SEAN TINER

This month, Apple updated its iPhone operating system to the new iOS7. From its brilliant aesthetic layout to several internal updates, such as enhanced camera functionality, there are several new features that bring applause Apple's iOS team. 250+ Unread emails after the iOS7 update However, one of my dislikes is how my email inbox suddenly displayed 250+ unread messages. The majority of these unread emails were being imported from my Gmail account. Some of these unread messages dated back to 2005; 3 years before the first iPhone was released. I already seen all these emails – either they were single word email received responses with "ok" or "thanks" or they were sales emails from online retailers and I was not interesting in reading them. In an effort to display less then ten emails in my email icon, I figured out how to quickly mark all of the emails as "read."  3 Simple Steps to Marking All Gmails as "Read"  It'...

What separates a luxury product from a generic product? Is it the product's quality? Or is it strictly the price that makes the product appear exclusive? Cha-Ching! Recently, the "I Am Rich" Iphone application sold for $999 on Apple's App Store. Very expensive, considering Iphone applications normally retail between one to five dollars. The "I Am Rich's" features are extremely basic and trivial. I would actually be surprised if they turned a grin on Richie-Richie's face. Despite the exorbitant price, eight people purchased they "I Am Rich" application before Apple removed it from the App Store. What can we learn from the "I Am Rich" application? Well, that a niche of Iphone users are interested in exclusivity more than price and function. The Wall Street Journal reports that Apple's Iphone App Store is generating $1 million in daily sales and Steve Jobs expects annual revenues to reach a billion dollars in a few years. As ...

Today, Steven Tapia's AC "New Soul" music video surfaced on Youtube. The video features several of Apple's products and adds a fresh slice to user-generated marketing. Instead of creating a new melody for the music video, Tapia combines visual and harmonic elements from Apple's current advertising campaigns. No doubt, more creative slices will soon be cut for AC "New Soul" and Steven Tapia's careers.

Apple's new Iphone 3G will be released on Friday. One of the phone's new features is the application store, where consumers can download new programs. Several of the applications sound exciting and quirky , but it's Loopt , a geosocial networking application that will alter the dial tone. Loopt allows users to see where their social networking friends are located and receive alerts when they are in near proximity. Are consumers really ready for this? Are you ready to know where that old class mate is constantly located? How about that person you met once at a party, but never saw again? You are friends with them on Facebook, Myspace or Bebo, so why shouldn't you have access to their location 24/7? ...Right? The benefits of geosocial networking sound cool in theory, but how much of our personal lives are we willing to reveal public and constantly accessible? As new applications and Internet media are created, it's interesting to see how the public responds.

...It's as simple as that. Maslow may have placed sexual intimacy in the middle of his hierarchy of needs model , but I argue that marketers have placed it on top of the pyramid. ....adjacent to death and fear .

Global Facts: 1.5 Billion TV Sets 1.0 Billion Internet Users & 3.0 BILLION Mobile Phone Users!* The Internet continually transforms the landscape of contemporary communication. From custom social networking pages (like Myspace & Facebook) to VOIP (voice over internet protocol) , Web 2.0 and open source coding allows people the customization and freedom of a world tailored to their individual needs. The fact that there are 2.0 BILLION more mobile phone users then Internet users, creates a dreamworld for any company or brand. Imagine sharing your ideas with 3 times the amount of viewers, specifically to a respective target audience. On a micro scale, this may sound trivial, but imagine if you a global brand. For example, imagine you are Nike . Traditionally, Nike placed an advertisement on TV or in a printed publication. They selected a television show or periodical that appealed to their target audience: sports enthusiasts . This allowed the brand to reach a portion of the...

(Excerpt from my thesis: Thinking Beyond Web 2.0: Leveraging the Dynamics of Generation-Y to Build Business ) According to Seth Godin, a best-selling author of business books and a famous marketing consultant, ten years ago the third most popular website on the Internet was Jennicam , a site that allowed voyeurs to watch a young girl frolic in her bedroom ( Permission Marketing, 1999 ). Internet surfers were intrigued by the mystique and realness of watching a young girl share her secrets with the world. ...Sound familiar? ....Remember Lonelygirl15 ? Flash forward approximately 10 years from Jennicam and you are introduced to Youtube.com's Lonelygirl15 aka Jessica Lee Rose, a 19 year-old entrepreneur who used Jennicam 's strategy to garner attention and propel herself to Internet stardom. In fact, Forbes Magazine made her #1 on 2007's " The Web Celeb 25 " list, a ranking of the Internet's most influential people ( Forbes.com ). If we flash forward anoth...