Wednesday 8 August 2012

Mashable: Latest 29 News Updates - including “Hackers Force Apple, Amazon to Change Security Policy”

Mashable: Latest 29 News Updates - including “Hackers Force Apple, Amazon to Change Security Policy”


Hackers Force Apple, Amazon to Change Security Policy

Posted: 08 Aug 2012 05:07 AM PDT


Apple and Amazon are changing their security policies after hackers broke into a journalist's personal accounts. The change comes following a hack into Wired reporter Mat Honan's iCloud account, in which perpetrators wiped his iPad, Mac and iPhone.

Apple users can no longer reset their Apple IDs over the phone. Previously, Apple ID passwords could be swapped in exchange for the email address, billing address and the last four digits of the credit card associated with the account.

The hackers obtained the last four digits of Honan's credit card number by breaking into his account on Amazon, which is now also tightening its security features. Amazon had required even less than Apple…
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More About: amazon, apple, passwords, security


14 Headphones for Women, Designed for Supreme Comfort

Posted: 08 Aug 2012 04:07 AM PDT


When music is expected to boost productivity or increase drive, there's nothing worse than wearing ill-fitting headphones. Quit fiddling with wires and upgrade your earphones.

We have compiled a list of our favorite earphones for women -- you won't want to leave home without them. Our criteria: headphones must provide maximum wearability and superb audio. An innovative shape doesn't hurt.

SEE ALSO: 41 Female Founders Every Entrepreneur Should Know

Each set of earphones provide comfort with a flawless fit. Most models are accommodating to women with smaller and more direct ear canals than men.

Should companies strive to design separate lines for men and women? Tell us in the…
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More About: Gadgets, Headphones, Lists, lifestyle, trending, women


Sensational Interactive Panorama Feels Like You Landed on Mars

Posted: 08 Aug 2012 02:23 AM PDT


Before you click on this link, we recommend getting behind the largest computer monitor you can find.

Last month, NASA released the most beautiful photos of Mars the world has ever seen. Now, thanks to Panoramas.dk, the experience can become even more realistic.

The incredible Greeley Haven Mars images have now been stitched together into a sensational interactive panorama that will make you feel as though you were a part of the historic Curiosity rover landing.

SEE ALSO: Here's the Most Stunning Photo of Mars the World Has Ever Seen

So, tell us: Does this panoramic web experience leave you feeling out of this world?

More About: Mars, NASA, curiosity rover, panorama, space, trending


New York Police Subpoena Twitter to Identify Potential Aurora Shooting Copycat

Posted: 08 Aug 2012 01:45 AM PDT


The New York Police Department subpoenaed Twitter Tuesday to identify a user who threatened to "shoot up" a Broadway theater in an Aurora-style attack.

The user, who tweets under the now-defunct handle @ObamasMistress and calls herself "Anonymous Celebrity," referenced the shooting in this tweet:

@shannamartella like i said you on my hit list too. This shit ain’t no joke yo I’m serious people are gonna die just like in aurora— Anonymous Celebrity (@obamasmistress) August 2, 2012

Last month, a gunman opened fire during a midnight showing of The Dark Knight Rises in an Aurora, Colo. movie theater. The attack killed 12 and injured 59.

SEE ALSO: 5 Ways You C
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More About: Twitter, aurora shooting, mike tyson, nypd, trending


New Tool Enables Wireless Tethered Photography

Posted: 08 Aug 2012 12:31 AM PDT


When it comes to tethered photography, wires can be the bane of any cameraperson's existence.

Enter CameraMator, a tool that allows users to preview and share photos beyond a camera's viewfinder, wirelessly.

For the uninitiated, tethered photography involves connecting a camera to a computer or tablet via firewire or USB cable, but it can also be wireless.

CameraMator lets users upload photos to their iPad or iPhone sans wires or cables. They can also preview and edit images while shooting. The result? An efficient and economical photo shoot, according to the tool's Kickstarter page.

The CameraMator consists of a wireless component that a…
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More About: Wireless, camera, photography, tethered photography, trending


You’re Gonna Need a Bigger Boat [COMIC]

Posted: 07 Aug 2012 11:41 PM PDT


There's a rumor floating around that the ocean gets its saltiness from the tears of misunderstood sharks. Sadly, Bob would not agree.

SEE ALSO: 15 'Jaws'-Dropping Shark Memes Circling the Web

Comic written and illustrated by Jerry King.

More About: Shark Week, comics, humor, sharks, trending


What Teens Can Teach Us About Marketing

Posted: 07 Aug 2012 11:02 PM PDT


Ted Rubin is a leading social marketing strategist and the chief social marketing officer at Collective Bias. His book, Return on Relationship, is out this month. Follow him @TedRubin.

As marketers, we often think of business as business, meaning the decisions that go with it are not personal. It's that kind of thinking that hurts marketers and brands. When we take "personal" out of the equation, we always lose. If you find that this is how your marketing firm thinks, there is a way to turn that around, and it starts with closely observing teens in action.

SEE ALSO: Why You Should Embrace Twitter Lurkers

When our kids are young we can talk to them, share with them, and really…
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More About: Marketing, contributor, features, mobile phones, online marketing, trending


Mars Landing Broadcast on Ustream Outperforms Cable TV

Posted: 07 Aug 2012 10:37 PM PDT


New stats from Ustream suggest that more people are forgoing television for online sources when it comes to getting news.

More than 3.2 million people tuned in to the live streaming platform to see Sunday night's landing of the Mars Curiosity rover, according to spokesman Tony Riggins.

"More people tuned in to watch the NASA Mars landing coverage on Ustream than many of the top cable news networks during Sunday primetime," he told Mashable in an email.

Riggins said that at its peak, Ustream had 500,000 concurrent viewers across all streams watching live. The platform had broadcasts spanning NASA HDTV, NASA JPL and NASA JPL 2

While there's no specific statistics for network…
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More About: live streaming, online, television, trending, ustream


Square Partners With Starbucks To Process All Credit, Debit Card Transactions

Posted: 07 Aug 2012 09:47 PM PDT


Square has announced a partnership with Starbucks that will have the company processing all of the coffee giant's credit and debit transactions, starting this fall.

The deal will not only bring Square into Starbucks, it will also bring Starbucks into Square. Starbucks is investing $25 million in Square as part of its latest round of funding, and Howard Schultz, Starbucks's chief executive, will also join Square's board.

"It's amazing to think that Starbucks began as a single coffee shop in Seattle. The concept of taking a good idea and helping it grow is not foreign to them, and Starbucks doesn't just view Square as the simplest way to accept payments.They see an opportunity to…
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More About: Square, mobile payments, trending


New iPhone: iOS 6 Hints at 9-Pin Dock Connector, Larger Screen

Posted: 07 Aug 2012 08:55 PM PDT


A new 9-pin dock connector, and five rows of apps on the home screen, are the latest revelations about iOS 6 and the upcoming iPhone 5. Both details were revealed in a beta build of iOS 6 provided to developers.

9to5 Mac discovered further evidence Tuesday that the next version of the iPhone would have a taller display. After some tweaks to the iOS simulator application found in the iOS development tools, the site was able to run a simulation of iOS 6 at the rumored 640 x 1136 resolution. The result is a screen that can handle five complete rows of icons.

SEE ALSO: What Does Siri Know About the iPhone 5?

The site also found evidence in the latest build of iOS 6 that Apple will…
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More About: apple, iOS 6, iPhone 5, trending


Jeremy Lin Skypes With Sad 5-Year-Old Knicks Fan [VIDEO]

Posted: 07 Aug 2012 08:29 PM PDT


Seriously, how could anyone not like this guy? Jeremy Lin, the Harvard graduate point guard who unexpectedly took the NBA and social media by storm during February's Linsanity crazy, just did something you'll never see from most guys with a $25 million contract.

Here's what happened: Lin signed that contract with the Houston Rockets earlier this summer after the New York Knicks -- with whom he burst onto the scene last season -- controversially declined to match their free agent offer to the young guard. That left a five-year-old boy named Naim somewhat devastated, as evidenced in the YouTube video below that his father uploaded in June:

Pretty cute, right? It's actually only the…
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More About: Jeremy Lin, NBA, Skype, Sports, trending


12 Medal-Worthy Instagram Shots From the Summer Olympics [PICS]

Posted: 07 Aug 2012 07:13 PM PDT


"The 'posh pit' as 7 billion pieces of confetti (one for every person in the world) heralded the arrival of Team GB," @cityesm posted from the Games' opening ceremony.




Click here to view this gallery.


Instagram is going for gold at the 2012 Summer Olympics. Athletes are sharing behind-the-scenes photos that take their followers inside the Games like never before. Fans are posting shots from a wide range of Olympics venues, giving a piece of the experience to others not lucky enough to be in London. Media members are sharing candid pictures too, in addition to their more typical news-gathering duties.

And they're all 'Gramming in record numbers. So far, more than 65,000 publicly viewable Instagram photos have been shared from the Olympics, according to the social media tracking tool VenueSeen. More than 25,000 of those have used the #olympics hashtag, and more 10,000 have used #london2…
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More About: Social Media, Sports, instagram, olympics


Hashtags Help Coordinate Relief Efforts in Philippine Floods

Posted: 07 Aug 2012 06:30 PM PDT


In the midst of widespread flooding in Manila, which displaced more than 80,000 residents and caused at least 50 deaths by unofficial count, a digital lifeline emerged. Filipino citizens, non-profit organizations and government agencies have been using social media to coordinate relief efforts and rescue missions.

The Philippines, one of the most social media-savvy countries in the world, relied on Facebook and Twitter to disseminate information as people pleaded for rescuers to retrieve them from the rooftops of their homes.

Roughly half of the population uses social networks -- something that government rescue workers, volunteers and media outlets used to their advantage by cr…
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More About: Philippines, disaster relief, flooding, trending


Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon: Ultrabooks Get Their Flagship for Business [HANDS ON]

Posted: 07 Aug 2012 06:01 PM PDT


Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon




Built for business travelers, the Lenovo X1 Carbon isn't the sexiest laptop ever made, but it impressively fits a 14-inch screen into the footprint of a 13-inch laptop. It also has many practical features such as an anti-glare screen, a rugged carbon-fiber exterior and a large-size trackpad. It's not cheap, though, starting at $1,399.

Click here to view this gallery.


Here it is -- the Ultrabook aimed right at businesses and business travelers: The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon.

Lenovo is known for building solid, if unsexy machines for, you know, actually getting things done. The Carbon is the company's attempt at applying that work-first practicality to an "ultra-light" PC.

We've been checking out the X1 Carbon for a few hours. From a distance, it looks like any other Lenovo laptop, but when you pick it up you can tell it's something special.

For starters, it's very lightweight, about the exact same weight as the 13.3-inch MacBook Air at just under 3 pounds. However, the X1 Carbon has a 14-inch, 1,600 x 900 screen -- the company hails it as a 14-…
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More About: Ultrabooks, laptops, lenovo


Apple Store Genius Rescues Woman From Alleged Kidnapper [VIDEO]

Posted: 07 Aug 2012 04:59 PM PDT


Apple Store Geniuses -- employees you would normally encounter at in-store Genius Bars -- are portrayed as spunky heroes in commercials that premiered during the opening weekend of the Olympics. After foiling an alleged kidnapping and robbery scheme, one Apple Store employee in Louisville, Ky., certainly fits the bill.

SEE ALSO: Apple's 'Genius' Ads Disappear From the Olympics

On Saturday, an Apple Store employee saved the day after alerting authorities about a woman claiming she was kidnapped from her home and brought into the Oxmoor Mall location.

The victim arranged to meet a man named "Greg," whom she met online, at her home for a…
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More About: Video, apple


‘The New Yorker’ Arrives on the iPhone With Free Issue

Posted: 07 Aug 2012 04:30 PM PDT


The New Yorker is making its way onto 3.5-inch screens Thursday with the launch of an iPhone app.

The app [iTunes link] is well-designed and plenty readable, so long as you don't mind flipping through 50 or 100-odd pages to get through an article. The New Yorker has an advantage in that it's not a photo-heavy magazine. Readers can still access bonus content found in the iPad and Kindle Fire versions, including audio interviews, slideshows, embedded primary source documents and video interviews, and enter the cartoon caption contest from the iPhone app.

The New Yorker is making its current issue free on the iPhone. Current subscribers will be able to enter their credentials to receive s…
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Mars Landing, As Envisioned by HP in 1997 [VIDEO]

Posted: 07 Aug 2012 04:09 PM PDT


Before Curiosity, NASA had Sojourner. In 1997, the space agency successfully landed the OR (original rover) on Mars and Hewlett Packard capitalized on the space craze with a commercial featuring our crimson planetary neighbor.

How do you think it stands up with Monday morning's landing?

More About: Mars, Watercooler, YouTube, curiosity rover, space, trending


Online Petition Asks Twitter to Keep Ecosystem Open

Posted: 07 Aug 2012 03:48 PM PDT


In June, Twitter warned developers that it would soon enforce stricter guidelines around use of its API. Some developers, however, aren't going to let it happen without a fight.

Nova Spivack, founder and CEO of social media dashboard Bottlenose and an advisor to Klout, has started an online petition on Change.org asking the startup to keep its ecosystem open.

"This petition isn't about terms of service, and what Twitter's contractual duties may or may not be," Spivack wrote in an emailed statement. "This is about an ecosystem that is greater than the sum of its parts, and the blood, sweat and tears that have improved Twitter's fortunes more than anyone. We're worried that Twitter is be…
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More About: Twitter, bottlenose, change.org, nova spivack, trending


Google’s Driverless Car Is Now Safer Than the Average Driver

Posted: 07 Aug 2012 03:19 PM PDT


How safe a driver is your average robot? Safer than your average American, at least by one measure.

Google announced Tuesday that its self-driving cars have completed 300,000 miles of test-drives, under a "wide range of conditions," all without any kind of accident. (The project has seen a few accidents in the past -- but only with humans at the wheel.)

To put that into perspective, the average U.S. driver has one accident roughly every 165,000 miles. Here's how we got that figure: our average mileage per year is 16,550, according to the Federal Highway Administration; the average length of time we go between traffic accidents is 10 years, according to Allstate. (In particularly sa…
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More About: Google, cars, driverless car, trending


Google’s Olympics Doodles: The Inside Story

Posted: 07 Aug 2012 03:02 PM PDT


All you wanted to do was a simple Google search, and 20 minutes later you're still trying to beat your best time -- and your friend's top score -- on today's Google doodle game, which puts you in the shoes of an Olympic hurdler racing for gold.

But this isn't a rare story. People love to interact with Google's doodles, and that's exactly what the search engine giant wants.

"Many of our users do in fact joke that they spend all day playing with our interactive doodles, but that's probably an exaggeration," Sophia Foster-Dimino, one of Google's doodle artists, told Mashable. "Nonetheless, people have spent tons of time with our interactive doodles – for example, users recorded an…
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More About: Google, google doodles


McKayla Maroney’s Scowl Prompts Meme Frenzy

Posted: 07 Aug 2012 02:56 PM PDT


It didn't take long for the Internet to latch on to one of the most memorable images to come out of the London Olympics: the scowling face of U.S. gymnast McKayla Maroney after a fall caused her to get the silver, rather than the gold in the Vaulting competition.

Maroney's face has already been appropriated for memes like the one above that translate her naked emotion into punchlines. Another variation is to juxtapose the gymnast into different settings, such as the Mars landing or at a showing of Magic Mike.

Overall, the web seems to have had a field day with Maroney -- whom many have cast as a stereotypical mean girl based on her facial expressions, even if the image doesn't nec
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More About: 2012 Olympics, McKayla Maroney, memes, trending


Facebook Introduces Mobile Ad Unit to Promote Apps

Posted: 07 Aug 2012 02:13 PM PDT


Just a few weeks after introducing its first mobile ad unit, Facebook has launched another one, this time designed to help mobile app developers market themselves.

Facebook is testing the new unit with a "limited set of beta partners" Vijaye Raji, a software engineer at the company, wrote on Facebook's blog on Tuesday. The units drive users to new apps. If a user clicks on an ad and they don't have the app already, they'll be directed to the App Store or Google Play to download it.

The unit is automated; to buy an ad you merely have to fill out an online form and delineate which demo you're trying to reach and what your budget is. Once you buy a unit, you can use Facebook's analytics…
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More About: Facebook, mobile advertising


What’s So Great About the Pebble Smartphone Watch?

Posted: 07 Aug 2012 01:47 PM PDT


We would wear our smartphones on our bodies if we could -- now Pebble makes that possible. Pebble is a watch that syncs to your iPhone or Android and makes your smartphone more accessible by being on your wrist.

The promo video on the group's Kickstarter page shows a man wearing the watch while doing dishes; he just looks at his wrist to see the number of the incoming call. In another video example of Pebble's usefulness, a woman is running and simply switches songs on her iPhone by clicking the watch rather than taking a bulky-by-comparison phone out of her pocket or purse.

The device doesn't create new apps, but uses existing ones on your smartphone. It grabs your music, apps and e…
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More About: Gadget, Tech Innovators Series, features, kickstarter, mashable, pebble, smartphone


Startup Gives Merchants Free Tablet to Use Its App

Posted: 07 Aug 2012 01:21 PM PDT


It's not enough to make an app free. These days, you have to throw in a free tablet as well.

At least that's the approach that GoPago, a San Francisco startup is taking. The company is offering merchants a free Android-based Motorola Xyboard 10.1 tablet (a $500 value) if they use its app. The tablets arrive fully loaded with GoPago's LIVE mobile payment software. A Verizon 4G connection is also free thanks to a deal between GoPago and the carrier.

The goal is to further the adoption of the GoPago app, which lets consumers order and pay for goods via their iPhone or Android-based smartphone without having to wait in line. The app went live in San Francisco in April and since then i…
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More About: GoPago, Startups, mobile payments, small businesses, trending


Coming Out: Redditor Shares Heartbreaking Letter From Dad

Posted: 07 Aug 2012 01:05 PM PDT


Five years ago, Redditor RegBarc came out to his father. His dad disowned him by way of a handwritten letter a short time later. On Tuesday, RegBarc shared the letter and his story on a thread titled "5 years ago, I was disowned via letter when I came out to my father. This is how hate sounds."

View the discussion thread on Reddit.

Image courtesy of RegBarc

More About: Watercooler, reddit, trending


Twitter Death Rumor Leads to Spike in Oil Prices

Posted: 07 Aug 2012 01:04 PM PDT


On Monday at 9:59 a.m. ET, a Twitter account claiming to represent Russian Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev posted a tweet that eventually sparked a $1 price hike for crude-oil futures.

The first tweet from @MiniInterRussia, which has since been deleted, said Syrian President Bashar al-Assad had been killed or injured. Two following tweets claimed that his death had been confirmed.

The market was quick to respond. Just 16 minutes after the first tweet, futures for light, sweet crude started to increase, topping out at $91.99 a barrel by 10:45 a.m.

"A well-placed story can move the market, and that looks like what happened," Price Futures Group Analyst Phil Flynn told T
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More About: Bashar Al-Assad, Syria, commodity, oil, rumors, trending


NBC Win: 76% Approve of Olympic Coverage [STUDY]

Posted: 07 Aug 2012 12:46 PM PDT


You know that #NBCFail hashtag that's become all the rage on Twitter for snarky, social media savvy observers to roast the broadcast giant's Olympics coverage? Turns out those trenchant tweeters may actually just be a vocal minority, says a new study by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press and Pew Internet & American Life Project.

According to the survey of just over a thousand adults, 76% of Olympic fans say say the NBC is doing an excellent (29%) or good (47%) job covering the Summer Games. Just 18% percent rate the coverage as fair (13%) or poor (5%).

Overall, 78% of Americans have followed the Olympics online, on TV or via social media. TV still dominates for Olympi…
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More About: Social Media, Sports, Twitter, olympics


Super PAC Ad Says Romney Doesn’t Care, But Implies Worse [VIDEO]

Posted: 07 Aug 2012 12:31 PM PDT


This new political ad from Priorities USA Action, an Obama-affiliated Super PAC, may be the most brutal ad yet from the 2012 presidential election.

Called "Understands," the ad features the story of Joe Soptic, who claims he lost his job after Bain Capital, the financial services company for which Mitt Romney once served as CEO, shut down a plant where he worked.

Soptic lost his health insurance along with his job, meaning he couldn't pay for his wife's treatment when she was diagnosed with cancer. Soptic's wife died as he stood by, helpless.

The seemingly implied message of the ad: Mitt Romney indirectly killed Soptic's wife. Yikes.

SEE ALSO: Is Wikipedia the Key to Predic
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More About: 2012 presidential campaign, Mitt Romney, Watercooler, YouTube


The Impact of U.S. Privacy Laws on Enterprise Marketing

Posted: 07 Aug 2012 12:31 PM PDT


Many CMOs see social networks and mobile apps as the new grail of marketing, a golden ticket to fostering customer engagement. Whether or not this proves true, the rise of social-mobile means many companies are collecting massive amounts of information with the assistance of third-party software-as-a-service (SaaS) vendors.

These new engagement strategies and information storage models are creating important new challenges for enterprises, including those arising from the inappropriate use or disclosure of protected personally identifiable information.

In the United States companies must deal with several hundred state laws governing the capture of personal data, including soci…
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More About: Marketing, contributor, features, online marketing, online privacy


Watch How Awesome It Is to Play Lazer Tag on iPhone [VIDEO]

Posted: 07 Aug 2012 12:18 PM PDT


Nerf wars are fun. But they have issues: gun jams, losing ammo and the occasional black eye. If only there was some way to capture the fun of playfully shooting at friends or co-workers without the hassle of, you know, projectiles.

Hold on, we invented that in the '80s, didn't we? It's called Lazer Tag (correctly misspelled with the "z"), and it's had many incarnations since then: From a Saturday morning cartoon-inspiring kids game to the organized group activity loved by How I Met Your Mother's Barney Stinson.

You know where this is going. Yep, Lazer Tag is back! Even better, it's been upgraded for the smartphone era. The new version, sold by Ha…
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More About: Gaming, Lazer Tag, Nerf, games, hasbro, trending



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