Mashable: Latest 29 News Updates - including “Today’s Top Stories: iBooks Author, Google Quarterly Earnings, Anonymous Attacks” |
- Today’s Top Stories: iBooks Author, Google Quarterly Earnings, Anonymous Attacks
- Can Screens With Solar Cells Solve the Smartphone Battery Problem?
- Elton John’s Husband Apologizes to Madonna on Facebook for Golden Globes Gaffe
- Brazilian Nightclub Lets You Party Like a Facebook User [VIDEO]
- Google’s Crawl Rate Slowed for SOPA; Bing Sped Up [VIDEO]
- Meme Machine: Ron Swanson Fords the Oregon Trail on an Eel
- Google Maps & World Bank Join Forces, So Why Isn’t Everyone Smiling?
- LuxeInACity Means Free Luxury — If You Can Score an Invite
- Pinterest for Brands: 5 Hot Tips
- Mitt Romney: SOPA is a Threat to Freedom of Speech
- Why the iPad Won’t Transform Education — Yet
- Newt Gingrich Posts Income Tax Return on the Internet During Debate
- This Is How Apple Changes Education, Forever
- 5 Apps to Help Manage Your Twitter Account
- Hands On: Apple’s iBooks Author App
- Everything You Need to Know About the Apple for Education Talk
- Anonymous Attacks Justice Dept as FBI Shuts Down File-Sharing Site
- Larry Page: Google+ Now Has 90 Million Users
- What’s Next for Digital Coupons?
- ‘We The Lobby’ Crowdsources Funds for an Anti-SOPA Lobby
- David Beckham Does First Google+ Hangout at Googleplex [VIDEO]
- Bioshock Infinite’s Difficulty Could Hurt So Good
- China Launches iPad Alternative for Communists [VIDEO]
- Today’s Kodak Moment: Bankruptcy
- Twitter Gobbles Up Summify
- Mustaches Prevail on Gentlemint, the Pinterest Site for ‘Manly Men’
- Free Demos Coming to Nintendo 3DS and Nintendo eShop
- Internet Users to Congress: We Hate SOPA
- 5 Things Publishers Need to Know About HTML5
- Google Data Centers Get High Marks for Green and Safety Practices [VIDEO]
| Today’s Top Stories: iBooks Author, Google Quarterly Earnings, Anonymous Attacks Posted: 20 Jan 2012 05:12 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. Apple Unveils Ebook Authoring Software iBooks Author Apple launched a new ebook authoring tool, iBooks Author, at an education event in New York City Thursday. The app, available for free at the Mac App Store, enables anyone to easily create a rich ebook, with graphical and dynamic elements such as photo galleries, movies, full Keynote presentations, interactive images and 3D objects. Google’s Quarterly Earnings Lower Than Expected Google’s quarterly earnings report was far from abysmal, but it did miss analysts’ estimates, and that was enough to send Google’s stock down 9% in after-hours trading Thursday. On the bright side, Google reported that its social network Google+ now has 90 million users, meaning the user base has doubled in three months. Anonymous Attacks Justice.gov in Retribution for Megaupload Shutdown The hacker collective known as Anonymous attacked the website of the U.S. Department of Justice and rendered it inaccessible for a period of time. The attack came after the user authorities indicted seven people and two companies that ran the file uploading site Megaupload.com. Should they be found guilty, the accused could go to prison for a maximum of 20 years. Image courtesy of iStockphoto, DNY59 More About: anonymous, apple, first to know series, Google, morning brief For more Tech coverage:
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| Can Screens With Solar Cells Solve the Smartphone Battery Problem? Posted: 20 Jan 2012 02:30 AM PST   Most modern smartphones have a problem – their battery simply doesn’t last long enough, especially with heavy usage. As the smartphone screens get bigger and bigger, the battery drain increases, but now Arman Ahnood, a researcher at the London Centre for Nanotechnology, has an elegant solution: smartphone screens with built-in solar cells. According to Ahnood, only 36% of the light produced by an OLED display is projected out and the rest is wasted. This wasted light, which is scattered or “bleeding” from the edge of the display, can be harnessed with photovoltaic cells, built into the screen itself. Ahnood’s system currently has an efficiency of 11%, producing a total output of five miliwatts on a typical 3.7-inch device, which is far from what a smartphone needs. According to this research (PDF link), a typical smartphone uses up to several hundred miliwatts, and as much as 68.6 miliwatts in a suspended state. However, Ahnood believes the efficiency can be increased significantly, to the point where this system could extend battery life by a few hours. To smartphone owners, which often call their devices “6 o’clock phones,” since their battery only lasts until late afternoon with normal usage, these couple of hours could make a big difference. [via ExtremeTech] More About: battery, photovoltaic cells, smartphone, solar cells, trending For more Mobile coverage:
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| Elton John’s Husband Apologizes to Madonna on Facebook for Golden Globes Gaffe Posted: 19 Jan 2012 09:21 PM PST   Elton John's husband has apologized to Madonna on Facebook, following comments he made that the Queen of Pop didn't deserve the Golden Globe award she won on Sunday. John's husband and producer David Furnish was publically upset after Madonna took home the Best Song award for "Masterpiece,” a song written for her upcoming film, W.E. Elton John was also nominated in the same category for his song "Hello, Hello" from Gnomeo & Juliet. During the Golden Globes, the camera also caught John's chilly reaction to Madonna's win. “Madonna. Best song???? F— off!!!" Furnish wrote on Facebook shortly after the announcement. "Madonna winning Best Original Song truly shows how these awards have nothing to do with merit. Her acceptance speech was embarrassing in it’s [sic] narcissism.” He also noted that Madonna's recent criticism of Gaga shows "how desperate she really is." Madonna recently slammed Lady Gaga in a Nightline interview and called her music "reductive." However, Furnish retracted his comments on Thursday, saying it was his passion for Gnomeo & Juliet — which he produced — got the best of him. “Wow! What a tempest in a teapot,” Furnish said. “My comments regarding The Golden Globes have been blown way out of proportion. My passion for our film Gnomeo & Juliet and belief in Elton’s song really got my emotional juices going.” “But I must say for the record that I do believe Madonna is a great artist, and that Elton and I wish her all the best for next week’s premiere of the film W.E.,” he added. According to Us Magazine, Madonna said she hoped her win wouldn't get to Elton too much, as the two have been known to feud in the past. “I hope he speaks to me for the next couple of years,” Madonna said. “He’s been known to get mad at me so I don’t know. He’s brilliant and I adore him so he’ll win another award. I don’t feel bad!” This isn’t the first time a high-profile person has turned to social networking to air frustrations. Here’s a look at other celebrities who have experienced public online meltdowns. Thumbnail image courtesy of eltonjohn.com. Ashton Kutcher Kutcher got into hot water last month when he fired off a tweet defending Penn State coach Joe Paterno after Paterno was implicated in a scandal related to assistant coach Jerry Sandusky's alleged history of sexually molesting children. "How do you fire Jo Pa? #insult #noclass as a hawkeye fan I find it in poor taste," the tweet said. Later on, Kutcher tweeted, "Heard Joe was fired, fully recant previous tweet!" and "Didn't have full story. #admitwhenYoumakemistakes." Shortly afterwards, Kutcher announced that he was turning over the management of his Twitter account to Katalyst Media, a firm he co-owns. Click here to view this gallery. More About: celebrities, celebrity, Facebook, golden globes, Lady Gaga, trending For more Entertainment coverage:
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| Brazilian Nightclub Lets You Party Like a Facebook User [VIDEO] Posted: 19 Jan 2012 09:01 PM PST The physical and virtual worlds collided in the Amazon jungle this week — where a nightclub opened sporting the Facebook name and logo. “The Facebook concept is about sharing ideas, adventures, friendships, parties and photos with your friends,” the club’s 30-year-old founder Humbert Camacho told the UK Guardian. “So what we wanted to do was to build a nightclub with this concept, where people could come and share things with their friends, spend a cool night, sharing pictures, experiences and have fun.” Facebook recently overtook Google‘s Orkut as the most popular social networking site in Brazil, so Camacho’s timing seems ripe. The Facebook nightclub is located in the town of Epitaciolândia, near the Bolivian border in the Brazilian Amazon. Camacho said in the Guardian article that expectations in town “are huge” for the club, and that people who aren’t able to join the party at the physical Facebook will be will still be able to enjoy it vicariously through the original, virtual version. “We are going to have our own official Facebook page so people coming to the nightclub can share pictures in real time,” he said. “People who can’t make it will be able to sit at home and see what the party is like.” Camacho also operates another club, called Insomnia, just over the border in Bolivia. He told the Guardian that giving his Brazilian venture a different title was an easy choice, because “we were looking for a name that was trendy, that people would talk about. We thought: ‘Facebook: everyone talks about Facebook.’ It’s about having fun, poking and sharing.” A Facebook spokesperson told the Guardian that the company has no official comment. What do you think of the Facebook nightclub? Let us know in the comments. More About: Facebook, Social Media, trending
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| Google’s Crawl Rate Slowed for SOPA; Bing Sped Up [VIDEO] Posted: 19 Jan 2012 08:49 PM PST Search giant Google joined in the SOPA protest Wednesday, not just with its blacked-out Doodle, but by agreeing to slow down its crawl rates during the Internet blackout. This meant sites that blacked out their pages wouldn't suffer in search rankings. Google said in a Google+ post that it would slow its crawl rate to accommodate sites that wanted to join the protests, and even recommended ways to make sites continue to rank well. Cloudflare, though, found that Google slowed as much as 60%; Baidu was down 11%, but Bing was up just slightly by 2.35%. Watch the video above to learn more. If you took down your site in protest of SOPA and PIPA Wednesday, did you prepare it for the SEO fallout, or were you not concerned about ranking? Check out a gallery below to see some of the sites that went offline. Nedroid   These sites have "blacked out" Wednesday, Jan. 18 in protest of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). It makes it just a little bit easier to imagine what the web could look like if some of the measures from the proposed bill were to become law. Click here to view this gallery. [via The Next Web] Thumbnail image courtesy of iStockphoto, LICreate More About: bing, Google, SOPA For more Dev & Design coverage:
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| Meme Machine: Ron Swanson Fords the Oregon Trail on an Eel Posted: 19 Jan 2012 08:34 PM PST   The Mashable Meme Machine is a daily look at five hilarious viral topics spreading across the web right now. It’s been a long, dark week on the Internet, but humor cures all. The daily Meme Machine continues to churn out hilarious topics to help you feel better. Today’s hot topics include a flashback to the ’90s, thanks to the ever-popular Oregon Trail and Microsoft Encarta 95. For good measure, throw in an eel that shouldn’t quit his day gig, Lionel Richie and Ron Swanson dancing in a tiny hat. Got a tip for us? Reach out to Brian Anthony Hernandez (@BAHjournalist), Christine Erickson (@christerickson) or Lauren Hockenson (@lhockenson). 1. The Oregon Trail Webcomic Formal Sweatpants took a crack at the popular childhood computer game. If you ever cracked an axle or lost an oxen while fording the river, you can appreciate this one. Click here to view this gallery. More About: comic, features, GIF, humor, Meme Machine, YouTube For more Entertainment coverage:
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| Google Maps & World Bank Join Forces, So Why Isn’t Everyone Smiling? Posted: 19 Jan 2012 08:17 PM PST   Google is now working with the World Bank to make Google Map Maker more accessible to government organizations, but some experts are questioning the terms of the arrangement. The World Bank is an international money-lending and development assistance organization, which grew out of the need to rebuild Europe after World War II. Today, it provides financial support and technical assistance to developing countries or nations in crisis. According to the announcement on the Google Lat Long Blog, the World Bank will be a “conduit to make Google Map Maker source data more widely and easily available to government organizations in the event of major disasters, and also for improved planning, management, and monitoring of public services provision.” The Map Maker data includes mounds of information that’s important to relief or emergency workers, development experts and urban planners. Some of the countries that will be launching the new program include Ghana, Kenya, South Sudan, Nepal and Haiti, countries that represent a wide range of economic statuses. Google and the World Bank aren’t strangers to one another. In April of last year, the pair called on citizens of South Sudan to help map their country, which was about to become the world’s newest state. (South Sudan split from Sudan in July of 2011). The World Bank is hailing the agreement as an advancement for international development. “Today's technology can empower civil society, including the diaspora, to collaborate and support the development process.” said World Bank Vice President for the Africa Region Obiageli Ezekwesili. “This collaboration is about shifting the emphasis from organizations to people, and empowering them to solve their own problems and develop their own solutions using maps." However, some development experts are concerned that the licensing agreement of the partnership means that Google gets to keep all the data submitted via the World Bank. “Information submitted by the public through Google Map Maker (‘Hey, there’s a clinic over here!’) is not available for easy reuse by the public,” wrote Nathaniel Heller, Managing Director of Global Integrity, an organization which promotes transparency and accountability in government. Heller says there are three parts of the licensing agreement that worry him:
Heller is concerned that these stipulations mean that Google won’t allow Map Maker data to be used with other open-source tools (such as OpenStreetMap) and that it won’t be available for use by small businesses in the developing world. “I’m not a lawyer, but Google’s deal is basically, ‘Give us your data, we’ll do with it what we want, and don’t you dare try to do anything else with that data,’” he said. Adena Schutzberg, Senior Lecturer of Geography at Penn State University, also wondered how Google and the World Bank will determine who gets access to the data and under what terms. “Is it only during an emergency? Or when one is expected? Or is is for long-term planning for such emergencies?” asked Schutzberg. “The other thing I’m curious about is under what sort of terms (license) Google/The World Bank will hand over the data. WIll it be sharable to NGOs? To citizens?” Google was not immediately available for comment. Images courtesy of Flickr, plemeljr More About: Google, Google Map Maker, Google Maps, Map Maker, world bank For more Social Good coverage:
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| LuxeInACity Means Free Luxury — If You Can Score an Invite Posted: 19 Jan 2012 08:04 PM PST   The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here.
Quick Pitch: LuxeInACity is a social luxury city guide. Genius Idea: An exclusive invitation-only social network for members to interact with each other and their favorite luxe companies. If you travel often, spend three times as much on luxury goods than the average person and — oh wait — earn a starting salary of $150,000 or more, you may just be invited to LuxeInACity, your online private concierge. LuxeInACity is an exclusive invitation-only social luxury city guide that lets members interact with each other and top luxe companies. For its opulent members, the social guide features a wealth of luxury and travel-related information for 125 cities around the world and 50,000 luxury companies. The site provides luxury information and sights to see for all of its featured locations, including Anguilla, Paris, Cayman Islands, Cape Town, Hong Kong, Sydney, and many more. “We wanted to create a one-stop resource for luxury information,” Roxanne Gernier, founder of LuxeInACity, told Mashable. “Every day we add luxury news, videos, blogs, etc., just to inform our members on what is going on in the luxury world.”  LuxeInACity also provides information for its featured categories which includes arts & culture, automobile, jewelry, restaurants, nightlife, boating, service, fashion, wine & spirits and villas. If members are searching for car dealerships for example, they can click on the “automobiles” category to find dealerships in a specific city. Along with the options to create a personalized profile and communicate with other members via private messages, LuxeInACity members also get free access to the following:
For $595 a year, LuxeInACity offers an enhanced profile on the site for luxury companies. The profile allows them to gain more visibility, upload unlimited pictures and videos and interact with members. Companies also get access to the private company area on the site, invitation rights to luxe social and get their company logo displayed in the Featured Company sections. LuxeInACity is self-funded, currently has 150 exclusive members and will publicly launch in late February. Image courtesy of LuxeInACity Series Supported by Microsoft BizSpark  The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark, a startup program that gives you three-year access to the latest Microsoft development tools, as well as connecting you to a nationwide network of investors and incubators. There are no upfront costs, so if your business is privately owned, less than three years old, and generates less than U.S.$1 million in annual revenue, you can sign up today. More About: bizspark, luxury, social, social network, travel, wealth For more Business coverage:
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| Pinterest for Brands: 5 Hot Tips Posted: 19 Jan 2012 07:40 PM PST   This post originally appeared on the American Express OPEN Forum, where Mashable regularly contributes articles about leveraging social media and technology in small business. We’ve all been hearing a lot about Pinterest lately, so you’re probably wondering whether you should take the plunge and create a profile for your company. We say you go for it, especially if women are your target consumers — 70% of pinners are female. Pinterest has a highly engaged audience — a reported 3.3 million users logging more than 421 million pageviews — so there’s plenty of opportunity for brands to flesh out pinboards and catch pinners’ eyes. First, let’s go through a quick explanation of how it works. Pinterest is a visual social discovery network. You create online pinboards (like a bulletin board) for various categories (i.e. “dream home” or “things to buy” or “recipes”), and you “pin” items to it. You can pin a photo or video in three ways:
Sounds fun, right? Now, businesses beware: Pinterest etiquette clearly states that it’s not a platform for self-promotion — it’s not a broadcast mechanism like Twitter or Facebook — so brands need to approach the site a little differently. Here are some tips for navigating Pinterest, along with a rundown of how various companies are already using the visual social network. 1. Promote a Lifestyle Pinterest designer and co-founder Evan Sharp sums it up well: “For most consumer brands, the idea behind your brand makes sense on Pinterest.” Since you’re not supposed to blast pictures of your products on Pinterest, try to think outside the box and pin images that capture a lifestyle and/or the essence of your brand. Pinterest calls for a more holistic approach to marketing, and it can be more effective and engaging than traditional advertising because the consumers can really see how your brand fits into their lives. For example, Bon Appetit can’t just pin pictures from the website or magazine, but it can pin images of cooking appliances, beautiful kitchen decor, cutlery, dinner parties and delicious creations or recipes — basically anything related to cooking and food. Seeing these culinary items will continually drive home the Bon Appetit brand, thus making pinners more familiar with and more likely to trust the brand, visit the website and maybe even subscribe to the magazine. On your page, you can curate as many boards as you like. Pinners can choose to follow none, a few or all of your boards, so don’t be afraid to be adventurous and curate a wide array of boards — the point of Pinterest is to explore and discover new things, so eccentricity is appreciated and encouraged. If you own a hotel, post pictures of landmarks near the location, food from local restaurants and even pieces from local artists. Own a restaurant? Post pictures of the farm where the meat is raised, the appliances and gadgets used in your kitchen or anything related to the name of the restaurant — for example, Panera could have a board devoted to beautiful artisanal breads. If you’re in fashion, you can pin new trends, fashion sketches, pictures of fittings and shots from runway shows. Beyond pushing one’s products, you also can use Pinterest as a way to convey your company culture — post pictures of the office, the mascot, people’s cubicles, lunch breaks and office events. Fans are interested in these details, and this imagery helps to humanize the brand. For a look at what some brands are already doing on Pinterest, check out the roundup below. Perhaps they’ll inspire your own boards.
 2. Use It Like a Focus GroupMillions of people use Pinterest to keep track of objects they love, places they enjoy, foods they devour and things that inspire them. Therefore, you can view it as a sort of focus group. Look at the pinners who follow your brand — see what they’re pinning and who else they’re following. They’re volunteering a lot of information about their interests, passions, dreams and sense of humor in a more natural way on Pinterest than they would on say, a survey or even on Facebook, where they have to manually enter “sarcasm” or “travel” as an interest. Use this information to your advantage to glean insights about your target consumers. 3. CrowdsourceYou can ask fans to pin pictures of themselves with their favorite product of yours and tag you, and then you can easily repin those photos onto a VIP board — it’ll give a shoutout to these fans and show potential customers that your current users really like using your product. If your company hosted an even recently, encourage people to pin and tag the photos as a sort of crowdsourced scrapbook. And around the holidays, encourage them to pin a “wish list” board to curate the gifts they’re hoping for. 4. Run Contests We’ve talked about crowdsourcing and asking people to tag you in their pins — the next step is to run a contest on Pinterest. Since the site is relatively new, there aren’t that many case studies, but one company recently did a particularly good job harnessing the power of Pinterest. From December 14 through 21, Land’s End Canvas‘s “Pin It To Win It” campaign asked users to create a Pin It To Win It pinboard (in the women’s or men’s apparel categories) and pin 10 to 20 images from the Land’s End site or repin them from the Land’s End Pinterest page. Once your board was complete, you were to email the URL of your pinboard to Land’s End for a chance to win one of 10 $250 gift cards — this was your official “entry” for the contest. The winning boards belonged to Crosby Noricks, Michelle Berkey, Tony Kim and Debbi Seibel (pictured above), to name a few. A search on Pinterest shows that there were around 200 boards created for the contest, with each containing at least 10 to 20 images, which means a lot of Land’s End merchandise was injected into the Pinterest feed at no cost. Running contests like this is a great way to expose your brand and products to a large audience, given the viral nature of these images and the engaged Pinterest audience. 5. Inspire Your TeamThere are a lot of inspiring things on the web, and you can create a sort of mood board for your company, pinning things that are relevant, interesting or inspiring to you brand and your team. Pin logos and websites with good design, clever copywriting, images of possible team outings (bowling night or karaoke, perhaps), colors to figure out your new advertising palette or use it to brainstorm an upcoming campaign. By browsing Pinterest, you might even see items that could inspire your company’s next big idea, so keep that Pin It button handy. Does your brand have a Pinterest? Share your tips in the comments below. More About: branding, features, Marketing, mashable, open forum, pinterest For more Business coverage:
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| Mitt Romney: SOPA is a Threat to Freedom of Speech Posted: 19 Jan 2012 07:09 PM PST   Republican presidential hopefuls weighed in on the controversial Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) on Thursday night during a debate in Charleston, South Carolina. Each of the remaining potential nominees — Newt Gingrich, Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum and Ron Paul — denounced the SOPA bill one day after some of the Internet’s most popular and prominent websites staged a black-out protest against the bill that a wide range of parties have criticized as draconian and destructive to creativity and freedom of information. “The idea that we’re going to preemptively have the government start censoring the Internet on behalf of giant corporations’ economic interests strikes me as exactly the wrong thing to do,” Gingrich said. Romney spoke next and agreed with Gingrich. “The law as written is far too intrusive, far too expansive, far too threatening to freedom of speech and movement of information across the Internet,” Romney said. “It would have a potentially depressing impact on one of the fastest growing industries in America, which is the Internet and all those industries connected to it.” Paul credited himself as “the first Republican to sign on with a host of Democrats to oppose this law,” to a robust burst of applause from the crowd. “This bill is not going to pass but watch out for next one, and I am pleased that the attitude is sort of mellowed up here,” Paul said, gesturing to the three rivals to his right, “because the Republicans unfortunately have been on the wrong side of this issue.” SOPA’s chief sponsor is Republican Congressman Lamar Smith of Texas, who has steadfastly backed the bill even as support rapidly erodes around him. The bill would in effect allow the federal government to block Americans from visiting websites deemed to infringe U.S. copyright law. The similar PROTECT IP Act (PIPA) would further expand the ability of authorities to essentially blacklist from the Internet allegedly infringing websites. At the Thursday night debate, Santorum attempted to separate himself from Paul, Romney and Gingrich on SOPA. Santorum said that he doesn’t support the bill and agreed that it goes too far, but qualified that in his next sentence. “The Internet is not a free zone where anybody can do anything they want to do and trample the rights of other people,” he said. “I agree that this goes too far but the idea that anything goes on the Internet — where did that come from?” Santorum continued. “Where in American does it say that anything goes? We have laws and we respect the law and the rule of law is an important thing and property rights should be respected.” What do you think of the Republican hopefuls’ SOPA comments on Thursday night? Let us know in the comments. May 12: PIPA introduced The PROTECT IP Act (Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act of 2011), better known as PIPA was introduced into the Senate by Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT). The act's goals were described by its sponsors as protecting intellectual property and punishing foreign sites who post copyrighted material. If a site was discovered doing so, the U.S. attorney general could order U.S. based Internet service providers, search engines, payment systems and advertising networks to suspend doing business with the website. Photo courtesy Mikedish on Flickr Click here to view this gallery. More About: SOPA
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| Why the iPad Won’t Transform Education — Yet Posted: 19 Jan 2012 06:34 PM PST    Apple’s announcement on Thursday that it would be introducing a new iPad textbook experience and iBooks authoring tool presents huge opportunities for technology in classrooms. The company is selling textbooks from McGraw-Hill, Pearson and Houghton Mifflin at a price comparable to print versions, and it’s presented an unprecedented opportunity for teachers to compile their own materials. But Apple has a long way to go — and logistical hurdles to clear in tens of thousands of schools — before it dominates K-12 classrooms the way it has done the music industry. Instructional Technology Resource Teacher Jenny Grabiec recently purchased iPads for two of the ESL classrooms in her 160-school district using federal funds allocated for students with limited English proficiency. Getting approval for the actual purchase was fairly easy. She sent a written request to the district CIO, and he approved it. But it took five months to get the iPads up and running after they arrived. In order to download new apps, she needed to get the Apple volume purchase program approved as a vendor by the budget group. But who would explain to the budget committee the process of paying with an Apple ID? Who would be responsible for downloading the volume-purchased apps? Could the students use them outside of their hour-long ESL class? The list of logistical issues went on. “Because nobody in our district had done it before, it took a long time,” Grabiec says. Becoming The Next Big ThingBy Apple’s count, 1.5 million iPads are being used by schools. But there are 55.5 million students enrolled in more than 130,000 U.S. schools. No matter how you slice it, the iPad is not a mainstream phenomenon in K-12. Nor is there any guarantee it will become so. One-to-one initiatives for laptops have been pushing forward for years without mainstream adoption. Maine, for instance, gave 33,000 middle school students and 3,000 teachers personal laptops as early as 2002. But in 2009, a survey by the National Center for Education Statistics found that while 99% of public school teachers have some access to computers, just 29% of public school teachers use them during instructional time “often.” Just 3% of schools in a 2010 survey by the FCC said they have a one-to-one computer ratio. iPads do have a couple of advantages over one-to-one laptop initiatives. Grabiec points out that the iPads’ batteries last longer than the laptops she oversees in other classrooms. They also have been less expensive to maintain than the computers — not a single one has been damaged — and don’t work as stand-ins for desktop computers, but as cameras, GPS devices and video cameras. “With a laptop you were stuck with consuming content,” says Timothy Smith, who works as an Instructional Technology Specialist in the same district as Grabiec. “But with the iPad you’re taking videos and looking at ideas in a new way.” Textbook Availability Even though Apple’s first iPad textbooks will sell for $15 or less, they won’t be any less expensive for schools than paper books. Vineet Madan, head McGraw-Hill Higher Education eLabs, tells Mashable that iBooks will be sold to schools rather than directly to students, but that schools will grant students access to those books through their personal IDs. In other words, even if a school reuses iPads, it won’t be able to reuse books. The books will be kept on individual students’ iTunes accounts. Schools reuse the same paper book for about five years, and those books usually cost about $75. Because a new book will be purchased every year, the iBook version still costs $75 for five years. Relying on iBooks as textbooks isn’t a feasible option for most public schools at the moment because Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, McGraw-Hill and Pearson have each dedicated just a small number of titles each. Madan puts the typical cycle for textbook approval in most states at about five years. Unless the school happens to be using one of the selected titles, it can’t use iBooks yet. Most other options for digital textbooks that can be read on an iPad –including Coursesmart, Kno, Chegg and Inkling — focus on books for higher education. Unless major publishers decide to add more of their titles to iBooks, it won’t be a feasible default reader in most schools. Madan says that McGraw has already committed to adding five additional titles before September, but it will commit to additional titles based on uptake. Broadband and Red Tape In a FTC 2010 survey of the schools in its program for discounted telecommunications, almost 80% said their Internet connections don’t fully meet their current needs. “It’s not atypical to see one classroom of students on connected devices bring down a network,” Madan says. Before schools introduce connected devices, many of them will need to introduce better Internet connections. And that’s just one logistical issue. Schools and districts will likely have a longer list specific to their circumstances. Consider the situation that Smith, who recently helped put an iPad in the hands of every administrator in his district, faces when he thinks about introducing iPads district-wide: Some types of funding, like the one used to buy iPads for the ESL classrooms, can’t be used for anything already being paid for by the school district. If the district bought iPads for some students, in other words, it would be cutting off other sources of funding. It’s a puzzle. Bringing iPads to the MainstreamMany schools already use iPads in their courses. Policies that allow students to bring their own devices to school might make make this more common. According to a 2011 Pearson Foundation survey, 70% percent of college students and college-bound high school seniors are interested in owning a tablet device, and 20% expect to purchase a tablet within the next six months. The inevitable price decline on the iPad could also make iPads a more mainstream conduit for educational material. “This is a change in how school districts think,” Smith says, “and in a larger school district, that can take some time.” Images courtesy of iStockphoto, arakonyunus, Flickr, Stanford EdTech More About: apple, education, ipad, trending For more Tech coverage:
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| Newt Gingrich Posts Income Tax Return on the Internet During Debate Posted: 19 Jan 2012 06:04 PM PST   As a debate began between the Republican presidential candidates, Newt Gingrich released his 2010 federal income tax return, placing it on the Internet for all to see. In an obvious political ploy to goad his opponent Mitt Romney into revealing his income tax returns, Newt Gingrich’s campaign released the tax return along with a statement:
For a peek inside the personal financial dealings of someone who is obviously quite wealthy, take a look at Newt Gingrich’s tax return here (.pdf file). Gingrich’s financial disclosure forms filed last summer revealed he’s worth more than $6.7 million. Image courtesy of Gage Skidmore, Flickr More About: newt gingrich, presidential debate, tax return
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| This Is How Apple Changes Education, Forever Posted: 19 Jan 2012 05:26 PM PST   Apple's plan to bring iPad textbooks to schools across America and around the world via iBooks 2 and iBooks Author is nothing short of a revolution. It could mean the end of giant, overused dog-eared volumes jammed into bulging backpacks balanced atop the over-burdened backs of America's youth. It might also mean I'll never have to explain to my daughter again where the rest of chapter 16 went. A couple of months ago, my 13-year-old junior high-school-attending daughter was diligently plowing through piles of homework. Part of it involved reading a chapter in her Social Studies text book and then answering questions on a worksheet about what she read. However, when I looked over at my daughter, she had her head of curls in her hands. "What's the matter?" I asked her. "I can't finish my homework," she said without looking at me. "Why not?" "Here." She shoved her textbook at me. I stared at it uncomprehending. "What's wrong with it?" I couldn't see a problem besides the usual scribbling left by the previous loaner. "The…pages…are…missing," she said slowly as if speaking to a particularly dense child. Sure enough, pages 241 to 248 of her textbook had been torn out—and not so neatly. My daughter was frustrated and stuck. I'm sure you have similar tales. Thursday I started imagining how that could never happen with an iPad text book. Apple's iBook Author-built textbooks are, obviously, 100% digital. Good luck ripping a page out of that. Tired Old TextbooksThere is another obvious benefit. My daughter sometimes struggles with the coursework in textbooks. It can be flat and boring. And if she's confused, reading and rereading the textbook is not going to help her. I do believe that more interactive features could change things. There are definitely times where her failure to grasp something is from pure lack of interest. So how can we make these things interesting? Interactivity is at least part of the answer. Apple did three important things to ensure the viability of this iPad textbook launch program: It built an excellent, powerful, quite easy-to-use app (almost epublishing for dummies). Desktop Publishing is not a new art; some of the construction metaphors in this app go all the way back to QuarkXPress. Still, it's smoothly executed. The ability to almost instantly preview on your iPad is a stroke of genius. Textbooks: The Price Is WrongTextbooks are expensive. When I was in college, I spent hundreds of dollars each semester on my own textbooks. I'm sure they're no less expensive now. Similar tomes for K-12 schools must be nearly as expensive — what other excuse could they have for holding onto them for five years or more? In fact, McGraw-Hill's Algebra 1 (one of the books converted for iBooks 2 textbook program) costs almost $100. So a price of $14.99 or less for an iPad text book certainly sounds like a good deal, though I do wonder if Apple will offer volume discounts through its Textbook store. It would make sense — that's how schools will buy these books, in bulk access codes. If schools believe they can save millions each year on textbook costs, they may run, not walk over to Apple’s iBook 2 text book platform. The third thing is partnerships. Apple managed to sign up McGraw-Hill, Pearson and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt: three publishing houses that apparently comprise 90% of the textbook publishing biz in the U.S. These are the guys with the keys to the kingdom. They already publish the board-of-education-certified tomes. Now they're working with Apple to convert them to interactive iPad textbook form. The obvious concern is whether or not the iPad versions are still certified. Even so, this is a huge hurdle already surmounted before Apple's iBook Author and iBooks2 with Textbooks is even fully out of the gate. QuestionsThere are questions — big ones — that Apple and its partners will have to answer before this idea really takes flight. What if the whole classroom doesn't have iPads? Can one classroom work with both original hardcover and iPad versions of the textbook? Getting schools to update to the iPad and e-textbooks is not like flipping a switch. The iPad version will be more easily distributed and updateable, but boards of education cannot allow their editions to be out of step, can they? When I asked someone in the education space, she noted that schools that purchased textbooks last year are not going to switch any time soon. In fact they might night be ready to switch for years. They made their investment and have to, as a fiscally responsible board of ed, use them until the books run out of utility (or until enough pages are ripped out). Then there is the cost of the iPad. $499 is a good entry-level price for a computer. Multiplied by 30, times the number of classrooms in an average school (say, 40 at the low end) — that's a half-million dollars. For school districts, that's a big chunk of money. I have a theory, though. I think Apple will introduce a Classroom iPad for $199 before the year is out. Pure speculation? Absolutely. However, considering how serious Apple is about improving the state of education, this makes real sense. I imagine it will be a 1024×768, 9.7-inch screen (while the iPad 3 gets the Retina Display and maybe changes size or shape), with a plastic back and rugged shell that only the school can remove. There will be a single, rear-facing camera, and the tablet will be locked down with access to the iBooks 2 app and pre-loaded textbooks. Safari will come pre-loaded, but it'll run through Apple’s special proxy education server (yes, I'm making that up, too).There will be no App Store or iTunes account associated with it and schools will manage all of them centrally. If Apple does this, you will truly see the dawn of a new age in education. I, for one, am ready for it. What’s your take? Are you ready to attend your next board of education meeting and tell the administrators it’s time for a new kind of textbook? Let me know in the comments. Statistics on Education Performance Apple's Phil Schiller showed statistics on how well U.S. children are performing compared to kids in other countries; they ranked 17th in reading, 31st in math and 23rd in science. Click here to view this gallery. More About: apple, education, iBooks, iBooks Author, ipad, trending
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| 5 Apps to Help Manage Your Twitter Account Posted: 19 Jan 2012 04:22 PM PST 1. Tweepi Tweepi's "Flush" option allows you to see the users you follow who are not following you back. Its "Reciprocate" option allows you to see the users following you who you're not following back. And the "Cleanup" option allows you to see everyone who you're following so you can unfollow as many users as you like. You can also see who your friends are following, follow full lists and follow other users based on who they follow. Tweepi displays the users in helpful columns by showing their names, bios, locations, number of tweets, number of followers, number of users they follow, dates of their last tweets, their Klout scores and more. Click here to view this gallery. Elijah Daniel is an up-and-coming writer and comedian. He aims to make people smile via his Twitter and YouTube accounts. As a Twitter enthusiast, it's always nice to find useful apps that help to manage my account. Check out five of the best apps I use regularly by clicking through the gallery above. More About: apps, contributor, features, Social Media, trending, Twitter
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| Hands On: Apple’s iBooks Author App Posted: 19 Jan 2012 03:59 PM PST   Apple is hoping its new iBooks Author app will turn educators into authors, the same way iMovie and Garageband turned amateurs into audio and video editors. Apple launched the app at its education event in New York City in conjunction with the revamped iTunes U and partnerships with various textbook publishers. The goal is to increase the iPad’s role in the classroom. Although potentially any type of book can be created in iBooks Author, the focus is clearly on educators and textbook makers. We spent some time using the program — which is best described as Keynote for eBooks — and are impressed with the early results. Template Browser Just like Keynote, iBooks Author comes packed with a variety of different book templates that authors can use as a starting place to design their books. Click here to view this gallery. The program interface will immediately be familiar to anyone who has used Apple’s excellent presentation application, Keynote. It’s easy to dismiss Keynote as just another presentation tool — or Apple’s version of PowerPoint — but the truth is, the program is much more powerful than that. Using Keynote, presenters can craft full multimedia presentations. Interaction and web designers have even turned to Keynote as a fully-fledged wireframing tool. In addition to Keynote, iBooks Authors also has a hint of InDesign thrown in for good measure. Users can import chapter text from Word or Pages documents directly into the app. Still, from our use, the layout options really seem best designed for books that rely heavily on multimedia and less on lots and lots of text. The most compelling part of iBooks Author is the widgets feature. This allows users to insert dynamic elements into pages, including photo galleries, movies, full Keynote presentations, interactive images and 3D objects. Using various actions and layout options, other animations and pop-ups can also be customized in the app to offer a rich experience. Users can even code their own HTML widgets to display custom content. iBooks Author is designed to be used with the iPad and published in the iBookstore. Using an iPad, users can transfer a Proof of a book to their device to view inside iBooks 2. After the user is satisfied with the proof, the book can be published using iTunes Producer directly into the iBookstore. Users can also export PDF copies of the book if they want to distribute something in a more traditional way (or need non-interactive galleys). At the Apple event, Mashable’s editor-in-chief Lance Ulanoff got some one-on-one time of the creation process from an Apple professional. Check it out. Although iBooks Author might not totally disrupt the eBook or textbook industries overnight, we think it’s a great first step at making e-publishing less confusing. Lots of tools — free and commercial — exist for eBook publishing but we haven’t found any as easy to use or as replete with interactive functions. The fact that Apple is offering an authoring tool — and for free — is a great start. What do you think of iBooks Author? Let us know in the comments. More About: apple, digital publishing, ebooks, iBooks, iBooks Author, iBookstore, mac apps, trending
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| Everything You Need to Know About the Apple for Education Talk Posted: 19 Jan 2012 03:34 PM PST   Today’s Apple event presented a giant leap forward in the process of updating American education. As of today, elementary, high school and college students are all able to experience a new, dynamic digitization of textbooks and course materials through the iPad. Textbooks for iBooks marks a new wave of modernization in the educational system, and if it succeeds, a new learning style might be on the horizon. Combined with iBooks Author for Mac and a revamped iTunes U interface, Apple has officially established itself as a conductor for the digital education experience. The WYSIWIG interface of the application means that even technologically green teachers will be able to develop customized coursework companions for their curricula. From soup to nuts, users are able to take part in developing educational tools for any level and also do it relatively cheaply. All of the apps iTunes debuted today are free from the iTunes or Mac App Store, and are available for immediate use. The revamp of iTunes U also brings a new wave of promise to an old idea. Users can now participate in open courses from some of the country’s best universities, without ever having to leave their homes. Dynamic and interactive, iTunes U’s new facelift could possibly attract more universities to the platform and, in turn, produce more overall educational content through Apple’s mediums. Take a closer look at the highlights from the event, including in-depth anaylsis from the Mashable team. What are you most excited about as Apple begins its foray into education? Let us know in the comments. 1. iBooks 2 The iPad's iBooks app is what the rest of the Apple for Education apps cleverly rest on. Available for free today in the iTunes store, iBooks 2 provides deeper functionality and a special section for Apple's major announcement... Click here to view this gallery. More About: apple, apple event, education, features, higher education, itunes, iTunes U, textbooks, trending
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| Anonymous Attacks Justice Dept as FBI Shuts Down File-Sharing Site Posted: 19 Jan 2012 02:54 PM PST   The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) indicted seven people and two companies which ran the file uploading site Megaupload.com. The site, which billed itself as “the leading online storage and file delivery service,” is now offline. In the indictment, Megaupload and a company associated with it are accused of making $175 million while simultaneously causing approximately half a billion dollars in copyright infringement. Among the indicted are the site’s founder, Kim Dotcom (a.k.a. Kim Schmitz), who holds residency in New Zealand and Hong Kong. Employees Bram van der Kolk, aka Bramos, 29, Julius Bencko, Finn Batato, Sven Echternach, Mathias Ortmann, and Andrus Nomm were also indicted. New Zealand authorities arrested Dotcom, Batato, Ortmann and van der Kolk. Officials said they have not yet captured Bencko, Echternach and Nomm. According to the indictment, the accused are part of “the Mega Conspiracy, a worldwide criminal organization whose members engaged in criminal copyright infringement and money laundering on a massive scale.” They are being charged with participating in a racketeering conspiracy, conspiring to commit copyright infringement, conspiring to commit money laundering and two substantive counts of criminal copyright infringement. Should they be found guilty, the seven accused could find themselves behind bars for a maximum of 20 years. The indictment and subsequent arrests come only a day after major websites blacked out and rallies were held to protest SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and PIPA (PROTECT IP Act), two Internet piracy bills currently under debate in the U.S. Congress. Some 15 minutes after the indictment, the online hacker group Anonymous tweeted from a Sweden-based account that it had retaliated against the DOJ:
Soon afterwards, justice.gov was inaccessible — and it remains down at time of writing: The websites of the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America), the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) and Universal Music Group were also experiencing either intense slowdowns or complete failure. Other Anonymous-related Twitter handles took credit:
The Anonymous group of the online community 4chan took down the MPAA’s website before in a 2010 Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack. UPDATE: Copyright.gov, the U.S. Copyright Office’s website, is also under siege. It’s loading, but very slowly and without images. UPDATE: As of 8:18 p.m. ET, justice.gov, copyright.gov and the websites of the MPAA and RIAA are loading, while Universal Music’s site reads “The Site is under maintenance. Please expect it to be back shortly.” More About: anonymous, DOJ, megaupload, trending
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| Larry Page: Google+ Now Has 90 Million Users Posted: 19 Jan 2012 02:18 PM PST   Google+, Google’s fledgling social network, now has 90 million users according to CEO Larry Page. Page disclosed the number in a press release issued for Google’s fourth quarter. “I am super excited about the growth of Android, Gmail, and Google+, which now has 90 million users globally – well over double what I announced just three months ago,” Page says. “By building a meaningful relationship with our users through Google+ we will create amazing experiences across our services. I'm very excited about what we can do in 2012 – there are tremendous opportunities to help users and grow our business." Google’s last official estimate for Google+’s user base was 40 million, in October. In December, Paul Allen, a Google+ watcher, claimed the network had 62 million users. In early January, Experian Hitwise predicted that Google+ would hit 400 million users by the end of 2012. Google didn’t disclose the source of its latest figures. In a call with analysts Thursday afternoon, Page also declined to predict how many Google+ users there would be at the end of 2012. The Google co-founder and CEO also engaged in some sleight of hand in his comments, according to some observers – stating that Google+ users are “very engaged with our products — over 60% of them engage daily, and over 80% weekly.” That could just mean 60% of Google+ users check their Gmail or go to a Google Map once a day. Page didn’t specify. (Check out the entirety of his remarks, which Page posted on Google+, here.) Google+, which was introduced in June 2011, has exhibited impressive growth. However, Facebook, may hit 1 billion users by August, according to one analyst. Google+ is also reported to be getting closer scrutiny from the Federal Trade Commission after the company introduced “Search plus Your World,” an initiative that combines Google+ data with Google searches. Meanwhile, the Google+ numbers weren’t the only impressive figures the company announced Thursday. Google also had its first $10 billion quarter, with $10.58 billion in revenues, and announced that 250 million Android devices are on the market, which is up 50 million from the last quarter. More About: android, Facebook, Google, trending
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| What’s Next for Digital Coupons? Posted: 19 Jan 2012 02:12 PM PST   Jeff Hudson is co-founder of Grocery Coupon Network, one of the leading coupon communities on the web. By aggregating the best digital grocery coupons and special offers from local and national brands, the company provides a reliable source for those looking to save money and time. Couponing had seen unprecedented growth in the past decade due to a combination of factors — one of which was the economic recession in the U.S., combined with an increased consumer interest in mobile technology and devices. Because of this, marketers began to heavily fund digital platforms. The coupon industry, specifically, saw record growth within the digital realm, and by 2010, SavingStar estimated that "49 million people used printable or digital coupons." The benefits digital interactions offer coupon companies are vast. For starters, online couponing allows for great promotion and wider distribution for brands. It also provides companies with better reach and the ability to track consumer preferences and patterns. Data from Leo J. Shapiro and Associates determined that the digital coupon consumer base was primarily comprised of young married couples with disposable income. Groupon has targeted this demographic, lending digital couponing a social reputation. Daily deal couponing continues to be a popular tool among consumers and marketers, and many major companies have implemented their own version of the trend. What Business Owners Need to Know About Daily Deal CouponingAlthough intriguing for consumers, daily deal platforms like Groupon have not always been beneficial for business owners, who often see a spike in business but little customer retention. A Rice University study found that 66% of the 150 businesses surveyed reported that Groupon promotions were profitable. However, more than 40% of the organizations said that they wouldn't run a Groupon offer again. Daily deal platforms have revealed the social nature of contemporary couponing. For example, Cornell University reported that many Groupon users see themselves as "marketing mavens,” and "on the front edge of market trends and price information." Additionally, users claimed in the survey that they would not have tried a restaurant or store without a coupon offer. Contemporary couponing has highly influenced social branding, greatly increasing the popularity of daily deals. 1. Social Leads to Social Sharing The social, daily deal strategies made popular by sites such as Groupon and Living Social have certainly spawned many copycat initiatives within the digital couponing realm. One such example is SocialTwist, a platform that states it "allows users to share in order to receive a better bargain." Basically, consumers can turn a $1 coupon into a $4 coupon simply by sharing it with four other people. This method will likely continue to increase in popularity in 2012 — we already saw evidence late November 2011, when Foursquare announced it would incorporate a new "social sharing" button on its site. 2. Getting Mobile-Ready Given these newer strategies, companies are mobilizing their virtual and physical platforms to better reach and retain these social, mobile customers. Most companies are aware that their mobile presences have to be dynamic and user friendly. With roughly 91% of the population using mobile devices and 26.3% accessing the Internet, it is important to have a mobile site for on-the-go reading and utilization. Additionally Google reported that 95% of smartphone users have searched for local information, proving that location-based, deal searching is vital to digital couponing. The same study found 38% would use a mobile device to find a store location, 34% to compare prices, 28% to research deals and coupons, and 27% to find a product review. 3. Resolving Mobile Couponing's Redemption Pitfalls Mobile couponing, an obvious extension and result of digital distribution, has been popular despite its "mechanical" issues. With the rise of digital coupons, there was also a surge in consumers who used their mobile devices to reference coupons visually on their smartphones. Unprepared for this development, the redemption process, such as the scanning of digital coupons on mobile devices, has proven difficult until recently. "Mobile coupon redemption has always struggled with ensuring a seamless experience at the point of sale," says reporter Steve Smith. So, business giants like Walgreens are "retraining salespeople to handle the process and equipping stores with hardware that can recognize 2D codes on LCD displays." This nationwide initiative was just launched and underwent testing during the 2011 holiday season. Walgreens released an app for iOS, BlackBerry and Android, which includes a new coupons section that issues up two to three new exclusive weekly deals for customers using the mobile apps. Rich Lesperance, head of digital marketing and merging media for Walgreens, told Media Post that “the program is the largest deployment of in-store mobile coupon scanning of which he is aware.” Looking Ahead to the SoLoMo StrategyIn short, the "social-local-mobile" trend is the next cutting edge move for digital businesses, and a necessary consideration for coupon brands. SoLoMo gets specific when it comes to targeting your ideal market and allows your ideal consumer to find you. The combination is a win for both parties, as well as the logical next step for consumer activity based on current digital engagement. Image courtesy of iStockphoto, trekandshoot, Flickr, Joe Pemberton More About: contributor, Digital coupons, features, groupon, living social, mobile coupons For more Business coverage:
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| ‘We The Lobby’ Crowdsources Funds for an Anti-SOPA Lobby Posted: 19 Jan 2012 02:01 PM PST   We The Lobby believes big enterprises aren’t the only ones that should have the benefit of trained lobbyists advocating on their behalf to the U.S. Congress. That’s why this team of eight techies started We The Lobby, a crowdsourcing platform that gives ordinary citizens a place to raise funds and make their voices heard. The team, made up of web developers, designers, software engineers and a legal adviser, started We The Lobby following a realization in December 2011 that many members of Congress lack a solid education about the Internet. Adam Dunn, We The Lobby’s legal adviser, is connecting the tech-savvy team with the inside world of Washington lobbyists. “We’re trying to get at the idea that any size donation can directly impact policy,” Dunn told Mashable. The site launched Monday with two causes, both authored by the founding team. The anti-SOPA and PIPA campaign, receiving the most attention due to its timeliness, states:
The anti-SOPA and PIPA cause has raised $6,600 of its $10,000 goal. Donations made now are only pledges, meaning your credit card won’t be charged unless a petition meets its goal by a designated deadline. In the case of the anti-SOPA and PIPA bill, that would be Feb. 16. The team is currently looking for lobby firms they think will be a good fit for their cause. When they make that choice, they are dedicated to transparency and will inform all donors, Dunn says. They believe $10,000 is a good starting point for getting serious time from the selected lobbying group. The site, designed to be the Kickstarter for lobbying, is not yet posting submitted causes, although it plans to in the near future. Lead developer Sankho Mallik notes that We The Lobby only seeks to be a platform for causes relating to pieces of legislation currently being considered by the House or Senate. The founding team is currently seeking funding for another cause, supporting a proposed constitutional amendment that prevents for-profit corporations from being considered “people.” Do you think We The Lobby is a good model to spark real change? Let us know in the comments. More About: crowdsourcing, PIPA, Politics, SOPA, US Congress
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| David Beckham Does First Google+ Hangout at Googleplex [VIDEO] Posted: 19 Jan 2012 01:48 PM PST   Fresh from signing a new two-year contract with the LA Galaxy, global soccer star and underwear model David Beckham flew to Silicon Valley early Thursday morning for an interview and Hangout at Google HQ. The Hangout was the first on Beckham’s Google+ profile, which has just shy of 465,000 followers. (By contrast, Beckham’s official Facebook page boasts more than 15 million Likes; Beckham does not appear to have an official Twitter presence.) During the half-hour Hangout, Beckham spoke with fans as far afield as Ghana, London and Madrid. That was his first Hangout, but Beckham vowed during an hour-long interview at the Googleplex in Mountain View, Calif., that it would not be his last. “I’m nervous,” he admitted, “but I’m looking forward to doing more of them.” The interview, in front of an adoring crowd of hundreds at Google HQ (and hundreds more at Google offices around the world), touched on subjects such as Beckham’s charity work for UNICEF and his forthcoming “bodywear” collection with H&M — which will be officially launched with a second-quarter Super Bowl ad later this month. Mashable had a front-row seat for the event, which is one of the more prominent featuring a celebrity at the Googleplex. Here’s the full interview: Does the increasing collaboration between Google and celebrities of Beckham’s caliber make sense? Will his presence help boost Google+? Let us know your thoughts in the comments. More About: Google, googleplex, hangouts, trending
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| Bioshock Infinite’s Difficulty Could Hurt So Good Posted: 19 Jan 2012 01:34 PM PST Bioshock Infinite Screenshot Villagers gather in Columbia, the game's fictional city in the sky. Click here to view this gallery. If you’re playing Bioshock Infinite‘s brand new “1999″ mode, get ready to die and to die a lot. “There are games saves,” said Ken Levine, Irrational Games Creative Director, “and you’re gonna f-cking need them.” Irrational Games, the studio beyond the latest Bioshock game, announced 1999 as a throw-back, uber-hard mode meant to appeal to hardcore gamers nostalgic for the punishing difficulty of classics such as Contra or Ghouls’n Ghosts. The mode will test players by shortening the health bar, creating tougher enemies, limited resources and ammunition and creating permanent in-game consequences for player decisions. These tweaks are more than simply amping up the difficulty, with experiences and features players won’t endure in a standard play-through regardless of the difficulty level. The Bioshock games are strategic first-person shooters with sci-fi elements such as other-worldly powers and special abilities which players need to cultivate and develop. In most Bioshock games you can switch your specialties mid-game (don’t like using pistols? switch your development over to shotguns). In 1999 mode, there’s no going back. Players will have to think about how they want to play the game (offensive? sneaky?) and what skills they’ll need or they could be facing death a lot. That’s not a good thing, according to Irrational Games. There is an actual “Game Over” screen where the player has to start from scratch, there’s no candy-coating death with extra lives and restarts. Sound cruel? The mode was borne from a survey that Irrational Games posted online asking fans what they wanted to see in the game:
Are you excited to try the incredibly difficult 1999 mode in Bioshock Infinite or does it sound like more pain than pleasure? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below. More About: Gaming, video game For more Entertainment coverage:
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| China Launches iPad Alternative for Communists [VIDEO] Posted: 19 Jan 2012 01:19 PM PST It’s the tech device communists have been waiting for — the 9.7-inch tall Android 3.2 tablet, China’s alternative to the Apple iPad, called RedPad Number One. The device launched recently in China. The RedPad was built especially for Communist Party members and enthusiasts. It will compete against foreign brands while catering to the tech needs of the country’s bureaucrats and government workers. The tablet retails at 9,999 yuan — about $1,600 — making it twice as expensive as the Apple iPad in Asia’s markets. The tablet holds 16GB of storage and comes with a screen resolution of 1024 x 768 pixels and a Tegra 2 processor. RedPad’s prominent features include access to government-owned newspapers and blogs. An online survey conducted by China’s 91wenwen.net found that people believe the tablet would be a “symbol of privilege,” as translated on CNET. Do you think this tablet will help communist leaders keep tabs on the media and blogs? More About: android, Google, ipad, Tablet, Video
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| Today’s Kodak Moment: Bankruptcy Posted: 19 Jan 2012 01:04 PM PST   Eastman Kodak company, one of the Pioneers in both analog and digital photography, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Thursday. Despite holding onto patents estimated at $2 billion in value, the company never managed to capitalize on the digital photography field it helped create. Kodak has been in trouble for a while. While the company employed almost 150,000 people worldwide in 1988, today it has just 18,800. As consumers began to move toward digital photography in the 1990s, Kodak feared it would cannibalize its film business by embracing digital, and held back. The rest is history. Companies like Canon, Olympus and Nikon jumped into the digital fray early, leaving Kodak behind. It was ironic because Kodak had not only brought to market an early digital model, the DCS-100, but a Kodak engineer actually created the first digital camera in back in 1975. By the time Kodak began marketing digital cameras aggressively in 2001, it was miles behind in the market. It had both established digital camera makers to contend with as well as several value-driven Asian brands that were driving prices down. Even Kodak’s onetime archrival, Fujifim, got into the market with its FinePix line of point-and-shoots. Founded by George Eastman in 1880, Kodak is still headquartered in Rochester, N.Y., where it began 132 years ago. Kodak is credited with bringing photography to the masses with its $1 Brownie camera in 1900 and had become synonymous with American photography by the time Eastman died in 1932. Kodak’s plan to emerge from bankruptcy involves selling off its $2 billion worth of patents and transforming itself into a mainly a printer company, with its primary products being printers and ink. What do you think of Kodak’s misfortunes? Fall of an American icon, or just another business that didn’t understand the digital revolution when it mattered? Share your thoughts in the comments. BONUS: A Brief History of Kodak |
| Posted: 19 Jan 2012 12:51 PM PST   Twitter has acquired startup company Summify, a social aggregation service that collects news stories that are being shared on your social networks and puts them into a daily summary. Summify – which launched by two Romanian entrepreneurs – took to its blog page on Thursday to announce the news. Before the company moves from Vancouver to San Francisco to work out of the Twitter office, it’s putting the stops on new account registrations and will remove some of its key features. It's currently unknown how Twitter will integrate Summify's business strategy with its own. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. “Our long-term vision at Summify has always been to connect people with the most relevant news for them, in the most time efficient manner," Summify said via its blog. "As hundreds of millions of people worldwide are signing up and consuming Twitter, we realized it's the best platform to execute our vision at a truly global scale. Since Twitter shared this vision with us, joining the company made perfect sense.” Although Summify will be removing its profile and influence pages effectively immediately, it will keep private summaries intact. However, public summaries will also be getting the boot. “We are offering a more streamlined service as we transition our efforts to working at Twitter,” the company noted on its blog. Twitter wouldn’t elaborate how exactly Summify’s integration would impact the social networking site. However, Twitter rep Carolyn Penner told Mashable that it “will help people connect and engage with relevant, timely news.” In March 2011, the company picked up steam when it launched its e-mail summary product, which was dedicated to delivering the top five news stories to users based on what their friends shared and liked. “We’ve been blown away by the response ever since," Summify said via the blog post. “Many of our users tell us we found a magical solution to a truly unsolved problem.” Summify noted it will keep its e-mail summary model for a few more weeks. Are you sad to see Summify go? How do you think Twitter will integrate its services into the site? Let us know your thoughts in the comments. More About: social networks, Summify, Twitter For more Social Media coverage:
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| Mustaches Prevail on Gentlemint, the Pinterest Site for ‘Manly Men’ Posted: 19 Jan 2012 12:25 PM PST   What’s more manly than a mustache? Not much, if you ask co-founders Glen Stansberry and Brian McKinney, co-founders of the recently launched Gentlemint.com — a Pinterest-inspired site for “manly men.” “We wanted to add an old-school, ‘gentlemanly’ feel,” Stansberry says of the ‘stache logo. “Kind of like a Teddy Roosevelt persona….Pre-hipster.” A monocled man with a ‘stache serves as the logo for the site, which went public this week and is currently “invite-only.” But it’s easy to get access to the site — just click on “request an invite” to get an invitation sent to your email and then you’re in. Gentlemint’s love of mustaches — plus users’ evident enthusiasm for lip hair (the picture above is a mustache tie-clip someone posted) — adds a bit of kookiness to the site. A rave review from the American Mustache Institute (yes, that’s a real thing) displayed at the top of the site proclaims that Gentlemint is, “…one of the more manly websites on the planet.” “When we were designing the site we just kept having fun with the idea of the manly mustache and elements like that, so we went with it,” Stansberry says. “It’s supposed to be fun, silly, useful and entertaining — something that appeals to everyone.” If you’re the type to post cute kitten videos, take note: Gentlemint is having none of that girlishness. The manly site is similar to Pinterest but without the pictures of high heels, glittery manicures and wedding dresses. Users post content, such as photos with a short blurb, and other users can comment and click on the moustache logo that also serves as a “like” button. Gentlemint connects to Facebook, Twitter and Google Plus. Sift through pages of entertaining pictures and articles to vote on your favorites. Posts with more support get pushed toward the sites’s first page. The two co-founders currently work day jobs together at a web software company in Kansas. Initially, they wanted to challenge themselves to build a website in one day. They worked for 12 hours and — boom! — Gentlemint was created. Since then, they’ve fine tuned and added more features. Stansberry says they hope to eventually have an app for iOS and Android devices. The site is a veritable playground for men. Posts include instructions on the proper way to kick-in a door (don’t jump), rundowns on unique products including rum soap and a meat-mallet four-finger ring, and a discussion of “interesting Big Lebowski art.” Don’t worry, though — while Gentlemint is a definite boys’ club, it does play nice with girls. There’s no gender-check when you join to the site. Women can sign-up but if you post, say, a picture of a wedding ring, it might not make it to the first page or be on the site for long. “We really want to focus Gentlemint on the type of content that is interesting to us,” Stansberry says. “Anyone can pretty much post anything they want, but we want the focus of the site to be the type of content we built Gentlemint for.” Studies have shown that women are more active social media consumers than men, except on Google +. But some publications are hoping to tap-into the male readership market. Cosmopolitan magazine launched a men-only version for iPads in August 2011. Although Gentlemint doesn’t yet appear to be the type of site where men can read about manscaping and hot bedroom moves, their content is eclectic and entertaining. “It really has less to do with being a male or female, or kittens or bacon, and more to do with encouraging users to add stuff around that theme,” Stansberry says. What do you think about Gentlemint? Sound off in the comments. More About: mustache, pinterest, social networking For more Dev & Design coverage:
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| Free Demos Coming to Nintendo 3DS and Nintendo eShop Posted: 19 Jan 2012 11:55 AM PST   The Nintendo 3DS, a portable, 3D-enabled gaming device, is getting its own crop of free demos and downloads, Nintendo announced on Thursday. Starting Jan. 20, players can head to the Nintendo eShop to download a demo for Resident Evil Revelations with more demos to follow, such as Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games, Rayman Origins and Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater 3D. It’s a good sign that the demos aren’t just in-house titles from Nintendo, but include titles from Capcom, Konami or other third-party developers. Nintendo has a strong roster of characters, such as Super Mario and Link (from the Zelda games). It’s come under fire, especially with its Wii console, for relying too heavily on milking these products instead of encouraging outside development. The 3DS and its eShop offerings look to at least partially assuage those critics. Nintendo has stayed tight-lipped about other games that might hit the eShop. Nintendo’s main portable competitor, the PlayStation Portable, has had demos for some time. Games on iPhone and Android don’t have “demos,” per se, but many of the top games are either free-to-play or based on a freemium model. Nintendo has hosted demos on its Wii but the announcement marks the first time that free demos will be made available for its wildly popular portable device. Parents concerned that their kids will download inappropriate or violent games can exhale. The Nintendo 3DS’ parental controls can also manage what kinds of demos and downloads children can access. More About: Gaming, Mobile, mobile gaming, Nintendo, video games For more Entertainment coverage:
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| Internet Users to Congress: We Hate SOPA Posted: 19 Jan 2012 11:44 AM PST
In a tweet Thursday morning, Google announced it had collected over 7 million unique signatures Wednesday on its anti-SOPA/PIPA petition. Google’s anti-SOPA page got 13 million hits. Wikipedia Foundation said in a press release that 162 million people logged-on during its blackout of English-language pages. And during that blackout, over 8 million American users used Wikipedia’s links to find out the contact information of their elected officials to speak with them about SOPA and PIPA. "The Wikipedia blackout is over and the public has spoken," said Sue Gardner, Wikimedia Foundation’s executive director. "162 million of you saw our blackout page asking if you could imagine a world without free knowledge. You said no. You shut down the Congressional switchboards, and you melted their servers. Your voice was loud and strong." On Wednesday, SOPA, Stop SOPA, PIPA, Tell Congress and #factswithoutwikipedia became the top Tweeted terms of the day. Twitter said that throughout the day, there were nearly four million SOPA-related tweets. Meanwhile in the offline world, approximately 1,000 protesters hit the streets of New York outside the offices of Senators Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) in an anti-SOPA/PIPA rally. By the Thursday, 19 senators, whose previous position was unclear, announced their opposition to PIPA. SOPA co-sponsor Rep. Ben Quayle (R-AZ) pulled his name from the bill Tuesday. However, Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX), SOPA’s author and main sponsor, remains steadfast in his support of the bill. What did the overall online conversation surrounding SOPA and PIPA look like Wednesday? According to social media analysis company Crimson Hexagon, online public opinion of SOPA and PIPA was nearly universally negative. 35% of related posts included a “call to action,” such as a request to sign a petition against the bills. 23% called for a site to blackout or a boycott of a pro-SOPA/PIPA company. 16% suggested the legislation “curtails liberty.” 9% of posts had a suggestion to reach out to an elected official to speak with them about the bills. The remaining 16% included a “general discussion of SOPA and other legislation.” According to Wayne St. Amand, vice president of marketing at Crimson Hexagon, these were neutral discussions of the bills, perhaps people wondering why some of their favorite sites were down. Have a look: The sample included over 1.5 million opinions posted to Twitter, Facebook, blogs and forums. Crimson Hexagon’s software was developed at Harvard University’s Institute for Quantitative Social Science and is used by such organizations as the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism. In order to generate a report, Crimson Hexagon’s research team enters a keyword – such as “SOPA” – into the software. The program pulls over 1 million random online posts with the keyword. Then, a human researcher starts sorting some of those posts into different categories, like the ones mentioned above. The software starts to find patterns in what the researcher is doing and repeats it for the rest of the hundreds of thousands of posts. In essence, Crimson Hexagon learns a sorting process from a team of humans and emulates it. And the sample’s source? Crimson Hexagon’s team uses “everything that [they] can get,” says Amand. “Twitter is overrepresented because we have a direct relationship with the company, we license the ‘Twitter Firehose’ which is the full stream of 250 million public tweets a day.” The rest of the data comes from social media aggregators, who take in opinions from a wide variety of social media accounts, blog posts and forum comments. “With more than 1.5 million opinions, we would probably argue that [this data] represents people who are online, period,” says Amand. No major polling organization has yet conducted research into the overall American opinion of SOPA and PIPA, making it impossible to compare Internet users’ opinions to that of the broader public. Do these results surprise you? Let us know in the comments below. BONUS: A Timeline of SOPA EventsMay 12: PIPA introducedThe PROTECT IP Act (Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act of 2011), better known as PIPA was introduced into the Senate by Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT). The act's goals were described by its sponsors as protecting intellectual property and punishing foreign sites who post copyrighted material. If a site was discovered doing so, the U.S. attorney general could order U.S. based Internet service providers, search engines, payment systems and advertising networks to suspend doing business with the website. Photo courtesy Mikedish on Flickr Click here to view this gallery. Image courtesy of iStockphoto, carterdayne More About: internet, PIPA, Social Media, stop online piracy act, trending
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| 5 Things Publishers Need to Know About HTML5 Posted: 19 Jan 2012 11:34 AM PST   Pam Horan is the president of the Online Publishers Association, a not-for-profit trade organization that represents high-quality online publishers. Last November, Adobe announced its decision to halt Flash development for mobile browsers, chipsets and operating systems. Instead, the company plans to develop on the open HTML5 platform. While the announcement may seem startling given the legacy of Adobe's business, the launch of Adobe Edge back in August marked the clear beginning of the company’s pivot toward HTML5. Following the lead of many publishers in the space, most notably The Financial Times, the elimination of Flash will further enable publishers to focus their resources and streamline digital development. In a company blog post, Adobe vice president and general manager Danny Winokur explained, "Adobe is all about enabling designers and developers to create the most expressive content possible, regardless of platform or technology,” he wrote. "HTML5 is now universally supported on major mobile devices, in some cases exclusively." So what does that mean for your business? Here are the five things every publisher should know about HTML5. 1. Enhanced Web DevelopmentHTML5 has long been dubbed a game changer. Mashable has said that HTML5 will bring the web back. While that may sound like a strange notion, it refers to the fact that innovation has shifted from the web to applications for mobile and gaming – and while these may rely on the web, they do not reside there. HTML5 brings the focus back to web-based development. According to the New York Times, "Engineers say the [HTML5] technology will make it possible to write web applications, accessed with a browser, that are as visually rich and lively as the so-called native applications that are now designed to run on a specific device, like an iPad or an Android-based tablet." 2. Streamlined DevelopmentThe latest version of HTML includes features that streamline development and deliver a richer experience to users. And its new API, in concert with new browsers, enables top functionality, making things possible that weren't before. For instance, geolocation services are easily enhanced with HTML5. With permission, web browsers can access the physical location of users that visit their sites, simplifying the development of sites that want to deliver location-based content and services. 3. What it Means for AdvertisersWhile this may seem like a major tech play, HTML5 presents huge benefits for advertisers and marketers. It enhances online advertising by making ads rich and scalable. Advertisers have been waiting for technology to catch up with their mobile needs, and HTML5 does just that. It can be downloaded from an ad server and displayed on the web and in apps. And it makes rich media display ads more accessible across browsers and applications on mobile devices. 4. Video ChallengesIt would be a disservice to ignore challenges that exist with HTML5. Flash has been around far longer than HTML5, and its advancements in video reflect its legacy. The third-party integration that made Flash popular and robust set the stage for online video to take off. And while HTML5 is still in its early innings, when it comes to video, the same innovations are starting to emerge within HTML5 as well. 5. Updates for FlashWhile a Flash-free world may seem daunting to some, there's no need to worry. According to Winokur, "We will of course continue to provide critical bug fixes and security updates for existing device configurations. We will also allow our source code licensees to continue working on and release their own implementations." Overall, HTML5 will enhance the web for consumers, marketers and developers. Adobe has indicated that although its doesn’t plan to actively enhance Flash, it will continue to release security updates for its Android and BlackBerry PlayBook. Image courtesy of Flickr, justinsomnia More About: adobe, contributor, features, Flash, HTML5 For more Dev & Design coverage:
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| Google Data Centers Get High Marks for Green and Safety Practices [VIDEO] Posted: 19 Jan 2012 11:08 AM PST Google announced Thursday that a number of its U.S. data centers received recognition for green practices and safety methods. Google is the first major Internet company to earn both ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001 certifications. The centers were able to reduce oil consumption by using generators less often and changed how they handle, package and ship batteries. “We do this because we want to be the gold standard in environmental and workforce safety, and because we care about the communities where we live and work,” Google said in a blog post. Data centers in the following U.S. locations received the certifications: The Dalles, Ore.; Council Bluffs, Iowa; Mayes County, Okla.; Lenoir, N.C.; Monck’s Corner, S.C. and Douglas County, Ga. Check out the video above to learn more. More About: Google, mashable video For more Tech coverage:
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