Selasa, 14 Desember 2010

Mashable: Latest 29 News Updates - including “Lead-Gen Startup Integrate Nabs $4.25M Series A from Foundry Group”

Mashable: Latest 29 News Updates - including “Lead-Gen Startup Integrate Nabs $4.25M Series A from Foundry Group”

Lead-Gen Startup Integrate Nabs $4.25M Series A from Foundry Group

Posted: 14 Dec 2010 05:05 AM PST


Integrate, a startup with a performance-based marketing platform that includes lead exchange and SEM (search engine marketing), has just closed a Series A round of funding from Foundry Group.

The funding, which comes to $4.25 million, is a no-brainer for the Foundry Group, an early-stage VC firm based in Boulder, CO.

"Foundry Group believes there is a large need and desire for performance-based marketing,” said Foundry Group managing partner Seth Levine.

“We think there is a huge swing to performance marketing, and Integrate provides the technology needed to make it succeed.”

Integrate's platform is all about performance and transparency; its customers only pay for qualified leads and conversions — that could mean a sale or a phone call, depending on the type of campaign.

Advertisers and publishers work together and communicate through Integrate’s platform, where each party can review important information about the other party’s business.

And while lead-gen is typically characterized as one of the seamier sides of the Internet, Integrate says it has algorithms and basic regulations in place to guard against the kind of scams that have plagued the industry practically since its inception and grant the field a new sheen of legitimacy.

“Our mission is to make it simple and effective for anyone — a small brand of a large retailer — to put together a multi-channel, performance-based campaign,” said Integrate co-founder Jeremy Bloom, who began the company earlier this year along with Hart Cunningham.

Image courtesy of Flickr, daviddmuir.

More About: foundry Group, funding, integrate, series a, startup, startups

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Facebook Reveals Top Status Trends of 2010

Posted: 14 Dec 2010 12:50 AM PST


After Google and Twitter, time has come for Facebook to tell us what its users have been chirping about all year.

To get the top trends, Facebook analyzed status updates across 236 countries, comparing the rate at which each phrase occurred in 2010 compared to 2009. The results above are the ones that had increased by both a large percentage and a large volume.

Facebook’s status update isn’t exactly the same thing as a tweet, and it’s definitely very different from a Google search phrase, so Facebook’s list does have some surprises. The most popular term all year was HMU – an acronym for “hit me up”, meaning call or text me – which was barely used by anyone in 2009. According to Facebook, the term was spreading wildly in the first half of 2010, reaching 80,000 mentions per day by the end of summer. In September, however, after the summer break, HMU became more of a weekend-oriented request as many users went back to school.

Trends which correspond to the most popular phrases on Google and Twitter in 2010 were the World Cup, Haiti, Mineros/Miners (referring to the trapped Chilean miners), the iPad and iPhone 4 and the inevitable Justin Bieber.

Facebook users also talked a lot about movies (in general), airplanes (referring to the song “Airplanes” by B.o.B. feat. Hayley Williams), games on Facebook, and, of course, the next year – 2011.

You can find some additional details about each phrase over on Facebook’s official blog.

Reviews: Facebook, Google, Twitter, justin bieber

More About: 2010, facebook, social media, social networking, status updates, trends, year in review

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Mashable’s Ben Parr Talks About Gawker Hack on G4’s “Attack of the Show” [VIDEO]

Posted: 13 Dec 2010 11:29 PM PST


Our own Ben Parr made an appearance on Attack of the Show today to talk about the recent security issues experienced by several sites belonging to Gawker Media.

He talks with Kevin Pereira about the issues at hand: Staff and user passwords for a number of Gawker-held sites were compromised, and since many Internet users use the same passwords for all their online activities, their other accounts — from Twitter to Paypal and beyond — were also at risk.

Watch the clip to get the full story as well as Ben’s tips for keeping yourself and your online accounts safe — and yes, there are easier ways to do that than keeping 20-character, random passwords memorized in your already overclocked brain-box, we promise.

Reviews: Internet, Twitter

More About: attack of the show, Ben Parr, Gawker, video

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Android Smartphones Outrank iPhones in Top 30 Mobile Devices List

Posted: 13 Dec 2010 10:34 PM PST


The Android-versus-iPhone saga is likely to be ongoing for some time to come; however, every time we get a look at mobile OS stats, we see Android pulling ahead a little bit more.

While a recent list of the top 30 mobile devices shows that all iOS devices together still outnumber Android devices by a slim margin, when you only compare smartphones and put tablets and MP3 players aside, Android clearly has a larger share of that list.

Data gathered by mobile ad shop Millennial Media also shows iOS and Android devices tied for total number of impressions in November, each OS grabbing exactly 38% of the month’s mobile impressions.

However, when considering a breakdown of the top 30 mobile devices, including smartphones, feature phones, and connected, non-phone devices, a different picture emerges.

At first, when devices are broken into categories based on operating system alone, Apple has the advantage. But when you take iPads and iPod touch devices out of the picture and you only consider smartphones’ share of the market, Android devices seem to come out on top.


It’s worth mentioning that none of the relatively new Android tablets have yet tipped the scales of mass adoption or even moderate popularity to our knowledge. Models such as the Dell Streak and Samsung Tab weren’t even in the top devices listed here. Apple’s iPad, however, was in the seventh position on the list.

The diversity of the Android hardware currently available has likely been a boon to the vitality of the operating system. Thirteen of the 30 top mobile devices as measured by Millennial were Android-powered. And Samsung and Motorola, two companies that have invested large amounts of time and effort, not to mention marketing dollars, in the Android platform, were the top two manufacturers behind Apple. The original Droid was the stand-out hit among all Android smartphones in the top 30 mobile devices:

At the end of the day, there are areas where Apple’s iOS devices show a clear advantage in numbers; likewise, there are areas where Android devices are beginning to pull ahead. But the mobile market, as complex as it is, is hardly a zero-sum game. Both companies (Apple and Google) can and have won in the mobile OS department. What remains to be seen is who will continue to innovate and continue to win the dollars of U.S. and global consumers.

Reviews: Android, Google

More About: android, blackberry, iOS, iphone, RIM, stats

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Roku XR Gets Free Upgrade to 1080p

Posted: 13 Dec 2010 10:01 PM PST


Roku XR owners can now increase their HD box’s resolution from 720p to 1080p with a quick, free download.

The update only works with the second-cheapest Roku box ($80), allowing it to display the same resolution as its more-expensive brother, the $100 XD|S. Unfortunately for Roku SD and HD owners, their boxes won’t be the recipient of this unexpected holiday gift.

Not only does this update enhance the video resolution of the Roku XR; it also makes its Hulu videos start faster, and its navigation controls work faster, too. Best of all, owners don’t have to do a thing to get this update — it’ll upgrade itself automatically over the next few days.

Users who just can’t wait can download the update manually by going to the Roku XR’s Settings Menu, selecting “Player Info,” then “Check for Updates,” and the downloading and installation will begin.

Suddenly, the $80 Roku XR is looking like it could be an even more appealing gift for that vid kid on your list.

Reviews: Hulu

More About: 1080p, firmware, internet television, iptv, roku, roku xd, television

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Justin Bieber Most “Failiest” Person of the Year

Posted: 13 Dec 2010 09:04 PM PST


FAIL Blog has just come out with its annual list of the Top FAIL people, moments, and videos/pictures, all voted on by its community. The highlight of the list? Justin Bieber nabbing the honor of “Failiest Person” with 44% of the vote.

Yes, he may have the most-viewed YouTube video of all time (and his own perfume), but Bieber is obviously persona non grata with the FAIL Blog community. Other honorees include, Snooki (with 10% of the vote), Tiger Woods (8%), Mel Gibson (7%), Lindsay Lohan (5%), Bristol Palin (5%), Mike Sorrentino (a.k.a. "The Situation") (4%), The Kardashians (4%), Brett Favre (4%) and Miley Cyrus (3%).

BP’s Oil Spill — which birthed popular parody Twitter account, @BPGlobalPR — nabbed the number-one spot for “Moments in Fail” with 34% of the vote, followed by Jessi Slaughter's Dad (8%), Lincoln Park's Rapist of “Bed Intruder” fame (8%), The Farmville Murderess (7%), No Snow at the 2010 Winter Olympics (5%), The iPhone Hates Left Handed People (5%), Katy Perry's Video Gets Banned on Sesame Street (5%), The Sex Line on OchoCinco's Cereal Box (4%), The Jay Leno/Conan O'Brien NBC Debacle (4%) and Meg Whitman tries to out FAIL Blog (4%).

As for video, well, my English teacher always told me to show rather than tell. Check out the biggest Fail Video below (it took 33% of the vote), and head on over to FAIL Blog to see the rest.

Reviews: Twitter

More About: BP Oil Spill, humor, justin bieber, pop culture, viral video

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The World’s Facebook Relationships Visualized [PIC]

Posted: 13 Dec 2010 07:12 PM PST


Click the image for the full-sized version

This is what the world looks like, according to the Facebook social graph.

Facebook Intern Paul Butler was interested in the locations of friendships, so he decided to create a visualization of Facebook connections around the globe. How local are our friends? Where are the highest concentration of friendships? How do political and geological boundaries affect them?

Butler started by using a sample of 10 million friend pairs, correlated them with their current cities and then mapped that data using the longitude and latitude of each city.

That was the easy part. Creating the right effect to show connecting relationships between thousands of cities proved to be a challenge. Butler wrote a fascinating Facebook note explaining some of the challenges he faced creating his visualization:

“I began exploring it in R, an open-source statistics environment. As a sanity check, I plotted points at some of the latitude and longitude coordinates. To my relief, what I saw was roughly an outline of the world. Next I erased the dots and plotted lines between the points. After a few minutes of rendering, a big white blob appeared in the center of the map. Some of the outer edges of the blob vaguely resembled the continents, but it was clear that I had too much data to get interesting results just by drawing lines. I thought that making the lines semi-transparent would do the trick, but I quickly realized that my graphing environment couldn’t handle enough shades of color for it to work the way I wanted.

Instead I found a way to simulate the effect I wanted. I defined weights for each pair of cities as a function of the Euclidean distance between them and the number of friends between them. Then I plotted lines between the pairs by weight, so that pairs of cities with the most friendships between them were drawn on top of the others. I used a color ramp from black to blue to white, with each line’s color depending on its weight. I also transformed some of the lines to wrap around the image, rather than spanning more than halfway around the world.”

With a few more tweaks, he eventually came up with the amazing visualization you see here. At first glance, it provides some expected data — the U.S. has the highest concentration of Facebook friendships, and Africa has the lowest concentration. While most of Russia and Antarctica are nowhere to be found, the rest of the world is easily identifiable.

What do you think of the visualization? Does anything about it surprise you? Let us know in the comments.

Reviews: Facebook

More About: facebook, facebook friends, trending, visualization

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Microsoft to Unveil Windows Tablet Lineup at CES [REPORT]

Posted: 13 Dec 2010 06:20 PM PST


We’ve been hearing rumors about a tablet from Microsoft for lo these many months; however, we’re hearing that Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer himself is getting ready to unveil a slew of consumer-ready devices at CES next month.

Ballmer first showed off an HP tablet prototype at last year’s CES, just a couple weeks before Steve Jobs announced Apple’s iPad. Microsoft’s so-called Courier was Microsoft’s answer to the iPad. However, the project was axed a short four months later, shortly after the iPad launched and started selling like hotcakes.

Still, the market is wide open for contenders to challenge Apple’s dominance in the tablet space. Several Android tablets, including the Dell Streak and the Samsung Tab, are tiptoeing into the arena; and we’re still excited to see what a Windows-powered tablet might look like… and what it might cost, as well.

According to The New York Times, Microsoft is set to announce tablets from Dell, Samsung and other hardware manufacturers. One of the most exciting rumors we’ve read is that at least one of these tablets will feature a slide-out physical keyboard — that means this tablet won’t be just a bright, shiny, app-laden toy for content consumption; it’ll also be a useful tool for content creation and productivity.

Another cool rumor is that Microsoft is planning on an open app ecosystem for its tablet lineup; it will be less like the iPad’s App Store and more like the Android ecosystem, where you can choose to download any application from any manufacturer via the web.

Stay tuned for more details, including what operating systems the tablets will run (we’ve heard both Windows 7 and Windows 8 are possibilities) and when they’ll launch, as we prepare for another thrilling CES.

Reviews: Android, App Store, Windows

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Latest “World of Warcraft” Expansion Breaks Sales Records for PC Games

Posted: 13 Dec 2010 05:20 PM PST


The latest World of Warcraft expansion has topped all previous sales records in its first 24 hours, not just for WoW but for all PC game titles.

Dubbed World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, the game’s final count for copies sold is — are you sitting down? — 3.3 million in the expansion’s first day. That means more than one out of four WoW subscribers bought the expansion within 24 hours of its release.

Based on data from its distributors, WoW maker Blizzard Entertainment is calling Cataclysm “the fastest-selling PC game of all time.”

By (an admittedly apples-to-oranges but nonetheless interesting) comparison, the iPhone 4 saw a paltry 1.5 million units moved in its first 24 hours; and only 2 million songs by the Beatles were sold during the entire week of that band’s iTunes premiere.

The expansion has been getting buzz for months already for its radical alterations to existing WoW content and for bringing new regions, quests, races, learnable skills and battlegrounds to the game. Cataclysm also brought some significant social-gaming improvements by beefing up features for guilds.

And when Blizzard put the expansion’s cinematic trailer on YouTube, that quickly went viral, too, garnering more than 1 million views in its first day online.

Given all the pre-launch excitement over the expansion — and previous WoW expansion sales figures, which would typically break 2 million — we’re not completely shocked that Cataclysm is performing so well.

If you’ve bought and played the expansion already, please let us know what you think in the comments.

Reviews: YouTube

More About: cataclysm, pc game, pc gaming, sales, world of warcraft, WoW

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Google Acquires Mobile Payments Company Zetawire

Posted: 13 Dec 2010 04:07 PM PST


On Monday, it was revealed that Google has acquired Zetawire, a small stealth startup focusing on mobile payments.

Zetawire was in an extremely early stage when snapped up by the tech giant; we know little about what they were working on. However, an analyst with 451 Group revealed the startup had been granted a patent for “mobile banking, advertising, identity management, credit card and mobile coupon transaction processing” — in other words, all the puzzle pieces needed to let users treat their smartphones like a credit card.

Interestingly, this deal wasn’t closed in the recent past; the acquisition was concluded back in August, around the time Google also bought up social apps startup Slide (which was led by a Paypal co-founder) and social currency company Jambool.

Zetawire’s technology might mesh nicely with what Google has been doing in the area of NFC (near-field communications). The company has been testing NFC-related tech as part of a soon-to-be-national location-based ad campaign for local businesses. And the Nexus S, Google’s successor to the Android-powered Nexus One, comes with NFC hardware already in place.

The startup’s co-founders were Alex Hertel, a Toronto-based theoretical computer science researcher, and his brother, Philipp.

Image based on a photo from Flickr user liewcf.

Reviews: Android, Flickr, Google

More About: acquisition, Google, Mobile 2.0, startup, zetawire

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100+ Upcoming Social Media & Tech Events

Posted: 13 Dec 2010 03:48 PM PST

social_media_events_guide1

Every week, Mashable puts together a calendar of upcoming social media and web events, parties and conferences. Would you like to have your conference or event listed here? If so, please contact us at least one month before your event to establish a media partnership. For more upcoming listings, check out Mashable’s Events section.

In the meantime, here are some tips on how to network, share your information and/or promote your event(s) using social media:

Mashable’s Weekly Social Media and Marketing Event Guide is proudly supported by Eventbrite, the Web’s Event Marketplace.

Upcoming Mashable Events:

The Mashable Awards, January 6, 2011, Las Vegas, NV: In partnership with Cirque du Soleil, The Mashable Awards Gala event will bring together the winners and nominees, the Mashable community, partners, media, the marketing community, consumer electronics and technology brands and attendees from the 2011 International CES Convention to Las Vegas on Thursday, January 6, 2011. Together, we will celebrate the winners and the community of the Mashable Awards at the Cirque du Soleil Zumanity stage in the beautiful New York New York Hotel. The event will include acts and performances from our partner, Cirque du Soleil Zumanity, as well as special guest presenters and appearances.

December 13, 2010, Portland, OR: Portland State University’s Digital Marketing Conference 2010 showcases success stories in digital marketing, addressing the needs of individuals and companies as they use new technologies to engage their audiences, clients, and customers. With three tracks, a digital marketing bootcamp, speakers addressing hyperlocal to international business, two keynotes, Ignite DMC, and a post conference wrap event, attendees receive high-quality, hands on, and interactive experiences to enhance their digital marketing knowledge. Please click here to both learn more and register today using code DMCMASH10 to get the early bird price (ends November 7).

December 15-16, 2010, Austin, TX: Are you a CEO, Owner, or Marketing Executive wondering how you should be using social media to promote your business? Come to our Free 90-minute Social Media Boot Camp for CEOs where you will learn proven techniques and valuable tips to drive customers to your website and generate new leads. Our expert speaker, Paul Slack, will offer abundant detailed strategies you can immediately put into action. We are in a different city each week, so please check our listings to see when we will be in your area!

December 16-18, 2010, Santiago, Chile: Conecta 2010 is a technology fair featuring over 40 leading brands from technology and communications sector and a series of top-notch conferences on issues such as social networks, entrepreneurship & innovation, sustainability, new media and education. Featured guests and speakers include Peter Molyneux, Guy Kawasaki, Arianna Huffington, and Sir Ken Robinson. All proceeds will be used to to buy carbon bonds to ensure that the event has zero emissions. Visit conecta2010.cl for more information.

Conecta 2010
www.conecta2010.cl

December 17, 2010, New Delhi, India: The India Social Summit 2010 aims to bring together names in consumer and b2b marketing, social networking, and mobile on a vibrant platform for a day of insights and stimulating discussions. The conference features 5 Keynote addresses, and panel discussions featuring industry leaders. Delegates, consisting senior industry professionals, includes CXOs, media owners, media buyers, marketers, HR and communication professionals and social media practitioners. If you would like to register for the event, please click here.

December 15, 2010, New York, NY: Vator is bringing its popular Splash event to New York City. The Splash event, hosted by Vator, is a celebration of entrepreneurship. The evening gathering brings together high-profile, successful tech entrepreneurs sharing their lessons and advice alongside promising startups showcasing their innovative ideas. Register and use the promo code Mashable for a 20% discount off both ticket and table packages.

January 6-9, 2011, Las Vegas, NV: Join us at the 2011 International CES, the global platform for inspired ideas and innovation. With 2,500 exhibitors, CES continues to be the world’s largest consumer technology tradeshow and always reflects the dynamic consumer electronics industry. The International CES is not open to the general public and all attendees must be in the CE industry to be eligible to attend the show. Register FREE for the 2011 CES with the priority code MSHB, an exclusive promotion for Mashable readers.

January 6-9, 2011, Lake Tahoe, NV: The worlds of digital storytelling, snowsports and technology will converge on Heavenly Mountain Resort January 6 – 9, 2011 for the Tahoe Snowcial, a winter festival celebrating the global community of enthusiasts who live their passion in the snow and tell their stories online. Snowcial ties these worlds together in a participative, collaborative intermingling of industry leaders that sparks new ideas for the future, linking networks, passions and turns. Speakers include CEOs of Gowalla, Path and Vail Resorts with performances by OK Go and MC Hammer. Register with the promo code founderfriend and get 10% off!

January 12-14, 2011, Washington, DC: Social Media Legal Risk & Strategy – Social media has proven to be a critical medium for companies who are looking to have their services and brands penetrate the public sphere. The use of social media, however, has not come with an absence of legal risk. Join 16 lead counsels from Coca-Cola North America, IBM Corporation, Wal-Mart, Chevron, T-Mobile, Capital One, Dell, Aon Corporation, CSC, Nationwide and other fortune 500 companies as they discuss strategies to address and overcome the legal risks posed by engaging in social media. Mashable subscribers will enjoy a 10% discount when they mention MASHABLE in their follow-up email to ddrey@marcusevansch.com.

January 12, 2011, Las Vegas, NV: Influence People is hosting a one-day social media marketing conference in Las Vegas and it will bring together leading brands and marketing experts to explore the viral power of social networks. During this one-day event, a team of renowned marketing experts will provide guidance on how to effectively engage with customers via social media, give tips on how to maximize the impact of your campaigns and offer insights into new services to try and trends to watch out for. This is the ultimate event for anyone involved in social media or digital marketing. Register with the promo code mashable and receive a 10% discount.

January 12, 2011, Stanford, CA: The NextGen Conference brings together young, aspiring entrepreneurs and young, rock star entrepreneurs with more experienced entrepreneurs and venture capitalists. Join us for a full day at Stanford University and learn from the very best! Speakers include: Peter Thiel (Founder of PayPal, Clarium Capital, and the Founders Fund), Keith Rabois (COO of Square), Mark Suster (2x entrepreneur turned VC), Travis Kalanick (serial entrepreneur and angel investor), and more! Register and use the promo code NGCMASH!

January 13-14, 2011, Washington, DC: marcus evans invites you to attend the Social Media for Pharma Conference. Hear from your peers firsthand on how the new FDA guidance will mandate your social media strategies. By attending this conference you will learn how to boost product exposure, generate market research, build relationships and increase sales and overall business in the long term. For an exclusive discount as a Mashable member, please mention “Mashable” to Michele Westergaard at michelew@marcusevansch.com.

January 13-14, 2011, Wilmington, NC: This two-day event will feature the region’s most successful people in business, technology, internet marketing and social media. Keynote speakers, seminars and the expo will be designed to help companies and their employees develop professionally, make new connections and reach new customers. This BizTech event will focus on social media strategies, search engine optimization, PPC advertising, strategies to finance your business, cloud computing and more. Register with the promo code BIZTMASH and receive FREE admission to the expo and 10% discount off all BizTech events, if you register by December 22, 2010.

January 17-18 and 20-21, 2011, Singapore & Hong Kong: Join us at this interactive conference on Social Media Marketing to acquire effective techniques for boosting your brand performance and ROI. Find out how Intel, Nokia, Watsons, McDonald's, Volkswagen, HP, Canon, Johnson & Johnson, Wall Street Journal, SMRT and more incorporated social media activities to get ahead of conversations. Through in-depth case studies and workable solutions, learn how to develop coherent platform integration strategies, handle a social media backlash and identify KPIs for the effectiveness of social media campaigns. Register today and save 10% when you enter Mashable under Additional Info.

January 19, 2011, New York, NY: Mobile Healthcare Communications: Case Studies and Roundtables – Representatives from GlaxoSmithKline, Within3, Pfizer Inc., Johnson & Johnson, Roche Diabetes Care, and others will demonstrate the best case studies of how major healthcare brands are connecting with consumers and professionals through mobile communications. Register

and use the promo code MASH for a discounted rate of $155.

January 20-22, 2011, Mumbai, India: Click Asia Summit 2011 is designed to be Asia's largest digital & mobile marketing conference and expo where industry thought leaders congregate to discuss online marketing, challenges faced by agencies, and the changing face of social media. Click Asia Summit 2011 is going to change the way you look at Digital and Mobile marketing. Please register by clicking here.

January 20-21, 2011, San Francisco, CA: The First Annual Gamification Summit brings together top thought leaders in game mechanics and engagement science for the first time. Hear what works and what doesn’t in this dynamic and fast-moving field through case studies, workshops, keynotes and panels delivered by experts such as Gabe Zichermann (author, Game-Based Marketing), Amy Jo Kim (gamification guru) and Jane McGonigal (TED fellow, debuting her new book) and network with other leaders in the space. Attend the Gamification Summit 2011 and learn how game mechanics and the new science of engagement are rewriting the rules of brand marketing, product design and customer acquisition. Know the score: Register now with the Mashable promo code GSMASH11 and save 10%.

January 20, 2011, Washington, DC: L2 is a think tank for digital innovation. L2 will host the Social Graph Clinic, an all-day intensive clinic addressing the opportunities, challenges, and underpinnings of social media. Held at the George Washington School of Business, the event will feature speakers from academia, public sector, and private industry to lead discussions on social media strategies, rules of engagement, and metrics for marketing and digital professionals. Register here for the Social Graph Clinic. The first 10 Mashable readers to register will receive a 25% discount on tickets (Please use the following discount code when registering: “MASHABLE“)

January 24-27, 2011, San Francisco, CA: The Emerging Media Conference is one of the largest and unique of its kind, welcoming the New Year with an opportunity to view and experience the latest in technology advances and upcoming product roll outs. For three full days there will be demonstrations, presentations, and discussions led by some of the most connected and recognized experts in the industry including Keynote Jesse Schell from Carnegie Mellon University. Whether you are immersed in the world of emerging media or just have a casual interest, this conference allows you to preview the future of the tech world like a seasoned insider. Register and use the promo code EmMeConMash to save 10%.

January 24-26, 2011, London, UK: The Digital Content Monetisation (DCM) Europe 2011 is a forum for media and entertainment specialists to find out how to deliver sustainable strategies to monetise their digital content. You will meet over 200 of your peers across TV, Film, gaming, music, publishing and sports. Mashable readers receive a 10% discount when they register and use the promo code MASH.

January 25-26, 2011, New York, NY: Information Industry Summit – Save $100 with the promo code PRMMASH to attend this 10th annual Summit, the digital information industry's flagship conference. (Note: discount valid off the individual non-member rate only and does apply to current attendees.) With a theme on "Moving from Wired to Wireless," the Summit will address the sea-change shaping the industry: mobile business models and content delivery, as well as the top mobile technology trends. For complete details, including registration information, visit InformationIndustrySummit.net.

January 25, 2011, London, UK: If you don't have a plan to offer your mobile services, you could be left behind as consumers increasingly consume entertainment, social media, games and gambling via mobile access devices.
Mobile Gaming will present a detailed and exciting roadmap for how gaming companies can take advantage of this new channel that has finally ‘come of age’ and multiply their revenues in the near future. Register and use the promo code MASHMOBILE.

January 26, 2011, London, UK: Monetising Social Games will show you how to integrate the phenomenal success of monetised social games into your product mix so you can catch the next wave of explosive customer acquisition and revenue growth via a channel that is legal in the USA, China and other markets inaccessible to traditional online gambling companies. Register and use the promo code MASHMSG.

January 27, 2011, San Francisco, CA: Macworld 2011 is your once-a-year opportunity to see and buy all of the newest, coolest stuff-hardware, software and accessories-for your Apple products. You will also find expert advice, demonstrations and instruction by the very people that develop these products. Macworld conference programs feature industry leading minds, presenting cutting edge product training on the topics – see our featured artists and presenters. Mashable readers who register today get 15% off conference packages and $10 expo only passes by clicking here.

January 31 – February 3, 2011, Toronto, Canada: Attend the Advanced Learning Institute's 23rd updated forum on Social Media for Government: How To Engage Your Employees & Citizens By Using The Latest Web 2.0 Technologies To Drive Communication Results, to learn how to incorporate social media into your communications & marketing plans & leverage the latest interactive Web 2.0 tools & techniques to advance your organizational goals. Hear practical advice from: ON Ministry of Labour; Toronto Police Service; Northern Lights Canada; Royal Bank of Canada; Genome Alberta; ON Ministry of Health & Long-Term Care; Public Service Commission of Canada; City of Ottawa; Halton Region, ON & more. Register and mention Mashable to save $200!

February 1-3, 2011, San Diego, CA: The Green Data Center Conference will analyze new technology that will not only benefit our environment, but also save organizations money and increase efficiency. Industry experts and executives will gather to discuss the growing importance of green technology and the associated benefits. Corporate case studies will be presented to demonstrate how existing data centers have been retrofitted and new facilities built from the ground up. This conference will share valuable information that can be taken back and used immediately to gain measurable ROI. Register and use the promo code GDCSD10 to save 10%!

February 1-3, 2011, Santa Clara, CA: O'Reilly Strata Conference: Making Data Work – Turn data into decisions at Strata, the new conference from O’Reilly Media, focusing on the business and practice of data.Unprecedented computing power and connectivity are bringing new layers of experience to our lives in how we manage and present data sets of all sizes. Throughout three days of training, breakout sessions, and plenary discussions, O’Reilly Strata connects the decision-makers, practitioners, and leading vendors from enterprise and the web who are at the leading edge of this space. Topics include data science, acquisition, organization, machine learning, visualization, and more. Mashable readers can save 15% on registration with the promo code str11msh.

February 2, 2011, Austin, TX: Toyota, REI, Texas Instruments, Kellogg Company, and more will share case studies in corporate social media at BlogWell Austin: How Big Brands Use Social Media. You’ll learn how to get started, get past roadblocks, and make your social media program phenomenal — in one afternoon, for just $250. Get practical, how-to advice on creating great content, getting management buy-in, educating employees, keeping lawyers and regulators happy, simple and ethical disclosure, and engaging fans. Presented by GasPedal and SocialMedia.org. Register with the promo code THANKSMASHABLE and save 10%!

February 4-5, 2010 Atlanta, GA: SoCon11, the South's premier social media networking event celebrates five years on February 4 – 5th at Kennesaw State University, just outside Atlanta. The two day SoCon11 event kicks off Friday night at the historic Carter Center complete with music, gourmet dinner buffet, and cash bar. Following is a day of networking and break-out sessions with some of the biggest names in digital media. This year it's all about mobile and as always, social media. Register and use the promo code MASH for 20% off.

February 7-10, 2011, Orlando, FL: ARC's 2011 World Industry Forum: Driving Innovation, Sustainability and Performance will take place at the Renaissance Orlando at SeaWorld! This forum will focus on challenges that will help you develop winning strategies. It provides an ideal environment for industry executives to collaborate, share ideas, and find new ways to attack their most pressing problems. The event includes sessions on the major issues facing our industry, with multiple tracks that enable executives to explore these topics from different perspectives. Owner/operators, solution providers, & technical experts will all benefit while contributing to the community's body of knowledge.

February 7-9, 2011, New York, NY: Now in its 10th year, the ePharma Summit is going to be bigger than ever. We are looking ahead to new trends and opportunities in digital marketing with unparalleled insight from leading industry innovators. Join us for more novel mobile strategies, more regulatory insights, more customer perspectives, and more examples of what is really working now from the organizations you admire most. Join us February 7-9 in New York City at the most respected digital marketing event for the life sciences industry as we explore innovative e-strategies and proven techniques to drive business. Register with promo code XP1606MASH and save 10%.

February 8-10, 2011, San Francisco, CA: Social Media Strategies Summit – We have researched the social media buzz to develop and present to you a top of the line marketing conference that you can't afford to miss. With in-depth case studies from the nuts and bolts to micro-blogging and sustaining online communities, you leave with a refreshed vision to take your marketing plan to the next level for 2010 and beyond. Register and use the promo code MASH to receive a discount.

February 14-17, 2011, Washington, DC: Attend the Advanced Learning Institute's 23rd updated forum on Social Media for Government: How To Engage Your Employees & Citizens By Using The Latest Web 2.0 Technologies To Drive Communication Results, to learn how to incorporate social media into your communications & marketing plans & leverage the latest interactive Web 2.0 tools & techniques to advance your organizational goals. Hear practical advice from: ON Ministry of Labour; Toronto Police Service; Northern Lights Canada; Royal Bank of Canada; Genome Alberta; ON Ministry of Health & Long-Term Care; Public Service Commission of Canada; City of Ottawa; Halton Region, ON & more. Register and mention Mashable to save $200!

February 14-16, 2011, New York, NY: O’Reilly Tools of Change for Publishing Conference (TOC) – Explore the new world of “Publishing Without Boundaries” at the 5th annual O’Reilly Tools of Change for Publishing Conference (TOC). This premiere event provides an unparalleled opportunity for stakeholders from across the book publishing and tech industries to network, share ideas, engage in lively debate, and come away with the knowledge and inspiration to lead change within their own organizations. Not only does TOC cover what's working now, but we also look ahead to what will work as publishing transitions to the next phase. The people who attend TOC are the people who are shaping publishing's future. Mashable readers can save 15% on registration with the promo code toc11mash. http://www.toccon.com/toc2011?cmp=mp-conf-tc11-mashable-banner-ad

February 14, 2011, Barcelona, Spain: The Mobile Premier Awards are among the most influential events in the mobile industry and the point of reference in early-stage innovation during the Mobile World Congress. An international jury of the most recognized mobile industry experts will select the 20 finalists from all the local AppCircuses held during 2010 to showcase their app in a 3-minute pitch at the event in Barcelona in front of investors, operators, media companies, peer entrepreneurs, and press and influential bloggers. Register and use the promo code #BCNMASHABLE to receive a 10% discount.

February 23, 2011, Portland, OR: Join hundreds of your online marketing peers for the Fifth Annual SearchFest Internet Marketing Conference in Portland on February 23, 2011. Thought leaders and industry experts from around the country–including major brands like Intel, REI, and the New York Times–will deliver in-depth presentations on topics including Advanced Search Engine Optimization, Social Media Marketing, Universal Search, Analytics, Paid Search Marketing and many more. Register with the promo code MASHABLEPDX to save 10% on your General Admission ticket!

February 24, 2011, New York, NY: The 11th Annual Digital Music Forum – We are the only event in the United States that brings together the top music, technology and policy leaders for high-level discussions and debate, intimate meetings and unrivaled networking about the future of digital music. Digital Music Forum is known worldwide for the news that is made in our auditorium, the deals that get done in our hallways, and the friendships and partnerships that are forged year after year. Why wait by the sidelines, when you can join the event that is helping to drive the industry’s future! For a limited time we are offering a special Holiday Rate of $199 – a $500 saving! Don’t miss the opportunity – Book NOW to reserve your seat!

February 25-27, 2011, Los Angeles, CA: The 9th Annual Southern California Linux Expo, the premier community run Linux / Open Source conference, will feature tutorial sessions designed to show users of all skill levels what Open Source can do and how to do it. Whatever your interest is in Open Source, SCALE 9X will have something for you. Register and use the discount code MASH9 for 35% off.

February 28-March 1, 2011, Sydney, Australia: Social media marketing has rapidly evolved to the extent that it is no longer enough to just get on board the “social media marketing train.” Marketers are bombarded with tools and technologies without a real understanding of integrating social media effectively. Social Media Marketing – The Way Forward enables marketers develop and manage a sound strategy for your ongoing and future social media marketing projects, with practical and valuable insights shared by some of the most successful brands and campaign creators in both B2C & B2B social media marketing. Register with the promo code MPMASH and save 10%!

March 1-5, 2011, Hannover, Germany: CeBIT is the world’s largest trade fair showcasing digital IT and telecommunications solutions for home and work environments. The key target groups are users from industry, the wholesale/retail sector, skilled trades, banks, the services sector, government agencies, science and all users passionate about technology. CeBIT offers an international platform for comparing notes on current industry trends, networking, and product presentations. For more information, please visit: http://www.cebit.de and to receive your complimentary visitor registration to this elite event, please email lguiang@hfusa.com.

March 1-2, 2011, London, UK: TFM&A is the UK’s largest and longest running multi-channel marketing, media and advertising event. TFM&A will be delivering the latest industry insights, trends and developments as well as leading suppliers of digital, direct, data and CRM solutions. With free seminars and keynotes from big names like Microsoft Advertising and Experian, over 200 exciting exhibitors, a dedicated networking bar and cafe and many more show features, take advantage of your FREE entry to create a campaign that becomes a classic. Register at t-f-m.co.uk/mashable.

March 2-3, 2010, San Francisco, CA: EyeforTravel's Social Media Strategies for Travel Conference is North America's number one social media event for travel professionals. Now in its fourth successful year, the event brings together top travel brands to share key insights on how to maximize the impact of your social media initiatives. The two days are packed with case studies, presentations and networking opportunities. Please use the promo code MASHABLE for a $100 discount on the admission price.

March 2, 2011, Berlin, Germany: FEI is Europe's first and only event to solve your industry challenge in real-time. Explore best in class presentations by top multi-nationals, collaborate with world renowned experts, Listen to real-world visionaries choreographing "next" best practices, and participate in a real-time case study where you will tackle industry challenges and work to propel the industry forward. FEI is no ordinary conference — this is truly a catalyst for change. Register and use the promo code FEI2011MASH to save 20% off the standard rate.

March 4-5, 2011, Louisville, KY: Code PaLOUsa is a two-day, eight-track software development conference in Louisville, KY that’s designed to cover all aspects of software development regardless of technology stack. We will have sessions revolving around Microsoft, Java, Ruby, PHP, and Clojure; along with sessions on higher, platform-agnostic levels. There will be 60 technical presentations and panel discussions from well-known professionals in the software development community and a keynote talk from Douglas Crockford of Yahoo! and JavaScript/JSON fame. For more information and to register, please visit codepalousa.com.

March 8-10, 2011, San Jose, CA: At Search Marketing Expo – SMX West, you'll learn to maximize ROI from paid search advertising, optimize your website content for superior organic search results, expand your skills with local and mobile advertising expertise, master social media marketing on Twitter, Facebook and other SMM networks, boost conversions, and increase sales. Use the promo code smx100mashable and save $100 off your registration. For more information, please visit http://smxwest.com.

March 8-9, 2011, Brussels, Belgium: Are you looking to unleash the power of social media for CRM? As new channels and strategies emerge it is increasingly important to meet face-to-face to share knowledge, challenges and experiences. Enterprise Social 2.0: CRM will bring social media marketers and CRM experts together to share knowledge through real-world case studies, best practices, lessons learned and offering networking opportunities with some of the biggest brands and businesses today. Past speakers include: Google, Kodak, L'Oreal, Philips, Nokia, Lego, Siemens, Vodafone, SWIFT, SAP, Roger Smith Hotel, Dominos Pizza, Airbus and more. To receive a special discount, register now!

March 9, 2011, Dubai, India: The Cloud Computing World Forum Middle East and Africa will feature all of the key players within the Cloud Computing and SaaS market providing an introduction, discussion and look into the future for the ICT industry. Register today and get inspiration on how to address your latest issues with advice from real-life end-user case studies and practical examples. Register with the promo code MEAmash20 and save 20%!

March 15, 2011, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia: Want to know successful stories on how big brands build their brand and reputation online? Everyone can go online, but can you STAY online? Our conference, Digitalize Your Marketing Strategy, is going to be most anticipated event of the year! WE are bringing you the Malaysian's most valuable brands, review their successful stories and provide you hands on tips to manage your online marketing strategy. Our privileged speakers from Digi, Dell, Unilever, Intel and Microsoft will share case studies using social media, digital and search engine. Register with the promo code DYMSMASH and save 20%!

March 19, 2011, Cape Cod, MA: Geek Girl Tech Boot Camp (Cape Cod 2011): Geek Girl Boot Camps are full-day technology “unconferences” for women, taught by women, of all ages and knowledge levels where you can find workshops on everything to do with computers and the Internet! Workshops include PC and Mac, Social Media (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.), Location (foursquare, Gowalla, Yelp) Photoshop, QuickBooks, Blogging, Podcasting, WordPress, Google Tools, Dreamweaver, Video, Inbound Marketing, digital photography, and more. The workshops are designed for Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced. There are Discussion Groups and an all day Help Desk. The Mission of Geek Girl Camp is to educate and empower every girl and woman at every age level, on every skill level, at every income level on computer technology with fun and provide a legacy by giving back and paying it forward. Mashable readers get an exclusive $30 discount off the standard pricing of $139 with special code mashable2011 when registering!

March 22-24, 2011, Washington, DC: The Publishing Xchange is a two-plus day interactive conference with discussions revolving around the latest market dynamics as they relate to real-world publishing and marketing processes. You'll learn about the latest technologies and how to achieve the greatest return on your efforts and investments while utilizing the new media channels. Choose from 6 tracks produced by Outsell, The Seybold Report, InfoTrends, Thad McIlroy The Future of Publishing, What They Think and IDEAlliance. Discover the future of publishing, how to implement a cross-media campaign, how a printer can make the leap into this new world & so much more!

March 22-24, 2011, Washington, DC: Ready or not, the way workers create, manage, share and consume information is changing in profound and unprecedented ways. Join us as thousands of technologists and business users from the world’s top companies gather to explore the technologies that are changing the way the world works. Choose from 19 conference tracks and programs, including the SharePoint Summit @ info360, EMC's Information Intelligence Summit @ info360 and Oracle @ info360. Visit www.info360show.com for details.

March 23-24, 2010, Las Vegas, NV: Hear groundbreaking social media ROI case studies at Social Pulse 2011: The Corporate Social Media Marketing Event! This conference provides corporate marketing leaders from across industries the newest insights and case studies on how to drive measurable results and marketing ROI through smart social media strategy. Moving beyond theory and assumptions, it is the only conference that focuses on social media initiatives that have generated measurable results for America’s leading corporations. Register online or call 1-800-647-7600, and use the promo code MJK233 to save $200!

March 28-29, 2011, Paris, France: The Marketing 2.0 Conference features leading social media experts who will discuss and learn about the social media initiatives from brands, advertisers, researchers and analysts. Hear from leading people in social media about their strategies, revenue models and how they are approaching upcoming trends in the field. The event will also examine the current market conditions, future forecasts and predictions from leading researchers. Use the promo code mash2011 to receive a discount off the registration price.

March 29-30, 2011 London, UK: Social Media World Forum Europe is now in its 3rd year, the event this year will be providing a format for networking, engagement, and lots of social media debate around the latest tools, technologies, platforms, and emerging trends within social media marketing. With over 4000 attendees last year, the show has grown significantly to become one of the leading shows in its field, hosting a variety of free to attend workshops & conferences for marketers, pr professionals, developers, and the like. Mashable readers receive a 20% discount when they register and use the promo code MASH2011.

April 6-8, 2011, Los Angeles, CA: Hispanicize 2011, the 2nd Annual Hispanic PR & Social Media Conference, is the first and largest conference devoted to Latino social media, bloggers and public relations professionals. The three-day conference will feature top industry keynote speakers and more than 24 professional development sessions. It’s also the first event to gather all the Latino and multicultural bloggers together for first time. For more information, please click here.

April 13-15, 2011, Singapore: The Internet Show Asia 2011 is a series of seminars and a large end-to-end showcase of the latest internet technologies and solutions. More than 10,000 attendees will be at the exhibition and conference to find new ways of doing internet business and enhancing product offerings through the internet – through case study presentations and speaking directly with solution partners. The show will aim to increase your ROI, it's all about business, not a technology show. For more details and registrations, please visit www.theinternetshows.com/2010/Singapore.

April 18-20, 2011, Dubai, UAE: Planet of the Apps Arabia 2011 is a three day conference dedicated to the opportunities and challenges of mobile applications in the Arab world. The event is for app developers, content providers, device manufacturers, network operators and brands to meet and discuss the current challenges and opportunities presented in this growing market. Key issues addressed will include; the sustainability of the current business models, consumer engagement, developer recruitment, app discoverability, platform choice and the importance of social media networks. Register with promo code Mashable and save 20%!

April 18-19, 2011, London, UK: The Mobile Research Conference is the must-attend annual event for brands, agencies and academics interested in engaging consumers and capturing real-time feedback through mobile phones. Mobile, along with social media and online networks, represents the latest frontier for market research. Attend MRC 2011 and discover how to engage respondents, extract insights for product innovation and optimize marketing activities. This 2-day event is designed for consumer insights professionals; corporate, agency and academic survey researchers; mobile operators and tech companies. Register and use the promo code FF-MASHABLE to receive 20% off the main registration price!

April 26, 2011, Los Angeles, CA: LA Games Conference – Over 300 of the most influential decision-makers in the games industry gather for the LA Games Conference to network, do deals, and share ideas about the future of console, PC, online and mobile games. LA Games Conference – now in its 4th year – features a lively and fun debate on timely cutting-edge business topics, demos as well unrivaled access to some of the most progressive companies in Hollywood, Silicon Valley and beyond. We invite you to join us at the event and take part in the discussion with executives, creators, investors, analysts, press and gamers who will be instrumental in shaping the future of this booming business. For a limited time we are offering a special Holiday Rate of $199 – a $500 saving! Don’t miss the opportunity – Book NOW to reserve your seat.

April 28, 2011, London, UK: The Augmented Reality Summit is designed to explore this new dynamic reality and provide delegates with the perfect opportunity to uncover Augmented Reality in full and explore the opportunity's AR brings any brand or company. The AR Summit is positioned at the forefront of this exciting continually developing new industry. Whether you are a Brand, Advertiser or Agency, Technology provider or Developer looking to meet key industry figures, keep up with the latest developments, technology's & tools or simply to network with other from the world of AR – Register and use the promo code ARMASH to save 25%!

May 4-8, 2011, London, UK: Digital Shoreditch is the voice of everything happening in Shoreditch. The festival explores and celebrates digital technologies; unites the digital community; and provides a platform for sharing knowledge. The activity culminates in a series of exhibitions, parties, presentations, open studios and games.

May 17-19, 2011, London, UK: The World E-Reading Congress brings together digital and print publishers with e-reading platforms and device manufacturers to discuss the business models and opportunities provided by the growth of the e-reading industry. Publishers must be prepared for this dramatic industry upheaval. They must learn how to embrace this disruptive technology and the World E-Reading Congress will enable them to discover how they can profit from the E-Reading revolution. Visit our website for more information and register before January to save 10%!

May 24-26, 2011, San Francisco, CA: All About the Cloud. Save $100 with the promo code PRMMASH to attend the software industry's leading ISV conference on Cloud Computing. (Note: discount valid off the individual non-member rate only and does apply to current attendees.) You'll join an anticipated audience of more than 500 senior executives from ISVs, resellers, and platform / technology providers, as well as the industry's leading analysts, bankers, venture capitalists and the media. Key networking events include: a Golf Tournament, a Speed Networking Event, a Mardi Gras-themed Welcome Reception and an offsite Networking Reception featuring the Microsoft Rock Band Challenge. For details, including registration information, please visit AllAbouttheCloud.net.

May 24-26 2011, Gateshead, UK: Thinking Digital is an annual conference where the world’s greatest thinkers and innovators discuss the latest ideas, innovations and technologies. The conference provides an experience like no other, stimulating new thinking and new ideas. It's about what you'll learn, and who you'll meet. Our eclectic schedule means you'll listen to world-class authorities, meet amazing people, be entertained and outrageously inspired! When you leave Thinking Digital you'll know about things that you previously didn't even realise existed and have become part of our unique community. Register with the promo code TDCMASH and save 10%.

September 26-29, 2011, Kaua’i, HI: The Search and Social Woot! is an elite conference unlike any other that will provide you with the strategies and complete know how to thrive in this ever changing environment. Each day begins with morning sessions around the hottest topics. With Keynote Bruce Clay of Bruce Clay, Inc. and speakers from corporations such as Real Networks, Network Solutions, AT&T, Microsoft Bing and Logitech. Afternoons are spent in a relaxed environment including planned activities in which individual attendees can get to know speakers and each other on a more personal level continuing the discussion and building long lasting relationships. Register and use the promo code SSWootMash to save 10%.

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The Mashable Weekly Social Media and Marketing Event Guide is proudly supported by Eventbrite, the Web’s Event Marketplace.

Eventbrite is an online events marketplace where tens of thousands of individuals, businesses and organizations of all sizes manage, promote and sell tickets to their events. Make your event a success on Eventbrite.

Reviews: Australia, Facebook, Google, Gowalla, Internet, LinkedIn, Linux, Mashable, PHP, Path, Twitter, WordPress, Yelp, social media, video

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Man Pleads Guilty to Stealing “P2P.com” in Landmark Domain Theft Case

Posted: 13 Dec 2010 03:15 PM PST

Domain Theft

A 26-year-old New Jersey man has plead guilty to stealing and illegally selling an Internet domain in a first-of-its-kind case.

Daniel Goncalves of Union Township entered a guilty plea earlier today in New Jersey state Superior Court for stealing the “P2P.com” domain from Mark Ostrofsky, Albert Angel and Lesli Angel. Prosecutors will recommend that he serves a five-year prison term and pay restitution for his crimes.

Some background: In 2005, well-known domain name investor Marc Ostrofsky, attorney Albert Angel and wife Lesli Angel acquired the P2P.com domain for $160,000 from Wisconsin-based Port to Print Inc. According to Domain Name News, Goncalves allegedly hacked into Angel’s e-mail account and used information from it to retrieve the login details for P2P.com and transferred the domain to his Godaddy account.

After transferring the domain to his name and attempting to cover his tracks by faking a PayPal transaction between himself and Albert Angel, Goncalves sold the domain to NBA basketball player Mark Madsen, who didn’t know the domain was stolen, for more than $100,000 on eBay. The Angels quickly took their case to New Jersey and Florida (their state of residence). Eventually the investigation led to Goncalves’s arrest by the New Jersey State Police Cyber-Crime Unit in 2009.

Goncalves is the first person known to be arrested for domain name theft in the U.S. Because of its unique status, it could serve as a precedent for other domain theft cases.

Image courtesy of Flickr, akatec

Reviews: Flickr

More About: Internet Domain, law, p2p

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YouTube Launches Trends Page to Highlight Popular Videos

Posted: 13 Dec 2010 02:52 PM PST

With YouTube now seeing 35 hours of video uploaded every minute, it can be hard to wade through to the good stuff. Luckily, YouTube has just launched a “Trends” page that shows the most popular videos and topics being shared on the site and off.

YouTube Trends is basically an analytics hub for the video-sharing site, featuring feeds showing trending videos (videos that are both popular on YouTube and embedded on several other sites) and trending topics (generated via common metadata); a feature called “4 at 4″ that presents four buzzed-about vids twice a day, a Know Your Meme-esque blog to analyze said vids and a dashboard that breaks down popular videos by demographics (location, age, gender, etc).

We think this site will be a boon to both journalists and marketers, as it will give an interesting view of the current cultural ethos.

Users are already able to check out popular videos daily via the site itself, but this page should make it much easier to navigate through the masses of content.

Check out the intro video above, featuring The Gregory Brothers of Auto-Tune the News fame.

Reviews: YouTube, news

More About: viral video, youtube

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How Much Is a Tweet Worth? $500, Says Toyota

Posted: 13 Dec 2010 02:45 PM PST


How much is a tweet worth? $500, according to a recent promotion by Toyota — more than 1,000 times the value Eventbrite places on a tweet. The car manufacturer is rewarding those who purchase a new Toyota by January 3 with a $500 debit card for tweeting about it.

To qualify, users need to visit toyotashareathon.com and send the following tweet through Toyota’s application by December 15: “If I get my new Toyota during Toyotathon they’ll give me $500 just for this Tweet. http://buyatoyota.com @Toyota #shareathon.” After purchasing a Toyota, owners can redeem their $500 card on the same page.

The goal is to get users who may be even just lightly considering purchasing a Toyota to spread the word about the campaign, even if they don’t end up purchasing one (though we wouldn’t be surprised if those who tweet about the promotion got a little extra attention from Toyota’s marketing team in the next couple of weeks).

When asked why they were willing to reward purchasers so heavily for tweeting, Kimberley Gardiner, Toyota’s national digital marketing and social media manager, wrote: "We wanted to leverage social media to build incremental awareness of our annual Toyotathon sales event. We feel that $500 is a significant enough offer to stimulate consumer interest and generate strong buzz throughout the social space.”

“Tweets and other Social Media efforts help us create velocity behind an immediate call to action for consumers to take advantage of a program like this with limited duration,” she added.

As a marketer, how much value would you place on a tweet?

Image courtesy of Flickr, mag3737

Reviews: Flickr, social media

More About: MARKETING, social media, Toyota, twitter

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Iconic Hess Toy Truck Reimagined as Facebook Game

Posted: 13 Dec 2010 02:20 PM PST


The Hess toy truck, a Christmas tradition since 1964, is getting a social media facelift this season with a branded online game.

The Hess Jet Game, developed in conjunction with ad agency Grey Worldwide, New York, is based on Hess' toy truck, which features a toy jet on its flatbed. The East Coast-based gas station chain last month launched the game on its Hess Express Facebook Page. The iPhone/iPad version hits on December 15.

The multiplayer game simulates flying in a Hess Jet and lets players virtually barrel roll, corkscrew, vertically flip or fly sideways. Since the game went live late last month, the Hess Express Facebook Page has garnered more than 12,000 likes. A TV ad from Grey shows a life-size version of the $25.99 truck/jet and a chorus of kids in Hess-green outfits literally singing the toy's praises to the tune of the 1963 Angels' hit "My Boyfriend's Back." The ad promotes hesstoytruck.com, but doesn’t mention the game.

Hess isn't the first energy firm to dabble in gaming. In the ’70s, BP eerily foreshadowed its Gulf of Mexico disaster with a board game called Offshore Oil Strike.

More About: advertising, facebook, Grey Worldwide, Hess, MARKETING

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So You Got an iPad This Holiday Season: Now What?

Posted: 13 Dec 2010 02:14 PM PST

iPad Gift Image

Mashable 10 LogoThis post is part of the Mashable 10, Mashable’s gift guide of the 10 hottest gadgets that our editors think should be on everyone’s wish lists this holiday season. If you were lucky enough to receive one of those gifts, our handy quick start guides should get you up and running. To view the entire gift guide, click here.

The iPad is the hottest gift this holiday season (and we’re not the only ones that think so), so we expect that many Mashable readers will find themselves the recipients of the latest Apple gadget.

Alright, so you’ve got the iPad, now what? That’s where we come in. Here’s our guide to what to read, download and explore with the your brand new tablet.

Encase Your Precious

Sure, the iPad might not stand up to the blender test, but on the whole, it’s a pretty durable device. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t invest in some sort of case or protective sleeve.

There are literally hundreds — if not thousands — of iPad cases on the market. Apple makes its own official case and it’s a very serviceable solution; it even includes a built in stand.

We’ve rounded up plenty of iPad cases in the past few months, but here are a few more:

  • DODOcase – At $60, the DODOcase isn’t inexpensive, but it won’t break the bank either. Styled to look like a moleskine, the case has a customizable interior.
  • BookBook – When ensconced, the BookBook looks like a hardback leather-bound book. It’s easy to get in and out and also serves as a stand. BookBook is $69.99.
  • Saddleback Leather – Saddleback Leather offers a sleeve and a full-on case for the iPad. The case, which is $104, is how I carry my iPad.
  • Acme Made – Acme Made in San Francisco makes a variety of iPad cases priced $29.99 and $39.99. The Slick Case and the Skinny Sleeve are both good, inexpensive protection.

App it Up

One of the best parts of the iPad is the App Store. With thousands and thousands of iPad specific apps and more coming out every day, you can do everything from read a children’s book, play DJ, pluck the Magic Fiddle and even get some serious work done.

Trick it Out With a Stand and Keyboard

Many of our favorite iPad cases have a stand feature built in — but third-party iPad stands are a great way to use an iPad at a desk, in the kitchen or on a coffee table.

The iPad has a pretty nice on-screen keyboard, especially in landscape mode. However, if you’re itching to do some serious writing, a separate external keyboard might be in order.

Apple makes a Bluetooth keyboard (that also works with any Mac and actually most Windows computers too) and also makes a dock/keyboard combo kit, but just about any Bluetooth keyboard will work with the iPad.

Our only advice is not to try to pair the two devices (say your laptop and your iPad) to the same keyboard if you frequently keep them in the same room.

Explore and Enjoy

Above all else, the iPad is a fun device. It’s easy to use — though we’ve highlighted some useful tips and tricks — but the device feels more natural the more you use it.

Explore the web, the plethora of apps and the media playback features. Read an e-book, listen to Internet radio and maybe play a game or three.

Whether you’re watching video, drawing a picture or controlling your TV, the iPad is sure to bring you lots of joy well into the new year.

More iPad Resources from Mashable:

- 5 Classic Children's Tales Reinvented for the iPad
- 5 Classy Speaker Docks to Boost Your iPad's Audio
- 6 Free iPad Apps for Planning Your Next Vacation
- 10 Terrific iPhone and iPad Musical Performances [VIDEOS]
- 3 Innovative iPad Games That Use the iPhone as a Controller

Reviews: App Store, Bluetooth, Internet, Mashable, Windows

More About: apple, gift guide, Gifts, Holidays, ipad, ipad accessories, mashable 10

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Americans Now Spend As Much Time Using Internet as TV [STATS]

Posted: 13 Dec 2010 01:47 PM PST


Americans are now spending as many hours online as they do in front of their TV screens, according to a survey released by Forrester on Monday.

The average American now spends roughly 13 hours per week using the Internet and watching TV offline, Forrester finds, based on its survey of more than 30,000 customers. The Internet has long captivated the attention of younger Americans to a greater extent than TV and is now proving more popular to Gen X (ages 31 to 44) for the first time ever. Younger Baby Boomers (ages 45 to 54) are spending the same amount of time per week using both media.

While the amount of time Americans spend watching TV has remained roughly the same in the past five years, Internet use has increased by 121% in the same time frame.

Regular Mashable readers will not be surprised to learn that Internet-connected mobile devices have aided this growth in Internet use. One-fourth of online mobile owners now log into the mobile Internet, largely through mobile websites, rather than apps.

So what are Americans doing online? Shopping, mostly. In a similar survey issued in 2007, a little more than one-third of online respondents said they were shopping online; now, 60% claim to do so. A little more than one-third also access social networking sites regularly, often through their mobile devices; two-thirds of Generation Yers report that they update a social networking profile at least once per month.

Blogging, listening to streaming audio and IMing prove far less popular, engaging one-third or less of the U.S. online population respectively.

In addition, Forrester expects that 2 million new households will be connected to the Internet by the end of the year compared to the end of 2009, and that 82% of households will have Internet by 2015. Broadband will have reached 5.5 million new households by the end of this year, meaning that more than 90% of connected households will have access to high speed Internet by the end of 2010.

Image courtesy of Flickr, San Jose Library

Reviews: Flickr, Internet, Mashable

More About: forrester, internet, stats, study, tv

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Is Julian Assange on OKCupid? [PICS]

Posted: 13 Dec 2010 12:52 PM PST


WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been cropping up all over the web lately for his various and sundry legal woes, but this weekend he appears to have popped up in a rather unexpected place: dating site, OKCupid.

The gallery below depicts what many believe to be the OKCupid profile of Julian Assange, the 39-year-old Australian computer programmer who founded WikiLeaks, a controversial whistleblower site that recently found itself on the bad side of the U.S. government after releasing 250,000 cables from American embassies and diplomats.

The site has been the victim of DDoS attacks ever since it started releasing secret embassy cables, and several U.S.-based web companies, including Amazon, PayPal, and its DNS service provider, EveryDNS.net, have denied WikiLeaks service. It’s now functioning mostly as series of mirrors, set up by sympathizers around the globe, but it's still releasing new secret cables on a daily basis.

Assange, for his part, was apprehended last week on an arrest warrant from Sweden, where he is accused of sexual crimes.

Given the amount of drama surrounding Assange and WikiLeaks, it’s not surprising that the profile in question has become a topic of great discussion among denizens of the web. According to The Village Voice, the profile appears to have been discovered on a personal Blogspot blog on Saturday, after which it was posted to Reddit where users are debating its authenticity.

From the looks of it, the profile could very well be the real deal. One of the photos, captioned “The author, Libian expedition 2006″ appears on Assange’s personal blog, IQ.ORG, and the user has not signed in since 2006 (a year during which Assange was likely not a figure prominent enough to warrant a fake account). That’s also the year that Assange launched WikiLeaks.

We contacted OKCupid founder Sam Yagan to ask what he thinks of the profile’s authenticity, to which he responded: “In general, OKCupid does not modify or change any of the ‘last login’ information, so as far as we know, that ‘last login’ information should be right. That adds to the validity from my perspective, because it would have required someone four years ago to have foreseen that this would have been an interesting thing to do.”

So, in short, no one has tampered with the account’s login info. “The time stamp would only be alterable by actually logging into the site, or, potentially internally. Someone at OKCupid could make that change,” Yagan says.

Assuming for a moment that this profile is Assange’s, it presents a rather interesting view of the man in question. Check out the gallery below for a look at how Assange describes himself (“Passionate, and often pig headed activist intellectual”), what he does (“Directing a consuming, dangerous human rights project which is, as you might expect, male dominated”) and what he’s looking for (“I like women from countries that have sustained political turmoil. Western culture seems to forge women that are valueless and inane”). Oh, and he also lies about his age — if this is, indeed, Assange.

So what does Yagan think of alleged-Assange’s prospects when it comes to snagging the lady of his fevered dreams?

“From a text perspective he certainly does a good job being clear what he’s looking for — the kind of person who should contact him. He tells numerous types of people not to bother. So he’s certainly, for that international man of mystery perspective I think, he certainly does a good job of getting the right kind of person intrigued,” he says.

“His pictures violate a lot of our best practices. His pictures are too close, too blurry or use flash. So we would definitely have a lot of advice for how to make his photos a lot better.”

I don’t know, I’ve heard that the “Color Pencil” setting in Photobooth really gets the ladies going.


Username: HarryHarrison





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Reviews: Amazon.com, Wikileaks, reddit.com

More About: julian assange, okcupid, online dating, wikileaks

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New Year’s Eve House Party Requires Foursquare Checkin to Get In

Posted: 13 Dec 2010 12:34 PM PST

This New Year’s Eve, some partygoers will find themselves checking in on Foursquare should they wish to gain entry to a house party in Brooklyn. No, this is not some checkin campaign cooked up by a brand, but instead the product of two New York technophiles who have jimmy-rigged their front door to unlock with each Foursquare checkin.

Erin Sparling and Nicholas Hall created the check-in-to-get-in door for their own individual usage, but will be repurposing their creation for broader use on New Year’s Eve. The duo also produced a video invitation for “The Location of New Years” occasion, as seen above.

As for the technology behind the gimmick, the pair writes, “We did it with Foursquare’s Alpha 2.0 API, a local push notification service, an industrial web-enabled relay device, some speaker wire, and knowing about electricity,” in a blurb on the Apartm.net website.

Given the ingenuity behind the video invite and the unlocking mechanism, this soirée should make for a very geek chic way to ring in the new year.

Reviews: Foursquare, foursquare

More About: checkin, foursquare, location

For more Mobile coverage:

Mobile App Market to Grow to $35 Billion by 2014 [REPORT]

Posted: 13 Dec 2010 12:00 PM PST


International Data Corporation predicts that the number of mobile application downloads worldwide will grow from 10.9 billion in 2010 to 76.9 billion in 2014. The market intelligence company also anticipates mobile app revenues will surpass $35 billion in 2014.

IDC’s findings are based on company financials, product announcements and its quarterly survey of the Appcelerator mobile developer base.

Based on its research, the organization expects accelerated growth in the mobile apps market as even more applications make their way to tablets, Internet-connected TVs and other devices in the years ahead.

“Mobile app developers will ‘appify’ just about every interaction you can think of in your physical and digital worlds,” says Scott Ellison, IDC mobile and wireless research vice president.

Essentially, IDC is making the claim that mobile applications, and associated revenues, are here to stay. It’s a conclusion that seems reasonable considering how lucrative and popular apps like Angry Birds have been, and the current ubiquity of mobile applications. Previous research from the Pew Internet Project points to 24% of the U.S. adult population using apps, with app users having 18 apps on their device on average.

Still, there are some — RIM co-CEO Jim Balsillie, for instance — who believe that the “appification” of the web is a fad that is destined to flatline.

Reviews: Internet

More About: appcelerator, idc, Mobile 2.0, mobile applications

For more Mobile coverage:

Google Launches Site for Teaching Tech to Your Parents

Posted: 13 Dec 2010 11:52 AM PST

TeachParentsTech.org

Ever go home for the holidays and find your parents asking you to help them with “techie tasks” like uploading photos to the Internet?

You’re not alone. A bunch of folks over at Google find themselves in this situation nearly every time they visit their families around this time of year. That’s why they’ve launched TeachParentsTech.org, a “tech support care package” that’s meant to help kids teach parents about computer basics.

According to a Google blog post, the site allows users to select more than 50 basic how-to videos they could send to parents — or frankly, anyone else who might need a little tech help. The videos cover topics from copying and pasting to sharing large files. The recipient will receive a message from the sender, along with a link to the selected videos.

In addition, the first 10,000 to send one of these online packages will have the chance to send real tech support care packages via snail mail to a recipient of choice at no cost. At the time this post was written, nearly 2,000 parents had been “served.”

Image courtesy of popilop.

Reviews: Google, Internet

More About: Google, teachparentstech, trending

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6 Essential Android Apps for Business Travel

Posted: 13 Dec 2010 11:20 AM PST


The Business Travel Series is supported by Philips ChargeOn, a wire-free mobile phone charging system that gives you up to 4 hours of additional talk time when you’re on the go. To learn more about Philips ChargeOn, visit its website here.

Business travelers know better than anybody that time is money. Every second you spend fumbling around trying to find directions, losing receipts or trying to communicate in a language you don’t understand could mean the difference between making the big meeting or being out of a job.

If you own an Android smartphone though, you can make your life a lot easier with apps that enhance your business productivity while you’re on the go.

From collaboration to expensing, we’ve chosen six Android apps we believe are essential to any business trip. They will help keep you organized and focused on the business you need to take care of, no matter where you are.

Here are our six essential Android apps for business travelers.

1. Expensify

The expense report is one of the most essential but annoying components of business travel. You can’t live with them, and you can’t live without them.

Expensify makes this process easier to manage by importing your receipts directly from your credit card and turning them into easy-to-send PDF reports. The Android application makes it dead-simple to add cash expenses, log mileage and upload images of your receipts while you’re on the go.

Plus, how can you hate an application with “expense reports that don’t suck” as its tagline?

2. Talk to Me

Talk to Me is a simple application that translates what you’re saying into another language in real time. If you need to ask for directions in French, need to dictate complicated commands in Italian or just want to impress your friends with Spanish translations, this is the app to have. We think it’s mind-blowing.

This app is essential for the international business traveler in a time crunch. It can even be set as a widget for easy home screen access.

3. TripIt

We’re big fans of TripIt here at Mashable. It’s a master dashboard for all of your travel plans, tracking you and your network’s movements, points, miles, itineraries and more. It’s an essential for business travelers who want to organize and share their travel plans with the rest of their team.

The Android app extends that functionality to your smartphone so that you can access all of your team’s itineraries while in the airport or in the cab. It provides maps and directions. Pro users get two added bonuses: flight alerts and alternate flight options.

There are several great trip organization apps, but TripIt is the cream of the crop.

4. Box.net for Android

Say you have a presentation to give in Berlin in two hours, and your team calls you to tell you that they needed to make last-minute changes to your presentation, plus they want to send you info on the people you’re meeting. You’re not able to get your laptop out to review the new information, so what do you do?

Simple: You whip out your Android phone and launch Box.net to pull up the presentation and the files while you’re in the hotel, in the cab or in the waiting room. Box.net gives businesses the ability to easily share documents, and Box.net for Android lets you search and access them no matter where you are.

Having access to your company’s database of documents could mean the difference between being prepared on the road and being a bust at that big meeting.

5. Aloqa

Aloqa is a must-have for any business traveler that doesn’t want to waste time trying to figure out the best hotspots in the cities he or she visits. Unlike other location apps like Yelp, Aloqa automatically notifies you of the interesting restaurants, events and places near you.

Once you set up your interests (“channels”), the notifications become killer. It’s not just “top restaurants near you,” but “top rated night clubs according to Yelp within walking distance.” There are a lot of customization options that ensure you always pick the best café for that impromptu business meeting near your hotel.

6. FlightTrack

For most business travelers, nothing is worse than arriving at the airport only to have your flight canceled or delayed overnight. It’s just as painful trying to check the status of your flight with the airline.

FlightTrack from Mobiata is an app that tracks flight times, gates, delays and more so that you know when you need to be at the airport and when you need to be booking a different flight to get back home.

For those willing to pay a bit extra, there is also a Pro version of FlightTrack, complete with TripIt integration, and thousands of airport listings.

Series Supported by Philips ChargeOn

The Business Travel Series is supported by Philips ChargeOn, a wire-free mobile phone charging system that gives you up to 4 hours of additional talk time when you’re on the go. To learn more about Philips ChargeOn, visit its website here.

More Travel Resources from Mashable:

- 6 Free iPad Apps for Planning Your Next Vacation
- 4 Social Web Apps for Making and Sharing Your Travel Plans
- 7 Ways Mobile Apps are Enriching Historical Tourism
- 10 Social Media Travel Resources You May Have Missed
- How the Resort Industry is Using Social Media

Photo courtesy of Flickr, laihiu

Reviews: Android, Flickr, Mashable, TripIt, Yelp

More About: Aloqa, android, Android apps, box.net, business, Business Travel Series, Expensify, Feature, List, Lists, Mobile 2.0, Talk to Me, travel, tripit

For more Mobile coverage:

Mozilla’s Plan to Reinvent the Browser [VIDEO]

Posted: 13 Dec 2010 11:13 AM PST


What is Mozilla’s plan for making the web more open? The chairperson of the non-profit foundation behind the Firefox browser has the answer, starting with a reinvention of the browser itself.

Last week in a Q&A at the LeWeb conference in Paris, Mitchell Baker, chairperson of the Mozilla Foundation and the former CEO of Mozilla Corporation addressed the rapidly changing web and the new competitive landscape for its Firefox web browser.

Baker made clear that Mozilla is focusing on a lot of new innovations, especially around its upcoming Firefox 4 browser. “On the innovation side, the area where I think you will see Mozilla look different from everyone else is that the focus of our innovation is much more integrative across the web,” Baker told interviewer Robert Scoble on stage. “We’re not trying to integrate our browser with our business stack or our services; we’re trying to build an innovative way for people to manage their experience across multiple websites.”

The Mozilla chairperson also revealed that she thinks “browser” is the wrong word for the windows we use to access the web. “The way we think about it is much too concrete. We don’t browse anymore for sure.” She believes that the key to the browser is how we customize our experience on the web and she says that personalization will be a major trend for the web browser in the future.

Baker also addressed Facebook on multiple occasions. She says that Facebook creates a risk of being “locked in with identity.” She believes that, no matter how much the social network focuses on privacy, it will never be enough because identity should never be tied to one platform. “I don’t want it to own me,” Baker stated.

Baker addressed many more subjects in her 20 minute Q&A. Check out the video below for more:

Reviews: Facebook, Firefox

More About: facebook, Firefox, LeWeb, LeWeb 2010, mozilla

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Metrodome Collapse Becomes Overnight Viral Sensation [VIDEO]

Posted: 13 Dec 2010 10:27 AM PST

Metrodome Roof Collapse

When a massive snowstorm dumped tons of the heavy white stuff on Minneapolis over the weekend, Fox, which was in town to broadcast Sunday’s scheduled NFL game between the Minnesota Vikings and New York Giants, did something unusual: It trained a camera on the roof of the Metrodome stadium.

With the roof already leaking Saturday night, Fox’s lead NFL game producer, Richie Zyontz, told USA Today his team knew what they were looking for. “This was specifically for the roof collapsing,” he said.

According to Zyontz, the video crew had heard from stadium maintenance workers that the roof was becoming a real problem and that collapses had occurred in the past. Smartly, the Fox broadcast team decided to set up a camera to visually monitor the roof overnight from inside the stadium. Mr. Zyontz: The Internet thanks you.

What Fox captured was footage of the roof collapsing early on Sunday morning and dumping showers of snow on the field. Since no one was hurt, we can all can enjoy the video for what it is: awesome. The video embedded below has already racked up more than 1.8 million views on YouTube in less than 24 hours, and the game has since been moved to Monday night at Ford Field in Detroit.

Reviews: YouTube

More About: collapse, Fox, metrodome, minnesota, minnesota vikings, News, snow, video, youtube

For more Web Video coverage:

DailyBooth Revamps iPhone App with New Design and Features

Posted: 13 Dec 2010 10:23 AM PST


DailyBooth, the photo-sharing startup with a focus on faces, is out with version 2.0 of its iPhone app. The update is a complete rewrite and redesign from the original and includes a live feed of photos, full profile information and messaging support.

The refreshed application also brings with it a 3-second timer for snapping photos, integration with Facebook and Twitter, username search, improved friend finding capabilities and photo ghosting.

The application should be well-received by DailyBooth users as it finally makes a majority of the web service’s features available on the iPhone.

As the camera capabilities on newer smartphones continue to improve, startups are responding by building specialized applications that drastically improve the users’ ability to snap and share photos on the web from their mobile devices.

DailyBooth CEO Brian Pokorny believes the bigger trend is building for younger audiences who prefer to communicate with faces, hence his company’s interest in building around the front-facing camera of the iPhone 4. As for Android, DailyBooth indicates a version of the application is in the works for that operating system as well.

Reviews: Android, DailyBooth, Facebook, Twitter

More About: dailybooth, iphone, mobile photo sharing, photo sharing

For more Startups coverage:

7 Tips for Starting a Coworking Space

Posted: 13 Dec 2010 10:13 AM PST


The Coworking Resources Series is supported by join.me. Get your people together without actually getting them together. Just instantly share your screen so everybody’s on the same page. No need for a plane, a projector or a sandwich platter. Just gather at join.me.

Jeff Park started out looking for space his company could share with a handful of other independent workers in order to reduce rent. Bill Jacobson and Dave Ulrich ended up with a lot of extra space after the main tenant that shared their sublease decided to move out. And Tony Bacigalupo decided to try working with a group of people that called their rotating work event a Jelly. All of them ended up founding coworking spaces — Ravenswood Coworking in Chicago, WorkBar in Boston, and New Work City in Manhattan, respectively.

No matter what brought you to the conclusion that you’d like to start a coworking space, a good place to start is asking veterans for their advice. We’ve taken the liberty of starting this process for you. Here are seven pointers founders gave us for how to get a coworking space started.

1. Scope Out Some Existing Spaces

Scope_out

Jay Catalan, the co-founder of a coworking space in Vancouver called The Network Hub, didn’t plan on founding a coworking space when he started looking for an office to share with a handful of other companies. When he came across Citizen Space in San Francisco, he decided he liked the idea and used what he found out about their and other coworking spaces’ models to shape how his own space would function.

“The original idea was dividing the space into different private offices — offices within an office,” Catalan says. “The idea of coworking and the model of Citizen Space is about being in a shared area where you get to talk to people more, you get to know people more. If you need something, you can just turn to the guy next to you and ask, ‘what do you think about this?’ That's not really as possible if the space was divided into actual offices.”

Catalan suggests that potential coworking space owners find out about how other coworking spaces are functioning before starting to plan their own. Many are listed on the coworking wiki. It’s also good to see what coworking spaces are already available in your area to avoid overlap in niche or location.

2. Host a Jelly

Jellies are casual work events. People gather in a person’s home, a coffee shop or an office to work together for a day. Since these meetings started in 2006, they’ve gone from strictly New York events to popping up all over. If there’s a group already meeting somewhere near you, see if you can host for a day. If there isn’t a group near you, start one. It’s a good way to gauge interest in coworking near you and will give you a taste of what it might be like to host a space.

3. Build a Community Before Building a Space

New Work City founder Tony Bacigalupo and a group of coworkers met in a coffee shop before leasing a space. They moved into their second space in September.

When Bacigalupo decided to start what would become New Work City, he and a friend invited people to work together in a cafe regularly before actually leasing a space. When the group grew, he subletted an office from a startup. Eventually, the group grew out of that space, and he moved the operation to a new office on September 1. About 75 people are members, and about 30 of them turn up to work on a given day.

Bacigalupo doesn’t think he would have had the same success if he had jumped right into a lease.

“The main thing that you're selling — our space has desks and Internet and conference rooms, and Wi-Fi and all of these things — but the real thing that you're selling is the community,” Bacigalupo says. “You can get those other things in all sorts of other places. The reason that someone wants to come to a coworking space is to be around other amazing people. So if you open your doors and you have desks and conference rooms but no people, then people aren't going to be excited to go there, because they're going there to get something that you don't have.”

Building the community before you sign a lease has another perk: there will already be regular patrons to the space by the time you open the door. You’ll know that there is a demand for coworking, and the community will have an opportunity to help shape the space to its needs.

4. Location Is Important

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One of the factors responsible for the success of the Ravenswood Coworking Group, according to Park, is its location. The space is located near both Chicago’s elevated train and its Metra, but outside of the downtown territory of the daily grind. Many of its patrons live in the neighborhood and walk to the space to work.

While every city has its own version of an ideal location (Bacigalupo for instance, looked for a space central to the New York City subway system), it’s important to make your space convenient to potential coworkers.

5. Market Smart

advertise

Most coworking spaces don’t have the budget to rent billboards and run television ads. Thankfully, most coworking spaces don’t really need that kind of advertising to succeed. Craigslist, flyers at the local Starbucks, and word of mouth steadily build a community.

“It's been a very gradual process,” Bacigalupo says. “We moved from cafes, to a larger space, to a larger space. Along the way we were getting the word out by hosting events, by going to events, and just tweeting about it, talking about it. Word got out sort of on its own."

Hold workshops around a particular topic of interest. Don’t focus specifically on community building — instead, cater to certain interest groups. That way, you’re enabling like-minded professionals to meet and form natural relationships.

6. Automate

Ravenswood

Ravenswood Coworking Group co-founder Jeff Park uses automated billing and key fobs to reduce the hassle of running the space.

Park used to spend a lot of time tracking down people and asking them to pay for their coworking fees. Then he started billing everyone at the first of the month via their credit cards. Today, the monthly building gets handled in about the amount of time it takes him to check confirmation e-mails.

He took a similar approach for keeping track of keys when he implemented a key fob entry system.

"They can pick a four-digit code or I can give them a key fob, and once you enter it into the computer program, you don't have to worry about giving them a key or if they lose it,” he says.

Whenever possible, set up your coworking space so it runs itself.

7. Have Realistic Financial Expectations

money

Most of the coworking space managers and owners that I spoke with throughout the Coworking Resources Series didn’t see their coworking spaces as a financial endeavor. The majority of them said that they were happy to be breaking even and continued to run the businesses that inspired them to create a coworking environment in the first place.

Some found ways to add businesses that complement the coworking space, however. Bacigalupo, who now focuses solely on New Work City, is developing a system for events and programming series that would bring in some revenue.

"New Work City, the coworking space, is designed to be self-sustaining,” Bacigalupo says. “It'll make enough money to pay for the people to help run the place, and that's about it. And what we're working on doing is building things on top of that community that make money.”

Series Supported by join.me

The Coworking Resources Series is supported by join.me. Get your people together without actually getting them together. Just instantly share your screen so everybody’s on the same page. No need for a plane, a projector or a sandwich platter. Just gather at join.me.

So what exactly is join.me? It’s an impromptu meeting space that happens wherever, whenever. It’s getting a second or third pair of eyes on your presentation from across the hall or across the continent. It’s sharing your screen instantly with anyone or everyone to get stuff done, quickly. It’s join.me, the last two words in an invitation to collaborate, meet, train, demo or show-off.

More Workspace Resources from Mashable:

- HOW TO: Get the Most Out of a Coworking Space
- 5 Signs That Coworking Might Be for You
- 37 Productivity Tips for Working From Anywhere
- HOW TO: Choose the Best Workspace for Your Business
- 10 Essential Tips for Building Your Small Biz Team

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, JayKay57 Flickr, Jens Everaerdt, Williamhartz, kpishdadi, Tracy O

Reviews: Craigslist, Flickr, Internet, iStockphoto

More About: business, coworking, Coworking Resources Series, List, Lists, New Work City, Ravenswood Coworking, small business, startups, The Network Hub, WorkBar, Workspace

For more Startups coverage:

Gilt to Offer $10,000 Discounts on Jettas

Posted: 13 Dec 2010 09:39 AM PST


Beginning Wednesday, December 15, flash sales site Gilt Groupe will sell one new 2011 Jetta for $5,995 — a 63% discount off the regular price of $15,995 — for three consecutive days beginning at noon ET.

In an apparent effort to promote Gilt’s mobile applications, members can only access the first sale via one of Gilt’s mobile applications for the iPhone, iPod touch, iPad and Android devices. On December 16 and 17, however, members will be able to access the sale on gilt.com as well as via the company’s mobile apps. The proceeds from the sales will be donated to the charity Dress for Success.

Those who don’t manage to get one of the three Jettas can add the vehicle to their "Wait List" for a so-called “special incentive” — presumably a lesser discount — that can be redeemed at participating Volkswagen dealerships at a later date.

This marks the first automotive sale for Gilt, which currently offers daily discounts on apparel and accessories for men and women, as well as travel and local services in a few cities. The promotion does not suggest Gilt will begin offering many of these types of deals in the future, however, as neither Volkswagen (which manufacturers Jettas) nor Gilt will profit from the deal outside of earned media.

Reviews: Android, list

More About: gilt, gilt groupe, Jetta

For more Business coverage:

Giveaway: Win a Holiday MashPack With 19 Tech Prizes & myTouch 4G

Posted: 13 Dec 2010 09:38 AM PST


‘Tis the season and Mashable has been getting into the holiday spirit by talking about this year’s most gift-worthy gadgets and inviting readers to get together at Mashable Holiday Meetups.

Now we’re celebrating by giving you awesome social media and tech prizes. Every weekday for the next two weeks, we’ll give away a Holiday MashPack filled with at least 12 wish list items. A different grand prize will be added each day, and this week our packs are even bigger and better.

Today’s grand prize is a T-Mobile myTouch 4G. You’ll find a list below detailing the 19 other fantastic prizes in today’s MashPack — and see information on how to win. This weekend’s MashPack went to Michelle Ruble from from Cincinnati, Ohio. (Congratulations, Michelle!) For those who didn’t win this weekend’s pack, go ahead and try your luck today.

Happy holidays from Mashable!

How To Win Today’s MashPack

Tweeting for today’s MashPack will end Tuesday, December 14 at 12 p.m. ET. To enter the contest, connect through Twitter (for those viewing in RSS, click through to this page). Please use your real identity in the submission so that we may contact you via e-mail, Twitter or Facebook to let you know that you’ve won. We’ll contact the winner after the contest closes. The contest is limited to those 18 and older in the U.S. For contests and prizes, also make sure to “like” us on Facebook.

T-Mobile myTouch 4G

Today’s grand prize is a myTouch 4G Android phone. The new myTouch features a 3.8-inch WVGA display, a 1GHz Snapdragon CPU, an 8 GB microSD memory card, and a 5-megapixel camera capable of recording 720p video. It was designed by HTC, and it runs the latest version of Android: 2.2. It also has a second, front-facing camera and video calling capabilities, as well as Wi-Fi and HSPA+ connectivity. The myTouch 4G has made a name for itself in Hollywood with pop star Pink and her husband Carey Hart, both fans of the phone.

Sony MHS-TS10 Bloggie Touch HD Camera

Sony’s Bloggie Touch camera captures Full HD video and 12.8-megapixel still shots with the simple touch of its single record button. The large touch screen showcases your photos and videos, which are stored on built-in memory. Its size makes it readily available from your pocket or purse, and you can easily upload your photos and videos to your favorite social networking sites while you’re on the go.

Aperion Audio: Audio Link

“The Aperion Home Audio Link (HAL) transmits high quality uncompressed audio up to 100 feet – this means you can stream music from your computer, your home theater, your MP3 player or any other audio source to almost any speaker system in your home! If you use one or two additional HAL Receivers (optional), you can stream a single audio source to up to three listening zones, giving you true whole-house audio without running wires across your room. ”

Smartfish ErgoMotion Laser Mouse

“For Desktop use, it's time to get rid of that old-fashioned "laser mouse" and upgrade to the comfort of the Whirl™ Desktop Mouse with ErgoMotion™ — the world's first truly ergonomic desktop mouse. No other desktop mouse provides the fluid, air-like comfort of the patented ErgoMotion™ pivot system.”

Like, Dislike Stamps

“The stamps first made waves online in summer 2010, when Nation posted a joke image of a wooden-handled " Like Button Stamp" on its website. The picture received so much attention that Nation decided to produce the product, along with a dislike stamp, selling a few hundred sets over the past six months. Jailbreak recognized its potential immediately, contacting Nation shortly after seeing the concept and eventually negotiating the rights to mass-produce and globally distribute the stamps.”

iPom

Key features: “2.1 Stereo Speaker System; Plays music from USB Memory stick or SD card or any other music device that has a 3.5mm output, such as iPods; Humanized Touch Volume Control and music control; Adjustable Bass; 3 Speakers positioned for maximum sound separation and distribution; 12W Subwoofer; Total output of 18 Watts; Airflow optimized design for consistent sound performance; Bass Reflex Technology; Designed to deliver 360 Degrees of Sound; 3.5mm AUX input jack to connect to TV, Gaming Console or other music sources such as iPod; Eco-Friendly and RoHS Compliant.”

ZAGGsparq 2.0

“The ZAGGsparq 2.0 plugs into a standard outlet and provides two USB ports for charging mobile devices. Unplugged, the ZAGGsparq 2.0 carries multiple charges with it – four complete recharges for most power-hungry smart phones. Perfect for everything from cell phones to hand-held gaming systems. Dead batteries and expensive spares are a thing of the past. The ZAGGsparq will take the iPad® from 0% to 60% and at the same rate the iPad® wall charger charges the iPad®.”

Desk Pets Skitterbots

“SKITTERBOT, by Desk Pets® is the fastest legged robot commercially available that travels at an amazing one foot per second and is controlled by a unique patent pending 5 button USB remote controller/charger. SKITTERBOT moves forward, backwards, turns left and turns right and stops. Four different colors and four different frequencies allow racing, battling and exploring. A 30min recharge = 15min of play.”

Griffin Technology PowerDockDual

Your iPad and your iPhone (or your iPod) get seats of honor in PowerDock Dual’s built-in charging dock, while the valet dish is a resting place for your change, keys and whatever else might live in your pockets. It has an AC power supply with four international plug adapters, 10 watt (2 amp) charging for your iPad and 5 watt (1 amp) charging for your iPhone or iPod. The screens and speakers are unobstructed while the batteries get charged, so you can listen while you watch. It’s perfect side table entertainment!

Griffin Technology AirCurve Play

The AirCurve Play acoustically amplifies the speaker of your iPhone without batteries, cables or electricity. It collects the sound from the built-in speaker of your iPhone, amplifies it in a built-in coiled waveguide, and projects it out into the room. AirCurve’s transparent polycarbonate body lets you appreciate the waveguide’s graceful curves, inside, that do all the work. Its internal engineered waveguide requires no power, making it a perfectly portable audio/video conference phone, and self-contained music player and video viewer.

Caseable Custom-Designed Mashable Laptop Case

Caseable, a startup based right in Mashable HQ’s backyard — Brooklyn, New York, creates handmade, customized cases for just about any size laptop or tablet. You can get any look you’d like by handpicking your colors for each detail — even the zipper! Caseable made specialized 15-inch Mashable cases exclusively for our holiday MashPack winners. They’re quite snazzy, if we might say so ourselves.

Picaboo Madison Photobook

Picaboo photo books can be fully customized by dragging-and-dropping photos and captions anywhere on your pages. You have complete creative control with powerful-yet-simple editing options. The Madison’s heavyweight, archival quality lay-flat pages are ideal for highlighting panoramic, two-page spreads, and the paper's pearlescent sheen coating adds a luminous glow to your photos. The elegant custom cover features a photo of your choice under a protective laminate and a full-grain glove leather wrap around the spine and back cover is available in five colors.

Skullcandy Headphones

“From the mangroves of Madagascar to the Cloud Forest of Costa Rica, wood is all around us. Wood sounds good; we use it to make xylophones, drum sticks, claves and castanets. It’s even in clarinets, for crying out loud. If headphones had been used a thousand years ago they would have been wood. Holua are made of wood, and they sound good…really good.”

Merkury Innovations Universal Square Stereo Speakers

The Universal Square Stereo Speakers are just one example of Merkury Innovations’ fun and stylish electronic accessories. These battery-free speakers will work with audio devices featuring a 3.5mm audio jack. The slim design and exciting metallic colors can complement any decor. Their compact size make them convenient for toting from room to room in the house or packing up for a friend’s party.

Ben Folds’ Lonely Avenue Deluxe Album

Lonely Avenue contains 11 new songs featuring music by Ben Folds with words by Nick Hornby for what The Huffington Post calls “one of the most interesting collaborations of the year.” This special deluxe edition includes the album on CD and vinyl, four short stories by Nick Hornby and 15 images by acclaimed photographer Joel Meyerowitz, all in a hardbound, 152-page book.

Hard Candy Mobile Phone Cases

Hard Candy Cases merges fashion and function to distinguish and protect mobile phones from the wear and tear of daily use. It’s one of the fastest growing brands in the Apple accessories industry with distribution in the United States, Singapore, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, France, Puerto Rico, Thailand, Indonesia, Ireland, UK and Malaysia, among others.

Power Support USA iPad Leather Sleeve

Constructed with premium quality leather, the Power Support USA iPad sleeve protects while complimenting the aesthetics of the device. The sleeve’s soft inner lining prevents scratching while using this sleek carrying case. Its clean design and superb manufacturing techniques make for high-quality iPad protection.

Power Support USA iPhone 4 Anti-Glare Films

Power Support USA films protect your iPhone 4 screen from scratches, dirt and dust while reducing glare, fingerprints and smudges. It’s specially formulated to be compatible with retina display and resist glare and fingerprints while protecting your screen. The static cling adhesive film leaves no residue if film is removed.

Power Support USA iPhone4 Designer Collection Cases

Power Support has teamed up with cutting-edge designers Tibi, Rachel Pally and Rory Beca to create a set of super stylish air jackets. Measuring under 1 mm, the jacket snugly hugs the back of your iPhone 4. You can keep your phone protected from dings and scratches while looking fashionably fresh with the Power Support Designer Collection. It’s a win-win for any iPhone 4 owner!

Twournal Twitter Journal

Twournal allows you to create, buy and sell Twitter books printed from your tweets. All Twournals have color covers, can include replies and Twitpic/Tweetphoto/Yfrog pictures in color or black and white. You can choose a custom picture for your front cover. Select which tweets you want to start and end at. And you can add a dedication message to appear after your title.

Reviews: Android, Facebook, Mashable, TweetPhoto, Twitpic, Twitter

More About: contest, gadgets, giveaway, Holidays, mashpack

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“Bed Intruder” Was Most-Watched Independent YouTube Video of 2010

Posted: 13 Dec 2010 09:20 AM PST

Now at more than 47.5 million views, Auto-Tune the News’s “Bed Intruder Song” is officially the year’s most-watched, non-major label video on YouTube.

The video-sharing site just released the list of its most popular videos of 2010, and it includes some of our favorite viral vids (as well as those that are finalists for Mashable Awards).

In all, people watched more than 700 billion YouTube videos and uploaded more than 13 million hours of footage, YouTube’s community manager Mia Quagliarello wrote in a blog post Sunday.

The site’s list was created by taking into account the number of views each video racked up, as well as totals from multiple versions of the same video. Not too many surprises here. Along with Antoine Dodson’s auto-tuned rant, you’ll find Double Rainbow, the Old Spice Guy and, naturally, YouTube darlings Justin Bieber and Lady Gaga at the top of the list.

Without further ado, here’s what the world watched in 2010.

Most-watched videos globally, excluding major label music videos:

Most-watched major label music videos:

Reviews: YouTube, news

More About: bed intruder, double-rainbow, justin bieber, Lady Gaga, old spice guy, youtube

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“Best Mobile App” Finalists Discuss Inspiration and the Future [INTERVIEWS]

Posted: 13 Dec 2010 08:08 AM PST

mobile future

This post is brought to you by Mobile Future, sponsor of the Mashable Awards’ “Best Mobile App” Category. Its mission is to educate key decision makers on innovations in the wireless industry and to advocate continued investment in wireless technologies. Check out their Year in Review video here.

The Mashable Awards, our annual contest highlighting the very best the web has to offer, has entered the final round. After announcing the five finalists in the “Best Mobile App” category supported by Mobile Future, we asked each finalist to answer a few questions for Mashable readers so that you could learn more about each nominee and decide which stellar app you might want to vote for.

We asked the nominees about their inspiration for getting involved with mobile apps, what makes their product stand out and what’s next. Check out what each nominee had to say and let us know in the comments who you think should win. Voting will be open until December 15, so pick your favorite and vote often.

Evernote


Phil Libin, Evernote CEO, answers questions from Mashable about Evernote:

  • 1. What inspired you to get involved with mobile apps?
    “We always saw Evernote as an app for your entire life. A big chunk of your life is spent in front of your computer. An even bigger chunk of your life is spent out in the real world, where your mobile device becomes your most indispensable tool for information, entertainment and education. We want Evernote to present you with the best possible user experience at every point in your life — that’s why we have both desktop and mobile versions that all sync together seamlessly.”
  • 2. What makes you/your company/your product different from the rest of the finalists?
    “There are some great finalists in our category, and many of them deserve to win. Of course we’re all pretty spectacularly different from each other. This is what makes the mobile app industry so exciting now.”
  • 3. Why should people vote for you as “Best Mobile App?”
    “People should vote for their favorite app. We’re honored for any votes we receive.”
  • 4. What’s your end goal in creating this app?
    “We’re building the world’s memory.”
  • 5. What’s next for you/your company/your product?
    “2011 is going to be a huge year for Evernote: tons of new features, new devices and new countries, and a very significant investment in overall polish and quality. We want to be the trusted, permanent and ubiquitous destination of all your lifetime memories. This means that using Evernote should be as natural as using your own brain.”

DriveSafe.ly

Heath Ahrens, CEO of iSpeech, answers questions from Mashable about DriveSafe.ly:

  • 1. What inspired you to get involved with mobile apps?
    “I originally envisioned iSpeech apps helping college students read with their ears – letting them listen to course material while driving to class.  Almost immediately upon launching the original iSpeech, one of our employees was rear-ended by a texting driver and it messed up his back pretty badly. The SMS reader concept became immediately apparent. I thought, let's use core iSpeech cloud technology and wrap it up into a flagship app, call it ‘Drive Safe’ – it will be easy we thought. We were wrong about it being easy, but it has been rewarding and has really helped catapult iSpeech into a respectable position as a speech technology company.”
  • 2. What makes you/your company/your product different from the rest of the finalists?
    “The fact that iSpeech is both a technology provider and an app developer differentiates us.  Interestingly enough, most of the 7 million DriveSafe.ly users are on BlackBerry, and I think it was a good move to launch on BlackBerry first.  It allowed us to create a large and loyal fan base in a relatively unsaturated market. Also, the DriveSafe.ly app was the first app to read messages aloud using cloud-based speech technology like iSpeech; it was a game-changing idea.”
  • 3. Why should people vote for you as “Best Mobile App?”
    “People should vote for iSpeech's DriveSafe.ly because using it helps keep people safer on the road.  Even if you don't text while driving, perhaps you can help keep someone else from doing it by encouraging them to use DriveSafe.ly.  It's not just an app, it's a solid cause.”
  • 4. What was your end goal in creating this app?
    “The idea behind DriveSafe.ly was to help solve a real problem, texting while driving, while mainstreaming iSpeech technology.  DriveSafe.ly helps keep people's eyes on the road, serves as a flagship ‘powered by iSpeech’ app and helps popularize the SMS reading genre of app and safe driving apps in general.  The main purpose of the app isn't entertainment, although it's pretty funny when you send an inappropriate SMS to a friend to be spoken aloud when he's with his mom.  In all seriousness, perhaps the best reward is the thanks we have gotten from several outspoken safe driving advocates who appreciate the safety benefit and distracted driving awareness that DriveSafe.ly provides.”
  • 5. What’s next for you/your company/your product?
    “DriveSafe.ly for iPhone has been in the works for quite some time here at iSpeech and we're very close to launch.  Also, iSpeech has opened up the same text to speech and speech recognition APIs used for DriveSafe.ly for other developers to use for free.  To this end, we have partnered with Car and Driver Magazine, TeleNav, Cobra and Polar Mobile to get our technology in the hands of more people.”

eBuddy

Andre Sommer, marketer at eBuddy, answers questions from Mashable:

  • 1. What inspired you to get involved with mobile apps?
    “eBuddy started evaluating the possibility to get in the mobile business back in 2006, when only few knew the meaning of ‘apps.’ With the large popularity of its Web Messenger, eBuddy saw the opportunity to jump into mobile and provide its users with a chance to be online always and everywhere.”
  • 2. What makes you/your company/your product different from the rest of the finalists?
    “Of all the finalists, eBuddy is the most relevant and universal service to a mobile audience, justified by its more than 100 million mobile app downloads. First off, eBuddy combines the world's most popular IM networks in one interface, being a relevant service to hundreds of millions of people. Secondly, its reach has no barriers: eBuddy is translated to a variety of languages and its five mobile solutions make eBuddy compatible with any Internet-compatible mobile device.”
  • 3. Why should people vote for you as “Best Mobile App?”
    “People should vote for eBuddy as ‘Best Mobile App’ because eBuddy best represents the mobile app market with its experience, versatility and success in the field.”
  • 4. What was your end goal in creating this app?
    “eBuddy's mobile apps were created in order to make instant messaging accessible to a larger audience and allow users to be online anytime, anyplace. And, as our slogan similarly states, we aim to continue providing the best web and mobile messaging products to everyone, everywhere.”
  • 5. What’s next for you/your company/your product?
    “eBuddy is working on exciting new things that will further solidify the company as one of the main mobile messaging players in the world. Stay tuned!”

ScoutMob


Scoutmob co-founder Michael Tavani and “Y-Factor” Nicole Jayne answer questions from Mashable:

  • 1. What inspired you to get involved with mobile apps?
    “Everybody loves a good deal, but printing and tracking paper coupons is downright clunky. Ever sit down at a restaurant only to remember the half-price gift certificate left on the kitchen table? It's time for innovation in the deal-a-day space. Scoutmob was inspired by the way people rely on mobile phones to make shopping and dining decisions on the fly. Mobile technology allows Scoutmob to connect people to cool local merchants in their immediate area, adding spontaneity into the deal-getting equation.”
    - Michael Tavani, Co-Founder
  • 2. What makes you/your company/your product different from the rest of the finalists?
    “Scoutmob is the only app that saves you money, for free. Flash the app or SMS text message at a Scoutmob-approved local business and BOOM, your bill is cut in half. In business speak, Scoutmob is an online service that drives offline action. With Scoutmob, users are getting out and exploring businesses they have never visited. After that initial Scoutmob-sponsored visit, they are transforming into life-long customers.”
    - Nicole Jayne, Y-Factor
  • 3. Why should people vote for you as “Best Mobile App?”
    “Do you like saving money? Do you like supporting awesome local restaurants and shops? Do you like mustaches? Do you like curious city finds? Soon Scoutmob will be in dozens of cities, so a vote for Scoutmob is a vote for sweet local deals in a smartphone neighborhood near you.”
    - Nicole Jayne, Y-Factor
  • 4. What was your end goal in creating this app?
    “Scoutmob seeks to revolutionize the way people connect to local businesses in their city. It's all about helping you be a better local at a better price. You could think of the Scoutmob app as a reverse Foursquare; Whereas on Foursquare, users check in after they have arrived at a place they were intending to go, Scoutmob inspires thousands of people a day to go all the way across town to check out a place they have never been to.

    Of course, we had to include some fun stuff to entertain you out and about. The mustache camera is the only one of it's kind included in a free app, not to mention incredibly fun and conducive to sharing. And while our staff is scouting new deals, they collect great city trivia for your perusal in the curiosities section. Now put down that tuna sandwich you packed for lunch and head out to the city with your fellow mobsters.”
    – Michael Tavani, Co-Founder

  • 5. What’s next for you/your company/your product?
    “In 2011, we'll be focused on geographic expansion, bringing our innovative deal-a-day model to more people, in more cities. We are also working on new features to encourage loyalty and repeat visits to our featured local businesses. Our aim is to simplify the one-to-one relationship between merchants and the customers that have expressed interest in them. For example, we're hoping to allow restaurants to push motivating time-sensitive deals to drive business during slow times. Additionally, you can expect more 'stache focused product development.”
    – Michael Tavani, Co-Founder

Gravity

Jan Ole Suhr, founder of mobileways.de, creators of the Gravity app, answers questions from Mashable:

  • 1. What inspired you to get involved with mobile apps?

    “I’ve been fascinated by mobile phones since I saw them in public during a vacation in Finland. Being a programmer, I wanted to be able to develop apps for mobile phones right from the start, so I could take my own desktop apps with me everywhere I’d go. It took a while before this dream came true and I started my ‘career’ as an apps developer with the Symbian/S60-based Nokia 7650 back in 2002.”

  • 2. What makes you/your company/your product different from the rest of the finalists?
    “I don’t know the competing apps that well and wouldn’t want to judge them unduly. I am very happy to see that so many users have been nominating Gravity for the Best Mobile App. Gravity is a Nokia-/Symbian-only application, and that makes it unique in this competition already. Gravity is also the product of continuous support and encouragement of its user base, which I think is very special. It’s a give and take. Without the feedback, Gravity wouldn’t have all those features and different services that it offers today.”
  • 3. Why should people vote for you as “Best Mobile App?”
    “Gravity tries to bring state-of-the art user experience and an iPhone-like user interface to Nokia/Symbian phones. Voting for Gravity would recognize all the effort put into creating this application. It would hopefully encourage other developers to consider working for Nokia platforms as well and increase competition and innovation among smartphone operating systems.”
  • 4. What’s next for you/your company/your product?
    “First of all, there are still many features missing in Gravity. I will hopefully be able to continue working on [them] and improving the application throughout the next months. There are plans for other apps, too, but currently all resources are dedicated to Gravity.”
  • 5. What’s your end goal in creating this app?
    “I am still focused on creating the best mobile Twitter and social networking client with Gravity. This might be a goal hard to achieve, and one wouldn’t necessarily pick the Symbian platform for it. I hope that Gravity keeps being a benchmark app for the Symbian platform and that it can compete with iPhone and Android apps in terms of usability and user experience.”

You have from now until December 15 to pick your favorite. If you have questions about the Mashable Awards or the list of finalists, please post them to our GetSatisfaction page. Let us know which mobile app is your favorite. You can vote once per category per day, so get voting!

The Mashable Awards Gala at Cirque du Soleil Zumanity (Vegas)

In partnership with Cirque du Soleil, The Mashable Awards Gala event will bring together the winners and nominees, the Mashable community, partners, media, the marketing community, consumer electronics and technology brands and attendees from the 2011 International CES Convention to Las Vegas on Thursday, January 6, 2011. Together, we will celebrate the winners and the community of the Mashable Awards at the Cirque du Soleil Zumanity stage in the beautiful New York New York Hotel. The event will include acts and performances from our partner Cirque du Soleil Zumanity. In addition, there will be special guest presenters and appearances.

Date: Thursday, January 6th, 2011 (during International CES Convention week)
Time: 7:00 – 10:00 pm PT
Location: Cirque du Soleil Zumanity, New York New York Hotel, Las Vegas
Agenda: Networking, Open Bars, Acts, Surprises and the Mashable Awards Gala presentations
Socialize: Facebook, Foursquare, Meetup, Plancast, Twitter (Hashtag: #MashableAwards)

Register for Mashable Awards Gala at Cirque du Soleil Zumanity stage (Las Vegas - 2011 International CES convention) [Ticketed Event] in Las Vegas, NV on Eventbrite

Mashable Awards Category Sponsor:

Mobile Future is a broad-based coalition of businesses, non-profit organizations and individuals interested in and dedicated to advocating for an environment in which innovations in wireless technology and services are enabled and encouraged. Our mission is to educate the public and key decision makers on innovations in the wireless industry that have transformed the way Americans work and play and to advocate continued investment in wireless technologies.

Our "Mobile Year in Review 2010" animation launched this December and provides a glimpse into the most notable breakthroughs in the wireless industry this year.

Reviews: Android, Evernote, Facebook, Foursquare, Internet, Mashable, Scoutmob, Twitter, eBuddy, foursquare, iPhone

More About: android, drivesafe.ly, ebuddy, evernote, gravity, iphone, mashable awards, mashable awards 2010, Mobile 2.0, mobile apps, scoutmob, smartphones

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