We’re seeing the first social media Olympics. The International Olympic Committee struck partnerships with Twitter, Facebook and Youtube.
Olympic athletes embraced social media to support each other, share their opinions and offer exclusives glimpses of life in the Olympic Village, not to mention those photos and videos we all saw them shooting with mobile phones during the opening ceremonies.
But which athletes got the most attention on Facebook and Twitter? Honestly, we expected to see Gabby Douglas and others from the U.S. women’s gymnastic team high up there, but not according to this chart from Statista.
I’ve tried several tablets, including a 10-inch Samsung and an iPad. As elegant and well-designed as the iPad is, like all Apple products, I found the 7-inch Kindle Fire much more to my liking.
While the Kindle Fire lacks a camera and a microphone – its size is perfect for the things I do with a tablet, browsing the web via news reader apps such as Pulse, Flipboard, StumbleUpon and other apps that make it easy. Watching the occasional video. Checking social media or email. And, of course, playing casual games such as Angry Birds.
I actually use it more than I do my regular Kindle keyboard ereader, which is saying something. I still prefer to do long reading sessions on the ereader because its much easier on the eyes than backlit LED screens, but it gets most of its use when I’m involved in a novel such as the last Game of Thrones book or when I’m traveling.
If you have an Amazon account, the ease with which you buy apps and books and media is a real plus. It’s also a pleasure to see how rapidly developers have brought apps I wanted to the device, ranging from games to HBO GO and the aforementioned Flipboard.
When I tried the larger screen tablets, I found them tiring to hold for long periods. Taking photos with them was a pain. I do suspect that the dictation feature on the iPad 4 and voice control of digital devices in general is going to be important in the future.
The Microsoft Surface has not made much of an initial splash so far and Google has a 7-inch tablet in the works. But for right now, the Kindle Fire is shaping up as the iPad’s main competitor.
Statista has compiled this graphic with data from the Online Publishers Association to show that largely due to Kindle Fire sales, the Android operating system is closing the gap on Apple’s iOS. — Allan Maurer
It’s not surprising that Google and Facebook make the lion’s share of their revenues from advertising. But did you know that more than half of Apple’s revenues come from iPhone sales (or did before the iPad, anyway) and Microsoft rakes in 30 percent of its considerable earnings from its Office suite?
We’re seeing the first social media Olympics. The International Olympic Committee struck partnerships with Twitter, Facebook and Youtube.
