Press Release
November 18, 2008 0 Comments

ROAD & TRACK MAGAZINE CAPTURES REAL-TIME COVERAGE OF
THE LOS ANGELES AUTOSHOW

ROAD & TRACK EDITORS USE ZANNEL SERVICE TO PROVIDE INSTANT MOBILE VIDEO, PHOTO AND TEXT UPDATES FROM SHOW FLOOR

New York, NY (November 18, 2008) – Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S. (HFM U.S., www.hfmus.com) announced today that Road & Track will use mobile devices to unveil the hottest new cars at the L.A. Auto Show this November 19 and 20, 2008. Six Road & Track contributing editors will capture and post real-time photo and video updates to Road & Track’s Zannel channel to share first looks with the community and start one-on-one discussions about the cars on display. Zannel is the instant media network used to share what’s happening now, instantly and visually, across mobile and the web.

Road and Track editors Patrick Hong, Mike Monticello, Shaun Bailey, Jim Hall, Calvin Kim and Jonathan Elfalan will provide continuous mobile coverage which will be accessible via any mobile device at http://www.roadandtrack.com and from a PC at http://www.zannel.com/roadandtrack. Updates can also be accessed by texting the keyword “RT” to 58888.

“Road & Track has been a trusted authority in automotive news. The fact that our editors can communicate with automotive enthusiasts in real time is an exciting technological advancement. To be able to send video and photos as well as commentary from the show gives us another way to serve the millions of people who are interested in what is happening in our industry,” said Matt DeLorenzo, Vice President, Editor-in-Chief, Road & Track magazine.

Throughout the show, editors will broadcast video reveals, interviews, and shots of the hottest unveils including the 2010 Ford Mustang, 2009 Mercedes-Benz SL65 AMG Black Series and 2009 Porsche Boxster S.

“Our partnership with Zannel is providing us with an entirely new means of engaging with our audience. Road & Track editors can now easily create timely content from any location, instantly share it with users on their mobile devices and PCs around the world, and in turn, provide conversation pieces for users to communicate with one another,” said Yaron Oren, Director of Mobile Strategy & Operations, HFM U.S.

Zannel’s award winning technology has provided top media companies and brands with a simple mobile solution to engage with their consumers one-on-one.

“Our partnership with Road & Track demonstrates how innovative companies are instantly connecting with their communities using mobile technology,” said Adam Zbar, CEO of Zannel. This program reinforces what Zannel is all about: enabling bloggers, visual artists, musicians, brands, and everyday folks to share and talk about their passions wherever they are, whether they’re on their mobile phone or on their favorite social network.”

About Road & Track
As America’s original car-enthusiast publication, Road & Track has a 60-year track record of providing its audience with the finest road tests of new cars, plentiful comparisons for making car shopping decisions easier and more informed, over-the-horizon looks at future cars and trends, in-depth technical updates on everything from future fuels to tire technology, and racing features that transport the reader into the pits and paddocks of racing teams around the world. Road & Track’s reputation for integrity and excellence is unparalleled in the automotive publishing arena. Road & Track has over 5.5 million readers and is published by Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S. (www.hfmus.com), a company of Lagardère Active.

About Zannel

Zannel makes the mobile industry’s first Instant Media Network™, which allows people to instantly and visually communicate what’s happening now across mobile and the web, including all major social networks. Zannel won a Webby for Best Mobile Social Network in 2008, serves million of unique visitors per month, has over 50 partnerships with leading operators, media companies, and brands. Founded by the team that built the first large-scale mobile media storefronts in the US, Zannel combines the best of mobile messaging, media sharing, and social networking into an intuitive, compelling user experience. Located in San Francisco, Zannel is backed by USVP, Alloy, and Palomar Ventures.

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Uncategorized
November 18, 2008 0 Comments

Memphis BarCamp Contest Winners

Zannel has been always about empowering you — the commmunity of vivrant users, bloggers, photographers, technology enthusiasts, musicians and artists — to be able to show what’s going on in your life.

Case in point, we recently teamed up with the folks at BarCamp Memphis to help their campers capture, record and display updates of their day at BarCamp by using their mobile devices and personalized Zannel channels.

We increased the fun by adding a little friendly competition between the campers and we’re happy to announce the winners of the “This One Day, At BarCamp” Contest.

First Place goes to Carolyn Bahn

Carolyn will receive a Flip Camera - Thanks to Carolyn for providing the widest variety of posts, from text to media!

Second Place goes to Beth Sanders and Mitch Canter!

This one was a hard one, and with two great Zannelers, why choose just one! Beth gave great updates as well as media (the photo above was from her Zannel channel!) Mitch’s mix of both text and video updates really gave life to watching BarCamp Memphis evolve thought the day. Both Beth and Mitch are receiving cool Mimiobot USB Flash Drives.

Third Place goes to Michael Rowe!

After a whopping 142 text updates to his Zannel channel, Michael provided blow-by-blow coverage of the day as well as commentary and questions for the BarCamp Memphis crowd. Michael gets his hands on a Zannel t-shirt and loads of Zannel stickers!

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Press Release
October 15, 2008 0 Comments

Zannel Delivers Instant Media Forum for Mobile Phone Users to Start Real-Time Conversations on Presidential Election

Mobile Users Can View and Discuss Video, Picture and Text Updates From Citizen Journalist Zannelers for Tonight’s Presidential Debate and Beyond.

Zannel, the instant media network used by millions to share pictures, videos and text from a mobile phone or the web, today announced that anyone can engage in the conversation on its online forums PoliticsBlue (www.zannel.com/politicsblue) and PoliticsRed (www.zannel.com/politicsred), which are dedicated to a lively political discourse on the upcoming presidential election. Those who choose to “follow” PoliticsBlue or PoliticsRed will receive real-time alerts as Zannel’s citizen journalists post new video, images or text to the channels.

This is the first presidential election where the mainstream press has been joined by an army of self-starting bloggers, videographers, tweeters and new media activists who have enlisted the mobile phone as the tool to quickly capture photos, short videos clips and text commentary and then instantly communicate their message to audiences in real-time.

Zannel’s unique technology allows people to post multimedia content from anywhere, which is then available on over 800 handsets models across all the major carriers.  This gives citizen journalists covering the election on behalf of the Zannel’s PoliticsBlue and PoliticsRed channels unprecedented reach and the ability to better engage audiences in a real-time dialogue.

The Zannel community has bloggers and other accredited individuals recording various aspects of the presidential race, including backstage access into each candidate’s campaign and local voter opinion on all of the latest controversies. Some of these Zannelers were on the floor of the Democratic National Convention recording impromptu interviews such as this one with Gov. Howard Dean .

“Citizen journalists are becoming an important part of the discourse around this presidential election by offering diverse election content that better informs voters on the candidates, their stances, records and even their specific words,” said Adam Zbar, CEO of Zannel. “The ability to send videos and images in real time from a mobile phone allows Zannelers to communicate in a very powerful way to their friends or community. In politics, as in life, images and video are infinitely more powerful than text alone.”

Anyone interested in joining the conversation on Zannel can text DEM to 58888 or REP to 58888 to sign up to these Zannel channels.

About Zannel
Zannel makes the mobile industry’s first Instant Media Network™, which allows people to instantly and visually communicate what’s happening now across mobile and the web, including all major social networks. Zannel won a Webby for Best Mobile Social Network in 2008, serves million of unique visitors per month, has over 50 partnerships with leading operators, media companies, and brands.  Founded by the team that built the first large-scale mobile media storefronts in the US, Zannel combines the best of mobile messaging, media sharing, and social networking into an intuitive, compelling user experience.  Located in San Francisco, Zannel is backed by USVP, Alloy, and Palomar Ventures.

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Blog
November 19, 2008 0 Comments

Friend and Following feature improvements are live

Zannelers! In order to tidy up the Zannel interface and prepare for some really cool things we have in the pipeline, we’ve made some improvements to the friend and following features.

Firstly, you can now change the alert and feed settings for each friend or person you are following. You can choose if you want their posts displayed in your feed, or if you want to get alerts and if so, what kind.

These detailed alert settings are a great way to control what shows up in your feed. For example, if you are following the user “FlowerPower” and they go on a crazy posting spree with hundreds of daisies, you now have a tool to dial them down. Go to their following settings and turn off the alert and feed options so their flower pictures no longer bury you.

Another big change you’ll notice is that your friends tab in the top navigation bar has been absorbed by the following tab. Fear not Zannelers, your friends are still there! Just click the following tab and you’ll see all your friends listed with their own special friend icons to separate them from the users you are following. You can even sort the list just to show your friends. Since the posts of your friends and people you are following all appear in your feed, we thought it made sense to manage them all from one place.

It might also behoove us (we love the word behoove!) to revisit the difference between what it means to follow someone vs. being a friend. Here are a few important distinctions:

* Following: When you find someone whose posts you think are cool, you can follow him or her. Their new posts will appear in your feed. It’s an easy way to keep track of what you are interested in.

* Friends: Many people want to keep their posts private, or only allow messaging and comments from people they trust. If you’re somebody’s friend, you’re saying you trust each other enough to be sharing posts and communication.

We’re really excited about these enhancements, and have a lot more in store in the coming months, including improving how you find things on Zannel. But we want to hear from you! Let us know what you think and send us a note with your thoughts: feedback@zannel.com

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