Mashable: Latest 19 News Updates - including “End of iPhone Exclusivity Won’t Have Negative Impact on AT&T? Yeah, Right.” |  |
- End of iPhone Exclusivity Won’t Have Negative Impact on AT&T? Yeah, Right.
- Our Favorite YouTube Videos This Week: The Dancing Edition
- Thanks to Mashable’s Socially Savvy Supporters
- Yoko Ono: Beatles Not Coming to iTunes Store Any Time Soon
- Universal and Vevo Pull Content from MTV.com
- Demand Media Files for IPO
- Twitter Users Who Rack Up the Retweets Top Most Influential List
- HP CEO Mark Hurd Resigns Over Sexual Harassment Investigation
- Facebook’s Founding President Now Working with Chatroulette [VIDEO]
- Digg Gamed by Conservative Conspiracy; How Does Digg Bury It?
- 10 Incredible iPhone Photographs
- Apple Introduces Genius for iPad
- Explore the Titanic Wreck Site via Social Media [EXCLUSIVE]
- PayPal For Android Gets a “Bump”
- 5 Terrific Twitter Mapping Tools
- It’s Official: Google Acquires Slide
- #WinWeekend Sweepstakes: Win Gorillaz Flip Video Ticket Package
- How Online Retailers Can Leverage Facebook’s Open Graph
- Apple to Buy Chinese Game Developer? [REPORT]
- Morning Brief: Zynga Acquisition, Foursquare Redesign, Apple’s New London Store
| End of iPhone Exclusivity Won’t Have Negative Impact on AT&T? Yeah, Right. Posted: 06 Aug 2010 07:23 PM PDT      AT&T’s profits rose by 26% in the last quarter to $4.01 billion. Driving that growth was 1.6 million new wireless subscribers. Guess which phone the majority of those new customers got? If you guessed the iPhone, give yourself a round of applause. The Apple-built smartphone is selling like hotcakes, and AT&T, as the exclusive carrier of the device in the U.S., is reaping the profits. That’s why we were perplex by the quarterly report AT&T filed with the SEC earlier today. In it, AT&T claims that it doesn’t expect “to have a material negative impact” from the loss of any of its exclusive agreements. Yeah, and I rode a unicorn across a double rainbow this morning. Why AT&T Believes It’ll Keep iPhone CustomersHere’s the key paragraph from AT&T’s filing with the SEC. It’s long, so I’m going to break it up into chunks. I’ve bolded what I believe are the key quotes of the paragraph:
AT&T touts its exclusive handsets as part of its competitive advantage. This is odd, because later on in the paragraph, AT&T admits that exclusivity arrangements won’t provide a competitive advantage over time — mostly because they tend to end. However, the wireless carrier makes it clear that it knows its exclusive arrangements will end, but asserts that people will stick with AT&T even, say, if the iPhone 4 were offered on the Verizon network. The company makes two arguments to support its assertion. Here’s the first:
1) Most users are on family plans, meaning that people are locked into a contract with a group. They also have minutes accumulated with AT&T that they would lose if they switched to another carrier.
2) You can’t bring your AT&T iPhone to Verizon; you’d have to buy a new one compatible with its CDMA network. AT&T’s phones operate on a GSM 3G network. It’s About Losing Potential Customers Here is the final part of the paragraph in question:
We understand AT&T’s arguments. It’s not as if a million people are going to suddenly switch to Verizon the day it gets the iPhone. Most people have family plans that would be costly to move. Plus, the prospect of buying an entirely new iPhone is unappealing, even if you sell off the old phone. However, to claim that the loss of iPhone exclusivity wouldn’t have a negative impact on income though is just wishful thinking. While the loss of current customers wouldn’t be immediate, it would lose them, slowly but surely. Verizon’s smart marketing, incentives to switch and more reliable 3G network would attract customers as their AT&T contracts expired. AT&T’s exclusive arrangement to carry the Blackbery Torch won’t come close to making up for the loss. That’s not where it would really hurt AT&T, though. It’s about losing out on new customers. If AT&T stays as the exclusive carrier of the iPhone for a few more years, you can bet that millions of Verizon, T-Mobile and Sprint customers would eventually cave and switch to the iPhone. If, on the other hand, Verizon got the device next year, the incentive to switch to AT&T would go up in a puff of smoke. The number of new wireless subscribers would drop like an iPad thrown out of an airplane. We’ll give AT&T some credit: for the massive amount of mobile data growth AT&T has had to endure since the launch of the iPhone, the company’s network has, for the most part, not completely collapsed. But all of its efforts to upgrade its network won’t be enough when V-Day comes. The V stands for Verizon. Reviews: iPhone More About: apple, att, iphone, iphone 4, trending, verizon, Wireless For more Mobile coverage:
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| Our Favorite YouTube Videos This Week: The Dancing Edition Posted: 06 Aug 2010 05:37 PM PDT   Yes, I know that at present your face is likely stuck to your keyboard, but weekend is bass-booming right around the corner, and I don’t know about you, but for me that means only one thing: Dancing! It’s also the theme of this week’s YouTube roundup. Doesn’t matter if you shake it, work it, roll it, or twirk it (whatever the hell that is), there’s really no excuse to avoid busting a move this weekend — unless you’re absolutely abject at dancing, in which case, please spare us all. Check out the below collection of vids, which features more than a few adorable children and two — count ‘em two — renditions of “Single Ladies.” Never fear, we added in some metal for those of you who aren’t down with Beyonce — or children. Happy weekend! PARTY IN THE UGA - University of Georgia Orientation 2010Christina Warren: And this is why I refused to go to UGA. Little Girls Working It To "Single Ladies"Lauren Indvik: Obvious inappropriateness aside, these girls are incredible dancers. Weird Rave DancingJay Irani: I don't know if this guy's really dancing or just trying to stay upright after popping one too many muscle relaxers. Toddler AMAZING Choreographed Hip Hop Dance Moves - One Republic, "Apologize"Amy-Mae Elliott: This cute little kid is an outrageously talented dancer and busts some incredible moves. Can you imagine how good he's going to be when he grows up? Joe Grimes Hokey PokeyErica Swallow: The best version of the hokey pokey I've ever witnessed. Baby Dancing to BeyonceJenn Van Grove: Baby Dancing to Beyonce was an instant classic. We can rest assured that baby Cory will grow up and be more likely to "put a ring on it." :) Darth Vader - "Thriller" StyleBen Parr: What, you didn't think Darth Vader could pull off the Moonwalk? Trust your instincts, my young Padawan. Tween CEO Driven to SuccessStefanie Rennert: A young entrepreneur in Detroit teaches kids dance lessons out of her pink school bus mobile studio. Very creative! "Heavy Metal Parking Lot" (1986)Brenna Ehrlich: I heart this movie so much. I have never it seen it with sound, as I have only viewed it during "Heavy Metal Karaoke" night at a local watering hole. They play it on loop. So much acid-washed denim. image courtesy of iStockphoto, AYakovlev Reviews: beyonce, iStockphoto More About: Film, humor, music, pop culture, youtube For more Web Video coverage:
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| Thanks to Mashable’s Socially Savvy Supporters Posted: 06 Aug 2010 05:30 PM PDT
Advertise with us and get noticed.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 per 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: IDG, Yield Software, Clickatell, Microsoft BizSpark, MailChimp, MaxCDN and Eventbrite.  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.  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.  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.  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.  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:
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, Mashable, iStockphoto, social media
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| Yoko Ono: Beatles Not Coming to iTunes Store Any Time Soon Posted: 06 Aug 2010 03:56 PM PDT   Yesterday, Yoko Ono, the widow of John Lennon and part owner of the Beatles music catalogue, revealed that there’s been no progress in negotiations with Apple when it comes to getting the band’s music in the iTunes store. Her statements quiet ongoing rumblings about the matter. “Steve Jobs has his own idea and he’s a brilliant guy … There’s just an element that we’re not very happy about, as people. We are holding out,” Ono said in an interview with Reuters. Ono holds an equal share in Apple Corps — not to be confused with Apple Inc — the company that owns the rights to the Beatles catalogue. The other share holders are band members Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, and the widow of George Harrison, Olivia Harrison. Together the four have different ideas as to how the collection should be managed. For now, when it comes to the Beatles on iTunes, Oko instructs, “Don’t hold your breath … for anything.” [img credit: visionet] More About: Beatles, music, yoko ono For more Entertainment coverage:
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| Universal and Vevo Pull Content from MTV.com Posted: 06 Aug 2010 03:26 PM PDT   Fans of Lady Gaga will no longer be able to view her videos on MTV.com, now that MTV and UMG (Gaga’s record label) have failed to come to an agreement over licensing. The tempest in this teapot seems to be Vevo, the joint-venture between UMG, Sony Music and YouTube. Licensing discussions had previously been handled directly by UMG but are now under Vevo’s domain. When an agreement couldn’t be reached, UMG responded by pulling its content. Although this decision affects all MTV Networks websites — including those for VH1 and CMT — the cable channels themselves are not affected. The big fear, as Hypebot and others note, is that now that UMG has pulled its content, Sony Music and EMI may follow suit. In a statement to Billboard, MTV said:
Meanwhile, UMG’s statement on the matter is:
It should be noted that MTV is a division of Viacom, which was famously embroiled in a lawsuit with YouTube. Of course, this detail — and the fact that Vevo itself is a competitor to MTV.com’s online video library — should have no impact on MTV and Vevo’s negotiations. Both parties would benefit from coming to an understanding. We’ll keep following this story as it develops. Reviews: YouTube More About: mtv, music business, music licensings, music videos, vevo For more Entertainment coverage:
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| Posted: 06 Aug 2010 02:43 PM PDT   Content farm Demand Media has filed to become a publicly traded company with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. The IPO filing was originally anticipated back in April when reports surfaced that Demand Media had enlisted Goldman Sachs to help them with the undertaking. The news was first reported by AllThingsD, which noted that the filing lacks specifics on how much Demand Media intends to raise in the process or the estimated share price upon public offering. A look at the filing also shows that the private company is not yet profitable, instead generating most of its revenue through ad sales and domain name registrations. The company projects that online advertising will grow to $31 billion in 2012, and hopes to use its four-tier solution — content, social media, monetization and distribution — to capitalize on the space. On the financial side of things, here’s what the filing discloses: “For the year ended December 31, 2009 and the six months ended June 30, 2010, we reported revenue of $198 million and $114 million, respectively. For these same periods, we reported net losses of $22 million and $6 million, respectively, operating loss of $18 million and $4 million, respectively, and adjusted operating income before depreciation and amortization, or Adjusted OIBDA, of $37 million and $26 million, respectively.” Demand Media’s IPO filing follows Yahoo’s recent acquisition of Associated Content, another content farm that relies heavily on high placement in search engine rankings. More About: content farms, Demand Media, ipo For more Business coverage:
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| Twitter Users Who Rack Up the Retweets Top Most Influential List Posted: 06 Aug 2010 02:09 PM PDT   Got a lot of Twitter followers? So what? Unless they’re listening to what you’re saying and actually passing it on, you’re likely not all that influential, according to a new study by HP Labs. According to the study, “The correlation between popularity and influence is weaker than it might be expected. This is a reflection of the fact that for information to propagate in a network, individuals need to forward it to the other members, thus having to actively engage rather than passively read it and cease to act on it." Dr. Bernardo A. Huberman, the director of Hewlett-Packard Labs' Social Computing Lab, and his team analyzed 22 million tweets over 300 hours in September 2009 in order to concoct what he calls the IP Algorithm, which highlights influential Twitter users by assigning them both a score for influence and passivity. Passivity is the tendency of many followers to passively peruse tweets without sharing them (i.e. retweeting them) with their network. According to the study, the average Twitter user retweets only one in 318 URLs. Those Twitter users who are truly influential are able to break through this blase shell and impel their followers to share their tweets with the rest of the Twit-o-sphere. Check out the most influential Twitterers below (Mashable got a mention), as well as the most popular, yet not-so-influential users.   The study appears to only measure retweeted links, though, which adds an interesting element to the results. Naturally Mashable would reign supreme over other Twitterers, as the majority of what we tweet is links. As we know, there’s more to influence than sharing links — engagement comes in all forms (at-replys, retweeting sentiments, etc). Are you surprised by these results? There are a ton of tools out there that can help you gauge your own influence — Klout works pretty well by classifying what kind of Twitter user you are. How do you think you measure up? Check out the full study below if you’re keen to know more. Influence and Passivity in Social Media – HP Labs Research image courtesy of iStockphoto, adventtr Reviews: Mashable, Twitter, iStockphoto More About: influence, social media, twitter For more Social Media coverage:
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| HP CEO Mark Hurd Resigns Over Sexual Harassment Investigation Posted: 06 Aug 2010 01:23 PM PDT   HP has announced that Mark Hurd, the company’s CEO, President and Chairman, is resigning all of his positions with the company, effective immediately, following an investigation into a sexual harassment claim between Hurd and a former HP contractor. Cathie Lesjak, the company’s CFO, will be replacing Hurd as CEO on an interim basis, though she will retain her duties as CFO during the search for a new chief executive officer. The company has created a search committee to select a new Board Chair and CEO, one that includes Netscape founder and venture capitalist Marc Andreessen. Lesjak has taken herself out of consideration for the permanent CEO role. “Hurd's decision was made following an investigation by outside legal counsel and the General Counsel's Office, overseen by the Board, of the facts and circumstances surrounding a claim of sexual harassment against Hurd and HP by a former contractor to HP,” the company said in a statement today. “The investigation determined there was no violation of HP's sexual harassment policy, but did find violations of HP's Standards of Business Conduct.” Hurd took over as interim CEO on February 10, 2005 before becoming the company’s permanent CEO, succeeding Carly Fiorina. “As the investigation progressed, I realized there were instances in which I did not live up to the standards and principles of trust, respect and integrity that I have espoused at HP and which have guided me throughout my career,” Hurd stated in the company’s announcement. More About: Hewlett-Packard, HP, Sexual Harassment, trending For more Business coverage:
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| Facebook’s Founding President Now Working with Chatroulette [VIDEO] Posted: 06 Aug 2010 01:08 PM PDT   If you were ready to write off Chatroulette as just a passing Internet fad, don’t. Sean Parker, the man who founded Napster and helped shape Facebook’s early years as founding president, has revealed that he is now working with Chatroulette and sees long-term potential for the service. The news was revealed earlier today at the Techonomy conference during a session on what follows social media, which was moderated by David Kirkpatrick. Although Parker did not disclose the exact nature of his relationship with the random live video chat site, he was essentially cornered by Kirkpatrick into publicly admitting his involvement. Parker initially began by explaining that Chatroulette interests him because of its ability to randomly connect users through live video. “Nobody has nailed live video,” said Parker. Parker continued by hinting that Chatroulette’s future will focus on algorithmically directing more traffic to the people that are the most interesting in order to eliminate the penis problem. “One way of defining ‘more interesting’ is simply [identifying] who doesn’t get ‘nexted’,” explains Parker. Session attendee David Spark uploaded video of the conversation to YouTube and you can watch the exchange below. Does Parker’s involvement foretell a successful future for Chatroulette? Share your thoughts in the comments. Image courtesy of iStockphoto, Irochka_T Reviews: YouTube, iStockphoto More About: chatroulette, facebook, sean parker For more Business coverage:
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| Digg Gamed by Conservative Conspiracy; How Does Digg Bury It? Posted: 06 Aug 2010 12:19 PM PDT   A massive conspiracy to censor left-leaning political stories on Digg has been uncovered, in which tens of thousands of stories were “buried” by a right-wing group calling itself the “Digg Patriots.” Did you require any more proof that Digg needs to roll out the new version of Digg ASAP? The alleged conspiracy (we have yet to confirm) was revealed by Alternet’s Ole Ole Olson, and it’s a doozy of a story. Olson went undercover and infiltrated the Digg Patriots in order to learn about their plan to censor stories that weren’t flattering to the right while promoting stories hammering the left. Digg is one of the world’s most popular websites and a kingpin of social news, even if its traffic has been on the decline for the last year. Users vote on stories via the “Digg” or “Bury” buttons. Enough Diggs can send a story to the front page, garnering a massive wave of traffic for that story. Buried stories never see the light of day though, and that’s what the Digg Patriots were counting on. The conservative-leaning group utilized a Yahoo Group and a service called coRanks to tell its nearly 100 members to Digg or Bury certain stories multiple times per day. It was founded in May of last year, meaning that this group has been operating for more than a year. The accused ringleader is Bettverboten, a still-active Digg power user with more than 1,500 submissions and 73,000 Diggs. The result seems to be the removal of thousands of stories from the annals of Digg. According to Olsen, “this censorship is not restricted to political articles either. Articles about education, homophobia, racism, science, the environment, economics, wealth disparity, world events, the media, green energy, and anything even slightly critical of the GOP/Tea Party/FoxNews/corporations are targets.” They also targeted specific users they deemed left-leaning. We have to admit, the Digg Patriots knew what the hell they were doing.  A Black Eye That Will Soon Be FixedThe revelation of the Digg Patriots censorship conspiracy is a major black eye for the social media giant Kevin Rose built. It undermines the fundamental credibility of Digg itself. If 100 users can single-handedly tilt one of the world’s top websites to the right by controlling thousands of stories, how can you really rely on Digg as a valid source for the web’s top news stories? For what it’s worth, Kevin Rose tweeted that the company is “looking into this,” as it should be. There’s not much the team can do about what’s already happened, though; those stories are forever buried. Banning the users involved in the Digg Patriots helps, but it doesn’t solve the fundamental issue: that Digg is easily gamed. However, the fix for that problem is almost here: Digg v4, a.k.a. the New Digg. Its launch is impending, and it couldn’t come any sooner. The revamped version of the social news website includes two big changes that should mute much of the gaming that goes on in the current version: the elimination of the “Bury” button and an emphasis on personalization that neuters the impact of hitting the front page. Because of the impending changes, Digg will get past this episode without too much damage. It really needs to the clean the slate if it’s to make a recovery. Traffic is still going in the wrong direction. Reviews: Digg More About: Bury, digg, Digg Patriots, kevin rose, New Digg For more Social Media coverage:
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| 10 Incredible iPhone Photographs Posted: 06 Aug 2010 12:03 PM PDT   You don’t need a fancy-pants DSLR, a gazillion megapixels and a lens as long as your arm to take great pictures, as this stunning set of iPhone photographs proves. We’ve collected ten amazing snaps by iPhotographers from around the world — both pro and amateur — to bring you a gallery of gorgeousness. Take a look below at ten terrific landscapes, beachscapes and cityscapes captured on the iPhone — and edited with various iPhone apps — and let us know which pics caught your eye in the comments.
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| Apple Introduces Genius for iPad Posted: 06 Aug 2010 11:42 AM PDT   Apple has enhanced the iPad App Store with a Genius section that provides two new ways to discover iPad apps. While there’s yet to be an official announcement, the Genius option started appearing for iPad users late last night according to MacRumors. Apple has also confirmed with Mashable that the feature is new for iPad. The new “Genius” option is situated next to “Updates” at the bottom of the store. Users who click it for the first time will need to agree to its terms of service before activating the feature. Just as is the case with iTunes music and iPhone apps, Genius is designed to serve up user-tailored recommendations. iPad App Store visitors can visit the “iPad Apps” section to review a list of recommended apps based on previous purchases. Users can hit the “Not Interested” button below each app suggestion to clear it out in favor of something else. The Genius portion of the Store also includes “iPad Upgrades,” a section that will list the iPad versions of your iPhone apps. Genius is a small but important addition to the iPad App Store designed to ensure that users uncover apps relevant to their personal tastes, and ultimately download and purchase more apps. Reviews: App Store, Apps, Mashable More About: apple, Apple iPad, apple itunes, genius, ipad For more Apple coverage:
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| Explore the Titanic Wreck Site via Social Media [EXCLUSIVE] Posted: 06 Aug 2010 11:15 AM PDT   A team of archaeologists, scientists and oceanographers will soon be revisiting the wreck of the Titanic for further scientific discovery and documentation. The entire process will be shared in near real-time with the world via social media. The mission, Expedition Titanic, is meant to not only preserve the iconic ship — disintegrating two and half miles beneath the sea — but also to expose the wreck site to the public for the first time. It’s a scientific undertaking like no other, but one with a very modern twist that relies heavily on social media to share the mission with the world. The video below briefly introduces the mission behind the expedition. The Mission: Virtually Raise the Titanic The digital journey is the result of a partnership between RMS Titanic, Inc, a wholly owned subsidiary of Premier Exhibitions, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and the Waitt Institute. The expert dive doesn’t officially kick off until August 22, but the site is live and should help build anticipation for the upcoming deep sea trek. The Expedition Titanic launched late last night, and those curious about the research initiative can already use the interactive flash-based site to virtually dive down to the ocean floor and explore the ship’s remains for themselves. At its core, Expedition Titanic is designed to give those at home a lens through which to see what the experts are seeing. After taking the 3D-animated journey down to the wreck site, visitors can explore the wreck site map, check out video and images that will be shared from the dive in near real time, and control a close-up 360 degree view of the equipment used for mapping the Titanic’s final resting place. There’s also informational tidbits scattered throughout the site, messages from team members and eventually a 3D model of the ship. Chris Greco, vice president of digital at Premier Exhibitions, explains that Expedition Titanic aims to “capture the entire wreck site,” something that has never been done before. “We hope to create a site survey and archaeological map, which will help us create an archeological plan, and that would let us treat the Titanic the way you would the Pyramids or any of the wonders of the world,” he says. Preservation Through Social Media The technology being used to digitally preserve the ship’s remains is a mix of sonar and high-resolution optical video, 3DHD film and acoustic modeling. All this will be used to create a “rich photographic profile to virtually raise the Titanic for all to see and share,” according to Greco. Once the expedition is underway, the team will rely heavily on Facebook and Twitter to update followers on their progress. Greco explains, “Twitter will offer a play-by-play, and Facebook will give a richer experience of the trip.” The team also plans to leverage Flickr and YouTube for sharing the photos and videos captured. The Expedition Titanic site will also pull in relevant social media content to enrich and complete the site experience. As a whole, Expedition Titanic is one that can best be described as fascinating. The vision behind the dive and the site has enormous potential. “Titanic is a story that has touched everyone and we want to connect people to the story in a way that helps to share the emotional connection and passion that we have for Titanic,” Greco says. Reviews: Facebook, Flickr, Twitter, YouTube More About: expedition titanic, social media, titanic, trending For more Social Media coverage:
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| PayPal For Android Gets a “Bump” Posted: 06 Aug 2010 10:58 AM PDT   PayPal has just released version 2.0 of its Android app, adding new features like the ability to use bump technology to quickly and easily transfer funds between devices. As PayPal notes in its blog entry announcing the new app, this feature has been part of the iPhone PayPal Mobile app since earlier this year. It’s a great addition that makes it easy to pay for group dinners or events. The split the check feature — also a port from the iPhone app — makes dividing a bill and collecting funds super simple.  PayPal notes the explosive growth it has seen on the mobile front. In the last six months alone, PayPal says it has generated nearly twice the mobile payment volume than it did in all of 2009. When PayPal 2.0 was released for the iPhone this spring, more than 1 million users downloaded the app in the first three weeks. I’ve spoken with Osama Bedier, VP of product development at PayPal, several times this year about the company’s strategy for the future. It’s clear that mobile is a big part of that strategy. The company expects to close 2010 with more than half a billion dollars in mobile payments, and that’s a figure the company expects to see rise in the future. As consumers become more comfortable with the idea of microtransactions and paying with their cellphones (a concept that Europe and parts of Africa have been embracing for years), PayPal’s goal has been to make it easy to work across those systems. On that front, PayPal X has held a series of developer challenges and has pushed out its iPhone SDK, with SDKs for other mobile platforms also in the works. The PayPal Mobile Android app is available in the Android Market and is free. Reviews: Android, Android Market More About: android, Android apps, micropayments, paypal, paypal mobile For more Mobile coverage:
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| 5 Terrific Twitter Mapping Tools Posted: 06 Aug 2010 10:40 AM PDT   Twitter is undeniably useful as a standalone service, but it becomes so much more fun when you start factoring in all the cool tools and awesome apps available. We’ve previously brought you various Twitter visualization services, but now we’re taking a look at mapping tools that work with the microblogging site. Whether you want to see where you’ve tweeted from in the past, what others around you are saying, or get a global overview of a hashtag, read on for some fun tools that can help. 1. TrendsMap This service offers real-time mapping of Twitter trends across the world. They are displayed as hashtags, @mentions or keywords superimposed over a world map. You can click on any word to see a real-time stream of relevant tweets to, in the words of the site, “see what the global, collective mass of humanity are discussing right now.” This is a really nice visual version of looking at Twitter’s trending topics but if you want to go into more detail, you can select to view trends from various cities, or focus in on a trending topic to see where in the world it’s being mentioned. 2. Tweography The fantastically-named Tweography has an interesting function — it maps where your tweets have been sent from. If you have a geo-location-enabled Twitter account, you can sign in to see your tweets plotted on a map, which will probably be more interesting for jet-setters than anyone who stays within a few miles of home. If you’re signed into the service, you can do the same for other Twitter users’ recent tweets to see where they’ve been of late. 3. TwitterMap.tv Similar to the excellent TwitterVision site, TwitterMap.tv gives you a real-time global view of tweets across the world. However, if you’d prefer to see region-specific tweets, you can head to TwitterMap.us for America or TwitterMap.eu for Europe. All its sites work the same way. To use the service on its most basic setting, just hit “play” to see random tweets pop up across the map. There are also more advanced options. If you search via keyword, you can see all its related tweets play out automatically across the region map, or even narrow it down to a city. You can also search for a Twitter name to see all its mentions. The service provides a nice level of detail — as tweets pop up, you can see the profile pic of the tweeter as well as basic info about him or her, such as location and follower/following counts. 4. Stweet
This experimental service mashes up Twitter with Google Street View, providing a location-based look at neighborhood tweets. You can look at certain cities across the globe from the drop-down menu or enter a location into the search bar. Then just sit back and wait as the page reloads with tweets and Street Views (the satellite view pop up when street views are unavailable). It’s not a full-fledged offering just yet, but it’s worth a glance next time you’ve got a few spare minutes to explore. 5. MMMeeja’s Twitter Google Map Ever wonder what your Twitter contacts look like mapped out? MMMeeja’s Google Maps mashup will show you the people you follow on Twitter (if they have supplied their locations) as points on a map. You can zoom in and hover over the pins to see who is where, which is quite fascinating if you haven’t thought of a particular person tweeting from a geographical context. The service is available as an embed, so you can add it to a blog, site, etc., to share with others. BONUS: Bing Local Twitter Trends Map And of course, don’t forget to check out Mashable’s Twitter Trends Map, powered by Bing, that helps you discover the top 10 most tweeted terms in major cities — both in the U.S. and internationally. More Twitter Resources from Mashable:
Image courtesy of iStockphoto, mattjeacock Reviews: Bing, Google, Tweography, Twitter, iStockphoto More About: bing, geotagging, Google Maps, List, Lists, location-based, stweet, Trendsmap, tweography, twitter, twitter tools For more Social Media coverage:
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| It’s Official: Google Acquires Slide Posted: 06 Aug 2010 09:56 AM PDT   Google has officially acquired Slide, the social application company founded by PayPal co-founder Max Levchin, in an effort to “make Google services socially aware.” The news of the acquisition surfaced earlier this week, so the announcement comes as no surprise. According to TechCrunch, the sale price was $182 million with an agreement to pay an additional $46 million in employee retention bonuses. While a decent exit by most standards, it’s a far cry from its massive $500 million valuation in 2008. In its announcement, Google says that it is “working to develop open, transparent and interesting (and fun!) ways to allow our users to take full advantage of how technology can bring them closer to friends and family and provide useful information just for them.” In other words, Google’s getting very serious about social. While the company didn’t reveal any major product plans, the acquisition is very likely related to its rumored Google Me social network and its $100-$200 million investment in Zynga, the creators of FarmVille. For his part, Max Levchin echoes the same sentiments. “Google is committed to building new, open and better ways for users to connect with others,” he said in an open letter. “At Slide, we have been focused on building online communities that foster self-expression, creativity and engagement across multiple platforms. Given our shared vision and values, this is a tremendous opportunity for the two companies to come together to change the way people socialize on the web.” Can Slide’s technology and team turn Google into a social powerhouse? We’ll have to wait and see, but it’s clear that Facebook is rapidly gaining ground and Google doesn’t have a lot of time to figure out the social web. Reviews: Facebook, Google More About: facebook, Google, Google Me, slide, Zynga For more Business coverage:
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| #WinWeekend Sweepstakes: Win Gorillaz Flip Video Ticket Package Posted: 06 Aug 2010 09:25 AM PDT
For this week’s #WinWeekend Sweepstakes in partnership with Live Nation, we’re giving away three prizes, plus one grand Gorillaz prize package:
How To Enter the Sweepstakes
#WinWeekend will begin weekly at 12:00 p.m. ET on Fridays and end Sunday at 11:59 p.m. ET. At the end of the promotion period each week, a random drawing will be conducted from among all eligible entries received to select the weekly prizes. A winner will be selected for each of the prizes listed. At this time, the contest is limited to U.S. residents only. However, we are working on making this contest available to international participants. As we move forward, the more people that participate in the sweepstakes, the bigger and better the prizes will get. Thanks to Our Partner LiveNation.com
Reviews: Facebook, Twitter More About: concert tickets, giveaway, gorillaz, sweepstakes, winweekend For more Entertainment coverage:
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| How Online Retailers Can Leverage Facebook’s Open Graph Posted: 06 Aug 2010 08:07 AM PDT   Formerly a Principal Engineer at Amazon, Darren Vengroff is Chief Scientist at RichRelevance where he helps retailers like Overstock and Sears create a more personal shopping experience for consumers. You can read more from Darren on the RichRelevance blog. Amazon and Facebook are making headlines with the launch of a new application that allows shoppers to receive product recommendations based on Facebook preferences. Once users enable this app, Amazon is able to monitor their activity on Facebook, including what pages they like, and use that information to recommend products they may be interested in purchasing. Combining accounts with an application like this, whether specific to Amazon or other merchants, has the potential to be a compelling hybrid of social networking and shopping that creates value for shoppers and merchants. While Amazon's move made headlines because of their market position, the fact is that any merchant can build an app to allow Facebook users to share their interests. Collecting this data is the easy part. Leveraging it appropriately is where the real challenge lies. Ultimately, the success of the recommendations driven by these apps will be predicated on how relevance is extracted — particularly from the social graph — and how recommendations are presented to shoppers. If You “Like” It, You Might Want to Buy It Once data has been collected via the Facebook app, the first thing a merchant's recommendation system has to do is identify the relationship between a page that someone has “Liked” and one or more products. This can either be done purely via behavior, or via some combination of behavior and page and product attributes. For example, in analyzing the likes and purchase patterns of shoppers, we might find that people who like the Facebook page of restaurateur Danny Meyer had a propensity to purchase his book Setting the Table. As a result, the system can now identify a relationship between the page ID of Danny Meyer's Facebook page and the ISBN of his book on the merchant's site. This seemingly small piece of information is invaluable. Not only does it suggest there is some value in recommending the book to people who have “Liked” the page, it has implications for our ability to construct future recommendations. In this case, because the Facebook page is specifically about Danny Meyer, who also happens to be the author of the purchased book, we now have strong evidence that when he publishes another book, a great marketing tactic upon release would be to recommend it to fans of his Facebook Page. Tracking a purchase against a “Liked” page is just one type of relationship that can be identified. Similarly, other product attributes like stars (for films), age range (for toys), or brand (for apparel or consumer electronics) can help guide the system from a “Liked” page to related products. When carefully managed, combinations of these types of product attributes, along with raw user behavior, are likely to generate the best recommendations. “Liking” Doesn’t Always Lead to Buying The second key part of a successful recommendation system built on top of a social network like Facebook is a keen understanding of the way in which certain shopping behaviors — from searching, to browsing items, to adding them to a cart — are correlated with becoming a fan or “Liking” a particular page. I hinted at this above with the example of looking at the purchase behavior of people who liked Danny Meyer's Facebook page. Recommendation systems are commonly built to understand the relationship between a previous purchase and a likely purchase, or browsing and purchasing. The dynamics of “Liking” a Facebook page are quite a bit different, and less costly, than purchases. While for some pages, "Likes" indicate purchase propensity, there are many other pages for which "Likes" tend not to indicate purchase propensity. For example, a "Like" can be purely aspirational, as in the case of a teenager who "Likes" the Facebook Page for the Porsche 911. Attempting to sell him a custom made cover for a 911 is probably not a great idea. Recommending a Porsche Logo T-Shirt, on the other hand, might be more relevant. The reality is that the implications of a "Like" are widely varied, even if we've identified the specific product associated with the Facebook page and have a fair bit of additional metadata — car make and model, in the case of the sports car example. Spanning the Social Network If we move from Pages and individual "Likes" to Pages his or her friends "Like," things can get even more complicated. A twenty-something female Facebook user might have hundreds of friends who have "Liked" hundreds of films between them. But, if she were really looking for advice on a film to purchase, she would probably most heavily trust only a few close friends. She might be close to her mother and boyfriend and yet have no interest in films they like, even though she might be interested in their feedback on other products ranging from shoes to microwave ovens to sunscreen. So in addition to seeing how likes of a group of friends affect shopping behavior, we have to be very careful and take into account the different kinds of influence various individuals have. Bringing it All TogetherAll of the recommendation opportunities and all of the associated challenges outlined above are available to any merchant who chooses to build a Facebook app and encourages their customers to use it. As with recommendations based solely on shopping behavior, merchants can and should present a multiplicity of different recommendation strategies to the shopper based on both their shopping and their social network behavior. Ideally, this should happen both when shoppers are browsing a merchant's website and when they are using the merchant's app on Facebook. The final piece of the puzzle is then a real-time optimization system that monitors how various recommendation strategies are performing in different contexts — whether on a merchant's site, or in various locations on Facebook — and chooses the most relevant content for each and every shopper at every moment of their experience. More Business Resources From Mashable:
Image courtesy of iStockphoto, alwyncooper Reviews: Amazon.com, Facebook, iStockphoto, pages More About: amazon, apps, business, customers, data, facebook, facebook apps, facebook open graph, like, Open Graph, recommendation, Recommendations, relevant, small business For more Business coverage:
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| Apple to Buy Chinese Game Developer? [REPORT] Posted: 06 Aug 2010 07:04 AM PDT   According to various reports, Apple is in talks to buy Chinese game developer Handseeing Information Technology Co., a company that develops rich Internet applications for mobile multiplayer games. The company helped update the backend and user-facing features for the Tianya Online social network. The GlobalTimes prices the rumored acquisition at $1 billion yuan, or $148 millions USD; the company’s VP of Operations tells Reuters a deal could be finalized in the next 1-2 months. If it comes to fruition, this would be one of Apple’s first major non-manufacturing investments in China. However, as Mac Rumors notes, what Apple stands to gain from the acquisition is not very clear. Handseeing worked with Sun Microsystems on the Tianya Online project (see a PDF overview of the partnership) and built out its tools in Java. However, Apple’s iOS, unlike the mobile phones predominately used in China, does not support Java (unless you jailbreak your device). Of course, this doesn’t mean that Handseeing doesn’t have some products or tools that are really well-suited for a large-scale, international mobile gaming network, a la Game Center. More than just games, the social networking aspects that Handseeing built into Tianya may factor into some of Apple’s patents for device-side social networks like iGroups and iTickets. We’ve reached out to Apple for comment on this story but have not received a response. We’ll update this post as more details become available. More About: apple, business acquisitions, china, handseeing, social game networks For more Business coverage:
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| Morning Brief: Zynga Acquisition, Foursquare Redesign, Apple’s New London Store Posted: 06 Aug 2010 06:01 AM PDT This series is brought to you by HTC EVO 4G, America’s first 4G phone. Only from Sprint. The “First to Know” series keeps you in the know on what’s happening now in the world of social media and technology.   Welcome to this morning's edition of "First To Know," a series in which we keep you in the know on what's happening in the digital world. We're keeping our eyes on three particular stories of interest today. Zynga Acquires Social Game Developer Unoh FarmVille maker Zynga has acquired Tokyo-based startup Unoh, the company revealed in a statement on Thursday. The startup has been rebranded “Zynga Japan” and will help bring Zynga’s existing games to the Japanese market, as well as maintain its existing lineup and create new games. Foursquare Rolls Out New Profile Page Design Location-based social network Foursquare has rolled out a minor update to users’ profile pages. The changes appear mainly cosmetic, but also draws attention to Foursquare’s less popular features than the checkin, including Tips, To-Dos and Total Things Done. Queue Forming in Front of Apple’s New London Store Although it doesn’t open until tomorrow morning, fans have already begun lining up in front of Apple’s new flagship store at 1 The Piazza, Covent Garden in London. The first 4,000 visitors to the Store will receive a free T-shirt when the doors open on August 7. American student Rose Williams, who arrived at 10 a.m. this morning, is the first in line [via The Evening Standard] Further News
Series supported by HTC EVO 4G This series is brought to you by HTC EVO 4G, America’s first 4G phone. Only from Sprint. The “First to Know” series keeps you in the know on what’s happening now in the world of social media and technology. Reviews: App Store, Foursquare, Internet More About: apple, Apple Store, first to know series, foursquare, london, unoh, Zynga For more Social Media coverage:
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