Mashable: Latest 29 News Updates - including “Yes, the iPhone 4 Will Shatter If You Drop It… Into a Blender [VIDEO]”

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• Yes, the iPhone 4 Will Shatter If You Drop It… Into a Blender [VIDEO]
• Semantic Recipe Finder Will Save You Time in the Kitchen
• Java: The Movie! Humor for Geeks [VIDEO]
• People Love to Tweet About the iPhone and How they Hate AT&T [REPORT]
• Yes, Google’s Bots Understand Code
• Hungry for Power [COMIC]
• The New Digg: First Impressions
• EXCLUSIVE: First Teaser For “The Social Network” [VIDEO]
• WordPress Looks to Cure Writer’s Block by Acquiring Plinky
• Our Favorite YouTube Videos This Week: Speedy Babies, Crafty Kitties & Robots
• 5 Cool Non-Profit Uses of Location-Based Tech
• Gmail Now Lets You View Word Docs in Your Browser
• Top 10 World Cup Twitter Trends [CHART]
• Mario Marathon Raises Money for Children’s Hospital [LIVE VIDEO]
• Twitter Sets New Record: 3,283 Tweets Per Second
• The Vuvuzela Invades Google Street View
• HOW TO: Evaluate Your Social Media Plan
• Social Media Increases “Cuddle” Chemical Production in the Brain [STUDY]
• The History of the iPhone [INFOGRAPHIC]
• Hulu Coming to a PS3 Near You [REPORT]
• Coca-Cola Promoted Trend Nets 86 Million Impressions on Twitter
• How Social Media is Helping Veterans Connect
• Actor Jason Bateman Cuts the iPhone 4 Line
• Alleviate Your Crushing Guilt with the Forgiveness Engine [APPS]
• 5 Free Ways To Find Local Concerts on Your Smartphone
• iPad Magazines: Don’t Believe the Hype
• Chipotle Wants to Turn Your Junk E-mail into Healthy School Lunches
• Thanks to Mashable’s Socially Savvy Supporters
• iPhone 4: 1.5 Million Sold on First Day [REPORT]
• Mozilla Explains Why Firefox 4 Has Tabs on Top [VIDEO]

Yes, the iPhone 4 Will Shatter If You Drop It… Into a Blender [VIDEO] Posted: 26 Jun 2010 12:08 AM PDT Those wanton destroyers of super expensive, highly coveted technology are at it again — Blendtec took on the iPhone 4 with its storied device, and that sucker blended like one big, toxic, black, smoking smoothie. We saw Blendtec — a company that manufactures blenders and produces a series called “Will it Blend?” — demolish the iPad a few months back, which must have gone straight to the heart of a goodly number of Apple fanboys and girls. Well, this should sting if you were one of the many standing in line to get your mitts on Steve Jobs’s latest toy yesterday morning. Nice nod to the purloined Next-Gen, boys. [via Business Insider] More About: apple, blendtec, iphone, iphone 4, viral video For more Apple coverage: Follow Mashable Apple on Twitter Become a Fan on Facebook Subscribe to the Apple channel Download our free apps for iPhone and iPad

Semantic Recipe Finder Will Save You Time in the Kitchen Posted: 25 Jun 2010 11:41 PM PDT Mashable's Spark of Genius series highlights a unique feature of startups. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, see details here. The series is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark. Name: Yummly Quick Pitch: Yummly is the world’s first intelligent, semantic search platform for food and recipes. Genius Idea: Yummly aggregates more than 500,000 recipes from cooking sites you already love — think AllRecipes, Food Network and Epicurious — and queues up recommended recipes based upon your preferences. After creating an account, you’ll want to immediately dive into your profile and set your likes, dislikes, allergies and dietary needs, which can be applied to all future recipe searches. Here you can also define your cooking skills and shopping preferences, import recipes and view a list of recommended recipes that match your tastes. Yummly touts that it is able to learn your taste preferences over time and more accurately predict recipes you will appreciate. If you’re on the hunt for just the right recipe, make sure to take advantage of the FoodFinder search tool located on the right-hand side of the search results page. Here you can specify pretty much any constraint on the food you’re interested cooking. Everything from ingredients, taste, pricing, cuisines and courses to nutritional restrictions — such as a vegan diet — can be tailored via the FoodFinder. With each new specification, the selection of recipes is automatically refreshed. One sweet bonus of Yummly is that it’s easy to immediately see each recipe’s value, or lack thereof, when perusing results. To the right of each listing is a handy little box that calls out recipe factoids so you can quickly glimpse if something is super salty, pricey, time-intensive to prepare or high in calories. The information makes weeding through the vast collection of recipes an effortless experience. Yummly can even recalculate recipe proportions and caloric information based on servings and substitutions, the latter of which is a feature the more health-conscious among us will definitely appreciate. Simply select a recipe, specify desired servings, add or substitute ingredients, hit save and watch as the caloric information on the right recalculates according to your customizations. Some other fun features include type-down search in text fields, Facebook sharing, the ability to add your own photos to recipes and foodie communities. Whatever your culinary abilities or preferences, Yummly is a great place to find and discover recipes best suited to your individual dietary needs. [img credit: marfis75] Sponsored by Microsoft BizSpark BizSpark is a startup program that gives you three-year access to the latest Microsoft development tools, as well as connecting you to a nationwide network of investors and incubators. There are no upfront costs, so if your business is privately owned, less than three years old, and generates less than U.S.$1 million in annual revenue, you can sign up today. Reviews: Facebook More About: bizspark, Food, recipes, yummly For more Tech coverage: Follow Mashable Tech on Twitter Become a Fan on Facebook Subscribe to the Tech channel Download our free apps for iPhone and iPad

Java: The Movie! Humor for Geeks [VIDEO] Posted: 25 Jun 2010 10:23 PM PDT Here’s a video that’s been making the rounds in the Mashable backchannels today, and it’s a nerdgasm and a half. It’s also incredibly funny and well-shot, if we do say so ourselves, featuring clever lines and a hilariously timed soundtrack that calls to mind Requiem for a Dream, American Beauty and other pop cultural references. “Java 4-ever,” as this faux-trailer is called, just popped up today and has already gotten more than 131,000 views on YouTube. And of course, it’s spawned an epic Hacker News thread debating the finer points of object-oriented programming and the Java Virtual Machine (JVM). There’s a mildly suggestive clip toward the end of the video, which we’d classify PG-13 at worst. Also, as one Hacker News commenter pointed out, this entire video is NSFW if you work at a .NET shop. Sorry, MySpace devs! What do you think of this video: Just a bit funny, or nerd humor of the highest order? Reviews: Hacker News, MySpace, YouTube More About: humor, java, jave 4ever, net, video For more Dev & Design coverage: Follow Mashable Dev & Design on Twitter Become a Fan on Facebook Subscribe to the Dev & Design channel Download our free apps for iPhone and iPad

People Love to Tweet About the iPhone and How they Hate AT&T [REPORT] Posted: 25 Jun 2010 08:50 PM PDT Initial reactions to the iPhone 4 have been pretty spectacular, with an estimated 1.5 million units sold during the first day and lines that lasted hours, but what was reception like on Twitter? While we know that the World Cup and President Obama topped the iPhone 4 pre-buzz, we still wanted to take a look at some deeper Twitter analysis. Real-time social media tracker Trendrr was nice enough to offer us some data of the iPhone 4 and also AT&T over various periods of time. Trendrr’s analysis covers both quantity and sentiment analysis, and we’ll examine those data points. iPhone Tweets By the Numbers Looking at the data on mentions of “iPhone” from November 2008 to the present, a few points really stood out. First, we should note that as of right now, Trendrr does not have full data for any days after June 22, 2010. We have hourly statistics (see below), but not full data info for an entire day. > Note the two gigantic spikes in the graph. The first occurs on June 17, 2009. This was the day that the iOS (or iPhone OS) 3.0 software was released. The next spike was on June 7, 2010, the official announcement of the iPhone 4. On June 7, Trendrr says that 653,000 tweets containing the phrase "iPhone" were sent. Next, let's take a look at an hour-by-hour examination, which started on Saturday and ran through the 25th. Again, note the big spikes throughout the day of the 24th, with the phrase "iPhone" peaking at 55,537 tweets per hour. AT&T and iPhone Sentiment Analysis We find sentiment analysis really interesting, and the figures for the iPhone 4 offer some food for thought. While some have expected the overall net sentiment to be positive, the results are actually quite different. Sentiment started out more positive than not for the term "iPhone," but negative remarks started showing up on Monday, June 21. At that time, 25% of all tweets about the iPhone were deemed "negative." However, this was before the iPhone 4 started to arrive to users, so we're not really sure what contributed to the negativity, other than overexposure, perhaps. The negative tweets died down again, and we started to see more positive tweets on June 22 and June 23, with positive and negative mentions in roughly equal amounts on Wednesday. Here's where it gets interesting: 28% of the iPhone-related tweets on June 24, 2010 were negative. How many of these negative tweets were related to long lines or sold out stores, we don't know. As of today, June, 25, the positive tweets have edged past the negative tweets once again. Moving onto everyone's favorite whipping boy, AT&T. AT&T is not a popular company. In fact, it's an oft-cited reason that people don't get an iPhone. Still, looking at the data that goes back to May, it does look like the company had a few bright spots. We're not really sure why AT&T had such big spikes on May 22, 2010 and June 6, 2010, but those are the only two days the positives outweighed the negatives. Not surprisingly, on June 15, 2010, the day the iPhone became available for pre-order, AT&T had a 35% negativity percentage. Maybe it was the failed activation system. The negativity cooled down a bit, but as of June 24, 2010, the negative tweets had reached 44%, according to Trendrr. Does this data match what you've been seeing on Twitter? Let us know your thoughts in the comments. Reviews: Twitter More About: att, iphone, iphone 4, sentiment analysis, Trendrr, twitter trends For more Apple coverage: Follow Mashable Apple on Twitter Become a Fan on Facebook Subscribe to the Apple channel Download our free apps for iPhone and iPad

Yes, Google’s Bots Understand Code Posted: 25 Jun 2010 07:25 PM PDT Google indexes the web’s billions of web pages at lightning speed using Googlebot, a web crawler that collects links and documents from webpages and turns them into the searchable content you find on Google Search. Originally, Googlebot software was only thought to read links and parse some code, but Google told Forbes earlier today that Google now has deeper interaction with JavaScript, and its bots can even “understand some JavaScript.” This could make indexing rich content a great deal easier on the world’s largest search engine. As Forbes points out, having a program understand JavaScript isn’t a simple affair. No algorithm “can be applied to any program, at any point, and tell whether or not that program continues ad infinitum.” However, if Google’s bots could execute JavaScript themselves, it would solve some of those difficult issues. The Googlebot is getting smarter and faster, thanks to Google Caffeine. Adding the ability to understand and even execute code in order to parse rich media may very well have been part of the update. We wonder what else the Googlebot can do now. img credit: warmnfuzzy] Reviews: Google More About: Google, google search, javascript, Search For more Dev & Design coverage: Follow Mashable Dev & Design on Twitter Become a Fan on Facebook Subscribe to the Dev & Design channel Download our free apps for iPhone and iPad

Hungry for Power [COMIC] Posted: 25 Jun 2010 06:21 PM PDT Friend Me is a social media comic published every Friday by Natasha Wescoat. We get it, becoming a Foursquare mayor is a really big deal. You get benefits, rewards and the warm satisfaction of claiming you’re king (or queen) of the heap. Sometimes, however, all the power can go straight to your head as this week’s comic demonstrates. Just because you’re mayor doesn’t mean you get everything. Poor guy. Find more “Friend Me” comics at artcandy.tv, or read last week’s comic: “There’s an App for That.” For more Social Media coverage: Follow Mashable Social Media on Twitter Become a Fan on Facebook Subscribe to the Social Media channel Download our free apps for iPhone and iPad Reviews: Facebook, Foursquare, Twitter More About: comic, foursquare, friend me comic, mayor, social media

The New Digg: First Impressions Posted: 25 Jun 2010 05:06 PM PDT Ever since the new version of Digg was announced three months ago, it has undergone a lot of revisions and caused a lot of turmoil. In that time, Kevin Rose replaced Jay Adelson as CEO, reportedly unhappy with the direction Adelson was taking the company and the product. The New Digg is almost here though, and we have access to the preview. We’ve been playing around with the new interface and its many features, and we’ve compared them against both the “old” Digg and other platforms such as Twitter and Facebook. Here are our first impressions of the New Digg: Digg Has a Suggested Users List When you first log onto the New Digg (New.Digg.com), you’re presented with a couple screens. The first one is Digg’s version of the suggested users list — a hand-picked list of people and companies to follow on Digg. The list includes everyone from Kevin Rose to The New York Times to Mashable, and it categorizes their accounts based on topic area. Twitter spurred a lot of growth and created a small set of power accounts with its suggested user list (SUL) — at least until this year’s changes. Still, these types of lists help new users get started, and acquiring fresh users is something Digg needs to do. Even if this hand-picked version of the SUL isn’t sustainable, it should give the company a boost in terms of new user engagement and retention. Adding Content Is Much Easier One of the first things that struck us when we finally got to the new Digg homepage was the prominence of the “Digg It” option. It looks and feels like the Facebook Publisher box. Whenever you enter in a link, it imports the title, finds images from the link, and lets gives you write a description and choose a topic. After that, all you have to do is click “Digg It,” and the link is broadcast to the Digg universe. There are some other nice features about the new publishing box. For example, if you put in a link for a story that’s already been submitted, it will alert you to the fact and display the Digg information for that specific link, complete with sharing tools and a Digg button. It’s also a ubiquitous box: you will find it on many of the other pages in the New Digg. Clearly, Digg is placing an emphasis on getting people to add more content and articles to the social news hub. As we’ve reported before, there is an option in the New Digg to link your RSS feed to your Digg account and auto-submit your posts for the community’s consideration. Discovering Content Content discovery has changed in the new version of Digg. There are two tabs on the top left of the interface: My News and Top News My News is the default homepage for all users. Unlike the current version of Digg, where content bubbles up from the overall community, the new version focuses on content coming from your friends and followers. The new homepage no longer shows who submitted a story, but instead focuses on which of your friends dugg it. Even the sidebar focuses on how many of the people you follow have dugg a story, rather than whether or not a friend of your submitted it. We welcome the change. It democratizes the site a bit more by reducing the need for publisher to hit the front page of Digg in order to generate any traffic. We saw content with between 16 and 150 Diggs on our personalized feed of news. However, long-time Digg users don’t have to worry. “Top News” is just like the current version of Digg, focusing on the top content from the collective Digg community. You can even sort top content by day, week, or month. There seems to be a minimum Digg count to appear on the week or month Top News charts though, as we only saw three news items between the two tabs. Interface The overhaul not only focused on the algorithms and content discovery, but also on the interface itself. It’s definitely faster, cleaner, and more social. In our tests, we found it incredibly simple to navigate and a pleasure on the eyes. Unlike the last version of Digg, this is something that new users can quickly pick up and understand. It’s not perfect, though. Search still needs some work. For example, we found the exact same content from Mashable when we tried to resort by “Most Recent” or “Best Match.” Hopefully this is a small bug that will quickly be resolved. Overall though, the New Digg is a remarkable improvement over its predecessor. It keeps much of the old look and feel of Digg, while giving it a much-needed refresh and emphasis on the social graph. Expect the new version to launch for all users very soon. Reviews: Digg, Facebook, Mashable, Twitter More About: digg, mashable, New Digg For more Social Media coverage: Follow Mashable Social Media on Twitter Become a Fan on Facebook Subscribe to the Social Media channel Download our free apps for iPhone and iPad

EXCLUSIVE: First Teaser For “The Social Network” [VIDEO] Posted: 25 Jun 2010 03:22 PM PDT Columbia Pictures has just released the very first teaser trailer for its upcoming film, The Social Network. Like the poster that debuted last week, the teaser is sparse in its detail, but intriguing and provocative at the same time. The Social Network, otherwise known as “the Facebook movie,” is based in part on the book The Accidental Billionaires. It chronicles the formative days of Facebook, from its founding in Mark Zuckerberg’s Harvard dorm room through its early rise to success. Written by Aaron Sorkin and directed by David Fincher, the film stars Jesse Eisenberg as Zuckerberg. It hits theaters this October. The tag line for the film, “You can’t make 500 million friends without making a few enemies” seems to sum up some of those early days, and the film (or at least the version of the script that I read) is as much an exploration of young people coming to terms with creating something bigger than themselves as much as it is about loyalty, jealousy and money. Some have questioned why Facebook and its story was worthy of a film, let alone a film from A-level writers and directors. Well, think about just how much Facebook dominates the online communication space today. Think about how much bigger it is than it was even a year ago. Now consider that it was started only six years ago. Its overwhelming success and the fact that it has become important enough to drive ongoing discussions regarding privacy and data ownership is indicative that it is a force. Plus, think about it: Movies are an inherently social experience. A movie about a social network and the social factors, stories and melodramas that went into the founding of that network makes sense on a weird meta level. What do you think of the teaser trailer? Are you convinced that a Facebook movie is a good idea? Let us know in the comments. Reviews: Facebook More About: facebook, facebook movie, Film, mark zuckerberg, movie trailer, Movies, the social network, trending For more Entertainment coverage: Follow Mashable Entertainment on Twitter Become a Fan on Facebook Subscribe to the Entertainment channel Download our free apps for iPhone and iPad

WordPress Looks to Cure Writer’s Block by Acquiring Plinky Posted: 25 Jun 2010 02:50 PM PDT Automattic, the company behind WordPress.com, has acquired inspiration tool Plinky from Thing Labs, who are also creators of the Brizzly Twitter app. Terms of the deal have not been disclosed. Plinky provides a daily prompt or question and asks the user to respond with text, photos and multimedia. We first wrote about the website when it launched in January 2009. Backed then, we said it offered “a new twist on microblogging” with a pretty interface, but that it also suffered from “a bloated sense of self.” Automattic has found a smart use for the app, though. In its blog post, the company behind WordPress.com clearly positions the acquisition as a way to overcome writer’s block. Getting started with Plinky on your blog requires signing up for a Plinky account though, but we imagine that barrier will eventually be dissolved as it gets stronger integration with WordPress. If WordPress.com lives and dies by the amount of content its users generate, then Plinky should be a powerful tool to get new and causal writers to create more content. img credit: xanxhor Reviews: WordPress More About: acquired, acquisition, automattic, brizzly, Plinky, Thing Labs, Wordpress For more Business coverage: Follow Mashable Business on Twitter Become a Fan on Facebook Subscribe to the Business channel Download our free apps for iPhone and iPad

Our Favorite YouTube Videos This Week: Speedy Babies, Crafty Kitties & Robots Posted: 25 Jun 2010 02:30 PM PDT It’s been a long week, sports fans… and now that the iPhone 4 has finally been released, there’s pretty much nothing vital or interesting on the horizon. You know, unless you have other stuff going on in your life, like relationships with friends and loved ones. For those of you recovering from the stress of waiting in line — or the stress of being PO’d at those who waited in line — we’ve collected a cadre of thoroughly entertaining YouTube vids that are sure to keep you going until those last tremors of PTSD dissipate. Jeopardy! Alex Trebek Auto-tune Stephanie Marcus: Best use of AutoTune ever…. and I have a crush on Alex Trebek. Amazing Child Racing: Babies Crawl to Victory Zachary Sniderman: I’m sure this is illegal. At very least unethical. But boy is it cute. NINJA KITTEN gatito de ninja Jehangir Irani: Ninja Kitten is no joke! Feel free to laugh at this video, though. JavaZone Trailer: Java 4-ever Josh Catone: Brilliant. Just brilliant. YouTube – Beckett Eats Pop Rocks Tamar Weinberg: Apparently the original video uploaded by the parents was removed, and I assume it was due to harsh criticism, but hey, no babies were harmed in the making of the video, and as a parent of a similarly aged baby boy, I actually do think it’s funny (and super cute!) I’ll admit, I haven’t tried it myself though. World Premiere: 20 Nao Robots Dancing in Synchronized Harmony Barb Dybwad: It’s like the next great boy band. Except with robots! Fully Epic Rapsody – The Fully Sick Rapper Brenna Ehrlich: Since Zach STOLE my video this week, I was forced to look elsewhere. This one goes out to Christiaan Van Vuuren (a.k.a. The Fully Sick Rapper), who I interviewed back in March. Christiaan has been in quarantine for six months, during which he’s made some awesome viral vids. Now he’s set to go home on Monday. I picture his homecoming being much like a scene out of Mel Gibson’s Forever Young. Or Mad Max. Whatever. Welcome home, dude. Reviews: YouTube More About: Film, music, viral video, youtube For more Web Video coverage: Follow Mashable Web Video on Twitter Become a Fan on Facebook Subscribe to the Web Video channel Download our free apps for iPhone and iPad

5 Cool Non-Profit Uses of Location-Based Tech Posted: 25 Jun 2010 01:55 PM PDT Geoff Livingston co-founded Zoetica to focus on cause-related work, and released an award-winning book on new media Now is Gone in 2007. The continuing evolution of location-based social networking has yielded creative solutions for advocacy, fundraising and crisis response. With the increased competition among services like Foursquare, Gowalla and Whrrl, non-profits are innovating even further. Here are five cool uses of location-based technology for non-profit purposes. 1. Get the Jimi Hendrix Location Experience Imagine doing more than just going to a Jimi Hendrix rock museum. Imagine walking where the legend has been, and reliving his “Purple Haze” history. That’s exactly what Paul Allen’s Experience Music Project is seeking to do with Whrrl. Whrrl is bringing over 125 stories at over 100 places to six cities around the nation, with more to come. The Jimi Hendrix experience is just one among the many music-themed societies on Whrrl. They include the Grunge, Prince, San Francisco Psychedelic Rock, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Bruce Springsteen and Max's Kansas City societies. In all, more than 100 music venues are featured across the country. 2. Beyond Fundraising Earlier this week, Larry King held a fundraiser to benefit the Gulf Coast, raising more than $1.7 million. But the effort was more than a simple TV program with phone banks. It also include location-based advocacy. Gowalla created a custom Larry King Live: Help the Gulf Pin for users’ passports. To get the pin, users had to check-in at any spot in the "Park or Nature" category by Monday, June 21st. In addition to the pin, Gowalla provided a tip from one of the three organizations involved in the telethon — the National Wildlife Federation, United Way, and The Nature Conservancy — about how to support the people, wildlife and environment being affected by the spill. More than 9,000 people received the Larry King pin in three days and the message to watch the Larry King Live telethon (combined with a tip on how to help) was viewed over 22,000 times. 3. Advertising Call to Action for Advocacy Playing to an already Foursquare friendly BART community, Earth Justice recently launched an ad campaign at Bay Area Rapid Transit stations for oil spill advocacy. The Earth Justice campaign was a direct reaction to the Deep Horizon accident. When riders check-in to the Earth Justice ad, a company donor provided $10 to the cause. Earth Justice is seeking to use the money to fight unsafe oil drilling. The ads told riders "Use your cell phone to drill the oil industry.” The effort targeted younger audiences who don't usually respond to ads. 4. LIVESTRONG Bracelets and Donations LIVESTRONG and Gowalla now have a $1 badge program which was launched at the South By Southwest festival. By picking up and vaulting one of these, there will be a $1 donation made to the LiveStrong Foundation. During the launch, everyone who checked-in at the Gowalla Tiki Room party during SXSW got a virtual LIVESTRONG bracelet item. When attendees added the bracelet to their collection, Gowalla donated $1 per bracelet to LIVESTRONG. LIVESTRONG also had a table at the party and free Gowalla t-shirts were given out for every in-person donation. If you are a die-hard fan, you can track LIVESTRONG as a friend on Gowalla. LIVESTRONG is also promoting its Challenge series of events on the location-based network. 5. The Mass Celebration Nothing is more precious than the annual rite of Spring known as college graduation. Throughout America, family and friends gather for the passing of the diploma to the graduate and the post-graduate. St. Edwards University took it a step further this past May with the mass checkin graduation. More than 180 students checked-in using Whrrl so they could upload photos and share their experiences. The graduation, achievements, congrats and photos were threaded into one Whrrl story to pass on to absent friends and family. More Non-Profit Resources From Mashable: - How Non-Profits Should Approach Making iPhone Apps - Are Social Media Giving Contests Good for Non-Profits? - HOW TO: Turn Slacktivists into Activists with Social Media - 5 Ways Mega Charity Events Can Harness the Power of Social Media - 5 Ways Non-Profits Can Increase Engagement With YouTube Reviews: Foursquare, Gowalla More About: foursquare, gowalla, List, Lists, location, location-based, Mobile 2.0, mobile apps, non-profit, social good, social media, whrrl For more Mobile coverage: Follow Mashable Mobile on Twitter Become a Fan on Facebook Subscribe to the Mobile channel Download our free apps for iPhone and iPad

Gmail Now Lets You View Word Docs in Your Browser Posted: 25 Jun 2010 01:39 PM PDT Gmail now supports the ability to view Microsoft Word documents in your browser with a single click. The Google Docs viewer that handles the new duties already provides one-click viewing of PDF, Powerpoint and TIFF files. The Word Doc viewing functionality works the same way as it does for the other supported file formats; simply click the “View” link at the bottom of a Gmail message with a Word doc attached to see the file displayed in your browser, without having to open a separate application. From there you can also download the document to your desktop or click “Edit online” to go straight into edit mode in Google Docs. It’s a small update with big productivity implications for those who use and share Word docs frequently. What other file formats should Gmail support with one-click viewing? Reviews: Gmail, Google Docs More About: documents, file formats, gmail, microsoft, microsoft word, productivity, software, webmail, word For more Tech coverage: Follow Mashable Tech on Twitter Become a Fan on Facebook Subscribe to the Tech channel Download our free apps for iPhone and iPad

Top 10 World Cup Twitter Trends [CHART] Posted: 25 Jun 2010 01:08 PM PDT For continuous World Cup coverage, check out Mashable’s 2010 World Cup Hub, which will be updated throughout the games. It’s another round of World Cup Twitter trends, and we’re seeing some interesting stats on how fans are tweeting about their favorite teams, players, and arch rivals. Similarly to last week’s stats, all of the national teams trended at some point in the past seven days, and 74 players hit Twitter’s top 10. And while some coaches and managers were trending last week, this is the first time that several referees were singled out, mostly with ire from fans over unfavorable calls. We’ve also seen more Twitter action around certain World Cup groups where the matches have been more competitive. And interestingly, some of the most-tweeted teams are not the best ones. Often, they’re teams that have been eliminated from competition, followed by waves of disappointed tweets from heartbroken fans. Below is the breakdown of the most-tweeted teams and players this week, graciously compiled by Liz Pullen of What The Trend. Remember, these rankings are not about team and player abilities, but reflect an aggregation of hotly discussed topics related to them. Most-Tweeted World Cup Teams Rank National Team Points 1 Portugal 2334 2 Mexico 1991 3 Netherlands 1605 4 USA 1368 5 Italy 1236 6 Brazil 984 7 Ivory Coast 888 8 Germany 810 9 France 792 10 South Africa 741 Most-Tweeted World Cup Players Rank Player Team Points 1 Guillermo Franco Mexico 1875 2 Cristiano Ronaldo Portugal 1740 3 Landon Donovan USA 978 4 Nicolas Anelka France 591 5 Luis Fabiano Brazil 576 6 Harry Kewell Australia 213 7 Martin Palermo Argentina 207 8 Wesley Sneijder Netherlands 180 9 Raul Meireles Portugal 174 10 Fernando Torres Spain 168 Need more social media World Cup coverage? Of course you do! Head on over to Mashable’s World Cup headquarters, where you’ll find real-time data on match scores, social mentions, and links to all our previous news and features. For more Social Media coverage: Follow Mashable Social Media on Twitter Become a Fan on Facebook Subscribe to the Social Media channel Download our free apps for iPhone and iPad More World Cup resources from Mashable: - World Cup 2010: Mashable's Complete Coverage - The World Cup's Social Media Evolution - 5 Free Must-Have World Cup Android Apps - HOW TO: Follow the 2010 World Cup on Twitter - Top 6 Free World Cup iPhone Apps Image courtesy of iStockphoto, Jezperklauzen Reviews: Australia, Facebook, Mashable, Twitter, World Cup, iStockphoto More About: data, social media, sports, trends, twitter, twitter trends, world cup, world cup 2010, world cup twitter trends

Mario Marathon Raises Money for Children’s Hospital [LIVE VIDEO] Posted: 25 Jun 2010 12:57 PM PDT Mario Marathon is an annual fundraiser currently in progress to raise money for Child’s Play Charity, an organization that gets games, toys and books to patients at children’s hospitals worldwide. Now in its third year, the multi-day online event features livestreamed gameplay of up to 800 levels from nine Mario games, with donations determining how many levels the team ultimately plays through. You can tune in to the ongoing livestream below or at MarioMarathon.com, and check out the current donation levels on the Level Checklist. Just 3.5 hours in to the marathon and the team has raised more than $10,000 and unlocked 533 of the 809 levels. It’s a fun concept in support of a great charity, so let us know if you have a chance to check it out and/or donate. We’re pretty sure the mustachioed plumber himself would be proud. Live Streaming by Ustream.TV Reviews: mario More About: charity, Child's Play, games, livestream, Mario, mario marathon, video games For more Web Video coverage: Follow Mashable Web Video on Twitter Become a Fan on Facebook Subscribe to the Web Video channel Download our free apps for iPhone and iPad

Twitter Sets New Record: 3,283 Tweets Per Second Posted: 25 Jun 2010 12:16 PM PDT Despite massive Twitter activity due to ongoing World Cup match play, Twitter’s biggest tweets per second record to date was during last week’s NBA finals. That record was shattered yesterday as Twitter users published 3,283 tweets per second at the close of Japan’s victory over Denwark in the World Cup. These new numbers come directly from Twitter. You may recall that the previous record of 3,085 tweets per second came at the close of the Los Angeles Lakers’ victory over the Boston Celtics on June 17. Both of these recent records are staggering given that Twitter — during normal daily activity — averages roughly 750 tweets per second. The Japan-Demark World Cup figure means that activity swelled 438% above average, which helps to put recent service issues into perspective. Still the World Cup has yet to reach its climatic finale, so we expect this record broken in the very near future. Stay tuned. Reviews: Twitter More About: tweets per second, twitter For more Social Media coverage: Follow Mashable Social Media on Twitter Become a Fan on Facebook Subscribe to the Social Media channel Download our free apps for iPhone and iPad

The Vuvuzela Invades Google Street View Posted: 25 Jun 2010 12:03 PM PDT I reiterate my previous assertion that Google Street View was created for fun and fun alone. Google has added an awesome little Easter Egg to the service when one surfs through maps of South Africa: a vuvuzela clutched in peg man’s hot little hands. We already know that the South African instrument has taken the world by storm (whether the world likes it or not) — hell, it’s even invaded the Google-owned YouTube. Still, this has to be one of our personal favorite appearances by the honking horn (being that it’s silent in this case). Google also showed its excitement with regard to the World Cup by modifying its logo to read “Goooooooal!”, but personally I’m more into the vuvuzela-themed fare. Sports events may come and go, but random viral memes are… well… similarly fleeting, but infinitely more enjoyable to those who don’t get a kick out of footie. [via Tech Radar] Reviews: Google, World Cup, YouTube, sports More About: Google, google street view, humor, pop culture, sports, vuvuzela For more Social Media coverage: Follow Mashable Social Media on Twitter Become a Fan on Facebook Subscribe to the Social Media channel Download our free apps for iPhone and iPad

HOW TO: Evaluate Your Social Media Plan Posted: 25 Jun 2010 12:00 PM PDT Meaghan Edelstein has gained national media attention through her blog, I Kicked Cancer’s Ass, which she started to document her battle with end stage cancer. She is an attorney, the founder of the non-profit organization Spirit Jump, and the Social Media Director for Smashyn.com. Many companies, startups and well established businesses are frustrated because their social media presence isn't larger or yet benefiting their bottom line. One of the big issues is that most companies start using social media thinking it’s the holy grail. It takes time, effort, and resources before this new media will have an impact on you brand. Here are a few tips businesses should consider. 1. Are You Using the Right Platform? There are many social media platforms to consider when designing an online campaign. Twitter, Facebook, blogs and YouTube are some of the biggest and most important. While all the social sites should be examined, blindly signing up for accounts can be a mistake. To start, educate yourself on each platform and how they can enhance your brand. When launching a Facebook presence, consider the various platforms within this medium; Pages, Groups and now Communities. Each have different purposes, tools and limitations. Do some research before making the commitment. Twitter is a quick and easy way for brands to share updates and ideas with their consumers, and it’s also a good place to watch trends and listen to what your demographic is excited about. Because Twitter is always growing and evolving, it’s important to keep apprised of the latest changes. Blogging can be a powerful tool for any brand. Unlike static websites, daily blog posts improve search engine optimization and provide a constant source of up-to-date information for consumers. Whether you use Blogger, WordPress or Tumblr, your customers will enjoy reading about your company so long as you make it interesting and current. Video might seem intimidating, but it’s an extraordinarily powerful social medium. YouTube is one of the largest sources of search traffic, but most companies fail to include it in their social media plan. Video sites essentially operate as a brand’s personal channel and can be viewed by millions. World famous celebrity chef Jamie Oliver knows the importance of utilizing video platforms. "YouTube is a great way to get Jamie's videos out to a wider audience – in some months we have twice as many video views on YouTube as on Jamie's site," said Monisha Saldanha, head of online, Jamie Oliver Ltd. Each social platform has its own "job," and they can all be used simultaneously to boost success. "Jamie has pages on Facebook, Bebo, MySpace, Twitter, and YouTube — people tend to use their own favorite social networking sites, so it's a good idea to be on all the major ones,” said Saldanha. 2. Provide Messages Your Audience Wants Consider your brand’s demographic, who they are, and what information they want to receive. In traditional marketing there is a tendency to manipulate the consumer directly, while in social media it’s the audience who truly dictates the message. Successful social media marketing begins and ends with respect to your audience. Understanding what your audience wants to hear is key. "I try to think of our feed from the point of view of what a fan and a viewer of the network would want, instead of what we want to tell them. If I were a viewer I'd want behind-the-scenes info, I'd want to talk to a real person, and I'd want to have some fun, " said Craig Engler, the general manager and senior vice president SyFy Digital. Discounts and giveaways can be useful but shouldn't be all you do. Consider providing interesting facts on topics that coincide with your brand. "I explain how the TV business works so viewers understand why things happen, why do we put that show Fridays at 10 p.m. or why didn't we pick up that canceled show from another network,” said Engler. 3. Listen To Your Audience Listening to consumers is as important as sharing messages with them. Dunkin' Donuts makes this a priority on their Facebook Page: "Because we have over 1.4 million fans on Facebook, we keep several sets of eyes on our Page throughout the day. We make sure our fans are clear on common confusions by selecting important questions posted to our Facebook Page to answer. We can't respond to everything, but by hand picking those that are representative of common questions we show we're there, listening and engaging with our fans,” said Ben Smith, their interactive marketing manager. Consider that there are different ways for brands to monitor what people are saying in each platform. For Twitter, try TweetDeck which allows multiple columns to be viewed simultaneously. Creating a search column for your brand is easy. Simply create a column for @mentions. This will make it easier to keep track of chatter revolving around your brand. Facebook platforms can be monitored by watching the wall to see what people are posting, and e-mail notifications can be customized for important alerts when new messages are posted. YouTube and blogs should also be watched closely for comments and questions. Like Facebook, there are settings that, when enabled, will create e-mail alerts when there is a new comment or connection. 4. Give Your Supporters a Voice Consumers help define your brand and they want to feel valued. Make sure to ask questions and listen to opinions. When appropriate, implement and share your community’s ideas. This can result in not only great content but even stronger brand loyalty. Popular brands do this regularly and with much success. Jamie Oliver’s online guru Saldanha said, "Jamie is really passionate about his work and thrives off energy and interaction. It's very important for him to get first hand feedback from people. The recent Food Revolution in the U.S. is a perfect example where the community page on Facebook became a great place for people to share their own experiences with food and cooking.” 5. Be Fun It doesn’t matter what business you’re in — people want to be entertained. Find fun and fresh ways to keep your audience engaged. Dunkin' Donuts does this well through Facebook by creating fun and sharable content. For example, Maurice is a cartoon espresso bean who lives on the brand’s Facebook Page. “Maurice was created to raise awareness about our espresso and latte category. It was done in a way that is fun and light hearted but that drives the emotional connection. Instead of straight product talk, make it fun,” Smith said. And If you take a quick look around the social sites, you will see fun marketing is happening everywhere. On any given day you can see Syfy using Twitter in a fun and brand appropriate way. Engler said that sharing behind-the-scenes pictures of their shows or when an actor visits the office is always popular. Brands put a lot of time and consideration into their offline media campaigns and this should also be done with online media. It’s important to have the right people with authority and creativity running these platforms to assure the voice of your brand isn't off mark. Following the lead of brands who use social media effectively is a good start to informing yourself. If you’re using social media platforms effectively it won’t be long before you start seeing results. "The payoff is that we have tens of thousands of viewers talking directly to us in an unfiltered way, which makes it a genuine conversation but on a tremendous scale. The byproduct of the conversation is that people will go out there and be ambassadors for our shows and our network, which is fantastic, but it's never been the end goal. The goal for me is always the conversation itself, a real back and forth with viewers that was just never possible before,” said Engler. More Business Resources from Mashable: - HOW TO: Use QR Codes for Small Business Marketing - 5 Useful iPhone Apps for Business Networking - 10 Killer Tips for Creating a Branded YouTube Channel - Top 10 YouTube Tips for Small Businesses - HOW TO: Boost Your SEO with a YouTube Channel Image courtesy of iStockphoto, JenD Reviews: Bebo, Facebook, MySpace, Tumblr, TweetDeck, Twitter, WordPress, YouTube, blogger, iStockphoto, pages, video More About: advice, business, facebook, List, Lists, small business, social media, social media marketing, strategy, twitter, youtube For more Business coverage: Follow Mashable Business on Twitter Become a Fan on Facebook Subscribe to the Business channel Download our free apps for iPhone and iPad

Social Media Increases “Cuddle” Chemical Production in the Brain [STUDY] Posted: 25 Jun 2010 11:28 AM PDT Sometimes referred to as the “cuddle” chemical, oxytocin — a hormone produced in the brain — stimulates feelings of trust and security, reduces anxiety levels and may even produce positive sexual side effects. It sounds like a miracle drug, so how does one get their hands on it? Perhaps, simply by tweeting. Fast Company contributing writer Adam Penenberg volunteered to be a test subject in Dr. Paul J. Zak’s “neuroeconomics” research efforts to “gauge the relationship between empathy and generosity.” Penenberg’s detailed recounting of the experience is a fascinating description of three experiments designed to determine the relationship between social media and oxytocin. In experiment number three, Penenberg’s blood levels were monitored while he was tweeting via TweetDeck on his laptop. The results from this single study were quite astounding. Penenberg writes, “In those 10 minutes between blood batches one and two, my oxytocin levels spiked 13.2%. That’s equivalent to the hormonal spike experienced by the groom at the wedding Zak attended.” The results showed that not only did Penenberg’s oxytocin levels spike while tweeting, but his stress hormones significantly declined during the observation period. Zak concluded that Penenberg’s brain, “interpreted tweeting as if you were directly interacting with people you cared about or had empathy for.” This oxytocin research effort is by no means conclusive given the single test subject, but it does seem to back up what most already know about social media: It makes us feel good. At least now there appears to be a scientific explanation for why this happens. [img credit: lanier67] Reviews: TweetDeck More About: oxytocin, social media, study, twitter For more Social Media coverage: Follow Mashable Social Media on Twitter Become a Fan on Facebook Subscribe to the Social Media channel Download our free apps for iPhone and iPad

The History of the iPhone [INFOGRAPHIC] Posted: 25 Jun 2010 11:09 AM PDT It’s been an auspicious week for Apple and its much-touted wonder device. We thought it appropriate to take a look back at the history of the iPhone, its many iterations, and the cultural and economic contexts in which the various devices were introduced. So take a stroll down this gadget-themed memory lane, and tell us about your fondest Apple recollections in the comments below. More About: apple, history, infographic, infographics, iphone, iphone 4, Mobile 2.0 For more Apple coverage: Follow Mashable Apple on Twitter Become a Fan on Facebook Subscribe to the Apple channel Download our free apps for iPhone and iPad

Hulu Coming to a PS3 Near You [REPORT] Posted: 25 Jun 2010 10:47 AM PDT Bloomberg reports that Sony is close to finalizing an agreement with Hulu to support its upcoming paid TV service on its PlayStation 3 game console. Bloomberg, citing two people close to the matter, says that the partnership could be announced as early as next week. If this rumored deal becomes a reality, it could drastically alter the connected-TV landscape that is currently under heavy — if scattered — development. Plans of a rumored Hulu pay service have existed since last Fall, and escalated during the build-up to the iPad’s release. The advantages of a paid service — which would exist alongside the current free service — are potentially beneficial to both content creators and consumers. For content creators, the upside is simple: more money. I’ve long contended that the only real problem with Hulu, for networks anyway, is that it has been too successful. Not many people expected Hulu to take off the way that it did. A subscription service allows them to at least theoretically make a little more money (or lose a little bit less money, depending on your point of view) on the service, while also upping its offerings. For end users, a subscription plan becomes far more attractive if it means you can watch Hulu on other devices, like your iPad or PS3, in addition to gaining access to a broader library of content. Plus, because Hulu is reportedly in discussions with CBS to offer its content via the subscription service, users could also gain access to more content partners too. First Official Hulu TV Solution A Hulu option for the PS3 would be the first official Hulu solution for television sets. Although many other services — most notably, Boxee — have tried to bring Hulu to the big screen, Hulu has gone out of its way to make that more difficult. Interestingly, Hulu did launch its own Hulu Desktop app last year and while the app was purportedly for the “lean-back” computer-viewing experience, the fact that it supports Windows Media and Apple remote controls out of the box — not to mention the size of menus and icons — makes it clear that the interface was at least considered for TV viewers. In fact, using my Mac mini HTPC, I’ve been enjoying Hulu on my 40″ HDTV for nearly a year now. Of course, having a more integrated experience with an existing consumer device would be even better. PS3: The Ultimate Media Player? The fact that Hulu may be partnering with Sony rather than launching its own box is interesting and, we think, telling. The easiest way for device companies and set-top software makers to get their product into the hands of consumers is to build a separate box. However, having a million boxes connected to your TV is not a fun experience. Take it from a low-level home video fanatic, the more separate boxes you have, the less likely you are to use the various features. This is why I love devices like my LG Blu-ray player. In one device, I get access to Netflix, Pandora, YouTube, my home network, VUDU and DivX. Plus, I get to play Blu-ray discs. And while boxes from Roku and the upcoming Boxee Box aren’t as comprehensive as a Blu-ray player, they still provide access to a ton of different services from one device. That’s powerful appeal. Right now, the PlayStation 3 supports Netflix, the ability to rent or download movies and connection to your home network. European users can soon access the great film content from MUBI as well. Even if you never buy a single PlayStation 3 video game, the device is a pretty great value proposition as a media device. With Hulu support, PS3’s worth rises even further. As attractive as aspects of Google TV and other connected solutions are, just having Hulu support would immediately give the PS3 a huge advantage over its competition. What will be really interesting to see is if Hulu decides to license its subscription service to multiple manufacturers the way that Netflix has. Netflix has been extremely smart in doing that; a year ago, a handful of Blu-ray players featured Netflix support. Now it’s difficult to find a player that doesn’t support the service. There is a lot of built-in value for future subscribers or returning subscribers if the feature is built into the devices they are already buying. What Do You Think? Does the idea of a subscription Hulu service on the PS3 excite you? Would you be willing to buy a PS3 for the ability to watch Hulu content on the big screen? Let us know. For more Entertainment coverage: Follow Mashable Entertainment on Twitter Become a Fan on Facebook Subscribe to the Entertainment channel Download our free apps for iPhone and iPad Reviews: Blu, Boxee, Facebook, Hulu, Pandora, Twitter, YouTube More About: connected tv, hulu, internet tv, PS3, sony

Coca-Cola Promoted Trend Nets 86 Million Impressions on Twitter Posted: 25 Jun 2010 10:10 AM PDT In just 24 hours, Coca-Cola’s first Promoted Trend garnered 86 million impressions and an engagement rate of 6%, according to the company’s Global Interactive Marketing Vice President Carol Kruse in an interview with The Financial Times. Following in the footsteps of Disney/Pixar, Coca-Cola is the second company to reach Twitter audiences by advertising as a Trending Topic on Twitter. The cost for this particular Twitter ad buy is said to be tens of thousands of dollars, but Kruse indicated that the expense was small relative to other ad buys and that Coke is pretty pleased with its initial Promoted Trends experiment. The company choose to run with its Promoted Trend campaign during Wednesday’s World Cup matches, a peak time for Twitter activity. The decision was a risky bet that could have yielded mixed results due to Twitter’s inability to keep the service up during World Cup online hysteria. Fortunately for Coke, its risky decision paid off. Coke listed Promoted Tweets atop the Trending Topic search results for the sponsored #WC2010 Promoted Trend that “congratulated the England and US teams, linked to videos on YouTube and invited people to ’share their celebration’ of their teams' success.” Given that the soda-making giant has gone on record with its Promoted Trends results, we definitely expect to see even more big brands follow suit. Reviews: Twitter, YouTube More About: advertising, coca cola, promoted trends, twitter For more Social Media coverage: Follow Mashable Social Media on Twitter Become a Fan on Facebook Subscribe to the Social Media channel Download our free apps for iPhone and iPad

How Social Media is Helping Veterans Connect Posted: 25 Jun 2010 09:31 AM PDT Today, the United States reflects on the 60th anniversary of the Korean War. For those who fought in the conflict and returned home, staying in touch with fellow service members was a battle in itself; many lost contact with their friends. Those who managed to find each other did so using resources and technologies now considered obsolete: Phone books, microfiche, and even old-fashioned letter writing. Today, e-mail and other social media tools are the primary methods of communication for almost anyone who owns a computer. But for veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, social media has been a lifeline, keeping them apprised of the latest news from back home, and reconnecting them with comrades when they return from deployment. Keeping in Touch During Deployment Captain Nate Rawlings, 28, served two tours in Iraq with the Army's First Battalion, Twenty Second Infantry Regiment, Fourth Infantry Division. His younger sister created a Facebook profile for him prior to his first deployment. He used the page through both of his deployments to tell his friends when he'd be out, to check back in when he returned, and to find out how his parents were coping with his absence. "If my dad felt that my mother really needed to hear my voice, he would put a message on my wall that said ‘E.T. phone home,’" says Rawlings. "And so I would find a phone." But he wasn't using social media just to reassure his mother. Nate was using it for his own reassurance. His Facebook page became a window into the life he left behind. "People would be getting married, people would be having kids, and people would be graduating from college or high school, and so it was a neat way to see those pictures and think: 'OK, I'm not completely isolated from my friends," he says. Social Veterans Causes Today's veterans are also using social media as a method of mobilizing fellow veterans and bringing awareness to the causes they support. Anuradha K. Bhagwati left the Marine Corps as a captain in 2004. She was only the second woman to complete the Marine Corps Martial Arts Program instructor trainer school, and holds a black belt in close combat techniques. Today, she's executive director of SWAN (Service Women's Action Network) and also one of its original founders. What began as a healing network for women veterans is now taking an advocacy role under her leadership. "It started out with this healing community element where women would feel safe," she says. "We kept that at the core of what we do, but we're dealing up front with some serious policy issues: How to transform military culture so that rape and harassment [don't] happen." Through an awareness campaign that includes speaking at panels, partnerships with other organizations and even online advertising, SWAN's Facebook Page presently counts almost 2,400 followers. "I think we had less than 1,000 in December," says Bhagwati. “We just started up a Facebook site in the fall [of 2009]." Using SWAN's Facebook and Twitter pages, women veterans can find everything from SWAN-sponsored community events (yoga and gardening classes), to resources for homeless veterans, to a phone number for their LGBT women's hotline. "A lot of [gay service members] will find our helpline information on our website," she says. "If they need resources, they'll find us." Connecting Veteran Communities The use of social media to connect members of a similar community is a tried and true approach. The Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA) is a non-profit organization that, according to their website, "is the nation's first and largest group dedicated to the troops and veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan” and their civilian supporters. Their mission is simple: To improve the lives of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans and their families. One of the ways that IAVA employs social media is through their website's Community of Veterans (COV) feature. Though IAVA's membership is approximately 125,000 people, only 55,000 are veterans, of which only 5,200 belong to the COV. Jason Hansman, community manager for the COV says that before he approves anyone for membership, the person has to submit paperwork "that proves definitively that they were boots-on-ground in Iraq or Afghanistan." With only 0.5% of the American population knowing what it's like to serve in Iraq or Afghanistan, the therapeutic value of joining such a network can't be overstated. "Someone coming back home in Montana is not necessarily going to have a neighbor that served in Iraq or even understand what serving in combat is like," he says. "Community of Veterans fills that gap, so they can connect with veterans all over the country." Once a veteran logs into COV's main page, he or she can enter a real-time chat room, join one of the 288 groups that already exists, or start a new group. The groups, as diverse as their audience, include everyone from tattooed vets, to Army Airborne alumni, to those who are living with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Those who wish to join the PTSD support group must submit additional paperwork verifying they have it, ensuring another layer of protection and privacy for those already in the network. Because of the tighter scrutiny and selective admission into the PTSD support group, "the conversations blossom into something much deeper than what's going on out in the forums," says Hansman. IAVA recently partnered with a new social media service called JustCoz that allows its supporters to donate one tweet a day to IAVA. Based on JustCoz's premise that "a message from someone you know personally is five times more likely to trigger an action," supporters can log into their Twitter page via JustCoz and give IAVA the ability to tweet one message a day. According to Anuradha Bhagwati, "We do serve a lot of older veterans and they tend not to find out about some really neat stuff that's going on because they're not as fluid with this new media." It could be that the real downside to social media might be not using it at all. For more Social Media coverage: Follow Mashable Social Media on Twitter Become a Fan on Facebook Subscribe to the Social Media channel Download our free apps for iPhone and iPad More Social Media Resources From Mashable: - HOW TO: Help New Users Stay Engaged on Twitter - 3 Things Facebook Does Very Well - How Salespeople Are Using Social Media for Real Results - Why Facebook Can't Genuinely Connect People - 5 Terrific Tools for Keeping Tabs on Twitter Trends Reviews: Facebook, Twitter More About: afghanistan, facebook, iraq, military, online communities, social good, social media, twitter, U.S. Military, veterans

Actor Jason Bateman Cuts the iPhone 4 Line Posted: 25 Jun 2010 09:11 AM PDT Some people waited in line days – or at least many, many hours – for yesterday’s launch of the iPhone 4. But not actor Jason Bateman, who, according to numerous eyewitness accounts from the Twittersphere (and photos from the gossip blogs) got to cut the massive line at a Los Angeles area Apple store. Many of those in line were apparently none too pleased with the preferential treatment, with reports of "booing and hissing" when the Arrested Development star left the store. It appears that Bateman – who was a presenter at last week's Webby Awards and whose former show has a bit of a cult following online – is not immune to the wrath that comes with pissing off the "small people" – especially when they've been camped out in a line all night. The tweets below show how the event quickly evolved: Jason Bateman Cuts the iPhone 4 Line Jason Bateman Cuts the iPhone 4 Line Jason Bateman Cuts the iPhone 4 Line Jason Bateman Cuts the iPhone 4 Line Jason Bateman Cuts the iPhone 4 Line Jason Bateman Cuts the iPhone 4 Line Are you annoyed by Bateman’s special treatment, or does he get a free pass from you? Let us know in the comments. More About: arrested development, iphone 4, Jason Bateman For more Entertainment coverage: Follow Mashable Entertainment on Twitter Become a Fan on Facebook Subscribe to the Entertainment channel Download our free apps for iPhone and iPad

Alleviate Your Crushing Guilt with the Forgiveness Engine [APPS] Posted: 25 Jun 2010 08:47 AM PDT Apologizing can be hard. There’s the admitting that you’re wrong… actually saying the words… and then the inevitable gloating on the part of the wronged party. Well, now you can cut out all of that awkward groveling, and voice your “Sorry!” to the Internet masses with The Forgiveness Engine. The Forgiveness Engine was developed by Jesper Sparre Andersen (who also created Avoidr, which we wrote about yesterday). The premise is pretty simple — log into the app via your Twitter account and choose either to apologize to someone or forgive someone. Type in your sentiment (anonymously), press “enter” and the app updates your Twitter status to say that you have either forgiven or asked for forgiveness. Don’t worry — what you type into the entry box doesn’t show up in your Twitter status. Next, you can read all of the other entries on the engine, and if you find two stories that seem to be parallel (i.e. “I’m sorry I ran over your cat,” “I forgive you for running over my cat”) you can match said stories. Then, the two people will be notified that they have been matched, giving them “the opportunity to read a stranger’s take on the opposite side of a similar situation–hopefully something that will help them develop compassion and empathy for the other person, facilitating a deeper understanding of what happened and helping both move on,” says Andersen. (Once again, this is all anonymous, so no worries.) For right now, the matching function remains dormant, as Andersen still needs to collect enough stories to make it hum. So if you’re feeling guilty (or divine), head on over and spill your guts. image courtesy of iStockphoto, mattjeacock Reviews: Twitter, iStockphoto More About: pop culture, twitter, web app For more Tech coverage: Follow Mashable Tech on Twitter Become a Fan on Facebook Subscribe to the Tech channel Download our free apps for iPhone and iPad

5 Free Ways To Find Local Concerts on Your Smartphone Posted: 25 Jun 2010 08:11 AM PDT Chad Burgess is the Marketing Manager at SeatGeek, a forecasting and search web application that helps fans save money on sports and concert tickets. You can find more from Chad on the SeatGeek Blog or follow him on Twitter at @chadburgess. We’ve previously shown you how to discover music, how to find concerts online, and how to share setlists. If you've got those areas of social music covered, you might now be looking for concerts when you are on-the-go. If you want to simplify the concert process on your smartphone, mobile apps make it easier than ever to find and attend concerts in your area. These five apps will evolve your music lifestyle so that you never have to miss another concert again. 1. Local Concerts Local Concerts (by iLike) is the “#1 concert app” on the iPhone. This simple app allows you to browse concerts in your area based on music in your music library. The search function lets you perform both artist and venue searches. You can also set up alerts so that you don't lose track of your shows. Being able to access just “My Artists” is the core benefit to most of these apps, as it simplifies the browsing phase by eliminating random artists and bands. The ‘Venues’ screen is extremely comprehensive, but does not allow for filtering. The ability to sort by ‘Most Popular’ venues in your area would be a really nice feature for general navigation. Summary: Local Concerts has been one of the most popular concert apps since its debut. If you are looking for a simple UI and an easy way to find concerts, this may be the app for you. 2. preAmped PreAmped provides popular concert apps for the iPhone, Android, and the Palm Pre. PreAmped was created to “capture and share the experience of a concert.” Once you have found the event you are looking for, the app has options to share with your friends (by e-mail, Facebook, or Twitter), find tickets, and view directions to the show. The app features “Shows,” “Artists,” and “Venues” screens, and also offers the ability to toggle by location on the venues screen. This feature lists the venues closest to your GPS location. Similar to most top apps in this space, the preAmped app allows you to see upcoming concerts based on your music library. Summary: If you are constantly on the go and like to easily discover new venues in your current location, you will want to check out this app. 3. Gigbox Gigbox is an app for Android that allows fans to find relevant, local events tailored to their music tastes. Gigbox has a rich social feature set including live chat, ratings, and picture publishing. “Live” mode is designed to enhance the shared experience of concertgoers by surfacing pictures, ratings, and “mood” sourced from all users in the audience. This content is then aggregated and published on the Gigbox website for future reference. Although these features require a high adoption rate, they are unique and potentially useful. Gigbox is integrated with Last.fm, which provides comprehensive data, streaming music, and the ability to sign in with your Last.fm account. Summary: A socially ambitious app that you should check out if you are active on Last.fm and/or an Android user looking to enhance your concert experience with social media. 4. StubHub StubHub’s app is another great download. Currently only on the iPhone, it offers the ability to sort by “Upcoming,” “Events,” “Favorites,” or “Search,” and then ultimately purchase tickets within the app. “Upcoming” provides a complete list of events in your area including sports, concerts and theater, with corresponding tickets. The UI is a little cumbersome as you have to scroll to the end of the long sports section to access the concerts. An “Events” screen allows for easier filters by “Sports,” “Concert,” “Theater,” and “Venue” which can be improved in future releases with additional sub-category sorting options (currently it is alphabetized). The “Favorites” screen allows you to toggle to “iPod Artists” to view only tickets that match artists in your library. What separates StubHub ticketing is that they offer a tightly integrated buying experience directly in the app. Tickets can be purchased by credit card or with an existing StubHub or PayPal account. Not to be left out on the social side, StubHub offers social media integration via Facebook and Twitter, so you can share upcoming events with your friends. Summary: StubHub is best for those looking to easily purchase tickets on-the-go. 5. YP Mobile From YP.com (the redesigned yellowpages.com), YP Mobile is the sleeper hit on this list. Even though it is within the umbrella of a traditional media company and is not strictly for finding concerts, this app (available on iPhone, Droid, Blackberry, and Pre) has partnered with Zvents to produce some surprisingly robust event data. YP Mobile allows you to search thousands of events by venue or city in addition to offering all the “what” and “where” search capabilities that we are accustomed to on YP.com and other local verticals. Summary: If you want a single app to find a local concert, a restaurant to go to before, and a bar to go to after, this might be the choice for you. For more Mobile coverage: Follow Mashable Mobile on Twitter Become a Fan on Facebook Subscribe to the Mobile channel Download our free apps for iPhone and iPad More mobile resources from Mashable: - Windows vs. Apple: The Future of Mobile Games - Why You May Not Need a Mobile App - Top 8 iPhone Apps for Self-Help - 27 Ways to Find Amazing New Android Apps - 10 Free Android Apps to Boost Your Productivity Image courtesy of iStockphoto, mattjeacock Reviews: Android, BlackBerry Rocks!, Facebook, Twitter, Zvents, favorites, iPhone, iStockphoto, sports More About: android, apps, bandsintown, blackberry, eventful, gigbox, iphone, jambase, last fm, local concerts, pre, preamped, smartphone, StubHub, yp mobile

iPad Magazines: Don’t Believe the Hype Posted: 25 Jun 2010 07:34 AM PDT Much has been said about the iPad’s ability to reinvigorate the publishing industry. But the first generation of magazine apps on the iPad fall short: They’re an attempt to turn the clock back, rather than move the medium forward. Having splurged on a half-dozen iPad magazines this month, they’re now gathering dust on my home screen, never to be read again. That’s the topic of my CNN column this week. Check out the column at CNN.com >> More About: adobe, apple, ipad, magazines, publishing For more Apple coverage: Follow Mashable Apple on Twitter Become a Fan on Facebook Subscribe to the Apple channel Download our free apps for iPhone and iPad

Chipotle Wants to Turn Your Junk E-mail into Healthy School Lunches Posted: 25 Jun 2010 07:34 AM PDT It might not involve any free burritos for you and me (sad face), but restaurant chain Chipotle has launched a new campaign designed to turn your junk e-mail into healthier school lunches for kids. The program –- called "No Junk" –- encourages people to forward their spam to nojunk@chipotlejunk.com. For every 100,000 messages received at that address, Chipotle plans to donate $10,000 to The Lunch Box, a non-profit organization that provides resources to schools to help them make their food programs healthier. For Chipotle, the project aligns with the marketing messages you've likely seen if you've eaten at one of their restaurants, which emphasize the "naturally raised" animals and organically grown ingredients the company uses in its burritos. Of course, all of that doesn't necessarily mean your burrito is "healthy" in a caloric sense. A burrito with steak, rice, beans, cheese and sour cream along with a side of chips puts up some pretty massive numbers in the "nutrition facts" department, as you can see in this estimate: Nonetheless, there is a clear connection between Chipotle's message and that of The Lunch Box, and the tie-in to "junk e-mail" — which makes up about 90 percent of all e-mail sent according to Symantec — is a clever one that should resonate with people. image courtesy of iStockphoto, Anglesey Reviews: iStockphoto More About: chipotle, Food, junk e-mail, MARKETING, school lunches, spam, trending For more Business coverage: Follow Mashable Business on Twitter Become a Fan on Facebook Subscribe to the Business channel Download our free apps for iPhone and iPad

Thanks to Mashable’s Socially Savvy Supporters Posted: 25 Jun 2010 07:22 AM PDT Thanks to this week's advertisers and partners for enabling us to bring you the latest social media news and resources. Mashable’s sponsors are as social media savvy as our readers! Advertise with us and get noticed. Help us to help you. Mashable is seeking out site sponsors for our large, diverse audience — social media users, venture capitalists, early adopters, developers, bloggers and many more. You’ll receive hundreds of thousands of views a day in addition to weekly recognition as part of our “thank you” to our premium sponsors. Are you interested? Contact us for more information and to receive our media kit and rate card. This week, our valued sponsors are Big Prize, IDG, The Wall Street Journal for iPad, Gist, Yield Software, Clickatell, Influxis, Microsoft BizSpark, MailChimp, Sun Startup Essentials, MaxCDN and Eventbrite. Big Prize specializes in turn-key promotions on Facebook. If you can dream it, we can build it. We have processed over 15 million sweepstakes entries and we are the largest promotions administrator on Facebook. Let us develop a sweepstakes for you and jumpstart your viral marketing by sharing it with our 2.7 million Facebook fans. Everything we do is custom, so we’ll handle the design, the coding, installation and promotion – you just sit back and watch as fans pour onto your page. Think you can’t afford a custom promotion? Wrong. We have packages for any budget. Let us show you what we can do, today! IDG’s Strategic Marketing Services group works with tech marketers to deliver services that include integrated multimedia marketing programs, program consulting and IDG Amplify social media advertising. What’s news meets what’s next. Introducing The Wall Street Journal for iPad, a new way to experience the Journal's award-winning coverage, blending the best of print and online. Touch the stories that matter to you most, get the latest news updates and market data throughout the day and save your favorite articles and sections for later. Subscribe now for just $3.99/week. Gist helps you build stronger professional relationships by bringing together information from across the web for all your contacts and their companies, giving you the right information at the right moment to get a first meeting, deliver an amazing pitch or just find a better way to make a connection. Gist does all the work for you by assembling a dynamic collection of all your contacts and their companies from your e-mail inbox, your social networks or even your CRM system, automatically building and updating their profiles as new content is published by them or about them. Yield Software's Yield Web Marketing Suite optimizes paid search (PPC) natural search (SEO) and landing pages, all in one easy-to-use Web-based system. A simple, intuitive interface together with sophisticated algorithms work seamlessly to optimize SEM campaigns every minute of every day, enabling growing businesses and their agencies to lower costs, improve performance and increase profitability. Yield also offers a free SEO Analyzer, which delivers a report covering how well a site is optimized and suggestions for improvement. Yield Software—Web Marketing Made Easy. Clickatell offers mobile social networks the opportunity to measure their return on investment. Not only does Clickatell offer an Interactive Campaign Manager tool that allows you to monitor and intervene in your customer campaigns in real time, it also generates and manages database integration and comes with additional marketing tools. Track the delivery status of your text messages and the responses; take the guesswork out of campaigning. Your valuable messages will always be delivered as our products allow for message escalation to alternative delivery gateways. Social networks are also, through the account management package, given control over network channels and connectivity options. All necessary tasks have been automated and our central interface allows you to manage multiple connections and projects at the same time. Which leading social networking companies have chosen Clickatell as a mobile messaging partner? Read our success stories here. Influxis is an official Adobe hosting partner and resource for the Adobe Flash Media Interactive Server. Influxis provides Flash hosting plans for all levels of use – beginner to enterprise. With a reputation for exceptional customer service, Influxis provides an extremely reliable international network of FMS servers in the U.S., U.K. and Germany. BizSpark is a program which offers new software businesses and entrepreneurs access to Microsoft design, development and production tools with no upfront costs for up to three years. Members can also connect with a nationwide community of Network Partners – investors, incubators, service providers and entrepreneurial organizations – who are keen to help. For more information or to connect with a Microsoft BizSpark advisor, please visit MicrosoftStartupZone.com/BizSpark. MailChimp is a powerful, easy-to-use e-mail marketing service. You design, me deliver. If you’re working for a startup, Sun can help you get it off the ground fast. We created the fee-free Sun Startup Essentials program offering deep discounts on industry-leading, power efficient systems and storage products, optimized open-source software, massively scalable Web hosting services, plus free visibility via Sun’s co-marketing engine. It’s time to build your business on the kind of infrastructure that can scale right along with the skyrocketing demands of success. Find out about Sun Startup Essentials today! MaxCDN – Content Delivery Network. MaxCDN makes it easy and affordable to get maximum global performance from your site and enable your visitors to get the most out of their visit! MaxCDN offers: resistance to the Digg effect, SSL Integration, No Setup Fee, US-based customer service, No Commitments. Get 1 TeraByte for just $39.95 today! Eventbrite is an online events marketplace where tens of thousands of individuals, businesses and organizations of all sizes manage, promote and sell tickets to their events. Make your event a success on Eventbrite. Additionally, thanks to the following partners for making Mashable happen: Since 2007 W3 EDGE has assisted with creative, web development and search / social media marketing Mashable.com and its numerous projects and other web properties. Day-to-day maintenance and support is also handled by Frederick Townes and his W3 EDGE team. Thanks to ConVerdge for implementing our My Mashable social network. Mashable would also like to thank AttentionPR for its PR support. AttentionPR proves that PR today is measurable, transparent and yes, social. Learn more about AttentionPR. Rackspace is the better way to do hosting. No more worrying about web hosting uptime. No more spending your time, energy and resources trying to stay on top of things like patching, updating, monitoring, backing up data and the like. Learn why. iStockphoto offers easy, affordable inspiration with millions of safe, royalty-free photos, illustrations, video, audio and Flash® files. Using the most accurate search in the business, customers download a file at least every second from a collection of more than five million files for business, marketing and personal projects. iStockphoto started in 2000, pioneering the micropayment photography business model and has become one of the most successful and profitable user-generated content sites in the world. iStockphoto pays out approximately $1.2 million weekly in artist royalties. iStockphoto is headquartered in Calgary, Alberta, Canada and is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Getty Images. Mashable readers save 10%. Founded in 1998 as a free service, Dynamic Network Services Incorporated (Dyn Inc.) now operates two extremely reliable, “rock solid,” global DNS platforms; DynDNS.com for home/SMB users and the Dynect Platform for corporations and enterprises. As a leading provider of managed DNS services, Dyn Inc. plays a key role in keeping the Internet’s DNS infrastructure running smoothly, handling trillions of queries per day and servicing nearly four million active users. With a range of innovative solutions, from domain name and e-mail services on DynDNS.com, to failover, load balancing, traffic management and CDN balancing services with the Dynect Platform, Dyn Inc. remains committed to world class customer service and engineering excellence. Uptime is the Bottom Line. For more information about Dyn Inc., visit www.dyn.com, e-mail hello@dyn.com or call +1-603-668-4998. ConcentricSky offers web development and strategic consulting services with a focus on emerging technologies such as Social Media and iPhone Apps. From simple websites to integrated web applications, we deliver innovative solutions that exceed your expectations – not your budget. We can get your name out there. Contact us for more information about supporting Mashable’s growth and development. Alternatively, visit our advertise section for more details about: Competitive direct ad sales Sponsorship Opportunities for Events and other channels Sponsored giveaways and contests Custom ad deals and partnerships CPM-based advertising is available through our partner, Federated Media, but if you contact us directly, you’ll be entitled to exclusive unpublished discounts. Reviews: Apps, Digg, Facebook, Mashable, iStockphoto, social media

iPhone 4: 1.5 Million Sold on First Day [REPORT] Posted: 25 Jun 2010 06:50 AM PDT We know that the lines in front of Apple stores were enormous yesterday. But how many iPhone 4 devices has Apple sold, exactly? While no one knows the exact number at this point, Oppenheimer’s Yair Reiner decided to try his hand at some iPhone 4 math. According to his calculations in a note to clients issued Friday, Apple sold 1.5 million phones on launch day. We know that 600,000 units have been pre-ordered. Reiner estimates that 100,000 additional, non-reserved units were sold at Apple stores and that 50,000 were sold at Best Buy. He multiplied the final number by two to include international sales. Piper Jaffray’s Gene Munster has a more conservative calculation: He thinks that Apple will sell between 1 million and 1.5 million iPhones in the first three days, including pre-orders. Both Munster and Reiner arrived at these numbers by surveying hundreds of iPhone 4 buyers on Thursday, but make no mistake: These are very rough estimates. Apple’s sales numbers — especially on launch day — have a habit of surprising even the biggest optimists, so it’s probably a good idea to wait for the official numbers before jumping to conclusions. For more Apple coverage: Follow Mashable Apple on Twitter Become a Fan on Facebook Subscribe to the Apple channel Download our free apps for iPhone and iPad Reviews: Facebook, Twitter More About: apple, iphone 4, smartphone

Mozilla Explains Why Firefox 4 Has Tabs on Top [VIDEO] Posted: 25 Jun 2010 05:48 AM PDT Firefox 4 is coming soon, and it’ll carry with it a lot of design and UI changes. One of the biggest ones is that the default setting will be to place tabs on top, a design Google Chrome popularized. For years, there’s been heated debate in the Firefox community over whether the tabs should be on top or below the address bar. To explain Mozilla’s decision, Alex Faaborg of the User Experience Design team recorded this seven minute video explaining the four key reasons Firefox 4 defaults to tabs on top. Watch the video to learn about them all. If you hate the tabs on top look though, don’t worry: Faaborg makes it very clear that tabs on top is just the default setting, and that users will have full control over where their tabs are located. Reviews: Firefox, Google Chrome More About: chrome, Firefox, Firefox 4, Google, google chrome, mozilla, Tabs For more Tech coverage: Follow Mashable Tech on Twitter Become a Fan on Facebook Subscribe to the Tech channel Download our free apps for iPhone and iPad

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