In an interesting article published by the New York Times, it seems as though Apple has finally decided to do something about the adult content floating around in their App Store. Although the App Store was created for the public to create and share their own personal applications, some individuals have taken advantage of the freedom. The iPhone, iPod and all hand held devices that use iTunes as a store for applications is and always will be marketed to all ages, but with the considerable amount of SPAM and promotional applications, Apple has decided to filter out all of the adult oriented content.

The story became extremely hot when Sports Illustrated released an app of their own to accompany their annual swimsuit issue. Parents started to voice their concerns and Apple’s head of worldwide marketing Phillip Schiller responded with,

It came to the point where we were getting customer complaints from women who found the content getting too degrading and objectionable, as well as parents who were upset with what their kids were able to see.

In the wake of Schiller’s response, Apple began removing all adult content from their app store. But the question remains, was this the right move for a company that pushes creativity, the sharing of ideas and online developmental freedom? We’ll have to wait and see.

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Not sure if anyone out there was aware, but last evening was the 82nd annual Academy Awards on ABC. As Oscar parties gathered throughout North America, the biggest one rolled out the red carpet in Hollywood and played host to some of the world’s biggest movie stars. With films like Avatar and the Hurt Locker up for the year’s biggest prizes, first timers like Christoph Waltz really stole the show. Here’s the breakdown of some of the noteworthy awards:

Best Picture – The Hurt Locker

Best Actor in a Leading Role – Jeff Bridges for Crazy Heart

Best Actor in a Supporting Role – Cristohp Waltz for Inglorious Basterds

Best Actress in a Leading Role – Sandra Bullock for The Blindside

Best Actress in a Supporting Role – Mo-Nique for Precious

Best Animated Feature – Up!

Best Art Direction – Avatar

Best Director – Kathryn Bigalow for The Hurt Locker

Best Adapted Screenplay – Precious

Best Original Screenplay – The Hurt Locker

Avatar actually took quite a few technical awards throughout the evening (to no surprise), but there is no question that Oscar’s biggest winner was Kathryn Bigalow and her entire cast and crew for The Hurt Locker. Judging from the warm reception she received along with the night’s final award, Bigalow became the first female director to win Best Director. For a full recap of all of the winners, you can also check out Oscar.com.

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In some surprising techno-news this week, it looks like someone has gone ahead and posted some images of the brand new LG Windows Phone 7 Series. Although extremely early in the process, Microsoft rep Aaron Woodman unveiled what many are believing to be the next rival to the iPhone. Being touted as the QWERTY, the brand new hand held device uses slide technology and brings with it a 5 megapixel camera, built in Windows hardware and software and a full keyboard. According to this article found on Engadget, the Windows Phone 7 Series is slightly thicker than the iPhone and Nexus One, but looks as though it could have them both beat in terms of power.

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World Cup 2010 in South Africa

Without a doubt, the South Africa FIFA World Cup will be the next huge event the world will watch on their TV’s, read about in the papers and stream legally online. With just as much international pride (if not more) as the Olympics, you can bet that the sporting world will be glued to the drama as the world’s greatest football tournament commences this Summer.

The 2010 Master’s Tournament

Under normal circumstances The Master’s would only be considered a big event in the golfing world. Yes, the greatest golfers of the modern era gather to win the season’s biggest and most respected prize in the sport, but 2010 brings a twist that nobody could have predicted. The 2010 Master’s could be the triumphant return (or downfall of, depending on how you see it) of Tiger Woods. As his well documented family issues unfold in the tabloids, he’ll look to get back to what makes him great on the golf course this April.

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Shit My Dad Says isn’t necessarily about Twitter, but the micro-blogging sensation did get it’s start with the little blue bird. 29 year-old sensation Justin Halpern created the Twitter feed when he moved back into his parents’ home. He started the feed because of the interesting (often profanity laced) things his 73 year old father would say.

The success of Shit My Dad Says spawned not only Internet success for Halpern, but it looks like he could become a TV success as well. The Hollywood Reporter states that the original Captain Kirk himself, William Shatner, is set to play a character in Halpern’s pilot. Most signs are pointing in the direction of Shatner actually playing the father character. Although he is internationally known as the original captain of the Enterprise in Star Trek, Shatner has made a strong comedic name for himself since. He’s also gone on to court TV fame with his brilliant work on shows like The Practice and Boston Legal.

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Although nothing is finalized, Conan’s team has been working for the past two weeks with the William Morris Endeavor to book venues and dates across America. Why these venues and dates are being booked is still a mystery, but if history can prove anything, we could expect to see a traveling Co-Co show later this year.

Returning to the stage seems to be working for Conan’s friend Paul Reubens who has taken his famed character Pee-Wee Herman back to the LA stage. Whether or not this will work for Conan (and whether or not the rumors will be proved correct) will be a question we’ll all be waiting for.

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Silverlight is preaching the high quality video, fast downloading experiences and their unique control system as reasons why someone would want to download and install the video application. You can check out their website here:

Microsoft Silverlight

But one of the downfalls that Microsoft and Silverlight have been experiencing with the influx of Olympic videos is users questioning why they should download yet another web video application. Another seems to be the security features built into embedding Silverlight videos. Although it is possible to embed Silverlight videos within things like blogs and web pages, it is a tad more complicated than copying and pasting the embedded code from sites like Youtube. With multiple video sources floating around (Youtube, Quicktime and other Flash enabled players) the only reason a lot of users have downloaded it is because CTV’s exclusive Olympic coverage is being pushed through it. So does this mean Silverlight will become the standard with big network web videos? We’ll have to wait and see how Vancouver Games goes.

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But CTV wasn’t the only one quick to congratulate Canada and Bilodeau as during the first commercial break VISA ran a congratulatory commercial mentioning Canada’s first gold medal on home soil.

It looks and sounds like Canada isn’t the only nation hoping to make a big splash over the course of the next couple of weeks as companies all over the world are quick to jump on the national pride train. Keep your eyes peeled for the next time Canada captures a gold medal and you’ll probably see various commercials and montages.

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Although Team VISA isn’t just supported by VISA (companies like Air Canada, Hertz and The Globe and Mail are also part of Team VISA), the website is heavily VISA focused and shows that the athletes we’ll all be seeing on television later this week should be considered more than flashes in the pan.

But as with many advertising opportunities with the Vancouver Games, VISA has also taken this opportunity to push some of their own campaigns. Specifically, VISA gift cards. With fresh new Olympic imagery, the VISA Olympic gift cards are being represented by three of Canada’s bigger banks in Royal Bank, Vancity and Citizen’s Bank. The banks aren’t the only ones in the mix here either as companies like Best Buy, RONA and Rexall are all pushing their brands through Team VISA.

So the question here is, are we cheering for Team VISA because we love our Canadian athletes, or because VISA wants to sell us gift cards? In any case, check out the link to Team VISA here and see for yourself.

Team VISA.

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Known as the Coca-Cola Six-Pack, the mobile campaign in conjunction with the Open The Games, Open Happiness campaign,  ties together print media, television coverage and web updates all in the palm of hands. The hope is to gather a lot of national support for Olympic athletes, but at the same time show how companies like Coke and NBC are backing the games. Together with hand held updates, images, statistics and a custom built Coke WAP interface, the Six-Pack will also provide custom ring tones and phone sounds based on the games.

NBC and Coke see so much potential with the Coca-Cola Six-Pack that they have already signed a major deal to do the same in 2020 for the London Games.

Although it was never a question as to which companies would have a stranglehold on Olympic marketing, we can now safely say that Coke and NBC have gone beyond what we see on the streets.

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