Mashable: Latest 29 News Updates - including “Startup Helps Entrepreneurs Score Lunch Dates with Industry VIPs [INVITES]” |
- Startup Helps Entrepreneurs Score Lunch Dates with Industry VIPs [INVITES]
- Cloud Networking Startup Meraki Raises $15M From Sequoia
- Firefox 4 Beta Adds “Do Not Track” Feature
- Is Reddit on the Rise?
- Apple iPad 2 Now In Production, Boasts Front-Facing Camera [REPORT]
- Marketers Optimistic About Finding Social Media ROI [STUDY]
- Why Virtual Worlds Play an Important Role in the Changing Arab World
- Verizon Readies 4G Voice Network
- Bob Marley’s Birthday Celebrated By Musicians Around the World in Viral Video
- How an Online Game Plans to Reward Kids for Playing Outside
- Employee Fired Over Facebook Comment Settles Lawsuit
- StumbleUpon Sets Record for Mobile Use During Super Bowl
- Conan O’Brien Lampoons Groupon Super Bowl Ad [VIDEO]
- Google Translate App Hits the iPhone
- Twitpic Brings Video to Twitter
- Layers Chrome App Puts a New Spin on Social Aggregation
- The Secondary Market for Daily Deals Heats Up
- How Social Media Will Make the Smart Energy Grid More Efficient
- Mark Zuckerberg Has Obtained a Restraining Order Against His Stalker
- Facebook Announces Its Big Move [LIVE]
- Top Reasons Why Consumers Unsubscribe Via E-Mail, Facebook & Twitter
- Libox for iPhone Makes It Easier to Share Media [EXCLUSIVE]
- Introducing Mashable Follow, Our New Social Layer
- Meebo Acquires Ad Targeting Company Mindset Media
- The Strokes To Offer First Single From New Album as Free Download
- VW Tops List of Most-Viewed Super Bowl Ads on YouTube
- Random Startup Generator Mocks Ubiquity of “Coming Soon” Pages
- T-Mobile Offers All Phones for Free This Weekend
- ShoutEm Makes It Easy to Create Your Own Mobile App
- New Website Guides You Through the Homeless Experience
| Startup Helps Entrepreneurs Score Lunch Dates with Industry VIPs [INVITES] Posted: 08 Feb 2011 09:35 PM PST      The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here.
Quick Pitch: LetsLunch is a new networking service that introduces you to the movers and shakers of Silicon Valley. Genius Idea: Social climbing is an art form often perfected over the business lunch. For entrepreneurs, these lunches could help them network their way to crucial industry partnerships or funding deals. Newly launched startup LetsLunch facilitates these potentially serendipitous lunch dates by matching passionate professionals, based on their social reputation scores, for lunches. With enough positive feedback from lunch dates, regular Joes and Janes can score their way to lunch with a dream business date. After signing up with LetsLunch, users add their Twitter, LinkedIn, Hacker News and Stack Overflow accounts. The startup will then churn that data to spit out a reputation level from one to 10, and that score will be used to match the user with other would-be lunchers. The LetsLunch user then defines a personal radius for lunch get-togethers and ticks off days and times that he or she is free for meeting up. LetsLunch e-mails the user on the day of the lunch with information on the who, what, where and when details of their lunch. Afterwards, the lunchers are invited to share feedback on each other, which in turn affects their reputation levels. LetsLunch’s ultimate reward is a lunch meeting with a vetted VIP user — industry veterans and investors. The site selects users with the highest ratings — having participated in a minimum of four lunches — each month to have lunch with one of the coveted VIPs on their wish lists. The list of VIPs is still quite small and some names are likely to strike your fancy more than others. Lunch with SoftTechVC’s Jeff Clavier or August Capital’s David Hornik, for instance, could pay off quite nicely for the first-time founder. Right now, the invitation-only startup is currently focused on the entrepreneurial Silicon Valley crowd, but it hopes to expand to Los Angeles and serve the showbiz types soon enough. The LetsLunch service is free — and each user pays for his or her lunch — but eventually the startup may introduce premium accounts at a monthly subscription rate. The startup offers industry professionals a unique way to climb the professional ladder, but it’s not without its quirks. Not everyone will love the service’s matching technique or reputation scoring method — there are no bonus points for Facebook friends here. The site could also use a facelift and introduce ways to help users pick places for lunch that meet their dietary needs. LetsLunch has roughly 1,000 users, with thousands more clamoring for access. Mashable readers in the San Francisco Bay Area can cut the line and sign up for LetsLunch using the invitation code MASH495435 during sign up. Those that miss this small window of opportunity may be able to gain entry without an invitation code if they have a high enough reputation level. Series Supported by Microsoft BizSpark  The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark, a startup program that gives you three-year access to the latest Microsoft development tools, as well as connecting you to a nationwide network of investors and incubators. There are no upfront costs, so if your business is privately owned, less than three years old, and generates less than U.S.$1 million in annual revenue, you can sign up today. More About: entrepreneurs, letslunch, networking, spark-of-genius, startup, twitter For more Startups coverage:
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| Cloud Networking Startup Meraki Raises $15M From Sequoia Posted: 08 Feb 2011 07:10 PM PST   Meraki, a relatively new company in the cloud networking arena, has just announced a $15 million round of funding. This is the company’s Series C. The round was led by Sequoia Capital. This is the company’s first funding since its pre-economic-meltdown $20 million Series B in January 2008. Altogether, Meraki has taken $40 million since its founding in 2006. Along with the funding, Meraki also announced some interesting growth metrics. The startup claims it has tripled its quarterly revenues year over year. It also reports 1,300 new customer wins in Q4 2010, which it says is a record number. Some of these new customers include big-brand names such as Burger King, Albany State University, Mandalay Bay Convention Center and United Colors of Benetton. The company says many existing customers also expanded their purchases from Meraki last quarter. New products from Q4 include routers, traffic shapers, firewalls, location services, and “Networking as a Service,” which the startup says is a “pay-as-you-go subscription model for cloud networking that eliminates up-front hardware costs and increases flexibility.” Sanjit Biswas is Meraki’s founder and CEO. In a release, he said, "As new types of devices like iPads and Android phones enter the network, and as users migrate to bandwidth-intensive web and video applications, IT administrators are rethinking their network architectures. Meraki's cloud networking solutions combine greater capacity and mobility with easier management to prepare enterprises for this new generation of open networks." Image courtesy of iStockphoto, shulz More About: cloud, funding, meraki, Sequoia, sequoia capital, startup For more Business & Marketing coverage:
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| Firefox 4 Beta Adds “Do Not Track” Feature Posted: 08 Feb 2011 06:15 PM PST   Mozilla has released Firefox 4 Beta 11, the newest version of the popular web browser. It not only adds several performance and stability improvements, but it implements a “Do Not Track” list to enhance user privacy. Earlier this month, Mozilla announced its intention to implement “Do Not Track” in Firefox 4. Resurrected by the FTC in August 2010, the “Do Not Track” list essentially lets users opt-out of behavior tracking by advertisers through cookies and other browser-based methods. "When the feature is enabled and users turn it on, web sites will be told by Firefox that a user would like to opt out of OBA,” Mozilla privacy lead Alex Fowler explained in a recent blog post. “We believe the header-based approach has the potential to be better for the web in the long run because it is a clearer and more universal opt-out mechanism than cookies or blacklists." Mozilla argues that the HTTP header approach sends a more universal opt-out signal to websites. You can check out the technical details if they interest you, but the goal is the same: give users the ability to tell advertisers that they do not want to be tracked for the purposes of targeted advertising. The development of Firefox 4 is nearing the finishing line. Firefox 4 Beta 10 was release just two weeks ago, and it shouldn’t be long until a release candidate makes its debut.  More About: do not track, Firefox, Firefox 4, firefox 4 beta For more Dev & Design coverage:
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| Posted: 08 Feb 2011 05:31 PM PST   Reddit has announced some small but significant staffing changes today, causing us to ponder the big picture for the little link-sharing app that could. As longtime rival Digg takes a Titanic-like nosedive into the freezing waters of the Internet, hemorrhaging staff along the way, Reddit claims things are going swimmingly. Today, the small team, which was acquired by publishing behemoth Condé Nast in 2006, has just announced a couple new hires and says it will be hiring more engineers shortly. The company will now include a new back-end engineer and a new sales rep, as well as a couple redditors who will be working as part-time support staff. But you may recall things were not so rosy for Reddit in the quite recent past. Just six months ago, the site was forced to adopt a freemium model to keep itself in business. At the time, Reddit staffer Mike Schiraldi wrote,
Clearly, times have changed since those words were penned last year. For one thing, the freemium features, dubbed Reddit Gold, were considered a huge success by the company. Also, since then, the site has grown to more than one billion pageviews per month. That figure represented a 300% year-over-year increase. This kind of traffic growth has helped the site lure “big-ticket” advertisers, according to site admins; another rising source of revenue is the site’s sponsored link system, which is used to promote SMBs, startups, blog posts, YouTube videos and other kinds of content. And Reddit Gold continues to be a success, too. It’s interesting to watch this company — which without doubt was smaller than Digg as far as staff was concerned and which never drove the same masses of lemming-like traffic to publisher sites the way Digg did — succeed even as Digg falters. Perhaps this is a real-life example of a slower, steadier web app winning the race. More About: hiring, reddit, reddit gold, Revenue For more Business & Marketing coverage:
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| Apple iPad 2 Now In Production, Boasts Front-Facing Camera [REPORT] Posted: 08 Feb 2011 04:16 PM PST   Apple’s production partners are already hard at work on the new model of iPad, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal. The fact that Apple is working on an iPad 2, of course, is common knowledge. The famously tight-lipped company rarely talks about upcoming product launches, and isn’t talking now. But Apple has never denied that it intends to follow up on one of its most successful products. Nearly $5 billion worth of iPads have been sold in the three quarters since its launch. And a quick glance at the history of the iPhone, which launches a new model every year, suggests that we should expect to see the iPad 2 right around the first anniversary of its predecessor’s launch: April 3, 2011. A prototype of the iPad 2 was apparently spotted by a Reuters reporter after the launch of News Corp’s iPad publication, the Daily, last week. And an unconfirmed report from DigiTimes in December said that Foxconn, the Chinese makers of the iPhone and iPad, had been ordered to manufacture the iPad 2 in market-ready quantities by the end of February. The Journal report, which carries three bylines and cites “people familiar with the matter,” offers a few more nuggets of detail. It confirms the widely-held belief that the iPad 2 will have a front-facing camera, enabling use of the Facetime videoconferencing app. It says that the 3G version will again be available on Verizon and AT&T, with Sprint and T-Mobile still shut out. But it contradicts earlier reports that Apple will endow the iPad 2 with a higher-resolution screen, much as the iPhone 4 had significantly higher resolution than the iPhone 3GS. Apple is likely still working on a higher quality iPad display — it just won’t be ready for the iPad 2. So will a slightly improved Apple tablet with camera be enough to persuade millions of iPad users to upgrade? Are there other bells and whistles we don’t know about yet? We have previously reported on rumors that the new device will have an SD Card slot, and that it will feature rear-facing and front-facing cameras. (Click here for our comprehensive roundup of iPad 2 rumors). We’ll know when Apple’s acting CEO Tim Cook takes the stage, if this product timeline is accurate, in a few months’ time. More About: apple, att, facetime, ipad, iPad 2, retina display, verizon For more Tech & Gadgets coverage:
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| Marketers Optimistic About Finding Social Media ROI [STUDY] Posted: 08 Feb 2011 02:47 PM PST   Marketers are hopeful that this will be the year that they finally link social media marketing to ROI, a new survey says. According to the report from Bazaarvoice, 74% of CMOs predict they will finally tie social efforts to hard ROI this year. The survey polled 175 CMOs from The CMO Club, including those from B2C and B2B companies in various industries. In 2009, 84% of companies did not measure social media ROI — in 2011, that’s not an option. Business decisions are best made when they are based on hard numbers that measure success, and social media efforts are no longer an exception. For the past few years, marketers have been content to measure “soft” metrics, such as the number of “Likes” or followers their brands have acquired. These numbers, though, are usually not indicators of an active community. While those soft metrics still rank highly in importance, marketers are now turning to more traditional metrics that showcase true value. Site traffic tops the list as the most important factor for CMOs measuring social media ROI, as it did last year. In 2011, though, twice as many marketers plan on incorporating conversions — the total number of completed desired actions, such as “Likes” or clickthroughs, divided by the total number of impressions — as compared to 2010.  When asked which social activities resulted in the highest ROI, survey respondents identified Facebook as their platform of choice. Ratings and reviews sites ranked second on that list of high ROI performers. Notably, neither of these activities won hearty responses, as many respondents were more likely to say that they did not know which activities brought in the highest ROI. Another large chunk of respondents did not participate in the activities mentioned.  As ROI is increasingly used to assess the value of each social marketing activity, it seems inevitable that brands will begin to focus on the platforms that create the most added-value. Which platforms pull in the most ROI for your business, and how do you measure social media ROI? Let us know in the comments. Image courtesy of iStockphoto, samxmeg Charts courtesy of eMarketer More About: business, MARKETING, ROI, social media, social media roi For more Business & Marketing coverage:
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| Why Virtual Worlds Play an Important Role in the Changing Arab World Posted: 08 Feb 2011 02:23 PM PST   Follow artist, writer and entrepreneur Rita J. King on Twitter. While co-directing the Understanding Islam through Virtual Worlds project with Joshua Fouts, I traveled to four continents in the physical world and interviewed people from 25 countries in the virtual world called Second Life. What we learned and experienced in the virtual world has since crossed over into the physical world in interesting ways. The Psychological Impact of Virtual WorldsSecond Life has long been plagued by a misguided media narrative that latched onto its novel and cartoonish appearance while missing the much larger point: For the first time in history, geographically dispersed people are sharing a space limited only by their imaginations, and are visualizing together how the space is used and built upon. Mosque communities have sprung up all over the virtual world as they have in the physical world, built from the ground up by various individuals and organizations. In Second Life, mosque projects and sites related to exploring Islam range greatly. Some seek to promote diversity by not requiring head scarves (avatars have no real skin to cover) and allowing digital shoes in virtual mosques, since they don't track dirt into sacred space. Others insist on adherence to physical world standards as implemented by the various projects' directors. Experiences shared within virtual worlds, particularly user-created environments, are not perceived as trivial by those who partake in them. People can collaborate on developing the infrastructure of virtual environments, while social media platforms, though valuable for other reasons, have flat, standardized user interfaces. Further, virtual experiences can help in overcoming shyness, language barriers, or other impediments to meaningful communication, creating the perfect medium for exploring cultural understanding. The Impact of Virtual Protests In 2008, when violence erupted in Gaza, a protest took place in Second Life. The space in which the protest took place was created by IslamOnline, an Egyptian and Qatari group with various web properties including a science section edited by a young Egyptian, Mohammed Yahia, who is also the creative leader of the group's Virtual Hajj to Mecca in Second Life. For the protest, IslamOnline created a virtual environment. At the perimeter were pictures, often bloody and smoky, clipped from the pages of newspapers around the world covering the conflict, particularly focused on the deaths of Palestinians. People (in the form of avatars) from all over the world held signs and engaged in discussions. Some protesters were passionate while others were calm. Some had first-hand knowledge of the violence in Gaza and others had no knowledge of the complex situation at all. This didn't stop them from sharing opinions, just as people do in blog comments or around the dinner table. I encountered an avatar waving a Palestinian flag who had set himself on fire and asked him why he'd chosen to make this form of protest. "I'm heartbroken and furious with both sides that it had to come to this," he said, adding that in a virtual world, he could express himself this way without hurting anyone, and that he felt that others had taken the time to listen to his view. Yahia took the time to discuss the role of digital culture in real world dynamics. "In the Arab world, we have seen that line [between in the virtual and physical] thin more than ever over the past few months," Yahia told me via Twitter from Cairo. "Our digital identities have echoed louder than ever into the physical world, bringing about change and connecting us in ways that would not have been possible before. The relationships we have formed digitally have made some protesters feel like they’ve known each other for years, coming together and working together in some amazing displays of empathy." ConclusionWith hundreds of millions of people around the world, many of them young, increasingly exploring virtual worlds, the environments will continue to evolve. The new global culture and economy will transform, in part, through shared experiences in immersive spaces. See Also:
More About: arab world, Egypt, Gaza, politics, Second Life, social media, virtual worlds For more Social Media coverage:
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| Verizon Readies 4G Voice Network Posted: 08 Feb 2011 02:15 PM PST   Verizon Wireless is preparing to offer its customers a better sounding voice network, thanks to the power of 4G. CNN reports that Verizon will be showing off its new 4G LTE (Long-Term Evolution) voice network at next week’s Mobile World Congress. This will allow voice calls to take place over the Internet, rather than using the existing CDMA voice network. The technology, which is currently known as VoLTE (Voice Over LTE), is basically like VoIP for home or business phones, but it takes place on a mobile network. Verizon started rolling out its 4G data network back in December and plans on introducing a number of 4G or 4G-upgradable devices by the first half of the year. Most of those devices, however, will only use 4G for data connections. This can include video chat over Skype, sending and receiving e-mails and playing back video. However, it does not include standard voice calls. With VoLTE, that will change — certain 4G phones will gain the ability to make voice calls over the 4G data network rather than using the older CDMA network. One of the devices that will benefit from VoLTE is the LG Revolution 4G. The smartphone won’t ship with VoLTE enabled, but future updates will give the phone the ability to make 4G voice calls. If a user drops into an area without 4G coverage, calls will be made over the older CDMA network as expected. VoLTE will finally allow Verizon to give its users the ability to send data and make phone calls simultaneously. AT&T will be rolling out its LTE strategy later this year but the company hasn’t made any announcements about its plans for Voice Over LTE. One Step Closer to Data-Only Phone PlansAt the Mobile World Congress last year, Verizon announced that it was partnering with Skype to bring the service to various Verizon smartphones. At CES last month, Verizon and Skype took that partnership one step further and announced that 4G video Skype calls were planned for future Verizon 4G devices. Last year, I remarked that by partnering with Skype, Verizon was “[indicating] that the future of the company’s mobile business lies with data services.” Twelve months later this is even more clear. Traditional voice service has become a commodity, whereas data — especially fast and reliable data — can be sold at a premium. By making plans to place its voice network on top of its data network, Verizon is not only doing its part to soften the impact would-be competitors like Skype might have on its bottom line, it will also have new selling points like “clearer calls” and “simultaneous voice and data” that can be used to sell more expensive monthly data packages. Of course, Verizon’s CDMA voice network won’t be disappearing any time soon. VoLTE service might not become available until next year (though certain phones will be upgrade ready) and at least right now, sending voice calls over LTE is more expensive than just using the existing CDMA technology. This announcement is merely the first step in a new phase of the overall 4G transition. More About: 4G, LTE, verizon, verizon 4G lte, voip, VoLTE For more Mobile coverage:
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| Bob Marley’s Birthday Celebrated By Musicians Around the World in Viral Video Posted: 08 Feb 2011 02:09 PM PST In celebration of what would have been Bob Marley’s 66th birthday, band and foundation Playing for Change has teamed up with Marley’s estate to release a video that will premiere today on the musician’s Facebook Page. The video — which will be featured on Playing For Change – Songs Around The World, Vol. 2 CD and DVD due out in May — contains a performance from The Wailers’s final European tour, as well as a click track utilizing Marley’s vocals. Marley’s son, Stephen, is also in the video. Keep an eye on Marley’s Facebook Page for its debut. “This is the third Bob Marley song that we have done,” says Playing For Change founder Mark Johnson. The release of this particular video just happens to coincide with Marley’s birthday (February 6). “Bob Marley is one of the greatest musicians in the world and has the great ability to inspire people in every race, culture and economic status. [The song is a] great way to inspire people to come together,” he says. If you’re not familiar with Playing For Change, it’s a band and foundation created by Mark Johnson, who spent four years traveling and filming musicians from around the world (local and street musicians alike). In 2008, he released a cover of the song “Stand By Me.” That video has garnered close to 30 million YouTube views, and it helped lead to a PBS documentary and CD series. The Playing For Change band was also born (and will soon be playing at Jazz Fest in New Orleans), as well as The Playing For Change Foundation, which seeks to support music education. The Marley video is a little different than previous Playing For Change pieces; instead of just using local musicians and established (living) artists to recreate the jam, Johnson incorporated a performance from Marley’s final tour, which set the tone and tempo for the rest of the performers — including Marley’s son. This video, like all of Playing For Change’s previous work, was filmed outdoors to echo the experience of seeing a particularly effective street performer. “You can walk by someone and they can change your life,” Johnson says. The disc containing this song will be released in May 2011, and, like all other albums, the proceeds will go toward building music schools in places like Mali, Rwanda and South Africa. Playing For Change makes an effort — especially with this album — to go into poorer communities in order to find performers, which serves a dual purpose: 1) To show the world the beauty and talent inherent in even the poorest of areas; and 2) To forge communities where music schools can later be built. Johnson says that the foundation is also working on a video program (still in its infancy) that connects the schools, so kids can share in music-making, and those who donate to those schools can see the fruits of their charity. More About: bob marley, playing-for-change For more Social Good coverage:
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| How an Online Game Plans to Reward Kids for Playing Outside Posted: 08 Feb 2011 01:45 PM PST   Charged with teaching a dozen 7-year-old little league players the finer points of baseball, David Jacobs and Steven Lerner decided to start with a simple warm-up. They explained that they would yell out the name of a base, and the kids would run to it. When they started with “second base,” however, children scattered to four different bases. Several little league practices and bus-stop discussions later, Jacobs and Lerner decided to fill the need they had discovered for a compelling way to teach kids about sports. What they came up with, FunGoPlay, combines an online sports game world with physical sporting equipment that registers physical play and rewards it with special access codes. The “online sports theme park” will launch this Spring. The model hits a sweet spot on several levels. Almost 20% of children in the United States are obese, and video games — an increasingly favored activity — have long been blamed for increasing this percentage. Paradoxically, at the same time, childhood participation in sports is at an all-time high. If FunGoPlay catches on, it will be both a video game that effectively encourages outdoor, active play and a way to teach sports basics that is compelling to young children — both factors that are likely to entice parents to open their wallets. A World of Sports That Speaks to Kids When Jacobs and Lerner first had the idea, they took a trip to the sports section of Barnes and Noble to check out their competition for teaching kids between 6 and 11 years old about sports. They didn’t really find any. "It's a huge business to teach coaches how to coach, but there was nothing that really spoke to kids," Lerner says. In order to create that appeal, the team went to work on a “sports theme park.” The park has multiple games involving soccer, basketball, baseball, and extreme sports that are populated by a cast of 15 characters. One of the co-founders, Fabian Nicieza, has a rich background in comic books that includes writing every major character in the Marvel Universe. Presumably, his storytelling capability will help build a narrative that runs through the games. The games will also be tied together by a unified reward system, and a customizable locker or club house. A Ball With a Brain Virtual worlds for children have long been identified as a ripe business opportunity. Disney’s Club Penguin (a $700 million purchase), Mattel’s BarbieGirls.com, and SecretBuilders are among the most successful. What distinguishes FunGoPlay’s game from these sites is its physical component. When parents buy a subscription to the online sports theme park, they’ll be able to pick out the physical sporting equipment to accompany it. When kids play with it, a screen on the ball or Frisbee will give them access codes that they can use to unlock special features in the game. But what counts as “play” depends on the sports equipment. FunGoPlay has researched the way that kids use different sports equipment and will measure activity according to their findings. “Frisbee turns into ‘let's all go and catch the Frisbee – once it drops on the ground’ because nobody can catch the Frisbee,” Chief Technology Officer Chris Romero says. “What we've done is build a map of that into to code that basically says, ‘OK if this Frisbee is activated over such and such a time period, kids are playing with it.’” But Will It Win With Kids? Co-Founders Fabian Nicieza, Steve Lerner and David Jacobs If you were to put together a dream team for digital children’s entertainment, it would look a lot like FunGoPlay. Huge players like Nickelodeon, Disney, Sesame Workshop, and Marvel are all well represented in team members’ resumes. But will the dream team make a dream product? The company isn’t the first to run with the idea of merging online and offline play. Anyone who knows a child under the age of 12 has likely heard of Webkinz — stuffed animals with avatar components that live on the company’s website. Ganz Corporation, which manufactures the stuffed animals, is privately held and doesn’t release sales data. But the site had about six million unique visitors per month at its peak in 2007. Post-craze, however, compete.com now puts Webkinz.com traffic at about 3 million unique visitors every month — still an impressive amount, but a line that goes in the wrong direction. In order to become an integral component of children’s sports education, FunGoPlay will need to prove that its smart soccer balls and frisbees are more than just gimmicks. The plan is to market the physical components as sporting equipment rather than toys, and this plan is reflected in the company’s choice of manufacturer and distributor, EB Brands, which has a reputation for the former. But no matter how FunGoPlay is marketed, kids — needless to say an unpredictable group (remember Tickle Me Elmo?) — will eventually decide how seriously to take both FunGoPlay’s physical equipment and online world. More Startup Resources from Mashable:
More About: Childhood obesity, FunGoPlay, Kids, Kids Games, Online Game World, sports For more Startups coverage:
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| Employee Fired Over Facebook Comment Settles Lawsuit Posted: 08 Feb 2011 01:21 PM PST   The National Labor Relations Board and Dawnmarie Souza agreed yesterday to end a lawsuit over Souza’s firing, which occurred after she made some derogatory remarks about her employers on Facebook. The financial terms of the settlement were not disclosed, but we do know that Souza will not be returning to work at the same company. The woman’s employer, a Connecticut ambulance company, is also changing its blogging and Internet use policies in ways that will no longer prohibit employees from talking about work online, even if such talk constitutes what the company called “online badmouthing” at the start of Souza’s hearing. Especially since Souza was writing on her personal computer, at home and on her own time, her remarks about her employers were considered protected speech, according to the NLRB. The ambulance company’s social media and Internet policies were in violation of certain laws that protect employees' right to talk about wages, working conditions and other factors. As NLRB regional director Jonathan Kreisberg told the Associated Press, “The fact that they agreed to revise their rules so that they’re not so overly restrictive of the rights of employees to discuss their terms and conditions with others and with their fellow employees is the most significant thing that comes out of this.” Still, the variable location, timing, tone and content of Facebook comments mean that not all Facebook posts are protected speech; employees should still exercise good judgement when discussing work and personal matters online. We’re also following a similar case in which a high school student was suspended for making vulgar and derogatory remarks on Facebook about one of his teachers. Stay tuned to see if that case goes to court. Image courtesy of Flickr, escapedtowisconsin More About: employee, employer, facebook, free speech, lawsuit, protected speech, trending For more Social Media coverage:
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| StumbleUpon Sets Record for Mobile Use During Super Bowl Posted: 08 Feb 2011 01:02 PM PST   StumbleUpon set a record for mobile stumbles during the Super Bowl, a phenomenon that may have been caused by consumers’ lack of access to their PCs. Roberto Sanabria, the StumbleStats Ninja for the company, detailed the activity of StumbleUpon users on the company’s blog Tuesday. According to Sanabria, mobile stumbles hit a record around 6:50 p.m. PT, right before the Super Bowl ended. At that point, mobile stumbles hit a rate of 41 stumbles per second, which was 10% higher than the company’s previous peak. But overall, the vast majority of stumbles during the entire game were via desktops and laptops. On the blog, Sanabria speculated that users may have been stuck in their living rooms and away from their computers, accounting for the relatively high number of mobile stumbles. StumbleUpon launched an iPhone app last August. Mike Mayzel, a spokesman for StumbleUpon, says that mobile traffic for the site grows 30-40% a month, but overall mobile still accounts for a relatively small amount of overall stumbles — in the single digits, percentage-wise. Elsewhere, users’ activity during the game appeared to be what you might expect: People stumbled less during the game, especially towards the end and during the halftime show. Image courtesy of iStock, FuatKose. More About: Mobile 2.0, stumbleupon, Super Bowl For more Business & Marketing coverage:
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| Conan O’Brien Lampoons Groupon Super Bowl Ad [VIDEO] Posted: 08 Feb 2011 12:52 PM PST Groupon’s Super Bowl ad may not be the best-recalled, or the one that people are rushing to YouTube to see over and over, but it is possibly the one that provided the best fodder for late-night comics. Here, Conan O’Brien takes a whack at the head-scratching Groupon ad. If you’re late to the game, Groupon worked with the hot ad agency Crispin Porter + Bogusky on a series of ads featuring celebrities, including Cuba Gooding Jr., Elizabeth Hurley and Timothy Hutton narrating what look like earnest pleas for various causes. But the ads quickly shift to plugs for Groupon deals. The Hutton ad, which ran in the Super Bowl, for instance, begins with the actor stating, “The people of Tibet are in trouble. Their very culture is in jeopardy…but they still whip up an amazing fish curry.” Hutton then goes on to promote Groupon’s deals for Tibetan restaurants in Chicago. Yesterday, after social media chatter about the spot turned negative, Groupon CEO Andrew Mason used the company blog to explain his rationale. Groupon, he pointed out, is actually donating to causes outlined in the ads. In another sign that Groupon seems to want to have it both ways, the company is at various times running a pre-roll and post-roll ad during this Conan segment. More About: advertising, conan o'brien, groupon, Super Bowl ads For more Business & Marketing coverage:
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| Google Translate App Hits the iPhone Posted: 08 Feb 2011 12:36 PM PST   Globe-trotting iPhone users rejoice — the official Google Translate for iPhone app is now available in the App Store. The iPhone app [iTunes link] appears to be much like the existing Android app (launched January 2010) in functionality — allowing users to speak to translate in 15 languages and to translate words and phrases into more than 50 languages. You can also listen to your translations spoken aloud in 23 different languages. One can also zoom in on text to read it more easily, as well — this is a feature that the Android app lacks. This official app basically echoes the web app in functionality, allowing one to view dictionary results for single words, and check out starred translations and history (even when not online). The iPhone app, however, lacks a few features that the Android version boasts: namely SMS translation and the experimental Conversation Mode, which is supposed to allow you to talk with a nearby person in another language. More About: google translate For more Mobile coverage:
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| Twitpic Brings Video to Twitter Posted: 08 Feb 2011 12:31 PM PST   Twitpic is launching support for video Tuesday, bringing about a new way for Twitter users to share their clips in a timely manner. With Twitter’s growing importance as a tool for citizen journalism, multimedia uploading and sharing tools are more relevant than ever before. Services like Twitpic, while still fun for vanity purposes, have played a critical role in spreading newsworthy images from eyewitnesses who have been present with mobile phones at world-changing events. Events such as the evacuation of Times Square, the earthquake in Haiti, the protests in Egypt and many others have been graphically and valuably portrayed on Twitter via services like Twitpic. And occasionally, Twitpic images not only depict the news, they become the news, themselves. Last year, a photo of a transit worker sleeping on the job was posted to Twitpic and caused an uproar in the media. While many folks post YouTube links to Twitter when they need to spread the word about an important video, it’s good to also have a tailor-made video-sharing solution for Twitter users. Twitpic founder Noah Everett told us in an e-mail, “Users will be able to upload video from the site itself, email, and clients that support the new video option. Everything else basically works the same. We’re trying to be a one-stop-shop for users to share their media on Twitter in real-time.” We asked if the videos would play from within the Twitter web interface, and Everett said, “The thumbnails will still show on Twitter for now; we’ll work with them to get the actual video itself integrated soon.” Here’s what the new feature looks like on Twitter and on the Twitpic website. Click the images to see the videos in action: We’re sure that Twitpic’s events and location features will also be a welcome addition to video sharing on Twitter. Twitpic currently has 17 million users with 30,000 new registrations daily. More About: twitpic, twitter, video For more Social Media coverage:
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| Layers Chrome App Puts a New Spin on Social Aggregation Posted: 08 Feb 2011 11:59 AM PST   Layers.com is officially launching its Chrome web app in the Chrome Web Store on Tuesday. The Layers Chrome app offers users a way to visualize what friends are sharing on Twitter and Facebook while also offering users the ability to subscribe to the RSS feeds from their favorite websites. The Layers Chrome app approach is a bit different. Content is displayed and is browsable via a bar at the bottom of the window. This bar offers previews of links, Facebook status messages, Twitter updates, RSS feed descriptions and linked content like YouTube links, TwitPics and more.  Check out this video to get a sense of what Layers is all about: The beauty of the system is that the Layers makes it easy to browse what others are sharing — and you can reshare, comment or reply to that content in the web app — but it gets out of the users’ way when needed. The toolbar can auto-hide content when not in use and a simple mouse hover will bring it back up. The app could use some keyboard shortcut love — especially for those of us who live and die by our keybindings. Clicking on a link from Facebook, Twitter or an RSS channel can do one of three things. If the content is strictly a link to an external site, that site is loaded in the Layers tab. If the link is to content like a video from YouTube or another supported media type, that content is displayed in the tab alongside the originating message. For status updates that don’t contain links or media, nothing happens. Again, we’d like the ability to visit the Twitter or Facebook status message in the main Layers tab for those articles — especially with Twitter, where viewing the tweet can often offer context (if the tweet is in reply to another).  Overall the system works pretty well. Links to external pages in the Layers tab will open in a new tab or window. Getting back to Layers just requires switching tabs, but again, we wish there were some sort of keyboard shortcut that could invoke that tab or window on demand. If a user enters a different address or search query in the Chrome omnibox, Layers will disappear until the app is invoked again. We like the way Layers manages and displays content, and we appreciate that many social features are built into the app. Layers says it has plans for Google Reader integration with the app. We would also love to see support for Tumblr and for photo feeds from mobile apps like Instagram and PicPlz. If you want to give Layers a try, you can install it in Google Chrome 9 or higher by visiting this link. More About: chrome web apps, chrome web store, facebook, Google, layers, layers.com, social aggregation, twitter, web apps For more Social Media coverage:
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| The Secondary Market for Daily Deals Heats Up Posted: 08 Feb 2011 11:27 AM PST   The daily deal market is on fire, and a new market for reselling purchased deals that people can’t use is just starting to heat up. Lifesta, CoupRecoup, DealsGoRound and Dealigee have all launched in the past 12 months marketplaces for these “used” deals. Lifesta, the first in the bunch to offer a transaction platform (like Amazon) instead of a listing service (like Craigslist), announced on Tuesday that it has raised $1 million of angel funding. It’s easy to see why the investor saw potential in the resale of daily deals. While huge players like Groupon, LivingSocial and Google, which has plans to launch a daily service, will likely continue to dominate the general daily deal market (there are still some promising startups in niche categories), they’ve also helped create a ripe business opportunity — reselling those deals when their buyers can’t use them in time. The New York Times contributor Jay Goltz put redemption rates of daily deals at just 85%, which means 15% of these increasingly popular vouchers are game for being resold. The best model for turning these unused deals into a profitable enterprise has yet to be determined. Lifesta charges a $0.99 fee for every sale of a deal, plus 8% of its selling price. DealGoRound uses a similar model. CoupRecoup and Dealigee charge neither sellers nor buyers for the transaction and will presumably either introduce transaction fees in the future or rely on another revenue source. There’s also a chance that daily deal companies will react to the effect that secondary markets have on coupon redemption rates. If coupons that would otherwise have been left unredeemed are instead resold, partnering with deal sites becomes a more expensive proposition for businesses. Groupon already has a no-questions-asked refund policy, and other companies could put policies in place that would discourage coupon holders from selling deals they can’t use to secondary markets. Even if some companies put these policies in place, however, the potential for a thriving secondary deals market would still be huge. By some estimates, daily deals has the potential to become a $5 billion industry. Efficiently recycling any percentage of that could pay off handsomely. Image courtesy of iStockphoto, PhotoHamster More About: daily deals, funding, groupon, Lifesta, LivingSocial For more Startups coverage:
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| How Social Media Will Make the Smart Energy Grid More Efficient Posted: 08 Feb 2011 11:12 AM PST   Chikodi Chima is a multimedia journalist and occasional globetrotter whose work has appeared in Fast Company, VentureBeat, GigaOm, Shareable, The Philadelphia Weekly and The New York Press. Based in San Francisco, he’s currently working on The Future Journalism Project, a documentary about disruption of legacy media at the hands of emerging technologies. While Facebook may be the social media platform to beat, there's an even more powerful social networking force that promises to be in all American homes one day. A growing number of startups are applying the principles of social networking to home energy management, and bringing social media to the smart grid. In the process, they are revolutionizing people's understanding of their energy use, building successful companies and helping to lessen the impact of each individual on the environment. What is The Smart Grid?The smart grid refers to the overlay of digital communications technology on our existing electrical infrastructure. It lets houses and utilities to "talk" to each other through web-enabled energy meters and appliances. Connected devices such as refrigerators, air conditioners or TVs broadcast data about their energy consumption over a secure network and, when necessary, electrical utilities can remotely shut them off to avoid overloading the grid and causing rolling blackouts. The smart grid promises to deliver cost savings, environmental benefits and transform the way customers interact with electrical utilities. Because social networking is built upon interaction and communication, social media and the smart grid are a natural fit; think of it as the “Gridbook.” "What's so fascinating about smart grid is that there is so much that can cascade off of that," said David Leeds, senior research manager at Greentech Media. “I think there are profound opportunities to use less energy and achieve the same quality of living, and I think the social media platform will prove to be really beneficial in those efforts." It was Leeds who used the term "Gridbook" to describe this mashup of social media and smart utilities. What Does a Social Smart Grid Look Like? Arlington, VA-based OPower, which has more than 2 million nationwide customers, is the industry leader in combining social media communication methods with smart grid technology. Its energy monitoring services run on desktop computers and smart phones, and help customers to collaboratively save money on their energy bill each month. OPower creates a demographic profile based on energy consumption data from its smart meters, and groups similar households into communities. OPower then allows these groups to compare their energy usage against each other and compete head-to-head to see who can reduce energy consumption the most. "All you need are a few enthusiasts to create momentum — we've never seen consumers drive action like they have using social media," said OPower cofounder and CEO Dan Yates in an e-mail. Yates said that OPower research has shown time and again that when people hear from their friends and peers about how to be more energy efficient, the adoption rate is much higher. Online communities are a very valuable way to share this information. "Beyond simply talking with one another, consumers want to be involved in creating ideas," said Yates. "Online communities, and the content generated by their users, are key to the success of our platform. It allows us to use the information generated by the 5% of very engaged and enthusiastic customers, and share it to benefit the other 95%." In November, OPower announced that they had raised $50 million from a group of investment funds including Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers, whose portfolio includes investments in Zynga and Google. The BenefitsThe lessons learned by OPower and others will be essential in creating sweeping changes as the smart grid grows to maturity. Across the United States, an estimated 60 million smart meters are expected to be installed in the near future. However, full deployment of smart grid technology will cost 8 to $10 Billion over the next 20 years, says Dr. Massoud Amin, known as "the father of the smart grid." At a cost of roughly $170 Billion, Amin says that a fully realized smart grid will save Americans $49 Billion annually from power outages, and increase overall efficiency by 12 to 18% per year. "This is a benefit to society that transfers to overall benefit to the individual, and reduced cost of disruption in the system," says Amin. At the University of Minnesota, Amin is the director of the Technological Leadership Institute, and has been researching the smart grid since 1998. Even if there are benefits to society and the planet, the value of the smart grid and social media is that it taps into one of the most basic human impulses; competition. People like to feel like they're winning, says Eric Dresselhuys, executive vice president at Silver Spring Networks. Silver Spring is an OPower rival that has created a customizable online interface for electric utilities to connect with their customers, and connect customers to each other. Think of it as Mint.com for home energy use, both in terms of its appearance, and the ability to manage and modify behavior through a web or smartphone application. With the potential to track monthly energy use and compare information with friends and neighbors, Silver Spring's solution, like OPower, has aspects of a social game that are helping to supercharge the adoption. "Consumers say, 'I wanna win, I wanna know that I'm doing good,'" says Dresselhuys. "Today, I don't know if I'm winning or not. I might be the biggest loser on my block, or I might be 10 times more efficient than anybody else. I don't have any context to understand how what I do compares." Not only can this technology help consumers win in a head-to-head competition, but a social metering approach teaches people about the real impacts of their daily behaviors. When people have more information at their disposal, they are more likely to make smart decisions, and they can confidently share this knowledge. "You probably have a pretty good idea how many miles per gallon you get in your car. You probably don't have any idea how much value a kilowatt hour of electricity delivers for you," says Dresselhuys. "If you're most people, you don't even know what a kilowatt hour is … The whole energy experience has been a little of a black box." Social Media Can Improve Energy Efficiency Right NowSilver Spring, OPower and competitors such as Tendril and eMeter are all built around the premise that smart meters and social media can help customers save on their electricity bills. But there are even more ways that online communities can change energy consumption habits without all the fancy equipment. Chosen as the “Best Idea for the Millennial” in the GE Ecomagination Challenge, startup Welectricity works when users plug information from their monthly energy bills into the site's graphing tool. Welectricity then creates a readout of consumption habits matched against different types of appliances found in the home, generates stats and charts on usage trends, and offers suggestions on how to cut power bills. Welectricity also makes it easy for users to include their friends in the process through their online portal. Founder Herbert Samuel says that Welectricity can save energy in two ways: the service helps people cut their power consumption, and no new energy meters need to be manufactured or shipped in order for people to get started. Currently, Welectricity has users in 66 countries, with more coming online all the time. Earth Aid, a company with a similar goal of helping households track, reduce and compare their energy usage, all without the need of new equipment or meters, just received $4 million in Series A funding. The Future In the future, expect the smart grid to get a lot more social, with startups figuring out ways to use ubiquitous social networking platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, while still addressing privacy and security concerns. Rochester, NY-based Tenrehte is the maker of the Picowatt smart plug, a device that monitors the energy use of an individual device and relays that information over a Wi-Fi signal. What's truly unique about these talking plugs is that they allow users to control appliances through a Facebook application. "When we have convergence of social media with the actual use and deployment of the technology, that's when you're really going to see movement," said Tenrehte founder Jennifer Indovina. "We're just not there yet." Indovina cites issues of grid security and operating standards as two the key limiting factors, but don't expect this to be the case forever. And although they've been relatively quiet to date, some the tech world's largest companies have also gotten into the home energy monitoring space. Microsoft launched its Hohm initiative in 2009, and Google has a home energy monitoring device called the TED 5000, an acronym for "The Energy Detective." Apple filed patent applications for "Intelligent Power Monitoring" and another for the "Intelligent Power-enabled Communications Port" in May of 2009, pointing toward its own entry into the smart metering game. Whatever form ends up on top, expect the social concept to be at the heart of any new initiatives. The latest figures show that 77.3% of Americans have access to the Internet, but 99.9% of Americans have electricity. As the smart grid continues to reach more American homes, it truly will form a nationwide social network unlike anything ever seen. More Tech Resources from Mashable:
Images courtesy of iStockphoto, imagedepotpro, and Flickr, Duke Energy and Pacific Northwest Regional Laboratory. More About: electricity, energy, environmentalism, facebook, smart grid, tech, twitter For more Social Media coverage:
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| Mark Zuckerberg Has Obtained a Restraining Order Against His Stalker Posted: 08 Feb 2011 10:17 AM PST   Mark Zuckerberg has obtained a restraining order against a man who took the term “Facebook stalking” to a literal level. According to TMZ, 31-year-old Pradeep Manukonda sent Facebook’s CEO messages through Facebook, left flowers and a handwritten note at his home, and showed up at several Facebook offices looking for him. At one point, security intercepted Manukonda walking up to Zuckerberg’s home. According to the handwritten note and Facebook wall posts obtained by TMZ, Manukonda consistently referenced a problem that he wanted Zuckerberg to help him with. “Thank you for your valuable time and attention towards my problem,” the note reads. The wall post, left on Randi Zuckerberg’s wall, takes a more drastic approach. “I owe my entire life to your service .. please help me, then I am ready to die for you,” it reads. A judge ordered Manukonda to stay at least 300 yards away from Zuckerberg, his sister and his girlfriend. In a later interview with TMZ, Manukonda apologized for his behavior. “I’m a peaceful guy … I’m sorry he thought I was trying to harm him,” he said. Photo Courtesy of Flickr, deneyterrio More About: facebook, mark zuckerberg, Restraining order, Stalker For more Social Media coverage:
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| Facebook Announces Its Big Move [LIVE] Posted: 08 Feb 2011 10:08 AM PST   Facebook is leaving Palo Alto, its home for the past six years, and moving to Menlo Park. The social network is about to announce its plan to make it happen. We’re here live at the Menlo Park City Hall’s Council Chamber, where Facebook and the City of Menlo Park are about to hold a joint press conference to announce the company’s big move. Our sources have told us that Facebook is indeed taking over the old Sun Microsystems campus north of Highway 101 in Menlo Park (we have pictures of Facebook’s new offices), and an aerial view of the campus being displayed at this press conference confirms it. We still don’t know some of the key details, though. When will Facebook move? What other buildings has it acquired? Is Facebook getting a special deal? How many people does Facebook intend to support with the new 11-building complex? Here are my live notes: Facebook Moves to Menlo Park: Live NotesAll times are in Pacific Time 10:02 a.m. The room is filling up with city officials and the press. There are a lot of police officers roaming the premises. 10:07: Microphone issues! 10:09: The entire city council is here. The mayor, vice mayor and several council members are here. 10:09 Facebook’s CFO is taking the stage. 10:10: Facebook makes it official: it’s the Sun Microsystems campus. 10:11: “We will work hard to be a good neighbor and a good community member.” 10:12: Facebook now has three fellows from the Environmental Defense Fund to help make the campus more green. 10:13: Mayor Richard Cline is discussing the move. He’s happy to have Facebook in his town and makes it clear that this isn’t coming as a surprise to Palo Alto, Facebook’s current home. They’ve been collaborating on this move. 10:15: Cline is discussing the impact on the local community. Essentially, it’s a chance to create new businesses around Facebook’s new location. 10:16: Cline: “Hopefully the partnership will be long, and very rewarding.” 10:19: Facebook’s now revealing the details of its move. Facebook contacted Oracle about the potential sale a few months ago. 10:20: It can support 3,600 people now, but Facebook believes it can support more; 15-year long-term lease with an option to purchase the campus after five years. Facebook also purchased 22 acres of land nearby, the land formerly owned by General Motors. 10:21: The 22 acres won’t be developed right now, but are there for flexibility. 10:21: Facebook could move in as soon as June or July. 10:22: Facebook’s already renovating the office (so that’s why there were so many chain link fences at the campus…). 10:23: Facebook will be hosting a Charrette on March 5. It’s a hackathon for the Menlo Park area. Q&AQ: Tax breaks included in the purchase? Q: Is Facebook moving all of its operations out of Palo Alto? Q: Financial impact on the city? Q: People keep asking about the office/purchase price. Q: Did Facebook look at other locations? Q: How will the culture fit? Q: How will Facebook keep the feel of the campus consistent from one end to the other? Q: Parking? Q: How many jobs? Q: Perks? Will it be like Google? Q: Who’s paying for the renovations on the building, since it’s a part-lease? Q: A small business owner in Menlo Park is asking about the contract and subcontract work for the site. That’s a wrap, folks. More About: facebook, Menlo Park, sun microsystems For more Social Media coverage:
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| Top Reasons Why Consumers Unsubscribe Via E-Mail, Facebook & Twitter Posted: 08 Feb 2011 09:54 AM PST   More than 90% of consumers unsubscribe, “unlike” or stop following brands because of too frequent, irrelevant or boring communications, according to a report by social media and e-mail marketing services company ExactTarget. Released Tuesday, “The Social Break-Up” is a study that surveyed more than 1,500 consumers, exploring changing online behaviors and top motivations for “unliking,” unfollowing and unsubscribing from brand communications via Facebook, Twitter and e-mail. Here are a few key findings from the study:
With 95% of U.S. online consumers using e-mail (and 93% of U.S. online consumers being subscribers to at least one opt-in e-mail per day), the e-mail findings are particularly important for marketers hoping to remain in good standing with their audiences via e-mail. But Facebook and Twitter are relevant as well, as 65% of U.S. online consumers are currently active on the platform (to the point of obsession, sometimes), and 9% of U.S. online consumers are active tweeters. Take a look at the images below for more detail about why consumers unsubscribe from brand messages via e-mail, Facebook and Twitter, and how they go about getting rid of brand updates when they’re no longer interested. Reasons People Unsubscribe From Opt-In E-Mails Similar to the Facebook findings, "too frequent e-mails" is the top reason why consumers unsubscribe from opt-in e-mails. Following that is the complaint that the content became repetitive or boring over time. Brands should take this note to heart and be sure to vary content from e-mail to e-mail. How Subscribers React To Uninteresting E-mail Messaging Once again, content is king. If your e-mail campaigns aren't engaging, you can be sure that consumers have plenty of ideas on how to get rid of them. Reasons People "Unlike" Brands on Facebook Overwhelming frequency is a top complaint among consumers across Twitter and Facebook -- in fact, it's the number one reason why people "unlike" brands on Facebook. Take care not to overload your audience with updates. How Facebook Fans React to Uninteresting Messaging If Facebook fans aren't satisfied, they are more than willing to "unlike" or hide brands in their news feeds. Reasons People Unfollow Brands on Twitter Relevant content should be a top priority for brands communicating with followers on Twitter, but inundating followers with tweets isn't the way to go. More About: business, e-mail, e-mail marketing, exacttarget, facebook, social media, twitter For more Business & Marketing coverage:
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| Libox for iPhone Makes It Easier to Share Media [EXCLUSIVE] Posted: 08 Feb 2011 09:46 AM PST   Content-sharing service Libox is preparing to release an update to its iPhone app, making it easier for users to create private-sharing communities to share HD videos and photos. Libox already makes it easy for users to access content across multiple devices — Macs, PCs, the iPhone and iPad — without having to mess with settings or configurations. The new iPhone update reinforces Libox’s goal to make sharing content with friends and family easy as well. With the new iPhone app update, Libox is also adding temporary caching in the cloud. That means that content can be accessed and stored without having the desktop app installed. In other words, iPhone users can install the Libox app and share and access media with friends and family members directly from the phone. When an iPhone user shares content with a friend, the friend will receive an e-mail with a thumbnail of the content. That content will then be accessible in the iPhone app. Users who want to see the content on the desktop can also install the desktop app. Libox isn’t putting any limits on the amount of media that can be shared, the file size of the media or the number of friends that can view the content. In other words, a user that wants to share an excellent HD recording of a local concert can do so with all the attendees. At least that’s what Libox says. Although users don’t need to have Libox on the desktop to view or share media from the iPhone, the added benefit of using the Libox app is that it means you can easily access content and create private shares that are accessible on the go. We like the idea of creating private media networks between friends for sharing content, and we appreciate that Libox is using the cloud to offset the need for the desktop app, at least when content is accessed on the iPhone. We do question how long Libox will be able to offer no limits on the number of friends content can be shared with and no limits on file sizes. We would also like to see Libox consider the approach that ZumoCast and Unifi are taking, where a permanent cloud-based storage option could exist alongside the P2P-based desktop app. Still, we like the fact that sharing and accessing media on mobile devices is now less complex. How do you share and access media from your smartphone? Let us know. More About: content sharing, iphone, iphone apps, libox, media sharing, startups For more Mobile coverage:
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| Introducing Mashable Follow, Our New Social Layer Posted: 08 Feb 2011 09:03 AM PST We’re excited to announce today the beta launch of a new social layer we call Mashable Follow. This project is the start of a significant shift for Mashable in 2011, as we evolve from being a purely editor-driven news site to becoming a true news community that seeks to engage our readers in the news process. Beyond personalization, we believe that curation is the next great wave in news, and empowering our community to choose the news of the day is the ultimate aim of the Follow project. The Engagement Era   If you’re a Mashable reader, chances are you’re already among the most engaged news consumers on the web:
Which led us to the question: How do we make Mashable more social, more useful and more personalized to you? Better still, how can we let our readers choose the news they want to read — and one day curate the news for their own networks of influence? That was the starting point for Mashable Follow, which enters beta testing today. Mashable Follow: A Better Mashable Experience What is Mashable Follow? Well, Mashable had an extremely successful 2010, growing from 15 staff members to 40 and increasing our output to more than 45 stories per day. We also launched new channels like Business & Marketing, Dev & Design and Startups. The downside of all this new content: More content for readers to sift through! So, how about we let readers log in to Mashable and follow only the topics that interest them? That’s what the first incarnation of Mashable Follow is all about:
Just the Start Of course, these new features are just the starting point for Mashable‘s social ambitions, and we have grand plans to make Mashable much more than just a digital news source: We want our community to power the news. With your help, feedback and contributions, we can’t wait to make that happen! To get on the invite list for Mashable Follow, please visit mashable.com/follow. We’re adding new people as quickly as we can. More About: announcements, follow, mashable, mashable follow, social, social media, social networking, trending For more Social Media coverage:
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| Meebo Acquires Ad Targeting Company Mindset Media Posted: 08 Feb 2011 08:47 AM PST   Online sharing and messaging platform Meebo announced Tuesday that it has acquired ad targeting company Mindset Media for an undisclosed sum. Meebo plans to use Mindset Media’s psychographic ad targeting technology to better serve the major brand advertisers that exist across the Meebo platform. Meebo closed a Series D round at the end of last year, buoyed by the growth of the Meebo network, along with its high retention rate of advertisers, as well as click-through rates and engagement statistics that are better than industry averages. We spoke to Meebo COO Martin Green about the acquisition and what role Mindset Media’s technology can play in creating better opportunities for advertisers and users. Mindset Media specializes in what it calls psychographic measurement and targeting. In other words, instead of focusing just on demographic information, the goal is to connect consumers with brands that fit their personality and psychographic profiles. As an example, Green pointed out that Audi drivers and BMW drivers might fit the same demographic profile, but aren’t necessarily the same targeted group. An approach that may appeal to a BMW driver may not work with an Audi driver. Before making the decision to acquire Mindset Media, Meebo had already partnered with the company on some of its big branded advertisements. Green told us that he sees big brands as the most underserved in the current online advertising climate, in large part because the demographic targets are too broad to have real impact. Meebo’s strategy as a sharing platform has been to create advertising opportunities that engage the user and get results for the advertiser. These ads — which are similar to Apple’s iAds concept — are interactive and multimedia rich (if engaged by the user) and shareable in the same way that other content is shareable via the Meebo Minibar. What we think would be really interesting — and our hunch is that this is where Meebo is headed — would be if data (all opt-in, of course) collected from a user’s Meebo checkin option within the Meebo Bar, could be used to help determine what ads the user is served across the Meebo platform. More About: acquisitions, advertising, meebo, mindset media, online ads, startups For more Business & Marketing coverage:
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| The Strokes To Offer First Single From New Album as Free Download Posted: 08 Feb 2011 08:38 AM PST   Fans of The Strokes, who have been waiting with bated breath for the last five years, gird your loins: The band is planning to release its newest single, “Under Cover of Darkness,” on February 9 as a stream and free download (available for 48 hours) via The Strokes website. “Under Cover of Darkness” is the first track from the band’s upcoming album, Angles, which drops on March 22 from RCA records in the U.S. and March 21 from Rough Trade Records in the UK. The song will also debut on the radio tomorrow, and will be available for purchase on iTunes on February 15. And for everyone out there who’s into the old-school appeal of records, you can snag the single on seven-inch vinyl during Record Store Day (April 16). We’re increasingly seeing bands release music via the web first (for free, even) — Trent Reznor teased us with a couple of tracks from The Social Network soundtrack, and we’ve seen artists like Michael Jackson (posthumously), as well as Kanye West & Jay-Z have their music exposed to the masses via tools such as Ping and Facebook. The Strokes fans — we recommend marking your calendar and getting ready to download. (Remember how slammed the Illegal Arts site was when the last Girl Talk album dropped?) In the meantime, check out 10 online resources for free, legal music for more money-free jams. More About: the-strokes For more Media coverage:
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| VW Tops List of Most-Viewed Super Bowl Ads on YouTube Posted: 08 Feb 2011 07:55 AM PST   Volkswagen’s “The Force” ad was a force to be reckoned with on YouTube. The ad, which was uploaded a few days before the Super Bowl, is now up to 16.4 million views, topping the list of the most-viewed Super Bowl ads on YouTube by far. YouTube’s metrics are not necessarily the final word, though. For one thing, some ads, like the Doritos and the HomeAway spots included on the list, had been on YouTube for a few weeks before the game. Secondly, discussion about the spots via social media may be a better overall indicator of an ad’s impact. VW’s other Super Bowl ad, “Black Beetle,” came in second place with 1.9 million views. The rest of the list includes:
Do you agree that VW dominated the rankings? Decide for yourself by viewing all the ads that ran during the game here. More About: advertising, Super Bowl ads, youtube For more Business & Marketing coverage:
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| Random Startup Generator Mocks Ubiquity of “Coming Soon” Pages Posted: 08 Feb 2011 07:30 AM PST   So your startup is basically Twitter, mixed with Spotify and a dash of Foursquare, but really much more like old-school Facebook when you really get down to it. And it’s “coming soon”? Join the club. That’s basically the sentiment behind The Random Startup Generator, a clever little web tool that the folks over at blogging social network Fireplace put together as a gentle jab at startups that linger in the “coming soon” stages for far too long. (Check out the URL as well, which puts a spin on Y Combinator.) There are a few bugs in the layout when viewed on a smaller screen, but this is a rather enjoyable diversion for those of use who toil in the tech world. Photo courtesy of Flickr, Saucy Salad For more Media coverage:
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| T-Mobile Offers All Phones for Free This Weekend Posted: 08 Feb 2011 07:09 AM PST   As part of a special Valentine’s Day promotion – and, obviously, as a counter to Verizon’s iPhone, which hits stores February 10 – T-Mobile is offering all the phones in its inventory for free with a new two-year contract on Friday and Saturday, February 11 and 12. T-Mobile will offer 30 devices for free as part of this promotion, including high-end smartphones such as the HTC HD7, T-Mobile G2 and Samsung Vibrant. For a full list of devices in T-Mobile’s inventory go here. The promotion offers some really solid savings; for example, the HTC HD7 normally costs $499 and the Garmin-Asus Garminfone’s standard price is $449. Know that to take full advantage of this promotion, you need to visit a T-Mobile store. You can also choose to buy a phone online through Valentine’s Day, in which case only select smartphones will be free (for example, the HTC HD7 is $99). What do you fancy more: a Verizon iPhone or a free HTC HD7? Or are you perhaps inclined to wait for the iPhone 5? Please, share your opinions in the comments. More About: free, phones, promotion, T-Mobile, valentine's day For more Mobile coverage:
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| ShoutEm Makes It Easy to Create Your Own Mobile App Posted: 08 Feb 2011 07:01 AM PST   ShoutEm, the Zagreb, Croatia-based startup that started out as a white-label Twitter solution, has significantly changed its strategy with a new version, launching in beta today. Instead of merely creating your own Twitter, ShoutEm now lets you effortlessly create a full-fledged iPhone app, with support for an RSS feed, event listings, video, audio podcasts, radio streaming, locations and microblogging – all in one. We’ve tried the app creation process and it really is as simple as it can be: You add modules and rearrange them as you please, and then test the app on your iPhone by downloading a special app called ShoutEm Mobilizer and logging in with your ShoutEm credentials. Your app can be quite simple; for example, it can consist only of an RSS feed from your company’s website. However, if you want, you can add a rich array of features that would put many iPhone apps to shame. One module we’ve had some trouble with was the images module, which works well with Flickr but with some other sites, such as Imgur, doesn’t display images correctly. You can also brand the app with the colors and logos of your company, including setting up your own application icon, home image, iTunes artwork and more. ShoutEm doesn’t offer a free version. To create your mobile app you must pay a monthly fee starting from $29.90/month for the Basic plan, which offers up to 1000 installs and lacks some of the more advanced features such as Events. The Advanced plan starts from $49.90 and offers up to 2,000 installs, while the Pro plan also offers plugins for WordPress and Drupal and up to 5,000 installs. The most demanding customers can negotiate the price for an Enterprise plan, which offers all of the above plus advanced customization of the application. Viktor Marohnic, one of ShoutEm’s co-founders, spoke about the company’s strategy. “Remember when WordPress was all the rage, and everyone was creating websites and blogs? Well, now it’s happening in the mobile realm,” he says. “There are tens of thousands of companies around the world that want – no, need – a mobile app, but can’t afford to go through the expensive process of hiring a development team, waiting for the app to be finished and submitting it to Apple’s App Store for approval. With ShoutEm, you don’t have to do any of that. Creating a mobile app with ShoutEm is simple, easy, customizable and – we think – cheap,” says Marohnic. ShoutEm has prepared 100 beta invites for Mashable readers; to use one, register over at www.shoutem.com/registration using the code “mashableapps”.    More About: application, iOS, iphone, Mobile 2.0, mobile app, Shout'Em, smartphone For more Dev & Design coverage:
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| New Website Guides You Through the Homeless Experience Posted: 08 Feb 2011 07:00 AM PST   It’s one thing to feel bad for homeless people; it’s another to be forced into their shoes. Advertising agency McKinney has teamed up with Urban Ministries of Durham (UMD), a non-profit based in North Carolina, to create SPENT, an online game that guides users through what it feels like to be homeless. Here’s how it works: If you accept the challenge to play, you enter a simple point-and-click game, navigating multiple choice questions about your livelihood. The site says you have been stripped of your savings and are currently unemployed, asking, “Can you make it through the month?” You’re given simple choices with varying consequences. Do you want to try working in a restaurant? A factory? If you live far from the city your rent will be cheap, but, as you’re informed through pop-ups, you’ll have to pay more for gas or transportation. The game’s integration with Facebook is its best feature. When faced with some choices, (like your landlord raising your rent) the game will ask you to decide whether to ignore the claim, pay it or ask a friend. The last option opens up a pre-written statement in Facebook where you can email one of your actual friends for “help,” bridging the gap between virtual reality and the real uneasiness of having to ask a friend for assistance. This simple act also helps spread awareness for the game by attaching a logo and small description to your request. The game, however, walks a fine line with tone. Non-profits constantly have to balance bumming out their audience with important facts and stats, and motivating that same audience to then donate or become engaged. SPENT seamlessly blends that information into the game. Your choices are met with great insights about how many people opt out of health insurance because of high premiums, how 44% of people living below the poverty line use public libraries to access the Internet or how in 2009, 50 million Americans lived in households that had a hard time getting food. These facts are made all the more powerful after you’ve had to weigh the options for yourself.  After trying to shop for digital groceries, however, that fact is punctuated by comments like “With these groceries, you’re going to [have a hard time].” If you elect to eat a cheap burger rather than a salad you’re told, “Perhaps that’s why low-income workers like you are more likely to be overweight.” If you choose to live out of the city, SPENT sends you off with a missive: “Let’s hope your car doesn’t break down!” One of your options for getting some extra cash is to smash your child’s piggy bank for an extra $15. SPENT definitely subscribes to the “tough-love” mentality, trying to give you a realistic impression of what it’s like to deal with homelessness and poverty. With its snipes, the game also gives a good impression of what it’s like to be leered at. Jenny Nicholson, a copywriter at McKinney, is one of a handful of people that created the game and came from circumstances like the ones SPENT simulates. She says the game isn’t about disparaging the user but creating empathy: “You have to make the best decisions you can. The people that are in these situations don’t do this because they’re stupid but because they’re stuck between a rock and a hard place.” Tough love is a tough sell for someone who stumbles onto the game simply wanting to learn more or give money. There is a donate button at the bottom of the page, and once you run out of money you are prompted to get involved or donate to UMD. Currently based in the Durham region of North Carolina, Nicholson hopes to release SPENT nationwide if it proves effective. What is your experience with the game? Should non-profits be tougher and more forthright about the problems they fight? Let us know in the comments. Thumbnail image courtesy of Flickr, SamPac. More About: game, gaming, mckinney, social good, social media, spent, urban ministries of durham For more Social Good coverage:
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