Mediaboss Marketing

Android: If you're on a flight with your phone propped up in front of you, or listening to music while you work on your phone with your hands on the keyboard, it can be a pain to stop, unlock your phone or tap it to bring up the playback controls, and hit forward, back, switch songs, or change videos. Wave Control is a new Android app that lets you customize hand gestures to control music and video playback that you perform over your phone's proximity sensor, Minority Report style.

Okay, maybe Minority Report is a bit of a stretch, but you do get the ability to wave your hand in specific ways to accomplish certain commands, like skip forward, back, change the volume, stop or pause playback. One wave across the sensor skips forward, two skips back to the previous song, and three will pause or resume the song. The free version of the app is ad-supported, and needs to run in the background while you're watching a movie or listening to music (or even in another app entirely) so it can keep an eye on the sensor to see if you wave at it.

The paid version of the app ($1) allows you to assign different commands to your waves, gives you a stop command, and removes ads. If you prefer to stay hands off with your phone while you listen to music or watch a video, Wave Control may be a little complicated, but it might be a time saver. Have you tried Wave Control? Have an alternative? Let us know in the comments below.

Wave Control | Google Play via Addictive Tips

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Wave Control for Android Controls Media Playback by Watching You Wave Your Hand Over the Screen [Video]

Huffington Post co-founder Arianna Huffington today urged media companies to embrace the zeitgeist of consumer control and develop new ways to engage people who increasingly "want to be part of the story of their time."

Speaking at the American Association of Advertising Agencies' Transformation Conference in San Francisco, Huffington quoted everyone from Albert Einstein and Hercules to Craigslist founder Craig Newmark and musician will.i.am to underscore her message that newspapers and other media need to evolve quicker to respond to the massive changes in how the public consumes -- and now participates in -- news.

"We are in this brave new world and this discussion of [media Web site] pay walls . . . completely misses what is happening," Huffington said. "In every survey you read, you have about 80 percent of consumers who say that they don't want to pay for news and opinion, unless it's very specialized news and information."

She added: "We can't use an analog map and expect to find our way in a digital world. . . . The content provider is no longer at the center of the universe. At the center of the universe is now the news consumer."

Digital technology and the Internet have given rise to citizen journalists for whom "self-expression is the new entertainment," Huffington said. And unlike the past when people absorbed media passively while sitting on a couch, consumers now use the Web to post, access and circulate information in what Huffington described as the "golden age of engagement." The sooner that media owners tap into that phenomenon, Huffington suggested, the better off they will be.

"This is the new reality. People want to be part of the story of their time. They want to participate -- both in small ways and in big ways, both in small issues and in big issues -- with what is happening in our world," Huffington said. "So, this is a huge opportunity for advertisers and marketers because the most engaged consumers are the most loyal ones."

More broadly, consumer involvement in media stems from empathy toward others and not just during tragedies such as the earthquake in Haiti, according to Huffington. Rather, people want to find broader meaning in life beyond personal concerns, which is "very much at the core of human nature," she added. "This is something that many brands are already tapping into. Coke and Pepsi and American Express and Starbucks and Nike and the Gap and Apple and Dove and Yoplait and . . . many others are recognizing the significance of tapping into that longing in the consumer," she said.

Huffington spoke for about 20 minutes during the opening morning of the conference's general session. The conference runs through Wednesday.

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4A's: Huffington Embraces Consumer Control

If youre on a flight with your phone propped up in front of you, or listening to music while you work on your phone with your hands on the keyboard, it can be a pain to stop, unlock your phone or tap it to bring up the playback controls and hit forward, back, switch songs, or change videos. Wave Control is a new Android app that lets you customise hand gestures to control music and video playback that you perform over your phones proximity sensor, Minority Report style.

Okay, maybe Minority Report is a bit of a stretch, but you do get the ability to wave your hand in specific ways to accomplish certain commands, like skip forward, back, change the volume, stop or pause playback. One wave across the sensor skips forward, two skips back to the previous song and three will pause or resume the song. The free version of the app is ad-supported and needs to run in the background while youre watching a movie or listening to music (or even in another app entirely) so it can keep an eye on the sensor to see if you wave at it.

The paid version of the app allows you to assign different commands to your waves, gives you a stop command, and removes ads. If you prefer to stay hands off with your phone while you listen to music or watch a video, Wave Control may be a little complicated, but it might be a time saver. Have you tried Wave Control? Have an alternative? Let us know in the comments below.

Wave Control [Google Play via Addictive Tips

Read the rest here:
Control Android Media Playback By Waving Your Hands

Regional News of Friday, 20 April 2012

Source: GNA

Mr Jones Applerh, Executive Secretary, Small Arms and Light Weapons Commission, (SALW), on Friday appealed to the media to help security agencies control small arms proliferation in the country, especially before, during and after the December polls.

He urged the media to use the power of mass communication to expose the dangers of illicit proliferation of small arms into Ghana, and other West African States.

Mr Applerh was addressing a three-day capacity building workshop for journalists and media practitioners on current developments related to small arms and light weapons.

He said a baseline study in 2004 revealed that about 400,000 small arms were in circulation in the country, stressing that small arms were responsible for 60 to 90 per cent of direct conflict deaths each year.

He said the study identified that modern day chieftaincy disputes, land litigation, inter ethnic wars in the past and conflicts within the Sub-region were facilitated by the illegal importation, exportation and local manufacture of guns.

The workshop was organised by the National Commission on Small Arms and Light Weapons in collaboration with the ECOWAS Commission on Small Arms at Sogakofe in the Volta Region.

He therefore urged the media to collaborate with SALW in curbing the use of arms in our society.

On the on-going Biometric Voter Registration Exercise, Mr Applerh noted the need for adequate education on the electoral process and modalities for peaceful resolution of disagreements.

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Media tasked to assist security agencies control arms

Sirius XM Radio Inc. delivered a counterpunch Friday to Liberty Media's hostile takeover attempt in a brief it filed with federal regulators.

Liberty Media in March threw the first punch byasking the U.S.Federal Communications Commission togive it control overSiriusXM's operating licenses. Liberty argued that its 40% stake in SiriusXM gave it "de facto" control over the satellite radio company. It refined its argument further last Thursday, arguing that its stake, and control over five of the 13 seats on the Siriusboard is "more than sufficient to determine the outcome of matters submitted to a vote of shareholders."

SiriusXM took umbrage over the characterization. In a brief filed with the FCC, SiriusXM scoffed at Liberty's argument that "40 is the new 50."

"There is no support for the remarkable proposition that a... 40% minority interest, standing alone, is sufficient to bestow control of a public company," wrote SiriusXM's attorneys, who urged the agency's commissioners to dismiss Liberty's request.

Calls to the FCC were not returned, and Liberty Media's spokeswoman did not respond to requests for comment.

Eddy Hartenstein, publisher of the Los Angeles Times, is a non-executive chairman of the SiriusXM board.

The tussle for control over SiriusXM, whichtopped $3 billion in revenue in 2011, stems from a Faustian bargain its chief executive, Mel Karmazin, made in 2009to accept a $530-million loan fromLiberty Media's chairman, John Malone. The money, which has since been repaid, saved SiriusXM from having to file for bankruptcy protection.

The deal also gave Liberty Media a 40% stake in Sirius and five seats on the company's board. But it handcuffed Malone from making further moves to take over SiriusXM at least until thisMarch. When those restrictions expired,Liberty Media made its first moveby petitioningthe FCC for a transfer of SiriusXM's operating licenses.

For now, that's the least expensive path to gaining control of SiriusXM. But Liberty has other options, which it outlined in its petition last week to the FCC. Those include accumulating enough shares of SiriusXM to boost its stake above 50%and staging a boardroom coup bycalling "a meeting of Sirius stockholders" and putting the matter to a vote. But doing so could trigger a big tax bill for Liberty Media if the transaction is deemed to be an acquisition.

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SiriusXM snubs Liberty Media's takeover attempt -- again