Sunday 6 November 2011

Mashable: Latest 10 News Updates - including “45 New Digital Media Resources You May Have Missed”

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Mashable: Latest 10 News Updates - including “45 New Digital Media Resources You May Have Missed”

45 New Digital Media Resources You May Have Missed

Posted: 05 Nov 2011 03:17 PM PDT


This week at Mashable, we jumped (or barrel rolled) right into November, buzzing about the great Kardashian divorce of 2011 and already preparing to rock the holiday season. Still reminiscing over last weekend’s Halloween shenanigans? Or if you were left unfulfilled because of the snow, we have a few things for you below.

If you’ve been too busy doing push-ups to get ready for the mobs of Black Friday, we’ve got the weekly features roundup packaged nicely for you right here.

Editor’s Picks

  • “Do a Barrel Roll” on Google, and You Won’t Be Disappointed
    “Do a barrel roll” has become a trending topic on Twitter and elsewhere, thanks to an Easter egg on Google Search.
  • Steve Jobs Predicts the Future in 1990 [VIDEO]
    In this fascinating raw footage from 1990, Steve Jobs talks at great length to a WGBH-Boston interviewer about his ideas about the direction he saw technology taking.
  • How Much Money Will Consumers Spend This Holiday Season? [INFOGRAPHIC]
    We all know consumers spend more during the Holiday Season than any other time during the year. But did you know 38% of people have already began their yearly shopping extravaganzas?
  • 5 Digital Tools That Make Shopping Easier
    Looking to get a jump on Black Friday deals? These apps will help you secure the best prices and ease shopping headaches.

    • Social Media

    For more social media news and resources, you can follow Mashable’s social media channel on Twitter and become a fan on Facebook.

    Tech & Mobile

    For more tech news and resources, you can follow Mashable’s tech channel on Twitter and become a fan on Facebook.

    Business & Marketing

    For more business news and resources, you can follow Mashable’s business channel on Twitter and become a fan on Facebook.

    Image courtesy of Flickr, webtreats

    More About: Business, Features Week In Review, List, Mobile, Social Media, web

    For more Social Media coverage:

    6 Best Practices For Small Business YouTube Marketing

    Posted: 05 Nov 2011 02:19 PM PDT


    This post originally appeared on the American Express OPEN Forum, where Mashable regularly contributes articles about leveraging social media and technology in small business.

    Mention YouTube and most people will picture cats playing piano. But among a certain type of small businessperson, the name conjures another image: Dollar signs.

    Such entrepreneurs can often sound like brainwashed cult members — in a good way. For instance, Scott Imbrie, owner of Original Skateboards, a brand that has been built largely on its YouTube presence, says the platform is better for marketers than even Facebook. “YouTube is actually the biggest social media site,” he says. “It’s bigger than Facebook or Twitter.”

    Another YouTube proselytizer is Jeffrey Harmon, chief marketing officer for Orabrush, a Provo, Utah oral care brand that recently parlayed a series of successful YouTube videos into a national distribution deal at Walmart. Original Skateboards, which joined YouTube in 2005 and Orabrush, which dropped its first YouTube video in 2009, were clearly ahead of the curve, but YouTube is still a great place to launch or grow a brand.

    Below are some tips from entrepreneurs who have thrived on YouTube, plus some from Lane Shackleton, product manager for YouTube and, yes, a distant relative of polar explorer Ernest Shackleton.

    1. Don’t Expect Your Video to go Viral

    Are you ready to become the next Orabrush? Maybe it’s time to reset your expectations. Harmon helpfully points out that 48 hours of video are loaded to YouTube every minute, so you’re probably better off playing Powerball than waiting for your clip to take off. “Anyone who thinks they’re going to have a video go crazy on YouTube is dreaming,” says Harmon. “Think base hits, not home runs.” Raw numbers aren’t as important as reaching the right customers, so don’t freak out if you’re nowhere near a million views.

    2. Buy Some Ads

    Since your video is probably not going to go viral on its own (or at all), you should consider buying some ads on YouTube. Fortunately, rates are pretty good compared to AdWords. Harmon says that right now search ads on YouTube are going for 50 cents per click vs. $1.50 per click on AdWords. That said, you don’t have to sink a fortune into it. In Orabrush’s early days, the company spent $30 a day on YouTube search ads. Though Orabrush got a lot more bang for its buck back then, Harmon says you can still do pretty well today buying Promoted Videos, the ads that pop up when you do a YouTube search. However, no matter what you spend on ads, make sure the content is relevant to the search term. Google will base the ad’s position on that relevance.

    3. Use Comments, Hot Spots and A/B Testing as Your Focus Group

    If you hire a Madison Avevue ad agency to run a TV spot, they’re likely going to want to subject the ad to focus group testing. But if you’re a small DIY advertiser, your best approximation of a focus group — aside from your wife and her friends from the Rotary Club — are the comments below your video. Granted, many will be insipid and/or obscene, but some just may have some insight.

    Beyond that, YouTube has some other tools to help you gauge how your video is being received. Chief among these is Hot Spots, a technology that lets you see when people are tuning in and out of your video.

    Another option is A/B Testing. Big ad firms do this as well, but you can do this on a smaller scale by running two different versions of your clip as an Unlisted Video backed by search ads and then watching to see which one gets the better response. Then, you choose the winner.

    Finally, there’s Google Analytics, which will at least tell you how much referral traffic you’re getting from YouTube. Shackleton says on average, people who come to your site from YouTube spend more time there than if they came from somewhere else.

    4. Watch a Lot of YouTube

    If you’re serious about using YouTube as a marketing platform, then do your research. Forget about watching TV ads and spend a few hours discovering what’s hot on YouTube. Harmon says he and his staff spend several hours every day doing just that. Harmon says the goal is to begin to “recognize good ideas.”

    5. Track That ROI

    If you’re spending money on YouTube ads, you will likely want to know what you have to show for it. The fact that people have clicked through your ads is great, but the novelty will wear off quickly if they’re not actually buying anything.

    Now here’s the surprising part: Despite the fact that Google owns YouTube and marketing on YouTube is, by definition, 21st century digital and cutting edge, you still have to rely on a fairly improvisational, analog form of ROI tracking. “We count the number of views, of course, the combined total for the videos on our YouTube channel was close to a million last time I added them up, and we track the traffic to our sites from the videos, but that’s about all we’ve got in terms of hard data,” says Ed Davis, president of Ceilume, a Graton, Calif., company that makes ceiling tiles and has more than 1 million views on its YouTube channel. “We also rely heavily upon what our customer service people tell us they hear from on the phones every day and what they hear is that customers watch the videos, and the videos help.”

    6. Find Your Niche

    If you followed Step 4 and watched copious amounts of YouTube programming, you should be getting a sense of what will and won’t fly on YouTube. Guess what? No one wants to watch an ad unless it’s really, really good. But rather than try to crack the code on a spectacular ad (something that the ad industry is generally unable to do with any regularity), Shackleton suggests either positioning yourself as an expert in your particular field (as Ceilume has) or attaching your brand to a particular lifestyle (Original Skateboards’s approach).

    “Pick an interesting part of your brand and focus on it,” Shackleton says. But what if you sell something really boring, like plumbing supplies? Chances are this is interesting to someone, perhaps someone who has to fix their toilet in a hurry. Get inside their head and make a video directed to their likely concerns. Whatever you do, don’t think like a traditional advertiser. “The key is creating stuff that helps people, that people connect to and allows them to explore,” says Imbrie. “It’s not about advertising.”

    Images courtesy of Flickr, Bright Planet and TheGrid-ch

    More About: features, mashable, Small Business Resources, YouTube

    For more Business coverage:

    Mashable Media Summit Highlights [PICS]

    Posted: 05 Nov 2011 01:38 PM PDT


    Media Summit 2011




    The Mashable Media Summit on Nov. 4 at the Times Center in New York City attracted professionals in digital, tech, advertising, sales, marketing, mobile and publishing from all over the world.

    Click here to view this gallery.

    Media influencers, top journalists and advertising executives gathered Nov. 4 at the Mashable Media Summit to explore how technology has reinvented journalism, advanced the relationship between news organizations and their communities, reinvigorated advertising and created new business models.

    The sold-out crowd at the Times Center in New York City — and the countless people tuning in online via Twitter — helped the conference hashtag #MediaSummit become a trending topic in some parts of the U.S.

    On hand to give their insights were representatives from The New York Times, Esquire, The Washington Post, Facebook, Foursquare, Reuters, Time, Inc. and TVGuide.com, among many other notable companies.

    We had several reporters and editors on scene to capture the action on stage for you. Below are highlights of sessions. Flip through the gallery above to get a quick glimpse of speakers and attendees.

    Session Highlights

    All of the presentations will be available on video soon on Mashable. If a session you enjoyed isn’t listed below, feel free to sound off in the comments with your own highlights.

    • The Future of Social Media — The Current Landscape and 2012 Trends: Mashable CEO Pete Cashmore opened the summit firing off key trends such as news aggregation apps (i.e. Flipboard), magazine apps, devices beyond the iPad (Kindle Fire), social gestures (frictionless sharing), privacy, TV everywhere (mobile), second-screen experience and social music (Spotify). Cashmore also predicted what he thinks will be hot in the coming year: HTML5, content-licensing clash, car apps, flexible displays, Apple iTV, location-based news and near-field communication.
    • The Evolution of Sports Illustrated — From Print to Digital: Terry McDonell, editor of Time Inc. Sports Group, recounted how late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs once called Sports Illustrated‘s tablet demo “really, really stupid” but didn’t really mean it — it was a bargaining ploy.
    • Like a Virgin — The Ultimate User Experience: Tor Myhren, president of Grey New York, took us back to 1986, the year he says he “lost his virginity” in a relationship that started over the telephone when he was 14. Flash forward to 2011. How do boys meet girls now? On Facebook, where boys can “Poke” girls and girls can poke right back. They can sext, too. He revealed all the new digital and social ways that help people lose their virginity. In other words, today's online user experience continues to drastically evolve, yet people's biological instincts can't seem to keep up.
    • What Facebook's New Features Mean for Journalism: Vadim Lavrusik, journalist program manager for Facebook, shared how to use Facebook’s new features for breaking news, research and content analysis. "Profiles and subscribe are going to be the most useful for journalists that are posting as themselves," he said.
      • "How do we make hard news as irresistible as LOLcats? That is what news is competing with. We need to find new ways of packaging it.”
    • The Filter Bubble: How to Fix Content Curation: Eli Pariser, author and chairman of the board at MoveOn.org, discussed how human editors and algorithms can work together to get users clicking on content that matters, even as they increasingly get their news from curated social channels. "The great thing about the Internet is that it's a very malleable thing. … How do we make hard news as irresistible as LOLcats? That is what news is competing with. We need to find new ways of packaging it," Pariser said.
    • TV Makes You Smarter — How Technology is Changing Entertainment (for Better and Worse): TVGuide.com’s Christy Tanner touted her company’s new Watchlist platform, which launched in August as a free online service that lets users search to see where they can find their favorite shows on TV or on other connected devices. Tanner also said TV has made fans smarter because “TV fans are all like Dr. Who. … They compress time and watch more TV than ever.”
    • Introducing the Mashable Publisher Platform: Adam Ostrow, Mashable‘s senior vice president of content and executive editor, revealed the Mashable Publisher Platform, which will bring editorially selected content from 9 niche publishers to Mashable readers starting Nov. 10. "As our community grows and digital continues to transform society in new ways, we want to offer more content that dives deeper into the topics that matter to our readers," Ostrow said in a statement. “To achieve this we are bringing content from a select group of media partners who have expertise in specific topic areas directly to our community on Mashable.com, across our social channels and on our apps.” The niche publishers are AppAdvice, Causecast, ClickZ, GeekSugar, International Journalists' Network, paidContent, Pocketnow, PSFK and UX Magazine.
    • The Problem of Prediction — How Real Time Data Changes What You Should Be Doing: Chartbeat Tony Haile, CEO, had several one-liners that received plenty of retweets. Early in his presentation about real-time analytics and strategy, Haile said audience members with positive comments should tweet and people with negative comments to post to Google+. Later, Haile said, “To quote my favorite philosopher, Mike Tyson, ‘Everyone has a strategy until they get punched in the face.’” That, of course, is reference to the boxer’s famous quote, “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.”
    • From Tactile to Mobile — The Reinvention of Content Experience and Engagement: ScrollMotion co-founder Josh Koppel showed off an impressive new enterprise sales tool for tablets.

    Live Blog Transcripts

    We conducted several live blogs throughout the day and saved the discussions so you can relive the conversation via transcripts or see them for the first time.

    • Social Media Grows Up — The Evolving Role of Social Media in News Organizations: Mashable‘s community manager Meghan Peters discussed digital strategies for media outlets with Katie Rogers, social media manager at The Washington Post; Anthony De Rosa, social media editor at Reuters; and Drake Martinet, social media editor at AllThingsD.
    • The Future of Social TV: Mashable Entertainment Editor Christina Warren joined panelists Alex Iskold (founder and CEO of GetGlue) Jesse Redniss (VP of digital at USA Networks) and Tom Thai (VP of marketing and business development at Bluefin Labs).
    • Who Owns Your Identity?: Robyn Peterson, SVP of Product at Mashable chatted with panelists Tim Dierks (SVP of Engineering at the Huffington Post Media Group), Patrick Harding (CTO of Ping Identity), and Andy Mitchell (Strategic Partner Development at Facebook) to answer this oft-complicated question.


    Presenting Sponsor: AT&T

    More About: Business, Entertainment, journalism, mashable media summit, Media, News, Opinion, Tech

    Siri vs. Furby: When Two Worlds Collide [VIRAL VIDEO]

    Posted: 05 Nov 2011 12:59 PM PDT


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

    Is that a ripple in the fabric of the universe I just detected? The iPhone 4S with its Siri personal assistant faces off with Furby, and mutual misunderstanding rules the day. Perhaps Google Translate could lend a hand.

    Excuse me, but I think my head is going to explode.

    BONUS: 10 Absurd Questions for Siri


    The classic question




    Click here to view this gallery.

    [via Buzzfeed]

    More About: Furby, siri, viral video

    Top 10 Tech This Week [PICS]

    Posted: 05 Nov 2011 12:15 PM PDT


    1. World's First Personal Electric Helicopter




    Behold the E-volo Multicopter, with 16 whirling blades with one brave soul sitting in the middle, this electro-chopper can fly for at least 10 minutes before it needs a recharge. Courage not included.

    Click here to view this gallery.

    As we move toward the end of 2011, tech and gadget purveyors are looking ahead to 2012, with new electric cars, futuristic phone accessories, heads-up displays and architecture that would be right at home in a science fiction movie. We’ll show you that and lots more of the most unusual and spellbinding tech introduced this week, right here.

    More About: amazon, Canon, Ford Focus Electric, Top 10 Tech

    Review: Soundfreaq Sound Stack Sounds Freakishly Great [PICS]

    Posted: 05 Nov 2011 11:31 AM PDT


    The Bluetooth speaker dock market is becoming increasingly crowded, but Soundfreaq has punched through the noise with its Sound Stack, catering to audiophiles at a price that’s much lower than its high-end competition. I gave it a thorough series of listening tests and comparisons, and here’s my review.

    The Sound Stack is aimed at the high end of this market, and priced at $399, it’s not cheap, but it costs a lot less than its chief competitors, among those being the $600 Bowers & Wilkins Zeppelin Air and the Bose SoundDock 10, also $600. I set out to not only listen closely to the Sound Stack, but to compare it to these two popular competitors.

    The Sound Stack is at its most feature-rich when you’re using an Apple iOS device, where you can use it as a charging dock as well as wirelessly stream music to it via Bluetooth. But it’s not only for Apple aficionados — its Bluetooth magic also works with Android and BlackBerry phones, and there is an app for both the iOS and Android platforms that lets you control everything from your smartphone. It’s the same app I’ve tried before with other Soundfreaq products, and it’s rather plain and unimpressive, but is a necessary help if you want to listen to its FM radio. Beyond that, it lets you plug in most other audio devices using its auxiliary port.

    After a quick and simple setup involving plugging in the Sound Stack and pressing the Sound Stack’s “pair” button to introduce it to my iPhone 4 (and later, my iPad 2), the speaker was ready to go. As it sat there on a coffee table, I admired its simple design, put together like a horizontal row of pillowy goodness with a couple of dark metallic end caps. Its styling is not going to attract a lot of attention, but it won’t offend anyone, either. Its dark and angular design is pleasant and attractive, a worthy complement to the simple design of iPhones and iPads, and a fine addition to just about any decor. That beauty is not just skin deep, either — its construction is solid and precise, exuding high quality.

    After I was done admiring its appearance, it was time to settle in for some serious listening. Playing songs from nearly every genre of music — punchy funk and soothing cello music, hot salsa compared with smoking banjo breaks, hip-hop with bass notes that rattled the rafters and classical guitar with its delicate and wide-ranging resonance, soft music by James Taylor and then thick mixes by Steely Dan’s Donald Fagen — the speaker handled it all with astonishing musicality. It was even able to perfectly reproduce the sound of a saxophone, with which I am intimately familiar after playing professionally for more than a decade. Yes, this is the real thing. It sounds like music, with little noise, no distortion — and when you need it, enough volume to hurt your ears.

    But would it appeal to persnickety audiophiles? Probably not. It’s hard to please that crowd, and most of them don’t even much care for the benchmark speaker of this group, the Bowers & Wilkins Zeppelin Air. How would the Sound Stack measure up to that beast, as well as its lesser competitor, the Bose SoundDock 10? I was in luck, because Soundfreaq co-founder and creative director Matt Paprocki had one of each of those speakers on hand, along with a setup that would let me audition the competitors, directly comparing each with the Soundfreaq Sound Stack in an A/B smackdown listening test.

    First up was the Bose SoundDock 10 speaker, about twice as heavy as the Sound Stack, and put together in a sleek design that’s marred by its gaudy and cheap-looking silver finish. Putting it through its paces, it was no match for the Sound Stack. Compared to the Sound Stack, its midrange sound reminded me of a car horn. Its highs were more like a tinny whine when compared to the lush and realistic midrange and shimmering, crisp high end of the Sound Stack. Its bass sounded fat and satisfying, but sounded less accurate when compared with the Sound Stack’s more defined bass thanks to its “DubSub” twin subwoofers. The SoundDock’s bass oomph was close to that of the Sound Stack at high volumes, but weaker when played softly. Overall, it was no match for the Sound Stack.

    Next.

    It was time to compare the formidable and rightly respected Bowers & Wilkins Zeppelin Air to the Sound Stack. What better test music to start with than a rousing version of “Whole Lotta Love” by Led Zeppelin? Cranking up the volume, I couldn’t believe the amount of sheer sound coming out of the bulbous Zeppelin speaker. Its powerful bass was simply awesome, punching me in the gut more than the Sound Stack could.

    But then I started realizing something: That Zeppelin speaker was not necessarily better, it’s just that its low range was equalized louder. A slight compensation with an equalizer, and the Sound Stack’s bass was every bit as powerful, and with its dual subwoofers, it sounded a lot cleaner and punchier. That was immediately evident playing tracks with intricate bass lines where every note remained separate and clean on the Sound Stack but bloomed together on the Zeppelin.

    The midrange and highs of both speakers were similar, but I still felt like the Sound Stack was able to better define individual instruments in thick mixes, and did a more realistic job of reproducing some my favorite classical music. At low and middle volumes, the Sound Stack had a more balanced sound, but to be fair, that could probably be compensated for on the Zeppelin using equalization, too. Even so, against that tough competition from Bowers & Wilkins, I’d still give the advantage to the Sound Stack. As for its musicality, let me just add that I’ve stood right in front of Led Zeppelin as the band played “Whole Lotta Love” shortly after it was released back in the ’70s, and I can tell you firsthand that the Sound Stack sounded more like the real Led Zeppelin than the B&W Zeppelin Air.

    The competition finished, I then decided to take a closer look at some of the Sound Stack’s unique features, one of which is its lossless AAC transfer, letting you stream high-resolution audio files via Bluetooth without sacrificing sound quality. The result? I couldn’t tell the difference between Bluetooth streaming and music coming directly from my iPhone 4 or iPad 2 when it was mounted on the charging dock. Audiophiles will like that, as well as its optical input for the cleanest possible connection from components such as Apple TV, gaming consoles and Blu-ray discs.

    Summing up, this third and most-powerful version of the Soundfreaq line of Bluetooth speaker docks is an enormous success. I think it’s a tremendous value for $399 and would recommend it for anyone who’s familiar with what good music really sounds like and wants to be awestruck by gigantic sound in a surprisingly small package.


    Sound Stack




    Its minimalist design will withstand the test of time.

    Click here to view this gallery.

    More About: bluetooth, reviews, Sound Stack, Soundfreaq

    “A Year in New York” Video Essay Flaunts the City’s Beautiful Side

    Posted: 05 Nov 2011 10:46 AM PDT

    Enjoy this lyrical interpretation of New York City, shot and edited by talented videographer Andrew Clancy.

    Not only does “A Year in New York” give you a good look at the city and its vast array of people and sights. It demonstrates the gorgeous quality of expertly-framed HD video shot with a Canon EOS 7D digital SLR, along with a Canon PowerShot S95 digital camera. But keep in mind, it’s not the camera that makes this video look so sweet — it’s the man behind it. Says Clancy on his Vimeo page:

    “Living in New York I’d grab my Canon 7D, or S95, and shoot footage of what was going on around me. It seemed like a never ending project and you could stay filming life in New York for a long time. But eventually I put my camera down and started to edit. Here’s the end result, it’s a bit rough and ready but that’s life in the Big Apple I guess.”

    He’s being modest. Notice the icing on this glorious layer cake of video and music: The delicate interplay between the sharp shooting and the haunting song accompanying it, all artfully edited together by Clancy.

    The song is “We Don’t Eat” by Irish singer-songwriter James Vincent McMorrow, available as a free download on Amazon for U.S. customers.

    More About: Canon 7D, new york, video of the day

    For more Entertainment coverage:

    Bank Transfer Day Attracts 81,900 RSVPs on Facebook

    Posted: 05 Nov 2011 09:32 AM PDT


    It started as a Facebook event page on Tuesday, and now it’s grown into a national movement. Today (Nov. 5) is Bank Transfer Day (BTD), a deadline activists set for transferring funds from for-profit banking institutions into not-for-profit credit unions closer to home.

    Organized by Kristin Christian, her Bank Transfer Day Facebook page has attracted more than 81,900 RSVPs for the event since Tuesday (Nov. 1). Why? Kristen Christian wrote on the Bank Transfer Day Facebook page’s FAQ:

    “I started this because I felt like many of you do. I was tired — tired of the fee increases, tired of not being able to access my money when I need to, tired of them using what little money I have to oppress my brothers & sisters. So I stood up. I’ve been shocked at how many people have stood up alongside me. With each person who RSVPs to this event, my heart swells. Me closing my account all on my lonesome wouldn’t have made a difference to these fat cats. But each of YOU standing up with me… they can’t drown out the noise we’ll make.”

    The protest, not affiliated with the Occupy Wall Street movement, had already gathered momentum with a similar push to “Move Your Money” started in July by Arianna Huffington. That project also encourages people to withdraw funds from “too big to fail” national banks and deposit them in smaller local banks and credit unions.

    What’s the result of these social media-fueled protests? According to the Credit Union National Association, “at least 650,000 consumers across the nation have joined credit unions in the past four weeks.” That mass influx of credit union customers was further ignited on Sept. 29, when Bank of America announced it would begin charging consumers a $5-per-month fee for debit cards. Bank of America has since retracted that rate hike because of the public outcry.

    What do you think of this movement? Will it convince those large for-profit banks, widely touted as “too big to fail,” to further change their ways?

    More About: Bank Transfer Day, BTD, Facebook, protest

    5 Places to Get Work Done When You’re Traveling

    Posted: 05 Nov 2011 08:46 AM PDT


    This post originally appeared on the American Express OPEN Forum, where Mashable regularly contributes articles about leveraging social media and technology in small business.

    If you're lucky, maybe you're the kind of person for whom work is an international adventure, taking you to far-off places you've been dying to explore. Or, perhaps you have a more typical office setup, but you'd like to get away from the grind of wherever you call home. Either way — or even if you're just going on vacation with the family — there are resources out there to make working while on the road as convenient, pleasant and enriching as possible.

    1. Loosecubes

    For those who prefer coworking spaces, Loosecubes provides a slice of familiarity wherever you're headed. The site boasts locations in 507 cities and 63 countries to satisfy the most severe case of wanderlust; if the beach in Panama doesn't do it for you, maybe an office in Kazakhstan or Guam will? An added bonus if you're going to a city where you have acquaintances: Loosecubes connects with your Facebook account to tell you if there are any spaces available where you have a personal connection — a nice feature if you're traveling alone or looking to socialize while you're away.

    "The big benefit of working from these spaces instead of a hotel or a famous coffee shop is that you get to talk to locals, and they’re interested in meeting you," says Loosecubes’ Captain Awesome Anthony Marinos. (And yes, in case you were wondering, Captain Awesome is, in fact, his official title.)

    Our pick: Buenos Aires' colorful, airy, inviting Urban Station, a coworking space with desks available from $5 USD per day.

    2. The Hub

    If you're going to be staying in a given location a bit longer and are looking to integrate into your environment, the Hub could be a good option. Located in cities all over the world, these "hubs," as they're called, are part coworking space, part community, and they support whatever level of engagement you're looking for. "The Hub membership is designed in a way that anyone can participate," says Simon Ulvund, director of the global Hub entity, highlighting the fact that some people drop in from time to time, whereas others use their local hub as a permanent workspace. Either way, it's always comforting to be part of a network whose presence you can tap into while in the various places you visit.

    Our Pick: The Hub Prague, where coworking for one day is free, and the space is beautiful.

    3. Hotel Office Centers

    Come for the free continental breakfast, stay for the free Wi-Fi. And even if you're not a guest of the hotel, an increasing number of hotels are opening their doors to professionals looking for places to work, including the Courtyard By Marriott chain. A purchase at the hotel cafe will get you access to a lobby that's designed to feel more like a coworking space than a hotel — there are printers and "media pods" where you could even conduct a small group meeting.

    Our pick: The Courtyard By Marriott in Miami Beach. Because, well, it's Miami Beach.

    4. Airport Terminals and Clubs

    For frequent travelers, it may make sense to spring for the Priority Pass, for which the entry level plan will set you back a $99 annual fee plus $27 per visit. Member benefits include not just working facilities, but also showers and beds. But many airports also have business resources for travelers passing through — no special membership required.

    Our Pick: JFK's Terminal 5. Marinos loves it for the "great tablespaces to just set up and work while you’re waiting for your flight" as well as free Wi-Fi. And if you're lucky, you might just catch a concert while waiting. Previous acts include Robyn and Taylor Swift.

    5. Libraries

    Aside from the obvious benefits of working out of public libraries (free, quiet), many libraries worldwide are catapulting themselves into the 21st century by adding tech resources worth noting. In addition to free Wi-Fi at many libraries (check out a U.S. directory), memorable architecture makes many of them landmarks in and of themselves. Combine tourism and work productivity by checking out the Bibliothèque National in Paris.

    Our Pick: Seattle's Central Library, whose Mixing Chamber could easily pass for a coworking space. Spaces are available to rent for meetings as well, starting at $50 for a half day. Not a bad option to consider if you find yourself in the area.

    Image courtesy of Flickr, jetblueflickr

    More About: business travel, contributor, features, mashable

    For more Business coverage:

    Andy Rooney, RIP: 10 of His Best Commentaries [VIDEO]

    Posted: 05 Nov 2011 07:55 AM PDT


    Andy Rooney, the beloved curmudgeon of the CBS News program 60 Minutes, has died at the age of 92.

    In addition to his 33 years of presenting his humorous commentaries on the long-running CBS newsmagazine, Rooney had a distinguished career that started with reporting for the U.S. Army newspaper Stars & Stripes during World War II, working with pioneer television journalists Walter Cronkite and Edward R. Murrow.

    After the war, he was a writer for a variety of humorists and broadcasters such as Arthur Godfrey, and then began writing and reporting for CBS News, where he won multiple awards for his sharp, witty essays he wrote for CBS correspondent Harry Reasoner.

    But it was in 1978 when he became one of America’s favorite television personalities, delivering his acclaimed commentaries on 60 Minutes entitled "A Few Minutes With Andy Rooney." His funny, touching, insightful and sometimes controversial opinions entertained and sometimes angered millions of television viewers.

    Spend a few minutes with Mr. Rooney yourself, with these ten examples of his best work:


    Andy Rooney - Viewer Gifts make him cranky:)


    06 Sixty Minutes

    Click here to view this gallery.

    The New York Times published this obituary.

    More About: 60 minutes, Andy Rooney, rip, Video

    For more Entertainment coverage:

    Occupy Wall Street Ads Hit TV This Weekend

    Posted: 05 Nov 2011 07:10 AM PDT


    Occupy Wall Street could be occupying your television this weekend.

    Supporters chipped in more than $6,000 to a crowdfunding campaign that will put a video of protesters explaining their objectives in the commercial lineup of cable television channels.

    “It’s sort of an occupied version of advertising,” crowdfunding site Loudsauce’s co-founder Colin Mutchler says. “It’s about occupying ad space with what citizens think is important for the country.”

    The video was produced free by David Sauvage, who uploaded it to YouTube October 12. The Loudsauce campaign to put it on television started the same day.

    Loudsauce works much like Kickstarter, but it crowdfunds media space purchases rather than projects. Since launching late last year, it has helped place ads from organizations such as environmental campaigns 350.org and The Story of Stuff.

    “The perception of how expensive television ads are is that it’s prohibitive to get on television even once, that it is not within reach of individuals or groups,” Mutchler says.

    Sauvage’s Occupy Wall Street commercial is an example of how this perception isn’t always true. With the $6,278 that 168 people have chipped in (minus the 10% cut that Loudsauce charges campaigns), the campaign purchased more than 100 commercial slots between Saturday and Monday.

    Bloomberg Business TV (nationally) as well as ESPN, CBS Sports, History International, Outdoor Channel, Gayle King Show, Grey’s Anatomy and Friends (on DISH network, Direct TV and Verizon Fios) will all be running the commercial. It is expected to air on Fox News seven times.

    Campaign founders hope this weekend won’t be the last time you see Occupy Wall Street commercials. They’ve started another Loudsauce page to buy ad time for three more of Sauvage’s videos.

    A television advertising campaign might seem contradictory to the Occupy movement, which is proud of its decentralized leadership even while being criticized for sending mixed messages. The 30-second commercial shows occupiers stating what the occupiers want: “to see more serious political conversaitons starting to happen,” “corporations out of the government and people back in,” “the top wealthiest Americans to be taxed higher and that money to go to education.”

    But does the commercial, backed by just 168 people, speak for the movement? Mutchler says no — not if you think of it as the first of many crowdfunded campaigns.

    “If it really were that this one guy’s commercial represented the movement, I don’t think it would be in the spirit of the movement,” he says. “There will be others like this, from other groups and filmmakers.”



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