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Showing posts from November, 2014

This is Microsoft’s most humiliating Surface product placement failure yet

When you consider how often we see Microsoft Surfaces on our televisions versus how many are actually sold, you really have to question whether Microsoft’s big spending on such product placement is worthwhile.  This is especially true when such product placement backfires in hilarious ways, such as when NFL announcers refer to the Surface tablets coaches are using on the sidelines as “ iPads .” However, it turns out it can get even worse than that because GeekWire has spotted a new Surface product placement failure that might be Microsoft’s most embarrassing one yet. During the coverage of last night’s midterm elections, CNN pundits all had Surface tablets lined up on the table that were supposedly being used to keep track of all the important races. However, GeekWire  noticed that many of these pundits were secretly swiping away at iPads even as the shiny Surface tablets were right in front of them to use, attachable keyboards and all. This shows the danger with product placemen

Ultimate swing voters in the ultimate swing state?

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Enrique Vasquez has lost count of how many politicians have visited his restaurant, La Lechonera del Barrio. Even President Barack Obama dropped in to eat pork and beans at this small place in a scruffy Orlando neighbourhood, some distance away from the theme parks that gave the Florida resort city its worldwide fame. Mr Vasquez is Dominican, but he reckons that 95% of the clientele in the restaurant he manages are Puerto Rican. Many are recent arrivals who fled spiralling crime and economic crisis in the US island territory. Nearly 300,000 Puerto Ricans now live around the Orlando metropolitan area, where they represent close to 12% of the population. As Florida prepares to vote next week in the mid-term elections, state candidates who a few years ago would campaign for Cuban votes in Miami's Little Havana now line up for photo-opportunities with Orlando's Puerto Ricans. These voters might help decide the outcome in this year's tight race for governor