Mashable: Latest 29 News Updates - including “The New MacBook Air: Smaller, With Two USB Ports [RUMOR]” |  |
- The New MacBook Air: Smaller, With Two USB Ports [RUMOR]
- Pixies Celebrate Anniversary by Giving Away Live EP
- Barnes & Noble Holding Special Event for New NOOK?
- Facebook Stops Constantly Showing You Pictures of Your Ex
- Elvis Costello Turns to Social Media to Promote Upcoming Album
- Facebook Forms “Network of Support” to Combat Anti-LGBT Cyberbullying
- Mozilla Jumps into the App Store Game, But Can It Compete with Google?
- First Look: Starbucks Digital Network Is Here
- Drag-and-Drop Your Images into Google Docs
- Social Good Is as Easy as Texting
- 3 Things Any Video Needs to Go Viral
- Xbox.com Gets More Social and Windows Phone 7 Features
- Yahoo: “We’ve Made Substantial Progress”
- Should Your Company Have a Chief Marketing Technologist?
- Symbian Imploding As Foundation Head Resigns
- Is the iPad Really the Savior of the Newspaper Industry?
- Conan’s First Guest to be Determined by Twitter Vote (Maybe)
- Meet the iPhone-Controlled Massage Chair
- 5 Vintage Apple Products That Time Forgot [PICS]
- Loopt Adds Facebook Places Integration
- 5 Mobile User Experiences That Wowed Us in 2010 [Mashable Awards]
- HP Unveils webOS 2.0
- Today’s Top Gaming Releases: “Fallout: New Vegas,” “DJ Hero 2,” “Vanquish”
- Microsoft Unveils Office 365: Productivity Heads to the Cloud
- Mobile Ad Spending to Top $1 Billion in 2011 [REPORT]
- 5 Fun Social Media Halloween Costume Ideas [CONTEST]
- 3 Ways Small Businesses are Investing in Social Good
- Palm Pre 2 Officially Revealed [PICS]
- Internet to Surpass 2 Billion Users This Year
- This Morning’s Top Stories in Tech and Social Media
| The New MacBook Air: Smaller, With Two USB Ports [RUMOR] Posted: 20 Oct 2010 03:22 AM PDT      At today’s event, dubbed Back to the Mac, Apple is likely to announce a new version of its operating system Mac OS X, but rumor has it that we’ll also see a refreshed MacBook Air, Apple’s lightest portable computer. That rumor just became a bit more specific, with quite detailed specifications leaking from a source that supposedly had the new Air in his hands. There’s no word on the graphics or storage in the new Air, but it should have a significantly smaller 11.6-inch display, a 2.13/2.33 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 2 gigabytes of memory, two USB ports, a Mini DisplayPort, an SD card reader, and no optical drive. Sounds like a convincing set of specifications, although we’re not sure what to make of the smaller form factor. In case the rumor is true, how do you like the new specifications? Please share your opinion in the comments! [via Engadget] More About: apple, mac, macbook air, usb For more Tech coverage:
            |
| Pixies Celebrate Anniversary by Giving Away Live EP Posted: 20 Oct 2010 12:56 AM PDT   To celebrate the 20th anniversary of their legendary album Doolittle, the Pixies are giving away a four-track live EP, now available for download. The EP contains the tracks Dancing The Manta Ray, Gouge Away, Monkey Gone To Heaven and Crackity Jones, which were performed live during the Pixies’ recent tour. On the tour, the Pixies have performed the Doolittle album in its entirety, selling live CDs from every show, in the form of limited edition, double-disc CD sets for the price of $25. If you’re not sure you want to buy one of these, you can always check out the free EP before you make up your mind. Anyone who provides their e-mail address and agrees to subscribe to the Pixies’ mailing list can download the EP freely from the Pixies’ official site, www.pixiesmusic.com. More About: download, entertainment, free music, music, The Pixies For more Entertainment coverage:
      |
| Barnes & Noble Holding Special Event for New NOOK? Posted: 19 Oct 2010 11:06 PM PDT   It’s been almost exactly one year since Barnes & Noble announced its Amazon Kindle competitor, the NOOK E-Reader. So when invites went out for a Barnes & Noble event to be held on October 26, it was difficult to think that it could be regarding anything other than NOOK. To add a bit of fuel to the fire, Barnes & Noble announced on Monday that NOOK would soon be updatede to firmware version 1.5. The firmware will work on existing NOOKs, but it’s possible that it also clears a path for new devices. Barnes & Noble’s has also expanded its NOOK library into the app ecosystems of mobile platforms like Android. Combine NOOK library pervasiveness with peoples’ nostalgia for visiting bookstores, and Nook seems like a solid idea on paper. Tie the future of e-reading to those bastions of paperbacked literature, and you’re tugging at some deep-rooted sympathy strings. Nevertheless, the NOOK hasn’t experienced the smoothest possible sailing over the year, but it did manage to ride some decent waves. According to Barnes & Noble’s first quarter report, the NOOK was, at least in part, responsible for helping B&N increase revenues by 21% in 2010. Even if the product emerging from next week’s announcement doesn’t yield another 21% spike in revenue for 2011, it could still be considered a solid win. So whatever it is that Barnes & Noble launches next week, Mashable is excited to see it. Reviews: Android, Mashable More About: amazon, android, barnes & noble, ereader, Kindle, mobile platforms, nook For more Tech coverage:
      |
| Facebook Stops Constantly Showing You Pictures of Your Ex Posted: 19 Oct 2010 10:36 PM PDT   Facebook is doing its very best not to make you terribly sad. You see, it used to constantly show you photos of your ex, which might have reminded you just how great things were before he or she dumped you, but it has stopped that now. Exes no longer show up in the “Photo Memories” box. Photo Memories appear in the top right corner of some Facebook pages, including the Friends and Photos sections. They show your friends tagged in photos long-forgotten, but the friends shown are picked using Facebook’s algorithm for figuring out whose updates you’re most interested in. The exact nature of the algorithm is unclear, but check it out and you’ll notice one pattern: It tends to show romantic interests a lot. Is it because you’ve clicked through their photos before? Because you exchange wall messages? Who knows, but it happens — and that’s all well and good until you break up. Once it’s over, though, it can be painful to see all those pictures. Users created a group to protest Photo Memories for that very reason. It caught the attention of not only the media, but of Facebook Photos Project Manager Sam Odio. Yesterday he commented on a post about the issue over at All Facebook, saying, “I'd like to let you know that we're listening to your feedback. The photo memories product no longer shows tagged photos of your friends if you were previously in a relationship with them.” It’s a welcome change, but it doesn’t completely solve the problem. What if you never declared a relationship on Facebook? Or what if it’s showing you your current squeeze (and it will — only about 1 in 10 photos the box shows me now are of anyone other than my girlfriend) with one of his or her exes? That’s no fun either. We’d love to see a way to tweak exactly who can or can’t be seen in this box, but we’ll admit most people wouldn’t use it. Most people just don’t manage their Facebook data that carefully. Reviews: Facebook More About: boyfriend, dating, ex, facebook, girlfriend, photo memories, Photos, relationships, sex, social media, social networking, Tagging, tags For more Social Media coverage:
      |
| Elvis Costello Turns to Social Media to Promote Upcoming Album Posted: 19 Oct 2010 09:26 PM PDT   British singer-songwriter Elvis Costello — who got his start in the days of early punk and new wave — is releasing a new album that he’ll be promoting through a variety of digital methods, including live concert streaming and a social networking-driven scavenger hunt. Costello’s latest project, National Ransom, will come out on November 2 in the U.S., but publicity surrounding the album will kick off in high gear on October 25 — the same day as its UK release. That’s when the album will be available for a full-week stream on ColbertNation.com. While Costello will be making the usual rounds on the late night talk circuit by appearing on shows like The Colbert Report and Late Night With Jimmy Fallon, he will also be teaming up with public radio and online livestreaming outlets. On November 1, Costello will perform with his six-piece band, the Sugarcanes, in The Greene Space at New York City’s WNYC. The concert will stream live at 8 p.m. ET on WNYC.org/TheGreeneSpace, with some help from Ustream, which did its first multiview concert stream with the Zac Brown Band last month. A four-song excerpt from Costello’s concert will air two days after the stream on WNYC’s The Leonard Lopate Show. The singer-songwriter and his band will also tape an in-studio performance for AOL Sessions. The day the album drops will mark the day for a full-set show Costello will tape for PBS’s Live from the Artists Den, which should air in early 2011. Costello will be releasing several pairs of tickets for this particular show via a New York City-based Foursquare scavenger hunt. Further information about this game has yet to be revealed. Costello’s social networking activity isn’t just limited to the upcoming scavenger hunt — he already has a Twitter account and Facebook page in place. A spokesperson told Mashable that Costello’s website features numerous easter eggs, and fans have been given clues to find them via Facebook and Twitter. Being that Costello is a longtime performer who hasn’t been shy to touch upon other musical genres like classical or jazz, it seems to make sense that he’d be willing to use social networking and other digital technology to promote his newest endeavors. Image courtesy of Flickr, Ryan O. Reviews: Facebook, Flickr, Foursquare, Mashable, Twitter, ustream More About: Elvis Costello, foursquare, streaming music, streaming video, ustream For more Entertainment coverage:
      |
| Facebook Forms “Network of Support” to Combat Anti-LGBT Cyberbullying Posted: 19 Oct 2010 08:41 PM PDT   In order to combat anti-LGBT bullying, Facebook has announced that it is teaming up with MTV, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLADD) and others to form a “Network of Support” for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender teens. The initiative is a follow-up to last week’s partnership between Facebook and GLADD, but goes several steps farther by providing LGBT teens and their parents with information, resources and support to combat cyberbullying. The goal is for this “Network of Support” to help address issues the LGBT community faces in the online world. “In light of recent tragedies involving youth who have taken their own lives as a result of anti-LGBT bullying, we felt it necessary to form a ‘Network of Support’ to help us effectively address issues faced by the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community,” Facebook said in a post on its Safety Page. The initial list of partners for Facebook’s “Network of Support” include GLADD; MTV’s A Thin Line campaign; the Human Rights Campaign (HRC); the Trevor Project; the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN); and Parents, Families & Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG). To start things off, Facebook provided six tips on how LGBT teens can protect themselves online, including how to block bullies and report harassment. The company also suggests that LGBT teens stick up for others, think twice before posting, reach out whenever they feel overwhelmed, and remember that they are not alone in their struggle. Facebook said that it decided to create this network due to recent tragic events. The story of Rutgers University student Tyler Clementi, who committed suicide after being harassed for his sexual preference, is a story that should remind us all that LGBT students face immense and sometimes overwhelming challenges. We’re glad to see preventing this type of tragedy from happening again is high on Facebook’s list of priorities. Reviews: Facebook More About: cyberbullying, facebook, GLADD, GLSEN, HRC, LGBT, pflag For more Social Media coverage:
      |
| Mozilla Jumps into the App Store Game, But Can It Compete with Google? Posted: 19 Oct 2010 07:23 PM PDT   With the launch of Google’s Chrome Web Store looming, the creators of Firefox have unveiled what it calls a “prototype of an Open Web App Ecosystem.” Can Mozilla get developers and other tech companies on board with its proposed system, though? Mozilla calls the proposed ecosystem “Open Web Apps” and has laid out bothtechnical documentation and key design principles for apps to qualify as Open Web Apps. They key to it all is that Mozilla doesn’t want web apps to be restricted based on app store, browser, or platform. Apps under this system can be offered directly from the developer or through any number of online app stores. Not only that, but they should be accessible across all compatible mobile and desktop devices and operating systems. Mozilla prefers that browsers support the launching and management of web apps, but until modern browsers launch support for this type of app management, Mozilla has created an HTML5-based app dashboard for managing web apps. It has also created a prototype web app store, AppMonkey. Here are some of the features that web apps need to have in order to be considered Open Web Apps:
Will Google Play Along?Let there be no doubt: today’s announcement is all about the impending release of Google’s Chrome Web Store. Announced in May and launched as a developer preview in August, Google’s web-based app store is designed to do the same thing that Apple has done with the iPhone App Store and Google has accomplished with the Android Marketplace. Relations between the two companies have been strained ever since the launch of Google Chrome. With Google gaining influence in the browser market, Mozilla can’t afford to allow the search giant to also control the web app ecosystem. There really isn’t a viable alternative out there that could compete with Google, so Mozilla has decided to launch one and to make it completely open. Google wasn’t announced as a partner of the project, and frankly there’s no incentive for Google to endorse Mozilla’s Open Web App proposal, at least for now. Expect Google to push forward with its plans for the Chrome Web Store, and expect it to tout its openness. Don’t expect Google to be joining Mozilla anytime soon in this proposal, though. Reviews: Android, App Store, Apps, Google, Google Chrome More About: app store, apple, Firefox, Google, mozilla For more Dev & Design coverage:
      |
| First Look: Starbucks Digital Network Is Here Posted: 19 Oct 2010 04:56 PM PDT   Beginning Wednesday, Starbucks customers who use the free Wi-Fi at more than 6,800 U.S. company-operated stores will be greeted with the Starbucks Digital Network (SDN) — an exclusive content network curated by the company and designed to enhance the customer’s in-store experience. Starbucks has been teasing SDN for months, but now that the network is about to go live we have a much clearer idea about the type of content provided and the purpose behind the digital endeavor. Starbucks’s Vice President of Digital Ventures Adam Brotman sat down with Mashable in advance of the October 20 launch day for a complete tour. “The vision,” he says, “is for Starbucks Digital Network to be a digital version of the community cork board that’s in all of our stores.” SDN Content, Channels and Partners We’ve known for some time that SDN would offer unfettered access to The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and USA Today, but that’s just scratching the surface. Starbucks has manufactured a rich experience around each of its six channels: News, Entertainment, Wellness, Business and Careers, My Neighborhood and the customer-personalized Starbucks channel. Here’s a comprehensive breakdown of each channel:
We may be kicking a gift horse in the mouth, but one thing that struck us about SDN is that there’s almost too much content to go around. In some aspects the experience seems saturated and overwhelming, so customer’s may not know where to start and partners providing premium content may find some of it gets overlooked. We broached the subject with Brotman who explained that Starbucks will be tracking user activity via web analytics to get a sense of what users respond to. The network is designed to feel fresh each time you come back and the three promo tiles on the home page rotate to engineer more than 40 unique experiences. It’s a priority for Starbucks to ensure that customers have easy access to content, and “that all the content partners are feeling like they have an equal shot,” Brotman says. A Premium Mobile Experience SDN certainly packs in a variety of content that makes for interesting material to explore on a laptop, but the network was also designed with the mobile user in mind. Users accessing the network via mobile devices and tablets will benefit from the HTML5 smartphone-optimized network. SDN for mobile is also touchscreen-friendly, offering a hands-on, swipe-able experience. More than 50% of users logging on to the free Wi-Fi are doing so from mobile devices, so the company was motivated by usage behaviors to build a mobile web experience just as good, if not better than, the standard web experience. Content was also designed to be “snackable,” so the mobile user can get value even while waiting in line, says Brotman. Where Yahoo Fits In While SDN is cloaked in the Starbucks brand name, Yahoo actually plays a pivotal role in the behind-the-scenes network experience. Yahoo is the coffee retailer’s technology partner on the initiative, so it not only developed the site at Starbucks’s behest, but it’s hosting the network, powering the search experience and providing content as well. Yahoo will also serve as a promotional partner for SDN, and market SDN on its site in the form of banner ads. The two partners hooked up after Starbucks approached Yahoo about the initiative. “They’re so strong in the three areas we knew we needed help with — technology, content and search,” says Brotman, “so we came to them … and they were eager.” “They seemed excited by the local and unique nature of the Starbucks Digital Network,” explains Brotman on why Yahoo was eager to work with the trendy coffee retailer. The Bottom Line is Choice One would assume, correctly so, that Starbucks has not gone to trouble of providing free Wi-Fi and a premium digital network without thinking about how it could profit by these pricey additions. If we didn’t know better, we’d presume that Starbucks was charging its partners for placement. Instead, as we’ve disclosed before, there’s no money changing hands — unless SDN users make purchases from partners, in which case there is a revenue share. What it comes down is a matter of choice. Coffee and tea drinkers have a myriad of options, so for Starbucks it’s about motivating the customer to choose its stores, and its digital network content partners by association. SDN is designed with two key objectives in mind, says Brotman: enhancing the customer’s experience and better engaging customers while they’re in the store. “Tens of millions of customers are coming in to our stores and logging in to our WiFI on a monthly basis anyways. They’re coming in because we provide this great experience — good music overhead, quality food and coffee and the opportunity to connect with your friends or the baristas … What we hope is that this is a nice complement to that experience.” The engagement piece is centered around what Starbucks can do with location, and perhaps reveals a bit more about Yahoo’s motivation to participate. “We’re really excited about the fact that we can leverage the location-based nature of the site to connect our customers with the communities around the stores,” he says. Reviews: Facebook, Foursquare, LinkedIn, Mashable, Twitter, news More About: MARKETING, starbucks, starbucks digital network, trending, Yahoo For more Business coverage:
      |
| Drag-and-Drop Your Images into Google Docs Posted: 19 Oct 2010 03:43 PM PDT   Google has just added the ability to drag-and-drop images from the desktop into a Google Docs document. The new feature works with the latest versions of Google Chrome, Firefox and Safari, and Google says it plans to add support for other browsers soon. The feature works exactly as you would expect. Rather than importing an image using the web uploader, entering in a URL or doing a Google Image Search, you just drag the item from your desktop into your Google Docs document. The process works pretty well and we had no problem taking images from our Mac desktop and putting them in a Google Doc using both Safari 5.0.2 and the latest release of Google Chrome.  In fact, if we had any complaint at all, it wasn’t with the feature itself, but with the fact that images still cannot be inserted with a float alignment, so that text fills the column to the left or right of an image, rather than starting a new line where the image ends. Again, this isn’t a criticism of the drag-and-drop feature, but a feature that’s lacking in Google Docs itself. Thanks to HTML5, it’s getting easier and easier for developers to add features to web apps to make them behave more like desktop applications. We hope other online office suite take Google’s hint. [via Google Docs blog] Reviews: Firefox, Google, Google Chrome, Google Docs, Safari, zoho More About: Google, google docs, HTML5, online office suites, web apps For more Tech coverage:
      |
| Social Good Is as Easy as Texting Posted: 19 Oct 2010 03:10 PM PDT   Text messages are the new black when it comes to raising money for social good. A new text-to-donate service, courtesy of mobile payment provider Obopay Inc. and software company Benevity Social Ventures, Inc., has entered the fray to enable non-profits of any size to access mobile donations. The as-yet unnamed service allows users to donate to a charity by texting a keyword to a shortcode number assigned to the charity by Obopay. Users are then directed to a mobile payment site where they can donate and receive electronic tax receipts. While text donations have previously been the territory of large corporations like the Red Cross, the new service is available to any registered charity in the U.S. It boasts two unique advantages: users can donate as much as they like (previous services were limited to values under $100) and the money is transferred much faster (previous services usually required 90 days to process donations). Text-to-donate was a critical part of the response to the 2010 Haiti earthquake with the Red Cross and Yele Haiti leading the charge. More than $30 million was donated via text message (14% of all efforts) in just the first 10 days following the quake. Text message donations jumped more than 200% right after the quake than the same period in 2009, according to a study by Blackbaud. Obopay and Benevity have clearly set their sights on using the service to benefit cause marketing. Donations can be made to individual charities or to “cause portfolios.” The service will also be able to support corporate matching of donations by companies and their partners. Essentially, this means any U.S. non-profit can build a portfolio of causes all tied together by a keyword and shortcode. Benevity typically charges a 7% transaction fee for all charities, meaning that for every dollar you donate, your charity will receive about $0.93. Do you think text-to-donate strategies are the future of charitable giving or is it a fad that’s losing steam? Do you trust companies that ask for mobile donations? Let us know in the comments, and check out the list of causes already signed to the service. You can text the following keywords to 48510 to donate: PAKISTAN to donate to the Mobilink Foundation in support of relief for victims of the recent flood in Pakistan. GORILLA to donate to the Conservation Through Public Health in support of efforts to save endangered mountain gorillas in Africa. KIDS to donate to the Obopay Bay Area Kids Fund to support California Bay Area children's charities including:
HEALTH to donate to the Obopay Health Fund in support of health and health research efforts including:
Image courtesy of iStockphoto, bedo Reviews: iStockphoto More About: benevity, haiti, haiti earthquake, Mobile 2.0, obopay, online giving, social good, text-to-donate, texting For more Social Good coverage:
      |
| 3 Things Any Video Needs to Go Viral Posted: 19 Oct 2010 02:20 PM PDT   Dan Greenberg is co-founder and CEO of social video advertising company Sharethrough, where he as worked on more than 200 campaigns for top brands such as SONY, Xbox, Victoria's Secret and LEGO. Marketers are investing millions of dollars in creating branded video content, from webisodes to viral videos to extended commercials. Why? To engage audiences with authentic, inspiring, entertaining content, and to encourage those viewers to share that content with their friends. Branded video content works. Recent research conducted by Vizu revealed that viral video can be highly effective in driving purchase intent. For example, one campaign Vizu tested delivered a 110% lift in consumers' purchase intent, with video viewers two times more likely to purchase than people who hadn’t seen the video campaign. Of course, the hope of most marketers is not just that people will watch their video, but that they will also share it. At my company, we’ve found that people will often remain watching a video three times longer when it has been shared by a friend, as opposed to finding it themselves on a website. But while shared advertising is considered the Holy Grail, getting people to share is often an elusive goal. While some say viral video is an art, there are ways you can apply a little science to the process. Here are some attributes common to many successful viral videos and campaigns. They should inform your video strategy, from the types of content you create, to how you distribute the content, to how you optimize it along the way. 1. Psychological Share MotivationThere are three key reasons why users share video content, and tapping in to one of these three basic psychological drivers is essential to creating content that is likely to be shared. EmotionsSharing feelings is a basic human need. If your videos capture an emotion that resonates with its audience, users will share it, because they are not just sharing your content — they are sharing the feeling your video has created. A great example of a campaign that hit an emotional chord with viewers is the above Halo Reach: Deliver Hope, promoting the next installment of the hugely popular Halo franchise. This video paired gripping scenes from the new game with a moving soundtrack to touch both long-time fans as well as new viewers. Identity and Self ExpressionFrom the books we read and the movies we recommend, to the bands on our Facebook profiles, the content we share online increasingly defines our personality to our friends. In order to influence video sharing, it’s important to ask yourself: “When a user shares this video, what are they saying about themselves?” Your message needs to be clear and it needs to be something people will want to align themselves with, whether it’s a reflection of their humor, fashion sense, tech-savvy or popularity. If users don’t want their friends associating your video with their identity, they won’t share it. For example, in this video, 8th Continent Soymilk created a very funny scenario that many of us can relate to: Moms who are trying to do their best but sometimes make mistakes. This campaign generated a lot of feedback on Twitter and Facebook along the lines of “this is totally me!” or “this happened with my mom!” InformationPeople are hard-wired to teach and learn. Online video is one of the most creative and effective ways to share information. Make a video that includes genuinely new and interesting information, and it will be shared, guaranteed. A great example of this is the Stand Up 2 Cancer: Change the Odds PSA campaign, which presents information about cancer odds and prevention in a lighthearted, engaging way. 2. Easy ShareabilityThere are a ton of great, curated video sites popping up on the web that provide ideal audiences for brand content. We are all familiar with YouTube, but the incredible amount of content on the site makes it very easy for your videos and even sponsored buys to be ignored. Make sure you are not overlooking the rising tide of social video sites, such as Vodpod, Devour and PopScreen. But that’s just the first step in distribution. If you are buying video placements in ad products that are not easily shared, you’ve vastly reduced your chances to generate any viral activity. All video players that house your ad need to have built-in social features that facilitate easy sharing of the content, and ideally, also feature a user’s social connections next to the video content. For example, the above campaign promoting the Martha Stewart Show on the Hallmark Channel targeted a female audience across highly social web properties. 3. A Data-Driven StrategyIf your goal is to make your video go viral, you need to have some data behind your distribution strategy. Good questions to ask include: What sites generate the highest amount of sharing for the type of content you are making? Which users? What time of day do they share content most often? All of these factors need to be analyzed before you begin your distribution in order to give your video the best chance of going viral right off the bat. Once your campaign is underway, look at which sites are driving the most shares, what demographics are sharing the most and so on, and start to shift more resources toward what’s working. YouTube offers some great free data options, but taking your analytics further to measure key categories like average view time per video and the share rate will give you a much better picture of what is really going on. More Web Video Resources from Mashable:
Reviews: Facebook, Twitter, YouTube More About: art, brand, campaign, Science, video, video search sumit, viral video, viral videos, web video, youtube For more Web Video coverage:
      |
| Xbox.com Gets More Social and Windows Phone 7 Features Posted: 19 Oct 2010 01:52 PM PDT  Gamers will notice a radically revamped Xbox.com experience Wednesday morning. Microsoft is adding a new design and several social features, including an avatar creator, Windows Phone 7 integration and even playable web games. Though many of the core features will be the same, the social experience will improve with the addition of a unified inbox for messages, friend requests and game requests. You’ll be able to customize your avatar (with previews of new clothing purchases) at the website, and the Marketplace search engine will get new filters and browsing options. Microsoft is also adding new parental controls. The “Family Reports” system will help you “understand what your family is doing and how they are using Live,” according to a blog post by Xbox Live bigwig Major Nelson. The additional features for families are to be expected since the new controller-free gaming system Kinect will launch for Xbox 360 in just two weeks. Microsoft hopes that add-on will attract family members of hardcore gamers to the game console. However, the most surprising addition is that of playable web games. Microsoft will support cross-platform play between Xbox, Windows Phone 7 and web users — a first for the platform. The Xbox Live team hasn’t announced whether or not you’ll be able to earn Achievements or Gamer Score points when playing the web games, but we wouldn’t be surprised. Xbox.com Xbox.com Xbox.com Xbox.com Xbox.com Xbox.com Xbox.com Xbox.com Xbox.com Xbox.com Images courtesy of Flickr, Major Nelson Reviews: Flickr, Windows Phone 7 More About: gaming, microsoft, online games, online gaming, social gaming, social media, social networking, video games, windows phone 7, wp7, xbox, Xbox 360, XBox live, xbox.com For more Tech coverage:
      |
| Yahoo: “We’ve Made Substantial Progress” Posted: 19 Oct 2010 01:44 PM PDT   Yahoo is out with its latest earnings report, and though the results pale in comparison to those posted by Google last week, the company is doing its best to offer an upbeat outlook. Revenue for Yahoo was more or less flat for its third quarter, rising just 2% from the same period last year to $1.6 billion. Income was up substantially, however — 107% year-over-year to $189 million — thanks largely to what CEO Carol Bartz described in a statement as "margins that were double what they were last year." Bartz also noted some recent highlights in the company's longer-term strategy, including its ongoing integration of Microsoft Bing for algorithmic search, its partnership with Zynga and the acquisition of Associated Content. "We've made substantial progress this year toward executing our strategies for enhancing profitability and resuming revenue growth," said Bartz. The company is also doing its best to signal that its shares are undervalued, with Bartz adding that Yahoo has, "bought back more than 7% of the company’s stock this year alone." Of course, the company's value is of particular interest right now with rumors swirling that AOL and a host of private equity firms are looking into the possibility of putting together a deal to acquire Yahoo. We imagine Bartz and the Yahoo exec team will be questioned about that heavily during this afternoon's earnings conference call. We'll update here with anything pertinent. For more Business coverage:
      |
| Should Your Company Have a Chief Marketing Technologist? Posted: 19 Oct 2010 01:17 PM PDT   While presenting Tuesday at Pivot Conference, Scott Brinker, president and CTO of ion interactive, explained why he believes organizations should take the next step toward digital proficiency by fostering a new breed of executives — the chief marketing technologist. Brinker explains this type of executive as:
Traditionally, organizations silo functions into categories — communications, finance, creative, operations, and of course, marketing and technology, to name a few. Brinker’s case for the Chief Marketing Technologist has legs, especially as marketing and technology functions are becoming increasingly intertwined. Your company may have seasoned marketers and top-of-the-line technologists, but it takes those who are dually knowledgeable in both marketing and technology to really make the right moves in Internet marketing, as they are the ones who really understand the way the web works and what’s possible for marketing from a technological point of view. Below are three missions that Brinker believes a Chief Marketing Technologist would be uniquely poised to tackle. We caught up with Brinker after his presentation and he elaborated on each of these points. Read on to see what he had to say and add your thoughts in the comments below. 1. Translating Strategy into Technology The first mission for a chief marketing technologist should be to “collaborate with the CMO on translating strategies into technology with much higher fidelity, and vice-versa — also help in revealing new opportunities that technologies provide for new strategies,” Brinker said. In our follow-up, Brinker explained the importance of having a middle ground between marketing and technology, in particular due to the lack of cohesion between marketing and tech jargon. “One of the challenges we see between marketing and the people who provide technology to marketers, whether it’s the IT department or outside vendors,” he said, “is that marketers have a certain language and nomenclature that they use to communicate their vision. And vice-versa, technologists spend years learning their lingo and perspective on the world. “The idea of a marketing technologist is someone who’s natively versed in both languages and understands the concepts of what’s in technology and what’s in marketing, and they can serve as the translator,” he concluded. 2. Choreographing Technology Across Marketing “Choreograph the entire collection of marketing, technology and data that we see throughout the organization. Find ways to tap the synergy between all of these different components,” Brinker suggested. We asked Brinker what this might entail for a chief marketing technologist, including the type of data that he was referencing. He explained, “All of this technology that’s popping up all over marketing — web analytics, marketing automation, advertising behavioral segmentation — are all fairly sophisticated on their own. The problem is that behind the scenes, they don’t talk very well together. It’s not because the products can’t talk together — it’s because there isn’t really anyone connecting the dots.” The effect of not having someone like a marketing technologist to bridge the gap between various data banks is an overload of inefficiently used data. “I think what we’re seeing here is more and more data,” Brinker said, “that there’s no one really finding ways of taking data from the web analytics, for instance, and feeding that into our conversion optimization testing. How do we take the experiences someone has on a conversion optimization path and feed that into the marketing optimization system?” 3. Infusing Tech into the Company’s Marketing DNA “Perhaps most importantly, is to infuse technology into the DNA of marketing itself — our practices, our people, our culture,” Brinker said. He recommended “having people on your team, in your group that have physical proximity to you who really get the technology, because they’re as eager to hear from you about marketing objectives and strategies, [as they are] to talk about what they’re doing in technology.” Brinker explained that having technology-versed team members on a team helps facilitate “natural osmosis by raising the [level of] technical proficiency and familiarity” of an organization. He believes that a marketing technologist’s role is to seek out marketing candidates who have technical backgrounds. Employing tech-savvy people is a step toward infusing technology into a company’s culture and DNA. Does your company support a position similar to Brinker’s proposed chief marketing technologist? If so, let us know in the comments. See Brinker’s full presentation from the Pivot Conference below: More Business Resources from Mashable:
Reviews: Internet More About: Chief Marketing Technologist, digital marketing, MARKETING, online marketing, Pivot Conference, PivotCon, Scott Brinker, technology, web marketing For more Business coverage:
      |
| Symbian Imploding As Foundation Head Resigns Posted: 19 Oct 2010 01:06 PM PDT   It’s not just the OEM partners that are abandoning Symbian; its executive staff is jumping ship too. The Symbian Foundation announced that Executive Director Lee M. Williams is stepping down, effective immediately. Symbian Foundation CFO Tim Holbrow has been appointed by the Foundation’s Board of Directors to take his place. Although the Symbian Foundation is independent from Nokia, changes to the organization still affect the Finnish phone giant. Nokia proper has had several high-profile leadership changes over the past three months, including the recent departure of Ari Jaaksi, the head of Nokia’s MeeGo division. That came just one month after Stephen Elop became Nokia’s new CEO and Anssi Vanjoki, Nokia’s head of mobile solutions, resigned. Nokia is still trying to balance its investments in Symbian and its new Symbian^3 handsets with its future plans for MeeGo (the merger of Intel’s Moblin platform and Nokia’s Maemo project). Meanwhile, one of the biggest challenges Nokia continues to face is actually getting its handsets subsidized by U.S. carriers. During the Symbian^3 device launch, Nokia discussed with North American press its desire to be back in the U.S. marketplace, but had no strategy to actually make it happen. Nokia seemed to think the problem was just getting through the carrier red tape. We think the real challenge will be convincing North American customers that a Nokia device — whether it runs Symbian^3 or MeeGo — is a compelling alternative to the Apple iPhone or one of the many Android mobile devices. Symbian may be the largest phone operating system in the world by marketshare, but its free fall is approaching terminal velocity. As OEMs trade in their Symbian licenses, and shift development and resources to next-generation mobile platforms like Android and Windows Phone 7, Symbian and Nokia are becoming increasingly greater implosions risks. Reviews: Android, Windows Phone 7, iPhone More About: Meego, Mobile 2.0, Nokia, Symbian, symbian foundation For more Mobile coverage:
      |
| Is the iPad Really the Savior of the Newspaper Industry? Posted: 19 Oct 2010 12:25 PM PDT   Even before the iPad was revealed, analysts, pundits and the publishing industry were already heralding the tablet as the platform that would save the industry from declining readership and dropping revenue. The iPad’s high-res display, large screen, digital delivery and interactive capabilities were lauded as the next generation of tools that print publishers could use to woo their readers back into the fold. Now, six months after the iPad’s launch, we thought it would be interesting to take a look at which newspapers have taken advantage of the digital platform, and the state of the market today. We recently tested the apps ourselves and spoke with content creators and industry experts to get an overview of where newspaper iPad apps are — and where they might be headed in the future. Adopting a New Way to Consume NewsIn order for the general public to consume their daily news on a tablet device, they have to own one. Although great things are promised for the consumer tablet, recent data from ABI Research suggests that at the current rate of sales, such devices won’t reach what’s considered “mass-market penetration” until 2013. However, there are enough devices out there to make app building worthwhile. Apple sold 3 million iPads within 80 days of the product’s release in the U.S., with the most recent sales figures (dating back from July) coming in at 3.27 million sold. Wall Street analysts Bernstein Research suggest that the iPad is enjoying the fastest adoption rate of a consumer electronics gadget ever — even overtaking the DVD player and Apple stable-mate the iPhone. Forecasters at the Harrison Group found that 13% of all American consumers showed “interest” in buying a tablet device between now and next September, with potential sales of up to 15 million units. In fact, some reports suggest that the iPad’s popularity could affect PC and laptop sales figures as consumers opt for the touchscreen tablet over a new netbook or upgrading an old PC.  As far as the wider market goes, Apple is far from the only player. RIM’s BlackBerry PlayBook, the Android-based Samsung Galaxy Tab, and HP’s PalmPad are just a few of the alternatives due soon on competing operating systems. And the good news for content creators on the tablet platform is that consumers are hungry. The Harrison Group survey found that tablet users spend nearly 75% more time reading newspapers and newspaper articles, and 25% more time reading books. Those surveyed were apparently so convinced by the digital delivery and form factor, that 81% of tablet owners believe that it is inevitable that all forms of publications will eventually be produced almost exclusively in a digital format. Establishing Pricing and Attracting ReadersSo what is the current state of the newspaper app market for the iPad? Six months after the iPad’s launch, more than 900 apps populate the “News” category in the App Store in both the U.S. and the UK. News is a broad category, however, and it includes feed readers, other types of content aggregators, websites’ iPad apps, and even magazine apps.  The number of actual dedicated newspaper iPad apps is low — surprisingly low if you consider how the platform was heralded as the savior of the industry. In the U.S. the Wall Street Journal and USA Today are the main options, along with a recently released “complete” version of The New York Times’ app. As far as big names in the UK market goes, The Financial Times, The Times, The Daily Express and The Sun offer apps, while The Telegraph is currently dipping its toe into the water with an Audi-backed app. Out of those options, only the USA Today, The New York Times and a trial version of The Telegraph apps are free. The others require payment to either download or access full content, making them a “personal choice luxury” rather than a must-have download, considering how many free options exist. (It should be noted that while The New York Times app is currently free, you will need an account to access all of the content once the paywall goes up in January 2011). So why is this the case? Surely struggling publishing companies would do well to attract as many users to their apps as possible in order to increase brand loyalty and make money from mobile advertising. Paul Gillin, a social marketing consultant and author of the Newspaper Death Watch blog suggests that, in time, apps could be a “significant revenue stream” as the platform grows. He says that newspaper companies are wary of falling into the same trap they did when free online versions of their papers debuted, making it hard for a pay structure to be introduced at a later date. This assertion is backed up by data from the Association of Online Publishers “Content & Trends Census 2010.” The census revealed that apps are seen as “the most significant route for mobile Internet revenue opportunities,” according to the UK publishing companies (not limited to newspapers) that took part. In fact, 61% expect to see significant revenue from subscription services, compared to 55% via sponsorship and 46% via in-app advertising. The same AOP research also reveals that while 16% of online publishers currently have paid-for iPad apps, another 60% are planning to introduce one in the next 12 months. “Publishers are establishing pricing from the start,” says Tim Cain, head of research and insight at the AOP. “iPad apps are being seen differently [than] mobile apps. It’s thought that people value them differently and will be prepared to pay.”  Readers Respond to Subscriptions and Pay UpSo just how many people are prepared to pay, and how many are using the apps? Different companies have different policies on revealing their download figures and are generally even more secretive about subscription stats. We can, however, note a few choice numbers. The WSJ for iPad has been downloaded more than 650,000 times since its launch and has “thousands” of paying subscribers. The FT’s iPad Edition option has seen 400,000 downloads and is credited for driving 10% of all FT digital subscriptions since its launch. Meanwhile, USA Today’s free app has had a slightly higher download figure of over a million. If companies are guarded about download stats and subscription figures, they are even more guarded about how those relate to revenue. This is not the case for the Financial Times, however, as Ben Hughes, the paper’s deputy chief executive recently revealed to The Guardian that its iPad app’s 400,000 subscribers have helped the app reach £1 million (approximately $1.5 million) in advertising revenue since May. And previous reports note that in-app iAds are fetching as much as five times the price of online advertising, with click-through rates reported to be significantly higher (15% versus 0.10% in a recent NYTM campaign from JPMorgan Chase & Co) on the tablet device than a website. News Organizations Harness the iPad’s PossibilitiesThese stats show that consumers are obviously downloading and using these apps, but which consumers? Are the papers cannibalizing their own print and online audiences with shiny new apps? Or are the App Store offerings opening up a different market to the titles? “The iPad definitely provides a valuable platform for newspapers to engage their readers in a new way and, in many cases, to appeal to a different set of readers,” says Dena Levitz, manager of digital strategies for the Newspaper Association of America. “Mobile is going to be a growth area going forward, and tablets are one exciting subset of that larger trend.” The Dow Jones & Company’s senior director of corporate communications Ashley S. Huston says the Wall Street Journal’s plan is to offer content wherever readers are. “We know that readers consume news and information on multiple devices … The iPad app complements our existing print and digital offerings with an experience created specifically for the iPad.” USA Today, meanwhile, notes the obvious portability the platform offers, making it a good choice for those away from home. Matt Jones, vice president of mobile strategy and operations for Gannett/USA Today tells us: “Our target is the early and middle stage tech adopter, frequent traveler and general news/sports/entertainment enthusiast.” Despite the comprehensive content in the Financial Times iPad Edition, the publishers view the app as a “companion product,” and notes the value of easy global distribution in places where it’s more difficult to distribute a print copy, according to Steve Pinches, lead product development manager at FT.com. So far we’ve only considered national titles. Regional newspapers, arguably the hardest-hit markets, could take advantage of the iPad’s potential too, like UK publishing company KOS Media did with its free Kent News for iPad, which was released in August.  The company is not releasing its download stats, so we have no way of knowing how popular the launch has been, or if, as KOS Media claimed at launch, it has offered “huge advantages” to iPad owners. With national publications seeing an increase in click-through rates on its in-app advertisements, it would make sense then that location-based advertising might see similar success. And that success could be replicated by local papers. They should view the tablet platform as the potential savior it was initially billed as. Newspapers Must Adapt Again to New TechnologyAfter looking at a variety of newspaper iPad apps, our main complaint — and we’re generalizing across the entire market — is that they don’t take enough advantage of the iPad’s wowing capabilities. This view is shared to a certain extent by Roger Fidler, the program director for digital publishing for the Reynolds Journalism Institute at the University of Missouri. He is organizing the RJI National iPad News Survey “to better understand how people are consuming news on the iPad and readers’ expectations for news apps.” “I’ve long believed that utilitarian tablets like the iPad would evolve into the 21st century equivalent of the printing press; and, as such, would be vital to the digital transformation of newspapers and magazines,” says Fidler. Fidler says that newspaper iPad apps need to offer a new visual format that blends the “relaxed reading modality of print with the dynamic interactive modality of online media.” It should be differentiated from print and online editions and offer tablet-specific content — all things he doesn’t think most apps are doing very well. The solution could be found in a new “hybrid newspaper app” suggests Fidler, in which “automated sections with continuously updated news stories and more visually rich magazine-like sections created by editors and designers could coexist.” The Reynolds Journalism Institute is experimenting with exactly that kind of new publishing model. The NAA also acknowledges the need for newspapers to “differentiate” content, and digital strategist Levitz says that consumers read longer-form content on the iPad, and they really enjoy the high quality of the visual images on the screen. She thinks newspapers can thrive in the tablet space if they take advantage of the device’s capabilities. So is the future of print to be found in touch-screens? In the immediate future it certainly seems that publishing companies are going to be jumping on the app wagon, but how many of them will go the distance is questionable. You’ve got to think that targeted papers such as the WSJ, or the FT for business types, or geographically relevant titles have got the brightest future in the app market because they offer something that can’t be found via generic news feeds or readers. “I would expect to see the iPad and the dozens of competing products planned for this year providing revenue for newspapers either through subscriptions or advertising sponsorships,” says Levitz. “Still, we expect tablet apps will be one part of a broad portfolio of products which will continue to include print products in some form, web-based products and other emerging products. Newspapers will continue to be the dominant local sales and content franchises reaching a range of audience segments through multiple media channels.” The new sparkle of the iPad will keep the newspaper app market buoyant only for so long, and unless Fidler’s “hybrid newspaper app” advice is heeded, consumers will grow tired of the app-ified newspaper just as they have grown tired of previous formats before that. Newspaper Death Watch’s Paul Gillin has a grim take on the future. “Will tablets save the mainstream publishing industries as we know them?” he asks. “No. There is still a lot of pain to come as publishers wind down their print operations over the next 10 to 15 years. However, tablets could present a source of some circulation revenue growth that helps ease the pain somewhat while that transition occurs.” So, with more and more ways to consume free news content, is the traditional newspaper’s time up, regardless of platform? Or is the tablet the shot in the arm that the industry needs to really innovate and grab consumer’s interest once again? Have your say in the comments below. More iPad Resources from Mashable:
Disclosure: Mashable is a syndication partner of USA TODAY Reviews: Android, App Store, Internet, Mashable, iPhone, news More About: apple, ipad, ipad apps, journalism, News, newspapers, Tablet, tablets For more Business coverage:
      |
| Conan’s First Guest to be Determined by Twitter Vote (Maybe) Posted: 19 Oct 2010 12:04 PM PDT   The Conan O'Brien social media onslaught continues as the comedian prepares to debut his new show on TBS on November 8. The latest: letting fans vote for the show's first guest using Twitter. It's not completely open-ended; fans can vote from one of 12 choices, ranging from Lady Gaga to Pope Benedict to Tom from MySpace (a somewhat dated reference we might add). Those votes are then pushed to people's Twitter accounts with the #ConansFirstGuest hashtag, with a leaderboard keeping track of who has the most votes and which Twitter users voted for them. There is one major caveat to all this; there's no guarantee that the person who comes in first will actually show up. Writing on the Team Coco blog, staffer Aaron Bleyaert says, "None of these people have actually been booked on our show … We’re kind of hoping that, if someone on this poll starts getting a lot of votes, these folks will actually feel a bit guilty and will agree to be our first guest." That seems a lot more likely for some of the options than for others, though it will be interesting to see if celeb-obsessed fans rally behind their favorite stars (i.e. – Gaga and Bieber) to push one on top of the other and ultimately put a lot of pressure on that person to do the show. Conan — who became somewhat of an Internet hero in the wake of losing his gig as host of The Tonight Show — also recently launched a Foursquare promotion and an accompanying blimp (pictured above).  Reviews: Internet, MySpace, Twitter More About: conan, conan o'brien, television, tv, twitter For more Entertainment coverage:
      |
| Meet the iPhone-Controlled Massage Chair Posted: 19 Oct 2010 11:47 AM PDT   Having a massage chair is one thing, but being able to control it with an iOS device is a luxury that we’re not sure the world is ready for. Nevertheless, the Human Touch AcuTouch 9500 will soon be available for $5,000, which makes it a luxury that few will be able to afford whether they’re ready or not. The chair is controllable via the HT-Connect iOS app. The app (pics below) is a free download that includes a number of customization options, eight auto-programmed massages (extendable to 16), as well as health and fitness tips. If the price of the AcuTouch 9500 is too steep to buy before you try, Human Touch will be on-hand at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in January. Mashable will be in attendance, and we’ll get our butts in the seat for a thorough demo of this obviously very important technological advancement.  Reviews: Mashable More About: apple, ipad, iphone, iPod Touch, massage chair For more Tech coverage:
      |
| 5 Vintage Apple Products That Time Forgot [PICS] Posted: 19 Oct 2010 11:07 AM PDT Apple is known for its forward-thinking devices. We can all name the iPod, the iMac and maybe even the Newton, but Apple has produced a fair number of products in its 30-plus years in business, and, despite the blazing successes, it's inevitable that some fell by the wayside. We've taken a little trip back in time to look at five forgotten Apple products that you may not be familiar with because of poor sales, obsolescence or the fact that they simply got lost in the sands of time. We even spoke to some folks who used these relics way back when. Take a look through the gallery below to see what lesser-known products the famous consumer electronics company made on the path to where it is today. 1. Macintosh TV  Apple TV hasn't always been a small white box designed to sit under your television. Back in the early 90s, Apple actually made a television: The Macintosh TV. Technically Sony made the TV (it was a 14-inch Sony Trinitron), but Apple combined the CRT display with a Mac in 1993 to create a new category of product that blurred the lines between computing and home entertainment. Sadly, the TV was neither a decent TV nor a great computer, leading to sales of just 10,000 units and a halt in production just one year after launch. Keith Ketterer of Decroded.com was one of the 10,000 consumers who purchased a Macintosh TV. "The original Macintosh TV was one of the first off-the-shelf consumer computer and television integrated products, and may have very well led the way for Apple to re-think how to merge non-gaming entertainment to a desktop computer," says Ketterer. "You couldn't multitask with the computer while watching TV, but it was neat to be able to screen capture frames out of television shows for adding funny captions later. Unfortunately the resolution was small and you couldn't capture movies. Other than the TV capability, it was a low-powered version of the LC (Low Cost) series - which made it pretty low in the Apple power lineup." Image courtesy of Decroded.com 2. QuickTake Cameras Apple was very early to market with digital cameras, offering the "QuickTake" range from 1994. It was a product line that Steve Jobs put a stop to when he came back to the helm of Apple in order to streamline the company's product portfolio. Although hard to believe today, at the start of the QuickTake era, the concept of a film-less camera was a true novelty, as Mashable reader Scott Boyarsky explains. "In 1994, while home from school, my best friend called me over to his parents house to show me a cool new digital camera. He said that it didn't need any film, and you could quickly download the pictures to your computer and edit them in Photoshop. It was the Quicktake 100," says Boyarsky. "We thought it was amazing and quickly used it to snap up all sorts of pictures to be used as desktop backgrounds and icons in the latest Mac OS. I think it was a revolutionary product. Soon after, Sony followed with similar digital cameras." Mashable reader Tia Martinson is a photographer and offered her professional insight. "I had the QuickTake 100. It was a funny little machine for me to have because I am a [large format] photographer and at the time I had this little piece of equipment ... This camera was a toy for me. It was the size of a small projector and very lightweight. The weight and the materials used on the QuickTake made it a lot like using one of those child's plastic slide viewers where the illustrated story is on a disc and you cycle through the images," says Martinson. "The main limitations that today would be laughable included low quality images, limited storage space (I think 12 to 24 crappy quality images), no image preview so you can't delete to save space for something else if you took garbage. Still, it was a novelty item that was a step toward the optics, speed and final image we have available to us today." Image of the QuickTake 200 courtesy of Wikipedia 3. Apple Adjustable Keyboard Apple's "Adjustable Keyboard" was introduced at a time when keyboard manufacturers were getting wise to the problems of Repetitive Strain Injury and Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. It was the Cupertino company's ergonomic offering, theoretically providing a more comfortable way to type than traditional QWERTY keyboards. Big, beige and with a space-bar the size of a baby's arm, it's not what we might call a "highlight" in Apple's product design portfolio. But was it comfortable to use? Mashable reader Sue Ellen Colter thought so. "When I was working as a contract technical writer, I used an Apple Adjustable Keyboard when I wasn't using my PowerBook. I have small hands and appreciated the ability to curve the keyboard. Most of my typing was straight typing; I rarely, if ever, used a function key. I frequently used it for more than 60 hours per week", says Colter. "Having used a 10-key adding machine in my younger days, I felt right at home with the numeric key pad. Most of the time it was out of the way, but when I had to enter lots of numbers, I pulled it over in front on my right hand. I used my Adjustable Keyboard until Apple stopped supporting ADB and SCSI connections." This view is not shared by Scott Boyarsky, however, who describes the keyboard as "horrible" and says he "hated" typing on it. Image courtesy of AllAboutApple.com 4. eWorld Before everything Apple was prefixed with an "i," many of its connected products were prefaced with the letter "e" to denote something being hooked up to the Internet. eWorld was Apple's mid-Nineties online service that provided Mac owners with e-mail, news and a community center. In the words of Apple fan Andrea Grell, it had a "homelike, cozy look and feel" which you can still experience today thanks to Grell's amazing online emulator -- Remember-eWorld.com -- that's well worth a look if you're at all interested in the early days of the web. "It fascinated its users even though it was rather expensive compared to other online services," states Grell on the site. "eWorld competed directly against AOL, CompuServe, and MSN, and finally lost this competition. On March 31, 1996, at 12:01am the service shut down. Apple's management decided that the product was doomed to fail in a market where AOL had such a commanding lead." "The user experience was superior to AOL, and the FTP feature allowed for the exchange of files and software with other members," said Mashable reader Scott Boyarsky. "This was really before I had access to a POP account or another way to access the web via a graphical browser (I did have NCSA's mosaic) with any sort of ease. I liked it. Although I abandoned eWorld when I left for college, it was a great concept, and the precursor to many current social networks and file sharing services." Image courtesy of Remember-eWorld.com 5. Apple Bandai Pippin Did you know that Apple was once behind a games console? That's right, at the time of the PlayStation and the Nintendo 64 (known as the fifth-generation console era) Apple decided it would jump into the fray with its own platform. The hardware was made by Japanese toy maker Bandai, but the console was marketed in the West as the Apple Bandai Pipp!n. (Pippin is a type of apple, nicely carrying on the fruit theme in the Macintosh vein.) The console plugged into a TV set and ran games from CD-ROMs, however, a high price ($600) and a limited selection of games meant the Pippin did not present the challenge Apple hoped it would. You're most likely to find the Pippin on various "Worst Apple Products Ever" lists nowadays, and sales were so poor we haven't been able to find anyone to comment on the system. Did you have a Pippin, or ever play one? If so, please have your say on it in the comments below. More Apple Resources from Mashable:
More About: apple, apple bandai pippin, digital cameras, eWorld, gadgets, gaming, keyboards, List, Lists, macintosh tv, quicktake, retro, tech For more Apple coverage:
      |
| Loopt Adds Facebook Places Integration Posted: 19 Oct 2010 10:31 AM PDT   Location-based networking service Loopt has just updated its iPhone app to add deep integration with Facebook Places, making it easy to see all of your friends status updates and checkins, whether they use Loopt or not. We spoke briefly with Loopt CEO Sam Altman about the app’s [iTunes link] update and some of the cool things Loopt and Facebook Places users can get excited about. Altman thinks that Loopt’s approach to Facebook Places makes it the “deepest integration” of any of the location-based apps on the market, and after playing around for a few minutes, we’re inclined to agree. When Facebook opened its Places API, the potential for merging your Facebook friends and Facebook Places info with your other location-based services became a possibility. Lots of services — like Foursquare and SCVNGR — have already implemented Facebook Places support into their apps. What we appreciate about Loopt’s approach is that other than a Facebook watermark over a user’s name and the color of the map point, the experience for using Loopt is basically the same whether you are connecting only with other Loopt members or linking it to Facebook Places. The app automatically shows your Facebook friends on the map alongside your Loopt friends. When you click on a location, you can see the checkin status and any comments anyone has made. So if my friends check in to a location in Facebook Places and others comment, I can see this and even comment, all from Loopt. You can also view the checkin history of your friends — from Loopt or Facebook — something Facebook doesn’t offer in a one-pane view in its mobile app. Another cool feature is that if you link your accounts and check in to a location using Facebook Places, you will also be checked in via Loopt. This is very cool. Likewise, if you so choose, you can also check in to Facebook via Loopt (this is optional so you don’t always have to share your location with your Facebook friends). Loopt has also adjusted the way its proximity alerts feature works so that you can granularly set the distance of when you want to be notified if a certain friend is nearby. If you’re new to the Loopt app, you no longer need a phone number to set up registration, you can just use your e-mail. All in all, we have to say, we think Loopt nailed Facebook Places integration. In many respects, Loopt is a better Facebook Places experience than the Facebook mobile apps, if only because location is the focus of Loopt. Loopt is available in the App Store for free, and an update for Android users bringing the same functionality will be on its way soon. Reviews: Android, App Store, Facebook, Foursquare More About: Facebook Places, geolocation, iphone, iphone apps, loopt For more Mobile coverage:
      |
| 5 Mobile User Experiences That Wowed Us in 2010 [Mashable Awards] Posted: 19 Oct 2010 10:17 AM PDT   As part of the ongoing Mashable Awards, we’re taking a closer look at each of the nomination categories. This is “Best Mobile User Experience.” Be sure to nominate your favorites and join us for the Gala in Las Vegas! Sponsorships are available. Please contact sponsorships@mashable.com for more information.
In the past 12 months, the line between native apps and web applications for mobile devices has started to blur (though there are still distinctions) and more and more brands, businesses and individuals are altering their web content for different device types. The world of user experience in and of itself is pretty gigantic; even just limiting ourselves to mobile UX, we could still fill a book with our favorite apps, sites and metaphors. Here is our list of five mobile user experiences we loved using in 2010. 1. Reeder for the iPhone and iPad Because mobile user experience can span both native apps, web apps and mobile operating systems, we wanted to look at as broad of a range of options as possible, without focusing too much on one platform or on one content type. The iOS application world is full of fantastic user experiences and gorgeous user interfaces. In fact, “Best iOS Interface” could be its own category. Still, we have to give Reeder for iPhone [iTunes link] and Reeder for iPad [iTunes link] a special nod because it has managed to do something really special: Greatly improve the user experience of its targeted product (Google Reader) and do it equally well on both the iPhone and the iPad.  I’ll be the first to admit I’m not a fan of the interface for Google Reader. I find it slow, clunky and cluttered. Reeder, however, is another story altogether. Not only does the application load quickly and is easy to navigate, but you can share an article by posting it to Twitter, Instapaper, Pinboard and more. 2. webOS It’s been a rough year for Palm fans. After a strong debut at CES in 2009, the Palm Pre never really took off in the marketplace. Despite moving to other carriers, the once dynamic company was pushed aside in favor of this year’s new hotness, Android. The one trump card that Palm had as a company — and the real value HP saw in the company — was with webOS. If you’ve ever used webOS, you know that it is in general, a really terrific user experience. It combines the sleekness and scrollability of iOS with some of the more customizable and enhanced features from Android. The webOS “card” system for multitasking is still my favorite mobile implementation. In fact, just today, HP announced webOS 2.0, and like webOS 1.4.5 and earlier, the interface, design, and features look incredible. The devices that run webOS might not be best of breed, but the user experience is still one of our favorites. We still think that a tablet device built around webOS would provide a true competitor to the iPad and we hope to see HP inject some real hardware muscle behind the great platform in the future. 3. Gmail for iPad We have a bit of a love/hate relationship with Google and its user interfaces. When it wants to, the company can do some really amazing things. Oftentimes, however, you wind up with UI messes like Google Reader and Google Buzz. In our opinion, Google has actually been much more successful with its mobile interfaces. The mobile-optimized interfaces for Gmail, Google Maps, Google Voice and YouTube are really well done. When the iPad was released, Google updated its Gmail web interface specifically for the new device. The results are some of the best user experience work Google has ever done. Gmail for iPad mimics the iPad mail application and works in both landscape and portrait mode. A more recent update added a new “stacked card” motif that is exquisitely designed for the iPad’s touch screen. Frankly, we’d really like to see the regular Gmail interface look more like its iPad counterpart. 4. Mobile Twitter This year has been a big one for Twitter. The company has seen its usage soar, its userbase increase and it recently rolled out a brand new web interface. At the tail end of last year, Twitter also gave its mobile optimized website a great new overhaul. The new mobile website was one of the first times Twitter really took the initiative to take control over its mobile experience, and the results were a better experience than many third-party apps for non-iPhone mobile platforms. It turns out, the mobile interface redesign was a sign of things to come. In the months that followed, Twitter released official apps for the BlackBerry and Android and acquired the most popular iPhone Twitter client. Twitter also released its own iPad app. Still, for those without app-capable smartphones, or individuals who just enjoy the speed of a website, the Twitter mobile interface is one of the best around. 5. Dominos Mobile Last year, when Domino’s Pizza overhauled its website, its agency, Crispin Porter + Bogusky, updated its mobile interface as well. The results are a mobile experience that is just as interactive and fluid as most native apps and something that is truly a step up from standard pizza ordering websites. The menu system resembles the motif that Facebook for iPhone made famous, and the site works well on all WebKit-based mobile browsers. There’s even a mobile version of the scarily addictive real-time Domino’s Tracker. Your PicksWhen it comes down to it, the nominees and the awards are all picked by you, our readers. Submit your nominations for your favorite mobile user experience and be sure to vote for your favorites! Let us know in the comments what mobile experiences really made you say, “Wow” in 2010. The Mashable Awards Gala at Cirque du Soleil Zumanity (Vegas)In partnership with Cirque du Soleil, The Mashable Awards Gala event will bring together the winners and nominees, the Mashable community, partners, media, the marketing community, consumer electronics and technology brands and attendees from the 2011 International CES Convention to Las Vegas on Thursday, January 6, 2011. Together, we will celebrate the winners and the community of the Mashable Awards at the Cirque du Soleil Zumanity stage in the beautiful New York New York Hotel. The event will include acts and performances from our partner Cirque du Soleil Zumanity. In addition, there will be special guest presenters and appearances. Date: Thursday, January 6th, 2011 (during International CES Convention week) ![Register for Mashable Awards Gala at Cirque du Soleil Zumanity stage (Las Vegas - 2011 International CES convention) [Ticketed Event] in Las Vegas, NV on Eventbrite](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_vW9HDULpGER5wXY1juljCvMXe5AO916yBQsGGXFUqBv4rDwayVgTF-qomZJgVp_b3kWOFf4pA1fhOdl9d6MPofx4cYSggpTYoNzmmGv7tGg2llWwiNtbLvOA=s0-d) Thanks to our sponsors: Mashable Awards Online Partner:
The Fresh Diet is like having a Cordon Bleu chef prepare your meals in your own kitchen. There’s no cooking, cleaning, shopping – just fresh prepared delicious meals, hand delivered to your door daily! Whether you want to lose weight or just want to eat healthy, The Fresh Diet can help you meet your goals. The best news, we’re giving away a FREE week of The Fresh Diet every day on our Facebook page. Just click here to become a fan and you could be the next winner. Join now! Mashable Awards Gala VIP Lounge sponsor: Influxis specializes in the deployment of creative streaming solutions. Services include large scale deployment, mobile streaming, turn-key applications, and enterprise support with custom network options. With the unique combination of a worldwide network, knowledgeable developer support and nearly a decade of streaming media experience, Influxis is an essential partner to businesses, advertisers, developers, educators, and others who seek expertise in innovative streaming. Sponsorships are available. Please contact sponsorships@mashable.com for more information. Image courtesy of iStockphoto, Brosa Reviews: Android, Facebook, Foursquare, Gmail, Google, Google Buzz, Google Maps, Google Reader, Google Voice, Mashable, Twitter, YouTube, iPhone, iStockphoto, instapaper More About: android, blackberry, Google, ipad, iphone, List, Lists, mashable awards, mashable awards 2010, Mobile 2.0, mobile apps, mobile experience, mobile web, palm, user interface, UX For more Mobile coverage:
      |
| Posted: 19 Oct 2010 09:57 AM PDT   In addition to announcing the Palm Pre 2 Tuesday, HP announced webOS 2.0, which the company claims is the most significant update to the platform since its launch in 2009. HP purchased Palm back in April, largely because of the promise of its mobile software platform, webOS. Visually, webOS 2.0 retains the flourish of its predecessor, but operationally it’s a lot more robust. So what’s new in webOS 2.0? The Palm Pre 2 page has a pretty good explanation, but here are some highlights:
 The new Synergy feature is one of the cooler new software features for keeping contacts and calendars updated. You can automatically sync your Facebook, LinkedIn, Google, Yahoo and Microsoft Exchange info. If a contact’s information changes in one place, you’ll see it updated on your phone. This is pretty similar to what companies like Xobni and Meshin are doing, but it’s built-in at the OS level. We don’t have a webOS 2.0 device in our hands, but our friends at PreCentral have a pretty exhaustive review of the new update and they seem pretty impressed. We’ve always been fans of webOS as an operating system. The problem has been inspiring developer interest in the platform and making sure the hardware is both powerful enough to run the OS and well-made enough not to break or be unreliable. WebOS 2.0 seems to have a lot going for it, but as I noted on the “Briefly Awesome” podcast last week, it seems prime for a tablet device. That’s where we want to see webOS, and where we think it has its best shot of being an inviting platform for application developers and users. What do you think of the looks and featureset of webOS 2.0? Is this enough to help HP gain some momentum in the mobile device space? Reviews: Adobe Flash Player, Android, Bluetooth, Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, Skype, Xobni, Yahoo! More About: HP webOS, palm, palm pre 2, verizon, webOS, webos 2.0 For more Mobile coverage:
      |
| Today’s Top Gaming Releases: “Fallout: New Vegas,” “DJ Hero 2,” “Vanquish” Posted: 19 Oct 2010 09:47 AM PDT Every Tuesday, the majority of each week’s retail video games hit store shelves. PlayStation Network game downloads arrive that day, and many Xbox Live downloads hit the following Wednesday. We’ll be taking a closer look at the releases each week, so let’s get started. Fallout: New Vegas (360, PC, PS3)  The biggest launch this week is arguably Fallout: New Vegas for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Windows. The game will have you waging war, solving mysteries, and struggling for survival in a post-apocalyptic Mojave Desert and Las Vegas. It’s the latest in a highly acclaimed franchise, but its strict adherence to its predecessor Fallout 3’s formula might turn off gamers who want something fresh. DJ Hero 2 (360, PS3, Wii) DJ Hero 2, a DJ’s spin on the Guitar Hero series of music games (turntable controller included), also launched today. You’ll find that one on Nintendo Wii, PS3 and Xbox 360. Vanquish (360, PS3) Finally, a rare attempt at starting a new franchise: Sega’s Vanquish has arrived for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. The action shooter is in some ways an attempt by Japanese developers to tailor to the Western games market, which has become an increasingly tough crowd in recent years because its audience has gravitated toward Call of Duty-like first-person shooters. Japanese developers aren’t known for their prowess in the now-saturated genre, so we’ll see how Vanquish fares. Other ReleasesAnother triple-A release on the Xbox 360 and PC: Arcania: Gothic IV. We’re skeptical of the game publisher’s decision to launch this game — which has much the same audience as Fallout: New Vegas, albeit much smaller — on the same day as the Fallout follow-up. The Gothic series has a small and loyal following, but most of the sales for this title will occur after Fallout players have had their fill of the post-apocalypse. Wii gamers will get Dragon’s Lair Trilogy, a remake of some arcade classics. They’ll also receive two new Sesame Street games for kids, NBA 2K11 and a re-release of the Super Nintendo role-playing game Final Fantasy Mystic Quest. Xbox 360 and PS3 gamers can check out Power Gig: Rise of the Six String if they’re not tired of music games already. What games will you pick up today? Let us know in the comments. Reviews: Windows, dj hero More About: dj hero 2, fallout new vegas, gaming, nintendo wii, pc, playstation 3, tuesday game releases, vanquish, video games, Windows, Xbox 360 For more Tech coverage:
      |
| Microsoft Unveils Office 365: Productivity Heads to the Cloud Posted: 19 Oct 2010 08:52 AM PDT   Microsoft is doubling down on its commitment to the cloud with the launch of Office 365, a service that combines Microsoft Office, SharePoint Online, Exchange Online and Lync Online with the cloud. Announced by Kurt DelBane, president of Microsoft’s office division, at a press event in San Francisco, Office 365 is a subscription service that integrates cloud-based syncing, collaboration and accessibility to businesses and organizations worldwide. So long as a device supports ActiveSync, customers can access their e-mail, calendars, team websites and office web apps from anywhere. The inclusion of Lync also means that Office 365 has videoconferencing capabilities. There are two editions of Office 365. Office 365 for Small Businesses is designed for organizations of one to 25 people. It’s a pre-built package that includes Office Web Apps, Lync, e-mail sync and more. It doesn’t require IT support on the user’s end and will cost $6 per user per month. The second version is Office 365 for Enterprises. Unlike the small business version, the enterprise edition can be customized based on an organization’s needs. It can be customized so different teams have different access levels to Office 365’s features. The enterprise edition comes with everything in the small business version, plus single sign-in, Office Pro Plus (via subscription), internal social networking tools, voicemail in the inbox, and more. It costs anywhere between $2 to $27 per user per month, depending on which features the company chooses to utilize. The beta will be available to a few thousand organizations starting today; its full launch will occur sometime next year in 40 countries. Sometime in late 2011, Office 365 will add Microsoft Dynamics CRM to its suite of products. Microsoft is extraordinarily bullish on the cloud. DelBane said that the company believes the cloud is as radical of an innovation as the graphical user interface. Office 365 just makes sense though; the rising demand for enterprise-level cloud apps like Dropbox and Box.net is due to its ability to help teams collaborate and coordinate their efforts. What do you think of Office 365? Let us know in the comments.  Reviews: Box.net, Dropbox, Microsoft Office 2010 More About: cloud, microsoft, microsoft office, Office 2010, Office 365 For more Tech coverage:
      |
| Mobile Ad Spending to Top $1 Billion in 2011 [REPORT] Posted: 19 Oct 2010 08:48 AM PDT   Spending on mobile advertising is set to grow nearly 50% to top $1 billion in 2011, according to the latest numbers from market researcher eMarketer. The estimate has been raised significantly from previous projections largely due to "Google's acquisition of AdMob and Apple's introduction of the iAd," as well as mobile ads reaching "the mainstream of digital advertising," says the firm. Although smaller in total dollars, the estimates mean mobile advertising is growing faster than social media advertising by eMarketer's own projections. In August, the firm estimated that social media ad spend would grow 20.3% this year to $1.68 billion in the U.S. That compares to the torrid 79% growth rate now projected for mobile, which brings the size of the market to $743 million by the end of 2010. Within mobile, however, eMarketer projects some interesting shifts. For instance, while text message marketing is currently the biggest area of mobile ad spending, its growth rate will soon slow dramatically and the format will be surpassed by newer formats like video and display.  Other trends we're keeping an eye on within mobile advertising include geolocation, the evolution of mobile sites vs. mobile apps and further experimentation with rich media on mobile (which will continue to evolve with the expansion of mobile broadband). More About: advertising, MARKETING, mobile advertising For more Business coverage:
      |
| 5 Fun Social Media Halloween Costume Ideas [CONTEST] Posted: 19 Oct 2010 08:00 AM PDT   We want to see your social media Halloween costumes! Enter for a chance to win a $400 shopping spree! Send us a photo of yourself wearing your social media Halloween costume via Flickr, Tumblr or by posting a link to your picture in the comments below. Upload your photos by October 26, 12 p.m. EST. The wearers of the top five Halloween costumes will each win a $400 Griffin Technology shopping spree. As Halloween edges closer, here at Mashable we’ve been racking our brains, and put our heads together to come up with some fantastic costume ideas for today’s social media enthusiasts. While Facebook outfits and iPhone costumes may have amused us in the past, the times they are a changin’, and there are new memes and trends to take advantage of this All Hallows’ Eve. Stand out from the inevitable (and oh so obvious) blue-hued Twitter birds, Fake Steve Jobs, and the countless Lady Gagas with one of our five fun suggestions below. Or, enter your great costume ideas in our contest! 1. Merton This costume concept will really separate the social media experts from the social media wannabes. Dressing up as Mashable favorite Merton — a.k.a the Chatroulette Piano Guy — is a dead simple, yet brilliant costume idea that’s right on-trend for 2010. Even better, the actual components for the costume are beyond simple — a drawstring hoodie, a thick pair of glasses, a portable keyboard (in place of the piano, obviously), oh, and a webcam for authenticity. 2. Old Spice Guy We love the idea of hitting a Halloween shindig as “the man your man could smell like.” While we doubt few can match Isaiah Mustafa’s clear diction and confident poise (not to mention that physique), the juxtaposition will only add to the comedy. Getting your Old Spice Guy costume together should be less of a challenge — wrap a towel round your waist (and may we suggest fastening it securely to prevent blushes — invest in some Velcro perhaps) tuck in a bottle of Old Spice shower gel (and don’t pretend you didn’t buy any after that awesome campaign), then accessorize with medals, chainsaws, fragrant flowers, etc., as you see fit. And just as a reminder, some key phrases to repeat while in Old Spice Guy mode include “I’m on a horse,” “silver fish hand catch,” and of course, “hello, ladies.” 3. Foursquare’s Sad Mayor It’s a bit of a stretch to say that Foursquare’s “Sad Mayor” graphic is the new Fail Whale, but she has been making quite a few appearances lately. All you need is a simple gray shift dress, a yellow crown perched at an angle (easy enough to make with cardboard and a discreet headband), and paint a large blue tear dripping down from your right eye. You’ll instantly transform into the melancholy character that users of the location-based social service love to hate. 4. Justin Bieber As Mashable’s weekly Top Twitter Topics series will tell you, the little pop-powered overlord of Twitter — Justin Bieber — may not enjoy as much dominance over the microblogging service as he once did, but he still remains a ghoulish trending topic, ready to leap back into the charts should his hordes of demonic tween and teen followers decided to mobilize. Why not fight the fear by embracing the Bieb and dressing up as the little Canadian pop prince this October 31. Replicating the overly coiffed hairdo should be enough to make you recognizable, and you can really bring the true horror by playing his tunes wherever you go. Bonus points if you go as Bieber’s rapping alter ego Shawty Mane. All you need then is a puffy vest, large black plastic frame glasses, oversized headphones, and the memorized lyrics to one the most embarrassing attempts at rapping of all time. 5. Sad Keanu We all enjoyed the bittersweet Sad Keanu meme from earlier this year and think it would make a fun in-the-know costume choice. Just replicate Mr. Reeves’ outfit, add in a half-eaten sandwich, some shopping bags (and a couple of pigeons if you’re taking this all the way) and look as down in the dumps as possible. Bonus points to anyone who adds a helmet.  How To Enter the Contest:
Please use your real identity in the submission so that we may contact you via e-mail, Twitter or Facebook to let you know that you’ve won. We’ll announce the winner next week after the contest closes. At this time, the contest is limited to U.S. and Canada only. Thanks To Our Partners at Griffin Technology “Griffin Technology began designing and manufacturing technical solutions with an innovative flair in 1992. Griffin has grown to become one of the largest providers of accessories for personal computing and digital media including the iTrip family of FM transmitters and the groundbreaking Evolve Wireless Sound System. Griffin designs, manufactures and delivers useful and fun solutions for digital entertainment and personal computing to people in the Americas, Europe, and Asia, through major retailers and online.”Image courtesy of iStockphoto, tacojim Reviews: Facebook, Flickr, Mashable, Tumblr, Twitter, iStockphoto, justin bieber More About: foursquare, geek, geeky, hallow-meme, Halloween, Halloween costumes, internet memes, justin bieber, List, Lists, merton, old spice guy, sad keanu For more Entertainment coverage:
      |
| 3 Ways Small Businesses are Investing in Social Good Posted: 19 Oct 2010 07:26 AM PDT   This post originally appeared on the American Express OPEN Forum, where Mashable regularly contributes articles about leveraging social media and technology in small business. Lately, a lot has been written about how businesses are using social media to promote social good. Most of the attention has focused on the campaigns of large companies like Pepsi or Pedigree. While the success of those campaigns warrants exposure, small local businesses have also begun using social media to create positive change in their communities. Below are some examples of how small businesses are investing in social good to partner with non-profits, raise funds and finance micro-loans. If your company is raising awareness for non-profits through social media, let us know about your work in the comments below. 1. Catherine Zadeh: Partnering with Non-Profits In 2008 high-end jewelry designer Catherine Zadeh learned that a childhood friend had been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. To raise money and awareness, Zadeh fashioned a bracelet, which to her surprise raised more than $60,000 for the family of her friend. Emboldened by the success of her first fundraiser, Zadeh steadily expanded her charitable work. Today she produces bracelets for 18 charities, and for every piece the charity sells, Zadeh donates 30% of the proceeds to that charity. Zadeh, who runs her business with the help of just two assistants, said she uses her own Twitter and Facebook accounts to keep her customers updated about her work and philanthropic efforts, but she's found social media most useful for amplifying the company’s message via her audience. "It's exponential," Zadeh explained. "I have so many people in my database, and maybe 10 are interested (in a product), but when the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation International retweets about a bracelet then all their followers know about it." 2. Busam Automotive: Raising Funds Creatively With so many businesses now using Facebook and Twitter, setting your company apart online has become more difficult. This was the predicament facing Busam Automotive, a Cincinnati auto dealership that sponsors an annual campaign for Susan G. Komen for the Cure, a foundation that promotes breast cancer research. "When we began to plan the fundraiser we thought, ‘How can we take this kinda boring run of the mill sponsorship and make it kinda cool and different?’ " said Busam business development manager Andrew Shipp. The solution: creative social media tactics. For every retweeted picture of a Busam vehicle (like this one), Busam pledged to donate $1 to the foundation. In addition, the dealership promised $10 off on an oil change and a free ticket to a charity fashion show for anyone who checked into Busam's Nissan branch on Foursquare. 3. SRSCI: Promoting a Company Philosophy Jorge Fonseca Mata of the Finca Fonseca coffee farm, the largest coffee plantation in San Rafael, Costa RicaFor some small businesses like the San Rafael Sustainable Coffee Initiative (SRSCI), social good is built into the DNA of the company. The SRSCI, a joint venture between Costa Rican coffee farmers and processing plants in the small community of San Rafael, uses micro-loans to grow the local economy while connecting growers with drinkers. The big idea behind the SRSCI is to cut out the middlemen. If customers order directly from farmers, farmers maximize their profit, thereby growing the local economy. The SRSCI also encourages (but does not require) customers to invest in a micro-loan to fund the next year's crop. "For the consumer, that actual connection supplies a need in the market place for those who want to know the farmer and where their daily cup originates," said Kenneth Lander, one of SRSCI's founders. "For the farmer, that actual connection places the farmer and the farming community first in line to receive 100% benefit from the sale of roasted coffee." Since most of SRSCI's customers are aboard, Twitter and Facebook are useful for connecting customers with growers. "These tools are the key to this relationship," Lander said. "The direct effect is creating a relationship that allows the farmer and the farming community to flourish and continue to serve the consumer directly in the future." Since the SRSCI was created in June 2010, its received 111 micro-loans and sold more than 900 pounds of roasted coffee. That translates into $9,000 for the local economy. While that may not sound like much, Lander stressed that under the conventional system, 900 pounds typically nets just $351 in profit for the farmers. Social Tools to ConsiderWhile Twitter, Facebook and (to a lesser extent) Foursquare are omnipresent, there are other lesser known online tools that small businesses can use to promote social good. Below are three in no particular order. Bolder is a platform that works with businesses interested in inspiring individuals to do what's best for society. On Bolder's website, businesses challenge individuals to do things like ditch bottled water for a day or bike to work. In exchange, the business provides an incentive, which is usually a discount or freebie. For the particularly activist-minded business, Act.ly is a new platform for starting an online petition via Twitter. Individuals or businesses can tweet at someone requesting that they act on an issue. The initial request appears as a tweet and its success depends on subsequent retweets. I Shop 4 Microfinance makes it easy for online customers to donate to micro-finance foundations. Customers simply have to sign up and then shop. Four percent of all purchases are donated and, best of all, there’s no additional cost to the customer. More Social Good Resources from Mashable:
Image courtesy of Flickr, spaceageboy and SRSCI Reviews: Facebook, Flickr, Foursquare, Twitter, act.ly, foursquare More About: business, List, Lists, non-profit, non-profits, small business, social good, social media, social media for social good For more Social Good coverage:
      |
| Palm Pre 2 Officially Revealed [PICS] Posted: 19 Oct 2010 07:11 AM PDT   HP has officially revealed the Palm Pre 2, and with it confirmed many of the details about the device's specs that leaked onto the Web last week. The Palm Pre 2 — the first smartphone from Palm since HP purchased the smartphone-maker — sports a 1 gigahertz processor, 5-megapixel camera, slide-out keyboard and a design that the company describes as "sleeker" and more "streamlined" than the original (decide for yourself with the gallery below). The device will launch first in France on SFR (who was responsible for last week's leak when it posted the Pre 2 specs on its website) this Friday. In the U.S., the device will launch "in the coming months” on Verizon Wireless, though no specific date has been given. You may recall that the original Pre launched first with Sprint and then came to Verizon later on, so this represents a slight shift in launch strategy. Perhaps the most important aspect of the Pre 2, however, is that it will be the first device running version 2.0 of webOS, the full details of which were also revealed this morning by HP. Key features of the new mobile operating system include enhanced multitasking, support for Flash 10.1 and free Skype-to-Skype calling. We'll have some more details on webOS 2.0 on Mashable later today.          Reviews: Mashable, Skype More About: HP, palm, palm pre 2, webOS, webos 2.0 For more Mobile coverage:
      |
| Internet to Surpass 2 Billion Users This Year Posted: 19 Oct 2010 06:34 AM PDT   The number of Internet users will surpass 2 billion before the end of 2010, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) said in a report. The current world population is estimated by the U.S. Census Bureau to be 6.876 billion, which would mean that approximately 30% of the population will be online at the end of this year. There will be 226 million new Internet users this year, 162 million of which will be from the developing countries. Despite the fast growth of Internet users there, the developing countries still have a long way to go to catch up with the developed world. By the end of 2010, 71% of the population in developed countries will be online, compared to only 21% of people in developing countries. Regionally, 65% of the population is online in Europe, 55% in the Americas, 21.9% in the Asia/Pacific regions, while a mere 9.6% of the population is online in Africa. The ITU, United Nation’s agency for information and communication technologies, sees broadband and public internet access as the most important factors that will drive growth in the developing countries. “Broadband is the next tipping point, the next truly transformational technology. It can generate jobs, drive growth and productivity and underpin long-term economic competitiveness”, said ITU Secretary-General Hamadoun Toure. Image courtesy of iStockphoto, alexsl Reviews: Internet, iStockphoto More About: internet, online, population, trending For more Tech coverage:
      |
| This Morning’s Top Stories in Tech and Social Media Posted: 19 Oct 2010 06:26 AM PDT   Welcome to this morning's edition of "First To Know," a series in which we keep you in the know on what's happening in the digital world. We're keeping our eyes on four particular stories of interest today. Internet Users to Exceed 2 Billion This Year The number of Internet users will surpass 2 billion before the end of 2010, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) announced. The current world population is estimated by the U.S. Census Bureau to be 6.876 billion, which would mean that nearly 30% of the population will be online at the end of this year. Days after shares of Apple eclipsed $300 per share to hit an all-time high and a few hours after the company was named AdAge’s Marketer of the Decade, Apple released its latest earnings report, and with it, another milestone: $20 billion in quarterly revenue. Specifically, the company brought in sales of $20.34 billion for its fiscal fourth quarter and a net profit of $4.31 billion, both best-ever quarterly performances. Following the announcement, CEO Steve Jobs made a surprise appearance on the company’s earnings call to field questions from analysts, and to share his thoughts on Apple’s competitors –particularly Google and RIM — in the smartphone and tablet market. Full details and analysis of the call are available here. Google’s Search Page Redesign Emphasizes Location Google has moved the user location setting to the left-hand panel of the search engine results page, the company announced Monday. This feature automatically detects a user’s current location and tailors search results accordingly. Google will still deliver the same locally relevant results as it did previously, but now easier for users to see their location setting and adjust it to deliver results in different areas. Foursquare to Hit 4 Million Users This Week Foursquare is set to hit 4 million members this week, a source close to the company has revealed to Mashable. The milestone member metric comes roughly 50 days after the location-based mobile game signed on its 3 millionth user. Further News
Reviews: AdAge, Evernote, Facebook, Foursquare, Google, Internet, Mashable, Rhapsody, foursquare More About: apple, earnings, foursquare, Google, google search, internet, microsoft, Ray Ozzie, steve jobs For more Tech coverage:
      |
| You are subscribed to email updates from Mashable! To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |
0 comments to "Mashable: Latest 29 News Updates - including “The New MacBook Air: Smaller, With Two USB Ports [RUMOR]”"
Post a Comment