Mashable: Latest 27 News Updates - including “So an iPhone, an Android and a Windows Phone 7 Are Put on a Grill… [VIDEO]” |
- So an iPhone, an Android and a Windows Phone 7 Are Put on a Grill… [VIDEO]
- Facebook Acquires Fb.com, Set to Launch E-mail Service
- Could Facebook Replace Your E-Mail Inbox?
- Foodspotting Wins Mashable’s Fast Pitch Competition
- Free Messaging App Kik Hits 2 Million Downloads in 3 Weeks
- As Groupon Grows, Will Small Business Be Left Behind?
- Google Engineer Wants You to Hack Microsoft’s Kinect
- Will “Daily Beast” Merger Save “Newsweek”?
- Tumblr Lands Major Investor, New Director Of Product
- HOW TO: Turn Your Expertise Into Dollars Online
- Thanks to Mashable’s Socially Savvy Supporters
- Gorillaz Record New Album on an iPad
- The Future of Social Media Parenting [COMIC]
- Location Shopping Startup Scores $1.5M Seed Round
- Joomla Leaders: Enterprise Is Better With Open Source [INTERVIEW]
- Fredde Gredde Curates: Our Favorite YouTube Videos This Week
- Now You Can Bump iOS Devices to Share Music
- Paul Buchheit, Creator of Gmail, Leaves Facebook for Y Combinator
- Essential Web Design Advice From a Wireframing Master [INTERVIEW]
- iTunes 10.1 Update Now Live
- Oracle Teams Up With Apple on Java Project for OS X
- iPhotography: 10 Pro Tips for Snapping Perfect iPhone Photos
- Gwyneth Paltrow Covers Cee-Lo’s “F**K You” on “Glee”… Stop It, Hollywood [VIDEO]
- Would You Pay $200,000 for an Original Apple Computer?
- HOW TO: Activate Your Brand’s Super Influencers
- The 3 Biggest Stories in Social Media, Tech and Mobile This Morning
- #IAmSpartacus: Thousands Tweet in Support of Convicted Airport Joker
- 5 Lessons Madison Avenue Can Learn From Startups
| So an iPhone, an Android and a Windows Phone 7 Are Put on a Grill… [VIDEO] Posted: 12 Nov 2010 08:02 PM PST      Have you ever wondered which smartphone would last the longest when cooked like a hamburger? Us too. This neat little video of an iPhone 4, an Android G2 and a HTC Surround getting seared and charred has been making the viral video rounds. Each of the phones delivers digital smack talk (“How do you like them apples?!”) before the searing heat puts them out of their misery. The video is apparently designed to promote the EZGrill disposable grill. They got some help though from Seattle-based Banyan Branch. Not bad for the cost of three phones and a grill. In case you were wondering, the Android was the first to go, while the iPhone’s temperature protection feature kicked in right on schedule. That makes the Windows Phone 7 the most fire-resistant of the bunch. Check out the video to see the full BBQ action. Reviews: Android More About: android, iphone, iphone 4, nexus one, video, windows phone 7, youtube For more Web Video coverage:
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| Facebook Acquires Fb.com, Set to Launch E-mail Service Posted: 12 Nov 2010 05:49 PM PST   It has been revealed that Facebook has acquired the Fb.com domain. This news comes just days before its special event, where it is set to reveal an overhauled version of Messages that works like e-mail. In September, the American Farm Bureau sold the Fb.com domain to an undisclosed buyer. Looking up the domain’s whois reveals that MarkMonitor, a brand protection and domain management company, is the Fb.com’s registrar. However, Domain Name Wire has revealed that the domain’s whois has been updated to reflect that Facebook is the domain’s administrator. A recent report from All Facebook claims that Facebook is using Fb.com internally, but doesn’t quite know what Facebook intends to do with it. At the same time, The New York Times and TechCrunch claim that the company’s impending Messages overhaul will utilize the Facebook.com domain for user e-mail accounts. What does that mean for Fb.com? Most likely, Fb.com will become the e-mail domain of the company’s 1,400+ employees. Yahoo does something similar; its staff uses @yahoo-inc.com e-mail addresses instead @Yahoo.com in order to avoid confusion between its employees and the hundreds of millions of users of its e-mail service. Here’s our question: do users really want a @Facebook.com e-mail address? Would they actually use it in conjunction or in place of their current e-mail addresses? Let us know what you think. Reviews: Facebook More About: facebook, facebook mail, Facebook Messages, Fb.me, gmail, trending For more Tech coverage:
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| Could Facebook Replace Your E-Mail Inbox? Posted: 12 Nov 2010 05:14 PM PST
The basis for the speculation? The invite prominently displays Facebook’s inbox logo. With some additional features, Facebook may even compete with your current e-mail provider, the theory goes. Let’s imagine that Facebook’s long-rumored overhaul of its Messages product does transpire, either at this event or in the future: Could it pose a threat to existing e-mail providers? Will Facebook users begin to use Facebook Messages more, and their existing e-mail accounts less? That’s the topic of my CNN column this week. Check out the column at CNN.com >>Reviews: Facebook More About: cnn, email, facebook, facebook mail, gmail, social networking, social networks, tech For more Social Media coverage:
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| Foodspotting Wins Mashable’s Fast Pitch Competition Posted: 12 Nov 2010 04:30 PM PST   After three judges, 10 startups, one David Hasselhoff and a spectacular two-minute pitch, Foodspotting has emerged as the victor of Mashable’s second Fast Pitch competition. Last month, we put out a call for startups to participate in our yearly quick pitch competition in partnership with Under the Radar, and the response was tremendous. We received nearly 200 applications from startups across the world who wanted to make their cases to our judges and the audience at Under the Radar. After a lot of review, we narrowed the list from over 150 down to 10: Empire Avenue, Foodspotting, Manumatix, Micello, Miso, Postling, Sellsimply, Socialsmack, TellApart and Zozolo. Unfortunately though, there can only be one winner, and during the competition, our judges (Mark Silva of Real Branding, Chris Tolles of Topix, and me) narrowed the field down to three: Foodspotting, Micello and TellApart. All three startups received perfect scores (represented by a “The Hoff Likes It” scorecard) from the judging panel. It was up to the audience to choose the ultimate winner from our three finalists, and after lots of cheering and whistling, Foodspotting emerged as the winner of the 2010 Fast Pitch! Mashable would like to congratulate Foodspotting and all the startups that participated in this year’s competition. We’d also like to thank our amazing and witty judges and the people at Under the Radar and Dealmaker Media for making this competition happen once again. Startups, we hope to see you all next year!  Reviews: Mashable More About: Fast Pitch, foodspotting, startups For more Social Media coverage:
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| Free Messaging App Kik Hits 2 Million Downloads in 3 Weeks Posted: 12 Nov 2010 03:15 PM PST   This post is part of Mashable's Spark of Genius series, which highlights a unique feature of startups. The series is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here.
Name: Kik Quick Pitch: Kik’s app lets you send instantaneous, free messages between phones and see when they have been received. Genius Idea: Within 15 days after Kik launched on October 21, the startup was watching the number of downloads hit 1 million. Employees gathered around a download ticker, handed out paper cups for champagne, and celebrated for about five minutes before getting back to work. The startup held a similar event when the 2 millionth user downloaded the app yesterday. In order to keep up with the explosion of users, it literally rented a plane last week to deliver additional servers to its data center. Kik improves the SMS experience, which Founder Ted Livingston describes as expensive, slow and unreliable. When users ping someone using the Kik app, they can see when they’ve received the message, when they’re typing, and the message is delivered almost instantaneously. It’s a lot like BlackBerry Messenger, but it works across iPhone, Android and BlackBerry phones (though we find it interesting that the app seems to have been removed from BlackBerry App World). Other IM apps like Google Talk and AIM also provide instantaneous, free messages between phones, but users of these services usually view them as desktop services. Kik lives on mobile, so nobody in the network will leave it at home. The company’s next project is to bring the same instantaneous mobile sharing experience to photos. Ultimately, they hope to build a social network that lives on your phone but can be transferred to other devices like computers and game consoles. “Facebook is a social network where desktop is at the center and mobile is just an extension of it,” Livingston says. “Really what we’re trying to do is build a mobile social network where mobile is at the center and desktop is an extension of it.” There’s no plan for monetizing the new and growing giant user base, but the Canada-based company is getting a lot of attention from VCs. “The Waterloo airport has been busier than it usually is,” Livingston puts it.  Sponsored by Microsoft BizSpark
Reviews: Android, Facebook, aim, google talk, iPhone More About: bbm, im, instant message, Kik, startup, Ted Livingston For more Tech coverage:
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| As Groupon Grows, Will Small Business Be Left Behind? Posted: 12 Nov 2010 02:37 PM PST   Group buying site Groupon is growing so fast that its “deals of the day” are attracting the attention of big brand names like the Gap. One small business owner believes this growth is making Groupon “greedy,” so much so that it chose not to honor a signed contract because the agreed upon margins were too small. This is his story. In January, small business owner Gregroy Yonke used Groupon to run a Featured Deal that gave buyers half off his Phoenix, Arizona Entrees to Go guided cooking sessions. Yonke couldn’t have been more pleased with the results — Groupon delivered new customers who became repeat customers, he says. After taking the summer to explore working with a bevy of new Groupon clones, Yonke got a call from Groupon indicating that the company was interested in having him run another Featured Deal. And so, Yonke put off his other marketing plans for another go-around with Groupon, because in his mind, “Groupon is bigger than all the others combined.” Talks progressed and eventually the terms of the new deal were decided. On September 7, Groupon e-mailed Yonke a merchant agreement and asked him to reply to the e-mail with “agree” in the subject line. Yonke did so on September 14, believing this meant there was now a contract in place guaranteeing him another Featured Deal within four to six weeks’ time. That time frame had been discussed in the e-mail exchanges, but was not, in fact, included in the agreement. Then, on October 11, Yonke was notified that his deal had passed through the “vetting” stage, meaning it had been approved for scheduling. Yonke was anxious to view and approve the deal copy, but his Groupon representative wrote to inform him that the deal would be prepared after it had been scheduled. This is when things started to go awry. On October 19, Yonke e-mailed his rep to once again press to find out the date on which his deal would run. Here’s the response he received, with confidential information redacted:
Astonished, Yonke e-mailed back asking, “On what basis are you making this decision?” Groupon’s response was as follows:
In a conversation with Mashable, Yonke explained that he was quite taken aback by the response because he believed that there was a legal contract in place guaranteeing him a Featured Deal for Entrees to Go. Yonke also shared that at one point Groupon pressured him to “sweeten the deal,” which he agreed to do, but only if Groupon agreed to take the same dollar amount — i.e. not the same percentage of sales — as agreed to in the initial deal. Groupon, however, wanted the same percentage, and that was just something “I couldn’t afford to do … I was already losing money on the other deal,” he said. Earlier today, Yonke was again contacted by Groupon, but this time offering him a Personalized Deal, and not a Featured Deal. Personalized Deals are only sent out to select, more targeted, audiences in the Groupon subscriber base, but Yonke was only interested in the Featured Deal, which would have gone out to all of Phoenix. For Yonke, this Groupon Deal represented the entirety of his marketing strategy, and it was the only way in which he was planning to attract new business at the Entrees to Go store he co-owns with his wife Dorothy. Yonke believes he was overlooked because of the small stature of his business. He points to the fact that the Featured Deal running in Phoenix today is for Coldwater Creek, a national retailer with a much more prominent brand name. He says, “I get it … they [Groupon] can do a Featured Deal for the Gap and make $11 million in one day.” The jilted small business owner reached out to Mashable to share his experience primarily because his marketing plans for bringing in end-of-year business have been stymied. He’s currently offering the deal through the FAQ portion of his own website, but admittedly does not have reach to a large audience. Given Groupon’s immense growth this year, it follows that the startup will have disgruntled customers from time to time — and we’ve seen this before. While Mashable has confirmed the legitimacy of the e-mail communications between Yonke and Groupon, we caution the reader to remember that this is just one small business owner’s story. Still, we felt this story to be of particular interest because it suggests that Groupon is shifting the focus of the Featured Deals away from the small business owners they once catered to. The smaller businesses, instead, seem to be destined for relegation to its Personalized Deals product or the do-it-yourself Groupon Stores. Prior to publishing, Mashable reached out to Groupon for comment, and we’re told the company is now looking into the matter. We’ll update this post when there’s an official statement from the company. Reviews: Mashable More About: entrees to go, groupon, MARKETING, small business For more Social Media coverage:
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| Google Engineer Wants You to Hack Microsoft’s Kinect Posted: 12 Nov 2010 02:08 PM PST   Engineer Matt Cutts, one of Google’s more public faces, is offering a cash prize for the best open-source and Linux-based projects built on Microsoft’s Kinect. The Kinect is something we’ve been excited about for a while; its motion-sensing technology has the ability to completely change how we play video games. Cutts thinks the Kinect is exciting, too. On his personal blog, he writes, “Before I joined Google, I was a grad student interested in topics like computer vision, motion self-tracking, laser scanners–basically any neat or unusual sensing device… If I were still in grad school, I'd be incredibly excited–there's now a $150 off-the-shelf device that provides depth plus stereo and a lot more.” So Cutts is offering $2,000 in prizes to the people who can come up with the coolest hacks for the Kinect. A $1,000 prize will be given to the developer or developers who create the best open-source program or demo using the Kinect. A second $1,000 prize will be awarded to the dev or devs who make it simplest to write Kinect programs on Linux. Cutts notes that devs can use the Kinect without an Xbox attached. The device has a 3-axis accelerometer, a controllable motor and four mics to play with, and its outputs include a 640×480 color video stream and a 320×240 depth stream, which is pictured in the video below. Some of the projects Cutts imagines could come from this contest include a gesture-based, holographic UI (which we’d love to see and use, ourselves); AR games; and even multi-device setups that allow for true 3D. What could you imagine doing — or hack, youself — with a Microsoft Kinect? Reviews: Google, Linux More About: contest, foss, Google, kinect, Linux, matt cutts, microsoft, open source For more Dev & Design coverage:
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| Will “Daily Beast” Merger Save “Newsweek”? Posted: 12 Nov 2010 02:06 PM PST   After weeks of rumor, 77-year-old weekly print publication Newsweek, and 2-year-old online news and opinion site The Daily Beast have announced a 50/50 joint merger — and the union’s first casualty is Newsweek CEO Tom Ascheim, according to The New York Post. The new company — to be called The Newsweek Daily Beast Company — will be owned equally by Sidney Harman, who purchased Newsweek for a reported $1 from The Washington Post Co. this summer, and the The Daily Beast’s owner, IAC. Tina Brown, the current editor-in-chief of The Daily Beast and former editor of Vanity Fair, Tatler and The New Yorker, will serve as editor-in-chief of both Newsweek and The Daily Beast. The news of the merger was officially released this morning. "I see Newsweek and the Beast as a marriage between Newsweek’s journalistic depth and the vibrant versatility The Daily Beast has realized on the web," Brown said. The Daily Beast commands a monthly audience of 5 million; Newsweek’s circulation stands at about 1.6 million. "The metabolism of The Daily Beast will help power the resurgence of Newsweek and Newsweek amplifies the range of talent and audience The Daily Beast can reach. The two entities together offer writers, photographers and marketers a powerful dual platform,” she added. At meetings with both staffs on Friday, Brown announced that Newsweek CEO Tom Ascheim would not be a part of the new company. Instead, The Daily Beast’s president Stephen Colvin will be filling in as chief executive, staffers told The Observer. Layoffs are also expected. “It would be unsafe to assume that there will be none,” Harman reportedly told employees. The announcement comes just one week after U.S. News & World Report disclosed that it would be ceasing monthly print publication in favor of an increasingly focused digital strategy. Like Newsweek, U.S. News & World Report was once a weekly publication, but was forced to reduce its publishing frequency to bi-weekly and then monthly amidst financial troubles. As online news audiences have grown, and print circulation and ad revenues have declined for newspapers and news magazines alike, both have been forced to adapt aggressive digital strategies to survive. The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal have each developed robust online businesses with solid traction on the web, and on mobile and tablet devices. News magazines have, by and large, not fared as well. Thus far, we’ve seen traditional print organizations either adapt and thrive, or fold under the pressure of the recession and changing habits of media consumption. This is the first time we’ve witnessed a merger between an established publication and a web upstart — both of which are losing money and have very different voices, brands and topics of coverage, no less. Should it prove successful, it may not be the last. Image courtesy of Flickr, FontShop Reviews: Flickr, news More About: daily beast, magazines, media, Newsweek, print, sidney harman, the daily beast, tina brown For more Business coverage:
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| Tumblr Lands Major Investor, New Director Of Product Posted: 12 Nov 2010 02:00 PM PST   Tumblr just landed a major investor in the form of Silicon Valley VC firm Sequoia Capital. The blogging service also confirmed today that it has hired Derek Gottfrid from The New York Times as director of product. According to Business Insider, the blogging platform — headed up by 24-year-old David Karp — scored a “very big and competitive” round of financing from Sequoia, but there’s still no word on the total amount. Additionally, Sequoia’s Roelof Botha (previously the CFO of PayPal) has reportedly joined Tumblr’s board. We reached out to Karp this morning for comment and have yet to hear back. Also, according to TechCrunch, Gottfrid, who worked at The New York Times for 12 years, is leaving the publication today to join Karp and Co. Gottfrid apparently toasted the move yesterday, as evidenced by the tweet below:  Tumblr has been gaining its share of attention of late — scoring $5 million from Spark and Union Square Ventures in April, intriguing the old guard of print media and perhaps even serving as inspiration for more established platforms such as WordPress. The company is based in New York, but according to BI, Karp and Tumblr President John Maloney visited the West Coast last month to look for funding, which apparently came in the form of the Sequoia Capital investment. We’re curious to see what this reported cross-coastal influx of money will have on the startup. In the meantime, Tumblr has seen pretty steady growth when it comes to traffic. Last week, Karp told us that about the service is seeing 80 million pageviews per month on mobile devices — and that’s just 3% of total traffic. Below, you can see the company’s growth in web traffic over the past year:  Chart courtesy of Quantcast Reviews: Tumblr, WordPress More About: david-karp, Derek Gottfrid, money, sequoia capital, the new york times, tumblr For more Business coverage:
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| HOW TO: Turn Your Expertise Into Dollars Online Posted: 12 Nov 2010 01:12 PM PST   Darren Waddell is vice president of marketing at MerchantCircle.com. He can be found on the MerchantCircle blog and on Twitter. Every time you search for a topic online these days, it seems a few webpages pop up with advice from “experts.” Whether these websites are pages on Yahoo Answers, medical information sites or part of a community of small businesses like Yelp, they've become increasingly important sources of information for web searchers looking for answers to specific questions. If you are an expert in something, you can offer your advice online — and turn that expertise into dollars. Small business owners are especially good candidates to become online experts, because they know their industries inside and out. Millions of small business owners have turned to blogging, writing articles, sharing tips on Q&A sites, and participating in forums as a way to drive traffic to their websites and build business credibility. Expertise PaysSmall business owners possess a wealth of knowledge about their industry or sector, and when they share this knowledge with Internet searchers, it lends credibility to their business and attracts new customers. Blogging is a key medium for sharing your expertise. The most recent Merchant Confidence Index, a survey of 10,000 small business owners conducted by my company found that nearly 30% are blogging and 35% plan to blog in the next three months. Those who are blogging have found that creating impactful content that people can find online is one of the best marketing tools available — and it's free. According to data published by Internet marketing firm HubSpot, companies that blogged realized 55% more visitors to their site, 97% more inbound links and 434% more indexed pages. Michele Gorham, owner of the Andover, Mass.-based Cookie Central bakery, is one small business owner who has turned her expertise into dollars online. She has created hundreds of blog entries about how to build a business, run a bakery, and other helpful topics; and she continuously answers customers' direct questions through various social media platforms, including Facebook, Twitter and Yelp. Because of Gorham's rich content contributions, her listings on various sites are highly trafficked and regularly found by search engines — generating more sales for her business. Getting StartedSo what's the first step if you want to start creating expert content online? The first thing you need to do is think about the topics you want to write about. What advice can you offer that would be useful to your potential customers? What are you knowledgeable about? Make a list of the topics you'd like to write about. Next, you'll need to develop a voice for your content. The most successful expert content is straightforward, informative, backed up with examples and research, and helpful to those who've searched for a specific term. Your articles should not be self serving. For example, if you’re a mechanic, don’t write an article that advises that the best way to fix a carburetor is to come into your shop and pay you to fix it. Instead, offer practical, step-by-step advice that can actually help someone with a problem. At the end of your article, you can add a gentle plug for your business and add your URL; don't turn the article into an advertisement. After you've written your article or blog post, you need to publish it online, and there are lots of options. Your goal should be to get the most exposure possible for your article, to drive traffic to your business website. You can publish your article on a personal, business or community blog, then add links to your article on your LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter accounts. You can answer an open question on Q&A sites, or pose your own and then go back and answer it. Remember, though, that if consumers like your advice but can't find you, your efforts are being wasted. So make sure to create a detailed listing on local business sites, some of which will let you answer customers' questions directly or publish your expertise via a blog or newsletter, and make sure you have your own web site. Also, fully fill out all profile information on any sites you utilize. Some sites, such as Associated Content or Demand Media, pay experts a small sum to write topical articles, then syndicate that content to online newspapers and other websites. Demand Media pays up to $15 for a 500 word article. Other "citizen journalism sites," like Examiner, pay based on page views. You won't make millions by creating content for these pay-to-write companies, but if you blog regularly, your content will show up more regularly in searches for related topics, and you'll build credibility in your industry — which is much more valuable than a few dollars. In fact, most places where experts contribute their expertise online — blogs, forums, Q&A sites, and business directories — don't pay contributors. But, as a small business owner, it's still incredibly valuable to share your expert advice online, because your content builds exposure for your business, and that drives more people to your website and increases revenues long-term. Making Sure your Content is DiscoveredWherever you decide to publish your articles, make sure the site is credible. The site should be populated by experts, such as small business owners or service providers with professional storefronts. Or if it's your own blog, make it informative and professional — a useful site that your target customers will turn to again and again for information. For example, if you are a real estate professional, you could create a blog with inside information about a particular neighborhood, detailing not just houses for sale, but information on local schools, city government initiatives, community events, local businesses, and other things of interest to people living in that area. Such a site not only builds your credibility as a real estate agent, but delivers a valuable service to your potential customers that keeps them coming back for more. To get your content found, make sure the sites you post it on optimize content for search engines. Embed links in your articles, and link to your articles from other places on the web as much as possible. Add links to the article on your Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other social networking sites, as well as on your online business directory listings pages. The bottom line: the quality of the expert content you produce online is critical to how well it works to build your credibility and boost business leads in the real world. If your articles are helpful and informative, they'll be read and passed along, and that will increase the visibility of your content and your business. Offer helpful advice, and you'll see how quickly your expertise is rewarded with new business leads. More Business Resources from Mashable:
Image courtesy of iStockphoto, skodonnell Reviews: Facebook, Internet, LinkedIn, Twitter, Yelp, iStockphoto More About: advice, business, expertise, facebook, monetization, money, q&a, small business, twitter, yelp For more Business coverage:
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| Thanks to Mashable’s Socially Savvy Supporters Posted: 12 Nov 2010 12:38 PM PST
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| Gorillaz Record New Album on an iPad Posted: 12 Nov 2010 12:31 PM PST   The members of cartoon supergroup Gorillaz have been busy touring this year, but they could already have a new album — recorded on an iPad — out before Christmas. As frontman Damon Albarn told the NME, he’s been working on the follow-up to this year’s Plastic Beach while on tour with the band. And although Albarn has previously declared himself a bit of a technophobe, he decided to record the new tracks on his iPad. “I hope I’ll be making the first record on an iPad,” he told the NME. “I fell in love with my iPad as soon as I got it, so I’ve made it a completely different type of record.” Albarn, who first gained fame as the lead singer of Britpop band Blur, says this album will have more of an “American” sound, like “an English voice that has been put through a vocoder of America.” Albarn may be hoping to make the first iPad record, but he’s also part of a growing number of musicians using the Apple tablet to explore their creative options. Earlier this year, classical pianist Lang Lang used an iPad to play “Flight of the Bumblebee” during an encore at a San Francisco concert. And iPad DJ Rana June Sobhany will perform at the 14th Street Apple Store in New York City tonight. Meanwhile, despite Albarn’s supposed technophobia, the Gorillaz — whose video for “Stylo” broke viewing records when it premiered on YouTube — will continue using digital and social tools to connect with fans. The band’s “Escape to Plastic Beach” iPhone app has been updated to accommodate its shows at London’s O2 arena next week. Markers throughout the venue will interact with the app, allowing fans to mingle with life-sized 3D models and visit the band backstage via augmented reality layers, which will provide peeks of the band’s dressing room and additional video content. Reviews: YouTube, iPhone More About: damon albarn, gorillaz, ipad, music For more Entertainment coverage:
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| The Future of Social Media Parenting [COMIC] Posted: 12 Nov 2010 12:22 PM PST This comic was illustrated by Kiersten Essenpreis, a New York-based artist who draws and blogs at YouFail.com. For more laughs, check out our previous Mashable Comics. If babies could tweet, what would their updates look like? “Can’t wait for season 10 of Dora the Explorer!!!” “Just took a killer nap. Heading to the jungle gym and then dinner with @Mommy.” “Formula AGAIN? #FML” Naturally, we’d expect a cottage industry of infant thought leaders to emerge.   What age do you think is appropriate for children to have a Facebook profile? Two? Four? Share your thoughts in the comments. More Comics from Mashable:
Reviews: FML, Facebook More About: babies, comic, comics, facebook, Kids, mashable comics, parenting, ROI, social media, trending, twitter, web comics For more Social Media coverage:
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| Location Shopping Startup Scores $1.5M Seed Round Posted: 12 Nov 2010 12:04 PM PST   Retailigence, a startup in the location-based mobile and web shopping space, has just closed a $1.5 million seed round from prominent Silicon Valley VC firms. The startup’s initial roster of investors includes Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ), Dave McClure’s 500 Startups, Quest Venture Partners and others. Retailigence is a Palo Alto-based startup; the company seeks to marry location-based shopping with actual store inventory for mobile- and web-based customers. Retailigence has also developed an API for current and new apps to integrate their data. Store inventory is actually one of the bigger, more obvious missing pieces when it comes to location-based technology. Very often, the hapless mobile user is trying to find a specific product within a given range and is stymied by the lack of available information. Eventually, to be certain about what items may or may not exist at a given location, the user may even have to — horror of horrors — use a telephone to speak to another human being, who in turn would have to physically examine the inventory. While this process has its quaint charm, it’s an inconvenient part of the find-and-purchase workflow that mobile technology seeks to streamline. We know that Google is also working to solve the inventory-near-me problem; if Retailigence has a scalable way to do so now, that could spell good things both for the startup and its new investors. Here’s a brief demo of what the company does: What are your first impressions of Retailigence? Image courtesy of Flickr, mukumbura. Reviews: Flickr, Google More About: 500 startups, dave mcclure, DFJ, draper fisher jurvetson, funding, retailigence, seed For more Business coverage:
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| Joomla Leaders: Enterprise Is Better With Open Source [INTERVIEW] Posted: 12 Nov 2010 11:49 AM PST   Unlike with other open source content management systems, it’s hard to pin down one founder of Joomla. The CMS that now runs about 2.4% of the top 1 million websites was created by a group of developers that split off from a similarly open source project called Mambo. The developers felt that Mambo’s founding company, Miro, was attempting to regain proprietary control of the code (the company denied this), and wanted to continue their work elsewhere. They changed the name of their software to Joomla in 2005 and founded the Open Source Matters organization to manage it. Since then, about 2,500 programmers have contributed to the project’s core database. Joomla has been downloaded about 19 million times in the past three years, and a diverse range of sites, including McDonald’s and Harvard University, are using it. Recently, the framework has also drawn attention from Microsoft and eBay; both recently signed Joomla’s contributor agreement. Ryan Ozimek, the president of Open Source Matters, and Louis Landry, a member of the Joomla production leadership team, recently spoke with Mashable about the current role of commercial interests in the project, the future of open source, and about how open source projects are winning acceptance from large enterprises.
More Startup Resources from Mashable:
Reviews: Firefox, Joomla, Mashable, Miro More About: CMS, content management system, drupal, interview, joomla, Louis Landry, microsoft, open source, programming, Ryan Ozimek, Web Development, Wordpress For more Business coverage:
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| Fredde Gredde Curates: Our Favorite YouTube Videos This Week Posted: 12 Nov 2010 11:26 AM PST   The other week, we brought you YouTube star Fredrik Larsson’s (a.k.a. Fredde Gredde) “Cartoon Medley” — an impressive video in which Larsson busts out with renditions of myriad cartoon favorites. Hungering for more animated goodness, we asked Larsson to curate this week’s YouTube roundup, the theme of which is: Animation! (Exclamation marks are necessary when discussing cartoons.) The following collection is a delightful potpourri of childhood ephemera and full-on weirdness, replete with old-school cartoon clips and less-than-childlike fare. (Two words: Salad Fingers. Shiver) So leave all apprehensions about the uncanny valley back there with those week day worries and catapult yourself into the weekend. We begin with Larsson’s medley, which should put y’all in the mood for some Saturday morning cartoons (only a few hours away). The Cartoon MedleySimon’s Cat, “Fly Guy”Fredde Gredde: I’m quite interested in animation (you can see some proof of that in my “Cartoon Medley,” (around 4:25), so I’d like the theme to be animation! One of my favorite YouTube shows is Simon’s Cat. Cats are awesome. “Hey Ya!” Charlie Brown-StyleKaren Hartline: Charlie Brown doing “Hey Ya!” by Outkast. ‘Nuff said. The Smurfs, “Foul Weather Smurf”Lauren Rubin: Someone needs to prove to me that the Met Office isn’t run by Smurfs, because some days I really believe they are playing with the weather in London. Salad Fingers, “Picnic”Amy-Mae Elliott: Not all cartoons are for kids as the excellent Salad Fingers series shows. This one is SFW — but it’ll still send a shiver down your spine. Batman: The Animated SeriesRadhika Marya: This ’90s animated series holds up so well, I actually own all the box sets. I always loved the show’s overall look (partially achieved by painting many of the scenes on a black background). Madvillain, “All Caps”Zachary Sniderman: Thank you, Madvillain. We miss you. “Badgers”Jolie O’Dell: I’m ashamed to say it, but we often sing this ditty around the house, complete with a choreographed dance. This can go on for hours. Ducktales IntroAdam Ostrow: The intro to Duck Tales. I wish I could remember why I liked this show as a kid. “Batty Rap”Lauren Indvik: Robin Williams singing the “Batty Rap” from Fern Gully. I can recite this on request. The Meth Minute 39, “Watermelon Nights”Blake Robinson: We need some stop motion in this group! Punga Zune ArtEvan Wexler: Re-animation? The Last Unicorn OpeningBrenna Ehrlich: I used to force my parents to rent this movie every single weekend. What can I say: unicorns and a soundtrack featuring America? So, so rad… Reviews: YouTube More About: cartoons, favorite-youtube-videos, Film, freddegredde, humor, pop culture, television, viral videos, youtube For more Web Video coverage:
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| Now You Can Bump iOS Devices to Share Music Posted: 12 Nov 2010 10:58 AM PST   Bump, the application maker known for its mobile device contact and photo exchange technology, has just released an update to its iOS applications — iPhone, iPod touch, iPad — that supports user-to-user music sharing. In version 2.2, Bump [iTunes link] users can select songs from their iTunes collection to share with friends via the classic Bump gesture. Music recipients can then listen to the full tracks, as streamed from YouTube, or preview and buy them on iTunes. Co-founder and CEO David Lieb believes music sharing and Bump are perfect companions. “We think Bump is the simplest and easiest way to tell your friends about songs and artists you love,” he says. Bump is making an educated bet that music sharing will follow in the footsteps of photo sharing, which is now the most popular feature of its applications “with more than a million photos shared every weekend,” according to Lieb. Bump already supports contact, calendar event and photo exchange, and also enables users to become fast friends on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn simply by bumping phones together. The startup also makes available an API to third-party application developers. PayPal, for instance, recently upgraded its mobile applications to allow for money transfers via Bump.  Image courtesy of Flickr, Yutaka Tsutano Reviews: Facebook, Flickr, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube More About: bump, iOS, ipad, iphone, Mobile 2.0, music For more Mobile coverage:
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| Paul Buchheit, Creator of Gmail, Leaves Facebook for Y Combinator Posted: 12 Nov 2010 10:45 AM PST   Update: We’ve just learned that Buchheit will be leaving Facebook to work at Y Combinator; today is Buccheit’s last day at the social network. Paul Buchheit, the man behind Gmail, FriendFeed and the famous Google motto, “Don’t be evil,” has just joined startup seed-funding firm Y Combinator as a partner. In an announcement on the Y Combinator blog, Y Combinator co-founder Paul Graham wrote that Buchheit is “a good friend as well as one of the world’s best hackers; for years we’ve considered him an honorary YC partner.” Buchheit, who had previously worked at Microsoft, Intel and Sun, became a Google engineer in 1999. He was the creator and lead developer of Gmail, and he also came up with the first Google AdSense prototype. He, along with fellow former Googlers Bret Taylor and Jim Norris, among others, launched FriendFeed in 2007. Buchheit became a Facebooker last year when the social network acquired FriendFeed. Also joining Y Combinator today is Harj Taggar, a Y Combinator startup advisor since earlier this year. Image courtesy of Flickr, thomashawk. Hat tip: VentureBeat. Reviews: Flickr, FriendFeed, Google, blog, gmail More About: Paul Buchheit, y combinator For more Dev & Design coverage:
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| Essential Web Design Advice From a Wireframing Master [INTERVIEW] Posted: 12 Nov 2010 10:42 AM PST
So much information is out there and so many new technologies and proofs of concept are appearing across the web that it can be difficult to keep up with what’s going on. For newer designers or developers, it can sometimes be scary to know where to start. That’s why it’s always good to talk to the masters — individuals who are setting the bar by building high-quality apps and sites — to see how they work, what tools they use, and what advice they have for others. This week, we spoke with Travis Isaacs, a seasoned user experience designer and creator of Keynote Kung-Fu, who, in his words, specializes in “bridging the gap between visual and interaction design, information architecture and web development.” Here are Isaacs’s top web design tips. About Isaacs Isaacs has worked on the visual design and front-end development for websites like ShopKeep.com, Blinksale, Viewzi and Travelocity for the iPhone. He’s also half of the team behind the innovative heatmap visualizer, Trailhead. It was at the Big Design 2010 conference earlier this spring where Isaacs made perhaps his biggest splash. At the conference, he gave a presentation called “Keynote Kung-Fu: How to Wireframe Like a Ninja” that outlined how using Apple’s presentation tool Keynote, individuals can create truly compelling and effective wireframes and website mockups. The presentation has been viewed more than 37,000 times on SlideShare, and it gave way to Isaacs’s own bundle of Keynote templates, available at KeynoteKungfu.com. Since May, Isaacs has sold more than 1,500 copies of his $12 package of Keynote tools and elements and issued several big updates (all free to buyers) that include prototypes for the iPhone and the iPad. Keynote Kung-Fu has even been expanded to support PowerPoint for Windows and Mac, and Keynote for the iPad. If you don’t believe it’s possible to create prototypes of websites, web apps or mobile apps using Keynote, check out Isaacs’s presentation: Tools of the Trade We asked Isaacs about his design and development process. He tells us that as a front-end designer, he starts his process by sketching — but just at a very high level. Once he has his page level ideas sketched out, he moves straight into Keynote. He tells us, “I’ve been using Keynote since 2006-ish, but seriously using it for wireframes for the last two years. I do use it for all of my own work, which helps me make [Keynote Kung-Fu] better.” Keynote is used for all of his interactions and interface details. At this point, Isaacs takes a path that is a bit different than many front-end developers; he heads straight for the code. He says that this is “a little backwards from most people” but for him, it makes sense to do the visual design along with code, or after the code. Photoshop is what he uses to build visual elements for his work. When it comes to writing his code, Isaacs is a fan of TextMate, which he calls “the best money I’ve spent (aside from iWorks, of course).” What makes TextMate so good? It’s all about the bundles. Noting that there are syntax bundles for just about every language, Isaacs also says that he’s “drunk on keyboard shortcuts.” When it comes to front-end languages, Isaacs is a big fan of using HTML, CSS and jQuery. jQuery, according to Isaacs, is the only JavaScript library you will ever need. For his projects, Isaacs frequently uses Nathan Smith’s 960.gs grid system, the new HTML5 Boilerplate and the LESS CSS framework. “If You Build a Product, Charge for It” While discussing advice for individuals new to the world of HTML/CSS/JavaScript, Isaacs made a point that we thought was worth highlighting: “If you build a product, charge for it.” Although Isaacs says that he gives smaller things, like code snippets, away for free, he believes in charging for products and tools that add value. “Charging for a product forces you to make it better and gives you instant feedback on its value. It’s pretty easy to give something away — the barrier is low. Getting someone to give you money is much harder.” He continues, speaking of Keynote Kung-Fu, “I’ve learned so much about customer service, digital goods, marketing — things that would have been hard to do had I just given it (or Trailhead) away.” Expert AdviceHere are some of Isaacs’s other tips for aspiring web developers and designers:
This isn’t to say though, that Isaacs thinks that designers and developers should ignore other browsers. A common mistake — and a common advice point we kept coming back to was that he sees many web designers and developers who don’t make their code bulletproof. That means that it can work in various scenarios. Common mistakes he sees of code not being bulletproof include:
Still, Isaacs isn’t opposed to designing or developing for a certain audience. For instance, especially in the beginning, most of Keynote Kung-Fu’s traffic was from Mac users. That meant that he felt he could get away with practically anything with his design and feel free to use more modern techniques. As the toolkit has expanded to support PowerPoint, checking to make sure things work in Internet Explorer becomes more important. Your ThoughtsWhat do you think about Isaacs’s tips for web professionals? Have you tried wireframing in Keynote or PowerPoint? Let us know in the comments. Series Supported by The Bazaar  The Web Design Best Practices Series is supported by The Bazaar, a marketplace to buy and sell creative objects. It empowers creative talents with the tools to promote and sell their artworks globally. Start buying and selling instantly by connecting with Facebook or Twitter. More Dev & Design Resources from Mashable:
Reviews: Adobe Photoshop, Facebook, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Opera, Safari, TextMate, Twitter, Windows, iPhone More About: design, interviews, jquery, keynote kung-fu, trailhead, Travis Isaacs, web design, Web Design Best Practices Series, Web Development For more Dev & Design coverage:
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| Posted: 12 Nov 2010 10:37 AM PST   iTunes 10.1 has just become available for download. iTunes 10.1 allows owners of Airplay-supported devices, including the iPad, iPhone and Apple TV, to instantly and wirelessly stream videos from iTunes. The update also supplies the usual round of stability and performance improvements. The release of iTunes 10.1 also means that the iPad is now ready for the iOS 4.2 update, which will bring a new multitasking bar that has both volume and brightness controls, as well as a dedicated AirPlay button, to the device. Notably, AirPrint, which allows device owners to print wirelessly over Wi-Fi without having to install any drivers or additional software, will not be included in the iOS 4.2 update for iPad as expected. Users can access the download here.  Reviews: iTunes More About: itunes, itunes 10.1 For more Tech coverage:
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| Oracle Teams Up With Apple on Java Project for OS X Posted: 12 Nov 2010 09:55 AM PST   Not all the news about Oracle and Java is bad today. Oracle and Apple are cozying up to work on OpenJDK, a FOSS implementation of the Java programming language, for Mac OS X. This news comes hot on the heels of Oracle’s far-reaching lawsuit against Google for Android- and Java-related copyright and trademark infringement. The announcement also comes just a couple of weeks after Apple called the Java runtime “deprecated,” saying, “Developers should not rely on the Apple-supplied Java runtime being present in future versions of Mac OS X.” In an announcement this morning, Apple and Oracle jointly stated that the former company will give the project “most of the key components, tools and technology required for a Java SE 7 implementation on Mac OS X, including a 32-bit and 64-bit HotSpot-based Java virtual machine, class libraries, a networking stack and the foundation for a new graphical client.” Apple also said that Java SE 6 will remain available for Snow Leopard and the upcoming, multitouch-enabled Lion. Java SE 7 and future versions of Java for Mac OS X will be available from Oracle. “The availability of Java on Mac OS X plays a key role in the cross-platform promise of the Java platform,” said Hasan Rizvi, Oracle’s senior vice president of development. “The Java developer community can rest assured that the leading edge Java environment will continue to be available on Mac OS X in the future.” OpenJDK began in 2006 at Sun Microsystems. Oracle acquired Sun Microsystems last year; the Java programming language was a big part of that deal. Oracle called the Java platform “one of the most important technologies Oracle acquired with Sun.” Since the acquisition, Oracle has been rather active on the Java front, both in terms of allegedly protecting the language, à la the Google saga, and in terms of promoting its use, à la this new partnership with Apple, which has slowly been waning in its Java developer resources for some years now. Reviews: Android, Google More About: apple, developers, foss, java, open source, openjdk, oracle For more Dev & Design coverage:
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| iPhotography: 10 Pro Tips for Snapping Perfect iPhone Photos Posted: 12 Nov 2010 09:40 AM PST   We’ve brought you iPhotography galleries, resource websites, and now we’re expanding our scope to gather some top tips from our favorite iPhone photographers themselves. Besides hands-on experience, we think there’s no better way to improve your own iPhone camera skills than by taking some advice from experts in the field. These 10 pros really know their stuff, and they offered up their best insights. Hopefully their tips will inspire you to pick up your own phone/camera and start shooting, Apple-style. Have a read through these 10 interviews for hints, tips and tricks from top iPhotographers located all over the world. Please share any of your own advice in the comments below. 1. Ted Anthony “Seek out fragments. iPhone photography just feels elemental. Because there’s no complicated camera equipment involved, it breaks down walls between the photographer and subject by being uncomplicated and direct. “For the first time, every step of the photographic process is self-contained in your pocket. That offers a compelling opportunity to react instantaneously and capture the world as we humans truly experience it — in fragments, pieces, little slivers that, assembled together, make up our reality. “I look for opportunities to offer pieces of the world in unusual configurations that make people notice the everyday landscape around them. A disembodied foot coming into the frame, an oddly shaped piece of a glowing neon sign, wine glasses reflected on a tablecloth, translucent packets of sauce in a Chinese restaurant. “By confronting people with familiar objects in unfamiliar — and incomplete — contexts, I try to make them think for a moment before the light bulb goes on. Then, in the best-case scenario, their brains will say: ‘Wow. I never thought of that.’ And the more we notice the world around us in all of its miniature geniuses, the better off we are.” 2. Peter Davis “In terms of my approach to shooting with an iPhone, the first core element is getting a decent composition. To be honest, this is straight from the heart and truly impossible to define. You just see a fleeting moment and seize the chance. “After that, the fun part is taking on the limitations of a basic iPhone 3G — 2-megapixel camera, fixed lens, etc. — and seeing what can be achieved. “My best results usually come from sticking to a couple of good apps and [using] them to edit after the shot. This is because the apps usually only let you shoot single shots and they assume you then want to start creating. They are usually really slow and I like to sometimes take a few shots. “Positioning your subject is important, so either getting down low or trying different angles really makes a difference. Look for lines that draw the eye or find elements to include (people especially are great for emotion and scale), which help create a story and builds up the imagination.” 3. Jaime Ferreyros “I’ve been threatened, caught, asked to delete, [and] questioned, but that won't stop me from taking my street iPhoneography pictures. To make life less dangerous and picture pleasant, let me share with you my ‘Oscar-winning,’ ‘actingography’ style of taking pictures. “I set my phone on silent. I then choose whatever app I’m going to use. For the most part I use my default camera. Then, I begin to walk hoping to bump into an interesting subject. When I spot one, I start acting like I’m getting a call or about to make one. I’m really doing this [in order to frame] my shot. “When I’m close enough, I’ll make it look like I’m answering or dialing. Now I start pretending as if I’m trying to figure out who is calling, or what number I’m dialing… always pretending to be confused. This is when I’m really taking my picture. “As soon as I get the shot, I’ll say out loud, ‘Hello?’ like I’m answering, as I walk away from my subject. When I’m at a safe distance, I’ll look at my shot and feel really glad and relieved [at] not getting caught and snapping a shot like the one above, called ‘Glowing with Love.’ ” 4. Jennifer Ford “There is magic to be found in low light/indoor light situations. While I prefer to shoot with natural light, sometimes the opportunity to take a great shot happens when no natural light is available. In these situations, you can achieve wonderfully film-like results with graininess and blur. “Overly red or yellow tones from indoor lighting can be adjusted in many apps such as Iris Photo Suite, Mill Colour and PS Mobile. You can also opt to convert the image to a black and white or sepia. “Experiment and embrace what some people see as ‘limitations’ to using the iPhone in low light.” 5. Jim Darling “There’s one rule that I always share with someone taking portraits of strangers, no matter the device (iPhone, SLR, etc.) — act quickly. Go with your instincts and if you see someone that you know will be a compelling portrait, give yourself about three seconds to decide whether or not you will approach them. “This will greatly reduce the chance of them noticing you noticing them, which could result in an uneasy feeling that you’re a lingering bystander and not an artist with a vision. Be polite, and even a little humorous about the proposition you’re about to ask of them, and always introduce [yourself] as soon as you can. “But the greatest asset you have with using the iPhone is that you have access to your portfolio in your hand. If street/stranger portraits are your things, you can show them samples of your work. They will be amazed and most likely say ‘You took that with your phone?’ And then usually comply. Also, there’s usually enough time to put it through your app of choice and show them the finished product on the spot. I try and have business cards handy at all times as well. This creates a level of trust, I think, and gives them access to your site to see it posted afterward, and even a way to contact you should they want a copy. “The photo of Erica above isn’t very different than many in my series using the 3GS and the Shake It Photo app; but it was one of the few occasions where I saw a great face but didn’t have any cards on me. Luckily Erica was sitting at the Starbucks across the street from my apartment so I went home and got some and came back. I moved quickly and had to interrupt her while she was sitting with two friends. But they all really enjoyed the exchange and encouraged their friend to do it. I see Erica around the neighborhood from time to time and we always stop and say hello.” 6. Greg Schmigel “While many iPhone photographers (and [traditional] photographers) tend to pack up their gear at the first sign of rain drops, it should be noted that getting out in the rain can be a rewarding experience for photographers. Sometimes, it gives you opportunities to catch images like you’ve never caught before. “When out shooting on a rainy day or night, always make sure to use the water, puddles and wet spots to your advantage. Quick glances at a standing puddle of water might not show much, so play with the angle. Aim your iPhone or camera from high, low or parallel angles to the water to see what you find. You’ll be surprised what the water can do for you. People in reflection, buildings, sky and even the occasional photographer (or iPhone photographer) himself. “In the iPhone photograph above, I spent an hour wandering around the wet pavement at Union Square Park in New York City. Hundreds of people pass this spot each and every day, so I committed to watching the people, following their images in the rain and snapping when I felt the shot was right. “This image, entitled ‘Memoirs of Mr. Fullana,’ is an homage to Sion Fullana — the true master of shooting in the rain.” 7. Colin Vincent “In dimly light situations, the exposure will be longer and exaggerated camera motion will create a blur. Use this to your advantage [and be] creative. “I like to shoot my feet in these situations, rotating the camera, using the spot where the lens on the phone [is] a pivot point. It takes a bit of practice and not all [the] shots work. But keep this in mind next time you are in a hotel standing in the hallway waiting for the elevator. That’s what I did here.” 8. Nettie Edwards “The iPhone has triggered massive creative experimentation. I don’t consider myself to be a photographer but rather, an artist who takes photographs as the starting point for my work, and I love the fact that I have everything I need to create it, in my pocket. “I use my iPhone as a scrapbook, and when I’m out and about, I’ll take photographs of anything that catches my eye for possible future reassembly in photographic collages and montages. Using a phone allows me to take discreet shots in places where it might otherwise be frowned upon. I especially like projections on walls in museums and the decorative papers inside old book covers found in charity shops. “I’m constantly poking the iPhone [into] strange and slightly dodgy places, such as holes in walls, just to see what comes of it. Don’t be afraid to try this, the results can be inspiring! The woman in this image is a still from a ‘What the Butler Saw’ machine (I held my iPhone down the viewfinder, just to see if I could get a shot) on display in the railway museum where I also took a close-up of the mannequin of a boy on a rail carriage. I’m constantly amazed at what the iPhone can do, even in poor lighting conditions. In fact, low-lighting noise and lighting-flare anomalies can add texture and atmosphere to an image. “I use a lot of textures in my work, so my iPhone photo album is full of close-up shots of urine-stained bits of concrete wall, taken in dodgy parts of towns and patchy tarmac in the midst of life-threatening city traffic. Dirty, steamy bus windows make fabulous photo filters, and I keep an old Lee theater lighting gel sample book in my pocket as a fast and dirty color filter. “My top tip is — there are no rules, just play!” 9. Jaclyn Turner “I’ve always found it difficult to inconspicuously take ‘people shots’ with my iPhone, because I have to get close [since] the camera zoom destroys the quality of the photo, and because the camera shutter button is so small. “So I’ve been using a camera app where the entire screen becomes the shutter button. The app also has a self-timer option, so I can press anywhere on the screen, place the phone at my hip, side, wherever, pointed at [the] subject, and five seconds later, it will take the shot without any suspicions from onlookers. “In addition, just on the iPhone’s normal camera settings, the photo actually [won't] take until you release the shutter…. so you can hold your finger down as long as you need to. “I like to use low camera angles to add emphasis and interest to everyday photos. If you place your iPhone below your subject and point it upwards it helps dramatize the subject by giving the illusion of greater size or speed. “It also helps you be a true photo-ninja as your subject will never know what hit ‘em. I could probably save the trouble, and just get permission from the subjects… but I prefer going unnoticed, and getting the candid shot.” 10. Sion Fullana “Besides more conventional usage of the iPhone for street photography, one of the things I like the most in iPhoneography is [to] try to experiment with the apps to create effects [that] they weren’t meant to do. “And none other works better for this than being able to achieve one of the common features from Lo-Mo cameras, or even Polaroids: A double or multiple exposure. “To create one on the iPhone, there are different paths you can follow: You can either go straight to an app like Backgroundz that combines two images of your choice, or you could use some of the very complex apps, like Iris, to layer images and play with the opacity as one would do in Photoshop. “But there are other more challenging (yet satisfying ways) to get there, and those are my favorites. On one hand, you can go to an app like Autostitch, which was meant to create a panoramic image by combining previous sequenced photographs of the same landscape or spot. But if you happen to have, let’s say, two or three different characters in the same background, and you try to compose the panorama with those images, sometimes the app will deliver a mash up resulting in a creative, ghostly looking double exposure shot. It’s not always guaranteed, but it’s fun to check if it will. “Finally, you can get to the most reliable (and unexpected) use of one app to achieve another result than its original purpose: Pro HDR app. In that one, you have the options to shoot an automatic or manual HDR shot, or you can select two images from your library to melt [together]. In theory, you would select two images of the same subject: the darker one first, where the highlights are well exposed, and then the lighter one, where the shadows are brought to life. But instead, you will choose two images you want to mash together to create a double exposure. Just know that the one you choose [second] (the lighter one) will have more predominance in the final mix. “In Pro HDR, once you get the combined image, you can still fine tune it with controls over brightness, contrast, saturation, temperature and tint. Save it to the library, and perfect job. You can see an example with Pro HDR. The photo above, called ‘Let the Right One In,’ [was] created by combining two black-and-white Hipstamatic photos. More iPhone Photography Resources from Mashable:
Thumbnail image courtesy of Peter Davis Reviews: aim, love More About: apple, cameras, gadgets, galleries, gallery, hipstamatic, how to, how tos, interview, iphone, iphoneography, iphonography, iphotography, List, Lists, photography, tips, trending, tricks For more Apple coverage:
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| Gwyneth Paltrow Covers Cee-Lo’s “F**K You” on “Glee”… Stop It, Hollywood [VIDEO] Posted: 12 Nov 2010 09:18 AM PST Cee-Lo’s “F**ck You” started off as the unofficial song of the summer, and now it’s become the choice karaoke hit for decidedly tame Hollywood stars. Yup, first William Shatner covered the catchy jam, and now Gwyneth Paltrow gives us her own interpretation — on Glee, no less. On next week’s Glee — a wildly popular I-don’t-know-if-I’m-a-parody-or-not musical dramedy — Paltrow will appear as substitute teacher “Holly Holliday,” according to Hollywood Insider. And it is in this role that the Academy Award-winning actress will regale us with her very own twirly, edited version of the jam — complete with the robot. The robot! I think it’s safe to say — aside from obvious temporal cues — that summer is over. More About: cee-lo, GLEE, Gwyneth Paltrow, music, television, viral video For more Entertainment coverage:
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| Would You Pay $200,000 for an Original Apple Computer? Posted: 12 Nov 2010 07:56 AM PST   One of the 200 original Apple-1 computers, hand-built by Steve Wozniak and sold by Steve Jobs from his garage in 1976, is going up for auction at Christie’s in London on November 23. Originally sold for $666.66, the Apple-1 is expected to fetch between $161,600 and $242,400, which once again proves that it sometimes pays to be an early adopter, and — perhaps even more importantly — not to throw away “that old piece of junk,” even if your garage is a mess. For the money, the buyer will be getting an Apple-1 motherboard, 8K bytes of RAM and a couple capacitors, connectors and interfaces. The original shipping box and some extras, such as the original manual, an invoice with the salesman named “Steven” and a typed letter from Steve Jobs to the original owner, is also included. [Christie's via The Daily Mail] More About: apple, Apple-1, auction, Christies, desktop computer, wood For more Tech coverage:
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| HOW TO: Activate Your Brand’s Super Influencers Posted: 12 Nov 2010 07:47 AM PST   Ben Straley is the Co-Founder and CEO of Meteor Solutions, whose leading technology and services platform increases campaign engagement, reach and revenue through social sharing. As a marketer, you've undoubtedly heard about the 1% rule — that just 1% of your brand's social media followers are responsible for the majority of sharing. They share your social media campaigns with their larger social network, passing on links to your contests, promotions, deals, and other marketing campaigns. These key influencers are more than just fans — they're brand ambassadors. At my company, we’ve seen that brands that track and quantify word-of-mouth impact have found that these key influencers can drive 20, 30, or even 70% of all visits to their campaign pages, beating out display and search advertising as the most efficient driver of traffic to their sites. That's pretty incredible, considering social campaigns require no media buys and cost next to nothing to implement, whereas banners and search ads are a huge expense. These “super influencers” drive an even higher share of conversion — on average influencing 30% or more of all conversions on marketers' sites just by recommending a brand's products, content, or promotions to their online communities. When you see data like these as regularly as we do, you realize pretty quickly that super influencers are worth engaging. If you can reach out to this 1% directly by offering them special promotions, thanking them for their influence, and rewarding them for their loyalty, they will be motivated to share early and share often. Identifying your key influencers is fairly straightforward. There are a wealth of social media measurement tools that enable marketers to find the people who are talking most about their brand, see what type of content they're sharing and with whom, and how they are sharing it (e-mail, Twitter, Facebook, their own blogs, etc.). Once you find these influencers, the trick is activating them to share even more. Here are three tips to help you activate your top influencers. 1. Reserve Your Best Content for Influencers OnlyInfluencers love to be an inside source of information for their friends and followers by sharing contests, information, or deals with their social networks before other people have heard about them. Create exclusive content you share only with your key influencers, and let them know they were one of a select few to receive this special offer. This makes your brand advocates feel appreciated and provides them with exclusive information they can use to boost their reputation as a source of inside deals. One of my company’s clients decided to engage its most ardent fans when planning a large industry event. The company reached out to these key influencers, inviting them to post a "register now" button on their blogs and websites, and offering them lower-cost VIP passes if they shared the event with friends. The result was a huge uptick in sharing that significantly influenced registrations for the event. People who found out about the conference from an influencer were 37% more likely to register than direct visitors, and influencers ended up driving more than $1 million in total registrations. 2. Mine the Blogs and ForumsWhen you're looking for super influencers, chances are you've already determined who shares the most on Facebook and Twitter. But, in many cases, the people who really influence traffic and conversion on your site are the bloggers. One of our clients launched a social media contest and found that one blogger alone shared the contest with thousands of people and directly drove 42% of all traffic to the contest page. To find and activate the people who are truly passionate about your products, services, or sector, you've got to carefully monitor the blogosphere, message boards, and forums. Once you've used analytics tools to find exactly which individuals are driving the most traffic to your campaign sites, you need to reach out to these people individually. Treat them like the real VIPs they are. Let them know you appreciate their loyalty and interest in your products. We've found influencers appreciate your attention and kind words even more than exclusive promotions. 3. Differentiate the Influencers from the Super InfluencersYour top fans are so valuable they are worth the extra effort of some special attention. But, not all influencers are alike. When you plot the influence of individuals, you'll see a curve that looks a lot like the long tail distribution of search terms. Influence follows a "power law," where a relatively small number of individuals influence the lion’s share of referrals. Those at the peak of this curve are the super influencers, and those in the tail are regular influencers. Super influencers have large, loyal followings and audiences who trust their insights. The latter are people who pass along info to friends and family from time to time via e-mail and Facebook. Understanding these differences is key to crafting your influencer activation strategy. You need to interact with super influencers on a one-to-one basis, but you could target the rest of your influencers a bit more broadly. For example, you will want to reach out directly to all your influencers by commenting on their blogs and syndicating their content via Twitter, Facebook, and your own blog. Thank them for their loyalty, and generally praise them. But, make sure to go the extra mile with your super influencers. Offer super influencers the opportunity to obtain and review your products before they hit the market, for example. Offer them after-hours shopping at your stores, a few free hours of your services, or invite them to a special VIP party. Be creative, and have fun. Remember, your super influencers, when treated right, can drive a huge percentage of your site's overall traffic. Isn't that worth throwing a party? The TakeawayJust identifying your key influencers is not enough in today's market. Instead, you've got to find them and then motivate them to share. Over the long term, your goal as a marketer is to increase the size of your influencer base. By finding and engaging in a direct dialogue with your super influencers, you'll get a clear idea of what motivates these brand ambassadors to share. Then, armed with that knowledge, you can begin reaching out to your influencers — and even your fans who never share — to offer the right kind of content and rewards to turn more "followers" into "sharers." More Business Resources from Mashable:
Image courtesy of iStockphoto, peepo Reviews: Facebook, Twitter, iStockphoto More About: business, facebook, how to, influencers, power users, small business, social media, social media influencers, social media marketing, social networking, super influencers, twitter For more Business coverage:
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| The 3 Biggest Stories in Social Media, Tech and Mobile This Morning Posted: 12 Nov 2010 06:31 AM PST   Welcome to this morning's edition of "First To Know," a series in which we keep you in the know on what's happening in the digital world. We're keeping our eyes on three particular stories of interest today. Google Search Ads Get More Visual Google Product Listing Ads are now being rolled out to all of Google's advertisers in the U.S. The format, which has been in testing with select advertisers for the past year, makes AdWords more visual by allowing advertisers to list specific products with accompanying images. Microsoft Kin Might Be Coming Back to Verizon According to a leaked Verizon A4 road map, Microsoft’s Kin feature phone — considered one of the biggest failures in the mobile industry this year, having been pulled after only three months on the market — is coming back to the wireless carrier. Thousands Tweet in Support of Convicted Airport Joker In response to the conviction of 27-year-old UK accountant Paul Chambers, who yesterday lost his appeal against his conviction and a £1,000 fine for a joke he made about blowing up an airport on Twitter, thousands of users have taken to the microblogging service to show their support by retweeting his joke with the hashtag #IAmSpartacus. Further News
Image courtesy of iStockphoto, DNY59 Reviews: Google, Ping, Twitter, iStockphoto More About: first to know series, Google, Microsoft Kin, twitter, verizon For more Social Media coverage:
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| #IAmSpartacus: Thousands Tweet in Support of Convicted Airport Joker Posted: 12 Nov 2010 06:11 AM PST   The South Yorkshire man who was recently convicted for joking about bombing an airport on Twitter is now just one of many who have done the exact same thing. Paul Chambers’s original tweet, "Robin Hood airport is closed. You've got a week and a bit to get your shit together, otherwise I'm blowing the airport sky high!!" was meant as a joke, but Judge Jacqueline Davis saw things differently. She thought the tweet was “menacing in its content,” dismissing Chambers’s appeal to the original sentence, a £1,000 fine. Furthermore, Chambers has been ordered to pay an additional £2,000 to cover the legal bills, and lost his job as a financial manager as a consequence of his arrest. Now, thousands of Twitter users are expressing support for Chambers, repeating his tweet together with a hashtag #IAmSpartacus, a reference to the film Spartacus, in which fellow gladiators express solidarity with Spartacus by uttering the phrase, “I am Spartacus.” The hashtag is now a global trending topic on Twitter, and Chambers’s tweet has been repeated by thousands of users.  The incident raises several important questions. Was Paul Chambers really breaking the law when he joked about “blowing the airport” on Twitter? Subsequently, are all the Twitter users who have repeated the message breaking the law, too? Please, share your opinion in the comments. Image courtesy of Universal Pictures [via The Guardian] Reviews: Twitter More About: #IAmSpartacus, airport joke, joke, social media, trending, tweet, twitter For more Social Media coverage:
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| 5 Lessons Madison Avenue Can Learn From Startups Posted: 12 Nov 2010 06:01 AM PST   Pedro Sorrentino is the first international student to attend Boulder Digital Works, a graduate school based in Boulder, Colorado that exists to build the next generation of digital professionals. Prior to moving to the States, he was the head of marketing and PR for Mediamind (Nasdaq: MDMD) in São Paulo, Brazil, his homeland. Although startups and Madison Avenue agencies are perceived to have little in common, coffee shop-hopping entrepreneurs and modern “Don Drapers” actually share more characteristics than you might think, and they can learn a lot from one another. The most valuable assets for startups are time and team. When working on a big idea with little money and a short time to make it real, Mark Zuckerberg’s corporate mantra "move fast and break things" is particularly a propos. Getting user feedback and making (and then fixing) mistakes as quickly as possible can help startups avoid bigger problems and bring home the bacon in the long run. It seems that now, more than ever, it's time for “Mad Men” everywhere to heed the advice of the entrepreneurs setting up shop in basements and coffee shops around the world. Here are five lessons Madison Avenue can learn from startups. Add your own thoughts in the comments below. 1. Be T-ShapedBig multinational advertising behemoths that hit their stride before the rise of the web often struggle to deliver high-quality digital and interactive work. In many cases, a hesitance to move forward or a lack of technical knowledge within a company's talent base are at the root of this. “Startups are most likely to have a small team. Consider eight people and a situation where four or five of them are programmers. They are not just going to do technical stuff. There’s a demand to have a broader line of thought, since there’s no one else around to do the work,” says John Keehler, principal at ClickHere, the digital division for The Richards Group. Marketers should strive to be T-shaped professionals. This concept was born inside the creative agency Ideo and is about professionals with versatility and the ability to think like a designer or a programmer, even if you work with marketing. T-shaped professionals have a broad view of things. In startups, this is a reality, but when it comes to big agencies, people tend to be divided in silos. Advice for Madison Avenue: It's important to have a wide vision and understanding of everyone who’s involved with the campaign that you're working on. This versatility saves time and brings more ideas to the table. 2. Test, Fail and Learn Brent Daily is the COO and co-founder of RoundPegg, a Boulder-based TechStars startup that provides online HR solutions for discovering professional personalities. He thinks that a good startup culture is one that believes “it’s OK to make mistakes and be a spectacular failure.” On the other hand, he agrees that agencies can’t easily bring this acceptance of failure into their ecosystems — after all, if they fail, their clients also fail and that can represent a huge loss of money. Agencies should consider testing marketing campaigns and products on the web as “beta tests.” Getting feedback from users via the web is a low cost way to get a feel for how the community will take to ideas. After optimizing based on user feedback, campaigns would then be better prepared to launch on other mediums, such as TV or print. When it comes to digital, users tend to enjoy sharing their opinions and giving solid feedback. “There are so many places to go and test advertising rather than doing expensive focus groups, that the result is usually a pretty low-cost test bid for them,” says Daily. One good example of open innovation is the startup UserVoice. The service positions itself as “customer feedback 2.0″ and allows companies to ask for feedback on an organized web platform. Perhaps some day more companies will substitute the traditional focus groups for this lower cost web alternative. Advice for Madison Avenue: Before starting a huge ad campaign and spending millions of dollars on media, use the web as your test arena and get quick feedback from your customers. 3. Leverage PR 2.0PR 2.0 is the art of using social tools to reach and communicate with key stakeholders. There used to be a time when public relations was all about relationships with journalists and sending out press releases. Taking clients to lunch, picking up the check and smiling was the way to go. This method still exists, but is on its way out. Public relations is now about the art of dealing with, well, the public. Journalists are still very important, but nothing beats the credibility of your customers, and they are probably already talking about your product. The question is: Are you listening? Fortunately, there’s less and less space for companies with bad products to succeed by deploying exceptional marketing. We as consumers just don't accept that anymore. Product quality is the true advantage — attaching that strength to a sound PR strategy enables companies to listen to what consumers are saying, engage them and build brand awareness. Startups take advantage out of this. When a startup offers a great solution with its product, normally there's an engaged early adopter community ready to give free feedback. Agencies should take advantage of it, too. What better way to improve your business and its product than getting direct feedback from your core users? Initiatives like Starbucks’s customer feedback and idea generation site mystarbucksidea.com are the right way to go. Advice for Madison Avenue: Remember that having a great product is key. But listen and allow your early adopters to influence the next meeting with your client's R&D department. 4. Bootstrap It If a startup can run for months (or years) without without getting funded, Mad Men can dabble in testing and running campaigns without buying media. Agencies could learn a lot by testing out the old startup method of bootstrapping; that is, getting by without external help and being cautious with expenses. Startups, for example, use free social tools like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube all the time to save money and still reach large, influential, highly-targeted audiences. Increasingly, agencies and large advertisers are beginning to catch on and test them out; the Old Spice guy campaign is a very good example of this. As that campaign proved, a Twitter account and some YouTube videos can go a long way. What's better is that using these tools is cost effective, even if you count time invested. We know that the Old Spice guy videos were not a simple production, but this campaign was comparatively inexpensive because starting with social media is much cheaper (and oftentimes more powerful) than a TV commercial. Advice for Madison Avenue: Remember that you can do more with less when you have a good idea and a strong plan for execution. 5. Open Up to FeedbackGood startups spend a lot of time crowdsourcing opinions and getting feedback from their communities and mentors in order to improve their products. Agencies, on the other hand, usually won’t share copy or ideas with one another or their communities until a campaign is ready to launch. Some agencies though, are finding that it doesn’t hurt to ask others for creative or production input — that’s what Victor & Spoils is all about. Based in Boulder, Colorado, the ad agency calls itself “the world's first creative (ad) agency built on crowdsourcing principles.” John Windsor, Victor & Spoils CEO and former VP of strategy and innovation at CP+B, understands how disruptive new technologies can be, especially when they relate to the ad world. “We’re moving from a world of scarcity to a world of abundance. The rise of the curator class has a new generator of social creative/digital directors,” says Windsor. This is a company that has tapped into the startup principles and made its business faster, global (it has people from all around the world giving input) and without the legacy issues that you see on Madison Avenue. As time passes, we can draw a line between businesses that embrace change and the ones that fear new ways of doing things. Advice for Madison Avenue: Embrace change and don't fear the unknown. Others can help your cause if you give them the right opportunity. More Business Resources from Mashable:
Images courtesy of MadMenYourself & Flickr, jolien_vallins Reviews: Facebook, Flickr, Twitter, YouTube More About: advertising, agencies, business, facebook, List, Lists, mad men, madison avenue, marketers, pr, small business, social media marketing, startups, twitter, youtube For more Business coverage:
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