Author: Rocco Penn

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 industries: entertainment and technology. From the entertainment front, the upcoming HBO series “Luck” starring Dustin Hoffman and Nick Nolte will bring in patrons eager to see where the series, debuting in January, is being shot. Here’s the trailer for season 1: More importantly,…

The internet took us by storm and changed the way we live our lives. Social media came along and had nearly the same type of impact. In business, it could be argued that social media is the biggest paradigm-shifting element that has come along in a decade, even more important than ecommerce. Has the way that we use social media completely changed the way that we see and interact with advertising? We certainly hope so. Advertising a business has always been about broadcasting a message to a wide-range of people. It’s always been about exposure, branding, and penetration. Today, thanks to social media,…

It’s hard to make us speechless. We are often overly-verbose rather than sitting dumbfounded by anything, particularly as unimportant as a movie. The Dark Knight Rises trailer dropped our jaw and made nothing but guttural noises come out of our mouths. Simply stated… enjoy. …

Few developments, notions, or facts relating to green technology surprise us anymore. Alternative energy continues to expand while oil consumption slowly drops (perhaps too slowly for most). The alternative energy industry seems to be heading in the right direction (other than some notable failures recently). It’s for this reason that the huge acceptance of solar power in Germany blindsided us a bit. It’s common knowledge that they lead the world in solar, but the extent of their domination is mind boggling. The infographic below by 1bog looks at the top 10 countries from a solar perspective….

The Android Developers blog announced that they are launching a beta of Android Training, “a collection of classes that we hope will help you to build better Android apps.” As the battle between Android and iOS continues to expand and with Microsoft creeping up slowly behind them, the need for better apps is high. It seems that everyone, even Microsoft, have enough apps. Android is hoping to help developers build the best apps available through this training. With resources on topics ranging from Implementing Adaptive UI Flows to Advertising without Compromising User Experience, Google hopes…

Most were impressed with Microsoft and their Xbox 360 when it was reported that they had sold 1.44 million units in November, beating the Nintendo Wii by 400,000 units and nearly doubled up on the Sony Playstation 3. Those who weren’t impressed may have just been waiting for the actual numbers. With a record 1.7 million units sold in the U.S. in November, the Xbox 360 may have outsold the Playstation 3 and the Wii combined. Sony is not releasing their numbers, but estimates of their numbers would put the Microsoft console at 49% of the total current-generation console market, their largest margin…

Even months after his death, Apple co-founder Steve Jobs is still inspiring people. These words spoken in the video below can be applies to just about anyone and in 46 seconds have the ability to change lives. That’s not a “fanboy” overstatement. Jobs is revered by some and disliked by others, and after his death there has been much published that points to certain character flaws, but it doesn’t take away from this clip: “When you grow up you tend to get told the world is the way it is and you’re life is just to live your life inside the world. Try not to bash into the walls too much. Try to have a nice family,…

After a failed attempt to beat location-based check-in service Foursquare last year, Facebook has re-entered the arena by purchasing Foursquare’s biggest competitor, Gowalla. This comes from a source inside Gowalla – Facebook is not commenting. Gowalla was also declared a loser to Foursquare and pivoted earlier this year to become a travel guide. That will likely be adjusted under Facebook to refocus on a segment of social media that has eluded the social networking giant. Most of the employees will relocate to Silicon Valley, while some will remain in the Austin, TX, office where Gowalla…

Google+ is the Facebook killer. Google+ is a fad. Google+ will break records. Google+ will fall flat. These and many other opinions are floating around and, depending on who you ask, fall under the category of personal preference and level of trust in Google and/or Facebook. In other words, nobody knows what Google+ is going to be and whether or not it will be successful, but there are definitely people using it today. Who are they? That’s the question that our friends at Flowtown answers in their most recent infographic. Click to enlarge. …

Google has always kept their search algorithms close to the vest, but in recent weeks they’ve opened up a bit more than usually and given glimpses of what they do and how they do it. In August, they revealed a bit under the hood of Google search. Now they put together a 6-minute video that details what has happened since starting as a research project at Stanford in 1996. Major developments such as Adwords and Universal search made the company both more profitable and more useful to the users. Here is the evolution of search as described by the source. Here is their search evolution timeline. Click to…