Well it looks like we’re getting very close to the big day.

iPhone 0S 3.0 beta 5 was only released yesterday, yet Apple have just sent an email to developers stating that:

“Beginning today, all submissions to the App Store will be reviewed on the latest beta of iPhone OS 3.0. If your app submission is not compatible with iPhone OS 3.0, it will not be approved.”

No release date has been set, but considering Apple are already forcing developers to ensure their apps work on a beta release of the new OS – its a sure sign that a release date is just around the corner.

According to TUAW, Apple may also remove applications from the store if they don’t meet the OS 3.0 requirements. iPhone developers, get to work!

Economic recessions tend to hurt budgets of all stripes, and the advertising business is no exception.

According to data gathered from an eMetrics Marketing Optimization Summit, the budgets of more than 54% of marketers worldwide have been negatively affected by the recession.

More than 6% said it had affected their budget positively, meaning a few CMOs are extremely brave.

During tough times, more marketers are adopting digital marketing techniques.

Over 90% of marketers polled by eMetrics said they would increase or maintain their spend on e-mail advertising, and more than 83% said the same about paid search.

In addition, many marketers are realizing the need for increased digital intelligence. One-quarter of the respondents said they planned on increasing their Web analytics budgets, and over 60% planned to maintain spending.

Other research also shows that marketers are moving dollars online.

A 2008 McKinsey & Company survey found that 55% of global marketing execs planned to cut spending on traditional media in order to fund increased online efforts.

The move to online has become so steady that Laura Desmond of Starcom MediaVest predicted that the advertising industry is headed toward a “50%-50% world,” where one-half of spending will go to online campaigns.

Twitter acquisition drama continues, first it was Google and now, according to TechCrunch and Valleywag sources, Apple (?!). The plan is apparently to announce the acquisition at this years WWDC in San Jose.

The reason behind most peoples doubts is that its difficult to see how and where Twitter fits into the overall Apple setup and culture. Valleywag pinpoint the success of iPhone twitter applications as the main and ‘obvious’ driver for the deal,  but I still don’t quite understand it.

Google, and Microsoft have been linked to possibly buying Twitter, Google just towards the end of last month. The Twitter founders apparently turned down Google’s cash and stock offer, and not to forget Facebook’s $500 million offer back in November.

As absurd a proposition as this may be however, there may be some truth and potential motive. In Apple’s eyes this could be there big moment, their grand opportunity to grab a stake in what is unquestionably the hottest internet product at this moment in time. Whilst Google slowly but surely builds their own social network, a move like this could catapult Apple ahead of both Yahoo and Microsoft in in terms of internet footholds.

Also, and although extremely speculative, it is quite interesting how Apple decided to profile the site just last week. Finally, and I might simply be looking too deep into this, but @EV’s tweet yesterday immediately got me thinking, and that’s before even hearing about this rumour.

Arrington (Michael that is) is convinced the story is bull, despite making a meal of it on Techcrunch over the last few hours. But hey, that’s tech blogging for ya!

Following up on techcunch’s story about the hilariously absurd use of goats to mow the lawns around Google’s headquarters instead of lawnmowers, we were able to get a comment from PETA, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. PETA is okay with letting the goats be goats (eating grass and looking cute), but they have some major concerns about how they’ll be treated in doing these tasks.

Says Amy Cook, an Assistant Manager of Marketing for PETA:

PETA has no problem with letting goats do what goats want to do (e.g., look cute and eat weeds), but we do have concerns about how the goats may be transported, whether they are provided with access to shelter during storms and shade as well as water during hot weather, where they are housed when they aren’t “working,” what kind of veterinary care they receive, and what becomes of old and/or excess goats. PETA has found over and over that whenever animals are used by a business to make money, corners are cut and animals often suffer as a result. And that really gets our goat, if you’ll pardon the pun.

You think Google, with its “do no evil” mantra, would be kind to the goats. But then again, they have been cutting food supplies to employees during tough times, so you have to wonder if the goats would be left without an ample supply of water as well. Also, veterinary care seems like one of those goat perks that might be on Google’s cost-cutting checklist.

But you never know. I’m going to reach out to Google for comment.

Online news scores surprisingly high.

People around the world do trust the media, but to varying degrees.

According to TNS, the good news, for Internet content producers, is that people now trust the information they get from online news—roughly to the same degree as news from television and information from friends.

Globally, the most trusted information source was friends, with 42% of those surveyed saying that they trusted word-of-mouth recommendations. About an equal number trusted TV news (41%), online news (40%) and newspapers (39%).

Naturally, there were variations in media trust from country to country, but several patterns emerged.

Internet users in the US and Canada held similar attitudes toward the media, with the largest differences in the US’s comparative lack of trust in newspapers and TV news.

Most Trusted* Media According to Internet Users in Select Countries in Canada and the US, 2008 (% of respondents)

Looking at Western Europe, UK Internet users were the least trusting of newspapers, while those in France, Italy and Spain put the least trust in TV news. Web users in France also held online news in the lowest esteem.

Most Trusted* Media According to Internet Users in Select Countries in Western Europe, 2008 (% of respondents)

Internet users in Nordic countries were relatively trusting of online media, with around one-half the respondents from each country expressing their trust. Users in Denmark trusted it even more than word-of-mouth.

Most Trusted* Media According to Internet Users in Finland, Norway and Sweden, 2008 (% of respondents)

Throughout the Asia-Pacific region, online news ran close to TV news and newspapers in trustworthiness.

Most Trusted* Media According to Internet Users in Select Countries in Asia-Pacific, 2008 (% of respondents)

Wikipedia, despite being among the most highly visited Websites worldwide, was less trusted among the countries surveyed than industry magazines, industry Websites and product comparison sites.

Finally, private blogs were the least trusted source in almost every country. In China, however, where bloggers are sometimes jailed for what they write, 24% of Internet users said they trust them more than free papers and company brochures, though little else.

Around the world everyone trusts some of the media…some of the time.