In the social web, ladies rule

Jul 29, 2010 by Dan Taylor    4 Comments    Posted under: Social Media

According to a new report released by leading metric provider comScore, social networking sites reach more woman than men globally. Part of their Women on the Web: How Women are Shaping the Internet in-depth analysis, comScore found that 75.8 percent of all online ladies visited a social networking site in May 2010. Conversely, the study found that only 69.7 percent of all men engaged in the same activity.

“Understanding gender-specific differences in Web usage is valuable to any digital stakeholder looking to successfully reach and engage both women and men in the online environment,” said Linda Boland Abraham, comScore chief marketing officer and executive vice president for global development. “We have seen that women across the globe share some similar usage patterns online, such as strong engagement with social networking sites, but it’s also important to understand gender differences on a regional, country and local level, where cultural differences are continually shaping online usage and content consumption.”

How much

In a bit of a paradox, comScore found that while women have higher levels of engagement with social networking sites when compared to their male counterparts, they only account for 47.9 percent of the total unique visitors in the social networking category. However…females consume 57 percent of all social networking pages, and 57 percent of all minutes spent on these sites. When viewed in hours and seconds, on average, females spend 5.5 hours per month with a social networking site, men, on average 4 hours.

Where

Since comScore conducted a global survey, they’re able to pinpoint where the social networking ladies lie. They survey found that the highest concentration of social networking females can be found in Latin America, where a staggering 94.1 percent of females are engaged in online activities. Just slightly behind are North American women, showing with 91 percent. Europe takes 3rd, with 85.6 percent of its female population visiting a social networking site in May 2010. Ending up in last place is the Asian Pacific female with only 54.9 percent, however comScore does point to the limited broadband penetration in this region of the globe

Additional findings

• Although men are in the majority across the global Internet, women spend about 8 percent more time online, averaging 25 hours per month on the Web.
• Globally, women spend 20 percent more time on Retail sites overall than men. Among the various retail sub-categories, Comparison Shopping and Apparel sites reached the highest percentage of women at 24.8 percent and 18.7 percent, respectively, in May 2010.
• In the U.S., women are more avid online buyers than men, with 12.5 percent of female Internet users making an online purchase in February 2010, compared to 9.3 percent of men.
• Health sites show some of the largest overall differences in reach between female and male, with a nearly 6-point gap between global women and men.
• In most countries women spend far less time watching online video than men, but women spend a much higher share of their time watching videos on YouTube than men.
• In both the U.S. and Europe, smartphone usage is dominated by men with both markets experiencing close to a 60/40 split in smartphone adoption between the genders.

For a complete copy of the Women on the Web: How Women are Shaping the Internet, please visit:

www.comscore.com/WomenOnTheWeb

Apple freshens up iMac

Jul 28, 2010 by Dan Taylor    3 Comments    Posted under: Technology

As a proud owner of a 27” iMac, I’m both excited and bummed to see the new iMac updates. Excited, as they’ve met the very few, “Really? Why ISN’T there an SDD inside this thing?,” requests that I’ve had, and bummed because…well, I don’t have one.

Whenever I acquire new gear, I generally have the same rule of thumb, find the top of the line item, and then back it off one or two. The same applied to my iMac 27. I don’t have the 2TB drive, and I don’t have the maxed 16 GB of RAM, but rather 1TB and 8GB. Therefor, whenever new updates like this come out, I’m not completely behind the curve.

Starting at $1,199, the new iMac line features Intel Core i3, i5, and i7 options, with dual core speeds up to 3.6 GHz and quad core doing 2.93 GHz. Add to that blisteringly fast processing power an ATI Radeon HD 5750 graphics card, and daaaang skippy, that’s one nice all-in-one you’ve got there.

But processors and graphics cards aren’t the only shiny new toys for iMac. In addition, Apple has beefed up their SD card reader to now include SDXC format, sure to please any digital photog or those using cutting edge high capacity storage cards.

And speaking of storage, and it looks like I missed it by one generation, Apple has finally added an SSD HDD option to the iMac lineup. iMac 27 customers will have the option to include a 256 GB solid state drive in either the primary or secondary role. With data transfer speeds of up to 215 MB/second, can you say “primary drive startup and program launch in the blink of an eye” ? Yeah. Me too. ?

And what would a product line update be without a little fun. Completely unnecessary, but falling under the, yes, I want one category, Apple now has an oversized touchpad (similar to those found in the MacBook line) for desktop users. Dubbed The Magic Trackpad, it houses the same technology as Apple’s notebook pointing device, and offers the same intuitive gestures as it’s smaller cousin.

Specifications from the low-end 21.5” 3.06 GHz i3 – $1,199:

• 21.5-inch 1920 x 1080 LED-backlit display;
• 3.06 GHz Intel Core i3 processor with 4MB shared L3 cache;
• 4GB 1333 MHz DDR3 SDRAM expandable to 16GB;
• ATI Radeon HD 4670 discrete graphics with 256MB GDDR3 SDRAM;
• 500GB Serial ATA hard drive running at 7200 rpm;
• slot-load 8x SuperDrive® with double-layer support (DVD+/-R DL/DVD+/-RW/CD-RW);
• Mini DisplayPort for audio and video output (adapters sold separately);
• AirPort Extreme® 802.11n wireless networking & Bluetooth 2.1+EDR;
• iSight® video camera;
• Gigabit Ethernet;
• four USB 2.0 ports;
• one SDXC SD card slot;
• one FireWire® 800 port;

And on the other end of the spectrum, the 27” 3.6 GHz i5 – $1,999

• 27-inch 2560 x 1440 LED-backlit display;
• 2.8 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i5 processor with 8MB shared L3 cache;
• 4GB 1333 MHz DDR3 SDRAM expandable to 16GB;
• ATI Radeon HD 5750 discrete graphics with 1GB GDDR5;
• 1TB Serial ATA hard drive running at 7200 rpm;
• slot-load 8x SuperDrive with double-layer support (DVD+/-R DL/DVD+/-RW/CD-RW);
• Mini DisplayPort for audio and video input and output (adapters sold separately);
• AirPort Extreme 802.11n wireless networking & Bluetooth 2.1+EDR;
• iSight video camera;
• Gigabit Ethernet;
• four USB 2.0 ports;
• one FireWire 800 port;
• one SDXC SD card slot;

“We took the world’s best all-in-one and made it even better,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. “With the latest processors, high-performance graphics and signature aluminum and glass design, customers are going to love the latest iMac.”

Again, the only thing I’m really missing is the SSD option, which I’m happy to see Apple now offering.  These new iMacs are sure to make a welcome addition to any desk, and hey…Apple, if you’re listening – Retrofit an SSD option to previous iMac generation owners?

Nexon launches Vindictus site, trailers, and screen shots

Jul 26, 2010 by Dan Taylor    No Comments    Posted under: Games

While this year’s E3 convention in Los Angeles certainly seemed to focus not on what games we’d be playing this coming year, but rather on how we’d play them, I personally thought that there were a number of games that we under-covered in the Games media. Don’t get me wrong, I too am quite excited about the Microsoft Kinetic, as well as what Sony’s Move will look/feel like, but if I don’t have an attractive title to play with, it’s all a moot point.

One such title that I thought was a bit under represented this year was Nexon’s upcoming free-to-play Vindictus. Yes, I realize that this is a PC game and that Kinetic or Move have nothing to do with it, and it’s also no WoW killer, but all the same….

Vindictus is a free-to-play action MMORPG that’s built on Valve’s Source Engine. Don’t worry if the jargon throws you. What this means is that it’s a role-playing game that works on top of a really good engine driving it. Being a physics based multiplayer online game, in game objects react just as they would in the real world, i.e. gravity applies, and the Valve Source Engine allows for physical real world interactions such as shattering objects, throwing rubbish around, piercing armor with spears, etc. You know, just your average suburban lifestyle.

Teased at E3, Vindictus now has it’s own official platform, complete with a producers’ blog, a treasure trove of media, and an overview of what to expect come launch day.

A video released concurrently with the site launch features Fiona, one b@d @$$’d chick you’re really rather not upset. Fiona is a strategic female warrior depicted wearing heavy armor, complete with obligatory sword and shield. As a warrior, Fiona can wear heavy armor early on in the game, and through a series of leveling, can wear plate armor at later game stages.

As a point of reference and perhaps clarification, here’s the Vindictus storyline video.

And last but not least, some selected screenshots from Nexon’s upcoming Vindictus.