Quick Tour Around The World: February 2011

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

HANDS ON: Sony Ericsson’s “PlayStation Phone”

The Sony Ericsson booth at Mobile World Congress is much like any other at the week-long event in Barcelona: neon lighting, shag carpeting and racks of phones on large plastic stands. But most of the phones are looking distinctly unloved. Just one of their brethren is getting all the attention — the Xperia Play, informally (and more appropriately) known as the PlayStation Phone.
The Xperia Play is an Android phone where the slide-out keyboard has been replaced by slide-out PlayStation controls for easy gaming. Yesterday, Sony announced the Xperia Play would be available sometime this spring worldwide; in the U.S. it will be carried on Verizon. Some 50 games, many of them classics from the PlayStation One, will be ready at launch, according to Sony Ericcson. You’ll be able to buy them through a virtual PlayStation store, accessed via the Android Marketplace.
I had the opportunity to take the Xperia Play for a test run, and I was pleasantly surprised by how enjoyable I found it. I’ve owned several PlayStations in my lifetime, but I’ve never been much of a fan of the platform. I had zero interest in the PSP, the pricey portable gaming platform that has been losing out to the more innovative (and cheaper) Nintendo DS. Neither seemed like devices I had room to carry around. I’m not alone: In December, a report by research firm Interpret showed a significant rise in smartphone gaming and a decline in PSP/DS use.
But the Xperia Play isn’t merely a PSP with phone functionality added on. It has been redesigned from the ground up. On the surface, it looks and acts like a respectable, regular touchscreen phone running Android 2.3, or Gingerbread. It wouldn’t immediately tip your boss off to your status as a gamer. Wait until the boss goes out of the room, however, and you can slide out the panel with the game buttons. This has triggers on the back, and a pair of touchpads that act as joysticks.
I found the touchpads actually easier to handle than joysticks or the D-pad (arrow keys). Moreover, I was surprised to learn, the screen itself remains touch-sensitive when in game mode. This means that games for the Xperia will have more kinds of input at their disposal than a Sony PSP, a Nintendo DS or an iPhone. For that matter it has more potential inputs than a PlayStation3, or any other console.
Of course, whether all those inputs are used in games depends on game developers. Only a few of the launch games I sampled — which included FIFA 10, Asphalt 6 and Bruce Lee — were optimized for the touchpad joysticks. Then again, it took iPhone game developers a while to catch on to all the possibilities inherent in that device, and now you’d be hard-pressed to find an iPhone game that doesn’t use the accelerometer. The Xperia Play designers deliberately left out an accelerometer, convinced that gamers don’t want to swoop their phone around the room while playing. Perhaps that was one input too many.

What Happened Tuesday at Mobile World Congress

by Chris Taylor

The Mobile World Congress Series is supported by Snapdragon by Qualcomm. Inside your smartphone beats the heart of a dragon.

This being Barcelona, it seems fitting that day two of Mobile World Congress kicked off with a little ChaCha and Salsa. Those are the names of HTC’s new phones with Facebook buttons (not to be confused with the so-called Facebook phone from INQ, which can only be viewed by appointment, behind glass and beyond a velvet rope). HTC deluged the show with six products in all, five Android phones and a 7-inch Android tablet, the Flyer.
HTC wasn’t alone. Everyone seems to be joining the Android tablet party. Samsung and LG unveiled theirs yesterday; today it was the turn of HTC, Huwei and ViewSonic. Huwei’s entry was the Ideos Slim S7, which as the name suggests is yet another 7-inch tablet, running the very retro Android 2.2. ViewSonic, which already offers 7-inch and 10-inch tablets, launched a 4.1-inch ViewPad, also running Android 2.2. Which begs the question: How small can a tablet get before it’s simply a large smartphone with connectivity disabled?
Riding high on the waves of Android adulation at the show — there’s even an entire “Android village” stuffed with giant green robot icons, one of which you can slide down — outgoing Google CEO Eric Schmidt took the stage for his keynote address. He promised updates to the Android OS every six months or so, and that from now on, Google would combine the best features of the smartphone OS and the tablet OS. Which could well mean a lot more blurring of the lines between tablet and phone. Meanwhile, Sony Ericsson has been blurring the lines between phone and PlayStation, and we took a look at the result.

View As Slideshow »

LG Optimus 3D

Formula One Racecar

Motorola Pro

NTT Docomo

NTT Docomo

Panasonic Lumix

Samsung Galaxy S Wi-Fi 5.0

Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1

Series Supported by Snapdragon by Qualcomm

The Mobile World Congress Series is supported by Snapdragon by Qualcomm. Qualcomm’s Snapdragon chipset platform is redefining mobility by offering an optimal combination of mobile processing performance, powerful multimedia, wireless connectivity and power efficiency. The Snapdragon family of chipsets is designed to power a new generation of advanced smartphones, tablets, and other smart devices.

HTC Adds a Facebook Button to Two New Android Handsets

by Stan Schroeder

HTC waited for its competitors in the Android smartphone/tablet arena to show off their wares on day one of the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, only to burst on the stage on day two with an onslaught of Android devices, many of which will definitely be a hot topic in the months to come.
The tally is as follows: One 1.5 GHz Android tablet, HTC Salsa and ChaCha, two Android handsets with a dedicated Facebook button, and Android Incredible S, Desire S and Wildfire S, powerful refreshes of HTC’s already very comprehensive Android smartphone lineup.
We’ll start with HTC ChaCha and Salsa, which are mid-range Android Gingerbread-based smartphones, with a 600 MHz CPU and 512 MB of RAM. The main difference between the two is a full QWERTY keyboard on the ChaCha.
What makes them interesting is a dedicated Facebook button. Speaking at a MWC keynote titled “The Power of Applications” this morning, HTC CEO Peter Chou said that the Facebook button “knows where you are.”
“If you’re in an app you want to share, or listening to music, you can share it by pressing one button,” he said. In practice, after clicking the button a menu will appear, letting you write whatever you want into that Facebook status field.
What do you think: Is such a dedicated Facebook button useful? Would you use the feature? Would you like to see it on HTC’s more powerful smartphones as well? Please, share your opinions in the comments.

HTC Upgrades Android Lineup With Desire S, Wildfire S and Incredible S

by Stan Schroeder

Besides the new tablet and the Facebook-enabled phones, HTC has today announced three new Android phones at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. The phones are upgrades of the most popular devices in the company’s Android lineup: Desire S, Wildfire S and Incredible S.
The Desire S is perhaps the most interesting of the three, given that the original HTC Desire was one of the most powerful Android devices on the market for the majority of last year. The new version comes with a Qualcomm 1 GHz 8255 Snapdragon CPU, 768 MB of RAM, a 3.7-inch WVGA display and a case built out of a single block of aluminum. It has a 5-megapixel camera with HD video recording capability, and another 1.3-megapixel camera on the front for video calls.
Unlike the Incredible S, which will launch with Android 2.2, the Desire S will immediately launch with Android Gingerbread (2.4) as its operating system.
The Wildfire S is HTC’s low- to mid-range Android device, with a smallish 3.2-inch HVGA screen, which makes it one of the smallest Android smartphones. It will be coming in three colors: black, purple and white.
Finally, the Incredible S has a 4-inch Super LCD screen with an 800 x 480 pixel resolution, a 1 GHz CPU and 768 MB of RAM (just like the Desire S), and stereo surround sound (whatever surround means in the context of a phone). The back camera is an 8-megapixel unit capable of recording 720p HD video with dual-LED flash and autofocus, and the device also has a 1.3-megapixel front camera for video chats.
All three phones will become available in major European and Asian markets during Q2 2011.
These three smartphones wrap up our initial coverage of HTC’s new devices, which leave us strangely unsatisfied. While all of the phones HTC has shown today are definitely capable, none of them are really at the top of the smartphone food chain when it comes to sheer power (none of the devices feature a 1.2 GHz CPU, which has become quite common in high-end Android smartphones).
HTC’s tablet, on the other hand, has power to spare, but its 7-inch form factor and the fact that it lacks Honeycomb give us pause. Are you satisfied with what HTC has had to offer at the MWC this year? Let us know in the comments.

Oreo Tries To Set Guinness Record for Facebook Likes

by Todd Wasserman

The race is on for Oreo to achieve a somewhat obscure boast: a Guinness World Records entry for Facebook likes.
The brand started pursuing this goal at 9 a.m. ET today and hopes to establish a new record since no current one exists. Guinness World Records people, however, set the bar at 45,000 likes within a 24-hour period. This morning, the Kraft-owned brand started the ball rolling with a post asking the brand’s 16.6 million fans to set the “likes” record. An hour or so later, Oreo seemed well on its way with more than 30,000 likes.
A rep for 360i, the agency that worked on the project, says Oreo has a lot of global fans and that this is a good way to get everyone on the same page, so to speak. “We wanted something that was truly global and that all our fans could participate in,” the rep says. Oreo is one of the top five most-engaged brands in social media, according to Famecount.
Oreo’s social media push is the second high-profile use of Guinness by a marketer this month. Last week, Mitsubishi released videos on YouTube showing its Outlander and Outlander Sport all-wheel drive vehicles breaking five Guinness World Records in 24 hours.
For Oreo, the stunt is a clever use of social media that is not without its risks; falling short of the goal could be embarrassing. Since that prospect seems unlikely, the attempt will no doubt spur copycat attempts. For future record breakers, here are a few social media areas that Guinness tracks.
Image courtesy of QSR Magazine

More clues point to iPhone nano debut

By Charlie White, Mashable

(Mashable) -- Is there a smaller, cheaper version of the iPhone on the way? Rumors abound, but now the Wall Street Journal has found "people familiar with the matter" who have actually laid hands and eyes upon it:
"One of the people, who saw a prototype of a new iPhone several months ago, said the new device is intended to be sold alongside the current line of iPhones and would be about half the size of the iPhone 4. The phone, one of its codenames is N97, would be available to mobile carriers at about half the price of Apple's main line of iPhones, the person said."
According to the Wall Street Journal, Apple's also considering making its MobileMe online storage service free, allowing users to store their data in the cloud rather than on a small device such as an iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad.
This move could facilitate a smaller iPhone, which could store most of its data elsewhere rather than within its tiny confines.

When will we see such a tiny iPhone, reportedly one-third smaller than its bigger brother, and costing $200 with no contract?

The WSJ sources are saying this summer, which is right in line with the usual time new iPhones are unveiled.

Sony Ericsson announces new PlayStation smartphone

(CNN) -- Sony Ericsson announced Sunday it will launch its highly anticipated PlayStation smartphone in March.
The gamer-focused XperiaTM PLAY smartphone will run on Google's Android operating platform and features a four-inch multi-touch screen as well as a slide out PlayStation-style game pad.
Sony Ericsson CEO and President Bert Nordberg, who made the announcement at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, admitted the technology has been a long time in the making.
"Even if the dream has been there a long time, in the industry it's taken some time to get everyone there," he told CNN.

"This phone is worth nothing without the game publishers and game companies, so to build all that takes time."
Sony will partner with leading video game publishers and will launch with 50 games, including Ubisoft's "Assassin's Creed" and "Splinter Cell," Activision's "Guitar Hero" and EA's "Need For Speed," "Sims 3" and "FIFA 10."
The new android smartphone is part of Sony Ericsson's bid to take back market share of the mobile gaming environment dominated by Apple.
"It's a door opener to new customers," said Nordberg. "We started our android journey on April 1 last year, we have taken 40% market share in nine months and still counting."
Nordberg admitted the last few years has been tough for the company, but confirmed they were now making a healthy profit.
"We made money last year, four consecutive quarters of profit. Two years before that, it was not that profitable, but this year we're there and we think we can do even better in 2011."

Nordberg said the XperiaTM PLAY would hit U.S. stores in April and be sold through provider Verizon Wireless. Although he refused to name a price he said it would be a "subsidized phone" when purchased through a subscription.

HTC launches 1.5GHz, 7-inch Android 2.4 Flyer into the tablet wars

By Vlad Savov

Boy oh boy, HTC is entering the tablet arena with quite a bang. The company has just taken the wraps off its brand new 7-inch Flyer Android tablet, which touts a 1.5GHz single-core CPU, 1GB of RAM plus 32GB of flash storage, an aluminum unibody construction, 1024 x 600 resolution, a tablet-optimized version of Sense, and... what's this, a pressure-sensitive capacitive stylus! The HTC Scribe trademark we saw floating around in legal waters turned out not to be the branding for a tablet, it's actually the name HTC gives to the technology enabling what it calls a "groundbreaking pen experience." Other details include a 5 megapixel camera on the back paired with a 1.3 megapixel imager up front, a 4000mAh battery rated to last for four hours of continuous video playback, and memory expandability via a microSD card.

The Flyer will ship in Q2 2011 with Android Gingerbread 2.4 on board. HTC says it'll be indistinguishable from 2.3 as far the end user is concerned, though we all know it won't be quite as good as the 3.0 stuff. We're told not to worry, however, since the new version of Sense being introduced with the Flyer will be the focal point of the company's software offering. As far as HTC is concerned, Sense matters more than the underlying platform, and the reason Honeycomb isn't the shipping OS here was explicitly stated as HTC not having enough time with the latest Google code to customize it to the full requirements of Sense. Guess that settles that.

There are a couple more software enhancements, both marking the introduction of the fruits of HTC's recent deals: OnLive cloud gaming will be coming with the Flyer in the form of an app you open up to access the web-connected bored-relieving service, while that Saffron Digital acquisition has turned into an HTC Watch app for movie streaming and downloading.

We spent a bit of quality time with a Flyer unit recently, although we weren't allowed to turn it on, and our early impressions are rather mixed. On the one hand, we do appreciate the ruggedness and durability that's afforded by the one-piece aluminum shell, but on the other, the Flyer is quite the chunky beast in your hands. We'd imagine strapping in such an extra-speedy processor is the main culprit for its extra girth, though the Flyer is, ironically enough, not terribly light either. We found it heavier and generally a lot less polished from a design perspective than Samsung's Galaxy Tab. Anyhow, HTC should have functional units for us immediately following its MWC presser this morning, and we'll be delving in deeper with this super-specced device. Hang tight!

Show full PR text

HTC UNVEILS HTC FLYER™, THE FIRST TABLET WITH HTC SENSE™

Aluminum unibody design with touch and pen interaction make HTC Flyer unique

First tablet with HTC Watch™ video service, HTC Scribe™ Technology and OnLive® cloud gaming

BARCELONA, SPAIN – Mobile World Congress – February 15, 2011 – HTC, a global leader in mobile innovation and design, today announced its first tablet, the HTC FlyerTM. HTC Flyer blends HTC's trademark design language with an all-new HTC Sense user experience that has been reimagined for the tablets. Using an intuitive and innovative approach to tablets, HTC Flyer combines natural touch and pen interaction. HTC also announced HTC Watch, a new connected video service that will debut on HTC Flyer tablet, and will collaborate with OnLive, Inc. to launch the first cloud-based mobile gaming service on a tablet.

"Clearly, smartphones have transformed our lives but as we observed how people use smartphones, computers and other technologies, we saw an opportunity to create a tablet experience that is different, more personal and productive," said Peter Chou, CEO of HTC Corporation. "We are progressing down a path as an industry when people will no longer be in a single device paradigm, but have multiple wireless devices for different needs; this is the direction we are moving."

Encased in a sleek aluminum unibody, the HTC Flyer tablet exudes the iconic style and build quality HTC is known for. It is also ultra-light, weighing as little as a paperback book, and compact enough to fit in a jacket pocket only. With a seven-inch display, lightning fast 1.5Ghz processor and high-speed HSPA+ wireless capabilities, the HTC Flyer tablet is perfect for those who have been waiting for a tablet that is both compact and powerful.

HTC Sense for Tablet
HTC Sense revolutionized smartphones by placing the person at the center of the experience. HTC Flyer's tablet-focused HTC Sense experience focuses on surprising and delighting people with its gorgeous 3D home screen. A unique carousel of widgets puts a user's most important content and information at the visual center of the experience. The HTC Flyer tablet also offers uncompromised Web browsing with Flash 10 and HTML 5.

HTC Scribe Technology
Touch interaction lights up the HTC Flyer tablet experience, but it also offers a groundbreaking pen experience. With the new HTC Scribe Technology on the HTC Flyer tablet, people can rediscover the natural act of writing. HTC Scribe Technology introduces a wave of integrated digital ink innovations that make it easy and natural to take notes, sign contracts, draw pictures, or even write on a web page or photo.

HTC Scribe Technology on the HTC Flyer tablet transforms traditional note-taking into smart note-taking by integrating natural onscreen writing with thoughtful and integrated innovations. A feature called Timemark enables you to capture the audio of a meeting in line with your written notes, so tapping on a word in your notes instantly takes you to that exact place in time in the audio recording of the meeting. Notes are also integrated with the calendar so when there is an appointment reminder you are automatically prompted with an opportunity to begin a new note or in the case of recurring meetings, to continue where the last meeting left off. In an industry first, the HTC Flyer tablet also features built-in synchronization with Evernote™, the world-leading notes application and service.

Streaming Mobile Movies with HTC Watch
The HTC Flyer tablet premieres HTC Watch, HTC's new video download service. The HTC Watch service enables low-cost on-demand progressive downloading of hundreds of High-Definition movies from major studios. The intuitive, natural design of the HTC Watch service makes it easy to find the latest movie and video content, while advanced technology on the back-end enables instant playback over the HTC Flyer tablet's high-speed wireless connection.

Mobile Cloud Gaming with OnLive
HTC takes mobile gaming to an entirely new level by being the first mobile device in the world to integrate OnLive Inc.'s revolutionary cloud-based gaming service. OnLive is leading in the home gaming market by letting people play top video games on their televisions and computers without the need to buy expensive gaming hardware or software. When integrated fully, the OnLive service will enable customers to pipe the OnLive service through the HTC Flyer tablet's broadband wireless to their television sets, or let them play directly on the tablet. When integrated on the HTC Flyer tablet, people can play a variety of games, including hits like Assassin's Creed Brotherhood™, NBA 2K11 and Lego Harry Potter™.

Availability
HTC Flyer will be available to customers globally during Q2 2011.

About HTC
HTC Corporation (HTC) is one of the fastest growing companies in the mobile phone industry. By putting people at the center of everything it does, HTC creates innovative smartphones that better serve the lives and needs of individuals. The company is listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange under ticker 2498. For more information about HTC, please visit HYPERLINK "http://www.htc.com/"www.htc.com.

Computer ties human as they square off on 'Jeopardy!'

By John D. Sutter, CNN

(CNN) -- The computers haven't proven to be our trivia overlords just yet.
Give them at least until Wednesday.
An IBM supercomputer named Watson finished one round of the TV show "Jeopardy!" on Monday night tied with one of his human competitors and $3,000 ahead of the other.
The man vs. computer face-off won't be complete, however, until the final rounds of the extended trivia game show are aired on Tuesday and Wednesday.
IBM trumpets Watson, which has been in development for years and has the processing power of 2,800 "powerful computers," as a major advancement in machines' efforts to understand human language. The computer receives clues through digital texts and then buzzes in against the two other "Jeopardy!" contestants like any other player would. It juggles dozens of lines of reasoning at once and tries to arrive at a smart answer.
After getting off to a scary-good start, Watson did have a few stumbles.
In one instance, it repeated an answer that another contestant, Ken Jennings, who won 74 "Jeopardy!" episodes in a row, had already tried.
"What is 1920s?" Watson said, sounding like a digitized Matthew Broderick.
"No," game-show host Alex Trebek replied. "Ken said that."
On many other clues, however, Watson was spot-on. After losing the first clue to Brad Rutter, another "Jeopardy!" champion, Watson jumped in on the second question.
Clue: "Iron fitting on the hoof of a horse or a card-dealing box in a casino."
Watson: "What is shoe?"
Correct.
At the start of the show, Trebek went to some lengths to explain the origins of Watson -- IBM approached the show about the idea three years ago -- and how the computer actually works. That's partly because what you see on the "Jeopardy!" stage is somewhat misleading. It looks as if two humans are bookending a simple computer monitor, which appears to be just about as smart as they are. In reality, as Trebek explained, the bulk of Watson's computer power was stored in another building at an IBM lab in New York, where the show is being held for this special three-day competition.
After introducing Watson, to studio applause, this is how Trebek explained it:
"Just as I expected," he said. "That was a very warm reception and I'm sure Watson would have appreciated the applause. Except for one thing: Watson can neither hear nor see. It will be receiving all of its information electronically.
"And as a matter of fact what you're looking at right now is not the real Watson. This is an avatar. This is a representation of Watson. Watson, or course, is a sophisticated computer system too big and too heavy to fit behind that lectern on our stage."
As for the stage version of Watson, his brain-face was represented by a digital Earth that swirled with ribbons of various colors while he thought about questions. As Trebek read the clues, a bar graph appeared at the bottom of the screen, showing the top three answers Watson was considering at that moment and how confident he was in those choices.
Sometimes the computer managed to be confident but still incorrect.
Here's the clue to the first question Watson got wrong:
"From the Latin for end, this is where trains can also originate."
Watson: "What is finis." Confidence level: 97%.
Trebek: "No. Ken?" "What is terminus," Jennings answered correctly.
Before ending the evening tied with Rutter at $5,000 each, Watson had jumped out to an early lead at the first commercial break. At that point, Watson had $5,200 and his closest noncomputer counterpart had only $1,000.
Several Twitter users were awed by the computer's smarts.
"Watson kinda feakin' me out. Big time," Michael Gartenberg, a tech analyst, wrote on his Twitter feed.
Another person wrote: "Watson is almost scary. This is willld! These humans are no match for Watson's algorithms."Trebek summed up the computer's mixed performance this way:

"So, what have we learned so far: Watson's very bright, very fast, but he had some weird little moments once in a while."Then he teased the upcoming shows:"And how many of those will we encounter tomorrow when we play double and final 'Jeopardy!'?"

Is Apple Finally Releasing an iPhone Nano?

By Brian X. Chen

Apple might be preparing a smaller, less-expensive version of the iPhone for release this year, according to multiple media outlets.
The smaller iPhone could be half the size of a normal iPhone, and it may have a strong focus on internet-streamed media and “cloud” storage, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Bloomberg followed up with a report citing a source who claimed to have seen a prototype of the device.
Neither publication had details on device specifications or pricing. Cult of Mac later echoed the rumor about a focus on cloud storage, adding that the smaller iPhone’s storage had to be extremely pared down to reduce costs.
Whispers of a so-called “iPhone Nano” have made the rounds for years, but mainstream media outlets such as WSJ add more credibility to the rumor. It would be an opportune time for Apple to introduce such a product to compete with cheaper, smaller Android smartphones, as well as HP’s miniature Veer smartphone introduced last week alongside the TouchPad tablet.
Photo of a Chinese counterfeit of an iPhone Nano: maxime/Flickr

Rihanna's online 'palindrome' and the ad world's quest for viral

By Doug Gross, CNN

(CNN) -- The Grammys weren't the only place fans were watching Rihanna this weekend.
A promotional video for the pop singer's new Reb'l Fleur fragrance is threatening to go viral, getting watched about 500,000 times in less than three days, according to the video's Web page.
Watch Rihanna's "Reb'l Fleur" perfume video.
The site features a specially designed player that lets the user scroll the video either forward or backwards. It's shot to play perfectly both ways.
The video opens with a split-screen image of dual Rihannas. Depending on where the user moves the cursor, it either leads a dark, bad-girl version of the singer away from what appear to be several very interested lovers or leads a goodness-and-light version of her toward them.
The clip was created by New York ad agency Droga 5. They're predicting, perhaps with a healthy dose of optimism, that the video could be viewed as many as 20 million times.
The creators are calling the one-minute video a palindrome -- a sequence, usually made up of words, that reads the same forward and backward.
Examples: "Was it a rat I saw?" and "A man. A plan. A canal. Panama!" Or the Napoleon "quote" -- "Able was I, ere I saw Elba." (He never actually said it because ... you know ... he spoke French).
Technically, it doesn't quite qualify as a palindrome since the video doesn't end up back where it began. But for the sake of rewarding creativity, we'll let that slide.
Performers, and the Web, have certainly enjoyed playing with palindromes, and their near cousins, before.
Cibo Matto (the Japanese duo + backing musician Sean Lennon), used split-screen to play a story both backward and forward in 2005's "Sugar Water," which picked up some fans after they performed the song on "Buffy the Vampire Slayer."
And Kingdom of Loathing, the ridiculously amusing spoof online role-playing game, features a location called The Palindome, which hosts "monsters" like Bob Racecar, the Evil Olive, a Drab Bard and Dr. Awkward.
The Rihanna video also casts a light on an ever-growing host of companies trying to use viral marketing to sell their products. Who needs TV time when millions of people are clicking on the online ad you posted for free?
For their part, Web users have shown they are are willing to endure a sales pitch as long as they're entertained along the way.
Look no further than the last year's Old Spice ads. They caught folks' attention on TV, but really took off online.
The YouTube video for "The Man Your Man Could Smell Like" has a gob-smacking 29.5 million views and "Questions" has another 18.7 million.
(Watch those ads, plus the latest, "Scent Vacation.")
And in a nod to the Web's power, Volkswagen released its too-cute "Mini-Darth Vader" ad the week before its high-price slot during the Super Bowl.
The result is an even more impressive 29 million views on YouTube in less than two weeks.
So, maybe 20 million isn't shooting too high for Rihanna. Worst case, its creators can always back things up and start over.

What did we miss? What are your favorite online palindromes or viral ads?

Google’s Valentine’s Day Doodle Through the Years [PICS]

by Amy-Mae Elliott

Happy Valentine’s Day to all you romantics out there! Google has set the mood on its infamously sparse homepage today with a brand new Google Doodle to mark this special day of lurve.
Google’s first Valentine’s-themed Doodle appeared way back in 2000, so we thought this would be a great opportunity to take a look back at the search giant’s efforts through the years.
Have a meander through the gallery below to see the evolution of Google’s V-Day Doodle over the past 11 years and let us know your favorite design in the comments.

View As Slideshow »

2011

Pop artist Robert Indiana is the inspiration behind this year's Doodle, with the search engine's logo emulating Indiana's iconic "love" sculpture.

2010

Last year Google pulled double duty with its Feb 14 logo. Marking both the Winter Olympics and V-Day, Google picked pairs skating as the sport to highlight with a heart carved in the ice to the right of the logo.