Who had Charl Schwartzel in their Masters pool? We wish we could claim it’s true for us, but sincere congratulations to young South African golfer on winning the illustrious Green Jacket. In this week’s edition of our Social Mashup, we recap Facebook’s potential push into the China market, a new digital case for the iPad 2, ESPN’s live streaming, and the MTV O Music Awards. And in case you weren’t one of the 25 million people (yes, you read that number right) to view the live Ustream feed of the bald eagle family in Iowa, here it is for your viewing pleasure.
According to the rumor mill, Facebook is in the midst of making a massive deal that will move them into the Chinese marketplace. Facebook has been talking about moving into the most populous country in the world since 2007 and has been blocked by the People’s Republic. If the rumors are true, Facebook will partner with the largest Chinese search engine, Baidu, which is valued at around $50 billion.
Hu Yanping, founder of the Beijing-based Data Center of the China Internet (DCCI), tweeted earlier this week that a deal is already in place between Baidu and Facebook. The only question is whether or not he’s telling the truth. Marbridge Consulting has also supposedly heard from numerous insiders that Facebook and Baidu are teaming up for the Chinese version of the site.
Of course, there are still a many issues to work around. The first is surrounds the level of censorship in China which makes it difficult to imagine what Chinese Facebook will look like. When Twitter was released in China, it was a shell of the version the rest of the world has grown accustomed to using. You would not recognize China’s microblogging service as there are many tweets propping up the Communist party, extolling the virtues of Chairman Mao, and pushing philosophical ideas that would appear to fit more appropriately in a self help book.
Speculation has it that Facebook users outside of China will not be able to connect with Chinese Facebook users which raises the question … Is Facebook trying to force a square peg into a round hole at this point, so to speak, as a closed garden version of Facebook in Communist China seems at odds with Facebook’s brand ethos. We are interested to see in the coming weeks if the rumors are true, and if so, how Facebook will make its service and products work in the most populous nation in the world.
BlueTooth Keyboard for the iPad
Logitech, in cooperation with Zagg has released a case for the iPad which has a chance to make the iPad more than just a tablet for people. The new case, called the Logitech Zaggmate, protects your iPad 2 while offering you a stand and keyboard at the same time. The case will be available to the public on April 18th and stands up your iPad 2 in either portrait or landscape modes, and its keyboard, rechargeable via USB, syncs up with your iPad with Bluetooth.
The case and keyboard are only .54 inches thick which won’t add much girth to your iPad at all. Logitech and Zagg collaborated under an agreement in which Logitech will handle marketing, manufacturing, and distribution while Zagg retains all the rights to sell the product. The case costs $100 which is not particularly expensive for a case of this quality and is the first case to put together a keyboard, case, and stand.
Obviously a new iPad case is not that big a deal usually given the myriad of choices in the marketplace, but the development of Logitech’s case could lead to more consumers view new age tablets as a true laptop replacement. The iPad’s biggest hindrance from laptop imitator is the difficultly most users experience typing coupled with the fact the device does not naturally stand up like a laptop. Enter the new Zagg.
The iPad 2 has excellent battery life and memory so there’s no reason why it couldn’t be used as many consumer’s primary laptop. We’ll be interested to see if people are willing to move in this direction en masse. The Zagg case is not just any old iPad case but instead represents the type of tool that could take people in that direction.
ESPN Live Streaming on iPhone and iPod
ESPN recently launched a free mobile application, WatchESPN, that streams ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU and ESPN.3.com live to the iPhone or iPod touch. Sean Bratches, executive vice president, sales and marketing for ESPN had this to say about WatchESPN:
This represents the culmination of our efforts over the last five years. We strive to serve the sports fan wherever they consume sports, and I can’t think of a better way to do that than making our networks available to fans whenever and wherever they might be.
The ESPN Watch app is only available on iOS devices. One of the other major downsides is that it is only accessible to Time Warner Cable, Bright House Networks, and Verizon FiOs TV subscribers. Versions are promised for other smartphone and tablet operating systems in the future, including Android, and an iPad app will be available next month.
MTV announced a new online awards show that will take place on April 28 and be shown on MTV.com, VH1.com and LogoTV.com. Voting opened up to the public this week on the O Music Awards website. The website notes the following:
Your life is online, your music is digital, and that’s worth celebrating.
The first ever awards show will find the artist to follow on Twitter, coolest Tumblr, best music hashtag meme, best independent music blog, most viral dance and more according to fans. The Super Fan will also be crowned during the O Music Award show. Points are awarded to voters, and the fan with the most points is titled “Super Fan”.
The more social the platform is that the fan votes on the more points are given. Facebook likes are rewarded with 10 points, votes on Twitter 5 points and a vote on the O Music Awards site just 1 point. Quite an interesting twist to get more people aware and involved by sharing across multiple platforms. Fans can earn badges as well for being the first to nominate an artist, a first vote, voting in every category and several more.
Below you can see the nominees for Most Innovative Artist and how easy it is to vote on the website through various platforms.
According to Shannon Connolly, VP of digital music strategy, the O Awards will not pass, rather it will be ongoing and continue all year long. The website will remain live after the show, keeping up with and rewarding digital music innovations.
