If you’re hiring in the coming months, you very likely have at least one eye on the newest crop of potential future employees: soon-to-be-graduating college seniors

New grads can be a great resource for companies of any size—they’re full of energy and new ideas and willing to get their hands dirty in their first real-world job.

But as you’re thinking about recruiting new grads this spring, take a peek at what things look like from the other side of the table.

College recruiting has some interesting—and sometimes unfortunate—parallels to dating in middle school. Students are “flirting” for the first time, and recruiters are all too often making the big mistakes their parents told them to avoid during early courtship.

Director Ridley Scott (Blade Runner) and video entertainment network Machinima have partnered up to produce 12 science fiction short films

The shorts will not be directed by Scott himself; he and Machinima will choose directors from Ridley Scott's production company — RSA. The list of possible directors is starry and includes Martin Scorsese (Goodfellas), Sam Mendes (Skyfall), Kathryn Bigelow (Zero Dark Thirty) and Neill Blomkamp (District 9)

The idea is that at least some of these short films will lead to new sci-fi franchises, with both RSA and Machinima reaping the rewards

“RSA has always been at the forefront of creating innovative work. With new media transforming the way audiences connect with films and filmmakers, Machinima is a great partner for us as we embark on this new model of delivering original content to fans. It’s a tremendous opportunity for pushing the creative boundaries for both our filmmakers and the audience,” said Scott in a statement

Apple unveiled two new television ads Monday that flaunt the iPhone 5's new features.

One 30-second spot, called "Brilliant," demonstrates how users can pay for Starbucks items using Passbook, an iOS app that stores all types of tickets (e.g. boarding passes, hotel confirmations, film stubs, vouchers, loyalty cars) without having to print them. Passbook support for Starbucks became available in early October

The ad also features the MyScript Calculator app, which lets users sketch out any math problem, and Philips Hue, a web-enabled LED home-lighting system sold exclusively in Apple stores

"Discover," Apple's other spot (below), highlights the iPhone's shopping functions and musical capabilities. Apple's Maps also makes a brief appearance in it

On any given day, you'll likely scroll through dozens of webpages, and experience information overload. In the Internet age, it's a term that most people are all too familiar with, as daily emails, articles and websites bombard our screens

One desktop plugin aims to distill all the online chaos into concise, digestible synopses. Called Cruxlight, the Chrome extension automatically summarizes an article by highlighting important sentences on a page, and providing keywords. What's more, users can select a particular keyword and view the summary from that perspective.

There's also the ability to choose a "short" or "medium" summary based on how much time a user has to read, and the information he or she wants. In essence, it's CliffsNotes for webpages.

The New York City subway might be the last place you’d expect to check out a library book, but that could soon change if some students from Miami Ad School have their way.

Max Pilwat, Keri Tan and Ferdi Rodriguez have an idea to that would turn NYC’s metro cars into virtual libraries as a way of encouraging the public to visit the physical branches of the New York Public Library.

Their proposed “Underground Library” project would let subway passengers peruse virtual stacks on the walls of the metro car. Using near-field communication (NFC) technology found in smartphones, commuters could scan book titles that appear on advertisements inside the car. The first ten pages of the book would be be free of charge, then a map would pop up to direct users to the nearest library branch so they could finish what they started and check out the book.

Name: EQuala

One-Liner Pitch: EQuala is a music app that plays the songs your friends listen to.

Why It's Taking Off: The free social music app lets you to create a customized station of the music your friends listen to and share your favorite tracks.

"Oh my god, you just have to listen to this song!"

Your friends have probably said this to you countless times – that’s because friends know us best, and they share their favorite songs with us knowing that those songs will probably be our favorites too.

That’s the idea behind EQuala, a social music app for iPhone and Android, that plays the songs your friends listen to and lets you share your favorite songs. With EQuala, you can follow your friends and other music lovers, and choose which of your friends' music will play the most in your music stream.

Samsung gave a sneak peek at its upcoming flagship phone, the Galaxy S IV, on Monday.

The Korean electronics giant tweeted a photo that shows a front view of the Android smartphone, although it is mostly obscured by a shadowy foreground.

While Samsung doesn't identify the S IV by name, it mentions the device's launch date. The company is set to formally unveil its next-generation Galaxy phone on March 14 in New York City. Press invitations to the event were sent out late last month

The countdown for #TheNextBigThing has begun. Who’s ready for the Global Unpacked Event on March 14? twitter.com/SamsungMobileU…

— Samsung Mobile US (@SamsungMobileUS) March 12, 2013

What would it be like to shop with Google Glass? Omaha-based ConAgra Foods, which owns popular frozen food brands like Healthy Choice and Marie Callender's, worked with Google's newly created shopper marketing division to develop the above video, illustrating how consumers might use technologies like Google's to shop for groceries.

The video follows two women using (or using something just like) Google Glass to go about a single day: To make to-do and grocery shopping lists, to quickly navigate a grocery store, and to access nutritional information without having to turn over a label. (It's not clear why the video insists on using two women, since they are essentially doing the same activities at the same time, but I digress.) They also touch base with each other, and one woman conducts a short video call with her husband and son. Self-checkout is a mysteriously fast and seamless process.

We've found the simultaneously funniest and meanest friends in existence

These two pranksters teamed up to convince their friend Tom that the house was on fire in the middle of the night. With some excellent and elaborate planning — which involved full-fledged firefighter suits — they planted cameras in his room to watch his reaction as they trapped him in a "fiery" room

Oh, yeah — they made him put a towel over his head too

And while we applaud Tom for not wetting his pants during the ordeal, it was slightly amusing to watch him put his shoes on in a panic and psychologically convince himself that the doorknob was too hot to touch

Rejoice, Game of Thrones fans — your favorite HBO fantasy epic returns in less than three weeks. Season 3 begins March 31, leaving you without much time to watch the whole second season and get back up to speed. Luckily, there's this — a 14-minute recap of Season 2 complete with action-packed clips and cast members explaining complex plot points.

Check it out for yourself above — and if that's not enough, take a look at this Season 3 poster collection that HBO recently released:

Homepage image courtesy Game of Thrones via YouTube

SXSW is that time of the year where everyone who isn't in Austin, Texas, at the beginning of March suffers from major bouts of fomo. Those who are there have enjoyed memerific entertainment, from taking pictures with Grumpy Cat to meeting the designer who created Nyan Cat

SXSW is part conference, part music festival and runs from March 8 to 17. The event covers emerging trends in tech, music and film and is known in the industry as an essential networking event. It's also a great place to see your favorite bands and discover amazing new music

You could have all the apps in the world to prepare you for survival when disaster strikes — flashlight, emergency contacts, GPS and first aid tips — but they'll be entirely useless when you run out of battery juice on your phone.

If you're camping in the boondocks or preparing a disaster survival kit, you might want to consider a low-tech emergency smartphone charger. Seattle-based SOS Ready has designed the pocket-sized "SOSCharger," which is powered by you. With the gadget's built-in generator, all you do is connect to your smartphone via USB connection and hand-crank the handle. The SOSCharger has a 1,500 mAh Lithium Polymer battery, and depending on your phone and network, the company claims three to five minutes of winding will translate to five to 12 minutes of talk time.

Excited for Google's Project Glass to finish development? So are we

If you live in Seattle, however, you might need to stick with your boring, non-augmented-reality shades for a night out at the bars

The 5 Point Cafe, a dive bar and restaurant based in the Emerald City, posted a message on its Facebook page last week saying that the smart specs — pictured below, being worn by Google Senior Vice President of Engineering Vic Gundotra — are not allowed in the building once they hit the market:

"For the record, The 5 Point is the first Seattle business to ban in advance Google Glasses. And ass kickings will be encouraged for violators."

Boom! Curtis Woodhouse just scored a knockout blow for every athlete who's ever been harassed by sports trolls on Twitter.

The English boxer lost his country's light welterweight title to Shayne Singleton on Friday. Two days later, a troll using the handle @jimmyob88 began taunting Woodhouse, calling him a "complete disgrace," "laughable joke" and "waste of spunk." Woodhouse (at left in the photo above) initially replied with some trash talk of his own, then took matters into his own hands in a way not yet done by anyone in the sports world's growing list of trolled pros.

Sports trolls have become a growing problem on Twitter over the past several months as death threats and abuse have grown less and less shocking. NBA star Pau Gasol, NFL player Kyle Williams and broadcaster Erin Andrews are just a few recent victims of particularly harsh treatment. Some even see ugly fan behavior as a threat to the platform's viability with athletes and sports celebrities

The creator behind a new coin-sized, Arduino-compatible board says the possibilities are endless with this microcomputer that can wirelessly connect to your smartphone.

The “RFduino” is an open-source, standalone board that's small enough to fit inside your projects, whether you’re a hobbyist or a professional engineer. The board runs a powerful ARM Cortex processor and can be powered by bench power supply, wall outlet, USB or coin cell battery.

The tiny RFduino is designed by electrical engineer Armen Kazanchian with Hermosa Beach, Calif.-based Open Source RF. He's raising funds on Kickstarter for a manufacturing run of the RFduino and for shield accessory boards.

Professional diver Rick Coleman returned to his boat post-night dive to discover an adorable and unexpected stow away

A sea lion had flopped its way aboard his kayak and made itself completely at home. Coleman, who was at first a little startled by the new passenger, tried to shoo the pup away. But the sea lion was clearly trying to recreate Life of Pi and wasn't willing to move

The diver eventually paddled his way back to shore, with the sea lion co-piloting the whole way. Coleman captured the entire adventure on his GoPro camera and, thankfully, made sure to alert animal rescue to help out his new travel companion

It was a busy weekend at South by Southwest, and we had our ear to the ground to determine where the chatter was coming from. If you haven't checked out the Trendspotter yet, give it a gander

Our friends at Topsy compiled a nice, clean list of the most popular trending terms from Saturday and Sunday. Check out the gallery above to see the top 5, and get more detail below in chart form.

What were you buzzing about this weekend? Let us know in the comments.

Thumbail image courtesy of Flickr, adsf

Sprint users with a second-generation Samsung Galaxy Tab are in for a nice little treat today: The carrier said it will start rolling out an update to bring Android Jelly Bean 4.1.1 software to the tablet

Sprint, which promises "stunning graphical capabilities" with the Android update, said it will be pushed wirelessly to Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 users in the next few weeks

Once the update is downloaded, users will gain access to several expanded features, including Google Now, which provides information on real-time data such as traffic and train times. Other new perks includes smoother transitions between home screen and apps — Sprint says it's like "turning pages of a book" — and notifications that can prompt actions directly from the notifications panel.

AUSTIN — Today was yet another day of mixing with famous people and cats at South by Southwest

The Trendspotter by Mashable and Topsy revealed buzz about the screening of Much Ado About Nothing, a film that was shot in 12 days using Shakespeare's original text. The posts on Twitter with hashtag #muchadoaboutnothing were overwhelmingly positive.

Another trending hashtag was #innovate, although with no clear tie to a specific session, and sure enough, The Onion published a parody earlier today on the word's overuse.

Among gadgets, the Leap Motion got some attention as conference attendees were able to score demos with the cool new tool

Cataloging your baby's firsts is just as important in uteroWebMD, the health information (and self-diagnosis go-to) site, launched WebMD Pregnancy, a free iPhone app to help expectant mothers keep track of their journey.

The app offers physician-reviewed pregnancy information and customizable features that change week by week for each user based on her due date. Interactive, personalized tools include symptom trackers, appointment reminders, a shareable "Baby Belly Slideshow" and a contraction timer

WebMD Pregnancy combines medically-focused articles with contextually relevant tools. It's a blend that's been missing from the bevy of pregnancy apps already out there, says Todd Zander, the company's vice president of mobile and emerging media

So here you are, unsatisfied with that current position as regional assistant to the director of blah blah and ready for a career change. And while career counselors may discourage you from changing job trajectories this late in life, finding this LinkedIn listing is like a sign from God

Make sure to take note of the job requirements: infallibility, celibacy and strong problem solving skills are a must, and you'll have to work Sundays.

It's also quite the commitment, being the leader of the Catholic Church. You'll really be putting your career over your personal life. But the listing does make it clear that you'll receive dental coverage and eternity in heaven — seems like a pretty robust and reasonable benefits package

LinkedIn is close to acquiring Pulse, a popular news reading app, for as much as $100 million, according to a new report.

Citing unnamed sources, AllThingsD reported that Pulse had been in acquisition talks with several big companies, including Yahoo and Microsoft, but that LinkedIn won out. The publication has since heard that the deal is set to be for between $50 and $100 million, and talks between the two companies are said to be "nearly complete."

Though it might sound like an odd pairing at first, LinkedIn has doubled down on content in recent years. The professional social network launched a news hub in early 2011 and has recently been ramping up its own original content by recruiting celebrities and thinkers to blog as part of the LinkedIn Influencers program

AUSTIN — Rovio announced Monday it is bringing its Angry Birds cartoon series to smartphones, tablets and connected devices. Rovio's distribution strategy for Angry Birds Toons is unique because rather than simply targeting the web or even cable partnerships, the company is using its reach of more than 1.7 billion downloads as a direct way to reach potential viewers.

At SXSW 2013, I had a chance to talk with Andrew Stalbow, executive vice president of strategic partnerships for Rovio, about the Angry BirdsToons and how a small mobile game startup in Espoo, Finland, is well on its way to becoming a major entertainment brand.

AUSTIN — Meeting new people to date is tough. If you’re over the bar scene and not quite comfortable with online dating sites, then your options are pretty limited

2013 SXSW Accelerator Finalist LikeBright understands those challenges, and is offering a new way for people to meet potential dates: through online introductions from their friends.

“Thousands of women have told me they don’t trust strangers on dating sites,” Nick Soman, founder and CEO of LikeBright told Mashable. "Seventy-eight percent of women believe the best way to meet romantic partners is through their friends. We're building LikeBright to make that easier than ever.”

Grumpy Cat puts on her finest flannel for school picture day. Ermahgerd Girl channels her inner Girl With a Pearl Earring — or Grrl Werth er Perrl Errin

Memes class it up with starring roles in artwork worthy of the Louvre, or at least the eLouvre.

If you stopped by the Mashable Tent at SXSW, you may have already seen these memesterpieces by Bob Al-Greene and Kiersten Essenpreis. But, if the trip to Austin was too far or the rainy weather distorted your snapshot, you can see the digital art pieces below.

Mashable image. Artwork by Bob Al-Greene

Saturday Night Live saw a boost of almost 80% on the social scales this week, as Justin Timberlake took hosting and crooning duties for the night. A plethora of special guests buoyed Timberlake's fifth turn as host, including Andy Samberg, Jay-Z and other five-timers like Steve Martin and Tom Hanks. The former *NSYNC member has ventured deeper into the social realm lately with a popular account on Instagram

Last Monday's Heat-Timberwolves game took the top spot as the most popular social show on cable — the NBA TV broadcast drew 1.5 million mentions on social media. Late-game fouls and a dust-up between J.J. Barea and Ray Allen led to a technical foul called on Minnesota coach Rick Adelman

The California Conservation Corps is a state-run agency that gives youth — many from inner-city environments — job training and work experience out in nature. A couple of the program's youngsters, Antwon McCoy and Leonard Patton, brought their fondness for dancing to the workplace

The duo taught their self-described "big nature nerd/mountain man boss" John Griffith a few things, and the result is this smile-triggering video of Griffith's sweet moves

The clip didn't rack up many views when it first hit YouTube in August, but on Monday morning, the video made Reddit's front page. We're glad we saw it and pretty sure you'll feel the same — so check it out above, then send it on someone in need of a Monday smile.

If you feel like your Twitter rage falls on deaf ears, why not punctuate your next tweet by virtually squeezing the trigger of a paintball gun?

Just include the hashtag #ISLPaint on your next tweet and IStrategyLabs’ PaintBot will rip off a shot in your honor. Set up in the offices of the social media agency, the automated paintball gun is linked to an Arduino controller that’s programmed to respond to the hashtag.

While the stunt is no piece of political art, it is reminiscent of Wafaa Bilal’s “Shoot An Iraqi” project. But don’t worry, this PaintBot isn’t pointed at anyone — only at what looks to be a dry-erase board.

Astronaut Ron Garan not only carries out NASA missions in the International Space Station, but he also finds moments to sends tweets from miles above Earth.

Speaking back on land at the 2013 SXSW conference, Garan — AKA Astro_Ron on Twitter — says the crew has an Internet connection aboard the International Space Station.

"We have a ... downlink of a data path that we can control a computer on the ground as a slave computer," Garan says.

Garan believes a lot of people would be surprised at how "wonderful" the space experience is.

"I think a lot of people think, 'oh, you're cooped up inside of a can and things are floating all over the place," he says. "But it's really a very wonderful experience. It's a wonderful place to live and work. And the view is just amazing."

A huge majority of the chatter about South by Southwest took place on Twitter yet again Sunday, with a SXSW-related tweet dropping every four seconds

Tina Roth Eisenberg, who gave one of the two interactive keynote addresses over the weekend, trended highly — drawing three times as much chatter as Rachel Maddow and Nate Silver

The inherent partying at SXSW drew the lion's share of commentary, but the ratio of work to play was a little higher than the previous day. To see who was enjoying the party more — men or women — check out the infographic below. The graphic comes courtesy of Meltwater