Monday 30 July 2012

Mashable: Latest 25 News Updates - including “Clif Bar Launches First Geo-Location Twitter Campaign”

Mashable: Latest 25 News Updates - including “Clif Bar Launches First Geo-Location Twitter Campaign”


Clif Bar Launches First Geo-Location Twitter Campaign

Posted: 30 Jul 2012 04:13 AM PDT




Organic foods and beverage maker Clif Bar is launching what it claims is the first geo-location Twitter campaign. The company wants you to send a geo-tagged tweet to @CLIFMojoGo the next time you're in a park, at the beach or on a trail.

Once the company has verified you are indeed outdoors, it will send you instructions to claim a free trail mix bar. You'll also be entered to win a Garmin GPS watch and other prizes.

Twitter does allow advertisers to target users in 210 U.S. regions, but doesn't allow them to target users in specific locations -- for example, in parks or at the mall. Clif Bar's strategy, though labor intensive -- they'll have to verify the location of the tweet…
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More About: Marketing, Twitter, clif bar


Mashable Weekend Recap: 65 Stories You Might Have Missed

Posted: 30 Jul 2012 03:18 AM PDT




The weekend started off with a bang, thanks to the dazzling opening ceremony of the 2012 Olympic Games. That was spectacular enough to get everyone super-ready for the athletic competition involving our entire planet.

There were plenty of stories about the Olympics, and at the same time, your intrepid Mashable team discovered so much more -- happenings in the digital world, tech innovations that felt like they were from a future world, and GIFs, comics and weekend fun that seemed to be from another world entirely.

Best of all, we've gathered all those stories here for you, in one big easy-to-peruse package. So take a look at the latest Weekend Recap, where you can catch up with the…
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More About: mashable weekend recap, weekend recap


Is This The 10-Inch BlackBerry PlayBook?

Posted: 30 Jul 2012 01:55 AM PDT




Photos of what could be the 10-inch version of BlackBerry's PlayBook tablet have surfaced on Vietnamese forum Tinhte.

If real, the tablet looks very much the same as its smaller, 7-inch brother, with a simple, black design, relatively wide bezel and a BlackBerry logo on the bottom.

The device sports a SIM card slot and a sign that says "BlackBerry4G PlayBook," which imply cellular connectivity of the fastest order. Other than that, no specifications have been revealed.

Check out many more photos of the device over at Tinhte, including a comparison with the 7-inch PlayBook and several photos of the device's insides.

More About: blackberry, playbook


Check Out Microsoft’s Brilliant Keyboard for Windows 8 Tablets [VIDEO]

Posted: 30 Jul 2012 12:21 AM PDT




With Windows 8, Microsoft wants customers to think of tablets as much more than just "consumption" devices, but also machines that you can use to do actual work. It's an open question whether consumers will share that view, but with great accessories like the Wedge Mobile Keyboard, Microsoft is giving it every chance.

The most interesting product in a grab-bag of mobile accessories Microsoft unveiled this morning, the Wedge Mobile Keyboard looks like a pretty unimpressive gray slab when you first lay eyes on it, but the good stuff starts when you remove the rubberized cover. Taking it off turns the Bluetooth keyboard on -- a pretty smart way to cons…
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More About: Windows 8, accessories, bluetooth, keyboards, microsoft, tablets, trending


9 Nifty Laptop Feet to Keep Your PC Running Cool

Posted: 29 Jul 2012 09:06 PM PDT


1. iStuck Laptop Feet




We can only imagine the looks you'll get in your local coffee shop with these humorous feet. Price: Coming soon for $9.99

Click here to view this gallery.




Does your laptop threaten to melt down every time the mercury rises? If you don't want to invest in a pricey laptop fan stand, consider some super-portable "feet," a good solution to combat overheating.

Help prevent your portable PC from suffering heat stroke. These nine nifty solutions will lift the device from your desktop, allowing heat to escape and essential air to circulate beneath.

SEE ALSO: 10 Clever Laptop Cooling Solutions [PICS]

If your laptop is getting a little toasty, take a look through our selection of cool solutions. Let us know in the comments below how you stay chilled in warm weather.

More About: Gadgets, Tech, accessories, features, gallery, laptop


Marissa Mayer Brings Free Food to Yahoo, Eyes Acquisitions [REPORT]

Posted: 29 Jul 2012 08:27 PM PDT




How is new CEO Marissa Mayer going to revitalize Yahoo? By making it more like Google, the company she just left.

According to AllThingsD's Kara Swisher, Mayer has instituted a few changes already at Yahoo's Sunnyvale, CA, headquarters. Among them: establishing a weekly all-hands meeting on Friday afternoons, and making all the food in its URLs Cafe, which previously priced egg white muffin sandwiches at $3.65 and teriyaki chicken paninis at $5.31, free.

Of course, it's easy to say that all of this has been borrowed directly from Google, but these kinds of offerings have become standard at many Silicon Valley offices -- the fact that Yahoo has, until now, lacked them has likely been a…
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More About: Yahoo, marissa mayer


Where to Get Back-to-School Deals on Tablets, Computers

Posted: 29 Jul 2012 07:22 PM PDT




Tech can be pricey. As much as we'd all like shiny new laptops with top-of-the-line functions straight from the factories where they're made, not everyone can afford that. Especially college students and parents who are sending their children back to school. Whether you're on a budget or just appreciate a good deal, if you're in the market for a new computer, check out these special promotions going on now.

Apple

Buy a Mac or iPad for college between now and September 21 and get a $100 "Back to School Gift Card." The giftcard can be used on apps, books, music and movies. If you purchase the new iPad, you can get a $50 gift card. You can use the gift card in the Mac App Store, the iTun…
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More About: Gadgets, back to school, bargains, school


Kickstarter Project Is a ‘Smartwatch’ for Your Smartphone

Posted: 29 Jul 2012 06:56 PM PDT




A team of watch designers are hoping that their dream product is the technological bridge between your phone and your wristwatch. The founding members of MetaWatch have developed Strata, a "smartwatch" to pair with your smartphone, and they've taken to Kickstarter to raise funds for the project.

After years of developing watch technology for Fossil, the team has split off to develop their own product: a Bluetooth-enabled watch which pairs with your iPhone 4S or Android phone to check your mail, text messages, music, social media accounts, even your caller ID and GPS telemetry.

The MetaWatch team has made the software for the Strata open source, s…
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More About: kickstarter, wristwatches


10 Stylish Onesies for Baby Geeks

Posted: 29 Jul 2012 06:08 PM PDT


1. RSS Feed Me




We enjoy this witty play on words. Cost: $18

Click here to view this gallery.




Most baby clothes are dull. Rather than sticking to the boring old pink or blue options, why not dress your baby as the geek you want him to grow up to be?

We have found 10 great onesies with some seriously geeky messages, from social media references to retro tech designs.

SEE ALSO:15 Geektastic Gifts for Baby Nerds

Take a look through our gallery of adorable geekiness. Let us know in the comments below which ones you'd consider for your little nerdy.

More About: Social Media, Tech, baby, family and parenting, fashion, features, geek, home, lifestyle


MTV’s ‘Teen Wolf’ Facebook Game Is Feast for Fans in First 5 Weeks

Posted: 29 Jul 2012 05:17 PM PDT




The Hunt, an eight-week scripted social game on Facebook that accompanied season two of supernatural drama Teen Wolf, is boding well for MTV and its "Storytelling Without Borders" strategy.

Users have spent an average of 46 minutes playing The Hunt (or 9 minutes per week), and 81% of them are weekly visitors.

The success of the game, along with the show's ratings, has "definitely played a role" in Teen Wolf getting renewed for a third season, MTV tells Mashable. The show hovers around 1.7 to 1.8 million viewers every Monday night, with its key demographic being females ages 12 to 34. Season three will be 24 episodes instead of the current 12.

"At the end of the day, we're storytelle…
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More About: Entertainment, Facebook, Gaming, TV, Teen Wolf, facebook apps, mtv, social tv


This Cute, Cubed Bamboo Speaker Packs Crazy Sound [VIDEO]

Posted: 29 Jul 2012 03:38 PM PDT




In case you didn't get the memo -- boombox-sized wireless speakers are dated.

A new stereo project on Kickstarter, with 19 days to go on the fundraising platform, delivers a stylish alternative.

The 1Q is a three-inch cubed speaker that connects to nearly all smartphones, laptops and tablet devices using Bluetooth.

The handcrafted wooden sound system is small enough to fit in your palm, but can fill up a room with sound. It has a 30-foot range and carries 10+ hours of battery life.

SEE ALSO: Hands On: Speaker Transforms Your iOS Device into a Desktop Phone

The team has raised more than $25,000 on Kickstarter -- more than twice their $1…
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More About: Gadgets, Mobile, Music, Video


Everything You Need to Know About Foursquare’s New Merchant Tools

Posted: 29 Jul 2012 03:28 PM PDT




Last week, Foursquare announced a slew of new merchant tools that give business owners more power than ever before to communicate with their customers through the location-based platform. Before, business owners could claim their venues, set up a special and let the platform take it from there -- it was more of a passive marketing tool. The new additions make Foursquare's local updates far more dynamic, and they leverage location-based marketing in a more targeted way than Facebook and Twitter. The revamp has several parts:

Updates -- Share photos, specials and news to nearby customers, a la tweets or Facebook status updates
Specials -- Create and manage Foursquare specials (no cha…
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More About: Small Business, foursquare, geolocation, open forum, social media marketing


Top 6 Comments on Mashable This Week

Posted: 29 Jul 2012 03:13 PM PDT




This week on Mashable, commenters debated the prospects of Google Fiber, pondered the possibilities of a Tumblr account that specializes in Photoshopping Steve Buchemi's eyes onto Muppets, and answered the question on many peoples' minds: Should you wait for the iPhone 5?

Another week, another tech-toy debate. The tech-o-sphere was buzzing around the much-anticipated announcements of Google Fiber, the iPhone 5 and a 7" iPad.  Apple fanboys and Google geeks both came out to wave their flags high.

A roundup of 10 Brits Snubbed From the Olympic Opening Ceremony turned into a rousing debate about British humor and overturned a slew of good pop culture icons that were also left out.…
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More About: community, top comments


How Dictation Tools Can Help Speed Up Your Workflow [INFOGRAPHIC]

Posted: 29 Jul 2012 02:34 PM PDT




We all know the pen is mightier than the sword, but for 21st-century storytellers, the voice could be the one tool to rule them all. With speech-recognition software such as Siri and Dragon Naturally Speaking becoming more widely available to users, it's time to ask yourself: How can I improve my workflow with dictation tools?

A new infographic from Carissa Newark of accountingdegree.net lays out just how much faster you can get work done with these tools, which can process information three times faster when compared to average-speed typing. It's a great advantage for writers, especially those of us who may never type as fast as record holder Sean Wrona, who recently clocked a key-smacki…
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More About: dragon dictation, infographic, power users, siri, typing, voice recognition


‘Fund Me Maybe’ Is Tech World’s Parody of ‘Call Me Maybe’ [VIDEO]

Posted: 29 Jul 2012 01:48 PM PDT




Randi Zuckerberg, Facebook's former marketing director and sister of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, recently channeled her inner Carly Rae Jepsen with a "Call Me Maybe" parody dubbed "Fund Me Maybe."

She and her band Feedbomb performed the spin-off live at the ThriveGulu charity event in San Francisco, infusing Jepsen's chart-topping song with references to the tech world and startup investors.

"Hey, I just launched this. My idea's crazy, but here's my startup, so fund me maybe," belts Zuckerberg, who left Facebook in August 2011 to launch social media firm R to Z Studios (formerly named RtoZ Media).

Business Insider's West Coast editor Owen Thomas wrote the lyrics to "Fund Me Ma…
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More About: Call Me Maybe, Carly Rae Jepsen, Fudning, Music, Tech, YouTube, music videos, randi zuckerberg


13 Surprising OS X Mountain Lion Facts [SUNDAY COMICS]

Posted: 29 Jul 2012 01:17 PM PDT




Check out these spectacular characteristics of Apple's shiny new OS X Mountain Lion upgrade, making us wonder if we're going to have to store our Macs in cages from now on.

More About: Mountain Lion, Sunday Comics, The Joy of Tech, os x, trending


Top 10 Twitter Pics of the Week

Posted: 29 Jul 2012 12:55 PM PDT




Find out which photos rose above the rest this week on Twitter. We've got the pics that Twitter was buzzing about.

Twitter is a big and diverse place -- and this week's top 10 Twitter pics reflect that fact. The top 10 ranges from lovely photos of scenery and fashion to silly memes about food and nostalgia.

SEE MORE: Top 10 Twitter Pics

Earlier this week, photos of The Dark Knight Rises actor Christian Bale visiting victims of the Aurora shooting went viral and made our top 10.

Each week, we assemble the top 10 Twitter pics with the help of our partners at Skylines -- a group that examines the most popular trends and photos online.

More About: Top 10 Twitter Pics, Twitter, trending


Olympic Check-Ins: Hot Foursquare Deals and Badges for London 2012

Posted: 29 Jul 2012 12:38 PM PDT




Location-based platform Foursquare -- which recently announced a slew of merchant tools -- is ready to take London by storm.

Though Foursquare was hindered from doing some things because of its partnership with American Express (the Olympics, as Morgan Freeman tells us, are proudly sponsored by Visa), the service will definitely have a presence on the ground.

"We have seen some more drastic growth in the UK, but it's hard to say what it is attributed to," says Omid Ashtari, Foursquare's director of business development for European markets. "We have had a great AmEx launch, some strategic partnerships and the redesign in the last few weeks, so there are many factors."

That's thanks…
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More About: Social Media, deals, features, foursquare, london 2012, olympics


Record-Setting Electric Plane Flight Almost Didn’t Make It [VIDEO]

Posted: 29 Jul 2012 12:22 PM PDT




Chip Yates already holds the record for piloting the fastest electric motorcycle, so why not try his hand at electric flight? The founder and CEO of Flight of the Century, which produces electric aircraft, has set the record for fastest manned flight in an electric plane at 202.6 mph. But Yates almost didn't make it after a scary in-flight hiccup.

Yates isn't an experienced pilot, but he did design the record-breaking, all-electric Burt Rutan Long-EZ plane. Yates and his team at Flight of the Century have developed what they're calling "infinite range" technology to enable continuous flight by using a series of in-flight charging aircraft.

It ma…
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More About: aviation, electric vehicles, flight, world record


Spoilers: Angry Olympics Fans Tweet Their Protests, NBC Responds

Posted: 29 Jul 2012 11:52 AM PDT




NBC, already in hot water with fans over its coverage of the London Olympics opening ceremonies, just can't seem to catch a break. The broadcaster, which has chosen to tape-delay certain events, is catching heat from viewers upset after NBC broadcasters spoiled the outcome of the Michael Phelps - Ryan Lochte 400-meter individual medley showdown.

Instead of carrying the matchup live, NBC aired a taped interview with Phelps. After Lochte won the event by nearly 4 seconds with Phelps finishing a disappointing fourth, NBC Nightly News led with the surprising racing result before the event had aired on television. The hashtag #NBCsucks soon became a trending topic on Twitter, with fans t…
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More About: Twitter, london, nbc, nbc olympics, olympics, trending


How to Structure Your Daily Job Search to Help Land Your Next Job

Posted: 29 Jul 2012 11:06 AM PDT




A new job typically does not magically fall from the sky into one's lap. Finding a new job usually involves a great deal of research, networking, perseverance and creative thinking. But, the real secret to landing that next job is to be organized and methodical in your job (re)search. Developing a structured job search plan will keep you focused and motivated, helping you achieve your targeted goal of finding a new job while you are either employed or unemployed. Below are structured plans for both types of job seekers to implement into your job search.

If You Are Unemployed

Since we know that looking for a new job is a full-time job, your new job title is "Job Se…
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More About: Jobs, features, job search series, mashable


Best Pics Yet: This Could Be the Real iPhone 5

Posted: 29 Jul 2012 10:32 AM PDT


Is This the Next iPhone?




Photo courtesy Lab Factory

Click here to view this gallery.




iPhone 5, is that you? Lab Factory seems to have uncovered the most complete spy shots yet of the next handset from Apple.

More About: apple, iPhone 5, iphone, rumors, spy pics, trending


It’s Official: This Is the Cutest Picture on the Internet

Posted: 29 Jul 2012 09:29 AM PDT




We've seen some pretty adorable things in our day. Sleepy kitten videos? Of course. Pets on Instagram? Yes please. Seven-year-olds pontificating on the fate of BlackBerry? And how!

But a cat swooning over a live stream of golden retriever puppies? Take a bow, Redditor mseling. Your kitty wins the Internet forever.

Not enough for you? Here are a few more of the now Internet-famous cat enjoying computer time.

Cat with laptop

Cat with Laptop

BONUS:

More About: Cute, Viral, Watercooler, animals, cats, reddit, trending


Twitter Doghouse Lets You Temporarily Dump Annoying Tweeps

Posted: 29 Jul 2012 09:15 AM PDT




Are you a non-sports fan but know there's that one Olympic nut in your Twitter network who will be constantly posting pseudo analysis, lame jokes and failed bon mots for the next two weeks? Maybe you've got a friend who's on vacation and posting way too many Foursquare check-ins, or know someone who insists on live-tweeting every episode of The Bachelor.

It could be time to put them in the Twitter Doghouse. That's the name of a new app that lets users unfollow tweeps for scheduled periods of time to jokingly call out obnoxious behavior or seriously avoid Twitter-centric events of limited interest to the non-involved (SXSW, anyone?).

Twitter Doghouse was created by developers Elan Dubr
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More About: App, Twitter, apps


Mountain Lion Vs. Windows 8: Which One Is Better?

Posted: 29 Jul 2012 08:34 AM PDT




Apple released the latest major upgrade to its desktop operating system, OS X Mountain Lion, earlier this week. Also this week Microsoft announced the release date of Windows 8, the massive overhaul to Microsoft's platform that finally makes Windows friendly to tablets, coming October 26.

After a period where both OSes were remarkably similar, they're now more different than they've been in a long time. Of course, Windows 8 won't be final for a few months, but the Release Preview has been available since the end of May, and the feature set is very close to finished.

With Mountain Lion serving as the anchor on the Mac side, it bears a new look at how the two OSes hold up against ea…
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More About: Mountain Lion, SkyDrive, Windows 8, apple, features, icloud, microsoft, os x, trending


Top 10 GIFs of the Week

Posted: 29 Jul 2012 08:05 AM PDT


1. Olympic Bell Ringing Fail




Ring-a-ding-di - OH! Ma'am is your head OK?

Click here to view this gallery.




It's that time again. Time for the best of the best GIFs of the week. We saw a few Olympic-themed creations, and we're looking forward to seeing more as the Games swing into full gear.

This week's collection also features some less-than-graceful physical feats by large and small animals, Kate Middleton playing a bit of ping pong and an animal that has oddly similar facial characteristics to one of the most infamous men in all of tech lore.

So grab some popcorn, and kick back for some GIFtastic adventures.

Did we miss any good ones you? Show us the best that you came across in the comments.

More About: GIFs, Viral, Watercooler, features, humor, memes, trending



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