Posts Tagged: world
China’s recently-completed Shanghai Tower is now the second tallest building in the world
Trailing only Dubai’s Burj Khalifa in terms of height, construction on the Taiwanese skyscraper known as Shanghai Tower recently completed on the small Chinese island. The San Francisco-based architecture firm Gensler built the structure.
The post China's recently-completed Shanghai Tower is now the second tallest building in the world appeared first on Digital Trends.
Sprint adds more countries and destinations to Open World and Global Roaming programs
Sprint announced today that it has added support for 36 new countries and destinations to its Open World and Global Roaming programs. With these new additions, Sprint now offers its international services at 110 destinations.
These countries include Austria, Luxembourg, Afghanistan, Macau, Bangladesh, Macedonia, Belarus, Malaysia and Belgium. The Republic of Malta, Bolivia, Montenegro, Bulgaria, Netherlands, and Cambodia are also included in the additions.
There’s also support for Norway, Croatia, Philippines, Estonia, Poland, Finland, Rwanda, Ghana, Serbia, Hong Kong and Singapore. Those traveling to Hungary, Slovenia, Iceland, South Africa, Indonesia, Taiwan, Kenya, Thailand, Liechtenstein or Turkey will be happy to find out these countries are included as well.
It might be a mouthful, but Sprint’s Open World and Global Roaming programs are aimed to offer some serious savings for the carrier’s customers that plan on traveling abroad. The Open World program provides 1GB of free data, as well as free calling and texting, in Mexico, Canada and countries across Latin America.
The program also offers some discounted rates in other nations.
In contrast, the Global Roaming program allows customers to have unlimited data–up to 2G in speed–unlimited texting and calls at a rate of $ 0.20 per minute in supported countries.
Sprint’s new international offerings seem to have been a roaring success as far as savings goes. Unfortunately, it’s not the best package considering that the 2G connection speeds don’t keep up with the demands consumers put on their smartphones.
The carrier is looking to help consumers save money in other ways by ending two-year contracts as well.
On the upside, it’s a convenient package, allowing those travelling abroad to stay in touch with family, friends, colleagues and business partners on the cheap. Hopefully we’ll see Sprint and other companies add more value to programs like this in the future.
source: Sprint
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OrCam’s MyMe wearable will watch and decode the world for you
You've probably heard of wearable cameras from companies like Narrative, which clip onto your clothing and log images of your daily life. The upcoming MyMe from Orcam takes that idea to a whole new, and potentially even more useful, level. Instead of…
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Shooting stars and puppy ads: How the world watched the big game
From a “super brawl” to a giant lion, yesterday’s big game was filled with many notable moments. That’s true on YouTube and Google too—people watched more game day ads and teaser videos on YouTube than ever before, YouTube hosted its first-ever halftime show, and a throwback PSA became a top trending search term. Here’s a look at the top trending searches, videos and more across Google and YouTube:
Battle of the brands
As the battle for football supremacy was taking place on the field, a very different battle was raging across the country: Which ad would reign supreme? Whether via smartphone, tablet or laptop, people spent nearly 4 million hours watching game-day ads and teaser videos on YouTube—up from 2.2 million hours from this time last year.
This year’s most popular ads came from a wide range of advertisers—newcomers and veterans alike. But one thing’s for certain—puppies, pranks, and Kim Kardashian continue to “break the Internet.” Here are the ads that scored big on YouTube so far:
YouTube has evolved to become the place brands go to engage with their audience before, during, and after the big game. That’s why revenue from our AdBlitz program set a new record this year, with brands investing more on YouTube around the big game than years past. And, we’ve hit a new record in watchtime across YouTube—the growth rate at which people are watching YouTube has nearly doubled in the last year, leading to the fastest growth we’ve seen in years.
Tom Brady and Missy Elliott dominate on search
While people turned to YouTube to watch the ads, people turned to Google to search for everything from “how old is Tom Brady” to “buffalo chicken dip recipes” to “Katy Perry Halftime performance.” Before kickoff, people asked Google “Why did John Travolta call Idina ‘Adele’?”—a throwback to John Travolta’s infamous mispronunciation of National Anthem performer Idina Menzel’s name at the 2014 Oscars. Searchers were also interested in Menzel’s performance (or researching prop bets), asking “How long will it take Idina to sing the National Anthem?”
Tom Brady, Marshawn Lynch and Russell Wilson were the top three searched players before, during and after the game. Thanks to some standout in-game performances, by the end they were sharing the spotlight: Rob Gronkowski and Chris Matthews (replacing Richard Sherman and Kam Chancellor). And MVP Tom Brady wasn’t just an MVP on the field—he captured the title of “Most Searched Quarterback” in every state except for the Seahawks’ home Washington.
Of course, for many people the halftime show is the highlight of the night, and Katy Perry’s performance delivered. She came in on a lion, danced with sharks and went out on a star—one that was, for some, reminiscent of NBC’s old “The More You Know” PSAs. The phrase “The More You Know” spiked 190x in search for the 10 minutes after Katy’s starry flight. And although Missy Elliott was a late addition to the halftime lineup, she was a popular topic in search. Top questions related to Missy Elliott included “When was Missy Elliott popular?” and “How does Katy Perry know Missy Elliott?”
A very YouTube halftime show
For the first time ever, this year YouTube hosted a Halftime Show produced by Collective Digital Studio, with the help of more than 25 YouTube creators including Epic Meal Time’s Harley Morenstein as host, Rhett & Link, Toby Turner, Freddie Wong and Tyler Ward. From Kurt Hugo Schneider’s “Epic Patty Cake Song” to the “Elephant’s Toothpaste” science experiment with Science Bob, the show delivered a one-of-a-kind experience for YouTube fans.
With the last touchdown scored, we’re taking votes for your favorite ad, so visit our AdBlitz channel to cast your ballot before voting ends on February 9 at 11:59pm ET. Thanks for making this year our biggest game ever.
Whether you’re a loyal 12th man or a Boston fan for life, chances are you turned to YouTube and Google to watch your favorite ads, answer your questions or witness a new generation of halftime entertainment. We’re happy we could be a part of your game.
Posted by Riki Nakasuji, Sports & Gaming Sponsorships Manager, recently watched “Top 10 Super Bowl games of all time.”
Eyewitness video on YouTube: your window to the world
In the last ten years, we’ve witnessed many of the biggest and most important news stories unfold on YouTube. From the Green Revolution, Arab Spring and protests in Ferguson, to the Charlie Hebdo attacks and earthquake in Nepal, user-generated video has provided a unique and visceral perspective on what’s happening in the world around us. It’s almost impossible to turn on the news during a breaking event without seeing raw video uploaded by a YouTube user somewhere across the globe.
Today, more than 5 million hours of news video is watched on YouTube every day, and the role of the eyewitness has never had a more vital place in the newsgathering process. We live in a world where anyone can bear witness to what is happening around them and share it with a global audience, and YouTube has become a primary home for this powerful, first-person documentary footage.
That is why we’re excited to announce three new initiatives to support the discovery and verification of eyewitness news video on YouTube:
- The YouTube Newswire: In partnership with Storyful, a social news agency we’ve worked with since protests broke out in Tahrir Square in 2011, we’re rolling out the YouTube Newswire, a curated feed of the most newsworthy eyewitness videos of the day, which have been verified by Storyful’s team of editors and are embeddable from the original sources. With the Newswire, we hope to provide journalists with an invaluable resource to discover news video around major events, and to highlight eyewitness video that offers new perspectives on important news stories. The Newswire will feature global and regional feeds that surface the most relevant videos in different parts of the world. Follow us on Twitter or subscribe to the daily newsletter to get the latest videos delivered directly to your inbox.
- The First Draft Coalition: You could say that user-generated news video is today’s “first draft” of capturing an event that took place. But when it comes to incorporating this content into the reporting of a news event, verification is a critical step for any newsroom — and not every journalist knows where to start. So we’re bringing together a group of thought leaders and pioneers in social media journalism to create educational resources on how to verify eyewitness media, and how to consider the ethics of using it in news reporting. This new group, called The First Draft Coalition, will consist of experts from Eyewitness Media Hub, Storyful, Bellingcat, First Look Media’s Reported.ly, Meedan, Emergent, SAM Desk, and Verification Junkie. The Coalition will develop and program a new site for verification and ethics training, tools, research, and, most importantly, case studies around the biggest news stories of the moment. The site will launch this fall, but in the meantime, check out the Coalition’s Medium collection, chock full of how-to posts and examples of UGC verification, which we’ll update every week. You can also follow First Draft on Twitter.
- The WITNESS Media Lab: Over the past decade, YouTube has provided a platform for people to share eyewitness video of human rights atrocities around the world. In partnership with WITNESS, we are supporting the WITNESS Media Lab, a new approach to tackling pressing human rights issues through the analysis of citizen video. The WITNESS Media Lab – in collaboration with innovators in the technology, advocacy and journalism fields – will produce a series of in-depth projects that focus on human rights struggles as seen from the perspective of those who live, witness, and experience them. The first project from the WITNESS Media Lab will explore the impact of bystander video in bringing about justice in police brutality cases in the United States. Check out the new site and follow the WITNESS Media Lab on Twitter for more updates.
We’re proud of the role that YouTube and its creators have and continue to play in the ever-changing, ever-expanding news and information ecosystem, and we hope that these new projects will empower more journalists to use powerful eyewitness video easily and responsibly.
Posted by Olivia Ma, Head of Strategy and Operations, News Lab at Google