Mashable: Latest 23 News Updates - including “iLoveHandles Turns the iWatch Dream into Reality” |  |
- iLoveHandles Turns the iWatch Dream into Reality
- Adobe Responds to Apple’s New Rules
- Nokia Hires a New CEO from Microsoft
- Nikon Adds Three Digital Cameras to Coolpix Lineup
- Facebook Places Propels SCVNGR to 100,000 Downloads in 48 Hours
- Seesmic Desktop 2 Launches: 40+ Plugins for Anything You Could Want
- Prezi Meeting Brings Collaboration to Web-based Presentations
- The New York Times Is Preparing Social News Service Dubbed News.me
- Facebook’s Like Button One Step Closer to Killing the Share Button
- Google Instant Search Feeds our Real-time Addiction
- What Apple’s Guideline Changes Mean for Developers
- Evernote Site Memory Buttons Help Users Save Web Content
- Twitter Launches Sponsored Microsite for Tracking New York Fashion Week
- Why Your Business Needs a Mobile Commerce Strategy Now
- Dissecting the New Vogue.com: How One Magazine Did the Web Right
- Google Voice App Adds Home Screen Widgets for Easy Access to Messages
- HOW TO: Eliminate Spam from Search
- 10 Emerging Social Platforms and How Businesses Can Use Them
- Say “F**ck You” to Cancer via Facebook or Twitter with New Campaign
- How Graphic.ly Plans to Transform the Comic Book Business
- Stop Leaving Boneheaded Comments on Your Friends’ Walls
- 10 Killer Google Chrome Tips, Tricks and Shortcuts
- Morning Brief: iOS 4.1 Jailbreak, T-Mobile’s Next Android Phone, Max Mara’s iPad App
- Apple Finally Shares App Store Review Guidelines
| iLoveHandles Turns the iWatch Dream into Reality Posted: 10 Sep 2010 03:59 AM PDT      When you see the new iPod nano and its beautiful, tiny touchscreen, one of the first things that come to mind is: hey, I could turn this into an iWatch! We’ve seen it done in do-it-yourself fashion, but now a company called iLoveHandles has started selling Rock Band, a leather strap that turns your iPod nano into a wristwatch. The strap has a special notch to accommodate the iPod nano's built-in clip; we can’t vouch for how comfortable it is, but the strap really makes the iPod nano look like a watch. The Rock Band strap costs $19.95 – a small price to pay if your lifelong dream is to carry an Apple product on your wrist.
[via Engadget] More About: apple, ipod nano, iwatch For more Apple coverage:
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| Adobe Responds to Apple’s New Rules Posted: 10 Sep 2010 12:35 AM PDT   Yesterday, seemingly out of the blue, Apple issued a statement saying it will ease up restrictions for development tools used to create iOS party apps. Now, Adobe has reacted with a statement of its own, calling Apple’s decision “great news for developers”. Go here for a detailed explanation of what Apple’s new rules and guidelines mean for developers. Here’s a short history: back in April Apple had banned developers from using Flash to build iOS applications, after which Adobe said it would no longer invest in the Flash CS5 feature that lets developers create Flash apps for the iOS platform. Now, after Apple has taken a step back and lifted most of the restrictions, Adobe will continue to develop this feature. From Adobe’s statement: “Apple's announcement today that it has lifted restrictions on its third-party developer guidelines has direct implications for Adobe's Packager for iPhone, a feature in the Flash Professional CS5 authoring tool. This feature was created to enable Flash developers to quickly and easily deliver applications for iOS devices. The feature is available for developers to use today in Flash Professional CS5, and we will now resume development work on this feature for future releases.” Of course, if all this hubbub made you hopeful about seeing Flash inside a browser on an iOS device, it’s not happening, at least not in the foreseeable future. Adobe points out that “Apple's restriction on Flash content running in the browser on iOS devices remains in place.” So, it’s good news for developers, who can once again safely use Flash to create iPhone apps, knowing they have support from Adobe and that their apps won’t get banned by Apple. But the “Flash on iOS” saga may not be over just yet. More About: adobe, apple, CS5, Flash, iOS, trending For more Tech coverage:
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| Nokia Hires a New CEO from Microsoft Posted: 09 Sep 2010 11:21 PM PDT   After a summer of searching, Finland-based Nokia has chosen a new CEO: Stephen Elop, the president of Microsoft’s Business division. Earlier this year, reports surfaced that Nokia was unhappy with the leadership of CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, especially in the realm of smartphones. The mobile giant has lost considerable ground over the last few years to the likes of Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android platform. The result has been a 40% drop in profits in the last year alone. “The time is right to accelerate the company’s renewal; to bring in new executive leadership with different skills and strengths in order to drive company success,” Nokia Chairman Jorma Ollila said in a statement. “The Nokia Board believes that Stephen has the right industry experience and leadership skills to realize the full potential of Nokia.” Elop has been with Microsoft since January 2008. As president of Microsoft’s Business Division, he was responsible for one of the company’s most profitable divisions and oversaw development of Microsoft Office, Microsoft Dynamics and other enterprise products. Before Microsoft, Elop was COO of Juniper Networks, president of worldwide field operations at Adobe, and the CEO of Macromedia until its acquisition by Adobe. Nokia’s current CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo will be stepping down from his position on September 20, as well as vacating his seat on the Board of Directors. Don’t feel too bad for Kallasvuo though; he will receive 4.6 million euros in severance and the “fair market value” of 100,000 Nokia shares (around $1 million in value at the close of trading Thursday). Nokia’s been in desperate need of fresh leadership and new blood; it has been very slow to respond to the rise of dynamic touchscreen smartphones that Apple and Google have now popularized. Elop successfully launched Microsoft Office 2010, leading his division to record profits. Nokia’s hoping that he can perform the same magic on its fledgling line of mobile devices. Disclosure: Microsoft is a Mashable sponsor Reviews: Android, Google, Mashable, iPhone For more Business coverage:
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| Nikon Adds Three Digital Cameras to Coolpix Lineup Posted: 09 Sep 2010 10:32 PM PDT   Nikon announced a set of new cameras today, catering to everyone from random night-out photographers to photo enthusiasts not quite ready to make the DSLR plunge. The latest set of Coolpix cameras has a strong focus on quality over quantity. Instead of just pushing the megapixel count as high as it can go, Nikon is focusing on better sensors, lenses with optical stabilization, higher resolution LCD screens and faster processors. Nikon has also embraced video, with all three cameras supporting at least 720p HD video and stereo sound. All three will be available this fall. Coolpix S80
The 3.5″ OLED screen has 819,000 dot pixels — almost three times as many as last year’s model. The megapixel count is also up just slightly and the performance has been increased. The touch panel is now faster and more intuitive and the user interface has been overhauled. Despite its slender frame, the S80 includes a 5x optical zoom. It can also record video in 720p HD (1280×720) with stereo sound and includes an HDMI-out for playback on your HDTV. The S80 will retail for an MSRP of $329.95. Coolpix P7000
The Coolpix P7000 is Nikon’s latest play at the high-end enthusiast compact market. The P7000 looks much more similar to the competing Canon Powershot G11 than its predecessor, the P6000, and the feature set better resembles the Canon model as well. Nikon has traded megapixel count for better quality, dropping the P7000 to 10.1 megapixels while still adding a number of features to put it in a higher bracket. Its wide-angle lens has a 7.1x zoom and is capable of shooting images equivalent to 35mm. The P7000 also features a 5-way VR image stabilization system that includes optical stabilization by lens shift, electronic vibration reduction and motion detection. The P7000 includes a number of automatic and manual settings that allow photogs to grow with the camera. It features a much improved ISO (up to 6400), meaning you can take great looking photos even in low light. The P7000 also records 720p HD video with stereo sound. The P7000 will retail for an MSRP of $499.95 Coolpix S8100
The Nikon Coolpix S8100 looks a lot like its predecessor, the S8000, but Nikon has overhauled the hardware. With the S8100, Nikon has swapped the old model’s 14 megapixel CCD image sensor for a 12.1 megapixel backside illumination CMOS sensor. That should help the camera do well in low light. It also makes the camera super fast, with 10fps shooting and the ability to record 1080p HD video. The S8100 sports a 10x optical zoom (which can be used while taking video) and a brand new night portrait mode, plus a new backlighting HDR mode that takes advantage of the camera’s new backlit sensor. Like the P7000, the S8100 features lens-shift and electronic vibration, as well as motion detection. This will enable the unit to shoot competent images in low light settings without the use of an ambiance ruining flash. The S8100 has an MSRP of $299.95. More About: camera, coolpix, digital camera, digital cameras, Nikon, photography For more Tech coverage:
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| Facebook Places Propels SCVNGR to 100,000 Downloads in 48 Hours Posted: 09 Sep 2010 07:52 PM PDT   When Facebook entered the location arena with Facebook Places this summer, many were quick to assert that this would spell the end for smaller players in the space. But Google-backed SCVNGR is fighting the odds and proving that mobile game layer can still thrive in post Facebook Places. Case in point, CEO and Founder Seth Priebatsch informs us that SCVNGR application downloads this morning surpassed 100,000 downloads across iOS and Android devices in just 48 hours. The download figure is significant considering SCVNGR’s late entry in the consumer sector, but the startup’s sophisticated rewards system and numerous partnerships are helping ensure that it remains competitive in the space. Priebatsch actually attributes most of the growth to its integration of Facebook Places. He notes that piggy-backing off of Facebook has helped SCVNGR rise on the iTunes App Store charts. “We did the Facebook integration, which gave us a serious bump, then launched our city-by-city rollout of rewards in Boston, which gave us another bump. Then we broke into the top 50 [in iTunes] and then we spiraled upwards from there,” explained Priebatsch. During SCVNGR’s climb of the iTunes App Store, it reached a height of number two app in the social networking category (it’s now dropped to number five) and cracked the top 25 free iPhone apps list (currently number 48). So, where exactly does this put SCVNGR? Unfortunately, Piesbatsch says that while SCVNGR’s already phenomenal user growth continues to accelerate, the company isn’t yet ready to release solid user numbers. Still, 100,000 downloads in 48 hours is an impressive figure, especially when stacked against Foursquare, which is adding approximately 18,000 new users per day. Image courtesy of TEDxBoston 2010, Flickr Reviews: Android, App Store, Facebook, Flickr, Foursquare More About: andriod, iphone, Mobile 2.0, scvngr For more Mobile coverage:
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| Seesmic Desktop 2 Launches: 40+ Plugins for Anything You Could Want Posted: 09 Sep 2010 07:00 PM PDT   Seesmic Desktop 2 has just arrived, and it’s bringing an entire marketplace of apps along with it. The new platform will give its users all-in-one access to some of the most popular (and some of the more long-tail) social media services around. It includes the usual suspects, such as Twitter and Facebook, but its plugin marketplace also includes services such as Zappos, Formspring, YouTube, Last.fm, Techmeme, Ping.fm and many more — around 40 apps and services, all told, with dozens more coming soon. Users will be able to add, remove and customize what services they use via SD2, leaving only the apps that truly matter to them. With broad customization options and tons of flexibility, Seesmic Desktop 2 seems poised to be all things to all users, a sort of social media meta-app. It’s a beautifully built UI with subtle, elegant details. SD2’s initial lineup of integrated apps includes Facebook, Foursquare, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google Buzz and Ping.fm. You can expand SD2’s functionality throught the Plugin Marketplace. There are too many apps available in the marketplace to list here; you’ll find all the services we mentioned above, plus some longer-tail services that will appeal to various subsets of Seesmic’s user base, including Bing Maps, Klout, Salesforce, OneRiot, Ning and Socialcast. Of course, the app will retain the familiar interface of customizable columns for sorting and seeing all your Facebook or Twitter updates, mentions and messages; but it now has the capability to do a lot more as well. Here are some screenshots showing just a few of the nifty things SD2 can do:
And if there’s a service you love and use but don’t see — or if you’re a developer and want to get in on the SD2 platform — there’s an SDK for that. You can choose to build a plugin yourself, or you can contact the Seesmic team directly to help them with developing a plugin for your app of choice. SD2 is a Silverlight application and is Windows- and Mac-compatible. Linux users, we hope you like using emulators; until Silverlight and Liinux distros can play nicely together, SD2 won’t work so well with your OSes. Back at Twitter’s developer conference, Chirp, Seesmic founder Loic Le Meur shouted out over a crowd of shaken third-party Twitter developers, “There is plenty of opportunity for us.” In a time of uncertainty for many third-party services, Seesmic has certainly made the most of the many available opportunities by adding a maximum amount of value and integrating an unprecedented number of social services. Looking back at our interview with Le Meur during Chirp, we see how his words foreshadowed today’s announcements. At the time, he told us that innovative applications that add value and diversity will always find a place in the market; adding value and diversity is precisely what Seesmic has done with SD2. Give SD2 a whirl for yourself, and let us know what you think in the comments. Is the app convertible enough to meet all your needs? What services do you think SD2 should work on adding next? Reviews: Chirp Blu, Facebook, FormSpring, Foursquare, Google Buzz, LinkedIn, Linux, Ping, Seesmic, Seesmic Desktop, Twitter, Windows, YouTube More About: seesmic, seesmic desktop, seesmic desktop 2 For more Social Media coverage:
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| Prezi Meeting Brings Collaboration to Web-based Presentations Posted: 09 Sep 2010 06:03 PM PDT   Web-based presentation software Prezi is bringing its own twist to presentation collaboration with the launch of Prezi Meeting. Prezi, launched in May 2008, ditches the traditional slide format for presentations in favor of a storyboard format where the presenter zooms in and out of the “big picture” to deliver key presentation points through swift animations. Prezi Meeting, which launches today, brings real-time collaboration to the Prezi platform. Once collaborators have been invited to work on a presentation, the team can update different parts of the storyboard — pictures, text, images, videos, etc. — while watching collaborators add their own content to the presentation. Presentation collaboration tools aren’t anything new — Adobe’s Acrobat.com has it and Microsoft Office 2010 comes with a strong set of co-working features. The interface is what makes Prezi Meeting unique, though; participants appear as cute avatars in the focus area they are editing. Up to ten presenters can break down, rearrange and build presentation storyboards. The real-time aspect makes it so that remote team members can see changes as they happen. Prezi Meeting is available for free to all Prezi users, but for private presentations and access to Prezi Desktop, users have to pay a monthly fee. The company has raised funding from Sunstone Capital and The Sapling Foundation, the owners of the TED conference. Reviews: Prezi More About: collaboration, Prezi, Prezi Meeting, startup For more Tech coverage:
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| The New York Times Is Preparing Social News Service Dubbed News.me Posted: 09 Sep 2010 05:11 PM PDT   The New York Times is developing a personalized, social news service, News.me. The venerable newspaper is partnering with pseudo-incubator Betaworks to bring the product to market. The site is currently nothing more than an inscrutable honeycomb logo, but Betaworks CEO John Borthwick told the newspaper that News.me has already been in development for six months and is expected to launch publicly by the end of 2010. News customization is hardly a new concept, as various startups and major players have tackled the subject over the years. Google, for instance, launched its own personalized news feature and The Los Angeles Times debuted Newsmatch, a feature which learns readers’ tastes and interests to create a personalized page of content. Nevertheless, being late to the game isn’t necessarily a bad thing; The New York Times has the reputation and content to make a compelling offering for readers. And a Betaworks partnership is no small potatoes, either; its portfolio includes companies such as TweetDeck and Bit.ly. Then again, as one of the incubator’s financiers, The Times Company would have seen Betaworks as a natural fit for this project. Michael Zimbalist is the media company’s vice president of research and development. Zimbalist said to NYTimes.com, that the app will “abstract… a vision of how social sharing and the real-time web are going to influence the news consumption experience. We decided to develop a prototype that we thought was illustrative of where the world was heading.” So many news-related startups have made great products around the related concepts of customization and social media; we’re anxious to see what the recently forward-looking Gray Lady will bring to the table. What sites or apps do you use these days to get and share the news that’s most relevant to you? What features do you hope to see in News.me? Let us know in the comments. Image courtesy of Flickr, mfobrien Reviews: Flickr, Google, TweetDeck, news More About: betaworks, media, new york times, News, news.me, NYTimes For more Tech coverage:
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| Facebook’s Like Button One Step Closer to Killing the Share Button Posted: 09 Sep 2010 04:32 PM PDT   Facebook has launched a slew of new updates for its ubiquitous Like button that could signal the end of the Facebook’s Share button. There are three new updates to the Facebook Like button. First, the social network has now made it possible to like content within a Facebook application. You could, for example, like your friend’s farm on FarmVille. Likes appear on your News Feed just like any other use of the button, but the link directs you right to the application. The second change focuses around Facebook Pages; developers can now make their Like buttons link to their Facebook Pages. It’s the third update to the Like button that spells the end of the Facebook’s Share button, though. It gives developers the ability to display the number of Likes a specific webpage has received within the “box count” layout. This is the same layout that many of the web’s Share buttons currently utilize, including the ones you see on Mashable. The Share button launched late last year, partially as the company’s response to the growing popularity of Tweetmeme’s Tweet button. It gives users the ability to share articles and other web content with their friends. However, the Like button performs essentially the same function, and the bonus for Facebook is that it’s far easier to use. Clearly Facebook prefers its popular Like button, especially since the Share button just has too many overlapping features. Providing a Like button that can replace existing Share buttons is just another step toward killing it off. We’ve e-mailed Facebook to learn more about the company’s plans for both the Like button and the Share button. Until they get back to us though, let us know what you think of today’s updates in the comments. Reviews: Facebook, Mashable More About: facebook, Facebook Like Button, Facebook social plugins, like, like button, N., Open Graph For more Social Media coverage:
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| Google Instant Search Feeds our Real-time Addiction Posted: 09 Sep 2010 03:57 PM PDT
Are we too impatient to wait a matter of seconds for our search results? What’s feeding our new-found need for speed? And why does Google feel the need to answer our questions before we’ve even asked them? That’s the topic of my CNN column this week. Read the full column on CNN.com >>Reviews: Google More About: cashmore, cnn, Google, Google Instant, Search
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| What Apple’s Guideline Changes Mean for Developers Posted: 09 Sep 2010 03:49 PM PDT   Five months after declaring that iOS apps developed with a cross-compiler would not be accepted into the App Store, Apple has eased up on its policies and reversed course. Beyond just being less stringent about what sorts of tools can be used to build apps, Apple has also published an App Store Review Guidelines that lay out, in black and white, some of the things that will prevent an app from getting into the App Store. A (Brief) Summary of Flash Fight ‘10When Apple released the first SDK for the iPhone back in March of 2008, developers were quick to complain about the rigid set of standards and the stringent app review process. When Apple released its SDK, it also made it clear that iPhone development was meant to take place on a Mac and inside Xcode. By encouraging programs to utilize Objective-C and the Cocoa Touch framework, Apple was able to build a strong level of consistency in its mobile applications. Early on, many iPhone developers were also Mac developers, and the idea of using cross-platform tools wasn’t as much of a concern. Fast forward a few years and the software development world is in a mobile gold rush, with much of that early activity fueled by the explosive growth of the App Store. Thus, it wasn’t surprising that third-party frameworks, toolkits and IDEs like Unity would come out to ease the development process. The Mono project, an open source implementation of C# and .NET released MonoTouch, an extension of its MonoDevelop IDE that was touted as a way for C# and .NET programmers to create apps for the iPhone. In October, Adobe announced that it would be building iPhone support into Flash CS5, meaning that although native Flash content couldn’t be played on the iPhone, the Flash program could be used to create an *.ipa that could then be uploaded to the App Store. Further more, this ability was built into the Windows and Mac versions of Flash CS5. In other words, Flash developers could use Windows to create an iPhone app and then just use a Mac to submit the file to the App Store. Presumably, it was this development that spooked Apple. Just ahead of CS5’s release, Apple updated the terms of its developer agreement to include the following:
In essence, this stipulation would preclude applications that were created with the use of a cross-compiler or compatibility layer to be admitted to the App Store. Steve Job defended this decision in his infamous “Thoughts on Flash” memo, noting that apps created using non-native toolkits are slower and can be buggier and less responsive than their native counterparts. In other words, this was a quality assurance move. The outcry from this decision was loud, although very few actual iOS developers really seemed bothered. Hand-wringing and “big brother” remarks aside, it appeared that a very narrow group of potential developers would even be hurt by the provision (assuming it was limited solely to Flash and not to products like Unity or Appcelerator’s Titanium): magazine publishers. Adobe worked with Conde Nast to create the excellent Wired Magazine app for iPad, but had to spend time rewriting the app natively after the no-Flash IDE rule was put into effect. Adobe soldiered on and worked on creating some iPad-friendly publishing tools within InDesign, but larger publishers had to seek alternatives for how to deliver interactive print content without using Flash-based development tools. Five months later, Apple has reversed course. Presumably, this means that if Adobe wants to go back to working on the iPhone Creator for Flash CS5, it can. The company has since said it would target its efforts on other mobile platforms, but if customers demand the feature, we feel pretty confident Adobe will listen. So, what does this all mean? Developer Reactions: ExcitedFrom a cross-compiler perspective, very few toolsets appear to have been actively blocked by Apple, even before this reversal. Initially, there were fears that the provision would extend beyond just Flash CS5 and into products like Unity and Titanium. It’s important to note that with respect to those two companies, the official position was that the new stipulations had no impact on what those development tools do or how they work. As we noted yesterday, Appcelerator has seen explosive growth since the first SDK agreement announcement and saw no direct or indirect signs that Apple would be banning Titanium-based apps. Likewise, Unity remained confident of its status as an approved tool. Still, both companies are very happy that Apple has rescinded its prior changes. In a statement, Nicholas Francis, Unity Technologies co-founder and chief creative officer told us, “At Unity we applaud this move by Apple – we are all about enabling people to work with the best tools for any given job. Apple have always been focused on providing superior products to end users, and Unity games have been continuously released throughout this period. However, we are very happy for all those devs who can now join the party!” We also spoke to Scott Schwarzhoff, Appcelerator’s VP of marketing. Schwarzhoff told us, “All of these [changes] fundamentally provide transparency for developers and ultimately that leads to developer innovation, reinforces Apple’s strategic advantage and benefits consumers.” Beyond just cross-compilers, Apple also decided to nix a recent provision that could have potentially disallowed third-party ad providers like Google’s AdMob from working with the App Store. Here at Mashable, we were always skeptical that Apple would ever directly or even indirectly ban AdMob from the App Store. Fortunately for everyone, we no longer have to theorize, as Apple has made it clear that it will not ban other ad servers from the App Store, provided the developers and the ad protocol follow Apple’s privacy and customer data guidelines. On the Google Mobile Ads blog, Google notes, “These new terms ensure that Apple’s developers have the choice of a variety of advertising solutions (including Google’s and AdMob’s) to earn money and fund their apps.” Houston, We Have GuidelinesMoving on from the developer agreement-related changes, Apple has also made clear moves to be more transparent and to better communicate with its developers. Beyond the new “living document” of App Review Guidelines, Apple has also instituted a new Apple Review Board that developers can use to appeal an app’s rejection from the App Store. We’ve spoken with literally dozens of developers that have had their apps rejected from the App Store for one reason or another. In many cases, the rejection was understood by both parties (use of a private API, a bug that needed to be fixed, improper branding), but in others, the reason cited seemed to be at odds with the developer’s actual intent or interpretation. In these cases, figuring out how to get an app re-reviewed or even an opportunity to better explain what was actually going on was like pulling teeth. Thus, the mere fact that a documented process now exists is a great move. When speaking with some veteran App Store developers about today’s changes, the general feeling was that this is a great move in the right direction. One developer told us that the ambiguity surrounding the app review process has been the most frustrating aspect of dealing with App Store. Not having any clear insight into Apple’s thinking process made it hard for developers to know what to do. After all, it’s hard to conform to a set of requirements if those requirements are locked up in a black box. Still, despite these ambiguities, none of the developers we talked to were ever bothered enough to look seriously at other platforms. That isn’t to say that hasn’t been a concern for others — and there are a few famous examples of high-profile developers leaving the platform because of the black box approach to guidelines. At this point, developers may not agree with every guideline, but at least they know what the guidelines are. Is This EnoughAndroid continues to gain momentum, with more and more devices selling all over the world and a flurry of new devices coming out nearly every single day. It’s not unreasonable to view some of Apple’s changes as a response to Android’s growing strength. Android is sold as an “open” platform, and while the actual level of openness can be debated, at the very least, its garden is surrounded by a low-level fence if not a full wall. Having said that, in our research and discussions with developers, we just haven’t seen any proof of a migration from iOS to Android or any other platform. Yes, Android development is growing in importance and is now often at a higher priority or consideration before, but by and large, the iPhone is still the primary target for most developers and brands. Regardless of the headaches, most developers we talk to wouldn’t give up the ability to develop for iOS. That doesn’t mean that every developer will develop for iOS exclusively, but the restrictions haven’t pushed a large number of developers away. Still, Apple clearly sees Android as a competitor. We think that by making the decision to relax some of the IDE restrictions, to be more clear about supporting third-party ad services, and to make review guidelines accessible, Apple is showing that it does listen to its users and developers. As a company, Apple has a very strong vision and a very concentrated focus. Because of this, Apple is often viewed as a company that doesn’t listen to others. Historically however, it’s clear that when push comes to shove, Apple does listen to its customers. As an example, two years ago, the very first aluminum unibody 13-inch MacBook (that shared the same stylings as the 15-inch unibody MacBook Pro) was released without FireWire support. This was a big deal because FireWire was a technology Apple helped standardize and really pushed in its accessories. The customer outcry was immediate and despite Steve Jobs’s e-mailed responses that most people won’t ever use FireWire and that new video cameras all use USB 2.0, when Apple brought out its new MacBooks six months later, the now re-christened 13-inch MacBook Pro sported the addition of FireWire 800. For years, developers have been crying out to Apple for more transparency and openness in its app process. Today’s announcements are a good way towards fulfilling those goals. What do you think of Apple’s latest changes? Do they make you more likely to continue to develop for iOS? If you have held off from developing for iOS, do these changes make a difference? Let us know. Reviews: Android, App Store, Google, Mashable, Windows More About: adobe, appcelerator, apple, Flash, iOS, iphone, iphone sdk, mobile development, unity For more Apple coverage:
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| Evernote Site Memory Buttons Help Users Save Web Content Posted: 09 Sep 2010 02:18 PM PDT   Evernote, the popular multi-platform note-taking service, has just released a Site Memory button for blogs and publishers. The button resembles those popularized by Digg, Twitter and Facebook, but facilitates saving instead of sharing. Blogs can build their own Site Memory button to include as a part of their sites. The resulting button will let users clip, save and tag individual blog posts and articles into Evernote. The idea is to let readers save their favorite content in a faster and more convenient fashion. Once a publisher adds a Site Memory button, Evernote users can simply click it to clip page content. It’s a three-step process to click, clip and save, during which the user can customize clip fields such as “title” and “destination notebook” before saving. The saved clip is then added to users’ Evernote accounts and becomes accessible anywhere they choose to use the application. The buttons even enable users to check out all previously saved content from a publisher, essentially providing quick access to a user’s favorite posts from the site in question. Evernote users can already clip entire web pages or chunks of content using the Evernote bookmarklet, but the experience is less than ideal when it comes to individual blog posts. Extraneous content, including style elements and comments, tends to get pulled in as well. Site Memory buttons will not only resolve this problem for the Evernote user, but promote content saving. During the Site Memory button creation process, publishers have the option to specify the region of the page that is clipped and associate an URL with it. They can also suggest a title, tags and a destination notebook for the clip. The point is to build a button that will help readers save only the content they want in the span of a few seconds. Publishers can optionally choose to join Evernote’s affiliate program and use the buttons to recruit new Evernote customers. Affiliates make a cut of the action when Evernote users who joined through the affiliate upgrade to premium accounts. The buttons will even allow Evernote to track content and sites its users deem save-worthy. It will use that data to track user behavior in aggregate and publish reports on the most popular sites. Just last month, Evernote surpassed four million users, adding one million users in 108 days. The publisher-friendly Site Memory button, if adopted, could help Evernote reach even more potential users across the web and likely speed up membership growth.  Reviews: Evernote More About: evernote, site memory buttons For more Social Media coverage:
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| Twitter Launches Sponsored Microsite for Tracking New York Fashion Week Posted: 09 Sep 2010 01:50 PM PDT   New York Fashion Week is officially underway, and Twitter has launched a special microsite to help users stay abreast of the latest news straight from the runway and backstage. Twitter has partnered with a number of notable names in fashion to provide comprehensive coverage, including industry publication @WomensWearDaily, retailer @Bergdorfs and cosmetic company @AskBobbiBrown, alongside images and tweets tagged with #nyfw. What’s useful about the microsite is that it allows followers to hone in on the topics they’re most interested in, whether that’s runway news, designer interviews, beauty trends or behind-the-scenes gossip. For those who aren’t interested in following Fashion Week minute-by-minute, Twitter has also made it easy to catch up with daily recaps and archived footage. The microblogging service has also created a special @nyfw account, which aggregates and curates news from a number of reputable sources. Although the microsite is not as well-designed or robust as the one Twitter created for the World Cup — you have to refresh the page to load new content, for one thing — this time the page is sponsored by American Express. Corporate-sponsored pages for major news events could thus prove another (albeit relatively small) way for Twitter to monetize its ability to aggregate and organize real-time news. Will you be using Twitter to keep up with New York Fashion Week online? What other sources will you peruse? Reviews: Twitter More About: fashion week, new york fashion week, twitter For more Social Media coverage:
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| Why Your Business Needs a Mobile Commerce Strategy Now Posted: 09 Sep 2010 12:57 PM PDT   Bill Zielke is senior director of Merchant Services at PayPal, which recently announced the initial rollout of Mobile Express Checkout. Bill is responsible for the development and marketing of product strategies related to PayPal, and for counseling merchants with product recommendations. Remember when people debated whether e-commerce was for real? When the media scoffed at the idea of being able to "just point and click for great deals?" Today, e-commerce is a massive industry. In the U.S. alone, online spending reached nearly $130 billion in 2009. Like e-commerce before it, mobile commerce is on the cusp of becoming a multi-billion dollar industry, and it's time for merchants to take notice and seize the opportunity. M-commerce by the Numbers At PayPal, when we look at our merchants' numbers, we're seeing the impact of mobile commerce jump:
But we're just a slice of the overall m-commerce pie:
From point of sale offerings, to mobile shopping apps and enhanced mobile web experiences, it seems like companies both big and small are trying to capitalize on what mobile commerce promises consumers. Though much attention has been paid to how consumers are adopting a mobile shopping experience, little consideration has been paid to how merchants can get in the game. In my years helping merchants of every size enable sales on the "third screen" (with televisions and computers as the first and second screens), a few things have held true in most of the successes I've seen. Mobile Browsing vs. Mobile ShoppingThe numbers speak for themselves, so it’s fair to say that consumers are rapidly adopting mobile shopping as a way to buy physical and digital goods. This rapid adoption rate means customers are starting to expect that their favorite retailers will have a mobile presence, making mobile commerce both an opportunity and an imperative for merchants. Realizing measurable gains from engaging with these tech savvy shoppers means understanding what motivates them to complete a mobile purchase. Consider the difference between "mobile browsing" and "mobile shopping." Applications and websites that allow customers to view the latest fashions are great for brand awareness, and maybe even getting them in the physical store, but without a mobile-specific checkout experience, they don't yield actual sales. I call that mobile browsing because making the purchase is secondary to just looking at the item for a price tag. Mobile shopping on the other hand, offers consumers the chance to buy something in a checkout experience catered to a mobile device and perhaps most importantly, reduces the amount of clicks it takes to finalize the purchase. This is particularly important in the context of mobile web browsers, where cutting back on content and minimizing the number of clicks is vital to keeping shoppers engaged. I spend a lot of time on my phone checking out how retailers are taking their online stores mobile. I'll log onto a retailer's mobile website which allows me to look at all the merchandise I want. Content loads quickly and after a pleasant and easy browsing experience, I decide to go ahead and make the purchase. As is all too common with mobile shopping, I'm taken to a third-party checkout site that is not catered to a mobile browser. Instead of making a couple of clicks, I find myself scrolling, re-entering sensitive information, resizing the screen, ultimately getting frustrated and abandoning the purchase.  As a retailer, it's critical that your mobile customer has the same level of convenience that they would have if they were shopping on their laptop with a checkout experience that's designed for the device. A number of retailers have successfully brought easy shopping experiences to mobile platforms. Buy.com, for example, has tailored their mobile website for intuitive shopping and quick checkout. While developing a mobile shopping experience is more art than science, layouts with large buttons, minimal text, little scrolling and a fast checkout have proven key to conversion. The Mobile Web vs. Native AppsMuch has been made of whether the future lies in mobile applications or the mobile web. Both apps and browsers offer compelling characteristics that, in the context of mobile commerce, can draw in shoppers. Mobile apps are like your neighborhood produce store. You walk inside the doors looking for specific items. They also typically let users tap into their phone's full potential. For example, a native app might integrate with a phone's camera, voice recorder, contacts or other features. And for shoppers looking for a richer, more advanced interface, applications typically win out over the mobile web because they are designed specifically for that handset's hardware and operating system. Overall, native apps offer a tailored shopping experience that's well delivered but limited. The mobile web on the other hand is a like a huge shopping mall with seemingly limitless stores and tons of options all under one giant roof. It's not as constricted or fragmented as shopping on disparate mobile apps but the experience isn't as tailored as the specialty store. Unlike device-specific native apps though, the mobile web has enormous flexibility and, usually, much larger reach. Customers don't need to download robust programs from app stores to their handset in order to begin shopping. Instead, all they have to do is type in a web address in their mobile browser to start spending their digital dollars. Much of the time mobile sites serve as stripped-down versions of regular websites and serve a utilitarian purpose: selling goods and services. The mobile web offers what native apps lack and vice versa. And just as in the real world, there's room for both. As long as there is an easy way for consumers to shop from their mobile devices, both apps and browsers serve a purpose for retailers. Get Ready: The Holidays are ComingWith the biggest shopping season of the year just weeks away, now is the time for retailers to look to the mobile channel to boost sales and meet their customers where they want to be met. Last year, PayPal saw mobile payments on Black Friday rise about 650% compared to 2008. This year, the holiday season will be a pivotal time for retailers to capitalize on the mobile opportunity as the market really becomes mainstream. Right now, merchants from small businesses all the way to the largest companies in the world are finalizing their strategies for the holidays. They're thinking about how many MP3 players to keep in stock and how to get feet in the door, and which demographics they should be targeting once the doors fly open on Black Friday. But maybe this year, the smart merchants will think back to the 1990s –- to the birth of e-commerce — and decide to act on the opportunity that mobile commerce opens up, and to change the relationship with their customers once again. E-commerce drove sales, but also more importantly it changed merchants' relationship with their customers. And mobile commerce has the potential to do it all over again. More Mobile Resources from Mashable:
Image courtesy of iStockphoto, Talaj Reviews: iStockphoto More About: consumers, e-commerce, m-commerce, Mobile 2.0, mobile browser, mobile commerce, moblie app, paypal, phone, retailers, shopping, smartphone For more Mobile coverage:
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| Dissecting the New Vogue.com: How One Magazine Did the Web Right Posted: 09 Sep 2010 12:40 PM PDT
The site has grown exponentially in glamor and functionality with its latest iteration. Colors and typefaces are dramatic, images are huge, social sharing features are discreetly accessible and interaction opportunities are appropriate for this brand’s targeted users. All-in-all, it has established a better web presence for a very high-end publication. A few designers we polled informally on Twitter had mixed feelings about the site’s new, larger banner up top and its floating menu bar, but just as many said they liked the showy, high-impact, “magazine-y” look and feel. Our own Christina Warren made the salient point that the new Vogue.com “looks more like a Tumblr theme than a fashion rag”; perhaps digital times call for digital measures. Let’s take a look at how and why Vogue chose this new look and what kinds of content will be showcased in the spectacular (in the most literal sense) new interface.
The HowIf Women’s Wear Daily is to be believed, one of the biggest reasons the new Vogue.com looks so amazing is because “no expense was spared.” The definitive publication for the fashion industry said publisher Condé Nast spent more on Vogue.com than it has on any other web property, and it overspent other sites’ budgets by a wide margin. To put this in context, another Condé Nast property, social bookmarking site Reddit, was forced to adopt a freemium model just last month because the site’s admins had been given a fixed budget for the site and their Condé Nast-imposed bottom line was not being met. After around 10,000 Reddit members donated, the site was deemed "saved." Of course, websites are not built on grand budgets alone. The talent behind these gorgeously constructed pages is Code and Theory, a web shop with San Francisco and New York City offices that has a bit of experience dealing with high-end brands. Brandon Ralph is Code and Theory’s executive creative director. In an e-mail, he told us that the entire site was was created, from concept to deployment, in just six months. They were tasked by Vogue to “break the mold.” “Overall, we were inspired to create a site that was worthy of launching with Fashion Week… bringing more of the visceral, thrilling qualities of the fashion world online, the experience of the collections as they unfold, getting truly exclusive access to designers and their perspectives, and of course, the parties.” Here’s the firm’s “case study” showing the many features and pages of the new Vogue.com: The WhyVogue’s Editor-in-Chief Anna Wintour told WWD in an e-mail that the magazine’s average reader “is completely engaged in the world of technology” and that she knew she needed to “take the authority, quality and beauty of Vogue and bring those values to the digital realm.” Of course, Wintour also noted that the modern newsroom is a 24/7 environment with fast-breaking coverage that is far too timely (and far too great in volume) for a monthly publication to encompass. But rather than trying to write, film and photograph it all, Vogue.com will continue to curate content according to the dictates of its own aesthetic. As Wintour put it, “Vogue.com isn't going to be covering everything, just the right things." Wintour strikes the right note from a PR perspective, but Vogue needed a new web presence for another reason: Its existing site was, if not a mess, certainly not representative of the brand. You can see visions of Vogue.coms past via the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine, and here’s a screenshot taken in April 2009:
It’s too busy to be high-impact; with no white space, the eye wanders without editorial direction. It looks like a rather pedestrian website, not the digital face of a fashion magazine. Vogue.com was in great need of more than just a facelift; the site needed a ground-up re-imagining. The WhatAs far as content is concerned, the new Vogue.com is essentially a vehicle for fashion multimedia. In the same way that its print counterpart is a showcase for huge, glossy photo spreads, the website is an exhibit for large, high-quality images and video. Full-screen slideshows are a perfect fit for elaborate fashion collection displays, for example. One of the more interesting features on the site is Vogue’s new “lightboxes,” a sort of digital version of a lookbook for readers to bookmark their favorite “photos, trends and inspirations” in the site’s elegant styling. The lightboxes can be created and shared by individual users; think of it as an in-site Tumblr. Sharing and commenting features — another visual element that usually leans toward clutter, discrepancy and noise — are also rather quietly integrated on the site without throwing too many odd colors, typefaces and distractions into the mix. There is some sense of community on the site, though. Readers can comment on stories, share items through the usual social channels, follow Vogue on Twitter and Facebook, and more. According to WWD, the site will also soon include a searchable archive of Vogue articles from 1892 to the present day. The site is also planning to add “Voguepedia,” which will be roughly what it sounds like: a fashion-themed, encyclopedia-style resource. What you won’t see much of, however, is traditional display advertising. You might catch a skyscraper here or there touting beauty products or boots, and you’ll definitely see a few calls to subscribe to the magazine; but for the most part, marketing initiatives are slickly wrapped in Vogue.com’s typefaces, imagery and styles. This is surely as welcome to the ad-weary reader as it is to the aesthetic perfectionist. “We’re proud of the overall experience and how it blends content, community, advertising and consumer marketing,” said Ralph. As far as advertising is concerned, he noted that C&T’s strategy was quality over quantity. “There’s more value for sponsors if they can have exclusive representation with innovative placements above and beyond standard IAB ads on pages that are highly engaging to the audience. For an iconic brand like Vogue in particular, it would be criminal to have a web presence that looked like Nascar.” Did this minimalist, designer-y approach to ads work for Vogue.com’s bottom line? According to Ralph, the new inventory was so compelling that the Vogue sales team has already exceeded their goals for revenue and are optimistic about the future. Designers, what do you think of the new Vogue.com? Let us know what you love, what you hate and what you’d change about it in the comments. Reviews: Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter More About: code and theory, conde nast, fashion week, magazine, magazine website, media, publishing, vogue, vogue.com, web design For more Dev & Design coverage:
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| Google Voice App Adds Home Screen Widgets for Easy Access to Messages Posted: 09 Sep 2010 11:51 AM PDT   Google has just released an update to its Google Voice Android app that seeks to make it easy for users to access voicemails as well as change their Google Voice settings. The biggest change to Google Voice for Android is the inclusion of widgets, a first for the app. After downloading the app from the Android Market, merely go to Menu/Add to Home/Android Widget, and you’ll see “Google Voice Inbox” and “Google Voice Settings” in the list. Choose both and add to your home screen. Once there, you can easily access your voicemails (think Visual Voicemail, without the propensity for randomly calling your contacts), listen to messages, read transcripts (which are still, sadly, incomprehensible) and respond by free, Google Voice texts or regular text messages. Google Voice texts do, in fact, work when sent to people who don’t have the app. Also, you can use the Settings widget to get to the entire app with a single tap, write and send free texts, change your dialing preferences (use Google Voice for all calls, international calls only, ask for every call, do not use for all calls) and engage the “Do Not Disturb” function, which sends calls to voicemail. It also displays your balance. This new edition does make it much easier to locate, listen to and respond to voicemails, as I previously felt like I had to track down my messages within the bowels of my Eris. Android users: Download this app and let us know what you think. Images courtesy of Flickr, Sutha Kamal Reviews: Android, Android Market, Flickr, Google Voice More About: android, App, Google, Google Voice, Mobile 2.0 For more Mobile coverage:
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| HOW TO: Eliminate Spam from Search Posted: 09 Sep 2010 11:17 AM PDT   Google may be working to make search faster and more predictive with Google Instant, but do those elements actually make search better? Of course, that depends on how you define “better.” One underground startup, Blekko, believes it can radically change how we search for the better, where “better” means search with fewer garbage results. Blekko is a private beta search engine designed to eradicate the pointless links surfaced by traditional search engines with slashtags. Slashtags are a feature original to Blekko, and they’re essentially just sophisticated tags for fine-tuning search queries. Users add slashtags to search queries in the form of “search query /slashtag” to filter results for the specified tag. The slashtag tells Blekko to return results only for the subset of sites that match the slashtag. Add “/humor” to your query for “Facebook,” for instance, to focus your search around sites that are comedic in nature, or “/date” to surface the most recent news. The startup has been attempting to tackle garbage-free search on-the-sly — keeping quiet as it works to master its unique search formula — for three years now, raising $24 million (including an angel round from Baseline Ventures and two ex-Googlers) in the process. The 21-person team isn’t quite ready to open the site to all, but they are giving Mashable readers early access to the site (see below). The Blekko 411The basic idea behind Blekko and its slashtags is to add value to the search experience by giving searchers tools that they want to use. Founder Mike Markson says Blekko was built to “take back the web,” and “get rid of the nonsense” bogging down our search results with “searches you can’t do anywhere else.” Blekko is simple to use, but only if you understand the intricacies of the service, which is no easy feat for the first-time user. We’ve toyed around with Blekko and find it offers an approach to search that is fundamentally different from anything we’ve seen before. That’s why we’re going to break down Blekko and walk you through the basics. Power searchers, be prepared to get hooked. The Blekko Basics Slashtags are your friends. For every slashtag you use in your query, you’re slashing in only results from the types of sites you want and slashing out the irrelevant. To get your feet wet, start with a simple query. Yesterday, Apple released iOS 4 with Game Center. If you want to search what the Apple blogs are saying about Game Center, enter the query, “game center /appleblogs.” Instead of results from any possible source on the web, you’re limiting your search to just Apple blogs with the “/appleblogs” slashtag. If you want to broaden the search to include all Apple-focused sites, use the “/apple” slashtag instead. You’ll notice that results are automatically sorted by relevance, which in Blekko’s domain means that the built-in “/relevance” slashtag has been automatically applied. You can sort results by date by appending the “/date” slashtag to your query, or clicking that option atop the lists of results. Say, for instance, you want to search for any recent stories about your favorite football team, the San Diego Chargers (humor me). The query “san diego chargers /date” will sort results by most recent and highlight the date or time below each result. To focus that query a bit more, you can add the “/sports” slashtag to search just sports sites. Despite appearances, slashtags aren’t magic. In fact, the intelligent search tags have to be defined by users — who add sites and URLs to slashtags — in order to function. Blekko has gone ahead and defined more than 200 slashtags, which means most of the slashtags you try will likely already exist. To see the slashtags that already exist in the system (a must-see section for all newbies), navigate to your profile box in the right-hand column and select the “find slashtags” option. Here, you’ll notice that slashtags are separated into three categories: topic slashtags, built-in slashtags and user slashtags. The topic slashtags include Blekko-defined slashtags for a plethora of interests and subject matters. You’ll notice that each slashtag name is accompanied by the websites and URLs that make up the slashtag. You can click the “more” link to see the full list of sources and add sources to the slashtag.  The section for built-in slashtags is quite handy as a reference center for how you can manipulate your future search queries. Here, you’ll see that Blekko has built in slashtags to help you limit search results to just people (“/people”), forums (“/forums”) and news sites (“/news”). There’s also slashtags for traffic maps (“/traffic”), weather forecasts (“/weather”) and third-party services (“/twitter”) and (“/youtube”). In the user slashtags section, you can search the slashtags that other users have created for their own purposes. This is where the real power of Blekko comes in to play. Angel investor Ron Conway (username rconway), for instance, created the slashtag “/svangel” and added all of his portfolio sites to the bunch. Using the username + slashtag formula, anyone can search the slashtags created by other user users. So adding “/rconway/svangel” to your query will limit results to those from Conway’s 133 portfolio sites. You can create your own public or private slashtags by selecting “create a slashtag” from the upper right-hand profile box. You’ll want to create your own slashtags for any personal interests or search preferences you have. If you’re a foodie, for example, you can create a slashtag to search just the food blogs and food sites you want. The options are endless. Spam One thing that came through loud and clear during my conversation with Founder Mike Markson and CEO Rich Skrenta is that these guys hate spam. Slashtags are designed to help eliminate spammy links in results, but they’re still bound to appear from time to time. Should your search return a result from a spammy source (or even a source you just don’t like), Blekko empowers you to remove that source from all future queries. To do that, find the questionable result and mark it as spam by clicking the “spam” link underneath the result. That action will ensure that you never see another result from that source in future results. Blekko’s spam option is unique to each user, so your behavior won’t affect what other Blekko searchers see. In the future, Blekko will likely look at sources that get marked as spam in aggregate and possibly remove the worst offenders from the search engine altogether. Blekko InvitesTo date, Blekko has opened its service to just 6,000 beta testers, each of whom they hope will help them to improve the experience prior to public beta launch. Mashable readers are invited to take advantage of early access to the site — send an email to mashable@blekko.com to jump the line and get in now. The first 500 people to do so will be granted access. We’ve barely scratched the surface when it comes to what’s possible with Blekko, so you’ll want to snatch up one of those invites and check out the service for yourself. Image courtesy of buggolo, Flickr Reviews: Facebook, Flickr, Mashable More About: blekko, Google, Search, slashtags, spam For more Tech coverage:
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| 10 Emerging Social Platforms and How Businesses Can Use Them Posted: 09 Sep 2010 10:18 AM PDT   Some of the most innovative brands have already begun to experiment with lesser known social platforms that cater to targeted audiences and test the waters of new advertising models. Many of these campaigns are pure trial-and-error efforts, and there certainly aren’t any one-size-fits-all solutions out there. At the Social Marketers Summit in Prague today, I spoke on 10 of the most intriguing, but lesser known, location-based, Q&A, press and microblogging social platforms out there and how more businesses can start using them. The PowerPoint presentation is embedded below, and the following information expands upon it, acting as a guide to how businesses can get their hands dirty with these platforms. If your business is already active on the platforms mentioned, let us know how you are using them in the comments below. Location-Based ServicesMany people predicted that 2010 would be the year of location. By most accounts, those predictions have come to fruition. With Facebook’s acquisition of Hot Potato in preparation for the launch of Facebook Places, along with Foursquare’s explosion of brand partnerships and Twitter’s launch of location-based trending topics and location-tagged tweets, it’s no wonder everyone is all abuzz about location. While Foursquare and Facebook Places are taking the spotlight in this arena, other apps, including Gowalla, SCVNGR, Whrrl, Loopt Star and Brightkite are making headway, as well. 1. Gowalla Tagline: "Keep up with your friends, share the places you go, and discover the extraordinary in the world around you." Based in Austin, Texas, Gowalla is a location-based app that was launched in 2009 by Josh Williams and Scott Raymond. The service has roughly 450,000 users, which Gowalla calls “passport holders.” Users check in to spots and complete multi-stop trips in order to receive passport stamps, pins and virtual goods. Some of the virtual goods are redeemable for real-world items. Businesses can jump aboard by curating trips or creating limited-edition pins or items. Some recent brands to test these features out include USA TODAY, National Geographic, and Red Bull. AT&T and TOMS Shoes had a very successful campaign recently, according to Josh Williams, co-founder and CEO of Gowalla. Between August 16 and 29, Gowalla users were encouraged to commemorate history as TOMS Shoes was preparing to give its one millionth pair of shoes to a child in need. Participants checked in to various technology and apparel locations for a chance to win one of the many prizes that were being given away, including TOMS Shoes, an AT&T smartphone or an AT&T netbook. One person received the grand prize: a trip to Argentina this fall with TOMS Shoes for the company’s One Millionth Pair Shoe Drop. Here’s a look at their successes:
2. SCVNGR Tagline: "Go places. Do challenges. Earn points!" Founded by Seth Priebatsch, SCVNGR is a location-based social game that launched this year. The platform enables users to earn badges and points for checking in to places. Users can also earn rewards, in the form of discounts and freebies, through completing challenges, such as snapping a picture, saying something, or completing a social check-in. Upon launch, SCVNGR had already signed on 1,000 locations across the U.S. to offer freebies and discounts to users through a sophisticated rewards system. Priebatsch explained enthusiastically that, “Something like 20-25 new enterprises are beginning to build on SCVNGR every single day (and that’s accelerating like whoa).” If your business is looking to provide an adventure, then perhaps SCVNGR’s treks (curated lists of places) or custom challenges are the answer. Columbia Pictures recently teamed up with SCVNGR to promote Eat, Pray, Love, the blockbuster film, featuring Julia Roberts, about a woman who goes on a yearlong journey to find herself. The SCVNGR campaign featured a special Eat, Pray, Love trek that spanned 26 U.S. cities, complete with challenges and special edition badges. The “No Carb Left Behind” challenge, for example, appears at Italian restaurants, gains users two points, and unlocks the “Eat” badge. This is a particularly compelling partnership, as the app and movie are both about discovery and adventure. 3. Whrrl Tagline: "Check in, unlock Societies, unleash your Footstream." Whrrl is a social location-based game that launched in late 2007 and now boasts over 300,000 users. Unlike other location-based apps, Whrrl is based on Societies. Users check in to locations and complete recommendations inputted by other users in order to join Societies. John Kim, vice president of product management and marketing at Pelago explained that Whrrl has taken a different direction than other location apps. “Societies are the cornerstone of Whrrl, because if you have a framework based around Societies, you can create content targeted towards those people. Whrrl uses a user's social graph, checkins and recommendations (what they do or recommend) to personalize the user's experience. The world is about the long tail of passions. Societies are organized around passions or topics, not just what's nearby.” Businesses can target certain types of people who check in at particular types of venues by creating custom Societies and Society Rewards. Society Rewards are incentives for being a member of a particular Society, and can include freebies, discounts and raffle entries. Murphy USA, a gasoline company, for example, created the Murphy USA National Society, which users join by checking in at Murphy USA gas stations. Upon checking in, users are presented with a chance to win $50 of free gasoline. Odds of winning are weighted based on the number of checkins a user has logged. 4. Loopt StarTagline: "Go places, find friends, get stuff." Loopt Star is the newest of the Loopt location-based social apps, which also include Loopt and Loopt Mix. The three platforms collectively boast 4 million users. Launched just a few months ago, Loopt Star is a virtual loyalty card within a mobile rewards game. Users check in to locations to earn rewards, including points and discounts, based on a set of factors designated by the establishments. A business owner can target by time of day, day of week, and number of times a person has previously checked in, for example. Businesses can get started with Loopt Star by offering real-life or virtual rewards. The platform can also be utilized to create highly targeted ads for specific locations. One of Loopt Star’s recent hits was a partnership with Virgin America. To promote its upcoming non-stop flights from San Francisco (SFO) and Los Angeles (LAX) to Mexico, Virgin America offered $1 two-for-one taco deals and a two-for-one ticket offer on the new flights to users who checked in to either SFO, LAX or one of Virgin America's mobile taco truck locations between 11:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. PT on August 31st. The campaign was highly successful, as 89% of those who checked in completed the process to receive a coupon. That day ranked as the fifth highest sales day in Virgin America’s history. As an example of the turnout, nearly 1,300 people checked in at the San Francisco taco truck during the few short hours of the promotion. 5. Brightkite Tagline: "The simple way to keep up with friends & places." Brightkite launched in 2006 and claims 5.5 million users. It enables users to check in and post comments at any location. It also features photo-posting, messaging, comments, tips, tiered rewards, and group chat capabilities. Brightkite CMO Rob Lawson said that brands are attracted to a range of opportunities when it comes to marketing on the platform, including: Starbucks recently partnered with Brightkite to target users who checked in near Starbucks coffee shops, as well as their competitors’ coffee shops. To kick off the partnership, they launched Frappuccino happy hour (3:00-5:00 p.m. from May 7-16). By checking in at a Starbucks during happy hour, users received a half-priced Frappuccino and the ability to browse through special edition Frappuccino badges and pick their favorite to add to their Brightkite profile. Q&A PlatformsLinkedIn Answers is a well-tested platform for sourcing expert opinions and demonstrating business acumen, and the newly launched Facebook Questions could also prove to be yet another source to showcase expertise. But there are two other platforms worth a look — Aardvark and Quora. 6. Aardvark Tagline: "Tap the knowledge of people in your network!" Aardvark is a question-and-answer platform recently acquired by Google. A user simply asks a questions, and then Aardvark algorithmically determines the best person within the user’s network to answer the question. Company representatives can use Aardvark to become recognized experts in topics pertaining to their careers or companies. Within my network, for example, David Berkowitz, the director or emerging media at 360i, identifies himself as a source regarding 360i questions that may come up. While Berkowitz admits that there isn’t a high demand for 360i-specific questions per se, he comments that professional users should “Keep an eye out for when people are asking something in your area of expertise and then answer as thoughtfully as you can without selling anything.” 7. Quora Tagline: "A continually improving collection of questions and answers created, edited, and organized by everyone who uses it." Co-founded by Facebook's former CTO Adam D'Angelo, Quora is a Q&A platform that enables anyone to ask or answer a question. Users can follow people, questions and topics. If you don’t find a topic of interest, you can create new topics. The crowdsourced voting feature is advantageous for people hoping to be seen as experts in a certain area. All answers can be voted up or down. If you are truly a knowledgeable source on a particular subject, chances are that you’ll rise to the top as a subject matter expert. For a look at a true brand advocate at work, check out Harry Heymann, lead engineer at Foursquare, and his Quora profile. He fields a sizable amount of questions on his company and product, including some recent questions about Foursquare’s Bing thumbnails and servers. Platforms for PressStarting with PRNewswire’s acquisition of ProfNet in 1992, the press game became a lot more direct, and these days, social media and PR go hand in hand. Besides tweeting and connecting on LinkedIn, though, journalists and PR pros also enjoy social platforms specific to their needs. Two such platforms stand out — Help a Reporter Out and NewsBasis. 8. Help a Reporter Out Tagline: "Everyone's an expert at something." With 150,000 active users, Help a Reporter Out (HARO) is an excellent source for journalists looking for sources or experts looking to get free press. Journalists submit queries and sources respond to those queries, which are sent out in an e-mail newsletter thrice a day, as well as via HARO’s Twitter feed. Brands should be taking advantage of platforms like HARO. Evan Fray-Witzer, a partner at small law firm Ciampa Fray-Witzer, LLP, attests:
9. NewsBasisTagline: "Better media relations for journalists and companies." Having launched just one month ago, NewsBasis has already attracted 3,300 registered sources and 580 journalists, of which a majority are active. Darryl Siry, founder and CEO of NewsBasis, told us about the company’s current goals and future plans:
NewsBasis focuses on relevancy. To achieve that, Siry imagines adding a way for the community to rate sources and choose subject matter experts in much the same way that the eBay feedback system works. And to prevent spam, he imagines that a block option could be useful, stating, “If you get blocked by enough people, you’re gone.” That’s certainly incentive enough to mind one’s P’s and Q’s. Siva Sanmuga, vice president at Callture, a startup telecom provider told us that within a week of signing up for NewsBasis, a journalist from eWeek requested his input on how Google Voice within Gmail will affect Skype. He attested:
MicrobloggingWhen you think “microblogging,” you probably think “Twitter.” Rightfully so. Having recently surpassed 145 million users, Twitter is still one of the most buzzed about social platforms. As there are many ways to use Twitter for business, we definitely advocate getting your tweet on. But for those projects that you’d like to have greater control of, consider StatusNet. 10. StatusNetTagline: "Bring the conversation to your domain." StatusNet, in the words of the company, is an “open source microblogging application, aiming to be an alternative to Twitter.” It’s main benefit is that it “helps you share and connect in real-time within your own domain. With StatusNet you can encourage collaboration, build and engage your community, and be in command of your brand.” StatusNet’s application is a great idea for private installations in which a company wants to control the data that is shared. For example, Motorola utilized StatusNet to build its global internal social communications tool, called Motmot, named after a family of birds. "Many of the usage patterns that we see now were not envisioned back when we first adopted StatusNet," Rami Levy, team leader at Motorola Open Source Technologies, told StatusNet in a case study [PDF]. "Overall, I would definitely say that StatusNet has revolutionized our internal social communications." If your business is looking for a secure way to host a microblogging or sharing service, StatusNet is a great option. These 10 services may not be the most talked about social platforms out there, but they are worth learning about. Test them out, get to know them, and let us know what you think. And if you have suggestions of your own, add them in the comments below. More Business Resources from Mashable:
Image courtesy of Falanxia, Michal Hotovec Reviews: Aardvark, Brightkite, Facebook, Foursquare, Gowalla, LinkedIn, Twitter, love, society, test More About: Aardvark, brightkite, geolocation, gowalla, HARO, Help a Reporter Out, lbs, location, location-based, location-based apps, location-based marketing, location-based service, loopt, loopt mix, loopt star, microblogging, newsbasis, press, q&a, quora, scvngr, statusnet, whrrl For more Business coverage:
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| Say “F**ck You” to Cancer via Facebook or Twitter with New Campaign Posted: 09 Sep 2010 09:23 AM PDT   If you or a loved one is suffering from or has suffered from cancer, instilling you with an overwhelming urge to curse the disease out, you’re in luck. F**ck Cancer, a non-profit foundation, has launched a month-long campaign called F-tember during which it plans to raise awareness by asking folks to donate their Facebook and Twitter statuses to the cause. F**ck Cancer has teamed up with Invoke, an interactive agency, to create a Facebook app to educate folks about cancer. “Invoke loves getting involved with feisty causes and F**ck Cancer’s approach is fresh, attention-grabbing, and lends itself to a plethora of creative social campaigns. Working with Yael and the organization allows us to innovate with a lot of the technologies we’ve developed that other causes may view as too forward-thinking or potentially controversial,” Dario Meli, a partner at Invoke, said. The goal of the app, according to F**ck Cancer founder Yael Cohen, is to make getting the word out as easy and viral as possible. Basically, you visit the F**ck Cancer Facebook Page, click on the F-Tember Tab and click on “Donate Your Status.” You can then choose to donate your status daily, once, bi-weekly or weekly via Facebook, Twitter and/or e-mail. The app then does so automatically, sharing out factoids like those below. (NB: There is no option to censor your tweets and updates, so if you’re squeamish about the F-bomb, be aware.)  Yeah, the word “f**ck” itself may seem rather… strong, but to Cohen and Co. it perfectly encapsulates the sentiment they want to get across. “I started F**ck Cancer just over a year ago, when my mom got cancer,” Cohen says. “When she was recovering from her first surgery, I got her a shirt that said, ‘F**ck Cancer.’ It was meant to be a private source of strength for her, but she has balls of steel and no filter so she wore it absolutely everywhere. People’s response was really astounding. So it became evident that we’d tapped into some sort of emotion and that we should do something with it.” And it’s not like your donated statuses and tweets are just expletive-laden gibberish. As you can see from the screenshot above, they’re meant to educate people about the disease. “The first step is really getting our generation to talk to our parents about cancer,” Cohen says. “Because our research has shown that parents are much more likely to get that diagnostic test or stay on top of their risk profile if it comes from a child. Talk to your parents, take responsibility, help them, so that by the time that our generation comes to that high-risk demographic, we’ll hopefully really internalize the idea that we need to look for cancer instead of just finding it.” And that’s why Cohen — a young 20something herself — has decided to look to Facebook and Twitter to get her message across in much the same way as MTV took to Foursquare to take on STD testing and Oxfam took to the viral web. “By seeing [facts about cancer] on 10 friends’ news feeds every day for a month, you’re going to absorb some of it,” Cohen says. “The app actually achieves one of our goals: spreading awareness about early detection. More than 90% of cancers are curable at stage one — look for them, look for them, look for them.” If you live in the New York area and want to get involved ASAP, Cohen and her cohorts will be taking to the streets tomorrow — during New York Fashion Week — sporting F**ck Cancer T-shirts and spreading awareness. If you want to join up, just shoot them an e-mail at streetteam@letsfcancer.com. Reviews: Facebook, Twitter More About: facebook, social good, social media, twitter, web apps For more Social Media coverage:
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| How Graphic.ly Plans to Transform the Comic Book Business Posted: 09 Sep 2010 08:16 AM PDT    This post is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark as a new part of the Spark of Genius series that focuses on a new and innovative startup each day. Every Thursday, the program focuses on startups within the BizSpark program and what they’re doing to grow.A startup can't hope for a much better kickoff than being demoed live on stage by Steve Ballmer during CES, but that's exactly how Graphic.ly, a service looking to change the way comic fans consume content, made its debut. But what does a company do to sustain the buzz created by a big launch? For Graphic.ly, continuing the momentum has been all about rolling out to new platforms, fostering community, and a number of strategic partnerships and deals. This has all helped the company grow at about 275% per month (in terms of number of app downloads) since January. We spoke with Micah Baldwin, co-founder and CEO at Graphic.ly, to get some more insight into what the company has been doing during the months following its big launch. Launching on New Platforms The version of Grapic.ly that Ballmer showed off ran on Windows 7. But in the months since, the service has come to iPad, iPhone and Adobe AIR, an expansion that will continue in the months ahead. "We are looking to launch on the web in the next 60 days, which will allow us to be on all platforms,” says Baldwin. “Android soon thereafter, and the coming Windows Series 7 Phone, on which we will be able to showcase Marvel and many other publishers and creators.” Fostering CommunityBack when Graphic.ly launched, we noted that it limited its private beta to iFanboy, an online comic news and community site. Only a month later, Graphic.ly acquired iFanboy, a deal that Baldwin remarked at the time would help his company "become part of one of the best communities in the industry. Working with iFanboy, we are able to take our vision to the next level and fully integrate our product into the fandom community.” That bet has paid off. Baldwin now says, "The biggest driver of growth has truly been the community and our social media efforts. We continually are amazed at how supportive our community is, and responsive to our attempts to include them in everything we do." Key DealsAs a company looking to offer comic books in digital form, acquiring content is a key piece of Graphic.ly's business. To that end, the company has formed partnerships with Archaia Comics and Boom Studios. Baldwin says, "We have dozens of more to roll out soon." Lessons LearnedWhile Graphic.ly has clearly made lots of progress since its launch, there are some things Baldwin says the company would've done differently. "I wish we had launched on a mobile device, like the iPhone, at the same time as our desktops, so that users could get a better overall experience," he tells us. Going forward, there's still the challenge of transforming an old school industry. "I wish we had a larger collection. I wish the comic book industry was more accepting of digital comics, and we were more mature as a product to completely take advantage," Baldwin says. Sponsored by Microsoft BizSpark
Reviews: Android, Windows, adobe AIR More About: comic books, graphic.ly For more Business coverage:
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| Stop Leaving Boneheaded Comments on Your Friends’ Walls Posted: 09 Sep 2010 07:57 AM PDT   Facebook gets a lot of attention for being “your space” — a handful of entry fields in which to sum up your awesomeness, right down to the bewildering “Write something about yourself” box. Researchers fixate on what your profile says about you, while increasingly complex pages, plug-ins and boxes (what are those all about, anyway?) make it clear that Facebook is all about you. Still, at least one tab of your Facebook profile is largely left to others’ devices: the wall. Here, controlled chaos reigns as friends and sometimes even strangers add uncensored commentary to your digital persona. The wall’s a totally bizarre concept, if you think about it: You’re writing a message to your friend, but instead of getting it to him directly (Hey, the “send message” button is right there), you post a thought for the world to see. It’s an opportunity for your friends to showcase their wit, trot out inside jokes and flirt publicly. It’s also an opportunity for your pals to completely screw you over. When it comes to interacting on the FB, we suggest you cease and desist with the following… And so begins my Netiquette column — which I write with my Stuff Hipsters Hate co-blogger, Andrea Bartz — this week over at CNN. Check out the column at CNN.com >>Image courtesy of iStockphoto, CWLawrence Reviews: Facebook, iStockphoto More About: cnn, facebook, netiquette, social media, Stuff Hipsters Hate For more Social Media coverage:
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| 10 Killer Google Chrome Tips, Tricks and Shortcuts Posted: 09 Sep 2010 07:25 AM PDT   As Google’s Chrome browser celebrates its second anniversary, we thought it appropriate to commemorate the occasion with some handy tips and tricks. Here are 10 tried and tested hints that will help you to get the most out of Chrome by taking advantage of some of its more functional tools and time-saving setups. Read through the suggestions below and let us know which ones you’ll be trying out, or any tricks we haven’t included, in the comments box. 1. Open Multiple Pages on Startup Rather than just one trusty homepage, you can get Chrome to open several pages as it starts up, giving you instant access to whatever sites and services you prefer to start your day with. It’s easy to setup. Just click on the wrench icon on the top right of your browser window, select “Options” and under the “Basic” tab check the box where it says “on startup… open the following pages.” If you click “Add” it brings up a list of recently browsed sites to choose from, or you can manually enter a URL in the box at the top. Now, the next time you fire up your browser, those pages will be automatically loaded in the order in which you entered them, saving you some precious time. 2. Pin Tabs in Place on the Browser Bar If you are going to be using a site or service a lot in one web session, you can “pin” a tab in Chrome, which will shrink the window down to the size of the favicon, leaving more room for multi-tasking. It also prevents tabs from getting lost on the side of the screen when you have many open at once. To do this, right-click on the tab you want to pin and hit “Pin tab.” To enlarge the tab, just right-click and hit “Pin tab” again to uncheck the option.  3. Turn Your Favorite Websites into “Desktop Apps” There’s another option open to you in Chrome if you want fast access to a favorite site — turn the site into what could be loosely described as a desktop app. To do this, navigate to the site you want to desktop-ize, head over to the wrench icon on the top right of your browser window, select “Tools” and then click on “Create application shortcuts.” This will then bring up a window that gives you the option to create shortcuts on your desktop, in your start menu, or on the quick launch bar and you can check or un-check the boxes to make your selection. If you opt for desktop you’ll instantly see an icon for the site appear on your desktop display, as per the grab below:  Now, double-clicking on that icon will load up that website in a separate window with no navigation tabs, giving it the feel of a native desktop application — so it could be great for webmail services.  4. Add a Home Button to the Toolbar Chrome boasts a minimalist design that many love, but there are some users who just need to have a “home” button to click. Adding a home button to Chrome is very easy — just click on the wrench icon at the top-right, select “Options,” and under the basic tab you’ll see a check box for “show Home button on the toolbar.” Hit it and you’ll never be homeless again.  5. Carry Out Calculations in the Omnibox In addition to being a URL bar and a search field, Chrome’s “omnibox” is also a basic calculator. Rather than load up your computer’s calculator, Google or Wolfram Alpha, you can just type your mathematical query into the omnibox and the result will show up where you’d normally see auto-suggestions. Beyond simple sums, this also works for unit conversions like feet-to-meters, pints-to-liters, etc,. 6. Use AutoFill to Auto-Complete an Address If you find yourself typing your address time and time again, you might want to consider Chrome’s AutoFill options which can remember it and save you the repeat effort. To activate the feature, click on the wrench icon, select “Options,” then click on the “Personal Stuff,” then choose “AutoFill options.” By selecting “Add address,” you can enter your details. The next time you are presented with a form, you won’t have to manually type it all in. You can also choose to add a credit card via AutoFill, but for security reasons we’d advise thinking twice before going down that route. 7. Use Chrome URLs to See History, Bookmarks & Downloads Chrome can show you some of your browser data and settings via special Chrome URLs, which is a handy way to see the info in your browser — especially as all options are searchable. You can view your bookmarks, downloads and history by typing “chrome://bookmarks,” “chrome://downloads,” or “chrome://history” in the omnibox. 8. Make a Favicon-Only Bookmarks Bar There’s yet another cool way to get quick access to your favorite, or most-visited sites in Chrome. Plus, it looks pretty cool. You can get Chrome to display your bookmarked sites in the toolbar, but by deleting the site’s name from the bookmark settings, the browser will just show the site’s favicons, making for a colorful display along the top of your window. To get this going, you’ll first need to make sure you have the bookmarks bar displayed. You can check this by clicking the wrench icon, selecting “Tools” and then ticking “Always show bookmarks bar.” Once you’ve done this, as you add new sites to your bookmarks, be sure to delete the text in the name box, as per the screen shot below, for a favicon-only list.  Alternatively, to edit existing bookmarks so that they display favicon-only, go to “chrome://bookmarks,” right-click on the bookmark, select “Edit” and then delete the text in the name box.  To add the bookmarks to your bookmark bar, simply drag and drop them from your bookmarks list. 9. Sync Your Chrome Settings to Your Google Account This isn’t the most exciting tip, but it’s darn useful if you work or play across multiple computers. You can sync your Chrome settings to your Google account so all those preferences you’ve taken time to set up, and all the bookmarks you’ve saved along the way, will follow you wherever you go online. Simply click the wrench icon, go to “Options” and under “Personal Stuff” you can “Set up sync” by signing in to your Google account. This will now mean all your Chrome settings will sync wherever you sign in with your Google account. 10. Play a Trick on Your Chrome-Using Buddies If you’ve a buddy or a work-mate who uses Chrome, you can use the “developer tools” functionality to play a really clever trick on them, should they step away from their computer at any time. When on a webpage, right-click and choose “Inspect element.” This will split the screen to view the page code. In this view, you can select and over-type the text that appears on the page and replace it with wording of your own choosing, or even change measurements, colors, etc. if you’ve got a basic grasp of HTML.  Here are a few more familiar webpages we “edited” via the “Inspect element” function. As you can imagine, a sneaky couple of minutes at a friend’s computer as they wander off for a comfort break and you could really have them going.   More Google Chrome Resources from Mashable:
Reviews: Chrome, Google More About: Browsers, chrome, Chromium, Google, google chrome, how to, how tos, List, Lists, shortcuts, tips, trending, tricks For more Tech coverage:
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| Morning Brief: iOS 4.1 Jailbreak, T-Mobile’s Next Android Phone, Max Mara’s iPad App Posted: 09 Sep 2010 06:19 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. iOS 4.1 JailBreak Has Arrived Shortly after iOS 4.1 became available for iPhone and iPod touch users on Wednesday, a hacker called “pod2g” claims he's found an exploit that will allow users to jailbreak the newly patched OS. What’s unusual about this jailbreak is that it is a boot ROM exploit, meaning that it targets a low-level part of the OS and that Apple will have to update its hardware, rather than its software, to fix it. T-Mobile G2 Specs Revealed Details about the successor to the first-ever Android phone, the T-Mobile G1, have finally been revealed. Although the T-Mobile G2 doesn’t promise to be as remarkable as its predecessor, it does support HSPA+, making it T-Mobile’s first 4G/3.5G smartphone. It also sports a standard 3.7-inch screen, 800 MHz Snapdragon CPU, a 5-megapixel camera with LED flash and autofocus (which is also capable of recording HD video), 4GB of internal memory, 8GB of external memory (which can be expanded to 32GB), a 3.5mm headphone jack, Bluetooth and Flash support, and a full QWERTY keyboard. While the exact launch date has not yet been revealed, pre-orders will be available in limited quantities “later this month,” the company said. ‘S Max Mara Launches iPad App ‘S Max Mara has debuted its first app for the iPad, dubbed “Decode the Cube iApp,” which challenges users to solve a virtual, 3-D mechanical puzzle very much like a Rubik’s Cube. Once all of the pieces are aligned, users can preview the fashion company’s fall collection — centered around a core item, a puffy, lightweight “Cube jacket” — and enter to win a trip to Milan. The app [iTunes link] is part of a wider digital strategy Max Mara has committed to. The apparel manufacturer launched a Facebook page in late August, and during New York City’s Fashion’s Night Out celebration on Friday, its flagship store will be furnished with iPad terminals that visitors can use to play the game before trying on the signature Cube jacket. 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: Android, Bluetooth, Twitter More About: android, first to know series, iOS, ios 4.1, ipad app, jailbreak, jailbreaking, maxmara, T-Mobile, T-Mobile G2 For more Mobile coverage:
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| Apple Finally Shares App Store Review Guidelines Posted: 09 Sep 2010 06:07 AM PDT   Apple has issued a statement that will be like music to the ears of iOS application developers. The company has published the App Store Review Guidelines, which should help developers understand why their app has been rejected (and give them some idea of how to avoid being rejected before submitting). In the past, Apple has often been criticized for being strict, unfair and ambiguous at times with its App Store policies. Now, we’ll finally be able to decipher the inner workings of Apple’s app approval process. Furthermore, Apple is “relaxing all restrictions on the development tools used to create iOS apps, as long as the resulting apps do not download any code.” Back in April, when the debate about Flash on the iPhone was still raging, Steve Jobs was strongly against using third party development tools to create iOS apps. “We know from painful experience that letting a third party layer of software come between the platform and the developer ultimately results in sub-standard apps and hinders the enhancement and progress of the platform,” he wrote in an open letter on Flash. The sections of Apple’s Developer Program license that have changed are 3.3.1, 3.3.2 and 3.3.9, and it will take a while to fully understand what, exactly, this means for developers. More to come. Reviews: App Store More About: adobe, apple, development, Flash, iOS For more Apple coverage:
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It might be the baby of the group, but the S80 is a 14.1-megapixel beast in a 16.5mm sliding frame. The successor the the Nikon Coolpix S70, the S80 is the latest in Nikon’s series of touchscreen pocket cameras.
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