like Facebook. The report says this is one reason the gaming population has spiked so much since 2008. Games like Farmville and online slot machines on Facebook keep players engaged for long periods of time.

Games are becoming quite popular on mobile devices such as smartphones as well. With games like Angry Birds and Temple Run, mobile gaming is just as addictive as any other platform and the results don’t lie; there’s money to be made.

The mediums which gamers use to fulfill their playing desires varies from PC/laptop to actual gaming consoles such as Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. The graph below illustrates the variances in preferences among gamers.

Since the introduction of tablets a few years ago, the mobility potential exploded. Tablets, being much like smartphones-minus the phone-are now a great and popular mobile device. With the ability to support apps, tools and games, this device is a real asset to mobile device users. With that being covered, the tablet mobile gaming platform has substantially gained momentum in past months as mobile/tablet games have become increasingly popular.

Ars Technica did an online investigation in 2009 and what they discovered was not positive findings. The investigation found that “deleted” photos do not necessarily delete when there is a direct link to them existing on Facebook’s servers. Users may certainly “delete” the photo from their page, but if anyone had a direct link to that photo, it can remain accessible until Facebook updates their system. Facebook says they are working with their content delivery network to reduce the amount of time that backup copies persist.

Ars Technica followed up on their investigation greater than a year later and the so called deleted photos were still accessible. Stories began to roll in; “horror” stories were told of harassment using old photos that were supposed to be deleted years ago, but were still accessible due to that direct link.

Now it’s 2012 and things haven’t really changed, numerous photos that were “deleted” at the times of the investigation and the followup are still online and Facebook still reported that they were “working” on the issue. Facebook had this to say about the situation:

“The systems we used for photo storage a few years ago did not always delete images from content delivery networks in a reasonable period of time even though they were immediately removed from the site.”

Facebook spokesperson Frederic Wolens says that photos still remaining online are “stuck” in an old legacy system that never operated properly; he stated that the company is working on a new system that will expeditiously remove the content with the span of a month and a half. For real, you guys. Wolens was quoted saying:

“We have been working hard to move our photo storage to newer systems which do ensure photos are fully deleted within 45 days of the removal request being received. This process is nearly complete and there is only a very small percentage of user photos still on the old system awaiting migration, the URL you provided was stored on this legacy system. We expect this process to be completed within the next month or two, at which point we will verify the migration is complete and we will disable all the old content.”

Mr. Wolens says Facebook is truly updating everything so that all the old content will be properly disposed in a timely period; up to 45 days. Facebook is currently in the process of building this new system and it’s said that it could take a couple of months still to complete.

“Facebook asked me to pass this on to you. They require it of all visitors to their facilities. It only applies to things that you might accidentally stumble upon while you are there and covers nothing discussed during our news conference. Please either bring a signed copy or be ready to sign upon arrival.”

Journalists were a little upset needless to say, giving that their journalistic freedom was being, for lack of a better term, stolen. Journalists then got a little pep in their step as two hours later another e-mail was sent to agencies from Sarah Lane, the AG’s Director of New Media, stating.

“I’m writing on behalf of Dan Sytman. You may disregard the nondisclosure agreement that we sent earlier.”

So you may be curious as to what the agreement may have said. Well, partly it entailed:

“You may become aware of non-public information related to Facebook and its products, services, programs, features, data, techniques, technology, code, ideas, inventions, research, testing, methods, procedures, know-how, trade secrets, business and financial information and other activities through disclosure, observation or otherwise in the course of your visit … All Facebook Confidential Information remains the property of Facebook. You agree not to disclose any Facebook Confidential Information to any third party, and to take all reasonable precautions to prevent its unauthorized dissemination …”

The full agreement can be seen below.

If you were a journalist or if you are a journalist, how does this information make you feel? Do you feel it’s right, whether it’s legal or not, to ask journalists and media to pretty much forget what they see? We want to know what you think, leave us comments below.

According to people who understand the marketing market, the decline in print ad spending in the U.S. is expected to fall $33.8 billion this year while the amount of money funneled into online advertising is expected to seesaw upwards to $39.5 billion. Online adverting spending already grew 23% in 2011 and this year’s speculation would see an additional growth of 23.3%. Actually, barring any paper robot revolution, print ads are looking to remain static from here on out.

If bar graphs aren’t your thing, eMarketer explains:

“Advertisers’ comfort level with integrated marketing is greater than ever, and this is helping more advertisers—and more large brands—put a greater share of dollars online,” said David Hallerman, eMarketer principal analyst.

The growing amount of time consumers spend with digital platforms and advertisers’ view of the internet as a more measurable medium—especially as the soft economy forces businesses to be more accountable with their ad dollars—are both significant contributors to digital’s growing footprint, Hallerman added.

TV advertising spending, however, forecasts sunnier skies if you’re looking to sell some ads. eMarketer estimates that spending on TV advertising is expected to grow 6.8% this year and will continue to generate growth over the next few years.

One reason eMarketer states that TV advertising will continue to grow is “a result of the rapid rise of digital advertising and brands’ continued confidence in television advertising, despite increasingly fragmented viewership and the soft economy.” Duh. The television market will always be a fertile ground to plant ads because people will never stop watching television. Hasn’t anybody ever seen Wall-E?

This is an outtake from the special:

So, was Louis C.K. able to make his experiment a success or did the dreaded online pirates swoop in and steal the day?

Judging by Louis C.K’s statement to his fans concerning the sales of the special, the experiment was mostly successful.

“The show went on sale at noon on Saturday, December 10th. 12 hours later, we had over 50,000 purchases and had earned $250,000, breaking even on the cost of production and website. As of Today, we’ve sold over 110,000 copies for a total of over $500,000. Minus some money for PayPal charges etc, I have a profit around $200,000 (after taxes $75.58). This is less than I would have been paid by a large company to simply perform the show and let them sell it to you, but they would have charged you about $20 for the video. They would have given you an encrypted and regionally restricted video of limited value, and they would have owned your private information for their own use. They would have withheld international availability indefinitely. This way, you only paid $5, you can use the video any way you want, and you can watch it in Dublin, whatever the city is in Belgium, or Dubai. I got paid nice, and I still own the video (as do you). You never have to join anything, and you never have to hear from us again.”

Judging by the statement, it sounds like he’s pleased with the results up to this point. It is interesting to note he would have made more money simply releasing his special the traditional way. Making his special DRM-free does leave his product more susceptible to pirating, so does Louis C.K. have any worries from that aspect? On the purchase page, he makes a statement to those who plan to torrent the video:

To those who might wish to “torrent” this video: look, I don’t really get the whole “torrent” thing. I don’t know enough about it to judge either way. But I’d just like you to consider this: I made this video extremely easy to use against well-informed advice. I was told that it would be easier to torrent the way I made it, but I chose to do it this way anyway, because I want it to be easy for people to watch and enjoy this video in any way they want without “corporate” restrictions.

Sincerely,
Louis C.K.

I’ve been venturing to various torrent sites to see how the response has been, or if there is an actual torrent up for the special. I have found a couple, and there was interesting conversation unfolding on one of them. Users were arguing to have the torrent taken down from the site to support Louis C.K, while others dropped in to say they paid their $5 and were trying to get others to do the same.

“dude… read this (referencing Louis C.K.’s note to torrenters).. and take this torrent down.. you didnt put this up to make people buy it… seriously, lets not fool ourselves.. take it down.. someones trying to do the right thing, and you are stabbing them in the back”

“seriously though people; buy this thing, even if you can get it for free — if Louis can actually generate a profit from this it will encourage other comedians to do the same and it means they won’t have to go through HBO or Comedy Central to do their specials and in the end we will end up getting more frequent releases at cheaper prices…c’mon folks, it’s only $5!”

“If this torrent was not here , i would have (no) idea that he was doing this deal. We all love our torrents and he knew that it would end up here. Thanks for this torrent am 200% behind you posting it here. I paid my money because of this torrent and for all those who moan its slow , cant you wait an extra 20mins? stop being greedy.”

The support for Louis C.K’s distribution model and the back-and-forth argument over the torrent being available is unlike anything I’ve seen on a torrent site. It goes to show that while people who do pirate material are stealing, they are willing to pay if they aren’t feeling ripped off.

To help make a push for the video, Louis C.K. conducted a reddit interview which yielded some interesting comments from the comedian. In particular, he talks about how this experiment has been all about learning.

Professionally, I’m learning right this minute, a HUGE amount with this web experiment. this live at the beacon thing (available at httlp://www.louisck.com for 5 bucks) is like that thing in the movie “Twisiter” where they send a bunch of little data collecting balls up into a tornado and just download the lovely results. The whole things has been like that. From the moment it went online and i saw the result of every decision i made.

It’s interesting to discover he has so little knowledge of torrenting, online distribution, when this is one of the most genius ideas I’ve seen in quite awhile. It goes to show if you treat people with respect, offer them a quality product at a reasonable price, and don’t handcuff them with restrictions, they’ll respond positively. I’ve bought the special, and if you want to laugh and be amazed for a hour or so then it’s definitely worth the $5.

View more daily infographic round-ups here.

Choosing A Tablet For The Holidays

Via: WebProNews.com

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<a href="http://www.webpronews.com/choosing-a-tablet-for-the-holidays-2011-11"><img src="http://www.webpronews.com/infographic/choosingatabletfortheholidays.png" alt="Choosing A Tablet For The Holidays" title="Choosing A Tablet For The Holidays" width="600" border="0" /></a><br />Via: <a href="http://www.webpronews.com">WebProNews.com</a>

What Americans Really Do Online:

Source:LiveScience

Twilight Saga and Breaking Dawn Stats

Source: #Twilight Saga and Breaking Dawn Stats [SEJ Infographic]

The site is well designed, with the snack section divided into a set of categories. They even provide an “International” section, which showcases vending machine snacks I don’t even recognize. You can purchase a one time order, or set up a monthly recurring shipment which will shave off $1.00 per order.

There are a few road blocks to keep Snack&Munch from succeeding. First, the vending machine visit is generally a spontaneous act. You’re sitting in front of your computer screen working, and suddenly you crave a Twix. To order 24 snacks requires a lot of forethought for an act which happens at a moment’s notice.

I’m not sure the prices for vending machines around the country, but $1 seems kind of steep for some of the items on their list. The classic peanut butter cracker six pack is $0.55 in my office’s vending machine. However, it’s the standard $1 on Snack&Munch. They should think about providing a greater variety when it comes to pricing, and making the price tags more competitive with the physical machines.

Snack&Munch, whether it succeeds or fails, demonstrates how the limits of ecommerce are continuing to be pushed in every direction. If something as simple as vending machine purchases can be brought to the online world, what’s next?

Lex Friedman, of Macworld.com, wrote a humorous piece about how his baby woke him up in time to place his iPad 2 order, “After the 4 a.m. (Eastern) diaper change that he demanded early Friday morning, I fired up my laptop to place my online order—mere minutes after Apple began accepting such online requests.” he concludes the story, “As my bleary, sleep-deprived eyes studied the online Apple Store’s iPad selection screen, I saw that it was indicating iPads would begin shipping in 3 to 5 business days.”

There’s bound to be all sorts of crazy yarns to pile up as the iPad 2 goes on sale later today. WebProNews has already reported of a gentleman who was willing to pay $900 for a place in line, along with the added cost of actually buying the device.

At least with the online purchase, you know what you’re getting into. It might not be pleasing to wait 2-3 weeks, or have to wake up at 4 a.m. but it sure beats the onslaught of what is bound to happen at 5 p.m.

• 41 percent of adults who live in E?Reader Households visited a broadcast television website during the past month
• 41 percent of adults in E?Reader Households visited a newspaper website during the past month, compared to 27 percent of total adults
• This consumer group is 125 percent more likely to have watched or downloaded a movie online during the past month
• Adults in E?Reader Households are 86 percent more likely than the average adult to spend 20+ hours online weekly
• E?Reader Households are almost three times as likely as all adults nationally to be among the highest spenders online (spending $2,500 or more annually)
• Demographically, adults in E?Reader Households are more likely than average to be ages 25?54, and married with children. They are in higher income brackets and slightly more likely than all adults to be male