Digital Week in Review: Apple’s October 16th Event, Facebook’s Hyper Local Ads, and 1 in 3 Kids Have Tablets in UK

In this week’s Digital Week in Review: Apple is hosting a special event in Cupertino on October 16th, Facebook launches new hyper local ads, and 1 in 3 kids in the United Kingdom have tablets.

Apple Event October 16

Apple is hosting an event on October 16^th at Apple’s own Town Hall theater in Cupertino, its corporate headquarters.  The event will likely debut the company’s new iPads,  Macs, and public version of OS X Yosemite.

This is the same venue that Apple revealed last year’s iPhone 5’s and 5c’s. However, its last event was not streamed, and this one will be, which could mean there are going to be some interesting reveals.  Expected product reveals include; an even thinner iPad Air, touch integration for Apple Pay, and new iMac desktops with retina display.

Tune into TechCrunch for coverage of this event.

1 in 3 Kids in the UK Have Tablets

In an annual report by Ofcom which explored the media usage of parents and their children, it has been found that in the UK, now 1 in 3 children (between the ages of 5-15) own a tablet. Even 10% of  children age 3-4 own tablets. These numbers have almost doubled since 2013’s report which said only 23% of children aged 5-15 owned tablets.

Smartphone usage among children has remained steady with 20% of children ages 8-11 owning a smartphone, and 65% of 12-15 year olds.

There has been a 20% drop in TV usage in a child’s bedroom which is thought to be an effect of increased tablet ownership since the amount of TV watched on tablets by children is on the rise.

This should not come as surprise that the use of social media networking sites has also gone up as well within this demographic.  Facebook, Instagram and Twitter however, are still the leading social networking sites used by kids. See below.

To read more click here.

Facebook Ads Can Now Target People Within a Mile

Facebook has been trying to get in on hyper local advertising since 2011 when it acquired Rel8tion. In June 2012, VP Carolyn Everson stated that one day location aware phones would be able to power hyper local ads. Currently these ads are not yet being served in real time, but the technology to do so is expected in the future.

Soon businesses will be able to target anyone within a mile of their store through ads served on their smartphone. The radius in which these ads will be served can be adjusted to what makes most sense for the business, which the smallest radius being a mile.

These Local Awareness ads will be available on Facebook for business owners in a few weeks, and globally over the next several months.