9 new stories on The Next Web today |  |
- UK supermarket Sainsbury’s rebrands its ‘tiger bread’ after girl’s letter goes viral
- EU antitrust watchdog to probe Samsung over fair access to mobile patents
- California police investigate claims that an officer threatened Anonymous over Twitter
- Samsung loses bid to overturn ban on original Galaxy Tab 10.1 model in Germany
- Sky to expand its reach in the UK with new Web TV service
- Amazon S3 now stores 762 billion objects, a 500 billion increase in one year
- Apple names Dixons CEO John Browett as senior vice president of Retail
- This 5 year-old interprets famous logo designs and it’s absolutely adorable
- Twitter’s advertising revenue is predicted to triple by 2014 to reach $540 million
- China Telecom confirms Apple deal, will sell iPhone 4S as early as February
| UK supermarket Sainsbury’s rebrands its ‘tiger bread’ after girl’s letter goes viral Posted: 31 Jan 2012 03:26 AM PST  Back in May 2011, three-and-a-half-year-old Lily Robinson wrote a letter to UK supermarket chain Sainsbury’s, asking why its Tiger Bread was called that when it actually looks much more like a giraffe. Chris King, a 27-and-a-third-year-old who worked in the Sainsbury’s customer service team at the time, gave this heartfelt response: “Renaming tiger bread giraffe bread is a brilliant idea – it looks much more like the blotches on a giraffe than the stripes on a tiger, doesn’t it? It is called tiger bread because the first baker who made it a looong time ago thought it looked stripey like a tiger. Maybe they were a bit silly.” King also included a £3 gift card to thank Lily for taking the time to respond. Lily’s mum posted the letters on her blog and, thanks to Twitter, Facebook, Reddit and the whole social sphere, the little exchange went viral. And in response to the feedback Sainsbury’s has received following this, the supermarket has today announced that it’s actually changing the name of its bread to giraffe.
Sainsbury’s explains:
Meanwhile, Chris King has returned to university to become a primary school teacher, which seems quite fitting. However, King has become something of an Internet celebrity – he now has a Facebook fanpage called Chris King from Sainsbury’s is a legend. “We think that renaming tiger bread to giraffe bread is a great idea and want to thank Lily for helping us see the spots for what they are,” continues Sainsbury’s. “What about you? Do you think we should continue to call it giraffe bread?” Whilst the supermarket invites its customers to weigh in on the debate, asking them to email their thoughts on whether the name-change should be permanent, it seems that the public has already spoken. The Internet sure throws up some weird and wonderful stories, and this is another one for the list. Oh, and if you’re wondering what Tiger Bread is, it’s made with sesame oil with a pattern baked into the top made by painting rice paste onto the surface prior to baking. The paste dries and cracks during the baking process, creating a two-colour effect similar to a tiger’s markings, hence the name. Thanks for that, Wikipedia. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| EU antitrust watchdog to probe Samsung over fair access to mobile patents Posted: 31 Jan 2012 03:13 AM PST  Samsung’s legal woes appear to be worsening after the European Union’s antitrust watchdog announced that it suspects the company of denying fair access to patents it holds on standardised technology for mobile phones. The probe will look into whether Samung illegally prevented competitiors, which includes Apple, from using key patents it holds on mobile phone technologies, despite committing to doing so in 1998.
However, a spokesman wasn’t able to say whether the patents affect tablet devices, although Samsung had brought suits against the iPad in the past. We reported in November that Samsung being investigated for possible misuse of fair, reasonable and and non-discriminatory (FRAND) patent licensing. FRAND licenses enable companies to share knowledge across the industry and work to developing open standards and technologies such as 3G or WiFi. Central to the European Commission's inquiry was whether FRAND patent holders — which Apple and Samsung both are — can use patents to shut down products. Today’s announcement is a direct response to its earlier investigation. In September, Samsung reacted aggressively to Apple’s patent complaints by filing four cases in The Netherlands, accusing the Cupertino-based company of infringing patents with its iPhone and iPad products that utilise 3G technology. Samsung brought summary proceedings in The Hague, where the electronics giant appealed for a Dutch trade and import ban on sales of all Apple smartphones and tablets. The ban was thought to apply to Apple and also five other companies that were affiliated with Apple's sales and distribution. We have reached out to Samsung for comment and will update the article when we receive a response. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| California police investigate claims that an officer threatened Anonymous over Twitter Posted: 31 Jan 2012 02:16 AM PST  An investigation is under way in Richmond, California, after a member of the local police department was alleged to have sent a Twitter message threatening violence against members of the Anonymous hacking group. The Richmond Police Department chose to disable and delete comments from its Facebook Page after being inundated with complaints from followers of Anonymous Twitter accounts alleging that an officer had sent the message. Richmond police Captain Mark Gagan told Mercury News that an investigation will be launched and “if there were policy violations, we will deal with it appropriately”. However, Gagan refused to confirm the identity of the officer at the centre of the incident. Events kicked off following a tweet sent Mike Rood, an alleged Richmond PD officer, to Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) supremo Dana White concerning the Anonymous group. Rood, who later deleted his Twitter account and the offending tweet, said he would go after the Anonymous hackers “with both guns” in response to their recent actions, as a screenshot from founditonline shows:
Soon after the tweet was sent, it was highlighted by @youranonnews which prompted Anonymous hacker @cabincr3w to dig out and circulate a number of Rood’s details, including his email address, badge number, phone number and apparent police station. Confirmation of Rood’s station prompted a number of Anonymous accounts to encourage followers to leave complaints about the officer on its Facebook Page, as it was alleged that his tweet breached US Penal Code 422 which outlaws threatening behaviour. After around two hours of messages, the Richmond PD Facebook Page was modified to prevent non-admins posting to the wall, thus preventing further complaints and removing hundreds of the complaints that had been made there. In response to the switch, Anonymous followers were encouraged to contact the station directly via fax or to email its chief. A link to local newspaper Costa Times’s Facebook Page was also circulated and it received a number of complaints around the issue. Last week Anonymous went after UFC chief Dana White after he labelled the collective “terrorists” and called the Internet “a place where cowards live”. In response, personal data belonging to White was published online and the UFC website was briefly hacked again, for the second time in a week. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Samsung loses bid to overturn ban on original Galaxy Tab 10.1 model in Germany Posted: 31 Jan 2012 01:23 AM PST  Samsung has failed to overturn a ban on an the original Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet in Germany, meaning that the company is still only able to sell an updated version of the device it designed to circumvent Apple’s patents. Reuters reports that a higher regional court in Duesseldorf, Germany, told Samsung that it cannot sell the older Galaxy Tab 10.1 model in Europe’s biggest economy. This provides a small victory for Apple against its South Korean rival as it pursues patent complaints against the company in courtrooms across the world. In September, Apple was successful in an attempt to introduce a sales ban for the Galaxy Tab 10.1. Following the ruling, Samsung appealed and re-modified its product, introducing the Galaxy Tab 10.1N, in order avoid the infringements and gain clearance for sale in Germany. The modified version, the Galaxy Tab 10.1N, has a new bezel design that wraps around to the front of the device more aggressively. FOSSpatents’ Florian Muller believes it is a minor victory for Apple, given that it is based on Apple’s Community design:
Muller says that Apple isn’t able to replicate the ruling outside of Germany as its laws are unique and that it does not mean that Apple will be able to secure a ban on the 10.1N model. “What matters most is the full-blown main proceeding in which Apple’s design-related claims against a total of 15 Samsung products are at issue. It’s too early to tell what the outcome of that case will be,” Muller adds. Samsung recently scored a high profile victory in Australia where a ban on the Galaxy tablet was overturned last month, allowing the manufacturer to begin introducing the product in time for the Christmas shopping season. Samsung u-turned on its intention to try to block sales of the iPhone 4S in its native South Korea, during November, after statements from the firm suggested that it did not want its legal battles with Apple to reflect badly on home turf. The ongoing global legal spat between the duo took a significant turn with the news that the European Commission, the legislative body of the European Union, is investigating Samsung for a possible abuse of FRAND licensing. The outcome has the potential to force the Korean firm to drop its litigation cases in Europe. Elsewhere in Europe, Samsung previously saw a sales ban fail in Holland, the country where it was forced to modify three of its Galaxy smartphones for sale after the models were adjudged to have infringed on patents held by Apple. Other spats continue in the US — where Apple designers will soon begin testifying— and in Italy, as the two mobile giants continue to lock horns over the use of mobile technology patents in their respective smartphones. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Sky to expand its reach in the UK with new Web TV service Posted: 31 Jan 2012 12:39 AM PST  Satellite broadcaster Sky has revealed plans to introduce a new Internet TV service that will make its content available to non-Sky users through the Web on a series of flexible pricing options. The new service, which will launch in the first half of this year, will boast a sizeable range of programming from Sky. According to the company, it will include hundreds of films from its Sky Movies channels and other original programming. While it has run an Internet TV service since 2006, the new addition will expand the offering to reach “people who don't currently subscribe to a pay TV service”. To help hit new audiences, the service will priced on a pay monthly tariff — which provides unlimited content — and a flexible pay-per-go option for renting single movies. Sky confirms that the Web-based service will be streamable to range a devices — including PCs, Macs, laptops, tablets, mobile phones, games consoles and connected TVs — while recommendations and editorial support will be included to help viewers navigate the catalogue of programming available. Commenting on the announcement, CEO Jeremy Darroch heralded that the service will help the broadcaster expand its horizons:
The move from Sky comes just one day after the company boosted its video on demand (VoD) service, Sky Anytime+, with the addition of BBC iPlayer and ITV player. The service is currently in 1.2 million homes in the UK but an upcoming extension, which will cover Sky+HD homes with an Internet connection across all broadband providers, will see it extend the figure to 5 million. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Amazon S3 now stores 762 billion objects, a 500 billion increase in one year Posted: 30 Jan 2012 11:57 PM PST  Amazon S3, the retail giant’s online storage web service, how holds more than 762 billion objects on its servers, growing from 262 billion objects a year earlier. Posting to its AWS blog, Amazon said that it now processes over 500,000 requests per second for objects on its servers at peak times and saw year-over-year growth of 192%, ensuring it grew faster that it did in any year since it launched five years ago. On January 30 2011, Amazon’s Jeff Barr, Senior Manager of Cloud Computing Solutions at Amazon, reported that in just one year, Amazon S3 added 160 billion objects to its Cloud servers, more than doubling in size in that period. At the time, its peak request rate for the S3 service was above 200,000 requests a second. Nine months later, the company had reached 566 billion objects stored, with Amazon’s Cloud storage platform adding nearly 200 billion objects in just little more than three months.
This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Apple names Dixons CEO John Browett as senior vice president of Retail Posted: 30 Jan 2012 11:17 PM PST  Apple announced this morning that former Dixons Retail CEO John Browett will join the company as senior vice president of Retail, reporting directly to Apple CEO Tim Cook. Browett has been CEO of Dixons since 2007 and will join Apple in April, becoming immediately responsible for the company’s retal strategy and “continued expansion of Apple retail stores around the world.”
Browett also held a series of executive positions at UK supermarket chain Tesco PLC, serving as CEO of Tesco.com, the company’s online shopping website. Browett will take the position senior vice president of retail at Apple, which was formerly held by Ron Johnson. Johnson announced his impending departure from Apple in June this year. He has now officially vacated that spot to take on the role of CEO at the department store chain J. C. Penny. Johnson, a Stanford graduate with an M.B.A. from Harvard, was lured away by Steve Jobs from his previous position as the vice president of merchandising for Target in January 2000 to head Apple's yet-to-be-launched retail initiative. He had been phenomenally successful in that role, having overseen the launch of over 300 retail stores for the company all over the world. The company served the one billionth visitor to its retail stores this past July. Browett will be succeeded by Sebastian James, who will join the Dixons group board on February 20th, the same day Browett steps down from the board. Browett will depart Dixons on April 20th following a hand-over period. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| This 5 year-old interprets famous logo designs and it’s absolutely adorable Posted: 30 Jan 2012 10:31 PM PST  This video features the founder of Ladd Design‘s 5 year-old son, as he explains to us what many of the most famous and pervasive logo designs mean. Just so you know, it’s past midnight here in NY, but as soon as I saw this I knew it needed to be shared. That’s how adorable it is. Seriously. Digging deeper beyond the cuteness, this little kid’s interpretations reveal a lot about the nature of branding, the effect it has on children and the often ignored details within a logo mark. Sometimes it takes the simplicity of a child…well, never mind… It’s also notable that one of the only logos the kid recognizes is the “Apple Store logo, with a bite taken out of it.” Check out the video below and let us know what you think! Found via Ryan Brown‘s tweet. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Twitter’s advertising revenue is predicted to triple by 2014 to reach $540 million Posted: 30 Jan 2012 10:22 PM PST  Marketing analysis firm eMarketer is predicting that Twitter’s advertising revenue will triple over the next three years to hit $540 million by the end of 2014. The research, which is reported by Bloomberg, claims that the microblogging service chalked up $139.5 million in ad revenue last year, but an increase in usage in the US combined with the service’s growth in users and advertisers outside of the country are likely to propel its income to new heights. eMarketer points out that the US currently accounts for 90 percent of Twitter’s advertising revenues, however that figure is seen to be dropping to 83 percent by 2014. Given that it is predicting that revenues will triple in the interim period, stats from the firm suggest that US growth will remain strong as the emergence of overseas markets will dilute American revenue by just 7 percent. Twitter’s plan to ramp up in emerging markets is likely to be one reason behind its adoption of a framework to allow the censoring of content on the site. Twitter CEO Dick Costolo claims that the company is acting to comply with laws in international countries, however such a move would not be contemplated were Twitter not planning to increase usage and, ultimately, revenues from new markets. For its part, the company is making its censorship moves entirely transparent and reflective on government regimes. A partnership with Chilling Effects will see all requests to take down tweets clearly visible online, while tweets themselves will be greyed out in certain countries rather than deleted from the service entirely. Equally, there is no guarantee that all requests will be carried out, a glance at India shows that Web firms are not afraid to stand up to government requests. Fellow high profile social network Facebook is set to IPO this year, possibly as soon as next week, and its reported that its net income for 2011 may have reached a staggering $1 billion. These revenues, if correct, put its monetisation strategy a long way ahead of Twitter or any other social network, and not far from the tech industry’s richest firms. eMarketer’s predictions are interesting but three years is a long time in any industry, particularly the social network space, and it remains to be seen how Twitter’s business will develop in that time. After all, just consider how its business and user base has grown since 2009. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| China Telecom confirms Apple deal, will sell iPhone 4S as early as February Posted: 30 Jan 2012 08:50 PM PST  China Telecom has confirmed that it will begin selling the Apple iPhone 4S in just over a month as its partnership with Apple is set to break rival China Unicom’s exclusive grip on the device. News of the impending release from China’s third largest carrier is reported by China Daily (via 9to5mac), which cites a press release statement confirming that “China Telecom has already started preparatory work for the launch of the iPhone 4S.” Rumours of China Telecom’s collaboration with Apple have been rife for some time, after the operator reportedly began training staff to sell the phone in September, however an exact launch day remains unclear at this stage. According to China Daily, the release will take place sometime between the end of February and the beginning of March. The operator was reportedly granted a network license for the phone earlier this month, however it has lost time on Unicom which began selling the latest Apple device from launch. The first day of sales caused controversy and, though it sold out, scenes of chaos and violence at Apple’s Sanlitun store prompted sales of iPhone 4S to be called off across the country. Confirmation of China Telecom’s impending partnership leaves China Mobile, the largest operator in the world, in the cold. The operator claims that Apple has promised to partner with it once it has finished testing its new telecom network this March, and such a move would massively increase Apple’s reach in the country. Although a deal is yet to materialise, China Mobile already has more than 10 million iPhone users, all of whom use unlocked devices on its 2G network as the devices are incompatible with its TD-SCDMA-based 3G network. Analysts at Morgan Stanley this week predicted that Apple could sell up to 40 million iPhones in China this year if it brings both China Telecom and China Mobile on board as partners. That’s a significant increase on the 15 million sales that it forecasts for China Unicom, although that figure is considerably greater than the 2-4 million units that the firm sees China Telecom selling. China Unicom has added record numbers of 3G subscribers, which now stands at 36.3 million customers, although recent reports have suggested that its iPhone exclusivity may not be the contributing factor. The high level of customer acquisition is being put down to the sale of more affordable devices, that are up to 80% cheaper than the Apple smartphone. China Mobile remains the largest network in the country with more than 645 million active members, ahead of China Unicom (195 million) and China Telecom (62 million). This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
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