BRB becomes Twitter celebrity

KATHMANDU, NOV 11 - Former Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai’s followers on Twitter have crossed the 100,000 mark, making him the most popular Twitter celebrity in Nepal.

The New York-based Nepali fashion designer Prabal Gurung has more than 165,000 followers. Gurung has 13,900 tweets while Bhattarai has close to 900.

Bhattarai’s fame is remarkable considering the period he has been on Twitter and the number of tweets.

The UCPN (Maoist) leader joined Twitter in January 2013 with the handle @brb_laaldhwoj. Gurung joined the social media in May, 2009.

Bhattarai has acknowledged his followers: “I thank all fellow 100,000 tweeple. Let us continue to use the social network for healthy debate,” he tweeted in Nepali on Monday morning.

His tweets range from political commentaries to congratulatory notes to the national cricket team.

According to Twitonomy, a Twitter analytical site, the most retweeted tweet of his was the praise for Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. “Modi has won d heart&mind of Nepalese people with his magical address 2 d legislature-parliament of Nepal.” The August 3 post was retweeted 667 times.

His tweets also include political promise: “@OmBhaktaUprety1...Give me single party majority govt. for 5 yrs like in Bihar. If i don’t show results, you can shoot me, young friends.”

Other popular public figures on twitter are Nepali Congress Leader Gagan Thapa, with over 71,000 followers, and Chief CIAA Commissioner Lok Man Singh Karki, who joined Twitter in May last year and has more than 44,000 followers.

Journalists are also popular on the site. Rabindra Mishra has 66,000 followers, Narayan Shrestha has 59,000, Narayan Wagle 55,000 and Sudheer Sharma has 33,000 followers.

There are a total of 64.5 million registered Twitter users worldwide with 135,000 new users signing up every day. The average number of tweets per day is around 58 million, according to Twitter.

While there is no exact number of Twitter users in Nepal, it is estimated around 3 million. Twitter was launched to public on July 15, 2006.

According to a survey conducted in 2013 among Twitter users in Nepal, 84 percent believe celebrities and politicians can benefit on the platform. In the study carried out by the Centre for Media Research Nepal, over 1008 Twitter responses were received, of which only 625 complete responses were considered for analysis.

With over 59 million followers, American Popstar Katy Perry tops the chart, followed by Canadian popstar Justin Bieber, who has over 56 million fans. US President Barack Obama comes third with 49.4 million followers.

Apple Watch, iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus: Meet the bigger iPhones and Apple's first smartwatch

Apple unveiled the Apple Watch alongside two new iPhones - iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus - with sharper and larger displays, calling the wearable device the next chapter in its history. 

Can Cook Stir Up That Old Black Magic?

ting as the countdown to Apple's mysterious Tuesday event ticks away.

Apple is widely expected to unveil two new iPhones -- one in the usual smartphone form factor and the other a phablet. There's also a good deal of anticipation for an iWatch that will kick the sector into high gear.
It appears Apple is gunning for stylish wearables, much as Intel is doing, reportedly having invited top editors and bloggers in the fashion industry to the do.
Some expect Apple to go full blast into the healthcare industry.
It's believed Apple finally will incorporate NFC.

That Sentimental Fellow With the Mellow Jell-O

The key question, however, is this: Can Apple CEO Tim Cook come up with a whiz-bang product that evokes gasps not only from Apple faithful and investors, but also -- heck, why not? -- the world? Can he impress like the late Steve Jobs did? Or will he just offer the high-tech equivalent of blancmange?
Cook, like Jobs, wears black day in and day out. However, his style is to be restrained and low-key, unlike Jobs, who was famous for his vision, insight, tantrums -- and oh yes, salesmanship.
"One of the reasons [Cook] gets labeled as a bean counter is because Apple's products have changed so little in physical design," said Nick Spencer, a senior practice director at ABI Research.
While the software updates collectively have been "quite significant," the hardware "has been following rather than setting the agenda, often resisting overwhelming trends like screen size," he told the E-Commerce Times.
A new phone ID and premium materials are crucial to "get rid of the impression that Apple have been sweating their products, brand and, therefore, customers as much as possible," Spencer said.
Cook also will need to demonstrate experiences that show why Apple's overall approach to design and ease of use is above the competition's and "delights its large core customer base," Danielle Levitas, a group vice president at IDC, told the E-Commerce Times.

What Apple's Likely to Offer

The consensus is that Apple will unveil an iPhone with a 4.7-inch screen.
It also is expected to introduce an iPhone with a 5.5-inch screen, which "will resonate well, even more in [the Asia-Pacific] where large screen phones have been in highest demand," Levitas said.
iOS 8 and NFC or mobile payments integrated into the new iPhone are pretty much shoo-ins, making the next iPhone a sure-fire winner, predicted Todd Day, a senior industry analyst at Frost & Sullivan.
"With the incorporation of payment plans on new smartphones by all carriers, the iPhone 6 could see higher sales in the first three months of its release than any [previous] iPhone release," he told the E-Commerce Times.
Apple probably will promote HealthKit and the related APIs, IDC's Levitas suggested.
There's a strong expectation that Apple finally will present an iWatch or some type of wrist wearable as well.
It "makes perfect sense, given Apple's design prowess and their hiring of various fashion-related talent, that any wearable be designed in a way that connects even more emotionally for the owner," Levitas said.

Health Is Wealth

The wearable technology market will grow from US$14 billion this year to more than $70 billion in 2024, and the healthcare sector, which merges medical, fitness and wellness, will remain dominant, IDTechEx predicted.
The recent iCloud breach might not impede Apple's move into healthcare.
"Come noon tomorrow, most people who have an Apple device will be salivating for the new one and will have all but forgotten the celeb photo breach," Levitas suggested. "Apple just needs to make sure they do a better job than most in security."
Apple's healthcare push "would be a significant boost for innovation and creativity," Frost's Day said. "In a rapidly changing era of healthcare and technology, Apple's added functionality relating to healthcare will provide developers and innovators the extra tools they need to expand current ... capabilities

TiVo Mega Unabashedly Flaunts Its Enormity

TiVo pulled out all the stops at this year's CEDIA (Custom Electronic Design & Installation Association) trade show, which typically features the biggest and flashiest new offerings in the world of home theater.

Fifteen years after pioneering the DVR space, the company on Monday announced the TiVo Mega, which boasts 24 terabytes of recording space -- enough to store more than 26,000 hours of standard definition or 4,000 hours of high-definition video.
The TiVo Mega, which is expected to be available in the first quarter of 2015, has more than 12 times the storage capacity of any cable or satellite set-top box DVR. It is aimed at the power user who may never want to delete anything and is willing to fork over US$5,000 for the privilege.
"TiVo Mega is aimed at audio/video enthusiasts who insist on the biggest and best equipment available," Ira Hahr, TiVo chief marketing officer, told TechNewsWorld. "We think the TiVo interface is ideally suited to manage a library of this size."
The feature-laden DVR includes six tuners, support for TiVo's whole-home solution, and the ability to stream live TV and recordings to a user's smartphone, tablet or PC device. Recorded content even can be transferred to a portable device for offline playback.

A Video Addict's Dream Machine

The TiVo Mega's content navigation includes universal search across cable, video on-demand (VOD), and even Web apps such as Netflix and YouTube. It has a "What to Watch" feature with a personalized dashboard of recommendations for users. A channel guide with filters gives users another option for discovering programming choices.
"It's a video addict's greatest dream," Susan Schreiner, an analyst at C4 Trends, told TechNewsWorld.
"It is flamboyant, enables never deleting content, and [fulfills] a hoarder's fondest wishes," she said. "TiVo seems to be making a statement focusing on 'bigger is better' -- particularly with TiVo's deals with other video-streaming providers."
However, given the plethora of streaming options and VOD services that are now available, it is unlikely more than a few users ever will have the need to save 4,000 hours of HD content.
"More than 95 percent of DVRed content is consumed within 30 days," Joel Espelien, senior analyst at The Diffusion Group, told TechNewsWorld. "The average person watches 160 hours of TV a month. You do the math. Five thousand hours doesn't make a lot of sense. We already have a service for people who want thousands of hours of content available on demand. It's called 'Netflix.'"

Next-Generation Incompatible

The TiVo Mega's 24-TB storage capacity would seem to be ideal for 4K/Ultra-HD video, which could begin to arrive in some form later this year. However, the device as its stands isn't capable of recording the higher-resolution video content.
"A 4K DVR would need a hardware encoder to do real-time -- that is, pause live TV -- functionality," added Espelien. "That is more than just a software upgrade."
The device would, however, complement the high-end market, and even serve "an ancillary market related to the semi-pro archival realm," Schreiner suggested. "People are storing content locally as well as in the cloud, and in the semi-pro market, there is also a greater need for redundancy."

Celebrities Are Fools to Use Apple Products

We all need to become a bit more informed in order to properly use cloud services. First, passwords inherently are unsecure. One not-so-funny-thing about this is that when I was working at IBM in the 1980s, we did the definitive report on passwords and determined that only an idiot would use them for security. Nearly 30 years later, we are using passwords by default. "Celebrities are stupid" seems to be the message Apple delivered last week as it attempted to recover from the release of an impressive number of nude pictures of celebrities on the Web. Fans of BlackBerry, which used to be the preferred platform for celebrities, had a field day over this. I've often pointed out both that Apple has the most loyal customer base and that without Jobs, it seems clear it has no clue how to protect it, which is just one reason Apple historically has gone into decline when Steve wasn't at the company. If you have folks who are loyal to you, then even if they screw up, you don'tthrow them under the bus -- particularly if they depended on you to keep them safe and it was your service that was the source of their pain. I agree with Jon Stewart that Apple is at fault for this scandal and would add that the practice of throwing your low-cost celebrity advocates under the bus is a great way to return the firm to the glory days of the 1990s when it was going out of business. I'll go deeper into that this week and close with my product of the week: an interesting new tablet from Intel, backed by AARP, for older folks who are afraid of technology. Celebrities Are Stupid... When it comes to technology, most celebrities are clueless. Like anyone else who develops expertise in one area, they aren't going to be experts at everything else. You generally aren't going to hand celebrities a tool set and ask them to fix your car, operate on you if you need medical work (even if they do play doctors on TV), or be experts at security. In fact, most customers are stupid when it comes to the technology and products they use. However, standing back and pointing to its customers' shortcomings isn't a good practice for a company that wants to preserve loyalty. It is part of its job to ensure that we don't make stupid choices and to give us the information we need to make good ones. In short, a good company doesn't blame its customers for a problem like leaked private photos -- it uses the fiasco as a teachable moment and enhances its service and training to make sure the customer will become a stronger part of the solution instead of continuing to be part of the problem. Worse for Apple This creates two unique problems for Apple. First, it is ramping for what likely is the most important launch its new CEO has ever managed. It is doing a major refresh of its iPhone, which currently is carrying the company's stock valuation, and it is trying for an iPod/iPhone/iPad event with the iWatch. This is the first launch of a new category without Steve Jobs -- and if it flops, Tim Cook is likely done. Going into the launch, folks aren't talking as much about how wonderful these products are -- they are talking about how weak Apple security is. Also, several of the celebrities whom Apple effectively called "stupid" seem focused on comparing Apple to dog excrement. Celebrities in general may have shifted very quickly from a largely rabid audience that wanted whatever Apple launched to one that is highly critical. Apple has gotten celebrity advocates very cheap. It just had to give them a free phone or other Apple product. Compared to the hundreds of thousands of dollars celebrities typically make as advocates, that's quite a bargain. In fact, I'll bet a large number of these celebrities don't even know Apple would have given them a free phone and have bought one for themselves instead. Celebrities are a very valuable asset, and Apple may have just blown up its relationship with them with its actions. These folks typically would lead the rave in favor of Apple's new offerings, but now they are more likely to bad-mouth the company because they are upset about how Apple treated them as a group. Instead of providing free high-profile advocacy, many may now work against Apple. The Cloud and Passwords When it comes to the cloud, we all need to become a bit more informed than we are in order to properly use cloud services. First, passwords inherently are unsecure. One not-so-funny-thing about this is that when I was working at IBM in the 1980s, we did the definitive report on passwords and determined that only an idiot would use them for security. Nearly 30 years later, we are using passwords -- and their poor cousins, PINs -- by default. What you need to know is that if you use trivial passwords and obvious challenge questions, you will get hacked. The cost could be anything from having intimate photos published on the Web to having your bank accounts emptied, your credit scores destroyed, and your identity stolen. I've noticed that my credit union and Microsoft have moved aggressively to dual factor authentication, but you could still get caught up -- as I did -- if someone can figure out your challenge questions and call in with both a password reset and a new email address. For challenge questions, don't use ones folks can look up the answers to on the Web. I've become an advocate of using uncomfortable words instead of the real answers to these questions, because you don't want to share them with anyone. Wrapping Up: Teachable Moment This is what you call a "teachable moment" for consumers. It reminds us to use complex passwords and to turn on extra security features in our services so we don't get hacked. Regardless of what Jon Stewart said on his show, using a connected device to take nude shots isn't something anyone not wanting those pictures to go public ever should do. The whole point of connectivity is sharing -- and if you don't want to share pictures widely, you should use a non-connected camera. Just saying... Still, for Apple this should have served as a reminder that celebrities have given the company a very valuable service for almost nothing, and giving those celebrities extra protection rather than calling them idiots would have been a better response.

YouTube Does Social Media Marketing Best

YouTube viewers are more inclined to view ads as just another video, giving them the 15-30 seconds they take to get their messages across. What that means is that when those viewers click through to a brand's website, they tend to be more qualified buyers. They have a pretty good idea of what they're going to find, suggested Ryan Greives, a PR specialist at Cleverbridge. It is a given that a marketing campaign must include a social media element -- especially when a brand is rolling out a new product. What is less certain is on which channel the brand should focus its time and resources. An answer was provided last week by Aol Platforms, which released the results of a study that tracked social purchase interactions through Convertro. YouTube was the strongest of the social networks in terms of introducing new products (at 18 percent) and driving conversions (14 percent). Facebook came in a second place in terms of introducing new products (11 percent) and closing sales (10 percent), it found. The study focused specifically on sales that came about from social media campaigns. In other words, it didn't consider such indicators as Likes, retweets or pins. Organic vs. Paid Search The study quantifies a widely held premise: namely, that while organic social advertising has its place in branding and word-of-mouth advertising, it can't touch the impact of paid social marketing in terms of customer acquisition. "Marketers that allocate ad spend to social channels see a nearly 25 percent lift in the number of sales generated by advertising, compared to sales generated by organic, non-paid marketing touchpoints," says the Aol Platforms report. This is not a blanket finding, however, as it also notes that much depends on the actual product. Paid social media tend to be a strong channel for introducing health and beauty products to new audiences; they also play a strong part at the end of a consumer's path to purchase, driving the eventual sale. On the other hand, food and beverages, as well as apparel and accessories, do not resonate well with paid social media; performance in these categories is better driven by organic social, according to the report. With those caveats, the study singles out YouTube, emphasizing the role its plays throughout the social-sales funnel: It does well both at introducing new products and at closing the sale at the purchase stage. Dissecting YouTube YouTube's success can be attributed to its overall design and viewers' acceptance of ads "as just another video," said Wheeler Winston Dixon, professor of film studies at the University of Nebraska. "YouTube encourages the viewer, more than other sites, to constantly keep clicking from one image source to the next, and with many of the ads starting automatically at the top of the video -- though some have a five second "opt out" feature -- the temptation to click on the video to see what it might offer is almost overwhelming," he told the E-Commerce Times. "Viewers essentially see ads on YouTube as another video, rather than being a commercial -- just another video to click on and view," he said. "In a world which exists entirely through clicks, the viewer just keeps on hitting the next button, and then the next, until the entire site becomes a seamless blend of content and commercial advertising." Whatever the reason, it works, said Ryan Greives, senior public relations specialist at Cleverbridge. "YouTube is a great referral to our company website, with one of the best times on site as well," he told the E-Commerce Times. Viewers who have watched a 15-second or 30-second clip on YouTube essentially have prequalified themselves as interested prospects when they click through to the site, Greives continued. Twitter or other social channels are great tools as well, but you can sometimes click on a link only to find out that you aren't interested in the topic, he pointed out. However, "there is little confusion when coming from YouTube."  Erika Morphy has been writing about technology, finance and business issues for more than 20 years. She lives in Silver Spring, Md.

Scientists Fire Up Brain-to-Brain Instant Messaging

It's a trivial matter to send a message to someone halfway around the world these days, but just imagine trying to do it without speaking or writing. That is just what an international team of neuroscientists and robotics engineers recently achieved in an experiment that successfully transmitted a message directly -- and noninvasively -- from the brain of one person to that of another some 5,000 miles away.

"We wanted to find out if one could communicate directly between two people by reading out the brain activity from one person and injecting brain activity into the second person, and do so across great physical distances by leveraging existing communication pathways," said Alvaro Pascual-Leone, director of the Berenson-Allen Center for Noninvasive Brain Stimulation at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School.

To demonstrate "the neuroscientific equivalent of instant messaging," Pascual-Leone's team sent the words "hola" and "ciao" in a computer-mediated transmission from the brain of a person in India to that of one in France. They employed Internet-linked electroencephalogram (EEG) and robot-assisted and image-guided transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) technologies.

Figure 1 provides a brain-to-brain (B2B) communication system overview.

Their experiment is detailed in a research paper published last month in PLOS ONE.

Flashes of Light

Four people participated as subjects in the study: One was assigned to a brain-computer interface and was the sender of the words; the other three were assigned to the computer-brain interface and received the messages.

Using EEG, the research team first translated the greetings "hola" and "ciao" into binary code and then emailed the results from India to France.

A computer-brain interface there then transmitted the message to the receivers' brains through noninvasive brain stimulation, causing the subjects to experience what are known as "phosphenes," or flashes of light in their peripheral vision. That light appeared in numerical sequences that enabled the receivers to decode the information in the message.

Figure 2 shows a view of emitter and receiver subjects with noninvasive devices supporting, respectively, the BCI based on EEG changes driven by motor imagery (left) and the CBI based on the reception of phosphenes elicited by neuronavigated TMS (right) components of the B2B transmission system.

A Conscious Process

"TMS-induced phosphenes have their advantages and disadvantages, and other modalities may turn out to be better in the end," said Giulio Ruffini, CEO of Starlab and a coauthor of the study.

Still, for the purposes of this experiment, phosphenes turned out to be convenient, Ruffini said.

First, "phosphenes are quite reliably controlled using robotized TMS," he noted -- in other words, "the phosphene on/phosphene off condition was consistently produced."

Figure 3 identifies the location and orientation of hot spot for phospene production overlaid on MRI image of the head of subject 2.

Phosphenes also can be implemented without any peripheral nervous system intervention, making it possible to rule out the involvement of sight, hearing or touch in the transmission of the message.

Finally, "the perception of light is a conscious process, something we wanted to ensure as well," Ruffini said.

Gadget Ogling: Curves and Edges, Toasty Toes, Smart Charger and Dumb Wearables

Welcome to the latest installment of Gadget Dreams and Nightmares, a weekly look at just-announced personal tech items. There's plenty on the menu this time around: Samsung's latest smartphone and tablet salvo; two pieces of smart, on-the-go tech; some curved home entertainment options; and wearable devices from an unlikely source.

As ever, these are not reviews, and the assigned ratings aren't a tacit opinion on each product's quality -- instead they reflect my interest in using them.

Samsung Galaxy Note 4 and Galaxy Note Edge

Less than a week before Apple unveils its latest smartphone, Samsung raised the red curtain on its latest flagship mobile products.
The Galaxy Note 4 (pictured above), aside from having the least surprising name in the world, is the type of refresh you might expect: It's faster, smoother, cleaner, sturdier, and around 20 other positive adjectives.
The Edge, while it has almost identical specs to the Note 4, has one key difference -- part of the screen bends around the, well, Edge.

Samsung Galaxy Note Edge

It's an intriguing form that throws up all kinds of possibilities. Right now, you might use it to check notifications, the weather or the time.

It mixes up the smartphone market in a fresh way, and in a world where one can buy an Android phone for a few dollars, Samsung has pulled off a clever trick in making its premium offering truly original.
I'll confess: I've been an iPhone owner for five years. There's been little I've seen from the Android side to make me want to switch, and my investment in the Apple mobile ecosystem is such that I'm less and less likely to move.
Still, these are fine-looking products and I'm tempted at least to put the Edge to a proper test.
Rating: 4 Out of 5 Human-Robot Hybrids

The Humble Digitsole

The wearable tech market's focus on smartwatches is nearing its plateau, with the heavily rumored iWatch seemingly about to make its debut.
It's heartening, then, that some companies are eschewing the health-and-fitness sector forged by others in favor of fresh wearable tech ideas.
The Digitsole is not a product you're likely to flash at a party to impress your friends -- not when it lives inside your shoe.
The smart insole, which is raising funding and interest through Kickstarter, connects to your iOS or Android smartphone, through which you can set the temperature up to a maximum of 40 C/104 F. What a fantastic idea.

Naturally, there's fitness-tracking too, with distance walked and calorie burn recorded.
There's a vibration-blocking heel and shock-absorbing sole, which could make those trots around town more comfortable.
The prospect of keeping one's toes warm in the dead of winter simply by tapping a smartphone screen is overwhelmingly enticing. I've few concerns, and I am absolutely tempted to back the project.
Rating: 5 Out of 5 Warm Toes

Elgato Smart Power

Racing through meetings with calendar alerts to keep your day on schedule is a huge benefit of living in the smartphone age, but when the battery life runs out, that breezy day becomes a shambles.
Portable smartphone chargers have been on the block for some time, though it's easy to forget them at home.
Elgato is trying to solve such mind slips by tapping into your phone's calendar and reminding you to take along its Smart Power charger when you have a busy day ahead.
It has a few bells and whistles -- like a locator alarm you can trigger if you happen to misplace it in your office -- that are plenty enough to elevate it above competitors' offerings.