Here at Mashable, we love Google’s homepage “Doodles.” The online giant is well-known for its Halloween-themed logo each year.
For your viewing pleasure, we have collected all of Google’s October 31 homepages into a great gallery.
Join us in celebrating Halloween the Google way and take a look through the images above. Let us know in the comments which is your favorite — and why.
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. We're keeping our eyes on three particular stories of interest today.
Disney-ABC Signs Streaming Deals With Netflix, Amazon
HTC reported lower revenues and a 68% increase in profits for the third quarter 2011, driven largely by sales of smartphones in China. Its forecast for the fourth quarter was less optimistic.
Steve Jobs’s Sister Recalls Last Words
Mona Simpson published a moving eulogy for her brother Steve Jobs, the founder and former CEO of Apple, in this Sunday’s New York Times.
Further News
London Police are allegedly using a surveillance system that can be used to track a mobile phone user’s movements in a 10-kilometer radius.
The inaugural iPad edition of Conde Nast Traveler has arrived at Apple’s Newsstand — and it’s hefty.
The issue is 784 megabytes — substantially bigger than even Wired‘s first issue, which attracted a fair number of comments about its portliness when it arrived on the iPad in May of last year.
Should Traveler continue producing issues at that size, owners of 16GB iPads will find that more than half of their storage space is taken up by that magazine alone.
In an email, a spokesperson for the magazine suggested that the size problem is linked to a series of 3D rotating maps of the South Pacific, and that “future issues will most likely take up less memory.”
Weight problems aside, the issue looks decent. There’s plenty to tap, swipe and rotate, and the stunning imagery Traveler is known for translates well to the iPad. The publication added more than 100 photos not included in the print version, as well as the aforementioned 3D rotating maps of the South Sea Islands. Just before the masthead appears a time-lapse video taken from a beachside hotel balcony in Barcelona, a personal favorite (screenshot below).
Users can purchase issues for $5.99 apiece, or initiate one of two digital subscription options: 1) a one-month, automatically recurring subscription for $1.99, or 2) a one-year, automatically recurring subscription for $19.99.
Existing print subscribers can enter their credentials for free access to the iPad edition, which is downloaded automatically onto subscribers’ iPads every month.
Currently only the November issue is available, alongside the “2011 Hot List,” a special feature the publication released in August, as well a short free preview.
Traveler is the tenth Conde Nast title to be formatted for the iPad, following Allure, Brides, Glamour, Golf Digest, GQ, Self, The New Yorker, Vanity Fair and Wired. Vogue and Bon Appetit are slated to arrive on the device by early 2012, Bob Sauerberg, president of Conde Nast, said earlier this month.
More shows from ABC Studios, the Disney Channel and ABC Family are coming to both Netflix’s and Amazon’s online streaming services, respectively.
Netflix
Netflix and Disney-ABC Television Group are extending and expanding their existing two-year licensing agreement to bring Switched at Birth and Alias to Netflix’s Watch Instantly service in the U.S., as well as past-season episodes of Disney Channel animated series Kick Buttowski.
Netflix‘s U.S. subscribers will also continue to have access to past seasons of Grey’s Anatomy, Desperate Housewives, Private Practice, Lost, Brothers & Sisters and Ugly Betty from ABC; prior seasons of ABC Studios’s Army Wives; current and past episodes of ABC Family series The Secret Life of the American Teenager, Melissa & Joey and Make It or Break It; and a range of content from the Disney Channel including Hannah Montana, Phineas and Ferb, Good Luck Charlie and The Suite Life on Deck.
Amazon
Meanwhile, Disney-ABC also signed a deal with Amazon to bring what appears to be a very similar set of content to its Amazon Prime streaming service.
Amazon Prime subscribers will have access to prior seasons of Grey’s Anatomy, Lost, Phineas & Ferb, The Secret Life of the American Teenager, Greek and Felicity, as well as prior season of Marvel animated series Spider-Man, X-Men Evolution, Thor & Loki: Blood Brothers and Iron Man: Extremis.
Tough Times for Netflix
The news isn’t great for Netflix, whose stock took a 37% hit after reporting a loss of 800,000 subscribers in the third quarter. The company’s roster of exclusive content is dwindling as Amazon and Hulu Plus sign on more content from TV networks and studios. The CW announced nearly identical deals with Hulu Plus and Netflix earlier this month, for instance.
Netflix’s stock was trading around $84 in premarket trading Monday, up approximately $10 per share since its post-earnings low last week.
We went into a Halloween frenzy this weekend, finding the best techie costumes, and we used social media trends to choose our spooky attire and candy for the evening. Then, we watched some of the scariest videos this side of the Gates of Hell.
At the same time, we took a look back at the week and month, trying to figure out what we liked most about a busy social media and tech-filled time that was unlike any we’ve ever experienced.
Worried you missed something? Well you did, but we’ve got your back, because here it all is, replayed and gathered for you all in one place. Now go out and make a good week, and be careful out there.
You know there’s something significant going on when Google creates one of its whimsical “doodles” on its home page, and Halloween is no exception. Watch what happens.
[Spoiler alert] In case you can’t see it where you are, this year (in some countries), there’s a time-lapse video showing some of the most gigantic pumpkins in the world, going through a metamorphosis from blobs of orange to art as night falls.
Here’s how the Googlers describe the making of this kooky video on the official Google blog:
To celebrate Halloween this year, the doodle team wanted to capture that fascinating transformation that takes place when carving a pumpkin. Instead of picking up a few pumpkins from the grocery store, however, we decided to work on six giant pumpkins, specially delivered from nearby Half Moon Bay (some weighing well over 1,000 pounds). What you see is a timelapse video of the approximately eight hours we spent carving in the middle of our Mountain View, Calif. campus.
Watch the video of this Halloween Google doodle — or go to Google.com to experience the doodle for yourself.
Here’s Google’s “making of” video of this year’s doodle:
Each package gets larger with a mouse-over, and a click on it returns search results pertinent to a specific country or the particular items featured in a scene. This one is from December 24, 2010.
You know there’s something significant going on when Google creates one of its whimsical “doodles” on its home page, and Halloween is no exception. Watch what happens.
Spoiler alert: In case you can’t see it where you are, this year (in some countries), there’s a time-lapse video showing some of the most gigantic pumpkins in the world, going through a metamorphosis from blobs of orange to art as night falls.
Here’s how the Googlers describe the making of this kooky video on the Official Google Blog:
To celebrate Halloween this year, the doodle team wanted to capture that fascinating transformation that takes place when carving a pumpkin. Instead of picking up a few pumpkins from the grocery store, however, we decided to work on six giant pumpkins, specially delivered from nearby Half Moon Bay (some weighing well over 1,000 pounds). What you see is a timelapse video of the approximately eight hours we spent carving in the middle of our Mountain View, Calif. campus.
Watch the video of this Halloween Google doodle — or go to Google.com to experience the doodle for yourself.
Here’s Google’s “making of” video of this year’s doodle:
Each package gets larger with a mouse-over, and a click on it returns search results pertinent to a specific country or the particular items featured in a scene. This one is from December 24, 2010.
Each week, Mashable picks a popular song, finds 10 covers of it and asks you to vote for your favorite.
Rihanna’s “We Found Love” moves into the top spot on Billboard‘s Hot Digital Songs chart this week on the heels of the Oct. 19 release of the track’s edgy music video.
The lead single off of Rihanna’s forthcoming Talk That Talk album also helped her become the fastest solo artist ever to earn 20 top 10 singles on Billboard‘s Hot 100 chart.
We’ve found 10 of the best “We Found Love” covers as well as one from Coldplay (see video number 11). Vote for your favorite rendition in the poll.
**The winner of this poll will be selected Nov. 4 at 9 a.m. ET.
Last Week’s Face-Off Winner: Kina Grannis and Imaginary Friend
The "Pumped Up Kicks" duet from Kina Grannis and Imaginary Friend snagged more than 20,000 votes in last week's Face-off, beating out their closest competitor by 6,500 votes. In their cover of the Foster the People song, they changed a few chords, added harmonies and brought in a banjo.
“It was one of those songs that spoke to me for whatever reason even before I had any idea what it was about,” Grannis told Mashable. “By the time I actually stopped to think about the lyrics and internalize them, it hit me what a sad song it was. It lets you into the mind of an outcast, someone who really has no one at all to go to, and you realize what a desperate and tragic situation that is.”
Grannis embarks on a European tour in February 2012, where she’ll perform original songs such as “The One You Say Goodnight To” (see video two) and “Little Worrier” (see video four). Imaginary Friend plans to start recording his first full-length album, which will include “Chasing Ghosts” (see video number three).
Here’s a collection of original songs and covers from Grannis and Imaginary Friend.
"Pumped Up Kicks" Cover by Kina Grannis and Imaginary Friend
Want to know what the hottest Halloween costumes are this year? Or maybe you’re a contrarian, and don’t want to be seen in the same costume anyone else is wearing. Or maybe you’d like to know what the most popular candy is this Halloween, 2011.
You came to the right place. Find out what’s hot and what’s not by checking out the spooky stats on our Halloween infographic from Webtrends, showing you which costumes and candy garnered the most buzz.
According to Webtrends, the data used to create this infographic represents online mentions from October 1-24, 2011 and is an aggregation of Twitter, blogs, online news sites and other social media sources.
Steve Jobs’s biological sister, Mona Simpson, wrote a moving and highly personal eulogy for a private funeral service for the fallen tech titan that took place a few days after his death in early October.
An acclaimed novelist, she delivered a beautifully written description of Steve Jobs’s life, illness and death. She said his last words before he slipped into unconsciousness for the last time were, “Oh wow. Oh wow. Oh wow.”
October was a roller coaster month for the tech world, filled with plenty of brand new products as well as second chances and upgrades, all promising better gadgetry in the months to come.
We got our hands on some of the best new products to roll out during the past month, giving you our impressions of the virtues and drawbacks of each with galleries, videos and analysis of what it all means. Here are the top 5 tech devices we thought showed the most potential for greatness:
1. Motorola Droid Razr
Thin is in, and Motorola has outdone itself with the aptly named 7.1mm-thick Droid Razr. It hits all the right numbers with its 4G LTE Verizon network, a dual-core processor and a 4.3-inch super AMOLED display. After our hands-on session, we thought the $299.99 smartphone packed a powerful punch for Android fans. It ships on Nov. 10, but our only gripe? It won’t have the latest version 4.0 of Android on board — better known as Ice Cream Sandwich — until early next year.
Thin is In
At just 7.1mm thin, Motorola claims that the Razr is the thinnest 4G LTE smartphone on the market.
Google TV was a flop in its first outing, but maybe the search giant’s version 2.0 of its television platform might bring redemption. The company’s replaced its first Google TV user interface with a more capable Android Honeycomb 3.1 operating system, bringing along with it the promise of thousands of apps that might take your TV places you never dreamed of.
Android Market
The Android Market, a familiar sight for smartphone users, is coming to Google TV.
Amazon rolled out the Kindle Fire at the end of last month, but its reverberations continued through October in anticipation of its Nov. 15 sale date. At $199, it’s the lowest-priced tablet from any major player. It’s running the Android operating system, but its home screen looks nothing like it, resembling a bookshelf instead — and that gives you a clue of its purpose: It focuses on content. In fact, it costs Amazon more to manufacture a Kindle Fire ($209.63) than its retail price, but Amazon, being “the world’s largest bookstore,” plans to earn its money from selling ebooks for its new tablet. There’s no 3G, no camera or microphone, but this handy little slab with its new Amazon Silk browser, dual-core processor, 8GB of storage and a 7-inch touchscreen might be just good enough.
Of course we would have to mention the iPhone 4S, with its dual-core processor speeding up both its graphics and responsiveness. Along for the ride was its top-billed feature, Siri, a work in progress that gave us a peek at what digital personal assistants might someday become.
iPhone 4S
The iPhone 4S looks and feels exactly like the iPhone 4.
We got a chance to play with this groundbreaking Lytro camera that gathers images and lets you decide how they’re going to be focused later. We found the prototypes well-designed, completely operational and working well. This quintet of videos will give you a good idea what’s in store when these $400 wonders hit the market next year:
Lytro Camera Hands On, Part 1
Mashable's Chris Taylor shows you the Lytro Camera, taking a pic and then selecting the area of that shot that's in focus afterward.
For the Tech Innovators Series, supported by Lenovo, Mashable uncovered eight groundbreaking innovations that are changing the landscape of business.
From Google to Powermat, businesses large and small are embracing these innovations to rise head and shoulders above the competition. These companies have recognized areas in their own industries that can be improved with tech, and are reaping the benefits of their own bold thinking.
This roundup showcases the innovations from the series. To read more, click through to get the full story, and follow the series to learn about even more innovations.
On average, an individual has 19 different doctors over the course of a lifetime. When patients see new doctors, they often spend a chunk of the appointment explaining their ailments and medical history. They may even have bloodwork done, even if they had it done recently at a different doctor’s office.
If the medical records system was digitized and all the information was in one convenient place, visits to the doctor would be quicker and less redundant. That “convenient place” is the cloud.
What’s worse when you’re on the go — your smartphone running out of battery life with no power outlet anywhere to be found, or having to carry around a charger?
Frankly, both these situations are the pits. That’s why wireless power pioneer Powermat is doing all it can to solve the on-the-go charging problem and make wired charging a thing of the past.
So many consumer electronics have touchscreens these days, and we tend to take them for granted. Sure, they might break or crack, but they’ve gotten considerably more durable over the years. That’s thanks in large part to innovation by a team at Corning, manufacturers of Gorilla Glass.
That's not to say that Gorilla Glass is shatterproof, but it's definitely more resilient in the face of tumbles and general clumsiness than previous glass displays.
In the 50 years since the former Soviet Union sent the first man into orbit (Yuri Gagarin), a total of 517 people have flown in space.
With the U.S. Space Shuttle fleet now retired, private companies are finding a way to make space exploration accessible not just to the wealthiest few, but to all mankind. It’s up to these companies to turn space into a legitimate business.
Does the era of the always-on location-aware device demand a new genre of privacy settings? More robust geo-privacy settings, perhaps?
That’s the motivation behind Flickr geofences, a newly added precautionary and practical feature that allows users to map out zones and set distinct location-sharing settings for those areas.
The truth is, the auto companies are gun shy about adding too many social media hooks into their vehicles. The main reason is that they could distract drivers. Opposition by transportation secretary Ray LaHood doesn’t help, either.
For four years, though, Ford and Microsoft have offered a middle ground with their Ford Sync technology.
Speech and voice recognition technology have been around for half a century, but it's still far from mainstream. Where are the machines that write down what we say? Where are the appliances that simply work based on voice commands?
That’s changing, though, thanks in no small part to Google‘s efforts in developing voice recognition tech. Since 2008, Google has been steadily releasing products that turn voice into text — and commands into action.
This seemingly simple system — especially when stacked up against Google’s pending NFC mobile payments program — allows Starbucks customers to pay with their phones at roughly 9,000 locations in the U.S.
Halloween is coming up soon, and if you want to dress up like an Angry Bird, you’re running out of time. It’s too late to get a costume from the web (and many of the best Angry Birds costumes are sold out anyway), so you might have to resort to making one yourself. Here are some ideas to get you started.
We found some of the best examples of Angry Birds costumes — many of them graced numerous Halloween parties last year, and then we added at the end of this gallery a quick peek at the commercial versions of Angry Birds costumes you might be able to find in stores or use as a starting-off point for your own ideas.
So take a look, get out those arts and crafts tools and sewing machines (or see if you can find somebody who’s good at that sort of thing). Good luck, and stay angry (but with a smile on your face)!
Tour Google's sprawling Mountain View, CA, campus and as you ogle the colors, great employee facilities and sense of whimsy, you'll think, "Why can't more offices be like this?" In reality, at least one of them can. It's Google's second largest office, not in California, but instead nestled among the towering skyscrapers of Manhattan.
The company calls this facility “Google NYC,” and it is big and surprisingly entertaining for a corporate office where 2,500 employees work on everything from Google Search and Ads to Google Maps, Docs and more. In fact, Google told Mashable that the office is host to the second-largest number of Google engineers in the company (you can guess where the rest of them are).
Google inhabits multiple floors of the downtown building and the one Mashable visited covers an entire city block. It's so large that areas have been given special names so people can keep track of where they are and where they're going. To get from one place to another, many employees use one of the hundreds of Razor scooters on the floor. As you would expect, there's ample free food and lots of unusual places to sit, meet and read. On the day we visited, there was what looked like a lunch counter facing a cooking show/music recital set where one seat was reserved for Yo Yo Ma (yes, the Yo Yo Ma) who was visiting that day.
One entire wall is devoted to LEGO art and LEGO creation. It was a struggle not to stop, stay and play. There's even a ladder to climb from one floor to the other.
The company is by no means new to New York. It arrived here way back in 2000, when Google was just two years old, and opened this office in 2006. In 2008, Google bought out an abandoned Oreo factory (yes, the Oreo cookie was invented there) on Chelsea Piers and established a second New York Office, just down the block from the first one.
Mashable got a quick tour of Google NYC, a place full of classic tech and LEGO whimsy. The gallery offers just a glimpse of what we found. See if you can guess the names of the classic computers before looking at each caption.
Thanks to the Internet, marketing has evolved over the years. Consumers no longer rely on billboards and TV spots — a.k.a. outbound marketing — to learn about new products, because the web has empowered them. It’s given them alternative methods for finding, buying and researching brands and products. The new marketing communication — inbound marketing — has become a two-way dialogue, much of which is facilitated by social media.
Another reason why inbound marketing is winning is because it costs less than traditional marketing. Why try to buy your way in when consumers aren’t even paying attention? Here are some stats from the infographic below.
44% of direct mail is never opened. That’s a waste of time, postage and paper.
86% of people skip through television commercials.
84% of 25 to 34 year olds have clicked out of a website because of an “irrelevant or intrusive ad.”
The cost per lead in outbound marketing is more than for inbound marketing.
Inbound marketing focuses on earning, not buying, a person’s attention, which is done through social media and engaging content, such as blogs, podcasts and white papers. This content is interesting, informative and adds value, creating a positive connection in the eyes of the consumer, thus making him more likely to engage your brand and buy the product. So it costs less and has better a ROI.
This infographic from Voltier Digital highlights the differences between the two kinds of marketing. Let us know your opinions in the comments below.
“Who are you?,” I ask Siri, attempting to unravel some of the mystery behind the iPhone 4S virtual assistant by going directly to the source. No such luck. “Who I am isn’t important,” she tells me.
And so I went to one of Siri’s makers, Gary Morgenthaler, venture capitalist, Siri investor and Siri board member, for a better answer to the who is Siri? question.
Let’s start with her name. Like any doting parent, Morgenthaler and the founding team behind Siri, especially CEO Dag Kittlaus, felt the newborn’s existence was of such significance that she warranted a very special moniker. And so they turned to baby name books.
The team put together a shortlist of potential names, but Siri stood out. Siri, a variant of Sigrid, is a Scandinavian and Norwegian girl name that means beautiful or fair victory. The Indian name Siri is associated with Goddess Lakshimi, the Hindu goddess of wealth and prosperity.
Siri, to those who gave her life, became an amalgam of those meanings; they defined her appellation as, “beautiful woman that leads you to fair victory and wealth.” [Obviously, they overlooked some of Siri's more colorful meanings.]
Siri’s personality was of equal importance to the founding team and board, Morgenthaler says, and there were long discussions about who she should be and what she should look like.
“People have found that it is very useful to have a personal assistant that executes their desires, but you have a relationship with that personal assistant,” Morgenthaler details of the thought process that went into developing Siri’s personality. “It’s most rewarding when you’re in a constant dialogue, and when you’re talking to an intelligent person who is witty, has edge and is a little sassy. If that’s the case in the real world, [we said] let’s engineer this into the product itself.”
The team felt strongly that Siri should not become just another a chatbot. “[Siri] should be highly efficient so that you don’t feel like you’re wasting time, and you get an intelligent response always,” he adds. “But if you ask something funny, Siri should come back with a response that is right back at you.”
And so Siri’s highly efficient, smart but sassy persona was born. Her personality, first scripted by a creative writer specifically hired for the task, has evolved under Apple’s care. Morgenthaler believes that Apple will collect and use speech data to perfect her responses, and make her more whimsical over time.
But why doesn’t Siri have a face to match her voice?
“We considered creating an avatar,” Morgenthaler says. The team ultimately decided against an avatar because of a scientific hypothesis, termed the “uncanny valley,” that maintains that people are endeared to humanized robots, but only up until a point. A too human-looking robot will actually cause repulsion.
And so, in theory, Siri, with her computerized voice and faceless responses, is a robot that’s just human enough to merit the term “personality,” but far short of what our minds might recognize as an actual person.
Again, the best source of information is Siri herself. What does Siri have to say about this? “Are you a robot?,” I ask her. “We were talking about you, not me,” she says. “Are you human?,” I probe further.
“That’s a rather personal question, Jennifer,” she quips. Fair enough.
At this time of year we like to indulge ourselves with as many delicious chills as we can. To this end we’ve been taking a look at some spooky iPhotography.
We have found 10 creepy iPhone photographs that made the hair stand up on the back of our necks.
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.
Each weekend, Mashable selects startups we think are building interesting, unique or niche products.
This week we’ve focused on three startups with innovative takes on social buying.
OpenSky is a Twitter-style personalized shopping site. LikeBids motivates users to distribute coupons for brands, and MyTab helps users fund trips through their social networks.
OpenSky: Twitter for Curated Shopping
Quick Pitch:OpenSky is a shopping site that is curated by the tastemakers that individual users “follow.”
Genius Idea: A customizable online shopping experience.
Mashable’s Take: OpenSky has cleverly blended recommendations, editorial endorsements and flash sales.
When users sign up, they can chose from a list of about 60 tastemakers to “follow,” including celebrities such as Molly Sims, Padma Lakshmi, Kristin Cavallari, Bobby Flay and Tom Colicchio. Each tastemaker chooses products to recommend to followers and writes a short explanation of why each item was chosen. He or she runs a special on about one item a week that gives followers a 20% to 60% discount on the item.
Since launching in April, OpenSky says that it has grown 50% month over month. The site has about 600,000 users, and its CEO John Caplan, the former president of About.com, seems to be thinking big.
LikeBids: Group Buying Unlocked by Facebook “Likes”
Quick Pitch:LikeBids distributes coupons through Facebook.
Genius Idea: A built-in motivation for word-of-mouth marketing.
Mashable’s Take: LikeBids users win coupons by Liking them and encouraging others to do so. When a threshold number of Likes are reached, a coupon is emailed to everyone who clicked.
The advantage of distributing coupons this way is that even participants who aren’t particularly excited to spread the word about a discount end up doing so anyway. When they Like the coupon, it’s automatically posted on their wall and friends’ feeds.
LikeBids has also built in a motivation for users who are excited to spread the word. Each coupon has a price attached to it for the person who motivates the most people to Like it by sharing a unique URL.
Right now LikeBids’ offerings are pretty sparse (there are exactly three coupons available: Papa John’s, Kohl’s and Sephora), but the startup has set up a situation that encourages users to promote brands to their friends. If those users indeed appear, that’s an appealing proposition.
myTab: a Social Travel Gift Card
Quick Pitch:myTab aims to make group gifting travel easier.
Genius Idea: A travel search engine that automatically takes into account your budget.
Mashable’s Take: Let’s say you want to go on a trip and it’s your birthday. MyTab hopes you’ll set up an account on its site, and share a link that allows your friends to chip in to its cost by purchasing a virtual currency it refers to as “myCash.”
You can then use a Kayak-like interface to book a flight and hotel based on how much “myCash” you have. If there are leftovers, you can re-gift them to friends.
Although we understand where myTab is coming from — group gift buying is a problem pervasive enough that several startups (and eBay) have developed solutions that make it easier. We fear, however, that this travel-focused solution only makes the process more complicated.
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.
Since Halloween weekend is currently in full swing (despite the snowy weather in the U.S. Northeast), we know many of you are probably busy modeling your costumes in front of your mirror in preparation for tonight’s festivities. Before you put your masks and wigs on, Mashable wants to share a roundup of the week’s special features with you.
From the Netflix downturn to the spooky Halloween tech-inspired pumpkins, this list has it all.
The year 2011 has never seen so many tech-inspired Halloween costumes. Homemade, assembled or bought, these costumes represent tech innovation and digital trends from the past and present.
Each week, we pick a popular song, find 10 covers of it and ask you to vote for your favorite. This time, we chose Foster The People’s “Pumped Up Kicks.” Which one do you like best?
Banks are not always known for their social media savvy, but these 5 examples show how a little Facebook outreach can go a long way for financial institutions.
How frequently should you post to your Facebook page? Check out these tricks and metrics to help boost your social engagement on the world’s largest social network.
Coldplay and Adele have opted not to have their albums available on Spotify and other streaming music services. Could this be a new trend with established artists?
Know Your Twitter Followers is an automated freemium service that allows any individual, company or brand immediate access to acquire a demographic analysis of their Twitter followers.
It was a busy week in the gadget world, and I’ve boiled it all down into the top 10 most unusual, groundbreaking, futuristic and just-plain-weird gadgets I could find for you, all wrapped up right here in a easily digested package.
I'm a bad person. I simply do not pay attention the way I used to, and it’s all because of technology, which constantly distracts me. How about you? Shall we blame technology?
The digital music revolution might have started in the late 1990s, but in the last few years, the way we find, share and organize music has undergone major changes.
Online entertainment as an all-streaming entertainment cornucopia is rapidly approaching. You might be surprised how quickly the transition is taking place.
The average patient sees 19 different doctors in his lifetime, and transferring paper records can be costly and dangerous. Cloud-based medical records are making doctors’ offices more efficient, one chart at a time.
Social media monitoring service Reppler surveyed more than 300 hiring professionals to determine when and how job recruiters are screening job candidates on different social media sites.
Most non-profit websites have some blog components — posting updates, news, photos, videos, etc. — to keep their fans informed. We dug a little deeper and found unique ways non-profits are sharing content.
Some have called Netflix's recent travails merely a blip in an otherwise successful run. Others think Netflix’s current decline (which has now lasted for months) is unstoppable. We at Mashable have ideas for the company’s quick recovery.
Most 17 to 34-year-olds who came of age with the Internet don’t consume media and advertising the same way their parents did. If you want to reach them, you’ll need to note these key strategies.
Despite the alleged intentions of its board, as well as rumored interest from Google and Microsoft, momentum for a potential acquisition of Yahoo has stalled.
It might be scary to share all your online reviews, but some hotel and travel destinations have embraced social media chatter — good and bad — and seen surprising results.
There’s a lot to be learned from how the big brands handle their customers on social media channels. These 9 examples should be part of your customer service playbook.
Annual performance reviews: you either love ‘em or hate ‘em. Some companies get the formula right, developing a constructive review process that helps employees grow — to these employers, we say, “kudos.”
On the other side of the coin, though, there are many companies that simply miss the mark, creating repetitive review processes that seem to only serve as time-wasting disciplinary tools.
In the past decade, we’ve seen performance reviews move to the online space, making it easier for employees and employers to complete and share them.
While we’ve come a long way, performance reviews are still the bane of many employees — 78% of U.S. workers would like to change some aspect of the review process, according to one 2009 study.
The infographic below, compiled by the creators of social goal management tool WorkSimple, looks at the brief history of performance reviews and predicts a future where reviews go social.
Does your business use social work tools that gauge employee success? If so, let us know about them in the comments below.
Social Media Job Listings
Every week we post a list of social media and web job opportunities. While we publish a huge range of job listings, we’ve selected some of the top social media job opportunities from the past two weeks to get you started. Happy hunting!
Steve Jobs was a man of contradictions. In Steve Jobs, a biography by Walter Isaacson, his groundbreaking ideas and spectacular technological breakthroughs run like a torrent through the book.
But at the same time, on almost every page are examples of his spectacular arrogance, odd habits, belligerent interactions and emotional breakdowns.
After reading the book, we gathered some of the memorable quotes from its author, Steve Jobs and those around him that illustrate his complex personality.
Let’s use these quotes as a jumping-off point to a discussion: What do you think? Was Steve Jobs a genius or was he insane? Or both? Or neither?
While Nokia teased us this week with a slightly flexible prototype device, Samsung steps up with an even more flexible screen the company says will grace the front of a smartphone or tablet by 2012. We saw one of these flexible AMOLED screens from Samsung at CES 2011, but the big news is this has gone beyond the prototype stage, where we'll allegedly be bending screens every which way by next year. We'll believe it when we see it. [via DVICE, photo by Evan Ackerman, used with permission]
It was another terrific week for tech, and we scoured the world to find the best examples for you, right here. So buckle up and get ready for the shiniest, most futuristic, and in some cases, even the most bizarre tech the week had to offer.
Insiders are saying they're working on Microsoft's next-generation gaming console, and it's said to be called the Xbox 720, perhaps unveiling at E3 in 2013. Although the box's processors and graphics chips are allegedly well underway and in the hands of multiple developers, the outside of the Xbox 720 is not quite so well-defined. Take a look at this design concept of the industrial design of the box -- we're wondering if it wasn't left on our planet by visiting aliens.
When master magician Simon Pierro gets his hands on an iPad, watch out. Now he’s created a special Halloween edition of his unique iPad magic, blending his special brand of prestidigitation with carefully constructed digital wizardry.
Simon tells us he spent 10 weeks putting together this Halloween iPad act, and “it was a hell of a lot of work,” he says. “Luckily my iOS programmer Masashi Beheim again joined the project. It took him more than 100 hours of programming this time, being as fanatical about details as I am,” he added.
Simon wasn’t satisfied with a rehash of his brilliant “Preview of iOS 5” we featured here on Mashable last summer. He says, “So I came up with the idea to tell a story about a killer and together with my magic colleague Thomas Fraps we decided to take the clown as the usual suspect.”
The result? Another entertaining — and this time scary — masterpiece.
One thing we love about the Mashable community is the quality comments we find on just about every article on the site.
That’s why we’re kicking off a new feature to showcase the most inspired responses to our stories.
Each week, we’ll select the top comments that have been posted on Mashable articles and display them in a roundup post. We hope to feature thoughtful comments that engage the community and drive more conversation as well as those that make us laugh.
If you haven’t commented on a Mashable article before, check out Mashable Follow, our content curation and social tool, as well as our comment guidelines to learn more. We’d love for you to join the conversation.
Here are this week’s top comments on Mashable:
Netflix Advantages
CGregz added to the conversation by giving additional information relevant to the article. His comment drove others to express their opinions about Netflix and its recent changes.
NSFW Warning: Careful, this video’s spicy language might not be safe for some workplaces or delicate sensibilities.
The funny people at Jest have been paying close attention to the way news outlets cover stories, focusing on headlines in particular. Here’s their satirical interpretation of the “hard work” media mavens go through just to bring you their catchy headlines for one particularly controversial story: Occupy Wall Street.
Our fave: Fox News, which might be a little too close to an actual headline. Which one did you like the best?
NSFW Warning: Careful, this video’s spicy language might not be safe for some workplaces or delicate sensibilities.
The funny people at Jest have been paying close attention to the way news outlets cover stories, focusing on headlines in particular. Here’s their satirical interpretation of the “hard work” media mavens go through just to bring you their catchy headlines for one particularly controversial story: Occupy Wall Street.
Our fave: Fox News, which might be a little too close to an actual headline. Which one did you like the best?
The whole survivor horror genre partially owes itself to Resident Evil, which when released in 1996, was possibly one of the most influential games, and kickstarted a "survival horror" golden age.
While the later iterations of Resident Evil have morphed into action shooters with zombies, the first was a true haunted house game. You are part of a team of elite police trapped in a mansion after a helicopter accident, and to solve the mystery behind some strange murders you have to survive zombies, vicious dogs that jump through windows, the traps of the house, and a traitor.
If all of this doesn't sound like enough to pique your interest, add survival horror staples like limited ammo and clues being left on maps. It also spawns one of the best evil corporations in game history: The Umbrella Corporation, which plays a role in all other Resident Evil games.
Note: this trailer is from the updated GameCube release in 2002.
If Halloween elicits thoughts of scary movie marathons, haunted houses and things jumping out from behind the next corner, then maybe this year it’s time to try some of the best horror video games. We’ve compiled the best classics across all major platforms, with a focus on psychological thrillers over gory zombie tales.
For a scary Halloween, turn off the lights, grab a friend, and pick one of these. We promise you’ll need to leave the light on when you go to bed at night.
YouTube is partnering with Ashton Kutcher, Amy Poehler, Shaq, IGN, The Wall Street Journal and dozens of others to launch a slew of premium video channels.
The channels, which have been in the works for months, is a big and risky play to get premium content onto its servers. Google (YouTube’s owner) is reportedly spending $100 million to secure the deals for its original channels.
“The first of these new original channels will appear on YouTube starting next month and will continue over the next year,” YouTube Global Head of Content Partnerships Robert Kyncl said in a blog post. “They'll be available to you on any internet-connected device, anywhere in the world, with all the interactivity and social features of YouTube built right in.”
The channels will be anchored by a celebrity lineup that includes Madonna (DanceOn), Shaq (The Comedy Shaq Network), Rainn Wilson (SoulPancake), Ashton Kutcher (Katalyst Thrash Lab) and Deepak Chopra (Generate The Chopra Well). YouTube’s partnerships run deeper than celebrities though: WWE, WSJ, The Onion, SB Nation, Demand Media, CafeMom, TED, IGN, Slate, Bleacher Report, InStyle Magazine and Lionsgate are all partners that will seed the content for the new YouTube channels.
It’s no secret that Google has been wanting to move more into premium video. It’s far more monetizable than cat videos, and it sets up YouTube to be the cable channel of the future. It acquired Next New Networks to help it produce more premium content, and it isn’t sparing any expense to land big-name celebrities for its channels. It won’t be long until we see whether those deals were worth the price.
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: An ebook publisher that develops titles based on existing demand.
Genius Idea: Bloggers, content farms and news publishers alike have long leveraged search trends to uncover the information people are looking for and profited accordingly. But can the same model be applied to book publishing?
McKinsey alum Kevin Gao, whose startup Hyperink announced its first significant ($1.2 million) round of funding this week, believes so. (And so do his investors, apparently.)
Book publishers, he says, too often choose what to publish based on what they like rather than what they know will sell. Hyperink will instead find out what people want to read, largely by sifting through short and long-range search data. The company will then find authors to write short, highly targeted books on the topics people are searching for information about.
Think How to Get Into Yale rather than How to Get Into College, or a short history on Apple founder and former CEO Steve Jobs around the time of his death.
Hyperink is also welcoming pitches from aspiring authors, promising design, editing and marketing services in exchange for 50% of the royalties. Gao says the company is also interested in partnering experts who are less inclined to write their own books with journalists to co-author books.
Books are generally priced in the $15 to $25 range — a bit on expensive side for ebooks, but on the low end for business books.
Gao added that all of Hyperink’s books to date have been profitable within the first year of publication.
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.
In a blog entry on Thursday, Facebook stated that about 600,000 log-ins every day are compromised.
The factoid, first noted by security site Sophos, was in the context of an entry introducing new security features for the social network. The figure was extrapolated by a stat showing 0.06% of 1 billion logins per day are compromised. Less than 0.5% of Facebook users experience spam on any given day.
Facebook’s proposed solution for such breaches is to find three to five trusted friends. That way, if you’re locked out of your account, Facebook will send codes to your friends to give to you. Facebook is also testing app passwords that the company will generate on your behalf and you won’t need to remember.
What do you think? Are you surprised at the extent of the breaches or does this seem low to you? Let us know in the comments.
Could Siri, the voice-based virtual assistant for every iPhone 4S owner, constitute a threat to Google’s Android operating system?
Absolutely, says Gary Morgenthaler, a partner at Morgenthaler Ventures, recognized expert in artificial intelligence, and a Siri board member and investor. Apple, he argues, now has at least a two-year advantage over Google in the war for best smartphone platform.
“What Siri has done is changed people’s expectations about what’s possible,” Morgenthaler said in an interview with Mashable. “Apple has crossed a threshold; people now expect that you should be able to expect to speak ordinary English — and be understood. Siri has cracked the code.”
This threshold, from mere speech recognition to natural language input and understanding, is one that Google cannot cross by replicating the technology or making an acquisition. “There’s no company out there they can go buy,” Morgenthaler says.
Google has Voice Actions, a voice search application for Android. So what’s the big difference? It comes down to semantics, Morgenthaler says: “Siri understands what you mean.” She has a far more precise understanding of what you’re saying and the context you’re saying it in, in other words.
Morgenthaler calls Google’s Voice Actions a “capable speech recognition program,” and says it was the state-of-the-art voice-based user interaction program. That was, until Siri, with all her semantic prowess, debuted on iPhone 4S. (Of course, Morgenthaler may well have a financial stake in Siri’s future; the terms of the company’s sale to Apple were never disclosed.)
Currently, Google is making dismissive public pronouncements about Siri: “your phone shouldn’t be your assistant,” Android chief Andy Rubin told the AsiaD Conference. But Morgenthaler believes they’re scrambling to catch up behind the scenes, because Apple won’t stand still with this technology.
Rather, it will use Siri to solidify the strength of its platform and steal advertising dollars away from Google, he argues. “Siri is a platform,” Morgenthaler says. “It’s not just limited to those things that Apple has done at launch.”
At the moment, Siri has a lot of iPhone-centric functions. But Siri the company implemented more than 45 APIs prior to being acquired by Apple — meaning the possibilities of a conversation interface to the web are endless. Back in April 2010, just after the Apple acquisition, Mashable noted Siri’s potential role as a driver in mobile search.
“Apple has the opportunity to outmode the entire Android ecosystem,” Morgenthaler says. Of course, that hinges on Apple making those APIs available to iOS developers, but he believes Apple will do just that: “This will be the differentiating factor in the iOS platform.”
Siri’s threat to Google could reach further than Android. In fact, Siri challenges Google’s entire search empire and shakes it to the foundation, Morgenthaler says.
“Google has made a huge contribution to all of our lives … they’ve made search comprehensive and instantaneous … but the whole paradigm is wrong,” he says. “[People] don’t want a million blue links, they want one correct answer. All the rest is noise that you’d rather have go away.
“Apple has the opportunity to really understand the question that you’re asking, and apply semantic knowledge such that [Siri] will deliver you the right answer, or a small set of highly relevant answers.”
When that happens, Morgenthaler says, all the steps that typically comprise an online search, including the ads served against search results, become completely irrelevant. He believes Apple can and will circumvent this search experience, passing consumers to merchants by way of Siri — and earning a finders fee for doing so. Under this paradigm, Google could be completely forgotten.
In short, forget the search engine — Siri will be an answer engine. She can perform executable actions and change consumer expectations in the process.
Many mourned the death of Steve Jobs, the often-controversial, often-brilliant mind behind Apple. Amidst the sadness came a flood of tributes with mini-shrines and a company-wide memorial ceremony.
Those tributes have only become more and more elaborate. How best to remember Jobs than with a little bit of creativity? Check out the gallery above for seven clever samples.
What other tributes to Jobs have you seen? Let us know in the comments.
Steve Martin’s not going to let his one-liners on Twitter go to waste. Instead, he’s going to recycle them for a for-charity book.
The actor/comedian announced the move on his Twitter feed on Thursday:
The title of the book: “The Ten, Make that Nine, Habits of Very Organized People. Make that Ten.” Grand Central Publishing, a unit of Hachette Book Group, will publish the book in 2012.
Martin joined Twitter in September 2010 and now has close to 1.8 million followers. Martin’s not the first to recycle tweets into a book. The forerunner for Twit Lit was Justin Halpern, who got a book deal and a short-lived TV show based on his Shit My Dad Says Twitter feed.
Some recent Martin tweets:
“Dinosaurs did not walk with humans. The evolutionary record says different. They gamboled.”
“Got the new iPhone and it keeps saying, ‘you're a creep.’”
“I'm for the Wall Street Occupiers. But will they accept me when they find out I sell packaged mortgage default instruments to children?”
“I'm tired of wasting letters when punctuation will do, period”
“I got a flue shot and now my chimney works perfectly.”
For the discriminating BlackBerry fan, the Bold 9900 isn’t the ultimate BBM-running device, it’s the limited edition Porsche Design P’9981 from BlackBerry.
The P’9981 has the same internal specifications as the BlackBerry Bold 9900, but it sports a unique look and feel — styled by Porsche Design. It’s also 10 times as expensive.
That’s not a typo. As slick as the P’9981 looks (for a BlackBerry), we can’t help but laugh out loud at the $2,000 list price. I understand the appeal of limited-edition luxury electronics, but usually when a phone costs this much, it’s covered in 14k gold or adorned with diamonds.
The guys at t-break put together a hands-on video of the special edition device. It will be available at Porsche stores and select retailers.
Don’t get me wrong — the phone is beautiful. The design is sleek and futuristic and retro all at the same time. But $2,000? If you really need a phone to match your vintage 911 or Boxster Spyder, this might be the phone for you. Ah, who are we kidding? It’s still a BlackBerry.
For the discriminating BlackBerry fan, the Bold 9900 isn’t the ultimate BBM-running device, it’s the limited edition Porsche Design P’9981 from BlackBerry.
The P’9981 has the same internal specifications as the BlackBerry Bold 9900, but it sports a unique look and feel — styled by Porsche Design. It’s also 10 times as expensive.
That’s not a typo. As slick as the P’9981 looks (for a BlackBerry), we can’t help but laugh out loud at the $2,000 list price. I understand the appeal of limited-edition luxury electronics, but usually when a phone costs this much, it’s covered in 14k gold or adorned with diamonds.
The guys at t-break put together a hands-on video of the special edition device. It will be available at Porsche stores and select retailers.
Don’t get me wrong — the phone is beautiful. The design is sleek and futuristic and retro all at the same time. But $2,000? If you really need a phone to match your vintage 911 or Boxster Spyder, this might be the phone for you. Ah, who are we kidding? It’s still a BlackBerry.
Each day, Mashable highlights one noteworthy YouTube video. Check out all our viral video picks.
The Simpsons - No TV and No Beer
Brian Anthony Hernandez: In this clip from The Simpsons: Treehouse of Horror V, Homer turns a little loopy after being deprived of two of man's best friends: TV and beer!
Homer: "So what do you think, Marge? All I need is a title. I was thinking along the lines of 'No TV and No Beer Make Homer' something something."
Rather than limit ourselves to just one YouTube video today, we bring you a whole collection of our favorite spooky clips from the streaming platform. Be prepared to be horrified by this roundup.
Watch in awe as a ghost cuts through a pumpkin. Quiver as a pumpkin head interpretive dances in a cemetary. And, possibly most frighteningly, see what happens when Homer Simpson goes without TV and beer.
And please let us know your favorite in the comments.
About 100 YouTube channels with original content from Ashton Kutcher, Amy Poehler and former NBA star Shaquille O’Neal, among others, are on the way, according to a report.
The new channels will be created in partnership with “dozens of media companies” and generate about 25 hours of new content on YouTube, according to The Wall Street Journal. Most of the program is expected to go live next year.
Hulu inked a five-year deal with The CW on Friday, giving the streaming site access to next-day content from five of the six major networks.
Starting “later this year” (Hulu declined to get more specific), Hulu will begin providing next-day content from shows like Gossip Girl, The Vampire Diaries and 90210, among other shows.
Subscribers with Hulu Plus will see that content the next day; those who get the free Hulu service will see it eight days after the content airs. Hulu Plus costs $7.99 a month.
With The CW on board, Hulu Plus is now offering next-day content from all the major networks except CBS. Hulu’s proposition and its pointed emphasis on next-day content is intended as a stark contrast to Netflix, which got access to past-season content for CW shows earlier this month.
What do you think? Will next-day CW content persuade you to sign up for Hulu Plus? Let us know in the comments.
Leo Widrich is the co-founder of Buffer, a smarter way to publish tweets and Facebook posts. He writes more about Twitter tips and tools on the Buffer blog. Follow him on Twitter @LeoWid.
When exactly are your best times to tweet? With over 200 million tweets posted each day, this is a very important question to tackle. When you better time your tweets, you're better able to reach your followers. Furthermore, knowing when they're actually online is incredibly important.
Let's examine different tools that help determine Twitter metrics. Each tool takes a look at your own personal following to calculate best tweeting times. Below you'll find the top five tools and how they can optimize your tweeting schedule.
This first tool is certainly my favorite in terms of simplicity. Drop your username into WhenToTweet and the app works out the stats for you. It will come up with a very easy to understand graph, detailing which time of the day you should start tweeting.
Your best times are determined by two key measures: the performance of your past tweets and when most of your followers will be online.
TweetStats is a comprehensive tool that provides more detailed best tweeting times. Among other things, the app tells you how many tweets per day you're currently sending, what your tweet timeline looks like, and how many replies you send in comparison to original tweets.
The app also features a tweet density report. Whenever most tweets are hitting your stream it means your optimal tweeting times are reached. Try posting at these high density times to get better results.
My favorite in terms of algorithm is certainly Tweriod. The app takes into account a great number of different parameters, and calculates a very accurate result. Tweriod looks at both your tweets and those of your followers to provide the best times to tweet.
It is also worth mentioning that the app excludes automation tools, such as Twitterfeed, when determining whether your followers are online — definitely a big plus.
TweetReports takes a slightly different approach by gathering the tweet statistics from your top 25 influential followers into its "Follower Analysis" feature. The spikes indicate when these users are most active and, therefore, likely to see your tweets.
Additionally, the app allows for a very comprehensive keyword search. It analyzes the times at which certain keywords are talked about the most, and when you should participate in those discussions.
This is a great tool from Dan Zarrella, which shows you the best times to tweet based on your previous 1,000 tweets. Similar to WhenToTweet, the process is super fast, meaning you will have your results in a few seconds.
Of course, because TweetWhen only looks at your past tweets, its algorithm may miss some important parameters.
What else is important other than timing?
Of course, success doesn't solely depend on timing your tweets. My company looked at one million tweets from our users. These additional factors contributed to higher CTR and engagement rate.
Frequency of tweeting is nearly as important as timing. If you can consistently and regularly post 5-10 tweets with valuable content, well-spaced throughout the day, you will achieve maximum impact.
Tweet a variety of sources. This has equally contributed to increased engagement on Twitter. This means, the more varied the destinations of your links, the more trust you can build among your followers. If all you do is send tweets to your own blog or products, followers gradually drop off and stop clicking through.
These tools help to optimize one's daily tweeting habits. More effective Twitter management is crucial to move forward fast and efficiently. How have these types of apps helped with your tweeting?
Two weeks after the iPhone 4S release, Apple is quietly reaching out to users who have experienced serious battery drainage problems — and asking them to help by installing a monitoring program.
The crowdsourced approach came to light courtesy of The Guardian, which found a user in the UK who had been contacted by Apple after he wrote about his battery life problems online. “I then got a call from a senior engineer who said he had read my post and was ‘reaching out’ to users for data,” the user said. He had been experiencing a 10% drop in battery life every hour.
The Apple engineer then “admitted this was an issue (and that they aren’t close to finding a fix!) and asked lots of questions about my usage and then asked if he could install the file below and that he would call back the day after to retrieve the info.”
Apple has sent mixed messages about the iPhone 4S battery life since its launch. The company’s data sheet notes that the phone’s standby time is 200 hours, which is lower than previous models — but Apple also says the 4S has a longer battery life when it comes to 3G talk time.
Although the battery issue hasn’t quite reached Antennagate levels, it is lighting up the Apple message boards. One user post on “iPhone 4S battery life” has received 1,300 replies and nearly 100,000 views since Oct. 15.
No consensus has been reached on what is causing the drainage. Some 4S owners have been able to fix it by doing a clean restore of their phone from iTunes. Others point the finger at Contacts, especially those imported from MobileMe, iCloud or Google contacts, and have found success by reinstalling them.
Another possible culprit is the new Notifications system in iOS 5, which can overload a phone with constant pings from services such as Facebook or Instagram. Having too many GPS-based location services turned on can also cause the phone to lose battery life fast. Siri, the intelligent voice assistant baked into the iPhone 4S, does not appear to be a serious drain on the battery.
Speaking as an iPhone 4S user, I have noticed no battery life problems in the past two weeks. Then again, I have kept my Notifications to a minimum — not for the sake of my phone, but the sake of my sanity. The Facebook app’s notifications, especially, can waste a lot of time, whether or not it wastes power too.
iPhone 4S
The iPhone 4S looks and feels exactly like the iPhone 4.
The Wall Street Journal‘s bestseller rankings will now include ebook sales, the publisher announced Friday.
Beginning this weekend, the Journal will display four lists charting book sales: combined ebook and hard copy sales of fiction, combined ebook and hard copy sales of non-fiction, ebook-only sales of fiction, and ebook-only sales of non-fiction.
Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple and Google are among the retailers that have agreed to release ebook sales numbers to Nielsen, which powers the Journal‘s rankings.
The New York Times and USA Todayalready include ebook sales in their respective bestseller lists. Physical and ebook sales rankings often differ, with many self-published, $0.99 ebooks topping the ebook charts.
The addition of ebooks to bestseller lists points to the growing strength — and soon, perhaps, dominance — of the ebook market. In May, Amazon announced that it sells more ebooks than hardbacks and paperbacks combined.
The Clock Bloggers had earned such praise for their Angry Birds costumes that they blogged an instructional post for other bird-crazy fans sure to take advantage this Halloween.
Memes are huge this year. So are video game birds, superheros and working iPhone bodysuits. The year 2011 has never seen so many tech-inspired Halloween costumes.
That’s right, nowadays white sheets and bloody fangs are out — unless you’re desperately hanging on to the Twilight trend, which is only borderline acceptable in my book. This Halloween you’ll be encountering “aha” moments around every corner. Mermaid with thick-rimmed glasses = Hipster Ariel. Aviator-rimmed older man carrying a stuffed badger = Ojai taxidermist Chuck Testa (either that, or someone you should avoid at all costs).
Flip through our gallery for a brief overview of what to expect this Halloween. Homemade, assembled or bought, these costumes represent tech innovation and digital trends from the past and present.
Show Us Yours and Get Featured on Mashable!
How To Enter:
Tell us what social media or tech costume you’re wearing for Halloween and why it’s so fabulous in the comments below. Please include a link to a photo of you in the costume on Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Instagram or other network where you’ve posted it.
Submit your costume and photo link by Monday, October 31 at noon ET.
Please use your real identity in the submission so that we may credit you in the follow-up post.
Look out for a post with the winning submissions on Monday, shortly after the contest closes, to see if you’ve won!
The Occupy Wall Street movement has not only inspired people to take to the streets, but to open their own wallets to support the cause — many using mobile payment site WePay.
On Oct. 10, WePay had recorded more than $81,000 sent to groups associated with Occupy Wall Street. Just 17 days later, that number grew by 301% to more than $325,000, according to WePay, whose trove of data reveals who these donors are and where all that money is going.
A strong percentage of that money (83%) is collected in general funds used for shelter, food and other essentials. Another 4% has been designated just for legal fees — either when protesters are arrested or to learn their rights about where and when they can demonstrate.
The single largest spike for donations took place on Oct. 11 in Massachusetts. Boston police arrested 141 demonstrators in a restricted section of Rose Kennedy Greenway. Massachusetts donations multiplied by more than 400% from just $3,816 to more than $19,000 on that day.
In the United States, the state with the highest average donation is Connecticut, with an average of $65.15 donated. The lowest average is North Dakota with $16.25. While these don’t indicate total donations, it appears that most donors choose to go local. Excluding New York — considered the epicenter of the movement — 85% of donations traveled less than 100 miles.
Of course, Occupy Wall Street isn’t just limited to the U.S. Of all donations recorded on WePay going to satellite movements, Finland had the highest number of donations per capita.
In terms of income brackets, the majority of donors (25.09%) make between $50,000 and $75,000 a year. The pattern follows a relative bell curve: extremes on the income bracket (high wealth and poverty) donated less often, whereas middle brackets such as those making $35,000 to $50,000 or those making $75,000 and $100,000 donated more often.
The fact that donations followed a relatively standard data population graph suggests that the movement is widespread. Of all donations, 64% were donated by men, according to additional data from RapLeaf.
What do you make of these numbers and the fact that Occupy Wall Street groups have received more than $325,000 in support? Are any numbers higher or lower than expected? Sound off in the comments.
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With the explosion of mobile devices, advertising dollars will begin to shift to mobile for tech marketers this year. IDG Global Solutions President Matt Yorke talks about the rise of social and how IDG helps marketers create social campaigns. The line is fading between social media and traditional media. Earned media or sharing of information within social networks is becoming mainstream whether on a PC or mobile device. Learn more.
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Last week, Netflix reported losing more than 800,000 subscribers since increasing its price by 60% this past summer. If you’re one of these Netflix customers who couldn’t seem to rationalize the hike, you’re probably exploring other options.
A few years ago, our only option was to drive to the nearest Blockbuster or Hollywood Video, only to be subjected to ironclad late fees and out-of-stock titles. Now, with a multitude of popular online streaming services, our favorite movies and TV shows are just one click away. From Amazon Instant Prime to Blockbuster On Demand and VUDU, more and more companies are providing viable streaming alternatives.
Luckily, most of these sites offer free trials without any obligation to sign up. If you’re still not sure which service is best for you, take a look at our gallery below to compare your options.
What Amazon Prime Instant Video Offers: Instant streaming of thousands of unlimited, commercial-free movies and TV shows at no additional cost with a paid annual Amazon Prime membership. The membership also includes fast shipping along with other benefits.
Cost: $79/year for an Amazon Prime membership to watch prime instant videos.
What You Need: A PC, Mac, Blu-ray player or set-top box that is compatible with Amazon Instant Video. Internet-connected TVs also work.
On Monday, Netflix reported losing more than 800,000 subscribers since the company announced it would increase its price by 60% this past summer. If you’re one of these Netflix customers who couldn’t seem to rationalize the hike, you’re probably exploring other options.
A few years ago, our only option was to drive to the nearest Blockbuster or Hollywood Video, only to be subjected to ironclad late fees and out-of-stock titles. Now, with a multitude of popular online streaming services, our favorite movies and TV shows are just one click away. From Amazon Instant Prime to Blockbuster On Demand and VUDU, more and more companies are providing viable streaming alternatives.
Luckily, most of these sites offer free trials without any obligation to sign up. If you’re still not sure which service is best for you, take a look at our gallery below to compare your options.
1.
What Amazon Prime Instant Video Offers: Instant streaming of unlimited, commercial-free movies and TV shows at no additional cost with a paid annual Amazon Prime membership. The membership also includes fast shipping along with other benefits. Amazon Prime Instant Videos will offer more than 12,000 titles by the end of this year.
Cost: $79/year for an Amazon Prime membership to watch prime instant videos.
What You Need: A PC, Mac, Blu-ray player or set-top box that is compatible with Amazon Instant Video. Internet-connected TVs also work.
On Monday, Netflix reported losing more than 800,000 subscribers since the company announced a 60% price increase, which went into effect in September. If you’re one of these Netflix customers who couldn’t seem to rationalize the hike, you’re probably exploring other options.
A few years ago, our only option was to drive to the nearest Blockbuster or Hollywood Video, only to be subjected to ironclad late fees and out-of-stock titles. Now, with a multitude of popular online streaming services, our favorite movies and TV shows are just one click away. From Amazon Instant Prime to Blockbuster On Demand and VUDU, more and more companies are providing viable streaming alternatives.
Luckily, most of these sites offer free trials without any obligation to sign up. If you’re still not sure which service is best for you, take a look at our gallery below to compare your options.
1.
What Amazon Prime Instant Video Offers: Instant streaming of unlimited, commercial-free movies and TV shows at no additional cost with a paid annual Amazon Prime membership. The membership also includes fast shipping along with other benefits. Amazon Prime Instant Videos will offer more than 12,000 titles by the end of this year.
Cost: $79/year for an Amazon Prime membership to watch prime instant videos.
What You Need: A PC, Mac, Blu-ray player or set-top box that is compatible with Amazon Instant Video. Internet-connected TVs also work.
Nokia’s new Lumia 800 looks fantastic — easily one of the most impressive Windows Phone devices to date — yet the Finnish company remains mum on its plans to bring it to the U.S. market, aside from a few cryptic statements alluding to plans to “introduce a portfolio of products in early 2012.” This is a big problem, not just for Nokia, but for Windows Phone as a platform.
I get it. Nokia sees Europe as a more important market than the United States. In fact, research firm Strategy Analytics predicted that the partnership with Nokia could help Microsoft double its smartphone market share in Western Europe in 2012. Nokia has long fallen out of favor in North America, but in Europe, the brand still has strength.
Leveraging European strength certainly makes sense, but does that require ignoring America? From my perspective, it appears as if Nokia thinks that success in Europe and success in the U.S. cannot co-exist. Perhaps it’s my North American bias speaking, but I think success can take place in both markets.
It's Like the N9...But Not
The Lumia 800 is nearly identical in appearance to the N9, Nokia's first -- and last -- MeeGo handset.
Like the N9, it sports a beautiful polycarbonate body with a curved glass screen, a rear camera with LED flash and edges that feel great in the hand.
Despite once being a market leader in the U.S., Nokia fell out of favor with carriers and users as it started to transition into the smartphone market. In the pre-smartphone days, Nokia devices were popular, well-designed and ubiquitous. After 2005 or so, that stopped being true.
Of course, Nokia isn’t the only company that struggled with the transition from cellphone to smartphone. Motorola Mobility went from making the most popular non-smartphone of all time (the original Razr), to fighting for its life.
What did Motorola do? It signed a big contract with Verizon in the U.S., partnered with Google on Android and crashed onto the scene with the splashy Droid Does campaign.
Motorola, as a result, catapulted back into the spotlight and was instantly recognized as a provider of high-end smartphones. It helped kickstart widespread adoption of Android across the world.
The Nokia Lumia 800 could be the device to really give Windows Phone a face and a chance at eclipsing BlackBerry as the number three smartphone platform, but it needs to be available throughout the world — and that includes America.
The Waiting Game Doesn’t Work
When Nokia says that it is planning on bringing a “portfolio of products” to the U.S. in early 2012, that could mean January or that could mean March. Make no mistake, the longer Nokia waits, the slimmer the chances are that the phone will find success in the U.S.
To use Motorola as an example again, the company’s eagerly anticipated Droid Bionic was supposed to hit the streets this spring. Eight months after appearing at CES, it finally did.
It’s still a solid device — and a great 4G LTE handset — but the momentum built up around the phone had already disappeared. Moreover, the competitive landscape had increased, with Motorola facing competition from a fleet of new devices that appeared months after the Bionic was supposed to make its debut.
Motorola and Verizon have essentially made the device obsolete themselves, with the announcement of the Droid Razr.
Nokia can’t make the same mistake with the Lumia 800. Already users are complaining about the lack of a front-facing camera and its ability to “only” record 720p video. Other Windows Phone Mango devices from LG and HTC have faster processors.
The longer Nokia waits to make a big global splash with the Lumia 800, the more it risks losing a chance to sway the markets.
In the U.S., Carriers Matter
Microsoft has struggled to get widespread carrier support in the U.S. Walk into a T-Mobile, AT&T, Verizon or Sprint store and you’ll see Windows Phone devices, but oftentimes, these devices aren’t promoted as well with signage, placement or employee training as handsets running Android or iOS. This is a problem in the U.S., where the carriers matter just as much as the phones themselves. Yes, the rare device can make or break a network, but carriers can also make or break a platform.
From a device-maker perspective, Apple, Motorola and RIM are at an advantage in that they support one platform. That makes the branding easy. Even before Google announced its intentions to acquire Motorola Mobility, Moto was synonymous with Android.
This is where Nokia could have a big opportunity in the U.S. Not only does Nokia finally have a hardware/software combination that can appeal to U.S. smartphone consumers, it can put its marketing muscle behind promoting Windows Phone as a platform.
At the same time, I cautioned that “execution is essential” and said “the longer it takes for the first Nokia-branded Windows Phone to hit stores, the lower the chances for success it will have.”
Eight months later, Nokia is about to release its first Windows Phone. Now it just needs to make the big push to the U.S.
Nokia’s new Lumia 800 looks fantastic — easily one of the most impressive Windows Phone devices to date — yet the Finnish company remains mum on its plans to bring it to the U.S. market, aside from a few cryptic statements alluding to plans to “introduce a portfolio of products in early 2012.” This is a big problem, not just for Nokia, but for Windows Phone as a platform.
I get it. Nokia sees Europe as a more important market than the United States. In fact, research firm Strategy Analytics predicted that the partnership with Nokia could help Microsoft double its smartphone market share in Western Europe in 2012. Nokia has long fallen out of favor in North America, but in Europe, the brand still has strength.
Leveraging European strength certainly makes sense, but does that require ignoring America? From my perspective, it appears as if Nokia thinks that success in Europe and success in the U.S. cannot co-exist. Perhaps it’s my North American bias speaking, but I think success can take place in both markets.
It's Like the N9...But Not
The Lumia 800 is nearly identical in appearance to the N9, Nokia's first -- and last -- MeeGo handset.
Like the N9, it sports a beautiful polycarbonate body with a curved glass screen, a rear camera with LED flash and edges that feel great in the hand.
Despite once being a market leader in the U.S., Nokia fell out of favor with carriers and users as it started to transition into the smartphone market. In the pre-smartphone days, Nokia devices were popular, well-designed and ubiquitous. After 2005 or so, that stopped being true.
Of course, Nokia isn’t the only company that struggled with the transition from cellphone to smartphone. Motorola Mobility went from making the most popular non-smartphone of all time (the original Razr), to fighting for its life.
What did Motorola do? It signed a big contract with Verizon in the U.S., partnered with Google on Android and crashed onto the scene with the splashy Droid Does campaign.
Motorola, as a result, catapulted back into the spotlight and was instantly recognized as a provider of high-end smartphones. It helped kickstart widespread adoption of Android across the world.
The Nokia Lumia 800 could be the device to really give Windows Phone a face and a chance at eclipsing BlackBerry as the number three smartphone platform, but it needs to be available throughout the world — and that includes America.
The Waiting Game Doesn’t Work
When Nokia says that it is planning on bringing a “portfolio of products” to the U.S. in early 2012, that could mean January or that could mean March. Make no mistake, the longer Nokia waits, the slimmer the chances are that the phone will find success in the U.S.
To use Motorola as an example again, the company’s eagerly anticipated Droid Bionic was supposed to hit the streets this spring. Eight months after appearing at CES, it finally did.
It’s still a solid device — and a great 4G LTE handset — but the momentum built up around the phone had already disappeared. Moreover, the competitive landscape had increased, with Motorola facing competition from a fleet of new devices that appeared months after the Bionic was supposed to make its debut.
Motorola and Verizon have essentially made the device obsolete themselves, with the announcement of the Droid Razr.
Nokia can’t make the same mistake with the Lumia 800. Already users are complaining about the lack of a front-facing camera and its ability to “only” record 720p video. Other Windows Phone Mango devices from LG and HTC have faster processors.
The longer Nokia waits to make a big global splash with the Lumia 800, the more it risks losing a chance to sway the markets.
In the U.S., Carriers Matter
Microsoft has struggled to get widespread carrier support in the U.S. Walk into a T-Mobile, AT&T, Verizon or Sprint store and you’ll see Windows Phone devices, but oftentimes, these devices aren’t promoted as well with signage, placement or employee training as handsets running Android or iOS. This is a problem in the U.S., where the carriers matter just as much as the phones themselves. Yes, the rare device can make or break a network, but carriers can also make or break a platform.
From a device-maker perspective, Apple, Motorola and RIM are at an advantage in that they support one platform. That makes the branding easy. Even before Google announced its intentions to acquire Motorola Mobility, Moto was synonymous with Android.
This is where Nokia could have a big opportunity in the U.S. Not only does Nokia finally have a hardware/software combination that can appeal to U.S. smartphone consumers, it can put its marketing muscle behind promoting Windows Phone as a platform.
At the same time, I cautioned that “execution is essential” and said “the longer it takes for the first Nokia-branded Windows Phone to hit stores, the lower the chances for success it will have.”
Eight months later, Nokia is about to release its first Windows Phone. Now it just needs to make the big push to the U.S.
What’s worse when you’re on the go — your smartphone running out of battery life with no power outlet anywhere to be found, or having to carry around a charger?
So many consumer electronics have touchscreens these days, and we tend to take them for granted. Sure, they might break or crack, but they’ve gotten considerably more durable over the years. That’s thanks in large part to innovation by a team at 
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The truth is, the auto companies are gun shy about adding too many social media hooks into their vehicles. The main reason is that they could distract drivers. 
Speech and voice recognition technology have been around for half a century, but it's still far from mainstream. Where are the machines that write down what we say? Where are the appliances that simply work based on voice commands?
While 
Each 
Name: 
With the explosion of mobile devices, advertising dollars will begin to shift to mobile for tech marketers this year. 
Since 2007 
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