By Katherine McClosky :: 9:46 PM
Amazon yesterday introduced a virtual currency program called “Coinsâ€. This virtual currency will be available for customers in the U.S. to purchase games, applications, and in-game items on their Kindle Fire
The company believes that the new Coins program will be “an easy way to spend money on Kindle Fire apps and games.â€
Amazon’s Coins program will launch in May, and to encourage customers to use the new currency, Amazon will distribute tens of millions of dollars worth of the Coins to customers to spend on apps and games for their Kindle Fire tablets.
Developers working on the Kindle platform will need to be sure that their apps and app updates are submitted and approved by April 25th if they want to take advantage of in-app purchasing via Coins, and also to best position their apps for purchase by customers who will have their virtual wallets full of Coins to spend.
App developers will be paid the same current 70% revenue share whether the customer purchasing their product chooses to use Amazon’s gifted Coins or their own money.
By Gilbert Falso :: 12:51 PM
A tool to jailbreak the latest iOS version for the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch devices (6.1) was released yesterday, just a week after the latest upgrade to the software was introduced by Apple. Download links for the latest software are now available for Windows, OS X and Linux platforms.
For the uninitiated, the Jailbreaking process allows the operating system to be opened up to external applications, and provides third-party developers with access to a range of device features. This has created a parallel and separate ecosystem for applications that are not downloaded from Apple’s App Store. These apps can often have increased functionality and services that is not allowed under Apple’s strict application guidelines.
The announcement was made through the Twitter account @planetbeing, and information about how to download software to initiate the jailbreak can be found there.
It is important to note that Apple has previously announced that the practice of jailbreaking your phone may violate its warranty. However, often users find that restoring a device with iTunes removes the jailbreak. Under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, jailbreaking iPhones is legal in the United States. Other countries have different rules and regulations on the legalities of jailbreaking phones.
By Paul Thomson :: 9:35 PM
The New Orleans Superdome, where last night’s Super Bowl took place, was plunged into a blackout when over half of the stadium lights failed without warning at the beginning of the game’s third quarter.
However, according to Rentrak, a consumer viewership information provider, viewership of the game did not measurably suffer due to the blackout and the game delay that followed it.
The company said that audience levels remained stable, and even grew during the 34-minute blackout (see graph at bottom of story). Advertising exposure was nearly equal to viewership of the entire game despite the fact that spots from some major sponsors like Taco Bell had been shown online prior to the big game. According to Rentrak’s data, the average ad delivered 94% of the audience when compared to viewership across the whole game.
Samsung’s Galaxy commercial during the fourth quarter was the most-watched ad of the game, with a 117 index according to Rentrak’s Ad Retention Index – a measurement that examines the second-by-second viewing average for commercials and compares them against the entire program.
The Super Bowl even drew many from local movie theaters, with box office ticket sales falling by 66% from Saturday to Sunday. On a typical Sunday afternoon, the decline is only around 40%.
Graphic below – audience levels during the Super Bowl
By Cynthia Herbert :: 9:02 PM
Users of Nokia’s Lumia 800
After updating their firmware,  the phone’s volume seems to be at roughly half the level it was before the update. For example, a song that could be listened to comfortably at a level 15 volume now has to be turned up to 30. Quiet tracks or songs are hard to hear at all, according to accounts on multiple Internet message boards.
Downgrading to the old firmware corrects the issue, so it is likely not any kind of hardware problem.
The 800 model is not the only Nokia smartphone to have audio troubles. Users are also reporting that the Nokia Lumia 920
Nokia does not appear to have officially commented on the issue. Some developers across the forums blame the volume problem on regulations for certain regions that require audio level restrictions to address ear damage issues.
By Gilbert Falso :: 7:26 PM
Canada is saying goodbye to their penny. The Royal Canadian Mint officially stopped distributing the one cent coins to banks today.
The move is a financial one, the mint was spending 1.6 cents for every penny it made up until production ceased last May. No longer minting  the coin is expected to save the country some $11 million per year.
The doodle on Google’s Canadian homepage today paid homage to the one cent coin, displaying the copper penny rotating round and round with a caption that read, “Last Day of the Canadian Penny.”
Some Canadians have taken to social media to encourage citizens to make a charitable donation of their leftover pennies. Steve St. Pierre has started a Twitter account (@CDN_penny), that advocates for people to take their pennies into for charities. He uses the hashtag #showyourroll, to encourage followers to share their donations and spread the word for charities in need.
[Image above – Google’s Canadian penny homepage doodle]