12.20-12.22

12.20
http://articles.latimes.com/2010/jul/22/business/la-fi-facebook-20100722

Facebook Inc. on Wednesday issued its own eye-popping status update: The world's most popular social networking site had surpassed 500 million users.

And now, the Internet phenomenon that has transformed how the world communicates is eyeing another distinction — connecting one out of every seven human beings on the planet.

Six years after getting its start in a Harvard dorm room, Facebook said it was aiming to have 1 billion members, matching the reach of Internet search giant Google Inc.

If it can keep up its current breakneck pace, a feat that would defy predictions from analysts, Facebook could reach that goal by next year.

"We all love to dream big around here," said Randi Zuckerberg, the sister of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg who handles marketing. "We are going to take a day or so to celebrate 500 million users before we start thinking about going beyond that."

The site's runaway growth is nearly without precedent. Last summer, Facebook had 250 million users. It has amassed 100 million new members since February alone. Now if Facebook were a country, it would be the world's third largest.

All of which has lent credibility to Mark Zuckerberg's confident assertion that his company could almost "guarantee" growing to 1 billion active users despite a recent spate of privacy concerns and increasing competition from Google and others. Facebook defines active users as people who have logged onto the site within the last 30 days.

Two years ago, Facebook was available only in English, making overseas expansion more of a challenge except in English-speaking countries such as Britain and Australia.

Under Javier Olivan, who joined Facebook as head of international growth three years ago when the site had 30 million users, Facebook has encouraged its users to translate the site into more than 70 languages. Now Facebook is pulling even or overtaking social networking services in country after country, gaining traction in Europe, Latin America and beyond. Some 70% of Facebook users are outside the United States.

12.21
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2009-09-23/news/0909230201_1_social-networking-motoblur-home-computer

The outlook for the wireless industry is getting cloudier.
...

"When you have a laptop or a netbook, those are true computers and have great processing power and data storage," said Mark Beccue, a senior analyst at ABI Research. "But anything from a smart phone down does not. Mobile cloud computing says: 'What if you can enable these devices to access applications and data in the cloud?'

最後接
Analysts say faster networks will dovetail with proliferation of smarter devices. "This is going to be much more accesuble to a lot of us on affordable phones,; Beccue said.

12.22
http://articles.latimes.com/2010/jul/23/business/la-fi-ct-digital-comics-20100723

Technology, which has already upended the music, television and movie businesses, is now gripping the comic book world. ...

Enthusiasts dismiss such fears as nonsense. Digital distribution is not only bringing a desperately needed infusion of young comic readers but also giving birth to a renaissance of innovation in a medium that some say badly needs updating

Motion comics account for only a fraction of the digital comic market and are expensive to produce. Though early versions have been given a thumbs-down by many critics, growth of the motion comics sector is continuing to grow.

Jim Lee, co-publisher of DC Comics and a well-regarded artist and writer, says the move to digital is altering the creative process.

As readers become more familiar with reading digital comics, it will affect the way we think about producing the comics," Lee said. "We start to think about constructing our pages differently. Some publishers have asked artists to create layouts specifically for the iPad, for instance. We also think about the length of our stories because people with smart phones have shorter bits of time to consume media.... I see a lot of experimentation with the art form."

"Every time we undergo a change in technology, people say we're losing something," said Joe Quesada, Marvel's editor in chief. "I see it as gaining something.... Comic creators will learn how to tell their stories in new ways."