MetroPCS Offers the BlackBerry Curve 8530 with $60 Unlimited Talk, Text, Web and Data Service Plan

July 24, 2010 By Leave a Comment

DALLAS, July 23 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Continuing its commitment to deliver affordable wireless service for all consumers, MetroPCS Communications Inc. (NYSE: PCS) now offers the BlackBerry® Curve™ 8530 smartphone from Research In Motion (RIM) (Nasdaq: RIMM; TSX: RIM). MetroPCS has the BlackBerry Curve 8530 with unlimited talk, text, Web and data service, Wi-Fi® connectivity, e-mail, and turn-by-turn GPS navigation for just $60 per month including all applicable taxes and regulatory fees – nearly half of what consumers would pay today for comparable smartphone service plans at other carriers.

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MetroPCS’ $60 BlackBerry service plan delivers exceptional value and all of the smartphone features that consumers care about most, including:

* Messaging capabilities through popular IM services and BlackBerry® Messenger, as well as social media networks
* Access to the latest content such as games, ringtones and wallpapers through the @Metro App Store and BlackBerry App World™
* Applications only available through MetroPCS include Metro Navigator, Metro Back-up, Premium Directory Assistance and Metro Banking
* Full-QWERTY keyboard and optical trackpad
* 2 MP digital camera with zoom and video recording
* Media player for enjoying pictures, music and videos, plus dedicated media keys integrated along the top of the handset

“The BlackBerry Curve 8530 from MetroPCS delivers the advanced features associated with a premium BlackBerry device and gives consumers no annual contract wireless service with unlimited talk, text, Web and data, as well as Wi-Fi connectivity, at an unmatched price,” said Tom Keys, chief operating officer of MetroPCS. “This is yet another smartphone addition to our portfolio` and allows us to offer more choice and value to consumers so they will be able to experience the rich range of multimedia and messaging services.”

With MetroPCS Wireless For All(SM) service plans, the days of having to worry about “bill shock” and unpredictable monthly bills are a thing of the past. Never before has it been easier for consumers to take advantage of the latest devices coupled with the affordable services and range of add-on features and applications that match their lifestyles or habits.

For more information about the BlackBerry Curve 8530 visit www.metropcs.com/blackberry or for MetroPCS’ expanding portfolio of phones, visit www.metropcs.com/shop/phonelist.aspx.

For more details on Wireless For All(SM) service plan options and pricing, please visit www.metropcs.com/plans.

For downloadable images and embeddable video, visit http://pitch.pe/76998.

About MetroPCS Communications, Inc.

Dallas-based MetroPCS Communications, Inc. (NYSE: PCS) is a provider of unlimited wireless communications service for a flat-rate with no annual contract. MetroPCS is the fifth largest facilities-based wireless carrier in the United States based on number of subscribers served and has access to licenses covering a population of approximately 146 million people in many of the largest metropolitan areas in the United States. As of March 31, 2010, MetroPCS had over 7.3 million subscribers. For more information please visit www.metropcs.com.

MetroPCS related brands, product names, company names, trademarks, service marks, images, symbols, copyrighted material, and other intellectual property are the exclusive properties of MetroPCS Wireless, Inc. and its subsidiaries, parent companies, and affiliates. Copyright ©2010 MetroPCS Wireless, Inc. All rights reserved.

The BlackBerry and RIM families of related marks, images and symbols are the exclusive properties and trademarks of Research In Motion Limited. RIM assumes no obligations or liability and makes no representation, warranty, endorsement or guarantee in relation to any aspect of any third party products or services.

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Oz PM Kevin Rudd ‘following’ porn on Twitter

May 3, 2010 By Leave a Comment

London, May 3 (ANI): Aussie Prime Minister Kevin Rudd was left red-faced after it was revealed that he has been following porn sites online – all thanks to his inadvertent Twitter settings.

In addition to having his wife, Therese Rein, as a supporter, he has been accidentally following several seedy sites, including a porn blogger, an online adult superstore and a handcuffed bare-breasted woman.

A spokesman for Rudd has admitted that a Twitter automated programme made the prime minister”s account auto-follow those who followed him.

“While the Kevin PM Team try to monitor the follow backs, with more than 900,000 followers this is a very large task,” Sky News quoted the spokesman as saying.

Although it normally requires a Twitter account holder to view another person”s profile before following, an option allows this to be done automatically.

This can be helpful for people with large followings—Rudd follows around 200,000 Twitter users through his KevinRuddPM account.

Industry experts warn that users should be aware that social media networks such as Twitter do have potentially dangerous implications.

According to the Herald Sun newspaper, other profiles followed by the premier include sex show webcams and a gay resort in Thailand”s Phuket region.

Rudd has been a keen user of social media and has used Twitter to reveal new policies and even the impending wedding of his son. (ANI)

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New website brings crowd sourcing to fashion

April 3, 2010 By Leave a Comment

(Reuters) – An Internet startup called Fashion Stake launching in coming weeks aims to shake up the fashion industry, just as peer-to-peer file sharing changed the music industry.

Technology | Media

Fashion Stake will allow customers to directly fund fashion designers by browsing on-line collections and buying a stake in a collection in return for credits to buy clothes. Patrons can also share ideas with designers and vote on collections.

The model, inspired by Internet-based social media networks like Twitter and Facebook, taps into a growing business model called crowd sourcing where entrepreneurs go directly to customers for content, funding, and distribution.

Daniel Gulati, the firm’s chief executive and a student at Harvard Business School where the project was born, says creative, high margin industries are moving away from a “gatekeeper” model where executives decide what the public consumes.

“We think this can be a real game changer,” he said. “What we’re basically doing is redirecting the margin to fans and cutting out the retailer altogether.”

Advocates of crowd sourcing say it offers consumers a cheaper, more flexible alternative and frees artists from having to get past big corporations.

New York-based designer Althea Harper says the new model could help her find funding, scarcer after the financial crisis, as well as bypass buyers at retail outlets.

“It’s hard getting the retailers to trust in you as a new designer,” she said. “I’ve seen them pick up horrible lines from more established houses just because they’ve got the reputation.”

Olga Vidisheva, a former model and Goldman Sachs equity analyst, who is Gulati’s classmate at Harvard, is looking forward to using Fashion Stake.

“You usually don’t have access to the starting designers. There’s a lot of pain that they go through until they can sign with Saks or Bloomingdales, said Vidisheva, who spends “several thousand” dollars a year on clothes.

POWER TO THE CROWD!

Recent years have seen a rapid growth in interactive business models and Internet-based social media, or so-called Web 2.0. Global communities centered around services like Facebook and Twitter are millions strong.

Peer-to-peer lending, linking individual lenders with borrowers, has taken off in the U.S. through companies like Prosper, while so-called open innovation companies like NineSigma allow corporations to outsource problems to networks of innovators.

“You can crowd source, you can crowd fund, you can get economies of scale, and you can customize the output to deal with local markets,” said Alec Karys, a consultant advising Fashion Stake.

Gulati, a former analyst at investment bank Macquarie, sees creative industries, such as publishing and journalism, with strong fan bases, as a prime target for crowd sourcing. He points to Spot.Us, a website that allows users to select and fund journalistic work that conventional media might overlook.

“Why should we leave it up to just a couple of people to decide what the public wants? Let’s actually just go straight to the crowd,” he said. “It’s a two way conversation between brands and their fans. It’s not a one way type of logic anymore.”

Harvard Professor Thomas Eisenmann, who studies platform-based businesses that exploit network effects, says the trend toward interactive business models is accelerating.

“You’ve got a whole bunch of businesses that worked well in Web 1.0, and those businesses either need to add social media – social networking functionality – or they’re at risk of getting leapfrogged by newcomers that do this,” he said.

However, Eisenmann says crowd funding has limits where curatorial choice is still desirable, for example at certain newspapers and media organizations that people turn to for editorial insight.

“I don’t think the old models are going away,” he said. “I think you’ll see a lot of incumbent players add (network) functionality as an option.”

(Editing by Mark Egan and Alan Elsner)

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Indigenous media pioneer Mick Thaiday dies

March 26, 2010 By Leave a Comment

The north Queensland Indigenous community is in mourning the death of one of its leaders, Palm Island councillor Mick Thaiday.

Mr Thaiday died in Townsville late last week.

Mayor Alf Lacey says he made his name with ABC Radio and was fundamental in setting up Indigenous media networks across Australia.

“Mick, yes leaves a big legacy behind,” Cr Lacey said.

“Particularly in the early days with his involvement with ABC as a sort of journalist back in those days.

“Both he and his brother Bill established a lot of Indigenous broadcasting services across the country.

“He played the role in terms of reconciliation when reconciliation wasn’t fashionable. It was people like Mick that worked alongside with a lot of non-Indigenous people to make things happen.”

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