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'Get a Mac' Named Ad Campaign of the Decade, Earthquake Tweets Help Geologists

by Warren Riddle on December 15, 2009 at 11:58 AM

Highlights from this morning's other big tech headlines....
  • Adweek has released its list of the best advertisements of the 2000s, and Apple's 'Get a Mac' spots have claimed the coveted 'Campaign of the Decade' prize. The campaign, which involved over 60 ads, only came in 3rd in the reader poll, so maybe Apple's New Year's resolution will involve creating something a little more original for the next decade. [From: Adweek]
  • Twitter has increasingly become an effective tool for communication and information dissemination, and now the U.S. Geological Survey is using the microblogging service to perform scientific research. By examining people's tweets during and immediately following an earthquake, scientists glean valuable information about the size and severity of the quake, and how to best organize emergency response units. [From: Wired]
  • Australia is reportedly considering a plan to filter Internet content in an attempt to protect children from harmful material. The country tried this before, with laughable results. [From: Mashable]
  • Boxee, the media streaming service, recently previewed a private beta version that won't be publicly available until January. But Pirate Bay, a site where people can share and exchange software, actually has it available to download right now. [From: Lifehacker]
  • Japanese department store Sogo & Seibu will reportedly be selling limited edition, life-sized animatronic women for a mere $225,000 apiece. The somewhat realistic robots are definitely creepy, and even though their unholy purpose isn't clearly defined, at least they don't seem to writhe and convulse like this monstrosity. [From: Engadget]
  • Twitterers can already sync their accounts so that tweets appear as Facebook status updates. It seems that Facebook will finally be allowing the opposite, so status updates can automatically appear as tweets. [From: Inside Facebook]
  • URL shorteners like Bit.ly have become increasingly popular, but the ambiguous abbreviations make it easy for spammers and scam artists to dupe people into clicking on fake links. Bit.ly, though, is currently testing a new Pro service that would allow customizable and easily-recognizable shortened URLs. [From: bit.ly blog]

Tags: morningxtra, top

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