Mashable: Latest 28 News Updates - including “A Mobile Photo Sharing Service with Monetization on the Horizon” |
- A Mobile Photo Sharing Service with Monetization on the Horizon
- Why OneRiot Dropped Its Real-Time Search Engine
- Formspring Raises $25M for Anonymous Q&A
- Food & Wine Magazine Serves Up Holiday Treats for the iPad
- Facebook Accounts for 25% of All U.S. Pageviews
- iPod Nano Watch Kit Raises Nearly $200k via Kickstarter
- Tumblr Raises Between $25 Million and $30 Million in Funding [REPORT]
- Coke Targets Teens With Black Friday SCVNGR Promotion
- Announcing The Beatles Box Set on iTunes Contest Winners
- “The Office” Parodies Silicon Valley Startups [VIDEO]
- Borders Goes Local With Google, Meetup Partnerships
- Gift a Kindle E-Book via E-mail
- Cracking the Mainstream: Why Social Gaming Is More Than Just a Fad
- “The Economist” Comes to the iPhone & iPad [VIDEO]
- Harry Potter and the 8-Bit YouTube Game
- Our Favorite YouTube Videos This Week: The Cheesy Action Movie Edition
- Cats: They’re On the Internet [COMIC]
- TJ Maxx Offers Reduced-Price iPads
- 8 Experts Break Down the Pros and Cons of Coding With PHP
- Foursquare Partnership Seeks to Reinvent Grocery Store Loyalty Program
- Why You Need an Amazon Kindle 3 This Holiday Season
- Thanks to Mashable’s Socially Savvy Supporters
- Boy Meets Girl: How Facebook Functions in Modern Romance
- Google in Talks to Buy Groupon? [RUMOR]
- 4 Winning Web Design Tips From Ryan Carson of Carsonified
- Fashism Raises $1 Million From Ashton Kutcher, Ron Conway & Others
- Get Snow and Ski Push Updates On Your iPhone or iPod Touch
- 11 Essential Apps for Managing Your Real Life Social Networks
- Google Street View Comes to 20 German Cities
| A Mobile Photo Sharing Service with Monetization on the Horizon Posted: 19 Nov 2010 11:21 PM PST      The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here.
Quick Pitch: Picplz is a photo sharing app for iPhone and Android that makes it easy to share your mobile pictures with just a few clicks. Genius Idea: Recently, there’s been a boom in iPhone-only photo sharing applications — think Instagram and Path — hoping to capitalize on ever-improving mobile camera technology. Picplz exists in the same space, but the startup designs to be far more than just an application, instead aiming to be a full-fledged service with a cross-platform experience, a community and a solid business model. “We’re not an iPhone app company. We’re a service company,” says Founder and CEO Dalton Caldwell. Picplz makes mobile apps for iPhone and Android that allow users to upload photos, apply filters, attach locations via Foursquare and share them with friends on Facebook and Twitter. Its feature set mirrors that of rival Instagram, but Picplz actually pre-dates that iPhone application and has been focused on building for Android and iPhone since day one. In addition to mobile, the Picplz service also includes a full-featured website that allows members to upload photos and apply filters. The web-based filter experience is actually superior to the mobile one and allows users to preview each filter for their photo simultaneously before publishing. The web experience also ensures that anyone, regardless of mobile device, can use the photo-sharing service. To date, Picplz is reporting slightly fewer than 100,000 registered users.  On the features side of things, the current filters aren’t as strong as those of its competitor, but that will soon change, Caldwell tells Mashable. In fact, Picplz users can expect a host of service upgrades in the immediate future to include enhanced filters, new filters and revisions to the mobile applications’ user interfaces. The mobile applications make it easy for users to automatically follow their Facebook, Foursquare and Twitter friends, so most users will have little trouble finding a slew of friends to follow. The photo display gives users a glance at recent friend activity or popular photos. Photo comments and likes are also compelling elements that bring the user back. Caldwell, who previously founded and sold music startup Imeem, says he picked the mobile photo space specifically because of his first-hand experience watching Imeem’s mobile app install base skyrocket year over year. The Imeem mobile apps were profitable and generating more revenue than the company was spending on them, explains Caldwell. Also, he says, “Page views on a mobile device are easier to monetize than on a website.” Caldwell believes he can use this knowledge and experience to monetize Picpiz, and soon. “Building a profitable [business] is the number one thing I’m out to do,” he says. Though Caldwell was reluctant to share specifics, we should begin to see Picplz’s monetization strategy develop in the coming months around new features currently in the works. Investors are confident in Caldwell’s ambition. The startup raised $5 million in a Series A round from Andreessen Horowitz just last week. The venture capital firm also has a much smaller stake in Instagram, but it invested when that company was still Burbn and before it pivoted to its current photo sharing purpose. Still, the $5 million investment in Picplz signifies that Andreessen Horowitz believes this service will have a fruitful future, perhaps on par with other portfolio companies like Zynga and Foursquare. Image courtesy of Picplz, dalton Series Supported by Microsoft BizSpark  The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark, a startup program that gives you three-year access to the latest Microsoft development tools, as well as connecting you to a nationwide network of investors and incubators. There are no upfront costs, so if your business is privately owned, less than three years old, and generates less than U.S.$1 million in annual revenue, you can sign up today. Reviews: Android, Facebook, Foursquare, Mashable, Twitter, eXperience, foursquare, imeem, instagram More About: bizspark, photo sharing, Photos, picplz, social media For more Startups coverage:
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| Why OneRiot Dropped Its Real-Time Search Engine Posted: 19 Nov 2010 09:36 PM PST   This post is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark as a new part of the Spark of Genius series that focuses on a new and innovative startup each day. Every Thursday, the program focuses on startups within the BizSpark program and what they’re doing to grow.When we first encountered OneRiot about two years ago, it was starting up as a real-time search engine. When users searched for a keyword, website, or specific URL on OneRiot, it returned content that people were discussing in real-time rather than then the standard reference information that search engines like Google return. After its official launch in May 2009, it quickly developed into one of the leading companies in this space — securing $27 million in funding along the way. Last month, OneRiot decided to abandon its successful consumer-facing search engine and instead focus on its ad network, which leverages the same technology. By processing the enormous number of conversations going on in social networks (OneRiot calls this process their “trending topics engine“), the company can serve ads that are relevant to what people are engaging with online. For instance, after Duke won the NCAA tournament and social networks were buzzing with Duke references, OneRiot was able to serve advertisements for its client CocaCola that featured coverage of the Duke game. The company announced their shift away from search in a blog post and shortly after transferred its search partners to former real-time search competitor Topsy. CEO Tobias Peggs explains how the company made the decision to transition. A Matter of Focus Peggs, who left his position as the president of strategy, sales, distribution, and marketing to take over as CEO in July, calls OneRiot’s decision to shut down its search engine “100% a matter of focus.” Since January, the company has essentially had two products that both relied on the same underlying technology. One was the real-time search engine, and the other was an advertising product built to monetize real-time web applications that, like the OneRiot real-time search engine, use real-time data or content streams. This second product, which they originally called “RiotWise,” was bringing in a lot more revenue than the search engine. “We had a very exciting new ad product, and we needed to stay ahead of it,” explains Peggs. The best way to take full advantage of the ad network, which was “taking off like a rocket,” was to make it the exclusive project. While Peggs admits that steering away from the search engine that the company had spent more than a year building could have been emotionally tough, emotions aren’t a great way to make business decisions. “The bottom line is, when you look at the data and see the opportunity that you've got in front of you, if you didn't take the decision that we gave, which is focus on the massive revenue opportunity there, then you would have made the wrong decision." Maximizing Potential A recent comScore study found that more than 23 percent of all display ads on the web are on Facebook pages. Yet, the social site’s advertisers still pay less to advertise on Facebook than they do on sites that aren’t social networks — something Peggs thinks highlights the potential opportunity for OneRiot’s ad network. "What that means essentially is that there is a massive opportunity to deliver better advertising on the real-time social web,” he says. “We believe that it's because, if you look at the user intent on the social web, people are interested in what's going on right now and what their friends are talking about right now.” Peggs subscribes to the theory that in order to reach an audience on the real-time social web, advertisers need to become publishers. In other words, display ads on real-time platforms like social networks need to accommodate users’ desire to talk about what’s happening right now. Users won’t necessarily click on a static ad, but they might click on an ad that relates to an upcoming trend. The time OneRiot spent developing a real-time search engine gave them a distinguishing ability to help advertisers pinpoint those trends. We’re interested to see how its product will compete with Twitter, which has made a move to control in-stream advertising on third-party apps like HootSuite with promoted tweets. OneRiot also serves ads on third-party Twitter apps, but it has the advantage of not being solely concentrated on them. Even if it proves hard to compete with Twitter in its own ecosystem, there is plenty of ad territory on real-time search engines, social media discovery sites, and other “now-driven” websites that would be smartly filled using OneRiot’s strategy. Images courtesy of topshotUK, iStockphoto,mmatins, Flickr Sponsored by Microsoft BizSpark
Reviews: Facebook, Flickr, Google, HootSuite, Twitter, iStockphoto More About: advertising, Advertising on social networks, MARKETING, OneRiot, real-time search, topsy For more Startups coverage:
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| Formspring Raises $25M for Anonymous Q&A Posted: 19 Nov 2010 07:26 PM PST   Formspring, the popular, social and addictive Q&A site, has just secured a $25 million round of funding. This Series B was led by Redpoint Ventures, which reportedly values the company at $45 million. The San Francisco-based startup got its $2.5 million Series A earlier this spring; that money came from such Silicon Valley luminaries as Chris Sacca, former Facebooker and current Path founder Dave Morin, and Digg founder Kevin Rose. We’ve been following Formspring’s progress closely since the company moved out to the West Coast earlier this year. The app’s growth has been significant; in fact, the service saw its one billionth question answered just two months ago. According to a company rep, the site has more than 16.5 million users and sees about 5 million questions answered each day with a daily peak of about 9,000 answers per minute. That’s a lot of users and a lot of content. The site currently doesn’t have any advertising or promotional content; its makers are taking a “features first” approach to monetization. Like Twitter, they’ve created something that has the potential to be hugely popular and are choosing to concentrate on product before revenue. What new features do you think Formspring should consider, now that they’ve got a little more cash to play (and hire) with? Reviews: Digg, FormSpring More About: formspring, funding For more Business coverage:
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| Food & Wine Magazine Serves Up Holiday Treats for the iPad Posted: 19 Nov 2010 06:29 PM PST   We’ve been bombarded with a fair number of pitches for holiday-themed iPhone and iPad applications as of late (some of which we’ve profiled in a recent roundup of recipe apps for the iPad), but there’s one in particular we’d like to draw your attention to: Food & Wine’s holiday issue for the iPad. The issue is packed with gorgeously photographed edible goods (many included in the screenshots below), with recipes and, on two occasions, how-to videos to match. Like the recently released O: The Oprah Magazine iPad app, the issue also includes a full gift guide with in-app purchase options. For our readers who prefer to give homemade gifts, the magazine includes plenty of inspiration for those as well. This is Food & Wine’s second issue for the device and, like the first issue, it’s available free within the application [iTunes link]. Those who have downloaded sister publication Travel + Leisure will notice some resemblance in terms of style and navigation, but the holiday issue improves on both in several ways. Most critically, the app now allows users to share content via Facebook, Twitter and e-mail. Unfortunately, the text isn’t selectable, so readers won’t be able to share favorite quotes or send recipes to friends; rather, they’ll be able to send links to the web versions of each story, recipe or other piece of content. The app’s designers have also improved the format by allowing readers to tap to pull up recipes in the same window rather than having readers scroll down on different pages to view them. One thing I’d like to see is an in-app timer so I could leave the app open while cooking. Other recipes apps, such as Epicurious’s [iTunes link], also allow users to automatically add ingredients to a shopping list and bookmark recipes, both of which would be welcome additions. But given that the app is free and already offers so much, it hardly seems fair to complain. Tell us: What apps will you be using most this holiday season? Screenshot Gallery          Reviews: Facebook, Twitter More About: food & wine, ipad app, magazine, media For more Tech coverage:
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| Facebook Accounts for 25% of All U.S. Pageviews Posted: 19 Nov 2010 05:26 PM PST   Facebook’s putting up some big numbers in terms of U.S. web traffic. Right now, the site accounts for one out of every four pageviews in the United States — that’s 10% of all Internet visits. According to data from analysis and intelligence firm Hitwise, Facebook’s year-over-year growth has been phenomenal. We reported in June that the social network was set to eclipse Google in web traffic; now, Hitwise is showing that in the past week, Facebook.com saw 3% more web visits and almost five times more pageviews than Google.com. By these metrics, Facebook is by far the single most popular website in the United States. Still, other sources with other measurements and criteria show some variance. comScore has also released stats showing huge growth from Facebook — a 55% year-over-year increase, in fact. But comScore places Facebook at 151.13 million U.S. uniques for October 2010, slightly behind Google’s 173.3 monthly uniques, which means the search giant is the social network’s sole competitor for web traffic domination. The company has been growing at a breakneck pace all year. It announced that its network had reached the extraordinary milestone of 500 million members in July. And at Web. 2.0 Summit this week, CEO Mark Zuckerberg told the audience that half of those members visit Facebook on a daily basis. And the company’s not just racking up new members and pageviews; a large part of its success has been a continuous stream of new and revamped products. Facebook Places was one of the most talked-about new locations products in an already crowded market; Facebook also made waves with a new Messages experience and interface and the new Groups, which Zuckerberg said is the company’s fastest-growing product yet. In short, it’s no wonder Facebook has performed so well this year; we wonder what the still-young company will do to keep these numbers growing in 2011. Reviews: Facebook, Google More About: facebook, Google, pageviews, stats, trending For more Social Media coverage:
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| iPod Nano Watch Kit Raises Nearly $200k via Kickstarter Posted: 19 Nov 2010 04:16 PM PST   The all-or-nothing funding site Kickstarter has another big hit on its hands — and an iPod nano watch on its wrist. In just 72 hours, nearly $200,000 have been pledged to support a set of kits that turn the latest iPod nano into a multitouch time piece. The project, which promotes two different kits — the TikTok and the LunaTik, is a fully realized version of the iWatch-style mockups that started to appear online soon after the most recent nano’s release. Designed by Scott Wilson, the founder of the Chicago-based design studio MINIMAL, the kits are designed to make the nano into an LCD-based wrist watch. Wilson, the former global creative director at Nike, has plenty of experience designing great-looking sportswear. However, as he explains in his Kickstarter video, rather than designing a project for someone else, he wanted to create something under his own label. Wilson created two different watch variations, the TikTok, which features a snap-in design, and the LunaTik, which is designed to make your iPod nano into a more permanent time piece. The goal is to sell the items in Apple Stores. Supporters can pledge $25, pre-order a TikTok (which will retail for $34.95) or spend $50 to pre-order the LunaTik (which will retail for $69.95). For $70, supporters can pre-order both units. Check out this video to see the prototypes in action: The original funding goal for the project was $15,000. Three days in, the current tally is at $193,000 with 2,600 backers as of this post. With 27 days to go, it’s likely that TikTok+LunaTik will exceed the reigning Kickstarter chamption and take top spot. In a statement, Wilson said, “There are other options out there but Kickstarter is by far the easiest and most well-architected experience at the moment. This type of funding platform is a game-changer and just the beginning in shifting more power back to the individual creative entrepreneur.” TikTok+LunaTik are just the latest example of major successes spurred by the Kickstarter project. Last month, the iPhone 4 tripod The Glif broke through, big time. That project has since ended — after realizing over $137,000 in funding — and the creators are about to start production on the first batch of units. It’s interesting that Wilson, a man who obviously had other funding connections, chose to use Kickstarter as his platform. The results clearly speak for themselves — but it’s hard to imagine a faster way to generate nearly $200,000 in capitol. Obviously not every idea is going to be as good as The Glif or TikTok+LunaTik (Disclosure: I’m a supporter of both projects), but the fact that individuals have the opportunity to get their projects funded in these ways is pretty incredible. More About: ipod nano, iwatch, kickstarter, lunatik, tiktok For more Social Media coverage:
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| Tumblr Raises Between $25 Million and $30 Million in Funding [REPORT] Posted: 19 Nov 2010 03:16 PM PST   Last week, we reported that Tumblr scored a substantial amount of money from Silicon Valley VC firm Sequoia Capital — but we didn’t how much. Today, reports are surfacing that the blogging platform has raised between $25 million and $30 million, with a valuation around $135 million. Fortune says that Sequoia Capital was the lead investor this round, and speculates that Spark Capital and Union Square Ventures (who in the past raised Tumblr $10 million) both contributed as well. It’s also being said that Sequoia's Roelof Botha will be joining Tumblr's board. TechCrunch spoke with Founder David Karp today, and although he declined to comment on funding, he did share that Tumblr has some new digs in the form of a new New York office, and that they’ve made some hires. Right now they have 16 employees (up from 12), with a staff of 20 projected for the end of this year and a staff of 30 by the early 2011. As we noted last week, Tumblr also recently hired Derek Gottfrid from The New York Times as director of product, and today TC reports that Rich Tong, a co-founder of Weardrobe, will be coming on as a community director in charge of the fashion community. Karp hopes to focus on the individual communities within Tumblr as a way of distinguishing the service from other platforms, like Facebook. “[Tumblr wants to be] the best place in the world for the best creative communities," Karp told TC. We’ve reached out to Karp for more info on the funding round, as well as its new hires. We think that hires like this could really further distinguish Tumblr as a unique blogging platform and community. As it stands, Tumblr is an extremely social platform — even serving as inspiration for giants like WordPress, who recently added quick reblogging and the ability to "like" posts. In addition, it has an extremely creative community, having the distinction of seeing 14 of its blogs score book deals. It will be interesting to see what Tumblr manages to do with this new influx of money and focus. Reviews: Facebook, Tumblr, WordPress More About: fred wilson, funding, investment, MARKETING, money, Sequoia, spark capital, tumblr, union square For more Business coverage:
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| Coke Targets Teens With Black Friday SCVNGR Promotion Posted: 19 Nov 2010 03:04 PM PST   Coca-Cola is kicking off a nationwide location-based rewards initiative targeted at young teens with SCVNGR as its platform of choice. The soda maker has seeded Simon Malls across the U.S. with challenges that players can complete to earn special Coke rewards. The campaign is called Coke Secret Formula and is set to go live at 10 malls beginning November 26 — otherwise known to holiday shoppers as Black Friday. The idea is to encourage application users to look for hidden shopping experiences in the form of Coke challenges and unlock rewards in the process. SCVNGR players who complete the Coke mall challenges can accumulate enough points to redeem instant rewards including American Express gift cards and Coke-branded merchandise. In total, Coke will be giving away $100,000 in gift card rewards. The challenges are typical SCVNGR fare — checkins and photos — themed to fit the Coke Secret Formula purpose. Coke will be aggressively promoting the initiative with online, print and mall signage to include giant elevator wrappers like the one pictured above. CEO and Founder Seth Priebatsch tells Mashable that Coke will also deploy mall street teams on Black Friday to educate shoppers on how to use SCVNGR and get them excited about the experience. Landing Coke is a big coup for the young startup, who competes with the likes of Foursquare and Facebook Places. Priebatsch said that he half-jokingly told new hire Chris Mahl, SCVNGR’s chief brand alchemist, to “go get us a parternship with Coke” as his first task. Mahl followed through. SCVNGR anticipates that it will hit one million members before the year’s end. To date, the company has raised $5 million with Google Ventures as its primary backer. The startup is, however, currently fielding a wealth of inbound interest from investors, says Priebatch. Reviews: Foursquare, Mashable More About: Coke, location-based startup, MARKETING, scvngr, scvngr rewards For more Business coverage:
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| Announcing The Beatles Box Set on iTunes Contest Winners Posted: 19 Nov 2010 02:27 PM PST   With all the excitement around the announcement of The Beatles finally coming to iTunes, we couldn’t help but share our enthusiasm by giving away five Beatles box sets on iTunes. We asked you to share what your favorite Beatles song is and why. After considering about 500 submissions, we’ve chosen our five favorites — but it wasn’t easy. Clearly The Beatles continue to resonate with men and women, young and old, across the globe. Submissions recalled songs spanning the band’s entire career, and reasons for loving the group ranged from sentimental memories to appreciation for a good guitar riff. Our winners represent the best responses of the bunch. Here they are: “Let It Be” “Get Back” So my favorite song is “Get Back” because this was the very first song ever I was ever able to understand on my own without someone else helping and it helped me connect with my dad in a way that was never possible before. It also was the song that opened the entire music world to me and I still listen to it often today. — Wyatte Hall, Washington, D.C. “I Want You” “She Loves You” To me, “She Loves You” is the quintessential Beatles song. During the chorus I can envision a sea of screaming fans. If I had been 16 in 1964, I would have been right there with them. — Kara Findley, Indianapolis, Indiana “Tomorrow Never Knows” Congratulations to our winners and a big thank you to all who participated. Happy listening! Hands-on With the Box SetCheck out our gallery for a hands-on look at what comes in this box set: The Beatles on iTunes The iTunes artist page for The Beatles has videos, ads and direct links to every Beatles album. The Beatles Box Set The Beatles Box Set is iTunes LP-enhanced and provides access to each album, special documentaries for each album, track listings, and liner notes. The Beatles Documentaries There is a mini-documentary for each album included in the Beatles Box Set. The Beatles Documentaries You can watch the documentaries one at a time or switch between "chapters" in iTunes. The Beatles Live at the Washington Coliseum in 1964 If you purchase the Beatles Box Set, you also get the complete concert film of the Beatles performing at the Washington Coliseum in 1964. Concert Film You can skip to specific songs using the chapter feature. Album Listing Every LP from the Beatles (in Stereo) is included in this release. Please Please Me With the Beatles A Hard Day's Night Beatles For Sale Help! Rubber Soul Revolver Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band Magical Mystery Tour The Beatles Yellow Submarine Abbey Road Let It Be Past Masters Track Listings Track Listings Liner Notes Liner Notes Track Listings Photos Liner Notes Ping Artist Page Liner Notes For more Entertainment coverage:
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| “The Office” Parodies Silicon Valley Startups [VIDEO] Posted: 19 Nov 2010 01:56 PM PST   NBC’s Thursday night lineup proved it can still make must-see TV moments, at least for us web geeks. Last night, The Office, in particular, paid homage — or mocked, depending on how you look at it — to Silicon Valley’s startup milieu. The episode, entitled “WUPHF.com,” has Ryan Howard taking an entreprenurial turn as a startup founder for a site by the same name. According to the website (which does exist in parody-form), “WUPHF.COM is a crazy revolutionary program that ties all your communication portals together. Join today and link up your, emails, faxes, text messages, voicemails, tweets, chat programs, and pages with a single ‘WUPHF!’” The idea itself is actually quite plausible, at least as described by Kelly Kapoor. “I said to Ryan, I try to call you and you don’t have your phone. I try to IM you and you’re not online. I wish there was a way that I could do everything all at once and I could just be like this little dog going ruff, ruff, ruff, ruff, ruff.” Our favorite line, however, occurs when Ryan responds to a question about monetization with this gem: “The first lesson of Silicon Valley, actually, is that you only think about the user. The experience. You, actually, don’t think about the money. Ever.” We’ve embedded the full episode below. Some of the funnier startup content starts at the 10:37 minute mark. 30 Rock also poked fun at startups a bit. The episode, entitled “College,” features a site called Pronouncify.com where users can enter a word to hear its pronunciation, with voice narration from Jack (there’s a backstory as to why). Image courtesy of Wuphf More About: 30 rock, the office, tv, wuphf For more Startups coverage:
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| Borders Goes Local With Google, Meetup Partnerships Posted: 19 Nov 2010 12:59 PM PST   Beginning Monday, shoppers will be able to use Google’s Local Availability feature to locate books and other products at their local Borders, as well as look up how many items are in stock, prices and store directions — a feature no other book retailer offers yet. Borders has also announced a partnership with Meetup to promote its book signings and other store events. The announcements follow several other recent updates to the book retailer’s digital strategy, including a new version of its website that features, most notably, customer reviews on each product page. The company also recently unveiled its version of Amazon Prime by offering free two-day shipping and returns on all online orders for an annual price of $79. Free, 30-day trials are available at borders.com/shoprunner. While the new developments aren’t “game-changing” by any means, they do make the brick-and-mortar bookseller slightly more competitive with its chief rivals, Barnes & Noble and Amazon. Image courtesy of Flickr, Dave Dugdale Reviews: Flickr More About: amazon, barnes & noble, borders, Google, google local availability, meetup For more Business coverage:
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| Gift a Kindle E-Book via E-mail Posted: 19 Nov 2010 12:43 PM PST   Amazon is today announcing that customers can now give Kindle Books as gifts to anyone with an e-mail address. The e-mail gifting news comes less than a week before the biggest shopping day of the year — Black Friday. “We’re making this functionality available in time for the holidays to offer an easy, stress free holiday shopping option for anyone — not just Kindle owners,” says Russ Grandinetti, vice president, Amazon Kindle. The “Give as a Gift” option means that Amazon shoppers can choose from one of the more than 750,000 available books in the U.S. Kindle Store. Gift recipients have the option of reading the Kindle book on any one of the company’s free reading apps for Mac, PC, iOS devices, BlackBerry and Android mobile phones. The clear point of the new program is to push device-independent e-book sales this holiday season. Freeing shoppers from the worry of having to determine whether their friend or family member is already a Kindle owner could do wonders for Kindle Store sales. Amazon Kindle Books already outsell hardcover editions. This promotional push will likely ensure that this trend continues. Reviews: Android More About: amazon, amazon kindle, ecommerce, Kindle, kindle store For more Business coverage:
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| Cracking the Mainstream: Why Social Gaming Is More Than Just a Fad Posted: 19 Nov 2010 12:30 PM PST   Ravi Mehta is vice president of product for Viximo, where he drives the product strategy for Viximo's social game distribution platform and helps social networks monetize via social games and virtual goods. For more information on virtual goods, visit his blog, Virtual Goods Insider, and follow him on Twitter. Since taking off in 2009, the social gaming phenomenon has drawn hundreds of millions of players, but it has also found more than its fair share of critics. Many claim that social games are too shallow and simplistic to attract a sustainable audience, while others assert that a free-to-play business model leaves too much money on the table to support the development of social games that compare favorably to traditional games. Some believe that the biggest threat to social games is the force that gave life to them in the first place — the fate of the industry seems inextricably linked to the ebb and flow of the Facebook platform, and Facebook's wavering commitment to developers does little to inspire confidence. All this has led social gaming's biggest critics to suggest that social games are a flash in the pan that will eventually be subsumed into the rest of the online game industry. But social games are far more than a fleeting fad or a watered down version of "real" games. Just as social distribution has led to new forms of written media (i.e. the tweet) and new forms of video media (i.e. YouTube video), it has led to a disruptive form of gaming that plays an essential role in the way that people engage with the web. Social gaming is here to stay, and it's here to stay for two fundamental reasons: 1.) The format of social games is a perfect match to the daily pattern and rhythm of how people use the social web, and 2.) Social games are the only form of interactive entertainment that are natively woven into and distributed via social networks — the Internet's new gateway. Form Follows FunctionThroughout the history of entertainment media, content has been developed in short and long formats. Five hundred page novels, full-length feature films and television mini-series coexist harmoniously with blogs, 30-minute sitcoms and two-minute YouTube videos. Why? Because each format serves a different purpose and, without subsuming the other formats, manages to engage users in unique ways and for different reasons.  Short-format show Seinfeld ran for nine seasons and generated hundreds more viewing hours than the typical 90-minute comedy movie, while the 56-second “Charlie Bit My Finger” video on YouTube has been viewed for the equivalent of nearly 4 million hours since it went viral in 2007. In many ways, the social game is to gaming what YouTube is to video: A shorter format that has been enabled by new, social forms of distribution and is no less compelling or permanent than longer-form content. This type of gaming simply enables different behaviors and attracts different users than subscription MMOs, free-to-play MMOs and casual games; but this deviation from the traditional model does not guarantee its demise. Instead, social gaming represents an adaptation to new social norms; a typical social networker's day is punctuated by periodic visits, and social games are designed to fit perfectly into these short bursts of activity where a user may spend just a few minutes catching up on the latest wall posts, browsing tweets, and tending to his or her digital farm. In addition, it's worth noting that long-format content and short-format content have very different price sensitivities. People who are willing to pay $10 to watch a two-hour Steve Carell movie in the theater aren’t necessarily willing to spend $2.99 to buy a 30-minute episode of The Office. Social games leverage the perfect combination of cheap, viral distribution with a free-to-play model that allows 1 to 3% of the most active users to subsidize the game experience for the other users. This is a great mass-market model that requires fundamentally different content than traditional games. Social Games are Woven Into the New WebEvery month, 75% of worldwide Internet users log into social networks or visit blogs. For many users, Facebook has replaced Google as their point of entry to the web. Although keyword search was once the dominant way that users discovered news, information, products and entertainment, users are increasingly turning to social media channels to find the content that has the most personal relevance. Social games are the only form of gaming that are natively tied into and distributed via social media, and social games have been brilliantly adapted to leverage the viral distribution opportunities afforded by social networks. This disruption in distribution is evident both in the massive uptake of social games on sites such as Facebook, as well as the decline of casual content portals, such as MSN Games, which don't have the benefit of social distribution. Users are increasingly gravitating away from content portals to social networks. Entertainment activities are always more enjoyable in groups (that's why we like to watch movies with friends), so when players have the option to go to one site, get a game recommendation from and play with a friend on that site –- while also exchanging status updates and photos — the single player format on content portals begins to rapidly lose its appeal. Content sites lack the social context and tools necessary to drive revenue and usage from virtual goods and social games. The numbers support this; earlier in the year, Yahoo Games, MSN Games and AOL Games saw a combined 14% drop in monthly traffic worldwide, and an 11% drop in U.S. visitors during that same period (Source: Comscore, January vs. May 2010). This might explain Zynga's decision to pull FarmVille from MSN. However, social distribution is not without its challenges. Facebook walks a fine line between its desires to preserve the core social networking experience while addressing the viral distribution needs of game developers. Although this dependence on the whim of Facebook may seem like the Achilles Heel of the social gaming industry, significant opportunity exists beyond Facebook's blue and white walls. Today, Facebook generates a majority of social gaming revenue and gets much of the press, but the site only represents 30% of the global social networking audience. The social networks that comprise the other 70% of users have found that social gaming is an intrinsically valuable part of the social networking experience, not a feature particular to Facebook. Networks such as hi5, Orkut, Tuenti, and StudiVZ are fostering the virality, discoverability, adoption, and monetization necessary for social games. If game developers tap into this audience and broaden their distribution beyond Facebook, they have the opportunity to go where no casual game has gone before –- plugging into sites with a native social graph where gaming is a more meaningful activity, but without fierce Facebook-level competition, high user acquisition costs and limitations on viral growth. If Facebook continues to take steps to curb the proliferation of social games, those games and their players will sprout up on more fertile ground. The TakeawayDarwinian evolution suggests that the species that survives isn't the strongest or most intelligent — it's that which is most adaptable to change. Although social gaming has thus far taken the form of basic simulation games, changes are coming and a new generation of games is already beginning to take shape. Social gaming 2.0 will move beyond the same formula perpetuated over a variety of themes from farm, pet and fish, to café, bakery and bar. Newer titles are drawing more from the history of gaming and showcasing more creative gameplay, stronger social features and potential for higher monetization. For example, Nightclub City has incorporated high quality music into the game, which engages a crowd in a different way, while Car Town is incorporating licensed brands that connect gameplay to real-world touchstones. These new games, combined with new modes of social distribution, are clear indicators that social gaming has the strength to innovate, adapt to change, and become a permanent fixture in the diverse cosmos of the game industry. More Gaming Resources from Mashable:
Image courtesy of iStockphoto, rubenhi Reviews: Facebook, Google, Internet, Orkut, Tuenti, YouTube, iStockphoto More About: facebook, farmville, gaming, social gaming, social media, social networks, video games, viral, web games, youtube For more Entertainment coverage:
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| “The Economist” Comes to the iPhone & iPad [VIDEO] Posted: 19 Nov 2010 11:56 AM PST   The Economist is the latest major publication to arrive on the iPhone and iPad, bringing users a number of the publication's top articles for free beginning every Thursday evening. Full versions are available to current digital and print subscribers at no additional charge; single issues can be purchased for $5.99 within the app. The Economist’s apps for iPhone [iTunes link] and iPad [iTunes link] are designed to deliver the news magazine’s content in a convenient, accessible way. Both replicate the print version of the magazine as closely as their respective formats allow, devoid, somewhat unfortunately, of many of the bells and whistles — such as interactive graphics and video — users have come to enjoy in other print publications’ iPad apps. It does, however, include a full audio version — great for those who prefer audio books or want to digest articles on-the-go — and allows readers to download each issue for offline viewing. While we find both apps elegant and useful, they are missing three essential things:
Still, readers of The Economist who want a more convenient way to digest their favorite content on-the-go should be well-pleased with the app. Screenshot Gallery Users can browse, purchase and download issues from the home screen.  The table of contents is divided by category. It would be easier to choose stories if sub-headers were included under article titles.  Sample article page.  Sample article page.  Sample article page. Promotional VideoReviews: Internet, iPhone, video More About: ipad, iphone, magazine, media, The Economist For more Mobile coverage:
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| Harry Potter and the 8-Bit YouTube Game Posted: 19 Nov 2010 11:44 AM PST As cool as Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 — which hits theaters today — looks, we can’t help but be more enamored by the 8-bit opus, Harry Potter and the Summer School Spectre. If you remember the awesome 8-bit version of Twilight that hit YouTube from over the summer, you know the drill. In short, this is a YouTube-style “Choose Your Own Adventure” story using the characters from Harry Potter and mixing in 8-bit graphics and sound. Created by The Station, with animation and music by Doc Octoroc (the animator and composer behind both the Twilight and 8-bit Dr. Horrible games), Harry Potter and the Summer School Spectre offers up an amusing blend of humor and interactivity perfect for the Harry Potter lover in us all. Reviews: YouTube, harry potter, twilight More About: 8 bit, doc octoroc, harry potter, retro gaming, the station For more Web Video coverage:
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| Our Favorite YouTube Videos This Week: The Cheesy Action Movie Edition Posted: 19 Nov 2010 11:13 AM PST   This Friday, we’re taking the term “weekend warriors” quite seriously. Today’s YouTube Roundup theme is “Cheesy Action Sequences,” curated by everyone’s favorite former invalid, The Fully Sick Rapper. We’ve known the Fully Sick Rapper, a.k.a Christiaan Van Vuuren, since around the time he was first diagnosed with tuberculosis, after which he was locked away in quarantine for around eight months. While in the hospital, Van Vuuren became a YouTube phenomenon, creating increasingly more polished parody rap videos about his time in lock-up. Well, Van Vuuren is out now, and has some exciting things in the works, including a new webseries he’s launched with his brother, Connor. We’re embedding the premiere episode below for your viewing pleasure. Take some inspiration from VV’s battle with TB, as well as the battles below and attack this weekend with the ferocity of a thousand lions — or MGMT at the very least. NOTE: If cheesy violence — or shouting men — offend you, you may want to skip this roundup. Fully Sick and the Side Effect Project: Episode OneBest Fight Scene of All TimeChristiaan Van Vuuren: What has happened to classic cheesy action? Action these days has become way too serious, with the shaky cameras, the fast pace of it all, and the over-direction from whomever is standing behind the camera. What’s with all of the outrageously expensive flying through mid air on a motorcycle whilst shooting four machine guns and doing a backflip off a piece of flat road onto a massive boat garbage? P-lease. Give me the days when it was a few real blokes with their shirts off, some hand-to-hand combat, some casual knife fighting, head busting and some amazingly scripted one-liners. This YouTube Roundup is a tribute to Cheesy Action Sequences. Family Guy, “The Original Chicken Fight”Josh Catone: Somebody had to do it. Ever fired your gun up in the air while shouting “aaargh”?Radhika Marya: A brief, but classic moment in the history of cheesy action cinema. My eyes, the goggles do nothing!Christina Warren: My eyes! The goggles do nothing! Star Trek, “Amok Time” fight sceneAmy-Mae Elliott: The only thing funnier than this supposedly tense fight-to-the-death They LiveBrett M. Petersel: Roddy Piper is on the run after learning that a pair of sunglasses exposes aliens who are moderating the human population. This scene within the bank contains some of the cheesiest dialog in movie history. It will also leave you wondering how Piper escapes without a single wound. The movie should be called Mission: Implausible. The BeastmasterBrenna Ehrlich: As a child, my father would routinely rent movies that would serve only to terrify my sister and I — ones featuring Greek monsters, giant tin women stomping through the countryside, aliens sucking folks into sticky, evil cocoons, etc. Such movies were found on what we called “Dad’s Rack” — which was actually the section of the video store where all the B-movies were stowed. These films haunted my nightmares. Still, one scene above all sticks with me still — this one, in which the Beastmaster’s ferret falls into the fire pit. Yup. Forget human beings. Crispy ferrets were the real tragedy when I was young. Anchorman BattleEvan Wexler: A dramatized preview of our tech event coverage…. read: The Consumer Electronics Show this January. The Worst Kung Fu Movie Auditons EVER!Jay Irani: I’d definitely hire these kung fu artists… to get their asses kicked by the hero! A-ha – “Take On Me” (Official Music video)Josh Catone: Also because somebody had to do it. Black KnightSarah Kessler: Nobody does cheesy action sequence like Monty Python. Image courtesy of iStockphoto, ChristianNasca Reviews: YouTube, iStockphoto More About: favorite-youtube-videos, Film, fully-sick-rapper, humor, pop culture, youtube For more Web Video coverage:
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| Cats: They’re On the Internet [COMIC] Posted: 19 Nov 2010 10:48 AM PST We’ve previously discussed the leading theories on why the web loves cats. But did you ever think about why cats love the web? Besides the convenience of keeping up with friends via Catbook and Cmail, we assume most felines view the web as a creative outlet, where dreams of becoming Internet famous are within reach.   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. Does your cat use the Internet, or is he simply a pawn in your mad meme scheming? Hit those comments, people. More Comics from Mashable:
Reviews: Internet More About: cat videos, cats, comic, comics, keyboard-cat, mashable comics, Meme, memes, video, viral video, web video, youtube For more Web Video coverage:
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| TJ Maxx Offers Reduced-Price iPads Posted: 19 Nov 2010 10:37 AM PST   T.J. Maxx confirmed via Twitter that it has gotten into the iPad fray. The discount store has begun selling 16GB Wi-Fi iPads for $399; that’s $100 less than the going rate of $499. The T.J. Maxx Twitter feed reads like stream of consciousness, but from what I can gather, the iPads are currently available in undisclosed stores across the country. The sale was initially thought to be a Black Friday specific deal, but it was confirmed that a number of stores are already selling the devices. Regardless, if you frequent T.J. Maxx (like Mashable’s Brenna Ehrlich), or live in close proximity to one and are willing to risk life and limb to confirm more stores, please let us know whether these fire sale iPads are showing up in your area. Reviews: Mashable, Twitter More About: black friday, ipad, tj maxx For more Tech coverage:
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| 8 Experts Break Down the Pros and Cons of Coding With PHP Posted: 19 Nov 2010 10:12 AM PST
In recent posts, our “PHP masters” gave helpful hints for beginners as well as some pointers for intermediate and advanced coders. For the last post in this series, we’ve turned to the same experts with some more general questions: What makes PHP a good language? What are some of PHP’s drawbacks? And what are the best apps or cleverest hacks you’ve seen made with and/or for PHP? Here are their answers; we’d also love to get your thoughts in the comments. In your opinion, what are PHP’s biggest strengths and limitations? 1. Elizabeth Naramore: Spaghetti Coding
She told us in an e-mail, “One of PHP’s biggest strengths is also one of its limitations. PHP is very flexible in general; there are no less than 30 ways to accomplish the same task. (For example, I don’t think it’s possible to actually count the number of PHP frameworks out there.) “While this is great for those of us who like to do things our own way, it makes it very difficult for other people to pick up where you left off, and makes debugging and refactoring a nightmare. The result can be hacks on hacks and a whole lot of crappy, spaghetti code… if code standards are not consistent and best practices aren’t followed.” When it comes to PHP done right, Naramore says she’s a big fan of Sebastian Bergmann’s testing framework, PHPUnit, which was written in and for PHP. 2. Keith Casey: Security
He says PHP’s biggest strength is its ubiquity and relative ease. “Since it can be used for just about anything, it runs on every current operating system. Drupal, WordPress, Joomla, etc. benefit from this and feed it further.” However, this ease of use is both a blessing and a curse, from Casey’s point of view. “PHP’s biggest weakness is that it may be too easy to learn. There were — and still are — some horribly insecure PHP applications out there. Lots of non-developers picked it up and didn’t know to consider security. It’s created the perception that PHP itself is insecure when the problem was within the projects.” As far as the best apps created with PHP, Casey is not alone among our panelists in pointing to Facebook. “They’ve taken PHP to a scale beyond what most people ever considered possible. And better, as they’ve hit problems with caching, operations, deployment, etc., they’ve solved them and shared much of it back with the community. HipHop is just the most visible project.” 3. Lorna Jane Mitchell: Low Barrier to Entry
Like Casey, Mitchell says the language’s greatest strength and weakness are one and the same: “Anyone can program PHP. “The low entry barrier means that there is a lot of bad PHP in the world. But bad PHP that works is useful, even if it isn’t pretty. Personally, I think if you can solve your problems with PHP, then you should get on and do it, even if it isn’t perfect.” Mitchell recommends Joind.in as a good example of what can be done with PHP (she notes it’s an open-source project, as well). She also points to phpMyAdmin, a PHP-built app that handles the administration of one or more MySQL servers over the web. 4. Chris Cornutt: Flexible But “Scatter-Brained”
Cornutt’s thoughts echo Naramore’s; again, PHP’s flexibility is both a pro and a con, in his opinion. He says the language’s adaptability “makes it simple to just get in there and get what you want done without having to worry about setting a lot of resources ahead of time. Anyone from a junior developer all the way out to the most senior level guy can tell you that having the language ‘just work’ and be able to bend the rules when needed is essential to PHP development. “Unfortunately, this is also one of its biggest limitations. PHP, while a great language for web development, still has a bit of a scatter-brained mind. The development that’s been done over the years suffers some from the ‘wouldn’t it be cool if…’ mentality. “While this can lead to some really cool stuff and some amazing things the language can do, it can also make it more difficult in the long run to maintain. That’s half of what PHP development is, really — finding the best way to adopt best practices in development despite how things were implemented in the language.” Cornutt also recognizes Joind.in as a good example of a PHP app. “It’s based on a pretty simple LAMP platform, but it does some good things with external web services integration.” 5. Abraham Williams: Copy-Paste Hacking
Williams, like his fellow experts, admits that PHP “has a short route to minimum viable product.” He also says that the readily available resources online can be great and terrible at the same time. “There is a huge amount of code laying around on the Internet ready to copy and paste to hack together. On the flip side, the low barrier of entry results in a lot of crappy code that you really don’t want running on your server.” He also says one of his favorite PHP apps is the open-source microblogging platform StatusNet. (http://status.net/). 6. Demian Turner: Elegant OOP
While many of our panelists have said that PHP’s low barrier to entry is a drawback, Turner takes a different approach. He says that “aspects of PHP are easier to learn than comparable aspects in other languages,” which can lead to “horrendous code” from newer developers. However, he sees PHP as an excellent tool for disciplined developers. “It stays close to its C roots while removing some of the unnecessary pain points like memory management, pointers and the compile cycle. The OOP implementation is simple, elegant and easier to read than its peers. The Java mantra of “complexity at any cost” is nowhere to be found; concise method names are used throughout. Libraries and extensions exist for pretty much every technology on the planet, and hacking activity and community participation are most likely the highest of any programming language.” Still, he notes that PHP has its fair share of limitations. Turner says devs have “too much choice when it comes to selecting a library or framework to work with, and the information available is often biased and unreliable (posted by teenagers) so a lot of time can be wasted searching for quality.” He continued, “The core development team is somewhat hysterical and not professional at times, which has resulted in backwards compatibility being broken often, and in unacceptable ways, and our current namespace implementation.” And finally (and notably), “There currently isn’t any decent IDE for PHP, not something comparable to what’s available for Java… A new candidate that seems promising and is non-free is PHPstorm, so far I’ve found it a relief to use compared to Netbeans. Eclipse, on the Mac at least, I don’t think is even in the race.” For an example of good PHP, Turner points to PHPDoc, which he says is “probably better than most PHP that gets written today.” 7. Stuart Herbert: Documentation
He says PHP’s greatest strength is “the fantastic documentation available at PHP.net for free. With certain other languages, you need to go out and buy the docs as books, but not with PHP.” However, he said, the language “lacks a credible equivalent to Perl’s CPAN [Comprehensive Perl Archive Network] component library. The closest we have is either PEAR or PHP-Classes.org. Both are useful, but neither comes close to the leg-up that CPAN has given Perl programmers for years now.” And as far as great PHP web applications are concerned, he says, “The best app has to be Facebook. Unlike Twitter, there have been few scaling issues that have affected users. It just works, a bit like PHP itself.” 8. Maggie Nelson: Community and Perception
She says, “The great strength of PHP is not that it is easy, but why it is so. The best part about PHP is the healthy (friendly, active, productive) PHP community. If you’re just starting with PHP, you immediately have… well-maintained and easy-to-access documentation of the language through docs on php.net.” Nelson also says the PHP community is full of “great people who are always willing to explain and help understand. Just check out the #phpc (which stands for ‘PHP community’) channel on irc.freenode.net. Even though this channel explicitly claims not to be a help channel, you will always be pointed in the right direction for whatever PHP-related problem you’re facing.” She points to PHP Planet as a great resource for and from PHP community members. And when it comes to the language’s drawbacks, Nelson thinks it’s mostly a matter of perspective. “These days, PHP’s biggest limitation seems to be how it’s perceived among developers. Over the years, PHP has lacked features that other languages offered out of the box. In a way, PHP is a language that’s easy to complain about. There’s the now popular complaint about the choice of the namespace separator as well as the classic annoyance with the inconsistent order of parameters in built-in functions. “These are small things, but things that developers seem to enjoy making fun of. In reality, many of the original complaints about the language have been addressed, mitigated or outright fixed. For example, PHP now features way nicer OOP support and the wonderful Standard Public Library.” And for those who complain about PHP’s limitations, Nelson concludes pithily, “PHP is open source for a reason — stop QQ’ing, get involved and fix it!” Nelson’s favorite PHP-built web apps include Flickr (naturally), Wikipedia (which runs on MediaWiki, which is written in PHP) and Threadless, the now-legendary, culturally iconic online T-shirt-monger. Series supported by Rackspace  The Web Development Series is supported by Rackspace, the better way to do hosting. No more worrying about web hosting uptime. No more spending your time, energy and resources trying to stay on top of things like patching, updating, monitoring, backing up data and the like. Learn why. More Dev & Design Resources from Mashable:
Reviews: Drupal, Eclipse, Facebook, Flickr, Gentoo Linux, Internet, Joomla, MediaWiki, PHP, Perl, Threadless, Wikipedia, WordPress More About: cons of php, List, Lists, php, php hacks, programming, pros of php, tips, Web Development, web development series For more Dev & Design coverage:
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| Foursquare Partnership Seeks to Reinvent Grocery Store Loyalty Program Posted: 19 Nov 2010 09:40 AM PST   Safeway and PepsiCo are teaming up with Foursquare to reinvent the way grocery store shoppers think about location-based rewards and checkins. As part of the deal, Safeway has integrated Foursquare into its VonsClub loyalty program for a three-month pilot program that kicks off today. The crux of the program is that VonsClub members can now link their Foursquare accounts to unlock PepsiCo rewards every time they shop. Shoppers who link their accounts will earn instant Foursquare rewards on PepsiCo products — in the form of coupons printed at the register — at the time of sale. Rewards are also personalized to the user and tied to the types of badges a Foursquare user has already unlocked. The program is being tested at roughly 300 Vons grocery stores in southern California, as first reported by Fast Company. Foursquare and VonsClub members can optionally select to have the system automatically check them in at the time of purchase, via VonsClub card swipe, and send out a shout on Foursquare when they unlock a reward.  The whole program is deeply integrated into Safeway’s point-of-sale system and existing loyalty program. It’s modeled around Tasti D-Lite’s avant garde loyalty program introduced earlier this year, we hear. For Foursquare, this partnership is not about the kind of deals you can find from competing services such as Facebook Places, but instead is focused around actual customer loyalty. “One powerful use of Foursquare is helping consumers socialize their loyalty, to offer experiences that go beyond a simple card and are truly tailored to them as individuals,” Tristan Walker, Foursquare’s head of business development tells Mashable. “If I earn the Gym Rat badge, that says something about me that a couple of stamps on a punch card or scan of a loyalty card cannot; we want to explore ways for consumers and retailers to both benefit from that. With nearly 5 million users, Foursquare is perfectly positioned to move this idea forward.” Mashable has also learned that Catalina Marketing played a significant role in today’s announcement. The company powers the coupons that get printed out at registers at thousands of retailers across the nation.  Image courtesy of Fast Company Reviews: Mashable, foursquare More About: loyalty program, MARKETING, Pepsi, safeway, vonsclub For more Business coverage:
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| Why You Need an Amazon Kindle 3 This Holiday Season Posted: 19 Nov 2010 09:17 AM PST   This post is part of the Mashable 10, Mashable’s gift guide of the 10 hottest gadgets that will be on everyone’s wish list this holiday season. We’ll be publishing one new post each weekday until November 26.  The Kindle 3 is by no means a revolutionary device — those who own a first or second-generation Kindle, or one of its competitors, such as Barnes & Noble’s Nook (or, arguably, an iPad), may see little reason to upgrade their e-reader — until, of course, they hold one. The 8.5-ounce, 4.8-inch by 7.5-inch device is fast, sleek, light, and almost adorably small. (By comparison, the second-generation Kindle is 5.3 inches by 8 inches and weighs 10.2 ounces, and the iPad is 7.5 by 9.6 inches and weighs 1.5 pounds.) The low-glare, high-contrast screen is easy on the eyes, especially after a day in front of an LCD monitor. And at $139 for the Wi-Fi-only version and $189 for the Wi-Fi + 3G edition, it’s a must for voracious consumers of fiction and non-fiction. Because that’s really who this device is for. Those who travel frequently (or have overcrowded bookshelves, a la moi) and read novels for hours at a time will love the Kindle 3 — even if they have an iPad. They will be able to travel with nearly their entire library everywhere they go and will only have to remember to charge their device once per month. Those who spend more time watching films on Netflix, playing games, and reading magazines and online news than books may want to consider investing in (or asking for as a holiday present) an iPad instead. It’s also better for parents who enjoy reading to their young children; the iPad has a range of e-books with full-color, interactive illustrations and games that children will find more interesting than their plain-text counterparts on the Kindle. The glare makes it unpleasant for reading lengthier works, however, so serious readers are still going to want to get their hands on a Kindle 3 or stick with paperback books. If you — or a loved one for whom you’re buying a gift this holiday season — loves reading fiction and non-fiction, the Kindle 3 is a fantastic gift, even for owners of tablet devices like the iPad and earlier iterations of the Kindle. Image courtesy of iStockphoto, 3dgoksu and Flickr, kodomut Reviews: Flickr, iStockphoto More About: amazon, e-reader, e-readers, gift, Gifts, Holidays, ipad, Kindle, kindle 3, mashable 10, nook, tech For more Tech coverage:
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| Thanks to Mashable’s Socially Savvy Supporters Posted: 19 Nov 2010 08:54 AM PST
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| Boy Meets Girl: How Facebook Functions in Modern Romance Posted: 19 Nov 2010 08:34 AM PST   There’s no denying that Facebook has had an impact on the way the younger set flirt, fall in love and break up. Now, Seventeen magazine has released a study that depicts just what kind of repercussions the social networking site has had on modern courtship. "Teens are incredibly social, and Facebook plays a huge role in their love lives," says Ann Shoket, editor-in-chief of Seventeen magazine. According to the study — which polled 10,000 guys and girls ages 16 to 21 — Facebook plays an important part in how amorous teens make a connection. Within one week of meeting a new person, 79% of people click “friend,” and after adding a new friend; 60% of people stalk their crush’s profile once a day (40% check in on their would-be soulmate several times a day). Moreover, contrary to beliefs that social networking is erroding interpersonal communication, 72% of those surveyed said that talking to someone online brings you closer to them IRL. As we have already seen in other studies, Facebook also plays a role in how we fall out of love. Mashable writer Samuel Axon wrote a detailed feature about how Facebook has changed dating for the worse, Facebook dating app AreYouInterested released a study in which 21% of respondents said they would break up with someone via changing their statuses, and, most recently, infographic wizard David McCandless came out with a chart that shows popular breakup periods by way of status updates. Seventeen, for its part, reports that 10% of people have been dumped over Facebook, and the same number would just change their relationship status to "single" to cut a lover loose. The report also depicts the anguish the site can cause after a breakup, citing that 27% of people change their connection to their exes after a breakup via blocking (get Ex-Blocker for that extra push), hiding him or her on the News Feed or unfriending. Surprisingly, 73% of people keep their exes in the friends list. I’d like to see some stats on how many of those 73% stalk said ex after the breakup. A couple of other interesting tidbits from the study:
What do you think? Has Facebook affected your love life? Image courtesy of iStockphoto, A1Stock Reviews: Facebook, Mashable, iStockphoto More About: facebook, online dating, pop culture, seventeen, social media, trending For more Social Media coverage:
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| Google in Talks to Buy Groupon? [RUMOR] Posted: 19 Nov 2010 08:17 AM PST   Another day, another Groupon acquisition rumor. This time the would-be suitor is reportedly Google. Groupon is no stranger to acquisition rumors — Yahoo was reportedly in talks to purchase the daily deals site earlier this year. That deal obviously didn’t go through and Yahoo opted to launch its own Local Offers service earlier this week. Now AllThingsD’s Kara Swisher says that according to multiple sources, it’s Google’s turn at the negotiating table. Speculating that the price could be above the $2 billion to $3 billion offered by Yahoo, Swisher notes that talks aren’t complete and indeed, may not end up going anywhere. We reached out to Google and Groupon and neither company would comment on these reports. Google’s Chance at Local?To echo Frank Capra, “everytime a bell rings, a Groupon-clone gets his wings.” Still, despite all of these clones, Groupon is the big name in local deals and local commerce. Not only does the company have the name recognition, it’s been busy buying up many of its competitors and expanding its reach and offerings. Buying Groupon would save Google the trouble of having to cobble together its own daily deals system and would also aid in its efforts to flesh out Google Places. And that’s without even discussing the merits and advantages from a local search and location-based advertising approach. As Swisher notes, however, the acquisition could raise the eyebrows of federal regulators. Swisher cites Google’s AdMob acquisition — an acquisition that was fraught with regulatory red tape and inquiries. That said, we don’t think it’s likely that a Groupon acquisition would elicit the same level of scrutiny. Unlike AdMob, a company that is entrenched in two of Google’s core businesses — mobile and advertising — Groupon’s focus is on commerce, something Google has never done particularly well. If Not Google, Who?Swisher points out that Groupon — despite its outward claims of independence — appears to be shopping itself around. The company has revenues reportedly north of $50 million per month and that sort of growth limits the number of would-be buyers to a very small pool. Aside from Google, the only companies that would be able to afford the targeted buy-out price, according to Swisher’s sources, are Amazon, Microsoft and eBay. Of the three, Amazon and eBay make the most sense. eBay already has a strategic partnership with Groupon and is experienced in commerce. Moreover, eBay has experience in building merchant management tools and infrastructure — both for its eBay storefronts and with PayPal. The other alternative, of course, is that no one will acquire Groupon and the company will position itself toward a public offering. On paper, at least, the revenue and potential successive growth of Groupon makes it pretty prime for IPO consideration. So why consider selling out? Perhaps — and we’re just speculating here — Groupon’s investors have the same feelings of uncertainty about the longevity of the daily deals phenomenon as the rest of us. We’ll keep an eye on this story as it develops. Reviews: Google, eBay More About: ebay, Google, groupon For more Business coverage:
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| 4 Winning Web Design Tips From Ryan Carson of Carsonified Posted: 19 Nov 2010 07:58 AM PST    The Web Design Best Practices Series is supported by TheCreativeFinder.com, a global search engine for businesses to find and hire professional creatives, including photographers, illustrators, designers, and art directors. Creative pros can list their profiles instantly for free.
Carsonified’s web design — typically featuring a bit of a hand-drawn aesthetic — has caught the eye of many since it was established in 2004. We had the chance to chat with founder Ryan Carson about some of his best practices for web design, and we even learned a little about where he feels the future of web design lies. 1. Invest in Good Design
According to Carson, it is key to invest in good design; at the same time, this is the one thing he believes most companies are missing. In his mind, those companies that choose against strong design are probably going to see poor results, and it could convey the impression that one’s product isn’t very good. “People cite things like Google and Reddit as some sort of example of how design doesn’t matter, but that’s just an edge case,” Carson says. “Nobody’s Google now. Every startup that’s launching has to fight for attention. I think that showing your product is quality is important, but also clearly communicating what it does is important, so hire a designer — and a good one.” Carson adds that investing in a good designer doesn’t have to be expensive – most designers are less expensive than engineers. “And with a startup you're going to have hire an engineer and a designer,” he says. “That's going to be your core team.” 2. Build a Profile in the Community In addition, focusing on building a company culture alongside a profile in the web design community, can also eventually lead to building a stronger team. Carson says his company’s work on projects like Think Vitamin for the past six years, as well as the conferences it runs, have helped put it at the center of the web design community. Meanwhile, Carsonified — which does not outsource projects — operates on a four-day schedule each week and its staff receives updated equipment like laptops and the iPhone4. Carson recently wrote a Think Vitamin blog post, explaining how he hired designers like Allison House, who had designed a page specifically for her job application. He feels people wouldn’t spend this type of time on a job application if the company hadn’t spent time developing a profile in the community. “I don’t think you can shortcut that,” he says. “You could try paying a lot, but then it doesn't necessarily mean people are going to be passionate about working for you.” 3. Cater to Your Audience Carson describes Carsonified’s aesthetic — the work of designer Mike Kus — as a friendly, hand-drawn style. This was a look that worked when designing for Chirp. The company also developed the Chirp brand and produced the conference. “We thought about what Twitter is and what people would want out of a conference. And we feel like the whole point of Twitter is connecting people that trust each other,” Carson explains. That said, it hasn’t stopped the Carsonified team from adjusting its design when necessary. While prepping the page for the “Future of Web Design” conference, Carsonified opted for a darker, futuristic appearance to convey a future-looking message. “Even though we’re a web design company [ourselves], and we’re our own customer, we felt that people didn’t want to see a hand-drawn personal aesthetic,” Carson says. “It’s not about your personal stuff, it’s very much about your professional work.” Carson also advises web design enthusiasts to read the book Don’t Make Me Think! by Steve Krug, which he summarizes in the following sentence: Design your websites like people are driving by at 60 miles an hour. “People just need to remember that nobody cares about their website or their company, and you have to make people care by being efficient and easy to understand, efficient and clear with your message,” Carson says. 4. Use Responsive Design Once Carsonified has determined the audience for a page, the homepage gets wire framed. After establishing the appropriate wording for the page, the designer usually gets to work — without staying in Photoshop for very long. This is because of “responsive design,” a movement that involves building a website that will adapt to the size of a window and manage to look good on whatever device a person is viewing it on. “So you don’t have a separate version for the iPhone site, or an Android device, or a desktop or laptop or iPad,” Carson says. “It’s really hard to design for that in Photoshop without doing 25 mockups for one page. It’s best to start from the beginning on responsive design.” Carson advises sticking to the same code, and then using Media Queries in CSS3, which will adapt a layout based on the viewing window. And he feels this will play a key role in the future of web design as people continue going online via different devices. “I think that’s going to be huge,” he says. Series Supported by TheCreativeFinder.com  The Web Design Best Practices Series is supported by TheCreativeFinder.com, a global search engine for businesses to find and hire professional creatives, including photographers, illustrators, designers, and art directors. Creative pros can list their profiles instantly for free. More Dev & Design Resources from Mashable:
Images courtesy of Ryan Carson, Flickr, jaredchapman, Mohamed Sifah Saeed Reviews: Android, Chirp Blu, Flickr, Google, Twitter, Web Design, profiles.im More About: carsonified, design, interview, ryan carson, tips, web design, Web Design Best Practices Series For more Dev & Design coverage:
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| Fashism Raises $1 Million From Ashton Kutcher, Ron Conway & Others Posted: 19 Nov 2010 07:44 AM PST   Social shopping site and mobile application Fashism, which we profiled about a year ago, announced Friday that it has raised $1 million in a Series A round of fundraising from actor-couple Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore, Project Runway judge Nina Garcia, Highline Venture Partners, Ron Conway’s SV Angel and two others. It certainly explains why Fashism’s app appeared on a recent screenshot of Ashton Kutcher’s iPhone, alongside the apps of other startups he has recently invested in, such as Flipboard and Hipmunk. Launched during New York Fashion Week in September, Fashism enables users to upload photos, and solicit style advice and feedback from the site’s community via Fashism’s web site and iPhone application [iTunes link]. “Does this work?” and “Too much?” are frequent questions posted to the site. What’s novel about the financing is not the number — especially when many other startups have raised three or six times that in a Series A round — but who invested in the company; Nina Garcia is not a name you typically see on a list of startup investors. Until now, the New York-based startup had been entirely self-funded. Fashism plans to use the funds to scale its web and mobile applications. The site has about 40,000 registered users and gets roughly 1 million page views per month. Foursquare CEO Dennis Crowley and designer Steven Alan will serve as advisers to the company.  [via The New York Times] More About: ashton kutcher, demi moore, fashion, fashism, highline venture partners, nina garcia, ron conway, series a, sv angel For more Startups coverage:
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| Get Snow and Ski Push Updates On Your iPhone or iPod Touch Posted: 19 Nov 2010 06:52 AM PST   Ski lovers, start your engines! Snow and Ski Report by REI for the iPhone and iPod touch — an app that offers up snow and ski conditions for winter sports fans — has just received a major update. The app [iTunes link], which has been a big hit in the past two years, now lets users get push notifications from all their favorite resorts, includes better social integration and has an updated high resolution interface for retina-display devices. REI created the app with Zumobi, an app publisher also responsible for the Iron Man app and the new Good Housekeeping iPhone app. Snow and Ski Report has been one of Zumobi’s most popular mobile applications and is always a big hit each ski season. The app is great for skiers or snowboarders because it’s really easy to get quick access to weather conditions, the amount of new snow, trail maps and live web cam views of the resort. Some resorts even support items like the number of open ski lifts. What’s New: More Push Notification Options, Better SharingThe free app has long let you receive snowfall push notifications for your favorite locale or resort, while also allowing you to designate up to 12 favorite resorts. In the new version, users can get push notifications for all of their favorite resorts — or just select which locations they want to receive updates about. By default, once you add a resort to your carousel of favorites, you’ll get push updates on the snowfall and weather conditions, but you can turn this off.   The app also now lets users share conditions with friends over e-mail, Facebook and Twitter. When you share conditions, the resort name, snow fall and temperature are all either tweeted out, pre-populated in an e-mail or posted to Facebook. We think both of these upgrades are pretty convenient — especially for users who plan to hit the slopes with friends. New Updated InterfaceThe UI has also received a facelift and is now a bit cleaner. The UI is also optimized for retina-display devices like the iPhone 4 and the new iPod touch.   We’ve always thought the user interface of the app was pretty solid, but having high resolution graphics and maps just makes the experience that much better. As far as branded apps go, this is a great example of how a brand can make an app that really targets its customer base, without being directly tied to the brand itself. REI gets kudos for making an app that is about utility first and foremost. Image Courtesy of bigbirdz Reviews: Facebook, Twitter, Zumobi More About: iphone apps, REI, snow and ski report, Weather, zumobi For more Mobile coverage:
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| 11 Essential Apps for Managing Your Real Life Social Networks Posted: 19 Nov 2010 06:46 AM PST   Rich Aberman is the co-founder of WePay, a payment service that helps people collect money online. You can read more of Rich's posts on the WePay blog, “Like” WePay on Facebook, or follow WePay on Twitter. When I moved to Silicon Valley from the East Coast, my real life social network became significantly more distributed. My friends were no longer limited to my small group of college buddies. Now, my network consists of many different groups, each of which has its own personality and social mores. I'm certainly not the only one. We all share the challenge of managing and communicating with many different groups of friends, teammates, and coworkers. Luckily, there are plenty of online tools that help with that. Here are my favorites for a variety of different situations. Bring Your Friends Together The new Facebook Groups is a remarkable improvement over the original group application, and it is a clear indication that Facebook is taking group organization and collaboration seriously. Group Chat and Message Lists do a great job keeping large and loosely defined groups on the same page (no pun intended). My fantasy football league uses Facebook Group Chat to talk trash and discuss important games every Sunday. My (extended) family uses a Facebook Messaging list to keep in touch (the opt-out system is OK in this context because the group only includes family members). For formal groups like clubs or organizations, GroupSpaces is a great solution. It manages members, organizes gatherings, and shares calendars and documents. GroupSpaces even allows you to collect money from members for dues and group events. I just joined a soccer team for the first time in years. It's great exercise, but it's also an additional 12 friends with whom I need to coordinate. TeamSnap helps manage our game and event schedules, tracks who can attend each game, organizes fees and payments, and even tracks player stats. Disclosure: GroupSpaces uses WePay to collect money. Communicate With Your Crew(s) I just discovered GroupMe, and it has changed my world. GroupMe provides you with a unique phone number for each of your social groups. If you text that number, everybody in the group receives a text. If you call that number, you start an instant conference call. For every one of my social groups (coworkers, family, college friends, founder friends, party-on-Tuesday-night friends), I have a GroupMe number. I've also used it for short-term groups. I went to Vegas with a bunch of friends, and our GroupMe phone number is the only thing that kept us all together when we were on the go. And going back to the basics, I use Facebook whenever I want to start a long message thread with multiple people. It's quicker and easier than e-mail, and it feels more casual. Plan the Party Facebook Events is not the greatest RSVP-management tool, but it definitely has its place. It's ideal for events with open guest lists such as big parties or gatherings. It works for me when I want to rally a group of friends around a particular event or when I just want to get the word out about something going on. We just used a Facebook Event to throw a Halloween party at our new office, and it attracted more than 300 people. We also use Facebook Events for the Tech Talks that we host with other startups in the Bay Area. For those, we just want to attract as many people as possible. Since nobody pays attention to RSVP requests on Facebook Events, it's not a good option for smaller or more formal gatherings. I use Pingg for formal or intimate engagements because the invitations are elegant, and recipients take the RSVP part seriously. For the really high brow, big-deal affairs, sometimes classic printed invites are necessary. Companies like Paperlinks bridge the gap between the digital and real worlds by letting you add QR codes to your printed invitations to give them another dimension. The codes can link online photos, videos and other visual elements to any paper invites you're sending out to friends and family. All that said, I'm a creature of habit, and I still use Evite. It's a little clunky, and it has a bit of a bad rap, but it does the trick. For casual events with limited guest lists, Evite is (still) my go-to tool. Show UpThere are a million online calendars and calendar tools, but I simply couldn't survive without Google Calendar. It's a classic, and it does everything I need. My Google calendar syncs with iCal, which I run locally on my laptop. They both sync with my iPhone, so I always know where I'm supposed to be (I make sure to set my alerts at least 20 minutes before every calendar event). But how does it help me manage my social life? Simple: Sharing. I share my calendar with those in my immediate circles so they can always see what I'm up to and know when I'm free. Working hours: It's a new feature, but I've already started using it. Google now lets you set up working hours so other people know when they should invite you to events and when to leave you alone. Invites: This might be the simplest and most amazing tool in Google Calendar. If you are planning an event with more than one person, simply invite them to the event when you add it to your calendar, and Google will send them an e-mail invite. If they accept, it will automatically get added to their calendar as well. Find a time: This feature solves a real problem. When you're trying to coordinate a meeting time for multiple people, you can easily compare schedules and pick a time that works for everyone. Keep in Touch Communication is key, whether you're trying to schedule a one-on-one date or a huge party. I can keep on top of my conversations across social media platforms with Threadsy, which is a site that pulls all my e-mail and social feeds into one stream. So if I start a conversation on Twitter, continue it on Facebook and then e-mail with the rest of the details, I don't lose track. Etacts is a Gmail plugin that helps me manage my individual relationships. It's almost like a personal CRM. My favorite feature of Etacts is that it automatically helps me stay in touch with my friends. For example, Etacts reminds me to connect with my college roommate at least once every two weeks. Making friends is easy, but keeping the relationship alive and strong is tough. For this, Etacts has been my tool of choice. Once you manage to get the ol' group together though, don't forget to set up that “out of office” automated e-mail reply and step away from your smart phone. Those in-person interactions are what it's all about. More Productivity Resources from Mashable:
Reviews: Facebook, Google, Google Calendar, Twitter, gmail More About: apps, evite, Google Calendar, List, Lists, pingg, productivity, Productivity Lists, social media, social netoworking, threadsy, web apps For more Social Media coverage:
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| Google Street View Comes to 20 German Cities Posted: 19 Nov 2010 05:35 AM PST   After being launched as a preview two weeks ago in the small town of Obesthaufen, Google Street View imagery is now available in Germany's 20 largest cities, including Berlin, Hamburg and Munich. Google has been struggling to prove that Street View is not a privacy threat, especially after it was discovered that Google’s Street View cars collected (inadvertently, Google claims) Wi-Fi data from unencrypted networks. The launch of the service in Germany has been particularly important for Google, since the country is very sensitive to privacy-related issues. To prevent possible complaints, Google had asked Germans whether they want to opt out of the service ahead of the launch, and the properties of more than 240,000 households that have chosen to do so have been blurred out of the imagery. Reviews: Google More About: germany, Google, street view For more Tech coverage:
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We’ve been asking a panel of experts for advice and insights about PHP over the past several weeks.
Naramore is a SourceForge employee and founded PHPWomen.org.
Casey founded a software shop and does a lot of work in the unconference circuit.
"Lornajane," as Mitchell is more commonly known online, is a PHP consultant, developer, writer and speaker.
Cornutt runs PHPDeveloper.org and Joind.in and has been using PHP since 1998.
Williams is a developer and self-styled "hacker advocate."
Turner has been working with web and open source projects since 1996. He runs PHPKitchen.com and was a recent Seedcamp finalist.
Herbert has been coding PHP since 1999; he’s been writing about PHP for several years and has contributed greatly to Gentoo Linux.
Nelson is a PHP developer currently employed by Flickr.
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