A new calling device was announced today that could save people a lot of money on cell phone minutes they are currently racking up. This new product is called the MagicJack. The MagicJack uses the internet to make free calls from cell phones when in the home. According to yahoo.com this device uses the same radio frequencies that cellular carriers have paid billions of dollars for exclusive licenses.
The way it works is like a tiny little cell tower located in your home. It is plugged into your computer and connects to a cell phone that is located within 8 feet of the MagicJack. It places a call to your cell phone, once the phone is connected by entering a security code with the keypad of the phone, it is connected and you are able to make calls as long as it stays in range of the device. The device is said to have a range that will cover a 3,000-square-foot home. No minutes will be charged to your cell phone because the call is placed over the Internet.
Introduced at the International Consumers Electronics Show, the MagicJack is expected to start selling in May for $40, it will provide free calls to the U.S. and Canada for one year. I guess the cell phone companies are going to have to come up some more creative ways to charge the consumers.

It seems like everyone thinks that the iPhone is the best invention that has happened to cell phones. Whether you just use it for talking and texting, or if you are someone who pretty much has it glued to your hand for work or play, the iPhone does it all. No matter how hard other companies try to copy all the unique features, they just can not seem to hit it on the nose…until now that is.
Google has just released their new Nexus One Phone. The Nexus phone has a very similar style to the iPhone, but it does have one improved feature that sets it apart. This new cell phone has the ability to run multiple applications at the same time. This is a huge advantage over the iPhone. There will be no need to close out of an application because a text comes in or trying to figure out which app you need to use first to make sure that you have everything ready for the next one that you need to go into.
The only real down side that can been seen in the phone is the fact that it is not a multi touch touch screen, meaning that you are not able to increase or decrease an image size just by a pinch of the fingers. This might not even be a downsize if you are someone who is accustom to using a Blackberry. So how much will this new little item set you back? About $179.99 with a contract from T-Mobile or $529.99 to purchase the phone by its self. Price wise, it is right at the same level as the iPhone, and even the Droid (which has been receiving both positive and negative buzz). It looks like there is finally some real competition for the iPhone.
The real questions is, will this be the next big phone or will the IPhone continue to remain on top?

Believe it or not Wi-Fi is going to be available in cars in the near future (2010 to be exact). Many of us need to go to coffee shops or other public places that allow us the convenience of getting internet access, however it seems that Ford cars are going to be starting to install WI-FI capabilities in next years models. This will be possible with the SYNC system who is partnering up with Microsoft. Consumers will then be able to utilize their laptops in their cars wherever they want!
The advancement of technology is so amazing. Not only can people use their cell phones to access the internet, now they are going to be able to sit in their cars and be on an actual laptop when needed. So will something like this maybe impact the lead generation world, where more people can potentially fill out online forms such as Leadpile’s Microclick form on a website? I think so!

After months and months of talking about naming someone to help with our nation’s cyber security, the White House has finally named someone to run this very important division. This past week, they named Howard A. Schmidt as the National Cyber Security Chief. Schmidt is bringing some attractive experience with him, with having worked for eBay and Microsoft.
So the question is what is someone like this going to do to help with cyber security? This sort of position is not something that any other president has appointed, so what will he be doing? The one thing we do know is that the computer systems of the US government need watching, but what about the watching over of the whole technology world that is currently exploding?
Either way, this gentlemen seems to have some history under his belt to help with the US government’s computer systems and hopefully any threats to the our nations cyber world. Time will tell exactly what this new role will be responsible for, however I am sure it is a position that will be constantly evolving with what is going on in Cyber world!

We all turn to the search engines to help us locate information, however did you know that the most popular search is one-word searches? Hitwise is reporting that 24.13% of the searches in November were people only using one word. Interesting enough, eight-word keyword searches had the biggest increase last month, however it only made up a little less than 4% of the searches. This sort of data is something that SEO/SEM experts should pay attention to for their campaigns.
This information is also really important to study if you want to optimize your website. Leadpile publishers should pay attention to articles such as this one if they are trying to understand what consumers are doing when searching the internet.

AOL came into this decade as an independent company, and it looks as though they will be leaving the decade solo. In recent news, AOL and Time Warner are “divorcing” and many are wondering how this will impact the internet veteran. AOL became famous as the big dial up internet company, and now they seem to have some challenges on their hands as they try to compete with other internet service providers.
Will there be a big challenge on their hand to get back in the internet “game”, or do they know what they are doing and will jump right back in game after the divorce from Time Warner?
We wish you luck in your new single life!

In years past YouTube tried to roll out in-stream ads (in 1997), however the acceptance of it did not go to well with viewers. Time has past and there are other sites that have incorporates such ads, so YouTube is now looking at taking another stab at it. It makes sense because YouTube is utilized by so many people in so many ways, that incorporating some sort of ads had to become part the of “YouTube Revolution”. The good thing about what YouTube is doing, is that they are creating these ads that are actually able to be skipped. However, what they are finding is that if you have a short 15 second ad, more people are not “skipping” over the ad. This is great news for the advertiser trying to get their ads played. Maybe the future of high priced Super Bowl ads will continue on from our televisions to our computers?
Leadpile has incorporated YouTube into our marketing efforts to help get our name out there, and we can certainly see a potential with bringing in ads to these videos. YouTube has to learn to make money, so what other options do they have but to look at cashing in on all the eyes they have on their videos? I think it is a good marketing idea…..

Believe it or not, Apple iTunes might have some competition coming from some new/old players in town!
In recent news, rumors are rumbling about Google possibly getting into the music service business. Potentially, with search results there could be an opportunity to purchase music from your favorite artist. This is big for Google and possibly something Apple will need to worry about.
If it wasn’t enough having recent news about Google and music services, Facebook is now in the news for it’s interest in music sales too! This is no rumor because Facebook has already started selling music in it’s online gift store. This is great news with the idea of how innovative online companies are trying to be, however possibly a little nerve racking for the online music mogul- Apple iTunes. May the music race BEGIN!!!!

How many people actually back up any data they have on their cell phones or computers? The answer is probably not enough do. I don’t know about you, but if I even forget my cell phone at home I feel totally “naked” and can’t wait to have it in my possession once again. We have all become so dependent on our cell phones, and even our computers as a source for any and all information we need to function. Unfortunately, those that were carrying around a Sidekick phone, and had the Microsoft service (Specifically Danger Inc), had to deal with a horrible situation of having had all their data lost. This is something none of us want to experience. So how do we prevent this kind of thing from happening to us? Really there is not a 100% way to prevent this sort of thing from happening if your data is being stored elsewhere. I think the only thing any of us can really do is look into a service or specific software that can back up our data and everything else that we store on our phones. Let’s take a guess how many people that just lost their data on their Sidekicks, don’t learn from this hard lesson of backing up your data? Do we need to all go through some scary situation like this to learn the hard way? Hope not!!!

There are some great new changes that have been added to the Leadpile seller account interface.
LeadPile has not only changed the visual appearance of our seller interface, but we have also added several convenient new features:
*Earnings Trends – simple overview of your account statistics
*Top Performing Offers – current LeadPile offers that are in high demand
*Today’s Activity Summary – overview of what happened today
*Easy to Use Navigation Bar- organized tabs to navigate efficiently
With the new interface being more intuitive and better organized, we hope that you find the new layout and design more user friendly, more appealing to the eye, and best of all more functional!

Sitting at my desk I can look around and see a LG phone, Dunkin’s cup, Apple computer, and the list can just go on and on. Whether it’s billboards, magazines, people’s clothing, or on the internet, advertising is literally everywhere. But where hasn’t advertising really tapped into yet? Your cell phone.
Mobile advertising is a market that many companies are trying to get more into. With everyone and their mother having a smart phone, it only makes sense for this to be the next big step in advertising. According to emarketer.com, the projected spend for 2009 in mobile advertising is 416 million, and it will soar up to $1.56 billion by 2013. Currently, the main forms of mobile advertising are through texting and banner ads. The mobile banner ads work in a similar fashion as internet banner ads. With mobile texting advertisers can purchase packages to meet their needs (packages can include a certain number of texts per month along with keywords) and then send them out to all their contacts.
Personally, I think that mobile advertising is great. Just the other week, I received a text for free admission to a concert because I had been at that same venue earlier that week. All I had to do is just show the text at the front door and I was in. No strings attached! Marketing strategies with incentives always seem to work the best. It gets the consumer in the door (for free in this case) and it still brings in revenue with other purchases such as food and beverages. If this isn’t a win win situation, then I do not know what is.

With all the fancy phones that we all have, there are challenges that have come up for the wireless carriers. Unlike the internet, wireless carries are concerned about regulations being implemented that would allow users to freely go to any and every website(s) on their phones. They see this as a real issue because there are designated wireless towers in specific areas that are providing the wireless service for those in the area. If wireless carries are not able to manage traffic that their users can utilize, then certain “internet surfing” is going to ultimately affect those around them. For instance, there are certain websites/applications that are considered bandwidth “hogs”. This is not necessarily an issue when on the internet, however certain sites/applications are affecting the service of those around you because of the “hogs”. For this reason, wireless companies are wanting the traffic to be managed so you can not access certain websites or applications, because they do not want the others to feel the affects from this “internet surfing”.
So what is the best way to resolve this sort of issue? Should there be regulations put on wireless customers on what websites or applications they utilize on their cell phones? My concern is this is only the beginning of what our cell phones and internet are going to be able to do, so isn’t there a way to maybe increase wireless towers around our country to overcome this potential issue? If we are facing issues with not enough bandwidth for everyone to go to any website or use any application they want, then isn’t it just a matter of adding more service?