Author: Rocco Penn

We know where to look to see what Johnny had for breakfast, how little Timmy slid into 3rd base, and what’s happening with Lady Gaga. There is no doubt that social media has connected us to our friends, family, and current events in ways that we couldn’t even imagine a decade ago. When it comes to business, that’s where things get a little more gray. Is it really working? Let’s face it – most who have tried to use social media for business purposes have been met with certain levels of disdain and abuse. They get called spammers. They’re get unfriended, unfollowed, blocked, banned, or publicly ridiculed….

The best part about being the Winklevoss twins is that they’ve put in the effort already. Everything else now seems to either fall in their lap or fall off their plate. Whether it’s having to settle for a mere $65 million for having the concept of Facebook allegedly stolen from them or the various endorsement and consultation deals they’ve been able to get from their infamy, the Olympic twins have done well for themselves in the last 5 years. Now, they’re doing more with pistachios. Yes, pistachios. Wonderful Pistachios, a company that is turning up the knob on viral videos ever since increasing…

The demise of a once-mighty website is often hard to watch. Many people still have fond memories of MySpace – it was the first social network for a good portion of the online world and did its part to launch social media into the mainstream. Traffic has been steadily declining all year, faster than originally anticipated. When it was sold in June for $35 million, most believed that the shell of the company would have to be scrapped and the core would have to be rearranged completely in order to remain relevant beyond 2011. Evidence of the decline is visible in the most recent numbers from Hitwise. The…

It has been 5 years since a British leader has visited Moscow. On the eve of the first visit since a Kremlin critic was killed in London, the website for the Russian Embassy in London was attacked by a distributed denial of service attack. British Prime Minister David Cameron has been very vocal in the past about the killing of Alexander Litvinenko who was poisoned in 2006 by radioactive polonium-210, but has worked in the last year since taking over as Prime Minister to mend the relationship with Russia and President Dmitry Medvedev. “Prior to the visit of Prime Minister David Cameron to Russia,…

Many believe that email is dying. Apparently, it isn’t. We’re communicating more through other means such as SMS, social media, and IM, but despite being clunky and having and “old-tech” feel, people still rely on email and read it every day. In fact, it’s estimated that there will be 3.8 billion email users worldwide by 2014. According to information collected by Litmus, the iPad and iPhone account for 13% of all emails opened. That’s not to say that 13% of email users have iDevices — it’s more likely less than 1%. It simply means that Apple device users receive and read more of their emails on their…

Military vehicles focus on four major technological aspects today: power, speed, accuracy, and stealth. The last one, stealth, is relatively new but it might be the most important component when wars are decided. If the enemy cannot see you, they can’t hurt you as easily. That is the premise behind a new technology currently being tested called Adaptiv uses hexagonal “pixels” to quickly change the outside temperature of tanks, helicopters, and even battleships to match their surroundings and become virtually invisible to heat-seaking and infrared-guided forms of attack. It can also mimic…

NASA’s missions to the moon 40 years ago left behind remnants. With no wind or water turbulence, these remnants can still be seen today, and thanks to images received from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), we can still see the tire tracks from the first lunar rover, the landing sites, and even equipment that was left from experiments. “When I first took a look at these images, my jaw plopped to the ground,” said Noah Petro, Research Scientist for NASA/Goddard. “When you see something that you’ve never seen before and in a quality you’ve never seen before… it really just made me speechless.”…

The promise of the internet that many of us started looking towards a decade or two ago is starting to get realized. When we think back and look at what the potential of the internet held, one of the biggest elements that we imagined was the expansion of communication through direct video chat. Today, there are iPads with Facetime, Skype, Rounds, and other variations of video chat that take our initial dreams and perspectives and enhance them. Our horizons have expanded. This infographic takes a look at 11 of the ways that video chat is being used today to enhance and empower real-world relationships….

One might think that AT&T was expecting Sprint to file suit against their plan to buy T-Mobile based upon the speed of the response. With a very aggressive style and stance, AT&T had choice words for their competitors and the attempt to block the formation of a super-cell-provider: This simply demonstrates what we’ve said all along – Sprint is more interested in protecting itself than it is in promoting competition that benefits consumers. We of course will vigorously contest this matter in court as AT&T’s merger with T-Mobile USA will: help solve our nation’s spectrum…

As populations grow and continue to migrate into cities, transportation has become an issue within congested cities. Less than half of the inhabitants of New York City, for example, even own a car. It just doesn’t make sense to own one when the distances traveled is short while traffic and parking are impossible. The folks at MIT Media Lab demonstrated this half-scale vehicle to TheNextWeb at the Media Evolution’s The Conference. As you’ll see, this solves two of the three major problems with intra-city travel – ownership (they can be shared) and parking (they fold). Traffic is still a challenge,…