Infotrade

Vodafone announced the opening of its  Vodafone Mobile Clicks 2011 , a contest to identify and develop the best, most innovative mobile internet start-ups. Open to seven markets, Vodafone Mobile Clicks allows any startup in Germany, the Netherlands, Portugal, the Republic of Ireland, Spain, Turkey or the United Kingdom that has a mobile site, service or application to apply and compete for a €225,000 prize fund. Last year CardMobil, a service that allowed users to replace their points, membership and loyalty cards with a mobile app, won the competition, the year before that Layar scooped the prize. This year, top prize will be €150,000, leading us to speculate what sort of app would create with that kind of money. Here are a few apps that we would like to see made, we would also welcome your suggestions: Secure Card Details I don’t know about you, but I have a number of credit and debit cards with a few different banks, many of which sit in my wallet for that t...

A study has found that fonts which are regarded as ‘hard to read’ may actually increase readers’ retention of information. Researchers from Indiana University and Princeton have described two experiments they conducted that appear to demonstrate that reading retention improves when a ‘hard to read’ font is used. The reason is that the extra concentration required means that readers remember more of what they read. Whilst fonts such as Arial and Times New Roman are often cited as the best options for content producers to use, this study suggests that ease-of-reading is only part of the solution. Two studies were conducted, the first included 28 adults, and the second consisted of 220 high school students spread across 6 focus groups. Across both studies, it was found that those reading ‘ugly’ fonts such as Comic Sans and Monotype Corsiva performed better in tests than those reading eye-candy fonts such as Arial. Comic Sans has had a bad press since it was launched by Microsoft in 1994....

According to my Twitter followers, certain laws govern the consumer electronics industry. There’s @Slbrink’s Law: “The cheaper the printer, the more expensive the ink cartridge.” And @MichaeLVosburg’s law: “Any gadget’s ease of use is inversely proportional to the number of engineers who worked on it.” And @Invisible_Daddy’s law: “Any cool feature you try to show your spouse won’t work, discrediting your enthusiasm for your new purchase.” Then there’s @Pogue’s Latest Law: “The more convenient a device is, the worse the audio/visual quality.” Take the  iPod , for example. Millions buy it for its convenience, despite the fact that the music files’ audio quality is usually far lower than what they would hear on a CD. Similarly, hundreds of millions of people now take most of their photos with cellphone cameras, even though the picture quality is far worse than a real camera’s. There’s no zoom, no real flash, low resolution. You can’t photograph action without blurriness, you can’t ge...

There are plenty of incredible ideas out there for websites, yet in order to make your future site a destination of choice, it’s important to have all your ducks in a line before shelling out the time and cash to make it happen. This flowchart from Vitamin Talent will give you a good idea of whether or not you’re ready to go, and the article from Mashable offers a number of resources to use once you give yourself the green light. Click the image above to access the full chart.

Expanding highways and roads increases congestion by creating more demand--and building more public transportation doesn't help the problem. A quick drive on one of Los Angeles's many freeways illustrates the fact that having more roads doesn't necessarily prevent traffic. Now a study from the University of Toronto confirms it: Expanding highways and roads increases congestion by creating more demand. And building out public transportation systems doesn't help either; there will always be more drivers to fill up any new road we build. The disheartening  study  used data from hundreds of metro areas in the U.S. to reach the conclusion that there is a "fundamental law of highway congestion," which essentially says that people drive more when there are more roads to drive on--no matter how much traffic there is. As a result, increased building of "interstate highways and major urban roads is unlikely to relieve congestion of these roads." Not even buil...

Jeffrey L. Hinz is managing partner and digital director for MediaCom U.S. Recognizing the growing importance of online, social and mobile to its brand clients’ future, media planning and buying giant MediaCom has hired away a senior executive from rival ID Media charged with running U.S. digital operations. Jeffrey L. Hinz has been tapped as managing partner and digital director for MediaCom U.S., a unit of WPP Group PLC’s GroupM media services arm. In addition to providing digital leadership, he will also work to increase interactive marketing’s role at key MediaCom clients – but through a realistic lens. “Brands need to pay attention to consumers first and technology second,” Mr. Hinz said.  “It’s too easy to chase the shiny new object and lose sight of what’s really happening with how people use digital media,” he said. Many flavors Mr. Hinz will advise clients on the strategic incorporation of digital media such as display, video, search engine optimization and marketing,...

Your wish is Ford’s command. Oh, and every other car manufacturer out there. Car manufacturers are teaming up to create a set of standards that will lead to all cars being able to communicate with one another, giving you information about traffic, helping to prevent accidents, and providing data that can save you money on gasoline. Take a look:

“The inherent characteristics of the words—how they sound—provide enough information to distinguish which language a word belongs to,” he says. “You don’t need to do anything else.” In an analysis of English and Spanish, published in the journal  Bilingualism: Language and Cognition , Vitevitch found few words that sounded similar in the two languages. Most theories of how bilingual speakers find a word in memory assume that each word is “labeled” with information about which language it belongs to, says Vitevitch, an associate professor of psychology at the  University of Kansas . But he disagrees. “Given how different the words in one language sound to the words in the other language, it seems like a lot of extra and unnecessary mental work to add a label to each word to identify it as being from one language or the other. “ Here’s an analogy: Imagine you have a bunch of apples and oranges in your fridge. The apples represent one language you know, the oranges represent ano...

Here’s something strange, but it really works… Go to  Wikipedia , any random article will do. Click the first link of any article, but skip anything in parentheses (brackets). Repeat this and you will eventually end up on Philosophy. It may take you a few clicks, (it’s taken us between 5 and 25, depending on the article we started at) but it’s amazing how every time we’ve tried here at The Next Web, Philosophy always shows up soon enough. Why, we’re not sure but philosophy professors around the world are sure to be pleased just how popular their discipline is. How many clicks did it take you?

Microsoft Corp. (MSFT)  Windows President Steven Sinofsky previewed a touch-screen version of the operating system that can work on tablets, offering a glimpse of his company’s response to  Apple Inc. (AAPL) ’s iPad. Windows 8 resembles Microsoft’s software for mobile phones and uses “tiles,” rather than icons, to help users navigate between applications, Sinofsky said at AllThingsD’s D9 Conference in  Rancho Palos Verdes ,  California . Microsoft demonstrated Windows 8 on a 10.6-inch touch-screen tablet and said the operating system can also work on desktop computers. Microsoft, the world’s biggest software maker, is rushing to adapt Windows so it can run on devices that compete with the iPad, which dominates the tablet market. The new operating system won’t be out until next year, people familiar with the plans said in March. Still, the company is eager to show it’s making progress in developing software that can be used by computer makers and chip suppliers. “Wha...

What comes to mind when you hear the word "corporation?" Maybe a giant, faceless conglomerate? Ruthless captains of industry? Perhaps you think of corporate scandals like  Enron  and WorldCom. In fact, the unscrupulous plundering done by some modern-day corporations pales in comparison to the activities carried out by one of the world's first corporations: the  British East India Company  ( EIC ). The concept of corporations was first established under ancient  Roman  law [source:  University of Virginia ]. But it wasn't until  England  emerged from the Middle Ages  that it created what we recognize as the modern corporate structure. It all began on Dec. 31, 1600, when  Queen Elizabeth I  granted a charter to the British East India Corporation, naming the corporation "The Governor and Company of Merchants of  London , trading with the East Indies." The corporation conducted business in the  East Indies  (land th...