The REport

With baseball season officially over, did your team make it to the playoffs? The New York Times reports that playoff ad sales are brisk, as live sports viewership is up. Thanks in some part to the games serving as “grist for the mills” on sites like Facebook and Twitter. Not to mention that The Fall Classic, is a long-held tradition.

Speaking of tradition, I consider myself to be an early adopter of technology, but I still like passing out my stack of good old-fashioned business cards. Apparently I am not alone. The Washington Post reports that in this digital world, the business card remains, with some stores seeing double-digit growth in orders over the past three years.

While business cards keep some stationery stores’ bottom lines healthy, games may serve to keep you healthy. Foursquare has long rewarded people for certain check-ins, but Health Month will “inspire you” to live healthier. Those who achieve a health goal in a given month are placed on Wall of Awesomeness. What motivates you to live a healthy lifestyle?

Google has long had paid “featured sites” on its listings. Now Twitter looks to tap the same business model, with promoted content. Digital Trends reports that “promoted Tweets are ordinary Tweets that businesses and organizations want to highlight to a wider group of users,” explains Twitter. As tweets move ever closer to becoming people’s number one news stream, it may be worth a close look to send marketing dollars to this service.

The BlackBerry has established itself as the preferred tool for business and government, so no doubt the unveiling of RIM’s BlackBerry PlayBook last week, might signal some competition for the iPad in that it has a large following. ComputerWorld reports that “…the PlayBook is primarily designed to be a business and enterprise tablet.” Do you use the iPad for business or play, and can you see yourself having separate devices for each? Do you already carry a BlackBerry and an iPhone?

And finally, check out this iPhone app that turns your phone into a stethoscope. It is one of a growing list of “mHealth” services available. Want to self-diagnose? There’s an app for that!