Telenet test breedbandinternet in je auto

Sinds juni voert Telenet tests uit over het gebruik van breedband internet ...in je auto! Dat meldt De Standaard. De mogelijkheden zijn legio.

De technologie is gebaseerd op het 4G netwerk of Long Term Evolution (LTE) netwerk.
Telenet verwacht dat 4G een realiteit is in België tegen 2012.

Summer trends on Social Media in Belgium

According to Alexa, Belgium can be considered rather conservative concerning social media websites. With a second place in its Belgian Top Sites rankings, just behind Google, Facebook is omnipopular in Belgium. According to GoogleAdPlanner some 3.800.000 Belgians visit Facebook regularly.
Youtube is the third most popular website among Belgians. Wikipedia is on spot 8.
Compared to January 2010, with a ranking 13, Belgian Netlog switches places with Blogger that becomes number 12.

Compared to January 2010, Badoo is the top winner, with a gain of 36 places on Alexa's Belgian Top Sites list. Badoo is a UK based international social networking site available in 16 languages (also in Dutch).
Twitter use in Belgium nearly doubled the passed year. The website jumps 26 places and becomes the 21st most popular website among Belgians.
LinkedIn, which is mostly aimed at professionals and business networking jumps 23 places and hits spot 44.
Other winners are blog service WordPress (8 places) and photo sharing service Flickr (5 places).

Big loser is MySpace (that loses 24 places in the Alexa ranking compared to January 2010). Netlog loses 1 place.

Use Social Media for Investor Relations?

Is it possible for a company's Investor Relations department to use Social Media? Of course, not every platform will be as efficient to communicate an IR department's message. Also, today, traditional IR management remains possible without Social Media. What is more, a lot of financial analysts and traders indicate they do not use social media, because their bosses won't allow them access to websites like Twitter, Facebook and Youtube.

However, already today, these media are being used for IR by some international companies. If Stock Exchange Enlisted Companies want to be pioneers, or want to keep up with the pioneers, they have to be present on Web 2.0.

What follows is based on my own research. Let me begin with Wal-Mart who started tweeting with @walmartnews only since January 13, 2010. The account is used on a daily basis; mainly for tweeting on Corporate Social Responsability but also on Industry related news like the company's strategy and, when relevant, on Q or Y results. The Wal-Mart account is followed by 1,740 people and promoted on investors.walmartstores.com. To control the account, an application called CoTweet is used. Wal-Mart also has several other (local) Twitter accounts that are used for Marketing and Customer Relations.

Wal-Mart also has a YouTube channel which exists since February 11, 2006 and is of course used for distributing commercials, but also features clips on CSR. At least every day, someone comments on a Wal-Mart video clip.

Although Wal-Mart has several Facebook pages (one has has about 1,193,000 people ‘liking’ it and almost every hour somebody posts to its wall), it does not use Facebook for IR.

Companies that do use Facebook for Investor Relations are Cisco and Lafarge. The Cisco Facebook Page also links surfers to a myriad of other social media accounts. Several other Facebook Pages, several Twitter accounts, several blogs, two Flickr accounts and two Youtube channels. One of those channels has a ‘Financial’ playlist, which features clips with CFO Frank Calderoni and CEO John Chambers discussing the quarterly Results. Allegedly, Chambers prefers video to text because of his dyslexy.

Other companies using Twitter for IR are KBC Group (a bank and insurance company) and Bekaert (a steel manufacturer) who post links to their press releases on their Twitter account. Bekaert even launched a separate 'annual report' website which constantly links to social media.

Interactive billboard against agression

Public service employees in the Netherlands face aggression and violence on the streets more and more often. Onlookers unfortunately do not intervene often enough when they encounter a situation like this. A live interactive billboard in Amsterdam and Rotterdam is used to place people in a similar situation witch confronts them with their inactivity. A great idea!!

Rumors on Google working on iPad competitor

The American newspaper Wall Street Journal claims to know that Google, together with Verizon, is working on a tablet computer. The device will be the result of a deepening synergy between Google and Verizon and should be a fearsome rival for Apple's iPad that connects to wireless networks via AT&T.

Verizon's CEO Lowell McAdam said: "We're looking at all the things Google has in its archives that we could put on a tablet to make it a great experience." However, he declined to give any further details on the timing and manufacturer of such a tablet. Google and Verizon already brought out smartphones together, like the Motorola Droid, which runs on Google's Android software.

Google confirmed that it is working on hardware and carriers to create lightweight computers that run its software.

Google Chrome is faster than lightning (but does it guarantee privacy?)

The last couple of weeks Firefox constantly blocked and I got ennoyed with those "That's embarrasing"-screens. I do have to admit I always have alot (alot!) of tabs open. Nonetheless, a couple of days ago, I started using Google's browser Chrome and up 'till now I like it! It's lean and smart and seems to be stealing alot of browser market share from Internet Explorer. IE saw its share go down to 60% and Chrome saw it up to 7% in the couple of months it's been launched. Chrome seems to (be able) to handle those myriad tabs better. Or at least Chrome's extensions.

And here's the rub! Most of those extensions seem to infiltrate your browser history and personal settings. That is why, up 'till now, I haven't installed any extension. First I would like to have some certainty about privacy...

In any case: Chrome is fast,

or so its makers claim in  their bizarre but beautiful commercials...