Mashable: Latest 24 News Updates - including “Google Wave to Rise Again on Its Own” |  |
- Google Wave to Rise Again on Its Own
- NASA Plans to Visit the Sun
- Twitter for iPhone/iPad Getting Push Notifications Soon
- New York’s Newest Law Aims to Protect Online Daters
- Twitter Mobile Usage Skyrocketed With “Official” Apps [STATS]
- HOW TO: Track Hurricane Earl Online
- Facebook Testing a “Stalker Button”
- Facebook Beefs Up Security with Remote Logout Feature
- Facebook Connect Disappears from iTunes Ping
- The Truth About E-mail: We Check It All the Time [STATS]
- Hey, iTunes Ping: What About the Bands?
- RIP Meme: The Double Rainbow Guy Sells Out to Microsoft
- Skype Introduces 10-Way Video Calling
- 8 Funding Contests to Kick Start Your Big Idea
- How Social Data Built a Better Health Care App
- Google Chrome Version 6 Arrives on Browser’s Second Birthday
- Ambitious Online Banking Alternative Scores $2.9 Million in Series A
- Check in on Foursquare Using Your Voice [APPS]
- Announcing MashBash BlogWorld: Win a Free Pass [CONTEST]
- 15 Essential Back to School Podcasts
- Google to Power AOL Search for the Next 5 Years
- 10 of the Web’s Most Insightful News Infographics
- Gorgeous 21:9 LCD TV from Philips Goes 3D
- Morning Brief: iTunes 10 & Ping Now Live, Samsung Unveils Tablet, Twitter’s iPad App
- Ping Not Available to You? You’re Not the Only One
| Google Wave to Rise Again on Its Own Posted: 03 Sep 2010 04:17 AM PDT      Google Wave was once one of Google’s hottest projects, promising a new way of communication that might even replace email. Alas, it was not to be, and Google shut it down soon after public launch due to lack of user adoption – but not completely. Wave still draws interest from users, although it turned out to be more of a niche product than a massively disruptive tool. Recently, Google promised to keep Wave alive at least until the end of the year and to open source some parts of it. Now, Google has finally decided what to do with Wave. According to a recent blog post, Google will release most of the Wave code in the form of an (almost) complete application, which Google calls “Wave in a Box.” For exact deatils on what this bundle will include go here, but it seem to be enough for developers to pick up where Wave left off and create their own, complete app based on the code. Yes, Wave was a failure in Google’s hands, but we’ll sure that developers will find a way to instill new life into the project. Who knows, maybe soon we’ll see a better Wave, and maybe this new version will (finally) conquer the hearts of users. More About: Google, open source, wave For more Tech coverage:
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| Posted: 03 Sep 2010 12:26 AM PDT   If you’ve seen Danny Boyle’s movie Sunshine, you may be a little disappointed: NASA’s mission to visit the Earth’s Sun won’t include sending people up there. But it will be sending a spacecraft into the Sun’s atmosphere, approximately four million miles from its surface. The project, called Solar Probe Plus, is slated to launch sometime before 2018. Four million miles doesn’t sound very close, but it’s still very exciting, since this is a region no other spacecraft (created by us) has ever encountered. NASA plans for the project to “unlock the sun’s biggest mysteries.” Although the spacecraft will be relatively far from our star’s surface, its carbon-composite heat shield will have to withstand intense radiation, as well as temperatures exceeding 2550 degrees Fahrenheit. “The experiments selected for Solar Probe Plus are specifically designed to solve two key questions of solar physics – why is the sun’s outer atmosphere so much hotter than the sun’s visible surface and what propels the solar wind that affects Earth and our solar system?” said Dick Fisher, director of NASA’s Heliophysics Division in Washington. “We’ve been struggling with these questions for decades and this mission should finally provide those answers,” said Fisher. [Image credit: NASA] More About: mission, NASA, space, spacecraft, sun, Sunshine For more Tech coverage:
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| Twitter for iPhone/iPad Getting Push Notifications Soon Posted: 02 Sep 2010 10:43 PM PDT   We’ve just gotten an email from Twitter stating that staffers are testing push notifications amongst themselves and the company will be rolling this feature out to all users soon. Push notifications would enable users to get instant, real-time updates for certain types of tweets — probably DMs and @replies and perhaps other kinds of tweets, as well. A few lucky users accidentally got the new feature with the Twitter for iPad application which was recently released. “When we launched Twitter for iPad, there was a configuration error that caused us to offer push messages to a small set of users,” wrote a Twitter spokesperson. We’ve stopped sending push messages, but users may see an option to turn on push until we release an updated version of the app.” “We’ve been testing push notifications internally,” the rep continued. “Push isn’t ready yet, but we look forward to rolling this out soon.” Twitter for iPhone, formerly known as Tweetie, was made available to the public three months ago. Since then, it’s skyrocketed to a top spot as one of the most-used Twitter interfaces. In fact, 8% of all users of Twitter access the app via Twitter for iPhone. As for Twitter’s official iPad app, which just launched late last night, we don’t yet have any data on how much use that app is getting, but we do know that its interface is exciting and well-designed enough to get geeks around the web pretty excited; stay tuned for our full write-up and review later tonight. What do you think of push notifications for Twitter mobile apps? Are you looking forward to getting real-time updates from those you follow? Image courtesy of Flickr, tsevis Reviews: Flickr, Twitter More About: ipad, iphone, push, twitter For more Mobile coverage:
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| New York’s Newest Law Aims to Protect Online Daters Posted: 02 Sep 2010 09:47 PM PDT   It’s something you’d expect to hear from your mother, not your government, but New York’s newest laws are all about exercising common sense when looking for love online. Sounding like something between a schoolteacher and a public service announcement, the Internet safety act will require online dating websites to warn their users about the potential perils of web-based romance. The caveats seem like the kind of best practices any mindful Internet user would have internalized years ago. Things like not giving out your physical address and providing your own transportation on initial dates, for example, are no-brainers. But the act also includes clauses about not revealing your employer or last name; a simple search engine could be used as a tool for stalking or much worse in the grimmest scenarios. And another point made in the act is proof of how much dating has changed in the past 20 years: Users are warned against giving out their phone numbers in the first volley of emails back and forth between themselves and any strangers they may meet on a dating site. Basically, the government is trying to make sure dating websites do everything they can to keep users from releasing identifying information until it’s safe and appropriate. Although online dating is huge business, we can’t imagine many companies having a problem with this requirement of consumer awareness, depending on how it’s carried out. In fact, such a law might even be beneficial on a national level. One other state — New Jersey — has enacted such a law already. What do you think of the Internet safety act in New York? Do you think it’s an appropriate, common-sense measure for dating websites to have to take? Or is it a futile reaction to Internet-linked violent crimes, which may have little to do with dating sites specifically? Let us know your opinions in the comments. Reviews: Internet More About: dating website, internet safety act, law, new york, online dating For more Social Media coverage:
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| Twitter Mobile Usage Skyrocketed With “Official” Apps [STATS] Posted: 02 Sep 2010 06:10 PM PDT   Since Twitter acquired Tweetie and rolled out an official iPhone client, the company has focused more and more on improving the mobile experience across all smartphone platforms. Twitter CEO Ev Williams wrote just now on the company blog that mobile usage of the site is up 62% since in just over four months, and 16% of all new Twitter users are starting out on mobile devices as opposed to web signups (this number is up from just 5% earlier this year). In the days before Twitter started issuing official apps on a platform-by-platform basis, the company wasn’t seeing the kind of mobile adoption it had hoped for. Williams wrote, “Even though there was a plethora of third-party Twitter apps, people were having trouble finding and selecting one because none were called ‘Twitter.’ This kept them from using Twitter at all.” The company adopted a new strategy for mobile; rather than leaving all the mobile app development to third parties, Twitter decided to consolidate efforts. In the short term, this caused some consternation for third-party devs; however, looking at Twitter’s stats, it’s clear the company did the right thing for its shareholders and bottom line. Twitter acquired Tweetie in May this year; this was our first indication that Twitter would be creating and distributing its own mobile apps for a change. Tweetie was revamped and renamed Twitter for iPhone in May. A BlackBerry app was released in April, and the company’s official Android Twitter app was released later the same month. Twitter is also seeing strong growth in its mobile site and SMS service, and Williams notes that third-party apps such as TweetDeck continue to be valuable and important parts of the Twitter mobile landscape. And as for the long tail, Williams writes, “There are a tremendous number of other apps that people are using, not necessarily as their main Twitter client, but as an alternative way to create or view Tweets. The number of registered OAuth applications is now at almost 300,000 — this number has nearly tripled since Chirp [Twitter's developer conference, which was held in April in San Francisco].”  While the above chart shows percentages of unique users per app, we’d also love to see a breakdown by volume of tweets. Has your own mobile usage of Twitter changed or grown at all with Twitter’s releasing several official apps? Do you still use third-party applications for tweeting on the go? Let us know what you think about these stats in the comments. Reviews: Chirp Blu, Tvider Blackberry App , TweetDeck, Twitter, tweetie More About: apps, Mobile 2.0, twitter For more Mobile coverage:
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| HOW TO: Track Hurricane Earl Online Posted: 02 Sep 2010 05:13 PM PDT   Hurricane Earl is expected to wreak some havoc on the East Coast this Labor Day weekend. According to the the National Hurricane Center, Earl is expected "pass near the North Carolina outer banks tonight [Thursday]… and approach southeastern New England Friday night." President Obama has declared a state of emergency for North Carolina, and FEMA has deployed teams to North Carolina, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Maine. Whether you live near the National Hurricane Center's official "Forecast Cone" or you're one of the 34.4 million people who planned a trip for this weekend, you'll want to keep an eye on Earl. Here are some resources to kickstart your tracking: Government ResourcesThe National Weather Service Get your weather warnings and advisories right from the source on top of a color-coded map. You can also use the site to check in on where Earl is likely to hit and whether or not hurricane force winds are probable in your area. NOAA's nowCOAST Make a customized, real-time map using NOAA data. Decide what location, information, and time you’d like to view and what data layers you’d like to activate, and nowCOAST will make a map for your request. This is a great tool for people who actually know something about weather, but it can leave the beginner hurricane tracker a bit confused. NASA Earth Science Office See what the hurricane looks like from outer space by taking a look at the latest satellite pictures direct from NASA’s Earth Science Office. The site offers a number of different satellite views, include infrared and water vapor readings. Weather Media ResourcesMyFoxHurricane.com Very helpful for connecting with other hurricane tracking nerds, this dedicated hurricane website from MyFoxTampaBay and the FOX Network hosts a live chat in addition to its other hurricane resources. Interesting maps include the hurricane’s predicted path map, the wave height near the storm and a radar map that zooms in on the Outer Banks. The Weather Channel The Weather Channel’s Hurricane Central allows you to view where Hurricane Earl has been and where it's projected to go. There are also separate maps for hurricane advisories, tropical storm advisories, wind speeds and wave heights; the site also has satellite maps for specific regions. The maps aren't as flashy as some of the other sites on this list, but they are very easy to read and understand. AccuWeather.comIf you want to see what Hurricane Earl looks like – and we’re not talking radar – watch this footage taken from directly above the eye of the storm. These brave NASA pilots apparently let an AccuWeather videographer on board. Hopefully this is as close to Earl as you will get. The site’s frequent video coverage of Hurricane Earl is also a great resource. Google Maps MashupsIbiseye Ibiseye puts the storm's history, projected path and at-risk areas on one Google map. It's especially useful for finding at what time and with what intensity the storm is expected to reach a specific point. A graphical synopsis of the storm's winds, pressure and wind field is also available. StormAdvisory Another Google Maps-based resource, StormAdvisory plots Hurricane Earl's actual path and wind speeds as well as its projected path and wind speeds. Weather Underground The tropical weather section of Weather Underground includes radar, satellite, wind and forecast maps. The stand-out feature, however, is the site's trademarked "Wundermap," on which you can choose layers of information to display. Stormpulse: A Hurricane Tracking Dashboard Stormpulse is all you need to track Hurricane Earl's vital stats. The dashboard displays every the essential detail, including current category, wind speed and movement, on one screen. You can switch the map to radar or satellite and select a point on the map to calculate its distance from the hurricane. Mobile Resources
Twitter Resources
More Social Media Resources from Mashable:
Image courtesy of iStockphoto, EricHood Reviews: Android, BlackBerry Rocks!, Google, Twitter, iPhone, iStockphoto More About: accuweather.com, hurricane, Hurricane Earl, hurricane tracking apps, ibiseye, mobile apps, myfoxhurricane, NASA, NHC, stormadvisory, stormpulse, the weather channel, tracking apps, twitter, weather underground For more Social Media coverage:
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| Facebook Testing a “Stalker Button” Posted: 02 Sep 2010 04:11 PM PDT   Facebook is apparently testing a new subscription feature that would allow users to receive alerts any time a specific friend takes certain actions on the social network. AllFacebook reports that it has noticed the new feature popping up on friends’ profiles. Facebook told the blog, “This feature is being tested with a small percent of users. It lets people subscribe to friends and pages to receive notifications whenever the person they've subscribed to updates their status or posts new content (photos, videos, links or notes).” In other words, when you click to subscribe to a user, you’ll get a new Facebook notification in your notifications bar at the top of the site or on the mobile device of your choosing any time that other user posts content. We’re not sure yet if you can subscribe to someone who’s not a friend, which is much more stalker-like, or if notifications include likes and comments (right now, it sounds like they won’t).   We at Mashable are hoping this is an opt-in (or at least an opt-out) feature. If Facebook thinks subscriptions are a useful for the majority of average users, people who might want to get special notifications for family members’ or loved ones’ activities, they’re also potentially damaging if rolled out to jealous “frenemies,” vindictive exes or nosy bosses. What do you think of the “subscribe” button? Is there anyone in your life you’d subscribe to? What about others subscribing to you — would you like or dislike that feature? Let us know your thoughts in the comments. [img credits: AllFacebook and jvk] Reviews: Facebook, Mashable More About: facebook, Subscribe, trending For more Social Media coverage:
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| Facebook Beefs Up Security with Remote Logout Feature Posted: 02 Sep 2010 03:20 PM PDT   Facebook is bolstering the security of user accounts through the launch of a new feature that gives users the ability to see their overall account activity and remotely log out of active sessions. Have you ever logged into your Facebook at a public computer, but forgot to log out when you left? What if you left your Facebook account open at home with a snooping brother, sister or spouse? They would have access to sensitive personal information or could wreak havoc by posing as you. These are the problems that Facebook is attempting to address with the gradual rollout of remote logout. The new feature appears under the “Account Security” section of Account Settings. Account Security displays the most recent activity related to your account, including location, device name, time and device type/browser. This should give you a clue as to whether you left Facebook open at a public computer or just left it running at the office PC. That’s not all, though. To the right of any active account is a link for remotely logging out of your Facebook account. “In the unlikely case that someone accesses your account without your permission, you can shut down the unauthorized login before resetting your password and taking other steps to secure your account and computer,” the Facebook team explained in blog post published earlier today. This is a welcome security update from the world’s largest social network. For many, Facebook accounts hold information as sensitive as e-mail (and Gmail has had remote logout since 2008). Anything that provides more control over a user’s security is a win in our books. Have you ever wanted a remote logout feature for your Facebook account? Let us know in the comments. Reviews: Facebook, Gmail More About: facebook, security For more Tech coverage:
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| Facebook Connect Disappears from iTunes Ping Posted: 02 Sep 2010 03:04 PM PDT   Late last evening, Apple released iTunes 10 and its new Ping social network to the public. Assuming you were able to access the service, you may have noticed the ability to add friends via Facebook Connect, a feature we mentioned in our first-impressions post last night. That feature disappeared earlier this morning, as first noted by Peter Kafka. So where did the feature go and why did it disappear? According to AllThingsD’s sources, an agreement between Apple and Facebook couldn’t be reached, so Facebook cut off access. Apple subsequently removed the feature from its service. Users can still be added by searching by name or via e-mail address. However, it’s important to note that the e-mail address is the one associated with a user’s iTunes account. I have a special iTunes-only address in place, which means that anyone who wants to follow me will have to use my name. This isn’t the first time Facebook has turned off its data hose to another company. Twitter briefly introduced a Facebook follow feature before Facebook shut off access. Apple and Facebook have worked together in the past, most notably with the Share via Facebook option first introduced in iTunes 9 and the App Store Facebook Page. As it stands, if you did manage to use Facebook Connect with iTunes Ping last night, the app itself is still visible in Facebook and you can see which friends are also connected. We would be surprised if this feature didn’t make a reappearance at some point. That’s a good thing, because Facebook is becoming the de facto social graph for many users and makes the friend discovery process much easier. We’ve reached out to Facebook and Apple for comment on this particular issue. Reviews: Facebook, Ping, Twitter More About: apple, facebook, itunes, itunes ping, Ping For more Social Media coverage:
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| The Truth About E-mail: We Check It All the Time [STATS] Posted: 02 Sep 2010 02:38 PM PDT   E-mail has invaded every aspect of our lives. We don’t need a survey to tell us as much, but new research from Xobni and Harris Interactive confirms that we’re not alone in dealing with e-mail overload. 2,200 adults 18 and older in the U.S. and U.K were surveyed on their e-mail habits and attitudes. Most respondents — 72% in the U.S, 68% in the U.K. — indicated that they check e-mail during their time off. A large percentage of Americans also check e-mail in bed (19%), and while on vacation or during days off (50%). When queried about their outside-the-workplace e-mail activities, nearly half (46%) of the American respondents indicated that they do so to ease their workload. Thirty-seven percent are afraid they’ll miss something important (guilty as charged), and 27% check work e-mail when off the job because it is expected of them. Another 26% keep up with e-mail while on vacation because they simply can’t handle the volume otherwise. When comparing e-mail behaviors by gender, there are some subtle differences in habits. Men, for instance, are more likely to check e-mail in bed — 21% of men claim do so, while 16% of women admit to the practice. Of course, this bed-checking trend also skews toward 18- to 34-year-olds, who are twice as likely (31%) than 35- to 54-year-olds (15%) to do so. The real-time nature of the web and social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook are likely contributing to our always-on attention spans, and hence, contributing to the e-mail overload problem. We can only hope tools such as Rapportive, Gmail Priority Inbox and Xobni’s add-ons will help our cause. Image courtesy of revrev, Flickr Reviews: Facebook, Flickr, Twitter More About: email, stats, xobni For more Social Media coverage:
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| Hey, iTunes Ping: What About the Bands? Posted: 02 Sep 2010 02:11 PM PDT   Update: Commenter Bruce Hoffman contacted TuneCore about this issue and received this response: “Thanks for writing! Not only will Ping have ‘People’ accounts, but it will also have ‘Artist’ accounts that allow musicians to upload and create their own pages featuring their pictures, videos, tour-dates, music recommendations and a lot more. We were fortunate enough to speak with Apple today to begin working on getting the first TuneCore Artists Ping accounts set up. We will be able to get more and more TuneCore Artists set up over the next weeks as Apple works to authenticate and set up Ping Artist accounts for the millions of artists within iTunes.” Plenty of criticism has already been directed towards the new social network that’s baked into iTunes 10 — Ping — with an emphasis on the user (not to mention rumblings about a fleeting Facebook integration). But there’s one contingent of users no one has really mentioned yet: the bands, many of which are still unable to get in on the action as of this afternoon. Immediately after hearing about Ping yesterday, I sent out a flurry of e-mails to band friends, urging them to, “Get on this now!” Everyone was stoked, ready to replace their MySpace pages with revenue-making destinations on the brand new iTunes social network. However, when they logged in and tried to figure out how to create said page, they were met with confusion. I spoke with Eric Victorino, of the band The Limousines, and he said he spent 30 minutes trying to figure out how to set up a page to no avail. And this is a band with music already available on iTunes. I also spoke with PR people who represent some other popular bands, and they were unclear as to how to get their bands on the service as well. Bands usually don’t have direct contact with iTunes — musicians distribute their jams through services like TuneCore which then deal directly with iTunes — so perhaps this degree of separation is the issue. We’ve reached out to Apple to ask how a band goes about getting a page on Ping. In the meantime, I remain unimpressed with Ping — unable to follow bands that I actually like. Currently, iTunes recommends I follow 14 bands, all heavy hitters like U2, Diddy and Lady Gaga. Yup, no Phoenix, The National or Arcade Fire (all indie bands of the less-than-indie persuasion — I wasn’t expecting Jeffrey Lewis to be up in there yet, anyway). No wonder iTunes was so off with its recommendations — none of the bands I like are currently on the service. I can follow Katy Perry, though:  Still, you can “Like” and “Post” a band’s album via the “Album” page, and check out some concert listings as a result of Live Nation’s recent partnership with Apple. In the example below, Mashable’s Christina Warren can show how much she digs Guster, despite being unable to follow them:  Now that doesn’t mean bands can’t get in on the action by creating a run-of-the-mill user profile. It seems that Ben Folds joined up this a.m. I followed him. As did more than 200 others. Too bad it’s not really Ben Folds. I know because I asked him this morning whether the profile was real and he replied, “Probably not legit.” We’ll probably see more faux artist pages popping up in the future, unless some kind of verification process is introduced. (That’s not really an uncommon issue. Facebook is crawling with fakes. Still, doppelgangers are doubly confusing when dealing with a new service.)  Yesterday, scads of publications — including Mashable — heralded “Ping as a potential “MySpace killer.” That doesn’t seem likely, however, until the service manages to make itself more accessible to the bread and butter of any music discovery service: the musicians. MySpace is easy to join and is an admittedly simple way to get your music out there. It even recently introduced new profiles for artists, as well as the capacity to feature up to 25 songs on one’s profile. That’s a ton of music, and, come to think of it, something that Ping lacks: the ability to listen to full, streaming songs. Thirty-second clips aren’t going to do much for music discovery when it comes to bands in the “lesser-known” realm. (A musician friend even joked last night that he would have to compress all of his songs into 30-second dance jams if he wanted to get his tunes heard on Ping.) Yes, Ping emphasizes the music fan’s experience — the experience of sharing music with friends and benefiting from their tastes — but how is one to expand one’s taste when access to less mainstream fare is so limited? Yes, we imagine iTunes will expand the service to more musicians as the days wear on, but we feel that in order to grab the populace at the onset, the experience of following and interacting bands should have been richer at launch. Reviews: Facebook, Mashable, MySpace, Ping More About: apple, itunes, music, Ping For more Entertainment coverage:
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| RIP Meme: The Double Rainbow Guy Sells Out to Microsoft Posted: 02 Sep 2010 01:21 PM PDT We were enamored of your childlike delight. We reveled in the remixes. But now, Double Rainbow Guy, we are less than amused. What’s the sure-fire way to kill a viral video? Festoon it with dollar signs. Yup, the above video is a commercial for Windows Live Photo Gallery, and yup, the actor in said commercial is YouTube user Hungrybear9562 (a.k.a Paul Vasquez and the man behind the rainbow). Vasquez burst onto the scene back in July with a tripped-out vid featuring the man himself crying over a lovely pair of rainbows (the video has since amassed more than 13 million views on YouTube). Now, we’re crying over the end of innocence. Yes, ad companies, it’s smart to hitch your wagon to what’s hot right now (i.e. the memetastic realm), but why not come up with something, well, new? The Double Rainbow guy was sooooo two months ago, guys. [via Buzzfeed] Reviews: Windows Live Photo Gallery, YouTube More About: double-rainbow, MARKETING, microsoft, money, viral video, Windows, youtube For more Web Video coverage:
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| Skype Introduces 10-Way Video Calling Posted: 02 Sep 2010 12:39 PM PDT   Skype — apparently pleased with its five-way beta group video-calling functionality — has just released a new version of Skype 5.0 for Windows that doubles group support. It now allows for up to 10 video callers. Skype 5.0 beta two is already available for download; it includes 10-way video calls, automatic call recovery and a cleaner user interface. The update is also said to improve call quality and includes a number of bug fixes to make the overall experience much smoother. Of course, the standout feature is 10-way video calling, something that certainly one-ups their own previous offering and makes it suitable for even larger virtual team meetings and mini family reunions. Of course, it also makes Gmail’s video-calling functionality look like the ugly step sister — a proactive move on the part of Skype to combat recent buzz surrounding Gmail Voice Calling. Still, Skype does caution that 5.0 is beta, and hence, very buggy. It’s also limited to Windows users, and 10-way video calls require all group chatters to be using the same second beta version of the app. Have you tested out five-way video calls? Are you ready to upgrade to the 10-person variety? Share your thoughts in the comments. Reviews: Gmail, Skype, Windows More About: group video calling, Skype, software, trending, video calling, voip For more Tech coverage:
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| 8 Funding Contests to Kick Start Your Big Idea Posted: 02 Sep 2010 12:18 PM PDT   This post originally appeared on Dyn.com, a world leader in managed DNS, powering the best brands on the web including Gowalla, Mashable, Twitter, Wikia and more. Follow @DynInc on Twitter. Taking a business from idea to reality involves a good deal of attrition, ingenuity, and compromise. But no matter how much these three factors align in your favor, chances are you won't get far unless you have some sort of funding. Traditionally, you could get your hands on some capital by wooing the wealthy to support you, getting rich yourself, or persuading a venture capitalist that your idea has potential. But an increasingly available option is to enter a competition. The following eight contests can supply some cash for your startup or, even if you don't win, help you better prepare to seek funding from other sources. 1. MIT $100K Entrepreneurship CompetitionSince 1989, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has hosted independent contests throughout the year that are collectively known as the “MIT$100K” (originally the MIT$10K). In the elevator pitch contest, competitors have 60 seconds to persuade judges of their business' potential. The top prize is $10,000, which isn't a bad pay rate for a minute-long performance. The Executive Summary contest compares teams' two-page summaries of their projects for a prize of "MIT$100K glory" and judge feedback that is helpful for the third contest: the flagship Business Plan Competition. In the Business Plan Competition, semi-finalists are selected based on their executive summaries. They're given mentors and expense accounts with which to prepare a 20-page business report and presentation. Only MIT students or teams that include an MIT student are eligible. The winner takes $100,000 in cash and prizes. Other colleges like the New York University Stern Business School, Rice University, Duke University, and The University of California at Berkeley run similarly prestigious venture capital contests. 2. TWITCHTWITCH (Twitter Pitch) is technically an add-on to the MIT$100K, but it’s cool enough to warrant its own place on our list. The contest asks contestants to convey their business ideas in 140 characters or less for a $500 cash prize. Entries are made by tweeting submissions that include the hash tag #100kTwitch, and votes are accumulated by getting others to retweet it. The first contest took place this year, and the posted standings showed the first place tweet to be:  3. GE's Ecomagination Challenge GE teamed up with four venture capital firms to offer a total of $200 million to startups working on innovation in renewable energy, grid efficiency, or energy-efficient homes. Five $50,000 cash prizes will be awarded to winners of the two-round competition. Chris Anderson, the editor in chief of Wired Magazine is the sole member of the judging panel who isn’t a GE executive. 4. Clean Tech Open A great opportunity designed specifically for clean technology startups, the Clean Tech Open provides training and the chance to win up to $250,000 in investment money and services. Entrants work one-on-one with assigned mentors to write an executive summary, which is then used to select semi-finalists. Semi-finalists pay a fee for a training program that includes business clinics and mock judging. The teams submit full business plans and give a live presentation to determine five regional winners and one national champ. 5. PITCH: Women 2.0 Startup Contest This contest literally asks teams to mail their pitch on a 7X7 napkin. Each team must have at least one woman and one technologist (defined as an “engineer, scientist, mathematician, biologist, etc.”), and their napkin must be accompanied by a two-minute video pitch. A handful of entrants are selected to present their pitch at the annual PITCH Night in San Francisco. Prizes include meetings with venture capitalists and other startup services. 6. Venture Labs Investment Competition In 1993, BusinessWeek called the Venture Labs Investment Competition (originally the Moot Corp Competition) "the Super Bowl of World Business Plan Competition." In 2004, Inc. Magazine called it "the Rose Bowl of business-plan competitions." Whether that indicates a drop in professionalism or an increase in fun and enthusiasm depends on how well you know sports, but it's hard to argue that the competition is anything but prestigious. Started in 1984 by two University of Texas MBA students, the Austin-based competition was attended by 40 teams from 12 countries in 2010. 7. Intuit's Love a Local Business Competition Once a small business registers or is nominated for the Love a Local Business site, customers and supporters can vote for them between July 1 and September 30. Votes function as raffle tickets: the more votes a company gets, the better its chance of winning a random drawing held at the end of each month (July, August, and September). The winners of the monthly drawing each win $5,000 and advance to the final round in which a panel of judges selects the business most "loved by its customers, vendors, employees, or local community" to receive a $25,000 grant. 8. Amazon Web Services (AWS) Startup Challenge Startups that use Amazon's cloud computing infrastructure to run their business can compete to win a global prize of $50,000 in cash or in AWS credits and mentoring support, including a year of AWS Premium Gold Support. Fifteen regional semi-finalists and six overall finalists will also receive prizes. More Startup Resources from Mashable:
Image courtesy of Flickr, wwarby Reviews: Flickr, love More About: amazon, amazon web services, Business Lists, Clean Tech Open, Competitions, Contests, Ecomagination, entrepreneur, Entrepreneur contests, funding, GE, intuit, List, Lists, Love a Local Business, MIT$100K, Moot Corp, startup, TWITCH, venture capital, Venture Labs Investment Competition For more Business coverage:
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| How Social Data Built a Better Health Care App Posted: 02 Sep 2010 11:02 AM PDT   Alexander B. Howard is the Government 2.0 Washington Correspondent for O'Reilly Media, where he reports on technology, open government and online civics. He'll be reporting live from the upcoming Gov2.0 Summit in Washington, D.C., on September 7-8. Every year, poison control centers get more than one million calls for pill identification. Each one of those calls costs nearly $50. Social software is helping biomedical researchers collaborate on better ways of identifying drugs. “Pillbox is a digital platform for communities to solve challenges related to pharmaceutical identification and reference,” says David Hale, the program manager. The National Library of Medicine’s mission is to gather, curate and distribute the world’s biomedical information, said Hale. Pillbox is an open government initiative from the National Library of Medicine (NLM) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Food and Drug Administration that could transform how pharmaceuticals are labeled in the future. The interactive web application currently allows visitors to rapidly identify unknown solid medications, like tablets or capsules, based upon their shape, color and other markings. Pillbox remains a research and development project, so users should not be making clinical decisions just yet. Right now there are over 1,000 images of prescription drugs in the system, with many more to come in the next few months. Beyond its usefulness, Pillbox is a public health platform that was created in a unique way — by utilizing open source data. Here are four ways the NIH approached this endeavor using the open and social web. 1. Connecting Open Data to Civic HackersPillbox is a “collection of projects focused on a single goal: improving the health of citizens,” said Hale. That goal could be realized through social gaming mechanics, an area that’s familiar to Foursquare users and FarmVille players. “There’s a Facebook game in development based on the Pillbox API,” he said. After Hale attended Sunlight Labs’ Great American Hackathon last December, a developer took him to a D.C. Ruby users meeting. There, the civic hacking community got excited about using Pilllbox data in a game.  To move the game forward, the developers had to build a search interface in Facebook Markup Language (FBML) for Pillbox. “When they’re done, they’ll give the code for the pill ID interface to NLM,” said Hale. The game isn’t live yet, but Hale hopes to see an iteration online by the end of the year. As of the last build of the game, messages are scrambled between players “to protect privacy.” These messages come with a pill image. Players then have to use the Pillbox ID system to identify pills and unscramble message. 2. Sharing Code on GitHub “When these developers were building [Pillbox], they found it didn’t have any wrappers for the API,” said Hale. “So they wrote them in Ruby, open sourced them and shared them in a Pillbox space on Github, an online open source code sharing community. Now the wrappers are there for anyone to use.” Subsequently, a Python developer who was at the meeting working on another project at the Hackathon, took it as a challenge to do it in fewer lines of code, said Hale. He also created Python wrappers for Pillbox and posted them. “That’s the power of open data, ‘coopetition’ and social media,” said Hale. “Consider the development of hundreds of lines of code, Ruby and Python wrappers, and that interface. How much would it have taken to do this otherwise?” 3. Connecting Washington to Innovation Hale has used social media extensively to collaborate with clinical staff, patients, and developers, empowering and enabling communities to solve health challenges. In particular, Hale is active on Twitter as @LostOnRoute66, where he tweets about patient safety, biomedical informatics, social media strategy, user experience, music, and food. “Social media was the key channel. It was through Twitter that we maintained these relationships and built new ones.” One of the challenges for the government research community in Washington can be its distance from the technology communities in Silicon Valley, Boston, Texas and Seattle. “Pillbox was built outside with the community,” says Hale. That’s an important shift from the way traditional projects have been approached. “Due to [conferences like] HealthCamp and to connecting in the Valley, we saw a different way of approaching the issue,” said Hale. Initially, there were just giant institutions called Consolidated Mail Outpatient Pharmacies taking pictures of the pills, said Hale. “We realized it wasn’t just the images — it was the data behind them, and access to that data. When I talked with the community in the Valley, I realized there was more that was possible. We’re not just putting up pictures of pills, we’re putting up a platform, and thereby changing the ways that people work with government. It’s the information that’s important, not the website. It’s about understanding the power of adding an open API to your data.” Pillbox – Restructuring Structured Product Data Additionally, an increasing number of government agencies and civil service workers are using SlideShare to disseminate presentations. Hale is no exception. His presentation on Pillbox from January 2010 is embedded above. 4. Call for Participation Using the Federal Register 2.0 This summer, a team of developers and designers relaunched the FederalRegister.gov, the online presence for the legal newspaper of United States. The Federal Register 2.0 is one of the better recent examples of open government, as it makes the often arcane business of government more transparent and understandable to citizens. Hale says that the NIH will be posting a “Call for Participation” where they ask pharmaceutical companies to send them samples of their tablets and capsules. If the public-private relationship bears fruit, they’ll take high quality pictures based upon Pillbox’s process, send the images back to the pharmaceutical companies and, if approved, put them into Pillbox. Those images could then be sent to the FDA, where they coud get included on a label. “That would enable images of drugs based upon a single body of standards, which could then enable identification through smartphones,” said Hale. “The secret sauce isn’t the images when this is done but the background processing. We’re creating tools and services which make open data available to everyone, accessible, and in the public domain.” More Tech Resources from Mashable:
Image courtesy of iStockphoto, Anykeen Reviews: Facebook, Foursquare, Python, Twitter, iStockphoto More About: david hale, federal register, github, hackathon, national institutes of health, national library of medicine, nih, NLM, open data, pillbox, Python, Ruby on Rails, slideshare, sunlight labs For more Tech coverage:
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| Google Chrome Version 6 Arrives on Browser’s Second Birthday Posted: 02 Sep 2010 10:44 AM PDT   It’s hard to believe that two years have passed since the Chrome browser first hit the web. In that time, Chrome has come to control more than 7.5% of the worldwide browser market, according to Net Marketshare. Sure, Internet Explorer and Firefox hold 60.4% and 22.9% respectively, but if one considers that after 10 years, Opera holds less than 2.4%, then it’s fairly impressive. Now, on its second birthday, Google has released a stable build of Chrome version 6. Heralding itself as “The Modern Browser,” Chrome 6 does indeed boast a number of improvements, but as with previous updates, the focus remains on speed and simplicity. Like its previous release this summer, the new version has Adobe Flash built in. The important thing here, however, is its handling of HTML5, which remains topnotch. With the increasing prevalence of HTML5, it’s hard to imagine a world where Chrome’s browser share does not continue to grow. Reviews: Adobe Flash Player, Chrome, Google More About: adobe, adobe flash, chrome, chrome 6, Firefox, Google, HTML5, internet explorer, opera, webkit For more Tech coverage:
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| Ambitious Online Banking Alternative Scores $2.9 Million in Series A Posted: 02 Sep 2010 09:53 AM PDT   Banksimple has just raised $2.9 million in a Series A round to fund their ambitious alternative online banking startup for full-service, fee-free banking. The round includes investments from First Round Capital, IA Ventures and Village Ventures, a collection of industry veterans with extensive startup portfolios. Banksimple’s mission is to reinvent the way consumers bank, both online and off. In 2011, the startup will offer bankers an online-only banking solution designed to eliminate traditional service fees, provide stellar customer service, offer predictive money management and integrate social media into the system. The funds will allow Banksimple to forge ahead with crucial banking partnerships that will form the financial backbone of the platform. The money will also help the company finance its initial test run of the service with friends and family before the end of the year. “To get customer service right for banking, we need to build a technology company,” said CEO Joshua Reich in an interview with Mashable. Banksimple had previously raised $190,000 from angel investors in a seed round. To date, the startup has raised nearly $3.1 million — money enough to last them through the end of 2011, according to Reich.  Image courtesy of Daniel Y. Go, Flickr Reviews: Flickr, Mashable More About: banksimple, funding, series a For more Business coverage:
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| Check in on Foursquare Using Your Voice [APPS] Posted: 02 Sep 2010 09:33 AM PDT   It may not be the most socially acceptable way to check in, but Vlingo has created a way for Android app users to check in on Foursquare with their voices. It’s a speech-to-checkin feature that will save time, even if it does raise a few eyebrows. With the new app, Android users can speak a simple “check in to [insert place name]” command after tapping the home screen button. The command will prompt Vlingo to automatically pull up the location in question, and other nearby venues, on Foursquare, providing users with a fast alternative to touch-based Foursquare checkins. Vlingo’s voice-activated Foursquare integration not only includes support for checkins, but also lets users post voice shouts and ask Vlingo, “Where are my friends?,” or “Who’s nearby?” to pull up a list of Foursquare friends who have checked in recently. Vlingo for Android also supports voice-activated, speech-to-text status updates for Facebook and Twitter. Unfortunately for those of us with iPhone and BlackBerry devices, our Android-toting friends have the advantage here, but hopefully not for long. Vlingo promises voice checkins for these devices in future releases. Reviews: Android, Facebook, Foursquare, Twitter More About: andriod, checkins, foursquare, vlingo For more Mobile coverage:
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| Announcing MashBash BlogWorld: Win a Free Pass [CONTEST] Posted: 02 Sep 2010 08:44 AM PDT   Mashable is excited to announce MashBash BlogWorld, the opening party for this year’s BlogWorld & New Media Expo in Las Vegas on October 15-16. To kick off the Expo, we’ll be hosting the first night’s official party at Haze at Aria Hotel. We would love for you to join us, so we're giving away passes to BlogWorld. To enter, answer the following question — “What is the future of blogging?” — in the comments below. Readers with the best answers will win one of five "full access" tickets to BlogWorld, which includes MashBash. Winners are invited to attend this industry celebration where the online world comes together to meet, relax and make important business networking connections. Date: Friday, October 15 How To Win Tickets
Please use your real identity so that we may contact you via e-mail, Twitter or Facebook to let you know that you’ve won and how to redeem your prize. About the Blog World Expo BlogWorld & New Media Expo in Las Vegas on October 15-16: “Join us at the World's Largest New Media event and learn about Content Creation, Distribution and Monetization strategies, step-by-step techniques and bleeding-edge tools from the most successful Bloggers, Podcasters, Social Media Pro's, Internet TV and Radio Content Generators and New Media Marketing Pro’s! From the premier educational sessions at the Social Media Business Summit and BlogWorld Conference, to the resource-rich New Media Expo, to Amazing Networking events…it's One economical trip, One weekend, One Big Show you can't afford to miss!” Reviews: Facebook, Twitter More About: blogging, BLOGS, blogworld, contest, Events, las vegas, MashBash, new media expo, Tickets For more Social Media coverage:
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| 15 Essential Back to School Podcasts Posted: 02 Sep 2010 08:36 AM PDT   Alexander Hotz is a freelance multimedia journalist and public radio junkie based in New York City. Currently he teaches digital media at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. Follow Alex on Twitter at @hotzington. With another long hot American summer coming to a close, many students are scrambling to get back into “learning mode” before school starts. One of the simplest ways to ease that transition is with podcasts. Whether your passion is American History or Algebra, there's probably an educational podcast out there for you. While these programs probably won't mirror your lesson plan, they will explore topics covered in class. Below is a sampling of some of the exceptional podcasts that both teach and entertain. Best of all – they're free. Read on for your “2010 Downloading Curriculum.” Science Radiolab investigates some of world's most intriguing scientific questions in a unique conversational format. Recent episodes have examined the importance of words in human development and time. First time listeners will probably notice that the show also just sounds different. Before becoming a radio producer, Jab Abumrad, one of Radiolab's creators, was as an experimental musician. Abumrad's passion for ProTools is apparent in the show's textured soundscape, which is layered with a variety of sound effects and quick edits. Perhaps the show's only downside is its frequency. There are only a handful of episodes every season because one Radiolab episode requires months to produce. Outlet: WNYC, New York City's Public Radio Station Additional Listening: The Naked Scientists Podcast History In Dan Carlin's Hardcore History, Carlin, a veteran journalist turned podcaster, dissects the textbook version of events. In shows that often run over an hour, the host passionately retells some of history's best stories. Hardcore History has become one of the most downloaded podcasts on iTunes, and Carlin's widespread appeal can also be attributed to his insight. One podcast asked, "Could widespread child abuse in earlier eras explain some of history’s brutality?" Another show was based off the question, "Does the toughness of peoples play any role in history?" Don't let the name fool you; all material is appropriate for younger listeners. Outlet: Dan Carlin Additional Listening: Stuff You Missed in History Class Economics Planet Money is NPR's podcast on global economics and business. Initially created by veteran public radio reporters Alex Blumberg and Adam Davidson to explain the recent financial crisis, the show quickly became one of the most popular and praised podcasts available. Planet Money's success lies in how it tackles complex subjects with great storytelling. A financial instrument like a Collateralized Debt Obligation (CDO) may sound impossibly boring, but Planet Money routinely makes these types of things the heart of a thrilling narrative. The team continues to explore the financial collapse, but they've expanded their scope to include all aspects of the global economy. Outlet: NPR Additional Listening: Freakanomics Radio Disclosure: The author interned at NPR. English For those of us who couldn't make it through Wuthering Heights, Cliff Notes Cramcast would have been a lifesaver. This free podcast reviews some of the stuff you need to know for the big test and does it in three to four minutes. Of course, these podcasts can't cover every detail. To do that, you would — you know — need to read the book. Outlet: Cliff Notes Additional Listening: Grammar Girl Quick and Dirty Tips Foreign Language The Internet is full of podcasts that cater to students learning foreign languages. For those interested in the major European languages, Radio Lingua is a good bet. Another reliable hub is Open University, which in addition to the European languages also has a set of Mandarin podcasts. These outlets are mainly for beginners or students who need a quick review. Both are rated highly on iTunes by users. Outlets: Radio Lingua and Open University Additional Listening: Other reliable podcasts include Discover Spanish and Learn French. Math For those of us who struggle to calculate a 15% tip, The Math Dude's podcast is a must-listen. Every week, affable nerd Jason Marshall explains basic concepts like how to calculate the area of an object or how to add faster. When Marshall isn't podcasting, he researches "infrared light emitted by starburst galaxies and quasars" at Caltech, which just means his left-brain knows what's up. Outlet: Quick and Dirty Tips Additional Listening: Mathgrad. Current Events Every Sunday, comedians Andy Zaltzman and John Oliver recap the week's events in The Bugle, a satirical podcast that is easily one of the funniest listens on the Internet. Think an audio version of The Daily Show, where Oliver is also a regular. The Bugle's focus tends to be on the biggest international news, but the duo's separate locations – Zaltzman in London and Oliver in New York City – ensure a focus on the English-speaking world's antics. Although the pair has a leftward slant, there are no sacred cows. The Bugle even takes aim at itself in its tagline: "An audio newspaper for a visual world." Outlet: The Times (UK) Additional Listening: NPR News, BBC World Service More Educational Resources from Mashable:
Image courtesy of iStockphoto, mattjeacock Reviews: Internet, iStockphoto, iTunes More About: back to school, cliff notes cramcast, current events, dan carlin, economics, education, english, foreign language, history, itunes, math, planet money, podcast, podcasts, radio lingua, radiolab, Science, the bugle, the math dude For more Tech coverage:
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| Google to Power AOL Search for the Next 5 Years Posted: 02 Sep 2010 07:56 AM PDT   Google and AOL have signed a deal that extends the search and advertising partnership between the two companies for another five years. The agreement also includes mobile search and adds a content sharing partnership with YouTube. In a statement, AOL CEO Tim Armstrong said, "After nearly a decade-long partnership in search, we're looking forward to expanding our global relationship to mobile search and YouTube. All aspects of our partnership will be improved by this deal." The extension of the deal wasn't a given by any means; the $1 billion investment Google made in AOL back in 2005 proved to be disastrous financially. Further, Microsoft has been aggressively making deals to grow marketshare for Bing, most notably with Yahoo, which now sees Bing powering Yahoo search and its related advertising. With the renewed AOL deal, Google locks up about 2.3% of the search market according to the most recent numbers from comScore. Google currently has 65.8% of the market, while Microsoft has 27.1% between Bing and Yahoo. Beyond web search, today’s deal also broadens Google’s reach on mobile and gets additional premium content onto YouTube –- both of which are currently high priorities for the company, as CEO Eric Schmidt noted in his statement on the deal. "It’s particularly exciting to see our relationship expand into video and mobile. These areas are now at the heart of users’ online experiences and at the core of both of our businesses," he said. Reviews: Bing, Google, YouTube More About: aol, Google, Search For more Business coverage:
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| 10 of the Web’s Most Insightful News Infographics Posted: 02 Sep 2010 07:40 AM PDT   A picture is worth a thousand words. But if you include an entire database, make it interactive, and add filtering options, the word-to-picture exchange rate is even better. Infographics at their best are more than just pictures — they can provide new understandings, succinct summaries, or just plain old fun. In that respect, reading newspaper archives isn’t the only way to get a deeper understanding of current events. Infographics can help us get a better grasp on what’s going on. Check out these 10 visualizations to learn more about the news with a quick look. 1. Google's Appetite for Acquisition Last month alone, Google acquired social-search service Angstro, visual shopping search engine like.com, and social currency company Jambool. Google has been on an acquisition binge for some time, and it's getting tricky to keep track of its appetite. This graphic shows a timeline of Google's activity in three categories: “Building Revenue Streams,” “Cutting Competition,” or “A Little of Both.” 2. Gay Marriage Chronology The campaign for gay marriage has passed a multitude of milestones over the last decade. Unfortunately for those trying to keep track of them, the victories and setbacks vary drastically by state. Decisions are reversed and in some cases overturned by higher courts, which makes progress hard to track. This map from the LA Times shows the status of gay marriage in each state by month. Click on a state for its most recent ruling or watch the country change from being legally similar in its treatment of same-sex couples in 2000 to sharply divided in 2010. 3. IED Attacks from Wikileaks’ Afghanistan War LogsThe frequency and fatality of IEDs (homemade bombs) in Afghanistan was highlighted when WikiLeaks published more than 90,000 secret documents about the Afghan war. Anti-war activists published this illustrative video that includes all of the incidents reported in these leaked documents. 4. Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill On April 20, an explosion on a BP drilling rig started what has become the largest accidental oil spill in history. Despite numerous strategies that were deployed to plug the leak, it wasn't capped until July 15. This video graphic by New Orleans online newspaper NOLA wraps timeline, graphic, and cumulative damage data into one easy-to-digest piece of media. 5. CIA World Factbook Dashboard The CIA World Factbook has always been a great resource for putting news stories into the context of their geographic location. But now it's also easy to get the information at a glance. The World Factbook Dashboard allows you to color code the countries of the world by population, population growth, infant mortality, agricultural GDP, industry GDP, services GDP, total GDP, GDP/inhabitant, or inflation. Clicking on a country zooms in for more information. 6. Geography of a Recession This map from The New York Times illustrates not only which areas suffered the highest unemployment rate after the recession, but also offers the option to filter data by metropolitan areas, areas with housing bubbles, rural areas, and manufacturing centers. 7. Afghanistan and Pakistan Regional Violence Map The Wall Street Journal updates this map constantly with violent conflicts in Afghanistan and Pakistan. If you want to learn about the day-to-day details of the war or understand its scope, there's no better visual resource. 8. What Does the Health Care Bill Mean to Me? Even if you read through every health care bill article, it could be hard to exactly pick out what the law would change about your insurance coverage and taxes. The Washington Post made it easy by providing this nifty tool. Input whether you have insurance coverage, your family size, your income, and your marital status, and it will tell you how health care reform will impact your life. For the broader picture on healthcare reform, see this subway-style map from GOOD Magazine. 9. Obama's $787 Billion Economic Stimulus Plan The government is still busy spending much of the $787 billion it allotted for the economic stimulus in February of last year. This infographic effectively illustrates how that huge chunk of change is being distributed. 10. American Casualties in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Beyond This chilling interactive graphic from USA Today simply illustrates the deaths in the Afghanistan and Iraq wars. Information seekers can search deaths by personal factors like name, age, gender, race, or home town as well as by military service details, date, cause, or place. CNN has a more elaborate version here. More Graphics Resources from Mashable:
Reviews: Google More About: afghanistan, bp, current events, gay rights, graphics, healthcare reform, infographics, iraq, News, oil-spill, stimulus, visualizations, wikileaks For more Tech coverage:
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| Gorgeous 21:9 LCD TV from Philips Goes 3D Posted: 02 Sep 2010 07:21 AM PDT   Think what you will about the ultra-widescreen, 21:9 format Philips is pushing, but you can’t deny that its cinema-proportioned Full HD LCD TV is gorgeous. Now, Philips plans to push it even further, with a 58-inch, 3D version of the device. The device, called Philips 3D Cinema 21:9 Platinum, sports a direct lit LED screen with a 2560×1080 resolution, 400Hz picture processing, and Philips’s Ambilight technology, which illuminates the area behind the TV in order to reduce eye fatigue and produce an immersive viewing experience. And if you think you’ll never use all that horizontal screen estate due to the lack of titles available in 21:9 format, you can watch regular TV programming on one side while browsing Philips’s Net TV on the other. The price tag, of course, is too high for most consumers. At around €4000 ($5,100), there are plenty of high-end TV sets to be found on the market, but this TV is truly unique. For those who want to enjoy their movies as they were meant to be seen on the big screen, and in three dimensions, there are currently no better options out there. The Philips 3D Cinema 21:9 Platinum is slated to launch in the UK later this month. No date has been set for a U.S. release. More About: 21:9, 3D, aspect ratio, full HD, LCD, Philips, tv For more Tech coverage:
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| Morning Brief: iTunes 10 & Ping Now Live, Samsung Unveils Tablet, Twitter’s iPad App Posted: 02 Sep 2010 06:15 AM PDT This series is brought to you by HTC EVO 4G, America’s first 4G phone. Only from Sprint. The “First to Know” series keeps you in the know on what’s happening now in the world of social media and technology.   Welcome to this morning's edition of "First To Know," a series in which we keep you in the know on what's happening in the digital world. We're keeping our eyes on three particular stories of interest today. iTunes 10 and Ping Are Now Live Apple’s latest version of iTunes and it’s new music-centric social network, Ping, went live late Wednesday evening, some eight hours after the product was announced at the company’s press conference in San Francisco. Mashable’s Christina Warren contends that Ping has a long way to go if it's going to become a better alternative to MySpace. Samsung Unveils Galaxy Tab Samsung has revealed its long-awaited tablet, the Galaxy Tab, at the IFA consumer electronics fair in Berlin. The tablet sports a 7-inch TFT-LCD display with 1024×600-pixel resolution, Android 2.2 support, a Cortex A8 1 GHz processor, 512 of RAM and 16/32 GB of internal memory with upgrade options. It also comes with a 3-megapixel camera with autofocus and LED Flash, plus a second 1.3-megapixel camera for video chats, as well as Wi-Fi and 3G connectivity. The battery, Samsung claims, can last up to seven hours of movie playback. Samsung, it appears, has created a real competitor for Apple’s iPad, which lacks the Galaxy Tab’s cameras and support for popular multimedia formats such as Flash. Samsung has partnered with Vodafone for the launch, which is scheduled for October in Vodaphone’s European markets, and later this year in the U.S. and elsewhere. Twitter Releases Official iPad App Twitter has released its official iPad app, available now in Apple’s App Store [iTunes link] for free. The app allows for seamless navigation between tweets, photos, web pages, videos and other content, enabling users to load videos while they’re browsing their timelines, for instance, as well as view them in-line with other content and expand them to full-screen size. Further News
Disclosure: Samsung, BlackBerry and Microsoft are Mashable sponsors. Series supported by HTC EVO 4G This series is brought to you by HTC EVO 4G, America’s first 4G phone. Only from Sprint. The “First to Know” series keeps you in the know on what’s happening now in the world of social media and technology. Reviews: Android, App Store, Boxee, Google, Mashable, MySpace, Ping, Twitter, YouTube More About: apple, first to know series, galaxy tab, ipad, ipad app, itunes 10, Ping, samsung, Tablet, twitter For more Social Media coverage:
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| Ping Not Available to You? You’re Not the Only One Posted: 02 Sep 2010 05:35 AM PDT   While introducing Ping, Apple’s new music-centric social network, CEOSteve Jobs mentioned that it would immediately reach a userbase of 160 million people in 23 countries. Sounds impressive, until you remember that 23 countries actually isn’t that big of a number; and if you’re in a country such as Chile, the Czech Republic, Croatia or India, then Ping — just like the music store component of iTunes — is simply not available. The users in most countries around the world are used to products and features not being available to them – receiving money through PayPal or buying music through iTunes doesn’t work for me, for example – but Ping is different. It’s supposed to be a social network; its competitors, Last.FM and MySpace, are available in most countries in the world. Users expect it to just work, but in my version of iTunes, Ping simply doesn’t exist. Here’s a thread from Apple’s support forums, in which users from all around the world complain that they can’t find Ping. After Apple’s big announcement, most of them don’t even consider the possibility that this great new social network is not available in their country: they think they’re doing something wrong. But Apple hasn’t said a word about availability in other countries, so it might be a long wait for all these users. From Apple’s point of view, it’s understandable it chose to tie Ping closely to the music store. One feature Steve Jobs had highlighted is buying a song directly from a status update; something you obviously cannot do if you don’t have access to the store. But the social networking part of Ping will suffer for it. For an example of how being available only in a small number of countries can hurt Ping, consider one of its most important features: concert listings. This is where Last.FM shines; go to any place in the world, and you’ll be able to see which concerts are available, when, at what clubs and who’s attending. But if residents of a certain country cannot access Ping, then the concert listings for that particular country will be a sad and empty sight. Facebook, which hasn’t really focused on music so far, is also available in most countries in the world; it’s the de facto standard for social networking, and it has half a billion active users. Yes, Ping is directly tied to music, but users aren’t used to network from iTunes. Should Facebook introduce some features similar to those Ping has, it would automatically have a huge advantage simply because it would work for all users, not just the select few. If Apple has any serious aspirations to grow Ping into a global social networking powerhouse, it should strongly consider making it available everywhere. We’ve contacted Apple to find out when (and if) Ping might become available in countries other than the initial 23, and are still awaiting their response. Reviews: Facebook, Last.fm, MySpace, Ping More About: apple, itunes, Ping For more Apple coverage:
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