Mashable: Latest 27 News Updates - including “Skype for Symbian Now Live in Nokia’s Ovi Store” |  |
- Skype for Symbian Now Live in Nokia’s Ovi Store
- Twitter Speeding Towards 10 Billion Tweets
- Skinput Turns Your Body Into a Touchscreen [VIDEO]
- Virgin America Ditches Adobe Flash for New Site
- Roger Ebert ‘Speaks’ on Oprah [VIDEO]
- Apple Wants to Bring Hollywood Into the Cloud, Too
- Facebook Could Surpass $1 Billion in Revenue This Year
- Premiere: Hulu’s Social Media-Infused “If I Can Dream” [VIDEO]
- BIG: The Daily Show and Colbert to Be Yanked From Hulu
- iPad on Shelves March 26? [RUMOR]
- Dr. Seuss iPhone Apps Go on Sale For His 106th Birthday
- Google Wave Gets a Saucy Parody [VIDEO]
- 10 Incredible Geeky LEGO Creations [PICS]
- Google Wave Gets a Smarter API
- Foursquare Sees Its Name in Lights in Vegas
- Vimeo Adds Video Analytics Suite
- Google Expands Click-to-Call Mobile Ads to National Advertisers
- 10 Fantastic Places for Finding Designers Online
- Could Netflix be Coming to Your iPhone?
- Nokia Announces C5 “Smartphone”
- How Small Business Is Using Social Media [STATS]
- YouTube Down for Many Users
- How Companies Are Using Your Social Media Data
- Apple Eyes HTC in Latest Patent Lawsuit
- CoTweet Acquired By Email Marketing Firm ExactTarget
- Adobe Opens Up About Apple, HTML5 and Flash [VIDEO]
- HootSuite Rolls Out Android Apps and iPhone App Upgrade
- A 3D Tribute to Apple’s Beautiful Design [VIDEO]
| Skype for Symbian Now Live in Nokia’s Ovi Store Posted: 03 Mar 2010 03:04 AM PST  
Besides free Skype to Skype voice calls, the app enables you to send and receive instant messages, share pictures, video and other files, receive calls to your online number, and import names and numbers from your phone’s address book. The app works on following Nokia models: Nokia N97, Nokia N97 mini, Nokia X6, Nokia 5800 XpressMusic and Nokia 5530 and the following non-touch devices: Nokia E72, Nokia E71, Nokia E90, Nokia E63, Nokia E66, Nokia E51, Nokia N96, Nokia N95, Nokia N95 8Gb, Nokia N85, Nokia N82, Nokia N81, Nokia N81 8 Gb, Nokia N79, Nokia N78, Nokia 6220 classic, Nokia 6210 Navigator, Nokia 5320. See a video demonstration of the Skype app for Symbian below. You can download the app from Skype or from the Ovi store. Tags: Nokia, Skype, smartphone, Symbian, voip
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| Twitter Speeding Towards 10 Billion Tweets Posted: 03 Mar 2010 01:55 AM PST 
Notice the trend? Although Twitter has been somewhat struggling with traffic (compared to its earlier immense growth) in the last couple of months, it still managed to go from five to ten billion tweets in four months; quite a remarkable achievement. Counting tweets is actually quite easy: just look at the URL of any tweet. The number at the end of the URL seems to be the number of that tweet, and at this moment the number of one of the latest tweets is 9917803012. If this seems like a long way to go before we reach one billion, check out this counter. Yup, we’re getting there fast. The five billionth (now deleted) tweet was a simple "Oh lord," written by Robin Sloan. I wonder what the ten billionth tweet will say?
Hat tip to Bit Rebels for noticing this one. Tags: social media, trending, twitter
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| Skinput Turns Your Body Into a Touchscreen [VIDEO] Posted: 02 Mar 2010 09:58 PM PST 
Skinput makes use of a microchip-sized pico projector embedded in an armband to beam an image onto a user’s forearm or hand. When the user taps a menu item or other control icon on the skin, an acoustic detector also in the armband analyzes the ultralow-frequency sound to determine which region of the display has been activated. You can check out more specifics on the technology behind Skinput in the paper the group will present [warning: PDF link] in April at the Computer-Human Interaction conference in Atlanta. Another innovative muscle-based control scheme we profiled recently comes to mind as an example of where the intersection of biology and computing might be heading. Both systems are still in the early prototype stages, but offer an exciting glimpse of what the future might hold in terms of human-computer interactions. Check out the video below and let us know what you think: would you be interested in turning your skin into a touchscreen? [via New Scientist via PhysOrg] Tags: futurism, HCI, microsoft, pico projector, skin, touchscreens, video
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| Virgin America Ditches Adobe Flash for New Site Posted: 02 Mar 2010 09:17 PM PST 
The reason? The startup airline plans a big push into mobile this year and wants to be sure iPhone users can access the Virgin America site and check-in process via the iPhone. Already absent from the iPhone, Flash support will also be notably lacking from Apple’s iPad. Steve Jobs also reportedly had some choice words on the company’s attitude toward Adobe’s interactive web technology, adding fuel to the Flash vs. HTML fire recently. Our own readers chose HTML5 as the favored candidate in our Faceoff Series last week. On the other hand, Adobe itself went on record with us recently to voice the company’s continued support for HTML and to downplay the rivalry between the two technologies as a “misperception.” Now that Virgin America has put its own stake in the ground, do you see other companies coming forward to side with one technology or the other? Will Flash vs. HTML continue to heat up primarily in the mobile realm, or is the majority of interactive web content at stake? Can the two platforms happily co-exist? Let us know your thoughts in the comments. [img credit: Brewbooks] Tags: adobe, adobe flash, apple, Flash, HTML5, ipad, iphone, Mobile 2.0, virgin america
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| Roger Ebert ‘Speaks’ on Oprah [VIDEO] Posted: 02 Mar 2010 07:35 PM PST 
On Oprah’s annual pre-Oscars show today Ebert appeared with his wife Chaz. It’s here that Ebert showed off his new voice. Videogum offers up this clip from the show, which features Ebert’s new “old” voice: The Tech Behind the VoiceAs Ebert himself described in his blog, the new voice was created for him by a Scottish company called CereProc. Like Alex, the new voice that Apple created for Mac OS X Leopard and Snow Leopard, CereProc’s technology makes voices that sound more human, have more emotional nuance and don’t sound as stilted and, well, computerized as computerized voices in the past. To create his custom voice, CereProc used audio commentary tracks that Ebert recorded for DVDs like Casablanca, Citizen Kane and Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (fun fact: Ebert wrote the screenplay for BtVotD). The end result, which was heard most prominently in Ebert’s Oscar predictions (we’re working on getting that clip uploaded), is pretty remarkable. Ebert is still using Mac OS X’s Alex voice for most of his computerized communication, but hopefully his new Roger voice can be tweaked and finessed to take its place. Visions of the FutureRoger Ebert’s journey and his use of technology has highlighted just how far accessibility tools have come in the past decade, thanks to technology. He found CereProc on the Internet — they make pre-made voices that people can buy to use on their computers. Android 1.6 introduced text-to-speech functionality in multiple languages. Android 2.0 and beyond will continue to build on this engine. While text-to-speech isn’t built into the iPhone (a built-in screenreader, VoiceOver, is), third-party programs are available. Every version of Mac OS X has included text-to-speech support and Microsoft Windows also supports TTS. Just as voice recognition software is getting better and better, text-to-speech too is becoming more natural and features better patterns and cadences. The publicity surrounding Roger Ebert’s new voice and its technology will hopefully spur some investment and innovation into these services. What do you think of Roger Ebert’s “new” voice? Reviews: Android Tags: cereproc, digitized speech, oprah, roger ebert, software, tech, Text to Speech
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| Apple Wants to Bring Hollywood Into the Cloud, Too Posted: 02 Mar 2010 06:50 PM PST 
All of this makes logical sense as an extension of Apple’s acquisition of LaLa back in December, a cloud streaming service that could be leveraged to bring iTunes to the web. The Wall Street Journal confirmed as much shortly after the LaLa deal, and now we’ve heard rumblings about Apple in talks with both labels and studios to set up the licensing agreements that could make a cloud iTunes service a reality. Under such a service, users could store all their media content centrally and access it from pretty much any internet-connected device — or more critically, any Apple-sanctioned device. Analysts seem to agree this may be the thorniest issue to work out, as neither Hollywood nor the music industry wants a walled garden ecosystem that doesn’t play well (or at all) with non-Apple devices. A consortium of big media players have coalesced under the umbrella of DECE (Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem) to address what will be a growing interoperability issue as more companies and services look to the cloud for media distribution duties, and as more consumers want to use a wider range of devices to access their online libraries. Disney’s competing KeyChest format speaks to both the prevalence of the emerging cloud-based approach and the complexity of the issues surrounding both content licensing and digital rights management. Although the trend of sending media into the cloud is pretty clear, how exactly everything will shake out in terms of services, devices, and partnerships is still anyone’s guess. Still, consumers can start looking forward to the true advent of the long-promised “celestial jukebox,” in which almost media we consume or want to consume may be easily accessible from almost anywhere. Are you looking forward to having your media collection in the cloud, or do you prefer to control your library locally? Tags: apple, cloud computing, DECE, disney, DRM, Film, Hollywood, itunes, Lala, music, tv, video
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| Facebook Could Surpass $1 Billion in Revenue This Year Posted: 02 Mar 2010 05:40 PM PST 
The estimation and legwork, performed by Inside Facebook, provides the clearest picture yet into a very hazy topic: Facebook’s finances. As Facebook is a private company, it has no obligation to releases its revenues, profits, or costs. That hasn’t stopped many from investigating to find out. Inside Facebook broke down Facebook’s estimated 2009 revenue into four key areas: brand advertising, Microsoft advertising, virtual goods, and performance advertising. The biggest income stream seems to have been performance advertising, which likely accounted for more than half of Facebook’s 2009 revenues at $350 million. Next was brand-based advertising, which accounted for an estimated $225 million in revenue. Microsoft advertising came in at $50 million and virtual good income was only $10 million according to these numbers. What may be more interesting though are the 2010 revenue estimates. As Facebook improves its performance advertising algorithms, hires more staff to deal with brands, and really pushes Facebook Credits as a platform (and takes a 30% cut). Those factors combined make it very possible that Facebook joins the $1 billion club in 2010. Facebook has been growing rapidly, most recently surpassing 400 million users last month. It still has a long ways to go before it reaches profitability levels that can rival those of tech giants like Google. If it can crack the social media revenue nut though, it could pave the way for monetization for thousands of other websites and apps. Reviews: Facebook, Google Tags: facebook, facebook credits, microtransactions, Revenue, virtual goods
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| Premiere: Hulu’s Social Media-Infused “If I Can Dream” [VIDEO] Posted: 02 Mar 2010 05:10 PM PST 
Live 24/7 video, social networking profiles, and lifestreams all play a part in engaging viewers in the cast members’ lives. It’s an impressive production, but we get the sense that it’s expensive enough that it won’t pay for itself unless it becomes a huge hit. Given all its innovations and refinements on the past ten years of web show experimentation, though, it might actually pull through — especially since it’s available internationally. Time will tell, but until it does, we can at least dig deeper to find out how the If I Can Dream machine works. How It’s Unique to the Web The show’s tagline is “Welcome to the New Hollywood.” That refers to the show’s premise — it’s about a group of young artists seeking to become the next big stars in Los Angeles — but it’s also easy to read as a mission statement for the show’s presentation and model. The house that the five cast members will live in is equipped with 50 cameras that will live stream to the web for free 24 hours a day, seven days a week. That’s accessible at ificandream.com, and it’s accompanied by a ticker at the bottom of the site that announces when and where interesting events will be happening along with the current weather and time in LA where the house is located. The cast’s Twitter, Facebook and MySpace accounts are linked and chock full of content. The music they’re (supposedly) listening to will stream on iheart radio. Short clips will be posted on Hulu every day. In an interview at the Hulu blog, executive producer Michael Herwick summarized the project this way:
How It’s Like Network TVThat web content is all in addition to the full episodes that will be posted to Hulu every Tuesday morning. The first two will focus on introducing the cast members as they travel the world to promote the show. The episodes are actually notable for how different they are from other made-for-web-video; their production values and presentation are similar to what you’d expect from a cable or network TV show. That’s because the project is the brainchild of Simon Fuller, the reality TV producer who developed Pop Idol and American Idol. If I Can Dream is thematically similar to those shows in that its focus is on aspiring performers trying to make it in LA. Four of them are unknowns, but one of them — singer-songwriter Justin Gaston — is somewhat famous for having dated pop star Miley Cyrus and worked as an underwear model. He has over 100,000 followers on Twitter. As with many other reality shows, though, auditions for future roles are ongoing. If you’re young, talented and beautiful, you can upload MySpace audition videos to try to become the next resident of the If I Can Dream House. If I Can Dream is not the first reality show to offer live streams of the house; Big Brother did so several years ago. But If I Can Dream is doing it for free thanks to some clever ad deals. There are brief ads you have to watch when you start a stream and there are some sponsorships, too. For example, Justin will perform music at arranged times in a room called the Pepsi Blue Room. Watch the PremiereHere’s the premiere episode, “The Journey to Hollywood Special.” Enjoy, and let us know what you think of this (fairly) new approach to web TV in the comments. Reviews: Facebook, Hulu, MySpace, Twitter, YouTube Tags: 19 entertainment, hulu, If I Can Dream, justin gaston, live video, miley cyrus, reality tv, Simon Fuller, television, tv, twitter, web series
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| BIG: The Daily Show and Colbert to Be Yanked From Hulu Posted: 02 Mar 2010 04:05 PM PST 
The Daily Show and The Colbert Report are two of the most popular shows on Hulu, so it’s a big loss for both Hulu — which just posted about the “farewell” on its blog — and for consumers of web video, thousands of whom have daily turned to Jon Stewart or Stephen Colbert at Hulu for a bit of entertainment and news during their cubicle lunch breaks. This is arguably Hulu’s first big programming setback, though other online entertainment services like Netflix Watch Instantly and GameTap have lost important content deals in the past. Viacom says both shows will still be available at their respective websites (thedailyshow.com and colbernation.com) and at Comedy Central’s website, but many viewers prefer the clean TV experience they get at Hulu, so they won’t be thrilled with that. Of course, the shows will still air on Comedy Central’s cable TV channel each night. Maybe Viacom is hoping that viewership on its own air and websites will improve if the shows aren’t available elsewhere. We’re not so sure it will, but we’ll be observing to find out. We’re also not sure exactly what caused the arrangement between Viacom and Hulu to end. Hulu simply said it was unable to secure the rights. Viacom might have asked for a financial deal the site was unable to agree to. Reviews: Hulu Tags: Comedy Central, hulu, television, The Colbert Report, the daily show, tv, viacom
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| iPad on Shelves March 26? [RUMOR] Posted: 02 Mar 2010 03:32 PM PST 
While yesterday’s rumor centered around a potential production-related delay for Felicity’s foreseen gadget, today’s rumor is much more concrete. According to The L.A. Examiner, Apple Retail employees are saying that a training session involving the new device is planned for March 10. The training session rumor sounds plausible — although we’re wary about the TV commercial rumor. In our experience, this isn’t the type of information given to the retail channels. Plus, if we were betting on when Apple would release the first iPad commercial, it wouldn’t be on a Monday. We think the company would wait until Tuesday — during American Idol — to make the iPad’s TV debut. We’ve reached out to our own Apple Retail Store friends to try to get confirmation or denial of these claims but haven’t heard anything. If you have any info and want to spill the beans confidentially, hit us up through our contact form or ping me on Twitter. (h/t TiPb) Reviews: Twitter Tags: apple, ipad, ipad rumors, tech
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| Dr. Seuss iPhone Apps Go on Sale For His 106th Birthday Posted: 02 Mar 2010 02:30 PM PST 
These are the Dr. Seuss-branded apps currently available:
The e-book apps are normally $3.99 and the camera apps $2.99, so the savings are pretty decent. In honor of our favorite children’s author, we’ve also found this Dr. Seuss-inspired “Wubble Down” video (thanks Buzzfeed). Tags: apple, dr. seuss, iphone apps, kids apps
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| Google Wave Gets a Saucy Parody [VIDEO] Posted: 02 Mar 2010 01:42 PM PST 
This parody might seem a little Johnny-Come-Lately considering that Wave came out months ago and has yet to truly take off (to be fair, it’s not open to everyone yet, but it’s safe to say Buzz buzz is much louder as of late), but it’s still pretty amusing. Check out the video — as well as the tutorial that it’s mocking — below. Reviews: Google Wave Tags: chatroulette, google buzz, Google Wave, humor, viral video
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| 10 Incredible Geeky LEGO Creations [PICS] Posted: 02 Mar 2010 01:20 PM PST 
From both full-time, professional LEGO artists to those who just have a penchant for the colorful little Danish building blocks, we bring you a great gallery of LEGO sculptures that are inspired by the world of tech, online and social media. Have a gander now and let us know your favorites – or any others we’ve missed that you think are worthy of mention – in the comments box below. 1. PS3 Controller This PS3 controller was bricked up for a Sony advert for the Chilean market. Aside from the LEGO-themed video games link, the thinking behind it is reported to be that the console is as classic and recognizable as LEGO itself. Just a bit more pricey. 2. Apple iPad Flickr user jmenomeno created an Apple iPad after watching the keynote in which it was announced. Some nice attention to detail comes in with the Apple logo on the back. 3. Twitterrific’s Ollie LEGO builder Fredoichi took a break from more hardcore LEGO creations to make Ollie, Twitterrfic’s avian icon, because his little girl thought it was “a cute thing to have.” Awww! 4. Google Logo Apparently Larry and Sergey are “avid lovers of the LEGO brick” and as such commissioned LEGO artist Sean Kenney to piece together two Google LEGO logos which are currently on show in the online giant’s New York and Copenhagen offices. 5. Twitter Fail Whale One of the online world’s sweetest error messages gets rendered in 3D in the medium of LEGO by Bjarne P Tveskov who cunningly Photoshopped the once-yellow “eye” brick – as it’s really a smiley LEGO mouth. 6. More Google LEGO Google staffers themselves got in on the brick-building action with this Google Talk sculpture made from LEGO. We only hope it was built during their 20% time. 7. Young Woz and Jobs Playset PodBrix’s Apple-themed scene is set back in ‘72 and shows the two young Steves in minifig form – Steve J already dreaming of the iPhone and Woz, wrench in hand fiddling with a circuit board. 8. Nintendo DSi Another Sean Kenney creation, this gargantuan LEGO DSi was commissioned by the Japanese gaming giant to grace the Nintendo World Store in New York. You’re looking at 51,324 LEGO pieces in this 7-foot wide construction which makes most home-made efforts look a little puny. 9. iPhone Unboxing A slightly different take on the LEGO angle, as well as on your usual unboxing, this Flickr photo-set sees minifigs merrily unpacking an Apple iPhone – until tragedy strikes, that is. Don’t fret, there’s a happy ending. 10. VIDEO: Google Chrome LogoMade for Google’s contest that asked users to create a video of themselves building the Google Chrome icon in any medium, this construction site, stop-motion effort is a clever use of the LEGO bricks, and minifigs, which brought it special mention. More Geeky Fun posts from Mashable:
Reviews: Apple Ipad, Flickr, Google, Google Chrome, google talk Tags: apple, geek, Google, ipad, iphone, Lego, nintendo ds, PS3, twitter
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| Google Wave Gets a Smarter API Posted: 02 Mar 2010 12:57 PM PST 
For those who are unfamiliar, developers can create two types of extension for Google Wave: robots and gadgets. Gadgets are apps that can run inside of waves, while robots are automated participants within waves. Developers can create robots to do everything from respond to specific cues to pull in information from outside sources such as Twitter. The big feature of the new robots API is the Active API, which allows Google Wave extensions to push information into waves without the need for user action or input. This means that waves can automatically update with info such as stock prices, weather updates or tweets without a specific action from users within the wave. It also improves the ability of robots to pick and choose the data they need, to better filter out events and to report errors when they fail to carry out a task. It’s safe to say that the buzz around Google Wave has died down significantly since its launch last year, but it’s also clear that Google sees Wave as in integral part of its overall strategy to redefine communication (Google Buzz is the most recent innovation). The new API should help bring new developers to the platform, which could prove vital if it ever hopes to reach critical mass. Reviews: Google, Google Buzz, Google Wave, Twitter Tags: api, Google, Google Wave
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| Foursquare Sees Its Name in Lights in Vegas Posted: 02 Mar 2010 12:44 PM PST 
The enormous digital display pulls in Miracle Mile checkin data via Fousquare’s API and displays the latest tips and to-dos, as well as the mall’s mayor, for all onlookers to see. It’s quite the display, and you can see it in the photo below. What’s especially interesting, however, is that LocaModa and Foursquare are not partners. The digital display service opted to use its technology to feature Foursquare in bright lights simply because it appreciates the service. Essentially Foursquare was just gifted with one giant ad free of charge that pretty much speaks for itself and exposes the service to a very mainstream audience. The Vegas billboard can be viewed as yet another triumph for the location-based mobile application and game. The company is the midst of a mainstream media and content push, pumping out partnerships with entertainment partnerships that include the likes of Bravo TV and The New York Times.
[Img credit: LocaModa via dpstyles] Reviews: Foursquare Tags: foursquare, foursquare api, MARKETING
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| Vimeo Adds Video Analytics Suite Posted: 02 Mar 2010 12:20 PM PST 
With Plus Stats you can track plays, loads, finishes, comments and likes for all of the videos uploaded on your account over any time period you define. You can break down plays and loads by country, and you can see how many embed loads and plays occur at each domain — Tumblr or Facebook, for example. You can even break it down by high definition and standard definition to see what quality your viewers are choosing to watch. All that data can be exported to a spreadsheet file, too. Vimeo has been tracking the data for months, but not for its entire lifespan. Vimeo has, in the past, tried to compete with YouTube by offering elegant, high-end features at the cutting edge of technological advancement. Recently it went 1080p HD and rolled out an HTML5 player. Because of its focus on quality and an Apple-like culture of simple sophistication, Vimeo has become a favorite of visual artists. We’ve embedded Vimeo’s Stats demo video below, but the site has also posted a detailed interactive demo of the new features that you can get with Plus Stats. You obviously don’t need to be a Plus member to try it. Vimeo Plus memberships cost either $60 per year or $10 per month and include other perks like unlimited HD uploading, HD embeds, more customization and privacy and an ad-free experience. Plus Stats: Advanced Statistics for Vimeo Plus from Vimeo Staff on Vimeo. Reviews: Facebook, Tumblr, Vimeo, YouTube Tags: analytics, News, Vimeo, vimeo plus, vimeo plus stats
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| Google Expands Click-to-Call Mobile Ads to National Advertisers Posted: 02 Mar 2010 11:42 AM PST 
The setup is quite simple and means that all advertisers running mobile ads can add a phone number via the adwords phone extensions menu (make sure to select the “iPhones and other mobile devices with full Internet browsers” campaign option as well). Following setup, advertisers with phone numbers associated with their ads will gain access to data on how many calls they receive per keyword, ad group or campaign. On the user side of things, iPhone, Android and Palm Pre device owners should start noticing the national and local Google ads with click-to-call phone numbers at the bottom. Obviously the type of phone number advertisers employ will vary, with some businesses being more call-friendly than others, but we’re certainly intrigued by the idea of searchers directly contacting advertisers. The mainstream adoption of social media by businesses has proven that customers are looking for more direct access to companies, so we’re curious to see if this same idea translates in mobile ad form as well. Reviews: Android, Google, iPhone Tags: Google, google adwords, Google mobile, MARKETING, Mobile 2.0
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| 10 Fantastic Places for Finding Designers Online Posted: 02 Mar 2010 11:24 AM PST 
Unless you are a creative agency, most small businesses don't have the luxury of having an in-house designer. There are literally thousands of freelance designers and design agencies out there that can fill various niches and services, but finding someone in your price range – and if locale is important, in your area – can be difficult. Fortunately, there are some great online resources that can take the sting out of searching for a designer. Here are some of my favorites: 1. Sortfolio Sortfolio is the latest project from 37Signals, the team behind Basecamp, Campfire and Backpack. Sortfolio is really great for companies or individuals looking for a designer because you can browse by price-range (as in, how much do these designers charge on average per project?) and location. You can also get a good look at their portfolio before connecting directly with the designer on their own site. Sortfoilio has the added benefit of having strong ties to the design and development communities. 2. Authentic Jobs Job boards are a dime a dozen and sometimes posting for a potential hire doesn't end with any good leads. Authentic Jobs is unique in that it targets the web developer and web design community and is frequented by those most active in pushing the barriers in that community. Created by respected designer and author Cameron Moll and with listing partners like Veer and SimpleBits, if you're looking for a job posting to get in front of the right people, this should be a stop on your list. 3. Elance Elance is a highly active, organized and efficient community that you can use to find contractors online. You can search for designers by skill set, location and browse Elance's various groups (members must pass a skill test before entering). The nice thing about Elance is that you can see the feedback and ratings that a provider or freelancer has received from others. This can help provide a clearer picture about a designer before going forward with an interview. 4. Guru Like Elance, Guru is a large marketplace that connects freelancers to potential clients. You can view work samples, see completed projects, read feedback from other clients and search by rate, skill level and location. 5. FreelanceSwitch's Directory FreelanceSwitch is an online community dedicated to freelancing, with a strong focus on creative freelancers like web designers and developers. The FreelanceSwitch Directory can be used to browse for freelancers and see samples of their work. From there you can contact the designers directly through their own websites. 6. SitePoint Marketplace SitePoint has a very active community for buyers and sellers. You can browse through pre-made templates, find designers offering their services and also post a listing. 7. Behance The Behance Network is a place to discover and peruse the portfolios from tons of great designers and artists. You can see their portfolio and concepts, and also find out if they are available for work. Behance is a great resource for finding high-level talent. 8. Carbonmade Carbonmade is a portfolio service for designers and it is also a great way to locate talent. More than 195,000 designers use the service to post their projects, portfolios images and resumes. You can also see who is available for freelance work and search by design medium and skill set. 9. AIGA AIGA is the professional association for design and their website (as well as the sites for local chapters) has a directory of AIGA designers, as well as AIGA member portfolios, which are hosted by Behance. 10. Krop Krop is both a job posting and job search tool for creatives. Designers can also offer up their own portfolios. Potential employers can pay to have access to searching that database or you can post a job offer on Krop's board. What Do You Think?Where have you had good luck finding designers for projects? Are there any tips or tricks you can offer to others? Let us know in the comments! More business resources from Mashable:
Image courtesy of iStockphoto, pavlen Reviews: Basecamp, Carbonmade, iStockphoto Tags: business, design, designer, List, Lists, portfolio, small business, web design, Web Development
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| Could Netflix be Coming to Your iPhone? Posted: 02 Mar 2010 11:00 AM PST 
Here’s the text of that survey question:
In the past, these sorts of survey questions have proven to be indicative of future streaming plans (the PS3 streaming question pre-dated the feature’s arrival by about seven months), but what strikes us as particularly interesting is the very clear “over Wi-Fi” language. As we discussed in our piece about Hulu coming to the iPad, the biggest hurdle with getting services like Hulu and Netflix to devices like the iPhone, iPad and other mobile phones isn’t the technology — that’s a barrier that can be overcome — it’s the licensing. The streaming rights for devices like a PS3, a computer or a Roku box are different from the mobile streaming rights. How mobile devices are defined is unclear, but it might be as simple as “connects over a mobile broadband network” versus “connects over Wi-Fi.” The argument could be: It doesn’t matter how portable a device is, if it’s only connecting over Wi-Fi, it’s not a mobile device in the contractual sense. That rationale would obviously get Netflix to iPhone or iPad users much more quickly — and it might be why the company is sussing out interest in Wi-Fi-only streaming ability. Of course, this is pure conjecture on our part — but Netflix is a company that isn’t afraid of exploiting loopholes to deliver content to its users. We’ll ask you the same question Netflix asked customers: Would you be interested in Netflix on the iPhone, with the understanding that you could only use it when connected to a Wi-Fi network? Let us know in the comments! Reviews: Hulu Tags: apple, iphone, netflix, streaming video, wifi
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| Nokia Announces C5 “Smartphone” Posted: 02 Mar 2010 10:31 AM PST 
Nokia has unveiled a new “smartphone,” the Nokia C5, a Symbian S60 third edition handset offering decidedly mid-range features in a slimline candybar design. While Nokia calls the device a “smartphone in a feature phone body,” what the C5 offers isn’t arguably that smart in an increasing competitive market. The Cseries device (which joins the existing Xseries, Eseries and Nseries) introduces a new series-themed naming convention with the number representing the functionality: one is the lowest and nine the highest. To put the device in the context of the rest of the series, Nseries is the flagship range, Xseries is said to focus on social entertainment, Eseries is aimed at business folk, while the Cseries has been introduced to make up Nokia’s “core” (read: mass market) range. The unveiling of the C5 shows that Nokia is still plugging away at the mid-range market with its capable yet uninspiring handsets that — along with the company’s offerings for emerging markets — could be called its bread-and-butter business, while struggling to create the next must-have mobile. Highlights of the C5’s feature set include free walk-and-drive navigation (thanks to Nokia’s Ovi Maps 3.0) as well as preloaded and built-in messaging, including Nokia’s own “Messaging” application, which incorporates Google Talk and Windows Live Messenger. Nokia promises social networking features for the C5, one of which is Facebook integration where the handset’s phonebook will display your contacts’ status updates. Hardware-wise, the C5 comes in with a 2.2-inch display, a 3.2-megapixel camera, a microSD card slot that supports cards up to 16GB, built-in FM radio and a 3.5mm headphone jack. Due in white and “warm gray,” the Nokia C5 will go on sale in Q2 of 2010 in select regions, including Europe, for a pre-tax price of 135 euros, which translates in today’s rates to around $182. [via Nokia Conversations] Reviews: Facebook, Symbian S60, Windows Live Messenger Tags: mobile phones, Nokia, smartphone, Symbian
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| How Small Business Is Using Social Media [STATS] Posted: 02 Mar 2010 10:01 AM PST 
The data comes straight from the university’s third installment to its Small Business Success Index report and is based on a December 2009 telephone survey of 500 small business owners. Adoption rate calculations are compared against a baseline report conducted in December 2008. The study concludes that one nearly one in five small business owners are integrating social media into their business processes — Facebook and LinkedIn were the most popular sites. In fact, 45% of surveyed respondents even believe their social media initiatives will pay off financially in 12 months or less. As the graphic below details, the small business owners who are using social media are primarily engaging in social media through company pages (75%) and status updates (69%) on Facebook or LinkedIn. What’s especially intriguing is that a much smaller percentage of respondents — just 16% — are using Twitter as a customer service channel. Another interesting notion is that small business owners now believe social media can help them on the lead generation front, and that is the primary motivating factor for engaging in these new customer service channels. So while half of surveyed respondents found the time it takes to use social media sites more daunting than expected, 61% are still putting in the hours and making active efforts to identify new customers. Clearly social media has become a valuable tool for small businesses, but we’re especially curious to see how Twitter adoption rates fluctuate over the time. While we expect more small businesses to use Twitter as a customer service channel in the year ahead, as it stands, Facebook and LinkedIn have become the predominant platforms for small business owners.
[img credit: mfinelydesigns] Reviews: Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter Tags: small business, social media, stats
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| Posted: 02 Mar 2010 09:45 AM PST 
We’ve also noticed that many videos embedded on third-party sites like Mashable appear to be failing to load, though both problems seem to resolve themselves after a number of browser refreshes. Meanwhile, plenty of people are discussing the YouTube problems on Twitter. We’ll update when we know more. Are you experiencing issues? Let us know in the comments. Reviews: Mashable, Twitter Tags: youtube
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| How Companies Are Using Your Social Media Data Posted: 02 Mar 2010 08:41 AM PST 
Jules Polonetsky, director and co-chair of the Future of Privacy Forum, said online users have no clue that a comment they made on a blog is being added to a database for some unknown use. “I don't think users expect that,” he said, and if consumers think idle chatter and casual conversation can be used against them by institutions, it’s almost certain to create a backlash, according to Polonetsky. He said the Federal Trade Commission is right now re-examining the current privacy structure in the U.S. But at the same time, he said consumers are always very comfortable with Amazon using data to recommend books they might like. “When users are in control of it, it’s a win-win — if they feel empowered.” How Data is Being UsedPolonetsky said aggregators like Rapleaf Inc. will collate information about individuals and sell it to companies that want to learn about those customers and what they do online. Personal finance reporter Erica Sandberg, who covered the issue of social media datamining in a story for CreditCards.com, said that if a data mining company turns your chatter and network into a behavioral pattern, and if they can prove it has some worth, then it’s valuable to companies. Sandberg said this is just more information anyone can use to help them make a decision. “I don't think there's anything scary about it,” she said. “Why wouldn't they look at it? It’s public.” She said she is not aware of any specific examples of those who have been negatively impacted because of it. Entities such as airlines, politicians, and even non-profits can use this data for finding new customers or targeting products to existing ones. Financial services companies such as banks and lenders are also using the same datamining services for marketing purposes and to make lending decisions. For instance, certain types of credit products, which fit your personality, could be marketed specifically to you. “It’s a helpful tool to identify the right customers, the best customers,” Sandberg said. She said the immediate fear is the misconception that it affects your credit report. She stressed that companies that do social media datamining do not have access to your credit report, and the act of collecting the publicly available data has no effect on your credit score. However, she said, “it can affect the credit you're offered, and the credit you receive.” Social media contacts play a role in behavioral profiles as well. “I think what's most interesting is how those in your network have an impact,” she said. Do you know if your Facebook friends have good credit histories? Likely not, but if you associate with people who are a good credit risk, than you'll probably be a good credit risk, according to Sandberg. “The whole idea [is] like follows like,” she said. Learning About Customers to Tailor Experience
He said clients they work with include car companies, airlines, hotels, banks, retailers, non-profits and politicians. If they can learn more about their customer, then they can personalize an experience for that customer, according to Hoffman. He said consumers are already expecting this high level of service, and that it's all about the product, service, and experience that you would prefer. “The power to personalize things is much greater,” he said. Rapleaf's blog links to a SmartMoney story about how banks and financial services firms limit their use of social media data to marketing departments, and not those “charged with making credit and lending decisions,” according to the post. Sandberg said it's up to businesses to use the information from datamining companies as they please. "This is public information. They can use it any way they want." Social Data Helps to Prevent FraudLending Club, a peer-to-peer lending service that matches borrowers with investors, has been using a variety of tools and software to help them gather social media information for six months, according to Rob Garcia, the company’s senior director. He said Lending Club uses social media data for marketing and operational purposes and stressed that Lending Club does not use any social media data for credit decisions and that it does not affect whether an applicant can get a loan. “We use this information to benefit our customers — to prevent fraud,” he said. For operational purposes, Lending Club makes sure the user's information checks out to try to protect his or her identity, according to Garcia. So they will compare application information from a credit file against information that's publicly available. He said that if there's a mismatch, it gives them more reason to go to more strict identification procedures. “We have found a way to use this information in a positive way,” he said. Credit Card Companies Turn to Social Media Consumers might soon be seeing more credit card offers in their mailboxes. In the last quarter of 2009, the number of credit card offers mailed were up 46% from the third quarter of 2009, according to a news release on the direct mail tracking service Synovate Mail Monitor. Anuj Shahani, director of competitive tracking services for Synovate’s Financial Services Group, told me that the number of credit card mailings is still down 40% from the fourth quarter of 2008. He said the CARD Act, which is a new federal law aimed at better disclosure and banning unfair rate hikes, and the economy were reasons for the decrease in mailings of credit card offers. He said that because of the CARD Act, there are restrictions on spending for credit card companies. Credit card companies will have to come up with targeting models, and data companies can help them figure out those models, according to Shahani. “Issuers will have to come up with smarter ways to target the right audience because it is so much more expensive to extend credit,” he said. “I think one of them will be social media.” Credit card companies are already using social media to launch new products. Shahani pointed out that the CitiForward credit card launched in March 2009 on MySpace. He said that in December 2009, American Express launched its new Zync card on social media sites. Shahani said the credit card issuer's goal is to find the right audience and go to the right people and that's where he expects social media would come in. Social Media Usage TipsHere are some tips from Erica Sandberg on the types of content to avoid posting on the social web and handling network connections. 1. Determine whether you want to go public or private with your social media profiles. If the profiles are set to be public, then be consistent with information you are posting. “The caution lies in what you say. Be truthful,” she said. For example, don't post a status update joking that you're filing for bankruptcy when you're not. “It's the off-the-cuff remarks you're going to want to be aware of,” she warned. 2. Eliminate people and sites from your social networks that you don't need. “Make sure people who are around you are reflective of you as a wonderful person,” Sandberg said. 3. Pay attention to your friend, invite, and connection requests. "You don't want random associations," she said. Sandberg recommends first checking out that person's profile before accepting it. “I get flooded with friend requests of people I don't know,” she said. “You have no idea who these people are. It's a risky thing to do.” What if opting out of being on social media is not an option? Sandberg said she's on there for business purposes and can't really go private. In that case, be careful what you write. “It underscores the importance of being honest and projecting yourself in a positive way,” she said. More social media resources from Mashable:
Images courtesy of iStockphoto, shironosov, blackred [Image Credit: Fosforix] Reviews: Bing, Facebook, Google, MySpace, iStockphoto Tags: credit cards, data, data mining, facebook, finance, myspace, personal finance, privacy, social media, social networks, trending, twitter
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| Apple Eyes HTC in Latest Patent Lawsuit Posted: 02 Mar 2010 08:26 AM PST 
The ITC, as fans of this ongoing mobile patent circus may recall, is investigating Apple’s alleged patent infringement at Nokia’s behest. We haven’t been able to pull the full lawsuit from the U.S. District Court, so it’s unclear what exact patents or claims Apple is claiming that HTC violates — although we highly doubt that it has anything to do with the Sense UI, seeing as that pre-dated the iPhone — but we’ll update this post with a link as soon as that appears. The most interesting aspect of this particular case (for now) is actually in the announcement. In it, Apple CEO Steve Jobs says:
Seriously, this whole game is getting ridiculous. I know these are multibillion-dollar companies, but perhaps their resources could be better spent, I don’t know, innovating their products rather than trying to sue one another into oblivion? Update: Engadget has been given a statement from HTC that basically says this entire thing comes as a shock. From Engadget:
Furthermore, Engadget is working on pulling the files together, but the full suit isn’t in the court’s system yet. Additionally, Engadget says that Apple has submitted over 700 pages of exhibits to District Court. 700 pages and that the ITC complaints call out virtually every HTC product that’s been on the market in the last eighteen months. Kudos to Engadget and Nilay Patel for finding all of this stuff out. (Thanks @nikf for the heads-up!) What do you think? [img credit: Thomas Roche] Tags: apple, htc, ITC, lawsuits, patent theater
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| CoTweet Acquired By Email Marketing Firm ExactTarget Posted: 02 Mar 2010 07:52 AM PST 
In a statement, ExactTarget CEO Scott Dorsey said, "By combining the power of ExactTarget and CoTweet, we can provide businesses a complete solution to tie together all forms of interactive communications and drive deeper customer engagement online.” While perhaps not a widely known name in the social media space, ExactTarget is a major player in email marketing, generating $114 million in revenue for 2009. The company has also raised a massive $140 million in venture capital, most recently securing $75 million this past December. Meanwhile, CoTweet has made waves as one of the first enterprise players in the Twitter space. After starting out as a free beta, the company began charging $1500/mo for its tools late last year. Now, the company will join forces with a much larger outfit that can push its software to an existing base of customers. And that might’ve been CoTweet’s best option. While they were early to the enterprise Twitter space, they’ve since attracted some large competition. For example, Salesforce.com, already a behemoth in the CRM space, now offers its own Twitter CRM features. Certainly, the move can be seen as further validation of the role of marketing in social media. Twitter’s COO Dick Costolo said as much in the company’s announcement, declaring that, “this acquisition is strong validation that valuable, sustainable businesses are emerging from the Twitter ecosystem.” Dorsey and CoTweet CEO Jesse Engle discuss the deal in the video below: Reviews: Twitter, cotweet Tags: cotweet, crm, exacttarget, MARKETING, software
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| Adobe Opens Up About Apple, HTML5 and Flash [VIDEO] Posted: 02 Mar 2010 07:43 AM PST 
Fewer than two months ago, Apple revealed the iPad to the world. And while the company’s highly anticipated device included a lot of features, Flash wasn’t one of them. A war of words soon erupted over the the multimedia plugin, with Flash responding to Apple and Steve Jobs ranting about Flash, stating that “the world is moving to HTML5.” What does Adobe think of all of this recent talk? Does Adobe see HTML5 as a potential rival to Flash? What about Apple’s animosity towards Flash? All of these questions needed answering. Notes: Interview with Aaron FilnerTo get Adobe’s side of the story, I traveled to Adobe System’s San Francisco office to speak with Aaron Filner, the group product manager for the Flash platform. I’m going to let the video below do the majority of the talking, but I did want to highlight some key notes and takeaways from our conversation:
Video: Interview with Aaron Filner, Adobe FlashReviews: Android Tags: adobe, adobe flash, android, apple, Flash, HTML5, iphone, Mobile 2.0, nexus one
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| HootSuite Rolls Out Android Apps and iPhone App Upgrade Posted: 02 Mar 2010 07:09 AM PST 
You may recall that HootSuite’s iPhone app retails for $1.99 and is designed to appeal to business Twitter users with a robust functionality that includes unlimited account support and stats and analytics on shared media. Now version 1.2 supports Facebook integration and landscape view. There’s an even a free “Lite” version that maintains a majority of the functionality, but dumps the price tag and sacrifices the click-through date and unlimited account support feature in the process. HootSuite’s also introducing two brand new Android applications, both of which bring the same robust HootSuite Twitter iPhone experience to Android devices, but with background notifications to boot. Both versions of the app support multiple Twitter accounts (the Lite version is limited to three accounts), message scheduling, hashtag and search streams, photo- and URL-sharing, and trending topics descriptions. The full-featured version — which costs the same as its iPhone twin — also includes click-through statistics for Twitter data analysis. Of course, given that HootSuite bills itself as the professional Twitter client you can expect the mobile apps to integrate nicely with your web account. Existing HootSuite users can import their configured accounts and sync their activity between the web client and the mobile apps. As the Android operating system continues to gain market share, HootSuite’s expansion on to that platform makes absolute sense. In fact, in the months ahead we expect to see more iPhone-only apps — especially popular social media standbys — make their way over to Android as well.
Reviews: Android, Facebook, HootSuite, Twitter, iPhone Tags: android, hootsuite, iphone, iphone app, Mobile 2.0, twitter
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| A 3D Tribute to Apple’s Beautiful Design [VIDEO] Posted: 02 Mar 2010 06:18 AM PST 
The animation, which isn’t affiliated with Apple, was done using 3Ds Max and V-Ray render; according to Transparent House, it took about 10 days to complete. The names of the various Apple products will show up at the end of the video as closing credits, but you can amuse yourself by trying to name them all as they appear. Nine different Apple products are displayed; a true fan should know the names of at least eight. Hat tip to Recombu for finding this little gem. Tags: 3D, apple, design, video
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