Thursday, January 12, 2012

Mashable: Latest 29 News Updates - including “Facebook Comments Box Plugin Comes to Mobile Sites”

Mashable!

Mashable: Latest 29 News Updates - including “Facebook Comments Box Plugin Comes to Mobile Sites”

Facebook Comments Box Plugin Comes to Mobile Sites

Posted: 12 Jan 2012 05:03 AM PST


Facebook has launched Comments Box for mobile, making it easier for users to interact on the site when browsing on their mobile device.

Installing the plugin is simple: if your website has the Comments Box plugin installed, the mobile variant will automatically appear on the mobile version of your site.

The comments can be moderated, and Facebook is using a special “social relevance” algorithm to detect the most relevant comments for each user.

The Comments Box, argues Facebook, is useful since it’s adding to the quality of the conversation as well as social relevancy and social distribution. Facebook’s best practices for implementing the Comments Box on your website can be found here (PDF link).

Facebook has recently been focused on improving user interaction on third party websites. In December 2011, Facebook launched the “Subscribe” button for websites, allowing visitors to begin following updates from journalists, celebrities, politicians and public figures.

More About: comments, Facebook, Mobile, mobile media sites

Old Spice Ad is Literally Mind-Blowing [VIDEO]

Posted: 12 Jan 2012 03:55 AM PST


Each day, Mashable highlights one noteworthy YouTube video. Check out all our viral video picks.

Old Spice is continuing its experimentation with new approaches and rotating spokesmen with a new campaign breaking on YouTube and Facebook that features Terry Crews’s exploding head.

In the video above, Crews, a former NFL player perhaps best know as Julius, the father on Everybody Hates Chris, declares that Old Spice Body Spray will make you feel so powerful “It will blow your mind right in front of your face.” Then, Crews’s head splits open and his brain flies away, leaving him to spout gibberish.

The “Smell is Power” campaign from ad agency Wieden + Kennedy, hits TV on Saturday. Josh Talge, Old Spice brand manager, says the brand wanted to reward fans with an early glimpse of the new ads. The campaign promotes the Red Zone sub-line of body sprays. Talge says Crew was chosen because he epitomizes the idea of power. Though the brand is best known these days for spokesman Isaiah Mustafa from 2010′s “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like” campaign, it has used various spokesmen of late, including a September ad featuring a sea captain.

This isn’t the first time Crews has starred in an ad. He appeared in a series of Old Spice commercials in 2010, concurrent with the Mustafa campaign.

In a new twist, however, other Procter & Gamble brands will be featured in the ads. In coming weeks, ads for Charmin Freshmates and Bounce Dryer Bar will be interrupted by Crews, who will literally burst through the tableau to make a pitch for Old Spice.

What do you think of the new ad? Sound off in the comments.

More About: Advertising, Marketing, old spice, trending, youtube video of the day

Astronomers Discover Three Alien Planets Smaller Than Earth

Posted: 12 Jan 2012 12:52 AM PST


Using the data from NASA’s Kepler mission, astronomers have found three alien planets smaller than Earth, orbiting a star much smaller than our Sun.

The planets, which are orbiting a red dwarf star known as KOI-961, are 0.78, 0.73 and 0.57 times the diameter of Earth, making them the smallest alien planets discovered so far.

The KOI-961 is located 120 light-years away, in the Constellation Cygnus (The Swan). It’s approximately one-sixth the size of our sun, which made it possible for scientists to watch for dips in the star’s brightness and thus discover the orbiting planets.

The planets are thought to be rocky like Earth, but they are too close to the star to be habitable – at least by our standards.

“It’s almost like you took a shrink gun and zapped a planetary system, the whole thing, including the sun,” John Johnson, principal investigator John Johnson of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, told Space.com.

Recently, also using data from the Kepler mission, scientists have discovered two Earth-sized planets orbiting a star almost 1,000 light-years away.

Image credit: NASA

More About: alien planets, astronomers, Earth, NASA, Planet, planets, star, trending

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London Olympics Restrict Volunteers Twitter and Facebook Use

Posted: 11 Jan 2012 08:33 PM PST

london 2012

London 2012 Olympic volunteers have been banned from posting updates and photos to Twitter, Facebook and other social networks. The London Organizing Committee announced Friday that Games Makers, the 70,000 person volunteer squad, cannot post their roles, locations, or details about the athletes and other VIPs online.

“We understand that many of our Games Makers will want to use social media to share their exciting experiences at London 2012 with their friends and family,” a spokesman told Reuters. “As is standard in most organizations, we have provided some practical guidelines to give basic advice on interacting in a social media environment with the aim of protecting the interests of our workforce and operation.”

Broadcasting our whereabouts on Foursquare or snapping an Instagram of a celebrity sighting have become second nature for many of us. While athletes are permitted to tweet or post Facebook updates, the London Organizing Committee has made a decision that will limit the citizen discussion of Olympic events.

SEE ALSO: London to Get Europe's Biggest Ever Wi-Fi Zone Before Olympics

Additional restrictions prevent Game Makers from making public statements relating to the London games, without prior permission from Olympics spokespeople, or speaking to schools about the events.

This won’t mean much of a change from Beijing 2008, considering that China bans Twitter and Facebook. However, one may argue Olympic volunteers could have provided excellent stories from behind the scenes at the games.

Do you think the Olympics are making a mistake by restricting what volunteers can post to social networks? Let us know what you think in the comments.

More About: 2012 London Olympics, 2012 Olympics, Facebook, Twitter

5 Alternatives to Consider After Spotify’s Free Music Cutoff

Posted: 11 Jan 2012 07:51 PM PST


If you’re an early Spotify user, you may be looking for a new, free music-streaming service as Spotify’s six months of free listening comes to an end.

Trendsetting music lovers who signed up for Spotify when it first hit the U.S. on July 14, 2011 will soon encounter roadblocks. For instance, come the six-month deadline to switch to Spotify Unlimited ($4.99 per month) or Spotify Premium ($9.99 per month), Spotify users will only be able to play their favorite songs a maximum of five times, and free streaming will cap at 10 hours per month.

It’s no doubt the unlimited access to a huge library of music — about 8 million tracks — is one of the features that loyal Spotify users love.

SEE ALSO: Shazam's New App Wants to Be Your Music Player

Other features include the ability to make playlists of favorite songs (up to 10,000 tracks per list) and social integration to Facebook. Songs you play automatically display on your Facebook Timeline and desktop sidebar. Plus, access content via share buttons and a convenient search bar. With Spotify Premium, users enjoy an offline mode, which means they can listen to playlists on the plane, train or beach. Finally, radio stations specifically tailor to a user’s specific artist or genre preferences.

As fun and convenient as Spotify is, for many, the honeymoon phase is over with the service’s free music cutoff. Here are five free music-streaming websites and applications that act as alternatives to Spotify.

1. Grooveshark

Grooveshark Home Screen

Grooveshark is a comparable service that provides free on-demand music streaming with ads. Over 30 million people use Grooveshark globally.

How it compares to Spotify: Comparable features include the option to share songs or playlists with friends on Facebook, Twitter, Reddit and other social networking platforms. Like Spotify, Grooveshark offers a downloadable desktop application. Other capabilities include radio-streaming and uploading your own music. Grooveshark also offers song and artist suggestions related to your listening habits.

Differences: Since anyone can upload music to Grooveshark, audio quality of tracks may vary. With Grooveshark, there is no monthly limit for free accounts, as opposed to the 10-hour cap soon to occur on Spotify. However, ads play on both systems.

Size of Music Library: Over 7 Million Songs

Paid Options: Grooveshark-Plus ($6 per month) provides unlimited, ad-free listening. New application Grooveshark-Anywhere offers to-go music streaming at $9 per month.

Mobile Availability: Free radio streaming or on-demand access to music with paid subscription for Android, Nokia, Palm, Blackberry and “jailbroken iPhones,” as listed on Grooveshark’s website.

2. Pandora

Pandora Main Screen

Pandora‘s desktop and mobile free radio-style music-streaming service provides tailored sets of tunes based on the artist or track you input.

How it compares to Spotify: Pandora allows users to easily listen without having to search for tracks or create a playlist. “The Music Genome Project” behind Pandora generates music related to your search terms. The radio will tweak itself according to your thumbs-up or thumbs-down ratings. However, there are limits to songs skipped per hour. Pandora’s social sharing capabilities are pretty weak compared to Spotify’s wide range of Facebook, Twitter and Messenger capabilities.

Differences: Spotify is clearly better if you want a wide selection of on-demand music streaming. Pandora Internet radio plays from a smaller collection of 700,000 songs, compared to Spotify’s 8 million-song vault.

Size of Music Library: 700,000 tracks

Paid Options: Pandora One ($36 per year) comes with unlimited music play, higher-quality audio, unlimited song skips and no advertisements.

Mobile Availability: Free radio streaming and premium listening via Pandora One options are available on Android 1.6 and later, BlackBerry, iPhone, iPod touch and Palm Pre devices.

3. Rdio

Rdio Free Music Player

Rdio is a desktop music streaming application that allows new users in the U.S. to access ad-free, on-demand music streaming for an undisclosed amount of time a month. From the co-creators of Skype, Rdio began to offer Rdio Free with a set amount of ad-free, free on-demand music with its Facebook integration in October 2011.

How it compares to Spotify: Both non-paying users of Rdio and Spotify can play music on-demand, share their playlists and favorite songs on numerous social networking websites, receive music recommendations and listen to artist-tailored radio stations. We like how Rdio and Spotify allow free users to browse and listen to top tracks lists, albums and new releases.

Differences: Rdio Free comes ad-free and on-demand, whereas Spotify plays ads in between song sets. The company will not disclose how much time is free for users who opt out of the premium service. Rdio states, “We'd rather do it this way than bombard people with ads…When you run out of free music in any given month, you can choose to upgrade to any of Rdio's existing pricing plans or start free anew the following month.”

Size of Music Library: 12 million songs

Paid Options: Rdio Web ($4.99 per month) offers unlimited web streaming from browser or desktop platforms. Rdio Unlimited ($9.99 a month) offers unlimited web streaming plus unlimited mobile streaming. Unlimited Family ($17.99) offers two unlimited web and phone subscriptions.

Mobile Availability: Available on iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, Android 1.6 or higher, Windows Phone 7 devices and Blackberry phones.

4. MOG FreePlay

MOG FreePlay Screen

MOG FreePlay is the free version of its original subscription-required application.

How it compares to Spotify: Like Spotify, MOG FreePlay offers free music streaming with ads. However, for 60 days, new users can listen to MOG FreePlay without ads. Similar to Spotify, MOG FreePlay logs users in through Facebook and shares music with friends. The service provides recommendations based on bands and artists you have Liked on Facebook. Both players have options to create playlists, favorite songs and much more.

Differences: MOG FreePlay also offers an undisclosed amount of play, like Rdio; however, this platform gives you a chance to earn more free music every month by earning points for inviting friends to join MOG.

Size of Music Library: 13 million songs

Paid Options: Paid options for unlimited music include a MOG Basic plan ($4.99 per month), which comes with unlimited, on-demand music for your computer, sans mobile access. The MOG Primo plan for $9.99 per month comes with computer and mobile access and unlimited streaming to your phone.

Mobile Availability: Only available through Primo plan to iPhone, iPod Touch and Android phones.

5. YouTube

YouTube Main Window

While YouTube is a video player, we recommend using YouTube for free, on-demand music streaming if you love listening to songs on-demand. You can use YouTube Disco to find songs by artist. A search for Beyonce turned up 100 videos, mostly from her official VEVO site.

How it compares to Spotify: Create playlists of your favorite songs for listening at work or play. You can also easily share YouTube videos on various social networking platforms.

Differences: Listening to music on-demand on YouTube may be more work — you will have to search for songs to listen to them. However, access plenty of playlists others have pre-packaged.

Mobile Availability: YouTube’s pre-installed application works on Android and iOS devices. Downloads are also available on Windows Phones. Web-based versions are available for most smartphones.

What music streaming applications or services do you use? How do they compare with Spotify? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Image courtesy of Flickr, Andreas Blixt

More About: features, grooveshark, MOG, Music, online music services, pandora, rdio, spotify, YouTube

Army Uses Web Tool to Track Bradley Manning Mentions

Posted: 11 Jan 2012 07:30 PM PST


If you’ve ever sent a tweet about Pfc. Bradley Manning you can safely assume someone working for the Army’s public affairs department took notice.

Manning, who is charged with being a source for WikiLeaks in 2010, had a hearing last month.

The public affairs department for the U.S. Army enlisted the help of Vocus, a public relations web tool that allows companies to monitor news and social media chatter by using keywords.

An Army Vocus report obtained by POLITICO says that most of the coverage of Manning is “negative,” however, “the majority of the coverage about the hearing remains balanced and factual." The report found “1,045 social media conversations about the hearing.”

The actual daily summary report is marked as “unclassified” and can be viewed by clicking here (PDF).

Manning is accused of releasing more than 700,000 classified government documents. It was recommended that Manning receive a court martial; that decision is expected to be announced early next week.

It’s no secret that public relations professionals utilize web tools to monitor what people are saying about their organizations. There are numerous services available to companies for tracking their social media programs: Vocus, Cision, Meltwater. Google launched a tool last summer for individuals who wonder what their social media profile might look like. In addition to typing your name into Google or signing-up for Google Analytics, now anyone can also sign-up for “Me on the Web” to receive alerts if their name is mentioned online.

Do you monitor your name online? How do you feel about the Army’s public affairs department monitoring social media? Tell us in the comments.

More About: bradley manning, PUBLIC RELATIONS, Social Media

10 Awesome Accessories Featuring the Vintage Apple Logo [RAINBOWS]

Posted: 11 Jan 2012 06:17 PM PST


1. Apple Logo iPhone Sticker




This desirable decal also features the similarly classic "Think Different" slogan.

Cost: $9.99

Click here to view this gallery.

From 1976 to 1998 Apple‘s logo was a technicolor, rainbow-hued apple with a bite out of it. Although Apple toned things down a bit in the late ’90s, many have a fondness for the classic version of the company emblem.

The iconic design, created by Ron Janoff, can still be seen today — 36 years after the original design’s debut — on fan-made items and carefully preserved vintage accessories.

SEE ALSO: 10 Geeky Accessories Celebrating the Iconic Hand Cursor [PICS]

Here we bring you 10 fun accessories featuring, or inspired by, the rainbow logo. Let us know in the comments if you’re a fan of the classic version of Apple’s logo, or if you prefer the more modern monotone version.

Image courtesy of Jonas Strandell

More About: accessories, apple, design, fashion, features, gallery, logos, steve jobs

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FarmVille for Change: New York Times Columnist to Launch Social Game

Posted: 11 Jan 2012 05:55 PM PST


New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof has been one of mainstream journalism’s most eager adopters of Internet tools. The Pulitzer Prize winner has a sterling reputation as a human rights reporter, and is a major proponent of Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. In 2003, he became the Times‘ first blogger.

Now Kristof is expanding into social gaming to continue raising awareness of — and aid for — global crises.

The game will be similar to FarmVille, and will enable players to make micro-donations to humanitarian efforts worldwide as well as contribute to causes in other ways. It’s part of a larger effort by Kristof and his wife, fellow Pulitzer winner Sheryl WuDunn, to rally support to fight injustice against women around the world. It’s being developed in partnership with Games for Change, a New York-based company that creates games designed for social impact.

“Nick and Sheryl’s ideas are perfectly aligned with what we want to see moving forward — breaking the perception that games are only entertainment,” Games for Change co-president Asi Burak told Mashable. “Most of the people who pick up his book or turn on PBS or even read The New York Times are already the converted. What he’s hoping to do with social media and gaming is go to the people who aren’t converted and engage them in a very sensible way.”

Burak said that the as-yet-unnamed game will be played primarily through Facebook, but that the company is also exploring additional platforms. Players will be able to buy virtual goods in the game with real currency that will then go to NGOs and aid organizations around the world. Burak said that players will also be able to contribute to causes without paying money, for example by completing virtual missions that add them to advocacy campaigns or other efforts.

The game is tentatively planned for release in late 2012, to coincide with the PBS broadcast of Kristof and WuDunn’s two-part documentary called Half the Sky. The pair wrote a bestselling book with the same title in 2009. The premise of the book, movie and upcoming game is that addressing oppression and mistreatment of women and girls worldwide will help make life better for all humans.

Burak said that the game and larger campaign are funded by a host of major non-profits including the Ford Foundation, United Nations Foundation and USAID. But he emphasized that they are still seeking additional backing to guaranteed the game’s success.

Expertise from Kristof and WuDunn will likely go a long way toward that goal. Burak said that the couple is “very involved” in the game’s conceptual development and provides input on details “from small to large.” In one example, Burak said, Kristof and WuDunn encouraged designers to emphasize the positive aspects of people’s lives in developing countries in addition to the challenges that they face.

“Coming from them,” Burak said, “that gives us a lot of confidence to strike a tone that isn’t just a serious tone, but also an entertainment tone.”

How big of an impact can social games make on social justice? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

Photo by Geoffrey Kristof, via Half the Sky

More About: Facebook, social gaming, Social Good

Fisker Karma Electric Supercar Struts Its Stuff at CES 2012 [PICS]

Posted: 11 Jan 2012 05:25 PM PST


LAS VEGAS — The Fisker Karma is an electric car on a nationwide tour, and one of its stops was at CES 2012. We got a chance to sit in it and experience all its luxury appointments, both interior and exterior.

Easing our 6-foot+ frames down into the vehicle, we found it’s seriously low-slung (as any good sports car should be). Once you sit down it feels like you’re wearing it rather than sitting in it. We liked its swank leather interior, made of “low carbon” leather that was manufactured in the greenest possible way, in keeping with the overall theme of the vehicle.

We’re also fond of its solar panels on the roof, which actually do more than the Prius’s solar panels, which are used to run a fan to keep the car interior cool as it sits in parking lots on hot days. Nay, the Fisker’s batteries actually assist in the charging of the car while it’s in the sunlight. And just look at that styling.

The car is said to have a 50-mile range on a single electric charge. Lately it’s had a bit of trouble with its batteries — 50 of the cars were shipped last month with batteries that presented a potential fire hazard. The company’s still working out that issue.

The super luxurious interior and sporty exterior of the Fisker Karma is certainly not cheap, with prices starting at $100,000. We saw the car in the middle of a hotel ballroom, slightly disappointed that we couldn’t take it out on the road for a quick spin.


Fisker Karma




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More About: CES, CES 2012, Electric Car, Fisker Karma

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Sh*t Nobody Says: Will This Video Stop the Viral Madness?

Posted: 11 Jan 2012 05:01 PM PST


Each day, Mashable highlights one noteworthy YouTube video. Check out all our viral video picks.

Have you ever heard someone say “can I burn a copy of your Nickelback CD?” or “my Bazooka gum still has flavor!” We didn’t think so.

The latest installment of the “Sh*t [insert stereotype] People Say” series takes an ironic twist — parodying things that no one says.

“Sh*t Girls Say” hit YouTube on Dec. 12, 2011, stemming from a popular parody Twitter account @shitgirlssay. That account in itself was a parody of the popular @shitmydadsays account, which also spawned a brief CBS sitcom.

In less than a month, there have been three chapters of “Sh*t Girls Say,” followed by Sh*t Just About Every Stereotype Under the Sun Says videos. (Check them out in the video gallery below.) The original video has garnered more than 9 million views.

Whether you’ve had enough of the “Sh*t [insert stereotype] People Say” videos, or you think they’re the greatest thing to go viral since LOLcatz, you’ll probably laugh watching “Sh*t Nobody Says,” the latest addition to video saga.

Watch the videos in the gallery and tell us which is your favorite.


Sh*t Girls Say - Episode 1


Click here to view this gallery.

More About: trending, Video, viral-video-of-day, YouTube

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Apple’s Textbook Venture: What’s the Big Idea?

Posted: 11 Jan 2012 04:35 PM PST


The latest scuttlebutt on Apple’s big education announcement next week: the company is venturing into textbooks.

An industry insider confirmed to the New York Times that Apple will, in fact, be partnering with textbook publishers. No new devices will be shown, the source says, but Apple will discuss their new digital textbook business next week.

"Join us for an education announcement in the Big Apple," is all the invitation from Apple says. Mashable will be reporting from the event at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City on Jan. 19.

The location makes sense for a textbook announcement; New York City is a hot spot for textbook publishers. But will cash-strapped college students pay for digital books when studies show that renting paper books is cheaper? The same report did show, however, that digital books are typically cheaper than new paperback books.

In addition to the price, the majority of students prefer printed books, according to another study. So Apple has its work cut out for it. The company will need to partner with enough publishers, and make its digital books cheap and good looking enough to trump even used and rental print editions.

Textbook giants McGraw-Hill and Pearson already have a stake in the digital book realm. Still, aligning their companies with a brand such as Apple and the massive market presence that goes with it — particularly in some Newsstand-like venture — could make digital textbooks soar.

Newsstand increased revenues by more than 200% for at least one magazine publisher (Conde Nast). Other New York publishers will have taken note. History has shown that when Apple jumps into an industry — music, movies, phone apps, books and magazines — the prices drop, and Apple dominates the market.

Could affordable digital textbooks be the preferred choice of college students in the near future? What do you think about Apple getting into the textbook game? Let us know in the comments.

More About: apple, books, college, iOS

Charting the CES Chatter, Wednesday Edition [INFOGRAPHIC]

Posted: 11 Jan 2012 04:02 PM PST


What were the hottest topics among techies on Twitter during the first official day of CES 2012 on Tuesday?

OLED display technology has had people buzzing about its potential for HDTVs, while ultrabook laptops and tablet devices are also hot. Microsoft has the largest share of tweets tagged #CES this week, but its dominance has dipped since CEO Steve Ballmer’s lackluster keynote Monday evening. Meanwhile, news and social sharing websites have a chokehold on the most-tweeted domain names.

This glimpse into the CES conversation on Twitter comes from Simply Measured analytics. The statistics provide a quantified analysis of who and what is catching the tech world’s attention at one of its biggest annual expositions. Here we offer Simply Measured’s complete findings through end-of-day Tuesday — click here for Mashable‘s coverage of what people talked about during Monday’s unofficial CES kickoff. (CES officially runs Tuesday through Friday, so Monday is referred to as “Day 0″ and Tuesday is referred to as “Day 1.”)

How Does 2012 Compare to Last Year Overall?

People have been tweeting more from CES in 2012 than they did last year, but not by all that much on the event’s second day. Twitter has exploded in use and popularity over the past year, so it makes sense that use at CES has increased. But the tech-savvy CES crowd was likely among the microblogging site’s earlier adopters, so the relative lack of bump adds up too. In both 2012 and 2011, overall #CES-tagged tweets spiked during the evening on Day 0 in anticipation of the event’s first keynote address and during the late morning on Day 1.

What Are the Most-Mentioned Brands?

Microsoft, Samsung and LG had the most mentions on Monday, and nobody came close to those spikes on Tuesday — although Intel did see a nice boost late in the afternoon. Microsoft’s buzz-leading moment is still the hottest of the week, coinciding with Ballmer’s big talk. Motorola, however, did see a nice steady stream of chatter throughout most of Tuesday.

What Are the Hottest Trends?

OLED display technology is a hot topic at CES 2012, gaining more than 1,000 #CES-tagged mentions through the week’s first two days. But its popularity is understandable — LG's 55-inch OLED-powered HDTV impressed us on Monday. Behind OLED, ultrabooks and tablets are sparking the most interest on Twitter. Gaming and audio technologies have also gained more than 500 mentions apiece. It will be interesting to see if OLED keeps its momentum throughout the week, as well as what other trends emerge in the conversation.

Which Domains Are People Tweeting Most?

It’s not a surprise that news and social sharing sites dominate the list of most-tweeted domain names during CES week — after all, those are the places the tech community goes to find and share information. But it is interesting to see who ranks where. The two most popular domain names on the #CES hashtag are by far the news sites ces.cnet.com and mashable.com. The prevalence of twitter.com, facebook.com and youtube.com, meanwhile, reflects just how much people are sharing information and videos with one another.

Who Are the Overall Leaders?

Microsoft has still wrangled the largest share of the conversation through the week’s first two days, but that appears largely buoyed by its dominance on Day 0, when Ballmer gave the keynote speech at the Seattle tech giant’s final CES appearance. Microsoft’s share of the #CES-tagged conversation dipped from 12% on Monday to just 4% on Tuesday. Samsung, meanwhile, doubled its share of the conversation on Tuesday and people who tweeted about the company had a strong average of nearly 12,000 followers each.

But enough from us. What does all this data tell you? Let us know in the comments.

More About: CES, CES 2012, Simply Measured, Tech, Twitter

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Ericsson’s Future Vision: Better Broadband, Tweeting Trees

Posted: 11 Jan 2012 04:02 PM PST

Ericsson keynote 360

LAS VEGAS — Ericsson, the Swedish company that invented Bluetooth and whose technology provides 40% of the world’s network infrastructure, gave its first-ever CES keynote on Wednesday to share its vision of a connected world.

CEO Hans Vestberg was big on mobile broadband, and not just for its own sake — he cited statistics that showed it was good for the economy.

Whenever the number of people in a country with access to broadband goes up by 10%, Vestberg said, that country’s sustained GDP increases by 1%. And when the speed of broadband is doubled, it leads to an GDP increase of 0.3%. He was quick to clarify that network infrastructure wasn’t the sole factor, and that device access and cloud services were part of the equation, too.

Hitting home his point that connectivity is essential for business, Vestberg announced a deal with one of the largest companies in the world: Maersk Shipping. Ericsson will supply the technology to connect Maersk’s shipping vessels in real time, creating a “floating network.” It’ll allow for continuous monitoring of fuel consumption, for example, which could lead to a lot of savings.

Highlights From CES: Sharp 80-Inch HDTV Just Got Even Better | First Intel Smartphone Will Be Lenovo K800 for China, Motorola Devices Coming | Facebook and Mercedes: An Unexpected Pair

Besides the Maersk deal, Ericsson also said it was expanding its partnership with Refugees United, which helps some of the 43 million people living as refugees in the world to get back in touch with their families. By transitioning from pen-and-paper filing to a connected system backed by Ericsson, one refugee center in Africa went from opening 800 cases a year to 70,000, Refugees United co-founder Christopher Mikkelson said during the keynote.

Vestberg also showcased a partnership with MIT that used the company’s technology to track pieces of garbage discarded in Seattle. Tracking 3,000 separate pieces of trash, the Trash Track project found many were still in motion — all over the country — up to two months after being thrown away.

Finally, Vestberg showed off some technologies “straight from the lab.” First was a tweeting tree that was equipped with sensors to automatically send out Twitter messages when its leaves were stroked. But most impressive was the live demonstration of “capacitive coupling,” which transferred a digital photograph electronically through Vestberg’s body, from the phone in his left hand to the workstation he was touching with his right.

Besides putting forward an intriguing vision of a connected world, Ericsson’s coming-out party at CES also served to remind the public that the company is much more than its former device partnership with Sony, Sony Ericsson, which Sony swallowed up for itself last year. After all, the future will be streamed, not televised — and Ericsson aims to be right in the heart of it.


Ericsson at CES 2012




Ericsson CEO Hans Vestberg delivered the company's first-ever CES keynote.

Click here to view this gallery.

More About: 4G, CES, CES 2012, ericsson, trending

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Swivl Robotic Cameraman Keeps You Framed Up Wherever You Roam

Posted: 11 Jan 2012 03:38 PM PST


LAS VEGAS — Swivl is a personal robotic cameraman that’s smart enough to pan and tilt on its own, keeping whoever is holding its electronic marker in the frame.

As you see in the video, you mount an iOS device such as an iPhone to Swivl, and when you begin recording, Swivl will point your iPhone in just the right direction to frame you up in its shot, performing just like a human camera person.

That electronic marker not only tells Swivl where it should be pointing, but it has a microphone on board so your sound will be good no matter where you roam in the room.

We saw Swivl in action at CES 2012, and its movements are quite smooth — its ability to keep its subject in the frame is remarkably accurate — better than some human camera operators we’ve encountered.

Swivl‘s makers say and Android version is on the way, and this model is almost ready for mass production, available in the first quarter of this year for $159.


Swivl, electronic marker





Click here to view this gallery.

More About: CES, CES 2012, Swivl

8 Apple Accessories at CES [PICS]

Posted: 11 Jan 2012 03:15 PM PST


Behringer Soundscape Dock





While this may look like your standard iPhone/iPod dock, Behringer built an audio system with speakers than can be removed and transported up to 150 feet from the base.

Click here to view this gallery.

Although Apple is never an exhibitor at 2012′s Consumer Electronics Show, it doesn’t mean their presence isn’t felt on the showroom floor. Creating accessories for iPhones, iPods and iPads has become big business, and at CES 2012 plenty of creative device makers debuted clever add-ons for your Apple gadgets.

One of the most popular ideas was figuring out new presentation models for those now-traditional iPhone and iPod speaker systems. Being able to turn a pocket full of music into a cool sound system has long been big business, but the 2012 CES showcase brought some creative entrants to the field, from a gigantic pink jam box to speakers you can take with you around your home.

Other devices promised to improve your health, help you avoid getting a ticket, and even become better at video blogging.

Are there other examples you’ve noticed on the show floor — or would like to see? Let us know in the comments.

More About: apple, CES, CES 2012, ipad, iphone, iPod Touch, trending

How Facebook’s Expected $100 Billion IPO Breaks Down [INFOGRAPHIC]

Posted: 11 Jan 2012 02:13 PM PST

Rumors are flying about Facebook Inc. going public this year. So, just how much money is the world’s largest social network worth?

Reports project that Facebook will go public some time between April and June. The company itself has remained hush-hush about the initial public offering.

The infographic below shows how the company’s projected valuation of $100 billion breaks down and which Facebook Friends will be getting a piece of the pie.

Facebook’s IPO will be the biggest of any tech company in history — six times that of Google’s, according to Accounting Degree Online.

SEE ALSO: Everything You Need to Know About Facebook's $100B IPO

The company itself is preparing to raise $10 billion this year, according to reports, to push the company’s public value to $100 billion. More than Disney ($61 billion), Amazon ($88.3 billion) and McDonald’s ($95.6 billion).

Who will be cashing in? Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, co-founder Dustin Moskovitz, co-founder Eduardo Saverin, co-founder Chris Hughes and Sean Parker, Napster co-founder and Facebook partial owner (he owns 4% of Facebook). Zuckerberg will make an estimated $25 billion, owning 24% of the company.

And just how will Facebook reach the $10 billion excess profit by April or June? By increasing Facebook revenue from advertising, Facebook fan pages and display ads.

Facebook IPO

Infographic created by: Accounting Degree Online

More About: Facebook, infographic, ipo, tech companies, value

In Tiff With Google, Twitter Turns to Wrestling

Posted: 11 Jan 2012 02:02 PM PST


In the latest episode of public bickering between Twitter and Google over the search engine’s new Google+ integration, Twitter general counsel Alex Macgillivray has turned to wrestling.

That’s the example he tweeted Wednesday afternoon to demonstrate the inefficiency of Google’s latest changes, at least. “Folks asked for examples,” he wrote. “Here’s what a user searching for ‘@WWE’ will be shone on the new @Google.”

Included in the tweet is an image of Google search results that include the World Wrestling Entertainment’s website, Google+ page and other relevant Google+ profiles — but no Twitter page.

Twitter criticized Google’s new search feature, which it calls Search plus Your World, in a statement Tuesday. "As we've seen time and time again, news breaks first on Twitter," its statement said. "We're concerned that as a result of Google's changes, finding this information will be much harder for everyone."

Google later implied that Twitter was the one that had stopped the search engine from including Tweets in real-time results. An agreement between the two companies, which gave the search engine access to public tweets, ended in July and was not renewed.

Macgillivray’s example shows that, at least in some cases, people who are searching for a Twitter handle will no longer necessarily find its page at the top of Google’s results. This is also true for handles such as @nytimes and @mashable, though it is not true in all cases. A search for @mittromney, for instance, still returns Twitter results before Google+ results.

We see Macgillivray’s point. Shouldn’t people find what they are searching for at the top of their results? On the other hand, Google isn’t providing a public service. It’s a business. Should it be obligated to put Twitter’s pages above its own when people are clearly searching for them? Let us know where you stand in the comments.


More About: Google, google search, Top Stories, trending, Twitter, wwe

Ford Brings iHeartRadio to Vehicles

Posted: 11 Jan 2012 01:53 PM PST

iHeartRadio

Ford announced on Wednesday at the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show that it is bringing iHeartRadio to its vehicle lineup, allowing drivers to access the popular radio service via voice commands.

Ford will be the first auto company to offer cars access to iHeartRadio, featuring more than 800 of the top broadcast and digital-only stations in the U.S.

By using Ford SYNC AppLink – which gives drivers hands-free voice control capability of smartphone apps – users will be able to listen to various radio stations by accessing steering wheel-mounted controls or SYNC's voice commands. The driver can create a custom station, stop and start a song playing on a local iHeartRadio station and find traffic reports based on location via the phone's GPS system.

For example, drivers can say “genre,” “city” or “personality” to search by type of GPS, location of station or host. The app also connects with Facebook Timeline, which allows users to share music with friends.

Highlights From CES: Sharp 80-Inch HDTV Just Got Even Better | First Intel Smartphone Will Be Lenovo K800 for China, Motorola Devices Coming | Facebook and Mercedes: An Unexpected Pair

“Smartphones now account for half of all new mobile phones and people increasingly expect to take control of when and where they listen to their media,” Julius Marchwicki, SYNC product manager, said in a statement. “With the AppLink-enabled version of iHeartRadio, Ford drivers can listen to their favorite stations even if they aren't local, get recommendations and share what they listen to through Facebook.”

More drivers are now streaming radio from their mobile phones. According to a 2011 study from Arbitron & Edison, the number of drivers using their cell phones to listen to Internet radio in their vehicles has increased 5% in the past year, while time spent listening to online radio has jumped 49% in three years.

iHeart Radio is one of several apps for SYNC AppLink that the auto maker launched at this year's tech event, including a voice-controlled NPR app. SYNC AppLink is now available in 10 Ford vehicles for the 2012 model year. The iHeart Radio app with SYNC capabilities is already available for download from the iTunes App Store, BlackBerry App World and it's coming soon to the Android Market.

Are you looking forward to voice-controlled apps in vehicles? Do you think hands-free voice commands will help make technology in cars safer? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

For more coverage from 2012 Consumer Electronics Show, click here.

CES 2012: Mashable’s Photo Coverage From the Ground

Check out more gadgets, booths and appearances from our team on the ground at CES 2012.


Solar-Powered Car




Covered in HIT photovoltaic modules, this super-sleek vehicle won the World Solar Challenge race

Click here to view this gallery.

More About: apps, CES, CES 2012, Facebook, iheartradio

What to Expect From Mobile Marketing Tech in 2012

Posted: 11 Jan 2012 01:40 PM PST


Matthias Galica is CEO of ShareSquare, the leading platform among brand and entertainment marketers for incentivizing offline-to-online consumer engagement.

As new technologies emerge that seek to bridge the real world with the digital, the offline-to-online marketing learning curve only gets steeper.

For instance, what is the future of the QR code, and should we prepare to be wowed by augmented reality? Read on for my mobile marketing predictions of 2012.

1. Quick Response (QR) Codes

The Good: We'll witness the disappearance of non-standard formats, an exponential rise in capable mobile devices, and a steady march toward improved calls-to-action spurred by more accountable analytics.


The Bad: Even though the arrival of native QR scanning in Android and/or iOS would be a boon for mainstream adoption, the move would elbow out increasingly popular third-party scanning apps and draw the ire of developers.


The Ugly: Overwhelmed by the variety of QR uses in marketing campaigns, bad “carpenters" keep blaming their tools, and repeat simple mistakes that disappoint many first-time consumer scanners. 


Whether you love or hate QR codes, they'll become progressively more ubiquitous and useful as they mature from hype to marketing line item.

2. Augmented Reality (AR)

The Good: Thanks to the exponential rise of capable mobile devices, a few AR campaigns will successfully break through to capture mainstream imaginations. And despite the highly proprietary nature of most AR, efforts like Aurasma‘s will continue striving to build scalable platforms.

The Bad: Similar to QR’s initial reception, the wider availability of easy AR creation tools will result in many more uninspired efforts, disappointing first-time users. The situation is further exacerbated by the broad definition of what "augmented reality" is and by uncertain consumer expectations.

The Ugly: The challenge of consistently retaining consumer attention beyond initial novelty (especially if a leading provider doesn't emerge) threatens to relegate AR marketing to a modern flop.

In the absence of a dominant AR mobile marketing app, a plurality of contenders will fight to attain precious network effects, all the while searching for the "sticky" use cases and supporting performance metrics that result in repeat usage.

3. Near Field Communication (NFC)

The Good: Even though mobile wallets have held the spotlight, competition among providers hastens hardware penetration for mobile marketing opportunities, like the ability to swap SIM cards for NFC in lieu of upgrading one’s entire device. Early campaigns will appear in tandem with QR codes.

The Bad: Total NFC mobile penetration will remain below critical mass for mainstream deployments, constraining good campaigns to tightly focused areas, while exposing poorly conceived campaigns with less reach to critical scorn.

The Ugly: As competition escalates among mobile wallet hopefuls like Google Wallet, ISIS, and their respectively exclusive carriers, cross-compatibility of NFC standards across mobile devices will be threatened.

The competitive landscape of mobile payments in 2012 will play a large role in either accelerating or forestalling NFC's mobile marketing future.

4. The Field (Everybody Else)

The Good: Offline-online tech will quietly thrive, especially that which offers simplicity with mass compatibility, like Zoove's StarStar numbers. Also, startups like ShopKick, which diligently cultivates lucrative redemption and loyalty behavior into passionate user bases, will enjoy increased participation.

The Bad: Recognition apps will continue to fetishize the technology and ignore whether the end result is any good, with the exception of Google Goggles, which will seamlessly integrate into Android's camera (effectively making visual search opt-out).

The Ugly: Some offline-online startups will be forced to transition from enthusiastic early adopters to monetizing mainstream demand. The true nature of "checking-in" will be called into question.

QR, AR and NFC are getting all kinds of buzz, but a healthy contingent of other contenders is also vying to close the loop. Given the wide spectrum of opportunities in offline-to-online engagement, it's not inconceivable that multiple technologies can succeed across mutually exclusive consumer behaviors.

Image courtesy of Flickr, hedrinbc

More About: Augmented Reality, contributor, features, Marketing, near field communication, predictions, QR Codes

Cadbury UK Uses Google+ for Product Launch

Posted: 11 Jan 2012 01:26 PM PST


In what may be a first, Cadbury UK has used Google+ to introduce a new product.

“Remember this moment: the first time Cadbury revealed a new product on Google+,” the brand wrote on its Google+ Page Wednesday afternoon. “The delicious new Dairy Milk Bubbly, available with milk or white bubbles [pictured], will be the first of many we hope!”

About 2,200 people have the brand in their circles.

Cadbury didn’t use Google+ exclusively. The brand also tweeted about it. There is currently no mention of the product introduction on Cadbury UK’s Facebook Page, which has about 77,000 fans.

Despite the lack of exclusivity, Google was clearly happy to trumpet the news of a major marketer using the platform for something new. Christian Oestlein, the group product manager at Google known as the “Google+ ad guy,” relayed Cadbury’s message on his G+ profile on Wednesday.

It’s unclear whether anyone else has yet introduced a new product on Google+. Facebook became the go-to place for new product introductions after Ford launched its 2011 Explorer there in 2010.

The product launch comes less than three months after Google introduced Google+ brand pages. Since that time, most of the top brands have set up profiles on the network, but, as of mid-December, only a dozen or so had more than 5,000 followers.

More About: Advertising, Brand pages, Cadbury UK, Google, Marketing

Meme Machine: 5 Hilarious Videos Trending Right Now

Posted: 11 Jan 2012 01:15 PM PST


The Mashable Meme Machine is a daily look at five hilarious viral topics spreading across the web right now.

The cogs never stop on Mashable‘s Meme Machine so let’s relish in what’s lighting up the Internet today.

Catching our attention at the moment is a potpourri of laugh-inducing YouTube clips featuring U.S. President Barack Obama “singing” Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way,” NFL quarterback Tim Tebow as an anime character, a pint-sized reality TV star from Toddlers and Tiaras, a collection of memes that supposedly died in 2011 as well as an evil cat. Enough chitchat; just push play.

If you find any memes that should be on Mashable‘s radar, please contact Brian Anthony Hernandez (@BAHjournalist), Christine Erickson (@christerickson) or Lauren Hockenson (@lhockenson).


1. Obama "Sings" Lady Gaga's "Born This Way"


Creations like this make us appreciate the benefits of video-editing software.

This video cleverly splices together audio clips to make it sound as though U.S. President Barack Obama is rehashing the lyrics to Lady Gaga's "Born This Way."

SEE ALSO: 10 On-Air Political Bloopers

Click here to view this gallery.

More About: features, Meme, Meme Machine, trending, viral, viral videos

For more Entertainment coverage:

Web Chat Brings Tea Party and Occupy Movement Together

Posted: 11 Jan 2012 12:46 PM PST


Can members of the Tea Party find common ground with Occupy Wall Street protesters? That’s what NBCpolitics.com will try to find out through an online-only web chat.

The hour-long web chat, to be held on Wednesday afternoon, will include three Occupiers: A graduate student at UCLA, an unemployed international development worker from New York and an undergraduate student studying Christian ethics at Belmont University in Nashville, Tenn. Their counterparts on the Tea Party side are a 36-year-old college secretary from Indiana, a retired airline captain from Missouri and a 74-year-old Tea Party organizer from Michigan.

The debate isn’t limited to just these six people. Anyone can weigh in or ask a question via Facebook, Twitter, Google+ or directly on NBCpolitics.com.

The discussion is a great example of the Internet’s ability to allow people from all walks of life to meet one another and share their beliefs. By opening the discussion up to everyone, NBC is creating an opportunity for people who have very different views on the surface to come together and find places in which they have agreement.

The conversation could also reveal that the two movements aren’t as different as they may seem. Both are products of discontent with the status quo and a desire to affect the national conversation.

The chat begins at Wednesday afternoon at 4 p.m. ET at NBCPolitics.com.

More About: Occupy Wall Street, Politics, tea party

Google Fires Back at Twitter: You Took Yourself Out of Search

Posted: 11 Jan 2012 12:08 PM PST


The war of words between Google and Twitter escalated Wednesday, as Google responded to Twitter’s accusation that plans to further integrate Google+ into its regular search results is “bad for people.”

“We are a bit surprised by Twitter’s comments, because they chose not to renew their agreement with us last summer,” read a post on Google’s Google+ page on Wednesday, which Google confirmed to Mashable was its official statement on the matter. “Since then we have observed their rel=nofollow instructions.”

Rel=nofollow is code that prevents search engines from following links.

Google’s agreement with Twitter gave the search engine access to public tweets. The agreement expired in July and was not renewed. Now Google is implying it was Twitter that chose not to renew the deal.

Twitter had criticized Google’s new social search feature, which it calls Search plus Your World, on Tuesday. “As we've seen time and time again, news breaks first on Twitter,” its statement said. “We're concerned that as a result of Google's changes, finding this information will be much harder for everyone."

But if Twitter had made it difficult for Google to include Tweets in its results, which is what Google seems to be implying, it would be just as much to blame as the search engine for making its breaking news hard to find.

Reporter Danny Sullivan cornered Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt at CES on Wednesday and asked him about Google’s relationship with Twitter.

Sullivan told Schmidt he thought one feature of Search plus Your World, which recommends relevant people to follow on Google+ but not other networks, is “the equivalent of saying ‘hey, you can only find information about finance on Google finance. You cannot find information about finance anywhere else.’”

“Let me remind you that to do the ‘everywhere else’ with Google finance — we had permission,” responded Schmidt.

When Sullivan said he thought Google had enough permission to include links from networks like Twitter in its search results, Schmidt said: “That’s your opinion. If you could arrange a letter from Facebook and Twitter to us, that would be helpful.”

Highlights from the Marketing Land interview are posted in the YouTube video below. We’ve reached out to Twitter spokespeople for comment and will update this article when we hear from them.

Do you think that Twitter was right to complain when Google integrated Google+ more closely with its search engine? Does it matter whether they refused Google access to public tweets in the first place? Let us know in the comments.


More About: eric schmidt, Google, google search, Top Stories, trending, Twitter

Facebook Kills University’s Historical Profiles

Posted: 11 Jan 2012 11:58 AM PST


Joe McDonald died in 1971. This morning on Facebook, he died again.

Facebook disabled the profiles of McDonald and his girlfriend Leola Lewis Wednesday morning, according to Donnelyn Curtis, the University of Nevada librarian who set the profiles up as a way to engage students in learning about history.

“I was a little angry that I didn’t get any warning,” Curtis told Mashable. “I think that would have been polite.”

The couple were both students at the university in the 1910s before marrying in 1915.

Curtis said that when she tried to log in to the fictitious profiles this morning, she got an automated message from Facebook saying the accounts had been disabled for violating the social network’s terms of service.

“I guess popularity kills,” Curtis said.

Curtis actually set the McDonald and Lewis profiles up more than two years ago — but it wasn’t until last week, when she began providing more frequent status updates and photos, that they began attracting attention from the media and public. While McDonald and Lewis initially only had friends who were distant relatives, their lists of connections swelled from just over 100 each to more than 1,000. They were featured in Mashable, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Yahoo! News and the UK’s Daily Mail.

Lewis and McDonald posted historically accurate status updates about their lives, photos of campus events such as “hop” dances and “Rugby Football matches” and listed musicians such as Scott Joplin and writers including Jane Austen among their favorites. Their profiles were hailed by many experts as a powerful example of social media’s power to bring history to life for a digitally absorbed generation.

But, as fake profiles, McDonald and Lewis clearly violated the first rule of Facebook registration: "You will not provide any false personal information on Facebook, or create an account for anyone other than yourself without permission."

Curtis said that she realized McDonald and Lewis were illegal aliens on Facebook, but never had time after their popularity boom to make the necessary changes.

“I should have made them into pages, probably, but just got so busy responding to people’s friend requests that I wasn’t able to do it,” she said.

Now, she just hopes to get access to the content she posted one more time so that she can more easily continue the project in another form. She hasn’t yet been able to make contact with a live Facebook representative.

The project’s recognition and acclaim has given her some ideas and motivation to continue increasing the connection between history and modern social networking.

“It would be cool to have a network for historical figures,” she said. “I wanted to call it Faceback.com, but someone already has the domain name.”

Mashable has reached out to Facebook for comment.

More About: Facebook, history, trending

High-End Brands Are Missing the Boat on Mobile, Study Finds

Posted: 11 Jan 2012 11:36 AM PST


Prestige retailers are largely failing to keep pace with developments and consumer demand for mobile shopping capabilities, a new study from New York research firm L2 suggests.

In a ranking of 100 well-recognized fashion, beauty, hospitality, watch and jewelry, and retail brands, nearly half were deemed “feeble” in their efforts. Only two-thirds of indexed brands have mobile-optimized sites, and yet a full third of those don’t allow consumers to shop from those sites, L2 noted. Many also fail to provide the full range of content available on their desktop sites, including product search and user ratings, to mobile audiences.

As bad as those numbers sound, the category may be well ahead of the curve. Jesse Haines, group marketing manager for Google Mobile Ads, told Mashable that a survey of major advertisers in early 2011 found only 21% had launched a mobile site at the time.

The survey also notes that app investment for the segment is dismal. While 70% of brands have apps, the study charges that these have been “blind investments in iOS apps that lack utility and ‘stickiness.’” (We largely agree.) Of these, less than a third are commerce-enabled, and few take advantage of the unique functionality offered by smartphones, such as notifications, cameras and geolocation.

A full 16% of brands in the survey, including Hermes, Bottega Veneta and Marc Jacobs, have seemingly forsaken mobile altogether, having developed neither mobile-optimized sites nor mobile apps to date.


Spending on mobile devices will amount to $31 billion in 2016, Forrester predicts.

And what do they stand to lose? A great deal, it turns out. Just take a look at 2011′s Black Friday numbers. Mobile devices accounted for 14.3% of all online traffic and 9.8% of online sales on the day after Thanksgiving 2011, according to IBM. On tablets, users are significantly more likely to complete a purchase than on a PC: 4% to 5% on a tablet, versus 3% on a PC, Forrester claims. IDC estimates that more U.S. Internet users will access the Internet via mobile devices than PCs by 2015. By 2016, Forrester predicts that spending on mobile devices will amount to $31 billion. Brands are also missing out on mobile search and advertising opportunities, L2 contends.

"Given the evidence, we appear to be entering the beginning of a persistent mobile era," Scott Galloway, a professor of marketing at NYU Stern and founder of L2, noted in a statement. "Brands ignore this shift at their own peril,” he warned.

Despite the broad admonitions, there were some standouts in the index. Beauty retailer Sephora nabbed the top spot, thanks to its robust mobile site, and apps for iPhone and iPad devices. All three feature a rich, browsable library of how-to and inspirational video content, as well tools for online and in-store shopping. The iPhone app also features a barcode scanner and interactive tool that allows users to sample various hues of nail polish. Nordstrom, Macy’s, Net-a-Porter and Bloomingdales rounded out the top five.

Given L2′s reach in the five industries, the study will no doubt do much to “mobilize” the companies listed therein.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, coreay

More About: beauty, fashion, l2, luxury, mcommerce, Mobile, retail

For more Business coverage:

SPIN to Review Most Albums Via Twitter

Posted: 11 Jan 2012 11:26 AM PST

SPIN Reviews

Long-winded music reviews are getting a tune up. SPIN announced on Wednesday that it will be squeezing the majority of its album reviews into 140-character tweets.

SPIN is pulling most of the reviews out of its print magazine and will be tweeting them instead under the handle @SPINreviews.

Senior editor Chris Weingarten told Mashable that about 120 of the 140 albums the publication plans to review each month in short form on Twitter. Long-form reviews will be saved for albums SPIN believes are the best and most newsworthy. In total, it plans to cover a total of 1,500 new records this year, all reviewed by its eight in-house editors and a team of a dozen freelancers.

“We are completely changing the way we approach reviews,” Weingarten said. “Most of our reviews were between 60 and 80 words, but people just want to get information fast and then decide for themselves if they like the music.”

Weingarten is no stranger to tweeting album reviews in such few characters – he's been doing so for the past few years via @1000timesyes. He tweeted more than 1,000 music reviews in 2009.

“The days of wasting people’s time with 1,000 words about a record that we don't even think is good is over," Weingarten said. "In addition, there's something really artistic and poetic about making a review short, simple and to the point.”

The tweet reviews will also be featured on the site, which is currently undergoing a major redesign. Weingarten declined to comment on when it will go live, but promises it will look “beautiful.”

In 2011, SPIN embraced the Newsstand app on iOS devices, allowing users to get news and reviews from SPIN.com. Called Spin Play – which costs $1.99 for each issue or $7.99 for an annual subscription – the app also offers streaming songs and videos. SPIN said that it plans to “integrate the Twitter feed into the reviews section on the new site” once the redesign is live.

Do you think summing up an entire album in just 140 characters will do it justice? Is this the future of publication reviews? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

More About: Music, spin, Twitter

For more Entertainment coverage:

10 Social Good Kickstarter Projects Seeking to Change the World

Posted: 11 Jan 2012 11:18 AM PST


Everyone wants to change the world, but the money to do so is rarely available. That’s where Kickstarter comes in.

Although Kickstarter is primarily a funding platform for entrepreneurs of all kinds, activists, humanitarians and other pioneers of social justice can tap this fundraising community to share their projects — and they often receive the amount of funding necessary to make a huge difference.

Here are some recent projects — some of which have already reached their monetary goals — with the potential to change lives and spread awareness. Who knows? Some may prove worthy of your dollar.

1. Global Village Construction Set

Open Source Ecology, a “network of farmers, engineers and supporters,” is working on what it calls a Global Village Construction Set — a high-performance, low-cost platform used to create 50 industrial machines needed to build and sustain a small civilization. Funding via Kickstarter helps Open Source Ecology work on its project while minimizing cost and ecological footprints. The Global Village Construction Set is beneficial to small-town America as well as developing nations.

2. Krochet Kids: Peru

Krochet Kids International employs marginalized women in communities around the world to make hats, and thus, secures sustainable livelihoods for each of them. The company prides itself on a “model of empowerment” which aims to change these women’s lives immensely. Krochet Kids started its project in Northern Uganda and used the proceeds from this campaign to work in Lima, Peru. The team is looking to expand its influence to other locations around the globe.

3. Guatemala’s Lost Photographs

During Guatemala’s brutal civil war in the 1980s, local photographers and journalists faced exile or death if they documented what they saw. American photographer Jean-Marie Simon compiled Guatemala: Eternal Spring, Eternal Tyranny, a book of images and testimonies from that time. Now, she and her team are using the funds they raised to provide a new edition of this book to Guatemalan schoolchildren and rural university students, who previously had no access to this information.

4. Words Without Borders: Mexican Drug War Issue

Words Without Borders: The Online Magazine for International Literature has a powerful mission: to promote cultural understanding through literature. Each month, the magazine features a certain theme or location. For March 2012, Words Without Borders is looking to “present the human stories” behind the Mexican Drug War, a violent period that has so far caused over 60,000 deaths. The March 2012 issue will spread awareness about the conflicts and bloodshed, and the Kickstarter community can help keep the magazine free.

5. The Undocumented

Through his documentary film, The Undocumented, director Marco Williams hopes to contribute to the national dialogue on immigration. The film raises awareness about the frequent deaths that occur when migrants try to travel across the Sonoran Desert to the border. The film also highlights the stories of families and individuals who work to prevent these deaths.

6. Freight Farms

Freight Farms’s concept would allow anyone to grow food in any location using units for sustainable production, and in turn, lower costs and reduce carbon footprints. The transportation of food increases prices exponentially, and can influence the exploitation of farmers. Freight Farms converts recycled shipping containers into high-volume, commercial hydroponic farms, redefining the term “local” altogether.

7. The SkyLight

Lack of healthcare in developing countries often stems from the lack of trained professionals. The SkyLight is a device that aims to solve that problem, connecting any smartphone or small image-capturing device to nearly any microscope. This allows for the simple sharing of images and videos, and can lead to the improvement of telemedicine, global health and science education.

8. The New Hibakusha

Jesse Barrett-Mills, director of The New Hibakusha, is documenting various issues resulting from the March 2011 tsunami in Japan. After meeting and interviewing people who have been affected by the nuclear disaster in Fukushima and surrounding areas, Barrett-Mills and his team hope to return to Japan to film more of the ongoing situation, capturing extraordinary human experiences and stories.

9. Seeds@City Urban Farm

Seeds@City, a one-acre farm on San Diego City College’s campus, provides students with urban farming skills. The program is the first of its kind at a San Diego County college or university, and is a significant step for the state of California, where funding for such ventures is scarce. Funding for this project helps support educational programs in sustainable, urban agriculture as well as provides Seeds@City with necessary materials.

10. 99% (The Occupy Wall Street Collaborative Film)

Over 60 people are working together on the 99% project, the Occupy Wall Street collaborative documentary. The award-winning filmmakers aim to produce a powerfully honest account of the movement throughout the United States. Kickstarter funding will go toward the film’s needs, including editing setup, storage and other production expenses. Furthermore, the film will spread the word about a movement that is often misunderstood. Like the rest of the Occupy movement, this film depends on the support of the community.

More About: features, fundraising, kickstarter, Social Good, Startups

For more Social Good coverage:

Prime-Time TV Network News Ignoring SOPA [REPORT]

Posted: 11 Jan 2012 10:48 AM PST

Camera Man News

Have you noticed TV news networks are largely quiet on SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) during prime-time viewing hours? You’re not alone.

Media watchdog Media Matters found that most major TV news networks haven’t been giving SOPA prime-time coverage in any substantial terms. In a recently released report, the research organization discovered that “most major television news outlets — MSNBC, Fox News, ABC, CBS, and NBC — have ignored the bill during their evening broadcasts.”

Media Matters‘ data was based on a search of the Lexis-Nexis database from Oct. 1, 2011 through Jan. 4, 2012. Daytime coverage wasn’t included, nor was Shephard Smith’s show, which airs at 7 p.m. ET on Fox News Channel.

The report singled out CNN as the sole major news network which discussed SOPA and its potential implications during prime time. The bill was mentioned just once during a segment on The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer. Judge Andrew Napolitano, an outspoken libertarian who hosts Fox Business’ Freedom Watch and provides legal analysis on Fox News Channel, has also railed against the bill, but only on segments shown on the separate Fox Business Network.

“The report speaks for itself about what TV news chooses to cover,” says Media Matters Executive Vice President Ari Rabin-Havt. “When you have a major public policy debate that has massive implications and is a major source of lobbying revenue on Capitol Hill, it says something.”

ABC and CBS appear directly on the U.S. Congress’ list of SOPA supporters. The parent companies of NBC/MSNBC and Fox News Channel appear on that list as well. (Comcast/NBCUniversal and News Corporation, respectively.)

Media Matters’ report did not include online coverage, where all of the major networks have reported on SOPA to some extent. The Internet is increasingly the primary source of news for Americans, according to a study published by the Pew Research Center last year. But television still reigns supreme.

Rabin-Havt says SOPA is too important not to cover during evening news broadcasts.

“We were upfront about our methodology, but I think this is a major bill that should be covered during prime-time hours. If a story’s important, they [news networks] should pursue it in both venues,” he said.

SOPA, along with its sister Senate bill (the Protect IP Act, or PIPA), are hotly contested pieces of legislation with supporters and detractors on both sides of the political isle. The bill was introduced by Texas Republican Congressman Lamar Smith as a way to combat online piracy and copyright infringement. Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) calls SOPA an attempted “takeover of the Internet,” while House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) tweeted that we “need to find a better solution.”

Currently, SOPA, which stalled in the House Judicial Committee, has been shelved until later in January. Pro-SOPA groups consider the bill a necessary tool to fight intellectual property theft. However, Congress has been lambasted by online denizens and SOPA haters for failure to understand the consequences the bill could have for the Internet.

The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform announced Monday that it’s bringing Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, DNS expert Dan Kaminsky and Lanham Napier, chief executive of Rackspace Hosting to testify about SOPA. All three are vociferous opponents of the legislation.

SEE ALSO: Fears of SOPA 'Unfounded,' Says Bill's Sponsor

Reddit has been particularly active in its anti-SOPA activity. The site says it will go dark on Jan. 18 in protest of the legislation. Redditors organized a campaign against Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) whose stance on the bill was unclear until he recently affirmed his opposition. Reddit users are now trying to pressure Jon Stewart of The Daily Show and Stephen Colbert of The Colbert Report to come out against the bill. Both hosts’ shows air on Comedy Central, owned by Viacom, which has come out in favor of SOPA.

Ohanian recently told Inc that “Congress doesn’t understand how significant the Internet infrastructure really is. This bill wouldn’t even solve the issue of online piracy.”

None of the networks mentioned in the report were available for comment. We will update this post with any responses that we receive.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, Grafissimo

More About: Media, News, SOPA, stop online piracy act, trending, TV

WARNING: Invitations to Change the Color of Your Facebook Profile Are a Scam [VIDEO]

Posted: 11 Jan 2012 10:36 AM PST


The Facebook scam and spam du jour: Invitations to change the color of your profile. Clicking on these links, which ask you to share them with your friends before even changing any colors, will only spread the scam, says security blog Sophos.

Check out the video above to learn more about it.


Have you seen this on Facebook? If you clicked on it, what happened? Tell us in the comments.

More About: Facebook, mashable video, scam

LL Cool J Drops Track at CES to Promote His Music Social Network [PICS]

Posted: 11 Jan 2012 10:25 AM PST


Move over, Justin Timberlake. You’re not the only multi-talented musician with a social network to promote at this year’s CES.

LL Cool J demoed Boomdizzle, the social network he founded in 2008 that encourages musicians to collaborate across the web with each other. He said his goal is for up-and-coming artists to have a place to share their music and then collaborate with recording tools available on the site. Users can collaborate in real-time with video chat to create their tracks, and the tools were designed for any level of user, according to Boomdizzle’s site. The site also has social networking features that allow artists to display the tracks they have created.

Highlights From CES: Sharp 80-Inch HDTV Just Got Even Better | First Intel Smartphone Will Be Lenovo K800 for China, Motorola Devices Coming | Facebook and Mercedes: An Unexpected Pair

Currently, the studio tools are in alpha, and users have to sign up for a chance to use them. LL Cool J demoed how those tools would work at the Dolby booth Tuesday afternoon, and then played a track he created with Ne-Yo.(You can listen to that track here.)

Click through our gallery to see pictures of the event.


LL Cool J at CES




LL Cool J gets ready to meet the press at CES Tuesday.

Click here to view this gallery.

More About: celebrities, CES, CES 2012

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