It’s all but set in stone that Microsoft’s sleek, new next-gen iteration of the Xbox — whether it’s called the “Xbox 720” or simply “Xbox” — will star in Tuesday’s major company announcement. But before you start saving your pennies, it’s important to address a very buzzy rumor surrounding the device: The next Xbox could be “Always On.” It sounds innocuous enough, but the Always On trend is very polarizing for game developers and fans alike. Some view it as the best way to rid piracy once and for all, while others are concerned its massive drain on resources could affect how everyone plays his or her games.

At the rate the mobile industry changes, what is hip and cool one minute can quickly become yesterday’s news. But can yesterday’s news not continue to have significant value? I guess it depends on whether you’re trying to reach the 70+ percent of consumers who have adopted SMS, or those who haven’t.

Among the many definitions of the term:
“Relationship marketing is a strategy designed to foster customer loyalty, interaction and long-term engagement. It is designed to develop strong connections with customers by providing them with information directly suited to their needs and interests and by promoting open communication.”
While I agree with the above it leaves out one very important word. It kind of implies the word somewhat but does not include the actual word and it should for this word cuts right to the heart of the term itself and in particular the word “relationship.”

On April 30, 2013, the poker world saw the launch of the United States’ first legal online poker site, Ultimate Poker. But Ultimate Poker has one significant limit: it is only legal within the boundaries of Nevada. As more sites come online under similar state schemes—New Jersey and Delaware are likely next—online gambling in the United States may be poised for an explosion.

Gurbaksh Chahal, CEO of RadiumOne, discusses how he plans to profit from his latest venture – collecting and analyzing social data for brand advertisers.

Here on the Big Data Analytics blog, we’ve touched upon a lot of the conventions, challenges, current thinking, and business models around Big Data and predictive analytics. However, amongst the FUD (fear, uncertainty, and doubt) and hype around Big Data there are companies who are putting the technologies to use in some unconventional ways.

Ask any entrepreneur about what it’s like finding the right office space for their company, and they’ll probably respond with a grimace and some grumbling. Few light up at the thought of it. Founders have enough to worry about in trying to build an awesome product, please their customers, find quality talent and raise money without adding the struggle to find office space to the list. Part of the reason why it’s such a pain in the butt to find great office space is that, traditionally, the process has lived offline, confined to a world of brokers and their proprietary data, little to no transparency, and long-term leases.

DevicePlanet.net and PerfectRecipes.net
Who owns these brands? It’s tough to tell. And yet, they share 50 percent of each other’s audiences. (Interestingly, Perfect Recipes is littered with ads and elaborate disclaimers regarding cookies and privacy policies.) Each boasts huge traffic, though Device Planet recently disappeared from the Internet.

First on the kids’ cartoon scene in the mid-1990s, Pokémon has proven itself a lasting brand. Starting out as a video game, then moving on as a TV show, Pokémon (a.k.a. pocket monsters) has continued to thrive in the sophisticated world of video-game giants like Mortal Kombat and Call of Duty. A big key to keeping the Japanese brand very much alive and well are the legions of Pokémon card players around the globe, many of whom are right here in the Lower Mainland.

Earlier this month, Facebook announced they were going to begin supporting hashtags, joining the ranks of Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, Instagram, YouTube and other networks. These are keywords or phrases with the prefix “#” in front of them (i.e., #ThankYouForReading #Forbes). Sometimes words are mashed together, sometimes they’re independent. The hashtag essentially works as a filter—a way to see all responses that have included that specific word or phrase.