TechCrunch
180M Downloads Later, iHeartRadio Migrates To Windows Phone 8
After topping 180 million downloads on other platforms, the iHeartRadio app is finally migrating over to the Windows Phone 8 platform. Starting today, iHeartRadio enthusiasts toting a WP8-powered handset will have access to iHeartRadio’s music streaming service.
This includes access to over 1,500 live stations from across the U.S., along with user-created custom stations that feature more than 400,000 artists and 16 million songs. Plus, users of the new WP8 app will have the same “Perfect For” feature — which matches a station with your mood — as other iHeartRadio users.
Though the Windows Phone 8 iHeartRadio experience will be identical to its other platforms, which include Amazon Kindle Fire, iPhone, iPad, and Android, iHeartRadio is also taking advantage of specific Windows Phone 8 features. The app is integrated so that users can post their favorite stations to the home screen as its own “live tile.”
Users will also enjoy a sleep timer, which lets you fall asleep listening to a station without killing your battery for the morning. The app also includes a “Discovery Tuner” which lets you adjust custom stations to play music your more or less familiar with. This way listeners can stick with the classics they love or branch out into uncharted musical territory.
Past that, you’ll also see deeper Facebook integration to let you share what you’re listening to with friends direct to the timeline, as well as songs and stations to newsfeeds.
iHeartRadio is seeing ever-growing competition in the digital radio sector, with apps like Pandora growing steadily as well as the introduction of iRadio, Apple’s new Genius-based streaming service. Still, iHeartRadio claims to be the number 1 digital radio service, as the first digital service to hit over 20 million registered users.
The app is available now in the Windows Phone Store.
To Drive More Clicks, Twitter Is Testing A Feature That Reveals Where Popular Tweets Have Appeared
A little over a year ago, Twitter kicked off an initiative to experiment with different ways of making tweets more interactive — a strategy that has brought us Twitter cards with previews, and shortcodes for embedding tweets elsewhere. Today, one of the latest experiments is adding more data into the mix: a list of sites linking to where a tweet has been embedded.
For now, this looks like only a limited test. The feature was first brought to our attention by Mikko Hypponen, the outspoken chief revenue officer at F-Secure, but I can’t see the links myself that he has shown in a screenshot (which I’ll show off, in a hat-tip to Twitter, with an embedded tweet instead of a screenshot:)
Has Twitter always shown where particular tweets are embedded on? pic.twitter.com/Th5y94omPZ
— Mikko Hypponen ✘ (@mikko) July 1, 2013
I asked Twitter about what is going on, and a spokesperson pointed me in the direction of this blog post noting tests of “hundreds of variations of new features and designs.”
Regardless of whether or not this feature eventually rolls out to a wider public, listing where a tweet has been used is another sign of how Twitter hopes to continue to make its platform more interactive and less lean-back.
Getting the balance to tip further in the direction of engaged users will mean that Twitter can sell itself better as a broadcasting platform to advertisers hungry to go not just where registered users are congregating, but specifically to where users are logging on, paying attention, and clicking. Anecdotally, I’ve noticed that many retweets of a link doesn’t necessarily translate to traffic to a particular page. It seems that many Twitter users, lured in by the fast pace of Twitter, are happy to use it as its chief source of information as well. Offering one more bit of context — in the form of the history of the embed — could be one way of Twitter — and would be users of this service — trying to further counteract that.
You can also see how a list of links may potentially also come to include a sponsor in the mix, taking advantage of the Google-Adwords-style keyword targeting advertising that Twitter has been rolling out.
Apple Trademarks iWatch Name In Japan - Keep Calm And Carry On
Let the speculation merry-go-round continue. According to a report by Bloomberg, Apple has trademarked the name iWatch — again. This time Japan is the territory, while the trademark covering “products including a handheld computer or watch device” was actually filed with the Japan Patent Office on the 3rd of June but was only made public last week. It follows an unconfirmed report by a Russian newspaper that Cupertino had filed the iWatch trademark in Russia last month.
So, Apple is definitely making this thing, right? Well, maybe, though for now I’m inclined to file this away in rumorware. Trademarks for speculative products are registered by large consumer electronics companies all the time — products that are in a very long pipeline or exist in a PowerPoint presentation only. Besides, if or when Apple does release a smartwatch, timing will be everything.
Despite the tech media’s current Apple narrative that frames the company as desperately needing a new breakthrough product category, unless Tim Cook’s Apple is deviating drastically from the Jobs playbook, the company is/has been likely taking a wait and see approach to an iWatch. Cupertino may well be known as the great innovator, which in hindsight it invariably proves to be, but Apple’s definition of innovation is rarely to be first.
The iPod wasn’t the first MP3 player, though it was the first to utilise that crucial 1.8inch hard drive (“a thousand songs in your pocket”). The iPhone wasn’t the first touchscreen smartphone either, though it utilised capacitive technology and a UI that ensured it was finger-friendly and crucially bundled a data connection at the point of sale. Likewise, the iPad wasn’t the first tablet computer by any measure, but we all know how that worked out. This is a company that has built its second coming on the ability to say “no”.
Or at least, “not yet”.
Cue recent comments from Apple’s CEO. Speaking at the D11 conference, Cook said on the topic of Apple potentially doing a smartwatch or other wearable tech: ”There’s nothing that’s going to convince a kid who has never worn glasses or a band or a watch to wear one, or at least I haven’t seen it.”
Of course, “I haven’t seen it” could mean that it doesn’t exist on the market yet from Apple’s numerous competitors (sorry Pebble, Sony and countless others). Or that Cook hasn’t seen it brewing in Apple’s R&D labs either. One thing I’m sure of is that Cupertino won’t sanction an iWatch until the technology’s shortcomings – not least battery life and the UI of a smartwatch — can be addressed. And that could still be quite some time.
For now Apple fanboys, keep calm and carry on.
Upworthy, Purveyor Of Videos With A Heart, Makes Plans To Monetize On Crazy Growth Rate
After a first year marked by explosive growth, the social video site Upworthy is now focusing its attention on turning that traction into revenue.
They are piloting ideas right now, but don’t expect banner ads. Co-founder Peter Koechley told TechCrunch that sponsored content will have to be experientially in line with their curated videos, which focus on meaningful issues like domestic violence, education, and gay marriage.
“Our core is finding the greatest content and packaging it extremely well. We think that organizations and brands are finding that pretty valuable. They have the ability to pass through our filter, and have us share it out.”
Upworthy is claiming growth rates significantly higher than comparable sites like Business Insider and The Huffington Post and reporting over 3 million subscribers as of May, following the success of its hugely popular “Wondtacular” video.
Last October, Upworthy raised a $4 million seed round from investors including Facebook’s Chris Hughes, Reddit’s Alexis Ohanian, and John Johnson of BuzzFeed.
Upworthy’s mission is to make substantive content go viral. The theory is that people do care about important stories — just as much, if not more, than cute, silly cats — and that it just needs better packaging.
Upworthy’s recipe for virality is part emotional and part marketing. The first test is subjective: is the curator, one of about 20 team members searching for content, crying by the end of the video?
The next part is pure metrics and marketing energy. With “Wondtacular,” the team tested 79 different headlines for two days, trying out 8 different made up words until they had one with the best chance of blowing up.
Then there’s distribution. Upworthy has worked hard to build its Facebook community (they have over 2M likes at this point) so that their users would act as amplifiers. They’ve clearly done a good job of that so far.
Koechley said the ultimate goal of Upworthy is to take up the noble mission of a dying old media and ultimately change the kind of things people across the nation are thinking about:
“To drive attention to the things we think really matter, get people paying attention, and pull some attention away from the frivolous stuff.”
Koechley said outright that Upworthy is focused on steady, aggressive growth in the coming year. We’ll see what they’re able to do to turn that meaningful content into meaningful green.
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