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It’s only been available for one weekend but already 1 million new iPhone’s have been sold. And, although the queues were not as long as those of the original release, figures show that despite this, the sales of iPhones were much quicker this time round (it took 74 days to sell the first 1 million original iPhones).

So, what a great start for the iPhone 3G. Especially considering that the new iPhone owners have already downloaded 10 million iPhone applications - which is even more impressive when you consider that there were only around 500 applications available at launch. These figures once again reinforce the belief that users don’t see the iPhone as just another phone - it is another whole platform.

What do you think of the iPhone 3G and the available apps? Let us know…

Viacom’s legal battle with Google over YouTube’s alleged copyright infringement has developed further since my first installment. Viacom, which owns MTV and Paramount Pictures, alleged that YouTube is guilty of massive copyright infringement after finding around 160,000 unauthorised clips of its programmes on YouTube.

The latest news from the lawsuit is the ruling by a US court that Google must hand Viacom a YouTube viewing log with details of everyone who has ever watched any video on YouTube (so basically everyone on the planet..) The viewing log will contain the log-in ID of millions of users, the computer IP address (online identifier) and video clip details - and will total more than 12 terabytes of data - bad news for everyone out there who may have watched some copyrighted videos (so again, basically everyone on the planet…)

Viacom say they want the data to “compare the attractiveness of allegedly infringing video with that of non-infringing videos”. But, digital rights group the Electronic Frontier Foundation (the EFF) are arguing that the ruling is a “set-back to privacy rights” and is potentially unlawful because the log data will contain personally identifiable data. They are urging Viacom to “back off this overbroad request” want Google to take all steps necessary to challenge this order and protect the rights of its users. I can’t see it happening though, and I think there are going to be some pretty harsh words towards Viacom - and the Judge that ruled the decision.

The court have also ruled that Google must divulge the details of all videos that have been removed from YouTube for any reason.

The University of Washington’s World Information Access report (WIA) has shown that since 2003, at least 64 people have been arrested for blogging about political issues - for exposing corruption in goverment, the abuse of human rights or for just generally criticising governments. In 2008, it is likely that more bloggers than ever will face arrest as a result of the growing political importance of blogging. 

More than half of all the arrests have been made in China, Egypt and Iran with prison sentences given to many. The average prison sentence for blogging was 15 months and the longest sentence found by the WIA was eight years!

Its not just the Middle East bloggers though - in the last four years, British, French, Canadian and American bloggers have also been arrested.  Arrests tend to increase during times of political uncertainty - so with upcoming elections in China, Pakistan, Iran and the US, arrests are predicted to high an all time high.

For more details about the report visit http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7456357.stm

BBC1 has just announced that within the next year, all of its programmes will be simulcast as a live video stream on the internet. This makes it the first of BBC’s analogue TV channels to be aired on the web - ITV has already been simulcasting ITV1, ITV2, ITV3 and ITV4 for a year.

The channel will be available via their website, bbc.co.uk, which is being relaunched with improved listings and programme information. BBC Director, Mark Thompson, said that “building on the success of the iPlayer, we want to develop bbc.co.uk to include a broad range of the BBC’s broadcast content, as well as new and interactive forms of media that enable audiences to interact with and contribute to the website.”

Despite the fact that we no longer need a TV to watch BBC1, they are still going to make us pay the licence fee: “You need a TV licence to use any television receiving equipment such as a TV set, set-top box, video or DVD recorder, computer or mobile phone to watch or record TV programmes as they are being shown on TV.”

For the full article, visit: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/jun/04/bbc.television2

As you can see, the countdown is finally over and our new website is now live! This is just the beta version, so there will be a lot more content and some really cool features coming soon!

Have a look at our new portfolio section, which shows you a selection of the projects that we have worked on - we now have client quotes and pulled out stats for all of our case studies. We also have API’s, social bookmarking and much more, so have a look around.

The most important thing for us though is the site’s new visual design and our new neoco branding. It’s very different, but its very ‘us’

Let us know what you think…

Viacom are suing YouTube’s video sharing service for its inability to keep copyrighted material off its site. They have identified 150,000 unauthorised television and movie clips on the site, including South Park, SpongeBob SquarePants and MTV Unplugged, which have been viewed tens of thousands of times.

YouTube’s owner Google says that the lawsuit threatens Internet freedom and the millions of people that legitimately exchange information over the web. They maintain that they are faithful to the requirements of the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act and they respond properly to all claims of infrigement, claiming that they go “far beyond its legal obligation in assisting content owners to protect their works”.

However, Viacom disagree and believe they do not live up to standards and have done “little or nothing” to stop infringement. They do not believe they should “tolerate any form of piracy by anyone, including YouTube…they cannot get away with stealing our products”.

The battle is set to head to court…

Google Earth has painted a vivid image in stark colours to show how climate change will affect planet Earth over the next century.

They have used world-leading climate science from the UK’s Met Office Hadley Centre to highlight the predicted global temperatures for the next 100 years - using a mid-range projection of greenhouse gas emissions.

The Climate Change in Our World overlay identifies that everwhere in the world will be affected by global warming. Countries darken from cool blues and light greens to warmer emerald, yellows and even angry reds over the decades.The picture above shows Europe and Africa in 2099, where temperatures will increase between 3 and 12 degrees Celsius.

In a statement, Hilary Benn, UK environment secretary, said: “This project shows people the reality of climate change using estimates of both the change in the average temperature where they live, and the impact it will have on people’s lives all over the world, including here in Britain.”

Another project this week sees neoco working on a really cool digital showpiece for Puma and the 2010 World Cup. It’s an internal comms projects which brings to life the strategic positioning of their Puma football brand. The animated showpiece is being developed closely with GBH (Puma’s Brand Design Agency) so it reflects their offline work. The project highlights what makes Puma different from the other brands involved in football (or soccer as some people still insist on calling it).
The showpiece will feature in upcoming Puma keynote presentations.

Some very exciting news… our new website is getting closer and closer. We are going to release the beta version next Wednesday 28th at noon (GMT).

The new website will see a whole bunch of new features from day one but a program of development ensures that there will be some cool stuff being added each month. Don’t worry, the blog will remain - well, we couldn’t lose our little soapbox could we?

The case studies section has gone through a major overhaul and now has client quotes and pulled out stats. We have API’s, social bookmarking and more besides.

The most important thing for us though is the new visual design that it will bring with it. It’s different. Very different. But very ‘us’.

Check out the very small sneaky peek image and then go to our existing homepage and watch the seconds (minutes, hours, days) count down.

We have just delivered a customised version of our new ChatBox application for Sony Ericsson, which enabled their Head of Region CEEMEA and over 400 employees across 104 countries to hold a 60 minute live chat session over the internet and mobile phones.

The chat session had a high engagement rate with Sony Ericsson’s key staff and we delivered a transcript of the entire chat session to Sony Ericsson’s PR agency Brando, for internal PR use.

ChatBox is our unique online ‘chat’ platform which enables brands to hold live, interactive and moderated chats with their employees, consumers or anyone they want to talk to! To request information on ChatBox or find out what ChatBox can do for your brand, contact Benn or Laura.