Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Mashable: Latest 22 News Updates - including “Monster and Viacom Debut ‘DNA’ Headphones [PICS]”

Mashable: Latest 22 News Updates - including “Monster and Viacom Debut ‘DNA’ Headphones [PICS]”


Monster and Viacom Debut ‘DNA’ Headphones [PICS]

Posted: 04 Sep 2012 04:46 AM PDT


Monster, the electronics maker, has teamed up with media company Viacom to launch a new line of headphones called Monster DNA.

The triangular headphones feature a two-tone color design, and also include ear cushions that are light and more comfortable than its competitors, according to a press release. The design keeps "both the music and fashion consumer in mind."

The brand also aims to make music more social by including a "'buddy'" jack for users to share what they're listening to," says CEO Noel Lee in a statement.

Building upon this interactivity, Monster is focusing on music sharing, community and social awareness through an exclusive integrated campaign across Viacom mu…
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More About: Headphones, monster, viacom


Hackers Allegedly Leak 1 Million Apple Device IDs

Posted: 04 Sep 2012 02:31 AM PDT


AntiSec hacker group claims it has in its possession over 12,000,000 Apple iOS Unique Device IDs, as well as other personal info from device owners. To prove it, it has released 1,000,001 UDIDs to the public.

The release, posted on Pastebin, also contains a detailed description of how the hackers allegedly obtained the IDs from FBI.

"During the second week of March 2012, a Dell Vostro notebook, used by Supervisor Special Agent Christopher K. Stangl from FBI Regional Cyber Action Team and New York FBI Office Evidence Response Team was breached using the AtomicReferenceArray vulnerability on Java, during the shell session some files were downloaded from his Desktop folder one of them w…
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More About: Apple IDs, hackers, trending


Leaked Photo Shows BlackBerry L-Series Touchscreen Phone

Posted: 04 Sep 2012 01:15 AM PDT


A leaked photo reveals that the upcoming BlackBerry smartphone is a touchscreen device.

Codenamed London, the phone will run on the new BlackBerry 10 OS, according to website N4BB. While the photo doesn't diclose much about the L-series phone from Research in Motion, it does show apps, including BBM, DocsToGo, Facebook and Story Maker.

An earlier leak claims that the London sports a 1.5GHz dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM, 16GB of storage memory and an 8-megapixel camera.

The same phone appears in a blurred-out video from BlackBerryItalia.it, below, showing the device's SIM installation instructions.

It is expected that more details will emerge about the London and other dev…
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More About: BlackBerry 10, BlackBery, L-series, trending


Hurricane Kirk Gets Star Trek Treatment [VIDEO]

Posted: 04 Sep 2012 12:18 AM PDT


The National Weather Service gives Hurricane Kirk the Star Trek treatment in a new report.

Kirk started as a tropical wave, reached hurricane status last Thursday and weakened to a tropical storm before dying off days later. It was the fifth hurricane of the 2012 Atlantic season.

Dated Sunday, the report provides an update on Kirk's status. "Kirk is not expected to live long and prosper," it states.

The weather agency -- clearly populated by Trekkies -- is referencing a famous phrase in the Star Trek franchise that often accompanies a Vulcan salute. Leonard Nimoy, who portrayed half-Vulcan Spock in the original 1960s television series, popular…
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More About: Hurricane Kirk, Star Trek, trending


How Video Platform Craftsy Is Acquiring 1,600 Paying Students Per Day

Posted: 03 Sep 2012 10:19 PM PDT


Name: Craftsy

Quick Pitch: Online video tutorials for a range of crafts.

Genius Idea: A baked-in e-commerce offering for patterns and supplies.

In 2010, John Levisay realized that the "promise of online education was not being fulfilled." The former eBay and ServiceMagic executive went on later that year to found Craftsy, an online platform that teaches users a range of craft skills, from cake decorating to weaving, through paid video courses. The company raised an angel round of funding in May 2010 and launched a website one year later.

"We were seeing glorified PowerPoints with voiceovers, grainy video taken at the back of classrooms -- it wasn't what online educati…
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More About: bizspark, crafts, craftsy, trending


Harold and Kumar Help Obama Promo Democratic National Convention [VIDEO]

Posted: 03 Sep 2012 09:28 PM PDT


President Obama gets a little help from Harold and Kumar in a new YouTube spot for the Democratic National Convention.

While not explicitly mentioned by name, Kal Penn (as Kumar) and John Cho (as Harold) reprise their characters from the stoner film franchise, making cameo appearances in the nearly minute-long video. (Their only other presidential interaction was a bonding session with George W. Bush in Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay).

The promo, which was uploaded Monday, starts off seriously enough, with Obama picking up the phone in what appears to be the White House, and calling an unidentified person.

"Hey, this is Barack. Listen, I need to know if you're on bo…
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More About: 2012 presidential campaign, Democratic National Convention, Harold and Kumar, Presdient Obama, trending


Bruce Willis Not Suing Apple Over iTunes Rights, Wife Tweets [VIDEO]

Posted: 03 Sep 2012 08:18 PM PDT


Hollywood star Bruce Willis is considering a lawsuit against Apple for the right to pass his extensive iTunes music library down to his children after he dies, according to a Daily Mail report. The rumor has been cast in serious doubt, however, after Willis' wife posted a tweet disputing the story on Monday afternoon.

According to the Daily Mail, which cites -- well, let's just say the tabloid's reporting is hazy at best -- Willis wants to endow his digital music files to his three daughters but believes he needs to sue Apple to do so. The reason? When you buy music from iTunes (or Kindle books from Amazon), you aren't technically buying the song.…
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More About: apple, itunes, trending


10 Things You Didn’t Know About Yelp

Posted: 03 Sep 2012 06:43 PM PDT


Next to Google, there's probably no more important site for small businesses than Yelp. Yet perhaps no other site is as poorly understood. For instance, is it a good idea to encourage your customers to give you good reviews on the site? Does Yelp pay for reviews? How do you go about countering bad reviews?

Since Yelp is such a juggernaut, it's important to get the facts straight. With that in mind, take a look at these 10 things you may not have known about the service.

1. Most of Its Traffic Is From Its Home Page

You might think that in 2012, most people would be accessing Yelp from their smartphones, but that's not the case. Sixty percent of searches are from desktops, an…
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More About: features, mashable, open forum, small business tips, trending, yelp


Positive Yelp Ratings Can Boost a Restaurant’s Nightly Reservations by 19%

Posted: 03 Sep 2012 06:13 PM PDT


Customer reviews travel far in the age of tweets and mobile check-ins. As more foodies come to rely on word-of-mouth reviews, Yelp's system of ratings can make or break a restaurant.

Economists at the University of California, Berkeley published the results of a study, examining the effects of Yelp's online ratings in this month's Economic Journal. The study shows a slight half-star improvement in ratings can increase a restaurant's business during peak dining hours by 19%.

Berkeley professors Michael Anderson and Jeremy Magruder found that "Yelp ratings affect both customer flows and the probability of booking a reservation." The researchers compared the digital word-of-mouth revi…
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More About: Social Media, apps, yelp


Solvish Maps Out Local and Global Issues Waiting for Solutions

Posted: 03 Sep 2012 05:35 PM PDT


Name: Solvish

Quick Pitch: Anyone can contribute to Solvish -- a digital community board for local and global concerns.

Genius Idea: By creating follow pages on Solvish for various issues, users can acknowledge predicaments, build awareness and connect to problem solvers.

Solvish is the 21st-century community bulletin board. Users can create a "problem page" for individual local or global issues on the platform.

Once you notice a dilemma or situation in the neighborhood, you're encouraged to upload a picture and description to Solvish. On the website, users can pinpoint where the problem is located on an interactive map. The platform's users can follow and address the pr…
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More About: bizspark, startup


College Football Teams Struggle to Share Defeat on Facebook

Posted: 03 Sep 2012 04:39 PM PDT


College football programs have taken well to Facebook in recent years as a way to elicit rah-rah enthusiasm before big games and pump up the fresh hope of a new season. Posts, links and photos tout sellout crowds, hype star players and bestow epic levels of importance upon season openers.

But what if a new season's optimistic outlook gets deflated with a disappointing first-game loss? A quick look across the national landscape of college football teams on Facebook after the sport's opening weekend shows staffs wrestling with how much to acknowledge a loss in the unrelentingly positive world of social media content marketing.

The University of Houston Cougars, for example, led the nat…
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More About: Facebook, Sports, trending


Music Monday: Songs of Summer 2012

Posted: 03 Sep 2012 03:41 PM PDT



"Call Me Maybe" wasn't the only summer song this year. These songs were some of our summer favorites here at Mashable.

We love music year-round, but the perfect song is especially timeless on the perfect summer afternoon. You probably spent many a summer day rocking out to "Pumped Up Kicks" by Foster the People last year or "California Gurls" by Katy Perry in 2010 -- whether you admit to it or not.

SEE MORE: Music Monday

While Carly Rae Jepsen's "Call Me Maybe" will likely live on as the definitive pop song for the summer of 2012, take a listen to some of our other favorite summer jams. The crisp fall weather will soon begin in many parts of the world, but you can always go back…
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More About: Call Me Maybe, Music, music monday, spotify


Kickstarter Project Makes Spectrometers Affordable for Citizen Scientists

Posted: 03 Sep 2012 02:54 PM PDT


Citizen scientists can test local bodies of water, soil and household products for contaminants with a new breed of spectrometers.

Spectrometers are widely used by astronomers and chemists to identify unknown materials. By making the tool more accessible, an open-research community called Public Laboratory for Open Technology and Science (PLOTS) is hoping to build a "Wikipedia-style library" of environmental data. Public Labs is looking for support on Kickstarter to build a kind of "Shazam for materials."

Spectrometers, which typically cost thousands of dollars, are used to identify the makeup of different liquids and solids. By passing light t…
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More About: environment, kickstarter


‘Angry Birds’ Turns Queen’s Freddie Mercury Into an Honorary Character

Posted: 03 Sep 2012 02:16 PM PDT



Angry Birds creator Rovio Entertainment turned the late Queen frontman Freddie Mercury into an honorary character on Monday, just in time for the rocker's Sept. 5 birthday.

The Angry Birds flock is taking a break from flying and toppling enemies to ride Mercury's bicycle -- the animated video below is set to Queen's "Bicycle Race." Absent from the clip is Pink Bird, the bubbly character Rovio introduced in August.

Rovio's gesture supports the annual Freddie for a Day campaign, which celebrates the singer and raises funds for HIV/AIDS charity Mercury Phoenix Trust.

Mercury, who died in 1991 from complications stemming from AIDS, would have been 66 on Wednesday.

"'Freddie…
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More About: Entertainment, Gaming, Music, Social Good, angry birds, celebrities, mobile gaming, queen


Paralympic Table Tennis Shot Astounds and Inspires [VIDEO]

Posted: 03 Sep 2012 01:47 PM PDT


Paralympic table tennis is a sport and something you should pay attention to because of shots like this one. The YouTube video above was uploaded Saturday and has been picking up viral steam since. And there's no wonder why: The determination, grit and effort showed by Great Britain's David Wetherill to smack this un-returnable forehand against Thomasz Kusiak of Germany show why, for many of us, sports are much more than just games people play.

Wetherill actually ended up losing the match despite that classic moment, though. In a tweet on Monday, he acknowledged the video's viral appeal and declared his focused the 2016 Paralympics in Rio:

Lots of respect for THAT shot. Thanks but…
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More About: Sports, Watercooler, YouTube, paralympics, trending, viral videos


How Mobile Tech Is Changing Travel [INFOGRAPHIC]

Posted: 03 Sep 2012 12:31 PM PDT


For many travelers, skipping town for a bit is also a perfect excuse to get some mental distance from their omnipresent mobile devices. But the desire for digital distance comes with a layer of irony -- those mobile devices are increasingly what make travel possible in the first place.

People rely more than ever on mobile technology to find and book travel reservations. A slew of stats from the Internet travel giant Expedia show just how much people plan their trips while already on the go.

More than 65% of people who book a hotel room within 24 hours of checking in do so from a mobile device, according to Expedia. More than 15% of travelers who book a flight 24 hours or less in adva…
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More About: Mobile, apps, mobile apps, travel


3G Version of Google’s Nexus 7 Is Coming Soon [REPORT]

Posted: 03 Sep 2012 11:25 AM PDT


Rumor has it we'll be seeing a 3G version of Google's Nexus 7 tablet in the coming weeks.

MoDaCo reports that a "very well-placed insider" has indicated that a 3G version of the pint-sized tablet is in the works, and will be launching in around 6 weeks.

Under the hood nothing is expected to change about the tablet except the inclusion of a 3G radio, which would allow it to connect to cellular networks for data in situations where a Wi-Fi network is not available.

Apple is rumored to be announcing its own miniature tablet, dubbed "iPad mini" between mid-September and early October. If the rumor is true, then a 3G Nexus 7 launch in 6 weeks would likely put the tablet competing…
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More About: Google Nexus 7, Nexus 7, Tablet, android, jelly bean


This App Knows More About Your Facebook Account Than You Do

Posted: 03 Sep 2012 10:46 AM PDT



Nearly 50% of my Facebook friends are married, which adds up to 123 people total. Meanwhile, 20.1% or 51 of my friends are in a relationship, and 13 are engaged.

All this information I now know thanks to a new "Facebook Report" by Wolfram Alpha, which will gift you with more knowledge than you could possibly ever want to know about yourself and your Facebook profile.

You can access your data by going to Wolfram Alpha's site and typing "Facebook report" into the search box. Results will ask you to authenticate the app, giving it permission to analyze your account and tell you details.

For instance, I now know I'm Facebook friends with 10 Davids, making that name the most popular…
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More About: Facebook, Social Media, facebook apps, trending, wolfram alpha


ABC News App Delivers 3 Live Streams of Democratic National Convention

Posted: 03 Sep 2012 09:54 AM PDT


ABC News has upgraded its iPad app to deliver extensive elections coverage from the conventions and presidential debates leading up to the elections in November.

The app will provide a continuous news flow this week of the Democratic National Convention, including three live streams for mobile and desktop.

Politics is more interactive than ever. It's hard to miss a beat from the campaign trail as media channels use social networks and political apps for continuous coverage. For example, YouTube launched an Elections Hub, an online one-stop-shop for elections coverage, this year. The hub features content from ABC News, Al Jazeera English, The New York Times and other media.

SEE AL
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More About: 2012 Presidential Election, Democratic National Convention, Mobile, Politics, apps, ipad


5 Facebook Apps That Are Shaking Up Politics [VIDEO]

Posted: 03 Sep 2012 09:14 AM PDT


We For President


WeForPresident is an online civic engagement platform: Users can learn about and debate key issues, check out candidates and political organizations to join and learn how to register to vote.

Click here to view this gallery.


Almost every politician knows he or she needs to be on Facebook these days -- but did you know that developers are disrupting politics-as-usual with the power of Facebook's Open Graph, too?

These five apps, which were on display at a Facebook event during the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Florida, are shaking up the political scene via social media.

Other facts about Facebook and politics that were revealed during the event:

There are now more Facebook users in the U.S. than people that voted in the 2008 election
People on Facebook are 57% more likely to persuade a friend or co-worker to vote, according to Pew
There are 110,000 political Facebook Pages in the U.S.…
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More About: 2012 presidential campaign, Facebook, Politics, US


Republican Convention Sets Social Media Bar for Democrats

Posted: 03 Sep 2012 08:18 AM PDT


The social media numbers for the Republican National Convention are in, and they're impressive: more than 4 million tweets with a peak of 14,743 tweets per minute, 2.5 million-plus YouTube views and 300,000 hours of streaming video viewed in a three-day period with an average view time of more than 30 minutes.

Given how ubiquitous social media has become since the last election in 2008, it's not surprising that this year's conventions are doing well online -- but these numbers certainly set a high bar for the Democratic National Convention, beginning Tuesday in Charlotte, North Carolina.

"I think our [digital] strategy was right on, and it sets the bar for how future conventions an…
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More About: 2012 presidential campaign, Facebook, Politics, Social Media, Twitter, US, YouTube, republican national convention


Nokia Lumia 920 Details Emerge: 8-MP Camera, Wireless Charging

Posted: 03 Sep 2012 07:51 AM PDT



Images of what appeared to be a new Nokia Lumia smartphone surfaced last week, although the only details about the device were its name -- Lumia 920 -- and the fact that it has a 4.5-inch screen.

Now, The Verge has the scoop on the device's other specifications. It'll have a 1.5 GHz dual-core processor, wireless charging capabilities, 1GB of RAM memory and 32GB of storage memory. Its camera will be marketed as PureView, although the megapixel count won't even be close to the monster 41-megapixel sensor in Nokia 808 PureView (see pics below). Instead, the Lumia 920 will have an 8-megapixel camera on the back and a 1.3-megapixel one on the front.

Nokia will unveil the device, which…
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More About: Lumia 920, Nokia, Nokia Lumia 920, Windows Phone 8


T-Mobile’s Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 Gets Ice Cream Sandwich Update

Posted: 03 Sep 2012 05:44 AM PDT


Owners of T-Mobile's Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 Plus are now able to update their device to Android version 4.0.4 or Ice Cream Sandwich, the company has announced.

The update, T-Mobile claims, is optional and will not be delivered over-the-air -- only by using Samsung's sync software Kies. However, TmoNews claims some users have actually received the update over-the-air.

Besides giving users the obvious benefits of Ice Cream Sandwich, T-Mobile notes that it will be required to use the Media Hub after August 27th. Furthermore, be careful -- updating the device to ICS will wipe out your home screen layout.

More About: Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, T-Mobile


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