The Photoshop Fifty - Crafted Images Of Our Age

Fifa Under 20 World Cup – Toronto Image Credit: graphicdesignblog.org

The Photoshop Fifty - Crafted Images Of Our Age

This posting from Graphic Design Blog was so interesting ... I decided to post the whole thing here.

Many really do not know exactly how good computer graphics programs that manipulate images are. Great manipulations or manipulations that are mistakes, it makes little difference because the average person may sense something might be a little peculiar but most who view the image, see the larger picture, and move on.

Do not believe what you see in this mashed up image/symbol world!

This excerpted and edited from Graphic Design Blog -

50 Photoshopped Advertising Designs - The Wonders and Blunders!!
Charlie B. Johnson

Interesting ads brilliantly convey a brand’s message to its targeted audience and potential clients. Moreover, Photoshop techniques are used nowadays to make these ads more appealing and expressive. But, be careful…. Photoshop techniques can make the print ads look creative, funny, intelligent and at times a DISASTER. It does not only add more colors to your product advertisements but if used carelessly it can harm your brand’s strong image. Using high quality Photoshop techniques, print ads can be turned out into big wonders but have you ever seen Photoshop blunders…check some here.

Don’t forget to tell which of these you enjoyed the most….Wonders or the Blunders?

Photoshop Blunders:

1) Dust Jeans - Let’s Hold Hands: The tagline suggests the gesture of holding hands but unfortunately the person, to whom other hand belongs, is missing in the picture.

2) Tiger Woods in Washington Post: The image shows a clear blunder with Phil Mickelson is standing in front of Tiger Woods and both players looking in opposite direction for the same ball.

3) Garnier: On a closer look of this Garnier Hair Color ad you will notice that the lady is not holding the cherries and the hands are shopped in.

4) Torchwood: The image is a clear blunder as both hands are either right or left.

5) Pepsi Photoshop cans: The reflection is off. It should be straight-down parallel with the can, but actually leans forward.

6) Lexar 8GB: The reflection of the SD card has "4GB" as the memory, not 8GB like in the picture.

7) Azoogle: You can easily witness that the “Big Amount” check has been shopped in, as the check is missing in the reflection of car and man’s shadow.

8 ) Braking The Cycle: The back wheel of the cycle is half gone but a failed attempt has been made to make it appear as a complete cycle.

9) Unwigged & Unplugged: Two hands on the guy’s shoulders, both belong to the guy on the right somehow.

10) Paris-Match: You can only see the legs of a man behind Sawkozy who was later chopped out from the picture.

11) StarGate: An additional lady face has been shopped on the right end.

12) INFDaily: I don’t think I need to point out an additional hand at Beyonce’s back.

13) Studier in Halle:

14) Formoza:

15) Nestle Loops:

16) Street Hear:

17) TuttoSport:

Wonders of Advertisement Designs: Talking about advertising designs, you always expect some great ideas and concepts to sparkle your eyes. Here are some vibrant, punchy and conceptually strong print ads, which you will regret if miss them.

Architect’07 Fair – Thai house hair

Johnson & Johnson, Sundown

Clinic All Clear – Smoke

Fifa Under 20 World Cup – Toronto

McCormick – Chicken

Mothers Against Drunk Driving

Natural Mineral Water – Watermelon

Onitsuka Tiger – Shoe

PlayStation 2-Death by Ninja

SPI Insulating Windows – Ice

WWF- Homeless Polar bear

Yamaha X-City – Elephant

Fly Emirates:

Tiger:

Green Peace:

Coca Cola:

Dunkin Donuts:

Ray Ban:

Godiva:

Nokia:

M&M’s - Personalized M&M’s:

7up:

Lifebuoy Handwash:

Nike:

Ashtanga Yoga Center:

WMF Knives:

Volkswagon:

Event Brand:

Neonic Evolution Limited CCTV:

Resource Box: http://weirdnewsfiles.com/weird-photos/weird-photoshop/best-bad-photoshop-mistakes/ http://digg.com/d312yYW http://bestphotoshoptutorials.net/2009/03/30/30-photoshopped-images-in-advertising-design/ http://designm.ag/inspiration/advertising-design-showcase/ http://psd.tutsplus.com/articles/web/40-brilliantly-photoshopped-print-ads/ http://www.graphicmania.net/most-amazing-advertisements-ideas/

Reference Here>>

Vein Vending Machines - Purchasing With The Point Of A Finger

While Japanese banks have been using the technology for a few years, now Hitachi has introduced a vending machine that eschew coins and credit cards for the veins in your fingers. Image Credit: Getty via Gizmodo

Vein Vending Machines - Purchasing With The Point Of A Finger

Hitachi's proprietary biometric authentication system requires that users first register an account (probably linking their vein pattern to a credit card), but it allows one to purchase, say, a delicious can of green tea or icy cold black coffee by inserting a cautious hand into a machine for a quick scan.

Vein ID - How It Works - Image Credit: Hitachi via Symblogogy

Of course, the system exploits your identity a bit in the process, using age and gender information stored in a mass networking database file to display an appropriate video ad while you enjoy your refreshment. But hey, if a public Coke machine light-probing your innards doesn't bother you, why should a quick sales pitch?

Hitachi fingerscan approval vending machines. Image Credit: Mitsutsuka Satoshi for Hitachi

In theory, any retail outlet, hooked up to this network database and a fingerscan device would allow transactions with a proof of an ability to pay. Supermarkets, gas stations, and other common purchasing environments, when combined with technology, would bring about a cashless, cardless buying society.

If this ID through a tip of a finger thing catches on, it will bring about a whole new meaning to the phrase/term Point-Of-Sale.
(ht: Gizmodo)

Mobile Eagle Eye Tower Systems See Threats From Above

Are You Being Watched? Raytheon's unmanned blimp at this year's INDY 500. The blimp flying above your head may be watching your every move [ctrl-click for slideshow]. Image Credit: Raytheon Company

Mobile Eagle Eye Tower Systems See Threats From Above

Of all of the vehicles one encounters at this year's largest motorsports event, one doesn't expect that the one hanging around, attached to a guide wire, quietly floating along inconspicuously, is there to watch you and the 400,000 or so enthusiasts gathered to watch the spectacle on the ground.

At this year's INDY 500, held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, a new surveillance tool was deployed, tested, and passed its first major hurdle as an important part of a security and surveillance grid to be used at major crowd gatherings such as sporting events and street fairs. Street cameras, cop cars, helicopters and foot patrols are generally what this terrestrial platform helps to stitch together and develop a clearer understanding of the security challenges that exist today in an age of potential terrorism and terrorist acts.

The blimp airship developed and deployed by Raytheon features cameras and infrared sensors developed through military contracts for applications associated with battlefield surveillance is being adapted to aid in civilian applications of security and event research if a hostile act were to occur.

The fastest vehicle at the INDY 500, in terms of identifying and neutralizing a threat that would disrupt the action on the ground, may actually be hanging above the crowd, observing and sensing the action as it happens.

Raytheon developed the Rapid Aerostat Initial Deployment (RAID) Mobile Eagle Eye tower systems (in 2007) to protect U.S. and coalition forces in Iraq. The adapted civilian application of this technology is now being tested and deployed [ctrl-click for b-roll video from Newsweek]. Image Credit: Raytheon Company

This excerpted and edited from Newsweek Magazine -

Eye in the Sky: Raytheon's unmanned blimp at this year's Indy 500
By Kurt Soller | Newsweek Web Exclusive - Jun 11, 2009

At first glance, there was nothing special about the blimp floating high above the cars and crowd at this year's Indy 500 on Memorial Day weekend. Like most airships, it acted as an advertising vehicle; this time for the Fisher House, a charity focused on helping injured veterans and their families. But the real promo should have been for the blimp's creator, Raytheon, the security company best known for its weapons systems. Hidden inside the 55-foot-long white balloon was a powerful surveillance camera adapted from the technology Raytheon provides the U.S. military. Essentially an unmanned drone, the blimp transmitted detailed images to the race's security officers and to Indiana police. "The airship is great because it doesn't have that Big Brother feel, or create feelings of invasiveness," says Lee Silvestre, vice president of mission innovation in Raytheon's Integrated Defense division. "But it's still a really powerful security tool."

Until recently, Raytheon's eye-in-the-sky technology was used in Afghanistan and Iraq to guard American military bases, working as airborne guards against any oncoming desert threat. Using infrared sensors and a map overlay not unlike Google Earth, the technology scans a large area, setting important landmarks (say, the perimeter of a military base), and constantly relays video clips back to a command center. If a gun fires or a bomb is detonated, the airships can detect the noise and focus the camera—all from a mighty-high 500 feet.

After the success of the Indy 500 trial, the company is targeting police departments and sporting facilities that want to keep an eye on crowds that might easily morph into an unruly mob. "Large municipalities could find many uses for this [technology] once we figure out how to get it in their hands," says Nathan Kennedy, the blimp's project manager.

For now, cost might be the only thing preventing a blimp from appearing over your head. Raytheon won't disclose how much the system may eventually cost, but chances are it won't be cheap. For municipalities without a Pentagon-size police budget, the blimps' potential to display ads may assist with financing. Raytheon says local authorities could install a built-in LED screen to attract sponsors, generate revenue and defer operating costs.
Reference Here>>

So, when it feels like someone is watching you ... look up and smile, you are being watched by that blimp advertising the money you could have saved by switching to ... Geico!

Bud-A-Bing - Befriend Microsoft's New Search Platform

Bing Type Logo - Bing, A better way to search ... A Decision Engine! [D7 Video Link] Image Credit: Edmund Jenks (2009)

Bud-A-Bing - Befriend Microsoft's New Search Platform

This week, Microsoft unvield its new -- beefed up and bundled with other stand-alone internet function programs -- search engine approach that they hope will command attention and grab a share of almost everyone's favorite activity on the computer, finding information!

While Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz continue to court each other in ongoing discussions about a search and advertising partnership, Microsoft has been improving their search program approach, once known as Windows Live Search and, prior to that as MSN Search, marketed under the name Microsoft Live Search.

In an executive conference dubbed WEB 3.0 (because the conference promoters think something major is happening at the intersection of tech and media, and think it deserves its own new hyped-up name: Web 3.0), the seventh edition of D: All Things Digital - D7, Microsoft unveiled its long-awaited search engine (formerly known as Kumo) - Bing.

Microsoft believes that breaking down search into easier to understand categories, they will be able to move one from a "Search Engine" to a "Decision Engine" because as they say in their promotional video - "The world doesn't need just another search engine, it needs a decision engine."

Microsoft is hoping, now that they have re-made Live Search and combined it with other strong Microsoft web interface programs, that the world will decide make Bing it's search buddy ... so Bud-A-Bing!

D7 Video: Microsoft's Ballmer and Walt Mossberg - Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer talks with Walt Mossberg about the company's new search engine, "Bing", and other topics at the D7 conference.

This excerpted and edited from The Channel Wire -

5 Ways Microsoft's Bing Can Be A Contender
By Chad Berndtson, The Channel Wire - May 29, 2009

Bing's the thing -- and it's finally here.

Microsoft Thursday unveiled its long-awaited search engine at the D: All Things Digital Conference in Carlsbad, Calif., with Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer touting Bing as a platform for smarter, deeper search beyond what its biggest rivals, including Google, have to offer.
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In addition [to the re-branding of Live Search], a number of its platforms, such as its Virtual Earth mapping, will be rebranded as Bing functions, in that case Big Maps for Enterprise. Microsoft is going to need a lot more than a rebranding effort, however, to gain back some of Google's massive search market share -- 64.2 percent in the U.S. Vs. Microsoft's paltry 8.2 percent, according to April numbers released by ComScore.

Here are five elements of the forthcoming Bing that will give it the oomph it needs to compete:

1. Visual Presentation

Microsoft's July 2008 acquisition of Powerset, a developer of semantic search technology, gives it tools for a richer, more visually agreeable search presentation than the usual digest of blue links from Google or Yahoo.

2. Keywords Help

As search words are being typed into Bing, the Bing search function offers keywords to help users narrow their searches. If Microsoft can improve these keywords so they go beyond what Google offers with its Google Suggest, it can start to sound more realistic when it claims its a "smarter search."

3. Shop-'Til-You-Droppers and Hypochondriacs

The Bing platform breaks down into four broad categories: shopping, local, travel and health. If a user enters a search query under those categories, Bing brings back results relevant to them. For example, searching in the "shopping" category would bring back search results that include pricing and availability, and a search in the health category would find symptoms or medical research. For those who spend all their time clicking "Buy it" or freaking out about a tickle in their throat on WebMD, Microsoft might get them to where they want to go faster than Google.

4. Best Match, Instant Answers and Quick Preview

Microsoft is including a few sleek features that lend more immediacy to search, including Best Match, in which Bing collects relevant results and puts what it deems to be the most relevant search link right at the top. Similar to Google's "I Feel Lucky" search function, but if you didn't know what "I Feel Lucky" does before, you're not clicking it with the intent to use it properly. Instant Answers also takes up the "I Feel Lucky" mantle with a bit more clarity, offering single-click access to information listed in search results. Finally, Quick Preview allows a user to hover over a search result and see a text excerpt from the page of that result -- a look at the search result without actually having to click through it.

5. It's Microsoft

"Microsoft's secret sauce is its marketing savvy and its persistence," wrote Everything Channel Editor/News Steve Burke in a Wednesday blog post on ChannelWeb. "Remember, there were a few people who believed Netscape was invincible until Microsoft focused all its guns on blowing the onetime browser pioneer out of the water."
Reference Here>>

Bing will be available to the general public in less than one week, starting June 3.

Pocket Mobility - A Hot Spot That Travels

Novatel's MiFi, a 3G Wi-Fi router. A personal cellular Hot Spot that one can share ... that is NOT a USB stick and does not require a change in the network software settings of ones laptop [CLICK image for video]. Image Credit: Novatel

Pocket Mobility - A Hot Spot That Travels

That's right, a hot spot that becomes you. It's the Novatel MiFi 2200 that will be available from Verizon starting in mid-May that allows the person carrying the battery-powered, rechargeable, cellular, Wi-Fi hot spot to easily share the internet access.

The "MiFi" device has its Wi-Fi access password printed on the bottom, so if one wishes share (or sell time on) the uplink, one can can invite someone to join networking simply by showing the password to them (it's printed on each card).

This all sounds pretty cool until one realizes that this device is little more than a form factor change from a standard USB plug-in portal with its associated data upload/download limitations and costs (not to mention - RANGE - it is only about 30 feet).

So, why not get a "MiFi", a sandwich-board, and a busy, independent coffee shop and go into business? Sell access in areas where overcharging is rampant, like posh hotels, and airports. All one would have to do is go to critical time crunch convention centers where access may be limited, or purposely restricted, and open up shop for .... say 10 minutes, then move on?

It's a business model for a new age in these trying economic times ... or not!

This excerpted and edited from the New York Times -

Wi-Fi to Go, No Cafe Needed
By DAVID POGUE - Published: May 6, 2009

Someday, we’ll tell our grandchildren how we had to drive around town looking for a coffee shop when we needed to get online, and they’ll laugh their heads off. Every building in America has running water, electricity and ventilation; what’s the holdup on universal wireless Internet?

Getting online isn’t impossible, but today’s options are deeply flawed. Most of them involve sitting rooted in one spot — in the coffee shop or library, for example. (Sadly, the days when cities were blanketed by free Wi-Fi signals leaking from people’s apartments are over; they all require passwords these days.)

If you want to get online while you’re on the move, in fact, you’ve had only one option: buy one of those $60-a-month cellular modems from Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile or AT&T. The speed isn’t exactly cable-modem speed, but it’s close enough. You can get a card-slot version, which has a nasty little antenna protuberance, or a U.S.B.-stick version, which cries out to be snapped off by a passing flight attendant’s beverage cart.

A few laptops have this cellular modem built in, which is less awkward but still drains the battery with gusto.

But imagine if you could get online anywhere you liked — in a taxi, on the beach, in a hotel with disgustingly overpriced Wi-Fi — without messing around with cellular modems. What if you had a personal Wi-Fi bubble, a private hot spot, that followed you everywhere you go?

Incredibly, there is such a thing. It’s the Novatel MiFi 2200.
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In essence, the MiFi converts that cellular Internet signal into an umbrella of Wi-Fi coverage that up to five people can share. (The speed suffers if all five are doing heavy downloads at once, but that’s a rarity.)
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How is this amazing? Let us count the ways.

First, you’re spared the plug-and-unplug ritual of cellular modems. You can leave the MiFi in your pocket, purse or laptop bag; whenever you fire up your laptop, netbook, Wi-Fi camera or game gadget, or wake up your iPhone or iPod Touch, you’re online.

Last week, I was stuck on a runway for two hours. As I merrily worked away online, complete with YouTube videos and file downloads, I became aware that my seatmate was sneaking glances. As I snuck counter-glances at him, I realized that he had no interest in what I was doing, but rather in the signal-strength icon on my laptop — on an airplane where there wasn’t otherwise any Wi-Fi signal. “I’m sorry,” he finally said, completely baffled, “but how are you getting a wireless signal?” He was floored when I pulled the MiFi from my pocket, its power light glowing evilly.

If he’d had a laptop, I would have happily shared my Wi-Fi cloud with him. The network password is printed right there on the bottom of the MiFi itself.
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The second huge advantage of the MiFi is that, as with any wireless router, you can share its signal with other people; up to five road warriors can enjoy the same connection. Your youngsters with their iPod Touches in the back of the van could hop online, for example, or you and your colleagues could connect and collaborate on a corporate retreat.
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Some footnotes: First, the MiFi goes into sleep mode after 30 minutes of inactivity, to prolong its battery life.

Yes, it means that a single charge can get you through a full day of on-and-off Internet noodling, even though the battery is supposed to run for only four hours a charge (it’s rated at 40 hours of standby). But once the MiFi is asleep, your Wi-Fi bubble is gone until you tap the power button.
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A final note: If your laptop has a traditional cellular modem, you can turn on a Mac OS X or Windows feature called Internet Sharing, which rebroadcasts the signal via Wi-Fi, just like the MiFi.

But the MiFi is infinitely easier to use and start up, doesn’t lock you into carrying around your laptop all the time, has better range and works even when your laptop battery is dead. (The MiFi recharges from a wall outlet; it still works as a hot spot while it’s plugged in.)

It’s always exciting when someone invents a new product category, and this one is a jaw-dropper. All your gadgets can be online at once, wherever you go, without having to plug anything in — no coffee shop required. Heck, it might even be worth showing the grandchildren.
Reference Here>>

Symbols And AI Yield Answers To 4K Old Mystery

In 1877, British archaeologist Alexander Cunningham hypothesized that the Indus script was a forerunner of modern-day Brahmic scripts, used from Central to Southeast Asia. Other researchers disagreed. Fueled by scores of competing and ultimately unsuccessful attempts to decipher the script, that contentious state of affairs has persisted to the present. Image Credit: WIRED

Symbols And AI Yield Answers To 4K Old Mystery

Archaeologists, and other scientific minds since the beginning of the discovery and study of ancient societies, and the methods of their evidence of communication, have struggled with the structure, meaning, and definition of script symbols.

One script found in the ruins of the Indus Valley (eastern Pakistan/northwest India) is believed to be the graphic root and link of other languages that include Chinese Lolo, Sumerian, Egyptian, Dravidian, Indo-Aryan, and Old Slavic. Indus script , however has never been deciphered and defined, that is until now.

What is being hailed as a breakthrough in the beginning of an understanding of the structure of the symbols uncovered from this 4,000 year old society, a program that draws from many sources and aided by computerized artifical intelligence discovered that the structure of the Indus Script followed the rules of a spoken language.

Examples of the Indus script. Three elongated seals that have no iconography, as well as three miniature tablets (one twisted). The tablets measure about 1.25 inches long by 0.5 inches wide. Image Credit: University of Washington

This excerpted and edited from WIRED -

Artificial Intelligence Cracks 4,000-Year-Old Mystery
By Brandon Keim WIRED - April 23, 2009

An ancient script that’s defied generations of archaeologists has yielded some of its secrets to artificially intelligent computers.

Computational analysis of symbols used 4,000 years ago by a long-lost Indus Valley civilization suggests they represent a spoken language. Some frustrated linguists thought the symbols were merely pretty pictures.

"The underlying grammatical structure seems similar to what’s found in many languages," said University of Washington computer scientist Rajesh Rao.

Comparison of symbols found in Indus Valley and, of all places, Easter Island. Image Credit: SodaHead/SweetLoveGifts (posted with comment)

The Indus script, used between 2,600 and 1,900 B.C. belonged to a civilization as sophisticated as its Mesopotamian and Egyptian contemporaries. However, it left fewer linguistic remains. Archaeologists have uncovered about 1,500 unique inscriptions from fragments of pottery, tablets and seals. The longest inscription is just 27 signs long.

In 1877, British archaeologist Alexander Cunningham hypothesized that the Indus script was a forerunner of modern-day Brahmic scripts, used from Central to Southeast Asia.
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In 2004, linguist Steve Farmer published a paper asserting that the Indus script was nothing more than political and religious symbols. It was a controversial notion, but not an unpopular one.

Rao, a machine learning specialist who read about the Indus script in high school and decided to apply his expertise to the script while on sabbatical in Inda, may have solved the language-versus-symbol question, if not the script itself.
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Rao’s team used pattern-analyzing software running what’s known as a Markov model, a computational tool used to map system dynamics.

They fed the program sequences of four spoken languages: ancient Sumerian, Sanskrit and Old Tamil, as well as modern English. Then they gave it samples of four non-spoken communication systems: human DNA, Fortran, bacterial protein sequences and an artificial language.

The program calculated the level of order present in each language. Non-spoken languages were either highly ordered, with symbols and structures following each other in unvarying ways, or utterly chaotic. Spoken languages fell in the middle.

When they seeded the program with fragments of Indus script, it returned with grammatical rules based on patterns of symbol arrangement. These proved to be moderately ordered, just like spoken languages.

As for the meaning of the script, the program remained silent.
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Parpola said the primary obstacle confronting decipherers of fragmentary Indus scripts — the difficulty of testing their hypotheses — remains unchanged.

But according to Rao, this early analysis provides a foundation for a more comprehensive understanding of Indus script grammar, and ultimately its meaning.

"The next step is to create a grammar from the data that we have," he said. "Then we can ask, is this grammar similar to those of the Sanskrit or Indo-European or Dravidian languages? This will give us a language to compare it to."
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"One of the main questions in machine learning is how to generalize rules from a limited amount of data," said Rao. "Even though we can’t read it, we can look at the patterns and get the underlying grammatical structure."
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"It’s only recently that archaeologists have started to apply computational approaches in a rigid manner," said Rao. "The time is ripe."
Reference Here>>

It strikes us here at Symblogogy, that if we humans can create something as complicated as a 3D camera readable automatic identification code (a 2D QR code with color), we should be able to reverse engineer 4,000 year old languages like Indus Script.

This artificial intelligence approach gets us one step closer to understanding and decode the meaning of what was communicated.

IndyCar Series Sponsorship Nets Big Gains For Verizon

The Verizon Wireless sponsored Dallara leading the race at the 35th Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach. Image Credit: Andy Sallee (2009)

IndyCar Series Sponsorship Nets Big Gains For Verizon

Winning cars, and winning markets!

Believe it or not, soon after Verizon Wireless placed its logo on an IndyCar, the car goes on to win the pole and place second in the race at the 35th Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach.

Now news has come in that Verizon Wireless surpasses AT&T for the lead in subscribership in its marketplace, is there any cause and effect relationship? Well, AT&T doesn't sponsor any cars that race in the IndyCar Series so who can say ... it can not help.

Will Power, a driver for the famed Penske Racing Team of the Indy Racing League, stepped into the brand new, never driven black Dallara, sponsored with the Verizon logo ... that (description from the Verizon corporate website) graphically portray's speed, while also echoing the genesis of the company name: veritas, the Latin word connoting certainty and reliability ... and horizon, signifying forward-looking and visionary.

Does this sponsorship and logo have any effect on the fortunes of the Australian driver who merged into the IRL when the ChampCar World Series agreed to have open wheel racing in North America be managed by one supervising body?

The Verizon Wireless sponsored Dallara leaves the pits looking to rejoin and win the race. Image Credit: Andy Sallee (2009)

This excerpted and edited from ComputerWorld -

Verizon leapfrogs AT&T for wireless subscriber lead

By Brad Reed - April 27, 2009 (Network World)

Verizon now has more wireless subscribers than any carrier in the U.S., as its merger with Alltel has helped the company jump ahead of rival AT&T Inc..

Verizon said in its earnings report today that its total number of wireless customers surged to 86.5 million in the first quarter of 2009, when the carrier added a net 14.5 million wireless customers. Roughly 13.2 million of those customers came over to Verizon as a result of its Alltel acquisition.

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The big increase in wireless customers now gives Verizon an edge of about 8.3 million wireless subscribers over AT&T, which reported last week that it has 78.2 million wireless customers.

In addition to its large customer gains, Verizon reported a solid net income of $3.2 billion in the first quarter, a 5.3% increase over the $3 billion net income it reported in the first quarter of 2008.

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Its total number of broadband connections grew by 7.8% to 8.9 million, while the total number of subscribers to its FiOS Internet (2.8 million) and television (2.2 million) grew at impressive rates of 55.5% and 83.8%, respectively.

Reference Here >>

The symbolic power of the logo can not be denied, sponsorship generally brings good rewards and recognition to the sponsor ... but, maybe this kind of success is a little more than Verizon Wireless hoped for ... then, again.

Over Half Of The World Has Mobile Phones

Order sale items, online at Neiman Marcus, from your G3 cellphone ... without a bank account. Cellphone wallets and automated card transactions make purchases simple, fast, and initiated from almost anywhere. Image Credit: © 2009, Neiman Marcus

Over Half Of The World Has Mobile Phones

A United Nations report shows that there are over 4.1 billion mobile subscriptions around the world - that's about 60% of the world's population.

The increase in use has been particularly large in areas where traditionally communications networks infrastructures have been poor, with the continent of Africa having the fastest growth.

For many, it's hard to remember clearly what life was like before the mobile phone.

Much of the increase is said to have been fueled by the ability of mobile technology to bring automated money transfer without having the necessity of an established bank account.

We now live in a world where the question - 'Why climb Everest?', has been replaced with - 'Why call Neiman Marcus from the top of Everest?' … the answer being 'because we can'.
(ht: NowPublic)