Friday, December 9, 2011

Mashable: Latest 29 News Updates - including “Spotify Radio Adds Unlimited Stations and Skips”

Mashable!

Mashable: Latest 29 News Updates - including “Spotify Radio Adds Unlimited Stations and Skips”

Spotify Radio Adds Unlimited Stations and Skips

Posted: 09 Dec 2011 05:19 AM PST


Spotify has completely overhauled its Radio service, adding unlimited stations, unlimited skips and a completely new recommendation engine.

You can now create an unlimited number of stations by choosing a track, artist or a genre. The new recommendation engine should be better than ever at choosing the music you really like, based on your initial choice. And if you don’t like a track, you can skip it as many times as you like.

Spotify points out that it now offers over 15 million tracks, with over 10 million active users and 2.5 million paying subscribers.

Recently, Spotify has announced an app platform which will enable consumers to use apps built by third parties. Spotify’s impressive lineup of launch partners for the new platform includes Last.fm, Songkick, Rolling Stone, Pitchfork and Billboard.

Spotify Radio will be rolling out together with Spotify Apps over the next couple of days, but you can download a special preview version here.

More About: Music, radio, spotify, Spotify Radio

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Soda Startup Aims To Serve a Beverage You Design From a Vending Machine [VIDEO]

Posted: 09 Dec 2011 03:18 AM PST

soda image

Soda — yes, soda — is about to get a platform dedicated to user-created content. Indianapolis-based startup uFlavor is launching a website on Thursday that gives users a taste of beverage design.

If all goes as planned, you’ll soon be able to mix your own soda at vending machines.

In a few months, anyone will be able to create a recipe online, design a label and ship the resulting bottled beverage to their door. uFlavor, which was founded by three tech experts and beverage greenthumbs, worked with flavor company Flavors of North America (FONA) to design 42 “ingredients” such as “cola” and “cinnamo” that users can mix and match.

Does that sound like a recipe for disastrous combinations? uFlavor acknowledges the risk: “It’s going to happen,” says uFlavor co-founder Michael Cloran. “Just like when you go to YouTube and there are some terrible videos.”

But the site plans to offer educational materials along with its unique brand of what fellow co-founder Nathan Altman likes to think of as “soda as a service” (SasS). Hit flavors will also make their designers some money. Just as Threadless gives its t-shirt designers a cut of the shirts they sell, so too will uFlavors give its beverage designers a percentage. The hope is that brilliant new flavors will bubble to the top of the pack through a rating system on the site.

Machines that create beverages in prototype quantities aren’t new. How do you think the world ended up with New Coke? But this is the first time that anyone has made a serious attempt at selling DIY sodas in small quantities.

Brands seem like the most obvious target for uFlavor’s customized sodas and labels. The startup already has a commitment from Executive Music Group, the record label that represents Alien Ant Farm, but the startup’s goal is a much more ambitious. uFlavor expects its user-created flavors will start selling even among non-designers.

“Only 1% or 2% of YouTube users actually upload content,” Cloran says. “The rest are just watching. It will be the same thing with uFlavors.”

After uFlavors deploys vending machines, which will probably not happen for at least a year, users will be able to simply log into their accounts using the machine’s browser to look up their favorite soda or one that they’ve created in the past. The machine will mix it and bottle it on the spot. For now, uFlavor is launching with five drinks created by beta users. Anyone, however, can create a custom label and order one of the drinks online.

With so much on the horizon, flavors will ultimately be key. As with any crowd-sourced endeavor, uFlavors will have to take the good with the bad: “Please don’t mix passion fruit with cola,” Cloran says. “It’s not going to taste good.”


Image courtesy of Flickr, Like_the_Grand_Canyon

More About: crowd-sourced, Social Media, soda, startup, user-generated content

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Google+ Gets Face Recognition, Deeper Gmail Integration

Posted: 09 Dec 2011 01:11 AM PST


Google is on fire today: besides introducing the new activities recommendation engine Schemer, and the news aggregator Currents, the company also improved Google+ with several nifty features, including face detection.

The new feature is called Find my Face, and it helps tag photos of people in pictures, provided they’ve activated the feature.

Google has obviously learned a lesson from Facebook, which suffered some backlash – even an EU probe – over turning its face recognition feature on by default. In Google+, you can accept or reject someone tagging you or turn the feature on and off and, most importantly, the feature is opt-in.

Find my Face will be rolling out to users over the next couple of days.

Gmail has also been upgraded with a couple of social networking features, making it easier to add people to your Google+ Circles from Gmail and share stuff on Google+ without leaving your inbox.

Furthermore, you can now also filter messages in Gmail according to your Circles; for example, you can see only the messages from your family, work colleagues or any other group of people you’ve defined as a Circle.

Google will be rolling out these new features to users’ Gmail and Gmail Contacts over the next couple of days.

[via Matt Steiner, Gmail Blog]

More About: face detection, gmail, Google

PlayStation Finds Its Groove with 2 Innovative Music Games

Posted: 08 Dec 2011 08:58 PM PST

playstation image

Two new PlayStation games are blurring the line between music software and video games. Sound Shapes, for the soon-to-be-released PlayStation Vita is like a Super Mario — if all of your actions in the classic game painted its unique soundtrack. PixelJunk 4am, for PlayStation 3, uses the gesture-based Move controller to let users loop beats, warp riffs and broadcast it all online.

Mashable got some hands-on time with both games at Sony’s Holiday Showcase to give you the scoop on what makes them so interesting.

Sound Shapes

What It Is: Sound Shapes, from Queasy Games, places users as a little rolling ball which can jump and stick to surfaces. The game is simple: Move from left to right, don’t touch enemies or dangerous red elements. It is organized as a set of albums (four to five in the final build) with individual levels called “tracks” (two to four tracks per album).

Why It’s Cool: Every element and action in the game is synced to music. Moving left to right triggers different sections of song, advancing to a new screen within a level changes the chords, jumping on platforms or enemies trigger effects like a cymbal crash or synth riffs. Every screen feels like a physical representation of music because everything you see on it — including you — is making music in some way.

The game’s level editor, which looks like a step sequencer, gives an even better demonstration of Sound Shapes musical roots. Placing these elements around the screen creates new pitches and patterns. For example, a traveling buzz-saw sounds like a rapid hi-hat with claps whenever it is forced to change direction. The sound can be modified by changing the size of the object (a cube, hill, etc.) on which it travels. Users can then upload and play user-created levels.

The game also uses some of the Vita’s unique technology, such as a back touch screen that lets users expand, twist and rotate elements.

Details: Sound Shapes will be released sometime around the Vita’s launch (possibly February 2012). Sony is bankrolling the project, so don’t expect an iOS or Android version any time soon.

PixelJunk 4am

What It Is: PixelJunk 4am is more of a musical experience/experiment than a classical “game.” It is the newest game in the bright, inventive PixelJunk series developed by Q-Games. It makes heavy use of the PlayStation Move peripheral to let users add and modify musical loops like a live DJ session, and there aren’t “levels” so much as there are music soundscapes with their own palette of instruments and effects.

Why It’s Cool: PixelJunk 4am is all about the Move controller and making the player feel like the game is an instrument. Every soundscape has four instruments — drums, bass, lead and rhythm — that can be triggered by Move gestures. Each of the four face buttons controls one of the instruments. Waving the controller creates a variety of single notes. Holding and releasing the face buttons alternately solos or mutes tracks. Users can also hold down a central move button to warp the selected instrument track. This feature turns the Move into an effects controller much like a Kaoss pad with effects and modifiers located on the X, Y and Z-axises.

PlayStation broadcasts your tracks online so your friends can listen in to your music session. The emphasis is on the live music experience, though it’s impossible to load in your own samples or instruments.

Details: The game will launch over PSN for approximately $9.99, according to a spokesperson for the game. It is slated for a spring 2012 release.

More About: games, Gaming, Music, playstation, sony, video games

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Bored? Sit Back and Let EventGrabber Find the Perfect Events for You

Posted: 08 Dec 2011 08:21 PM PST


The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here.

Name: EventGrabber

Quick Pitch: EventGrabber matches local events with your personality.

Genius Idea: Aggregates and personalizes local events for members and provides hosts with a suite of marketing tools.

How often do you find yourself asking “what is there to do in this city?” The next time you ask yourself this question, log onto EventGrabber to find the answer.

EventGrabber is a site that aggregates a list of local event options for you based on your personality, making it easy and convenient to find something to do in your town. The site also provides event hosts with marketing tools to advertise events and sell tickets to members on the site and social media platforms.

The EventGrabber team finds and grabs most events from Facebook, and then from local radio stations, online newspapers and magazines and other external sources. The events are organized into six main categories – live entertainment, cultural, nightlife, professionals, sports, and kids & family. Users can search for local events by category, location or personal interest.

Although anyone can search for events on the site, users can sign up to be an EventGrabber member or sign in with their Facebook account to view a list of events that match their personality. Once you log in several questions regarding your personality will be presented to you, such as the music you like, your age demographic and the type of events you enjoy. The site will curate a list of local events for you based on your answers.

Detailed information about an event, including time, date, price, location, summary, reviews and ratings, can be found on the back of each event display. Users can even purchase tickets to an event directly on the site.

EventDetails

Find all the information you need to know about a local event.

After attending an event, you can rate your experience or write a review to help future users plan their next event.

The “My Eventwall” feature helps you easily organize and plan your personal event calendar by displaying all of your events and categorizing them by date. EventGrabber even integrates social media tools, giving you the option to share your events with your friends and family on Facebook, Twitter or your own website.

EventDetails

Example of “My Eventwall”.

The site provides a way for event hosts to target their audience based on location and interests. Hosts can use the “Event Manager” feature to post and edit events and sell tickets directly on the site to increase sales. They can also manage premium events through the Showcase Creator feature which integrates events onto Facebook.

EventGrabber earns a 2.3% fee and an additional 99 cents for every ticket sold on the site.

“EventGrabber is a platform that provides seemless integration where you can promote your events and sync them with social media and your own personal website,” says TK Walker, CEO of EventGrabber. “The site saves you money and saves you time because you can manage all of your events on one platform.”

Founded in May, EventGrabber is self-funded and has approximately 3,700 users each day.

Image courtesy of EventGrabber, EventGrabber

Series Supported by Microsoft BizSpark

Microsoft BizSpark

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

More About: bizpspark, EventGrabber, Events, Facebook

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How to Design the Best Navigation Bar for Your Website

Posted: 08 Dec 2011 08:13 PM PST


Daniel Alves is the design director for the small business web design division at the digital marketing and web design company 352 Media Group.

The navigation bar is the most important design element on a website. Not only does it guide your users to pages beyond the homepage, but it's also the singular tool to give users a sense of orientation. With this in mind, it's important to adhere to time-tested design and usability conventions. Doing so will give your users a comfortable and easy reference point to fully engage with your content.

Despite the necessity of an accessible navigation bar, usability studies on navigation across the web aren't positive. One study by User Interface Engineering shows that people cannot find the information they seek on a website about 60% of the time. While this failure rate might be acceptable for your average blog, a business website simply cannot afford these stats. Even worse, many users often find navigation usability extremely frustrating, citing annoying hover errors and inconsistencies. Another study by Forrester found that 40% of users do not return to a site when their first visit is negative.

So how do you ensure that your users are able to quickly and easily find the information they need?

The Basics

Employ these basic concepts to help users move more efficiently through your website.

Start with content. Believe it or not, most websites start backward, meaning a designer will suggest navigation items before determining all the content possibilities. This isn't entirely unusual — often the content isn't ready before the design process begins. Jeffrey Zeldman, a usability guru, suggests, "Content precedes design. Design in the absence of content is not design, it's decoration."

It's important to properly analyze and organize all your content into a logical and highly usable structure before even considering design choices. Once you accomplish this, only add complexity if absolutely necessary for your users.

Don’t overwhelm. The main role of a navigation bar is to provide your user with a choice. Overwhelming a site visitor with too many options impedes his ability to quickly make a choice. A navigation bar with five to seven channel items is sufficient organization for most websites. Plus, it fits nicely in the width of most website designs. Once you reach eight navigation options, you severely limit readability and usability due to width constraints.

Keep it simple. Use precise and recognizable words in the navigation bar. Refrain from long phrases that consume screen real estate by limiting each navigation item to 12 characters or less. Also, don't use words that an average user wouldn't completely understand. People are used to conventions; therefore, err on the side of familiarity. For example, use "Contact Us," not "Get in Touch" or "Let's Talk." Finally, leave out unnecessary words that don't add anything to the navigation item. Instead of "In the News," consider simply "News."

Actions on the right. Because people read from left to right, they naturally expect action links on the right-hand side of the navigation bar because moving right suggests moving forward. Use the left side for more informational links. The exception is the "Home" link, which as a backward action, should be furthest left.

Avoid Flash, for the most part. While Flash is generally frowned upon by usability experts, the presents aesthetic possibility. Flash's biggest problem is that it typically is not implemented in a way accessible to screen readers and mobile devices. And while you don't want to implement the actual navigation with Flash, you can get away with embellishing an HTML/CSS Navigation Bar with Flash to add visual interest and retain usability. One great example of this is the Atlanta Botanical Garden website (above).

One-Level Navigation Bars

Now that you know a few basic principles about creating a highly effective navigation, let's learn from already existing navigation bars, including one-level bars, drop-down multi-level bars and mega drop-down bars. While you'll ultimately decide which type of navigation works best for your website, we can show you what to do and what not to do depending on the type of navigation bar you eventually choose.

Apple vs. CNN

Experts have often heralded Apple as the gold standard in web design. The company has managed to distill everything it does into seven links, not including the logo and a search bar. It's the epitome of simplicity and straightforwardness — from one of the largest companies in the world.

To its credit, CNN has to cover an entire planet of news, which makes it somewhat understandable that its site features a whopping 16 navigation bar links. While this navigation structure might work for CNN, it's highly unreasonable for your average personal or business website. Cramming this many links in the full width of the website hinders readability by forcing a small font size and very little negative space on either side of a link. On a practical level, it's a huge chore to read through every single link to decide where you need to go.

Drop-Down Multi-Level Navigation Bars

Drop-down menus became very popular at the end of the '90s during the dot-com boom because they allowed a user to get to any page on a website with one click. While that may seem like a huge advantage at first, the option presents several usability problems if done incorrectly. Many users find these types of navigation bars frustrating because they require precise cursor movements in order to successfully move through deeper levels. With this in mind, it's best to reserve ample vertical and horizontal space for each link so that users can navigate without clicking on the wrong page.

Denny’s vs. Sony

Earlier this year, Denny's new website design that was met with mixed reviews. On one hand, the website featured an innovative and technically complex browsing experience, but for many critics, it was overdone. The navigation bar features gimmicky JavaScript "enhancements" that actually slow the user down. For example, when you hover over a link with the cursor, it takes a fraction of a second for the animation to fully reveal its contents. Even that fraction of a second is slower than our mind's ability to move forward.

Sony, sticking true to its understated style, provides a no-nonsense drop-down menu that gets the job done efficiently. Sony's helper icons next to links specify parent and action links. Overall, Sony's navigation bar responds instantly and manages to stay out of the user's way with its subtle yet effective design.

Mega Drop-Down Navigation Bars

Mega menus are the newest design craze for large sites with a lot of depth and categories, such as Zappos and The White House. These menus are usually only two levels deep, but the second level features a large panel complete with images or multiple columns of links. The benefit to these menus is that a site not only provides more links for the user, but also includes context and hierarchy within those links.

Target vs. Lowe’s

A mega menu's blessing can also be its curse. Sure, these navigation bars give you more room to include links, but without proper hierarchy and context, mega menus can quickly turn into a sea of unnavigable options. Perhaps the best example of this is Target.com. It doesn't take long to see that the company has crammed way too many links in its mega menu, without the proper hierarchy or context.

While it might seem convenient that a user can get to Target's "Spice Storage" department directly from the second level of its menu, is that really necessary? Including links like this creates too much noise and doesn't let the user focus on the important higher-level category items. Another big no-no is the sheer size of Target's menu. Some of the mega menu panels exceed the height of a standard 13-inch laptop screen size. The last thing you want is to force someone to scroll down to use your navigation menu.

Target could learn a few things from Lowe's website. Lowe’s has managed to provide a wealth of links with plenty of hierarchy and context. For every panel of links, the company has made the most popular and timely links stand out by elevating them to large blocks of thumbnail images.

By distinguishing the most popular items, Lowe’s makes it easy for users to access the links they're most likely to click anyway. The thumbnail images also contribute greatly to context. By providing recognizable images for their most popular categories, the user doesn't even have to read to understand which part of the menu he's in. It's akin to walking by Lowe's brick and mortar store, and scanning the contents of each aisle to zero-in on your desired product.

Conclusion

When choosing a navigation bar type, start simple. Evaluate your content thoroughly and ask yourself what your users need to access quickly. More often than not, a complex navigation system is an indicator you need better content planning and organization. If you absolutely need to give your users so many options directly inside the navigation bar menu, follow the principles mentioned above to create an efficient and enjoyable experience for your users.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, mkurtbas

More About: contributor, design, features, How-To, web design, Web Development

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App Store Rewind: Apple’s Top Apps of 2011

Posted: 08 Dec 2011 06:51 PM PST

Apple released the list of its best and most popular apps on Thursday. The App Store Rewind features 20 categories from Travel to Games, and names the top five apps of each category. This year the Rewind separated iPhone and iPad apps, with some of the apps overlapping.

You probably won’t be all that surprised by some of this year’s top winners: Instagram and djay, to name a couple. Read on to discover some of our favorites. Are you surprised by any of Apple’s choices? What didn’t make the cut that should have? Sound off in the comments below.


1. Instagram





The most popular photo app to ever hit iOS, Instagram currently has 50 million users, and will soon launch on Android platforms.

Price: FREE

Click here to view this gallery.

More About: app store, apple, features, ipad, iphone, iphone app, mobile apps

Hands on With Twitter’s TweetDeck

Posted: 08 Dec 2011 06:08 PM PST


TweetDeckInstall




Installation is now like a standard Windows application. No Air here.

Click here to view this gallery.

New Twitter TweetDeck

TweetDeck‘s conversion from eternal beta to version 1.0 is complete, and with this transition comes a fresh, new look, the shedding of the Adobe AIR back end and the graduation to native desktop app. In some ways, it’s still the Twitter dashboard you know and love and in other ways, TweetDeck will never be the same.

Twitter rolled out the new TweetDeck as part of a raft of changes that include a new Twitter homepage, new Twitter for the iPhone and more.

A quick glance at TweetDeck’s last pre V1 version, V 0.38.2, next to Twitter’s TweetDeck 1.0 (Twitter purchased the platform in May) and you might not see much of a difference, but then all the changes come crisply into focus. The little orange and black logo is gone, replaced by a blue Twitter bird. Tweets flow in at almost the exact same rate, but they’ve been subtly reconfigured. Every tweet now starts with a boldface name. Whomever wrote the tweet gets credit on top. I’m not sure this improves the TweetDeck experience, but it does end the squinting at the little gray Twitter handle below each tweet.

Inside each tweet, all links are Twitter blue. In the old TweetDeck, they were underlined and white. Again, this is supposed to assist in tweet readability. By and large, I think it succeeds. Hashtags are in the same sky-blue color, as are all @mentions within a tweet.

Old TweetDeck launches with the tweet pane expanded by default. Twitter’s TweetDeck keeps it closed, but offers a larger, blue tweet button, which launches a tweet input pop-up window. Column navigation has shifted to the top of the window and is also considerably larger.

Twitter has also taken this opportunity to refocus users on its own services. So Twitter’s TweetDeck defaults to Twitter’s URL shortener and Twitter’s photo services. Old TweetDeck delivered photos to YFrog by default and still used bit.ly for URLs. You can still choose to use these services, but with them now hidden behind a settings menu choice it’s unlikely TweetDeck users will ever use them again.

All the controls that appeared at the bottom of each column are gone, and replaced with a settings button that only appears when you select a column. Notification pop-up and sound control are now at the top of each column (instead of being hidden under settings). Not all controls have survived the transition, though. Yes, you can move columns, clear tweets and remove tweets, but “filter” and “what’s popular” are gone. Similarly, some of the controls for individual users have disappeared. The “add to group or list” button is gone, for instance.

Tweets still show post time, but day and date are gone. The direct message column remains, but it’s been renamed “inbox”. I get the feeling Twitter may be looking to do away with that label. One feature that I’ll surely miss from the old TweetDeck is the ability to hover over an avatar and access reply, retweet, direct message and other actions. Now you have to click the avatar to get a large pop-up that actually hides direct message under another drop-down menu.

A new search box is visible near the top of the interface. This serves to replace the “add column” and “quick profile buttons.” Now search allows you to do both with your results.

The voluminous old TweetDeck settings window, which featured nine major areas and dozens of sub-choices has been boiled down and cleaned up so some windows have just a handful of large-font choices on a nice, white background.

Overall, the look and feel of Twitter’s TweetDeck is cleaner than old TweetDeck. Part of it is a more consistent and somewhat narrower color palette (black, white, blue and maybe two shades of gray), and that there is more space around tweets and avatars, which makes the latter look larger.

Twitter’s TweetDeck looks exactly like this in the web interface, as well. That’s because it’s built in HTML5 and maintains a consistent look and feel across virtually all platforms, including Windows, Mac, Chrome OS, and most browser platforms.

Do I like it? I think so. It’s easier to read and works smoothly. Tweeting from it, including retweets and quoted tweets is problem free. I can still manage multiple accounts, post to Facebook, and track virtually any breaking news story in multiple columns — all just as I could with old TweetDeck.

There will be some who will bemoan the push to user Twitter’s own tools, but they’ll soon forget they ever used Yfrog. Others may wonder if the exit from the Adobe AIR platform is a bad sign for Adobe, but that company is quickly moving to HTML5 adoption, as well. For me, I’m simply glad Twitter has once and for all proven its total commitment to TweetDeck, my once and future go-to-dashboard for Twitter management.

More About: HTML 5, mac, pc, tweetdeck, Twitter, Windows 7, windows xp

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Occupy-Inspired Musical Launches Ambitious Kickstarter Campaign

Posted: 08 Dec 2011 05:40 PM PST


The Big Bank is a musical comedy about a bank that loves to foreclose on people, a banker who falls in love with a middle-class florist whose shop he’s been sent to foreclose on and a radical environmentalist who uses his ambitious 11-year-old daughter’s idea to spark a revolution against the bank from a single tweet.

Sound familiar? It might sound like a social media musical response to the Occupy Wall Street movement, except for the fact that the script was written 16 years ago.

The project was started by Jacob and Dan Seligmann in 1995, and although it received some attention, including a comparison to the Gershwin brothers by The New York Times, a musical about foreclosure didn’t seem to be what producers were interested in at the time.

After years of sitting on the shelf, recent revolutions in digital media — as well as the start of the financial crisis in 2008 — brought the show back to life. The Big Bank has been altered to become one of the first social media musicals in existence. The original plot was to blow up the bank, but the scene was later regrettably removed and replaced by the daughter’s idea to tweet a revolution.

The Seligmann brothers reunited to produce the show they hadn’t touched in years. It was performed at the Emerson Theatre Collective in Mystic, Conn., which led to its acceptance in this year’s New York Musical Theatre Festival, where it sold out every night from Sept. 30 through Oct. 4.

Ironically, as the musical’s brief spot on the stage came to an end, Occupy Wall Street was just beginning to fire up in New York. Jacob Seligmann, the composer of the musical, grabbed his accordion and performed numbers from the show for protesters in Zucotti Park, such as “We Repossess,” a comical number about the items banks collected from houses as casually as if they were baseball cards.

“The Big Bank is a musical of the movement, there’s no question about it,” says Seligmann. “We want this movement to move on and into the whole culture, and theater is a great way to do that, and laughter is a great way to bring people into our movement of love over money.”

Inspired by the synchrony, the Seligmann brothers are using Kickstarter, an online funding platform, to bring The Big Bank to a New York City stage. To do so, they would need to raise $100,000 — more money than has ever been raised for a musical on Kickstarter before.

“We chose Kickstarter after a lot of research, and believe that people are more willing to give on Kickstarter for several reasons,” explains Seligmann. “One, it’s the most well-known site, so people feel comfortable. Most importantly, it is the only site that requires that the projects get fully funded before receiving any money. We think people like that concept, and like to give when they know that the project they’re giving to will only go forward if fully funded.”

Previous productions that have successfully raised money through Kickstarter include One for my Baby, which raised $67,605 in June, and Hereafter Musical, which topped off at $61,250.

Other wildly successful projects on Kickstarter include the LunaTik, a multi-touch watch kit that’s original goal was $15,000 and made Kickstarter history when it raised an incredible $942,578.

In addition to seeking its own funding, Seligmann has remembered to keep the heart of their musical’s main theme in mind. They are cross promoting Occupy Love, a documentary about the entire occupy movement because, according to Seligmann, “they have the message of the movement.” Seligmann says they’ve only met the makers of the film via Skype.

More About: broadway, features, fundraising, kickstarter, Occupy Wall Street, Social Media, theater

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New Twitter HQ Shows Big Ambitions, Rooftop Garden

Posted: 08 Dec 2011 04:51 PM PST


Twitter didn’t just launch a major new redesign Thursday — the event also served as an unveiling of sorts for its next headquarters in San Francisco.

Like the redesigned service — part of an aggressive push to make Twitter the dominant communication tool for people from all walks of life worldwide — the new space suggests a company with grand ambitions.

Surrounded by bare concrete walls and exposed pipe in a historic Art Deco San Francisco building that will become the new Twitter headquarters in June, Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey and CEO Dick Costolo sold an optimistic plan to make the service simpler for users.

“We can — and have an obligation to — reach every person on the planet,” Costolo said.

Dorsey was equally bullish in his portrayal of the company’s present and future.

“This is the new URL,” he said, referring to the @ monikers that identify users and brands on Twitter.

Satya Patel, Twitter’s vp-product, said the company aims to “offer simplicity in a world of complexity” as other social networks add more layers to their services.

The microblogging company’s ambitions appeared anything but small. In presenting the new user experience and reinforcing Twitter’s 140-character posting limit — which they said will remain a staple — executives flashed big-screen pictures of Martin Luther King, Jr., Gandhi and Neil Armstrong, alongside legendary quotes that contain fewer than 140 characters.

To help facilitate that increased reach and ambition, Twitter will move into its new headquarters, located in a downtrodden stretch of Market Street, in six months. The space offers 215,000 square feet and the company said it plans to increase its overall workforce from the current 700 people to some 3,000 within the next few years.

Renderings on display at Thursday’s presentation showed plans to remove part of the historic structure’s roof to install a rooftop garden.

In addition to the new San Francisco headquarters, Twitter also operates sales and engineering offices in New York, London and Tokyo, with plans to further expand worldwide, company official said on Thursday.

San Francisco officials hope Twitter’s presence in a beleaguered sector of downtown will help to revitalize the area. Earlier this year, Twitter threatened to move its base office south into the heart of Silicon Valley unless San Francisco gave it a significant tax break. City officials granted Twitter a six-year tax break on new employees in April, and Twitter signed its lease days later. Twitter executives said at the time that the break is essential to allowing the company to mature in a strong and sustainable way.

Dorsey presented the new user interface as “the first step” in facilitating that maturation and setting the service apart from its competitors. Users “just have to share a username or hashtag” to connect, he said. Unlike other social networks, Dorsey added, Twitter is available on the cheapest devices worldwide to make it accessible and useful for people from San Francisco to Baghdad.

As Twitter prepares to expand its global influence, assisted by the new interface, the company will do so from a prominent new central command. The bare concrete walls and exposed piping will become an office with engineering infrastructure and employee perks like the swanky rooftop garden, and Twitter executives expect to crystallize their company as a dominant means of global communication.

“We’re going to need all this space,” Costolo said, “to scale the company to support the growth of the product.”

More About: San Francisco-San Jose, Twitter, user interface

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The New Twitter: Everything You Need to Know

Posted: 08 Dec 2011 04:18 PM PST


Twitter is dead. Long live, Twitter!

The Internet’s most popular microblogging service got a major upgrade today, rolling out a brand-new look and a bunch of new features. The update is the most comprehensive and wide-ranging change Twitter’s ever done, revamping its website, its apps for both iOS and Android, and even its recently acquired social-media integrator, TweetDeck. Here’s a closer look at what Twitter’s done and why.

What’s Different

When you visit the new Twitter, you can quickly see the site’s been reorganized in some key ways. Everything fits into one of four labels:
  • Home: This is your old news feed, only better. Whereas before media in tweets like photos and videos was viewable on the side, now you can see them right in the tweet (you still need to click). You’ll also be able to see information about @replies and retweets for a particular tweet by selecting “Open,” a new option. Twitter says your feed will now appear “consistently” across platforms. which apparently was a problem before.
  • Connect: This is where all your @replies and mentions will be. Not a lot new here, but Twitter says you can type in someone’s handle will let you learn more about the person and connect instantly.
  • Discover: Twitter appears to have supercharged its search functions and put the results here. More than just a place to look for trending topics and hashtags, Discover will identify stories and trends based on your connections, location and language.
  • Me: Here’s your Twitter profile, made bigger, neater and with more activity recorded. Your information now appears on the left instead of right.

    • Twitter’s mobile apps have been given the same four-column treatment, with streamlined interfaces and a new design. In a subtle change, the old pen icon for drafting a new tweet has been replaced with a quill.

    On the back end, Twitter’s updated its API to allow embedded tweets (more on those in a bit) and some better interactions with various other apps and platforms, like WordPress (disclosure: WordPress is Mashable‘s content management system).

    Why Twitter’s Doing It

    Twitter says it wants to make its interface more inviting to new users, while giving existing users better functionality. But there’s no doubt that a large part of the change has to do with accommodating ways to drum up revenue. Twitter has recently been experimenting with ways to point users toward its advertising services, though it’s done so clumsily at times (case in point: the ill-fated “dickbar” on the iPhone, named after Twitter CEO Dick Costolo). The redesign brings with it opportunities to steer users toward sponsors, specifically through the new branded pages (see below).

    What’s Gone

    We’ll have more information on this after we’ve had a chance to give all the new Twitter apps and the site a thorough hands-on, but on iPhone it appears users can no longer copy and paste from a tweet. Users no longer can translate tweets in other languages. Options to mail, repost, or save links to Instapaper appear to have been removed. And the redesign makes it less convenient to switch accounts.

    An important difference on the Web interface: Profile names are now emphasized whereas the user’s “handle” was front and center before.

    (Thanks to Mashable readers for pointing out many of these changes.)

    Embedded Tweets

    If you have a website, you can now embed individual tweets on a page. It’s sort of like Storify, but just one tweet at a time. From the embed, you can retweet, reply or favorite the tweet, and you can follow the user as well — all without leaving the page. Links and other dynamic content remain active.

    You can see the option to embed a tweet on any tweet’s “permalink” page, accessible via the new Open button. Importantly, tweets that are on private accounts won’t give you the option. Twitter told Mashable. For more on embedded tweets, check out our hands on.

    Twitter also improved its buttons that appear on many websites. Now a Tweet button can include a specific hashtag or @mention, an easier way for sites to get their readers tweeting to specific people and about specific things.

    Brand Pages

    Just like Facebook and Google+, Twitter now has brand pages for companies. Although many, if not most, companies already had their own Twitter accounts, brand pages allow for more functionality and interactions with followers.

    A report in Advertising Age says brands will be able to customize the page with large logos and extended taglines. They’ll also be able to promote tweets in the timeline on their own pages, letting them highlight their best content. Brand pages don’t cost anything, and they’re available to companies large and small.

    User Reaction

    According to a poll of Mashable readers, many users (almost 41% of respondents) love the new changes, saying that the site is “easier to use,” “fantastic” and “pretty kewl.” Some have risen concerns about the features missing in iOS and the necessity of the change, however.

    On Twitter itself, the overall response appears to be positive, with many users reacting with enthusiasm. Most of the negative reactions have to do with mobile, with a few also complaining about the usefulness of “Discover.”

    In contrast to some of its earlier moves this year, Twitter appears to have handled its platform-wide revamp deftly, and the majority of is users are pleased. If it can work out some issues on the mobile side, it may have scored a home run. But the real question will be if the new Twitter can actually serve the company in the area that matters most to all companies: making money.

    More About: Advertising, android, iOS, Twitter

Facebook Fires Back Against Timelines.com Lawsuit [VIDEO]

Posted: 08 Dec 2011 03:54 PM PST


Facebook on Thursday filed a lawsuit against Timelines.com, a Chicago company that alleges that the social networking giant infringed on its trademarked name.

The move was a response to Timelines’s lawsuit against Facebook in September, which asserts that if Facebook is allowed to move forward with the launch of Timeline, it "will essentially eliminate Timelines.com" and cause mass confusion that Timelines.com is affiliated with Facebook.

Facebook, however, thinks “timeline” is a generic term. Bolstering Facebook’s case is the fact that Twitter uses the same term.

What do you think? Is Facebook a bully or is the company in the right on this issue?

Sound off in the comments.

More About: Facebook, mashable video, timeline

Google+ Responds to Facebook Events With Schemer [PICS]

Posted: 08 Dec 2011 03:25 PM PST


Google released Schemer, an activities recommendation engine with Google+ integration, in invite-only beta Thursday.

The engine promises to become Google+’s version of Facebook Events. Users can post activities they’d like to do — say, walk the Chelsea Highline, or read The Great Gatsby — and browse, filter and search the public suggestions of others. They can also invite their friends to participate in different initiatives.

Schemer will also recommend activities based on relevance. Individuals are more likely to see activities their friends are involved in at nearby locations. The engine will also learn what kinds of activities users are more attracted to over time.

Schemer clearly owes a great deal of inspiration to HowAboutWe, a dating site that encourages singles not to pore over each others’ bios and photos, but to suggest great activities they’d like to do together.

Filtering will likely be Schemer’s biggest hurdle. Prioritizing events according to quality and timeliness, and enabling groups to quickly schedule activities on Google Calendar, needs to be prioritized. This is something Facebook Events and Meetup already do very well. If Google can do it better, the tech giant could unseat Facebook’s ownership over those spaces.

Schemer also presents new opportunities for brands to bring fans together. Its creators have already partnered with several well-known brands to organize schemes, including Bravo, Entertainment Weekly, Food Network, IGN, LifeHacker, National Geographic, the U.S. Department of the Interior and Google's own Zagat.

For an inside look at the private beta, check out the gallery below.





Get started with Schemer by handing over your location information.

Click here to view this gallery.

More About: Events, Google, schemer

Hands on With Twitter for iPhone and Android

Posted: 08 Dec 2011 03:17 PM PST


Twitter unleashed a major redesign of its platform on Thursday, including brand new versions of its Android and iPhone apps.

Like Facebook, Twitter is using HTML5 along with native app elements to unify the user experience of its mobile apps across platforms. We’ve spent some time with the new Twitter for both iPhone and Android.

The Look and Feel


Home screen




The app opens to a homepage with updates from your stream.

Click here to view this gallery.

Twitter’s newest design is going to be contentious with some users. The iPhone app has aesthetically remained nearly unchanged since Tweetie 2.0 was first released back in 2009. Even after Twitter acquired Tweetie in 2010, the iPhone version of Twitter remained consistent with its predecessor.

Now Twitter for iPhone and Android includes a new color palette of blues and blacks. There is also much more focus on Twitter’s new “Connect” stream and its built-in discovery engine.

Gone are the designated direct message and search buttons (though on iOS, there are new swipe gestures to bring up direct messages). In iOS, the app now only works portrait mode for browsing tweets, though tweets can still be composed in landscape.

The net result is an Android app that feels more robust and an iPhone app that feels a bit simpler.

Focus on Twitter-Led Curation

A big change to the app — and the entire new Twitter interface — is via the #Discover area. This combines the old trending topic section with top stories and follower suggestions.

The impetus seems to be on curating a certain type of Twitter experience, one that Twitter defines. We’re not really sure how we feel about this, but in the mobile app, the interface is at least easy to manage.

HTML5 and App Parity


Home




The "Home" tab is your Twitter timeline. Like Twitter for iPhone, the Android version has a brand new look with a new color palette.

Click here to view this gallery.

Perhaps the biggest change in the mobile app is that for the first time, Android and iPhone versions of Twitter now have feature parity with one another. Even before Twitter acquired Tweetie, the third-party ecosystem for Twitter apps was always superior on iOS. Twitter’s first-party Android attempts have never been able to match what former Twitter employee Loren Brichter (creator of Tweetie) was able to build for the iPhone.

With the latest Twitter for mobile release, going back to the drawing board means that both platforms can share the same features and experience.

This is great for Android users — and great for Twitter moving forward, as adding and pushing out new features should take less time.

Still, as an iPhone user, I can’t help but feel like I’m now getting a subpar Twitter experience via the official app. If anything, this may just convince me to use Tweetbot or Twitterlator Neueu fulltime.

What do you think of the new Twitter for Mobile? Let us know.

More About: android, Android apps, HTML5, iphone, iphone apps, Twitter

New Rick Perry Ad Lambasted on YouTube, Facebook

Posted: 08 Dec 2011 03:13 PM PST

Rick Perry’s latest advertisement, a 30-second YouTube video entitled “Strong,” is receiving a barrage of negative attention from Internet users. The video, uploaded Tuesday, Dec. 6, has now been viewed nearly 750,000 times. Roughly 4,000 users (2% of responders) liked it — while 192,000 (98%) disliked the ad.

The spot features Perry, Governor of Texas and presidential hopeful, accusing President Obama of waging a “war on religion.” He goes on to claim that there is something “wrong in this country” when gay members of the military are allowed to serve openly, but schoolchildren cannot “openly celebrate Christmas or pray in school.”

Comments on the YouTube video have been disabled by his campaign, but Perry’s staff has left an open thread about the video on his official Facebook page. The majority of Facebook comments have been negative, ranging from disappointment to outright hostility.


Some Twitter users reported Thursday that Perry’s Facebook wall was recently changed to “open” — meaning anyone could post anything they wanted.

Screenshots depicting a series of gay pornographic images posted on Perry’s Facebook wall were shared on Twitter and other networks. As of Thursday, however, no such images could be found on Perry’s wall.

The online response to the ad has brought Perry’s views on homosexuality into the spotlight. CBS News reports that the Log Cabin Republicans, a Republican gay and lesbian organization, has criticized the ad. Meanwhile, pro-gay parody videos of Perry’s video have appeared on YouTube.

Perry isn’t the only contender for the Republican nomination who has come under fire for a stance on homosexuality. Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann, another contender for the 2012 Republican Party nomination, is an outspoken opponent of gay marriage and LGBT rights.

But Bachmann’s campaign has rarely posted material on gay rights to any of her social media accounts. There is one video from a press conference where she expresses disapproval for Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn R. Walker’s decision to overturn Proposition 8, California’s ballot measure which banned gay marriage in that state. That video has only 6,320 views, with 29 likes (31% of responders) and 65 dislikes (69%). 

One Bachmann-related YouTube video did go viral last week, featuring the activist’s 8-year-old son, Elijah, approaching Bachmann at a campaign event and telling her “my mom is gay and she doesn’t need fixing,” leaving Bachmann stunned.

That video has also been spreading rapidly, although the like/dislike response hasn’t been as intense as that of the Perry ad. The “Elijah” video currently has around 3,413,700 views, with 7,243 likes (72% of responders) and 2,798 (28%) dislikes.

So is it true in politics that all publicity is good publicity? Or does it damage a campaign when a video goes viral but attracts a significant negative response, like Perry’s? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

More About: 2012 presidential campaign, Facebook, Politics, YouTube, youtube politics

Sunday Night Is Most Popular Time to Download Android Apps

Posted: 08 Dec 2011 03:04 PM PST


Android posted a series of infographics on Thursday with impressive app stats to celebrate its 10 billionth download from the Android Market.

Android users from 190 countries download apps every day, according to one of the infographics. The U.S. is not the most app crazed country either — it ranked fourth behind South Korea (no. 1), Hong Kong (no. 2) and Taiwan (no. 3). Rounding out the top ten includes Singapore (no. 5), Sweden (no. 6), Israel (no. 7), Denmark (no. 8), the Netherlands (no. 9) and Norway (no. 10).

Meanwhile, the top categories for Android app downloads include games (25.6%), entertainment (12.2%), tools (11.7%), music (4.28%) and social (4.08%).

But the most interesting tidbits were associated with how Android owners use their apps. About 12 billion miles are navigated on Google Maps each year — which is equivalent to more than 37,000 trips to the moon — and 100 million words are translated every week in 200 different countries on Google Translate.

As for when most people download apps, searching through the Android Market the night before the work week starts is evidently a common activity. The most popular time to download an Android app is 9:00 p.m. on Sunday, while the least popular time to do so is just seven hours later at 4:00 a.m. Monday morning.

Other interesting Android app stats include the following:

  • About 1.87 million hours were spent on the popular movie database app IMDb in the past four months.
  • The equivalent of 5,054 years are spent playing with popular gaming app Talking Tom, during which Tom has been knocked down 10.6 billion times.
  • Users of the car racing app Asphalt would owe $3.2 billion in speeding ticket fines if they took their driving habits to the streets.
  • 10 billion cans have been knocked down playing Can Knockdown. That’s a whole lot of cans.

More About: android, Android Market, apps, Google

10 Premium Android Apps for 10 Cents Each

Posted: 08 Dec 2011 02:54 PM PST

To celebrate the Android Market surpassing its 10 billionth download, Google is running a promo that includes 10 premium apps for 10 days at only $0.10 each.

Thursday marks day three of the Android promo, but it seems like yesterday’s apps, such as Fruit Ninja and Air Sync by doubleTwist are still selling at the reduced price. (Although they could go back to normal price at any time.)

Here are the 10 featured apps in the promo today.


1. Tetris





This game has passed the test of time over and over again, and today you can enjoy the Android-optimized puzzle for only $0.10.

Click here to view this gallery.

Image courtesy of Flickr, svet

More About: android, Android apps, apps, features, Google, promo

Senators Press ICANN on Generic Top-Level Domains

Posted: 08 Dec 2011 02:48 PM PST


Senators asked the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) to slow down the process of releasing new top-level domains Thursday at a hearing of the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation. But the discussion was moot. ICANN, not under the governance of the Senate, sees it as a done deal.

Dan Jaffe, EVP of government relations for the Association of National Advertisers (ANA), told the Senate committee that brands might have to spend $2 million or more to acquire new top-level domains, or TLDs, to prevent cybersquatters from registering them.

Angela Williams, SVP and general counsel for the YMCA in the U.S., said her organization already had been the victim of cybersquatting.

ICANN, the not-for-profit organization charged with handling domain-name issues, began to consider removing restrictions on gTLDs – the letters to the right of the dot Internet URLs – in 2009. New gTLDs could be anything from a product category, such as .hotel, to a brand name, such as .coke.

But the ANA and other organizations complain that companies would be forced to undergo additional expense to defend their trademarks, while consumers would be confused about whether, for example, web addresses ending in .coke really were managed by Coca Cola.

Wednesday, Rod Beckstrom, ICANN CEO, warned companies they needed to prepare for the introduction of the new generic Top Level Domains (gTLDs). In an ICANN press release, he said, “Time is short. If you have not done so, now is the time to get expert advice and get your marketing people engaged to take advantage of new opportunities … If you do not choose to apply, you should still pay attention to those who do, and use the protections built into the program to safeguard your brand or community.”

ICANN has said that its decision is the result of months of meetings and deliberation by all stakeholders.

Jaffe, testifying on behalf of the ANA and the Coalition for Responsible Internet Domain Oversight (CRIDO), a coalition of 154 national and international companies and trade associations, complained that ICANN had ignored 12 recommendations made by law enforcement and asked, “If all these groups feel so strongly, where is this consensus?”

Venture capitalist Esther Dyson, ICANN’s original chair, said, “Generic TLDs create opportunities for entrepreneurs but not for the economy. It’s a big waste.” For example, she said, “Either Marriott.com and Marriott.hotel are the same, in which case they’re redundant. Or they’re different, in which case it’s confusing — without adding any extra value, because there’s only one Marriott.”

ICANN SVP Kurt Pritz told the committee that if two different entities want to register the same gTLD, they will be encouraged to work it out between themselves, instead of auctioning the gTLD to the highest bidder. He pointed out that the $185,000 registration fee and other requirements will keep unqualified registrars out of the game, and added that ICANN will renegotiate its contracts with domain name registrars to include as many of the law enforcement recommendations as feasible.

“If they can’t take care of cybersquatting now, how will they be able to with thousands more top-level domains?” Jaffe said. “Every top-level domain generates thousands and hundreds of thousands of defensive domain registrations. Companies will have to buy their names back from cybersquatters or buy a top-level domain. We’re talking about billions of dollars here.”

Dyson added, “With new TLDs, there will be even less oversight, because ICANN is already stretched.”

Pritz denied there would be a dramatic increase in the need for defensive registrations. He said the ICANN plan includes trademark protections that will let brands protect their names, a rapid take-down system, and a post-delegation dispute resolution process where trademark owners can go after registrars who abuse their trademarks.

Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar asked, “Who is really pushing for this?”

According to .NXT, an information service covering Internet governance and policy, only seven brands have so far submitted applications for new extensions, including Deloitte, Aigo Digital Technology and Canon.

Pritz responded that the decision is the result of “a consensus-based process.”

Acknowledging that the Senate had no authority over ICANN, committee members pled for putting on the brakes. ICANN plans to begin selling gTLDs on Jan. 12.

When Klobuchar mentioned a 2010 study that showed that a slower rollout might address the concerns of businesses and advertisers, Pritz reiterated ICANN’s schedule. “The application window will open on Jan. 12 and close on April 12,” he said. “We are committed to evaluating the process after the initial round.”

He added that, in two previous times that ICANN had added gTLDs, it limited the type and number, but found that the expected benefits hadn’t been realized.

West Virginia Sen. Jay Rockefeller was conciliatory, acknowledging that ICANN had gone through a lengthy process and that there were opportunities, as well as challenges. He said, “I hope we can phase the expansion over time and not be regretful it was done too hastily.”

– Susan Kuchinskas, ClickZ

More About: Domain Names, ICANN, U.S. Senate

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Bug in Adobe Reader Could Endanger Your PC

Posted: 08 Dec 2011 02:38 PM PST


Describing a vulnerability in some of its reader software as “critical,” Adobe identified a flaw that could “potentially allow an attacker to take control of the affected system.”

We’re not just talking about your mom’s e-books. Adobe says hackers have used this flaw in targeted attacks against at least one U.S. defense contractor.

Some sharp computer nerds at Lockheed Martin and the Defense Security Information Exchange, a defense-industry alliance created to quickly respond to cyber-threats, spotted the vulnerability and alerted Adobe. Adobe says the flaw is being actively exploited, though only on Windows.

This vulnerability highlights one of the problems that PDFs face. They’re simple, adaptable and almost universally accessible. That wide-ranging usability makes them the perfect Trojan horse for hackers. After all, everyone on almost every platform has a PDF reader, so sometimes evildoers hide malicious code in PDF files that users can easily unwittingly open.

Reader software has built-in security to guard against malware, but sometimes this security has holes.

The flaw exists in both current and past versions of Adobe Reader, but it’s the earlier apps that are most vulnerable. Adobe Reader X (10.1.1) has the flaw in both Windows and Mac platforms, but it won’t be a problem if you open documents in protected mode (the default). Earlier versions (both Windows and Mac) of Reader have the vulnerability, and it’s being exploited in 9.x software for Windows. Adobe says it’ll have a fix for those no later than Dec. 12, 2011. Fixes for Unix versions and the unprotected mode of Adobe Reader X will come by January 12, 2012.

Of course, the easiest way to protect yourself is to simply download and install Adobe Reader X right now, and leave those defaults alone. You have been warned.

[via Ars Technica]

More About: adobe, malware, security

4 Ways the New Twitter Is Taking on Facebook

Posted: 08 Dec 2011 02:28 PM PST


Twitter’s native video- and photo-sharing features may have hinted at its desire to go after Facebook, but the redesign it launched on Thursday stated them loud and clear.

Twitter now looks a lot more like the world’s largest social network, with features that focus on social interaction and brand pages.

Twitter once differentiated itself as an “information network” while Facebook defined itself as the “social graph.” But just as Facebook added real-time features that make it look more like Twitter, Twitter has inched into its competitor’s turf.

In June, Twitter’s video and photo-sharing tools positioned the network to increase engagement by breaking the mold of its 140-character tweets. Meanwhile, a new “Activity Feed” was added in August to keep track of followers’ interactions with other Twitter users, and later that month it added photo galleries to every user’s profiles — it’s first step toward establishing profile pages that are more than just an aggregation of tweets.

The new public-facing Twitter profile page is not another step toward that goal, it’s a giant leap. In the company’s own communications-department-approved words, the new profile “puts you and your interests front and center.” It wants to be “your opportunity to introduce yourself to the world” and “stay close to everything you care about.” All of these objectives encroach upon Facebook’s territory.

These four new features in particular challenge Facebook’s reign as the default social site for managing online identity, keeping up with friend-recommended (and created) content and serving as brands’ social media hub.

1. Brand Pages

Most brands have a presence on both Facebook and Twitter, but until Thursday, a brand’s Twitter page was a place to push content to their followers’ streams and respond to customer service requests. It was not a destination in itself, and there was no differentiation between brand accounts and user accounts.

Now Twitter will give brands a home. The new pages allow marketers to customize their headers in a way that makes their logos and taglines more prominent. They can also choose a tweet to stay at the top of their page, and that tweet will be automatically expand — even if the visitor doesn’t click on it — to show a photo or video.

Launch partners for the pages include American Express, Best Buy, Bing, Chevrolet, Coca-Cola, Dell, Disney, General Electric, Hewlitt-Packard, Intel, JetBlue, Kia, McDonald's, Nike, PepsiCo, Staples, Verizon Wireless, NYSE Euronext, Heineken, Subway and Paramount Pictures.

2. Profile Pages

Twitter profiles now look more like Facebook and Google+ profiles. User information such as favorites, lists, and images have been moved to the upper left-hand side of the page — the web reader’s focus sweet spot.

3. In-Line Conversations, Images and Videos

In the Facebook News Feed, it’s easy to ease drop on conversations between friends because comments on status updates pile up directly beneath them. It’s easy to browse videos and photos because they appear in-line with other information.

Twitter has taken another step closer to News Feed’s design. It already had allowed users to view media and conversations associated with tweets in the sidebar. But now one click inserts that same content directly to the feed. Once you open up a tweet to view this additional information, it stays open in your feed.

4. Discovery Through Connections

Facebook tells you when your friends become friends with other people, join groups and share links. Now Twitter tells you what connections are retweeting, following and favoriting. The feature originally launched as an “activity stream” in August. In the new design, it lives under the “Discover” tab.

More About: Facebook, Top Stories, Twitter

What’s Your Greatest ‘Words With Friends’ Achievement?

Posted: 08 Dec 2011 02:22 PM PST

Words With Friends

It’s been an interesting week for Words With Friends.

On Monday, Alec Baldwin made news for getting kicked off a flight prior to take-off in Los Angeles because of issues relating to his phone use. Apparently his addiction to the popular Scrabble-like game Words With Friends is what did him in. It’s not entirely clear what happened on the plane – American Airlines released a statement saying the actor was “extremely rude to the crew,” while Baldwin himself published a column in the Huffington Post apologizing while saying he was “singled out.”

But one thing is certain – Words With Friends is highly addictive.

The publicity from Baldwin’s situation certainly didn’t hurt Zynga, which owns Words With Friends. In advance of the company’s potential IPO, the game saw a surge of users as a result of the gaffe – 300,000 new users signed up for the game.

Zynga also had fun with the event on Twitter by launching a #LetAlecPlay hashtag. Their top tweet read:

“Hey @AmericanAir, don't ground @AlecBaldwin for playing. A.B.S.U.R.D. is worth *at least* 11 points in @WordsWFriends #LetAlecPlay”

On a lighter note, BuzzFeed unearthed what may be the highest scoring Words With Friends play ever, causing the game to go viral for an entirely different reason. In the photo, user Manmundine12 plays the word “Conceptualizing” for a dominating 1,469 points.

This got us thinking: if this person had the presence of mind to screenshot his/her finest WWF moment, surely thousands of others have done the same. So we’re curious. What’s your greatest achievement? Got a score to top “Conceptualizing”? Or just a totally ludicrous word that you pulled out of nowhere? We want to see what you’ve got.

Simply upload your photo to Facebook, Flickr, Twitter, Instagram or the photo-sharing service of your choice, and drag and drop it in the picture widget below

Loading …


More About: words with friends, Zynga

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Google Currents Becomes Latest News Aggregator App

Posted: 08 Dec 2011 02:01 PM PST

Google Currents Becomes Latest News Aggregator App

Google has released its new Currents app for Android devices and iOS. The universal app offers a personalized news experience in a magazine-like format.

Google Currents contains three "editions," including Publisher, Google trending, and favorites.

In a blog post, Google said:

We strive to give you beautiful and simple ways to experience all the content the web has to offer, such as sharing photos on Google+, watching YouTube videos and discovering books, movies and music from Android Market. Today we're expanding our content offering with the introduction of Google Currents, a new application for Android devices, iPads and iPhones that lets you explore online magazines and other content with the swipe of a finger.

Publisher editions include in-depth articles, videos, photos, and slideshows from publishers. These include Forbes, Saveur, Popular Science and TechCrunch.

The Google Trending edition offers the five most recent trending stories in multiple categories such as world, entertainment and sports. Finally, your favorite blogs and feeds are included thanks to Google Reader subscriptions.

Google Currents - iPad

Finally, Google Currents offers offline reading as well as article sharing through a number of social networking sites including Google+, Twitter, and Facebook.

The iOS app is available here. And you can find the Android version here.

Google Currents' entry comes just days after Flipboard arrived for the iPhone and Flud received a significant update.

More About: Google, google reader, news reader

The 10 Most Innovative Viral Video Ads of 2011

Posted: 08 Dec 2011 01:51 PM PST


Josh Warner is president and founder of Feed Company, which promotes and distributes brand videos, including campaigns such as Levi's "Backflip," Ray-Ban's "Catch" and Activision's "Bike Hero." In five years, Feed Company has seeded more than 300 videos across the social web.

This year in viral video ads feels a lot like last year — many advertisers chose to evolve successful concepts and characters, such as Old Spice pairing Mustafa with Fabio for an old-fashioned Internet duel, and DC Shoes continuing Ken Block’s hugely popular Gymkhana series. I guess the adage is, “If it’s not broken, don’t fix it.”

SEE ALSO: 8 Simple Tips for Your YouTube Ad Campaign

For some advertisers on this year’s Top 10 videos, the creative choices may be less obvious, but feel more innovative. Boldness trumping caution is certainly one theme for videos represented by K-Swiss’s foul-mouthed Kenny Powers and Ford Focus’s flirtatious sock puppet. But other advertisers have other audiences in mind, drawn to the poignancy and emotion of Volkswagen’s The Force and The Silent Indian National Anthem videos, which proves there is no single formula for success for viral video ads, other than knowing your audience and being very creative about engaging them.

Here are the top ten viral video ads for 2011. Let us know your favorites in the comments below.


1. Kenny Powers - K-Swiss MFCEO (Uncensored)


Advertiser: K-Swiss




Ad Agency: 72andSunny





Why It Works: We constantly hope advertisers take more chances, and when they do we're slightly dumbstruck, which is a reasonable reaction to K-Swiss's video for its new training shoe, K-Swiss Tubes.

Kenny Powers, the alter ego of Danny McBride from the HBO comedy Eastbound and Down, takes over the company as "Mother F**king CEO." The result is the most profane, pitch-perfect brand video execution of the year.

Click here to view this gallery.

More About: Advertising, contributor, features, Video, viral videos, YouTube

Hands on With the New Twitter.com [PICS]

Posted: 08 Dec 2011 01:29 PM PST


Have you got the new Twitter.com yet? That was the question of the day at Mashable HQ Thursday, as the rollout of the service’s redesigned homepage seemed to defy rhyme or reason.

Ostensibly, according to Twitter CEO Dick Costolo at Thursday’s unveiling in San Francisco, you would get the redesigned Twitter.com as soon as you downloaded the updated iOS or Android Twitter app. But that didn’t always work. Some of us got the new homepage without downloading an app; others downloaded the app and saw no change on the web.

Regardless of when you get it, the new homepage is worth the wait. It’s a total overhaul that adds many new ways of surfacing content you’ll want to follow — under the new “Discover” heading, for the most part.

Click on a tweet, and you’ll get more information right there on who retweeted and favorited it. And instead of just seeing how many times you’ve been @ mentioned, Twitter offers more granular information on who followed you, @messaged you and Direct Messaged you.

Many of us rolled our eyes when we learned that Twitter would be unveiling an entirely new redesign, but we’re pleasantly surprised with the result. Take a look at the slideshow, and let us know what you think in the comments. Did you get it yet?


Home Page




Your profile information, suggested followers and trends are now on the left rather than the right.

Click here to view this gallery.

More About: New Twitter, Twitter, web design

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H&M Under Fire for Using Fake, Computer-Generated Models

Posted: 08 Dec 2011 01:15 PM PST


Recently, Swedish fashion chain H&M admitted to using computer-generated models to showcase a range of collections on its website. The virtual models look completely human, but if you look closely, they all have the same body shape and pose. The real model’s head has been superimposed on the body and the skin tone has been digitally altered to match her complexion.

Swedish website Aftonbladet first noticed the uncanny similarities of the models. Hacan Andersson, a spokesman from H&M, confirmed this by saying:

“It’s not a real body, it is completely virtual and made by the computer. We take pictures of the clothes on a doll that stands in the shop, and then create the human apperance with a program on a computer.”

This method has created some controversy among netizens who have criticized H&M for creating a false reality for its customers and creating an unrealistic body image for women to live up to.

SEE ALSO: 15 Photoshopped Transformations of Celebs and Models

Andersson argued that the choice was made because it simplified the process of the photoshoot and also that customers can focus on the clothes rather than the models. He explained, “The result is strange to look at, but the message is clear: buy our clothes, not our models.”

More About: Advertising, Computer-generated, models

Apple Reveals More Details on Spaceship Campus [PICS]

Posted: 08 Dec 2011 12:53 PM PST


Apple has updated its plans for a cutting-edge “spaceship”-like campus that resembles something you might find in an episode of The Jetsons.

More details about the construction of the eco-friendly Apple Campus 2 were posted online this week by the Cupertino, Calif. city council. The enormous second campus – which features a sleek, circular main building with glass surrounding the exterior – will fit 13,000 employees across a whopping three million square feet and is expected to open in 2015. It will also be in Cupertino, where Apple’s current corporate headquarters is located.

The new renderings show a dark-colored roof with photo-voltaic solar panels, a corporate auditorium, additional parking and a jogging path. Images were also updated to propose a 45,000 sq. ft. fitness center, which is 20,000 sq. ft. more than its original proposal. The fitness center is also now a level shorter.

Apple is known for its design experimentation, especially with large pieces of glass. Its iconic Lourve-like Fifth Avenue store in New York City has received global recognition for innovative design.

Late Apple founder Steve Jobs first announced the company's expansion plans at a Cupertino town hall meeting in June: “It’s a little like a spaceship landed,” Jobs said.

“We've used our experience making retail buildings all over the world now, and we know how to make the biggest pieces of glass in the world for architectural use,” Jobs added, in what was to be his last public appearance.

Earlier this year, Apple submitted a 175 acre development proposal to replace existing office and research buildings in the area – most of which was previously occupied by the Hewlett Packard (HP) campus. However, the proposal was met with criticism from the community. Gilbert Wong – the mayor of Cupertino – said the city would not likely approve the concept, but officials in nearby cities have voiced their opinion in favor of the construction.

In September, Cupertino held a town hall meeting to discuss environmental topics and alternatives that should be evaluated in the creation of the campus.

It's unknown how much the structure will cost, but Apple Insider reported that the company's capital expenditures in 2012 are expected to increase by $3.4 billion as it readies for projects including the Apple Campus 2 and a solar farm in North Carolina.

For latest renderings of the project, check out the images below.





Apple's updated plans for its cutting-edge Apple Campus 2 design show four levels of offices, sprawling landscape, a cafeteria, corporate auditorium and a fitness center. The design shape is still the same as it was initially proposed back in June, with a sleek, circular main building and glass surrounding the exterior.

Click here to view this gallery.

More About: apple, cupertino

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5 Key Digital Media and Advertising Trends for 2012 [VIDEO]

Posted: 08 Dec 2011 12:43 PM PST


The past year didn't see the emergence of the next Facebook or Twitter. Rather, it saw social and digital spread to new places and along the way enabled a wave of new opportunities for content creators and marketers.

Recently, I had an opportunity to speak about those opportunities at ThinkLA's Trends Breakfast, a gathering of media, entertainment and advertising professionals in Los Angeles.

While you can view my full presentation in the video above, here's a quick look at some of what I think lies ahead for 2012 in media and advertising (with some fresh updates since my presentation, which was given in early November).

1. Social Curation and Mobile Will Drive Growth for Media Organizations


The rise of mobile and tablets is having a profound impact on media consumption habits. At Mashable, for example, our average iPad app user spends 6 times as much time with the content as our average web user.

More broadly speaking, tablet apps that also take into account what your social network is sharing – like Flipboard, Zite and Pulse – are becoming important new distribution channels. And early signs point to Apple's Newsstand becoming a key driver of growth for traditional publications. Conde Nast, for example, recently reported a 268% increase in digital subscribers after launching on Newsstand.

Facebook's social news apps are also opening up Zynga-like opportunities for publishers. Just last week, The Guardian revealed that its app has been installed more than 4 million times and is driving more than 1 million additional daily pageviews for the publication.

2. The Impact of the Second Screen on Television

The growing ubiquity of mobile is being felt in the living room as well. According to data from Yahoo/Nielsen, 86% of web users now use a mobile device while watching TV. That creates new opportunities for marketers to launch more interactive campaigns, and we're already seeing startups like Into Now and Shazam create platforms for engaging with the second screen audience, with advertisers like Pepsi, Gap and Starbucks jumping on board.

The TV networks are also starting to leverage the second screen. Most networks are now offering up streaming content on mobile devices, and some, like USA, are building robust social experiences for the second screen – features the networks hope will result in stickier audiences and increase ROI for advertisers.

3. An Explosion of Content for Connected TVs

The promise of Internet connected television has lingered for several years – so much so that some might see the medium as a flop. But that's far from the case.

While current estimates suggest about 35 million people have an Internet connected TV (either via the device itself, a set-top box or a gaming console), 65% of TVs sold in 2012 will be connected TVs. Add to that the likelihood of an Apple–made television hitting the market within the next 18 months and suddenly the outlook looks much brighter.

At the same time, we're starting to see content providers open up their offerings to alternative viewing options. Xbox just added dozens of live TV channels to its programming lineup. And while that does still require a conventional cable subscription, it will help warm consumers to the idea of consuming content through their televisions via the Internet. Meanwhile, YouTube is investing $100 million in original web-only programming that will also be available on connected televisions, where YouTube is often a default "channel."

That will ultimately lead to the TV of the future: consumers enjoying the same diversity of choice in video programming in the living room that they currently enjoy on the desktop. And for advertisers, that means the biggest marketing medium of them all opening up to the same type of targeting that was previously only possible on the Web and more recently mobile devices. To that end, LG recently announced a partnership with YuMe to launch an ad network for the company's connected TVs, with Toyota as a charter sponsor.

4. Connectivity in the Car Makes Autos the Next Great Platform

In the same way the TVs of the future will be powered by the Internet, so too will the cars. And while that could impact everything from fuel efficiency to finding parking spots, its impact is already being felt on the radio dial.

With car manufacturers developing their own app platforms that can access the Internet – currently through a smartphone but eventually through built-in connectivity – the AM and FM worlds are ripe for disruption (check out how MOG works in a Mini in the video above for an example).

For example, Pandora users can now listen to their music through their car stereo in BMW, Ford, Mercedes-Benz and GMC vehicles, among others. And the online music service now accounts for nearly 4% of all radio listenership in the U.S., with the majority of its $50+ million in quarterly ad revenue coming from mobile advertising.

As music shifts to the cloud – an undeniable trend – and cars increasingly add options for accessing online content, look for radio advertising to get an Internet-powered overhaul.

5. Mobile Commerce Brings it All Together

Adding to the intrigue of advertising being delivered via the Internet across media platforms is the rise of mobile commerce. Already, ecommerce juggernauts like Amazon and eBay are reporting billions of dollars in sales taking place via mobile. Overall, Jupiter Research estimates mobile transaction volume growing to $670 billion by 2015.

Meanwhile, you have products like Google Wallet, PayPal Wallet and Square — not to mention the oft-rumored prospect of Apple moving into the mobile payments space — promising to connect location, deals and purchasing all through your phone. When you combine that concept with ads that are integrated seamlessly across media platforms, you suddenly have the purchase process of the future on the horizon.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, alikemalkarasu

More About: autos, connected tv, features, ipad, Marketing, Mobile, mobile commerce, radio, Social Media

What Do You Think of Twitter’s New Look? [POLL]

Posted: 08 Dec 2011 12:31 PM PST

twitter quill

Twitter just unveiled a major redesign, aimed at simplifying the interface and attracting new users to the popular social network. It’s a top-top-bottom change, revamping the website, mobile apps, and even TweetDeck, the company’s social-network integrator software. The new look for the site is rolling out slowly, but anyone with an iPhone or Android device can check out the new Twitter right now.

With the goal of giving users a familiar experience no matter what device they’re on, the new Twitter has four universal buttons: Home, with your familiar feed; Connect, where you can see all your @replies and mentions; Discover, the place to check out trending topics and search hashtags; and Me, where you can dive deeper into your profile.

On top of that, the user interface has been given a makeover, with the pen in new Tweet button taking the form of a quill — a clever nod to Larry, the bird in Twitter’s logo.

If you don’t have the new look yet, you can browse the redesigned iPhone app in the gallery below.

What do you think of the new look? Let us know in our poll, and please leave detailed reactions in the comments. In particular, we’d love to know if you’re a long-time Twitter user or new to the service. And by all means, Tweet about it!


More About: android, iOS, redesigned, Twitter

Shooting at Virginia Tech Campus; News Spreads on Social Media

Posted: 08 Dec 2011 12:14 PM PST


The Virginia Tech campus, scene of a horrific shooting back in 2007, reported that shots were fired on campus again Thursday at 1 p.m. ET.

USA Today was the first major outlet to tweet the story to its nearly 205,200 followers. Other media quickly followed suit, and news about the shooting has been spreading over Twitter for the past several hours. As of 2:20 p.m. ET, campus paper The Collegiate Times‘ website was down, and the paper has since been relying on Facebook and Twitter to share news with its readership.

Follow Mashable as we bring you the latest tweets and other digital media uploaded from the Virginia Tech campus:

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, wellphoto

More About: Facebook, journalism, Twitter, virginia tech shootings

Pope Uses Android Tablet to Light Christmas Tree [VIDEO]

Posted: 08 Dec 2011 12:05 PM PST


Pope Benedict XVI used a Sony tablet to illuminate a Christmas tree in central Italy during a lighting ceremony Wednesday.

His Holiness seems fairly comfortable using tablet computers — and platform agnostic. In fact, he sent his first tweet from an iPad in June.

Check out the video above for the full story.

More About: Christmas, Holidays 2011, mashable video, pope, Tablet
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