Pinterest Grabs the Headlines

Posted by Sam in Social Media

Pinterest grabs the headlines following phenomenal growth.

Pinterest was recently named as one of the top 50 websites to watch by Time magazine and since then has shown that it has the potential to become a big player, adding more users than many more established sites.

So whats all the Pinterest buzz about?

Pinterest is all about sharing photos, basically an online collection of pinboards.

So it’s a great to look at, driven as it is by photos, and it’s clean design compliments it’s reason for being. It follows all the best site design like Google and Facebook and keeps things simple.

It is also causing alot of buzz because of the type of person that is using the site. The overwhelming majority of users on the site are female even though the site was the brain child of a man.

Pinterest History

Ben Silbermann. Why not pin it?

Based in Silicon Valley, Pinterest has some serious backers funding it and was launched in 2010 by founders Ben Silbermann, Paul Sciarra and Evan Sharp.

Paul Sciarra recently stated that he was stepping down from day to day involvement in Pinterest. You can read that here: Paul Sciarra steps down from Pinterest.

The site got some major publicity in the summer of 2011 when Time magazine named it as one of its top 50 websites and it grew from about half a million users to approx. 5 million in 6 months. According to website scoring service Comscore, it hit almost 18 million users in Feb 2012.

Name Your Favorite Social Site

Photo: Wikipedia

Real Madrid Resort Island Coming to Ras Al-Khaimah (RAK)

Posted by Clive in Football, Real Estate

Real Madrid Resort Island is being planned for the Al-Marjan Island in Ras Al-Khaimah (RAK) for 2015.

Al-Marjan Island is a group of man-made islands in the Northern Emirate of Ras Al-Khaimah (RAK), park of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and about 45 mins drive from it’s more famous neighbor, Dubai.

Real Madrid and the RAK authorities are planning to take over one of the islands and turn it into a Real Madrid resort island, hoping it will become a mecca for Real Madrid and fooball fans alike.

Covering about 50 hectares, the Real Madrid Resort Island aims to attract 1 million visitors a year once it is completed at the start of 2015. The final cost is expected to be around $1 billion.

Real Madrid Resort Island Business

No one has ever accused Real Madrids President, Florentino Perez, of lacking ambition and so it is with the Real Madrid Resort Island project. He hopes that it will bring the sporting culture of Real Madrid closer to the now vital Arab and Asian markets.

There is sound business sense behind the Real Madrid Resort Island decision, RAK is located in the sweet spot between the old economic world of Europe, and the new economic powerhouses of Asia. Giving the resort access to a vast number of Real Madrid fans within a short(ish) flight, an estimated 300 million fans with over half located in Asia.

The likelihood too is that a fair chunk of the cost for the project will be picked up by the RAK authorities. They rightly see the PR value of having such a high profile brand lead the way in their drive to become a high profile tourist destination. RAK aims to have 20% of it’s GDP generated by tourist related activities within 10 years.

If the plans come off, sports fans will see an amazing resort come to life. A marina, amusement park, luxury hotels and sporting facilities such as an incredible soccer stadium opening up to the sea will await them.

His Highness Sheikh Saud Bin Saqr Al Qassimi of RAK said

“This is an exciting project developed with a world leading brand. We are proud for being chosen by Real Madrid. We appreciate their vision and we have a million reasons to be optimistic. I wish to congratulate Florentino Perez for his vision and for where he’s taken this club. This is going to transform the United Arab Emirates. We are ready to embrace progress and the millions of visitors who will come to Real Madrid Resort Island.”

Lamborghini Aventador J Premieres at Geneva Motor Show

Posted by Clive in Cars

Lamborghini Aventador J Premieres at Geneva Motor Show

At the 2012 Geneva Motor Show, Lamborghini presented it’s most uncompromising super car in it’s history.

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The Lamborghini Aventador J offers the driver a full on experience of power and dynamics. At the same time, the 700 hp two-seater is a first class technology showcase, combining innovative solutions and brand new materials.

The Lamborghini Aventador J is a radically open auto with the exterior melding with the interior. The designers and engineers in Sant’Agata Bolognese have not only dispensed entirely with the roof, but also with the front windshield.

This requires that driver must have the right equipment for driving at  speeds higher than 300 Km/h. This kind of driving at the limit is a highly exclusive experience – the Lamborghini Aventador J is fully functional for road use…. if you have deep pockets or even get hold of one.

Maserati GranTurismo Sport

Maserati choose the Geneva International Motor Show to unveil its new GranTurismo Sport.

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Bolstered by the success of a model that brought the entire concept of the Grand Tourer up to date, the new GranTurismo Sport gets a restyling and a host of new technical features.

The new GranTurismo Sport in the Maserati MY13 product range replaces the GranTurismo S. In the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand it will be marketed beginning with the MY 2013 range.

The powerful 4.7-litre V8 engine can now deliver a maximum power of 460 HP without penalising fuel consumption and emissions. These parameters enable the GranTurismo Sport to reach an impressive top speed of 300 km/h, accelerating from 0 to 100 km/h in just 4.7 seconds.

Chelsea FC News: Andre Villas-Boas Sacked

Posted by Jeff in Football, Sports

Chelsea FC news is coming through that manager Andre Villas-Boas has been sacked.

After less than a year in charge at Stamford Bridge, Chelsea FC‘s manager Andre Villas-Boas has been sacked after a run of poor results.

A statement on the Chelsea FC website said,

Andre Villas-Boas has parted company with Chelsea Football Club today.

The board would like to record our gratitude for his work and express our disappointment that the relationship has ended so early.

Unfortunately the results and performances of the team have not been good enough and were showing no signs of improving at a key time in the season.

The club is still competing in the latter stages of the Uefa Champions League and the FA Cup, as well as challenging for a top-four spot in the Premier League, and we aim to remain as competitive as possible on all fronts.

With that in mind we felt our only option was to make a change at this time.

With immediate effect Roberto Di Matteo has been appointed first team coach on an interim basis until the end of the season.

Villas-Boas was recruited in June 2011 by Chelsea FC to bring a more attractive playing style to Standford Bridge but owner Roman Abramovich is not known for his patience.

A run of one win in seven games was not good enough for Abramovich and he has obviously decided to act. Rumor has it that there was also tension between the senior Chelsea players and Villas-Boas.

Player power has always been strong at Chelsea among the senior players and appears to have been the downfall of several managers during the Abramovich era.

One thing is for sure though, whoever becomes the next Chelsea FC manager will be a brave man.

Photo: sekimura

Whitney Houston Dies Aged 48

Posted by Sam in Celebrity, Music

Whitney Houston Dies Aged 48 according to initial reports from the news wires.

Whitney Houston was the most successful soul singer of all time during the 1980′s and came from a musical family, including cousin Dione Warwick and Godmother Aretha Franklin.

She also became a successful actress with her well received film ‘The Bodyguard’ starring Kevin Costner. The soundtrack epitomized her power ballad style that she became best known for, showcasing her incredible voice.

There were some at the time who said that her main character in ‘The Bodyguard’, self obsessed and prima dona, was too close for comfort to the real Whitney Houston.

Her subsequent marriage to Bobby Brown ended in divorce, rumor of violence and drug abuse. Her voice obviously suffered as she tried to make a return to singing with a concert that fans complained was not the Whitney they remembered. Recently there were rumors that Whitney Houston had lost all the money from her multi-million record sales.

If the news reports turn out to be true then I think most people, including ourselves, would like to remember Whitney Houston as the very beautiful lady with the incredible voice and great songs. Leave your comments below.

Whitney Houston Videos

Photo: tm_10001

Super Bowl 2012: NY Giants Vs NE Patriots

Posted by James in American Football, Sports

Super Bowl 2012 in Indianapolis getting ready for kick off.

Super Bowl 2012, or Super Bowl XLVI to give it its proper title, is almost here and will see the New England Patriots take on the New York Giants.

Super Bowl 2012 will be a repeat of the 2008 Super Bowl when the New York Giants upset the odds to beat the New England Patriots 17 – 14. The Patriots had won all of their previous 18 games that season and were in great shape.

The driving force of the Patriots that season was their legendary quarterback Tom Brady, winner of 3 Super Bowl rings and looking to lead his team to the perfect season for only the 2nd time in the history of the NFL.

It wasn’t to be though, Brady was under constant harassment and was dogged by an ankle injury. It gave his opposite number, Eli Manning, the opportunity to shine with a game winning touchdown pass late on.

Both quarterbacks are among those still playing for the same teams and perhaps it is an injury free Tom Brady (age 34) who now has prove himself.

Eli Manning (age 31) for his part has so far had an outstanding season throwing for 4,933 yards and 29 touchdowns. Leadership and resilience have also marked him out and the same could be said for an injury hit Giants squad.

So perhaps the New York Giants are once again the underdogs, but underdogs can often have a nasty bite. Who do you think will win super bowl 2012?

Super Bowl 2012

Photo: Christine Anne Dunne

iBooks 2 Launched by Apple to ‘Reinvent’ the Textbook

Posted by James in Apple, Education

iBooks 2 launched by Apple in order to ‘reinvent’ the textbook.

Ahh yes the bane of every young students life, a bag full of text books each 500 pages thick and weighing more than they do.

I almost killed myself when I was 12 as the bag of books I was carrying swung from one side of my body, where it had been nicely balanced, over to the other side… where it was not.

The sudden shift in weight caused the bike I was riding to veer across the road in front of oncoming traffic. It all happened so fast I had no choice but to hang on and pray.

Thankfully, all I bruised was my ego and I got away with a few honks from shaken motorists. I had to pick up a cycling proficiency award later that day too, life’s funny that way sometimes isn’t it?

Anyway, I digress. Back to Apple.

iBooks 2

I can certainly see where Apple are coming from with the launch of iBooks 2. They want todo away with such cumbersome things as a good old fashioned textbook and bring education into the 21st century.

With iBooks 2 they see a world where textbooks are interactive and fun (presumably with every student using an iPad). They demonstrated how iBooks 2 utilized the portrait position of an iPad to show a text led book and landscape mode to enter into a far more interactive experience.

iBooks Author

Apple also launched a free app to make it easier for anyone to create an interactive textbook. It is called iBooks Author and it is described as being to ebooks creation as garageband is to music creation.

You can download iBooks Author for free at the app store here and it includes templates already made by Apple that you can use as a starting point.

The big educational publishers such as McGraw Hill and Pearson Education are already publishing their books for the iBook 2 app and more publishers are producing content as I write this.

Apple promised that iBooks 2 will offer books for every subject, grade level and student.

How schools will react to Apple’s plan for educational domination is not known.

A classroom full of kids playing with very expensive hardware worth many hundreds of copies of a textbook may be some teachers idea of hell.

Thats if they could raise the funds in the first place, add to that the cost of the ebooks themselves and you have a very large investment.

If parents are going to pay for such devices then their kid might suddenly become the most popular kid in the school, perhaps not for the right reasons.

Photo: Apple

Wikipedia Blackout in Protest Over SOPA & PIPA

Posted by Jeff in Internet

Wikipedia blackout in protest over SOPA & PIPA legislation proposals in the US.

Wikipedia is one of a number of high profile internet companies which has put up a holding page for 24 hours explaining a blackout and why people cannot access the site.

Reddit, the user generated news site and the blog Boing Boing have also pledged their support for the blackout.

SOPA is the Stop Online Piracy Act and PIPA is the Protect Intellectual Property Act. Both are currently being debated in Congress.

Wikipedia and others say the acts are so broad and badly constructed that they will have an impact way beyond the issue of piracy.

The legislation allows the sort of interference by Government agencies and courts that the Chinese government currently employs to block websites it deems inappropriate.

The idea behind the legislation is that it will allow content owners and the Justice Department the ability to order search engines to block results associated with piracy to therefore cut off their customer and money supply. To force advertisers, ISP’s and payment processors from doing business with those sites.

Supporters say that it is designed to stop the flow of money to to these ‘rogue sites’.

In reality it would mean that any website would have to monitor everything that anyone posted on their site to ensure that don’t get hit by SOPA or PIPA.

You can imagine how difficult this could be for many sites such as twitter, facebook, EBay, reddit or even a small business that has a small community or forum.

That is even before you get into the question of whether something is infringing copyright, intellectually property or not.

Wikipedia made a statement on their website,

“For over a decade, we have spent millions of hours building the largest encyclopedia in human history. Right now, the U.S. Congress is considering legislation that could fatally damage the free and open Internet. For 24 hours, to raise awareness, we are blacking out Wikipedia”

Google maintain that SOPA and PIPA won’t even hit their intended target, the pirates. They state that piracy sites will just change their addresses and carry on as normal.

The protest is one of the first times that the internet and technology companies have effectively come together to form a lobbying group with enough power to take on the traditional lobbying groups of the media industry.

Google are running a petition against SOPA and PIPA where you can find out more. https://www.google.com/landing/takeaction/

The official SOPA and PIPA sites.

X Factor Vs American Idol – Battle of the Music Shows

Posted by Tracy in Entertainment, TV

X Factor Vs American Idol the ultimate battle of the music talent show.

Now that we have finally seen the X factor USA in action and we have our first winner, Melanie Amaro, we are interested in what you think about the talent shows and tell us your views about the X Factor Vs American Idol debate.

Its major rival is the long running show American Idol and old hunting ground of the X Factor judge and driving force Simon Cowell.

So we have a couple of straw polls below, just vote on which show you thought was the best and who was your favourite judge.

We have our own opinions and would love to hear yours, so get opinionated below right now.

X Factor Vs American Idol Straw Poll

X Factor Vs American Idol: Judges the Judges

We thought both shows had their plus points and there was enough of a difference between the two shows to keep both healthy in the ratings.

Simon Cowell is always fun to watch, usually he tells the truth as he sees it but the X Factors USP of mentoring individual acts means that he is completely blinkered when it comes to his own acts.

Nothing wrong with that of course, one of the traits of successful people is that they intently focus on what they want to see in order to lead others in that direction. As a neutral viewer though it can be frustrating.

American Idol on the other hand has moved into the middle ground, a touchy feeley place that Simon Cowell would find uncomfortable.

Both The X Factor and American Idol have their fair share of winners and losers amongst the contestants. Some of it is painful to watch, some of it is inspiring to watch and some of it… well you just can’t take your eyes of it no matter how hard you try.

Tell us what you think about the X Factor Vs American Idol debate in the comments below.