Mashable: Latest 29 News Updates - including “This You????: Yet Another Phishing Attack Hits Twitter [WARNING]” |  |
- This You????: Yet Another Phishing Attack Hits Twitter [WARNING]
- OMG, They Killed (the Original) Rickroll!
- Google Italy Executives Found Guilty Over Offensive Video
- Half of Messages on Twitter Aren’t in English [STATS]
- New SDK Hints at iPhone/iPad Front Facing Camera, Video Calls
- Intel Leads $3.5 Billion Effort to Advance U.S. Tech and Innovation
- Details: The Yahoo-Twitter Partnership
- Apple: iPad to Be Sold at Best Buy
- Twitter and Yahoo Strike Content-Sharing Deal
- Google Hit With Antitrust Investigation in Europe
- ZipList Creates Sharable Grocery Lists from Thousands of Recipes
- Web Faceoff: Adobe Flash vs. HTML5
- Orlando Magic’s Vince Carter Sinks Record-Breaking Shot While Sitting [VIDEO]
- Tears for Fears’ Curt Smith Talks Twitter and Solo Career [INTERVIEW]
- 10 Essential iPhone Apps for Runners
- Windows 7 Commercial Gets the Perfect Parody [VIDEO]
- Discover New Android Apps with AppAware
- How the Resort Industry is Using Social Media
- Barnes & Noble CEO: Nook Helped Boost Online Sales 67%
- Use Zoho’s Office Suite with Your Facebook Account
- Hulu’s First Original Series to Premiere Online March 2
- Twitter’s Ad Platform Could Launch Next Month
- Social Media Trends at Fortune 100 Companies [STATS]
- YouTube to Drop Support For IE6 Starting Next Month
- The Entertainment Industry Gets Its Own Twitter Dashboard
- Power Users Drive the Vast Majority of Twitter Usage [STATS]
- Evernote Integrates with Lexmark Printers to Sync Your Scans
- Smartphones in 2009: Symbian Dominates, iPhone, RIM and Android Rising Fast
- FCC: Cost Is the Biggest Barrier to Broadband Adoption in the U.S.
- Send Coupons to Almost Any Cellphone with MixMobi
| This You????: Yet Another Phishing Attack Hits Twitter [WARNING] Posted: 24 Feb 2010 05:29 AM PST  
The attack spreads via messages with the text “This you????” followed by a link that sends the user to a fake Twitter login page. Don’t fall for the trick. If you enter your credentials there, you’re not actually logging into Twitter, you’re just sending your username and password to the attacker. If you suspect you’ve fallen victim of this attack, you should change your Twitter password immediately. Check out a video demonstration of the attack (created by Sophos) below. Tags: phishing, trending, twitter
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| OMG, They Killed (the Original) Rickroll! Posted: 24 Feb 2010 04:09 AM PST 
Rickrolling, in case you haven’t been online between early 2008 and now, is the practice of tricking someone into opening the aforementioned video, and it’s considered to be one of the most popular Internet memes of all time. Yes, it’s a popular and copyrighted song, but it’s also been viewed millions of times precisely because it became such a popular online meme. How removing it from YouTube will help copyright owners is a mystery to me. Props to Neowin for noticing this one. Tags: rick astley, rickroll, trending
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| Google Italy Executives Found Guilty Over Offensive Video Posted: 24 Feb 2010 03:35 AM PST 
This decision sets a disconcerting legal precedent. As we wrote before, there are four Google executives implied in this case: David Drummond, Google's senior vice president and chief legal officer; George Reyes, Google's former chief financial officer, Peter Fleischer, Google's global privacy counsel, and a fourth unidentified Google employee. None of them have directly handled the video, and the video had been removed after Google received complaints; however, the prosecutors claim that Google should never have allowed the video to be posted in the first place. David Drummond plans to appeal the verdict, summing it up nicely: “If individuals like myself and my Google colleagues who had nothing to do with the harassing incident, its filming or its uploading onto Google Video can be held criminally liable solely by virtue of our position at Google, every employee of any internet hosting service faces similar liability.” Forcing service providers to police content uploaded by users is one thing (arguably wrong, but that’s another matter), but sentencing employees of those service providers to jail over such content is at the very least bizarre and shows a blatant misunderstanding of how the Internet and various social content sharing services work. If not overturned, this decision might have long lasting consequences on all content sharing services on the Internet. *Update: Google wrote a blog post detailing the incident. From the post:
Tags: Google, italy, privacy, trending, video
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| Half of Messages on Twitter Aren’t in English [STATS] Posted: 24 Feb 2010 03:07 AM PST 
To identify the languages, Semiocast used its technology which can identify the language in which short messages are written, differentiating between 41 languages in all major writing systems. Besides English, which accounts for some 50% of all messages on Twitter, the other most prominent languages on Twitter are Japanese (14% of messages), Portuguese (9%), Malay (6%) and Spanish (4%). Looking even further, Italian, Dutch and German each account for 1% – 2% of all messages on Twitter. The folks at Semiocast claim that English had a two-third share on Twitter back in the first half of 2009, which points out to strong international growth for Twitter in the last 6 or so months. It’s good news for Twitter, which has lately been struggling to retain its high growth rates from 2008. Tags: social media, social networking, twitter
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| New SDK Hints at iPhone/iPad Front Facing Camera, Video Calls Posted: 24 Feb 2010 12:14 AM PST 
The folks at 9to5Mac and MacRumors have done some digging, and found references to front facing camera, zoom, flash and video conferencing in the latest Beta 3 iPad SDK.  There’s some evidence to support the theory that these were intended for the iPad (the size of the accept/decline buttons, for example), but as we all know, the iPad has no front facing camera, or any kind of camera at all. But a second generation iPad…well, that’s another story. [Image source: MacRumors]
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| Intel Leads $3.5 Billion Effort to Advance U.S. Tech and Innovation Posted: 23 Feb 2010 11:40 PM PST 
The initiative, called the Invest in America Alliance, is a project being spearheaded by Intel. It was announced on Tuesday by Intel CEO Paul Otellini in Washington D.C. The alliance has one overarching goal, two specific objectives, and 42 different firms. The goal of the initiative is to keep the U.S. competitive in technology in a world that is increasingly catching up. From Mr. Otellini’s speech:
He continued on to say that the U.S. can no longer boast the best students in math, science, and engineering as other nations, primarily in Asia, have caught up and could even leave the U.S. behind if action isn’t taken. The Objectives of the Invest in America AllianceIntel’s Invest in America Alliance has two objectives: to invest $3.5 billion into technology startups over the next two years, specifically in clean technology, IT, and biotech. To this end, Intel has brought together 24 venture capital firms to commit to this goal. The following is an excerpt from a transcript of his speech:
The second objective of the alliance is to create 10,500 new jobs for college graduates in the next year. 17 companies have joined Intel in this goal, including Accenture, Adobe, Autodesk, Broadcom, CDW, Cisco, Dell, eBay, EMC, GE, Google, HP, Liberty Mutual, Marvell Semiconductor, Microsoft, and Yahoo. A Worthy Goal, But More Has to Be DoneThe new alliance is a recognition of two things: that the U.S. is in fact losing its once-dominant technology edge, and that something has to be done to reverse that trend. As the NYT points out, less than 10% of U.S. college graduates have engineering degrees, while more than 33% do in India and China. This is a serious problem that can only lead to America being beaten in science, technology, and innovation. Intel’s initiative is a good step and commitment towards funding innovative ideas and giving them a chance to grow. It will promote more college students to become engineers as they see more job opportunities open in technology and science while creating even more jobs in the form of new startups. $3.5 billion dollars could help create the next Google, Facebook, or Oracle. Still, it doesn’t solve the root problem, which is American students choosing not to study technology-related majors. That requires more than money and commitments — it requires a shift in perceptions and education that has to start at the grade school level and continue all the way through college. Acknowledging the problem and taking steps to combat it are the first steps, though. We look forward to seeing what comes of this new alliance. Videos: Intel CEO Paul Otellini’s Speech in D.C.Reviews: Facebook, Google Tags: accenture, adobe, Autodesk, Broadcom, CDW, cisco, dell, ebay, GE, Google, HP, intel, Invest in America Alliance, Liberty Mutual, Marvell, microsoft, vc, venture capital, Yahoo
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| Details: The Yahoo-Twitter Partnership Posted: 23 Feb 2010 07:06 PM PST 
We knew that the Yahoo-Twitter partnership would be comprehensive and more encompassing than Twitter’s search partnerships with Google and Bing, but now Yahoo tells us that the integration will focus on three primary areas:
Yahoo will have full access to the Twitter data firehose, so you can expect real-time updates in Yahoo Search, among other integrations. They will use tweets to improve relevancy, freshness, and search results, as well as “drive deeper user engagement.” The first integration will be available “immediately,” and that is the real-time search integration. This brings Yahoo Search in line with its competitors in terms of real-time data. You can probably expect this to launch fully later tonight or early tomorrow. As for the other integrations, they will launch later this year. Reviews: Bing, Google, Twitter, news Tags: trending, twitter, Yahoo
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| Apple: iPad to Be Sold at Best Buy Posted: 23 Feb 2010 06:45 PM PST 
In his Q&A at the conference, Mr. Cook revealed some interesting insights into the secretive Cupertino, CA company. The company considers itself (rightfully) a leader in mobile devices and, in fact, a mobile device company. It makes sense, if you consider that laptops, the iPhone and the iPod make up the vast majority of Apple’s revenue today. His discussion of the iPad was more interesting, though. He was asked whether the iPad would be a replacement for netbooks or a new use case. To that, he isn’t sure since they haven’t sold any units yet, but he did trash netbooks, something that Steve Jobs also does on a consistent basis. Also revealed: the iPad will first be sold in direct channels (aka online and in Apple retail stores), but will soon be sold in stores with assisted sales. He specifically mentioned Best Buy as a partner, although we’re sure eventually wherever iPhones are sold, iPads will be sold as well. From his talk:
Tim Cook also addressed Apple TV, a digital media receiver device that has not taken off like other Apple products. To that end, Mr. Cook described Apple TV as a “hobby” because it targets a “very small market,” although he did point to its 35% year-over-year growth. [via Apple Insider and Business Insider] Tags: apple, Apple Tablet, best buy, ipad
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| Twitter and Yahoo Strike Content-Sharing Deal Posted: 23 Feb 2010 06:06 PM PST 
Twitter has sealed a content-sharing deal with Yahoo, the world’s third largest website and second largest search engine, according to The Los Angeles Times. The deal is different than the Twitter-Google and Microsoft-Twitter search partnerships. It’s a wider-ranging content-sharing deal that will place Twitter information all across Yahoo’s properties, although exactly what it will look like remains to be seen. Yahoo inked a deal last year with Facebook that provides similar integrations and content-sharing with the world’s largest social network. Yahoo seems content not building its own social network. One of its rivals, Google, also has deals with Twitter and Facebook, but it also has Google Buzz. We’ve reached out to both sides for comment. Reviews: Facebook, Google, Google Buzz, Twitter
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| Google Hit With Antitrust Investigation in Europe Posted: 23 Feb 2010 05:09 PM PST 
According to three European companies – one of which is owned by Microsoft – the latter is true, and according to The Telegraph, their allegations have led the European Commission to launch an investigation into the search giant. Specifically, UK price comparison site Foundem and French legal directory ejustice.fr allege that Google demotes their respective sites in search rankings because they potentially represent a threat to Google’s ad revenue. Meanwhile, the nature of Microsoft-owned shopping site Ciao’s complaint is not immediately known, though Google implies in a blog post that the dispute is over AdSense terms and conditions. Google goes on to write on their European Public Policy blog that they “will be providing feedback and additional information on these complaints” but “are confident that our business operates in the interests of users and partners, as well as in line with European competition law.” This isn't the first time Google will face scrutiny from regulators. In the US, its acquisition of DoubleClick was closely examined by the FTC before eventually winning approval. Meanwhile, antitrust concerns killed a deal that Google had made with Yahoo for ad serving back in 2008. Yahoo has since made a deal with Microsoft that was just approved last week after a lengthy review. There is of course an irony involved in Microsoft being part of an antitrust complaint against Google. It was only a few days ago that Microsoft was forced to introduce browser choice on Windows machines in Europe as a result of a previous European Union ruling. Reviews: Google, Windows Tags: European Commission, Google, microsoft
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| ZipList Creates Sharable Grocery Lists from Thousands of Recipes Posted: 23 Feb 2010 03:57 PM PST 
Quick Pitch: ZipList is a free online shopping list and recipe service that makes it easy to share and add ingredients with one click. Genius Idea: ZipList gives you the tools to create, store, and share a family grocery shopping list on the web. The list can be accessed by almost any device with a web browser, or you can share it in an e-mail or SMS text message. Of course, you can also print out an old-fashioned paper list if you prefer that. The web-based shopping list interface lets you specify which store an item is available at — you can even specify the aisle. There’s also an option to add notes about coupons or anything else that’s pertinent to whichever household member goes to the store to pick the groceries up.  ZipList hosts a recipe database with hundreds of thousands of dishes thanks to an integration partnership with Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia at MarthaStewart.com. You can pull a recipe out of the database, identify it as one you plan to make, and add the items to your virtual shopping list. If you want to pull a recipe from somewhere else on the web, ZipList provides a Recipe Clipper bookmarklet that lets you do exactly that. Again, ingredients for the recipe will be added to your shopping list. The ZipList website is free and ad-supported. ZipList also powers Martha Stewart’s Everyday Food: Fresh & Easy Recipes iPhone app [iTunes link], which costs $0.99. Sponsored by Microsoft BizSpark
Entrepreneurs can take advantage of the Azure Services platform for their website hosting and storage needs. Microsoft recently announced the “new CloudApp()” contest – use the Azure Services Platform for hosting your .NET or PHP app, and you could be the lucky winner of a USD 5000* (please see website for official rules and guidelines)." Reviews: PHP Tags: bizspark, Martha Stewart, spark-of-genius, startups, ziplist
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| Web Faceoff: Adobe Flash vs. HTML5 Posted: 23 Feb 2010 02:49 PM PST 
This week, we’re tweaking the competitors a bit. Over the last few weeks, you may have heard about a battle brewing between Adobe and Apple. It all started when Apple slyly revealed that the iPad would not support Flash. This quickly broke out into a heated debate: Should we be abandoning Flash for HTML5, the new version of the web’s mark-up language that can support video, audio and more? Steve Jobs certainly thinks so. Now with more people chiming in, we think it’s time to take the pulse of the people. Which will eventually win out in the end: Adobe Flash or HTML5? Which is better for the future of the web? Do you think Apple has the muscle to take down Adobe’s widely used plug-in? Make your choice in the poll below, which will close on Friday, February 27, at 12:00 p.m. PT. Then let us know your opinions on this matter in the comments. Faceoff Series: Overall ResultsWeek 1: Week 2: Week 3: Week 4: Week 5: Week 6: Week 7: Week 8: Week 9: Week 10: Week 11: Week 12: Week 13: Week 14: Week 15: Week 16: Week 17: Week 18: Week 19: Week 20: Week 21: Week 21: [HTML5 image courtesy of justinsomnia on Flickr] Reviews: Bing, Boxee, Chrome, Digg, Facebook, Firefox, Flickr, Foursquare, Gmail, Google, Google Buzz, Google Docs, Gowalla, Gtalk, Hulu, Pandora, Posterous, Seesmic Desktop, StumbleUpon, Tumblr, TweetDeck, Twitter, TypePad, Windows, WordPress, Yelp, adobe AIR, aim Tags: adobe, adobe flash, Flash, HTML5, web faceoff
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| Orlando Magic’s Vince Carter Sinks Record-Breaking Shot While Sitting [VIDEO] Posted: 23 Feb 2010 02:36 PM PST 
This rapid turn-around when it comes to a Guinness World Record hints at future face-offs in the wake of the organization’s acquisition of Bragster. If challenges continue to manifest at this rate, we could be looking at real-time record-offs almost akin to true-blue sporting events. Check out the record-making and record-breaking videos below: There’s also this video of a fan named Dustin Leach who says he beat Dwight’s record one day after the b-b sunk the the long shot. If he did, indeed, best the pro it’s all null anyway. Carter still killed them both. Tags: guinness world records, sports, video
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| Tears for Fears’ Curt Smith Talks Twitter and Solo Career [INTERVIEW] Posted: 23 Feb 2010 01:52 PM PST 
We had a chance to sit down with him recently and find out more about his collaboration with avant-garde cellist Zoe Keating made possible by Twitter, why Creative Commons licensing is a no-brainer for artists, and how the Internet is forever changing the mechanics of the music business. Can you tell us a little bit about how Twitter became an integral part of the “All Is Love” single? (Stream the track at the song link.): It’s sort of interesting, the people you find. What happens with writing a song and demoing it, for me the demo always becomes the master. I never really demo anything, I just get a rough idea and then continue. And I got to the point where I really knew that I wanted cellos. It was kind of the mood of it and the verses really scream out for that. And in the best case scenario, you always want to use real cellos, because they sound so much better. But then it’s a question of finding a great cello player. So I went home that night and started looking — actually initially on YouTube. I had read something about Zoe before, because she has so many Twitter followers, now up to 1.4 million. So I’d heard about her and went to YouTube to actually see her, and then I just sent her a message and said, “It’s me, do you fancy playing on this track if I send you a copy of it?”  Was it a public message or a DM?: It was a public message initially and then she followed me and we got to direct messaging. So I sent her the track, just e-mailed it to her, and she liked it a lot and started working on it. She finished it and she handed it to me when she came to see a Tears for Fears gig. So that was the first time we met and she’d already finished it, the 80-odd tracks she did. So we take it back and pare it down to what we need. Was that 18 different interpretations of the song or takes or…: Eighty! 80 different parts — that’s how she works. She wants to give you as much as possible to work from and see what you want to use. And a lot of the times it’s cellos just doing the same thing, but it’s just a much thicker sound. Sometimes I don’t want that, I just want a single cello — so she’s given me both options basically. But she was great. I loved what she did, so we’ve sort of become friends since then. That’s the way social media can work, which is great. Before, we’d have to find someone who represented musicians: their agents, someone who specifically dealt with session musicians, sort of going round and round and this was a very direct way of just asking someone to play on my stuff, which was great. And what she did was fantastic and perfect for the song.  So you were pretty happy with how the results turned out. Do you think it was significantly different from other collaborations where you’re actually with musicians in the studio collaboration in real time or comparable?: It was very different. I’ve gotta say when it works it’s much easier. You haven’t got to sit there and do anything; the track just turns up and it’s good. I kinda like it. Also I think it allows them to interpret it the way they would interpret it, which I think is a good thing. I think the idea of working with somebody of Zoe’s quality — it’s different if it’s just a session player that might not be as creative as Zoe is, because she’s actually a writer and incredibly creative. I think it might be different and they might need more direction. Because she is so creative she doesn’t really need much direction and the reason we’re using her is because she’s her. I’ve heard what she’s done and I love what she does — so it was sort of “can you do some of that on this song?” Do you think this kind of asynchronous collaboration is one model of how music might evolve or how people might be able to be creative independent of geography?: Yeah, I don’t see any reason why not. What made it simple for me was the direct contact we had. So many times in the past, no matter who it is, normally you would have to go through a manager and then get a record company’s permission for them to appear on your record and obviously none of those things existed with Zoe. And for a lot of artists they don’t — if someone wanted to work with me, there’s no one you have to go through, you know where to find me. And if I listen to something and like it, there’s no one else you need to talk to. I don’t have a record company, I look after myself — obviously Arlene (manager) helps me. But certainly with musicians I find that they communicate a lot more than they used to. I’ve heard of people doing asynchronous collaborations before, but this was the first time I’d heard of social media actually being involved in matching up people who hadn’t necessarily collaborated before.: I think people will do it more and more. It is so easy now with, ‘Here’s the track, I’ll just send it to you,’ and you just send us whatever you have back, and make it Pro Tools-friendly or whatever system you happen to be working on, and it’s not that difficult to do anymore. How do you approach your own use of Twitter as a solo artist. Do you do a lot of interaction with your fans?: Yeah, there’s a lot of interaction. A lot of politics go down and the odd argument now and again. It’s multi-layered and I think that’s the joy. There are things that I might talk about — the other night I posted a picture outside of the Justin Bieber sold-out gig and said, ‘This is what I get to do on Valentine’s Day,’ which made my kids very thrilled, and me not as thrilled. While I was on tour I do the same: photos from the road, what I’m getting up to, where I am each day. Zoe, asking her to work with me. We get into politics — I make my political views openly known on Twitter, which some people take an issue with, but I think that’s okay. It’s multifaceted and I think people that follow you become very appreciative of you sort of making them a part of your life. I think it tears down a lot of barriers. When we were younger and we did have those screaming fans and that kind of stuff, I never really understood it. And the reason I never understood it was I’d be thinking: ‘But you don’t even know me, how could you possibly be that enamored of me? I might be a complete asshole.’ That personality is still here, and people can actually get to know me now. It normalizes you. You don’t become an icon anymore, you just become this guy, which I think is a good thing and healthy. How would you break down the value of Twitter for an artist? I’m sure it’s different for individual acts, but I see opportunities to expand the existing fanbase versus keeping an existing fanbase more engaged. Do you have any sense of how that utility plays out for you in particular?: I think it’s certainly expanded it, because there are people that, say, may be fans of Zoe but wouldn’t necessarily think of following me that would now be following me. Certain people who agree with my politics that wouldn’t necessarily follow me for music but are interested in the politics. So yeah, I think it expands it — I don’t know what the retention is as far as keeping fans you already have. I think if you already have them, I’m not particularly likely to lose them at this stage of my life. I think what’s interesting also on Twitter is the age range. The age range is incredibly broad, which is not the same with Facebook or MySpace or anything else. They definitely have demographics, Facebook and MySpace, which I don’t find as much with Twitter. Do you have a presence on Facebook and MySpace also?: Yeah, and the Twitter feed goes to both. I go on there at times and post stuff but nowhere near as much as Twitter because I have my phone with me all the time. It’s more readily available. It’s 140 characters. When I was on the road I would blog, it would be longer, not limited to 140 characters. But when I’m on the road I have the time. I don’t have kids with me and I’m traveling and so… I’m bored. There are other things that occupy me when I’m at home. I find that once I get home I don’t really have the incentive to write a large blog post about something, whereas an idea that comes to mind I can quickly Twitter. Or if I see something I want to post a picture of, whatever it may be, it’s just fast and simpler and I’m more likely to do it. Do you think any particular platform is more valuable for artists in general? MySpace is trying to transition itself to MTV 2.0.: MySpace is just spam central. I mean, every day I just get mail inviting me to gigs that are nowhere near Los Angeles! No, I’m not coming to Florida tomorrow. There’s not really much of substance on there — that’s my personal experience. I find there’s a bit more substance, at least person-to-person contact, on Facebook. I rarely get mail or comments on MySpace other than the mail inviting me to some gig. Maybe one every few days that’s a fan actually writing to ask me something. A lot of the comments I just delete. ‘Thanks for following me’ — I wasn’t aware I did follow you. ‘Buy my new CD’ — I don’t even know your new CD or who you are, so I’m hardly going to recommend it to everyone. So it’s primarily that stuff, which gets a bit tedious. We keep each one updated but as far as stuff coming back to me, that’s my experience with MySpace. But there are some people who do, and they tend to be younger, use Myspace and don’t go on Facebook, so you’re wise to keep all of them updated. I find Myspace is younger, Facebook is older and Twitter goes from whatever to whatever. My youngest Twitter fan is 15, and the oldest one is… me, maybe! You’re going to do a live performance here in L.A. with Zoe, March 23)? What material are you going to do?: We’re going to do a few tracks together, yeah. We’re going to do ‘All Is Love’ because she already knows it. She’s doing an arrangement for ‘Mad World’ right now because it’s one of her favorite songs. So I’m going to attempt to do that one, and we’ll see what it’s like with just me and Zoe. We’ll find out when she comes down to L.A. Right now those two we definitely want to do, and we’ll see when we sit down together if we’ve got time to try more. So the single for “All Is Love” did very well, can you talk a bit about the success of the track and how it was distributed and promoted?: Initially we gave it away for free, through Amazon. It became their free download initially of the day and it did very well so they continued it. And I think it’s more about building up and widening a fanbase, so giving it away seemed like a good idea. A lot of it doing well was down to it being retweetable. Twitter played a bit part in it. Obviously MP3 Amazon have their own Twitter feed, so they sent it out to everyone who follows them. Zoe sent it out to 1.4 million people, and I sent it to my fans, and the reaction we got from people who listened to it loved it. So I think a lot of it was to do with how much people enjoyed the track. I think if it was a piece of crap then probably people wouldn’t be tweeting about it, so I like to think that some of it is down to it being a good song and recorded well. Do you think that people were excited about the nature of how the track was produced, too?: Arlene [Curt's manager]: One of the first comments on Amazon was from a fan of Zoe’s, who basically said, ‘I’m a fan of Zoe’s and I hadn’t really listened to Curt’s stuff before, but now that I heard this I’m going to go check out his other stuff.’ That’s exactly the kind of feedback we love to get. You also have a unique plan for releasing some of the upcoming solo work that you’re doing, track by track as opposed to, ‘Here I’ve worked for two years and here’s an album at the end of that time.’ Does that have to do with changes in the music industry — are singles becoming more important? Is the album format becoming more disintermediated?: I think the album format is definitely sort of on the wane as far as the general public goes. I’m sort of of a different age group than the demographic that probably is likely to buy my records — they would still probably buy albums, I’m thinking. My kids don’t really buy albums. They buy singles. But I think it’s more that you want to find new ways of doing things. I didn’t really want to sit in the studio for a year and wait and then release it at all at the end of it. I think it’s more now sort of immediate gratification — that’s what I want. I want to get this track, let’s finish it, let’s do that one, it’s over, goodbye. Normally doing an album you go from track to track and go, ‘Let’s not work on this one today, let’s go work on the other one,’ and I think you tend to get more self-indulgent that way. I was interested in doing it where a track is written, we record it, put it out there. I think it’s an experiment that I’m going to find interesting as well, to see if there’s any thread at the end of it. See if there’s any reason to release what I would consider an album at the end of releasing every single track. What happens also when you do an album is you can go from track to track and you find a new way of doing something, whether that be a guitar sound you use or whatever it may be, and then you go, ‘Oh my God, we’ve got to put that on the other track.’ So it ends up with everything having a sort of uniformity because you go from track to track and you’re updating them all the time. This way I’ll be interested to see if it has a uniformity or if it progresses, with the last track sounding nothing like the first track. So it’ll be fascinating — maybe we’re working with Zoe now to working with Metallica at the end. Probably not, but… That would be kind of awesome, actually. It’s interesting, too, in this sort of episodic content model, too, which matches more of what’s going on on the web now. It reminds me of how blogging works.: Yeah, it is the same, it’s really sort of updating people each time as opposed to, ‘I can’t tell you what I’m doing, you have to wait until I’m finished.’ As soon as I’m done this one, I’ll give it to you. So it is very much updating people as you go along. For me it’s going to be an interesting experiment. Arlene: We got started on that when a couple of years ago he started doing a free holiday song. He and Charlton (producer) would go into the studio and record — I think the first one was ‘Silent Night’ — and we just gave it away for free on the website. And last year he did another holiday song and gave it away for free on the website. And we realized, if we keep doing this there’s going to be a holiday album there at the end of it — who knew? It wasn’t really the thought going into it. CS: Yeah, in ten years we’ll have a Christmas record. Just in time for my retirement! You’ve been working in the music industry for a long time now. What other changes have you seen happening over the years?: To be honest the most interesting have been in the last few years. That’s by far when the biggest changes have occurred. The final demise of record labels — they’re not dead quite yet but they’re on their last legs. They will be soon. All that’s a good thing. What’s fascinating to me is now the power is back in the artists’ hands, which I think is a great thing. We’re going to have control not only of what we do and when we do it, but more importantly ownership. Because the initial thing a record company will always do is take the ownership away from you, for putting money into you making a record, which you have to pay back to them anyway. The Internet came along and changed everything. It’s not really worked out yet, I don’t think we have all the answers yet of how it’s going to work — we have to find new models of how an artist monetizes what they do. Who knows what’s that going to be? You’re releasing a lot of your solo material independently on your own label, but you’re already an established artist.: Exactly — it’s easier for me. Do you think that new artists just starting out who want to remain independent — do you think that’s a viable solution for them yet or something that’s coming soon? Do they still need label support?: I think there’s still something that’s coming soon, but I don’t think they necessarily need label support particularly. Look at it this way: The record companies never discovered them anyway. A bunch of kids went to see the band and liked them, then a bunch more kids went to see the band, then a bunch more, then the record company heard about it. If you took the record company out of the equation, a bunch more kids would still go see them and then a bunch more… and it’s then a question of how you manage it. It’s very tempting — and we were tempted and went for it as well — when a record company comes along and says, ‘We’ll give you lots of money. And we’ll put you together with a producer and all the rest.’ Could we have done that on our own if we’d have kept going? Probably. What would we have lived on while we were doing it? That’s the difficult bit. I think that now it’s going to be, if you’re a live band, you’re going to live off your live income while you’re doing it. If you’re a DJ, it’s going to be to keep as many downloads coming as possible and sell them yourself, so that you can make that record — whether you’re going to make an album or make singles. But yeah I think it’s possible to self-finance it, if you’re good enough. Before we had a record deal, we did make enough money to live off. We didn’t have jobs, we did it as a living. From gigging mostly?: Yeah, from gigging. Because we couldn’t go and do demos and have jobs at the same time. We were in two vans touring Germany — we did all those things. It’s not going to be easy — it’s not the same as when record companies just come along and throw money at you. And the fact is, you might as well do it yourself because record companies right now are not going to come along and throw money at you. They’re going to do it as cheaply as they can but take the ownership. Because they don’t have the money to throw at you either. All that’s gone. Making a record is nowhere near as expensive, so you don’t need them for that. You can do that at home. You used to have to go to a studio for that. Making a video — you can do that yourself too. You can even do it on an iPhone these days.: Yeah, exactly. You don’t need any of those things you needed from a record company. Like I say, the new model has not really worked itself out yet, but I think these things happen organically, and something will happen that will make it all make sense. In the interim period, artists should just embrace the fact that they have more control and don’t need record companies. And actually get to keep everything they do. Do you have any other specific advice to those artists just starting out? Should they be diving into these social tools, are there any tools for bands that are out there now — things like Topspin, Reverbnation, they should check out?: There are. A lot of it nowadays is always going to be word of mouth, and people commenting on how good they think you are. You have to keep it organic. The problem with MySpace is that it was gamed ridiculously and I think people are hip to that and you can’t game people anywhere near as easily as you initially could when it first started. They’re going to have to do what you do every day and make music. They’re going to have to have their finger on every pulse and keep involved in everything. A lot of it, especially when you’re talking about music genres, make sure you’re involved with that genre on social media. Even down to the people you follow on Twitter: Find people in your genre. Social media is a great tool, and the more creative you are the better it’s going to be. If you do go out and make a cool video for next to nothing and it becomes a viral video — you’ve got to use every tool at your disposal. It’s not just going to be, ‘Make a record and hopefully someone listens to it and likes it.’ Be visually creative, too, and all the other things that would actually bring people in. What do you think about some of the more creative business model ideas coming out from artists like Josh Freese, who would give away a signed CD and a lunch date for $250 or Kristin Hersh whose Strange Angels club members get free concert tickets in exchange for financial support?: We’ve talked about doing all of the above. For me it’s a question of where I draw the line. I can’t say I’m a fan of the sort of Gene Simmons, ‘Buy my axe for $20,000′ thing — that’s taking it to the nth degree and sort of ripping people off blindly. My natural reaction would be negative, but it’s a different day and age now. And if you are up front and honest about, ‘This is how I’m going to finance my next record: You’re going to finance it.’ And this is what I give back in return for financing it. The fact is, I can’t give everything away for free, because I wouldn’t be able to continue to make music if I gave everything away. It’s got to be self-financing. I could make everything for free, but I’d run out of money at some point. So it’s got to be self-financing, anything we do if we don’t have a record company, however you make that happen. I think a lot of those things you mention, like being a member is not a bad one. There are other things like, ‘Come and sing backing vocals’ because now anyone can sing backing vocals, we just Auto-Tune them so it’s fine. So you can be creative and fun with it. And the people could actually get something out of it as opposed to feeling like, ‘I just spent that for this?’ We are discussing it and we’re trying to work out which ones to embrace. I think the fronting money for recording is a good one — artists like Jill Sobule had a lot of success with that. And I think fans really feel like…: That’s their record. Yeah! They participated in that.: And we’ll list everyone and send it out with a big sheet of everyone’s names who were part of the album. Or if you get to a higher level of donation you come and do the backing vocals. There are ways to be creative with it which I think fans embrace. It brings into contrast, too, exactly where the music industry is really getting it wrong: It’s not that fans don’t want to support the artists. It’s more that the nature of ‘product’ has changed and they’re not being given a sort of way to participate.: They now have a choice of just buying what a lot of the time is the cookie cutter stuff the record companies deal with and is imaged and get no real direct contact with the artist — to being involved in something, a project by an artist, band, singer, whatever it may be. They’ll be more inclined to be involved in the thing that involves them back. The fact that they’re getting direct responses from me makes them feel more involved. Even concert promoters on Twitter say, ‘We’d love for you to come play in Malaysia,’ and I’m actually the one to say, ‘Contact CAA in England,’ or whichever agent is that area, and it’s just direct contact. We have fans that come to shows — we had a whole bunch of them came last year to the Tears show in Vegas. They flew in from all over America and all met, because they knew each other from social media. They all planned it and decided where to go and they met up in Vegas. So after the show we did a private meet and greet and met them all and signed all their stuff. Without social media that wouldn’t have happened. And they felt more involved, and that kind of thing will get bigger. I know you’re a big proponent of Creative Commons. Could you talk a bit about why you think this is something important that artists should know more about?: The only way I can ever explain it is that it’s a no-brainer. It’s so simple and easy and protects you in the ways you want to be protected — or not if you don’t care. Most of the time you would have to spend a lot in legal fees if you just have stuff copyrighted, and you have the job of chasing after people who may be misusing that copyright. I’ve had so many occasions when schools have e-mailed management who’ve e-mailed me because they want to use something in a school play but because it’s copyrighted they can’t. And I can’t get an answer from Universal and I have to say well, ‘I can’t give you permission because you’ve got to go to Universal and then you’ve got to talk to so-and-so else.’ And this is stuff that’s owned by me. This is a simple way of up front telling people how it’s OK to use this. And in my case it’s you can use it in any way shape or form, as long as I’m credited and you’re not making money off of it. You have to ask my permission if you’re going to make money and we have to agree on that. But if you just want to use it to show someone or use it in a school play or amateur film or whatever it may be, then knock yourself out. It’s more exposure for me. Just credit me for it so people know who it is. It’s just a way of doing all that at pretty much no cost, whereas before a solo artist would need a lawyer to follow up on all of it. Creative Commons is saving artists a ton of legal fees by making it simple, and I’ve always wanted contracts to be more simple. My bugbear with lawyers has always been, they’ve invented their own language so we have to employ them. It really doesn’t have to be that way; I feel simple English works. I think there’s a bit of perception that Creative Commons is really only relevant or useful to independent artists. Do you think mainstream artists should pay more attention, or do you know of any mainstream artists that are embracing it?: I don’t know of any major label acts, but surely that would have to also be the label that embraces it. Therein lies the problem — you don’t own the copyright, the label owns the copyright. So it would have to be the labels that would embrace it, and seeing that labels are run primarily by ex-lawyers, it’s not gonna happen. What do you mean do things in a simple fashion? And put all my friends out of work? Not gonna happen. We talked a little bit before about how major labels are missing the point regarding the human behavior surrounding music which is sharing. Do you know of any tools or can you think of any new music sites that you mentioned being excited about in the past few years that are embracing more of that model? I’m thinking of Spotify or things like blip.fm.: I do blip.fm. But there’s so many around, it usually ends up being word of mouth for me. My days are usually spent writing and trying to keep up with all that is tough. But blip.fm I find easy to use and great. But there’s not one in particular that’s come up. I think you kind of spend a bit of time on each and seeing how much you learn from it. But my primary source of finding new things is people telling me or seeing it mentioned by people I actually follow or know. That’s normally when I’ll go check it out. Do you have any other advice, if you could be the angel — or maybe the devil — on the shoulder of the music industry about how they can salvage their image?: I don’t think they ever will, to be honest. I don’t think that’s going to happen. Not the music industry as we know it, anyway. I presume when we say ‘music industry’ we’re talking about record companies — they’re just going to become bricks and mortar. It’s going to be catalog and film placement and things like that. I don’t see them as a creative force anymore. And the sad thing about that is that you do meet some creative people at record companies that do get it, especially in new media. Yet, are they ever allowed to run with it? No. Never. They don’t get to do what it is they really want to do, because the people at the top have no creativity whatsoever. So they don’t get it. ‘We’re not giving away shit for free, that’s wrong! What do you mean someone’s playing that video we spent $100,000 doing, for nothing? No! Tell them to take it down, cease and desist, now!’ So they don’t get it. They don’t get that that video being shared that day by god knows how many kids sending it to each other is going to lead to X thousand downloads of the song. It’s beyond me. To be honest, what’s happening because of social media and because of the Internet is that we’re becoming more creative. We’re all becoming more creative because it’s easier to create. It’s easier to create movies and almost everything. Record companies? They haven’t changed since I was 18. They’ve never been creative. They weren’t creative then, they aren’t creative now. They’re not a creative force, they’re just a force that just buys and sells. I think music as an art form is a far more creative force now, and can be self-sufficient, whereas back then I don’t think it could. Because of the Internet it can be. Because everything is doable now. For me to make a record back then, I couldn’t. Couldn’t have made a video either. You can do all that now. I don’t really hold out hope for record companies. They will morph into something else, and artists will use them less and less. As long as they keep sending me checks I’m OK. It used to be you had to have a label and a lawyer and so on, and now there are tools on the Internet to do pretty much everything. You can actually do things yourself. All these tools enable us to be far more self-sufficient. - Follow Curt on Twitter Reviews: Auto-Tune, Blip.fm, Facebook, MySpace, Spotify, Twitter, YouTube Tags: blip.fm, Curt Smith, facebook, interview, music, music industry, myspace, ReverbNation, spotify, Tears for Fears, Topspin, twitter, Zoe Keating
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| 10 Essential iPhone Apps for Runners Posted: 23 Feb 2010 01:28 PM PST 
Whether you want to try out new routes, strive to be faster, have better endurance or even lose a little weight, runners (and want-to-be runners) can turn to the following 10 iPhone apps for a little more variety in their training regimens: 1. RunKeeper Pro RunKeeper Pro is probably the most well-known of the running apps on this list. This is a feature-rich app that enables GPS tracking, distance, speed monitoring, caloric output and activity history for any number of activities you partake in including sports such as running, cycling, hiking, skiing and swimming. You can also sync all the data to RunKeeper's website to monitor progress and share publicly. RunKeeper also offers a simplified version of the app for free. Cost: $9.99 2. Ghost Race Sometimes, the best motivation is competition and who better to compete with than yourself? Ghost Race enables you to track your times on various routes and compare your performance from day to day. The app's audio function also keeps you updated on your progress against your 'Ghost' in real-time. Cost: $0.99 3. Livestrong Calorie Tracker Assuming most people who run regularly are also health conscious, the Livestrong Calorie Tracker boasts more than 625,000 foods in its database and is a great app to have to monitor caloric/fat/carbohydrate/protein intake. You can also monitor your progress based on daily caloric goals that you establish and track your weight loss goals. Cost: $2.99 4. Get Running (Couch to 5K) Targeted more for beginner runners, Get Running provides users with a specific training regimen over the course of nine weeks, with the end goal of being able to run for 30 minutes. Audio prompts guide users through each workout and even provide encouragement along the way. Cost: $1.99 5. iRace iRace is a comprehensive app for locating road races near you or in any city that you choose to search. The app also enables you to preview the race route (if available) and send "challenges" to contacts, inviting them to run the race with you. Cost: $0.99 6. Fitnio Fitnio is another GPS-based tracking and monitoring app for walking, running and cycling. The app records your activity and then displays distance, pace, caloric burn and also keeps an ongoing log of all workouts and also syncs with its website. Fitnio also provides an emergency contact option in the event that immediate help is needed during a workout. Cost: $1.99 7. Run Coach Run Coach is a good app for both seasoned and novice runners who desire a little more motivation for running success. With a variety of training plans to choose from, a 5k, 10k, half marathon, marathon, etc., Run Coach provides personalized plans and enables you to track your progress along the way. Running and nutritional tips are also offered for quick reference. Cost: $0.99 8. iMapMyRun If you want a GPS-based route tracker and activity log, but don't want to pay for one, iMapMyRun is a good alternative. Similar to some of the other tracking apps, this also enables you to save your data to the app's website where you can monitor progress and share publicly, even via Twitter. For more features like iPod integration and photo geo-tagging, there's a more comprehensive version available called iMapMyRun+ that costs $4.99. Cost: FREE 9. Interval Run For runners who like to mix it up with interval training, this app is a good way to integrate a little variety into your workout. With training plans including Tabata, Couch to 5K, Gateway to 8K and a One Hour Program, the recorded voice tells you what to do and when to do it. Cost: $1.99 10. UltraTimer UltraTimer is a great app to have on hand for use as a precise timer, whether it is for circuit training, sprints or just for general use. The app comes with a couple example training plans, but any desired timing schedule can be inputted and multiple timers can be run simultaneously as well. Cost: $1.99 More iPhone resources from Mashable:
Image courtesy of iStockphoto, blublaf Reviews: Twitter, iStockphoto Tags: exercise, iphone, iphone apps, Lists, Mobile 2.0, mobile app, running
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| Windows 7 Commercial Gets the Perfect Parody [VIDEO] Posted: 23 Feb 2010 01:14 PM PST 
This video is pretty spot-on in terms of mocking both the style and content of the classic commercial. Also, it really sums up how much people had riding on the new system, as the actors in the commercial begin to make ever more unreasonable requests (“I want it to end my suffering,” pleads one bedridden woman). Hell, it’s almost an enjoyable as the Windows 7 Whopper is delicious. My personal fave is the kid who wants a glass of Pepsi with a dead bird in it. Don’t we all, don’t we all… Check out the parody, as well as the original commercial, below: Tags: humor, viral video, Windows 7
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| Discover New Android Apps with AppAware Posted: 23 Feb 2010 12:15 PM PST 
AppAware goes as far as to offer a Twitter feed of downloads, updates and deletions that can be viewed via #AppAware. As well as being of interest to developers, AppAware will also offer Android phone owners a new way to discover apps — which the Android Market hasn’t facilitated very well in the past. As the AppAware team phrases it, “You become ‘App-Aware’ of what other users are installing on their Android phones right now! Promising to let users ‘discover new and interesting applications with the help of other users.’” While iPhone users have similar third-party services such as LivingSocial, it will be interesting to see how the Android community reacts to such a service. [via AndroidGuys] Reviews: Android, Android Market, Twitter, iPhone Tags: android, Android Market, appaware, apps, twitter
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| How the Resort Industry is Using Social Media Posted: 23 Feb 2010 11:21 AM PST 
Here’s a look at some of the social strategies these getaway companies are employing and what we can learn from their success. Online DedicationSki resorts in particular are taking advantage of online opportunities to communicate with their communities and reach beyond their usual demographic. World-famous mountain resort company Vail Resorts is so dedicated to new outreach methods that it has shifted 80% of its marketing budget to digital production and social media strategy. As part of the company's efforts to keep skiers up to date, Vail Resorts has launched three new websites: Lindsey Is Epic, which chronicle's Vail-based Olympian Lindsey Vonn's skiing adventures, content portal buzz.snow.com, and the Heavenly resort’s “underground” tahoestash.com.  Vail Resorts Senior Corporate Communications Manager Amy Kemp says each website, along with both of the company’s Twitter accounts (@snowdotcom and @vailmtn) caters to a slightly different audience, but each group shares one thing — a love for skiing and snowboarding. Park City, Utah's largest ski franchise The Canyons began harnessing social media two years ago by launching an employee-run blog in conjunction with Twitter and Facebook accounts. The Canyons Communications Coordinator Hannah Bowling says the road to social media has been long but worth the ride. “A lot of the people here higher up don’t necessary understand social media,” said Bowling. ”But when I did a big contest giveaway on Facebook and they saw how our number of fans grew so quickly, we started thinking of future social media strategies that include more contests, making sure our blog is updated with information our customers want to see." In a similar fashion, Utah's Park City Mountain Resort has broadened its reach by tapping into the mommy bloggersphere. The company's Snow Mamas blog features five to six mommy bloggers who write about their ski trips. Each mama gives tips on dining, budget, lodging, and ski gear for the whole family. Offline Action While building communication through social networking is important for the resort industry, the end goal is to get people to show up. Some destinations are achieving this through integrated campaigns. If executed effectively, online efforts more often than not lead to offline success. The management team behind Vail Resorts took the offline component of their social media campaign to another level in January when they hosted the 2nd annual Snowcial, a conference that brings the ski industry and the tech world together. The four-day event highlights activities for vacationers to do throughout the South Lake Tahoe. While attracting customers who wouldn't normally travel to the area, Snowcial serves as an offline destination for people to share their personal and professional developments with social media. In addition to giveaways and conferences, blogger retreats are becoming increasingly popular in the resort and spa business. In January, the world-famous vacation spa Club Med held a week-long food blogger camp to bring attention to the culinary delights of the chain resort. A group of eight well-known food bloggers stayed at Club Med Ixtapa Pacific and gave seminars, while others enjoyed the amenities and networked. At a discounted rate, the blogger guests paid for their rooms, activities and food. The foodies with families were able to have their kids stay for free. Club Med Public Relations Director Kate Moeller says the event started a conversation between the establishment and people who wouldn't normally go to Club Med. “Someone who's reading [a blog by David Lebowitz] isn't a typical Club Med guest," said Moeller. "But that person now knows about what Club Med has to offer from a culinary perspective.” Moeller went on to say that social media is the only realm where anyone can do effective branding. "With the advertising space, you're limited and you have limited funds," she explained. "With the recession, everything is about deals. With social media we can actually brand and talk about things like the food blogger camp." "The food blogger camp was great because the cost of hosting it was pretty minimal," said Moeller. "And the power of search and bloggers is undeniable. Because of the blogger event, people can read personal stories about Club Med versus an article in a magazine or an ad. If you Google ‘Club Med, food and wine,’ all of the bloggers' names come up." Social Media Takeaways from the Getaway Industry With the click of a mouse being just as powerful, if not more so, than word of mouth, it's apparent that social media efforts require dedication and consistency. "There's no escaping how much of an impact social media has on our business," Bowling asserted. "I’ve heard people say 'I just saw the Canyon’s Facebook page, or, 'Hey, I need to tweet that I'm on the chairlift right now.' It's really important." When it comes to quality versus quantity, Bowling says "quality should take precedence in everything." The Canyons’ take on social media is that growing with substance is more important than growing in numbers, because numbers don't guarantee staying power." "We do want a lot of online followers, but we're really only interested in communicating with people who are genuinely interested in what we have going on at The Canyons," Bowling said. Another important practice for resorts is to give their audiences what they want and expect, while offering a little something extra. Moeller says Club Med customers expect ambiance and treatment of a certain caliber. By giving their guests a special taste of the food and wine at Club Med, the resort offers a taste of the good life with a twist. At the same time, it is important to heed the principles of Social Media 101: Transparency, authenticity, staying true to your brand, and strategizing to grow your business. Above and beyond all, knowing your audience and knowing your social media contributors is paramount. Like with any individual or company leveraging social media, resort owners must accept that they're no longer in complete control of their brand. However, research and attention to detail goes a long way in monitoring how a business is perceived. More social media resources from Mashable:
Image courtesy of iStockphoto, imagedepotpro [Image Credit: iujaz] Reviews: Facebook, Google, Twitter, blog, iStockphoto, social media Tags: blogging, BLOGS, business, facebook, MARKETING, mommy blogger, mommy bloggers, social media, social media marketing, travel, twitter, vacation
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| Barnes & Noble CEO: Nook Helped Boost Online Sales 67% Posted: 23 Feb 2010 10:58 AM PST 
The Nook got a lot of press when it was first announced last year, but its launch was marred by supply shortages. Riggo said that the big boost in online sales would have been even bigger if it weren’t for the supply problems. However, the general consensus about the device among bloggers and reviewers was that it was neat but not quite finished. Riggo was asked if the Nook was worth the substantial investment given that Apple’s iPad — which will try to compete directly with e-readers like the Nook and Amazon’s Kindle — is coming soon. His response: “Gee, that’s a great question.” He said that the Nook is “a very, very big component of our strategy” in that it will drive traffic from both in-person and online shoppers. Unfortunately, he didn’t disclose exact sales figures about either the Nook or the e-books intended for it. Those figures probably won’t be public soon, but what really matters is how useful the device is. If you have a Nook and some insights about it, let us know in the comments. Tags: barnes and noble, nook
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| Use Zoho’s Office Suite with Your Facebook Account Posted: 23 Feb 2010 10:37 AM PST 
The move, which follows Zoho already offering sign-in with Google, Google Apps and Yahoo accounts, means that Facebook’s 400 million-plus users will be offered access to Zoho’s service without having to create a separate account. If you share your documents with users not on Zoho, they can access the documents by logging in using their Facebook accounts, explains Zoho in a blog post “We don’t want account creation to be a hindrance to try Zoho. So we simplify this by allowing users to try Zoho using their existing accounts,” says Zoho, promising plans to “to expand this further.” Zoho’s Facebook app will still be available, while those that do have Zoho accounts already set up can link their existing accounts to Facebook. Reviews: Facebook, zoho Tags: facebook, facebook connect, office, openID, productivity, software, zoho suite
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| Hulu’s First Original Series to Premiere Online March 2 Posted: 23 Feb 2010 10:28 AM PST 
The made-for-web TV show — which will be made available internationally — is a joint collaboration between the online TV syndicator and Simon Fuller’s 19 Entertainment. The show — with new episodes released every week — will take a reality-esque look at the lives of five aspiring artists who are trying to make it in Hollywood. A sneak peek of the episode can be seen below. What’s especially interesting about If I Can Dream is not just the fact that it sprung from Hulu (a website) and Simon Fuller (of traditional TV fame), but that the content and format seem much more broadcast-like than typical web TV shows. Essentially the series has all the ingredients of a network television show, but an entirely different and experimental distribution model. It appears as if the basic premise being tested is whether or not the web as a platform can syndicate and distribute highly produced content and churn out a hit show without broadcast as a medium. Although we’ve seen web TV shows make their marks in the entertainment industry — The Guild comes to mind — we’ve yet to see this exact formula tested online. So the real question is: Can this formula pump out a hit show on the same level as a hit TV show? Reviews: Hulu Tags: hulu, If I Can Dream, Simon Fuller, web series
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| Twitter’s Ad Platform Could Launch Next Month Posted: 23 Feb 2010 09:49 AM PST 
An announcement could come as soon as next month's South by Southwest conference, where CEO Evan Williams is scheduled to keynote. A source tells GigaOm that Twitter is "working with several major partners for the launch." Staying the course with what Twitter has traditionally said about the role that advertising will play on the site, Head of Product Management Anamitra Banerji told MediaPost that the company will make ads “relevant and useful, so the user doesn’t think of it as an ad.” We have to think then that the platform won't simply mimic that of several third-parties like Ad.ly and Izea, who have developed pay-per-tweet models that insert ads in the stream (we elaborated on why that model is kind of lame here). That said, any Twitter ad platform still needs a way to reach the many users who access the site in ways other than its website, so something involving some form of sponsored tweets could still be in play. We'll hopefully learn more details in short order. Reviews: Twitter Tags: advertising, MARKETING, twitter
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| Social Media Trends at Fortune 100 Companies [STATS] Posted: 23 Feb 2010 09:31 AM PST 
Twitter is the most popular platform that the companies use; two-thirds of the Fortune 100 have at least one Twitter account. Actually, they have an average of 4.2 Twitter accounts. Fifty-four percent have at least one Facebook fan page, 50% have at least one YouTube channel, and 33% have at least one corporate blog. Twenty percent of the companies use all four social media platforms. Social networks like Twitter and Facebook are mostly West-oriented; Asia-Pacific companies don’t use them as much, instead preferring corporate blogs. When they do use Twitter or Facebook, it’s usually to engage consumers in Europe and North America. There are a bunch of other interesting stats in the study — including proof that consumers actually do like to engage with companies via social media, making all those channels worthwhile. We’ve embedded Burson-Marsteller’s presentation below. Global Social Media Checkup View more presentations from Burson-Marsteller. Reviews: Facebook, Twitter, YouTube Tags: burson-marsteller, fortune 100, fortune 500, social media, social networking
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| YouTube to Drop Support For IE6 Starting Next Month Posted: 23 Feb 2010 09:30 AM PST 
Ars Technica found the specific date buried in a YouTube Help item pertaining to browser support. Under the section header, “When does older browser support end for YouTube and what does this mean?,” it reads:
The support entry also details that Google’s YouTube will notify site visitors of the change in browser support by displaying an interstitial every two weeks — indefinitely until the user upgrades — that will serve as a very blatant visual reminder and encourage IE6 browsers to upgrade accordingly. The interstitial (as seen below) will appear in place of the video in question and warn, “On March 13, we are dropping support for your browser. You’ll still be able to watch videos after that date, but new features may not work properly.” The interstitial also suggests alternative browsers — Google Chrome, Opera 10, IE8, Safari 4 and Firefox 3.6 — in lieu of IE6. Of course we already know that effective March 1, 2010, Google will begin to phase out support for IE6 in Google Docs and Google Site. Now we can add another Google product to the March IE6 phase-out strategy. Google is not alone in its mission to kill off the antiquated browser; various governments and the web as a whole have united against the browser due to its inflexibility (supporting the browser is becoming more of a challenge) and potential security risks.  Reviews: Firefox, Google, Google Chrome, Google Docs, Opera, Safari, YouTube Tags: Google, IE6, IE6 must die, software, trending, youtube
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| The Entertainment Industry Gets Its Own Twitter Dashboard Posted: 23 Feb 2010 08:36 AM PST 
The Trendrr real-time dashboard — now available to all Trendrr Pro users — may sound like yet another social media monitoring product, but this is all about presentation, and on that front it delivers. You can get a better idea of data presentation from the screenshot of the Winter Olympics dashboard below. The dashboard is configured to look at Twitter conversations in compartmental buckets that provide a comprehensive picture of all the online chatter pertaining to a brand or entertainment entity. So Trendrr Pro users now have an alternative way to view their data; it’s less about charts and graphs, although those are included, and more about providing a lens to better consume the data powering the reports. At the top of the dashboard you get a real-time glimpse at keywords (which you can select to further filter the dashboard view) that are trending around the topic of interest, a count of real-time results since you started, and a number that projects total reach. Below there’s two line graphs that chart mentions per hour and minute, a section that segments conversations by top location, a chart that looks at positive, neutral and negative sentiment, and a section that breaks down mentions by gender. If you continue to scroll down you can look at top hashtags, top links shared (with counts), real-time tweets, and Twitter users who are top influencers on the topic. What’s more interesting than the dashboard itself is the audience: the entertainment industry. The dashboard was developed with networks, studios and their agencies in mind. The tool points to the growing trend of social media’s impact on the entertainment industry, and the industry’s emerging need to better understand the online conversations happening around their entertainment properties in real-time. Now that social media factors into the success and ratings of movies, award shows, and major television events (think the Tiger Woods press conference), tools like Trendrr’s real-time dashboard will become paramount when identifying the actual impact of these online conversations. Reviews: Twitter Tags: entertainment industry, Film, MARKETING, media, social media, social media monitoring, Trendrr, tv, twitter
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| Power Users Drive the Vast Majority of Twitter Usage [STATS] Posted: 23 Feb 2010 07:12 AM PST 
On Twitter, it gets a bit more extreme. Nielsen divides Twitter users into heavy users (the ones that spend over 60 minutes on the service every month), medium users (between 5-60 minutes spent on Twitter monthly) and light users (less than 5 minutes spent on Twitter every month). There’s only 7% of heavy users, but these users are really active, and account for 79% of the overall time spent on Twitter (the numbers are based on user activity in January 2010).  Other social networks paint a similar picture, as you can see in the image below, with one notable exception: Facebook. 52 percent of Facebook's UK audience account for 98 percent of the time spent on the site.  This is mostly due to slightly different habits of Facebook users when compared with users of other social networks. The average time a typical user spends there is higher, and therefore (Nielsen claims) you’d get similar results if you defined heavy users as those who spend over 5 hours on Facebook each month. Interestingly enough, a huge percentage (9%) of Facebook users spend over 20 hours on the service every month. Analysis such as these will carry much more meaning when Twitter finally reveals its business model. If part of it is advertising, it’ll be interesting to see how Twitter’s user base, which is mostly comprised of light users, will translate into ad dollars. Reviews: Facebook, Twitter
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| Evernote Integrates with Lexmark Printers to Sync Your Scans Posted: 23 Feb 2010 05:00 AM PST 
Starting today, Lexmark’s SmartSolution Interact, Prestige, and Platinum printers will come with the ability to automatically send and store your scans in your Evernote account through a new Evernote SmartSolution app, a modified version of its mobile app. It doesn’t even require a computer to use. Lexmark’s SmartSolution line of printer already comes with apps — about 20 of them to be exact — that range from MSNBC Headlines to Google Calendar. It’s an interesting line of touchscreen printers that provides a lot of functionality. Now with the addition of the Evernote app, it becomes ridiculously easy to send your scan into the cloud and access it from anywhere. Evernote may have surpassed two million users and exist on a lot of platforms, but we wouldn’t have ever thought that it would stick the app onto printers. This integration was probably inevitable though, especially as more and more devices gain app stores — and it’s a big partnership for the note-taking startup. It faces some tough competition from Microsoft’s OneNote software, so getting on these platforms is definitely vital to fueling its growth. Here’s a demo: Does having apps on a printer make you want to buy these printers? Would having an Evernote app on your printer make you want to use it more? Let us know what you think in the comments. Reviews: Evernote Tags: evernote, Hardware, Lexmark, software
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| Smartphones in 2009: Symbian Dominates, iPhone, RIM and Android Rising Fast Posted: 23 Feb 2010 04:38 AM PST 
Smartphones as a category grew fast in the last quarter of 2009, with 53.8 million units sold, a 41.1% increase compared to the same period in 2008. Looking at individual platforms, it’s obvious that this growth came largely from iPhones and Android-based devices, as iPhone OS nearly doubled its market share, jumping from 8.2% in 2008 to 14.4% in 2009, while Android improved from meager 0.5% in 2008 to 3.9% in 2009.  Yes, Symbian is still on top, but it dropped from 52.4% to 46.9% market share, while its nearest competitor, RIM, grew from 16.6% to 19.9%. Another big loser is Windows Mobile, which dropped from 11.8% to 8.7% market share in 2009, and this trend will probably continue at least until we see the first Windows Phone 7 based devices. As far as the entire mobile market is concerned, worldwide mobile phone sales to end users totalled 1.211 billion units in 2009, which is a 0.9 per cent decline compared to 2008.  The top five mobile vendors lost some market share to other vendors, with their combined share dropping from 79.7 in 2008 to 75.3% in 2009. Their order, however, is unchanged: Nokia sits on top with 36.4% share, followed by Samsung, LG, Motorola and Sony Ericsson. Reviews: Android, Windows Phone 7, iPhone Tags: android, apple, blackberry, iphone os, Nokia, RIM, smartphones, Symbian, trending
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| FCC: Cost Is the Biggest Barrier to Broadband Adoption in the U.S. Posted: 23 Feb 2010 01:45 AM PST 
The report found that 78% of adults are Internet users, and 65% of adults are broadband adopters. It then divides users who haven’t got broadband into four groups. The Digitally Distant make up 10% of the general population; this is the group that simply doesn’t want to be online. The Digital Hopefuls make up 8% of the population; they’d like to be online but lack resources to do so; many don’t have a computer and/or don’t know how to use one, and cost of computer and broadband connection is also a big barrier. Then there are the Digitally Uncomfortable, who make up 7% of the population; they mostly have computers and the resources for broadband access, but they lack the skills. Lack of available infrastructure, low perception of the Internet’s relevance, low digital literacy and cost are their biggest barriers for adopting broadband Internet access. Finally, the Near Converts make up 10% of the population, they’re relatively youthful, they have computers, but monthly access cost is the barrier that prevents them from adopting broadband internet. On March 17, the FCC is to deliver a national plan that should bring high-speed Internet to users that don’t have broadband access. According to these findings, lowering the cost of access will be its first priority. Read the entire report here. Image credit: iStockphoto, enot-poloskun Reviews: iStockphoto Tags: broadband, fcc, internet
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| Send Coupons to Almost Any Cellphone with MixMobi Posted: 22 Feb 2010 07:50 PM PST 
Quick Pitch: MixMobi provides easy, fast, real-time, graphics-rich promotions for any social media, SMS or e-mail campaign, reaching all web-enabled mobiles. Genius Idea: MixMobi lets you create graphical coupons and then send them out to your customers’ mobile phones. You don’t need any programming or advanced design skills to make it happen. Coupons can be shared through SMS text messages, Facebook and Twitter. Each promotion also has a web address that you can direct people to, so you can send out the deals via e-mails and instant messages, too. While most competing services only work for customers with smartphones — still less than 20% of the market — MixMobi uses web-based coupons that can be viewed by any phone with a web browser. Another plus: No one needs to install any software on his or her handset, and no sign-up is required to view the coupons. That makes promotion much easier. Once your coupons are out there, MixMobi offers analytics tools to track how much attention they’re getting. MixMobi charges a monthly fee determined by how many promotions you plan to run at once and how many hits you expect your promotions to receive. It’s $19.95 per month for two concurrent offers and 5,000 hits, $34.95 for four offers and 10,000 hits, $79.95 for 10 offers and 25,000 hits, and $349 for 40 offers and 500,000 hits. You can sign up for a free month of the plan that covers two offers and 5,000 hits if you want to try the service out. Sponsored by Microsoft BizSpark
Entrepreneurs can take advantage of the Azure Services platform for their website hosting and storage needs. Microsoft recently announced the “new CloudApp()” contest – use the Azure Services Platform for hosting your .NET or PHP app, and you could be the lucky winner of a USD 5000* (please see website for official rules and guidelines)." Reviews: Facebook, PHP, Twitter Tags: coupons, mixmobi, promotions, social media, spark-of-genius, startups
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