Why Does Everybody Love Whales?

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A new destination URL for the film “Big Miracle” uses an interactive infographic to describe why everyone loves whales. Check out everybodyloveswhales.com and browse through a series of data to learn more. Use the key and mouse over tool tips, videos, Flickr photos, link, quizzes and polls, links to Pinterest and downloads. Use social media links on Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus and LinkedIn to share.

Make Your Movie

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A joint project with Facebook, TimelineMovieMaker will turn all of the posts on your Timeline into a really eye-catching movie, complete with special effects and music. Give the app access to your Facebook account and it will handle the rest. As you’re waiting for your movie to be created, you’ll see certain pictures from your Timeline that will be included. Once it’s done, you can watch it and choose different music or replace photos afterward. Once you’re happy with your Timeline movie, share it to Facebook and let friends have a look.

Rift Looks To Set Marriage Records For Valentine’s Day

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Rift is introducing in-game weddings for players that are interested, and they’re hoping to set a world record with the “Most In-Game Marriages” in a 24-Hour Period Those who marry between February 14 at 9 AM PT and February 15, at 9 AM PT will be logged for the game’s attempt to get into the Guinness Book of World Records 2013 edition!

If that wasn’t enough, Trion is also looking for stories from users before February 6 at 10AM PT about how online games affect their real relationships. Five winning couples will have the Rift Community Manager officiate their wedding and provide wedding wardrobe outfits, along with announcing the union via a personalized in-game broadcast.

Source: community.riftgame.com

Smartphone Penetration Rises In 2011, Handheld Consoles See Dip

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According to a survey by Google, more consumers use mobile phones than use computers worldwide. The U.K. saw its smartphone usage rise from 15 percent to 45 percent penetration; U.S. and France saw 38, Germany has 23 percent and Japan had 17 percent.

Tablets also are seeing more penetration, with now 11 percent U.S. consumers surveyed having them, increasing from 9 percent earlier in 2011, thanks to the boost of the iPad late in the year and the popular Kindle Fire. Other countries had roughly 6 percent penetration for their tablets.

The survey also showed that handheld gaming ownership was going down, at least among users over the age of 18. U.S. handheld console penetration went from 15 percent to 13 percent; the U.K. went from 17 percent to 15 percent, France went from 14 percent to 10 percent and Germany went from 7 percent to 6 percent. Japan went from 42 percent ownership in the first first half the year to 38 percent ownership by the second phase, despite the launch of the 3DS and the price drop.

Other interesting trends show that smartphone ownership has shifted from only 47 percent female to 49 percent female in the U.S. The shift is more drastic in Japan, going from 27 percent female to 73 percent male, but by the second phase this had changed to 37 percent female to 63 percent male.

There was also a notable shift in the way people are accessing the Internet. In the U.S. 69 percent of consumers used their smartphones to access the Internet daily, while 80 percent of the smartphone owners used their computers to access the Internet daily; in Japan, 88 percent of smartphone owners accessed the Internet daily, while only 73 percent of those same owners used their PCs.

Source: googlemobileads.blogspot.com

Rovio Talks Learning From Music Industry On Piracy

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The industry spend a lot of time banging on about piracy and the revenue lost from those non-sales. However, Rovio Mobile CEO Mikael Hed said at the Midem conference in Cannes that piracy presents opportunities.

“We have some issues with piracy, not only in apps, but also especially in the consumer products. There is tons and tons of merchandise out there, especially in Asia, which is not officially licensed products,” said Hed. “We could learn a lot from the music industry, and the rather terrible ways the music industry has tried to combat piracy. Piracy may not be a bad thing: it can get us more business at the end of the day.”

“We took something from the music industry, which was to stop treating the customers as users, and start treating them as fans. We do that today: we talk about how many fans we have,” he said.  “If we lose that fanbase, our business is done, but if we can grow that fanbase, our business will grow.”

Source: The Guardian

Handheld Consoles Obsolete An ‘Incorrect Opinion’ Says Iwata

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The 3DS has gone through some serious ups and downs, although the holiday numbers were much more encouraging for Nintendo. To Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata, he believes that they’re on the path to profitability even if they are selling the 3DS at a loss right now.

“Last summer, when the sales pace of the Nintendo 3DS was slow, there were extreme remarks saying, ‘With the penetration of smartphones, will there still be a market for handheld hardware ‘ which was almost equal to ‘handheld hardware is not necessary anymore’,” said Iwata. “I believe we proved that such opinions are incorrect.”

Unfortunately for Iwata, some consumer trends point in the other direction.