Kamis, 02 September 2010

Mashable: Latest 29 News Updates - including “Samsung Officially Unveils Galaxy Tab”

Mashable: Latest 29 News Updates - including “Samsung Officially Unveils Galaxy Tab”

Link to Mashable!

Samsung Officially Unveils Galaxy Tab

Posted: 02 Sep 2010 04:40 AM PDT


Samsung has finally spilled the details about its long-awaited tablet computer, the Galaxy Tab, during a press conference at the IFA consumer electronics fair in Berlin.

Samsung calls its tablet a “smart media device,” and Galaxy Tab definitely has the specifications to back it up: Android 2.2 support, a Cortex A8 1 GHz processor, 512 MB of RAM and 16/32 GB of internal memory with the possibility of upgrading through microSD memory cards.

Furthermore, there’s a 7 inch TFT-LCD display with 1024×600 pixel resolution, a 3 megapixel camera with autofocus and LED Flash plus an additional fron 1.3 megapixel camera for video chats (that’s got to hurt iPad owners at least a little bit) as well as WiFi and 3G connectivity. The dimensions of the device are 190.09 x 120.45 x 11.98mm, with 380 grams of weight, and the battery should last through 7 hours of movie playback.

In other words, the iPad got a worthy competitor, not only because of the capable hardware the Tab is sporting, but also because it has the latest and greatest version of Android. Although it’s smaller than the iPad, whose screen measures 9.7 inches, Galaxy Tab does a lot of things the iPad cannot do: it has two cameras, it supports Flash and a wide variety of multimedia formats, including DivX, XviD, MPEG4, H.263, and H.264.

Samsung has partnered with Vodafone for the launch, and the Galaxy Tab will start selling in October in the majority of Vodafone's European markets and later this year in the U.S and other markets.

More About: android, samsung, Samsung Galaxy Tab, Tablet

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Competition Responds to Apple TV and Ping

Posted: 02 Sep 2010 03:29 AM PDT


Apple made a lot of announcements today, from the new Apple TV to the Ping social network for music built into iTunes 10.

Because Apple is entering some new market segments (or, in the case of Ping, some new markets, period) Apple is now a direct competitor to a number of other companies already in the social music and streaming content space.

Boxee, Rdio and Roku have all issued statements in response to Apple’s latest moves and what, if anything, it means for the future of those startups.

Apple is describing Ping as a social network for music. It takes a very Facebook and Twitter approach to following friends and artists and is designed to make discovering and sharing new music super simple.

Rdio, a startup created by the founders of Skype, also lists music discovery as one of its core strengths and missions. Of course, unlike iTunes, Rdio is a subscription service that allows users to enjoy on-demand streaming music for $4.99 or $9.99 a month.

This is the statement Rdio sent us in response to Apple’s latest social music plans:

“Today’s announcement from Apple completely validates Rdio’s social approach to discovering music through people,” said Carter Adamson, COO, Rdio. “But in our view, sharing a short clip doesn’t amount to sharing music and people are still restricted by Apple’s pay-per-tune platform.”

Rdio also notes that it has apps for the iPhone, Android and BlackBerry.


Roku and Boxee Respond


When the first Apple TV was introduced back in January 2007, the market for connected video devices essentially started and ended with TiVo (at least on the commercial level). Almost four years later, the landscape is very different.

Steve Jobs highlighted some of the reasons Apple though the Apple TV didn’t really take off and many of the changes to the new Apple TV are designed to address those issues. Some of the changes, including a lower price, a focus on streaming, rather than storing content, and subscription access to Netflix, are familiar to fans of the connected device space.

Roku, a company that introduced the first Netflix Watch Instantly set-top box back in 2008, shares many of the same features and is also similarly priced to the new Apple TV.

Roku provided us with this statement:

Roku created the category for streaming players over two years ago with the original Netflix player for $99. Since then the category has continued to grow rapidly with large hardware entrants like Xbox, PS3, Wii, blu-ray players, and now AppleTV adding streaming capabilities. … During this time Roku sales have continued to accelerate as the overall streaming market grows, and customers enjoy our simple interface, low cost and large selection of services. Our customers are using the box more and more. Two years ago the average Roku customer used our product 11 hours a month, but now it’s 43 hours a month.

Beyond Netflix we have introduced over 50 additional content partners on our open platform that offer customers access to over 100,000 movies and TV shows, live sports, music, photo and video sharing, and more — all while continuing to reduce the cost of our products. Today, a customer can get a Roku player for as low as $59.99 and an HD-capable model for as low as $69.99, plus a 1080p model for $99.99. By selling direct to customers (on roku.com) we can offer more while maintaining lower prices.

Roku is completely confident that our strategy of offering more features and lower cost than competitors continues to be the right plan.

The core difference, as we see it, between what Roku offers and what Apple TV offers is that Roku is a streaming player that connects to bigger content networks. You can browse videos from Vimeo and blip.tv, you can watch UFC Pay-per-view content and you can watch premium titles from Netflix or Amazon VOD.

However, Roku doesn’t have a connection to a users networked content on the Mac, PC or mobile device. Roku has more content options for users but offers less content to a users personal local library.

For Boxee, the situation is a bit more complex. Boxee started as software that could be run on the Mac or Apple TV. Many original Apple TV owners (myself included) only bought the Apple TV because of Boxee. Boxee added the third-party content options that the original Apple TV lacked.

Meanwhile, the Boxee Box promised to be a streaming media device to both your local network and to sources like Netflix, Crackle.com MUBI.

On the Boxee Blog, founder Avner Ronen had this to say:

Most of us at Boxee are Apple fanboys. If it is silver and it has the Apple logo on it, we pre-order it. If there’s a line around the block, chances are we’re in it. And everything stops at Boxee HQ while we unbox the latest gadget to come out of Cupertino. We were incredibly excited when a couple of developers in the community made it possible to run Boxee on Apple TV (as hundreds of thousands of users have done) and the Boxee Remote for iPhone remains one of the most popular interfaces people use to interact with Boxee. Plenty has happened since then. …
We all watched the Apple announcement. We walked away feeling strongly confident about the space it left for Boxee to compete. We have a different view of what users want in their living rooms. We are taking different paths to get there. The Boxee Box is going to be $100 more expensive than the Apple TV, but will give you the freedom to watch what you want.

The new Apple TV features, especially the addition of AirPlay, really go to the heart of what Boxee offers: A simple way to access local and online content directly from the TV.

While lacking a direct link to the iTunes ecosystem, Boxee does have a layer of extensibility that the new Apple TV still doesn’t really seem to embrace.


Make No Mistake, Apple IS Competition


The position that all three companies are taking is that Apple’s entry into their respective fields reaffirms their business plans. The secondary position is that the value proposition offered by each service is enough to differentiate them from Apple’s offerings.

This is true and false at the same time. While existing music networks and connected devices can surely still compete against Apple, make no mistake, this is a competition.

Apple is gunning not just for Boxee and Roku, but for Google TV, TiVo Premiere and video game consoles that tout the ability to stream content.

Mashable’s Ben Parr has already opined on the potential impact Ping will have on MySpace and other music networks like Last.fm and MOG should also be aware of the new competition.

Apple still has to sell itself to consumers in the living room, and the new Apple TV just makes that sales pitch more attractive. Where Apple doesn’t have to sell itself is with music. iTunes is the largest music store in the world and the go-to place for finding and buying music. Adding in social components to that is going to upset other sharing and discovery services.

This doesn’t mean that competing against Apple is going to be impossible, but music networks and connected device makers do need continue to keep an eye on Cupertino. Apple’s here to play.

What impact do you think Apple TV and Ping will have on its competitors? Let us know!


Reviews: Android, Boxee, Crackle, Facebook, Netflix Watch Instantly, Ping, Skype, Twitter, Vimeo

More About: apple, Apple TV, boxee, connected devices, itunes 10, Ping, rdio, roku

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Google Responds to Steve Jobs’ Android Activation Jab

Posted: 02 Sep 2010 12:57 AM PDT


As he was boasting that Apple is activating 230,000 iOS devices a day at Apple’s San Francisco event yesterday, Steve Jobs took the opportunity to accuse competitors of boosting their numbers when it comes to device activations.

“We think some of our friends are counting upgrades in their numbers,” said Jobs, most probably referring to the recent figures from Google, whose Eric Schmidt claimed 200,000 activations daily in August 2010.

Google has quickly responded to Jobs’ allegations. In a response to an inquiry from Fortune, a Google spokesperson said: “The Android activation numbers do not include upgrades and are, in fact, only a portion of the Android devices in the market since we only include devices that have Google services.”

So there you have it: according to Google, it might even have more than 200,000 Android device activations every day. Who do you trust: Apple or Google?


Reviews: Android, Google

More About: android, apple, Google, iOS, steve jobs


A Facebook-Based Online Store Just for Students

Posted: 01 Sep 2010 11:43 PM PDT


This post is part of Mashable's Spark of Genius series, which highlights a unique feature of startups. The series is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark.. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here.

Name: Kembrel

Quick Pitch: A private store for students that can be accessed entirely through Facebook, from browsing to checkout.

Genius Idea: Launched by two students at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton business school, Kembrel is a private shopping community for just for college students. The site has partnered with a few well-known lifestyle brands to offer deep discounts on goods during a limited window of time.

To give you an idea of the specifics, most of these discounts range from 40% to 75% off the retail price of the item in question, and sales generally start at 9 p.m. EST and last for just five days.

The company’s goal is to help students discover new brands and obtain highly coveted products while saving a lot of money, possibly avoiding a starving student scenario or two. Of course, such a store also gives brands optimal exposure to an important demographic and helps them build long-term relationships with their customers through a combination of social e-commerce and community management.

Kembrel isn’t the first company to start using Facebook as an e-commerce platform. In fact, we wrote recently about Delta selling tickets via Facebook. Right now, Kembrel can be accessed through the main website or via its Facebook store. It’s also not the first students-only app (we covered one of those a few days ago) or the first limited-window-of-time sales app (Groupon, anyone?). Still, it’s a clever mashup of all these ideas, and it’s offering some killer deals.

We can imagine many a college student getting excited about an exclusive, half-off American Apparel sale or a back-to-school special on iPhone accessories. And we can imagine investors getting excited about a good-looking app built on top of a far-reaching platform that also has out-of-the-box revenue potential.

What do you think of Kembrel so far?


Sponsored by Microsoft BizSpark


BizSpark is a startup program that gives you three-year access to the latest Microsoft development tools, as well as connecting you to a nationwide network of investors and incubators. There are no upfront costs, so if your business is privately owned, less than three years old, and generates less than U.S.$1 million in annual revenue, you can sign up today.


Reviews: Facebook

More About: ecommerce, facebook, kembrel, Store

For more Social Media coverage:


HOW TO: Get Started with HTML5 Boilerplate

Posted: 01 Sep 2010 11:08 PM PDT


This series is supported by Rackspace, the better way to do hosting. Learn more about Rackspace’s hosting solutions here.

This is not your father’s world wide web. Thanks to soaring smartphone sales, new tablet devices like the iPad, and the burgeoning trend of connected devices, individuals are accessing and experiencing the web in a very different way than they were even five years ago.

The desktop browsing experience is also undergoing radical change, thanks to the evolution of JavaScript frameworks and the push for standards successors such as CSS3 and HTML5. It’s an exciting time to be developing or designing for the web.

Even for the seasoned developer, it can be difficult to know where to start if you want to embrace the new technologies of HTML5 and support new devices like the iPhone, Android-based smartphones or the iPad without neglecting users on older browsers. Fortunately, the collaborative nature of the web means that lots of developers and designers are working out best practices and solutions toward these problems together.

One of the most interesting new projects aimed at giving designers and developers a starting template for integrating HTML5 and other modern features into their sites is HTML5 Boilerplate.

Created by Paul Irish and Divya Manian, HTML5 Boilerplate is the product of more than two and a half years in iterative development, and it’s chock-full of best practices and techniques for creating cross-browser compatible websites that will work with legacy browsers (which means IE 6) while also being HTML5-ready.

To be clear, HTML5 Boilerplate is not a framework. It’s a template that can be modified and used for your own projects. You can use as much or as little as you want and make your own additions and subtractions. Still, it’s one of the most robust and well-commented starting points we’ve seen for setting up a solid HTML5 base for your projects.

One of the best things about HTML5 Boilerplate is that the source is openly available under a public domain license; you can use it and integrate it into your own projects in any way you want.

As a result, a ton of awesome projects have already used HTML5 Boilerplate alongside other techniques. Just check out this page on GitHub to see a sampling of some of the HTML5 Boilerplate-infused spin-offs.

Check out these additional tools, projects and resources to get the most out of HTML5 Boilerplate:

We’re really excited to see how HTML5 Boilerplate evolves and how other projects choose to integrate the template. It’s a terrific starting point for many designers and developers who just don’t have the time to pull all the little bits and information together when getting started with HTML5.

Are you using HTML5 in your designs? What tools are you using to ease the process? Let us know in the comments.


Series supported by Rackspace


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Rackspace is the better way to do hosting. No more worrying about web hosting uptime. No more spending your time, energy and resources trying to stay on top of things like patching, updating, monitoring, backing up data and the like. Learn why.


More Dev & Design Resources from Mashable:


- 5 Cross-Platform Mobile Development Tools You Should Try
- 15 Developer/Hacker Women to Follow on Twitter
- 10 Tools for Distributed Developer Teams
- 11 Delicious TextMate Themes for Designers and Developers
- 7 Awesome CSS3 Techniques You Can Start Using Right Now

Images courtesy of HTML Boilerplate.


Reviews: Android, WordPress

More About: 960.gs, divya manian, HTML5, html5 boilerplate, paul irish, Web Development, web development series

For more Dev & Design coverage:


Twitter’s iPad App: All the Bells and Whistles

Posted: 01 Sep 2010 10:34 PM PDT


Twitter has just announced the service’s official iPad app.

It’s free and comes with a slew of touch interface bells and whistles built right in. The app is intended to allow for seamless navigation between tweets, photos, web pages, videos and other media and updates. It’s also usable even for those who don’t have Twitter accounts.

Twitter for iPad [iTunes link] has a few new UI touches that you haven’t seen elsewhere. These features are custom-designed for the larger screen and touch capabilities of the iPad. It also caters to what the iPad was made for: media consumption rather than creation. Twitter’s Leland Rechis, a mobile UX designer, writes on the Twitter blog that the iPad is “a device that really lets content shine.”

The main interface is a series of panes that can expand and retract based on the kind of content the user wants to access. “Tapping on a Tweet opens a pane to the right. Depending on the content in that Tweet, you'll see a video or photo, or maybe a news story, or perhaps another Tweet. You can continue tapping on Tweets, opening new panes, and getting new content as long as you'd like,” wites Rechis.

Media viewing is optimized for the iPad, as well. Videos play in-line with other content and can be loaded while you’re browsing through your timeline. You can pinch a video to view it fullscreen, too.

Finally, Twitter has really done some interesting things with touchscreen capabilities in this app. When you pinch a tweet, you’ll see details about the author and have a list of actions you can take, including reply and retweet. A two-finger pull-down gesture will show the entire conversation around a tweet.

It’s a creative way to approach multitouch app building, and we look forward to playing with it ourselves. We’re also really looking forward to what apps may come to other tablets in the future.

The iTunes release is rolling out right now; if you can’t get the latest version of the app right now, wait a bit and try again. And of course, let us know what you think of Twitter for iPad in the comments.


Reviews: Twitter, blog

More About: apple, ipad, twitter

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iTunes 10 and Ping Are Here, Bringing Mixed First Impressions

Posted: 01 Sep 2010 08:56 PM PDT


iTunes 10 is now live and available for download. It comes bundled with its own killer feature: music-centric social network Ping.

Announced just this morning, the new iTunes/Ping one-two combo pack a mighty punch. But can this dynamic duo deliver on its promise to revitalize music-based social networking? And will Ping be the MySpace killer all the tech pundits are speculating about?

We don’t have all the answers, but we do have a few first impressions to share with you. We were definitely met with a few surprises and even some disappointments when firing up the app for the first time. Here’s what we think so far; be sure to share your opinions with us in the comments.


Signing Up and Getting Started


First, download the new iTunes. Once it’s installed, you’ll notice a new link under the iTunes Store tab on the left side of the iTunes interface. The Ping tab is inconspicuous as it is exciting.

The service is opt-in, so you’ll have to turn Ping on and sign in with your Apple account and agree to a new Terms of Service. After that comes a simple profile form that gives you the opportunity to upload an avatar and write the standard social media “About Me” section. Additionally you can “like” up to three genres.

Our first nose-wrinkle moment with Ping came right here: We only get to pick three kinds of music? Almost everyone likes a few more than three genres. Still, this will force those pesky “I listen to everything” types to get specific, so we can’t complain too much.

After that, you get to make some privacy choices. You can specify how music you like, rate and review is displayed on your profile; you can also decide whether or not people can follow you and if they need your approval to follow you. Even if you don’t allow others to follow you, you can still follow anyone you like. It’s a fairly common asymmetric friendship model, much like Twitter’s.

You can also choose to connect your profile on Ping to your Facebook profile, if you wish. Once your accounts are connected, you can also follow your Facebook friends on Ping, too.

Ping already has some “Artists We Recommend You Follow,” among them, Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, Linkin Park and U2. These don’t seem to be connected in any way to individual users’ purchasing habits or iTunes library contents. In the “People We Recommend You Follow” section, you’ll find luminaries such as Def Jam head Rick Rubin and radio DJ Jason Bentley. It’s a shame these recommendations aren’t based on available user data yet; we’re hoping that as more artists enable Ping profiles and more users sign up and begin to exhibit certain behaviors based on demographic and psychosocial factors, the recommendation quality for first-timers will improve.


Playing With Ping: UX/UI


Once you’re in and set up, you’ll see a stream of recent activity. You can think of it in a couple ways. First, it’s a music-only version of your Facebook news feed. Second, it’s a huge recommendation — one that might work pretty well if your friends, or at least the people you follow on Ping, have similar taste in music.

You can comment on and like others’ activities. When you click through to another user’s profile, you’ll also see a run-down of his or her recent activities.

Navigation is a bit awkward; don’t expect Facebook’s plethora of tabs and menus. You’ll get a search bar and simple back and forward buttons in addition to the traditional iTunes navigation bar at the top of the screen. On another look-and-feel UI note, it’s new and jarring to have to use a web app from within a desktop app, but it’s something that Ping users will apparently have to get used to.

The other part of running a social network inside a desktop app is that it’s cripplingly slow — something that might seriously inhibit the platform’s growth. If there’s anything end users hate more than sites that constantly go down, it’s sites that run slowly.

You can search for artists, people or both. Either the search function is purely busted, or iTunes hasn’t got a large enough repertoire of artists on board with Ping yet. Artists have both their iTunes Store pages and Ping profiles. Ping search takes you to the former, which isn’t quite intuitive.

The artist Ping profiles show an activity stream as well as upcoming concerts and a few other links. And of course, the entire Ping artist interface contains built-in music-selling features.

Artists can also upload photos, videos and text updates, something we haven’t yet been able to do as non-artists. As for uploading content other than reviews, regular users are limited to comments on your and others’ activity only for now.

One interesting section of Ping is its Charts, a sort of recommendation engine that delivers a brief list of songs and albums popular among people you follow. It shows purchased music only, not liked, rated or reviewed items.

Other sections of your Ping profile might not be as easy to understand; for example, don’t expect to be able to write a review when you click on “My Reviews;” you’ll have to go elsewhere in iTunes for that. Controls for the interface are small and, shall we say, specific. In other words, you’d better be pretty accurate when clicking on that five pixel-wide arrow, or you’ll end up on a wholly different part of the site and have to start all over again.


Is It a MySpace Killer?


The big question for music fans, musicians, digital collateral creators and millions of other people is both simple and complex: Can Ping replace MySpace as the go-to marketplace to find and socialize around entertainment?

We pondered this question at length earlier today, when we were confident that this Apple-backed MySpace alternative, with its baked-in connection to the iTunes Store, would be a surefire success.

However, while testing the app this evening, we see that Ping has a long way to go if it’s going to be a better alternative. All the reasons that users have largely abandoned MySpace — the emphasis on gaudy customization, the constant stream of shallow user-to-user communication, the veritable sea of band-spam — have been avoided to a perhaps detrimental extreme. We love minimalist design as much as the next guy, but we also love self-expression, music-sharing and communication with friends. Much of that is curtailed here.

Moreover, the interface is still buggy and slower than molasses in January at the North Pole during a legitimate Ice Age. And that slowness is a big turnoff and an inherent factor of working within iTunes.

We don’t love Ping yet, but we don’t hate it, either. We suspect that much of the network’s value will be a wait-and-see proposition. Wait and see what happens when there are more artists, more curators, more well-known DJs and music bloggers, and more of your own friends on Ping. Wait to see what changes Apple makes in later iterations. But for now, it’s definitely an app worth watching.

What are your first impressions of Ping?


Reviews: Facebook, MySpace, Ping, Twitter

More About: apple, Apple Ping, itunes, itunes 10, itunes ping, Ping

For more Apple coverage:


Pay for Starbucks Coffee with Your BlackBerry

Posted: 01 Sep 2010 08:00 PM PDT


Mocha frappuccino and soy latte lovers rejoice: Starbucks is rolling out its Starbucks Card Mobile App for BlackBerry tomorrow, September 2.

In September 2009, Starbucks introduced its Starbucks Card Mobile app for iPhone and iPod touch, enabling the owners of those devices to reload their Starbucks payment cards, monitor their rewards cards and even pay for their purchases at 16 stores in Seattle and the Silicon Valley region. In June, the coffee company extended its mobile payment system to 1,000 Target stores in addition to the roster of Starbucks venues.

Now all of this functionality has been adapted — and, in some respects, improved — for BlackBerry Bold, Curve, Storm and Tour users. For instance, BlackBerry owners can use the app’s store locator to identify all Starbucks and Target venues where Starbucks is sold, not just the ones that support mobile payments.

In an interview with Mashable, Chuck Davidson, the category manager for innovation on the Starbucks Card team, described the group’s painstaking efforts to optimize the app experience for BlackBerry users. “We didn’t just want to put an iPhone app on a BlackBerry, which would have shocked BlackBerry users,” Davidson explained. “We had to get inside a BlackBerry head and use the right workflow.”

Thus, instead of embedding rich graphics and video for navigation, the team utilized the menu key, resulting in a much more intuitive experience for BlackBerry users.

With the addition of BlackBerry support, Davidson said that roughly three-fourths of its customers now have access to the Starbucks Card Mobile app. While he didn’t confirm that an Android app was in the works, he did say it was the third-most requested app after the iPhone and BlackBerry.

To get the Starbucks Card Mobile BlackBerry app, text the word "GO" to 70845 or visit the Starbucks mobile site.


Reviews: Android, Mashable, iPhone

More About: Android App, App, blackberry, blackberry app, iphone app, starbucks

For more Mobile coverage:


FCC Questions Key Aspects of Google and Verizon’s Net Neutrality Proposal

Posted: 01 Sep 2010 06:22 PM PDT


The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is diving deeper into Google and Verizon’s proposed net neutrality framework with a public notice and inquiry into two of net neutrality’s key issues.

The FCC’s seven-page public notice [PDF] tackles two of the key proposals from the Google-Verizon framework: “Specialized Services” and net neutrality/open internet principles for the mobile wireless Internet. The Google-Verizon proposal has received heavy criticism for excluding wireless Internet from many net neutrality regulations.

“There are two complex issues, however, that merit further inquiry,” reads the report. “The first is the relationship between open Internet protections and services that are provided over the same last-mile facilities as broadband Internet access service. The second is the application of open Internet rules to mobile wireless Internet access services, which have unique characteristics related to technology, associated application and device markets, and consumer usage.”

The FCC has already said that it doesn’t agree with all of the points of the Google-Verizon proposal, and this public notice carries that tone. The FCC’s concern with specialized services seems to be that open Internet protections could be weakened if broadband providers use specialized services to circumvent the rules that apply to broadband Internet access.

On the wireless front, the FCC “seeks comment on ‘how, to what extent, and when’ openness principles should apply to mobile wireless platforms, with a particular emphasis on furthering innovation, private investment, competition and freedom of expression.” In other words, the FCC wants it to make the rules of wireless net neutrality very clear so companies like Google and Verizon don’t use ambiguity to their advantage.

The FCC is giving interested parties a 30-day window for filing comments and a 55-day window for reply comments. This is probably only the beginning; the important issue of net neutrality isn’t going to be resolved anytime soon.


Reviews: Google, Internet

More About: fcc, Google, net neutrality, verizon

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To Unfriend or Not to Unfriend: That Is the Facebook Question

Posted: 01 Sep 2010 05:23 PM PDT

Facebook Broken Heart

We’ve all done it — surfed on over to the book of faces, our hearts racing and pupils dilating with excitement, let our cursors linger over those oh-so-powerful words, “Remove From Friends,” and clicked away with the maniacal glee of a serial killer.

Still, there aren’t too many among us who have the skill, nay, the expertise to cut ties without cutting deep.

At this point, some of you may be reminiscing about the sepia-tinged past, those glory days when, if you didn’t want to chill with Lucy “I Eat Paste” Smith anymore, all you had to do was ghost out of her life, letting the last tendrils of your friendship dissolve into the ether like wisps of smoke.

Well, those days are as dead as Lucy’s creepy gray front teeth. Now, every time someone exits your life, you have to decide whether to keep them in your Facebook stream or cut the lifeline.

“Friends and acquaintances come and go as we move through life stages and find the need for keeping some friends and losing others,” says Dr. Larry Rosen, author of Rewired: Understanding the iGeneration and the Way They Learn. “If you had no way to unfriend someone, then this would lose the authenticity of having a relationship.”

You hear that? Unfriending is practically doctor-approved. Still, how do you know when and how to take the pal-eviscerating plunge? Read on for our tips on handling unfriending situations.

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, A1Stock


Reviews: Facebook, iStockphoto

More About: cnn, facebook, netiquette, social media, Stuff Hipsters Hate


Old Digg Crushes New Digg in Reader Vote

Posted: 01 Sep 2010 04:34 PM PDT


In the debate between the old version of Digg and the new Digg, the readers have spoken.

Last week, Digg launched version 4.0 of the popular social news website. It’s been a rocky road pre-launch, so why would it be any different post-launch?

Since the launch of the New Digg, which introduced the ability to follow friends, a faster architecture and personalized news, users have been in revolt, mostly over the types of stories reaching the front page. Digg has since addressed some of these issues, but the debate rages on.

Last week we asked you, the Mashable readers, for your opinion on Digg. Which did you prefer: The new digg or the old one?

The old version of Digg was clearly your choice. With a full 78% of the vote (4,808 votes), the classic version bested the new version’s 12% (747 votes). Four percent of you (230 votes) said it was a tie, while 6% of you (348 votes) said you weren’t a fan of Digg.

In the comments, the debate surrounded features that were available in the old version that weren’t in the new one, including the ability to bury stories and the ability to check upcoming stories. Many of you were also quick to point out that the new Digg is designed to broaden the appeal of the social news website, rather than limit it to its current niche of tech-savvy users.

We’re going to revisit this debate in the future, when we’ve had time to reflect on the changes happening at Digg. In the meantime though, we want to hear your thoughts on this debate in the comments.


Follow Mashable on Digg


Reviews: Digg, Mashable

More About: digg, New Digg, poll, web faceoff

For more Battles coverage:


Why the Apple A4 is the iPod Touch’s Killer Feature

Posted: 01 Sep 2010 03:53 PM PDT


As expected, a massive upgrade to the iPod touch was announced earlier today at Apple’s special event. Although the most outwardly impressive revisions come by way of front and rear facing cameras and the retina display, perhaps more significant was the announcement that the device would house the same chip capably powering the iPhone 4 and the iPad — the Apple A4.

The A4 mobile ARM processor is of particular importance when considering Apple's mobile future. With today’s revelations that Apple has sold 275 million iPods and that 1.5 billion games and entertainment titles have been downloaded on the iPod touch alone, it’s not a stretch to see why Game Center was a cornerstone of the presentation.

While Nintendo and Sony have both been busy manufacturing dedicated mobile gaming platforms, Apple has seized control of over 50% of the worldwide mobile gaming market with multi-function devices like the iPod touch. Although Apple has the market share, the more dedicated game design houses have, for the most part, stayed, in the Nintendo and Sony camps. For Apple to maintain market dominance, it’s going to have to start catering to more serious gamers, and that’s exactly what Game Center is all about.

A cornerstone of the presentation was codename Project Sword. Developed by Chair Entertainment, makers of the Xbox Live hit Shadow Complex, Project Sword will utilize the Unreal 3 engine, making it undoubtedly CPU-intensive. Despite all of that, let’s not sell its surface features short.

The A4 might be the linchpin of the device, but Apple has historically pushed more units based on looks than outright performance. The addition of a front facing camera to the iPod touch will put FaceTime in the hands of millions of new users, which could be enough to tip the scales toward actual usefulness.

Features like FaceTime and the retina display are what people will see, but the smooth performance of the A4 running within Apple’s walled-garden is what will keep users around. Expect lines next week when it’s released.

More About: apple, Apple A4, arm, facetime, iphone, iPod Touch, retina display

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Windows Phone 7 Ready for Release

Posted: 01 Sep 2010 03:19 PM PDT


Microsoft has completed the development of its forthcoming Windows Phone 7. The mobile OS has reached the release to manufacturing (RTM) stage, the company announced today.

All that remains now is for networks and manufacturers to work on the final integrations of WP7 so that it is prepared for its release. While an official release date has not been announced, most reports pin October as Microsoft’s target time for launch.

“Windows Phone 7 is the most thoroughly tested mobile platform Microsoft has ever released,” said Terry Myerson, Microsoft’s corporate vice president of windows phone engineering. “We had nearly ten thousand devices running automated tests daily, over a half million hours of active self-hosting use, over three and a half million hours of stress test passes, and eight and a half million hours of fully automated test passes. We've had thousands of independent software vendors and early adopters testing our software and giving us great feedback. We are ready.”

Windows Phone 7 was revealed earlier this year. It is the Microsoft’s attempt to regain the ground it has ceded in mobile to rivals Google and Apple. The OS includes integration with Zune, Bing, Xbox Live and Facebook, as well as an overhauled UI and multi-touch screen. Two things it will not include at launch: multitasking and copy/paste functionality.

Are you interested in getting a Windows Phone 7? Let us know in the comments.


Reviews: Bing, Facebook, Google

More About: microsoft, Mobile 2.0, Release to manufacturing, RTM, Windows, windows phone 7

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Filmmaker Raises More than $34,000 for Pirate Bay Documentary

Posted: 01 Sep 2010 02:55 PM PDT

Documentary filmmaker Simon Klose has more than 200 hours of unedited footage that he plans turn into a feature-length film, The Pirate Bay — Away From Keyboard (TPB AFK).

After years of documenting The Pirate Bay’s legal proceedings, and taping numerous encounters with the site’s three founders, Klose chose Kickstarter to bring his film to fruition. Klose intended to raise $25,000 in one month’s time to hire a professional editing studio. He met his goal in three days thanks to thousands of small donations from individual donors, and a little promotional support on The Pirate Bay home page.

The TPB AFK project was launched on the evening of August 27. To date, 1,145 different backers have pledged more than $34,000 through Kickstarter. Funds continued to be pledged and will be accepted through September 27.

The documentary aims to chronicle the story of the world’s largest file-sharing site, and be an “observational, character driven film about three guys whose hobby homepage became the embryo of a global political movement.”

Upon completion, Klose plans to release The Pirate Bay — Away From Keyboard for free on the site that started it all — The Pirate Bay.

Kickstarter is proving to be a very powerful platform for do-it-yourself fundraising. Earlier this year, a group of four NYU students raised more than $200,000 to build the anti-Facebook. Their project — Diaspora — is currently underway; the code is expected to be released on September 15.

A trailer for the yet-to-be-completed film is embedded below.

Image courtesy of seekstodream, Flickr


Reviews: Facebook, Flickr

More About: Film, kickstarter, simon klose, social media, the pirate bay

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New Apple TV Adds Netflix, iTunes Rentals and iPad Streaming for $99

Posted: 01 Sep 2010 02:33 PM PDT


At Apple’s special event today, the company announced a redesigned and re-formulated Apple TV. As expected, the new device comes with support for Netflix, streams content and offers affordable rental pricing for TV shows.

The new Apple TV will be available later this month (you can pre-order it now) for $99.99. While most of the changes to the device were expected, not everything that was predicted was announced.

For instance, although the new device sports an A4 processor like the iPhone 4 and iPad, it isn’t being classified as an “iOS” device. Presumably at its core, the new Apple TV is running iOS, or at least something very similar to iOS, but the App Store is not coming to the television, at least not directly.

Because content is not stored on the device, instead streamed from a computer or from an Internet service, Apple has introduced a new rental pricing plan. TV show rentals are just $0.99 for HD and first-run movies are $4.99 for HD. These prices are very competitive, especially in the HD space.

Netflix, YouTube and Flickr support are all built into the device itself. Users can also stream content from a Mac, PC, iPhone or iPad. This is where it gets interesting. Using something called AirPlay, users can share video, photos or music on their iPhone or iPad with Apple TV.

This has some pretty powerful implications, especially if Apple opens up the AirPlay API to third-party developers. In theory, that could mean that third-party content that isn’t accessible directly from the Apple TV could be streamed to the TV anyway via an iOS device.

At $99, the new Apple TV is coming in at a very attractive price point. The device is one-fourth the size of the original Apple TV and is said to be completely silent.

Still, the device will face stiff competition from the upcoming Google TV, the Boxee Box and existing connected devices like Roku, the Playstation 3, Xbox 360, and other connected TV sets and Blu-ray players.

What do you think of the new Apple TV? Is Netflix, iTunes rentals and streaming enough to make you spend $99? Let us know!


Reviews: App Store, Blu, Flickr, Internet, YouTube

More About: Apple TV, connected devices, iptv, itunes rentals, netflix, streaming content, streaming video

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QR Codes Help Consumers Shop for Wine

Posted: 01 Sep 2010 02:02 PM PDT


Selecting the right wine for every occasion is a form of art most of us only pretend to understand. That’s why Lion Nathan Wine Group, a wine owner and importer, has put QR codes on wine bottles to help everyday wine buyers make better selections.

Cellar Key, a joint initiative between Scanbuy and Lion Nathan Wine Group, applies QR code technology to the art of shopping for wine. Initially, Cellar Key will feature six wines from the Lion Nathan Wine Group.

QR codes will be featured on the neck tags of wine bottles, shelf displays and wine menus. Consumers can use their mobile devices to scan codes and pull up detailed information about a particular bottle of wine.

Each QR code is associated with a specific wine, and each scan will pull up a mobile-friendly site replete with information on each wine. Scanners can watch videos about the wine in question, get video tours of wineries, discover food pairings, read up on harvest and tasting notes and check out reviews.

The Cellar Key campaign is a brilliant way to help consumers engage with bottles of wine that may otherwise blend in with all the rest on the shelf. The Cellar Key QR codes on bottle neck tags and shelf displays will likely attract the attention of shoppers and help potential buyers feel more informed in their decision-making process.

More About: cellar key, MARKETING, QR Codes, scanbuy, wine

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We Have a Winner: The Snazzy Napper Parody Contest [VIDEO]

Posted: 01 Sep 2010 01:47 PM PDT


The other week we called upon you, gentle readers, to create a parody commercial for the Snazzy Napper — or Snuggie 2.0, as we have dubbed it. Although three of you stepped forward to assume to mantle of director, veritable Scorseses of schlock, in the end — as Highlander says — there can be only one. Click through for the winner…

Congratulations to SeanieMic, a humble parody rapper who hails from the wilds of Ohio (oh, he of the “Quitting Facebook” rap). Your Snazzy Napper rap made our hardened hearts sing, earning you your very own napper, signed by the entire NYC Mash office. (It exists. It’s currently sitting in my Brooklyn kitchen — which is good news for me and my Visa, ’cause I was worried it was all some sort of terrifying scam targeting people who still carry blankies.)

Anyway, check out the winning video below, as well as the (admirable) runners up over on our Tumblr.

More About: humor, pop culture, viral video

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Apple’s Xbox Live-like Game Center to Launch Next Week

Posted: 01 Sep 2010 01:28 PM PDT


Next week, Apple will launch Game Center for the iPhone and the iPod touch. The app and platform will allow video game players to track one another’s achievements, create multiplayer matches and discover new games.

The features are comparable to those found in Xbox Live, the PlayStation Network and Steam — online gaming services used by Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC gamers, respectively. Third parties have implemented similar features for iPhone games using their own networks, but the Apple Game Center will be built into the tools it gives to developers of iOS apps, securing an edge over the existing networks.

Game Center will be one of many new features included in iOS 4.1, a new version of the iPhone and iPod touch operating system. Apple unveiled that and several other entertainment-related products at a live event today, including an updated iPod touch with the same screen and processor found in the iPhone 4.

Video game developer Epic Games joined Steve Jobs on stage to demonstrate a graphically impressive 3D game tentatively titled Project Sword that utilizes both the new hardware and the Game Center service. When one player invited another to join him in a one-on-one battle, the invitee received a push notification informing him of the challenge. He tapped accept and moments later was squaring off against his friend over the network.

Game Center will be free on all iOS devices. iOS 4.1 for iPhone and iPod touch will launch sometime next week, but the iPad version (iOS 4.2) won’t arrive until November.


Screenshots



Reviews: Steam, video

More About: achievements, apple, apple game center, game center, games, gaming, iOS, ios 4.1, ios 4.2, ipad, iphone, iPod Touch, multiplayer, online gaming, social gaming, video games, XBox live

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Cee-lo’s Viral Hit “F**ck You” Gets an Official Music Video

Posted: 01 Sep 2010 01:13 PM PDT

So fall’s official jam (no, really, it was even playing in a super hipster Brooklyn club last weekend), Cee-lo Green’s “F**ck You,” officially has a video.

Just last week, a stripped-down video featuring merely the song’s lyrics officially went viral, in part because of the catchiness of the song, in part because of its inability to be played on mainstream radio. Within days, the song — a single off of the Gnarls Barkley singer’s new album The Ladykiller — even got its first remix, courtesy of 50 Cent. A more complete video was slated to come out later in the week, but it seems like it took a little longer than expected, because the above vid hit YouTube today.

Check out the new version — which features a nerd-to-riches tale — above, as well as the old version below, and let us know: Which do you like better?


Reviews: YouTube

More About: music, viral video, youtube

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Facebook Places Gets a Romantic Twist with MeetMoi Integration

Posted: 01 Sep 2010 01:02 PM PDT


If you’re one of those people who has yet to figure out exactly how and why to use Facebook Places — and you’re single — MeetMoi might have the answer. This week, the geolocation dating service became the first matchmaking service to integrate with Facebook Places.

MeetMoi, which launched in 2007, is a location-based mobile dating company. Initially, users accessed the service through their mobile browsers, where they had to manually check in to their locations. Users were then notified of matches near them (never of their matches’ exact location, merely the fact that said person was nearby).

Recently, MeetMoi got another shot of location technology when it launched its Android app, MeetMoi Now (coming to iPhone next month). The new app allows for automatic updates, which, again, alert users when a match is nearby — not the fact that they’re chilling at the local Starbucks.

Now available to a select group of beta users, the option to integrate one’s MeetMoi account with Facebook Places allows for easy location updates on MeetMoi via the social networking site. Of course, you need to authorize MeetMoi to sync up with your Facebook account in order to share this info with the dating service. MeetMoi doesn’t share your checkin or location with other users, though.

Social networks have always been prime ground for dating site integration — see Plenty of Tweeps and Zoosk. Still, it’s interesting to see a service piggy-backing on a particular feature in order to tap into its functionality. Like Foursquare apps before it — Assisted Serendipity springs to mind — MeetMoi’s Places integration points to an interesting future in which our virtual networks and RL networks become seamlessly intertwined.

Images courtesy of Flickr, catlovers


Reviews: Android, Facebook, Flickr

More About: facebook, Facebook Places, foursquare, geolocation, meet-moi, Mobile 2.0, online dating

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We’re Hiring! 50+ Job Vacancies in Social Media, Web Design, and More

Posted: 01 Sep 2010 12:47 PM PDT


If you’re seeking a job in social media, we’d like to help out. For starters, Mashable’s Job Lists section gathers together all of our resource lists, how-tos and expert guides to help you get hired. In particular, you might want to see our articles on How to Leverage Social Media for Career Success and How to Find a Job on Twitter.

But we’d like to help in a more direct way, too. Mashable's job boards are a place for socially savvy companies to find people like you. This week and every week, Mashable features its coveted job board listings for a variety of positions in the web, social media space and beyond. Have a look at what's good and new on our job boards:


Jobs at Mashable


Copy Editor at Mashable in New York, NY.


UX/UI Designer at Mashable in San Francisco, CA.


Ad Ops Manager at Mashable in New York, NY.


Ruby on Rails Developer at Mashable in San Francisco, CA.


PHP Developer at Mashable in New York, NY.


Product Manager at Mashable in New York, NY.


VP Sales at Mashable in New York, NY.


Director of Business Development at Mashable in New York, NY.


Mashable Job Board Listings


Social Media Intern at World Wrestling Entertainment in Stamford, CT.


Social Media Manager at Avon Products in New York, NY.


Performance Test Engineer at Synacor in Buffalo, NY.


Front End Web Developer at Draftfcb in Seattle, WA.


UI Designer at AOL in New York, NY.


Account Executive at Connections Media, LLC in Washington DC.


Webmaster at Suburban Noize Records in Burbank, CA.


Webmaster/Web Evangelist at University of South Florida Polytechnic in Lakeland, FL.


Web Analytics/Omniture Manager at TIG Global in Chevy Chase, MD.


Account Manager at Social Media Beast in Chicago, IL.


Ruby Developer at MyBandStock in Los Angeles, CA.


Social Media Supervisor at MediaCom in New York, NY.


Senior Account Planner/Strategist at Wunderman in New York, NY.


Interactive Project Manager at Wunderman in New York, NY.


Interactive Management Supervisor at Wunderman in New York, NY.


Web/Social Media Analyst at Wunderman in New York, NY.


Publicist at F+W Media in New York, NY.


Senior Digital Program/Project Manager at Wunderman New York in New York, NY.


Interactive Account Executive at Wunderman New York in New York, NY.


Digital Marketing Business Director at Domus, Inc. in Philadelphia, PA.


Social Media Marketing Specialist at Alpha Physician Resources in Livingston, NJ.


Interactive Content Writers at Foot Levelers in Roanoke, VA.


Technology Blogger at Leading Media Company in New York, NY.


Content Associate at Clicker in Los Angeles, CA.


Co-Founder and CTO / Advanced LAMP Web Developer at a stealth startup in Palo Alto, CA.


Web Developer – PHP/LAMP at Lawline.com in New York, NY.


Digital PR Strategist at Mekanism in San Francisco, CA.


Head of Product at Terra Matrix Media in Los Angeles, CA or London, UK.


Managing Producer/Project Manager at Harpo Productions/Sony Pictures Television in New York, NY.


Manager, Digital Marketing at Disney Theatrical Group in New York, NY.


Web/Flash Designers & Developers at The Professionals New Media & Creative Staffing in New York, NY.


Interactive Project Manager at Realtime Media in King of Prussia, PA.


Experienced Search Marketing Strategist at Enquiro Search Solutions in Vancouver, Canada.


Senior Analyst, Email Marketing at Continental Airlines in Houston, TX.


Senior Analyst – Internet Development at Continental Airlines in Houston, TX.


Director of Social Media Strategy at Dice Holdings, Inc. in New York, NY.


Sr. Copywriter at Digitas Health in Philadelphia, PA.


Program Operations Analyst 3 at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Washington DC.


Chief Engineer at Audax Health Solutions in Washington DC.


Assistant to Digital Department at a public relations agency in West Hollywood, CA.


Developer Platform Evangelist at Elsevier in New York, NY.


Software Engineer at Arc Worldwide in Chicago, IL.


Communications & Social Media Specialist at a PR Agency in St Louis, MO.


Social Marketing Manager at The Huffington Post in New York, NY.


Senior Front End Developer at Welltok in Englewood, CO.


Senior Community Manager at Welltok in Englewood, CO.


Account Manager at roundhouse in Seattle, WA.


Director of Consumer Marketing at Cooliris in Palo Alto, CA.


Specialist, Online Marketing at Tourism Whistler in Whistler, Canada.


Web Designer at Vann’s, Inc. in Missoula, MT.


Social Network and Content Strategy Brand Manager at Driver Digital in New York, NY.


Front End Web Developer – jQuery at MGH, Inc. in Owings Mills, MD.


Search Engine Marketing Manager at Marcel Media in Chicago, IL.


Mashable’s Job Board has a variety of web 2.0, application development, business development and social networking job opportunities available. Check them out at here.

Find a Web 2.0 Job with Mashable

Got a job posting to share with our readers? Post a job to Mashable today ($99 for a 30 day listing) and get it highlighted every week on Mashable.com (in addition to exposure all day every day in the Mashable marketplace).

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, YinYang


Reviews: Clicker, Cooliris, Mashable, iStockphoto

More About: jobs


HOW TO: Follow the US Open with Social Media

Posted: 01 Sep 2010 12:37 PM PDT


It’s US Open time in New York, which means tennis fever has officially hit the city that never sleeps. As the final major tournament in professional tennis, the US Open always draws a healthy audience, nationally and abroad.

Maybe you've been waiting for the US Open tennis tournament since Wimbledon ended in July. Or maybe your roommate is obsessed with Roger Federer and won't let you watch anything else. Either way, it’s hard to miss the excitement bubbling up around the tournament.

We’ve collected some easy, free and totally legal ways to watch and follow the US Open with these six social media tips.


1. Get to Know the Players


Read what the top contenders are saying about the tournament. Andy Murray tweets daily, nonchalantly dropping phrases like, "Just picked up the US Open Series trophy." Venus Williams is another avid tweeter and, if nothing else, it’s entertaining to keep up with her wardrobe choices (she recently started a clothing line).

Andy Roddick, Bob Bryan, Kim Clijsters, and John Isner all have thriving Twitter feeds as well. You can find a full list of players broken into retired pros, men’s tour and women’s tour at Twitter Athletes.

Roger Federer is more of a Facebook guy. His Page has regular updates and videos, plus some great fan outreach. There's a reason more than four million people “Like” his page: He often responds to fan-submitted questions, for example, "I can dunk a tennis ball, but not a basketball…I am going to stick to tennis,” as well as his dream championship matchups.

Rafael Nadal also prefers his Facebook Page. You might need to understand Spanish in order to read it, but you can join the 3.5 million people who “Like” it in any language. Following this >English-speaking fan on Twitter is a better way for non-Spanish speakers to keep up. Nadal fans can also check out his YouTube moments (many of them with translation) on his dipity timeline.

YouTube has also been a big hit for tracking players. Both Murray and Federer have shown a little flair on YouTube recently. Federer starred in a video where he aims a tennis ball at a bottle sitting on top of a nervous man’s head. Whether fake or not, it's pretty fun to watch.

In the video above, Murray takes a London stroll with some tennis balls, showing off some tricks along the way.


2. Watch Free Live Streaming


US Open

If your boss is OK with it, you can watch the tournament all day long on the Internet. The official US Open site has video feeds with commentary at many of the courts. You can switch easily between courts or watch more than one court at a time. Without closing the video screen, you can also add an online fan chat and view updated stats.

ESPN3 also added selected matches to its live streaming schedule but you need to have an affiliated Internet provider in order to access the video.


3. Get Tournament Updates on Twitter


US Open Twitter

If you don't have time to watch, but still want to follow, there a number of good Twitter sources that will keep you up to speed:

  • @usopen: The official site’s feed mainly focuses on resources.
  • @tennis: Tennis.com’s coverage of the US Open includes daily summaries and podcasts.
  • @ESPNTennis: Get alerted to ESPN coverage of the US Open.
  • @TennisReporters: Foxsports.com reporter Matt Cronin Tweets what he sees.
  • @gerrynyt: The editor of The New York Times Magazine, on tennis.
  • @patrickmcenroe: ESPN commentator Patrick McEnroe…commenting.
  • @justingimelstob: Watch Justin Gimelstob as a commentator for the US Open on the Tennis Channel. Get to know him through his Twitter feed.
  • @jon_wertheim: Jon Wertheim literally wrote the book on some of today’s biggest tennis stars. He’s pretty good with 140-character Tweets, too.

4. Download the US Open App


US Open App

The US Open iPhone App is pretty magnificent. It allows you to check the scores of ongoing games, review the schedule, watch videos, listen to radio casts of matches, read player bios, and see Tweets from players. If you happen to actually be at the National Tennis Center, there's an "Around Me" augmented reality feature that helps you "see through walls" to find the nearest live matches, concessions, or next train home. You can also check in on Foursquare.

If you don't have an iPhone, sadly you're out of luck in the app department. You can, however, visit the US Open’s mobile site or try alternatives like US Open2010 for Android.


5. Follow a Tennis Blog


If Roger Federer decides to make an amazing between-the-legs shot like this one, you don't want to be the only person who hasn't seen the video. Blogs are a good way to get highlights like this one and pick up some talking points from the experts. Here are a handful of favorites:


6. Pick the Winners


US Open Bracket

It's fun to watch athletes win, but it's more fun to win yourself. Take your picks on this lovely blank bracket from ESPN. Brackets from other Grand Slam tournaments are conveniently located on the same page so that you can make educated choices.

Vote for your top contenders to see how your picks compare to the rest of ESPN readers. If the satisfaction of demonstrating superior tennis knowledge isn't enough, be sure to read this betting guide before you take a gamble.


More Sports Resources from Mashable:


- Top 10 Fantasy Football Sites to Help You Win
- The World Cup’s Social Media Evolution
- 5 Social Media Lessons the NBA Can Teach Businesses
- 5 Reasons Every Sports Fan Should Be On Social Media
- Jalen Rose: How Social Media Could've Changed My Career

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, miflippo


Reviews: Android, Foursquare, Internet, Twitter, YouTube, iStockphoto

More About: Andy Murray, ESPN, Grand Slam, how to, List, Lists, Live Stream, roger federer, sports, Sports illustrated, tennis, twitter, US Open, Venus Williams

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Ping Is the Last Nail in the Coffin for MySpace

Posted: 01 Sep 2010 12:17 PM PDT


If I were MySpace, I would be shaking in my boots.

Earlier today, Apple launched iTunes 10, the latest rendition of its wildly popular music software. Really though, iTunes 10 is just a vessel for Ping, Apple’s new music-centric social network. Available immediately to iTunes’s 160 million+ users through the desktop, iPhone and iPod touch, Ping is a social network where users can follow their friends and their favorite artists.

As Apple CEO Steve Jobs described it, Ping is Facebook + Twitter for music. It centers around a newsfeed of what your friends are listening to and watching through iTunes. It provides custom song and album charts, as well as 17,000+ concert listings and, of course, deep integration with the full library of iTunes content.


Ping’s Potential Effect on MySpace


It’s no secret that MySpace is on the decline. Facebook won that war more than a year ago and continues to flourish. In a bid to stay relevant, MySpace has been rolling out new features and pivoting its strategy towards a younger generation with a focus on entertainment and music content.

But why go to MySpace Music when you can go straight to the source?

MySpace has become a destination for music lovers to follow their favorite artists and get the music and video content they crave. Artists in turn are on MySpace because it’s still a good distribution channel for their work.

But why should an artist spend time on MySpace when they could potentially make a lot more money with Ping?

MySpace may have a new homepage, but Ping has iTunes, and that’s the key to why it’s such a threat to MySpace. Unlike most of the web’s socially-inclined users, artists haven’t abandoned MySpace. Ping will make them reconsider.

Artists want to get their music out to the masses, but they also want to make money. To make money on the web, they have to use their web presence to sell digital songs and albums. While 50 Cent has a great MySpace page, you should quickly note where he directs you to preorder his new album: iTunes.

Wouldn’t it be easier to get people to preorder right from within iTunes? Yes, and that’s what Apple is hoping will happen. By getting people to interact with artists in iTunes, it hopes to sell more digital records. Artists have the same goal, and deeper integration with iTunes will surely help them achieve it.


Nail in the Coffin


Let’s be clear: MySpace isn’t dead, and it will continue to exist in one form or another for the foreseeable future. But if Ping turns out to be a viable social network, Apple will certainly be able to attract artists to create their own profiles and build their own followings. MySpace will lose its edge and fall even further.

While we love what MySpace has been doing to revamp its interface and turn things around, having Apple and Facebook as direct competitors simply may be too much of an obstacle to overcome. It will have to get creative in order to retain its users and, more importantly, keep artists from jumping ship to Ping.


Reviews: Facebook, MySpace, Ping, Twitter, iTunes

More About: Apple Ping, facetime, iphone, ipod, Opinion, Ping, social network

For more Social Media coverage:


Apple Overhauls iPod Lineup

Posted: 01 Sep 2010 11:59 AM PDT


Lots of news came out of today’s Apple press event, but in the words of Apple CEO Steve Jobs, iPods were “the entree of the day.” The iPod Shuffle, iPod Nano and iPod touch each received significant cosmetic and feature updates, while the iPod Classic was removed from the lineup.


iPod Shuffle


Apple has ditched the ill-received form factor of the third generation shuffles and returned to a format similar to the second gen iterations. Although the new shuffles have ditched the third gen form factor, it has retained soft features like voiceover and playlists.

It will be available in a 2GB capacity for $49.


iPod Nano


The iPod Nano, on the other hand, has been completely rebooted. Its form factor is similar to the Shuffle, but it's now powered by iOS and features a small, but versatile multi-touch display.

The new iPod Nano will be available in capacities of 8GB for $149 and 16GB for $179.


iPod touch


The iPod touch has lost a little weight, but gained front and rear-facing cameras capable of FaceTime and HD video recording. It also now features the retina display found on the iPhone 4.

It will be available in capacities of 8GB for $229, 32GB for $299 and 64GB for $399.

What do you think of the new iPod lineup? Do you plan to purchase one for yourself or your friends?

More About: apple, ipod, ipod nano, ipod shuffle, iPod Touch, ipods, itunes, steve jobs

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Target to Sell Facebook Credits as Gift Cards in Stores

Posted: 01 Sep 2010 11:19 AM PDT


Target will be the first retailer to sell Facebook Credits in its stores come Sunday. The Facebook Credits gift cards will be available in $15, $25 and $50 denominations at all 1,750 Target locations and at Target.com.

The cards will soon make their way to two or three additional national retailers, according to USA Today.

Facebook Credits is a virtual currency redeemable for primarily in-game Facebook purchases. In Farmville, for instance, gamers can use Facebook Credits as a currency, in lieu of credit cards, to purchase additional items for their farms. 7-11 also sells gift cards specifically for FarmVille.

Facebook Credits gift cards package the virtual currency in consumer-friendly entities, which Facebook hopes will appeal to holiday shoppers. The gift cards are visually no different than the variety sold in stores today, and were produced by GMG Entertainment, the same company that makes Apple’s iTunes cards.

Social gaming is a relatively new industry with huge potential. More than 56 million Americans are now playing social games. By 2013, annual sales from virtual goods are expected to reach $6 billion. Facebook’s foray into brick-and-mortar retail stores is a significant move that will help the company capitalize on social gaming.

Facebook also has a deal in place with MOL, an online micropayment company, to sell Facebook Credits at retail stores in Asia and Australia.

Image courtesy of USA Today


Reviews: Australia, Facebook

More About: facebook, facebook credits, gift cards, MARKETING, Target

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Apple Introduces “Ping” Music Social Network and iTunes 10

Posted: 01 Sep 2010 11:00 AM PDT


Apple has revealed iTunes 10, the newest version of iTunes complete with a new logo, new features and its very own social network for music called “Ping” that he described as Facebook meets Twitter for music.

Ping allows users to follow others, just like Twitter. You can follow artists or your friends to find out what they’re listening or what they’re creating. It has custom song and album charts, a news feed, 17,000+ concert listings, and is available to 160 million iTunes users. Ping will be available not only for iTunes on the desktop, but for iPhone and iPod touch as well.

Jobs also touted the growth of iTunes and the iTunes store. He announced that more than 11.7 billion songs have been downloaded through iTunes. 450 million TV episodes and 100 million movies have been sold through Apple’s music software, while 35 million books have been downloaded through the iBooks store.

iTunes 10 is available starting today.


Reviews: Facebook, Ping, Twitter

More About: apple, iOS, ipod, iPod Touch, itunes, Ping, social media, trending

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iOS 4.1 and iOS 4.2 on the Way: HDR, Game Center and iPad Support

Posted: 01 Sep 2010 10:44 AM PDT


At Apple’s special event today, the company announced its next two iOS releases: iOS 4.1 and iOS 4.2.

Apple will be releasing iOS 4.1 next week as a free update for the iPhone and iPod touch, fixing some bugs and adding new features like HDR photos, Game Center, TV show rentals and the ability to upload HD video over Wi-Fi.

For original iPhone 3G owners, you’ll be excited to learn that the performance bugs that made using iOS 4 on those devices, well, unfun, have been fixed. For iPhone 4 owners, Apple promises that the proximity sensor issues are now fixed, meaning I will no longer accidentally call my mom while on a conference call or send a text message of gibberish to a friend (true story).

Apple is also introducing the ability to take HDR photographs in iOS 4.1, a feature that photo fans should really enjoy. Game Center will also be formally launching and if the demo from the Epic Games guys was anything to go by, it’s going to be a lot of fun.


iOS 4.2


In November, the iOS family will finally be unified on the same version of iOS with the release of iOS 4.2 (also a free update via iTunes). This will introduce all of the iOS 4 features to the iPad, including multi-tasking, Game Center, folders and threaded e-mail. iOS 4.2 will also include wireless printing, a feature my mother is going to love.

What do you think of iOS 4.1 and iOS 4.2? What feature are you most excited about? Let us know!

More About: apple, iOS 4, ios 4.1, ios 4.2, ipad

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Apple: 120 Million iOS Devices, 6.5 Billion App Downloads and Counting

Posted: 01 Sep 2010 10:27 AM PDT


Apple’s Steve Jobs has taken the stage at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco to make a slew of announcements related to iOS, Apple TV, iTunes and the iPod. First though, he dropped some big stats on the state of the iOS ecosystem.

According to Jobs, Apple has sold more than 120 million iPhones, iPads and iPod touches. This is up from 100 million devices just three months ago. What may be more impressive is that Apple is activating 230,000 new iOS device every single day. That’s more than the number that Google touted in May of 100,000 Android device activations daily (though that number has likely grown significantly higher since then).

Unsurprisingly, the App Store is also on fire. Jobs announced that 6.5 billion apps have been downloaded from the App Store, and the pace of downloads is now at 200 apps per second. 25,000 of the applications in the app store are now iPad apps.

Apple’s retail stores are also growing. There are now 300 Apple stores in the world, including new ones in Shanghai and Paris.


Reviews: App Store, Google

More About: app store, apple, iOS, trending

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Justin.tv’s Android App Lets You Broadcast Live Video Anytime, Anywhere

Posted: 01 Sep 2010 09:46 AM PDT


Imagine streaming video from your Android phone to the web at the click of a button — no Wi-Fi needed, no painful upload times, no maneuvering back and forth between a handful of apps to shoot and share your video. Today, Justin.tv is making all that possible.

Its Android app is available for download right now (an iPhone app is in the works) and lets users stream live video recorded on their Android devices directly to the Justin.tv website. Facebook and Twitter sharing are built in (and opt-in for each video). The app works great on a 3G connection, so you won’t have to wait for Wi-Fi to get your videos live online.

Each video that you stream will be recorded and saved forever at the same URL as your live broadcast, and the video is live and saved online as soon as you hit the app’s red recording button, regardless of what might happen to you or your device during the shoot.

The app’s creators see it as a great tool for average users who want to be able to take the power of mobile video with them anywhere they go and upload that video at any time. The Justin.tv team imagines this app will be used, for example, for recording your child’s first steps as much as recording a political protest.

Finally, the team focused a lot on quality and framerate. Even if you migrate into a lower-quality connection during recording, though the quality may decrease, the framerate will remain smooth. And once you’re back to a strong connection, the video quality will increase again.

Here’s a sample video we shot in our San Francisco office with a Motorola Droid:

The app is a breeze to use compared to other products in the same space. The videos are better, the interface is more stable, sharing is simpler. Although Justin.tv may not have been the first player in the live-video-from-mobile game, in our opinion and experience, its product is still the best available to consumers right now.

If you’re ready to start playing with the app, go download it here, or just use this handy QR code:

What do you think of the new Justin.tv app? Let us know in the comments.


Reviews: Android, Facebook, Twitter

More About: android, justin.tv, live video, video

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Ultimate Ears In-Ear Reference Monitors Now Available

Posted: 01 Sep 2010 09:26 AM PDT


Ultimate Ears, a subsidiary of Logitech, have set loose another pair of custom earbuds that will make ears swoon and wallets groan. The Ultimate Ears In-Ear Reference Monitors feature three individually tuned and balanced armature speakers in each earbud, with 32dB of noise isolation.

This triple speaker format allow the monitors to reproduce highly specific audio in virtually any environment. Ultimate Ears has also eliminated the the standard Y connector found on many headphones, in favor of tightly braided cabling. It’s said to reduce friction and cable cross-talk, a feature that anyone who has ever used a pair of Etymotic ER•4 earphones will appreciate.

Priced at $1,000, however, it’s hard to fault Etymotic’s $299 ER•4 set for anything in relation the Ultimate Ears In-Ear Reference Monitors. That said, Ultimate Ears designed these in conjunction with Capitol Studios, so they’re very much intended for audio professionals.

Nevertheless, I’m sure there’s at least a few of you dedicated audiophiles out there salivating over the promise of a flat response curve and 5 Hz to 18 kHz extended wide band frequencies. And if you have the cash to spare, a set of custom molded Ultimate Ears would be the best compliment to one of those new iPods that Apple seems to be launching imminently.

More About: apple, audiophile, Etymotic, Headphones, ipod, logitech, Ultimate Ears

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