Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Mashable: Latest 29 News Updates - including “Google Maps Adds Service Alerts for New York City Subways”

Mashable: Latest 29 News Updates - including “Google Maps Adds Service Alerts for New York City Subways”


Google Maps Adds Service Alerts for New York City Subways

Posted: 31 Jul 2012 05:02 AM PDT




Google announced on Tuesday it is rolling out planned service alerts for New York City's subway system within Google Maps.

To make it easier for New Yorkers to commute and keep them posted on scheduled maintenance and delays, Google is adding information about service alerts that occur throughout the city's 468 subway stations labeled on Google Maps.

Google-Subway-Service-Alert

"Since first making New York City public transit directions available in Google Maps, we've been working to deliver you with the most accurate and useful information about subway, bus, commuter rail, and ferry service across the greater metro area," Csaba Garay, transit partner technology manager at Google Maps, said via its comp
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More About: Google, Google Maps


Spotify for Android Gets Radio Streaming

Posted: 31 Jul 2012 04:48 AM PDT




After adding a radio feature to its iOS app in June, Spotify has now done the same for Android users.

The feature, which is available only to Premium subscribers, lets users listen to an unlimited number of stations and songs.

Users can also create stations based on an artist, album or playlist, or save songs to their Spotify playlists. Finally, giving certain songs thumbs up (or down) should better tailor the stations to users' interests.

Spotify users who aren't Premium subscribers can try the feature out by signing up for 30-day free trial. The app is available over at Google Play.

More About: android, radio, spotify


13 Fantastic Subreddits You Should Subscribe To

Posted: 31 Jul 2012 03:53 AM PDT


1. /r/EarthPorn




In the mood for some breathtaking vistas and glorious natural colors? Check out Earth Porn, a very safe-for-work image board. But it's certainly not the only subreddit full of beautiful hi-res photos. You might also enjoy /r/CityPorn, /r/MapPorn and /r/AnimalPorn. Image courtesy of Flickr, blmiers2.

Click here to view this gallery.




If you want to see what the Internet is talking about today, just fire up your good ol' Reddit front page. But sometimes you want to go deeper or much more specific. Much like magazines, there's a subreddit for everything: cooking, relationship advice, individual products, etc.

SEE ALSO: The Beginner's Guide to Reddit

We've hand-picked some of the more fascinating Reddit communities -- places where users congregate around shared passions and are happy to dole worthy advice. If any of these tickle your fancy, subscribe to make your home page a bit more personal.

Thumbnail image courtesy of Flickr, Jeff Keacher.

More About: Social Media, features, reddit, trending


Samsung’s 11.8-Inch Tablet And Two Other Stories You Need to Know

Posted: 31 Jul 2012 03:32 AM PDT




Welcome to this morning's edition of 'First To Know,' a series in which we keep you in the know on what's happening in the digital world. Today, we're looking at three particularly interesting stories.

Samsung Is Working on a 11.8-Inch Tablet

Samsung is working on a 11.8-inch tablet with a "retina" display, the Verge has discovered by looking at court documents from the Apple vs. Samsung patent trial. The tablet has LTE connectivity and a massive 2560 x 1600 pixel resolution, but no other details or specifications have been revealed.

Twitter Gets Clickable Stock Symbols

Twitter has added a nifty new feature for those interested in finance -- you can now click on ticker symbols s…
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More About: Nokia, Tablet, Twitter, features, first to know series, mashable, samsung


iPad App Lets You Create Collages With Your Pinterest Pins

Posted: 31 Jul 2012 02:07 AM PDT




Want to get more creative with Pinterest? Now you can, thanks to Bazaart.

The startup has released a free iPad application that lets you collage your pins, as well as those of other users on the network. It's easy to find, add, resize, rotate and otherwise assemble your collage. You can also add borders to images or select "crop" to remove white space.

The app isn't perfect: If you have a board with more than 25 pins, you won't be able to load them all. (Gili Golander, Bazaart's fashion director, tells me this is a result of Pinterest's RSS feed limitation, and there's nothing they can do about it.) The crop button tends to completely erase light-colored images. An "undo" button would…
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More About: bazaart, ipad app, pinterest


Versatile Lifestyle Headphones Solve Common Audiophile Dilemmas

Posted: 31 Jul 2012 01:03 AM PDT




When innovative technology company Denon set out to create a new line of headphones, the company decided to skip the celebrity endorsements and run-of-the-mill designs.

The engineers started from scratch by taking ear molds of 4,000 residents in North America, South America and Asia. Denon found compelling differences between men and women, such as the width of their ear canals, as well as subtle variations among individuals.

The company took special care in designing headphones that would fit everyone, while customizing headphones for various lifestyles. The headphones have a special ball-and-socket design, and the in-ear versions come with many sets of ear tips for individualize…
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More About: Headphones, Music, android, apps, denon, iphone


What Facebook Reveals About Olympics Fans [INFOGRAPHIC]

Posted: 30 Jul 2012 08:55 PM PDT




Olympics fans like sports. But what do they Like? Facebook -- who else? -- holds many interesting insights there.

Social media advertising company Compass Labs recently analyzed Facebook fans of the official Olympic Games and U.S. Olympic Team pages to compile some revealing profiles of how the two groups match up. And don't worry about a small sample size -- combined, the two pages have about 5.7 million fans. Compass Labs cross-referenced Likers' other favorited Facebook pages to find which sports, movies, brands and TV shows rate highest with each group.

Overall, the two pages corral similar demographics. Both the U.S. team and the Olympics at large have fan bases that are about 55…
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More About: Facebook, Sports, olympics


20 TV Shows With the Most Social Media Buzz This Week

Posted: 30 Jul 2012 08:29 PM PDT




The Olympics are world champions when it comes to event television, so it's no surprise that the NBC broadcasts are dominating this week's social TV charts.

Friday's opening ceremony garnered 8.9 million mentions, topping the total number of Twitter posts during the entire 2008 Beijing Olympics in just one day. And despite NBC's abundant slip-ups in just the first few days of the Games (see: #NBCFail), the network's social media efforts clearly haven't been for naught.

SEE ALSO: Olympics Opening Ceremony Album Hits iTunes Top 10 in 19 Countries

Other particularly buzzworthy events thus far? Swimming and women's gymnastics, both of which were nail-biters for Team USA. The women's g…
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More About: Entertainment, Social Media, TV, Trendrr, infographics, social tv, social tv charts


Young Women Can Ask All Their Private Health Questions on ChickRx

Posted: 30 Jul 2012 08:00 PM PDT




ChickRx is an online community where young women can ask professionals, private and public questions regarding health, sex, beauty and work. If your girlfriends don't have the answers -- ChickRx is the place on the web to get expert advice.

More About: bizspark, health, social network, women


7 Benefits of Mobile Expense Reporting

Posted: 30 Jul 2012 07:34 PM PDT




In today's business environment, the manual process of creating and processing expense reports is quickly becoming a thing of the past. According to CFO Research Services, about 63% of CFOs plan to implement digital expense reporting solutions. A growing part of that is mobile expense reporting. Mobile expense reporting essentially automates the entire process from expense capture to expense approval.

This means smartphone-equipped travelers now have the option to, say, take pictures of receipts and save copies via the cloud. Here is a breakdown of just a few of the other benefits.

1. Eliminate Human Errors
Manual expense entry leaves room for human error. One study revealed t…
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More About: Mobile, business search, contributor, features, mobile apps


Batman Is a Cheapskate: ‘Iron Man’ Get-Up Costs $1.6 Billion [INFOGRAPHIC]

Posted: 30 Jul 2012 07:18 PM PDT




If you've been paying attention to the financial section of today's superhero news, you will have already noted the high cost of being Batman: $682 million. That's according to one estimate of the comic book character's costs by by British online financial marketplace MoneySupermarket.com.

Big whoop, says Tony Stark.

The cost of being Iron Man, from the tip of his gold-titanium exoskeleton to the last drop of fuel in his Audi R8, adds up to more than $1.6 billion, according to one estimate by -- you guessed it -- MoneySupermarket.com.

We're a little more confident in this estimate, however. Whereas the Batman study cited only "our research," this one lists a range of sites with ex…
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More About: batman, iron man


Goodbye, Gmail Video Chat. Hello Google+ Hangouts

Posted: 30 Jul 2012 06:30 PM PDT




If you enjoy video chatting over Gmail the way you've been doing it since 2008, better wave your last goodbyes to your buddy list.

Starting Monday, and continuing over the next few weeks, Google is going to be replacing Gmail video chat with Google+ Hangouts. "Unlike the old video chat, which was based on peer-to-peer technology, Hangouts utilize the power of Google's network to deliver higher reliability and enhanced quality," reads the explanatory blog post written by the Gmail team.

"You'll be able to chat with all the same people you did before -- and, in fact, with Hangouts you'll now be able to reach them not only when they are using Gmail, but also if they are on Googl…
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More About: Google, gmail, google plus hangouts, trending


Here’s the Man Who Started #NBCFail

Posted: 30 Jul 2012 05:46 PM PDT




The hashtag #NBCFail has become an unavoidable sight on Twitter these past few days.

On July 27, the day of the opening ceremony, there were just 212 #NBCFail tweets. By July 28, there were 6,000. By July 29, there were 20,000.

Summer Olympics fans, media nerds and commonplace critics alike use it to complain about shoddy streaming experiences, editorial mistakes and -- most of all -- NBC's preference for obfuscating footage of major Olympic events until airing tape-delayed primetime broadcasts stateside.

After Twitter suspended the account of British journalist Guy Adams -- acceding to an NBC request -- the hashtag became a trending topic.

But there's one man who tweeted #N…
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More About: NBCOlympics, nbc


How To Work From Anywhere: the Documentary [VIDEO]

Posted: 30 Jul 2012 05:27 PM PDT




Want to work from anywhere? You're not alone. Some 63 million Americans will call somewhere other than the office their workplace by 2016, according to analysts. Now a new documentary in the works on Kickstarter will take a look at the current workplace, or lack thereof, and its impact on the lives of workers.

The documentary, called The Wireless Generation, aims to show how working has changed -- because workers are more concerned with how they're living rather than where. If the filmmakers meet their $35,000 funding goal, they'll be able to present their story in many film festivals around the globe.

The mobile workplace isn't a new concept, b…
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More About: Newsy, documentary, kickstarter, remote workforce, remote working


How the ‘Wall Street Journal’ Beat NBC’s Olympics Embargo [VIDEO]

Posted: 30 Jul 2012 04:49 PM PDT




NBC paid more than $1 billion for the rights to this year's Summer Olympics in the United States. With that kind of investment, it's no wonder the television giant isn't sharing nice. Meanwhile, a partiality for embargoing video content until tape-delayed primetime broadcasts air has helped make the #NBCfail hashtag a common site on Twitter over the past few weeks.

The geniuses over at the Wall Street Journal, however, have found an innovative workaround: Puppets! Check out the video above to see their makeshift broadcast of American swimmer Missy Franklin's 100-meter backstroke medal race from Monday.

Did Franklin win gold? You'll just have to wait for primetime. Or watch this pu…
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More About: Sports, olympics, trending, viral videos


Did Tom Waits Inspire Heath Ledger’s Joker? [VIDEO]

Posted: 30 Jul 2012 04:33 PM PDT




Heath Ledger's performance as The Joker in The Dark Knight is legendary. So is Tom Waits.

If these thoughts seem disconnected, you clearly need to watch this video.

The 1979 Australian TV interview with then 29-year-old Waits has been making the viral rounds on the Internet this weekend, and for good reason -- Waits' voice is virtually indistinguishable from Ledger's memorably creepy Joker. The only difference? Waits is speaking this way in real life.

Also worth noting is interviewer Don Lane's impressive -- and presumably unintentional -- rendition of Phil Hartman's Frank Sinatra impression.

The two share a genuinely awkward (read: hilarious) conversation -- witness Wait…
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More About: Viral, the dark knight


Amtrak Gets on Board With E-Tickets

Posted: 30 Jul 2012 04:07 PM PDT





Amtrak is rolling out its new eTicket program, which will let passengers board trains nationwide without a paper ticket.

Until now, the only way to ride the rails was with a paper ticket that you had to hand to the conductor. Though you could look up schedules and make reservations online, that often meant wasting precious moments standing in line at a ticket window, or Quik-Trak kiosk. Not great for your blood pressure if you're minutes away from missing your train.

"eTickets deliver the convenience and flexibility expected by passengers and its innovative technology is transforming other aspects of how Amtrak does business," President and CEO Joe Boardman said in a statement.…
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More About: eTicket, paperless, train


Lawmakers Want to Put an End to Online Ammunition Sales

Posted: 30 Jul 2012 03:39 PM PDT




James Holmes, the single suspect in the Aurora, Colo. mass shooting that left 12 people dead July 20, reportedly bought 6,000 rounds of ammunition worth roughly $3,000 from online vendors without providing any identification or receiving a background check.

The transaction was fully legal: No Colorado state or national law prohibits or tracks the sale of ammunition.

Two Democratic lawmakers from New Jersey believe that needs to change. Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg and Rep. Carolyn McCarthy are introducing this week the Stop Online Ammunition Sales Act, which would prohibit the anonymous purchase of ammunition and therefore effectively ban the online sale of ammo.

"If someone wants to…
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More About: New Jersey, Politics, US, congress, guns, internet, online sales


Journey Through Paris in This Stunning Stop Motion [VIDEO]

Posted: 30 Jul 2012 03:12 PM PDT




We'll always have Paris, especially now that the City of Light has been beautifully documented in this stop-motion video.

If you can't spring for first class on Air France, this is the next best thing. Shot by Mayeul Akpovi, "Paris In Motion (Part I)" captures morning until night, with glimpses of historic landmarks like the Arc de Triomphe, the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, the Montmartre Funicular and La Grand Arche. The city's most modern architecture juxtaposed against marvels of the past is breathtaking, and gives the web's gawkers a sense of Paris' success in harmoniously mixing the new with the old.

The video's title lets on that this is the first in a series of Parisian…
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More About: Paris, Video, Vimeo, Viral, Watercooler, eiffel tower, massive attack, stop motion, trending


3 Reasons Your Company Still Hasn’t Moved to the Cloud

Posted: 30 Jul 2012 02:54 PM PDT




It's only natural to reject change in a work environment. Change generally means relearning processes for tasks workers mastered years ago by learning new rules, methods, and practices. Despite the very real benefits of change, those in management can have a very hard time justifying the extra work employees must put in now for rewards that may not be seen until weeks or months later.

This is clearly a trend in the cloud-based space. Cloud-hosted enterprise software is evolving faster than ever. For some, the change is welcomed. For others it's not. So, who or what in the pipeline may create hesitation about adding new tech to your company? Below are three likely areas.

1. IT De…
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More About: cloud computing, cloud storage, contributor, features, small business tips


Everything That Might Be True About the iPhone 5

Posted: 30 Jul 2012 02:33 PM PDT




Rumors of an upcoming iPhone 5 release have been running rampant in the blogosphere. Apple will reportedly debut the new iPhone, alongside the iPad mini and the new iPod nano, at a special event on Sept. 12, according to the blog iMore.

U.K.-based newspaper The Guardian also reported a release date of "mid-September."

Further boosting buzz, Apple has previously referred to a mysterious "fall event."

Recently, leaked photos of the alleged iPhone 5 popped up all over the Internet, tantalizing Apple fanboys. Check out the gallery below for the most complete pics yet, shot by Lab Factory, a repair shop that may have access to early prototypes of…
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More About: apple, iPhone 5, iphone, trending


Gone, Daddy, Gone: Go Daddy CEO is Out

Posted: 30 Jul 2012 02:22 PM PDT




Go Daddy CEO Warren Adelman is stepping down to become a special advisor for the domain-name firm.

"I have reached a juncture in my life when I would like to spend more time with my family," Adelman said in a press release outlining the move.

Scott Wagner, an executive at KKR, has been named interim CEO while the board searches for a permanent successor to Adelman, who has been with Go Daddy since 2002. KKR, along with Silver Lake Partners and Technology Crossover Ventures, bought Go Daddy last year. The deal was believed to be worth $2.25 billion.

Go Daddy, known for its envelope-pushing Super Bowl ads, recently launched an ad campaign for the Olympics that slightly toned do…
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More About: Go Daddy, Warren Adelman


Ross Levinsohn Leaves Yahoo

Posted: 30 Jul 2012 02:18 PM PDT




A little less than two weeks after Marissa Mayer was appointed as Yahoo's new CEO, the company's former top exec and interim CEO, Ross Levinsohn, is on his way out.

Mayer sent a note to the company on Monday announcing his departure, a Yahoo spokesperson confirmed in an e-mail to Mashable. "Ross has done a terrific job during his time at Yahoo!. We wish him all the best," the spokesperson wrote.

The news was originally reported by AllThingsD.

Before becoming interim CEO -- a post he was named to after Yahoo's last CEO, Scott Thompson, was pushed out by the company's board -- he served as Yahoo's executive vice president of the Americas. Many thought he would be instated as the compa…
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More About: Ross Levinsohn, Yahoo, marissa mayer


Music Monday: Mashable’s First MP3s

Posted: 30 Jul 2012 02:02 PM PDT




Today, music is widely available and free thanks to the internet and streaming services such as Spotify and Rdio. We can find and listen to millions of songs through these live-stream services or through sites such as last.fm and Youtube.

But not too long ago (before the dawn of iTunes), sites like Napster and Limewire ruled and downloading MP3s was the preferred mode of acquiring music.

On this Music Monday we asked Mashable staffers: What was the first MP3 you ever downloaded?

The responses were diverse and maybe even a little embarrassing, but we created a Spotify playlist to share them with you anyway. Looking back, downloading our first MP3 was a milestone in our lives and…
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More About: Music, music monday, spotify


Creative Block? This Website Is Here to Help

Posted: 30 Jul 2012 01:40 PM PDT




Nothing can match the frustration of losing your imaginative mojo, especially in the middle of a new project.

Video production community Wooshii just launched the site Help Me Be Fucking Creative to inspire designers when they're lacking inspiration.

With each refresh, new advice spits out from an algorithm, such as "get away from the computer," "break the rules" or "get feedback."

If you're viewing on iOS, it will also show a random app recommended to trigger the flow of creative juices.

The site plans to crowdsource ideas from other creative individuals. You can add your own tips by tweeting them with the hashtag #FCKNGCREATIVEADVICE.

Thumbnail image courtesy o
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More About: Twitter, Watercooler, creativity, website


Terrifying Zombies Run Amok in NYC to Protest AMC Drop from Dish Network [VIDEO]

Posted: 30 Jul 2012 01:23 PM PDT




To protest the Dish Network's recent move to drop AMC and its popular The Walking Dead series, the network unleashed crew of Hollywood-caliber zombies onto the streets of New York, disguising themselves as police officers, hot dog vendors and pedestrians.

The public reaction? Lots and lots of screaming.

The move is a part of a bigger effort from AMC to spread awareness that the Dish Network is no longer carrying the network. The network was removed by Dish due to a lawsuit over carriage fews, along with IFC, Sundance Channel and WEtv cable networks.

SEE ALSO: AMC Ramps Up Programming Feud With Dish Cable

"We know Dish has been urging AMC fans to pay additional monies to see…
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More About: Marketing, TV, YouTube, amc tv, dish network, the walking dead


Matchbox Twenty’s ‘She’s So Mean’ Stars Manic Woman [VIDEO]

Posted: 30 Jul 2012 01:21 PM PDT




After teasing fans with daily screenshots of its new music video on Twitter, Matchbox Twenty has unleashed "She's So Mean" on YouTube. The video marks the band's return after not releasing an album since 2007.

"She's So Mean" is the first single off of the band's forthcoming album, North, which arrives Sept. 4.

In the video, a manic woman annihilates the band's music equipment and even sets the drums on fire.

Matchbox Twenty sparked anticipation for "She So Mean" with a series of tweets in the days leading up to the video's release:

5 days. Any guesses? twitter.com/MatchboxTwenty…— matchboxtwenty (@MatchboxTwenty) July 25, 2012

"She's So Mean" in 4 days... twitte
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More About: Entertainment, Matchbox Twenty, Music, Viral, celebrities, music videos, viral videos


8-Bit Olympics Wins Gold for Old School Awesomeness [VIDEO]

Posted: 30 Jul 2012 01:17 PM PDT




Experience the Olympics Commodore-64 style without figuring out how to stream video on 64 kB RAM.

The 8-Bit Games from animated video production house Flikli kicks it old school with pixel-y versions of everything from archery to water polo.

More About: YouTube, london 2012, olympics, viral videos


Is This What it Takes to Market Vodka? Pitchmen Pose as Window Washers

Posted: 30 Jul 2012 01:16 PM PDT




How do you reach white-collar professionals who routinely work 80-hour weeks? Ultimat Vodka offered one answer to that question, though it's not clear how scalable it is.

The vodka brand dispatched a dapper-looking gentlemen in New York and Chicago to pose as a window-washer outside office buildings. Peering in from the windows, they shook the workers out of their stupor with an honest admission written on a placard: "You people are hard to reach." The spokesmen then beckoned the workers to get out in the fresh air -- preferably before 6 -- and have a drink.

If the video above is to believed, the technique worked: The office drones cracked smiles and met the Ultimat pitchman late…
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More About: Advertising, Marketing, Ultimat vodka


Codecademy Will Now Teach You How to Code in Python

Posted: 30 Jul 2012 01:01 PM PDT




Codecademy, a website that teaches users how to code through free, interactive tutorials, is launching its first Python courses Monday.

Codecademy's website already offers a few hundred exercises in HTML, CSS, JavaScript and jQuery, Zach Sims, Codecademy's 22-year-old co-founder, tells me. Together, 100 million tutorials have been completed by millions of users.

Six track courses are being launched for Python on Monday. Why Python? Sims says more users of the site requested Python than Ruby. "It goes nicely as a server-side backend to what many users have learned with JavaScript," he wrote in a post on Codecademy's blog.

Codeacademy is asking users to submit additional Python exerci…
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More About: Codecademy, Python, education