Home � � Mashable: Latest 29 News Updates - including “Tablet Commerce Expected to Explode in 2011 [STATS]”

Mashable: Latest 29 News Updates - including “Tablet Commerce Expected to Explode in 2011 [STATS]”

Posted by Ashim Adhikari on 5:28 AM // 0 comments

Mashable: Latest 29 News Updates - including “Tablet Commerce Expected to Explode in 2011 [STATS]”

Tablet Commerce Expected to Explode in 2011 [STATS]

Posted: 03 Feb 2011 03:56 AM PST


Many online retailers say half of mobile commerce is coming from tablet devices already, and more purchases are likely to come from tablets throughout 2011, according to a recent report from research firm Forrester.

However, the firm’s research also indicates that while dedicated online retail sites, especially Amazon.com, experience huge year-over-year growth, the same can’t be said for the social web when it comes to e-commerce. While there’s been a lot of buzz around commerce on social platforms, including Facebook, most online retailers haven’t seen great results from these networks.

Forrester half-jokingly coined the term “t-commerce” in the report section covering tablets and online retail. “In spite of the fact that the iPad was only introduced in the spring of 2010,” its analysts write, “it immediately proved to be a formidable driver of traffic through mobile devices. Many retailers report that already half of what they consider to be mobile traffic is coming through tablet devices.”

Forrester opines that the smaller form factor of smartphones make them a less-than-deal device for would-be mobile shoppers. And while smartphone traffic will continue to supplement web-based online retail, Forrester says, “Tablet devices, on the other hand, will grow by capturing share from traditional PC web traffic by untethering shoppers from their desktops, enabling easy browsing in a living room, during a bus commute to work, or at an airport.”

The negative news in Forrester’s report is that “social commerce” just isn’t taking off. The firm says that since late 2008 or early 2009, its research has shown that many or most major retailers have taken pains to establish social media presences. But to date, few of these retailers, less than 40%, have been able to “quantify the return on this investment, and even fewer have found that social networks grow their business.” Around 28% said that social media strategies have helped them grow their business in any tangible way.

“To the degree that retailers find any benefit at all from social strategies,” the report reads, “it is most frequently driven by tactics like ratings and reviews on a website rather than activities on social networks… Social networks, in fact, ranked dead last on a list of 10 customer acquisition tactics.”

Given this and other data, online retailers are encouraged to place less emphasis on social media sales and optimize for high performance and conversion on tablets.

In the comments, let us know about your own experience in this area of research: Have you bought a product from a company’s social media page or profile? How about on a tablet?

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, CandyBoxPhoto

More About: e-commerce, forrester, tablets

For more Business & Marketing coverage:

Honeycomb Brings Data Encryption to Android Tablets

Posted: 03 Feb 2011 02:11 AM PST


As much as we all like to hear about advanced cameras, more memory and faster processors in upcoming tablets, there’s one very important feature – especially to business customers – that’s been lacking from Android tablets so far: data encryption.

This is about to change with Android 3.0 a.k.a. Honeycomb, which brings the option to encrypt all data on the tablet and protect it with a password.

Engadget has spotted the option on Motorola Xoom, but Google claims it’s not a Motorola exclusive, which means it’ll be available on most upcoming Honeycomb-based tablets. The description of the option (see image below) claims you can “encrypt your accounts, settings, downloaded applications and their data, media and other files”.

The encryption process takes an hour or more, but there are still many unknowns about the feature: we don’t know what crypto standard is used for encryption (the iPad uses 256-bit AES hardware-based encryption) and will encrypting the data slow down your tablet and drain more battery in everyday usage.

Image courtesy of Engadget.

More About: android, android 3.0, data encryption, Google, honeycomb, Motorola, motorola xoom

For more Tech & Gadgets coverage:

Artist Heat Map Makes Music Discovery Visual

Posted: 02 Feb 2011 09:01 PM PST


The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here.

Name: Hitlantis

Quick Pitch: Hitlantis turns music discovery and promotion into a game with a playable heat map.

Genius Idea: While the web has rendered this one of the most democratic times for music, it has also rendered it one of the most crowded. Furthermore, there are countless services, blogs and apps designed to help you cut through the clutter and find music that you dig, adding another layer to that nesting doll called music discovery: How do you decide what service to use to decide what music to listen to? Anyone else’s head hurt?

Well, Helsinki-based startup Hitlantis aims to give music fans a new, more visual way to find music.

“The entire content industry was launching new services almost every month [when we came up with Hitlantis],” says co-founder Timo Poijärvi. “They all looked the same and had the same horrible content discovery problem: If your band is number 253,998 out of 1,325,998 search results, it is 100% impossible to be found in that digital swamp.”

“We wanted to change that and bring in visual browsing,” says Poijärvi. “It was the basic idea of normal human behavior: If you are walking down the street and see a record store (they still exist), you do not stop by the door and shout some odd letters into the letterbox. No, you would step into the store and start browsing visually.”

Hitlantis, which is free for all music lovers, is a rather beautiful service. It features a circular heat map including genres like punk, indie, electro and pop, all of which are made up of circles that denote different unsigned, up-and-coming bands.

Users can create profiles, and then click on circles to listen to full tracks from the bands in question, become fans of said bands and buy their music along the way. You can also share songs to a variety of social networks.

Bands, for their part, can also join for free to get in on the action. Upon signup, a band is positioned on the outside of the music heat map, but as they gather more fans and song purchases, they move toward the center.

To optimize the promotional experience, bands can also pay a monthly subscription of 5€ (which lets bands set up an online store) or 10€ (which includes record company pitching and software features). Bands can also win opportunities like gigs and studio time.

“We have several partners offering these things locally, territory by territory,” says Poijärvi. “For example our biggest partner is Universal Music, whose A&R department is already using Hitlantis as a source of great new music. In Scandinavia we are running monthly competitions where three to five of the most successful Hitlantis bands are being pitched to Universal A&R (they give us written feedback of the bands, every month).”

Those fees make up the bulk of the site’s monetization plan, (it has yet to secure VC funding) as well as fees bands can pay for further promotion, and a 10% cut of bands’ music sales. Bands take 90% of the cash, obtained using Click & Buy and Moneybookers.

Currently, 65% of the bands on the site are from Finland (seeing as how it launched there seven months ago), but it also boasts bands from more than 30 countries and fans from more than 100 — that’s 10,000 registered users and 2,700 bands.

In all honesty, Hitlantis is not the easiest site to casually navigate when looking for new music. Clicking on colored dots renders music discovery a gamble. However, Poijärvi says that navigation will improve in the future.

“The action map of Hitlantis will show many amazing things like what the other users are doing right now,” he says. “We will add several kinds of filters to the map so that the user may choose what he/she sees, etc. Additionally we will introduce some data-handling intelligence into the system making the sea of bubbles even more appealing with even stronger information visualisation.”

Mobile apps are also in the works, with an iPhone version slated for February, and Android apps on the horizon. Check out the video below for a sneak peek.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, PhotoEuphoria

Sponsored by Microsoft BizSpark

BizSpark is a startup program that gives you three-year access to the latest Microsoft development tools, as well as connecting you to a nationwide network of investors and incubators. There are no upfront costs, so if your business is privately owned, less than three years old, and generates less than U.S.$1 million in annual revenue, you can sign up today.

More About: hitlantis

For more Media coverage:

Reddit Surpasses 1 Billion Monthly Pageviews

Posted: 02 Feb 2011 08:06 PM PST


Reddit has reached a new milestone: 1 billion monthly pageviews. That’s up 300% from a year ago and a 20% increase from just last month.

As it occasionally does, the Condé Nast-owned company disclosed its January 2011 traffic stats. Its biggest accomplishment was breaking the billion pageview milestone. Specifically, the social media service garnered 1,000,404,480 pageviews. As Reddit notes in its blog post, only about 100 other websites can stake a claim in the billion pageviews club.

Even more impressive is that those 1 billion pageviews were generated from just 13.75 million absolute unique visitors, which accounted for a total of 68.11 million visits. A big reason why Reddit can generate so many pageviews from so few people is that the average person checks out 14.7 pages per visit and stays on the site on average for 15 minutes and 40 seconds.

It’s clear that Reddit’s growth rate is accelerating. It had 250 million pageviews in January 2010 and 429 million pageviews between June 14 and July 14. And just last month, the Condé Nast website reported 829 million pageviews.

If you do the math, that means pageviews increased by over 20% in a single month. Since January 2010, Reddit’s pageviews have grown by 300%. A lot of this growth has been at the expense of Digg, which has experienced a mass exodus of users ever since it launched Digg version four.

More About: digg, reddit, social media, trending

For more Social Media coverage:

Google’s Yelp Competitor, Hotpot, Goes Global & Appears in Search Results

Posted: 02 Feb 2011 06:43 PM PST


Google Hotpot, a Yelp competitor that acts as a recommendation engine and ratings/reviews system for places, has officially gone worldwide. Hotpot links will now also appear in Google‘s web search results.

On the official Google blog, Hotpot project manager Lior Ron writes, “Hotpot is really going places: to a Google search box near you and around the world.”

Ron also notes that Hotpot will now be available in 38 new languages, among them, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Chinese, and Korean.

The product has a seamless integration with Google Maps — particularly Google Maps on Android. Here’s a brief demo:

Google’s integration of Hotpot into web search results is rather subtle at the start. For the time being, you’ll see your friends’ ratings and recommendations in line with place listings. If you want to see all your friends’ recommendations, you’ll have to click “Places” on the left side of the search page. And you’ll have to be logged in to your Hotpot-linked Google account to see recommendations at all.

We’ve been following Hotpot since its launch late last year; the fledgling product is moving into a crowded space, one already dominated by big players like Yelp and Facebook Places. Still, this is an area of tech — the overlapping pieces between location, behavioral marketing, and social media — that’s potentially lucrative and potentially game-changing for any company in the search and discovery business.

We’ll see how Hotpot adoption shapes up and whether it has any effect on Google’s local advertising business.

More About: Google, google hotpot, google search, hotpot, Search, web search, yelp

For more Tech & Gadgets coverage:

“The Daily Show” & “The Colbert Report” Return to Hulu

Posted: 02 Feb 2011 05:36 PM PST


Hulu has announced that it has closed a major deal with Viacom, the owner of Comedy Central, VH1, BET and TV Land. As part of the arrangement, The Daily Show and The Colbert Report will be making their triumphant return to Hulu.

Terms of the deal were not announced.

“As part of the agreement, a selection of great current programming from MTV, Comedy Central, VH1, TV Land, BET and other Viacom channel brands will also be added to Hulu Plus,” CEO Jason Kilar said in a blog post. “Each episode of leading shows like Jersey Shore, Teen Mom 2, and Tosh.0 will be available starting 21 days after their on-air premiere, and all episodes will remain on the service through the end of their respective season.”

The Daily Show and The Colbert Report were Hulu’s top two shows respectively before Viacom yanked them from Hulu’s line-up in March 2010.

What’s changed? The answer is Hulu Plus, the company’s subscription-based service. With a more viable income stream in place, Viacom was more inclined to bring its content back to Hulu. In November, Hulu announced that it had surpassed 30 million users and would generate $240 million in revenue in 2010.

More About: hulu, hulu plus, News Corp, television, The Colbert Report, the daily show, viacom

For more Video coverage:

AT&T Doubles Tethering Cap as Verizon iPhone Looms

Posted: 02 Feb 2011 05:10 PM PST


AT&T has announced changes to its tethering and Data Pro plans designed to make it more competitive with the impending launch of the Verizon iPhone.

Currently, customers utilizing a tethering plan on their smartphones pay $20 per month for 2GB of monthly data usage. This includes AT&T’s most popular devices, the iPhone 3GS and the iPhone 4.

On February 13 though, AT&T will be doubling the tethering cap from 2GB to 4GB, at no extra charge. Everybody’s plans stay the same; the only difference is that tethering customers get double the data usage before incurring AT&T’s $10 per GB overage charge.

At the same time, the wireless network will also be launching a new Android app, AT&T Mobile Hotspot. This will give customers the ability to create a mobile Wi-Fi hotspot on-the-go. For $45 per month, AT&T customers can get the Mobile Hotspot app, the Data Pro plus plan and 4GB of monthly data usage. Initially it will only be available for the HTC Inspire 4G, but will be brought to other devices in the near future.

AT&T says that it doubled the tethering cap to accommodate the new AT&T Mobile Hotspot app, but it clearly has a secondary effect: it gives current iPhone customers another reason to stick with the carrier. The 4GB cap is doubles Verizon’s tethering and mobile hotspot 2G cap. Since both plans cost $20, customers who care about tethering will have to pause before making the leap to Verizon.

At least that’s what AT&T hopes.

Tomorrow, Verizon customers can pre-order the iPhone in anticipation of its launch on Thursday, Feb 10. Expect both sides to lure customers through discounts, upgraded plans and a barrage of advertising.

More About: att, iphone, Tethering, verizon, Verizon iPhone

For more Mobile coverage:

The Daily: It’s a Second-Rate iPad Magazine, Not a Newspaper [OP-ED]

Posted: 02 Feb 2011 04:14 PM PST


News Corp Chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch took the stage at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City Wednesday morning to unveil The Daily, a newspaper designed specifically for the iPad.

Murdoch has sunk $30 million into the project thus far, and says it will cost less than half a million dollars to produce each week — meaning that The Daily will cost approximately $53 million to produce in its first year. Subscriptions, priced at $0.99 per week or $39.99 per year, are expected to generate the majority of revenue; Murdoch hopes that, in time, advertising will come to make up half of that figure.

A Magazine, Not a Newspaper

Murdoch and his cohorts stressed that The Daily is, first and foremost, a newspaper. Most content will be released in a single update in the morning, but breaking news will be added throughout the day and could include, for instance, a live feed from Twitter to deliver updates, executive editor Jesse Angelo said.

There are two problems with this strategy: one, that most iPad owners don’t use their iPads to access breaking news, and that The Daily, in its current iteration, isn’t really a newspaper; it’s a magazine.

Let’s take a look at the first issue. A recent study conducted by Read It Later found that most reading on the iPad occurs during “personal prime time”: typically, between 8 and 10 p.m., after users have left work and eaten dinner. There’s also a small spike in the morning, but otherwise relatively low usage throughout the day.

Ray Pearce, VP of circulation at The New York Times, noted similar habits among readers of The Times‘s iPad app in a recent conversation with Mashable. “Usage is heaviest in the early morning and evening,” he said, noting that the app attracted more readers on the weekends than during the week, as well.

As such, it would have made more sense for The Daily to focus resources on end-of-day and weekend content — which, it appears, is precisely the opposite of what it’s done.

As it stands, the news section is extremely weak. The first edition contains precisely two real news articles, one of which (a story about Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak’s global address) had been thoroughly covered by all the major news outlets the previous day; the other, about the snow storm currently hitting the U.S., was borrowed from the AP. (The third and fourth listed news articles, one about a prison where convicted murders make kid toys, and another about a late-night doggie disco in Manhattan, fail to qualify as “real news,” in my opinion.)

In general, there is far more visual content than editorial content, and the editorial content that exists is poorly written. Of the $30 million Murdoch says he has sunk into the publication thus far, little, it appears, has been invested in editorial talent, despite having pulled in editorial staff from admirably well-written publications like The Economist and The Atlantic.

The writing also lacks a consistency in quality and a cohesive editorial voice. Molly Young’s unauthoritative mandate to “pick stripes” in the Arts & Life section feels worlds — not a handful of swipes — away from Reihan Salam’s on virtual entertainment; one belongs in Lucky, the other could have appeared, possibly, in the “Talk of the Town” section in The New Yorker.

The strongest section is clearly the Sports section. It’s also the biggest. Still, it’s not anything you couldn’t find for free — and at far greater depth — on the web.

Multimedia

The Daily‘s biggest strength is clearly multimedia. It’s got a nice magazine layout with plenty of videos, slideshows and clickable graphics. (As for the quality of the videos, I can’t say: Every time I clicked “play” on a video, I was met with an error message.) Somewhat counter-intuitively, users must rotate their iPads to horizontal mode to actually view the slideshows. In the future, Murdoch says, full-screen, 360-degree photographs will grace its pages.

Social Integration

Social media was, at best, an afterthought for the developers of The Daily — disappointing, given the opportunity they had to essentially reengineer the news media experience on the tablet.

Yes, one can share articles to Facebook and Twitter, which non-subscribers can view on the web. Yes, one can leave written — and even audio — comments in the app (or so it appears; I wasn’t effectively able to register), although one won’t be able to see the comments in-line with the article. One can’t copy text (it’s not selectable) to share to social networks, one cannot share to Tumblr, one cannot clip articles to Instapaper, one cannot enjoy live chats with fellow readers, and one cannot surface content that one’s friends are reading — among other things.

One can pull up team tweets in the Sports section, but they aren’t streaming and lack context.

Conclusion

The Daily is a beautiful, multimedia-rich daily magazine. But I expected more from a product with such an enormous budget, produced in collaboration with Apple’s own developer team. Still, I could have forgiven all had the quality of the content itself been better, if it had offered one item I couldn’t have found for free, and more intelligently written, on the web.

Content is still king.

Screenshot Gallery

















































More About: apple, ipad, News Corp, rupert murdoch, The Daily

For more Media coverage:

News Corp. Says It’s Ready To Sell MySpace

Posted: 02 Feb 2011 03:11 PM PST


In an earnings call today, News Corp. officially stated it plans to sell MySpace. During the call, COO Chase Carey said that “now is the right time” to attempt to place the social network “under a new owner.”

MySpace has undergone drastic changes in the past year, including a ground-up redesign, total repositioning as a media company rather than a social network per se, renegotiation of its advertising deal with Google (a key part of the site’s revenue), and a staff shuffling that saw more than one key executive relocating to a new venture.

Moreover, almost half of MySpace’s staff was served pink slips at the beginning of 2011, further reducing overhead.

Yet in spite of these changes, News Corp. said in today’s call that the parent company isn’t entirely pleased with the results. Ad revenues are lower than they once were, and “results at MySpace have been below our expectations,” a company rep said.

"The new MySpace has been very well received by the market and we have some very encouraging metrics,” Carey said. “But the plan to allow MySpace to reach its full potential may be best achieved under a new owner."

The MySpace renovations have not been cheap for its parent company. In its earnings statement, News Corp. said that while cable and broadcasting revenues are solid, the company “recorded a $275 million pre-tax charge for the impairment of goodwill related to the Digital Media Group and an organizational restructuring at MySpace.”

Rumors of MySpace’s eventual sale to an entity outside the News Corp. family have been swirling for some time. But Carey’s confirmations in today’s call suggest News Corp., which bought MySpace in 2005 for $580 million, would prefer that sale happen sooner rather than later.

MySpace has been, as far as digital properties are concerned, a fixer-upper; and News Corp. has done a lot to fix it up. But are the site’s repositioning, reorganization and redesign enough to make it a good buy for another entity? We’re as curious as anyone to learn how this saga will conclude and what will become of MySpace once its News Corp./Fox Digital era comes to an end.

More About: myspace, News Corp, sale, trending

For more Business & Marketing coverage:

Find a Great Job in Social Media or Web Development

Posted: 02 Feb 2011 02:58 PM PST


If you’re seeking a job in social media, we’d like to help out. For starters, Mashable’s Job Lists section gathers together all of our resource lists, how-tos and expert guides to help you get hired. In particular, you might want to see our articles on How to Leverage Social Media for Career Success and How to Find a Job on Twitter.

But we’d like to help in a more direct way, too. Mashable’s job boards are a place for socially savvy companies to find people like you. This week and every week, Mashable features its coveted job board listings for a variety of positions in the web, social media space and beyond. Have a look at what's good and new on our job boards:

Mashable Job Postings

VP Product at Mashable in San Francisco, CA.

Ruby on Rails Developer at Mashable in San Francisco, CA.

Regional Sales Director at Mashable in San Francisco, CA.

Regional Sales Director at Mashable in New York, NY.

Events Content Coordinator at Mashable in New York, NY.

Ad Ops Manager at Mashable in New York, NY.

Community Intern at Mashable in New York, NY.

Marketing Intern at Mashable in New York, NY.

Editorial Assistant at Mashable in New York, NY.

Mashable Job Board Listings

Web and mobile app designer at Voci Media Works LLC in New York, NY.

Web Reporter at Kaiser Health News in Washington, DC.

Experience Information Architect at Magnani Caruso Dutton in New York, NY.

Business Development Strategist at Crowdtap in New York, NY.

Freelance Social Media & Digital Marketing Expert at Kuhn Projects in New York, NY.

Monitoring Tools Engineer at Synacor in Buffalo, NY.

Lead Engineer at Synacor in Buffalo, NY.

Security Administrator at Synacor in Buffalo, NY.

Information Designer at Column Five in Newport Beach, CA.

Senior Systems Administrator at Synacor in Buffalo, NY.

Senior Analyst in Communications and Programs at Initiative for a Competitive Inner City in Boston, MA.

Senior Quality Engineer at Synacor in Buffalo, NY.

Lead Client Deployment Engineer at Synacor in Buffalo, NY.

Senior Engineer at Synacor in Buffalo, NY.

Project Manager at Synacor in Buffalo, NY.

Sales & Marketing Coordinator at a global consumer goods company in New York, NY.

Marketing Manager at a global consumer goods company in New York, NY.

at in .

Engineering Manager at Synacor in Buffalo, NY.

Director of Engineering at Synacor in Buffalo, NY.

Social Media Strategist at meebee in San Francisco, CA.

Web Designer at Zoove in Palo Alto, CA.

Designer & Developer at Razor & Tie in New York, NY.

Android Developer at Eventbrite in San Francisco, CA.

Front End Engineer/Developer at Eventbrite in San Francisco, CA.

Media Relations Specialist at Synaptic Digital in New York, NY.

Tech Lead/Sr. Java Developer at Kaplan Test Prep in New York, NY.

Digital Producer at Digitas in New York, NY.

Sr. Digital Producer at Digitas in New York, NY.

Sr. Account Executive at AppNexus in New York, NY.

Mobile Application Developer at R/GA in New York, NY.

Digital Guru at Toys R Us in Wayne, NJ.

Social Media Manager at FilmBuff in New York, NY.

Marketing Manager at Insight Cuba in New Rochelle, NY.

Social Media Manager at OIC in Pasadena, CA.

VP Digital at Porter Novelli in New York, NY.

Web & Mobile Developer at iAnalyst in New York, NY.

VP of Sales/Business Development at Fanscape in New York, NY.

Interactive Account Director at Magnani Caruso Dutton in New York, NY.

Web Developer at University of Southern California in Los Angeles, CA.

Mobile Engineer at eHarmony in Santa Monica, CA.

Product Manager – Web Font Services at Monotype Imaging in Boston, MA.

Social Media Strategist at TheBlaze.com in New York, NY.

Director of Online Services at California Dental Association in Sacramento, CA.

Digital Communications VP/Director at Digitas Health in Wilmington, DE.

Social Media Strategist at Halogen in San Francisco, CA.

Sr. Java Engineer (International) at eHarmony in Santa Monica, CA.

Sr. Java Engineer at eHarmony in Santa Monica, CA.

Sr. Front End Developer at eHarmony in Santa Monica, CA.

IT Team Lead at eHarmony in Santa Monica, CA.

Sr. Linux Systems & Storage Administrator at eHarmony in Santa Monica, CA.

Quality Assurance Engineer II (Mobile) at eHarmony in Santa Monica, CA.

Sr. Linux Systems Administrator at eHarmony in Santa Monica, CA.

Mobile/Web User Experience Designer at eHarmony in Santa Monica, CA.

Ruby Engineer at eHaromony in Santa Monica, CA.

Online Marketing Manager at SoundBite Communications in Bedford, MA.

Audience Development Coordinator at Next New Networks in New York, NY.

Creative Social Technologist at The Brooklyn Brothers in London, United Kingdom.

PHP Interactive Developer at Dalton Agency in Jacksonville, FL.

Product Manager Site Solutions at Gannett Co, Inc. in Fairfax, VA.

Interaction Designer at The Orchard in New York, NY.

Social Influencer at M. Thirty Communications in Toronto, Canada.

Digital Account Director at Connelly Partners in Boston, MA.

Sales Leader at Real Valuable Inc. in Cleveland, OH.

Digital & Social Media Analytics at Porter Novelli in New York, NY.

Senior Business Consultant Social Media at adidas Group in Herzogenaurach, Germany.

Tech Liaison at Bonnier R&D in San Francisco, CA.

Health and Wellness Blogger at The Vermont Country Store in Manchester Center, VT.

Food Blogger at The Vermont Country Store in Manchester Center, VT.

QA Engineer at Media Temple in Culver City, CA.

Senior Software Engineer at Drop in Media in Pacifica, CA.

Marketing & Communications Manager at University of San Diego in San Diego, CA.

Manager, Producer/PM at Digitas in New York, NY.

CSS Producer/Front End Developer at Buddy Media in New York, NY.

AMPAC Public Relations Manager at Sonos, Inc. in Santa Barbara, CA.

Mashable‘s Job Board has a variety of web 2.0, application development, business development and social networking job opportunities available. Check them out at here.

Find a Web 2.0 Job with Mashable

Got a job posting to share with our readers? Post a job to Mashable today ($99 for a 30 day listing) and get it highlighted every week on Mashable.com (in addition to exposure all day every day in the Mashable marketplace).

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, YinYang

For more Social Media coverage:

Samsung Teases Galaxy S Successor [VIDEO]

Posted: 02 Feb 2011 02:22 PM PST

If this teaser video is any indication, Samsung will be showing off its Galaxy S2 phone at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in less than two weeks.

Samsung has had great success with the Galaxy S series of phones, with 10 million units sold in just seven months.

Samsung’s strategy with the Galaxy S in the U.S. was to offer a different variation of the same device on each of the four major mobile operators. Samsung further augmented that strategy by partnering with Google on the Nexus S phone released in December 2010.

The teaser video is short on details, but the clip does insinuate that the Galaxy S2 will feature a very slight profile. Samsung will be streaming the unveiling of the new Galaxy S on February 13. Mashable will have staff on the ground at MWC and we will be bringing you our hands-on reports with the new device.

[via PocketLint]

More About: android, galaxy s, galaxy s2, MWC, samsung, samsung galaxy s, smartphone

For more Mobile coverage:

Will “The Daily” Do for News What iTunes Did for Music?

Posted: 02 Feb 2011 02:16 PM PST


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

With the introduction of The Daily, Rupert Murdoch's media empire has expanded into uncharted territory. Never before has an online-only newspaper been available exclusively to iPad users who subscribe to it via Apple's iTunes store. To some, today's unveiling at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City represents a landmark moment in how Americans will consume information. To others, it is just the latest in a series of attempts to monetize online journalism in a world that has come to expect so much of its news and commentary for free.

As is the case with most product launches in the digital space, The Daily's reality likely lies somewhere in the middle — short of the hype, but still possessing the potential to significantly alter the media landscape if it can tap into a growing tablet market that already represents a significant niche among American news consumers.

What's Working in The Daily's Favor?

Because of its initial exclusivity to the iPad, The Daily's brand is inexorably tied to Apple. While seemingly a limiting factor, this relationship won't diminish the prospect for success. If you had to pick a partner in selling a product that once was profitable but is now being traded for free, Apple's history with the music industry must be appealing. And that's precisely what The Daily is hoping to do. A successful subscription model for online news will provide journalism the lifeline it needs in much the same way that iTunes made record labels profitable again.

At $0.99 a week, The Daily is less expensive than most online news publications that have experimented to date with paywalls and subscription-only models, notably The Wall Street Journal and The Sunday Times, which are, coincidentally, also owned by Rupert Murdoch. Has he finally found the price point at which consumers will now be willing to pay for what used to be free?

Arguably, The Daily's greatest advantage will be the experience it provides its readership. The quality of content promised by The Daily looks to bring together the best of how news travels on the web; podcast-like audio reports, vivid images, streaming videos, options to share through social media, and, of course, its ability to report breaking stories without waiting for the next morning's edition. Further, it will all be delivered on what many see as one of the most user-friendly portable devices available. Just as the iPod-iTunes ecosystem made digital music easy to find and transport, the combination of the iPad and The Daily could very well make news reading easy, informative, social, and, dare I say, fun.

What's Working Against The Daily?

One major challenge for The Daily is that the price point that most online news consumers prefer is still zero. No online subscription news service to date can really be called a success. Those that have managed to entice readership do so through the niche reporting — or high profile reporters — that readers can't access anywhere else. Content is still king, and we still don't know how The Daily's reporting will differ from that of its competitors. If there is no significant distinction, there is less of an incentive for consumers to shell out their hard-earned dollars.

Money won't be the only limit to success. The Daily will need to find support in an audience that wants
increasingly customized news. It is doubtful that a publication with an international scope will be able to deliver the focus that helps bolster the readership of hyper-local and interest-specific blogs.

And there is also the question of The Daily's brand recognition and loyalty among information consumers, which have yet to be established and must immediately compete with the biggest names in news. If content is king, credibility is queen — and today's major dailies have been building that credibility for more than 150 years in some cases. Perhaps the greatest threat to The Daily's success is the fact that credibility and trust are only built over time, and its competitors have a significant advantage in this respect. Furthermore, the most popular blogs and online thought leaders often build trust by railing against the establishment that many see embodied by The Daily's heritage — namely The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and Rupert Murdoch. That's another hurdle The Daily must clear if its potential is to be realized.

How Will It All Play Out?

At the end of the day, The Daily will be judged — and purchased — in the same way as its competitors; on the content it provides and the way that content is delivered. Could it — and other services based on its model — one day be the primary portal through which we learn about the world? It's certainly possible — but not without providing the quality reporting and delivery that news consumers expect in return for even a nominal price.

More About: business, ipad, media, News, op-ed, Opinion, publishing, The Daily

For more Media coverage:

Audi Super Bowl Ad Claims First Use of Twitter Hashtag

Posted: 02 Feb 2011 02:02 PM PST


Audi is claiming a first in Super Bowl advertising: The inclusion of a Twitter hashtag at the end of its 60-second TV spot.

The hashtag “#ProgressIs” will flash during the automaker’s ad in the first break after kick-off Sunday. Viewers who use that hashtag and the URL audi.us/ProgressIs in their tweets will enter a contest with the grand prize of a trip to Sonoma, California, for a test drive of the Audi R8 supercar later this month. Audi will also award $25,000 to a charity on behalf of the grand prize winner.

The theme “ProgressIs” is based on the automaker’s new brand positioning, which revolves around the theme expressed in the brand’s new tagline: “Luxury has progressed.” The Super Bowl ad, promoting the A8 sedan, will feature two well-dressed inmates trying to escape from a luxury prison. It also features a cameo by soft jazz icon Kenny G. (The company, hoping to keep an aura of mystery around the ad, isn’t releasing any further details.)

A rep for Audi, says that the company intends to spark conversations on Twitter about what progressive luxury is. The rep added that she believes that no one has ever used a Twitter hashtag during a Super Bowl spot. “From all our research, it looks like we’re the first ones.”

In addition to the Twitter promotion, Audi will also launch a Facebook program around the theme of an estate sale, where fans can try to tag items shown in that Super Bowl ad. The grand prize for that contest is the same as for the Twitter contest: the R8 test drive in Sonoma.

Audi is one of a handful of Super Bowl advertisers offering a Twitter tie-in this year. Bridgestone is planning to run Promoted Tweets during the game, according to spokeswoman Angela Patterson. Mercedes-Benz has also launched “The World’s First Twitter-Fueled Race,” which features four two-person teams racing to the game in Dallas from various points 1,500 miles away. The winning team is the one that generated the most Twitter activity during the contest.

More About: audi, Super Bowl ads, twitter

For more Business & Marketing coverage:

Announcing Mashable Connect 2011 at Walt Disney World, FL

Posted: 02 Feb 2011 01:52 PM PST



In the past five years, Mashable has grown with an incredible community of readers who are thoughtful and influential, and leaders in their respective communities. We believe it is important to connect with our community around the ideas and innovations that we cover every day.

This is why we are hosting the Mashable Connect 2011 conference from May 12-14, 2011 at Disney's Contemporary Resort in Walt Disney World © Florida.

Mashable Connect 2011 will be an intimate experience that brings together digital leaders and influencers for a weekend away to share and connect offline in a unique setting, away from the distractions of traditional conferences.

Participants will hear from esteemed, provocative speakers and spend time with influential members of the digital community, including executives, founders, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, brand managers, marketers, designers, developers, members of the media, and of course, the Mashable team.

To keep this as intimate as possible, we are hosting just 300 participants. We are accepting applications and encourage you to apply here: http://mashable.com/connect

Speakers will be announced shortly.

More About: Conference, Events, mashable connect, mashable connect 2011

For more Social Media coverage:

YouTube & Flickr Offer On-the-Ground Look at Protests in Egypt

Posted: 02 Feb 2011 01:28 PM PST

Egypt

Since Internet access was restored Wednesday in Egypt, witnesses of the growing violence throughout the country have been able to share their photos and videos without using a work around.

Internet access in the country had been restricted after the government pressured Internet service providers to block Twitter, then Facebook, and then the entire Internet in response to protests against the presidency of Hosni Mubarak.

Before the Internet block was removed, people were using third-party apps and proxy servers to bypass these blocks, and grassroots communication about the protests continued on social networks like YouTube and Flickr.

New images of the protests have continued to flood into both of these networks now that Internet access has been restored. About 4,000 uploads are currently categorized under the Jan 25 Flickr tag, and YouTube has been working with real-time curation site Storyful to collect uploaded video of the protests in its Citizentube channel.

We’ve gathered a collection of the images from each of these channels, and you can view them in the galleries below.





That tree in Sphinx square was on fire as a result of the live ammunition and gas grenades













Peaceful demonstrations @ Tahrir square Cairo

























Photos courtesy of Mahmoud Saber, Monasosh, Mashahed, Kodak Agfa


ثورة الغضب في بنها المتظاهرين يصفقون لقوات الامن المركزي



Protest in Egypt - Jan 25, 2011


Peaceful protest of few hundreds Egyptians on one of the main streets in Cairo in Jan 25, 2011 (Egyptian national holiday - Police day)


Demonstrators gather in Tahrir Square ahead of million man march


Cairo, Egypt: Demonstrators gather in Tahrir Square ahead of Tuesday's planned "Million Man March" against President Mubarak. (January 31, 2011)


Things Mubarak Thugs are throwing on peaceful protestors in Tahrir Square


We've been there for 1 week. Not one single injury, not one single person harmed. Now, the mubarak thugs are throwing this on protestors. For 50 Egyptian Pounds per person!!!!

More About: Egypt, flickr, protests, youtube

For more Social Media coverage:

OkCupid CEO: We Will Not Charge Users Following Match.com Acquisition

Posted: 02 Feb 2011 01:01 PM PST


We reported this morning that Match.com, an operating business of IAC, had acquired OkCupid for $50 million in cash. Many Mashable readers expressed distress, worrying that they would now have to pay for OkCupid’s free dating services. Well, we talked to co-founder and CEO Sam Yagan, who says that this isn’t the case.

“Our goal is that [the acquisition] will have no effect whatsoever,” Yagan told us, saying that no positions will change within the company, and that it will continue full-steam ahead as usual — sans censorship or fees.

In fact, Yagan says it will be releasing a location-aware app in the coming months, as well as a new OkTrends piece.

As for why the company chose to go through with the acquisition, Yagan says he feels that the move will secure OkCupid’s future. “Match.com is committed to online dating,” he says. “They have sites for every niche. And there’s no question that they’ll be running dating sites for a long time.”

“We wouldn’t make a deal that would be bad for the users,” he added. “We wouldn’t sell to someone who we thought would run [OKCupid] into the ground… I have a boss now, that’s the only change.”

Internet denizens have also pointed out that a popular OKCupid article from last year titled "Why You Should Never Pay For Online Dating" has been taken down from the company’s blog.

“I chose to take that down. Match didn’t ask,” Yagan says, denying that the other site was attempting to censor OkCupid. Apparently, the story was pieced together from public information, and Yagan has learned that some of the assumptions made in it were untrue.

Also, he says, “It’s a common sense thing to do. We’re joining a bunch of new colleagues, there’s no need to have that post.”

More About: Match.com, money, okcupid, online dating

For more Business & Marketing coverage:

Pre-Super Bowl Google Searches: Chicken, TVs and Man Caves

Posted: 02 Feb 2011 12:55 PM PST


The looming Super Bowl has prompted a spike in searches for chicken, dips and flat-screen TVs, among other items, according to data from Google.

While such searches have become common each year during the weeks leading up to the game, Google reports that there has been an annual rise in such queries every year since 2006. (The company started recording Super Bowl search data in 2004.)

Such food and drink queries were 21% higher in 2010 than in 2009. Those searches typically start two weeks before the game and then grow exponentially in the week leading up to the telecast, Google rep Sandra Heikkinen says.

Breaking it down even further, the top searches are for “recipes,” “chicken recipes,” “healthy recipes” and “crock pot recipes.” Searches for chicken wings have been on the rise since 2004, and other popular chicken searches include “chicken breast” and “buffalo chicken.” Cheese is also big. Cheese queries rose 35% in 2010 compared to 2009.

Another popular search is for dips — searches typically spike around the holidays in December, level off in early January and then climb around the time for the game. Other common searches are for chili recipes, pizza and pizza delivery.

Not surprisingly, food marketers are capitalizing on the interest. Tyson, for instance, is targeting moms with content related to party planning on the top women’s sites, including SheKnows and iVillage’s “Super Bowl Extravaganza.”

Aside from food, mid-to-late January also sees an increased interest in TVs. With the exception of the holiday season, searches for TVs are highest around the Super Bowl. For example, “flat screen TV” queries rose 40% last week compared to those from the previous week. Searches for “big screen TV” and “projector TV” each rose 70% during that time.

Finally, it seems that those TVs aren’t just being searched to watch the game. According to Google, searches for “man cave” rose 16% for the 30 days ending February 1.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, adlifemarketing

More About: Google, Super Bowl

For more Media coverage:

Pulse News Previews Honeycomb App for Android Tablets [PICS]

Posted: 02 Feb 2011 12:30 PM PST


Pulse News, by startup Alphonso Labs, has helped usher in a new way of consuming social news on mobile devices. A new Honeycomb version of the application was previewed for Android tablets in conjunction with Google’s press event Wednesday.

Alphonso Labs worked closely with Google to tap into the tablet operating system’s differentiating features including Activity Fragments (as described below), home screen widgets, notifications and accelerated graphics.

Here’s how Alphonso Labs describes the benefits of working with Honeycomb Activity Fragments: “Honeycomb allows developers to break the Activities of their applications into subcomponents called Fragments, and then combine them in a variety of ways to create a richer, more interactive experience. For the landscape view, Pulse allows you to open the story right there in a new fragment. This allows readers to simultaneously browse and read news stories.”

The home screen widgets are also handy. They offer users instant access to stories within Pulse, and the rich-content notifications that include images and news story headlines.

The Honeycomb application will be released later this month and include the standard Pulse fare that iPhone, iPad and Android users have already come to appreciate.

So, is the Honeycomb-optimized version of Pulse News superior to its iPad counterpart? “It’s comparable — calling it superior (just yet) would not be correct,” says Alphonso Labs co-founder Akshay Kothari. The “just yet” part has us wondering what the app makers have in store for future updates.

Check out the screenshots below for an early look at Pulse News for Honeycomb.


Homescreen





Landscape View




For the landscape view, Pulse allows you to open the story right there in a new fragment. This allows readers to simultaneously browse and read news stories.


Portrait View





Catalog





Categories





Pulse widgets




Pulse has incorporated some of the new Honeycomb widgets in its Android tablet app. What you see is a 3D stack of articles from a particular source, which you can flick up or down to change stories. You can also click on a story you like, and go right into the app.


Pulse widget





Honeycomb widget picker





Pulse widget interaction




More About: alphonso labs, android, Android Honeycomb, Google, honeycomb, pulse, pulse news, startup

For more Startups coverage:

Music Video Made on Microsoft Kinect Is Ghostly and Lovely

Posted: 02 Feb 2011 12:21 PM PST

Hacks of the uber-popular Microsoft Kinect have become an art form of late, and a recent music video created for the band Echo Lake is no different.

Reminiscent of Radiohead's "House of Cards" video, the above vid — created by filmmaker Dan Nixon — has a tech-flavored spin.

Nixon says in a blog post on the band’s Tumblr: "As far as I know (and I'm scared of checking) this is the first music video to be made with the Microsoft Kinect camera. The footage was shot on that piece of £130 equipment and recorded to custom software running on a laptop. The depth data was then manipulated to get the whole band in one 'space' and then the fun started.”

The single in the video, “Young Silence,” comes from the band’s upcoming disc by the same name, which debuts on Valentine’s Day.

From choose-your-own adventure formats, to crowdsourcing, to HTML5, to 360-degree mobile apps — music videos are getting more and more creative these days, especially as technology continues to flourish and change.

What do you think is on the horizon when it comes to aural and visual storytelling?

[ht: Ooh, Brilliant]

More About: echo-lake, Microsoft Kinect, music, video

For more Media coverage:

“Oregon Trail” Hits Facebook

Posted: 02 Feb 2011 11:38 AM PST


Break out your snake bite kits — Oregon Trail is now on Facebook!

Oregon Trail for Facebook combines qualities of the original game (and its various incarnations) with popular social games like FarmVille and CityVille.

Users can add friends to their wagon parties and have the option to continue on a solitary journey or with an entourage. Supplies for the trail — items like food, antibiotics, wagon parts and clothing — can be procured using virtual currency. This currency can be purchased with Facebook Credits.

Aside from general trail activities, users can play mini games and complete tasks to earn more virtual currency and reach higher levels.

In our brief time with the game, we found it a little hard to use. The game is still in its early stages of development, but figuring out how to start or complete missions was less intuitive than we were expecting.

Nostalgia will undoubtedly bring throngs of users to Oregon Trail for Facebook, but it remains to be seen if the game can be addictive enough to keep users coming back.

The beauty of the original Apple II game, was that while educational, it was replayable. We fondly remember waiting patiently for our turn at the computer in second and third grade, if only to get a chance to hunt some buffalo.

Beyond Oregon Trail, The Learning Company plans to launch the Facebook version of Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? on February 9. Carmen Sandiego may not have the same following as Oregon Trail, but we actually think the mechanics of the game and its structure makes it better suited for Facebook and other social platforms.

What do you think of Oregon Trail for Facebook? Are you ready to see a modernized “Zed died from Dysentery” message? Let us know.

More About: facebook games, Oregon Trail, oregon trail facebook, social games

For more Social Media coverage:

Why Mobile Platform Wars Are Keeping Content Strategies in Flux

Posted: 02 Feb 2011 11:25 AM PST

phone image

Jim Kerr is the vice president of strategy for Triton Media, where he assists in the strategic growth and integration of all of Triton Digital’s portfolio companies and partners.

Ask any media company about their mobile strategy, and one of the first things they'll discuss is their fantastic content strategy centered around their app. Dig a little deeper, however, and the frustration starts to show. Do they develop just for iOS? Do they add Android and Blackberry? Is Symbian dead? What about feature phones — should they just ignore these?

The answers are problematic for media, because if you peel back the excitement and dazzle of mobile tablet and phone device innovation, you find the kind of chaos that makes strategic planning nigh impossible.

The recent Consumer Electronics Show (CES) was a microcosm of this broader issue. Like many, I was dazzled by all the new products. But when you looked beyond the hype over the Xoom tablet, the Atrix cell phone or the Entune dashboard, the panels and hallway discussions suggested an underlying hardware ecosystem in significant flux.

Obstacles

phones image

I mentioned the difficulty in developing across multiple OSes in the cell phone and tablet space, but this is complicated now by multiple form factors, as well. From a cell phone screen to a 7 or 10" tablet, can you really make one size fit all? This problem of system complexity was addressed again and again at CES and continues to be an industry sore point.

The irony is that as systems have gotten more complex, content strategies have gotten simpler. The recent industry-wide media strategy of focusing on adapting content or cutting it into chunks and providing various pieces for various destinations is now practically dead. "Give consumers the content, and let them choose where to consume it," is the mantra of the day. Of course, a strategic caveat is that consumers want content where and when they want it. But the "what" is now everything they could expect from other distribution sources, from DVDs to TV shows to radio stations.

This is what makes the underlying device and OS chaos all the more maddening for traditional media. They've finally figured out a content strategy, and their distribution strategy is up in the air.

This is true of phones and tablets, but to get a really good taste of these issues, just take a look at automobile dashboards as an illustrative example. There has been a tremendous amount of positive press about the potential for content creators in this realm, but even a quick survey of the digital dashboard ecosystem reveals it to be a total mess.

The lack of standards is an even bigger problem in dashboards, not to mention the very real concern over distracted drivers. Unlike a stand-alone device like a phone or a tablet, in-dash devices need to interact with other car systems, many of which are manufactured by third parties. Car dashboard system standards development has been painfully slow and is still nowhere close to a solution.

The Wild West

It is tempting to just say, "but that's the dashboard, it's different." But UI and OS issues exist across all devices. QNX is a company with a long history in auto electronics infrastructure. At CES, Andrew Poliak, QNX director of automotive business development, basically threw up his hands in frustration over various OS differences. QNX's solution is to develop an open web-based platform using their own codebase. Interestingly, this is the same OS that will be used by the Blackberry Playbook, one of the hyped new tablets expected out this year. In both cases, QNX parent company Research In Motion is making a large bet that openness and web-based standards will win out — in both tablets and in the dash. Their goal mirrors media content strategy perfectly: A consistent user experience across all devices.

In short, media faces a device and OS environment that is like the Wild West. While the expectations of the users are known, the OSes will change; the standards will change, and device innovation will continue. At this point, no one knows really what is worth fighting for or which UI will be the one that dominates. Will the chaos lead to a consolidation to three or even two dominant mobile OSes in the tablet and phone space? Will it all implode in a return to web standards and applications, powered by HTML5, as quite a few speakers at CES predicted?

Conclusion

For content companies, this chaos requires a deft strategic hand. If you listened to the conversations in the halls and paid attention to the panels, the momentum appears to be in favor of HTML5 and web-based solutions. Content-specific device apps are, at best, going to be disrupted and, at worst, going to be phased out entirely. Accepting this as the reality changes a lot of things for media companies, from the wisdom of large OEM app deals to creating a development team around iOS or Android development.

But this is still far from assured. In the short term, apps are still the key player in the device and content space. Dealing with the mess of cross-platform and cross-OS development is just something media has to do, although hedging their bets away from large-scale investment in one OS or OEM may be wise at this point.

The interesting thing is that it took years for media to realize that their mobile content strategy was ultimately quite simple. At the end of the day, perhaps their distribution strategy is just as simple: Hire a bunch of mobile web developers.

More Mobile Resources from Mashable:

- 7 Hot Trends in Mobile App Design
- 5 Predictions for Mobile in 2011
- Why Mobile Shopping Could Be As Big As Online Shopping
- Mobile Development: 5 Tips for Small Businesses
- 22 Essential Resources for Android Owners

Image courtesy of Flickr, VampzX_23, graciepoo.

More About: auto dashboard, business, CES, dashboard, Mobile 2.0, mobile development, strategy, Tablet

For more Mobile coverage:

Startup Launches “Yelp for Software”

Posted: 02 Feb 2011 11:13 AM PST


Seven months ago, Justin Wilcox was shopping around for an e-mail marketing software. Frustrated with the lack of crowdsourced reviews about software as a service (SaaS) products, he tweeted, “Could someone please build a Yelp for SaaS, tired of googling ‘[Service] vs’ for stale blog posts.”

Three weeks ago, he decided that person should be him. He was preparing to move from Seattle, and his good friend had just been laid off after his company acquired a development firm.

Assembling a team of about 10 people, they set out to create a beta product within three weeks. And, if you go by Hawaii time (which the team is allowing, since one member was working while on vacation), they made their goal.

The team’s beta product, OnCompare is launching Wednesday with three review categories: e-mail marketing, cloud computing and file sharing. For each category, the team selected three front running softwares about which users can add their two cents.

Wilcox is the first to admit that the product isn’t yet in full form. “The next three or four months are all about us collecting data,” he says. “We’re going to optimize the site, we’re going to see how people are using it, and we’re going to test, is there a way of monetizing it?”

But even if the product never makes a cent, the blog that the team kept throughout the up, down, frustrating and rather sleepless moments serves as an insightful (if brief) look at some of the challenges inherent to starting a company on any timeline.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, slobo

More About: entrepreneurship, OnCompare, SaaS, startups

For more Startups coverage:

WikiLeaks Nominated for Nobel Peace Prize

Posted: 02 Feb 2011 10:48 AM PST


A member of the Parliament of Norway says he has nominated WikiLeaks for the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize.

Snorre Valen, a member of the Socialist Left party, announced his decision to nominate the whistle-blowing organization on his blog.

“WikiLeaks have contributed to the struggle for [human rights, democracy and freedom of speech] globally, by exposing (among many other things) corruption, war crimes and torture — some times even conducted by allies of Norway,” he wrote. He also cited WikiLeaks’s role in the recent uprisings in Tunisia, which resulted in the abdication of President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali after 24 years of rule.

In mid-January, former Swiss banker Rudolf Elmer gave WikiLeaks information about the bank accounts of more than 2,000 prominent individuals, many of whom may have committed tax evasion.

The nomination period for the 2011 prize ended Tuesday. The committee received 237 names for the prize in 2010.

For more Social Media coverage:

Google Answers Our Prayers With Android Market Webstore

Posted: 02 Feb 2011 10:46 AM PST


Google has just announced that the Android Market is now accessible via a standard web browser.

Putting the Market online, a la iTunes, answers one of our longest standing complaints against the Android Market and the Android app ecosystem as a whole.

In addition to being able to browse and purchase apps from the Android Market website, users can also install applications directly to their device, no cords required.

Google is also upping its currency offerings and improving currency seller support.

Updates coming…

More About: android, Android Market, Google, smartphone

For more Media coverage:

Stealth Health Care App Raises $2.5 Million

Posted: 02 Feb 2011 10:02 AM PST


Massive Health announced Wednesday that it has raised a $2.5 Million seed round from Felicis VC, Greylock Discovery Fund, Andreessen Horowitz, Mohr Davidow Ventures and Charles River Ventures. But what the company’s doing with the money is still vague.

Massive Health has been attracting an increasing amount of attention since Aza Raskin, Mozilla’s former creative director, announced he would be leaving the non-profit foundation to co-found the startup, which is, according to its website “still in stealth like the ninja behind you.”

Besides promising to revolutionize the health care industry, details about the product have been vague. In a blog post today, the startup revealed that its product is an app. From the post:

“We're not proposing giving you a badge for eating your broccoli or letting you check-in and become duke of ranch dressing. Tweeting the details of your health isn't particularly useful either. We are talking about tight feedback loops and deep insight into the interface which is your body. There is something magical in the intersection of health, motivation, data analysis, and your social graph. That's where habits are formed, behaviors are changed, and people get healthy.”

In a call, Raskin and his co-founder, Sutha Kamal, explained their proposed solution as an analogy to the Prius. People have always known that driving is bad for the environment, but because the car’s dashboard gives constant feedback about how many miles per gallon a driver uses, people changed their driving behavior. They started driving through yellow lights in an attempt to maximize their gas mileage.

“Imagine if you could have a tight feedback loop to a health problem, where we know it affects behavioral change,” Kamal said.

The startup plans to target diagnosed problems like heart disease, diabetes and obesity that can be largely controlled by changes in behavior. As far as a time line for this revolution, the co-founders are just as vague.

“Soon,” Kamal said. “But this is software.”

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, Cimmerian

More About: Aza Raskin, funding, Massive Health, startups, Sutha Kamal

For more Startups coverage:

Google Unveils Android Honeycomb [LIVE]

Posted: 02 Feb 2011 10:02 AM PST


Google has gathered the press at its headquarters to officially unveil Android Honeycomb, the first Android OS designed specifically for tablets.

We’re here live at Google HQ in Mountain View, Calif. for Google’s “A Taste of What’s New From Android” event. The search giant will go in-depth with Android 3.0 and its features, as well as provide demos of the first devices that will carry the operating system. We also expect Google to make some announcements about the future of Android.

What does Google have up its sleeve? Here are my live notes from the company’s press conference:

Live: Google’s Honeycomb Press Conference

All times are in Pacific Standard Time

10:02 a.m.: Google’s Andy Rubin is kicking things off. The standard fare: We’re happy with Android’s growth, we love our team, etc.

10:05: Hugo from Google is about to show off some of Honeycomb’s new features. On a separate note, it’s interesting that they use a blue bee to symbolize the tablet OS vs. the cute and iconic Android.

10:06: The screen is redesigned. The top left has the search functions, the top right has application access, and the bottom bar has the traditional Android buttons. Except they are no longer physical buttons. Those are a thing of the past.

10:07: Hugo is flipping through some widgets. There’s a new interface for browsing through videos, photos and books via widgets.

10:08: Advanced notifications. They’re like Growl notifications on the Mac, except on the bottom right of the screen. The settings panel is also there.

10:10: Games work just as you’d expect them to.

10:11: Honeycomb utilizes a pane interface for things like e-mail. If you’ve ever tried Gmail on the iPad, you’ve seen this interface before. Google calls these panes “Application Fragments,” which developers can use to optimize their Android apps for Honeycomb.

10:12: Drag-and-drop interactions are included in Honeycomb, so you can drag-and-delete your e-mails if you so choose.

10:13: Hardware acceleration available for apps. Only takes one line of code to enable.

10:14: New animation framework. Makes transitions smoother (though it’s still nothing compared to the iPad, in our opinion).

10:15: New YouTube app. 3D video wall, utilizes render script and hardware acceleration. The same is true for Google Books.

10:16: Google Maps is now getting demoed. It utilizes 3D rendering. Even the buildings are in 3D (a feature Google’s Marissa Mayer informed us about earlier this year).

10:17: Google Body is the last 3D demo. You can see the human body in 3D.

10:18: Thomas Williamson, a 3D expert and CEO of War Drum Studios, is demoing two of his company’s games and how it performs in 3D.

10:20: Google is showing off the multimedia aspects of Honeycomb. It has a new camera app. It’s the same as the camera app I played with when I first got my hands on the Xoom at CES.

10:22: Video chat is being demoed. A widget called “Contact Shortcut” lets you access your contacts and call them or e-mail them. Video chat via Google Talk just brings your contact up as a full screen video. Seems to run crisply enough.

10:24: CNN is now on stage to demo its new Honeycomb application. Louis Gump, VP of Mobile, is giving the demo.

10:25: The CNN app launches in “the near future.” It utilizes the pane interface. The key news sections are on the left, while the right-hand side has different videos you can watch.

10:26: CNN’s app for Honeycomb has live stream capabilities. You can watch CNN locally or internationally from the app (though I doubt it can replace the cable channel).

10:27: CNN is discussing iReport in Honeycomb. You can not only see recent photos and videos from iReporters, but you can also capture photos or videos from the app and upload them to CNN.

10:30: Changes are coming to Android market.

10:33: First announcement: Android Market Web Store! Finally!

10:34: You can now find and purchase apps via the web. You can check it out at Market.Android.com

10:36: There is a featured application section. Descriptions, developer information, screenshots and more are available.

10:37: Once you buy the app, your phone/tablet automatically gets a notification and starts downloading the app. No wires, all cloud.

10:39: Developers can also upload YouTube videos to promote their apps in the web store. There’s also a “tweet” button on every app page for sending the app to your friends. There is no Facebook integration — no surprise.

10:42: Search is being demoed. There are filters for finding the right apps. You can sort by popularity or rating if you’d like.

10:43: On a side note, Google has now coined “automagically” as a word to describe pushing apps from the desktop to your computer. I guess Google didn’t want Apple to have all the magic.

10:44: New currency support. Developers will be able to set override prices in other currencies.

10:45: Final announcement: In-app purchasing is coming to Android apps. This is something Apple has had for a long time, but now you can buy new levels in your favorite games. It’s a long-overdue feature.

10:46: Disney’s GM of Mobile is on stage. 60 million apps downloaded so far, but more now that it’s making a big push on Android.

10:47: Disney is launching Radio Disney for Android. That’s nice, but even better, it’s bringing Jelly Car, one of the most popular iOS games around, to Android.

10:48: Final game: Tap Tap Revenge 4 is coming to Android. The Tap Tap Revenge franchise has been sold more than 50 million times. The company waited until in-app purchasing was available before launching.

10:52: Google is launching documentation for in-app purchasing today. It’ll go live to users before the end of the quarter.

10:53: Ceelo is video chatting with Hugo. You know, “The Lady Killer.” They had to get a celebrity in there somehow.

10:54: That’s a wrap!


Google Android Press Conference





Google Android Press Conference





Google Android Press Conference





Google Android Press Conference





Google Android Press Conference





Google Android Press Conference





Google Android Press Conference





Google Android Press Conference





Google Android Press Conference





Google Android Press Conference





Google Android Press Conference





Google Android Press Conference





Google Android Press Conference





Google Android Press Conference




More About: android, android 3.0, Android Honeycomb, Google, honeycomb, live, Mobile 2.0, trending

For more Mobile coverage:

Rapportive Brings Deep Facebook Integration to Gmail [EXCLUSIVE]

Posted: 02 Feb 2011 10:01 AM PST


Y Combinator startup Rapportive is updating its Gmail add-on Wednesday, bringing deep Facebook integration to the inbox.

Rapportive is a lightweight Gmail add-on that adds social intelligence to e-mail messages and occupies the same space as Xobni and Gist. Users can install the tool to get a quick glimpse at the e-mail sender’s online persona, complete with recent tweets and LinkedIn integration.

With the Facebook integration, Rapportive users can now request to add e-mail contacts as Facebook friends, see contacts’ recent Facebook updates, view photos, watch attached videos, “like” updates and add comments, all from within e-mail messages.

The integration essentially distills a contact-filtered and personalized version of the world’s largest social network, packages it up in a gift-wrapped box and leaves it at the user’s online doorstep — the inbox.

The purpose of the update, according to Rapportive CEO Rahul Vohra, is to help users build rapport over Facebook from within their inbox, something he believes to be a very real possibility.

The problem with going to Facebook to build relationships, he says, is threefold. First, there’s the matter of taking the time to visit the site. Problem number two: “The news feed doesn’t really show me the people I’m corresponding with in my e-mail,” he says. “And finally, the default display only shows me popular items, as determined by Facebook’s algorithms.”

In his personal use, Vohra has found that using Facebook inside his inbox has a number of positive side effects, including enhancing relationships with contacts. “When it’s relevant, I post comments on my contacts’ facebook posts [via Rapportive]. This has actually created follow-on interactions from these people, which themselves turn into conversations,” he says.

Vohra was reluctant to share specifics on the size of Rapportive’s user base, but does say that the startup has added five times as many active users since August 2010. Rapportive, which has upwards of $1 million in angel funding, has also turned down a number of Series A offers, he says.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, Pablo631.

More About: email, facebook, gmail, rapportive

For more Startups coverage:

10 Mashable Comics to Make You LOL

Posted: 02 Feb 2011 09:37 AM PST

Do you spend so much time on the Internet that you find it hard relate to people who don’t get FarmVille humor? Do you find yourself laughing at pictures of talking cats because if cats could talk, they would totally sound like that? Do you have six minutes of free time right now?

If any of the above describes you, I’m sorry to hear about that.

In any case, we’ve packed a few LOLs of our own into the list below. Behold, 10 of our favorite Mashable Comics from the past few months, illustrated by our artistic pal Kiersten Essenpreis.

Are there any tech topics or social media misadventures you’d like to see in comic form? Put your comedy gold in the comments, people.

1. Cats: They're On the Internet


2. The Future of Social Media Parenting

3. We Hold These Tweets To Be Self-Evident

4. The Angry Birds Finally Get Some Help

5. The World Before the Internet

6. The First Rule of Social Media: Know Your Audience

7. HOW TO: Cheat at Foursquare

8. The Existential Trouble With Social Gaming

9. Great Moments in Text Messaging

10. The 5 Biggest Video Game Flops of All Time

More About: comics, funny, humor, List, Lists, mashable comics

For more Social Media coverage:

New Technology Analyzes Viewer Response to TV With Social Media

Posted: 02 Feb 2011 09:01 AM PST


For years, data analysis companies have attempted to link social media updates to specific television events. Wednesday, Bluefin Labs publicly launches machine learning technology that makes a direct, real-time correlation between the shows and ads audiences are watching on TV and what those audiences are saying about that content via social media streams.

The Bluefin Labs product is targeted at marketers, advertisers and brands who wish to analyze, understand and proactively react to how television audiences are responding to their content. The product helps answer one of the fundamental questions driving programming and ad creation: How truly engaging is this piece of media?

“We sift through the world's social media streams in order to identify and analyze comments about TV shows and ads,” says Deb Roy, Bluefin Labs co-founder and machine learning and artificial intelligence expert.

Roy’s description simplifies the complex technology — a result of more than 15 years of machine learning research at the MIT Media Lab — running behind the Bluefin Labs product. He says the system watches the visual patterns of television content, listens to and processes what’s being said in social media streams and then creates a link between the two.

Bluefin’s approach is fundamentally different from the approach of entertainment services, like GetGlue or IntoNow, that explicitly measure viewer engagement through checkins or listening technology.

“These are exciting developments that will be a part of the new media landscape, but I think that kind of explicit action is more the equivalent of clicking on a piece of media — that’s going to add huge value in the data stream,” says Roy on the entertainment checkin experience. He believes, however, that so long as users continue to use disparate platforms for responding to content, Bluefin Labs has a larger pool by which to measure viewer engagement. “If it’s public,” he says, “we can pick it up.”

The MIT spin-off startup, founded by professors Roy and Michael Fleischman in the summer of 2008, signed on 10 top tier brands and advertisers during its late 2010 and early 2011 pilot period. The startup initially operated on a grant awarded by the National Science Foundation. It then closed an Angel round of financing in the Spring of 2010, and is announcing a $6 million Series A round led by Redpoint Ventures on Wednesday.


Visualization




Bluefin visualization of real-time social media response levels to TV content.


Social Media Response




Bluefin analyzes social media comments and measures response to TV content.


Heat Map




Heat map visualization by Bluefin of social media responses to TV content.

More About: Bluefin Labs, entertainment, MARKETING, MIT Media Lab, Redpoint Ventures, social media, startup

For more Startups coverage:

“Angry Birds” To Star in Super Bowl Ad [REPORT]

Posted: 02 Feb 2011 08:50 AM PST


Angry Birds will land at the Super Bowl, according to a recent report.

The popular mobile game from Rovio will be advertised during the big game on Sunday, according to Advertising Age. The spot will have a special treat for fans: an embedded code that Angry Birds players can use to access a special level in the game.

The spot is the first manifestation of Rovio’s marketing partnership with 20th Century Fox, whose Fox TV arm is airing the Super Bowl. The studio is releasing an animated film called Rio. Users who watch the Super Bowl ad and reach the special level in the game will be entered into a sweepstakes. The grand prize is a trip to Rio de Janeiro to see the movie’s premiere on March 22, when the Angry Birds Rio app based on the movie will also be released.

According to the report, a Fox rep said this is the first time a Super Bowl ad is designed to be paused and looked at frame-by-frame to view an embedded code. Reps from Fox and Rovio could not be reached for comment.

More About: angry birds, Fox, Super Bowl

For more Business & Marketing coverage:

Tags:

0 comments to "Mashable: Latest 29 News Updates - including “Tablet Commerce Expected to Explode in 2011 [STATS]”"

Post a Comment
Newer Post
Older Post