Mashable: Latest 7 News Updates - including “The Futuristic Fashion of Diana Eng [PICS]” |
- The Futuristic Fashion of Diana Eng [PICS]
- Arguing the Case Against the Libya Attack, Xtranormal Style [VIDEO]
- How Much Is Rebecca Black Making Off of Friday?
- HOW TO: Land a Job at Amazon
- 51 New Digital Media Resources You May Have Missed
- Barnes & Noble’s Nook Color Adds Flash, Email, App Store [VIDEO]
- Sony’s Virtual Cherry Blossoms Raise Relief Funds
- Top 10 Twitter Trends This Week [CHART]
| The Futuristic Fashion of Diana Eng [PICS] Posted: 26 Mar 2011 04:49 PM PDT      Diana Eng, the former Project Runway contestant whose futuristic, technology-infused fashions we profiled at CES in January, is now building out her own line of innovative, wearable accessories. Eng began integrating electronics and other kinds of wearable technology with apparel after taking an “electronics for artists” course as an undergraduate at the Rhode Island School of Design. There, she gained not only technical skills, but also inspiration through exposure to designers like Issey Miyake and Martin Margiela, who taught Eng to think “innovatively and really outside of the box,” she says. Since then, Eng has done much of her design and technology research online. We recently visited her workspace at NYC Resistor, a hacker collective in Brooklyn, where she showed us some of her latest work and the tools she used to create it. Among the highlights were two pieces in her line of “Smart Scarves.” One, a $60 “Jack Frost” scarf, is made of a soft pale blue cotton upon which snowflakes appear beneath temperatures of 65 degrees Fahrenheit; the lower the temperature, the larger the snowflakes appear.   The other is a deep violet, web-like scarf more suitable for spring. The scarf’s stitches follow the Fibonacci number pattern, a famous sequence of numbers in which each number equals the sum of the two preceding numbers (0,1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34…). It’s a pattern found frequently in nature, such as the distribution of seeds in a sunflower, and the spiral shape of a Nautilus shell. The scarf, which is made using a 3D knitting machine, is available for $275. By far our favorite creation is a softly draped, battery-powered “twinkle dress” embroidered at the neckline with a microphone and small lights that flash in response to noise. Sadly, it’s not for sale, due to safety concerns and the difficulty of producing it on a mass scale. It is the perfect party dress; the more animated and talkative its wearer, the more attention she draws to herself with light. To see the dress in action, see the third look in the video below: Eng created the twinkle dress for a project called Fairytale Fashion, an educational web series that details many of the techniques used in Eng’s technology-infused clothing. She was also a featured guest on PBS show SciGirls, teaching young girls how to use microcontrollers, accelerometers, conductive thread and other tools to create inflatable skirts and light-up dresses. In our interview, Eng joked that the best way to bridge the gender gap in the tech industry was to teach girls how to make things sparkle. “They’re going about it the wrong way,” she said, laughing. All of Eng’s work is handmade, and thus produced in small quantities of ten to one hundred that quickly sell out, Eng says, before she even has time to begin promoting them. Eng is looking into getting some of her accessories manufactured by third parties to satisfy existing demand. Eng’s work has been featured on the cover of i-D magazine and in other major publications. Her DIY electronic fashions book, Fashion Geek: Clothes Accessories Tech is also available for purchase on her website. Check out the gallery below for a closer look at her work and the NYC Resistor studio. If you’re interested in exploring further kinds of wearable tech, see our recent roundup here. Photo Gallery Eng shows us the Twinkle dress.  The Twinkle dress lights up in response to noise.   The Twinkle Dress is embroidered with a microphone, small lights and conductive thread. Two round batteries make a decorative motif on the front of the dress. A microcontroller chip and resistor banks lay flat on the inner side of the fabric.    The "Jack Frost" scarf is a solid blue color in warmer temperatures.  At cooler temperatures, snowflakes begin to appear.  As temperatures drop further, the snowflakes grow larger.  A scarf knit in the Fibonacci sequence.   Eng at the resident computer at NYC Resistor.  Eng shows us how to use the laser cutter.  Eng uses the laser cutter to make a business card.  The finished product (which smells slightly and pleasantly burnt). More About: design, diana eng, fashion, project runway, tech, technology For more Tech & Gadgets coverage:
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| Arguing the Case Against the Libya Attack, Xtranormal Style [VIDEO] Posted: 26 Mar 2011 02:10 PM PDT Perhaps the most cogent argument yet against the U.S.’s recent airstrikes on Libya comes from a cartoon character. This Xtranormal video, with a decidedly right-leaning point of view, compares President Obama’s decision to bomb Libya with President Bush’s invasion of Iraq in 2003. With close to 100,000 views since it was loaded four days ago, the argument seems to have struck a chord. Of course, it’s a fairly lopsided debate. The Bush defender here is presented as rational and well-informed while his liberal coworker is pretty dim, brushing aside his objections by noting, “I don’t care. Obama is cool and awesome. His bracket picks were outstanding too,” and declaring that she gets all her news from Saturday Night Live, Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert. The cartoon animation and the robotic delivery typical of Xtranormal has a distancing effect, but it also prevents the discussion from becoming too strident. Perhaps this is the way the country will argue amongst itself going forward. Good thing we now have an easy way to do so. More About: libya, viral videos, Xtranormal, youtube For more Video coverage:
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| How Much Is Rebecca Black Making Off of Friday? Posted: 26 Mar 2011 01:07 PM PDT   None other than Lady Gaga recently pronounced Rebecca Black a “genius,” but is Black now a millionaire too? That’s been the subject of some speculation over the past few days as the video for Black’s so-bad-it’s-good anthem Friday has racked up 53 million views and counting. What kind of cash can Black expect out of that? According to Forbes columnist Chris Barth, YouTube makes about $1 per thousand page views, of which content creators like Black (and Ark Music Factory, the Los Angeles-based producer that wrote the tune) get 68% of the profit. If that’s the case, then the total take for Black and her producer is about $36,000. Going by a similar ballpark measure, Black’s iTunes sales of 37,000 in the first week nets out to about $26,000 if 101 Distribution‘s claim that Apple pays $.70 per download is true. Adding those two figures together, Black and Ark Music Factory have netted about $62,000. That’s not including whatever revenues Ark gets for selling a Friday ringtone at $1.29. Barth, who mistakenly wrote that Black’s song had been downloaded on iTunes 2 million times, had initially proclaimed her a millionaire based on that calculation, but it looks more likely, as Annie Lowrey writes in Slate, that Black is actually a “thousandaire.” Whatever the ultimate take, the point is somewhat moot anyway since the affable Black announced on The Tonight Show this week that she planned to donate the money she made from the video to Japan and to her school. Meanwhile, Ark is using its suddenly well-visited website to promote its next teen would-be star, Alana Lee. More About: Rebecca Black, youtube For more Business & Marketing coverage:
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| Posted: 26 Mar 2011 10:54 AM PDT   Amazon‘s business model hit the ground running in the 1990s by revolutionizing retail and e-commerce. In recent years, the company has built on its success, transforming our reading habits and how we store data by selling e-readers and cloud computing services. Now Amazon is bolstering its workforce to accommodate its growing line of products and services, which have doubled the company’s annual profit in the past three years. Its online jobs board lists 1,900 available positions at its Seattle headquarters alone. That’s twice as many openings the company had last year, reports The Seattle Times. So how can you get in on the Amazon action that’s already 33,700 employees strong? Here are some tips and resources from the company’s recruiters for landing a job at Amazon. Who Is Amazon Looking For? Nearly half of the open positions at Amazon’s headquarters are tech jobs, but the company is also hiring recruiters, buyers and product managers at all levels of expertise. Amazon has offices, fulfillment centers, customer service centers and software development centers throughout North America, Latin America, Europe and Asia. There are currently openings in all geographies, says Susan Harker, director of Global Talent Acquisition at Amazon. What’s the Application & Interview Process Like? The Amazon Careers website lists all open positions by category and location. You can also enter keywords if the drop-down menus don’t quite have what you’re looking for. After you upload your resume to a specific job posting on the site, it's up for review. Amazon’s recruiters actively review applicants whose resumes come in through the careers site, and they reach out to those who may be a good fit, says Harker. However, many of them are very active on LinkedIn, and Harker encourages applicants to reach out there. For most positions, the interview process begins with a phone interview. So, how do you get through that? “Well-prepared candidates know our business and technologies, and they’re able to talk in detail about anything that is included on the resume,” Harker says. If it goes well on both sides, candidates are brought on-site for an in-person interview with a hiring manager and a few team members. Matt Goyer, a former software design engineer candidate, says in a blog post that his interview at Amazon HQ took six-and-a-half hours. Interviewers asked questions about his previous experience, technical skills and understanding of current industry trends. Goyer says he prepared by diligently studying books with sample interview questions and problems. Still, interview experiences vary. The best you can do is “let your passion and enthusiasm show through,” Goyer says. “Don’t let your nerves get the best of you.” How Is the Company Culture?Amazon’s motto is: “Start with the customer and work backwards.” Employees are expected to focus on the customer in all projects and innovations. Showing signs of leadership and taking initiative is also important. “Every Amazonian is guided by our leadership principles, which include thinking long-term, innovating and thinking big on behalf of our customers,” says Harker. “We believe that every employee is a leader, whether you’re an individual contributor or a manager of a large team.” If this sounds like you, it might be worth trying your luck at one of those thousands of current openings. If you do, remember to be prepared, confident and enthusiastic. Show you’re an innovative leader worth paying attention to. Have you scored a job at Amazon or are you trying to? What has your experience been like? Tell us in the comments below. Social Media Job ListingsEvery week we put out a list of social media and web job opportunities. While we post a huge range of job listings, we’ve selected some of the top social media job opportunities from the past two weeks to get you started. Happy hunting!
More Job Search Resources from Mashable:
Photo courtesy Flickr, Torley. More About: amazon, careers, hiring, interviewing, job recruiting, job search, job search series, jobs For more Tech & Gadgets coverage:
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| 51 New Digital Media Resources You May Have Missed Posted: 26 Mar 2011 09:38 AM PDT   Spring is definitely in the air despite the frigid weather here on the East coast. If you’ve been out enjoying the sun, we seriously can’t blame you. Mashable is here, however, to help you get up to speed on any social media resources or tools you might have missed. Below you can find stories on how to hack the summer startup accelerator programs, tips for better business blogging, why the current tech scene is different from the 90s bubble, and what Rebecca Black may not be great for our culture. The situation in Japan is also slowly improving but much help is still needed. Check below for some new ways you can help the relief effort online. Looking for even more social media resources? This guide appears every weekend, and you can check out all the lists-gone-by here any time. Editors’ Picks
Social Media
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For more business news and resources, you can follow Mashable’s business channel on Twitter and become a fan on Facebook. Image courtesy of Webtreats Etc. More About: business, facebook, Features Week In Review, gadgets, List, Lists, Mobile 2.0, social good, social media, tech, technology, twitter For more Social Media coverage:
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| Barnes & Noble’s Nook Color Adds Flash, Email, App Store [VIDEO] Posted: 26 Mar 2011 09:00 AM PDT Barnes & Noble will open up a new chapter in the development of its Nook Color next month with a firmware update that includes Adobe Flash playback support and email plus an App Store, features displayed exclusively on a Home Shopping Network segment this morning. The segment, recorded by a fan and posted on YouTube, outlines those additions. (See grab below.) In a press release, Barnes & Noble acknowledged adding email, but didn’t mention Flash.   Though the Nook was introduced as a pure play e-reader, the new functionality puts it more in the direction of a tablet, a market dominated by Apple’s iPad and iPad 2, which don’t support Flash. Other Android-based tablets are beginning to support the platform though, including Samsung’s redesigned 10.1-inch Galaxy Tab, which is due in June, and Motorola’s Xoom, which will get full Flash support “in a matter of weeks,” according to a recent report. On HSN, the updated Nook was listed at $299 with $11.95 for shipping and handling. On the segment, the device boasts a $504 retail value and a normally listed price of $379.95 on HSN. HSN plans to offer other sneak peeks at 5 PM and 9 PM today. The upgrade comes after Barnes & Noble offered a “minor” tweak in January that added better Wi-Fi connectivity, improved performance and the ability to pinch and zoom the text. More About: barnes & noble, Flash, Home Shopping Network, nookcolor, Samsung Galaxy Tab For more Tech & Gadgets coverage:
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| Sony’s Virtual Cherry Blossoms Raise Relief Funds Posted: 26 Mar 2011 07:54 AM PDT   Combining game-playing and philanthropy, Sony Online Entertainment has created in-game virtual items that players can buy to support those affected by Japan’s recent earthquake and tsunami. Players for some SOE games can buy a cherry blossom through an in-game marketplace designed to raise awareness for the tragedy. SOE will donate $10 for each cherry blossom purchased between March 25 and March 28 to the American Red Cross to help the relief effort. In addition to the cherry bossoms, alternative items will be available in Magic: The Gathering-Tactics, Star Wars Galaxies and PoxNora. More information about the program can be found here. SOE’s is the latest relief effort by Sony Corp., which has donated $3.6 million to relief efforts in its native country so far. Meanwhile, the idea of melding social media and charity has proved to be effective in raising funds after various tragedies in recent years. Last year’s earthquake in Haiti, for instance, prompted the Red Cross to experiment with a text-to-donate initiative, something the organization has repeated this year for Japan. Meanwhile, PayPal, Jiwire, Tumblr and others have offered other alternative ways to give to Japan victims this year. Zynga, maker of FarmVille and other Facebook-based games, has also offered ways for consumers to donate to the crisis by purchasing virtual goods in its games. SOE’s use of the cherry blossom as a symbol for the tragedy, meanwhile, comes as the New Yorker introduced a poignant cover this week featuring nuclear symbols standing in for the blossoms. More About: american red cross, haiti, japan earthquake, Sony Online Entertainment, virtual goods For more Social Good coverage:
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| Top 10 Twitter Trends This Week [CHART] Posted: 26 Mar 2011 07:02 AM PDT   Web culture can be fleeting, but when the Internet grabs hold of something it really, really loves to make fun of, a mere mortal meme can transcend the petty bounds of its digital adolescence and live forever in the soul of our civilization — the uber-meme, as Nietzsche (would have so obviously) described it. That spiritual transformation is upon us, my friends, and its name is Rebecca Black. Since surfacing on the social web in mid-March, there’s not a single tube on the Internet you can crawl through without hearing her … what’s the word … voice. Twitter — the womb from which Black’s ironic fame was born — is no exception. Her name has been trending over the course of three weeks, and while she played second fiddle on last week’s chart, she’s finally claimed the throne once occupied by the likes of Super Junior, and yes, even The Great Bieber himself. What’s the rest of the world been up to while we’ve been working on our Rebecca Black cover songs? Does it even matter? To view the past week through Twitter’s eyes, check out the chart below, compiled by our friends at What the Trend. Because this is a topical list, hashtag memes and games have been omitted from the chart. The aggregate is based on Twitter’s own trending algorithm, and does not necessarily reflect raw tweet volume. You can check past Twitter trends in our Top Twitter Topics section, and read more about this past week's trends on What The Trend. Top Twitter Trends This Week: 3/18 – 3/25
Image courtesy of iStockphoto, 123render  Interested in more Twitter resources? Check out Mashable Explore, a new way to discover information on your favorite Mashable topics.More About: List, Lists, social media, Top Twitter Topics, twitter, Twitter Lists For more Social Media coverage:
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