Mashable: Latest 17 News Updates - including “Today’s Top Stories: Apple Mystery Event, Browser Wars, C64′s 30th Birthday” |
- Today’s Top Stories: Apple Mystery Event, Browser Wars, C64′s 30th Birthday
- Internet Explorer Still on Top, But Chrome Is Winning the Browser War
- What Will Apple Announce at Its Event This Month?
- Need a Kidney? More Are Turning to Facebook [VIDEO]
- ‘Dark Knight Rises’ Parody Syncs Trailer’s Audio With ‘Lion King’ Scenes [VIDEO]
- Steve Jobs Action Figure Is Eerily Realistic [PICS]
- 6 Tips For Building a High Quality Blog Following
- Rupert Murdoch’s Wife Urges Him to Delete Insulting Tweet … And He Does [VIDEO]
- 6 Steps for Protecting Corporate Reputation in the Social Media Age
- Former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s Email Account Allegedly Hacked
- 4 Big Moves Google Should Make in 2012
- Are Text Messages Declining Worldwide? [VIDEO]
- Reddit’s Guide to Fitness Dishes Out Diet and Exercise Tips [INFOGRAPHIC]
- 1940 Census Report Goes Digital, Arrives in April
- Top 25 Most-Shared Stories in December
- Samsung Galaxy Note Coming to AT&T [RUMOR]
- Google Launches New Site With Resources for the 2012 Presidential Election
- PostSecret App Discontinued Because of ‘Malicious’ Posts
| Today’s Top Stories: Apple Mystery Event, Browser Wars, C64′s 30th Birthday Posted: 03 Jan 2012 04:38 AM PST      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. Internet Explorer Still the Most Popular Browser, but Chrome is Growing Fast Internet Explorer is still the world’s most popular browser, but it lost (together with Firefox) a chunk of its market share to Chrome, according to the latest data from StatCounter and Net Applications. In fact, Chrome was was the only browser showing serious growth in 2011, having gained 9% market share according to Net Applications and 11% market share according to StatCounter. Google’s browser is definitely a force to be reckoned with, and – if the current trend continues – in 2012 it might solidify its number two position on the market. Apple Planning a Media-Related Event in January Apple will hold a special event in New York City this January, sources claim, but it’s not likely that the company will show any new hardware. Instead, it will be a media-related event, with Apple's senior vice president of Internet Software and Services Eddy Cue in attendance. The event has not been officially confirmed yet, and what, exactly, Apple will announce in New York City remains a mystery. Commodore 64 Hits 30 The legendary personal computer Commodore 64 is now 30 years old. It was unveiled at the Consumer Electronic Show (CES) in 1982, with volume production starting in August that year. Its 1.023 MHu CPU and 64 kB RAM sound laughable today, but at the time the 64 offered a great gaming platform and a productivity tool at a cheap $595 price. The Commodore 64 turned out to be one of the most successful single personal computers ever, with as much as 12.5 million units sold. Image courtesy of iStockphoto, DNY59 More About: apple, chrome, Firefox, first to know, first to know series, internet explorer, morning brief, Today's top stories For more Tech coverage:
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| Internet Explorer Still on Top, But Chrome Is Winning the Browser War Posted: 03 Jan 2012 02:45 AM PST   Microsoft’s Internet Explorer is still the world’s most popular browser, but it and Mozilla’s Firefox lost a lot of market share to Google’s Chrome in 2011, which is now firmly in second place. According to StatCounter’s 2011 data, Internet Explorer currently has a 39% market share, Chrome is at 27%, while Firefox holds 25% of the market. Safari and Opera follow with 6% and 2% market share, respectively. These numbers alone don’t tell the whole story, however. Internet Explorer started 2011 with a 46% share of the market, and Firefox was over 30%. Both browsers steadily lost their share throughout the year, and almost all of it went to Chrome, which is clearly the year’s biggest gainer.  Net Applications’ numbers for 2011 are very different, with Internet Explorer having a much bigger lead (52%), but the trends are similar: Chrome was the only clear winner in 2011, having jumped from 10% to 19% market share. Interestingly, Net Applications sees Firefox’ current market share almost exactly where it started 2011: at 22%. Regardless of whose number you believe, it seems that Chrome is on a roll, and its steep upward trajectory shows that other browser makers should take notice. Otherwise, we may have a new king of the browser market in a year or two. [via The Verge] Image courtesy of iStockphoto, alexsl More About: browser, Browsers, chrome, Firefox, Google, internet explorer, microsoft, mozilla, trending, web browser
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| What Will Apple Announce at Its Event This Month? Posted: 02 Jan 2012 04:07 PM PST   People close to Apple have reportedly spilled the beans on a media-related event that will happen in New York City before January ends. The announcement likely will not involve the iPad 3, Apple TV or other interactive television efforts, suggests All Things D, adding that the event may focus on a small-scale advertising or publishing revelation. Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services, reportedly will be in attendance, All Things D adds: “Cue is in charge of a large swath of Apple's media units, including the iTunes Store, App Store, iBookstore, as well as iAd and its iCloud services.” What do you think Apple will announce at this NYC event? Make your best predictions in the comments below. Bonus: Apple in 2011 — A Bittersweet Year for Tech's Most Valuable CompanyJanuary Apple started the year on a high, surpassing $300 billion in market capitalization. The launch of the Mac App Store brought the "App Store experience" to computer users, with more than 1,000 free and paid apps available for download. The Store saw one million downloads on the first day, while the App Store also hit a milestone in January -- 10 billion apps downloaded worldwide. After more than four years, AT&T's exclusivity with the iPhone came to an end as Verizon became the second official U.S. carrier for the Apple mobile. The news that Apple CEO Steve Jobs was to take another leave of absence for health reasons was quickly followed by Apple reporting record-breaking earnings for its fiscal first quarter. Click here to view this gallery. More About: apple, Gadgets, Mobile, News, open thread, Tech For more Tech coverage:
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| Need a Kidney? More Are Turning to Facebook [VIDEO] Posted: 02 Jan 2012 03:13 PM PST Facebook is a place to catch up with friends, share articles and information, and now find kidneys. According to Seattle news station KHOU, 36-year-old Dan Garrett recently received a new kidney after his wife put up a message on Facebook looking for a donor. Although the couple couldn’t find a match among friends and family, Facebook member Aly Carr, 26, offered up hers. Acts of generosity like this have been popping up more and more on social networking sites. In fact, according to the French Tribune, organ donation groups are becoming more common on Facebook, with about dozens of pages available under the search term “need kidney.” Facebook isn’t the only site people are using to help find kidney matches. In fact, in 2011, a Twitter member with kidney disease tweeted that he needed a kidney and 19 people offered to find out if they might be a match — and when the match came back positive for one of his acquaintances, he received the kidney. Meanwhile, a woman in Florida recently received a kidney after posting an ad for one on Craigslist. Do you think this is a part of a bigger trend? Will more people find organs online in the future? Let us know your thoughts in the comments. More About: craigslist, Facebook, mashable video, Newsy, Twitter
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| ‘Dark Knight Rises’ Parody Syncs Trailer’s Audio With ‘Lion King’ Scenes [VIDEO] Posted: 02 Jan 2012 02:45 PM PST
The voice-over from the massively popular Dark Knight Rises trailer has been impressively synced with scenes from Disney’s 1994 smash hit The Lion King in the above clip. With Simba as Batman, Nala as Catwoman and Scar as Bane, the parody trailer takes us through The Lion King movie as told by the narrator of Dark Knight Rises. Anticipate more parodies of the conclusion of Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy ahead of its summer 2012 release. Check out the original trailer (below), which attracted a record-breaking 12.5 million views through the iTunes Movie Trailers site in 24 hours. What do you think this parody trailer? Have you seen others like it for different movies? More About: disney, Lion King, Movies, Spoof. Parody, The Dark Knight Rises, viral-video-of-the-day For more Entertainment coverage:
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| Steve Jobs Action Figure Is Eerily Realistic [PICS] Posted: 02 Jan 2012 02:10 PM PST   A toy company has set up a promotional page to tout the launch of its Steve Jobs action figure, showing the tech visionary in a signature black turtle neck, circular rimless glasses and blue jeans. The 12-inch figurine from In Icons -– which will sell for $99, before shipping — will go on sale in the U.S. in February. The site said it is selling the action figure “to honor the American icon and great visionary Steve Jobs.” The figurine is extremely detailed and more realistic than other models we've seen of the former Apple CEO in the past — he's even wearing a wedding ring. It also comes with a pair of black socks, a chair, a backdrop that says “One More Thing” and two apples — one with a bite. iPhone not included. Will you buy a Steve Jobs action figure? Is it too soon for companies to monetize items based on Jobs? Steve Jobs Action Figure
Click here to view this gallery. More About: apple, iphone, steve jobs, trending
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| 6 Tips For Building a High Quality Blog Following Posted: 02 Jan 2012 01:25 PM PST Shane Snow is a New York-based tech journalist and co-founder of Contently.com, a marketplace for brand publishers and journalists.   In 2010, New York City startup, Birchbox launched a blog about beauty products before it had any customers. The beauty sample delivery service – and its blog – exploded in popularity. Today, to keep up with its readers' appetite for content, Birchbox employs multiple editors and publishes half a dozen posts a day, along with an online magazine. According to compete.com, Birchbox.com traffic grew 6,500% in 2011, to over 110,000 monthly unique visitors at last count. But raw traffic data doesn't tell the whole story about the value of a publication. Birchbox's blog drives customer acquisition and retention, which means its readers are loyal enough to become subscribers, followers and customers. At last count, the company had 44,000 Facebook Likes, 14,000 Twitter followers, and 9,400 Youtube subscribers. New blog subscribers – people who had willingly opted in to Birchbox content – pile on every month. (The company declined to release hard numbers on total blog subscribers). Ironically, the hit-based nature of social media means many blog owners have difficulty cultivating long-term loyalty from their users. It's easy to get excited when the occasional "viral" post brings in a spike of traffic. But often that traffic melts away as quickly as it arrived. Brian Clark, CEO of CopyBlogger Media, says a building a quality blog following means "attracting the right people in order to accomplish your specific goals." In other words, he says, "you’ve got to put quality ahead of quantity." So, how do upstart blogs like Birchbox's build such voracious followings? Here are six tips to attracting readers who stick around longer than the click of a StumbleUpon button: 1. Turn Existing Customers Into ReadersCurrent customers can be an excellent source of quality readers for a new publication. Often, they already identify with the target demographic. And they're already familiar with you. Whether it's getting a customer to subscribe to a newsletter, blog, or Twitter feed during a signup or checkout process, or requesting they subscribe in a follow-up email or call, happy customers are highly likely to become readers. Turning customers into readers gives you the opportunity to reach other potential customers – your readers' friends – through social media. Birchbox benefits from this virtuous cycle as new readers become customers, new customers become readers, and readers share with friends. 2. Skip The Misleading Traffic-Boosting TechniquesPageview-racking slideshows and catchy-yet-misleading headlines are commonplace in the blogosphere; many publications use them to increase traffic (and therefore advertising revenue). Unfortunately, however, these techniques often don't result in quality readership growth. "Headlines should be descriptive and tell readers what to expect," says Chris Spagnuolo, Founder and Publisher of guyism.com, an independent men's lifestyle site with 3.5 million monthly unique visitors. Slideshows skew page views-per visit stats, making it more difficult to accurately gauge traffic stickiness; misleading headlines may put your content in front of new, unsuspecting readers, but those readers are less likely to stay, and may even have negative reactions to being tricked. "We’ve always believed that the best way to get good quality readers is to create good quality content," says Ben Lerer, Co-Founder of men's city guide Thrillist. Lerer says Thrillist's experiments with slideshows or tricky headlines never yielded valuable reader growth. 3. Speak to a Very Specific AudienceCasting a wide net can be good for generating traffic, but with a glut of reading options on the web, passionate blog followers gravitate toward hyper-specific publications. That's one of the reasons many niche media sites are growing while mainstream publications bleed readers. Thrillist benefits from targeting a niche audience, Lerer says, rather than broad categories like "New Yorkers" or "men." The publication focuses on 20- and 30-something, nightlife-loving urban males, and it speaks to them as peers. Knowing its readers completely allows Thrillist to connect with them more effectively. Often this means targeting a niche in which you – the blogger – already belong. "We [are] really writing for ourselves," Chen explains. "And we never talk down to our readers." 4. Guest Post and Use Guest BloggersAllowing guest bloggers to post on your blog brings twofold benefits: more content for your blog, and new reader exposure for your site. Guest bloggers often point their own followers to posts they've written for other publications (and you should encourage them to do so). Ideally, those readers start to recognize your blog and eventually subscribe to you, too. "Our uniques have increased every month, in large part because we’ve been … using more guest bloggers," Chen explains. Likewise, guest posting your own content on relevant blogs in your niche can help you attract new audiences. "We’ve built a number of valuable partnerships with brands and other publishers who have helped us educate other guys about Thrillist," Lerer says. "But," he adds, "we know these guys wouldn’t stick around if the quality of what we produced on a daily basis wasn’t top notch." 5. Encourage Loyalty Through ConsistencyGiving readers something to expect helps them work your blog into their daily or weekly routine. As your audience grows, you should increase your content frequency; however, from the beginning, publishing on a consistent schedule will help build loyalty. "We try to post between 6-10 times a day … to keep people coming back," Chen says. Consistency also has to do with presenting readers with a unified voice or consistent approaches. Clark says fostering a quality audience means, "taking an editorial stand for what you believe in, rather than watering things down to avoid offending anyone. This doesn’t necessarily mean you have to try to be controversial. In this day and age, simply taking a position and standing behind it will bring people who agree, and people who don’t." Clark continues, "Don’t be afraid of those who don’t [agree with you]. They galvanize your supporters who do agree, which turns them into fans instead of luke-warm traffic." 6. Be Timely And RelevantBlog to connect with what's currently on your readers' minds. This way, you'll not be interrupting them; instead, you'll enhance their routines. "Be relevant, interesting, and digestible," Chen says. "By giving people stories that are easy to click and share … you’ll instantly increase your reach." It's all about social relevance, Spagnuolo says. "Think, 'Will one of my friends from high school think this is worth sharing on Facebook?' If the answer is yes, that’s a good start." Shares, followers, bounce rates, and conversions can indicate whether a blog's readership is engaged or simply transient. Any blog that's tuned in to its audience can increase the above and grow loyal readers. "To us, a quality reader is someone who stays or shares," Lerer says. "If they’re engaged, they’ll be more likely to come back. If they’re sharing, they’re creating value. Either way, those are the two best kinds of readers." More About: blogging, BLOGS, contributor, features, Social Media
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| Rupert Murdoch’s Wife Urges Him to Delete Insulting Tweet … And He Does [VIDEO] Posted: 02 Jan 2012 12:42 PM PST We’ve all been there: You tweet something and then you delete it because you made a typo, included the wrong link or simply just had a change of heart regarding your comment. News Corporation chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch, who joined Twitter on New Year’s Eve, got his first brush with backpedaling on a tweet on Jan. 1 after tweeting, “Maybe Brits have too many holidays for broke country!”
The tweet went missing from Murdoch’s verified Twitter stream shortly after an unverified account bearing his wife’s name — @Wendi_Deng — replied, “@rupertmurdoch RUPERT!!! delete tweet!” Murdoch’s tweet, however, still appears in the embeddable tweet above. His 16 remaining tweets have sparked a deluge of responses from Twitter users curious to learn why Murdoch, who previously poked fun at the Internet, is now on the social network. The feedback from his now 60,000-plus followers has not gone unnoticed. Murdoch tweeted this at one point:
Murdoch also has sent a tweet to Twitter creator Jack Dorsey. Here’s that tweet and a few more:
BONUSMurdoch was the final big-name personality to join Twitter in 2011. These folks jumped on board first. @simoncowell   TV personality and music executive Simon Cowell is Twitter's newest celebrity. Cowell, who became a household name in 2002 as the brutally honest judge on American Idol, used his first tweet on Nov. 16 to pimp the U.S. version of The X Factor for which he's a judge. Since then, he has argued with @PiersMorgan, live-tweeted about his X Factor finalists (while dissing other contestants as well as fellow judges) and shared random thoughts just like most Twitter users do. Click here to view this gallery. More About: News Corp, news corporation, rupert murdoch, trending, Twitter For more Media coverage:
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| 6 Steps for Protecting Corporate Reputation in the Social Media Age Posted: 02 Jan 2012 11:53 AM PST   Layla Revis is vice president of digital influence at Ogilvy PR Worldwide. Her specialties include international affairs, tourism and multicultural marketing. It takes years to build a good reputation, but seconds to damage it beyond repair, as executives at companies from Dell to Domino's certainly have found out. This was a sentiment echoed by executives at the Senior Corporate Communication Management Conference in New York when discussing social media and corporate reputation and how to embrace the new reality of immediate communications. When you consider the sheer volume of earned media, or word of mouth generated on the Internet each and every day, it is clear that "controlling" messaging is no longer an option for large companies, who, for many years, have been in the driver's seat when it comes to their own reputation. So how can a reputation bashing be avoided on the social web? Open communications and speedy response are among the pointers for corporate communicators. Marcus Molina, SVP – Latin American Communications, MasterCard shared these classic examples of corporate crisis and advice on how manage them effectively. Dell Computers In 2005, Dell computer owners experienced problems with the company’s formerly excellent customer service. Jeff Jarvis, a Dell customer, went to war with Dell on his blog BuzzMachine. Jarvis’s campaign brought the power of blogs to international attention, but it's important to keep in mind that, as Market Sentinal pointed out, corporate reputations are damaged not by bloggers, but by corporate missteps. Dell’s problems arose from its failure to deliver on customer service promises, not from Jeff Jarvis's blog. However, once the customer service problem became public, Dell committed a second error by failing to address in public the issues that Jeff Jarvis had raised. Dell later decided to engage by establishing Direct 2 Dell, it's own blog channel to address the concerns head on. United Airlines When a country musician saw his guitar tossed by United air raft handlers and United refused to offer any reimbursement for his damaged instrument, he recorded a song and posted a video on YouTube which, to date, has garnered 11 million hits, and was picked up by major media outlets. Netflix Qwikster, an online streaming service intended to offer Netflix subscribers more convenience, instead forced the company’s nearly 12 million customers with streaming + DVD accounts to create two accounts at two different domain names with two different sets of ratings and preferences. In the grand scheme of things, it didn't take long for Neflix to kill the idea after massive complaints. But in the three months it did take for Netflix to respond, its stock price fell from around $300/share to around $70/share. Here are those critical steps to heed to avoid crises like those above. 1. Don't Pretend a Crisis Is Not HappeningAs Gemma Craven, EVP from Ogilvy's 360 Digital Influence team says, "It's no longer the Golden Hour, but the Golden Minute. Lack of a well crafted, well meaning response could cost you.” Similarly, Robert DeFillippo, chief communications officer from Prudential Financial explains, "It's just as dangerous to over respond as it is to under respond." 2. Don't Make an Empty GestureApologizing for apologizing only comes across as lazy and uninspired. 3. Don't Refuse to BacktrackNetflix refused to go back to its original price and its stock still sags below what it used to be. Social media should be used as a tool for honest communication. Admit your mistake, and speak directly to your customers about how you’ll be going back to fix things. 4. Develop Channels of CommunicationUtilize or establish a blog, Twitter and Facebook networks and a strong company intranet to reassure customers and employees. This allows you to convey messaging through email, video, or webchats. It's very democratic in nature. It's a need in a world that evolves at the speed of light. 5. Establish a Crisis Communications Response TeamCompanies must drive the messaging and response. Use listening platforms, monitor sentiment, and establish a dedicated team to inform and advise internal and external stakeholders of issues and responses. 6. Become Influential and Change PerceptionsBecome influential. We are the centerpieces of this new world. If you don't write, take speaking engagements, talk to your audiences and connect, you become irrelevant. You simply disappear. Use these channels to focus the conversation around your brand so that when a crisis does arise, you have more control over the perception. Image courtesy of iStockphoto, iPandastudio More About: branding, Business, contributor, features, Marketing, pr, Social Media For more Business coverage:
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| Former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s Email Account Allegedly Hacked Posted: 02 Jan 2012 11:40 AM PST
London police are investigating an alleged email-hacking case involving former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown's by British newspapers while he served as chancellor under Tony Blair, according to an Independent report. The news comes on the heels of other investigations involving illegal activity by newspapers held throughout 2011, including computer and phone hacking, as well as police bribery. Police are looking into the possibility that private emails sent and received by Brown were illegally obtained by private investigators that were hired by newspapers, but no additional information about the case has yet surfaced. Data from about 20 computers are being investigated in the email hacking case and could reveal emails from hundreds of people had been illegally obtained, including Brown, the report said. There could be as many computer-hacked victims as those involved in the infamous phone-hacking case exposed in summer 2011. The phone-hacking scandal surrounded the now-defunct British tabloid News of the World, which shut down in July 2011 amid a series of phone-hacking scandals involving high-profile celebrities, including members of the Royal Family. However, the Independent did not name News of the World to behind the email hackings. Image courtesy of Flickr, via Luke Montague. More About: email, gordon brown, hacking, News of the world
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| 4 Big Moves Google Should Make in 2012 Posted: 02 Jan 2012 09:44 AM PST   In peeking ahead to predict what 2012 holds for Google, it’s informative to look back at the eventful year it had. While one can’t help but see the big product introductions — a social network, a mobile-payment system, a music store — it’s the deletions that are much more interesting. Google got rid of a host of unwieldy and barely used products and features in 2011. While Google regularly does “spring cleaning” to trim its vast portfolio, the projects scrapped this year were many, and most were originally intended to be major focuses of the company. Just look at this partial list of the services killed or folded into larger projects: Buzz. Knol. Checkout. PowerMeter. Health. Wave. Even the company’s well-meaning initiative to save the world from coal-fired power plants got tossed. The mass culling is indicative of the style of Google’s new CEO, Larry Page. Of course, Page was Google’s first CEO, too, stepping aside for a decade to let Eric Schmidt run the show while Page and fellow company co-founder Sergey Brin could craft the company’s web services. Google experimented a lot during that decade, and now that Page is back in the driver’s seat, he appears to have gotten that out of his system. Page is leading Google with unprecedented focus. From the major moves the company has made in the nine short months since Page got the top job, it’s clearer than ever which technologies Google is really serious about. After all, the ones it’s more lukewarm toward have probably gotten the ax. Being serious isn’t the same as success, of course, but it’s an essential first step. Google may be aggressively plowing ahead in the areas of social networking, mobile payments and mobile devices, but so are many other heavy hitters. There are sure to be some collisions in 2012. Let’s take a look at some key ones. Google+ Comes Into Its OwnProbably the most head-turning Google product launch in 2011 was the debut of Google+. Google’s very own social network borrows elements from Twitter and Facebook, but is its own animal. The launch saw virtually instant adoption by pretty much anyone and everyone who considered themselves tech- or media-savvy. And that’s been its greatest weakness. Google+ has had favorable growth and many positive reviews, but it’s still relatively unknown among “real” people. And those that do know it have the distinct impression that it’s the social network for hard-core nerds. That’s something Google has to change if it wants people to use its service instead of competitors, and going mainstream has to be a primary goal in the new year. It can do so by leveraging its differentiators (like the useful multiple-person videoconferencing Hangouts), but most of all it has to find its voice — its one-sentence description that doesn’t have the words “like Facebook” in it. This task is largely up to its users, since they’re the ones using the service, deciding which features they like and how they use it. They’re already starting to, with many Plusers treating the site like a centralized, supercharged blogging service. Even as Google+ grows, though, it’s doubtful that it’ll ever be able to rise as high as Facebook, which is expected to hit a cool billion users this year. But as long as the service starts to become known as “the place where you…” something, maybe Barney Stinson, the digital-savvy womanizer on How I Met Your Mother will be regularly referencing it by the end of 2012. Android Puts Its House in OrderThe most sticking criticism of Android is its fragmentation problem — that there are so many devices running it, often with completely different specs, that it’s impossible to know with any certainty whether or not your device will ever get any updates that Google releases. That may not have hurt the platform’s market share, but it’s no doubt given a good chunk of potential customers pause. Google’s acquisition of Motorola is a big step toward, if not putting this fragmentation business to rest, at least turning the tide a little. You can bet the farm that every Motorola device released under the new Google regime will have a clear upgrade path. Although Google’s other partners are wary of potential favoritism to Motorola, this actually works in Google’s favor, too, since now they’ll be strongly motivated to get in line with Google’s plans, lest customers opt for the perceived reliability of the Moto/Google name. At the same time, the recent Android malware scares have given the platform a black eye. While Google has been very effective at addressing viruses and trojans in various evildoing apps as they’ve appeared, it needs to deploy a more proactive strategy to attack the issue head-on. Could an acquisition of, say, mobile-security company Lookout be next? It couldn’t hurt. Ceding Tablet Territory While Building ContentIt’s something of a embarrassment to Google that the most popular Android tablet ever launched is the Amazon Kindle Fire, which doesn’t even run Google’s tablet-optimized operating system. Amazon, by creating highly customized software that runs on top of Android and points users to the company’s digital services, essentially carved out its own platform by hijacking Google’s. Since Android is an open system, there’s not much Google can do about it. At this point, it doesn’t really want to just yet. Tablets so far are essentially media-consumption devices — good for watching TV and movies, reading books and playing games. As colossal as the company is in many areas (see below), right now Google is far from a big player in offering actual content. Google Books and Google TV are anemic services, if not outright flops. Google Music, though promising, is brand new and has no mind share. So it makes sense that consumers reacted to “proper” Android tablets with disdain. After all, Google never opened up version 3.0 “Honeycomb,” so anyone with actual content to offer (i.e. Amazon and Barnes & Noble) had no interest in using it. The devices on offer were virtually identical overpriced touchscreens whose only noteworthy commonality was that they weren’t iPads. Even though Google’s just gotten into the hardware business by purchasing Motorola, I can’t see it focusing much on tablets just yet. Sure, the successors to the Xoom are on their way, and they’ll even move into the hands of a few customers, but Google must first focus on bumping up the quality and reputation of its content offerings before any “Xoom Nexus” has a shot at gobbling up market share from Apple and Amazon. Original videos on YouTube is great first step — there will be many more in 2012. GDrive Cements Domination of the CloudThis is kind of a no-brainer, but Google will continue its blot-out-the-sun dominance in its primary services: search, email and cloud services in general. Bing, the only credible challenger to Google’s search business, is rising, but very slowly, and that’s with Microsoft shoveling mountains of money into the service. And even though Yahoo and Hotmail now offer much better services than they did a couple of years ago, Gmail still has the (deserved) reputation of being the best and coolest of the lot. Google’s been the cloud business for a long time, of course, but when it finally unveils its expected Dropbox competitor, nicknamed GDrive, it’s hard to see it not becoming an instant hit. Google is already synonymous with storing stuff online, and with Google+ it’s showed it can deftly merge disparate services to create a new and seamless experience. Standing against Google’s huge storage capabilities and cloud expertise could be too much for any other player in the space. Overall: Going With What WorksLarry Page appears to have instilled Google with a new sense of focus, quickly striking while the iron’s hot on promising products like Google+ and Android, putting stagnant ones like Buzz out of their misery, and nurturing potential late-starters like Google Wallet. Some games, after all, are long, and we won’t know for a while whether the company’s bets on technologies such as mobile payments or solar panels will ever pay off. As soon as Page sees a winner, though, he clearly knows how to put the overwhelming force of the entire Google empire behind it. Before 2012 is out, he’ll no doubt have done it several times. Image courtesy of Flickr, Andrew Turner BONUS: Google New York… With Lego!Google Logo in LEGO
Click here to view this gallery. More About: 2012, amazon, android, eric schmidt, Google, google music, google wallet, kindle fire, larry page, Sergey Brin, trending
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| Are Text Messages Declining Worldwide? [VIDEO] Posted: 02 Jan 2012 09:12 AM PST It may seem like everyone, everywhere is sending text messages these days. But according to a Forbes report, texting may be on the decline across various countries. Tero Kuittinen, a senior analyst at M.G.I. Research, wrote via a blog post for Forbes that certain times during the holidays that usually bring in a lot of texts, such as Christmas Eve and Christmas, were significantly lower in 2011 compared to the year before. The decline may hint at signs that consumers are finding new ways to send messages to friends and family. The decline of texts during the holidays occurred in various global markets. In Finland, prominent mobile carrier Sonera reported that 8.5 million text messages were sent on Christmas Eve of 2011, down 22% from 10.9 million sent on the same day in 2010. Australia also reported a 9% decrease, as did Hong Kong with a 14% drop in Christmas Day texts. Industry experts expect that cellphone users are sending messages in different ways, from social networking sites to iMessage, the free iOS service that uses a phone's Internet connection to send messages. “It's quite possible that the SMS erosion will hit AT&T and Verizon in 2012 or 2013,” Kuittinen said. “The fast fade of SMS usage in countries that were most obsessed with text-messaging tells us how difficult it is to project rates of decline of aging technologies – and how unfaithful consumers can be to services that they have loyally used for 15 years.” However, for now, people aren't ready to forgo sending and receiving texts all together. In fact, according to a Pew Research Center Global Attitudes Project study published in December 2011, about 75% of cellphone users in 21 countries said they still send texts. Do you think text messaging will be replaced by other platforms and services in the future? Let us know your thoughts in the comments. More About: att, mashable video, Newsy, texts, trending, verizon
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| Reddit’s Guide to Fitness Dishes Out Diet and Exercise Tips [INFOGRAPHIC] Posted: 02 Jan 2012 08:41 AM PST   If you’ve made any New Year’s resolutions to get fit in 2012, this detailed infographic from health-content startup Greatist may come in handy on your journey toward a healthier you. The visual guide is packed with information compiled from Fittit, the fitness section of social news site Reddit where people help each other regarding diet and exercise. Fittit has more than 110,500 subscribers. One “Fittiter” posted the infographic on Fittit, which has sparked a lively discussion about the guide’s content. Are these tips helpful? What advice do you have for fellow readers? Sound off in the comments.  More About: fitness, health, infographic, reddit, trending For more Social Media coverage:
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| 1940 Census Report Goes Digital, Arrives in April Posted: 02 Jan 2012 07:33 AM PST   Following a 72-year wait period, The National Archives and Records will release the 1940 U.S. Census in April and make the search for photos and information about ancestors easier than ever with free online access from any computer. Genealogists will have digital access to the 1940 Census when the report is released on April 2. This is a big step toward making the archives more accessible to the public through technology. The most recent census — which covers the 1930s — is available through the libraries via microfilm that usually has to be reserved and ordered. However, as of now, the 1940 Census will not include a name index, so users will have to know the enumeration district in which the person they are searching for lived in 1940. The National Archives provides maps with the numbers on its website. To narrow down a search, the census asks a series of 34 questions about relatives in a family tree, and then asks another 15 about place of birth, language spoken and veteran status. For the first time, you can even search by social security number. The National Archives Trust Fund will also be selling copies of the entire 1940 Census as well as copies of individual states in both digital and microfilm format. The U.S. has been working for more than a decade to find a better solution to store its records and make them accessible to the public. Image courtesy of U.S. National Archives, via Facebook. More About: genealogy
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| Top 25 Most-Shared Stories in December Posted: 02 Jan 2012 06:58 AM PST   Social media ended 2011 on a high note as Facebook rolled out Timeline to everyone and Twitter unveiled a new design, brand pages and embeddable tweets. But what got your share-happy fingers clicking the most? A story about hilarious auto-corrected text messages from Damn You Auto Correct (see gallery below) tops December’s list of most-shared stories. In fact, that story was the most-shared and most-viewed Mashable story of the year. Based on figures from Mashable Follow‘s M Share button, the following 25 stories got the most love, with all of them garnering about 550,000 combined shares on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and StumbleUpon. To keep track of the most-shared stories at anytime, log into Mashable Follow and click on “Top Stories” next to the Mashable logo. You’ll have the option to view the top stories of the day, week, month or year.
Thanks for reading and sharing our content. We look forward to seeing which stories you share in 2012.  Intended word: "Monday," not "Man boobs." Click here to view this gallery. Image courtesy of iStockphoto, flyparade More About: damn-you-autocorrect, Facebook, mashable follow, sharing, Social Media, Twitter For more Social Media coverage:
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| Samsung Galaxy Note Coming to AT&T [RUMOR] Posted: 02 Jan 2012 06:29 AM PST   Samsung Galaxy Note might be arriving to U.S. under AT&T’s wing, according to a photo unearthed by SamMobile. In the photo, Samsung’s tablet/smartphone hybrid is sporting the AT&T’s logo instead of the regular Samsung sign. The device should hit the U.S. market in the first half of this year, and the American version is rumored to come with an NFC chip — something its European counterpart doesn’t have. Although the Samsung Note has an uncommon screen size — 5.3 inches — Samsung has already declared it a success, reporting more than one million units shipped worldwide. Other specifications of the device include Android Gingerbread 2.3 (with an upgrade to Android 4 coming sometime in early 2012) and an 8-megapixel/2-megapixel camera combo.  More About: Galaxy Note, samsung, Samsung Galaxy Note For more Mobile coverage:
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| Google Launches New Site With Resources for the 2012 Presidential Election Posted: 02 Jan 2012 06:11 AM PST
The new website has both Egyptian and U.S. editions. Google will post content from the later version on a large screens throughout the Media Filing Center at the Iowa Caucuses on Tuesday. That information includes news articles sorted by candidate and issue, links to voter resources such as the political calendar and YouTube politics channel and a trends dashboard that shows search trends, news mentions and YouTube views for each candidate. “As Nov. 6, 2012, draws closer, the site will evolve into a robust election hub where citizens can watch, learn, discuss, participate — and perhaps even make an impact on — the digital campaign trail as it blazes forward to the election of the next President of the United States,” a Google spokesperson wrote in a statement to Mashable. Google’s offline presence in Iowa will extend beyond its display of its online resources. From a sponsored section of the Filing Center, it will conduct live hangouts with journalists who are covering the 2012 elections. The company is also serving them food from local restaurants. Surrounded by media and politics, Google will be quite at home at the Filing Center. According to Pew, the company is the biggest driver of traffic to top news sites. It’s also taken steps toward becoming not just a referrer, but a destination for political information with campaign tools, a dedicated YouTube channel and virtual town halls. Will you be heading to Google’s new election site to learn about candidates in the 2012 election, or will you navigate directly to more traditional sources? Image courtesy of iStockphoto, sjlocke More About: 2012 election, Google, Iowa caucuses, Politics
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| PostSecret App Discontinued Because of ‘Malicious’ Posts Posted: 02 Jan 2012 05:48 AM PST   The secret is out: PostSecret has killed off its iPhone app just three months after putting it on the market in September. PostSecret founder Frank Warren says abusive content — pornographic, gruesome and threatening material — from a small group of users forced him to shut down the app. “Bad content caused users to complain to me, Apple and the FBI,” Warren wrote in a blog post this week. “I was contacted by law enforcement about bad content on the App. Threats were made against users, moderators and my family. As much as we tried, we were unable to maintain a bully-free environment. Weeks ago I had to remove the App from my daughter’s phone.” The $1.99 app allowed users to anonymously post secrets, discover other users' hush-hush thoughts and react to their submissions. The anonymity made it hard for Warren to remove contributors who posted content with “malicious intent.” “99% of the secrets created were in the spirit of PostSecret,” Warren says. “Unfortunately, the scale of secrets was so large that even 1% of bad content was overwhelming for our dedicated team of volunteer moderators who worked 24 hours a day 7 days a week removing content.” Warren also says he and his team fought hard to find a solution to this problem. One attempt involved prescreening 30,000 secrets each day. “Deciding to remove the App from the App Store last week and holding back the release of the Android version cost us money but we feel it was the right thing to do,” he says. PostSecret plans to keep its website and blog in operation. The company has built a hefty following that likely will stick around despite the app’s absence: PostSecret more than 1 million Facebook fans, 460,000 Twitter followers, 500,000 email subscribers and 4.1 million unique visitors to the PostSecret blog. In case your missed the promo video about the app from August, here it is: More About: apps, Mobile, postsecret, trending
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