Mediaboss Marketing

CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Akoo International Inc., a media and technology innovator, today announced that it has been awarded patent number 4892481 by the Japan Patent Office. The patent was granted for the Companys interactive technology, which enables smartphone and tablet users to search and select on-demand television and video content via mobile app or text messaging.

To date, Akoo has been awarded patents for its technology in eight major global markets, including the worlds three largest advertising markets, the U.S., China, and Japan.

Akoos technology delivers unrivaled consumer engagement and marketing effectiveness for advertisers across our national television network, Akoo TV, as certified by third-party global research firms, including Nielsen, said Niko Drakoulis, Akoo International CEO. As a result, Akoo continues to build competitive barriers and position itself for future international expansion.

Akoo TV provides entertainment programming across 166 premier shopping malls in 60 top U.S. markets. The networks programming is featured throughout the most highly trafficked seating areas in each mall branded the Akoo Pavilions which attract more than 64 million shoppers each month. Viewers in Akoo Pavilions spend an average 20 minutes per visit seated in front of the networks programming and advertising, Nielsen research certifies.

Akoo TV uniquely enables viewers to make on-demand content requests with their mobile devices, via free mobile app or text messaging. Viewers in Akoo Pavilions can also connect with friends via Facebook and Twitter, download mobile coupons, and participate in exclusive promotions. An on-demand transaction occurs on the network every four seconds.

About Akoo International Inc.

Akoo International Inc. is a global media and technology innovator. The Companys flagship U.S. television network, Akoo TV, is the largest Nielsen-measured television network outside of the home.

Akoo TV integrates television, mobile, social, and local to deliver the most magnetic and rewarding consumer entertainment experiences across 166 premier shopping malls in 60 top markets. The networks interactive programming is featured throughout the most highly trafficked food court seating environments in each mall branded Akoo Pavilions which attract more than 64 million shoppers each month.

To maximize consumer engagement, Akoo TV enables viewers to make on-demand content requests, connect with friends via Facebook and Twitter, download mobile coupons, and participate in exclusive promotions via free mobile app and text messaging. As a result, Akoo TV drives unrivaled marketing effectiveness and ROI for the worlds leading advertisers.

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Akoo International Awarded Patent in Japan for Enabling Smartphone Control of TV and VOD

20 March 2012 Last updated at 20:39 ET By Rami Ruhayem BBC News, Baghdad

For several weeks, Iraq has been gripped by a most gruesome rumour.

Iraqi teenagers who dress in tight black clothes, the rumour goes, are being picked up by extremists who then crush their skulls with blocks of cement.

The victims are referred to as "emos", a term originally used in the West to describe youths who listen to a melodic style of rock music, and dress in alternative clothing.

But in Iraq, it has come to mean any man with long hair or a slightly feminine appearance. Emos have also been described alternatively as Satanists, vampires, gays, masons, or all of the above.

Some Iraqi media have said dozens of them, perhaps more than 70, have been killed recently.

Soon enough, almost every media organisation in the country was scrambling to put together its own report about the unexpected phenomenon, and the accompanying terror.

The only problem is that little of it has been verified.

According to the authorities, none of this has happened. A spokesman for Iraq's police said that some young people do dress "strangely", and they have been "dealt with" through peaceful guidance. Alaa Jassem said the media blew the whole thing out of proportion.

He mentioned the case of a "delicate" 17-year-old man named Saif who was killed, but added that it was "just a tribal killing" that had nothing to do with his appearance.

Read more:
Iraq's Emo killings: A horror story out of control?

Among the last known images of Osama bin Laden is a video seized at his compound the night he was killed, which shows the al-Qaeda leader hunched before a television screen studying a video of himself. Its testimony to bin Ladens obsession with the media side of his war against the United States.

This modern face of bin Ladens jihad comes through clearly in a 21-page letter from his media adviser, an American-born jihadist named Adam Gadahn. The letter is undated, but it appears to have been written after November 2010, in the last six months of bin Ladens life.

David Ignatius

Ignatius writes a twice-a-week foreign affairs column and contributes to the PostPartisan blog.

Archive

Gadahn wrote much as if he were a media planner corresponding with a client. He included suggestions about the timing of video appearances after the 2010 U.S. midterm elections and use of high-definition video, and made snarky evaluations of major American networks.

As I wrote last week, Gadahn hated Fox News (falls into the abyss); he liked MSNBC but complained about the firing of Keith Olbermann; he had mixed feelings about CNN (better in Arabic than in English) and made flattering comments about CBS and ABC. Basically, he wanted to play them all off to al-Qaedas best advantage. He also mentioned print journalists, most prominently Robert Fisk of The Independent of Britain. He cites three Americans (Brian Russ, Simon Hirsh and Jerry Van Dyke), though its uncertain whom he meant.

The media guidance was among the documents taken from bin Ladens compound the night of May 2. It was made available to me, along with a small sample of other documents in the cache, by a senior Obama administration official.

Gadahns memo shows an organization struggling to stay on the media offensive despite devastating American attacks. Its partly aspirational, with dreams of jihad, but theres a core of sharp self-criticism that makes clear that Gadahn, like his boss, understood that al-Qaeda was losing its war.

Gadahn even worried that al-Qaedas reversals in Iraq and elsewhere represented punishment by God on us because of our sins and injustices. Like bin Laden, he was deeply upset that al-Qaedas affiliates had killed so many Muslims and listed 13 operations that showed the tragedy of tolerating the spilling of (Muslim) blood.

Read more:
How al-Qaeda tried to control the media

Rent control seems unfair, but ending it could threaten people's homesand endanger important zoning regulations

Michael Appleton / The New York Times / Redux

The doorbell on a rent-controlled apartment that was the focus of a landlord's suit against the actress Faye Dunaway and her son, Liam Dunaway O'Neill, in New York, Aug. 2, 2011.

Cohen is the author of Nothing to Fear: FDR's Inner Circle and the Hundred Days that Created Modern America

In many congested cities New York City most of all rent control laws protect tenants who are lucky enough to have such leases from major rent increases. But the Supreme Court could be on the brink of striking down rent control. If it does, the court will hand landlords a huge victory and put many tenants in danger of losing their homes. It could also lay the groundwork for striking down a wide array of zoning laws.

The Supreme Court is considering a case filed by James Harmon, a onetime Reagan Administration lawyer who owns a brownstone on West 76th street in Manhattan. One of his tenants, an executive recruiter named Nancy Wing Lombardi, has leased a one-bedroom apartment in the building since 1976. Since the apartment is rent-controlled, she pays $1000 a month, at least half what an unregulated apartment in the same neighborhood would cost. Harmon argues that laws limiting how much rent he can charge are an unconstitutional taking of his property. The court has not yet decided to take the case, but it has asked for additional briefing taking a harder look, the Wall Street Journal reported, than anyone expected.

(MORE:Real Estate Trend: Wealthy Californians Demand Tons of Bathrooms)

Rent control has a long history. New York City adopted its law after World War I, when a shortage of housing and a glut of renters including soldiers returning from the war put extreme pressure on rents. Many other localities have rent control laws, including dozens in New York State and California. Along with New York City, some of the largest are San Francisco, Oakland, and Washington, D.C.

The Supreme Court has repeatedly upheld rent control, going back to 1921. In 1988, in Pannell v. San Jose, it ruled 6-2 that San Joses law did not violate the constitution in an opinion written by the very conservative then-Chief Justice, William Rehnquist. In 1992, in Yee v. City of Escondido, the court unanimously rejected a claim that a rent control ordinance was an unconstitutional taking of property just the issue Harmon is raising.

These rulings should settle the question. But rent control opponents clearly think they have a chance, given how pro-corporation the Court is today. Harmons challenge is attracting strong support from real estate interests and conservative groups like the CATO Institute. They argue that rent control unconstitutionally deprives landlords of the right to charge as much rent as they want. They like to point to extreme cases of people benefiting who do not need it like the actress Faye Dunaway, who until recently had a $1,048.72 a month one-bedroom on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.

See the rest here:
What if the Supreme Court Kills Rent Control?

Article recommendations from your friends on Facebook and Twitter aren't a major source of traffic for news websites, according to Pew's State of the Media 2012 report -- but they have potential to become one.

The annual release focuses on trends in the world of journalism but as news continues to be made, read and reported with technology, this year's edition is chock full of interesting data about the ways we all use the Internet.

[More from Mashable: Facebook Photos: The Key to a Successful Social Media Campaign]

According to Pew, social media use is on the rise, more people are reading the news online and advertisers are spending more money on Internet advertising than ever before. All of those factors have the potential to make social media one of the most important elements of a news outlet's business plan.

Facebook usage is up, according to Pew: 133 million users in the U.S. from 117 million last year. The social network's got 845 million active users globally -- about 54% of the world's online population.

[More from Mashable: Dont Tag Me, Bro: How to Control Facebook Photo Tags]

It's also winning the social media popularity contest in terms of time spent on the site. Facebook users scrolled through their news feed, gawked at photos of friends and played games like Farmville for an average of 423 minutes in December of last year.

Tumblr came in second (151 minutes) and Pinterest third (80 minutes). To some surprise, MySpace (13 minutes) beat out Google+ (5 minutes).

Twitter is growing as well -- 24 million active users in the U.S., according to eMarketer. That's an estimated 32% increase from last year year. The company is tight-lipped on exactly how many people use the service.

Journalists have flocked to Twitter, says Pew, giving it "outsized influence" in the media game. Its ability to disseminate breaking news before traditional wire services gives it a "critical role" in journalism, says Pew -- Whitney Houston's death announcement on Twitter 55 minutes before it was confirmed on the AP wire is just one example.

Read more here:
Pew: Social Media Not Yet Driving News Traffic