The folks at Nike Soccer have teamed up with some of the biggest footballers in the world (and Kobe Bryant and Maria Sharapova) to start pressing the Lace Up Save Lives campaign to raise awareness and money towards fighting AIDS in Africa....
There are thousands of ways to wear the laces and even more things to do with them, but there's only one way to stop the spread of HIV/AIDS in Africa, and that is why the laces exist.
Crossing both borders and sports, a group of some of the finest athletes in the world have come together to raise awareness about Africa's AIDS pandemic.
How it works
1. You purchase (NIKE)RED laces.
2. Nike is contributing 100% of its profits from the sale to the Global Fund and to soccer-based programs that help fight AIDS in Africa.
3. Funds are received by programs like Grassroots Soccer, which uses football as a framework to teach youths how to avoid contracting HIV/AIDS.
4. Funds are also contributed to The Global Fund to fund HIV/AIDS programs that support the purchase of lifesaving Antiretroviral (ARV) medication, training of medical staff, HIV testing and treatment to help prevent the transmission of the virus from pregnant mothers to their babies.
5. Life-saving knowledge is received by the next generation in Africa.
Only education holds a longterm answer for halting the spread of AIDS, and by wearing NIKE(RED) laces on their feet (or hands, heads, arms, waist…) Didier Drogba, Andrei Arshavin, Clint Dempsey, Denilson, Marco Materazzi, Javier Mascherano, Fabio Cannavaro, along with Maria Sharapova and Kobe Bryant want to encourage fans globally to "Lace Up Save Lives."
Learn more about Lace Up Save Lives and join the must-win fight against AIDS in Africa.
Since its inception, (RED)™ partners and events have generated over $135 million to the Global Fund and the number keeps growing.
Friday, January 29, 2010
Lace Up Save Lives; Fight AIDS in Africa
Thursday, January 28, 2010
The Green Guide to Obama's State of the Union Address
President Barack Obama's State of the Union Address on Wednesday covered a lot of ground, but a significant portion of the speech was dedicated to the all-important topic of energy security. Below, some choice quotes from the speech.
* "From the first railroads to the Interstate Highway System, our nation has always been built to compete. There's no reason Europe or China should have the fastest trains or the new factories that manufacture clean-energy products. Tomorrow, I'll visit Tampa, Florida, where workers will soon break ground on a new high-speed railroad funded by the Recovery Act." As we suspected, Florida will be the first to reap the benefits of Obama's $8 billion in spending on high-speed rail. Clearly, Obama believes that we will lag behind as a nation without a high-speed rail infrastructure.
* "These nations, they're not standing still. These nations aren't playing for second place. They're putting more emphasis on math and science. They're rebuilding their infrastructure. They're making serious investments in clean energy, because they want those jobs. Well, I do not accept second place for the United States of America." And that, we presume, is why the White House recently invested millions in math and science funding.
* "Next, we need to encourage American innovation. Last year, we made the largest investment in basic research funding in history, an investment that could lead to the world's cheapest solar cells or treatment that kills cancer cells but leaves healthy ones untouched. And no area is more ripe for such innovation than energy." Innovation is important, but the most important kind of innovation right now is in the energy sector. And that means we can expect to see a lot more of it under this administration--with the ARPA-E program, for example.
* "But to create more of these clean-energy jobs, we need more production, more efficiency, more incentives, and that means building a new generation of safe, clean nuclear power plants in this country. It means making tough decisions about opening new offshore areas for oil and gas development." This part is a little contentious. Many green energy advocates think nuclear power is far too unsafe to be able in the long term. And what does opening up offshore areas for oil and gas have to do with clean energy? We're guessing Obama is advocating it as a means to secure American-made energy, albeit in a not-so-sustainable way.
* "I know there have been questions about whether we can afford such changes in a tough economy. I know that there are those who disagree with the overwhelming scientific evidence on climate change. But--but here's the thing. Even if you doubt the evidence, providing incentives for energy efficiency and clean energy are the right thing to do for our future, because the nation that leads the clean-energy economy will be the nation that leads the global economy, and America must be that nation." Bingo. It doesn't matter what side of the climate change debate you fall on. The fact is, clean energy is only going to become more important as oil supplies dwindle and coal continues to be vilified. Again, Obama equates dominance in clean energy as the key to our economic future--sounds reasonable.
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
The iPad: Despite The Name, It Is Amazing
The rumors, the speculation, the potential death of the Kindle....all things came true today when Apple finally released the iPad in tandem with it's new iBooks store.
courtesy Fast company...
After months of speculation that grew into a fevered pitch of rumor and leakage, Apple today introduced the device that everyone's been talking about: A new type of handheld computer called the iPad.
The simplest way to explain the iPad would be to call it an overgrown iPhone. The 9.7-inch screen is encased in a frame that has the same rounded edges and bevel as Apple's hugely successful mobile phone. And the software operating system is also a more muscular version of the iPhone OS. But the iPad has multiple features that push it beyond that iPhone and into a new category of device--somewhere between a netbook and a smartphone. It is, as Steve Jobs noted during the presentation, a device that's the third way: Half smartphone, half PC.
But what is the iPad like, really? It's a slim slate-like device, with an aluminum unibody construction a lot like the first-gen iPhone, and it's running a custom version of the iPhone OS. It'll come in two versions, one with Wi-fi only, and one with WiFi and another version with 3G GSM connectivity (still using AT&T in the U.S., unfortunately). It's running a custom Apple-made ARM chip dubbed the A4 that, with its 1GHz clock speed, promises to tackle the impressive Snapdragon chip other devices are just beginning to use--Intel can't be entirely happy right now. It's multitouch, has accelerometers, ambient light sensors, speakers, microphone, GPS (in the 3G version) and it has a claimed battery life of 10 hours of video and a month of standby time. Which is incredible.
But that's all the dry and dusty tech specs. Is this thing amazing? Absolutely. It confirms about 95% of the rumors that popped up in the last few days--and it's an amazingly clever move by Apple. In one fell swoop, by building in the iBooks app, Apple's dealt a near-deathly blow to Amazon--the app seems to do pretty much everything a Kindle can, but on a color screen, with fully rendered fonts that appear on pages that turn just like a printed page when you swipe it. Apple's also supporting the open-format EPub standard, versus Amazon's closed proprietary system, and its books are priced between $4.99 for older paperbacks and up to $14 for new releases.
But book reading is almost an aside to this device's other capabilities, which include playing movies and games and very high resolution. And don't forget that the iPad is compatible with most of the existing 140,000-odd iTunes apps, meaning it launches with a huge app directory ready to be sampled. The majority of those apps will play in a smaller window on the screen, and can be bumped up in resolution to fill the screen (with some tradeoff in graphic quality). But with the release of a new software development kit today, there is no doubt that app developers will be upgrading their apps to the new resolution in the next 60 days until the iPad goes on sale.
The New York Times was on hand to demo their enhanced iPad app (also as rumored) and this makes it clear why so many rumors suggest the iPad might be the future of digital newsprint. Seeing this full-featured app, which makes the text come alive (versus the dead ink physical edition) was truly a wow moment, particularly when video clips and slideshows came to life right from withing the wrapped text. Harry Potter's newspapers, anyone?
Apple also revealed that its iWork suite had been completely re-worked for the device, with each app carefully tuned to work with a multitouch screen. Pages, Numbers and Keynote all seem to work dreamily on the iPad--and you can even present your data via a VGA convertor link through its 30-pin dock. The apps are an astonishingly cheap $9.99 each. And remember: These things are compatible with Microsoft Office files...meaning Apple just took a huge swipe at MS's much-vaunted tablet plans. Because, let's face it, which tablet would you prefer to be using on that 8-hour business flight to check out a movie, and tweak your financial calculations?
To be honest, iWork is not primarily what you'll want to use this device for. It's an entertainment gadget, at the end of the day. But what today's iWork demo showed was a stunning variety of touch gestures and functions that preview a few of the new ways you'll be able to interact with this device, from cut and paste to alternate keyboards based on what kind of work you're engaged in.
Buried within Apple's presentation were a handful of features that are almost too small to be noteworthy in themselves, but sum up to a machine that's going to be fantastic from a user interface perspective--like the spyglass "preview" effect for browsing document pages when you run a finger own the right side of the page. It's attention to detail like this that makes the iPhone stand out from all the other smartphone OS's, and it's done here on a more powerful machine with a bigger screen and far more capability.
The iPad also feels extremely sturdy in the hand, matching the iPhone's "light but rugged" physical form. Phil Schiller even explained why Apple chose the IPS (in-plane switching) LCD technology over other competing versions--it makes for a much greater viewing angle. This is another Apple fine detail which'll be damn useful when you're using this thing flat on a table top. The screen is also only slightly lower resolution than a MacBook, but is physically smaller, which leads to more dots per inch and thus a smoother rendering of fonts, so it can easily compete with the Kindle's eye-friendly e-ink tech.
As always, there are some things missing (webcams for one, which'll upset many a user, and no stereo speakers either). But there's one final absolutely killer feature about this device. Its entry price is only $500. How the heck Apple has managed to optimize its design and production pipelines so tightly boggles the mind. $500 places it almost in netbook territory, with all that added Apple cachet, and makes it a major threat to Amazon's single-use and now archaic-seeming Kindle DX (and probably the cheaper Kindle 2 too, from a multipurpose point of view). $500 is also a figure that could threaten the iPod Touch, with its $399 high-end price for a 64GB machine--we're guessing Apple will drop this price soon. Of course the iPad's price scales with more storage inside the iPad--just like the iPhone--and of course a 3G option costs $130 more, so the top price for a 64GB iPad is a high-sounding $829. But that's still $170 cheaper than the heavily-rumored $1,000 price tag.
It's the price that makes this thing revolutionary, along with its UI. Yes, if you opt for the $30 all-you-can eat data plan in the U.S. it's going to cost you a lot more... but you probably already own an iPhone, and there may be the option of Bluetooth tethering to think about (it already works outside the U.S., but Apple tells us they're still in negotiations with carriers.)
In some ways the iPad is exactly what we expected technically, and slightly less than we'd hoped for--and we'll be looking at its shortcomings in the near future. But that $500 really makes it a game-changer.
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Super Bowl Ads Engagement Survey: Winners and Losers
For 8 years now, Brand Keys Inc. conducts the Super Bowl Engagement Survey to “predicatively measure respondents’ true reactions to brands within the context of the medium.”
“This year, brands that are likely to get the highest return on their Super Bowl ad spend this year include Denny’s, Iron Man 2 (Viacom’s Paramount Pictures), Hyundai, Budweiser, Pop Secret, Doritos and the NFL. However, TruTV, Kia, HomeAway, Dockers and Dr Pepper are likely to see the lowest returns.”
The take away really is that there needs to be a supplemental digital plan in place to help support the impact of the TV spot. What are you doing to support your brand?
http://www.mediabuyerplanner.com/entry/48293/beer-junk-food-movies-to-claim-best-roi-from-super-bowl-spots/?utm_source=mbp&utm_medium=email&utm_content=textlink&utm_campaign=newsletter
Friday, January 22, 2010
The Latest Bing Advancement: Offering Recipes?
Yessir, leading search engine Bing will now offer customers who search a type of food leading recipes, like "skirt steak" (see video). Users can also get nutritional value and various forms of the food/ingredient.
From a search engine standpoint, this is just another way Bing has the opportunity to connect with advertisers and customers and I actually think its an awesome service. Leave the massive marketing dollars aside, and I see actual value here.
The left rail lists articles, ratings, cuisine, convenience, occasion, main ingredient, course, and cooking method. Consumers also will find related searches, from how to grow tomatoes, history and facts to diseases. Down the right rail, consumers will find a few paid-search ads.
A Microsoft spokesperson says the service is not supported by paid sponsorships or partnerships. Its search engine spiders crawl sites for recipe content from partners, such as Delish.com and MyRecipes.com. The two, however, have signed a contract with Microsoft to share content.
Searching through a search engine that can index millions of pieces of information to find the one perfect recipe can become overwhelming. Google doesn't offer the same service, but consumers can find recipes.
