It seems like Apple has been very careful with the details of the launch of its tablet, but made a mistake of beginners: They did not check whether the name iPad was already registered.

Indeed, the brand not only registered, but Fujitsu, who owns it, has a tablet device that receives the same name, according to the Trademark Registry and U.S. Patent. It is a device a little bigger than a mobile phone; it includes a touch screen and runs under Windows. It is designed for stores and business managers with the aim of controling inventories and movements of goods, access prices, read barcodes, and so on.

This  is not the first time in Cupertino that something similar happens. Following the launch of its famed iPhone, Apple had to battle with Cisco for the name. Apple Inc claimed that this name had previously been registered in Trinidad and Tobago but in the end, after a financial settlement, they kept the name.

Fujitsu claims to have been using the trademark iPad since 2002 in relation to its mobile computing products for the retail sector. Japan’s attorneys are considering whether or not to go to court.

Watch this space

Michael Gomez

YouTube includes automatic captions

YouTube has incorporated a beta automatic subtitling feature advantageous for users with hearing disabilities and those not easily understand foreign languages. Until now, people have posted videos on YouTube manually subtitled by the posting user. This has changed with the incorporation of  this automatic subtitling function based on Google ‘s text-to-voice technology. To activate the feature (beta version for the time being), users need only press a virtual button called “caption” and then select the “transcribe audio”, so that YouTube automatically generates text based on the video’s audio. The system also features a choice of translation / interpretation in real time. In their  blog, YouTube accepts that the system has certain imperfections, and that voice to text conversion can produce results that sometimes are difficult  to understand.

What a great feature! who has checked it out?

Last June during their IO 2009 meeting Google announced the development of a technology that might change the way we communicate and collaborate through the web.

This technology, presented under the name WAVE was developed by the same people who created Google Maps and a support team in Sydney, Australia, and is described by their creators as “what email would be if it was to be created today”

Email was created 40 years ago as a communication tool that only was capable of handling text. As technology advanced, new types of information were incorporated to the daily exchange such as images, audio and video; however, email programs managed to handle these new requirements in a very efficient way.

Today evolution has brought new mechanisms for communication that people use in their daily lives besides email. In fact, technologies such as instant messaging, chat, cell phones, etc, are used as alternate – complementary – non related tools to attend our communication needs.

Wave will present an integrated solution to these needs by offering a mechanism where they will interact under a natural platform. In fact, their creators describe it as a communications platform that will handle instant messaging, group or private conversations, documents exchange, documents collaboration, wiki type site building and more.  In a few words, just what you actually do with email plus several other programs and sites, joined in a single and simple window; managed by the browser of your choice, without installing any program on your PC and from any operating system (Mac, Windows, Linux, etc).

If this description has not amazed you yet then here are some more details that will be integrated in the product:

-       Online spelling dictionary with predictive text capacity.

-       Live transmitting of every word/character of your message.

-       Search tool to embed web search capacity in the conversation ‘Searchy’ feature.

-       Drag and drop contacts into the wave.

-       Play back feature, which allows you to keep track of the history of each wave from creation to last input in movie motion.

-       Create group albums by dragging and dropping the participants photos into the wave.

-       Embed the whole wave into a blog ‘Bloggy’ feature.

-       Discussion and content collaboration capacity, ideal for planning your projects, trips, events, etc.

-       International language input method.

-       Live editing.

-       ‘Yes, No, Maybe’ gadget to organise responses.

-       Twitter capacity ’Twave’ – a Wave of tweets.

-       Insert a Google map by highlighting a location name in your Wave. Add comments and markers to your map and use the polygon tool to highlight specific areas.

-       My very favourite!!!!! ‘Instant translation to 40 languages if any of the parties does not speak your language’.

In summary, its an email + chat + instant messaging + document collaboration + document sharing and editing + translation tool + online dictionary + more, more… much more! All integrated in a single window.

The product will be released by the end of this year. The effects this will have in the way people communicate is not easy to predict, but as we see it, two things look clear from now:

Our current email communication will become obsolete. Group integration will be enforced, as the language barriers no longer will be a limitation.

Want to add your own prediction? Please send us your comments on this post and remember to ‘Bookmark it’ if you liked it.

Michael Gomez

‘The Techy Guy’ at Marketing for Small Businesses

For a more detailed description visit http://wave.google.com/help/wave/about.html

Marketing for Small Businesses is proud to offer a Virtual Marketing Department, tailored to Small & Start Up Businesses in Dorset, Wiltshire and Hampshire, that is cost-effective and managed by qualified marketeers. Find out about the benefits of this service in this interesting article about the benefits of having a Virtual Marketing Department taking care of all your marketing needs. No project is too small for us!

‘Outsourcing has always had the good and the bad associated to it, but the success of outsourcing all over the developed world has proven beyond doubt, that the volume of the pros associated with outsourcing overpower the cons to a great extent. Latest in the field of outsourcing is the concept of “virtual marketing departments”.

Wondering what these are? Well, just like any other outsourcing job, virtual marketing departments take care of all your marketing needs and strive to make your startup/established business a success in the online world. Right from branding to developing market strategies and getting leads and tackling the media etc., these departments know all the tricks of the trade and the best part is that they help you save a lot of time that you otherwise would have wasted on doing each of these things on your own.

You might put a question to me at this juncture- why outsource when I can hire people and see them formulate plans in front of my eyes? Well, I understand your apprehensions about outsourcing your marketing job to a third party virtual department, but in doing so, you are entitling yourself to a hoard of benefits. First up, you don’t pay these virtual departments on an on-going basis. Rather, you pay them only for the work they do. On the other hand, if you had a dedicated marketing system set up for your company, you would have had to pay them a fixed salary and compensation packages, irrespective of the kind of work they are doing. In outsourcing, therefore, you tend to save at least two quarters worth of money that you would have paid your local marketing department.

Besides, you would also have incurred the cost of setting up the office, telephone connections, health benefits, worker’s comp etc. for your dedicated marketing department, while this is not the case with virtual marketing departments. Virtual departments have their own infrastructure set up and all you have to do is pay them and put your idea across, without worrying about anything else. So, what are you waiting for? Just outsource your work to a virtual marketing department and give yourself complete peace of mind.

Another point to consider is that if you hired a local in-house marketing department, you would need to train them to do the tasks you need. This takes time and expertise which you may not have, and the benefit of having a Virtual Marketing Department will free up your time and stress of wondering how to get your marketing going.’

For more information on our Virtual Marketing Department (VMD) Service please call us on:

01202-233262

or emails us to hello@marketing-for-smallbusinesses.co.uk

Extracted from http://ezinearticles.com/?Outsourcing-Tips-For-a-Small-Business-Virtual-Marketing-Department&id=3017036