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Mashable: Latest 29 News Updates - including “New Radiohead Album Available One Day Early”

Posted by Ashim Adhikari on 5:25 AM // 0 comments

Mashable: Latest 29 News Updates - including “New Radiohead Album Available One Day Early”

New Radiohead Album Available One Day Early

Posted: 18 Feb 2011 05:03 AM PST


Radiohead’s new album, The King of Limbs, is now available for purchase through Radiohead’s website – a full 24 hours before schedule.

The world’s first “newspaper album,” which is how Radiohead has labeled this release, costs $48 with an MP3 download ($53 if you opt for the WAV version) but returns a lot of value for the price: two 10-inch vinyl records, a CD and a lot of artwork.

The King of Limbs is, in fact, quite a traditional release compared to Radiohead’s last album, In Rainbows, which was released as a digital download, letting customers order for whatever price they saw fit.

Still, Radiohead is releasing the new album in the simplest possible manner: through its website, which is now open for pre-orders (the MP3/WAV part of the release is available immediately, as fast as you can download it).

The reason for the early release (The King of Limbs was originally scheduled to be released February 19) is simple: everything was ready and in place, so Radiohead decided there’s no need to wait an extra day.

Check out the first single, Lotus Flower, from the new album below, and – if you’ve listened to the album – let us know how you like it in the comments!

More About: digital, download, mp3, music, radiohead, The King of Limbs, WAV

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Google Reader for Android Gets Widgetized

Posted: 18 Feb 2011 03:59 AM PST


Google has updated its Google Reader for Android with a couple of interesting features, most importantly the ability to add it as a widget to the home screen of your Android device.

The widget comes in two flavors: you can either have an unread count widget, which merely shows you the number of unread items for a feed, label, person or all items in your Reader, or a news ticker widget, which is larger and displays items in any stream you choose. You can click on a headline to read the article; clicking on the folder will take you to that stream.

These updates are coming to lucky owners of Android 2.2+ devices, while those sporting Android 1.6+ will now be able to mark previous items in the stream as read.

Furthermore, the entire app has now been translated to Russian.

Google Reader for Android is available for free in the Android Market.

More About: android, feed, Google, google reader, News, rss, smartphone, widget

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IBM Researcher Explains What Makes Watson Tick [VIDEO]

Posted: 17 Feb 2011 11:36 PM PST


Humanity took a beating from the machines this week. The world’s best Jeopardy player is longer from the human race.

This week, IBM’s Watson supercomputer defeated Jeopardy‘s greatest champions, and it wasn’t even close. When all was said and done, Watson won $77,147, far more than Brad Rutter ($21,600) or 74-time champion Ken Jennings ($24,000). Its ability to dissect complex human language and return correct responses in a matter of seconds was simply too much for humanity’s best players.

A few years ago though, Watson couldn’t even answer 20% of the questions it was given correctly. And it took hours, not seconds, for Watson to process through a question.

At an intimate event in San Francisco, John Prager, one of the researchers developing Watson’s ability to answer complex questions, gave a presentation detailing the work he and his colleagues did to turn Watson into a Jeopardy champion. During his presentation and a Q&A afterwards, Prager and fellow researcher Burn Lewis revealed some key nuggets of information, such as why Watson made those odd, uneven bets during Daily Doubles (an IBM researcher thought it would be boring if Watson’s bets ended with zeros, so he added random dollar amounts for kicks) or which programming languages the researchers used to build Watson (Java and C++).

So what’s next for Watson? Prager says that the next frontier is health care; he hopes that Watson’s technology can help diagnose ailments by analyzing vast quantities of data against patient symptoms and queries.

Check out the video to get a deeper dive into the technology behind Watson. Check it out in HD if you want to read the slides.

More About: IBM, IBM Watson, Jeopardy, video, watson, youtube

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Find Your Favorite Bands on Twitter With TweetLouder

Posted: 17 Feb 2011 10:17 PM PST


If you’d love to connect with your favorite musicians and bands on Twitter, but you don’t have the time or willpower to hunt-and-peck your way around a few dozen Twitter pages, we’ve got a great new tool for you.

Tonight, we’ve been fiddling around with TweetLouder, a sweet app that scans your iTunes, Pandora, Last.fm and/or SonicLiving accounts to find your favorite bands and automagically shows you the Twitter accounts of the musicians you like best.

You can then decide which artists, if any, you’d like to follow. Cooler still, you can even see upcoming shows for some of the artists in your list, though some of those shows might not be geographically convenient, so to speak.

Sadly, there’s no option to add bands to a Twitter list, either individually or en masse. Still, for a free app, it’s a pretty sweet deal.

TweetLouder comes from the mutual intellectual grazing area of Twitter design researcher Mark Trammell and music/concert-focused startup SonicLiving. While the app is built on both companies’ APIs, it also got a helping hand from this massive Google Docs spreadsheet of musicians on Twitter.

Here are some screenshots to give you an idea of how the app works:

Lead image courtesy of Flickr, notsogoodphotography.

More About: music, musicians, tweetlouder, twitter

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Britney Spears’ Hold It Against Me Pimps Tech Brands [VIDEO]

Posted: 17 Feb 2011 09:29 PM PST


Britney Spears’ new music video for “Hold It Against Me” encapsulates a growing trend in the music video business: blatant product placement for dating websites and big tech brands.

The much-anticipated video for Spears’ hit song debuted just a few hours ago on YouTube and Vevo. It comes with everything you’d expect from a Spears video, including Britney in her underwear and the familiar army of male dancers. It also comes with a few surprises, including a scene where she beats herself up ninja style and another where she is lifted skyward through a giant cylindrical room filled with Sony TVs and monitors.

How do I know that the video screens are from Sony? It’s impossible not to notice the electronics manufacturer’s presence throughout the video. It’s not just the constant placement of Sony TVs, but it’s also the brief flashes of Sony’s logo that make this video feel like some form of botched subliminal advertising (scroll to the 1:34 and 2:40 marks in the video to see what I mean).

Sony isn’t the only tech brand to get a shout-out from the former teen pop queen. Dating site PlentyOfFish also apparently paid Spears to browse its website for potential mates. This isn’t the first prominent music video that includes the free-to-use dating website, either. Lady Gaga’s “Telephone” features a security guard perusing the site as she releases the eccentric singer from prison. And if that weren’t enough, Gaga’s video also gave product placement love to Virgin Mobile.

Should we be surprised that tech brands are invading popular music videos? Will Oracle start pimping servers in a Katy Perry video? How long will it be until Snoop Dog is rapping about the HP TouchPad?

It’s a brave new world for tech brands looking for exposure outside of Silicon Valley. We’ve included the full video of “Hold It Against Me” below so you can see for yourself.

More About: britney spears, hold-it-against-me, music video, plentyoffish, sony, vevo, youtube

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Mozilla Revamps F1, Makes Firefox More Social

Posted: 17 Feb 2011 08:20 PM PST


Mozilla has released an updated version of its F1 browsing extension. F1 is from the Mozilla Messaging team and is designed to make it easy to share links across various social services. Rather than having to rely on “share this” buttons on a web page, users can just hit F1 on their keyboards (or “function” F1 for Mac users) and select the service they want to use.

When Mozilla released the first iteration of this extension back in November, we welcomed the idea of a browser-focused sharing system. With the latest release, however, Mozilla has really upped the ante and improved the look and functionality of the extension, as well as adding support for more services.

New Look and Feel

The old version of F1 wasn’t unattractive — in fact we complemented the clean design. The problem, however, was because sharing buttons spanned the horizontal length of the browser, it could get cluttered and ungainly if used with too many services or on browser windows of odd widths.

The new interface features a vertical layout that stacks each service on top of another, displaying the sharing template only for a selected service. The content of the browser also remains unchanged in this implementation, with the overlay simply floating atop the webpage.

We like this look much better and find it effective and unobtrusive. This new video shows the plugin in action:

New Services and Features

In addition to a new UI, F1 has also added support for more services. LinkedIn joins Twitter, Facebook, Gmail, Google Apps and Yahoo. Facebook and Twitter have also received additional capabilities. Users can now send a direct message to other Twitter users using F1 and they can also share with group walls on Facebook.

Finally, the Google Apps and Gmail templates have received an update to include a thumbnail of the link being shared.

The latest version of F1 isn’t just about adding new features — it’s also about taking old features away. This release will only work on the Firefox 4 beta. That means users of Firefox 3.6 will need to make the move to the Firefox 4 beta or forego the update.

Mozilla says that the decision to move to Firefox 4 only was because of some of the new UI techniques. Now in its 11th beta, Firefox 4 is stable and fast. We wouldn’t say that F1 is a reason to make the move to the new browser but it will be one of the many benefits.

What we would love to see with F1 would be an API that developers can use to plug their own services into the plugin. Having one sharing bar built into the browser is a useful concept but it gets more useful when more services are supported.

What do you think of F1? Do you use any browser extensions or bookmarklets to easily share links? Let us know.

More About: f1, Firefox, mozilla, mozilla messaging

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Vogue Releases Lady Gaga-Focused iPad-Only Magazine App [PICS]

Posted: 17 Feb 2011 07:00 PM PST


On Thursday, Condé Nast released Vogue Cover Exclusive for the iPad. This app is the first iPad-entry for the Vogue brand in North America (British Vogue and Japanese Vogue already have apps).

The $0.99 app [iTunes link] isn’t the full issue of Vogue magazine; instead, Vogue Cover Exclusive features the full cover story and additional images, video clips and audio. Vogue says it won’t be producing the app every month but will be releasing new versions when the content is appropriate.

The inaugural issue features Lady Gaga in all her Gaga-glory. Beyond the cover story and photographs, the app also includes a behind-the-scenes video from the cover shoot and a set of audio diaries from the author of the piece.

The app, like some of Condé Nast’s other titles, uses the Adobe Digital Publishing Suite as its base. Users of the Wired iPad app will find themselves at home with the layout.

Because this is an app that is focused on the cover story and cover subject, photography is an important aspect of the experience. Fortunately, the app features great photography that has been optimized for landscape and portrait viewing.

The notable additional content in the app is the inclusion of audio diaries from Jonathan Van Meter. These diaries add context to the story and the interview process that truly give an additional sense of value in the app itself.

We think this is an interesting approach to offering digital publication content. We expect that Vogue will offer its own full-version magazine app for iPad, but in the interim, a lower-priced preview focused primarily on the content of the cover is a provocative monetization play. In the future, we would like to see Vogue utilize more exclusive content — especially by way of video — to make the $0.99 purchase more enticing.

What do you think of bite-sized iPad-focused magazine previews? Let us know.


Vogue





Lady Gaga, Portrait





Lady Gaga, Landscape





Table of Contents




This shows off the table of contents in a birds-eye view. This offers a look at pages by length and structure.


Table of Contents




This is the sidebar table of contents structure.


Page by Page, Portrait





Page by Page, Portrait





Video Playback, Portrait





Video Playback, Landscape/Full Screen





Video Playback, Landscape/Inline





iTunes In-App Purchase Link




A link from within the application opens up to iTunes.


Photos, Portrait





Photos, Landscape





Interactive Table of Contents




Yet another way to access content sections.

More About: ipad apps, ipad magazines, Lady Gaga, vogue, vogue magazine

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Google Unveils Delicious Bookmark Importer

Posted: 17 Feb 2011 06:19 PM PST


Google has just rolled out a convenient new tool for importing your Delicious bookmarks to Google Bookmarks.

The simple importer takes your Delicious login credentials (or lets you use a one-click OAuth button) and imports all your bookmarks, preserving labels or tags.

Considering Google’s rather broad reach as a company, the importer is likely more than just a friendly bid for more Google Bookmarks users.

Bookmarks was launched in 2005, but it’s never been a huge hit — or a money maker — for the company. Last year, Google launched Lists for Bookmarks, a more social feature for bookmarking that put the product into direct competition with Yahoo’s Delicious. At the time, Delicious founder Joshua Schachter was still a Google employee.

However, what makes the Delicious importer timing so interesting is Yahoo’s recent decision to “sunset,” i.e., to sell, Delicious. As more startups and other web companies have promoted their own Delicious importers, a successful sale of the once relatively popular web service grows ever more unlikely. Google’s importer may be the nail in the coffin, in fact.

This isn’t the first time Google has made overt overtures to Yahoo services users. But it’s definitely a direct stab at Yahoo’s bottom line.

But Machiavellian maneuvers aside, Google’s importer is a pleasure to use and will likely be a good fit if you’re a user of other Google apps, such as Reader or Gmail. Here are some screenshots:

More About: bookmarks, delicious, Google, importer, trending, Yahoo

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iPhone Nano Rumors Show Nobody Actually Knows What Apple Is Planning

Posted: 17 Feb 2011 05:42 PM PST


If I had a dime for every rumor that surfaces about an unannounced Apple product, I could probably buy myself an apple-shaped island bursting with iPad trees.

Last week, Bloomberg ignited the flammable Apple rumor mill with a report saying Apple is considering building a smaller iPhone that would only cost $200. The rumors of an “iPhone nano” gained steam after a Wall Street Journal report with more details about the device. It even had a codename: the N97. It was looking more and more likely that a smaller version of the iPhone was imminent.

The New York Times says throw all of that out the window, though. It has just published a report claiming Apple is not building a smaller iPhone, but that it is exploring the possibility of a cheaper iPhone, though it would “be similar in size to the current iPhone 4.” Like Bloomberg and WSJ, NYT cited anonymous sources for this information.

In the time between Bloomberg‘s report and today’s story from NYT, there have been hundreds — if not thousands — of news and analysis stories surrounding the mythical device. And don’t get me started on the countless “Apple tablet” rumors that dominated the headlines before the iPad’s debut.

It’s simply part of the allure of Apple; people want to know what product the technology giant is going to launch next, and the rumors start flying. Unfortunately, the vast majority of these reports simply are off-the-mark.

Actually, One Person Knows What Apple Is Planning

Above: one of the dozens of renderings of the iPad before its debut.

Apple is known for its secrecy. The company bolted down iPad prototypes to tables and tracked every single one to make sure there were no leaks. The one notable product that got past Apple’s walled garden, the iPhone 4 prototype, only leaked because an engineer with very bad luck lost it in a bar. Gizmodo, which bought the device, has never been invited to an Apple event since.

Is there some truth to Bloomberg‘s report on the smaller version of the iPhone? Probably, but the same can be said about the stories published by WSJ and NYT. Notice how these stories say Apple “has been exploring,” “is considering” or “is working on” a new iPhone model.

In other words, Apple is experimenting with potential new products, like every other giant tech company on the planet. Steve Jobs reportedly scrapped countless iPad prototypes before finally approving the device that’s on the market today. We bet that Apple has considered or even built prototypes of smaller iPhones, iPhones with physical keyboards and iPhones of all shapes and sizes. That’s just what happens when you’re trying to design new products.

Then again, we don’t really know, because nobody but Steve Jobs knows what Apple is thinking or planning. And that’s exactly why the Apple rumor mill will continue to churn for years to come.

Now where’s my apple-shaped island?

More About: apple, iOS, ipad, iphone, iphone 4, iphone nano

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Google’s Chrome Web Store Takes First Step Towards International Release

Posted: 17 Feb 2011 05:11 PM PST


Google has taken the first step towards bringing the Chrome Web Store to the rest of the world.

The Chrome Web Store is Google’s version of the App Store, built specifically for the web. Users can search, download and install web apps for the Chrome browser. While some apps are simply external links to existing website, others are fully-functional HTML5 web apps and games.

The Chrome Web Store has only been available in the U.S. since its official release last year. Today though, the search giant announced a preview release for its developer dashboard that lets developers enable their apps for downloading in multiple countries.

The countries Google will initially support include Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain and the United Kingdom. Developers can also set the price of their apps country-by-country, but developers outside the U.S. will have to wait a little longer to get the merchant accounts necessary for processing international transactions.

As for when the Chrome Web Store will actually make its debut to consumers outside the U.S., Google would only say that it will happen “later this year.”

More About: chrome web store, Google, google chrome

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Why Watson’s Win Doesn’t Make Humanity Obsolete… Yet

Posted: 17 Feb 2011 04:33 PM PST


Well humans, it’s been a good ride, but after being eviscerated by IBM’s supercomputer Watson on Jeopardy last night, it’s probably time to pack up the truck and let the machines inherit the earth.

Or is it?

Despite Watson’s tremendous performance, the Final Jeopardy question at the end of Tuesday night’s airing revealed the Achilles’ heel that computer scientists have known of all along: Watson doesn’t really “think” anything, and it struggles with simple questions that most humans can answer without a second thought.


Read the full column on CNN.com>>

More About: computer science, Jeopardy, tech, technology, watson

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Nordstrom Bets Big on Digital With $270 Million Acquisition of HauteLook

Posted: 17 Feb 2011 04:03 PM PST


Nordstrom has agreed to acquire HauteLook, a members-only luxury flash sale site founded in 2007 and based in Los Angeles, for up to $270 million in stock — $180 million upfront with an additional three-year earn out of $90 million, depending on company performance.

Under the terms of the deal, HauteLook, which offers members 50 to 75% off fashion, beauty and travel brand name goods, will remain a wholly-owned subsidiary of Nordstrom and operate independently.

Nordstrom and HauteLook first became acquainted more than one year ago, but acquisition talks didn’t get serious until the end of 2010, according to HauteLook CEO Adam Bernhard. He believes the two companies share a common interest in top notch customer service and have similar company cultures, but says the exact synergies are still being worked out.

When asked about whether Nordstrom’s involvement will affect the daily operations of the company or its more than 1,500 brand partners, Bernhard responded by saying, “Nothing is going to change.” The executive team is also staying put. “I will stay here,” he says. “I hope to see the business grow into the late stages of my life.”

Nordstrom’s big-ticket purchase was likely motivated by an interest in buying a stake in the hot digital trend of flash sale sites. HauteLook did well over $100 million in sales in 2010 and now has more than 4 million members, according to Bernhard. With the acquisition, Nordstrom, a brand name not yet synonymous with digital innovation, is now on trend in both the digital and social media arenas.

More About: acquisition, fashion, flash sale, hautelook, nordstrom

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Facebook Adds LGBT-Friendly Relationship Status Options

Posted: 17 Feb 2011 03:23 PM PST


Facebook has introduced two relationship status indicators that folks in the LGBT community might find more useful.

Effective immediately, U.S. residents can choose between “In a domestic partnership” and “In a civil union,” along with the usual roster of relationship options, which currently include Single, In a relationship, Engaged, Married, It’s complicated, In an open relationship, Widowed, Separated and Divorced.

These two new options should be rolled out to residents of other countries soon. In countries where same-sex marriages are already legal, these options will not appear.

A Facebook rep told us in an e-mail, “This has been a highly requested feature from users. We want to provide options for people to genuinely and authentically reflect their relationships on Facebook.”

Facebook and the site’s Network of Support have been instrumental in a few LGBT initiatives in recent months.

After last fall’s string of high-profile gay teen suicides, Facebook teamed up with GLAAD (Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) to put a stop to anti-gay bullying on the social network. A few days later, the site’s Network of Support (NOS) was officially formed. At the time, we were told that more good news for LGBT Facebook users would be coming soon.

The new statuses are a double-edged sword, however; the civil union/domestic partnership distinction is one that many LGBT groups are currently trying to erase. In fact, marriage equality is one of the key campaigning points for many groups in the NOS, including the Human Rights Campaign, GLAAD and PFLAG (Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays).

And many couples in same-sex relationships who have already defined themselves on Facebook as “married” aren’t necessarily eager to adopt the new nomenclature. As one user wrote in a Facebook comment on the Trevor Project’s wall, “I’ll just leave myself listed as ‘married’ — after 14 years, that sums it up, even if it isn’t legal!”

Other commenters were more harsh in their statements, saying that Facebook was adopting the “separate and unequal” policies of the many states that do not allow gay marriage.

Still, it’s good that Facebook is finally recognizing the legal relationships that do currently exist between LGBT couples in the U.S. and in other countries. Whether those status distinctions will be needed in the future remains to be seen — and that is a battleground in which Facebook remains decidedly neutral, although highlighting the lack of marriage equality could be seen as a subtle nod to marriage equality groups during a particularly critical time.

In an e-mail, GLAAD President Jarrett Barrios said, "When millions of Facebook users see these relationship status options, they gain a greater understanding of the legal inequalities faced by loving and committed same-sex couples in so many states today.

“Being able to see same-sex couples in civil unions and domestic partnerships who celebrate their relationships no differently than married couples will serve as another reminder that these couples still lack the same legal recognition and protections associated with marriage. Facebook's noteworthy move also highlights the vast majority of same-sex couples living in states where there are no legal protections whatsoever."

More About: facebook, gay, LGBT, relationship, relationship status, trending

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YouTube Wants Non-Profits To Make Amazing Videos

Posted: 17 Feb 2011 02:44 PM PST

YouTube is launching its 5th Annual DoGooder Non-Profit Video Awards with a brand new award aimed at spurring online participation. The competition is a collaboration between YouTube and See3 with participation from Flip and NTEN.

The Case Foundation will give out $10,000 grants to the video winners in four categories: Best Small Org Video, Best Medium Org Video, Best Large Org Video, and the newcomer — Best Thrifty Video. Winners will be featured on YouTube’s homepage (what YouTube calls “the nonprofit equivalent of an ad in the Super Bowl”), given Flip cameras and registered for the 2011 NTC.

Best Thrifty Video will award the non-profit that was able to create a video for less than $500. It’s meant to show that video can make an impact even without a ton of cash or flashy cameras. While all the submissions need to have been produced in 2010, Best Thrifty Video will accept any videos released up until the the official close of submission on March 2, 2011. This is being done to inspire shoestring non-profits to start making videos.

YouTube and See3 are essentially using the contest’s prizes and exposure to motivate non-profits that may not have thought of using video or were intimidated by professional videos produced by major organizations.

A group of judges will whittle down the entries based on the message, use of video, quality of video, creativity and emotional appeal. Once the final 16 videos are chosen, the YouTube community will then be able to vote for their favorites starting March 7.

The contest is also syncing up with YouTube’s Non-Profit Program, a support page and dedicated channel for non-profits. The program offers tips, how-tos, and the ability for non-profits to include special features like a “donate button” on their channel. A non-profit video must be registered with the program in order to be considered.

The Non-Profit Video Awards look to be a clever play by YouTube to encourage and promote the way non-profits use video while establishing itself as a the go-to resource for charitable online video.

Check out some of last year’s winners and let us know your thoughts:

Best Small Organization Video: Darius Goes West – A DVD in Every School

Best Large Organization Video: Canadian Cancer Society – Join the Fight

More About: charity, dogooder, dogooder nonprofit video awards, non-profit, video awards, youtube

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Mobile World Congress 2011 in Pictures

Posted: 17 Feb 2011 02:28 PM PST

Another Mobile World Congress is behind us, and as they urge us to clear out the media center, which has been a safe haven for journalists desperate for a stable Internet connection (the Wi-Fi was spotty and slow throughout the event), we’re reminiscing about the things we’ve seen this year.

Besides the hundreds of mobile startups, app developers, operators and other companies of all sizes trying to find their place under the mobile sun, this MWC has been mostly about two things: tablets and Android.

Of course, MeeGo, WebOS, Windows Phone 7 and other mobile platforms (besides Apple’s iOS, since Apple chooses to skip events such as the MWC) were all present at the fair. But the bulk of the new smartphones and tablets we’ve seen were running some flavor of Android.

Samsung, LG and HTC have had a particularly strong offering this year when it comes to smartphones. On the tablet front, nearly every company tried their hand at finding the perfect form factor and Android flavor that should power the “iPad killers” of 2011.

Finally, in the gallery below, you can catch a glimpse of the atmosphere at this year’s MWC, including the “secret” Android village, the holster police who gave out citations to everyone with more than two cellphones and a couple of inevitable booth babes. Meanwhile, we’re off for some tapas!


Cops





Booth Babes with a badge!


Get Connected





Fenced In





Android!




It's Alive!


Motricity





CBOSS





Galaxy S Fever





Dolby




The sound of HD, the image of TRON!


Egypt




More About: android, Mobile 2.0, Mobile World Congress, smartphones, tablets

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How the Auto Industry Is Embracing Social Media [INFOGRAPHIC]

Posted: 17 Feb 2011 02:20 PM PST

Every industry these days is trying to figure out how to employ social media, but the auto category is being especially scrutinized. The segment is known for its glitzy TV ads and deep pockets, but social media is a field where money will only drive you so far. The big gains seem to come from out-thinking opponents, not outspending them.

So how are the big automakers doing in this new arena? As this infographic shows, there have been some triumphs, some missteps, and a lot of learning.

Because of the large size of this infographic, we’ve broken it up into multiple smaller parts. You can view the full graphic here.


How the Auto Industry is Embracing Social Media






General Motors





Ford





Chrysler





Toyota





Honda





The Super Bowl





Lessons & Takeways




Infographic created by Muhammad Saleem of Car Insurance Guide. You can follow him on Twitter @msaleem.

More About: advertising, ford, General Motors, honda, infographics, MARKETING, social media, social media marketing, Toyota

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YouTube to Start Featuring Celebrity-Created Content?

Posted: 17 Feb 2011 02:11 PM PST


In addition to its channels for musicians and comedians, soon we could be seeing more famous faces cropping up on YouTube, according to recent reports.

New York Magazine‘s Vulture blog is reporting today that YouTube CEO Salar Kamangar will be building out the site’s recently instated talent program (last July, the video-sharing site announced its YouTube Partner Grants Program to ramp up quality content) by offering big-name stars their own YouTube channels. Those stars would then fill the channels with original content, while also keeping complete control of those three-minute videos. YouTube, in turn, would rake in the ad revenue.

Vulture reports that YouTube is hoping to score 20 celebs, who will each get $5 million for their efforts.

It’s no secret that YouTube has been trying to distinguish its content as something more than a morass of cat videos and guys getting hit in the junk. Parent company Google recently acquired Widevine, an on-demand video service known for its multiplatform DRM and adaptive streaming technologies, and the web has been buzzing for months about the possibility of it acquiring web video production company, New Next Networks.

While we’re happy to see YouTube ramping up its quality control efforts, we can’t help but think of the myriad talented stars already working in the space — folks who already know how to effectively use the medium. We wonder if YouTube would be best served investing in its preexisting denizens, rather than a new crop of (bigger) names.

Photo courtesy of Flickr, Evelyn Proimos

More About: video, youtube

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See How Your Internet Service Stacks Up With New Broadband Map

Posted: 17 Feb 2011 01:40 PM PST


Do you feel like Internet options in your area aren’t quite up to speed? On Thursday, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NITA) released an easy way to confirm your suspicion: The National Broadband Map.

The map is part of an initiative to facilitate the integration of broadband into state and local economies. It shows where broadband Internet service is available, the technology used to provide the service, the maximum advertised speeds of the service and the names of the service providers. The data that powers it comes from more than 1,650 unique broadband companies.

From what we can tell by squinting, the best bet for enjoying both the fastest download and upload speeds available is to live on Long Island. Meanwhile, a Census survey revealed that five to 10% of the U.S. population lacks access to broadband that supports even basic applications like downloading web pages, photos and videos. You can check out how your local Internet stacks up by visiting the Map’s homepage.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, FotoAda

More About: broadband, interactive map, internet speed, NITA, united states

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HOW TO: Develop Ideas That Will Disrupt Your Industry

Posted: 17 Feb 2011 01:27 PM PST


Luke Williams, a fellow at frog design and adjunct professor at NYU Stern, is a leading consultant on innovation and the author of DISRUPT: Think the Unthinkable to Spark Transformation in Your Business. For more disruptive thinking tips visit: disruptive-thinking.com.

In 2003, Jonah Staw was having dinner with some friends in a trendy restaurant in San Francisco when the discussion turned to what he calls "disruptive business ideas." Suggestions were flying left and right, and at one point, someone asked, "How crazy would it be if some company started selling socks that didn't match?"

Everyone thought it was a terrible idea — not particularly practical, certainly not useful, and difficult to own — and they moved on. Everyone, that is, except Jonah, who couldn't get the idea of mismatched socks out of his head. In his view, the sock category was lazy and boring; we're still buying and wearing socks the same way we have for decades. And, how many times have you lost one sock and had to toss the matching one?

There are all sorts of examples of companies that have been launched on the strength of their “disruptive thinking.” But one of my all-time favorites is Little Miss Matched. The company Jonah co-founded with two other friends challenged conventional sock industry wisdom. In late 2008, Little Miss Matched did a large deal with Macy's and closed a $17 million funding round with the same investment partners that backed Build-A-Bear. With 6 retail stores and over 150 employees, Jonah and his partners are a long way from where they started 5 years earlier.

So, what was the problem that the solution addressed? Well, there wasn't any problem, and that's exactly the point. Most people in business are trained to focus only on problems: things that don't work and need fixing. It's more effective to start by identifying something in your business or industry that's not necessarily a problem, and then go about methodically breaking it down using the following steps.

Step 1: What Do You Want to Disrupt?

socks illustration

The first step is to define the situation in the industry, segment, or category that you want to challenge. And by "situation," I mean the broad view from 10,000 feet. This should be an area of your industry in which everyone seems to be stuck, and nothing has changed in a very long time.

Once you have a situation to focus on, describe it in one sentence. The important thing is that the high-level situation you choose is just that: high-level. It's possible that you could end up with a completely new solution to a very specific problem, but at this stage, such a narrow focus will greatly limit your options later.

Step 2: What Are the Business Clichés?

Now that you’ve defined what you want to disrupt, the next step is to identify the assumptions that seem to influence the way insiders (and often outsiders) think about your situation. In other words, what are the clichés — the widespread, hackneyed beliefs that govern the way people think about and do business in a particular space. If you pay attention, you'll notice that clichés are everywhere. (You'll also notice that, almost by definition, they've lost their ingenuity and impact.)

In the soft-drink industry, for example, some of the product clichés are as follows: Soda is inexpensive, it tastes sweet, and it's advertised as aspirational. (For example, if you want to be like [celebrity spokesperson], you have to drink Mountain Dew.) In the rental car business, the prevailing interaction clichés include the following: Face-to-face interaction with a service agent, completing a lot of paperwork, and renting vehicles by the day.

Start by getting online and identifying a handful of direct competitors in the industry, segment, or category you're focused on. Do a little research on each competitor and make a list of the clichés that keep everyone doing the same thing, competing the same way, or operating with the same set of assumptions. The quickest and most efficient way to do this is to explore company websites, examine their advertising, and read what people are saying about the companies and their products on blogs and other social media platforms (such as Twitter, Facebook, and Amazon).

If you're searching for clichés with a team, or even if you're doing it alone, all you need to come up with is a list of 9 to 12 clichés to work with as you develop your hypotheses. The challenge of identifying clichés is that the most obvious and seemingly natural assumptions are the easiest to ignore. We don't consciously think about these things because "that's the way they've always been."

Step 3: What Are Your Disruptive Hypotheses?

Now that you have a list of the clichés that are influencing the business situation you're focused on, your next goal is to start provoking the status quo by generating several disruptive hypotheses: seemingly crazy ways to fill in the blank part of the question, "I wonder what would happen if we ________."

In the video rental business, "What would happen if we didn't charge late fees?" Netflix. In fashion, "What would happen if we sold socks in sets of three, where none of them match?" Little Miss Matched.

You'll have to take those clichés and twist them like a Rubik's Cube and look at them from the inside out, upside down, backward, and forward. Specifically, you're looking for something (or things) that you could move in the opposite direction, or completely do without.

What Can You Invert?

Let’s look at the soda industry. Inverting "soda is inexpensive," gives you "soda is expensive." Reversing "tastes good" gives you "tastes terrible," both of which sound completely ridiculous. But, you can't break the clichés without going through this step, which is exactly what Red Bull did. It placed absolutely no importance on taste, the product is double the price of Coca-Cola, and it dispensed with marketing aspirational images. The message was that Red Bull may not necessarily make you feel happy, but it'll definitely give you a shot of energy when you need it.

What Can You Deny?

zipcar illustration

Let’s return to our rental car example for a minute. What would happen if you no longer needed to see the customer, you got rid of the paperwork, and you started renting by the hour? Well, you'd end up with something very much like Zipcar, where there's no waiting in line, no papers to fill out, and no pressure to upgrade or add 27 different kinds of insurance. In fact, there's no face-to-face interaction at all. Customers apply to become members (or "zipsters") and they reserve vehicles online.

Conclusion

After going through these steps, you should be able to generate several brilliant, wacky hypotheses that will challenge your established way of looking at an industry, segment or category. The general rule is that bolder "What Ifs" will offer a fresher perspective. So, don't worry if your hypotheses seem completely ridiculous. As these stories illustrate, inverting or denying industry clichés can often lead to significant business breakthroughs.

More Business Resources from Mashable:

- How The iPad Is Helping Businesses Go Green
- HOW TO: Jump-Start Your Career by Becoming an Online Influencer
- How Facebook Deals Are Helping One NBA Team Connect With Fans
- 4 Small Business Mobile Predictions for 2011
- How Brands Can Make the Most of Facebook's New Pages

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, flyparade. Illustrations courtesy of the author.

More About: business, Disrupt, disruptive thinking, MARKETING, small business, startups

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Apple vs. Publishers: Why Apple Already Won

Posted: 17 Feb 2011 01:24 PM PST


Apple this week announced a plan to levy a 30% fee on publishers who charge subscriptions through its App Store on the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. The fee applies to newspapers, magazines and digital books (not to mention music and videos). What’s more, Apple’s rules dictate that publications can’t offer these same subscriptions at a lower price outside the App Store. And in another blow to publishers, customers will have the option not to share their details — name, email address and zip code — with the publisher.

Some publishing industry analysts are aghast at the proposal, claiming the rate is much too steep and the terms too strict. I don’t disagree: There’s no doubt that Apple is using its dominant position in digital distribution to strong-arm publishers. But the fact that the tech giant can propose such onerous terms without blinking points to the fact that the battle is already lost: The balance of power has permanently, irreversibly shifted from the media companies to the tech firms.

That’s the topic of my CNN column this week.


Read the full column on CNN.com >>

More About: app store, apple, iOS, ipad, News, newspapers, publishing

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Indie Designers Tap Into Digital Technology for Fashion Week

Posted: 17 Feb 2011 01:07 PM PST

Staging a runway show at Lincoln Center during New York Fashion Week is a costly privilege available to few designers who are not at the helm of established national or global brands.

Elsewhere in New York, however — in art galleries, restaurants, basements, garages, hotels and studios — young designers are cramming friends, retailers and whatever press they can get to see their own, more budget-friendly presentations. And several of them are incorporating digital technology to expand their audience beyond those in the room, just as larger brands have partnered with Livestream and YouTube to stream their shows live online.

We learned about two particularly creative uses this season. Earlier this week, we wrote about how young design label Timo Weiland hosted an after-party with mobile startup Fashism to engage a digital audience with the collection. Party guests were invited to try on clothes, some of which had debuted only hours earlier, and upload photos of themselves wearing those pieces straight to Fashism and, by proxy, Twitter, for real-time feedback.

Perhaps more inventively, designer and former Project Runway contestant Althea Harper partnered with live-streaming platform Watchitoo to engage with fans during her New York Fashion Week show last Friday.

For Harper, it was important not to “just film an event other people are at,” but to stage a show that put the digital audience first.

“I have a great fanbase coming from Project Runway, but a lot of people don’t live in New York,” Harper explained in an interview with Mashable. “I wanted to let them get in on the excitement, and to be able to interact more with them,” she said.

Throughout the event, which was hosted at Gallery Nine in Soho, Harper took questions via Twitter and Watchitoo’s chat widget, and in turn interviewed members of her team. Physical attendees became the actual lookers-on during those interviews, watching Harper answer questions behind a tangle of camera equipment, although they had a much better view of the 12 models displaying the collection.

Check out the live stream above to see Harper take questions during the show, and browse the gallery below for some behind-the-scenes shots.






Guests wait for the start of the show.





Attendees examine makeup used in the show.





The event's host, a personal friend of Harper's, addresses the online audience ahead of the show.





The live stream host speaks with the Watchitoo team.





Designer Althea Harper with models.





Designer Althea Harper with models.





Designer Althea Harper with models.





Designer Althea Harper with models.

Several images courtesy of Watchitoo

More About: althea harper, fashion, fashion week, fashism, new york fashion week, nyfw, twitter, watchitoo

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Microsoft Rolls Out Facebook-Friendly Bing Bar 7

Posted: 17 Feb 2011 12:38 PM PST


What? Another toolbar? Yes, and Microsoft has linked up its new Bing Bar 7 with Facebook. Microsoft figures it can do better than all the toolbars that came before with its Bing Bar 7, which works only with Internet Explorer 7, 8 or 9. Is it useful?

If you haven’t tried Microsoft’s Bing Bar in any of its earlier iterations, it’s a toolbar with little app-like conveniences. The new Bing Bar 7 again brings that variety of applets to the top of your browser, where with one click you can indulge in its new claim to fame: checking your Facebook feed. It shows your newsfeed, friend requests and even gives you a pleasant-looking grid of your friends’ shared photos.

Still there and every bit as useful as its Bing Bar predecessors is the ability to check a weather report, multiple e-mail accounts, financial information, news and more.

After I installed the toolbar, it immediately determined my location, showing the correct weather report and map/traffic info for my locale. After configuring a couple of e-mail accounts, it showed headers and the first line of each message with a single click. Of course, right in the middle of the toolbar is the Bing search field, where you type in search terms and it autocompletes, guessing what you’re looking for just like Google search does.

I’m not a big toolbar fan, but I think this easily accessible applet setup is a cool idea. The new Facebook integration is surprisingly thorough, useful enough to justify adding the toolbar for that reason alone. Another nicety is the ability to customize the toolbar, getting rid of any of those applets you don’t want.

Even though I’m not too crazy about adding yet another item at the top of my browser, Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 9 keeps its top section simple and clean, so maybe this could be useful.

See what you think. Fire up Internet Explorer (try the almost-ready Release Candidate of IE9, it’s cool, too), download Bing Bar 7 and give it a try, and let us know in the comments if you think it’s worth the download.

More About: Bing Bar 7, internet explorer, microsoft, toolbar

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Spotify Nabs EMI for U.S. Launch [REPORT]

Posted: 17 Feb 2011 12:14 PM PST


The Spotify rumor mill is turning once more, this time with the news that Spotify has finalized a U.S. distribution deal with EMI.

According to All Things Digital‘s sources, the currently in-flux record label is now on board with Spotify, a popular music subscription service not yet available stateside. Although Spotify has declined to confirm as much, Sony also recently joined the party (a fact we have gleaned via sources close to the matter). That means Spotify needs one more label to get access to American consumers.

We have reached out to Spotify and EMI for comment.

Now that Spotify has two labels on board (and Warner at least thinking about the matter, if comments made during a recent earnings call by CEO Edgar Bronfman are any indication), we could finally see the subscription service in the U.S. soon.

We’ll keep you updated when we know more about the matter.

Photo courtesy of Flickr, Andreas Blixt

More About: EMI, music subscription, spotify

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What Brands Can Learn From Taco Bell’s Social Media Lawsuit Defense

Posted: 17 Feb 2011 11:36 AM PST


Patrick Kerley is the senior digital strategist at Levick Strategic Communications. He is also a contributing author to Bulletproof Blog™ and can be found on Twitter @pjkerley.

When it comes to high profile lawsuits, it’s often been the plaintiff’s use of social media that makes headlines and wins those ever-important battles in the Court of Public Opinion. Blogs raise awareness of issues that could lead to lucrative litigation, and smart SEO and SEM campaigns can dominate the online conversation. Social media is used recruit potential class action clients. All the while, the target of the litigation — the defender — often stands mute, from a digital perspective. Commonly, the defender will cede control of the Internet's messaging high ground to adversaries.

But the "no comment" strategy has increasingly been cast aside in an age when instant impressions can cause lasting reputation damage. More and more companies are realizing the benefits of mounting a digital defense when plaintiffs come knocking. As evidenced by the recent lawsuit against Taco Bell — alleging that its "seasoned beef" doesn't meet USDA requirements for that label — defense messages are starting to compete for attention in the online space. Over the last several weeks, Taco Bell has written a template for digital litigation communications that — while certainly more aggressive than many lawsuits call for — has highlighted a number of best practices that every company playing social media defense should consider.

Use Your Peacetime Wisely

Prior to the lawsuit, Taco Bell already maintained a Facebook Page with nearly 5.7 million fans, a Twitter profile with nearly 80,000 followers, and YouTube channel with videos that have been viewed nearly three million times. Not only did this help to amass an audience that would be receptive to its messages when they mattered most; it also ensured that — as of this morning — only one of the returns on the first page of results for a "Taco Bell" Google search was related to the lawsuit. By building a base of brand advocates and "flooding the zone" with positive content before trouble arose, the company essentially made it more difficult for negative news to break through the clutter.

Establishing such a strong web presence after a lawsuit has come to a company's attention simply isn't possible. By using its peacetime wisely, Taco Bell ensured that it was prepared to defend any reputation assault in the venues that its consumers turn to most often for information.

Dominate Search Engines

Immediately after the lawsuit was announced, Taco Bell initiated an SEM campaign that brought web searchers to its side of the story first. These sponsored links have since been taken down as the controversy subsided — a move that limits the lawsuit's notoriety and articulates the company's sense that consumers are ready to move on. But among the top organic results for a "Taco Bell meat quality" search is still the "Food Facts" page on Taco Bell's website, which outlines the company's commitment to using only the highest quality ingredients and refutes the plaintiffs' claims.

Clearly, Taco Bell appreciates the role of search engines as de facto gatekeepers of information. The company understood that the first story told is the story that is believed. As a result, the plaintiffs now have to swim against a rising tide of public opinion.

Enlist Your Fans, Followers and Friends

Having already cultivated an army of brand ambassadors in the digital space, Taco Bell enlisted their assistance with an offer of a free taco as a means to test the meat quality themselves. The promotion was the centerpiece of the company's litigation response on Facebook and Twitter, and further communicated confidence in the company's position that its meat meets USDA standards. Furthermore — in a move that took a page from the Domino's crisis playbook – Taco Bell President Greg Creed was featured in a YouTube video (above) entitled "Of Course we Use Real Beef" that has been viewed 170,000 times to date.

The unique and shareable format of the company’s messages made them easy for consumers and reporters to digest — pardon the pun.

Tailoring the Taco Bell Template to Meet Your Needs

Perhaps the most important lesson to arise from Taco Bell's digital response is that every company's situation is unique and each of the tactics cited above must be carefully considered and cleared with counsel before moving forward.

For smaller companies with more limited consumer appeal, or for those less confident in a courtroom victory, the goal might be to keep the lawsuit as quiet as possible, which would preclude the use of such aggressive tactics altogether. For a company in the professional services realm, platforms such as LinkedIn might be better suited to their needs than Facebook, Twitter, or YouTube. And for companies that can't publicly articulate the details of a particular case, highlighting other positive aspects of their operations or enlisting third-party supporters would be preferable to Taco Bell's more direct approach.

To avoid a misstep that could limit your campaign's reach or even make a tough situation worse, have a clear picture of your brand's positioning in the digital space and always keep the legal department or general counsel's office in the loop. The key is striking a delicate balance that best ensures victory in both the courtroom and the Court of Public Opinion — because losses in either venue can be awfully hard to swallow.

More Business Resources from Mashable:

- 3 Crisis Survival Lessons for the Social Media Age
- HOW TO: Avoid a Social Media Disaster
- Are Press Platforms Worth It For Small Businesses?
- 8 Educational iPhone Apps for Small Business Owners
- How Brands Can Make the Most of Facebook's New Pages

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, LauriPatterson

More About: business, lawsuit, MARKETING, social media, social media marketing, taco bell

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Hear a Song You Like While Out & About? Make a Playlist via Twitter

Posted: 17 Feb 2011 11:02 AM PST


It happens all the time — you’re out at a bar and a friend goes, “Hey, dude, you should totally check out Explosions in My Mind’s Sky, they’re like the raddest band ever” (yes, your friend was an extra in Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure).

The band does, indeed, sound interesting, but you know you’ll forget the name by the time you get home, and, being that it’s the digital age, it’s not like you carry around a pen or anything. So you forget about… uh… what was the name of that band again?

Enter Sndchck. So what is Sndchck (aside from yet another startup lacking vowel)? Well, it’s like Instapaper for music.

This hack, which was dreamed up during Music Hack Day by the TargetSpot development team, uses a slew of APIs and tools (The Echo Nest, Last.fm, Bandcap, Twilio, Twitter, MongoDB, HTML5, etc) to create a simple way to put a pin in bands, via Twitter, for later consumption.

So let’s say you’re at the aforementioned bar and your friend mentions a band. All you have to do is tweet, for example: “pulp @sndchck.”

When you get home, go to the Sndchck website and log in via Twitter, and you’ll find a playable track listing of songs from that artist. Friends can also send you music by tweeting your handle, the artist name and @sndchck. One of the founders tweeted Arcade Fire at me, which is why it’s on my list (don’t worry, I know who they are).

“Our goal for Music Hack Day was to get the core foundation in place,” says Ricky Robinett, one of the Sndchck founders. “Now that we’ve caught up on sleep, we’re hoping to fix bugs and roll out new features very quickly. A couple features we have in the pipeline are: Making the SMS functionality available to all users; integrating SoundCloud as an audio provider; and making it easy for new users to find out about the site.”

What do you think of Sndchck? Would you use it to discover — and remember — new bands?

Update: It appears that Sndchck now works if you just type in “band name @Sndchck.” I’ve updated the story above accordingly.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, deeAuvil

More About: design-and-dev, hack, music-hack-day, sndchck, twitter

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Google Music Service To Debut With Android Honeycomb? [REPORT]

Posted: 17 Feb 2011 10:49 AM PST


Here’s more evidence that Google will soon infuse its Android operating system with an online music service that will compete against Apple’s iTunes.

According to The Guardian, Motorola Mobility CEO Sanjay Jha blurted out Google’s secret while talking about his company’s upcoming Xoom tablet: “If you look at Google Mobile services [via Android] today, there’s a video service, there’s a music service — that is, there will be a music service.”

Motorola’s upcoming $800 Xoom tablet (Update: $600 for Wi-Fi-only version), might go on “pre-sale” as early as February 20. It will be one of the first machines to use the new Android Honeycomb operating system. According to The Guardian, Jha says the Google Music service “will rely on Honeycomb.”

The clues have been accumulating: Google already demonstrated an online music service last May at its I/O Conference, and Honeycomb includes a “Google Music” app. We even saw alleged screen shots of the service last month.

Billboard, calling Google Music “the worst-kept secret in the music industry,” says while Google’s been negotiating with record labels since last September, the service isn’t showing signs of launching soon. Billboard named a list of Google brass working to get record companies on board. In addition, a source told Billboard that Google’s looking to hire additional staff to handle major label licensing.

There’s a hurdle that must be crossed before Google’s vision of a cloud-based music service becomes reality: According to CNet, record companies must get on board with streaming and downloaded songs. If users want to buy a song and then be able to access it from any Internet-connected device via a “digital locker,” downloading (or streaming) must be allowed. Until that thorny issue is worked out, Google’s music service might have to exist without that cloud-based component.

How about it, readers? What’s taking Google so long to release its cloud-based music service?

More About: android 3.0, Digital Locker, Google, google music, honeycomb, motorola xoom

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Sony’s Music Streaming Service Hits the U.S.

Posted: 17 Feb 2011 10:19 AM PST

Sony is launching its subscription streaming service in the U.S., Australia and New Zealand on Thursday afternoon.

The service, which is called Music Unlimited powered by Qriocity, is Sony’s play at gaining more traction in the growing digital subscription space. Sony launched its service in the UK and Ireland in December 2010 and has since expanded the service to France, Germany, Spain and Italy.

The cloud-based music subscription marketplace already has a host of players, including Rdio, MOG, Rhapsody and Spotify. Sony’s approach with Music Unlimited powered by Qriocity is slightly different from its competitors.

Like other services, users can access a catalog of on-demand music for a monthly fee. Sony has two pricing tiers:

  • Basic – At $3.99 a month, this plan offers users access to an infinite number of ad-free radio stations. Users can also create personalized channels by genre, era and mood.
  • Premium – At $9.99 a month, this plan offers users unlimited access to every song in the catalog (currently 6 million songs), as well as the ability to create playlists, designate favorites and access special pre-programmed channels and stations.

The pricing plans and options are similar to the offerings from other services already on the market, but Sony’s service differs when it comes to access.

Right now, users can access Music Unlimited through the PlayStation 3, the PC and from 2010 and 2011 models of network-enabled BRAVIA TV and Blu-ray players. In the future, Sony will also offer access on Sony portable devices and on Android and iOS devices.

When we spoke to Sony at CES 2011, the company pointed out that it wanted to address the living room before entering the mobile space. This is in contrast to most other streaming services, many of which put a higher priority on mobile over web or connected device-based support.

While we understand this approach — and are at least interested in seeing a focus on music discovery in the connected device space — we hope Sony can roll out its mobile offerings sooner rather than later.

We’ll be giving Music Unlimited powered by Qriocity a hands-on look later this afternoon once the service goes live in the U.S..

What do you think of Sony’s living room-centric streaming subscription plan?

More About: music streaming services, music unlimited powered by qriocity, Qriocity, sony

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LinkedIn Spoofs ’80s Corporate Instruction Videos

Posted: 17 Feb 2011 09:43 AM PST


Showing both a sense of humor and a willingness to explore new vehicles for advertisers, LinkedIn has produced a FedEx-sponsored series of retro instruction videos for small businesses.

The videos, announced yesterday on the company’s blog, outline the uses of LinkedIn for small businesses using a tone and visual approach from circa 1983. The satirical tone softens the didactic content, which appears aimed at small business owners who have never set up a LinkedIn account or have no working knowledge of the site.

The social networking site rolled out six videos walking such consumers though the basics. In the company’s blog, Rob Getzschman, video editor at the Upgright Citizens Brigade who worked on the project, explained LinkedIn’s rationale: “We're always looking for creative ways to help our users learn the ins and outs of LinkedIn. Knowing that the average office worker can only watch a screenshot tutorial for a few seconds before the onset of spontaneous narcolepsy, we developed a fun, retro-themed webseries for small and medium business owners with the help of FedEx.”

This is the second time this year that a somewhat stodgy brand has tapped members of UCB to loosen up a bit. In January, Hewlett-Packard linked with the comedy troupe for HP ePrint Live, which was broadcast on the HP for Home Facebook page.

We think with these videos, LinkedIn, which is often cast as a bit on the dull side, is able to let its hair down a bit in a way that’s still true to the brand and original. What do you think? Does this make you look at the site differently?

More About: advertising, FedEx, linkedin, MARKETING, upright citizens brigade theater

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What Happened Thursday at the Mobile World Congress

Posted: 17 Feb 2011 09:28 AM PST


The Mobile World Congress Series is supported by Snapdragon by Qualcomm. Inside your smartphone beats the heart of a dragon.

As is often the case at events such as this one, the last day of the Mobile World Congress was largely uneventful, with most company representatives hurrying to clear out their stands and head on home after three days of intense deal making, cajoling the press and inevitable partying.

However, one detail from the day before was the talk of the town today: The fact that Apple’s iPhone 4 — a product by a company that is in no way, shape or form present at the MWC — has been declared the best mobile device of 2010.

HTC won the consolation prize, having been declared the Device Manufacturer of the Year, but Apple winning the award for the best device had to be a painful sting to all the companies exhibiting at the MWC, including giants such as Motorola, LG, Samsung and HTC, which together announced more than 10 new Android devices.

The official stats for the four-day event are in: GSMA — the association that organizes the event — reported more than 60,000 visitors from 200 countries, with 51% of attendees holding C-level positions, 3,000 of which were CEOs.

To get an idea how big of an event the MWC is, imagine 1,400 companies occupying more than 58,600 net square meters of exhibition and business meeting space. And there were a lot of journalists too: The GSMA reports that more than 2,900 international media were registered to cover the event.

For our complete coverage of this year’s MWC, go here. And of course, we’re already looking forward to the next MWC, which is being held from February 27 to March 1, 2012.

Series Supported by Snapdragon by Qualcomm

The Mobile World Congress Series is supported by Snapdragon by Qualcomm. Qualcomm's Snapdragon chipset platform is redefining mobility by offering an optimal combination of mobile processing performance, powerful multimedia, wireless connectivity and power efficiency. The Snapdragon family of chipsets is designed to power a new generation of advanced smartphones, tablets, and other smart devices.

More About: android, barcelona, Mobile 2.0, Mobile World Congress, MWC, smartphones

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Facebook Phone Maker: Here’s What’s Wrong With Android

Posted: 17 Feb 2011 09:26 AM PST


Frank Meehan has a message for makers of Android handsets and tablets: Stop focusing on elite early adopter customers and start thinking about what the cool kids want.

“If you go to a nightclub in any city in the world, the pretty girl has an iPhone or a BlackBerry,” Meehan told Mashable at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. “She doesn’t have an Android phone. She has no emotional attachment to an Android phone. It’s too complicated. It’s a geek device, it’s all wrong.”

Pretty strong words from anyone at the Android-centric MWC — let alone someone making Android handsets himself. Meehan is the founder and CEO of INQ, the London-based company behind the INQ Cloud. The Cloud, launching in Europe this year, has been dubbed an unofficial Facebook phone that incorporates features from the social network directly into its user interface. Facebook Chat, Calendar and News Feeds are accessible as their own apps, and the phone uses Facebook’s social graph technology to create screens for the friends you most care about. (We have a hands-on preview with a pre-release INQ Cloud here.)

As critics point out, the INQ Cloud isn’t that powerful under the hood. Its chipset clocks in at a weedy 600MHz. The expandable memory starts at a mere 4MB. But Meehan says such specs talk misses the point.

“Android manufacturers are all just focused utterly on the tech, because they’re all hardware guys,” he says. “They don’t get software. They’ve tried to outdo Apple with hardware, but the problem is the customer doesn’t care. The Samsung Galaxy has done pretty well, but it’s just price-driven. It’s not desire-driven. There are no lines out the door to get a Galaxy. They’ve done all this work on branding, but the name doesn’t mean anything to consumers. It’s like calling a phone ‘Alpha Centauri’ or ‘Uranus.’”

Meehan has nothing but praise for Apple — and says the rest of the Android industry has a habit of ignoring and then reacting to its innovations. “Every time CES and MWC come around, they’re all sitting there slapping each other on the back,” he says. “Then out comes the iPad, and people are like, ‘Oh sh*t, we got to redo our product roadmap.’ Half the stuff disappears off the roadmap like that.” The iPad 2 and iPhone 5 will have the same effect, he predicts.

So is anyone else in the Android world getting it right? Meehan likes HTC, which unveiled its own range of Facebook phones this week — though he thinks merely adding a Facebook button to a keyboard is insufficient.

“Android is fantastic, it’s a brilliant tool,” he says. “But most people here think it’s about mucking about inside the Android code, but it’s nothing to do with that. You’ve got to do better experiences with the tools you get. What can you do better for the customer? Give me something useful.”

More About: facebook, Google Android, Mobile World Congress

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