Mashable: Latest 27 News Updates - including “Android Steals Market Share From All Other Smartphone Platforms [REPORT]” |  |
- Android Steals Market Share From All Other Smartphone Platforms [REPORT]
- Australia: Google Broke Our Privacy Law
- Is There a Better Way to Find Email Attachments?
- Twitter’s Early Bird Deals: Flop or Fly?
- Adobe Flash is Going 3D
- Mashable’s San Francisco Summer Tour Stop Is Next Week
- Web Broadcast of Lohan Hearing Draws 2.3 Million Viewers
- RIP Facebook Gifts
- Fring Adds 3G Video Calling to iPhone 4, Android, and Nokia Phones
- Condé Nast Traveller Blends Location and Augmented Reality in New iPhone Apps
- People of Walmart Coming to a Bookstore Near You
- MTV to Develop Social Games Based on Shows and Characters
- HOW TO: Get the Most Out of Q&A Sites
- 100+ Chrome Experiments for HTML5 and More
- Gowalla Gets Creative with Threadless and LIVESTRONG Deals
- “Tik Tok” Soldiers Ordered to Make Anti-Dancing Video
- iAds Generate $1,400 for One Developer in a Day
- Facebook Acquires Local Recommendation Service Nextstop
- An In-Depth Look at How People Are Using the iPad
- 10 Beautiful Free Hand-Drawn Icon Sets
- 5 Organizations Helping Women Get Ahead in Tech
- CNN Editor Resigns Following Controversial Tweet About Hezbollah Leader
- Double Rainbow Meme Takes Web by Storm [Randomly Viral]
- Video Faceoff: YouTube vs. Hulu
- 10 Fascinating Facts You Didn’t Know About Apple
- LeBron James to Answer Questions from Twitter During ESPN Special
- Second Trailer for “The Social Network” Hits the Web [VIDEO]
- The Pirate Bay Hacked, User Info Exposed
| Android Steals Market Share From All Other Smartphone Platforms [REPORT] Posted: 09 Jul 2010 03:48 AM PDT      According to comScore’s latest analysis of the U.S. mobile market, Android has grown significantly in the period from February to May 2010, while all other major operating systems experienced a drop in their market share. In this period, RIM was still the leading mobile smartphone platform, dropping from 42.1% to 41.7% market share. It was followed by Apple which somewhat surprisingly dropped from 25.4% to 24.4% and Microsoft which dropped from 15.1% to 13.2%. Android was fourth on the list, but it rose from 9% to 13% market share in this same period. It was followed by Palm which dropped from 5.4% to 4.8% market share. One has to take into account that these numbers are relative; most smartphone platforms actually gained subscribers as the smartphone market overall grew 8.1%, with 49.1 million people in the U.S. owning smartphones during this period. Still, Android is growing faster – much faster – than its competitors at this point.  As far as top mobile manufacturers go, Samsung grabbed the first place, growing from 21.4% to 22.4% market share. It was followed by LG, RIM, Motorola and Nokia, all of which lost a small chunk of their share, with the exception of RIM which grew from 8.2% to 8.7%. See comScore’s report here. More About: android, blackberry, iOS, mobile operating system, webOS, windows mobile For more Mobile coverage:
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| Australia: Google Broke Our Privacy Law Posted: 09 Jul 2010 01:38 AM PDT   Google’s troubles stemming from the Street View incident, where Google collected Wi-Fi data from private, unencrypted networks, are far from over. After an investigation into the incident, Australia’s privacy commissioner Karen Curtis said Google broke Australia’s privacy law by collecting private Wi-Fi data. It hardly comes as a surprise; several other countries, including the U.S., are investigating the incident, and in May, Australia's communications minister Stephen Conroy openly attacked Google, calling its privacy policies "a bit creepy." “Collecting personal information in these circumstances is a very serious matter. Australians should reasonably expect that private communications remain private,” Curtis said in a statement. Curtis said the privacy act prevented her from imposing punishment on Google; however, Google promised to consult with her on personal data activities in Australia, as well as conduct a privacy impact assessment on any new Street View projects involving personal data. Google originally apologized for the incident in a blog post. Additionally, Google’s top engineering exec Alan Eustace posted a public apology to Australia on the Google Australia blog. “We want to reiterate to Australians that this was a mistake for which we are sincerely sorry. Maintaining people's trust is crucial to everything we do and we have to earn that trust every single day. We are acutely aware that we failed badly here,” wrote Eustace. Image courtesy of iStockphoto, Nikada More About: australia, Google, privacy For more Tech coverage:
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| Is There a Better Way to Find Email Attachments? Posted: 08 Jul 2010 10:19 PM PDT   This post is part of Mashable's Spark of Genius series, which highlights a unique feature of startups. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here. The series is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark.
Quick Pitch: DokDok enhances your inbox to make it easy to find, work on and share the latest version of any document. Genius Idea: Even with threaded conversations and online document collaboration, finding and managing the right version of an attachment can be frustrating, to say the least. DokDok’s makers think it should be easy for you to verify that the attachment you’re working on or searching for is the most recent version. You should also be able to track any changes to that document and share it with others, all without disrupting the workflow of a normal business. It might be good at the outset to tell you what DokDok isn’t. It’s not for file sharing, cloud storage, multi-device syncing, enterprise document management or email, itself. It’s just a tool to make your inbox a happier place to be. DokDok gives Google Apps users — mostly small and medium-sized businesses — a one-click solution for verifying the version of an attachment. You’ll be able to see similar attachments from your inbox listed along with the attachments for the message you’re reading. It will also collect and archive the documents that are scattered all around your inbox. Best of all, you don’t have to convice all your friends, coworkers and colleagues to start using a new document editing system or email client. Here’s a quick demo: The product is currently free; premium pricing options might be introduced in the future. What do you think: Is DokDok simple enough and useful enough to make it worth using on a daily or weekly basis? Let us know what you think — and how DokDok can improve — in the comments. [img credit: DVS Photographer] Sponsored by Microsoft BizSpark
Entrepreneurs can take advantage of the Azure Services platform for their website hosting and storage needs. Microsoft recently announced the “new CloudApp()” contest – use the Azure Services Platform for hosting your .NET or PHP app, and you could be the lucky winner of a USD 5000* (please see website for official rules and guidelines)." Reviews: PHP More About: attachments, dokdok, email, google apps, startup For more Tech coverage:
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| Twitter’s Early Bird Deals: Flop or Fly? Posted: 08 Jul 2010 10:08 PM PDT
Is this a smart move for the social messaging site, or just an attempt to leap aboard the “online deals” bandwagon? Will Twitter’s deals ultimately turn into a new revenue stream, or a distraction? That’s the topic of my CNN column this week. Check out the column at CNN.com >>More About: cashmore, cnn, earlybird, pete cashmore, twitter
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| Posted: 08 Jul 2010 09:05 PM PDT   Everything is going 3D these days, and Adobe Flash isn’t missing out: The company has revealed it will include 3D support in a future version of the browser plug-in. The news of the update first leaked out via the agenda of October’s Adobe Max conference, which includes a presentation entitled “Flash Player 3D Future”. Adobe product manager Thibault Imbert then drew attention to the presentation in a blog post, but declined to give further details, save for the fact that Adobe will release a “3D API” in a “future version”:
Adobe, it seems, aims to become a platform for 3D content. The idea seems sound, but we’ll await details until we pass judgment: There’s little to go on here. [via CNet News] For more Tech coverage:
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| Mashable’s San Francisco Summer Tour Stop Is Next Week Posted: 08 Jul 2010 08:08 PM PDT
For those that are not in San Francisco, we hope you’ll join the discussion on Twitter via #summermash and a live stream with Watchitoo on Mashable.com. In fact, we want you to help facilitate some of the discussion on Watchitoo by joining us on-camera to help ask attendees questions and answer some social media trivia. If you’re interested in being on-camera to help ask questions, the details are outlined below. You’ll also have a chance to win tickets to attend the events. Mashable Watchitoo Summer Tour ContestContest Submission Criteria: Upload a 14-second YouTube video explaining why you should be brought on live to chat with hosts/attendees at the Mashable 2010 Summer Tour.
Summer Tour San FranciscoGrand Hyatt San Francisco 345 Stockton St San Francisco, CA 94108 Wednesday, July 14 Socialize
Seattle | Washington D.C. | New York City | Chicago SummerMash Tweets
Thanks to our Local Sponsors: Mopho is simply the best way to capture and share mobile photos. More than a check-in, Mopho tags your photos with a location or event and shares them with your friends. Mopho saves you time and effortlessly gives your photos more context, allowing you to capture and better reflect all of your experiences. Start sharing more with your photos — Download Mopho today from the iTunes app store and see more on the Web at http://mopho.to.  Discover the tools of engagement at SES San Francisco, Aug. 16-20. No longer just lecturing your customers, learn to listen and converse in a more social world. Our experts will show you how integrating search, social media, and video, in even basic ways will transform both your sites visibility and profitability. Packed with sessions on PPC management, information architecture, social media, local search, mobile application development, video optimization, and other advanced topics, we have created an educational and networking environment designed for both beginners and veterans in digital marketing. Register by July 30th and SAVE up to $554. Enter MBL15. Sessions Include: Social & the Marketing Mix, Search, PR & the Social Butterfly, The Business Value of Social Media, Local Search Ranking Factors  Bing helps you find the information you need faster, and with fewer clicks, so you can make better decisions. It's different than a typical search engine—it's your “decision engine.” A Special Thanks to Our Tour Sponsors Join Gotelo.com and choose where you want to be found, anytime, in one easy step. It's fast, free, and launching this summer. Gotelo simplifies the way you connect with people you know and businesses you like by directing you to their most current web page.  The Intel® Atom™ Developer Program provides software developers with everything you need to easily develop and sell applications for Intel® Atom™ processor-based products starting with netbooks, and eventually supporting tablets, smartphones, consumer electronics and more. Program features include: Powerful tools—including an SDK, easy deployment and validation, Revenue and marketing opportunities, Developer Catalog to buy and sell application components, Application Labs in addition to a vibrant online community for support.  Weber Shandwick is a leading global public relations agency with offices in 76 countries around the world. The firm's success is built on its deep commitment to client service, our people, creativity, collaboration and harnessing the power of Advocates – engaging stakeholders in new and creative ways to build brands and reputation. Weber Shandwick provides strategy and execution across practices such as consumer marketing, healthcare, technology, public affairs, financial services, corporate and crisis management. Its specialized services include digital/social media, advocacy advertising, market research, and corporate responsibility. In 2010, Weber Shandwick was named Global Agency of the Year by The Holmes Report for the second year in a row; an ‘Agency of the Decade’ by Advertising Age, Large PR Agency of the Year by Bulldog Reporter, and Top Corporate Responsibility Advisory Firm by CR Magazine. The firm has also won numerous ‘best place to work’ awards around the world. A Special Thanks to Our Multi-Streaming Partner Watchitoo is an embeddable, live multi-streaming platform that allows 10+ participants to communicate via a web-cam in real time, while collaborating around a custom designed rich media playlist. A passive audience of thousands can view the show online. Any viewer can be added into a show via a virtual green room, where a moderator can adjust their microphone, have a private one-on-one chat, and vet their overall suitability to participate. Streams can be inserted, removed, re-arranged and re-sized in real time. Watchitoo has a rich feature set that includes Twitter and Facebook integration, chat, questioning, recording, screen-sharing and white-boarding. Thanks to Our Official Ticketing Partner Eventbrite is the world's largest self-service online ticketing site. Eventbrite makes it easy for anyone to sell-out an event. Reviews: Bing, Facebook, Foursquare, Mashable, Twitter, YouTube More About: mashable, San Francisco-San Jose, summermash
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| Web Broadcast of Lohan Hearing Draws 2.3 Million Viewers Posted: 08 Jul 2010 07:35 PM PDT   On Tuesday, Judge Marsha Revel sentenced Lindsey Lohan to 90 days in jail. Today we’re learning that TMZ.com’s live broadcast of the hearing attracted record viewer numbers — 2.3 million viewers to be exact, most of whom stuck around for 16.3 minutes. A live audience of 2.3 million viewers is practically unheard of on the web. The Ustream live broadcast of the Tiger Woods press conference was a huge event, but it attracted 683,000 viewers, small potatoes in comparison. To put things in to perspective, cable television shows often draw far less numbers. For example, a repeat prime time episode of the CW’s America’s Next Top Model drew merely 1.424 million viewers on Wednesday according to Nielsen TV Ratings. Broadcasting & Cable reports that TMZ’s stream, “came from the in-court pool, which was the one feed allowed by Judge Revel.” Clearly it was a wise move on TMZ’s part to stream the feed to an online audience. They also catered to their audience with different polls, one of which drew more than 800,000 votes. It’s hard to pinpoint the exact reason for the massive viewership, though it’s probably safe to assume that both interest in Lohan’s legal woes and the growing consumer interest in watching events unfold live on the web are the two most significant factors. We’re still somewhat baffled by the huge number. Did you tune in to the TMZ live stream? [img credit: Wikipedia] Reviews: Wikipedia More About: lindsey lohan, livestream, tmz, tv For more Entertainment coverage:
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| Posted: 08 Jul 2010 06:48 PM PDT   Facebook is winding down its “Gift Shop” feature, the company announced today. Facebook Gifts will stop operating on August 1, although gifts you’ve received previously will remain on your Wall. It’s a surprising move from Facebook, which stands to become a significant player in online transactions thanks to Facebook Credits. Given that gifting is a great advertisement for the benefit of making transactions on Facebook, we can only imagine that giving Gifts is wildly unpopular. Facebook Credits perhaps doesn’t need a helping hand, either: The rapid rise of Facebook games has assured the success of the Credits scheme. If you’re into gifting on Facebook, you still have a few options: Birthday Cards and Pieces of Flair to name a couple. Facebook’s Jared Morgenstern says of the closedown:
RIP, Facebook Gifts. Reviews: Facebook More About: facebook, facebook gifts, trending For more Social Media coverage:
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| Fring Adds 3G Video Calling to iPhone 4, Android, and Nokia Phones Posted: 08 Jul 2010 05:15 PM PDT   Popular mobile VoIP and chat client Fring has updated its mobile app to add support for 2-way video calling for the iPhone 4. You might be brushing off this feature because the new iPhone has FaceTime, but the Fring app has two big advantages over Apple’s video calling feature: 3G support and compatibility across multiple platforms. Fring launched video calls on iPhone last year, giving iPhone 3GS users a simple way to make calls, although 2-way video calling wasn’t possible because the 3GS didn’t have a front-facing camera. Earlier this year, the company brought 3G video calling to market. Today’s update finally makes Fring compatible with 2-way video calling on the iPhone 4. While it’s easier to initiate or receive a FaceTime call, the company is betting that people will use Fring because it allows them to call friends without an iPhone 4 — one of the big restrictions to FaceTime. Fring’s 3G connectivity also addresses another shortcoming of Apple’s video calling feature: it only works on Wi-Fi. Put it all together, and it means you can use Fring to call your friend with the Evo while you’re driving across the country, though we don’t recommend it for many reason. Since FaceTime will eventually be an open platform, we hope that Fring will integrate FaceTime into its mobile apps, making video calls across multiple devices a seamless experience. Reviews: Fring More About: facetime, fring, iphone, Skype, video calling For more Mobile coverage:
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| Condé Nast Traveller Blends Location and Augmented Reality in New iPhone Apps Posted: 08 Jul 2010 04:14 PM PDT   Condé Nast Digital Britain recently unveiled a series of apps for the iPhone and iPod touch, dubbed Condé Nast Traveller City Guides. There are four separate apps for Barcelona, New York, Paris and Rome priced at $9.99 each. The apps [iTunes link] are divided into six sections containing more than 500 searchable listings, complete with venue information, photos and editors’ reviews:
The list of venues is well-curated; there are enough to appeal to a relatively broad array of tastes without being overwhelming. Users can bookmark interesting listing by adding them to a to-do list and share them via Facebook, Twitter and e-mail.
What’s most impressive about the apps is their Augmented Reality functionality (pictured above). Simply point your phone in a direction and it will bring up images of nearby attractions, which you can narrow down by type. You can also use GPS to pull up venue locations on a map. The apps contain a number of other neat little features as well, including a handful of guided audio tours and magazine articles, a travel journal, a Flickr-integrated personal photo log, a timeline of the city’s history and essential travel information about local customs, transportation and the location of tourist offices and so forth. What’s more, Condé Nast Britain promises to update the apps’ content every four months free of charge. The only major drawback are the prices, which are hard to justify when free apps like restaurant-finder Urbanspoon also come with many similar features (although Urbanspoon’s Augmented Reality functionality is admittedly more basic and many users would rather read a review from a food editor than from the guy next door). In all fairness, Zagat’s TO GO app [iTunes link] also costs $9.99, but then it has a key feature Condé Nast Traveller’s does not: the ability to make restaurant reservations. It also covers almost every major U.S. city in one app. What do you think of the city guide apps? Are they reasonably priced given all they have to offer? What other features would you like to see? Reviews: Facebook, Flickr, Twitter More About: conde nast, conde nast traveller, iphone, iphone app, media, travel For more Mobile coverage:
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| People of Walmart Coming to a Bookstore Near You Posted: 08 Jul 2010 03:07 PM PDT   Kids, get ready to revamp your Christmas lists: People of Walmart, everyone’s favorite blog mocking the insane and disheveled, is coming out in book form this September 7 from Sourcebooks. The title? People of Walmart: Shop and Awe. Nice. Some of you might be scratching your heads at this point, under the impression that this blog had, in fact, already scored a book deal. Not so! Although a cadre of popular blogs have already come out in paperback form, the folks over at People of Walmart only announced their literary leanings today. The blog — which was started in August of 2009 by brothers Adam and Andrew Kipple and childhood friend Luke Wherry — will make its way to book form complete with 200 photographs and captions (70% of which will be original content) and fan-submitted stories about their own experiences. (Oh man, I bet it’ll be sold in Walmart… That’s so meta!) We’re curious to see how the blog translates to book. A lot of critics see the blog-to-book phenom as the end of literature, a slap-dash process whereby publishers merely serve up warmed-over digital content in a glossy cover. Seeing as how the authors plan on offering original content and perhaps even more of the written word, we wonder if they will be able to create something new and engaging that will appeal to more than just the adherents of the blog. We’ll see come September. In the meantime, there’s always the People of Walmart Rap to tide us over. More About: books, humor, MARKETING, people of walmart, pop culture For more Social Media coverage:
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| MTV to Develop Social Games Based on Shows and Characters Posted: 08 Jul 2010 02:46 PM PDT   MTV Networks has just acquired Social Express, a social game development company, for an undisclosed amount. By this fall, the network plans to launch several games based on Nickelodeon and MTV shows and characters. MTV will also be launching a platform for indie game developers. This will be MTV Networks’s first foray into social gaming. The company’s current game sites include AddictingGames.com, Shockwave.com, Nick.com Games, Nick.com Arcade, Neopets, GameTrailers and Xfire. MTV’s CEO Judy McGrath said in a release today, “Social gaming is one of the biggest drivers of the explosive growth in social media – it’s fun, it’s engaging, and it’s shareable.” We’re sure it hasn’t escaped the company’s notice that social games can also be wildly profitable. In fact, AdWeek projects that social games will soon comprise a $2 billion industry. Social games also get users to spend more time on-site and create more opportunities for branded interactions with advertisers. MTV isn’t the only broadcast brand attempting to make a cutting-edge connection with wired culture. ESPN also recently announced that, with a little help from social game developers Playdom, it too will be rolling out a suite of social games, including Facebook-enabled and mobile games. These tech-related efforts on the part of entertainment brands are telling. The line between the television and the web has blurred almost to the point of fusion. Around 83% of people in a recent survey said that some or all of their TV content was, in fact, watched on the Internet and not on a TV. And around 60% of us are watching and browsing simultaneously. It’s important for television-rooted brands to connect to and immerse themselves in all new forms of media to escape obsolescence, and we look forward to seeing what MTV cooks up for its Internet-minded audience this fall. What kinds of games would you like to see from MTV Networks? Reviews: Facebook, Internet More About: mtv, Social Express, social game, social gaming For more Business coverage:
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| HOW TO: Get the Most Out of Q&A Sites Posted: 08 Jul 2010 02:21 PM PDT   Ro Choy is the CEO of PeerPong, a site that identifies the best people on the Web to answer any question, using their fast growing PeerRank Index. Since the beginning of the year, there has been a lot of activity in online Q&A sites due to increased funding and launch announcements. The next generation of question and answer sites promise higher quality, informed answers, and the opportunity to publish and showcase your knowledge and expertise. Whether you're a consultant looking to increase your exposure, a small business looking to use product advice to gain new business, or just guy in serious need of help, first know that it’s about so much more than just asking or answering. There are ways to ask the best questions, provide great answers and ultimately build your reputation; here are eight guidelines that can help. How To Best Frame Questions To Get A Response 1. Be Clear and ConciseA great question is like a great haiku, it captures interest with its wit or structure, but it’s short and to the point. Additionally, emphasizing the point of the question can generate a more immediate reaction. Here's a quick example:
Be aware of how much content you are competing with online. Readers have small attention spans, and you need to grab them. The wrong example above references the company in question at the end, which readers might miss entirely. By emphasizing a controversial point, in this case the word choice of "so slow,” there's a clearer incentive to either support or refute, but ultimately answer. 2. Details, Details, DetailsWhen thinking about asking a question, remember that getting a response is directly related to the content of the question. If your question is too general, and could be easily answered by Google, then experts are going to be to less interested in taking the time an answer your query. Adding details to the initial question in a follow up can generate more thoughtful responses and comments. Better yet, personalizing the question content by including details as to why the question matters to you will add the color needed to get potential responders to care.
By personalizing the question and adding specific details, responders have a better base on which to deliver more detailed and thoughtful answers. In addition, the circumstances attached to the question makes it more meaningful, and a query that can't simply be answered by a search engine. How To Best Answer Questions Helpfully 3. Depth vs BreadthAn answer should always touch on all prominent points that deliver a comprehensive, well structured response to a question. But be aware that sometimes greater detail can limit the effectiveness of an answer. While lengthy responses can connote greater understanding of an answer, this completely depends on the community and type of question you’re responding to. On more “search-like," high volume Q&A sites, users tend to look for more straight-to-the-point and immediate responses. Normally, traffic on Q&A sites is driven from search engine queries. The time frame for engaging this type of user is very short, and delivering a concise summary of an answer with links to more content, like a personal blog or news site, can be more effective than trying to give a highly detailed answer that may be skipped. However, on more “community” oriented Q&A sites, longer responses will often be met with greater acceptance, generate further increased responses and interaction around the question and answer. On these sites, since the engagement of the user is higher, they have a greater inclination to spend more time reading through a thoughtful, detailed response. 4. Yes. No. Maybe.A great answer can be like writing a high school essay. Start with a quick summary answer (yes, no, maybe) that captures the interest of the reader. Follow the summary with data or supporting facts to back up the answer, and end with a more detailed understanding or conclusion. 5. Drop Your CredThe Internet has a reputation for being shady, and as such you have to prove yourself. When answering a question, be sure to qualify yourself as an expert. You need to let readers know why your answer is reputable and why you’re the right person to answer it. This gives greater credence and integrity to the response, and a higher likelihood for a recommendation or a vote up. Here are a couple of examples: Answering a question about pastries in San Francisco?
Answering a question about Google PPC?
Building credibility from the start hooks readers immediately and proves why they should be reading through your response and will often generate a positive action on their part. How To Build Your Rep As An Expert 6. Be OpenBuilding and growing a reputation as an expert in your field has obvious benefits for a business, consultant or an individual looking to increase his or her network. And it all starts with actually putting what you know online. The most direct way to start building your reputation as an expert is to start blogging, and blog a lot. Most blogging platforms or sites are well tuned for search engine optimization and you'll find that your blog will start gaining traffic from people running queries against the very content you're writing about. After establishing a blog, responding to questions on Q&A sites in areas aligned to your interests can help drive greater awareness and build blog traffic as well. Much like blogs, Q&A sites are also very well tuned for search engine traffic. Plus the new generation of Q&A sites are socially enabled, which can help to promote your expertise and content. 7. Get OpinionatedIf you're looking to build recognition as an expert, you can't be shy. Start commenting on other active blogs and communities in your field. Make sure to include a link back to your blog as part of your profile. This can help drive readers with similar interests to start engaging with your content directly, or at the very least, continue publicly asserting what you know across multiple online sources. 8. Be AggressiveMake sure to use Twitter to build a follower base. Twitter is one of the few places where hundreds of millions of users are actually looking for content from people they don't know, but who share their interests. Make sure to include a URL-shortened link back to your blog or online profile on your account. Often, the 140-character limit per post makes it difficult to deliver an expert opinion, but frequent tweets with links back to a blog can deliver both traffic and readership. Finally, make sure to include sharing options through Twitter and Facebook on your individual posts on your blog or site to maximize the social engagement of your content. More Social Media Resources From Mashable:
Image courtesy of iStockphoto, geopaul Reviews: Facebook, Google, Twitter, iStockphoto More About: BLOGS, expert, q&a, reputation, social media For more Social Media coverage:
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| 100+ Chrome Experiments for HTML5 and More Posted: 08 Jul 2010 02:00 PM PDT   Are you ready to see the limits of what HTML5, JavaScript and similar tools can do with a web browser? Chrome Experiments, a site built specifically to showcase such tricks, now holds more than 100 different demos, most of them visually stunning and quite unique. These experiments toe the delicate line between technology and art, and we’ve included videos of a few of them below. The Chrome Experiments site was created about a year and a half ago. Experiments were sent in by web designers all over the world, featuring, according to the site, “the latest open standards, including HTML5, Canvas, SVG and more. Their work is making the web faster, more fun, and more open — the same spirit in which we built Google Chrome.” Google’s support of such browser-related open standards — including HTML5 — has impacted some of the company’s largest applications, including Reader, Voice, Gears and web video in general. The demos we’ve seen are fascinating examples of what can be done with browser technology. One interactive video tool lets you “blow up” a video into tiles by clicking on the video as it plays. Likewise, we saw a few neat web-based drawing tools like this one: And this interactive virtual ball pit is just tons of fun: The Plasma Tree and Flower Power experiments will give you that special Fern Gully feeling, while Tunnelers provides a visual acid trip that would do the animators of Yellow Submarine proud. Poke around the site and be sure to check out the source code; each one of these experiments explores a unique trick that makes browsing more interactive and fun, a departure from the expected linear, point-and-click experience that we see most frequently. What’s your favorite Chrome Experiment so far? Have you submitted one of your own yet? Reviews: Google, Google Chrome More About: browser, chrome, HTML5, javascript For more Dev & Design coverage:
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| Gowalla Gets Creative with Threadless and LIVESTRONG Deals Posted: 08 Jul 2010 01:33 PM PDT   Foursquare competitor Gowalla has announced fresh new partnerships with LIVESTRONG and online T-shirt shop Threadless. The LIVESTRONG partnership is centered around inspiration and the ongoing Tour de France, while the Threadless initiative will help members follow along the company’s celebratory cross-country tour. Together Gowalla and LIVESTRONG are hoping to inspire members and Twitter users to direct 40-character messages of hope and inspiration to those affected by cancer to @chalkbot. The Nike/LIVESTRONG Chalkbot robot is painting the submitted messages on Tour de France streets and will be checking in with Gowalla to document the process. To supplement the creative Chalkbot campaign, Nike and LIVESTRONG are also encouraging users to check in at Nike retail stores and leave messages of inspiration in the process. Gowalla users will not only get a custom Stamp, but if they check in during the Tour de France they will also receive a limited edition LIVESTRONG pin.  While the LIVESTRONG partnership focuses on using location-sharing to spread hope, the Threadless campaign takes location-sharing along for a cross-country ride. Threadless team members have departed from their Chicago offices and are traveling across the U.S. trailer-style in celebration of the company’s 10th anniversary. It’s called the Threadless Everywhere Tour, and Gowalla’s dubbing the location-aware trailer the first-ever real-time moving “Spot.” The spray-painted trailer van will be continually updating its location using SimpleGeo technology as it traverses the country. Gowalla users and Threadless fans can track the whole journey online, and Passport Holders can check in to the trailer when it arrives in their neighborhood to get a free T-shirt in return. Both the LIVESTRONG and Threadless partnerships exemplify that location-sharing can be used in creative ways to inspire hope and adventure.  [img credits: goingonsix] Reviews: Gowalla, Threadless, Twitter More About: gowalla, livestrong, Mobile 2.0, social media, threadless For more Social Media coverage:
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| “Tik Tok” Soldiers Ordered to Make Anti-Dancing Video Posted: 08 Jul 2010 12:55 PM PDT   The Israeli soldiers who were admonished this week for performing a dance routine to Ke$ha’s “Tik Tok” in the streets on Hebron have finally received their punishment: They are to create an educational video instructing their compatriots not to dance. The video, which became a viral sensation this week — even after if was taken down by the original uploader and then uploaded again — received mixed reactions from bloggers and press. Some found the image of the six soldiers decked out in IDF uniforms and military gear hilarious, others, disrespectful. The IDF, however, was less nebulous about its feelings. ynet reports that Colonel Amir Abulafia, commander of the Benjamin Brigade, called forth the two squad commanders yesterday for their participation in the video. According to the colonel, the fact that they were wearing IDF uniforms at the time tied their actions to the IDF, which made the dancing unacceptable. However, since they didn’t actually do anything wrong, the soldiers’ penalty is merely to create an educational video “in order to prevent similar incidents in the future,” according to a statement from the IDF. (The rest of the soldiers are currently on vacation, and are scheduled to be released from the military in a week — so they got off the hook.) We have to wonder, at this juncture, what this video will look like. I imagine it being like Footloose, with fewer tractors. In case you missed the video the first time, we’ve embedded it below. More About: music, Political, pop culture, viral video, youtube For more Web Video coverage:
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| iAds Generate $1,400 for One Developer in a Day Posted: 08 Jul 2010 11:59 AM PDT   iPhone app developer Jason Ting is letting the world know: In just one day, iAds generated almost $1,400 in revenue for his free iPhone 4 app. Yesterday, Ting’s app was unleashed on the App Store. It’s a program that lets you turn your iPhone’s flash — a new feature for the iPhone 4 — into an LED flashlight at will. While the app did solidly on its first day of sales, what impressed Ting most were the stats for the free, iAd-supported version. Ting reports that the free app alone generated $1,372.20 in revenue on Day One. The app’s eCPM (that’s “effective cost per thousand,” meaning the amount of revenue you earn per 1,000 impressions) was a whopping $147.55 — for those of you who don’t work in advertising, this eCPM is highly unusual. Here are more of Ting’s stats from the first day on the App Store:  In an e-mail this morning, Ting told us that the free application was downloaded around 9,000 times. We also asked him what kinds of iAds are being served. “It looks like the only iAds that are currently showing are from Dove and Nissan,” he said. “I’m guessing they had pretty huge media buys.” iAds are still a very new phenomenon for iPhone users, so the high clickthrough rates — and thus high revenues — may not last forever. When you click on an iAd advertisement, it fills the screen. Once it’s open, you can explore the ad interactively. “I have a feeling that people are still enjoying the novelty of iAds,” said Ting, “so I’m not sure if the high CTR percentage will stay up. But since the eCPM is calculated from a combination of impressions and clicks, I think there will be a decent stream just from the users who use the app but don’t necessarily click the ad.” What’s your opinion: Do you think iAds are a good solution for long-term revenue? If you’re a developer, have you seen results similar to Ting’s? Reviews: App Store More About: advertising, developer, iads, iphone, iphone 4, iphone app, mobile app, Revenue For more Business coverage:
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| Facebook Acquires Local Recommendation Service Nextstop Posted: 08 Jul 2010 11:39 AM PDT   Facebook has acquired Nextstop, a service that allows users to browse and create their own local guides and recommendations. In an announcement on its website, Nextstop stated that it will shut down on September 1, but will be releasing the Nextstop database under a Creative Commons license so that the guides survive. Nextstop launched just a year ago. The service focuses on creating beautiful and dead-simple guides of local destinations and hotspots. It provides a range of community features such as badges and guide recommendations. Back when it launched, we said that we were “thoroughly impressed with our first run of Nextstop.” However, the site faced stiff competition from the likes of Yelp and Where I’ve Been, so latching onto Facebook’s rapid growth was probably appealing to the startup. Facebook is likely interested in the company’s talent, perhaps even more than the technology: Nextstop was co-founded by Carl Sjogreen, Adrian Graham and Charles Lin. Sjogreen and Graham are former Googlers. The former worked on Google Calendar and the latter on Picasa. It also doesn’t surprise us that Facebook is shutting down Nextstop. The personnel and to a lesser extent the technology are what make this acquisition valuable, not the actual user-generated guides. Could Nextstop’s technology be used in Facebook’s impending location service? It seems like a strong possibility. At the very least, it’s another sign that Facebook is taking the location game very seriously, as startups such as Foursquare are growing and amassing new funding. Reviews: Facebook, Foursquare, Google Calendar, Picasa, Yelp More About: acquisition, facebook, nextstop For more Business coverage:
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| An In-Depth Look at How People Are Using the iPad Posted: 08 Jul 2010 11:25 AM PDT   Resolve Market Research has just completed a comprehensive study that looks at how the iPad is being used, and how the iPad is impacting other technology devices like e-readers, portable gaming consoles and netbooks. The study, which was conducted online across a nationally representative sample, compared technology owners or people that intend to own devices in four different categories: the iPad, smartphones (including iPhones, Androids and BlackBerrys), e-readers and portable video game devices. The study also focused on how users perceive the iPad both before and after owning the device. The iPad: The Ultimate Gaming Device?The iPad has primarily been positioned as a device to browse the web, watch video and read content. Its gaming capabilities, while certainly impressive, haven’t been a major part of the conversation. In fact, according to Resolve, only 28% of users said that one of their main uses for the iPad would be playing games. Additionally, only 23% said that they thought of the iPad as the most enjoyable device for playing games. However, after owning an iPad, those figures start to change. It turns out that 38% of respondents said that they did not plan to buy a portable gaming device after owning an iPad. The only category that ranked higher than that amongst iPad owners was e-readers.  The iPhone has had a huge impact on the portable gaming market and it looks like the iPad could further that trend. The size of the device and its accelerometer really make for an immersive gaming experience. Show anyone Real Racing HD and watch their faces explode into what my fiancé calls “the smile of iPad glee.” Once iOS 4 is deployed to the iPad and Apple has its Game Center deployed and ready for action, the iPad could really start to make a play for the gaming space. E-readers Should Be WorriedThe biggest category that has been affected by the iPad is that of standalone e-readers. Beyond just Resolve’s own survey results, we’re already seen evidence of this in the marketplace; both Barnes & Noble and Amazon recently slashed the prices of their e-readers. Even before the Kindle and Nook price cuts, we were already seeing some movement with lower-priced e-readers. We think that reading-only devices will ultimately find a new market at the sub $100 price point. Even at $200, the value proposition for an e-reader versus an iPad is tough to overcome. Many iPad Owners Are New to AppleOne of the most surprising parts of Resolve’s study, at least to us, was that 37% of respondents who owned or were planning to own an iPad said that it would be their first Apple product. This is impressive and interesting because it has the potential to pull more customers into the Apple ecosystem.  Much has been written about the iPod halo effect, in which people were more willing to buy Apple computers and other Apple products after owning an iPod. It will be interesting to see if the iPad can have a similar impact. When I asked Resolve about the age groups of iPad users, I found out some other interesting information. The first owners of the iPad tended to be young professionals, 22-45, who were either early adopters in general or had a highly connected and mobile lifestyle. However, the next group of adopters and those interested in buying an iPad are much older than the one might expect (45+). Anecdotally, I’ve seen this in my own travels and discussions with iPad or future iPad owners. The first wave of iPad owners were people like myself. The second wave of iPad owners, at least from what I’m seeing, have more in common with my parents. Studies have already shown that the iPod touch is a great gateway device to the broader iOS ecosystem for young teens and pre-teens. The iPad has the potential to attract the other end of that market. Still Viewed as an Expensive ToyAccording to Resolve, 55% of iPad owners or would-be owners see the device as a very expensive toy, or luxury item. It’s not a necessary device to have in your daily life, although it can replace a number of other gadgets or products. Still, that functionality can largely be reproduced (albeit with a less experience, in many cases) by things that many users already own.  We’re still at the nascent stages of tablet devices and as time goes on, we expect that features, applications and use cases will make these must-have rather than luxury items, just as we saw with laptop computers and smartphones. Your ThoughtsWhat do you think of this study? Have your perceptions of the iPad changed after buying one? Why or why not? More About: apple, e-reader, ipad, netbooks, portable games For more Apple coverage:
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| 10 Beautiful Free Hand-Drawn Icon Sets Posted: 08 Jul 2010 10:21 AM PDT
For the more adventurous individuals among us looking to step outside these preconceptions of what icons should look like, hand-drawn themes that embody intentional asymmetry can be a better option for setting a user interface apart. This post highlights 10 such icon sets that you can download free of charge and utilize in your designs, user interfaces, and operating systems for an organic and non-standard look. As always, read the terms of use if you’re planning to use these icon sets for commercial work. 1. Hand Drawn Doodle Icon Set for Bloggers Number of Icons: 14 This pack of 14 hand-sketched icons include the logos of popular sites and web services such as Twitter, Facebook, and Digg, as well other handy icons for your blog, such as an RSS feed icon and email subscription icon. Designer and blogger, Chris Spooner, whose work has been featured in industry-leading web design magazines such as .NET, handcrafted this icon set. Each icon is natively sized at 150×150px in PNG format, which is plenty big for use as social media badges on your web layout; you will probably end up needing to rescale them down to an appropriate size. 2. Artistica Icon Set Number of Icons: 60 This huge set of 60 distinct icons was hand-sketched by Rabotilnica — a small creative studio comprised of two programmers and two designers — to have an organic, color-brushed look. Icons include chat bubbles, the standard RSS symbol, a magnifying glass, and more, making the icon set perfect for web-based user interfaces or even for replacing your operating system’s icons. The set includes six sizes for each icon, from 24×24px to 256×256px. The icon pack is free for personal use; however, if you intend to use them commercially, you’ll have to hand over $17.95. Shortly after the first set was released, it was extended with Artistica Part 2 Icon Set that adds 60 more icons. 3. Natsu Icon Set Number of Icons: 43 Natsu, a Japanese word that means "summer," is a hand-drawn set of icons by Thai Illustrator, Teekatas S. The set has a combination of pencil and watercolor work, with icons corresponding to objects such as sheets of paper, a USB stick, and a stack of Polaroid photos. The artist boasts about the icons’ non-perfection and asymmetry as his response to the "sparkling, elegant and glassy icons" that are more commonplace. The set is at hand for your personal use; however, the artist did not explicitly state the availability of his icons for commercial use. If you intend to profit from the icons, you may want to contact him. 4. Handy Number of Icons: 24 One of the industry-leading design blogs, Webdesigner Depot, regularly hands out high-quality freebies to their readers. The catch? Nothing but a few seconds of your time to grab the download code from their RSS feed, which you’ll be asked to input when downloading their freebies. This icon set includes 24 icons for popular social media and networking sites such as Delicious, Digg, Facebook, Flickr. The author suggests that they also look great in black and white, so you can open them up in a graphics editor like Photoshop and employ one of the many handy ways of converting images to grayscale (e.g., Image > Adjustments > Desaturate). 5. Sketch’d up! Number of Icons: 99 This icon pack comprises of close to a 100 assorted icons sketched using vector graphics software, which means they’re conveniently editable and will scale up and down in size without loss of quality through pixelation. Icons include the artist’s interpretation of the logos of popular social sites such as Delicious, Digg, and Twitter; popular graphical user interface objects like folders and floppy disk drives; and Apple products, such as the iPhone. Sketch’d up! is a mish-mash of computing-related icons that’s available to you for both personal and commercial use. 6. ColorStroked Freehand Icon Set Number of Icons: 29 These beautiful icons by a Maldives-based artist that goes by the name of Fayaz were drawn freehand using colored pencils. The set contains 29 icons for social media sites such as Digg, StumbleUpon, Twitter and Facebook. Among the icons are also a few random and rarely represented products, including Opera and OpenOffice. The artist of the icon set only permits personal use of his icons. 7. Watercolor Free Icon Pack Number of Icons: 36 This free icon set released on the popular design tutorial blog, Tutorial9, has 36 icons consisting of commonplace graphical user interface controls such as a pencil, a padlock, and a calendar. For good measure, Elio Rivero — the graphic designer, web developer and illustrator who created the set — threw a Twitter bird in the mix. The set comes with 36 icons in PNG format, with the icons’ native size at 256×256px. You’re free to employ the icons in your personal and commercial work (even without attribution), but they’re hands off to those who want to redistribute or resell the icons themselves. 8. Handycons Number of Icons: 12 icons Handycons is a set of icons that comprises of social media icons for sites such as Reddit, Twitter, and Technorati. The icons will come to you in PNG format and in 4 popular sizes, which makes them locked-and-loaded for plugging into your website’s design. Janko Jovanovic, a user interface designer and top-notch blogger, made the set. Jovanovic later updated the icon collection with Handycons 2, which introduces 20 more icons for sites such as YouTube, PayPal and Last.fm. 9. Social Icons Hand Drawn Number of Icons: 18 Here is another wonderful set of social media hand-drawn icons that incorporates ubiquitous social media sites such as (surprise, surprise) Twitter, Facebook, Digg, and MySpace. This sketchy icon set was created by a Chilean comic artist that goes by the name of TheG-Force (I believe that’s reason enough to download and use this set). The work is licensed under Creative Commons, which typically means you’re free to use them if you attribute the creator — again, his name is TheG-Force. 10. 49 “Hand-Drawing” Icons Set Number of Icons: 49 In this icon set, you’ll find various icons such as shopping cart baskets, trash bins, and a buddy icon, all drawn in grayscale pencil. The icons come in 7 sizes ranging from 16×16 to 256×256px in PNG format. The set is free to download; however, the limitations of using the icons were not explicitly stated. It’s probably safe to assume that they’re free for personal use, but if you’re considering using them for commercial projects, it’s best to send the artist a note before proceeding. Are there any free, hand-drawn icon sets that you love but didn’t see on the list? If so, add them in the comments below. Series supported by Ben & Jerry’s Joe  This series is supported by Ben & Jerry’s Joe, Ben & Jerry’s new line-up of Fair Trade and frozen iced coffee drinks. Learn more about it here. More About: free, hand-drawn, icon sets, icons, web design, web design series, Web Development For more Dev & Design coverage:
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| 5 Organizations Helping Women Get Ahead in Tech Posted: 08 Jul 2010 10:20 AM PDT   Emily Goligoski (@emgollie) is a marketing manager at Federated Media. She produces video interviews with female entrepreneurs for Women 2.0 and writes about culture news as TheSanFranista. What happens when “equality in the workplace” is simply a numbers game? The ratio of women trained in computer science education is even lower now than it was in the 1930s. In 2008, girls made up just 17% of Advanced Placement test takers in computer science (the lowest percentage of any subject) and held less than 20% of CS degrees. To combat these numbers, organizations have sprouted to improve and expand programming education for women. These include community workshops and regional networking groups aimed at school-age girls and working women. These organizations need to reach corporate sponsors in order secure money and space to hold their outreach. Sometimes started out of frustration with the disproportionate ratio of male and female programmers, these five organizations are optimistic about building a community that includes first-time programmers and people shifting professional fields. 1. Grade School Girls: New York's CodeEd "It's our sense that by the time you get to Stanford or Princeton, you've made it," said Angie Schiavoni, a tech product consultant who co-founded CodeEd with her husband Sep Kamvar. "But that doesn't address the gap in education for young girls from disadvantaged backgrounds, and we think we can reach them in a fun way." She and her husband, a Stanford computer science professor, personally paid for colorful notebooks with Linux operating systems for the middle-school age girls at Girls Prep, a charter school for low-income girls on the Lower East Side. Schiavoni and Kamvar teach a one-hour, Saturday class at Girls Prep. After the first five weeks of HTML (which resulted in quite a few Justin Bieber fan sites) the girls can learn JavaScript, Python, and Java. The couple is currently seeking volunteer teachers to expand CodeEd to more schools in New York. 2. High School Students: Iridescent Iridescent Learning is a Los Angeles-based mentorship organization that teaches mobile app development to teenagers in preparation for a business plan competition. The program started after product manager Anuranjita Tewary heard from several area teachers that computer science was missing from their high school curriculum. She and programming expert Dr. Margaret Butler recruited 45 female high school students without programming experience for entrepreneurship and programming instruction by local business people. "We wanted them to learn how to write a business plan but also give them the experience of building something by having them learn how to program," Tewary said. Butler, who said that her computer science Ph.D program was only 10% women, worked with Tewary to find a language that would be immediately accessible. They turned to App Inventor for Android. "By the second day of class, students have written something that they download and run on their phone. Creating something that's part of their normal realm of interaction speaks to their attachment to mobile — it isn't video games that these girls are hooked on," Butler said. "I think these types of programs create a generation of young women who will demand that fast feedback immediately, and that will revolutionize development." Iradescent now teaches about databases, location services, and object-oriented programming. Students work in teams to build apps that can create study flashcards or track what's in your refrigerator. It's important to demonstrate the social components of the work, Butler explained, by having girls work together towards a goal just as they would in a lab or startup. The program will have reached more than 400 girls by the end of the year. Along with three "Technovation Express" workshops around the country this summer, goals for the program include having some students return as teaching assistants when they graduate from high school and trying to build an internship program in which area tech companies will pay program participants more than other summer employers might. 3. Working Women: Ruby on Rails Workshops for Women Attendees of the quarterly, two-day Ruby on Rails workshops for women in San Francisco and New York are asked about their programming experience when registering and split into beginner, intermediate, back end, front end, and Windows developer groups. Instructors and teaching assistants volunteer their weekends. Participants range from interns to CTOs. The San Francisco workshops are free thanks to corporate sponsorships and Pivotal Labs donating its office space. Organizer and developer Sarah Allen is planning to roll out some Ruby workshops in Spanish later this year, and she explained why these introductory meet-ups were crucial: "The tech industry used to promote diversity for moral reasons, and now diversity is seen as a strength that makes good business sense. Having a diverse set of people create your software makes it better for the very diverse people who will use it." She and New York host Sarah Mei recognized a need for programming education that was accessible to women. Allen said an increase in the number of study groups and women-filled events indicates they've succeeded and proves that they're slowly "raising the ambient volume of technology among women." Not all of the 300 women they've reached will become programmers, but the two co-founders think they may have better conversations with developers they work with in the future. There's already a corresponding internship program for women programmers. Monikka Delazerda, a marketing intern at MyJoffer.com, took part in the Rails workshop after a male colleague invited her (there's a rule that men can only participate if they're accompanied by a woman). Delazerda began practicing programming fundamentals just one month before Rails with several small student groups. "It's really nice to find a sense of community — instead of sitting alone with a big book, I get to learn with others and make fewer errors," Delazerda said. 4. Weekenders: Boston's Geek Girl Camp Geek Girl Camp's success in hosting regional data design workshops points to the emergence of programming education that's popping up separate from universities. Communities are creating these opportunities to increase the diversity of working programmers. The organization teaches courses about blogging and social media but says its day-long summer bootcamps draw the most interest. The organization's programming lead, web development firm president Sue Malomo, said her motivation for teaching is presenting options: "My goal was to expose women to what’s "out there" for technology, whether it’s the Mac platform or databases or programming. Once they know their options, it’s easier for them to go out and find more information or decide what they want to learn." Malomo said that there was exciting overflow and enthusiasm during the most recent bootcamp. In seeking feedback at the end, one participant who had come for an organization session said she was inspired by the possibilities presented. “This is what we need! We need to be challenged. We need to know what else is out there for us to learn!” 5. For Educators & Professionals The Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing Conference is an annual consortium that includes female students, large company recruiters, and educators. Run by the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology, the conference is the world's largest gathering of technical women in computing. Last year's conference, "Creating Technology for Social Good," attracted approximately 1,600 women. The celebration includes a day of programming for the Computer Science Teacher’s Association, which supports problem solving and computing education for middle school and high school teachers. "In many schools, computer science teachers and their students have been getting the hand-me-downs from much better resourced programs for years," said Dr. Chris Stephenson, executive director of the CSTA. Some teachers struggle to keep enough of their old, battered computers alive in order to teach their students. In addition to resources, Stephenson identified other key elements that she says are required to address underrepresentation in computing such as access to challenging courses, well-trained teachers, and pedagogy: "We have to find more engaging ways to teach our students, ways that affirm who they are, and what they care about…" Final WordsIf children are the future, then young women will carry the torch for a new generation of diverse, educated, female programmers. As Brad Feld, chairman of the National Center for Women in Information Technology, said at New York's We Own It Summit: "I'm obsessed with people between 10 and 25 — the energy going into these people is where the entrepreneurial growth in the future will be. We need to provide leadership for young people to change the arc of society over 20 years." Other resources for aspiring female programmers include DotDiva, GirlStart, and Dev Chix. Let us know about any other opportunities or organizations in the comments below. More development and design resources from Mashable:
Image courtesy of iStockphoto, track5 Reviews: Android, Facebook, Linux, Python, Twitter, Windows, iStockphoto, justin bieber More About: anita borg institute, codeed, education, geek girl camp, girls prep, iradescent, programming, Ruby on Rails, social good, Web Development, women For more Dev & Design coverage:
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| CNN Editor Resigns Following Controversial Tweet About Hezbollah Leader Posted: 08 Jul 2010 09:19 AM PDT   CNN’s Senior Editor of Mideast Affairs Octavia Nasr agreed to leave the company after tweeting that she “respected” Lebanese cleric Sayyed Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah, who is often credited as being an inspiration for the Hezbollah militant movement. The tweet, “Sad to hear of the passing of Sayyed Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah… One of Hezbollah's giants I respect a lot,” erupted a slew of reactions on Twitter. Two days after the tweet, Nasr tried to explain her tweets and apologize in a blog post. Despite being a prolific and savvy Twitter user, Nasr called the incident “a good lesson on why 140 characters should not be used to comment on controversial or sensitive issues, especially those dealing with the Middle East.” She tried to explain what she meant by “respect,” and convey more fully the context behind her tweet, noting that Fadlallah took a “contrarian and pioneering stand among Shia clerics on woman’s rights.” However, in an internal memo SVP for CNN International Newsgathering Parisa Khosravi announced Nasr would be leaving the company as a result of her comments, citing that her credibility has been compromised. The event may be a reminder that sometimes 140 characters is just not enough for expression, and that context is perhaps even important when tailoring your message for a mass audience on the viral web. Publishing is publishing, no matter the media used to broadcast. Each one has its strengths and weaknesses, whether it is a TV segment or a burst of 140 characters. We are, after all, in an age in which we consume media in multiple streams and channels. But what the incident also brings up is the question of bias and opinion in newsrooms across the country. Should journalists continue to pursue the elusive goal of impartial objectivity? Or should journalists be upfront about their opinions with their audience? Where is the balance? Complete objectivity has always been a mystical creature as elusive as the Lochness Monster of Big Foot. Journalists are like any other people with opinions. But the longstanding pursuit has been to avoid the opinion to get in the way of news-gathering and reporting; to approach the story with the idea of an impartial observer, something that is perhaps unattainable. And the web is clearly shifting the standards and expectations of such a standard with blogs adding a clear voice to and perspective to the news. Of course, this often comes at a cost of getting only one side of the story, but at the same time opinion often adds value to the conversation and holds people accountable, especially in the case of analysis of a complex issue. Regardless, reporters and journalists should be clear and transparent with their readers, setting a clear expectation about the information they are consuming. What do you think? Should Nasr have been fired? And whether the statement was taken out of context or not, should journalists clearly express their opinions and be upfront about their biases? Disclosure: Mashable has a content partnership with CNN. Reviews: Mashable, Twitter More About: cnn, editors, hezbollah, Journalist, News, octavia nasr, twitter For more Social Media coverage:
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| Double Rainbow Meme Takes Web by Storm [Randomly Viral] Posted: 08 Jul 2010 09:04 AM PDT   This past weekend, a viral video emerged from the Internet ethers — all shimmery and asking to be turned into an Internet meme: “Giant Double Rainbow,” a video featuring a full-grown man weeping over the beauty of, you guessed it, a rainbow. I first noticed this vid popping up on the Facebook walls of some of my self-proclaimed “indoor kid” friends this past weekend, but apparently it was launched into the public eye on July 3, after comedian Jimmy Kimmel tweeted about the comedic merits of the now-famous vid.  I was planning on reaching out to YouTube user Hungrybear9562 (a.k.a Paul Vasquez and the man behind the rainbow) for an interview, but it seems CBS’s Shira Lazar beat me to the punch. She conducted a rather interesting Q&A with the man himself, in which it is revealed that even though Lazar posted the vid of himself “freaking out” about the rainbow in Yosemite, California back in January, it only had a few hits until this past weekend. Now it has about 1.5 million. I could describe the video more, but I suggest watching the interview, original video and my favorite of the many remixes below. All hail the newest viral meme, which is thankfully Gaga-free. Unless Vasquez is planning an encore… The OriginalThe InterviewThe RemixReviews: Facebook, YouTube More About: facebook, humor, pop culture, twitter, viral video, youtube For more Web Video coverage:
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| Video Faceoff: YouTube vs. Hulu Posted: 08 Jul 2010 08:43 AM PDT   YouTube has been the king of online video for years, but the Google-owned video service has had its share of trials and tribulations. While YouTube is now making some revenue, its costs have eaten that away by and large. And while YouTube is still growing like wildfire, it still has a long way to go to make the jump to TV. The world’s second largest video site, Hulu, takes a different approach. Its full-length movies and TV shows are easier to monetize. Last week the site introduced Hulu Plus, a subscription service that provides access to entire seasons of popular shows, rather than just the last five episodes. A little more than a year ago, many Mashable readers voiced their belief that premium content would ultimately trump user-generated videos. We wonder how many of you still think this will be the case. That’s why this week’s Web Faceoff focuses on the two kings of online video. We want to know which video service you prefer, YouTube or Hulu. Is uploading and sharing video your thing, or does having Saturday Night Live and House at your fingertips trump that advantage? Let us know in the poll below. The ballot box closes at 12:00 p.m. PT on Monday, June 12. Once you vote, make sure to tell us what you think of the YouTube vs. Hulu debate in our comments section below. Reviews: Hulu, Mashable, YouTube More About: hulu, hulu plus, ONLINE VIDEO, video, web faceoff, youtube For more Battles coverage:
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| 10 Fascinating Facts You Didn’t Know About Apple Posted: 08 Jul 2010 08:09 AM PDT   It can be argued that no consumer electronics company has captured the public’s fascination the way Apple has. Over the years it has morphed into more than just a company or corporation, but for many it has become a representation of a lifestyle or culture, and a status symbol complete with a larger fan base than most pop stars. Here at Mashable, we’re also quite fascinated by Apple and its achievements. The company is known just as much for its veil of secrecy and ability to get the Internet buzzing with rumors, as it is for the actual products. You’re probably in on the gossip, but there are likely a few things you don’t know about Apple. So read on for the origins of product names, factoids about the Apple logo, what Wozniak sold to finance the Apple I, and more wonders dug up from the archives of Apple’s past. 1. The First Apple Logo Featured Isaac Newton Although the now-retro rainbow logo is arguably Apple’s most well known, the very first Apple logo featured Sir Isaac Newton sitting under a tree, with an apple about to hit his head. (Legend has it that he was literally hit on the head with an apple and that led to the concept of gravity.) The Newton logo was designed by the lesser-known Apple founder Ronald Wayne (the guy who sold his stake — that today would be worth $22 billion — to Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak for $800 – ouch!) and was only used briefly in 1976, since its high level of detail didn’t really show up that well when shrunk down and stuck on a product. The rainbow apple, designed by Rob Janoff, replaced Sir Isaac and remained the symbol of the company for many years until the simpler monochromatic apple logo was introduced in 1998. 2. Wozniak Sold His Scientific Calculator to Raise Capital In order to raise enough money to buy parts and build the first few orders of the Apple I, Steve Jobs sold his Volkswagen van and Wozniak, then an HP employee, sold his Hewlett-Packard 65 scientific calculator for $500. Those born after 1990 might be surprised that a mere calculator would raise any kind of capital, but back in 1976, a scientific calculator cost as much as a laptop does today, and the HP-65 was in fact marketed as “the smallest programmable computer ever.” Woz got a decent price considering it retailed for $795, and we imagine any calculator in his possession would have been more than fairly well used. We wonder if the buyer knew he was getting a piece of computing history — just imagine how much that calculator would fetch on eBay today. 3. The Apple I Cost $666.66 The high prices of Apple’s current computers have recently been among critics’ biggest complaints. But historically speaking, Apple products have always boasted a higher a price tag. In fact, when you account for inflation, back in the day, the very first Apple computer would have been more expensive than the MacBook Air or even a 17-inch MacBook Pro today. The Apple I wasn’t priced at $666.66 with any Satanic connotations, but rather for more practical reasons, as Steve Wozniak once explained at a news conference: “I was into repeating digits,” he said, and explained that the wholesale cost to stores was $500, and adding a third to get the retail price made it around $667, which Woz changed to all one repeating digit — $666.66 — “was just easier to type.” 4. Apple Invented the “Dogcow” Ever heard of “Dogcow?” Early Apple users probably have, as she — yes she — was included in the Cairo font as part of the original Macintosh. After the Cairo font was discontinued, Dogcow lived on with LaserWriter Driver 4.0 and then became a sort of mascot for the Apple tech staff. Designed by Susan Kare, Clarus — Dogcow’s given name — makes a “moof” sound and was found on all versions of the Mac operating system until OS X. In the late 1980s, she surged in popularity and started to be used by other developer groups — even Microsoft once used Dogcow in an advertisement. As you could guess, Apple was none to fond of this, and the tech staff decided to write a Technical Note to stop the misuse. Later on, Technical Note #31 was included on the first Apple Developer CDs as an Easter egg, and Apple even registered trademarks for both Clarus the Dogcow, and her “moof” sound. 5. The Name “Macintosh” Was Inspired by an Apple It’s often cited that the Apple Lisa was named after Steve Jobs’ daughter, but where did the name “Macintosh” come from? Apple employee Jef Raskin is responsible for coining the machine after his favorite variety of apple, smartly tying the whole fruit theme together. Macintosh was just a code-name, and Steve Jobs is said to have tried to change the project’s name to “Bicycle” while the McIntosh-loving staffer was out of office. But Raskin clearly knew a good name when he coined it, as Macintosh just had too much staying power and stuck right to the end of the product cycle. 6. Apple Made the First Mass-Market Color Digital Camera Back in 1994, Apple actually launched the first mass-market color digital camera in the U.S. The Apple QuickTake 100 could snap an amazing eight photographs and connected to a Mac via a serial cable. It cost $749, which is about the equivalent of $1,000 today, which seems ridiculous for a camera boasting less than one megapixel resolution and no digital display. The QuickTake line expanded to two more models before Steve Jobs shut it down in 1997 when he returned to the helm at Apple and streamlined its product line. 7. The Name “iPod” Was Inspired By 2001: A Space Odyssey Clever copywriter Vinnie Chieco is credited with coming up with the iPod name as part of a team assembled by Jobs to create a consumer-friendly moniker for the new device. The story goes that Jobs had already decided the MP3 player’s tag-line was to be “1,000 songs in your pocket,” which left naming options wide open since it wouldn’t have to explicitly refer something music related. “As soon as I saw the white iPod, I thought 2001,” Chieco told Wired in 2006. “Open the pod bay door, Hal! Then it was just a matter of adding the ‘i’ prefix, as in ‘iMac.’” Of course, Hal has another place in Apple history, in the sinister Y2K warning ad that Apple aired to advertise the fact that Macs would not implode with the whole 2000 switchover, unlike those pesky PCs people insisted on using. Oh wait… 8. The First iPod Had A Secret Easter Egg Apple’s first iPod came with a little secret — an Easter egg — in the form of a game that could be accessed if you knew the right combination of buttons to press. How to find the game is described in Nick Triano’s early 2002 Geek.com review of the iPod (memorable quote: “I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that it will change the way you listen to music”). “Go to the ‘About’ menu, hold down the center button for about three seconds, and you’ll get a Breakout (Pong) game to play while you listen.” Breakout, the hidden game itself, is notable in Apple’s history as it was a product that both Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak worked on together at Atari, where legend has it Jobs cheated Wozniak out of thousands of dollars of bonus money. 9. Who Is John Appleseed? The name John, or Johnny Appleseed comes up time and time again in Apple history, but so far there is yet to be an official explanation as to why. As many students will know, Johnny Appleseed was an 18th century American pioneer, missionary, and gardener. He was a kind-hearted folk hero with a penchant for apples, which appears to be the only tenuous connection to Apple Inc. The earliest Johnny Appleseed reference we can find relates to Apple investor and former CEO Mike Markkula — it was apparently the pen-name he used when he wrote programs for the Apple II. Then there’s the letter that could be seen when the Leopard TextEdit icon was enlarged. Yes, there is an actual letter composed on that icon, and it’s Apple’s “Think Different” campaign that ran in print and television ads in 1997: “Here's to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They're not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can't do is ignore them. Because they change things.” That letter, is addressed to “Kate” and signed “Take Care, John Appleseed.” And most notably, John Appleseed shows up in the iPhone ads and related iPhone and Mac imagery. We fully admit to being geeks, as we actually called John Appleseed’s number. Sadly, all we got on the other line was a voicemail box that hadn’t yet been set up, and when we e-mailed to appleseed_john@mac.com it came back with a “delivery to the following recipient failed permanently,” which seems like a missed marketing opportunity to us. 10. Jony Ive Sticks to the Same Shirt Too Although much is made of Steve Jobs’ uniform outfit (black St. Croix turtle neck, Levi 501 jeans, New Balance trainers) it turns out he is not the only senior Apple staffer to stick to the same styling year in and year out. Apple’s senior vice president of Industrial Design Jony Ive appears to have worn, if not the same, then the same style of t-shirt in every single Apple intro product video to date. For the last ten years, at least. Hey, we’re on the same page as Jobs and Ive on this style sheet — if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. More Apple resources from Mashable:
[Image credits: Apple advertising (main image, Apple I ad) - The MotherShip, McIntosh apple - Lars Zapf, Apple QuickTake - CNet] More About: apple, facts, history, iphone, ipod, List, Lists, Macs, steve jobs, steve wozniak, trending, woz For more Apple coverage:
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| LeBron James to Answer Questions from Twitter During ESPN Special Posted: 08 Jul 2010 07:29 AM PDT   The LeBron James Twitter saga continues! Although we now know that James won't announce "the decision" first on Twitter, he is integrating the microblogging platform -– and his massively growing following — into his ESPN special (titled The Decision), which airs tonight at 9 p.m. ET. James tweeted this morning that he will be answering questions from fans during the show; to participate, all you'll have to do is attach the hashtag #lebrondecision to your tweet. Of course, we imagine the most common question will be the rather trivial "please sign with [my team]?", but nonetheless, we think it's smart that James is using the hysteria around tonight's news to finally connect with fans using social media (predictably, however, some are taking amusement in the ever-increasing grandioseness of the James announcement). What do you want to ask James?  [img credit: keith allison] More About: lebron james, NBA, sports, the decision, twitter For more Social Media coverage:
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| Second Trailer for “The Social Network” Hits the Web [VIDEO] Posted: 08 Jul 2010 06:43 AM PDT Update: Sony appears to have replaced the new trailer with the first one. We’re expecting an update this afternoon. The first trailer for The Social Network a.k.a. “the Facebook Movie,” didn’t reveal much. Now, the second trailer is out (above), and… we know perhaps even less. The second trailer consists of fast-typed Facebook updates that paraphrase many of the same conversations in the first. While one can argue that you can get more Facebook-esque than that, we’d really like to see some actual footage from the movie. For now, we’ll remind ourselves that the movie is written by Aaron Sorkin and directed by David Fincher, which gives some serious credibility to the project, cryptic trailers aside. What do you think: Can The Social Network be a success? How do you like the second trailer for the movie? More About: Aaron Sorkin, david fincher, entertainment, facebook, movie, social network For more Entertainment coverage:
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| The Pirate Bay Hacked, User Info Exposed Posted: 08 Jul 2010 05:38 AM PDT   An Argentinian hacker named Ch Russo claims that he and two associates have found several SQL injection vulnerabilities in The Pirate Bay’s database, which granted him access to all user information, including usernames and e-mails. According to KrebsOnSecurity, who spoke with Ch Russo on the phone, the hackers did not modify the user data or give it away to a third party. They did, as they say, consider how much this info would be worth to various anti-piracy outfits such as the RIAA. "Probably these groups would be very interested in this information, but we are not [trying] to sell it. Instead we wanted to tell people that their information may not be so well protected," Ch Russo said. It seems that the vulnerability has been at least partially patched however, as Russo said the website component that gives access to The Pirate Bay’s database has been removed. Furthermore, The Pirate Bay site is currently down, sporting the following message: “Upgrading some stuff, database is in use for backups, soon back again.. Btw, it’s nice weather outside I think.” Although it’s been under the attack of the entertainment industry for years now, The Pirate Bay has somehow been able to survive to this day, even in the wake of some other major torrent trackers, such as Mininova. Security problems such as this one, however, might cause huge problems to the service if user information falls into the wrong (or right, depending on how you look at it) hands. More About: piracy, privacy, riaa, the pirate bay For more Tech coverage:
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