Author: Rocco Penn

As Executive Director in charge of Facebook Marketing, Rocco has extensive understanding of the interactions and engagement necessary to be successful in Web 2.0. He lives in Orlando, FL, and works with businesses across the east coast to help them succeed in marketing and social media strategy, particularly car dealer marketing. Follow him @SocialPros.

Vintage hippie Steve Jobs video shows shy young man with a spark of potential

Feb 16 by Rocco Penn | 1 comment

The long hair. The mustache. The lack of a turtle neck. 32 years ago, Steve Jobs gave a presentation that wasn’t like the ones he has been famous for the last decade and a half but there are definitely flashes of the bravado and intellect that made him an icon. The video, gifted to the Computer History Museum by Regis McKenna, more »

Confused by what Verizon's 4G LTE really means? Saturday Night Live is, too.

Feb 12 by Rocco Penn | 1 comment

Speed is relative. Internet speed is extremely relative, which is why Verizon has been touting the impressive speeds that their network is providing to users. The problem is that they may not be spreading the message as well as they would if they simply came out and gave us real numbers. That’s been more »

Is this creepy android mannequin the future of retail merchandising?

Feb 11 by Rocco Penn | 1 comment

If this is the future of retail, I’ll be shopping online more often. Takashimaya, a department store in Tokyo, is working with Dr. Hiroshi Ishiguro from Osaka University to demonstrate their concept of the next generation of retail merchandising. The timing couldn’t be better – the female mannequin is pushing their more »

Yelp users are easier to spot than most

Feb 9 by Rocco Penn | 1 comment

There are definite distinctions between users of various social sites. They’re often easy to spot based upon their look (Tumblr), activities (FourSquare), and attitude (Pinterest), but the combination of the three can help us identify Yelp users very easily. Our friends at Flowtown take a humorous more »

The growing reach of social media's election impact

Feb 5 by Rocco Penn | add comment

Social media and the internet in general had dramatic effects on the election in 2008. This year is proving to give even more influence to online opinions and news aggregation as bumps are going up and down dramatically both with the GOP primaries and with the general public’s opinion of all candidates, more »

2012 technology to highlight NADA conference in Las Vegas

Feb 2 by Rocco Penn | 3 comments

Gadgets and gizmos are top of mind when people start talking about technology. It’s in the phones that we carry. It’s at our desks in our offices and at home. Technology is becoming a part of everything. Starting tomorrow in Las Vegas, new technologies will be highlighted at the NADA conference more »

Autonomous nano quadrotors amaze (and terrify) with complicated formation runs

Feb 1 by Rocco Penn | 2 comments

Quadrotor technology developed at the General Robotics, Automation, Sensing and Perception (GRASP) lab at the University of Pennsylvania is able to fly with better accuracy than anything we’ve seen to date. Their ability to run complicated formations is both beautiful and terrifying. The beauty more »

Online payments may be the future, but today consumers are still concerned

Jan 31 by Rocco Penn | 2 comments

It’s clear that online payments are the future. Many pay for nearly everything online, but there are still security and convenience concerns that keep some skeptical. Billion of dollars will be spent online this year, but there are things to consider before putting one’s credit card online. more »

The Silicon Valleys... of the world

Jan 20 by Rocco Penn | 1 comment

Just as movies are made outside of Hollywood and cars are built outside of Detroit, entrepreneurs, startups, and venture capitalists are present in places other than Silicon Valley. Worldwide, there are business-friendly environments that are conducive to expansion of technological advancements. more »

Modern language wars: PHP vs python vs ruby

Jan 17 by Rocco Penn | 6 comments

There are several questions that programmers must answer when deciding on their language of choice. Depending on who you ask, the passions towards one language or another can spark debates, even “nerd fights” as can be found in some videos (we won’t like them here but you can find them on YouTube). more »

IBM's vision of the technology world in the next 5 years

Jan 15 by Rocco Penn | 2 comments

Every year, IBM takes a stab at telling the future by examining what they’re working on in their 5in5 series. This year’s list was surprisingly bland compared to past ones as they explored technologies that many would agree aren’t necessarily 5 years away; in two cases, we should see these technologies more »

Internet killed the outlet store

Jan 1 by Rocco Penn | 2 comments

The concept of “Factory Outlets” was a brilliant one. For better or for worse, they are dying a rapid death thanks to the internet and the rise of “Flash Sales” in particular. Originally, factory outlets were designed to sell 2nd-grade products directly to the public. The first known outlet store more »

Flying robots that build things open doors to automated architecture

Dec 28 by Rocco Penn | 3 comments

In the movies, it always start innocently. They are designed to help humans, to do the mundane or difficult tasks that are better suited for non-sentient robots rather than men and women. In the end, they always turn on us. Hopefully, the folks at the Swiss Federated Institute of Technology in Zurich more »

As Santa Anita Park opens, smartphones take center stage with the horses

Dec 24 by Rocco Penn | 2 comments

Big races, big crowds, and big bets have been associated with Opening Day at Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, CA, for decades. Traditionally opening the day after Christmas, the biggest names in horse racing converge to start the new season. This year, there’s a bit more attention falling on the track from two different more »