Tech Stories
Wednesday, October 30, 2013
Monday, October 28, 2013
Bill Gates Is Trying To Convince Real Madrid To Rename Its Stadium 'Microsoft Bernabéu'
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According to the Spanish newspaper El Confidencial, soccer giant Real Madrid is in talks with Bill Gates about a deal to grant Microsoft naming rights to its storied stadium, the Bernabéu.
Opened in 1947, the Estadio Santiago Bernabéu is named after the man who served as Real Madrid president for 35 years and helped transform the club into one of the dominant players in the world's most popular sport. Since its inception, the Bernabéu has seen Real win 30 Spanish league championships and nine European titles.
Though doing so might anger longtime fans, selling naming rights to the Bernabéu would help Real Madrid fund a proposed renovation of the stadium that is expected to cost more than $400 million. The club said in May that if it did sell naming rights, it would do so in a way that kept Santiago Bernaéu's name beside that of a sponsor.
As it stands, Microsoft and Real Madrid already have a good working relationship, having collaborated recently on projects to bring software and athletic programs to impoverished youth in Latin America. For Microsoft, the move would burnish the company's image as a pioneer and leader in the tech field and allow it to profit from the Real Madrid brand, which Forbes has ranked the most valuable in all of sports. The company already has a partial sponsorship of the home stadium of Seattle Sounders, a soccer team that plays on "the XBox Pitch at CenturyLink Field."
Though selling naming rights to stadiums came into fashion in the U.S. in the mid-90s with Colorado's Coors Field and Chicago's United Center, the trend was slow to being taken up in European soccer. Though all major soccer teams have a sponsor on their uniforms, no team currently in La Liga, Spain's top soccer league, plays in a stadium named in part for a company.
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/real-madrid-and-microsoft-in-bernabeu-stadium-naming-rights-talks-2013-10#ixzz2j12wYovi
Sunday, October 20, 2013
Twitter’s #Music App Could Be On The Way Out, Says New Report
Twitter’s #Music app, which offered social music discovery culled from activity on the 140-character sharing service, is reportedly nearing the end of its brief life, according to a new report from AllThingsD. Twitter is “strongly considering” shuttering the mobile app, after its download and usage numbers have dropped precipitously following a respectable launch.
From its very beginnings, Twitter #Music was something of an ugly duckling at the company, the report suggests, having been spearheaded by now-COO of Jelly just before his abrupt departure. It was essentially developed (and operates) on its own, according to ATD, and never integrated into Twitter’s core product to the extent that it would have any real impact on Twitter’s material business.
It’s true that some of the features work reasonably well in terms of offering up some interesting new music, but none so well as similar services from competing apps. Rdio has done a lot lately to step up its personalized radio offerings, for instance, and they were better than Twitter #Music’s before that. Plus, there’s iTunes Radio now, which is very strong, very free competitor with no stipulations required to get full track streaming.
The real problem is still that what’s unique about Twitter #Music isn’t valuable enough to outweigh the benefits of the other apps playing in the same sandbox. And while music discovery is an area with plenty of legs, it’s also one that people likely won’t find themselves looking around for multiple solutions for. Grab Songza, get some Rdio going, and you’re pretty much set.
As AllThingsD points out, even Twitter seems to realize this: It has partnered with both iTunes Radio and Rdio on providing content suggestions over the past year. There’s opportunity for Twitter in music – just not likely in #Music.
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