Two Reuters journalist have gone missing in Syria this past week. Suleiman al-Khalidi and Khaled al-Hariri have not communicated with their collegues since Monday. The rest of the Reauters family are extremely concerned about their safety and have already contacted a Syrian official to gain information on the missing journalist.
Both journalist have been working for the Reuters for the past 20 years and are extremely committed to sharing the struggles of the Middle Eastern countries that are in the middle of revolutions at the moment. Khalidi and Hariri are not the only two journalist to be detained in Syria. A Jordanian correspondent for Reuters, Khaled Yacoub Oweis, was also detained on Friday for his "unprofessional and false coverage of events", according to the Syrian Information Ministry.
Syria has been facing challenging times for the past two weeks due to protest that have been supporting their Syrian President, Bashar al-Assad, who is currently facing some trouble.
The co-founder and former CEO of Twitter, Evan Williams, has decided to step down from his position with Twitter and allow his peers to continue working on the evolution of Twitter. Williams claims that he isn't leaving the Twitter company completely, however it will no longer be his full time position. When asked what he plans on doing now that he will have more time Williams confessed that he has a new project under way.
Evan Williams created Twitter along with Bizz Stone and Jack Dorsey in 2006, however within the last two years it's popularity has grown and now millions of people all over the world find time to tweet messages. Williams is confident in knowing that the Twitter team he helped put together is more than capable of making Twitter a "mainstream relevancy".
Jack Dorsey also returned to the Twitter company as Executive Chairmen in Charge of Product. With all the new changes to the Twitter team we can only be excited to see the Twitter of the future.
Thanks to the outrageous Reality TV show Jersey Shore, Viacom's MTV has reached its highest ratings within the last 5 years. MTV's young viewership jumped 27% from its first quarter in 2010. The Jersey Shore's main demographic is viewers between the ages of 12-34. Not only did the Jersey Shore's ratings top MTV's charts but it also beat the most viewed program on television at the moment, American Idol.
Now that the show is MTV's highest rated show EVER we will continue to see the cast for a fourth season that will be filmed in Italy. A major reason for a fourth season has to do with the huge fan base the show has created. With 7.9 million viewers per episode, the Jersey Shore cast quickly rose to celebrity status and can been found on any magazine.
MTV also has to thank their other Reality sitcom, Teen Mom 2, for their ratings success. The program quickly became cable television's number 2 show and generates 3.8 million viewers per episode.
Viacom's other popular TV station Nickelodeon reached a new quarter high in viewership thanks to a few of their new programs: "Bubble Gummies", "Max & Ruby", "Team Umizoomi", and "Go Diego, Go". Due to the success of Nickelodeon and MTV, Viacom's stocks in Wall Street are doing very well and have recently been selling for $ 46.65 a share.
Dell's Global Head of Marketing for Large Enterprises and Public Organizations, Andy Lark made a strong statement about Apple's iPad and his hold over the tablet enterprise. He strongly believe that the iPad will not survive the very enterprise that Apple paved the way for. Shortly after the release of the first ever iPad we began to see other forms of tablets from other companies.
A major reason for his statement is due to the Apple iPad's price. He boldly stated that a consumer would spend $1,500 - $1,600 when purchasing an iPad, keyboard, mouse and case. However Macgasm has done the research on prices and was shocked to see that the total is actually $666, and with an iPad 2 the total is $1,000; both are way less than what Andy Lark stated.
He continued by stating that Dell's new tablet will be extremely successful and there isn't a tablet out at the moment like Dell's.
News Corp, who currently owns Myspace, have plans to hand over control of the site to a new company before June 2011. As of right now Vevo.com is one of the interested companies and both News Corp and Vevo.com are talking it out at the moment. If Vevo.com gains control of Myspace, it will be ' in exchange for a stake in a new venture' for News Corp. However details of this new venture were not revealed.
Vevo.com is the 5th largest video site and offers advertising-supported music videos. If they gain control of Myspace, their main interest will be the websites music pages and fan pages. They are interested in expanding the sites entertainment factor.
News Corp introduced a new Myspace design in February however the sites new design did not save it from it's shrinking traffic number. During the same time as the launch of the new Myspace design; the website's traffic went down to 62.6 million which is 29% less then the sites traffic from October 2010.
The future of the I-Phone 5 does not look like it will be reveiled during Apple's yearly Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC). As of right now Appple has stated that the conference will include the 'Future of the IOS' software and nothing else. This comes to a big shocker for Apple consumers who have been awaiting the arrival of the new I-Phone 5.
The conference will take place in San Fransisco between June 6-10th and attendees will get a preview of what is new with the IOS software as well as attend hands-on workshop sessions.
Last year Apple was in the middle of a scandal when their beloved I-Phone 4 was leaked after being left at a bar by an Apple employee. Many believe that Apple did this on purpose in order to create buzz over the new cell phone release, however that has never been proven. Steve Jobs has always come up with innovative ways to advertise his products, therefore we must all wait patiently to see what he has in store for Apple consumers now.
Shortly following the resignation of Hosni Mubarak the military suspended the constitution and will remain in power for the next 6 months or until elections will be held. As apart of their suspension of the constitution they will also be proposing changes to it which will then be submitted to voters for their thoughts.
Not only does the government have to be restored but so does the national banks of Egypt. According to many bank workers Mubarak's family appointed their friends to high level positions at the bank with large incomes. Since the resignation of Mubarak - changes will also be held at the national banks causing them to closed until Wednesday.
It is a huge step forward for the civilians of Egypt to have Mubarak step down from office however how long will the military have to be in charge? Can Egypt fall into the same fate as Iran? Now that Mubarak has stepped down the civilians of Egypt must work together to get a new government instated as quickly as possible. Many of the protesters do not feel that the fight is over and choose to remain protesting on the streets of Egypt until the government is put together. The people of Egypt are extremely excited for this new life they will live however the changes must move quickly before they begin to loose faith in their country.
The Super Bowl wasn't only for football and commercials yesterday, but also for business deals. During the game Huffington Post's co-founder Arianna Huffington and AOL CEO Tim Armstrong came together on a deal where AOL will buy Huffington Post and combine the two websites to make AOL the go-to website for various news intake. Arianna will also join AOL's team to help re-vamp the website.
AOL needed a change such as this if they wanted to bring back the iconic brand. At one point AOL use to be the main website for dial-up users and E-mail, however as the internet continued to grow AOL was no longer needed. AOL has lost 782.5 million dollars last year and lost 1.5 of their advertising revenue from last year, so AOL has to make a change fast in order to keep the company from going under. Hopefully with this new deal AOL can be on top once again with Google, Yahoo and Facebook. Armstrong wants to change the way internet users get their news; he wants the new AOL to be the next-generation American media company with GLOBAL reach. Let's see what they have in store for us internet users!
Sadly enough - I really wasn't too impressed with the commercials played during the 2011 Super Bowl. Only a few commercials caught my attention and even those commercials had come 2nd to those that I have seen in previous years. Many of the car commercials had the same feel to them and just seemed very boring and unoriginal to me.
Commercials I Enjoyed:
Volkswagon Commercial: The Force - this commercial was with the little boy dressed up as Darth Vador and he kept trying to use his "force" to turn on electrical appliances and other things around the house. Without fail he could not succeed until his dad arrives home with his new Volkswagon and the child believes he turns on the engine with his "force". This was a cute commercial and I enjoyed watching it. I believe Volkswagon wanted to touch parents hearts and did a great job in doing so.
Doritos: Pug attack - This commercial is HILARIOUS! I have a small dog of my own therefore I know what it is to tease small dogs. The dogs strength breaks down the glass door and the guy ends up squished. It was very modern and fun - for a product that is also looked at as young and fun.
Bridgestone: Reply All - This commercial put a smile on my face! The guy looked so funny running around grabbing everyone's computers or cell phones in order to prevent them from reading the email he sent and also it hits home because how many times have we thought we hit reply all. Or even just sent an email that we wish we could take back.
Commercials I Disliked:
Coca Cola: Siege - I really like Coca Cola and have always enjoyed their commercials however this commercial I feel wasn't great. I thought it was boring and I didn't know what they were advertising until the very end of the commercial. Very disappointing being that I love the Coca Cola brand and what it represents.
Groupon: Tibet - I thought this was a horrible commercial! I don't know if they were being for real in trying to gain awareness on what is going on in Tibet but this commercial was tasteless and embarrassing. I still don't even know what Groupon is.
