Mashable: Latest 29 News Updates - including “Street View Now Available on All Seven Continents” |  |
- Street View Now Available on All Seven Continents
- How Liaise is Building a Better Priority Inbox for the Enterprise
- Influence Versus Popularity on Twitter: Kim Kardashian Case Study
- Boston Globe to Launch Separate Paid Site
- Google Expands Paid Android Apps to 20 More Countries
- Buying Movie Tickets Helps Fund Public Schools in DonorsChoose.org Campaign
- Why Zuckerberg Should Like the Facebook Movie
- Google TV’s Launch Is Imminent
- DROID R2-D2: The Unboxing [VIDEO]
- Goo.gl Goes Public
- Facebook Upgrades Photos: Look Out, Flickr
- Foursquare 2.0 Now Available for Android
- PayPal Submits New Check-Depositing iPhone App for Approval
- How the iPad Is Transforming Web Design
- Google Docs Emulates Microsoft Word’s “Track Changes” Feature
- HP Names Former SAP Head Léo Apotheker New CEO
- Google Wants to Kill the JPEG: Meet WebP
- HOW TO: Win the Search Rank Race for Your Name
- More People Watching Video on Facebook than Yahoo [STATS]
- Mashable’s UN Week 2010 Wrap Report
- How NPR Is Leveraging the Twitter Generation [STATS]
- Bose Crams 13 Speakers into 46-Inch VideoWave LCD Display
- IMDb Turns 20, Launches Original Video to Celebrate
- Gap Uses iPhone App to Find Kid Models
- Creator of “Sh*t My Dad Says” Answers Your Questions Live [VIDEO]
- 9 Creative Social Good Campaigns Worth Recognizing [Mashable Awards]
- Voxox Expands Functionality As Facebook and Skype Talk VoIP
- Internet Tethering Coming to iPad [RUMOR]
- Top 10 Most Watched Web Series, August 2010
- This Morning’s Top Stories in Tech and Mobile
| Street View Now Available on All Seven Continents Posted: 01 Oct 2010 01:46 AM PDT      Since its launch in May 2007, Google has been gradually expanding its Street View service, starting with major U.S. cities, and then moving on to other countries all around the globe. Now, Street View comes to Brazil, Ireland and even so far as Antarctica. Street View adds a street-level layer of imagery to Google Maps; drag the little yellow man icon from the upper left corner of Google Maps anywhere on the map, and the area will turn blue if the Street View imagery is available there. If you’re hoping to be able to virtually travel through whole of Antarctica, however, you’re out of luck. The icy continent is vast, and Google Street View covers only a small area called Half Moon Island. If you drag the little yellow man in Google Maps around Antarctica, however, you’ll see blue dots – those aren’t “real” Street View panoramas, but user-submitted photos. Check out a couple of images we’ve caught in Street View in Brazil, Ireland and Antarctica below.    Reviews: Google, Google Maps More About: Antarctica, Google, street view For more Tech coverage:
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| How Liaise is Building a Better Priority Inbox for the Enterprise Posted: 01 Oct 2010 12:17 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.Liaise launched to instant fanfare at last fall’s DEMO event, snatching up the People’s Choice Award and walking away with a $1 million multimedia package. Its promising product — an Outlook plugin that automatically scans your e-mail for action items — got the audience salivating over a solution to the overloaded inbox problem. Just one year later, Liaise has launched out of beta with its official commercial release, and is aggressively going after the enterprise with its for-charge Outlook product. There’s just one small problem: Google decided to launch Gmail Priority Inbox as a free tool for sorting e-mail messages by importance in the interim. Can the scrappy and youthful startup take on the likes of Google and other competitors in the ever-growing space of inbox management tools? Co-founder Sidney Minassian seems to think so; he sees a bright future for the startup that involves growth through feature enhancements and tackling platforms other than e-mail. Liaise Captures Action Items in E-mail Our inboxes are full of e-mails that demand our immediate attention and often require future action. Liaise works to automatically identify these action items, eliminate redundancy and keep workers on task. Once you install the Liaise plugin for Outlook, the tool will automatically capture action items as you type, and will then work to prioritize and organize them by project in the Liaise Manager. The Liaise Manager is a dashboard for viewing actionable items surfaced in our e-mail communications. These action items can be viewed by initiative, owner, due date or priority. With Liaise installed, due dates from e-mail action items are automatically added to your Outlook calendar, and project information can be reshaped in to exportable reports. The new Liaise Lists feature also brings the automatic as-you-type, Outlook-integrated actions to the free form-notes you take — think meeting minutes or to-do lists. The software is collaborative in nature, so if project team members are also using Liaise, they’ll get notified when other parties make changes to projects or tasks. Google Who? Minassian says the Liaise team is certainly watching what Google is up to with Priority Inbox, but believes the startup — which has raised $5.5 million in venture capital and going after an additional $7 million more — is relatively unaffected. The way Minassian describes Google’s approach sounds as if he finds its solution to the overloaded inbox as somewhat generic in nature. “Any feature that gets added to e-mail that changes the way e-mails are viewed, sorted or searched, is interesting but does not address the pain point we address,” he says. “Our core focus is to help people get work done by automatically capturing actions, issues, dates, owners and priorities wherever they communicate this. [It] then provides management dashboards with drill-down, reports and calendar integration to help teams and individuals stay on top of outcomes important to them.” There’s also the matter of audience. Liaise wants the enterprise, and for now seems content to let Google have everyone else. “We focus on Fortune 3000 customers and our initial integration is with Microsoft Outlook … changes to Google’s Gmail don’t impact us, as Microsoft Outlook has dominant share of the corporate market,” reports Minassian. Liaise will explore building for Gmail users once it starts getting penetration inside Fortune 3,000 companies. For the time being, though, the startup is exploring mobile solutions for iPhone, Android, BlackBerry and Windows Phone 7 so that users can access their Liaise Manager while on the road. The Metric of Success Is Revenue At $50 per person per year (with a free trial period), Liaise is launching out the gate with a solid business model in place. “We are ultimately focused on revenue,” says Minassian. It’s hard to tell just how well Liaise is performing against its own metric of success, because Minassian was reluctant to share user numbers or revenue as the product has only been commercially available (out of beta) for just two weeks. But, to get to the bottom line, Liaise has put its $1 million multimedia DEMO package to use with online and print campaigns running in Network World, PC World, CIO Magazine and other enterprise-focused publications. The startup also plans to promote the product through social media sites including Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, as well as solicit customers to write guest blog posts on other blogs to help spread the word. The strategy appears to be working as Liaise is seeing adoption at corporate giants including Sony, HP and Deloitte. Minassian also details that customers are coming directly to them. He has observed that middle managers managing five or more direct or in direct reports will discover Liaise and then pass it onwards and upwards inside their company. The Long Road Ahead Along with winning the People’s Choice Award in the Enterprise category at DEMO last year, Liaise has been nominated for a number of other awards and has seen a host of positive reviews from analysts, bloggers and reporters. Still, with the recent commercial release of the product, Liaise has yet to really prove that it can sell the corporate world on its vision for a better inbox. Minassian details that Liaise is targeting growth though product enhancements and additional platforms. On the feature side, we can expect Liaise to integrate suggestions from customers and iterate its product to meet corporate demands. When it comes to additional platforms, we can also expect to see Liaise develop action-finding add-ons for new platforms such as SharePoint. “In January … we built an integration of Liaise with SharePoint. Similar to how Liaise works with our own Liaise Manager, we automatically captured Action Items from e-mails, then populated SharePoint’s tasks, lists, group calendars, conversation threads etc — great for teams wanting visibility of project, customer service, sales. This is one example and we are looking at other platforms to integrate.” Images courtesy of biscotte, Zevotron, BONGURI, Flickr Sponsored by Microsoft BizSpark
Reviews: Android, Facebook, Flickr, Gmail, Google, LinkedIn, Microsoft Outlook, Twitter, awards More About: bizspark, email, enterprise, liaise, Outlook, Outlook plugin, software For more Tech coverage:
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Influence Versus Popularity on Twitter: Kim Kardashian Case Study Posted: 30 Sep 2010 09:14 PM PDT   Kim Kardashian isn’t the most popular celeb on Twitter. She’s a couple million followers behind the heavy-hitters of Internet-savvy entertainers; however, she’s accomplished something no other individual celebrity has done; She’s the celeb who gets the most referrals of traffic from Twitter. And at the end of the day, would you rather have a Twitter follower who remains essentially just a number, or would you rather have convertible, interacting traffic on your own website? We think Kardashian’s got the long end of the stick by optimizing for influence over popularity. We all know the roll-call of celebs who rule Twitter and other social media platforms. Lady Gaga weighs in at 6.5 million Twitter followers, for example; Britney Spears has just over 6 million; Ashton Kutcher’s got 5.8 million; and even the pint-sized Justin Bieber has 5.5 million Twitter followers. Ms. Kardashian has yet to break the 5-million-followers mark as of press time. Nevertheless, Kardashian’s official website gets a ton of traffic from Twitter — more than any of these other celebs do. In fact, her site ranks 54 of all websites that get clickthroughs from Twitter users, and she’s number 20 in the entertainment category. The types of sites that outrank her are media hosting sites (Flickr, TwitPic and Vimeo, for example) and a plethora of sports and news sites. There’s a lot of conversation going on about the value of Twitter followers. Do they click on links? Do they make purchases? Do they retweet your content? In other words, if you have a whole boatload of Twitter followers, does that necessarily mean you have a whole boatload of power on the social web? Kardashian’s stats prove that popularity and influence — quantity and quality — are two different things. And we think the ability to direct web traffic is a pretty big part of influence. The socialite tweets personable, relatable clickbait. Fans are alerted about pictures of her European outfits, a contest to attend her birthday party, a breast cancer awareness drive — the kind of content her fans clearly want to see. The rest of her tweets are social; such a statement seems obvious until you scan other streams that reek of PR and marketing influence, begging followers to buy a product or consume content. Other celeb streams are almost entirely link-free and designed to facilitate interaction around that individual’s personality rather than create a desired action in the user. In short, Kardashian’s stream is optimized to gracefully direct traffic to her website. And her website is optimized for the social web, too, with tweets and blog posts prominently featured. These days, one out of five visitors to Kardashian’s site comes from Twitter. Twitter is almost referring as much traffic as Google:
What do you think about this data? Regardless of any evaluations of Ms. Kardashian’s broader cultural meaning, do you think her use of Twitter and her ability to direct traffic is something worth emulating? Let us know your opinions in the comments. Reviews: Flickr, Google, Twitpic, Twitter, Vimeo More About: influence, kim kardashian, popularity, twitter For more Social Media coverage:
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Boston Globe to Launch Separate Paid Site Posted: 30 Sep 2010 07:32 PM PDT   The Boston Globe announced Thursday that the online version of its newspaper will be moving from Boston.com to BostonGlobe.com, and that it will begin charging for full access to the latter beginning the second half of next year. Print subscribers will automatically have full access to all of The Boston Globe’s daily published content at the new site; others will have to purchase a print or digital-only subscription. The price for the latter has not yet been determined. Boston.com will transition into a free, local news site, pulling in breaking news, sports, weather and more from a variety of sources — including, of course, some from The Boston Globe. The paper is also developing a number of branded apps and other digital products for smartphones, tablets and other devices, the company announced. “Our research shows that Boston.com currently attracts several different types of user,” Publisher Christopher Mayer said in a statement. “Some are readers whose main interest is breaking news and things to do, while others want access to the entirety of The Boston Globe. These two distinct sites will allow us to serve both types of readers with maximum effectiveness, while continuing to provide advertisers the large engaged audience they have come to expect from Boston.com,” he declared. The strategy jumps on two emerging trends in the news industry. The first is a growing propensity among traditional print news organizations to charge readers for full access to content. A number of newspapers have placed or plan to place some or all of their content behind paywalls, including The Wall Street Journal, The London Times and The New York Times, the latter of which is owned by the same parent company as The Boston Globe. Boston.com follows a different movement: The recent proliferation of free local news sites like ChicagoNow, owned by The Chicago Tribune and TBD.com, the content for which is sourced from other providers. These sites are filling in the void of local newspapers, more than 100 of which shut down in 2009 alone. While the decision to split into two distinct properties may strike some as odd, it’s a wise move in a transitioning market. Faced with rising costs, falling print circulation and declining or flat advertising revenue, newspapers have been forced to explore new business models. Although digital advertising revenue is growing, the web offers nearly infinite ad space, and newspapers simply cannot command the same rates for online display ads as they could once charge for print. The Boston Globe currently attracts about 5 million unique readers per month, making it the eighth largest newspaper website in the U.S. More About: boston globe, chicagonow, journalism, london times, media, new york times, newspapers, online journalism, online news, online newspaper, paywall, print, print media, tbd.com, wall street journal For more Business coverage:
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Google Expands Paid Android Apps to 20 More Countries Posted: 30 Sep 2010 06:53 PM PDT   Google’s getting serious about boosting the appeal of the Android developer ecosystem. The company’s newest move: to triple the number of countries where developers can sell their paid applications. Starting today, the Android Market will support the selling of paid apps for 20 new countries, bringing the total to 29. According to the Android Developers Blog, the new countries include Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Hong Kong, Ireland, Israel, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Russia, Singapore, South Korea, Sweden, Switzerland and Taiwan. To support this expansion, Google will make it possible for Android Market users in 18 new countries over the next two weeks, bringing the total number of nations that support app purchases to 32. Yes, there are more countries that support app purchases than ones that support the selling of paid apps, likely due to a combination of varying national laws on selling software and geographic restrictions to Google Checkout. Still, we’re glad to see this expansion of the Android Market. While Android sales may be outpacing those of the iPhone, developers still prefer the iOS App Store overall because its users simply purchase more apps. Expanding the pool of potential customers should go a long way towards making the Android Marketplace an even more attractive destination for developers. Reviews: Android, Android Market, App Store, Australia, Google More About: android, android marketplace, Google For more Dev & Design coverage:
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Buying Movie Tickets Helps Fund Public Schools in DonorsChoose.org Campaign Posted: 30 Sep 2010 06:15 PM PDT DonorsChoose.org has partnered with Paramount Pictures, Participant Media and Walden Media to offer a $15 DonorsChoose.org gift code when you purchase a ticket to the upcoming documentary, Waiting for “Superman” The code can be used on DonorsChoose.org, a non-profit dedicated to funding small classroom projects in American public schools, to support projects like a new projector for science class or a tuba for the band. Since the film’s limited release on September 24, more than 30,000 students across the country have benefited from this program. Waiting for “Superman,” directed by Davis Guggenheim (An Inconvenient Truth) will open in theaters outside of New York and L.A. starting October 1. The film examines the shortcomings of American public school education by following several students through their daily life. The film and its “Take the Pledge” campaign aim to bring these missteps into public conversation and inspire a solution. The tickets and gift codes are available at the box office as well as at online ticket sites Fandango.com and Movietickets.com. While the gift codes may just seem like a one-off promotion, the idea is to foster long-term interest and involvement from the film’s audience. “We hope that moviegoers will take the opportunity to connect with a classroom project that most inspires them on our site and that this connection will inspire them to do even more to help improve pubic education,” says Charles Best, DonorsChoose.org founder and CEO, in a press statement. The promotion seems like a great model for combining media events with opportunities for online giving, but it does raise questions. Is this kind of promotion sustainable? Does it really foster growth and awareness, or does it just make customers feel good for buying a ticket? How can movies that don’t deal with philanthropy also attach themselves to worthy charity efforts? Sound off in the comments and let us know what you think. More About: davis guggenheim, donorschoose.org, education, fandango, movietickets.com, social good, waiting for superman For more Social Good coverage:
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Why Zuckerberg Should Like the Facebook Movie Posted: 30 Sep 2010 06:08 PM PDT   The Social Network, the movie dramatization of the founding of Facebook, comes to US theaters on Friday. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg reportedly opposed the making of the film, which charts his rise to become the world’s youngest self-made billionaire. Mark need not worry. The Social Network ultimately paints Zuckerberg as a tireless visionary who stops at nothing to achieve his dream. That’s the topic of my CNN column this week. Read the full column on CNN.com >>More About: facebook, facebook movie, the social network
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Google TV’s Launch Is Imminent Posted: 30 Sep 2010 05:02 PM PDT   Google TV’s launch is upon us. We’ve just received an invite from Logitech for the unveiling of “Logitech’s line of products for Google TV” next week in San Francisco and New York. That’s on top of the invite we received from Sony for the unveiling of the “World’s First Internet Television.” According to the invite, Logitech CEO Jerry Quindlen will be revealing Logitech’s entire line of Google TV products. The company was announced as a hardware launch partner at Google I/O earlier this year. We have played with at least one of Logitech’s Google TV devices: a companion box called the Logitech Revue. The box provides the hardware necessary to integrate Google TV with your cable or satellite. The rumored price of the box is $299, but we’re not buying it until that price comes out of the Logitech CEO’s mouth. In addition to the Revue box, Logitech is also apparently working on a variety of peripherals for Google TV, including keyboards and remotes. While Logitech may be the first to get Google TV onto the market (it all depends on the exact date the Revue hits store shelves), Sony won’t be far behind; the company will unveil its line of HDTVs with Google TV integration on October 12 at a press event in New York. We’ll be at both events to cover everything that launches. It looks like October is going to be Google TV’s month. The big question though is this: will consumers embrace Google TV with their wallets? We’re about to find out.   More About: Google, google tv, logitech, sony For more Tech coverage:
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| DROID R2-D2: The Unboxing [VIDEO] Posted: 30 Sep 2010 04:27 PM PDT   Verizon Wireless pulled out the stops for today’s DROID R2-D2 launch. There were even a couple of stormtroopers present at New York’s Herald Square this morning (we’re told no one was hurt or seized by the Empire). Through the mayhem, I was lucky enough to get my hands on a DROID R2-D2, and I wanted to give you all a quick rundown of what the device has going for it. First things first, I can confirm that the DROID R2-D2 is based solely on the DROID 2. There is no secret 1.2Ghz processor, it runs the same 1Ghz processor found in the DROID 2 and it’s still fast enough to churn through phone processes. The device comes out of its box with Android 2.2 (froyo), but none of this is why you’re here. We all know that you’re here because the device is based on R2-D2 from Star Wars and, hey, there’s no shame in that. So let’s just cut to the chase and take a look at what makes this device worthy of carrying R2-D2’s name.  From the time the box hits your hands, it’s clear that DROID R2-D2 is about experience. It’s shaded in the same dark gray that has become a trademark of the Verizon Wireless DROID lineup. The difference here is a carbonite-esque DROID R2-D2 embossed on its front, while the back reads in raised letters, Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, complete with a reminder that this is, indeed, a limited edition. The face of the device is similar to the DROID 2, but the edges of its 3.7-inch, 480 x 854 screen are outlined with a subtle circuitry pattern. Additionally, the beveling around the face of the DROID R2-D2 is silver instead of the blueish color found on the DROID 2. Sliding the device open reveals that the keyboard is outlined in white, and R2-D2 is printed on the backside of the screen. Then on the back, emblazoned in blue, white and silver, is the titular hero of the device: R2-D2  From there, it becomes less about external aesthetics and more about little tweaks to the device’s functionality. Included on the DROID R2-D2 are a handful of additions aimed at satiating Star Wars fans (read: the people who will be buying this device.)  The first change that sticks out is a Star Wars-themed bootup screen in which R2-D2 makes an appearance and sounds off in some fairly loud astromech talk. The home screen then opens to reveal a Star Wars background, where the opening sliders feature the insignias of the Alliance and the Empire. A number of active wallpapers have also been added. They include: 3D Millennium Falcon, The Empire Strikes Back, asteroids, R2-D2, space slug and lightspeed, which is the coolest of the wallpapers, but likely not the most practical. It activates by simply picking up the device, which then shows the cockpit of the Millennium Falcon blasting into lightspeed and R2-D2 screaming at the top of his robotic lungs — like I said, probably not the most practical. Even more novel than the wallpapers is the binoculars app and the “Best of R2-D2″ video. The binoculars app shows the Battle of Hoth, complete with AT-AT walkers, as you look around. The app takes full use of the DROID’s motion awareness to project Hoth on your screen. The “Best of R2-D2″ is exactly what it sounds like and it’s unlikely that even the most diehard Star Wars fan will find cause to watch it more than once or twice. While the DROID R2-D2 is undoubtedly cool, I still question whether its worth buying. At $250 after a $100 mail-in rebate, it’s priced at the upper end of Android devices. On the other hand, the addition of a very cool Star Wars R2-D2 media dock does justify the price increase beyond just the limited edition style. In the end, I think that you’re simply looking for an upgrade, the DROID R2-D2 probably isn’t for you. If, on the other hand, you’re a huge Star Wars fan and in the market for a DROID 2, it’s not a bad investment. Reviews: Android More About: android, droid, droid 2, DROID R2-D2, Star Wars, verizon, verizon wireless For more Tech coverage:
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Posted: 30 Sep 2010 04:07 PM PDT   The phrase “Google it” is getting a whole new meaning today; the search giant has just released its goo.gl URL shortener to the public and created a standalone website so that anyone can use Google to shorten and track the URLs they share via social media sites and e-mail. Goo.gl initially debuted last December as a feature integrated into other Google products. Google’s newly public URL shortener competes with a myriad of other popular services, Bit.ly being the most notable of the bunch. The company claims that its shortener boasts stability, security and speed. The former two are especially important as several other services have been plagued by both downtime and malicious parties masking deceptive links. Goo.gl features automatic spam detection, and “near 100% uptime since our initial launch,” according to the company’s announcement. The product also comes with expected URL-tracking features. As a goo.gl user, you can log in to your Google account to view URL history, traffic sources, referrers and visitor profiles for countries, browsers and platforms. Google is known to hide bonus easter egg features in its products, and goo.gl is no different. Earlier today, Google engineer Matt Cutts tweeted one such easter egg — add .qr to a shortened goo.gl URL and you’ll create a QR code that, when scanned, will redirect to the original URL. It’s a quirky additive that makes goo.gl all the more friendly for brands and marketers experimenting with QR codes. A Twitter tipster also informed us that you can add .info to the goo.gl URL to check out analytics. As for why Google is going public with goo.gl, it’s anybody’s guess. Initially, goo.gl was designed because the company didn’t want to rely on other URL shorteners for the same purpose. Our guess is that it’s another small part to the much speculated about social strategy. After all, Google is the business of URLs, and URLs are the fabric of the social web. What’s your take? Share your thoughts in the comments.  Reviews: Google, Twitter, bit.ly More About: Goo.gl, Google, url shortener, url shorteners, URLs For more Tech coverage:
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Facebook Upgrades Photos: Look Out, Flickr Posted: 30 Sep 2010 03:30 PM PDT   Facebook, which is one of the world’s largest photo-sharing sites (in addition to being the leader among social networks), is rolling out some marked improvements to its Photos product. These upgrades include hi-res photos, photo-download links, bulk tagging options and an elegant lightbox interface for viewing images from anywhere on the site. The lightbox in particular reminds us of similar features recently rolled out by Flickr; and some of these improvements, such as hi-res and downloading capabilities, are what have prevented Facebook from serious competition with Flickr as a photo-sharing destination. In the recent past, Facebook photos were best for capturing memories of places, people and events through small images and mobile snapshots; however, these changes allow a whole new class of image-sharing, up to and including photography, modeling and graphic design portfolios. With its 500 million users around the world, Facebook is now poised to take over the photo-sharing market. Beginning today and rolling out to all users soon, you will be able to upload and download hi-res photos up to 2048 pixels wide or high — that’s large enough for print-quality images. (Currently, Facebook only displays 720 pixels; larger photos simply get resized.) Each photo will come with a link to download the JPEG file, as well. The site’s new bulk tagging options will allow the uploading individual to temporarily group images and tag friends by simply clicking on thumbnails. Another interesting change is Facebook’s lightbox UI, which strongly and clearly puts the focus on images. Starting soon, any time you click on an image anywhere on Facebook, be it in an album or in your News Feed or on a friend’s Wall, you’ll see a black box hovering over the rest of the screen with some minimal navigation controls and relevant social features, allowing you to concentrate completely on the image at hand.
While we don’t love the ads in place here, we do realize that hosting hi-res photos costs a lot more and will attract a lot more usage — both from uploading parties and from viewing individuals — all of which puts more strain on Facebook’s servers. We’ll sacrifice an ad-free experience for higher quality photos. What do you think about these changes? Do you think Facebook — which already competes with Twitter as a status service, Google as an advertiser, and every major social network as a digital hub for friends — will soon be competing with Flickr for the photos of pros and amateurs alike? Reviews: Facebook, Flickr, Google, Twitter More About: facebook, facebook photos, Photos, trending For more Social Media coverage:
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Foursquare 2.0 Now Available for Android Posted: 30 Sep 2010 03:01 PM PDT   Just 10 days after Foursquare released the second-generation version of its iPhone app, Foursquare 2.0 for Android has arrived in the Android Market. The Android edition sports all of the features found in the iPhone version, including a new emphasis on Tips and To-Dos, which are now split up and given prominent placement in the application's bottom navigation bar. Foursquare also now visually alerts users when they are near venues tagged on their To-Do lists. Tips are now ranked by popularity and featured more prominently on venue pages. Along with the apps, Foursquare has rolled out an accompanying set of web-based features to better tie mobile activity with web discovery. Among the features is a recently released, embeddable “Add to My Foursquare” button for publishers, which allows users to add a venue or Tip they read about on the web as a To-Do item in the app. While no release date has yet been announced for BlackBerry devices, version 2.0 should be making its way to the BlackBerry App World shortly.  Reviews: Android, BlackBerry Rocks!, Foursquare More About: android, foursquare, foursquare 2.0 For more Mobile coverage:
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| PayPal Submits New Check-Depositing iPhone App for Approval Posted: 30 Sep 2010 02:56 PM PDT   Sometime very soon, you’re going to be able to deposit checks to your PayPal account just by taking pictures of them with your iPhone. We’ve been informed that the new version of its iPhone app has just been submitted to the App Store, and the company expects it to be approved by Apple any minute. The update is significant because it delivers a major new feature: the ability to deposit checks just by taking a picture of the front and the back. Apple’s approval time varies, so you could see the app by tomorrow or it could take up to a week to get into the App Store. We understand that it takes three or four days before the money appears in your PayPal account. PayPal suggests that you hold onto the check for two weeks or so before you destroy or throw away the original check. Some banks already have this functionality in their mobile apps; JPMorgan Chase Bank is a well-known example. However, PayPal has far greater reach than any individual bank — it adds 1 million new accounts per month. While the app does come with some other minor bug fixes, the ability to deposit checks is the big feature of this update. We’ve been informed that there will be another big update to the iPhone app during PayPal’s Innovate Developer conference next month with a wave of new features. Reviews: App Store More About: iphone, paypal, PayPal App, PayPal for iPhone For more Mobile coverage:
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| How the iPad Is Transforming Web Design Posted: 30 Sep 2010 02:28 PM PDT
We’re also seeing web designers transform their websites and web apps to look more like iPad apps. In the last few months, several high-profile websites have adjusted their designs to look and feel more like the iPad. We’re dubbing this, the “iPadification of the web.” We think this is a trend that will only continue to gain momentum as the iPad continues to sell and subsequent tablets like the Samsung Galaxy Tab and the BlackBerry PlayBook hit the market. Check out three areas where this is happening already. 1. Me.com Mail and CalendarWhen Apple redesigned its Me.com webmail interface back in May, it was clear that the way apps were designed for the iPad was going to have a big impact on how Apple addressed its own web apps in the future. MobileMe Mail is nearly identical to the Mail app built into the iPad, visually speaking.  The Mail app for the iPad  The new Me.com webmail interface Likewise, the MobileMe Calendar beta, introduced back in July, is a near pixel-for-pixel recreation of Calendar for iPad.  The Calendar app on the iPad  The new MobileMe calendar interface These changes are interesting because of the high levels of consistency that now exist amongst the iOS and web app experience. It also makes us wonder how long it will be before the Mac OS X versions of these applications will be styled to match. 2. New TwitterThere are lots of interesting elements in the new Twitter redesign. In addition to adding in-line links and media support, the new design is very clearly associated with the iPad app the company released a few weeks before the new site.  Twitter for iPad As Mashable’s Jenn Van Grove commented in her assessment of the new design, the iPad-like nature of the new website makes it much easier to treat the website like a standalone client. The multi-column layout and the way that inline media is displayed is very similar both on the native iPad app and on the new website. The big difference is that more columns can be displayed on the iPad app and their sizes adjusted by using your finger to slide back and forth.  The new Twitter.com homepage This is an interesting point because it shows that even when regular websites are designed to look more like iPad applications, the way users are interacting with content — via touch or using a mouse or trackpad — is an important thing to keep in mind. 3. The New York Times Editorial PageLast week, The New York Times rolled out a new version of its opinion section. The original design (which has sense been modified) was laid out in an extraordinarily iPad-friendly sort of way.  Even in the updated iteration (see below), the page is laid out much like an iPad app. Columns are clean and easier to select using a finger and stories are organized into a grid, which also makes it easier for touch users to access the page.  Of all the aspects of nytimes.com, the look and feel of the opinion section is closest to the clean and minimalist experience offered by the Times’ Editor’s Choice iPad app. Have you noticed any other sites taking part in iPadification? If so, share your observations in the comments below. Series supported by Rackspace  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:
Reviews: MobileMe, Twitter More About: apple, design trends, ipad, mobileme, New Twitter, new york times, twitter, web design, web development series For more Dev & Design coverage:
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Google Docs Emulates Microsoft Word’s “Track Changes” Feature Posted: 30 Sep 2010 02:06 PM PDT   At long last, Google Docs has made it easy to see changes made to documents with the announcement of a new revision history interface. The addition of this interface is just one of a litany of changes Google Docs is announcing of late. Recent additions include a text highlighting feature that appears when a co-editor is making changes, six new fonts (Droid Serif, Droid Sans, Calibri, Cambria, Corsiva and Consolas), a bunch of tweaks to spreadsheets and more. To locate said revision history, merely go to File > See revision history. There, you’ll be able to see — via a time stamp in the right-hand column — who changed what in the document (you can also restore revisions). Check out a screenshot below to see it in action. Changes are color-coded, much like they are in Word’s “Track Changes” feature. And for those among you who want a blow-by-blow of edits, there’s the “Show more detailed revisions” option, which gives you a closer look at all those grammatical tweaks. According to the Google Docs Blog, “This is just a first step for the new revision interface for Google Docs. We're looking forward to more revision improvements in the future.” Back in the day, I had a discussion with my Stuff Hipsters Hate and CNN co-blogger Andrea Bartz (featured in the screenshot below) about how it wasn’t possible to write a book in Google Docs because it lacked track changes. Now I’m guessing she’ll change her tune. With so many improvements being made to the service, it makes one wonder what’s in store for Microsoft Word. Is writing in the cloud the future? Or will word processing software prevail? What do you think?  Reviews: Google Docs More About: Google, google docs, software, tech, word For more Tech coverage:
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| HP Names Former SAP Head Léo Apotheker New CEO Posted: 30 Sep 2010 01:36 PM PDT   HP’s Board of Directors has announced that it has chosen Léo Apotheker, the former CEO of German enterprise software company SAP, as the company’s new CEO. Léo Apotheker will replace interim CEO Cathie Lesjak and join the company’s Board of Directors on November 1. The Board also elected Ray Lane, a managing partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, as non-executive chairman of the board. Early last month, HP ousted Mark Hurd as CEO following a sexual harassment scandal. The drama continued when his alleged victim spoke up. Tech circles debated whether HP’s board should have forced Hurd out before Oracle hired him as co-president of the company. Netscape founder and HP board member Marc Andreessen was tapped to lead the search for HP’s new CEO. While there was a great deal of discussion of promoting someone internally in HP (particularly Todd Bradley, HP’s EVP of the personal systems group), the Board decided to bring in an outsider once again to lead the company. Is Apotheker the right man to lead HP? Let us know what you think. More About: HP, Leo Apotheker, mark hurd, SAP For more Business coverage:
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Google Wants to Kill the JPEG: Meet WebP Posted: 30 Sep 2010 01:31 PM PDT   Google is introducing a new format for images: WebP. Images on the web in this format — which CNET reports will be officially announced later today — will have smaller file sizes, load faster and relieve a lot of overclocked networks. They won’t necessarily look better — WebP images are as “glossy” as JPEGs — but the files might be around 40% smaller than JPEG files. And since Google estimates 65% of the bytes on the web are images, that represents a quarter of the total amount of data we access and transmit online. Who wouldn’t change formats for a web that could be 26% faster? The sticking point is JPEG’s popularity. This format dominates the web and related devices, from Flickr to Twitpic to our mobile phones and cameras. But if any company could challenge and change a norm, it’s Google. Google released its WebM video format at Google I/O, the company’s developer conference. This format was to be supported in HTML5’s <video> tag. In the world of video, Google has one huge advantage: YouTube. The company decided that all video uploaded in 720p or higher would be be encoded in WebM in addition to H.264. However, Google doesn’t have the same advantage when it comes to images. The company owns Picasa, a second-tier photo-sharing site; the dominant Flickr is owned by rival Yahoo. Where Google does have some weight, however, is in the browser arena. By focusing on the browser as the most important platform of our time, Google has seen Chrome quickly become a contender in the browser wars. Even though Chrome is still edging toward a 10% share of the global browser market, it’s gaining users as Firefox falters, Internet Explorer takes a dive and Safari stagnates. Google has taken a leading role in developing a faster, better, more standards-compliant web browser for some time now, and it’s talking to other browser makers about WebP support, which would mean a faster browsing experience for everyone. Expect to see WebP-formatted images on Chrome within a few weeks. Also, just like WebM, WebP is an open-source format. We know Google has a long row to hoe before it reaps WebP’s rewards, but this dramatic reduction in file size and the potential for faster browsing seems like something all browser makers and device manufacturers would want to deliver to users. What do you think? Is it likely that WebP will ever become the standard that JPEG is today? Reviews: Chrome, Flickr, Google, Picasa, Twitpic, Yahoo!, YouTube More About: browser wars, chrome, formats, foss, Google, images, jpeg, open source, Photos, trending, webp For more Dev & Design coverage:
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| HOW TO: Win the Search Rank Race for Your Name Posted: 30 Sep 2010 01:08 PM PDT   Ten years ago, we identified ourselves online with handles, and anonymity ruled the web. It was not unusual to correspond with “Jetsfan77″ or “HikingGirl_06.” The idea of having all your information attached to your name — your real name — seemed crazy. As we’ve moved away from handles, using our legal monikers has ushered in an era of more authenticity and accountability on the web. And as distinguishing your identity across the web becomes increasingly important, it has also become increasingly difficult. With almost 30% of the world’s 6.7 billion person population using the Internet today, there are bound to be many of them who share the same name. There are 149 other "Sarah Kesslers" on Facebook. Twenty-six of us have Twitter accounts, 93 of us use MySpace, and 78 of us are Linkedin. Staking out digital territory across the web, needless to say, has been difficult. And my name isn’t even among the most common. In a world where almost 80% of hiring managers Google job candidates, it's important to make sure that the people looking you up find you and not someone else with your namesake. This importance became clear to Pete Kistler when he figured out that he was being turned down for jobs because he shared a name and age bracket with an ex-convict. To help others like him, he started Brand-Yourself, a personal online reputation management service. We caught up with the site’s Chief Marketing Officer Patrick Ambron for his advice on staking out an online identity when there’s competition for your name. 1. Register Available Domain Names Domain names are important. So important, in fact, that a largely abandoned WordPress blog that uses my name in the title is currently the first search result for my name. Ambron says that claiming your domain name is the first and most important thing that you can do to make yourself more visible in a Google search. Claim your name on whatever domains are available. Even if you don't plan to use yourname.co, .info, .net or .mobi, you'll be preventing other people who share your name from using those domains to compete with you for search result status. "Google loves the domain name," Ambron says. "It's a powerful indication that site is going to be about you." 2. Mention Yourself on Your WebsiteIt might feel weird to talk about yourself in the third person, but labeling your website's tabs with your name can give you an advantage in search results. "This is called keyword density," Ambron says. "When Google spiders index a site, they look to see how often certain words are used to determine what the site should rank. If your content never mentions your name, how will spiders know it’s about you?" Even though you might be thinking, "of course it's [your name]'s bio. Who else's bio would be on my site?" it's important to use your full name so that search engines recognize that the site is about you when someone searches for your name. 3. Link to All of Your Content"[Google] considers each link to your site a vote for the site," Ambron says. "Google has gotten pretty smart, so where those links come from is very important. The more reputable links are better votes. A vote from CNN is better than some site you made that you just linked to yourself." Fortunately, as an individual, there are an abundance of opportunities for you to create links to your site from reputable sources in the form of profiles. A vote from your friend's website might not count for a lot, but a vote from Facebook will be counted as much more reputable. Sign up for as many directories and social sites as possible, and make sure to link them all together. One tip that Brand-Yourself advocates is to locate profiles where your name is still available. You can also locate and reserve your name across the web using one of these websites.  "Even if you don't plan on using all those social sites, and there are plenty of them, it's good to grab them up," Ambron says. "It’s good that you're keeping someone else from using them with your name and contributing to their results." 4. Create Content and Get Social"Google loves updated content," Ambron says. "And the fastest way for an individual to have updated content is to have a social profile that they use." One easy way to make sure your blog is always updated, for instance, is to integrate your Twitter account's RSS feed. Every time you tweet, you'll update your blog and improve its prominence in search results. "If you have a blog post that you put on your site, Facebook and Twitter, and five people Like it and share it," Ambron says, "that's five credible links from Facebook and from Twitter to your site." Do you have a digital doppelganger who has caused confusion in your life? Tell us about it in the comments below. More Personal Branding Resources from Mashable:
Image courtesy of iStockphoto, carrollphoto, fitzer Reviews: Facebook, Google, Internet, LinkedIn, MySpace, Twitter, WordPress, iStockphoto More About: BLOGS, Brand-Yourself, digital dopplegangers, Domain Names, domain registration, domains, Patrick Ambron, personal branding, reserve your name, Search, SEO, social media For more Social Media coverage:
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| More People Watching Video on Facebook than Yahoo [STATS] Posted: 30 Sep 2010 12:49 PM PDT   So not only are we whiling away our work days stalking high school sweethearts and playing FarmVille on Facebook, we’re now spending copious amounts of time watching video there as well. In fact, according to the comScore Video Metrix, Facebook was the second most popular online video content property last month. In August, Facebook beat out Yahoo Sites (53.9 million viewers) to nab the number two spot (with 58.6 million viewers), after Google sites (146.3 million unique viewers). On the whole, 178 million U.S. Internet users watched online video content in August for an average of 14.3 hours per viewer.  Of course, people aren’t heading to Facebook to watch those videos you can create in-site and then post to your wall (who does that, really?) — they’re watching embedded vids from sites like YouTube, Vimeo and Vevo. So although the site is a hot spot for watching content, it’s not exactly a hub for content creation. Still, Facebook’s rise to number two when it comes to video viewage just goes to show how widespread the social network’s influence is; we already know people spend more time on Facebook than they do on Google. However, given the fact that Google sites have more than twice the number of viewers than Facebook when it comes to video, it will probably be awhile before the networking site becomes the number one venue for videos. Reviews: Facebook, Google, Internet, Vimeo, YouTube More About: facebook, Google, media, stats, vevo, web video, youtube For more Web Video coverage:
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Mashable’s UN Week 2010 Wrap Report Posted: 30 Sep 2010 12:35 PM PDT   The Mashable and 92Y Social Good Summit in partnership with the UN Foundation and the UN Week Digital Media Lounge 2010 are now over. Together with the 92nd Street Y and UN Foundation we set out to create something that would break the mold of the traditional UN Week event. I’m proud to announce that we’ve definitely been able to shake up the core of UN Week. Press coverage is only the beginning. Major heads of state, members of the United Nations, and key influencers have all applauded and praised our efforts to bring the ideas and solutions for the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to the general public. We’re already working hard at shaping the core features of next year’s UN Week 2011 events and we look forward to your input. The process of examining the reach of the Social Good Summit and UN Week Digital Media Lounge will continue for months and years to come, but we’ve already begun to compile some key stats, quotes and findings, some of which we are able to share publicly below: Event Attendance700 – Total Social Good Summit Attendees (in-person) 861 – Total UN Week Digital Media Lounge (in-person) Video Statistics*35,311 – Total Social Good Summit Livestream views 3,376 – Total Livestream Viewing Hours for Social Good Summit 19,589 – Total Livestream Viewing Hours for UN Week Digital Media Lounge 22,965 – Total Livestream Viewing Hours 45,089 – Total Unique Viewers on Livestream *Totals are represented out of data from 9/20/10 – 9/25/10 Social Media Stats16,802 – Total Number of Tweets Using #SocialGood 17,508 – Total Tweets for Related Mashable Posts 4,260 – Total Facebook Shares for Related Mashable Posts 300+ – Blog Posts Related to the Digital Media Lounge Quotes from our Partners
Notable Media Coverage
Key Stories from UNWeekMedia
Key Stories from Mashable
Livestream Partner Livestream is the most powerful live broadcast platform on the Internet. Producers can use the Livestream browser-based Studio application to create LIVE, scheduled and on-demand internet television to broadcast anywhere on the web through a single player widget. Our service comes in two flavors Free (ad-supported) and Premium (white-label, no-ads, pay for usage). Unique features include the ability to mix multiple live cameras, imported videos clips, and overlay graphics. With Livestream, producers can broadcast live from a mobile phone; use a customizable flash player with integrated chat; and develop a branded channel page on www.Livestream.com that incorporates interactive chat. Supporting Sponsors Blackbaud is the leading global provider of software and services designed specifically for non-profit organizations, enabling them to improve operational efficiency, build strong relationships, and raise more money to support their missions. Since 1981, Blackbaud's sole focus and expertise has been partnering with non-profits and providing them the solutions they need to make a difference in their local communities and worldwide. For more information, visit www.blackbaud.com.  Johnson & Johnson is committed to helping achieve the Millennium Development Goals, particularly in the areas of maternal and child health by applying innovative mobile technologies. The rapid proliferation of cell phones has made it possible to provide timely health information in even the most remote locations. In February 2010, Johnson & Johnson launched Text4Baby in the U.S. through its partnership with the National Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies Coalition (HMHB). In September 2010, we announced a five year initiative with our affiliate, BabyCenter, focusing on mobile health outreach to mothers in six countries starting with China, India and South Africa.  P&G's purpose is to improve people's lives, and its Children's Safe Drinking Water Program (CSDW) is a non-profit initiative that has provided over 2.4 billion liters of clean drinking water to people in need since 2004. CSDW has partnered with a diverse network of organizations to help distribute PUR™ Purifier of Water packets. These packets, developed by P&G and the Centers for Disease Control, use some of the same ingredients as municipal water systems to remove pollutants from contaminated water. To learn more about the CSDW program, and see how the PUR Purifier of Water packets work, please visit www.csdw.org and get involved at http://givehealth.changents.com/. Reviews: Internet, Mashable More About: social good summit, socialgood, UN week, unweekdml For more Social Good coverage:
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| How NPR Is Leveraging the Twitter Generation [STATS] Posted: 30 Sep 2010 12:06 PM PDT   NPR has just released a fascinating set of stats about its Twitter followers, including information about how much they click through, how they get their news, how they interact with content and even how old they are. In a survey of more than 10,000 respondents, NPR found that its Twitter followers are younger, more connected to the social web, and more likely to access content through digital platforms such as NPR’s website, podcasts, mobile apps and more. NPR has more than one Twitter account; its survey found that most respondents followed between two and five NPR accounts, including topical account, show-specific accounts and on-air staff accounts. The data on age is hardly surprising. The median age of an NPR Twitter follower is 35 — around 15 years younger than the average NPR radio listener. This lines up with data we recently found about other traditional news media; the average Facebook user reading and “liking” content on a news website is two decades younger than the average print newspaper subscriber. Not to put too fine a point on it, the future of news media lies in successful integration of social media to get the attention (and click-throughs) of a younger generation — a generation whose news needs are vastly different than those of the generations that preceded it. Of NPR’s Twitter followers, the majority (67%) still do listen to NPR on the radio. But the other ways they access NPR’s content are indicative of a growing trend:  Of survey respondents, 59% said they use NPR.org, 39% listen to NPR’s podcasts, around half use an NPR mobile app and 28% say they access NPR via Facebook. All told, 77% of NPR’s Twitter followers said they get all or most of their news online. And Twitter followers are more likely to expect breaking news, too, likely because of the real-time nature of the medium. What do you think of NPR’s stats? Do you use Twitter to follow and access news? What about mobile apps or podcasts — do you find those media useful when produced by a mainstream news organization? Let us know what you think in the comments. Reviews: Facebook, Twitter More About: journalism, media, new media, News, news media, NPR, radio, stats, survey, twitter For more Social Media coverage:
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bose Crams 13 Speakers into 46-Inch VideoWave LCD Display Posted: 30 Sep 2010 11:43 AM PDT   Bose might not be the home theater dynamo it once was, but if the new VideoWave System is any indication of its future, it could be back on track. Bose has produced home theater peripherals like Blu-ray players and virtual surround systems, but the Bose VideoWave System is the company’s first actual TV. The magic of the VideoWave takes place within the 46-inch LCD display. Six compact subwoofers are concealed within the body and seven surround sound speakers are positioned behind its top bezel. While the embedded subwoofers are cool, the feature of note here comes from the surround speakers and its “phase guide radiator technology.” Unlike typical virtual surround systems that simply create a perception of surround sound through some clever auditory tricks, the phase guide technology radiates sound off walls for actual, rather than virtual, surround sound. The phase guide radiation is assisted by the Bose ADAPTiQ audio calibration system, which automatically adjusts sound settings based on the VideoWave’s location. The final result is a single display monitor with built-in speakers capable on hanging on your wall and delivering punchy sound. It’s no longer necessary to have speakers strewn about your living room, a benefit anyone who has ever tried to manually calibrate a home theater will appreciate. Of course there are a couple of drawbacks. The display has only has a CCFL backlight instead of the LED backlighting found on most modern displays. I can only assume that this is a result of space constraints, stemming from the concealment of the entire subwoofer package within the display. That said, the display is 120Hz, so it’s not exactly antiquated. The second drawback is that it comes from Bose, which is to say that it ain’t cheap. The Bose VideoWave System will set you back $5,350 when it hits Bose stores on October 14. Yea, it hurts me too. More About: blu-ray, Bose, home theater, LCD, led, surround sound, VideoWave For more Tech coverage:
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| IMDb Turns 20, Launches Original Video to Celebrate Posted: 30 Sep 2010 10:40 AM PDT   Moviefone isn’t the only film-centric site to turn almost-legal of late — IMDb.com is turning 20, and with that milestone is launching IMDb20, the Amazon-owned company's 20-year anniversary campaign. IMDb.com has been a beacon for film lovers for two decades now — I myself discovered it in high school — and although many journalism schools don’t count it as a “legit source,” it’s pretty much the bible for many a cinephile. "IMDb saved me an insane amount of time in my life," says director Kevin Smith in an announcement on IMDb.com. "I think of every fight I ever got in with somebody who just didn't have a crucial piece of movie information at their fingertips. I said one thing. They said another. Loggerheads. Relationships destroyed. IMDb comes along and just immediately solves that.” And, starting this week, there’s about to be a ton more stuff for Smith and Co. to check out in celebration of the big 2-0. Every day, IMDb will feature an original video interview with a celebrity (the site has supported vids since 2008, but this is its first foray into original content), until October 17, which is IMDb’s official b’day. All this will function as a kind of look-back at the last 20 years in film. Readers can also build top 20 lists of fave films with the help of IMDb’s list-making tool, which can then be shared on Facebook and the like. If you head to IMDb’s dedicated IMDbB20 site now, there’s a ton of content to surf through, including a collection of trailers, top 20 lists and an interview with Gossip Girl’s Blake Lively. What do you think of IMDb’s transformation over the years — from basic database to social integration to offering apps? Is it still your source for all things cinematic, or have you found something younger and more spry? Image Courtesy of Flickr, jessica.diamond Reviews: Facebook, Flickr, imdb More About: birthday, Film, IMDB, pop culture, social media, trending For more Entertainment coverage:
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Gap Uses iPhone App to Find Kid Models Posted: 30 Sep 2010 10:13 AM PDT   If you’ve ever looked into the windows of a babyGap or GapKids storefront and thought to yourself: “Wow, my child is way prettier than all of these kids photographed in the window front, it’s too bad I’m too lazy to take a quality portrait on my digital camera, and upload it to Gap’s website for its annual babyGap and Gap Kids Casting Call contest,” today is your lucky day — if you own an iPhone, that is. For the fifth year of its Casting Call campaign, Gap has developed a special iPhone app [iTunes link] to make it easier for parents to enter their 0 to 10-year-olds into the contest, the four winners of which will be featured in the company’s babyGap or GapKids store window advertisements, and other promotional materials. Gap judges will select and fly 20 finalists to San Francisco for a professional photo shoot in mid-November. Fans will be able to vote on the final winners from December 6-20. Parents can enter their 0-10-year-olds from now until October 24 using the mobile app. (You can also use the web app at gapcastingcall.com to enter). After registering, you’ll be asked to fill out a short entry form including your child’s name, sex and date of birth, as well as your contact information. You’ll then be prompted to take a photo of your child using your iPhone or to pick one from your existing library, which cannot be more than three months old. After you’ve entered (and, by the by, you can enter as many of your brood as you would like), it’s time to beg your friends to download the app and start voting for your kid; the one with the most votes will receive a $1,000 Gap gift card for receiving the most votes, though s/he will not be flown out to do a photo shoot, unless s/he is also a favorite of the judges. (Of course, if your friends have cute kids themselves, you might not want to risk it.) You can then keep track of how many Fan votes your children have garnered under “My Entries,” as well as keep track of how many votes the competition has received in the Gallery section. In all seriousness, the app is a smart idea that should substantially increase the number of submissions, which numbered more than 1 million last year. Gap has pursued an aggressive digital and mobile marketing strategy as of late, having offered discounts via Foursquare, Loopt, and Groupon all within the last six months. Reviews: Foursquare More About: advertising, gap, iphone, MARKETING, mobile campaign, social media, social media campaign For more Mobile coverage:
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Creator of “Sh*t My Dad Says” Answers Your Questions Live [VIDEO] Posted: 30 Sep 2010 09:48 AM PDT   Justin Halpern is the Internet legend who went from freelance writer to Twitter sensation practically overnight. You know Halpern as the man behind the now-famous Twitter handle ShitMyDadSays, which now has more than 1.7 million followers. The Twitter account — started by Halpern to chronicle the blunt and expletive-ridden things his 73-year-old dad would say in passing — has since evolved to become a New York Times bestselling book (Sh*t My Dad Says) and now a CBS television show titled $#*! My Dad Says (pronounced “Bleep My Dad Says”) staring William Shatner. Halpern essentially went from a regular guy to a best selling author, Hollywood scriptwriter and comedy legend in just one year’s time. He’ll join me live today at 1:00 p.m. ET to discuss his story, his candid dad, the infamous Twitter account, the book and the critically not-so-acclaimed television show. Halpern will also take questions from viewers, so make sure to join the chat and participate in the question and answer session. video chat provided by Tinychat Reviews: TinyChat, Twitter More About: justin halpern, shit my dad says, shitmydadsays, tv, twitter, William Shatner For more Entertainment coverage:
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 9 Creative Social Good Campaigns Worth Recognizing [Mashable Awards] Posted: 30 Sep 2010 08:45 AM PDT
Whether raising money for disaster relief, promoting a cause, or mobilizing actions across the globe, they found effective strategies to tweet, post, blog, e-mail, virtually coordinate, or crowdsource their way to their goals. Here are 11 creative campaigns that caught our attention this year. 1. To Mama With LoveTo Mama With Love raises funds to help Mama Lucy Kamptoni build a home and boarding facility on the campus of the Tanzanian school she started with her own money. Users can make a donation by creating a “heart space” for a mother they care about. The “heart space” is a collection of photos, videos, and words dedicated to that mother. Other people who care about that mother are invited to donate in her honor. So far the project has raised about $17,000 of its $50,000 goal. 2. TwitChangeFans bid a total of $540,631.25 for Twitter interaction with their favorite celebrities at this online eBay auction. The proceeds benefited aHomeInHaiti.org, which is rebuilding the Miriam Center, a home for children with cerebral palsy, severe autism and other disabilities. 3. Go Green Twitter Sweepstakes The AARP promoted Earth-friendly practices this spring by asking its members to enter a sweepstakes by Tweeting their green tips to @createthegood with the #gogreen hashtag. More than 150,000 people participated. The winner received an eco-friendly trip to Washington D.C. (complete with carbon offsets for the flight and a metro card). 4. Pedigree's "Write a Post, Help a Dog" Pedigree compensated every blogger who posted about its adoption program before September 19 by donating a 20-pound bag of dog food to an animal shelter. 375 bloggers posted their contributions to the campaign website, earning about 7,500 pounds of dog food between them. Pedigree also donated a bowl of dog food for every “Like” it received on its Facebook Page. 5. F- Cancer F-Tember When it comes to cancer, this campaign didn’t bother to be polite. The site teamed with Invoke, an interactive agency, to create a Facebook app that allows users to donate their Facebook status to cancer education for the month of September (thus, F-Tember). Users can decide how often they want the app to automatically post surprising factoids about cancer to their Facebook or Twitter pages. 6. Pepsi Refresh Instead of dropping big bucks on its usual Super Bowl commercials last winter, Pepsi announced that it would spend $20 million on a social media giving campaign. The Pepsi Refresh campaign awards grants to grassroots projects that earn the most votes on its website. During the Gulf oil spill crisis, the project allotted an additional $1.2 million for projects to refresh the Gulf. Since January, more people have voted for causes than voted in the last presidential election. 7. 350.org’s 10/10/10 Global Work Party Before the United Nation’s climate change conference last December, 350.org orchestrated 5,200 simultaneous demonstrations in more than 180 countries that centered around the safe upper limit for CO2 in the atmosphere (you guessed it, 350). This year it’s using a similar strategy for its 10/10/10 Global Work Party. About 4,400 people in 173 countries have registered projects to help deal with global warming in their communities. The projects need to be completed by October 11. Actions range from planting trees to fixing bicycles. The idea, according to the website, “is not to solve the climate crisis one project at a time, but to send a pointed political message: if we can get to work, you can get to work too — on the legislation and the treaties that will make all our work easier in the long run.” 8. Bra Color Facebook Updates
Say what you will about the bra color Facebook status campaign that went viral this past January, but it was definitely an approach to raising awareness that we had not heard of before. The campaign of unknown origins urged women to post their bra color on Facebook to raise breast cancer awareness. While the intentions might have been good, critics responded by calling the campaign confusing, degrading to women, and ineffective. But they were all talking about it. 9. charity: water Born in September Campaigncharity: water helps people donate their birthday presents to the 1 billion people who are living without clean drinking water. When birthday boys and girls ask for donations instead of gifts on their site, the organization puts 100% of the money to use on clean water projects. Since the project started four Septembers ago, it has helped more than a million people gain access to clean water. Mashable Twitter followers have already generously contributed to the cause during CEO Pete Cashmore’s September birthday last year. With so many awesome social good campaigns going around, we couldn’t possibly list every creative campaign above. Help us out by adding other noteworthy campaigns to the comments below. The Mashable Awards Gala at Cirque du Soleil Zumanity (Vegas)
In partnership with Cirque du Soleil, The Mashable Awards Gala event will bring together the winners and nominees, the Mashable community, partners, media, the marketing community, consumer electronics and technology brands and attendees from the 2011 International CES Convention to Las Vegas on Thursday, January 6, 2011. Together, we will celebrate the winners and the community of the Mashable Awards at the Cirque du Soleil Zumanity stage in the beautiful New York New York Hotel. The event will include acts and performances from our partner Cirque du Soleil Zumanity. In addition, there will be special guest presenters and appearances. Date: Thursday, January 6th, 2011 (during International CES Convention week) Thanks to our sponsors: Mashable Awards Gala VIP Lounge sponsor:
Influxis specializes in the deployment of creative streaming solutions. Services include large scale deployment, mobile streaming, turn-key applications, and enterprise support with custom network options. With the unique combination of a worldwide network, knowledgeable developer support and nearly a decade of streaming media experience, Influxis is an essential partner to businesses, advertisers, developers, educators, and others who seek expertise in innovative streaming. More Social Good Resources from Mashable:
Image courtesy of iStockphoto, yasinguneysu, robyvannucci Reviews: Facebook, Foursquare, Mashable, Twitter, eBay, iStockphoto More About: 350.org, Bra Color Facebook Status, campaign, campaigns, charity: water, Create the good, Creative, crowdrise, DoSomething.org, email charity, F**k cancer, facebook, Global Work Party, mashable awards, mashable awards 2010, pedigree, pepsi refresh, social good, To Mama With Love, twitter For more Social Good coverage:
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Voxox Expands Functionality As Facebook and Skype Talk VoIP Posted: 30 Sep 2010 08:07 AM PDT   TelCentris is currently testing a new function for its Voxox Internet telephony service that enables users to quickly extend VoIP calls to any phone. Voxox Call Connect works by first calling any phone that the user possesses and then automatically connecting the caller with a selected contact. Call Connect will be available in a soon-to-be-released version of Voxox, but Mashable readers are invited to sign up for a preview of the service. Voxox accounts are free and come with a phone number and voicemail. The number can receive free inbound calls, texts and faxes. Unlimited outbound VoIP calls can be added for $2.50 for U.S. and Canada or $13 for international. While VoIP is nothing new, there has recently been an increased push in the consumer VoIP field. Just yesterday, reports surfaced that Facebook and Skype, the most consumer facing of all VoIP providers, were in the final stages of establishing a “deep integration partnership.” The integrations are said to be included in Skype 5.0, which is set to launch in the coming weeks. It will see Skype gaining the ability to SMS and call Facebook contacts through the integration of Facebook Connect. The rumor has led some, like Om Malik of GigaOm, to speculate that Facebook should simply buy Skype. Talks of Facebook joining forces with Skype came one month after Google enabled Google Voice calling directly through Gmail. Google Voice has long carried functionality similar to Voxox Call Connect through its online interface, but TelCentris CTO Kevin Hertz, explains some of the key differentiators of the new Voxox: Reviews: Facebook, Gmail, Google, Google Voice, Mashable, Skype More About: facebook, Google, google talk, Google Voice, Skype, TelCentris, voip, VoxOx For more Tech coverage:
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Internet Tethering Coming to iPad [RUMOR] Posted: 30 Sep 2010 07:03 AM PDT   When Steve Jobs said the iPad wouldn’t support Internet tethering, the hearts of many Apple fans sunk. It meant that even if you already owned an iPhone, you couldn’t use it to connect your iPad to the Internet, which could be handy in places with no open Wi-Fi connection. Sure, you can buy the 3G version of the iPad, which gives you the freedom to connect to the internet almost anywhere, but it comes with additional costs. Of course, it works both ways — if you want to share your iPad’s net connection with another device, you cannot do that either. Now, however, a glimmer of hope has appeared for those longing for tethering support on the iPad. 9to5Mac has a screenshot from the beta 2 of iOS 4.2 (with the iPad running on the Swedish network 3) that shows a new section, dedicated to tethering, within the APN network settings.  Don’t get too excited, though. This type of tethering, if it ever gets implemented to a final version of iOS, would only let you share the iPad’s connection with another device, as opposed to connecting the iPad to the internet through an iPhone’s connection. Furthermore, 9to5Mac claims it could not replicate this new settings pane on an iPad 3G running on AT&T's network, which might mean that the setting will be present only if the carrier allows it — and that might not be the case with AT&T. Image courtesy of 9to5Mac More About: apple, ipad, Tethering For more Tech coverage:
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Top 10 Most Watched Web Series, August 2010 Posted: 30 Sep 2010 06:37 AM PDT   Each month, our partner Visible Measures compiles a list of the top 10 most popular web video series, and we share those results with you and provide analysis. Visible Measures tracks views, comments and other data on web video. If you’re looking for some video entertainment to watch online during your lunch break, this chart is a great place to start. Just find a show you’re interested in and click the play button to the right to check it out. In July we noted that the top 10 series received more views than in any previous month, and this month the total has gone up once again. In August, the shows made it up to 248.5 million viewers. Though The Annoying Orange came out on top again, the shooting star here was Auto-Tune the News, whose remix of the “bed intruder” viral video launched the series from nowhere (last month, at least) to second place. The Chart: August 2010
*The Visible Measures Top 10 Webisodes Chart focuses on digital studio-driven Web series that appear on Internet video-sharing destinations and publisher microsites. Each Web series is measured on a True Reach™ basis, which includes viewership of both studio-syndicated video clips and viewer-driven social video placements. The data are compiled using the Visible Measures platform, a constantly growing repository of analytic data on more than 200 million Internet videos across more than 200 video destinations. If you are a webisode publisher and would like clips from your microsites to be counted towards the chart, please contact Visible Measures. Note: This chart does not include vloggers, interviews, how-to series, news shows, or product review shows. View-count results are incremental by month. To notify Visible Measures of an upcoming Web series, or for an end-to-end assessment of your campaign's overall performance, please contact Visible Measures directly. If you're interested in exploring this data further, go to visiblemeasures.com/mashable . The Big Winner: Auto-Tune the News Last month, Auto-Tune the News wasn’t in the top 10. Now it’s at number two. The reason behind that is not a mystery. Auto-Tune’s remix of the “bed intruder” viral video starring Antoine Dodson was an enormous hit. It didn’t just go viral as a YouTube video; it secured a place in the Billboard Hot 100 and the top-selling songs on iTunes. The brothers behind the series have landed a TV pilot at Comedy Central. That’s the dream for many web series producers, though we’d like to see more people doing it for the love of web video, not traditional television. We interviewed the brothers about their new-found success a couple of weeks ago, so check that out if you’re interested in learning more. Are Happy Tree Friends Still Happy? Viewership for the über-violent cartoon Happy Tree Friends fell 11% between July and August, marking the second month of decline. That’s a far cry from the 23% growth the series saw between November and December last year. Happy Tree Friends has been popular for a while now, but producers Mondo Media didn’t make any new episodes this month, which could explain the slip. Visible Measures notes that this “further supports the notion that a relationship exists between increased content output and increased viewership.” Mondo Media was actually quite good about cranking out content with regularity in the past. Hopefully it will snap back to it if it wants to stay near the top. New Voices NeededAs you might have noticed, there aren’t any series new to the chart on this month’s list. In fact, Potter Puppet Pals is years old. Web series are growing quickly, but we’d love to see more new series go viral and earn places in the zeitgeist. To that end, the makers of the Halo-themed Red vs Blue put together a funny clip called “How to make a Successful Online Video.” It’s mostly a joke, taking jabs at some of the cheap tricks and poor production qualities you’ll see in user-generated YouTube videos. But we like the idea: How do you make a successful online video? If you have any ideas about how new web series can find success and topple some of these long-standing champions, feel free to share them in the comments. More Web Video Resources from Mashable:
Reviews: Internet, YouTube, news More About: antoine dodson, auto-tune the news, bed intruder, Fred, happy tree friends, jake & amir, key of awesome, List, monthly top webisodes, Potter Puppet Pals, Red Vs Blue, rooster teeth, smosh, the annoying orange, the station, video, viral videos, web series, webisodes For more Web Video coverage:
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| This Morning’s Top Stories in Tech and Mobile Posted: 30 Sep 2010 06:20 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. Study Finds that 50% of Android Apps Secretly Share User Data A study of 30 of the 358 most popular apps for Android devices found that 50% of them sent location information to advertisers without users’ knowledge. Some apps dispatched location information as often as every 30 seconds, even when an application was not running. One sent this information to advertisers before it was even run for the first time. Seven apps shared unique identifier numbers, and others dispatched phone and SIM card numbers. More Top Executives to Depart Yahoo More top executives are leaving Yahoo, including the Hilary Schneider, EVP of the Americas region; David Ko, SVP of audience, mobile and local businesses; and VP of Media Jimmy Pitaro, AllThingsD reports. The resignations are scheduled for announcement on Friday. WordPress Rolls Out Video Support for iOS WordPress has launched a new version of its app [iTunes link] for iPhone and iPad devices. Users can now record, upload, embed and play videos within the application, as well as autosave their work. Media management has also been improved, among other small but very welcome additions. 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, Digg, Facebook, Google, Seesmic, WordPress, Yahoo!, iPhone, instapaper More About: android, Android apps, first to know series, privacy, security, Wordpress, Yahoo For more Mobile coverage:
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The 
“Social good” may not immediately be associated with “creativity,” but the space has become a hot bed for unique and inventive approaches to fundraising and cause awareness. We’ve been impressed with the way organizations and individuals have embraced the web this past year in order to make positive changes in their communities and the world.
| You are subscribed to email updates from Mashable! To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar